On her first day in class 3-B, she had pondered over the possibility of being selected to participate to a Battle Royale. She didn't believe that it would happen (how many classes was there in the whole country, anyway?) but nonetheless, she had come to the conclusion that she would simply hide and see what would happen. She didn't want to kill anybody. She never even thought that she could maybe be capable of harming someone.

But at the moment, she was pointing her fully loaded gun in direction of Toshiya Hara.

It was so easy to watch the Battle Royale's reports on television and to judge the other's reaction but it was harder to predict what you would do in reality in such a situation.

Goodbye rationality.

Yuriko had underestimated the hold that fear had on her.

As soon as she had stepped outside of the school, she had opened her bag and took her weapon: a pistol. She was resolved to shoot the next person that would come out of that door, and the one after, then the others as long as she would have munitions. After that, she would run away and perhaps, at that moment, she would reconsider the possibility to hide and wait with fewer opponents against her. It was simple after all: a dead classmate increased her chances to survive. She was confused, she was frightened and there was only a single thing that she was sure about: she did not want to die.

She didn't care about the rest. She hadn't even thought about the fact that boy number fifteen was her long time crush. He was handsome, even in such a situation and Yuriko had always been persuaded that Toshiya could fit to those visual kei bands she was so fond of.

Just too bad that she was going to assassinate him.

"Don't fucking move! I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!"

"Calm down, Yuriko-chan…" Toshiya said as softly as he could. Unfortunately for him, it did everything but tame Yuriko's panic. This time, his soft voice and beautiful eyes wouldn't manipulate her. She wouldn't let him!

"I won't let you kill me, Hara!" she yelled, the weapon shaking in her hands.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"As if! We're all enemies here so cut the cute words. Now sit down!"

She motioned to him, with her pistol, to do as he was told but Toshiya refused to obey to her order. He only stared at her, horrified but seemingly calm.

Too calm for someone who wasn't prepared to kill in this game. Why wasn't he begging to be spared? Why wasn't he crying? Why wasn't he afraid of her?

"SIT DOWN!"

Without any warning, Toshiya rushed in her direction, making her fall in the process. He kept running, aiming for the woods that were relatively close. When she managed to get back on her feet, Toshiya's silhouette had already disappeared among the trees.

"Shit!" she swore between her teeth. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! What am I supposed to do now?"

"Die!"

She fell again, but this time it was under the weight of Hikari Miyake (G-15). The other girl probably had witnessed Yuriko's pathetic attempt to murder Toshiya. And that boy was really popular among the girls of the class.

"How dare you try to kill, you bitch?!" Hikari yelled, fighting to remain on top of Yuriko.

"And what are you doing now?" Yuriko screeched. She was moving her arm from one side to the other, trying to find back the gun that she had dropped.

"That's your fault! You are the one who dared to lay a hand on Toshiya!"

Hikari circled her hands around Yuriko's throat while she kept screaming and insulting her classmate, her manicured fingernails drawing blood.

That's weird… Hikari used to be so sweet... It's horrible what they make us do.

There was a loud noise and blood began to plague Yuriko's face.

Yeah…that's awful…

Hikari's whole body twitched and her eyes rolled backward. The bullet had pierced her cheek. She let out a strangled cry and rolled off of Yuriko. There she was, lying on the ground with both hands compressing her wound while she spitted a mix of blood and flesh, struggling hard to keep breathing.

But that's their fault, not mine.

Another bullet and Hikari was gone. Yuriko could have felt bad, but as she stared at her victim, the only thought that crossed her mind was that it could have been her. She could have been the prey.

But it wasn't the case. She had survived…

She was still alive!

But not for long. Boy number sixteen, Maya Masahito, had exited the school and was now looking intently at Hikari and Yuriko. There was something wrong in what he saw. One girl had convulsions, but not the other. One was dead, but not the other. He had to settle the score.

He felt quite relieved. He already had his weapon, a pocket knife, in hand because he had looked for it as soon as he had left the class. What a bright idea he had. It was the time to surprise someone.

Crap…

His clothes were all dirty now. What was he supposed to do with all that blood?

And what about the fact that he just killed someone?

Right, he knew that.

That's Yuriko's fault, she should have ran like the others, Maya thought as he shrugged and kept walking with a brand new pistol in his pocket.