Death Parade (FanFic)

The Loser...Dies?

        Aika leaned across the table in effort to hit her ball into a hole. Net, maybe, Aika didn't really know, but she called them holes.

The game had started off pretty slowly, and they were no where near being finished with it anytime soon. Especially since Aika and Hideki weren't really all that good. She thrust her cue stick forward at her intended target, and at just the right angle. The white ball easily hit her own, and it went flying toward one of the holes. Aika watched in anticipation as her ball slowed down just inches away from the hole. But it fell in.

Aika jumped. "Yes!" She exclaimed happily. Hideki groaned.

"I'm going to lose," Hideki moaned. "There's no way I'll be able to win."

"Don't say that," Aika told him, "You never know." Aika looked at the pool table. There were twelve balls left, including the white ball out of the fifteen that were there are the start. Seven of the twelve were Hideki's. Aika and Hideki had both tried not to hit the other persons ball, and so far they succeeded. Though Aika highly doubted that there was really anything out of the ordinary about this game, she still choose to believe it to some extent.

She moved around the table, trying to find the best angle to be able to sink her ball. There weren't any very good ones, considering the fact that the ball was an inch away from the edge of the table. Aika had never really been able to hit any balls that weren't in the center of the table. Finally stopping in one spot, Aika leaned over the table, hesitating...then hitting the white ball.

Aika watched it hit her ball, which bounced of the edge of the table, then rolled...and hit a ball belonging to Hideki, which fell into one of the holes. His ball had a picture of lungs.

Aika heard Hideki gasp behind her, and she whipped around to see him clutching his chest tightly, gasping for air, eyes watering and wide. "Oh my god! Hideki, are you okay! Oh my gosh! I didn't mean too! It was an accident, I swear!" He continued gasping for air, but his hand un-clenched from his chest before he started coughing.

"Ok," he choked. "It's fine." Aika looked over at the bar tender. Her eyes fell down to his hand. He held some sort of...device, his finger lingering over a button. But she barely noticed it as her eyes returned to his face.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She yelled at him. "How is it that...You can't just do this!"

"The game is not yet finished. I am afraid I cannot do anything until there is a winner, and a loser."

Aika glared at him. Hideki stood up straighter, and looked at the game. "I'm okay," he said finally. "Let's just keep going." Aika nodded curtly. "Your turn," she told him.

Hideki took his cue and aimed, before striking. He sunk his ball. "Ah-ha!" He grinned openly. He hit again, sunk another ball. Then another. Aika gawked at him while he just chuckled. "Looks like you might be in trouble, now, eh?" His chortle seemed to have just the slightest bit of mirth to it. Aika huffed.

"Try me."

"I think I will." Hideki missed his next shot. He frowned. "Hm..."

Aika took her cue, aimed, and hit. The white ball rolled, but barely hit the ball she wanted it to. She blew a strand of her black hair out of her face. And now Hideki was taking his stick, finding the best angle, and...

The ball bounced slightly, rolling, rolling, until it hit her own ball. She noted the fact it had a picture of a brain as it...fell...into the hole...

It was precisely then that she was hit with the worst migraine she had ever experienced, and it came like bullet. Aika cried out in pain, as the pain got increasingly worse.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Aika! Come here!"

"Yes Mother!" Aika replied, standing up from the seat she had been sitting at, tearing her eyes away from her book. She headed over to the kitchen. "What is it?"

"Could you please walk your brother over to his friends house please? It's just a bit too far away for him to go alone."

Aika's eyes fell down to her younger brother, Chikashi. He was smiling at her. "Alright!"

"Thank you," her mother replied.

Aika started toward the door, Chikashi on her heels. "So whose house are you going to?" she inquired.

"Akinari's," he told her. Aika nodded.

"Okay then. So are you going over just to hang out or is it something for school?"

"School?" he demanded. "Never!" Aika laughed, swinging the door open and heading through. "I didn't think so," she murmured. "Then why did you ask?" Chikashi asked her. She shrugged.

There was moment of silence before Chikashi asked, "So, do you have a boyfriend yet?"

Aika stared at him before a slow blush crept up her cheeks. "Chikashi! What makes you say that?"

"Oh, you know, just the way I see you flirting at school all the time, that's all."

"What? I do not! This is false!"

"I really don't think it is." Chikashi winked at her.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Oh gosh! Aika! Are you alright?" Hideki asked her frantically.

"Huh? Y-yeah, I-I think so." She took a deep breath. "That was weird. I just got this major migraine, then I think...I think I remembered something." Hidekis' eyes widened a little as Aika glanced in Decim's direction. "Well, we're still in the game, so I guess we better keep going."

Hideki blinked. "Oh yeah, right. I guess so."

And so they continued their game. They both seemed cursed to continually miss, however, until Aika started sinking her balls. She noticed Hideki biting his lip at one point, but she didn't make anything of it. At least, not until he had six balls left while Aika had only three. He broke out into a sweat on his turn, glancing from the table, to Aika, to the bar tender, and back to table before yelling in frustration.

"This isn't fair!" he wailed. "She's going to beat me! I can't win! I'm going to die! Whoever loses dies! And it's going to be me!"

"Wait, what?' Aika asked. "The loser dies?"

"Yes!" Hideki almost screamed at her. He pointed at Decim. "That guy said our lives were are stake here, didn't he?!" Aika had almost forgotten the guy had said that until Hideki brought it up again. Suddenly she began to tremble. She didn't want to believe that was the truth, but...what if it was? What if the loser DID actually die? "I forfeit!" Hideki cried. "I forfeit!"

"I am terribly sorry," Decim told them, "but I must insist that you finish the game."

Hideki looked at him helplessly before taking his cue and striking the white ball. He hit one of his balls, but it did not go very far.

Now it was Aika's turn. She leaned over the pool table, her hands trembling slightly as she hit the white ball. Which it one of Hideki's. The one with his heart.