Battle Royale '03
Part Five
31
Shizuka rolled up her pants leg so that Kiyoharu could see the wound. It wasn't too big, but he looked at it carefully then looked at it with the help of a microscope and flashlight. Upon finding a few tiny splinters stuck in the wound, Junko brought him some tweezers and he began to pluck out the splinters, one by one. Shizuka was good about the whole thing, only actually yelling once and just hissing the rest of the times. After the splinters were removed and the wound bandaged, Masao looked for the other syptoms Shizuka was showing in their medical book of illnesses and cures, which was thankfully left behind for some reason.
"Let's see...she feels cold to the touch, shivering, lips discolored..." Masao ran his finger over a few lines of kanji. He was always good at kanji..."Oh, here we go. She's got hypothermia."
"Hypothermia?" Junko and Shizuka asked in unison. Neither of them had ever heard of that before, what with being city girls and always having access to heaters when it was cold.
"Yeah, basically it means she's really cold."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Shizuka grumbled from her bed.
"How do we fix it?" Junko asked.
"We're on the right track what with trying to keep her warm. Although I think some of her blankets got wet from being outside." Masao motioned to Junko, who nodded and began to search the rooms for more dry blankets. She quickly returned with three more, which were somewhat itchy but would have to do. "Great. And apparently we're also supposed to give her hot food and drink. Speaking of, is anyone getting hungry?" Everyone immediately raised their hands. "Well, it is getting close to 'dinnertime', so I suppose we should eat something, huh?"
"I'll go look at what we've got. We've got a whole crapload of stuff, though, I cleaned that store out pretty nicely." Kiyoharu nodded as he exited the room, leaving Masao looking over the medical book, Junko staring out of the window and Shizuka still in bed. She eventually asked for an aspirin to numb the stinging pain from where the splinters were extracted and swallowed it right as Kiyoharu re-entered the room.
"Chicken curry all right with everyone? I never said I was a good cook." Everyone nodded or shrugged and said "sure" and Kiyoharu went back into the kitchen. See, the people who ran this clinic also lived there, as there was a house part attached to the normal clinic part, separated only by a locked door which was easily opened using Masao's axe. Kiyoharu was cooking in the kitchen and the other could begin to smell chicken curry very quickly.
"What time is it?" Shizuka asked.
"About 7:00 pm," Masao answered.
"It's going to be getting dark soon, isn't it? Do you think we should draw the curtains and use flashlights to see one another if we need to?"
"That's a good idea, these things are made of canvas so they won't let any light in at all," Junko said, holding one of the curtains in her hands.
"This is weird," Masao said, breaking an uncomfortable silence. "Think of it, just one day ago all 30 of us were in the bus, thinking we were going on any normal study trip. And how wrong we were, right?" This caused both Junko and Shizuka to look down at the ground in silence, which meant Masao caused exactly what he was attempting to break. A few minutes later, Kiyoharu came in with four plates of chicken curry, four cups of tea and four sets of lacquered chopsticks.
"So I kind of borrowed the plates and whatnot...I'll return them, swear." He scratched his head, making his already messy bleached blond hair pouf out even more. Shizuka noticed his roots were starting to grow back in, but that was still cute. She could just vaguely remember going to an underground rock show where the vocalist looked just like Kiyoharu. (Rock was banned by the government, so all not domestic idol pop concerts were literally held underground in concert venues that used to be nothing but dirt. They were sometimes called hinansho-shozu, or shelter shows, because some of the venues used to be bomb shelters.) That just made him even cuter...She smiled and ate her chicken curry.
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"This is boring," Miki whined. The five girls were still in the mountain viewing platform as it was nearing 9:00pm.
"It's boring but it's safe," Fujiko answered, becoming the voice of reason. She noticed Suzuko was looking away and mechanically chewing on the government bread. "At least we're not at risk of being killed."
"I'm hungry," Nanako whined. "Let's go to the general store, then come back here."
"All of us? That's too dangerous," Asuka pointed out. "Two of us should go."
"I say Asuka and Nanako, since they so graciously volunteered," Fujiko added, smiling deviously. Asuka and Nanako looked at each other nervously, then shrugged and picked up their weapons (a shotgun and a set of ten stiletto-type knives, respectively) to turn to leave.
"Do you just want us to get whatever we can find?" Nanako asked Miki.
"Sure! I'm not up for anything particular," Miki replied. Suzuko and Fujiko agreed by nodding their heads.
"Ok, good, we'll be back as soon as possible," Asuka said as she and Nanako left the platform and began to descend the actually very small mountain. The mountain was somewhat far from the general store, so they were going to take a while.
"This rain! Is it ever going to stop?" Asuka asked, shielding her eyes from the rain, which seemed to be stabbing her eyes like tiny needles.
"I don't think so, it's been going ever since we got here," Nanako answered. "It's cold, isn't it? It's November and it's raining. Just great."
"I hope there's still stuff left at the general store, I really want to get some good food to eat," Asuka said wishfully, closing her eyes and remembering her favorite meal of all time, Korean barbecue. What she wouldn't give for some Korean barbecue. Hell, what she wouldn't give for some good food. Nanako swore she could see someone moving to the left of her, but by 9 pm it was dark, so she couldn't tell. She didn't have very good night vision. She tapped her knives to make sure they were still there, all ten of them in their pouch clipped onto the belt loops of her skirt. She opened up the pouch and held one of the knives ready as the person stepped out in front of her. She could see that it was Kanako Niimura, her right knee sock soaked in blood, carrying the katana that used to belong to Sayaka Ichiki. Behind her was another figure, presumably Toru.
"No, don't fear, we don't want to kill you," Kanako said defensively. "Toru and I were just getting sick of being in that farmhouse, especially considering there were two corpses in there. The smell was becoming unbearable."
"Corpses?"
"Two guys threatened us, so in self-defense we took them out," Toru explained.
"Oh..."
"Where are you two headed?"
"Oh, um, to the general store," Asuka hastily explained, shaking her long hair out of her face.
"Can we come? I want to hopefully get a bandage for Kanako's leg," Toru said, pointing to Kanako's bloodied sock.
"Hold on, we need to debate." Nanako and Asuka turned to each other and began speaking in whispers.
"What do you think?" Nanako asked.
"I say trust them, they said they wouldn't kill us, plus I know Kanako well and she doesn't lie. Ever," Asuka said, defending Kanako.
"Fine, fine, I'll trust them too."
"Great, that's wonderful." Asuka and Nanako turned back to Toru and Kanako. "Well, we've decided to trust you two, since your intentions seem good. Do you two have anywhere to hide?"
"Honestly, no, we're just going to conceal ourselves in some bushes somewhere," Kanako answered, shrugging.
'Wait a minute...our enemy list! Our enemy list has Toru on it!' Nanako suddenly thought silently. 'Don't trust him, Nanako! Get out your knives!' She drew two knives and held them delicately in her fingers. Kanako had excellent night vision and saw it coming, so she dove in front of her brother and spread out her arms as if to protect him.
"Don't hurt him!" she screamed, glaring daggers at Asuka, then Nanako. "You two are so judgmental! Just because Toru hung out with Shojiro, you guys think he's an enemy! He's just a human too!" Toru could hear that his sister was beginning to sniffle loudly. "Let's get out of here, Toru, we're going to the general store alone." She used Toru as a human crutch and the two began to walk off towards the general store, but not before Kanako turned back and gave Nanako and Asuka the middle finger. Nanako boiled over with anger and threw the first knife, which made a hollow sound as it hit and stuck...inside a tree. Kanako and Toru were already pretty far away.
"Dammit!! They got away!" Nanako screamed.
"You shouldn't have been so harsh," Asuka said quietly, barely noticeable above the rain.
"Ugh...Let's just keep going."
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"She's just a bitch, that's all," Kanako said, shrugging her shoulders as she released herself from Toru's human crutch grip and hobbled over to the door of the general store. She opened the door and stepped in something wet, then looked down and screamed.
"Sengakuji!! Someone killed him!" she shrieked.
"Ssh, be quiet, Kanako," Toru whispered.
"Sorry," Kanako whispered back. "Anyway, Kaoru's dead, puddle of blood, how sad..."
"Welcome to the game nobody wanted to play," Toru muttered as he turned on a small penlight and began to search the shelves for anything that could help Kanako. Kiyoharu only took two of each item back when he was still ransacking the completely full general store, so there was still some gauze left, as well as gauze tape and rubbing alcohol. Toru took all of these products and then looked around for a separate room from the showroom. He tapped at a door marked Private, then took ten steps back and ran towards the door, hitting it with enough force to swing it open.
"It was unlocked," Kanako pointed out after Toru's little display of strength.
"Whatever," he replied. "Follow me." The two went up six stairs and through another unlocked door into the house area of the store, which turned out to be on the second story. Still using his penlight and Kanako's excellent vision, Toru managed to find a living room. Kanako found the couch and sat down on it, her injured leg out. Toru placed the penlight on an ottoman and began to work on Kanako's leg.
"This is going to sting," he warned as he poured some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball. "Just try to be quiet, okay?" He counted to three, then swabbed down Kanako's injury. She hissed loudly and made noises like she was closing her mouth tightly to hold back a scream, but managed to do all right. After that, Toru wrapped up her injury with gauze, then taped it together. "There, is that better?"
Kanako stood up.
"It is better! Sure, it's not 100% better, but it's just good enough. Thanks, Toru, you rule." She hugged Toru.
"Oh...no problem...um, you're cutting off my air supply..."
"Agh! Sorry!" Kanako let go of her bear hug grip. "So, do you think we should stay here or try to move on?"
"I think we should recuperate here for a few hours, then head out to the north after that. I've noted all the forbidden zones so far, we could go to the clinic, tourist association or lighthouse if we move north and keep along the eastern coast of the island."
"Wow, you're good at this," Kanako commented.
"This?"
"Reading maps and stuff."
"Oh, right. It's nothing. Anyway."
"I think we should go to the tourist association."
"Why? Why not the clinic?"
"I don't know...my intuition's just telling me we shouldn't go to the clinic." Kanako lay back down on the old, worn couch to rest and maybe get some sleep, lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the rain.
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"She ran off after I told her off," Nanako reported. It wasn't until almost 11:00 pm that Nanako and Asuka got back from going to the general store. The five girls were now munching on strangely named snacks, which Nanako took a lot of. (Nanako took only stuff that didn't need to be cooked, as Kiyoharu took the only propane grill in the store.)
"I still think you were too harsh," Asuka butted in, crunching a pretzel in half.
"So? It's in my own defense. My mom taught me that my self-defense is the most important thing."
"Hey, Suzuko, you haven't talked a lot lately, what's up?"
"Nothing. My mind is just eating itself," Suzuko answered, playing with one of her braids. "Rotting away with memories, you know?"
"Yeah, I hear you there. Mine is, too," Miki added. Fujiko nodded silently, too engrossed in her rice ball to be able to talk.
"So, it's almost 11, is anyone getting tired?" Suzuko asked.
"I am," Miki answered. Miki had always gone to bed early...
"Maybe we should instate a watch system? Like everyone else goes to bed while someone watches until a certain time, then their duty is over and they awake the next person to watch?" Nanako suggested. "I saw it in a movie once, it was a good idea."
"Nanako's right, who wants to be the first watch?" Miki asked.
"I will," Asuka volunteered. The other four began to thank her profusely, making their day packs into pillows and wishing they had some blankets as they wiggled around on the floor of the viewing platform like worms that were swept away from their underground habitats. Asuka simply said, "no problem" once and sat down on her own day pack to make a little seat for herself. Within about 30 minutes, everyone else was asleep or, as in the case of Suzuko, just pretending to be asleep. She was always good at pretending. She felt around for her mace, which came with a nice leather cover for the actual spiked ball. You know, for transferring the product from one place to the next without risking getting it stuck in your own head. It was in her day pack, just where she had put it after getting to the viewing platform. She patted it.
'You'll become very useful soon, my sweet,' she thought to herself, patting the mace again as if it were a small child sleeping beside her.
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"Shizuka?" Kiyoharu tried to open the door as quietly as possible, which didn't work. Shizuka popped out of her nice deep sleep immediately.
"Huh?" she asked the darkness.
"It's me. I can't sleep."
"I was asleep."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
"No, don't leave. I can't see you. I want to see you."
"Hold on, I'm checking to see if the curtains are shut. Okay, they are." Kiyoharu turned on a battery-powered lantern he found in a coat closet, keeping it on low power so it wouldn't be as bright. Shizuka squinted but got adjusted to the light quickly. "How are you feeling?"
"I shed three of the blankets," she bragged, pointing to a multicolored lump on the floor. "I'm getting better. What color are my lips?"
"They're light blue now, but I can see some pink coming back into them," Kiyoharu informed Shizuka as he stood over her face. She brought his head down to hers and kissed him.
"I really appreciate you actually caring about me," she said once they pulled away.
"But so do Junko and Masao..." Kiyoharu began.
"No, you care about me in -that- way. Junko's my best friend, sure, but we're not in love. That would be gross. As for Masao, I never knew him that well until now. But I knew you since...what, fifth grade? And I've liked you since my hormones kicked in at about 13, so that's seventh grade." Shizuka smiled with her surreal blue-pink lips. "I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. Now I fear it's too late."
"Shizuka, I only have one question for you, and I want to know the answer, no matter how long it takes to get it."
"Um...ok, ask the question."
"What's the real story behind those scars?"
"Do you really want to know?" Shizuka sighed, obviously bothered by the query. Kiyoharu gently touched her hand.
"Of course I do, Shizuka, I love you, I want to know." He noticed a circle-shaped burn on the arm he was touching and moved his hand away from it.
"Fine...I had to stop wearing girls' uniforms in fourth grade because my stepdad was abusing me so much and leaving so many marks that it became a grotesque sight to look at my legs...which it still is. Of course, I was the talk of the school. Look at that girl, she's wearing a boys' uniform. Of course little 10-year-old kids wouldn't understand...the pain unless they were also going through it. I didn't know of anyone who was. I had to lie and say a school bully was hurting me because my stepdad threatened to kill me if I told anyone. To this day I still haven't told anyone who could do anything about it."
"Not even your mother? Oh, I'm sorry, did I interrupt?"
"No, you didn't interrupt. I haven't told Mom yet, no, I'm afraid she'll tell my stepdad and he really will go through with killing me. Which puts me in a bad situation because I want to win this game, but I don't want to have to go home to him." Shizuka looked away and bit a blue-pink lip, reopening a reoccuring scab on her lip which she got by biting it too much. "I don't know what I want to do."
"Neither do I," Kiyoharu said in his gentle voice, holding Shizuka tightly to his chest. She could hear his heartbeat and it sounded like the most securing sound in the world, like the civilized world could come toppling around them and she would still feel completely safe. He kissed her forehead and she hugged him tighter, eventually falling back asleep still in his arms.
"She's been through so much..." he whispered aloud into the darkness, not talking to anyone in particular.
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Suzuko was awakened by a drowsy Asuka, who went to sleep almost immediately. Suzuko took the leather sheath off her mace and held it at her side, listening as the chains clicked against each other and made the tiniest of sounds, almost unnoticeable. She held the handle up above her head so the ball was dangling in front of her chest, then had to decide which girl to strike first. She decided on Miki, because Miki was the ringleader and the most annoying. Little prick. Suzuko brought the mace down with a lot of force, striking Miki in the side. She shot awake, gasping as she saw that it was Suzuko attacking her with the mace. Her screams awoke the rest of the girls, who decided to save their own asses and run for it, all in different directions.
"Suzuko!! What are you doing?" Miki asked, her breathing becoming more labored as Suzuko kept on attacking the same spot, the ball digging deeper and deeper with each fell swoop.
"I'm playing the game," Suzuko replied, grinning and attacking over and over.
"Stop! You're crazy!"
"I'm just playing the game," Suzuko said nonchalantly as she dug the spiked ball into Miki's side once more, then pulled it out and wrapped the chain around Miki's neck. "Do you want to see home one last time?" Miki nodded, which was hard considering she was in a chokehold. "Okay." Suzuko dragged Miki over to the edge of the viewing platform. "Look, right over there, those lights." She pointed to a vast landscape of mostly white lights, but some reds, blues and neons mixed in. "That's Kobe. Good old Kobe. Remember that I will be the only one who shall return to Kobe." Suzuko tightened the chain grip on Miki's throat and heard the last breath escape from her throat, then she let go of Miki and threw her lifeless body down the mountain, hearing the sickening crunch upon Miki's landing.
Suzuko didn't even bother to cleanse her mace of blood, she'd only do that after finding another victim. But whom first? They all took their day packs. Smart girls...so they were all armed too. Dammit. She sheathed the mace and looped it over her shoulder, then looked around. They escaped under the guise of night and rain, which meant they could be hard to find. But she would find them.
She hopped out of the platform and began to run down the mountain, most of the time skidding and just letting gravity take her down the mountain as it was willing to. Of course, the mountain was slicked with rain, so she would slip sometimes but eventually regain her footing and start over again. She landed at the very foot of the mountain with knees scraped so badly it looked like she fought a losing battle against a wildcat of some sort. She knelt down as if she were praying to regain her footing once more and then started running towards the southwest because she swore she could see Asuka running off in that direction.
12 students remaining
Part Five
31
Shizuka rolled up her pants leg so that Kiyoharu could see the wound. It wasn't too big, but he looked at it carefully then looked at it with the help of a microscope and flashlight. Upon finding a few tiny splinters stuck in the wound, Junko brought him some tweezers and he began to pluck out the splinters, one by one. Shizuka was good about the whole thing, only actually yelling once and just hissing the rest of the times. After the splinters were removed and the wound bandaged, Masao looked for the other syptoms Shizuka was showing in their medical book of illnesses and cures, which was thankfully left behind for some reason.
"Let's see...she feels cold to the touch, shivering, lips discolored..." Masao ran his finger over a few lines of kanji. He was always good at kanji..."Oh, here we go. She's got hypothermia."
"Hypothermia?" Junko and Shizuka asked in unison. Neither of them had ever heard of that before, what with being city girls and always having access to heaters when it was cold.
"Yeah, basically it means she's really cold."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Shizuka grumbled from her bed.
"How do we fix it?" Junko asked.
"We're on the right track what with trying to keep her warm. Although I think some of her blankets got wet from being outside." Masao motioned to Junko, who nodded and began to search the rooms for more dry blankets. She quickly returned with three more, which were somewhat itchy but would have to do. "Great. And apparently we're also supposed to give her hot food and drink. Speaking of, is anyone getting hungry?" Everyone immediately raised their hands. "Well, it is getting close to 'dinnertime', so I suppose we should eat something, huh?"
"I'll go look at what we've got. We've got a whole crapload of stuff, though, I cleaned that store out pretty nicely." Kiyoharu nodded as he exited the room, leaving Masao looking over the medical book, Junko staring out of the window and Shizuka still in bed. She eventually asked for an aspirin to numb the stinging pain from where the splinters were extracted and swallowed it right as Kiyoharu re-entered the room.
"Chicken curry all right with everyone? I never said I was a good cook." Everyone nodded or shrugged and said "sure" and Kiyoharu went back into the kitchen. See, the people who ran this clinic also lived there, as there was a house part attached to the normal clinic part, separated only by a locked door which was easily opened using Masao's axe. Kiyoharu was cooking in the kitchen and the other could begin to smell chicken curry very quickly.
"What time is it?" Shizuka asked.
"About 7:00 pm," Masao answered.
"It's going to be getting dark soon, isn't it? Do you think we should draw the curtains and use flashlights to see one another if we need to?"
"That's a good idea, these things are made of canvas so they won't let any light in at all," Junko said, holding one of the curtains in her hands.
"This is weird," Masao said, breaking an uncomfortable silence. "Think of it, just one day ago all 30 of us were in the bus, thinking we were going on any normal study trip. And how wrong we were, right?" This caused both Junko and Shizuka to look down at the ground in silence, which meant Masao caused exactly what he was attempting to break. A few minutes later, Kiyoharu came in with four plates of chicken curry, four cups of tea and four sets of lacquered chopsticks.
"So I kind of borrowed the plates and whatnot...I'll return them, swear." He scratched his head, making his already messy bleached blond hair pouf out even more. Shizuka noticed his roots were starting to grow back in, but that was still cute. She could just vaguely remember going to an underground rock show where the vocalist looked just like Kiyoharu. (Rock was banned by the government, so all not domestic idol pop concerts were literally held underground in concert venues that used to be nothing but dirt. They were sometimes called hinansho-shozu, or shelter shows, because some of the venues used to be bomb shelters.) That just made him even cuter...She smiled and ate her chicken curry.
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"This is boring," Miki whined. The five girls were still in the mountain viewing platform as it was nearing 9:00pm.
"It's boring but it's safe," Fujiko answered, becoming the voice of reason. She noticed Suzuko was looking away and mechanically chewing on the government bread. "At least we're not at risk of being killed."
"I'm hungry," Nanako whined. "Let's go to the general store, then come back here."
"All of us? That's too dangerous," Asuka pointed out. "Two of us should go."
"I say Asuka and Nanako, since they so graciously volunteered," Fujiko added, smiling deviously. Asuka and Nanako looked at each other nervously, then shrugged and picked up their weapons (a shotgun and a set of ten stiletto-type knives, respectively) to turn to leave.
"Do you just want us to get whatever we can find?" Nanako asked Miki.
"Sure! I'm not up for anything particular," Miki replied. Suzuko and Fujiko agreed by nodding their heads.
"Ok, good, we'll be back as soon as possible," Asuka said as she and Nanako left the platform and began to descend the actually very small mountain. The mountain was somewhat far from the general store, so they were going to take a while.
"This rain! Is it ever going to stop?" Asuka asked, shielding her eyes from the rain, which seemed to be stabbing her eyes like tiny needles.
"I don't think so, it's been going ever since we got here," Nanako answered. "It's cold, isn't it? It's November and it's raining. Just great."
"I hope there's still stuff left at the general store, I really want to get some good food to eat," Asuka said wishfully, closing her eyes and remembering her favorite meal of all time, Korean barbecue. What she wouldn't give for some Korean barbecue. Hell, what she wouldn't give for some good food. Nanako swore she could see someone moving to the left of her, but by 9 pm it was dark, so she couldn't tell. She didn't have very good night vision. She tapped her knives to make sure they were still there, all ten of them in their pouch clipped onto the belt loops of her skirt. She opened up the pouch and held one of the knives ready as the person stepped out in front of her. She could see that it was Kanako Niimura, her right knee sock soaked in blood, carrying the katana that used to belong to Sayaka Ichiki. Behind her was another figure, presumably Toru.
"No, don't fear, we don't want to kill you," Kanako said defensively. "Toru and I were just getting sick of being in that farmhouse, especially considering there were two corpses in there. The smell was becoming unbearable."
"Corpses?"
"Two guys threatened us, so in self-defense we took them out," Toru explained.
"Oh..."
"Where are you two headed?"
"Oh, um, to the general store," Asuka hastily explained, shaking her long hair out of her face.
"Can we come? I want to hopefully get a bandage for Kanako's leg," Toru said, pointing to Kanako's bloodied sock.
"Hold on, we need to debate." Nanako and Asuka turned to each other and began speaking in whispers.
"What do you think?" Nanako asked.
"I say trust them, they said they wouldn't kill us, plus I know Kanako well and she doesn't lie. Ever," Asuka said, defending Kanako.
"Fine, fine, I'll trust them too."
"Great, that's wonderful." Asuka and Nanako turned back to Toru and Kanako. "Well, we've decided to trust you two, since your intentions seem good. Do you two have anywhere to hide?"
"Honestly, no, we're just going to conceal ourselves in some bushes somewhere," Kanako answered, shrugging.
'Wait a minute...our enemy list! Our enemy list has Toru on it!' Nanako suddenly thought silently. 'Don't trust him, Nanako! Get out your knives!' She drew two knives and held them delicately in her fingers. Kanako had excellent night vision and saw it coming, so she dove in front of her brother and spread out her arms as if to protect him.
"Don't hurt him!" she screamed, glaring daggers at Asuka, then Nanako. "You two are so judgmental! Just because Toru hung out with Shojiro, you guys think he's an enemy! He's just a human too!" Toru could hear that his sister was beginning to sniffle loudly. "Let's get out of here, Toru, we're going to the general store alone." She used Toru as a human crutch and the two began to walk off towards the general store, but not before Kanako turned back and gave Nanako and Asuka the middle finger. Nanako boiled over with anger and threw the first knife, which made a hollow sound as it hit and stuck...inside a tree. Kanako and Toru were already pretty far away.
"Dammit!! They got away!" Nanako screamed.
"You shouldn't have been so harsh," Asuka said quietly, barely noticeable above the rain.
"Ugh...Let's just keep going."
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"She's just a bitch, that's all," Kanako said, shrugging her shoulders as she released herself from Toru's human crutch grip and hobbled over to the door of the general store. She opened the door and stepped in something wet, then looked down and screamed.
"Sengakuji!! Someone killed him!" she shrieked.
"Ssh, be quiet, Kanako," Toru whispered.
"Sorry," Kanako whispered back. "Anyway, Kaoru's dead, puddle of blood, how sad..."
"Welcome to the game nobody wanted to play," Toru muttered as he turned on a small penlight and began to search the shelves for anything that could help Kanako. Kiyoharu only took two of each item back when he was still ransacking the completely full general store, so there was still some gauze left, as well as gauze tape and rubbing alcohol. Toru took all of these products and then looked around for a separate room from the showroom. He tapped at a door marked Private, then took ten steps back and ran towards the door, hitting it with enough force to swing it open.
"It was unlocked," Kanako pointed out after Toru's little display of strength.
"Whatever," he replied. "Follow me." The two went up six stairs and through another unlocked door into the house area of the store, which turned out to be on the second story. Still using his penlight and Kanako's excellent vision, Toru managed to find a living room. Kanako found the couch and sat down on it, her injured leg out. Toru placed the penlight on an ottoman and began to work on Kanako's leg.
"This is going to sting," he warned as he poured some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball. "Just try to be quiet, okay?" He counted to three, then swabbed down Kanako's injury. She hissed loudly and made noises like she was closing her mouth tightly to hold back a scream, but managed to do all right. After that, Toru wrapped up her injury with gauze, then taped it together. "There, is that better?"
Kanako stood up.
"It is better! Sure, it's not 100% better, but it's just good enough. Thanks, Toru, you rule." She hugged Toru.
"Oh...no problem...um, you're cutting off my air supply..."
"Agh! Sorry!" Kanako let go of her bear hug grip. "So, do you think we should stay here or try to move on?"
"I think we should recuperate here for a few hours, then head out to the north after that. I've noted all the forbidden zones so far, we could go to the clinic, tourist association or lighthouse if we move north and keep along the eastern coast of the island."
"Wow, you're good at this," Kanako commented.
"This?"
"Reading maps and stuff."
"Oh, right. It's nothing. Anyway."
"I think we should go to the tourist association."
"Why? Why not the clinic?"
"I don't know...my intuition's just telling me we shouldn't go to the clinic." Kanako lay back down on the old, worn couch to rest and maybe get some sleep, lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the rain.
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"She ran off after I told her off," Nanako reported. It wasn't until almost 11:00 pm that Nanako and Asuka got back from going to the general store. The five girls were now munching on strangely named snacks, which Nanako took a lot of. (Nanako took only stuff that didn't need to be cooked, as Kiyoharu took the only propane grill in the store.)
"I still think you were too harsh," Asuka butted in, crunching a pretzel in half.
"So? It's in my own defense. My mom taught me that my self-defense is the most important thing."
"Hey, Suzuko, you haven't talked a lot lately, what's up?"
"Nothing. My mind is just eating itself," Suzuko answered, playing with one of her braids. "Rotting away with memories, you know?"
"Yeah, I hear you there. Mine is, too," Miki added. Fujiko nodded silently, too engrossed in her rice ball to be able to talk.
"So, it's almost 11, is anyone getting tired?" Suzuko asked.
"I am," Miki answered. Miki had always gone to bed early...
"Maybe we should instate a watch system? Like everyone else goes to bed while someone watches until a certain time, then their duty is over and they awake the next person to watch?" Nanako suggested. "I saw it in a movie once, it was a good idea."
"Nanako's right, who wants to be the first watch?" Miki asked.
"I will," Asuka volunteered. The other four began to thank her profusely, making their day packs into pillows and wishing they had some blankets as they wiggled around on the floor of the viewing platform like worms that were swept away from their underground habitats. Asuka simply said, "no problem" once and sat down on her own day pack to make a little seat for herself. Within about 30 minutes, everyone else was asleep or, as in the case of Suzuko, just pretending to be asleep. She was always good at pretending. She felt around for her mace, which came with a nice leather cover for the actual spiked ball. You know, for transferring the product from one place to the next without risking getting it stuck in your own head. It was in her day pack, just where she had put it after getting to the viewing platform. She patted it.
'You'll become very useful soon, my sweet,' she thought to herself, patting the mace again as if it were a small child sleeping beside her.
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35
"Shizuka?" Kiyoharu tried to open the door as quietly as possible, which didn't work. Shizuka popped out of her nice deep sleep immediately.
"Huh?" she asked the darkness.
"It's me. I can't sleep."
"I was asleep."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
"No, don't leave. I can't see you. I want to see you."
"Hold on, I'm checking to see if the curtains are shut. Okay, they are." Kiyoharu turned on a battery-powered lantern he found in a coat closet, keeping it on low power so it wouldn't be as bright. Shizuka squinted but got adjusted to the light quickly. "How are you feeling?"
"I shed three of the blankets," she bragged, pointing to a multicolored lump on the floor. "I'm getting better. What color are my lips?"
"They're light blue now, but I can see some pink coming back into them," Kiyoharu informed Shizuka as he stood over her face. She brought his head down to hers and kissed him.
"I really appreciate you actually caring about me," she said once they pulled away.
"But so do Junko and Masao..." Kiyoharu began.
"No, you care about me in -that- way. Junko's my best friend, sure, but we're not in love. That would be gross. As for Masao, I never knew him that well until now. But I knew you since...what, fifth grade? And I've liked you since my hormones kicked in at about 13, so that's seventh grade." Shizuka smiled with her surreal blue-pink lips. "I just couldn't bring myself to tell you. Now I fear it's too late."
"Shizuka, I only have one question for you, and I want to know the answer, no matter how long it takes to get it."
"Um...ok, ask the question."
"What's the real story behind those scars?"
"Do you really want to know?" Shizuka sighed, obviously bothered by the query. Kiyoharu gently touched her hand.
"Of course I do, Shizuka, I love you, I want to know." He noticed a circle-shaped burn on the arm he was touching and moved his hand away from it.
"Fine...I had to stop wearing girls' uniforms in fourth grade because my stepdad was abusing me so much and leaving so many marks that it became a grotesque sight to look at my legs...which it still is. Of course, I was the talk of the school. Look at that girl, she's wearing a boys' uniform. Of course little 10-year-old kids wouldn't understand...the pain unless they were also going through it. I didn't know of anyone who was. I had to lie and say a school bully was hurting me because my stepdad threatened to kill me if I told anyone. To this day I still haven't told anyone who could do anything about it."
"Not even your mother? Oh, I'm sorry, did I interrupt?"
"No, you didn't interrupt. I haven't told Mom yet, no, I'm afraid she'll tell my stepdad and he really will go through with killing me. Which puts me in a bad situation because I want to win this game, but I don't want to have to go home to him." Shizuka looked away and bit a blue-pink lip, reopening a reoccuring scab on her lip which she got by biting it too much. "I don't know what I want to do."
"Neither do I," Kiyoharu said in his gentle voice, holding Shizuka tightly to his chest. She could hear his heartbeat and it sounded like the most securing sound in the world, like the civilized world could come toppling around them and she would still feel completely safe. He kissed her forehead and she hugged him tighter, eventually falling back asleep still in his arms.
"She's been through so much..." he whispered aloud into the darkness, not talking to anyone in particular.
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Suzuko was awakened by a drowsy Asuka, who went to sleep almost immediately. Suzuko took the leather sheath off her mace and held it at her side, listening as the chains clicked against each other and made the tiniest of sounds, almost unnoticeable. She held the handle up above her head so the ball was dangling in front of her chest, then had to decide which girl to strike first. She decided on Miki, because Miki was the ringleader and the most annoying. Little prick. Suzuko brought the mace down with a lot of force, striking Miki in the side. She shot awake, gasping as she saw that it was Suzuko attacking her with the mace. Her screams awoke the rest of the girls, who decided to save their own asses and run for it, all in different directions.
"Suzuko!! What are you doing?" Miki asked, her breathing becoming more labored as Suzuko kept on attacking the same spot, the ball digging deeper and deeper with each fell swoop.
"I'm playing the game," Suzuko replied, grinning and attacking over and over.
"Stop! You're crazy!"
"I'm just playing the game," Suzuko said nonchalantly as she dug the spiked ball into Miki's side once more, then pulled it out and wrapped the chain around Miki's neck. "Do you want to see home one last time?" Miki nodded, which was hard considering she was in a chokehold. "Okay." Suzuko dragged Miki over to the edge of the viewing platform. "Look, right over there, those lights." She pointed to a vast landscape of mostly white lights, but some reds, blues and neons mixed in. "That's Kobe. Good old Kobe. Remember that I will be the only one who shall return to Kobe." Suzuko tightened the chain grip on Miki's throat and heard the last breath escape from her throat, then she let go of Miki and threw her lifeless body down the mountain, hearing the sickening crunch upon Miki's landing.
Suzuko didn't even bother to cleanse her mace of blood, she'd only do that after finding another victim. But whom first? They all took their day packs. Smart girls...so they were all armed too. Dammit. She sheathed the mace and looped it over her shoulder, then looked around. They escaped under the guise of night and rain, which meant they could be hard to find. But she would find them.
She hopped out of the platform and began to run down the mountain, most of the time skidding and just letting gravity take her down the mountain as it was willing to. Of course, the mountain was slicked with rain, so she would slip sometimes but eventually regain her footing and start over again. She landed at the very foot of the mountain with knees scraped so badly it looked like she fought a losing battle against a wildcat of some sort. She knelt down as if she were praying to regain her footing once more and then started running towards the southwest because she swore she could see Asuka running off in that direction.
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