Chapter 22

It was time for the third announcement. Around the city, all of the girls who were still alive to hear Mrs. Suzuki's words kept their ears focused. Some were awaken by the sudden noise in the loudspeakers, but quickly went back to sleep. All of them held their breaths. The announcements would say whether or not the nightmare they were in had gotten a little bit better, or much worse.

"Hello, girls! Do you all miss me? Here I am then, at exactly midnight, with the names and numbers of all of the ladies who died in the last six hours! Now, before I start, I have to say that you've gotten better than in the last announcement. Although, numerically, the body count has not increased much, the quality of your kills has skyrocketed. I'm really proud of you in that aspect, bloodbaths pull in a larger number of viewers, and now our audience has increased dramatically. Many people are watching each and every one of you, so you should all continue to please them! Anyway, let's move to the deaths. The first one to leave this place in a body bag was Girl #19, Natsumi Moriguchi, shortly after the previous announcement was made. Poor thing. After getting betrayed, she was sliced and diced like a sushi! Next, we have the equally brutal murder of Girl #12, Mari Shikamoto. Her death was only a matter of time, since a weakling like her would never make it far into this game. She got the same treatment of Girl #19, only with an ax. I'm not allowed to say the names of the killers, but I'll make an exception this time, since the one who killed Girl #12 is the third and last name on the list. Girl #1, Hisame Shikamoto, brutally murdered her own cousin in a way that made us all proud. However, this girl did not have the smarts or the right weapons to stay alive, and now she has bullet fragments inside of her brain.

Those three were solid kills, but I'm not fully satisfied yet. In previous seasons, more than 10 corpses fell in six hours, in some occasions. The highest number you have all reached so far is 4, so I'm naturally expecting it to increase by the next couple of announcements. The new danger zones are H-3 at 1 am, D-6 at 3 am, and finally B-9 at 5 am. Now I'm out for the next six hours! Good luck!"

Then the loudspeakers silenced.

Shizuko Honda couldn't remember the last time her legs felt so wet.

Maybe it was that time when she had been outside in a rainy day, two days before The Program. She went to school and forgot to bring a raincoat from home. Daydreaming and lost in her thoughts, Shizuko only realized she wasn't wearing her protection already two blocks away. Since her mother didn't go outside to give it to her, Shizuko had to run back home and start the walk all over again, while rain water dripped down her skirt and flooded her legs. It felt good at the time, but not as much when she arrived at school and created a puddle of water on the chair she sat at.

No, it wasn't then. It was the weekend before The Program, when she, Rena Kuroda and Natsumi Moriguchi hung out together for the last time, although they did not know of it yet. Shizuko had not dived into a pool during all of her nine months of pregnancy. The last time she recalled doing it was in her brief relationship with Satoru, when the couple made out in the water and she took pictures of them with her cell phone. After the break up, of course, all of those pictures were deleted.

Nine months later, when the three girls swan together, they didn't stay there that much, and the afternoon consisted of some pictures and swimming competitions. In one of the photos they took, Rena drew a smile on Shizuko's pregnant belly, which was soon destroyed by the water. On another, Natsumi put a basketball under her shirt, to pretend that she was pregnant as well. Forgetting everything she had been through, for a moment Shizuko felt happy, complete. The small pool party was one of the few genuinely happy moments Shizuko experienced while pregnant.

"God, I really miss them."

Although the pregnant girl was once again covered in water, the situation was totally different. Rena and Natsumi weren't there. Not because they couldn't arrive on time, but because they were dead. The water wasn't falling from the skies or resting in a pool, but flowing from a ruptured amniotic sack. To top it off, the girl also wasn't happy this time. She was crying. Her legs were not the only wet part of her body.

Although hearing of Natsumi's death was horrible, made even worse by Mrs. Suzuki saying the girl was "sliced and diced like a sushi", it didn't have the same impact as Rena's. It wasn't because the pigtailed girl was any less of a friend. Not at all. Sadly, the news were already expected by Shizuko. Without Rena to protect her, Natsumi certainly wouldn't last very long. It was just a matter of time.

The pregnant girl, though, needed and missed both of them equally. Shortly before the third announcement, Shizuko was in the bedroom, taking a short nap and getting ready for all of the pain she would soon have to endure. Since it was her first time giving birth, the contractions were unbearable, but being a resistant girl, Shizuko endured the pain. Sleeping was almost impossible. After a while, Shizuko was awoken by a splashing sound, and when she looked at the sheets, they were wet with amniotic fluid. Realizing that the baby would come out soon, the pregnant girl ran towards the small upstairs bathroom.

Although the bathroom wasn't a good place to keep herself safe, it was much better to deliver there. Protected only by a fragile door, Shizuko had all the necessary material for a safe birth. Scissors to cut the umbilical cord, rags to clean whatever fluid left her body, and even a syringe with anesthesia, which made Shizuko realize how lucky she was. The needle would be useful later, when the pain became unbearable and the baby began to come out. Besides, the golf club and the powerful Uzi were right next to her, if she needed them. And being in a Battle Royale, sooner or later she would.

However, if any form of complication occurred, such as lack of oxygen for the baby or any other medical problem, to the point of a cesarean being needed, Shizuko wouldn't have the guts to cut, operate or make a surgery on herself. She would probably die, and so would her child. Rena and Natsumi could help her with that, but with their deaths and no one else alive she could completely trust, Shizuko was on her own.

"If only they were with me…"

From underneath the tears, Shizuko sighed. It was already too late. There was no point in crying over things that could not be changed. Natsumi and Rena were dead. They wouldn't come back. They deserved to live, or at least last a few more hours, but they did not. While shaking her legs and crying, Shizuko imagined how their bodies would look like. Their terrified expressions, coagulated blood, and pale, bluish skin. There were only two places the two girls still lived in: Shizuko's dreams and memories. They did not belong to the real world anymore.

"But I'm still here."

Shizuko kept repeating these words like a mantra, like an echo inside of her head. After a while, it made her feel better about herself. She was still alive. It was everything that mattered. Rena and Natsumi would want that. The battle was not over by far, and according to the student list she had been crossing out names from, twelve other female students were still out to get her. But Shizuko had, at least, made it that far. She had endured a family with no love, the social awkwardness and shyness that separated her from her peers, the humiliation of being betrayed by the man she loved and apparently loved her back, nine months of an unwanted pregnancy, and the inclusion in The Program. Her life resembled a soap opera, or a Korean melodrama. Tragedy and more tragedy.

Still, she made it through it all.

Because of her.

Two weeks before The Program, Shizuko watched a national documentary, in which people had to talk about the best thing they had experienced in their lives. All of them were average, middle class citizens, who would obviously be jailed if they said anything remotely related to the government. There were many good speeches, but for the pregnant girl, the best one came exactly from a woman who had been pregnant before. For that woman, the best day of her life wasn't when she lost her virginity, got married or graduated, but rather, the birth of her first child.

According to the woman whose name Shizuko had forgotten, giving birth felt like being lifted from her body, as if the pain she had experienced had a purpose all along. She felt a pulsating, hot energy inside of her, growing and growing as the nine months of pregnancy went by. And in that magic moment when the baby finally left her body to become a separate creature, the woman felt like if she was giving birth to the sun. Because much like the king of the solar system, her child was a warm, life-giving entity, who while the delivery lasted, led her into a calm, ethereal new world. At the end of the interview, the woman said that she had been reborn. A few seconds later, she was crying tears of genuine emotion.

At the time, Shizuko did not understand her. Now, she finally did.

Sadly, Shizuko's past experiences with men had already scarred her. If the girl managed to survive The Program, she would find it hard to fall in love with a man again. She had reasons to do so. Her own father treated her for years like she didn't exist. And the love of her life ended up letting her pregnant, alone and betrayed. With the exception of Mr. Sakai, all men had been monsters to her. Her hopes of finding a Prince Charming in the future were, realistically, very slim.

After that night, though, Shizuko would never be alone again. Not anymore.

Her baby was there. It wasn't born yet, and it would be a hard job to make her daughter survive The Program. However, every time she felt another kick on her stomach, Shizuko vowed to herself that she would protect that child, no matter what. The pregnant girl would deliver, win the game, go back home and raise the girl like the mother figure she never had. Rena and Natsumi were dead, but she wouldn't follow their path.

"Life really is something interesting, after all…" thought Shizuko with a small smile. Then, she grabbed the Uzi lying on the yellow floor and turned her body towards the dark hallway, facing it. Some water was still dripping down her legs, staining the lower front of her white nightgown. She didn't care. The pregnant girl couldn't allow herself to be caught distracted or daydreaming again. Had she not shot at Kumiko Noma on time, the killer would have gotten into the manor. Shizuko was ready this time. One click of the trigger, and everyone who got in would feel the pain of being riddled by bullets. Everyone. There was no one else Shizuko could trust, not even the girls who had good reputations. At the beginning of the game, she had been doubtful about killing, but not anymore. Being attacked by Kumiko, along with all of the deaths and announcements, had changed her mind over time. Only one would make it out alive, and Shizuko was certain that some of her classmates did not deserve to live. Tsukiko Amano, Kageri Shouzaku and Hisame Shikamoto, for example, deserved what they got. Who else was killing out there? She couldn't know. And this was why she was going to kill for her baby. It was better to have blood on her hands than blood from her sliced throat.

She loved her child more than enough to kill for her.

It was strange, absurdly strange. All of her life, Shizuko had never truly cared. Instead, she felt like others should care about her. First Mr. Sakai, then Rena and Natsumi, and finally Satoru. Even though not all of them were honest, they had protected her, and even sacrificed some of their free time and well-being for her to be happy. Shizuko, on the other hand, was the passive object of affection, who was easily fooled into believing that everyone loved her for what she was. Maybe her education by neglectful parents made her too needy to be loved. It was a strong possibility.

Now the roles had been inversed. She was the protector, the guardian. An adult responsible for her own actions. A potential killer. A mother.

And nothing in this world is stronger than a mother's love.

Shizuko kept massaging her belly. Lightly and tenderly, as Satoru had touched her on the day the baby was conceived. Even though she hated Satoru, Shizuko knew that the child was a memory of him. Still, she was an innocent being, unaware of the war her parents had brought upon each other. With time, Shizuko hoped, her daughter would learn to live without a father, and forget him. Satoru did not deserve better.

The people whom she would tell her daughter who they were, and what they had accomplished in life, were Rena and Natsumi. They wouldn't be forgotten, but remembered. The pictures Shizuko had in her drawer at home, of the three of them chilling at the pool, would be the same ones that she would show to her baby when she got old enough. And after going back home, she would go talk to Rena and Natsumi's parents and apologize for their little girls' deaths. No matter how dangerous the consequences could be.

But first, there was another homage that she would do. And her child would be the first witness of it.

The pregnant girl's gaze left her belly for a moment, and stared at the hallway. With her Uzi cradled in her arms and pointed upwards, she looked like an action movie heroine getting ready for a battle. A battle that was yet to occur. No one was coming, and she couldn't hear a noise. Good for her, but sooner or later, another girl would invade Kagurazaka manor, willing to destroy Shizuko's life. But the pregnant girl would not allow it. No one would touch the unborn baby who had the same name as one of her friends.

"It seems like it's only you and me against the world, Natsumi." Whispered Shizuko under her breath, smiling and looking at her uterus. "Just you and me."

Trauma

Dictionary definition: 1. A serious injury or shock to the body, as from violence or an accident.

2. An emotional wound or shock that creates substantial, lasting damage to the psychological development of a person, often leading to neurosis. 3. An event or situation that causes great distress and disruption.

Dictionaries weren't among the works of literature Kagura Soga enjoyed reading. For her, they were a waste of time. Not that the girl was stupid or illiterate, far from it. But if she had to choose between a dictionary and the new volume of a shoujo manga, she would go for the later.

However, if Kagura ever read the definition of the word "trauma", she wouldn't identify herself with option one. After all, she had not been wounded in the slightest bit since she came into The Program. Mostly because of strong allies and luck, but still, she was unscathed. Although the word "violence" was something she wanted to inflict, no "accidents" had been initiated yet.

Numbers two and three, though, told a different story.

The unattractive girl stared at the dark street four floors below. It was almost impossible to see the entrances of the houses from the other side, and much less a person. The darkness was ominous, frightening and vast, and seemed to engulf every single form of lighting on its path. The only exceptions were the many small, fragile lampposts that littered the narrow street. They were still standing, but the light they produced seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, soon to be extinguished by the night.

Kagura hated being there, but she had no other choice. It was her turn to watch, while equipped with Hitomi Nara's pistol. The lights of the room were obviously all turned off, in order to draw as little attention as possible. After one more hour, Kagura was supposed to wake Sachiko Kirihara up, give her the pistol and go to sleep. But even if she followed all of the rules correctly, Kagura doubted tremendously that she would get any sleep on that night.

The dark had always been a source of fear for the girl. As a child, the worst moment of her day was when she felt thirsty at night and had to look for a cup of water in the kitchen. Going there in the dark was horrible. Coming back to her bed was even worse. Every time she was alone in the dark living room, Kagura felt like someone was walking behind her. And when she reached the bedroom and jumped on her bed, the girl thought that someone was already lying there, ready to grab her. Her imagination had many terrifying faces – the traditional long haired Japanese ghost, a floating hand, pale and dark, and even a giant caterpillar. In the end, they all meant the same thing; that Kagura would be killed by those creatures, or at least, taken to an unknown, horrifying world of nightmares.

Kagura thought that her fear would stop as soon as she reached the end of childhood. But it remained.

If anything, the trauma she suffered during the last few years only intensified it. Being bullied is a horrible experience for anyone. Being bullied by Tomoko Kobi and Tsukiko Amano, however, can make anyone wish to be dead. They were responsible not only for Kagura's torments, but for her status as an outcast as well. After all, the entire class was afraid of those two. No one came in to help Kagura because of this fear.

"But now they are where they deserve to be: in hell." Kagura thought maliciously. When the first announcement came in and she heard the two girls' names, she had restrained herself from jumping in joy. Those two, who had ruined her social life, had fallen already on the first few hours of the game. The only thing Kagura didn't like about the situation was that she hadn't killed them herself. She still hoped, though, that their deaths had been painful enough.

Kagura blinked twice, and two seconds were enough to cause the painful memories of her previous middle school years to flood her brain; the day when Tomoko called her an ugly mouse and stole her lunch, while Tsukiko laughed. The week when Tsukiko "accidentally" threw a dumbbell on her foot during gym class. And even a memory from a day when decided to bring her iPod to school, in order to listen to some music during her breaks. She forgot it under the desk after the end of class, and when she came back, the device wasn't there. Kagura only found her music the next day, in one of the garbage cans in the hallway. If she had not, it would have been taken away. And of course, Kagura knew the culprits.

None of those things, though, was worse than the day when Kagura relived her fear of the dark. It was a cold Friday, and on that day, she had decided to stay at school after everyone else left, in order to do her homework before going back home. She wasn't alone. The two bullies, along with their leader, Kumiko Noma, caught her sight in the hallway and dragged a screaming Kagura to the bathroom. There, they decided to "teach her a lesson" for ignoring their pranks all day. Kagura couldn't do anything as they trapped her inside one of the stalls, while using a chair to block the doorknob and ensure that she would not get out. While laughing hysterically, the troubled trio left the room and turned off the lights, leaving Kagura in the enclosed, dark space.

The girl remained there for two hours and a half, until an old janitor heard her voice from outside and took her out of there. It was too late. The trauma inflicted upon her mind was already more than enough. At first, the girl tried screaming her lungs out. When it didn't work, she began hitting the door and turning the lock frantically. Then, she began to sing her favorite anime songs, in order to calm herself down. Finally, when Kagura was found, she was already talking to herself.

Kagura would never forget the fear she felt on that day. She could barely move a muscle, afraid that a ghost would suddenly pop out of nowhere and scare her to death. The dark bathroom was so terrifying that only its air was enough to suffocate her. As the time passed by, Kagura's emotions went from fear to hatred, and then to sadness. When she was finally found, her eyes were red from crying. The girl did not tell her parents the reason why she took so long to get home on that day. She just ignored their questions and went upstairs to cry on her pillow.

On the day when Sato Mizunoe came to the school, with her awkward way of walking, fat body and pimple-covered face, Kagura already knew that she would be the next one to get picked on. By that time, the ugly girl was officially a member of Rin Tosaba's clique, and according to her social role, she should be indifferent to the suffering of the outcasts. Even though she certainly felt pity for Sato, part of her was happy. Someone else had come to replace her in the worst spot of the pecking order. And if that meant that she wouldn't get bullied anymore, then things should proceed that way. If Kagura tried to help the new victim, Tsukiko, Kumiko and Tomoko would come for her as well. And so she remained in silence.

Kagura's eyes remained fixed on the large window. Everything was quiet and somewhat peaceful, even in the middle of The Program. Could the girl be sure that no one was around, she would have simply lied on the sofa and forced herself to sleep. Not that it would be easy. The Program kept her awake.

And they did too.

Kagura trusted Sachiko and considered her the only real friend she had. But she would never say the same about Rin, Hitomi, or Hana. She still remembered that terrible day, when she heard two of them mocking her behind her back. Her "friends" were no different from her enemies. Even if their class had not gone into The Program, Kagura knew that, sooner or later, the rest of the group would turn against her. She would be bullied and excluded again, and even Sachiko wouldn't protect her, for fear of losing her spot on the social ladder. In The Program, things got even worse. Who would deny that, if Kagura slept, Rin would not wake up, grab her shotgun and blast the shorter girl's head into pieces. Kagura was sure that Hitomi and Hana were stupid and believed in her lies, but she wasn't as certain about Rin. After that moment in the kitchen ended, Rin started following Kagura around, with a strange look on her face. The ugly girl could not decipher it; it might have been amusement, fear, or distrust. And she hoped it wasn't the later.

With her plan of revenge at such an advanced stage, Kagura couldn't let her guard down anymore. She would have to stay awake.

During the last few hours, the anger and euphoria that powered Kagura's spirit were replaced by a strange feeling of emptiness and melancholia. The cause certainly wasn't regret, as Kagura still wanted to finish her job. Maybe it was the closer proximity of death, after the announcements revealed the death of three more girls. Or maybe it was just frustration.

The girls in that apartment were certainly starting to suspect on each other, but Kagura still had not found the spark. The small action that would turn them from bitchy high school girls to competitive monsters fighting for survival. The best option would be a death, but whom? Not Sachiko, for sure, but killing Rin, Hitomi or Hana was also an impossible task. The Colt .45 did not have a silencer equipped, and its noise would wake all of the other girls up after the first gunshot. Then, Kagura would be overpowered quickly, and soon meet the barrel of Rin's shotgun.

If she wanted to continue with the plan, she would need the help from an outsider. But who?

Out of the girls who bullied her, only Kumiko was alive. However, Kagura wouldn't trust her. With her terrible reputation and destructive personality, Kumiko was most likely to be playing to win. Besides her, who could it be? Some other girls were certainly playing, but Kagura did not know who they were. No matter who she decided to ally too, though, her decision would always be a double bladed sword. If the girl was playing the game, she could try to kill Kagura as well. And if she was not, well, she would refuse to kill anyone, to begin with.

Kagura's legs began to shake on their own, and after a while, they gave out, more than willing to do so as they crashed on the floor. Kagura could only look at the dusty floor. She felt so tired, so useless. The weight of The Program got stronger on her back. Nothing was working, and if she didn't manage to kill everyone else in that apartment before they killed her, she was going to die too, when the game got closer to its end. How many hours did she have?

No longer able to remain standing anymore, due to the fatigue taking over her body, Kagura sat on the green couch and looked outside. Again, no one was coming. But the girl did not get calmer. She felt just so weak; weaker than she already was. Kagura never enjoyed excitement or adventure; she was a relaxed, anti-sporty individual, who would rather stay at home watching another episode of Evangelion for the 50th time than going out to party and coming back home at 3 am. After "befriending" Rin and her friends, she started hanging out with them, but still remained somewhat antisocial. At the many parties the girls attended, containing tons of alcohol and even some drugs, Kagura tended to spend the night talking to Sachiko on a table while the other three girls got wild on the dance for and hooked up with whoever they saw. However, Kagura never complained about her lifestyle: she was happy in living a simple but boring life. Of course, she would love to follow Rin's example and get a boyfriend as handsome as Koichi, but no matter how much make up she put on or how many hours she spent taking care of her looks at home, she never got approached. Ever. If Sachiko wasn't there to talk her out of her problems, Kagura had a high possibility of falling into depression.

"Sachiko…" Kagura's gaze turned from the open window to the closed door, leading to the bedroom where her glass-eyed friend slept.

The hardest part of her revenge plan wasn't making it right; it was to somehow be sure that Sachiko wouldn't die during it. Her targets were Rin, Hitomi and Hana. And no one else. She wasn't planning to keep killing after those horrible excuses for human beings were dead; if anything, she would just pretend she had not killed anyone and find a way to survive with Sachiko.

If Sachiko didn't decide to attack her, of course. This was why she wasn't going to kill any of those bitches directly.

"I'm gonna need luck… lots of luck…" Optimism had never been one of Kagura's qualities. Since she opened her pack to find the syringe that carried poison, the many ways Rin and the others could kill her when there was no one else left in that game were a constant in the acne-faced girl's mind. One of her worst options involved being tortured. Kagura imagined Hitomi and Hana stabbing her with kitchen knives, followed by Rin coming in to shoot her dead with the shot gun, while her friends laughed hysterically and Sachiko cried in a corner. Other visions contained surrealistic, fantasy-like imagery. Like a giant Eva, with Rin as its pilot, coming into the apartment only to crush her into pieces. Or an angel coming from the skies, wielding the Lance of Longinus and making a strange symbol in the air. This angel would bring the Second Impact upon the world and kill almost all of mankind. For Kagura, the apocalypse and Battle Royale weren't that different from each other.

"Enough. You can't be a weakling anymore. You were this at the concert and look at what they did; it's time to look outside and see if someone comes to your aid before your turn is over. It's your last chance and you've got to make it good."

Fighting against the fatigue that kept her firm as a statue, Kagura craned her neck and looked at the dark, somber world outside of the small oasis she was at.

At first, she did not see anything. A few minutes passed. When the girl was finally giving up and already turning her head, someone finally came.

A girl was walking down the far horizon of Kagura's vision, getting closer and closer. There was a pistol in each of her hands, and her duffel bag was on her back, bouncing and shaking. The darkness obscured the girl's face, but judging by that voluptuous, sensual and curvy body, Kagura was pretty certain of who it was.

Kumiko Noma.

Thinking about that dreadful girl's name was enough to make Kagura's eyes shimmer with hatred and fury. The last one of the bullies who tormented her was still alive. Kumiko wasn't always around when her gang tormented Kagura, but the unattractive girl knew that she was the only one who had enough brains to lead the group and tell them what to do. Throwing Kagura's IPod in the trash was Kumiko's idea. And so was the bathroom incident. Not surprisingly, Kumiko's reputation at school contained the words "psychopath" on one extreme and "slut" on the other. But gossip wasn't enough to bring her down; Kumiko was made of steel and had a tongue as poisonous as a snake. She would be great at helping Kagura with her conspiracy, but on the other hand, she could never be trusted. How could Kagura get closer to her without getting shot, to begin with? Still, Kumiko would probably be her last chance…

"Fuck! Should I go there or not? It's obvious that she's playing, and will try to kill me! But I have a gun too. Maybe if I…"

Kagura's face darkened as a plan came up. It would not be easy, and there was a chance that she wouldn't even go back to the apartment if things didn't go right. But she would have to take that risk, because it was all or nothing. The choice was simple: risking her life and maybe moving her revenge to the next level, or not doing anything and dying in less than 24 hours. It was time to change the tables. No more inactivity, long waiting, nor fear. For the first time, she would have to go at her problems and face them, in order to succeed. Although the girl never told anyone about the concert incident, one of Kagura's biggest regrets was crying on the staircase instead of entering that filthy bathroom and slapping all four of those whores.

Besides, she wasn't alone. The darkness of the night would help her.

Or wouldn't they? Leaving the safety and comfort of the apartment to go out into the dark world outside was the same thing as going to the kitchen as a small child to get a cup of water, hoping to come back to the bedroom safe and sound.

Kagura's body screamed at her to stay, but she forced her feet to take her across the room and out of the door. On every step she took, the air grew heavier, denser, and the temperature dropped until reaching abnormally cold levels for the summer. Kagura could never be sure if the environment around her was changing, or if it was all in her mind. Walking slowly on the green, poorly illuminated hallway, Kagura took the stairs in order to get to the entrance before Kumiko did. Before starting to go down, she took a long, fearful breath.

No matter how much she wanted to think otherwise, Kagura Soga was still afraid of the dark.

The lamppost would look like a lighthouse, if there weren't hundreds of identical lights littering the street. Its white glow made it possible to see a little of the sidewalk, and even among the despair that the night evocated, it represented a small ray of hope. Even in The Program, when hope is an empty word that does not exist.

The small mechanical beauty, however, was far from being a paradise. Inside the glass casing that protected the light, death and the cruel laws of nature were still present. Around the illuminated center, moths were flying blindly. Dozens of them. Hundreds, perhaps. Many, however, were killed as soon as they touched the light, or at least, severely burned. Still, it did not stop the surviving moths to keep going for the light, only to get burned once more and eventually die. They did not seem to find horror on the way their companions' corpses were lifelessly sprawled on the glass case. In fact, it was almost as if they enjoyed suffering.

Kumiko Noma was more used to butterflies than to moths, but it still did not stop her from appreciating the nocturnal counterparts. Moths were more powerful and contained a dark, ferocious energy, which was visible in their nocturnal habits. Kumiko had never killed a moth before, because every time she tried, those animals would scare her, amaze her, and fascinate her. For Kumiko, moths were beings that were beyond human comprehension, and not even her paintings could capture them entirely. If she decided to make a sketch of a moth in her canvas, she would spend so much time looking at it that the interest in completing her work quickly vanished.

Sadly, it wasn't the time to look at moths, but to look for new victims to kill. A challenge that wasn't as fun, but definitely more exciting. The girl's classmates were like moths that she could kill; they behaved the same way, but were much, much weaker. They were the ones who kept coming back to the light even after getting burned alive.

While thinking her usual criticisms about human nature, Kumiko walked at a fast pace. According to the announcement, the area she was in wouldn't become a danger zone, but keeping moving would do no harm. It was actually recommended. Her uncle did not know about it, but whenever she got the chance, she watched The Program on her bedroom's television. Kumiko certainly wasn't addicted to it, since most of her time was spent between painting, hanging out and doing her homework. But when she saw the carnage in front of her eyes, Kumiko made herself sure to pay attention. Not only because it was fun, but also because it would help her to win, in case her class ever got selected. Ironically, it did.

Moving constantly was a great way of avoiding both danger zones and people sneaking up from behind. However, the girl certainly wasn't going to hide. Most of the contestants were now behind closed doors, so to win the game, she would have to make them come out. The only way she could do this was by staying alert and observing all details of the places where she passed by. Anything could indicate that people were inside; movements on windows, conversations that could be heard at close range, shadows. What would define her victory wouldn't be killing her opponents, but finding them.

"I'll have all the time in the world. There's no need to worry. Soon, this game will be mine."

Kumiko's reputation at school was despicable to say the least, but she did not care. Her classmates could say whatever they wanted behind her back, but none of that bullshit would ever hurt her. It was the same with her pathetic uncle: a loser who married without having a job, he was divorced by his wife only two years after marriage and never had any children. Still, being the closest thing to a parent for Kumiko, he always thought the right to interfere in his niece's life was his. Every time Kumiko got back home and he was still awake to see her, he asked the girl where she had gone and who she had been with. Kumiko always lied, but the fool was tricked anyway; she was good at that. And after going to her bedroom for some sleep before the next day, she laughed silently and eerily.

It wasn't that the girl wanted to destroy other people's lives. She just didn't care about them. Although forming a duo with Tomoko and Tsukiko was fun, all of her plans and actions had herself in the first place. No different from the many men she slept with on Friday and Saturday nights; Kumiko never got romantically attached to any of them, and during sex, her main objective was obtaining pleasure for herself. Although some of the drunken, sex-starved costumers of the bar she went at were smart enough to know that Kumiko didn't give a damn about any of them, they still kept pursuing her. Like all of the men in the world, a girl's breasts and vagina were more important than all of the rest.

"They are no different from the moths, aren't they? They always go, follow, want, desire, the ones who mistreat, ignore, bully and treat them badly. Everyone's like this. They go for the light that burns and destroys them, instead of giving them heat. If the light is kind and gentle, it gets boring and uninteresting. If they love me as much as they say they do, it's their problem; I don't give a shit." The deadly girl thought, changing her focus from The Program to her life. Yes, that was the way things were. Tomoko and Tsukiko, her uncle, her classmates, all of those men, they were attracted to her exactly because she repelled them. They were stupid and weak, and deserved to be treated as such. Pitiful ugly moths flying towards the light, ready to be burned. Or have their wings ripped off.

After winning The Program, the first thing on Kumiko's plans was getting rid of her uncle. She would kill him and make it look like an accident. Since the law always protected The Program winners, her chance of going to jail were slim. Then, she would sell the house she had lived at her entire life, and use the government's money to buy a better one, built and decorated the way she wanted it to be. In her new place, her life would restart.

If only saying it was as easy as doing it. Because for a moment, all that Kumiko wanted was to stay inside for a few minutes. The cold was killing her.

Summer was still on, but quickly moving towards the fall. At night, the temperatures in some districts of Tokyo dropped dramatically, and Saitama was one of them. Kumiko felt like someone had scrubbed ice cream on her face and on her pale back. She should have gotten a coat from that house.

The girl did not see anything, but while she swore softly under her breath and shivered in the cold, a human-shaped figure emerged from the entrance of a building she had just passed by. It moved extremely slowly and swiftly, with the intention of not being noticed. Kumiko was so focused on the journey ahead of her that she did not even see that the building was there. When she started to notice something was terribly wrong, it was already too late.

Steps began to echo behind her. Getting stronger and closer as the seconds went by.

The beautiful assassin only had time to half-turn, unaware of what was going on and getting ready to shoot her attacker. At the same time, Kagura Soga pulled out her Colt .45 and pointed its barrel to the back of Kumiko's head. Then, she violently grabbed a strand of Kumiko's hair with her left hand, doing what was possible to keep the girl's head in place.

"Don't move, bitch." Said the overweight girl with a hoarse, aggressive voice. "Or your brains are going to make the sidewalk even dirtier."

Kumiko was shocked, out of breath; how could she have been surprised so easily? Stupid, weakling! Although she had killed two people, luck certainly wasn't on her side; she couldn't kill Sato Mizunoe, and her attack on Chitose Higurashi and Yoriko Shibasaki had failed miserably, her teeth were gone as a result. She also didn't get into the Kagurazaka manor, being met by a blast of gunfire instead of a sanctuary. And now this. Why was everything so unfair?

Before she could notice, sweat was already dripping from under her hair, and falling from her temples. She had never come this close to dying, except for that day, many years ago. One wrong move, and she would be gone. To live, Kumiko would have to do what she hated the most: play by someone else's rules.

"What do you want? What do you want from me?" Asked the killer, so generically that it did not even sound like a smart, strong girl. The fear had paralyzed Kumiko. She did not know what to say anymore.

"If you do what I want, you are not going to die. But don't even think about not listening to me." As the girl continued speaking, Kumiko began to vaguely remember who that voice belonged to. Could it be...?

"I…"

"JUST FUCKING LISTEN!"

Screaming, Kagura pulled Kumiko's hair even tighter, causing the taller girl to grunt in pain. She also pressed the barrel of the pistol harder, and Kumiko's eyes watered upon feeling the cold contact of the object against her head. Would it end that way? She, the one who was destined to win, defeated so miserably and easily? She had never been through so much humiliation!

"It's simple. I've got a mission for you. Go with it, and I'll help you after you've done it, even if it causes my death. Refuse it, and it will be your last decision. It's your choice."

Kagura Soga. It was her, for sure. That pathetic, self hating anime fan had finally grown some backbone, it seemed. It was so nice to bully and torment her at school, to see the tears in Kagura's eyes as she cried and never fought back. Kumiko was a girl who liked some challenge, so during her time bullying Kagura, she quickly got bored of her. Not before ordering her friends to trap the weaker girl in a dark bathroom, of course.

Now, the roles had been reserved. The victim became the aggressor. But Kumiko still had to know what the plan was like. Curiosity was in control, and if the "mission" involved killing someone and it would be even better.

With Kumiko's silence, Kagura continued her speech:

"Good. It seems like you are willing to do it."

"What do I-I… have to do?" Answered Kumiko, faking some crocodile tears to convince Kagura to release her. It did not happen, and the pain on her hair continued. She would never be trusted.

"My friends are sleeping upstairs. All of them. I cannot kill them on my own, because some… problems will occur if I do it. But you are different. You will go upstairs and kill one of them. Only one. Don't make a sound, too. If you do, they will wake up. I know them well, and I also know how to make each and every one of them open their eyes. Their weapons are better than yours, so if you try to kill me instead, I'll wake them up and them your horsey face will become a red hole. If you do anything that's not in the plan, the same thing happens. Do you understand? Do you understand?"

Apart from the explosion on her ears when Kagura's venomous words echoed dangerously close to them, Kumiko saw the situation in a positive light. If she wasn't so scared and stressed out, she would have smiled. She had gotten a chance, after all; without Kagura, she wouldn't be able to find the right apartment, and once there, a third person would fall by her hands. Sure, it couldn't be the way she wanted it to be, and she didn't see any way of escaping the situation and killing Kagura without dying as well. However, being the adventurous type of girl, Kumiko went with the proposal.

"Besides… If I don't say yes, she's going to kill me here. Mama, take a look, I found a substitute for you."

"Yes, I do." Kumiko paused and then regained her breath, licking her lips and swallowing once. "I agree with the deal." Kumiko hoped that Kagura would release her grip, or at least make it a little weaker, after agreeing with her terms. Instead, Kagura's enclosed fist was still pulling her hair, tearing out some strands and causing her a lot of pain. The gun remained firm. It made sense. Kagura had been tormented for years, and her hatred for Kumiko was strongly. "She must be barely restraining herself from killing me right here."

The two girls started walking towards the blue entrance of the building, where a large glass door would take them to the lobby. They moved as slowly as turtles, with Kumiko watching out for Kagura's feet, fearing to step on them. She could feel the ugly girl's hot and heavy breath on the back of her neck, giving her some understanding on why she shouldn't mess with Kagura. But when they were only a few steps away from the door, a question took hold of Kumiko's mind. It wasn't a good question, the type that would be better to be left in the shadows. Kumiko asked it anyway.

"After I kill… one of them…" Kumiko whispered as the two stopped walking. The pain remained intense and pulled her head upwards, trapping her neck and making it difficult to speak. "They are going to suspect on you. What are you going to do afterwards?"

"It's simple. I'll pretend to be asleep." Kagura's hot breath was felt in every pore of Kumiko's porcelain skin. "After you are done, wait for me by the hospital, 3 zones away from here. I'll catch up with you there. Also, be sure to change the crime scene. I don't want to see any clues pointing towards me or you." Kagura's tone suddenly got louder and more aggressive. "Understood?"

"Y-yes." It sounded like a good plan. Kumiko knew that the group of girls with whom Kagura hung out with was quite large; if she decided to attack Kagura as soon as she got there, it would be hard to escape without at least being overpowered. And the risks were just too big. Of course, Kagura would receive all of her bullets in her forehead as soon as she got into the hospital. The only thing Kumiko was doubtful about was how to kill any of those girls, since none of her weapons were silent. "No big deal. I'll still have a while to think about this."

Resisting to the pressure of the gun, Kumiko managed to put a smile on her face. A deranged, sadistic one, which promised a good bloodbath. She had been defeated momentarily in order to succeed in the future. Being caught by the girl she had cruelly victimized wasn't that bad, after all.

In the end, Kagura was still the moth, and she was still the lamppost.

Kumiko was forced to open the glass door, and the two girls got into the lobby clumsily and disjointedly. They walked over to the elevator, and Kagura released Kumiko's hair for a second in order to push its button. The gun remained where it was, though, and Kumiko did not dare to move or react. She was lost in her thoughts, floating trough a never ending maze of ideas, theories and possibilities. One of them was the reason why Kagura wanted only one of her friends to die. Kumiko quickly realized why. In a Battle Royale, a divided house never stood. Never. Upon seeing one of their friends dead, Rin and the others would freak out and shoot each other. Hopefully, they would shoot an unattractive anime fan as well, sparing her of doing the dirty work.

The elevator came only a few seconds later. The two girls got in and Kagura pushed the button to the fourth floor. The doors closed.

"Tomorrow, when they wake up" thought Kumiko, smiling. "This place is going to explode."

AUTHOR'S NOTES

I focused the beginning of this chapter on Shizuko not only to show her reaction to Natsumi's death, but also to develop her more as a character. She finally got the concept of the game in, and realized that she'll have to kill in order for her child to survive. I believe every mother would do the same, in her situation.

In this chapter, I also decided to show more of Kagura's "sweet side", since she was extremely aggressive on her last appearance, on chapter eighteen. Only you readers can tell if it worked or not. Kagura is, essentially, a grey character, nor good nor evil. As the opening of her section says, she's still suffering from a trauma, living in a personal hell she cannot escape from. She's my favorite character to write about so far, maybe because of her ambiguity.

Kumiko is certainly a very unlucky villain. Now, she's in Kagura's hands. I tried to subvert the typical Battle Royale cliché, in which the kids who play the game are always smarter than the ones who do not and ALWAYS get the upper hand in any type of conflict. Until the final battle, of course. A little more was added about Kumiko's personality, but the revelation of her secrets and past will still take a long time to come.

See you all in the next update!