Author's Note

Before you start reading this I will warn you now that parallels between this story and Houshun Takami's work DO exist. These parallels were put there ON PURPOSE.

The story is mostly based on the movie, with some aspects taken from the novel.

Right, I'm done now. Read on, and enjoy. : 3

Third Year Class C, Kobe Junior High School, Kobe, Kagawa Prefecture
Student List

MALES:

1. Aizawa Minoru

2. Aoki Kazuma

3. Arakawa Tadayuki

4. Asari Yoshio

5. Funaki Yutaka

6. Goto Masao

7. Hideki Saburo

8. Hiraoka Mitsuru

9. Inoue Ichisake

10. Itagaki Hiro

11. Kawada Shogo

12. Kawagishi Seishiro

13. Kawai Noboru

14. Kuramoto Daisuke

15. Masudu Shohei

16. Niijima Tomoaki

17. Nozaki Keisuke

18. Saionji Yamato

19. Takemitsu Shingen

20. Yoshifumi Takeru

FEMALES:

1. Akimoto Sayuri

2. Fujikage Himiko

3. Harada Hitomi

4. Hayashida Kaoru

5. Ichiyusai Masako

6. Iesada Chiaki

7. Kawasaki Ai

8. Kihara Etsuko

9. Kitano Kanako

10. Koizumi Chiyo

11. Miyamoto Fuyumi

12. Miyazaki Sakura

13. Omura Yumiko

14. Onuki Keiko

15. Sakai Emiko

16. Sakurai Saeki

17. Shimizu Kaede

18. Takezawa Kyoko

19. Takezawa Sachiko

20. Yamamura Akane

Chapter One

The bus rumbled down the highway, past numerous checkpoints guarded by armed soldiers, the mechanical whir of helicopters passing overheard. Pretty much the entire nation of the Great East Asian Republic resembled this highway, resembled a warzone.

The thirty junior high school students inside the bus couldn't care less. They were far too excited for the annual class trip, which this year would be a week at the Aoi Campgrounds on the shores of the Seto Inland Sea. Two weeks of sun, sand, and surf before graduation, before they all left for high school and went on with their lives.

Who could be bothered with the country's problems—problems that weren't theirs to fix, at any rate—with such a prospect before them?

Kawada Shogo (Male Student No. 11) felt content to just lean back and watch one of his best friends, Itagaki Hiro (Male Student No. 10) horse around. He was, once again, hassling his long-time crush, Miyazaki Sakura (Female Student No. 12). Sakura was a cute girl. She also blushed far too easily, making her a prime target for class clown Itagaki Hiro's teasing antics.

"Come on, Miyazaki-san, I'm not kidding," said Hiro seriously. "Funaki really does have a crush on you."

Sakura, who sat right in front of Shogo and across from Hiro, pretended nonchalance, but the two pink spots on her cheeks gave her away. "Stop teasing me, Itagaki-kun," she chastised him. "Funaki-san does not have a crush on me."

Sakura, although she did not know it, was right. Funaki Yutaka (Male Student No. 5), who sat in the very front with the so-called 'math geeks' of the class, did not like Sakura, but instead liked his fellow math geek, Yamamura Akane (Female Student No. 20). This was most unfortunate for Sakura, who had a crush on Funaki.

This, Hiro already knew, which was why he was teasing Sakura about it.

"How did Hiro find out who Miyazaki's crush is, anyway?" Shogo asked his seatmate, Nozaki Keisuke (Male Student No. 17), who was also another one of his close friends.

Keisuke grinned and replied, "Shogo, my man, let me tell you something about our lovely Fujikage Himiko that Hiro found out a long time ago." Fujikage Himiko (Female Student No. 2) was the self-proclaimed 'gossip queen' of their school, and also a good friend of Sakura's. "You scratch her back, she scratches yours."

Hayashida Kaoru (Female Student No. 4), who sometimes hung out with Shogo and his friends, suddenly pulled herself up on her seat and glared at Keisuke. "Itagaki's not sleeping with Himiko-chan, is he?" she asked suspiciously, injecting herself into the discussion.

Keisuke's eyes flashed with outrage. "Oi, Hayashida, were you part of this conversation?"

"Don't get your boxers in a twist, Nozaki," growled Kaoru. "Just be warned—if Hiro's sleeping with Himiko-chan and he ends up hurting her…well…" Kaoru trailed off, trying to think up a suitable threat. "Well, Keiko-chan has a mean right hook," she finally said.

Keisuke grimaced. It was true; Onuki Keiko (Female Student No. 14), a member of Kaoru's group and Fujikage Himiko's best friend, did indeed have a mean right hook. Shogo had seen her use it the few times she'd lost her temper—like with that cocky Matsuyama girl from Class B who tried to bully an underclassman into giving up her lunch money. Keiko was definitely not above using it on a guy who she felt had hurt her friends—even a guy she was okay with, like Nozaki Keisuke.

"As if," Keisuke finally said. "Hiro? Sleeping with anyone? Puh-lease. He just promised to set up Fujikage with either Shogo or Arakawa in exchange for stuff about Miyazaki."

Shogo sighed exasperatedly. Typical, he thought. He and Arakawa Tadayuki (Male Student No. 3) were widely regarded as the handsomest students in their year—some said they were the handsomest students in Kobe Junior High. Girls went ape-shit crazy so often around the two that, for a while, they both considered enlisting Himiko's help in spreading a rumor that they were gay…but then they realized the rabid fangirls would be speedily replaced by rabid fanboys, so they trashed that idea.

Never mind the fact that Shogo himself already had a crush on someone. This crush was none other than Onuki Keiko, who sat behind Kaoru, beside a sleeping Kitano Kanako. (To his regret, Shogo hadn't yet confessed to Keiko his feelings, but this was a problem he hoped to rectify during their class trip.) There were prettier girls in class, certainly, but there was something so utterly distinctive about Keiko. She was…something real.

Tadayuki, who was seated opposite Shogo and Keisuke, suddenly looked up at the mention of his name.

"Someone call me?" he asked drowsily.

"Nah, Tada-kun, you can go back to sleep," said Saionji Yamato (Male Student No. 18), who was seated beside Tadayuki. "Hayashida and Keisuke were just gossiping about how Hiro bargained away dating rights to you and Shogo for info on Miyazaki."

"Oh. What else is new?" muttered Tadayuki.

"Very funny," said Shogo, rolling his eyes.

Yamato watched Hiro and shook his head. "Love-struck idiot," he muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, Hayashida Kaoru had slid back into her seat to whisper to her best friend, Koizumi Chiyo (Female Student No. 10). Chiyo and Kaoru both had crushes on Tadayuki, and were discussing how best to circumvent Himiko's plan of getting Tadayuki for herself.

"I don't get what the problem is," said Keiko, who had overheard Chiyo and Kaoru's muttering. "So what if Hiro-kun sets up Himiko-chan with Tada-kun? Is there even a guarantee that Tada-kun will like her back?"

"Easy for you to say," grumbled Chiyo. "We all know Kawada-kun's crazy about you."

Keiko flushed and shook her head. "Don't be silly, Chiyo," she chastised her. "Shogo-kun and I are just friends."

Shogo couldn't help himself. He grinned. Keiko's friends didn't know it yet, but their friendly ribbing was actually the truth.

He had no idea what was it exactly about Keiko that he liked so much. She was friendly and cheerful, tough and assertive when she needed to be, but most of her friends were like that. She was quirky, funny, and very smart. Nothing out of the ordinary. Yet there was something so uniquely disarming about her that had, over time, utterly charmed Shogo.

"Why does Hiro want info on Miyazaki anyway?" Shogo heard Yamato ask, his voice puzzled.

Arakawa Tadayuki, who had been listening to the whole exchange ever since Keisuke had mentioned his name and roused his attention, said, "Honestly, Yamato, you are so dense. Isn't it obvious? Itagaki's got the hots for Miyazaki."

"Really?"

Keisuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he said. "Really. Itagaki's a wimp. A funny wimp, but a wimp nonetheless. Who do you think he's gonna get the hots for, besides the shyest girl in our class? Akimoto?"

Shogo laughed at the thought of Class C's resident Ice Queen, Akimoto Sayuri (Female Student No. 1) ending up together with Itagaki Hiro, who was quite probably the most awkward person on earth around girls. Sayuri made men's balls freeze with her icy stare and sharp words, while Hiro couldn't even speak to a girl (besides Kaoru's group) without stammering, blushing, and in general making a fool of himself.

"So…let me get this straight. Hiro likes Miyazaki and so he's teasing her about liking Funaki?" asked Shogo. Tadayuki, Yamato, and Keisuke nodded. "Anybody seeing the logic here?" Shogo asked.

"Yes, actually," said Tadayuki, nodding. "It's the very same logic that explains why Keisuke over here feels the need to antagonize Hayashida so much."

"What was that, Arakawa?" said Keisuke, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"You heard me," replied Tadayuki, grinning challengingly. "You've got the hots for Hayashida, don't you?"

Keisuke scowled. "Oh yeah? What about you? You're the one who…" He trailed off then.

Tadayuki smirked. "Yes, Keisuke, continue. Who exactly have I got 'the hots' for, eh?"

Shogo had to laugh. Tadayuki was Class C's resident playboy—third year's resident playboy, as a matter of fact. He didn't get crushes on girls, girls got crushes on him. He tended to keep his relationships on the one-night stand side of the line, and he was fond of saying that anything beyond that complicated matters. As his friends always joked, Tadayuki was always more interested in a girl's boobs than in her face.

"Don't laugh at me, Shogo, we all know you've got the hots for Onuki," said Keisuke sourly.

"Yeah? And so what? At least I'm man enough to admit it…and man enough to actually talk to her instead of teasing her like Hiro and Miyazaki, or pissing her off like you do with Hayashida." Forgetting that he actually hadn't confessed to her yet, but whatever.

"Whaaaat? For the last time, I do not have a crush on Hayashida!" spluttered Keisuke, who was turning red.

"Denial," said Tadayuki, shaking his head sorrowfully. "Not just a river in Egypt."

But Shogo had ceased to pay attention to Tadayuki and Yamato harassing Keisuke, because Keiko had stood up and was walking down the aisle between the seats, gently guiding Fujikage Himiko to the front of the bus. Himiko looked nauseated. Her face was pale, and she had one hand pressed to her mouth.

"Keiko-san?" he asked, hoping his tone was one of casual inquiry. "Is something wrong?"

Keiko smiled at him warmly. "Himiko's feeling a bit dizzy. I'm going to ask Ando-sensei if she can switch seats with someone at the front, and if he's got some medicine she could take."

"Do you need help?" Tadayuki asked her. He had once tried to seduce Keiko, but she didn't fall for it (much to Shogo's relief). She was, actually, one of the very few girls to refuse Tadayuki's advances. Instead, the two had become quite good friends, to the envy of Keiko's friends (almost all of them considered Shogo off-limits because they all believed—and rightly so, but he wasn't going to tell them that—that he liked Keiko).

Keiko shook her head. "No, it's all right, Tada-kun," she said. "But thank you anyway." She continued on her way, Himiko leaning slightly against her.

Tadayuki and Yamato returned to annoying Keisuke with his supposed crush on Hayashida, leaving Shogo to study Keiko. She was very pretty—short dark brown hair, almond-shaped hazel eyes, a captivating smile. Her good looks coupled with her outgoing nature had made her one of the most popular girls in their school. As Shogo had thought to himself earlier, she was by no means the prettiest girl in class—Hayashida was probably prettier than her.

But, as Tadayuki had once told him, "To each his own."

"Hey, guys!" Keiko called, bringing Shogo out of his thoughts. She was trailing her way down the aisle back to her seat. "I made some cookies for me and Himiko to share—but Himiko's now too sick to eat and Kaoru and Chiyo are both on this silly diet." She playfully stuck her tongue out at her friends, who laughed and shook their heads. "Want some?"

"Yeah!" cheered Keisuke, who loved food in any and all forms. "Thanks, Keiko-san!"

Keiko returned to her seat and came back with a Tupperware filled with golden-brown cookies speckled with chocolate chips. She popped off the cover and held it out for Shogo, Tadayuki, and Keisuke. "Hey, Yamato-kun, Hiro-kun, Saki-chan, Kanako, come eat with us!" she called out to Yamato, Hiro, her seatmate Kitano Kanako, and Sakura.

Shogo leaned back in his seat while munching on a cookie and studied the rest of his classmates. The knowledge that he'd seldom see this people again after graduation was a bit disconcerting, but Shogo supposed he'd get through it. In the meantime, he would try to fill up his mind with memories of his classmates.

Up front were the 'math geeks', Funaki Yutaka, Yamamura Akane, the male class representative Aoki Kazuma (Male Student No. 2), Goto Masao (Male Student No. 6), and Iesada Chiaki (Female Student No. 6). Not all of them were 'math geeks'. They were all actually just kids who cared a lot about things like studying and grades, and were rather amused by the label that had been applied to them. As a matter of fact only Funaki and Akane were real geniuses at math. Everyone else in the group had their own specialties.

Right behind them, Ichiyusai Masako (Female Student No. 5) and Kuramoto Daisuke (Male Student No. 14) were cozy together in their own little world. Daisuke and Masako were the most intimate couple in third year. Not even the jock Kawai Noboru (Male Student No. 13) and his girlfriend from Class B, sexy cheerleader Matsuyama Junko, with their frequent PDA and even more frequent breakups 'n' make-ups, could compare.

Speaking of Kawai Noboru, he and his jock buddies were seated at the very back of the bus. Aizawa Minoru (Male Student No. 1), Takemitsu Shingen (Male Student No. 19), Yoshifumi Takeru (Male Student No. 19), and Ito Seishiro (Male Student No. 11). Kawai and Takemitsu were on the basketball team like Tadayuki and Shogo were, while Ito, Aizawa, and Yoshifumi were on the baseball team. Despite being on the sports teams of Kobe Junior High, neither Shogo's group nor Kawai's group ever hung out together. Kawai Noboru was an arrogant ass, and his friends weren't much different.

Well, not all of them, Shogo mused. Yoshifumi Takeru could be a really sweet guy when Kawai and his jocks weren't around. Shogo had seen him help Kitano Kanako (Female Student No. 9) out of a stall in the girls' bathroom where Akimoto and her girls had locked her in. Or maybe Takeru just had a thing for the timid, quiet girl.

Akimoto and her girls…ah, yes. There they were, sitting with Kawai and the others: Akimoto Sayuri (Female Student No. 1), Harada Hitomi (Female Student No. 3), Takezawa Kyoko, Takezawa Sachiko, and Sakai Emiko (Female Student No. 15). All of them were mean, spiteful, and petty, and of course they were drop-dead gorgeous. But none was as mean, spiteful, petty, or gorgeous as Akimoto Sayuri, the self-proclaimed 'Queen Bee' of the school.

Oh, Kaoru's group. They were the 'neutrals', the girls who were just themselves and tried not to be too limited to one clique. There was of course the pretty female class rep Kaoru, and her friends Chiyo and the gossipy Himiko, the shy girls Kitano Kanako and Miyazaki Sakura, and outgoing Kihara Etsuko, and of course Onuki Keiko, both model students and excellent athletes.

These were the relatively normal students, the sorts of kids you find in high schools all over the world, even in the high schools of a country as dysfunctional as the Greater East Asian Republic (although Shogo would never use the 'dysfunctional' to describe the country in public—it was like a mouse announcing to a cat, "Hey, here I am!").

But there were also the students you didn't find in every high school, the students who weren't really all that normal.

There was Kawagishi Akihisa (Male Student No. 12) and his group of thugs, Hideki Saburo (Male Student No. 7), Niijima Tomoaki (Male Student No. 16), Masudu Shohei (Male Student No. 15), Omura Yumiko (Female Student No. 13), and Sakurai Saeki (Female Student No. 16). There were all sorts of rumors floating around the school about Kawagishi's gangsters.

Some thought they dealt with local Yakuza, taking them out of action and establishing their rule in the city as early as junior high. Some thought Kawagishi was pimping Omura and Sakurai. Still others thought that through blackmail, coercion, and extortion Kawagishi's gang not only had the Yakuza in the palms of their hands, but also local politicians and government officials.

Shogo shook his head. Whatever. As long as their activities didn't directly affect him, his family, or his friends, he really couldn't care less how badly they screwed up their lives.

He turned his attention back to his friends as Hayashida Kaoru pulled out her Polaroid camera and began snapping pictures. She was a photography buff, Shogo remembered.

Ordinarily Shogo wouldn't have wanted to be caught in Kaoru's picture-taking frenzy, but in her hurry to get up she accidentally knocked Keiko backwards, allowing her to fall right into Shogo's lap. Instinctively his arms went out to catch her, and what happened was she ended up seated in his lap with Shogo's arms around her torso.

"Oh, that's so cute!" squealed Kaoru, and quickly took a picture before either Keiko or Shogo could move. She took the piece of photo paper that slid out of her camera and began waving it back and forth, waiting for the picture to appear.

"Sorry, Keiko-san," muttered Shogo, his face red, as he helped Keiko get up.

Keiko was grinning, and trying to be cool about it, but the blush that stained her cheeks gave her away. "No problem, Shogo-kun," she replied.

"Here you go!" said Kaoru happily, handing the picture over. "You two look so adorable together in that shot—so in love, I mean."

Keiko laughed as she studied the picture. "We do look good together, Shogo-kun," she remarked. "Maybe we should go out sometime, huh?"

"Don't say that, Keiko-san. I might have to take you up on that," teased Shogo.

"Oh, Shogo-kun, don't demean yourself so much. Would it really be so terrible to go on one date with you?"

Shogo did not answer, wondering if she was being serious, but merely smiled that bashful grin of his that he always seemed to wear around Keiko.

Hiro rolled his eyes. "And you guys call me a love-struck idiot," he muttered to himself, cramming another cookie into his mouth.

Shogo slowly opened his eyes.

Outside, the sky was dark. They'd left the school at…what time did they leave? Oh, yeah, five in the afternoon. He groggily lifted his watch and checked the time. Nearly ten o'clock. Huh. So they'd been traveling nearly five hours. Weren't they at the campgrounds yet?

Shogo checked out his classmates. They were all, oddly enough, asleep. Beside him Keisuke was slouching in his seat, and Yamato and Tadayuki were leaning against each other (how cute, thought Shogo, but decided this wasn't the time to tease them). Hiro was slumped over the armrest of his seat, and so was Miyazaki Sakura. Had they fallen asleep while talking?

He knew that some of them, the ones with less stamina or those who simply had nothing better to do, would already be asleep. But Itagaki Hiro, Class C's very own clown? And Arakawa Tadayuki, a flirt through and through who took any opportunity to chat up some ladies? And would Kawagishi and his gang let themselves fall asleep in such a vulnerable place as a high school bus?

Shogo checked. Yes, Kawagishi and company were asleep too.

What the heck was going on here?

Shogo glanced over at the driver, intending on asking him exactly what was happening, but when he tried to stand he found he couldn't will himself to move. Huh, what? Stand. Legs, feet, butt of the seat, it's that easy. What the hell?

That's when he noticed the driver's face. There was a clear plastic mask there, a bit like the oxygen masks in airplanes, only the mask covered the driver's entire face. A tube extended from the mouth and nose area of the mask down to what Shogo supposed was an oxygen tank.

Was something wrong with the bus? Did the AC malfunction, and now it was spitting out carbon monoxide or something instead of cool air? Why weren't they given masks too?

But before Shogo's sluggish brain could process anymore thoughts, his head slowly dropped down until his chin touched his chest, and he fell asleep.

At approximately the same time, the parents of Class C's students were visited by government representatives, bearing documents stamped with the official government seal. Written on those documents were formal declarations that their children's class had been chosen to participate in this year's 'special government program'. The terminology in the documents was dispassionate, neutral, and didn't quite say enough about what was truly in store for the students of Class C.

Most of Class C's parents knew what these documents, what the arrival of these government officials meant, and most accepted their children's fate quietly. These parents took the official documents, bid goodbye to the government representatives, and retreated to the safety of their homes to weep together and comfort each other, and mourn for their children who would surely die.

Others were horrified and raised a fuss, protesting their children's participation in such an event. The luckier parents, those who did not fight too violently, were merely incapacitated with a stun gun and left alone in their homes, unable to move. These parents, when the effects of the stun gun eventually wore off, would get up, close the door rudely left open by the government reps, and continue with their lives, though nothing would ever be the same again.

The less lucky parents could not even do this, because they had no lives to continue. Those who protested violently enough, angrily enough, were killed, neatly and efficiently, with a single shot to the heart, or the head. Instant death. The government representatives bundled the bodies into the homes, curtly informed any remaining siblings of the night's events, and then called an undertaker for the parents who had departed this world before their doomed children even knew of their fate.

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