Yellowing Poscards
Halfway through Episode 4, I already guessed that Kira's popularity is way higher than Sakamoto's. It wouldn't have been so had they not make Sakamoto, alledged BTOOOM! top player, so slow in understanding dude, you're holding a timed grenade it's not a pointless cube seriously.
Warning: Sporadic updates, grammar issues
Disclaimer: Junya Inoue, Madhouse Studio, Sentai Filmworks, Sotsu, KlockWorx, flying DOG, Showgate
Summary: Sakamoto refused to accept this crazy terrorist dumping them to some remote island. He kept silent, and made his strike when they threw him off of the cargo plane. Any gamer worth their salt knows that the best defense is first offense. [Mostly from Kira's POV] Canon Divergence – Rework of BTOOOM! Rational Fiction.
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It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction
Fiction has to make sense
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He was walking with a small limp and aching groin behind his dad when people in uniforms burst from their bedroom door and knocked them out. At least, they knocked his dad out – the braindead brute couldn't take a hit on the back of his neck and stay conscious. Kira was smart enough to keep his trap shut and pretend obliviousness.
They were brought into a van, probably. Kira could hear them exchanging orders and 'yes sirs' but he hadn't really managed to glean anything particularly useful. Just that this was on government's order – whatever this is – and that he and his dad were apparently 'nominees'.
Nomenees for some kind of psycho award? Maybe they finally figured out that his dad sexually abused him. Nah, it's probably because of those women he had offed. And raped. Heh. He bet no one else had done that. They all do it in reverse.
He felt his arm yanked hard and something cold pressed at the back of his left hand.
Then his bones melt.
He couldn't help it – he screamed. Someone pressed cold steel on him and electricity coursed through his veins, and he blacked out.
. o . 0 . o .
A shock of electricity zapped on his back, and Kira was forced to open his eyes. He yelped and scooted away from the taser. He saw that someone in a protective gear was holding it, and others like this man were using the taser to wake the other unconscious people up.
Kira looked around to take in his surroundings. It was really hard to do so since he was on the short side, but he could make out that they really were on a plane. Not a passenger plane it seems, more like a cargo plane. Were they being shipped off?
The man in black gears made them line up. Kira ended up on the middle of the lines, third from the front. He turned his head sideways; six people behind him and three in front including him, three lines: twenty seven people. Mostly men – most were in suits too – but there were some women too, and teenagers probably. Aside from him, he spotted there was a kid too, a girl. Old crones were there too. What do they all warrant to shipped off?
Then a screen in front of them lit up. It showed a man in front of a white background. He looked like a lousy pizza delivery guy.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Haaaaallloooo!" The man in the screen pumped his fists and began to sway as if he had the balance of a drunk toddler. "You will be playing a very suspenseful game, you know!"
Ugh. This isn't a kiddy show is it?
"This cargo plane—" Ha. I was right. "—is heading to a small island near the Pacific." Pizza guy's image was set aside for a map to appear. From Japan, a small icon of a white plane moved towards Indonesia, then Papua New Guinea, then—it stopped, and a large red question mark appeared. Damn it, Kira was never interested in geography, if he could figure out what sort of island— "This is an inhabitated tropical island." Eh. Nevermind. "But there is no food or water, so it can't really be called a paradise."
The pizza guy walked away from the screen as it showed several images of the trees, the beach—a fish swam at the edge of the screen, a river. Then the pizza guy appeared again in a close up. "If you wish to get out of this island, you'll have to play the game~! Good luck~! Please note that any complaints, pleads to get back, futile fightings are ignored and not allowed." The pizza guy grinned.
Predictably, people around him began to shout and throw curses. Kira's mind was mostly racing about what kind of game he's having them all play? A game plus an unhabitated island pretty much indicated that it's going to be some kind of survival game… But there won't be any food… Some kind of reward system must be set up somehow…
"If you're going to make a ruckus, I'll give ya'all some shock~" The men in black gears hold up their tasers towards them. Kira thought back on what he had heard on his way here. Government approved – but they looked like typical hijackers. Why— "I'm only going to say this once."
Kira stopped and paid attention to the pizza guy again.
His hand came up the screen and held familiar set of trinkets. "You all will be fighting with these bombs we call BIM."
BTOOOM! Is he a founder? Some kind of sponsor? A hacker? "Eh? Fight who? Why, you'll be fighting those who are standing next to you!" Kira looked to his side; a grandma. On his left was a very large man who grew up horizontally instead of vertically. Wait a minute, he had his dad around here right? Shit. Shit shit shit—"AAAAAH!"
Kira looked over his shoulder. Some guy behind him was zapped. He must have caused a ruckus. He was startled when pizza guy suddenly clapped his hands and brought their attention back.
"Okay, back to topic." The screen showed several pop ups of many types of BIMs. Kira could digest that it really was going to be a survival game, and it took all of his self-control not to have a shit-eating grin at how lucky he was that the game was based on BTOOOM! "You will be given various types of BIMs. But at the starting point, each of you can only have one type of BIM. You'll have to wait to find out what type of BIM you're going to be lucky to get. There is no manual of whatever sort, so be careful in using them." He cackled. "Lastly! How to play the game?"
Everyone leaned forward in interest – everyone conscious and kept their cool anyway. "Have you all looked at the back of your left hands?"
Kira hadn't. Stupid of him, really. While his right hand patted his pockets to make sure he still has his possessions, he saw there was some kind of green jewel embedded on the—
His bones melt.
—part where the middle row of his metacarpal bone was supposed to be. Kira gingerly pressed on the jewel. Nothing happened, and it wasn't painful. He tried to pluck it off but it was embedded pretty deep, but shallow enough that his middle finger was still functional. Not all the bones and skin there, well, melted.
"I'm sure some of you have took note of it. We have planted a chip in your left hands." Disappointingly, the screen only showed the jewel glow a bright green light instead of anything useful. "In essence, this is an IC chip that will allow you to recognize other people easily!"
Kira looked at the jewel in his hand and tapped it again. Aside from the peculiarity of the situation and location, it didn't seem to be encoded. It must be hiding the actual chip inside under a non-transparent metal.
"You won't be able to take it off without an operation. And your heart will instantly stop beating if you do take it off."
Kira ceased tapping against it. The pizza guy didn't say it wasn't unbreakable. He wondered how a jewel embedded on a skin would be able to connect to a heart. Or was that one a bluff? It could be nanobots, but that seems too farfeteched… then again, this entire thing is farfetched.
"To the main event we go! You're all going to be heading to an island and to get out of this island… you'll have to collect 8 chips. That's the only way to get off of the island." He grinned maniacally. "Now then… Let's Start!"
"Automatic parachutes, all of you!" The masked men barked and soon every single one of them was forced to wear a parachute. After they were all ordered to buckle up each of them were given a heavy white bandolier. Kira wanted to open it to see its contents but the masked men were posed menacingly behind him with their tasers.
A moment later, the tailboard of the cargo plane was opened fully, and the man near it barked out, "All of you, JUMP!"
Some woman protested and got tasered on the head, and from the horrified scream and gasps Kira could guess that she had fallen off the plane.
"Hurry it up~ before this plane left the island and you'll be stranded in the middle of the ocean~ SPEED IT UP, WILL YA!"
Groups of three to five people were promptly pushed off of the plane. Kira was one of the last. Automatic parachutes, right? He better not get struck with bad luck and somehow got a broken one. When it was his turn, Kira jumped before anyone could electrocute him.
He was the last one to jump. So he saw a guy – who had jumped seconds before him – swinging his arm and threw something round and silver and shit that's a Cracker towards the inside of the cargo plane.
The attack was so unexpected that none of those men could do anything but let the Cracker heat up and explode in their faces.
The boom was so satisfiying – man, whoever this guy is he's a genius – but the pain was nonsensical. Kira never thought an explosive behind his back would even cause pain to someone not directly affected by it, but it did. The heat blast was scorching right behind his ears and the wind pushed him off further – and faster – towards his doom.
The backlash threw him off towards the guy who had just took out these crazy kidnappers – who just made the first move in the Game. Kira's brain raced as his body collided with him. What kind of guy was he? A swift murderer? An assassin? A plant? Judging from the way his hands reflexively caught Kira instead of deflecting him away, Kira could assume this guy has a soft spot for kids.
So he played up the helpless kid. "Please don't let me go!" Kira clutched onto his shirt and buried his head. He wasn't good at faking tears, but this situation calls for a shock, right? Or just pure fear – not much faking there; he was afraid. There were debris of burnt steel alloys all around and Kira wasn't sure if the cargo plane wasn't going to fall right on top on them.
Two hands grabbed his shoulders and shoved him away, and Kira could clearly see that the First Strike guy was barely into adulthood. "Kid, you need to get away, our parachutes are automatic, remember? If ours get in each other's way we won't land safely!" Huh, this guy is good. I didn't think of that. Should he keep being unreasonably terrified? It might invite some mushy assurances of not letting go and shit. Eh. Kira smoothly maneuvered his shuddering from cackling to trembling. "Okay." He probably should have stuttered, but never mind.
First Strike guy let go of his hold, thankfully a good moment away till their parachutes activated. Either timed or somehow installed with an altitude sensor, considering the others who got thrown off the board before him already had their parachutes activated earlier.
Something crashed. Not anywhere near the island though, just a far way's off and at the sea. The cargo plane was sinking.
Kira – and First Strike guy – would be crashing onto some trees in a minute or so. On the island where they were going to have to play BTOOOM! to get out. It was a game coming to life. And this guy already made his move before it all even started! He actually dished out vengeance right away on those kidnappers.
He could have doomed everyone. The pizza guy might have been in that plane, though Kira doubted he would be there. Or the pizza guy might get offended so bad he wouldn't even give them a way out once they collect 8 chips. Or whatever device they needed to escape was in that very plane which he had just destroyed. Or, or—
He could be an ally.
There was never any guarantee in the first place anyway.
. o . 0 . o .
Hello, my reader army. How did you think of this take?
I will not promise fast update on this one. I have written some scenes for it, some points, but haven't fleshed out any plot for it. But I do have a desire to continue this, so it's 'In-Progress'.