Vision blurred by sweat as the liquid beads rolled down her forehead, Yuseki found herself rocking back and forth like a mother might do to her ill child, staring at Shiro with a cold gaze as his pencil finished jotting down the new information from the update. He was a sly demon, very crafty and vile, trying to lure her into a false sense of security so he could capitalize and make her lower her defenses, giving him easy access to the kill. He must've thought she was a complete moron, because she was far too intelligent to fall for his little ploy; even with her fever building by the second, she had seen that look in his eyes, a look of jubilation as he listened to the names of the dead. So close to the end, she knew he was just waiting for his chance to add her own name to that list, just so he could hear that evil bitch Kamana's voice call out, 'Female Student Number 5, Yuseki Tarana.'
Shiro of course, had done no such thing, and if anything, his demeanor during the announcement was nothing short of the normal reaction of someone in a situation such as the Program. The only expression that crossed his face was one of sickness, horror, and dismay, knowing that people were still playing, and his classmates' numbers were steadily dwindling, so many dead already. His attention returning to the location in which he currently resided, Shiro could already tell something was amiss with Yuseki. Her face was flushed, the reddened skin glistening with what seemed like quite a few liters of sweat that covered not only her face, but the rest of her exposed skin as well. She was shaking uncontrollably, as though she had suddenly developed a case of epilepsy, tremors rolling through her body like ripples in a windswept pond. Something was terribly with Yuseki, and to Shiro, it was his responsibility, nay, his duty, to care for and ensure her welfare. After all, if there was one thing Shiro didn't want in this game, it was to be alone.
"Yuseki…you don't look so good…are you alright?"
"I'm fine…"
"You sure? You're as red as a cabbage…"
"I said I'm fine!"
"Look, just let me check your temperature…"
"Don't you touch me!"
"I just wanna touch your forehead…"
"I said don't fucking touch me!"
At this point in Yuseki's mind, with Shiro having essentially violated her personal space to a point where she was freaked out, she no longer viewed him as a classmate, but simply as an enemy, looming over her with evil intentions. Whipping out her switchblade, Yuseki watched the light gleam off the blade as she advanced on Shiro, the bewildered boy backing away with his arms poised in the air as a sign of peace. Whatever had caused Yuseki's sudden mood swing, he certainly didn't want to give her more reason to want to fight him, and he just needed to try and keep her calm. Yuseki kept moving forward, jabbing sporadically into the surrounding air to keep Shiro off balance and to keep him from striking back; the last thing she wanted now was for Shiro, a boy easily stronger than herself, to start fighting back. That was the reason, the one and only reason why no matter what Shiro would say or do, Yuseki would remain relentless in her attack, until she was certain that safety was guaranteed.
"Yuseki, stop!"
"Go to hell!"
"What's wrong with you?! What did I do?!"
"You're trying to fucking kill me, that's what's wrong with me!"
"I'm not trying to kill you!"
"Lying bastard!"
The heat in the young girl's head had reached a boiling point, and she was pushed over the edge, the fiery madness consuming every inch of her body. Shiro's pleas for mercy fell upon deaf ears, everything coming from his mouth having the same exact tone and meaning to Yuseki. Rip, slash, gut, tear, stab, cut, gash, and kill, those were the only words she heard coming from his mouth, echoing in her eardrums over and over, whether or not he'd said even a single one. To her, this conflict was no longer a simple matter of self defense, to protect herself from a killer. Instead, this was now a matter of kill or be killed, and she, at the same time as both Ayane and Tomiko came to the same realization, chose to kill.
Yuseki slashed with her knife, swinging for the throat, for the veins that they'd learned about in one of those health classes that bleed so thoroughly that a person could die with just a nick to one of them. While Shiro was nimble enough to avoid the fatal blows, Yuseki still managed to catch him in the cheek, tearing open the skin with a fresh wound that the boy could only catch at in pain. He fell to his knees, giving Yuseki the perfect opportunity to exploit the only weakness Shiro had to her, and with a swift kick, the toe of her shoe connected with his groin, the boy doubling over into the fetal position. Switching the knife to her other hand, she stabbed downward, Shiro struggling, but she was no longer missing, each motion creating another bleeding wound in his legs, and one extra in his stomach. He screamed with each stab, but he refused to die, causing Yuseki to keep rearing back for more, unable to realize that she wasn't hitting any vital areas.
As she prepared for another blow, there was a brief flash and she let a shriek escape her lips, tumbling backwards away from her victim and hitting the ground hard. On the floor beside her, Shiro lay panting, still brandishing the bloody hunting knife Yuji had given him before his departure from the police station. The wounds weren't serious, but as his fingers run over the bloody cuts, he could feel the blood pumping out, especially from the one in his stomach; he would live, but he would just be in a lot of pain for the experience. It was then, with his fingers pushed into the gash on his stomach, that he heard the gurgle of blood coming from his left. Looking over, he saw the damage he had done, Yuseki's throat slashed all the way up the side of her neck, and she didn't even seem to realize it, despite the excess of blood spilling from her mouth.
Yuseki's eyes widened in terror as Shiro, bloody and frantic, climbed on top of her and grabbed her neck in his hands, strangling the life out of her. She kicked and tried to scream, but couldn't make a sound, with her kicks doing little compared to the already existent pain of Shiro's wounds. Shiro applied pressure to the injury he himself had caused, not willing to let Yuseki become another Yan, but no matter what he did, more blood kept flowing, as though spurned on by the unknown illness that coursed through her veins. Not wanting to die, and not realizing that everything he was doing was to keep her alive, Yuseki swung her fists, punching Shiro square in the nose and getting him off of her. She took a deep breath, expecting to taste the sweet air that she'd been deprived of, but instead inhaled her own salty blood. She didn't even realize what was happening as her body slowly died, with Shiro trying to regain his composure as she forced him to let her die, never knowing that she was only killing herself.
When Yuseki stopped moving, Shiro at it again, trying to resuscitate her, but this wasn't something simple, like choking…she had been killed by his own hand, and she had forced the very event she had feared to come to pass. Shiro's hands were cupped into her chest for a good thirty minutes, despite his own physical pain, not willing to give up on her, after she'd come so close to fixing her life and getting better. After he finally accepted the fact that it was no use, he lay there, collapsed on top of Miss Tarana, sobbing and trying to reason why she'd done what she'd done, and left him all alone once again, trapped in the madness of the Program.
