DESTINATION ROYALE
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A BR/Final Destination crossover
By Mishkidda
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Final Destination is a film that deals with a group of students who escape an air crash in which they should have been killed, upsetting death's design – so they get killed off by freak cases of bad luck, one by one, in the order that they would have died...
Warnings: AU. Violence. Swearing. Angst. Sex. Multiple character deaths (surprise surprise). If you're too young to read the BR manga you shouldn't be reading this.
Legal: Don't own any of the source material, fic written for fun, not for profit.
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List of Battle Royale Contestants (in the order they died in the manga)
Kuninobu Yoshitoki
Fujiyoshi Fumiyo
Tendo Mayumi
Akamatsu Yoshio
Eto Megumi
Kuronaga Hiroshi
Sasagawa Ryuhei
Kanai Izumi
Numai Mitsuru
Ogawa Sakura
Yamamoto Kazuhiko
Ooki Tatsumichi
Motobuchi Kyoichi
Kusaka Yumiko
Kitano Yukiko
Kuramoto Yoji
Yahagi Yoshimi
Niida Kazushi
Chigusa Takako
Minami Kaori
Tsukioka Sho
Shimizu Hirono
Iijama Keita
Seto Yutaka
Mimura Shinji
Hatagami Tadakatsu
Takiguchi Yuichiro
Oda Toshinori
Nakagawa Yuka
Matsui Chisato
Utsumi Yukie
Noda Satomi
Tanizawa Haruka
Sakaki Yuko
Inada Mizuho
Kotohiki Kayoko
Sugimura Hiroki
Soma Mitsuko
Kiriyama Kazuo
Kawada Shogo
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Part I
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Mr. Yonemi Kamon sighed, at the edge of his patience, and steepled his hands on top of the desk.
"Are you saying," he said, "that they're not going to make it?"
"Looking that way, sir," the soldier answered, trying to answer as briskly as possible so as not to further aggravate Mr. Kamon's already black mood: "It's gridlock in both directions. The contestants' bus is caught in the middle of it – and the police want them to evacuate the area until we know the rest of the road is structurally sound."
It was now 7pm, Program start time minus 5 hours. When a bridge unexpectedly collapsed in the western part of the Greater East Asia Republic, taking many commuters and goods lorries down to their watery graves, there was nowhere for the traffic to go, and the bus carrying the students of Class B could not reroute because of the congestion. It was stuck in the traffic jam from hell, with a broken bridge between the contestants and their island and no way of getting them out without arousing suspicion.
Terrorist activity was the first thought of many in the mainland Program HQ. It seemed improbable that today of all days the bridge should fail, but the technicians checked and re-checked and there had been no leakage of data. The identity of the class selected was known only to those with clearance to know, and whatever the reason for the collapse, it wasn't related to the fact that the bus containing the Program contestants would be caught in the crushing delays. Program Co-ordinator Kamon had been just about to go on the parental notification tour, a part of the Program he particularly relished. It was like a pre-game sweetener, and some of the grief-stricken mothers could be so... accommodating...
"Some of the parents have already come to pick up the kids," the soldier continued. "It's falling apart out there. To attempt to go in there and extract the contestants would be..."
"Yes, yes." Kamon waved him away irritably. "We will cancel. Have my car called, and I want a dossier on the backup class on my desk by eight tomorrow morning."
"Sir." A salute, and the soldier was gone.
Kamon sighed again. He'd been so worked up about this year's Program as well. All those lovely little boys and girls dying for the State. And he'd be alone in his hotel tonight watching porn instead. Yes, he'd console himself, and within a fortnight another class of unsuspecting schoolchildren would be participating in their places. Lucky bastards, having that happen. It might not seem like good luck now, but if they know what might've happened, they'd be considering themselves very lucky indeed.
Kamon laughed at himself. Luck implied fate, a prefabricated design behind everything that happened, and as a Party man, he didn't believe in any superstitious nonsense like that.
Fate didn't care what Party men like Yonemi Kamon thought.
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The bus doors hissed open, filling the stale air with the acrid whiff of traffic fumes.
"All right, you can come out. Make your way to the designated collection zone," the traffic policeman shouted down the aisle, to be met with weak cheering from Class B.
"At fucking last," groaned Hirono Shimizu (Female Student #10), lifting her head from Yoshimi's lap where she'd been catching a catnap. Mitsuko Soma (Female Student #11) stretched, blowing on her newly-crimson nails, while Yoshimi Yahagi (Female Student #21) strained to reach above her head to get their bags down from the rack.
Yoshitoki "Nobu" Kuninobu (Male Student #7) expressed similar sentiments to his best friend, earning himself a glare from their teacher. Yoshi had never learned to keep his voice down. He punched the air energetically. "Come on, Shu! We can get the bus... still in time for Rock Hero Hour if we run..."
Shuya Nanahara (Male Student #15) hadn't expected to be able to listen to his favourite pirate radio show this week, its coverage area being centred around the town. It would be one good thing out of a very bad day. Their trip being cancelled sucked, but he was sure they'd still find a use for his stashed bottle of whisky and pocket radio.
"If we run..." Shuya looked out of the window at the designated collection point, marked out by red traffic cones and policemen in hi-vis jackets. Already, some parents had come to meet their children to escort them away from the site of the disaster. He could see them through the grimy windows – Kaori's, Megumi's, even a company car to collect Toshinori Oda.
A momentary sadness took him. No-one would come to pick him or Nobu up. Ms. Ryoko was the nearest thing they had to a family, and she'd be far too busy running the orphanage – she couldn't just leave on a moment's notice.
Nobu grabbed his arm, shaking him from his thoughts. "Then let's run!" he said, pulling Shuya from his seat.
"See you, Noriko," he managed to call over his shoulder. "Thanks for the cookies..."
Noriko Nakagawa (Female Student #15) called after him, "You're welcome! Any time!" but her voice was lost to the din as all 42 students tried to leave the bus at once.
Shogo Kawada (Boys #5) stood up, and punched his seat hard enough to startle Noriko, two rows away. He yanked his bag down from the rack and strode off. She stared after him, wondering what his attitude problem was. Class trips were fun, but she'd never seen anyone so disappointed about one being cancelled.
Shuya and Nobu grabbed their bags from the overhead racks, and, with Nobu yelling, "Coming through!" they hurtled down the aisle and out the doors. Nobu got down first, temporarily distracted by the smoke and dust ahead, where the bridge had collapsed, tipping thousands of tonnes of concrete, tarmac and cars into the river.
"Check it out..." said Nobu.
"Better not get too close in case the rest of it goes too," said Shuya. "Come on, Rock Hero Hour, remember?"
"Could I forget?" said Nobu, grinning his signature Nobu grin.
Perhaps it was the din of hundreds of stranded motorists, engines running, cell phones, sirens, crumbling rubble of the bridge, the roaring of the river – but for some reason or other, neither Shuya or Nobu heard the car coming. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Nobu, who was standing further from the bus than Shuya, turned a fraction of a second too late. The speeding car slammed into his legs, which snapped under him like matchsticks, and his body pirouetted over the car's bonnet, smashing into the windscreen, leaving it webbed with spidery cracks and a bloom of scarlet blood.
Nobu's body sailed through the air, hit the ground roughly, cracking his head open on the tarmac, and bounced, limbs now doll-like and uncontrolled. He came to rest a metre or so down the road, lying motionless on the asphalt, a pool of blood spreading beneath him.
The car swerved too late and ploughed into the side of a delivery lorry in the next lane of traffic. Suddenly, there was no more noise.
"I think he hit a boy!" someone called out.
Shuya found his voice.
"Nobu!" he screamed. Dropping to his knees, he threw his arms around Yoshitoki, cradling his shattered body. Warm blood soaked into his school trousers and limbs twisted at odd angles jutted into him, but he didn't notice. "Nobu, come on, don't do this!" he sobbed, holding his best friend's head in his hands. "Change, combine, remember?"
He was soon surrounded by classmates, bystanders, emergency personnel. "Don't move him," a paramedic ordered. "His neck could be broken. He must be kept still."
Mutely, Shuya lifted Yoshitoki's body so the man could see the shattered skull, the blood flow slowing now, the open, startled eyes. There was no chance that Yoshitoki Kuninobu was alive.
"Come on, son," said a female paramedic, her warm hands on Shuya's shoulders, pulling him away. "There's nothing you can do for him now. Come away, let us do our job."
Shuya stared as Yoshitoki, quite dead, was strapped to a stretcher and rushed away in an ambulance which picked its way between the lanes of traffic, sirens wailing for no reason. Noriko came to stand at his side, tears streaming down her face, and it seemed natural to take her hand.
"Shu... I think I found a girl I kinda like..."
"'Kinda'? She 'kinda' got a name?"
Noriko Nakagawa. Cute and kindhearted and right up Yoshi's street. Shuya couldn't look at her. Not now.
For a week, Class B were excused from school, so they could attend Yoshi's funeral. In a way, Shuya thought, lying on his bed in what had been their shared room, they'd all wanted a week off school, and they'd got it. Fate was not without a sense of humour.
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1 eliminated, 41 to go...