29 - 27 students remaining

PART TWO

MIDDLE STAGE

31 students remaining

14

Their first night broke into a bright dawn.

Shuya Nanahara looked up and watched the blue sky gradually turning white through the thicket. The branches and leaves of oak, camellia, some kind of cherry, and other kinds of trees wove an intricate net around them and hid them.

Shuya realized several things as he reexamined the map. The island was roughly diamond shaped. The hills rose upward on the south and north end of the island. They were now located at the south side of the northern mountain, near the slope on its west side. According to the map coordinates, the location seemed to be in sector C=4. Along with contour lines, the map was detailed, including the residential area and other houses (indicated by light blue dots), various buildings (there wasn't much besides symbols indicating a medical clinic, a fire station, and a lighthouse—and then a town hall, a fishermen's coop, that was about it), and roads small and large, allowing him to check where each area was according to the positions of land formations, roads, and scattered houses.

At night he'd already confirmed as soon as they were higher up the hill that the map faithfully represented this island. Silhouettes of islands, large and small, were scattered across the black sea—and as Sakamochi had said, there was (almost exactly west of the island) the silhouette of what appeared to be a guard ship with its lights turned off.

Immediately west of where Shuya and Noriko were, the grove ended abruptly and was replaced by a steep slope. There was a small field below, and beyond it the slope continued on toward the ocean.

There was a small shack with a raised floor in the middle of the field that they had passed through last night. Seeing the worn out wooden Shinto archway ten meters away from the shack, Shuya assumed it was a shrine (which was also marked on the map).

The front door was open, and there was no one inside.

Just as he had with the other houses, Shuya decided against hiding in this shrine. There might be others doing the same thing…and given how there was only one entrance, they'd be trapped the moment they were found.

Shuya settled on a place surrounded by shrubbery relatively near the sea, where they could lie down and rest. Higher up the hill the shrubbery seemed thicker, but he thought that would also attract others, and in case they met someone who turned out to be an enemy, he thought they were better off somewhere not too steep, where it was hard to run. After all Noriko's leg was injured.

Shuya sat down against a tree, which was approximately ten centimeters wide. Noriko sat immediately to his left. She leaned against the tree, her injured right leg limply stretched out. They were completely exhausted by now. Noriko slowly closed her eyes.

Shuya discussed their course of action with Noriko, but they couldn't come up with much.

He first thought of finding a boat to escape from the island. But he immediately realized how futile that'd be. There was a guard ship out at sea and furthermore—

Shuya slowly reached for his neck and touched the cold surface of "that thing." He'd gotten used to the sensation, but it felt heavy, as if it were their inescapable fate itself, choking out their existence.

Yes—that collar.

Once a special signal is transmitted from the school, the bomb inside the collar explodes. According to rules this would happen to anyone caught in a forbidden zone, but of course the same would apply to anyone attempting to escape by sea. In fact these collars rendered those guard ships unnecessary. Even if they managed to find a boat, it was impossible for them to escape as long as these collars were on their necks.

Then—the only way out was for them to attack Sakamochi at the school and disable the collar locks. But even with that, the G=7 sector where the school was located had become a forbidden zone since the game started, so it was impossible to approach it. Besides, their locations were constantly being monitored.

He continued to think this through while the area was lit up by morning. It would be dangerous for them to move in the sunlight. He thought they should wait again for nightfall.

But here again there was another problem, the time limit. "If no one dies within twenty-four hours." The last time Shuya saw someone die was when he left the school, which was over three hours ago. If everyone remained alive, in a little more than twenty hours everyone would be dead. Even if they made an attempt to escape, by nightfall it might be too late to get their act together. Ironically, more classmates dying would buy them more time to survive. Shuya tried to shake this thought off.

They were trapped.

Shuya kept on wishing, if only they could meet up with Shinji Mimura. With his wide range of knowledge and accompanying broad expertise to apply it, a guy like Shinji could come up with a solution to their situation.

He also kept on regretting not taking the risk of waiting for Shinji after Yoshio Akamatsu's attack. Did I really do the right thing? Would I have been attacked as an enemy there? Maybe Yoshio Akamatsu had been the only exception.

No…that wasn't necessarily true. There might be a lot more "enemies." It was impossible to determine who your enemy was in the first place. Who was still normal and who wasn't anymore? But—maybe we're the ones who aren't being normal anymore? Maybe we're insane?

He felt like he was going crazy.

In the end we have no choice but to sit here and see what'll happen. But will we come up with a solution?

If that doesn't work, we can wait until night to look for Shinji Mimura—but will we even be able to do that? Even though the island was small, with a diameter of six kilometers, finding someone under these conditions wouldn't be easy. Besides, will we even have enough time between nightfall and the "expiration time"?

Furthermore—let's assume by some stroke of luck (what an expression) we end up hooking up with Shinji, or it's just the two of us, and we somehow manage to escape , we would be considered fugitives.

Unless we emigrate somewhere, we'll spend the rest of our lives as fugitives. And then one day we'll end up being assassinated by a government agent in some abandoned alley, leaving our bodies for the fat mice that come out and nibble at our fingers—

In the end…you might be better off going crazy.

Shuya thought of Yoshitoki Kuninobu. He was shaken by Yoshitoki's death, but maybe Yoshitoki was better off insofar as he didn't have to experience this insanity. This situation that seemed absolutely hopeless.

We might be better off committing suicide. Would Noriko agree to killing ourselves?

Shuya glanced over at her and for the first time closely observed Noriko's profile in the peaceful, dawning light.

She had well defined eyebrows, eyelashes soft against her closed eyes, a cute nose with its flat tip, and full lips. She was a very cute girl. He could see why Yoshitoki had a crush on her.

Now there was sand stuck to her face, and her hair hanging slightly past her shoulders was frayed.

And—of course the collar. The gaudy silver collar wrapped around her neck as if she were a slave from ancient times.

This damn game was taking away all her attractive qualities.

Shuya then suddenly felt a surge of incredible anger. And with it, he came to his senses.

We won't lose. We'll survive. Not only that, we'll fight back. It won't be some lame-ass counter-punch.

They come with a straight right punch, and I'll wail back at them with a baseball bat.

Noriko opened her eyes. Their eyes met and they stared at each other. Then Noriko quietly said,

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…well, I was thinking."

Shuya was embarrassed, because he'd been staring at Noriko, and she'd caught him doing this, so he just blurted out, "I know this sounds weird, but I just hope you're not thinking of committing suicide."

Noriko looked down, her face ambiguous, forming what might have been a smile. Then she said, "No way…although…"

"Although what?"

Noriko thought for a moment. Then she continued, "I might want to commit suicide if we were the only ones left. Then at least you would be…"

Astonished, Shuya shook his head. He shook it frantically. He had mentioned the idea randomly. He didn't expect her to respond like this.

"Don't be absurd. Don't you even think of it. Look, you and me, we're together to the very end. No matter what. All right?"

Noriko smiled a little, offered her right hand, and touched Shuya's left hand. "Thanks," she said.

"Look, we're going to make it. Don't even think of dying."

Noriko smiled a little again. Then she said, "You haven't given up then, Shuya?"

Shuya nodded with some force. "Of course not."

Noriko nodded and said, "I've always thought this, but you've always had this positive force."

"Positive force?"

Noriko smiled. "I don't know how to say this but you have this positive attitude about living. Like right now you're totally determined to live. And…" She still had a faint smile on her face as she looked directly at him. "That's what I really like about you."

Shuya felt a tinge of embarrassment and replied, "That's because I'm an idiot."

Then he said, "Even if we could escape, you know, I mean it wouldn't matter to me, because I don't have any parents. But, you…you won't be able to see your mother or your father—or your brother. Would you be all right with that?"

Noriko smiled a little again. "I can deal with that—I made up my mind ever since…this game began." She paused, then added, "What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

Noriko continued, "You won't be able to see her anymore…"

Shuya hesitated. It was true, Noriko knew a lot about Shuya. As Noriko herself said, "I've been watching you for so long now."

He'd be lying if he said it didn't matter. He'd been so into Kazumi Shintani—all this time. The thought of never seeing her again was—

But Shuya shook his head, "It's not a big deal."

He thought of adding, "It was just a one-way crush anyway," but he was interrupted by the sudden blare of Sakamochi's voice ringing through the air.

31 students remaining

15

"Good morning everyone."

It was Sakamochi's voice. The speakers were impossible to locate, but his voice came through loud and clear, aside from some metallic distortion. The speakers were probably installed not only in the school but also all over the island.

"This is your instructor Sakamochi. It is now 6 a.m. How are you all doing?"

Before he could grimace, Shuya's jaw dropped, astonished by Sakamochi's cheerful tone.

"Well then, I will now announce the names of your dead friends. First, Yoshio Akamatsu."

Shuya's cheeks stiffened. Yes, it was another death, but the announcement of Yoshio's name also meant more to Shuya.

Yoshio Akamatsu wasn't dead at that moment. Then— was he killed in an attempt to kill someone else?

Or, no, did he remain unconscious, lying there…and then blown to bits by this nice collar we're wearing because the school was now a "forbidden zone"?

Regardless, the fact that Shuya had knocked him out didn't make him feel very good.

This line of thought immediately evaporated though, with the announcement of other names of the dead.

"Next, No. 9 Hiroshi Kuronaga, No. 10 Ryuhei Sasagawa, No. 17 Mitsuru Numai, No. 21 Kazuhiko Yamamoto. And then, let's see, the girls. No. 3 Megumi Eto, No. 4 Sakura Ogawa, No. 5 Izumi Kanai, No. 14 Mayumi Tendo."

This list of names meant that their chances of survival were slightly increased, but this thought didn't even occur to Shuya. He felt dizzy. The faces of his dead classmates drifted through his head and disappeared.

They were all killed, which meant that there were killers out there. That's right, unless some of them had committed suicide.

"It" was continuing. The game was undeniably in progress. A long funeral procession, a crowd of people wearing black. A man in a black suit with a somber know-it-all face addressed them, "Oh, Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa? You two, that's right, you're a little early. But you did just pass by your own graves right here. We carved in the number you two share, No. 15. Don't worry, we're offering a special bonus."

"Good going everyone. I'm very impressed. Now then, the forbidden zones. I will announce their areas and times. Take out your maps and mark them."

Still shocked by the number of dead classmates and angered by Sakamochi's tone of voice, Shuya nonetheless reluctantly pulled out his map.

"First, an hour from now. At seven. 7 a.m. in sector J=2. Get out of J=2 by 7 a.m. Got that?"

J=2 was slightly to the west of the southern tip of the island.

"Next, in three hours, F=ll at 9 a.m."

F=ll was on the west shore of the island, but it was a remote area in the south.

"Next, five hours later. H=8 at 11 a.m."

Most of the residential area on the eastern shore was in H=8.

"That's all for now. Now then, I want you all to do your best today—"

Shuya and Noriko's location wasn't in Sakamochi's forbidden zones. Sakamochi claimed the zones were randomly selected. In any case, they'd made the right move avoiding the residential area. But their location could be included in the next announcement.

"Sakura and…" As Noriko spoke, Shuya turned to her. "Sakura and Kazuhiko's names were mentioned."

"Yeah…" Shuya moaned deep down in his throat. "I wonder if…they killed themselves."

Noriko looked down at her feet. "I don't know. But they must have been together, knowing those two, until the very end. They somehow managed to meet each other."

Shuya had seen Sakura pass a note to Kazuhiko. He and Noriko were only making hopeful observations, though. For all they knew, the two might have been killed separately, in separate places by insane classmates.

Dismissing the image of her slipping the note to him as their hands touched, Shuya pulled out his student list from his pocket. It came with the map in the day pack. It was in bad taste, but he had to mark the information down. He took out his pen, and then as he was about to cross out the names—he decided not to. It was just too…it was just too awful.

Instead he entered a small check mark by the names. He also included Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi. Shuya felt like he was turning into the man in the black suit from the vision he just had. "Let's see, you, and also you. And you. What's your coffin size? It's a tight fit, but we can offer our popular No.

8 model to you at a specially reduced price."

Enough. In any case, three out of four of Kazuo Kiriyama's gang are dead. Hiroshi Kuronaga, Ryuhei Sasagawa, and Mitsuru Numai. The only ones who weren't mentioned were Sho Tsukioka—nicknamed

"Zuki." He was a little weird. And Kazuo Kiriyama himself.

He recalled Mitsuru Numai's smug face when Kazuo Kiriyama left the classroom. Shuya had assumed Kazuo would organize his gang and attempt an escape. So what did these results mean? Maybe, even though they'd agreed to meet somewhere, they turned suspicious and turned against each other? Then Sho Tsukioka and Kazuo managed to escape—would that mean Sho Tsukioka and Kazuo were still together? No, something completely different might have happened. Shuya had no idea.

Then he recalled the faint sound of guns going off. He'd only heard it once. If that had been gunfire—then which one of these ten did it kill?

His thoughts were interrupted all of a sudden by a rustling sound. Noriko's face stiffened. Shuya immediately stuck the pen and list into his pocket.

Shuya listened closely. The sound continued. In fact—it was approaching them.

He whispered to Noriko, "Be quiet."

Shuya grabbed his day pack. They had to be able to move at any moment, so he'd put everything he needed in it. He left some of his clothes in his sports bag, but it wasn't a big deal to toss it. Noriko had also packed her bags the same way.

He hoisted the two day packs on his left shoulder. He offered Noriko his hands to help her up. They waited in a crouched position.

Shuya pulled out his knife. His right hand held it in a reverse grip. I might know how to use a guitar pick, he thought, but I don't know a thing about how to use this.

The rustling became increasingly louder. It was probably only a few meters away.

He was overwhelmed by the same tension he felt outside the school. He held Noriko's shoulder with his left hand and pulled her back. He stood up and stepped back. The sooner the better. As soon as possible!

They made their way through the bushes and came out onto a foot trail. It winded up the hill. Trees loomed above them, branches bunched together, and the sky was blue.

Still holding Noriko, Shuya treaded backwards with her for several meters along the trail. The rustling sound continued in the bushes they'd just left. The sound grew and then—

Shuya's eyes widened.

A white cat jumped out of the bushes and landed on the trail. It was scraggly, and its hair was frayed, but in any case, that's what it was—a cat.

Shuya and Noriko looked at each other. "It's a cat," she said and broke into a smile. Shuya also grinned.

Then the cat turned to them as if it had finally noticed them.

It stared at them for a while and then ran up to them.

Shuya returned his knife into the sheath while Noriko crouched, cautiously bent her injured leg, and offered her hands to the cat. The cat jumped into her hands and nuzzled her feet. Noriko slipped her hands under the cat's front feet and hugged it towards her.

"Poor kitty. Look how thin it is." Noriko said as she pursed her lips towards the cat as if to kiss it. The cat responded enthusiastically, purring, meow.

"It must be a domestic cat. It's so friendly."

"I don't know."

The government had relocated all the residents of this island for the sake of this game. (Because the Program was a secret operation until it was over, they must not have been informed.) As Noriko said, maybe this cat had been owned by someone here and abandoned after its owner left. There weren't any houses in the area, so did it get lost in the hills? Shuya wondered as he casually looked away from Noriko. He turned…

…in shock.

There was someone wearing a school coat ten meters away, standing on the trail as if his feet were glued to it. Although he was of medium height, like Shuya, he had a solid build from his training on the handball team. His skin was tanned, and he had a buzz cut. His hair stood up at the front. It was Tatsumichi Oki (Male Student No. 3).

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Noriko followed Shuya's eyes and turned around. Her face suddenly grew tense. That's right…what was going on with Tatsumichi? Was he an enemy or not?

Tatsumichi Oki stood there, staring at them. Shuya felt his field of vision grow narrow from the tension—the way it might in a speeding car—but in the corner of his eye he could still make out the large hatchet in Tatsumichi's right hand.

Shuya reflexively raised his hand to the knife tucked in his belt.

That set it off. Tatsumichi's hand, the one holding the hatchet, twitched, and then he began running towards them.

Shuya shoved Noriko, who was still holding the cat, into the bushes.

Tatsumichi was already right in front of him.

Shuya quickly lifted up his day pack. The hatchet went right into it, splitting it open so its contents spilled to the ground. Water sprayed out of the bag from the broken water bottle. The blade reached Shuya's arm. A searing pain ran under his skin.

He tossed down the torn day pack and leaped back to gain some distance. Tatsumichi's face was so wound up the whites of his eyes formed circles around his pupils.

Shuya couldn't believe it. Yes, they were in a dire situation, and Shuya had been for a moment suspicious too, but how could he?…How could that cheerful, nice guy, Tatsumichi, do such a thing?

Tatsumichi quickly glanced over to where Noriko was, in the bushes. Following his gaze, Shuya looked over at Noriko too. Noriko's face and lips froze at Tatsumichi's glance. The cat had already gone off elsewhere.

Suddenly Tatsumichi turned to Shuya and swung his hatchet sideways.

Shuya met the blow with the knife he'd pulled out from his belt. Unfortunately it was still inside its leather sheath, but in any case, there was a locking sound. He managed to stop the blow about five centimeters away from his cheek. Shuya could see the blue ripple on the hatchet blade, probably formed when it had been forged.

Before Tatsumichi could swing back, Shuya tossed his knife out and grabbed Tatsumichi's right arm, which was holding the hatchet. But Tatsumichi forced a swing, which although slow managed to hit the right side of Shuya's head. Some of the slightly wavy long hair above his right ear fell, and a sharp tear ran through his earlobe. It didn't hurt much. A silly, inappropriate thought crossed his mind: well, it's no big deal, Shinji had his pierced, after all.

Tatsumichi switched the hatchet from his right hand to his left but before he could swing at Shuya again, Shuya swept his left leg under Tatsumichi's feet. Tatsumichi's legs swayed, all right now, fall!

But he managed to stay up, teetered, and then spun around. He fell on top of Shuya. Shuya moved back into the shrubbery. The sound of crushed branches surrounded them.

Shuya continued moving back. Forced by Tatsumichi's awesome strength, he was now practically running backwards. Noriko's face was vanishing from his sight. In this unreal situation, another absurd thought crossed his mind. He recalled Little League practice. Shuya Nanahara, backwards-running champion, yeah!

Then his feet felt funny.

He suddenly recalled how there was a steep slope towards the field with the shrine.

I'm falling!

The two of them tumbled down the slope covered with shrubbery. The clear early morning sky and greenery spun around and around. But he still managed to hold onto Tatsumichi's wrist.

He felt as if they'd fallen from a great height, but it was probably only ten meters or so. Their bodies crashed with a loud thump, and they were still. The area was bathed in sunlight. They'd fallen into the field.

Shuya was crushed under Tatsumichi. He had to get up before Tatsumichi could!

But that was when Shuya felt something strange. Although Tatsumichi had come at him with the force of an air compressor, the strength in his arms had completely gone. They'd gone limp.

His face under the lower part of Tatsumichi's chest, Shuya saw why, as he looked up.

Right above him, the hatchet was lodged into Tatsumichi's face. Half of the blade stuck out from his face like the top layer of chocolate on a Christmas cake. The hatchet had landed on his forehead, neatly split open the left eyeball (a gooey liquid leaked out with his blood), and a pale blue light reflected off the blade inside his mouth.

Tatsumichi still held onto the hatchet, but Shuya was the one holding his wrists. Shuya felt a horrible sensation running at the speed of light from Tatsumichi's face to his wrists.

As if tracing the course of this sensation, blood slid down the blade, flowing from Tatsumichi onto Shuya's hands holding Tatsumichi's wrists. Shuya let out a low groan, released his hands, and got out from underneath Tatsumichi's body. Tatsumichi's body rolled over, face up, his horrific dead face thrust into the morning light.

Huffing and puffing, Shuya felt a numb urge to vomit.

The incomparable horror of Tatsumichi's face wasn't a trivial matter, but for Shuya something even more important concerned himself. Yes. He had killed someone. Worse yet, a fellow classmate.

It was no use convincing himself it was an accident. After all—he had done everything he could to deflect the blade, and therefore direct it towards Tatsumichi by twisting Tatsumichi's wrists as far back as possible.

He felt incredibly nauseous.

But Shuya gulped and held back the urge to vomit. He lifted his head and looked up at the slope he'd just tumbled down.

He couldn't see beyond the shrubbery covering the slope. He'd left Noriko alone. That's right, the important thing now was to protect Noriko. He had no time to puke. He had to hurry back to Noriko, Shuya told himself as if these thoughts would calm him down. He stood up and stared down at Tatsumichi's face and the hatchet for a while.

He hesitated but then pursed his lips together and pried Tatsumichi's fingers loose from the handle of the hatchet that split his face. He couldn't just leave Tatsumichi like this. Of course he couldn't bury him—but Tatsumichi's hatchet face was just too much. He couldn't bear it. He grabbed the handle and tried to pull the hatchet out of Tatsumichi's face.

Tatsumichi's face was stuck to it though as it came up with the hatchet. The hatchet was lodged in so deeply, it was stuck.

Shuya took a deep breath. Oh God.

Then he thought about it. No. What's this about God? Ms. Anno was a devoted Christian but no thanks to her faith in God she ended up getting raped by Sakamochi. Ah, praise the Lord.

Shuya felt another surge of anger.

He clenched his teeth and knelt beside Tatsumichi's head and put his trembling left hand on his classmate's forehead. With his right hand he pulled on the hatchet, which made a horrible spurting sound as blood sprayed out of Tatsumichi's face, and the hatchet came loose.

He felt as if he were in a nightmare. Cracked in the middle, Tatsumichi's head was now asymmetrical. It looked too unreal. It looked like a plastic fake. Shuya realized for the first time in his life how malleable and fragile the human body was.

He gave up trying to close Tatsumichi's eyes. His left eyeball and eyelid was split, the eyelid shriveled and swollen so badly it couldn't be shut. His right eye was probably manageable, but who'd want a winking corpse? It was in bad taste given the circumstances.

He felt sick again.

But he stood up again and turned around. To get back to Noriko he'd have to take the long way around up the foot trail.

Shuya's eyes opened wide again though now because…

…there was a boy wearing glasses and a school coat in the middle of the field—the male class representative, Kyoichi Motobuchi.

And this representative was holding a pistol.

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Behind his silver-framed glasses, the class representative's eyes met Shuya's. His hair that was always so neatly parted at a 7:3 ratio was now a complete mess. The lenses of his glasses looked smudged, and the eyes behind them were bloodshot and wide open the way Tatsumichi's eyes were. His face was incredibly pale, as it was inside the classroom, once again resembling a Warhol print. It didn't look human anymore.

As the gun flinched, Shuya twisted his body and ducked backwards. With an explosive pop, the gun set off a small flame. Something hot grazed the top of his head. Of course he might have just imagined it.

Anyway, the bullet missed him.

Still on his back, Shuya didn't have time to think. He just tried to retreat. The tall grass made a rustling sound under his back.

He was too close. He couldn't escape. Kyoichi Motobuchi was only several meters away from Shuya, aiming directly at his chest.

Shuya's face grew as stiff as a plaster sculpture. More than protecting Noriko, more than anything, it was real fear that caught him now, welling up inside. The next tiny lead bullet that gun spits out will kill me…kill…me!

"Stop it!" Another voice yelled.

Kyoichi suddenly turned in a diagonal direction. Shuya also followed Kyoichi's glance—

A large figure stood in the shade of the shrine. Buzzed hair, no, the head was practically bald, the prominent scars above his brows, the tough face of a thug. It was Shogo Kawada (Male Student No. 5).

He held a pump-action shotgun (a sawed-off Remington M31).

Without any warning Kyoichi shot at Shogo. Shuya saw Shogo quickly duck. As he heard the explosion from the shotgun that Shogo held in his kneeling position, sparks flew from the muzzle like a flame thrower, and the next moment Kyoichi's right arm was gone. Bloody mist shot into the air. Kyoichi gazed blankly at the half-sleeve of his school uniform. The rest of his sleeve, from his elbow to the hand that was holding the gun, was now lying on the grass. Shogo quickly pumped the shotgun and loaded the next shot. A red plastic shell flew out to the side after spitting out its pellets.

"AIEEEE!"

Kyoichi screamed like an animal as he suddenly realized what had happened. Shuya thought he would fall to his knees.

But he didn't. The representative instead ran for his arm. He pried the gun loose from his right hand with his left hand. Like a one-man baton relay. Great. Shuya once again felt like he was watching a bad horror flick. Or better yet, reading a bad horror novel.

Damn, this was bad.

"Stop it!" Shogo shouted, but Kyoichi refused and pointed his gun at Shogo.

Shogo shot again. Kyoichi's body bent over into a triangle shape, with his waist pointing out like a long jumper, but blown backwards. He landed feet first, and as if in time-lapse photography the next moment he was falling on the ground face up. He sank into the overgrown grass and remained still.

Shuya scrambled to his feet.

He could see Kyoichi's body between the blades of grass. There was a gaping hole in the stomach of the school coat, and the contents inside looked like a trash bin in a sausage factory.

Shogo hardly paid any attention to the corpse and quickly approached Shuya with his shotgun. He pumped the shotgun again and ejected the empty shell.

Shuya was overwhelmed by the quick succession of events and the horrific deaths of Tatsumichi and Kyoichi, but he managed to say between heavy breaths, "Hold on, I'm—"

Shogo stopped behind Kyoichi's body and said, "Don't move. Drop your weapon." Shuya finally realized he was still holding the hatchet.

He did as he was told. The blood-drenched hatchet fell to the ground with a thud.

That was when Noriko appeared, standing where the trail nose dived. Dragging her leg, she had made her way through the thicket, following Tatsumichi and Shuya after they tumbled down the slope. (Shuya then realized that less than a minute had elapsed since his confrontation with Tatsumichi Oki.) She'd turned pale from the gunfire, but now she was holding her breath at the sight of the sprawled out corpses of Tatsumichi and Kyoichi while Shogo and Shuya faced each other.

Shogo immediately noticed Noriko and pointed his shotgun at her. Noriko's body stiffened. "Stop it!"

Shuya shouted. "Noriko is with me! We don't want to fight at all!"

Shogo turned slowly to Shuya. He had a strange, blank look.

Shuya shouted at Noriko, "Noriko! Shogo saved me. Shogo isn't an enemy!"

Shogo looked at Noriko and then returned his gaze to Shuya. Then he lowered the muzzle.

After remaining frozen for a while, Noriko raised her hand to indicate her hands were empty, then nearly slid down the steep trail. She staggered, dragging her right leg, and as she drew herself up next to Shuya they both looked at Shogo.

Shogo stared back at them as if they were a pair of Armadillo twins. Shuya noticed that the stubble on his cheek and chin had grown a little.

"First, let me explain," Shogo finally said, "I had no choice but to shoot Kyoichi. You understand?"

Looking over at Kyoichi's body, Shuya considered Shogo's words and realized that maybe, maybe the representative had totally lost control. He might have seen me beat Tatsumichi Oki and gotten the wrong impression. Noriko wasn't around so it would have been natural.

As Shogo said, Shuya had no right to fault Shogo for his actions. If Shogo didn't kill Kyoichi, then Kyoichi would have killed Shuya. After all—he had also killed someone. Tatsumichi Oki.

He looked back at Shogo.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks. You saved me."

Shogo shrugged. "I was just trying to stop Kyoichi, but I guess I ended up doing that as well."

Adrenaline was still rushing through his body, but Shuya managed to blurt out, "I'm so glad. I'm so relieved we've met someone else who's normal."

In fact Shuya was surprised. Back in the classroom he thought if anyone was going to play the game it'd be Shogo. But not only was he not playing along, he'd managed to save Shuya's life.

Shogo stared at them for a while, as if he were thinking through something. Then he said, "So you two are together?"

Shuya raised his brow. "That's what I said."

Then Shogo asked, "Why are you two together?"

Shuya and Noriko looked at each other. Then they looked at Shogo. Shuya was in the middle of saying,

"What do you mean…" but then stopped as Noriko asked the same question, but she stopped in mid-sentence too, realizing Shuya was asking the same thing. Shuya and Noriko looked at each other again. Shuya thought Noriko was giving him the green light to speak first, but then as soon as he began speaking, his words overlapped with hers, "That's because…" Once again Shuya and Noriko exchanged glances. They ended up facing Shogo without saying a word.

A quick grin ran across Shogo's face. If he was smiling, it was the first time Shuya had ever seen him smile.

Shogo said, "All right, all right. In any case, we have to hide out. We don't want to be standing out here in the open."

29 students remaining

18

Yuko Sakaki (Female Student No. 9) was wading through the thicket. It was dangerous for her to run so recklessly, but she had to escape. That was her priority.

She played back the scene she had just witnessed in her head. The incident she saw from the bushes.

Tatsumichi Oki's head split wide open. Shuya Nanahara yanking out the hatchet from his head.

She was horrified. Shuya Nanahara had killed Tatsumichi Oki. He did it flawlessly.

Until Shuya pulled out the hatchet from Tatsumichi's head, Yuko was so transfixed she couldn't take her eyes off the scene. But as soon as she saw the red on the hatchet, fear took over. She grabbed her day pack and held her mouth shut because it would have shrieked on its own. Tears welled up in her eyes.

The sound of gunfire followed behind her, but she could hardly hear it given the state she was in.

29 students remaining

19

After Shuya and Noriko returned to the thicket where they'd settled last night and picked up their bags, Shogo remarked their view was no good here. Shuya thought he'd been thorough choosing this location, but Shogo seemed abnormally adept in this environment, so they did as he said and moved towards the mountain. The dirty cat was gone.

"Hold on. I'm going to find Kyoichi's and Tatsumichi's bags."

Shogo left them in the nearby shrubs. Noriko sat down to rest, and Shuya sat next to her. He was holding the revolver (Smith & Wesson .38 Chief's Special) Shogo had given him after retrieving it from Kyoichi's body. It made him feel uncomfortable, and he didn't want to carry it— he'd seen that grotesque one-man baton hand off—but he managed to hold it.

"Shuya, here."

She held out a pink band-aid. She must have found it in the day pack Tatsumichi Oki's hatchet had torn through. Shuya touched his right ear with his left hand. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but he felt a stinging pain.

"Hold still." Noriko drew near him and opened the band-aid seal.

As she carefully wrapped it around his earlobe, she said, "I wonder why so many of us came here. Five students, if we include Shogo and us."

Shuya looked back at Noriko. The thought didn't even occur to him thanks to all those action scenes, but she was right.

He shook his head.

"I don't know. We came here to get as far away as possible, right? We avoided climbing the hill and avoided the shore, where there's too much visibility. Maybe we were all thinking the same thing and ended up at the same place, thinking we'd be safe here, including the representative— and Tatsumichi."

The moment he mentioned Tatsumichi, he felt a nauseous pain in his stomach again. His face split down the middle, left and right out of alignment like a peanut. And this corpse was lying right nearby. Ladies and gentlemen, the magnificent Peanut Man....

Along with the nausea, Shuya's thoughts which had been numbed by the adrenaline rush of fighting finally grew clearer and the sensation of numbness finally subsided. He was coming back to his senses.

"Shuya. You're pale. Are you okay?" Noriko asked, but Shuya couldn't respond. A shiver ran through his body, and he began to tremble. His body shook as if it were vibrating. His teeth chattered uncontrollably as if dancing a crazy tap dance.

"What's wrong?" Noriko put her hand on his shoulder.

Shuya answered, his teeth still chattering, "I'm scared."

Shuya twisted his neck to the left and looked at Noriko. She glanced back at him with a look of concern.

"I'm scared. I'm scared shitless. I just killed someone."

Noriko looked into Shuya's eyes for a while, then she cautiously moved her injured right leg and sat diagonally in front of Shuya with her knees bent. Then she gently opened her arms and wrapped them around Shuya's shoulders. Her cheek touched his trembling cheeks. He felt her warmth, and his nostrils which had been overwhelmed with the smell of blood could detect a slight whiff of something like cologne or shampoo.

Shuya was surprised, but he was grateful for the comforting warmth and smell and sat still, hugging his knees.

It reminded him of the time his mother hugged him as a child before she died. As he looked at the collar of Noriko's sailor suit, he had a fleeting image of his mother. She spoke clearly, always so full of energy.

Even as a child he thought she was a stylish mother. Her face, oh man, looked a lot like Kazumi Shintani's. She was always exchanging smiles with his father who, with his mustache, didn't seem like your typical salaryman. (Wrapped in her arms, he would hear her say, "Your father works in law and helps people in trouble. It's a very important job in this country.") Some day I'm going to marry someone like my mom and then I'll be smiling all the time the way Mom and Dad are. Their smiles made him feel that way.

The trembling gradually subsided and disappeared.

"Are you all right?" Noriko asked.

"I think so. Thanks."

Noriko slowly let him go.

After a while, Shuya said, "You smell nice."

Noriko smiled bashfully. "Oh God, I didn't take a bath yesterday."

"No, you really do smell nice."

A smile flashed across Noriko's face again, when the bushes rustled. Shuya shielded her with his left arm and held the Smith & Wesson.

"Don't shoot. It's me."

Parting the thick bushes, Shogo entered. Shuya lowered the gun.

Shogo carried two day packs along with the shotgun slung over his shoulder on a sling. He took out a small cardboard box and tossed it over to Shuya.

He caught it in mid-air and opened it. The golden bottoms of bullets in neat rows. Five bullets were missing like cavities.

"Bullets for your gun. Load it," Shogo said, then put his shotgun by his side and pulled at some worn out fishing wire. He pulled at one end tightly and Shuya saw how the wire went straight into the deep end of the bushes. Shogo then took out a small knife from his pocket and snapped the blade out of its handle.

Shogo's supplied weapon was a shotgun, so, Shuya figured, the knife he must have brought on his own.

Shogo made a notch with the knife into a nearby tree trunk no thicker than a can of Coke. Then he fit the taught wire snugly into the notch and cut off the excess. He tied the remaining wire around the tree trunk in the same manner.

"What are you doing?" Shuya asked.

"This?" Shogo put away his knife and answered, "You might call it a primitive alarm system. We're at the center. The wire runs around us in a circle with a twenty meter radius. The wire's doubled. The moment it catches someone, this will be pulled and fall from the tree. Don't worry, the intruder won't even notice.

It'll provide us with a warning."

"Where did you find that wire?"

Shogo tilted his head slightly.

"There was a little general supply store. I wanted to get my hands on some things, so that was my first destination. That's where I found it."

Shuya looked astonished. Of course. No matter how small this island was there had to be at least one supply store. But the thought never even crossed his mind. Of course it wouldn't have been possible for him to wander around given how he had to look after Noriko.

Shogo sat down where he could face both Shuya and Noriko. He began sorting through a day pack that belonged either to Tatsumichi or Kyoichi. Taking out a bottle of water and some bread rolls, he said,

"How about some breakfast?"

Still hugging his knees, Shuya shook his head. He had no appetite whatsoever.

"What's wrong? You feel nauseous from killing Tatsumichi?"

Shogo examined Shuya's face and said casually, "Don't let it get to you. Let's say each person kills one person. The game's like a tournament. It's forty-two, no, forty students, so if you kill five or six, then you'll be the winner. Four or five more, that's all you'll need."

Shuya knew he was joking, but no, it was all the more offensive because he was joking. He glared at Shogo.

Sensing Shuya's anger, Shogo drew back.

"Sorry man, I was just kidding."

Shuya asked in a hostile tone, "So you don't feel nauseous? Or did you already kill someone before Kyoichi?"

Shogo merely shrugged.

"Well, this time, it was my first."

It was a strange way to put it, Shuya thought, but he had no idea what was so odd about it. He felt confused. If Shogo was the rumored delinquent he was said to be then he might be bold in a way Shuya could never be.

Shuya shook his head and changed the subject. "You know, there's something I don't get."

Shogo raised his brow. The ugly scar above his left brow moved with it. "What's that?"

"The representative… Kyoichi…"

"Hey." Shogo pointed his chin up at him to cut him off. "I thought you understood. I didn't have any choice. Are you saying I should have let him kill me? I'm not Jesus Christ, okay? Besides, I can't be resurrected, although I've never tried it out...."

"No, that's not what I meant."

As Shuya continued, he wondered whether Shogo was kidding again. Was Shogo Kawada the joking type?

"I think the reason Kyoichi tried to shoot me was that he saw me kill…Tatsumichi up close. I killed Tatsumichi. And that was because he attacked me—"

Shogo gave a light nod.

"So it was only natural that Kyoichi would try to kill me."

"That's true. Maybe. But even so I—"

"No," Shuya interrupted Shogo. "Forget about that. What I mean is that Tatsumichi…Tatsumichi came after me even though I didn't do a thing. And besides, I was with Noriko. Why did he have to attack us?"

Shogo shrugged and put his water bottle and bread by his feet.

"Tatsumichi was up for it. That's all. What's to understand?"

"No, well…theoretically, yes, but…I just don't get it. How Tatsumichi could—"

Shogo cut off Shuya's hesitant words, "There's no need to understand."

"Huh?"

Shogo's lips twisted slightly as if grinning, then he went on, "I'm only a transfer student, so I don't know much about you and your classmates. But what do you know about Tatsumichi? Maybe there's someone really ill in his family, so he felt he had to survive. Or maybe he was just being selfish. Or maybe he went insane from fear and lost his capacity for reason. Or there's even this possibility: you were with her. He might have thought you teamed up with her. How can he tell whether he's invited? You and her might have decided he's a threat. Or if you were actually playing the game, then you could use this same excuse to kill him. Hey, did you provoke him at all?"

"No…" Shuya stopped, recalling how he'd reflexively touched his knife when he faced Tatsumichi. Shuya himself had also been afraid. He'd been afraid of Tatsumichi.

"Was there something?"

"I touched my knife." He looked at Shogo. "But that's not enough to—"

Shogo shook his head. "Oh yeah it is, Shuya. Tatsumichi might have thought, I have to beat you, since you're holding a weapon. Everyone's fuse in this game is pretty short."

He said, as if to conclude the topic, "But in the end Tatsumichi was up for it. That's the best way to understand it. Look, there's no need to understand. What it comes down to is this. Once your opponent attacks you with a weapon, you don't hesitate. Otherwise you'll die. You can't afford to think about it.

The first thing you do is anticipate your opponent. You shouldn't trust people too much in this game."

Shuya took a deep breath. Did Tatsumichi really want to kill me? Then again, as Shogo said, it might be pointless to think too much about it.

Shuya looked up at Shogo again.

"That's right."

"What?"

"That's what I forgot to ask."

"So what is it? Come on."

Shuya continued, "Why are you here with us?"

Shogo raised his eyebrows. He licked his lips.

"Good point. I might be against you too."

"That's not what I mean." Shuya shook his head. "You saved me. No, you also risked your life trying to stop Kyoichi. I'm not suspecting you."

"Well, you got it wrong, Shuya. You don't seem to understand this game yet."

"…what do you mean?"

Shogo continued, "In order to survive, being in a group gives you an advantage this game."

Shuya considered this, then nodded. He was right. You could take turns being on the lookout, and you were stronger in case of an attack.

"So?"

"Think about it." Shogo nudged the shotgun resting on his knees with his hand. "Do you think I was risking much to stop Kyoichi? Do you think ordering him to stop would have actually stopped him?

Maybe I was already planning on killing Kyoichi. Did I really have to kill him? Kyoichi never struck me as the type who'd attract a group, but maybe I ordered him to stop just to put on an act for you guys to join me. Wouldn't it be in my best interests to join you guys and then kill you off later?"

Shuya stared at Shogo's face, surprised by this series of clear and logical explanations. It was true Shogo was a year older than them. But he talked like an adult—a wise, mature adult. In this sense he resembled Shinji Mimura.

Shuya shook his head.

"There'll be no end to it if I start getting suspicious. You're not against us." He glanced over at Noriko

"That's what I think."

"Me too." Noriko nodded. "If we can't trust anyone we'll lose."

"That's a noble thought, girl," Shogo nodded. "If that's the way you want it. I'm just telling you that you got to be careful in this game." Then he asked, "So what is it?"

Shuya all of a sudden remembered he was the one with the questions. "That's right. You. Why do you trust us? Teaming up with you doesn't necessarily rule out that one or both of us is against you. You said so yourself. You have no reason to trust us."

"I see," Shogo responded, as if amused. "An applied question. You're getting the hang of it, Shuya."

"Come on, I want an answer."

Shuya waved his hand still holding the revolver. Shogo drew back as if to warn him it was dangerous.

"Well?" Shuya insisted. Shogo raised his brow again. Then he revealed that faint smile on his face. He looked up at the branches looming above them and then looked back at Shuya and Noriko. He looked serious.

"First of all—"

Shuya saw something intense run across Shogo's calm eyes. He didn't know what it meant but it was intense.

"I have my reasons. I have a problem with the rules. No, the game itself."

Shogo stopped for a moment and then continued, "You're absolutely right, but…you see, I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I've always based my decisions on my conscience. So—"

Shogo grabbed the barrel of his shotgun standing between his knees as if it were a cane and looked at them. A bird was chirping deep in the woods. Shogo looked solemn. Shuya listened nervously.

"You two make a nice couple. That's what I thought when I saw you this morning, and I still think so now."

Shuya stared at him, his mouth agape.

Couple?

Noriko spoke first. Her cheeks were bright red. "You have it all wrong. We're not. I'm not—"

Shogo looked at Shuya and Noriko and grinned. Then he broke out laughing. It was an unexpected, friendly laugh. He continued chuckling.

"That's why I trust you. Besides, you just said so yourselves. There's no end once you start getting suspicious. Isn't that enough?"

Shuya finally grinned. Then he said sincerely, "Thanks. I'm so glad you trust us."

Shogo continued smiling, "Oh no, the honor's mine."

"I knew you were an individualist the day you transferred to our school."

"Easy with the fancy terminology. Sorry but I was born with these looks. I can't help it if I don't look friendly."

Noriko gave him a warm smile and said, "I'm so glad. Now we have one more on our side."

Responding to Noriko, Shogo rubbed his finger against the stubble under his nose and made an unexpected gesture. He turned to Shuya and offered his right hand. "I'm glad too…now that I'm not alone."

Shuya squeezed his hand. Shogo's palms were thick. In keeping with his appearance, it felt like the hand of a fully mature man.

Shogo stretched, passed Shuya, and offered his hand to Noriko. "You too."

Noriko squeezed his hand.

Then he looked down at Noriko's leg wrapped in bandannas and remarked, "I'd forgotten about this.

Show me your leg wound first, then we'll talk about our plans."

29 students remaining

20

The sunlight reflecting off the opaque window with the detailed patterns began to turn white. As sunlight came directly through the top of the window into the building where Yumiko Kusaka (Female Student No. 7) was sitting against a wall, she squinted her eyes. She was remembering the trite phrase repeated in the sermons given by the local priest of the Halo Church which her parents and she (before her name was even registered) attended, "The sun will come every day, blessing every one of us with joy."

Oh yeah, I am so blessed to be part of such a wonderful game, ha ha ha.

Yumiko lightly shook her short, boyish hair with a sarcastic smile. She looked over at Yukiko Kitano (Female Student No. 6), who was sitting near her, also against the wall. Yukiko remained in a daze, staring at the wooden floor bathed in light. Even though it had the bombastic name "Okishima Island Tourist Association" the building resembled a plain town council hall. Down by the lower entrance, there was an office desk, a chair, and a rusty file cabinet. The desk had a phone (she'd tried using it, but of course, as Sakamochi had warned, there was no dial tone). Inside the file cabinet they only found some unattractive tourist flyers.

Yumiko and Yukiko had been friends ever since nursery school. At nursery school they were in separate classes and lived in different neighborhoods too. They met thanks, once again, to the Halo Church where their parents took them. When they met it was Yumiko's third visit, but for Yukiko it seemed like it was her first, and she looked intimidated by everything there including the gong ringing with every chant and the general atmosphere of the heavily decorated church. So Yumiko approached the quiet girl left alone by her who were preoccupied with some other task and said, "Don't you think this is all so stupid?"

The girl looked a little shocked, but then…she smiled. They were friends ever since.

Although their names sounded similar, they were very different from each other. Yumiko was energetic and got labeled a tomboy. Even now (although the chances of that "now" returning were very, very low) she batted fourth on the softball team. Yukiko was domestic and baked cakes for Yumiko. Yumiko was now fifteen centimeters taller than Yukiko. Yukiko often said she envied Yumiko's height and her well defined face, but Yumiko was in fact more envious of Yukiko for her petite body and round cheeks.

That's right, they were totally different, but they were still best friends. That didn't change.

Fortunately (well, that's putting it harshly), the death of Yoshitoki Kuninobu (Male Student No. 7) before his scheduled departure enabled their own departures to be only two minutes apart from each other.

After Yumiko left the classroom, she hid behind a pole and waited for Yukiko, whose face had turned white. They left together (twenty minutes later Yoshio Akamatsu returned to begin killing, but they were unaware of this) and headed north far beyond the residential area, following the road on the eastern shore. A little ways up the northern mountain they found a single building standing alone on a hill. They locked themselves inside here.

…over four hours had passed since then. They were exhausted from the extreme tension and remained sitting next to each other as time flew by.

Yumiko looked away from Yukiko and along with her stared at the floor.

Even though she was in a daze, she continued to think. What in the world were they supposed to do now?

Sakamochi's announcement was audible even inside this building. Aside from Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, nine classmates were already dead. Aside from Sakura Ogawa and Kazuhiko Yamamoto…the others couldn't have been suicides. Someone was killing someone else. Right now someone might have been dying. In fact she thought she'd heard gunfire right after the 6 a.m.

announcement.

How could you kill your classmates? Of course those were the rules, but she couldn't believe there could be people who'd actually follow them. But…

But if someone tried to kill her… if she could assume that much, then she would probably fight back.

Yes.

If so, then…

Yumiko looked at the megaphone lying in the corner of the room. Could she use that? If she could…

Wasn't there something she could do? She was simply afraid of doing it, though. Not just of doing it.

Because while she couldn't believe anyone was playing the game, she also couldn't rid herself of this overwhelming fear. That's what made her seek shelter here with Yukiko. What if…what if someone really did…

But—

She recalled something from when she was in elementary school, the face of her best friend. It wasn't Yukiko. The friend was crying. For some reason, the only clothes she could remember on her friend was her pink sneakers.

"Yumi," Yukiko said and interrupted Yumiko's thoughts. She faced Yukiko.

"Let's eat our bread rolls. We won't come up with any good ideas if we don't eat." Yukiko provided a kind smile. It felt slightly forced, but it was still her usual smile.

"Okay?" Yukiko repeated and Yumiko returned her smile and nodded.

"All right."

They took out their bread rolls and water from their day packs. Yumiko looked at the two cans inside.

The cans were a greenish silver, and at the top a cigar-sized stick stuck out, attached to a lever and a metal ring approximately three centimeters in diameter. She assumed it was a "hand grenade." (Yukiko's

"weapon" was a set of darts. It must have been some kind of joke. It even came with a wooden target board.)

After she finished half of her roll and took a sip of her water, Yumiko said, "You feel a little better now, Yukiko?"

As Yukiko chewed on her bread, her round eyes grew wider.

"You've been shaking all this time."

"Oh," Yukiko broke into a smile. "I think I'm fine now. I mean with you by my side."

Yumiko smiled and nodded. She wondered whether she should bring up "what they should do" while they ate…but decided against it. She just wasn't feeling confident enough about her idea. It could be extremely dangerous. To go through with it wouldn't only endanger herself but Yukiko as well. But on the other hand, it was this kind of danger that was forcing everyone to panic over the deadline. What was the right thing to do?—Yumiko just wasn't sure yet.

They remained quiet for a while. Then Yukiko all of a sudden said, "Hey, Yumiko."

"Hm? What?"

"You might think this sounds stupid but…" Yukiko lightly bit on her small but full lips.

"What is it?"

Yukiko hesitated but then finally let it out, "Did you have a crush on anyone in our class?"

Yumiko's eyes suddenly grew wide.

Wow. This was exactly the kind of topic you discussed at night when you're on a study trip. After going through the rituals of playing cards, pillow fighting, and checking out the inn, late at night you could bitch about your teachers, or talk about the future, but none of those were in the same league as this topic. It was the holy topic. And of course she'd expected to have this kind of conversation during their study trip, until they'd fallen asleep on the bus.

"You mean, a guy?"

"Yes."

Yukiko's downcast eyes bashfully looked over at Yumiko.

"Hmm." Yumiko hesitated a little but then replied honestly, "Yes, I did."

"I see." Yukiko looked down at the knees of her pleated skirt and said, "I'm sorry I never told you, but I like…Shuya."

Yumiko nodded without saying a word. She already had a hunch.

In her mind Yumiko pulled out her file on Shuya Nanahara. He was 171 centimeters tall, weighed 58

kilograms, his eyesight was 1.2 in the right eye, 1.5 in the left, and although he was thin he was muscular.

In elementary school he was a Little League shortstop and batted first, but he quit and now preferred playing music. He was an excellent singer and guitarist. Because of his status as the team's best player during his Little League days, combined with the fact that the first kanji character to his last name meant

"seven," he had the baseball nickname of "Wild Seven," just like the cigarette brand. His blood type was B, and he was born, just as the first character of his first name indicated, in the fall. He lost his parents when he was young, and now he lived in a Catholic orphanage called the Charity House. He was best friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu (oh God and now he was dead) who also lived in the Charity House…His strongest subjects were in the humanities, literature, and English, so he was a decent student. He had a unique face, his lips were slightly curved, but his double eyelids were sharply defined and kind looking, so he wasn't bad looking at all. His hair was slightly wavy and long, covering his neck and touching his shoulders.

That's right. Yumiko's file on Shuya Nanahara was filled to bursting (she was pretty confident hers was more thorough than Yukiko's). One of the more important subjects in the file was his height. Because, she thought, if Shuya didn't grow any taller then she wouldn't be able to wear high heels with him, because that would make her taller than him if they walked together.

But now that she was sure about Yukiko, she wouldn't be able to share these thoughts with her.

"Huh." Yumiko tried to look as calm as possible. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Hm."

Yukiko looked down. Then she made the point she'd wanted to make all along, "I really want to see him.

I wonder what he's doing."

As she sat with her hands glued to her thighs, she burst into tears.

Yumiko gently touched Yukiko on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Knowing Shuya, no matter what happens—" Realizing though that this might have sounded funny, she immediately added, nervously, "You know how athletic he is, plus he seems really gutsy. I mean I don't really know but..."

Yukiko wiped away her tears and nodded, "Uh huh." Then as if she felt better, she asked, "So who do you like, Yumiko?"

Yumiko could only look up at the ceiling and force a moan, "Hmm," as she thought it through. She was in trouble. Maybe I'll just randomly pick someone just to avoid the issue.

Tatsumichi Oki was a star player on the handball team. Even though his face was kind of coarse he seemed like a nice guy. Everyone called Shinji Mimura a genius basketball player, and he knew so much.

He even had a "following" of girls who were into him. (They weren't from their class, maybe because his general reputation among the Class B girls was that he was a playboy.) Mitsuru Numai acted like he was a badass, but he didn't really seem so bad. He was kind to girls (oh God but he's dead too now). Hiroki Sugimura seemed to have a brooding quality that was kind of cool. Some girls were afraid of him because he practiced martial arts, but to Yumiko that was attractive. But he was close to Takako Chigusa. Takako would get on my back if she ever found out, she can be so harsh. But she's a good girl.

Come to think of it, everyone was, both boys and girls.

I'm back to the same question. Should I not trust them?

"So who is it?" Yukiko asked again.

Yumiko faced Yukiko again.

She hesitated again—but then she decided to let it out. At the very least, she should bring it up. After all, Yumiko was the ideal companion she could share her thoughts with.

"Can I ask you something?"

Yukiko tilted her head, puzzled.

Yumiko folded her arms to concentrate. Then she asked, "Do you really think there are people who want to kill others…in our class?"

Yukiko knit her brows slightly.

"Well…I mean the fact is that…they di—" As she pronounced the word "died" her voice trembled,

"…died. All of them. It was announced this morning. Nine students have already been killed since our departure. They couldn't have all been suicides…Besides, didn't we just hear gunfire a little while ago?"

Yumiko tilted her head as she looked at Yukiko. She spread out her hands. She noticed for the first time that her left cuff was slightly torn.

"Now look. You see how terrified we are here. The two of us, right?"

"Uh huh."

"And I think the others are in the same state. Everyone must be terrified. Don't you think so?"

Yukiko seemed to mull over her point. Then she said, "Yes, maybe. I've been so preoccupied with my own fear, that thought didn't even occur to me."

Yumiko nodded once and continued, "And because we were lucky enough to end up together it's probably nowhere near as bad as being alone, which I'm sure would be absolutely terrifying."

"Yeah, you're right."

"And what would happen if you encountered someone in that state of fear, Yukiko?"

"I'd run away."

"What if you couldn't?"

Yukiko seemed to consider the situation carefully. Then she spoke slowly, "I-I-I just might fight. If I had something I might throw it… or if I had something like a gun I might, I just might shoot it...Of course, I'd try to talk. But if it happened quickly and I didn't have any choice.

Yumiko nodded.

"Exactly. That's why I think no one here really wants to kill anyone. I think it's because we're so terrified we become deluded that everyone else is out to kill us and so we resort to fighting. And in that state even if no one attacked, we might even end up attacking others on our own." She interrupted herself, unfolded her arms, put her hands on the floor, and continued, "I think everyone's just terrified."

Yukiko pursed her small, full lips together. After a while, she looked down at the floor and said in a halting voice, "I don't know. I just can't trust some of them, like Mitsuko Souma's gang…and Kazuo Kiriyama's—"

Yumiko forced a smile and moved her sitting position by shifting her legs under her pleated skirt. "I'll tell you what I think, Yukiko."

"Hm"

"We're going to die the way things are going. Time limit? If no one dies in the next twenty-four hours?

Even if we survive that long, we'll still end up getting killed."

Yukiko nodded. She looked scared again. "That's… that's true."

"So the only thing we can do is have everyone cooperate to find some way out of here, right?"

"Well…yes but—"

"I have to tell you something..." Yumiko interrupted Yukiko and then tilted her head slightly.

"I once had a horrible experience because I didn't trust someone. I was in elementary school."

Yukiko stared at Yumiko "What happened?"

Yumiko glanced up at the ceiling. She recalled the face of her friend crying. And the pink sneakers.

Yukiko looked back at Yumiko.

"Do you remember the Egg Cats? They were such a big fad. Everybody loved them."

"Yeah, they were character figures. I had a celluloid board with them on it."

"And I had an Egg Cats tri-tip ballpoint pen. The limited edition. I mean it seems like such a silly thing now, but at the time I absolutely adored it."

"Uh huh."

"Well, it disappeared…" Yumiko looked down. "I suspected my friend of stealing it. She wanted it so badly. On top of that, I realized it was gone after first period gym class and she'd excused herself from gym because she wasn't feeling well and returned to our classroom. And, this is really awful, she didn't have a father and her mother worked at a bar, so she didn't have a good reputation."

Yukiko nodded slowly. "Uh huh."

"I bombarded her with questions, but she said she didn't know. And I even told the teacher about it. Our teacher, come to think of it, the teacher must have been biased too. The teacher told her to tell the truth.

But she just cried and said she knew nothing about it."

Yumiko looked back at Yukiko.

"When I came home, I found the pen on my desk."

Yukiko remained silent and continued listening.

"I apologized to her. She said it was all right. But it just turned out all awkward and she ended up—I think her mother ended up remarrying—transferring schools and that was it. We were such good friends, as close as you and me. But in the end I wasn't able to trust her."

Yumiko shrugged and then continued.

"So ever since that incident I've been doing my best to trust people. I want to trust people. If I can't then everything falls apart. This is different from what the folks at that stupid Halo Church preach. This is my belief. I hope you understand."

"I do."

"So let's consider this situation now. Well yeah, Mitsuko Souma does seem dangerous. That's her reputation. But I doubt she's so bad she'd actually get off on killing people. She can't be that bad. No one in our class could be that bad. Don't you think?"

Several moments later Yukiko nodded and replied, "Yes."

"So…" Yumiko continued, "…if we could just contact everyone appropriately then the fighting would stop. Then we could figure out together how to deal with the circumstances. No, even if we couldn't do anything, at the very least we could avoid killing each other. Don't you think?"

"Yes…"

Yukiko nodded, but she sounded hesitant. A little worn out from talking, Yumiko took a deep breath and shifted her legs again.

"In any case, that's my opinion. Now let me hear yours. If you're against it, then I won't do it."

Yukiko looked down at the floor in contemplation.

After two full minutes she mumbled, "Remember how you once told me that I'm always too worried about other people's opinions?"

"Hm?…Did I say that?"

Yumiko examined Yukiko's face. Yukiko looked up and their eyes met.

Yukiko smiled gently. "I think you're absolutely right. That's my opinion."

Yumiko smiled back at her and said, "Thanks." She felt grateful towards Yukiko for seriously considering the idea on her own before sharing her thoughts. And now it seemed that her response confirmed the validity of her idea.

That's right. We have to do this. I don't want to die without putting up a fight. If there's a chance then let's go for it. That's right. Just as I said to Yukiko, I want to trust people. Let's try it.

Then Yukiko asked, "But how are we going to do this? How can we contact everyone?"

Yumiko pointed at the megaphone lying in the corner of the room. "We have to figure out how to use that."

Yukiko gave several small nods and looked up at the ceiling. Then she uttered, "If all goes well, I'll be able to see Shuya."

Yumiko nodded. "Yes, I'm sure we will," she said hopefully this time.

29 students remaining

21

"All right."

Shogo tossed the needle and thread onto the day pack beside him and said to Shuya, "I need the whiskey again."

Noriko's bent right leg rested on its side. The wound on her calf was sewn up with coarse cotton thread.

Shogo had managed to stitch it up. Of course they had no anesthetic, but Noriko managed not to cry during the ten-minute operation.

Shuya offered the flask to Shogo. Next to them was a small rock pit. The empty can rested on top of the charcoal, and the water inside was boiling. (Shogo had explained how he'd found the charcoal along with the needle and thread at the supply store.) He disinfected the needle and thread with the boiling water, but applying it directly to her wound was out of the question. Shogo had already soaked her wound with whiskey before he began stitching. He was going to disinfect again. Noriko, who'd managed to relax a little, now grimaced again.

Shuya looked at his watch. Because of the time it took to boil the water, it was already past 8 a.m.

"Okay," Shogo said as he pressed the disinfected bandanna on her wound. Then he quickly wrapped another bandanna around Noriko's leg. "We're done."

He added with a note of concern, "I hope the wound hasn't been infected."

Noriko tucked in her leg and showed her gratitude to Shogo, "Thank you. That was impressive."

"Well, I'm good at playing doctor," Shogo said as he took out a Wild Seven cigarette from his pocket, put it between his lips, and lit it with a disposable lighter. Did he get those from the store, or did he bring them along for the trip? Like Buster and hi-night, they were a popular brand.

Shuya gazed at the package, illustrated with silhouettes of motorcycle riders. He had no idea what they were referring to. The cigarettes piqued his curiosity, because Shuya's baseball nickname was the same as this cigarette brand. The name came naturally. Shuya was the star player of his Little League team. He was a great clutch hitter with men in scoring position, and once he was on base, and no one else could get any hits, he could create his own scoring opportunities by stealing a base (he held the impressive record of stealing home three times in one season). When the bases were loaded, and their pitcher was in a pinch, he'd make the play to get them out of the jam, and if the pitcher was too tired, he'd switch from shortstop to pitcher. "Wild Card Nana (Seven)" hara. That's right.

In his second year of junior high he became classmates with the star shooting guard of the basketball team, Shinji Mimura. Shinji's nickname was "The Third Man," which he got during his first year when he sat on the bench as the second backup guard. But with five minutes left and their team trailing by twenty in the district finals, this third man came onto the court and single-handedly brought his team to victory.

Ever since then Shinji was a fixture in the starting lineup, and Shiroiwa Junior High turned into one of the prefecture's top-ranked basketball teams. But because of that game, and because of the kanji character of "three" in his last name, the "Third Man" name stuck.

For this year's class games, the girls as a joke made a pair of uniforms stitched with the numbers 7 and 3.

Shuya and Shinji wore these uniforms during the games. It felt like a remote world. Shuya wondered again where Shinji was. Shinji would have been a big help.

As if the thought suddenly occurred to him, Shogo searched his pockets and pulled out a small leather pouch.

He took out a sheet of white pills wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic and gave it to Noriko.

"Pain relievers. You should take some."

Noriko blinked. But then she took the pills.

Shuya said to Shogo, "Hey…"

"What?" Shogo slowly blew smoke out his mouth and looked at Shuya. "Don't stare at me. It's not that uncommon to see a junior high kid smoking. Anyway I'm old enough to be in high school. And you're the one who brought your own supply of whiskey."

So high school students are allowed to smoke? Well, that wasn't his point anyway. Shuya shook his head, "That's not what I meant. Did you find those pills at the store too?"

Shogo shrugged. "Well yeah. It wasn't exactly merchandise. I took it out of the first aid kit behind the cash register. It's not a big deal. Just some aspirin called Gomez. What an obnoxious name for aspirin, huh? Anyway it'll stop the pain."

Shuya pursed his lips. Well, he might be telling the truth, but… "I don't get how you can be so well prepared. And where'd you learn to stitch up a wound?"

Shogo's mouth broke into a wide grin. He shrugged and replied, "My dad was a doctor."

"What?"

"He ran a small dump, a clinic in the slums of Kobe. I've seen him sew people up ever since I was a kid.

In fact I was a pretty good nurse. I even did some work myself. My dad couldn't even afford to hire a nurse."

Shuya was speechless. Was he telling the truth?

Shogo held up the cigarette between his fingers, as if to cut off Shuya's response. "It's true. Just think about it and you'll see how important medicine is in these circumstances."

Shuya kept quiet for a moment, but then recalled something else that puzzled him.

" Oh yeah…"

"What?"

"You mind if I ask—"

"Skip the formalities, Shuya. We're in this together."

Shuya shrugged once and then rephrased what he had to say. "Back on the bus, you were trying to open the window. You must have realized there was sleeping gas."

Hearing this, Noriko gave Shogo a puzzled look.

This time Shogo shrugged.

"So you saw me? You should have lent me a hand."

"I couldn't. How did you know what was going on, though? I mean there was no smell or anything—"

"Oh yeah there was," Shogo replied and rubbed his half finished cigarette into the ground. "It was faint, but if you've smelled it once you'd recognize it."

"How did you recognize it?" This time Noriko asked.

"My uncle actually worked at a state chemical lab and—"

"Come on," Shuya interrupted him.

Shogo grimaced and said, "If I have to, I'll explain it later. As far as I'm concerned I blew it big time. I Should've noticed sooner. And I certainly didn't expect this to happen…but we should be focused on the present. Do you have any plans?"

If I have to, I'll explain later? That statement bothered Shuya, but Shogo was right. Their priority was to come up with a plan for their escape. He put his questions on hold and said, "We're planning on escaping."

Shogo lit another cigarette and nodded. Then as if suddenly remembering what he had to do, he tossed dirt onto the charcoal inside the rock pit. Shuya heard the sound of Noriko swallowing a pill with water.

Shuya continued. "How hard do you think it'll be?"

Shogo shook his head. "The question is whether it's possible at all. My answer would be 'extremely remote.' So what then?"

"Well even if we escaped…" Shuya lifted his hand up to his neck, to the object that was wrapped around Shogo's and Noriko's necks as well, "…we'd be immediately discovered because of these collars."

"Yep."

"And we can't get near that school."

Sakamochi had said that "twenty minutes after your departure this school will become a forbidden zone."

Bastard, "True."

"But maybe there's a way to lure him out here? Then we take Sakamochi hostage. That's how we get them to disable the collars."

Shogo raised his brow. "And?"

Shuya licked his lips and continued, "Before doing that we locate a ship and escape by taking Sakamochi with us." Even as he was saying it, Shuya knew his plan was hopeless. He hadn't even figured out how they were going to lure Sakamochi out from the school. No, you couldn't even call it a plan, just an

"idea."

"That's it?" Shogo asked. Shuya could only nod.

Shogo once again puffed on his cigarette. Then he said, "First of all, there aren't any ships."

Shuya bit his lip. "You never know."

Shogo briefly smiled and blew out more smoke. "I told you how I went to that supply store by the harbor. There weren't any boats. Not one. Not even damaged ones left on the shore. Every single boat's been taken away. I mean, they were absurdly thorough."

"Then…the guard ship will do. As long as we can hold Sakamochi hostage."

"That's impossible, Shuya," Shogo interrupted him. "You saw how many Special Defense Forces soldiers they had. Besides…" Shogo pointed to the silver collar around his neck. "They should be able to send the command to ignite these at any time regardless of what zone we're in. Anytime, anywhere. The odds are stacked against us. Even if we managed to capture Sakamochi, I'm sure as far as the government's concerned, he's expendable."

Shuya fell silent again.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Shogo asked him.

Shuya shook his head. "No. What about you, Noriko?"

Noriko also shook her head. But she had something else to say.

"That's why I suggested we gather as many people as we can, even if they're only the ones we trust, to come up with a plan together. I thought if we met together as a group we might come up with a good idea...."

That's right, Shuya thought. That's what I forgot to say.

Shogo only raised his scarred left brow. "And who are the ones you trust?"

Shuya replied enthusiastically, "There's Shinji Mimura. Then there's Hiroki Sugimura. Let's see, as far as the girls go, there's our class representative, Yukie Utsumi. Shinji is really amazing. He knows a lot. He knows so many different things. He's good with machines too. He'd come up with something."

Shogo rubbed his stubbly chin with his left hand as he stared at Shuya. Then he said, "Shinji, huh…"

Shuya looked surprised. "What's wrong?"

"Well…" Shogo seemed hesitant but continued, "I saw Shinji...."

"What!? Where!?" Shuya raised his voice. He exchanged looks with Noriko. "Where? Where did you see him?"

Shogo pointed his chin to the east. "It was at night. West of the school. He seemed to be searching for something inside a house___He had a gun, and I think he noticed me."

"Why didn't you call out to him?" Shuya raised his voice scornfully. Shogo gave Shuya a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, come on, he helped Noriko get back to her seat in the classroom. You saw that? Besides—"

Shogo predicted the rest, "He tried to have the game postponed for Noriko's injury, right? So that there'd be a chance for everyone to escape?"

Exactly. Shuya nodded.

Shogo shook his head. "You expect me to trust him on account of those acts? No way. Besides, he might have been trying to con everyone into believing he was a trustworthy guy. It'd suit him fine if he planned on getting rid of everyone later."

"That's ridiculous!" Shuya raised his voice. "How cynical can you get? He's not that kind of guy. He's—"

Shogo silently extended both of his palms forward and Shuya fell silent. He was right. Raising your voice was not a good idea. In fact it was a very bad idea.

Then Shogo said, "Cut me some slack. I don't know Shinji. Like I said before, the rule is to suspect, not trust, everyone in this game. And you have to be all the more suspicious of someone who's smart.

Besides, even if I invited him to join me, he probably would've refused."

Shuya was about to say something, but then exhaled and decided against it. Shogo had a point. In fact, it was odd how Shogo could trust him and Noriko at all. Shogo did say though that it was because they made "a nice couple."

"Well then…" Shuya continued, "we should at least go where you saw Shinji. We can definitely trust him.

I guarantee it. He'd come up with a good idea. He's—" But once again he was interrupted.

Shogo shook his head and said, "If Shinji is so smart then do you think he'd stay where I saw him?"

He was right.

Shuya sighed. It was a very long, deep sigh.

"Hey…" Noriko spoke up, "Shogo, I was wondering if there was any way we can contact others like Shinji."

Shogo shook loose another cigarette and shook his head. "I doubt it. If we were trying to reach a general, unspecified number of people, well maybe, but contacting a particular party or person would be difficult."

They fell silent for a while. Shuya stared at Shogo, who had his cigarette stuck between his lips. The tip of the Wild Seven crackled and grew shorter.

"Then…" Shuya said, nearly speechless, "there's nothing we can do."

Shogo responded flatly, "Oh but there is."

"What?"

"I have a plan."

Shuya stared again at Shogo's face wrapped in a cloud of smoke. Then he suddenly became excited and asked, "What do you mean? Is there a way out?"

Shogo looked over at Shuya and Noriko. Then he looked up at the sky in contemplation, his cigarette still dangling from his lips. His right hand touched the smooth surface of the collar around his neck, as if it annoyed him. The smoke slowly drifted by.

Shogo said, "There might be a way." Then he continued, "On one condition, though."

"What's that?"

Shogo shook his head slightly and then brought his cigarette closer to his lips. "We have to be the only survivors."

Shuya knit his brows. He didn't understand. "What do you… mean?"

"It should be obvious." Shogo looked back at them. "Meaning the three of us have to be the only ones alive. The others would have to be dead."

"But…" Noriko immediately raised her voice. "That's too much! So we're just looking after ourselves?"

Shogo held his cigarette held between his fingers over his crossed legs and raised his brow, "Shuya's escape plan would amount to the same thing, though."

"No," Shuya intervened. "That's not what Noriko's saying. She's asking you whether our survival comes at the cost of everyone else. Right, Noriko? That would just be…horrible."

"Hold on guy." Shogo waved his hand. He crushed his cigarette against the ground. "I'm not against our group expanding, as long as we can trust them. But whether we find others or not, everyone besides the ones in our group will have to die."

"If that's the case," Shuya said enthusiastically, "We could inform everyone. If you have the most reliable plan then no one will oppose it. Then everyone would be saved? Right?"

Shogo pursed his lips in response to Shuya. Then he asked in a slightly irritated tone, "What if we're attacked before we even manage to get a word in?"

Shuya took a deep breath.

"Unless you're actively out to kill people, then, relatively speaking that is, the smartest way to survive would be to stay put and hide. That's the reason why," Shogo pointed to his collar, "the government is using this to force us to move. That's one of the basic tenets of this game. Don't forget that. You move around aimlessly, and you're a walking target for someone lurking in the shadows. With Noriko injured like this, we're prime targets."

He was right.

"Besides, when you insist everyone has to be saved, that only means we might not get killed here. But what if we end up as fugitives? We'll be chased by the government, and the probability that we'll get killed in the end is extremely high. I doubt anyone would submit to a plan like that. Don't forget. You don't know who your enemies are in this game. Blindly accepting everyone could ruin everything for you."

"But no one's…"

"That bad? Can you really say that, Shuya?" Shogo's eyes grew stern. "It'd be wonderful if everyone in this class were good. But if we're going to be realistic, we have to be careful. Think about it, you yourself were attacked by Yoshio Akamatsu and Tatsumichi Oki."

Shuya had told Shogo about Yoshio's assault when Shogo was stitching Noriko's leg. Shogo was absolutely right. He had no idea what Yoshio Akamatsu was thinking. He might have been trying to kill Shuya.

Shuya sighed. His shoulders drooped down as he feebly mumbled, "Then…then we're going to let most of our classmates, the good ones, just die. That's what this means, right?"

Shogo moved his chin up and down slightly, nodding. "It's not easy, but yes. I don't know if it's going to be most of the class, though."

They fell silent for a while. Shogo lit another cigarette. He smoked too much. And he was a minor.

Then Noriko said, "Hey wait." Shuya looked back at Noriko. "You said we might escape if everyone else dies, but we could also run out of time, if no one dies for twenty-four hours…"

"Yeah," Shogo nodded. "That's correct."

"In that case, I guess your plan wouldn't work."

"That's right. But I highly doubt that'll happen. Besides, if everyone can really get along and agree to my plan then they're totally welcome. But I doubt that'll happen. So there's really no need to worry about it.

Apparently only 0.5% of the national Programs have ended due to time expiration."

Shuya blurted out,"'Apparently'? How would you know?"

"Hold on." Shogo again made a pushing gesture with his hands to stop Shuya. "We have more urgent matters at hand. You haven't asked me what my plan is."

Shuya fell silent. Then he asked, "What is it?"

Shogo shrugged. Through the corner of his mouth, which was still holding the cigarette, he curtly replied,

"I can't tell you."

Shuya knit his brows. "What?"

"Not yet."

"Why?"

"I just can't."

"What do you mean, 'not yet'? Then when do you plan on telling us?"

"I suppose when it's just the three of us left. Let me just tell you one thing, though. My plan won't work if anyone tries to intervene. So my plan can't start until we're the only ones left."

Shuya fell silent again. He stared at Shogo, who continued smoking, but then Shuya heard a voice whispering something inside his head. It was faint, but he could hear it.

As if he could hear this voice, Shogo grinned.

"I know what you're thinking, Shuya. There might be something else going on here. I might be joining you just as a means for my own survival. In fact, I might not have a plan at all. Once we're down to three, I might kill you two and win the game. That would work out nicely for me, right?"

Shuya was slightly intimidated. "That's not…"

"No?"

Shuya held his tongue and glanced over at Noriko. Noriko remained silent, staring at Shogo.

Shuya looked back at Shogo.

"That's not it. It's just that—" Shuya stopped all of a sudden.

It was someone's voice. It was very distant, but he could tell it was electronically distorted. A voice calling, "Hey, everyone—"

29 students remaining

22

The voice continued. "Listen up, everyone—" It was a girl's voice.

Noriko said, "It's Yumiko." She was referring to Yumiko Kusaka (Female Student No. 7). She was a tall, energetic girl who batted fourth on the girls' Softball team.

"I'm going to go check this out." Shogo's face stiffened. He took his shotgun and stood up. He began walking east into the thicket towards the voice.

"We'll go with you."

They weren't done talking, but Shuya tucked his Smith & Wesson in front and offered his shoulder to help Noriko up. Shogo glanced back at them, but said nothing and began walking.

Once they reached the end of the thicket, Shogo stood still. Shuya and Noriko too stopped walking.

With his back towards them, Shogo exclaimed, "Why they're…"

Shuya walked up right behind Shogo, and like Shogo he and Noriko poked their heads out of the thicket.

It was a mountain peak. There was a viewing platform between the trees scattered on the peak. It was probably five or six hundred meters away from the foot of the mountain, where they were. But they could still see it clearly. The platform was a crude construction, resembling a shack with a missing wall. There were two figures standing under its roof. Shuya's eyes widened.

The voice reached them. "Everyone. Stop fighting and come here—"

Shuya saw an object held in front of the taller figure's face—it was probably Yumiko's. Was it a megaphone? The one cops use to address criminals cooped up inside buildings under siege? It felt slightly absurd ("Put down your weapons and come out with your hands up"), but he could see how her voice could reach not only them but the rest of the island.

"And the other one?" Shuya whispered.

Noriko replied, "It's Yukiko. Yukiko Kitano. They're really close."

"This is really bad," Shogo said with a grimace. "They'll get themselves killed totally exposed like that."

Shuya bit his lower lip. Basically Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano were attempting to convince everyone they should stop fighting. They were doing what Shuya had considered but gave up on after he was attacked by Yoshio Akamatsu. They firmly believed no one really want to play the game. They chose that spot to be as visible as possible. Or maybe they were already near that location.

"I'm sure no one wants to fight like this. So let's get together here—"

Shuya hesitated. He needed more time to process the situation—plus the conversation they were having hadn't been resolved. What if—it was unlikely—but what if Shogo was against them?

In the end Shuya spoke to Shogo, "Can you look after Noriko, Shogo?"

Shogo turned around. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going over there."

Shogo knit his brows and said, "What are you, stupid?"

His putdown angered Shuya, but he simply answered, "What do you mean? They're risking their lives doing this. They have no intention to play the game. They really don't. So they can join us. Besides, you just said they were endangering themselves."

"That's not what I meant." Shogo bared his teeth. It was an odd thing to notice, but they looked remarkably healthy. "I just told you. It's best to stay put in this game. How far do you think that spot is from here? You have no idea who you'll encounter on the way."

"I know that!" Shuya shot back.

"No, you don't get it. Everyone knows about those two now. If anyone attacks them, then the enemy's going to wait for others offering themselves up like you. With more targets—"

What gave Shuya the creeps wasn't so much Shogo's warning but his calm tone of voice.

"Please—everyone come here. We're alone here—we're not fighting!"

Shuya slid his shoulder loose from Noriko's right arm.

"I'm going."

He gripped the Smith & Wesson and walked out of the bushes, but Shogo tugged on Shuya's left arm.

"Stop it!"

"Why!?" Shuya's voice grew louder. "You want me to just sit back and watch them get killed?" He raised his voice uncontrollably and blurted out, "Or is my leaving going to decrease your chances of survival? Is that it? Is that what's going on? Are you our enemy?"

"Shuya, stop it…" Noriko moaned, but Shuya wasn't finished—then he saw how calm Shogo looked even as he still held onto his arm.

Although they hardly resembled each other, Shogo's composure reminded Shuya of the former superintendent of the Charity House, Ms. Anno's elderly father. After his parents died when he was still a kid, this man, who was the only authority figure and guardian he knew, sat down with him. He also wore the same kind of expression.

Shogo said, "It's none of my business if you want to die, but if you go now and don't return, then you'll drastically decrease Noriko's chances of survival. Have you forgotten that?"

Shuya took a deep breath. Once again Shogo was right.

"But—"

Shogo calmly continued, "I'm sure you must know this, Shuya…but loving someone always requires you to not love others. If you care about Noriko, don't go."

"But…" Shuya felt like crying. "So what are you suggesting? We just let them get killed?"

"I didn't say that."

Shogo released Shuya and turned towards the peak where Yumiko continued her shouting. He held his shotgun.

"We'll be decreasing our chances of survival slightly. Only slightly." Shogo pointed the shotgun into the air and pulled the trigger. The gunpowder blast was ear-shattering. Shuya thought his eardrums had been blown out for a moment. The sound reverberated against the side of the mountain. Shogo's left hand pumped the shotgun, ejecting the spent cartridge. He followed with another shot. The sound rippled through the air.

I get it___The gunfire will scare off Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, forcing them to stop and go hide instead.

Yumiko's voice, amplified by the megaphone, stopped. It felt as if Yumiko and Yukiko were looking down where they were. But we're hidden by the bushes, so they probably can't tell who we are.

"Come on! Shoot some more!"

Shuya was riled up, but Shogo refused, "No. Someone might have already figured out our location with those two shots. Any more could be fatal for us."

Shuya considered it. Then he tried to point his Smith & Wesson into the air.

Shogo once again tugged at his arm.

"Stop it! How many times do I have to tell you?"

"But—"

"We can only hope they've hidden themselves now."

Shuya looked over at the peak. Then he heard it again. Once again, Yumiko Kusaka's voice shouted,

"Stop it! I know none of us want to fight—"

Shuya shook off Shogo's grip. He couldn't take it anymore. He wanted them to hide somewhere safe no matter what. He had his fingers on the trigger of the Smith & Wesson when—

All of a sudden they heard a distant, rattling sound like that of rapid typewriter tapping. Then Yumiko's shriek, "Urgh—" reached them. Of course her cry was also amplified by the megaphone. After a moment's pause, "AIEEE—" a scream that sounded like it came from Yukiko Kitano. This too reached them courtesy of the cheap megaphone. Under the platform roof on the mountain peak, a tall figure appeared to collapse and Yukiko's screaming continued, "Yumiko!" followed by a loud thud, the sound of the megaphone hitting the ground. Shuya heard the rattling sound again but this time it was much quieter. Shuya realized the megaphone had also been picking up this sound as well. Once the megaphone was broken, the sound was drastically reduced. And now the figure of Yukiko also collapsed into the shadows of the short trees, disappearing along with Yumiko from their sight.

Shuya and Noriko's faces turned white.

29 students remaining

23

Yukiko Kitano was crawling on the concrete floor of the viewing platform towards Yumiko Kusaka. Her stomach was burning, and she felt paralyzed, but somehow she managed to crawl towards her. Yukiko left a trail of red on the concrete, which was now a canvas of violent brushstrokes.

"Yumiko!" Yukiko let out a shriek that tore through her stomach, but she didn't care. Her best friend had fallen and was now motionless. That was what mattered to her now.

Yumiko had fallen forward, facing Yukiko, but her eyes were closed. A gooey red pond began to ooze out from under her body.

Once Yukiko reached Yumiko, she struggled to lift her forward. Then she shook her by the shoulders.

"Yumiko! Yumiko!"

As she shouted, a red mist sprayed into Yumiko's face, but Yukiko didn't even realize it was coming from her mouth.

Yumiko slowly opened her eyes and gasped, "Yukiko…"

"Yumiko! Wake up!"

Yumiko grimaced. Then she finally managed to utter, "I'm so sorry, Yukiko. I was stupid…you should…hurry…and escape."

"No!" Yukiko cried and shook her head. "We have to go together! Come on!"

Yukiko frantically looked around. There was no trace of the assailant. They were probably shot at from a distance.

"Hurry!"

She tried to raise Yumiko's body, but it was impossible. She immediately realized she could barely support her own body. The pain was much worse now, attacking her stomach as she shrieked and fell forward again. She still managed to face Yumiko.

Yumiko's face was right in front of her eyes. Her glazed eyes stared at Yukiko. She asked in a feeble voice, "You can't move, Yukiko?"

"Nope," Yukiko did her best to form a smile. "I guess not."

"I'm so sorry," Yumiko quietly apologized again.

"That's all right. We…we did what we had to…right? Yumiko?"

Now she could tell Yumiko was about to cry. Although Yukiko thought she wasn't seriously injured, she was now beginning to rapidly fade. Her eyelids grew heavy.

"Yukiko?"

Yukiko was brought back by Yumiko's voice.

"Whaaat?"

"There's something I didn't tell you when we were talking."

Yumiko smiled a little. "I also had a crush on Shuya."

For a moment Yukiko didn't understand what Yumiko was talking about. She couldn't tell whether this was because it was so unexpected or because she was fading.

Finally though Yumiko's words knocked at the door of Yukiko's heart and entered. So…that's how it was.

Then as her mind sank into the mist, Yukiko remembered a scene. She and Yumiko had gone shopping together. It was a cheap ¥3,000 bargain-sale item, but they'd found a pair of beautiful earrings, and although they hardly ever shared the same tastes—they ended up fussing over who really deserved these earrings. Finally they agreed to split the cost so that both of them would end up with one earring each.

That was the first time they actually bought jewelry. And now, as always, that earring was tucked away in the drawer of her desk at home located near the border between Shiroiwa and the neighboring town.

For some reason, Yukiko felt incredibly content. It was strange, given how she was dying.

"Really…" Yukiko said. "Really…"

Yumiko again smiled faintly. Yukiko opened her mouth just once more. She could say one last thing.

That's right, she wasn't sure about religion, but if the Halo Church had ever offered her something beautiful it was Yumiko. We met at the church, and we've been together ever since.

"Yumi…ko. I'm so happy that we've been…"

As Yukiko was about to say "friends," Yumiko's head shook with the sound of a bang. A red hole formed in her right temple—and now Yumiko merely gawked at her. The faraway look she had might have been unintentionally appropriate given their location, the viewing platform.

Yukiko opened her mouth in shock and horror when she heard another pop, this time accompanied by a blow to her head. It was the last sensation she ever felt.

Kazuo Kiriyama (Male Student No. 6) remained crouched so no one outside the platform could see him.

He lowered the Walther PPK that had belonged to Mitsuru Numai and picked up the girls' day packs.

27 students remaining

24

After the two shots were fired, Shuya and Noriko remained frozen. Above them, a hawk cried.

After checking the premises, Shogo turned back and said to them, "It's over. Let's go back."

As Shuya held up Noriko by her arm, he looked at Shogo standing above them. His lips trembled uncontrollably.

"What do you mean, 'It's over'? You could be a little more considerate."

Shogo shrugged his shoulders.

"Look, this is the way I talk. I'm not good at expressing myself. In any case, now you see, right? Some of our classmates are really up to the task. And let me just add that this wasn't something Sakamochi and his crew cooked up. They don't want to die either, so they're cooped up in that school."

Shuya still wanted to say something back, but he managed to restrain himself and began walking, holding Noriko's arm.

As they walked, Noriko said in a hoarse voice, "It's so terrible....How awful can it get?"

Once they reached their location Shogo said, "We have to get ready, just in case. We're going to move about a hundred meters."

"I thought you said it was best to stay put—"

Shogo puckered his lips and shook his head. "You saw what happened. Whoever it was, that bastard is merciless. On top of that, he has a machine gun. He probably figured out where we are. If he does, then we're better off moving away from here." He added, "Just a little. We'll move over just a little."

27 students remaining

25

Yutaka Seto (Male Student No. 12) was running frantically down the slope. He was on his hands and knees, so he was actually crawling through the bushes. His size-S black school coat covering his small body had nearly turned white from dirt. His large eyes had a childish innocence to them, but right now the class clown's face was contorted with fear. After he'd left the school building and up until a few moments ago, Yutaka Seto had been hiding out in the bushes near the northern peak, in other words approximately fifty meters below from where Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano were calling to everyone with their megaphone.

Although he was at an angle from them, Yutaka could see them clearly. He kept on hesitating, deliberating over what he should do, but finally right when he decided to join them, he heard the sound of distant gunfire. He thought he could see the two look in the opposite direction from him. Then as he hesitated over whether he should go check it out, within a matter of ten or twenty seconds he heard the sound of rapid-typewriter-rattling gunfire and Yumiko Kusaka's amplified shriek. He saw her fall. Then Yukiko Kitano was also shot down.

They were probably still alive at that point. But Yutaka just could not bring himself to come out and rescue them. After all—he was a born jokester, fighting was just not his thing, and on top of that, his supplied weapon turned out to be a fork, the normal kind you would use to eat spaghetti. Then he heard a gun being fired twice, somewhere beyond his sight. He knew then that the assailant had finished off Yumiko and Yukiko.

The moment he realized this he took his bags and slid down the side of the mountain. I'm the next target!

I know it! After all I'm the nearest one!

All of a sudden Yutaka realized he had created a cloud of dust all around him. Oh no! No! This sucks!

This blows more than your mama! Hey, now's not the time to come up with stupid jokes!

Yutaka then changed his approach, keeping his palms (his right hand held the fork, so it was clenched) and shoe soles on the ground to make sure his body wouldn't slide down the slope. He felt the skin of his hands scraping away, but he didn't care. Damn, if someone saw me now they'd think it was funny. Ladies and gentlemen, the Human Beetle.

After moving forward like this for several minutes Yutaka finally stopped. Slowly he turned around.

Through the trees he could make out the summit where Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano had been killed, but it seemed far. Everything was still. He strained his ears. There was no sound.

Did I escape? Am I safe now?

As if answering his own question, something dug into his shoulder.

Yutaka froze up with fear and shrieked, "Aieee!"

"You fool!" Someone hissed as the grip on his shoulder relaxed and instead a clammy hand covered Yutaka's mouth. But Yutaka was completely oblivious to this voice, utterly convinced he was caught by the killer, and swung the fork in his hand in a fit of fear.

The fork made a clacking sound and stopped there...For some reason, nothing happened. Yutaka nervously opened his eyes.

The figure in front of him was wearing a school coat. He'd blocked the fork with his large automatic pistol (Beretta M92F). He held the gun in his left hand. Given their respective positions, and the fact that he had his right hand over Yutaka's mouth, Yutaka's fork would have stabbed him pretty deep if he were right handed. But this guy was left handed. And there was only one left handed guy in Class B.

"That was dangerous, Yutaka."

The front of his wet-looking hair was styled with gel. His eyebrows rose at a sharp angle, and beneath them were his piercing but humorous eyes. Finally there was the earring in his left ear. It was Yutaka's best friend, "The Third Man," Shinji Mimura (Male Student No. 19), grinning at him and gently removing his hand from his mouth. Stupefied, Yutaka lowered his fork. Then he finally yelled out, "Shinji! It's you Shinji!"

"You idiot!" Shinji Mimura hissed at Yutaka, and once again shut Yutaka's mouth while he shouted from relief. Then he let go and said, "This way. Don't say a word. Just follow me," and walked ahead of him into the low bushes.

As Yutaka followed him, dazed, he gradually saw how he had descended from the top of the mountain to the more level area below. Within a matter of minutes he'd covered a good distance.

Yutaka then glanced at Shinji Mimura's back. But then he was suddenly overwhelmed by a horrible idea and felt weak in the knees.

Maybe Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano were killed by…Shinji? Then the killer chasing Yutaka would be him! But then why hasn't he killed me yet? I mean, come on, I always thought of him as my best friend, and Shinji knows that. If we're together, Shinji could, for instance, have me keep watch and help him increase his chances of survival. Then, when we're the last two left, Shinji could kill me. Wow, what a great idea! If this was a video game, that's what I'd do.

You jerk! What are you thinking!?

Yutaka shook off the thought. Shinji didn't have a machine gun—and nothing else could have made that sound. He was certain he didn't have one, and besides, most of all, this was Shinji. He was his best friend. He would never kill those girls off like that, as if they were flies.

"What's wrong, Yutaka?" Shinji turned around and whispered. "Hurry up."

Once again Yutaka followed Shinji in a daze.

Shinji continued to walk carefully. Once they covered a distance of approximately fifty meters he stopped. With his gun in his right hand, he pointed down toward his feet. "You have to step over this here," he warned Yutaka. Yutaka narrowed his eyes and noticed a thin, dull piece of thread stretched tightly between the trees.

"Is this…"

"It's not a trap," Shinji said after stepping over the thread. "There's an empty can tied to it over there.

Once it's tugged, we can hear it fall."

Yutaka nodded, eyes opened wide. Shinji had been hiding out. And this was a kind of tripwire alarm.

Impressive. The Third Man was more than just a star athlete.

Yutaka stepped over the thread.

They reached a thicket twenty meters away. Shinji stopped walking. He said to Yutaka, "Let's sit down."

Yutaka sat down, facing Shinji. He realized he was still holding his fork. He put it on the ground when all of a sudden he felt a stinging pain from his left palm and right fist. The skin had peeled off, revealing red flesh on his knuckles.

Seeing this, Shinji put down his gun and pulled out what appeared to be a day pack from a nearby bush.

He took out his water bottle and towel, doused one end with water, and said, "Give me your hands, Yutaka." Yutaka held them out, and Shinji wiped them thoroughly, but gently. Then he tore the dry part of the towel into thin shreds and wrapped them around Yutaka's hands.

Yutaka said, "Thank you." Then he asked, "So you've been hiding here?"

"Yeah," Shinji smiled and nodded. "I caught a glimpse of you from here moving around in the bushes.

You were pretty far away, but I could tell it was you. So even though it was a little risky, I went in your direction."

Yutaka choked up. Shinji risked his life for my sake.

"It's dangerous if you don't move carefully."

"Uh huh." Yutaka was about to cry.

"Thanks so much, Shinji."

"I'm glad..." Shinji exhaled. "Even if I die, I wanted to make sure I got to see you."

Now Yutaka's eyes were watering. He held his tears back though and changed the subject, "I was..

-right near Yumiko and Yukiko. I-I wasn't able to help them."

"Yeah," Shinji nodded. "I saw that too—that's how I found you. Don't let it get you down. I wasn't able to do anything for them either."

Yutaka nodded. Recalling how Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano were killed only moments ago, he trembled.

27 students remaining

26

They ended up moving approximately one hundred meters southwest of their previous position. By the time Shogo was done tying the wire around the bushes again, it was already 9 a.m. The sun was high in the sky, and the air smelled like a forest in May. The sea, which was visible as they moved through the trees, glistened a brilliant blue. Islands were scattered across the Seto Inland Sea. If they were hiking…this would have been a prime spot.

But they weren't. Every single boat that passed by circled around the island at a great distance, tiny as dots, and the nearest one was the gray guard ship in charge of the western region. Even that ship was pretty far, but you could see the machine gun installed at its head.

After Shogo was done setting the wire, he took a deep breath and sat down in front of Shuya and Noriko. Once again he placed his shotgun between his feet.

"What's wrong? You're both so quiet now," Shogo asked.

Shuya looked up at Shogo. He hesitated—and then asked,

"What made them do that?"

Shogo lifted his brows. "You mean Yumiko and Yukiko?"

Shuya nodded. After hesitating, he said, "I mean it should have been obvious. They could have anticipated that. I mean, according to the rules of this game…" he sighed, "we're supposed to kill each other."

Shogo put another cigarette between his lips and lit it with his disposable lighter. "They seemed close.

Weren't they in some religious group?"

Shuya nodded. They were very normal girls, but there was always something that separated them from the other girls, like Noriko and the neutral faction that included Yukie Utsumi and her friends. He thought it was because of their religion. "They were part of some Shinto religious group called the Halo Church.

They have a church located on the Yodo River bank, off the state highway when you're heading south."

Shogo exhaled and suggested, "Maybe that was part of it. You know, 'Love thy neighbor.' "

"No, I don't think so," Noriko said. "They weren't— especially Yumiko—very committed. They said they didn't really get it, that it was just a social thing."

Shogo mumbled, "I see," and looked down. Then he continued, "Well, the good aren't always saved, and this game is no exception. It can be the irresponsible ones that end up making it. But I respect anyone who stands by their conscience, even at the risk of failing and being rejected by everyone." He stared back at them. "They tried to believe in their classmates. They must have believed, if we could all get together, then we might end up being saved. We should commend them for that. We couldn't do that."

Shuya took a deep breath. Then he agreed, "Yeah." After a while, Shuya looked up at Shogo again. "I don't think…you're an enemy. So I want to trust you."

Noriko joined in, "Me too. I don't think you're a bad person."

Shogo shook his head and grinned. "I have to tell you, I have no talent cheating girls."

Shuya grinned back. Then he said, "So why won't you tell us? No, if you can't tell us how we're escaping, that's fine. But why not? Is it in case we meet up with other people and tell them too much? Is it because the others can't be trusted? Or that you can't trust them?"

"Hold off on the interrogation. I'm not that smart."

"I don't believe you."

Shogo rested his elbows against his knees, held his chin, and looked to his side in contemplation. Then he looked back at them. "Shuya. You're right. I don't want the others to find out about my plan, and even if you two didn't tell them, I wouldn't want the others to even know that you two knew what it was. So I can't tell you."

After Shuya thought about it, he exchanged glances with Noriko and nodded. "Okay then, I understand.

We'll trust you. But—"

"Something else bugs you?"

Shuya shook his head. "It just seems like there's no way out of this situation. So I'm—"

"Perplexed?"

Shuya nodded.

Shogo blew out some smoke and rubbed his cigarette into the ground. He ran his hand through his short hair and said, "Nothing is perfect. Most things have flaws."

"Flaws?"

"Yeah, a weak spot. I'm going to aim for that weak spot."

Shuya didn't understand. He squinted his eyes.

Shogo continued, "I know this game better than you two do."

"How's that?" Noriko asked.

"Don't stare at me with those big eyes, girl. I'm shy."

Noriko gave a blank stare and then smiled a little, asking again, "How?"

Finally Shogo said, "Do you know what happens to the survivor of this game?"

Shuya and Noriko looked at each other and shook their heads. That's right, there was one survivor in the Program. After you manage to make it through this absurd game, the Special Defense Forces soldiers shove you in front of the news cameras so they can have an image of the victor ("Smile. You must smile."). But they had no idea what happened to the survivor after that.

Shogo looked at Shuya and Noriko and continued, "The winner's forced to transfer to another school where he or she is ordered not to mention the game and is instructed instead to lead a normal life. That's all."

Shuya felt his chest well up inside and his face froze. He stared at Shogo and realized that Noriko was holding her breath.

Shogo said, "I was a student in Third Year Class C, Second District, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture." He added, "I survived the Program held in Hyogo Prefecture last year."

27 students remaining

27

Shogo's face softened as he continued, "They even gave me a card autographed by the Dictator. What an honor that was. It looked like some kid scribbled on it, though I can't remember the details, since I tossed it into recycling."

In sharp contrast to Shogo's cheery voice, Shuya took a deep breath. It was true any third-year junior high school student could get thrown into the Program, but…how could you end up in it twice? Of course if he didn't have to stay back, it would never have happened, but even so the chances were as slim as winning the lottery. But now it all made sense how Shogo was so familiar with the game, how he noticed the sleeping gas, and of course, the scars all over his body…but if it was true—it was completely outrageous!

"That's…" Shuya said, "that's outrageous."

Shogo shrugged. "The game was in July, but because I suffered heavy injuries, I was hospitalized for a long time. It gave me time though to study a bunch of things including stuff about this country—but only while lying in bed. The nurses and staff were really generous and brought me books from the library. I guess the hospital was my school. In any case, that was how I ended up repeating third year all over again. But…"

Shogo looked at them.

"…I have to say, even I didn't expect I'd be in this game again."

That's right. Shuya recalled their recent—actually it was already three hours ago—conversation. When Shuya asked, "Did you already kill someone before Kyoichi?" and Shogo had answered, "Well, this time, it was my first."

Noriko then asked. "So those who've been selected…" She rephrased the question, perhaps thinking that it sounded too much like winning a sweepstakes prize, "So the ones who've been in it already aren't exempt?"

Shogo grinned. "I suppose not, since I'm here. From what we're told, classes are chosen randomly by computer, right? My experience gives me the upper hand, but I guess the computer doesn't exclude me.

So here's another case of perverted equality."

Shogo cupped his hands around the lighter and lit another cigarette.

"Now you understand how I detected the gas odor. Not to mention…" he pointed at the scar above his left brow, "this scar."

"How could they?" Noriko said as if she were about to cry. "It's too awful."

"Come on, Noriko." Shogo broke into a smile. "Now I get the chance to save you guys."

Shuya offered his hand to Shogo.

"What's this? I can't read your palm."

Shuya smiled and shook his head. Then he said, "I'm sorry I suspected you. A handshake. We're sticking together till the very end."

Shogo replied, "All right." He gripped Shuya's hand and shook it. Noriko smiled in relief.

27 students remaining

28

Kinpatsu Sakamochi (supervisor) was sitting at his faculty desk, rummaging through some scattered documents. To the north and south of him, a Special Defense Forces soldier stood by steel-plated windows equipped with gun ports. The lights inside stayed on because the building let hardly any sunlight in. Five or six soldiers were sitting at a desk facing Sakamochi, staring at a row of desktop computer monitors. Another three soldiers were wearing headphones connected to another machine that wasn't a computer. On the west wall was a large generator powering the lights, computers and other equipment.

The generator's low hum filled up the room over the sound insulation. The other soldiers were taking a break in the room the students had been in.

"Now then, Yumiko Kusaka died at 8:42 a.m. and, uh huh, Yukiko Kitano, she also died at forty-two minutes after the hour." He combed his long hair back behind his ears. "Ahh—I'm so busy!"

The old black phone on the desk rang, and with his pen still in hand, Sakamochi distractedly picked up the receiver.

"Yes, this is Okishima Island School, Third Year Class B, Shiroiwa Junior High School Program Headquarters," Sakamochi answered haphazardly, when all of a sudden he stood up straight, cradling the receiver with both hands.

"Yes sir. This is Sakamochi, Superintendent. I appreciate all you've recently done for us. Yes sir. My second kid just turned two. Yes, and the wife's getting bigger by the day with the third. Oh, no. Well, we just want to contribute to our nation, joining the fight against its dwindling youth population. And how can I help you, sir?"

Sakamochi listened for a while, and then smiled, "Ah ha. My oh my. So you've got your money on Shogo Kawada? I'm betting on Kazuo Kiriyama. I have my money on him. Well, yes, Shogo Kawada is serious competition. He has experience, which is almost unheard of. Of course he's still alive. And how are you, sir? My, that's impressive. Excuse me? The current status? I believe you have access to it on the monitor.

The central government's top secret website—oh, you're not good with computers? Uh, well sir, then yes, if you could just hold on a moment, sir."

Sakamochi put down his receiver for a moment and then called on a tough looking soldier sitting in front of the monitors, "Hey, Kato. Is Kawada still with those two?"

The soldier named Kato tapped silently on his keyboard and curtly replied, "He is."

The radar in the students' collars enabled them to plot out each student's location on a map on the monitor. Sakamochi was about to frown at Kato's gruff attitude, but then realized how Kato was only one of the many problem students he'd had ever since he was a junior high school teacher, so it was nothing new. He picked up the receiver.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Let's see. Shogo Kawada is proceeding with two other students. That's Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa. Let's see. Well, they're actually talking about escaping together. Would you like to hear our recording of their conversations? Oh yes, sir. Hmm, I'm not sure if he is sincere. I mean it's hard to say, but I'd say it's a bluff. Probably. I mean it's impossible to escape.

Oh, and yes, hold on, one moment, sir. Documents, documents. Yes, Shogo Kawada, right? He didn't appear to have been the controversial type at his previous school. No anti-government actions or statements. Yes. His father died during the previous game. Looks like his father got drunk and provoked the government…but apparently Kawada himself said, 'Good riddance. He was a bastard anyway.'

Hmmm, they probably didn't get along. Maybe his father insisted on some compensation. Yessir. If that's so, then he's better off with those two than fighting alone. Shuya Nanahara is an excellent athlete, so he'll be useful. Although Noriko Nakagawa is injured. Yes, our Tahara shot her. Yes, of course. They totally trust Shogo Kawada. Helping an injured girl, I mean, how brilliant. His conversation has been most impressive."

Offering a subservient smile, Sakamochi raised his brow in response to his caller. He combed back the hair over his right ear with his free right hand.

"Whaaat?" he replied. "That can't be. I mean that occurred in March. I did receive the report. But if that's true, then right now…yessir. The central government officials are always prone to exaggeration. Besides, these are junior high school kids. Then they would have known we were listening in on them. Right now there are no signs that any of these students know this. Yessir. So…yes, yes, yessir. Very well then. Oh no, please, I couldn't possibly accept…well, if you must insist then, thank you very much, sir. Yes, yes.

Well then, goodbye."

Sakamochi took a deep breath and hung up the phone. He held up his pen again and exclaimed, "I'm so busy!" He combed back his hair and began to write frantically on his documents, as if he were clinging to them.

27 students remaining

29

When Shinji first found Yutaka Seto, he seemed on edge from the shock of witnessing the deaths of Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, but after a while he seemed to calm down. In a spot beyond the thick branches, where the warm sunlight poured in, Shinji Mimura was listening closely again. There didn't seem to be anyone else around. Only the sound of a little bird chirping. Whoever killed Yumiko and Yukiko didn't seem to have noticed Yutaka and Shinji. Still, he had to be careful.

"Relax when you have to. But also be on your toes when you have to. The point is, make no errors of judgment."

His uncle had told him this. He was the one who taught him everything. Starting with basketball, he was the man most responsible for the education of the boy known as The Third Man. His uncle had also taught him computer basics. When his uncle showed him how to access foreign internet connections, he warned Shinji, you can never be too careful. And now was one of those times he had to be on his toes.

That much was certain.

"Hey, Shinji." Shinji looked back at Yutaka. Yutaka was leaning against a tree, hugging his knees, staring between them. "Come to think of it, I should have been waiting for you in front of the school. Then we could have been together from the start." He looked up at Shinji. "But I was too scared..."

Shinji crossed his arms with his Beretta in his left hand.

"I don't know about that. That might have been dangerous."

That's right, Shinji realized, Yutaka probably didn't know that Mayumi Tendo and Yoshio Akamatsu were killed in front of the school. Besides—

That was when he realized Yutaka was crying. His eyes were filled with tears which began to flow down his cheeks, tracing two thin, white lines down his dirty face.

"What's wrong?" Shinji asked kindly.

"I…" Yutaka lifted his wounded fist and wiped his eyes with a strip from the towel Shinji had wrapped around his hand. "I'm so pathetic. I-I'm a fool and a coward—" He stopped and then said as if spitting up something stuck in his throat, "I wasn't able to save her."

Shinji lifted his brow and glanced at his friend. This was something he didn't bring up, but since Yutaka did…

Shinji said slowly, "You mean Izumi Kanai."

Yutaka nodded, still hunched over.

Shinji remembered being in Yutaka's room when Yutaka told him, with a mix of pride and embarrassment, "I like Izumi Kanai." And Izumi Kanai ended up being one of the first to die. They were informed of her death by the 6 a.m. announcement. He had no idea where she died. He only knew she died somewhere on the island.

"There wasn't…anything you could do, though," Shinji said, "Izumi left before you did."

"But I…" Yutaka continued, his head still hunched over. "I couldn't even find Izumi…1 was so scared…1 thought, no, it couldn't happen to her, she's all right…I tried convincing myself. Then at six o'clock she was already…"

Shinji listened without saying a word. He heard the chirping again up in the treetops. There might have been another bird. The chirping overlapped, as if the birds were talking to each other.

Suddenly Yutaka looked up at Shinji. "I made up my mind," he said.

"About?"

His eyes still wet, he directly looked at Shinji. "Revenge. I'm gonna kill that bastard Sakamochi and the rest of the fucking government."

Shinji was surprised. He stared at Yutaka.

Of course he was also totally pissed off at this game and the government that ran it. He didn't really know Shuya Nanahara's best friend Yoshitoki Kuninobu very well—he was a little too laid back for Shinji—but he was a nice guy. And the government brutally murdered him. Then Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, and now as Yutaka said, Izumi Kanai, and then others like Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, killed right before their eyes, and then more classmates. But—

"But…you might as well be committing suicide."

"I don't care if I die. What else can I do for Izumi now?" Yutaka stopped and looked at Shinji. "Is it ridiculous for a wimp like me to be saying this?"

"No…" Shinji paused a bit and then shook his head. "Not at all, Yutaka."

Shinji stared back at Yutaka and then looked up at the cluster of branches above them. He wasn't surprised by Yutaka's sudden emotional outburst, though it wasn't part of with his clownish persona.

Here was another side of Yutaka. That's why they'd been friends for so long. But—

"I don't care if I die. What else can I do for Izumi now?"

I wonder what it's like to feel that way about a girl, Shinji wondered as he stared at the olive-colored layer of tree leaves shining brilliantly in the direct sunlight. He had dated girls and slept with three in fact (not bad for a junior high kid, huh?), but he'd never felt that way about a girl the way Yutaka did.

Maybe it had something to do with his parents not getting along. His father saw another woman.

(Apparently he was an excellent bureaucrat, but though it might have been presumptuous for his kid to be saying this, he was a vile man. It was unbelievable he could be the brother of Shinji's uncle, who radiated brilliance.) His mother couldn't hold anything against his father, and so whether it was flower arrangement or a women's group, she went from one hobby to another, lost in her own world. They had normal conversations. They did what was necessary. But they didn't trust each other, and they didn't help each other. Their mutual disgust accumulated as they grew older....Well maybe that was what most parents were like.

Meanwhile…ever since Shinji Mimura became his school's star basketball player, he got popular with the girls— so going out with them was easy. Kissing them was easy. Then after a while sleeping with them was easy too. But…he never fell in love with anyone.

Regrettably he had no opportunity to bring this up with his uncle who always had the right answer for everything. It only concerned him recently, and it was already two years since his uncle's death.

The earring on Shinji's left ear came from him. His uncle always had it with him. He told Shinji, "The woman I loved wore this. She died a long time ago though." It was one of Shinji's prized possessions.

After his uncle's death, he took it as a keepsake without anyone's permission. He could hear his uncle saying, "You'll end up becoming jaded at that rate. It's not a bad thing to love someone and be loved by someone. Hurry up and find yourself a nice girl."

But he still never found someone he could really fall for.

He remembered how his precocious sister, Ikumi, who was three years younger than him, asked, "Do you want a romantic marriage or an arranged marriage?" and how he'd answered, "I may end up not getting married at all."

Ikumi. Shinji thought of his sister. I hope you fall in love with someone nice and have a good marriage. I might end up dying without knowing what it's like to be in love.

Shinji looked back at Yutaka. "Can I ask you something, Yutaka? I'll apologize in advance if it sounds offensive."

Yutaka looked blankly at him. "What is it?"

"What was so great about Izumi?"

Yutaka stared at Shinji and then his tear-drenched face broke into a smile. Maybe this would be his way of offering his bouquet of flowers to the dead.

"I don't know how to say it, but she was so pretty."

"Pretty?" Shinji repeated, then quickly added, "I mean, I'm not saying she wasn't."

Izumi Kanai, well, she wasn't a dog for sure, but as far as pretty girls went, there was Takako Chigusa (oh, I guess she's my type), Sakura Ogawa (well, she had Kazuhiko Yamamoto, and those two are gone), and Mitsuko Souma (well, she's out of the question, no matter how pretty she is).

Yutaka then smiled a little again and said, "When she looked drowsy and rested her cheeks on her hands, she was pretty."

And then he continued, "When she was watering flowers by the classroom window, the way she touched the leaves, she was pretty."

"When she dropped the baton at the annual field day and burst into tears afterwards, she was pretty."

"When she was hanging out during our breaks, listening to Yuka Nakagawa, holding her stomach as she burst out laughing, she was so pretty."

Ah.

As he listened to these observations, Shinji suddenly felt like he totally understood. Yutaka's observations didn't explain anything, but it felt right. Hey Uncle, I think I actually might begin to understand what this is all about.

When Yutaka was done speaking he looked at Shinji.

Shinji looked at him kindly and tilted his head slightly. Then he grinned.

"I thought you'd become a comedian when you grew up but now I think you could be a poet."

Yutaka smiled too.

Then Shinji said, "Hey."

"What?"

"I don't know how to say this, but I think Izumi's really happy to know that someone loves her that much.

She's probably crying right now up there in heaven."

Compared to Yutaka's poetic observations, his words sounded cheap, but he had to say it. But now Yutaka's eyes began to well up with tears again. The tears flowed down his cheeks again. They formed several white stripes on his cheeks.

"You think?" Yutaka replied, all choked up.

Shinji extended his right hand toward Yutaka's shoulder and gently shook it. "Of course." Shinji took in a breath and continued, "And as for your revenge, I'm in."

Still filled with tears, Yutaka's eyes opened wide. "Really?"

"Yep." Shinji nodded.

Yes, it was something he'd been wondering about. No, not the stuff about girls. He wondered about his future in this shitty Republic of Greater East Asia.

He'd brought this kind of thing up with Yutaka once before. Yutaka said something like, "I don't have a clue," and then added, "At the very least I'll probably become a comedian." Shinji had laughed at Yutaka's facetious reply. But it was a serious concern for him. Actually, it must have been serious for Yutaka too. It was just that Yutaka chose not to bring it up. What it came down to was, as he had once said to Shuya Nanahara, "This is what they call 'successful fascism.' Where else in the world could you find something so sinister?" This country was insane. Not just this stupid game, but anyone who showed even the slightest bit of resistance to the government was immediately discarded. The government couldn't care less even if you were innocent, and continued to cast an intimidating shadow over the lives of everyone who had no other choice but to obey its policies and who found consolation only in the small things that life had to offer. And even when their sources of happiness were taken away, well you just had to bow down and put up with it.

But Shinji began to believe this was wrong, no matter what. No, everyone must have been thinking what he was thinking. But no one would come out with it. Even Shuya Nanahara let off steam by listening to that illegally imported rock music—it never went beyond that though. Shinji began to think he should protest, even if it was dangerous. The more he learned about the world, the more he began to hold this conviction.

Then it happened, two years ago. His uncle's death. Officially it was reported as an accident. As they asked his family to claim his body, the police informed them he'd been electrocuted while working alone at night at his company's factory. But something had seemed wrong with his uncle for a while. His uncle seemed preoccupied, which was unusual for him—as usual, Shinji tapped on his uncle's computer, and then asked, "Is there something wrong?" His uncle was in the middle of replying, "One of my old mates…" but restrained himself and grew evasive,

"Oh no, it's really nothing."

Old mates.

His uncle hardly ever talked about the past. He'd always change the subject, and Shinji, realizing his uncle avoided talking about it, decided not to dig into his uncle's past anymore. (When he asked his father, who was his uncle's older brother, about it, he only replied that it was something Shinji didn't need to know.) Nevertheless, at the core of his wide range of knowledge that went beyond making legal and illegal distinctions, at the core of every explanation his uncle provided about the world or society, Shinji detected a profound disgust if not hatred towards their nation. And also…a shadow-like presence. Shinji had once told him, "You're so great." His uncle only grimaced and replied, "No, you're wrong. I'm not at all. You couldn't survive in this country if you really wanted to be good. I'd be dead if I were really a good person." That was what led Shinji to believe his uncle had fought against the government. But for some reason he stopped. That was what Shinji suspected.

That was also why Shinji was disturbed when he heard his uncle mention his "old mates." But this was his uncle, so he'd be fine, he assured himself and decided not to bombard him with questions.

But his concern turned out to be right on the mark. Shinji had suspected his uncle's "old mates," with whom he'd lost touch, had gotten back in contact him. And though his uncle had probably hesitated, he decided to take on an assignment. And as a result…something happened. It was true that the police in this country had the right to execute civilians without any trial, so usually it wouldn't matter whether they shot you in an alley or at work. But when the person involved was related to someone important, then it wasn't unlikely they'd conspire to kill you in the form of an "accident." Unfortunately, Shinji's father was a director at a well known firm (in other words, he was a first-class worker according to the Republic's employment ranking system— with the exception of a top-level government bureaucrat, it was the highest rank), and what was even more upsetting was that if this were true, then that worthless father of his had assisted, however indirectly, the government in "taking care of" his uncle like that.

It couldn't have been accidental. His uncle would never die from electrocution. That was just too lame!

The original owner of his earring was probably linked to that part of his uncle's past. Outraged over his uncle's murder, Shinji swore he'd never bow down to this country.

Of course he knew that his uncle's statement, "You couldn't survive if you really wanted to be good," was also a warning, which turned out to be true in the case of his uncle's own death. After all you've taught me, Shinji thought, I'm going to figure out how to do what you gave up on a long time ago. I…want to be good. That's what I learned from you after all.

But he had no clear ideas and he hadn't really taken any action. He had heard of anti-government groups but he had no idea how to contact them. Besides, his uncle told him, "It's best not to trust groups and movements. They're not very reliable." He also thought he was a little too young. And above all he was scared.

But now even if he were lucky enough to escape this stupid game he'd become a fugitive. Then—he came to the ironic conclusion—didn't that mean he could do as he pleased? Whether he did it in a group or on his own wouldn't matter. What mattered was that he could give all he had against this government now—this determination welled up inside him.

And now, after talking to Yutaka, he was absolutely certain of it.

Leaving aside this complicated stuff for the moment though, he decided to share his honest feelings on the other topic with Yutaka.

"I really envy you for being in love with someone like that. So if you're going for it, I'm on your side."

Yutaka's lips began to tremble. "Damn, really? You really will?"

"Yeah, I will." Shinji touched Yutaka's shoulder and added, "But our first priority is to escape. Killing that bastard Sakamochi wouldn't even put a dent in the government. If we're going to go for it, we have to aim as high as we can, right?"

Yutaka nodded. Then he wiped his eyes.

Shinji asked him, "Did you see anyone other than Yukiko and Yumiko?"

His eyes red from rubbing, Yutaka looked at Shinji and shook his head, "Nope. I… ran out of the school… and kept on running___Did you see anyone, Shinji?"

Shinji nodded. "When I first left—you probably don't know this but—Mayumi and Yoshio were killed in front of the school."

Yutaka's eyes opened wide. "Really?"

"Yeah. Mayumi was probably killed right as she was leaving."

"…and Yoshio?"

Shinji answered with his arms folded, "I think Yoshio was the one who killed Mayumi."

Yutaka's face stiffened again, "…really?"

"Yeah. Why else would Yoshio, the first one out, be there? Yoshio came back. Then, hiding in the shadows, he probably shot Mayumi....Since they both had arrows in their bodies, he must have tried to get rid of the next one… but instead his weapon— probably a bow gun, given those arrows—must have been taken by someone else, who then shot him. That's the most likely scenario."

"Who was the next one though?…"

"Shuya."

Yutaka's eyes widened again. "Shuya? Shuya killed Yoshio?"

Shinji shook his head. "I don't know. The only thing we know is that Yoshio wasn't able to kill Shuya. So it was probably Shuya. But maybe Shuya just knocked Yoshio out. He's got a soft spot after all. And then Yoshio might have been killed by someone who came out later." Shinji thought about it and added,

"Besides, Shuya must have left with Noriko Nakagawa. He might not have had time to finish off Yoshio."

"Noriko? That's right, Noriko was shot. And you…"

"Yeah," Shinji grinned wryly. "Getting the game delayed would have helped. I knew it was impossible but it was worth trying. Noriko came after Shuya. Shuya gave a clear signal to Noriko before he left. I could tell because I was near him."

Yutaka nodded. "That's right. Noriko got shot so Shuya..."

"And given what happened to Yoshitoki…"

Yutaka nodded several times. He completely understood. "I get it...Nobu had a crush on Noriko, right?

So Shuya had to take care of Noriko."

"Yeah. Well, even if that wasn't the case, given Shuya's personality, he'd probably planned on gathering everyone who came out after him. But after Yoshio's attack it was out of the question. Noriko was injured too. So he probably just took off with Noriko as his only partner."

Yutaka nodded again. Then he looked down. "I wonder where Shuya is. We'd be so strong if Shuya and you were together."

Shinji raised his brow. Yutaka might have been recalling their powerful combinations when they were paired up in class games. It was true, Shinji also thought, Shuya Nanahara would be a great partner. It wasn't just his athletic talent. Just like Shinji, Shuya was daring and fearless, with the ability to respond under pressure. He was one of the few classmates he could rely on in this situation. An honest guy like him (and as far as Shinji was concerned a little too spacey) could never kill his classmates.

Shinji placed his right on Yutaka's shoulder. Yutaka lifted his face. "I'm just glad I'm with you. I'm so glad we're together."

Yutaka was once again on the verge of bursting into tears. Shinji gave him a reassuring smile. Yutaka held back his tears and smiled.

Shinji continued, "Enough about the dead. I noticed something. You know how the woods are right in front of the school athletic field?"

"Yeah."

"There was someone there. A group of students."

"…really?"

"Yeah. I think they were waiting for someone. Of course, there were only five students left after me.

Kyoichi Motobuchi, Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Chisato Matsui, Kaori Minami, and Yoshimi Yahagi.

Anyway, they didn't make any attempts to call out to me. It was a group, so I doubt they would have been hostile right off, but I didn't have any particular reason to seek them out and join them, either. You just said you should have waited…but under the circumstances that would have been impossible. The fact is that Yoshio probably came back and killed Mayumi. I was thinking that if someone came back there and found that group in the woods they'd be finished. Of course, they might have been armed.

Anyway, I booked out of there."

Shinji stopped. After moistening his lips with the tip of his tongue, he went on, "I also saw two other students."

Yutaka's eyes opened wide again. "Really?"

Shinji nodded. "I moved around a lot last night. And…one of them was a girl. You know she has that weird hair that stands up…so I think it was Hirono. While I was checking out the foot of the mountain, I saw her moving beyond those bushes."

"You didn't call out to her?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm prejudiced against her. I just don't trust Mitsuko's friends."

Yutaka nodded.

"The other one I saw was Shogo Kawada."

Yutaka opened his mouth as if to say, wow. He exclaimed, "Shogo-san, huh." Just like his classmates Yutaka politely referred to Shogo as "Shogo-san." "He's a little intimidating so…"

"Yeah, well, that's why I avoided him. But…" Shinji glanced up at the sky. Then he looked back at Yutaka. "He seemed to notice me. I'd just left a house where I was searching for some stuff. He was there, around the house, but he immediately took cover in the path between the fields. I think he was carrying a shotgun. I hid behind the door…I think he was checking me out for a while. But then he disappeared. He didn't try to attack me at all."

Yutaka responded, "Huh. Then that means he's not an enemy."

Shinji shook his head. "Not necessarily. He might have seen my gun and decided he was better off not attacking me. In any case, I decided not to follow him."

"I see…" Yutaka nodded, but then looked up as if he'd realized something. "I know I haven't seen anyone, but I could've sworn I heard another gun go off before Yumiko and Yukiko were shot."

Shinji nodded. "I heard it too."

"It wasn't a machine gun. Do you think it was aimed at them too?"

"No," Shinji shook his head. "I don't think so. I think whoever fired it did it to stop them. It was so obvious what they were doing was risky. The shooter wanted to scare them with the gunfire so they'd run and hide."

Yutaka leaned forward excitedly, "Then…then that shooter isn't an enemy."

"Yeah well, we don't have any way to hook up. Even though I have a rough idea where the gunshot came from___The shooter's probably already on the move since the machine gun shooter knows where he is too."

Disappointed, Yutaka drew back. They fell silent while Shinji continued thinking, his arms folded. Shinji wanted to know if Yutaka had seen anyone they could trust. He thought they could hook up with a classmate if he or she hadn't moved, but come to think of it, he'd trust anyone Yutaka would trust, so if Yutaka had seen others who were trustworthy Yutaka would have been with them by now. But Yutaka was alone. So the question was pointless.

But…in any case, who could he trust? Shuya…and then maybe Hiroki Sugimura? The rest were…girls.

He could probably trust the class representative, Yukie Utsumi, and her friends…but he didn't have a good reputation with the girls in his class, probably because he slept around. Ah well. Hey Uncle, I should have found a steady girlfriend, huh?

But how lucky was he to hook up with Yutaka? He could absolutely trust him.

Yutaka asked him, "Hey Shinji. You said you were looking for something."

Shinji nodded. "I did."

"What was it? What were you looking for? A weapon? I was too scared. It never even crossed my mind."

Shinji looked down at his watch. It should be done by now. An hour had elapsed since the machine began its password search.

Shinji got up and tucked his gun in front. "Yutaka, can you move over?" Yutaka moved away from the tree he was leaning against. Beyond it, there were bushes spreading out over the ground, forming a thicket.

Shinji walked over there and stuck his arms into the bushes. Carefully he pulled out the accessories and cables together.

Yutaka looked astonished.

Shinji had pulled out a car battery (the power source), a partially disassembled cell phone, and a laptop computer. They were all connected by a patch of red and white cables.

The liquid crystal monitor display had been left on, with the computer screen display turned off.

Which meant…Shinji puckered his lips and whistled quietly, pressing down on the space bar. The computer, conserving its energy in sleep mode, turned on with the sound of its hard drive spinning and the grayscale display lighting up on the screen.

After searching for the final line in the tiny window on the screen, Shinji's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Geez. Just a switch of vowels. Too simple for me to guess on my own," he said.

"Hey, Shinji, is this—" Yutaka finally blurted out in amazement. Shinji closed and opened his fists as he always did before tapping away on the keyboard. Then he grinned at Yutaka.

"It's a Macintosh PowerBook 150. I didn't expect to find such a good machine on this lousy island."