Sawako collapsed to her knees sobbing heavily. Was she late? Could she have done anything? Was it her fault?

Kurumi…she killed him. She- She took him from me!

The door flew open at the forward end of the classroom. Sawako choked back her sobbing for one quick moment to silence herself. Kurumi did not notice Sawako and turned the corner down the hall. Quietly, Sawako stumbled into the room, rushing to his side.

She took him into her arms, and lay his head in her lap. In his final moments, Kazehaya looked up at his girlfriend's face and smiled. All the darkness around seemed to become irrelevant and fade into the background. Sawako's tears fell onto his face as he took hold of her hand.

He took comfort in seeing his girlfriend, safe, and for a last time beside him.

"S-Sawako. I-I'm glad you're okay," he struggled. "Kurumi- She's dangerous, s-stay away from her and stay safe, Sawako..for me."

He closed his eyes…and he smiled.

In the still darkness of the trashed classroom, Sawako wept softly.

She couldn't control her breathing. Her heartrate went AWOL. The room, her head, her sanity was spinning around rapidly. The dismay the betrayal and the loss completely crushed her spirits.

The void consumed her.

…

…

…

Her tenseness began to wear down. Her hands began to relax their grip and her hands loosened their grip on Kazehaya's hands. Setting Kazehaya gently on the floor, she slowly rose to her feet, dusting down her skirt and wiping down her hands on her jacket. She said, not a word, and uttered not a whimper more. She swept her long black, flowing hair to the side and cleared her face of any loose locks. Everything was in place. The tear stains down her cheeks just seemed to disappear on her façade, her tattered and wrinkled uniform being the only indicator she was ever in distress.

She simply strode down the hallway she had come from, her shoes kicking aside the bone fragments she had walked over earlier and simply stepping the corpse of her attacker, not another look or care.

Hastened running could be heard at the hallway intersection up ahead. She paused in her step and brought her heels together in wait. She stood motionless, hands clasped behind her back with a slight tilt to the right.

"Ugh, I've been here before!"

The girl turned the corner. It was Kurumi. She gasped and took a step back upon running into Sawako.

"S-Sawako-chan!" she said in her high pitched cheery voice.

Sawako stood there with a simple but wide grin that was noticeably more defined than her beautiful slight but warm smile she had when tutoring others. This smile was much much more stretched, yet she stood their motionless with a quaint cheery look on her face to Kurumi. Lighting flashed large amounts of white light bringing emphasized black and white across Sawako, even claiming the green of her school uniform.

"Kurumi-chan. It's nice to see a familiar face around."

"Y-Yeah, it's nice," she responded.

Sawako appeared to look at Kurumi, but in reality her thousand yard stare shot straight through her. Ume was genuinely creeped out.

"Kurumi-chan, have you seen the others? I'm especially looking for Kazehaya."

Ume's eyes shot wide open. "N-No, I haven't seen any of them."

"I see." Sawako simply replied.

Ume tried to reach around the waistband of her skirt for a knife handle but found it not there; she had left it in the room.

Sawako moved her hands from behind her back, and pocketed a very familiar bladed object into her skirt pocket, all with a smile, not deviating from Kurumi.

Ume gasped below her breath.

"Kurumi, let's have tea. There was a really pretty tea set a few rooms that way. Meet me there."

Sawako went ahead to the room and disappeared into it.

Kurumi followed.

By the time she had reached the room, Sawako had begun to boil the water set the cups.

"Have a seat," she said not looking away from the teapot. The small fire she had managed to start was warm enough to boil the tea, albeit in a slower manner. Just perfect.

"S-Sawako, how, how have you been holding up in this place?" Kurumi asked cautiously.

"Oh, I've been getting by." She replied, monotone.

Sawako poured two cups. The maroon red cups seemed to glow even amid the dark setting. She handed her the container and hot tea.

"Douzo," she said.

"Arigatou," Kurumi said.

Kurumi took a sip from the tea. It was quite sweet and very flavorful.

"You always made the best tea, Sawako-chan." Kurumi smiled.

Sawako only smiled back in return. A thank you was implied.

Another sip.

"Have you seen the others?" Kurumi asked.

"Ayane, and Kazehaya, they seemed to be running from something. I guess when I got to them…I was too late."

Kurumi was unsettled in how she said all of that maintaining her quaint smile. It never went away to think of it.

"Have you, killed anyone?" Sawako asked in turn.

Kurumi was shocked, mainly because of how blunt Sawako of all people worded the question.

"Of course not," she tried to shrug off.

"He didn't even try to rest you. He didn't fight back, and didn't try to run," Sawako suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"Despite you coming on him with a knife he didn't even run, he tried to talk it out with you because he still considered you a friend."

"And you killed him," Sawako stated, still maintaining her smile, her gaze never once leaving Kurumi.

Sawako Kuronuma began to go beyond creepy to Kurumi, she genuinely began to scare her.

Sawako, wasn't Sawako anymore.

Kurumi began to panic. She noticed reddening on Sawako's hands, almost rash-like.

"W-What happened to your hands?" she questioned.

From the inside of her blazer, Sawako pulled out a red orchid-like flower with yellow streaks.

"W-What did you brew this tea with?!" Kurumi demanded.

Silently looking up to Kurumi with only her eyes, Sawako revealed her cup was completely dry and empty, setting it upside down on the table. A wrenching pain caused Kurumi to clatter to the floor.

It hurt! It hurt like hell, like it was killing everything from within.

Sawako stood up and walked past her to the door.

Standing in the door looking down to Kurumi, she watched as Ume curled up into a position of pain before giving out.

"Sayonara, my rival," she said, closing the door and wandering into the darkness of the school.