Battle Royale Fan Fiction ❯ If... ❯ A False Sense of Security ( Chapter 11 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 10
A False Sense of Security

"You meet me and your whole world changes,
Because every I say is everything you want to hear,
So you drop all your defenses and you drop all your fears,
And you trust me completely,
I'm perfect in everyway,
Cause I make you feel so strong and so powerful inside,
You feel so lucky, but your ego obscures reality,
And you never wonder why things are going so well,
You want to know?
Cause I'm a liar."

-"Liar", Henry Rollins

Red & Yellow

"I was worried that explosion took somebody with it."

Shinji tried to hold back a groan. Just what he needed, another classmate running up to him. What was it this time? Another alliance? A trap? His throat slashed when he least suspected it? "You can thank a tree root for that."

Shuuya wasn't sure if that was a joke or not and opted to chuckle just in case it was. "Fujiyoshi and I aren't playing and with the extra help, we can keep Toshimori under control." He grabbed Shinji's wrist, ready to drag him over to his teammates. "Let's go get Hiroshi and Megumi and we can start thinking of a plan to get out of here." His friend's decision of immobility kept Shuuya anchored. "Come on, Shinji, where are they?"

"They went boom." Shuuya let go of his arm. God, he felt like a total jackass. "You can thank Satomi and her thugs for that."

"You're kidding." He could see Ryuhei, maybe even Tatsumichi if he snapped from the pressure, but Satomi? Sure she could be cold, but there was always a sense of kindness that he could easily see in her. She wouldn't have any friends if there wasn't any. "What did Ryuhei and Tatsumichi do to her?"

"Get your head out of your ass, Shuuya. She was the one who shot them."

Shuuya could just feel his heart beginning to break. Not her, not Satomi. Nice girls don't do things like that; Noriko sure wouldn't want it that way. "I guess we better get out of here before they find us."

"I wouldn't worry. Knowing those idiots, they're probably long gone by now."

"Okay." Shuuya's stomach began to act a little funny. Was this cynical, joyless young man in front of him really Shinji? He could understand him being upset about losing his teammates, but he had always bounced back from every horrid situation had been through before. Even his uncle's death couldn't extinguish that rebellious fire inside him. "Guys, you can come out now."

Fujiyoshi poked her head from the bushes her and Toshimori were hiding in and scanned the area before getting out. Tightening her grip on the lead pipe she found in the garage where Toshimori got his helmet, she slowly made her way toward them. "I'm sorry about Yutaka." She looked at Shinji who displayed no obvious signs of rage and insanity. "He didn't suffer." She felt a tear run down her face. "He died happy."

"So little nerd was telling the truth." Shinji unknowingly said out loud.

"What?"

"It's a long story."

Blue

"It's so beautiful." Even as the smoke from the explosion began to settle, Mitsuko couldn't help to not look away.

"What?" A slightly disturbed Takako asked.

"The color, the sounds, the way beauty can arise from destruction."

"Uh, ok." She'd never understand. Mitsuko almost smiled as a flood of sad, beautiful memories came back to her. The peaceful look the mortician managed to scrape-up on that boxer at his funeral. So utterly different from the hard, violent life he had lived, like two contrasting colors that blended together so perfectly.

Even Yutaka's death had its own appeal the way the blood sprayed out of his body, reminding her of tiny geysers breaking free from their cage of flesh. Those spiritualists had it all wrong, the human soul is not just a spiritual apparition, but also a physical body of crimson liquid that showed it's host's true self when they died. Yutaka's was a bold red stain that showed the bravery few ever saw. Kazushii's thin trickle proved that he was just a small man with nothing but selfish violence in his heart. And Takako's nosebleed reminded her of a melting icicle, begging the kid in her to lick one of its sweet-tasting drops.

"I can see it." Yuuichiro said, turning toward Mitsuko. "Kind of like how volcanoes are pretty even though everything is going to die when they erupt."

"See, he gets it." Mitsuko flashed a confident smile. She just knew that a halo of blood would form if someone shot him in the head or pour out like wings if it was in the back.

"Let's get going." Chigusa picked up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. "If Shinji's little plan worked, we may be able to get off this island."

Grey, White & Purple

"Come on, go tell him." Sakura almost laughed as she led Mayumi into the kitchen where Tadakatsu was emptying out the pot for every last bit of that nasty-tasting soup into the sink.

"I can't." Mayumi said with a nervous giggle. "What if I screw-up?"

"Don't worry about it. Tadakatsu's a great guy, besides you wouldn't believe the number of times Kazuhiko called and hung-up before asking me out." Those were such wonderful times, and no sick, sadistic program was going to put an end to them. She pushed Mayumi through the doorway and shut the door in front of her.

"Thanks a lot, Sakura." Mayumi grumbled. "Oh, Tadakatsu, I didn't see you there." She forced herself to blush.

"So are you ready?" He just wanted to kick himself for not being able to come up with anything else. He couldn't even count the times he had been practicing what he'd say to the first girl to ever have any interest in him. Everything from a Shinji-level smoothness to taking the nice guy routine.

Mayumi was somewhere near the end of his list of possible girls who'd have a crush on him. Even Kaori and Takako were placed higher than her. She was a nice enough girl if you go for those shy, prim, modestly dressed types. The more he thought of it with both his head and privates, she was a pretty good catch.

"I guess." Mayumi's face turned pale and her body began to shiver nervously.

"Mayumi?"

"I don't know if I can do it." She squeezed a few tears out of her eyes. "What if there are more of them or the boats are rigged or they have helicopters waiting for us?" Mayumi threw herself into Tadakatsu's arms, sobbing into his chest. "I don't want to die." She pulled her head away and stepped back, lovingly gazing into his eyes like he was a knight in shining armor. "I don't want to lose you."

Tossing his common sense out the window, Tadakatsu tightly gasped her arms, pulled her closer, and kissed her as hard as he could. So he liked to play rough? That was perfectly fine with her; most of her clients were nothing more than bam-bam-bam or sucking on her titties than any real passion. "First time?" Mayumi gasped when the kiss broke off.

"Uh, yeah." If it was any other girl, he would've lied.

"Me too." She gave him a light peck on the lips. "Come on, let's get going."

"You can go ahead; I have to fix my socks." Tadakatsu nodded and left.

"Bravo. Bravo. Encore." Shou's voice dripped with so much sarcasm that it plopped on Mayumi like fat drops of rain. His golf audience-type clapping rang in her ears, causing her blood to slowly boil. "You ever thought of a career in acting? My dad's been thinking of going into the home movie business and you can star in them."

"You creep! How dare you."

"Cut the polite shit, Mayumi. I know you're not the sweet little flower that you think you are."

Mayumi's back tensed up like a cat. "How could..." "What did that bitch, Hirono, tell him?"

Shou's mood became playful and mischievous. "Call it women's intuition." He chuckled a bit at his little joke. "I just found it convenient that you'd start drooling over Tadakatsu loud enough for him to hear and then start acting all innocent the second you come across him. Not the guy I would go for; Kazuhiko is definitely the cuter of the two. Besides, you already gave yourself away just a few seconds ago."

"Fine, then what do you want?"

"Oh I'll think of something."

Pink

"I guess somebody decided to get creative." Shougo mumbled, replacing Chisato's bandages, as the smoke from the bomb finally began to die down.

"That's real sweet of you." Yumiko growled. She could sympathize with the loss of his father and girlfriend and sort of understand his more blood-thirsty tactics, but couldn't he have at least some sympathy towards the potential victims? She just had to swallow her anger and keep her mouth shut. "Time to put all those science classes to work."

Yumiko fidgeted with her collar, trying to picture the chips and circuits inside it. "If there was some way to trick these things into thinking we're dead. There are pulse points in the neck, so I'd have to find a way to block them." She touched her neck. "Without killing myself."

"What'cha doing?" Hirono took a drag off a cigarette that she bummed off of Shougo. Sure she promised herself that she'd quit, but given all the crap they'd been through, she earned the right to indulge in an old habit. It sure did wonders for her nerves.

"Trying to find a way to deactivate these collars." She turned to Hirono. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about electronics, would you?"

"I can hotwire a car."

"Uh, it'll do." Yumiko brushed away a wave of cigarette smoke getting into her face. "Could you put out that cigarette?"

Hirono blew a fresh batch of smoke into her face. "No."

White, Grey, & Purple

Thanks to that explosion, Yukie was thrown into something she hoped wouldn't happen. There were still so many other kids that she had to save, but a number of her fellow students weren't as patient. It just happened to trigger some good old fashioned paranoia that the rest of the teams would go to such lengths to destroy them."Here's hoping they'll see the light."

In Yukie's eyes, this was all happening way too soon. There were still so many lives that needed to be saved. Fujiyoshi, Kayoto, Satomi, Chisato, even her beloved Shuuya were still wandering around, ready to be killed at any moment. But that explosion had unnerved more than one student, demanding to get off the island before they shared the same fate. She had lost three of her friends already and there was no way she was going to let the rest of them down.

She began tearing a blank sheet of paper into strips, one for each of the students. One by one they entered and were signaled by Yukie to take a seat.

"You all know why you're here." Yukie tried to swallow the growing lump in her throat. "I'm not going to name any names, but some you are demanding to put our plan into action." She handed Sakura the slips of paper and handful of pencils, instructing her to pass them down.

"But we have to!" Mayumi unknowingly blurted out then blushed slightly at her rudeness. "I'm sorry." Laying one of her delicate hands against her chest, Mayumi took a breath to calm herself and continued. "You saw what the others are capable of; I don't want to see anyone else get hurt." Focused her attention on Tadakatsu as she spoke the last eight words; completely oblivious that Shou was rolling his eyes.

"Maybe someone's collar blew-up." Said Mizuho, finally tearing her attention away from her attempt to turn her slip of paper into origami.

"Trust me, my dear Mizuho, for once Mayumi's right about something." Mayumi wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or kick him in the nuts. "I've seen those things go off. Keita's nuts would be on the other side of the island if it was that bad."

"Eww." Yukie and Sakura collectively groan at the mental image that popped into their heads. "Still, we can't leave the others behind." Sakura said, being the first to make the nut-shot leave her mind.

"Right, we're the good guys." Mizuho nearly jumped out of her seat with the fantasies of her Ivory Crusaders returning to her. After pushing them aside to morn Kaori's death and then again when the bomb went off, it lifted her spirits to revel in the dream that there was hope that at least Megumi wouldn't have to suffer. Who else would believe in her Ivory Crusaders (or at least humor her)? Maybe Sakura would do it out of niceness, but it wasn't the same; Megumi was all she had now. "And the good guys always win."

"This isn't a game you freak." Mayumi bit the insides of her cheeks to keep from talking. "God, can't you let something other than the voices in your head do your thinking for you?"

"Hey, I have friends out there, too." Mayumi let her eyes wonder around the room as Shou started talking. Other than Yoshimi who was sitting there like it was her first day at school with her hands rested between her thighs, the rest of the girls (not counting Shou) seemed pretty sure of themselves, but it was Tadakatsu that was worrying her. His stoic face made it almost impossible to determine if she had fully managed to convince him. "But we can't wait forever." Her eyes turned to Kazuhiko almost sulking in his chair. The handsome young man was suspiciously silent through the whole meeting as his eyes nervously darted toward the clock (which had just hit 10 PM), then Sakura and Yoshimi, and then his hands before repeating the process. In a way, Mayumi found it quite amusing. "The game is almost half over."

"But we still have time." Not even all the confidence in the world could subdue the knots forming in Yukie's stomach."Lot of good that's done; you can't even find the rest of your friends." Yukie' personal voice of doubt began to gain strength through the tension in the air.

"They just haven't gotten here, yet. That's all." Yukie mentally answered; unaware that everyone in the room was staring at her. "Then how come poor little Yuko went and got herself killed while you sat on your ass?" Her doubt laughed at her attempt at playing the big, strong leader. Underneath it all, she was just another sad, pathetic kid just like the rest of them. Trying to hold back her tears 24/7 when everyone else around her was stuck down by the deaths of their friends. In the back of its own twisted little mind, her doubt gleefully wondered how much more prodding it would have to do get those pretty brown eyes to finally well-up."Some leader you turned out to be. Satomi, Kayoto, Fujiyoshi, even your precious Shuuya are probably too scared of you playing the game that they'll blast a hole in your head the second they see you."

"That's not true!" Yukie's impulsiveness broke through her rationality's defense like a frenzied quarterback as she slammed her fist on the table hard enough to draw everyone's attention to her. She could just picture her doubt letting out a hateful laugh that would unnerve the devil, especially when she couldn't find an excuse for her outburst. "Never mind. Let's just put our votes in."

Shou just shrugged his shoulders and walked off to a separate area in the room to write down his vote. "Hiroshi, Ryuhei, I hate to do this to you guys." He paused, his mind flooding back to his time with the Kiriyama Family. He could feel the specter of his handsome leader looming over him. Those icy, emotionless eyes bore a disapproving hole into him until Shou finally stopped writing. "Maybe you're right." He lifted his pen an inch away from the paper, if Kazuo was ever capable of smiling, Shou knew he would be doing it right now. That hottie, Mitsuru, would be running out there looking for them. Now that he thought about it, Ryuhei had a bit of a cuteness to him, too. And maybe he'd suck-off Hiroshi if he asked nicely and there were no other guys available. "Oh hell, you didn't do anything, either." Folding his vote in half, he went to drop it off in the bowl Yukie left in the middle of the table.

"Are you ok?" Sakura whispered to Yukie as they dropped their votes into the bowl.

"Of course I am." Her voice was tired and weak.

"If not, I'm here to help."

"Sakura, please forgive me." Kazuhiko silently entered his vote, refusing to look at any of them. "I can't risk losing you."

One by one, the others placed their votes in, following Kazuhiko's lead of not really looking at each other. Yukie arose from her seat and dumped the votes on the table. Her heart had made a lightning-fast trip from her chest to her mouth, beating like crazy. She just had to get through to the others; they couldn't all be so self-serving. "One for staying." She held up a vote where the period was replaced with a heart. "One to leave."

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled killing spree," Kamon's voice barged in, almost causing Yukie to jump. "To bring in the new death call." Gritting her teeth, she continued with the slips of paper at a rapid pace as if he'd disappear if she toned him out. "Our newest victims are Boy #9: Hiroshi Kuronga and Girl #3 Megumi Eto. Them and their explosive performance will be missed."

There was only one slip of paper left with the leave side one vote ahead when Mizuho sprang up from her chair. Every trait that made her recognizable was torn away from her, leaving a cold, dark figure who could give Kazuo nightmares in its place. "Mizuho..." She swiped the vote from Yukie's hand, read it, and crossed it out.

"Let's go." Mizuho's voice was cold enough to freeze the entire island.

"But..."

"I changed my mind."

"You can't do this. We're the good guys, remember?" Mizuho simply turned her back and went to get her stuff. "Murderer." Yukie wasn't sure how she did it, but somehow she managed to hold back her tears.

End of Chapter 10. 25 Students remain.