Life is like a staircase.

[Applesintime]

((Fumiyo Fujiyoshi continued from The Top of the World))

Step by panicked step, out of breath, constantly looking behind her, she ascended.

[Applesintime]

Eventually, she reached the top, and collapsed.

[Applesintime]

Her arm hurt so much. Now the adrenaline had wore off in her mad sprint, all she felt was a burning pain. But she wasn't done, not yet.

Pushing herself up to lean against the light of the lighthouse itself, Fumiyo opened her bag, pulling out some medical supplies. All she'd really need was gauze, bandages and some disinfectant. It was going to hurt, but she wasn't going to be the girl who died of an infection before she could kill Noriko. Dribbling some disinfectant on the gauze and squeezing it so it was applied all over the bandage, Fumiyo closed her eyes as the gauze drifted ever closer to the massive gash in her arm.

"Fuck!" As soon as it touched her wound, Fumiyo recoiled, a jolt of shooting pain spreading up her arm. Biting her lip and screwing her eyes shut, she repeated the rhythm in her head that she used for bandaging stuff on the rare opportunities that Ms. Matsui gave her to bandage up other people's wounds as she gently cleaned her gash with the gauze, occasional curses slipping out of her mouth. She could taste blood in her mouth — she'd bit her lip too much.

At last it was done, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she quickly applied clena gauze to the wound and wrapped a bandage around it. It wasn't anything fancy, but she wouldn't bleed all over everything now. Setting the gun besides her, wiping some blood off of it with her sleeve, Fumiyo laid back against the light and closed her eyes.

[Applesintime]

The announcement woke her up, and Fumiyo scrambled for some pen and paper before realising that she'd left that back in the clinic, and she wasn't going to go back there. So she just listened quietly. Sakura was dead, but that was no surprise; you rarely survived being shot in the head and having your brains splatter all over the greenery behind you.

Fumiyo didn't feel sad about it. Sakura and Kazuhiko had attacked her first, so it was self defence. She didn't want to do it, but they'd forced her hand. Sakura may not have attacked her, no, but she stood idly by while Kazuhiko went for Fumiyo like a crazed dog. Yukie was dead, but after watching Keita's neck erupting like a volcano, she couldn't bring herself to be distraught about it.

Shrugging and picking herself up, clenching the gun tightly, Fumiyo walked down the steps and left the lighthouse.

((Fumiyo Fujiyoshi continued in All My Friends Are Dead))