Chapter Text
You thought you had spent a little over two months in the Borderlands, as you leveled your rifle to kill a giraffe that was running away. It was strange how desensitized you were to killing things by now.
Niragi poked his head out from around a nearby enclosure. You pulled the earplug out of your ear to hear him complain. “—-got the giraffe? You know I wanted to kill it! Fucking lame.”
“Sorry, forgot about your obsession with big, tall things. Maybe it’s ‘cuz you’re projecting something you’re insecure about onto other things,” you rolled your eyes at Niragi’s tantrum.
Niragi frowned and pointed his sniper rifle towards you. You sighed and put the earplug back in your ear then stepped away from the glass window behind you. You knew what was coming next.
CRACK
The glass window shattered and you adeptly maneuvered away from the shards that now littered the floor. They twinkled like small pieces of stardust. Beautiful, but would cut you if you got too close.
“Niragi!” you protested in playful annoyance. He was the most melodramatic of the militants, so you knew that he would try to pull a stunt like this. Despite his mischief, you knew he would never do anything to seriously hurt you.
He hopped towards you across the glass and pulled out your earplug.
“Whoops,” he paused, then dropped it to the ground and walked away.
“Jerk! Get back here!” You sighed as you dismally looked at the fallen earplug. Niragi always called you lame for using one, but you didn’t want the sound of gunshots to damage your hearing more than necessary.
You then heard a familiar chime. Finally, the six of spades game was cleared. The start of a car engine running startled you, and you walked out of the zoo.
Aguni and the other militants were already waiting for you, and one seat was left for you.
“What took you so long?” Niragi teased as you stepped into the car.
“I ran into some trouble on the way here by the name of Suguru Niragi,” you quipped back.
“You can kill each other back at the Beach,” Aguni said unimpressed and started driving.
“Aw, ‘shucks,” Niragi grumbled, but you knew he was being insincere.
Once you got back at the Beach, Hatter appraised your group. “Six of spades? Great! Also great timing– I’m calling an executive meeting right now.”
You groaned in annoyance, because even though you were the Beach’s #9 militant, that didn’t mean you liked going to Hatter’s meetings. You’d rather do target practice with Niragi outside.
Aguni and Hatter led the way, conversing about something important as you trailed behind them with Niragi and Last Boss.
“What do you think it’s about this time?” you smirked at Niragi, inviting him to join in on your disparagement of the executive meetings.
“I would bet my life that it’s either something absolutely insane, or absolutely moronic,” Niragi laughed.
Hatter pushed open the meeting room’s doors where the rest of the executives were already waiting, and a player you vaguely recognized. You never learned his name, but he was one of the few in the Borderlands that still maintained dyed blonde hair.
The way his hair caught in the light, you admired, made it look like stardust.
“Ladies, lads, I have a member here who is a most invaluable asset to the Beach,” Hatter’s eyes glinted in a way that made you feel extremely unsettled. He was plotting something, you were sure of.
Hatter dramatically paused before locking eyes with you. “I’m thinking of making him a new executive.”
Your heart dropped. Sure you were an executive, but you were the lowest ranking one. Hatter was directly threatening your position.
“Can’t you count? We already have all 9 spots for executives,” Niragi was always unabashed when it came to speaking against Hatter.
“I’m well aware of that. I compared the cards between (Name), and Chishiya here, and Chishiya almost has the same value as (Name). Wouldn’t it be unfair to the Beach if a member who was less worthy was ranked higher?” Hatter replied.
“Bullshit. The militants are already significantly less than your little group Hatter. If you could do math, you’d see that removing (Name) would disrupt the balance more,” Niragi said menacingly and propped up his gun against his shoulder, as if reminding Hatter who had the power to kill.
“Well, that depends on the card your group brought back. Did you say it was six of spades?”
This time it was Aguni who replied, “Yes.”
Hatter frowned for a second, and looked down at a piece of paper that I just realized he was carrying. He traced his writing with his fingers slowly and looked pensive for a moment before speaking.
“Well I’ll be damned. You two now are perfectly tied,” Hatter said, sounding disappointed.
“So, what does that mean now?” You asked worriedly. You got the feeling that you weren’t exactly out of the woods yet.
Hatter paused again, presumably to think. You were surprised at how much thought he was putting into this. You looked over at Chishiya, who was staring blankly at a bug writhing on the floor. He looked oblivious as to the quandary Hatter now found himself in.
In fact, you thought, it looked like Chishiya didn’t care about what was happening at the meeting at all.
An stepped forward, always the voice of reason. “There should be an evaluative measure to see who’s more deserving of the title. Maybe a duel of sorts between the two?”
You grinned, and brandished your rifle playfully. Chishiya made eye contact with you as you scanned him up and down. He had a lithe figure that was not particularly athletic.
“I’d go for a gun duel any day. Or maybe even some sparring would be fun. It’s been ages since I last beat someone up,” you said. To your surprise, Chishiya didn’t seem the least bit intimidated.
Hatter waved you off almost immediately. “No, no, no! Chishiya– no offense– would get creamed. I’ll think about a way to determine who gets to keep the position. In the meantime, (Name) and Chishiya will share the number 9 executive room temporarily.”
“What?” you blurted before you could stop yourself. At this comment, Chishiya also appeared startled.
“I said temporarily. You know, just to see how things go. You can keep your room, (Name), and Chishiya can get a taste of the executive lifestyle. Plus, it’ll give me a chance to see how you guys handle things up close. So, what do you say–up for sharing a room for a while?” Even though Hatter had now phrased the situation like you had a choice, you knew that in reality you had none.
You sighed and lowered your head before nodding.
“I have no problem with it,” was the first and only thing Chishiya said coolly.
Hatter clapped his hands together. “Great! Executives dismissed.”
As soon as you exited the meeting room, you turned the corner to slide against the wall. You placed your rifle next to you, and used your arms to cover your head. This was the worst possible outcome of the meeting.
“Hey, I need your key,” a voice interrupted your misery.
You uncovered yourself to look up at the person who spoke. Chishiya was holding his hand out expectedly.
When you didn’t move or respond, he prompted you again impatiently. “Hatter needs to make a copy for me.”
You ripped the key off your wristband and dropped it unceremoniously into his waiting palm before storming off with your rifle.
“Thanks” he said dryly to your back.
You went to find Niragi to kill him, because the meeting was not absolutely insane or absolutely moronic.
It was somehow a worse cocktail combination of the two.