Battle Royale: An Alien Perspective

by The Passionate Admiral

An American scholar is spending his ninth-grade studying abroad in Japan. The day before the class graduates, the American and his 44 classmates wind up in the absolute worst scenario imaginable. When a "new rule" is introduced, the American is certain more than anyone else that he will not survive the ordeal. On HIATUS as of 2/17/14

36. Rapid Progress

Note: I've had three major exams in the past two weeks, so naturally I've been preoccupied. Fortunately, I managed to find some time to continue working on this, but updating it every third week will probably be a regular thing from now until my college's Winter Break. Like I said in the previous update, there will only be two sections in this chapter. However, both of them will be very important in terms of character development and building up to what I intend to be some of the story's most dynamic moments.

Rockythetigre, that's a fairly reasonable concept to consider. I don't normally use Google Docs very often, but if I can find a way to successfully put up an outgoing link on this site, maybe I will upload the Excel document with the map. You are free to speculate on who Blaine's contact may or may not be. To avoid spoilers, I won't uncover anything more about this topic. While most of the prefectures in Japan prefer to utilize the metric system, there actually are a few that use inches, feet, yards, and miles on occasion. I'm glad you enjoyed the narrating style of the second section. The main reason I haven't used it in a while was because I was concerned it may have been deviating too much from the plot and subplots. Glad to know it isn't. Yeah, while I didn't make the rape scene as graphic as I originally envisioned it, it still wasn't pleasant to write. I assume when you wrote "Kiyoko," you meant "Kiyomi." Rather observant of you to note that she and Blaine are the only two "lovers" left. Yuriye and Yuuga will most likely remain best friends, but I may have other plans for Chiaki and Gakuto. I've actually glad to hear that you thought Akina's death was depressing. My goal there was to determine if I could effectively draw sympathy from the readers towards any of the students, even the ones playing the game. In the next chapter, I will discuss the individual outlooks developed by Yuriye, Yuuga, and Kenzou in the aftermath of that ordeal.

8bitmatter, thanks for finding a way to make time for this; I appreciate it. You can expect the same errand of me in the future. I'm pleased that the whole affair with Akina and the other three was effectually suspenseful. About the scene with Shizuye and Akiyo, I understand entirely what you mean. Initially, I considered Shizuye escaping from Akiyo successfully and either killing him or incapacitating him in the process, but I decided that there would be no way to incorporate that idea without having to greatly revise my outline for a very important future chapter. As for the rape scene itself, I actually planned to go into vivid detail, but when I got to it, I was exhausted. You see, when I told you I was up all night working on the last chapter, I was serious. I started writing that section at about eight o'clock Thursday night 9/19 and continued working on it until about five o'clock of the following morning Friday 9/20. By then, I just wanted to get the chapter done without rushing it too much. Based on what you told me, I managed to accomplish that well enough. Good luck on your own chapter; hope the victim isn't anyone I'm particularly fond of. Like I told Rockythetigre, I was aiming for that sort of emotional response to the affair with Akina. I'm convinced that it's possible to make anyone's death tragic, even if the casualty is a particularly unlikable person. Since you and Rocky seem to concur that the narrating style from the second section was more intriguing and superlative from the usual style, I suppose I'll employ more of it in several of the upcoming chapters.

Guess that sums up everything. Now we shall proceed…

At this point in this year's Program, exactly three-fifths of the competing class had been eliminated. Two had been suicides, one had been an accident, and one had been a voluntary mercy killing. A few of the others had been eradicated after a moment of indecision by their slayers, but the majority of them had been murdered without any hesitation. This was debatably the traditional method of "removal" from the game.

Together, the two most prolific killers had a total of nine victims. All of them had been taken out without any hesitancy. However, despite their executioners' solemn willingness to participate in the game, neither of them had committed these acts purely out of contempt or enjoyment. In fact, only one of the surviving contestants was unstintingly playing the game and using both of those qualities for motivation.

Maki Nakamura (Girl #15) could recall everything about her encounter with Michio Ueno. While he was the only person she had ended, she had taken great pleasure in his sufferings. By deftly combining her archery skills and her impeccable aim, she had ruthlessly slaughtered him like an animal.

Over five hours had elapsed since that affair, but Maki could vividly recall every little detail about it. She remembered that Michio's sorrow had hugely increased every time she shot him, and her delight had harmoniously amplified alongside it. Seeing him squirm, hearing him moan, and smelling him bleed were incredibly invigorating.

After putting her classmate down permanently, Maki approached him and thoroughly examined his remains visually. Every one of the arrows she had fired at him had struck him in the exact spots she had targeted. After confirming they were all direct hits, Maki heartlessly chuckled in approval. Then she proceeded to retrieve five of the six arrows in Michio's body. Specifically, she removed the ones lodged in his ankle, his hand, his chest, his thigh, and his kneecap.

She left behind the arrow that had delivered the killing blow. That was the one that had sailed into his eye. Just by looking, Maki could tell that the arrow was wedged in the socket and it would be difficult to extract manually. It had also occurred to her that if more of her classmates happened to pass through the area, they would easily notice Michio's body in the side of the street. Maki speculated that the sight of it might be ominous enough to convince anyone that somebody was out to get them. If they did make this presumption and then saw a long, thin rod jettisoning from Michio's eyeball, they would likely conclude that that "somebody" was Maki, as everyone knew her archery skills were unmatched. As a result of this, she would successfully generate fear amongst them. This would effectively give them a feeling of hopelessness and inflict pain on them in mental form.

While these were legitimate observations, Maki had to admit there was not a strong possibility these events would actually occur. After all, she had killed Michio just a couple thousand feet away from the city's southern border in J-7, and the area was in close proximity to two danger zones. The region's isolation and adjoining hazards implied that nobody else come across Michio's body until the end of the game. Her only other option would have been to move his body to a more prominent part of the city. She was unwilling to consider this strategy, as she felt it would have only served to waste valuable time and energy. With this in mind, Maki realized that she could not depend too much on Michio's corpse to leave an impact on her remaining classmates. All the same, she chose to leave behind the arrow in his eye. However, she decided that if she wanted to successfully produce more fear and pain from her fellow students, she would have to rely on herself to achieve this objective. Given how well she managed to accomplish it during her encounter with Michio, she was quite confident in her ability.

After she collected her arrows and returned them to her quiver, Maki swiftly departed from the area. She resisted the urge to gaze back at Michio's body as she left, as she saw no need to directly acknowledge him anymore. Aside from that, she had already memorized the sight of his mangled body. That was an image she was determined to keep in her head. She simply headed off to the north, staying alert for suspicious sights or sounds.

Hours later, Michio was in Maki's thoughts, but not in an affectionate manner. Her memory of his remains had not deteriorated by even a miniscule amount. Killing him had been an amazingly rewarding experience, but there were a few aspects concerning it that she had mixed feelings about.

Namely, there was his limp, which indicated that someone else had wounded him beforehand. Part of her was thrilled to see he was already in pain, but another part was mildly disappointed. While Maki was the type of sadist who reveled in witnessing any form of suffering, she was also the type who normally preferred to dish out pain in her own fashion. Of course, she could not dispute the possibility that Michio's limping may have allowed her to catch up to him outside the pharmacy. All the same, she would have fancied to have been the sole person responsible for bringing him down.

There was also the matter of Michio's weapon. Maki was very frustrated when she noticed he had been given a sword. She refused to even consider arming herself with it. To her, melee weapons were almost completely useless. Often, they were ridiculously heavy, they could rust from neglect, they required a substantial amount of force to deliver an effective blow, and they were worthless outside of hand-to-hand combat. Her affiliation in the crossbowman club had caused her to form this bias and favor long-range weapons.

At the very end of the day, Maki found another source of irritation. Like everyone else in the class, she had been constantly updating her casualty list. Michio had been the last of the five people mentioned on the midnight announcement, which meant he had been the twenty-second person to die in the Program. From Maki's point of view, this entailed that half of the class had been eliminated, but she had only killed one person since the start of the Program, and that person marked the medial point. Maki was taking the game so seriously that she was truly displeased with her performance; she had expected better of herself.

She was also somewhat dismayed to discover from the last announcement that Shuuichi Kai was no longer active in the game. He was one of the few people in her class that she genuinely respected. One reason for this was because she viewed him as a man of honorable character. The two of them had known each other since elementary school, back in the days when Maki had been bullied relentlessly. On occasion, Shuuichi had stood up to Maki's tormentors. Most of the time, he did not even have to raise his voice, but he would use threats if he had to. Regardless of how he handled the situation, he always managed to get the bullies to back off. He was never forced to resort to violence; it was just that no one wished to quarrel with a boy who spent most of his free time at his uncle's firing range. Although Maki was grateful for Shuuichi's intervention, she had frequently insisted that he did not have to defend her. When he asked why, she explained that she had no desire for her problems to become his problems as well. In response, he politely dismissed this notion and assured her that he was not the least bit intimidated by her aggressors.

The only times when Maki was absolutely safe from the bullies were when she hanged out with Shuuichi. As long as he was around, they would not dare come near her with a thirty-foot pole. However, the two of them had never been an item, or even best friends. So he could not afford to be with her all the time. Still, he was always willing to do what he could to help her.

After their graduation from elementary school, Maki became distraught when she discovered that some of the girls who bullied her would be attending Keio-Shonan Fujisawa Junior High with her. Fortunately for her, she found out shortly after that Shuuichi would be going there as well. While he did not plan to function as her bodyguard, he still gave her plenty of free and useful advice. Shuuichi had been the one to suggest that Maki join a non-competitive club to improve her esteem. Since her primary goal was to become more assertive, he proposed that she pick either the marksman club or the crossbowman club. Initially, she chose to give the former a try. She had primarily selected it because he was a renowned member of that club, and joining it would mean she could spend more time with him. However, she quickly realized that that was the only advantage it had to offer her. She could not handle a gun. The kickback was overwhelming, the noise was unbearable, the smell of gunpowder was sickening, and she had never learned how to properly line up her aim. The supervisor of the club – Coach Akuro Deguchi – admitted that Maki had very fine aim, but her balance and composure with firearms left much to be desired. After a few days, she dropped out of the marksman club and then gave the crossbowman club a turn.

It only took Maki a day to get settled into the club. A couple days later, she discovered just how well she could really shoot. Maki had no prior experience with long-range weapons; the club's supervisor – Coach Josuke Nakasone – had theorized that she may have been blessed innately with pristine aim. Within a week, she managed to hit five bull's-eyes consecutively. After several more weeks passed, she was just as popular in that club as Shuuichi was in the marksman club. In fact, some people regarded it as the Maki Nakamura Fanclub instead of the crossbowman club. Then again, those were the same people who viewed the marksman club as the Shuuichi Kai Fanclub. All arguments aside, Shuuichi was just proud of his friend; her success had formed her into a confident young woman, and it had considerably raised her self-respect and dignity.

However, about a month later, she had her encounter with that pedophile. That was the night when her entire outlook on life had been altered. After she had beaten her stalker senseless, she had calmly left the alley, stopped by the nearest payphone, and dialed both the police and an ambulance. She informed them of the victim's location, and then she had gone straight home.

The following morning, the marksman club and the crossbowman club had a joint meeting. Shuuichi had cheerily bid Maki good morning when she arrived. She had returned the greeting jovially, but he noticed straightaway that there seemed to be something different about her. Maki noted his concern and simply assured him that everything was alright. He saw no reason to doubt her, so he took her word. Until the groups had their first water break, that is.

During their water break, Maki and Shuuichi had been standing in one corner of the room talking. They were on their own at first, but later on, one of Maki's teammates in the crossbowman club had approached them. They freely invited him to join their conversation, and partway through it, he began questioning Shuuichi and how he acquired his familiarity with firearms. Eventually, his inquiries devolved into nothing more than taunts. Shuuichi was a very patient person, so he humored the boy and acted as though they were merely exchanging jokes. However, Maki was outraged by her associate's behavior. She had put up with bullying for years and had grown accustomed to it. But after everything Shuuichi had done for her, she would allow NO ONE to mock him. She stepped up to her colleague, gripped him by the throat, slammed him into a wall, and muttered through gritted teeth "If you ever insult Shuuichi again, I'll try to talk Coaches Nakasone and Deguchi into using you for target practice at our next training session."

This outburst of hers had alarmed both Shuuichi and her teammate. After an interval of silence, the latter of them held up his hands in surrender and spoke anxiously "Uh… sure, sure, Maki. Whatever you say. Shuuichi's a cool guy; I got it."

Maki then grinned brazenly and released her associate. He was still quite shaken by her actions, but he managed to walk away from her without stumbling or trembling.

Once they were alone again, Shuuichi turned to his friend and queried in apprehension "Maki, is everything alright?"

"Of course, Shuuichi," was all she had said in response, "I just wanted to make sure that guy stays in line."

After that day, Maki had devised a special method of her own to deal with anyone else who angered her or "got out of line." She never had to rely on Shuuichi again for protection or counsel. Instead, she faced the people who bothered her directly and on her own. Whenever someone pestered her or treated her like a weakling, she struck back hard in vicious ways. By the end of the first month of junior high, no one dared to antagonize her. No one viewed her as a wimp or a pushover, and everyone gave her space.

However, while Maki's sudden aggressive behavior had numerous benefits, it had also come with its share of repercussions as well. She had started alienating herself from her peers. Some of them were reluctant to spend any time around her. Some of the others managed to bring themselves to tolerate her. The rest regarded her as an acquaintance and nothing more. Maki had never disclosed her newborn fondness for pain to anyone, but several of them had hypothesized that she had become a sadist.

Even Shuuichi became somewhat wary of Maki; her abrupt conversion from a submissive patsy to a bellicose rebel troubled him. However, he was a very tolerant and accepting person, and it was not in his nature to be judgmental. So despite his unease, he had been willing to interact with Maki all throughout seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. However, their bond in junior high was never as intimate as it had been in elementary school.

All the same, Maki's positive opinion of Shuuichi never faltered. She still admired him for his compassionate and understanding persona, but she praised him for his familiarity with guns to a much higher degree. Here in the Program, her veneration for his marksmanship skills had only increased.

It has already been established that Maki decided to play the Program immediately after Furutani confirmed that Class 3-A had been selected for it. It should be noted that her motivations for making this decision came entirely from her desire to cause and witness suffering; she had not been inspired to play by any personal reason.

Truthfully, Maki did not hold a grudge against any of her classmates. Back home, many of them – including Michio – had actually been her friends. In Fujisawa, the only people she would harm were the ones who tormented her. Still, her hostile feelings were not exclusive to her rivals; she relished in everyone's anguish. Sometimes, she had an impulsive urge to violently lash out at someone without provocation, but she had avoided acting on this urge by exercising self-restraint and reminding herself of society's rules.

Here in the Program, she was answerable to no one. She could maim any of the other contestants without fear of consequences. There were no barriers to restrict her, no authorities for her to answer to. In fact, the government was demanding her to make other people suffer. This realization made her feel as though she was living one of her darkest fantasies.

Nevertheless, her eagerness to participate in the game does not imply that she had totally disregarded the new rule. Quite the contrary, she had given it some earnest contemplation.

During the previous day, Maki had considered the possibility that she might encounter Shuuichi somewhere in the city. If they did meet, she would have attempted to talk him into partnering up so they could try to win the Battle Royale together. The way she saw it, by combining his gunman skills with her archery skills, they would have formed a particularly deadly and indestructible duo. Plus, given their history, Shuuichi was the only person Maki could bring herself to trust and sympathize with.

Naturally, Maki was profoundly dissatisfied when she learned that a partnership with Shuuichi was no longer possible. However, she was even more displeased because she believed his death meant the loss of the only person who could actually be a worthy opponent for her.

Maki knew that there was a chance that Shuuichi was either playing the game on his own, or downright refusing to play it altogether. Given his amiable propensities, the likelihood of the latter was far greater. If they did meet up and he refused to cooperate with her for whatever reason, Maki would have had no reservations about what actions to take next. Basically, if Shuuichi was unwilling to join her, Maki would have labeled him as just another adversary, and she would have treated him no differently from everyone else.

Almost thirty hours had elapsed since the beginning of the Battle Royale, and several members of the class continued to cling desperately to the hope that their friends had not abandoned them. Maki had opted to dissolve all her friendships before she even left the school. In her eyes, her classmates were nothing more than targets now, and she would have no qualms with sticking a volley of arrows into their guts. This policy applied to everyone, including Shuuichi if he turned down her offer.

Secretly, Maki would have been just as content to fight Shuuichi as she would have been to pair up with him. In addition to her fascination with suffering, she had also developed an interest in the concept of dueling. It had been a frequent topic of discussion during the crossbowman club's meet-ups with the marksman club. Maki was intrigued to learn that whenever two men heavily disagreed over a particular matter in the old days, one would challenge the other to a fight. More often than not, the match resulted in the death of one or both of them. What thrilled Maki even more was the knowledge that there was once a time when this action was regarded as a perfectly legal means of settling disputes in most civilized countries.

It goes without saying that the members of the marksman club and the crossbowman club were forbidden from dueling with anyone, especially each other. This did not stop Maki from yearning to give sparring a try sometime. Despite all the thrill and excitement that other people's sufferings brought her, she would have preferred prey that could fight back. That would make for a much better and more stimulating challenge.

Because of his limp, his inattentiveness, and his melee weapon, Maki refused to even consider facing off Michio in a duel. So instead, she chose to just eliminate him without any warning. She still took great pleasure in his pain as she ended his life. Afterwards, she resolved that she would wait to consider dueling again until she encountered an unblemished and mindful person armed with a gun or another ranged weapon.

That was another reason why Maki was upset with the news of Shuuichi's death. She was certain that if Shuuichi chose to oppose her, he would have been the one person in the class who had a reasonable chance of beating her in a duel. Now that he was gone, she would have to resort to challenging someone else.

At around 3:30 in the morning, Maki had come across the body of Ichiko Murakami in G-8. Initially, she was alarmed to discover that a meat cleaver was imbedded in the side of Ichiko's face. However, once she became accustomed to the sight, she smirked and declared audaciously "Cutting yourself is a dirty habit, Ichiko. You should break yourself of it."

She had meant this remark as a sick joke; the kind of sick joke that only people like Hina Tashima would appreciate. On that subject, Maki thought to herself that if Hina was right here, she would have found that comment to be hysterical. For obvious reasons, Maki was quite sure that Ichiko had not mutilated herself and that someone else was to blame. She decided to investigate.

Maki wrinkled her nose and smelt something other than the odor of Ichiko's gradually decaying body. This scent was strangely familiar to her, and after several seconds of focusing, she recognized it. It belonged to a compound that she encountered every time the crossbowman club and the marksman club practiced together. It was the scent of gunpowder.

The source of the scent appeared to be Ichiko's blouse. To confirm this, Maki removed a small gadget from her backpack. It was an Alternate Light Source device, a tool commonly used to uncover substances that would normally be invisible to the naked eye. Coaches Deguchi and Nakasone had once brought up ALS devices during a lesson about tracking at another of the clubs' assemblies. They had been certain to emphasize the versatility of the appliances. Most of the time, they were used by police officers and detectives to locate blood, fingerprints, and other such clues at crimes scenes. Sometimes, hunters used them out in the wilderness to track down animals. Maki was so fascinated by the usefulness of ALS devices that she decided to buy one of her own after school that day. The best models were a little too expensive; the cheapest models were a little too substandard. Eventually, Maki found one model that was both proficient and reasonably priced.

At the clubs' next meeting, she had shown her ALS device to Coaches Deguchi and Nakasone. Even though it came with instructions on how to properly adjust and utilize it, they shared with her numerous techniques on how to use it more adroitly. One of them involved how to properly search for residue from a gunshot.

Maki was grateful that the Program instructors had not confiscated her ALS device before the game began. She was confident it could be useful to her on several different instances, beginning with this one. She held the device over Ichiko's chest and activated it. A few seconds later, the blue light revealed thousands of tiny green specks dispersed all over Ichiko's torso. This verified Maki's theory that a gun had been fired in the vicinity; the dots were the remnants of gunpowder. Maki noted that the majority of them were clustered along the right side of Ichiko's midsection. This suggested that Ichiko had been the one who fired the gun. Maki moved her ALS device further down Ichiko's body and noticed some larger patches of green near her feet. She quickly realized these spots were actually dried blood. Maki could not see any visible wounds on Ichiko's body; she clinched that Ichiko must have wounded her opponent before she was killed.

"Remarkable," Maki muttered quietly. After thoroughly reviewing her findings, she arrived at the conclusion that whoever killed Ichiko must have retreated to the west. Shortly after making this discovery, she decided to head in that direction as well. She knew full well that Ichiko must have been dead for an entire day and that her attacker was most likely either dead or miles away, but at this time, it was her only lead, and she figured that west would be as good a path to take as any. So she turned off her ALS device, slid it into her pocket, rose to her feet, and travelled to the west.

A half-hour later, she arrived at the barber shop in G-7. Since it was the first notable building she had encountered since the pharmacy, she was impelled to stop again and explore it. After she stepped inside, she paused and realized something extraordinary. In the past thirty minutes, she had made a joke similar to those of Hina Tashima's, she had seen a meat cleaver wedged in Ichiko Murakami's head, and she had encountered a hairstylist's salon. This struck her as quite peculiar.

At first glance, one would probably be perplexed by Maki's interest in these anomalies. After all, what was so special about dirty jokes, sharp objects near a person's head, and a barber shop? Individually, nothing. But altogether, they reminded Maki of what she regarded as her finest moment.

Out of all malefactors would targeted her in elementary school, the worst of them was Hatsue Yoshimatsu. Ever since the day they met, Hatsue appeared to make tormenting Maki a personal mission. For the life of her, Maki could never figure out why. She had never done anything to aggravate Hatsue. At least not intentionally. A couple times, she had answered some complex questions in class which Hatsue had gotten entirely wrong just seconds beforehand. Other than that, there was nothing that could have generated tension between them. Apparently, that must have been enough for Hatsue to decide that she and Maki would never get along.

Hatsue was the ringleader of a group of five girls. Three of them practically worshipped the dirt she walked on; the fourth one was Hina. She mostly just tagged along for conformity and amusement. The other girls liked having her around because they enjoyed her sense of humor.

Sometimes before, after, and even during school, Hatsue and her cronies would corner Maki in a secluded part of the foundation. Then they would proceed to pester and harass her in brutal ways. They only physically beat her on occasion. Most of the time, they just did things to humiliate or embarrass her. Maki managed to tolerate with the majority of their misdemeanors, but she would never forget the most scarring and reprehensible thing they had ever done.

One morning a few months before they graduated from elementary school, Maki had been in the girls' bathroom washing her face. When she turned off the water and stood up straight, she saw her reflection in the mirror. She also saw the reflections of Hatsue and her friends standing behind her. At first, she was not alarmed, as she was used to those five showing up spontaneously in unexpected places. But she became a little disconcerted when she realized Hatsue was holding a pair of scissors in her hand.

She slowly turned around to face them and queried nervously "What… what's going on?"

"Your hair's gotten a little long and uneven, Maki," Hatsue cockily stated, "How about you let me fix it for you?"

"Uh… no thanks, Hatsue," Maki mumbled apprehensively, "I'm alright with its current appearance."

"Well, I'm not," Hatsue spat back, "Now let me do you a favor."

"If that's a favor, let me do you a favor and advise you to shove those scissors up your ass," Maki sharply retorted.

Hina and the other three girls were amazed Maki had the gall to make such a bold statement. She was somewhat surprised herself. Clearly, it had annoyed Hatsue, but she just scoffed and said "Shame you had to say that. I was just going to give you a little trim. Now I'm considering to go for something along the lines of a crew-cut instead."

Maki immediately scrammed for the door. Just before she could reach it, she was seized from behind by the three girls other than Hina. They restrained Maki and held her down on the ground. Then Hatsue approached them, kneeled down in front of Maki, and told her "Just be calm and it will be over soon."

Hatsue proceeded to give Maki a haircut against her will. Her approach radically differed from that of a beautician; she just bunched up random locks of hair and snipped them off. While the other three ensured that Maki's arms and legs were immobilized, Hina just stood idly by, making cruel jokes at her expense. Her witty remarks produced quite a few laughs from her friends, but not even a giggle from Maki. By the time Hatsue was done with her, she was reduced to tears.

When Hatsue was finished, she, Hina, and the other three girls just walked out of the bathroom, leaving Maki surrounded by piles of her own hair. When she finally built up the courage to stand up and look herself in the mirror, she was horrified. She was practically bald!

In the weeks following that event, Maki was ridiculed and mocked by almost all of her schoolmates for her appearance. When her parents saw what had been done to her hair, they demanded to know who was responsible. Maki considered telling them the truth, but she felt doing so would only cause more trouble between her and Hatsue. So she simply claimed that she had lost a bet with some of her classmates and her "haircut" was the price of losing.

Had it not been for the support of Shuuichi and a few others, Maki might not have made it to the end of the school year. Despite how much shame and disgrace she felt, she managed to pull through. Her hair had grown back by the time graduation came about, but her ego was still severely bruised. Shuuichi could tell she was hurting, so he was there for Maki. A couple weeks after the ceremony, he suggested she join a club.

You already know most of the rest. Fast forward a few months. Five weeks into Maki's first term at Keio Shonan-Fujisawa Junior High, she had become an entirely new person. She was assertive, gracious, poised, a renowned member of the crossbowman club, and she had a secret fascination with pain.

At this point in time, a string accidents had also been occurring at the school. One boy had a door slam shut hard on his hand and break three of his fingers. One girl tripped in the parking lot in front of an accelerating car. Another boy got hit in the head with a brick during shop class. Another girl consumed a trace amount of lye in her water bottle. There were several others; some even worse than the aforementioned ones. None of the victims died, but each of them had spent several hours in the infirmary.

The faculty members were certain that these accidents were not connected, so they saw no need to conduct an investigation. They just attributed the accidents to carelessness and urged the students to be more cautious to avoid any recurrences.

The students had a much more practical idea of what was really going on. All of the victims had two things in common. Each of them had teased Maki at some point in elementary school, and she happened to be in the area when they were all injured. They hypothesized that she was the one behind all of these "accidents."

As it turned out, they were correct. However, these accidents were just warnings. Maki was essentially sending her rivals a message that she would no longer put up with their shenanigans and that if they tried anything, she would retaliate in full force. None of them would be safe from her wrath. Most of them were prudent enough not to doubt her.

Hatsue Yoshimatsu and her buddies were the last ones to receive this caveat and take it seriously. Hatsue refused to believe that Maki Nakamura could have actually been responsible for putting so many people in the infirmary. She had foolishly tried to take advantage of Maki once more.

This marked the day Maki's reputation at Keio Shonan-Fujisawa Junior High was forever changed.

On this day, she had stayed behind after the crossbowman club's meeting to help Coach Nakasone clean up and put away the equipment. When they were about halfway finished, Nakasone got a phone call from his wife at work. She informed him that her boss was understaffed and she had to stay around for a few more hours. Because of that, she needed her husband to pick up their young son from daycare. Nakasone assured her that he would get it done.

When he hanged up, he sighed in annoyance and mumbled "Damn it."

"Everything alright, sir?" Maki enquired.

"Not quite; I need to pick up my son, Maki," he apprised her, "Unfortunately, the daycare closes at five o'clock. I typically need about ten minutes to get there, and it's almost 4:45 right now. It'll still take us at least another twenty minutes to pack up the rest of this gear. There's no way we'd be able to finish in time."

"Couldn't somebody else pick him up?" Maki proposed.

"Certainly, several of our friends are available," the coach responded, "While they're all good people, I'm not entirely willing to trust any of them with my child's safety to that degree just yet. I'd much prefer it if the one who collected him was either my wife or myself."

"In that case, maybe you should go ahead and get him, Coach," Maki advised him, "I could stay around and finish cleaning up on my own."

"Are you sure about that, Maki?" Nakasone asked, "Like I said, it would take about twenty minutes for both of us to put away all this stuff together. It would take even longer it only one of us was here, and most of it has to go in very specific places. I'd also have to seal this room off before I leave."

"I've been around long enough to know how to store all this equipment without a guide," Maki reminded him, outstretching her arm, "I'm pretty sure I can handle this. Plus, if you give me your keys, I could lock up for you. I'll just swing by your office tomorrow morning and give them back to you then."

Coach Nakasone thought about Maki's offer. She was one of his favorite partisans, and he saw no reason to question her ability to handle the situation. She was a very responsible girl, and she sounded as though she was insistent on this matter. In the end, he decided to give in.

"Okay, Maki; you win," he stated amusedly. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and dropped them into her hand. Then he picked up his bag of materials, slung it over his shoulder, and called back to her as he headed out the door "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then," she acknowledged.

She spent the next forty minutes moving the targets and the other paraphernalia to distinct closets, cabinets, and cupboards. It was a long and tedious process, but she ensured that everything was stored properly. After all this was accomplished, Maki used several of the keys to seal the compartments shut. The last thing she did before leaving was switch off the lights.

At the time, it was 5:20 in the early evening. School had been over for two hours; the only people that were still around were involved in some of the other organizations. The rugby team and the cheerleading squad were out in the fields, the drama club was in the auditorium, and the band was in the gymnasium. However, there was no one out in the hallways; they appeared to be deserted.

Maki turned back to the closed door of the crossbowman club's meeting chambers, selected the proper key from Coach Nakasone's keychain, and inserted it into the doorknob. After locking it up and jiggling the handle to ensure it was shut tight, Maki extracted the key and released the keychain into her pocket. The job done, Maki gripped onto the strap of her backpack and turned back around.

When she had her back to the door, she was confronted by Hatsue Yoshimatsu and her girls. They were standing just a couple meters away, forming a semi-circle to surround her. Obviously, they were trying to appear intimidating to Maki. That approach may have worked five months earlier, but she was hardly the same person she was then. She had no intention of displaying worry or panic in front of Hatsue this time around.

"Evening, ladies," she calmly yet impertinently remarked, "Can I help you?"

"Don't try pulling the whole 'warm and receptive' routine, Maki," Hatsue sharply retorted, "We know what you're up to."

"Is that a fact?" Maki sarcastically stated, "Tell me; what am I up to, Hatsue?"

"First, you joined the crossbowman club," Hatsue explicated, "Next, you've started behaving as though you're in charge around here. Then, everybody who's ever pissed you off has wound up in the infirmary. Obviously, you're trying to leave a new impression of yourself. Well, it's not going to work. We can see straight through that phony guise."

Given how low her opinion of Hatsue was, Maki was amazed that she was clever enough to deduce all of that. However, her words did not leave any impact on her; they simply bored her. Maki still had her longbow and quiver of arrows strapped to her back, but even if she was not armed with them, she would have had the situation under control. She folded her arms and said irreverently "Is there a point to this discussion? If not, I'd appreciate it if you step aside so I can be on my way."

"We'll let you go in a moment," Hatsue proclaimed, "But first, hand them over."

"Hand what over?" Maki queried in confusion.

"The keys to the training room," Hatsue expounded, "We know you have them. Just give them to us and there won't be any trouble."

"What could you possibly want with them?" Maki demanded.

"That's not your concern," Hatsue barked, "Just hand them over and there won't be any trouble."

Maki scowled and snarled "Go to hell."

"I beg your pardon?" stated Hatsue, raising an eyebrow.

"I said 'go to hell,'" Maki sharply retorted, "Coach Nakasone entrusted me with this task, and I am not about to disappoint him to appease a non-member of the crossbowman club. Especially when that 'non-member' is a pompous, egotistical, brain-dead slut I have always abhorred."

A couple of the girls gasped at that statement. Hatsue was enraged to hear those words come out of Maki's mouth. She pulled a pair of scissors out of her pocket and stated "Now you're going to get it. Either give us the keys, or I'll give you the same treatment I gave you back in elementary school."

Maki was not effected at all by this threat. She eased down and told her rival "Go right ahead. Even if you try scalping me, I won't let you in there."

"You want to put that theory to the test?" Hatsue threatened, taking a step closer.

Maki simply rolled her eyes and spoke drily "Sure, whatever. Let's just get this over with. I've got stuff I need to do."

Hatsue grinned wickedly, approached Maki, and raised her scissors almost up to eyelevel. Maki did not even flinch. She stood perfectly still as Hatsue opened the blades, bunched up a lock of her hair, and gradually began to close the blades around it.

Before she could snip off a single strand, the archer reacted. Before anyone could tell what was happening, Maki grabbed Hatsue by the throat with her left hand, swiped away her scissors with her right hand, and stabbed her with them in the side of her neck.

The other girls promptly recoiled in horror and shock. Hatuse collapsed onto the ground, her mouth agape and a slow trail of blood leaking out of the place where Maki had stabbed her. Maki just refolded her arms and gazed down at her, smiling in deep pleasure and satisfaction.

When she looked up, she noticed that one of the girls was about to lunge at her. So she raised her foot, positioned the top of it in front of the handles of the scissors, and muttered softly "Stay where you are. Or I'll plunge this thing further into her neck."

"That'd be murder," one of the girls argued, "Hell, this is murder!"

"Call it whatever you like," Maki coolly replied, "I call it 'how best to open a negotiation.' So shut the fuck up and listen to what I have to say. For the past few years, you bitches have gone out of your way to degrade and mistreat me. Despite all the emotional scars I was left with, I'm willing to forgive and forget all that on the sole condition that none of you ever bother me again. But I want to make this absolutely clear. If you so much as steal a pencil from me… well, take a good look at Hatsue. Now imagine one of my arrows in the place of her scissors, and now imagine yourselves in the place of Hatsue. That image will become reality unless you comply with my very reasonable request. Let that be your first and only warning."

Maki gave the girls a few moments to absorb her words. While they were still in shock, they managed to comprehend and accept everything she told them. However, she noticed they were visibly concerned about Hatsue's well-being.

"Relax, I didn't stab her in an artery," she emotionlessly assured them, "The blades are only a couple inches into her skin. As long as they don't go any deeper, she has a chance of recovery."

"But she'll die without help!" another girl claimed.

"In that case, I'd suggest you phone an ambulance," Maki dully advised them, "But if you mention my involvement in this incident to any member of the school's faculty or the paramedics, I'll see to it that you all become roommates of hers at the hospital. And don't you think for a second that that's an empty threat."

"Then how the hell are we supposed to explain this to the doctors?" the third girl demanded.

"Just tell them that you realize now why children are always cautioned never to run with scissors," Maki bluntly replied.

Hina chuckled a bit at this answer, but shut her mouth when the other three girls glared at her crossly. Maki just smirked and proclaimed "You see? Hina gets the idea."

Maki then steadily departed from the scene, leaving her vanquished foe wriggling on the ground. The three unnamed girls scrambled to save their ringleader. Hina, however, chose to clear out and run after Maki instead. Once she caught up to her, she commented "Maki… that was awesome."

"Are you referring to the stunt I pulled with Hatsue, or the wisecrack I made after?" was Maki's response.

"Well, both really," Hina illuminated, "Between you and me… I'm somewhat envious of you. I've been wanting to do something like that to Hatsue for a long time."

"That doesn't really surprise me," Maki noted, "I mean, you've always struck me as the odd-one-out in her group. Why the hell have you been with her and the other girls for so long?"

"I've actually considered dissociating myself from them several times," Hina clarified, "But I was concerned that if I did, they'd target me like they did you."

"Well, now that the threat of that has been eradicated, I'd suggest that you insinuate yourself with a better set of friends," Maki proposed.

"Sounds like sage advice to me," Hina concurred.

A few seconds later, the two girls had reached the front entrance of the school. Hina opened the door and held it open for Maki. The archer quickly stepped outside; the class clown followed her close behind.

Hatsue ultimately survived that debacle, but she had to spend weeks in the hospital. During her stay, the doctors discovered that the scissors had punctured a critical nerve which paralyzed her vocal cords, rendering Hatsue permanently incapable of speech. In order to communicate, she would have to carry a notepad and a pen everywhere she went for the rest of her life.

After that episode, no one dared to get on Maki's bad side ever again. Whenever she passed Hatsue's friends in the corridors, they would cower in fear, much to her delight. Hatsue and her friends were so afraid of reprisals that none of them ever exposed Maki as the one responsible for Hatsue's vocal disability. Hina was not under any duress, but since she and Maki were now on fair terms with each other, she voluntarily chose to keep her mouth shut on the matter.

There were only three people in Class 3-A that Hina never tried to pull a prank on, and Maki was one of them. Of the five girls in Hatsue's group, she was the only one in Class 3-A. Maki was willing to forgive Hina and view her as a friend, despite everything she had done while she was in Hatsue's group. The two girls go along relatively well all throughout junior high.

However, Maki was unaware that Hina had been the one who killed Shuuichi. Had she discovered this fact and found Hina while she was alive, the sadist would have made the jokester regret that she had ever been born.

Of course, at this time, she was not aware that Hina was already dead. In fact, Hina only occupied a small amount of her thought. The bulk of her attention was currently focused on exploring the barbershop in G-7. More specifically, she was interested in a shelf of aerosol cans in the salon section. Seeing them reminded her again of one of the abovementioned events.

When Coaches Deguchi and Nakasone gave their lecture about ALS devices, they had mentioned that the devices could be used to locate animals across any landscape. This included rough, arid, and flat terrain. Typically, it would be nearly impossible to spot any paw prints or other markings of a trail in this topography, even with the aid of ALS devices. However, if the trail was fresh enough, it could still be unveiled by applying a three-step process.

In the first step, a hunter would take an aerosol can (the chemical or brand did not really matter) and spray a thin layer of mist around the ground they believed the animal passed through. In the second step, they would take an ALS device and hold it over the sprayed area. The third step would be the moment of truth. If the hunter's suspicions were correct and a trail had been made there recently, the cutouts of the animal's paw prints would start glowing green. The green radiance was typically quite faint while the sun was shining; so must hunters preferred to employ this strategy at night. Brighter glows signified that the animal had been through the region quite recently. This interesting fact could be used to help the hunters determine how close they were to their prey. This method could even be utilized to track prey across solid and synthetic grounds like asphalt and concrete.

This recollection gave Maki an idea. She took one of the aerosol cans off a shelf and walked over to the front entrance. After spraying the ground in front of it for about ten seconds, she removed her ALS device from her pocket and turned it on again. Within five seconds, a pair of bright green foot-shaped marks appeared on the placemat. Maki stood up and compared the marks to her shoes. She quickly confirmed that they were the same size, which indicated that she had successfully uncovered two of her own footprints.

Maki smirked in satisfaction, but her smirk faded slightly when she noticed one of the corners of the placemat was giving off a darker shade of green. She sprayed that section again and held her ALS device closer to it. That was when she uncovered another footprint. It was larger than the others, which meant it was not hers. This unearthing suggested that someone else had visited the barbershop not long ago. Based on how dim the footprint was, Maki reasoned out that this person must have been in the salon no more than four hours earlier. Upon reaching this conclusion, her smirk grew even wider than before.

Maki went back over to the shelves, grabbed an armful of spray cans, and stuffed them into her supply pack. Then she fastened her longbow to her back and returned to the front entrance. From there, she put the first aerosol can and her ALS device to work.

She sprayed the area around the larger footprint and held the ALS device over it. She uncovered a few more footprints leading out of the barbershop. She left the salon and conducted the same test on the sidewalk. Sure enough, she found more footprints out there as well. Maki realized she had discovered an entire trail. She decided then and there to follow it.

In order to conserve her stash of aerosol cans and the battery of her ALS device, Maki only conducted the test on the ground once every five meters. If she lost the trail, she would go back to the spot of its last known location and continue following it from there. Normally, she would only lose the trail because it had turned onto a new block or shifted its direction.

Overtime, Maki realized she was following the trail of not just one, but three pairs of feet. They were all of the same brightness, which suggested that the three individuals were moving together. This struck her as particularly interesting. She could understand it if some of her classmates were working in pairs, but a trio? She wondered who could possibly be foolish enough to have more than one partner in this game.

Whenever her current aerosol can ran out, Maki would simply toss it aside into the street and arm herself with a new one. She was in no danger of running out any time soon. The footprints gradually increased in intensity as she travelled further along the trail. Eventually, they brought her to the eastern apartment complex. By then, they were about half as bright as her footprints back at the barbershop.

Soon after she arrived in F-9, the trail led her to a body. Because it was lying on its stomach, she could not tell who it was. Initially, she assumed that two of the people she was following had gotten wise and eliminated the third person. Then she discovered that the person on the ground had been dead almost as long as Ichiko Murakami. Plus, when she returned to the trail, she still found three pairs of footprints headed in the same direction.

After travelling a little further north, the footprints brought Maki to an apartment. However, she did not bother going in because the trail went in and out the front door of the establishment. She figured that the owners must have gotten tired earlier on and subsequently they must have chosen to stop for a breather here. By then, their footprints were almost as bright as Maki's had been back at the barbershop. This implied that they were less than an hour ahead of her.

Maki grinned evilly and whispered "I've got you now."

The sun would be up soon, which meant it would be difficult for Maki to continue following the trail through this tactic. This did not bother her, though. Before long, she would be close enough to her prey that she would not even need her ALS device and spray cans to steer her towards them. Instead, she would be able to rely on her own senses to reach them.

She still had no idea who she was pursuing, but whoever they were, she was rapidly catching up to them. They, however, had not even the remotest idea that the class sadist was coming after them.

…

Allow yourself a few moments to postulate the following scenario. You are collaborating with a number of people on a group project. Your relationship with these individuals does not acutely matter; they could be anything from personal friends to virtual strangers. The purpose of the project may vary as well; it can be academic, occupational, or recreational in origin. Regardless of these factors, the project is extremely meaningful to you; you are very obligated to complete it before its deadline. You would like to believe that your coworkers have the same level of devotion, but you are fairly uncertain as to whether or not they actually do.

However, while you may be skeptical about your partners' commitment, you are somehow capable of believing that they will take their responsibilities seriously and fulfill their parts of the project. What is it that would impel you to arrive at this inference? How are you able to convince yourself of its validity without any official guarantee beforehand?

The chief reason is both remarkably uncomplicated and absolutely fathomable. It's the same reason your colleagues duly expect you to accomplish your own assigned tasks: they trust you to do so. So you should trust them in return. This is also the primary rationale as to why and how the group is able to function in the first place; there is trust between its members.

Let us take some time to discuss trust. It is a principle we are all familiar with, it is a founding aspect in the basis of society, and it is an insidious component of everyday life. But what precisely is trust? How would one define it?

Some might classify it as the ability and capacity to rely and depend on something or someone.

They would be incorrect. This is not trust; it is faith.

Others might label it as the ability and capacity to have confidence in something or someone.

They would be incorrect as well. This is not trust either; it is hope.

In a broader sense, others might describe it as the ability and capacity to freely share and experience special feelings and secrets with another human being.

They would be incorrect, too. This still is not trust; it is love.

By definition, at least according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, trust is "the belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc." With this in mind, it is evident that trust is quite different from faith, hope, and love. However, in a particular fashion, all three of these concepts derive from trust. If there was no trust, there could be no faith, hope, or love either. In fact, without trust, it would be impossible for just about any convivial interaction to occur between two or more people.

To expand on this subject, consider the conception of honesty. Honesty is another fundamental property that plays a critical role in our lives. Honesty is capable of binding populaces together, inspiring a sense of modesty and decorum into the general public, and shaping even the most hedonistic and soulless felon into a moral, honorable, and law-abiding citizen. Honesty is also an utter necessity for steadfastness. But what guarantee do we have that there is honesty? Essentially, this surety descends from trust. With regards to honesty, trust does not merely provide assurance; trust is the assurance.

Trust is a vital part of every collaborative effort, including the aforementioned group project. Even if some people may seem unwilling to count on their colleagues, they are able to draw up enough trust to cooperate with them until the project is finished.

Imagine what bedlam the world would be in if trust did not exist. There could never been any benign relationship between accomplices and kinfolk. There could never be any legitimate business deals between corporations and firms. There could never be any diplomacy or compromise between states and countries. There would be no such thing as doctor-patient confidentiality, and clients of attorneys would question whether or not their lawyers are actually sworn to secrecy.

While these speculations may seem interesting, there is one notion that is even more peculiar. Trust is not entirely limited to situations involving more than one person. As long as we are sapient enough to grasp our own existence, we must have trust in ourselves. If you have ever been faced with a difficulty and whispered the phrase "come on; you can do this" to yourself, you must understand this sentiment. Inwardly, trust is there to keep us motivated, prepared, invigorated, and sanguine. Whenever we choose to use our bodies to move or think, we subliminally trust in our nervous system and our neural functions respectively to carry out our wishes. Above all, if we do not have trust in ourselves, how could we ever be incited to achieve anything? Whenever a person chooses to commit suicide, one could argue it is partially because he or she has lost this type of trust.

Simply speaking, trust is everything.

However, in spite of its prominence, trust is not something that can be taken for granted. In a perfect world, everyone would be able to trust everybody else unconditionally. We could never expect to attain such a circumstance in this lifetime. This is why security covers an expressively vast section of every culture. This is why world leaders such as the President of the United States are accompanied by bodyguards and protection everywhere they go. This is why there is a ubiquitous need for passwords, locks, alarms, surveillance, and other personal safeguards. While an inherent lack of trust demands the stipulation of these items, their consistent usage implies that people must be able to place trust in them and the people in charge of them, thus effectively creating a paradox.

In life-or-death scenarios like the Program, it would theoretically be impossible for trust to exist. The instructors certainly had every intention of making this the case. Despite their best efforts to generate nothing but enmity between the contestants, some of the participants always remained capable of listening to reason to the degreed that they would consider uniting with their classmates.

So far, the scholars of Class 3-A had formed more alliances and partnerships than any other class had in the last thirty years of Battle Royale. This was not just because of the new rule. Truthfully, there was no real "chief" reason, but if there was, it would most likely be intuition. All forty-five of them had some facility to recognize an opportunity when they saw one and to take advantage of it subsequently. This explained why so many of them were willing to collaborate with their fellow students.

At first glance, some of their unions may have seemed rather unorthodox. A notable example would be the group of three that was currently assembled at the laboratory. Some would find it peculiar how Chiaki Iwasaki had brought herself to trust Toshirou Oosaki (Boy #5) and Gakuto Yamashita (Boy #21).

The bold girl had not joined up with the two boys out of haste or ignorance. She knew full well that they had an extensive reputation in the underground world of criminal activity. She was conscious of the fact that they had a large foothold in the black market. She was quite aware that they were capable of assault, thievery, extortion, and a string of similar crimes. She also had no doubt of how easy it would have been for just one of the boys to overpower her and kill her. It would have been even easier for them to do to her what Akiyo Furukawa was presently doing to her friend Shizuye Chida.

Back home, she had never considered for a moment that she would ever interact with them in any manner. That said, one would think that the likelihood of her cooperating with them in the Program was even smaller. Evidently, the opinion she currently had of them was notably different from the one she had at the start of the game.

She had started developing a positive impression of the two boys the previous morning, when she saw them leave the supermarket. She had only witnessed the last minute of their meeting with Kotoyo, but she overheard enough of their dialogue to suspect that they had left her in good standing. This had incited her to approach Kotoyo and team up with her. According to the musician's description of her encounter with Toshirou and Gakuto, they had been level-headed and unruffled.

Half a day would elapse before Chiaki actually bumped into the boys. By then, Kotoyo had already been dead for over an hour, as had two members of their gang. Despite this loss, they appeared to be every bit as clear-minded and composed as Kotoyo had led her to believe. She was still a touch skeptical about joining forces with them, but Yuuga's presence helped her retain her assertiveness and overcome her hesitation.

Several hours later, Chiaki was alone with Toshirou and Gakuto, and she was in good health with that notion. She had no incredulity about their motives and plans to resist the Program, and she felt as though she had poorly misjudged them back in Fujisawa.

Interestingly, out of the four members of her clique, Chiaki was the only one that had not yet sustained some type of damage. Shizuye had been sexually assaulted, Yuriye had been shot in the hand, and Tomoe was dead. Although she was not even aware of her friends' fates, Chiaki felt quite safe and she was totally unharmed. She was confident she had nothing to fear from Toshirou or Gakuto.

However, that's not to say that Chiaki was the only one who had the right to be suspicious. She was more than just a cheerleader. She was a person of strong, formidable, and authoritative character, which was primarily why the other girls in her clique thought of her as their leader. While she was typically very altruistic, Gakuto and Toshirou had the same right to be suspicious of her as she had of them. After all, under the proper conditions, everyone in the class was capable of murder. At this very instant, Chiaki had a window of opportunity to contemplate it.

When she went to get a coffee refill for her and Gakuto, she could have slipped some peanut oil into his cup or simply switched hers with his. There was no telling how long it would have taken him to have a reaction upon ingesting the coffee, but it was likely that he would have collapsed in under a minute. Then while he was on the ground succumbing to his peanut allergies, she could have taken out Toshirou in his sleep. This idea actually had occurred to Chiaki, but she had refused to even cogitate about going through with it. As far as the boys were concerned, they had done right by her. She had no intention of betraying them any time soon.

Especially Gakuto. Chiaki would not have dreamed of turning against the chemistry enthusiast. She found it astounding how the two of them had not even exchanged a total of twenty sentences in the last year. In the past six hours, the two of them had demonstrated more signs of affection towards each other than they had throughout the whole of junior high school. She was beginning to wonder if he was honestly fostering some serious feelings for her. Secretly, she had already begun to develop some such feelings for him. However, she had prudently decided that she would not act on these impulses until she had some verification that they were not one-sided. Until then, she would simply treat Gakuto as a companion and nothing more.

At present, the two of them were seated in their chairs at the activated console in the laboratory's control room. They had already inspected the entire security mainframe three times, and they had yet to encounter as much as a glitch. As far as they could tell, they were still in total control of the building.

A few meters in front of them, Toshirou was soundly sleeping. His feet were resting on a counter, and his chair was inclined backwards. He seemed to be content with lying at this angle, and he appeared to be quite peaceful. Toshirou was a heavy sleeper; he did not have a tendency to snore, thrash about, grind his teeth, or give a somniloquy. As a result, Gakuto and Chiaki were able to work in total silence.

After conducting a fourth overview of the security mainframe, Chiaki got out her watch from her supply pack and gazed at its face. It was 4:35 in the morning. She sighed at this finding and announced "Kenzou and Yuuga have been gone for almost two hours."

"I trust they've been using this time productively," Gakuto commented frankly.

Chiaki turned to him and enquired "When do you think they'll be back?"

"Hard to say," he responded, "There's a plethora of deciding factors. Kenzou and Yuuga have to somehow find out where Fumitaka and Akina are, how far their position from here is, and how to eliminate them without drawing attention to themselves."

"That could take several hours," Chiaki speculated.

"Perhaps," Gakuto remarked, "As long as they manage to stay alive and out of too much trouble, I'll be content with whatever progress they make."

"It'd be favorable if there was a way for us to contact them and check on their progress firsthand," Chiaki mused, "I would have suggested using our cell phones, except they've been tampered with."

"You know about that hindrance, too?" Gakuto observed.

"Yeah, I learned about it yesterday when I tried calling my friends," Chiaki answered, "Each time, all I got was an obviously-forged voicemail and a very acerbic slur from Furutani."

"Same thing happened to me," Gakuto glumly recalled, "Oh, well; I suppose our phones wouldn't be of much to us anyway. I mean, our intent would be to contact Kenzou and Yuuga, and I don't even have either of their cell numbers."

"Neither do I," Chiaki stated. After a moment of silence, she added "I guess it'd be best if we don't worry about them. They're two proficient guys, and they knew what they were getting into. I'm confident that they're alright."

"Let's just hope they don't do anything stupid or foolish," Gakuto proposed, "Or rather, anything more stupid or foolish."

"What's that supposed to entail?" Chiaki inquired in perplexity.

"I'm still a little uncertain about the success of this operation," Gakuto explicated, "Sure, I willingly signed off on the idea, but having those two risk their lives for one piece of machinery sounds like a somewhat reckless goal to me."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my own share of doubts about this plan's authenticity," Chiaki declared, "After all, we're not all that confident that that 'piece of machinery' even exists. However, if that tracking device does exist and we manage to acquire it, I don't have to emphasize how useful it could be to us. It may be as unique and versatile as this laboratory's defense network. Besides, Kenzou and Yuuga also plan to bring back extra weapons and supplies. We'll need plenty of both if we're looking at long-term survival."

"You present a fair argument," Gakuto thought aloud, "I appreciate the rewards of this chore, but I'm hoping that they outweigh the risks. That said, I can't help but feel slightly reluctant to consider going on a manhunt for a dangerous killer. Especially since the primary target is not the killer, but a tool that's in their possession. That's precisely what Kenzou and Yuuga are doing right now."

"Well, it's not as though we weren't already planning a similar course of action," Chiaki pointed out, "All this talk we've been having about hunting down Genji to recover Teru's flash drive… when you think about it, there's no major difference."

"There is some, Chiaki," Gakuto countered, "The flash drive will get us out of the city. The tracking device will only be useful to us as long as we're in it. It can help us safely navigate the streets and locate our classmates, but unless it leads us to Genji, it won't contribute anything to our long-term goal. And if we're unable to escape the city, the size of our troop won't matter. If it gets too big, we may even be presented with some fresh difficulties in time."

"You seem highly certain of that conviction," Chiaki commented.

"That's why I was a little tentative when Kenzou turned up here," Gakuto stated.

"Gakuto, wasn't it your idea to bring more people into our company in the first place?" Chiaki reminded him, "Earlier this morning, you gave me that short speech about how beneficial a larger group can be in our plans to resist the game. Oddly enough, you made it about fifteen minutes before Kenzou showed up. While I personally think it was just a coincidence, it could just as well have been a sign that you were correct."

"I freely admit that's a logical view," Gakuto illuminated, "However, you should know I didn't plan on inviting anyone we encountered on the spot, even once we obtained the tracking device. I would have preferred to spend some time observing them from a distance beforehand. If they seemed to be exhibiting rational behavior, I would have then condoned approaching them and allowing them to join us. It's not apprehension I'm acting on; it's caution. You can never be too careful about this matter."

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Chiaki perceived, "All the same, while I respect that you have our best interests in mind, I still think you shouldn't be so dubious. Despite the apparent hopelessness of our situation, I've managed to avoid becoming mistrustful. We cannot afford to lose our confidence in our classmates. I'm open to trusting them, and I believe you should remain open to do so, as well. If we show the others that we trust them, we may be able to get them to trust us in return. Some small display of trust could greatly increase the durability and attachment of our group. In fact, I believe that if everybody in the class was willing to give trust a chance, maybe we'd all be able to muddle through this ordeal together. Every single one of us."

Chiaki stopped here to give Gakuto a few moments to reflect on her monologue. He realized that the main point of her argument was practically indisputable, and he almost went so far as to label her observations as words of wisdom. He was quite impressed by how adamant and jaunty she was. She definitely seemed to be genuinely sincere and buoyant about everything she had highlighted. He had to commend her for the faith and hope she had in their classmates' trustworthiness.

When Gakuto was done pondering, he grinned at Chiaki and pronounced "I can see why your friends have such a high opinion of you, Chiaki. You have ineffable resolve, you show fortitude where most others would show despondency, your devotion to them is inflexible, and I think it's safe to say that you'd never turn your back on them. Their reliance in you is obviously very well-founded."

The cheerleader smiled brightly at the chemistry enthusiast and told him pleasingly "Gakuto, that's probably the sweetest thing anybody has ever said to me. Thank you so much for it; you really are a gentleman."

Gakuto nervously looked away from her and stared at the wall across the room. He had no idea how to respond to that last statement. Chiaki sounded as though she was flirting with him, which made him feel very awkward. Although Gakuto was very intelligent even by the standards of Keio University, he had very little experience in interacting with the opposite sex. Kaminari and Reika were the only two girls outside of his family he had ever been involved with, and his relationships with them had always been strictly professional. He had never been involved with a female classmate in an intimate sense.

About twenty seconds later, Gakuto turned back to Chiaki and steadily stated "Well, I meant every word of it. Those girls are fortunate to have you as their leader."

Chiaki merely shrugged and commented "Perhaps they are. If only my 'renowned leadership qualities' could somehow bring the girls to us. I just hope we'll be able to find them before we find Genji. Or before Genji finds them."

"Well, whenever Kenzou and Yuuga get back, we'll make locating the girls one of our top priorities," Gakuto assured her, "We could talk about sending out a search party or something of the sort."

"I'd sure appreciate that," spoke Chiaki, "However, I would advise against waiting that long to formulate our next strategy. It would be more prudent if we discussed what we'll do when Yuuga and Kenzou return before they return. We should think ahead, so to speak."

"You want to organize a plan in advance, huh?" Gakuto perceived, "I like that strategy; it's always desirable to have a potential solution for accomplishing an objective prior to the actual confrontation of that objective."

"Then let's go ahead and establish one such solution," Chiaki proposed.

"Right now?" he presumed.

"Right now," she confirmed.

"Alright," Gakuto accepted, "But first, I'm going to wake up Toshirou. He's the most analytical of us, so he should have a say in this matter."

"Very well," Chiaki agreed, nodding her head in approval.

Gakuto pushed his chair back, rose to his feet, and walked around the console to the next section of the control room. Chiaki watched him as he approached his sleeping colleague.

When he reached his friend, Gakuto gently nudged Toshirou and loudly proclaimed "Yo, Toshirou, get the hell up."

Chiaki chuckled at this blunt statement. However, Toshirou did not respond to it. He remained slouching listlessly in his chair without making the slightest sound or move.

"Rise and shine, Toshirou," Gakuto remarked cheekily, kicking the base of his chair, "Stop goofing off and pull your lazy ass out of that chair. We've got work to do."

Toshirou did not even stir a marginal amount. Gakuto raised an eyebrow in confusion and stated "Toshirou? You with us?"

He leaned in closer to his friend, and then he made an unpleasant discovery. The surface of Toshirou's stomach was totally flat, and his nostrils and lips were not flaring in the slightest. These indications suggested he was neither inhaling nor exhaling.

"Toshirou?" Gakuto uttered quietly, a note of trepidation in his voice.

Chiaki quickly noticed Gakuto's uneasiness. She slowly rose to her feet, stepped around the console, and queried anxiously "What is it? What's wrong?"

"He doesn't seem to be breathing," he enlightened her. Gakuto then placed his hand on the center of Toshirou's chest and held it there. When he could not feel anything, he uttered hauntingly "I can't detect his heartbeat either."

"Oh, shit…" Chiaki mumbled in distress.

So far, Gakuto had managed to maintain his equanimity for almost the entire duration of the Program. In fact, he had only been driven to panic on one occasion. That had been when he and Toshirou were driving around the city to collect materials yesterday morning, specifically when Toshirou almost hit Teru with their car outside the carpentry shop. Oddly enough, at that time, the principal source of his disquiet was that Toshirou had fallen asleep at the wheel. However, at that incident, he had managed to revive Toshirou in less than ten seconds. Currently, Gakuto had reason to believe that Toshirou was not actually asleep, or even unconscious. The unease he felt the previous day was extremely trivial compared to the angst that was slowly building up in him now.

Gakuto grabbed ahold of Toshirou's shoulders and began joggling his upper body. As he did, he stated agitatedly "Toshirou? Toshirou! Come on, buddy; wake up. You've got to wake up! Why the hell won't you wake up?"

Nothing Gakuto did made any difference in Toshirou's condition. He continued to remain totally immobile and silent.

Soon, Gakuto was violently shaking him and shouting frantically "Please, Toshirou, get up! Please! We've made it this far into the Program; you can't give out now! Not when we're so close to escaping! We need you here! Don't fall victim to the game! Don't leave us like this! Don't do this to me! Toshirou, please! Toshirou!"

Chiaki could only watch as Gakuto attempted desperately to revive Toshirou. She did not know what to make of the other boy's condition. Other than his exhaustion, Toshirou had been perfectly healthy before he had gone to sleep. There was no rational validation to explain how he could have passed away in the midst of his slumber. However, based on what she saw, she was inclined to believe that that was indeed what had happened.

Chiaki was conflicted about what action to take next. Part of her was compelled to tell Gakuto that his efforts were in vain, but the other part had no desire to interfere. She too was legitimately concerned about Toshirou's well-being, but she could never equally share in Gakuto's grievances. After all, Toshirou was one of his closest friends, and they had been working together for years. However, Gakuto would most likely need a long moment to acknowledge the idea that Toshirou was gone. At the rate he was losing his composure, Gakuto almost gave Chiaki the impression that he was on the brink of spacing out or entering a fugue state. She could not afford such a thing to happen to him. She needed him there. She needed him for his brilliant mind. She needed him for his devout concentration. She needed him… because she was attracted to him.

Just before Chiaki chose to intervene, Toshirou abruptly jerked awake and yelled in surprise. His sudden burst of activity startled both Chiaki and Gakuto, but their shock turned to respite once they embraced the fact that Toshirou was alive and well. The latter quickly ceased convulsing him.

"What the crap?" he shouted in fright, turning his head in all directions, "What the shit? What the hell's going on?"

When he noticed Gakuto was gripping him tightly by the shoulders, he snapped in annoyance "Jesus, Gakuto, where's the fire?"

Gakuto breathed out a sigh of relief, released his grip on Toshirou, and explained restlessly "Sorry, it's just… you weren't moving."

"Well, news flash," Toshirou sarcastically remarked, sitting up in his chair, "I was asleep."

"Let me rephrase that," Gakuto clarified, "What I meant was you didn't appear to be breathing, and I couldn't pick up your heartbeat."

"You couldn't?" stated Toshirou, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"Nope, not even faintly," Gakuto endorsed, "Damn near scared the shit out of us."

"Oh, I probably should have told you…" Toshirou eruditely thought aloud, looking off to the side.

"Told us what?" queried Chiaki.

"Sometimes when I fall asleep, I snooze so deeply that my body appears to go into a comatose state," Toshirou elucidated, "That happens very rarely. Most of the time, it's on days when I've been awake and physically active for more than twenty-four hours beforehand. Days such as today."

"How come you didn't reveal that to us earlier?" Gakuto demanded.

"Like I said, that malady only comes around on occasion," Toshirou reiterated, "I was confident it wouldn't transpire today. It's also something of a private affair; I like as few people to be aware of it as possible. So I felt you guys wouldn't need to know. An obvious blunder on my part."

"I should say so," Gakuto concurred, "I mean, I was almost impelled to think you'd be mentioned on the next announcement."

"I appreciate your concern," Toshirou assured him, rubbing his eyes restively, "But it was quite unnecessary for you to quaver me like a can of spray paint. You could have tried registering a pulse. Even comatose people have that."

"Good lord, why the hell didn't I think of that?" Gakuto asked rhetorically, slapping himself on the forehead in exasperation.

"Well, given the scenario, no one can blame you for assuming the worst prematurely," Chiaki contested, "Regardless of how safe and secure we are inside this building, we're still in the goddamn Program, for God's sake! Our nerves are already frayed enough as they are."

"Can't argue with that," Toshirou disclosed. He removed his feet from the counter and leaned forward in his chair. Once he was sitting up straight, he inquired "How long was I out, anyway?"

"A little over an hour and a-half," Chiaki estimated, "Feeling rested?"

"Somewhat," Toshirou replied indecisively, "I'm certainly fully alert now, courtesy of Gakuto's wake-up call."

Gakuto sneered and gave his colleague a friendly pat on the back. Then he affirmed wittily "Sorry if I stepped over the line a bit. I'm just comforted by the fact that you're alright. Don't know what I'd do without you."

"Oh, you worry too much," Toshirou stated humorously, spiritedly swatting his friend's hand away, "All the same, I'm grateful for your oversight. I'm also glad to know you weren't quick to cast doubt on my aptitude to survive. Otherwise I'd probably still be asleep right now."

The two boys then folded their arms and grinned at each other in amusement. About ten seconds later, they heard Chiaki giggling a few meters away. They cocked their heads in her direction and noticed she was gazing at them. She tried covering her mouth in civility, but they could already tell she must have been giggling for an explicit reason.

"Something entertaining, Chiaki?" Toshirou presumed.

"Yeah, you two," she answered candidly, controlling her soft laughter.

"What do you mean?" Gakuto inquired in puzzlement.

"I'm marveling over your behavior," Chiaki expounded, "To see a couple of tough, seemingly-ruthless goons demonstrate signs of brotherly affection towards each other in the manner you guys just did… one could classify it as a rather poignant notion. To be honest, I find it adorable."

After she made that statement, both Toshirou and Gakuto winced. Then they gazed at each other apprehensively and raised their eyebrows, as if Chiaki's last sentence made them feel profoundly uncomfortable. Truth be told, they were a little disturbed by one of its possible implications.

Chiaki was flustered by their facial expressions. She hoped she had not said anything to aggravate or offend them; that had not been her intent. If they interpreted her comment in that fashion, she decided that she would make amends straightaway. The last thing she wanted to do was generate tension between herself and them.

Soon, the two gangsters turned back to the cheerleader, and Toshirou remarked edgily "I hope you're kidding."

Chiaki scoffed at this, held up her hand, and told them "Relax, I meant that as a compliment. I wasn't implying that I thought you guys are gay or anything like that."

"Then what exactly were you implying, Chiaki?" Gakuto asked in interest.

"Well…" Chiaki tentatively began, contemplating how to properly depict her thoughts, "No offense, but before today, I've been inclined to label you guys as thugs. I'm sorry if that sounds derogatory, but that's the only word I can think of that would appropriately describe my view."

"Oh, don't worry; we don't regard that as an insult," Toshirou notified her calmly, "Sometimes, we have to act like thugs to show our opponents that we mean serious business. When you're trying to make a name for yourself in the world of crime, you have to be prepared to get your hands dirty and bloody. At times, you may even have to get a few other names erased. It's not glamorous work, but it's a prestigious and lucrative way to evade the government's notice."

"That's not difficult to imagine," Chiaki stated casually, "Anyway, my point is that before today, the nature of the loyalty between the members of your group always seemed ambiguous to me. Now that I know that you guys really are strongly dedicated to each other, I feel that since the first day of junior high, I have poorly and unfairly misjudged you."

"You and everybody else in the class," Gakuto leered jokily, "We've never blamed anybody for misunderstanding us and the others in our group. Then again, we've never particularly cared about anyone else's views of us, either. Even so, I'm thankful to hear you say that."

"So am I," Toshirou confessed, "I'm willing to bet that if Osamu, Reika, Kazumitsu, and Kaminari were here right now, they'd tell you the same thing. Not many people are able to grasp how interdependent the six of us were. We were much closer than the Yakuza and most of the other gangs in the Kanagawa Prefecture."

"That's fascinating," commented Chiaki, "But with that in mind, there's something I'd like to know. If your gang was so effective and inseparable back in Fujisawa, how come your company has never risen beyond six members?"

"We actually considered expanding the group several times," Gakuto enlightened her, "There were several promising contenders amongst the student body at Keio University."

"Really?" Chiaki queried in interest, "Were any of them upperclassmen? Anyone in senior high?"

"Nope, we only considered people in our own grade," Toshirou explicated, "In order to ensure we'd all be easily accessible at all times, we limited our search to the rest of Class 3-A. That brought our list of candidates down to just slightly over three dozen, but our own class still had plenty of potential, diversity, and talent to offer. No shortage of decent prospects there."

"I noticed Naozumi hanged out with you guys every now and then," Chiaki recollected, "Was he one of the people you approached?"

"Yeah, we used him several times," Gakuto replied, "You see, whenever we conducted a trade negotiation or a deal and the other party was making unreasonable demands or requests, we relied on Kazumitsu to coerce them into seeing things our way. Since they were wise enough not to quarrel with a gargantuan musclebound teenager, most of our associates chose to comply with our terms. However, sometimes we had a job that required more than one heavyweight."

"Whenever that happened, I would 'persuade' Naozumi to help us," Toshirou recalled, "We never forced him to hurt anyone or do anything illegal. We handled all the unlawful stuff. He just had to stand next to us and look intimidating. His role in our company was always temporary and purely ceremonial. Fortunately, he never caved in to stress."

"That's fortunate for him, given how 'persuasive' you're known to be," Chiaki noted. By "persuasive," she actually meant "menacing."

"I understand what you're saying," Toshirou said solemnly, "Right now, I'm not particularly proud of the way I treated Naozumi back at school. Osamu never ordered me to threaten or put pressure on Naozumi; I just did whatever I deemed necessary to get him on our side. I even got into that fight with Daisuke, something I'm really not proud off."

"Oh, well; at least you're repentant about it," Chiaki observed. She paused a moment and then asked "Who else did you consider?"

"Osamu once proposed inviting Maki to join the group," Gakuto exemplified, "She certainly had the required fearlessness and sangfroid, as well as some prolific weapons training. However, none of us were too thrilled with the concept of collaborating with her. I mean, bringing a sadist into the criminal netherworld… That's almost as bad an idea as releasing a criminally-insane psychopath into a hospital ward for quadriplegics. So we dismissed the idea of making her our seventh member."

"That was probably the sensible thing to do," Chiaki perceived, "What about Shuuichi?"

"We considered him for the longest time," Toshirou revealed, "but we never officially presented the offer. While Shuuichi was irrefutably the best marksman in the whole of the school, we were convinced that he did not have it in him to use his gunmanship skills to bring harm to other people without just cause. He was too philanthropic for criminal activity."

"That sounds like Shuuichi," Chiaki coincided. She paused for a moment, and then continued with "You said that you pondered on adding both him and Maki into your group. But is there anyone you've ever actually approached with the proposition?"

Gakuto nodded his head vigorously. Then he leaned against the counter and recounted "Several months ago, I offered Blaine entry into our group. After all, he has no shortage of desirable qualities. He's bright, he's outgoing, he's resourceful, and both of his parents have a military background. However, the primary reason was this: I figured that if we had a foreigner in our company during our deals, our competitors would be convinced we had even better connections than we had led them to believe. That could be inflated by the fact that Blaine speaks perfect Japanese and perfect English."

"So how did he respond?" Chiaki enquired.

"If I remember correctly, his exact words were 'Gakuto, while I appreciate and understand the value of your offer, I'd prefer to stay out of trouble and harm's way for the duration of my stay in this country,'" the chemistry enthusiast recalled.

"He must have wanted to make his refusal eloquently clear," Toshirou speculated.

"Evidently," Gakuto admitted. Then he remarked "Maybe if I presented it to him now, he'd honestly think about accepting it."

"Since he's already aware of Teru's escape plan and he's out hunting for Genji with Tatsuo and Kiyomi, I'm sure he would love to give your offer some thought," Chiaki accorded, "He'd definitely make a great ally. I can vouch for him; he saved my life at the hotel last night. And while we're on this subject, maybe we should consider making the offer available to everyone else."

"I'd approve of that idea," Gakuto stated, "We'll need to recruit as many people as possible."

"Are you guys so sure that would be a good idea?" Toshirou cautioned them, "I'm not saying 'to hell with our classmates,' but shouldn't we be focused more on recovering the flash drive and keeping this place secure than herding the other survivors together?"

"Actually, that topic's the chief reason why we disturbed your nap," Chiaki informed him, "As you may recall, you told us to wake you up in the event that Kenzou and Yuuga returned to the laboratory or we needed your help with something. As you may have noticed, Kenzou and Yuuga still aren't back yet."

"They 'aren't back?'" Toshirou said sardonically, gazing around the room as though he was looking for someone. Then he sneered and stated comically "Wow, I didn't even notice they were gone."

Chiaki and Gakuto laughed at his witticism. Once they quieted down, Toshirou inquired "So why did you wake me up?"

"We wanted to discuss what we would do after Kenzou and Yuuga got back with the tracking device," Gakuto enlightened him, "Since you're the most systematic of us, we figured your input would be meaningful."

"Alright then," Toshirou approved, rubbing his hands together eagerly, "In that case, what do we have planned for later on?"

"Originally, we were just talking about searching for the girls in my clique," Chiaki explained, "However, now that we've had this conversation, I'm thinking we should go over the class list and cross-examine everyone who's still alive. It could be possible that each and every one of them can make a decent comrade."

"You really think so?" Toshirou stated questioningly.

"Well, maybe not all of them," Chiaki corrected herself, "But so far, the only ones we know are straight-out playing the game are Fumitaka, Akina, and Genji."

"And the person who killed Kazumitsu and Kaminari," Gakuto added in.

"True," Chiaki granted, "Still that's only four players out of a maximum of twenty-three contestants. The odds tend to lean in our favor. With that in mind, I suggest that we don't be too quick to write anybody off. Until we know for certain who's playing and who just wants to survive, we should regard all our classmates as potential allies."

"That sounds like an acceptable strategy," Gakuto thought aloud. He stood up straight and walked back over to Chiaki. He retrieved his supply pack and fished out his casualty list and map. He announced to his colleagues "Let's get started then."

Chiaki followed his lead and extracted her own map and casualty list from her supply pack.

When Toshirou leaned down to open up his supply pack, he spotted a folded piece of paper near the base of his chair. He was quite certain it had not been there when he fell asleep. So he concluded that Gakuto must have dropped it when he came to wake him up. Toshirou swiped it up off the floor, held it up in the air, and asked "Hey, Gakuto, what's this?"

The chemistry enthusiast looked back in his friend's direction and took a moment to study the item in his elevated hand. A minute later, he responded with "I have no idea. Why're you asking me?"

"I believe you dropped it a couple minutes ago," Toshirou informed him.

"Oh, then it must have been that piece of paper I found back as the gas station," Gakuto deduced.

"What's on it?" queried Toshirou.

"Again, no idea," Gakuto bluntly replied, "I haven't looked at it yet. Feel free to investigate yourself."

Toshirou shrugged and turned his attention toward the piece of paper. He unfolded it and smoothed it out on the counter in front of his console. Once it was totally flat, Toshirou went to work examining it. Initially, the markings appeared to be nothing more than a bunch of scribbling. However, he soon realized that all the lines on the paper formed a definite picture. Once he managed to discern what precisely the illustration was, Toshirou felt a wave of shock overcome him.

He slowly gazed back at the class mastermind and requested from him in a quiet tone "Gakuto… where exactly did you find this paper?"

"It was in Kazumitsu's jacket, Toshirou," Gakuto recounted. When he noticed his friend's uneasiness, he enquired in concern "Why do you ask? Is something wrong?"

Toshirou did not answer him directly. Instead, he got up from his chair, walked over to Chiaki and Gakuto, and held out the paper. Then he uttered hazily "Take a look at it and decide for yourself."

Gakuto hesitantly took the sheet into his hands and peered down at it. At first, it appeared to contain nothing more than a crude drawing. However, as he absorbed every individual detail, it soon became quite apparent to him that the entire image was supposed to represent something much more than a doodle. Upon coming to this conclusion, he had the same upsetting reaction as Toshirou.

"Oh, my God…" he uttered in bewilderment.

Chiaki was surprised to see the boys react this way. However, on their part, Gakuto and Toshirou had just learned a valuable lesson: irrespective of how well someone may know another person, it is always possible for their trust in that person to be grossly misplaced.

18 Students Remaining