Chapter 2 - The First Day
Day 1 - 600 students remaining.
As the morning came, Shuji woke up from his uncomfortable sleeping position and decided to head outside. The streets have been made into a mess but it does not seem as bad as Shuji had expected.
“Awake at last. You missed all the action.”
Shuji turns to the figure that has just spoken to him.
“My name is Tamotsu Tano. What’s yours?”
Shuji looks at the mysterious figure.
“My name’s Shuji.”
Tamotsu smiles.
“Were you curious about the mystery behind the numbers too?”
Shuji is confused as to what Tamotsu is talking about and stares at him with a perplexed expression.
“Haven’t you noticed it yet, Shuji. Look at the screens.”
Shuji looks and notices that all of the screens are on and displaying a countdown with only two minutes left. People are noticing and standing by, wondering what will happen.
As more and more people gather around the screens, it gets closer to zero.
3…..2….1…..
The voice from last night is heard through the screens.
“The time is 7am. I hope that you are all ready to begin day 1. The system has decided that Aoi Suzuki is the saddest person in the city. The execution will begin shortly.”
The girl happens to be standing near Shuji and Tamotsu. She is shaking with fear. Tamotsu and Shuji notice this and look towards her. Other bystanders soon notice and begin looking at Aoi.
“W…what? No. I’m happy. Look! I’m happy!”
The girl tries desperately to hold a fake smile as she holds back the tears. Everybody begins to move away from her, worried that they may get caught in the crossfire.
“I promise! I’m happy!”
One of the guns lock onto Aoi. It was all over in a second.
Bang…
Aoi’s lifeless corpse falls to the floor as the surrounding people watch on in fear.
“Nooooo!”
Somebody runs over in tears and holds Aoi’s corpse.
“She was my girlfriend. We were supposed to be together forever.”
The man tries to stop himself from crying but is unable to. As this happens, people around them start to get into a panic.
“We gotta get out of here!”
Shuji decides to intervene.
“Everybody, calm down. If we panic like this, we’ll never find a way out of here.”
Everyone is briefly put at ease for a moment. Another figure stands on some boxes to position himself higher than everybody else.
“He’s right. I promise we’ll all get out of this alive.”
Everyone begins to look at man who is standing on the boxes.
“Who are you?”
The man pauses for a moment and begins to address the crowd.
“My name is Mikuni. If we’re going to all get out of this alive, my lead has to be followed. I won’t let a single one of my followers die and that’s a promise. Anarchy will just kill us all. If you come with me, I promise you’ll live.”
Mikuni gets down from the boxes as a few students’ head towards him.
“What’s the plan?”
Shuji notices that Tamotsu has left the scene. Shuji then decides to head over to Mikuni and intervene in the conversation.
“Restore order.”
Mikuni looks towards Shuji and smirks.
“Bingo. Will you be joining our crew?”
Shuji has no interest in becoming somebody’s underling but understands that this wildly charismatic man could be hope to unite everyone here.
“No. But I will help you keep the peace.”
Mikuni looks at Shuji.
“Very well. Then the first step would be to…”
Before Mikuni could finish his sentence, a giant parachuting parcel drops from the centre on the dome.
Shuji points towards the parcel and Mikuni turns around and notices it.
“What on earth?”
Mikuni gets into action.
“Very well. Our first plan of action is to investigate whatever that is.”
Mikuni and his crew head with Shuji towards the location where the giant parcel will fall. Shuji converses with Mikuni.
“What do you think it could be? Are you thinking the same thing I am?”
Mikuni thinks for a moment.
“Intentional killing is forbidden so it can’t be weapons. Wait, is it…?”
Mikuni stops himself from finishing his sentence and issues an order to his crew.
“Double time. It’s absolutely imperative that we are the first people to get to that parcel.”
As Shuji and the others approach the location where the parcel dropped, they notice that hundreds of students are around the area and fighting over the contents of the parcel. Mikuni steps on something and looks downwards. He realises he has stepped on a candy bar wrapper.
“It’s as we suspected.”
Mikuni again turns to his crew.
“Calm the situation and secure the food parcel. Let’s go!”
The situation begins to calm down as Mikuni and his crew attempt to break down fights and ensure even distribution of food. Whilst doing this, it is clear that Mikuni is gaining more loyal followers. After the food parcel is secured, Mikuni notices that the vast majority of it is gone and that not much remains. Mikuni looks to one of his crew for an explanation.
“What happened?”
The crew member begins to report to Mikuni.
“Apparently, someone named Kenro came with a bunch of bullies and took most of the supplies and the rest were quickly fought over.”
Mikuni looks disgruntled about this. He turns to Shuji.
“Don’t worry, we will restore order in this place.”
Shuji does not have a home in the city to call his own yet so he decides to stay with Mikuni and his crew for the night.
