Battle Royale '03
Part Three
20
Shizuka was now sitting on the bed in the master bedroom, still wrapped up in two blankets except she was beginning to shiver slightly. It was nearing noontime.
"So you're absolutely sure you're all right?" Junko suggested.
"If I was all right, would I be sitting here wrapped in blankets and shivering?"
"Hm...you have a good point there. Your concealer washed off, by the way."
"No it didn't!" Shizuka exclaimed in disbelief. "Goddammit!" She reached up for her face and felt the same scar that Kiyoharu was staring at. "And of course I didn't even think of bringing the tube along with me!"
"Wait a minute. Didn't we have suitcases for a normal study trip on the bus?"
"Yeah, we did. Why?"
"Where are they? We don't have them with us."
"Toyama's probably got them over at the school. Why did they have to make the school a forbidden zone? That really pisses me off." Shizuka looked over towards a mirror hanging on the wall. There were pictures of a woman and a small child taped to the mirror, but she was more concerned with how a person could easily see the biggest scar on Shizuka's face, as well as a few smaller ones on her chin.
"Hey, I wonder if the woman who lives here has some coats hanging around," Junko wondered aloud, heading for the closet and opening it up to find it completely empty. "Not even a sweater..."
"But this comforter sure is warm," Shizuka commented, having nestled down underneath the covers on the bed. "Not warm enough, but good."
"Do you want me to get some tea or soup for you?"
"If it's warm, yes."
"All right. I'll have Kiyoharu send up some."
"Thanks." Shizuka rolled over in the bed and stared out of the window at the rain. 'Why am I so cold? I'm not usually this way. Do I have hypothermia or something? I haven't ruled out that possibility yet...Kiyoharu's coming up here to see me. Should I tell him? I want to tell him. I want him to hold me and tell me it'll all be all right someday, even though all the scars and burns on my body seem to tell me otherwise. But even though I'm in the Program and I'll probably die, at least I'll never have to go back home to my stepdad.' She closed her eyes and began to remember.
Her parents divorced early, when she was just starting kindergarten. For a while, her mom decided to just be a single mom and everything was good. Then when Shizuka was in 4th grade, her mom met her stepdad and began dating him. While Shizuka wasn't so sure about this mysterious man, she was happy as long as he wasn't in the house. She was watching a robot anime show one day when her mother walked up behind her and sat down on the couch.
"Shizuka..." she began in her 'we need to talk' voice. "You know how I've been seeing Masahiko a lot lately?"
"Mmm-hmm." Shizuka desperately wanted her mom to talk about something else. Anything other than Masahiko Arimachi would do.
"Well, honey, he's going to move into the house with us."
"WHAT?!" The ten-year-old Shizuka whirled around from the robot anime, then stood up and balled her hands into fists. She could feel the anger burning through her. "He'll ruin the house!"
"But, honey, I really do love him..."
"And you love me too, right? Right? Just remember how much you'll be hurting me." She stomped off angrily towards her room.
A few days later, Masahiko came with all of his suitcases and moved in. Shizuka only talked to him if she absolutely had to, and even then she wasn't willing to say too much. She suspected Masahiko was no good and she was right. Masahiko started to beat her if she did anything wrong. Shizuka sometimes had to stay after school for help with math and if she came home one minute past 5:00, Masahiko would be waiting there with his belt or a small knife ready. He made Shizuka swear to secrecy about "this", as he called it, because if she told anyone he would kill her. Terrified, Shizuka submitted to all the beatings. Soon, there were too many scars and cigarette burns on her legs, which were exposed by the skirts that she wore as part of her uniform. Her mother took notice of this and Shizuka lied about who was giving her these scars, citing a school bully as the abuser. Her mother told the school counselor about this and Shizuka began to wear the boys' uniform instead of the girls' to cover all her scars and burns. The kids at school began to shy away from her and she became introverted, relying on herself or Junko Mizuboshi as friends. To this day, Shizuka still hasn't told her mother who really gave her those scars and she's still terrified that she really will be killed if she does. (By the way, her mom married her stepdad when she was 12 but Shizuka didn't change her surname from Arai to Arimachi.)
"Shizuka?" she heard a voice ask. She opened her eyes to see Kiyoharu sitting on the other side of the king-sized bed, holding a hot cup of tea.
"Oh...hi, Kiyoharu," Shizuka said as she woke up, yawning a little. 'He's right here...Oh God...what to do now?'
"You're not looking so good," Kiyoharu said, concerned. "Are you all right?"
"Not really, but at least I don't have any bullets in me or anything. I'll be fine." Shizuka began to sip the hot tea. "Thanks for the tea."
"All right. If you get worse, please tell me and I'll take you to the clinic."
"Thank you," Shizuka said as she sipped more of the tea. Kiyoharu nodded and left the room, shutting the door.
"DAMMIT!!" she screamed aloud, kicking the sheets. "I couldn't tell him!" She looked in the mirror. "What a disgrace..."
18 students remaining
21
"Check it out, I'm in the computer's files," Kaoru bragged to Kazuhiko. Kaoru found a laptop computer in the house they were in and the laptop's battery was at 100%, so the two were trying to hack into the computer over at the school and find a way to disable the collars.
"Sweet!" Kazuhiko replied, looking at the screen. All the file names were in English, which he didn't understand very well, but apparently Kaoru was very good at it. "What is it?"
"Well, there's a data log of the exact times when everyone who has died so far died, some info about the island, and...this file. I might've gotten it." Kaoru pointed to the screen, where there was a file called guadalcanal22kitagawa3a2003.doc loading up. It popped up and there was a strange list. Each line of code had M1, F1, M2, F2, et cetera, with a 10-digit string of numbers next to each one. "Using inference I figured out that M1 must stand for Male Student 1, who is, of course, Masao Suzuki. F1 is Shizuka Arai. M2 is Kazuo Hanagata, et cetera, et cetera. Notice how Kazuo's 10-digit number is written in red? That means that he's dead. See? Tomoko's is also written in red."
"But what significance do these numbers play?"
"I'm not quite sure about that. They might be the serial numbers for the collars everyone is wearing. I have no idea what a "Guadalcanal 22" is, though, so I can't be sure. It could even be a tracking number that the computer uses to show where we are."
"Tracking is connected to the collars, though, so it all points back to the collars. Do you see any clear place to put in these numbers?"
"Not yet. Hold on." A small window popped up at the bottom of the screen that alerted Kaoru to the fact that the laptop battery was quickly deteriorating. "Oh man, the laptop battery's going down quick." Another small window popped up that read, "Connection terminating..." and began a countdown from 10. "Connection terminating?! Dammit!!" Kaoru tried to save the guadalcanal22 file but an error message popped up saying that the file was read-only and could not be saved or modified in any way. Finally the countdown ended and the connection to the school computer was terminated. Kaoru gave up and shut down the laptop.
"What was that?" Kazuhiko asked, alarmed.
"I don't know. Somehow they found out about my connection or something, because it seemed to be going just fine until now."
"But how? Didn't you say you had it so that they couldn't trace your login info?"
"I did have it so they couldn't trace my login. It was perfect. I didn't leave any trace or footstep or anything. I don't understand this."
"Hey, try again, see if you can get something to disable the guard ships or something," Kazuhiko suggested. Kaoru rebooted the laptop (battery level 70%) and tried to reconnect. It failed and he tried again. Another failure. He tried ten more times, the battery level decreasing every so often. Every time he tried, the connection would look like it was going to go through, then it would fail.
"So...it won't work?" Kazuhiko asked sadly.
"Unfortunately...no." Kaoru sighed.
"So...we're screwed?"
"Most likely yes."
18 students remaining
22
Daisuke grew bored of hiding in the farmhouse, plus Sho's corpse was beginning to smell terrible. (And were those worms crawling into his head? Gross.) He sat up from his new hay couch and exited the farmhouse, holding his shotgun just in case. He looked around and didn't see anyone coming, so he began to walk east. Everything was east of the farmhouse on the map, so he'd definitely find something worth his while. As he neared a large grove of tangerine trees, he heard someone else's footsteps crunching the leaves. (It wasn't him because he was standing on a stick, not leaves.) He clicked the safety off on his shotgun to try to warn the other person that he was armed, but the other person didn't seem to care.
"Who's there?" the other person asked.
"Daisuke, who are you?"
"It's Takashi."
"Look, I don't want to kill you, okay? This is just a precaution, this unlocking the safety thing."
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah, I'm alone."
"Well, there's safety in numbers so do you want to come along with me? I think I have some leads as to where people are, we could take out some unsuspecting people."
"I like the idea, Takashi. Let's go." Daisuke was walking over to Takashi when that crackling noise happened again.
18 students remaining
23
"Hey again, everyone, it's noon and you know what that means! Time for your announcements!"
"It's announcement time again?" Shizuka and Junko were hanging out in the bedroom, eating and talking about the good times. "It's noon?" Shizuka was confused.
"Yeah, it doesn't look like it because of how dark it is outside, but my watch says it's noon."
"All right, first I'm going to announce the forbidden zones. At 1:00, A-8; at 3:00, H-2; and at 5:00, G-5. Everyone got that? Okay, now for the deaths. First, the males: No. 4 Shinji Asaba and No. 7 Sho Satsuki. Now, the females: just No. 7 Sayaka Ichiki. You guys are doing great, keep up the good work."
"What an asshole! Trying to tell us we're doing a good job when our classmates are dying!" Junko said, annoyed.
"Shinji and Sayaka died," Shizuka said quietly. "I wonder if they died together."
"Probably so," Junko replied. She tutted. "It's so sad, isn't it?"
"It is." There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Hey, Shizuka?"
"Yeah?"
"When are you going to tell Kiyoharu?"
"I'm not sure. I might this afternoon. I mean, before I die I want to have at least been kissed once, you know? I'm not asking for much." Shizuka looked away, out towards the window. Junko knew well that the question was bugging Shizuka.
"I'm sorry, did that question make you mad or anything?"
"Not really, I'm just planning how to tell him. I've known him for almost as long as I've known you, you know? We've grown really close. I...I love him."
"Oh man. I'm going to go get him right now."
"Right now?" The tiniest bit of a blush played across Shizuka's cheeks. She was getting colder...
"Right now. Trust me, you won't regret it. Be right back!" Junko left the room and Shizuka could hear her running down the hall to the kitchen, then asking Kiyoharu to go over to the master bedroom. Shizuka got a bit nervous as she heard footsteps coming down the hall towards her, then sighed and decided to bite the bullet. Kiyoharu opened the door.
"Junko told me to come here," he explained.
"I know. I told her to tell you."
"What's wrong, Shizuka, are you getting colder?"
"I am, actually, but that's not the point." Shizuka gulped. Kiyoharu was staring directly at her. 'His eyes are so beautiful...but they look sad. What's going on?' "Um, this is really hard for me to say so I'm just going to let whatever thoughts I'm thinking tumble out of my brain." She hesitated. Her heart was beating in her throat. That was kind of a weird feeling..."I'm probably going to die in this game, so before I depart this world I wanted to tell you that, well, I love you."
"Shizuka...I...I had no idea...Are you lying?"
"Would I lie about the biggest secret I have?" Shizuka smiled.
"Shizuka, your lips are turning blue."
"I'm shivering like no other, too, but I'll deal. I'm not dead yet, right?"
"So...you really do love me?"
"Yes, Kiyoharu. I do. Come over here." Shizuka reached out for Kiyoharu but couldn't reach him until he walked over closer to her. "That's better." Shizuka sat up and hugged Kiyoharu. "You're so warm."
"That's because I don't have hypothermia." Kiyoharu paused, then brought Shizuka's pale face up to his own and tenderly kissed those blue lips. Shizuka didn't want him to stop. For once in her life someone actually loved her and she wished this moment would never stop, but it did.
"That...was amazing," Shizuka said breathily. "Thanks a lot, I appreciate that."
"It's not a problem," Kiyoharu replied, smiling at Shizuka. "Do you need to get some sleep?"
"No, I'm fine. You guys having fun down there?"
"We're discussing politics, want to join?"
"Of course! I'll be right there!"
18 students remaining
24
"We're cool," Fujiko bragged. She, Nanako, Asuka, Miki and Suzuko were all at the northern mountain's viewing platform, all trying to get out of the rain. It was just past 2:00pm.
"I agree," Asuka replied.
"Isn't it sad how Shinji and Sayaka are dead?" Suzuko asked. Everyone grew quiet for a few moments in respect for the dead, then nodded silently.
"They were so...good together, you know?" Miki commented.
"Do you think they died together?" Nanako suggested. "Like a double suicide?"
"I think so. I think neither of them wanted to play the game or go on without the other," Fujiko said sadly, looking down at a hole in the ground. Everyone was friends with Shinji and Sayaka, they were neutral when it came to cliques or labels. And now they were both dead?!
"I suppose we have to get used to it. There's still a lot of our class left," Miki pointed out. "18 out of 30 is still a lot, right?"
"Miki, that's almost half of our class," Suzuko said in her most deadpan voice. Miki became quiet very quickly, obviously embarassed.
"So, who do we need to stay away from?" Asuka asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence. "In other words, who's playing the game?"
"It should be obvious that Umeboshi and Yanagi are our worst enemies," Nanako replied. "I'm not so sure about Niimura."
"Which one? Kanako or Toru?" Fujiko asked.
"Toru. He was part of Umeboshi's gang, right?"
"So is Kirishima, he's still alive too."
"Hold on, I'm writing this down." Asuka did have her class list out and was writing a list of people to stay away from on it. "So, we've got Shojiro, Sakura, Toru, Daisuke..."
"I don't trust Arai," Fujiko suddenly said out of nowhere. "She has lots of scars, she might've been in a lot of fights and therefore wouldn't give two craps about killing any of us."
"So it's Shojiro, Sakura, Toru, Daisuke, Shizuka, anyone else?"
"No, I think we're good to go. All the other bad guys are dead," Suzuko grinned. "Now let's give thanks to Shojiro for killing off a bunch of our threats."
"Thanks, Shojiro!" the five girls said in unison.
18 students remaining
25
"Did you hear something?" Shojiro asked Sakura. "I swear I heard my name."
"You're just hallucinating again. I'm so hungry...What I would give for something other than this rock-hard bread!" Sakura groaned, putting a hand on her growling stomach.
"You know, there is a general store on this map, we could go there and see if they have some food."
"That's a good idea, Shojiro, why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I didn't think of it until now."
"Good enough excuse for me. Come on, let's go. Where is it?"
"It's by the houses. You know, a lot of people are probably hidden in those houses."
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" A devious grin played on Sakura's face.
"If you're thinking of going down to the houses and killing everyone who's there, then yes." Shojiro looked down at his machine gun.
"So, we're going to go to the store first to see if there's some food there, then go right down to the houses and clean them out?" Shojiro nodded. "Ooh! That sounds like fun!" Sakura took out her map and drew a path to the general store with her finger. "So we just go that way, and then go there?" Shojiro looked over at her map.
"Yeah, you got it. It won't take too terribly long." The two began to walk in silence towards the general store. Every so often, Sakura would try to start a conversation but would then eat her words, realizing just how dumb she was being, trying to have a chat in a strange situation like this one. Suddenly she remembered the Program preparational video that classes 3-A, 3-B, 3-C and 3-D were required to watch at the beginning of the year. The one thing that was reiterated about one thousand times in that stupid video was, 'Don't trust anyone.' The video tried to make it perfectly clear that you couldn't trust anyone in this game and now Sakura was having regrets. How did she know Shojiro wouldn't fool her? That he wouldn't try to kill her? Suddenly, she was very glad for the small test tube with a capsule in it that was included in her day pack as well as her weapon.
The rain never let up on their trip to the general store. Shojiro told Sakura to stand beside the store and keep herself armed while he checked to see if anyone was inside.
"Well, someone came before us," he reported.
"How do you know?" Sakura asked.
"The little window above the door is broken, nice and clean so you don't cut yourself on the glass too." He reached inside and unlocked the lock, then opened the door. "Simple as that, huh? Come on in, Sakura." She nodded and sidestepped to the door, still keeping her gun at the ready just in case. Shojiro was already pawing around the shelves, looking for anything.
"The person before us cleaned out a lot of stuff, but I think I can find something."
"Do you want me to help?"
"No, you keep an eye out for anything that's not normal." Sakura nodded and kept her eyes peeled on the surrounding area. She heard leaves rustle, assumed the worst, got ready and aimed...at a rat. But boy, did she hate rats. Their little beady eyes, their tiny teeth as sharp as needles, but Sakura especially hated all those diseases that rats carried. Which got her to thinking, could she sleep without being attacked by rats? She shuddered at the thought when there was more rustling. Once again she readied her weapon and saw Kaoru emerging with his provided weapon, a baseball bat. She cocked her gun.
"Whoa, hey, I'm not trying to hurt you, I just need to get something from the general store..." Kaoru began to explain.
"Shojiro is in there right now," Sakura answered coldly.
"And that means I can't go in there too?"
"As far as I'm concerned, no, he told me to not let anyone else come in." Sakura paused to let Kaoru think. Instead of shrugging and walking away, Kaoru raised his bat and hit the wrist that was holding the gun. Sakura shrieked and the gun fell to the ground, firing at a wall. She looked over at the floor, then at Kaoru, then dove for the gun, but Kaoru stopped her by placing his bat on the ground and then lifting it up with a lot of force. Sakura was thrown into the air and landed against the wall, letting out an oomph as the wind was stolen from her mouth. Shojiro turned from raiding a shelf and saw Kaoru rushing over to Sakura, presumably to beat her more with that baseball bat. Immediately he began to fire, the rat-tat-tat sound of the machine gun ringing out in the store. Shojiro emptied ten bullets into Kaoru before he finally fell over, dead right away. His baseball bat rolled to the other side of the floor and Sakura sat, still up against the wall, still panting for air, Kaoru's corpse right in front of her. A large puddle of blood was beginning to spurt from his wounds and Sakura was getting a bit uncomfortable. She reached for her gun, stood up and leapt over the puddle to dry ground.
"Are you all right?" Shojiro asked.
"Yeah...He didn't hurt me too badly, I just got the wind knocked out of me and my wrist is throbbing a bit." Sakura took a deep breath and grabbed her injured wrist with her good one. "So...are you done yet?"
"Yes, I'm done, do you want to go set up a base now? I think I should take a look at your wrist. Maybe put some ice on it or something." Shojiro examined Sakura's hurt wrist.
"Okay, fine." Sakura bent down and got Kaoru's baseball bat, then the two left the general store, leaving him lying there. A minute later, a rat skittered inside and sniffed the new corpse.
17 students remaining
Part Three
20
Shizuka was now sitting on the bed in the master bedroom, still wrapped up in two blankets except she was beginning to shiver slightly. It was nearing noontime.
"So you're absolutely sure you're all right?" Junko suggested.
"If I was all right, would I be sitting here wrapped in blankets and shivering?"
"Hm...you have a good point there. Your concealer washed off, by the way."
"No it didn't!" Shizuka exclaimed in disbelief. "Goddammit!" She reached up for her face and felt the same scar that Kiyoharu was staring at. "And of course I didn't even think of bringing the tube along with me!"
"Wait a minute. Didn't we have suitcases for a normal study trip on the bus?"
"Yeah, we did. Why?"
"Where are they? We don't have them with us."
"Toyama's probably got them over at the school. Why did they have to make the school a forbidden zone? That really pisses me off." Shizuka looked over towards a mirror hanging on the wall. There were pictures of a woman and a small child taped to the mirror, but she was more concerned with how a person could easily see the biggest scar on Shizuka's face, as well as a few smaller ones on her chin.
"Hey, I wonder if the woman who lives here has some coats hanging around," Junko wondered aloud, heading for the closet and opening it up to find it completely empty. "Not even a sweater..."
"But this comforter sure is warm," Shizuka commented, having nestled down underneath the covers on the bed. "Not warm enough, but good."
"Do you want me to get some tea or soup for you?"
"If it's warm, yes."
"All right. I'll have Kiyoharu send up some."
"Thanks." Shizuka rolled over in the bed and stared out of the window at the rain. 'Why am I so cold? I'm not usually this way. Do I have hypothermia or something? I haven't ruled out that possibility yet...Kiyoharu's coming up here to see me. Should I tell him? I want to tell him. I want him to hold me and tell me it'll all be all right someday, even though all the scars and burns on my body seem to tell me otherwise. But even though I'm in the Program and I'll probably die, at least I'll never have to go back home to my stepdad.' She closed her eyes and began to remember.
Her parents divorced early, when she was just starting kindergarten. For a while, her mom decided to just be a single mom and everything was good. Then when Shizuka was in 4th grade, her mom met her stepdad and began dating him. While Shizuka wasn't so sure about this mysterious man, she was happy as long as he wasn't in the house. She was watching a robot anime show one day when her mother walked up behind her and sat down on the couch.
"Shizuka..." she began in her 'we need to talk' voice. "You know how I've been seeing Masahiko a lot lately?"
"Mmm-hmm." Shizuka desperately wanted her mom to talk about something else. Anything other than Masahiko Arimachi would do.
"Well, honey, he's going to move into the house with us."
"WHAT?!" The ten-year-old Shizuka whirled around from the robot anime, then stood up and balled her hands into fists. She could feel the anger burning through her. "He'll ruin the house!"
"But, honey, I really do love him..."
"And you love me too, right? Right? Just remember how much you'll be hurting me." She stomped off angrily towards her room.
A few days later, Masahiko came with all of his suitcases and moved in. Shizuka only talked to him if she absolutely had to, and even then she wasn't willing to say too much. She suspected Masahiko was no good and she was right. Masahiko started to beat her if she did anything wrong. Shizuka sometimes had to stay after school for help with math and if she came home one minute past 5:00, Masahiko would be waiting there with his belt or a small knife ready. He made Shizuka swear to secrecy about "this", as he called it, because if she told anyone he would kill her. Terrified, Shizuka submitted to all the beatings. Soon, there were too many scars and cigarette burns on her legs, which were exposed by the skirts that she wore as part of her uniform. Her mother took notice of this and Shizuka lied about who was giving her these scars, citing a school bully as the abuser. Her mother told the school counselor about this and Shizuka began to wear the boys' uniform instead of the girls' to cover all her scars and burns. The kids at school began to shy away from her and she became introverted, relying on herself or Junko Mizuboshi as friends. To this day, Shizuka still hasn't told her mother who really gave her those scars and she's still terrified that she really will be killed if she does. (By the way, her mom married her stepdad when she was 12 but Shizuka didn't change her surname from Arai to Arimachi.)
"Shizuka?" she heard a voice ask. She opened her eyes to see Kiyoharu sitting on the other side of the king-sized bed, holding a hot cup of tea.
"Oh...hi, Kiyoharu," Shizuka said as she woke up, yawning a little. 'He's right here...Oh God...what to do now?'
"You're not looking so good," Kiyoharu said, concerned. "Are you all right?"
"Not really, but at least I don't have any bullets in me or anything. I'll be fine." Shizuka began to sip the hot tea. "Thanks for the tea."
"All right. If you get worse, please tell me and I'll take you to the clinic."
"Thank you," Shizuka said as she sipped more of the tea. Kiyoharu nodded and left the room, shutting the door.
"DAMMIT!!" she screamed aloud, kicking the sheets. "I couldn't tell him!" She looked in the mirror. "What a disgrace..."
18 students remaining
21
"Check it out, I'm in the computer's files," Kaoru bragged to Kazuhiko. Kaoru found a laptop computer in the house they were in and the laptop's battery was at 100%, so the two were trying to hack into the computer over at the school and find a way to disable the collars.
"Sweet!" Kazuhiko replied, looking at the screen. All the file names were in English, which he didn't understand very well, but apparently Kaoru was very good at it. "What is it?"
"Well, there's a data log of the exact times when everyone who has died so far died, some info about the island, and...this file. I might've gotten it." Kaoru pointed to the screen, where there was a file called guadalcanal22kitagawa3a2003.doc loading up. It popped up and there was a strange list. Each line of code had M1, F1, M2, F2, et cetera, with a 10-digit string of numbers next to each one. "Using inference I figured out that M1 must stand for Male Student 1, who is, of course, Masao Suzuki. F1 is Shizuka Arai. M2 is Kazuo Hanagata, et cetera, et cetera. Notice how Kazuo's 10-digit number is written in red? That means that he's dead. See? Tomoko's is also written in red."
"But what significance do these numbers play?"
"I'm not quite sure about that. They might be the serial numbers for the collars everyone is wearing. I have no idea what a "Guadalcanal 22" is, though, so I can't be sure. It could even be a tracking number that the computer uses to show where we are."
"Tracking is connected to the collars, though, so it all points back to the collars. Do you see any clear place to put in these numbers?"
"Not yet. Hold on." A small window popped up at the bottom of the screen that alerted Kaoru to the fact that the laptop battery was quickly deteriorating. "Oh man, the laptop battery's going down quick." Another small window popped up that read, "Connection terminating..." and began a countdown from 10. "Connection terminating?! Dammit!!" Kaoru tried to save the guadalcanal22 file but an error message popped up saying that the file was read-only and could not be saved or modified in any way. Finally the countdown ended and the connection to the school computer was terminated. Kaoru gave up and shut down the laptop.
"What was that?" Kazuhiko asked, alarmed.
"I don't know. Somehow they found out about my connection or something, because it seemed to be going just fine until now."
"But how? Didn't you say you had it so that they couldn't trace your login info?"
"I did have it so they couldn't trace my login. It was perfect. I didn't leave any trace or footstep or anything. I don't understand this."
"Hey, try again, see if you can get something to disable the guard ships or something," Kazuhiko suggested. Kaoru rebooted the laptop (battery level 70%) and tried to reconnect. It failed and he tried again. Another failure. He tried ten more times, the battery level decreasing every so often. Every time he tried, the connection would look like it was going to go through, then it would fail.
"So...it won't work?" Kazuhiko asked sadly.
"Unfortunately...no." Kaoru sighed.
"So...we're screwed?"
"Most likely yes."
18 students remaining
22
Daisuke grew bored of hiding in the farmhouse, plus Sho's corpse was beginning to smell terrible. (And were those worms crawling into his head? Gross.) He sat up from his new hay couch and exited the farmhouse, holding his shotgun just in case. He looked around and didn't see anyone coming, so he began to walk east. Everything was east of the farmhouse on the map, so he'd definitely find something worth his while. As he neared a large grove of tangerine trees, he heard someone else's footsteps crunching the leaves. (It wasn't him because he was standing on a stick, not leaves.) He clicked the safety off on his shotgun to try to warn the other person that he was armed, but the other person didn't seem to care.
"Who's there?" the other person asked.
"Daisuke, who are you?"
"It's Takashi."
"Look, I don't want to kill you, okay? This is just a precaution, this unlocking the safety thing."
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah, I'm alone."
"Well, there's safety in numbers so do you want to come along with me? I think I have some leads as to where people are, we could take out some unsuspecting people."
"I like the idea, Takashi. Let's go." Daisuke was walking over to Takashi when that crackling noise happened again.
18 students remaining
23
"Hey again, everyone, it's noon and you know what that means! Time for your announcements!"
"It's announcement time again?" Shizuka and Junko were hanging out in the bedroom, eating and talking about the good times. "It's noon?" Shizuka was confused.
"Yeah, it doesn't look like it because of how dark it is outside, but my watch says it's noon."
"All right, first I'm going to announce the forbidden zones. At 1:00, A-8; at 3:00, H-2; and at 5:00, G-5. Everyone got that? Okay, now for the deaths. First, the males: No. 4 Shinji Asaba and No. 7 Sho Satsuki. Now, the females: just No. 7 Sayaka Ichiki. You guys are doing great, keep up the good work."
"What an asshole! Trying to tell us we're doing a good job when our classmates are dying!" Junko said, annoyed.
"Shinji and Sayaka died," Shizuka said quietly. "I wonder if they died together."
"Probably so," Junko replied. She tutted. "It's so sad, isn't it?"
"It is." There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Hey, Shizuka?"
"Yeah?"
"When are you going to tell Kiyoharu?"
"I'm not sure. I might this afternoon. I mean, before I die I want to have at least been kissed once, you know? I'm not asking for much." Shizuka looked away, out towards the window. Junko knew well that the question was bugging Shizuka.
"I'm sorry, did that question make you mad or anything?"
"Not really, I'm just planning how to tell him. I've known him for almost as long as I've known you, you know? We've grown really close. I...I love him."
"Oh man. I'm going to go get him right now."
"Right now?" The tiniest bit of a blush played across Shizuka's cheeks. She was getting colder...
"Right now. Trust me, you won't regret it. Be right back!" Junko left the room and Shizuka could hear her running down the hall to the kitchen, then asking Kiyoharu to go over to the master bedroom. Shizuka got a bit nervous as she heard footsteps coming down the hall towards her, then sighed and decided to bite the bullet. Kiyoharu opened the door.
"Junko told me to come here," he explained.
"I know. I told her to tell you."
"What's wrong, Shizuka, are you getting colder?"
"I am, actually, but that's not the point." Shizuka gulped. Kiyoharu was staring directly at her. 'His eyes are so beautiful...but they look sad. What's going on?' "Um, this is really hard for me to say so I'm just going to let whatever thoughts I'm thinking tumble out of my brain." She hesitated. Her heart was beating in her throat. That was kind of a weird feeling..."I'm probably going to die in this game, so before I depart this world I wanted to tell you that, well, I love you."
"Shizuka...I...I had no idea...Are you lying?"
"Would I lie about the biggest secret I have?" Shizuka smiled.
"Shizuka, your lips are turning blue."
"I'm shivering like no other, too, but I'll deal. I'm not dead yet, right?"
"So...you really do love me?"
"Yes, Kiyoharu. I do. Come over here." Shizuka reached out for Kiyoharu but couldn't reach him until he walked over closer to her. "That's better." Shizuka sat up and hugged Kiyoharu. "You're so warm."
"That's because I don't have hypothermia." Kiyoharu paused, then brought Shizuka's pale face up to his own and tenderly kissed those blue lips. Shizuka didn't want him to stop. For once in her life someone actually loved her and she wished this moment would never stop, but it did.
"That...was amazing," Shizuka said breathily. "Thanks a lot, I appreciate that."
"It's not a problem," Kiyoharu replied, smiling at Shizuka. "Do you need to get some sleep?"
"No, I'm fine. You guys having fun down there?"
"We're discussing politics, want to join?"
"Of course! I'll be right there!"
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24
"We're cool," Fujiko bragged. She, Nanako, Asuka, Miki and Suzuko were all at the northern mountain's viewing platform, all trying to get out of the rain. It was just past 2:00pm.
"I agree," Asuka replied.
"Isn't it sad how Shinji and Sayaka are dead?" Suzuko asked. Everyone grew quiet for a few moments in respect for the dead, then nodded silently.
"They were so...good together, you know?" Miki commented.
"Do you think they died together?" Nanako suggested. "Like a double suicide?"
"I think so. I think neither of them wanted to play the game or go on without the other," Fujiko said sadly, looking down at a hole in the ground. Everyone was friends with Shinji and Sayaka, they were neutral when it came to cliques or labels. And now they were both dead?!
"I suppose we have to get used to it. There's still a lot of our class left," Miki pointed out. "18 out of 30 is still a lot, right?"
"Miki, that's almost half of our class," Suzuko said in her most deadpan voice. Miki became quiet very quickly, obviously embarassed.
"So, who do we need to stay away from?" Asuka asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence. "In other words, who's playing the game?"
"It should be obvious that Umeboshi and Yanagi are our worst enemies," Nanako replied. "I'm not so sure about Niimura."
"Which one? Kanako or Toru?" Fujiko asked.
"Toru. He was part of Umeboshi's gang, right?"
"So is Kirishima, he's still alive too."
"Hold on, I'm writing this down." Asuka did have her class list out and was writing a list of people to stay away from on it. "So, we've got Shojiro, Sakura, Toru, Daisuke..."
"I don't trust Arai," Fujiko suddenly said out of nowhere. "She has lots of scars, she might've been in a lot of fights and therefore wouldn't give two craps about killing any of us."
"So it's Shojiro, Sakura, Toru, Daisuke, Shizuka, anyone else?"
"No, I think we're good to go. All the other bad guys are dead," Suzuko grinned. "Now let's give thanks to Shojiro for killing off a bunch of our threats."
"Thanks, Shojiro!" the five girls said in unison.
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25
"Did you hear something?" Shojiro asked Sakura. "I swear I heard my name."
"You're just hallucinating again. I'm so hungry...What I would give for something other than this rock-hard bread!" Sakura groaned, putting a hand on her growling stomach.
"You know, there is a general store on this map, we could go there and see if they have some food."
"That's a good idea, Shojiro, why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"I didn't think of it until now."
"Good enough excuse for me. Come on, let's go. Where is it?"
"It's by the houses. You know, a lot of people are probably hidden in those houses."
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" A devious grin played on Sakura's face.
"If you're thinking of going down to the houses and killing everyone who's there, then yes." Shojiro looked down at his machine gun.
"So, we're going to go to the store first to see if there's some food there, then go right down to the houses and clean them out?" Shojiro nodded. "Ooh! That sounds like fun!" Sakura took out her map and drew a path to the general store with her finger. "So we just go that way, and then go there?" Shojiro looked over at her map.
"Yeah, you got it. It won't take too terribly long." The two began to walk in silence towards the general store. Every so often, Sakura would try to start a conversation but would then eat her words, realizing just how dumb she was being, trying to have a chat in a strange situation like this one. Suddenly she remembered the Program preparational video that classes 3-A, 3-B, 3-C and 3-D were required to watch at the beginning of the year. The one thing that was reiterated about one thousand times in that stupid video was, 'Don't trust anyone.' The video tried to make it perfectly clear that you couldn't trust anyone in this game and now Sakura was having regrets. How did she know Shojiro wouldn't fool her? That he wouldn't try to kill her? Suddenly, she was very glad for the small test tube with a capsule in it that was included in her day pack as well as her weapon.
The rain never let up on their trip to the general store. Shojiro told Sakura to stand beside the store and keep herself armed while he checked to see if anyone was inside.
"Well, someone came before us," he reported.
"How do you know?" Sakura asked.
"The little window above the door is broken, nice and clean so you don't cut yourself on the glass too." He reached inside and unlocked the lock, then opened the door. "Simple as that, huh? Come on in, Sakura." She nodded and sidestepped to the door, still keeping her gun at the ready just in case. Shojiro was already pawing around the shelves, looking for anything.
"The person before us cleaned out a lot of stuff, but I think I can find something."
"Do you want me to help?"
"No, you keep an eye out for anything that's not normal." Sakura nodded and kept her eyes peeled on the surrounding area. She heard leaves rustle, assumed the worst, got ready and aimed...at a rat. But boy, did she hate rats. Their little beady eyes, their tiny teeth as sharp as needles, but Sakura especially hated all those diseases that rats carried. Which got her to thinking, could she sleep without being attacked by rats? She shuddered at the thought when there was more rustling. Once again she readied her weapon and saw Kaoru emerging with his provided weapon, a baseball bat. She cocked her gun.
"Whoa, hey, I'm not trying to hurt you, I just need to get something from the general store..." Kaoru began to explain.
"Shojiro is in there right now," Sakura answered coldly.
"And that means I can't go in there too?"
"As far as I'm concerned, no, he told me to not let anyone else come in." Sakura paused to let Kaoru think. Instead of shrugging and walking away, Kaoru raised his bat and hit the wrist that was holding the gun. Sakura shrieked and the gun fell to the ground, firing at a wall. She looked over at the floor, then at Kaoru, then dove for the gun, but Kaoru stopped her by placing his bat on the ground and then lifting it up with a lot of force. Sakura was thrown into the air and landed against the wall, letting out an oomph as the wind was stolen from her mouth. Shojiro turned from raiding a shelf and saw Kaoru rushing over to Sakura, presumably to beat her more with that baseball bat. Immediately he began to fire, the rat-tat-tat sound of the machine gun ringing out in the store. Shojiro emptied ten bullets into Kaoru before he finally fell over, dead right away. His baseball bat rolled to the other side of the floor and Sakura sat, still up against the wall, still panting for air, Kaoru's corpse right in front of her. A large puddle of blood was beginning to spurt from his wounds and Sakura was getting a bit uncomfortable. She reached for her gun, stood up and leapt over the puddle to dry ground.
"Are you all right?" Shojiro asked.
"Yeah...He didn't hurt me too badly, I just got the wind knocked out of me and my wrist is throbbing a bit." Sakura took a deep breath and grabbed her injured wrist with her good one. "So...are you done yet?"
"Yes, I'm done, do you want to go set up a base now? I think I should take a look at your wrist. Maybe put some ice on it or something." Shojiro examined Sakura's hurt wrist.
"Okay, fine." Sakura bent down and got Kaoru's baseball bat, then the two left the general store, leaving him lying there. A minute later, a rat skittered inside and sniffed the new corpse.
17 students remaining