A/N: Hello lovelies! All I have to say is SORRY for the long wait for the update:/ I Have NO excuse other than epic busy-ness. I think you all are going to like this chapter a lot. Again, I don't own Battle Royale; and again there is violence and character death in this chapter (Although the violence isn't too terribly graphic.

Review, Review, Review!

Chapter Four: The Teacher Retaliates

Welcome, my son. Welcome to the machine.

-Pink Floyd

Candice was impressed.

And Candice was NOT an easily impressed woman. She was much older than she looked, and she had seen more in her sixty-four years than most did in a lifetime. But the boy; Taketo; had guts. She felt herself wishing that she would have held the soldiers off for a few more moments, so the boy could have had some time to really end her right. She had even smiled a bit as Setsuko went down.

She had never been a big fan of her overseas-counterpart; the woman seemed to have enjoyed her job a little too much. It made her feel almost sick to see the hope in the student's eyes as Setsuko walked in. She had REALLY played the teacher role well, made the poor kids trust her. Candice had caused a lot of deaths in her ten years with the Battle Royale program; but she made sure that her children died knowing what she truly was. Knowing that she was not their friend. Knowing that it was her job to make them suffer.

Knowing that it was what she had to do now.

Because as much as she disliked it; Setsuko's death had to be punished.

Sighing, she picked up her radio transmitter and pressed talk.

"Mr. Johnson?"

"Yes Mam?"

"Send in Girl 0."

(A/N: In Japan, it is common to refer to someone who you don't know well by their last names. You will hear Jotaro and Hiraga referred to as Nozaki. You will hear Minori referred to as Yoshido.)

Jotaro POV

He wasn't going to die.

No. He and Hiraga had come much too far for it to end like this.

In the fucking Battle Royale.

If his twin was going to die, it was going to be at the end of a long, happy life. Long after he himself had died. Because as much as he attempted to distance himself from people, from his emotions; he loved his brother. He loved him more than anything in the world. Jotaro had always looked out for his brother, even though they were the same age. He had done EVERYTHING to protect him; even joined a Yakuza gang to keep him safe.

"Brother."

Jotaro didn't turn his head to respond to the boy that clung to his back; it might cause him to trip and fall. Instead he grit his teeth and started running faster. He could see lights ahead. They were getting close to the camp.

"Brother."

"Don't speak, Hiraga. It wastes energy."

Jotaro could make out the outline of a watchtower now, with his classmates milling around it. He willed himself to run faster. He thought he could make out the profile of his classmate, Yoshido Minori, her bleach blonde bob shining like a ray of hope. She didn't like him very much (none of his classmates did), but she and Hiraga were close friends. Her mother was the school nurse, and Jotaro was sure that she would want to help.

"Yoshido!"

"It's no use, brother." Jotaro heard his brother whisper in his ear. If the situation had been different, he would have berated him for being so quick to give up. But he was silent instead.

He collapsed in front of the tower; their dramatic entrance drawing a crowd. Most of them stayed back, afraid of the twins even when one of them was gravely injured. But just as he had predicted, Yoshido broke through the crowd, falling to her knees before his twin, cradling his head and whispering something he couldn't hear. Then she looked up at him, eyes accusing.

"What happened?" she demanded. Jotaro opened his mouth to defend himself to her; how dare she assume that he would hurt his own brother! But he calmed himself. He did NOT want to alienate Hiraga's only friend.

"He was shot down in the woods, by an arrow. I've pulled the arrows out already."

"Stupid boy! You leave the arrows in as long as possible! He'll bleed out like this!"

"I didn't know." He said, gritting his teeth. He had never understood why Hiraga hung around such a brash, strong willed girl. He could have any one of the Yakuza girls if he wished and they were much sweeter, much more willing. With his looks, he could probably even have one of the girls at their school; once they got over their fear of him. But he chose Yoshido Minori. He would never understand.

"Ando, go find me something to bandage him with! Maruyama, get me water! And you- Nozaki. Carry him inside; put him on one of the beds on the first floor. DON'T disturb his wounds." And then she was off, in a scurry of orders and commands. Everyone listened, Yoshido was a natural leader. Jotaro picked up his semi-conscious brother once again, finding the beds that Yoshido had mentioned. He set him down as gently as he could, cringing when he coughed up blood.

"Brother." Hiraga rasped, and this time Jotaro listened, kneeling down bedside his brother's bed.

"What is it, Hiraga?"

Hiraga turned his head slowly, as if it took a great feat of strength to do so. He held a hand out to his brother, and after a pregnant pause, Jotaro took it.

"You can make it out of this brother; make it out of this for me."

"Stop talking like that, we'll make it out together."

Hiraga smiled one last time, and Jotaro knew that he had been wrong as he felt his brother's hand go slack in his own; his eyes glazing over. He blinked back tears as he let his hand fall back onto the bed, and let himself fall back on his heels. Just then, Yoshido burst into the room, gauze in hand. She stopped before the bed, breath caught in her throat.

"He's gone."

Marcus POV

He WOULD find her.

It was just a matter of not getting killed by her friends while he was doing so.

She had told him not to head for the Japanese camp; but unfortunately 'not the Japanese camp' could mean just about anywhere on the Island. So he had decided to head for the very center of the Island; a small lake that was almost a direct median between the two bases. He just hoped that somehow she had come to the same conclusion. She's smart, he thought, She'll know what to do. She WILL. But Marcus found that he was just trying to convince himself; just trying to reassure himself that he would see her again. What if she's dead already? A voice whispered in the back of his head, What if she got shot as soon as she stepped out the door? Marcus gritted his teeth and shook his head; forcing himself to keep moving, forcing himself to ignore the voice. The sun was beginning to rise above his head, and he laughed slightly. Had he really been walking all night?

He sat down on a tree stump, and opened his bag. He pulled out his water; and took a long swig; quenching the dry ache in the back of his throat. He cussed as he felt his finger slide across something sharp; and pulled out a long machete. Not bad, he thought; throwing the metallic weapon up in the air, and catching it in his hand.

Snap!

Marcus felt the hair on the back of his neck rise up at the noise. He stayed very still, hardly breathing as he listened for another sound.

Crunch!

Someone was behind him. He stood up slowly, machete raised at whoever was about to come out of the woods.

Nothing.

He relaxed, letting out a small, choked laugh. No one was-

Suddenly he felt something land on his back, taking them both crashing to the ground. It began to beat him with some sort of blunt object, and he used all his strength to shove it off, sending it sprawling away from him. He whirled around to see a scrawny Asian girl flat out on her back. He almost laughed, until she sprung up from the ground and came at him again, wooden baseball bat in hand. He tried to back up, but it was too late. She launched herself at him, latching onto his shirt and snarling while she did. One hand blocking his face, the other blindly hitting at her, he stumbled through the forest, his foot latching onto a root. It sent the two of them tumbling down the hill together; bumping and scraping against all sorts of trees and sticks. Marcus threw out a hand and scrabbled desperately against the ground to find a hold. He knew where this hill ended.

In a cliff.

Finally, his hand latched against a root, and the girl lost her hold on Marcus' shirt. She screamed as she went tumbling forward, and in less than a second she was gone, disappeared off the edge of the cliff.

Holy shit.

For a moment there was complete silence, save for the Marcus' breathing and the sounds of the forest. Then suddenly, in a blur of color, a tall boy dressed in black flew past him, calling out wildly. He stopped just before the cliff's edge, and looked down. For a moment he was still. Then he collapsed, breaking out into sobs; crying out words that Marcus only vaguely understood. He lay there watching the boy, unable to move for fear that the boy might hear him. But the boy seemed to take no notice of him at all; engulfed by his sorrow.

"Oono!" He cried, his voice cracking desperately. "Iie, iie, iie, Oono!" The boy rocked back and forth, his eyes still fixed on the cliff, and the body that he knew must lie below it. They stayed there for a while, the boy transfixed on the body in the ravine, Marcus bound by an inexplicable fear to move.

Eventually, his crying quieted and he stood up. Before he even realized what the boy was doing; he threw himself over the edge, silent as he fell. Marcus lept up, grabbing desperately at thin air, but it was too late. The boy was gone. And now it was his turn to look over the edge, to view the empty bodies from a god-like perspective.

They lie perfectly still and almost directly on top of one another. The looked like sleeping lovers, the boy's arm thrown across the girl's torso; the girl's cheek turned into the boy's chest. But the blood gave it away, pooling around them like a sheet. A red, silk sheet.

Marcus turned around, wretching violently as he fell to his knees. He had killed a girl; and Jesus Christ, he might as well have killed the boy too.

Marcus had always been a tough guy. He had won his own Battle Royale for fuck's sake. But what he didn't let anyone know was that he had never killed anyone. Through sheer luck his best friend RJ and him had made it to the final two; and RJ died of an infection before the collars got either of them.

He dragged himself off the ground, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve. He only made it a few steps up the hill before leaning on a tree to be sick again. Get a hold of yourself, asshole. He thought to himself, Brush it off. You NEED to find Ayumi. You're no use to her like this.

He made his way back up the hill, forcing himself not to cry as he did so. It wasn't his fault that the girl had attacked him. It was accident. Nothing but an accident.

He sighed as he saw his pack come into view, and he collapsed down next to it; his eyes drooping despite the fact that the sun was rising. Ayumi's face rested behind his eyelids as he drifted off to sleep.

(A/N: So what do ya'll think? Is Jotaro sexist as fuck or what? And what is that Girl 0 thing about anyway? And poor Oono and Tanada:( This was a sad one to write; but I can't wait to get REVIEWS!)

Italics= dead

*=died during prologue

Girl Zero: No Name

Boy One: Kevin Finch

Girl One: Heather White

Boy Two: Julian Cole

Girl Two: Zoe Baxter

Boy Three: Tadaharu Ito

Girl Three: Hanna Everett

Boy Four: Vincent Shields

Girl Four: Amayo Akemi

Boy Five: Marcus Blackwell

Girl Five: Yoshiko Akemi

Boy Six: James Calvin

Girl Six: Charlene Further

Boy Seven: David Marcoccia

Girl Seven: Ayano Maruyama

Boy Eight: Kaoru Taminaka

Girl Eight: Tomomi Oono (Fell off a cliff during fight with Marcus Blackwell)

Boy Nine: Benjirou Daichi

Girl Nine: Maiko Ando

Boy Ten: Fumio Tanada (Jumped off a cliff after Tomomi Oono)

Girl Ten: Minori Yoshido

Boy Eleven: Akihiro Settae

Girl Eleven:Keiko Nishimura

Boy Twelve: Zion Little

Girl Twelve: Kennedy Lipton

Boy Thirteen: Daichi Kobayashi

Girl Thirteen: Yoshiko Akemi

Boy Fourteen: Jotaro Nozaki

Girl Fourteen: Riley Kramer

Boy Fifteen: Hiraga Nozaki (shot with arrows by Adelaide Angelus)

Girl Fifteen: Harley Alexander

Boy Sixteen: Richie Williams (gunned down by Yoshiko Akemi)

Girl Sixteen: Mana Chikifuji (shot and stabbed by Riley Kramer)

Boy Seventeen: Ito Settae* (exploded by Setsuko Ogawa)

Girl Seventeen: Adelaide Angelus

Boy Eighteen: Zion Little

Girl Eighteen: Zara Mckenzie* (shot down by soldiers)

Boy Eighteen: Jackson Riddleston

Boy Nineteen: Harrison McBride* (Shot down by soldiers)

Girl Nineteen: Ayumi Sato

Boy Twenty: Taketo Yeshimoto (Shot down by soldiers)

Girl Twenty: Jun Ishi