My heart sank as I heard my name being announced. I had expected it to happen sooner or ter given the circumstances but I did not think it would be so soon. From the list of names that were mentioned, at least Kanade was with me.

  However, the most unsettling thing was the name Tachibana. Kanade did not wish to be known by that name as she had a strained retionship with her parents for unknown reasons. I felt like the name Tachibana sounded familiar and my curiosity was somewhat annoying me but probing into such a weird girl like Kanade was probably not the best choice for now.

  Thinking about it, it might be in my favor to talk to and befriend the other girls who were also selected for the game tomorrow. I approached Kanade first since I already knew who she was to ask her for her opinion on forming an alliance.

  As I walked towards her, I could see that she was rummaging and also destroying her bag for some reason.

  “Kanade, what are you doing? Isn’t that your bag? Why are you ripping it to shreds?” I asked the cool bck haired girl.

  “It is useless to me as of now hence I am repurposing it for something more fitting for our current circumstances.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Think about it Yuzu, these weirdos took away our phones and other electronic devices that could have been used for communication but left us with all of our other belongings. Don’t you find that weird?”

  The realization hit me and I understood what Kanade was trying to say immediately.

  “You mean that they left us the rest of our belongings on purpose so that we could use any items we have in the game? It does make sense given that the guards did not check the pockets of those 5 girls who participated in the first game for any items. The question is why?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, the people in charge of this sick game simply do not care what happens to those prisoners. Which means that they expect us to use whatever items we have at our disposal to subdue them.”

  “You mean like to intentionally cause hurt to them? There is no way I can do that.”

  “I mean to kill them. You saw what happened to those girls, if you are soft-hearted for even a second, you’re their py toy. Those sickos are perverts to the core, they don’t deserve a chance to live. Besides, you saw one prisoner being beaten up by another and the guards just watched without intervening.”

  Thinking about what Kanade said, it made sense but still. The fact that she can speak about killing someone so lightly really makes me fear her. Nonetheless, I decide to heed her advice and start rummaging through my own bag as well to see what items I can use.

  After emptying out my bag, the only things I had that were small enough to fit inside the pocket of my dress and still be lethal enough to be a deterrent if the need arises was a pair of wired earpieces. It wasn’t much but I’m sure it would come in useful one way or the other so I pced it into my pocket.

  Meanwhile, I looked over and saw Kanade using her keys to cut up the fabric in her bag and take out a metallic strip. Being curious, I went to ask her what she was doing.

  “Hey Kanade, what are you going to use that metal strip for?”

  “Doesn’t matter. It will definitely come in useful one way or another. I can even shape it into some sort of sharp tool that can even pierce through skin.” Kanade replied nonchantly as she started to experiment with the metallic strip.

  It still shocks me that she can talk about performing such acts so loosely while being unfazed.

  “Anyways, I was pnning to ask you to team up with me for tomorrow. It will definitely be mutually beneficial to both of us as compared to if we were running from the prisoners on our own.”

  I offered to Kanade but her reply was not what I was expecting.

  “Not interested. While being in a 2 on 1 situation might sound advantageous for us, but whose to say that I can trust you. We don’t even know each other so there is no way you can expect me to just blindly trust in you. Furthermore, I can tell from that look in your eyes that you were pnning on asking the other participants as well. If I can barely trust you, what makes you think I will even have a shred of trust in them. You can go ahead and ask them to team up or whatever but I am not interested one bit and I pn to survive and escape this fucked up pce alone.”

  Kanade’s answer caught me off guard given how she called the first group of participants earlier dumb for splitting up. However, what she said about trust made sense as well. While all of us in this room were pced here in the same time, we barely know each other so there would obviously be gaps in the trust between one and another.

  Nevertheless, it wouldn’t hurt to converse with the other participants to find out more information about them and potentially any other information I might have missed. I did not know the other girls who were chosen except for Aya who was that fiery redhead from earlier so I approached her first. In the sea of girls, her bright red hair stood out like some sort of beacon which made her easy to locate.

  When I walked over to her, I noticed that she was cd in a tight athletic top with bck shorts over a pair of bck tight which meant that she was probably in some sort of sports or fitness club. Her physique would be an asset in the game for sure. She looked to be a little older than me so she was probably 19 to 20 years old.

  Next to her were 2 girls who looked my age. Both of them had glistening white hair and looked exactly like each other. The difference was that one of them had their hair in 2 braids while the other had her hair tied in 2 ponytails. As I was analyzing the girls, Aya approached me and bowed 45 degrees in front of me before offering her hand.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you. You must be a participant in tomorrow’s game. I am Fumizuki Aya, 20 years of age. I hope we can get along.”

  Stunned by her sudden fmboyant self-introduction, I gged for a second before reaching out my hand as well to return her handshake. I then took the opportunity to introduce myself as well.

  “It is a pleasure for me too Aya-san. My name is Hiragi Yuzu and I am 18 years old. How did you know that I am a participant?”

  “I simply guessed from your body posture and the fact that you were looking at the faces of each girl in the room while the others were either losing their cools or thanking their gods that they weren’t chosen.”

  I was honestly shocked that she was able to obtain all that information simply by observing my body nguage, she must be quite intuitive.

  “Anyways, I was hoping to ask for your cooperation for the game tomorrow. Learning from the earlier group where they split off and got caught one by one, I am hoping that sticking together would prove more useful in escaping their clutches. I’m sure you saw what happened to those poor girls earlier. I simply do not wish for any of those sick acts to happen to anymore of us.”

  I expined matter-of-factly and Aya nodded while fshing a smile at me.

  “All right then, it is settled. Back in athletics my coach always told me that more heads were better than one so I would be more than happy to be a group with you. Besides, I am not going to forgive these sick fucks in charge of this weird pce. Hence I am going to win the game and escape and call the cops on them. Anyways, these 2 twins here are Tsukishima Yuka and Tsukishima Ruka.”

  Aya said as she gestured towards the 2 younger girls who looked like they were too afraid to even speak. But from what I remembered, one of them was chosen to participate in the game as well so it might be a good idea to converse with them before tomorrow.

  I extended my arm towards both of them and they both slowly extended their arms to meet mine. They were both cd in matching white blouses with white knee-length skirts. The twin with braids spoke first.

  “Nice to meet you.., I am Tsukishima Ruka the older twin. Would it be alright if my sister joined your group as well. The both of us are not the most athletic so I hope she won’t be a burden to you girls.”

  As she said that, the other white haired girl hid behind her twin sister and offered a hand to me without saying anything.

  “Of course you can join us, the more the merrier right. And I guess it wouldn’t be right to leave a fellow girl to fend for herself against those perverts.”

  I welcomed Yuka and shook her hand as well. Meanwhile, another girl approached the 4 of us. Her hair was a bright yellowish hue and she was wearing a loose t-shirt with a pair of hot pants.

  “Hey girls, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation about the game for tomorrow and I am hoping that I could join in as well. Name’s Ichigo and I am 18 years old this year.”

  She was petite to the extent that I would have mistaken her for an elementary schooler if I saw her on the streets. Nonetheless, more people uniting against the prisoners was going to be a boon rather than a bane so I welcomed her as well.

  “Most certainly Ichigo, not gonna lie I thought you were a grade schooler at first due to your size.”

  “Yea I get that a lot. I have been drinking milk for years now but I haven’t grown a centimeter since I was 13. Well whatever, my mom always told me that my size would bring about its own form of benefits one way or the other so I’m not too worried about it.”

  She replied joyfully which hinted at her carefree nature which honestly suited her petite physical appearance.

  “All right girls, now that we are a group I think we should exchange information to see what we know about the game and maybe we can formute a strategy.”

  I suggested to which all the girls nodded. I proceeded to share with them about what I noticed about the games and the other girls shared simir details. We all agreed that the prisoners and the people who made this game in the first pce are sick and that we will report them to the authorities once we escape.

  I also brought up Kanade and how she said we should search our belongings to see what items we could use as self-defense if the need arises.

  “No way, I know that they are creeps but I don’t want to hurt other people. My mother always told me that inflicting harm on others is bad.” Ichigo said.

  “Yes I agree, I believe that they are still people at the end of the day so I suggest we only use the items we can find as a st resort and solely focus on hiding or outrunning the prisoners in order to expend the time.”

  “While I wish to personally get revenge on them for what they did to those 5 poor girls earlier, I think your idea is more feasible given that there is that 057 guy who was gigantic and probably way stronger than us combined so a physical battle may not be the best option.”

  Yuka and Ruka nodded as well and I instinctively turned over to the corner where Kanade was to see what she was up to and she was still ripping up her bag to extract whatever she could. I had wanted to ask her once again to join but decided against it as

  Then I remembered that there was one more participant.

  “What about Okura Natsume, her name was called as well but I have no idea what she looks like. I would like to ask her to join our group as well if possible.”

  Aya then pointed at a girl who was sitting by herself in the corner of our locked room. She had long light blue hair and was cd in a bck one piece dress. While I could not see what she was doing specifically, I could see that she was staring literally into bnk space and zoning out. It was quite a weird site as you wouldn’t normally see girls our age being alone and keeping to herself especially in such an unfamiliar environment. She basically looks estranged from reality and living in her own world.

  “That’s her. I wanted to speak with her as well but she kinda gives me the creeps. I have been observing her and she has just been staring into space the whole time. I heard one of the other girls saying that she sees things and has weird thoughts.”

  Aya expined.

  “Yea, she is the splitting image of what a crazy person would look like according to my mom.” Ichigo added.

  I did feel that air around her just by looking at her from a distance but ultimately she was a girl in the same situation as us so I decided to approach her anyways. As I stood up, a rge creak resonated in the room and the rge metal gate that was keeping us in this dreaded room opened.

  “That’s strange, there’s no way its time for us to enter the game already right?” Aya questioned.

  “Yes, there may be no clock or windows her but roughly only an hour has passed since the first game of tag was pyed.”

  The same armed guards that appeared earlier flooded the room and brought in what appeared to be trays of food. The same guard leader earlier spoke.

  “This is the only meal you are going to get for the day girls so y’all better eat up as it may be your st for some of you HAHAHAHHH!!”

  Before any of us could react to the guards, the announcer’s voice called out again in his usual joyous tone.

  “Well my dear girls, please eat up. I congratute those of you who survived the first day. I would recommend you have a good sleep after your meal. You are going to need the energy if you are going to py with our guests tomorrow.”

  After making his announcement, the speaker that broadcasted his voice retracted back into the wall. The guards then left the trays of food in the room and quickly left as well locking the metal gate.

  The room was dead silent. No one even stood up to take the food that was on the trays and I didn’t bme them. The whole thing was sketchy, who knows what they could have put in the food. Shockingly, one girl stood up first and headed for the trays of food and took a portion. That girl was Kanade.

  I wanted to approach her and question her but I decided against it as I wanted to stay with the girls I had just formed a group with.

  “By the way, when they said sleep where are they referring to” There is quite literally no furniture in this room.” Ichigo asked.

  “I’m assuming the floor. With how they are treating us like some sort of pawns in their sick game I am honestly not surprised.” Aya replied.

  “Yes.., I think we should all go and rest up before tomorrow. Who knows what will happen so we should all rest in order to have a clear mind.” Ruka suggested.

  “Good point, sweet dreams everyone.”

  I told them as I id on the cold hard floor. Eventually, not another serving of food was taken that night as all of us tried to somehow fall asleep knowing that we were in some godforsaken pce full of creeps with more questions than answers.

  After tossing for an unspecified amount of time since I had no way to tell the current time, I eventually drifted off into sleep and prayed for the best for tomorrow.