As the sun limped over the horizon, casting morning rays across the ground, the students of Hope's Pinnacle woke up one by one where they'd collapsed the night before. None of them remembered falling asleep, but exhaustion had clearly won them all in the end. Some students were in the academy, others were still scattered around the woods. A precious few were by the campsite, the fire long since smoldered out.
"Towa? Towa!"
"Wahhh!" Towa sat up with a jolt, backing up so fast that she slammed into a tree behind her. "Noa! Wait! Please! Don't kill me!"
"What the-? Oh, Towa! Come on! Don't be such a dumbass, you dumbass! I'm not gonna do something like that!" Noa crossed her arms, frowning.
Oh, no, she called me a dumbass! Towa panicked. She must still be mad at me! The mushrooms!—oh, wait, she always calls me that… Wait! Did she just say… she WASN'T going to kill me? Or rather, more importantly, had Towa heard, for the first time since last night, a word of kindness?
"Like I said, Towa, I'm not gonna hurt you," Noa sighed, finally kneeling beside the other girl, and touching her arm consolingly. There was genuine care and concern in her iridescent green eyes, even beyond what Towa expected. It was a little uncomfortable, to be perfectly honest.
No, that's not the word. Maybe it's more like… awkward? Towa thought. Noa was so close to her… Then she realized how many cuts and bruises Noa had, and Towa finally reacted, recoiling in sympathy and horror. Noa was quick to wrap her arms around herself, looking away self-consciously.
"Wh-what?! This is… nothing! I mean, look at you! You're even more banged up than I am!" The Ultimate Theater Actress cried. Towa was also covered in bumps, lumps, cuts, bruises, and more, but unlike Noa, there was a gnarly gnash on her thigh.
"Wahhh!" Towa sat up with another jolt. "How did I not notice it before?!"
"Well quit jerking it around like that!" Noa sighed in exasperation. "You're only gonna make it worse!"
Towa grit her teeth, wondering if the sudden rush of pain in her thigh was real or imagined. Then she couldn't help but fear that perhaps the mushrooms still held sway over her mind. Above all, though, she wondered where such a vicious injury had even come from…
Shinobu! That's right! Towa's eyes shot open. Shinobu had her dead to rights, but through sheer dumb luck, Towa managed to outmaneuver her in the close-quarter combat just long enough for Kyoko, of all people, to come bursting through the trees.
"Shinobu, stop!" she cried, reaching out, anguished. Somehow, her cap was still on her head, but it looked dangerously close to falling off.
Shinobu did indeed stop, head whipping over her shoulder away from Towa to scowl at her vocalist. "Kyoko…" she growled. While Towa cowered in place, Kyoko started coming closer, hands outstretched, face and voice gentle as she talked Shinobu down as carefully as she could.
Finally, Shinobu ran off again. "Fuck this!" she muttered, charging at Kyoko, but with the blade pointed away from her as she raced by.
"Wow… You saved my life!" Towa gasped, eyes wide as Shinobu vanished from her and Kyoko's line of sight.
"I have to go after her," Kyoko replied grimly. It was a miracle her hallucinations hadn't caused her to go off the rails like Shinobu. Although she was unaware of it now, the irony was that she was protected by her hallucination, since it kept convincing her Shinobu was in danger, or hated her, and all Kyoko wanted to do was fix it. After one last worried look at Towa, she took off running after Shinobu.
It was the last Towa saw of either of them, her own paranoia driving her deeper into the woods, even though nothing but trouble had come of it so far. She couldn't remember falling asleep, but of course, she remembered Noa waking her up. Noa grasped her arm firmly. Once again, Towa flinched. But faster this time, she was able to recognize that it was not the grasp of an angry enemy, rather, a supportive, protective friend.
J-Jeez, Noa… Towa blushed and looked away as Noa easily picked her up and carried her to the academy, bridal style. I wonder… Did something happen to her last night? Oh, no, is Photon gonna have a giant "I came too close to losing you!" fest? I don't think I'm ready for—wait… Ibuki!
"We've been launching search-and-rescue parties all morning." As if reading Towa's mind, Noa answered her silent question.
"And has Ibuki…?" Towa asked weakly. Noa's forehead creased. Uh oh.
Before Noa could answer, a scream split the air. "OH MY GOD, AOI!"
ooo
"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Dalia's face was grim as she strode through the academy, pushing a stretcher. Her words were hardly necessary, as the students all but dove out of her way, parting for her like magic. She had scary eyes at the best of times, but when she was determined, her eyes in and of themselves could've carved warpaths, to say nothing of Dalia herself!
"Wee woo! Wee woo! Wee woo!" Rinku brought up the rear, escorting Tsubaki. Ordinarily, Tsubaki would be furious at Rinku's stupidity, yelling in her ear like that, but with a bruised, broken, bloody, battered Aoi in front of her, Tsubaki couldn't care about anything else.
Oh, Aoi! How did I not know?! How did I not find you sooner?! You idiot, what were you doing out there?! What happened to you?!
As Noa told Towa, search-and-rescue efforts had gone on all morning. The students' current method of retrieval was to send a text through the PheFos, and a stretcher would be rolled to the injured party. There was only one, so they had to be judicious about when they used it. Upon seeing the sorry state of Aoi's body, however, the decision was instantaneous. She was strung up by her ankles, body littered in stab wounds from toe to head. Worst of all, though, one of her eyes had been stabbed out, pink blood dripping from the empty socket through her short, black hair.
Saori nearly threw up upon seeing it, forced to focus on the ground just so she didn't actually puke. In doing so, she noticed a little, white, plastic, bottle cap in the dirt beneath Aoi's body. Ordinarily, I'd say this was just a piece of litter, but… no way. Not in a Killing Game like this… There would be more trash if this was really just a piece of litter. Where is the bottle? What is it even from? It doesn't look like any cap I've used recently. And for it to be so far out in the middle of the forest, right beneath Aoi's body…
Saori mentally distracted herself as she and Dalia loaded Aoi onto the stretcher. In the distance, Noa silently thanked her lucky stars that she opted to carry Towa. She could tell by Saori's scream that whatever they found was bad. That was not to say the gnash on Towa's thigh was nothing, but Noa was confident that it was a far smaller wound than whatever Aoi had. Noa glanced at the girl in her arms pulled her in closer, but she was careful to do it slowly enough that Towa wouldn't notice.
By the time Towa and Noa reached the nurse's office, Aoi had been moved from the stretcher to one of the six little hospital beds along the room's walls. Tsubaki, of course, sat by her side. Oh, Aoi, I'm so sorry… I had hoped that I would be the one to find you…
Towa was placed in the bed across from her. She sat up, eyes widening in horror when she realized just how close to death Aoi truly was. Only about a third of the students were back, so there was plenty of opportunity for more to show up like Aoi, or worse.
"Towa, the nurse's office is small, so if we get too many people back with too many injuries, we might need to move you to the dining hall," Noa said, resting her hand on Towa's shoulder and Towa nodded quickly; she didn't mind, if others needed the beds more. The dining hall had become a second nurse's office, students running between the two places and donating their bedding so that no one had to sit on the cold, hard tile.
And the reason the nurse's office was small was, in Monochio's words from orientation, "because the Killing Game is not supposed to be some kind of Surgeon Simulation! There are no savepoints IRL!"
Shinobu had crinkled her nose, hearing it use cringey gamerspeak, even though she also spoke like that.
Noa returned to the search-and-rescue once Towa was properly taken care of and Tsubaki watched her go, biting her lip guiltily.
I should get back out there too… She'd been in a search party with Yuka when Saori and Dalia found Aoi.
Word quickly reached Tsubaki, and of course, Yuka let her go at once. Hiiro, however, was nowhere to be found. Tsubaki's stomach churned, and she found herself, for once, almost longing for Hiiro's maternal presence.
Heh… She chuckled wetly. I remember when Nagisa tried to call her the Ultimate Mom. I've never seen the fear of God so whipped into someone before… Finally, a tear escaped. Oh… Nagisa… Then her stomach churned again. If Hiiro was dead, and Aoi didn't make it, she would be alone…
ooo
While Dalia escorted Aoi to the nurse's office, Saori paired up with Yuka. The sharp-eyed Ultimate Photographer spotted something first.
"Wait a minute! Look! Up there!" She pointed just beyond the horizon. For a split second, Saori's heart jolted.
Up there…? Aoi's body flashed in her mind, but Yuka didn't mean "up", she meant "ahead". There, staggering in the distance, was Ibuki Niijima.
"Ibuki!" Yuka sprinted away from Saori, stopping an inch away from the Ultimate Runner. It took everything she had not to tackle Ibuki in a hug.
"Oh… Thank goodness… I thought I was lost forever…" Ibuki murmured, dazed. She swayed on her feet, and Yuka was quick to hold out her arms.
"Here, lean on me!" she instructed, and Ibuki all but collapsed into her strong arms, blue-gray eyes unseeing.
"Oh my goodness!" Saori finally caught up, panting, and just in time to see Ibuki's muscled legs buckle.
"No worries, Saori!" Yuka tried to grin as confidently as she could. "I got her!" Just what the heck happened to her? Well, no matter, we will find out eventually! The most important thing is to get her back to the nurse's office NOW.
It wasn't just for Ibuki's sake, but her unit-mates. Yuka knew they would be over the moon to have her back, and sure enough, the moment she, Saori, and Ibuki made their way into the nurse's office, Noa and Towa shrieked in delight and relief.
"Ibuki!" Towa cried, shooting upright, then a second later, she winced. "Oh, right."
"Towa!" Saori and Noa sighed and shook their heads while Towa laughed sheepishly, thigh throbbing.
Returning to the search parties at the same time, Dalia heard them and chuckled. Kyoko and Muni ran into one another not too far away from Rinku and Maho. The quartet's paths didn't cross until they were in the nurse's office, but the student body was slowly coming together again. Esora was found by Noa and Dalia, staggering through the trees, eyes traumatized and unseeing. Like Aoi, she was covered in stab wounds, but rather than an eye, she was missing a hand, her other clenched around the bloody pink stump in attempt to staunch the slow but heavy blood loss. Even though her legs weren't injured, Dalia swiftly carried her back to the nurse's office. She was borderline catatonic the entire time.
Rika and Marika, meanwhile, found Miyu. The poor girl was curled up in fetal position on the ground, a large piece of broken branch nearby. There was blood on the branch, and it seeped out from beneath as well.
"Oh, kiddo, no…" Rika crossed her arms and shook her head, eyes unspeakably sad. Marika was quick to kneel beside the injured girl.
"Oh, Miyu, did you fall?" she asked, face and voice compassionate as she opened her arms to her underclassman. Why was she up there at all?
"I… I… I'm sorry…!" Miyu began to cry, lunging into Marika's arms, clinging to the Ultimate Model as she apologized and wept. Marika only closed her eyes and patted Miyu's back, rocking her back and forth slowly.
Rika finally joined them, kneeling down and wrapping her arms around both of them. Gotta be strong for 'em, I can do that! No problem…!
It was hard to say whether it was luck or not, but in the second before Miyu could jump, the branch broke beneath her foot. She hadn't moved in several minutes, staring at the ground far below, but right before she could start bending her legs for the leap, the branch cracked, and she plummeted. So, did she fall? Technically, yes. And with a sprained ankle and broken spirit, climbing such a wide, tall tree again was impossible.
Rika and Marika led Miyu back to Hope's Pinnacle before continuing their search. It was clear Miyu was uncomfortable in the nurse's office, flashing back to the night Kurumi died, but she stayed loyally by Tsubaki's side, who stayed loyally by Aoi's, finally holding her hand.
Please, Aoi, please wake up soon!… I… I… I miss you… Tsubaki would be forever grateful for all the help she received from everyone, fond feelings for her peers increasingly exponentially after that morning, but it only made it even harder to imagine that any of them was guilty… for this.
Tsubaki looked down, throat and eyes burning. It was hard to see Aoi like this. A single tear traced down her cheek.If there was anything Tsubaki didn't like about all the help from the others, it was the unintentional reminder that she was alone. Nagisa was dead, Hiiro was still missing, and there was no guarantee Aoi wouldn't succumb to something eventually. If not the initial wounds, what if something got infected? She'd been left hanging for at least half the night, after all. And that was one of the most sickening parts. They had no idea how long Aoi was there, and how long she might've been conscious. To ground herself, Tsubaki rubbed Aoi's hand with her thumb.
She was aware of Miyu beside her, trying to comfort her, resting her head on Tsubaki's shoulder. Tsubaki felt even guiltier.
I'm a third-year and she's a first, and yet SHE is the one comforting ME. She's the one who lost her whole unit, and yet… A few more self-loathing tears escaped Tsubaki's stormy gray eyes. I wish… I wish… I wish I could be stronger! But I'm not! I'm not you, Aoi! I'm not Hiiro or Nagisa… So that's why… I need one of you to come back! Please! There's so much… I still have to tell you…
Even though Miyu would not have judged, and would have forbidden Tsubaki from trying to compare their pain, Tsubaki still felt pathetic and alone.
ooo
Outside, Maho and Rinku ran into one another near the edge of the forest.
"Rinku…?" Maho was dizzy, dark circles under her eyes, ears ringing and head spinning. She struggled to see through her blurry vision as she staggered over to the golden-haired figure in the distance.
"MAHO!" Rinku's excited cry gave her away. Maho winced and braced herself, but the bearhug she expected never came. As hyper as Rinku was, she wasn't completely tone deaf. Even she could tell that Maho was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, on the verge of collapse.
If I even HUG her, it might be too much! Rinku wrung her hands worriedly, red eyes gleaming in fear.
"Eh, no worries," Maho gave her a dry smile, trying to reassure her, but Rinku only shook her head sadly, eyes welling up.
"Oh, Maho…" Her voice broke as the horrors of the night before finally looked her dead in the eye, blue meeting red. Then she wrapped her arms around the other girl, but this time, she was careful and gentle.
"Oh, Rinku," Maho sighed in return and wrapped her arms back around Rinku, breathing in her scent, rocking her back and forth slowly. The original duo was reunited. I'm glad you made it too…