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Tsuno gasped, but her lungs felt like they had shrunk in on her, not allowing her to inhale. Only exhaling the last bit of air left in them, like two deflated balloons, abandoned in a playground during a sudden rainshower.
Wada. Wada was right there, gaping at her, eyes wide, a couple of red splatters on his face. Always forgetting to wipe the sauce off his face. Silly Wada. What would he do without her around? He was very lucky she was still there!
She would teach him how to do lots of things! She would help him learn the things his parents neglected to.
“Ma-Manami!”
Yes. That's her name, isn't it?
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“Manami?” Sasaki asked, slightly annoyed, but also concerned. Tsuno wasn't one to usually go silent.
“H-Huh? Yeah?” Tsuno responded immediately as she waved away her thoughts, with a quick shake of her head. She shouldn't go back to thinking that way. Many of her fellow classmates relied on her staying optimistic.
“I was telling you to be careful while you are cutting those carrots,” she sighed, frowning her brows, as she went back to her own task. Washing the rice.
“Will do, Tomi!” Tsuno forced on her cheerful voice.
“Don't call me that,” Sasaki rolled her eyes as she finished washing the rice. She was helping Tsuno make some curry and rice for the group today. They needed to eat well to come up with an escape plan after all.
“Are you alright?” She added quickly, a hint of worry bleeding into her tone.
“Hm? Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?” Tsuno responded with a smile as she threw the sliced carrots in the pot. The food already smelled so nice.
“You don't look alright. You had to patch up almost everyone yesterday,” Sasaki snapped at Tsuno, surprising even herself. She didn’t mean to lose her cool.
Tsuno just blinked at her rapidly, before allowing that smile to fall off her face. “W-wait. Ugh,” Sasaki groaned and pinched the bridge off her nose. She was starting to get snappy with people who didn't deserve it. Tsuno was an angel. Sure she was a little too cheerful and a little too loud, but she was also helpful. Unlike some of the others.
“I didn't mean to raise my voice,” she sighed exasperated with herself, “it just… I hate when you do this. When you act as if we aren't stuck in a strange school, with a stupid rabbit that is telling us to kill each other if we want to get out!”
Sasaki felt a pang in her chest when she saw Tsuno’s eyes glisten. Oh no. She did it again. She is making someone cry. She always , even outside of this school, somehow managed to hurt people's feelings. She never really meant to. The stress just always got to her. Being the perfect child wasn't easy. The things she did to keep her parents proud of her, made her lose every sense of pride she had for being at the top of her school.
Biting the insides of her cheeks, she tried to awkwardly hug Tsuno. To Tsuno's credit, she didn't push her away, instead she hugged Sasaki back, almost crushing her like a tin can. “I-I know! I know that our situation is bad, b-but, I have to be strong, you know?” She laughed wetly as she sniffled and buried her face into Sasaki's shoulder.
“I need to stay strong. Uphold morale, and the only way I know how to do that is ignoring our…situation,” she sniffled some more, but it seemed her moment of weakness was passing. “And feeding people,” she laughed some more, “ God , the amount of times I broke the tension between my parents by cooking are unreal!”
Sasaki felt bad. She knew that her frustrations were directed at that stupid glowing rabbit and the ‘game’. She just did not know how not to bottle up her feelings. How not to snap at others, when they left the burden of worrying and pacing around, to her. How not to get angry that they were laughing, despite their circumstances.
She slowly lifted her hand and patted Tsuno’s back. Tsuno, at least deserved some credit.
“I'm sorry. I wish I could fix this. I wish everyone took this seriously,” she murmured quietly. Tsuno just sniffled in response.
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She didn't wanna look her in the eyes. Not really. Not after everything she said to her. Not after her promises of getting everyone out of there. Not after she took that pan into her hand and raised it up and down against what became a mush of orange hair and skull fractions, in a matter of seconds. Not after she tried to get out of here, alone. Especially not after she failed and begged and cried to not be voted. For her life to weigh much more than everyone else there. And not after failing to be a leader.
Sasaki Hitomi was never one to beg. Her pride did not allow her that luxury. Sasaki Hitomi was not one to snap. She was not one to, so simply paint her hands with blood. Those were always only ever unwanted thoughts. They were thoughts she managed to bury deep inside her consciousness and shoo away whenever they haunted her day. She was not a violent person. No. She just was not that person. The circumstances forced her into this horrible, horrible role.
And yet there she stood, awaiting her imminent death. There she sat, in the very familiar feeling of her school's chair. If she allowed herself enough leeway, she could convince herself that the tightening in her chest and the hollow feeling in her stomach was a result of an upcoming exam. She always stressed over those, no matter how well she studied. No matter the amount of work she put into it. No matter the amount of the all-nighters she pulled. She could allow herself to go into that world that Ojima always seemed to go to whenever anything unwanted happened to him.
She could still hear Yanagi’s sobs. She would never understand what drove him to almost give everyone up for her sake. She would have asked him, but time was a luxury she was not afforded. The rabbit seemed to want to get done with this as quickly as possible.
And then the pike appeared. And suddenly everything was out of the window.
Sasaki Hitomi was someone willing to cry. Someone asking for her parents as the pike approached her gut, inch by inch. She wanted to scream and yell how unfair this was. How she had never meant to hurt anyone. Ever kill Isono. But all she could do was sob and gasp in panic as she tried to complete the only task that could save her from this fate. As her vision blurred and obstructed her logical side from taking over.
Her thoughts were shot down as the pike finally broke skin. She screamed and screamed as more of it got pushed in. As more of it tore her skin apart. Cut into her guts. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her always so neatly combed hair had become frizzy and a mess falling around her on the desk, with all the struggling she did. And just as she couldn't breathe anymore. Just as the wind got knocked out of her, Tsuno's tearful face flashed by her vision, blurry vision.
At last, for the second time, she had seen that big wide smile, wiped of Tsuno’s face.
Tsuno Manami wasn't angry at her. No. She was holding her mouth, crying, trembling and shaking her head in denial. And if that was not the mercy Sasaki was looking for, it offered a bit of solace. People would miss her. Her death was not cheered on by them. Not by the ones who were close to Isono. Not by the ones who always bickered with her.
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The blood tasted metallic in Tsuno's mouth. Her eyes widened and stung with tears. She only managed to put her hands around the pike that forced its way through her. In her final moments, she could only really think of Sasaki Hitomi.