Morning, Day 3
E-6
Somewhere in the forest
Nanahara, who was leaning on a staff, turned around to look at Noriko and Kawada. THe other youth had produced yet another stick of Northern Lights, and was now puffing it, unmindful of the stares he got from Noriko.
He then said, quite crossly, "Kawada. I have a question. Why don't you want to kill us two?"
"I don't exactly know," he answered a while later. "Listen, i have my reasons. I don't want anybody to know about it."
"Fine, then," Nanahara huffed in answer. "I don't frickin' care either."
"Easy, you two," Noriko said at last. "Don't go at each other. This is the final day. Let's just wait it out, and get out of here..."
"If we can get off here, Noriko, if we can get off here..." was all that Nanahara had to say.
Kawada had one hand on his own weapon, and was watching the rear, another hand laced around what seemed to be another stick of Northern Lights.
"Okay, I've had it. I'm coming clean."
"About frickin' time too," Nanahara said to himself.
"Now you two listen well, because I'm going to say this only once. I know how these," he broke off, indicating the collar on his neck, "are rigged up. I know what systems have been entered into this thing's main chips, everything. You see, I want to cause an imbalance in the Program. See what happens if more than one person survrvies all this bullshit. Now I need a computer of some sort."
"But where on this island will we find something like that?" Noriko asked, puzzled.
"I have this feeling we're not the only ones left. I just know."
THey happened to pass by where Shinji was seated, laptop in his hands. It started buzzing loudly, waking the young hacker up.
He stared at the screen, and saw that the three dots were right next to him.
"Ohayou, Shinji Mimura," Kawada said to him.
In surprise, the hacker drew his weapon and pointed it at him. A bit surprised, Kawada did the same.
"Oh, it's only you and..." he began, when he saw the other two with him.
"What happened to you...?" Nanahara asked him curiously.
He answered, "To make a long story short, my friends are gone, but I got to Kiriyama first. Sorry, Kawada... guess I got lucky."
"Oh..." Kawada answered.
"You... you really got him?" she asked.
"Yeah, but... Hiroki's gone. Died smiling."
"He is...?" Nanahara said, shocked.
"Yeah, he is..." Shinji trailed off.
"But I killed Kirityama, so that sort of makes up for it."
"Holy shit... you really got him?" the two boys said, stunned.
"Let's just say I got lucky this time."
"Well, anyway... seeing that you're the only one with a computer, Shinji... can you get into the main grid?"
These words made Shinji smirk slightly.
"If I can get you in there, I can do it with my hands behind my back. So what do you want me to do?"
"Just get inside, and I'll take care of these... fuckin' collars."
"Okay, Kawada, you asked for it," Shinji answered, typing like crazy.
After five fast and furious minutes, he swiveled his laptop so that it faced Kawada.
"Now what?"
"Let me take it from here."
Kawada took the laptop, and started typing like crazy as well, muttering to himself.
After fifteen minutes (five for each collar), he said simply, "Done."
"Oh, come on, Kawada... that fast?"
"Look for yourselves."
The three crowded around him and saw that only one name was still highlighted in green, and that their own collars had gone offline.
"Whoa, Kawada... you are good," Noriko said to him, amazed.
"Yeah, but not as good as Shinji is. I can hack, but not that much yet."
"Anyway, nice bit of hacking," Shinji told him in awe. "Really, even i didn't know how to do that... if I did it... we'd all be gone."
"I know how these things work, just that. If we're going to get our asses out of here, then I suggest we get moving. D-6 awaits."
Shinji closed his laptop, and the four walked off, headed in the direction of the school.
Late Morning, Day 3
D-6
Classroom 3B
Kitano was livid.
In the longest time he had been supervising the Act, he had never seen an occurence like this.
"Four little sons of bitches are still alive!" he roared into the cellphone's mouthpiece.
"Well, Sir... even if the collar grids shoe only one is still online, in reality, there are four remaining. Very much alive."
"You bastards! Why did you let a fuckin' hacker gain access to the grids!" he yelled. "Now we have this problem to deal with! Ass!"
"But, Sir..."
"I don't care! I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses! Kill those little morons, for all I care!"
"But, that would be-"
"I...DON'T...FUCKIN'...CARE! Kill them all! This season will be different! Nobody will survive!"
"The grids show that shougo Kawada's collar is still online. so what should we do?"
"I don't know with you lowlifes! Useless pieces of shit! Kill him, for all I care! Detonae his collar, NOW!"
"But, Sir, we..."
"Hell, I don't care what the rules say. He caused this imbalance, so we must right it. Kill him!"
Silence from the other end of the line.
"I'm waiting..."
Before the person on the other end could answer, the phone in his hands exploded into a thousand pieces.
"Really, Kitano... you'd kill me?" someone snapped, a pistol in his hands.
Kawada, Noriko, Nanahara and Shinji stood at the doorway, staring at him, disgusted looks on their faces.
"So you'd do me in... bad idea, Kitano. I'd kill you first."
"So you came... very good, ny students... Noriko, Nanahara, and Shinji."
The three stared at him, completely disgusted.
"What the fuck are you saying, Kitano... I don't know you," Nanahara answered.
"So do I, Nanahara... he's such a pain. After he killed Kuminobu right in front of us, I don't know if he's even human..." Shinji added.
Noriko just stared innocently. Kawada was stunned.
"I'm not one of you guys...?" he said before Kitano started raving again.
"Yes, Shougo Kawada, you're not one of us, asshole, you're just a transfer student. So is Kazuo Kiriyama. I thought you knew about this already..."
"So what are you trying to say?" Shinji asked him.
"All of you. All of you are delinquents! You morons..."
"Delinquents? We're all... delinquents?" he shouted.
"Not Noriko Nakagawa. She's innocent. Even so, she had to be included in this sad, fuckin' sorry state."
"So what?" Nanahara yelled at Kitano. "She doesn't care if she's been branded as one of the delinquents. She freakin' DOES NOT CARE!"
At this statement, Kitano drew out a gun, and pointed it at Nanahara.
"Shut up, you arrogant bastard," he snarled. "Shut up, Nanahara."
"I am NOT arrogant!" Nanahara yelled in fury. "I'm just saying what's on my mind! So don't tell me what to do!"
The finger around the trigger of Kitano's gun tightened its grip, and he spoke back, barely biting back the anger in his voice.
"Don't talk back to me, Shuya. You have no right to shout at me. You may be angry, but you must remember, you're still a student. So will you fuckin' shut up, Shuya?"
Nanahara shrieked, "Nobody...calls me... Shuya!"
Shinji quickly passed him his handgun, and five seconds later, both of them were staring deep into the barrels of each other's guns.
"Even if you blasted my cellphone, there's still a way in which your collars can explode. And only I know about it."
Kawada's hand tensed on his shotgun, sensing that there was imminent danger in the air. Noriko quietly made her way to the classroom's blackboard, and something morbid caught her attention.
"Whoa….. what is that?" she said, unable to hide the shock in her voice.
