Needless to say, none of them got much sleep that night, if any. Iwaizumi, for his part, didn't even bother closing his eyes because every time he did, all he saw was bodies. He didn't budge when Matsukawa and Kuroo tried to coax him to sleep. He volunteered to keep watch instead.
Sakusa, who had found them shortly after the brawl had ended, hadn't been too pleased with that, of course.
"What? We're gonna let a killer watch over us while we sleep?" he asked with no small amount of bitterness in his voice.
"Don't say that, Saku-chan," Hinata chastised, albeit halfheartedly.
"Why not? It's true." Sakusa glared daggers at him from a cot on the other side of the fort they had made—what was left standing of it, anyway. "He's the only one of us who made a choice to do it."
"He's the only one of us who voted to stop the games."
Everyone turned to look at Akaashi, who had been mute ever since Hide and Seek. He didn't return any of their gazes, his eyes firmly locked onto the wall he was leaning against.
"I didn't ask any of you to stay here with me," Sakusa hissed.
"What the hell else were we supposed to do, Sakusa?" Akaashi asked. "You were going to stay here and get yourself killed no matter what we did. I guess now you have to make the choice to kill us, too, don't you?"
Bokuto put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. Iwaizumi sighed.
"I can't take back what I did," he said, looking right back at Sakusa now. "And I'm going to atone for that for the rest of my life, whether that ends in here or out there."
"You can never make up for killing him," Sakusa said through gritted teeth. "If you do make it out of here—and that's a big if—what do you think is going to happen? Do you honestly think these people are going to let the winner walk free with no strings attached? How do you think you're going to explain to his brother that you murdered him in cold blood?"
Iwaizumi's heart clenched. In all the madness, he had failed to consider what would happen to Osamu when all was said and done. Unless someone else came out on top, any one of the people sitting around him would be forced to tell Osamu the truth. Iwaizumi would die, one way or another, with that weight on his chest.
Of course, how would he feel if he knew that Atsumu had gotten Oikawa killed in the first place? Would he understand? Would any small part of him show mercy to Iwaizumi for avenging the one he loved?
"Whoever wins this," he began dryly, "isn't walking out unscathed. They'll have more blood on their hands than just the ones who die in here."
"Oikawa's family is as good as dead," Matsukawa said then. "His sister can't keep supporting them by herself. The Yakuza will come to collect." His eyes flicked up to Sakusa's. "They always do."
"Hey, guys?"
They turned their attention toward Hinata, who was bundled up under a blanket in the corner on the other side of Bokuto. Iwaizumi hadn't seen that despairing look on his face in a long, long time.
"...Can we all promise each other something?" he asked, looking around at them all. "No matter who wins this, if it's one of us...we'll take care of each other's families and loved ones. Right?"
The ten of them fell silent for a moment. The amount of money that would accumulate in that prize bank would be astronomical compared to anything any one of them could need it for. It would be more than enough to dig them all out of their debts and then some.
"I think that's only fair," Kuroo said from where he leaned back on his hands on a cot against the barricade. "We'll look out for each other like we always have. Ain't that right, Bokuto?"
Bokuto looked up, clearly fighting with himself what he should be feeling in that moment, but in the end, he smiled and gave a shaky thumbs-up.
"To the end, bro."
"I would be honoured to help in every way that I can, should I be lucky enough to win," Ushijima muttered.
"I don't know if I'd call it luck," Alisa said, her voice barely a whisper, "and I don't think I have enough of it to win, but I'm begging whoever does to take care of Lev." Her eyes began to water, lips twitching in an attempt to smile despite the way they quivered. "He's too stupid to take care of himself."
As her tears broke free and streamed down her cheeks, Kuroo was quick to drop to the floor beside her and offer her his arms. Across from them, Kyotani clenched his fists.
"I'm the last person here who deserves to win," he said, "so I'll make damn sure one of you does if it kills me."
Iwaizumi—for all his bravado and the pseudo-macho bullshit he had given Oikawa the night after the first game—clutched at the shirt on his chest and stared at the floor to hide his own tears. All he could think about while listening to everyone pledge their loyalty to helping each other was how it would have made Oikawa happy to hear it. He would have been beside himself with joy and relief to know that, even though he wasn't walking home with that money, his family would still be taken care of. He would have gotten so emotional over this that he'd be sobbing with the ugliest fucking snot-face Iwaizumi had ever seen.
Iwaizumi wasn't a cry-er, but he had no reason to put on a brave face anymore. The person he had wanted to protect more than anything was gone. The grand king had fallen and his knight in shining armour had lain down his sword. Now, all he had to do was make sure one of them won.
No matter the cost.
When the lights came back on some hours later, signalling that it was a new day, everyone was sluggish to face the dawn. After yesterday, it was surprising that any of them had the strength, physically or emotionally, to prepare for whatever horrors lay in wait for them outside of those doors.
But first, breakfast.
Circle masks came in to serve them their meals. As they all queued up, somewhat impatiently, Iwaizumi caught sight of that dirt-bag from before who had tried picking fights with Hinata and Oikawa. The guy must have sensed the cold look in Iwaizumi's eyes as he turned his head and looked right at him. Instead of flinching under the threat in Iwaizumi's stare, though, he just smirked, dragging his thumb across his neck.
I'm going to kill him next, Iwaizumi thought to himself in the privacy of his own mind. He was already going to Hell; he might as well take a few pieces of scum with him.
After they were given time to eat their (rather small) rice balls, the voice on the intercom echoed through the room.
"Attention, players: please follow the staff out of the room. The third round is about to begin."
Once again they were herded out into the maze of colourful stairs, masked figures leading them into yet another death match disguised as a game. This time, they arrived in a spacious room painted black on all sides, illuminated only by the brightly-lit monstrosity in the centre of the room. The structure looked like a carousel with its tented top and podium of chairs arranged in a circle.
Everyone was instructed to line up in a circle around the carousel. Iwaizumi and the others stayed next to each other, exchanging uncertain glances as they tried to decipher what game this was supposed to be.
"Welcome to the third game. Today's game is Musical Chairs. When the music is playing, the carousel in the centre of the room will turn clockwise, and all players must walk counter-clockwise. When the music stops, players must take a seat on the carousel until there are no seats left. Whoever is left without a seat...will be eliminated."
Iwaizumi swallowed. So this was their angle, huh? They would have to brute force their way into a chair every round. Glancing around the room, he noticed several staff members with triangle masks stationed around with guns. They would likely be shooting the losers point blank.
"If a player stops moving while the music is playing, that player will be eliminated."
Iwaizumi clicked his tongue at that. There would be no trying to time the music to snag a chair, it seemed. They would just have to get lucky.
"Game plan?" Kuroo asked quietly from his right.
"Make sure everyone gets a chair," Iwaizumi said simply. "Push someone out if you have to."
He could feel Kuroo's eyes on him when he said that, but thankfully he made no comment. Iwaizumi wasn't sure he could hold his ground if Kuroo confronted him about his first strategy involving murdering other players.
"Play time will last fifteen minutes. All players left standing when the timer runs out will pass this round. The game will now begin."
Carnival music began to play from invisible speakers around the room. On cue, everyone's feet started moving in one direction, opposite the way the carousel turned. Some people started to get twitchy within seconds, eyes flitting around as if to anticipate who would be making a run for which seats. Iwaizumi kept his eyes in one spot, focussed.
The music stopped, as did the carousel. Everyone in the room made a beeline for the carousel, pushing and shoving each other to get there first. Iwaizumi and the rest of his unofficial team all but created a wall with their bodies, trampling forward until they were all sitting down. Somewhere behind them, around the other side of the carousel, he could hear someone frantically running around in search of a seat. Only a couple seconds passed before a gunshot put an end to their hyperventilating. Iwaizumi closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.
They were instructed to stand up and form back into a circle as the music started up again. This time, as the carousel slowly spun around, Iwaizumi could see the gap in chairs where one had been lifted up to the top by the pole attached to the back, unusable.
The music stopped again. As before, they all ran forward, but this time, someone reached the chair in front of Iwaizumi at the same time as he did. He looked at them, wide-eyed, and met their own panicked expression. They were only a little older than him, but frail, sickly and gaunt like someone who hadn't had a full meal in weeks. They said something to him—it sounded like a plea—but Iwaizumi didn't stop moving long enough to bother listening.
In a matter of seconds, he had thrown the other person to the ground and claimed the seat for himself, heart pounding in his chest. In front of him, a triangle mask stepped up, aimed their rifle, and put a bullet in that person's skull.
What was your name?
They were instructed to stand again. The music returned. The carousel started to spin. Iwaizumi stared at the body, limp on the floor, until it was out of sight.
Did you have a favourite book?
When the music stopped, Iwaizumi moved, but he couldn't feel his legs. He and Kuroo fought off two more people to save their own skin.
Who did you fall in love with for the first time?
Again. And again. And again.
What did you dream about when you closed your eyes?
The chairs were becoming fewer and farther between. Iwaizumi and the others had to spread out a little, putting more distance between them than they would have liked and making it difficult to help each other. To his right, Kuroo lunged to tackle somebody down to the floor so that Hinata could claim his seat. He clambered back up as quickly as he could and dashed for the next available seat.
The same one Iwaizumi was running toward.
Kuroo stopped at the last second, realisation dawning on his face, but by the time he turned around, Iwaizumi had both hands on him, and he pushed.
He pushed Kuroo right into that chair.
All of their yelling faded away as Iwaizumi staggered back, took a breath, and looked up. The way the carousel lights bounced off the black ceiling looked like a thousand shooting stars through the tears in his eyes. They reminded him of Oikawa.
I'll see you soon.
Watching Iwaizumi go down like that seemed so unnatural that it almost felt like the world would dissolve away and shed its skin into a fucked up fever dream. The look in his eyes was enough to break Kuroo's own heart.
He looked relieved.
After that, it was an all-out blood bath until the countdown finished. Alisa was in pieces, Kyotani knocked several people unconscious, Ushijima full on curb-stomped someone to stop them from taking his seat. Even Matsukawa, with that impenetrable steel face of his, shed a few tears and lashed out at the other players around them.
This game, if it could even be called that, had taken what was left of their souls and twisted and crushed them into something unrecognisable. There was no walking away from this. No amount of money could ever get rid of the memory of this nightmare. They had all been marked the moment they said yes.
Bodies piled up around the carousel, forcing Kuroo to climb over them a couple of times to get to a chair. When the timer finally ran out, he was heaving for breath along with the rest of his brothers in arms. They had survived, but not in one piece.
They were ushered into a line and had to stumble back through those disorienting staircases to return to their cage. When the doors closed, the scoreboard updated.
Eighty-four players were left to fight for a prize of 5.025 billion yen. Kuroo did the math in his head. If the remaining nine of them managed to be the sole survivors and had the choice to cash out then and there, each of them would get damn near close to 700 million yen a piece. Bokuto, Akaashi, and Hinata didn't technically need the money, so if they divvied that up, the other six would get at least one billion yen each. It would have been more than enough to clear their own debts and take care of everyone else.
Thinking about it pissed him off. That kind of outcome was wishful thinking in the first place. There was no way these insane sickos were going to let more than one person take home the prize, if they were even telling the truth about that at all. Maybe that whole pot was made of fake notes. Maybe they were all doomed to die here regardless and they were just killing each other for no other reason than the entertainment of their captors.
"Well I won't be your fucking puppet," he muttered under his breath. Bokuto looked over at him from where he was consoling Akaashi.
"What?"
"Shh," Kuroo hissed without looking at him. He kept his eyes glued to the door just to the side of the main entrance, some sort of staff entrance. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom. In ten minutes, I want you to ask to go to the bathroom next."
Without waiting for a response or further questions, Kuroo stood up and marched straight over to the door, knocking on it with force to get the triangle mask's attention from the other side.
As he was escorted down the corridor, Kuroo thought back to each time they had been led up and down those staircases in the other part of the building. He had memorised all three routes (at least for the time being) and knew that the one that led to the Hide and Seek arena was likely the closest thing to an escape route they had. First, however, he had to figure out what they had put inside them to keep track of their whereabouts.
He wasn't stupid. They wouldn't have let them out there in the first place if they didn't have layers upon layers of contingencies. There was likely a border around the given area for the playing field, which would probably activate whatever device he could hear buzzing behind his ear to incapacitate anyone who crossed it. Assuming someone did manage to avoid incapacitation, the device had to have been programmed to track their location in the event they made it past the border. If Kuroo were in their shoes, he also would have rigged it to trigger an alert if certain conditions were met, such as a player wandering too far outside of a designated zone. He had to assume they had thought of everything.
Once in the bathroom, he stood in front of a mirror and tilted his head to try to find the microchip in his neck. He felt around with his fingers until he found the small scab that had formed over the injection site, right underneath his lobe. The chip must have been damn small to leave such a tiny mark, which meant it would be a bitch and a half to get out of his head.
With that in mind, he stepped into the first stall and closed the door.
"Hey, uh, guard dude?" he called with just the right amount of sheepishness in his voice. "Hate to do this to ya, but looks like they didn't refill the TP in this one. Would ya mind grabbin' me a roll?"
A few seconds passed without response, and for a moment Kuroo worried that these fucks were so deranged that they would let a grown man drag mud cakes across the bathroom rather than acquiesce to a simple request, but luckily, he was proven wrong when he heard the door swing open. He tracked the guard's footsteps across the bathroom, into the stall next to him, and then they came to stand in front of his own stall.
"Thanks, pal. I really appreciate it."
Sharing a private smirk with himself, Kuroo swung open the stall door and landed a kick square in the guard's gut, putting him on his ass. Without missing a beat, he got on the ground and wrapped an arm around the guard's neck, trapping his head in the crook of his elbow until he stopped struggling.
Dragging his body into the stall, Kuroo made quick work of changing into his red jumpsuit. He hesitated for only a moment when he removed the mask to reveal that the one wearing it was just some normal-looking kid, probably in his early twenties. He would have to stop and think about what that implied about this place later. For now, he heard more people approaching the restroom door.
"Wait here," said the second guard who must have been escorting Bokuto on the other side.
When he walked inside, Kuroo was still in the stall, balancing precariously on the toilet lid and the water tank with his track pants hanging around the other guy's ankles.
"Player 92," the guard addressed him, "where is the the staff member who escorted you here?"
"How should I know?" Kuroo scoffed from inside, desperately trying not to slip. "I asked the guy to get me another roll of toilet paper like five minutes ago and I'm still waitin'. Ya mind goin' to get some for me? Kinda stuck right now."
Like before, there was a long pause, probably while the guard processed the details of the situation but ultimately deciding there were no noticeable red flags.
"I'll be back. Stay put," he instructed. Kuroo forced a laugh.
"Oh, buddy, you bet'chya."
He listened for the guard's footsteps to leave the restroom and, a couple seconds later, another set entered.
"Psst, Kuroo?" came Bokuto's signature confusion.
Kuroo hopped down from his perch and opened the stall door. Bokuto staggered backward at first, but Kuroo grabbed his arm in time to keep him from running.
"Shut up. Don't talk," he ordered. "I need to get a look around this place. Remember in high school when we got so good at impersonating each other our parents couldn't tell the difference?" he asked. Bokuto nodded wordlessly. "I need you to get in that stall and buy me some time."
Bokuto glanced behind him, likely eyeing the unconscious staff member slumped over the toilet.
"Uh, what about—"
"Get behind him and hold his neck like this," Kuroo instructed, demonstrating on Bokuto's neck. "If he starts waking up, squeeze hard until he falls asleep again. Got it?"
Once released, Bokuto rubbed his neck and nodded again, though worry was etched clearly on his face.
"I dunno about this, Kuroo. Seems dangerous. You could get yourself killed."
"Yeah, I know," Kuroo said. "But we can't just keep lettin' 'em do whatever they want to us. I gotta find somethin' to help us through this, or help us get out."
With a deep breath, Bokuto nodded one more time.
"Okay. You got this."
"Damn right."
They grasped each other's hands before separating as Bokuto reluctantly squeezed into the bathroom stall with the unconscious body, while Kuroo made his way to the corner of the bathroom next to the entrance just in the nick of time. The door opened as the other guard returned and stepped inside to deliver the not-so-needed toilet paper to Kuroo's body double. He caught the door before it closed and silently slipped outside while the other's back was turned, able to hear the beginning of Bokuto's flawless impersonation of him cracking a joke about mud cakes.
Damn, they were good.
As he traversed the halls, he made note of all the security cameras he had passed on his way there. With any luck, whoever was watching them wouldn't make any note of one triangle mask patrolling the halls. This shape seemed to be superior to the circles, but inferior to the rare squares they had seen so far. Hopefully he didn't run into one of those guys.
He made his way into the staircase section and began to follow the path he memorised to Hide and Seek. The weight of the gun holstered to his waist did not go unnoticed as he walked, his hand resting over the handle at all times. Bokuto wasn't exaggerating; there was every possibility that he could get himself shot pulling a stunt like this, but his point still stood. He had to do something. He refused to wait around like a sitting duck eating the bread crumbs they called meals and playing in their ruthless battle royal. His old man raised him better than that.
Surprisingly, he made it all the way to the surface without setting off any alarms. At least, no alarms that he could hear. He looked around, squinting in the dim light the half-moon in the sky had to offer. He could just make out the slightly brighter colour of the safety net on the ground, and beyond that a dark mass that was the treeline. He turned to his left, starting a trek up the slight incline. The horizon seemed far-off in this direction, but he soon learned after crossing just a few yards that that was because there was a cliff's edge there.
He walked up to it and peered down, noting that the cliff started receding back down to ground level some ways to his left. From here it was a sheer drop onto a rocky shore where the ocean waves crashed. He imagined the other side of the clearing was similar—it seemed they were indeed on an island. He couldn't make out many details of his surroundings at this time of night, but at least he had a pretty good idea of where the border was. He drew a map in his head of the underground entrance and then an elongated semi-circle around it that stretched out to encompass the forest up ahead and stopped on either side where the cliffs were. Judging by the thickness of the forest from when they played the game, he estimated that the area was several acres large.
Their best shot was to dig out their microchips and make a break for it along the shoreline below. These people had to have a way in and out to transport players. There also had to have been a place that allowed communication. He would need to do more reconnaissance before he bet his life on that plan, though.
Eventually, Kuroo made his way back into the facility and traced his steps back toward the restroom. When he approached, he noticed that the one to have escorted Bokuto was a circle mask. Perfect.
"You," he called as he walked forward with a confident stride. "You're off duty. I'll take those two back to the pen."
The circle mask stared at him for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't, simply nodding and walking off down another hallway. Kuroo waited until he was out of sight before entering the restroom.
"We're clear," he announced. The stall door opened immediately and Bokuto stumbled out, wiping sweat off his forehead.
"What the hell, man?!," he complained. "You were gone for, like, fifteen minutes! I had to fake being constipated just to keep that dude off my ass."
Kuroo chuckled and took off his mask.
"Yeah, well, it took a while to get where I needed to go," he said. "And look."
He held up the gun he had pocketed off the guard who still lay unconscious on the toilet behind Bokuto.
"That's awesome—where are we gonna keep that?" Bokuto asked. "We can't just stash it in the room. Someone'll definitely find it."
"We're not gonna stash it. We're gonna hold onto it and take it with us," Kuroo explained matter-of-factly. Bokuto's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
"Are you nuts?!"
"Maybe. Now come on, we gotta get back before someone realises we left that room unattended."
"Okay, but—what are we gonna do about..."
Bokuto turned to look back into the stall. Kuroo cleared his throat to regain his attention, and once he had it, he pointed up to the ceiling. Bokuto looked back at him with pain and exhaustion.
"You suck so hard."
"I know, big buy. I know."
With some elbow grease and seriously uncomfortable man-handling, the two of them managed to stuff the guard's body in the ceiling vents—not without drowning him in the toilet bowl first, of course. Bokuto nearly had an anxiety attack over it, but Kuroo helpfully reminded him that this guy was one of the cogs in the murderous machine that was responsible for killing their friends, and that seemed to sober him up just fine.
Kuroo also opted to stash the guard's clothes in the vents for easy access later in case they needed it. As for the gun, he tucked it away in the waistband of his pants before they rushed back to the holding cell, slipping inside before another guard appeared. Kuroo was sure they would send someone soon after realising the door was now unmanned.
As they returned to the room, however, all eyes were on them. It was now thirty minutes to lights out and the only thing illuminating the room was the prize pot hanging from the ceiling. Kuroo and Bokuto kept their heads down as they made their way back to their fort.
"And just where the hell have you two been?" Akaashi snapped as soon as they were safe behind the barricade walls. He was mostly looking at Bokuto, who cowered under his glare.
"Definitely not impersonating one of those masked guys and sneaking around—"
Kuroo elbowed him in the side. Hard.
"Dude."
"Dude? Fuck you if you think I'm keeping this a secret after what you put me through," Bokuto grumbled. Kuroo rolled his eyes and groaned quietly.
"Fine— Look, I came up with a plan to take a little...stroll through this place," he began, garnering everyone's attention. "We're gonna bust out of here."
"What? How?" Alisa asked, straightening up where she sat on a cot, eyes red and puffy from crying (not unlike Hinata's and Kyotani's). "That's—that's gonna be dangerous, right?"
"Not any more dangerous than stickin' around here," he pointed out. "I still need to work out the kinks, but...I think it's possible."
"Possible is better than nothing," said Ushijima, sitting next to Hinata. "We will follow your lead if you believe there is a chance we can all escape from this."
Kuroo nodded, looking around to meet each of their eyes.
"First thing's first," he said, "I need everyone on the same page. All our hands are gettin' dirty if we do this. There's not a way out that that doesn't involve killin' a few of those masks along the way."
"Say less," Kyotani chimed. "I owe those fuckers a few funerals."
"One question."
Everyone turned to look at Sakusa, who sat by himself in one of the corners hidden in the shadows of the barricade.
"If we go through with this—and generously assuming we all make it out alive—all that money disappears," he said. "One of us won't be able to win it all to help out each other's loved ones. Is everyone here okay with that?"
They glanced around at each other, some trying to hide the hesitation they felt. Even Kuroo pursed his lips. While his situation was far from the worst amoung them, he still felt for their plights. There were some financial losses that people couldn't come back from, holes they couldn't dig themselves out of.
Matsukawa was the first to speak.
"We'll help each other," he said. "We can all pitch in and help each other out."
"Yeah," Hinata agreed. "Hey, maybe we could all move in together? Ya know, like one of those frat houses in movies. We could split the rent..." he paused to count on his fingers, "nine ways! That'd be super cheap."
"Until Matsukawa breaks his jailbird out of prison and runs off with him," Akaashi mused aloud, the ever so slight curve to his lips a sign of his jest. Matsukawa huffed out a breath of laughter.
"I could still find ways to send money," he said. "We'll go to Europe and get jobs there. Money's worth a lot more in euros."
"Then it's settled," Alisa said, wiping at her damp face to reveal her own smile trying to break through. "We'll stick together and get each other back on our feet."
"And we'll never speak of this place ever again," Ushijima added.
They all nodded solemnly at that. If they managed to escape, they would leave this place and its horrors behind them. They would mourn for their fallen, console their families, and move on, despite how hard it seemed right now. They would make it through this.
Kuroo would make sure of it.