Yuuya came in a few hours after school. It was still raining, so his hair and shoulders were a bit damp, but the solemn weather fit the atmosphere nicely. It was like a movie scene in a tragedy. "Well... time's up," he called out in a bit louder voice than normal, to wake them up from their seemingly comfortable slumber. "Any last words?" he asked as he twisted the knife in his hand's anxiously.

Yoshiki looked up, resolve burning strong in his chest. He nodded lightly at Yuuya, glancing at Ayumi a moment before voicing his request. He still... wanted to protect her, if that was only to be from a painful death. "Make Ayumi's fast," he told him, his voice unwavering and his hand still cradling her head close.

Yuuya was quite intrigued. So, he was asking him not to torture her? Interesting... It wasn't outlandish, like 'let her go'... Hmm... Well, he was willing to compromise, if the boy felt so strongly about it. "Hm... I might... if you take the place," he offered, still playing with the knife in his hand. Since he had adequately tortured the boy, he had been planning to make Ayumi's death as painful as possible and the boy's quick, but... he guessed he had gotten enough enjoyment out of her. Enough to be able to make an exception... if the boy took the pain that had been intended for her.

Yoshiki was unshaken by the result of more pain. He was actually more thankful the killer was even hearing him out. "I don't care what you do to me... Just don't make Ayumi suffer," he answered sternly. It was true the killer could go behind his back and kill her slowly anyways... but if he was going to do that, why take the time to lie to him in the first place? It wasn't like he'd be alive to feel the pain of betrayal.

There was always a chill that ran through Ayumi's bones as Yuuya came into the building. At least... this would be it. She nestled close to Yoshiki, the fear of everything that was about to happen made her begin to tremble lightly. She met his eyes before he suddenly made a request. She tensed, her mind stalling in surprise because they hadn't talked about anything like that! She didn't want Yoshiki suffering anymore than he had to! "No! Yoshiki, I don't want that!" she said urgently. She wasn't willing to let him take that burden. She would rather him just go on, and for her to deal with whatever the killer had prepared for her. He wouldn't draw it out for days with her like he had with him. She was scared of dying painfully, but she wasn't willing to let Yoshiki pull out stupid chivalry like this. How much longer could he even last? Two days in a row of stab and burn wounds... his body would quickly shut down completely. If Yuuya didn't feel that Yoshiki took the full force of what he intended for her, he could end up being tortured longer for no good reason.

Yoshiki didn't answer Ayumi, instead looking Yuuya dead in the eyes. So... he was this intent? Well, Yuuya didn't really have a problem with it... Really, he had gotten a lot of pain out of the two of them already, so this wasn't a bad deal... He could at least show his generosity. "Alright... I'll humor you, if you're so dead set on it," he finally said after a minute of pondering, wiping his knife off a little on his shirt. He pulled the two apart and restrained both their other hands, so there would be no fighting back. He readied his knife, grabbing Yoshiki's head and forcing it against the pipe, so it wouldn't be able to move. His smile grew as he sat the tip of the blade against his left eye lid, despite the rebellious look in his other, open eye. He knew, even though yesterday he had kept his silence, that he'd get the last few screams Yoshiki had in him, so it wouldn't be a joyless torture. He paused, drawing out the wait of nervous uncertainty for his two victims. He loved this part as well, so he chose to revel in it a little bit before starting.

"What!? No!" Ayumi snapped, an anger igniting in her that her burden was being shoved off to Yoshiki. She didn't want to be cowardly, or a drain, or taking from him in their last hours of life. This wasn't fair! She'd have to watch Yoshiki get tortured even more, and he deserved to just get his rest now. She watched with wide eyes as the knife was brought to Yoshiki's eye. She jerked forward in a small lunge for Yuuya, but her arms were caught by the chains around her wrists. "STOP IT!" she screamed, echoing the same thing she begged the first day he went through these motions. "Just let him die!" Ayumi begged. Angry, hot tears began to spill as her arms yanked at the chains in a small, desperate attempt to stop this. They were so close, but she had no way of moving. She just kept pulling and struggling, as if she could wear the chains down by sheer force of will.

Yuuya became more egged on by Ayumi's desperate screams. She still had plea that sounded like music to his ears, which made this a good deal on his end too. He had grown too accustomed to Ayumi's mental screams of agony to switch to physical now, so he guessed this suited their end. The knife was slow, taking even a few moment to simply pierce the skin. It caused a flinch in Yoshiki's body, be he was overall trying to be as strong as he could for as long as he could, for Ayumi's sake. Yuuya knew that would change though. Each minute only brought the knife down a short distance, which was a good thing for now, but when the pain really began, anyone would wish for it to just hurry and dive in completely.

Within moments, as Yuuya predicted, Yoshiki's screams resurfaced, unable to be kept down from the searing pain striking him in his eye. His back arched further the deeper the blade sunk into his eye, the pain hot and unbelievable. It was worse than just simple stabs into flesh and muscle. His yelling voice began to crack and get interrupted by deep breaths of air, and his brain was in a deep panic. It seemed to last for hours, the agony destroying his sense of time, or any of his other senses. The pain began to feel deep, almost to the back of his head. It was sickening feeling that made his stomach turn, but he couldn't discern one feeling from another in this state. His screaming never ceased, and his entire body was stricken with tremors as he felt a sickening scrape. The internal sound echoed in his ears. It was the most disgusting thing he had ever had to hear.

With the end reached, Yuuya seemed content. He had been able to drag that out a considerable amount of time, and he felt... very satisfied. In one last movement, he jerked the knife upwards, causing devastating damage to Yoshiki's brain. Just like that, his body stopped, except for the occasional after-death twitch of muscles. Yuuya jerked the knife out, spraying a trail of blood behind it. He let go of Yoshiki's head, letting it tilt to the side, his right eye dark and empty. That had felt extremely good. He gave Ayumi a twisted, gleeful look, reveling in how distraught she must be. He wouldn't torture her... at least, not physically. He flicked the knife in her direction, slinging the blood onto her with sick enjoyment.

Ayumi stared in horror, her begs not ceasing as she desperately wanted him to just end it with a quick cut to one of his arteries. The knife was being pushed painfully slow into him. Ayumi felt nauseated just imagining the pain, even as Yoshiki tried to stay strong. The moment his yells rang out into the empty room, she felt something crack inside of her. She wasn't sure what, it just felt like everything was shutting down. Her yells and pleas died, turning inward and creating a horrible shivering. Ayumi's eyes widened as the knife was pulled out, the blade coated in blood and flesh. She couldn't stop herself from then looking at Yoshiki, coming to realize that he was dead. Yoshiki was really dead. She would never hear one of his smart ass comments or deep chuckles or just... his voice. Everything that was Yoshiki was wiped out in that moment. She hardly had a moment to digest that fact when the knife was motioned towards her and his blood splattered onto her. Yoshiki's blood. She clenched her jaw, biting back a scream. She was trembling violently, unable to stop the endless stream of tears from spilling out. She jerked, trying to get the blood off, feeling dirtied by its contact on her. She found her eyes coming back to Yoshiki, glued on the eye that was no longer there. Blood was streaming from the hole, and she felt that fire of anger in her burst to life in a way that made her sure that she if could hold that knife in her hand, she would plunge it into Yuuya's head just as he had done to Yoshiki.

Yuuya stepped over to Ayumi, knelling down and holding her head almost in the same position, though tilted slightly up. "I'm a man of my word... You're lucky to have a person who cares-ah, I mean, cared about you so much to take your place," he said with sick amusement, giving off a low chuckle. He moved the knife, moving the side against her face to 'clean it off', before placing it on the side of her neck. "It was fun... But it's time for us to say goodbye, little sister," he said with a tilt of his head, quickly slitting her throat from ear to ear. He stood and stepped back, feeling pretty accomplished with his work. They were definitely the most fun he had had so far... but he'd keep going as long as the police didn't catch him. He wanted to take all he could from this experience. He cleaned himself up, looking over at the two bodies. Now, how would he dispose of them... It had better be dramatic, for a perfect end to the Missing Students of Kisaragi news report.

Satoshi's mom was up, sitting in her chair and quietly sipping at her coffee. It was morning, and her and Satoshi had been having breakfast. Yuka was still in the shower, as she had been late to get up. The news was on the TV, a channel the family watched religiously now for news on the killer... though she was also aware that Satoshi watched it mainly for information on his friends that had gone missing. It was a terrible thing for the students to go through... God, if she was one of those parents... Ugh, she didn't even want to think about it.

Suddenly, one of the reporters talked about a development on the serial killer case. The mother sat more up right and alert, taking a small, nervous sip of her coffee. She had a bad feeling that it was nothing but more bad news...

'As of this morning, around thirty minutes ago, the sixth and seventh victims of the serial killer were found by a Kisaragi High teacher on their way to the school. This finding ends the two-week long grueling search for the two missing Kisaragi Academy students, Shinozaki Ayumi and Kishinuma Yoshiki.'

The mother tensed as the pictures of the two were shown, her hands around her cup clenching nervously. She wanted desperately to click off the news, but at this point, that wouldn't help anything. She restrained from looking at Satoshi, her eyes kept towards the screen. If he needed comfort, she was there, but... He may not want it.

'They were discovered on the desolate road to the school, most likely where they were first abducted, consistent with other victims being left where they were suspected to be taken from. One was left over the other, and police suspect they were killed around the same time. Kishinuma Yoshiki was similar to other victims,-' The mother, who held a hand to her mouth with a look of distress, could only assume that meant he had been tortured... '-though Shinozaki Ayumi had been killed by a slit throat. Police are unsure of the reasoning behind the break in M.O, but are driven harder to find the monster who caused such a tragedy at the peaceful school of Kisaragi. More updates later, and possible interviews with other teachers, this afternoon.'

The news went on to say that schools in the area had closed, so to prevent anymore kidnappings. The mother was surprised they hadn't beforehand, but was relieved her children could stay home with her for the time being. Still, there was a heavy silence, only broken by the drone of the weatherman. Today was going to be rainy too...

Satoshi just had a couple pieces of toast for breakfast, since stomaching things was difficult. His sleep had been shot to hell since Yoshiki had gone missing as well, so he had taken up the habit of drinking coffee to get him through the day. His eyes stared blankly at the television, the news talking about some sort of legislation that may be going through. He didn't care about most the stuff the news talked about, but he had probably watched hundreds and hundreds of hours in the last weeks. The only time he ever became alert was with mention of the serial killer. When an announcement of a development popped up on the screen, his eyes focused and he began to listen what what was actually being said.

Dread filled every ounce of his being when sixth and seventh was said. His hand dropped the half-eaten piece of toast onto his place. His hand moved onto his stomach, trying to use the warmth and pressure of his hand to stop the turning inside of him. It was seconds later when his greatest fear was thrown at him. The world felt like it was crumbling around him, confirmation of two of his best friends death staring him in the face. His eyes stayed glue on the television. His eyes narrowed at the pictures of the two came up on screen. He couldn't believe... he would never see them in person again.

The news report continued on as it did for the other victims, but this time it felt so much worse. Like a knife inside of him being twisted as their deaths were recounted. He absorbed the details, trying to come to terms with it. It would be impossible, though. Their last moments on earth... must have been painful and terrifying. That in itself was enough to drive him mad. He felt a twinge of relief that he wouldn't have to deal with school today. He didn't think he could have either way.

"I'm going to go lay down," Satoshi told his mother in a leveled voice. He was trying to keep some composure in front of her, because he didn't want her to try comforting him. He wanted to be alone in his room for a bit. He needed to reflect and digest all of this.

Once in his room, he collapsed onto his bed, still in school uniform. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, staring at it blankly. They all... must have seen the report, right? There's probably barriers and blocks to getting to the school at this point, so even if anyone tried to get to school, they would quickly find out that something was amiss. He laid his arm across his eyes, his breathing deep and purposeful.

When Yoshiki had disappeared all those days ago... Satoshi had assumed he was just skipping school. It caused such a fire in his gut that he went to Yoshiki's apartment and knocked for minutes. At no response, he went to where Yoshiki worked to ask his boss if he had seen him. At that point, Satoshi had just assumed he had hidden away. After all, he had seemed in such a daze from Ayumi's disappearance that Satoshi hadn't known what to expect of him. When he got to the music store, Yoshiki's boss had been pretty concerned. 'He had a shift last night and never came in. He's never missed a shift before without at least calling in,' the older man had said. It was then that Satoshi felt that same crash around his ears as the morning the police came in to Kisaragi to ask about Ayumi.

Satoshi was horrified that all of a sudden, two of his best friends were wiped from existence. Yoshiki and him would never hang out again... Ayumi would never terrify him with one of those stories. Surreal didn't even begin to explain it. He felt like he would wake up, come to school, and the two of them would be in their seats. They'd scoff and laugh at him when he told them of his awful nightmare and tell him he needed to buck up. That wouldn't happen, though. When school eventually resumed, those seats would be empty. They'd have to vote for a new class representative, not that Satoshi could even see anyone willing to try and take that role.

How were... the others doing? He would guess, whenever they all got the news, Mayu would look to Sakutaro for comfort... and Naomi would look towards Seiko. He felt... oddly out of place. His best friend was dead. The person he would normally look to, Yoshiki, was dead. He gritted his teeth together as his controlled breathing faltered. His eyes were burning, but he squeezed them shut in order to fight back the tears.

This was so wrong. He uncovered his eyes to open his phone, but he didn't see any messages. Everyone was probably absorbing this by themselves, at first. He hoped they could all meet up, but he sort of doubted that would happen at first. They may not all see each other... until the funerals. He wondered if Yoshiki's parents would be giving him a proper send-off... Satoshi hoped so. Even if they had their issues with their son, they probably regretted how everything ended. Especially since Yoshiki had worked so hard to push that unambitious side of him away.

"Man, this is all so fucked up," he muttered as he dropped his phone aside. He felt sick, just repeating the details of the report in his head. Yoshiki had died painfully..., and even if Ayumi's death had been quick, it couldn't have been easy. She had been missing for weeks... so, the killer must have been using her differently than his other victims. How, he wasn't sure. Either way, Ayumi had probably been destroyed psychologically by the end of it. At least... he hoped... they had each other at the end. Of course, he had no clue how the killer went upon things and what happened. There was the chance they could have been together though, which was a little comforting. That they could lean on each other in those final moments.

Hot tears spilled from the corner of his eyes, falling down the side of his face onto his sheets. They deserved so much more. What would have happened if he had stuck close to Yoshiki? If he asked Ayumi if she wanted to walk home together? Could he have actually stopped the two of them from being caught into that awful situation? It didn't matter, though. Nothing mattered because it had all happened. The choices made and the moments past were permanently etched into time. He could torture himself of the what-ifs forever, but in the end it didn't matter. Only one question mattered at that moment:

What now?