#alternative plot line

There, hunched, shivering, soaked and covered in mud, is your friend. The one who’d died saving the town. The one they’d buried only a few days ago, after he’d been lying on a slab in a lab somewhere for weeks.

Eddie.

The increasingly noisy wind blows leaves and rain horizontally across the stoop. Inside the hallway, there’s silence. You all crowd at the door, mouths agape, and initially, none of you move.

You take in your visitor’s appearance. His hair is lank, wet, muddy and full of twigs and leaves. He stands, shoulders sagging, in filthy, soaking clothes, the wet material dragging his frame down further. He’s barefoot, his feet muddy and bloody.

His cheeks are gaunt, his lips grey, not the plush, rosy pink that they once were. He looks thinner than you remember, and his skin was always pale, but it seems lighter now, almost translucent.

Eddie finally lifts his eyes to you all. They’re sunken, red-rimmed, and have lost their usual sparkle.

None of you consider what events or twists of fate might have brought Eddie to you, only caring in this moment that he’s here, standing in front of you. He should be dead, but somehow he's here!

Dustin shoulders his way between you and Steve and takes his first good look at the strange visitor. At first he’s confused, incredulous, but this rapidly gives way to pure terror, as he lets out a high pitched screech over the sound of the rain. He abruptly turns on the spot and runs down the hallway, yelling,

“Zombie? ZOMBIE!”

Robin screams, hands coming to cover her mouth as she backs away from the doorway a couple of paces.

Steve reacts defensively, raising his nail bat as he steps outside, placing himself between Eddie and the party. Lucas takes Steve’s lead and grabs an old walking stick from a stand by the door, moving to join him and brandishing it like a weapon.

Steve yells towards Eddie over the noise of the rain,

“What are you? One of Vecna’s foot soldiers?”

Lucas continues, jabbing the stick at the air in front of him,

“A demon? A lab-grown demogorgon? Get back!”

Will is swaying, rubbing at the nape of his neck. Robin and Jane try to comfort him, the three of them clinging to each other in tears.

You hear quick footsteps behind you and glance back to see Mike rushing to the kitchen, followed by the distinctive sound of someone throwing up.

Steve spreads one arm out and signals for Lucas to get behind him, hustling him back through the opening, slowly retreating as he yells over his shoulder,

“Everyone get inside. Now!”

You watch as Eddie stumbles backwards, eventually stepping off the stoop.

You seem to be the only one who’s concerned rather than terrified. You try to shoulder your way through them all to get outside, see Eddie properly, but the movement of their combined retreating bodies pushes you back into the hallway, and you’re unable to get a proper look at him, let alone go out to him.

As soon as everyone’s inside Steve slams the door, locking and bolting it and scanning for something heavy to brace it with.

Without looking around, he barks,

“Robin, get the satellite phone.”

Robin, wide-eyed, stammers,

“B-but we’re only supposed to use that in an emergency.”

Steve continues, his voice becoming more high-pitched,

“Well, I’d say that someone coming back from the dead qualifies as a fucking emergency, wouldn’t you? Call Owens. Now!”

Everyone scatters into the cabin. Robin tries to find the equipment Owens gave you when you moved here. Will and Jane comfort each other on the sofa and Jane wraps a blanket around her friend's shoulders. Lucas and Steve find bookcases and tables to put against various windows and doors. Dustin sits rocking near the back door, holding his knees to his chest, whilst Mike cleans himself up in the kitchen.

You’re the only one who moves to the living room window to look upon your friend.

He raises his head, initially simply staring at the closed door with a blank, stunned expression.

You place a palm against the glass, feeling like it’ll get you closer to him somehow. It’s enough to draw his attention, and as your eyes connect his brows draw up and you see a look of rejection and fear pass across his features.

You breathe his name quietly against the glass, and it fogs up a little.

His expression briefly turns to sadness, before he drops your gaze and runs a hand down his filthy cheek. Shuffling backwards for a few steps, he turns and shambles off into the rainy night.

He takes a few longer steps before pausing to look over his shoulder at the door again, and that defeated expression turns into a scowl as his brows furrow and his lips slowly curl up into a snarl. The softness in his eyes is completely gone, and is replaced with a steely black glare.

He turns away then, and you see him break into a jog. He’s bouncing his shoulders and flinging his hands out to the sides as if he’s building himself up for something.

He runs so far down the lane he almost reaches the highway. You nearly lose sight of him, and he appears only as a dark silhouette.

Suddenly the shape shortens as he drops to his knees, raising his face to the swirling grey sky and spreading his arms wide as brief flashes of lightning begin to light up the clouds.

The wind buffeting the trees increases, and starts to send larger branches, twigs and more leaves to smack against the roof and windows of the cabin

It’s almost enough to drown out the inhuman bellow Eddie emits.

But you hear it…

If you’d like to read the original series that this comes from, it starts here 😊

Thanks so much for reading!

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As always, comments and reblogs make my world spin - I’d love to know what you think of this.

The person that iced his wounds, and would give him a show of her dancing at the theater to cheer him up. The only person that understood him - he wants to forget about the most.

Not because of a personal vendetta or even a falling out. He wants to forget her because he’s sick of the pinning. He’s sick of the person he used to be that a wanted her so badly, but did nothing to get her. The person he used to be that felt powerless over his own feelings.

Even worse, the feelings he still harbors to this day. That little voice always telling him to do the right thing, that’s your voice. That voice of reason and the face he sees on nights like these. Where he returns to dream land and thinks about the girl that made life worth living.

He would rather forget it all - because he knows he could never have you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Niragi sits in the meeting room that morning like he didn't just have the worst dream of his life. Like how repetitive these dreams have been don’t bother him.

Everyone in the meeting is talking loudly about something Niragi isn’t paying attention to. It’s not that he doesn’t care. Hell, if someone were to say ‘time to kill everyone at The Beach’ Niragi would actually start to listen, and even start to agree.

But what’s on his mind right now, it’s not letting his ears listen. What’s not letting his mind enjoy the fact that he loves to bully those who are weaker than him, is you. He can just imagine your stupidly beautiful face scowling at him. Telling him to not act out or let those that did nothing to him feel his pain. To stand up for what’s right.

He hates this.

“Niragi, are you listening?”

He looks up from his lap, that he’s been staring at all morning in a daydream, and looks to Hatter. He hates him too.

This guy always wants everyones opinions, but doesn’t care what they are if it doesn't benefit him in some way. Niragi can’t wait for the day Aguni gives the order to finally take over The Beach. Niragi will be the first to volunteer to put a bullet in-between the eyes of this exotic looking man.

Niagi rolls his eyes at the Hatter.

“What do you want?”

His voice is laced with pure attitude and everyone hears it. No one thinks anything of it though because this is just how Niragi is.

“Have you been listening at all?”

Mira squints at him in annoyance next to him. He scoffs at the her.

He doesn’t even understand how she got to this place or how she became an executive. Mira is a fine piece of ass and all, but besides agreeing with everything Hatter says, and acting like a snarky bitch, he doesn’t understand why she’s here.

“No, I haven’t, princess. Got a lot on my mind and talking about the cards we need on repeat doesn’t need to involve allthe executives all the time.”

He looks to Aguni to make sure he didn’t say anything out of line, but Aguni just looks neutral in this situation. If Niragi were to say anything out of line, he would of cut him off right away.

“Well, Niragi, I'm sorry this meeting is so much of an inconvenience to you, but we arena’t talking about the cards at all.”

He looks back to Hatter in confusion. What else could they be talking about besides the cards? It's their priority legit 99% of the time. That 1% being finding more minions for Hatter to play the games for him and gain these exact cards.

Hatter pinches the bridge of his nose in announce to Niragi’s lack of attention throughout the entire meeting.

“Any-what. Chishiya, would you like to explain now what you saw yesterday?”

Well now Niragi just hates this meeting even more. Chishiya is the last person he wants to be around, it’s bad enough that he has to look at his face during every meeting, but now he has to hear him talk too? In that moment, he hoped a laser would just smite down on him and rid him of the misery.

“I’m not sure exactly what I saw.”

Oh my fucking God.

Niragi hates Chishiya with a burning passion. This guy acts like the most clever person in the room by being the most mysterious and stupid one of them all. Always eyeing them all like idiots and not wanting to spill anything that would undoubtedly put the spotlight on him.

It pisses Niragi off so much, he practically shouts at him, “Just say it already! We don’t got all day to figure out what shits been stirring in that brain of yours.”

Last Boss straightens in his spot next to Chishiya. Readying himself to intimidate the fuck out of him if needed to. One nod from Aguni or Niragi, and Last Boss would slit everyones throats with a smile while doing it.

Chishiya just looks at him like he’s stupid and this makes Niragi’s blood boil. He was about to punch the know-it-all himself, but Chishiya finally spit out what he really saw.

“It looked like another group. Another group trying to get all the cards.”

Everyones focus, even Niragi’s, was directly on Chishiya now. There's never been another group in Borderlands like The Beach before. The Beach was the first of it’s kind. Hatter made sure there was no allowance of another group forming and taking away the cards he wanted to claim.

“A-a what?” Hatter stuttered out in anger. “Another group, you say? Well - this won’t do. Just won’t do at all.”

Hatter was becoming manic now and everyone sat stiff or cowered in their seats. Nervous on what was Hatter’s next orders were going to be. But not Niragi, Aguni, or Last Boss. They were ready to fight, and most likely kill, the assholes that decided forming another group in Borderlands was a good idea.

“Well - I guess it’s time we meet this neighboring group, shall we? Militants-” Niragi sat up in his seat fully ready to go with whatever this order is about to be. “-Time for a road trip.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Niragi had a peep in his step. His dreams of the girl he’s none stopped thought about for months is no longer at the forefront of his mind.

His gun is on his shoulder and he’s practically running down the stairs to get to the parking garage. Any opportunity to shoot a motherfucker is good enough for him to actually listen to Hatter’s orders. If he ordered anything else, he would just scoff and tell Hatter to fuck off.

Aguni is the only boss he has, and the only one he’ll listen too, but there’s no way any of the militants would say no to something that involves their expertise in particular.

Niragi opens the door to the parking garage, and his mood automatically runs sour. His eyes twitch and he slams the door shut behind him.

“What’s this fucker doing here? Your not a militant.”

Chishiya is smirking at Niragi because he knows how much Niragi hates him. A mutual hatred to be exact. Niragi isn’t sure how or when exactly this happened. He just knows Chishiya pisses him off since the very start and it didn’t help how his eyes would always look at him. Like Niragi was somehow beneath him even though he was the one carrying a gun on his shoulder.

“We have no time for your tantrums Niragi Just get in the car and try to keep quiet.”

Aguni orders Niragi.

Niragi just scoffs and goes around the car to sit shot gun. Aguni is driving the cars he's in with Last Boss in the back.

The other car has another militant driving with another unnamed militant in the passenger seat. Niragi never cared to learn the names of the militants in lower ranks. They were beneath Niragi too and only weak people with guns to his eyes.

Hatter and Chishiya were in that car too, in the back seats. Niragi figured out pretty quickly Chishiya was only coming because he was the only one that knew where this ‘other group’ was. It was most likely an order from Hatter too.

God, he hated both of them so much.

As Aguni was driving behind the car with Chishiya and Hatter in it, Niragi’s mind started to wonder to her again. He played with his tongue piercing in his mouth and looked down at his lap. He knows she’ll never escape his mind no matter how hard he tries, but it doesn’t help that even in silent moments like these that his mind wonders to her.

Niragi sits in the front row of the theater. He holds an ice pack to his lip that his bullies just busted an hour before hand with a baseball. Baseball practice they said. Needed a tall enough target they said.

But he wasn’t thinking about the guys that tortured his life on repeat. He was only thinking about the girl leaping across the stage in front of him.

Y/n Y/l, her name is - and she’s the most beautiful girl Niragi has ever seen.

He meet her one day after he was beaten real bad next to the theater she dances at. She was the first one to ever help him and take care of his wounded body. She wanted to cheer him up especially since he couldn't stop crying at the time from the assault that just happened.

You figured, maybe watching you dance would help. Dancing has always helped you cope with the bad things at home. You have your own scars, that you would never show a soul, of when your father would beat on you after drinking to much. So maybe - just maybe - dancing to cheer someone else up would do the trick.

And it did.

After that first day of you two meeting, this became a part of your routine. Niragi would get beaten or bullied in some harsh ways then come straight here to the theater. He would also come here on days that he avoided the bullies after class.

You never showed him your bruises, but you did show him how you coped with your own lost battles.

Today, you're showing him the routine you have to preform in a week in front of a live audience.

Niragi’s eyes never leave you as you dance across the stage. Each step you take his eyes travel with you. Every time you bend in some way that most people would never be able to do, his heart picks up and his face feels hot. Each time you ready yourself to jump, he leans forward in his seat to ready himself to watch you float in the air.

Even as the music dies down, and you get off the stage because your performance for him has ended, Niragi’s eyes never leave you.

It isn’t until you plop in the seat next him that a he shakes his head, and stops his obvious longing for you.

“So, did you like it?”

Niragi’s smile stretches even further for the fact that you care about his opinion on your dancing.

“Your beautiful - I mean - your dancing... your dancing was beautiful Y/n.”

Niragi mentally smacks himself in the face for his slip up. You on the other hand, giggle at him fumbling over his words and think Niragi looks so cute when you see he’s blushing over it.

“Thanks Suguru. I don’t know if I would have the courage to dance on stage if it wasn’t for you.”

Niragi raises his eyebrow at you in question. He can’t believe how someone like you - someone beautiful, talented, and has him head over heels in love with you - could ever be nervous for something.

“What do you mean? You would dance just as beautifully if I wasn’t here.”

You don’t say anything back to him, but Niragi never questions why you don't continue the conversation. He knows there’s more to you then what your letting him see. He doesn’t pester you to talk about things you don’t want to talk about because you do the same for him when he walks into the theater all bloody like he is now.

You glance at his lip and you become sad at the sight.

Niragi realizes you looking at his busted lip and shakes his head at you to show you don’t need to worry about it.

“Don’t worry about it Y/n. I graduate next year and I'll never have to see those losers again.”

You half-smile at Niragi’s cheerful attitude, but feel saddened that Niragi has gone through so many hardships because of these guys.

“I just don’t understand why you don’t stand up to them. Take charge and tell them to leave you alone.”

Niragi wants to do just that. He really does, but he knows just telling them to go away isn’t enough. He wishes he had the power to make you proud, and come into that theater one day and tell you he did stand up for himself.

But, he can't.

He feels powerless against them.

And that’s why, he never had the power to tell you he loves you.

Niragi's daydream disappears when he feels the car go over a pot hole. He grabs onto the door like he feared for his life for a second.

Aguni glances over at Niragi when he realizes his second in command was probably daydreaming again. So much so, he didn’t even realize he was in a moving car.

“Quit daydreaming Niragi. Whatever we're about to face is more important then whatever’s been occupying your brain lately.”

Niragi sends a death glare over at Aguni for his attitude, then relaxes in his seat. When Niragi looks out the window, he sees undoubtedly where this new group of people are staying.

There driving right towards a baseball arena that’s big enough to house four-thousand people in it. He's always wondered why this stadium was never used as a game arena before. I guess he got the answer to that now.

When the car finally parks, about a mile down the road from the entrance, Aguni grunts out, “Were here.”

Everyone gets out of the cars in unison.

Niragi has his gun on his shoulder, and tilts his head back to look at the stadium.

Tokyo stadium is the only baseball arena in all of Tokyo. He's never been inside before, never cared about sports that much. He cared more about not getting beaten up, studying for his future job as a game engineer, and well - you.

Sports, especially baseball, was Niragi’s least favorite thing before Borderlands. This also includes being in Borderlands now. He spit on the ground and looks at the stadium with disgust.

Their group of people were about to get closer to each other to come up with a game plan of what they were going to do, but then one of the lower-level militants said, “Do you guys hear that?”

Niragi looked at the guy in confusion, then concentrated on listening for whatever this guy could have heard.

It's then he hears... cheering?

Everyone must have heard it too because everyone looks at each other in confusion now. Just when Niragi was about to voice his own confusion, a car came zooming past them.

People were hollering and cheering at something no one in their group knew about. But they all knew, they were driving straight to the stadium.

When everyone, including Niragi, got to the front doors of the stadium the cheering was much louder. It was clearly coming from inside, but no one knew why there was cheering exactly.

Everyone was on guard as Hatter opened the doors to the front of the stadium. The cheering and screaming was much louder now that he opened up the doors to reveal the inside.

There were hundreds of people in the stadium seats, but no one was sitting down. As they all walked more inside, Niragi picked up a few people cheering, “Top tiers! Top tiers!” Over, and over again.

“What the fuck is a top tier?”

Niragi voices his confusion out loud to Aguni next to him, but he didn’t hear him. Aguni, along with everyone else, was too focused looking around in both amazement and confusion.

It wasn't until a bullhorn went off that everyone started to get quiet.

“Welcome fellow players!”

Niragi and the rest of The Beach group were now in a spot that they could see a man right in the middle of the field.

Except, it no longer looked like a baseball field. More like a field of what the greeks would use for fighting during the times when watching people kill each other was for enjoyment.

The game masters would have thrived during those times, Niragi thought to himself after making this connection.

The man in the middle of the field looked like a copycat to Hatter. He wasn’t wearing beach clothing and a robe, but he had the same hair length and aura of crazy to him.

He stretched his arms out wide to the crowd. The cheering got louder until he tapped on the mic in front of him and shushed into the mic. The crowd died down once again.

It’s then Niragi realizes this stadium has power just like The Beach does. The only different is that you can’t see the lights from outside the stadium unlike at the resort.

“Tonight - is going to be one Hell of a night! We have all our top tiers with us! The ones that have beaten game after game in their speciality! Who have claimed their titles of being our top tiers, and will one day come home with all the number cards!”

I see in the corner of my eye Hatter lean forward and concentrate more on the man in front of us.

“They are here to fight anyone who stands in their way of that goal! But! My question for all of you is - who wants to test there strengths and become the next top tiers?!”

The cheering began again and Niragi just became more confused.

Some girl bumped into his shoulder and he growled at her, but she didn’t even glance at him back. She started hollering and cheering up a storm for whoever these top tiers were.

Niragi feels Last Boss nudge him. He looks over at the other militant and he’s making gestures with his eyes. Like he wants Niragj to say something to the girl.

“What the fuck do you want me to do?”

Niragi shouts to Last Boss over the crowds cheering. The girl turns around at their group and eyes then all curiously.

“You guys are new here, ain’t you?”

Everyone now looked at the girl either surprised that she was talking to them, or suspicious of why she was talking to them. Aguni and Hatter were the ones looking suspicious.

Niragi then realized this would be a good time to ask what the top tires even mean.

“Yeah, you can say that. You mind telling us what top tier means sweetheart?”

Niragi gets flirty at the end because now that he’s looking at the girl, she would be a perfect candidate for getting his mind off of everything.

But that’s not right.

Everything is just fine.

Except for the girl he can’t seem to get off his mind unless he’s buried in another.

The girl scoffs at Niragi’s flirtation, but answers him anyway.

“The top tiers are the best in their specialties. You know - Spades, Diamonds, and Hearts. Put all these people together they make a great Clubs trio too.”

Niragi nods his head at this new found information. Everyone always bragged about their specialities to each other, but he didn’t realize there were actual people in Borderland that used them like this.

“So-“ Great now the blonde fuck face decides to talk. “-what is so special to being a top tier?”

The girl looks at Chishiya like he just asked the most weirdest question she’s ever heard.

“You don’t know?”

Everyone shakes there head simultaneously.

“Damn, you guys really are new. When you become top tier your first in line to leave all the games together.” What? “The first to grab all the numbered cards leaves, so with that the top tiers leave first. These guys are at the top of their shit. I mean, basically doing all the suits by themselves! On top of the fact that most people are to chicken to try to take their spots as top tiers anyway.”

Not only is this new information getting everyone on edge, but Hatter in particular is fuming. This man has been telling everyone he’s to leave first, and now these ‘top tiers’ are taking it a pone themselves to do exactly what he’s doing.

And there’s only three of them?!

Commence Hatter freak out in 3… 2… 1…

“What?!”

The girl jumps back from Hatter’s outburst.

“Your telling me - these three people have basically collected all these cards by themselves!”

The girl just nods her head and slowly attracts herself away from our group. Hell, if Niragi was her he would too. It’s not even the words Hatter uses that makes him so crazy, it’s how he throws his arms around, and shakes like a cold kitten in winter, that makes him seem so crazy.

Everyone’s attention goes back to the field when welcoming music starts playing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleases to present the top tiers themselves!”

Niragi leans forward, and squints his eyes, to try and get a better look at them. But, by how high up this stadium is he can barely see them.

The dude that reminds Niragi so much of Hatter then starts to talk again.

“To my left is the beautiful Leo herself! But don’t let her looks fool you, she’ll eat your heart out. The Hearts top tier!”

What Niragi can see from the girl, is she reminds him a lot of Mira. Craziest smile you’ll ever see, but instead of straightened hair it’s in two braided pink tails.

“To my right is the cleverest of them all! The one who will stay in the shadows, but will secretly have the whole game down packet before you even pick up a phone. Minato our Diamonds boy!”

Niragi has to lean in extra close to even see the guy. He’s either really young, or just super short. He has black hair that’s slicked back and looks like he could be easily considered the smartest person in the room by how he carries himself.

“Then last but oh - definitely not least.”

Niragi tries to focus on the last person behind the copycat Hatter. She has a black hoodie up so he can’t make out their face. He notices the crowd gets rowdier just by this one person.

“She will slit your throat so fast you won’t even realize your dying until you hit the floor!”

She finally puts her hood down and now Niragi gets a better look at her.

She looks like - wait a minute. Niragi gasps. “It can’t be…”

“Y/n our Spades Queen!”

Niragi now knows how it feels to have a heart attack.

-

Aoto taps the mic again to calm the crowd and explain his next repetitive words. You don’t know what Aoto gets out of all of this. Maybe he just likes watching people fight or get messed up in the brain. Either way, he’s basically his own game master of a game you don’t earn visa points for.

“So, now! Do we have any volunteers?”

As always, no one steps up at the first call. You would have to be a really crazy person to not at least think twice about the possibility of you dying from one of us. To fight the people that have proven themselves to be at the top of their specialities.  

“Really? No one?”

Aoto looks over at you.

Here we go again.

“Come on guys.” He walks over to you and puts his hand on your shoulder. “You all can’t be telling me you're afraid to fight this ‘little’ girl right here?”

You roll your eyes at Aoto’s way of batting people. Most people who have been to the stadium before have seen what I can do. But sometimes, there’s one stupid person that...

“I’ll do it!”

...has a death wish.

Everyones eyes go to the entrance door at the opposite end we just entered from. It’s some tall and muscular guy who looks like he was a cop before this world turned upside down. He holds up the Glock 42 in his hands to point at the celling. The gun most likely being his choice of weapon for today.

“I'll fight to be the next Spades top tier! And I'll beat the bitch no problem.”

This brings a smirk onto your face. Guys like him you're okay with, at first, with killing. They remind you of your father when they call you vile names and act like they have all the confidence in the world.

Aoto taps your shoulder then calls out into the mic, “It seems we - may - have a new Spades top tier on our hands!”

“It’s not a maybe Aoto! She’ll be crawling away and begging for mercy when I'm done.”

You hear Leo try to control her laughing. You then look over to Minato and see he rolled his eyes at the guys ignorance.

The three of you have been top tiers together for months. You all don't necessarily like each other half the time, but you also know when people spit threats like these they always end up empty.

Aoto, Leo, and Minato leave the field. Leaving only you and the guy alone together.

He readies himself to shoot straight at you as soon as the bullhorn goes off. He has a wicked confident smile on his face like he’s going to win no problem.

You face him and put your hands behind your back. Readying yourself to grab the knives in the pouch installed in your holster. Not giving him a single emotion.

The bullhorn goes off, and he shoots. But he doesn’t hit you.

He hits the wall behind you because you stepped to the left the second your ears heard the horn go off.

The guy looks at you confused as to why your not on the floor dead. He then puts both hands on the gun, like it’s some how going to help, and shoots again. You move your shoulder so that it looks like you're leaning to the left, and It misses again.

You see the guy start to get pissed that his shots are all missing. This is how you know, it’s time to actually move.

You bend your body in half, so all his repeated shots miss you, and run right at him. Your only a few feet away from him so he didn’t register you coming at him in time. By the time you get to him, he's out of ammunition.

You punch the guy straight in the face so he has to back up and bend over with his nose in his hand. You would have just killed him flat out, but Aoto has been wanting you top tiers to make everything be done with more flare to try and get this other group in Borderlands attention.

You leap over his back and pull him by his hair so he has to bend backwards. The crowd gasps, but you don’t pay attention to them. You hold the guy by his hair and look down at him. You take one of your knives from your holster and skim it across his face.

The guy watches you in fear - and you hate it. You hate what your about to do and hate it even more that theres people constantly around you encouraging it.

Time to play a game.

“Please! Don't kill me!”

Your eye twitches but not from anger or annoyance, from regret. You hate that you have to do this. You hate ever agreeing to join Aoto’s group in the first place. You hate that Borderland has made you into something your not, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Time to fake it until you make it.

You smile a cruel smile at the man. His face from your angle looks like he’s smiling back, but you know he isn't.

“What did you say before about me? That I'll be begging you to give me mercy?’

His eyes go wide at me repeating his threats from before. He continues to beg, but you try to not listen as best you can.

You shove the guy forward so he lands on his knees.

“Go! I’ll give you a head start. If my blade doesn’t hit you by the time you touch the wall-” Talking about the wall on the opposite side of the field. “-I'll let you go.”

He turns to you slowly, shaking in his spot on the ground.

“R-really?”

You look over to one the rooms that outlooks the field. You see Aoto there with a wicked smile on and see him slowly nod his head at you.

You breath in, and you can’t make your voice intimidating anymore.

“Yes. Go. Run!”

He runs away from you as fast as his legs can carry. You pull out your other knife so you have two in your hands. You point them both at him and wait until he gets only a few more feet to the wall.

Then you throw one. You spin on your toes like you’ve done a million times before coming to Borderland - and throw the other one.

The first one lands directly on your target, his leg. He screams in agony but then starts to hop to the wall that's only one arm raise away. But, the other knife lands right in the back of his skull.

Killing the guy instantly.

You watch him slump against the wall that he was one hand movement away from touching. You feel your heart break into a million pieces from doing that to someone, but you don’t let your emotions show.

You put your hands up and pretend to love the crowds cheering. You spin around until you're facing the room Aoto is in again. You curtsey like you just gave one of your dance performances for him.

But if you knew Y/n at all, you would know her stance had complete attitude in it.

While you start to feel your body hate you for what you just did to that man, there’s a near by Niragi that’s completely stunned by what he just watched you do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he first saw you, he was completely stunned. He didn’t even finish processing that you were there, in front of him, until you were alone on the field with the guy you just killed.

He had to actually pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He couldn’t believe the person he's been in love with for years, was right in front of him. That even after years of not seeing your face, you looked even more beautiful than he remembered. That you, his personal ballerina, was a Spades top tier and was about to fight a guy twice her size.

Without thinking, he took his gun off his shoulder and aimed it at the guy who was pointing a gun at you. Before he could pull the trigger, Last Boss pushed his gun up so he would shoot at the sky. The sound of shots mixed together so no one realized Niragi just shot his gun, except for his group.

“What are you doing?”

Aguni yelled at Niragi in aggravation for how stupid he was acting, but Niragi didn't answer him.

His focus was on you the entire time again. He clenched the bar in his hands each time he thought you were about to get shot. Already planning ways to kill this guy if he ever landed a single shot. But the guys missed everyone. ]

When you jumped over the guy, those feelings came back. The feelings and actions he would do when you were dancing.

You bended, he felt overheated. You leaped, he leaned forward. You spun, he held his breath.

And when you killed the guy... he couldn’t think.

You have been the voice of reason in his head the entire time he’s been in Borderland. The voice that would tell him not to kill or torture anyone for sport, he wouldn’t listen, but it was still there.

And now you just killed a guy with the best knife throwing skills he's ever seen, and he doesn’t know how feel about it. He does feel confused when you start to act like you loved what you did.

Did Y/n change?

But then he watched you curtesy at the room on the other side of the stadium, and he knew. He knew there was something more to this. That curtesy you always kept saved for one person - your father.

Niragi never went into your business about him, but he knew by the scars, you thought he never saw, that he did something to you. That he continued to do something to you.

Niragi wishes he found his confidence sooner because he would have killed that guy the second he had the chance. He didn’t even know the details, but he never liked how the guy would act around you or how he talked to you. Anyone that disrespected you, he hated them. And would love to see them come to Borderland so Niragi could shoot them dead on the spot.  

You were the one to always tell him to stand up to all his bullies for years, but to never fight back with violence. That would just egg them on, you said. Would make matters worse, she said.

There’s no way you changed this attitude because of this top tier bullshit.

That's just not you - and Niragi knew you better then anyone else.

“I want her!”

Niragi’s attention went to Hatter after he screamed that statement. Of course, even after all this time of him being angry at these people for stealing his plan, he finds a way to make this ‘mission’ of ours into recruiting new people.

“Well, sorry. She’s already taken.”

We all turn around to the guy who just spoke to us. Niragi recognizes him as the the guys who was coined as the Diamond top tier. Minato, was it? And just as Niragi thought, the guy was short. Like, Chishiya height short.

“What the fuck do you mean by taken?”

Niraagi should have took Minato’s words as meaning she’s already a part of a group, but he didn’t. Niragi has become a lot more vocal and unpredictable about his feeling since coming to Borderland. He knew what he said was stupid, but he didn’t care. He hasn’t even reunited with you yet and he already has the need to make you his.

He never thought he would see you again. He never thought you would become a part of his life again. And he wanted you - badly.

After he graduated and went to college, you joined the Tokyo ballet. You both lost touch over the years, and even after all of Niragi’s physical scars have vanished, he still felt powerless to tell you his feelings.

But now he has a chance.

Minato just smirks at Niragi. This just makes Niragi want to punch him in the face. Minato completely ignores Niragi's question and faces back to the rest of the group.

“Aoto wants to meet you all. He wants to finally meet our neighboring group. He's waiting for the day the famous Beach would come into our stadium. To see what make you all so special.”

Minato starts off polite, but as he spoke his words became something else. Like he couldn’t believe we actually survived this long.

The guys attitude sounded so smug and Niragi can already tell he’s going to hate this guy. Niragi hates feeling like someone is belittling him, even if it wasn't by using actual words.

Minato nods towards an opening right behind him and walks into it. We all look at each other and exchange glances. Silently questioning if we should really follow him or not.

But, Hatter doesn’t have time or the patiences to think about it.

He walks right after Minato, and Aguni follows right after him. We all follow Minato through the opening after that.

The hallway is dark, but has floor lights so we can at least see the floor.

We go up some stairs, pass some people making out, then get to a red door.

Minato knocks twice, then he opens the door.

Niragi feels his hand on his gun, on his shoulder, start to shake. If his calculations are correct, it’s been three years since he’s been in the same room as you. Three years since he’s talked to you. Three years he's been longing for you and struggling with finding the courage to just pick up the phone, and call you. Three years of pining and wanting to be the man you deserve.

He's doesn’t even believe he deserves you now. But, Niragi isn’t the type of person to not get what he wants either.

The door opens and everyone files in one-by-one. It looks like a V.I.P room this stadium used to use for celebrities. It has red flooring, red walls, and a giant window to look out into the whole stadium.

As Niragi looks more around, he sees a bar in the far corner with some guy, most likely the bartender, cleaning a glass with a rag.

When he looks into the center of the room, he sees the copycat Hatter, that he now knows as Aoto, and Leo sitting at the end of the table.

But Niragi doesn’t care about them.

Where’s Y/n?

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