IBR Act: International Battle Royale Act

For the safety of Japan, as well as the well-being of other nations, it has become apparent that the cleansing of youth must extend above and beyond the old provisions. Firstly, the youth must be of an older age, third-year high school students of ages 16-18. (This applies to fourth-year high school students in America.) With the IBR Treaty with America, twenty to thirty random students will be placed in an educational program to teach them what Japanese they need to know before Program placement. Forty-eight BR Act Programs will be run every year, along with two IBR Act Programs, until efficiency deems an increase in the frequency of these Programs.

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The IBR Act was arranged by the Greater East Asia Republic, and was agreed upon by radical members of the American government. The members of the American government involved in the treaty were very influential in their own right, forming a secret council and arranging everything needed for the IBR Programs. Many of the American officials have no idea that this if going on, and the students selected think they are just being placed into a regular language program. This language program lasts the first three years of high school, and for four months into the fourth high school year. Several schools participate in this program, and the students in the program are placed into a lottery, twenty to thirty being chosen at random for participation in the IBR Program. The Program always takes place in Japan.

IBR Program Selected Students

Kobe Class D

Male Students

1 – Akiharu Kato

2 – Jin Ito

3 – Chojiro Hayashi

4 – Fujita Arai

5 – Hiroshi Maeda

6 – Atsushi Fujii

7 – Minoru Abe

8 – Sanjiro Matsuo

9 – Taji Hara

10 – Akeno Murakami

Female Students

1 – Sato Hirase

2 – Miya Anami

3 – Yoko Ueda

4 – Chiyo Nakata

5 – Maemi Kanagaki

6 – Kyoko Hike

7 – Sasa Ochida

8 – Kami Togo

9 – Mariko Torisei

10 – Hidemi Chiba

American Selected

Male Students

11 – Josh Daniels

12 – Ben Gavin

13 – Peter Carver

14 – Nathan Green

15 – Jon Terrence

16 – Scott Newman

17 – Frank Donovan

18 – Danny Gonzalez

19 – Arthur Gordon

20 – Ricky Smith

Female Students

11 – Tara Collins

12 – LaKisha Brown

13 – April Rowlins

14 – Daisy Jimenez

15 – Brooke Miller

16 – Marla Baker

17 – Shawn Lawrence

18 – Carol Danning

19 – Victoria Nova

20 – Gina South

All students range from age 16 to age 18, and are in their final year of high school. The winner will receive automatic exemption from future Programs, a signed picture from the Dictator, and a lifetime pension. Let the Program begin.

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The sun was gone beyond the horizon, though some sunlight still soaked the sky. It was still daytime in Japan, but that made no difference. By the time they got to Tokyo, it would be very dark and very late. The airplane had just taken off from LAX and was still ascending. Meanwhile, she sat back in her coach seat and looked out the window as they approached the clouds. In a few minutes, she wouldn't even be able to see outside, not with the whole nighttime thing. So she turned her attention to the others in the plane. Surprisingly, there were only nineteen other passengers besides herself, all about her age. Some of them appeared to be gripping their chairs for dear life, while others just wanted to stop the spinning in their heads. A few were not too concerned and were enjoying the ascent and waiting for the soda and peanut cart to come around.

No one sat beside her. Actually, very few of the people were sitting together, not with all the space available on this flight. Too bad, she really did want someone to talk too. Brooke Miller (Female Student #15) enjoyed company and felt the silence almost unbearable. They would probably speak to her eventually, though, seeing as how they were most likely going to the same place she was.

About one week ago, she received a thick packet from her Japanese teacher informing her that she had been selected to go to Japan for a few days for an advanced seminar in Japanese culture. It was common knowledge that Japan was a closed state for travel, but apparently it was alright to go there for educational purposes. Maybe that was why a military contingent escorted her from her house to the plane, and a subsequent group was stationed in first class. Japan was a very rough country, so these military men must be hired to protect everyone going to the educational seminar.

She placed on her headphones once the airplane leveled out and listened to a veritable stew of screaming voices attempting to sing over their guitars and drums. This music was not allowed in Japan, but she heard it was smuggled in every so often. Maybe she could keep it hidden, because there was no way she was going to listen to classical music her entire stay. A thump next to her distracted her from the noise in her ears. Large eyes and a wide grin met her when she looked to her side. A boy was saying something, though it was muffled by her music. As she began to point to her headphones and shake her head, the boy removed them and let them lay on her neck.

"Crank it," he said, repeating what he had said before. She gave him a puzzled look. "Crank the volume. I wanna have a listen." He was not an ugly boy, though he was definitely younger than she was. His brown eyes were wide and his hair was long and unruly.

"You know, there are probably people trying to sleep. Just listen with the headphones on." She pulled her headphones around her head and placed them on his ears, instantly entertaining him. Of all the people that could have sat next to her, the one who did was not interested in carrying out a conversation. Typical.

Both of them took turns listening to her various CDs, too wired to sleep and the boy too short-attention-spanned to speak for more than a minute. About eight hours into the flight, however, she began to feel very drowsy. A little tired she would have understood, but this was just odd. She had, however, gotten really tired, really fast whenever she was exhausted. Maybe entertaining the boy was wearing her out. Nevertheless, she knew it was time to get some sleep so she would not be completely worthless when the plane landed.

Strangely enough, the boy had already nodded off. As she looked about the rest of the passengers were either nodding off or already asleep. They had the right idea, sleep so they would not run into things in the airport. She turned off the CD player and set it in her bag at her feet and reclined in the seat. Next thing she knew she was fast asleep…And was waking up in a cold room.

40 Students Remaining.

A/N: This is a short first chapter, sorry. All of the names I threw together, though I did look up real Japanese names. I hope to have this go through the entire Program, perhaps a bit after it as well. Please R&R.