Equality?
What a load of bullshit.

Equality doesn't exist.
Not in the previous world, not in this world, and definitely not in the next.

Equality will never be a thing; someone will always suffer.
Whether it be the poor suffering under the choices of the rich, or the powerful rising above the weak. Never once will equality subsist.

Because if it did, the Borderlands would disappear without a trace, never having started in the first place.
If equality was real, Chishiya wouldn't be walking along this path of dusty streets, surrounding by buildings once clean, not overgrown with foliage.
If equality was real, you wouldn't be at his side, drenched in blood, and stumbling after him.

Meeting back up with you after his game was... heavy on the heart. His mind was already running circles, the words of the King of Diamonds permanently stained into his brain.

Seeing the light in your eyes dimmed and the coating of the red liquid seeped deep into your clothes stopped him in his tracks.

Before all of this, before you, he wanted nothing more to live out his days here. Do game after game, intrigued by the death that followed.

But now, he wanted nothing more to leave.

The city seemed unrecognizable. The signs once able to be read clearly, were all covered in leaves and vines that scaled high. There's cars overrun by thick bushes, and street poles decayed by the foliage.

But something stands out, so harshly it can't be mistaken for anything else.
It's Arisu.

"Hey," Chishiya is the first to speak out, words echoing off the surrounding jungle. "Fancy meeting you here."

You follow his voice, seeing through a veil of red. But Arisu's dirty white shirt is unmistakable. It's him.
He's still alive.

Barely wielding a shotgun, but alive.
It's been days since you've seen the boy. His eyes share the same shock as the moment a grenade had landed at your feet almost a week back. The grenade that separated you and Chishiya from the group.

Speaking of the group... where is everyone else?
Your mind doesn't wander far before Chishiya shuffles his feet, rocks grating his overused sneakers.

"There are only two games left," he informs Arisu, but everyone alive already knew that.
The drumming of the last blimps still reverberated in the sky, seemingly making the clouds shake. "Players are starting to gather in Shibuya."

Shibuya, the place where it all started.
It's only right that it all ends there.

It felt like a lifetime ago when the intersection went dark and quiet, leaving you on your own to wander until that first fateful game.
You curl into yourself, then roll your shoulders with a hiss.

The blood belonging to both you and the Jack of Diamonds hadn't yet dried everywhere. You assumed the quantity of it that soaked into your clothes was just too much for the air to dry.

With the silence that followed Chishiya's words, Arisu etched his focus to you, where you swayed in your spot. He wasn't sure if it was voluntary or not.

You weren't the same person as before.
You weren't the girl he silently begged to realized who the Witch was.
You weren't the girl who took Aguni down to the ground to stop his self-sacrificing act.
God, you didn't even know Aguni was still alive.

The girl in front of him was a shell.
But then again, who wasn't?
Anyone who's made it this far is simply a husk of their former self.

Maybe not everyone.
Arisu looks back at Chishiya.

His usual smirk is the slightest bit upturned.
He isn't slouched into himself as much.
And his eyes aren't narrowed the way they used to be.

"What," Arisu tests the waters, unsure of the change he sees in the blond. "Is that the only thing you've gotta say?"

Chishiya only shrugs.
"So," he asks.

Arisu mimics the blond's gesture. "Nothing. It's just..." the boy doesn't miss the way Chishiya rests his weight on one legs, leaning closer to your vicinity.

He also doesn't miss the way the blond lets his hands sway, grazing yours with each movement.
"You're a lot less grumpy now."

A dry chuckles leaves Chishiya's lungs. "Less grumpy, huh? Well, I've been through a hell of a lot. I-"

You move away from him silently, and the words get stuck in his throat. Was it fear that sent a cold beat down his spine? Or worry?

He doesn't continuing his words to Arisu, not when you stumbling along to a car a few feet too far for his liking. He's fixated his attention on you, hands unknowingly tightening into fists within his pockets.

You're just searching the car is what he has to tell himself twice before he can even think to move his gaze off of you.

He can't lose you.
Not now.

He knows you're okay.
You can handle yourself well.
But it wasn't just the blood from the Jack of Diamonds that coated your shirt.

He knew that.
He knew as soon as he saw you after the King of Diamonds game, even when you waved off his helping hands to fix the torn stitches, saying 'it's healing well'. A complete lie.

He knew by the look in your eyes you wanted everything to end.
So did he.
So he betrayed his worries for you with a hard nod and carried on after you despite your stumbling steps.

She will come to me when this is all over, he thought to himself, taking a moment to steady his rising emotions.

"Say, Arisu, can I share something with you that I've never told anybody before?"

Arisu takes a visible breath.
"Sure."

Chishiya takes his own breath and pictures your face, clean of blood and dirt, smiling at him with the brightness of seven suns.

He won't lose you.
Not now.
Not when he's so close to the end.
He wants to leave this world with you.

"I-"
He will leave this world with you.
And what's a better way to start than getting shot?

He hits the floor fast.