Yagami Raito (Male Student No. 18) had never bothered to actually get to know his university classmates. Being the freshman representative meant that people pretty much approached him only because they'd already made presumptions about his character based on his top grades or prim attire--the precious few who didn't try to come off as intellectual were those who weren't intellectual enough to try. They bored him, and he'd given up trying long before; they just weren't worth the trouble.
Now he cursed himself for it--it had left him huddled uncomfortably in an obscure corner of some abandoned hut on some stupid island, the death god Ryuk contorted horrifically beside him. Raito had barricaded the doors and windows, rearranged the furniture to hide his corner from anyone who would try to enter anyway without making the layout look too forced, raided the old refrigerator (which still miraculously worked) for any unexpired foodstuffs that could go with the stale bread and water rations that had been provided, and had then remained in that corner for a good part of two days.
He found it ironic that, had he perhaps gotten to know his classmates better, he could have killed them all and gotten out of this miserable situation by now. But instead, he'd had to frantically memorize each of those students' names and faces as they were called to leave the classroom. Later, when he had found the hut in that abandoned residential area to hide in, he had written as many as he could remember in the sheet he had--thankfully--torn from the Death Note before leaving (and what a foolish choice that was!) for the school trip.
Using the regular six-hourly announcements as indication, at least thirty students had been killed in the first twelve hours of the commencement of the Program, either by some other students, or his own hand with the Death Note. The subsequent announcements showed a decided drop in the additional death toll of up to four students with each announcement.
Raito wiped the perspiration off his forehead with a soiled handkerchief, before stuffing it back between his neck and the painfully tight, indestructible collar that had been put upon all the students to monitor their pulses and positions on the island. He heard Ryuk whimper. After the first day, Ryuk had been complaining that his body was twisting from apple withdrawal, and Raito, being unable to come up with any further names or faces which he could match with one another despite racking his brains, had snapped at him. Ryuk hadn't spoken since, merely issuing the occasional squeak or wince. The number of students dead had continued to climb, though, which meant that there were students willingly participating in the game.
Now, there were only two students left. He knew who it had to be--Hideki Ryuuga (Male Student No. 12), the scruffy raccoon-eyed boy who had introduced himself as L when they'd met after their representative speeches on the first day at the university. Raito had written Ryuuga's name before anyone else's when the game had begun--the failure for Ryuuga to have been announced as one of those dead meant that somewhere, the pop idol who shared the same name had died of a heart attack. Raito knew better than to care about the fans who'd cry their eyes out over the death of their idol; compassion had never mattered, not in this game, nor had it in the outside world.
He took out a pencil sharpener from his backpack--he'd cursed when he first found that he had been supplied this piece of harmless kids' stationery as his weapon--but being as it continually made re-usable the pencil that had come with it, it had probably made the deaths of numerous students possible.
He set the pencil to the Death Note sheet. If Ryuuga were to chance upon him, he had to find some way of wheedling Ryuuga's real name out of him before the other killed him first. And if Ryuuga happened to have a more lethal weapon than he did, he'd probably, as a last resort, try to make a break for it and run away. He knew he had to be careful about where he ran, though--the area several meters outside the hut was forbidden, which meant that, if he ran into it, his collar would detonate. He couldn't risk that--
A muffled explosion from outside rocked the walls of the hut slightly. Ryuk, not having heard such a loud noise for two days, shrieked and fell from his hovering position to the ground. Raito pressed his pencil on the paper so hard the nib broke.
What happened? Did Ryuuga throw a grenade in this direction? Or, perhaps--?
1 student remaining--GAME OVER--Report from First Year Class A Touou University Program Headquarters Tracking System