Her. (Chishiya Shuntaro)

11

After the game, Aika spent her time curling on her bed. For some reason she couldn't quite understand, Banda wouldn't leave her side.

"Tell me, Banda." She finally spoke after almost an hour of utter silence. "How does it become easy?"

She felt gently Banda sit down on the corner of the bed. "Princess..." she heard him sigh.

"It's easy for me to witness deaths because that's just the way I am."

She turned to face him, quickly seating up with both her legs crossed together. "And what are you exactly, Banda?"

He took a moment to gaze deep into her eyes before giving her the answer. "Broken." He whispered.

For a moment, Aika came to understand him a little. Perhaps he had been too broken, that the believed the only genuine satisfaction he could ever gain was from taking other people's lives. However, no matter how hard she looked for it, she couldn't the part of him that lonely for how he turned out. His gaze was meaningful, but also hollow.

"You don't think I'm broken too?" She asked him.

"Not enough." He replied, taking his gaze away.

"And how broken exactly is enough?" Banda shook his head.

"You don't want to go there princess. I'm beyond saving. But you are not. I willingly take lives, you didn't. You never did."

It could have been just Aika's imagination, but she felt as if the air had thickened, making it harder for her to breathe and utter another word.

"Why do I feel like you're comforting me? Don't go soft on me Banda, it would creep me out." She joked, but to be honest, what Banda said, although just for a very little bit, did give her a different perspective. And in a way, it lessened the burden she felt.

Banda smiled at her, and she could have sworn it was almost a genuine one.

"You've just lowered your standard of comfort because of your lack of exposure to a real one, Princess. Basic psychology." She chuckled.

"Maybe that's true, but it's the only thing that helped me at the moment." She said with a smile, and Banda once again felt the foreign feeling of being stirred up.

Just a second ago, Banda was smiling like a normal person, and it confused Aika how he quickly shifted to a deep frown.

"Do you hear that Princess?" He asked.

Aika pressed her lips into a thin line, taking a moment of silence in attempts to hear what Banda was hearing. And as it registered to her, her eyes widened.

"Fireworks!" She muttered in almost a gasp. Immediately rising from her bed, she swiftly shoved the heavy curtains away, revealing a a huge glass window that allowed them to see the swirl of colors exploding in the sky.

"That's right...." Banda whispered, looking as if he had just realized something important. "Come to think of it, I think I saw fireworks before I got into these world."

"You're right! Banda let's go outside and check!" Banda nodded.

Aika brought her Katana, and they quickly went out.

As the fireworks finished, a number of blimps arrived out of the blue, and hanged on the floating ships were gigantic banners of the different face cards.

"The games of the face cards..." Banda muttered.

"This could only mean one thing." Aika said, looking at her game partner. "If the theory of these beach people is correct, then the number card must have all been cleared."

Banda excitedly grinned. "So that means a second phase, huh? This world is getting more and more interesting."

"Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but somehow, I feel like we'll be able to go back if we clear all these remaining games." Banda scoffed at her remark.

"Who says I want to go back?"

Aika was startled at his reaction, however she couldn't utter a single response. After all, he was still a psychopath, a serial killer whom had been given a death sentence in the real world. Nothing else is waiting for him but death. They were different.

"But.." Banda's gaze strangely softened. "I think, I'm quite fond of you."

Aika shook her head. "You said you were beyond saving."

Banda took a step closer, and she stepped back to maintain the distance. "Say Princess, I think I want you. Won't you just stay with me in this place?" He asked, taking another step, and another, and another until he's close enough.

"I promise you'll stay alive. I'll kill everyone so you could stay alive. What do you say, Princess? Isn't that a good deal?"

There was no doubt she was afraid of him. His every word sounded like a threat, and she felt stupid for forgetting the man's moral compass was way off. However, his eyes felt like he was actually pleading not to leave him alone.

"Banda...you know there's someone I have to go home to."

She was confused. The look in his eyes felt like he had something to confess,

"I..."

Aika's eyes widened in utter terror. Before Banda was even about to complete what he was going to say, someone had shot him on the shoulder.

"Banda!"

He quickly fell to the ground, and she did not hesitate to kneel before him. "Banda! Stay with me!"

"Just go!" He painfully muttered.

"I'll fix your wound, so stand up!"

A few seconds after he was shot, people who had come out of nowhere began running away, many of them getting shot in the process.

"Someone's shooting people! Banda, stand up!" She exclaimed, helping him up and assisting him to the side.

"Leave me, Princess." Banda said in a hoarse voice, smiling through the pain from the gunshot.

"No way!" She replied, shaking her head aggressively. It confused Aika. She wouldn't even call them friends, but for some reason, tears threatened to fall from the corner of her eyes as if she felt a little care for him.

"Princess, if you stick with me, I'm never letting you go. I'm never letting you go back to the real world. I'll keep you to myself, and make you play games with me forever. All because of my selfish desire."

"Banda! Stop being stubborn! This could kill you!" Banda only grinned.

"If you want to go back to that person in your mind, leave me right now. Because once this wound gets healed, I don't know what I'll do to keep you from going."

Aika kept on pressing the wound with her hand in attempts to stop the bleeding.

"So just go, Princess. I'll live, and I know you will too." He whispered, holding the top of her hand with his.

With a tear escaping her eyes, she nodded and run away.