Alice in Borderland

Chapter 57 - Basketball court

I open my eyes and instead of tiredly snuggling back into my comforter, I sit up and am wide awake. After the game yesterday, we got in our car and drove back to the hotel, even though each of us almost had our eyes closed. At the Beach, we handed the game card to the Hatter and headed for our hotel rooms, not missing the glances of the others at our arms. Already almost passed out, I fell into my bed and slept until just now, which is about thirteen hours.

The dark discoloration of my veins has receded a little and both my eyes and nose have stopped bleeding. I sit down on the edge of the bed and restlessly rock my leg. I notice I'm barely blinking and full of energy, so I quickly run to my bathroom. I wipe the blood from my face and comb my hair. I think about putting on something other than my clothes for the games, but it seems pretty warm outside and I ignore the blood stains on my white shirt. I walk happily to the entryway and realize that not even my ribs hurt. Must be the after-effect of the antidote, the way the adrenaline pumps through my body. At the foosball table, I spot Yuudai, and by the armchairs, Izumi and Kuina, who are watching him.

"Hey Sayuuri," the man greets me, just finishing a game with a winning hit, "feel like playing?"

"No, I need some exercise," I say honestly and Izumi seems to have a thought right away.

"How about we go to the sports field outside? It's such nice weather"

Me and Yuudai exchange a look and shrug our shoulders.

"Basketball?", I ask him and he nods in agreement. I've never been to the sports field, which is part of the hotel, since I've been here. From the roof, I could see that there are two basketball hoops, soccer goals, and a tennis court. Izumi makes another trip to the restaurant and arms herself with some water bottles, while Kuina and I fill bowls with fruit and take them with us. Once outside, Yuudai procures a ball and shoots some baskets to get warm. Kuina and Izumi sit down on the grass and talk, while I run onto the court and Yuudai looks at me in played wonder.

"I thought cheerleaders only cheer and can't play themselves," he provokes jokingly and I just laugh out loud.

"Is that supposed to be a challenge?"

"Whoever gets twenty-one points first?"

I chime in and stand in the defensive position. Izumi and Kuina watch intently and seem to be as fired up as I am. I feel charged up and in top shape. Not even the spins and jumps hurt my ribs, only my arms feel a little stiff. Yuudai and I play for an hour in the blazing sun until the score is 20:18 in my favor. We take a short breather and I re-tie my hair. I spot Chishiya and even he seems to be warm because he is only wearing a white shirt without his vest. He walks over to us and sits down next to Kuina in the grass. He gives me a quick wave with his typical grin and I give a quick wave back before Yuudai initiates the next round.

Challengingly, we take a seat across from each other and he has the ball. He tries to jump up and throw so I can't get to the ball, but I jump as high as I can and get a hold of the basketball. I dribble it out and provocatively run backwards to his basket. As he gets closer I throw the ball from the center line and score, which means I win. I let Kuina and Izumi applaud me and bow triumphantly before turning to Yuudai and putting on my I-told-you-so look.

I walk over to the others and drop into the grass next to Chishiya. Yuudai takes a seat across from Izumi and she smiles encouragingly at him while Kuina takes the ball from him to play with it for a bit.

"Here," Chishiya says, handing me a water bottle, which I accept gratefully. I notice how his gaze slides right to my forearm, but what else did I expect? I just shake my head with a grin and when our eyes meet he knows immediately that I have noticed his scrutiny. I just find it amazing that we've learned to communicate without words in such a short of time.

"And your rib pain?" he nods thoughtfully.

"I don't know, there's so much adrenaline flowing through my veins that I can't even feel my ribs. I could run a marathon right now and still have enough energy to beat you in basketball," I reply. He just raises an eyebrow and looks at me with amusement.

"When the sun goes down, there shouldn't be so many here," he muses aloud, and I can literally smell a new bet in the air. I just nod and accept a bowl of fruit from Kuina. For the next hour and a half, we just enjoy the weather in the cozy gathering until at some point Katsu joins us.

"There's about to be dinner, if you want I'll let you in right now," he says kindly and most of us get up right away. I turn to the sports field and find that most are making their way inside. Kuina and Katsu look waiting at me and Chishiya, who has also remained seated.

"We'll stay for a while," I say on both our behalf, and Kuina just nods and walks over to Izumi and Yuudai. Katsu looks at me for a moment, but then runs to the others. I get up and run to the basketball to throw it to Chishiya.

"So up to how many points are we playing?", I ask him and can't help but grin widely. So far, we've spent most of our time playing cards or chess, but in sports, my odds are a little better against him.

"21?"

"Deal, you go first," I let him have it and he stifles a know-it-all grin as he raises his eyebrows and sets up across from me. He throws the first basket before I could even blink. Not that he stopped and hit it from that distance, no. He passed me in a flash, without me even being able to react. That could be something.

After half an hour, of course, he won with a three-point lead, if I wasn't full of adrenaline it could have ended worse for me. But although we have actually finished our game, we just keep on playing. The sun is slowly setting and we are the only ones on the court. Somehow I can't prevent a pleasant tingling feeling from spreading through me. Especially when we start cheating to shoot baskets like when I grab his arm against the rules of the game and pull him backwards to get the ball. We fool around a bit and since there's no one around but us for miles, Chishiya doesn't pretend either. And I think I can say that this is the first game that he doesn't take deadly seriously at the beach.