Battle Royale
Part 3

"You have to stop this madness! Our children are killing each other! My dear Maka is hurt and Ox is dead!" Spirit screamed at mayor Tezca. "What more can you ask of! We need to find them before midnight or all of our kids might be dead!"

Sprit was at his job when the news had suddenly been interrupted by his daughter being stuck in an unknown cell. It only turned out worse when the mysterious person explained what they were going to do. His dear and precious angel was in danger from the other noble children. He was driving himself mad by watching his daughter being in a dangerous area without him even knowing where she is. Spirit along with Kami and the other noble parents got immediately at mayor Tezca's house. They begged him to find their children but even with his special powers, he couldn't find them.

Tezca possess a special eye-sighing ability. He can see everything the mirrors are seeing. He searched high and low for them, but he couldn't find them. They must be at a place where there aren't any mirrors.

"Calm down Spirit! I'm trying everything I can! Do you think I want to watch them kill each other?! They are in a location where mirrors don't exist! I have searched everywhere for them but I can't find them!" Tezca was driving himself mad with these games. When the news had been changed to the mad "game" of some sick person, he knew he couldn't mess around with his jokes. This is a very serious crime which needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Their lives are on the line.

"Our dear boy is dead…" Ox's mother mourned her dead son. Her heart broke when she saw her boy being killed. She knew he was a smart boy and would do the right thing to survive, but he was first one to fall. She's now childless and doesn't have anyone to call her "mom." Ox's parents' biggest nightmare had come true and they were broken because of it.

"My daughter almost died! She is bleeding heavily and needs medical attention! If she dies you'll be the one to pay!" Spirit roared loudly and Kami hissed back.

"Spirit! He's trying to find our daughter! You aren't helping by threatening him!" Kami was just as upset as Spirit. She loves her daughter dearly and seeing her daughter on a screen being attacked is a nightmare. Her anxiety is higher than ever because she can't help her daughter. "You have to calm down and use your head! We can find Maka! We can find her before anything happens to her!"

It seemed to calm down Spirit a little but he was still afraid. "Fine. But you better find her or I swear-"

"Spirit!" Kami got Spirit to shut up and Tezca continued to search for them though his mirrors. He tried and he tried but everywhere he locked showed nothing. He knows he is missing something. No one can't be without mirrors without leaving tracks behind. Through the mirrors he has looked through, there must be something which can give him their location. Anything! Children's' lives are on the line!

…

My arm hurts. I want to scream out my pain but I know somewhere is my parents watching me if they aren't too busy with work. In my heart, I don't want them to watch. It'd be killing them to watch me be slaughtered by another noble.

Carefully removing my arm, I ripped the sleeve from my coat off and started to tie the bandage around my arm but it's hard when you only have one arm. Somehow, I managed to tie the sleeve around my wound hard and tie an easy knot. There, that's the best I can do now. I'll have to take it easy with my arm now.

With Ox dead that means the others must step up their game as well. If someone doubted about fighting this battle, they aren't now. Not with Ox dead.

I gulped loudly. I really hope I'm not the one who killed him. I never meant for him to die and now he's dead. The one rival I always disliked and competed with is now dead. It feels weird, now we can never compete for the best scores or talk bad about each other. His parents must be devastated. I can't imagine how it is losing a child, maybe it's because I'm still a child and I won't have any children in a long time.

Suddenly, there was another sound of the canon and a picture of Death The Kid came up on the sky. So now Death The Kid is dead as well. Who is the one who killed him? There must be someone really dedicated to this game to be killing people like this.

Sighing loudly, I decided to get up. I can't help Death The Kid or Ox and I'm not going to sit around and wait for death to come. I don't know what I'm going to do but I've to do something.

I started walking and recalling everything that has happened. I woke up in a cell and then crawled out of a dog door. Wait! This is an underground area! That means there have to be another door! Not the ones to the cells! But a door to maybe a different room or a way out!

With newfound spirit, I started to jog toward one of the walls, or at least, where I think is a wall. This place really looks like it can be outside in the wild but it's not. I've to remember that. This isn't the real outside. This's an artificial area.

The sticks and dry leaves under my feet crunched but I ignored it. This newfound information is very important. I need to reach a wall and search for a door. I wonder if anyone else has realized this or are they all too blinded by fear to use their brains?

I was too caught up in my mind I didn't notice Black*Star. We collided and we fell both hard to the ground. We both groan out loudly in pain and sat up. Something inside of me relaxed when I saw Black*Star. My best friend but who knows if he's playing the game.

"Maka! Thank god I found you!" Black*Star pulled me into a tight hug which I immediately returned. "I'm so happy to see you!" I couldn't be happier. Black*Star is here and he isn't attacking me. Of course it'd be him out of all the others who wouldn't kill. He only fights but he wouldn't kill anyone. He isn't like anyone of the others.

"I'm so glad you aren't crazy as all of the others!" I pulled away from Black*Star and smiled wide. For the first time since I woke up in that cell, I'm smiling. I'm feeling great now when Black*Star is beside me and isn't mad. "I ran into Ox and he turned absolutely mad and he tried to kill me but instead he injured my arm but I managed to get away from him and then a little while later I heard the canon and he was dead and I think I'm the one who killed him and now I ran into you!" I was so happy to see a familiar and friendly face I just spilled everything to him.

Black*Star's eyes immediately travelled to my arm and he looked at my wound. "Ox did this?" His eyes turned a darker shade and his eyebrow narrowed. I nodded and his arm tightened on my arm, making sure not to hurt me. "That bastard. He deserved more than he got."

More than he got? Did Black*Star see who killed him? "Black*Star what do you mean?"

His gaze slowly wandered up to my eyes and they still looked mad. He's angry and no one messes with him when he's mad. "I found Ox dead in the shed. He had a stab wound to his heart. He must have died immediately and quick."

I felt bad for feeling relieved. It wasn't me who had killed him. He hadn't died on his own spear or died of inner bleeding in the balls, it was someone else who killed him. My hands are still clean. "Did you see the one who killed him?"

Black*Star shook his head. "No, I didn't." He stood up on his feet and grabbed my wrist. "But there is something I want to show you. It is very important."

For some reason. I chose to come with him. I didn't tell Black*Star about my door plan. The door won't run away so hopefully we can still find it later. As long as we don't run into other nobles who wants to kill us. But we are two so they wouldn't dare to go against us, right?

"Okay, but what is it?" I asked but Black*Star stayed silent. His grip on my wrist is strong and started to hurt a little. "Black*Star, you are hurting me." His grip immediately loosened.

We reached Black*Star's destination and it shocked me beyond imagination. In front of me is the bloody spear Ox cut my arm with. But that isn't the thing that surprised me a lot. Elizabeth and Patricia are tied to a tree and they are covered in cuts and bruises. They are both knocked unconscious.

My heart stopped, did Black*Star do this to them? The Spear makes sense for him to have. He found Ox dead and stole his weapon, but why didn't the killer take the weapon first? It could be because the killer already had a better weapon. Yes, that must be it.

"Black*Star… why are Elizabeth and Patricia tied to the tree? Why are they covered in wounds?" Black*Star then grabbed the spear Ox had and handed it to me.

"Take this instead. You can't do anything with that rusty piece of metal." I don't know why I grabbed the spear. I know I'm better with a spear since I was in material arts class. I know how to use a spear and Black*Star knows it as well. But knowing this's the spear Ox used to hurt me kind of hurts me to just hold. This's a dead man's weapon and I would rather stay to my own scythe than the spear. But I still held the spear in my hand along with the scythe.

Black*Star picked up a weapon which looked like a kusarigama. It had two small blades which looked like small scythes which were connected by a chain. "Elizabeth and Patricia always picked on you. Beat you. And always put you in the villain seat." The chains from the kusarigama rustled and he walked toward Elizabeth and Patricia. "They've always been the villains and the worst people in Death City. It is hard to be meaner than them."

Elizabeth groaned and her eyes fluttered open. They turned to those of horror when she laid her eyes on Black*Star and then she looked at me. "Maka! You have to help us!" She looked at me pleading. "Look what he did to us! Please! He is mad! You got to save us!" I never looked away from her eyes. They looked genuinely upset. I could tell she was being a better liar or she was telling the truth.

"Can you believe her Maka? After all the lies she told you and all the beating she gave you? Can you trust her to tell you the truth?" Black*Star started to circle around me with his Kusarigama in his hands. This made me feel very uncomfortable and like a pray but Black*Star wouldn't hurt me? Right? He is my friend.

"You're right. I can't believe her. But that doesn't mean we can hurt her or Patricia. This is the time when we're supposed to be using both of our brains to find a way out before midnight!" I looked up toward the sky and the countdown and it said we had two hours before it'd be midnight. "We still got time! We can still figure something out and get out of here-"

"Shut up Maka." Black*Star growled at me and suddenly, he turned around and pressed his blade toward my throat. "Don't be a fucking priest Maka. Like we could ever escape from here. Our kidnappers and the whole country are watching us. We aren't going anywhere. This is obviously well planned and only one of us will go out or maybe even nobody." Black*Star slowly lowered his kusarigama but instead she plugged it into Patricia's shoulder and she woke up with a loud cry of pain. Black*Star twisted the blade in her shoulder and Elizabeth cried and begged for him to stop. "Shut up! You picked on Maka for years and now you taste your own medicine!"

Everything hit me like a brick of stone. Black*Star had Ox's spear because he didn't find him dead; it's him who killed him. He knew the relationship Ox and I had so he must've killed him because of it. Because "he hurt me."

I felt sick. The friend I protected for all these years for not being an evil person is indeed one. He isn't any better than his criminal relatives. He killed a person and he's about to kill Elizabeth and Patricia.

"STOP!" I exclaimed and before I got a chance to stop him, his other blade was once again pressed against my throat.

"You're always the goody-two-shoes. Not wanting to hurt anyone if it isn't necessary. You never thirsted for spilling the blood of those who ran over you. No, you are an idiot. You're lucky I'm your friend. Without me, you'd be just a loner. A lonely, weak and unlovable little girl." His words were worse than I could ever imagine. It's like feeling someone pierce a knife into your heart or not worse. The one person I fully trusted with my life and all my secret just turned on me. He killed Ox and now he'll kill me as well.

A tear rolled down my cheek. "Black*Star. I'm sorry you feel like that. I'm sorry I've always been a burden." I looked into his eyes and they looked even madder than Ox's when he swung the spear to kill me. "But answer one final question, did you kill Ox?"

Black*Star smirked wide and nodded. "Yes. Yes I did. I killed him and you should've seen his eyes. He looked so surprised when he realized he was killed by none the less than me." His voice is filled with bloodlust and madness. I've never seen Black*Star like this. Never. I never even believed he could become this kind of person. It broke my heart to see him like this.

"And you know what? I'll kill you and-" His voice was cut off by a blade going through his stomach. Black*Star didn't cry out in pain or anything. He slowly lowered his blade from my throat and his other hand let go of the kusarigama in Patricia's shoulder. His eyes turned to me and he whispered something I almost didn't quite catch. "Survive. Live. For me."

He fell down on the ground and behind him stood Death The Kid with a bloody dagger; the one that killed my best friend in front of me. How's he still alive? He died!