DAY ONE ; 5:58 P.M.

Nagito Komaeda was getting his map and pen out to listen for danger zones when someone blundered into his hideout. He dove underneath a shelf, flattening his body to the ground while he waited for whoever it was to trap themselves. He hoped that they'd do it soon, so that he could get rid of them and get back to making sure that his zone wasn't going to be a danger zone.

The seconds ticked by. Komaeda was almost hyper-aware of how time was passing; he wasn't sure if it was his heart beating or his watch ticking, but whatever it was, it was overpowering, bouncing around in his head like a bad migraine.

Then he heard a yell and slid out from his hiding spot. He held his knife in his hand, Hanamura's in his pocket. As he made his way over, he heard the announcements be made. He kept F6 in his mind as he crossed the warehouse.

"Deaths first, as usual. We'll mix it up, do it in the order that they died. Boy Number Four, Mondo Oowada. Girl Number Nine, Chiaki Nanami. Boy Number Six, Hifumi Yamada. And only one more, Boy Number Sixteen, Nidai Nekomaru. A decent afternoon for killing, I suppose. The girls are overwhelmingly powerful this year, I must admit… Now, onto the danger zones. I'll keep going with three at a time, because it seems to be working well for us. From 19:00, H9. Then you'll have a three hour break until the next danger zone at 22:00, C10. That's your lighthouse, so if you're holing up in there, you've only got a little bit of time left. And last, at 23:30, C7. Now get some sleep before the announcements that start off Day Two."

Komaeda, secure in the fact that he'd have at least six more hours in his hideout, peered around to see who it was.

It was the Imposter. He'd managed to stumble into two traps at once, which was good, because the rope wasn't very high quality, and Komaeda wondered if one would be able to hold him. The Imposter was staring at Hanamura's body and holding a shotgun in his hand. Komeada didn't know much about guns, but it looked like one of the pump-action ones. The ones that always seemed overpoweringly masculine.

He'd have to be careful.

He edged around, trying not to alert the Imposter to his presence, but clumsy old him nearly tripped on his own trap (again) and ended up knocking into a pile of cans to avoid getting pulled up himself.

"Komaeda."

Komaeda straightened himself and smiled, keeping the knife behind his back. "Hello."

"Is this your trap? What are you doing? That's Teruteru Hanamura. Did you kill him?"

Komaeda kept the smile on his face and picked his way over to the Imposter – the Imposter did have a gun, but it was probably quite difficult to shoot someone while upside-down and, really, if he died… well, he'd been expecting it from the start. It wasn't like it would be surprising in the least.

The Imposter struggled with the gun, anyway, the combination of being hoisted into the air upside-down with his legs at different heights and the sweat on his hands making it difficult. Komaeda pulled out the knife. "The gun will be a very good addition," he said conversationally. "Hanamura-kun had a knife just like mine! Well. It was a little different. But a gun will be-"

The Imposter swung the gun at his head and Komaeda ducked, the gun whistling just over his head. Komaeda didn't know why the Imposter didn't just shoot him. Maybe he was scared of killing someone.

Komaeda straightened to his full height again and struck out with the knife, managing to catch the Imposter on the stomach. The Imposter yelled, coughed up blood, swung the gun again. It caught Komaeda in the collarbone and he stumbled to the side, twisting to make sure that he didn't get caught in his own trap again.

He put his hand down to steady himself and there he went.

Although being held up by his hand was a little better. At least he wasn't upside-down, and he still had Hanamura's knife in his pocket, even if his was sunk into the Imposter's stomach.

The Imposter, still alive, grunted and pumped the gun. He aimed at Komaeda, who realized at that precise moment that he very much did not want to die. He kicked out, kicking at the gun, and it went off once, shattering his shin and then hitting the floor. Komaeda couldn't scream. He couldn't move, he could only stare, arm slowly stretching from holding up his entire weight, watching the blood flow from his leg and the Imposter slowly die.

After he'd gotten a hold on the pain and a hold on himself and a hold on his heart that was threatening to beat out of his chest, Nagito Komaeda removed Hanamura's knife from his pocket with shaking hands and cut his hand free. He landed directly underneath the Imposter, though at least he succeeded on landing on the hip of the leg that was not shattered.

He had to… he had to get… the Imposter's things…

He felt light-headed. Maybe it was blood loss. Maybe it was the pain. Maybe it was the stress. But either way, he couldn't bring himself to find the strength to grab the Imposter's bag. He instead just grabbed the shot gun and started the process of scooting himself backward, back to his hiding space.

It was almost funny.

Just when he'd realized that he didn't actually want to die, he had no way of escaping death.

21 STUDENTS LEFT

One more chapter until September! And it's going to be awesome.