Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

you hated the days when you and your father fought. it was always about something so annoyingly petty..  your grade being lower than usual or you having left a bowl in the sink.. 

it had been a good couple of days, great even! ... but it seems your father didn't think so, starting another fight over one bad mark in english, you were getting sick of it!  you're a good kid, rarely getting in trouble, doing your work on time (even if it was an hour or two late..), and being probably the most respectful in your entire class!

your teachers never had any complaints about you!!

but father seemed to always find a way to make you feel like you were not good enough in his eyes and honestly, it hurt, but.. you had stopped caring months? years? ago.

but after another screaming match between the two of you, had made you grab your headphones and phone and leave to have a walk outside,  to calm yourself  and  have some fresh air.  it was needed, heavily.

small life dump, your mom and dad divorced six years ago when you were ten, and both had custody over you.  living one year with your mother   and one with your dad, it was a back in forth, you don't know why you even bothered coming to visit him but your mother insisted you went.  to keep the child protective services happy...curse them.

your mother lives in america and your dad in japan. your mother was [ethnicity] and your dad is japanese, and you were a mix of both, having more of your mother's looks than your dads....thankfully.   he fell out of love with your mother and fell in love with another japanese woman and   your mother didn't bother finding anyone else, focusing on herself and her doctor career.

you couldn't wait to become eighteen and live like you wanted to.. but you had two more years to wait for that-- as you were sixteen.

🃏

walking toward the shibuya crosswalk  and  looking down at your phone to watch the last episode of  'alice in borderland '  you had around ten minutes or so left before  the final episode ended. 

you didn't like how all of them  forgot each other and how tatta's death wouldn't mean to any of them! because they wouldn't remember him! it leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

also! crying your eyes out for chishiya and kuina thank god they were still alive. finally arriving at the crosswalk and having a seat in front of the huge wall where arisu, chota, and karube met at the beginning of the show,  happy times...

but now you had finally finished the show and smiled sadly at how arisu and usagi met again, you rolled your eyes as they walked together side by side,   'so romantical' you chuckle

...

what were you going to do now?.. maybe look up an edit about chishiya on tiktok? that's how you got into the show in the first place.  taking some time scrolling through tiktok,  you just decided to lean your head back against the wall and listen to the music playing in your ears.

feeling your eyes get heavy you decided to close them for a while---until you felt like you were falling and gasping hurridly and opening your eyes quickly, the feeling of your heart thumping wildly in your chest  was  unnerving..

looking around-- people were still rushing around the busy crosswalk.. but your headphones stopped playing music?    looking down at your phone   the screen was frozen and tapping and swiping at the screen did nothing,    "stupid old piece of garbage.." you kissed your teeth

you were starting to get frustrated with the phone not working,   so getting up and dusting your bottom ready to rush to the side you bumped into someone.

"oh! my bad.." you apologized, and bowed your head slightly, not bothering to hold eye contact with them   but you brought your head back up to  lock eyes with....

"Chota!?"

Chapter Text

"huh?"

your eyes widened, face heating up in embarrassment, and you bowed your head lower 

"sorry...!, thought you were someone else," you sheepishly said, quickly walking off from there and covering your face with your hand, the crowd was able to hide your walk of shame..

you kept up the walk of shame before looking over to your left and seeing usagi..!?, your eyes widened at her too

'what the hell? am I daydreaming?' you stopped walking and stood in the middle of the crowd that was giving you dirty looks but still walking around your body

you were knocked out of your own thoughts when you heard arius yell, turning around you saw him on karube's shoulders and chota trying to take a picture of him,  you smiled unintentionally at them,  loving how happy they were before everything went to shit..

not far from them, you saw tatta's small truck! and you think you also saw the duo hatter and aguni too!!

again being thrown out of your thoughts, were cars loudly beeping and small yelps and screams from passerbyers seeing the trio running from the middle of the road, you also started to speed-walk in their direction but  you accidentally ran into a woman, a tall woman at that.. 

she looked down at you and you looked up at her, it was....ann!

without saying anything to each other,  you bowed your head,  sped around her, and continued to run along after the trio---before you realized it, the buildings exploded, and right on top of everyone, including you 

everything went black for a moment

🃏

you were just standing in the middle of the shibuya crosswalk, thinking about what the hell was happening around you and how you got into this situation, shock? maybe?  but you woke up? a couple of minutes ago

you were waiting..., for..what? you didn't know, maybe for a screen to light up and say 'game' or for arisu and his friends to come out from the bathroom so maybe you could join them and spit out a lie in their faces

but they should of by now, did you come here before them? how does that work...? to many questions,   you sat down in the middle of the crosswalk and put your hands in your hoodie pockets

'okay i'll wait another three minutes if they don't come i'll go and skedaddle to my house and see if there is anything useful'

and during those three minutes, you had sat there, asking questions in your head that couldn't be answered

'was my dad here too?'

'what about his wife and daughter? were they here too?'

'how did i get here?'

'am i dead?'

'did i die and i'm in limbo right now, like in the show?... nah that's stupid'

you leaned your head back and sucked in air through your nose and right back out, looking around and seeing the three guys that you were waiting for had still not shown up, "well maybe ill meet them later on"  you stood up and started to take the long  journey  in the direction of your house

🃏

making it home, twisting the doorknob, and surprising it was open! which got your eyebrows rising in surprise,   stepping inside the dark house   you squinted and looked around, dark as hell and empty    all signs of life were gone 

"dad?" you knew it was pointless to call out for him but maybe he was here?, but there was no answer to your call 

you were getting nervous, breathing shallow and your body started to get hot and you felt like crying

"hello?" your voice cracked and you felt tears start to build up in the corners of your eyes, you didn't know why you felt like crying, maybe it was stress? anxiety? you weren't entirely sure

closing the front door, slowly sliding down it, and resting the back of your head on the wooden door,    breathing in and out to calm yourself

but hey, at least you didn't need to worry about school! or grades! and... getting yelled at by your dad,  you half-assed a smile at that, healing yourself with comedy

you knew what was happening, well not about your situation but everyone else's, yes 

after a while of searching your home for something that might be useful,  a handful of snacks, a bag to carry your things, clothes, etc.

you grabbed a knife and put it in a pocket of your baggy cargo pants, let's hope you don't stab the crap out of yourself with that----and a gun! your father's gun, that you weren't supposed to touch, but no one is here to stop you

putting the gun on the safety lock and shoving it inside your hoodie pocket, you smiled, look how prepared you are! yuppp you are very proud of yourself,   turning to face the mirror in front of you,  you adjust the bag wraps around you and  touching the back of your neck, you realize you still have your headphones 

'I guess I'll keep them for accessory purposes' you thought and grinned "but if you guys get in the way, I'm going to have to trash y'all"

🃏

'ding..'

you were startled by your phone and looked at your left pocket, your phone screen was lit, taking your phone out and looking at the screen,  with the text written:

' WELCOME, PLAYER

THE GAME WILL COMMENCE IN A MOMENT '

is what's written on the bright white screen of your phone, looking ahead you see colorful lights and  begin to head in that direction.  as you begin to walk up to a big building you notice it doesn't look like the building arisu, karube, and chota played at..

you got nervous, very nervous---you had no idea what was in store for you now

' THE GAME ARENA IS THROUGH THE DOOR '

with a red arrow pointing to the door on your left, you had no choice but to enter it.  a bar brightly lit and a spiral staircase in front of you in the corner, the arrow pointed at the staircase and then up

you slowly walked toward and up the staircase looking down once in a while hoping someone else would come, you honestly didn't want to be alone.  making it all the way up, you were in a small corridor, and seeing the red laser, you knew exactly that this was gonna seal your fate.. walking through the bright, red lasers you saw on your right,  was one phone sitting on a table

' FOR YOU ' was all the sign said 

'wow thanks' you thought, picking up the phone, it had started to load

' FACE RECOGNITION IN PROGRESS

PLEASE WAIT A MOMENT '

" please wait for the game to commence, " a robotic female voice said " there are currently thirty-five participants, four minutes until registration closes "

you looked up from the screen and over to the left, a huge window that stretched horizontally, and deciding to walk up to it, you saw many people down there  many were talking amongst each other, the others were walking around and some were just standing alone not bothering with anyone

and finally you saw someone you recognized, it was usagi! in her classic pink top and black sweatpants

" registration is now closed, the game will now commence "

" game, 'death run and sabotager' difficulty, eight of spades "

"oh...am I screwed?.."

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" rule, press the button on the pedestals for the trap to activate to successfully kill the players trying to make it to the end, you may or may not press the button as you please, keep up with the players "

fuuuck..

" clear condition, twenty or more of the thirty-five players must die and at least five players must survive "

ah shit..

"okay that's not too hard," you said to yourself, looking down below from the window, their objective was being read to them, and people were panicking and two had already died trying to cross the borderline

" the time limit is thirty-five minutes "

you went to the first pedestal and looked down at it, big red button, a name and picture about it

'drop' was what it said a stick figure was shown dropping from a platform and into water? or was it acid, maybe even boiling water...  shuddering at the thought

but all you knew was to keep usagi alive but still make it fair for others... or, should you? maaaan...

usagi started to run above the platform quickly and some followed behind her, after she and some others ran--trying to keep the goal of keeping at least five players alive--, you pressed the button and four players fell into--

"HOT! IT'S SO HOT!!"-- boiling water

people below scream bloody murder and the other players in front are standing there in shock and horror.  the platform closes and the red button in front of you turns grey

" thirty-four minutes remaining "

and you move to the next shiny red button, 'crush' was its name and a picture of a block crushing a stick figure,  you decided not to press it and moved to the next one, waiting for the players to catch up to their next platform. looking down again, 'push' and the stick man was getting pushed off a platform

many players were hesitant and a couple of them were trying to sacrifice another, they finally threw someone onto the platform and the guy rolled himself into a ball, expecting the worst but nothing happened, he quickly got up and ran to the next platform--crying tears of joy--  where you had been waiting..

you wait for usagi to cross and some others too-- six other players took their sweet time crossing and you--who was bored-- pushed the button and they were knocked off the platform onto the spikes below

oh seemed some survived... dang

" thirty minutes remaining "

ten people died but only five players can survive, you have to keep killing them...

after a while of pressing and not pressing buttons you were down to sixteen players and nine died on the other platforms

🃏

" ten minutes remaining "

there are five stepping stones, they had to cross to the other side

the first six players made it across

which meant that you had to kill the remaining ones...

the rest had almost reached the end,-- you pressed the button--, something kept their feet from moving almost like they were glued, and the stepping stones dragged them down into the water effectively drowning them

one by one the bubbles at the top stopped bubbling..

six players remained.

usagi was still alive and this time she was the first to cross to the other side, she looked back at them waiting before turning away and crossing the finishing line and left to another room

the other five crossed without a problem and they started to cry in victory.... but you had one more button left for them

" seven minutes remaining "

you walked to the next button and the exit door was there too, you were almost done, 'thank god.. my legs are starting to get sore'

looking down at the last button that would sing victory to you,  'spear' the stickman getting pierced from the side of its head

you blew a breath "gotta time this perfectly,,"

cautiously the six of the players walked to the exit door, four made it in but the player in the back of the line,   a cowardly man--who had sacrificed others to get this far-- wasn't lucky, pressing the button with no remorse and watched it go grey as a spear came flying out from the right side of a hole in the wall and hit the side of the man's head killing him instantly and toppling over and falling to his doom

" five minutes remaining "

"hurry! let's get the fuck out of here!! before they pull some tricky shit on us!"

" game cleared, congratulations "

🃏

exiting through the door, you see another spiral staircase leading down, " we will supply all the game survivors with an eight-day visa " the female robotic voice echoed

while heading down the stairs you noticed it's the same bar from where you came from, hearing the girl cry made had started to make you feel bad...you had technically intentionally killed many people.. buuuut you would have died too if you didn't follow the dumb rules.  when you got to the bottom they all stared at you with wide eyes

you bowed your head a little and apologized before sticking your hands into your pockets and headed toward the exit door

"you killed them..." a man's voice said, and your shoulders flinched but you kept silent

"YOU KILLED! ALL OF THEM!" the crying girl shouted at you,  "I didn't want to...kill them" you said and turned back around to face your survivors

"you still did...!" another older woman said, you stayed silent and began to move towards the exit "no you goddamn don't!" a man said and grabbed your shoulder and turned you around ready to hit you with his fist

usagi came to your rescue and grabbed the man off of you

"didn't you hear them? they didn't want to do this" she said with a stern face, "and!? they still did it!" the man with the fedora hat said

"they had no choice, like the rest of us" usagi defended you,  man, you had such colorful words to say to these idiots but decide to keep your mouth shut and let usagi deal with them

that was the last thing she said and she turned to you, and you stepped back from her, but her gaze softened at you "their just a kid" was all she said, and nodded to you to follow her out of the bar and you did without turning to look at the rest

"thank you," you said as you let the exit door shut behind you, she hummed, and the two of you walked to the front of the building, hopefully escaping the small angry mob inside

"um..."  dang what the hell do you say to her?  "can I come with you?" dang it not that! you asked "huh? come with me?" she stopped to give you a puzzled look

"can I come stay with you? I don't really wanna be alone...y'know?" you said, she looked hesitant but looking at your sad frame she blew a breath

"yeah..sure c'mon," she said and waved you over, your face lit up and you followed her through the dark streets of tokyo

"you better look after yourself too, I'm not always gonna have your back"

"mhmm!"

🃏

you followed her for a while silently walking behind her,   she had stated she wanted to climb a building to the top to get an area view, and you nodded

standing at the top of the huge city building and looking far out, you saw red lasers coming from the clouds into the different areas of tokyo

you knew this was 'the end of episode one...'

damn!...you had a long way to go