Battle Royale

Yuichiro paused and then turned to Mitsuko. This time he looked at her a little longer. Then he said, "No." He looked down at the ground after saying this, and continued, "Well, I mean, I'm even suspicious of Tadakatsu when it comes down to it. I mean..." He pulled out some grass by his feet. Then he tore the grass that was moist with morning dew into small strands. "I mean, yeah, I haven't heard great things about you. But that's so irrelevant in this situation. I mean, sometimes it's the respectable ones who end up breaking up under stress." He tossed the torn grass by his feet. Then he looked up at Mitsuko. "I don't think you're such a bad person."

Mitsuko tilted her head. "Why?"

Maybe it was because she was staring at him, Yuichiro nervously looked away again. Then he said, "Well...it's your eyes."

"Eyes?"

Still looking down, Yuichiro began tearing out more grass. "You always had a scary look in your eyes."

Mitsuko forced a smile. She tried to shrug her shoulders, but it didn't work because of the belt around her wrists. "I guess."

"But..." The grass was torn into quarters, then eighths. "But sometimes your eyes look really sad and kind."

Mitsuko stared at the side of his face and listened without responding.

"So," he tossed the grass again and continued, "I've always thought you weren't as bad as everyone said you were. Even if you'd done bad things, I was pretty sure you did them because you couldn't help it, because there was some reason behind it that wasn't your fault."

He was stuttering, his voice incredibly shy and tense as if he were confessing his love to a girl. Then he added, "I just don't want to be so foolish I couldn't understand that reason."

Mitsuko sighed inside. Of course, she was thinking, boy, you are naive, Yuichiro. But then...

...she smiled and said warmly, "Thank you." Even she was surprised by the kindness in her voice. Of course, it was deliberate, but maybe the reason it sounded too real to be an act was that there was a little bit of true feeling in her words. But...that's all it was.

Yuichiro then asked, "What about you, Mitsuko? What were you doing till now?"

Mitsuko replied, "Well..." She moved a little and felt the morning dew on the grass soaking through her skirt. "I've been running away. You know, away from the gunfire. That's why...that's why when I saw Tadakatsu I was so scared...but I was also so tired and scared of being alone and I thought of calling out to him...I thought maybe he'd understand...but I just couldn't tell whether it was the right thing to do or not...I just didn't know... "

Yuichiro nodded again. He glanced at her again and looked down. "I think you did the right thing."

Mitsuko smiled and said, "I think so too." Their eyes met and they smiled at each other.

"That's right," Yuichiro said, "I'm sorry. I forgot. You must be thirsty. You lost your bag, right? You probably haven't had any water in a while."

She had left her day pack behind when she fought Hiroki Sugimura. She was actually pretty thirsty. She nodded. "Could I...could I have some water?"

Looking away from her, Yuichiro nodded back, reached out for the day pack and picked it up. He pulled out two water bottles and after comparing them he chose the sealed bottle and tucked away the other one. He broke the seal off the new bottle.

Mitsuko put up her belt-bound hands. Yuichiro was about to hand over the bottle to her...but then stopped. He glanced over at Tadakatsu who still seemed sound sleep, then looked down at the plastic bottle in his hand.

Then he put the bottle down by his leg.

Hey there, aren't you going to let me have a drink? You decided not to spoil the prisoner because that might upset tough Sergeant Hatagami?

Yuichiro took her hands without a word instead, had her raise them, and fingered the belt around her wrists. He began to unfasten it.

"Yuichiro...," Mitsuko said as if surprised (which in fact she was), "...are you sure this is okay? Tadakatsu will be really mad."

Concentrating on her wrists, Yuichiro answered, "It's all tight. I have your weapon. Besides, how can you drink with your hands bound like that?" Yuichiro glanced up at Mitsuko again.

She smiled warmly and said, "Thank you," making her cheeks blush as she looked down.

The belt came loose. Mitsuko rubbed each of her wrists. Because the belt wasn't tight they were fine.

Yuichiro offered his bottle to Mitsuko. Mitsuko grabbed it and took two brief, delicate sips. She returned the bottle.

"That's all?" he asked and stopped wrapping his belt around his waist. "You can drink more. If we run out, we can always get more from some house with a well."

Mitsuko shook her head. "Oh no, I'm fine."

"Okay."

Yuichiro took the bottle. After he stuffed it into his day pack, he buckled his belt around his waist.

Mitsuko said to Yuichiro, "Yuichiro." He looked up.