Sadly, this [Gift Game] is only about two chapters long. I'll explain (or at least try to) in the Author's notes below...

Behind one of the trees near the top, Yo was breathing heavily as she tried to go over in her mind what just happened.

Ryo apparently has help, but the fact that there weren't any warnings or any sign of the game ending meant that it wasn't a different player or even an accident, so he didn't really break any rules. But in that case, the only answer she could think of is…

"It's his [Gift]…"

The fact that his "partner" was practically identical in every way means that his ability must be a way to duplicate himself. But when did he do it? She was trailing him the whole time since the game began so she would have noticed if something changed…..no wait, there was that one moment in the bushes. She couldn't really see him, so she had to rely on her hearing for his location. Since she didn't expect him to replicate himself, she was only focusing on one set of movements instead of two.

He must have copied himself and one of them stuck behind in the bushes while the other worked as a sort of distraction. Then, the first would follow behind them from a good distance until the time was right to trap her, which was why her animalistic instincts took over so suddenly. But now, even if she knew about his double, they still seem confident about tackling her head on.

So to summarize what she knew so far…

1. Ryo's [Gift] appears to be the ability to replicate himself somehow

2. The situation had turned into a 2-to-1 battle

He/They must have planned this out from the beginning, but right now she needed a way to turn back the tide. It was still a two-against-one, and now she'll need to expend more energy to avoid the both of them.

"Let's try splitting them up…"

After checking briefly for any signs of movement, she quickly started to leap from branch to branch as fast as she could…

"C'mon, I just want one little peek!"

"…"

"It's not like it's gonna hurt anybody."

"…"

Back at the waterfall, Izayoi was talking to Cecilia in a very annoying tone while smiling. Hikari seemed to have released her grip on him, and was sitting down next to Asuka. The red-dressed "ojou-sama" had her arms wrapped around the young girl in front of her and hugged her tightly, like a small child with a new stuffed teddy bear, much to Hikari's displeasure.

Cecilia, on the other hand, was glaring at the blond-haired boy with disgust and would silently turn her head away every time Izayoi asked, acting like he was a moving piece of garbage. Kyle and Kurousagi were sitting down and simply watched as the blond-haired boy continued to bother the elegant-looking girl.

"Is he always this persistent?" Kyle asked, referring to Izayoi.

"Actually, he's usually a lot worse…" Kurousagi sighed. The look in her eyes seemed to flashback to memories of abuse.

"Really? That sounds pretty interesting…"

"No! All these problem children keep causing a lot of trouble for all of us in the [No Name] community! They keep poking their noses into anything and everything without thinking about the consequences of their actions!" She frowned while waving her arms wildly in place. "Especially Izayoi! He's the worst of them all with his destructive tendencies and headstrong thoughts! If it wasn't for his vast knowledge and incredible [Gift]…"

Kyle started chuckling.

"What's wrong?"

"No, it's just that for someone who's apparently troublesome, you've been pretty observant about him." He gave a smirk. "You have some kind of thing for him?"

"Wha-" Kurousagi's face turned red as she went speechless. A few seconds passed in silence before…

"It's a joke of course; you don't need to take it seriously…"

"Ha ha ha…."

Kurousagi was laughing nervously, and despite what Kyle said, his face seemed to believe otherwise. He turned back to Izayoi, who was still bothering Cecilia.

"C'mon! It'll be fun!"

"…"

"Look, all I'm asking is that we have a quick little match." Izayoi punched his hand. "Something about you just makes me want to fight…"

"…I refuse…"

"Oi, oi… come on…" Izayoi started to grab her shoulder, but her eyes sharpened as a sharp black spike suddenly appeared from her shadow. The delinquent-child took a large step back as the black object pierced the space where he stood just moments ago.

"Don't…touch…me…" she spat out while turning with her arms crossed.

As Hikari and Asuka watched the two of them, Hikari sighed as she saw her brother's devilish grin.

"Geez, Nii-sama is provoking someone again…."

"Ah, so he did that back in your world too?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah," the blond-haired girl nodded. "He's smart, but he's always been really ….feisty, especially when it comes to fighting." She gave a serious look at Cecilia. "But I can understand why he really wants to fight her. This woman seems…different…from everyone else I've seen before…"

"Different? How?"

"Well, there's something about her that…really makes people want to fight her…"

"Something?"

"Kind of like…when you see a plate of tasty food in front of you, and you just know what you're going to taste when you eat it, so you can't wait to start…kinda like that…"

Asuka looked confused, but she turned back to the silver-haired girl who was glaring fiercely at the young boy, who suddenly took up a battle stance.

"J-Just a moment!" Kurousagi started to run up to the space between the two of them with her arms held out. "N-No matter what you both plan to do, there's no fighting until Yo-san and Ryo-san settles their [Gift Game]!"

"Ehhhh?" Izayoi complained. "As long as we don't do anything within the game field, isn't it fine?"

"Kurousagi is more worried about the level of destruction you problem children might cause!" She gave a worried look as she turned to the forest area where Yo was. "Hurry up Yo-san! I don't know how much longer I can handle these problem children!"

Things weren't going well.

Yo was even more exhausted than before as her breathing became noticeably louder while she tried to fill her lungs with air.

"How did things go wrong so quickly?"

(Earlier...)

She couldn't ask for any help from the animals since that would be against the rules, so she needed to rely on her own [Gift] to face Ryo. Luckily she still had the advantage with her "Night Vision", "Cat-Movement", and "Canine-Senses", so she could still sneak up on one of them as long as she was careful. She'll continue with the plan, but now she'll need split them up instead of just making a simple distraction. She started travelling a couple feet when she felt something push against her foot lightly. Suddenly, a rattling was heard nearby before footsteps starting following in her direction. She lightly bit her lip as she started to pick up the pace.

Since then, she came across a wide variety of traps which included small pitfalls, makeshift rope traps, and weak nets. They were obviously made quickly, so they weren't strong enough to really bind her. However, the point probably wasn't to capture her, but to slow her down long enough for Ryo and/or his double to catch up. Each trap also appeared to be attached to some string with several piece of wood and/or stones that would rattle and echo through the forest, signaling her location. Yo had grit her teeth as she started to understand how much of a disadvantage she was really in. The roles of prey and hunter had been switched, and it wasn't getting any easier…

She kept her ears open for any signs of movement, so she was still ahead by just a bit in terms of locating her opponent. Yo also assumed that his [Gift] was probably a double-edged sword in this game. If his double was able to capture her without any risk, then Ryo himself wouldn't have needed to move around so much. However, Ryo and his double were moving together, so capturing either of them should fulfill the condition. Still, she needed to find a way to catch one of them by surprise, but there didn't seem to be any way to do that without risking a turnaround. She frowned as the situation started to seem hopeless before something started to click in her mind…

"Hmmm…"

Ryo stood around keeping his eyes and ears open for any signs of Yo. His twin just silently watched him while keeping his hands in his pockets. Normally, Ryo would produce a third or fourth "copy" of himself in this kind of situation, but doing so would weaken him for about a few minute or so, and that wasn't exactly an option for him right now. So he had his double build all kinds of traps to compensate while he kept Yo distracted. If she tried to catch him earlier, there was an 88% chance of him losing immediately. But he took the chance that she would've been suspicious, and it ended up paying off.

Still, the fact that she could follow him at all in this forest and avoid most of his traps, meant that she could see clearly in the dark, which meant he was still at a slight disadvantage. His eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness though, and as long as he kept alternating "break shifts" with his double, then they'll be able to keep enough energy to make a quick dash when needed. However, he needed to end this game quickly, otherwise the number of traps might drop too quickly.

"It's been a while since I made my double, should I make a third 'copy' for myself now?" he started to think as he mentally weighed the pros and cons. However, the sound of rustling distracted him as the two of them instinctively ran towards the source of the noise.

When they arrived at the spot where the rattling came from, they glanced around looking for any signs of the young girl. His double went over to the trap and motioned him over. He carefully walked over to his double, who held up part of the rope that appeared to have been dangling in the air. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the rope appeared to have been chewed off.

"Is she trying to get rid of the signals?"

Even though it might help, doing so would be wasting time and energy, so it would end up being more of a disadvantage. Besides, the signal could easily be reset for later, so it would've been better to use the time to set off more traps instead…Unless...

His eyes widened in shock as he quickly turned around and stared from place to place. He didn't notice it before, but there hadn't been any other signals set off elsewhere in the forest, so that meant that she had to be nearby. She must've thought about trying to separate him from his double, so they quickly moved closer together with their backs closer to tree behind them. Suddenly, something fell from the branches above them as they quickly rolled over before turning around. It was Yo Kasukabe, staring at his double intensely.

Yo was about to lunge forward, so his double started to jump to the right to avoid her capture. However, there was a sound of something hitting something else with great force, and he saw that instead of Yo rushing forward, she made a roundhouse kick at his double, sending him flying into a nearby tree and knocking him out.

"Damnit, this doesn't seem good…"

He started to back away slowly as she stared at her next target like a wolf targeting its prey. He needed to avoid her at all costs, so he kept himself prepared for her next move. However, he felt his foot got snagged on something as he suddenly fell backwards. After landing on his back, he looked up to see that his foot was caught in his own pitfall trap. He stared dumbfounded before smiling and relaxed his muscles. He closed his eyes as a warm feeling wrapped around his body, signaling the end of the game.

Kurousagi's ears twitched as she turned to the forest.

"Ara…it seems like the [Gift game] finally ended…"

The other children turned their heads over as they heard the rabbit make her announcement.

"The winner appears to be...Yo-san!" she answered with a hint of joy in her voice. Izayoi and Asuka grinned in response to the results. Kyle just sighed as she scratched his head without much reaction. Cecilia clicked her tongue, but simply brushed her hair as she didn't seem to care much about the results. Hikari, seeing the opportunity to join her brother in his community, smiled happily. Kurousagi turned back to the newcomers.

"Well then, as a result, Natsobe-san, Snowbell-san, Sakamaki-chan and Shirokage-san will all join the [No Name] community without question!"

"Guess there's no choice…" Cecilia mumbled to herself. "It'll be a pain to work with a group of people, but I guess there's nothing better to do, and it's better than sleeping outside…"

"Nii-samaaaa!" Hikari started running over ecstatically to her brother, who turned to see her quickly close the distance between them.

Kyle watched the others gather around to celebrate before grinning and staring up into the sky.

"Now then [Little Garden]," he said quietly to himself. "Let's see what you've got to offer…"

Yo and Ryo were still in the forest, sitting against a tree as they rested to recover their stamina.

"You did a good job, Kasukabe-san…" Ryo complemented while offering his hand. He was too focused on himself and his double to think about the trap his double had set up nearby. To have him caught by his own trick, he was honestly impressed.

"Same to you…" She gave him her own hand to shake. As the two of them smiled at each other, Ryo gave a small laugh as he suddenly remembered one more thing that slipped his mind.

"So, do you have any idea how to get out of here?"

Author's note: Yeah, that troublesome time again when you reach the end of the chapter to read about my thoughts.

So honestly, I have mixed feelings about this chapter. It had that usual feeling like something could've been done to make it better, but at the same time, I felt like I'd just be squeezing out as much as I could to add on more details and such, so I just decided to hand in what I've got. Sorry if it makes me seem lazy.

Now some may be wondering why I made this only two chapters long for the [Gift Game]. Well...I honestly have to say that I didn't expect this [Gift Game] to last very long. The future ones would probably last longer, but this particular was expected to be one of the(if not "the") shortest ones in this fanfiction. Of course, we have no idea how long this fanfiction would last, so yeah, *Shrug* que sera, sera.

Anyways, hope you thought this was at least a bit decent, and I'll try to get in a more interesting chapter next time (Probably sometime in the next three days or so). Reviews are welcome as always, and thanks for sticking with me so far...