It would have been better to have died that day

Yuno's eyes widened, the distrust evident in her expression. "W-what are you doing here, Ryan?"

Yuuki, on the other hand, seemed relieved. "Ryan! I'm glad you're here!"

Ryan waved casually to Yuuki before answering Yuno. "You know how it is, right? Nene owed me money... and it would be bad for my reputation if I let her die at the hands of someone else, taking everything she owed me to the grave. Since she's not going to pay me with money anymore, her debt was paid in blood."

Yuno's eyes didn't leave Ryan, always alert. Yuuki, despite finding the comment morbid, couldn't deny that Ryan was a powerful ally to have around.

But, before they could process the situation, a new element emerged.

A strange man appeared in the middle of the chaos. His clothes were unusual, and he wore a mask that resembled a giant eye. Without hesitation, he introduced himself:

"I am the Twelfth Participant." His voice was theatrical. "And my Future Diary is the Diary of Justice!"

His target? Yuno Gasai.

He began to launch into an inflammatory speech about justice, but no one was interested in listening. As soon as he drew a weapon, the shooting started.

Ryan was the first to react, running into the nearest store. Yuno and Yuuki followed him, while bullets shattered shop windows and scattered debris on the floor.

In the midst of the confusion, Yuno growled: "YOU SOLD WEAPONS TO HIM TOO!?"

Ryan, with an ironic smile, replied: "Well... technically, he may have gotten them from one of my representatives..."

But there was no time for jokes.

More masked figures began to emerge. They all wore identical clothing and held weapons ranging from blades to heavy artillery.

Ryan let out a weary sigh. "God damn it... Just looking at them makes me tired..."

The gunfire rained down on them again. The counter where they were hiding wouldn't hold for much longer. Ryan looked at Yuno and decided quickly:

"Yuno! Distract these idiots. Yuuki and I are going to the second floor. I have some weapons there!"

Yuno tried to protest. "W-wait! I'm coming too!"

But Ryan didn't give her time. "Let's go, Yuuki!" He grabbed the boy by the arm and ran. Yuuki cried out in surprise, but ended up going along.

Yuno clenched her teeth. She didn't have time to hesitate.

She drew the Glock that Ryan had given her and opened fire on the masked men. Her heart was pounding. She knew she was outnumbered, but she needed to create a distraction.

Feeling around in her pockets, she found a grenade—also given to her by Ryan. Without a second thought, she pulled the pin and threw it at a pillar near the entrance of the store.

The explosion shook the surroundings.

The debris partially blocked the passage, giving Yuno the opening she needed. She ran through the rubble, exiting through the back door and running through the employee corridors, panting.

"Yuuki!" She shouted, trying to catch up to them.

But, on the second floor...

Things didn't go as planned.

Ryan had a gun pointed at Yuuki's head.

The boy trembled, his eyes wide, his voice shaking. "R-Ryan... What is this?"

Ryan sighed. His gaze, previously carefree, was now cold and emotionless. "Honestly... You're so stupid it's pathetic..."

Yuuki froze, while Ryan continued:

"From the beginning, when I first laid eyes on you, I saw that you were incompetent. But an incompetent person who wants to live so badly... that he'd end up killing himself by being reckless."

Yuuki raised his hands in surrender, desperate. "B-but you were helping us! Why do this now!?"

Ryan tilted his head slightly. "Pfft, well... Because we're in a death game. Twelve enter... One leaves alive..." He shrugged his shoulders, speaking sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Yuno was running through the mall corridors when her Diary vibrated.

She looked at the screen.

"Yuuki will die."

At the same time, Yuuki felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he looked at his own cell phone.

"DEATH END."

His heart raced. Tears began to form in his eyes.

"P-please, Ryan, don't do this!"

Yuno ran through the corridors like a wounded beast, her footsteps echoing off the empty walls of the mall. Despair tore at her voice as she shouted, breathless, his name:

"YUUKI!!"

She climbed the stairs without hesitation, her chest burning with lack of air, her muscles burning with tension and fear. When she reached the second floor, she found Yuuki standing in front of her, his eyes wide and full of tears as he looked at her with a look of agony. Relief washed over her body for a brief second, but then—

The gunshot echoed like thunder.

Yuuki gasped, the light in his eyes instantly fading. His head lolled to the side, as if the weight of his own body betrayed him, and then he fell.

Time stopped.

"NOOOOOOO!!"

Yuno's scream reverberated through the empty space, a mixture of pain, fury, and absolute despair. Her feet moved without thinking, launching her forward, to try to hold him, to reach something that was already slipping through her fingers.

But then, another shot.

The pain was excruciating. Something hot tore through her leg, and her treacherous body gave way, throwing her to the ground violently. Her scream turned into a strangled groan as the burning sensation took over her senses.

The dry sound of the gun silenced the world.

A man, behind Yuno on an upper part of the floor, lowered his gun slowly. The barrel was still smoking.

Ryan, standing just ahead, was staring at everything with an empty look.

And then, his voice.

Cold. Empty.

"Today... the count will end at four." Ryan was talking while stretching his arm.

Ryan emerged from the darkness like a specter, his eyes dead, his expression blank. The way he spoke, as if all this were just another day in his routine, made something inside Yuno twist in pure hatred.

"Damn you..." she growled, dragging herself across the floor. Her leg throbbed, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, except getting to Yuuki. "You... you were a participant from the beginning!!"

Fury boiled inside her, as hot as the blood that flowed from her leg. She should have foreseen it. She should have felt it. But she allowed herself to be fooled, and now—now it was too late.

With effort, Yuno reached Yuuki. His body trembled like a leaf in the wind, his skin becoming increasingly pale. He was still breathing, but weakly... too weakly.

"No... NO!" Her hands pressed on his wound, but the blood gushed uncontrollably, hot and sticky, running down her fingers. "Stay with me, Yuuki, please!!"

Ryan, in turn, didn't even show emotion as he observed the scene. He just turned to some men who were there and waved casually.

"The mission here is complete. The rest is up to me."

Ryan pointed at the man who shot Yuno while speaking in a playful tone, "Hey you over there, this scene is really sad, isn't it?" He laughed as he watched Yuno's weeping, "How about we schedule to cry a little more later?"

The shooter who had hit Yuno lowered his gun and walked away, as if there was nothing more to be done.

But Yuno wouldn't give up.

She ripped the Glock from her holster with blood-stained hands and pointed it directly at Ryan, her hands trembling with hatred.

"You're going to pay for this..." her voice faltered, filled with fury and pain.

She pulled the trigger.

Click.

A dry sound. Empty.

Ryan smirked, crossing his arms.

"You know..." He tilted his head slightly, amused by the scene. "Guns don't fire without ammunition." He spoke gesturing with one hand, pointing to the gun he was holding.

The explosion of hatred within Yuno was instantaneous. A wild scream ripped from her throat as she threw the gun at him with all her might, as if that could erase his existence from the face of the earth.

Ryan dodged effortlessly, laughing at her frustration.

And then, a weak voice.

"...Yu...no..."

The world stopped again.

She looked down, and her heart almost stopped when she saw Yuuki moving his lips, his breathing irregular, the life draining from his body.

"Yuuki!! Hold on! Stay with me!!"

The blood was still flowing non-stop. She pressed on the wound with all her strength, as if that would be enough to keep him there.

But he was weak. So weak.

"I..." His voice was just a whisper. His teary eyes fixed on hers, trembling, terrified. "I... I'm scared... of dying..."

Yuno felt something break inside her.

She had never seen him like this. Never.

And then—

"Oh, my." Ryan sighed, walking towards them calmly. "What a long time to die, huh?" He tilted his head, pointing the gun again. "I aimed for the heart to be quick, you know? You should thank me."

Ryan stopped in front of him, pointing the gun with a sarcastic smile full of disdain. "You are a waste of oxygen, Yuuki..."

Yuno's eyes widened.

"No...!" She threw herself over Yuuki, hugging him tightly, her voice becoming a desperate scream. "STOP! DON'T KILL YUUKI! STOP IT!!"

Ryan didn't hesitate, he smiled as he spoke, "Bang!"

The shot came without mercy.

The bullet passed through Yuno's arm before finding its true destination.

Yuuki's body shuddered.

Time seemed to slow down, each drop of blood falling like a slow rain around them.

Yuno couldn't breathe.

Despair took over.

Tears.

Pain.

Blood.

Sadness.

And then, silence.

Ryan lowered the gun.

Yuno trembled, without the strength to scream. Only muffled sobs escaped her lips.

Yuuki... wasn't moving anymore.

Yuno gasped, her eyes blurred by the hatred and pain that corroded every fiber of her being. Her breathing was a mixture of sobs and muffled groans, as she stared at Ryan with pure contempt.

"Damn you..." she growled, her voice failing, but filled with fury. "I swear... I'm going to kill you!"

Ryan just narrowed his eyes, analyzing her with an amused glint. There was something unbearably arrogant in the way he observed her—as if all this were just a game and he was just waiting for the inevitable outcome.

"Kill me?" He let out a low laugh, a sound that dripped from his lips like poison. "You swear so intensely..." His mocking gaze swept over Yuno's bloodied body, as if he were evaluating a prey about to succumb.

With a casual movement, he ejected the magazine from his gun, leaving only a single bullet in the chamber. The metallic click echoed through the silent environment, loaded with meaning.

Yuno could barely keep her eyes open. Her vision oscillated between flashes of reality and hazy shadows. The cold floor beneath her knees seemed distant, as if her body were dissolving, becoming part of nothingness.

Pain.

Blood.

Trauma.

She was on the edge of the abyss, and Ryan knew it.

With an almost theatrical disdain, he spun the gun in his hand and then threw it in her direction, as if it were a worthless toy. The metal glinted under the cold lights of the ceiling before falling heavily beside her.

And then, he turned, offering her his back without any fear.

"I'll give you a chance, Yuno," he said, his voice serene, as if he were suggesting a simple game of chance. "Why don't you see if fate is on your side this time?"

Yuno felt her body waver. Her mind screamed to move, to react, but every cell in her body seemed to be sinking into a sea of exhaustion.

She knew Ryan wasn't doing this out of pity. It wasn't an act of mercy—it was pure sadism.

But she couldn't hesitate.

Gathering all the strength she had left, her trembling hand reached for the gun. The cold metal burned her bloodied fingers, but she ignored it. Her heart hammered in her ears.

She felt the muscles in her arm protest as she raised the pistol, her breathing ragged. Her vision was darkening at the edges, a loud buzzing filling her head. But, even so...

She aimed.

The sounds of distant sirens began to echo in the environment, footsteps approaching. But none of that mattered now.

"I..." Her voice came out weak, almost a whisper, as she fought against unconsciousness.

Her fingers trembled around the trigger.

"Will..."

Ryan continued walking, completely unconcerned.

Yuno gathered the rest of her strength. The last flicker of her unwavering will.

"KILL YOU!!"

She screamed, pulling the trigger.

The blast filled the air like thunder.

But...

The bullet cut through the space and lodged violently in a pillar next to Ryan, exploding a fragment of concrete.

For a moment, only silence answered.

Then, slowly, Ryan stopped.

Turning to face her, an empty smile, without any trace of surprise, formed on his face.

He let out a theatrical sigh, tilting his head slightly as he mocked:

"Wow... I would never forgive myself for missing that shot..."

The sarcasm dripped from his voice like venom, as if he were laughing at Yuno herself through his words.

The gun slipped from her fingers. Her body finally gave way.

Darkness came soon after.

"I... It would have been better to have died that day."

_____

Author's Note: This Yuno is the first version of all, the one who was participating for the first time in the survival game :P

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