Anything could be holy enough to save anyone's soul. That's what Saki's father usually said when winter struck and covered the city white, as if children's wishes were stronger than the sky's will to hold the clouds where they belonged, failing to catch the angels' cotton-like blankets and letting them fall to the ground. Beliefs held people together, their minds and hearts; it let their soul radiate through its shell, setting free the intense emotions carried below their tongues.
Saki feared them. She feared the kids that walked faster than her, the ones whose steps sounded just like the word confident would; she feared cactuses for years after accidentally knocking one off her father's workspace; she feared never hearing her mother's voice again when she stopped praying every night before sleeping; she feared the angels' longing turned snow, and allowing her soul to glow.
It had been the first night of winter when Saki's father found her in their old greenhouse, wandering around the lines of blooming flowers, whispering sorry in tropical breaths each time her fingers pressed too hard into a petal. He didn't make a sound back then, but she knew he was there, she always did. The same way that even in that season of the year, with no heat source but the Sun on a clear day, the greenhouse stayed warmer than the air outside, she believed she'll never not know how the pebbles giggled under his boots and how his hands trembled slightly at the sight of her daughter tasting the world in pure blindness.
Contrary to him, Saki feared beliefs, yet she was full of them. And just when the feeling of an internal pleading fought its way out of her chest, her throat opened and the rough kiss of The Beach's floor met her skin as she was dragged.
"What are you doing?" She heard someone talk, fingers gripped her legs harder, "We can't stop now, c'mon!"
"Do we really trust him? Like—" The Fire of Judgment spoke in flames for the man, crackling hot as her body regained consciousness and doubt started infecting his, "I mean, how are so sure he's not gonna straight up shoot us after we've finished burning bodies?"
There was a pause. A moment of consideration of how have they gone this far, but the second a light breeze washed away any sign of redemption, a strong voice came in waves from the inside of the hotel with the same vibrations an earthquake would've shook the entire place down.
"I’m the witch!" If she had to be honest, Saki would have never thought she'd hear Aguni's desperation leak through his voice as if venom had suddenly started to pour out of his mouth. But she did, right there and then, two times. "You guys want to kill me!"
"What's going on?" One of the boys left her legs resting on the ground to check out the turmoil, though it didn't take longer for his accomplice to follow him.
The outside became quieter as their steps lost in the distance.
Saki groaned, rolling on her side to help herself sit on her heels for starters. Her head pounded with such force her hearing went away for a couple of seconds before she felt it going back to normal, however, a loud ringing sound stayed with her as she made her way through a door into the lobby, balancing between the aftermath of being knocked out and all previous memories filling up her mind's missing spots in what someone could say: "Watch out!"
Out of nowhere, a body slammed against her, yanking her along to meet the harsh surface of a wall.
The commotion taking place in the lobby made Saki believe everyone was fighting each other, which she soon realized was happening when all sounds became clearer. But as people's screams ran into Aguni's, she understood they were not in a battlefield between themselves, they were going for Aguni's throat.
And if anything could've gone worse than that, a girl stopped every move of the game board with only six words.
"Listen up, everybody!" She made herself heard from the middle of the room, "I’m the dealer of this game!"
The what now?, at that point, Saki felt nothing was real anymore. Not even the silence that was summoned and the clean laser that fell from the sky, just like clouds in winter and the girl's corpse. Saki's heart palpitations pumped up like crazy, but she didn't have time to worry about them once she picked Ann's voice out of the others that were going off after the sudden confession.
"It was a reverse grip" Ann called out, "Fingerprints with a reverse grip were found on the knife, this means Momoka grabbed the knife herself and stabbed it through her own chest."
It took Saki a second to calm herself down, to let some tears run down her cheeks, and her little soul to glow the thinnest as relief flashed across her limbs each second she heard her loved ones talk. They're okay. Arisu's voice was the one that caught her attention again.
"We’re still alive." He said, "We’re all facing despair head-on and fighting until the very end! Don’t look down on those who are still alive!"
Perhaps it had been there all the time with them, creeping undercover up till someone finally pointed it out, but as the feeling of traces of smoke sucking all clean inhales out of her lungs came in the form of a breathless cough, she knew their utopia didn't have much time left.
"The fire is spreading! Run!"
"Move the body to the Fire of Judgment!" Saki was quick to recognize Kuina in the distance. Excitement got all over her, so she didn't need to think twice to start heading into her direction, though her mind blurred when a bullet landed on her left leg. Her yelp, followed by her body falling onto the floor, had her eyes searching around until she found her. "Saki!"
Everyone screamed at the sight of Niragi's rampage.
"I should have just burned down The Beach with the Fire of Judgment!" He yelled, "With this I’ll clear the game!"
In a place like home, somewhere she knew, Saki would've noticed the hand being placed finger by finger on her shoulder right away. But then, as the pain on her leg faded out along the sweat drops that stuck her bangs to her forehead, she didn't. A whole minute could've passed without her noticing anything other than her body being consumed by the tiredness if Kuina didn't slap her face. It's like a déjà vu, she thought, shaking her head slightly to get herself together.
Careful of not poking her eye by accident, Saki lifted up her hands to touch Kuina’s chin, the mere skin to skin contact she needed to reassure herself she was there, in flesh and bone, still breathing like she was. If she trembled as she let the windows to her soul roam from Kuina's to Ann's features, fearfully, neither said anything.
When her fingers met Ann's temple, though, she furrowed her eyebrows at the sensation of something warm and wet.
"I’ll kill all of you!" Niragi shouted before she could make any comment, shooting everything he caught moving, but Aguni's roar drowned them both in the distance, going deeper and deeper inside the building licked by flames.
THREE MINUTES REMAINING. . .
"There’s no time!" Kuina cried out, forcing Ann and Saki to stand up.
As if something had clicked inside their brains, everyone that wasn't injured contributed to help move Momoka's body outside. There, where The Fire of Judgement awaited for the witch to meet its embrace, one Saki almost tasted if it hadn't been for Aguni's outburst, all players of The Beach reunited in silence, taking their time to glance around one last time and approach the exits in hope the game finally finished.
The corpse burned and all phones rang.
CONGRATULATIONS. . .
GAME CLEARED. . .
"I guess this is the end of our paradise." Ann muttered by her side.
At the end, big fishes ate little fishes up, but as the flames slowly consumed Seaside Paradise Tokyo and Ann's hand found a new place in her hold, Saki felt as if they may have just destroyed the base of the pyramid.
There was still a long way ahead to reach home.
YOU ARE READING
BIG FISHES, rizuna ann
FanfictionBIG FISHES ATE LITTLE FISHES UP. . . ˗ˏˋ Ever since the day she was born, Ishikawa Saki thought the world was still asleep, as no light reached her every time she opened her eyes. There were no colors, no figures, and no scenery-just sounds, tastes...
