W-what? I leaned over the branch. How…
“Is that all?” Shirakawa cracked his neck from side to side, crossed his fingers and stretched his arms.
What are you? I tightened the black wire strings that held my kunai blades together. Each three circled around each other to form one pointed end. I wrapped the rest of the wire around my palms and gripped them tightly. Shirakawa reached for his legs and pulled an ice pick-shaped bone from inside his skin.
“Why don’t you come down from that little tree you’re hiding in?” Shirakawa sneered. “Unless you need a little help.” He cocked his head up the tree as he approached.
I snared back, swung around the tree to the other branch and crawled my way up. I hooked the wire of my blades from a branch, plunged from the tree and aimed for Shirakawa’s head. Shirakawa crossed his weapons over his face and dodged the kunai. I skidded around him and lunged at his back. He bent down, side-blocked my blow and tried to kick my legs from underneath me. I rolled away from him, hooked the other end of the wire on the branch of another tree and lunged back. Our weapons clanked back and forth and I jumped from tree to tree. I wrapped the wires around the bones and pulled each and every one of them out of his grasp. I finally had him surrounded by my web of wires, his two bones dangling from opposite ends of the web. I leaned against a tree to catch my breath.
“Still playing the game of hide and seek.” Shirakawa tried to break through the wires that chained him in the center of four trees. He scraped his forefinger and thumb across the line to feel it and sucked on the blood that oozed there. I watched his wound heal again. Nobody told me about this. I remembered Masaki’s scarred chest, barely escaping with his life, and how Maya had fought by his side when she was with the Kan. Did she lie to us? How could she fail to mention his ability to heal?
“Which one is you?” Shirakawa pulled on each wire around him. One squeezed tight around my waist. The sun had set, leaving faint streaks of orange and purple. Darkness loomed among the trees. A silent wind breezed through. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, my breath lodged in my throat. Only thirty minutes remained till the countdown was over and for the clock to sound the end of the initial round. A black narrow figure contorted on the ground. I grabbed its head. The tongue of a snake snapped back at me.
A mamushi?
I glanced at one of my kunai, then at the tongue of the snake. I only had one move left to try and I needed more wire to do it. I loosened the kunai, dipped it into the snake’s mouth, drew it out as the snake wriggled away, and pulled on one of the wires that locked Shirakawa’s legs.
“Found you.” Shirakawa grinned, wires snapping from around one hand. He eyes followed the end of the string that pulled on him.
I drew in a deep breath, forcing my hands to stop trembling, then I cut the wire loose from around my waist. His hands came free as I came out of my hiding.
“That’s right.” Shirakawa smirked, his legs still trapped. “Best to surrender now than later. You’re awfully brave, well, for a little boy.”
“I’m not a boy.”
“Oho, so you do speak. I was beginning to think Japanese wasn’t your language.”
“Language is a mere string of words.” Like those wires, I thought. They cut deep. “But I prefer to let my weapons do the talking.” I hurled several of my kunai at him and watched him dance through the web, dodging every single one of them. He had twisted himself, getting the wires around his leg freed by my kunai. He had one leg left to free, and I had one poisoned kunai to save for last.
“Why don’t you just give me your badge and I might just let you go?” Shirakawa expressed his agitation. It was so subtle that, if I hadn’t been watching him carefully for the past few days, I wouldn’t have cared. I thought this man to be expressionless, a predator with no emotion.
“I know you, Minoru.”
I cringed. I can’t let my guard down now. I searched for an opening.
“I know that you have never killed anyone before. Do you really think that you can kill me?”
I gritted my teeth. “Shut up!”
“See? That’s the little boy I know. The one who can’t live without his mother.”
“Don’t talk about Mother!” I hurled the kunai through the web toward Shirakawa. At that point, everything became clear. The whistle of the blade and the rising stench of blood all seemed to freeze. The scuff of movement, the hissing of a ragged breath, and a cry pulled me from my trance.
The Kunai had lodged itself into the throat of a little girl, who stumbled forward and then slumped to the ground. I watched blood pool around the girl’s chestnut hair until Shirakawa met my eyes.
“You son of a–” I lurched on him and we rolled down the steep slope into the lake.
SPLASH.
I broke the surface of the water, climbing over the tipping point of the hill. I looked back at the blackwater, hoping to never see that monster’s face again. Blood surged from the dying girl’s lips, her life’s blood continuing to drip from her heaving chest and splattering onto the ground. She looked at me with her blue eyes shocked into stillness.
“No!” I fell to my knees. I shook the girl’s dead body. A black bird flew above. “Mother!” I bellowed after it. “Mother!”
Chapter Fourteen
Nikki
Many contestants began to wander in toward the center of the base. I checked the ticking digital clock above the empty security office. Ten minutes left. My legs ached as I walked over to the center of the base.
“You’re going to have to walk,” the Director had said. “Just because Hideki-san pays us to do the spying, doesn’t mean I have to drive you to the base. I’m keeping my RV far away this time.”
I remembered how contestants had ransacked the RV at last year’s contest, searching for food, or anything that could help them win.
Kuma Hunters waited around the base. Some of them stood in front of the empty security office, hands on their coms ready for further instructions. Two youngsters held onto each other as they walked, others dropped their bags and collapsed onto their knees. I heard sobs here and there. An American stood nearby with his arms crossed. His blue eyes glared at me. Leaves rustled in the trees that surrounded us. I slid a finger over a remote in my pocket and three black woodpeckers, like vultures, flew in a circle over the base. A fourth one landed on a tree behind me and another pecked on crumbs that a man with a bear skin had tossed. The man was laughing with a group of ten people around him. Aya Hideki leaned against a tree next to them, massaging her heel.
“She’s late,” she told her bodyguard. “She better get me back badge number seven from that scrawny little girl, or I’m gon’ have to have a word with my father about this.”
The sound of metal clinking on metal echoed from the trees and a figure sprinted out of the bushes, running towards me.
“We need to get everyone out of here,” a boy said. I noticed a case strapped to his back.
“What’s going on?” one of the contestants asked.
“Look here.” I eyed the boy. “You need to take a step back. The round is not over yet.”
“Listen!” the boy insisted. “If we don’t get out of here, we’re going to die. You don’t know what’s back there. It could come here any minute.”
More contestants started gathering around me. The American seemed to recognize what was going on and tried to push through the crowd to reach me.
Suddenly, a sharp static noise pierced my ear drum. I pressed my finger against the earpiece and jerked my head away in pain.
“N-N-Nikki-cha-an …” a robotic voice sounded from the com.
“Moshi moshi?” I cupped my mouth to the side. Kuma Hunters tapped at their ears, some taking out their coms to examine them. The static noise continued. “Director?”
“What’s happening?” voices mumbled.
“Y-yo-you n-ne-eed to ge-et … contestants … o-o-of-the-e-ere … shhhhh.”
“What? Hello? Director? Are you there?” I yanked th
e earpiece out of my ear and the boy slapped it out of my hand. “Hey!”
His eyes landed on the megaphone behind me, and he whirled past me before I could stop him. “We all need to go, now!” he screamed into the megaphone.
I gestured for a handful of Kuma Hunters to help me out. “All contestants must stay put!” I yelled over the growing commotion.
“Ahh!” A few contestants seized their head in pain, dropping to the floor, as though having a seizure.
“Make it stop!” The boy with the rod dropped the megaphone and fell to his knees.
“Something’s wrong.” The American pushed through the contestants.
The slip-and-counter of the contestants caused everyone to start running. A man with blood trickling from his ears grabbed a rifle from a quivering Kuma Hunter and aimed at a tree with a red-flashing device. I recognized it as a sonic weapon. “Don’t!” I cried to the man.
He fired.
BOOM!
A blast wave vibrated through the forest. A fuse blew up from the digital clock and sparks rained over the field. Flames burst from the security office and contestants screamed. A tree split in half and collapsed in the center of the base. The fire spread from tree to tree, encircling everyone.
“Everybody run! Seek shelter!” I shouted. “The contestants!” I called for the remaining Kuma Hunters. Young contestants ran into me and I got lost in the crowd. I lunged forward and onto my knees. Someone stomped over my hand and sprinted over the fire behind. Another kicked me in the stomach, and as my head spun, hands wrapped around my arms and jerked me up.
“Are you okay?” the American asked, carrying the boy with the rod over his back. I touched my aching forehead. Blood trickled down. “Wh … at?” Another blast sounded off from the forest. A beech tree with orange and yellow lit leaves swayed over.
“Duck!” The American grabbed my waist and hurled me away. The tree crashed by my feet. “We need a way out,” he said. The boy continued to twitch on the American’s back.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.
“Drop him,” a voice ordered.
I squinted through the smoke to see a ponytailed girl with claws. I recognized her as Maya. “He’s one of the Kan,” she said. “Drop him.”
“What?!” The American yelled. “I know this boy and he’s not with the Kan.”
People on fire screamed around us. My head throbbed and my eyes blurred in and out of focus. The air smelt of smoke and burning flesh. Ash and debris filled my lungs. A cough surged out of my throat. “We’re not going to make it alive if we keep bickering around.”
“She’s right,” Maya said. “Give me the boy.”
“Listen lady,” the American shouted. “If this boy was with the Kan, I would know about it.”
“Maya!” We heard a shriek from a boy with streaks of flame burning on his shoulder.
“Celio?” Her eyes widened. Several spots on the boy’s back lit into flames. She patted them hard.
“Where’s Eli?” His eyes searched the surroundings. “You left her?” He tackled Maya to the ground.
“Let’s go!” the American said, ushering me with him. We saw the man with bear skin shout at the contestants. Ten others like him helped the injured, including Aya and her bodyguard.
“Goro!” The American waved at the man.
“Follow me!” Goro yelled. We dashed towards them, leaving Maya and the boy behind.
“We need to cross over the water,” Goro said. “It’s the only thing the fire won’t go through.”
“I know how to get there,” I said, panting. We ran under a spreading canopy of red and orange. Wild boars and horned feral goats ran towards us from every direction. Golden eagles cawed in the distance. The wild flames licked over blackened bodies, and some of us tripped over them. The fire raged behind us and we crashed into a fence. Goro and his men helped everyone climb over to the other side. The American pushed me up the fence as I fell over. I helped him bring the boy with the rod down.
“Over here!” A man on the other side of a lake waved a torch in the air. “Whatever you do, stay away from the center,” his voice echoed.
We ran into the cool water, swimming and dragging people with us. The boy’s twitching had come to a stop as he slumped over the American’s back. I swam along with them, still having trouble focusing. I felt the grasps of another around my waist, and two hands hauled me out of the water.
“This way!” An old man with hair dangling from his face and a scar under his eye waved his torch for everyone to see.
Goro and his friends helped more people up to the dry ground. The old man’s torch pointed at the American’s face. “Nick!” He said, running to him. “Did you see a b…”
The American slumped down on his knees, sliding the boy off his back. The old man rested a hand on the fishing rod and grasped the boy’s face. “Shouta? My boy,” he wept. “Y-you’re alive.”
I turned around to the fire enveloping everything in its way.
“Where are we?” the American asked me.
The screams died down, replaced by the dawning fear and whimpers of the contestants around me. “Welcome to the second round.”
Chapter Fifteen
Celio
“How could you?” I yelled. “I trusted you!” I tightened my grip around Maya’s shoulders.
“She ran away looking for you,” Maya explained. “Enura went to find h— Look out!” Maya aimed a kunai behind my back, and a man dropped to the ground. “The Kan are everywhere! You have to go! Go find your sister. I’ll deal with them.”
I ducked under the flying steel, merging with the running crowd. More men surrounded Maya as she fought them off.
“Eli!” I shouted, checking the burning bodies on the ground. The dead faces of strangers left me with the smallest glimmer of hope. I rushed through the running crowd diving over the fence and into the water. They carried me with them. Some shoved by me, others swam to the other side, but one remained calm at the bottom of a tree, a little girl with her still blue eyes reflecting the chaos.
“Eli!” I shrieked, paralyzed by the horror. My legs buckled, knees sinking into the sodden earth. “Dios mio…t-this can’t be happening.” My trembling hands splashed into her icy blood, taking hold of a kunai in her chest, and wrapping around her unmoving face. Grief surged with every breath. I cradled her in my arms, tears flowing from my helpless eyes and onto her chestnut hair. She didn’t volunteer for this, she may have not been able to fend for herself, but she was strong, stronger than me. “This can’t be happening…” I cried, rocking back and forth. “The Mori will pay. They will all pay for what they did to you, what they did to us!”
I saw a figure man rise from the black water lake heading in the opposite direction people ran in. His knee twitched, and a crack of the bone put it back to place. The torn, wet fabrics of his black clothes flapped around his staggering legs and arms. He heaved his head backward and his long black hair clapped against his back, blending in with the rest of him. He inched closed to me and my eyes fell on a bear tooth dangling from a chain around his neck.
“Stay back!” I shouted, closing my eyes. I silenced my jagged breathing as I clasped the kunai between my hands and pulled it away from Eli’s chest. I pointed it at the man. “Don’t come any closer!”
With slender arms, the man lifted Eli onto one shoulder, and pulled me onto another. “Let me go!” I kicked. “Where are you taking me? Put me down, o-or I’ll kill you!”
Chapter Sixteen
Maya
“The fire is spreading fast!” Enura skidded behind me, kicking a man in the stomach. A flying fist hurtled towards me. I grabbed it and twisted it as I hauled my legs around the man’s neck, plummeting down to the ground on top of him.
“Is that all of them?” Enura asked.
“Eli isn’t with you?”
“I couldn’t find her anywhere.” Enura shook his head. “She must have strayed far from the base.”
“This is not good.�
�� I rested my palm against the bark of a tree. I had never felt this tired before. My chest heaved and my throat tightened. “This is like Italy all over again.”
A shadow cut through the flames, slumping toward us.
“Enura!” it yelled. Two more figures dashed through the flames behind it. “Get away from her.” They came to a stop, a few feet away.
“Jun? Masaki?” I identified them along with a Kuma Hunter. Masaki spun his chains around him.
“What’s going on?” Enura asked. “I thought you went after the Triplets.”
“We did,” Masaki spat. “Until that sonic blast got to them. We couldn’t find them afterwards. She was one of them all along.” The blades in his chains quivered and the color of the flames glimmered off his dilated pupils. Jun and the Kuma Hunter pointed their rifles at me.
“What do you mean?” Enura asked.
“Tell him what you told us,” Jun said to the hunter.
“They found her hair on Oji-san’s body,” the Kuma Hunter said. “He’s dead.”
“W-what?” My voice lodged in my throat.
“We have to bring her in,” the Kuma Hunter said.
“Are you crazy?! She didn’t do that!” Enura yelled back. “We need to get her out of here. We need to all get out of here before we suffocate”
“Not with her I won’t.” Masaki took a step toward us.
“Masaki,” Enura raised his hands in the air. “You need to calm down.”
“Back off, Enura!” Masaki pointed the blades at him. “B-Back off! Do you know what this snake did? She pretended to be one of us! She lied to us!”
“Ok, Masaki.” Enura backed away slowly. He tried to circle behind him, but Masaki whipped a kunai at him. It slashed his leg. Enura slanted to the side.
“Are you with her?” Masaki yelled at Enura.
“Calm down, Masaki.” I held my arms up over my head. “We can talk about this. This is just the venom coursing in you.”
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