CHAPTER 3: BEFORE THE TRIAL
After a while, there was a knock on Hikari's door. She opened it to find the government official.
"We're almost there, so you need to be in the dining car." she said, then turned around to knock on Marui's door and relate the same message. Yuki didn't wait for Marui to come out and went to the dining car. She looked at the list again.
Tokyo
Seishun Academy
Girl: Watanabe, Sayuri (16)
Boy: Hanamura, Daisuke (14)
Volunteer for Fuji, Yuuta: Fuji, Syuuske. (16) Could not volunteer for him because Fuji, Yuuta, is in a different school. Now is in the Trial.
Hikari raised her eyebrows at the last one. She could only imagine how horrible they must feel right now. Probably sick. That must suck.
Hyotei
Girl: Nakamura, Mina (15)
Boy: Ootori, Choutarou (16)(volunteered for Shishido, Ryou)
Oh. Poor Shishido. Hikari knew they were doubles partners, and that Ootori was too nice for his own good. She was pretty sure he was going to get killed in the Trial.
Yamabuki
Girl: Sengoku, Maya (18) (volunteered for Watanabe, Akane)
Boy: Sengoku, Kiyosumi (16)
Ouch. Hikari knew Sengoku as that lucky guy on the tennis team, and she realized that Sengoku, Maya, must be his sister. She assumed they would be together in the Trial. If not, that would be pretty sad. It must be horrible, to have both of them in the Trial.
St Rudolph
Girl: Kikyo, Chika (13)
Boy: Fuji, Yuuta (15)
Fudomine
Girl: Tachibana, Ann (15)
Boy: Shirogane, Yoshiro (18)
Volunteer for Tachibana, Ann: Tachibana, Kippei. (17) Tried to volunteer, but could not because he is a boy and she is a girl. Only a girl can volunteer for a girl. Now in the Trial.
Hikari assumed that the siblings would be together. She decided to stay away from the sibling pairs; they would be exceptionally aggressive to keep their sibling from getting killed.
KANAGAWA
Rikkaidai
Girl: Satou, Hikari (16)
Boy: Marui, Bunta (17) (Volunteered for Marui, Daichi)
Hikari smiled bitterly at that one. Nothing she could do to change it…but she wished the paper said she was 17. She would be 17 in a month, after all…
Yokohama City School
Boy: Tatsumi, Ryotarou (14)
Girl: Hino, Nanako (12)
CHIBA
Rokkaku
Girl: Matsunaga, Eri (17)
Boy: Seta, Hikaru (12)
OSAKA
Shitenhouji
Girl: Watanabe, Amaya (16)
Boy: Oshitari, Kenya (16)
OKINAWA
Higa
Girl: Shou, Yukiko (15)
Boy: Kite, Eishirou (16)
There were some other names on the list of course, but these were the ones that looked familiar to Hikari. Or rather, the names of the schools were familiar. She scanned the list and found that there were about 50ish people. Man, that was a lot…but then again, there were a lot of schools in Japan.
Hikari looked doubtfully at the tributes from Higa. They were known for being tough and horrible and totally unfair. If she remembered correctly, from middle school, Kite was known as…
"Killer?" asked someone from behind her. "Better avoid him if you can help it." Hikari turned around and as she did so, fell on the floor. She looked up to a laughing Marui.
"Stop laughing!" she exclaimed.
"That was funny, though!"
"You suck." said Hikari sulkily. The government official came in and frowned as she saw Hikari on the floor.
"A girl on the floor does not make for a good impression. You might want to get up." she said. Hikari got up slowly.
"It wasn't as if I meant to be there." muttered Hikari.
"Well, we're almost here, about 5 more minutes. Once we are out of the train, someone will lead you to where you will be staying tonight and tomorrow night. From there, you can train if you wish." said the woman, seemingly not hearing Hikari. Hikari sullenly sat down and tried to eat a cookie, but she found that she couldn't get it down. She ran out of the room, ignoring Marui's surprised look. She ran to the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bath.
"I'm not scared." Hikari said out loud to herself. Then she sighed. "I am scared. There's no lying to myself." In fact, it seemed like she couldn't show any emotion right now because she was that scared.
At least they're not throwing us into the arena the minute we get here…but even with the training, I've never held any sort of weapon in my life! Maybe I should just stick to survival skills and hope I'm just the last one left… Hikari thought to herself. However, she knew that she had to learn how to use at least one weapon decently. She wouldn't survive otherwise. Although when people are scared, they usually do things they normally couldn't, like throw a knife properly.
"I will come back. And I will not kill those who I like. I will try to not kill anyone as much as I can. Only for protection." Hikari said firmly to her reflection in the giant mirror. She absolutely did not want to kill a human, and even if she did survive, she wouldn't be able to live with it. She doubted she could come back from the Trial without killing anyone, though. What if she liked it? What if she became a deranged murderer? What if—no. Not thinking that way. Hikari took a deep breath and came out of the bathroom. She walked back to the dining car to see the government official beckoning Marui out of the train. She looked at Hikari.
"You will be taken from here to the place you will be staying. The training area is in that place." she said, pushing Marui out of the train. "Come on." She looked expectantly at Hikari. Hikari took another deep breath, looked back at the dining car, and stepped out of the train. She was okay. She could do this.
A/N: So this chapter was pretty short. Sorry, I forgot that I promised to have this up by tomorrow, so I was sorta pressured to finish the chapter. I was going to go on to a little of the training, but I decided that this was a good place to stop. So the next chapter will be all about the training, and it might start the Trial. I don't actually know. I don't really write the story, the story writes itself. I hope that makes sense.
Oh, and I wouldn't expect another chapter in the next week. Although I might be able to post another chapter of There's More to a Person Than the Eye Can See by Sunday. Maybe. It depends. If I don't post another chapter by Sunday, I'll post it the next week. :D
Review please! :D