Alice in Borderland ~ Niragi

44

'I will admit it,' Tetsuya says as we keep walking the streets and notice the sky will soon become dusky. 'It took up a lot of time to find the right manga books. I take full responsibility for that.'

'We went to four different stores!' Tomoko says, rolling his eyes. Still I can see it doesn't really bother him. The only one who really is annoyed, is Niragi. 'Well,' Tetsuya replies, 'I can't help it that volume six was missing in those stores!'

'Just skip it, then,' Niragi replies annoyed. 'Skip it?! No way! You can't ask that of me! It's getting really intense, with this big fight between two important gangs.' Niragi emits something that resembles an angry sigh. 'I don't fucking care,' he says, cutting his friend of. 'It's getting dusky soon. We need to leave now. It already will be dark when we get back at the Beach.'

'Get back?' Tetsuya says, shrugging. 'Nobody said anything about getting back. We have approval to stay away for up to three days to go searching for them.'

'Do you hear yourself?!' Niragi replies angrily. 'To go searching for them! The whole day we have done nothing but acting childish!'

'Relax, Suguru, we–'

'Relax?!' Niragi is really getting angry. I don't like seeing him fight with a friend. 'The more we roam about, the further they get away!'

'Do you want to find them?' Tetsuya asks incredulously. 'Wasn't that the whole point of leaving?' Niragi counters. 'Well, no,' Tetsuya replies. 'I didn't start this to really find them. You knew that already when we left, didn't you?'

'So you put us all in danger for this delusion of freedom you can enjoy for five seconds?'

'Niragi, please...' I start, putting my hand on his arm. 'Please don't fight. We secretly all wanted to be away for a while.'

'What do you think happens when we get back to the Beach without them? Without completing our mission?'

'Well, you're in command now, aren't you?' Ari mumbles. 'Who says we will be for long?' Niragi replies. 'We took the power by seizing it. Aguni can choose any person and give them a gun to be on his side. He can just as easily demote us and then we'll all be in danger. Look at Hitomo.'

'He can,' I agree with him, 'and he doesn't even need a reason for that. Who is to say he won't take away your privilege, even if we would find them? Nothing's for sure, but I think he still needs you. He can trust Tetsuya and you more than others, since you've been with him from the start.' My words calm Niragi down a bit. 'I'm just...' He shakes his head. 'I think we're all a bit cranky,' I continue. 'We've been busy all day and all we have eaten is snacks. Let's settle for the night and make some warm food.'

'Who wants to get back to the Beach?' Tomoko asks after a silence. No one puts his hand up, not even Niragi. 'Let's just find a house we can stay in for the night,' he mumbles, sighing. Guess he's also not eager to walk all the way back to the Beach again. If we could have taken a car we probably would've gone back. I'm glad we didn't take a car. 'We can...' Tomoko mumbles. 'I mean...' When he looks at me, I immediately understand him. 'It's still an hour by foot, but I know a pretty comfortable house.'

I don't like being in silence the whole time, but Tetsuya seems to have lost his appetite to talk or make jokes. I can't read anything from his face. All the way home I try to think of something that he might be needing right now, but the closer we get, the more distracted I get.

'Have you been back there?' Tomoko suddenly asks as he starts walking next to me. 'Since you're here, I mean.' I start recognising the streets really well now. 'I have,' I reply. I know he hasn't; the place looked the same. Dusty and all, but the same. I could tell no one has been there in this world, except for when I was. I hope it's still the same. 'What did it feel like?' my stepbrother asks me. I could already hear it in his voice, but when I look at him I can clearly see the hope in his eyes. I feel bad for crushing that hope, yet I want to be honest with him. 'Empty,' is my reply, and so become his eyes for a second. 'It won't be like that when we get back,' he says, putting his hand on my arm for a moment. I hope he's right.