That night, the game arenas were lit up and the players made their way to the desired arena.

One of these areas was an apartment block, 7 stories high where a few players were already ready and waiting for the game to start.

Shouta Aizawa was one of these players. He walked into the entrance of the apartments and saw several other people there already. They all looked at him as he went to pick up a phone.

"Umm, excuse me?" A 16 year old boy with purple hair and a tired expression came up to him. "H-hey um, do you know what's going on? Where is everyone?"

Before he could answer, a tall man with red hair and a fierce face barged through between the two. He was closely followed by another man with bright red wings.

They each picked up their phones and walked over to a corner of the room.

"Do you know what's-" the boy began again.

"Looks like there are quite a few people here Oboro." A few people turned their heads and saw Hizashi and Oboro walking towards the building.

"Depending on the game that could either be a good thing or a bad thing." Oboro said.

The duo stood at the entrance and looked across at the other players. Hizashi stared curiously at a young boy with half red hair and half white hair, standing on his own in the corner with what looked like some kind of MP3 player charging behind him.

Oboro walked through to grab a phone and Hizashi followed closely behind. He briefly made eye contact with Shouta as he went to pick up a phone but quickly turned his head down.

"Hey, excuse me? What's going on?" The purple haired boy asked Hizashi.

Hizashi looked at him with sympathy. Not only was this his first game but he was a teenager in all of this!

"It's... a game." Hizashi said with a warm smile, in an attempt to calm the boy down.

"Hizashi!" Oboro hissed "We can't afford to help new players." He glared at the boy. "Perhaps it would be better to act like Nemuri did."

"Ah... a smart player I see." A short, purple haired boy came up to them. "Perhaps you two would make good teammates. The name's Mineta."

"No thanks. We're not interested." Oboro answered.

Then, all of the phones chimed at once.

"Registration has closed.
Number of players: 13

Game: Tag.

Avoid the tagger and find the safe room before the timer runs out.

Time limit: 20 minutes.

Clear condition: make it to the safe room before the timer runs out. If failed, the time bomb inside the building will explode.

Difficulty: 5 of spades."

"Ah, a physical game." Mineta said again.

"The cards correlate to the type of game?" Hizashi asked

"Of course! Spades mean it's a test of strength. Diamonds are a battle of wits, clubs are team games... and the hearts..." The boy grinned. "They're the nastiest of all."

"Nasty?" Hizashi asked.

"Yes, a game of betrayal where you play with people's hearts."

"So what do the numbers mean?" Oboro asked.

"The numbers represent the difficulty. Ace is the easiest, king is the hardest. Although I've not seen any of the royals yet..." Mineta said.

Hizashi looked back at the phone screen.

5 of spades... this wasn't going to be easy...

~~~~~~~~~

Finally the game had started. Everyone had simultaneously decided to stick with the people they knew as they went off in their own groups to look for the safe room.

The red and white boy that Hizashi had taken note of went to the corner of the top floor on his own. This way, he could get a good view of the game and see the tagger coming from a mile away. Plus, if need be, he could use the drainpipe to slide down to a lower level.

"Well, looks like everyone is about to die as usual." He said.

The elevator dinged and Todoroki looked across and saw the fiery man followed by the winged one step out.

He reluctantly waved to the two and was met by a glare from the first one.

Shoto chuckled to himself. "Hopefully he'll be one of the casualties of this game."

A trumpet audio sounded throughout the building, implying that the tagger had been let loose.

Shouta was checking every door on the fifth floor for the safe room when he heard the elevator ding not too far off.

He stopped dead in his tracks and steadied his breathing, listening out for the tagger.

He then heard heavy breathing followed by slow footsteps. Shouta didn't waste a second, going over to the ledge and quickly dropping down to the next floor, catching himself before he fell out of the arena.

Todoroki watched this, impressed.

"Hm, a climber? He could be a key component to winning this game..." he said as he continued to watch the other players.

Meanwhile, Oboro and Hizashi were still being followed by Mineta as the group went around, jiggling the handle of every door, looking for the safe room.

"Argh we're going too slow!" Oboro said, pushing infront of Hizashi and quickening the search.

"So, uh, how many games have you played?" Hizashi asked.

"About 5 I think." Mineta said proudly.

"And you survived each one?" Hizashi asked

"Well I suppose I have!" Mineta grinned.

It was then that the trio heard the ear splitting ripple of a gun being fired. They stayed frozen for a second before curiosity finally got the better of them so they cautiously and quietly made their way over to the stairs to try and see what had fired the gun.

Hizashi peeked his head around the staircase and let out an alarmed yelp as a guy who was maybe mid 40's came tumbling to his feet with several bullet wounds leaking through his shirt.

The group then heard the heavy footsteps of the tagger walking around to the top of the staircase to marvel at his kill.

Hizashi and Oboro caught a glimpse at the killer.

He was tall and incredibly well built. He wasn't wearing much in terms of armour but his face was covered by a tattered plague doctor mask.

He raised the gun in his hands and pointed it at them.

They let out a yell of terror as the gun was fired, bullets barely missing them.

Mineta, Oboro and Hizashi were frantically pushing past eachother as they ran down the stairs in order to get away from the tagger.

Mineta pushed his way infront of the two to get ahead but when Hizashi tried to do the same, he felt Oboro grab at his collar and instead pull him down the corridor.

The two hid behind a small section in the wall, not too far away from the staircase.

Hizashi felt like he wanted to cry from his fast his heart was beating as he heard the killer slowly approach their floor.

The tagger stopped for a second and in that moment, Hizashi thought that his rapid breathing had given them away.

A wave of fleeting relief washed over him as he heard the tagger continue his pursuit of Mineta.

"This is insane..." he muttered.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mineta had only been able to outrun the tagger for so long before he too had been shot down along with a few other players.

They only had 13 minutes left and little to no progress had been made.

Hizashi and Oboro were watching the killer from floor 5. He was two floors below them and marvelling over his newest kill.

"This is ridiculous! There's no way we can win against that thing!" Oboro hissed.

"There must be a way! The game master wouldn't make this impossible! It's only a 5 of spades so it's nowhere near the worst we could face." Hizashi whispered

The tagger looked up from his kill and turned his head to where Hizashi and Oboro were. They immediately ducked their heads and prepared for the onslaught of bullets that would be fired up at them but to their surprise, that never came.

Hizashi carefully peeked over the wall again and watched as the killer moved on.

A lightbulb flicked in Hizashi's head as he got an idea.

He quickly stood up and started running through the corridor, Oboro close behind him.

"You idiot what are you doing?!" Oboro hissed

"I don't need my quirk to be loud..." Hizashi said before taking in a deep breath.

"HEY!! EVERYONE!! THE TAGGER IS ON THE THIRD FLOOR!! HIS VISION ISN'T VERY GOOD BECAUSE OF THE MASK!!"

"HIZASHI YOU'RE  GOING TO GET US BOTH KILLED!" Oboro whisper-shouted. Hizashi ignored him.

"WE SHOULD ALL WORK TOGETHER A NOTIFY EACHOTHER OF THE TAGGER'S LOCATION! THAT WAY WE CAN FIND THE SAFE ROOM AND WIN!!"

Todoroki listened to this with an impressed nod.

"It's a good plan." He said to himself. "But no one will respond."

Shouta watched as the tagger moved up the the next floor. He hid behind a wall and shouted out.

"THE TAGGER IS APPROACHING THE FOURTH FLOOR CORRIDOR!! ANYONE IN THAT AREA SHOULD MOVE IMMEDIATELY!!"

Todoroki seemed even more surprised by this. "Hmm. Perhaps this'll work..."

Shouta dropped down to the fourth floor to try and warn anyone who might be there. He was devastated to see an old lady who apparently had no clue what was going on.

"Go! Get out of here! Quick!" He shouted

"Ooh... sorry, what was that deary?" She asked.

Shouta looked behind her and saw the tagger, gun aimed to kill.

"I'm sorry." He said as a spray of bullets was unleashed onto the woman who collapsed at the taggers feet.

Shouta wasted no time using the drainpipe to swing himself up a floor. The tagger leaned over the wall to try and catch him but Shouta had already gotten out of range.

"Time remaining: 7 minutes." The voice rang through the player's phones.

Shinso, the boy from earlier, had been moving around the building randomly on his own. He hadn't ran into the tagger or any of the other players so he was more or less in the dark about the true horrors of this game.

However, he knew that the tagger had a gun and that's all he needed to get an idea of the stakes of this game.

He was walking along the 4th floor, jiggling door handles at random but as he was about to reach for the next, he saw several bullets spray against the walls around him.

He immediately ducked behind the wall and put his hands over his head, attempting to muffle out the sound of the gun. But the bullets didn't stop trying to shoot him despite being covered by the wall.

Hizashi and Oboro were at the other end of the corridor and looked up to see the tagger shooting up from the 6th floor.

"Hey! Kid! Over here!" Hizashi shouted to Shinso despite Oboro's objections.

But Shinso was frozen in place. Curled up into a ball of fear as bullets sprayed against the wall behind him.

The tagger wasn't as accurate shooting from two floors above but that didn't make the bullets any less scary.

"Come on kid just move!" Hizashi tried to coax him.

Eventually realising this wasn't going to work, Hizashi crawled over to the boy, staying as close to the wall as possible.

He grabbed Shinso's wrist and pulled him over to Oboro where the tagger wouldn't be able to see them.

"You okay kid?" Hizashi asked.

"N-no! No I'm not okay! I-I'm so scared and I-I don't know what's going on or what to do! Why is that guy trying to kill me?? I'm just a kid! I miss my home and my family!" The boy cried, tears rolling down his cheeks faster than Hizashi could dry them.

"Hey, hey listen to me. We're gonna get through this I promise. We'll win the game and live." Hizashi said with a comforting smile.

"You can't promise that." Oboro said.

"I can try." Hizashi replied. He turned back to the boy.

"What's your name?"

"Shinso... Hitoshi Shinso."

"I'm Hizashi Yamada and this is my friend Oboro." Hizashi smiled. "Now Shinso, I've got a plan to win this game. We all split up and check every door of every floor on our own. It's the fastest way to find the safe room."

"What about the tagger?" Shinso asked.

"Well... I- uh..."

"I'll take him out." Oboro said, brandishing a knife he stole from the furniture store.

"Oboro you can't seriously think you have a chance against that thing!?" Hizashi said.

"At the very least I can slow him down. We don't have time to play it safe Hizashi. We need to fight back." Oboro said.

"Exactly." A low voice said.

A tall man with red hair and a displeased expression walked infront of the trio.

"The tagger is around 6 or 7 feet tall. His dominant hand is his right and he fires one round in about 3.8 seconds. He clearly knows how to handle a gun. Perhaps an ex militant or an underground brawler judging by the scars on his arms." The man said.

A second, shorter male with bright red wings came up behind him, clutching two fire extinguishers. Hizashi took note of the strange gym locker bracelets they were both wearing.

"Yo Enji, I got them." He grinned, handing them both to him.

Enji then approached Oboro and handed him one of the hydrants. "Let's beat this tagger." He said. He then turned to Hizashi and Shinso.

"You two. Find the safe room. Check every door on all seven floors." He said.

"Hey you don't tell us what to do!" Oboro said.

The five of them turned around at the sound of Shouta dropping onto the balcony from the higher floors.

"The tagger is moving along the 6th floor. I just checked the 7th and 6th. The safe room isn't there." He said.

"Wait I haven't checked 1st and 2nd!" Hizashi remembered.

"Right." Shouta said. He grabbed onto the ledge and dropped again, causing Hizashi and Shinso to hurriedly look over the end he to check that he was alright.

"Fucking hell that guy is good..." Hizashi marvelled.

"Zashi we don't have time for this. You go check the 5th floor." Oboro instructed.

"Right. Shinso, you okay taking the 3rd?" Hizashi asked. The boy nodded and ran down the stairs. Hizashi turned around to look at Oboro. "Don't get yourself killed dude."

Oboro smiled back. "Not getting rid of me that easily."

Hizashi ran up the stairs to the higher floors whilst Oboro stayed there with Hawks and Endeavor.

"I take it you two have a plan?" Oboro asked.

"Hawks will lead the tagger down to the ground floor and I'll be waiting behind the staircase to get him from behind. You'll stay by the elevator incase something goes wrong." He said.

"Seems easy enough." Oboro said.

"Just make sure you don't falter man. This is life and death we're dealing with." Hawks said.

"I understand."

~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Todoroki was still watching the game take place from his perch on the 7th floor.

"Alright. I think it's been long enough." He put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the staircase. "Time for the next stage."

~~~~~~~~~

Hizashi ran along the 5th floor, jiggling every door handle but to no avail.

"Ugh this isn't working..." he said to himself.

He leaned over the balcony and his eyes fell on the door where Shinso had been shot at.

"Wait a minute..." he remembered how the tagger had been so quick to attack from a completely different floor. "The tagger only ever shot when a kill was almost guaranteed... so why..? " and then it hit him. "THAT'S THE SAFE ROOM!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Everything ready to go?" Oboro asked.

"Yes. Just remember, only get involved if you have to. Hawks will lead the tagger down here and I'll knock him out from behind with the fire hydrant." Endevour said.

"Got it."

Oboro ran into his position behind the elevator as Hawks came running down the stairs, the sound of the tagger slowly following him.

Hawks and Endevour shared a nod before Endevour ducked behind the staircase.

"Hey! Down here dummy!" Hawks shouted up, the tagger appearing at the top of the staircase. "Yeah that's right. Come and get me you dumb bird brain!"

Hawks backed away from the stairs, bringing the tagger with him. His confident grin still showing as he looked up standing face to face with the Tagger.

"Heheh... Enji, if you'd do the honours." Hawks grinned.

He glanced behind the tagger and made brief eye contact with Endevour.

"Aha... Enji? come on man... remember the plan?" Hawks kept a nervous smile as he slowly took a step back which was immediately made up by the Tagger.

"Endevour...?" Hawks' voice was almost a whimper as the tagger raised his gun. "ENDEVOUR!!" Hawks turned and ran as fast as he could down the hall but soon felt the piercing pain of bullets firing into his back.

Hawks collapsed in a pool of blood next to Oboro who could only look at the corpse in fear.

"He just killed his own man..." Oboro said to himself.

As the tagger stood over the now dead Hawks, Oboro looked up at the large man. He turned his head and looked down at Oboro. He flinched as the tagger pointed his gun again but before he could shoot, Endevour sprayed the contents of the fire extinguisher onto the tagger. Blinded by the mist, the tagger stared shooting randomly at any movement he saw.

Oboro stood up and swung his extinguisher at the head of the tagger. Amazingly, this did very little.

"It's clear the guy is used to taking a beating." He said, ducking at another spray of bullets.

"Either that or the guy's been given some kind of endurance drug." Endevour commented.

The mist from the hydrant had started to clear by now so the tagger could clearly see his targets. He pointed the gun at Oboro who could only watch as the trigger was pulled.

Click

Out of ammo.

The tagger stared furiously fumbling with a new magazine but before he could load it, Endevour tackled the man to the ground, slamming his head against the hard, stone floor.

He sat ontop of the tagger, pinning him down with one hand whilst relentlessly beating his face into the concrete with the other.

When he had thought that the tagger had been knocked unconscious, Endevour sat up briefly only to be quickly pushed off by the man and kicked to the ground. The tagger kicked Endevour in the gut several times before Oboro had ran and jumped on the man's back. He brandished his knife and ruthlessly stabbed him in the shoulders a few times before being thrown against the wall by the seemingly unphased tagger.

Oboro was winded from the impact and as he looked up at the bird mask, he saw the tagger swing out a machete that was concealed in his belt. Oboro's eyes widened and he barely had anytime to collect his thoughts before the crazed man lurched for him. Oboro narrowly dodged the sharp blade as he tried to move around the small space. The tagger swung at him a few times, forcing Oboro to move against the wall. With nowhere left to run, the tagger lunged at him.

Oboro drew in a sharp breath as he tried to suppress his cry when he felt the cool steel of the blade cut into his side. Looking down, he saw both his shirt and the machete were stained and dripping a dark red.

Hearing Oboro's clenched groan of pain, Endevour brought himself up and took a running kick at the tagger.

The masked man was fell to the grouynd but quickly recovered and stood face to face with Endevour.

Oboro, clutching his side, sat up as he tried to regain his breath. He looked between the two as Endevour rushed the tagger. He dodged the machete and punched the man square across the face. He then grabbed the handle of the machete and tried to pry it from the Tagger's grip. This, however, soon turned into a tussle for the blade as both men tried to ruthlessly yank it from the other's grasp.

The tagger then pushed Endevour against the wall, leaning against him to hold him in place as he inched the machete closer and closer to the mans face. Endevour strained himself as he tried everything to stop the sharp metal from reaching his face but this ended up being in vain as he felt the cool steel starting to cut through the skin as his blood dripped down the blade.

Running out of options, Endevour kicked the back of his legs and ducked beneath the tagger's arms. He rolled to the other side of the room as the tagger turned to him again.

"You just don't know when to quit do you..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"So... You figured it out too?" Todoroki said to Hizashi. They had both met eachother face to face at the door.

Hizashi sighed. "I'm honestly embarrassed it took me this long to figure out. It was the only time the tagger shot from long range. So obviously he was trying to protect the saferoom."

"Hm." Todoroki nodded.

Hizashi placed his hand on the door handle but didn't open it quite just yet.

"Why the hesitation?" Todoroki asked.

"Why wouldn't the tagger just stay by the door? He must've known we wouldn't stand a chance against that gun." Hizashi said. Todoroki shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know... However..." He held up his phone, showing they only had a little over three minutes left. "We should probably get a move on and open that door."

Hizashi nodded and cautiously opened the door. He and Todoroki walked inside the darkened room. Like the other area's of Tokyo, it seemed as if this room had no electricity.

"The game is still going... did we do something wrong?" Hizashi asked.

"No... we're probably just missing something." Todoroki pointed to a plain white door inside the apartment. The duo walked over to it and Hizashi put his hand on the handle. However, the two were oblivious to the steady, quiet footsteps behind them.

Hizashi turned his head at the sound of a gun click.

"LOOK OUT!!" He shouted as a spray of bullets was unleashed upon them.

Todoroki bolted out of the apartment, bullets leaving dents in the metal door, whilst Hizashi ran inside the smaller room.

He looked around the room and saw it was completely bare and painted a bright white. In comparison to the first room, it was well lit. With one bulb giving enough illumination for the whole room. There was a big window that was bolted shut and on either side of the room, a big red button with a sign above it.

"Both buttons must be pressed at the same time to win." It said.

Hizashi looked at the distance between them, it was impossible for one person to press both.

"HEY!! WE FOUND THE SAFEROOM!! IT'S IN APARTMENT 406 ON THE FORTH FLOOR!! BUT WE NEED TWO PEOPLE TO COMPLETE THE GAME!!" Hizashi shouted.

Todoroki heard this and groaned. "Of fucking course..." he muttered.

"IF YOU CAN GET HERE PLEASE HURRY!! WE'VE ONLY GOT TWO MINUTES LEFT!!"

Then, the second tagger shot off the handle to the room and stepped inside. Hizashi stared in fear as the masked man turned and pointed his gun at him.

Before he could even think about what was happening, Hizashi ducked and ran straight for the tagger as he heard several bullets being fired off at where he was, shattering the window. He pushed himself and the tagger against the wall as he turned around and started to furiously tussle for the gun in his hands.

Todoroki had peeked around the corner into the room but as another round was let out, he quickly returned to the safety of the apartment.

"Time remaining: 1 minute."

Hizashi and the tagger were throwing eachother around the room in a violent attempt to claim the gun. The tagger had his finger on the trigger and he fired several bullets every time the gun was aiming close enough to Hizashi's face. Hizashi on the other hand kept two hands on the gun as he pushed it as far away from him as possible. It was honestly a miracle he hadn't been killed yet.

"SOMEONE!!!" He strained "HELP ME!!"

Meanwhile, Shouta had been progressively swinging his way from windowsill to windowsill after he heard that Hizashi had found the saferoom. Sure it would've been much safer to use the stairs and if he fell then he'd be out of the game but with so little time left on the clock, he didn't really have a choice to play it safe. He heard several more shots go off as he got closer to the window.

Just one more swing...

Hizashi and the tagger were still wrestling with eachother whilst Todoroki was trying to slip into the room. But every time he tried, more random bullets were fired, preventing him from entering. Hizashi had been pushed against the wall again as he continued to try and pry the gun from the man's grip.

"Time remaining: 20 seconds."

"HEY!" Hizashi turned his head towards the window where he saw a man with dark baggy clothes and even darker, scruffy hair. "You called?"

The tagger's attention immediately switched to Shouta as he aimed his gun and fired. Aizawa easily dodged this by dropping and rolling to the other side of the room.

"Hey!" Todoroki called to Aizawa. Shouta quickly glanced at him and saw the boy flip on some kind of handmade taser. he zapped it once to make sure it worked and then threw it took Shouta who caught the machine and held it to the leg of the tagger. The man collapsed from the electrical shock and Hizashi could finally catch his breath. But not for long...

"Time remaining: 5... 4..."

Hizashi and Shouta barely shared as glance as the stumbled to their feet and jumped towards the buttons.

"3... 2..."

BAM

The two men fell to the floor and braced for the explosion.

To everyone's relief, instead they heard the victory ding of their phones.

"Game cleared. Congratulations!

Visa days remaining: 7."

Hizashi sighed with relief and looked to the other two who were also trying to calm themselves down.

"That was too close." Todoroki said.

"Yeah but at least we lived." Hizashi said.

Hizashi then stopped as he heard a subtle beeping. it was quiet and muffled but definitely there and it seemed to be coming from the tagger. Said tagger then sat up and as he did, his mask fell off. Hizashi's eye's widened as he got a good look at the man. He looked to be in his late 30's and had short, blond hair. As the tagger looked between the players, Hizashi noticed a strange collar around his neck where the beeping was coming from. His breath hitched as the beeping sped and a look of pure fear spread over the tagger's face.

"Game over." The tagger's phone chirped as the collar around his neck exploded, painting the white walls with his splattered blood.

Hizashi and Shouta looked at the sight, unable to say anything as their words were caught in their throat. Todoroki on the other hand only seemed mildly surprised by this.

Only letting out a small "Hm." of acknowledgement.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Oboro and Endevour looked over the body of the now dead tagger.

"Did we win then?" Oboro asked. "And these guys... lost?"

Endevour didn't reply and instead started routing through the taggers pockets, looking for something to salvage. Oboro decided to do the same as he rushed over to Hawks' corpse. As he was digging through the pockets, he heard the crackle of a walkie talkie.

"shcrrch... scrturn...skrnchh... crhheach..."

"Hello...? Hello?" Oboro said into the device. "Hey! Who is this!"

Endevour looked up to Oboro as the man continued to fiddle with the walkie talkie.

"HEY! WHO IS THIS! ANSWER!" But the machine's response was drowned out by the static.

"scshh... eturn... schrcnhh....UA..."

"UA?" Oboro asked. he turned around to face Endevour but the man was gone.

"Return...scrhh... To UA."

♥️♣️♦️♠️