She didn't know if Rena was dead.

The image of her friend's body crumpling as blow after blow rained down on her was still fresh in her mind, and that was completely unacceptable. The blood pouring down Rena's face as she lay still on the floor, the sickening angle her neck and shoulders had been twisted at. The wide, staring eyes. No matter how hard she tried to force it down, it all kept fighting it's way back to the forefront of her mind, and that made her afraid. Afraid, and sick, and weak. Her hands were shaking.

It was pathetic. It was pathetic, and it was beneath her. As the rightful heir to the Sonozaki family, she had seen plenty of death. Allies, enemies. It didn't matter. It couldn't phase her. She couldn't panic. She wouldn't allow herself to panic. If she did, she would die. And if she died, there would be absolutely no hope for Rena. She might have been willing to gamble her own life, but she was Rena's leader twice over – Keiichi's too – and both of them deserved better.

If Sonozaki Mion were to die today, she would do everything she could to ensure she died alone.

She could still hear him behind her, screaming in a voice so unlike his own.

"Stop running! You came to kill me, so try and kill me! I'll crack your skull first!"

He was right about one thing. It was time to stop running. She had led him far enough now, dropping her pace so that he could keep up, keep chasing. Letting him believe she was trying to escape. It shouldn't have worked – he should have realised what she was doing. Keiichi was an idiot, but he knew better than almost anybody what she was capable of. But whatever was wrong with him, whatever demon had taken him from them, she could be grateful.

She had already called Irie, to come and collect him. To fix him or at least stop him getting hurt. It seemed like a bad joke now, but she didn't feel like laughing. Irie would find Rena, even if Mion failed. And if she was alive, he would save her. If everything else failed, she could at least ask Oyashiro-sama to allow her that one victory. He had to owe her that much, with all he had taken from her.

She skid to a halt and spun, planting her feet and lowering herself slightly so that she'd be ready to move at a moments notice. And then she waited. One breath. Two. His screams still echoed through the trees, wild and desperate. But he didn't sound angry. He'd never sounded angry. Just terribly, terribly afraid.

"You think I'm going to let you get away, so you can run and hide and come after me when I'm not expecting it? Put more needles in my food, or maybe just try and run me down again!? Not a chance! I'm ending this!"

He stumbled into the clearing and his eyes fell onto hers, his snarl twisting into a grin as he struggled for breath.

"Found you, Mion."

His voice was a hiss, and she almost faltered, almost ran – there had to be some other way, something better than fighting him. But if there was, she couldn't find it, and she'd run as far as she meant to. Still, she couldn't hold back the tears and longer, and she couldn't keep her voice from trembling as she spoke.

"Kei-chan, please. Don't do this. It doesn't have to be this way."

"What, now that you're losing you want to offer mercy? Or maybe you just want to change the rules? Idiot - you should know better than anybody. Rule number one; do whatever it takes to win. If I let you get away now, you can just keep trying to kill me as many times as you want to. Me, this is the only chance I've got."

He lunged, but he was slow and clumsy. He'd always been slow and clumsy, and as exhausted as he was he had no chance of hitting her. She dropped, and the bat sailed over her head as she rolled away.

"I'm not trying to kill you, Kei-chan. Me or Rena. We just want to help you. You're not well. This isn't you."

"You've barely known me a month and you think you can tell me who I am? Tch. I suppose you can. With all that spying, you must know everything about me! Is that what this is about? Are you trying to punish me!?"

He came closer that time, her shock slowing her reactions a fraction too much. Stupid. Careless. Onibaba would have had her head for it. The bat collided with a tree and she took her chance, grabbing at the handle and ramming her body into his – his grip loosened as he fell backwards, and the bat was hers.

"That's cruel, Kei-chan. I may keep an eye on you here in the village, but your past is your own business. Hinamizawa doesn't like strangers, so I have to watch you. I have to keep you safe. Besides, whatever you've done… if you're sorry, you should be forgiven, right?"

"I'm supposed to believe that you're trying to protect me? Is that why you're putting needles in my food, and trying to inject me!?"

"I told you, it wasn't a needle. It was just a marker. Just…just a game! I have it with me – all you have to do is -"

This time he connected, and she felt her breath knocked out of her as his fist slammed into her stomach, followed a moment later by the other ramming into her skull. She felt herself fall sideways, and barely had time to register the knee before it caught her in the face. If he had any idea what he was doing, she'd have been dead.

Fortunately for her, he went for the bat instead of following through. And unfortunately for him, she'd sparred once too often with her mother to let any opening slip by – she launched herself forward, kicking his legs out from under him and causing him to hit the ground hard. Then she was on him, one arm latched around his neck and an elbow buried in the base.

"Dirty tactics, Kei-chan."

"Whatever it takes to win."

She drove her elbow into his neck for that, but there was no satisfaction at his howl of pain. No more tears, either. There was nothing left but anger, now. At him, for what he had done to Rena. For throwing her friendship back in her face. For refusing to trust her, even now. And at herself. For being careless enough to be caught off guard, and for deserving every bit of it. It had to end. One way or another, it had to end.

She moved to finish him off, and found that she couldn't. Her arms froze, refusing to follow her instructions, and all her anger drained away. It would be so, so easy to kill him, and so hard to save him. Maybe impossible. But she had to try. She had to.

"Shut up. I'm going to talk, now, and I need you to listen."

"Why should I listen to anything you say?"

"Because if I wanted to kill you, I could have broken your neck already. Or your spine. I could break your arms and legs, and leave you here to starve to death. It wouldn't be the first time."

She felt him tense up, prepare to try and fight her, so she tightened her grip. He stopped struggling.

"So why don't you do it then? Are you hoping to take me prisoner? Offer me as a sacrifice to Oyashiro-sama? Or maybe you wanna torture me first? That's what your family does, isn't it!?"

"Keiichi – Kei-chan – if I wanted to kill somebody, I'd do it quickly. I don't like killing. My family doesn't like killing. We do what we have to do to protect Hinamizawa, and I do what I have to do to protect you. To protect all our friends. Nothing matters to me more than that. Than all of you."

"You sure did a good job protecting Rena."

"If Rena's dead, I failed her. But I won't make the same mistake twice. I don't want to kill you, Kei-chan. You're special to me. But I won't let you hurt anybody else, either. So tell me. I know why you think I'm trying to kill you. It's not hard to figure out. But why Rena?"

"…You really don't know, do you? About…about the ohagi, or Rena trying to break into my house to kill me!?"

"Tell me."

"…Only if you let me up."

"So you can try and cave my skull in again? I don't think so."

"No. I just… I can't trust you, yet. Everywhere Rena's been, you've been too. So how can I know you won't just break my neck the second I tell you? You've made your point. And if you're really not trying to kill me… I want to trust you. But you haven't given me much incentive. Can't you start by trusting me?"

It was a stupid risk. She knew it was. But she also knew she didn't have a choice. She couldn't kill Kei-chan, and he wouldn't talk to her if she didn't let him go. If she knocked him out, or hurt him to make him talk, she'd just be proving his point. He had her, and she had no other options.

She pulled her arm away from his neck, still holding him down with the other, and reached for her gun. It wasn't real, of course – just an airsoft gun, designed to make people think twice about attacking her rather than to stop them if they did. She was more than capable of that using nothing but her fists, if it came to it. But Keiichi didn't know that.

She rose to her feet, taking a step back as Keiichi lifted himself to his knees and grinned up at her. It took her too long to notice that the bat was clenched in his fist – he had grabbed it while she had him pinned, and if she hadn't noticed it he might have gotten her. Instead, as his eyes fell on the barrel of the gun pointed at his face, they narrowed and his grin shifted into a scowl. He was an idiot, but even his idiocy had limits. He knew when he'd lost.

"Game over, Kei-chan. No more moves left."

The bat swung upwards, and this time Mion wasn't fast enough.