Chapter 5
Mikado shifted, turning onto his side. At some point that night, he had fallen asleep, thankfully saving himself from witnessing more public displays of affection from his friends. He blinked, wondering why he had woken up. It was still dark, although, as he looked up at the circle of sky revealed by the boulders, he could see the edges of the blackness beginning to lighten.
Snap.
Someone was moving around. Masaomi? He turned his head to the side. Nope, still sound asleep and snuggled up to Saki.
Weird.
"Wake up, sleepyhead! It's another beautiful day in the mountain forest. What better way to spend a day than with Kida Masaomi as your resident wilderness guide?"
"Nngh."
"Up and at 'em, Mikado-kun!"
Mikado felt someone's foot lodge in his side, and he reluctantly opened his eyes to see Masaomi leaning over his face, grinning. "Why are you so…" his sluggish brain searched for the word, "energetic?"
"Why not be energetic?" He straightened up again, spreading his arms out wide. "The sun's up, and we're not dead yet!"
Slowly, Mikado sat up, absentmindedly rubbing his arm. "I guess that's one way to look at it."
"It's the only way to look at it! Come on, let's go look around."
Mikado grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, following his friend out of the circle of boulders. Ahead of them was the same path they had walked down the previous night. Trees reached up to the clear sky, and the whole place smelled like leaves and fresh dirt. Maybe Masaomi had a point about it being a good day, after all. "Hey, where's Saki? Is she going off on her own?"
"Nah, Saki wouldn't ditch us. She was just going to-"
But Mikado never found out was Saki was going to do. A shriek pierced the air in front of them and echoed around them.
"Saki!" Eyes widening, Masaomi's whole body tensed. Then he took off, sprinting toward the cry. "Saki!" Over gravel, rocks, and scattered branches he ran. There was another shriek, and Mikado started after his friend. After a breathless sprint, the two could see what had happened to Saki.
She was crying, clawing frantically at the arm that was wrapped around her neck. The arm was connected to the body of a tall boy with black hair, a large burn scar, and a manic grin on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Isn't this comfortable?"
Masaomi suddenly stopped running, and Mikado whacked into his back. "What are-" Mikado started to ask, then hesitated at the look of terror on his friend's face. Masaomi was completely frozen, arms stuck out at his sides in a half-hearted attempt to keep Mikado from interfering.
As they watched, the kid sharply jerked his arm upward, and Saki gasped, eyes closed. "I guess we'll have to change something, then." Suddenly, he dropped his arm, Saki staggering forward, then he grabbed her shoulders and shoved her roughly into the side of a tree trunk. "Better?" he growled.
"P-please!" she whispered, arms folded across her front.
"Masaomi!" Mikado nudged his friend. "We need to do something!"
Masaomi didn't respond.
"That's not a very good 'thank you,' I'm afraid." With that, he lashed out with a slap to her face, then followed by kicking her legs out from under her. She crashed to the ground, whimpering softly as she tried to prop herself up again.
"Hey!" All eyes were immediately on Mikado, who looked as surprised as all of them at the fact that something had come out of his mouth.
The boy had looked up from where he was preparing to kick Saki again. "Excuse me?"
"Wh-who do you think you are, beating up Saki like that?"
His eyebrows raised. "Izumii Ran, and who do you think you are, punk? In case you hadn't noticed, we're in the Hunger Games. It's not about keeping everyone alive. It's about making sure you get out alive."
"B-but-"
"I'm not breaking any rules, kid. Now, back off unless you want to be next," he growled, kicking Saki in the side again. Reaching into his back pocket, he drew out a short knife. With a wicked smile, he raised it in the air, then brought it down towards Saki's chest. Suddenly, his arm jerked to a stop. He blinked once, then turned to see a terrified Mikado holding onto his wrist with both hands. "I thought I told you," he shoved Mikado off, "to stay out of it." He swung his dagger at Mikado instead this time, and the small brunet boy had to jump backwards to avoid it, ending up sprawled on his back in the process. He frantically started backing away, but Izumii strode up to him, stepping on his left leg to stop him from moving. "When I said to back off, I meant it. You're just gonna have to pay the price for not listening." Leaning over Mikado, he sneered. Then, something rammed into his right side and he collided roughly with the ground.
"Masaomi!"
"Didn't think I'd abandon you, did ya?" The blond grinned from where he was sitting on top of Izumii.
"Of course not! Now we've just got to get Saki out of here!" cried Mikado.
A momentary look of guilt flashed over Masaomi's face. The brunet saw it, eyes widening ever so slightly, understanding what it meant. Neither boy moved to stop what was happening as Izumii pushed Masaomi off of himself. Growling, he got to his feet. In this interval of fighting, Saki had struggled to get to her feet, but found to her dismay that her legs wouldn't support her weight. As Izumii walked closer, she was left to hold on to a tree trunk and try to hold herself up. She knew she must be a pitiful spectacle, but there was nothing she could do. Effortlessly, he pushed her to the ground, kneeling over her with the knife in his left hand. He grabbed her inner forearm with this hand, brought his right hand back in a fist-
"No!" Mikado leapt forward, but Masaomi held him back-
-and swung until it connected with the side of Saki's head. A cannon sounded.
Masaomi looked pained, but Mikado took off running toward Izumii. "You, you evil little- how could-"
Turning tail, Izumii took off running, putting his dagger (which was bloody now) back into his pocket.
In a tone devoid of emotion, Masaomi called after his friend. "Mikado."
Pausing in his pursuit, the boy turned to look at him.
"It's over. Give it up. You'll get your chance another time, ok?"
"How can you be so calm after what he did to Saki?" He came and sat down next to him.
"Mikado, I know he was awful, but he was right."
"About what?"
"We're in the Hunger Games. People die; that's the whole point of this thing. Some people are destined to die earlier than others; you know that, don't you?"
"Of course I know that! I know why he killed her, but he didn't have to be so cruel about it!"
Yumasaki Walker sat on a large rock, tapping his foot impatiently and looking around through his constant squint. On his lap was his backpack, and he was clutching it as if it held something extremely important. If anyone around had cared enough to smell the area, they might have thought about gasoline, but would probably have dismissed the thought. After all, how would gasoline have found its way into this arena?
At some noise, Walker perked up. Erika emerged from the trees and walked up to him.
"Have you done it?" he asked. "Are they in place?"
"Yep! All set and ready to go! You probably want to get a move on, though. I couldn't tell you how long they'll stay put; they seem to be pretty flighty. One of them keeps talking about her boyfriend Seji who's back home, but it sounds like the other one has a boyfriend in the games. He's probably not going to be happy…"
"Is Dotachin around?"
"Yep. He's in the background, but he came to watch the fun."
"Then there's nothing to worry about, angry boyfriends or not." He hopped down from his perch on the rock, turning his squinting eyes toward Erika. He smiled. "Shall we?"
"Lead the way, Yumacci-sama!"
"I feel like he'd like me more if I looked different, to be honest." Harima Mika rested her chin in her hands.
"But you're beautiful!"
"I know," she smiled, "thanks, by the way. It's just… he's got such a specific definition of beauty, if you know what I mean."
"I'm not so sure I do."
"Oh, you know, short red hair, light-colored eyes-"
The brown-haired girl suddenly got to her feet, pointing to their right. "What's that?"
"What's wha- Oh!" She jumped up. Racing toward the two of them was a wall of flame. Before they could take a step backward, it had completely surrounded them. They clung together, shrieking at the top of their lungs.
Walker stood, arms folded, looking at the destruction. His smile was wide, and his constantly squinting eyes were wide open. "When you really get down to it, I don't care about red hair or any of that; this is my definition of beautiful."
The control room had finally livened up.
"I guess we should've gone for the avalanche after all, right, sir?" Aozaki asked, grinning.
"Yes," Shiki replied, "Yumasaki seems to have us covered on the fire front. Put down a note that he should receive pyrotechnic supplies if his district sends support."
"Yes, sir!"
"Akabayashi, what's the status of the two girls in the fire?"
"Still alive right now, but the screaming says that they won't be for too much longer."
Grimacing, Shiki shook his head. "I don't envy them, that's for sure."
"One down!"
"Cannon!"
"On it, sir!"
"Second one gone!"
"Cannon!"
"Done!"
Shiki crossed his arms and watched the flames dance across the screen. A hovercraft came into view, lowering down two claws and grabbing the two girls. As it slowly raised them up into the air, Shiki leaned forward, a frown on his face. "Is it just me," he mumbled, "or do they not look very burned?"
"Sorry, what was that, sir?"
He straightened up. "Where's Tsukumoya?"
"I think he had to go talk to someone; he's probably in the hall."
"Get him in here."
"Sir!" The man sprang to his feet, nodding to Shiki in deference, and then ran out the door.
Shiki shook his head again. "Something doesn't sit right with me."
Screen after screen decorated the front wall, each focusing on different tributes. On one, they could see Shizuo stomping through the forest muttering something that was probably directed at Izaya, when he suddenly stopped at the sight of a beautiful blonde girl in front of him. On a different screen, Mikado and Masaomi parted ways, with Masaomi headed in the direction of another tribute. In the center, on the biggest screen, they had pulled up footage of the dying flames. Something was moving on the left, and they soon saw a boy with reddish brown hair run onto the scene. He whirled around, taking in what had happened. After a moment of looking, he caught sight of Walker, who was running off, and took off after him, quickly getting out of that camera's range. Erika, too, ran off screen, but in a different direction. The center screen then started switching between footage, deciding which tribute to focus on at that moment.
The door creaked open. "You asked for me, Shiki-san?"
Brushing past desks and chairs, Shiki made his way over to the door. "Yes, come with me." He grabbed Tsukumoya's shoulder and dragged him back out of the door he just came in.
Once they were a short distance down the hall and safely out of earshot, Shiki relaxed his grip.
"Is something wrong, sir?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but I want you to find out."
"At your service. What exactly am I finding out?"
"I know you were out of the control room at the moment, but did you happen to see the footage of Yumasaki's fire?"
"I saw it on the small monitor in the hall, yes."
"Then you'll understand when I say that those two bodies didn't look like they had been through as big of a fire as they had."
Tsukumoya remained quiet.
"This is where you come in. When that ship comes in, I want you to examine those bodies and make sure that they're really dead. If they're not, I want you to notify me immediately, and then make them dead. Is this clear?"
"Yes, Shiki-san."
Despite what you may think, I am not dead, and I have not given up on this one. College was kicking my butt, so hooray for summer! Hopefully, I'll be bothering you every once and a while before August rolls around.
Now that you've seen Izaya's plan, this chapter leads into some of the conflict I have planned for the following chapters...
Please, let me know what you think! (Sorry for leaving y'all for so long...)
~JW
(Also, anybody seen Owari no Seraph yet? Anyone know when season 3's coming out? Anyone know where I can read the light novel/manga online?)
