Niragi

As soon as the gates to freedom opened again, I walked out without looking back. Behind me, I heard Arisu ask Kuina what happened with Usagi. Although I would love to see that face of him after hearing, I didn't want to be hit, I've had enough of that... for now at least. But when I was a couple of metres further away, I heard him scream: 'I will get you back, Niragiiiii!' and that made me chuckle a bit.

I walked to the big bridge to have a better view over Tokyo. I sat down on the rusty railing and opened Chishiya's backpack to look for something: the walkie talkie he gave me. I had no idea where Chishiya was, but if I kept talking to the walkie while walking around the city centre, I would eventually find him when I came close enough for him to hear me through it.

So that was my plan: walking around, especially in the environnement of diamonds games, until Chishiya answered me through the walkie talkie. And I really hoped that plan would do.

Chishiya

I looked up at the sky, where a big zeppelin carrying a giant jack of hearts playing card was blocking the sun from shining upon me. Then, I looked in front of me, to the gates of the big building I was about to enter. 'This could be interesting,' I mumbled by myself.

As I entered the prison, a shiver went down my spine. Although I had accustomed to a lot of scary things here in Borderland, a prison made me think of bad people from the real world. Maybe there were such people among us, transported to the Borderlands as well, without the rest of us knowing about what they did. But then I thought of people like Aguni and the Hatter, who were kind of innocent at first but then became criminals because of Borderland. And Niragi. But he was different.

I smirked and finally walked in, grabbing a collar from the table. I inspected it before putting it on: it had a small, round screen on the back and two short cables in the front, that clearly were made to connect once the collar was around somebody's neck. It looked like electronics were build in. But what was the purpose of it? I had seen a lot of these kind of collars in Borderland. Some gave electric shocks, some exploded.

As I lived here for the risks, I put it on, thinking that maybe - it was the last piece of accessory I would ever wear until I died.

I walked through the quiet hallways of the building before joining the rest of the group, curious to find some clues for what kind of game it would be. But I found nothing, except for rayons of empty cell blocks and guard rooms. Just what you could expect from a prison? Average people would stop looking and go on, but smart people like me knew exactly that this was a giant source of information... I smirked.

I carefully looked through all the paperwork that I could find in the guard rooms: documentations of prisoners: their names, ages, the crimes they committed. Stupid shoplifters and bank robbers didn't attract my attention. It was the real psychopaths that seemed interesting to me. I imprinted their names carefully into my memory before destroying the papers I had found and closing the door. Finally, I returned on my steps to find a group of randomly selected people, all with the collar around their neck. The game was about to begin.

Niragi

I looked at the clear sky, scanning for zeppelins when I noticed a big, red one floating only a couple of kilometres away from me. I squinted my eyes to take a better look at it and smirked brightly. It was the Queen of Diamonds: a game that possibly also attracted Chishiya's attention.

I started my run towards the game, but got interrupted by someone coming from a side street of the main road I was on: Arisu, followed by Kuina and Usagi, who looked frightened to see me. Arisu, on the other hand, was furious. He balled his fists, ready to burrow them into my abdomen.

'Ha, Arisu... Nice to see you again!' I smirked as I stumbled some metres backward. Normally, I could easily overpower him. But my wounds were so severe that I was weak against him.

'You son of a bitch! What did Usagi ever do to you to deserve this!? I'm going to kill you, bastard!' he yelled at me while briding the distance between us.

As I stumbled back, I fell over a loose stone and hit the ground. Arisu was now towering over me, making himself ready to punch. And I made myself ready to absorb the blows. Some other people ran past us. Right before closing my eyes to take in the first hit, I heard a loud bang and saw one of them sink through their legs.

Chishiya

I put on the hood of my jacket and casually leaned against a wall, scanning every other player carefully. Some of them, I scrapped off my list of 'people that could be interesting to keep an eye on during this game'. As a screen lit up with all of our faces, I highlighted some of them in my head. Some of those people clearly had been waiting for this place to become a game arena. Some of them that were really familiar with this place. At that moment, I almost solved the game even before it had started: only a handful of people remained to choose from as the key to complete this game. I grinned and looked around with a cat-like gaze.

'Welcome, players. This game is called 'solitary confinement'.

Every hour, an other symbol will appear on the back of your collar. At the end of that hour, every player needs to step into an empty cell and guess their symbol. If it's correct, you live another hour. If it's wrong, it is game over for you.

There is enough food and drinks to last until the game is completed. But look out, there is a traitor among you. We keep playing until the players can eliminate the traitor. Or until the traitor is the only one left. One more rule: you can't kill each other with weapons,' the well-known voice told us through the intercom.

'Great,' I mumbled by myself and I smirked towards a scared-looking boy. His eyes shifted from side to side, full of panic. Easy to manipulate. Easy to get on my side. He was going to be my companion for the rest of the game, for sure. I put my hands in my pockets, clasping my fingers around the deck of playing cards that I carried around as a talisman. 'This could really be interesting.'

'That's so easy! We just tell each other the symbol that's on our collar and we can live forever!' a young girl with a blue dress cheered.

'Yeah, live forever in this cold prison,' I mumbled as I rolled my eyes.

She stepped towards another woman and grabbed her hands tightly. 'Let's be a team and work together!' she smiled. The woman nodded vaguely, and the girl grinned. She kept holding the woman's hand while walking towards her next victim: a man in his 50s. 'Do you also want to be part of our team? We'll be honest,' she smiled from ear to ear. 'O... okay,' the man answered. And so, their little group grew fast. Idiots. Were they really planning on staying here for the rest of their lives?

The boy still stood next to me and was also watching the whole scene unfold in front of us. As he started to make a move, I kept him from going over to the group by reaching my hand out to him. He stopped and looked at me with doe eyes.

'Are you sure you can trust everyone in their group?' I asked him.

'N... no,' he admitted. 'But what else can I do? I don't know anyone here and I just want to survive.'

'Maybe one of them is the traitor. If you want to survive, you can better rely on one person that you can trust. Being in a group only makes it more complicated,' I reasoned.

'Uh... S- sure,' he frowned.

'I don't know anyone in here eather. And the only thing I want is survive as well,' I told him.

'Then let's tell each other our symbol and become partners,' he said with a faint smile on his face.

I grinned: 'you are aware of the fact that I could be the traitor, right?'

The corners of his mouth dropped again. 'Why are you telling me this?' he asked uncertain.

'Because you could be the traitor too. But you aren't. Your reaction said enough. So I am now sure I can trust you. And therefor, I tell you with 100% certainty that you can trust me as well,' I smiled at him.

He smiled back. 'Okay. You seem like a clever person. You are the first person I had this kind of talk with since I came here. So I will be honest to you, I don't know how I survived until now. I am scared. And I just want to go home. Will you help me with that?' he asked me with a shaking voice.

I felt pity for him. 'Okay,' I replied. And I took off my hood to turn around and show him my symbol.

'Yours is spades,' he said without hesitation. I wound him around my finger just like that.

'My turn,' he said and he turned his back on me.

'Hearts,' I said.

'Okay. Thank you,' he nodded.

'Let's meet here again after the guessing. I want some alone time,' I merely said and I walked off.

'Uh... My name is Ippei, by the way!' he yelled at my back. I waved at him without turning around and mumbled: 'Chishiya.'

Niragi

The next moment, we got overshadowed by a giant zeppelin: the King of Spades. Not him again. Before I knew it, bullets rained over me as I tried to seek shelter.

'Fuck! Arisu, get the fuck over here! We need to run! We'll get him another time!' Kuina yelled at him while holding onto Usagi's hand.

I ducked behind a big truck, blocking the kings view and quickly searched for one of Chishiya's weapons in the bag. I found a watergun with a lighter taped on it. I wasn't sure what this was meant for, but it had to do the job since the king walked over to my hiding spot.

I looked around and found my rescue: a staircase to the roof of a flat. I calculated whether I could make it, and decided to take the risk. I looked over my shoulder to the King, clenched the watergun between my teeth and ran towards the staircase. I grabbed the first step and climbed up like a maniac while the King of Spades fired his gun. Bullets flew left and right from me. Even though he was a good shot, he couldn't aim well to shoot a fast moving target like me.

The shooting stopped and as I looked down, I saw him climbing the stairs underneath me. I hurried and crawled over the border of the rooftop to prepare for a confrontation. As I waited, I looked down on the streets and saw Arisu, Kuina and Usagi behind a vehicle. They were looking up to me and I waved them goodbye before focusing back on my own business.

Chishiya

I strolled to the cellar, where the food stock was. I walked over to the candy rayon and took a bag of cherry candies, which I put in my pocket. It were Kuina's favourites. If I ever saw her again, I knew I would please her with them. I also grabbed a package of pocky and sat down at an empty table, some metres away from the blue dress girl's group.

'Okay, tell me my symbol first!' she giggled and turned around.

'It's hearts,' the other said simultaniously.

She grinned. 'Great! I'll tell your symbols now.' And they all told each other their symbols without hesitation. At this pace, it would take forever to finish the game. But I knew someone would do something about it very quickly. Then, my eye fell on someone standing in a dark corner. Banda, one of the prisoners I found in the documents. He grabbed a cookie and moved to leave again. I silently stood up and followed him in his wake.

He walked towards the hall where the game started and approached a muscular looking dude. He whispered something and the dude went over to a smaller guy to punch him until he fell on the ground. Banda was standing against the wall, looking at the scene, smirking. When the muscular dude walked away from the smaller guy, he walked over to him to whisper something again. The small guy looked frightened, but nodded. Banda walked away, towards my hiding spot. I pretended to just arrive here and crossed him while he smirked at me. I smirked back. Suspicious.

One hour was over and we had to step inside an empty cell for our first round. I went inside one and closed the door, focusing on inhaling and exhaling slowly. Even though I was pretty sure about this, the thought of whatever the collar could do made me a tiny bit anxious.

I turned around and observed the space: a small rectangular room with a one-person bed, a toilet and a super tiny, high window with steel spokes to prevent the one in from escaping. I closed my eyes.

'Tell me your symbol,' the voice commanded through the intercom.

Niragi

The King of Spades crawled over the border of the rooftop as well and looked me right in the eyes. I hid the gun behind my back pocket and smirked. His eyes where the only thing visible, the rest was covered in a black scarf and military hat. What was this man? Ex-military? He loaded his gun and took three big steps towards me.

'Bold of you to climb up here. The rooftops are my favourite shooting spots. You better not infiltrate them. You'll be a bird for the cat,' he said in his most serious voice.

'Bold of you to assume that I'll be such an easy target,' I replied with a grin on my face. Inside, I was shitting bricks but I put up my façade from the Beach.

He aimed his gun. 'Let's see how easy of a target you are,' he said and I waited.

As he pulled the trigger, I ducked and jumped towards him, bringing him out of balance and making him stumble back a couple of steps. I crawled towards him and grabbed his shoe. As he kicked his feet, he tried to aim towards me but couldn't shoot because I kept moving around. I crawled on top of him and punched him a couple of times before he threw me off. I landed with my shoulders over the border and the rest of my body on the roof.

As he approached me, i put one hand behind my back to reach for the gun. He towered over me and grabbed the collar of my shirt. He spit in my face and grinned. 'So easy,' he said. I squinted my eyes and whispered: 'the bird seems to be smarter than the cat.'

I kicked my foot between his legs while firing the watergun towards him. A big flame came out and burned the scarf in the flesh of his face while he screamed. The watergun was filled with gasoline. Chishiya kept surprising me.

The King tried to regain balance for some seconds, but I grabbed him by his shoulders and threw him over my head. He fell off the roof, burning alive and screaming while I laid down on my back, my arms dangling down the rooftop. I closed my eyes and took a big breath. I opened them again and gazed to the sky for some minutes.

When I turned around to face the ground underneath me, I expected to see the dead king, smoldering on the ground. But what I saw shocked me. He was gone.

[End of part one]

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I had a blast writing this! After a small writers block, I finally found my joy back in writing about my favourite character. In all my excitement, this was becoming a rather big chapter though, so I decided to cut it in half and give you two chapters. So expect the next one soon! I also proudly want to inform y'all about the fact that I found a fellow Wattpadder who is busy translating this story into Polish! Yay! Stay put for the next part and don't forget to vote and comment.

Photo from the Alice in Borderland series on Netflix