Planet Hell...
Jan. 2nd, 2006 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canonical_insanityHere you go. Hikasa/Hosaka and damn long too.
Story Name: Planet Hell
Story Genre: Battle Royale II
Story Rating: T/PG-13
Pairings: Hikasa Shota/Hosaka Yasuaki
Disclaimer: I own the Tartan PAL DVD of BR II, sketches of several characters faces drawn anime-style that will be scanned when I find a scanner and, oh yeah, I own a 7 chapter, 13 page fanfic. I don’t own BR II. I also don’t own Nightwish, who wrote the song that the title and lyrics at the start come from.
A/N: The dialogue that I borrowed from the movie is taken from the subtitles on the Tartan copy of BR II.
'Denying the lying
A million children fighting
For lives in strife
For hope beyond the horizon.'
It was Christmas and as usual, there was a crappy field trip to go on. He couldn’t even remember where they were going. Fukuda was running around with a Santa hat on, seeming genuinely happy for once. In contrast, the five members of the Shubultz Cuts were even more depressed looking than usual. The coach was a buzz of conversations that he wanted no part of. He didn’t know these people very well, even if he was one of the first people to join this class. He had wanted to talk to some of them, but had just froze up. No-one really liked him, but they didn’t beat the crap out of him either. Not that they hadn’t tried, of course. He’d fight back and if there was more than one of them, get a switchblade out of his jacket. Just because he didn’t show off like Shibaki, didn’t mean he couldn’t carry weapons to school. Then they stopped.
Apparently he wasn’t worth it.
The coach went into a tunnel and there was silence. As he suddenly became very tired, a fragment of something his dad had told him a couple of years ago stuck in his head.
"The BR Act, is perhaps the worst thing that ever happened to this country. They take a class of fifteen year olds and tell them that they are going on a field trip. Then they gas them on the coach and drag them to an island where they have to kill each other in three days. Only one survives. Most of the time anyway. There was an incident in the ‘game’ last year, that was abnormal. Two survived and one of them shot the teacher running it."
He barely had time to make the connection before his eyes closed and he slumped in his seat.
When he woke up, he felt something tight around his neck. His fingers touched cold metal and he looked around, wondering if anyone else had come to the same conclusion he had. However, most of the people were at the windows, yelling at someone outside. Turning to Morishima next to him, he asked quietly.
"What’s going on out there?" Morishima looked at him and answered.
"Take a look."
He moved to the window and gasped when he saw what was happening outside. There must have been dozens, even hundreds of journalists out there, all staring back at the coach. He heard a couple of the more temperamental ones slam their hands on the glass. The coach stopped and as soldiers got on board, he saw Fukuda run past him in the opposite direction.
As they were being herded of the coach, quite a few were attacking the soldiers. He was about to make a run for the one nearest him when he felt himself getting restrained.
"I don’t care how many knives you carry, I don’t think it’s going to stop that soldier blowing you sky-high."
"Why do you care, Jo? You’re not supposed to care, you’re a delinquent!"
"I don’t want any more people killed. By the government or Wild Seven. Now, if I let you go, will you not try to attack the bloke twice your size again?"
"Nanami’s attacking him and I don’t see you stop him."
"Hikasa, Nanami is about a foot taller than you and several inches taller than me. He’s also, quite likely, a fair bit harder to kill."
"Okay, I won’t attempt to beat the shit out of the soldier. Now will you let me go?"
"Alright."
When they were told to sit down, he tries to make himself as unnoticeable as possible and gets slammed against the back of the cage. It hurts a bit, but not as much as some of the others must be hurting.
He watches Shibaki throw his knife at Takeuchi in shock. He didn’t really want to know what happens next. He’d heard of teachers killing the students before the ‘game’ starts, just for whispering or being annoying. Shibaki has gone way beyond that.
To his surprise, Takeuchi ignores the knife now embedded in the chalk board and continues to speak. When their insane -completely insane, in his eyes- teacher waved the knife around, he could feel that, even the two emotionally deficit psychopaths near him, backed off. He shook his head a tiny bit. He didn’t know about Nanami, but from what he’d learned today, Jo wasn’t emotionally deficit. However, he still betted that the fairly calm blond was a psychopath. Had to be, to put up with Kurosawa.
The line was shown. Kitano crossed it before her turn, willing to kill other people. He wondered why she did, wondered if she would have been so eager if it was the original act and fought a sickening feeling that she wouldn’t care less if it was their blood or Wild Seven’s. Aoi crossed angrily, Asakura crossed after him. Urabe crossed, as angry as Takuma but better at controlling it, Ikeda cried when she crossed it.
Kasai and Kakai crossed, Kurosawa attacked Shibaki before crossing.
Those two should really get a room, he thought and then fought a grin at the mental image it provided.
"Boy number 12, Hikasa Shota. Girl number 12, Nosaka Maho."
Nosaka shook her head angrily and crosses. He’s not sure whether he should.
Die here or die later?
If I die here, I’ll never be able to tell any of them…how happy I was to meet them, how much they meant to me. How much he meant to me...
He crossed the white line, and sat near Shibaki, almost directly between the members of the Cuts and the rugby team that have already crossed. Probably the worst place to sit if he’s trying to avoid getting killed before they leave the classroom, but whatever. Just because he’s shy, doesn’t mean he’s a coward.
Hosaka crossed and stood next to Nosaka. He doesn’t understand how those two are friends. She’s bossy and angry and he’s...not. He’s quiet, clever and...kinda sweet, in a sort of nerdy way.
Hasuda crossed and sat with the rest of Shindo’s group. It made him wonder, if this was the original act, would they have stuck together or turned on each other? He didn’t want to guess.
Maezono gives Takeuchi a death glare and crossed. Hata crossed.
"Boy number 15, Makimura Shintaro. Girl number 15, Fukuda Kazumi." He expected them both to cross. Instead, Makimura spoke, in a voice much quieter than normal.
"I will never do it."
Takeuchi turned around to face Makimura, a slightly confused look on his face.
"Huh?" In a louder and angrier voice, Makimura replied.
"I won’t allow such a thing!" He heard Aoi whisper Makimura’s name and Kurosawa throw an insult at him. Fukuda walked to the line and said,
"Sorry, but I’ll go on ahead." Makimura watched her and answered.
"Do whatever you want." Then he addressed the entire class, almost in tears.
"What are you doing? Don’t you think this is wrong? Why do we have to fight?"
Takeuchi shook something. A bottle of white pills.
Great, our teacher is a drug addict in dominatrix gear.
"Are you ready, Shintaro? Here we go. Three, two, one. Alright."
One of the soldiers pulled out a gun and aimed at Makimura’s knee. The gunshot rang out and Makimura was suddenly staggering to the edge of the cage. He collapsed, yelling. The rugby ball he was holding was now covered with his blood.
He stared in shock. He didn’t think Makimura deserved to be shot for that, but he could feel his way around the edges of a more terrifying truth.
That was a warning. Next shot kills.
Aoi attempted to get to Makimura. His friends stopped him, but he still tried to get Makimura to relative safety.
"What are you doing? Come on! Quick!" Makimura shook his head. When Aoi repeated the command, he refused again.
"I will never go."
Takeuchi crouched by the two of them and told Makimura,
"Think carefully Shintaro. You’ve been a loser all your life. This is your last chance."
As he walked past, Makimura yelled defiantly,
"I haven’t lost yet!"
"Here we go. Three, two..." Makimura pulled himself into a kneeling position and closed his eyes.
"One." The bullet caught him in the neck and he toppled over backwards. There was silence as his corpse hit the floor, broken by Motomura’s crying and Aoi’s yells.
Then an ominous-sounding beeping started and Fukuda looked up. Her collar was flashing red.
"What’s happening?"
"Kazumi?" Yazawa and Mifune, her two friends asked, to a malicious grin from Takeuchi.
"Oh! Sorry! I forgot to tell you. This game is a tag-match. Kazumi, you’re ID number is the same as Shintaro’s, right?"
She nodded and he unzipped part of his coat, to reveal a similar collar to theirs.
"The collars you’re wearing are linked with ID numbers. If your partner dies, it...detonates."
"Hey! You guys! Hey!" She fell to the floor, climbed back up and asked him.
"Are you serious?" Takeuchi nodded, the malicious grin still on his face.
"Very serious."
He stands up and got out of her way as much as possible, as she first tried to convince herself that Makimura wasn’t dead, then attempted to hold on to any of her classmates that she could catch. After finally being rejected, she made a run for the doors of the cage, screaming for her mother. Her collar blew up just before she got there and she hit the cage, covered in blood, eyes still open in terror.
"Pairs 1-3, boat 1! 4-7, boat 2! 8-10, boat 3! 11-14, boat 4! 16-18, boat 5! 19-23, boat 6!"
Nosaka grabbed his arm.
"Come on Hikasa! I don’t want to die because you can’t keep up!"
They sat side by side. Hasegawa turned around.
"Hikasa?"
"Yeah?"
"Please tell me that I’m not the only one who’s fucking terrified?"
"You’re not. I’m scared too. As I bet most of us are."
"Thanks. Hosaka?"
"I think the only person who wasn’t scared was Kitano." Nosaka shrugged.
"There is something wrong with her. Makimura was one of her friends -sort of- and she didn’t even look shocked when he died."
"I know, it’s like..."
"She doesn’t give a damn about any of us."
"Like your group then, Maezono?"
"...Whatever. There’s nothing I can say to make anyone disbelieve that, Hasegawa, so I might as well tell you the truth. I’m not sure about the others, but I didn’t want Makimura to die. Or Fukuda. Or anyone else. I may not like any of you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try and stop you from getting yourselves killed. This version depends on teamwork. I think I still remember how to do that."
"Attention! Attention! Current time is six hundred hours. We start the operation now. Take out your navigators and check the map. Their hideout is on the hill. There are three breakthrough points."
"What does she mean?" Nosaka and Niimi asked Hasegawa together and he shrugged, while the pilot continued.
"You see several zones on the map. The Danger Zone changes every hour. Stay out of the Danger Zone or your collar will explode. Your boats will soon change to manual steering. Prepare for landing."
A shot rang out. They looked around to see Miyadai doing...something on boat 5.
"Why is he dancing?" Nosaka asked.
"He’s not. He’s been shot and he’s having spasms. Couldn’t really tell you why, but I bet Hosaka could."
The rest of the boat gave Maezono a horrified look, which was ignored. True enough, boat five suddenly started screaming. There were more shots flying through the air then a bang. Something hit boat 6 and it exploded.
"Okay, smartass. What was that?" Hasegawa snarled at Maezono, who shook his head and answered,
"I don’t know but whatever it was, I don’t want it to hit us next time, so can you just steer without asking me so many questions?"
Boat 5 were still in a mess. Mifune’s collar was beeping and Motomura was crying something. He couldn’t hear her or see her face. Then Morishima jumped off the boat and he winced. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that he’d just killed both himself and his partner. Then Mifune’s collar exploded, right next to the boat engine and boat 5 went up in flames too.
Hasuda was shaking, Niimi and Hata were crying. Nosaka was just staring at the beach. He spoke and managed to keep his voice steady.
"If any of this class apart from Kitano weren’t scared before, I bet they are now."
Somehow, they made it to the beach. They were the last boat to reach it and there was gunfire everywhere. Another group beckoned their boat on.
"So, do we join them?" Hasuda nodded.
"Risa and Honami are in that group. Risa’s a good leader."
"I agree with her. At least this way I get to look after two of my friends without having to listen to Aoi’s bitching all the time."
"I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Maezono. Aoi isn't someone I want to be stuck on an island with." Nosaka added her assent. Hata and Niimi nodded, too scared to say anything.
"Okay then, let’s move!"
They jumped into the icy cold water and headed towards the other group, getting slammed to the ground every now and then by mortar fire.
Together they ran to get to behind the rocks on one side of the beach. When they got there, surprising quite a few people, Maezono ran past at the Wild Seven shooters yelling at them to stop and got hit in the leg. Jo dragged him back to the rocks with Nanami and Hasegawa and muttered,
"Kenji, stay still. Before telling me why the hell you did that, you can first say if you can walk. Or will I have to drag you all the way around this island?"
"I don’t know."
Shindo commented from her position.
"I think we have to stop the bleeding first. Hosaka, this is your area. What do we do?"
"We need bandages. Anyone got any spare clothes that they can rip or cut up?"
"Cut up? What with?" He pulled out his knife and handed it to Nanami, who nodded, got out a blue t-shirt from his bag and started to cut it into strips.
"Okay. Now we need to use one of the strips to clean the wound. I wish we had some antiseptic, but water will have to do." He found one of his bottles, poured some on one of the strips and handed it to Jo, who started to clean away the blood and dirt around the wound.
"You finished, Nanami?"
"Yeah." He handed Shota back the knife with a small smile and gave Hosaka the strips.
He watched Hosaka work. This was his element, where he was most comfortable and he looked less terrified about the situation. Eventually he finished.
"Okay, Maezono. Try and stand up." He did, shakily.
"I think I can walk."
"Good. That means I don’t have to drag you anywhere."
The army helicopter suddenly circled the island and the pilot’s voice rang out again.
"We will give you ammunition. Don’t waste it. Don’t shoot for nothing." She cut off and a multitude of small boxes attached to parachutes dropped from the sky.
"What shall we do?" At Nanami’s question, a number of small arguments cropped up before Jo finally interrupted.
"Alright! Let’s go from behind!" He started to climb up the rocks and the other members of the team followed him in silence. When they got to the top, the helicopter flew directly above them and distributed some more small packages.
"Bullets! Let’s go!"
They slid down the slope, for the most part landing in a crumpled heap at the bottom, and made a run for the packages. They grabbed all that they could find and hid in a forested part of the island.
"Okay. Now what?" Taguchi asked Jo, who shrugged.
"We rest here. At least until we’ve sorted out the weapons and got our breath back."
"Is everyone alright? We’re alright, pair nine are alright. Pair ten, are you okay?"
"We’re alright, Shindo. Don’t worry about us."
"Thanks Nanami. Pair eleven, alright?"
"We’ll be alright."
"Good. Twelves?"
"I’m fine. Hikasa’s a little quiet, but I guess that’s normal."
"We’re alright too, Risa."
"Fourteens? Besides being shot, of course. Although that was your own fault and I would have thought a Shubultz Cuts member, of all people, would know better than to do that."
"Since you gave me that lecture, does that mean Naoki doesn’t have to?" She looked at Jo, who shrugged.
"Yeah, but if Ryo asks, I gave you the lecture, you’re very sorry for losing what little is left of your sanity and you will never betray the Shubultz Cuts in that way again. Alright, Kenji?"
"I’ll try to remember that."
They sorted out the useful packs, so all of them got some bullets each. Hosaka noted that if they kept the paper, they wouldn’t have to use shirts, so each of them kept some in their packs. At this point, Jo fell asleep on Maezono’s shoulder, to Nanami’s restrained laughter.
"Awww...that’s so..." Totsuka started, but was cut off by Maezono.
"If you say the word ‘cute’ when referring to any of us in any context, we will kill you. Very slowly. It’s part of our gang rules." He put an arm around Jo’s shoulders to stop his head from falling.
He laughed quietly. For all their reputations, he actually kind of liked the three delinquents that he was stuck with.
"Hey. So...what do you think?"
Hosaka was actually looking at him. He blinked and answered, desperately hoping not to freeze up.
"About what? This team, what’s happened so far?"
"Whatever. I’d like to get to know you better. You’re probably the only person in this team that I know nothing about and even though you don’t seem to get along with many people, I think that you’re nice." He felt like a firework had just gone off in his chest and he smiled.
"I think that, for a start, I misjudged those three," He motioned toward the Cuts and Hosaka nodded.
"I think we all thought that they’d just go on a manhunt and wouldn’t care who got in their way. But I think, what Maezono said on the boat...about wanting to help us survive, even if he disliked us...I think he was right."
"That tied in with what Jo told me right after we got off the coach. He stopped me from attacking one of the soldiers with my knife and said that he didn’t want to see anyone else killed on either side."
"Why the hell is he second-in-command of the Shubultz Cuts if he doesn’t want to see anyone die?"
"Do I look like someone who can answer that?" Hosaka smiled.
"No. You look like a very confused 15 year old, who won’t kill me if I use the word ‘cute’ as a description."
"...You think I’m cute?"
"Might as well admit it now. Yes, you’re cute. Do you have a problem with that?"
"I thought you were interested in Nosaka."
"She’s my best friend, but I don’t really want to get into a relationship with her. It wouldn’t work. She’s too noisy. Now, if you don’t like me back, you can just say so. I can just go and be humiliated alone."
He grinned and kissed him on the cheek, relishing the shocked look on his face.
"...Is that a definite enough answer?"
Edit: Okay, I've straightened out most of the mistakes. This fic will probably have a sequel. I think I want to at least cover the report and the tripmines, maybe even the base attack.
Story Name: Planet Hell
Story Genre: Battle Royale II
Story Rating: T/PG-13
Pairings: Hikasa Shota/Hosaka Yasuaki
Disclaimer: I own the Tartan PAL DVD of BR II, sketches of several characters faces drawn anime-style that will be scanned when I find a scanner and, oh yeah, I own a 7 chapter, 13 page fanfic. I don’t own BR II. I also don’t own Nightwish, who wrote the song that the title and lyrics at the start come from.
A/N: The dialogue that I borrowed from the movie is taken from the subtitles on the Tartan copy of BR II.
'Denying the lying
A million children fighting
For lives in strife
For hope beyond the horizon.'
It was Christmas and as usual, there was a crappy field trip to go on. He couldn’t even remember where they were going. Fukuda was running around with a Santa hat on, seeming genuinely happy for once. In contrast, the five members of the Shubultz Cuts were even more depressed looking than usual. The coach was a buzz of conversations that he wanted no part of. He didn’t know these people very well, even if he was one of the first people to join this class. He had wanted to talk to some of them, but had just froze up. No-one really liked him, but they didn’t beat the crap out of him either. Not that they hadn’t tried, of course. He’d fight back and if there was more than one of them, get a switchblade out of his jacket. Just because he didn’t show off like Shibaki, didn’t mean he couldn’t carry weapons to school. Then they stopped.
Apparently he wasn’t worth it.
The coach went into a tunnel and there was silence. As he suddenly became very tired, a fragment of something his dad had told him a couple of years ago stuck in his head.
"The BR Act, is perhaps the worst thing that ever happened to this country. They take a class of fifteen year olds and tell them that they are going on a field trip. Then they gas them on the coach and drag them to an island where they have to kill each other in three days. Only one survives. Most of the time anyway. There was an incident in the ‘game’ last year, that was abnormal. Two survived and one of them shot the teacher running it."
He barely had time to make the connection before his eyes closed and he slumped in his seat.
When he woke up, he felt something tight around his neck. His fingers touched cold metal and he looked around, wondering if anyone else had come to the same conclusion he had. However, most of the people were at the windows, yelling at someone outside. Turning to Morishima next to him, he asked quietly.
"What’s going on out there?" Morishima looked at him and answered.
"Take a look."
He moved to the window and gasped when he saw what was happening outside. There must have been dozens, even hundreds of journalists out there, all staring back at the coach. He heard a couple of the more temperamental ones slam their hands on the glass. The coach stopped and as soldiers got on board, he saw Fukuda run past him in the opposite direction.
As they were being herded of the coach, quite a few were attacking the soldiers. He was about to make a run for the one nearest him when he felt himself getting restrained.
"I don’t care how many knives you carry, I don’t think it’s going to stop that soldier blowing you sky-high."
"Why do you care, Jo? You’re not supposed to care, you’re a delinquent!"
"I don’t want any more people killed. By the government or Wild Seven. Now, if I let you go, will you not try to attack the bloke twice your size again?"
"Nanami’s attacking him and I don’t see you stop him."
"Hikasa, Nanami is about a foot taller than you and several inches taller than me. He’s also, quite likely, a fair bit harder to kill."
"Okay, I won’t attempt to beat the shit out of the soldier. Now will you let me go?"
"Alright."
When they were told to sit down, he tries to make himself as unnoticeable as possible and gets slammed against the back of the cage. It hurts a bit, but not as much as some of the others must be hurting.
He watches Shibaki throw his knife at Takeuchi in shock. He didn’t really want to know what happens next. He’d heard of teachers killing the students before the ‘game’ starts, just for whispering or being annoying. Shibaki has gone way beyond that.
To his surprise, Takeuchi ignores the knife now embedded in the chalk board and continues to speak. When their insane -completely insane, in his eyes- teacher waved the knife around, he could feel that, even the two emotionally deficit psychopaths near him, backed off. He shook his head a tiny bit. He didn’t know about Nanami, but from what he’d learned today, Jo wasn’t emotionally deficit. However, he still betted that the fairly calm blond was a psychopath. Had to be, to put up with Kurosawa.
The line was shown. Kitano crossed it before her turn, willing to kill other people. He wondered why she did, wondered if she would have been so eager if it was the original act and fought a sickening feeling that she wouldn’t care less if it was their blood or Wild Seven’s. Aoi crossed angrily, Asakura crossed after him. Urabe crossed, as angry as Takuma but better at controlling it, Ikeda cried when she crossed it.
Kasai and Kakai crossed, Kurosawa attacked Shibaki before crossing.
Those two should really get a room, he thought and then fought a grin at the mental image it provided.
"Boy number 12, Hikasa Shota. Girl number 12, Nosaka Maho."
Nosaka shook her head angrily and crosses. He’s not sure whether he should.
Die here or die later?
If I die here, I’ll never be able to tell any of them…how happy I was to meet them, how much they meant to me. How much he meant to me...
He crossed the white line, and sat near Shibaki, almost directly between the members of the Cuts and the rugby team that have already crossed. Probably the worst place to sit if he’s trying to avoid getting killed before they leave the classroom, but whatever. Just because he’s shy, doesn’t mean he’s a coward.
Hosaka crossed and stood next to Nosaka. He doesn’t understand how those two are friends. She’s bossy and angry and he’s...not. He’s quiet, clever and...kinda sweet, in a sort of nerdy way.
Hasuda crossed and sat with the rest of Shindo’s group. It made him wonder, if this was the original act, would they have stuck together or turned on each other? He didn’t want to guess.
Maezono gives Takeuchi a death glare and crossed. Hata crossed.
"Boy number 15, Makimura Shintaro. Girl number 15, Fukuda Kazumi." He expected them both to cross. Instead, Makimura spoke, in a voice much quieter than normal.
"I will never do it."
Takeuchi turned around to face Makimura, a slightly confused look on his face.
"Huh?" In a louder and angrier voice, Makimura replied.
"I won’t allow such a thing!" He heard Aoi whisper Makimura’s name and Kurosawa throw an insult at him. Fukuda walked to the line and said,
"Sorry, but I’ll go on ahead." Makimura watched her and answered.
"Do whatever you want." Then he addressed the entire class, almost in tears.
"What are you doing? Don’t you think this is wrong? Why do we have to fight?"
Takeuchi shook something. A bottle of white pills.
Great, our teacher is a drug addict in dominatrix gear.
"Are you ready, Shintaro? Here we go. Three, two, one. Alright."
One of the soldiers pulled out a gun and aimed at Makimura’s knee. The gunshot rang out and Makimura was suddenly staggering to the edge of the cage. He collapsed, yelling. The rugby ball he was holding was now covered with his blood.
He stared in shock. He didn’t think Makimura deserved to be shot for that, but he could feel his way around the edges of a more terrifying truth.
That was a warning. Next shot kills.
Aoi attempted to get to Makimura. His friends stopped him, but he still tried to get Makimura to relative safety.
"What are you doing? Come on! Quick!" Makimura shook his head. When Aoi repeated the command, he refused again.
"I will never go."
Takeuchi crouched by the two of them and told Makimura,
"Think carefully Shintaro. You’ve been a loser all your life. This is your last chance."
As he walked past, Makimura yelled defiantly,
"I haven’t lost yet!"
"Here we go. Three, two..." Makimura pulled himself into a kneeling position and closed his eyes.
"One." The bullet caught him in the neck and he toppled over backwards. There was silence as his corpse hit the floor, broken by Motomura’s crying and Aoi’s yells.
Then an ominous-sounding beeping started and Fukuda looked up. Her collar was flashing red.
"What’s happening?"
"Kazumi?" Yazawa and Mifune, her two friends asked, to a malicious grin from Takeuchi.
"Oh! Sorry! I forgot to tell you. This game is a tag-match. Kazumi, you’re ID number is the same as Shintaro’s, right?"
She nodded and he unzipped part of his coat, to reveal a similar collar to theirs.
"The collars you’re wearing are linked with ID numbers. If your partner dies, it...detonates."
"Hey! You guys! Hey!" She fell to the floor, climbed back up and asked him.
"Are you serious?" Takeuchi nodded, the malicious grin still on his face.
"Very serious."
He stands up and got out of her way as much as possible, as she first tried to convince herself that Makimura wasn’t dead, then attempted to hold on to any of her classmates that she could catch. After finally being rejected, she made a run for the doors of the cage, screaming for her mother. Her collar blew up just before she got there and she hit the cage, covered in blood, eyes still open in terror.
"Pairs 1-3, boat 1! 4-7, boat 2! 8-10, boat 3! 11-14, boat 4! 16-18, boat 5! 19-23, boat 6!"
Nosaka grabbed his arm.
"Come on Hikasa! I don’t want to die because you can’t keep up!"
They sat side by side. Hasegawa turned around.
"Hikasa?"
"Yeah?"
"Please tell me that I’m not the only one who’s fucking terrified?"
"You’re not. I’m scared too. As I bet most of us are."
"Thanks. Hosaka?"
"I think the only person who wasn’t scared was Kitano." Nosaka shrugged.
"There is something wrong with her. Makimura was one of her friends -sort of- and she didn’t even look shocked when he died."
"I know, it’s like..."
"She doesn’t give a damn about any of us."
"Like your group then, Maezono?"
"...Whatever. There’s nothing I can say to make anyone disbelieve that, Hasegawa, so I might as well tell you the truth. I’m not sure about the others, but I didn’t want Makimura to die. Or Fukuda. Or anyone else. I may not like any of you, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try and stop you from getting yourselves killed. This version depends on teamwork. I think I still remember how to do that."
"Attention! Attention! Current time is six hundred hours. We start the operation now. Take out your navigators and check the map. Their hideout is on the hill. There are three breakthrough points."
"What does she mean?" Nosaka and Niimi asked Hasegawa together and he shrugged, while the pilot continued.
"You see several zones on the map. The Danger Zone changes every hour. Stay out of the Danger Zone or your collar will explode. Your boats will soon change to manual steering. Prepare for landing."
A shot rang out. They looked around to see Miyadai doing...something on boat 5.
"Why is he dancing?" Nosaka asked.
"He’s not. He’s been shot and he’s having spasms. Couldn’t really tell you why, but I bet Hosaka could."
The rest of the boat gave Maezono a horrified look, which was ignored. True enough, boat five suddenly started screaming. There were more shots flying through the air then a bang. Something hit boat 6 and it exploded.
"Okay, smartass. What was that?" Hasegawa snarled at Maezono, who shook his head and answered,
"I don’t know but whatever it was, I don’t want it to hit us next time, so can you just steer without asking me so many questions?"
Boat 5 were still in a mess. Mifune’s collar was beeping and Motomura was crying something. He couldn’t hear her or see her face. Then Morishima jumped off the boat and he winced. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that he’d just killed both himself and his partner. Then Mifune’s collar exploded, right next to the boat engine and boat 5 went up in flames too.
Hasuda was shaking, Niimi and Hata were crying. Nosaka was just staring at the beach. He spoke and managed to keep his voice steady.
"If any of this class apart from Kitano weren’t scared before, I bet they are now."
Somehow, they made it to the beach. They were the last boat to reach it and there was gunfire everywhere. Another group beckoned their boat on.
"So, do we join them?" Hasuda nodded.
"Risa and Honami are in that group. Risa’s a good leader."
"I agree with her. At least this way I get to look after two of my friends without having to listen to Aoi’s bitching all the time."
"I never thought I’d say this, but I agree with Maezono. Aoi isn't someone I want to be stuck on an island with." Nosaka added her assent. Hata and Niimi nodded, too scared to say anything.
"Okay then, let’s move!"
They jumped into the icy cold water and headed towards the other group, getting slammed to the ground every now and then by mortar fire.
Together they ran to get to behind the rocks on one side of the beach. When they got there, surprising quite a few people, Maezono ran past at the Wild Seven shooters yelling at them to stop and got hit in the leg. Jo dragged him back to the rocks with Nanami and Hasegawa and muttered,
"Kenji, stay still. Before telling me why the hell you did that, you can first say if you can walk. Or will I have to drag you all the way around this island?"
"I don’t know."
Shindo commented from her position.
"I think we have to stop the bleeding first. Hosaka, this is your area. What do we do?"
"We need bandages. Anyone got any spare clothes that they can rip or cut up?"
"Cut up? What with?" He pulled out his knife and handed it to Nanami, who nodded, got out a blue t-shirt from his bag and started to cut it into strips.
"Okay. Now we need to use one of the strips to clean the wound. I wish we had some antiseptic, but water will have to do." He found one of his bottles, poured some on one of the strips and handed it to Jo, who started to clean away the blood and dirt around the wound.
"You finished, Nanami?"
"Yeah." He handed Shota back the knife with a small smile and gave Hosaka the strips.
He watched Hosaka work. This was his element, where he was most comfortable and he looked less terrified about the situation. Eventually he finished.
"Okay, Maezono. Try and stand up." He did, shakily.
"I think I can walk."
"Good. That means I don’t have to drag you anywhere."
The army helicopter suddenly circled the island and the pilot’s voice rang out again.
"We will give you ammunition. Don’t waste it. Don’t shoot for nothing." She cut off and a multitude of small boxes attached to parachutes dropped from the sky.
"What shall we do?" At Nanami’s question, a number of small arguments cropped up before Jo finally interrupted.
"Alright! Let’s go from behind!" He started to climb up the rocks and the other members of the team followed him in silence. When they got to the top, the helicopter flew directly above them and distributed some more small packages.
"Bullets! Let’s go!"
They slid down the slope, for the most part landing in a crumpled heap at the bottom, and made a run for the packages. They grabbed all that they could find and hid in a forested part of the island.
"Okay. Now what?" Taguchi asked Jo, who shrugged.
"We rest here. At least until we’ve sorted out the weapons and got our breath back."
"Is everyone alright? We’re alright, pair nine are alright. Pair ten, are you okay?"
"We’re alright, Shindo. Don’t worry about us."
"Thanks Nanami. Pair eleven, alright?"
"We’ll be alright."
"Good. Twelves?"
"I’m fine. Hikasa’s a little quiet, but I guess that’s normal."
"We’re alright too, Risa."
"Fourteens? Besides being shot, of course. Although that was your own fault and I would have thought a Shubultz Cuts member, of all people, would know better than to do that."
"Since you gave me that lecture, does that mean Naoki doesn’t have to?" She looked at Jo, who shrugged.
"Yeah, but if Ryo asks, I gave you the lecture, you’re very sorry for losing what little is left of your sanity and you will never betray the Shubultz Cuts in that way again. Alright, Kenji?"
"I’ll try to remember that."
They sorted out the useful packs, so all of them got some bullets each. Hosaka noted that if they kept the paper, they wouldn’t have to use shirts, so each of them kept some in their packs. At this point, Jo fell asleep on Maezono’s shoulder, to Nanami’s restrained laughter.
"Awww...that’s so..." Totsuka started, but was cut off by Maezono.
"If you say the word ‘cute’ when referring to any of us in any context, we will kill you. Very slowly. It’s part of our gang rules." He put an arm around Jo’s shoulders to stop his head from falling.
He laughed quietly. For all their reputations, he actually kind of liked the three delinquents that he was stuck with.
"Hey. So...what do you think?"
Hosaka was actually looking at him. He blinked and answered, desperately hoping not to freeze up.
"About what? This team, what’s happened so far?"
"Whatever. I’d like to get to know you better. You’re probably the only person in this team that I know nothing about and even though you don’t seem to get along with many people, I think that you’re nice." He felt like a firework had just gone off in his chest and he smiled.
"I think that, for a start, I misjudged those three," He motioned toward the Cuts and Hosaka nodded.
"I think we all thought that they’d just go on a manhunt and wouldn’t care who got in their way. But I think, what Maezono said on the boat...about wanting to help us survive, even if he disliked us...I think he was right."
"That tied in with what Jo told me right after we got off the coach. He stopped me from attacking one of the soldiers with my knife and said that he didn’t want to see anyone else killed on either side."
"Why the hell is he second-in-command of the Shubultz Cuts if he doesn’t want to see anyone die?"
"Do I look like someone who can answer that?" Hosaka smiled.
"No. You look like a very confused 15 year old, who won’t kill me if I use the word ‘cute’ as a description."
"...You think I’m cute?"
"Might as well admit it now. Yes, you’re cute. Do you have a problem with that?"
"I thought you were interested in Nosaka."
"She’s my best friend, but I don’t really want to get into a relationship with her. It wouldn’t work. She’s too noisy. Now, if you don’t like me back, you can just say so. I can just go and be humiliated alone."
He grinned and kissed him on the cheek, relishing the shocked look on his face.
"...Is that a definite enough answer?"
Edit: Okay, I've straightened out most of the mistakes. This fic will probably have a sequel. I think I want to at least cover the report and the tripmines, maybe even the base attack.
