Yuka Nakagawa - D6: Blame
((OOC: PC control approved by Josh.))
"Yuka..."
Yuka hadn't exactly meant to creep up on someone. Actually she hadn't meant to meet anyone at all. She'd just wanted to, to hide (until it all somehow worked out?) People just made things more confusing.
And yet somehow she'd wound up walking through the trees and when she'd heard the faint sniffs and whimpers she hadn't turned away or run, she'd just kept walking. Like suddenly she'd decided she was looking for someone, even though she didn't know why.
Megumi was staring at her. She looked tired and grubby and her eyes were reddened. Huh. Probably no better than Yuka herself. For a moment they just watched each other. Yuka knew she should be starting to chat, trying to get Megumi to smile, saying something reassuring like, you know, I'm not playing or This is scary or Hey, I saw this totally disgusting corpse (okay, maybe not that last one). But the words weren't there.
At last Megumi swallowed, and whispered, "Are you... have you... are you all right?"
"I've... been better. No one's shot me yet, though. You know?"
Megumi glanced away, down at her hands. She was holding a gun. Yuka wondered why she hadn't noticed it before. Hadn't this game taught her anything? Still. Nothing wrong with having a gun. I'm holding one, after all.
"That your weapon?" she asked Megumi.
Megumi went a little paler, bit her lip. "Uh... I..."
No...
Please, no, that's not how it's meant to happen, you're meant to nod and look grim, or at the very least you're meant to just explain how you found it on a corpse, you're not meant to look guilty, don't do this, Megumi, please -
(How could Megumi have got this far without -)
"I found it," Megumi said at last. "What... what about yours?"
"This was mine." Yuka didn't mean it to come out sounding so accusing, but it had. Megumi swallowed hard, closed her eyes for a second.
"Who've you seen, then?" Yuka said. She was grinning a little, she could feel it. Because she didn't know what else to do. (Right?) "Some class trip this is turning out to be." Too late for that joke, of course. It didn't fit her dialogue, and so she didn't pause to let Megumi grin ruefully back, she just carried on, "Who've you been hanging with?"
"I... I saw..." Megumi was crying now. "I saw Mizuho but she... we lost each other. Then... then I..."
She was trembling, and her voice was going all croaky, but Yuka heard her stutter out, "Ma - Mayumi... and Yuko... and... and Yukie..."
"You - you saw Yukie? Before she -"
"I didn't mean to!" Megumi had suddenly taken a step closer, was staring desperately up at Yuka. "I didn't mean to, she just - and Yuko - and I had the gun and - and Yukie tried to - and then -"
And then?
(Bad guys were meant to revel in being bad, they were meant to have evil laughs and stuff, they weren't meant to be asking Yuka to understand -)
"Megumi, what - what are you trying to say?"
She suddenly noticed - as if it hadn't been particularly important before (like the weapon) - that Megumi's school uniform was smeared with blood. It had dried and crusted on one torn sleeve. And Megumi was holding a gun. And Yukie had tried to and Megumi hadn't meant to and -
"I'm sorry!" Megumi sobbed. "Please, I'm so sorry! It just... Yukie was - I thought she - I thought Yuko - and Mayumi -"
Okay, okay, just calm down, Yuka, look at the facts. Yukie was dead. Mayumi was dead. Yukie would never try and hurt -would never have tried to hurt anyone. Right, Yuka could agree with all those.
And Megumi was still alive and had survived for so long and was covered in blood and had a gun she didn't own.
And so...
"Yuka?" Megumi said, in a small voice, and Yuka wondered what kind of expression she had on her face. Probably not anything good.
What if someone draws on me? What'd you do then? Kawada had just killed Chisato, just hadn't even thought about it, just kept hitting her until she went down because that was what you had to do here, you had to just keep hitting else they'd hit back even if they were small and sweet and quiet and you thought they'd never have hurt a fly -
"You better tell me what happened," she said, and she sounded very calm, and she was raising her gun. "Just... you better tell me the truth. Yukie would never - so - what did you do?"
Megumi took a couple of shaky steps backwards.
"I didn't - I didn't want -"
"You -"
(Megumi had to have been playing.)
"You killed her. Didn't you?"
And Megumi, her face crumpled, nodded.
Yuka heard herself scream "How could you do that?"
"It was an accident!" Megumi screamed back. "Yuka, you have to believe me!"
"No! No, I don't! I don't have to believe anyone, okay? Because if you've got this far, how the heck could you not be playing?"
"What about you?" Megumi sounded pleading. "Please, Yuka, we're the same really, we - you have to -"
"Shut up! Just shut up!"
(She'd believed Kawada. Because Kawada hadn't tried to lie to her - )
(And that was the worst of the Program, really, wasn't it, when people who'd always seemed nice turned out to be bad guys; Kawada had never seemed to be anything but what he was -)
And she was going to run, honest, just keep the gun trained on Megumi and run away but - and maybe it was the screaming, maybe Megumi got scared - and suddenly Megumi was raising her own gun. She was raising her own gun and she'd killed someone and in the movies the fat chick just stood there and screamed and then she died and Yuka just didn't want to die -
Right now, it was killed or be killed, and so she pulled the trigger, just as Megumi did the same.
((OOC: FTD! Who wins, Megumi Etoh or Yuka Nakagawa? Josh is running low on time right now so is happy for the FTD to start without him making another post first - he will write Megumi's side of this post after it's happened and then include the result. Hope that's ok - mods, please let us know if not. Good luck, Josh!))
"Yuka..."
Yuka hadn't exactly meant to creep up on someone. Actually she hadn't meant to meet anyone at all. She'd just wanted to, to hide (until it all somehow worked out?) People just made things more confusing.
And yet somehow she'd wound up walking through the trees and when she'd heard the faint sniffs and whimpers she hadn't turned away or run, she'd just kept walking. Like suddenly she'd decided she was looking for someone, even though she didn't know why.
Megumi was staring at her. She looked tired and grubby and her eyes were reddened. Huh. Probably no better than Yuka herself. For a moment they just watched each other. Yuka knew she should be starting to chat, trying to get Megumi to smile, saying something reassuring like, you know, I'm not playing or This is scary or Hey, I saw this totally disgusting corpse (okay, maybe not that last one). But the words weren't there.
At last Megumi swallowed, and whispered, "Are you... have you... are you all right?"
"I've... been better. No one's shot me yet, though. You know?"
Megumi glanced away, down at her hands. She was holding a gun. Yuka wondered why she hadn't noticed it before. Hadn't this game taught her anything? Still. Nothing wrong with having a gun. I'm holding one, after all.
"That your weapon?" she asked Megumi.
Megumi went a little paler, bit her lip. "Uh... I..."
No...
Please, no, that's not how it's meant to happen, you're meant to nod and look grim, or at the very least you're meant to just explain how you found it on a corpse, you're not meant to look guilty, don't do this, Megumi, please -
(How could Megumi have got this far without -)
"I found it," Megumi said at last. "What... what about yours?"
"This was mine." Yuka didn't mean it to come out sounding so accusing, but it had. Megumi swallowed hard, closed her eyes for a second.
"Who've you seen, then?" Yuka said. She was grinning a little, she could feel it. Because she didn't know what else to do. (Right?) "Some class trip this is turning out to be." Too late for that joke, of course. It didn't fit her dialogue, and so she didn't pause to let Megumi grin ruefully back, she just carried on, "Who've you been hanging with?"
"I... I saw..." Megumi was crying now. "I saw Mizuho but she... we lost each other. Then... then I..."
She was trembling, and her voice was going all croaky, but Yuka heard her stutter out, "Ma - Mayumi... and Yuko... and... and Yukie..."
"You - you saw Yukie? Before she -"
"I didn't mean to!" Megumi had suddenly taken a step closer, was staring desperately up at Yuka. "I didn't mean to, she just - and Yuko - and I had the gun and - and Yukie tried to - and then -"
And then?
(Bad guys were meant to revel in being bad, they were meant to have evil laughs and stuff, they weren't meant to be asking Yuka to understand -)
"Megumi, what - what are you trying to say?"
She suddenly noticed - as if it hadn't been particularly important before (like the weapon) - that Megumi's school uniform was smeared with blood. It had dried and crusted on one torn sleeve. And Megumi was holding a gun. And Yukie had tried to and Megumi hadn't meant to and -
"I'm sorry!" Megumi sobbed. "Please, I'm so sorry! It just... Yukie was - I thought she - I thought Yuko - and Mayumi -"
Okay, okay, just calm down, Yuka, look at the facts. Yukie was dead. Mayumi was dead. Yukie would never try and hurt -would never have tried to hurt anyone. Right, Yuka could agree with all those.
And Megumi was still alive and had survived for so long and was covered in blood and had a gun she didn't own.
And so...
"Yuka?" Megumi said, in a small voice, and Yuka wondered what kind of expression she had on her face. Probably not anything good.
What if someone draws on me? What'd you do then? Kawada had just killed Chisato, just hadn't even thought about it, just kept hitting her until she went down because that was what you had to do here, you had to just keep hitting else they'd hit back even if they were small and sweet and quiet and you thought they'd never have hurt a fly -
"You better tell me what happened," she said, and she sounded very calm, and she was raising her gun. "Just... you better tell me the truth. Yukie would never - so - what did you do?"
Megumi took a couple of shaky steps backwards.
"I didn't - I didn't want -"
"You -"
(Megumi had to have been playing.)
"You killed her. Didn't you?"
And Megumi, her face crumpled, nodded.
Yuka heard herself scream "How could you do that?"
"It was an accident!" Megumi screamed back. "Yuka, you have to believe me!"
"No! No, I don't! I don't have to believe anyone, okay? Because if you've got this far, how the heck could you not be playing?"
"What about you?" Megumi sounded pleading. "Please, Yuka, we're the same really, we - you have to -"
"Shut up! Just shut up!"
(She'd believed Kawada. Because Kawada hadn't tried to lie to her - )
(And that was the worst of the Program, really, wasn't it, when people who'd always seemed nice turned out to be bad guys; Kawada had never seemed to be anything but what he was -)
And she was going to run, honest, just keep the gun trained on Megumi and run away but - and maybe it was the screaming, maybe Megumi got scared - and suddenly Megumi was raising her own gun. She was raising her own gun and she'd killed someone and in the movies the fat chick just stood there and screamed and then she died and Yuka just didn't want to die -
Right now, it was killed or be killed, and so she pulled the trigger, just as Megumi did the same.
((OOC: FTD! Who wins, Megumi Etoh or Yuka Nakagawa? Josh is running low on time right now so is happy for the FTD to start without him making another post first - he will write Megumi's side of this post after it's happened and then include the result. Hope that's ok - mods, please let us know if not. Good luck, Josh!))