WARNING! RIKA DIES IN THIS CHAPTER. Sorry. (So does Takahashi, finally! ) ---Chapter 11---
Makoto was pacing up and down the shoreline of the beach where she'd discovered Rika and Yossi together. She couldn't bring herself to look over at where her best friend lay dead on the ground, so the only other person to focus her attention was on Rika.
"Makochan, it's not what it looks like-" Rika began, but Makoto wasn't having any of it.
"Why did you kill her, Rika?! How could you be so cold? How could you kill your best friend? How could you kill
my best friend?!" She was livid, her cheeks tinged with red as she confronted Rika.
Rika tried to explain the situation as best as she could. "It wasn't me, Makochan. Please believe me! It was Takahashi... this is her gun... she shot at me but Yossi took the bullet... she saved me." Rika looked down sadly as the painful images flashed through her head once again. "I'd
never hurt Yocchan! You know that!"
"You expect me to believe that?" Makoto asked skeptically, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "I'm not an idiot, Ishikawa. Everyone's turning against each other." Her hand shook slightly as she fumbled with the bullet clip of her gun. "I'll never forgive you for this."
"Makochan, if you'd just let me explain-"
"You had a
gun, Rika!" Makoto yelled, gripping her own tightly in her hand. "You shot Yossi and you were going to shoot me!"
Rika dropped Takahashi's gun onto the ground and held up her hands. "I wasn't going to shoot you, Makochan." She looked back over her shoulder at Yossi before continuing. "I was going to shoot myself. Yossi made mr a promise... she said she'd never leave me. But she did, and now I'm all alone and I don't want to watch the rest of my friends die."
Makoto's hand lowered slightly, and Rika breathed a sigh of relief.
"Liar," spat Ogawa, and squeezed the trigger. Rika crumpled to the ground beside Yossi, and Makoto stood there silently, the gun still pointed at the spot where Rika had been standing seconds before. She mustered up as much courage as she could and hid her weapon back in her jacket before picking up the fallen gun near Rika's hand.
As she crouched down in front of her two lifeless friends, the shock of what had just happened hit her. She crawled over to where Yossi lay and took her friend's ice-cold hand in her own, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill. "Yoshizawa-san... I'm so sorry!" she cried, bowing her head in sorrow.
"Ogawa?" Takahashi's voice came from the clearing, and Makoto turned around, Ai-chan's gun in her hand. "What're you doing here?"
Makoto gestured listlessly at Yossi and Rika behind her. "Yossi's dead. So is Rika-chan." She studied Takahashi closely, but Ai's face was expressionless.
"Oh." She kicked absently at the sand with one foot, avoiding eye contact. "Well, I'll leave you alone... I just came by to see if I left my-"
"Gun?" Makoto finished for her, holding out the firearm she'd found. "This
is yours, right?" Ai-chan nodded meekly, and rage boiled up inside Makochan again. Rika had been telling the truth. It had been Ai who had killed Yossi, even if it was accidentally.
"I dropped it earlier... when Konno and I were scouting the beach... I only realized it just now..." Takahashi stammered. "I didn't touch Yossi, I swear..."
"Save it," Makoto interrupted, her eyes cold and unforgiving. Wordlessly she pointed the gun at Takahashi. This time her hand was steady when she pulled the trigger, shooting Ai in the forehead and causing her to topple over like a pile of stones. Ogawa concealed the other weapon under her clothes before turning on her heel and heading back up the path. She didn't look back.