DAY TWO ; 10:45 A.M.

Sonia Nevermind only found Kiyotaka Ishimaru because she nearly tripped over him. She managed to stop herself, arms pinwheeling, and nearly wasted one of her arrows. Ishimaru, who was on the ground with both of his legs bloody messes and sweating, rolled his eyes up to look at her.

He didn't say anything. There was a bottle of water a few feet away from him. The side was dented like he'd tried to get it open but couldn't quite manage it and had thrown it in anger. That didn't quite seem like Ishimaru, but the pain of his legs…

She wordlessly went over to the bottle and picked it up. She headed back over to him, opened the bottle, and crouched down. He lifted a shaking hand, but she pushed it back down and put a hand to the back of his neck to steady his head while she lifted the bottle up to his lips.

Once he'd taken a few drinks, he managed a raspy, "Thank you."

"What happened?" she asked, and Ishimaru took a deep, shuddering breath and closed his eyes. For a moment she thought he was dead. But then he opened his eyes again, swallowed, and answered.

"Enoshima. Ikusaba," he said. "Fujisaki and… Kirigiri… promised brother I'd… protect Fujisaki and then…"

Sonia watched him as he struggled to speak, and then gave him another drink. He was wearing a bulletproof vest. From the looks of it, it had saved him many times over. It was a good 'weapon' for a person like Kiyotaka Ishimaru, she thought.

"Start from the beginning," she said. She sat down and gave him another drink. She wondered if he could manage something to eat. She didn't have much; she'd had to flee the warehouse that Togami had been in very quickly, but she had a little bit of food left. "Please."

He nodded and he began to speak. "I… ran into Mondo Oowada yesterday. It was… we got along. If we'd given each other a chance earlier… we'd have… I could have had a friend, brother, a brother before this. But we didn't. And then… he wanted to find Kuwata and Fujisaki. But when we found Kuwata…"

He shuddered, and Sonia reached out, putting a hand on his cheek. He leaned into it, breathing heavily, tears leaking out of his eyes.

"S-Souda. Souda killed. Souda shot him. And then I. I killed Kazuichi Souda. I killed him. My katana is still in the building. They didn't check for that. I left it behind. I used it to kill him. I didn't want it anymore. And then I carried my brother… to the clinic… but he died. He died."

He was sobbing down, sobbing either because of Mondo Oowada or the pain in his legs, Sonia didn't know. She just moved closer to him, touching him, keeping him closer to the ground. He took a few breaths and seemed to get ahold of himself.

"I found Fujisaki. And Kirigiri. They were being attacked. Saionji. I held her off, but I can't kill a girl, I can't kill a girl, I can't kill a girl and Oowada – he would never hurt a girl. Never. Not even – Oogami. So I couldn't kill her. So Kirigiri did. And then. Fujisaki, he hacked in. We were trying to get them off. We were too excited. We left the building. And they were waiting for us."

His breath caught in his throat and he took a few heaving breaths before continuing.

"I don't understand what – Ikusaba, she – didn't kill me. She knew – she had to know – but she shot me. In the side. After she took out all of our legs. And then she shot Fujisaki and Kirigiri – in the head. And then. They left. They took the guns and they left. And now the collars are back on. It's like. Fujisaki's thing was all for – all for nothing. Nothing at all."

He sobbed, and Sonia put her arms around him as best as she could without hurting him. "Don't think about that," she said, her voice breaking. "Think about… think about… being Prime Minister of Japan. You made it. You did it. You found your dream."

He shuddered, and he buried his face in her neck.

"And I'm the Queen of Novoselic, and we help to stop this. We stop the game together, and to show that my country is behind yours forever, forever and ever, we go together to all of the events. And eventually we get married, and then when you're done being Prime Minister you have a good home to go to. And it's all okay. Oowada stays with us, with Fujisaki and Kuwata, too, and we all live happily ever after and our babies have red eyes and blonde hair and they're the most beautiful little children in the world. And it's all because you worked hard enough to do it all."

"Th-thank you," Ishimaru said. "It's – nice to think about. Nice to think about something other than – this for a few minutes, and – please just – I don't want to sit here any longer. I don't want to wait for either myself to die or everyone else to die. Please-"

Sonia got what he was asking. She took a deep breath, and she knew that she had to do it. It wasn't right for her to leave him sitting here, all alone and in pain, and she would only be risking herself if she stayed with him. So she nodded, and she wiped the blood and the snot and the tears off of his face, and she kissed his forehead.

"Wait-" Ishimaru said. "Take the bulletproof vest."

She nodded. "I'll wait until you're dead," she said. "I don't want you to be in pain."

"Okay," Ishimaru said, and his voice was smaller than she'd ever heard it be before. And so she took a few steps away and she aimed her crossbow and she sent an arrow straight through Kiyotaka Ishimaru's eye and he was dead.

She wiped at her eyes because she couldn't afford to cry, and she pulled the bulletproof vest from his body. His chest and back underneath was covered in bruises and abrasions, and he must have been in so much pain. Between his chest and his legs – but of course it was better than having been shot. The arrow was in his eye, grotesque and disgusting, and she pulled it out. There was no use wasting it. And she wanted to do something for him.

She laid him down, and if she could forget the hole in his eye and the wounds on his chest and the wounds on his legs, she could pretend he looked peaceful. But she couldn't, not really, so she set to work putting flowers on every wound. It looked… well, she supposed it might look horrifying to someone else, but to her it was better than him leaning against the tree bare-chested with an arrow in his eye.

She passed Kirigiri's and Fujisaki's body on the way into the building for his katana. She would take that. So she did, and she also backtracked and took Ishimaru's pants, as they were easier to move around in than a skirt.

So in the end she was dressed in pants that were ripped up about halfway down and a bulletproof vest that had seen better days and her shirt overtop of it. She had the katana stuck in the belt loop of Ishimaru's jeans, and she had her bag restocked with food from the bags of the deceased. She took one look around, and then at Ishimaru's flower-covered body, and she headed out. She would make it her personal duty to kill Enoshima and Ikusaba and Togami, and then she would have to kill the others that were still alive as well.

Because she was going home.

7 STUDENTS REMAINING


So good-bye Ishimaru. I seriously considered him just like, waiting it out and then actually being the one to be the last, but. That would've been. I mean, he's my favorite character, so it would have been a sort of. Cop-out.

So now he's gone, and left we've got Sonia, Togami, Kuzuryuu and Peko, Junko and Mukuro, and Aoi Asahina. Which… should be an interesting mashup.