All For A Few Cards ➺ Alice in Borderland

episode 11 || confusion confuses emotions

My eyes started fluttering open. "Aria! Oh, thank God you're okay!" I saw Kuina sitting in a chair, my hand in hers. "What?" I breathed out, sitting up. "You lost too much blood. You fainted." She explained.

"Did Arisu bring me back?" I asked gently. My head was pounding. "Who?" Kuina frowned. "Aris—oh."

It was Chishiya.

Kuina shrugged it off. "Chishiya carried you back. He brought you to your room and threatened me to watch you." She giggled at the last part.

"Chishiya? Why?" I asked. "I don't know. But he looked worried. He told me not to tell Niragi that you were hurt." She told me. "Why?" I asked again. She shrugged. "How's your leg feeling? I wrapped it up for you. Is it too tight?" She asked worriedly. I shook my head a bit, trying to comprehend why Chishiya did what he did.

•°~Chishiya's POV~°•

I don't know why I did it.

I wasn't going to admit it to anyone. But I was watching her the entire time. I don't know why we've been joining the same games. I didn't see her when she first arrived. I wasn't paying attention to the people arriving—which was stupid and odd of me not to.

I drained everyone's voices off with my music and tried to figure out why she was turning all her attention to Niragi all of a sudden. Why him? She had something in mind. There wasn't a chance she actually liked him. Right? Aria's smarter than that. At least I hope so.

Whenever I enter the Beach, the first thing I always see is Niragi and Aria making out. It's either against a wall, on a chair, in the pool, or literally anywhere else. It was annoying. It got me frustrated and mad. I just didn't understand why.

I didn't wanna be near them anymore. I didn't want to be near anyone. Not even Kuina. So I took a car everyday and left. I went into town and just wandered. I needed time alone. To figure out things. I needed to figure out how I was going to steal all the playing cards and run. I also needed to figure out my feelings towards Aria.

I decided it was confusion. I was confused about what she was doing. There wasn't anything else to find out. Confusion.

Her plan to burn the tagger wasn't stupid. I knew what she was trying to do. It took me a few seconds, but I was able to comprehend. It was well thought out. I honestly thought it was going to work. Too bad it didn't.

The guy named Arisu and Aria were gonna die. If it weren't for my sensational self, they would've been shot. I used my taser to take the tagger out for a few minutes. But then she fainted.

I ran to help. I noticed her leg and all the blood. I took my sweater off and wrapped it tightly around her leg. "She's going to die!" The Arisu guy said. "Let's clear the game before does." I said.

We made our way to room 406. It opened, but there was a second shooter in there. I left the room with Aria. Arisu and some girl Aria knew cleared the game with 1 second left on the clock.

Arisu wouldn't shut the fuck up about Aria. "She'll be okay, right? Please, take care of her. Keep her safe. Make sure she doesn't die." It was annoying. As if I wasn't capable of keeping her alive.

They seem close, Aria and Arisu. Possibly friends. He seemed seriously worried about her. And anyways, Aria said she didn't have friends. Could they be more?

It pissed me the fuck off he cared so much about her. But I ignored it and took Aria back to the Beach. A lot of others were returning from their games.

I found Kuina and dragged her somewhere private. I made her tell me where Aria's room was. I brought her there with Kuina trailing behind me, bugging me about what the fuck happened to Aria. I didn't answer her question until we finally made it to her room.

I forced Kuina to watch over her. Once I knew she was safe, I left the room. But not after specifically ordering Kuina not to mention a word of Aria's injury to Niragi.

It's not that I wanted that fucker to let her rest or anything like that. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Niragis probably only using her for sex.

The real reason was that if he found out, he'd leave her for someone who could have sex with him while Aria rested.

I just didn't know why I cared so much about Niragi leaving her. I wanted that, didn't I? But some part of me thought about how Aria could possibly be feeling towards him only using her.

But in the end, I came back to my original statement. Confusion. I was obviously confused. Any genius would know that as an obvious fact.

~°•Aria's POV•°~

Confusion filled me the moment Kuina mentioned Chishiya. Confused as to why he would save me.

He ruined my fucking plan, anyways. Arisu was supposed to save me. Not him. Never him. It was supposed to be Arisu. I wanted to know that I had won his trust and loyalty. He could be useful later on.

But no. That fucking rat decided it would be a fun idea to interfere with my brilliant plan. But...I guess he didn't fully ruin everything. I was able to remember Arisu taking a bullet for me. I suppose that was enough proof. For now, of course.

But the question that started all this came back to me. Why? Why did he do it? He told me himself that he would rather sacrifice someone than save someone's life. All the knowledge I held had suddenly disappeared. I had no fucking idea what was going on anymore.

My knowledge returned in a few minutes, though. He was trying to manipulate me. He wanted me to think I could now suddenly trust him. That he was my friend now. He's smart. But I'm smarter.

It's the only reasonable answer to everything. His next step is going to try and 'open up to me'. He'll explain his childhood and how he got here and shit. Then he'll try to get my past out of me. To get my weakness out.

Little does he know I know exactly what he's doing. But why was he doing this? Why was he trying to get to me? Let's see...

He could try to use me for one of his plans. Sounds like something he would do. But if that weren't it, what would it be? I got it. He told me he knew I held potential. He could be trying to seduce me into thinking we're on the same side.

He saw me save that old lady during our second game. And then again with Arisu. He knows the part of me I'm trying to hide. One of my weak spots. He'll use that to get to me. He's going to use me for when he's weak during a game.

It must be because he knows I'm smarter than him. He must want to take out his replacement and be back to being the intelligent rat he is.

I'm the literal definition of clever. I've always been precocious as a child, but I impressed myself a bit with this one. I outsmarted the 'smartest'. Smart my fucking ass Chishiya. Looks like your replacement isn't going anywhere.

•°♤♡◇♧°•

❝ [ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ] ❞

𝘐 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳, 𝘴𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘺. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵. 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 16𝘵𝘩; 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘢. 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘐 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵.

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