Chapter 20

Time was early in the evening, the light blue sky was starry but also red on the horizon because of the last rays of the sun. Unfortunately, Goushi Kakutama (boys #5) saw only the stars and the clouds in a straight angle; it had one single reason: he could not move. He was laying in a trench next to a continuous moorland since 11 o'clock, next to a dirt road made by some engineering vehicle. But did it matter now? Goushi breathed hard, felt great pain in his lungs. He knew his short life will not last long and he has already accepted it. Only one thing he was bothered by...

'I didn't want to die like that... alone, far from any civilization... only birds and tractors...'

Far from the friends. At least they could have been there. True friends, those who still have got their brains and would not want to betray him even in a situation like the current was. In movies protagonists always pass away while a friend is there or in the arm of the beloved one - at least that is romantic and softens even the hard-hearted.

'I would give everything if I could say goodbye to Tami...'

Tami - Goushi's girlfriend, only he could call her like that (her true name was Tamao - deserved to be there in the boy's last moments.

'I don't want to die until I said her at least once, that I love her.'

No matter if Tami has heard that over and over again. Goushi was here in nowhere, his love somewhere in Zentsuji and was sleeping peacefully in a central block of flats. She had no idea what was going on here, believed (as long as the secret of the kidnapping remained behind the scenes) that the class had happy times in England and was useful for the Empire of the Rising Sun at the same time - this trip was the key to appease the conflict between the three superpowers. Goushi promised even something for souvenir - Tami wanted that bonbon packed in the traditional British red telephone box, which was famous around the world.

The injured boy felt like minutes would have gone by very slowly, he was so tired that he started to loose consciousness. That feeling was like somebody would have been in the Olympics as a participant all day and now wanted to be just in bed - stinging arms and legs, tired mind: total dead-beatness.

'Why can't be someone here to say something comforting before I'm taking a dirt nap? Okay... Lord, I'm asking you once and for all, let me meet Dan!'


Goushi did not know, that he was among the first who got Dan's rescue message. Although if he had been the last, would have gone to rescue. The bad thing is, while Dan lived in captivity in the middle of the second game field (in F5), Goushi was wandering somewhere in south.

Distance or danger, bring 'em on! Goushi immediately checked the route between his zone and Dan's.

'Maybe I will fail, but can say that I tried.'

To be honest he could reach Dan's building much earlier than nine, if it was not Fuyuki Shinji Egami (boys #3) who was maundering around there aimlessly and Goushi could not know how big mistake he did by talking to that Fuyuki.

But why not? The kid did not seemed dangerous, he greeted Goushi especially gently – it has usually nothing but sinister meaning - Goushi did not notice at that moment. Plus, Fuyuki had no weapon, while Goushi held an automatic Luger to guarantee his safety. So the boy was not behindhand in showing up the pistol.

The classmate came near with a friendly face, wanted to show out: I don't wanna trouble.

"Thank God, I found you, Goushi." Fuyuki sighed at the moment they met. The other was staring at him, hesitated a bit. Looked like it was not a problem for Fuyuki, he continued speaking:

"Everyone lost their mind, did you see the list, how many of them died so far? This game is crazy, how can they attack their own fellows? I could never do such thing! Prefer let my hands cut than doing such a horrible act!"

He stopped only for a second to catch breath:

"Nana! She was my mate. When we got the solo message, wanted to kill me. She got all our weapons, I could barely escape. And now I'm here. Just wandering and want to survive. And I will be honest to you, Goushi: I'm afraid. You can never know, who will attack you in the next 'corner'."

Fuyuki looked quite scared, if that was an acting he did great. Goushi was thinking about exactly that.

'He can be all right, but often a shithead when his skin is in question.'

He was puzzled. What if Fuyuki said the truth this time? It was an emergency, wasn't it?

"Okay. Let's say I trust you." Goushi started and lowered the Luger (but did not put away, stayed ready to shoot at any time).

"Sorry, you can never be that careful enough. Like you said, everyone is out of their mind. What if you are, too?"

Fuyuki's face deformed like he would have bitten into lemon.

"Good, if you can't trust me... I'm leaving. It feels bad that you have concerns. Do you think I would have fallen into conversation with you if I had felt the same?" his features showed resentment. Then turned 'round to walk out on Goushi, during the walk saying:

"I can see that I'm Dan's only hope now. I'm the only one he can count on."

Voila! The magic word had been heard. Hearing his best friend's name Goushi became paralyzed.

"You said:Dan? You got a message, too?"

Fuyuki turned round and nodded.

"Yeah. I mean... I spoke with him personally. I'm gathering people to help him as soon as we can."

"What happened to him? And... How did he manage to send messages? Everything is so strange. Why are you here, so far from zone F5?" Goushi was just speaking and speaking.

Before he could finish, Fuyuki interrupted.

"I've already told you, I'm here to help Dan!" he shouted a bit more aggressive that it should be.

Goushi did not like that, so Fuyuki wanted to give some explanation which were not 'well', 'um' and 'you know'.

"Last warning: don't try to fool me!" Goushi found that sudden came silence very suspicious.

He raised his gun up again and pointed at his classmate with serious expression on the face. This was not a joke.

"Look, I'm not..." Fuyuki started stuttering.

"If I can remember right, Dan mentioned you in the message." the other boy tried to recall the exact text. Did not want to make wrong decisions, kill Fuyuki before knowing in which side he truly was.

"Really? Me?" Fuyuki was totally shocked by hearing that. If his saying was all acting so far, this time his face showed true feelings.

"As I said, I met Dan personally so he did not send me any messages." he was amazed about his own logical reasoning. Goushi approved, that can be true.

"So, what does Dan write about me?" perspiration started to spring from Fuyuki's brow and was trying to cover his fright. Goushi was thinking for seconds long.

"I don't know for sure, he mentioned only your name... like he hadn't finished the sentence because of the limited characters or something." or he had no more time. Really, what was the reason?

Fuyuki relieved in mind and thanked God for giving humanity this kind of a money-grabber solution to send messages. He checked his watch intuitively.

9:01 AM.

"One minute past nine. While we had a good chat, Dan died."

Goushi also checked the time and could not believe his eyes, they were empty from the shock.

Then, an idea rushed into Fuyuki's mind. Yes, that was how a smart person looked like! He can keep any situation under control anywhere, anytime. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Fuyuki Shinji Egami, the perfect athlete and student: he's funny, but also well-mannered and impossibly smart!

"Would you mind if I ask you to lower that thing?" this 'hundred percent' perfection said that, after returning from his thoughts and noticed, that Goushi was still pointing at his stomach with the gun.

" In that case I'll tell you what was the thing Dan asked me to do. Because Dan's still living I swear to God." he knew this will going to use - Goushi, who was a big boy anyway lowered the Luger soon.

"Speak!"

"I got the... how can I say... task to gather more and more from the class, because Dan found a way out from that control room..."

"What control room?"

"He stuck in a control room... in a hidden warehouse-like building. The door can't be opened so he couldn't get out. But there's a lot of computer and he found... err... maps of underground tunnels in them..."

"And?"

"That's all."

"That's all? And Dan?"

"Okay, okay... So Dan told me that the exit of the tunnel which leads out of his control room is very far from F5." in view of Goushi's pokerishness Fuyuki got confused and almost forgot what he wanted to say. At the end his speech became splutterer.

"It ends here..."

"It this zone?"

"No, next door."

"In which one exactly? Hello, there's three next door!" Goushi was more and more impatient, but knowing that Dan could still be in this world, cheered him up. Not that if he could do something until not gouged the full to-do-list out of Fuyuki. That boy pointed at a western direction.

"We have to hurry, the exit is in H2, which becomes danger zone from eleven."

He continued during the way from H3 to H2.

"Dan said, according to the map a trapdoor can be opened at the exit, but only from outside. The inside lever is broken or what. And that's how we come into view."

Fuyuki lead the way, Goushi followed him by watching every movement. He had another option on his mind: what if Dan wanted to warn the guys in the half-message, not to trust in Fuyuki. What if Fuyuki trapped him and wants to have Goushi over, too? Even for this dilemma, he could not draw himself to stop, Dan was too important for him. They had almost two hours until H2 becomes a danger zone, the question was still there: were they able to reach it then leave in time?

At the border of the two zones, the region was full with deep rifts and the rest was a big swampland toward north. Through another two zones. That's why to bypass this whole passless section they needed plenty of time and good sense of finding things to go exactly that exit in H2. It could be anywhere within the zone.

Goushi kept an eye not only on Fuyuki, he checked the time on his watch whenever he could - and for no reason. They were making their way slowly, time (of course in such case) flew like it had wings. They also had to notice for presence of other classmates and animals, and forcing their way through the scrub - thorn bush! - was not that easy.

Suddenly Fuyuki broke the silence during the monotonic walk.

"Actually, I have never hated you, Goushi." said like someone who did his confession. The called one was surprised - what is that speech again? Fuyuki continued.

"Even if you called me Road Runner, because of my running-adoration or damn rapper."

"It was just joking, nothing serious. You should know that!" said Goushi in the same tone.

"I know. As I said, I'm not hated you."

"But Fuyuki, tell me! Why do you say: hated? It's over?"

We can't say the answer was straight.

"The end of any events are always unknown."

"True, true."

"And there are situations, in which some values are prior than other values - like friendship - they are simply necessitated by the circumstances."

Shudder passed over Goushi, did not understand completely, what did the other mean by that statement. One thing's for sure: Goushi had misgivings and the concerns about Fuyuki's reliability came out again. Better not to ask the exact meaning.

They were late anyway, time was 10:35 at the moment they reached the zone they wanted - from the northern direction - after about 150 meters Fuyuki stopped his mate in an undulating land.

"I can't take this anymore, I have to go out!" he seemed impatient and looked at the distance often.

"You're outside. Where else do you want to go?"

"I mean go to the so called 'toilet'!"

"Oh, I see. But why don't you do it here? I won't bite it off." Goushi smiled and almost made a short laugh. Fuyuki turned his back on him.

"My reins are shy." his true reaction could not be seen.

"I'll be right back, just searched for a bush or something. You can look for the trap door until I come, according to Dan it can be found at something looks like a broken statue." he was in way to find cover for his doings by that time.

Goushi answered to his handwave with the same movement and waited at Fuyuki to disappear out of his sight. He decided to wait his classmate there, it was dangerous maundering around alone and who knows, Fuyuki was up to something. If he comes back, they can find that trap door together, save Dan and... It was 10:40. Twenty minutes left until the zone is not a danger zone yet.

10:45

10:50. And no sign of Fuyuki. Even a nephritic elephant can't pee that much. Goushi knew now for sure, Fuyuki had him over. And what's more, he had time to think the events and conversations from the meeting up to this point through. The boy had to realize more and more, that he had been misled. Fuyuki was playing with him from the beginning and all the things he said about Dan were probably nothing than malarkey. Why would have he said then, that there are situations which's circumstances wish people to put values forward against important ones, like friendship? Goushi opened Dan's message in the watch and red it over and over again. Now he had no doubts at all: Dan wanted to end his sentence for example in a way like that: Fuyuki is a traitor, wanted to kill me, don't trust him guys! Or something similar. Maybe there were limited characters he could use or did not have opportunity to correct things.

The main point: Goushi was so obsessed figuring out whether Fuyuki was reliable or not, that he did not notice he was already taken into a fooling. And sad to say, but Dan was physically in F5, his soul passed away to the afterlife.

Goushi became furious and clenched his fists.

'I did not intend to harm Fuyuki, but it is over now. If he dares to show his fuckin' face again, I'm going to tear him apart!'

How could he forgot, that Fuyuki has never paid regard to others if his own skin was at stake? Goushi's first disappointment happened in their first school year (1/e), when Baku Baisotei and Fuyuki complained to the art teacher on the lesson, why did they get only a 'good' as mid-year grade instead of 'class'? The teacher, Miss Rika explained the reason why she made that decision - Baku accepted but not Fuyuki. He craved for the better grade and promised everything until the teacher had enough and gave him 'class' to finally shut Fuyuki up.

The others said in the class: And what's with Baku? Fuyuki just shrugged the shoulders: I don't care about him, he had the chance to ask for better grade, too! His action caused quite a big indignation in 1/e, seemed like Baku's fault, because he did not go to Miss Rika and cry like a baby. From that time other nasty things came like bullets in a battlefield. Every time Fuyuki made something wrong, immediately find the vicious (who certainly was someone else than him) and created unprepared excuses, so as time went by he did not have to strain the brain, just pick one of the forth-created excuses and say it out loudly.

'I thought Fuyuki will be more tolerant this time. Well... There are people who never change, even if everything is on the bum.'

Oh noes, there was 10:55!

Barely five minutes left for Goushi to leave this zone. Just as in Big Brother show: Goushi, you have five minutes to leave the house! The situation was the following: he was about two hundred meters far from the safe G2; swamp and abyss from the right and there was a line of thorn bushes and a river from the left. Same from the southern direction. The boy had to be though in case he wanted to run out of here within five minutes. He was always weak in PE lessons, mainly when they had to do running tests. Is it worth to try at least?

'Never mind dude, just RUN!'

So he scuttered like never in his life and kept the eyes on the timer all the way.

10:58

Goushi felt unlivable pain in his muscles. His feet hurt from the coarse ground, the lungs whistled and wanted to give up.

10:59

Goushi's eyes filled with tears as he was carried down the wind and saw almost nothing - trees, sky and ground, everything slurred into one vivid sight. To run, to pant... hurting, burning, breaking, itching, giving up! How much was left? Just a few. Just a few more...

Goushi closed the eyes. The digital timer changed the number from '59' to '00'. He waited for the big explosion and the end of his life. Waited for something, which haven't been there yet.

11:01

Amazed but the boy acknowledged the success with a smile from ear to ear. He was standing currently in a non-danger zone. The next interesting thing was, that he found Fuyuki exactly on that place, ten meters far from himself. The enemy showed his back to Goushi, stared at his watch while continuously mumbling about something what Goushi could not hear. Not that if he cared about that at the moment. He wanted blood! Because of that immediately attacked.

"You fucking maggot!" he grind his teeth and prepared to fire his gun, the Luger.

Great mistake he made with the shouting, now Fuyuki knew he was there. High trees and thick bushes grew there as vegetation, so Fuyuki disappeared in the cover of the pervading greenness in no time. Goushi missed the shot. The sound of the gunshot echoed far in the forest, after that Fuyuki's way of escape could be heard clearly as rattling and crackling sounds of the shrubs.

Goushi did not hesitated, went after Fuyuki. The athlete of the class was on the run for about ten minutes and started to think that the rock lover classmate gave up the hunt. So Fuyuki slackened the pace to recover some strength. Nothing happened in the meantime, only the ordinary noises of nature. This set Fuyuki's mind at ease. He stopped and leant his back against a tree, when the picture of Goushi with the gun haunted him again so after three minutes he decided to go more further from that place.

'But what on earth am I worried? Goushi would be right the person who can catch me up? He's eating too much to be a challenge! Or everyone else from 3/e... or anybody from the entire school, I'm the best athlete in any one of them!'

Was quite a surprise when suddenly someone forced him back to the tree trunk with a tough push. This was Goushi's blindfold force.

"Goushi... dude, look... I can explain everything..." he stammered to save his skin.

"You! I rip out your bowel and beat your ass with it!" Goushi could not be persuaded anymore, was focusing only one thing: this turd almost killed him successfully, so speaking about negotiation by tea and cookies was not an option.

The rocker boy pressed the Luger to the other's face as strong as he could.

"You can say one last thing for yourself, before I riddle you with bullets!"

Unexpectedly, he felt a flashing light in the eyes, that made him letting Fuyuki go. Enough for Fuyuki to jostle him out of the way and beat him with a judo movement he learned in school. No matter the difference of weights, Fuyuki needed to find the right spot on the other boy's body to loose his balance. Well, Fuyuki was a superb student in PE lessons not in vain, Goushi Kakutama found himself in the ground - and let me say - it was quite painful.

"Do you remember what Moskvin said about the built-in reflector in our watches? Remember or not, I did, haha!" Fuyuki laughed maliciously for being such ingenious, but Goushi had the firearm so was necessary to flee as soon as possible.

Although Goushi had dancing glowing orbs in front of the eyes and cursed Fuyuki to hell, did not give up that easily. He got back to his feet and ran after the enemy immediately, as long as he was within sight. Keep on going in the wild with so many bushes and plants in the thicket seemed to be problematic, but good news: Fuyuki's black uniform shown conspicuous in the never ending green. They both made their way with difficulty, maybe Goushi a bit easier: he did not care what kind of a barrier he had to face, blasted everything like a berserk rhinoceros to take revenge. The distance was significant between the two boys, however Goushi fired the Luger in the moment he caught sight of Fuyuki's black clothes through the leaves, not a wonder if he missed again and again.

All of a sudden Goushi lost sight of Fuyuki. He did not understand how could it be possible, but after a short running he found the boy in his near again. Fuyuki was in one place now and showed his back like before. Now is Goushi's chance, he rose up the Luger and... an empty click. The magazine was empty and there was no other. Fuck!

Would have he shot that much during the hunt? Was he so obsessed to kill him that he wasted all the bullets? After discarding the empty gun, he gave all his strength to the last charge.

'You'll regret the minute you fall into my hands, you A-hole! I hammer you until I find bones in your body!'

He was from the black uniform within reach, just reaching the arm and... got it! Aw, this was not Goushi's lucky day. He grabbed an empty uniform coat which was hanging on a tree branch, Goushi did not notice in his blindfold anger (again) that it was just a piece of clothes. But he noticed the eight meters deep abyss under his feet - from a further distance it was hidden, because of the covering leaves and bushes – it was to late by that time.

He was fooled again. This time fatally.

"You're right, man!" Fuyuki appeared at the headwall of the abyss and was on to put the uniform coat on. "We can never be that careful!"

The falling seemed like an everlasting time. Goushi heard his voice like it would be from a third person. And the 'funny' thing is, that he survived everything.


And now he was lying here, under the twilit sky near at five o'clock. He was so injured that he felt like a complete wreck, could not move - broken ribs, twisted ankles, excoriated arms and legs - and something sharp (probably a stone) stabbed his torso and the poor fellow was bleeding like somebody would have turned on the tap.

New drink bar for vampires! Discounts for the grand opening!

'I wish but Dan, my blood brotha could be here. And Ben... I will join them soon.'

He had a good relationship with everyone in the class (and hated nobody - nor Chisato, the best target for the boys and Kirika's gang for making jokes) but wanted to see only these two.

Their common past with Dan began in the second school year after successfully taking the intermediate English language exam. As the exclusive owners of such a language certificate in 2/e, they had to attend to English lessons, but got special exercises separated from the rest of the class. And while the teacher, Mrs. Sara Akamatsu educated the others, they were not be supervised and who is that jerk who studies in such a cool status? Only the eager beavers. But not the Dan - Goushi - Ben trio in the last line of desks. These were their best moments on school lessons - just sitting back and fooling around until the lesson was over. They were called by the teaching staff as 'the Triumvirate' and by Sara Akamatsu as 'the three Graces'.

Only Goushi showed up his determination towards rock style (namely he wore rocker-clothes), but all the three of them listened to the same bands' music. The idea came from here, - by one of the track of Iron Maiden - that Goushi, Dan and Ben are blood brothers, because they like so many similar things and have the same view of life. So Goushi and Dan asked Yaeka - the master of manual skills - whether she would make them a „blood brothas" bangle. This was the symbol of their friendship.

Goushi's mind returned to the present. He lift up his head painfully to took a last glance to his left wrist. There was a green woven yarn bangle with two yellow vocables on it - written in a slangish way: Blood Brothas.

'First Ben is gone, now B...'

They called each other 'B', together with Dan.

'Now it's my turn. I'm not a theist, but if God exist, allows me to recall their face for the last time.'

He closed his eyes for a second and opened them after an especially hard breathing. Seemed unbelievable, but he saw Dan's face like he would have been there in real.

"Wow, quite an imagination." Goushi whispered to himself. Dan was gazing at him for long, finally started speaking.

"Goushi! Brotha, what happened to you?"

"Dan..." the goner looked back perplexedly. What, Fuyuki was not lying?

"I almost left my boots there, but not." Dan answered "That damn Fuyuki!"

"He said to me..." Goushi's voice became more and more weaker "that he is helping you getting out."

And he told the story in a nutshell.

"Is this his work? You look horrible, dammit!" Dan tried to look not too broken, at least not in Goushi's presence, but could not stay that. He smashed the ground with his fist, then turned his head into another direction and watched the darkle, starry sky with empty look.

"I have to apologize, B. It's my fault."

"Why do you say that?"

"There aren't any tunnels, I burst the door open." was a very difficult thing to look into the other's eyes at the moment. Into Goushi's, a friend's eyes!

Dan finally caught a deep breath and blew it out. He needed that pause to continue.

"That waste closed me into the control room, even Rena could barely escape. I saw everything through cameras. Rena has activated the electric fences around the building, forcing Fuyuki to stay there for a while. I wanted to go out to go after her, it's very dangerous for her to be alone."

"If it wasn't for Fuyuki, I bet we would have met... I would have been there..."

Dan did a pale smile. Despite the sarcastic style, he stood his ground in serious situations and showed the right approach without exception (like he was not the same person, not that Dan with the same attitude as ).

"I had not a single doubt in you, Brotha. I knew I can count on you."

"I could not help..." Goushi was almost unable to speak.

"No, don't say that!" Dan shouted fiercely at him, but still avoided his look. "I was the one who deactivated the fence-lines to get rid of Fuyuki by the time I can get out. I thought I can't make it, but managed to burst the door open and leave the zone in time. If I won't have been that coward I had sacrificed myself and take Fuyuki away."

Speaking about that again, this guilt recrudesced with new verve.

"Not to worry, B." the injured one tried to give comfort "You're okay and only that matters. You... can... take care of Rena."

"Goushi..." Dan did not know what to say, Goushi put the hand on his shoulders.

"Take care..."

"Goushi, don't start saying goodbye!"

"I don't know, how long can I take... that's why... I'm glad we were Bs. I have to go soon..."

"No!" Dan cried out in ecstasy "Shut up, you're stronger than that!"

At the time he caught sight of his friend, knew he couldn't be saved. Still, Dan could not accept Goushi's death, felt like the eyes would become wet. He was a steel-hearted though, everyone could say that he's a senseless shit-kicker. The thing is, that Dan was that type of the hard-natured badasses, who wanted to look harsh to evade the annoyance of the bullies. And now he could not stand the mushiness...

Dan held Goushi's once white, now totally red shirt (steeped by blood) tight, wanted to bring him to life again in that way. Goushi Kakutama opened the eyes for the last time and these were his last words:

"God exists... heard my demand... tell Tami, that I love her... thank you for e..." then Goushi was no more. His head fell to the shoulders, lifelessly.

"My pleasure." Dan whispered and laid the dead back gently to his previous position. He was there mutely for minutes long. At the cold body.

Night found Goushi like that. The woken wind bristled his long, thin hair up and touched a colored thing at the same time left in his hands in memoriam of a friendship. It was another green woven yarn bangle with yellow - and watery - words: „blood brothas".

[Number of students: 19]

Goushi Kakutama eliminated