I still thought it was all a dream. Everything that happened in that cargo plane was a dream.
How could a game be brought to life anyway ? What could I have done to make this happen to me ? I heard that this happened because of a chain letter that could get rid of people and somehow my name was written on one. But I thought it was all a fluke, and even then why should my name be on it ?
Seriously, I was just a new-rising lawyer that had recently defend Kosuke Kira successfully. I knew being a lawyer meant having a lot of enemies…,but I never thought one would hate me enough for this. I was just doing my work ! I tried to do what I think was right and I thought a fourteen years old boy should had another chance before they condemned him to prison…or any other punishments…that's why I defended his case in the first place. But apparently people didn't think about me that way if I was here…
I was just talking with Kosuke Kira and his father about the case when suddenly some random men in black knocked me out…, not without resistance of course…I did try to fend them off, used to learn martial arts back in middle school till my high school time…but they were just too strong, though at least I managed to punch one and was pretty proud of it.
The next thing I knew I was in the cargo plane…with my bag intact fortunately. And then there was this announcement about some kind of rules that we—the people…and me—were going to be dropped into some random islands in Pacific to fight to the death with 8 types of bombs. Basically we had a green IC in our left hand that would come off only if our heartbeat stop…which meant death…or…fake death actually if the key was in our heartbeat… if let's just say for some reason someone's heartbeat stopped, and I picked the IC before saving him with CPR or something then would it work ? Or maybe severing hands could work? Or did I seriously need to kill people to get out ?
"That's just sick" I mumbled to myself.
It seemed like time went faster because suddenly I found myself getting jostled around and then tossed out of the plane. Out of panic I shout automatically and to my relief—or not depending on how I thought about it—a parachute…mine…opened automatically and I was able to land somewhat safely in a forest.
After taking off my parachute , I folded it neatly and put it in my bag—or tried to anyway. The bag was ridiculously full of documents about Kosuke Kira's case that I was sure I wouldn't need anytime soon. I emptied the bag out of the documents, leaving only my wallet, my ultrabook, my smartphone, a power bank, a chocolate bread, a thermos of hot water and an instant cup ramen which was supposed to be my supper. I took my smartphone hoping beyond hope that somehow there was signal and…nope there wasn't. 'But that's…this shouldn't make sense. I got the best provider that provides signal even in some rural areas…this…can only meant that this island is out of any countries jurisdiction….No wonder this killing game is allowed…'
Sighing, I put the parachute into my bag and started to check my bombs—bims—that the crazy person in announcement said all of us got.
I inspected the normal looking basic mines I got—complete with a bracelet filled with numbers. All the bims had number and…a button…switch I suppose...at the top. I didn't know a lot about this btooom game that was popular, I mean I was not a top ranking player or something. Sure I did play…and I would like to say I was a decent player, but all I did figure out was the radar system about figuring out enemies and cancelling out enemies radars and I had only fought using a cracker type bombs though mostly I was just a watcher and tag-along…ones that didn't do anything, besides it's hard to play between work and I quickly abandoned the game.
But sadly I never knew about these bims.
'Well, let's try to see how it work.' I thought as I push the switch, quickly putting it down and ran away to see if it would explode. After waiting for some time…, and seeing it didn't do anything, I was thinking along the line that the bims malfunctioned, before realizing about the bracelet that had numbers on it…which coincidentally was also the numbers the bims had...
'Oh…oh….I felt so stupid, of course it is activated by remote control…'I shook my head. I grabbed the still activated bim and put it back into the white satchel, grabbing the bracelet and putting it on. The still activated bim should in theory…not explode even when it was activated because I didn't push the number so it should be safe. I sling my bag and carried my bims by strapping it around my waist before walking in some random direction hopefully far from any people that wanted to play the game and kill me.
After a lot of walking and seeing disgusting, unmentionables jungle insects and animals, I found myself hearing a chidish sound counting accompanied with a squelch of something. I started to quiet down and walk slowly towards the sound and crept up behind a bush only to see the silhouette of the boy I was defending…Kosuke Kira…stabbing something on the beach.
"Oh…, I never thought he was here too, though I suppose I should have guessed seeing as I saw him getting knocked out first before his father and then me." I mumbled.
Relaxing a little bit after seeing a familiar face, I approach him.
" There you are, Kosuke-san. What are you doing with that ? What's there ?" I asked as I saw what's he's stabbing.
A view of dead frogs greeted me though to my credit I just rose my eyebrow with a frown.
"Mitsuki-san." He greeted me. " There are a lot of frogs down here." He said with a laugh, " Disgusting, eh ?"
"Very." I nodded, " Even if you aren't affected by it, at least the blood and its innards getting out normally would have made someone want to puke. "
" But you aren't too, right ? " He asked while starting to walk with me along the beach away from the dead frogs.
" Well, not exactly, but if you want to kill something, at least don't make it sprout a lot of blood like that. That's just…creepily disgusting. Besides, it's actually wrong to kill living creatures. "
" Why is it wrong to kill living creatures ?"
" Don't you pity them ? No matter how small they are they are still living creatures. "
"Pity ? But why though ? Human kills pigs and cows to eat, but I can't kill any frogs ? I don't really understand that."
I sighed and stopped walking.
"Look, the usual moral answer to that is because there is a different to killing for food and for fun and that what's wrong in the public eyes is wrong." I paused a bit and Kosuke was just starting to protest, "But, the rather logical answer to that is because when you are killing like that, you are killing for nothing. At the very least logically if you kill something you should gain something from that, for example killing cows got us food, you killing frogs on the other hand just got you more blood on your shoes. Then the next thing is that you just can't kill something because you hate it unless it's disturbing you or something, for example you hate a cat that didn't do anything against you and kill it…, that's wrong. But you can kill something if they do disturb you, for example a dog chased you with the intention of biting you, you can kill it. It was called self-defense. The last rule is that try to make killing a last resort, if you do decide that you can't get away from the dog without killing it then by any means kill it, but if you can get away from the dog by just throwing a rock to scare it then do it first and don't kill it."
Kosuke seemed thoughtful after that.
"Okay…, I see…" he said.
"Well, actually that rule doesn't apply to any human though because humans have free will so if you want to do something you have to ask first and no matter how anti-social a human is, there will always be someone who care for him even if it was just in a detached way and doesn't even do anything to show it. So no killing, unless of course it is self-defense and even then it should be the last choice you have." I said as an addition…afraid that somehow Kosuke misinterpreted what I said and used that rule on a human.
Kosuke didn't even have any chance to answer when a rumbling noise came. We automatically looked at the noise…a plane that dropped a parachute of something.
"We saw that yesterday." he said.
"It's being dropped at regular intervals. It could be supplies or something. "
"I'm going there." He decided.
"Wait ! Aren't we looking for your father first ?" I asked." I mean I'm pretty sure he is here somewhere…"
Kosuke frozen. I noticed and sighed.
"Honestly, when someone brought up your father you go dead quiet. You should try to show him how you feel, it should be better for you."
He went quiet even after that when we searched for his father.
We found his father somewhere near the parachute. Apparently he also wanted to get to the parachute too. I noticed that Kosuke had tensed but decided to ignore it for the time being as nothing had happened…yet.
"Hey, there it is ! " Kosuke's father said.
"It's going to be a tough climb though. Very high up the tree. " I pointed out.
"Hey Kosuke. Give me a bomb. " he demanded.
Kosuke backed up a little as his dad advanced on him.
"But…"
"Yours are the best for this job." His dad grabbed his arm as the other went to grab his bombs then he kicked Kosuke so he stumbled a little.
"Calm down ! Try asking nicely and don't just push him around ! He's your son ! " I shouted.
"He's my son so you shouldn't try lecturing me about how to treat him !" He said harshly.
He inspected the bomb, " Is this how it works ?" he said as he tried to stick it to the tree.
It fall down. "Hey what's going on ?" he asked to both of us.
I had a guess it had to be Kosuke that activated it but I didn't say that and shrugged instead.
"Kosuke you do it !"
I looked at Kosuke who was starting to walk with his head down.
"Get on it already !" he shouted as he kicked Kosuke down again.
"Hey ! No kicking ! He's walking and walking needs time ! It's not like you expect him to teleport or something !" I raised my voice in his defense, inching closer to Kosuke in case his father wanted to kick him again.
"Shut up !" Kosuke's father shouted to my face and I expertly kept my face blank.
Kosuke got up without any words and took the bomb. He pressed it to the tree and activated it.
Then it imploded and a big hole was created in the tree. The tree fall and Kosuke's father went to pick the container from the parachute first.
"Let's see what we've got here…" He trailed off as he opened it," Hell yeah ! Instant ramen, canned food, a flashlight and even beer ! "
He then noticed us then promptly closed the container. He slung it over his shoulder and said, " Okay, anyone who wants to eat follow me."
Then he started to walk away.
Frowning, I blocked his path. " Look, you need to split that here. It belongs to all of us. " I said in a neutral tone.
"What are you talking about ? This was my idea and my son was the one who got it. You had nothing to do with it. " He said, his face turning menacing.
"Then share it equally with your son. You said your son got it so he should have some on his own. You don't need to share with me. I'm fine on my own." Well fine for today anyway, and probably tomorrow because of that instant ramen I had but he didn't need to know about it.
" Listen good. There's no police and no civilization out here. It doesn't matter if you are a lawyer. Here you're just a useless mouth to feed. You don't have any say in this. The strong rule. That's the law of the jungle. Got a problem with that ?" He said as he started inching too close to my face for my liking and it showed on my face.
I was just going to kick him off when Kosuke said something, " S-scum."
"Did you say something ?" his father attention was off me, but it went to Kosuke all of a sudden. Not exactly good.
Kosuke backed off a little.
"You gonna talk back to me? Huh !?" his father said as he grabbed Kosuke from his pants, "Looks like you need special attention. Do you want me to help you remember ?" he sneered.
Kosuke made a choking sound as he trembled and shook his head then as if he remembered something, he started screaming and stuck his bomb to his father's shirt.
"W-what the hell did you do ?" his father asked in panic.
"Take off your shirt ! " I shouted.
His father flung the supplies away and tried to take off his shirt, " Kosuke ! You—"
He didn't even have any chance to finish saying whatever he wanted to say before he was blown up.
And the blood went all over the place…including Kosuke's shirt and face. Mainly face.
I stayed silent in shock and tried really hard not to vomit anything.
"Look, Mitsuki-san !" Kosuke said as he opened his arm to showcase the…headless corpse behind him."I did it ! I show him how I felt ! That's the first time I ever fought back ! Mitsuki-san, you'll protect me again, right ? I mean, I'm insane, right ? Because I was abused, right ? Because I just killed him, and I feel wonderful."
Kosuke turned to his dad corpse and stepped on it, " It's your fault dad. You didn't give me a choice. Right ? You'll be my lawyer again, right ? You'll tell everyone at the trial, right ?"
I looked anywhere but the corpse and Kosuke's face which was full of blood.
"Stop. Just…stop. I'll be your lawyer again if you just stop stepping on a corpse with that maniac face laughing off. That's just disturbing. And creepy. And vomit worthy. Though when I said to show him how you felt, I didn't mean you have to blow him up. And feeling wonderful after killing someone is just adding to your creepiness. "
He stepped off his father and did wipe that maniac face off to my relief.
" And wipe the blood off to." I added.
"So you'll still protect me ?" he asked.
"I'll try, but this murder won't even count on the court. I can just say it's from this rule to kill and explain the game then it will all be sorted. That is if this death somehow got out. Actually, you don't need me to protect you anymore. Your last case was finished anyway. " I finished with a shrug.
Kosuke didn't have time to answer before I felt a tingling sensation from the green IC.
"Radar?" he started to look around…and found two guys walking towards us. One teenager and the other one an old man.
I tensed and draw a bim, discretely noting it's number…1—the one that I had activated before. Good.
The teenager and old man looked surprised at the scene. Considering it was a very bloody and gore scene, no surprise there.
"What?" Kosuke snapped.
The teenager looked at the corpse," Did you kill him ?"
Kosuke's face went childish and he smiled as he said, " He deserved to die. Should I not kill him ? After all, there is no police nor civilization here. Sur—"
He didn't get the chance to finish whatever he wanted to say because I stepped on his foot.
He reacted instantly and pull his foot, " Hey ! What was that for !" he cried indignantly.
"No creepy smile with creepy phrases !" I said sternly and then gestured generally to the teenager and old man, " Look. They are spooked out here."
Both the teenager and old man turned their head towards me and seemed rather surprised to see me there.
I didn't really know what made them surprised though. The fact that I was standing there and they didn't notice me, or the fact that I was wearing a formal suit standing near a bloody corpse and a bloody kid and talking normally to said kid.
"Listen…calm down and hear me out" the teenager said, eyes flickering between me and Kosuke, his hand outstretched trying to reach to us.
"You're telling me what to do ?!" Kosuke shouted angrily from beside me, then his face turned maniac once again, "If someone won't listen when you tell them, they need special attention, right ?"
Both of them tensed as if sensing danger coming.
"Okay, okay. Stop the hostilities." I said stepping between the teenager and Kosuke. I tried to make myself seem as laid back as possible though actually I was perfectly aware of things and would be able to spring into action if needed. I turned to Kosuke," Kosuke-san. They doesn't seem they will attack us anytime soon and they don't seem to be able to kill…-" I trailed off as I noticed two white satchel around the teenager's waist," or not…I'm not going to lie that they aren't able to kill, but point is they don't seem like they want to attack us—" I ignored their tense posture that seemed ready to fight or flight purposely. I noticed Kosuke had seemed to somewhat control himself…for the moment. "Okay, sorry about that. So…what do you want to say ?" I asked to the pair of teenager and old man.
"Uh…we just…" I noticed the teenager's eyes darted around and glanced at the supplies then at the bloodied Kosuke and the corpse before quickly focusing his eyes to mine," stumbled accidentally. So…, we'll just leave you here…, okay ?" he said as he took a stepped back.
My eyebrows rose up in disbelief. Actually my guess was along the line of that they want to get the supplies but stumbled upon us instead and after seeing the corpse and blood…, decided it wasn't worth it and backed off. Though they seemed genuinely frightened by us…or rather by Kosuke probably.
"You're after the supply ?" I asked.
"Huh ?" the teenager widened his eyes," No…no…we just stumbled like I say ! "
The old man though kept glancing at the supplies and Kosuke unfortunately was the one that noticed it.
"What?! You want our supplies after all?!" Kosuke shouted.
"Wha…?! No! I didn't want anything !"
"You liar ! " Kosuke said as he pull out his bim.
The teenager and the old man backed off and I sighed as I stepped between them once more.
"Couldn't we just go into an agreement without bims ? If Kosuke-san doesn't mind, we can even share the supplies. But if he does then let's just part ways peacefully…"
"No." Of course Kosuke said that.
"Okay…leaving peacefully it is…How long since your last meal anyway ?" I asked the other group.
"Actually since yesterday's lunch." The teenager said.
I sighed and pulled out the chocolate bread—pretty big enough to be shared between them both-from my bag.
" I don't know if this'll help or something. But you can have that." I said as I tossed the bread.
The teenager caught it clumsily because he didn't expect it…probably.
"Why are you giving that? Where did you get that?" Kosuke asked me suspiciously.
"Because I happened to have that in my bag and with that supply bag it shouldn't be needed."Besides I still have the instant ramen," And I got that from my bag before this happened. It was surprisingly still intact. Since it was mine technically, unless there's any desperate situation, I really hope I still got somewhat ownership over my bag." I explained.
Kosuke just scowled but let me go at the moment.
" Uh...thanks." the teenager said lamely as the old man grinned at me.
"I'm Mitsuki Hana. You ?" I introduced myself.
"Sakamoto Ryouta. Nice to meet you." The teenager said.
" I'm Taira." The old man said.
"Well, it's nice to meet you too." I said.
I noticed Kosuke seemed to be in deep thought, mumbling Sakamoto something…
"Wait ! You're Sakamoto the top ranking player from Japan, right ?" Kosuke shouted.
"Y…yeah ?" Ryouta said.
Then Kosuke started to laugh maniacally again.
"Hahaha…I…I never thought there are any top ranking player here." He said.
"Uh…sure?" Ryouta said uncertainly.
"We should go now, Kosuke-san." I said.
"Right…, okay-okay." Kosuke said while he was still sounded like a maniac. I decided to ignore that on purpose.
"Well, dad. I'll be taking your bims and IC then." Kosuke said and took his dad's bim and IC as if nothing's wrong with that gesture.
I took the supplies with me and turned around.
"Let's go Kosuke-san."
"Yeah."
And so we left Ryouta and Taira-san behind and made our way through the dense forest.
A/N: Please leave a review !