A/N: Written for the Snakes and Ladders in Writing Land challenge. My square was write at least 2k of only dialogue…which I had a whole night of panicking with and about three more struggling with before the story was finished. Since that's a lot of dialogue without any prose, and that was always one of my weaker challenges…but I found it interesting that I wound up with such a task in one of my own challenges. :D Goes to show a pair of dice can surprise you even if you know the whole board. :D

Contains spoilers for Judge. The English scanlations only go up to ch17, but I found a thread that had summaries of the rest through the French scanlations.

Also (SPOILERS!), the part Rina skips in her explanation is the part where she is threatened by rape by Kyuhei (she stands up for herself and Asami pops up too to help). Naturally, that's not something she wants to tell her son. Not that the rest of the story is any more child-friendly… Rina also doesn't mention that when Kyuhei died, she was tasered unconscious and woke up with a pair of scissors in her hands framing her for the murder. She didn't kill Kyuhei anyway, but that's another detail she avoids mentioning. In fact, she just glosses over that whole incident.

The Story of a Judging

'Grandma, I'm old enough to know the story now, aren't I?'

'…what brought this on?'

'Our class today mentioned it. Everyone else knows about it after all. It's not fair I don't, especially when you and Mum –'

'What they know is only the official information. Which you know as well.'

'But Grandma! That official version is – it's rubbish! That woman, Hikari-san, must have had some reason kidnapping sixteen people and letting only two of them go. It sounds all too well thought out for her to be just crazy.'

'She was just crazy.'

'Grandma!'

'…look, ask your mother about it. She knows more about it than I do…and, honestly, I never wanted to learn the rest.'

'Okay, Grandma.'

.

'Mum, Grandma said I can ask you about – Mum? …I guess Grandma already told you, huh.'

'…I guess it can't be helped. You won't stop asking about this, will you?'

'I'm sorry, Mum. I am, but still I want to know the truth. I want to know why all that happened. All these stories they tell us: they must have some deeper reason than what we're told. And you know this one.'

'I suppose I do. It's not an easy story though.'

'But you'll tell me?'

'Will you tell anyone else?'

'…do you want me to?'

'Not particularly, no.'

'Then I won't.'

'You're a good boy. Though as curious as a…cat.'

'Oww, Mum, that's my hair. …and I thought you don't like cats?'

'It's not a matter of liking or not liking them. But I'll tell you soon. It's all a part of this story.'

'Okay.'

'…'

'Mum?'

'I'm sorry. Just thinking about how I should start.'

'The beginning?'

'But where does it begin, I wonder? At the trial, maybe? Before that? Or…'

'Mum, are you okay? You're shaking.'

'I'm fine.'

'Maybe we shouldn't –'

'It's fine.'

'…'

'I guess it started with Hikari …and two brothers: Hiro…I forgot his full name since everyone always called him Hiro, and his older brother: Atsuya. Hikari and Atsuya were a couple, and Hiro was in love with Hikari.'

'A love triangle? People go crazy over love?'

'I don't know if it's love or injustice, really. Anyhow, Atsuya and Hikari were a happy couple, and Hiro was a envious, but otherwise happy for the two of them. But when he and Hikari were talking one day and Hikari called him out on having a crush…well, Hiro decided he wanted the chance to tell Hikari how he really felt, no matter how things would end. So he told Atsuya the time for their next date had changed.'

'…and that's it? That's not such a bad thing. I mean, if Hikari got there on time, she'd just wait, right. Or if Hiro was there too, they'd talk, and then when Atsuya got there –'

'But that's not what happened.'

'…oh. …what did happen then?'

'I don't know what happened to their parents, but Hiro and Atsuya lived on their own. And to send Hiro to school, Atsuya worked multiple jobs. So when Hiro told Atsuya that Hikari had shifted their date to an hour later, Atsuya took advantage of that and worked a little later. And, while delivering something for work, was run over by a drunk driver and killed.'

'He died? Just like that?'

'Yes…and, naturally, both Hiro and Hikari were devestated. And Hiro lost the chance he'd made for himself as well.'

'That's…awful. But –'

'The drunk driver. He was put on trial, and the jury and judge agreed on a light sentence for him. Five years in jail.'

'Uhh…'

'He worked for a company who knew the judge. In other words, the company bribed the judge, as well as the jury, to lighten the sentence.'

'So Hikari-san found out about that? That the person who killed the guy she loved got away with a light sentence because of a bribe?'

'Not just her. Hiro too. And even though they knew the truth, they couldn't do anything about it. The law's like that, after all. Everyone would just deny it and that would be that. The adults would believe the adults. The kids would just go on suffering.'

'…'

'So the pair of them decided to get their own revenge. And they set up a game. Nine animals, each representing a sin. Two sets. Two games. One person voted to die every twelve hours, and only four peoplec can walk out alive.'

'A…game? Like that?'

'You know it, don't you. I'm sure someone has mentioned it to you before.'

'Judge. Yes, but…'

'And your grandmother and I…we were both players.'

'…so that's how you know the story.'

'Yes. But there is still a lot to the story left to tell.'

'…okay. I…want to hear the rest, still.'

'Are you sure?'

'I'm sure.'

'Okay. … Now, the game. At first, we didn't know anything. I woke up handcuffed and tied up with a mask on my face. A fox mask…but I only knew that when I took it off. And only after…a lot, did I know Mum had the same sort of mask as me.'

'So the two sets of nine…the people in the two rooms with the same mask were related?'

'Not necessarily by blood, but yes. Hiro and Hikari were the rabbits. For Kazu…I think his boyfriend was in the other room? Miku and her grandfather. Hayato and his father. Asami and her fiance…'

'Uh…mum? Who are those people?'

'Right, I forgot… Those nine animals…it might be easier to start when I woke up. We were all tied up like that at the beginning I think. We all woke up at different times though, so when I woke up, more people in masks appeared and untied me.'

'Those names you mentioned?'

'Yeah, those guys. Kazu and Hayato at least. Kazu had a…I forgot, really. I remember Hayato had a lion though. There was a girl with a cat mask too: Asami. But she didn't seem too interested in us girls.'

'So she was that sort of girl? Uurgh.'

'I don't think I'd call her a bad person. Especially since we weren't the ones being punished, in the end.'

'…I still don't –'

'So they got me down – and there was another guy holding a pig mask in the corner. He'd tried to take the mask off and had died. So we didn't try to take off our masks – until we were ordered to.'

'Ordered? How?'

'First the others woke up, and then Hayato knocked over this stuffed animal that made a weird noise, and he noticed a cassette in it. We watchced the tape, and it had orders for us. The rules of the game, so to speak. But first, he told us to take off our masks.'

'After the pig guy died doing it?'

'Yeah…but the tape didn't go on until we did, and we figured that we had to follow what the tape said before something happened to us. So if the tape said to take it off, we probbaly should.'

'So you did.'

'Yeah. And then the tape explained we had to vote every twelve hours – for which one of us would die. At the end, when four people were left, they could get out.'

'Four…out of eighteen?!'

'Nine at the time. We didn't know about the other nine then.'

'But sitl…voting five people dead?'

'But our own lives were at stake. We didn't have much choice but to choose. But some of us though we wanted a way to save everyone. An idealistic way. Somehow everyone could get out of that hell, be safe. But, of course, the mystery voice had planned for that as well.'

'…how did –'

'That comes in later. I can't remember if we introduced ourselves then or later, but no-one wanted to be in the same room as someone they might be chosen to be killed by twelve hours later, so we all split up. When we came back together, eleven hours were up and we were missing one. And one of the things the tape had said was if we didn't all vote, we'd all be killed.'

'But – the pig guy – '

'Dead people didn't count, apparently. But there was a live guy missing and that was a problem. The start of a few problems. Because Hiro and Kazu went and maanged to convince him to come, but in the meantine Kyuhei suggested that the bear guy would just cause more problems even if they does come back, so he votes for him, and Hayato and Asami follow suit. But Hiro and Kazu bring the bear guy back before the rest of us can bring ourselves to vote.'

'Uhh…Kyuhei? Bear-guy? Was he the missing one?'

'Right, I forgot. Kyuhei was the guy with the horse mask. I already said Hiro had the rabbit I think. Kazu had a cat. So did Asami. Miku had the other pig mask. Hayato had the lion. I had the fox. The guy with the bear mask was Nobuyuki…and yes, he was the next to die. But before that, Hiro, not knowing what the others had done, suggested we all vote for ourselves.'

'…so each of you would have had one vote each? But you said that didn't work – hang on, those guys have already –'

'That's right. They'd already voted. And it turned out Nobuyuki couldn't bring himself to trust Hiro anyway, because he voted for Kyuhei – because Kyuhei was frightening to start with, and only got worse.'

'Mum? You're shaking again. Maybe we should –'

'Never mind. I've started this already.'

'…okay Mum. So the votes…'

'Still pointed to Nobuyuki in the end, but it proved how little we trusted each other. For good reason I suppose, considering nobody had given anyone a reason to trust someone else…but it also meant there was no way we'd be able to convince everyone to vote for themselves. Nobuyuki locked himself up again and he died, somehow, in there, and we were split into two groups: one with Kyuhei, Hayato and Asami, and the other with Hiro, Kazu, Miku and I: the four who did vote for ourselves.'

'If they'd voted for you instead, you could have…'

'I was willing to take that risk, if it meant we all voted for ourselves and got out. But that didn't matter in the end. And the next voting came along. We'd decided to vote out Kyuhei because he'd gotten a little violent, and we thought he was the most dangerous one. We'd almost given up on saving the others; we were four people after all. We could get out. But we still had a little bit of hope. What a joke that turned out to be.'

'Mum?'

'The other three said they wanted to try voting for ourselves one more time. They even went ahead and pressed the panels with the photos, to show they were serious. So we decided to give them another chance. We voted for ourselves. Except…those guys had switched around the photos that told which panel was for which person, so in fact they'd all voted for Kazu.'

'They did what? Those bastards.'

'But if they hadn't tricked us like that, they'd have lost someone on their side. It had turned into that sort of game. Kazu was shocked, naturally, and he bolted. By the time we fould him, he'd hung himself.'

'He killed himself? But –'

'It turned out he'd been threatened to help out with the…game. Tie the rest of us up, jab anyone who tried to take their mask off early with the needle, and when his time was up, to kill himself – so his parents would be okay. He had a cell phone with him, and there were a few text messages and photos of a woman I guess was Kazu's mother. He'd been kicked out of home because of his sexual orientation…but a mother's a mother, right?'

'So he killed himself thinking that would save his mother. That's…Hikari – to go that far, and what did he have – Was Kazu-san on the jury?'

'No. His boyfriend was though. That's the other group of nine. Miku's grandfather. Asami's fiance. Hayato's father. My mother. Others somehow related as well. I don't remember it all. I don't know why I remember those ones in particular. The ones on the jury during the Atsuya case. The ones who took the bribe to lighten the sentence.'

'Grandma took a bribe?'

'No, she didin't. That's why we're alive.'

'…that's…so then, the people with you…were completely innocent?'

'I guess that depends. From Hikari's perspective, we were the ones who benifited from the bribe money. Like Kazu's boyfriend used the money so Kazu could live with him. Asami's fiance showered her with gifts. Miku's grandfather paid for Miku's surgery.'

'But the surgery's to save someone's life? How could –'

'It was cosmetic surgery – and for someone on the side denied justice, I wonder if that would have mattered to her anyway.'

'But Hiro –'

'Getting there. …the next judging is first.'

'Mum, why did you – never mind.'

'It was three on three, but Asami decided she'd had enough of Kyuhei and joined us, making the teams four on two. We decided to vote for him. The other boys voted for Hiro. Probably thinking we'd be weak defenceless women on our own. Somehow, it wound up in a draw though, and a voice came from somewhere telling us the two had to fight it out to the death.'

'So then…'

'They did exactly that. And if we'd done what Hiro had suggested at the beginning, we'd all have to have done that. But I doubt that would have happened.'

'Why?'

'Getting there.'

'But –'

'Kyuhei had a gun.'

'…what?! A gun! That's…totally unfair!'

'But it backfired on him and he lost. He wasn't quite dead, but Hiro decided he didn't want to deal the finishing blow and tried to give medical treatment. I…don't know how how he dies later, but he does.'

'…'

'Hayato found an SD card somewhere, and we'd taken the phone after we found Kazu. The SD card had a photo for everyone, with photos of us and our families. Lots: photos they wouldn't have been able to easily get.'

'So Hikari had been…stalking…you guys?'

'She would have had to, to know how we'd act as well as she did. But not just her. Before that though, Miku's photos…I told you her surgery was cosmetic, right?'

'Yeah…'

'Her photos looked like a totally different person. And she was still self-conscious, so when she saw her photos, she took the phone…and ran. We chase her…and we find the other judging. Our family. The results are the same as well: the people dead on this side…their relatives were dead on the other. And then, suddenly, it's the next judging.'

'Miku?'

'Hayato and Asami do. I was going to as well – because, at that point, there was nothing left to do – but Miku –'

'Is that…that scar you're always covering up…'

'She stabbed me in the leg. Miku, I mean, to make me vote for Asami. And she demanded Hiro vote for Asami too…but he voted for himself, leaving the votes tied.'

'So now…Miku and Asami…'

'Did you want Miku to die?'

'No, but…if someone…I mean…she destroyed the only lead you guys had, so…'

'That's what we were thinking, I guess. Though Hiro looked like he wanted to save everyone still, voting for himself and all. He really had us fooled.'

'Fooled? He…he was helping Hikari!'

'Atsuya was his brother after all. He might have been jealous, but I doubt he wanted him dead. But we didn't know that, not until almost the end. Before that was Miku and Asami. Miku wins, but is shot by an arrow when the two judgings are connected.'

'So…if the judgings are connected, there are…six people left?'

'Right. Me and Mum. Hayato and his father. Hikari and Hiro. And Hayato's father is…'

'A maniac?'

'What makes you say that?'

'You're shaking again, Mum.'

'Oh. Right, well – yeah, he's a maniac, waving that crossbow of his. Hayato pretends to team up with his father, and tasers Hiro, pretending to kill him. But what he really wants is a shot at his father.'

'He wanted to kill his own father?'

'Hayato was the son of a mistress, and his father didn't care for her like a wife, like Hayato loved his mother. So he wanted revenge. But he failed to kill his father, and is instead killed by him. So I was told anyway. Mum and I lost the others in the mayhem and hid ourselves. We didn't want to die. And we didn't stand out either way; if there was someone someone else wanted to live, they'd come after us.'

'But who'd want the lion guy to live?'

'That's where the truth starts coming out. Hayato's father suggests a deal: kill me and Mum, and the three of them can escape with the offer of a high paying job as well. They accepted –

'…'

'But that was just a faux.'

'Because they wanted revenge, right? That offer would have just made them madder.'

'Right. And then they caught him with the needle – what was left of whatever killed the guy at the beginning – and explained everything. And then they killed him.'

'So they got their revenge. And got innocent people involved too. You and Grandma. All the people in your "Judging" – like they chose to have the bribes spent on them!'

'It was a punishment for the others. Seeing the people they took the bribes for being killed. Of course I can't agree with any of it…but Mum and I got out. Mum didn't take that bribe. No-one close to me died. Who am I to say anything for those people?'

'But…'

'So there was just the four of us left, and we walked out. But Hiro suddenly collapsed, and in the time it took for Mum and me to run to the nearest town for an ambulance and police and back, he was dead. Hikari had poisoned him.'

'Because she'd found out he'd changed the tiem of their date, and that cascaded into Atsuya-san's death?'

'That's it. Because when we came back – well, I camce back with the police. Mum was a hurt so she stayed back. And Hikari was sitting and explaining all that to the corpse. And not just that, but everything. All the work they'd put in to their revenge. All the details we missed. So the police arrested her and prosecuted her for the deaths of fifteen people, and that was the end of the matter.'

'So after all that, she couldn't expose the bribes to the world. Or get the driver in the car.'

'She did. The driver of the car I mean. Killed him and wrote the seven deadly sins on his back.'

'…I still don't get it. Honestly…how is that worth it? And how could she…they…'

'I don't get it either. I just try to forget about it because, in the end, Mum and I didn't do anything wrong, and we're still alive.'

'The lesson of the story: don't take bribes, huh. That's…now I wish I hadn't ever asked.'

'Just forget about it.'

'But-! Mum-!'

'Unless you want to break into a high security prison and kill Hikari for what she did?'

'Of course not, but –'

'Of course, something like that is how this all started, isn't it?'

'…did you ever want to?'

'Want to what?'

'Kill Hikari? Or make her suffer?'

'She's probably already suffering. She didn't get the death setence on account of mental state, but I doubt where she is is a pleasant place. Sometimes, when I have nightmares, or remember how terrified I'd been for my life – our lives – I'm happy she's suffering after what she made us go through, but otherwise…no. I'll leave her to the law. Not doing so would – might – make me into someone like her.'

'You think it's that…easy?'

'I honestly don't want to know the answer to that. I just know I saw a lot of people die, in gruesome ways. I played a hand in killing Asami. And if I'd been killed, Mum would have been killed as well. I just don't – don't want anything like this to happen again!'

'Mum –'

'That's enough questioning your mother. Come on. Up, Rina.'

'Grandma…'

'And get that look off your face. You're not to mention this again, got it?'

'Got it, Grandma. … Here. I'll take Mum. You're supposed to be looking after your back.'