Battle Royale

American Style!

((Disclaimer: I don't own BR or the franchise and never will. ))

"Mom! Dad! I'm going to school now!" Shouted a black haired teen wearing a black shirt, black jeans, and a black wrist band/ He ran down the stairs and towards the door. He paused though, looking at a small memorial near the door. The memorial consisted of a photo pf a young Asian man, in his early twenties, an incense burner, and a old switchblade that had been tapped so it wouldn't open.

'Shu, here.'

'Kaz! Wha-what? It's your knife?!'

'I want you to have it, Shu, maybe one day you'll be as cool as me!'

'SHU! Don't worry, I'll protect you with my own body...'

'Kazuo? Kazuo? KAZUO!!!'

'Shu... run...'

Out of impluse, Shuya took the small switchblade and put it in his jean pocket. He turned around and left.

Walking down the street, someone jogged up behind him. "Hey! Shu!" Shuya turned around, looking at a mousy haired boy with a big grin on his face.

"Mornin' Loren." He said, smiling at his friend.

"Shu, do you think Jackie will be at school?" The boy, Loren, asked, blushing a vibrant pinkish color on his pale cheeks. Shuya wrapped an arm around his friend.

"Loren, you should tell her you have a crush on her! Come on! She isn't going to be single forever!"

"Yeah, I know." Loren said nervously.

They both stopped at the bus stop, and sat down, waiting for the always late bus.

"Shu, you know what?"

"What?" Shuya asked, looking outwards towards where the bus usually came.

"When I see her on that bus, I'm going to tell her!" Loren decided. "I'm going to walk right up to her and say-"

"-You lo-look n-nice to-today!" Loren stuttered to a small black haired girl. She looked up at him and smiled.

"I like your shoes." She said, looking at Loren's brand new Nikes. "I've always wanted a pair like that, but it was too expensive."

Loren looked at his shoes, then asked, clearly not thinking much, "I... I could give them to you right now!" His voice was getting high and squeaky.

"Hey, where are you planning to take them off?" Laughed a boy in the back. Everyone else in the bus laughed along. Another girl sitting nearby, Mina, leaned over with her polariod camera.

"Shu! Jackie! Loren! Let's have a group picture of the fearsome threesome!" Mina shouted over the other students.

The three gathered around each other and posed, with Loren doing a king of the world pose. There was a flash. The camera spat up their picture.

"Hey! You can't see my arms! Why does the picture look so shakey?" Loren asked, shaking his head. "You always were a bad shot."

"Let me see!" Shuya laughed, grabbing the picture. "I think it looks pretty good, why do you think it's shakey?"

THUD!

"Kendra?" A boy asked in the back.

There was a sudden rise of moans from the students, all complaining about feeling sleepy or light-headed. Shuya had enough sense to look around and see other students dropping like flies. He began to make an unsteady trek of eight feet to talk to the bus driver. "Oi... Oi... Mr. Ross... Mr. Ross!"

There was no Mr. Ross, only a man with a gas-mask.

'SHIT! We're being gassed?' Shuya thought before dropping to the ground. From his position, he could see he had landed right by Jackie and Loren. 'Oh thank Kami-sama, you two are safe...' Was his last coherent thought.

"Nnn..."

"Oh, my head!"

"Mommy! I want my mommy!"

Shuya rubbed his head, slowly getting up. He looked around and realized he was right next to his gym friend, Max. Max had been up before him apparently, and looked worried.

"Max, where are we?"

"Some kinda classroom." Max said, gesturing the desks around them. "You going to be okay?"

"Huh? Yeah." A searing pain suddenly raced through his body. Shuya grabbed onto his stomach, and felt something wet. He pulled his hand away, finding out it was covered in blood.

"I'm going to go find Kendra, okay?" Max said. Shuya nodded, and Max left to go search for his girlfriend.

Shuya looked around, seeing that there were two others who were shot, Xavier and Samantha. A finger tapped him on his shoulder, and he turned around to see Jackie and Loren. "Loren! Jackie!"

Loren smiled, but his smile withered when he saw the bullet wound on Shuya's stomach.

"Students! Sit!"

All heads turned to a small, round man who came into the room with an escort of United States military men. He stood at the desk and looked at everyone. "SIT!"

There was a scrambling of feet and chairs. Everyone was sitting in under three seconds.

"Good. Now then students, my name is Mr. Avery." He said politely. He looked at the students, and the students looked at him. "You are supposed to say, 'Hello Mr. Avery'."

Silence. Then,

"No!" Loren stood up. "Why are we here? What do you want?" There were murmurs and he quickly sat down.
"I'd show all of you lovely children the video, but we've seem to have misplaced it. So, I'll just tell you. You are in the Battle Royale program. You all will each get a knapsack full of three loaves of bread, three bottles of water, a watch, a map, and (if you're lucky) a weapon. You all have a set time limit of two weeks to kill each other off until only one remains."

Loren stood up again. "You expect us all to go through with this?"

Mr. Avery giggled girlishly, and pointed at Loren's throat. Suddenly, everyone became aware of the metal collars on their throats. A soldier took out a small device with a button on top of it. Mr. Avery pressed the button. Loren's collar's light began going off and beeping.

"You see, these collars aren't just a fashion statement, they're also set to detonate if you try to escape or if more then one person survives at the end. Makes things more interesting for our viewers." Mr. Avery laughed, watching the students back away from Loren. Loren looked at them all with fear.

"Loren!" Shuya screamed.

Loren reached out to Shuya, his eyes very wide by now. They flashed over to the now crying Jackie, and back to Shuya. He took a step towards Shuya. Suddenly, the beeping became faster. "SHUYA!" He cried out reaching his hand towards Shuya, who was mirroring the same action tearfully.

Blood and brains splattered everywhere, sparying the students closest. Shuya got a face full of his friend. "Loren...!" He coughed, spitting up blood and some brain matter.

"Ah yes, that reminds me, our two foreign exchange students."

Two others walked inside. One was a pink-haired Asian kid, the other a red-head guy with wide eyes.

"The one with pink hair is Kensuke from Japan." Mr. Avery said, smiling gayly. "And the red head is Tomas from England."

The two went to the back of the room, and waited. A rack full of knapsacks was pushed in. Mr. Avery started reading off names.

"Number eighteen..."

Shuya inched over to Jackie. "Jackie, let's meet in the hall."

"What?"

"Number twenty, Shuya Iwamura!"

Shuya walked up and snatched his bag from Mr. Avery, fighting the urge to punch him. He spared one last glance over to the dead body of Loren.

'Shuya! Take care of Jackie!'

Shuya nodded to the manifestation of his dead friend in his head before walking into the hallway. Sitting down near the door, he waited for Jackie while staring at his own wound. After three more people ran out of the class, Jackie finally appeared.