[Team Two] Jinroh

[kira-shadow.livejournal.com]

Happy Halloween.
Maybe it's because of Halloween that I decided to write a bad horror fic.

Inspired by the fact that Kento said at the Snow Man con he went to watch that he was holding Sakuma's heart in his bare hand.



When he closes his eyes he can hear all kinds of sounds around him more clearly. Sounds that fill the place with life and with laughter. A lot of the laughter is coming from the changing room ahead of him housing his back dancers for the series of concerts ahead. Kento smiles when he enters the room and finds six pairs of eyes on him in a matter of moments.

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s play a game to pass the time.” Fukazawa suggests.

Kento is curious and asks, “What kind of game?”

“Ah that’s right, you don’t know. Snow Man are really into old school games like board or card games right now. Want to join us? We’ll be together for a bit after all,” Sakuma explains.

“Sounds fun!” Kento nods enthusiastically. He had been feeling a little lonely without his group around but ever since it had been announced that Snow Man would be backing him the loneliness had subsided a little bit.

He felt comfortable around the six of them even though there was a bit of a distance - the distance that came with being a debuted ‘senpai’ and the ones who were still ‘Juniors’. But Kento knew that the others were doing all they could to make him feel welcome. Being together for rehearsals had helped a lot - as well as being familiar with each other already. It is a weird feeling. Sometimes it is more like Snow Man are supporting him and taking him under their wing and not Kento being the headliner that he is, taking care of his juniors.

Iwamoto and Sakuma had jokingly said how they had made him an honorary member of their group and adopted him as one of their own - temporarily. Which is why he is here with them in their changing room instead of his own.

Fukazawa pulls something out from his bag. It is an old and tattered box, well used. “This is a Jinroh game I found at this antique shop in my neighbourhood. You can play it with as many people as you want and you can even keep playing for a few days at a time. So this is perfect for us since we’ll be around for a bit.” They have a couple of days of shows lined up together.

Despite that, there is still enough down time backstage to play games. Kento wonders about it - Snow Man are really busy - but doesn’t ask.

Fukazawa opens the box and pulls out cards and the rule book. There are also devices in there that look a little bit like old smartphones. Despite being from an antique shop, the game appears to be more modern than they had thought. Or maybe, at least Kento had thought.

After he finishes unpacking the contents, Fukazawa starts to read, “The game is simple. All players get a playing console and a card. After looking at the card, place it into the console to activate it and the ‘moderator’ in the main console. The moderator will then give further instructions. In this game, there will be one werewolf, whose aim it is to kill all the villagers. The villagers’ aim will be to kill the werewolf. They will get help in the form of a Seer, who can ask about other players in the game and thus, can get to know the identity of the werewolf. The game has a nighttime and daytime mode. Only one person can be killed per day. Villagers are not active at night, only the werewolf. Everyone is active during the day and has to think about who the werewolf is to kill them as soon as possible to save as many villagers as possible.”

“This will require some acting skills, huh,” Kento smiles, “Sounds like fun!”

“Alright, here are your cards.” Fukazawa hands them out.

Sakuma pipes up, “How about daytime and nighttime?”

“Why don’t we just follow clock times? We spent all day here so it makes sense. New day starts at midnight.” Miyadate shrugs. “It’s the easiest. Otherwise it’ll be hard to track things.”

“Okay, so daytime is from the moment we get here until after we finish the concerts. Then nighttime will be from after the concerts until we get back the day after?” Abe clarifies.

“Sounds good.”

They all open their cards and then set them into their consoles.

Kento tries not to let anything show on his face when his card reads ‘werewolf’. He feels excited because it’s a if not the main card in the game. When he sets it into his console some text appears on the small screen: ‘who would you like to kill?’

It’s a hard question. Kento wonders who might be a good first victim. He thinks of Abe first because the other is sharp and might figure things out fast but then again trying to dodge Abe would be more fun than to take him out from the get go. So in the end Kento settles for Sakuma because if the other is eliminated from the game, maybe he would bother other people and then blurt out some information to Kento by accident.

He types in Sakuma’s name and a small pink heart appears on his screen.

‘His life is in your hands’.

When the staff calls them out for rehearsals they all put away the playing consoles and get up.

“Well, it’s still daytime now but there isn’t much use in trying to decide on who to kill now because it could really be anybody. We have no clues.” Watanabe stretches. “So villagers will designate someone to kill tomorrow in the next cycle.”

“Sounds good,” the others agree and move to go and do the run-through and blocking before doing proper warm-ups for the actual shows.

Kento is lost in all the adrenaline and endorphins that come with doing shows. So lost that he at first doesn’t realize that some kind of darkness is starting to tug at him by the end of the second show of the day. He blames feeling lightheaded on the exhaustion but then notices that something is odd. His body is moving and doing things that he doesn’t remember telling it to. It is speaking words he is not forming.

He watches in horror when ‘he’ corners Sakuma in a dark room after all the others have left. The horror intensifies when he sees a faintly pink glowing hard appearing in his palm. When ‘he’ squeezes it, it makes Sakuma convulse in pain and scream.

The action is repeated a few times. By now, Sakuma is a heap on the floor, tears streaking his cheeks. He had been begging for ‘Kento’ to stop but he has given up now.

Suddenly there is another voice. A voice on the other side of the door and some banging.

A knot of dread settles in Kento’s stomach when he recognizes the voice. He is not the only one who did. Sakuma is suddenly up on his feet again, leaning heavily against the door. It’s the last of his strength but there is something driving him, something pushing him.

“Hikaru don’t come in. Run!”

“Sakuma you’re obviously in-”

“I said RUN!”

Iwamoto doesn’t listen and instead appears inside the room a moment later only to have the door slam shut behind him. When he tries it, he is unable to open it again. Kento hears ‘himself’ laugh darkly and then sees the fear on Iwamoto’s eyes.

Fear that is temporarily overshadowed by worry when the other kneels down to cradle Sakuma in his arms. And suddenly Kento realizes what had driven Sakuma earlier, what had given the other the strength to get up and to call out to Iwamoto.

“Why don’t you ever listen to me?” Sakuma is clutching at his chest with one hand but the other hand is reaching up to gently caress Iwamoto’s cheek. “Hikaru you dummy.”

“What the hell is going on?” Iwamoto asks. “And you’re the bigger idiot.” There is gentleness, maybe even fondness in Iwamoto’s voice when he tells the other off. “Are you hurt?”

Sakuma shakes his head weakly. “I’m not hurt but it hurts.”

“What does?” Iwamoto frowns and then looks at Kento. “Kento, what are you- what’s that?”

The other notices the heart in ‘Kento’s’ palm.

“I have his heart right here. And I’m not giving it back.” Kento can hear ‘himself’ saying and then he squeezes.

Sakuma screams in response.

“Stop it!” Iwamoto demands immediately and then, despite looking extremely freaked out, asks, “You’re not Kento. Who are you?”

Kento has to applaud Iwamoto for being pretty sharp, too. Not that it would help the other. Probably. He will his mind to be quiet then because he wants to know, too. Wants to listen.

“I’m the spirit of this game. I am the Jinroh. The werewolf. And I have come to kill all the villagers. He is going to be my first victim.” His hand squeezed shut and the heart disappeared. When it did Sakuma fell back into Iwamoto’s arms limply.

“Sakuma? SAKUMA?? Shit, Daisuke, open your eyes! This is not funny!”

A trickle of blood drips down from the corner of Sakuma’s lips. His eyes are open but they are glassy and empty. From where Kento is standing he can feel it more than see it. The other is dead. Like, actually dead.

Then his voice is speaking again, “Unfortunately I can only kill one villager per day because one move is limited to one day.”

He smirks. “But look at the time.”

The expression on Iwamoto’s face shows pure horror. It’s the expression of a person whose blood just ran cold. Very cold. The clock had just turned from 23:59 to 00:00 and now to 00:01. A new day had started.

Kento sees the screen of the console appearing in front of him.

‘Who would you like to kill next?’

Iwamoto does not see much of the new day.

When Kento wakes up again at his house, he think it had all been but a strange dream, a nightmare. But then, when he arrives at the Tokyo Dome City Hall, Iwamoto and Sakuma do not show up. They are told that Sakuma and Iwamoto had gotten injured while practicing some tricky new acrobatics together late last night and would be out of commission for the time being. Snow Man would still back Kento but only with four members.

In the Snow Man changing room, the consoles beep softly with new messages.

‘Two villagers were killed. One yesterday and one today. The werewolf is out of moves until the next day. The villagers can decide on someone to kill if they want to.’

Abe sighs softly. “Can we kill Sakuma? I sent him a message earlier scolding him and he just replied with ‘sowwwyyyy’ thing he’s obsessed with recently. It ticked me off.”

“Does he actually feel sorry for the things he does?” Watanabe snorted. “Sure. Let’s do that. If he cannot be here to play it doesn’t matter anyway, right?”

Kento wants to say something but he finds that he can’t. Something is keeping him from opening his mouth, from warning everyone about what is happening. About himself. About the fact that Sakuma’s and Iwamoto’s phones are in his bag and ‘someone’ is using them to answer messages, to keep up the pretense that they’re still alive.

So all he can do is watch.

And he is made to watch it all.

Abe is the next one who goes, having found out about him by being the Seer. So it is only logical for him to get eliminated next. The official excuse for him is that he has to take a break from activities due to school. Everyone believes it.

The agency sends in other juniors to fill in, a bunch of them, just to make sure. The remaining three Snow Man pull back a bit, take on more of a supervising role than an active one.

When Miyadate and Watanabe disappear, Fukazawa starts to get more than a little suspicious but he is kept from doing anything because Kento ‘silences’ him during the night. He cannot kill him just yet - he had to use his kills on Watanabe and Miyadate just like with Iwamoto and Sakuma - but that doesn’t mean he cannot do anything.

He tricks Fukazawa into pressing ‘pass’ on the kill decision for villagers. It dawns on the other then, completely and the horror on his face is so entirely fascinating to watch is it turns from mild suspicion to full blown terror. “I never should have brought in this game.”

“Too late now.”

Kento laughs manically when Fukazawa also goes down. This round of the game has ended. And he has won. But now that he has been freed, there was no way that he wouldn’t keep playing. After all, it was so much fun.

The thought makes Kento stop for a moment. Was he really thinking that? For some reason the line between the ‘spirit of the game’ possessing him and himself seems to have blurred. Blurred to the point where it has vanished. Kento cannot separate them anymore.

It had been him all along. He had killed all six of them and enjoyed it.

He looks into one of the mirrors and sees himself smiling, feels himself smiling. Yeah. It does not feel odd at all. This is him.

He grabs the game consoles and the box from Fukazawa and the other Snow Man’s belongings and puts them into his own bag before he goes to ‘clean up’ and hide the remains of what had been a group of six young men until a few days ago.

The next morning, Kento smiles and enters the Sexy Zone changing room. “Hey guys, I found this really cool game. Would you like to play it together?”




You're up talisa_ahn!
Sorry for taking my turn so fast but I will be ridiculously busy this week after today ^^;