Chapter Text
“In the meantime, we’ll go have our fun with your dear Usagi!”
Niragi’s vile words kept ringing in Arisu’s ears as he screamed against the restraints, his voice muffled and useless under the layers of duct tape. He screamed until his throat gave out and he pulled until the ropes burned his wrists, but nobody was coming to save him.
That familiar churn was in the pit of his stomach again. Helplessness. The futility of it all. He’d only just gotten back a sliver of hope, the one that had died alongside Karube and Chota. Now he was tied up and left for dead, betrayed and alone. And Usagi was going to be assaulted and killed. Because of him. It was all his fault.
He screamed again, his voice nothing more than a shredded whisper. Tears stung hot underneath his eyelids, taped shut and blind.
There was nothing he could do but sit with the panic and grief and rage boiling up inside of him. He cursed Chishiya and Kuina for screwing them over so effortlessly. But he knew he shouldn't have expected anything different. For the few hours he had left, Arisu would never be able to forgive himself for being so quick to trust someone as sharp and cunning as Chishiya. And Kuina, so unassuming, was just as dangerous. They were too quick to blend into the background. Too easy to gloss over. That was when they would strike.
Arisu let out a garbled cry of rage and slammed back against the chair. To no avail.
Suddenly, even through the layers of tape constricted around his head, he heard a voice being projected over a loudspeaker. A familiar voice. Pleasant and polite.
The voice of the announcer.
…A game?
——
Hatter’s hotel room was empty, just like Chishiya had predicted. Kuina had since fallen silent over the radio. She was probably getting interrogated by one of Aguni’s lackeys.
Hell, he could practically see her batting her big, innocent eyes at the militants, disarming them all without ever lifting a finger. She was a decent partner in crime. For however long he needed one, anyway.
He tapped at the keypad of the safe hidden behind the deer painting. He, of course, typed in the same code that poor little Arisu had tried before. That part of his deduction hadn't been a lie. But since this was the real safe, this one clicked obligingly open to reveal the box inside. The one holding a stack of burnt and bloodstained playing cards.
It was almost disappointing how perfectly this had all gone to plan.
He replaced the painting and was halfway across the room when his radio clicked to life again.
“Chishiya!” Kuina hissed. "Where the hell are you?"
“Yo,” he said airily. “We’re all set.”
She huffed out a sigh of relief and exasperation. “Then hurry up. We need to get out of here.”
“That was the plan, yes.”
Kuina was waiting in the hall, twirling her braids around her fingers. She raised an eyebrow.
He tapped a finger to his jacket pocket and fell in step beside her. Finding a measured, unhurried pace that would slide under everyone’s radar.
They made it to the courtyard without a single hitch. The warm night air felt the same as it had since Chishiya had first wandered into this hellhole—except now the stifling sense of being under somebody else's thumb had lessened. If only a little.
Kuina hadn’t said another word the whole way. Not his problem. She could stew on her own time.
“Guess it’s time to say goodbye to The Beach,” he said instead, idly flipping the cards in his hand as he approached the exit. The stone archway stood a single step in front of him now, exposing the black expanse beyond. Their doorway to freedom. One footstep away.
Kuina leaned against a nearby lamppost, crossing her arms and chewing on her makeshift cigarette.
“Don’t you feel sorry for him?” she said.
Chishiya glanced at her over his shoulder.
“Arisu, I mean,” she added. As if he needed clarification.
“Feel sorry?”
“Yeah. I feel really bad about it.”
He turned around to look at her head-on. She wasn’t looking back, arms tightening defensively over her chest.
“Isn’t there anything we can’t do in order to survive?” he said.
She cut him a dirty look, torn between guilt and agreement. He just smirked.
“If you’re so worried about him," Chishiya said airily, "you should go help him, Kuina.”
Kuina abruptly huffed, a loud hiss in the dead night air, and then took the plastic nib out of her mouth. Chishiya’s eyebrows went up. She was serious, it seemed.
“Didn’t he save your life?” she said.
Chishiya looked away, staring up at the lamppost beside her head. It wasn’t noticeable until you looked directly at it, but the light was flickering. Just a little.
“In the tag game,” she continued, like he hadn’t known exactly what she was talking about. “You survived because he helped you. You wouldn’t have been able to clear your game on your own.”
“That’s his problem,” Chishiya said, rocking back and forth on his heels. Why was he even entertaining this conversation? The exit was one step behind him. “He decided to start yelling for help. It was a stupid idea and he happened to get lucky.”
“Well, you were lucky he was there,” she shot back.
He raised an eyebrow. Kuina's hotheadedness wasn't news to him, but she'd gone along with this plan so willingly that he had long ruled out her having second thoughts. Clearly she hadn't fully realized the implications of betraying Arisu until they'd actually done it.
“Since when are you on Team Arisu?” Chishiya said.
“Since it’s fucked up that we left him to die like that, Chishiya," she said hotly. "After he saved your life and tried to get us out of here by going along with your plan. The only thing he did wrong was trusting us. Trusting you.”
“Then we taught him a valuable lesson, no?”
Kuina closed her lips back around her not-cigarette, her face set. “Whether you’re coming or not, I’m going back to get him. We can leave afterward.”
True to her word, she pushed off from the lamppost and began walking back into the hotel. Chishiya shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, tracing his thumb around the edges of the cards.
A memory, unbidden, snuck into his head. A few snippets. Arisu and Usagi, eyes wild as they leapt for the buttons of the tag game. Arisu fighting off the tagger desperately while Chishiya readied his homemade taser. Their hesitant conviction in his escape plan, their willingness to help.
That gullible, earnest, painfully hopeful spirit.
He looked back towards the exit. The night waited beyond, the void of unknown freedom mere steps away.
Arisu might be clever, or an idiot. He was still on the fence with that one.
But one thing that Arisu was…was a fighter.
And maybe, just maybe, a fighter might come in handy. Just until he got out of this world and back to reality.
Chishiya looked up at the lamppost. It was still flickering.
Well. It seemed he was on Team Arisu after all.
Chishiya slowly swiveled around and headed back towards Kuina. Predictably, she’d stopped to wait for him just inside the hotel’s entrance. She was impossible to win an argument against, really. It was easier just to play along.
As soon as he stepped foot back in the building, the intercoms blared to life with a smooth, polite voice.
A game, huh?
Chishiya gave Kuina a long glance out of the side of his eye. She looked a little sheepish.
“Great timing, Kuina,” he said. “Still think Arisu is worth it?”
She didn’t respond, only steeled her expression and marched purposefully into the building.
He rolled his eyes, but followed her anyway.
——
Chishiya lingered at the back of the crowd surrounding the dead girl on the floor. The inevitable massacre was starting to brew, so perhaps it was best not to stick around for long.
He slipped quietly into a nearby hall as the militants let loose, walking past screaming victims and cowering players. Kuina had vanished into the crowd as well, probably to find Usagi. He had a hunch that Niragi was keeping her somewhere to wreak his hedonistic vengeance on until her visa expired.
He ignored the faint twinge of guilt in his stomach at the thought and kept walking.
So where, oh where, was Arisu?
Two floors down, the security room was unguarded. The wall of camera feeds displayed people running amok, the entire building already in chaos. Ah, and there was Kuina with Usagi, hugging her as she sobbed into her shoulder. How touching. Militants darted in and out of rooms, shooting with reckless abandon. However, a large number of them seemed to be favoring the fourth floor in particular, as if they were already there before the game started. He watched them check every room…except one.
Bingo.
Chishiya left the security room undetected and resumed walking at an even pace, stopping only to pick up an abandoned pistol from the floor. It was empty, but that didn’t matter. It was a prop anyway.
When militants passed by, he fell into a defensive stance, hackles raised along with the gun, swinging it from room to room. Their eyes passed over him once they designated him as being on Their Side. It was almost too easy.
The fourth floor had already been searched, and it was now momentarily empty. He stopped at threshold of the hallway, just under the blind spot of the security camera.
With one quick motion, he reached up and cracked the pistol as hard as he could against the glass. It bent and shattered, glass falling to the carpet. Best not to take chances.
Chishiya moved to the door. An involuntary smile pulled at the corners of his mouth when he heard Arisu’s pitiful, hoarse cries from behind the door.
He turned the knob and stepped quietly inside, closing the door behind him.
Arisu had evidently heard him come in, since he immediately went silent and still. His ears, mouth, and eyes were crudely wrapped in thick black tape, and his hands and feet were tied. Otherwise, he seemed to be unharmed, which was a little surprising. It seemed that Niragi was getting cocky. More than usual, anyway.
Well, since Arisu was mostly fine…it couldn’t hurt to have a little fun, right?
——
Arisu heard the door open and froze, listening as hard as he could for any sign that someone had come to rescue him. He tried not to let himself think it was Usagi. More than likely it was Niragi, back to tell him about the disgusting, horrible things he’d done to Arisu’s only friend.
He bit down on the inside of his cheek, hard enough that he tasted iron, and he tried to stay quiet and listen. But there was nothing. He couldn’t hear a single thing over his frantic heartbeat. No Usagi, no militants. Was this another torture of theirs?
A very slight gust of air brushed across the exposed parts of his face. He jerked back involuntarily, gasping.
So someone was there. But they were refusing to say anything.
“Who’s there?” Arisu tried to say, but it came out unintelligible. The person in front of him laughed under their breath.
Arisu frowned—or tried to, anyway. He knew that laugh. He couldn’t place it, but it was almost a guarantee that he had met this person. Which meant that it was either a friend or (more likely) an enemy.
Then fingers touched his head. He jolted away from the touch, but it returned, insistent and unyielding. He was shaking uncontrollably, tears welling back up in his eyes as pure fear coursed through him. He wished they would just kill him. The anticipation of indescribable pain was so much worse than death.
A tearing sound caught his ear. He writhed against the restraints before another hand grabbed his neck and pushed him firmly back against the chair. He choked, and the hand let go, the tearing sound resuming. Then he realized what was happening.
It was tape.
The person was taking the tape off.
Arisu froze. He quickly squashed the glimmer of hope that threatened to spring up in his chest. This didn’t mean anything. Maybe they wanted him to witness something awful.
He winced as the tape pulled at his hair while the person removed it. They were uncovering his ears first. He wasn’t about to be picky, but he was desperately wishing he could see. He just wanted to get it over with and stop driving himself crazy with possibilities.
The last of the tape pulled free from his ears, leaving a single strip left across his eyes. Without the tape muffling everything, he could hear the faint sounds of screaming coming from the rooms around them, even the floors below. Was it because of the game?
Was this part of the game?
And then the person in front of him spoke.
“Don’t scream,” they whispered. It sounded like a man’s voice.
Then their—his?—fingers curled away the edge of the tape around his mouth. Arisu's heart was hammering, but he tried to stay still. The tape was slowly, painfully pulled away from his face, sticking to his lips and leaving his skin raw. The center of the tape was soaked with spit from his yelling.
The last of it pulled free. Arisu could speak again.
Every cell in his body wanted to scream as loud as he could, but knowing the militants, disobeying the order to stay quiet would get him killed or worse. So he bit his tongue hard and didn’t say a word.
The voice chuckled softly. “So obedient.”
Arisu grimaced. “Who are you?” he said again. It came out much clearer when his mouth wasn’t strangled by duct tape.
“Guess,” breathed out the unknown visitor. His face was close to Arisu’s, close enough to feel the puff of breath on his cheek.
Was this a test? Was this person going to hurt him if he guessed wrong?
His brow furrowed as his mind raced. Who could this be? It wasn’t Niragi. Niragi was the last person to attempt psychological warfare; he’d rather just start breaking fingers.
Clearly this person had known where Arisu was, and had been invested enough to come back to find him. He was either there to rescue him or torture him and had deliberately gone against Niragi’s plan to leave him there to die. He couldn’t hear anyone else in the room. If they had brought Usagi in struggling, he would have at least heard something. If they had brought her in…dead…no, that would have made noise as well. This person had come in alone.
So who was it?
Arisu sniffed the air lightly before he could stop himself. He could smell the faint scent of sweat, masked by a neutral soap scent. The person smelled just a little bit familiar. They’d met before. Which was obvious, given that he was asking Arisu to identify him, but it was good to be sure.
It wasn’t Niragi. It probably wasn’t Aguni. He hardly knew the other militants. It couldn’t possibly be any of them.
So who—
Arisu sucked in a gasp as it hit him.
He tilted his head up to where he thought the other person’s face would be. Judging by the faint chuckle, he was accurate.
It wasn’t Usagi. It couldn’t be Kuina. He could only think of one possible person this could be.
“...Chishiya?”
The fingers returned, this time on the tape covering his eyes. They pulled it off, carefully and swiftly, and Arisu winced at the abrupt return of light for a few seconds before he registered the face in front of him, mere inches from his own.
“Correct,” Chishiya said, a lazy smile curled around his lips. “Game cleared.”
Heady relief coursed through him at the sight before he could help it. A surge of rage immediately followed, a swirling mass of hurt and fury.
“How could you?!” Arisu shouted. Chishiya’s expression didn’t waver, but he did lean back a little. “I trusted you! You almost got me killed! And Usagi…!”
“Kuina’s got her,” Chishiya said evenly. “She’s fine.”
The thick knot in Arisu’s stomach finally unwound. He slumped over in the chair, his body suddenly exhausted.
“It was all part of the plan, Arisu,” Chishiya continued, bending down to work at the knots around his ankles. “You didn’t think I was going to leave you here to die, did you? I’m not that heartless.”
Arisu groaned despite himself as his legs were freed, blood rushing back to his ankles.
“That’s bullshit,” Arisu snapped. “You sold me out to save yourself. You are that heartless.”
Chishiya was silent for a second. “Kuina may have made a good case,” he admitted at last, tugging at the rope around Arisu’s wrist. Arisu wished he could see the other’s face, but knowing Chishiya, it was the same carefully serene expression as always. “You should be thanking her. She does appreciate a good grovel.”
A pause. Then, “But I did come back because I wanted to,” he muttered, voice so low Arisu had to strain to hear it.
The ropes on his wrists fell away, and Arisu pulled them up to rub at them gingerly. They stung terribly, but he could move them again. With that, he was free.
Chishiya stood up behind him, circling around the chair to face him again. “And it wasn’t all for nothing.”
Arisu looked up at him. His face didn’t change, but his hand emerged from his hoodie pocket to reveal the small stack of playing cards hidden within.
Arisu’s mouth fell open at the sight. He looked back up at Chishiya.
Chishiya smiled and placed the cards back in his pocket.
“You’re with me, now, Arisu,” Chishiya said, a whisper of something almost like sincerity in his voice. “I won’t betray you again, but I won’t hesitate to kill you if you try to get in the way.”
“Why should I believe you?” Arisu snapped.
Chishiya slowly bent down, resting on his heels until he was face to face with him yet again. Arisu wasn’t bound anymore, but he felt oddly compelled to stay still, like a mouse under that snake-eyed stare.
“I was at the exit,” Chishiya murmured, voice barely audible over the growing din outside. He raised a hand and pinched his fingers together, a tiny gap of space between his forefinger and thumb. His eyes locked into Arisu’s. Arisu couldn’t seem to look away.
“I was this close to freedom, Arisu,” he hissed. “One step away from leaving this place.” His calm veneer had ever so slightly cracked, letting a trickle of frustration through. Arisu swallowed.
Chishiya let his hand drop, and then there was nothing between them but air and breath.
“And yet,” he said quietly. “Here I am.”
——
The hall was empty save for a few nameless bodies strewn around the corners, ones he didn’t want to look to closely at and risk recognizing. Arisu winced at the pressure on his sore ankles. His ribs didn’t feel fantastic either, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
Chishiya peered out from behind him. If asked, he would most certainly deny the fact that he was using Arisu as a human shield, but Arisu knew better.
He couldn’t really care, though. Whatever the reason, whatever Kuina had said to convince this cunning, heartless bastard to risk everything to come back for him…the fact was that he was here. With Arisu. And they were working together now—for real, he hoped.
He might actually give Kuina a good grovel.
Arisu stumbled, pain shooting through his foot as he twisted the bruised nerves and torn muscles. Chishiya’s arm shot out like lightning, gripping his shoulder to steady him before he could blink. Jesus, he was fast. And the hand on his shoulder was like a vice.
“Do you need a piggyback ride?” Chishiya quipped.
Arisu glared at him and shook him off. “Come on. We’re wasting time.”
They crept down the hall, Chishiya quietly explaining the game as they went. He handed Arisu the last player phone, which he must have taken on his way up.
So the game had started before Chishiya had come to get him?
Arisu wasn’t sure how to feel about that. All that he knew was that there was Momoka’s body on the floor and militants spraying bullets into everybody who wasn’t killing with them.
They stared down over the edge of the banister as Arisu racked his brain. There had to be a solution. This was a Hearts game, not Spades. And this had all started once Hatter was—
Arisu spun around, earning an eyebrow raise from the other.
“Chishiya,” he said. “Can you get us down to the main hall? Without getting killed?”
Chishiya blinked slowly. Then a small smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, and Arisu regretted asking.
“Do you trust me?” he said.
Arisu snorted.
Chishiya shrugged. “It was a rhetorical question.”
Three minutes later, Arisu was sufficiently blindfolded again with a scrap of fabric from someone’s jacket. They wouldn’t be needing it anymore.
He already hated this feeling, this return to the darkness. Helplessness was one of the things Arisu was learning to despise the most. But Chishiya’s plan was admittedly sound, and they had come this far already. So he gritted his teeth and let Chishiya press the empty pistol into his back.
As they walked, Arisu heard footsteps rapidly approaching. His heart was thundering in his chest. But Chishiya’s other hand was fisted in his t-shirt and pushing him ever forward. So he marched on and prayed to anyone and anything that might have been listening.
“Move!” Chishiya snapped at the unseen assailants. “He’s coming with me.”
And then, miraculously, the footsteps faded away.
Arisu was starting to believe that this might actually work when a familiar, hated sneer cut through the air behind them.
“Hold on a second, Chishiya,” leered Niragi’s voice. Arisu’s blood grew hot at the sound of it. Chishiya’s fist tightened on his back, and he forced himself to breathe steady. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Yo, Niragi,” Chishiya said. There wasn’t an ounce of deceit in his voice. “Aguni requested him. Said that Arisu might know who the witch is.”
“Oh, is that so?” Niragi jeered. “That’s strange. It just so happens that Arisu was locked up tight before the game even started.” His voice was growing closer. “What the hell is he supposed to know about the witch? Unless, of course, it is him, and we should really just skip the middleman and throw him on the bonfire now!”
“It’s obvious,” Arisu said before he could stop himself. “If you actually take a second to think about it.”
“What are you trying to say?” Niragi snarled, rapidly approaching him. Arisu refused to shy away from the presence suddenly looming beside him. His breath and spit stung Arisu’s cheek, and Arisu could barely contain the boiling rage in his head. “Are you saying I’m stupid?”
Something inside Arisu snapped. All the anger condensed into a single shard of searing hatred. He turned his head to (once again) where he thought Niragi’s repulsive face might be, and his tone was even when he spoke.
“I don’t think anybody has to say it out loud,” he said.
There was a stunned silence. Arisu braced himself for the punch, the pistol, the retaliation once his words had sunk in. But out of nowhere, the hand on his back suddenly threw him violently forward, causing him to stumble and collapse on his stinging feet.
“—RISU!!” Niragi was screaming. “YOU ARROGANT BRAT, I’LL GUT YOU LIKE A—”
“Hey, Niragi,” Chishiya said from somewhere above him. “Shut the fuck up.”
There was an unholy crack. A piercing shriek. And then a sound Arisu couldn’t even fathom—a whoosh of fire, crackling and finding purchase on something, wrapping a sizzling mass in flame, all the while screaming and screaming and it was Niragi, gasping for air as he stumbled over the banister, and he howled like a banshee all the way to the ground below.
A thud, and then it was silent.
Arisu was still laying on the floor, trying to wrap his head around what he’d heard. A hand touched his arm, and he flinched before the hand wrapped underneath his shoulder and helped him to his feet.
“...Hey, Chishiya,” Arisu said weakly. “What the hell just happened?”
Chishiya was quiet for a long moment.
“I think I burned some bridges,” he said.
——
They made it to the first floor without any more confrontations, besides Chishiya barking orders to stand aside and let them through. He played the part well. Too well. If Arisu hadn’t known better, he would’ve felt as though he were marching toward his execution.
He still wasn’t ready to rule that out yet.
Once they were almost in the center hall, Chishiya pulled them both into an alcove and untied Arisu’s blindfold. There was a red lash smarting across his cheek and flecks of blood dotting his face and sweater. But he looked as impassive as ever. So Arisu didn’t ask.
“Do you really know who the witch is?” Chishiya said idly.
“Yeah,” Arisu replied. “I’m almost positive. It’s—”
Chishiya held a hand up, silencing him. The knowing smirk was back. “It’s okay,” he said. “I like surprises.”
Arisu blinked at him. Chishiya merely handed him the grenade.
They slipped back out to the hall and finally rounded the corner, face to face with the center of destruction. Aguni was there, along with a handful of cronies, sending bodies out to the pyre one by one. The sight was harrowing, but Arisu steeled himself with the resolve to stop the massacre before it got any worse.
“EVERYONE!” Arisu screamed as loud as he could. Which wasn’t very loud, seeing as his voice was still hoarse from being tied up. But people started turning, and he held the grenade above his head.
“If anybody moves, I’ll blow up everyone in this room!” he shouted.
All of the militants froze at once, their guns still pointed at him. He willed his fingers to stop shaking.
“How the fuck did you escape?!” one of them shouted. He was one of the bastards that had tied Arisu up.
“My bad,” said Chishiya from behind him. Arisu gritted his teeth. This was not the time for playful quips.
The militant pointed his gun at Chishiya, and Arisu shrieked and raised the grenade even higher.
“Arisu,” Aguni said, his voice like welded iron. Arisu ignored him.
“I know who the witch is,” he said firmly. All eyes were on him at that point. “It’s—”
“—Momoka,” said a woman’s voice in unison with his.
He looked up to see Ann, battered but alive, raising a knife triumphantly in her hand.
“Yeah,” said Arisu, relieved to have an ally. “It was Momoka. There was never a witch.”
“But why would she kill herself?!” someone from the crowd shouted.
“I don’t know!” Arisu cried. “But for some reason…she wanted us to end up like this. She knew Aguni would lead the massacre after Hatter’s death. And she knew everybody would fall for it. I don’t know why Momoka wanted us all dead, but this was the easiest way to do it.” He turned his gaze on Aguni. “Because Aguni wants us all dead, too.”
Aguni started towards Arisu. Arisu panicked, his mind racing at likelihood that Aguni would want his grenade to go off—when his path was suddenly blocked by a hooded figure.
“Cut it out, Aguni,” Chishiya said. “You know this isn’t what Hatter would want.”
“You don’t have a clue what Hatter would want,” Aguni snarled, moving as if to shove past him, but Chishiya suddenly pulled out a modified squirt gun from underneath his hoodie and sprayed the floor between them with it. The ground was instantly set ablaze, earning shouts from the crowd around them, and Aguni leapt backward on instinct.
That explained a lot of what he had heard earlier.
“You think that’s gonna—” Aguni started, but his mouth clamped shut with an audible click. Arisu didn’t know why until he noticed that Chishiya was holding up his right hand.
Displaying the playing cards for everyone to see.
“If you continue this idiotic killing spree,” said Chishiya. “I’ll burn the entire deck. We’ll have to start this whole thing over again. From scratch.”
Whether he was bluffing or not didn’t matter. Arisu lowered his grenade, letting it drop when he realized that Chishiya had a much bigger weapon now than some mediocre bomb.
Aguni’s eyes snapped from the cards to the flames, between their faces, and eventually somewhere in the distance, lost in a memory.
“That’s not why Momoka did it,” interrupted a sudden voice, pulling Aguni out of his reverie. They turned to look and saw Asahi, standing over her friend’s lifeless body, tears streaming down her face.
“She believed in you,” Asahi said, her voice cracking. “She thought you all could see past the tricks of this game and realize that nobody else had to die. But I knew…”
“Knew what?” Arisu said quietly.
Asahi turned her eyes on him. She looked haunted beyond her years. Her smile was painful. “That every human being will always choose themselves,” she said, and she sounded far away.
She looked up at the sky and closed her eyes. “That’s why I chose to become…the dealer of this game.”
Like lightning, a laser shot down from the heavens and cleanly severed her brain, vanishing all traces of Asahi.
“Dea…ler?” Arisu repeated. But before he could understand it, another huge, booming announcement sprang to life out of thin air.
“Game invalidated,” the pleasant voice said. “All players are now temporarily unregistered for gameplay. Re-registration will commence after a brief waiting period. Thank you for your understanding.”
Arisu, wide-eyed, looked over at Chishiya. For once, Chishiya looked just as genuinely stunned as Arisu felt.
Invalidated?
Did that mean...
“Aguni,” Arisu said, an unfamiliar commanding note in his voice. He felt as though he was watching his body from above. His mind was somewhere far away, racing to fit the puzzle pieces together. “Take Momoka’s body to the pyre.”
Aguni, seemingly too bewildered to do anything else, scooped up Momoka’s body and walked stiffly out the door.
After a moment and a distant thud, the voice came again.
“Game cleared. Congratulations.” The familiar even tone made Arisu’s stomach drop, but it wasn't finished yet. “Current registration status prohibits any players from receiving a visa. Please wait until the registration period reopens before playing this game again.
“Current wait time: 364 days.”