[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/h5xf31C.png[/img][/center][hr][i][b]//Day 0 | Location:[/b] Nameless Forest - Clearing[/i] [b]“Shit! Shit!”[/b] It had been over before he could even get up and help, but now, in the aftermath? It took all of Daisuke’s effort just to keeping going. Adrenaline faded now and the emotions he had locked up were bursting out of its dam, his veins popping out of his forehead as he pushed his fingers beneath the slain wolfbear and [i]lifted[/i]. The still-warm corpse offered little resistance as it was rolled off his friend, but what remained didn’t look good either. He had seen his fair share of horror movies during training camps, had even gone and checked out some wild-ass execution videos out of morbid curiosity with Hiroshi, but this was something else. This was someone he knew. Someone he practiced with, played with, gamed with. Guts torn out of the stomach, then mashed up by a prickly mass. Skin like ash, lips coated with too much blood. The golden-haired youth fell down, felt the weight of this great burden. Who was it that thought to charge? Who was it that got everyone involved? Sasuke offered the opportunity, but he…he had pulled the trigger. [b]“Fuck…”[/b] His head slumped. Shoulders slumped further. [i][b]“DUNCAN!”[/b][/i] And there was his little girlfriend too, running across the field. Haruko’s eyes, too bright to bear. Back to a corpse. Back to this mess. Daisuke brought his fist up and then smashed it against his jaw. It stung. Could feel one of his teeth loosen up. A cut inside his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What was he [i]thinking[/i]? They were fucking middle schoolers, and none of them even did martial arts! They had [i]nothing[/i]! He raised his fist again, muscles tensing with a fury that desired oblivion and ob- His arm stopped, held back by another. There was only one person that could’ve done it. [b]“Sasuke, don’t stop me.”[/b] Words spat between clenched teeth. He deserved far worse than what he was doing to himself. But the blue-haired youth didn’t let go. He cast his gaze towards Asahi briefly, his dojo friend having fallen down in shock, paralyzed once the adrenaline faded, then turned back towards Daisuke. [b]“Look, please. Look.”[/b] [b]“I don’t s-”[/b] But Daisuke did see it. And so did Haruko, caught between shock, disgust, and confusion. They saw what everyone present saw. They saw Duncan’s organs drag themselves back into the cavity of his stomach, saw the flesh slowly ooze itself back together. As if a time lapse in reverse. As if [i]magic[/i] had occurred. A miracle, even. A miracle, however, that wasn’t shared with Yuki. ... It was funny, what people noticed at the weirdest times. And in that moment, rather than smelling Ayana’s burnt hair, Shun instead felt the roughness of Yuudai’s lips pressed against her palm, along with the stickiness of the blood that seeped from those cracks. She couldn’t keep her hand there long though, even if she did enjoy the sensation: the crew cut boy was basically suffocating, after all. [b]“Phew!”[/b] He inhaled, then winced at the pain in his body. His voice was so much fainter than before, but he could still crack a smile. It took less muscles to do so, after all. [b]“Thought you were trying to fini- Oh, uh, her, hair???”[/b] He tried to make a move, but his body didn’t respond, and Yuudai overall was just entirely [i]bewildered[/i] by how the class’s disaster magnet somehow didn’t realize her hair was on fire. It was surreal enough to make him forget that he could even [i]feel[/i] some parts of his body. Thankfully, before Ayana went entirely bald, Tsubaki appeared. For a brief moment, she was paralyzed by the state of Yuudai, her brain scrambling through all the medical equipment they had (which was fucking zero, in truth), before her eyes settled on Ayana and she decided to deal with the more immediate problem. She pushed the disaster magnet down and then stomped the fire out. The twintail was never going to be a twin again, but on the other hand, an asymmetrical hairstyle wasn’t terrible either. More importantly, though… [b]“We can’t really carry him like this. Gonna need a stretcher for Yuki too.”[/b] She gnawed at her thumb, brows furrowed. An infection was basically guaranteed, huh? And though Yuudai could put on a brave face, reality was against him. But the girls didn’t need to know. [b]“You two should go to the others. Hiroshi’s figuring something out right now. I’ll stay by Yuudai.”[/b] Not that she could do anything. Not that any of them could really do anything. With a sigh, Tsubaki sat down, cross-legged. Yuudai returned her presence with a crooked smile. ... What Kogen didn’t notice during all his grandstanding was that Rin, exactly a half-second after he returned her hammer, collapsed, falling unconscious. And, regardless of his triumph, he also didn’t notice Masato’s back. Didn’t notice that beyond the layer of blood that obscured everything, that the flesh was mending itself, closing off that wound. [b]“Nice going, chuuni kid!”[/b] Despite everything, even Masato’s whole refusal to help her up, Maki had managed to get up, hopping over on her good leg to deliver a resounding slap to Kogen’s back. [b]“Got a real killer spirit, don’tcha? Oh, Sohei! Rin’s right…well, guess you can already see her.”[/b] And indeed, Sohei could. The older of the Ito twins slid to a stop right beside the unconscious Rin, a deluge of expressions flickering past his usually mature look, before finally settling upon relief. Against all odds, she looked mostly unharmed and was definitely breathing, her complexion healthy enough that it didn’t even really look like she was doing anything [i]but[/i] sleeping. Without a word exchanged, he swept Rin up into his arms and strode off, rejoining the group. [b]“Sheesh. Didn’t figure he was such a prince-type.”[/b] Maki grinned. [b]“I can get over there myself, so hurry up n join em, demon king. This may as well be your new debut, ya know? Same with you, Prez.”[/b] And the cluster that was forming in the clearing certainly was growing. Except for a few pockets of injured fellows, it looked like the class was coming together. As for whether the discussion was going to be fruitful or not… ... ...Hiroshi seemed to be set on making it so. At Kuroshio Ogata, he had been a weirdo who stuck to the library all day long, reading up on random shit and sniggering quietly to himself. He was part of the weirdo trio that never actually joined the Literature Club yet always showed up to their meetings, after all. The sort of guy who'd pull out trivia from his brain that no one asked for and no one cared for. But now? He almost sounded dependable. Well, maybe with Masato still pulling himself together, Daisuke too concerned for Duncan to join the meeting, Mayumi still unwilling to grasp for authority in such a situation, and Rin too knocked out to bring up her hare-brained schemes, Hiroshi was only in charge by default. It was still weird though, how wholly [i]calm[/i] he was here. [b]"Yup, so we're in deep shit, but it could be worse. Those fanged deer were scary, but [i]some[/i] of us here seem to be able to fend them off. That means rather than having dead students, we only have dying students. Which is still not great."[/b] Ayano gripped Fujita's hand. She didn't make the wrong decision, pulling him away from Kogen. She didn't. [b]"We have food though. And we have fire. We need water and shelter."[/b] Kumi's stomach growled and she clutched her stomach against her legs, ears burning up. [b]"Hana said she can prepare the fanged deers, if she gets help. But we'll need wood to build a proper fire up. And we need people to go off to look for water. People to build a shelter too, especially for those who were hurt. And we need a couple people to take stock of what we have too. At this point, anything could help. Even textbooks could."[/b] As tinder, Kunio suspected. He was set though. He was 100% joining the water-searching party. The mood here was way too awful to stomach, and more importantly...the burning bus was [i]still[/i] a beacon to draw more unwanted attention. [b]"The sun's probably going to set in another three hours. These tasks are not up for debate, so get organized and get going. And...Kogen, Masato, Ayana, Shun, Asahi."[/b] Ayane's gaze turned towards her half-sister, incredulous both at her current appearance as well as for whatever 'special' treatment she was receiving right now. [b]"I don't believe I can order any of you around, but since you five seem to have become more capable than the rest of us, I hope you think carefully about how to best use your time. It's going to be hard but..."[/b] Mayumi's face the entire time was one of sheer incredulity, lambasted as she was by this new side of Kuroshio's number one trivia nerd. [b]"...if you figure things out, the dying might not become dying."[/b] Endo Yuki. Suzuki Maki. Higasa Yuudai. Stewart Duncan. Maybe even Inaba Rin. Their conditions may be different, their situations may be as well, but in the end, without food, water, or a place to properly rest, they would be the first to die.