SLIDE ; Y. CHISHIYA

CHAPTER 7

SLIDE.

The game site was the building in front. The game would happen in an apartment complex. All the lights in the hallways were on and shone very brightly. On top of the entrance doors, it read 'Toei Sendagaya Apartment.'

You stepped out of the car and your body temperature slightly dropped because of the temperature around you. Chishiya stepped out of the car right after you and was able to notice your slight shiver.

"You're cold?" He asked you.

Since you didn't really bring anything with you, you were. "Just a bit. I'll be fine though, let's just go."

Walking ahead of him, you noticed that the building was elevated and had a set of concrete stairs that led up to the building itself. You guessed that the scanner would be somewhere on the stairs.

Your guess was right. Once you walked up around 5 steps, you heard the beep that you had heard in your first game. Now that you were registered, you couldn't back out unless you planned on dying.

As you reached the top of the stair steps, the entrance was right in front of you. There wasn't a door like you had thought there would be. It was an open space in the wall. All the people that were registered for the game stood there, staring at the two of you. However, the majority were all beach members. It had just been that their car reached the site before yours.

Heading for the circular table that heals the phones, you walked up and took one off the table before finding an empty space in the mail room. You let the phone scan your face for face recognition before telling you to wait for the game to commence. Chishiya followed your lead.

Only 9 people had registered for this game so far. There was almost 2 minutes left to register. There would probably be about another 10 people that will join the game by the time it begins.

By studying the quiet and tense atmosphere around you, you figured that now wasn't the ideal time to discuss things or just talk in general.

Seeing that your friend beside you sensed the same thing, he offered you one of his ear buds for you to listen to music with him. You were a bit confused as to why he would give you one when there was only a little over a minute left of time, but you didn't question it. Chishiya reached his hand into his jacket pocket and placed a stereo onto the floor. You watched as he plugged the cable into the outlet to start playing music.

Once the music started, the two of you sort of stopped paying attention to your surroundings. There was only a minute left before the game started, so you might as well make the best of it.

While listening to the music, you didn't realize that there were now 4 more players.

"Registration has closed. There are a total of 13 participants. The game will now commence."

You took out your ear bud and handed it back to Chishiya who took it and carefully placed them both into his pocket.

"E-excuse me. What is this? I was brought here." You heard someone chuckle nervously. "And I.. I don't know what's going on."

You turned to him and realized that he was talking to Arisu. Beside him stood his friend Karube. It was a coincidence that the 3 of you managed to meet again.

It was amusing to watch Arisu try to explain to the newbie, but only to be stopped by his yellow haired friend. You could tell by how Arisu stopped explaining, that Karube managed to convince him to ignore the new player. If you were to come up with a reason, it would definitely be because of the fear that they will slow you down.

"Difficulty, Five of Spades."

Hearing spades, you carried through with some of the basic stretches to help loosen your muscles. Chishiya on the other hand, just leaned on the wall, not affected at all by what he had heard. Interestingly enough, not too far from where you stood, there was a girl with short black hair in a turquoise jacket doing the exact same thing.

"Game is 'Tag'. Rule. Avoid whoever is 'it'."

Hushed murmurs broke over the contestants. You were able to tell that they were all confused by what the rule meant or who was going to be 'it'. Looking around you, you'd come to notice that only a handful of the participants stood there with a stone cold face, not talking to anyone near them.

"Clear condition. Discover and touch the symbol hidden in one of the building's rooms within the time limit. You clear the game when this objective is fulfilled. Time limit, 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the time bomb hidden in the building will explode."

For a game of athletic ability, 20 minutes was a short time. You turned to the doctor beside you to see if he's done anything, but nothing. He was staring blankly ahead of him.

"The game will commence in two minutes."

Everyone started moving in their own directions. The only way was up, so that's where everyone was headed.

You were about to follow behind Arisu since Chishiya stayed by the corner, but he grabbed onto your arm. "Follow me."

The two of you walked around the bottom floor until you spotted the elevator. "Here's the elevator. Which floor?"

"Seven."

Since no one was in the elevator, the doors opened immediately. Chishiya walked in first and pressed the button for floor 7. Then the doors closed and the both of you went up.

"Are you just going to watch everything unveil at the top?" You asked him as the elevator slowly ascended up floor by floor.

He let out a light chuckle. "I'll be able to figure out the door the fastest in that way."

"So do you need me to do anything then?"

"Just be another pair of eyes to watch out."

Ding

The elevator door opened with a sign right out of the door that read 'floor 7'. Chishiya led the way out of the elevator and took a left and then a right. You followed closely behind him.

The small breezes blew your hair in all sorts of directions and it was colder up here than it was on the ground floor.

"If I wanna see where everyone is-"

"This is the perfect location." You finished the sentence for him.

He stopped walking and leaned onto the concrete barrier before turning to you and giving you a smirk. "How did you know?"

"You can't pass to any other part of the apartment floors unless you walk through that area. On top of that, the stairs are located in the places that you're able to keep tabs on."

"Congratulations, you're correct."

To be completely honest with yourself, you knew that you completely guessed on the explanation. Even though you did see a map of the apartment tapped in the elevator, you never quite noticed it until you got off. However, your memory seemed good enough to give you an accurate mental image of the map.

You stood next to Chishiya and crossed your arms on the edge and laid your head onto them. That's when you noticed the blonde wave to two people several floors below. It was a man wearing a black tank top and beside him was what you assumed would be his assistant that wore a dark shirt with a vest over it. The man saw the wave, but didn't return it. You found it rather odd, but he didn't strike you as the type who would return a wave even from his friend. Standing on the highest floor, you watched as he disappeared behind one of the walls and out of your view.

"Yeah. I got a weird feeling about this." You heard Chishiya scoff beside you. "Hmm.. Looks like everyone's about to bite it, just like they always do."

Shrugging, you could only add your thoughts. "I'm sure Arisu and Karube will be fine. Even though Arisu isn't the most physically capable, he's got quite a lot of brain. He reminds me of you honestly, but he's a lot more open-minded and more extroverted."

"The game will now commence. The time limit is 20 minutes. Commence now. The tagger is on the move."

"Do you like him?" Chishiya asked, still keeping an eye out for the people that were on the floors below.

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