Just Getting Started.

The atmosphere in the room was suffocating, heavy with an unspoken dread.

Outside, the sun gently warmed the day, and insects buzzed like in any summer. Yet, for what was supposed to feel cozy and warm inside, the room turned into a suffocating, cold cage.

Everyone sat frozen, waiting, dreading. Most looked as though they might faint at any moment, their faces pale and strained. A very few, however, leaned forward, on the edge of their seats, anticipation glinting in their eyes. It was as if they thrived on the horror of whatever disturbing task awaited us next.

And then there was me—sitting at the front, paralyzed by the pointless hope that I'd wake up, that this nightmare would finally end.

The silence lingered before the man could speak.

*knock* *knock*

"Come in."

The door opened, one of those guys with heavy military equipment entered holding a tiny briefcase.

*click*

The man flips the light switch near the door.

Approaching the girl who was asleep and leaning against Furukawa, he opened the case to reveal two thin, pre-filled medical syringes, each labelled as 1 and 2. As he attempted to grasp the girl's left hand, Furukawa held her tightly in an embrace.

"If you want your underclassmen to live, you have to trust the process," said the henchman.

Furukawa reluctantly released her, allowing the man to take hold of her left arm. He carefully searched for a vein near her wrist, then pulled out a pen and marked the spot for the injection. The man holds two syringes in front of Furukawa as if he wanted to her to pick one of those two, "One of these syringes will wake her up and the other will end her life for either better or worse,".

*DING!.... DONG!.... *

Just has he said it the old clock far front of the left corner chimed, whose hour needle points to 12'o clock. 

Furukawa quickly came to the realization that she was pulled into a game where her choice not only decides the entire livelihood of another but her also her identity around her peers.

She is absolutely without a doubt the worst candidate to ever uphold such task not only is she mentally fragile but also easily succumbs to her negative thoughts, perpetually plagued by concerns about what others think of her and her ways.

The wrong choice, and she would be done for, tearing herself apart because of the single thought that she has killed a person by her own hands, trapped in this hellish game for God knows how long.

Furukawa brainstormed, pondered, and kept on thinking; she raced through her chain of thoughts, trying to find a clue on what might be the right option or if there was any right option at all, for at least 25 seconds. Her heart raced faster than it ever had in a state of despair, each beat echoing the unbearable pressure she felt. Her breaths grew heavier with each passing minute, the weight of her decisions pressing down on her chest like an unbearable burden.

She lowered her head. And she finally broke down.

She tried covering her face with her hands, in attempt to stifle her sounds of grief she failed as she couldn't muster up enough strength to hold it in; her sobs echoed through the room. Everyone in that room who walked same path along with her couldn't do nothing, while some were enjoying deep down some were just looking at her helpless state pitying her while a very few were trying to help the right answer reach her without being noticed.

All of a sudden, she felt someone gently tapping the leg of her chair from behind. Her focus shifted to those gentle taps; she noticed that the taps were in a rhythmic pattern, more precisely two taps every subsequent second. She immediately knew what the person behind was trying to tell her.

She stopped her sobbing, lifted her head, took a deep sniffle, and finally brushed her tear-streaked face below the nose with her arm.

She hesitantly reached out her hand, her hand hovering over the second syringe for quite some time. As she slowly went for it, she suddenly felt rapid, urgent taps. She retracted her hand, startled by the intensity.

The rhythmic taps started once again, steady and reassuring. She finally understood what the taps were trying to tell her. As soon as the person behind was about to land the second tap, she quickly grabbed the second syringe with a swift.

She examined the syringe with meticulous attention to find any hazardous amount of air pockets from entering the system. And find she did. She gently flicks the syringe to make sure every single one of the air pockets floats up, she squirted a miniscule amount of the medicine present in the syringe. She then proceeded with the process on the area marked by the henchman. 

She let a huge sigh of relief.

The henchman extends his hand towards her, she places the syringe on his hand. He returns the syringe to its original place in the briefcase, he locks it down grabs it and walks away.

"Oi." called Mr. 144 just as the henchman was about to leave, "Disperse them into 20 groups or less depending on the decisive conclusions that took place. And keep the self-forsaken one until the final game." said Mr. 144 in a monotone voice, "Yes, boss." replied the henchman.

The man flicks the light switch off, leaves and closes the door.

The room was quiet.

Naomi laid back and let a huge sigh of relief, and the sleeping girl who Naomi had brought her closer to her laying her head over Naomi's shoulder,

Mr. 144 slowly walked over the first window and undid the blinds, and he did this every window in the room.

An entire minute passed; everyone is quiet. 

He retraces his steps back to the spot where he previously stood.

Now he stares; despite wearing a mask everyone could tell he was staring at the sleeping girl over Naomi's shoulder.

All of a sudden Naomi lets subtle sound of surprise, the sleeping girl let out a subtle sound of distress, struggling to open her eyes, she finally gets the hang of it and slowly lifts her head from Naomi's shoulder. She questioned herself "Why am I in the library?", loud enough to only be heard by herself and Naomi.

"Good afternoon young lady! it seems you've had quite a nap. Would you care explain?" said Mr. 144 in highly yet cozy tone while approaching the girl. "Who are you?" asked the girl, The man stood before her, "I am your master." said the man, "Mas... ter?" said the girl with curious intents while being doubtful, "Game master to be precise, I overlook your performance and manage the rules of the games I created,". "So, you were the one responsible for that. But why did I fall asleep? I am used to the drowsiness caused by those meds; I shouldn't fall asleep that quickly—in fact, I shouldn't even fall asleep at all. What the hell happened to me?" she started murmuring to herself. Mr. 144 interrupted her with a slight chuckle, his voice starting with a warm, lighthearted tone and gradually dropping to a more grounded but still playful pitch, Mr. 144 said, "Well, you seem to have taken sleeping pills instead of the ones you usually pop during stressful times. Do you have any idea on how you- or who might have done that Kaede-San?", "No, I don't know how that happened" Kaede Ryuusei replied. "Well guess what... I know why that happened to you, keep playing, and soon you shall find." said the man in an enigmatically playful tone.

"Anyway, let's get back to where we left off," Mr. 144 yelled as he strode back toward the projector.

"You won't be playing games for a while. Instead, you'll be doing something far more entertaining—you lot are going to judge some people."

"Let's get started then. All of you off to the assembly hall."

Everyone stood up, readying themselves as they began to gather into groups, while I was outside waiting for Nishi and the rest of the gang to show up.

"Morioka-San!" called out Naomi as she approaches him as he was sitting all the way back, "did you know who was sitting beh-" "It was him." Masahi interrupts Naomi's question whilst pointing at an average sized boy with brown hair with a reddish tint styled in a wavy mid part, decently long hair for a dude, eyes that looked tired but has an enormous amount of energy in brown. 

She walked to him.

"Excuse me... and thank you for helping me out. May I know you name?" Furukawa asked in a polite tone. "Ah.- me? Please don't mention it, after all we are in this together. Name's Aki, Kuroda Aki." replied Aki in a quick yet pleasantly calming tone. "How did you figure it out?" asked Furukawa, Aki feeling proud of himself while feeling a bit embarrassed placing his hand behind head "It's pretty easy when the pressure isn't entirely on you, if you noti-" "Please proceed to the next platform." Aki was interrupted by Mr. 144, as they turned to looked at him Masahi was the last leaving the room. "We can talk this out while walking." said Aki while he was walking towards the exit.