DAY TWO ; 2:45 A.M.

Leon Kuwata managed to stand up about twenty minutes later. His legs were shaky, his ribs hurt even more than before, and his arms hurt from chucking a flashlight at Oogami's head and then swinging the hatchet over and over and over and over, but he managed to stagger forward a few steps before placing a hand solidly against a tree trunk and throwing up everything in his stomach.

He looked up and squinted with the one eye that he didn't fear the sight was lost from forever. Was that a fire a few feet away? The rational part of him warned him to stay away, that whoever it was would take one look at him and kill him like that, but… they must have already seen him, right? He'd been right there…

Unless they thought he was dead.

But no. No, they had to have already seen him. He'd go and maybe he could meet up with someone who wasn't going to die on him. Someone he wasn't going to have to kill. Someone… someone who wouldn't snap and accidentally murder one of his friends, or snap and try to murder him.

He swallowed and took a few more steps forward. He was tempted to let go of the hatchet, because his arms didn't really feel like they could hold it for much longer, but it was the only weapon he had. It was the only thing he had, and if he didn't have anything… it was a miracle that he'd lived for that long after Oogami had beaten the shit out of him.

He shook his head clear of distracting thoughts and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. His steps were halting, uncertain, and slow, but after what seemed like ages he made it to the campfire.

Aoi Asahina was sitting at the campfire, staring into it moodily.

"Hey," Leon said, voice raw. Asahina looked up and smiled. Something about it seemed off, but he was far too exhausted and hurt too much to think about it. "Can I… Can I sit down?"

"Okay," she said. He collapsed, one hand on the hatchet. Her gaze flickered to it. He shifted to try and not be in so much goddam pain. "Have you seen Sakura-chan?"

He swallowed to try to get rid of the taste of blood in his mouth and lied.

"I did. Last night. She beat the shit out of me, as you can see," he said, managing a weak, lopsided grin and gesturing to his face. Asahina's eyes narrowed a fraction, and Leon swallowed again. Water. He needed water.

He glanced around. His bag had been completely emptied out of anything useful, and, either way, the quarter-bottle of water he might have had left would be back in the clearing with Sakura Oogami's dead body. It might not have even been there at all. He couldn't quite remember if he'd already drank it or not.

There was a half-full bottle of water leaning against Asahina's leg. He licked his lips, tasted more blood, flinched. "Can I- Can I have a drink of water?" he asked. He coughed a little, and it hurt his ribs. Asahina jumped, like she wasn't expecting the question, and then nodded. Slowly, like she wasn't sure if she wanted to give it to him or not. He could understand the feeling. If someone'd just stumbled across him and asked for water, he would have to give it a second thought, and the answer would probably be no.

But she passed the bottle over to him. He fumbled with the cap for a full five minutes, his fingers not quite working properly, before Asahina leaned over to unscrew it for him and he got a full view of her chest.

Really, Leon was pretty glad that Oogami had not decided to castrate him, as she'd seemed to be close to doing back at the clinic.

"T-thanks," he said. He shifted, wincing a little as pain raced through his body. She sat back on her heels, and he briefly mourned the loss of her body right by his before he lifted the bottle up to his lips. She was watching him almost hungrily, and he paused. "What?"

"Nothing," she said, color rising to her face. She glanced away.

Did she have a crush on him?

He wouldn't say no to her. That'd be cool. Aoi Asahina was a very hot girl.

But he was thirsty. And he didn't want her to taste the blood in his mouth when he kissed her, so he wanted to wash that out with some blood. He'd probably bleed more, but it was dried to his teeth, discoloring them.

He only swallowed a little at first, swishing the rest around in his mouth and spitting into the dirt. His throat and stomach felt a little weird, and he pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. Probably Sakura. It had probably been Sakura.

But at that first taste of water, damn, he'd needed more. So he chugged the rest of the bottle, and the effect was almost immediate.

He could feel his insides turning inside out and spitting themselves up as blood flooded from his mouth and nose. He coughed up blood, he threw up blood, he tried to get air into his lungs but his throat was too full of blood for anything to pass through.

"I'm sorry, Kuwata," Asahina said. She was standing now. When the hell had she stood up? He couldn't concentrate on that. He tried to concentrate on keeping the blood in his body, but it was coming from everywhere, he couldn't breathe and the taste and smell of blood was all he was aware of.

Asahina was talking again.

"I'm sorry, Kuwata," she repeated. "But you killed Sakura-chan."

17 STUDENTS REMAINING

And there's the end of Leon Kuwata, SHSL Baseball Player. On another note, Ultimate just seems wrong to me somehow. Like, I played DR & am currently playing SDR2 because they're out in English now and all, and IDK. I guess since I spent so much time with SHSL.