J-Rock Battle Royale
by Scarlet and Dana

Chapter 7

Toshiya couldn't stop thinking during the time he spent walking, following Aoi cautiously. Although his eyes were literally glued to the tracking device's screen, the brunette led the way and somehow managed not to trip anywhere. The only moment he tore his gaze from his ‘weapon' was to glance behind him and tell Toshiya to go faster.

The taller boy heaved a sigh. He had spent the previous minutes stumbling everywhere, doing his best to walk among dead branches and rocks. To his luck, they were everywhere.

"I can't go quicker than that, Aoi."

He was still holding the machete firmly. The fact that tripping with such a thing in hand wasn't an appealing perspective didn't even bother him. He was too frightened to put his weapon back into his bag even if he knew that with what Aoi had in hand, they wouldn't bump into some unexpected company.

Toshiya had first been obsessed with the idea of dying. However, with time, his mind began to change.

"Aoi."

Without taking the time to think about it properly, he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, making him freeze and turn around.

"What?" he asked, still staring at the device.

Toshiya swallowed, his palm leaving Aoi's shoulder to lie under his chin instead. He made the other look at him, into his eyes.

"Promise me that you won't die."

"I don't want to die." Aoi replied, his eyes slightly narrowed. He tilted his head on the side as he kept staring at his friend, trying to read Toshiya's mind; or at least, that's what it looked like.

"No, not that." With those words, Toshiya shook his head briefly. Emotions were making his voice quiver unintentionally.

"You will survive." He stated

"Oh no not I, I will survive. As long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive~" Aoi all but chanted with a fake grin reaching his lips for a few seconds.

Toshiya's jaw literally dropped to the floor. He couldn't determine if he should just laugh at Aoi's broken English (as if Toshiya's was better, but it wasn't the point!), hug the other boy for being so damn adorable when trying to be reassuring or simply smack him right in the face. In the end, all he did was to stare at the brunette with an utterly traumatised facial expression.

Actually, Aoi didn't let him the chance to react because the next thing Toshiya's brain registered was a pair of lips pressed against his. It took him a moment to realise what was happening.

Aoi was... kissing him?

N-No way! How... Wh-Why?!

Toshiya made his brain shut up as he attempted to kiss back. Sadly for him though, Aoi stopped and not even Toshiya's hand cupping his cheek was enough to keep him from backing away. The smaller student put his palm over his mouth, his eyes wide as he stared at the other. It was the least to say that he looked totally perplexed, to Toshiya's greatest exasperation.

"...the anxiety." Aoi mumbled before he turned around and resumed his walking.

Soon enough, his attention was back to the tracking device, as if nothing at all had just happened.

"Oh, there's someone close!" he announced almost instantly.

Toshiya's fingers instantly made their grip on the machete's hilt firmer. Before he even had the opportunity to ask his friend further information, his body was shaking, from his head to the tip of his toes.

"This way!"

Aoi pointed at his right. Not long after, the brunette was actually following that very same direction. In two quick strides, Toshiya had reached the other. He made Aoi stop for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

"You're crazy?! No way in hell I'm gonna follow you if you want to go talk to everybody! They can be dangerous, for your information."

Toshiya had meant to whisper, but he had ended up almost shouting. He bit his lips as he heard some shuffling coming from his right.

"Hey... I-Is there someone?"

Toshiya was still trying to recover from the cardiac arrest he almost got when a silhouette appeared from under the nearest three. So, Aoi really had meant "close".

Closer than that and he would have been hiding behind my back or something.

"Uke, is that you?" Aoi asked, already walking the few steps that stood between the newly encountered boy and him.

"Yeah."

With that, Kai Uke (B-4) appeared before them. He'd always been a rather discrete boy, nice and cheerful but occasionally shy. Honestly, Toshiya wouldn't have been able to recognize Kai's voice just like that, if it hadn't been of Aoi. He wondered if the two boys knew each others, somehow. But if he remembered right, it was Aoi and Kai's second... no, third year in the same class.

Toshiya realised - to his greatest frustration - that he was getting too nervous to think clearly. His thoughts apparently didn't make a bit of sense now. With each second that passed, he felt more and more anxious about the current situation. The more he wanted to convince himself that he would survive... that they would both survive... and Kyo too... and... and everyone, there was the annoying voice of his conscience ready to bring him back to reality at high speed.

"Have you seen Nao?"

"Huh?"

It was all Toshiya could come out with on the spot when he snapped out of his dark thoughts the moment he heard Kai's voice, without really caring about his question. Apparently, Kai took it as a signal for him to precise his request, because he spoke again.

"Nao Murai... he's... about that tall, with blonde bangs and..."

"I know who Nao is." Toshiya interrupted, frustrated.

Had he just... snapped? Judging from the way shock was written on both Aoi and Kai's face, it seemed that it was the case.

"Sorry." Toshiya muttered. "It's... the anxiety."

I've heard that somewhere...

Argh! Shut up conscience!

"But no, I haven't seen him." the taller student added quickly to his previous words.

For an instant, Kai's eyes sank to his feet but for unknown reasons, he quickly regained his typical happy face and even ended up smiling a little at Toshiya.

"Thanks. I'm gonna keep on going then."

With that, he turned his back on his classmates and fled.

[Remaining: 39]

Deaths:
G-12 Nakamura Shizuka

G-14 Matsumoto Yuriko

G-15 Miyake Hikari

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