09 Abandoned Public Library / For What Stakes a Game Is Played

Hikage, falling.

With flailing arm(s) he reaches out for something, anything, when his grip finally finds purchase on a nearby string.

He grabs it, feels it slice his palm open, draw blood, and then wincing he swings himself up, managing to right himself before barely perching his unsteady feet on an adjacent wire.

He turns his body left, (no, your other left; no, no, Hikage, your other, other left), wobbling a bit more than he'd like, to the general direction of where he thinks the transfer student is.

He reaches out and—

(You got one chance at this Hikage, don't blow it now …)

—manages to catch the falling transfer student, his feet wobbling as the five-foot-nothing first-year falls into his arms.

"I got you," he says, as the transfer student slowly opens his eyes again.

And then, as best he can, he begins to move, (River-) princess-carrying the confused transfer student down the wires, to the ground below, where Misa, and Rina and Sakaki now, (he wasn't particularly worried about them; they can handle themselves) are already waiting, having already recovered their respective weapons.

Rina tosses Hikage the Vernal Blade.

Our heroes (…?) trying to drown out the inconsolable, hysterical wailing beside them.

Ito kneeling on the atrium floor next to them, bent over her better half. Akai sprawled out in her arms. Eyes glazed over, unmoving.

Hikage looks to the front door. The exit right there.

Just one obstacle in the way.

Akai's killer, blocking their path. Creeping now across the atrium, the Aberration. Approaching the group on all fours.

~

Hikage and the mercenaries meet the creature head-on.

Rina's gunshots ring out across the atrium. Sakaki's shinai launching curved arcs of air. Misa slashing with her claws.

But even with their full might combined, Hikage already knows this is a battle better left unwaged.

Because this creature is faster than the others they've slain that night. Smarter, more vicious. And whatever unique adaptive property of this Aberration allowed Akai's strings to pass through it unharmed, well, it's rendering their weapons just as useless.

Even if they can somehow scratch out a win, how many of them will be left standing? The night's just started. They can't give this much of themselves, so early into Banishment Night.

Hikage knows it, the three girls know it. None of them even need to say it out loud.

And so, working in tandem, all of them on the same page, they position themselves, with each strike, each dodge, each slash, purely defensive gestures, all, closer and closer to the door.

… And when they're close enough to it …

They leave.

~

All five of them. Back to the camper van, parked out in front.

Hikage hops into the driver's seat, starts the vehicle.

They drive off. Away from the library.

~

But … But surely they can't just leave the two of them there, right?

Akai's bleeding out, if not already dead.. And even if Ito can somehow manage to hold her own …

There's still time to help.

Hikage slams on the brakes.

"And what do you propose that we do about it, transfer student?"

He engages the emergency brake, and stands up, marches over to the transfer student lying on the side bench.

"Listen here, squirt. I don't think you quite understand what Banishment Night is all about. Those two know what they signed up for. They knew what the risks were, as soon as they pocketed their first shadow gem."

But it's … It's not right.

Hikage scoffs. "'Right'? You think they wouldn't do the same to us, our situations were reversed? Let's not forget they were all too willing to hand you over to my sister, who is, make no mistake about it, ready to take your life, without the slightest hesitation."

The transfer student looks around, to the mercenaries. None of the girls meeting his gaze. None coming to his defense. As if in muted, resigned agreement with Hikage's words.

Hikage turns around, walks back to the driver's seat. Disengages the brake, begins driving.

"… You'd better start learning how the game is played, transfer student. It's every Banisher for himself."

("… Or 'her'", squeaks Rina, barely audible.)

"The sooner you realize that, the better your chances are of making it through the Night."

Speeding up now, down the empty road.

"And if you won't do that, then you can forget about ever seeing the dawn ever again."

~

Ito, on the atrium floor. Face stained with her tears.

Covered in the blood of her beloved Akai.

The Aberration approaches, but she doesn't care.

… Transfer student who?

She no longer cares about the bounty, or even about Banishment Night.

None of it matters.

She has no will to fight back against the creature now.

Its repulsive footfalls, if they can even be called 'feet', inches away from her.

She closes her eyes. Hears the repulsive unhinging of the creature's jaw, as it draws near.

And as she feels the cold breath of the Aberration on her skin …

~

The glass dome of the skylight above shatters.

Ito opens her eyes, looks up.

From above, a black hooded cloak descends.

Landing in front of Ito and the Aberration.

Autumnal Blade in hand.

Himekawa Hikari looks down at Ito and Akai, on the floor. Eyes shifting to the Aberration.

~

The Aberration pounces toward this new interloper.

Hikari dances back once, twice, dodging each attack with ease, and then, her hand barely even moving, slices swiftly through the Aberration.

The Aberration, no longer moving now. Paralyzed.

Three lazy, nonchalant cuts by the Autumnal Blade, is all it took.

Hikari turns her back on the creature. Not even deigning to watch as it crumples to the ground.

… Dead.

~

Back still turned, Hikari speaks into the gloom of the library atrium.

"… I believe you had something for me? Don't see that little pip-squeak around. What's the matter? That pathetic brother of mine got the best of you?"

But Ito doesn't address the question posed. She mutters, half to herself, "W-we treated it as a game. We're all treating it as a game, everyone tonight. All of us Banishers. A game. Banishment. Aberrations. All of us complicit. The youth of Fuyukage. The gravity of the situation. We didn't respect Banishment Night. We treated it like children at recess. And this is our punishment. My punishment."

And Hikari spins around on her heels, her eyes wide. She grabs Ito by the hair, forces the grieving Banisher to meet her gaze.

"But it is a game. It's all a game. Doesn't mean a game don't have stakes."

Ito, speechless.

Hikari continues, strange edge creeping into her voice. "What stakes were you playing for? If it's not the very lives you bring into the game, then you were never really truly playing, were you? You were only ever playing at playing the game."

Ito's lips start to tremble. Here come the waterworks, again.

Hikari lets go of the girl's hair in disgust.

"Oh, stop. Stop your nonsense."

She throws the Autumnal Blade clattering to the floor.

Then Hikari kneels down, over Akai's limp body.

In her hands, a soft white glow. She runs her hand over Akai's gaping wound, the blood still pouring out of it.

"No, it's all a game," says Hikari.

Ito watches in amazement, in disbelief, as the wound starts to close.

"… Even in the direst of circumstances, it's all a game."

Hikari, tending to the boy's injury, continues to speak as she runs her glowing hand over him.

"The hunter facing off with the lion with nothing but a spear in his hand whose entire village's livelihood depends on the outcome of this singular battle. A game. The spy in enemy territory, the entire tipping of the war in one direction or another dependent on whether or not his cover is blown. That's a game. When the raiders are at your gates and you have neither the numbers nor the strength to meet them and your elders and your little ones both huddle shivering and cowering in your ramshackle tenements without so much as the light of day to comfort them, well wouldn't you know it, that too is a game."

Akai's eyes, fluttering open.

Ito gasps, and cries out in joy, sobbing.

"The child at play at recess will give the game of kickball his very all. He will play as though that game in that moment is the only thing worth pursuing. But the moment I hold his parents at gunpoint and tell him to play me in the exact same game then look how fast the snot comes running down his face. But by what manner have the rules changed? They haven't. Therein lies the decisive variance between those who will and those who won't. Because the only difference between a round of kickball at recess and the entire hinging of good's triumph over those who would seek to banish it from this world are the wagers that are put forth. For what stakes is the game being played? What does the player stand to lose?"

Akai, fully conscious now. Coughing. Partly from the residual pain of his now-healed injuries, partly from how tightly Ito is hugging him now.

"Th-thank you," cries Ito. "Thank you so much, I—"

"Stop. Stop. If gratitude is all you feel, then you have been extricated from your crucible with the wrong lesson in tow."

Ito, confused.

"For the only lesson is that there is no lesson. That there is no true elucidation to be gleaned from your deliverance."

Hikari stands up.

She walks over to the fading Aberration, leans down over the shadow gems crystallization from its carcass.

She bends down over what's left of the creature.

And then—

~

And then Ito and the newly-revived Akai both watch in horror, as Hikari begins, Crunch!, hungrily devouring, Crunch!, Crunch!, the Aberration, shadow gems and all.

Crunch crunch crunch.