"is this peace divine. the light will cast me aside."
???
alice in borderland oneshot!
- and a tiny bit of good morning call
will do sunato banda, ryohei arisu, daikichi karube and more. main focus would be on sunato banda and arisu , if you want to...
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THE WEIGHT OF THE Jack of Hearts game bore down on your shoulders, while the prison walls mediated with tension. Each faked smile and word spoken in this atrocious game felt like a trap that would spring open at any moment.
You worked hard to retain your calmness, but the drool of continuous turnovers did wear you down.
"Struggling?"
The smooth, unsettling voice made you turn. Sunato Banda leaned casually against the cell door, his sharp eyes glinting with that eerie calmness he always carried. His partner Enji lingered not too far behind, casually taking a look of the other players in the room.
"What do you want?" you asked, your voice steadier than you felt.
Banda smirked, stepping inside and closing the door. "Oh, nothing so special... simply wish to help."
You frowned. "Help me? Why?"
His smirk widened, as if he found your question amusing. "You're interesting," he said after a pause. "Not like the others. You think more than you speak... though, right now, your thoughts are loud."
You cringed at how easily he saw through you. Banda had been watching you, you realized, not just in this round but since quite early on.
"And what do you get out of it?" you pressed.
"Maybe I like the company."
His cryptic response wasn't promising, but something about him-his unsettling calmness, his sharp gaze-made you feel like he saw more than he let on. You didn't trust him, but in this game, trust was a luxury you couldn't afford anyway.
Still, Banda's presence became oddly comforting as the game dragged on. You found yourself talking to him more than you expected, his dark humor and blunt observations cutting through the suffocating tension.
One night, while Enji was distracted, you and Banda sat in a corner of the common area, speaking in hushed tones.
"I think it's him," you whispered, glancing toward Enji. "He's too... smooth. Too eager to blend in."
Banda's expression didn't flicker, but his eyes mirrored something inscrutable within. "You're not the only one who thought that," he said softly.
"Then why stay with him?" you asked, genuinely curious.
That smirk of his returned, sharper than ever. "Because he thinks I trust him. It's fun to watch people think they're in control when they're not."
You could barely suppress the smile that drifted over your features. "You're mad."
He chuckled, leaning in, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Yet here you are, conversing with me. What does that say about you?"
His words left you speechless, and your heart raced for reasons you could not comprehend. Banda was intoxicating; dangerous, yes, but it made you feel alive in a way you hadn't since the Borderland games began.
As the game approached its final moments, Enji's facade began to crack. Banda had been right. Enji was the Jack of Hearts. When the fuss passed, Banda stayed by you, and his loyalty at that moment was both surprising and strangely comforting.
When the game ended, you sat together in silence, the tension finally lifting. "You've never really answered why you stayed with me," you murmured softly.
Banda glanced at you, his smirk softening into something almost genuine, "I already told you. You're interesting. And maybe..." he hesitated, "Maybe I don't want you to end up like the others."
You couldn't quite decipher what he meant by "the others," but the way his eyes focused on you, as if you were the only thing holding him down, sent shivers down your spine.
Banda wasn't your typical hero in any way; in fact, he was far from it. Yet in this harrowing reality, you couldn't help but be drawn to him. He might be dangerous. He might be crazy. But it was enough for now.
