playing cards | ryohei arisu

5

note: this is from episode 3 - now originally there was 1 winner but since hana is here and the story is surrounded around her, there will be 2 winners! :)

It was the next day - about the afternoon and Hana was sitting on the roof of the mall.

She had a book in hand from one of the stores in the mall. Hana was only on the second chapter but it was interesting to her. She didn't read that often but when she did it was always nice.

"Hey." Karube sat down beside her as he lit up a cigarette, a cough soon followed that as he inhaled the smoke.

"Hey." She replied, her face scrunched up from the sudden smell of smoke. "You should try to quit before your lungs hate you."

Karube let out a laugh followed by another cough. "They already hate me."

The silence hovered over the siblings as the breeze blew past them. It felt peaceful for once. At least for now.

"How'd you get your injury?" Hana suddenly asked. "You never told me."

"Me and these two guys tried taking on one of those taggers. Next thing you know I got sliced."

"By one of the guys you were with?"

"No, by the tagger." Karube stated. "It's all wrapped up though so I'm fine."

Hana nodded as she folded the corner of the book that she no longer read in the moment. "Are we joining a game tonight?"

"I think so." Karube looked off into the distance. "Chota and Shibuki don't have that many days left on their visas."

"I hope we get an easy game this time. All of those games have been complete bullshit."

Karube laughed. "You can say that again."

Hana smiled as she looked at her brother before a sudden realization hit her.

"Karube? What if one of us dies during the game? What will we do?" Hana asked, Karube's face suddenly fell to a more neutral look.

"We have to survive for each other. No one is gonna die."

Hana frowned - ever since there games started it was all she could think about. Death.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat." Karube patted her back gently before standing up.

She sighed and followed along behind her brother. For some reason the nervousness still sat at the bottom of her stomach.

LATER

It had been a few hours since Hana and Karube talked, yet she still worried about the next game.

Right now the group was waiting around in the mall. Hana was with Chota and Shibuki while Arisu and Karube were somewhere else, most likely talking about the game.

"Don't worry, Hana. We'll all make it this game." Chota comforted his friend who sent a hesitant smile his way.

"Yeah.." She mumbled.

In all honesty, Hana was most worried about Chota. His leg was still bad, like, really bad.

"You guys ready to go?" Karube asked around as he and Arisu came back from wherever they were last.

Everyone responded with some sort of 'yes' before starting to walk to the arena where the game would be held.

Hana was back a little bit - her feet slightly dragging. She was dreading this game.