The Ninth Hour

"I heard another gun shot," the Black Haired Boy said, flinching from the deafening boom.

"I did too, and a scream.. It sounded like Kokoro," the Silver Haired Girl said worriedly

"Should we check it out, or wait?" the Black Haired Boy asked, as they stuck close to the wall with their backs against it, as the whispered to eachother to devise a plan of action.

"If we check it out now and run into the shooter, we're both dead.. But if we wait and stay safe, more of our friends are going to die.. Whatever we decide to do, someone is going to get shot, it's inevitable," she said.

"Great, just great," the Black Haired Boy sighed, exhausted. "Let's just go to the cafeteria first, then we can figure out what we're doing from there."

"That's not a good idea anymore, there is no safe zone when someone's running around the school with a gun shooting everyone in sight," the Silver Haired Girl said. "We can't rely on it anymore."

"We have supplies there, we need them to survive," the Black Haired Boy said, urgently.

The Silver Haired Girl sighed. "Fine, we'll go get them, but then we need to hurry and find somewhere else to hide until things start to die down, before we do anything else," she answered.

The two of them stealthily made their way into the cafeteria, luckily not coming in contact with anyone.

"We made it safely, that's a relief," the Black Haired Boy said as he looked around for supplies. "We have a problem, someone made off with the First-Aid and the syringes," he said, as he tucked a knife into his back pocket for protection.

"Yeah, I noticed," she said as she picked up a knife aswell.

"What are we going to do now?" the Black Haired Boy asked.

"Now, we're going to find a safe place to hide so we can rest a bit," the Silver Haired Girl said, tiredly.

The Black Haired Boy nodded as they turned and left the cafeteria, but the door way was blocked by someone in a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up.

The Black Haired Boy and Silver Haired Girl both reached for their knives, but a female voice spoke from underneath the hood of the black sweatshirt. "Stop.. Don't hurt me.. I'm done with all of this," she said.

The Black Haired Boy and Silver Haired Girl looked at eachother in disbelief and back to the girl with the hooded sweatshirt.

The girl took off her hood and revealed herself to them.

"You... You did all this?!" the Black Haired Boy shouted.

"We trusted you, why would you kill all of our friends?" the Silver Haired Girl asked.

"I didn't.. I only killed one person, and I was put up to it.. They said I would be able to escape as soon as it was done, but Ayoko took the Security Clearance Card when it supposed to be for me," the Blonde Haired Girl said in short breaths as she cried and confessed.

"Who did you kill, and who put you up to it? Who's doing all of this?" the Black Haired Boy demanded.

"How many more of you are there?" the Silver Haired Girl asked.

"I don't know any others, but 'The Leader' said there are many more than just me in the group, but none of us know who they are except for 'The Leader'.. We don't have the information, we were all texted instructions individually from 'The Leader', none of us were ever contacted in person, I
don't know who it is," the Blonde Haired Girl cried.

"So you don't know anything at all? Why would someone create a group to kill their own friends..?" the Silver Haired Girl wondered.

"Which deaths are you responsible for?" the Black Haired Boy asked.

"Only one.. 'The Leader' said that in order to get everything going, there would need to be one efficient death that everyone found at once so no one could escape blame.. 'The Leader' gave us the target, I came up with the idea to use a sedative to knock the target out, and with my skills as the Nurse's Assistant it was easy to do..." she took a deep breath to calm down, before she spoke again. "I, Mai Akiyama,  confess to the murder of Satomi Naoko," the Blonde Haired Girl said between sobs.

All of a sudden an air vent panel was moved, and the Red Haired Boy's stolen gun pointed straight down at the Blonde Haired Girl, and shot her in the head, killing her instantly. The gun was pulled back into the ceiling and the panel was put back in place.

The Black Haired Boy and Silver Haired Girl ran to cover and shielded themselves under a cafeteria table.

"I think that was 'The Leader' just now," the Black Haired Boy said, panting heavily.

"Yeah, I saw the same hooded sweatshirt that Mai was wearing," the Silver Haired Girl said, looking over at the Blonde Haired Girl who lie dead on the cafeteria floor.

"You were right, this isn't a safe zone anymore, this entire school is a war zone," the Black Haired Boy said.

The Silver Haired Girl nodded as she took out a pen and a sheet of paper from her pocket and began to write; Mai Akiyama, shot by 'The Leader', more information on who that is will become apparent during your investigation. Confessed to the murder of Satomi Naoko.

"Is that for the police?" the Black Haired Boy asked.

"Yeah.. I know they could just look at the security footage to see what all has happened here, but I feel compelled to help," the Silver Haired Girl shook as she creeped out from under the table and tucked the paper into Mai's pocket and then quickly darted back underneath the table.

"I understand.. We need to figure out a way to get that 'Leader' asshole out of the air vents, so we can walk around freely without getting shot on top of the head," the Black Haired Boy said.

"That sounds like something Hayate would say," the Silver Haired Girl smiled. "I hope he's okay, I've been mean to him today," the Silver Haired Girl said.

"Don't worry about being mean, you've been stressed out, we're all exhausted and on edge, hopefully he is okay," the Black Haired Boy said.

The Silver Haired Girl nodded. "We'll wait under here until someone comes by that isn't involved with all of this."

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Panting, the Red Haired Boy finally stopped running from the gunshot that killed Kokoro Yoshida when he was nearby. "It should be safe to rest by now," he said in short breaths as he rested against a wall.
He slid down the wall and sat on the ground and tried to catch his breath but was interrupted by yelling from inside the room he was leaning against.He stood up and walked over to the door and opened it.

The Long, Pink Haired Girl and the Blue Haired Girl were both tied up with gauze bandages, with their mouths taped shut. As soon as they saw him they began to panic more and squirm around.

He ran over to them and quickly yanked off the tape and proceeded to untie them both. "Be quiet before someone finds us here," he said in a hushed tone.

"Ow, that hurt!" the Long, Pink Haired Girl said, in tears.

"Why are you letting us go after you went through the trouble of putting us here?" the Blue Haired Girl asked. "And what did you do with Mai?!" she shouted.

"First, I said be quiet, before someone finds us here," the Red Haired Boy glared as he shut the door and slid a storage drawer infront of the door to barricade it from intruders so he could get their full story. "Now, what's the problem?" he asked as he sat on a desk in the room.

The two girls stood up and began talking at the same time.

The Red Haired Boy ignored them both until they were done.

"Fascinating. Start over, but only one of you talk at once, so I can understand this time," the Red Haired Boy said.

The two girls sighed.

"First, we heard a gunshot and ran to it.. We found Jiro dead, with Kokoro standing over him," the Blue Haired Girl said.

"I heard about Jiro from Hayate," he said then cringed remembering he wasn't supposed to talk about Hayate or what happened earlier. Did Kokoro kill Jiro?" the Red Haired Boy asked.

"She said she didn't, she said she had barricaded herself in a classroom when she heard him get shot, she saw the shooter through the hole in the door but only saw a black hooded sweatshirt," the Long, Pink Haired Girl said in one breath.

"That's why you thought it was me? Well, just for the record, I don't have a black hooded sweatshirt, and I don't have my gun either," he explained.

"Someone took your gun?!" the two girls both shrieked.

"Yeah, that's where this came from," he said as he pointed at his black eye. "Got in a little fight.. Which gives me an alibi, sadly," the Red Haired Boy said.

"How would getting in a fight give you an alibi? Maybe you got in a fight with Jiro!" the Long, Pink Haired Girl said.

"No, I fought that asshole with the hooded sweatshirt, he took my gun too.. I have an alibi because I've been knocked out for the passed hour," he said, regretting to admit it.

"Oh.. Yeah, that sucks," the Blue Haired Girl said.

The Red Haired Boy sighed. "Anyway, continue the story?"

"Where were we? Oh yeah, Kokoro saw the guy that kicked your ass," the Blue Haired Girl giggled.

The Red Haired Boy glared at her, angrily.

"When I saw Jiro, I ran off," the Long, Pink Haired Girl said.

"I'm guessing like usual, you ran after her?" the Red Haired Boy asked.

The Blue Haired Girl nodded. "Then, we found Mai and we were all going to search for everyone else, but we ran into the guy that we thought was you," she said.

"Now we're getting somewhere, then what happened?" the Red Haired Boy asked, as he focused intensely on this part of the story.

"He made us all come into this room, he had a gun so I couldn't run, I was frozen stiff," the Long, Pink Haired Girl said.

The Red Haired Boy glanced towards the floor in grief and anger, because he felt responsible since the gun that was used to control them and kill his other friends was his.

"Then that guy tied the two of us up, and taped our mouths, but he didn't do that to Mai," the Blue Haired Girl said.

"He spoke to her, they talked a little bit, and said some weird things I didn't understand," the Long, Pink Haired Girl said.

"What did they say?" the Red Haired Boy asked.

"I don't remember," the Long, Pink Haired Girl said apologetically.

"He said, 'I am 'The Leader', Mai. It's time for you to confess, go to the cafeteria and tell the first people you find'," the Blue Haired Girl quoted.

"... It's him.. The same person that she's working for... How many people does he have under control?" the Red Haired Boy thought to himself, then smirked. "She bluffed.. 'The Leader' is a guy after all.. and he does have my gun.. I should have just killed him then.. Damnit," he thought to himself.

"Same person that she's working for?" the Long, Pink Haired Girl repeated.

"I can't talk about it, don't ask about it again, unless you want to get all three of us killed," the Red Haired Boy said, warning them to mind their on business.

The two girls nodded.

"Glad that we could come to an agreement, let's go," the Red Haired Boy said, leading the two girls out of the room, as they followed him down the hall.

"Well, hello there," the Red Haired Girl said, greeting the three of them as they turned the corner.

"Hey," the Red Haired Boy said calmly, trying not to cause a scene.

"Hey! It feels like I haven't seen you in forever," the Blue Haired Girl said.

The Long Pink Haired Girl smiled and nodded, waving.

The Red Haired Girl smiled in aknowledgement, then turned to the Red Haired Boy. "Have you told anyone else what happened to your eye?" the Red Haired Girl asked.

"Yeah, he told us everything! He got in a fight with the guy that's killing everyone," the Long, Pink Haired Girl blurted out.

The Red Haired Boy's eyes widened.

"Did he now?" the Red Haired Girl asked, walking towards him, as she whispered in a hushed tone, so the other two wouldn't even notice her speak.

"Relax, the deal was to not rat me for killing Hayate, you're still safe, for now. Blink if you understand," she commanded him.

The Red Haired Boy blinked visibly.

The Red Haired Girl smiled. "Can I join the three of you?"

"Sure, come with us, we're looking for everyone else," the Blue Haired Girl said as she continued
walking, looking for the rest of the group.

The Long, Pink Haired followed the Blue Haired Girl with the Red Haired Boy and Red Haired Girl walking side by side eyeing eachother carefully.

The Red Haired Boy glared angrily, as he watched the Red Haired Girl closely, to be sure she didn't do anything to harm him or the two girls that she's claimed as unknowing hostages.

The Red Haired Girl smiled back, cockily, as she watched him to make sure he didn't make any moves to prevent any action she planned to take.