"I knew I'd see you again."

Mitsuko Souma smiled, pointing her gun directly at Kiriyama's forehead. She had been entertaining Motobuchi and Satomi in their little cat-and-mouse game, but she could finish them off later, this seemed much more interesting. Kiriyama was the other student who killed off a majority of the students, making her job that much easier. And by killing him, she might as well guarantee herself the winner, the others would be easy kills.

Kiriyama held up his hands, showing he held no weapons that would be used to try to harm her.

"Drop the knife." She knew he still had the weapon in his possession, she ran into him only a day before, and had it not been for an interruption, her head would have been cleanly decapitated from the rest of her body.

He slipped his hand into his school uniform jacket, producing the knife and proceeding to drop it to the ground. He kicked the knife, sending it clattering to her feet. She bumped the weapon with the back of her shoe, the knife disappearing into the bushes.

"Now the gun."

"What gun?"

Her expression never wavered, and neither did her aim to his forehead with her gun. Her hands never shook as she hissed, "I know you have a gun. I saw the aftermaths of most of the deaths, they were by gunshot. And I know you killed at least half of them. Now drop the gun."

Kiriyama's eyes studied her carefully, a slight look of fear passing his expression. He felt uncertain. If he gave up his gun, she would still have hers. But he didn't have a choice, he would have to figure out what to do afterwards. He took the gun out from the back of his belt, the gun hooked on the belt of his trousers. He then kicked the gun to her, which she picked up, unlike the knife.

"I thought you'd be smarter than that. Giving up a gun that easily, well, it does make my job a lot easier." She shoved her gun into her back pocket, releasing the safety lock on the gun Kiriyama gave her. Her smile widening, she says to her last words to him, "Bye-bye Kiriyama."

Mitsuko pulled the trigger. Once…twice…three times…yet nothing. She pulled the magazine out of the gun

…and saw there were no bullets inside.

She didn't have time to move as a spray of bullets hit her, two on the shoulder, one to her waist, another in her stomach. The assault never stopped, a fresh set of bullets passing through her body every time she took a step towards him. That bastard…he had another gun from the very beginning…he was just playing with her, as she had tried to do with him…except in her case, the plan backfired.

Her bullet ridden body fell with a thud.

Girl #18 Mitsuko Souma Dead.

6 more to go.

Motobuchi took off his khaki jacket, unbuttoning his white shirt.

"What are you doing!"

He released the two straps binding the bullet proof vest to his body, unzipping the side as well. He lifted the vest above his head, and held the defense item for Satomi to take. "Take it."

"I can't, this is your vest.."

"If you get hit, I'll most likely have to leave you there if I want to stay alive. If you wear this, at least even if you're hit, it'll only leave a bruise. I can probably get hit with a few bullets and still manage to stay alive for this last couple of hours."

"But—"

"Do you want to stay alive or not?"

She stared at the vest silently for a few seconds, reluctantly nodding. He helped her to secure the vest, then proceeded to button his shirt and shrug into his khaki jacket which was stained with blood, mud, and the hardships of the past two days.

Motobuchi unzipped his bag, sliding the cookie sheet out silently from his bag. Satomi looked at him with a questioning gaze, which he answered with one finger to his lips and the other hand pointing to a bush about 10 feet away. She realized what he had been referring to when she heard a faint coughing sound, one wracked with pain, and it sounded as if the person was throwing up.

He handed his bag to her, giving her the only copy of the map they had left since he had thrown her bag before to confuse the shooter. Pointing to a specific location on the map, he quickly outlined the route she should take. And with that she turned away and was about to break into a run when a hoarse voice called out, "Wait."

Motobuchi gripped the cookie sheet, holding it with both hands and ready to bring it down onto the skull of any person trying to attack. He parted the bushes away to reveal the person whose voice the words belonged to and was about to hit the person until he saw the shape the other student was in. "Nanahara!" The student was collapsed on the ground, the wound from his back not showing any signs of slowing. The putrid stench of yesterday's meal brought up wafted in his direction, almost causing him to gag.

A long stick lay at Nanahara's side, and a bloody trail leading to him. Nanahara must have dragged himself, leaning on the stick. For how long of a distance he wasn't sure, though it couldn't have been too far, with the condition he was in, Motobuchi was surprised he could even have the strength to walk. But he knew that Nanahara was an athletic student who excelled in all the sports clubs he had joined. Now, the only question left was…who could have injured such a student.

"Naka…gawa." Nanahara coughed, bringing up blood that he wiped away from his face. He wasn't quite successful, because blood still left in its remnants at the corner of his lips.

"What?"

"Nakagawa….stabbed me…I had…to warn others…"

"How'd you find us?"

Motobuchi asked, helping Nanahara to lean against a tree.

"This…"

Nanahara pulled an electronic device from his jacket, passing it to him. A GPS device, no wonder. This was a great weapon, because it enabled the owner to know the presence of the other person without that person's knowledge. If only he had this, he could…Motobuchi handed the GPS device back to Nanahara.

Nanahara gave a half-smile, noticing Motobuchi's reluctance to give the device back. "It's all right…you can..keep it."

"But with this you can—"

He laughed, a laugh which turned into a cough that shook his whole body. "Do I look like…I'll last a few more hours…? I'll be an easy kill…I'd rather someone who deserves this….had this." He pressed the GPS into Motobuchi's hand. "So keep it…all right?"

He nodded, giving the GPS device to Satomi so she could place it safely into his duffle bag. Motobuchi glanced in Satomi's direction briefly before turning back to him. Nanahara had given this to him, his only weapon, and the least he could do was tell him everything he knew. "Nakagawa was chasing us, about twenty minutes before you showed up."

A sharp intake came from behind him. Now Satomi knew that the student who had been chasing them wasn't the long haired girl with the gun. It was Nakagawa.

If Nanahara was surprised, he showed no signs of it. He shifted his shoulder to rest on a lower section on the bark, giving a half-hearted smile saying, "You know, if she hadn't done this," he clutched his stomach as another wave of pain set in "I would have died protecting her. I would have gladly died for her. I never thought she could do this—" Motobuchi looked down to see Nanahara's right hand clenched. Nanahara's emotions were revealed through his voice as he said, "I would have died for her—out of my own will."

Satomi stepped out from behind Motobuchi, leveling heads with Nanahara and touching his wrist. "Don't give up, we can try to find a way out of this place together. You protected Nakagawa the best that you could, now, it's your time. Now, it's your time….to protect yourself."

Nanahara shook his head, drawing his wrist back so that Satomi was no longer touching his arm. "I can hardly…walk, I'm not in….any condition to try to…..escape the island."

"He's right." Motobuchi stood up from his crouching position, looking down at Nanahara and Satomi. "We'll have to walk miles in the next few hours, we can't have him dragging us down."

She rose back up, glaring at Motobuchi, "How can you say that? Nanahara gave us the only weapon he had and we're going to just leave him here!"

"Now isn't the time…to fight. The two of you…should know…that. Maybe it was the fight with Nakagawa…that made her want to do this…but in the end…it just meant she couldn't trust me. Go. The others might have….followed the path I walked….through because of the blood. I don't want either of you to die….because of me…NOW GO!" Nanahara pushed Satomi away from him and into Motobuchi's direction.

"Nanahara,"

She had tears in her eyes as she reached Motobuchi. Nanahara had been betrayed by the person he trusted most, and now, he was going to die like this, alone. There was nothing she could do, and no words of comfort she could think up. All she could say was:

"Nanahara, thank you."

He nodded, giving them the first real smile they had seen from him since the game started. He held his hand up in a peace sign, and that was the last time she saw Nanahara alive.