41 - 22 students remaining

27 students remaining

30

Yoshimi Yahagi (Female Student No. 21) waited until her watch read 10 a.m. and then cautiously looked out the rear entrance of the house. It was on the southern end of the residential area of the island, so it was far from the house where Megumi Eto was killed, but Yoshimi had no idea Megumi had died there anyway. She just heard her name in this morning's announcement.

She was more preoccupied with the forbidden zone announced this morning. At 11 a.m. all collars in sector H=8, which included the houses here, would explode. The computer would not respond to pleas for it to wait.

The rear entrance faced a narrow alley that ran between the houses. Yoshimi held the heavy automatic pistol (Colt Government Modell.45) with both hands, pulling back the tight hammer with her right thumb.

She quickly checked the premises. There was no one in the alley in either direction.

Even though as a member of Mitsuko Souma's gang she was considered a "delinquent," her round face had a childish quality. Right now though, it was breaking out in a cold sweat. It was only an hour or two ago that she saw from the second floor window Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano calling on everyone to join them. Then the rattling machine gun. No doubt about it. The killing was continuing. Not everyone was hiding out like she was. There were others willingly killing their classmates. And it was impossible to know where they might show up.

She stepped out and cautiously tiptoed to her right with her back pinned up against the wall of the house where she had been hiding. She turned south at the corner and saw a field extend up a gentle slope. The mild slope was covered with patches of green and headed up to the southern mountain. The houses there weren't as crowded together as they were here. She decided it was best for her to reach the southern mountain. Then she'd be safe for the time being.

Yoshimi shouldered her day pack, checked around again, then ran out to the small thicket by the field.

She reached it in a matter of seconds. Holding her gun with both hands, she pointed it left and right, but no one was there.

Yoshimi was already panting after that brief excursion. She had further to go, though, to get out of sector H=8. She actually might be beyond the border, but it wasn't as if there was a white line running on the ground. It was best to err on the side of caution. Otherwise she'd go nuts. There were blue dots on the map indicating houses and the group of houses where she was was cluttered up with so many dots she had no idea exactly where she was. The sector border was at the edge of this clutter.

Yoshimi felt like crying. If…if she wasn't in Mitsuko Souma's gang then she'd have probably found someone, yes, some nice girl she could trust, and joined up with her. But no one trusted her. Well, she'd done some bad things with Mitsuko Souma and Hirono Shimizu. Stealing from, even at times terrorizing her classmates. No one would believe her even if she insisted she meant no harm. They might attack her on sight.

Before she hid in the house last night she saw another girl heading in the opposite direction. She was leaving the residential area. Was it Kayoko Kotohiki (Female Student No. 8)? Maybe she'd first hid in the residential area but then decided against it and moved on. (Her decision proved a good one, since the area became the game's first forbidden zone.) It was a perfect opportunity to contact someone, given the timing and proximity, but Yoshimi just couldn't bring herself to do it.

And what about Mitsuko Souma and Hirono Shimizu? It was true they were bad…but they were her friends after all. If she could find them…would they trust her? And…could she trust them? No…she probably couldn't.

Overwhelmed by despair, she thought of a certain boy's face again. It was the same face she'd been thinking of ever since the game began. The one who said he didn't care she was with Mitsuko Souma, he still liked her. He kissed her gently on the bed and kindly warned her, "Stay out of trouble." The boy who made her believe she could actually change.

When she left the school building…she thought he might be waiting for her. But of course there was no one there. Of course there wouldn't be. There were the corpses of Mayumi Tendo and Yoshio Akamatsu lying on the ground, though. Chances were if you stuck around you'd end up like them. (She had no idea where their killer had gone.)

Where could he possibly be right now? Or…or was it too late…

She felt her chest tighten. Her eyes filled with tears.

She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sailor suit and moved through the thicket towards its edge. She had to move a little further ahead.

Still holding the gun, she looked for her next source of shelter. Now there were several tall trees bunched together on her right with dense, tall weeds all over.

She ran across the field again. Her face was scratched by a small branch as she slid into the edge of the thicket. She got up slowly and looked around. She couldn't see completely through the thick green shrubbery, but no one was in sight.

Yoshimi still kept low as she crept forward in the thicket. It was all right, it was all right, no one was in the area.

She reached the edge of the thicket. Now the greenery of the southern mountain was right in front of her.

Large and small trees and also a dense grove of what looked like bamboo. It looked like there were plenty of places to hide there. All right…all right…then I just have to get there___

Suddenly, she heard a rustling sound behind her. Her heart leaped.

Yoshimi lowered herself, holding the Colt .45 in her hands, and slowly turned around. The hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up.

She caught a glimpse of a black school coat moving between the trees approximately ten meters away.

Her eyes opened wide with fear. Someone was over there. Someone!

She clenched her teeth to contain her fear and lowered her head. Her heart was pounding.

She heard another rustling sound.

There wasn't anyone in the thicket just a moment ago. Someone had come here after her. Why? Was this person after her?

Yoshimi turned pale.

No, not necessarily. The student might just be on the move like her. That's right. If she'd been noticed, he or she would have come right after her. She hadn't been noticed yet. Then…then it was best to let him pass. Don't move. Just don't move.

There was the rustling sound again. The person was moving again. Crouching, Yoshimi could see between the dense leaves the figure moving through the woods. Revealing its profile, it moved from Yoshimi's right to her left. Oh yes!

He's not headed towards me....

As she sighed though, she suddenly did a double take.

The figure was too far into the trees to see. The rustling sound gradually became distant.

She couldn't be wrong. Was she just hallucinating out of panic? No, that couldn't be.

Yoshimi stood up, hunched over, and proceeded to follow the sound. Moving several meters ahead, she looked toward the source of sound in the shade of the dense leaves. In her narrow field of vision she was able to make out the school coat.

Yoshimi put both of her hands on her chest. Had it not been for the gun she held in her hands, she would have looked like she was praying.

But Yoshimi was praying, no doubt. If there were a god who could bring about such a miraculous turn of events, then she was thanking it. She held no particular religious beliefs, but it didn't matter which god it was. She was grateful. Oh God thank you! I love you!

Yoshimi blurted out as she stood up, "Yoji!"

Yoji Kuramoto (Male Student No. 8) trembled for a moment, but then turned around slowly. His face had a Latin look. His thick-lashed eyes opened wide and then returned to their normal size. For a split second his face seemed to turn blank, but she was convinced it was just her mind playing tricks on her.

The face then formed a smile. The smile of the boy who loved her more than anyone else.

"Yoshimi—"

"Yoji!"

Holding her day pack and Colt .45 in her right hand, Yoshimi ran toward Yoji. Her eyes filled with tears.

Yoji held Yoshimi in his arms, gently, but also with reassurance in the tiny space of the thicket.

Then without saying a word Yoji kissed her on the lips.

He kissed her eyelids. The tip of her nose too. It was how Yoji always kissed her. It might not have been appropriate, given the circumstances, but she was ecstatic.

After kissing her he looked into her eyes and said, "So you were safe. I was worried about you."

Remaining in each other's arms, Yoshimi responded, "Me too, me too." Tears came rolling out of the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks.

When Yoji left the classroom before her, he took a glance at Yoshimi, who was on the verge of crying as she watched him leave. She had left too, and dawn came. And she had been terrified every single moment until now. But now she was with someone she thought she'd never see alive again.

"I-it's a miracle," Yoji said, somewhat belatedly, as if he were in shock.

"It really is. I can't believe it. I thought we'd never see each other again. In this…horrible…"

Yoji gently brushed his hands through Yoshimi's hair while she cried. "It's going to be all right now. We'll stay together no matter what happens."

Yoji's words sounded reassuring and tears came gushing out from her eyes. The rules only allowed one survivor, but I get to be with the one I love most. There was something about a time limit, but we'll just stay together until time runs out. If someone attacks us, Yoji will protect us. Oh God tell me I'm not dreaming.

Yoshimi remembered everything that happened between them since she met Yoji in their second year, when they ended up classmates. That special autumn day, when they bumped into each other on the street and decided to go to a movie together, then Christmas, then the strawberry shortcake they ordered and split at the cafe, that night's kiss, New Year's, dressing up in a long-sleeved kimono for the first temple visit (the sacred lot she drew was only "fair luck." while his was "very good luck," and he gave her his), and the unforgettable Saturday, January 18th, the night she spent at Yoji's house.

"Where have you been?" Yoshimi asked.

Yoji pointed to the group of houses. "In a house over there. But you know this collar…if I stay there, it's supposed to explode. So…"

Yoji looked serious, but Yoshimi thought it was funny. They were right near each other! She'd been wondering ever since the game began where could he be, only to find out he was right nearby…

"What's up?"

"I was hiding in one of those houses too. We were probably right next door to each other."

They laughed. Yoshimi realized how wonderful it was to share a laugh with someone you loved. It might be considered trivial, but no, it was essential. And now it was hers once again.

Yoji slowly let go of Yoshimi. His eyes suddenly fell on her right hand. Realizing she was still holding the gun, she burst out, "Ha ha ha. I forgot..."

Yoji also smiled. "Nice weapon. Look what I ended up with."

He showed her what he'd been holding. She hadn't noticed it at all. On closer look, she saw that it was a dagger, the kind you might see in an antique store. The strip of thread wrapped around the grip was worn out, the oval-shaped guard had turned greenish blue, and as Yoji revealed by pulling the dagger out of its sheath, the blade was spotted with rust. Yoji returned the blade to its sheath and tucked it in his belt.

"Hey, let me check that out," Yoji said.

She offered the gun to him. "You hold onto it. I doubt I can do much with it..."

Yoji nodded and took the Colt .45. He held the grip and checked the safety. He pulled the slide, revealing the first bullet in the chamber. The hammer was still cocked.

"You have bullets for this?"

The gun's cartridge was fully loaded. Yoshimi nodded, took the box of bullets out of her day pack, and handed it over to him. Yoji took it with one hand, opening it up with his thumb to check the contents.

Then he tucked it into his uniform pocket.

All of a sudden…Yoshimi couldn't believe her eyes. She was completely clueless as to what was going on—as if she were watching some baffling magic trick—as she looked at Yoji's hands.

Yoji was pointing the Colt .45 at her.

"Yoji?…"

After repeating his name, she saw how Yoji had become a different person.

His face was contorted. The thick-lashed eyes, the large hooked nose, his wide lips, each part of his face looked the same as before, but she'd never seen this expression with its twisted mouth, revealing its teeth.

The contorted mouth spat out these words, "Go away. Get out of here!"

Yoshimi didn't understand what he meant.

Yoji sounded irritated. "I said get away from me!"

Still in a daze, her lips quivered, "Why?"

As if fed up with her, Yoji cried out, "You expect me to be with a bitch like you!? Get out of here, bitch!"

Something inside of Yoshimi began to crumble, first slowly, then quickly.

"Why?" Yoshimi's voice trembled. "Did I…did I do something wrong?"

The gun was still aimed at her. Yoji spat to his side.

"Give me a break. Even I know you're a slut. I know you've been arrested by the cops__On top of that you slept with a guy old enough to be your dad. I know that too! You expect me to trust a bitch like you!?"

Yoshimi's jaw dropped as she stared at Yoji's face.

It was…true. She'd been arrested several times for stealing, and the police had taken her in once for blackmailing a high school student. And then there was…prostitution. A while ago Yoshimi had slept with some middle-aged men Mitsuko Souma had introduced her to. The money was good, she wasn't the only one doing it, and at that time of her life she was getting so fed up with everything. So wearing makeup she'd never worn, acting like an adult, and being with men who seemed in their own way generous didn't seem like a bad thing. Yoshimi assumed Yoji had known all this about her.

Ever since she started dating Yoji that autumn day, she had put an end to all of that. Of course she continued being friends with Mitsuko Souma and Hirono Shimizu. It wasn't like she was suddenly a star pupil, but she did stop prostituting herself, and she did her best to keep herself out of trouble. And she'd believed Yoji forgave her and loved her anyway.

… that's what I believed all along.

A tear rolled down Yoshimi's cheek.

"I-I stopped doing that." Different tears began streaming down her cheeks. "I wanted to be…I wanted to be good to you, Yoji."

Yoji stared at Yoshimi as if her words had completely shaken him up.

But then his expression returned.

"You liar! Stop pretending to cry!"

Yoshimi stared at Yoji with her wet eyes. Words came tumbling out, "Then…then why did you go out with me?"

Yoji immediately replied, "Come on, I thought a slut like you'd be easy! Get out of here! Bitch!"

Suddenly prompted by some force, Yoshimi ran towards Yoji. It might have been because she couldn't bear listening to Yoji anymore, or maybe it was because she couldn't deal with the fact that Yoji was pointing a gun at her. "Stop it! Please stop it!" she cried and tried to grab the gun from his hand.

Yoji quickly dodged her and shoved her. The day pack slid off her shoulder down to her left hand, and Yoshimi fell back on the grass.

Yoji pinned Yoshimi down.

"What the hell are you doing!? Bitch! You tried to kill me! I'll kill you, bitch!"

Yoji pointed his gun at her while Yoshimi frantically grabbed his right wrist with both her hands. Yoji immediately shifted the gun from his right hand to his left. Yoji's hand moved slowly downward. To her forehead! Yoshimi felt her heart pounding.

Yoshimi stuck out her hands and cried in desperation.

"Yoji! Please! Please stop it, Yoji!"

Yoji said nothing. His bloodshot eyes glared down at her. His arm came down methodically, like a machine. Five more centimeters…four…three…the bullet could now brush her hair. Two more centimeters, and…

Though she was torn up with sadness and fear, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

She understood everything now. She didn't want to, but it turned out the person she adored was only an illusion. Still…

Still, it was a wonderful illusion. With Yoji, she thought she could start over. It was Yoji who gave her that illusion. Without Yoji she would never have believed it could happen.

Oh, that time we ate ice cream at the only burger joint in Shiroiwa…she had ice cream on her nose and Yoji said, "You are so cute." Even now she believed he'd been sincere.

I loved you.

Yoshimi suddenly relaxed her arms. Yoji cocked the gun and placed it against her forehead. His finger was ready to pull the trigger.

Yoshimi stared back at Yoji and quietly said, "Thank you, Yoji. I was so happy being with you."

Yoji's eyes opened wide and remained frozen, as if he'd suddenly realized something important.

"Go ahead…shoot me."

Yoshimi smiled warmly and closed her eyes.

Pointing the gun at her, Yoji began to tremble.

Yoshimi waited for the burning bullet to pierce her head, but the gun wouldn't fire.

Instead she heard his hoarse voice, "Yoshimi…"

Yoshimi slowly opened her eyes again.

They met Yoji's. Through the thin film of her tears, she saw how his eyes were now those of her beloved Yoji. They were even filled with remorse and self-reproach.

Ah—

So he understands—Yoji—is it true?

TUNK! It was a pleasant but somewhat strange, damp sound.

Simultaneously, Yoji's right finger pulled the trigger. But it was on accident, the result of his finger's reflex.

The gunshot exploded like a firecracker and made her shriek, but the muzzle had already been pointed away from her, and the bullet lodged into the patch of grass above her head. A tiny cloud of dirt rose in the air.

Yoji's lifeless body fell on top of Yoshimi. He remained motionless.

As she tried to pry herself loose, she saw someone smile over the shoulders of Yoji's black school coat.

It was her old partner in crime, Mitsuko Souma.

Yoshimi had no idea what was going on. She only knew that the smile on this angelic, adorable, beautiful face absolutely terrified her.

Mitsuko asked Yoshimi if she was all right as she grabbed her hand and pulled her out from under Yoji's body.

Yoshimi staggered to her feet in the bushes and looked down. An extremely sharp sickle (a sickle! as one of the more urban girls in Shiroiwa, Yoshimi had never seen one before) was planted in the back of Yoji's head.

Leaving aside the sickle for now, Mitsuko immediately went for the Colt .45 in Yoji's right hand. His muscles had tightened, so she had to pry each stiff finger loose. The gun was finally in her hands, and she grinned.

Yoshimi looked down at Yoji's lifeless body, trembling. She was trembling violently. Uncontrollably. In one flourish she had just lost someone incredibly important to her. It was like the sensation she had when a precious glass ornament she had as a child accidentally fell and shattered on the floor. But…this was far more precious.

Yoshimi came to her senses and looked at Mitsuko (of course she had been looking at her all this time, but she was too incapacitated to process this visual information), who proceeded to wrestle with the sickle to dislodge it from the back of Yoji's head. She gripped the handle with both hands and tried shaking it loose, swinging Yoji's head along with it.

"No!…"

Yoshimi screamed and shoved Mitsuko aside. Mitsuko fell back onto the grass, exposing her well formed legs, from the hem of her pleated skirt up to her thighs.

Yoshimi shielded Yoji's body. The sickle was still planted in his skull. Her tears fell onto his body. The sickle was telling her: shaking me won't revive me, don't shake me, there's a sickle stuck in me, man, that hurts.

Her chest tightened with waves of remorse. She felt as if she were drowning, as if the world were coming to an end.

She thought of the cause behind all of this, and her tearstained eyes glared fiercely at Mitsuko. If looks could kill, her glare would have. Yoshimi couldn't care less now what kind of game this was or who her enemies and allies were. That's right. If anyone was her worst enemy, it was Mitsuko Souma, who'd killed her love.

"Why'd you kill him!?"

The words sounded empty to Yoshimi. She felt as if she had become a hollow bag in a human shape. But the words came pouring out. The human body could do strange things.

"Why! Why'd you kill him!? It's horrible! It's just too awful! You're evil! Why'd you have to kill him!?

Why!?"

Mitsuko contorted her mouth in an expression of dissatisfaction. "You were about to get killed. I saved you."

"No! I got Yoji to understand me! You're so evil! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Yoji understood me!"

Mitsuko shook her head and shrugged, pointing the .45 at her. Yoshimi's eyes opened wide.

And so Yoshimi heard the dry pop one more time. Her forehead felt as if it were being crushed by a car.

That was all.

Yoshimi Yahagi fell onto the corpse of her beloved Yoji Kuramoto and remained motionless. The .45

caliber bullet had demolished the back of her head. But her mouth remained open as if she were screaming and blood came flowing out from its side. It soaked Yoji's school coat, oozing out into a dark patch.

Mitsuko lowered the smoking Colt .45 and shrugged again. She'd planned on using Yoshimi to shield her from bullets.

She leaned over and whispered into the ear of Yoshimi's half-destroyed head, "I'm sure he understood."

There was a strange topping of gray jelly brains and blood on her earlobe. "I killed him because it looked like he wasn't going to kill you after all."

Then, once again, she proceeded to pry loose the sickle from Yoji's head.

25 students remaining

31

The faint sound reached Shuya and the others. Shuya looked up. Then they heard it again. They waited, but that was it. They only heard the rustling sound of treetops deep inside the thicket shaking in the wind.

Shuya looked at Shogo, who was sitting next to him.

"Was that a gunshot?"

"That was a gunshot."

"Then someone's already…" Noriko began to speak, but Shogo shook his head and responded, "We don't know for sure."

They had all remained silent for several minutes, but the gunfire prompted discussion.

Shogo spoke up, "Look, as long as you trust me, it's cool but…like I said before, we have to survive till the very end. So I just want to make sure." Shogo looked over at Shuya. "Are you willing to be merciless against the enemy, Shuya?"

Shuya swallowed deeply. "You mean the government?"

"Including them, yeah." Shogo continued, "As well as your other classmates, if and when they attack us."

Shuya nodded slightly and then answered, "If that's what it comes down to, I will." His voice sounded feeble, though.

"Even if the classmate was female?"

Shuya's lips tightened as he looked back at Shogo. He looked down again. "If I have to I will."

"All right then. As long as we're on common ground." Shogo nodded and grabbed the shotgun resting on his crossed legs. Then he added, "Someone else will finish you off if you get too hung up on every person you kill."

Shuya was about to say something but hesitated. He decided it was best not ask, but couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "So you were merciless a year ago?"

Shogo shrugged. "I killed. You want to hear the details? How many guys I killed? How many girls I killed until I won?"

Noriko crossed her arms over her chest and brought in her elbows.

"No…forget it." Shuya shook his head. "That's pointless."

They fell silent again. Then Shogo said, as if offering an explanation, "I had no choice. Some of them lost their minds…and then some were willingly killing as many as they could__Most of my friends died pretty quickly, and I didn't have any time to hook up with anyone. And IT just couldn't offer myself up and get killed by someone." He paused and added, "I also had something I had to do, so I couldn't die."

Shuya lifted his face. "What's that?"

"Come on, it's so obvious." Shogo smiled a little, but his eyes glimmered fiercely all of a sudden. "I was going to tear up this fucked up country, this country that tosses us into this fucked up game."

Watching Shogo's lips tremble in anger, Shuya thought, he's just like me. He wants to bring down these assholes in charge of this game, these assholes who won't think twice about making us play this fucked up game of musical chairs, this game of mutual fear and loathing. He wants to send them to hell just like me.

Or maybe…Shogo mentioned in passing he'd lost his friends early on, but I bet he lost someone equally important as Yoshitoki was to me.

Shuya thought of asking him about this, but didn't.

Instead he asked, "You said you'd done a lot of studying…so that was for this purpose?"

Shogo nodded, "That's right. I would have done something against this country eventually."

"Like what?"

Shogo only grimaced. "I wonder." He shook his head. "It's not so easy bringing down a system that's already built up. But I would have done something. Well no, I'm still going to. That's why I have to survive this time too."

Shuya looked down at the revolver and looked up. Another question had occurred to him.

"Can you tell me something?"

"What?"

"What's the purpose of this game? How could this serve any useful purpose?"

Shogo's eyes widened…but then he looked down and began to chuckle. He found it funny. Then he finally said, "There is no purpose."

Noriko raised her voice. "But they insist it has some military purpose."

Shogo kept on smiling and shook his head. "That's just crazy nonsense. Of course this whole country's insane, so maybe it's completely rational."

Shuya felt a rush of anger once again as he spoke, "Then how could this go on for so long?"

"That's easy. Because there's no one speaking out against it. That's why it's still going on."

Seeing how Shuya and Noriko were at a loss for words, Shogo added, "Look, this country's run by a bunch of idiot bureaucrats. In fact you have to be an idiot to be a bureaucrat. My guess is that when this lovely game was first proposed—some crazy military strategist probably came up with it—there was no opposition. You don't want to stir things up by questioning the specialists. And it's terribly difficult to end something that's already been established. You interfere, and you're out of a job. No, worse yet, you might be sent to a forced labor camp for ideological deviation. Even if everyone were against it, no one could say it out loud. That's why nothing changes. There are a lot of screwed up things in this country but they all boil down to the same thing—fascism."

Shogo looked at Noriko and Shuya. He added, "You two, and the same applies to me, we cant say anything. Even if you think something's wrong, your life is too precious to risk it by protesting, right?"

Shuya couldn't say anything back. His hot flash of anger all of a sudden went cold.

"It's shameful," Noriko said.

Shuya looked at Noriko. Noriko looked down sadly. He agreed. He felt the same way.

"Did you know there was a country called the South Korean People's Republic?" Shogo asked. Shuya looked at Shogo, who was staring at a pink azalea flower on a tree branch right in front of them.

It seemed irrelevant, but Shuya answered anyway, "Yeah, it was the southern half of the current Democratic Nation of the Korean Peninsula, right?"

You could learn about what was known as the South Korean People's Republic and the Democratic Nation of the Korean Peninsula—and the civil strife between the two Korean nations immediately west of the Republic of Greater East Asia's inland sea—in a textbook: "Although our relations with SKPR

were cordial, due to conspiracies concocted by the imperialists of the United States and the DNKP, the SKPR was annexed by the DNKP." (Of course, following this explanation, the summary would continue,

"Our nation must immediately oust the Korean Peninsula imperialists and annex this country not only for the freedom and democracy of the Korean people, but in order to progress towards our goal in attaining the co-existence of Greater East Asia peoples."

"That's right," Shogo nodded. "That country was just like ours. An oppressive government and dictator, ideological propaganda, isolationism, and information control. And support for snitching. It failed though after forty years. But the Republic of Greater East Asia is doing quite well. Why do you think that is?"

Shuya thought about it. He hadn't really given it much thought, but the textbooks explained South Korea's defeat as "a cunning conspiracy instigated by the imperialists including the American imperialists" (The vocabulary employed in these textbook explanations was beyond junior high level.) But then why was the current Greater East Asia still prosperous? Of course the SKPR was geographically located right next to the DNKP but…

He shook his head. "I don't know."

Shogo looked at Shuya and nodded. "First of all, it's a question of balance."

"Balance?"

"That's right. While the SKPR was totalitarian—of course, this country is essentially totalitarian. But it employs a subtle, well, this just might have been a fortunate result, but it skillfully managed to leave little bits of freedom intact. By providing this kind of candy, they can proclaim, 'Of course, every citizen has the right to freedom. However, freedom must be controlled for the sake of the public good.' The claim actually sounds legit, huh?"

Shuya and Noriko silently waited for Shogo to continue.

"That was how the country became this way. Seventy-five years ago."

Noriko interrupted him, "Seventy-five years ago?" Hugging her knees under her pleated skirt, Noriko tilted her head with a puzzled look on her face.

Noriko then looked over at Shuya. Shuya nodded and then looked back at Shogo. "I heard something about how the history they teach us is a big lie and that the current Dictator is hardly the 325th Dictator.

In fact, he's only supposed to be the twelfth one, right?"

Shinji Mimura had told him this. Noriko wouldn't know. It would never be taught at school and most adults kept their mouths shut about it (maybe they didn't even know), and even Shuya was appalled when he first heard it from Shinji. After all, this meant that before the appearance of the First Dictator less than eighty years ago—in other words, before the Great Revolution—the name of the country and system of government had been totally different. (Shinji had claimed, "Apparently, it was a feudal society.

People wore these psychedelic hair styles called chonmage, and there was a caste system. But to be blunt, it was better than what we have today")

Shuya glanced at Noriko's surprised face, but when he heard Shogo's next statement, "Well, even that might not be true," he raised his brow.

"What do you mean?"

Shogo smiled and said, "There is no Dictator. He doesn't exist. He's just made up. That's what I heard."

"What?"

"That can't be…" Noriko said hoarsely, "but we see him on the news…and on New Year's he makes an appearance in front of everyone at his palace..."

"Right." Shogo grinned. "But who is this 'everyone at the palace'? Have you ever met someone who was actually there? What if they were actors too, just like the Dictator?"

Shuya considered the possibility… It made him nauseous. Nothing but lies, there was no truth. Everything felt uncertain.

"Is that really true?" he asked despondently.

"I don't know. It's just something I heard. But it seems likely to me."

"Where did you get that information? By computer on that thing called the Net?"

Shuya thought of Shinji Mimura when he asked him this, but Shogo only grinned again.

"Unfortunately, I'm no good with computers, but there are ways to find out if you want to. It seems likely, because that would allow the government to have no supreme authority. That way everyone at the center of the government would be equal. They would have equal freedom. Which means that their responsibilities are also equal. There would be no inequality. There'd be no objections. The only thing is that there has to be some subtle trick going on…The whole charade has to be kept secret from the general public. The leader figure just has to play a charismatic role."

Shogo took a deep breath and continued, "Anyway, that's neither here nor there. To get back to what I was saying, the country implemented this system, and it just kept on successfully evolving. What I mean by 'success' is that it succeeded as an industrialized nation. Even though the country stuck to isolationism, it traded with other countries that remained neutral, not only to us but to America as well, and imported raw materials from them and sold products to them. The products sold well. Of course they would. Their quality is really high. Serious competition against the U.S. The only things this country lags behind in are space technology and computers. But the high quality comes as a result of the individual's subservience to the group and an oppressive government. Still…" he stopped. He shook his head and continued, "I have a feeling that once we've reached this level of success even the people themselves are afraid of changing the system. With this kind of success, and this high standard of living, they won't be willing to make a few sacrifices, even if there may be a few little problems. And overthrowing the government would be out of the question."

Shogo looked over at Shuya again and gave him a sarcastic smile. "And one of the 'few little problems'?

This wonderful game. Of course the students and their families might have been dealt a bad hand, but they're a small minority. Even the families eventually let it go. Sorrow passes with time."

Shogo's winding explanation finally returned to this stupid game, the pride of the Republic of Greater East Asia. Perhaps it was Shuya's grim frown that made Shogo ask, "What's up?"

Shuya replied, "I feel like puking." He finally began to understand exactly what Shinji Mimura meant when he said, "This is what they call 'successful fascism.' Where else in the world could you find something so sinister?" Shinji must have known and understood long ago everything Shuya had just learned.

"Ha! Wait till you hear this one. It'll make you sick." Shogo almost looked as if he were relishing this as he continued, "I think that the fundamental difference between the SKPR and this country is ethnic."

"Ethnic?"

Shogo nodded. "Yeah. In other words, I think that this system is tailor-made to fit the people of this country. In other words, their subservience to superiors. Blind submission. Dependence on others and group mentality. Conservatism and passive acceptance. Once they're taught something's supposedly a noble cause by serving the public good, they can reassure themselves they've done something good, even if it means snitching. It's pathetic. There's no room for pride, and you can forget about being rational.

They can't think for themselves. Anything complicated enough sends their heads reeling. Makes me want to puke."

He was exactly right. It was completely revolting. Shuya felt his stomach turn.

That was when Noriko interrupted Shogo, "I don't agree at all."

Shuya and Shogo looked at Noriko. The way she was hugging her knees and hunched over, Shuya thought she was tired out. But she looked at both of them and spoke clearly, "I didn't know about this.

This is the first time I've ever heard any of this. But if what you just said is really true, and if everybody were really informed, I don't think they would sit still__It's because no one knows about this that we've ended up in this situation. You say we've always been like this, but I refuse to believe that. I'm not saying we're especially noble, but I think we're just as capable as any other people on this planet of dunking responsibly."

Shogo responded with a surprisingly kind and gentle smile. "I like what you just said."

Shuya meanwhile all of a sudden saw Noriko in a different light. She didn't really stick out in class, nor was she so outspoken she'd express her opinions the way she had just done now. It was odd, but ever since this game began he was seeing another side of Noriko. And maybe—it might only mean Shuya had been totally ignorant—Yoshitoki had perceived this side of her long ago.

Anyway it was a much more admirable response than his knee-jerk "It makes me want to puke." Once again she was absolutely right. No matter what, this was their country, the place where they were born and grew up (although he wasn't so sure how much more growing up was left for them). The U.S., a.k.a.

the American Empire, might liberate this country some time in the future, but the fact was that this was their deal. They shouldn't, and in the end they couldn't, rely on others.

Shuya looked over at Shogo and asked him, "Hey Shogo. Do you think we can change this country?"

Much to Shuya's disappointment Shogo shook his head. He thought that, given his pledge to "tear up this fucked up country," he would reply affirmatively, that they would change it.

Shuya said somewhat clumsily, "But you just said you'd tear up this country."

Shogo lit a cigarette, which he hadn't done in a while, and then folded his arms. "I'll tell you what I think."

He unfolded his arms, removed the cigarette from his lips, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I think history comes in waves."

Shuya didn't understand, but before he could ask what he meant, Shogo continued, "At some point in time, when the situation is ripe, this country will change. I don't know whether it will happen in the form of a war or a revolution. And I have no idea when the time will come. For all I know it may never happen."

Shogo took another drag and then exhaled. "In any case, right now I don't think it's possible. Just like I said, this country is insane, but it's also well run. Extremely well run." Shogo pointed at them, the cigarette between his fingers. "Now here we have a rotten nation. If you can't stand it, then the wisest thing to do would be to abandon it and go somewhere else. There are ways to escape this country. Then you can avoid the stench. You might get homesick once in a while, but life outside would be grand…but I'm not doing that."

Shuya rubbed his hand against his thigh. He was hoping Shogo's statement would correspond with his thoughts: I want to do something here because in the end this is my country. Didn't Bob Marley sing, "Get up, stand up…you can't fool all the people all the time"?

But Shogo's response fell short of this expectation.

"I'm doing this for myself. I want revenge… even if it's for my self-satisfaction…I want to strike against this country. That's all. I really doubt it'll actually lead to change in this country in the long run."

Shuya took a short breath… then uttered, "This sounds hopeless."

"It is hopeless," Shogo replied.

25 students remaining

32

When they heard the two distant shots, Yutaka cringed. Shinji stopped typing on the keyboard.

"Hey—"

Shinji nodded. "Another gunshot."

He quickly returned to his computer, though. It seemed harsh, but he couldn't afford to be concerned with others.

Yutaka looked down at Shinji's fingers. He was holding the Beretta. Shinji had handed it to his towel-bandaged hand and requested he keep watch.

"Hey, Shinji. What are you trying to find on that laptop? Won't you tell me now?" After Shinji had booted up the communications software and dialed up with the cellular phone, he kept typing away at that keyboard, only occasionally exclaiming "Bingo! Bingo! Bingo!" or "Oh damn, oh yeah, right," without giving Yutaka a single explanation.

"Hold on a sec. I'm almost there."

Shinji was typing again. At the center of the gray screen, English sentences interspersed with "%" and "#"

characters streamed by. Shinji seemed to be responding to them.

"All right."

Shinji stopped typing after the requested data began to download. The basic operation was Unix, but he'd set up a separate graphics window to indicate the download status in Mac format. Shinji stretched his arms over his head. Now he'd just have to wait for the download to be completed (of course once it was he'd have to rewrite the log entry to erase all traces of his operation). Then he had to come up with a strategy based on the data he received. He'd either have to rewrite the data or come up with his own program to deceive his opponents. The latter would be a hassle, but he probably wouldn't need more than half a day to do the job.

"Shinji, tell me what's going on," Yutaka insisted.

Shinji smiled, moved back from the laptop, and leaned against the tree again. He had to admit, this was exciting. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It was only natural, though. Although he wasn't sure when he told Yutaka, "It's a PowerBook 150," now he was now certain— they were going to win.

He spoke slowly, "I've been trying to figure out how to escape."

Yutaka nodded.

"And so…" Shinji pointed to his neck. He himself couldn't see it, but he assumed Yutaka could see the silver collar wrapped around his neck, the same one Yutaka had on his neck. "The first thing I wanted was to get rid of this. This is giving our positions away to that bastard Sakamochi. For example, the fact that we're together. Thanks to this device, even if we try to escape, they'll locate us, or worse yet, they can just send a signal to blow up the collars and kill us. So I needed to figure out how to get rid of this collar."

Shinji opened up his hand. Then he shrugged. "But I gave up. You can't pry it loose without knowing how it's built. Sakamochi said it would explode if you took it apart, and I doubt he was bluffing. The outer casing must be loaded with a fuse wire for the device. It's probably set to ignite once you cut it. It's too dangerous to cross that bridge. I thought of inserting a metal plate inside the band, but it would be too thin to protect my neck from being blown to bits."

Yutaka nodded again.

"That's how I came up with the idea of controlling the school computer that's tracking us and controlling the ignition signal. Get it?"

It was of course his uncle who'd taught him the basics of computer programming, but ever since his death Shinji was as passionate about improving his skills on his uncle's computer as he was about basketball.

As a result he became extremely adept. He learned how to tap into an international line that was strictly prohibited by the government and obtain even higher levels of computer skills and new information on the entire world through the real internet. (What the nation called "the internet" was really a joke, a closed net referred to as "Greater East Asia Net.") While he might not be executed for these actions, they were illegal enough to send him away for a two-year stint at a juvenile prison for ideological offenses. That was how he acquired the skill to escape detection. Of course he never told anyone about it, but he'd shown some websites to Yutaka (mostly pornographic ones, come on, gimme a break). In short, Shinji was good at computer hacking.

"I looked for a personal computer. I already had a cell. I guess you're allowed to keep your stuff in this stupid game. I should have brought my notes, but I can't complain, since I found this laptop. Now all I needed was electricity. I yanked that battery out of a car. I had to adjust the voltage, but that was pretty easy."

As Shinji explained, Yutaka finally began to grasp how the PowerBook and cell phone functioned together. But then a thought suddenly occurred to him and he said, "Hey, but didn't Sakamochi say we couldn't use phones? So cell phones are an exception?"

Shinji shook his head. "No, they won't work. I tried the number for the weather report and Sakamochi's voice chimed in, 'A beautiful day at the Shiroiwa Junior High Program Headquarters.' I was so pissed I immediately hung up. So they're controlling the nearest cellular transmitter. My guess is none of the phone companies will work here."

"Then…"

Shinji lifted his finger, interrupting Yutaka. "Think about it. Their communication system has to reach beyond this island. I mean, their computers must be linked to the central government's for security purposes. Then how would they do that? It's simple. They've selectively employed numbers for military purposes from the cellular phone lines."

"So that means…"

Shinji interrupted Yutaka again and grinned. "But even if that were the case, I thought…they must have at least made some minimal effort to protect themselves from anyone at the telephone company tampering with their lines."

Shinji reached out for the cell phone on the ground. Then he said, "I didn't tell you, but my cell is a custom model. It has two types of ROM memory for phone numbers and passwords. You can't tell looking at it, but you can switch the other one on by turning this screw ninety degrees. And this other number is something I came up with just for fun to make free calls..." He let go of his phone and continued,

"It's the cellular number used by phone company technicians to test phone lines."

"Then… that means…"

Shinji winked. "That's right. Bingo! The rest is simple. It was a bit of a pain to hook up the phone modem to the cellular. It's not like they came with tools. But I managed to do it. So that's how I got my line. Then I accessed my computer at home. I can't hack with your average communications software, so I downloaded my special tools—like codebreaking software. Then I went for the prefectural government's site. The central government's operations must have high quality security systems, but I figured the prefectural government's systems would be easy to break into. My hunch turned out to be right. Even though this game is directly managed by the central government, it must have some contact with the government branch of the prefecture where the game's taking place. I was right about that too. There were a lot of unfamiliar addresses in their communications log files. Going through e-mails I found one to the superintendent, notifying him of the game's commencement. I broke into the sender's website, in other words, the temporary server for the school building on this island. It took some work, but as I poked around as much as I could without getting caught, I found an operation backup file they'd completely spaced out on. So I took that. In other words, I found a strange code that seemed important. I've been having the Mac break the code before I hooked up with you. So that's what I was up to."

Shinji reached out for the PowerBook as it continued to download data, opened up another memo file, and showed the immense 24-point display. Yutaka took a look. "Kinpati Sakamocho."

"Sakamocho?…"

"Yeah. I think it's Spanish. So the password was a bit complex due to this silly change in vowels. That's what the password for this system is. That's how I got free access. I was checking out as much as I could. I completely downloaded the entire data contents of the school's computer. I'm going to alter the data, go back into that system, and disable these collars. By making the school premises a forbidden zone, they think they're totally safe against us, but now we'll be able to attack them by surprise. We'll have a chance. And once we control the school, we should be able to help out the others. Even if that's not possible, we can falsify the data to claim we're dead and then escape this island for good."

With this brief but intense summary, Shinji took a deep breath and grinned. "What do you think?"

Yutaka looked astonished. "It's amazing."

Tickled by his friends response, Shinji smiled. Thanks, Yutaka. It's always nice to be admired for your talents.

"Shinji…" Yutaka asked, still looking astonished.

Shinji raised his brow. "What is it? You have a question?"

"No." Yutaka shook his head. "IT was just wondering."

"What is it?"

Yutaka looked down and stared down at the Beretta in his hand. Then he looked up. "I was wondering why you're friends with someone like me."

Shinji had no idea what Yutaka was talking about. His mouth hung open. Then he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Yutaka looked down again. Then he said, "It's just that…1 mean you're so awesome. I can see how you'd be friends with someone like Shuya. Shuya's as athletic as you are, and he's a great guitar player.

But…but I'm nothing. So…I was just wondering why you're friends with me."

Shinji stared at Yutaka, who kept looking down. Then he began to speak, "That's ridiculous, Yutaka."

Hearing Shinji's gentle voice, Yutaka looked up.

Shinji continued, "I am who I am. And you're you. Even if I'm pretty good at basketball or computers, or popular with the girls, that's doesn't make me a better person. You can make people laugh and you're kind. When you're serious, you're a lot more sincere than I am. Like with girls. I'm not resorting to that cheap cliche about everyone having something to offer, but I am saying there are a lot of things I admire about you." He shrugged and then smiled. "I like you. We've always been buddies. You're an important friend. My best friend."

He saw Yutaka's eyes brimming with tears again. Then, just as before, he said, "Damn, thanks, Shinji.

Thanks so much." Then he wiped away his tears and laughed, "But if you stick around with a crybaby like me you'll end up drowning before we escape."

Shinji started to laugh but then—he heard a ring.

He knit his brows and sat up. It was the Macintosh's standard warning sound.

Shinji knelt in front of the PowerBook and stared at the screen.

His eyes opened wide. A message informed him the line had been disconnected and the download aborted.

"Why?"

Shinji moaned. He began typing rapidly on the keyboard, but he couldn't save the connection. He quit the Unix communications software and began working on dialing up the modem with another communication application.

A message appeared, reading, "The number you have dialed is no longer in service." He received the same message no matter how many times he tried. The connection between the modem and phone appeared to be fine. Just to make sure though, he disconnected the phone from the modem and pressed the digits on the phone directly. He tried the weather report once again.

The cell phone had no signal at all now. Which meant…no, the battery was still fully charged....

That can't be....Holding the cell phone, Shinji gaped at the PowerBook screen, which was no longer operating. His hacking was undetectable. That's why it was called hacking. And Shinji had the technique.

"Shinji? What's wrong, Shinji?"

Yutaka called out to him, but Shinji remained speechless.

25 students remaining

33

After the star icon appeared at the edge of the small liquid crystal screen, Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11) kept close watch. It was the same icon as the one in the center of the screen that had been there ever since he'd turned on this handheld device.

He was in the residential area on the island's eastern shore. It was going to become a forbidden zone soon. He'd been carefully but quickly moving between the houses, and finally he saw a change in the device. He'd found the device in his day pack. It looked like one of those mobile data terminals salarymen use. The change was the first response the device gave ever since he turned it on at 6 a.m., after he went through the manual. His priority was to sweep the soon-to-be forbidden zones, but the device responded in none of those areas—sector J=2 on the south shore, sector F=ll in the west—and from there he moved here to sector H=8.

Technically speaking, it wasn't really a weapon. But right now, depending on how he used it, it could prove more useful than any weapon. He wasn't sure whether he was actually using it properly, though.

Hiroki gripped his stick again with his other hand. (It came off a mop he found inside a shack at the north end of the residential area. If he wanted to he could have taken a large blade, but this was more useful for him, since he'd been studying martial arts ever since he was in elementary school.) He proceeded to move diagonally away from the wood-sided wall he'd been pressed up against. He had a large frame, over 180 cm tall, but he moved dexterously as he pinned himself against the wall of the next house. The star icon was approaching the similar icon in the center.

He remembered the manual explaining the display system and turned his head. It was this house…inside this house.

Hiroki put the device in his pocket and moved around to the house's backyard.

There was a family garden in the small yard with tomato stalks up to his waist, yams planted in the ground, and green onions. Next to them pansies and chrysanthemums in different colors were in bloom.

In front of the garden was a child's tricycle. Its chrome handlebars sparkled in the noontime light.

The veranda's storm doors were shut. Opening them might make a big noise. Hiroki circled over to the right.

There was a window. It was broken. He was certain now. There was someone inside. And if he'd read the radar's manual right then he or she was still there.

Since this area would soon be in a forbidden zone, no one should be here now. So most likely it was a corpse inside. But…he had to know for sure.

Hiroki slowly lifted his face to the window and looked in. It was a guest room with tatami floormats.

He slid the window open. It made no sound. He grabbed the window frame and swiftly leaped up like a cat and entered the house.

The room had an alcove. At the center was a low table and a large TV in the corner by the window on Hiroki's side. There was nothing else. Hiroki tiptoed out of the room.

In the hall he smelled something odd, as if he'd caught a whiff of rusty metal.

He quickly moved down the hall. The smell became stronger.

It came from the kitchen. From inside the shadow of a column, Hiroki peeped in.

He saw a pair of white sneakers and a pair of socks on the floor beyond the table. He could see the legs up to their calves.

Hiroki's eyes opened wide. He ran over to the table.

A girl in a sailor suit was lying face down. Her face looked away from Hiroki. She was small with short hair, and under her face a puddle of blood formed on the floor. There was a lot, but the surface was already congealing into a dark red.

She was definitely dead. The question was—

Small body. Short hair.

She looked like one of the two girls he was looking for. They were both equally important to him. She resembled one of them. He couldn't remember whether she was wearing sneakers like these, though.

Hiroki put aside his stick and day pack and knelt down beside the corpse. He touched the girl's shoulder with his trembling hand. After a moment's hesitation, he clenched his teeth and turned the body over. The shiny red blood that hadn't congealed yet gave off a strong odor.

It was a horrible sight. There was a deep gash in her thin throat right above the neck band (which was what in fact led him here). The wound gaped open like a hole, perhaps due to her blood being completely depleted. It resembled an infant's mouth, still without teeth. The blood had flowed down from the wound, sullying the silver collar then down her chest. Her mouth, nose, and left cheek were all immersed in a pool of blood. He deduced, this must have occurred after she fell. Drops of blood had formed on the tips of her eyelashes above and below her glazed eyes. They had hardened as well.

It was Megumi Eto (Female Student No. 3).

It wasn't her.

While the horrific state of the corpse had shocked him, he was still relieved. He closed his eyes for a while and took a deep breath. Then he felt guilty for feeling relieved. He gently lifted Megumi's body, removed her from the pool of blood, and placed her face up. Rigor mortis was setting in, so she felt like a doll. After doing this he closed her eyes. After some thought he tried to fold her arms over her chest, but her body was too stiff now, so he finally gave up.

He grabbed his stick and day pack and stood up. After briefly looking over Megumi's body, he headed towards the guest room he had entered. It was almost 11 a.m.

25 students remaining

34

Time quietly passed. Shogo continued to smoke without uttering a word. Noriko kept quiet too. In the thicket little birds chirped away, and the branches above them rustled in the breeze, letting in a web of light that moved back and forth like a pendulum. You could hear the sound of ocean waves if you listened hard enough. Now that they were settled in the woods, it almost felt as if they were leading a peaceful life.

This partially came from the hope Shuya now had after talking to Shogo. They could escape. And if that was what they wanted, they were best off lying low and waiting. Despite Noriko's injuries, they were safe as long as they kept a close watch. After all, there were three of them, and two of them had guns.

But Shuya couldn't stop thinking about the distant gunshots they heard an hour ago.

Had someone else been killed? It could have meant…he didn't even want to consider it…but it could have been Shinji Mimura or Hiroki Sugimura. Even if it was neither of them, it could have been another innocent classmate. Shuya and Noriko might be saved thanks to Shogo, but the others were living in terror of being killed at any moment.

That was enough to disturb Shuya. Yes, yes, he'd already discussed it with Shogo. Shogo told him it was best to sit still.

He was absolutely right. He also said as long as Noriko was injured, they'd be prime targets. Again he was right. But…but was it right for them to sit back like this? Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano kept their faith in the others even though they knew they didn't have a chance of escaping. On the other hand, with Shogo's help, he and Noriko had a good chance. But did that mean they shouldn't be risking their lives?

It was clear someone was a murderer—someone was "intentionally murdering" others. They'd witnessed Yumiko's and Yukiko's deaths. And there might be other murderers. In fact the students he'd confronted—Yoshio Akamatsu, Tatsumichi Oki, and Kyoichi Motobuchi—might have all been trying to kill him. He doubted anyone like that would voluntarily join them. No, someone like that would only join them just to betray and kill them when the time was right.

But shouldn't we at the very least be looking for others we can trust?

Even if we try though, there's no way to tell them apart from the others. If we tried to help everyone, an

"enemy" would eventually sneak into our group, and that would mean certain death. Noriko and Shogo would get killed too.

Shuya let out a deep sigh. He racked his brains. No matter how many times he went over it, he came to the same conclusion. There was nothing they could do. He could only hope they'd somehow come across Shinji Mimura and Hiroki Sugimura. But what were the chances that would happen?

"Hey," Shogo said as he lit another cigarette. Shuya looked at him.

"Stop thinking too much. It's no use. Just concentrate on yourself and Noriko."

Shuya lifted his brow. "Are you psychic?"

"Sometimes. Especially when the weather's this nice." Shogo took another drag. Then, as if the thought had suddenly occurred to him, he added, "Is it true?"

"What?"

"What Sakamochi said about you. That you have dangerous ideas."

"Oh, that." Shuya looked down and nodded.

"What'd you do?" Shogo looked at him mischievously. Shuya returned the look.

There were two things he'd done. The first was how he quit the baseball team. That's right, when he entered junior high school, he joined both the baseball team and the music club, but he was turned off by the baseball team's military-style discipline and win-at-all-costs attitude. (It wasn't surprising. Baseball was the national pastime. It was the sport the nation endorsed for international tournaments.

Unfortunately, baseball was also popular with the American imperialists, so if the national team lost to them in the Olympics, the Baseball Federation directors would all have to commit harakiri.) On top of that, the team's coach, Mr. Minato, would get on the case of players who weren't very good, even if they loved the game. So by the second week, Shuya was completely fed up and announced he was quitting in a four-letter diatribe against Mr. Minato and the Baseball Federation. And that was how the golden rookie of Shiroiwa Junior High School embarked on a different path towards becoming a different kind of star (according to him)—a rock 'n' roll star. At any rate, this incident didn't look so good on his school record. But Sakamochi was probably referring to the other thing....

"Nothing," Shuya replied. "Sakamochi was probably referring to my listening to rock. He was hassling me for being in the music club."

"Ah," Shogo nodded, wanting to know more. "You play guitar, right? Is that how you started listening to rock?"

"No. I heard rock, and that was how I started playing guitar. I was at the orphanage..."

Shuya recalled the middle-aged handyman who worked at the Charity House. He was upbeat and his thinning hair was slicked back, sticking up at the nape of his neck. ("It's called a duck's tail.") Now he was in a forced labor camp on Sakhalin Island. None of the kids at the orphanage, including Shuya and Yoshitoki, knew the details. When he said goodbye to them, he didn't offer an explanation and only said,

"I'll be back, Shuya, Yoshitoki. For a while though, I'll be swinging a pickaxe and belting out 'Jailhouse Rock.'" Then he gave his old auto-winding wristwatch to Yoshitoki and Gibson electric guitar to Shuya.

It was Shuya's first guitar. Was he doing all right now? He heard that workers at the forced labor camps often died from overwork and malnutrition.

"Someone gave me a tape. He also gave me his electric guitar."

"Hmm." Shogo nodded.

"Who do you like? Dylan? Lennon? Or Lou Reed?"

Shuya stared back at Shogo. He was taken aback. "I'm impressed."

It wasn't easy getting your hands on rock in the Republic of Greater East Asia. Foreign music was strictly monitored by an organization called the Popular Music Judiciary Committee, and any kind of music that remotely resembled rock would never make it through customs. It was treated like an illegal drug. (He'd even seen a poster in the prefectural civil office with the same red-circle-and-diagonal-line pattern placed over a photo of a sleazy-looking longhaired rocker. It read, "Stop Rock." Great.) Basically, the Republic didn't like the music's rhythms, not to mention the lyrics, which might agitate the people. Bob Marley was one of them, but an obvious example would be Lennon's lines, "You may say I'm a dreamer/But I'm not the only one/I hope some day you'll join us and the world will be as one." How could the nation not consider that a threat?

The only music you could find at record stores was domestic, mostly trite idol pop. The most extreme imported music Shuya came across was probably Frank Sinatra. (Although "My Way" might have been appropriate song for this country.)

For a while Shuya thought the handyman with the duck's tail hairdo was sent to the camps for this, so Shuya thought there was something scary about the tapes and guitar the man had left behind. Apparently he was wrong, though. Once he entered junior high, he found out there were plenty of others who were into rock and owned electric guitars. (Of course Kazumi Shintani was also a huge rock fan!) It was through this group he was able to get dubbed copies of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Stand!"

But that was only within a close knit group. If there had been a survey of the number of students who'd never heard rock, over 90% would have said they hadn't. (Even those who had would say they hadn't, so the actual result would be 100%.) Given how broad Shogo's knowledge seemed to be, it wasn't that strange for him to be exposed to it, but Dylan and Lennon were pretty extreme artists.

"Don't look so freaked out," Shogo said. "I'm a city kid from Kobe. I'm not a bumpkin like you guys from Kagawa. I know something about rock."

Shuya broke into a slight grin. His guardedness lifted. Then he told Shogo, "My favorite's Springsteen. I like Van Morrison too, though."

" 'Born to Run' is great. I like Van Morrison's 'Whenever God Shines His Light.' "

Shuya gawked and then broke into a grin. "You know a lot!"

Shogo grinned back. "I told you. I'm a city kid."

Shuya noticed how Noriko stayed silent. He was worried she might feel excluded.

"Noriko, did you say you've never listened to rock?"

Noriko gave him a smile and shook her head. "I've never really heard it. What's it like?"

Shuya smiled. "The lyrics are really something. I don't know how to describe it well, but it's music that really expresses people's problems. Of course, songs can be about love, but at times they can be about politics or society, or the way we live our lives, and life itself. Along with the words, the melody and beat help get the message across. Like Springsteen singing, 'Born to Run'..." Shuya recked the end of the song, "Together Wendy we can live with the sadness/I'll love you with all the madness in my soul/Someday girl I don't know when we're gonna get to that place where we really want to go/And we'll walk in the sun…"

He continued by singing the last line softly, " …but tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

He said to Noriko, "We'll definitely listen to it some time."

Noriko opened her eyes and nodded. Under normal circumstances her face might have lit up, but she only responded with a weak smile. Shuya was too tired to notice though.

He told Shogo, "If everyone listened more to rock then this country would come crumbling down."

That's right…just like Noriko said, "It's because no one knows about this…" Shuya thought rock music revealed everything that was essential. That was why it was banned by the government.

Shogo rubbed his stubby Wild Seven cigarette into the ground. He lit another. Then he said, "Shuya."

"What?"

"Do you really think rock has that kind of power?"

Shuya nodded enthusiastically. "Of course it does."

Shogo stared at Shuya and looked away. "I don't know. It might just serve as an outlet for our frustrations, a convenient way to let off steam. It might be banned, but if you really want to listen to rock, you can. So it also serves as an outlet. That's what I mean. This country is very clever. Who knows, it might end up promoting rock and roll as a national resource."

Shuya felt as if he'd been dealt a blow. Rock was his religion, music sheets were the pages of his bible, Springsteen, Van Morrison, and his other heroes were the equivalent of the twelve disciples. Of course he was getting used to being shocked, what with his classmates dying around him, so relatively speaking, it wasn't that shocking.

Shuya calmed himself down and slowly replied, "I don't know about that."

Shogo nodded several times. "I do. In any case, it's not about being banned or promoted. That's not what rock's about. Anyone who wants to hear it should be able to when they want to. That's what it comes down to, right?"

Shuya thought about this. Then he said, "I never thought about it like that. But I see where you're coming from." Then he added, "Incredible. I didn't realize how perceptive you are."

Shogo shrugged.

They fell silent for a while.

Then Shuya said, "But…1 still do believe rock is powerful. It's a positive force."

Which was what Noriko had said about Shuya.

Shogo unwrapped a new pack of cigarettes while he looked at Shuya. Shogo grinned. He lit the cigarette dangling from his mouth. Then he said, "To be honest, I agree with you."

Shuya smiled back at him.

"It's ironic that we're really in that situation though,"

Shogo observed.

Shuya was puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"The only thing we can do now is run," Shogo replied.

"We were born to run"

25 students remaining

35

Kaori Minami (Female Student No. 20) got up when she heard the faint rustling sound. It came from the grove at the foot of the hill to the north, slightly to the east of the island's central region. On the map it was designated sector F=8.

She held tightly onto her gun. The gun was a small SIG-Sauer P230 9mm Short automatic pistol. It felt large in Kaori's small hands.

Without knowing it, Kaori bit her lip. She'd been hearing the same sound over and over once the game began and up until now, while she hid herself here. And every time she was relieved to find out it was only caused by the wind or some small animal (a stray cat?). But that didn't stop her terror. She bit down and cut open her lip, which was now covered with cuts that had become scabs. This time…it might be an enemy. An enemy…that's right. One of her classmates would attack her. The images of the corpses of Yoshio Akamatsu and Mayumi Tendo vividly came to mind.

And when she'd left the school, she'd heard a voice coming from the woods in front of her. It was the voice of the school representative, Yukie Utsumi. Then she saw other figures with Yukie in the dark grove. Calling out from the dark, Yukie spoke in a hushed but clear voice, "Kaori! Come join us! It's just girls! You're safe with us!"

But…how could she? How could she trust anyone under these circumstances? If she stayed with them, she would have had to constantly watch her back. Kaori ran away from Utsumi's invitation and in the opposite direction…and now she was here. And now…was that the sound of an enemy approaching?

She waited for a while, holding the gun with both hands, but the sound disappeared.

She waited a little more. The sound was gone.

Kaori let out a sigh of relief. She got down on her knees and crouched down in the shrubs. The crooked leaves touching her cheeks annoyed her, so she changed her position. With the palm of her hands she kept on rubbing her face where the leaves had touched her. Her pimples had given her enough grief. She didn't want her face to swell up from some poison ivy. Even if she was going to die soon, she didn't want that.

She felt a chill run down her spine. Die? Am I going to do die? Am I really going to die?

The thought alone was enough to make her heart beat faster. She felt like she was going to have a seizure.

Am I going to die? Am I going to die? Like a crummy CD player unable to ignore a scratch on the disc the ringing words skipped over and over deep inside her head. Am I going to die?

Kaori snatched desperately at the brass locket she wore around her neck underneath her uniform. It popped open, and a bright, cheerful face with long hair smiled at Kaori.

As she concentrated on it, Kaori's pulse finally managed to slow down and return to its normal pace.

It was a photo of Junya Kenzaki of the pop group Flip Side. He was the most popular member with girls.

This special locket was only available to fan club members. Kaori was proud to know she was the only student in her school who had one. (Of course most girls nowadays could care less. Besides, lockets were passe. But Kaori didn't think so.)

Oh…Junya. I'm all right, right? You'll protect me, right?

She thought Junya Kenzaki was telling her, "It's all right. Of course you're all right. Shall I sing your favorite song, 'Galaxy Magnum'?" Kaori's breathing calmed down a bit. Then she asked the photo:

"Say, Junya. Should I have joined Yukie? I wonder if that would have saved me? No, that can't be."

A tear came rolling down Kaori's cheeks.

How could this be happening? She wanted to see her mom. She wanted to see her dad. She wanted to see her sister and her kind grandma and grandpa. She wanted to take a bath, rub cream on her pimples, sit on the comfortable couch in the living room, and sip on a cup of cocoa while she watched a video of Flip Side's TV show. (Although she'd seen this episode many, many times already.)

"Junya, help me. Please…I feel like I'm going crazy."

The moment she actually heard her voice say this out loud, Kaori felt as if she were really going insane. It freaked her out. Nausea welled up to her chest. She was crying frantically now.

She suddenly heard a rustling sound behind her, and her body flinched. It was much louder than the previous sound.

Her eyes bleary with tears, she turned around.

A boy was looking at her through the shrubs. It was Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11). He'd snuck up behind her!

Kaori was completely terrified and too numb to think as she lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. Her wrists jerked back with the popping sound. A gold shell flew out, and the sun's rays reflected off it as it shone through the branches.

Hiroki had already disappeared deep inside the thicket.

The rustling continued and also disappeared.

Kaori was trembling. She was still holding the gun. Then she snatched her belongings and ran in the opposite direction. As she ran, her agitated mind raced with thoughts. She was sure Hiroki Sugimura was trying to kill her. Why else would he have snuck up behind her without saying anything? Hiroki Sugimura probably didn't have a gun. He saw that I did and ran away in a panic. If I hadn't noticed him—and shot at him—then Hiroki Sugimura would probably have stabbed my chest with a knife or something. A knife!

I have to be careful. I have to shoot anyone I come across. No mercy. Otherwise, I'll end up getting killed…killed!

Oh no…I can't stand this anymore. I want to go home. Take a bath. Pimple cream. Cocoa! Video. Flip Side. Junya. No mercy. Shoot. Shoot! Cocoa. Junya. Cream! For my pimples! No mercy, Junya.

Tears came streaming down Kaori's cheeks. The lid on the locket on her chest remained open and Junya Kenzaki's cheerful face swung violently left and right, up and down.

No mercy. Junya. I'm going to be killed! Shoot. Mom. Sister! Dad. Shoot! Shoot! The new record release!

Kaori was losing her mind.

25 students remaining

36

"All right then, here's the body count."

Sakamochi's voice continued. It was the noon announcement.

New members on the waiting list for funerals were Tatsumichi Oki, Kyoichi Motobuchi, and of course Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka. The other ones were Yoji Kuramoto and Yoshimi Yahagi.

"I will announce the forbidden zones for this afternoon. Now, I want you to take notes. Get your notebooks out."

Once again, Shuya pulled out his map and pen from his pocket. Shogo also had his map out.

"At 1 p.m., J=5. At 3 p.m., H=3. At 5 p.m., D=8. Got that?"

J=5 was the southeast shore of the island. H=3 was near the top of the southern mountain. D=8 was the hilly area on the southeast side of the northern mountain peak. Their zone, C=3, wasn't announced. That meant they wouldn't have to move.

"It may be rough losing your friends, but cheer up. You're all so young, you've got so much ahead of you!

Over and out."

With this series of happy-go-lucky platitudes, Sakamochi's announcement came to an end.

Shuya sighed. He put away the map and examined the student list, which was now ridden with check marks. "We're down to twenty-five students. Damn."

Shogo cupped his hand as he lit another cigarette. Then he said, "It's like I said. The numbers are steadily dwindling."

Shuya looked up at Shogo. He got Shogo's point. The more classmates that died the closer they were to escaping. But…

"That was uncalled for."

Shogo only shrugged. He shifted his eyes and then said, "Hey, I'm sorry."

Shuya wanted to say more, but he tore his eyes away from Shogo's face. He pulled in his knees and stared down between them. There were several tiny yellow flowers poking out from the grass, and an ant was crawling up one of the stems.

This was the issue. Shuya had felt like they'd become buddies when they talked about rock, but in the end there was still something about Shogo that bothered him. Was it simply that there was a cold side to Shogo?

He took in a small breath…and then thought of something else. Of the six deaths Sakamochi had announced, Yoji Kuramoto and Yoshimi Yahagi were the only ones Shuya didn't witness. He was pretty sure they were going out. Did that mean they were together? And the two gunshots they heard after 10

p.m…was that them? If so, who could have…

He remembered the sound of the machine gun slaughtering Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka. Did the same person kill them too? Or…

"Shuya," Shogo said. He looked up. "You haven't had breakfast, right? This government-supplied bread sucks, but I found some coffee and strawberry jam at the supply store. Let's eat."

Shogo took out a jar and a slim can (200g) of canned coffee. The jar's label was illustrated with strawberries, and he could see the shiny, thick, red contents inside the glass. Shuya assumed Shogo was going to toss the coffee into a pot of boiling water on the fire. Shogo also pulled out a bag of plastic cups.

"You loaded up."

"Yep," Shogo nodded. Then he proceeded to pull out a long, thin box. "Look at this. An entire carton of Wild Sevens."

Shuya decided to cheer up. He smiled, nodding. He took out the bread in his day pack and offered one to Noriko.

"Noriko, we should eat."

Noriko looked up, still hugging her knees. "I'm…all right. I'm not hungry."

"What's wrong? Is your appetite…"

Shuya realized as she looked down again how pale her face had become. He'd suddenly realized how quiet she'd been.

"Noriko?"

Shuya approached her. Shogo observed them as he opened the lid of the coffee can.

"Noriko."

Shuya touched her on the shoulder. Noriko clenched her hands together. Her lips were tightly shut, forming a straight line across her pale face. Only now did Shuya finally realize that air was painfully hissing through her lips. She was having difficulty breathing. She closed her eyes, released her hands, put them on his arm, and leaned against him.

Her body temperature, which he sensed from her hands and through the shoulder area of the sailor suit, felt abnormally high, as if she were nursing a chick underneath her clothes. Shuya brushed off the hair on her forehead and felt her forehead.

It was incredibly hot. The cold sweat on her forehead drenched the palm of his hand.

Panicking, he turned to Shogo.

"She's got a fever! Shogo!"

"I'm…fine," Noriko said weakly.

Shogo put down the can of coffee and got up. He exchanged positions with Shuya and touched her forehead. He rubbed his chin and then held her wrist. He seemed to be taking her pulse as he checked his wristwatch.

"I'm sorry about this," he said as he put the fingers of his right hand to her lips and had her open her mouth. Then he pressed the skin under her eyes downward and looked under her lower eyelids.

"You must feel cold."

Narrowing her eyes, Noriko nodded, "Yeah…a little…"

"How is she?" Shuya asked nervously. He'd been holding his breath.

"Just give me your coat," Shogo said as he removed his own school coat. Shuya quickly removed his too and gave it to Shogo. Shogo carefully wrapped the two coats around Noriko's body.

"Bread. I need the jam and water too," Shogo instructed, and Shuya swiftly snatched the bread and water he'd offered to Noriko as well as the jam left on top of Shogo's day pack. Shogo hastily dipped the bread into the jar, covering it with red jam. He offered it to Noriko.

"You have to eat this, Noriko."

"I know…but…"

"Just eat it. Even a little will help," Shogo's insisted. Noriko hesitantly took the bread and nibbled on the bread a couple times. She made an effort to swallow it. Then she returned the rest of the bread to Shogo.

"No more, huh?"

Noriko barely shook her head. Even shaking her head seemed to exhaust her.

Shogo wanted her to eat more, but then he set the bread aside and once again pulled out the small pouch of medicine from his pocket.

"It's cold medicine," he said and gave her a capsule that was different from the pain reliever he'd given her before. Noriko nodded. With Shogo's help she managed to swallow it down with water from the bottle.

Water came streaming from her mouth, but Shogo gently wiped it away.

"Okay, now lie down."

Noriko nodded obediently and lay down on the grass, still wrapped up in the two coats.

"What's going on, Shogo? Is she gonna be right?" Shuya asked.

Shogo shook his head. "I don't know for sure yet. It may just be a fever. But she might be infected from the wound."

"What…"

With Noriko lying down, Shuya looked down at the bandanna bandage wrapped around her right calf.

"But…I thought we cleaned out her wound."

Shogo shook his head again. "She moved around the woods a lot after she was shot, right? She might have been infected before we treated her."

Shuya stared at Shogo for a while and then knelt down beside Noriko. He reached his hand out to Noriko's forehead.

"Noriko…"

Noriko opened her eyes. She smiled feebly.

"I'm all right…I'm just a little tired. Don't worry."

But her breathing hardly indicated she was all right.

Shuya looked over at Shogo again. He restrained himself from sounding overly agitated and said,

"Shogo. We can't stay here. We have to move. We should at least find a house where she can get warm—"

Shogo cut him off, "Just hold on. Let's just wait and see for now." He tightly wrapped the makeshift blanket-coats around Noriko's body.

"But…"

"It's too dangerous for us to move. I told you."

Noriko faintly opened her eyes. She looked over at Shuya and said, "I'm so sorry…Shuya…" Then she said to Shogo, "I'm sorry," and closed her eyes.

Shuya's lips tightened as he looked down at Noriko's pale face.

25 students remaining

37

Takako Chigusa (Female Student No. 13) stuck her head out from under the shadow of a tree trunk.

She was halfway up the eastern side of the island's southern mountain. According to the map she was somewhere near the border between H=4 and H=5. There was a grove full of trees that grew shorter as she headed up the mountain.

Takako gripped her weapon, an ice pick, and looked back.

The house she'd been hiding inside was obscured by trees and no longer visible. It was decrepit and overrun by tall grass and seemed like it'd been abandoned even before the island had been evacuated.

She remembered something like a chicken shack was connected to the main building. Now she couldn't even see the rusty tin roof. How far had she come? Two hundred meters? One hundred meters? Takako was the girls' track team's best short-distance sprinter (she held the prefect's all-time second-place junior-high record for the 200-meter), so she had a good sense of running distances, but she wasn't sure now—mainly because of the hills and bushes, not to mention the tension she was feeling.

After eating awful bread and water for breakfast, Takako decided to wait until 1 p.m. to leave the house.

She'd been hearing what sounded like gunshots ever since the game started and hid in a corner of the abandoned house, but now she thought staying cooped up like that wouldn't do any good. She had to join up with someone—at least a friend she could trust—and proceed.

Of course it was possible friends she trusted wouldn't trust her. But…

Takako was a beautiful girl. Her upward-curving eyes were a little fierce-looking, but they matched with her sharp chin, well formed mouth, and nicely defined nose, all of which gave her an "aristocratic" look.

Her long hair was dyed with orange streaks, which might look odd at first, but with her jewelry—which included earrings, two in her left ear, one in her right, designer rings on the middle and ring fingers of her left hand, a total of five bracelets on her wrists, and a pendant made from a foreign coin—she managed to assert her own look that made her all the more attractive. Her teachers didn't really approve of her hair and gaudy jewelry, but she got good grades and because she was the track team's star sprinter, she never got directly criticized. Basically Takako was very proud. She wasn't going to be bound by the silly school rules that the other girls followed.

Whether it was—unfortunately enough—because of her beauty, or her pride, or whether it was because she was simply shy, Takako didn't have many close friends in her class. Her best friend was Kahoru Kitazawa, whom she'd known ever since elementary school, but she was in another class.

But…

But there was someone in her class whom Takako could trust. The student wasn't a girl, though. She'd known him since they were kids.

And with him in mind, she couldn't help being preoccupied by something.

When she left the school building Takako thought someone who'd left before her might come back. In that case, she'd have to leave with extreme caution. And it was best to leave the school by foiling the assailant's expectations.

When she came into the hall, she peeked outside through the exit door. There were woods in front of her, and a hill on the left. The area to her right was relatively open. The assailant, if there was one, would have to be hiding in the woods or in the hill.

Takako stayed down as she left the building and dashed to her right, staying close to the school building wall. The track star let her mighty legs cut loose. She didn't even have to think about it. She ran down the street through a cluster of houses and into a narrow alley. Then she ran toward the base of the southern mountain. All her energy was focused on getting away from the school and finding somewhere to hide.

But…

What if there had been someone in the woods or in the hill in front of the school who had no intention of attacking her? In other words…what if…"he," who'd left before her, had hid in the woods or the mountain, had been waiting for her? Maybe she'd lost her chance by running out of there at full speed?

No.

She didn't think so. What else could she have done? Anyone hanging around the school was jeopardizing his or her life. They had known each other since they were kids— it was nothing more than that. They had remained decent friends through all these years. She thought it was presumptuous of her to think that he—Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11)—would risk his life waiting for her.

The important thing was finding someone now. Finding Hiroki Sugimura would be ideal, but she knew that was too optimistic. She'd settle for the school representative Yukie Utsumi or some average girl. As long as she was careful not to get shot, she could calm them down___If they were calm already, that would be even better (although the thought of someone calm under these circumstances was a bit scary too). To find that someone…that was all she could do for now.

The one thing she knew not to do was to raise her voice. She had proof of that, now. From the abandoned house Takako had also seen Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano die on top of the northern mountain.

So Takako decided to leave the abandoned shack where she was hiding and climb up to the peak of the southern mountain. Once she was there, she'd descend the slope by circling the mountain, checking for anyone hiding in the bushes. She could throw pebbles at the bushes just as she'd been doing ever since she left the shack. Once she figured out who it was she could decide whether or not to approach that person. At noon Sakamochi had announced that the area around the peak of the southern mountain would become a forbidden zone at 3 p.m., but as long as she didn't run into any problems she'd be able to completely survey the area before then. Also, if there was anyone in the area then he or she would have to be out of there by 3 p.m. She'd have a better chance locating someone on the move.

Takako checked her supplied wristwatch. It was 1:20 p.m. She usually wore bracelets so she never wore a watch, but she couldn't afford that luxury now. Then she touched her collar.

"If you try to pry it loose it will explode."

It was suffocating—not only the way it dug into her neck, but its mere presence. The chain of her pendant lightly tapped against the band.

Takako decided to ignore it and gripped her ice pick (what good was this weapon though?) with her left hand. With her right she grabbed some pebbles and tossed them out in front of her to her left and right.

They made a rustling sound in the grove.

She waited for a while. No response. She moved forward. She took a deep breath, ready to run up the open ground between the bushes.

Suddenly she heard a rustling sound. Someone's head popped out of the bushes, approximately ten meters to her left. She could see the back of his coat and the back of his head. Its hair was slightly disheveled but still smooth. His head turned left and right checking the area.

Takako froze. She was in trouble. It was a guy. Guys were trouble. She had no particular reason to think so, but she had a hunch anyone besides Hiroki Sugimura was trouble. And she could immediately tell this guy was not him.

Takako held her breath and slowly stepped back into the thicket behind her. She knew this would happen, but that didn't stop her from trembling.

Suddenly the boy turned around. Their eyes met. The face, which had an expression of utter astonishment, belonged to Kazushi Nüda (Male Student No. 16).

Oh man, why did I have to bump into this jerk? What mattered now was that she was totally exposed and how dangerous that was. She turned around and started running back the way she came.

"Wait!"

She heard Kazushi's voice. The sound of him waded through the thicket, coming after her.

"Wait!" Now he was shouting. "Wait!"

Ugh—What an idiot—

Takako hesitated for a few moments and then stopped. She looked back. If Kazushi had a gun and wanted to shoot her he'd have done that by now. More troubling was his shouting. It endangered not only his life but hers. Just as it was moments ago there didn't seem to be anyone in the area.

Slowing down, Kazushi descended the slope.

Takako realized Kazushi held a rifle loaded with an arrow in his right hand. It wasn't pointed at Takako right now—but if it was, could she dodge it and run away? Should she have stopped?

No. Takako reassured herself, she'd done the right thing. Kazushi Nüda was a forward on the soccer team. Top athletes like him were as fast if not faster than track runners. Even though Takako was a star track runner, he'd have eventually caught up with her.

Either way it was too late.

Kazushi stopped several meters away from her. He had wide shoulders and was relatively tall and well built. His smooth hair was long, which was the current fashion with soccer players, but now it was disheveled, as if he'd been playing in a close match that had gone into overtime. A smile emerged on his face, which was pretty good looking except for his bad teeth.

What does he want? Takako thought as he observed his face.

He might not have any harmful intentions. He might actually be thinking he finally found someone he could trust.

But Takako didn't have a very good impression of Kazushi Nüda. To put it bluntly, she couldn't stand his kind of chumminess. She also couldn't stand his arrogance. They'd been classmates ever since their first year in junior high. (Hiroki became her classmate in second-year.) Without putting much effort into them, Kazushi was above average in grades and sports, but in spite of that—or maybe it had nothing to do with that—his immaturity really stuck out. He tried to impress others, and when he'd screw up he'd come up with some lame-ass excuse. Furthermore, and this was really stupid, but when they were first-year students, there were rumors that she and Kazushi were going out. (Junior high kids don't have anything better to do. Well, let them say what they want.) Every time the rumors got going again he'd go to her desk and touch her on the shoulder (how dare he) and tell her, "There's a rumor floating around about us." Takako would turn away and brush his hand off with the reply, "Oh, I'm so honored." She let it slide, scoffing at him on the inside ("Go away you little brat. You've got some nerve"), but now…she wasn't in the position to do the same thing.

Takako spoke cautiously. She had to get away from him as quickly as possible. That's what it came down to.

"Don't shout, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry," Kazushi answered. "But you were the one who took off."

Takako didn't mess around with her response. Get to the point, cut to the chase. Her best features. "The fact is, I don't want to be with you." She looked at Kazushi and managed to shrug her tense shoulders.

Kazushi's grimaced. "Why?"

Because you act like you're such a goody-goody, she thought.

"Look, we both know why. Okay, later," Takako said as she got ready to run. Still, she felt herself hesitating as her feet trembled.

She stopped.

Because out of the corner of her eye she saw the weapon in Kazushi's right hand pointed at her.

Takako slowly turned around, keeping a close eye on his fingers on the trigger of his bow gun.

"What's this?" she asked.

She casually slid the day pack off her left shoulder and caught its strap. Would it be able to shield her from the force of the bow gun?

"I don't want to resort to this," Kazushi said. This was exactly what she couldn't stand about him. He was making excuses, but in fact he was trying to gain the upper hand. "So you better stay with me."

That pissed her off. But that was also when she noticed something. When she was hiding in the shack her uniform skirt got caught on a broken door. The tear resembled the slit up a Chinese dress, and now Kazushi was looking down at it. His eyes were strangely glazed over. It gave her the creeps.

Takako quickly moved her legs to cover them as much as possible. Then she said, "Give me a break.

You expect me to join you with that stuck in my face?"

"So you promise not to run away?" Kazushi spoke in his usual arrogant voice. He didn't lower the bow gun.

Takako had to put up with him. "Just put that down."

"So you won't run?"

"Are you deaf?" Takako said sharply, and Kazushi reluctantly lowered his weapon.

Then he assumed a smug tone as he said, "I've always thought you were fine."

Takako raised her well defined, elegantly arched eyebrows.

She was exasperated. After threatening her life like this, he has the nerve to say I'm fine!

Kazushi's eyes fell on her legs again. He made no effort to be subtle, and his eyes were locked onto them now.

Takako lifted her chin slightly. "So?"

"So I won't kill you. Just stay with me."

Takako shrugged again. Any hesitation she might have had was now wiped out by anger. "I told you I don't want to," she spat out. "Later."

Takako turned to…no, this time she began moving backwards and staring back at Kazushi. Kazushi lifted his bow gun again. His face had the expression of a kid begging for a toy at a department store.

Mom, I want it, I want it!…I see now.

Takako quietly said, "Stop this."

"Then…stay with me," Kazushi repeated. The way he tilted his head revealed how frantic he was trying to calm his nerves.

Takako repeated, "I told you, no."

Kazushi didn't lower the gun. They glared at each other.

Takako couldn't bear it anymore. "You know…what do you want? Say it. You're not killing me off. I tell you, I don't want to be with you, but you insist. I don't get it."

"I…" Kazushi stared at Takako with that leer in his eyes and said, "I'm saying I'll protect you. So…just stay with me. We're safer together, right?"

"You've gotta be joking. You have the nerve to threaten me like that and say you'll protect me? I can't trust you. Get it? Can I go now? I'm going."

Kazushi replied, "If you move I'll shoot you." He aimed the bow gun directly at her chest.

By openly threatening her like this Kazushi lost any chance he had of keeping to a civilized code of conduct (not that he had much of sense of that to begin with). He stood still and said, "You better obey me, girl. A woman obeys his man."

Takako was furious. Then he had the nerve to say, "You're a virgin, aren't you?" in a casual tone, as if he were only confirming her blood type (B).

Takako was at a loss for words.

What…did this asshole say?

"Am I wrong? Hiroki wouldn't have the guts to sleep with a girl."

Kazushi said this because probably he, along with many of her other classmates, had the mistaken assumption that she was going out with Hiroki Sugimura. She had two reasons to be especially annoyed, though. First of all, her relationship with Hiroki was none of their business. Second, Kazushi's making fun of Hiroki pissed her off.

Takako broke into a grin. She'd realized a long time ago how she could always grin when she was absolutely furious.

So she grinned like this at Kazushi and said, "What's it got to do with you?"

Kazushi might have misinterpreted Takako's grin. Kazushi grinned back. "So I'm right."

Still smiling, Takako glared back at him. Yes, in fact you are right. I might look a little flashy, but just as you said, I'm a virgin. An innocent 15-year-old girl. However…

It's none of your business, asshole!

Kazushi continued, "We're gonna die anyway. Don't you want to try it once before you die? I'd be a good partner."

Although Takako had never felt so angry in her life, she couldn't help but gawk back at him in amazement. Her mouth might have even hung open. His exasperating, outrageous behavior was bad enough, but now it was so out of control it was like he was from another world. Captain Columbus, that is San Salvador Island. Okay, they're barbarians. Beware of the barbarians.

Takako looked down—and burst out in laughter. It was incredibly funny. This sitcom would have been a hit.

She lifted her face. She must have been glaring at Kazushi, but she'd still give him one last chance.

"This is my last offer. I don't want to be with you. Just put that down and leave me alone. Otherwise, I'll take it that you're going to kill me. All right?"

Kazushi didn't move his bow gun. Instead he raised it up to his shoulders and threatened her, "This is my last warning. You better obey me, Takako."

The fact that Takako felt a thrill at this exchange, which was in some ways the turning point of their encounter, may have been indicative of her personality. And from here on…she couldn't be held responsible for what would happen.

Takako took a step forward to put an end to this conversation with this asshole.

"I see. So you just want to rape me. Right? You think dying gives you the right to do anything?"

Kazushi glared back at her. "That's not what I said..."

What's the difference? She laughed at him inside. Let me guess what you'll say next. I don't want to rape you, but you better take off your clothes?

Takako continued grinning as she calmly tilted her head. She said, "Right now, you might want to worry more about your life than about your lame-ass dick."

Kazushi's face suddenly flushed. His mouth twisted as he spouted off, "Shut up! You really want to get raped?"

Takako grinned and answered, "So the truth comes out."

"I told you to shut up!" Kazushi repeated. "I can kill you if I want, you know!"

He made her sick. She remembered how he tried to coax her into it just moments ago, saying, "I won't kill you."

Kazushi paused and then boasted, "I already killed Yoshio."

Takako was a little shocked, but she merely lifted her brow and remarked, "Huh." Even if it were true…given how he'd been hiding, he'd probably been terrified, then somehow bumped into Yoshio Akamatsu and ended up killing him by accident. After that, too scared of anyone stronger than him, he probably spent this whole time hiding. But knowing him, she knew that if he ended up surviving by hiding until he had one weaker final opponent, he'd say something like, "I have no choice" and kill him or her without hesitation.

"I was thinking," Kazushi continued, confirming Takako's suspicion. "I decided this is a game. So I'm not going to pull any punches."

Takako continued staring at Kazushi, still wearing that grin.

Ah ha. I understand now. So whether it was by consent or by raping me you were going to fuck me and then kill me. As long as you could survive by having everyone else including myself die? I see. Did you calculate how many times you could fuck me too?

Her spine tingled with disgust and fury.

"A game?" she repeated after him and then gave a big smile. "But aren't you ashamed doing this to a girl?"

Kazushi looked shocked, but then his face became sulky again. His cold eyes shone. "You want to die?"

"Go ahead, shoot me."

Kazushi hesitated. It was her chance. Takako threw the pebbles she'd cautiously taken out of her pocket at his face. As Kazushi covered his face to shield himself, she quickly turned around, dropped the day pack, and dashed back the way she came, all the while holding onto the ice pick.

She thought she could hear him curse behind her. With a good runner's sprint she'd coveted fifteen meters when suddenly she felt a blow against her right leg and fell face forward. Her cheek got cut as it scraped against a tree root poking out of the ground. She was more upset over this wound on her face than she was over the sharp pain in her leg. That asshole cut my face!

Takako twisted her body around. A silver arrow pierced her skirt and was planted in the back of her right thigh. Blood dripped down her well toned leg muscles.

Kazushi caught up with her. Seeing her sitting there, he tossed aside the bow gun and took out a pair of short sticks chained together—nunchaku—from under his belt and held them in his right hand. The chain rattled (this weapon, by the way, had been in Mayumi Tendo's day pack, which Kazushi then took after killing Yoshio Akamatsu). (His own weapon for some bizarre reason was a plain shamisen banjo that was completely useless. Of course, this had nothing to do with Takako.) Takako glanced at the bow gun on the ground and thought, you'll regret you put that down.

"It's your fault," Kazushi said, panting. "You provoked me."

Still seated, Takako glared up at Kazushi. The bastard was still making excuses. She couldn't believe she'd actually been classmates with this idiot for over two years.

"Wait," Takako said. As Kazushi knit his brows she got on her knees and twisted her right shoulder around, pulling out the arrow in one swift motion as she clenched her teeth. She could feel the flesh tear, followed by a gush of blood. Her skirt was torn again. So now her skirt had two slits.

She tossed the arrow aside and stood up, glaring at Kazushi. She was all right. The pain was incredible but she could take it. She shifted the ice pick over to her right hand.

"Don't do it," Kazushi said. "It's no use."

She tilted the ice pick sideways, pointing it at his chest.

"You said this was a game, right? Fine. I'll be your opponent. I won't lose against an asshole like you. I'll give everything I have to erase your existence. Got it? Do you understand? Or are you too stupid?"

But Kazushi still seemed at ease. He was probably thinking how she was a girl, and what's more, injured, so he couldn't lose against her.

"I'll say it again," she continued, "Don't even think of raping me after beating me to a pulp. Look, little kid, you should worry more about your life than your dick."

Kazushi's face contorted, and he raised the nunchucks up to his face.

Takako gripped her ice pick. The tension between them mounted.

He was probably fifteen centimeters taller, twenty kilograms heavier. Takako was probably the number one female athlete in her class but she had little chance of winning. On top of this, her right leg was pretty badly injured. But…she couldn't lose, no matter what.

Suddenly, Kazushi made a move. He came forward, swinging the nunchucks down!

Takako blocked them with her right arm. One of her two bracelets flew into the air (it was made by South American Indians, it was a favorite, damn). She felt a sting run up her arm up to the center of her skull. Despite the sting though, she thrust the ice pick upward. Kazushi grimaced as he stepped back, dodging it. Once again they were two meters apart.

Takako's left arm was stinging now. But she was all right, nothing was broken.

He resumed his attack. This time he swung the nunchucks with the motion of a backhand tennis swing.

Takako dodged them by crouching down. The nunchucks skimmed her long, streaked hair—several strands flew into the air. Takako quickly swung her ice pick at his right wrist. She felt it wound him slightly as Kazushi groaned a little and stepped back.

They were apart again. Kazushi's wrist, the hand holding the nunchucks, was red. But the cut didn't seem severe.

The wound on her right leg was throbbing. She could tell the entire leg below her thigh was covered with blood. She wouldn't last much longer like this. She also noticed a panting sound. It came from her lips.

Kazushi once again swung his nunchucks. She could see he was aiming at the left side of her head and her shoulder.

Takako stepped forward. She suddenly recalled something Hiroki, who was a martial arts expert, had taught her, "You can defeat your opponent by throwing his timing off. Sometimes, taking a bold step forward can be crucial."

The nunchucks hit her shoulder, but just as Hiroki had said, it was only the chain, which hardly hurt her.

Takako leaped into his chest. Kazushi's face, his eyes wide open in dismay, was right in front of hers.

She thrust the ice pick upward.

Kazushi shoved Takako away with his empty left hand. Takako lost her balance from her wounded right leg and fell forward.

Barely escaping her stab, Kazushi rubbed his unharmed chest with his left hand. "You're really something," he said.

Kazushi quickly swung his nunchucks down at Takako, who was slow getting up. This time he was aiming at her face!

Takako blocked the blow with her ice pick. Along with the metallic clang, the ice pick flew into the air and landed in the dirt. The only thing left in her hand now was intense pain.

Takako bit her lip. She glared at him as she stepped back.

Kazushi grinned and slowly came forward. Undoubtedly this guy was mentally disturbed. He had no qualms about beating a girl to death. In fact, he was enjoying it!

Kazushi swung his nunchucks again. She dodged them by bending back—but the nunchucks followed her instead. Perhaps he'd gotten used to them. This time Kazushi managed to extend his reach.

She felt a sharp thud against the left side of her head. She began to sway. A warm liquid came flowing out her left nostril.

She was on the verge of falling. Kazushi must have looked like he was sure he'd won.

Still swaying, Takako's pretty, sharply curved eyes squinted.

As she fell, she stretched out her long legs and with all her might kicked Kazushi's left knee from the right side. Kazushi let out a painful moan and fell on his left knee. His body floundered and rotated halfway on his knee. Now she saw his back.

Had she tried to take the ice pick, Takako might have lost. But that wasn't what she did.

She leaped onto Kazushi's back.

She clutched onto his head as if riding on his shoulders. Her weight forced him to fall forward.

If a thought occurred to her it was in choosing which fingers she should use. Her index and middle…no…the strongest combination would be her middle finger and thumb. And…Takako had always taken good care of her nails. No matter how many times her team coach Mr. Tada scolded her about them she refused to shorten her nails.

Hanging onto Kazushi, Takako grabbed hold of his hair and yanked his head back. She could tell where they were.

Kazushi must have suddenly realized her intentions. She saw him shut his eyes.

It was useless though. Takako's right middle finger and thumb tore through his eyelids and dug into his eye sockets.

"AIEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Kazushi screamed. He fell on his arms, got up on his knees, dropped his nunchucks, and tried to brush off her hands. His body moved frantically as he tried to get rid of her.

Takako held tightly onto Kazushi and refused to let go. She pushed her fingers in further. Her thumb and middle finger dug in up to their second joints. As she dug in, she felt something pop and realized it was his eyeballs. She didn't expect eye sockets to be this small. Takako didn't hesitate to bend her sharp fingers inward. Blood and a semi-transparent slimy liquid came oozing down his cheeks like weird tears.

"ARRRRGH," Kazushi cried as he got up and swung his arms around frantically. He tried to pry her right hand loose from his head with both of his hands and pulled at Takako's hair.

Takako leaped off Kazushi, who ended up with what felt like several strands or even a bundle of hair.

Well, she couldn't be worried about that now.

She looked for her ice pick and found it. She snatched it up.

Kazushi moaned and swung his arms at the (literally) unseen enemy. Then he fell back on his rear end.

His eyes were open, but his eyes were completely immersed in a sea of red. He resembled an albino monkey now. Takako dragged her right leg and limped toward him. She lifted her wounded right leg and stomped down onto his unprotected crotch. The purple-striped white track sneaker was now red, soaked with Takako's own blood. Underneath its sole she felt a squashing sensation as if she were crushing a rodent. "URGH," Kazushi moaned. He held his crotch and turned on his side, balled up like a fetus. Now Takako began stepping on his throat with her left leg. She put her weight on it. Kazushi reached out, trying to move her foot, hitting it feebly, trying to free himself.

"Hel…" Kazushi uttered. It sounded like a tiny draft of air because his throat had been crushed.

"Help…"

Yeah right, Takako thought. She could tell her mouth was breaking into a grin. She realized she wasn't angry anymore. She was actually enjoying this. She was sure about it. So what? She never claimed to be Pope John Paul II or the 14th Dalai Lama.

On her knees now, she thrust the ice pick into his mouth (she saw several cavity fillings). His arms which were struggling to pull at her leg suddenly froze. Takako pushed further. It sunk into his throat without much resistance. Kazushi's entire body, from his chest down to his toes, then went into convulsions as if swimming the submariner. Then it stopped. The albino eyes still remained open, surrounded by a spider's web pattern of gooey blood like running paint.

She felt a sudden surge of pain in her right leg and fell on her back by his head. She was panting now the way she did after doing the 200-meter dash twice for physical tests.

She'd won. But she also felt empty. The actual fight might have lasted less than thirty seconds. She wouldn't have survived a longer fight. In any case…she won. That's what mattered.

Takako held her blood-soaked right leg as she looked down at the corpse of Kazushi, who resembled a traveling magician attempting to spit out an ice pick from his throat. Now ladies and gentlemen, I shall spit out what I just swallowed—

"Takako."

The voice came from behind her. Still seated, Takako turned around. She reached out and pulled out the ice pick from Kazushi's mouth (which resulted in Kazushi's head rising a little and then falling to the ground).

Mitsuko Souma (Female Student No. II) was looking down at Takako.

Takako quickly looked over at Mitsuko's right hand. Her small hand was holding a large automatic pistol.

She had no idea what her intentions were. But…if like Kazushi Nüda she intended to kill her (it was likely, this after all was Mitsuko Souma), Takako had no chance of winning. Mitsuko had a gun.

She had to escape. She had to. Takako pulled at her right leg in pain and tried to get up.

"Are you all right?" Mitsuko asked. Her voice sounded terribly kind. She didn't point the gun at her.

But Takako had to be cautious. She moved back and finally managed to get up by holding onto a tree nearby. Her right leg felt incredibly heavy.

She answered, "Well, I suppose."

Mitsuko looked over Kazushi's corpse. Then she looked at the ice pick in Takako's hands.

"You killed him with that? I have to say I'm impressed. Speaking as one girl to another."

She really sounded like she was impressed. It almost sounded cheerful. Her angelic face was beaming.

"I guess," Takako responded. She felt as if her body were off balance. Perhaps it was from the heavy loss of blood from her right leg.

"Say," Mitsuko said. "You never went out of your way to impress me."

Still unable to tell what Mitsuko's intentions were, Takako stared at her. (The two most beautiful girls in Shiroiwa Junior High were staring at each other. Nice jewelry and a boy's corpse. Oh, you're so pretty.) Mitsuko was absolutely right. Takako couldn't stand sucking up to anyone, so she was never intimidated like the other girls when Mitsuko talked to her. She was too proud and besides, she wasn't scared of Mitsuko.

Then she remembered something an older student she had a crush on a while ago (actually, it ended only a couple months ago) used to say. Whereas her feelings for Hiroki Sugimura were vague, she definitely had a crush on this guy. After getting involved in one of his friend's fights, he showed up all beat up at the team room before one of their meets and said in his unique voice, "There's nothing to be afraid of.

Nothing to fear."

Be strong and beautiful....Takako had her eye on this guy ever since she entered junior high and it seemed he'd had a profound effect on her personality. But he also had a girlfriend. Someone very elegant, yes, someone like Sakura Ogawa…someone calm as a serene lake hidden deep inside a forest....Well that was all in the past.

But—she thought—the fact that she suddenly recalled his words which hadn't occurred to her even when she was fighting Kazushi Nüda just moments ago....Did that mean that…she was…in fact…afraid of Mitsuko?

"I was always a little envious," Mitsuko continued. "You were so pretty, and you were a better girl than me."

Takako listened quietly. She immediately realized there was something wrong. Why was Mitsuko referring to her in the past tense?

"But…" Mitsuko's eyes twinkled playfully. Now she was back to the present tense. "I really like girls like you. Maybe I'm a bit of a dyke. So it's..."

Takako's eyes opened wide. She turned around and began running. Her right leg dragged a little, but it was still a respectable sprint for the track star. So its…

Mitsuko lifted the .45. She pulled the trigger three times in a row. Takako had managed to run down the hill and through the woods, covering a quick twenty meters when three holes appeared in the back of her uniform. She fell forward as if diving in a head-first slide. Face down, she slid across the ground, and her legs contrasted against each other, the left one white and the right one red as they flew into the air, her skirt fluttering against them. She was lying on the ground.

Mitsuko put down the gun and said, "It's too bad."

24 players remaining

38

Noriko's breathing grew heavier. Shogo's medicine didn't seem to be having much effect. It was close to 2 p.m. All of a sudden Noriko's cheeks appeared sunk in. Shuya used up a water bottle to moisten Noriko's handkerchief, and wiped her sweaty face, and then placed it on her forehead. Noriko kept her eyes closed, but nodded as if to thank him.

Shuya looked back at Shogo. Shogo remained in the same position, leaning against a tree all this time, smoking with his legs crossed. His right hand gently touched the grip of the Remington shotgun resting in his lap.

"Shogo."

"What?"

"Let's go."

Shogo raised his brows. "Where?"

Shuya's lips tightened. "I can't stand it anymore." He pointed to Noriko. "She's getting worse every second."

Shogo glanced at Noriko, who was lying down with her eyes closed. "If it's from septicemia, warming her up and letting her rest won't cure her."

Shuya did his best to restrain his impatience. "According to the map, there's a medical clinic on the island.

We might be able to find some better medicine for her there, right? It's way north of the residential area, and it's not in any of the forbidden zones."

"Oh yeah." Shogo exhaled smoke from the corner of his mouth. "That's true."

"Let's go there."

Shogo tilted his head. He took another drag and then rubbed out the cigarette. "That facility is at least one and a half kilometers away. It's too dangerous to go there now. We have to wait until dark."

Shuya clenched his teeth. "We can't wait until dark. What if that area becomes a forbidden zone?"

Shogo didn't reply.

"Hey," Shuya said. He wasn't sure whether it was from impatience or the mere thought of having to risk falling out with Shogo, but he was beginning to stutter a little. He had to say it though. "I-I won't say you're trying to get us killed. But why are you so afraid of taking any risks? Your life that precious?"

Shuya looked him in the eye. Shogo didn't change his calm expression.

"Shuya…"

Shuya heard Noriko's voice behind him and turned around. Noriko had her head turned toward him. The handkerchief on her forehead was lying on the ground.

"Stop it. We won't make it without Shogo," she managed to say in between heavy breaths.

"Noriko." Shuya shook his head. "Don't you see how weak you're getting? You can't die before we can make it out of here." Shuya turned to Shogo again. "If you say you're not coming, I'll take Noriko with me on my own. You can forget about our deal. You're on your own." That was his parting remark as he got ready to get their bags.

"Hold on," Shogo said. He slowly got up, approached Noriko, and checked the pulse of her right wrist.

It was what he did every twenty minutes. He rubbed his increasingly stubbly chin again and looked at them. "You won't know what medicine to use." He tilted his head slightly, looked at Shuya, and said, "All right. I'm coming with you."

24 students remaining

39

Although over half an hour had passed since she'd been shot in the back three times and though she'd lost a large quantity of blood from the arrow wound in her leg, Takako Chigusa was still alive. Mitsuko Souma had disappeared, but Takako couldn't care less about that.

She was half dozing, half dreaming. Her family…her father, mother, and younger sister were all waving at Takako from the front gate of their house.

She could tell her sister Ayako, who was two years younger, was crying. She was saying, "Goodbye, Takako, goodbye." Her handsome father, from whom Takako had inherited most of her features and her mother who shared her looks more with Ayako, were both silent, looking very sad. Their pet dog, Hanako, drooped her head and wagged her tail. Takako had taken care of Hanako, smart female dog, ever since she was a puppy.

Oh shit, Takako thought in her dream, how awful. I've only lived fifteen years. Hey Ayako, look after Mom and Dad, okay? You're so spoiled, so learn from your older sister a little, huh?

Then she saw Kahoru Kitazawa. Her one really close friend, the petite girl she'd been buddies with for seven years now.

Time to say goodbye to you too, Kahoru. That's right. You were the one who said that nothing, not even hell, could scare you as long as you gave it your best shot. That's right, I'm not afraid. But…it's still kinda hard, dying alone like this....

Then Kahoru seemed to be shouting. But she couldn't hear her well. It sounded like, "What about him?"

Him?

Then the scene changed to her track team locker room. She knew it was the summer of her second year because this room had been torn down last fall, replaced by a new clubhouse.

Hey, this is no dream. This actually happened. This…

An older teammate. His buzz-cut hair stood up in front, and he wore a white T-shirt with the words

"FUCK OFF!" on it and green track shorts with black lines. Playful but gentle-looking eyes. He was the guy she had a crush on. He was good at running hurdles. Now he was concentrating on taping up his knee which he'd injured a while ago. There was no one else besides them. Takako said, "You have a beautiful girlfriend. You two make a great couple."

Ah well, when it comes to him, I turn into an average girl. How lame.

"Yeah?" he lifted his face and smiled. "You're prettier than her."

Takako smiled, but felt a little odd. She was happy to hear him praise her looks for the first time…but the fact he could tell another girl she was prettier also indicated how strong his relationship with his girlfriend was.

"Don't you have a boyfriend, Takako?" he asked, smiling.

The scene changed again.

She was at the park, but everything appeared very low.

Oh, this must be from my childhood. I must have been in the second or third grade.

Hiroki Sugimura was crying in front of her. He wasn't tall the way he was now. In fact back then Takako was taller. A bully had taken away his brand new comic book.

"Come on, boys don't cry. Don't be such a wuss. Be strong. Come on. Our dog just had puppies. You wanna see them?"

"Okay…" Hiroki wiped his tears and tagged along.

Come to think of it, Hiroki started martial arts school the year after that. He also went through a growth spurt around then and eventually ended up taller than her.

Up until the end of elementary school they often visited each other. Once, when she seemed preoccupied, Hiroki asked her, "What's wrong, Takako? Something wrong?"

Takako thought about it and then said what was on her mind. "Hey, Hiroki, what would you do if someone said they liked you?"

"Hmm. I don't know, since it's never happened to me."

"…don't you have a crush on someone?"

"Hmm. Nope. Not at this moment."

Takako then thought, so I'm not even in the running?

Whatever. She continued, "Oh, really. Well you should find someone you can confess to."

"I'm too chicken. I don't think so."

The scene changed. Junior high school again. They became classmates in their second year. They were talking on the first day of class. At some point, Hiroki asked, "So I heard there's this supposedly hot guy on the track team." Although he didn't directly say it, he was implying she had a crush on him.

"Who told you?"

"Just heard. So how's it going?"

"No hope. He has a girlfriend. What about you? You still don't have a girlfriend?"

"Leave me alone."

…we were always on the verge of being close. We both had a thing for each other but…or am I just imagining things? At least I liked you. I mean, it was different from how I felt about my track teammate.

You know what I mean?

Hiroki's face appeared. He was crying.

"Takako. Don't die."

Come on guy, be a man. Boys don't cry. You might be bigger now, but you haven't made much progress.

Was it by the grace of God? Takako came to her senses once more. She opened her eyes.

Hiroki Sugimura was looking down at her in the soft afternoon light. Beyond Hiroki she saw the treetops, and in between them fragments of the blue sky formed complex patterns like those in a Rorschach Test.

The first thing she realized was that Hiroki wasn't crying.

Then she started wondering, "How did you…"

As she tried to form words with her mouth, she felt as if she were forcing open a rusty door. She realized she didn't have too long to live.

"…get here?"

All Hiroki said was, "I managed." He knelt down beside her and gently lifted up her head. She'd fallen face forward, but now for some reason she was facing up. The palm of her left hand (her left hand…no, the entire left side of her body was numb now, so she couldn't feel anything…it might have been from Kazushi Nüda's blow to the side of her head) felt the sensation of weeds underneath—had he carried her here?

Hiroki then asked quietly, "Who got you?"

That's right. It was important information.

"Mitsuko," Takako answered. She didn't give a damn about Kazushi Nüda anymore. "Be careful."

Hiroki nodded. Then he said, "I'm sorry."

Takako didn't understand. She stared at Hiroki.

"I was hiding outside the school…waiting for you." Hiroki said and then tightened his lips as if holding something back.

"But…then Yoshio came back. I…I got distracted for a split second. Then…you know how you ran at full speed…1 lost you. I ran in your direction, calling after you, but…you were too far off by then."

Oh no, Takako thought. So it was true. After she ran away from the school into the woods she thought she'd heard a distant voice. But she was so frantic she thought it was just her imagination—and if it wasn't, then it meant there was someone—so she continued running at full speed.

Oh—

Hiroki had waited for her. Just as she'd suspected, he'd been waiting for her, risking his life. And when he said, "I managed," he probably meant that he'd been looking for her all this time.

The thought made her want to cry.

Instead she did her best to form a smile on her face.

"Really? Thanks."

Takako knew that she couldn't talk much anymore. She tried to come up with the best thing to say, but then an odd question occurred to her and she blurted it out, "Do you have a crush on someone?"

Hiroki's brows moved and then he gently said, "I do."

"Don't say it's me."

Still looking sad, Hiroki faintly smiled.

"No, its not."

"Well then…"

Takako took a deep breath. She felt as if poison were spreading through her body which strangely felt both chilly and at the same time incredibly hot. "Could you just…hold me tight? It'll be…over soon."

Hiroki tightened his lips and raised her up, hugging her tightly to his body with both his arms. Her head was on the verge of falling back but Hiroki held it up.

She felt like she could say one more thing.

"You have to survive, Hiroki."

Dear God, can I have one more word?

Takako looked into Hiroki's eyes and grinned.

"You've become quite a stud."

Hiroki said, "And…you're the most stylin' girl in the world."

Takako smiled faintly. She wanted to thank him, but she was out of breath. She just stared at Hiroki's eyes. She was grateful. At least she wasn't going to die alone. The last person to stay with her ended up being Hiroki. And she was grateful. She really was.

Kahoru…thanks, I heard you.

Takako Chigusa remained in this position as she died approximately two minutes later. Her eyes remained open. Hiroki Sugimura held her limp, lifeless body and wept.

23 students remaining

40

"Get down," Shogo said. He carefully surveyed the area while holding on to his shotgun.

Carrying Noriko on his back, Shuya obeyed Shogo. The area was shaded by a large elm tree. They must have covered two-thirds the distance to the medical facility by now. They should be in the vicinity of sector F=6 or F=7. If they were headed in the right direction (Shogo was leading them, so they couldn't be far off), the school building should soon appear below them to their right.

Moving along the shore, they first passed through C=4. Then they moved east along the foot of the northern mountain. Moving in broad daylight did turn out to be difficult. They would move a little, quiet down their breathing, and when they had to get through thick vegetation Shogo would throw several pebbles ahead to make sure no one was there. It'd already taken them half an hour just to get this far.

Noriko continued to breathe heavily.

Shuya tilted his head back the way mothers do with their infants and told her, "We're almost there, Noriko."

"Uh huh…" she answered.

"All right, let's go," Shogo said. "We're going for that tree over there."

"Got it."

Shuya got up and proceeded through the soft, grassy soil that must have been a farm field. Shogo was right next to them, holding their belongings with his left hand and his shotgun in his right, indicating directions with the motion of his head. The muzzle of the shotgun would point in the same direction as his head.

They reached a thin tree and stopped. Shuya took a deep breath.

"Are you all right, Shuya?"

Shuya gave him a smile. "Noriko's light."

"We can take a break."

"No," Shuya shook his head. "I want to get there as soon as possible."

"All right," Shogo said, but Shuya felt uncertain. Maybe he was being an idiot. He was always jumping to wrong conclusions, failing to check the important details.

"Shogo."

"What?"

"Does that mark on the map really indicate a clinic?"

Shogo snickered. "I believe you were the one who claimed it was."

"No, that was—"

Shuya was embarrassed, but Shogo immediately said,

"Don't worry, it is. I checked it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I walked around the island last night until I met you guys. I should have had the foresight to take some more medicine. I didn't think I'd need it."

Shuya let out a sigh of relief. Then he reproached himself. He had to get his act together. Otherwise, he'd end up not only getting himself killed but Noriko as well.

Even as they talked, Shogo was searching for their next spot.

"All right—"

Then they heard the gunfire. Shogo froze. He nervously crouched down and surveyed the area. So…had Shuya been too optimistic, hoping they could reach the medical facility without any obstacles?

But there was no one in sight.

Shuya looked over at Shogo, who stretched out his left arm as if to shield them and looked ahead toward their left, where they were headed. There was a gentle slope leading up to rows of tall pine trees approximately ten meters away, cutting off their view. Did he mean they were going through there?

Shuya finally let out the breath he'd been holding.

"It's all right," Shogo said in a hushed voice. "We're not the targets."

Shuya decided against pulling out his gun and, still carrying Noriko, said, "It's close."

Shogo nodded silently. Then the gunfire continued. Two, then three shots. The third one somehow seemed louder than the first two shots. Then another shot. It was a smaller sound.

"A gun fight," Shogo mumbled. "They're pretty pumped up."

Now that he knew they were safe, Shuya felt relieved, but he kept on biting his lip.

Whoever they were, his classmates were trying to kill each other again. In fact, it was happening right near them. And he was just trying to stay quiet, waiting for it to end. That was just…

The image of the men in black crossed his mind. Now then, you're next, and you. Fortunately, Mr.

Nanahara, your time still hasn't come.

His back facing him, Shogo said, as if he could read Shuya's thoughts (didn't he say something silly about reading his mind on a clear day?), "I hope you're not thinking of stopping them, Shuya."

Shuya held his breath and then mumbled, "No…" That's right. His priority was to take Noriko to the medical facility. If they got mixed up with someone else's fight they'd end up risking their own lives.

Then Noriko suddenly said from behind, "Shuya." Her fever was so high, he could even feel it through his back. She was practically whispering.

Shuya turned his head around. He saw Noriko's eyes squinting right behind his shoulder.

"Let me…stand…" she finally uttered and continued, "We have to see…make sure…whoever it is…"

Her words were cut off by her heavy breathing, but he knew what she was getting at. What if someone who didn't want to participate, in other words, someone innocent, was about to get killed right now? In fact that could be the case with both parties exchanging bullets right now.

The area they were in was a direct southward descent from the northern peak where Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka were killed. But they weren't hearing a machine gun now. Therefore, neither of the fighting parties right now had killed Yukiko and Yumiko. But what if…Yukiko and Yumiko's killer heard this gunfire? He could show up at any moment.

More gunfire was exchanged. And then silence again.

Shuya clenched his teeth. He quickly let Noriko down. He had her rest against the tree trunk where they were hiding.

Shogo turned around. "Hey, you're not…"

Shuya ignored him and said to Noriko, "I'll go check it out." He pulled out his Smith & Wesson and said to Shogo, "Look after Noriko."

"H-hey…"

He heard Shogo, but he was already on his way.

He climbed the slope carefully, keeping an eye on all sides, and made his way through the coniferous trees.

There was thick vegetation beyond the trees. Shuya made his way into it. He got down on the ground and proceeded to make his way through the long, sharp needles pricking at him from both sides.

More gunshots. Shuya finally reached the edge of the grove and slowly poked his head out.

There was a house. It was an old wooden, single-story building with a triangular roof. A typical farmhouse. On his left was an unpaved entrance road. The mountain escarpment surrounded the property further down. The area above was covered in deep forest. And even further up, you could see the viewing platform on the northern mountain where Yumiko and Yukiko had been killed.

The farmhouse was on his left side. Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No. 10) was crouched against the wall in front of the building. Hirono was looking beyond the yard at what appeared to be a shack for farm equipment right beside the entrance road. He could make out the figure of a girl beside the entrance.

The girl looked up, and that was when he realized it was Kaori Minami (Female Student No. 20). And both of them were holding guns. They were less than fifteen meters apart from each other.

He had no idea how they ended up shooting at each other. It was possible one of them was out to get the other girl, but Shuya could tell this wasn't the case. They probably stumbled into each other, and because neither of them could trust the other, they ended up shooting at each other....

This guess might have just been based on his own favorable opinion of girls, but in any case he couldn't just sit back and let this happen. He had to stop them.

As Shuya tried to grasp the situation, Kaori stuck her head out from the shack's entrance and fired at Hirono. She handled the gun like a kid playing with a water pistol, but unlike a water pistol the gun exploded, and a small brass shell flew into the air. Hirono fired two shots back. She actually handled the gun well, and her shells didn't fly out. One of her bullets hit the post of the shack, which shattered into sawdust. Kaori quickly tucked her head in.

Hirono's body was almost entirely visible from where Shuya was standing, and he saw her open the cylinder of her revolver to extract the shells. Her left hand was soaked crimson. Her arm might have been wounded by Kaori. But she managed to reload her gun quickly with that hand. She aimed her gun at Kaori again.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, but right before he was about to act Shuya was once again overwhelmed by the sensation of being in a nightmare. Kaori Minami loved pop idols, so she'd often talk about her favorite stars with her friends, or share a photo taken in person that thrilled her to no end. Then there was Hirono Shimizu, who hung out with Mitsuko Souma, so there was something jaded about her.

But they were both third-year students in junior high, they both had charming qualities. Now these two…were shooting at each other. Seriously, with real bullets. Obviously.

I have to do something now.

Shuya stood up and fifed his Smith & Wesson into the air. Oh great, so now I'm playing the sheriff, he thought for a moment. But without hesitating, he shouted, "Stop it!"

Hirono and Kaori froze, and then together looked over at Shuya.

Shuya continued, "Stop it! I'm with Noriko Nakagawa!" He thought it was best not to mention Shogo's name for now. "You can trust me!"

As he said this, he realized how lame his words sounded. But he had no other way to put it.

Hirono was the first to move her eyes away from Shuya to Kaori. And…Kaori was gazing at Shuya.

Shuya realized at that moment how half of Kaori's body was exposed beyond the entrance—she was in the open now.

What happened next reminded him of a traffic accident he once witnessed. It happened on an autumn evening before he turned eleven. Maybe the driver had fallen asleep or something. His truck lost control, rammed through the guardrail, rode up onto the sidewalk, and hit a young girl walking home from school, just like Shuya, who was behind her. It was unbelievable but her backpack came off her shoulders and flew into the air, tracing a different trajectory from the girl's body. The girl landed on the sidewalk before the backpack did, falling on her shoulder. Obstructed by the wayside concrete wall she slid along the edge of the sidewalk and then stopped still. Blood came flowing out, leaving a trail on the bottom edge of the concrete wall over one meter long.

It all looked like—from the time the truck swung off the road and crashed into the girl—as if it was happening in slow motion. Anyone there could tell what was going to happen, but there was nothing anyone could do. That's what it felt like.

Hirono aimed and fired at Kaori, who'd completely let her guard down. Two shots in a row. The first one hit Kaori in the shoulder, making her spin halfway to the right. The second shot hit her in the head. Shuya saw a part of her head—from the top down to her left temple—explode.

Kaori collapsed by the front door of the shack.

Hirono glanced over at Shuya.

Then she turned and ran to his left, westward, where Shuya's group came from. She ran into the bushes and disappeared from sight.

"Damn!"

Shuya moaned. After some hesitation he ran to the shack where Kaori had collapsed.

Kaori was lying down, legs jutting out from inside the shack that only housed a decrepit tractor. Her body remained twisted as blood came flowing out the corner of her mouth, mixed with the blood from her head and shoulder wounds, turning into a puddle on the shack's concrete floor. Tiny dust particles from the floor were floating on the surface of the puddle. Her eyes stared out at the sky. A thin gold chain hung down from her sailor suit onto the floor, and the golden locket attached to it looked like an island in a lake of blood. A famous male idol singer was smiling cheerfully from it.

Shuya was shaking as he knelt down beside her.

Oh, man…what the…so this girl…can't gossip about pop idols anymore, she can't go to their concerts anymore. If he had been more careful…maybe she wouldn't have been killed?

He heard a sound and turned around. It was Shogo, holding Noriko with one of his arms as they looked out from the woods.

Shogo left Noriko there and trotted over to Shuya.

Shogo's expression seemed to be saying, "See, what'd I tell you?" but he didn't say a word. He just calmly picked up Kaori's gun and day pack, and then as if it occurred to him as an afterthought, he crouched down and shut her eyes with his right thumb. Then he told Shuya, "We're going. Hurry up."

He knew it was dangerous. Anyone—especially the killer with the machine gun—could have heard the gunfire and might be showing up now.

Still, Shuya's eyes were glued to Kaori's corpse until Shogo tugged his arm back.

22 students remaining

41

The medical clinic was an old, small, single-story building. The wood walls had turned black, and the black-tiled roof was so worn out with age that the corners had turned white. Like the shack where Kaori Minami had died, it was located in front of the northern mountain at the end of a narrow unpaved road.

They'd made their way through the mountain, but they could tell the narrow entrance road led down to the paved road along the island's eastern shore. There was a white minivan parked in front of the facility.

Maybe the doctor had used it. Beyond the minivan they could see the ocean.

The afternoon sun was shining on the sea. The color of the ocean was completely different from the murky water that lapped against the concrete sea walls in Shiroiwa harbor. It was a wonderfully brilliant blue tinged with green. There were hardly any waves, and the sparkling dots of light on its surface became increasingly dense in the distance. Other islands floating in the Seto Inland Sea looked remarkably close, but this was probably due, as he was once told, to the optical illusion of reduced distance when objects were absent. So they must have been at least four or five kilometers away.

In any case…they were here. It was a miracle they got here without getting hurt. They'd immediately left the area where Kaori died. No machine gun shots came after them. According to the map they'd traveled a distance of less than two kilometers, but Shuya, who'd been carrying Noriko, accompanied by the pressure of a possible attack, was incredibly tired. He wanted to check to make sure no one was in the area of the clinic as soon as possible, so that not only Noriko but he too could get some rest.

But something caught Shuya's attention.

A ship was floating on the peaceful sea. It was probably the guard ship Sakamochi had mentioned.

But…for some reason there were three ships in a row. Sakamochi said there would be one ship on all sides—north, south, east, and west—and on the west side they had only seen one. So what was this?

Still carrying Noriko, Shuya poked his face out from the leaves and asked Shogo, "There're three ships."

"Yeah," Shogo replied. "The small one is a guard ship. The huge one is the ship that will transport the soldiers who were in the school building back to their base. The one in the middle is for the winner of the game. The winner rides that boat. It's the same model as the one from last year."

"So…the Program in Hyogo Prefecture was also held on an island like this one?"

"Yep," Shogo nodded. "Hyogo Prefecture also shares the Seto Inland Sea. It seems like Programs held in prefectures along the Seto Inland Sea coast are always held on islands. I mean, there are at least a thousand islands in this small ocean."

Shogo then told him to wait and descended the slope toward the clinic with his shotgun cocked. He crouched down and first examined the minivan. Then he snuck up to the building and circled it. When he returned he examined the sliding door entrance. It seemed to be locked, so Shogo flipped his shotgun and shattered the frosted glass window with the sawed off gun stock. Then he stuck his hand into the V-shaped opening, unlocked the door, and entered the building.

After watching him do this, Shuya tilted his head back to Noriko, whose head was resting against his back.

"Noriko, we're here." Shuya said, but Noriko could only moan, "Huh…" Her heavy breathing continued.

After five full minutes, Shogo poked his head out of the entrance and signaled Shuya to join him. Shuya cautiously descended the two meter drop so he wouldn't lose his balance and approached the clinic.

A thick, grimy wooden sign with the traces of weatherworn letters that read, "Okishima Island Medical Clinic" hung right beside the entrance. Shuya slipped by Shogo, who kept watch, holding his shotgun. He entered, followed by Shogo, who shut the door tightly.

Right near the entrance, there was a small waiting room. On the left there was a long green couch with a white cover on the worn out cream-colored carpet. The wall clock made a ticking sound as it approached three o'clock. The right side appeared to be the examination room.

Shogo jammed the door shut with a broom and then signaled Shuya, "Over here."

Although they were supposed to take their shoes off, Shuya stepped up with his sneakers on and entered the room on the right. There was a wooden desk in front of the window, and what appeared to be a doctor's black leather chair. There was a green vinyl stool in front of it. Even though the clinic was small, it still had the sterile odor of disinfectant.

There were two beds beyond a thin green curtain hanging from metal pipes. Shuya carried Noriko to the bed in front and gently put her down there. He thought of having her take off his school coat, but then decided against it.

After Shogo quickly pulled the curtains shut, he said, "blankets," and gave him two thin brown blankets folded in small squares. Shuya took them and after some thought spread one of them on the other bed.

Then he moved Noriko there and spread the other blanket over her. He made sure the blanket went up to her shoulders. Shogo was rummaging through a gray office cabinet that was probably the medicine cabinet.

Shuya crouched down by Noriko's head and combed the sweaty hair against her cheeks back to her ears. She seemed dazed. Her eyes were closed, and she continued to breathe heavily.

"Damn it," Shuya muttered. "Noriko, are you all right?"

Noriko squinted, her eyes glazed at him as she said, "Uh huh…" She might be faint from the high fever, but her mind was clear enough to respond.

"How about some water?"

Noriko barely nodded. Shuya took out a new bottle of water from the day pack Shogo had tossed onto the floor and tore off the seal. He held her up and helped her drink it. Shuya wiped off the water spilling from the side of her mouth with the back of his hand.

"Is that enough?" Shuya asked and Noriko nodded. Then he lay her down and waved to Shogo. "Any medicine?"

"Hold on," Shogo replied. He rummaged through another, lower cabinet and pulled out a cardboard box.

He opened it and read the directions. It seemed to be what he was after. He extracted what looked like a small bottle and an ampoule. The bottle was filled with white powder.

"Do you swallow that?" Shuya asked.

Shogo answered, "No, it's for injections."

Shuya was a little shocked. "You know how to use that?"

Shogo turned on the faucet in the back of the room. No water came out, as expected, and Shogo clicked his tongue. He pulled out his water bottle from his day pack and washed his hands. Then he set a needle on a syringe and extracted the contents of the ampoule. "Don't worry, I've done this before."

"…really?" Shuya felt like he was constantly repeating this phrase to Shogo.

Shogo broke the seal of the small bottle and injected it with the syringe, filling it up with the liquid from the ampoule. After removing the syringe, he held the bottle and shook it vigorously. Then he injected the syringe again to extract the liquid mixture.

After preparing another syringe like this, he finally approached them.

"Is she going to be all right?" Shuya asked again. "What about side effects or shock?"

"That's what I'm going to check for now. Just do as I say. Pull out Noriko's arm."

Unsure of the situation, Shuya lifted the side of the blanket and rolled up both the sleeves of his school coat and her sailor suit. Her arm was very thin and her healthy looking dark skin had now become excruciatingly white.

"Noriko," Shogo asked her, "have you ever had any allergic reactions to any medicine?"

Noriko opened her eyes again in a daze.

Shogo repeated, "Are you allergic to any medicine?"

Noriko shook her head slightly.

"Good. I'm going to test you first though."

Shogo held her arm out with her palm up, then took a cotton swab soaked with disinfectant and wiped the area between her wrist and elbow. He slowly inserted the needle, injecting only a small amount of the liquid. A slight bump formed on this area of her skin. Shogo took out another syringe and performed another injection.

"What are you doing?" Shuya asked.

"One of them is real medicine. If she's in the same condition fifteen minutes later, we won't have to worry about side effects. It means we can probably use the medicine. But…"

"But?"

Shogo quickly took out another larger bottle from the cardboard box. He placed it on the small desk nearby, prepared another syringe, and looked over at Shuya. "It's not easy to diagnose septicemia. To be honest I can't tell whether this is from septicemia or just a cold. Antibiotics are pretty potent, and that's why we're testing this on her, but the fact is my experience and knowledge is pretty limited, so injecting her with this syringe could be pretty dicey. On the other hand…"

Holding Noriko's hand, Shuya waited for him to continue.

Shogo took a breath and continued, "If she is suffering from septicemia, then we have to treat her as soon as possible. Otherwise, it'll be too late."

Fifteen minutes passed by quickly. In the meantime, Shogo checked her pulse again and took her temperature. The thermometer read 39 degrees Celsius. No wonder she could barely stand.

Shuya couldn't tell the difference between the two adjacent marks from the syringes. Shogo also appeared to reach the same conclusion and took the larger syringe.

Crouching down slightly, Shogo asked, "Noriko. Are you awake?"

Noriko answered with her eyes shut, "Uh huh…"

"I'll be honest. I don't know if you're suffering from septicemia or not. I think you probably are."

Noriko nodded slightly. She must have been able to follow Shuya and Shogo's conversation moments ago.

"It's all right…go ahead."

Shogo nodded and inserted the syringe, this time deeply.

He injected the liquid and removed the needle. Then he wiped her arm with the cotton and told Shuya,

"Hold this."

Shogo took the empty syringe and walked over to the sink to toss it away. Then he came back.

"Now she's got to sleep. You look after her for a while. If she looks thirsty, you can use the whole bottle."

Shuya said, "But that's—"

Shuya shook his head.

"Don't worry. I found a well behind the building. As long as we boil the water we can drink it." Shogo left the room. Shuya turned towards the bed. With his right hand pressing the cotton swab and his left hand gently holding Noriko's hand, he watched over her.