Chapter Text
1st day of the Second Stage of the Borderlands.
Kuina had been taking care of Chishiya for a few hours after the Beach cleared the 10 of Hearts' Witch Hunt. Chishiya was unconscious since he was left on the bed on the top floor of the Beach after Niragi was done with him, Kuina was filled with guilt so she decided to take responsibility for what happened. She was partially mad at Niragi for what he did to him, but she was grateful for what he did later. It was heroic of him and Kuina couldn't blame Niragi for wanting to kill Chishiya after he leaped at him holding a flamethrower.
She was very surprised when she found out he forgave him so easily and saved him when the Beach collapsed straight after they tried to kill eachother. Kuina was relieved that the last game known was cleared. Cards can have duplicates, sure, but to her, the 10 of Hearts felt like the last game. After the tragedy at the Beach from the day before, it seemed like everyone has had enough.
Chishiya was laying in a car outside and Kuina was in there sitting beside him, holding his shoulder. She was waiting for him to finish resting, of course, she was unable to heal him and she'd just have to wait. Sighing, Kuina just stayed in the car, looking at her friend, she stayed all night and even slept there. Kuina leaned back into the car seat, everyone else was outside. She was impressed that everyone had managed to stay together even after the Beach was destroyed.
Niragi walked over to the car Kuina was in, thing were really nice between them. He didn't treat her like shit but he wouldn't call them friends, the only thing he did was learn her name. Kuina had never liked Niragi but after he carried Chishiya out, she managed to stand him. At the moment they've spoken a total of 32 words to eachother for they have only greeted with nods and glances. The only proper greeting they got was their first, with a "Niragi." and a "Hey.".
Niragi opened the car door as Kuina looked up at him. The sunlight from outside was blinding her, the beam shot straight to her eyes. Niragi was holding something in his hand as his other hand was resting on the car's roof. He was holding some sort of white cloth, which he tossed at where Kuina was sitting. "Here, I found this in the ruins." 39 words, the two have officially spoken a total of 39 words to each other. Celebratory.
A scream. What kind? The one Niragi heard when he shot Chishiya. It was constantly replaying in his head. Niragi had heard many screams in his life, the first ones were his own, and the one replaying at the moment was Chishiya's. It was a curse that he was able to identify which one it was. High pitched and deafening, coming straight after a gunshot. Chishiya's screams just rapidly going on and off at random.
"Thanks." said Kuina, shutting off Niragi's focus on Chishiya's voice. 40 words. It was Chishiya's hoodie, thank fuck. Despite her wearing nothing but a strappy bikini all the time, it was awkward for Kuina to take care of Chishiya when he was shirtless. Niragi left and Kuina searched Chishiya's pockets, finding a stack of cards with burnt edges that were held together with a rubber band and a thin piece of paper with a scribble on it. Kuina remembered the piece of paper from when Chishiya came back from the 5 of Spades. The top card in Chishiya's stack was the 10 of Hearts.
Kuina had no idea what to believe in anymore, now that Hatter's dead, the sense behind his theory seemed to be fading. Eventually, Chishiya woke up dizzily, being able to forgive Kuina as soon as he got up and threw his hoodie of his two shoulders. Chishiya wasn't comfortable to completely put it on due to the dust and dried blood on it. The minute Chishiya woke up Kuina pulled him in for a hug and brought him outside. Much like Kuina, he was just released into the open and immediately blinded by the sun. Kuina told him that the Beach was gone and Momoka was the witch like he predicted.
"Thanks for getting me out of there when the game was cleared." He said. Kuina looked back at him and replied.
"Oh, I wasn't the one who got you out." At first Chishiya just assumed that he was caught on the bed by some resident who felt sorry for him or just someone who wanted to rescue anyone.
"Who did?"
"Niragi."
"Niragi" was not and answer he was expecting, no one could have guessed "Niragi". Becore he asked, Chishiya was about to thank whoever got him out when the Beach was destroyed, now that he knew, he didn't even know what to say. The most logical thing he could come up with was "thanks, asshole" without making eye contact. Niragi was a dick and back at the 10 of Hearts, that wasn't the first time he pointed his rifle at him. Chishiya didn't even want to talk to him but he decided that he should at least apologize for trying to kill him.
Chishiya found Niragi outside, there were small burns around his body and it seemed like his hideous shirt caught on a bit of fire too. Good, Chishiya fucking hated that shirt, may Niragi's entire wardrobe burn. His hair was messed up, so was Chishiya's so he couldn't judge him there. Some of his bruises seemed to have healed...a bit and not much. Niragi noticed Chishiya walking towards him.
"Chishiya" he said.
"Hey."
Never in a million years would have Chishiya guessed that it was Niragi who saved him from the fire. Now that he saw him, it was almost believable. In a reasonable world, "almost" meant "no", but Chishiya didn't want to look at it that way, because in his world, "almost" was enough. Niragi clearly didn't change, still an asshole, but Chishiya could tell that what Kuina said was true. Stupid, but true. The fact that he was willing to save him...stupid, but admirable to Chishiya.
Like mentioned before, back at the 10 of Hearts, it wasn't the first time he pointed his rifle at him. During the Witch Hunt Niragi saw a sight that he had always been wanting to see, Chishiya, suffering like his average victims. What he didn't expect was how he looked, shivering and whimpering like the pretty little kitten he was, he was beautiful in Niragi's eyes. When others would stare in fear, Chishiya was usually cocky whenever Niragi sticks his pierced tongue out at him teasingly or licks the tip of his rifle. When nothing intimidating was happening, Chishiya didn't really fear him.
Chishiya. That bastard. Easy to kill and hard to not spare. Niragi hated that of him. Standing in front of him, Chishiya prepared to thank him for everything "Than-"
"No need, no need." Niragi wasn't really expecting Chishiya to thank him, he wasn't expecting him to say anything to him, mostly because he wasn't expecting Kuina to actually tell. Sure, it was big, it was something unexpected, but he and Kuina were fine together but their relationship was still very cold. Niragi felt stupid for not expecting him to know, thankfully, now that hatter and the Beach are out of the way, he could leave whenever he wanted. It was just weird that Niragi saved Chishiya and Niragi didn't want to show weakness.
A second scream, another high pitched and deafening scream. This one, only dogs could hear. Despite being hidden in the piles of screams from other residents, this one certainly stood out. There they went, back on replay...was this Niragi's punishment? The haunting shrieks and hollers from Chishiya's mouth in his ears as he prays for them to stop? That's at least what Niragi considered them. A punishment.
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"What did you expect us to find here before we came?" Asked Kuina, sitting on a desk as she pushed the head of a corpse off the computer keyboard in front. Chishiya brought her down, after reaching into his pockets, finding the scribbled map he found after attending the 5 of Spades. They were now in a big, dark ass room with multiple screens connected to cameras, desks and computers and not to mention dead dealers who lost the first stage against the players.
"Dealers." After Kuina asked her friend, she knew he was deep so she wasn't really expecting such an obvious and simple answer from him. "...but alive of course...and maybe in an office of some sort." Kuina scoffed, sometimes she forgets that Chishiya is a normal person and that no one really knew a thing about the borderlands. Maybe she just thought so because she expected the same as him, that probably wasn't the case though.
Since the Beach was gone, the rules didn't really apply to them anymore and wearing bathing suits didn't matter anymore. Kuina had already strapped on a pair of jeans but kept the bikini, she decided to wear tank tops whenever she doesn't feel like wearing the bikini top she had always had on. Chishiya got a completely different outfit, as no one would want to wear a dirty blood covered hoodie like a cape. The two had found the Borderland dealers' hideout and were sitting on a desk.
Chishiya lifted a dealer's head from his hair, he wrinkled his nose in disgust as he saw the bloody hole on the top of the dealer's head. "Why do you think they were killed? These dicks haven't been dead for long." He asked Kuina. Chishiya dropped the dealer's head and pushed him off the desk. Kuina looked up at him, she wasn't expecting him to know and knew he just wanted to hear some theories and Kuina was glad that he was willing to listen but she didn't have much to say.
"I guess more dealers die every time a game gets cleared. And these are the creators of last night's games."
"Seems a bit too many for just one night's games, don't you think?"
"Better theories?"
"No."
Kuina sighed softly in relief, she was glad that she was able to come up with something good on spot. Sure, she thought about the games a lot when she first came to the borderlands, but stopped eventually and focused on survival. Recently, Chishiya told her that that the scribbled piece of paper might have been a map, but Kuina couldn't really theorize about the borderlands or anything after that. When Chishiya went on about the borderlands, Kuina was focused on An. Since she thought Chishiya was dead, An had been comforting her which Kuina found awfully nice of her.
Chishiya could tell that Kuina wasn't focusing whenever he tried to talk to her about what he found, but he didn't care. It was fine, because it gave him an advantage, he had more time to think about Niragi. Chishiya mostly wished that he had more time to talk to him and thank him or apologize.
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Chishiya got back from his trip with Kuina, it really dropped way too much information on him all at once. Mira and the second stage and everything, the only thing he expected was that Arisu found out somehow already. The second stage of the borderlands was introduced to the former Beach residents half an hour ago. He was intrigued by the idea of the face cards. Sadly, the Beach society was just split when the King of Spades' blimp arrived. The attack separated him from everyone else.
Chishiya found a nice room in an apartment building to stay in for the next 14 days on his visa with an extra 10 from the last game he played. He hoped to see the others again, but he just wanted to focus on himself for the moment. His bullet wound hasn't healed and was aching like hell. The bleeding stopped but it looked like Kuina didn't even touch it.
Chishiya's shoulder hurt every time he touched it, his fingertips were reddened from the blood he gathered from his body. After he lost the King of Spades, Chishiya tried to find whatever he could to help, at least tools that were good enough to replace medical equipment, luckily he found a first aid kit and enough...passable material.
Sitting on a stool in front of a long mirror with wheels, Chishiya was picking at his cuts and injuries. He leaned over to get a closer look as he looked at the cut on his torn lip. "Shit..." he whispered as he licked it, making the pain sting slightly. He put his hand on side of the mirror and looked at his face until he was ready to take a look at his bullet wound with the tools he found. When sudd-
"Chishiya?"
"SHIT." That bastard. After being struck down by the sound of a voice calling his name, his top torso accidentally fell forward when he pushed the mirror back in shock. He turn around to get a better look at what was going on behind him. Niragi was just finished running away from the King of infinite fucking bullets and had his hand on the doorway, his rifle strapped on his back and a sympathetic look of pity on his face.
Chishiya looked up at Niragi. He didn't know what he had to say to him. Chishiya decided to go for a "solo career" after he and Kuina were separated. He never gave a shit about being with anyone but he deeply wanted Niragi with him, just so that he could say what he didn't have the chance to. Niragi began to speak up as Chishiya let him.
A third scream. Not Chishiya's this time, but many ridiculously loud voices all at once. From the Beach residents. A slightly muffled scream from Arisu as he was being taped to a chair. A tiny yelp from the unexpectedly courageous Usagi who was being pinned down. Was Niragi under pressure as these screams filled his head? No. It was just Chishiya's screams that ate him up inside. Only that bastard's. Chishiya's.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here, I'll go." He said as he pointed out the doorway, tucking a thin shadow dark streak of his hair behind his ear and adjusted his rock hard, pearl like eyebrow piercings. He didn't really want to bother Chishiya. Disappointed, Chishiya felt the immediate need to say "shit" again but didn't of course. He practically screamed "shit" last time, and that was definitely not a good greeting.
"No, stay, I insist, I owe you." Chishiya replied as Niragi was about to leave. He really did owe him and since there were tons of other rooms in the building, it wasn't much compared to what Niragi had done for him. Niragi put his rifle next to the doorway inside as he sat on the bed, close to Chishiya, watching him adjust the mirror after pushing it back when Niragi arrived.
"Thanks." Niragi thanked him, to think he didn't even let Chishiya finish when he tried to thank Niragi for saving his life. They were once again caught in an awkward position.
Last time, after they tried to kill each other, Chishiya was thrown onto the nearest bed as Niragi jumped on top and on all fours. After that Niragi unzipped his hoodie only to find him carrying Chishiya bride style out of a hot steamy building. Once again, now, Chishiya was practically shirtless, he took off his new t shirt and his hoodie was open and hanging low on his elbow crooks and all Niragi could do was sit on the bed next to him and watch Chishiya fumble with his bare torso.
Neither of them minded the situation, not that they haven't noticed or anything and even if they did mind, they certainly wouldn't show it. Chishiya turned to Niragi again and asked. "How are the burns?"
"Fine, they're...healing." Niragi replied with a pause. He didn't need anything from Chishiya right now and was just making conversation.
"May I?" Chishiya reached his hand out a bit, stuttering. He just wanted to see but he didn't want to make Niragi uncomfortable. Immediately, Chishiya pulled his hand back and put it on the back of his neck.
Niragi paused and looked at Chishiya for a second until he blinked a couple of times and responded. "Sure." He had nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide, after all, he'd seen Chishiya shirtless already. Slowly, Niragi unbuttoned his shirt, the last horrendeous shirt Chishiya saw him wear was giraffe patterned, this one had round shapes...and what Chishiya assumed were flowers.
Niragi revealed several dry burns on his body and more. Chishiya mostly noticed his toned body and his perfectly placed chest along with Niragi's thin waist. He was slightly muscular but not too much, it was noticeable but unlike with Aguni. Niragi was thin, thin like Chishiya, he had the right bits in all the right places. Looking upwards, Chishiya noticed his strong looking arms and light abs on his stomach. The sight in front of Chishiya, the sight of Niragi shirtless...it satisfied him.
Chishiya wasn't sure what it was that satisfied him. He expected a similar look, not that he had been imagining it on purpose everyday or anything. He knew that Niragi would be thin with a layer of muscle behind his glamorous gold-bronze skin, but Chishiya just didn't quite know how he would react, seeing Niragi shirtless. How could he begin to describe Niragi? Psychopath. Much like anyone else, he would call Niragi a psychopath, a pervert and all in all and overly aggressive sniper. But how could he begin to describe Suguru Niragi now?
Interrupting the still silence Chishiya stood up with his arms crossed from his stool and zipped his hoodie back up. "I can...take care of you." He said. Chishiya wanted to help and handle Niragi's injuries but not in a perverted way, he couldn't explain the stutter so he thought it was best to leave...leave without giving Niragi the chance to be polite or rudely ignorant enough to decline Chishiya's help. "I'm going to find a pharmacy for supplies.".
Walking out, Chishiya shut the door behind him and leaned his back against it. Holding in a deep gulp, Chishiya put his palm on his forehead, feeling out of breath. His face felt warm as fuck, as if it was boiling, a stream of sweat poured down each side of his face. He put his hand over his mouth, blushing with his eyes closed. Intimidated by what he saw. Chishiya immediately tried his best to get ahold of himself. He figured that if he couldn't get used to Niragi now, he wouldn't be able to return.
Meanwhile, Niragi was still sitting on the bed pressing on his wounds with his hands. The more he did, the more he began to wonder, he wondered what it was about Chishiya that made him so hard to kill. Part of him felt grateful that he didn't have his rifle when they were fighting, he didn't want it all to end soon. Sure, it didn't matter without it because watching one suffer kind of makes up for not killing them, but Niragi was just grateful that he had time to witness an unconscious, resting Chishiya. Chishiya may had been in pain but Niragi was glad he didn't go for the kill.
A fourth scream, Chishiya's again. They continued getting louder and louder. The only difference this time was that they were echoing, each and every duplicate of them. Just as frightening as the last. Times like this made Niragi think that if he shot Chishiya they would either stop completely or come every second. He didn't really have the nuts to shoot Chishiya to confirm his theories.
Niragi gently slid his hand down his body, he had already acknowledged that what he didn't after he left Chishiya was something unexpected. Fuck, he didn't even expect it from himself, not everything needed a reason and maybe people would just see him as a regular person and not an asshole. They would be wrong, Niragi was an asshole, but he was glad that he wouldn't have to explain.
Niragi knew he deserved some sort of karma for being the way he was, but it frustrated him that he charged into the fire by choice. He did it for him, the ultimate risk for Chishiya. Niragi didn't even feel like giving Chishiya his trust after the stunt Chishiya pulled at him. The pain could have been avoided if he had convinced himself to leave Chishiya to die. He felt like he took his body and destroyed it, if only he knew better. Instead of avoiding the flames, he really let himself down.
Kuina thanked him once or twice and told him that he was heroic for his actions. "Heroic" was never a word anyone would ever describe Niragi as. Niragi was angered when he heard that word because he felt the entire opposite, he felt weak. Not only because he wasn't able to kill Chishiya, but because his physical status was shit. Major burns spread across his chest and stomach, of course, he also felt weak because not only was he not able to kill him, he wasn't able to even let him die.
Wincing, shut his eyes tightly as he tucked a loose strand of his hair to the back of his head. Niragi felt like he was losing himself, then it hit him. What on earth was he trying to do before he carried Chishiya down the stairs? Niragi flipped through the memories that were muted by the smoke and heat. He thought deeply, trying to remember what he was thinking and why. What made him want to do it at the worst moment ever? When bricks and chunks of glass were falling beside him...and why, out of all people...why was Chishiya the only one worth doing it for?
Fuck. Before he carried Chishiya, Niragi was leaning towards his face, softly brushing his lips against his. Chishiya. That bastard. Niragi's stupid ass came to the realization that he was about to kiss him. Not the kind he usually gives, not a rough lick that could send a shiver down one's spine, not a hickey stamp that he uses to mark what's his and not a punishing tongue swirl in one's opening that highlights his tongue piercing. An actual kiss...not to mention, for Chishiya.
A fifth scream. What was it now? Screaming residents? Aguni's victims? That coward cherry boy Tatta? No. This scream didn't seem to come from Niragi's memories. Repeated thoughts flood his mind, they were his but not exactly. Footsteps, running. A cold breath of air flew over Niragi's face. How was he feeling this? How did it all seem so real? And there it was, after Niragi closed his eyes, he could see what he was hearing. No harm in staying inside.
Chishiya running towards him with the annoying singsong little tone in his voice. Niragi was aiming. The fuck was going on? A million possibilities of why his mind was showing him all this raced right through. Why was this going on? On the roof? Was it saying that if Niragi stayed on the roof...Chishiya would've done something?
Niragi didn't have time to process why Chishiya was running towards him. Soon enough, Niragi was blinded. By cards. Cards flew up into the nightsky, Niragi looked down to focus and there were the words.
"What. What the hell is this ah?"
Finally, something he could remember, finally, something he was aware of. There it was. He's seen it before. Hah, right. There it was indeed.
"Homemade flamethrower ~♪"
And on came the fifth scream. Loudest of them all, and of course. This one was not real.
Niragi was lying on the bed, his head was resting in a puddle of sweat. Unbelievable. Why the fuck did he imagine all that shit? Niragi flipped onto his back for a second and chuckled at himself. Niragi felt like he was going crazy and thought that at least he had a decent explanation for his actions. He drove his fingers through his hair, he couldn't believe himself right now.
To think he'd rather think that he was losing his marbles than to accept the fact that he was actually really guilty for making Chishiya suffer and wanting to kiss him. That's when his eyes flung open, shit, he'd rather think he was crazy than do all that. Fuck, he knew others did but he didn't, was he really crazy in the first place? Was that how stubborn he was? God knows what else he'd rather do than accept his care for Chishiya. That bastard. That beautiful bastard.
That was a good question. What else would he rather do than accept his care for Chishiya? Would he rather die? No. What would he rather do? That's when it hit him like a bullet, right through his skull, his thick thick skull, with no space for his dumb brain. Maybe, just maybe, it would've been better if what he played inside his head was true. Maybe, it would have been better if Chishiya fried him with his flamethrower.
He tried to go back to what he imagined, but Niragi couldn't seem to think straight. What happened after he got fried by the flamethrower? Repeating what he asked himself before, would he rather die than accept his care for him? No. Niragi most likely would have fallen off the roof and into the outdoor pool below, right? Death? It seemed possible. Vast mass of blood loss? Definitely. He would have been teribly deformed at best with his entire body scarred.
Niragi asked himself again. Would it have been better if Chishiya fried him with his flamethrower? Yes. At least, Niragi would prefer it. If it happened, Niragi wouldn't have been able to hurt him. The only downside was that this took place before he realized how much he didn't want to hurt Chishiya and if his ass got burnt by that flamethrower and survived then he'd probably want to kill Chishiya and actually succeed.
Niragi admitted to himself that he shouldn't have been questioning for changing anything about the past will never happen. There were many ways it could've gone better and there were many things Niragi would rather do than accept his care for Chishiya. His care for Chishiya was...existent. It was real, but part of Niragi refused to believe it.
To Chishiya, Niragi probably didn't seem like as big of an asshole as he could have been anymore. To Niragi, no matter what, Chishiya just always seemed like his former co-executive at the Beach. And right now, it seemed complicated. Chishiya now seemed to be a shell Niragi couldn't crack. Niragi wouldn't say that he cared about him or anything but he really didn't have any other explanation for his actions when the 10 of Hearts was cleared.
Niragi just wanted to see Chishiya as a normal person again, but after what happened he couldn't. A normal person would have been easy to kill, Chishiya wasn't. Niragi didn't know what was going to happen afterwards, he didn't know if he was going to stay he didn't know if he was going to leave. It wasn't as if he had a reason to stay with Chishiya until the end of the second stage, they didn't have unfinished business or anything.
Forming an alliance would be unnecessary, not that he would mind. Both of them had plenty of days on their visa so neither of them had to participate in the games. He rescued Chishiya, fuck it. He had no idea what he was going to do later. This wouldn't have been so complicated if Niragi was able to kill him. By the time, Niragi had faced many challenges in his life but treating Chishiya like a normal person was the hardest.
And again, it would be great if he did. In Niragi's eyes Chishiya went from weasel to co-executive to guy who tried to kill him to victim to damsel in distress to desired lover (questionable) and finally to god knows what. Befriending Chishiya had always been the last thing on his mind, but of course so was saving him.
Befriending Chishiya was the only way Niragi knew to at least see him as a normal person...who he wouldn't kill. The Beach's militant corps broke down so Niragi figured that it wasn't that bad to replace them with Chishiya. Aguni and Last Boss had always been Niragi's only friends. Now that Chishiya was about to take care of him and wasn't really a threat to him anymore.
Niragi just wanted to forget it all but running into Chishiya when the King of Spades came didn't make it any easier. He was barely able to accept Chishiya when he thanked him and now, Niragi felt like they were forced together. Somehow, it wasn't all that bad so far.
Befriending Chishiya wouldn't be all that bad either.
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Chishiya came back carrying everything he needed for Niragi who was sitting on the bed waiting for him. The screaming in Niragi's head seemed to have completely disappeared. Niragi stood up when Chishiya stepped towards him.
"You know, the Beach is really close... I found this under a pile of bricks and refilled it." Niragi handed him the flamethrower Chishiya used to fight him with. Trying to hide the shame behind the warmth on his face. Returning the flamethrower was unnecessary, very unnecessary.
Niragi's hands were covered in oil and the tip of the flamethrower was covered by a fresh layer of duct tape. At first for just a second Chishiya looked at him with a face that said "What the fuck". He wasn't sure if he was supposed to thank him or something, awkward silence seemed like a good response.
Chishiya's "what the fuck" expression turned into a small teasing smile. "Thanks...You know, most girls prefer flowers."
Niragi smiled at that comment, he didn't mind it since he was already embarrassed in the first place and would be laughing at himself too. Chishiya. That bastard.