The order came from above him. With pupils like slits, he looked up at the shrouded face in time to see the mouth move, syncing perfectly with the wicked words. "Kill Tachikawa Hide, Asada Aoi, Anzai Mako, and Kujou Otoya."
With an expressionless face matched with lifeless eyes, Falcon replied, "Yes, K."
The clubroom was silent. Each of the four members was questioning the whereabouts of their fifth and final member. They were anxious because he had been absent from school, an event that was fairly rare.
Anko stood up to go look out the window, wondering if he would come. The front yard of the school was relatively empty. Most of the students had either left half an hour ago, or were in the middle of club meetings.
Nobody else dared to move. Nobody else spoke, not wanting to voice the question they all had. Turning away from the window, Anko walked back to her seat, sighing as she pulled out her chair and sat in it.
Across the street from the school stood a boy. He was a teenager, clearly recognizable as a student of that high school. He was looking up, his dark eyes focusing on a window towards the top of the school.
Checking both sides of the street for cars, he walked across, quickly and silently. The gates of the school stood wide open, welcoming him inside. The walk through the courtyard from the gates to the entrance of the school was long and exposed. Glancing up at the window, he saw nobody, but decided to run anyways.
The doors of the school opened ease, as they always did. Out of habit, Fujimaru walked to his shoe locker and changed into his school shoes.
Within a moment, he was silently standing outside the door to the newspaper room. The gun holstered to his belt dug into his lower back. His eyes were blank, lifeless. There were no thoughts running through his mind.
His hand reached for the doorknob.
Inside the room, the club members noticed a shadow beneath the door. They saw the doorknob turn and watched as the door opened. Through the widening crack, they could see the tan school uniform, the dark hair, the brown, slitted eyes, the pale face of their absent friend.
The club members' faces lit up, each of them relieved and happy to see Fujimaru. Anko was especially pleased. The legendary Falcon, the hacker she had admired for years, was with her. The famous hacker was her friend and fellow newspaper writer.
Otoya and Aoi were the most relieved. They'd known a secret they couldn't tell Hide or Anko. They had seen Fujimaru disappearing into the terrorist hideout. They hadn't expected him to come back out so soon.
Fujimaru's head was tilted downwards, his dark bangs concealing his eyes as he closed the door behind him. Removing the hand from the doorknob, he reached for the gun at his belt.
"Takagi-kun?" Hide's voice pierced his ears. "Are you okay?" Fujimaru looked up to see Hide sitting at the table, his head tilted and his expression revealing his concern. He was the first to notice the difference in Fujimaru.
Aoi was the second. She felt a strange, dark aura emanating from him. Something must have happened during the time he was missing.
She glanced at Otoya. Their eyes met. He was thinking the same thing.
Anko was completely oblivious to Fujimaru's change. She was far more preoccupied with the questions running in her head. The revelation of his alter ego was still new to her, and she had so many questions, so many things she wanted to know.
Hooking his fingers around the gun, Fujimaru lifted it out of it's holster. Gripping the cool, black metal of the pistol, he aimed it, the barrel pointing at Hide's forehead.
Hide froze. He looked at Fujimaru. Those eyes were not the eyes he had come to recognize. The teenager in front of him was not his friend.
He leaned back in his chair, his eyes staying locked on the pistol. He didn't dare to stand. He tried to lean further and further back, as though he could avoid a bullet that way.
Otoya was the first to react. He stood quickly, his chair crashing to the ground. Reaching behind him, he picked up his bow, which he had begun carrying around since the beginning of this nightmare. He skillfully loaded an arrow and aimed at Fujimaru.
"Put the gun down." He said, his voice soft and low.
Fujimaru shifted. The gun lowered an inch before he pivoted and pointed it at Otoya's chest.
Otoya didn't budge. "Put the gun down." He repeated, louder.
Asada stood too, adrenaline pulsing through her veins. She was ready to fight, her years of karate aiding her well.
Anko and Hide shrank in their seats. They didn't know how to fight, nor would they have the courage to stand in front of a loaded gun like Otoya. They couldn't take their eyes off the scene in front of them.
Fujimaru's finger twitched. He was about to shoot.
Noticing this, Otoya made the decision to shoot first. He tilted his bow upward, aiming just above Fujimaru's left shoulder. With fearless eyes, he released the arrow. It landed in the wall, just barley missing Fujimaru. "Next time, I won't miss." He said. Looking directly into Fujimaru's eyes, he added "Put the gun down."
Before Otoya could load another arrow, Fujimaru pulled the trigger.
A loud "BANG" reverberated through the still, club room air. Blood spurted from Otoya's chest. With a groan, he dropped his bow and clutched his bleeding chest, collapsing onto the ground. Blood soaked through his clothing, staining the floor a deep crimson.
Without flinching, Fujimaru aimed the gun at Aoi. She didn't hesitate like Otoya had. She gave no warning.
Leaping over Otoya's motionless body, she approached Fujimaru. He shot at her as she leaped, but she was ready, ducking low to avoid the bullet. The window behind her shattered.
She was a foot away from him when she kicked him, hitting the side of his head with a powerful round-house kick. Fujimaru fell to the ground, the gun tumbling out of his hands. Acting quickly, Aoi kicked the gun away from him, aiming for Anko's feet.
"Nngh, Aoi... Why did you-" Propping himself up on his right elbow, Fujimaru rubbed the side of his head with his left hand. When he opened his heavy eyes, his face twisted in horror.
The first sight to greet his eyes was Otoya's motionless body. Hide had slid out of his chair and was kneeling next to Otoya, gently turning him over. Anko had covered her mouth, attempting to muffle the loud sobs that escaped her lips. Aoi clenched her fists, looking away from Fujimaru. Tears ran down her face.
"Otoya?" Fujimaru asked, his voice soft and hesitant. He watched as Hide felt for a pulse. Ignoring the pounding pain in his head, he sat up, stiffly crawling over to Otoya.
Upon his approach, Hide backed away, his eyes wide with fear. With his back against the wall and no further room for him to escape, he uttered "Don't come near me!" His voice shook.
"Hide?" Fujimaru asked. He looked at Anko, then back at Aoi. Both of them refused to meet his questioning eyes. He looked down at Otoya's pale face. Otoya wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing. He wasn't living. Otoya was dead. "Otoya?" Fujimaru asked again, his voice a few octaves higher. "Otoya?" Tears streamed down his face. "Otoya please." A sob interrupted him. His voice became too high, his throat too tight. He could no longer speak.
Forcing himself to look away from his best friend's corpse, Fujimaru looked at his other friends. "Aoi?" He asked, desperately trying to make eye contact with her. "What-" He started, trailing off.
"Why don't you tell us?" She demanded, anger mixing with sadness as her eyes focused on his.
"You mean I-?" He looked at Anko and Hide, then back to Aoi. "I did this?"The words came out slowly, no longer sounding real to him.
A single nod was all it took. He understood. He had killed his best friend. He had killed Otoya Kujou.
The fear etched on the face of all his friends was devastating, almost as much as the true realization of his actions. He knew he would never be forgiven, and that he could next forgive himself.
A silver metal in his peripheral vision caught his attention. Looking up, he saw a few of Otoya's arrows.
Instantly, a memory flooded into his head, one he knew he had not seen. It was in the club room, with everyone there. Otoya was aiming an arrow at him. His lips were moving but no words were coming out.
The arrow disappeared from the bow. Otoya was saying something again.
Then, he saw the blood spread through the fabric of Otoya's shirt, leaving a stain as he clutched his chest and staggered forward, falling. A gun was right in front of Fujimaru, pointing away from him.
He understood what he had seen. The guilt in his heart multiplied instantly, spreading through his chest. He had just witnessed the moment in which he had killed Otoya.
Reaching upward, Fujimaru touched the head of the first arrow. Tears streamed down his face, blurring his vision.
He shifted his hand and took the shaft of the arrow, gripping it tightly in his shaking fist. The tip was sharp like a knife.
Looking down at Otoya one last time, he whispered "I'm sorry, Otoya," before placing the tip of the arrow at the side of his neck.
By the time Aoi reacted, it was too late.
Fujimaru plunged the arrow into his neck, aiming for the carotid artery. His friends watched in horror, unable to stop him, unable to move. With a small smile, he collapsed, landing on Otoya's cooling corpse.
He had paid for his actions. He would never hurt the people close to him ever again.