Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Defy and Comply ❯ Lesson 6: Wake Up ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

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Defy and Comply
Lesson 6: Wake Up
By: Melissa Norvell
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Against the wall of the school, several students were gathered in a small group.  Tsukimi was among this small group of misfits.  This particular group of students hung out together in their own designated group.  They were among the more shady-looking characters of the school but they were Tsukimi's best friends.

She leaned up against the wall with her hands behind her head and one foot up.  Beside of her was a man who was tall and extremely fit.  He looked like a professional body builder but he dressed like a biker, clad in black boots, light blue jeans, a black, leather vest and white tee-shirt beneath.  His shoulder-length, blonde hair tumbled out of his red bandana and his arms were folded over his wide chest, clad in fingerless, black gloves.  A couple of chains hung at his sides, clipped from his belt loops to his pockets.  No matter how anyone looked at him, he was very intimidating.

This was the man that she was madly in love with.  He went by the name of Zoen Matsuda.

Three guys leaned against the wall beside of him.  They were all members of a presigious band who was very popular in their native land of Korea.  They were all tall and slender in appearance.  Two of the students wore their normal uniforms but wore the coats open.  One of them had two rings in his left eyebrow and snow white, spiked hair with blood red tips and blue, slanted eyes.  His name was Santa Sekiyo and the other boy had an olive complexion.  He wore heavy eyeliner and had black hair, cut in a scene cut with long bangs that drooped over the left side of his face.  His name was Kageki Hao.  

Their lead singer, Gazitsu Shen Fai stuck out the most among them.  He had dark blue hair that was long and spiked, like a lion's mane.  His skin was a light caramel in color and he had large, expressive eyes, lined in eye liner that had lines that curved under his eyes, looking much like stage makeup.  Gazitsu or "Gaz" as he chose to be called wore fingerless gloves with spikes around them, a spiked collar, leather vest and tight, leather pants.  He looked much older than most everyone there and had a blue beard that pointed on his chin and extended along the bottom of his jawline.  It was trimmed nicely.   Most of the time, he went shirtless under his leather vest but during school hours he wore a black t-shirt under it.  The lead singer also wore a gold band around his bicep on his right side.  Despite his appearance, Gaz had a friendly attitude and quite a bit of friends around the school campus.

Across from the wall, leaned up on a bike with a high seat and odd-looking, elongated tailpipes that were heavily modified was a man clad in a light blue, long coat and puffy, matching pants.  His coat had depicted several images of Japan's rising sun and on the arms were other embroidered images along with kanji sayings of pride and strength.  He was a little shorter than Gaz and had a built body.  It wasn't overly so like Zoen's but he was a tough contender nonetheless.  He had a youthful face and wore eyeliner similar to Taiga's.  His hair was brown and buzzed in the back with longer hair on top that was molded into a point that jutted out from his forehead, which made his head look like a triangle from above.  This student was the leader of a Bosozoku gang, the most famous and largest in all of Japan.  His name was Masato Satomaru.

The group stood there, talking to each other about various topics that piqued their interests.  Everyone was especially chatty today.  Everyone but Tsukimi, the girl couldn't get her mind off of the looks on Kiyomaru and Sunoma's faces.  Thier expressions bothered her.  In fact, all of the student council members were acting really strange lately when she thought about it and this fact unsettled her.

As she was brought back into the real world she heard footsteps nearing her.  Dual-colored eyes glanced over to a petite girl who had two spiral pig tails that were a blue a couple of shades lighter than Gaz's hair.  She was a small girl who wore a black lolita dress with short, puffy sleeves and black lace.  She always had a sly look about her, with cat-like pupils and long, seductive eyelashes.  She always wore a dark pink lipstick and carried a black umbrella lined with white lace.  She was known as Ame Tagawa.

Ame walked up to the group and stopped, her dark blue eyes scanned the group of misfits and Gaz greeted her with a toothy smile, "hey! Gang's all here!"

"Oh yeah? This is what y'call a gang?" Masata asked, his thick, Tohoku-ben accent bleeding through.

"Sure it is! I see your faces every day," the Korean rock star considered them his gang in that sense.  They usually always spent their breaks and lunches together.

"It looks more like you're all going to start mischief to me," Ame held a hand curtly up to her lips, hiding her slight smile as Masato leveled her with a glare from his position, leaned against his bike.

"There y'go makin y're assumptions based on looks." Damn, that woman got on his nerves sometimes.  She was always quick to make a sharp-tongued comment.  Some lolita she was. She didn't act the part, that was for sure.

"You're the leader of a Bosozoku group, the call I make isn't exactly incorrect," Ame kept her air of polite speech about her.

Masato held up a fist, anger marring his face at her little comment. "Watch y'r mouth, Ame!"

"Oh and Zoen is a gang leader," the lolita added.

"You sure like to make enemies," Zoen commented in a calmer manner than the biker.

Ame looked to the band members, "the rest of you look like ruffians, honestly."

"Man, I'm an honor student.  Way to hurt my pride.  Do you like going around taking stabs at everyone?" Santa asked, closing one eye at the verbal lashing that he was getting.

"Vicious bitch," Kageki muttered.

"How rude. I haven't resorted to using foul words around any of you," Ame faked astonishment as her body drew back but she hardly looked offended.

"Y'r not that innocent," Masato shot.

To Tsukimi, their voices sounded like muffled background noises as she stared blankly at the rustling trees.  Her eyes watched as the leaves of the treetops danced in the wind and her friends bickered in the background.

Kageki blinked a little as the girl caught his attention.  Her head was turned away from him and her multi-colored hair blew in the wind.  She was oddly peaceful among the chaos that was going on.  "Hey, Tsukimi, why are you so quiet over there?"

"Oh, sorry. What?" Tsukimi turned to him, cocking her head and she held a clawed finger to her lips in question.

Zoen's blue eyes looked down at his girlfriend and he spoke in a booming, deep voice. "You've been spacey all day.  You act like something is on your mind."

"Things have been kind of weird for me lately," the girl admitted as she sighed a little to herself.

"How so?" Zoen asked.

"Have you ever noticed that the members of the student council have been acting really weird?"

"Yeah, man. Kiyomaru's been really paranoid today and yesterday he wouldn't talk to anyone.  He sorta just stared off into space like he was on something," Gaz had thought it was weird but he didn't know that the other members of the student council were acting strange as well.

Zoen looked contemplative for a few moments. "He usually is energetic and loud.  Something must have been bothering him."

"He wouldn't tell me when I asked. He just faked his way through." Not to mention, he did a really bad job of faking things with her.  Tsukimi could see right through his lies.

"It's probably personal," Masato didn't see the harm in that.  Some people had secrets that weren't meant to see the light of day.  He was a prime example of someone whose past would chase away anyone.  If he had problems centered on events in his past, he wasn't going to tell anyone.

"Maybe he and Sunoma had a lover's quarrel.  She was pretty weird the other day, too.  Spacey and not really reacting to me," Santa found it weird that they both were acting pretty much the same way at around the same time.  

"See what I'm saying? The other members were like that, too.  It's like they're hardly around campus.  I don't even see them at Sweet Cake Dreams anymore." It was really odd to her.  Usually, the student council made frequent visits and then they all mysteriously stopped coming.  Tsukimi didn't like it at all.

Kageki glanced over to her. "That's the cake shop that's in the school, right? The one you help run?"

Tsukimi nodded. "Yeah, the student council usually comes there for lunch or in the afternoon but they haven't been lately.  It's weird, and I feel like something is going on."

"It's nearly graduation.  It doesn't make sense for them to be involved with anything unless it's the set-up and staging for the ceremony," Ame knew that the preparations for graduation were already done. In fact, anything regarding graduation was already done, so what was keeping them all so busy?

"That should have been done already," Zoen knew that the prep work had already been done as well.

"Why does it matter? Isn't everyone a little busy around this time?" It seemed that way to Masato.  The biker didn't see much of a reason to worry about the absence of the student council.  They didn't live, breathe and eat the academy....Well, it was questionable in Kiyomaru's case but the rest weren't so devoted.

"They don't act like that, though," Gaz argued his point. "It was sort like they were traumatized or something." He couldn't forget that void look in their eyes.  These weren't kids that were just busy with life.  They had some problems.  

"You don't think something bad is happening, do you?" Kageki sort of got that feeling from the undertones of the conversation.  Everyone seemed to be insinuating that there was something bad that was happening right under their noses.  He didn't have a good feeling about any of this.

"Something bad? Like what?" Zoen was a little curious about it as well.

"I don't know. Why else would people be scared? We go to school with some pretty shady people." Kageki glanced over to the biker.  If they were caught up in something like a gang fight or disputes within the yakuza groups that attended Shinjiku then it might cause them to be afraid or upset.

Masato held out his fist, immediately getting angry again. "Why the fuck are y'lookin' at me for?"

Not this shit again.

"Well, there's Taiga, too.  He's the scariest guy in school." Santa noted the yakuza leader was probably a tougher opponent for everyone than the biker was.

Ame shrugged. "What? Because he's a yakuza leader? I'm not scared of him. He doesn't seem too bad." She stated it as if it truly meant nothing to her.

"Masato, you're in the most terrible Bosozoku gang in all of Japan.  Your guys go and work for Taiga's guys when you are old enough." Kageki had a faint idea how those things worked.  Those in the biker gangs had to be of a certain age to be inducted into the yakuza and most boys who joined biker gangs went on to become members of the yakuza.

"Some of 'em do.  I have other plans." Masato didn't plan on following those footsteps.

"Oh?" Ame was curious as to what career change the biker had in mind.

"I want to be a body guard," Masato put his hands on his hips, closed his eyes and smiled, puffing out his chest with pride.  To him, it was his greatest dream. It might not have been much of a dream to anyone else but it was all he aspired to be, to be able to use his strength to protect people versus killing people and beating people up as he did as a Bosozoku leader.

"A bodyguard?" Ame asked in amusement.  It seemed so out of place for a hot head like him.

Tsukimi leaned in with interest, "sounds dangerous."

"I want to protect people instead of hurtin' them.  I sorta, woke up to what I was doin' before I joined Shinjinku. I mean, I'm still gonna hang for my guys but I'm gonna look for a good bodyguard job after I graduate.  Hey, maybe I can protect one of you guys." Yeah, that would be a great job!  He could protect one of his friends and they'd always be in close proximity to pal around on the side.  Masato liked the sound of that.

"Yeah!" Tsukimi pumped her fist. "I'd let you protect me when I go out and rock the world.  We'll be a kick ass team!" The girl winked playfully at him.

This was pumping Masato up, filling him with pride and determination.  His smile couldn't have been any wider as he gave her a thumbs up. "Yeah! Can't wait!"

Tsukimi sighed, "maybe I'm over thinking things, but still I think something weird is going on.  There's something that they aren't telling us. I can feel it." There was no other explanation for the way that Kiyomaru acted towards her, nor was there for the way Sunoma acted before.


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In the library, gathered around the computer that Kiyomaru had viewed the day before, Kraki stood by the chair that Sunoma sat in and Kiyomaru was far away from the demonic machine.  He stood over by the bookshelves, which were across the room and nearly out of eyesight of the computer.

Kraki looked to the boy and arched her eyebrow. "This computer, correct?"

"Yes," he replied from across the room.

The green-haired girl arched an eyebrow. "Why are you so far away? You can come closer-"

He cut her off.

"No! No, no! I'm fine staying at a safe distance. I really don't want to see it again!" Kiyomaru held his arms out, moving his hands from side-to-side as he shook his head and smiled nervously.  The last thing he wanted to do was be anywhere near that horrid machine again.  The only reason he was there now was because Sunoma and Kraki wanted him to come so that he could talk to them about the video clips.

The computer booted up and the screen came on, flashing the same background that Kiyomaru had once seen.

Bewilderment crossed Kraki's visage as she arched an eyebrow. "Smile for the camera, darling? What does that mean?"

"Maybe it's like saying smile; you're on camera but in a really horrible way." That's what Kiyomaru got from it, anyway.  It implied that he was going to be the next person on that camera, and everyone on it was going to be killed in one way or another, so was his fate.

Sunoma blinked as she looked at the screen. "Where are these video clips that you were talking about?"

"They should be on the desktop," he was certain they were there before.

"There's nothing here," Kraki confirmed what Sunoma saw and shock and dread ran through the blue-haired boy's body.  He ran over to the computer and nearly put his face in the screen as his eyes searched around, trying to find any hint of the icons but there were none.

"What? They were there before!" Kiyomaru couldn't believe this! His story was merely idle words now, it's validity erased with the last piece for evidence that tied them to the last classes' graduation.

"Are you sure?" Sunoma asked as she searched around for the wave files, but nothing came up anywhere.

"Yes, I watched three of them.  It was not a dream. They really were there." Kiyomaru hoped that his friends believed him.  He had no idea what he would do if they didn't or they thought he was merely imagining it.

"What's that?" Kraki pointed to a text document on the screen that was called 11057.txt.

"That wasn't there before.  There were no text documents, only wave files." That was one thing that he was certain of.  There were a series of wave files and nothing else.  What could have possibly happened to them?  This couldn't be happening to him.

"Should we click it?"

Sunoma felt a small sense of nervousness overcome her. "I don't know. What if something happens?" After all, something happened to Kiyomaru, or so he had claimed.  No doubt, clicking on this file would result in something.

"I admit that I'm scared. I do not like this at all." In fact, Kiyomaru felt as if he were going to throw up again.  Flashes of the content of those wave files ran through his head.  The blood spraying, the savage students killing each other and the eerie silence and garbled screams.  It was horrible.  He never wanted to see anything like that again.

Kraki took the mouse and clicked the message.  A text document popped up and the words 'wake up' were written in bold, large font.  It was the largest font that the program could produce.

Green eyes blinked in confusion. "Wake up?"

'What does that mean?' Sunoma thought to herself.  She had never gotten such an obscure message in her life.

Then, something came to her mind.  It was a phrase that Lamar had written in his book.

Someday, I'll wake up from this nightmare.

Her eyes widened and a sense of fear paralyzed her momentarily. "Someone is messing with us."

"All of the school's computers are networked.  So, who could be doing this?" Kiyomaru asked as a look of urgency washed over his visage.  Just then, the webcam flashed on, taping the three of them as they talked. His eyes widened as he pointed at the computer screen. "That's what happened to me last time but in the videos the students were... " He turned, hunched over, clutching his head as he began to cry. "No! This is cruel!" Kiyomaru couldn't take it anymore.  He wished he had never come down the library. He wanted out.  His chest hurt, his head hurt and he wanted to puke.

Sunoma stared at the light for the webcam as she spoke; her words were laced in fright. "Smile for the...camera? That means the webcam."

Kraki was visibly shaking; her voice trembled as she spoke. Fear reflected in her eyes. She felt like she wanted to take off running at that instant. "Let's just go, this is really weird and I feel like someone in here is watching us."

It was the exact same feeling that Kiyomaru had felt.

Sunoma attempted to shut down the computer, but nothing would work.  It was exactly like when Kiyomaru had tried to exit the window when the videos were playing.  Her heart raced as she felt a sense of hopelessness and panic. "There's something wrong. Let's go." She said as they all left the library with the computer running and shut the doors behind them.

As they were walking down the halls quickly, Sunoma was the first one to break up the eerie silence between them. "Whoever is behind this knows what they're going.  They probably got rid of the videos that Kiyomaru looked at."

Kraki was still confused. "I don't get it. What does wake up mean?"

"I don't know," the lolita replied.  She had a sense of what she thought it meant but she wasn't sure.

Kiyomaru's big eyebrows furrowed. "I don't like this."

"I'm going to my dorm.  I need to think to myself. You two should do the same.  Try to calm down so we can think this through.  We need to figure out what's going on." Sunoma's mind was too full of thoughts that muddled together in a giant mess.  Before she could look at things with an analytical eye, she wanted to clear her mind.  That whole incident was odd.  The girl wondered if Lamar had ever experienced anything like that.

Kraki held a hand up to her chin and concentrated on nothing in particular. "It's almost like whomever it is teasing us.  It's like the want us to know."  But, how was that so? What kind of people wanted them to know of their own dark deeds? Was this some kind of punishment specifically designed for the three of them? What were the motives behind all of this and what was up with that message?

"I am unsure of their message but I do not like it." The very words themselves 'wake up' sounded like something sinister.  Kiyomaru wanted nothing more of this.

A hand touched his shoulder and he stopped and looked back to see Sunoma behind him.  She gave him a reassuring look and her words were stern, full of determination as she spoke to him. "We'll figure it out.  We've still got time. Remember not to give up hope that that no matter what you saw, the situations are not the same."

The student council vice president nodded. "Thank you. I feel a bit better now. I will try to calm down.  Perhaps I'll go swimming or fencing.  Those things may help me get my mind off of things." If there was anything Kiyomaru needed to do, it was get his mind off of things.  After watching all of those students die, it was all he could do to keep from breaking down.  So many things had happened and the vivid images ran through his head over and over, assaulting his senses in all of their macabre glory.  Blood, bodies, and violence left a widespread path in his mind. Kiyomaru was certain that he wouldn't be able to rid himself of it.

"I'll talk to you later. If you have any trouble, text me." Sunoma was worried and she didn't want him to go his problems alone as she had.  She would have rather been there for him when times got rough. Kiyomaru nodded. More than anything, he needed a friend right now.

Sunoma parted with him, going her own way, and as she walked down the hell she pulled Taiga's number out of her bra and called it.  Maybe the yakuza knew something about the strange computer footage.  Right now, he was the only confidant she had to turn to that she could reach immediately.

In the gym, Taiga lifting weights with a large group of his fellow men and a few stray people who decided to use the facility at the same time.  He paid them no mind as he continued to lift a large barbel, stacked with weights on either side.  Grunting, he pulled the weight up, his body glistening with sweat as the familiar tone of his hone played in the distance.

Dropping the weight, Taiga fetched a towel and wiped his hands and face before answering the phone.  He didn't recognize the phone number right off and gave the phone a bewildered glance.  

"Who is this?" He asked as his men continued to work out in the background.

"It's me," Sunoma said as she leaned against one of the walls in an empty hallway.

"Ah, that girl from before. Suzuka or something."

"My name is Sunoma. You do best to remember it, since I remembered yours, Taiga Daifumi." Of all of the things someone could be bad at remembering, Taiga had to be bad at names.  She sighed to herself in irritation.

"I'm bad with names. Hop off my dick, woman." Taiga grumbled with a vexed expression.  He tried to remember her name. At least it was close.  He could have called her Akai or something completely irrelevant.

"I have the right mind to punch you in it for being so rude, especially when I have important matters to discuss with you." Sunoma's voice took on an angry, dark edge.  Why did he have to make things so difficult?

Taiga growled. "What is it then?" Honestly, he didn't have time for this.

"There's an odd computer in the library. Do you know anything about it?"

"What's so odd about it?" This had better have been worth the trouble.

"When Kiyomaru was on it, he claimed he saw a series of videos depicting students killing each other. Can you tell me if the last graduation was taped in any way?" She had to know.  If it was, then they could possibly acquire more footage and solid proof that the mutual killings were taking place.

"Wait..." Taiga's face lit up with shock. "Are you saying this exists?" He didn't have any prior knowledge of such events happening.

"So, you can't verify it?" What a letdown.

"I never knew it was. Then again, who has the time to notice? Did you say that footage was in the library?" There were many possibilities contained in that footage.  For all he knew, it was footage or someone else's graduation. Taiga was a little curious as to what exactly the student council vice president had seen.

"That's the thing, it's gone now. Kiyomaru tried to show Kraki and I, but when we went down there, the computer changed. There was just a text document that said wake up.  Then the webcam turned on and we were shown on the screen. Do you have any idea what this possibly means?" If he did, it certainly would have put her mind at ease.  Things were mounting fast, and the fact that someone had possibly been shown graduation footage uneased her.

Taiga's eyes narrowed, "I'm not sure."

"One day, we'll wake up from this nightmare." His brother's words ripped through his thoughts like a knife through warm flesh.

The yakuza went silent on the other end as he mulled that phrase over.

"Taiga?"

"Could it be? That was so specific though," he said those words to himself.

"Do you know what it means?" It sounded as if he had some sort of clue.

"My brother said 'one day we'll wake up from this nightmare.' "It was something specific that always stuck with him.  The more Taiga thought about it, the more that phrase made sense, even if he wanted to doubt the validity of its meaning.

"Lamar said that, too. Do you think they're connected?" Maybe Lamar had picked the phrase up from Raiga.  Then that would mean those words were, in fact, specific to the graduation a year ago.

"It's started already." Taiga's words were dark and foreshadowing.

"What?" Sunoma's body resonated with fear at his words.

"Something's gonna happen. The nightmare has already begun. Where's that computer?" He had to know.  Taiga wanted to do some investigating of his own.

"I can show you. Meet me at the library."

"Give me some time. I'm in the gym. I doubt you want to be around me if I smell rank." Taiga had been in there a good hour lifting weights and perfecting his already well-built form.  Working up a sweat also meant working up a smell and the yakuza wasn't about to approach the girl smelling as foul as he did.  A shower was in order before he spent any close proximity with anyone.

"Ten minutes?" That seemed like time enough to take a short shower.

"Deal, see you there." With that, Taiga hung up the phone.

However, he wasn't alone.  Behind him stood two of his fellow yakuza, both adorning perverse smiles on their faces as they leaned in to their leader.

"Who was that? I heard a chick's voice on the phone." One of the men with spiky, blonde hair teased.

"Y'gonna bang a chick in the library?" Another continued to taunt him while the blonde man did pelvic thrusts in the background.

"Ooh tonight he's gonna get lucky!" The blonde continued his assault while Taiga closed his eyes and bore his teeth in vexation, holding up a threatening, clenched fist.

"Which girl is she? She must be brave to wanna fuck you." The other yakuza picked at him, running his hands through his wet punch perm before he felt a sharp blow to his head.

"Morons! How could you think I'm gonna do that shit?" Taiga seethed as both of the men held their heads.

"Well, is that usually-" The blonde was cut off.

"If that's how you treat women no wonder you could get laid if you crawled up a duck's ass and waited," Taiga shot, seething with anger that his men would think that he would entertain himself with such trite sins of the flesh.

Embarrassment soaked into the blonde's form as he hunched over and frowned. "Man, that's harsh."

"You haven't had a girlfriend in seven years, Tsuniyoshi."

Tsuniyoshi felt his leader's words assault him like a brick to the face.  He turned a little blue as humiliation registered. "Man, why would you say that out loud?" The whole gym had just heard how lame he was.

"I thought my sex life sucked," the man in the punch perm laughed.

"I'm going to take a shower. You ditwads stay here," Taiga got up and looked over his shoulder at the two who stood straight and replied with 'yes, yes' before his disappeared into the shower room.


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The two met in the library. Taiga stood before her, his hair was messy and long, no longer held up in its round pompadour and waved over part of his face in long, blond locks, still damp from their soaking in the shower. He was clad in his white shirt, which was barely buttoned, showing off parts of his yakuza tattoo, which consisted of a dragon that wound around his body. He wore his usual black slacks and shined, black shoes. He smelled heavily of soap, deodorant and cologne. They both stood in front of the alleged computer, which was now off.

Sunoma’s expression lit up in shock. "This is it but...how? How is it off? We couldn't turn it off before."

Taiga sat down in the computer chair and booted the computer up.  When the screen came on, it had a white background with the word 'wake up' scribbled frantically all over it in crude letters that looked like someone's personal writing.

"What the hell is this?" Taiga blinked and frowned.  His voice projected anger and shock, but in truth it was unnerving to lay his eyes upon.

Sunoma's eyes widened. "That wasn't there before.  The screen was black with red text that said 'smile for the camera, darling.'" How had it changed just like that?

Just then, the webcam flipped on, displaying them in a small box as another window opened without either of them click on files.  "What's going on?" Taiga was getting unnerved.

"I...don't know." Sunoma said, nearly robbed of breath as she watched the screen with horror-filled eyes.  What is going to happen to them now?

A video started playing called helpme.wav.  It started out being a student, female with short, black hair sitting in a chair against the background of a white, dingy wall.  Her voice was drowned out in harsh static and background noise.  It looked as if she was being asked questions because she paused and spoke, and then looked as he she was listening and thinking at certain intervals.

The girl glanced to Taiga. "Do you know her?"

"She's one of my brother's classmates." Taiga confirmed the girl's identity.

The girl's face reddened and contorted as if the questions were beginning to bother her.  Then she started sobbing controllably.  She couldn't even look at the camera.  Then the video went back suddenly.

"What the fuck?"

"Is it over?" Sunoma wondered.

"It's still playing." Taiga noted, and then the video popped back on in a shaky, almost unwatchable video of the bodies of students laying everywhere.  There was a frame that caught Taiga's attention.

It was of a male in a black suit with black hair and what appeared to be black eye shadow with a pompadour that looked as if he had combed his hair up.  It almost looked more like a greaser-type hairstyle. He was lying on his back with a gaping hole in his chest, blood sprayed over his torso and a stream running from the corner of his mouth.

Aqua pupils shrank in horror and Taiga felt his heart slamming against his sternum with such force that he thought it was going to break through.  His eyes darted around, as his hand gripped the mouse and tried to exit out of the window, but it wouldn't work.

"What the hell is wrong with this piece of shit?" The yakuza asked frantically as he continued to click on the x in the corner of the screen but to no avail.

"It did the same thing to me, too," Sunoma said before the picture froze on the wavy, distorted picture of Taiga's brother.

"Get this shit off of the screen!" Taiga shouted angrily, with an underlying tone of frantic emotion as he shoved himself away from the computer screen.

"I-I don't know how," the lolita stammered as she attempted to exist it, but nothing happened.

Taiga got up out of the chair, his hands trembling as he was overcome with emotion. His voice shook when he spoke. "You wanted proof, right? Proof that the graduation class killed each other? Well take a good look, because you're staring at my brother's body!"

Shock ripped through her, making her feel as if she was free-falling. A sick feeling bleed through the girl's stomach as her wide, blue eyes stared blankly at the distorted vision before her. "Taiga..."



...To Be Continued