ALICE IN BORDERLAND

by Winterfall95

Once upon a time there was a girl named Alice. One fine day something inside Alice broke irremediably, and she began to desire to run far away from home. In order to make that wish come true, the gear in her heart jammed. Thus it was that Alice got lost in an unknown country. Alice in Borderland (OCxNiragi)

2. Card 1

🂡 Card 1: A carriage for Wonderland 🂡

Wonderland ❖ Natalia Kills

🂠 I'm not Snow White
but I'm lost inside this forest.
I'm not Red Riding Hood,
but I think the wolves have got me 🂠

One fine day, the girl named Alice got lost in an unknown country.
As a matter of fact, the features of that country were familiar to her. It was Tokyo, the town where she had spent the last ten years of her life; the same streets, the same stores, the same buildings.
Yet, Alice did not recognize them.
Alone and confused, she began to wander in that hostile and silent country.
She had good luck, Alice.
She met a woman who had gotten lost before her, and knew the rules of that country.
She explained everything to Alice.
Alice, at first, did not believe her.
As much as she was still a child in a girl's body, she had not believed in fairy tales for a very long time.
Then the night came, and with it came the games.
Alice played two of diamonds. Three people died pierced by a laser in front of her.
So, she began to think that perhaps the woman's words contained a kernel of truth, and she decided to stick with her.
Together, they played the three of spades, and survived. Many people did not.
Together, they played the four of hearts, and survived. Many people did not.
Together, they played the six of hearts, and they both survived, but their relationship soured, and eventually they separated.
Alice found herself alone again, and alone she continued to search for what she was looking for.
Her brother, and a way back home.

🂠 You be the Beast and I'll be the Beauty
Don't lock me in your tower
Show me your magic powers
I'm not afraid to face a little bit of danger, danger 🂠

Still ten minutes before the start of the game, hummed the metallic voice that by now everyone had begun to recognize.
The wait before the start of a new massacre was always the worst time of all.
Tension, anticipation, excitement. A mix of contradictory and jarring emotions gripped the chests of the players gathered in the game arena, a facility used as a sports center equipped for the practice of extreme physical activities such as climbing, diving or skeet shooting. Of the group of five assembled at the entrance only two people appeared completely at ease and almost impatient for the game to begin: a man as big as a closet and stone-faced, holding his muscular arms crossed in front of his chest, and another tall, lean-bodied man intent on fiddling with the butt of a rifle. The other three men were exchanging anxious, circumspect glances: a man with long, black hair, wearing a pair of glasses; a young man in his early twenties, wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt and nervously running his hand through his bleached hair; and a man in his mid-forties, balding and pot-bellied, sweating like a pig.
Although the five men were not talking to each other, an attentive observer could have noticed that they were all wearing identical armbands, to which a key was attached; and, again the same attentive observer would not have taken long to realize, with a shudder, that the man the size of a closet, the tall guy, and the guy in the Hawaiian shirt were all carrying firearms of various calibers, although the third appeared far less threatening than the other two.
"Waiting is a pain in the ass," commented the man with the rifle, continuing to stroke its handle with his fingertips. "I can't wait for the game to start."
The end of the sentence was covered by a desperate squeak from the man with the potbelly and the sound of sliding doors opening, signaling a new arrival.
Despite the different attitudes of the five men, none of them could hold back an expression of surprise at the entrance of the sixth player.
The little girl, dressed in a tank top with happy-faced bees painted on it and white shorts, advanced uncertainly into the lighted lobby, under the astonished gaze of those present. Copious and seemingly unstoppable tears furrowed her chubby cheeks; her short black hair, cut in a bob, was messy and shaggy. She could not have been older than five.
Her presence there was tremendously wrong.
"What are we gonna do!?" cried the pot-bellied man, in a fit of hysteria, and the droplets of sweat on his shiny, impossibly high forehead multiplied. Then, turning to the closet and the guy with the rifle, he exclaimed in exasperation, "She could be a problem if a game of clubs comes out! Let's eliminate her!"
The guy with the rifle indulged in a sadistic grin, but did not move a single muscle. "You're welcome," he then said, in a seductive voice, and pointing at the little girl with the tip of the rifle. "I won't stop you, but don't expect me to do the dirty work. I'm not interested in them when they're so young." After rummaging in the back pocket of his pants, he pulled out a pocketknife and tossed it at the pot-bellied man's feet.
He wouldn't have given a shit about gunning the little girl down, nor would he have felt any moral qualms about doing so, but that solution seemed much more interesting to him. The game was still ten minutes away, and the spectacle of a loser killing a brat might prove to be one that could entertain them during the wait.
The hysterical man let an inarticulate groan escape, but bent to retrieve the pocketknife and, with a trembling hand, snapped the blade; staggering, he took a step closer to the little girl.
At the sight of the weapon, she stiffened, as still as a statue, to the point that even the tears on her cheeks seemed to turn to ice. The spectacled man adjusted his glasses better on the tip of his nose, and sighed as he looked away, immediately imitated by the guy in the Hawaiian shirt. The only two who continued to watch the man's slow advance toward the motionless girl were the closet and the guy with the rifle, the former with an impassive expression on his face and the latter an excited grin filled with expectation.
At that moment, however, the sliding doors opened softly, signaling the arrival of a new player, to whom the attention of the entire group was channeled.
A petite girl made her entrance into the lobby. Her attire was practical and yet, in a way, quite hot: she wore a pair of black, baggy, high-waisted sweat pants tucked into a pair of tank boots that reached her mid-calf, a simple tank top of the same color, quite low-cut, and over it a black and white American collage-style sweat jacket. Although none of the garments matched anything with the rest, on the whole that outfit, which softly enveloping her petite figure only hinted at the curves of her hips and buttocks and highlighted her small but firm breasts, suited her well. However, what distinguished her from the rest of those present - besides the fact that she was the only girl in the midst of a pack of men, apart from the little girl - was her being different. A foreigner. In addition to her rosy, delicate complexion, what revealed that she was not Japanese was her straight blond hair with a few shades tending toward honey, which fell down to her mid-back, and her green eyes.
The doors closed behind the girl.
"Look at that, look at that. Now, that's interesting." The man with the rifle raised his head like a bloodhound, and ran his tongue over his lips stretched into a chilling smile. "Hey, baby doll. Welcome to our cozy gathering!"
She jerked at that call, but managed to keep her composure. "Good evening," she replied with quiet determination, in perfect Japanese, deliberately ignoring the man's lewd tone. Slowly, she let her gaze wander over those present, studying them carefully; at the sight of the pistols and rifles, a flicker of annoyance flashed across her face, but she was quick to suppress it.
She was no newcomer grappling with her first game, that one. It was evident from each of her gestures, each measured and cautious movement with which she weighed her possible allies or opponents.
After that, her attention fell on the little girl in the center of the lobby. Her mouth opened in a half exclamation of surprise, and the tension left her face, leaving room only for a feeling of tenderness mixed with apprehension.
"Hey, sweetheart," she murmured, and after reaching out to the child, she bent down so that her face was level with hers. "Are you alone?"
The child had resumed crying, as if the girl's entrance had broken the spell that had turned her into a statue, making her human again; she pulled up with her nose a couple of times before she managed to answer. "I… I came here with my mom."
"Your mom? And where is she now?"
"I don't know... I haven't seen her for a while."
"Since when?"
"Since the last time we played. I ... she made me run to the finish line while ... while she distracted those chasing us," whimpered the little girl, rubbing her eyes. "She told me...that I had to look for more lighted buildings if she didn't come back. I waited for her...a long, long time, but she didn't come back..." Crying got the better of her, and the little girl's last words were lost in the sound of her sobs. "I want my mommy!"
The girl, face livid and lips contracted, hugged her tightly to herself, murmuring words of comfort in her ear; despite the gentleness of her tone, both her hands were contracted, her nails driven into her palms, signaling the barely restrained outburst of a blind, impotent rage.
Before such a scene the bellied man's hysteria had subsided somewhat. Even the three men with the guns, disinterested as they were, seemed willing to respect the blind and hopeless terror of a little girl caught in hell.
When she had calmed the kid down, the girl let her loose and noticed that the child was shivering even though she had stopped crying. "Are you cold?" she asked her softly, studying her too-light clothing.
After getting a nod in response, the girl slipped off her jacket.
The gesture once again awakened the attention of the man with the rifle, although she, caught up as as she was in the task of enveloping the child in the jacket, did not notice. He let a burning gaze flow over the small, toned breasts, the flat belly, the arms left bare by the sleeveless tank top, so slender, so delicate that he could have squeezed them both with one hand and broken them without even using his full strength. A bandage stood out on her right arm, mottled with a single dark red spot.
That girl was small, petite, delicate. Whoever had designed her that way had clearly not done so with her survival at heart. She was not made for that world, she was not made for Borderland. Yet despite her fragile appearance, an aura of determination and strength emanated from her that equaled the aura of the Beach's best players.
Oh, how exciting it would have been to see her broken.
How exciting it would have been to break her.
The thought was enough to make him feel a slight pressure against the crotch of his tight jeans.
"What's your name?" the girl asked the child, pulling herself to her feet.
"Megumi."
"Nice to meet you, Megumi.I am Alice." With those words, the girl - who now had a name - gently caressed the little girl's head; Megumi appeared calmer and more relaxed. "Now you and I are going to play for a while, and once we're done you'll stay with me and we'll look for your mommy. Would you like that?"
Those words revived the hysterical man with the potbelly. Advancing with wide strides and brandishing the pocket knife in an inarticulate manner, he approached the two and, instinctively, Alice stood between him and the child. "You've got it wrong! You've got it so wrong!" he began to shout, pointing the blade at her. "We agreed that that child must be eliminated! She's a liability, if a game of clubs came out..."
"Megumi. In my sweatshirt pocket there should be headphones connected to an MP3. Would you mind wearing them? That's good, now step back a bit toward the door and look outside, okay?" Alice, in a persuasive voice and without taking her eyes off the man, started the music by pressing the play button on the device, slipped it back into the pocket, and pushed Megumi toward the sliding door. "We agreed?" she asked with a grimace, unable to hide her contempt once the little girl had started humming behind her back. "And who would have decided it, mind you?"
"We!" shouted the man, with a wide gesture of his arm.
Alice raised an eyebrow and studied the attitude of the others present; at the end of her examination, she shook her head. "I will take responsibility for Megumi. I will make sure she doesn't get in the way."
"You? Don't make me laugh!"The man let out a short, hysterical laugh, and advanced another step."Get out of my way!"
"What if I refuse?" Alice peered at him apparently bored, but the three men with guns were not fooled: the girl's petite body was tense, ready for action, like that of a predator crouching in the tall grass waiting for an unfortunate gazelle to pass by. "Are you going to kill me? You? A failed, balding, pot-bellied clerk who is afraid of being waylaid by a little girl and needs a knife to kill her?"
It was unclear whether it was the words or the sardonic tone in which they were uttered that struck a chord, but Alice achieved exactly the effect she had hoped for. The pot-bellied man lost control and pounced on her with a battle cry and a disjointed movement, exactly as she intended. It was enough for her to move slightly to the side to dodge that attack made on the wave of anger and devoid of thought, so she bent under the man's arm and grabbed him by the knee; the tug at the joint and the thrust of his body forwards caused him to lose his balance and he fell belly-first to the ground. Without wasting a moment, the girl climbed onto his back, grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the floor twice, spreading blood and saliva around, then held it pressed against the cold tiles with one hand; with her free one, meanwhile, and pinning his right shoulder to the ground with her knee, she pulled his right arm backward, positioning it at a grotesque angle and wrenching a groan of pain from him.
An elementary but perfectly executed self-defense move.
This time, the man with the rifle moved one step away from the wall he was leaning against. He felt his body vibrating with excitement, which spread in concentric waves from his lower abdomen to every extremity of his body. The fingers holding the gun tingled pleasantly.
A fragile, helpless girl to break was enough to tickle him; but a fragile, helpless girl who knew how to hurt someone to break… well, that really made him hard, bringing him to a point where the line between pain and pleasure became quite thin.
"Do you know that getting the shoulder out of its natural seat is simple? Like, super simple. Much simpler than many people think, anyway. All you have to do is to put it in the right position and apply the necessary pressure." As she spoke, Alice put her own explanation into practice, tugging lightly on her captive's arm; the man, trapped in her grip, had taken to desperately wriggling away, not realizing that his every movement only made the pain worse. "Megumi and I will participate in the game, and you will leave us alone. Have I made myself clear?" she asked, bowing her head slightly to get closer to the crying man's ears.
"Fuck you, bitch! I'll kill you and fuck your corpse."
Alice sighed dejectedly then, without further warning, gave his arm a violent tug, pulling it in the direction in which, naturally, the joint should not have moved. The man beneath her let out an inarticulate cry. "I think you made a mistake. You meant to say: sorry, miss, I understood the message and will leave you alone. Am I right?" After that she let go, the man's limb fell to the ground, assuming a grotesque position, and she rose from his back...
... just before a bullet struck the bellied man's forehead, making her jerk in fright. Alice's eyes widened in surprise and, much to the sniper's delight, she held her breath for a moment.
The girl's green eyes met the flashing ones of the man in the leopard-print shirt, still holding the rifle pointed in her direction. "'That won't do, baby girl. You shouldn't leave a job half done."
She shifted a step to keep the blood from soiling her boots, but made no sudden movements. She seemed to realize that she had just attracted the attention of the most dangerous person in the room, and she did not intend to tease him. "A bit drastic, as a solution," she merely observed, dryly.
The man gave her his best grin, waggling his tongue winkingly in her direction. In a way, that gesture made more of an impression on the girl than the barrel of the rifle still pointed at her.
Behind her, with her back to the scene, Megumi kept humming as she swayed her head to the rhythm of the music that had muffled the sound of the gunshot. Alice thanked heaven for her unhealthy habit of always listening to it too loudly.
"Niragi." The man as massive as a closet intervened for the first time in the conversation. He said nothing more, nor did he look at him, but that dry call was enough to convince the man called Niragi; after sliding his tongue over his thin lips one last time, he settled the rifle back on his shoulders. "You," the closet continued, barely turning his head to address Alice. "Where did you learn that trick?"
Moistening her lips, she watched him for a few moments, thoughtful. "I'm not in the army," she then said, with an imperceptible nod, as if to make it clear that she had guessed the man's profession. "I'm a high-school senior, just eighteen years old."
"Hey, sweetheart. That's not what..."
"My parents," Alice continued, pointedly ignoring Niragi's interruption. "Are in the upper echelons of the police. Violent Crimes Section. Family members are entitled, or we may say obligated, to attend annual self-defense classes. In case of kidnapping, you know."
"Those courses don't teach how to dislocate a shoulder."
At those words from the closet, Alice let slip a smile. "No, actually they don't. That's my brother's doing. He's a bit of a troublemaker. To be honest, I didn't think I was really going to make it, but at least I had the hope to scare the shit out of him, so that he would leave me and Meg alone".
The man nodded gravely, seemingly satisfied. "The brat is your responsibility. If she will be a burden during the game, you will earn a bullet in the head. Both of you."
Alice's shoulders stiffened, but she simply nodded. There was no need to ask who would have the pleasure of taking care of them. Niragi's tongue swirling in her direction was more than enough of a clue.
"I'm Aguni, by the way".
Super nice to meet you Aguni, Alice thought bitterly, but she was smart enough to keep her damn mouth shut.
Time expired. Registrations closed. Number of participants: six. It's game time! Players are requested to take the left corridor and follow it to the end.
Alice reached Megumi and, gently guiding her so that the hood and her body covered the view of the corpse, pushed her toward the corridor, behind the backs of the four men ahead of them.
The tunnel ended in a rectangular and rather long room, occupied mostly by a swimming pool; at the opposite end from the one they had entered, towered a climbing wall.
Game: swim swim little bird. Difficulty: three of clubs. Rules: the seagull must get food for its offspring waiting for it on the nest. At the bottom of the pool there are colored marbles representing the food. Clear condition: Retrieve twenty marbles and carry them to the nest within the time limit. Time: Twenty-five minutes.
Niragi looked up, in a suddenly bad mood, and assumed an impatient expression. "A club game... This sucks.'"
"Great." The man with the glasses adjusted them on his nose again with a nervous gesture. "Takahashi was our expert in club games, and you killed him, Niragi. Congratulations."
"If you're shitting yourself, maybe I can help you relax, Kuzuryu, hm?" Niragi gently slid the rifle from over his shoulder, so as to direct it toward him.
"If that guy was your expert in group games, you are in bad shape," muttered Alice, who, as soon as she had heard the rules, walked to the edge of the pool and, after bending down, looked for the engraved notch indicating the depth. "Three meters," she then announced, returning to a standing position. "The depth of the pool. It is deeper than a standard pool, probably it was used to teach the use of gas cylinders for diving in the sea. The length, on the other hand, should be fifty meters, by twenty-five meters wide, like a regular Olympic pool."
"That means an area of one thousand two hundred meters to cover," Kuzuruyu quickly calculated, starting to pace back and forth.
"The problem is that it's going to be pitch black down there, and I don't think the organizers have done us the favor of using large marbles." Alice nervously drummed her fingers on her thigh. "If only we had something to light the backdrop with... a flashlight, a lamp, anything..." "
"Um..." Megumi timidly raised a hand to ask for permission to speak.
"Yes, honey?" asked Alice distractedly, absentmindedly stroking her hair.
The closet's eyes narrowed into two slits, and Niragi huffed, "Who gives a shit what a brat has to say?"
Megumi hid behind Alice's leg but, after gaining courage, murmured: "I... I saw flashlights by the door."
"Really?!"
"Osamu, go check," ordered Aguni dryly, turning to the guy in the Hawaiian shirt. "If the brat is wasting our time..."
"I know, I know," Alice cut it short, trying to disguise her nervousness.
Fortunately for her, Megumi had not been wrong at all. Osamu returned in less than a minute waving several large hiking flashlights. Alice bent down next to the little girl and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Very good!"
"They are not water flashlights, but they are quite powerful," Kuzuruyu observed after studying a sample. "With these we could illuminate the bottom from the edge... if we're lucky, the glow of the glass hit by the light will help us spot the marbles."
"Brilliant, guy with glasses!" Alice clapped her hands, thrilled. "After we retrieve them, though, where do we take them? The nest..."
"That sounds pretty obvious to me, honey." Niragi pointed with a nod of his head to the climbing wall at the end of the room. "Seagulls' nests are usually found high up on roofs and in chimneys."
"Ooooh, right!" Alice sounded genuinely impressed that the guy with an absurd shirt and obvious mental problems had made a useful comment.
"Given the surface area of the pool and the time we have, we need at least two people to dive; two others to use flashlights, and one to climb," Kuzuruyu said.
"Sounds like a plan." Alice raised an open hand. "I can dive. In middle school I was a member of the swimming club. Who else volunteers?"
Osamu physically stepped forward, though not voluntarily, since someone had shoved him by plunging the handle of the rifle into his kidneys.
Without wasting any further time, Alice approached the pool again and sinuously slipped off her tank top, remaining only with a sports bra on; despite the darkness, her nipples, turgid from the cold, stood out beneath the fabric. Over the full extent of her snow-white back camped a forest of bruises, of a dark and creepy purple in the center and yellowish outward.
Niragi hunted an appreciative whistle. "Not bad, princess. If you give me a strip I might even kick the bucket in peace."
She ignored him, but her face turned clearly red. "You undress, too," she told the other volunteer, who was not actually a volunteer. "The less clothes you have on, the less friction the water will make, and the faster you will go." After making those recommendations to Osamu, Alice slipped off her boots and sweat pants, heedless of the vulgar comments elicited in Niragi by every extra inch of exposed skin. While her companion was still struggling to get out of the tight jeans he was wearing, she sat on the edge of the pool and let herself slip into the dark water. For a moment, Alice's long blond hair floated on the surface, like a handkerchief snatched by the wind from the hand of a ship's passenger and plunged gently over the vast expanse of the dark sea, only to be swallowed up by the darkness as she plunged in.
Somehow, the whole operation was set in motion.
Kuzuryu and Niragi, each on one side of the pool, moved along following the path of the two divers and illuminating the bottom with a flashlight. As soon as Alice or Osamu caught the sparkle of marbles on the floor, they would make whoever was holding the flashlight stop, and they dive. The sorties underwater did not always end successfully; it happened several times that Alice or much more often her partner would resurface with nothing in hand. She fared better than Osamu, and a couple of times she retrieved at once two marbles close together on the bottom. When they resurfaced with something in hand, the two swimmers would slice and splash their way to the edge, where they would hand them over to Megumi, Niragi, or Kuzuryu, depending on location. The man with the rifle never failed to incite the girl with some vulgar banter; but with her, comments were wasted, focused as she was on the task of recovering as much oxygen as possible in the short breaks between each dive. After that passage, the marbles were handed over for safekeeping to Megumi, who, as soon as five of them were piled up, ran to the wall to hand them to Aguni; he slipped them into his pocket and began the climb. The nest, he had ascertained as soon as Alice and Osamu had begun to dive, was at the top of the wall as suggested by Niragi.
The snag occurred just when they were relaxing, convinced as they were that they were going to make it. It was five minutes before time ran out, and they had gathered nineteen out of twenty marbles. Alice, who had just dived twice in a row collecting three marbles, was resting, panting and clinging to one of the edges of the pool, her forehead resting on her arms.
A cold, metallic object gently brushed her cheek, inviting her to raise her face.
No, that was not an invitation, not at all.
She did not need to check, to know what or who it was.
Amazing how an order could be given in such a gentle yet threatening way.
"Hey, baby doll."
However crouched, Niragi towered over her, the same eerie smile stretching his features, and with the tip of his rifle he kept gently stroking the girl's face. She stared at him expressionless and a little intrigued, still panting; her long blond hair floated around her back, and the shorter strands of the side tuft fell back on her face, dripping with water.
"Not bad," hummed the man. "This position is actually the one I prefer. I think we could have a lot of fun together, the two of us. You really make me want to find out how long you can hold your breath."
As he expected, the girl's cheeks turned purple.
Exciting.
He could find no other way to describe her.
It sent him over the edge that she had witnessed the death of a man without blinking, but blushed at the slightest reference to sex.
"Look how shy we are, princess. Could it be that you're a virgin?"
He knew he had hit the mark as soon as her already burning face contracted into an indignant grimace. "Even if I were, there would be no shame in it!"
"Oh, no, no... indeed..." Niragi stuck out his tongue again, in the way he knew would make her uncomfortable. The faint moonlight streaming in through the ceiling windows illuminated his face, and the tongue piercing glittered ominously.
That gesture cut off her breath, and for a timeless moment her eyes were caught by that glimmer filled with foreboding. She wanted to jerk away from the gun barrel and especially from the man's tongue, but she felt mesmerized.
"There's a problem!" What brought her back to reality was the voice filled with urgency of the guy in the glasses, Kuzuryu. "Osamu is not re-emerging!"
The girl reacted promptly. Pushing herself against the edge, she gained the open water and with a few strokes brought herself to the area illuminated by the flashlight. "How long has he been under?"
"At least a minute!"
"How long until time runs out?"
"Three minutes!"
"Shit!"
Alice dived down. Thanks to the flashlight's beam, she spotted the marble glittering on the bottom, looking disturbingly similar to the piercing of that troublesome man struck by moonlight. Despite being underwater, she shook her head violently, to shake off the image and the uneasy feeling it evoked in her. Alice continued swimming downward, and about halfway she crossed Osamu's floating body, from which air bubbles were rising.
Hold on, thought Alice overtaking him with two strokes. Hold on a little longer.
She touched the bottom with one hand and by directing her body with the movement of her legs managed to bring herself over the marble resting quietly on the tile floor of the pool. After retrieving it, she gave herself a mighty push with her feet toward the surface. Fatigue and lack of air weighed on her chest like boulders, and Alice felt she was at her limit. The wound on her arm ached awfully; she was almost certain it had reopened. As she swam with puffy cheeks, desperately trying to hold back the too little air remaining in her lungs, Alice reached out an arm and grabbed Osamu by the chest. The body weighed terribly, dragging her downward, but she was now only a meter away from the surface and safety... only half a meter... and a myriad of bubbles burst in front of her mouth, obscuring her vision...
With a groan, Alice resurfaced. Inhaling air desperately, she turned her head until she spotted the bespectacled man still standing by the pool. "Hey, Glassy!" she shouted spitting water, and with all her remaining strength she threw the marble in his direction.
She could not see if Kuzuryu had managed to catch the object, only that he started to run towards the wall. With the little energy still left in her body, shivering with cold and exhaustion, Alice swam to the pool's edge, dragging Osamu with her. She hoisted herself over the edge and then tried to do the same with the boy, but encountered some difficulty. Noticing the presence of Niragi, who was watching her humming under his breath, Alice shot him a look that was both accusatory and pleading. "Help me!"
The smile on the man's lips deepened. "And why should I, baby doll? It's so much fun to watch you crawl like a worm."
Barely holding back an imprecation, Alice turned her back on him. Propping herself up with her feet, she finally managed to pull Osamu's body out of the water. He was not breathing, of course. Without wasting a moment, she joined her hands over his sternum and began to push, increasing the pressure of the blows with her own weight.
Game clear. Congratulations.
A step away from her, Niragi was enjoying the sight of her naked, dripping body, bent over on all fours, paced by spasms with each blow she landed on the boy's chest, emitting delicious moans of frustration. That exciting concert tickled his imagination: if he had taken her that way, from behind and perhaps by surprise, would she have made the same provocative sounds, mixed with cries of pleasure and pleas for him to continue, for him to go faster, for him to fuck her even harder?
Oh, that game was giving him some truly wonderful views. If it was to enjoy such a performance, he could even wait to put a bullet in that useless half-drowned idiot's head.
Suddenly Alice stopped and, after gently taking Osamu's face in her hands, began to give him mouth-to-mouth respiration.
There, that was definitely less interesting. Distractedly, Niragi let the rifle slide down his shoulder, aimed and…
Suddenly, Alice broke away from the boy's mouth and, with a cry of rage, delivered another blow to his chest, so fiercely and violently that, rather than helping him, she seemed determined to facilitate his death. "Breathe, damn it!"
A sinister crack and a sound of spitting water echoed in the air. Osamu jerked up in a coughing fit, only to fall back immediately. Alice studied him for a few moments, her face shocked, then her head slumped onto his abdomen. "Fuck...fuck..." she kept muttering, pounding her contracted fists on the boy's belly.
"Hey! Is everyone okay?!" Kuzuryu ran up to them and knelt beside the two.
"Yes...I think so..." muttered Osamu, unable to stop coughing.
"Yes, but...sorry, I think I might have cracked a rib or two." Alice slowly raised her head and pulled back her long wet hair with one hand. "I'm sorry," she said again, then threw back her head, and indulged in a liberating laugh that rang through the walls of the gymnasium like the sound of a small rock tumbling down a bottomless gorge.
A laughter that was sincere, joyful, contagious, and alive.
It was a strange sound to hear, in that place of despair.
An unsuitable sound, for a place like Borderland.
Yet, for that very reason all the more desirable and dangerous.
"Oh... That's okay." The one who blushed, this time, was Osamu. Despite not being able to stop coughing, he had lifted his chin to study the girl's face, bubbling with sincere joy and cheerfulness.
"Lice!"
Alice was just in time to notice Megumi scampering in her direction and to protest, "No, I'm all wet!" that the girl had already jumped to her neck, clutching her tightly. She said so, but continued to laugh, and returned the hug by sinking her face into Megumi's shoulders.
Niragi turned his eyes away from the pathetic scene that was unfolding before his eyes. "Fuck, now that's the way to ruin a game..." he commented, although no one seemed to pay any attention to him, which irritated him even more. If he didn't shoot at anyone, it was only because Aguni caught up with them, and something in his gaze fixed on the girl suggested he should hold back.
Alice finally managed to quiet her own laughter and, after pulling herself to her feet, bowed her head slightly in thanks. "It has been a pleasure to cooperate with you," she said politely, and in a tone that admitted no reply.
She then walked away from them to retrieve her own clothes. She dressed calmly, keeping Megumi beside her and, as much as possible, without giving the other players a glance. At an imperceptible nod from Aguni, the four men entered the corridor from which they had come; and only then did Alice's shoulders relax and a sigh of relief escape her lips. She had cooperated with those guys because the game required it, but she wanted to have nothing to do with them. They were really nuts, especially the man with the rifle. Now that it was all over, she just wanted to put as much space as possible between herself and Megumi and that group of freaks.
To be on the safe side, she waited ten minutes before taking the child by the hand and returning to the lobby. The terminal was there, but the playing card that was usually given to the winners was missing; Alice imagined that the four freaks had taken it, although it did not bother her at all. With a slightly trembling hand she picked up from the ground, where they had been thrown, the two slips of paper with Megumi's and her own name on them.
Alice Shimizu. Remaining days before visa expiration: four.
Megumi Ikeda. Remaining days before visa expiration: five.
Alice squinted her eyes, and thanked her lucky stars. Megumi, in all likelihood, was unfamiliar with the mechanism of games and Borderland, and following her mother's advice she had sought out one of the lighted buildings despite the fact that there were still a few days left before her visa expired. This meant that, at least for a while, they could rest easy.
"What do you say, Meg? Are you hungry? Shall we go find something to snack on?"
"Yes!"
"What would you like?"
"Ice cream!"
"Oh, that might be a little hard to find, but we'll do our best..."
Holding the little girl's hand and feeling incredibly good spirits for the recent discovery, Alice advanced a few steps out of the building and, squinting, inspired the crisp night air. It was to her enormous horror that, when she lifted her eyelids, she noticed the car parked with the engine running exactly opposite the entrance. What struck her was not so much the fact that, for the first time in a good two weeks since her arrival, she was facing a working vehicle, but rather the open rear door right in front of her and Megumi.
That wide-open door had something definitive about it.
It seemed to invite her to climb on top of the car.
No, indeed.
Once again, that was not an invitation at all.
A thin metal object was gently but very ominously pressed against her shoulder blade, making her shiver, and not for the cold.
Although they hardly spent an hour together inside that building, Alice had learned to recognize that gentle, deadly touch. And she was sure that the man behind her knew it all too well.
Confirming her thought, a ghostly laughter, which had nothing to do with the laugh that had escaped her lips moments earlier, resounded in the night.
A muscular arm wrapped around her waist, warm and long fingers clawed at her side, and a breath that smelled wild and dangerous tickled her ear.
"Come on, princess. Let's get moving, shall we? Your carriage awaits".
The last thing Alice's eyes saw before she was unceremoniously pushed inside the car was a tongue piercing illuminated by the moonlight.

🂠 I don't believe in fairy tales…
I don't believe in fairy tales…
But I believe in you and me…
Take me to Wonderland 🂠