BIG FISHES, rizuna ann

CHAPTER SIX

They had argued a lot that night. All of them were too overwhelmed to care for each other, they couldn't stop discussing for a minute.

The freezing breeze which danced around their hot bodies gave Saki goosebumps, a pair of ghost fingers traveling all the way down her arms as if asking for permission to open her flesh, to use her skin as a coat and leave her in hands of the cold. She couldn't remember exactly what happened after the second she volunteered to be their guide, but the feeling of her stiffened muscles and her sore throat was something that, at some point, started to penetrate into her bones, being all she could think of.

It wasn't really hard to move around the botanical garden, especially as she was being led by Hirano and Akira all the time, however, the pain on her and some of the other players' bodies slowed their searching, consecutively riling the team up. Saki knew they were all trying their best, she did too, though the ones that weren't poisoned seemed to have had enough of their sickness.

"How are all those descriptions useful? Wouldn't it be easier to know what the plant looks like instead?" A woman mumbled behind their back.

Saki had been waiting for that to happen since the moment she spoke up about the solution to their problem. She had been waiting, salivating as a hungry predator, for anyone to push her buttons. Harder or softer, it didn't matter. All she needed was someone to cut the wrong fuse and make the bomb blow.

The thing with sighted people was that they focused more on their sight instead of their other senses; they were so used to seeing they didn't give it more of a thought. They continued their lives as normal, watching the sun hide or a train arrive, where to step and where not to, because they busied themselves with information they saw. Saki never had the smallest opportunity to see beyond nothingness, so she relied on her hearing and touch to make sense of the world, sometimes on her smell and taste.

Maybe that was what stoke a nerve, what made her so extremely embarrassed of her own self that she stopped dead in her tracks. Maybe it was the droplets of sweat staining her shirt, making her loose hair stick to her face, or even the insufferable sting on her knee joints that made her legs tremble every step she took. Whatever it was, deep down, Saki knew it took nothing more than a sound to get her brain to react.

Akira glanced at the woman, visibly annoyed, but before he could say something to her, Saki finally snapped.

"Just let me think!" she screamed, startling the hand that found a place on her waist, protecting her from trailing away from the group and anyone trying to make a move to invade her personal space to get her opinion about something they've had discovered, "For any of you who hadn't noticed I'm fucking blind, so shut your mouth or nobody will clear this game tonight!"

If it was too much, she didn't care. In the dizziness, she even thought they deserved it. Perhaps she'd been egoistic, though she didn't spare the memory of that game more than a dream or a single sensation of dejá vù. Saki didn't allow the past to mix with the present, but sometimes the balance turned and she lost herself to the pain of the poison intoxicating her blood, putting pressure on her chest, making her neck burn red.

Silence flowed around as they waited for her to calm down. Akira's thumb caressed her back in an attempt to help her regulate her breathing.

"Huh!? Is that a threat!?" The same woman snapped back, but her attempt to look intimidating gave in to the quiver in her voice. Saki didn't need to see to deduce she lacked confidence.

"If you don't stop complaining and start being useful, then yeah, take it as one." Saki answered almost immediately, not in the mood to stay quiet anymore.

It had probably been at that point when everything got worse. She remembered their voices becoming louder, a kid crying for his mom as he begged her to keep walking, the smell of flowers and Hirano's hand meeting her cheek after she collapsed on the ground. Electricity, trails of lighting, shook the inside of her muscles as her left knee cushioned her body weight and a grunt escaped from her lips.

She bit her tongue, leaving a mark that will still be palpable even in the future. Blood tasted like ashes and she noticed how swollen her throat had gotten once she swallowed her lymph. It was bad, really bad.

They were all at their limit, finally accepting the rest their slow heartbeats were looking for. They were ready to give up when Hirano slapped Saki harder than the first time, this one stopping her from crossing the line to the slumber.

"Don't you dare," she heard her mutter. It was like waking up from a dream. Her body ached and she felt the soil under her nails. The mixture of strong smells inundated her nose to the point of making her nauseous. "One or two, these are our last options." Hirano managed to get her attention.

Of course, the answer didn't come as fast as they wished it did. Saki was tired, so tired she would've ignored her and succumbed to the chant of her blood cells calling her to sleep, but it was the light fresh, herbal smell that came as a wave of stimulus that made her conscious of what Hirano was holding up to her. Number two. Saki didn't know if she'd said it out loud or if a look on her face gave Hirano the answer, but petals were left in her hands as a silent order waiting to be consumed.

A hand gripped her wrist before the petals could touch her lips.

Akira's breath trembled as he locked eyes with her lost ones. Once she got everyone the antidote, Hirano gave her brother a glance, noticing the worry on his semblance.

"What if it's not the right one?" He wondered, sowing doubt in everyone's mind, "What if it increases the effects of the poison?"

"There's only one way to figure that out," Saki whispered.

It was only when the game's voice announced they'd won that Saki breathed, as if she had to prove to the Devil she was still alive and she will stay alive for a longer time, even if that meant to kill or wait for an intangible sign, like she did inside that bus.