tvk | [Video>Action]

[The video feed pops on to Kaiji this night, who is sitting on a ledge overlooking the ocean. The phone sits next to him, pointed upwards. He's smoking a cigarette and looking thoughtful.]

A whole month now. That's how long I've been here. Hard to believe. It's gone by so fast. Especially since the last place I was, time seemed to stand still.

I know sometimes shit gets crazy here. The shadows every night, people getting hurt, big fights like at the casino... But trust me, it could always be worse. Hell, I'm sure a lot of ya know that already. We've all been dragged into this. A lot of us have nowhere else to return to. But that means one thing - we're all in this together. We can all help each other out. We can figure this place out, maybe make it safe again someday. No more shadows, no more Dark Hour.

[He takes a long drag of his cigarette and finishes it off, tossing it into the sea and watching it fall.]

I need to go back sometime though. It's already too late - what's past is past, and even though it's not my fault, there were some guys back there that were counting on me. I don't know what I can do to fix it, but... Shit, at this point, they probably think I'm dead anyway. Does it matter anymore? By this point they might--

[Kaiji cuts his muttering off, shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut. It might be hard to see from the angle and the light, but there might be some tears there.]

I've fucked up a lot, and I probably will keep fucking up too. I'm not smart, or lucky, or brave, or anything like that. But I can promise you guys this: while I'm on this island, I'm on your side. I'll fight by your side. Let's show these monsters what we're made of.

[Kaiji absently wipes a sleeve at the corner of his eyes.]

Fuck it. I'll be at the bar.

[Feel free to meet him there. Like a lot of you, he's in a talkative mood and doesn't want to sit alone, for a change.]

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...It's a nice night, when the Midnight Hour isn't in play. [Then everything goes wrong.]

Yeah. Guess we oughta keep an eye on the time, too.

Look. The shit I was in back home... It's a long story, for one thing. And you're probably gonna come out of it thinking I'm a complete idiot.

I've heard strange things here. Try me.

I dunno if it's strange or just stupid.

[He pauses again, thinking of where to start.] About a year and a half ago, a loan shark showed up at my door. I co-signed on a coworker's loan and he disappeared on them, so they came to me for the money. They gave me an offer to gamble on this ship in this weird game of rock-paper-scissors, which I made it through, but barely. After that, there was... it was called the Human Derby. 20 million yen if you could make it from one building to the other, across a 3-inch wide electrified beam, 22 stories up. Nothing to break your fall. I-I was the only one to make it across out of a dozen people. We were all in a line, you'd have to push people off if y-you wanted to get across. Sahara, and Ishida, and everyone, they...

[He trails off, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. No better time for another cigarette, right?]

[It sounds more unreal than heroes fighting it out in a modern-day Japan.]

I'm so sorry.

[Another long drag on the cigarette.] That's not even the end of it. I wanted to win against this yakuza assholes. Sahara should have made it, but they... [He shakes his head.]

After that I went on to play some games against one of their top guys. I risked losing my ear to this guy in a card game. Betting money against my own body. I-I made it through that one, but barely. I cut it off myself to make it through. [Kaiji moves the hair that was covering his left ear. Scars show where yakuza doctors later stitched it back on.] All they do is cheat, so you have to try and figure out how they do it, beat them at their own game. I-I ended up going against the head of the yakuza himself. I came up with a game a-and tried to rig it, and that old bastard still got it. I...

[Kaiji is always wearing gloves, usually a pair of old work gloves. He takes off the one on his left hand and holds it up. More scars show where his fingers were all stitched back on as well.]

You are a braver man than I am.

[He couldn't do something like that. He barely manages to just fight.]

I'm not brave. I... I spent about a year doing the same thing I always did. Not working, gambling what little I had away. Then I came across Endou, the loan shark, again a-and asked him if he knew where I would win big. I was still in way over my head to the yakuza, owing them even more for medical treatment now. Instead he and his goons grabbed me and shipped me off to hell. They have this underground construction going on for God even knows what. It's horrific. Working hard labor all day for next to no money, no food or rest... People get crippled or killed all the time.

I had just managed to get out of there by winning a temporary pass by gambling enough money to do so. Three weeks to make 65 million yen to bail out myself and the guys who backed me up. But now I'm here. And...

[He trails off. He doesn't know where to go from there.]

...I hope you can return soon. We don't know what's going on at home when we're here, not yet.

It's been months since I was there, then brought here. I don't claim to know h-how any of this shit works, but maybe... I owe those guys. They're counting on me to break them out of that hell!

[He wipes away those tears automatically, then scoffs at himself.] Damnit... Always fucking crying.

There isn't anything wrong with tears. You can cry if you want to.

[Yeah there are totally more tears, but he shakes his head.] I should count myself lucky to be here and stop this kind of shit! How many other people get this chance? I can't fuck this up but I know I'm gonna fuck this up. Even if this whole situation is weird and crazy and doesn't even seem real, it is what it is now. This is the game now. This is what I gotta survive.

You're a survivor. You've gone through so much already that I know you can do this. It's - it's okay.

...

I-I want to. I really do. The game has changed, and now so do I.

You can. If I can be here and survive, you can.

[Video>Action]

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