Team Up

What does it mean to make friends? People expect it to be like the media where you will have one friend that will agree with everything what you do, and vice versa. You view the negative traits of that said friend as the parts that make them unique. The truth is that the level of negative traits can be tolerable for so long. In fact, these types of friendships are entirely fictional. You’d quit hanging out with these types of people unless you were forced to be paired up with them. However, when you are forced to be paired up, you try to make the best of it. This is the best way to describe Lia’s so called “friendship” in this chapter.

“Ow ow ow! Quit yanking my hair, you already pulled out like 20 strands,” Lia complained, as she stumbled backwards into the mysterious person that snatched her from behind.

Lia took a good look at the girl. She was very short, skinny, and pale. Her eyes looked sickly, and her hair looked like it was greying early. In fact, it was like talking to someone who is morphing into a 70-year-old. However, she still retained youthful features. She had a neatly kept ponytail, she dressed very sharp in her white school uniform, and wore brown framed glasses, which look like they belong to an old woman, which contradicts the paraphrase I mentioned. Her voice was kind of scratchy, but not in an obnoxious way.

“Keep your voice down. Do you want to become the best assassin or not?” asked the girl in a scratchy but not so obnoxious tone.

“I don’t give a shit about that anymore. YOU HEAR THAT, I DON’T GIVE A -”

“Shhh! What’s the matter with you?”

“I hate this assassin game, and playing it is not going to make me go anywhere. I’m actually trying to figure out what I’m even supposed to do now in this Limbo hell hole.”

The girl had a puzzled look, and calmed down.

“I know this school is stupid too. I knew that from the beginning. However, there is something really important that I need to figure out, and I bet the director of this school is hiding it.”

“Excuse me, did you say the director?”

The girl had a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“Yes, yes. I’ll keep it short. I had an older brother go to this school. Now, he has gone missing, and the school never told whatever happened to him. I want to find out once and for all by getting to the director himself, and forcing an answer out of him.”

Lia gave a half smile, and changed to a boisterous tone.

“I don’t know about you, but I talked to Miss Jaka just a while ago, and she says that meeting this director is pointless. According to her, the only people who want to do that are stupid people just wasting their life so they can-”

“Hey! Do you want to sit here like a dip shit the rest of your life, or do you want to get out?”

“Well, I’m not good enough for this assassin game, and I can’t get my stupid ass to graduate here.”

“Who said you need to graduate?”

The girl pulled out a book from her bag, and flipped to a random page. I don’t know what was the point other than to make her look smart.

“Everyone is so blinded by the game that they forgot about another option. Transferring schools.”

“Transfer schools? Wait, if that’s an option, why didn’t Jaka tell me?”

“Oh, I bet she knew, but maybe you just pissed her off.”

“What? There is no way I could’ve done that. Either way, don’t I still need good grades in order to transfer?”

“Of course, and I already know that option is impossible. Unless you got a little help from a somey-someone.”

The girl tapped her glasses with her finger and gave a sinister smile.

“Okay, who?”

“You know what? You don’t deserve my flattery. Unfortunately, looks like I’m stuck with an idiot like you.”

The girl pulled out her phone and opened up a contact page.

“Here, put your contact info here.”

“Aw shit, you’re going to spam me or something equally annoying.”

“I was thinking of pushing you out there and watch you suffer at the labor camp.”

“You’re right, I have nothing left to lose. Give me the phone”

Lia entered her contact information into the phone. The girl grabbed it back, and started texting. Lia got a vibration from her own phone, and saw the name of the contact. Gavria Prinsep.

“Okay Gavria, so what’s you plan?”

“This guy is going after you, Lia. You see the guy who got shot? He was definitely going after you. So now, the new assassin is going to go after you as a quick succession. Based on the trajectory of how your original assassin was shot, I think I know where to locate your new assassin.”

“Is this new assassin your target?”

“Not now, but knowing who he is will be very important. There have a been a series of attack from an assassin shooting people from discreet locations. Nobody knows who they are exactly due to how good they are at covering their traces. However, I think today will be the day I pinpoint who this person is. Once I know who this person is, I will just need to get him as a victim, and use whatever information I have to get this guy, and grab all of the merits from him, and get this asshole to quit harassing us.”

“I see. But how exactly are you going to find this person’s info?”

“I’m going to sneak to that location, and get this person when they’re most distracted. Shooting you. However, this person must be good, and takes like a second to get the job done. That’s why I’m going to text you when to go, your phone will vibrate, and you will run out on purpose.”

“Wait, I’m supposed to get shot?”

“Yeah? This isn’t even a sacrifice. You clearly said you don’t care about this game. I’m just doing what must be done to get to the top, and I’ll take you with me.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait. How do I know you’re going to take me with you?”

“You’re right, I can’t be trusted. I’ll reword it like this. I already know this game is stupid as well. I just want to get rid of this assassin, the director, and this game. Is that simple enough?”

“Uh, too simple, but this explanation is boring me now.”

“Okay, now remember. When your phone vibrates, you go. Oh, and make sure to see who the message is from quickly. We’re not doing the ‘but I thought it was you who texted me’ comedy bit.”

Gavria casually walked away into the courtyard, while Lia stood put, waiting for the text. Lia looked back at her phone and thought to herself. A friend? Did she just make a friend? If this whole plan goes through, maybe she really does have a chance of getting out of here. Or, it’s all going to end as deceit and screw over herself. But still, Gavria wasn’t stupid enough to dedicate her whole life on this game. Whether she is her friend of not, all what matters is what happens in the end. Lia thought about this interaction until her time to take action.

Meanwhile, Gavria walked by the victim and took a quick glance at the paintball splat, and took an estimate of how he was shot. She continued to walk on to avoid suspicion, but stopped in her tracks as soon as she was in an assumed blind spot. With a quick guesstimate, she ran into the school building, and seemingly used her calculations as a guiding light like some pretentious nerd. She was able to deduce the floor the assassin was on, but now needed to find the correct room.

Gavria cautiously made her way through the hall, until she found a room she believed was the correct one. The door to the room was closed with no way of looking inside. It was probably a storage room with a convenient window. Considering how high of a story she was on, and this is the only door in front of Gavria, this may be the only exit. If this is the only exit, could this door be locked, or have some sort of trap?

“Hey Gavria, we might need to change plans. I forgot to charge my phone for like three days, and it’s dead now.”

Gavria turned around and saw Lia right behind her.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

All of a sudden, a loud door slams the wall. Gavria and Lia put their attention to the noise. It was not the door, but a large billboard, with a student curling out of it.

“Oh of course, the assassin had an escape route through a fucking billboard. I should’ve known.”

“Forget that, run!”

Lia and Gavria ran towards the unknown student who wore a black mask to secure their identity. The masked student pulled out their paintball gun, and began shooting at the two girls at their critical points.

“Ow! Got me in the eyes, gah!” yelled Lia, getting paint in her mouth

“Who the fuck has an assassin game without safety equipment anyways?” asked Gavria

“Try shooting back!”

Gavria and Lia pulled out their paintball guns and blindly shot at the student. The masked student then grabbed something else from their pocket. The student unfolded the object, and revealed a large blanket to absorb the paintball shots.

“What the hell, we could do that this whole time?” asked Lia.

“Well, you’d only do that if a dumbass assassin gave chase. For example, us.”

“Damn it, just keep running. We just need a picture of this guy’s face.”

Gavria pulled out her phone and hastily tried recording.

“Come on, come on, load already!”

Lia kept pushing herself forward. Based on how they were turning corning and going up the stairs, it was obvious the mysterious assassin was headed for the roof. They burst through the doors of the roof. Lia immediately spots the assassin cornered at the fence, seemingly trying to climb over it.

“Seriously, this guy is going to jump? Well not unless I do something first!”

Lia grabs her phone from her pocket while aiming the paintball gun at the assassin.

“Take this!” heroically yelled Lia, as she stupidly chucked her smartphone at the assassin.

“Lia, no!”

Lia heard a plea to cease, then a struggling noise. Lia turned and faced Gavria, and back at the assassin. The assassin remained unmoved.

“Oh, fuck no, this is a…”

Lia took a closer look at the assassin. It was a fake life-sized doll dressed like the assassin. The real assassin had planned for this moment from the start.

“Gavria, you better have gotten that assassin!”

Lia rushed back to Gavria, who was on the ground slightly beaten.

“Damn it, I almost had him.”

“So why are you the one on the ground?”

“This guy likes to play rough. I don’t think you realize this, but this is an assassin game, not a boxing match. I wouldn’t have signed up for that, but this guy needed to do it for his convenience.”

“Well, that’s when you punch back!”

“Oh yeah, like I could really win that match. Besides, I didn’t do this to beat up this assassin. I came here for what I wanted, and I believe I got it through my struggle.”

“So, you would rather struggle than fight?”

Gavria uncrumpled a piece of paper from her hand.

“Yep.”

Lia unconvincingly looked at the paper.

“What, you were trying to grab their ding a ling through their linings?”

“Just read the stupid paper!”

Lia looked at the wrinkled paper. There was a very important exposition on the paper. It was covered with various numbers and letters. It’s obvious that this is some secret message coming from the group that signed the bottom: “Sniper Clan”.