Chapter Text
*replay noises*
Narrator:
HI!
sorry was that too loud? anyways hello lovely person watching this! oh boy we've all seen Alice in Borderland(if you haven't, stop reading this INSTANT this has SPOILERS, go watch Alice in Borderland RIGHT NOW) we all know what frightening things happen there and boy is it grim. But what if it didn't happen that way? What if our dear pure protagonist Arisu and his friends DIDN'T fall into Borderland? what would their lives be like then? Are you as curious as I am to find out? then let's go on a journey to the parallel world where Arisu DOESN'T fall down the rabbit hole. Let's get right to it!
Arisu opened the washroom door, poked his head out and scanned the area. He nodded to his friends and walked out before the other two. The street was still lined with cars and now there were two people in the middle, shouting. The three boys quickly dashed out of the area, leaving all the commotion behind. They would usually hang out at Karube's store but now that he had been fired, that was out of the question. They couldn't go to the bridge they usually hung out under as it was daylight. The question remained: where should they go to spend the rest of the day? Arisu had an idea. He hadn't been to that place in MONTHS and there was once a time when he had promised himself he'd never go back. Well he still didn't miss the place, at all. But he did make some good memories there with other people who were now either living really successful lives or struggling to make a career. He turned to the other two.
“Let's visit my old university.” he said. The reactions from Chouta and Karube were exactly as he had expected.
“What's to do at university?” Chouta asked.
“Yeah it couldn't have been so great if you had to drop out.” Karube added. He and Chouta guffawed at their "roast" of Arisu while he just rolled his eyes.
“Do you both have any better suggestions? The university campus has cherry blossom and a lake. We can sit and relax. Also they sell really great roast beef and chicken just outside. Let's go have a picnic!”
Hearing the possible prospect of there being food, Karube nodded excitedly. He and Arisu both looked expectantly at Chouta. He crossed his arms.
“I just lost my job!” Karube whined.
“I'm unemployed.” Arisu pouted.
Chouta tsked. “Oh fine I'll feed the two of you! Let's go!”
They all cheered and started walking in the direction of the university.
***
“zhhoishaubshdzhosb”
“You idiot, keep your mouth closed when eating! You just got roast beef all over me!”
“What a waste of food!”
Arisu ducked as both his friends aimed to hit him and kept chewing. Although what he'd just said had been unintelligible, he knew he was right. This was the best roast he had ever tasted. And he had been right in suggesting they come to the university too. Right now, sitting under the cherry blossom, looking over at the lake and eating roast beef, Arisu felt lighter than he had in so long. He let go of all the negativity he had felt back at home at his father's words and breathed out freely. He thought about the game design idea he had in his head, something he planned to do once he got back home. Then he stood up, looking around.
“Where are you going?” Chouta asked.
“Need to use the toilet” Arisu answered, already heading towards the building gates.
Turns out deciding to take a bathroom break was the best thing he'd ever done. Outside the University walls there was a large poster with glossy words and a 3D logo:
BDLD games.
Airsu read the whole text:
do YOU have what it takes to be the next Shigeru Miyamoto?? do you think YOU have the potential to keep generations entertained and to be never forgotten? Well then this opportunity is for YOU. Bring your game to the annual BDLD game fair and present it to our panel of famous game developers and critics. Win first prize and get your game released under BDLD GAMES. DON'T MISS THIS ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY. APPLY NOW: www.bdld.games.inc.
Arisu stared a bit more then quickly dashed into the building, running in through the elevator doors. He was headed to the 6th floor where he could ask for more details on the fair as it said on the poster. As the elevator doors started to close Arisu caught sight of someone in a white hoodie with the hood pulled up, waving to him desperately. He pressed the hold button so the doors would stop closing and then the person hurried in. They nodded to Arisu as the doors closed then turned around to face the front.
“I love you” said a voice. It was definitely male. Arisu's eyes grew wide. He had only stopped the elevator from closing. Was this that big a deal? Maybe no one had ever stopped elevator doors for this dude. Thinking this made Arisu feel bad. Then he remembered with a guilty pang, the boy had just said he loves him. Over elevator doors. What should he do? Should he say don't mention it dude? Is that an appropriate response?
“I love you too” Arisu heard himself saying, his eyes growing wide once again as he realized what he had done. The boy in front froze. Then he slowly turned to face Arisu and put down his hoodie. Arisu saw short silver hair that was falling over a raised eyebrow and skeptical eyes. The boy pointed to his ear.
Now that the hoodie was down, Arisu could see a bluetooth device in the boy's ear. He felt his stomach dropping and his feet starting to melt. Before he could explain himself, the elevator stopped, the doors opened and the boy swiftly turned around and left. Arisu stood there wishing the floor would open up and drop him to a chasm of death. The doors closed once again and opened on the 6th floor. It took Arisu a few seconds to process what was happening as he walked out of the doors and straight into someone. He stepped back, apologizing profusely.
“It's alright don't worry!” said a voice that belonged to a girl with a kind smile. Arisu bowed to her once again before catching the name on her ID: Usagi, Intern, BDLD games.
“Aaa!” he said, reaching out to her. Surprised, she stepped back, looking at Arisu with wide eyes. Arisu bowed once again.
“Sorry! Usagi-san, I'm Arisu. I want to participate in the game competition thing.” he pointed at the poster on the opposite wall. Usagi smiled.
“Yes yes! Right this way, sir!” Usagi directed Arisu to a nearby table where some people were queued up.
“You can sign up here, they'll hand you a booklet with all the details. Date of submission is the 24th. You'll have to be come here with the game, prepare a presentation, explain the concept, play a demo for the judges and prepare a written document on your project” Usagi explained, standing next to him in the line. Arisu nodded and took out his phone to send a message to his friends on why he was taking so long to come back. Once he reached the front of the line, he faced a man with shoulder length hair, ear piercings and sleeveless shirt that showed the Chinese dragon tattoo on his upper arm. He looked like he was in a sour mood. He looked at Arisu and asked, “Are you going to sign up or not? I don't have all day”
Rude. Arisu frowned and started searching his pocket for a pen. “Could you give me some information on the event? Like what the requirements are, what the rules are?”
The man stood up, slamming his hands on the table. He grabbed someone next to him, snatched a pen from the person's pocket and handed it to Arisu. Next he procured a black and green brochure and thrust it at Arisu's chest.
“Everything you need to know is in that. Now sign up quick and leave. You're holding up a line.” the boy sat down, crossing his arms and huffing.
“Niragi you need to calm down it's our job to provide all the needed information.” Usagi had come forward to stand next to Arisu, folding her arms over her chest, looking at Niragi with a look of disapproval.
“It's pretty simple why do I need to explain again and again?” Niragi argued.
“You explained it to the others but not him. That's why we're here. To help each willing participant.” Usagi turned to Arisu, “Sorry about him. He's a bit upset because the boss yelled at him a little while ago for ‘dressing inappropriately’. I'll explain the rules to you.” Usagi briefed Arisu on details related to the fair and about how winners will be chosen. Arisu nodded as she spoke, while filling up the form and pocketing the brochure. When he was done, he handed the filled form to Niragi and nodded his thanks to Usagi before walking away towards the exit. He waited outside for the elevator doors to open, tapping his foot impatiently. The doors dinged open and he stepped inside. The elevator stopped on the lower floor and when the door opened, Arisu's breath caught. The boy with the silver hair, now with his hoodie down was standing there talking to some girl with spiky hair. He looked inside the lift and froze momentarily when he saw Arisu. Arisu quickly turned around and faced the wall, turning away from the door. The boy and the girl got into the elevator and the doors shut. Arisu could make out the girl's voice chattering away and realized to his horror that all four walls of the elevator had mirrors. He could see the side profile of the girl as she kept on talking and then he noticed the silver haired boy was looking in the mirror, looking at Arisu's reflection, a faint smirk on his face. Arisu felt himself getting flustered even more as they made eye contact in the mirror and then quickly looked down at his feet. When he heard a ‘ding’ of the doors opening, he looked up to see the boy and the girl step out of the elevator and walk away. The doors closed again and Arisu just stood there for a moment before realizing he was on the ground floor and needed to get out too. He pushed the button and rushed out as the doors opened, pulling out his phone to call Chouta and Karube.
***
"But didn't you say you were still working on CX-II? That's what you said the last time I asked to play a demo." said Karube, once Arisu was done felling both of them in on the gaming event.
"There's a few glitches that I need to program out but other than that it's almost playable. I've been putting off working on it for so long, now I'll have to work on it since I have only over a month to submit. I'll go home today and run all the variations of the delta scheme to determine the faults and replace them with a simpler coding that my current decoder can read. Once I have more advanced equipment, I'll try the current versions again, maybe improve on them too!" Arisu rambled as his walking pace picked up along with his excitement. He noticed the other two weren't next to him, looked back to find them standing a few feet away, giving him incredulous looks.
"What?" he asked.
"You act like we're supposed to understand any of that" said Chouta.
"Why did you even drop out? Looks like you get everything that's taught in software engineering" said Karube.
Arisu sighed and started walking again. "It's not just games that they teach you and only knowledge of game development isn't enough. People go there to build careers and show each other up. Everyone's so serious about achieving that everything they learn along the way become...less important." Arisu shook his head. "Well nevermind that! Thanks for walking me home guys. I'll see you both in two weeks to check out the demo." With that Arisu waved goodbye to his friends and dashed inside, racing to his room, feeling excited over something after a long time.