Day 1
Elapsed Time: 0:02:10
As one may notice when reading the student list, there were two sets of twins in Class 3-B. There were the Emotions and Logic duo, also known as the Sugawa twins Mitsu (Boy #11) and Kyon (Boy #10), and the Tendo twins, Megumi (Girl #9) and Sherman (Boy #14).
In a way, you could also count Masao "Boss" Ezawa (Boy #3) and Hotaru "Ryu" Fukuda (Boy #17). The duo had been an inseparable pair since they were toddlers; they lived very close to each other, and their lives began to entangle together as they grew older. It was Masao who came up with the nickname "Ryu", after Hotaru expressed his dissatisfaction with the ambiguous gender of his name. In response, Ryu gave Masao his own nickname, "Boss".
Despite being best friends, the two were actually very different. Boss was a jokester who loved to play pranks. He was the faster of the two, and he had better reflexes and agility. Ryu, on the other hand, was the serious, concentrated one. One of the most physically powerful people in Class 3-B, he had the mental discipline to shrug off at least some pain and the determination to reach any goal he set.
Not even the paranoid psychology of the Program could tear them apart. After exiting the school, Boss had loitered around the area, holding out until his partner came out. His weapon was a wooden staff of some kind; at its tip was a pine cone.
A prank weapon for a prankster like me, huh? I guess that's clever.
Boss was Boy#3, so he had a little while to wait before Ryu exited the school. He scampered onto a hill overlooking the school and hid behind a bush. There, he watched patiently as Mayumi Ooshima (Girl #3) and Ryuuta Okamura (Boy #4) exited the building. Mayumi's bag looked on the heavier side; she was having some trouble carrying it. Ryuuta, too, had a heavy bag; unlike Mayumi, however, he was handling it with ease. Boss believed that Ryuuta wasn't particularly strong, so he assumed that he had gotten a light but bulky gag weapon.
Boredom began to bounce around in his head as he waited. He quietly scratched at his staff as Rei Hagane (Girl #12) robotically exited the building and scampered out of sight. For a while, he legitimately started to consider attacking some people, notably the stuck-up rich kid Yamamoto Himura (Boy #16). But when Yamamoto finally exited the school, Boss held himself back. He knew that Yamamoto could probably overpower him, and he was in no place to do anything with his joke weapon.
Natsumi Mikami (Girl #16) exited the building, glanced at Boss, and ran off, and five minutes later was followed by the familiar face of his best friend. Boss rushed out of his hiding place and caught up with him, taking him by surprise. Ryu's hands instinctively shot towards his bag, but he stopped himself when he identified his pursuer.
"Boss, nice to see you're all good."
"You as well, man."
The two of them fist-bumped and started wandering through the city. Ryu felt that it would be a good idea to find a place to stay until daylight, so they began searching through the city streets for somewhere hospitable. They finally settled down in a residential district in E-8, where Boss slid into an open window and unlocked the house from the inside. After securing the entire home, the duo sat down and took a breather.
"Hey, Ryu?"
"What's up?" Ryu turned to him.
"What did you get for a weapon?" Boss twirled his staff around.
"Me? Oh, I haven't checked actually." Ryu neatly opened up his bag, pulling out a dark gray sliver of metal. In his hand was some kind of pistol, a small, dark gun with a snug feel. "Nice."
"Wanna try it?" Boss looked at the gun. "Fire off a couple shots into the air, you know, or maybe shoot a wall?"
"Why?" Ryu raised an eyebrow. "Then people will know we're here, right?"
"What's the point in using a weapon without getting used to it?" said Boss. "Besides, we won't be able to defend ourselves with this." He held up the pine cone staff.
"True enough," replied Ryu. "But I'd rather not give away our position. Why don't we take a look around? People have all sorts of things in their houses these days, we can probably find something that could be of use."
So they took a look around. After thirty minutes, they had gathered a pile of possibly useful household items and a broken rusty pipe from outside. Boss slid the kitchen's knives into his bag, and Ryu discovered a couple boxes of matches that he kept for later.
They reunited once more in the living room, laying their findings on the ground. It was still dark out, and they didn't want anyone to see them, so it was almost pitch-black. Only the gleam of the flashlights marked their presence.
"Better than nothing," said Ryu. "That's a lot of food, though. How much food did these people have?"
"Who knows man, who knows." Boss picked a bottle of Epoxy glue off of the ground and began to squirt some onto one of the kitchen knives. "But it'll last us until the end of the Program, that's for sure."
Ryu glanced down at the glue. "Bayonet?"
"More like knife-on-a-stick, or maybe a mini-spear or something." Boss gently pushed the knife against the Epoxy glue on the rusty pipe, so that its sharp end was protruding out like a bayonet.
Silence flowed over them for a moment.
"Boss." Ryu put a hand on his shoulder.
"What's up?" Boss glanced up. Even in the darkness, he could feel that Ryu was troubled by something. "Something bothering you?"
"What are we going to do?" he muttered softly. "Even if we somehow make it through this alive… there's still two of us left."
"Let's hope that someone comes up with an escape plan at that point," replied Boss. "Then we can go home, and then I'll finally figure out how to beat you in Super Smash Bros."
Everyone in Class 3-B knew that Boss and Ryu were serious video game nerds. The duo dueled each other frequently, each trying to get just the slightest edge over the other. Ryu was mysteriously able to stay on top most of the time, despite having less time due to strength and conditioning stuff.
"Come and see if you have the skill," replied Ryu jokingly.
Boss glanced out the house's back window. "Hey."
"What's up?" Ryu raised his pistol, alarmed by his best friend's sudden seriousness. "What is it? Is someone here?"
"No, it's not that." Boss pointed out the window. "I didn't think they actually fenced off the entire prefecture, though…"
"Are we really that close to the border?" Ryu opened up his map, glancing at E-8.
"I guess so. Considering how the school was in D-4, that's a decent distance for our time," replied Boss. "Judging by its looks, however, it's an electric fence."
Had the duo continued to examine the fence, they would've noticed the armed guard in the watch tower nearby. The guard had a set of night vision goggles, so hiding in the shadows would not be an option.
Ryu began to walk up the stairs.
"Taking a look around?" asked Boss.
"Just checking if anyone else is nearby." Ryu glanced out the second-story window into the dim light of the very-early morning. It was still around 2 AM, but the street lights partially illuminated the road below.
"See, no one's around," said Boss. "Now why don't you try that weapon? If it recoils more than you expected and flies out of your hands, it's no good, is it?"
"You do have a point there, I guess." Ryu shoved ammunition into the gun and slid his finger around it. The dark metal fit snugly in his hand, and it was actually fairly comfortable. Feeling more confident, he pointed it at the nearby dresser and tried to fire it.
The trigger didn't budge.
"Is the safety off?" Boss tilted his head to the side.
"Oh." Ryu face-palmed with his free hand, and then de-activated the safety.
"You know, Ryu, sometimes you do act like a dumb brute, right?"
"Just like how you act like an immature little kid." Ryu chuckled. "That stupid prank you pulled on Mio almost made her blow a fuse."
About a month ago, Boss had flooded Mio Yazaki's (Girl #19) locker with an unidentified purple slime-like substance. The rich girl had gone ballistic, smashing and screaming like a crazed animal. Being one of the only troublemakers in the class, her fury began to rip and slash towards Boss. She began to spread rumors about him, about how he apparently vandalized the government building.
In this Japan, vandalizing a government building was basically a death sentence. It was only thanks to hasty action from Ryu that the rumors died down. He used his large frame and physical prowess in an attempt to intimidate Mio, trying to pressure her into admitting it was false. In response, Mio sent her bodyguard after him.
Ryu was actually quite clever when it came to dealing with opponents. He noticed the suit-clad man following him almost immediately after, and discreetly contacted the local police on the reasoning that someone was stalking him. The bodyguard was promptly arrested and never heard from again.
"If I get the chance, I am so going to give her what she really deserves," muttered Boss. He had always held a personal grudge against anyone who tried to hurt Ryu, which included Shan Kobayashi (Boy #6), Kyoya Tsunemura (Boy #13), and Iyumi Kawamoto (Girl #5). Despite being the smaller and weaker one, he was more protective of Ryu than Ryu was of him. Ryu knew that despite his jokester attitude Boss had a good head on his shoulders, so he trusted him a bit more.
"Don't get too bloodthirsty. I don't want you going insane on me." Ryu turned towards the dresser and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The gun jolted in Ryu's steady hand, piercing through the wall and leaving a neat hole. Almost immediately, silence flowed over the entire house.
"Someone else is here!"
"What was that?"
"Did someone just-"
Boss was about to open his mouth, but Ryu lunged forwards and shushed him with his palm. The two locked eyes.
We got careless. We must've left something open, and now others are inside.
•••
Elapsed Time: 0:02:13
Johnson Hsiung (Boy #7) opened the door to the apartment complex in A-7, following Tobei Yamashita (Boy #20) into the room. Sitting around the kitchen table were three other boys: Hayate Kamiya (Boy #5), Kyon Sugawa (Boy #10), and Tai Sugiura (Boy #12).
The sight of the four of them together almost made Johnson laugh out loud. Hayate was an avid fencer; he practiced his sword skills day and night, transforming him into a quick mover and an even quicker thinker. Kyon was logical, systematic, and an expert mathematician. He was good enough to be professionally competing in national math competitions; he had been the runner-up last year and the year before. This year, he had practiced extra to ensure his success, but was drafted into the Program before his efforts could pay off.
Then there was Tobei, of course; the relaxed, calm guy whose trademark "Hey." was well-known by everyone. He had a knack for getting people to relax around him, so he was good friends with a lot of people.
Tai, on the other hand, was sneaky. Cunning, conniving, and stealthy, he was an expert at stealing, breaking, and entering. It was well-known that he was a criminal, but despite this he had never been arrested. He was also part of a gang led by Kyoichi Itsuka (Boy #2), and was one of Itsuka's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Mainly, though, he acted as the team's designated "ninja".
Seeing the four of them together was a funny sight to Johnson. Normally, these four probably would never have interacted. But the Program brought them together in one of the most unlikely alliances.
"Hey." Tobei raised an eyebrow. "Johnson's here. He's not playing."
"Huh." Tai picked up a butterfly knife off the table and began to flick it around. "Yo."
"Hi…" Johnson murmured warily. He didn't trust Tai one bit, and found it interesting how Hayate and Kyon didn't seem to care. Hayate was glowering in the apartment's armchair, while Kyon was staring down at his bag.
"Don't mind Hayate," said Tobei, gesturing to the sheathed blade on the table. "He's just upset because I got the katana."
"And I got a stinking fake katana!" lashed out Hayate. He held up his weapon for Johnson to see. It looked like a completely normal katana; the sheath was decorated delicately and the hilt was firm and solid. But Hayate ripped the sheath off of the hilt, revealing emptiness where the blade should have been.
"Talk about a gag weapon." Tai smirked, clearly enjoying his classmate's anguish. "That HAD to have been set up by Kenihara. No way he didn't do that on purpose."
"Agreed." added Kyon. "The likelihood of you receiving that weapon, out of the other 41 students, is enormously low. Either a miracle occurred, or Kenihara specifically gave you this weapon."
"W-wait, didn't they say that the weapons were randomly distributed?" protested Hayate. "Doesn't that make it unfair?"
"You never know, they could be lying to us," said Tobei. "Not that it matters now. Anyway. Johnson, make yourself comfortable for now. None of us are playing, and we're gonna hold out here for now."
"Hang on," said Johnson. "What weapons did you guys get? I know Hayate got the fake katana and Tobei got the real katana, but what about the rest of you?"
"I got these." Kyon held up four dormant land mines.
"I got this baby." Tai tossed the butterfly knife into the air with ease and caught it in mid-air. "Perfect for me."
"Well… I got my dog." Johnson picked Cookie off the ground and nestled him in his arms. The Shiba Inu's gaze travelled around the room, looking at each of the occupants warily.
"Whoa, they gave you a DOG?" Hayate shouted.
"Quiet." lectured Kyon. "You never know how soundproof these walls are."
"Yeah, yeah." Hayate rolled his eyes. "But a dog?"
"Hey. Johnson." said Tobei. "Is that Cookie?"
Johnson had spoken extremely highly of Cookie in the past, though most of the other students in Class 3-B had never seen the Shiba Inu.
"Actually, yes, he is." Johnson walked over to Tobei. "Wanna pet him?"
Tobei ran his fingers through the Shiba's cream-colored fur. "That's a funny 'weapon' for them to give you."
"Excuse me," said Kyon. "Who did we put on guard duty?"
"Hayate," muttered Tai.
"But-" protested Hayate. "Tai, didn't you say you were gonna do it?"
"Didn't you suggest that we keep a lookout, Hayate?" continued Tai. "You gotta pull your weight if you want to stick around. Would you prefer it if I kicked you out into the streets, away from the rest of us? Johnson could probably replace you."
Hayate shot Tai a dirty look and picked up his fake katana. "Fine."
•••
Elapsed Time: 0:02:14
At the sound of the voices, Boss nodded, picked up his rusty pipe, and turned off his flashlight. Ryu too brandished his weapon and turned off the lights. The two of them hid in the upstairs bedroom, quietly listening for footsteps or signs of life.
"What do we do if they find us?" whispered Boss.
"Try and figure out if they're playing. If they are, we knock 'em out and get out of here." hissed Ryu. "Senseless killing is pointless."
"True enough." whispered Boss.
Footsteps. Someone was walking up the stairs.
"I'll check upstairs. Whoever it is might be up there."
It was a female voice. In the tension of the moment, neither of the two could identify who it was. When she opened the door, it let out a screech.
There was enough light in the room for Ryu to see who it was. It was Ren Aikawa (Girl #1), and she was holding some kind of handheld device in her right hand. She appeared to have no other weapon besides that.
Ren was the vice president of the student council. She was also the most popular girl in the third-year class, and was widely considered to be one of the most attractive as well. Physically, she looked at least three years older than she actually was. It was common knowledge that Ren had more admirers than any other girl in Class 3-B, not to mention friends. She was a social butterfly, being somehow able to befriend pretty much everyone she came across.
This also meant that she was probably travelling with others.
"Ren. Don't move or make noise, or I'll shoot." Ryu chose this moment to step forwards, pointing the muzzle of his gun at her chest. "I'm not going to hurt you unless you hurt me."
Most people, when faced with a classmate holding a gun, would've at least shown some outside signs of nervousness. On the contrary, Ren didn't falter. One of her most distinguishing traits was her ability to think under pressure. It was a skill she shared with Ryu, though he personally believed that he was better at it than she was.
"Who are you?" murmured Ren quietly.
"Boss and Ryu." replied Ryu matter-of-factly. "Are you playing? Is there anyone else with you? We heard others downstairs."
"I'm not playing, and I'm in a group with Nanae and Chika." replied Ren. "I promise I will not hurt you. Please put the gun down."
"I don't trust you." Ryu's eyes narrowed. Ren had people skills; naturally, that meant that she would be a skilled liar as well. "What are their weapons?"
"Ryu, calm down." Boss put a hand on his friend's wrist. "She said she's not playing. And you were the one who said senseless killing was pointless, remember? It's Ren! She can be trusted, don't you think?"
Boss was saying this for two reasons. The first one was because he was one of Ren's admirers as well. The second was because he knew Ren better than Ryu did; he knew that she was a very caring friend who always looked out for the people she cared about. In his mind, if she was playing, she wouldn't be with a group.
"This is the Program!" replied Ryu. "You never know. People change!"
"Ryu, have some trust!" Boss tugged on his arm. "What's the point in this? Why are you trying to extract information from her like this? We already know she's not playing!"
"Circumstances change," muttered Ryu bitterly. "The Program's psychology changes people. I know that second-hand."
Ryu's older brother Toshirou Fukuda had been selected into the Battle Royale three years prior. Within a few hours, the loving, kind, and supportive Toshirou transformed into an unstable, bloodthirsty killer who massacred seven of his classmates before being shot in the head. His brother's drastic change was displayed for the entire Fukuda family to witness on live television, and it had left Ryu scarred permanently. Boss silently cursed himself for not being more sensitive.
"Ryu, I understand how you feel," said Boss. "But this is Ren. I know her, and I know she wouldn't hurt anyone."
"Like I said, I promise I will not hurt you. My only 'weapon' is this tracking device." Ren spoke softly. "And Ryu… is this about your brother?"
At these words, Ryu froze in place. Almost nobody in Class 3-B seemed to notice that Toshirou had been in the Battle Royale. Boss, Tobei Yamashita, Daisuke Matsushita (Boy #19), and Anzu Fujikawa (Girl #15) were the only sympathetic ones; all the others just continued with their lives like nothing had happened. He tried his best not to hold a grudge, but he knew that he had always unconsciously disliked the others for not caring about Toshirou's terrible fate.
"You… you noticed?" murmured Ryu under his breath. "Did you…"
"He must've been a great brother," said Ren in a gentle, soothing voice. "I didn't know him, but I immediately noticed the change in your attitude. I just didn't say anything at the time. I'm so sorry for your loss."
"I…" Ryu's hand trembled, and his finger slid off the gun's trigger. Tears streamed down his face as memories of Toshirou filled his mind. "Thank you, Ren…"
Then those thoughts disappeared, replaced with a miniature explosion in his knee. Ryu screeched as the bullet pierced through his knee, and he slumped helplessly against the wall. Two more shots rang out, and two more bullets ripped through Ryu's chest.
"Don't you dare try to hurt Ren!" shouted someone in the hallway. Boss couldn't see who it was; he didn't care, either. The only thing he was thinking was revenge for Ryu's sake.
Ren, too, seemed surprised. She froze in place, a shocked expression replacing the empathy from before. Of course, Boss didn't notice this; he shoved Ren aside roughly, and the girl landed on the floor with a thud. Prying the pistol out of his fallen friend's hand, he unhesitatingly fired once, twice, thrice, four times into the darkness. Whoever was out there screamed; most likely, one of the shots had hit.
He kept firing until the pistol's entire magazine had been emptied. He ignored the spasms of the gun as it fired again and again, pushing back against his hand and leaving it sore. He could think of nothing but revenge, of bringing pain to the one who had shot his best friend.
"Boss! Stop!" He heard a voice coming from somewhere, probably Ren. "Stop! It's a misunderstanding!"
"RYU!" Boss tried to stand up, but suddenly found that he had been restrained. Ren had wrapped her arms around him, embracing him in an attempt to calm him down. Boss struggled a little bit, but eventually gave up.
His vision cleared, and the thoughts of vengeance were suddenly replaced with horror and grief. He glanced down at his best friend; the other boy was barely breathing.
"Boss-" Ryu's voice was barely audible. "I-"
His eyes slid shut, and the life in his body dissipated into the morning air. He was dead.
Ren flickered her flashlight on, shining it in the hallway.
"Boss…" she murmured, her voice weak. "It's… it's…"
Lying against the wall, clothes ridded with bullets and splotches of crimson, was the lifeless form of one of Ren's companions. It was the corpse of her most obedient follower, Nanae Uramen (Girl #2).
•••
Within the course of their friendship, Boss and Ryu only had a total of seven arguments and disagreements. The seventh one ultimately broke their friendship, ripping one of the two from the earth.
The paranoid psychology of the Program might've not affected their friendship and trust, but it did affect their trust in others… which resulted in the final separation of the inseparable duo.
Boy #17 Hotaru "Ryu" Fukuda - Dead
Girl #2 Nanae Uramen - Dead
39 Students Remaining