the pros and cons of digging your own grave

[Aura]

Hirono took a breath and held it. Whatever happened to Motobuchi's hand had fucked it up pretty bad. She took another quick glance down at the strips of jacket in her hand, starting to question if she had cut enough of them out. The poor guy's fingers were basically sliced apart, with a couple of them just gone. She felt like the sight alone would make her sick, but that would only worsen both of their problems, so she needed to try to keep a cool head and a calm stomach.

However, before she could properly get down to work, she had one troublesome thing that she needed to address. That damn chunk of whatever stuck in his hand. It was big and in the way, and she needed to take care of it before she started wrapping his hand properly.

Hirono inhaled sharply. "Alright Motobuchi, I'm gonna need you to stay calm and try not to scream, because this is probably gonna suck."

With one hand, she held Motobuchi's hand steady in a way that was firm, but tried not to touch any of his more gaping wounds. With the other, she got a tight grip on the shard of metal pierced through his palm before using as much strength as she reasonably could to yank it out.

[almostinhuman]

Motobuchi did try his best not to scream. At this point, that was all he really could do; try not to give their position away while letting Shimizu fruitlessly delay his inevitable death. His body was tense and stiff in the awful anticipation of it, knowing full well how agonizing it would be. It was senseless, trying to relax, but at least he could handle the bare minimum. Maybe.

In the end, he didn't scream; the sound he made was more the whine of a kicked dog than anything.

His remaining hand immediately clapped over his mouth, stifling the pitiful noise. He stayed that way as Shimizu tended to the wounds, hyperventilating and trying not to cry.

[Aura]

Hirono winced at the noise that Motobuchi made while she tried to fix his hand. God, it felt like she was torturing him. She kept reminding herself that she was doing this to help him. If she didn't, then he was either gonna bleed out or get an infection. So she needed to try to wrap up his wounds, no matter how uncomfortable it was for either of them.

For the next several minutes, she tried to wrap the strips around Motobuchi's wrecked hand. She didn't have any real first aid skills, and it showed. She took a few tries to get it right, and she had to start from scratch a few times when the straps came undone. It was the most amateur of amateur jobs, and the only guidance she had to go off of was trying to make the bleeding stop in whatever way she could. As it turned out, this small amount of freshly-cut fabric was all she had to work with.

After a long string of trial-and-error attempts, she leaned back from her work, feeling like she had done at least a half-decent job fastening the straps in place. At the very least, she was pretty sure that she managed to cover the most serious wounds.

"Okay, be honest... how's it look?"

[almostinhuman]

Kyoichi couldn't really tell, with how dark it was and how blurred his vision was. It felt about right, maybe? At the very least it probably was the best either of them could do. He drew the bandaged hand to his chest, holding it gingerly with his other.

"... you did g-good."

He sniffled, finally managing to look Shimizu in the eye again. He wanted to smile at her, hoping that might reassure her somehow, but in his state he couldn't remotely manage it anymore. Words were all he had.

"Thank you."

[Aura]

"Thanks." Hirono said, feeling pained at the sight of Motobuchi's desperate attempt to put on a smile that didn't even make it halfway. The guy was in pain, and she could tell. Worse, she knew that she couldn't really do anything more than she already had. That haphazardly-wrapped hand was the extent of her ability.

"Look, I know it's not much but... you know." She said, not really knowing where she was taking the conversation. "I'm not a doctor, but at least it isn't bleeding as hard anymore." She just kept kind of talking without fully running her words through her mind first. She tapped her fingers on the back of her opposite hand, unsure of what she should say next. She ran a hand through her hair and looked again at the hand that Motobuchi was cradling.

"So you think you can move? Or do you wanna lie down or something?"

[almostinhuman]

"I... I dunno..."

He got the feeling the answer was 'no', regardless; he could probably move a bit if he had to, but he definitely wasn't running anywhere. But saying so might sound like an admission of defeat on his part, and Shimizu didn't seem quite ready to accept the truth of the situation yet.

"... just gimme a minute or two."

[Aura]

"Okay... just go at your own pace." Hirono said. To tell the truth, she was worried about him possibly unraveling the bindings that she had just put on his hand, especially since she wasn't sure how long they would last even under perfect conditions. She wasn't going to tell him about that, though. Poor guy didn't need any extra stress layered on top of himself right now, so she was going to be as gentle with him as she could.

"No problem, no rush. Just sit down, lie down, whatever makes you comfortable. Just us here."

[almostinhuman]

"Th-thank you."

Laying down did seem a tempting option right now, he had to admit. He laid back in the grass, hands laid across his stomach. It let him stare up at the sky, at once darker and more dazzling than he was used to, with stars dotting it in ways he'd never seen before. Better yet, it let him avoid having to look at Shimizu, and thus avoid at least some of the guilt he felt at his failure.

"I'm sorry..." he muttered, still not looking her way. "That I... I failed."

[Aura]

Hirono shook her head in response. "It's not your fault." She sighed. She was upset that they weren't free of the collars, yeah, but it didn't really seem fair to lay all the blame for that on Motobuchi. It's not like she could really expect the guy to be able to defuse them on his first go. The ones who deserved the blame were the ones who threw them onto the island in the first place. Hirono didn't know any of their faces aside from one though, so she felt comfortable blaming Sakamochi for this, just like every other incident on the island.

"We're uh... we've still got time. We can find another way." Hirono hoped that her words didn't sound too hollow. She wanted to believe that they still had a chance, but looking at Motobuchi's hand didn't inspire confidence within her.

[almostinhuman]

We've still got time. We can find another way.

How badly he wished he could believe her.

The announcements blared to life, nearly deafening to his aching head, before he could respond.

[Aura]

The crackling speaker stole Hirono's attention, and she remained vigilant as the list of names was read off. She recognized too many of those names from people she had just been around in the past day. She also noticed Nanahara's name among the fallen. She hadn't heard a word from the guy since she left the classroom, but hearing that he was gone was a sad reminder. Even a good guy like him couldn't survive something this horrible.

The list ended with Yoshimi's name, and Hirono bowed her head while putting her hand over the cigarette in her pocket. If nothing else, she had at least one person pulling for her, even if it was from beyond the grave.

Hirono pulled out her map and looked recited the areas that had been called out under her breath. She took count of all the areas that were about to become unavailable, and her finger lingered on the only place remaining: The Orchard.

"They're coming here." She states loud enough for Motobuchi to hear.

[almostinhuman]

He nodded, his face a mask of grim acceptance.

"I know."

[Aura]

"We need a safe place, somewhere that's not out in the open." Hirono observed. "I dunno how much time we've got until everyone's here, but you ain't in fighting shape right now. We need all the time we can get." She offers him a hand, the most comforting gesture that she can muster.

The two of them were half of the people left alive on the island, and that was a hard truth to swallow. Inside, she wondered what would happen if they were the last two left standing. She didn't want to picture how that might end. She wanted to maintain what they had as long as possible.

[almostinhuman]

He gingerly took her hand, unsteadily rising to his feet.

"I didn't see much for shelter out here," he admitted, "but I guess we can look again."

Truth be told, he didn't look especially hard for cover. There might be a tent or shed or something out here, for all he knew. At the very least a spot with thicker tree cover seemed likely.

There was just one important thing before they left.

"But first, could you get Veh... Vajei..."

He wasn't sure how to pronounce the name she'd given it. It occured to him even if he did, the name was meaningless to Hirono.

"Inada's gun."

He wasn't sure he was actually gonna use it for anything. Him having it might put Hirono at ease, at least, but to him it was more a memento than a weapon.

[Aura]

"Shit, right."

Hirono had her knife, but Kyoichi was still pretty much defenseless. Hell, she wasn't even sure if he'd be able to fire the thing with his one hand as fucked up as it was. Still, he could probably club someone over the head with it or something if he had to. At least that was something.

Hirono traveled to Inada's corpse, trying not to take in the gruesome sight any more than she needed to. She gingerly picked up the gun, silently wondering whether it had taken any other victims aside from the one she already knew of. For a second, she wondered if Motobuchi would even want it back, considering the memories that were probably associated with it by now. Still, he asked for it, so she figured she might as well make the offer.

She holds out the gun towards the bloodied boy. "This what you were looking for?"