The Third Wheel

The One-Shot

Sara Chidouin. Joe Tazuna. Two students from Sonobeno High School who found themselves in a game that risked their life and limb through no choice of their own. There's many ways it could play out: both of them could survive. It's just as likely neither of them do. Or perhaps just one lives to tell the tale of how their best friend was ripped away from them?

But to who? How about their mutual friend, the raven-haired girl who ASUNARO saw fit to leave behind, not knowing what became of them until it's too late to do anything about it? A girl, seventeen years of age, by the name of Ryoko Hirose? As she stands at the school gates at the end of the day, waiting to see whether she can see them again in the flesh, not from the nearby "MISSING" poster, she thinks to herself, pondering how this universal drama could end:

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In a world where both of them just as quickly as they vanished turn up safe and sound, Ryoko greets them with open arms. She however is quick to question the skull-emblazoned card that could have easily ended Joe's life, and on which Sara rode to victory on. She never inquires about the many resentful workers or bereaved parents it left in its wake, even as the boy begins crying himself to sleep every night and the girl keeps reminding them all about the need to put the horrors behind them.

They remain friends, yes, but after Sonobeno is over and done with they drift apart. Sara, missing the delicious strawberry jams she would help herself to every breakfast, eventually decides to go into the culinary arts herself. Joe, a friend to animals to the point that he would shelter a stray cat from the rain, volunteers at his local animal shelter to try and earn a little extra for him and his mother. As for Ryoko, she accepts a degree in music from a prestigious college, eager to show her skills to the world. They never forget what happened that night.

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In a world where Sara alone makes it out with her life, Ryoko is horrified to learn what went off in that facility. She hears it all from her ginger-haired companion: the card that ensured his demise, the tubes that drained his life, the switch that gave Sara false hope. The little girl who was sacrificed for logic, and the vengeful brother who had to be put down like a rabid dog. And the truth behind why Joe had to die - to try and ensure Sara's own death.

Sure, they initially try to remember Joe the best they could - through his hairclip and his dog keychain and the photos taken of the trio in happier times. But she can easily see that Sara has changed, and not for the better. Her eyes, her voice, her behaviour: it scares Ryoko now, and Sara keeps her in the dark about the true scale of the blood on her hands. When they graduate, Ryoko never sees Sara again. Sometimes, she wonders if it's for the best.

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In a world where only Joe survives the horrors of the facility, Ryoko instantly embraces her lover after he wanders back to the school gates in an empty daze. He tells a similar story to what Sara would have told if she was in his shoes: albeit with one major difference. He couldn't bring himself to kill the child, and thus her brother, bleeding out and dying alone in some rubble-covered room, sought it fit to reward him for his kindness.

The days go by quickly without Sara, and before they know it high school is but a distant memory to them, now content to live together under a single roof. The heavy darkness under Joe's eyes never goes away, not even with the knowledge that he at least managed to save two children from ASUNARO's clutches, but eventually Ryoko once again sees a sparkle that reminds her of the boy she used to know.

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But it is the worst world: the world where neither Sara nor Joe come back, that haunts Ryoko the most. She waits anxiously every day, and a week goes on before she hears the news. A CEO that she eventually comes to the conclusion was related to them arrested for running some sort of "Death Game", a young man and a little boy parting ways, and the realisation that both of her best friends are dead.

This is what breaks her. She sees herself abruptly dropping out of school, closing herself from the world to try and ensure that it won't steal another friend from her as it did Sara and Joe. She sees herself going mad from the isolation, the photos she has to remember them by eventually ruined by frequent teardrops. She sees herself staring down at the street from her balcony, contemplating how easy it would be to just give up, before throwing herself back under her bedsheets.

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Four scenarios that play out in Ryoko's head, and four too many.