The days of tense searching had worn Rainne down like the relentless waves eroding the shore. Every step forward, every cautious glance at the jungle around them, only reminded her of the stakes that hung over them all like a shadow. In the beginning, she had kept hope, believing they could find a way out without having to harm anyone. But as the days passed, with only three days remaining before the poison in their bracelets would be activated, hope began to feel like a cruel illusion.
The guilt weighed on her, a constant ache that grew heavier with each sleepless night. Rainne had always thought of herself as strong. She wasn't naïve; she knew the world wasn't perfect, but this game had twisted her beliefs into a distorted, brutal reality. Every time they stumbled upon the aftermath of another struggle, a bracelet lying discarded, a grim reminder of someone who hadn't survived. She felt her resolve weaken.
As the trio settled into their makeshift shelter one evening, Rainne was quieter than usual. Yuki and Asahi glanced at her, sensing something was off, but neither pressed her. She could see the worry in their eyes, feel their silent support, yet even that kindness felt like an unbearable weight. She knew that they, too, struggled with the choice. And while Yuki was stronger, capable of keeping his calm, and Asahi was resilient in his optimism, Rainne could feel herself breaking. She wasn't built for this....this game, this cruelty, this endless survival at the cost of others.
Later, while the others rested, Rainne sat alone, looking down at her bracelet, its dull glow reflecting in her eyes. The number on the screen felt like a countdown to her own soul's death. She knew the rules; she knew that without the gems, they wouldn't make it. The harsh truth of it settled over her, wrapping around her heart like iron bands.
She couldn't do it. She couldn't bring herself to hunt down others, to take a life to save her own. Every time she tried to imagine it, to picture herself cornering another student and fighting for a gem, her stomach churned, and her vision blurred. This was all a twisted game, she realized her life, her friends' lives, dangled on strings controlled by an unseen hand.
Silent tears traced lines down her cheeks as she realized the choice she had to make. She had no right to hold Yuki and Asahi back, to slow them down with her moral dilemmas, to watch them suffer as they struggled with her hesitations. If they had a chance to survive, she couldn't be the reason they lost it.
Rainne took one last deep breath, savoring the crisp night air. She closed her eyes, letting the memories of laughter, friendship, and simpler times pass through her mind like a gentle breeze. Without another word, she slid her finger under the bracelet's clasp, her heart calm yet heavy.
As the clasp released, the bracelet slipped from her wrist and hit the ground with a soft thud. The poison capsule inside activated immediately, seeping through the veins of her exposed skin, its effect swift and cold. She could feel it pulsing through her, a numbing sensation spreading from her wrist up her arm and into her chest. There was a certain relief, a strange, peaceful release, knowing that she wouldn't have to make those impossible choices anymore.
She sank to her knees, her hand brushing against the earth as the world around her blurred. Her vision dimmed, the stars above fading into a soft glow, a distant warmth. And as she drifted, her last thought was of her friends, a quiet, heartfelt hope that they would find a way out without having to lose themselves.
When Yuki and Asahi woke moments later, they found her there, the bracelet lying next to her still hand, her face serene in the pale light. The realization hit them like a blow, and they knelt by her side, grief and shock carving deep lines into their faces. The silence around them was absolute, a solemn witness to a sacrifice Rainne had made, not out of fear, but of love and an unwillingness to lose herself to the darkness that had claimed the island.
As Yuki stared down at Rainne's still form, a memory surfaced, vivid and painfully clear, pulling him back to a moment when the world felt different. When survival wasn't the only thing that mattered.
It had been early autumn, just weeks before they'd been pulled into this nightmare. Rainne had invited him to a small hill just beyond the edge of town, a place she said she'd loved since she was a child. The sun was dipping below the horizon, casting the landscape in a warm, amber glow, and the air was crisp, tinged with the earthy scent of fallen leaves.
They'd sat side by side in the grass, looking out over the town as it settled into evening. Rainne had been unusually quiet, her gaze distant as if her mind were a thousand miles away. Yuki noticed her silence and, in his usual calm way, didn't press her. But he had this habit of reading between her pauses, sensing when she wanted to say something but didn't know quite how to start.
"Do you ever wonder," she'd said finally, her voice soft, almost hesitant, "what it's all for? Why we go through everything - school, family, all these expectations - just to end up in… well, wherever we end up?"
Yuki had tilted his head, studying her. "Sometimes. But I guess I don't dwell on it much. I figure it's more important to just… be here, in the moment, and let everything else fall into place."
Rainne turned to look at him, her expression somewhere between admiration and disbelief. "That's such a Yuki thing to say," she'd teased, a faint smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
He chuckled. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing bad," she'd answered, leaning back on her elbows to look up at the sky, where the first stars were starting to appear. "I just wish I could be like that sometimes... just present, not always worrying about what comes next."
Yuki, sensing her rare vulnerability, had reached out, his hand brushing lightly against hers on the grass. He remembered how she'd looked at him then, her gaze flicking to their hands before meeting his eyes, a quiet question lingering in her expression.
In that moment, a gentle silence had stretched between them, the kind that doesn't need to be filled with words. Yuki had felt his pulse quicken, an awareness of her that went beyond friendship, something he'd always pushed to the back of his mind but couldn't ignore anymore.
But just as the moment seemed to be leading somewhere unspoken, Rainne had looked away, breaking the spell, her cheeks faintly flushed. She'd stood, brushing off her jeans, and Yuki had followed, unsure of what he'd seen in her eyes, a question, perhaps, or maybe a promise left unsaid.
"Come on," she'd said lightly, her voice back to its usual warmth, as though that fleeting tension between them had never happened. "We'll miss the best part of the sunset if we stay here."
They'd walked down the hill together, the sky deepening to twilight, but that almost-touch, that silent exchange, had lingered in Yuki's mind for days after. He'd never quite found the words to ask her what it meant, and somehow he'd always assumed they'd have more time.
Now, kneeling beside her in the darkness, Yuki felt the weight of those unspoken words press down on him. The ache of regret mingled with a bittersweet memory, and he realized how much she'd meant to him not just as a friend, but as someone who'd held a quiet, unacknowledged part of his heart.
As he closed his eyes, he felt the echo of that night, the warmth of her presence, and the quiet, undeniable bond that had been theirs. He hadn't told her then, hadn't realized how deep it went, and now it was too late. But somehow, in that moment, he hoped she had known.
Yuki stood in the dim glow of the jungle, a hollow emptiness echoing in his chest. Rainne's last words had been like shards of glass, embedding themselves in his mind, refracting his anger, his grief, into a clarity he'd never known before. Her face, pale and still beneath the starlit sky, lingered in his thoughts, her quiet strength now extinguished, her warmth lost forever.
He clenched his fists, feeling the latent power inside him pulse with a new intensity. That ability he'd been so cautious with, hesitant to unleash. It no longer felt like a mystery to control. It felt like a weapon. A weapon he needed.
Asahi, beside him, watched Yuki with a wary gaze. He'd seen the change in his friend, sensed it in Yuki's silence and the steel-hard set of his jaw. "Yuki…" he murmured, his tone cautious. "I know you're hurting, but this… this place, it's breaking all of us. Don't let it take the rest of you too."
But Yuki's gaze remained fixed, cold. He didn't need words; the rage simmered just beneath his calm exterior, twisting everything he felt about himself, about the others, about this twisted game. Rainne had died for nothing because of the game's sadistic design, because of the monstrous manipulation that forced them all into killers or victims. He was done with hesitation. Done with preserving humanity in a place that stripped it away piece by piece.
"They took her from us," Yuki said quietly, the words laced with a bitterness he could hardly recognize as his own. "And I'm done playing by their rules, Asahi."
Asahi gritted his teeth, struggling with the depth of Yuki's transformation. "But if we give in completely, we're no better than them. Don't you see? If we start treating everyone else as… as pawns to be sacrificed, then we're just feeding into the game's purpose."
Yuki met his gaze, something hard and unyielding in his expression. "Maybe that's exactly what I need to do, Asahi. Maybe that's the only way to end this."
Asahi fell silent, a conflict raging within him. He understood the pain, understood the anger driving Yuki now, but he couldn't shake the feeling that if they lost themselves to it, Rainne's sacrifice would be in vain.
But there was no stopping Yuki now. Every step forward felt inevitable, his path clear in a way it had never been. This wasn't about survival anymore. This was war.
With a last glance at Asahi, he turned and began to move, his strides long and purposeful, leading them into the heart of the island's darkness. Asahi hesitated, his own resolve torn, but he couldn't abandon his friend, not now, not after everything.
And so, together, they pushed forward, Yuki with a relentless, cold fury and Asahi with a lingering hope to salvage what remained of their humanity. But the game had changed for them now. They were no longer simply participants. They were the players rewriting its rules.
As they moved deeper into the night, an ominous shift seemed to echo through the jungle, as if even the island itself sensed the transformation in Yuki's heart. The air grew thick, the shadows deeper, and somewhere, the faint hum of unseen surveillance grew silent, as if in anticipation of what was to come.
-------
[Died - 23]
[Remaining Students -17]
Gem Collected Dashboard
Yuri - 6
Crystal - 4
Axel - 4
Nazuyami - 3
Takuto - 2
Unknown - 2
Ryu - 2
Yuki -1
No Gems
Asahi
Mikayla
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown