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Arisu kept glancing at Aguni and the other militant, whose name he simply couldn't remember, as they made their way to a game. In the car was a also woman he didn't know, and last but not least, Chishiya.
The bleached-haired man was still a mystery to him, despite them having talked quite often, as they planned on fleeing from the Beach.
So far they haven't got a solid plan yet, because the four of them – of course they'd take Usagi and Kuina with them – would have to leave all at once. If some managed to flee, the security measures would shoot up, making it impossible to try again for the rest.
As if Hatter was sensing something, he always sent at least two militants out with them when either of the four had to play a game. And of course never put them in one group together. That was making things harder. One of the most promising plans was to cause a big distraction and use the chaos to sneak off. They just hadn't quite decided what to use for that distraction. Though the gamer had a feeling Chishiya did have an idea, just keeping it to himself.
But Arisu was getting off track. He should concentrate on the game ahead of them. Couldn't flee if they were dead, right? Right.
They parked the car in front of a school, and Arisu bit his lip as they passed the gate through the laser barrier. A school could mean it's a diamond game. Which would be good, because by now he knew they were Chishiya's specialty.
In the entrance hall, a table with phones was set up, about thirty people already there. They grabbed a phone each and settled to wait for the game to begin.
Their particular group was not of the talkative sort, with none of them quite inclined to make small talk. So Arisu busied himself by observing the other players.
One in particular stood out to him, and he must've made a sound, because Chishiya followed his line of sight to where a naked man was standing, also observing the crowd while talking to his companions.
While Arisu was trying his hardest not to stare – why wasn't he wearing anything?! – Chishiya gave the admittedly attractive form a once-over, an amused smirk on his face. “Not bad.”
“Don't stare!” Arisu told him, scandalized. Didn't Chishiya have any tact?
“Why not? If he chose to run around naked he must be comfortable enough being stared at.”
And indeed, the man wasn't bothered at all by the several looks he received. There wasn't much interesting to see aside from him, so Arisu's gaze easily found the naked man again. It was an attractive man. Sculpted upper body, muscles bunching as he had his hands on his strong hips. Arisu wondered what it would feel like to have those arms around him. And suddenly he felt like a pervert, especially with how he could feel his whole body heat up. The thoughts that made their unbidden entrance in his mind made him want to crawl into a hole and die.
He hasn't been interested in any romance, those girls Karube and Chota were always drooling over mostly boring him. But that it could mean he... the he could be gay? Wait, was he really gay?!
Caught up in his inner mini freak-out, he startled when there was a loud ding and the screen lit up. He even completely missed the contemplative look Chishiya had regarded him with.
“Registration closed. Number of players: 48.” That was quite the crowd indeed. “Game: Scavenger Hunt. Difficulty: Nine of Clubs. Time limit: 2 hours.”
So a team-player game. Good, Arisu could work with that. The screen changed to show a map of the school building.
“To clear the game, all five requested items have to be brought to the gym before the time runs out.” The room in question lit up shortly on the map. “All over the school grounds, you will find clues to what the items are. Putting them in the gym makes them safe. As soon as the timer reaches zero, the bombs integrated in the items will go off.” During the explanation, four red blinking dots moved to the gym area, while the fifth was staying in its “hiding place”. The miniature timer hit zero, and the dot exploded, red light covering the whole map. So if they missed one item, it would be game over and they'd be blown up.
“There are traps installed, beware.”
There didn't seem to be rules, but the existence of traps was making this difficult enough. They'd have to work together to cover the whole school and find the clues and items.
The first hour things were going quite alright. The mentioned traps were of the sort where fire was spat from random lockers, or navigating through a grit of lasers like in those spy movies, arrows shooting from holes in the wall. If you had a genius like Chishiya with you it was easier predicting them.
Three items had been found by other players already when they hit the halfway mark, it was looking good so far.
Then they met the naked man and his crew in one of the hallways down in the basement. Despite it being a team-player game, the Beach crew wasn't interested in making any new allies since there was no time for pleasantries, still Arisu felt incredibly rude for not even saying 'hello' or anything.
“Time left: 40 minutes. Number of items still hidden: 2.”
That got them to hurry up, accidentally triggering the next trap: The floor breaking up and revealing seemingly bottomless holes. They all had troubles running over the breaking ground, Arisu had to stop and retrace a lot, being unlucky enough that the cracks were appearing always where he was going to step next. One of the naked man's crew members seemed to be in the same boat, the man was lagging two meters behind him.
Ahead he could see all of the others had made it to safe grounds already. It wasn't that far anymore, just two more steps and then he could jump.
“Shitara!”
Arisu whipped around when the naked man called out in terror, seeing the other man – Shitara, apparently – falling. Without thinking, Arisu jumped and slid towards him, getting quite the scrapes from the rubble and sharp edges, but he managed to grip Shitara's arm just in time. He grunted at the sudden strain in his arm, but didn't dare let go. Especially not with the man clinging so desperately to him.
But he wasn't strong enough to pull him up, and the ground was still cracking around them earthquake style. At this rate they'd both slip into the darkness beyond.
Just when he thought they'd fall, he was grabbed around the waist by thick muscular arms and lifted as if he weighed nothing, simultaneously pulling Shitara up more too. He recognized Aguni's boots and pants, he must've ran back here to save him. Why? “Damn, kid.” Aguni grumbled something under his breath.
Naked man was there too suddenly, helping his friend to get his feet back under him. Arisu let go of him and suddenly he was hauled up to hang over Aguni's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He didn't find it in himself to protest at the treatment with how the ground shook again. Aguni jumped, and the both skid on the unblemished tiled floor while the hallway behind them completely broke down into nothingness.
“One item found and saved. Time left: 25 minutes. Number of items still hidden: 1.”
They didn't have time to talk – not that there was anything to talk about in Arisu's opinion – surviving was more important. So they all searched the chemistry classrooms for clues for the last hidden item.
-x-
Arisu still couldn't believe they had made it. They've been lucky to find the last hint in the chemistry classroom, lucky that Chishiya recognized it within the complicated formula written on the blackboard along with nonsensical scribbles. The last item was a damned broom, and it would've been impossible searching all the janitor's closets or literally anywhere within the little amount of time left. It was obvious they had to work together with the whole group of players, at least those who were still alive.
Without much more thought or explanation, Arisu had managed to mutter an “I have an idea” before bolting off, not really aware or caring if the others followed, straight to where they've passed the principal's office before. The way it looked like, it's been searched thoroughly already, traps already triggered and gone, but then again, he hasn't thought the broom would be there. Instead, his goal was the microphone sitting on the desk. It took some fiddling, but then he managed to use it, his voice blaring through the whole school and telling all the survivors what they needed to look for.
It was laughably easy, then, with so many players. Yet getting it to the gym in time has been a close call.
In the end, they survived, another card for the collection. And that was the only important thing.
“Hey, wait!”
Their Beach group stopped in their track to their car at naked man's voice calling out. They came to stand in front of them, naked man smiling. “I just wanted to thank you for saving Shitara.”
Arisu looked at Aguni when the militant didn't react, and then realized the man had been talking to him.
“Oh, that was... if Aguni hadn't helped we would've both slipped.”
The corner of naked man's smile quirked once at his words. He stepped closer, and Arisu fought to stand his ground and not blush at the sudden closeness. Then the man's hand was at his chin, tilting his head up and slightly to the side to examine a cut on his upper cheek.
“You could've saved yourself easily. Yet you risked your own life to save that of a stranger's.” Arisu blinked at him, not quite knowing what to say to that, or how that was anything special. “Interesting.”
Naked man then glanced at the other Beach members and there was a twinkle in his eyes before he stepped back, hand falling from Arisu's face. “Well then, I hope we meet again.” He saluted casually with two fingers before taking his leave with his group.
~
“I don't get why you insist playing the games yourself.” Uta shook her head at Kyuma, arms crossed. “We almost lost Shitara.”
The king of clubs simply smiled as he watched the Beach car drive off. “We're just scoping out the most promising people.”
“Uh-huh. If that's what you want to call it. That boy caught your interest in more ways than one, don't even try to deny it.”
Kyuma grinned at her. “We'll see. I'm sure this wasn't the last time we saw him.”
~
The ride back to the Beach was just as quiet as before when they drove to the game, though instead of nonchalance and maybe a bit of trepidation, this silence was charged with something else. Agitation? That could be it, Arisu couldn't be too sure. Then again, he had no idea what any of them could be agitated about.
They had the card and haven't lost a Beach player. It was a win all around. And yet Aguni kept glaring at him through the rear-view mirror every now and then, making him squirm as if he was about to be scolded, while Chishiya seemed to ignore him completely oppose to the way he at least exchanged glances with him before, staring out the window with anger seeping from him.
Arisu very much appreciated when they finally arrived, set on getting away from the oppressive atmosphere and let this day be over, but was stopped from practically fleeing by Aguni's ungodly strong grip on the back of his shirt.
“Patch him up.”
That made limited sense, until Arisu realized Aguni's been talking to Chishiya, who didn't appear all that happy about the order despite looking as unbothered as usual.
“He will survive a few scratches.” Chishiya said the same time as Arisu threw in “I'm fine, really.”
Arisu ducked his head and hunched his shoulders at the glare he received from the militant leader, while Chishiya merely raised a brow at getting the same glare, holding it with his own. There was some sort of silent communication between, in a language Arisu didn't understand at all, and then he was pushed towards Chishiya, who turned around and walked towards the entrance, expecting Arisu to follow.
It wasn't that Arisu was scared of the shorter man – okay, that was a lie. Chishiya had quite the reputation among the Beach population, and while some of them were pure nonsense, horror stories passed from ear to ear, they probably weren't unfunded either.
Aside from being frighteningly intelligent, it was said that he's had affiliations with the Yakuza back then, that he's done bloody work for them, that he knew how to torture someone without violence opposed to what the militants did. Of course Arisu knew – hoped – that that was simply another exaggerated horror story, yet he found himself nervous beyond anything as he followed the man to what he assumed was his room. He almost wanted to bolt when the door clicked shut behind him, swallowing thickly when Chishiya gestured to the desk's chair to have him sit while he went to retrieve a big first aid kit.
“Isn't... uhm... I mean, I thought the room for medical emergencies was downstairs.” Arisu spoke up to soothe his nerves, and to emphasize that he didn't think this even was an emergency. Usually people with minor scratches and abrasions like him were to see how to treat themselves, and only the higher ranked members got any treatment at all. This, this was nothing, if he was honest. He had no idea why Aguni was set on having him patched up.
“The supplies down there are shit.” Was all Chishiya said, when he began cleaning the cut on his cheek.
“So you hoard the good stuff for yourself?”
Chishiya didn't answer first, eyes on the now cleaned cut, hand feeling incredibly warm and large where it held his face. Then the dark gaze met Arisu's, making him flush deeply at the intensity. It felt like he was missing a huge chunk of information, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what was up with that stare. How Chishiya's face went from agitated, to mildly curious, to determined. And then his lips were suddenly covered with the other man's.
Arisu blinked, breath hitching, at the gentle touch, but it was over before he could react in any other way. His already flushed cheeks darkened further when he processed what just happened, and how Chishiya frowned at him... or at himself (?) and hummed.
“Well fuck.”
“W-What?”
“Nothing.” Chishiya made absolutely no sense, but of course didn't elaborate. He simply went back to the task, cleaning the other cuts and abrasions and applying disinfectant, while Arisu sat there like a particularly pretty lamp. Only when a small band-aid was put to his cheek did he find his words again.
“Why did you kiss me?” He couldn't help how small and vulnerable he sounded, eyes huge in confusion and wonder as he studied the shorter man's face. He was just so lost, just before he's had a mini freak out because the sight of a naked man turned him on, and now he got kissed by another attractive man, without it disgusting him. He even liked it.
“Just confirmed something.”
“And what?” Arisu's brow knit in even more confusion, and a bit of embarrassment at how Chishiya looked at him as if the answer was obvious and he was just an idiot. Which, okay, maybe he was.
“That Kuina's been right. Bitch will have a field day.”
“I... what?” The gamer was no stranger to feeling dumb, it was a given with how his father and superior little brother always acted around him, but this was bordering on ridiculous. Chishiya wasn't forthcoming with explanations though, rather concentrated on putting band-aids on the other shallow cuts. Obviously he didn't want to elaborate. So, biting back the burn of his curiosity not sated, Arisu went on. “You don't have to tell her she was right, right?”
When Chishiya met his gaze again this time, he wore an amused half-smirk, making Arisu's heart flutter with something he couldn't name.
“While I appreciate this conspiratorial plan, it won't work. She'll know.”
“You're good at keeping secrets usually, I doubt you couldn't hide it from her.”
“Is that a compliment?” Chishiya's expression was both amused and pleased, especially with how Arisu's face flared hot. He spluttered a moment, but was saved from answering by Chishiya's lips once again pressed to his. This time, it was more than a simple touch, mouth moving against his in slow languid movements that had Arisu's heart thump like a jackhammer in his chest, while he automatically tried to reciprocate. He's even, embarrassingly, tried to follow when Chishiya pulled back, letting his eyes flutter open from where he's apparently let them fall shut. It was nice to see the other's pupils were dilated a bit, as if the kiss affected him too.
“A-Another confirmation?”
“Nah, I just happen to like kissing you.”
Arisu was at a loss of what to say. How could Chishiya say that so simply as if they were talking about the weather? He only barely skimmed the possibility of not being as straight as he's thought – though after the kiss that wasn't just a possibility anymore – and this was a tad bit overwhelming for him. Especially since he already missed the warmth of the older man... why was he so drawn to him in first place? That was something to ponder over. His musings made him unaware of how Chishiya's fingertips trailed from his face down his neck with a contemplative expression, but his face must've shown his confusion and helplessness, because instead of following the explicit urge to explore and mark, Chishiya simply put a hand to his nape to get his attention, strangely patient.
“How about you go get some sleep now, and we'll talk tomorrow?”
That made Arisu flush more, that inexplicable feeling of being cared for by those simple words and gesture. He really needed to clear his head before saying or doing anything dumb. So he just gave a small nod, eyes large and trusting, before getting up to go back to his own room.
He really had a lot to ponder over.