Sorry for the wait everyone. I know this is the worst excuse but I'm going to use it anyway: I was busy. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but I do have a life outside of fanfiction.

Also, the first scene, before she came in, I used the quotes from the manga, but the rest is mine. And I'm not sure what kind of people are going to read this so I * the swears just in case...

I do not own Battle Royale (no duh)

Italics= writing

'Italics'= thinking

"Italics"= talking

Chapter 4

I can't find it anywhere! I know where I left it. It's gone! read the note, Yutaka's hands shaking which made the scribbles on the paper even harder to read, especially in the dark.

"Now what?" Yutaka's voice quivered, tears flowing from his eyes like faucets. "Now what do we do without the pulley? It's lost!"

Shinji, eyes bugging out of their sockets and mouth gaping, could not believe what he had just read and heard.

"I'm sorry, Mim..." Yutaka apologized, his words small and muffled.

Sweating and grinding his teeth, Shinji's face turned a cherry red. 'Can't... find it? You can't find it? Son of a... Sniveling little incompetent! Watch the stuff... That's all I asked. Just watch the f*cking stuff! Who got the f*cking nap? Sh*t! I'm doing all the godd*mn grunt work! Avenge Fumiyo? You couldn't even wipe your own *ss without an instruction book! And even then you'd f*ck up!' Hands clenched in a fist, his knuckles white as snow, Shinji stomped towards Yutaka. His mouth contorted in frustration, Shinji thought, 'I'd be better off on my own!'

"M-Mim?" Yutaka squeaked, his bag and rope slipping off his shoulders and onto the concrete floor.

"Stay frosty, Shinji. Control. That's the key..." He stopped in his tracks as he heard his uncle's words echoing in his ears. "You lose your cool, it's over. That's how the critical mistakes get made." Each syllable so clear, it was as if he were standing right next to him and talking. Even though his uncle was already dead. "You can't keep yourself under control... No way you'll ever control a situation... Eh?"

Lowering his eyelids, Shinji sucked in a gallon of air through his nose and exhaled from his mouth. 'Stay frosty... Right... You knew he was a f*ck-up when you hooked up...' he reminded himself, smirking at his revived levelheadedness. 'Control the situation...'

"Okay... Focus, Yutaka. It didn't get up and walk away." Shinji comforted him, while Yutaka was still shaking in his shoes. 'Yutaka, if you only knew how close I was to...'

"...W-Walk?" Yutaka stuttered, confused by the sudden change in attitude of his friend.

"It's in here somewhere. Between the two of us... we'll find it." he reassured with a sunny smile, bright and warm as the biggest star in our solar system.

"Yeah... We'll find it." Blinking away the tears, Yutaka got on his knees and searched the floor with his hands. His spirit and determination rekindled.

Checking under one of the many tractors in the spacious shed, Yutaka exclaimed, 'This is crazy! Where did it go?'

"This is so not good." Shinji muttered under his breath. "Anything?"

Yutaka shook his head, disappointed in the lack of their luck.

"Looking for something?"

The two boys whipped around their heads to the unknown voice. In the back corner, shrouded in shadow, a girl, lightly tanned and lean, was perched on a rusted tractor. Dangling the missing pulley by her index finger, as if taunting them, she grinned.

Pointing his Beretta 92 at the girl's head from about 9 feet away, Shinji questioned, "Who are you?" his eyes, hard and suspicious, glared at the unexpected guest.

Averting her gaze to the ceiling, she sang, "Can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Beacuse..." Her eyes beamed with that grin still plastered on her face like a Cheshire cat as she explained, "I don't like you."

'What? What's that suppose to mean?' Utterly confused at her reasoning, both boys arched their eyebrows, probably wondering whether she was sane or not.

The girl hopped off the tractor, glided over to Yutaka, her face inches from his own and asked hopefully, "So, what are you guys planning on doing with this pulley and all that rope?"

"W-we, u-umm, a-are..." he stuttered, cheeks becoming bulging red apples, unaccustomed to the close proximity with a girl other than his mother.

"None of your business!" Shinji cut in sharply. "If we tell you that kind of stuff, we'll be the ones in trouble and everything will be ruined... But if you're willing to tell us what we want to know, I might reconsider it."

Putting a finger to her small chin, she tapped lightly as she thought, "Well, I can't tell you my identity or why I'm here, but my favorite color is brown and my favorite food is melon bread." the girl suggested, trying to make a compromise.

Tightening his grip in the gun, Shinji snarled "Get out."

"Oh?" she arched an eyebrow in amusement and intrigue. "Would you really shoot that with your friend so close by?" she teased as she grabbed Yutaka by the back of his uniform's collar and held him in a headlock in front of her.

"D*mn you..." Shinji growled, grinding his teeth in frustration.

Releasing the little boy from her grip, she lifted her hands in the air and chuckled. "Calm down, Kid. Don't get so angry. See? I was just kidding. Jeez, can't you guys take a joke?"

Steadily backing away from her, Yutaka tried to find a space where he could slip into and put some distance between him and this strange girl. An untied shoelace hanging on his sneaker, he stepped on it and fell backwards, banging his head on a couple of rotting wooden creates and tarnished tin tool boxes. "Youch!" he howled, curling up in a ball while clutching his hair and scalp as if his brains were going to spill out.

"Hey Little Buddy, no hard feelings right?" she said, dropping the pulley on the floor and offered her hand to Yutaka to help him up.

"What part of 'get out' don't you understand?" Shinji shouted at her.

"The 'out' part." she resorted.

Turning his back on the girl in an attempt to drown out her cunning words and persistent argument, he calls to Yukata, "Come on, we're going." as he marches to the opening of the shed.

The boy, getting up off of his butt, grabbed and hauled the bags, rope, pulley, and other materials onto his thin frame with great effort. He glanced warily over his shoulder at the girl who was still standing in the same spot as when she tried to make a friendly gesture towards him. Biting his lip with his buckteeth, he turned his attention to Shinji's back that was getting smaller with distance and chased after him.

Popping their heads out of the opening, they stopped cold in their tracks as a squeaky voice reached their ears, "M-Mi-Mi-Miruma?"

In alarm, Shinji flings his gun right up to the undetected figure's nose, prepared to shoot if needed be.

"No! D-don't! It's me! It's me! Don't shoot!"

The two boys immediately recognized the familiar voice that they had heard everyday in homeroom, the hallways on their way to class, near the shoe lockers when coming in and leaving school, and on the other side of double player Bout Fighter games at the arcade.

Holding his hands above his head with a kitchen knife in his right, he shouts, "It's me! Keita! Ijima! Keita Ijima!" in an attempt to calm down the situation.

The girl snickers as the whole event unfolds from about seven yards away. Little Buddy seems glad to meet up with another classmate and accepts him with open arms, Kid, on the other hand wasn't so excited about the new addition as his friend was. The Newcomer just stood there sheepishly behind Little Buddy, as if he were being introduced by his big brother to a pretty girl. "He he he he." her laughter echoing, soft but cold.

Again, I apologize to everyone, for being so slow to type up a new chapter and that although I tried to make this one longer, it is still short and sucks. So don't blame me, I tried. I really did.

I looked back on my previous chapters for this story and to my horror, I found that they were unbelievably short! I'm so sorry I made you guys read such terrible chapters! Which is why I will be spending some time on revising these chapters and making them longer.

Whether you agree with my decision or not, I'm doing it anyway so please be patient!

And thank you to all you crazy people that actually had the patience to wait for this chapter and reviewed: kyoko, kiara, Nina, rayka, RWolfe94, and Hedgehogs Rock My Socks Off.