Squiddle Story of Devil

Tokaku liked to think she was pretty imperturbable. It was important in her line of work. A good assassin needed to take whatever complications came up and handle them smoothly.

Even now, she was making sure not to let it show. But it would be fair to say she was a little perturbed.

This was the Black Class? How was this even school? As soon as all thirteen students had got to the classroom, they'd been gassed unconscious, dumped in a warehouse, and finally escorted to some empty field and told to play Red Light, Green Light, of all the damn things. This wasn't a class. If anything, this was recess.

Except for the guns mounted in the walls to kill anyone who made a mistake. Though now that Tokaku thought about it, she had come here knowing murder would be involved, so maybe that part should count as expected.

The giant doll turned its head again and Tokaku stopped on a dime. Of course she did. She was the best. Everyone in this class was... or they were supposed to be, at least. Tokaku was no longer sure how seriously to take that particular claim about the Black Class after having watched one girl ignore the rules and charge straight for the goal line, laughing like a maniac. She'd made it about halfway before getting swiss cheesed from several directions. Tokaku's working theory was that the organizers had allowed one unqualified moron into the group to serve as an example.

A few yards away, the black-haired girl with pigtails tripped over her own feet and got annihilated, and Tokaku corrected herself, Okay, two unqualified morons.

At least the ridiculous exercise was almost over. The surviving students were close enough to the goal now that two more turns should do it. Tokaku figured she could make it in one. She watched closely, and the moment the doll's head turned, she was moving.

So were the others. Tokaku tried to focus and ignore the crowd. This became difficult when one of them was shoved directly into her path.

"Hey!" shouted the victim, flailing around to try and get her balance back. The girl she was shouting at laughed and kept running. (How was she moving so fast in heels?) It was clearly an attempt to get rid of the competition, and it was going to work. The doll's head was already turning and there was no way this short-haired girl would be able to stop moving in time.

At the last possible moment, Tokaku grabbed her by the collar and held her completely off the ground.

"Oh, thank you so much!" the girl said. "How can I ever repa--"

"Brace yourself," said Tokaku.

"What?"

The doll turned away again, and Tokaku hurled the other girl directly at its head.

A scream of "Owwwww!" rang out as both doll and projectile crashed to the ground in a heap. The music stopped. Tokaku waited till a couple of the other students had moved, just in case, and then trusted that she'd successfully ended the game and walked over.

"That was mean," said a voice from the pile.

Tokaku shrugged. "You did ask."

The day that followed was no less intense. After returning to the warehouse, the eleven surviving students were finally given a proper explanation of how the Black Class was going to work. The game they'd just played would be the first of six, all with life-or-death stakes, but with the ultimate prize. Any desired reward was in the offing for anyone who survived... well, the offing.

This didn't necessarily mean she'd been lied to, Tokaku reflected. It was still entirely possible that the Black Class also had the secret goal of finding and killing one target student. And Tokaku had a feeling that Haru, the girl she'd saved earlier and who was now following her everywhere, was that target.

She had this feeling mostly because Haru had said so just now.

Tokaku frowned. "Shouldn't you be keeping this a secret?"

"I trust you. And nobody else is listening." She was right. The lights were out and everyone had retreated to the paired bunk beds they'd been assigned. Today had been too busy for much scheming to take place now; Tokaku could tell that most of the class was sleeping, and she would have been doing the same if Haru hadn't absolutely had to have a big dramatic heart-to-heart right this minute. Ugh. Timing, woman.

"Why do you trust me? I seriously just wanted something to throw at --"

Haru shook her head vigorously. "You're a good person! You won't hurt me! I can tell!"

Those words seemed to resonate somewhere in Tokaku's brain, and she immediately changed the subject in the hope of never finding out why. "What about the other students? Do you really think you can make friends with them all?"

Haru shrugged. "That, or the games will weed them out. -- Uh I mean yes friendship definitely hooray!"

Tokaku raised an eyebrow so far it just about slid off her face.

"...Look, I try to be positive. But I'm so tired of assassins and torture and death games. I have this weird extended family that wants me to be their next successor, but I have to be worthy, and their tests keep killing everyone around me!"

To Tokaku, that sounded more like a problem of bad aim than anything else. But now Haru was crying, and before Tokaku had any idea what she was doing, the words "I'll protect you" were out of her mouth.

Wordlessly, Haru hugged her. Tokaku decided to tolerate it. This is strategy, she rationalized to herself. Sticking close to Haru will give me easy chances to kill the other assassins. Then it'll be just us two competing for the reward. It's the perfect plan.

"Get a room!" shouted someone from the other side of the warehouse.

Almost perfect, Tokaku self-edited.

Candy. They were cutting shapes out of candy. This was Tokaku's life now.

Even worse, she'd made this simple task hard on herself by choosing the wrong shape. She had to somehow detach an entire umbrella from the surrounding candy without slipping up. Haru's shape had been a star, and she'd already finished slicing, removing, and eating the damn thing.

She was back in the warehouse now, hopefully keeping her distance from the others who were done, so Tokaku was free to focus on her own increasingly serious problem. Trouble was, she was too well-trained to really do that. In a room full of fellow assassins, there was no way she could give something like this her full attention. She barely had a third of the outline done and time was running out, but hard as she tried, her eyes kept flicking around the room every few seconds like she was a driver checking her mirrors.

As a result, she couldn't miss Shiena, who absolutely did not have that problem and was working on her umbrella with intense concentration. (Introductions had finally taken place this morning, so Tokaku no longer needed mental nicknames. Shiena had been "the other one with glasses".) Apparently the world of murder for hire had room for all kinds, because this plain Jane, who clearly posed no physical threat, was more than a match for her classmates in fine motor skills.

She was loving it, too. "Ha ha ha! Just a centimeter to go!"

"Zip it," hissed Isuke, who was somehow struggling with her triangle.

Shiena ignored her. "Everyone underestimates me! Well, not anymore! You'll all bow to ungggh."

It took a second for Tokaku to realize that sentence had not ended normally. She looked up to see Shiena slumped on the ground, her candy dish underneath her. Tokaku was the closest person, so she came to take a closer look... and saw a needle driven most of the way into Shiena's right temple.

"Huh. She dead?" asked Isuke.

Tokaku was shocked to find that Shiena was in fact dead of this clearly non-fatal injury. Had the needle been poisoned? Wait, how had it even been launched in the first place? Everyone cast their eyes around the room, wondering which one of their classmates was hiding this dangerous and highly specific skill set.

The long silence was finally broken by Hitsugi, who said, "I for one think this is an outrage, no matter how much any of us may have wanted her to shut up. By the way, can I borrow someone's needle? I lost mine."

The guards came to remove Shiena's body, pushing Tokaku out of the way. They left her dish behind. At the sight of it, Isuke burst out laughing. "She was full of crap! That umbrella is barely started!"

"Really?" Haruki leaned in to take a look, accidentally shoving Isuke's shoulder.

"Hey! You stupid bitch, you made me cut into -- WAIT NO MY SHAPE IS FINE"

The guard closest to Isuke shot her, splattering Haruki. Screams ensued.

Tokaku did her best to shut out the noise. Enough distractions -- time to finish her outline and get out of here. After all, she only had a centimeter to go.

By the third day of captivity, Tokaku could no longer make herself believe her decision to protect Haru had been purely strategic. She couldn't bring herself to even think about actually killing her -- the job she'd been sent here to do. Instead, there was a drive within Tokaku that she didn't understand. It wasn't up to her; she just had to protect Haru and that was that.

It's not like the obvious possibility didn't occur to her, but forget liking girls, Tokaku didn't like people. She'd never felt anything remotely like this for anyone. Haru had to be triggering some other part of her brain, like the part that would feel sympathy for a cute baby animal in danger. Yes, that had to be it. Haru was like a... a squirrel. A little fluffy squirrel with a broken leg. And maybe brain damage.

Anyway, whatever the reason, Tokaku had to protect Haru. Which was why her brain was going absolutely apeshit right now.

They were in the middle of the third game, tug of war, and it was being played one-on-one. (Apparently this wasn't standard; the guards had muttered something about "not enough characters".) The rope and platforms were miles above the ground, far too high for anyone to survive the drop. Haru had been chosen first, and there was absolutely nothing Tokaku could do to help her from here.

There had been a brief moment of hope when Haru's opponent was chosen. She was up against Hanabusa, the upper-class spoiled rich girl, who couldn't possibly be very strong. So Tokaku had breathed a sigh of relief -- at which point Hanabusa the upper-class spoiled rich girl revealed that she was a freaking cyborg. With a deep personal grudge against Haru.

In short, the world was ending and Tokaku could only watch. Well, that and grab a gun from one of the guards. It would be suicide, but she had to try somethi--

"No! Stop it! Damn youuuuu!"

Okay, how exactly had Haru just pulled Hanabusa straight off the platform to her death without breaking a sweat?

Tokaku got her chance to ask when she was sent up the elevator next. As they passed each other on the platform, Haru said, "I don't understand either! She was just... easy to drag. It was like having a rope in her hands immobilized her."

"Huh. She didn't even have decent traction? Aren't cyborgs heavy?"

"We probably shouldn't question it. Good luck!"

Haru headed down the elevator, leaving Tokaku alone with her opponent. Who was her opponent, anyway? She'd been too distracted to notice.

"I had a feeling we'd be facin' off eventually."

Oh, it was the rebel without a cause. "Sagae."

"Sorry, kid. I got no problem with you, but I need to win this. See, there are way too many people countin' on me for their -- are you listening?"

Tokaku had crouched down. "Keep going," she said, waving a hand. "I'm just tying my shoes."

"Gonna be like that, huh? Fine! Let's go!" Haruki grabbed the rope and started pulling with all her considerable strength. Tokaku followed suit.

A few minutes later, the older girl was sweating badly. She'd already been dragged at least a foot forward. "I... I can't believe this! How are you so strong?"

"You're not the only one with something to protect!" yelled Tokaku, though it really had much more to do with the knives she'd shoved through her socks and shoes into the platform below.

"I guess... there's no... choice!" Haruki suddenly ran forward, made an amazing leap off the end of her platform, and smacked chest-first into the guillotine suspended in the middle, where she held on with all her might.

Tokaku blinked. "What are you --"

"We're both goin' down!" She whipped out a length of razor wire from somewhere and started sawing away at the guillotine's supports. "They told me my family will get the reward even if I die!"

"Uh... wouldn't that only be if you won?"

Haruki's eyes went wide.

"You should probably have saved this idea for the last game. Or one with the target in it."

"...Yeah. I, uh... yeah." She had stopped sawing, but it was too late. The guillotine was about one more loud crack away from dropping. "Well hey, at least I'm taking you with me!"

"I doubt it. That thing cut the rope when you landed on it."

Haruki's face fell. Then she did.

As Tokaku made her way to the elevator, she could hear the guards swearing. Apparently they didn't have a backup for this guillotine rig. By the time she'd reached the bottom, they were rounding everyone up to take them back to the warehouse.

Haru hugged Tokaku, of course. "I knew you'd win!"

"Does that even count? She definitely lost, but..."

Haru shook her head. "You won! We'll keep winning! We'll be together forever and ever!"

They were not going to be together forever and ever.

There was no way for them both to survive this fourth game. It was mathematically impossible. They each had ten marbles, and you needed twenty to win.

Tokaku's mind was racing. She might have been able to think of a solution... but not in this short time, and not with these new emotions overwhelming her. She didn't have to understand her feelings for Haru to be torn apart by them. How could it all end like this?

Haru seemed to be taking it a little better. Maybe she was still in denial. She was wandering around a bit, and apparently she'd noticed something interesting; she gestured to Tokaku to come over.

The two of them peered around a corner to see Suzu and Banba, whose game had apparently just come to an end. Banba (that'd be Mahiru, Tokaku thought, if the last few nights are anything to go by) was in tears, but must have won, because Suzu was handing her the last couple of marbles. "I'll keep these forever," she sobbed. "They'll be a precious relic."

A guard was approaching, but Suzu just reached out to dry her opponent's tears. "Don't feel bad, dear. I gave it my best shot, but one of us had to lose."

"How... how can you be so calm when you're about to die?"

Suzu looked up at the guard's raised gun and said with a little smile, "Let's just say I'll believe it when I see it."

Tokaku covered Haru's eyes so she wouldn't see what followed. But there was nothing to be done about the sound, and as they walked away, Haru was clearly shaken. "Suzu was so smart. If even she couldn't think of a way out..."

A cry of despair from another part of the arena drew both girls' attention. They ran to see what was happening. Tokaku, who was no closer to an answer, was grateful for the distraction. Let's see... this can't be the two we just saw, and Nio was the odd one out, so that leaves...

"I won't let you do it! You can't sacrifice yourself!"

"It's my decision!"

"Not if I die for you first!"

Right, thought Tokaku with an eyeroll. The Takarazuka Revue.

Again she and Haru peeked around the corner, but they could have been in plain sight for all Chitaru and Hitsugi would have noticed. The two were shouting agonized romantic lines back and forth while holding hands so tightly Tokaku felt like she should cover Haru's eyes again.

"I won't let you die!" cried Chitaru. "Play something with me, quickly! Let me let you win!"

"It's too late," Hitsugi replied. "I... I've already..."

She dropped to the floor, and as her teddy bear fell from her hand, Chitaru saw a dart in her leg. "No! What have you done?"

"I don't... deserve your sacrifice. This... this poison was... the only way."

"No! I can't live without you!" Chitaru yanked the dart out of Hitsugi and, with a desperate scream, stabbed it into her own neck.

The smaller girl, already fading, wept at the sight. "No..."

Chitaru fell across Hitsugi, and they lay together as their consciousness ebbed. Near the end, Chitaru asked, "Why... did you... have poison?"

"Oh, I'm Angel Trumpet."

Chitaru's eyes went wide. "You're WHAT?!"

That was the last of both girls' strength. Tokaku and Haru walked over to pay their respects. "That was so sad..." said Haru.

Tokaku nodded somberly, feeling more doomed now than ever. She and Haru would be going through this themselves in mere minutes, though hopefully with a bit less melodrama. There was just no way for them both to get twenty mar--

Wait. She looked at Haru. Haru looked at her.

"You think...?" asked Haru.

"They're not using them, right?" Tokaku replied.

Each of them grabbed one of the marble bags that Chitaru and Hitsugi had left behind and dumped it into their own. "Hey guards!" Tokaku shouted. "We beat these two! Let us out!"

Evidently the people in charge were tired of letting players survive. After two games that were each designed to cut the class in half, this latest one was clearly meant to just kill them all. Stretched out in front of them, across a deadly drop, were two long rows of glass panels, spread out just far enough to force the players to guess which ones would take their weight. Their survival now came down to winning 18 coin flips in a row.

So Tokaku understood why Banba, who was timid to begin with, would now be frozen in terror. It was just kind of a nuisance.

"C'mooon! We're all waitin' for you!" said Nio, poking Banba in the side. She was right. The four players had previously chosen the order in which they would play, first-come-first-serve. Tokaku had immediately snatched the safe middle numbers 2 and 3 for herself and Haru respectively, Nio had insisted that 4 was her favourite number, and so Banba had been stuck going first.

She crawled up to the edge again, but then crawled right back. "So... scary..."

"It ain't gettin' any less scary the more you stall!"

Tokaku yanked Nio back by her collar. "Stop pressuring her."

"Someone's gotta! We don't have forever to do this, y'know!"

"It'll be okay. Should happen any second now."

"What shou--"

Banba suddenly broke out into mad laughter, cutting Nio off. "HA HA HA HA HA! LET'S GO, BABY! MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!"

She leapt onto both of the first two glass panels, one foot on each. For a single eternal moment, she seemed fine... and then the right panel shattered. Banba fell, right side first, briefly taking on what looked like the most painful "splits" pose in human history before dropping out of sight.

"Nuts," said Nio. "I thought she might be onto somethin' there."

Haru stared blankly at her shoes. "What do we do, Tokaku? We've come so far, but this one is just impossible!"

Instead of an answer, Haru heard a ripping noise. She looked up to see something totally unexpected: Tokaku had taken her shirt off and was tearing it into strips. Even under the circumstances, Haru blushed furiously at the sight. (Nio just rolled her eyes and muttered, "Basic sports bra. Boooring.")

"T-T-Tokaku! What are you doing?"

Tokaku started wrapping the cloth strips around her hands. "Don't worry, Haru. They made a big mistake this time. Everything is going to be fine."

Her friend blinked. There had been absolutely no doubt in that voice. Just the opposite -- Tokaku sounded like she'd been waiting for this moment her whole life. Hesitantly, Haru asked, "What mistake did they make?"

Tokaku pulled the last cloth tight. "They made this game for normal people."

She leapt onto the first tile, then right onto the one in front of it, not pausing for even an instant. The glass immediately shattered. Time slowed down as Haru watched Tokaku fall -- and then shoot her hands out and grab the rails that had been holding up that panel.

"Ha! This girl's hardcore!" said Nio.

Tokaku winced; the cloth wrappings were good protection from leftover broken glass, but they weren't perfect. She'd have to do this quickly. She flipped herself up into the air and landed squarely on the next panel... which also broke, forcing her to repeat the whole stunt. So did the next two. But the one after that finally held her weight and gave her a chance to rest.

Haru was speechless with amazement. Nio was still laughing. "That Azuma family is nuts! They trained her into freakin' Spider-Man!"

"Come on!" Tokaku shouted to Haru. "We don't have time to wait. Catch up to here while I work on the next few."

"But how? I can't -- oh." Haru got the point as soon as she looked at the tiles. Wherever both were intact, the left one had been strong enough to hold Tokaku; wherever the left one was gone, the right had to be strong by elimination.

Tokaku resumed her acrobatics, and Haru carefully followed, with Nio close behind. Every time a glass panel broke, Haru's heart skipped a beat, but Tokaku was always fine. By the time they finally reached the other side, seven more panels had shattered under Tokaku. She was sweating and her cloth wrappings were soaked with blood, but she looked more alive than Haru had ever seen her.

"This?" she said, panting. "This is what I thought I signed up for."

The guards had brought the three surviving players fancy clothes to wear for supper. Tokaku insisted on going around the corner from Haru to dress. I just like a little privacy, she told herself. I'm not overly conscious of her or something. There's no special reason.

"There's a special reason, y'know," said Nio.

Tokaku shot her a glare, annoyed but not surprised to find the short girl intruding. "For what?"

"You know for what. You an' that pipsqueak, sittin' in a tree. Some cold assassin you are, huh?"

"I don't have to be cold. I just have to do my job."

"An' at what point did you forget your job was to kill her?"

Tokaku blinked. She genuinely hadn't even thought about that in days. She remembered the decision to protect Haru feeling strange at the time, but since then...

Nio grinned. "This is the Black Class, remember? We're all here to kill the target. At this point I'm pretty sure the long and gross list of stuff you wanna do with her doesn't have 'kill' anywhere on it."

"S-so you do it," said Tokaku, falling back to a theme she understood. "If you're here to kill her, then try. See how that goes for you."

"Don't pretend you don't care. Maybe you didn't notice till now, but I'm right. You're not actin' like yourself." She leaned in closer. "And I... know... why."

Before Tokaku could answer, Haru, now fully cocktail-dressed, rounded the corner. "You get away from her, Nio! I know what you're doing! You want to turn us against each other before the last game!"

"Come see me later," Nio whispered, then darted off to another part of the room.

"That girl," Haru muttered to Tokaku. "Did you know she's been trying to trip me this whole time? She just randomly sticks her leg out in front of me whenever she gets the chance."

"Yeah, she does that to me too," Tokaku admitted.

"I don't know what her problem is. Why can't we just be friends?"

"Probably because she's an assassin who's here to murder you."

"Didn't stop you," said Haru with a smile that made Tokaku feel like the actual sun was inside her chest, and the whole conversation with Nio melted out of her mind.

Late that night, though, it returned. Tokaku looked down at Haru's bunk; she was sleeping soundly, as she always seemed to do. The sleep of the just, Tokaku had always thought. But now...

Oh, what the hell. It couldn't hurt to hear Nio out. She slipped out of bed and crept across the room to their classmate's bunk.

"So here's the thing," said Nio, munching on a melon bread she'd somehow obtained. "There are a couple of major families in the underworld biz. Like your Azumas, and this other bunch I've heard of called Kuzunoha who are probably way better. But Haru's part of the big one."

"Oh?" said Tokaku skeptically.

"They're the real deal. The conspiracy that runs everything. Yer Freemasons, yer Illuminati. An' they can do it because of a little somethin' called a primer."

Tokaku blinked. "A textbook?"

"No no, the chemical kind. Pheromones. Haru put a whammy on you."

"...No."

"Yes! I'm tellin' ya right now, she's not even as cute in real life as she looks to you. She made you her white knight. Prob'ly would've preferred some big macho dude, but life finds a way, y'know?"

"You're lying!"

"Nuh-uh. I just did my research. Unlike some people, apparently." Nio reached for another melon bread. "Oops, this is the last one. Mind grabbin' me a few more from the top bunk?"

Tokaku stared. "You have food up there?"

"It was a consolation prize for not havin' a bunkmate. C'mon, hurry and I'll tell you more."

Reluctantly, Tokaku climbed the ladder. To her amazement, the bunk above Nio was indeed filled with food. To be exact, it was all melon bread -- hundreds of buns, individually wrapped, all in a giant pile. Tokaku had to pause just to take in the ridiculous sight. No other food, no drinks even. Nothing but melon bread as far as the eye could --

"GAK!"

Tokaku leapt back down the ladder, but she was already too late. Nio had choked, and not just on that last melon bread (though it did seem crammed into her mouth at an awkward angle). Blood was gushing out of her neck from a vicious stab wound.

And Haru was there.

"I didn't do it!" she cried. "I came over to see what was going on and found her like this!"

Tokaku looked down at the bloody knife in Haru's hand.

"Honest," Haru said.

The sixth game was apparently going to be some Korean schoolyard thing. Tokaku had never heard of it, but the guards had explained the rules before escorting them to the arena. Tokaku had won the toss and had chosen to be the attacker; she was now waiting outside the lines for the signal to get started.

Haru, standing in the middle of the square, looked at Tokaku with the most pitiable puppy-dog eyes she had ever seen.

Yeah, thought Tokaku. Today is the day a bitch dies.

She was finally wise to Haru's manipulation. Now that she knew, she couldn't believe she'd ever been fooled. Nothing she'd done or said or even thought for the last few days had been anything like herself. She had to roll her eyes at her own sheer stupidity. If Kaiba ever found out about this, he would laugh her out of the assassination business.

A squirrel. She'd compared Haru to a cute little squirrel. Tokaku hated squirrels!

The starting whistle blew, and Haru, tensing up to dodge, said "Please listen. I think I know what Nio told you --"

"Of course you do," said Tokaku. "That's why you killed her."

"I keep telling you, I didn't! She stabbed herself! I had the knife because I pulled it out!"

"Why would she kill herself?"

"To make THIS happen!" Haru waved both arms around. "She knew she couldn't beat you, so she turned you against me instead!"

Tokaku stalked around the outside of the square, letting Haru get good and scared before she made her move. "I don't believe a word out of your mouth. You used me. You messed with my head!"

"No! I would never --"

"Is the primer real, Haru? Look me in the eye!"

She did. And then she flinched. "It exists. I don't know if I have it. That's why they keep doing this to me -- to find out."

"Well, they have their answer. I don't even know who I've been since I met you. And if you say that's --"

"That's love," Haru said, tearing up.

Tokaku screamed, leapt into the square, and slammed Haru to the ground with a two-handed punch.

"Was... that... presumptuous?"

"Little bit!"

Haru struggled to her feet. "Sorry. It's the first time for me too."

Did that mean -- "No, shut up. You're just lying again."

"I mean it, Tokaku."

"Shut up."

"I love you."

"SHUT UP!"

Tokaku's rage finally boiled over. She hit Haru full force. Again. Three times. Four. She didn't stop until lack of breath forced her to.

Haru wasn't getting up this time. Tokaku couldn't even tell if she was conscious. It was over.

Panting, Tokaku got to her feet and slowly walked toward the goal point. This hellish period of her life was finally about to end. She was no longer a slave. She could go back to being herself.

And the moment she had that thought, Tokaku stopped walking, because she suddenly felt like she was about to step into a vast, endless nothingness.

Herself. Her old self. Had that been anyone?

She had just fought Haru for her freedom, but what had she ever cared for freedom before? How long had it been since she'd actually wanted anything? She'd been dead inside and never really noticed. Dead, or at least... asleep.

Haru had woken her up. Tokaku could never forgive the method, never accept it. But it was too late to go back to sleep. And now that she was awake, she couldn't take the chance that Haru might, just might, not have realized what she was doing.

Her mind raced. There was still the option to end the game by vote, but Haru was out cold. She turned to the nearest guard. "My reward! I want to choose my reward!"

He must have known what she was thinking, because he said "Not until you win"... and leveled his gun at Haru.

Think. Think! "You can't kill her till then either. And there's no rule against this!"

Tokaku walked back and picked Haru up. Slowly, trying not to hurt her any more, she carried her almost to the goal point and laid her down again.

The guard had followed them and was still holding his gun on Haru. There would be no second chances. She had to get this right.

Tokaku stepped backwards onto the goal and then instantly dove forward to land on top of Haru. "I choose --"

The gun fired. A bullet tore through Tokaku's hip and into whatever was below it.

Tokaku was pretty sure it was over. Haru's head must have been in about that spot. But she still had to try. Through the burning pain, she screamed, "Haru! Spare Haru's life! That's the reward I choose!"

Her senses were nearly gone, but Tokaku could just barely hear what sounded like the guard conferring with his superiors on the radio. Then he slammed the butt of his gun into her bullet wound, and she passed out.

Tokaku woke up on a hospital bed feeling like she'd been unconscious for an eternity. All the strength in her muscles was gone. Her midsection was heavily bandaged; one arm had an IV drip in it. She couldn't even guess how much time must have passed.

"Congratulations."

Tokaku jerked; she was so weak right now that she hadn't even realized she wasn't alone. There was a woman in a business suit sitting in a chair beside her.

"Surprised to see me?" she asked.

"I've never... met you," said Tokaku.

"No, I suppose not," she said with a laugh. Then she paused. "But what a trick that would have been! I could have disguised myself as a student and guided the game in person! I'll have to try that next time."

This woman was clearly in her thirties at least, but Tokaku decided not to take the bait. "I guess you're the one behind all this?"

"Chairwoman Yuri Meichi at your service. The Black Classes are my project."

"So you're from Haru's fami--" Tokaku's eyes flew wide open. "Haru! What happened to her? Did she make it?"

"Of course."

Tokaku sighed with relief. "I did it. I saved her."

"You mean with that little dive? Please. I train my men. That bullet was never going anywhere but Haru's head. You just added yourself to its travel plan."

"But then --"

"Haru's head happens to contain several metal plates. With all she's been through over the years, her internals have become quite well protected. You bruised your hands pretty badly when you beat her up."

"Ah."

"You did save her, though. We would have finished her off afterwards had you not chosen that particular reward."

Tokaku was awake enough now to feel the appropriate rage at this person. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?! You've killed eleven people that I know of!"

The chairwoman laughed again. "You mean your classmates? They're all fine."

Tokaku blinked. "But..."

"We have the very best in medical care."

"I saw heads explode."

"The very best."

This was either a joke or a ridiculous cop-out, and either way, Tokaku decided again not to take the bait. "And what about Haru? You've tortured her for her whole life!"

"Yes. I have, and others have. The same was done to us in our turn. Have you ever heard the saying that all happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy differently?"

"Not this differently!"

The chairwoman laughed again (did she have to keep doing that?). "Quite right. But not every family possesses what we possess."

Tokaku's face darkened. "The primer."

"She has it, you know. We weren't certain until this final test, but she has great potential."

"Bullshit. I bet the stupid thing doesn't even exist."

The chairwoman was still smiling, but her eyes were ice cold. "Oh, it exists. Hand me your left eyeball." She waited one second. "Never mind. See?"

Tokaku looked down in horror. Her hands were halfway to her face.

"Haru will be able to do that someday. Perhaps even more. As I said, she has great potential... and thanks to you, we will invest the resources to bring it out."

"Thanks to me?"

"We were ready to cut our losses. Her failure to win this game was the last straw. But..." She shrugged. "Killing her is no longer an option."

Tokaku sighed again. It had worked. Against all the odds, she and Haru had both come out of the Black Class alive. But then the rest of the chairwoman's words sank in. "What's going to happen to her now?"

The chairwoman smiled a wouldn't-you-like-to-know smile. "You won her life. You never specified what kind of life it would be... or whether you would be part of it."

Tokaku was silent for a long moment. She knew she should think carefully about her next choice. But it really felt like no choice at all... and this time Haru wasn't here to blame for that.

"I'll find her," she told the chairwoman.

She smiled. "Oh? I hope you're ready, little Azuma. This will be a very difficult game. You can't cheat at this one like you did at all the others."

Tokaku just nodded. She didn't know if she was ready, but it didn't matter.

"Then let the next round begin." The chairwoman got up to leave. "And again, congratulations. You were fine entertainment. Let's see if you continue to be."

Truly alone now for the first time since the Black Class started, Tokaku settled in for a long think. She knew what she had to do, but she still had to sort out why. And how. And what she really thought about --

Wait. Her phone, taken from her a week ago, was on the side table. And the message light was blinking. Could it be?

Tokaku picked up the phone and saw about twelve unread messages... all of which were riddles.

She chucked it across the room. "Dammit, Kaiba."