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“There can only be one survivor. One of you will die, and the other person will be the winner.”
“A Main Game can’t be held in these circumstance. What you have to do is a lot simpler.”
“Just make it so that two people will be reduced to one as soon as possible. The floormasters will help you if you need anything to succeed.”
Those words were uttered in a voice that was sweet as honey. The tone of the voice and the uttered words produced a jarring effect.
The owner of that voice was a doll with the appearance of a young girl, on her head was an ornament which resembled pancakes covered in maple syrup, and she was wearing a frilly dress.
The girl was smiling sweetly, a stark contrast to the expressions of the two people those words were directed to.
Shin Tsukimi and Sara Chidouin.
Shin’s expression was visibly painted with fear, he also appeared to be sweating and shaking. He must have realized, as he tried to hold his arm to have it stay still.
On the other hand, Sara was desperatly trying to keep it inside, and not letting the fear slip on her expression. However she was struggling to do so. Her anxiety was rising, and the fear of death became more palpable for her. She started to clench her fist hard to keep the fear from surfacing, while silently envying how Shin could just express his fear freely.
She had realized what the girl’s words meant.
Sara and Shin were the last two survivors. Asunaro wanted one of them to die.
So, the meek young man standing by her side was currently the most likely person to attempt on her life.
She had a hard time believing that Shin would be able to kill someone, or maybe she didn’t want to believe it. He was surprisingly timid, naïve, and kind for his age. On the first day of the death game, the two of them had searched the building together, and ever since then, Shin had always stuck by her side, and tried to encourage her his way.
Shin would often rely on her, and compliment her. He would often tell her she was very strong and courageous, as she internally grimaced at how different from reality those words sounded to her.
He opened up to her.
He told her he trusted her.
He told her he would trust her to the end.
She wanted to trust him too. She did trust him.
However, there was no telling what a person with his life on the line would do. For how much Shin Tsukimi was a kind young man who had gotten close to her, he clearly did not want to die. He had expressed his fear of death to her multiple times.
And what about her?
Would she be able to kill Shin Tsukimi?
Would she be able to kill a living human, and one she was on friendly terms with at that, directly?
She didn’t know. She didn’t know but…
I don’t want to die
That single thought wouldn’t leave her mind.
She missed her mother, her father, her friends.
She remembered a casual day at school, greeting Joe and Ryoko in the morning.
She remembered Joe asking for her homework, as he had forgotten doing them for the tenth time in a row. Whenever it happened, she acted annoyed, but even that seemed like a fond memory to her now.
She remembered going to the karaoke box with Joe and Ryoko. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to sing, but her two friends convinced her, and in the end she had a lot of fun.
After hanging out with them, she would come back home, her mother and father waiting for her. They were both a bit eccentric, but she loved them dearly. She would always be surprised at how some of her favorite dishes would always be on the dining table.
She wanted to go back to that daily life.
And there was only one way to do that…
She had looked for an escape with everyone multiple times, but by now, she knew there were no other means of escape other than winning this death game.
Shin Tsukimi was surely thinking the same thing.
So.
So…
“Uhm…Miss Sara…”
Her train of thought was interrupted by the man standing next to her. He still looked very scared and afraid, but he seemed to be smiling.
“I…wouldn’t really…well…in the first place…I…wouldn’t be alive right now without your help so…well…”
To be more exact, he looked as if he was forcing himself to smile.
“I…don’t mind…dying here in your place…”
At first, Sara wasn’t sure she had heard him well.
Those words hurt as if her heart had been stabbed.
And at the same time, she couldn’t deny having felt relief too.
She couldn’t believe he would have given his life for hers.
However, she couldn’t say “no” to him.
Even if Shin Tsukimi would be willing to trade his life for Sara Chidouin’s, Sara Chidouin wouldn’t be willing to trade her life for Shin Tsukimi’s.
The realization hit her with pangs of guilt.
How could have she felt relief for even a moment after such a declaration?
She didn’t know what to say to him.
Instead he was the one who kept talking.
“Uhm…I’m sorry to ask this but…there’s something….I want you to do…”
His voice was weak and trembling. Everything about him seemed exceedingly fragile.
He kept talking as he extended his hand towards the hem of Sara’s sleeve, and weakly gripped it.
“I’m…scared…of dying…and…I don’t think I’d be able to…kill…myself so…could you be the one to take my life…?”
Her heart felt heavy, but there was only one possible answer she was able to muster.
“…It’s okay, I will do it. You don’t have to worry about anything.”
The man’s smile got a bit wider once he heard that, and tears started falling from his eyes.
“Thank you…”
Why was he thanking her? She was about to take his life.
He was about to die at her hands.
She was going to kill someone who’d be willing to sacrifice himself for her to save her own skin.
Haha…I’m really the worst.
Even then, she asked the girl with the frilly dress for a weapon.
A weapon that could kill him as painlessly and quickly as possible.
The girl handed her a knife. She took it and slowly approached Shin.
“…Sorry. Could you please sit there?”
She gestured towards a nearby bed. He just nodded and sat there. She sat on the bed too, by his side.
She carefully took out his scarf and casted it on the bed.
Then, she gently held his face up with her left hand.
His skin was wet by his tears.
She was about to bring her right hand, which was holding the knife, to his neck, but before she could, he spoke up again.
“I’m…glad to have met you. I really am…I wish…we could have talked some more outside of this death game…no…I wish we could have met under different circumstances…getting to know each other better…”
His voice went quieter and quieter, and his next words were almost a whisper.
“This must be weird…we’re strangers but…to me…you are…”
His voice trailed off there. Instead of words, more tears were hitting Sara’s left hand.
She raised her right hand to his neck.
Her whole arm felt as heavy as lead.
She realized she couldn’t hold back her tears for much longer either.
She was careful to only cut his jugular, in order not to cause him excessive pain.
And as she ended his life, her tears started flowing in an incessant stream.
She was the winner of this death game.