And so the story begins...

Day 1

Elapsed Time: 0:01:12

Shunpei Furuya (Boy #18) stumbled blindly out into the light, still half-dazed from what had just happened.

When it was announced that Class 3-B was going on a field trip, it seemed completely harmless. The Program was the last thing on anyone's minds when they heard this.

Nobody expected the air conditioner to suddenly begin emitting sleeping gas. Nobody expected to wake up with a steel collar wrapped around their necks; an explosive collar to keep them in line.

Nobody expected that they were the unlucky ones this year.

Seriously, what are the chances of THIS happening? My class, out of the thousands of others… that's like a one-in-a-million.

But that wasn't important right now. Right now, he needed to focus on finding somewhere safe and determining who he could trust. He just had to sit down and deduce who was going to kill him on sight.

That required time. And, unfortunately, time was not a resource he could spare right now. He needed to get away from the gate before the other students left. You never know who could be willing to play the game.

Shunpei was Boy #18, meaning that he was the thirty-sixth one out of the starting area - the school. In two minutes, Chika Mizushima (Girl #18) would leave the school.

Chika Mizushima… could he trust her? Shunpei didn't know her particularly well, so he didn't expect her to trust him…

He remembered that Tobei Yamashita (Boy #21) had once described her as an innocent girl who was often late to events. She was close friends with Hiromi Koyama (Girl #6), and the two would often be murmuring to each other in the middle of a lecture.

Despite the constant distractions, however, Hiromi was one of the highest-scoring students in Class 3-B. As far as Shunpei knew, she was the logical and cool-headed type, although a bit on the quiet side. But could she be trusted as an ally?

Who else did he have?

Shunpei shook his head and started running forwards aimlessly. As he ran, his eyes restlessly scanned the town surrounding him. This round of the Program was taking place in some prefecture that had been evacuated under false warnings of terrorist attacks. It was a nice place; towering skyscrapers and smaller shops dotted the surrounding streets. Pity that it would all go to waste…

Between two pristine shops - a newly-cleaned McDonalds and a slightly weathered convenience store - was a sliver of an alleyway, shrouded in shadows. To someone running from the school, it was all too easy to miss; after all, the McDonalds building was slightly larger in the front, concealing the entrance.

Shunpei dove into the alley, making sure that he was out of sight. As soon as he stopped moving, his body collapsed in the alley's shadows and he heaved an exhausted sigh. Frankly, his paranoia probably made those couple minutes much worse than they should've been.

He unzipped the bag suspended on his shoulder. A couple biscuits and stuff… water… a watch… a compass… a nice-looking flashlight… a map of the battle arena. His fingers pushed these aside as they probed deeper into the bag.

An axe?

Rather, it was a small throwing tomahawk. Shunpei felt a tinge of disappointment; after all, he could've gotten a gun or something more useful, but…

"Hey, you shouldn't be complaining."

Shunpei immediately stood up, raising the tomahawk. That voice… it was a male voice, so it had to be one of the guys.

The guys who had entered right before him were… Ryu Fukuda (Boy #17), Yamamoto Himura (B0y #16), and Kouta Hashimoto (Boy #15). But...

"Take a look at this thing." The voice came from his right, behind a stack of abandoned trash bags. A hand flew up from underneath the pile, gripping something square with all of its might.

"Who are you?" Shunpei gripped the tomahawk tightly.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten about Masa, have you? Or has the Program driven you mad already?"

Masaharu Akamine (Boy #1) had found this spot before Shunpei. Like Hiromi, Masaharu was one of the smartest in the class academically; unlike Hiromi, however, he was gullible, foolish, and somewhat of a klutz. He was also an avid member of the chess club, but was no good at playing the game.

Shunpei tried to avoid him as much as he could, but Masaharu was somehow convinced that Shunpei would be his best friend for life. So Masaharu was often following Shunpei around town, like an aimless fish blindly following its school. It annoyed his friends so much that Tai Sugiura (Boy #12) had demanded for Masaharu's removal from the group multiple times.

"A textbook?" Shunpei found that hard to believe, but then again he found a lot of things hard to believe. He wasn't really the type to trust easily. "And what's to say you didn't find this in that trash?"

"Yep! I swear, that's all they gave me! This Flux Dynamics textbook. Mr. Kenihara is a funny guy, huh?" Masaharu babbled on and on.

Kenihara… the one who was running this whole thing, the man who had imprisoned them in this hellhole. Frustration and rage surged through Shunpei's body at the mention of his proctor's name.

"Listen, Shun-kun. Why don't we work together? Dying with a friend might make us feel better about losing."

"Have you seriously already given up hope?" Shunpei raised an eyebrow. "Masaharu, I thought you were better than that."

"Look at us!" said Masaharu. "We're just two jokers with a weird axe and a physics book as weapons. And then look at people like Yamamoto, and Anzu, and Iyumi…"

"Yamamoto's just stuck-up, Iyumi's too paranoid, and Anzu's a recluse," replied Shunpei monotonously. "We don't need to worry about them. They'll probably end up self-destructing by themselves."

"But still, you never-"

Before Masaharu could continue, Shunpei shoved a hand over his mouth. Surprise flashed in Masaharu's face; in response, Shunpei gestured outside, where Chika Mizushima nervously darted by.

Ten seconds passed. Chika's footsteps faded into the distance.

Shunpei felt a little guilty for never talking to her in class. Maybe, even in his paranoid, irrational mindset, he would've been able to push away his suspicions and talk to Chika, maybe ask if she wanted to work with him.

But anyone could be a threat now. Shunpei had seen some past Programs, and the quiet kids often ended up being the most deadly ones.

Shunpei sighed and turned his thoughts to his other problem.

Dealing with Masaharu always took a toll on his mental state, but… he had more pressing things to worry about, such as his life. In this kind of game, a second pair of eyes would be indispensable, even if it was a twit like Masaharu.

"Fine." Shunpei nodded purposefully. "If we're gonna work together, then we should find somewhere safer than this alleyway, don't you think?"

"I have an idea!" Masaharu's eyes lit up. "Why don't we try and find a supermarket, or a convenience store or something?"

"Everyone will be there, though!" replied Shunpei. "Anyone in their right mind would try to find more supplies, and stores are the best place to go. If we're gonna go there, we should be prepared for a fight."

"Look on the bright side!" countered Masaharu. "We might find friends!"

"Or enemies."

"You're such a pessimist, Shun-kun."

Masaharu and his mood swings… just a moment ago, he was ranting about how they were going to lose. And now he's saying "look on the bright side" and "you're a pessimist"? Jeez… talk about a change of heart.

"Let's just go already. We wouldn't want someone to accidentally stumble upon us, right?"

"Right, Shun-kun!" Masaharu grinned. "Good thing we were given these maps! They're awfully handy, don't you think?"

"Don't get too comfortable, Masaharu," muttered Shunpei. "We could be ambushed at any time. And please stop calling me that, will you?"

"Fine, fine. Just trying to be friendly," murmured Masaharu. "Might as well, since we'll probably be dead by tomorrow."

"Masaharu… you're so indecisive." Optimistic one moment, and pessimistic the rest… in Shunpei's eyes, Masaharu was always unpredictable.

With those words, an unlikely friendship became the first alliance in the game.

•••

Elapsed Time: 0:01:42

Yukina Yanagi (Girl #20) froze in place at the sound of the voice.

As the third-to-last one to leave the school, Yukina rushed to get as far away as possible. Paranoia - the possibility that one of her classmates would ambush her - overcame logical thought as the minutes passed. Her footsteps echoed in the empty city as she ran; she ran without purpose, without meaning. Anything to get away from everything.

She had no idea how much time had passed. It was still dark; the sky hadn't changed since she left the starting area. She had just stopped to take a breather when she heard the voice.

"Who are you? Where are you?" Yukina's hand unconsciously tightened around her issued weapon - a wooden baseball bat. "Show yourself!"

"Calm down, you stupid plebeian. It's just me!" A shadowy boy darted out of the alleyway; strangely enough, he seemed to have no weapon.

It was Shan Kobayashi (Boy #6). Shan was the diminutive son of Liu Kobayashi, the CEO of a prosperous robotics company in China. Being the spoiled Chinese boy he was, he apparently demanded to be taken for an "extended vacation" in Japan, immersing himself in the culture.

So for the past year, Yukina and the rest of the class had to deal with being treated as a "plebeian" by this short Chinese boy. Shan was practically universally hated by everyone in the class, except the other rich kids: Yamamoto Himura (Boy #15) and Mio Yazaki (Girl #19). The three of them apparently rented an entire retreat home for themselves over the summer… and then they wouldn't shut up about it afterwards.

Yukina honestly didn't expect Shan to survive past the first six hours. The Program was a great opportunity to take revenge for any grudges from the past, and there were a lot of people who had a bone to pick with Shan.

She, of course, had a grudge of her own to satisfy… but that's a story for another time.

"Are you ignoring me? I'm going to kill you, you know!" Shan's fingers probed his right pocket. "So get ready!"

"The class dwarf's gonna attack me with his baby-hands?" Confidence suddenly flowed through Yukina's body. She could take on Shan. Shan was a spoiled weakling, after all. He couldn't hurt her… right?

"What did you just call me!?" Rage filled Shan's eyes, igniting them with a burning hatred. He lunged forwards, charging head-on at Yukina without abandon.

This guy's got guts, that's for sure. Attacking me head-on with no weapon…

Yukina raised her baseball bat, swinging it at Shan's head as if it was a baseball. Shan twirled to the side, side-stepping behind the girl and restraining her other arm. Yukina tried to twist around and hit him, but she felt a slight sting in her neck.

That's not a knife. If it were a knife or a spear or something, it would feel much more painful.

Shan smirked. "How ya feeling, you plebeian? Dead yet?"

But Yukina could barely hear him. All of the energy and confidence in her body had suddenly dissipated in the air, replaced with an overwhelming urge for sleep. She tried to fight it, but the urge fell over her like a tidal wave, swallowing her whole.

A… a syringe…? Is that… poison? Am I dying already? And at the hands of Shan, too… talk about a humiliating end…

The girl's mind went blank; all logical thought dissolved into nothingness, and her body crumpled lifelessly to the ground. Shan fist-pumped, a self-satisfied smirk plastered onto his face as he slid the syringe back into his pocket.

"Oooh yeah. I just got the first kill. You see that? You see that?"

In reality, Shan Kobayashi wasn't a bad person necessarily. He was just a bit of an attention-seeker, and that type of person is often quite annoying to the people around him.

Within the first few steps outside of the Program's starting area, Shan decided that he would participate. He wanted to fight in the Program solely because he wanted a TV show about himself. He wanted there to be a TV show that revolved around him doing awesome things… like maybe killing people in awesome ninja ways, like he just killed Yukina.

That was such a badass first kill. I'm such a freakin' ninja. Kenihara must've known it too. That's why he gave me all of those poison syringes.

Though in reality, that wasn't the true reason Shan decided to fight. He had another reason buried in his heart… though in his apparent moment of glory, he completely forgot about it.

"They better make a movie out of this season. Battle Royale, featuring the Merciless Badass Shan Kobayashi. That has a nice ring to it. Yeah, that's it. Watch out, 'cause Merciless Badass Shan Kobayashi is hunting to kill!"

If only he realized that he was just making himself look like a fool on live television, in front of the entire Japanese public.

•••

Elapsed Time: 0:02:00

Chisa Tokimura (Girl #10) was sprawled out on a building rooftop, staring aimlessly into space. Silence echoed all around her, putting her at ease despite her precarious circumstances.

Judging by the sky, it was around 2 AM or so. Chisa casually checked her watch to confirm this. She had been studying astronomy since she was little, but it never hurt to double-check to see if you made a mistake.

The watch was outfitted with a stopwatch function as well, which was recording the amount of time that had passed since the Program's start. Chisa found it a bit odd that they'd start the Program at exactly midnight, but she shrugged it off. That was probably unimportant, after all… they probably just wanted to make it a convenient time.

Chisa had spent countless hours staring at the stars. She would often lie outside, thinking about her life and how it was going. How it could be better, and what could've gone worse.

Well, nothing could've gone worse than this.

"Ch-Chisa?"

Chisa darted up, her hand flying to her issued weapon - a multi-tool of some kind with a small blade. Her head swiveled around to glance at the newcomer.

"Rei?"

Standing on the rooftop beside her was Rei Hagane (Girl #12). Rei was infamous for being quiet to the extreme. Chisa had never heard her speak more than nine words. Because she never spoke, nobody in the class knew her that well. Chisa had tried to interact with her a couple times, but she had just responded with vague one-word answers to her questions.

"Ah, so it really is you. At first, I thought I was hallucinating." muttered Rei.

Thirteen words - that was the first sign that something was wrong. A jolt of fear slid through her body.

"Hallucinating?" Chisa suddenly found that her arms were trembling. "W-why?"

"Stress from this whole thing?" Rei raised an eyebrow nonchalantly - the most emotion that Chisa had ever seen her express. "You understand, right?"

But Chisa wasn't listening to her anymore. She was staring silently at Rei's hands. She had never noticed this before, but there was a small scar on the Rei's right finger - the finger that was on the trigger.

Completely unsure how to react, Chisa could do nothing but stare at the nailgun nestled snugly in Rei's right hand, its muzzle pointed straight at her head.

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