Chapter 6: Love and Fury

Yoshinori

Walking up the stairs of the house was when Yoshi first glimpsed him walking by. He had something held lazily in his right hand just out of focus. Some kind of gun. Though Yoshi himself was armed he had no real intention of killing this person even in retaliation. He walked slowly up the stairs. The intruder poked his head out of the side door to see who it was. Yoshi instantly recognized the face of Hiroshi Kutsuki; he was a detestable sort, one of a group dubbed 'the pervs'. That group shared several common denominators, they were all short in stature, they were all unpleasant in attitude and they all had seemingly no control over their vocal inhibitions when girls were around. It was unusual to ever see one of them in a position of power but thanks to this stupid game Hiroshi now was, he had a flamethrower in his hands. Yoshi immediately came to the conclusion that Hiroshi had been the one who burned that mansion to the ground and that he would probably not hesitate to do the same here, unless Yoshi could talk him out of it. While Hiroshi was now shaking Yoshi could tell he hadn't used the combat drugs else he would be dead already.

"Hiroshi, you need to calm down." He said softly

"Me? Calm down? You have a fucking harpoon pointed at my face!" Hiroshi half screamed half hissed

"You have a flamethrower pointed at mine." Yoshi replied "I'll put the harpoon down if you put the flamethrower down. No one needs to get hurt here."

Hiroshi slowly moved to put the weapon at his feet. Yoshi did the same before standing back up. Suddenly Hiroshi stamped on the flamethrowers trigger. A lick of flame tore its way up the left wall and spiralled across the ceiling back towards the ground like a coiled viper. Yoshi had to think rationally. Hiroshi at this point was doing nothing of the sort. He was picking the flamethrower back up while laughing maniacally. Yoshi looked back just in time to see Mitsuru on his way up. The roof boarding began to creak. Yoshi poised on his knees and dived forward hearing an earth shattering crash behind him. He had to act. He grabbed the harpoon gun out of the debris. He aimed it at Hiroshi's flamethrower, closed his eyes and fired. He missed. When he opened his eyes he saw the exact thing he was praying wouldn't happen. The harpoon was imbedded in Hiroshi's chest. Before Yoshi could think what to do next Hiroshi stumbled back. He stumbled out of the window.

Yoshi felt the harpoon's rope tense and before he knew it he was dragged out arms first. He felt himself hit the hard ground but it didn't stop there. He continued to roll at what must have been a 75-degree angle down a long verge. Eventually he felt the ground even out again, for the most part. He was lying on something else. Yoshi picked himself up and looked down, it was dark but he could tell Hiroshi's corpse was beneath him. Great. Yoshi could imagine what Hiroshi would look like in daylight. Covered in shards of glass. Clear hole through his chest. Stained in blood. Yoshi left the harpoon next to him. He didn't care about using it in self-defence any more, he'd killed three people with it, enough was enough.

In the dark Yoshi couldn't make out any path back to the settlement, hell he couldn't even see the flames of the house Hiroshi had just torched. He decided he would just walk to the coast to re-establish himself and then go back round via the island perimeter. The coast was farther away than he thought. It was about 10pm when he got dragged out the back of that house. He was only able to walk for a few hours before he had to stop and rest, ultimately falling asleep under a tree, when he awoke again he cursed his carelessness and immediately pressed on, still in a lot of pain. Limping forward he looked up to see the sun rising through the trees, every part of him ached but he didn't want to stop moving. He had cuts running up his arms and banded around his legs. His chest was covered in bruises and he had a gash across his cheek that stung intolerably. He knew that his daypack was back at the settlement and that he clothes were torn and ragged. If anyone was playing the game he'd be a prime target right about now, he was surprised nobody had found him during the night. He tried not to think about it.

Eventually he heard the calming sound he'd been striving for. Water breaking against the cliffs, he saw the infinite blue sea stretched out before him, he felt the cooling breeze, he smelt the salty air. This is part of the reason he headed for the coast. It would be good place to sit and recuperate. As Yoshi walked further forward he saw something. A person. He ducked behind a tree and observed. He soon realised who it was, but the situation mystified him. He was stood there, his mid length black hair blowing in the wind, his rolled up shirtsleeves and his karate stance-like posture. But something wasn't right. In his arms there was a girl. He was holding her as a hero would hold a girl in a Hollywood movie. There was one key difference. She was dead. He took a knee and gently let her drop and disappear over the edge of the cliff face. He wiped his hand across his eyes and brushed it back as tears leaked across his palm and then he got back up. Yoshi got out from behind the tree and stood in plain view before calling out behind him.

"Kazuo?"

Tetsuya

How many more times would Tetsuya have to be proven wrong? How many times could he be convinced he'd seen it all? How many times could he feel like he'd come to terms with this stupid fucking game? That's all he wanted to know. He'd just seen one of his best friends die. He dashed screaming towards the ashen rubble and dug insanely through it. Satoshi calmed him down though Satoshi himself was in tears. They found no body. This left only one option, they had to wait for the morning announcement to find out whether or not he was dead.

The 8 hours they sat in wait felt more like 100. It was horrible. Satoshi suggested sending out a search party but nobody wanted to take the risk. Eventually the sun rose and the squawk box clicked into life.

"Ugh…Good morning everyone. I'm afraid my announcement will be lacking in enthusiasm today, I needed to entertain myself last night and as a result I'm hung over. Also I think she took my credit card after I fell asleep. Enough of me, let's get down to the names. Sakura Sanada at 14:45pm, Takahashi Sugimura about 3 minutes later, Ritsuko Oda at half 3 in the afternoon and Hiroshi Kutsuki at 27 past 9. That's much better than yesterday. Keep it up and we might have a new record or whatever blah blah blah motivational crap. Have fun killing each other. Bye."

Tetsuya felt a rush of relief creep over him. Only four had died but then that made it 20, the class had literally been cut in half after only 3 days. But Yoshi was alive. That was great news, well sort of. This didn't mean he was alive and well, he could be hurt. Luckily Satoshi had already reached the same conclusion. The unfortunate part was that in all haste he'd sauntered off on his own to find Yoshi. Tetsuya concluded that he thought any extra company would've just slowed his search down. He was dead wrong but there was no convincing Satoshi, he'd stick to his convictions regardless of what others thought. In a sense this was an admirable quality but it did mean that rationality would be overlooked sometimes, like now. What Satoshi wasn't taking into account was that in going out on his own with a wooden stick for self-defence he was in danger almost as much as the possibly wounded Yoshi. At this point it was hopeless to after him. It would just mean another person at risk out in the wilderness.

The day dragged on, a tense atmosphere lulled over the group. Conversation was not a viable option, no meaningful conversation at any rate. All they could do was sit and hope the two of them would come back safe and sound. It wasn't until around 8pm that they found something out; Yoshi and Satoshi were not the only concern at hand. Anywhere else the noise they heard coming from the adjacent warehouse would've been dismissed as a bird or something falling on the floor, but on Urashima Island a kind of deep seeded paranoia set in given that everyone's life was at risk.

Ichiro lead the group to go and check what it was. This warehouse was constructed differently to the one they had previously called home, this one had a big metal door but it also had 2 smaller doors located on the east and west ends of it. The one on the west was the closest door and therefore the one Ichiro decided to use. Noboru followed close behind him while Mitsuru disappeared around the back. Tetsuya stayed close to the Noboru but not too close, partly because he wanted clear line of sight and partly because the guy hadn't showered in 3 days. This was a little hypocritical considering neither Tetsuya nor any of the other boys had. Ichiro slowly pushed the door open. Neither Noboru nor Tetsuya could see past him so they couldn't tell whether the coast was clear. That is until Ichiro turned around with a relieved smile on his face.

"There's nobody here." He said

It was an unusual sound. It sounded similar some form of hard punch but with a slight undertone of liquid. The closest comparison would be hitting a lemon or some other fruit with an axe. The second sound was far more grotesque. A crack that emanated internally like an echo inside of a balloon. The sound happened before the event. Ichiro began to twitch. His eyes widened. After that he remained still for a moment. Then with the second noise blood spurted out of his chest. Tetsuya felt it running warmly against his face. He could see a small metal point poking out of Ichiro's chest. It was then that it dawned on Ichiro. He knew he was going to die. Tears began to roll across his cheeks. His glasses dropped to the floor, broken. Then he did the same. His mouth quivered and spoke.

"Miho..." His final breath shivered out of his body. He was gone.

Tetsuya could only look on in horror. His friend was lying on the floor, blood was pouring out of a hole in his chest. His eyes were wider than Tetsuya had ever seen them. His expression was fixed. Tetsuya began to hyperventilate and reared back, shaking like a leaf. He composed himself long enough to look up. The weapon had been a kind of scythe attached to chain with a metal ring connected to it. The person holding it was Naoko Yamatako. She was shivering all over and crying buckets. Tetsuya's grief had not allowed room for rage and none was within him now, just pity. The quivering girl brushed her extraordinarily long hair away from her eyes. Tetsuya had liked Naoko; she used to get labelled with the nickname 'Sada' in reference to the horror movie 'Ring' because of her long hair and her quiet attitude. In truth she was a very funny, passionate person but she was also very shy. She tearfully spoke.

"I'm…so….sorry! I thought…he was gonna hurt me! Like the other boy did! It's not my fault please don't hurt me please!" She dropped her weapon on the floor. "See! I'm not bad! I didn't mean to do it! It was an accident! Please Noboru! Please!"

Noboru couldn't act in revenge after hearing that. His first impulse in fact was to put the pistol down, move over and comfort her. He put his arms on her shoulders and, masking his own grief, spoke to her.

"It's ok" He said, "We're not going to hurt you."

Shaking, Naoko nodded and rested her head on his chest. He moved forward and put his arms around her. Tetsuya felt an incredible onslaught of conflict within himself. He looked back up. Wait. Something was very wrong. Noboru was now shivering as well. Tetsuya heard a dripping sound. He looked down. Blood was dripping between the two of them. Oh no. Thought Tetsuya. Noboru's killed her. But he was wrong. Noboru reared back and turned around. Blood had stained his white shirt. His hand clutched his stomach. He lurched forward in agony. Tetsuya was once again stunned, aghast. Noboru reached out with his other hand.

"Tetsuya….AAAHHH!"

A torrent of blood came pouring remorselessly out of Noboru's neck. A massive gash had been torn clear through it. Noboru's head hung limply back. His body had lost any semblance of humanity; his head hung almost lower than his shoulders. It was grotesque. Noboru fell to the ground. Once again his eyes were wide and unmoving. Tetsuya had lost another friend. He felt a new emotion welling up in him, this time it was anger. Naoko had a blood stained bayonet held forward. She was no longer quivering. She was smiling.

"Oops" She said sarcastically "I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident."

Naoko had been top of the class in drama but Tetsuya hadn't thought this mattered until now. She put the tip of the bayonet she'd previously concealed right up against his throat. Tetsuya was frozen with fear. This girl had become something disgusting. To Tetsuya she wasn't human anymore. An icy, murderous, reptile blooded monster. No longer his friend. Tetsuya had seen the full extent of this game and it had a blade pointed at his neck.

Suddenly Naoko went limp. She fell to the ground with a loud thud. Mitsuru stood behind her having beaten her over the back of the head with that ladle he'd been given. He was steeped in sweat and tears were welling up around his eyes. He started walking up to Tetsuya and leaned down to speak to him.

"I'll go tell the others. Take this…" He handed Tetsuya two chains with a lock each, he must have found them inside. "…And lock her in."

Tetsuya stood for a while but when Mitsuru had finished moving the bodies he couldn't bear to stay any longer. He quickly locked the front door and started dragging her inside but then the anger began to catch up with him. He looked down at her. This girl had ruthlessly murdered two of his friends without even batting an eyelid. She was dangerous. He hated her. He hated every bone in that sick little bitch's body. As she lay there enjoying her little nap, anger overcame Tetsuya. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket, allergy season and pollen always got the better of him. Tetsuya placed the handkerchief over Naoko's nose and mouth, and then waited. He could feel her breath underneath it gradually receding. Then she opened her eyes. She grabbed Tetsuya's wrist and tried to push him away but Tetsuya wasn't himself. His face remained expressionless. He held it there steady. Naoko's breath ran out. Her eyes rolled back and she gently fell back into the position she had been lying in before. Tetsuya got up and suddenly he released what he had done. Anger became fear. Tetsuya could only see one option, he turned around and ran.

There is rational fear and irrational fear. Tetsuya had a very prominent fear of snakes. This, considering the inherent lack of snakes in Japan other than the rare Mamushi viper (an encounter with which his fear originated from) was irrational. Irrational fear was something that had no reason to exist within the psyche but could only really be taken away, in Tetsuya's experience, by someone who had an almost opposite standpoint and was passionate enough to be able to help you past your fears. Usually a girl. Rational fear was what was coursing through Tetsuya, he wasn't heavily familiar with it. It happened in two waves. The first one told him to run, and run, and keep on running which is exactly what he did. Only when he stopped did the second article of fear reach him. He stopped in a clearing in the woods, it was very dark and almost totally silent. All of this contributed to the cold emotion choking his body and in a screaming voice informing his mind that he was now very much alone.

Kazuo

The memories of the second night lingered in Kazuo's mind. He remembered Sakura leaning in. He remembered how her lips felt. He remembered when she started unbuttoning his shirt. He remembered every detail of it. Both beautiful and guilt ridden. When it was happening neither one mattered but now they were both splintering his mind. This was especially important given that as he thought about this he was packing his bags up and getting ready to leave. He was wearing his casual clothes now, a T-shirt with an anime character on it and average jeans. He had just polished off yet another mug of coffee, there was now none left. Luckily Sakura didn't drink it, he just hoped she didn't wake up; she'd been sleeping all day. Then he felt her arms wrap around his shoulders and her sweet voice speak into his ear.

"Good morning sunshine."

"Morning. Well... Afternoon now"

She giggled, brushed against his shoulder and walked over to sit on the couch. Shit, she was only wearing a tight t-shirt and underwear. Kazuo looked at his pack deliberately.

"I think we're a little past modesty."

Kazuo ignored her and continued to look through his bag meaninglessly. He looked back up and she was leaning over the counter.

"Don't you?"

Kazuo smiled and shrugged. She laughed slightly and kissed him, making that damn purring noise that sounded so fucking suggestive. She moved back and walked over to the fridge.

"Sakura, last night was…" Kazuo stuttered

"Amazing?"

"No, well yes, but."

"But? But what?"

"I think we may have gone a little too far. Sakura, we… We barely know each other."

"I think we know each other quite well now."

"I… Yeah. Anyway, I feel as if it wasn't the right thing to do in this situation, I also think you're getting a little to emotionally involved." Kazuo braced himself

"Say what? You decide to tell me I'm getting too clingy only after_ Wait, why are you packing?"

"Sakura, I…"

"You're leaving! You were just going to high tail it out of here and leave me on my own! Wait, that's not quite correct, you decided to stick around to sleep with me!"

"That's not fair! I couldn't have predicted that_"

"Bullshit! You could've moved back or told me to stop!"

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings"

"Then why the fuck are you leaving!"

"I can't explain"

"Do you think this is a show? Do think this is all some emotional dependency? Dammit Kaz I care about you!"

"No you don't. You just think that. Because of this situation and all that's happened to you with Takahashi and_"

"You think I'm just some delicate flower who needed a big strong man to lean on! Is that it? You know what? Fuck you Kazuo! Fuck you!"

Kazuo put his hand on her shoulder but she pushed it off.

"No!" She yelled, "Stay away from me! You wanna leave? Well I'll make it easier on you! Stay here! I'm leaving."

With tears already running down her face Sakura ran out of the front door. Kazuo buried his head in his hands, ran them down his face, grabbed his stuff and dashed after her.

He'd already lost sight but he knew she probably would've run straight forward. Then he heard something. He heard her scream. Kazuo ran as fast as he could in the direction of the sound. He was terrified for her. She had to be okay, she had to be. Suddenly something stopped him in his tracks. He had a blade pointed squarely at his neck. Takahashi Sugimura. Fucking pervert. Fucking pervert with a scimitar.

"Hey there Kaz. What's up."

Takahashi flicked his eyes down and to the left, prompting Kazuo to look the same way. His throat constricted itself. Sakura was lying there; a stab wound in the middle of her chest was still bleeding. She wasn't moving. Kazuo looked back at Takahashi who smiled slyly.

"Little bitch wouldn't put out, just like last time, but this time I showed her what happens to little girls who_"

Kazuo's fist met his face, hard. He stumbled back, dropping his sword and fell onto one knee, then he looked back up in time to see two barrels worth of shotgun pointed at his face. Kazuo had a look of pure rage written in his eyes. Kazuo smiled sarcastically and raised his left eyebrow, then he moved his finger over the trigger with little more than a throaty grunt.

"Kazuo, don't_"

The sound of Takahashi's plea was drowned out by the fiery proclamation of the shotgun. Two solid, spin stabilized slugs were blasted from their cartridges and embedded in Takahashi's face within a quarter of a second. His skull split open like a snail's shell. Blood erupted out as both a liquid and a vapour and the limp body fell back. Kazuo felt nothing. He was too filled with pure rage to give a damn. Muttering something obscene, he dropped the shotgun and ran full pelt over to Sakura. He propped her up in his arms and ran his hand across her cheek. It was still warm.

"Sakura? Sakura? Don't do this to me! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Her eyes slowly opened, bloody dribbled out of the side of her mouth. She smiled and ran her hand across his cheek, mirroring his actions.

"Stay with me Sakura! You're going to be fine!"

"Kaz, silly, silly Kaz. You were wrong." She tapped his nose with her finger. "I did care. I really…"

She fell back and he felt her weight against his arms. He sat there with her for the longest time, largely silent but weeping so much he began to feel dehydrated at times. Night came and began to recede. Kazuo heard the first birdsong of the coming morning and saw the faintest glimpses of first light creep over Sakura's face. Though pale she was frozen in an elegant beauty, her mouth fixed in the kindest of smiles despite everything that had happened. Her beautiful death mask burnt through Kazuo, he wouldn't let her rot here. He couldn't send her home, but he could at least get her off the island.

He slung his shotgun over one shoulder along with his bag. He scooped her body up and began to carry her towards the nearby coast. This long, solemn, aimless and clumsy walk took him until sunrise, he often stopped along the way to rest and to try and combat the grief. Once there he sat very still for a long time, working up the courage to cast her over the cliff face, he thought it the most fitting burial. By the time he'd gotten to his feet and picked her body up again, the sun was fully risen, it was the fourth day. As he held her over the sea, he looked down at her smile and gently let her drop down into the water. He watch her become little more than a speck and vanish into the froth of the white horses breaking against the cliffs. That is when he heard Yoshi's voice.

"Kazuo?"

Kazuo turned and wiped the tears away.

"Yeah? Yoshi. Long time no see."

"Are you alright?"

"Not really, no. I lost her, Yoshi, I killed someone, too."

"Oh shit not you too. Was it that girl?"

"That girl was Sakura. No I didn't kill her, I killed Takahashi."

From then on Kazuo told him the entire story, end to end. Yoshi did the same for him. They decided to head back to the settlement together.

"So, did you love her?" Yoshi questioned as they walked.

"Love is a strong word." Kazuo replied

"You're avoiding the question"

"I think I might have done."

"So you killed Takahashi as an act of revenge then?"

"Pretty much"

"I've killed three people, don't let it get a hold on you, remember we don't want to get sucked in, we want to find a way out."

"Huh."

"What?"

"I said the same thing to Sakura. She said I sounded heroic. And then…"

"And then you did it. Right?"

"Yeah, yeah…"

Yoshi stopped briefly and looked around. Then he pointed east.

"We'll never find our way back in a day. We'll take a rest stop in that house, you need it and so do I"

"Good idea" Kazuo replied.

Kazuo needed more than R & R. He'd seen the real game, the real game had taken something he could never get back, but if day 3 was bad for those two, day 4 would be hell on earth.