2:12 P.M.

"Lighthouse," Leon decided, speaking to himself as he poured over his map, pen between his teeth, compass in one hand. "Good enough as anything, and it's not supposed to be a danger zone. It'll be a good place to hole up for a while. Great vantage point."

He reached up to brush back his hair. By now most all of the mud was out of it – sweated out, and he hadn't had the chance to cover it back up again. Part of him thought – to hell with it. If he was going to die, he was going to die. After all, he had a gun. He could protect himself when he needed to.

Not that it had helped Souda.

And he'd been using the Uzi.

But Souda was different, wasn't he? He'd been freaked out. He'd been bawling and he'd probably been out of bullets, too, that's why Ishimaru had been able to slit his throat like that. Leon… wouldn't freak out again. He'd been freaked out after killing Gundam. And after Souda had died, because there was something about the other boy that Leon had really, really liked. Probably the hair.

But now there was a calm washing over him, like the calm that had when he'd shot Gundam Tanaka in the back and when he'd dunked Souda's head in the riverbank to get his pink hair less noticeable. The… the survival calm.

He heard a rustling behind him and whirled around, picking up the gun. "Who's there?" he called, biting down on his tongue as soon as he said it. So much for survival calm.

"K-kuwata-kun?"

Sayaka Maizono.

Maybe things were turning around for him.

"Maizono!" he said, dropping the gun. She had a gun of her own clutched tightly in her hands. He jumped to his feet. "Hey, no need for that, right? Come here. I can protect you, right? Right."

She took a shaky step forward, lowering the gun so that it was pointing toward the ground. Then she rushed forward into his arms and clutched at his shirt, tears soaking through his shirt. He froze.

"M-maizono…chan?" he tried, and she just cried harder. "Are you okay? Ah, fuck, of course you're not. This game…"

"It-it's horrible!" Maizono said, clutching him tighter. She pulled away, looking him in the eye, and he was pretty sure his heart stopped. He swallowed, mouth dry. Of all the times for a girl to be pressing against him…

"I'll protect you," he said, voice stronger.

"You haven't killed anyone, right?"

"N-no," Leon said, mind flashing back to Gundam Tanaka. But that was different. Gundam had been about to kill Souda, so it was… well, not exactly self-defense, but justified. Definitely justified.

He wasn't going to think about how he was ready to kill Kiyotaka Ishimaru. How he'd tried, but somehow those damn bullets hadn't… a bulletproof vest? Did they give those out?

"Can I stay with you, then?" Maizono asked. "Would that be okay?"

"Hell yeah," Leon said, grinning. He brushed hair away from her face, skin trailing beneath his fingertips, and once again half-wished that she wasn't so damn flat against him. His eyes were glued on her lips, a little scared of looking lower, a little hoping that she'd notice and kiss him.

But she didn't. She stepped back, gave him an awkward smile, and glanced at his map. "Where are you planning on going?" she asked.

"Lighthouse," Leon said. "It's got… it's got a good lookout point."

"That's a good idea," Maizono said, smiling at him. He swallowed again.

Yeah.

Yeah, his luck was definitely turning around.

25 STUDENTS REMAINING

yeah leon got a boner

also 'oh no bad things happening – hello cute girl in a short skirt' is a thing. always a thing.

fun stuff ahead for this boy, am i right