All That Bloodshed

Chapter 13: you drew up some good faith treaties

Somehow, they all ended up gathered in Aguni's room after the group therapy session. None of them wanted to leave each other alone; not after Suzuki's blow up and Takahiro expressing interest.

This wasn't the Borderlands, but that didn't mean that it was safe. They were stronger together.

"Well... that was tense," Kuina declared, flopping down into a chair and helping ease Ann into the other. "Man, they really had it out for us."

Aguni huffed. "Is it any surprise? That girl... she only knows us from The Beach." He wheeled himself over to the bed before heaving himself up with practiced ease, tucking the chair away. Heiya followed his lead by plopping herself onto the end of the bed.

Chishiya meandered over to the far wall while Ryouhei and Usagi remained standing by the door, taking care to close it.

"Yeah, but we weren't all militants or executives," Kuina pouted.

"Guilty by association," Chishiya pointed out calmly. "She's been after all of us."

Usagi huffed. "She was in fine form today. She had an agenda."

"She's been talking to the others about The Beach," Chishiya agreed. "I may have been a bit of a bastard before, but my colleagues respect me." They tell him things.

Somehow, Ryouhei had never imagined Chishiya gossiping with nurses and other interning doctors, but it made sense for the Cheshire Cat-like man.

"What's our move?" Ann asked.

Usagi looked over at her. "Do we have to do anything?" she asked, looking uncertain. "I mean, what are the odds we run into her again? I think she just needed to get it out of her system."

Chishiya raised an eyebrow.

"She's not from my high school," Heiya supplied helpfully. "I would certainly know if she was."

Chishiya shrugged, folding his arms over his chest. "There's a lot of schools in Tokyo."

Kuina frowned, reaching forward to intertwine her pinky with Ann's. "She was weirdly fixated on Arisu too."

Usagi nodded, laughing awkwardly. "It felt like everyone we met in the Borderlands was at least a little obsessed."

Ann smirked. "Hatter was immediately intrigued. I don't think he ever met so much with a player that wasn't an executive."

Ryouhei's nose wrinkled. He remembered being a little weirded out by the way Hatter had looked at him. He glanced quickly at Aguni, trying to gauge his reaction. Aguni had been close with Hatter — so close that his death by his hand had devastated Aguni enough that he wanted to raze The Beach until there was nothing left and burn with it. Ryouhei understood the feelings that drove a man to those extremes.

"Lots of people were interested in Arisu at The Beach," Kuina continued, moving past Aguni's careful stare. "It didn't stop at just Hatter. I know a lot of people were whispering about you and why Hatter took such an obvious interest. I'm pretty sure you were actually the last two to arrive at The Beach before the 10 of Hearts game."

Usagi's eyebrows furrowed. "I had people asking me about Arisu too," she agreed. 'But the interest didn't stop at just the average Beach player either. I mean, Hatter, Chishiya, Niragi —" Ryouhei thought that he made a valiant effort at hiding his flinch at the mention of Niragi's interest in him, but he knew that Chishiya caught it anyway. "—it didn't even stop at just other players."

Ann tilted her head, looking shrewdly between Usagi and Ryouhei. "Not just other players?" she prompted.

"Oh right," Kuina said, her eyes flicking up as if remembering something. 'The King of Clubs was really weird with Arisu, wasn't he?"