51 - 20 students remaining

22 students remaining

42

Noriko fell asleep almost immediately. Shuya checked to make sure she wasn't bleeding from the shot, then he tossed the cotton swab, tucked her arm under the blanket, and left the room.

The doctor's living quarters was beyond the waiting room next door. There was a kitchen at the end of the hall on the right. Shogo was in there. The gas stove next to the sink wasn't operating, but on it was a large pot filled with water, and under it a pile of charcoal was glowing red.

Shogo was standing on a table, looking through a built-in ceiling cabinet across from the sink. That's when Shuya noticed for the first time that Shogo was wearing New Balance sneakers. He'd assumed they were some domestic brand like Mizumo or Kageboshi. New Balance! He'd never seen them before!

Whatever. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm looking for food. I found some rice and miso, but nothing else. The vegetables in the fridge are rotten."

Shuya shook his head. "You're stealing."

"Of course I am," Shogo said dryly and then added while he continued rummaging, "Forget about it. Just be ready. Anyone could show up at any moment. If the machine gun shooter shows up, we'll be dead.

So be ready."

Shuya replied, "Yeah, all right."

Shogo jumped off the table. The New Balance shoes squeaked against the floor.

"Is she asleep?" he asked.

Shuya nodded.

Shogo pulled out another pot from under the sink, walked up to the plastic rice container in the corner, and poured rice into the pot.

"So you're boiling rice."

"That's right. Noriko won't recover eating that terrible bread." Shogo scooped up a bowl of water from the bucket on the floor and poured it into the pot. He combed through the rice and only changed the water once. Next to the boiling water, he placed several pieces of charcoal from his day pack onto the other burner, then took out a pack of cigarettes and emptied them into his pocket. Then he crumpled the pack, lit it with his lighter, and stuck it into the charcoal. Once the charcoal was lit, he put the lidded pot of rice on the burner. It was an impressive sight.

"Damn," Shuya said.

Shogo took a break as he lit up a cigarette and looked at Shuya.

"You're so good at everything."

"Yeah?" Shogo answered lightly. But something else flashed through Shuya's mind. The moment Kaori Minami was murdered…you know what's going to happen but there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Slow motion. Kaori spins around and the left side of her head's blown off. It was blown away, did you see that?…If it had been Shogo instead of Shuya, the outcome wouldn't have been so horrible.

"Are you still bummed about Kaori?" Shogo said. Once again, Shogo's psychic powers were on. The sunlight doesn't reach this far inside, but that didn't seem to affect him.

Shogo shook his head. "Don't let it get to you. It was a bad situation. You did your best."

Shogo's voice was kind, but Shuya looked down. The corpse of Kaori Minami, collapsed on her side inside a grimy farm equipment shack. The pool of blood gradually spreading, oozing outward. By now, beginning to congeal. But the body would just stay there, with no ceremony, just left there like a disposed mannequin sprawled inside that shack. Of course in that sense she was no exception to Tatsumichi Oki, Kyoichi Motobuchi, Yukiko Kitano, and Yumiko Kusaka. That's right, everyone else was in the same boat.

He felt like puking. They were all lying there, on the ground. Already close to twenty of them.

"Shogo." The words spilled out.

In response Shogo tilted his head and slightly moved his hand that was holding the cigarette.

"What happens to the dead…their bodies?" Shuya asked. "Are they left there until this stupid game is over? So they just start rotting while the game is going on?"

Shogo answered as if it were an official matter. "That's right. Once it's over, the following day a clean-up crew is hired to take care of them."

"…clean-up crew?" Shuya bared his teeth.

"Yep. I heard about it from someone who works for the subcontractor, so I'm sure it's true. Self Defense Forces soldiers are too proud to perform such menial tasks. Of course, government officials accompany the crew to collect the collars and examine the bodies. You know, so the news media can report the number of deaths by strangulation, all that stuff."

Shuya was pissed. He recalled that final part of the news report. The meaningless causes of deaths and itemization of each student.

But he also realized something and knit his brows.

Shogo saw this and asked, "What's up?"

"Well…that doesn't make sense. I mean these…" Shuya raised his hand up to his neck. His fingers touched the collar's cold surface, its sensation no longer so strange. "I thought these were a secret.

Shouldn't they collect them before the hired hands come in?"

Shogo shrugged. "The cleaning crew have no idea what they're for. They probably just assume they're used as markers. The guy I talked to didn't even remember them until I asked him about them. So there's no rush. They can deal with the collars after the clean-up crew's collected the bodies, right?"

It was true. But even so, something else bugged him.

"Hold on. What if one of these is defective? Let's say it breaks down and someone who's alive is assumed to be dead. Couldn't that student escape? Shouldn't they confirm all the dead right after the game?"

Shogo raised his brows. "You talk like you work for the government."

"No…" he stammered. "It's just that—"

"I doubt they could ever be defective. Think about it. If they actually could break down, this game couldn't proceed smoothly. Besides, if a student equipped with weapons turned out to be alive, they couldn't even afford to check the bodies. It'd turn into another battle." Shogo took a drag as he considered it more thoroughly. "This is just my guess, but I think each collar is loaded with multiple systems, so that if one breaks down, another gets switched on. Even if one system became defective—the chances of that being at least less than one in a hundred—if the systems were combined the probability would practically be reduced to zero. In other words," he said, looking at Shuya, "it would be impossible for us to escape that way."

Shuya understood. He saw no reason not to object. (Once again, he couldn't help but be impressed by Shogo's intelligence.)

But then—

The question he promised not to ask crossed his mind. Which was: How did Shogo plan to beat a perfect, escape-proof system?

Before he could consider it, Shogo said, "Anyway, look, I have to apologize."

"About what?"

"About Noriko. I was wrong. We should have treated her sooner."

"No…" Shuya shook his head. "It's okay. Thanks. I would have been useless on my own."

Shogo exhaled and fixed his gaze on a part of the wall. "We'll just have to wait and see. If it's just a cold, then her fever will go down as soon as she gets some rest. And if it turns out it's from septicemia then the medicine should kick in."

Shuya nodded. He was grateful they had Shogo. Without Shogo, he would have been helpless, doomed to watch Noriko deteriorate. He was also sorry for saying to Shogo, "You can forget about our deal,"

and heading off here. It was immature. Shogo must have made his decision after carefully weighing the risk of moving during the day against Noriko's condition.

Shuya decided he should apologize. "Hey, I'm sorry. Saying you were on your own and all. I just got so excited—"

Still looking away from Shuya, Shogo shook his head and smiled. "No. You made the right decision. End of conversation."

Shuya took a breath and decided to let it go. Then he asked, "Is your father still a practicing doctor?"

Shogo shook his head as he took a drag. "No."

"What's he doing? Is he still in Kobe?"

"No. He died." Shogo said it casually.

Shuya's eyes opened wide. "When?"

"Last year, while I was playing this game. By the time I got back he was dead. He probably got in a scuffle with the government."

Shuya's face stiffened. He was beginning to understand the glimmer in Shogo's eyes when he'd said, "I'm going to tear up this fucking country." The moment Shogo ended up in the Program, Shogo's father must have tried some kind of protest. Which must have been met with a shower of bullets.

It occurred to Shuya that the parents of some of his classmates might have ended up the same way.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"Don't worry about it."

Shuya paused and then asked another question, "Then you moved to Kagawa Prefecture with your mother?"

Shogo shook his head and again replied, "No. My mom died when I was a kid. I was seven. She died from illness. My dad used to cry over the fact that he couldn't even save her. But my dad specialized in surgery, like abortions. Nervous disorders were out of his field."

Shuya apologized again, "I'm sorry."

Shogo chuckled. "Hey, it's all right. We both don't have parents, right? And it's true about getting a lifetime pension. I've got enough to live on. Although they don't give you as much as they say they do."

Bubbles began to form at the bottom of the first large pot. The charcoal under the rice pot was still mostly black, but the charcoal under the large pot was flaming red. The heat reached the table where Shuya and Shogo were standing next to each other. Shuya sat up on the table, which was covered with a flower-pattern vinyl tablecloth.

Without warning, Shogo suddenly said, "You were good friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu."

Shuya looked over at Shogo and looked at his profile. Then he looked ahead. It felt like a while since he'd last thought of Yoshitoki. He felt a little guilty about it.

"Yeah," he answered. "We've known each other forever." After hesitating a little, Shuya continued,

"Yoshitoki had a crush on Noriko."

Shogo continued smoking, listening.

Shuya wondered whether he should continue with what he was about to say. It had nothing to do with Shogo. But he decided to tell him anyway. Shogo was a friend now. It was all right for him to know, and besides, they had time to kill right now.

"Yoshitoki and I were at this orphanage called the Charity House—"

"I know."

Shuya nodded and continued, "There're all kinds of kids there. I ended up there when I was five. My parents were killed in a car accident. But that's unusual. Most of them—"

Shogo understood. "They end up there because of 'domestic' problems. They're illegitimate children."

Shuya nodded. "So you know."

"A little."

He took a deep breath. "Well, Yoshitoki was illegitimate. Of course, no one at the orphanage told him, but there are ways to find out. He was conceived from an 'illicit affair' and both sides refused to take him in. So…"

The water made a gurgling sound.

"I remember something Yoshitoki once said to me. It was a long time ago, probably when we were still in elementary school."

Shuya recalled that moment. They were in the corner of the school playground, rocking back and forth on a big swing made of a wooden log and wire rope.

"Hey, Shuya. I was thinking—"

"What?"

Shuya responded in his usual casual voice, kicking at the ground to rock the log. Yoshitoki didn't put much effort into it, letting his legs dangle from both sides of the log.

"Well…uh…"

"What is it? Spit it out."

"Well…do you have a crush on anyone?"

"Oh, please," Shuya grinned. He knew it was something about girls. "So that's it? What's the matter? You have a crush on someone, huh?"

"Well…" Yoshitoki evaded the question and once again asked, "Well, do you?"

Shuya thought about it and then moaned, "Hmmm."

By then he was "Wild Seven." So he'd gotten several love letters. But at the time he never fell head over heels for anyone in particular. As it turned out, he wouldn't until he met Kazumi Shintani.

He answered, "Well, I think there're some cool girls…"

Yoshitoki didn't say anything back so he assumed he wanted to hear more. He continued speaking in a light tone, "Komoto's not bad. She actually wrote me a love letter. I haven't, uh, responded though. Then there's Utsumi, who's on the volleyball team. She's pretty cool. That's my type. You know, real outgoing."

Yoshitoki looked pensive.

"What is it? I told you, now you tell me. Who is it?"

But Yoshitoki only said, "No, that's not it."

Shuya knit his brows.

"What is it then?"

Yoshitoki seemed quite hesitant, but then he said, "You see, I never really understood."

"?"

"I mean…" His legs dangled passively as he continued, "I think if you really loved someone you'd marry her, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Shuya replied with an idiotic look on his face. "Yeah. If…if I loved someone, I'd want to marry her…I mean I don't feel that way about anyone."

"Right?" Yoshitoki said, as if it were only natural. Then he asked, "So let's say you just can't get married for some reason. If you ended up having a kid with her, wouldn't you still want to raise the kid?"

Shuya felt a little uncomfortable. He'd just begun to get the idea of how babies were made.

"Having a kid? Hey, you're still a kid. That's dirty stuff. You know I heard that that's—"

That was when Shuya finally remembered Yoshitoki was born as a result of an illicit affair and that neither of his parents wanted him. Startled, he held back what he was about to say.

Yoshitoki was staring at the log between his thighs. Then he mumbled, "My parents weren't like that."

Shuya suddenly felt really bad for him.

"H-hey, Yoshi—" He looked up at Shuya and said somewhat forcefully, "So I-I just don't know. Loving someone. I don't feel like I can trust that sort of thing."

Shuya continued pushing with his legs, but he had no choice but to stare back at Yoshitoki. He felt as if he were being addressed in a language from another planet. At the same time, it sounded like a dreadful prophecy.

"I think—"

His hands by his waist, Shuya gripped the corners of the table covered with the vinyl tablecloth. Shogo continued smoking, squinting his eyes.

"I think Yoshitoki was a lot more mature at that point already. I was just a silly kid. And ever since then, Yoshitoki, even since we entered junior high, and I fell for someone," this was Kazumi Shintani, "he never brought it up. That kind of worried me."

Another gurgling sound.

"But then one day he told me he liked Noriko. I acted like it wasn't a big deal…but I was so happy for him. And that was, that was…"

Shuya looked away from Shogo. He knew he was about to cry.

Once he managed to hold back his tears, he said without looking at Shogo and continued, "That was only two months ago."

Shogo remained silent.

Shuya looked at Shogo again.

"So you see, I have to protect Noriko to the very end."

After staring back at Shuya for a while, Shogo only said, "I see," and rubbed out his cigarette out against the tablecloth.

"Don't tell Noriko. I'll tell her about Yoshitoki once we've gotten out of this game."

Shogo nodded and replied, "All right."

22 students remaining

43

Five hours had passed since the Macintosh PowerBook 150's connection to the internet had been cut off with a warning beep. Shinji Mimura scrolled through a document in one of the windows on the display monitor of the 150 that was now reduced to a word processor.

He'd worked on the phone, checked the connections, and rebooted over and over but the gray monitor responded with the same message. Finally, after disconnecting all the modem and phone cords, he came to the conclusion his cell phone had completely broke down. Without a phone line he couldn't even access his home computer. And of course, calling all the girls he'd ever gone with and sobbing over how he was, "About to die, but I loved you the most," was out of the question. He still believed he could get to the bottom of this and considered taking apart his cell phone—but then stopped.

A chill ran down his spine.

It was obvious now why he wasn't able to dial in anymore. The government had managed to locate the line test number used by the DTT technician, the number used for the special phone with the counterfeit

"Second ROM" he'd painstakingly built. They'd cut off all connections including this one. The question was…how had they managed to do this? His hacking had been flawless. He knew that much.

The only way he could imagine the government discovering his hacking was through some method outside their computer's internal security system, their warning system, and other manual monitoring systems. And now that they knew—

The moment Shinji realized what it was, his hand went for the collar around his neck.

Now that the government knew, it wouldn't be all that surprising if the bomb went off, would it? They probably wouldn't spare Yutaka either.

Thanks to this realization, the government-supplied water and bread they had for lunch tasted even worse.

After Yutaka saw Shinji turn off the laptop, he asked for an explanation. Shinji only replied, "It's no good. I don't know why, but it's not working. Maybe the phone's broken."

Ever since then Yutaka's mood became gloomy, and he slouched back to the way he'd been earlier that morning. Other than the occasional gunshots and brief exchanges it remained silent. Shinji's great escape plan that mesmerized Yutaka had completely fallen apart.

But—

I'll still make them regret they didn't kill me right away. No matter what.

He thought a little, then dug into his pants pocket and pulled out an old pocketknife he carried around with him ever since he was a kid. There was a small tube tied to the keyring on the knife. Shinji examined the scratched up tube.

His uncle had given him the knife a long time ago. And the tube was, that's right, like the earring on his left ear, another memento from his uncle. Like Shinji, his uncle had kept it chained to a small knife and always carried it around.

The thumb-sized tube, with its rubber ring under the cap, was a waterproof case used by soldiers. It was normally used to hold a document with name, blood type, and history of illness in case of injury. Others used it as a matchbox. Until his death, Shinji assumed his uncle kept that sort of thing in it too. But after he died, when he opened the tube, Shinji found something completely different inside. In fact the tube's casing itself was carved out of a special alloy and contained two smaller cylinders inside. Shinji took out the two cylinders. He had no idea what they were. The only thing he could tell was that their contents were supposed to be mixed.

The thread of the screw from one of the cylinders fit perfectly into the other one. The reason why they were kept apart was that it was risky to connect them. And once he found out what they were for, after some research (no wonder they were separate—otherwise, you couldn't carry those cases around), he still had no idea why his uncle carried this around wherever he went. It served no particular purpose. Or maybe like the earring Shinji wore, his uncle had merely held onto it to remind himself of someone.

Anyway, it was another piece of evidence from his uncle's past for Shinji to ponder over.

Shinji turned the squeaky cap and opened it. He hadn't opened it since his uncle died. He dropped the two cylinders into the palm of his hand. Then he opened the seal of the smaller cylinder.

It had been stuffed with cotton to make it shockproof. There was the dull yellow of brass underneath the cotton.

After examining it, he returned both cylinders back into the larger container and screwed the cap back on. He'd thought that if he ever had to use this, it would be after they escaped the island, or after messing up the school computer. It might have been handy after they equipped themselves and attacked Sakamochi and the others—but now this was all they had.

He flipped out the blade from his pocketknife. The sun had moved west, and the bushes reflecting against the silver steel were dark yellow. Then he pulled out a pencil from his school coat pocket. It was the pencil they all used to write the phrase, "We will kill," before the game began. Because he'd used it to mark the forbidden zones and check off the names of dead classmates, its point was now blunt. Shinji sharpened the pencil with his knife. Then he pulled out his map from another pocket and turned it over. It was blank.

"Yutaka."

Yutaka had been hugging his knees and gazing at the ground. He looked up. His eyes were shining. "Did you come up with something?" he asked.

Shinji wasn't exactly sure why Yutaka's response ticked him off. It might have been the tone of his voice, or maybe the words. Shinji felt like saying, what the hell—here I am banging my head against the wall trying to come up with an escape plan and all you've been doing is sitting on your ass! You swore you were going to get back at them for Izumi Kanai, but you haven't done squat. You think this is a fast food restaurant where I'm working the register? You want some fries with that?

But Shinji restrained himself.

Yutaka's round cheeks were sunken and his cheekbones stuck out. It was only natural. He must have been worn out by the pressure of this game that could end at any moment for them.

Ever since he was a kid Shinji was always the best athlete in the class. (Although this changed in his second year in junior high, when he was joined by Shuya Nanahara and Kazuo Kiriyama. He could beat them in basketball, but he wasn't sure about other sports.) His uncle had taken him mountain climbing ever since he was a kid, and he was confident in any competition that required stamina. But not everyone was built like The Third Man. Yutaka was a poor athlete, and when the cold season came he was often absent. Fatigue must have been overwhelming him, and it might be numbing his thinking too.

That was when Shinji realized something important. Wasn't the fact that he was even a little upset at Yutaka an indication of his own fatigue? Of course, given how their chances of survival were close to nil, it would have been much stranger not to be worn out.

No.

I have to be careful. If this were a basketball game, you'd just feel bad about losing—but in this game you end up dead.

Shinji shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Yutaka asked.

Shinji looked up at him, forcing a smile. "Nothing. Hey, I just want to take a look at the map. Okay?"

Yutaka came over to Shinji.

"Hey," Shinji raised his voice. "There's a bug on your neck!"

Yutaka touched his neck.

"I'll get it," Shinji stopped him and approached Yutaka. He fixed his eyes on the nape of Yutaka's neck—but he was searching for something else.

"Oh, it's moved," he said and got behind him. Shinji examined his neck again.

"Did you get it?"

As he listened to Yutaka's shrill, terrified voice, Shinji took a closer look.

Then he lightly brushed away the nape of Yutaka's neck. He crushed the imaginary bug with the sole of his sneakers and (pretending) he picked it up and (pretending once again) tossed it out.

"I got it," he said. He was now facing Yutaka and added, "Looked like a little centipede."

"Oh man," Yutaka rubbed the nape of his neck and looked over where Shuya had (apparently) tossed it, grimacing.

Shinji broke into a slight grin and said, "Come on, let's look at the map."

Yutaka looked over, then knit his brows when he saw that it was turned over.

Shinji waved his index finger to get his attention and scribbled on the back of the map. His writing wasn't very neat. Several scrawled letters appeared at the edge of the paper.

They can hear us.

Yutaka's face twitched and asked, "Really? How can you tell?" Shinji quickly put his hand over Yutaka's mouth. Yutaka understood and nodded.

Shinji released his hand and said, "I just know. I know a lot about insects. That one wasn't poisonous."

Then just to be sure, he scribbled again, Pretend to check map. Don't say anything to make them suspicious.

"Well, now that the computer's failed, there's nothing we can do," Shinji said, providing some fake commentary. Then he wrote: They heard my explanation and cut the Mac connection. I screwed up.

They know some of us are going to resist so they're monitoring our conversation. Should have known.

Yutaka took out his pencil from his pocket and wrote under Shinji's scrawled letters. His writing was much neater than Shinji's.

How can they use a monitoring devise on such a big island? He had copied Shinji's spelling for monitoring, but "device" was spelled incorrectly. Whatever. This wasn't composition class.

"So I think we should look for others. We can't do much on our own. So…" Shinji said as he lightly tapped on his collar with his finger. Yutaka's eyes widened as he nodded.

Shinji then scribbled again: I checked your collar. It doesn't seem to have a camera. Only listening device. I don't think they're any cameras in the area. Maybe satallites, but the woods are covering us. They can't see what we're doing now. Spelling wasn't Shinji's strongest suit either.

Yutaka's eyes widened again, and he glanced upward. The branches were swaying, cutting them off completely from the blue sky.

Yutaka's face then stiffened suddenly as if he'd realized something. He gripped his pencil and wrote on the back of the map: Mac stopped working because you told me about it. If not for me, you would have succeeded!

Shinji poked Yutaka's shoulder with the index finger of his left hand and smiled at him. Then he scribbled: Don't sweat it. Should have been more careful. Collars could have gone off the moment they heard, but they're "mercifully" letting us live.

Yutaka touched the nape of his neck, eyes wide. He stared at Shinji and then tightened his lips and nodded. Shinji nodded back at him.

"I wonder where they're hiding out—"

I'm writing my plan here. Fake our conversation. Just go with the flow.

Yutaka nodded and then quickly responded, "Hmm, but I'm not sure we can trust anyone."

Good going. Shinji grinned. Yutaka grinned back.

"That's true. I think we can trust Shuya. I want to hook up with Shuya."

If comp worked we could have saved others but now we can only worry about saving ourselves.

All right with that?

Yutaka considered it and then wrote, Not looking for Shuya?

Right. Can't afford to worry about others anymore.

Yutaka bit his lip, but finally nodded.

Shinji nodded back. If this works out, game will get held up. Might give others chance to escape.

Yutaka gave two small nods.

"You think everyone's hiding in the mountain like us? Maybe some of them are hiding in houses?"

"Maybe…"

Shinji was deliberating over what to write next when Yutaka wrote, What's the plan?

Shinji nodded and gripped his pencil. I've been waiting for something to happen since morning.

Yutaka tilted his head, his pencil down. Announcement that game has been canseled. I'm still waiting

.

Yutaka looked surprised and tilted his head in bewilderment. Shinji grinned at him.

When I got access to school comp, I found all backup files. And file search apps. Then before I downloaded, I infected them all with virus.

Yutaka silently formed the word "virus?" with his mouth. Hey, Yutaka, how about writing it out?

Shinji wrote, Virus would enter school comp system if they search files or backups. Would wreak havoc on the system and freeze game.

Impressed, Yutaka gave several brief nods. Shinji knew it was a waste of time, but wrote it out anyway, I designed virus. It's cool. It's like getting athlete's foot, but 100x worse.

Yutaka held back the urge to laugh, but gave a broad grin.

It'll destroy all data and play "The Star Spangled Banner" on repeat. It'll drive em crazy.

Yutaka held his stomach, doing his best not to laugh, and pressed his hand against his mouth. Shinji also did his best not to burst out laughing.

Now they've discovered me, maybe they won't get those files. Then game will have to stop. But it hasn't. So they've only done rutine checks. I didn't go through any main files.

"Why don't we go find them then?"

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Yeah, but we have a gun."

My plan: make them get files. Will activate virus.

Shinji pulled his laptop over and showed Yutaka the document he'd been looking over. It was a 42-line text file.

The data download had been interrupted, but of all the copied files this was the most important one. The horizontal text. Each row began with a listing on the left, from "M01" to "M21," followed by "F01" to

"F21," in succession. Each listing was accompanied by a ten-digit number resembling a phone number, all in succession as well. Finally there were what appeared to be random sixteen-digit numbers. A small comma was inserted between these three listings. The file name at the heading was cryptic.

"guadalcanal-shiroiwa3b"

What's this? Yutaka wrote.

Shinji nodded. These are the #'s assigned to our collars.

Yutaka gave a huge nod as if to say, Oh. So "M01" was Male Student No. 1 (Yoshio Akamatsu), and

"F01" was Female Student No. 1 (Mizuho Inada, that weird girl).

Collars are like cell phones. Each band has a number and password. Use numbers to set them off.

So

Shinji stopped and looked at Yutaka. Then he continued If data's infected with virus we won't have to worry about collars blowing us up. Virus will keep spreading. If they have backup files they can't stop it. If they reprogram to stop virus we'll be in trouble, but it will still buy us time.

"How about tossing pebbles at certain places to see if someone comes running out?"

"Wait, what if it's a girl? She might scream. That could be dangerous, not just to us, but the girl. I mean, assuming she's not 'bad.' "

"Huh."

How will you make them do it?

Outside school building did you see room for SDF?

Yutaka nodded.

Computers in there, remember?

Yutaka's eyes opened wide again as he shook his head. /

couldn't afford to.

Shinji chuckled a little. I got a good look. They have a row of desktop computers and large server.

Someone stuck out though. It was an ensine. Or was it "ensign"? Forget it. He had a pin on his uniform. He was the tech. A computer runs this whole game. All we have to do is attack the school so they think we might ugh, another word I can't spell aniyulate their data. We need to get materials we can actually blow up the entire computer. So

Shinji stopped writing. He spread his hands with the exaggerated motion of a magician. Then he wrote on the map BOMB THE SCHOOL ESCAPE BY SEA

Yutaka's eyes were now bulging. He mouthed the word "Bomb?"

Shinji grinned.

"Maybe we should look for some weapons though. That fork is pretty useless."

"Uh huh. Yeah."

We need gasoline. There's a gas station at the harbor, but we can't get there. There are several cars here though. Maybe have fuel? Worst case use oil. We also need fertilizer.

Yutaka knit his brows, puzzled. Fertilizer?

Shinji nodded and tried to write out the name of the fertilizer compound, but he didn't know how to spell it. He was a casualty of spellcheck. Anyway, what mattered was the molecular formula.

Amoniem nitrate. If we find it, we can make bomb with gasoline.

Shinji pulled out his knife and the tube tied to it. He showed it to Yutaka.

This is a detonater. Too complicated to explain why I have one. I just do.

Yutaka looked thoughtful. Then he wrote That uncle?

Shinji grinned and nodded. Yutaka knew because Shinji was always going on and on about his uncle.

Yutaka wrote

How are we going to bomb the school? We can't get near it. Make a giant sling with trees?

Ah ha. Shinji smiled. No. Not precise enough. Too bad we don't have a bunch of bombs. But we have only one detonater, so we have only 1 chance. Rope and pulley.

Yutaka opened his mouth as if to say, Oh.

Can't get near school, but can go to mountain area and area on other side of school.

Shinji flipped over the map and indicated the areas to Yutaka. Then he flipped it back over.

Tie rope from flats to mountain. About 300 m. Stretch it tight so we can slide bomb down on puley. Then cut rope when it's on top of school. My special SLAM DUNK.

Once again impressed, Yutaka nodded enthusiastically.

"It might be best to find weapons during the day."

"Yeah, I think so too. It'll be easier than finding someone."

Let's get to work. There's a pulley by a well ll saw. Get gas from cars. Fertilizer and rope? ll don't know. Can we find rope that long?

They fell silent, but then Yutaka quickly wrote

Let's go for it.

Shinji nodded and continued

We might kill Sakamochi and soldiers. But all we have to do is make them think data's damaged.

Then he pointed at his neckband these can't kill us.

Then escape by sea?

Shinji nodded.

But I can't swim he looked at Shinji warily.

Shinji interrupted Yutaka's writing and wrote Full moon tonight. Use tide current. According to my calculations tide will carry us at 6-7 kph. If we swim fast it will take <20 min. to reach next island.

Yutaka's admiration burst beyond the expression in his eyes as he shook his head vigorously.

What about guard ship?

Shinji nodded.

They might find us but because game's run by computers my guess is they will be lax. One ship for each direction is kinda lame. Their weakness. Once computers down they won't know where we are. Guard ship will only be able to chase us on their own. If they have satallites, cameras can't see at night. We don't have to worry about our heads blowing up. We have chance to escape.

It won't be easy.

I have another idea.

Shinji dug into the day pack and pulled out a small transceiver. This was another item he found in someone's house.

/ can increase output by customizing. Not hard. At sea I'll send out an SOS.

Yutaka's face beamed. Some ship will pick us up.

Shinji shook his head. No. Government will come at us so we give them false location. We escape in opposite direction.

Yutaka shook his head. Then he wrote out

SHINJI YOUR AWESOME

Shinji shook his head and smiled.

"All right, then." He looked at his watch. It was already 4 p.m.

"We'll take off in five minutes."

"Uh huh."

Shinji felt worn out from all the handwriting, which he didn't do very often. He tossed his pencil. Like a PC communication log file, the back of the map was filled with letters. (He would have preferred to communicate by laptop, but Yutaka didn't know how to type.)

Then he grabbed the pencil and added

Not a great plan. Our chances are slim. This is all I can think of He shrugged and looked at Yutaka.

Yutaka gave him a cheerful smile and wrote Let's go for it!

22 students remaining

44

On the southern side of the northern mountain, a boy sat on a spot on a slope covered with thick vegetation. He was looking at himself with a mirror he held in his left hand, neatly arranging his pompadour with the comb in his right. Ever since the game began he might have been the only student in class, including the girls, who felt like he could afford to take good care of his hair. But that was only natural. Although he had a thuggish-looking face, he paid an inordinate amount of attention to his personal appearance, and although no one knew exactly why, this boy was known, or no, had been known until now as "Zulu," he was in any case…

Queer.

As for his location, he was at a horizontal distance directly two hundred meters west of where Shinji Mimura and Yutaka Seto were hiding. He was also approximately six hundred meters northwest of the medical facility where Shuya's trio was. In other words, he was right above the farmhouse where Shuya Nanahara had witnessed Kaori Minami get shot by Hirono Shimizu. If he looked up he would have had a clear view of the platform where the bodies of Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano were still lying, bathed in the light of the setting sun.

This student arranging his hair had seen the corpses of Yumiko Kusaka, Yukiko Kitano, as well as that of Kaori Minami. He had actually seen more. Kaori Minami's was the seventh corpse he'd seen.

Ugh, yuck. Leaves stuck in my hair again! Every time I lie down, this happens.

With the pinky of his right hand, the boy brushed the blade of grass from his hair and then looked beyond his own face in the mirror to the woods approximately twenty meters below him.

Ka. Zu. O. Are you asleep?

The boy's thick lips twisted into a smile.

Aren't you being careless? Well, even you could probably never guess that after you'd failed to kill me I'd be following you.

Yes, this queer boy who was holding a mirror and comb was the only member of the "Kiriyama family"

who'd escaped Kazuo's massacre by not showing up at the assigned meeting place. And now he, Sho Tsukioka (Male Student No. 14), was the only surviving member of the Kiriyama family. In the shrubbery was Kazuo Kiriyama himself, who'd already finished off six students. For the last two hours Kazuo had remained still, though.

Sho looked back at himself in the mirror, this time checking his complexion as he recalled how Mitsuru would always warn him against referring to Kazuo as "Kazuo-kun." Mitsuru would say something like,

"Hey Sho, you have to call the boss, boss." But even bold Mitsuru seemed to have a hard time with a

"feminine guy," so as soon as Sho would respond with a casual sidelong glance, saying, "Oh, give me a break. Don't be so picky, it's not very manly," and Mitsuru would just grimace, mumbling and letting it go at that.

Call him boss, huh? Sho thought as he looked over each of his eyes in the mirror. But you ended up getting killed by that so-called boss. You're a fool.

It was true. Sho Tsukioka had been more cautious than Mitsuru. It wasn't as if he had a clear sense of Kazuo the way Mitsuru had imagined right before his death, but Sho had always held the basic belief that betrayals happen all the time. That's how the world is. One could say that, compared to Mitsuru, who was just a good fighter, Sho, who'd seen more of the adult world as a result of going in and out of the gay bar his father ran ever since he was a kid, was more sophisticated.

Instead of heading straight to the southern tip of the island, as Kazuo had requested, Sho moved inward from the coast, weaving his way through the woods. This ended up being a hassle, but it probably only cost him ten more minutes.

He ended up seeing it all from the woods along the beach. Three bodies, two wearing coats and one in her sailor suit, sprawled on the rock stretching out into the ocean across the beach. There was Kazuo Kiriyama, standing quietly in the crevice of the rock, hidden in shadows from the moonlight.

Mitsuru Numai appeared almost immediately. After a brief exchange, he was pummeled by machine gun bullets and left on the rock that was drenched with blood now (its stench even reached Sho)....

Oh my, Sho thought. This is trouble.

By the time he began following Kazuo Kiriyama walking away from the scene, Sho had already decided on his course of action.

To assist him in this course of action, the top candidate was undoubtedly Kazuo Kiriyama. He couldn't hear what Kazuo and Mitsuru were saying to each other, but given how Kazuo had decided to play the game, he was sure Kazuo would be the best. Furthermore, at the very least, Kazuo carried not only a machine gun (was that his supplied weapon or did it belong to one of the three students he had killed?) but also Mitsuru's pistol. No one could win in a direct confrontation with Kazuo now.

Sho had one advantage though, something he knew he was extremely good at. He had a talent for sneaking into places and stealing when no one was looking and was also good at following people.

(When he found a boy he liked, he could stalk him endlessly.) A talent to be sneaky—what do you mean sneaky, how dare you?—in all respects. As for the weapon he found in his day pack, it was a Derringer

.22 Double High Standard. The cartridge was a magnum, lethal at close range, but not the best gun for a shootout.

So Sho thought, even if Kazuo Kiriyama was going to emerge victorious, he'd have to take on tough guys like Shogo Kawada and Shinji Mimura (definitely my type) who, if they had guns, would probably end up injuring him. And all that fighting should wear him out.

Then…I'll just follow him until the end. At the very end I can just shoot him from behind. The moment he thinks he's finished off the last one, he'll let his guard down and that's when I'll shoot him. Even Kazuo would never suspect someone would be following him, especially me, since I blew him off last night.

That way Sho wouldn't have to sully his hands in this game where you had to kill your classmates off one by one. It wasn't that he felt a strong moral objection to killing them, it was just that, he thought, I don't want to kill innocent kids, it's so vulgar. Kazuo's going to do the killing. I'm just going to stay behind him.

He might be killing someone right in front of me, but it's not like I can interfere, that's too dangerous. And so at the very end, I'm going to kill him out of self-defense. I mean, if I don't kill him, he'll kill me. That was his line of thinking.

There was another advantage he had in following Kazuo. If he stayed close to Kazuo, then he wouldn't have to worry much about being attacked. And on the off chance that he was, as long as he dodged the first attack Kazuo would have to respond. All Sho would have to do is flee the scene and Kazuo would take care of the rest. Of course, that would also mean losing track of Kazuo, bringing his plan to an end, so he wanted to avoid this scenario as much as possible.

He decided to maintain a basic distance of twenty meters behind Kazuo. He'd move forward when Kazuo did and stop when Kazuo stopped. There was also the issue of the forbidden zones. Kazuo must have also been considering it, so he'd probably keep a good distance away from the zones. As long as Sho maintained his distance, he should be safe from entering the zones. When Kazuo stopped, he'd check the map to make sure he wasn't in a forbidden zone.

Everything had proceeded according to plan.

Kazuo left the southern tip of the island and after entering several houses in the residential area (probably finding what he was looking for), he decided to head to the northern mountain for some reason and then sat down. In the morning, when he heard the distant gunfire, he looked over there, but decided not to move, perhaps because of the distance. But then a little while later when Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano began calling from the peak of the mountain with their megaphone he moved quickly and after making sure no one was responding to their call (now wasn't there another gunshot? Sho believed there was, urging Yumiko and Yukiko to hide. Wow, how wonderful, so there's a real humanitarian out there.

He was moved, but not enough to alter his plans) he shot them dead. Then he descended the northern slope. There was another distant gunshot, but he stayed put on this one too. Then, this just happened, just before 3 p.m. he began moving after hearing gunfire on this side of the mountain. But what he (and Sho) found at the source was the dead body of Kaori Minami, lying inside a farm equipment storage shack. Kazuo went down to check the body, probably to go through her belongings, but it looked like someone else had gotten there before them. Then he proceeded to move on—

And now he's in the woods right under me.

Kazuo's plan seemed simple, at least for now. Once he knew where someone was, he'd go there and shoot away. Sho was exasperated by the merciless way he'd killed Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano (Kazuo, you have such a plain name but your actions are out of control. And yet my name sounds like a celebrity's, Sho Tsukioka, but I'm just a Plain Jane), but it was pointless to fret over these details. For now he should be happy that Kazuo was completely clueless about his presence.

Kazuo appeared to be resting quietly. He might have been sleeping.

On the other hand Sho couldn't sleep at all, but he felt he was strong in that department as well.

Naturally. Girls had more stamina than guys. That's what I read in one of those popular books.

What turned out to be a real drag instead was that he was a heavy smoker. The smell of cigarette smoke, depending on the wind direction, would give him away to Kazuo. No, the sound of his electronic lighter flicking open could be even more fatal.

Sho pulled out his pack of imported Virginia Slims Menthol cigarettes (he liked the name, though of course it was hard to get them in this country, but there were places that carried them, and all he had to do was steal them. He had piles of boxes in his room) and carefully placed the thin cigarette between his lips. He caught a whiff of the faint smell of tobacco leaves and that unique menthol odor and felt mild relief from his withdrawal. He wanted to fill his lungs with smoke—but somehow managed to suppress the urge.

I simply cannot die. There's too much fun waiting for me in my prime.

To distract himself, he lifted the mirror in his left hand and caught a view of his face with the cigarette in his mouth. He tilted his head slightly and examined his sidelong glance.

I am so pretty. On top of that, I'm so smart. It's inevitable I should be the winner of this game. Only the beautiful survive. That's God's—

Out of the corner of his eye, the bushes rustled slightly.

Sho quickly removed the cigarette from his mouth and put it into his pocket, along with his mirror. Then he gripped the Derringer and grabbed his day pack with his left hand.

Kazuo Kiriyama's slicked-back head appeared on the edge of the bushes. He looked to his left and right and then northward—directly to the left of Sho—up the slope.

In the shade of the azalea tree covered in pink leaves, Sho raised his brow slightly.

What's he doing?

He heard no gunfire. No strange noise at all. Was there something over there?

Sho looked over there, but saw no movement.

Kazuo emerged from shrubs. He had his day pack on his left shoulder and the machine gun slung over his right shoulder with his hand on its grip. He began climbing the slope, weaving his way in between the trees. He quickly reached Sho's higher position and moved on up. Sho then stood up and began following him.

Not at all in keeping with his large frame, 1 17 centimeters tall, Sho moved gracefully, like a cat. He carefully maintained the twenty meters behind Kazuo's black school coat that intermittently flashed between the trees. Sho's confidence was justified when it came to this sort of thing.

Kazuo's movement was also very precise and quick. He'd stop in the shade of a tree, check ahead, and where the vegetation got thick, would get on his knees and check underneath before proceeding. The only trouble being that…

…your back's wide open, Kazuo.

They must have covered a hundred meters. The observatory was on the top left. Kazuo stopped there.

The rows of trees in front of him were interrupted by a narrow, unpaved road. It was less than two meters wide, just wide enough for a car.

Oh…this was the path leading up to the peak. We crossed it right before we saw Kaori Minami's body.

On Kazuo's right, where he was looking, there was a space with a bench and a beige prefab toilet.

Maybe it was a resting area for climbers on the way to the peak.

Kazuo surveyed the area and then looked behind Sho, but Sho of course had hidden himself away in the shade. Kazuo stepped onto the path and ran up to the toilet. He opened the door and went in. He stuck his head out and looked around again before he closed the door. He left it slightly ajar, maybe just in case he had to escape if something happened.

Oh my. Sho brought his hand to his lips. Oh my. Sho remained crouched, trying hard not to burst into a fit of laughter.

It was true, since Sho had started following him, Kazuo hadn't gone to the bathroom even once. He might have used the toilet in one of the houses he entered before sunrise, but in any case, it'd be impossible to hold it an entire day, so Sho assumed he took care of business hidden in the bushes.

(Anyway, that's what Sho did. It was a pain not to make any sound though.) But turned out he was wrong. After all, Kazuo Kiriyama came from a wealthy family. Maybe the thought of going anywhere besides a real toilet was out of the question. He must have remembered seeing this toilet when he passed through here a while ago. That's why he came back here.

That's it, I'm sure. Even Kazuo Kiriyama has to pee. How cute.

He was pissing against the bowl now. Sho could hear it splashing against the bowl. Tee hee. Once again Sho tried hard not to laugh.

Then he remembered something and flipped his wrist over to check his watch. They were near sector D=8, which Sakamochi had announced would turn into a forbidden zone at 5 p.m.

The elegant italic numerals on the women's watch indicated 4:57 p.m. (He'd set his watch to Sakamochi's announcement, so it was accurate.) Sho took out his map and examined the northern mountain area. The mountain road was only marked by a dotted line on the map, and the rest area and public toilet wasn't marked in or outside the lines marking off D=8.

Sho suddenly became tense and unconsciously lifted his hand up to his metallic collar. He suddenly felt the urge to return the way he'd come but—

He looked over at toilet, where the sprinkling sound continued. He shrugged and exhaled lightly.

We're talking about Kazuo Kiriyama here, after all. Even if nature called, he would have checked his position. The reason why he cautiously looked over here before moving out of the bushes where he was hiding was to determine whether the toilet was in D=8 or not. And Sho's position was approximately thirty meters west of the toilet. Kazuo was closer to the zone than he was, so the fact that Kazuo was over there, in other words, meant that he was safe too. That's right. He mustn't lose Kazuo by succumbing to irrational fear. That would ruin his plan.

Sho pulled out the Virginia Slims he'd taken out a moment ago and put it between his lips. Then he looked at the dimming sky. At this time of year, it'd still be another two hours before sundown, but the darkening sky was now tinged with orange from the west, and the tips of several tiny clouds had become bright orange. It was beautiful. Just like me.

The sprinkling continued. Sho grinned again. You must have held it for a long time, Kazuo.

It still continued.

Oh, I really need a smoke. I'd like to take a shower, polish my nails, and mix my favorite screwdriver, and as I sip this drink I'd have a nice relaxing…

It still went on.

Oh geez, I wish he'd stop. Hey, let's wrap it up, come on and let's get to work.

But…it still continued.

That was when Sho finally knit his drooping, thick brows. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and quickly got up. He approached the toilet, moving along the shrubs, and squinted his eyes The sprinkling sound continued. And the door was left slightly ajar.

Just then a sudden wind blew by, opening the squeaky door. What brilliant timing.

Sho's eyes opened wide.

Inside the toilet a government-supplied water bottle was hanging from the ceiling as it swung in the wind.

Kazuo had probably pierced it with a blade because there was a very thin stream of water trickling out, fluttering with the wind.

Sho panicked.

Then he saw the back of a school coat below, weaving its way through the trees. He saw the unique slicked-back hairstyle which he could recognize even from behind this far away.

Wh-wh-what? Kazuo? But then…hey, but I'm…

As Kazuo disappeared beyond the shrubs, Sho heard a thud. It resembled the sound of a silencer, or a gunshot into a pillow. It was impossible to say whether the sound came from the bomb itself in the government's custom Program collar or from the vibration it made through his body.

Over one hundred meters below, Kazuo Kiriyama didn't even look back as he glanced down at his watch.

Seven seconds past five.

21 students remaining

45

With a brief stir Noriko opened her eyes. It was past 7 p.m. She gazed at the ceiling of the room, now turned dark. Then she looked at Shuya beside her.

Shuya got up a from his seat and removed the damp towel on her forehead. He touched it. Just as it was when he checked last time, her fever was almost gone. Shuya felt a wave of relief. Great. Really.

"Shuya." Noriko's voice was still dazed, "…what time is it?"

"It's past seven. You slept well."

"I…"

Shuya nodded. "Your fever's gone down. Shogo said it probably wasn't from septicemia. It was just a really bad cold. Probably from fatigue."

"I see..." Noriko nodded slowly as if she were also relieved. Then she turned to Shuya. "I'm sorry for all this trouble."

"What are you talking about?" Shuya shook his head. "It's not your fault at all." Then he asked, "Can you eat? We have rice."

Noriko's eyes opened wide. "Rice?"

"Yeah, just hold on. Shogo cooked some." Shuya left the room.

Shogo was sitting on the chair by the window by the kitchen door. The last traces of light, more like particles of blue, closer to indigo, entered the window, but where Shogo was sitting it was almost completely pitch black.

"Noriko's up?"

Shuya nodded.

"How about her fever?"

"She's fine. It seems to be gone."

Shogo gave him a slight nod, then stood up, holding the shotgun as usual. He opened the lid of the pot on the gas stove. Shuya and Shogo had already had their share of cooked rice and miso soup. The miso soup base came from some strange leaves growing in the back of the building.

"Is the food cold?" Shuya asked.

Shogo gave him a brief reply, "Wait five or ten minutes. I'll bring it over."

"Thanks." Shuya returned to the examination room. He sat down by the bed and gave Noriko a small nod. "Wait a little. Shogo's going to bring some real rice."

Noriko nodded. Then she asked, "Is there a bathroom here?"

"Uh…yeah. Over here."

Shuya helped Noriko out of the bed. Supporting her with his arm, he showed her to the bathroom beyond the waiting room. She was still staggering, but she'd definitely recovered from the terrible condition she was in before.

Shuya helped Noriko return to her bed. As Noriko sat down on the edge of the bed, Shuya wrapped her shoulders with the blanket the way Ms. Anno had done for him at the Charity House when he was a kid.

"Once you've eaten," Shuya said as he pulled at the edges of the blanket, "I think you should get some more sleep. We're going to have to leave this place by 11 p.m."

Noriko stared at Shuya. Her eyes still looked slightly unfocused. "You mean—"

Shuya nodded. "Yeah, this zone's going to be forbidden at eleven."

It was part of the announcement Sakamochi gave at 6 p.m. Other zones included G=ll at 7 p.m. and I=3

at 9 p.m. That meant the southwest border and the southern slope of the southern mountain. Since it was hard to tell exactly where the border of the forbidden zone was, the southwest shore area was all off limits now.

Noriko looked down at her kneecaps and touched her forehead under her bangs. "I was sleeping like an idiot."

Shuya reached out and touched Noriko on the shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous. You were better off sleeping. You need to rest more. Take it easy."

But Noriko glanced up and asked, "Did anyone else— besides Kaori—die?"

Shuya tightened his lips. Then he nodded. "Takako…and Sho and Kazushi."

According to Sakamochi's announcement, these four had died during the six hours after twelve o'clock.

Now there were only twenty-one students left. Only eighteen hours had passed since the game began, yet Third Year Class B of Shiroiwa Junior High had been reduced to half its size.

"And one more thing," Sakamochi had said enthusiastically. "Sho Tsukioka was caught in a forbidden zone. So I want you all to be careful."

Sakamochi didn't say where Sho had died, and Shuya couldn't remember hearing a big explosion in the afternoon. At the same time he couldn't see any reason Sakamochi would lie. That big, boorish-looking guy who oddly enough acted really feminine, "Zuki" of the Kiriyama family, had gotten himself caught in a zone. As a result, his head was blown off. Besides their boss then, the entire Kiriyama family was decimated.

Shuya thought of telling Noriko about this, but after seeing how troubled she looked, he decided not to.

He doubted that sharing any news about a guy's head getting blown off would have a good effect on Noriko's recovery.

"I see..." Noriko said quietly and then added, "Thanks for this," and began taking off the coat she'd been wearing.

"Keep it."

"No, I'm all right now."

Shuya took the coat and draped the blanket over her shoulder again.

Shogo came in after a while. Like a waiter, he carried a round tray full of bowls on one hand. Steam rose from the bowls. As he lowered the tray he said, "Here you are, madame."

Shuya chuckled. "So she gets room service?"

"Well, the food isn't exactly first class. I hope it tastes all right though." Shogo put the entire tray on the bed and placed the bowls next to her.

Noriko looked down and asked, "Soup?"

"Yes ma'am," Shogo replied in English, which sounded pretty fluent to Shuya's ears.

"Thanks," Noriko said and took the spoon. She brought the bowl to her lips and swallowed a mouthful.

"It's delicious." She raised her voice. "There's egg in it."

Shuya then looked at Shogo.

"It's our special, ma'am."

"Where'd you find that?" Shuya asked. All the fresh food in the refrigerator was rotten, probably because the government had moved the civilians out a while ago. All the other houses were probably in the same condition.

Shogo looked at Shuya out of the corner of his eye and grinned. "I found a house that kept a hen. It looked like it hadn't been fed in a while and looked pretty weak."

Shuya exaggeratedly shook his head. "When we ate I didn't notice any eggs."

Shogo lifted his brows. "I only found one. Sorry. I'm nicer to girls. That's just how I am."

Shuya laughed, sniggering.

Shogo returned to the kitchen and brought over some tea. Shuya and Shogo drank tea while Noriko ate her meal. The tea had a mild sweetness and a pleasant, nostalgic odor.

"Damn," Shuya groaned. "I feel like everything's fine, the three of us sitting around like this."

Shogo smiled and said, "I'll make some coffee later. Would you prefer tea, Noriko?"

Her spoon still in her mouth, Noriko smiled and nodded.

"Hey, Shogo." Shuya had more to say. Of course the fact was that they were still in this killing game, but now that Noriko seemed to be recovering, he was feeling a little gushy. "Some day the three of us, let's all get together for some tea. We'll sit on the veranda and enjoy the cherry blossoms."

It was highly unlikely. Nonetheless Shogo shrugged his shoulders and said, "I thought you were a rocker.

You sound like an old man."

"I know. You're not the first one to tell me that."

Shogo chuckled. Shuya laughed, and so did Noriko.

Noriko finished her meal and said, "Thank you." Shogo gathered her bowls. He signaled with his other hand for Shuya's cup, which Shuya handed over.

"Shogo," Noriko said, "I feel totally fine now. Thank you so much. And I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've caused."

Shogo smiled and replied, " You're welcome," in English. "But it looks like the antibiotic wasn't necessary."

"No. I know this sounds weird, but I think it made me feel secure enough to fall asleep."

Shogo smiled again and added, "Well, you could still be suffering from septicemia. In any case, you should rest a little more. Take it easy." Shogo then said to Shuya, "Do you mind if I catch some sleep?"

Shuya nodded. "You tired?"

"No, not really, but it's best to sleep when you can. Once we leave here, I'll stay up through the night. Is that all right?"

"Yeah sure, that's fine."

Shogo nodded, took the tray, and headed towards the hall.

"Shogo, you should sleep here," Noriko said, signaling towards the bed next to hers.

Shogo glanced back at her from the door and smiled as if saying, no thank you. "I don't want to intrude on you two. I'll sleep on the sofa in this room." He tilted his head in that direction and added, "Please be considerate to your neighbors though if you get intimate."

In the dim room Shuya could see Noriko's face flush.

Shogo then left the room. Beyond the half opened door, Shuya heard him walk out of the kitchen and into the waiting room. It became quiet.

Noriko broke into a smile and said, "Shogo's so funny."

Perhaps it was because of the meal, her face seemed more animated.

"Yeah, he is," Shuya smiled too. "I'd never talked to him until now, but he kind of reminds me of Shinji."

They didn't resemble each other at all physically, but Shogo's crude and blunt speech and his ability to still be humorous through it all resembled The Third Man. Not to mention the way he was the anti-model student and yet managed to be incredibly smart and reliable.

Noriko nodded. "You know you're right. Totally." Then Noriko uttered, "I wonder where Shinji is."

Shuya took a deep breath. He'd been wondering whether there was any way to contact him, but given Noriko's condition he couldn't afford to do anything.

"Yeah, if he were only with us…"

With Shinji along and with Shogo on their side, Shuya thought they couldn't be defeated. And if Hiroki Sugimura were with them they would be fearless and invincible.

"I still remember the class match," Noriko said as she glanced up at the ceiling. "Not this year's, but last year's…the finals. Shinji was on his own against Class D, who had four students on the basketball team.

We were thirty points behind, but then you rushed over after your softball game, and together you two guys started an incredible comeback."

"Yeah." Shuya nodded. He noticed how Noriko was becoming talkative. That was a good sign. "I guess that's what happened."

"I was cheering you guys on. When we won Yukie was on her feet shrieking."

"Yeah."

Shuya remembered too. Because Noriko, who was always reserved, was cheering the loudest. And although he wasn't as uncoordinated as Yoshio Akamatsu, the unathletic Yoshitoki Kuninobu was standing apart from Noriko and the others. Shuya saw Yoshitoki, his hands waving and making devil signs. It was a humble gesture, but Yoshitoki's display of support moved Shuya more than Noriko and the other girls' screaming rally.

Yoshitoki…

Shuya gazed back at Noriko, and then realized that Noriko was crying. He reached over to Noriko, touching her shoulder, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Uh…" Noriko hiccuped slightly. "I was telling myself not to cry, but…then I was thinking how wonderful our class was..."

Shuya nodded. It might have been from the still lingering fever, or it might have been from the drugs, but Noriko seemed to be in an emotional state. He kept his hand on her shoulder until she stopped crying.

Eventually Noriko said, "I'm sorry," and wiped her eyes. Then she said, "I didn't tell you because it might end up disturbing you."

"What do you mean?"

Noriko looked into Shuya's eyes. "Did you know a lot of girls have a crush on you?"

The topic of conversation was so unexpected Shuya couldn't help grimacing. "What are you talking about?"

But Noriko continued, her face dead serious. "Megumi…and Yukiko too, I think."

Shuya tilted his head as if puzzled. Megumi Eto and Yukiko Kitano. Two of the players no longer in the running in this game.

"Those…" Was it proper to call them "those"? "What about those two?"

Noriko looked up at Shuya and said quietly, "They both had a crush on you."

Shuya's face stiffened. He hesitated and then mumbled, "…really?"

"Uh huh." Noriko looked away from Shuya and nodded. "It's easy to tell with girls. I just…wanted you to have fond thoughts for them." She added, "I am in no position to be telling you this now, given the situation I'm in."

Shuya had a dim image of the faces of Megumi Eto and Yukiko Kitano. Just a little though. Like, two teaspoons each. "Wow…" He exhaled. Then he said, "I wish you'd told me after we escaped."

"I'm sorry. Did it shock you?"

"Yeah, a little."

Noriko tilted her head again, "But…I thought you should know in case I die."

Shuya looked up. His right hand squeezed her left wrist. "Look, please don't assume that. We're in this together till the end. We're going to survive together."

Noriko was taken aback by Shuya's sudden intensity. "I'm sorry."

"Hey."

"Hm?"

"I actually know someone who's got a crush on you."

Now it was Noriko's turn to open her eyes wide. "Really? Why me?" She said this innocently, but the expression on her face vanished quickly. Shuya saw the fading light from the window reflected as an obscure rectangle in her pupils. She asked, "Is he a classmate?"

Shuya slowly shook his head. As he recalled those warm, bulging eyes, he thought, damn, how nice and peaceful it would have been just to be able to get worried over a romantic triangle involving a longtime friend. But that would never happen. No siree. It just won't.

"No."

Noriko looked somewhat relieved as she looked down at the knees of her skirt and only mumbled, "I see." Then she looked up and said, "So who could it be? I wasn't in any clubs or teams. And I don't have friends in any of the other classes."

Shuya shook his head. "I'm not telling. I'll tell you once we're out of here."

Noriko looked slightly skeptical, but didn't pursue the matter.

After they fell silent for a while Shuya looked up at the ceiling. Even though tidiness was mandatory in a clinic, the fluorescent light hanging here had dusty covers. The lights didn't work. They couldn't turn them on anyway even if they did.

"Megumi-san…" he said. He added the polite "san" to her name. Boys can be so fickle, "…and Yukiko-san. If it's true…what could they have possibly liked about me?"

It was becoming pitch black, but Noriko appeared to be smiling a little. "You mind if I share my opinion?"

"Sure."

Noriko tilted her head. "Everything about you."

Shuya chuckled and shook his head, "What do you mean?"

"That's what it means to love someone." Noriko's suddenly sounded serious. "Isn't that how you feel about that girl?"

Shuya thought of Kazumi Shintani's face. He thought about it. He hesitated, but thought he should be honest. "Yeah. Something like that."

"If it's not, then it's not real," Noriko said as if she were amused and then let out a quiet laugh.

"What?"

"I'm jealous. Even in this situation, it's still hard."

Shuya looked at her face that was no longer discernible in the dark and hesitated whether he should tell her, but then decided he should be honest with her.

"I can relate to the guy who had a crush on you though."

Noriko looked up at Shuya. Her well-defined brows seemed to quiver slightly. Her lips seemed to be forming a slightly melancholic smile.

"You're so wonderful," Shuya said.

"That's nice to hear even if it's not true."

"But it is."

"Can I ask you a favor?"

Shuya opened his eyes wide as if asking, "What is it?" but he wasn't sure whether Noriko could see his reaction. Noriko then leaned over slightly and gently put both of her hands on Shuya's upper arms, putting her head against his shoulder. Her shoulder-length short hair brushed up against Shuya's cheeks and ears.

They remained like this for quite some time until the dimness outside the window turned into moonlight.

21 students remaining

46

Before the dusk turned to darkness, Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No. 10) emerged from the thicket she'd been hiding in and proceeded west. It was unbearable. Her body was on fire as if she were walking in a desert under a burning sun.

Water.

She needed water.

Kaori Minami had shot her in the upper left arm. After tearing open the sleeve of her sailor suit drenched in blood, she discovered the bullet had penetrated her arm. The skin on the exit wound was torn up badly. It seemed the bullet had barely missed the major blood vessels. The torn sleeve she wrapped around her arm as a bandage seemed to have stopped the bleeding for a while. But then…the wound started to burn and the sensation spread all over her body. The initial chill was replaced by a numbing heat. By the time Sakamochi made his announcement at 6 p.m. Hirono had finished off her entire supply of water. After she killed Kaori she ran approximately two hundred meters away from Shuya and hid in the thicket, but she ended up using a lot of water in her attempt to clean her wound (which she ended up deeply regretting).

Almost two hours had passed since then. For a while she'd been sweating profusely underneath her uniform, but now she wasn't sweating at all. Most likely she was approaching dehydration. In other words, unlike Noriko Nakagawa, Hirono was actually suffering from septicemia. And because she hadn't disinfected her wound, it came on quickly. Of course she had no way of knowing any of this.

The only thing she knew was that she needed…water.

As she cautiously moved through the green woods of the mountain, Hirono's head spun with thoughts of hatred towards Kaori Minami. Her burning body and thirst only intensified these thoughts.

Hirono Shimizu had no intention of trusting anyone in this game. Of course she'd been tight with Mitsuko Souma forever, and according to student number she immediately preceded Mitsuko. So if she'd managed to avoid Hiroki Sugimura, who came in between their departures, she could have met up with Mitsuko, but she chose not to. Because she knew how terrifying Mitsuko really was. That's right…like when Mitsuko took on a bad-girl leader from another school (who'd by then become the mistress of a yakuza gangster). That girl ended up getting run over by a car. The injury was nearly fatal. Mitsuko didn't say anything about it, but Hirono knew Mitsuko had some guy do it. There were plenty of guys willing to do anything for Mitsuko___

If Hirono had decided to meet up with Mitsuko, Mitsuko would have probably used her as much as possible only to finally shoot her in the back. Even though she was part of the group too, the somewhat clueless Yoshimi Yahagi might trust Mitsuko (which reminded her of how Yoshimi was dead, and Hirono had a hunch that Mitsuko was the one who killed her), but Hirono was having none of that.

She couldn't imagine trusting anyone else in her class. The ones who acted nice were the ones that wouldn't think twice about killing the others now. She might have only been fifteen years old, but those fifteen years had taught her that much.

At the same time though she wasn't too thrilled about killing off her classmates. She'd done prostitution and drugs, and she constantly fought with her parents who treated her like a lost cause, but murder was taboo. Of course the rules of the game permitted it, so it wasn't a crime here—but while she'd done some bad things, they were never all that harmful towards others. Even though she'd prostituted herself, compared to other girls who pretended to be proper at the same time that they "phone-dated" (she knew Mayumi Tendo was one of those), at least she went the whole nine yards working with professionals through her connection with Mitsuko Souma. As for drugs, what was wrong with asserting her individual freedom to choose? And it wasn't like she was putting the mall's cosmetics department out of business by stealing stuff from there. They have huge capital backing anyway___Yes, she bullied others around, but they deserved it. And as far as her fights with students from other schools, they all knew they were out to hurt each other and what they were in for. I mean, come on, grow up. In any case, she was…

…not the kind of girl who'd go around murdering people. She knew that much.

But, but…

…it was different if she had to defend herself. And if she ended up surviving in this game…then she'd open a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Or if time ran out and she died then…her thoughts weren't very clear on this matter…anyway there was nothing she could do about that.

So she ended up hiding out in that house where she later had that shootout with Kaori Minami.

Once she'd checked it out and saw no one was there, she stayed there. Occasionally she'd look out the window, and once, much to her dismay, she caught a glimpse of someone in the shack across from the building where she was staying.

After several minutes she decided to leave the house (she was good at leaving home). She couldn't stand the thought of someone being near her. There was no back entrance, so she climbed out the window furthest from the shack when…

Kaori was looking out the door of the shack. She suddenly fired at Hirono, who'd done nothing. Kaori's shot hit Hirono's arm, and Hirono nearly rolled outside onto the ground. She somehow managed to get on her feet, and for the first time aimed her pistol and fired back. Then as she remained glued to the wall of the edge of the house…that was when Shuya Nanahara appeared.

That bitch. She was always acting so innocent with her blind devotion to idol groups, and then all of a sudden she has the nerve to pull the trigger on me. Well, I was able to finish her off. (In self defense. The jury's verdict would have been 12-0, no prob.) And if the others are anything like her then I'll have to be merciless, I think.

Then Hirono thought of Shuya Nanahara. At least Shuya didn't point his gun at her (which enabled her to shoot at Kaori). He also claimed he was with Noriko.

Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa. Were they going out? Never seemed that way. Are they going to try to escape?

Hirono automatically shook her head.

Ridiculous. Nothing could be more risky than being with someone under these circumstances. If you're in a group, well then, that's just your own fault if you get shot in the back. Besides, it was impossible to escape anyway.

Hirono didn't see Noriko Nakagawa, but if he was telling her the truth, then Shuya Nanahara would soon be killing Noriko Nakagawa. Or perhaps Noriko Nakagawa would be killing Shuya Nanahara. If one of them ended up surviving…then Hirono might end up having to kill one of them. But right now that didn't matter compared to her…

…thirst.

Before she knew it she had covered a fair distance. The dim sunlight in the western sky was gone. The sky up above was now jet black and the full moon just like last night when the game began shone eerily, casting a pale blue light on this island.

She held onto the revolver that had killed Kaori Minami, a Smith & Wesson Military & Police .38, and ran through the bushes. She held her head low with bated breath. Then she slowly peered out of the bushes. There was a house standing beyond a narrow farm. Hirono was near the northern mountain.

There was a foothill on the other side of the house. On the left there were several farms and further beyond two more similar houses. Then the land sloped upward to the southern mountain. According to the map, in front of that mountain there was supposed to be a relatively wide longitudinal road that traversed the island. So given the position of the mountains Hirono was probably near the island's western shore. Just as she had done before moving, she checked her position and was pretty certain she wasn't in a forbidden zone.

Hirono did her best to forget about her thirst and observed the house in front. The area was completely still and silent.

She remained crouched and crossed the farm. The area around the house seemed slightly elevated above the farm. Hirono stopped at the edge of the farm and after looking back she observed the house again. It was your average, old, single-story farmhouse. But unlike the previous house she'd hid inside, the roof was tiled. An unpaved road came in from the left side of the farm. There was a light truck parked in front of the house. She also saw a moped and bicycle.

The water at the first house Hirono hid in wasn't running.

This one was probably no different. Hirono looked to her right and left…

…and found a well at the far end of the area from the entrance road. It even had a beam holding a bucket. There were thin tangerine trees with plenty of leaves surrounding the well. Their branches were high, so she could tell there was no one hiding under the trees.

Since she couldn't use her left hand, she tucked her gun in the front. Then she groped around the farm soil under the moonlight. She found a fist-sized rock.

She tossed it upward. Tracing an arc, the rock crashed against the roof. It rattled down the rows of tiles and fell off the edge onto the ground with a thud.

Hirono gripped the gun and waited. She checked her watch. Then she waited again.

Five minutes passed. No one appeared at the windows or entrance. Hirono quickly stepped up to the property and ran toward the well. Her head was spinning from thirst and fever.

The well was a concrete tube approximately eighty centimeters high. Hirono clutched the brim of the well.

Inside it, the moonlight revealed a small circle six to seven meters down. Her own shadow was also reflected inside the circle.

It was water. Ah, it wasn't dry.

Once again Hirono tucked her revolver into her skirt and removed her day pack from her aching left shoulder with her right hand. It landed on the dirt. Then she held the worn out rope hanging from the bucket beam.

As she pulled the rope, a small bucket appeared on the surface of the water. Hirono frantically tugged at the rope. The bucket beam was equipped with what looked like an ancient pulley which allowed you to retrieve water with two buckets. Her left arm was too numb to move, but with every pull she held the rope against the concrete edge of the well with her elbow and managed to pull the bucket upward.

The bucket finally reached the edge of the well. She held the rope with her elbow once more, grabbed the handle of the bucket, and placed it on the edge of the well. It was water. The bucket was brimming with water. She didn't care if it ended up making her sick. Her body needed water now.

But then she discovered something and let out a small shriek.

There was a tiny fingernail-sized frog swimming in the water. In the moonlight she saw its small, gross eyes and its glistening back. (In broad daylight, their color would have been an disgusting fluorescent green, or a dirty brown.) It was her least favorite animal, and the mere sight of one with its slimy skin was enough to send chills down her spine.

But Hirono did her best to quell her disgust. She didn't have the strength to pull the bucket up again. Her thirst was unbearable now. She would have to get rid of that frog, and then—

The frog climbed onto the edge of the bucket and leapt onto Hirono. Hirono let out a small shriek and twisted her body. So what if this was a matter of life or death. She just couldn't stand frogs. She somehow managed to dodge the frog—but her right hand let go of the bucket, which suddenly fell back into the well with a splash—and that was that.

Hirono groaned and looked over in the direction of the frog. I'll kill it. I'll kill that fucking frog!

But then…something else caught her eye.

She saw a black figure in a student coat stop a mere four or five meters in front of her.

Hirono's back had been facing the house. Now she saw the back door behind the figure was ajar.

With the figure frozen in its footsteps, Hirono suddenly recalled a childhood memory—the game where you have to freeze when the person who was "it" turns around—but that was irrelevant. The issue at stake was that this thin, short, ugly boy—come to think of it, he also resembled a frog—Toshinori Oda (Male Student No. 4) was holding a thin, ribbonlike object with both hands. Hirono realized it was a belt.

Now look at this. Toshinori Oda, the privileged son of a company president whose house was located in the town's wealthy district. He was supposed to be good at violin (apparently he'd won some competition). A pretentious, well bred, quiet boy. And this kid was now…

… trying to kill me!

As if the pause on a frozen video image had been suddenly released, Toshinori moved, swung his belt up, and attacked her. The large buckle sparkled in the moonlight. It could easily gouge out some flesh on impact. The distance between them was only four meters...

Enough.

Hirono's right hand went for her gun. She felt the grip, by now a familiar sensation.

Toshinori was right in front of her. She fired. She fired three times in a row.

All the shots landed in his stomach. She saw his school coat instantaneously rip apart.

Toshinori spun around and fell face forward. Dust flew up into the air and he remained motionless.

Hirono tucked the revolver into her skirt again. The hot barrel burned against her stomach, but she couldn't be concerned about that. Right now the important thing was… water.

She picked up her day pack and entered the house. She'd been foolish exposing her back to the house, but now she no longer had to make sure it was unoccupied. And she could drink Toshinori's water.

She deliberated over whether to use her flashlight, but Toshinori's day pack turned out to be located right behind the back door. Hirono crouched down and opened the zipper with her right hand.

There were water bottles. One of them hadn't been opened and the other was still half full. She felt a wave of relief.

Still on her knees, Hirono opened the lid of the half filled bottle and pressed her lips against it, sucking on it as she tilted the bottle back. Hmm. Was this an indirect kiss with the boy who had tried to kill her—who was, on top of that, dead? Didn't matter. Concerns like that were now as remote as the tropics or the north pole. Or the moon. This is Armstrong. One small step for a man…

She guzzled the water down. It was delicious. No doubt about that. Water never tasted this good. Even though the water was lukewarm, as it gushed down her throat and into her stomach it felt like ice water.

It was so good.

She emptied the bottle almost immediately. She took a deep breath.

Something wrapped around her throat. Right above the metal collar. She went into a coughing fit and a mist of water sprayed out between her lips.

As she struggled with her functioning right hand to free herself from the object digging in under her throat, she twisted her head around. Immediately to the right of her face she saw the boy's tense face…which belonged to Toshinori Oda, the boy who just died!

Her throat was getting choked. It took her several seconds to realize what was wrapped around her neck. It was Toshinori's belt.

How how how—how could this guy be alive?

The dark interior of the house was fading into red. She tried to pry the belt loose with her right hand as her fingernails tore off. Blood dripped out of her fingers.

That's right, my gun.

Hirono reached for her gun tucked in the front of her skirt.

But her arm was kicked by the foot of an expensive leather shoe, making a cracking sound. Along with her left arm, her right one went numb too. The belt slackened for a moment—but then it tightened again.

She couldn't hold the belt anymore and instead she swung her twisted arm around in a bizarre looking manner.

It was only a matter of seconds. Her arm hung limply. Although she wasn't in the same rank as Takako Chigusa or Mitsuko Souma, she was still quite attractive and she had the appealing, mature look of a high school or college student. But now her face was puffed up from blood congestion, and her tongue was now twice its normal size and hung out from the middle of her mouth.

Nonetheless, Toshinori Oda continued choking Hirono's throat. (Of course he didn't forget to check around occasionally.)

After five minutes or so, Toshinori finally released the belt from Hirono's neck. The breathless Hirono fell forward onto the raised floor. There was a muffled cracking sound. Maybe part of Hirono's face had cracked. Her punkish hair that stood straight up was now going in all directions and fading into the darkness. The nape of her neck above the collar of her sailor suit and her left arm with the torn sleeve were the only parts glimmering white.

Toshinori Oda breathed heavily for a while as he stood still in a daze. His stomach was still in pain, but it wasn't too bad now. When he first opened his day pack he had no idea what this cumbersome strange gray vest was, but it did exactly what the manual said it would. Amazing…

…what a bulletproof vest can do.

20 students remaining

47

The area was pitch black by now, but thanks to the nearly full moon, the cliff extending from the foot of the northern mountain offered a wide open view of the ocean. The Seto Inland Sea Islands floated in the black sea, but there were absolutely no ship lights nearby due to the governments prohibition on traffic in the area. The guard ships were also out of sight, probably because they were moored with their lights off.

He'd seen this view before, but from a lower position. That's right, when he left the school building. Of course, this was neither the time nor place to call it a nice view.

"All right then, over here," Shinji said. He tucked his gun into his belt, and was the first to climb up on the rock. Then he offered his hand to Yutaka. Yutaka was out of breath due to the climb up the mountain as well as from the looming threat of being attacked in the dark, but he managed to grip onto Shinji's hand and struggled up the rock.

They stayed flat on their stomachs and looked down the cliff The blackened rows of woods spread out beneath them, and further beyond there was a glimmer of light. It came from the school building where Sakamochi was. It hardly emitted any light because the windows had been sealed off with those steel sheets. It was approximately one hundred meters away. The school's sector, G=7, was already forbidden, so they'd immediately get killed if they entered it, but they were a safe distance away now. By using cross-bearing navigation with his compass and map before the sun went down, Shinji managed to figure out precisely the zone layout. The school, in sector G=7, was nearer the border of F=7, where Shinji and Yutaka were now, and according to the map the shortest distance to the border was approximately eighty meters. Furthermore, with the 6 p.m. announcement of forbidden zones, neither F=7 nor H=7, which surrounded the school, were included.

Which reminded him of Sakamochi's announcement that Sho Tsukioka had gotten caught in a forbidden zone. He was an annoying, queer kid ("Shinji, let's go out on a date"), and right now Shinji really couldn't be bothered by others, but he felt a little sorry for Sho whose head had probably been blown off by a bomb. He wondered where it happened.

He also felt a pang of remorse over the death of Takako Chigusa. She was the prettiest girl in the class (according to Shinji's taste, anyway), and what's more, she was childhood friends with Hiroki Sugimura.

Contrary to what most of the class thought—that they were a couple—Hiroki and Takako weren't going out (Hiroki himself told Shinji). Still, it must have come as a shock to Hiroki.

Hiroki—where the hell are you?

Shinji decided to concentrate on the present. He observed the school below and its surrounding geography closely. They would have to stretch a rope from here, over the school, and then over to the other side of the zone. Now that he actually had a view of the area, he realized how much distance they'd have to cover.

Gazing at the gentle light leaking out the steel-plated windows, Shinji thought, damn. That was where Sakamochi and his men were. It was dinner time. For all he knew they could be eating fried udon. (He thought of fried udon because it was his favorite ever since his uncle made it several times for him when he had him over at his small single-bedroom house and that was what Shinji wanted so badly to eat right now.) Bastards.

Shinji and Yutaka already had what they needed.

Although it wasn't indicated on the map (which marked it as just another blue dot), Shinji managed to find a farm coop near the longitudinal road slightly south of the school. The building with slated roof and walls bore a sign that read

"Northern Takamatsu Agricultural Cooperative Association, Okishima Island Branch." (Although Shinji already knew they were on Okishima Island in the Takamatsu-shi Sound, Yutaka was impressed.) It wasn't your typical farm coop. It had no real office, nor were there any ATMs. There was only a tractor, combine harvester, and threshing machine scattered inside the warehouse-like space. The only other equipment they found was an office desk taking up one of the corners. Anyway, that was where they found the ammonium nitrate. Fortunately it was fresh, not at all damp. On top of that, they didn't have to collect gas from cars. They found plenty in the gas containers.

The pulley they took from the well next to the house where Shinji had found the Macintosh PowerBook 150, slightly east of the coop.

The other significant item was rope. If they were going to stretch rope across sector G=7 they would need at least three hundred meters of it. Furthermore, they would have to roll it out with plenty of slack to escape detection by Sakamochi and his men so they needed even more. It wasn't going to be easy finding rope that long. The farm coop had rope but all together it was at most two hundred meters long and— maybe it was used for a greenhouse or something—too thin at a diameter of less than three millimeters to be reliable.

Fortunately though, they managed to find what appeared to be a private fishing-equipment warehouse along the shore south from the harbor, which was now forbidden along with the residential area. In spite of the fishing rope being weathered out from exposure, in spite of its heavy weight and size, given how it was over three hundred meters long, Shinji and Yutaka managed to divide it up, transport it, and hide it in the farm coop.

Leaving these resources behind, they came up here.

Shinji stared into the dark. The foot of the northern mountain, where they were now, spread out around this side of the school, in other words, the north side, and his right, the west side. To the left of the school, the woods on the east extended up to the northern side of the residential area and the seashore.

Beyond the school there were paddy fields. There were clusters of trees here and there, and between them he could see some houses. Beyond the houses, Shinji could barely make out the farm coop warehouse where they had left all their equipment. Immediately to the left the area became gradually crowded with rows of roofs that extended over the border of the forbidden zone into the residential area.

Yutaka tapped him on the shoulder. Shinji looked to Yutaka, who was on his right. Yutaka pulled out his student notepad and began writing something.

That's right, before they started moving, Shinji had warned Yutaka with another message that they mustn't give anything away by talking. After all, if Sakamochi and his men found out they were up to no good again, this time Shinji was sure they wouldn't hesitate to blow their heads off by remote control.

He'd already gone over why Sakamochi chose not to ignite Shinji and Yutaka's collars. It was probably because it was best for the game if the students fought each other as much as possible. Shinji had some theories about this. It had to do with a rumor he'd heard that high-ranking government officials placed bets on this game. If that was true, then he was sure the star shooting guard of Shiroiwa Junior High, The Third Man, must have been the top seed. All the more reason why Sakamochi couldn't just finish him off. That was Shinji's hypothesis. Meanwhile Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi were irrelevant players. Or, to be blunt, no one had placed any bets on them.

Still, even if that were true (what a bastard that "Kinpati Sakamocho" was), as long as Sakamochi was in charge of this game, he could blow their heads off at any time. Shinji could only pray that wouldn't happen until they managed to bomb the school. Of course Shinji found the idea despicable. The thought of someone else having so much control over him was entirely revolting to Shinji, who learned from his uncle how to be totally self-reliant for everything in his life.

As he looked down at the light from the school though, he shook his head. That was neither here nor there.

He recalled his uncle once telling him, "Don't worry about stuff you can't do anything about. You do what you can even if your chances of success are less than one percent."

Yutaka seemed done writing his message and tapped his shoulder. Shinji turned away from the view and examined the note under the moonlight.

There's no way we can toss that enormous rope over there. Besides we left the rope behind. What are we going to do?

That's right. He hadn't explained that yet. They'd been too frantic in their search for the equipment. Shinji nodded, took out his pencil, and wrote on the student notepad Wire. I brought some. We'll reel out the wire down to the other side and tie it to the rope. Then we'll draw in the rope by pulling the wire right before we execute our plan.

He handed the pad over to Yutaka. After reading the note, he looked at Shinji and nodded, as if satisfied. Then he wrote You're going to tie a rock to the wire and throw it over there?

Shinji shook his head. Yutaka opened his eyes, surprised. Then after some thought he wrote again Are you going to make a bow and arrow and shoot the wire across?

Shinji shook his head again. He took the pad and began scribbling That might work. But even I can't throw a rock 300m away. And I can't afford to miss. If the rock hits the school we're done. And if the wire gets caught somewhere and we end up breaking it…I have a better plan.

Yutaka didn't take up his pencil this time and only gazed back at Shinji as if saying, "?" Shinji took the pad and continued First, tie the wire to a tree here. Then go down the mountain with the other end of wire. Stretch it taut when we're on the other side.

Yutaka read this but then almost immediately knit his brows skeptically. He wrote quickly, You can't do that his note read It'll get caught in the trees. Somewhere in the middle.

Shinji grinned.

He couldn't blame Yutaka for doubting him. The path they'd taken here was covered with trees, both large and small. Even if they managed to drag the wire out while avoiding G=7 and tugged on it later, the wire might get caught. It would make for an odd-looking piece of outdoor contemporary art. "This installation piece is gigantic, but five meters away it turns obscure. The piece addresses the delicate balance between nature and humans..." On top of that, sector G=7 was filled with dense forestry bordering up to the school. Unless you were a 100-meter-tall giant (wasn't there a video his uncle had shown him, an old special-effects movie where the superhero saves the world by fighting against monsters as they completely tear up the city? They don't make movies like that anymore) you'd have to cut down all the trees if you wanted to put the wire near the school. It was so obvious. And that was why Yutaka insisted it was impossible.

But Shinji elegantly spread his arms out (given how they were on their stomachs though, the effect wasn't so impressive) and wrote How about launching an ad balloon, huh, Yutaka' ?

Yutaka read the note and knit his brows. Shinji signaled Yutaka to get off the cliff rock and follow him.

Once they sat under the rock, he rummaged through his day pack. He pulled out the contents and lined them up on the ground.

A half dozen gas canisters, several hundred-meter reels of thin fishing wire (that was all he found at the farm coop), plastic tape, and a box of black plastic garbage bags.

Shinji took one of the canisters and showed it to Yutaka. It was painted blue with bright red letters which read "VOICE CHANGER" (underneath the ad copy read, "Now you'll be the life of the party!" huh!), and under that there was an illustration of a duck—Shinji recognized where it came from—based on a

"Walt Disney" character. A whistlelike object poked out of the canister.

Shinji wrote I remembered seeing these at the house where I found the PowerBook. You know what this is?

Before taking the pulley, Shinji had gone into the nearby house to retrieve these canisters. What in the world would the occupant of that house do with all these things, though? The files left on the PowerBook's hard drive offered a clue. Given how they had names like "5th Grade Science" or "Third Term Report Card Drafts," the owner of the machine must have been an elementary school teacher. Yes, he was probably one of the real teachers at that school.

Yutaka touched his throat and opened his mouth. Shinji nodded.

Right. It makes you sound like a duck! It's helium. And this one's a defect. So it's still loaded with gas.

Yutaka still seemed unconvinced. Shinji thought an actual demonstration would get his point across quicker so he tore open the pack of garbage bags and pulled out a bag. He opened it up, inserted the canister valve (which was supposed to be sucked) into it, and taped it to the bag with the plastic tape. He sealed the edge of the bag with more tape. Then he pressed the valve button and the bag began to inflate.

With his finger on the button, Shinji thought, this would be a lot more entertaining with condoms. But even if they had condoms they would have been a little too small. Huh?

Do I have some on me? Well, I mean, come on, this was supposed to be a study trip. Anything can happen, right? You tossed your clothes, but you're still holding onto these? Yeah, I dunno, I do still have them. Well, you never know when they might come in handy. Let's not go into details.

After filling up the bag, Shinji twisted the edge right above the canister and sealed it with tape. He took a reel of fishing wire and tied its end to the end of the bag. Then he removed the tape below to release it from the canister. Just to be sure, he folded the edge over again, sealing it again with more tape.

The garbage bag floated upward. It rose until the wire was taut to the point where it almost seemed to lift the reel—but it stopped right at Shinji and Yutaka's heads.

"See?" Shinji said out loud. Yutaka had probably realized what was going on while Shinji was working on the canister. He'd already nodded several times.

Shinji tied another piece of wire from another reel to the wire stretching under the balloon. Just to be sure, he secured this to the balloon with tape. With the pair of wires in both of his hands, he moved the balloon as if it were walking on a pair of legs. Then he pointed to a nearby tree. He moved the string.

Yes, in other words, these were the legs of the giant. They were too frail to crush a city and right now they're shorter than me, but…

Yutaka seemed to understand completely. He gave two huge nods. Then he moved his lips without saying anything. It looked like he was saying, "Awesome, Shinji." Or maybe it was, "Enough already."

Whatever, it didn't matter.

Shinji took the memo pad and wrote, We make one or two more balloons and attach them to each other. But I still don't know how far up the wire can be stretched. There's also the wind. Let's just go for it.

Yutaka read this and nodded.

Shinji glanced up at the sky. The bags were black, so even under the moon, Sakamochi and his men wouldn't see them. Right now there wasn't much wind either. But he had no idea what it was like further up there in the sky.

Then he said, "Let's hurry."

Shinji signaled Yutaka to hold onto the first balloon and proceeded to pull out another garbage bag.

20 students remaining

48

Shogo rose a little after 10 p.m.

Shuya had been looking after Noriko, who remained resting in bed. Shuya groped through the nearly pitch black room and entered the waiting room.

"I'll make some coffee," Shogo said as he looked up at Shuya. Then he walked down the hall. He seemed to have good night vision.

Shuya returned to the beds, where he found Noriko up without her blanket.

"You should rest a little more," Shuya said.

Noriko nodded, "Uh huh…" Then she mumbled, "Could you ask Shogo…if he's going to boil some more water if I can get an extra cup?" Noriko was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands by her thighs.

Moonlight spilled in over the curtain from the window. She kept her chin tucked in as she looked over to her side.

"Sure…but what for?"

Noriko hesitated and then answered, "I sweated so much…I just wanted to wipe my body…maybe it's too much to ask for."

"Oh no," Shuya replied and quickly nodded. "No prob. I'll go tell him." He left the room.

Shogo was boiling water in the dark kitchen. The tip of the cigarette between his mouth glowed red, and the charcoal flame under the pot resembled a strange firefly stirring to life.

"Shogo," Shuya said. Shogo turned around. The afterimage of his cigarette traced a thick line before vanishing. "Noriko was wondering if she could have some hot water. She said one cup was enough—"

"Ah." Shogo didn't let him continue. He removed his cigarette from his mouth. Shuya could see Shogo was smiling in the dim moonlight coming through the window. "Sure. A cup or an entire bucket, fine with me."

As he moved he scooped up water with the bowl from the bucket and added it to the pot. He repeated this five times. He kept a low charcoal flame going to keep the water in the pot boiling. Shuya felt some steam drift by.

"She's a girl," Shogo said.

It turned out Shogo wasn't as slow as Shuya was. He knew why Noriko asked for hot water.

Shuya was silent and Shogo unexpectedly continued on his own.

"She wants to stay pretty cause she's with you."

Then he exhaled some smoke.

Shuya remained quiet, but then asked, "Can I help you?"

"No." Shogo seemed to be shaking his head. Squinting his eyes, Shuya could see three cups and a coffee dripper already loaded with a filter on the table. There was also a tea bag for Noriko.

"Hey," Shogo called him.

Shuya lifted his brow, "What is it? All of a sudden you're so chatty."

Shogo chuckled. Then he continued, "I understand how you feel about Yoshitoki, but don't forget about Noriko's feelings."

Shuya fell silent again. The he spoke. For some reason, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. "I know."

"You have a girlfriend?" Shogo proceeded to ask.

Shuya shrugged. "Nope."

"Then what's the problem?"

Shogo continued to look at the window, smoking his cigarette. "It's not a bad thing to be loved."

Shuya shrugged again. Then he asked, "Don't you have someone?"

His cigarette glowed brightly. He didn't say anything. The smoke drifted slowly through the dark.

"A secret, huh?"

"No…" Shogo began to speak, but then he removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it into the bucket of water. "Get down, Shuya," he whispered and crouched down.

Shuya nervously obeyed him. Was someone going to attack? He grew tense.

"Get Noriko. Be quiet though," Shogo whispered again. Shuya was already on his way to the examination room, where Noriko was.

Noriko was still sitting in a daze on the edge of the bed. Shuya signaled her to duck down. She must have immediately understood because she got off the bed, holding her breath. Shuya offered her his hand for support as they moved to the kitchen. He looked over to the entrance on the way there, but there was no one beyond the glass door.

Shogo had already gathered their day packs which he'd packed with refilled water bottles and other items, and now he was on his knees by the back door, holding his shotgun.

"What is it?" Shuya asked in a hushed voice. Shogo lifted his left hand to silence him. Shuya didn't say another word.

"Someone's outside," Shogo whispered. "We'll exit through whichever door they don't enter."

The only thing visible in the dark was the bright charcoal flame under the pot. Given the location of the sink, it couldn't be seen from outside.

Shuya heard a tapping sound. It came from the entrance. The door wouldn't open because of the stick jamming it. The glass was broken, so the person outside must have realized that someone had entered the building and that it was probably still occupied.

There was a clacking sound, but then it stopped. It sounded like the person had given up.

Shogo groaned. "Damn, we'll be in trouble if this one tries to set this place on fire."

They remained quiet, but there was still no sound. Then Shogo signaled for them to move towards the entrance. He might have heard a slight sound.

They were nearly crawling down the hall.

As they made their way, Shogo, behind the other two, reached out to Shuya who was leading. They stopped. Shuya turned around and looked over his shoulder at Shogo.

"He's circling back to the front." He waved his hand to the back. "Let's go out the back."

So they went towards the kitchen down the hall.

Shogo stopped again before they entered the kitchen.

"Damn, why?" he muttered.

…the person outside was now coming round to the back door again.

The silence continued. Shogo held onto his shotgun. With Noriko between him and Shogo, Shuya also gripped the SIG-Sauer that had once belonged to Kaori Minami. (He'd given the Smith & Wesson to Shogo. Shuya decided to hold onto the gun that had more bullets.) But the silence was suddenly broken. A voice called from outside the kitchen window. "It's Hiroki," he said. "I'm not fighting. Respond, you three. Who are you?"

It was undoubtedly the voice of Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11), who along with Shinji Mimura was one of the few classmates Shuya could trust.

"What the?…" Shuya moaned. "That's incredible..."

It was a stroke of luck. He never thought they'd see Hiroki. Shuya and Noriko looked at each other.

Noriko looked relieved.

Shogo stopped Shuya as he tried to get up.

"What?"

"Shh. Don't raise your voice."

Shuya stared at Shogo's serious expression and then responded with an exaggerated shrug and smiled.

"Don't worry. I'll vouch for him. We can totally trust him."

Shogo shook his head and said, "How did he know there were three of us?"

That thought hadn't occurred to Shuya. He thought it over while looking at Shogo. But he had no idea.

That didn't matter though. The important thing was that Hiroki was here. He just wanted to see Hiroki's face now.

"Maybe he saw us go in here, from far away. That's why he didn't know who we were."

"What took him so long to get here then?"

Shuya thought again. "He probably deliberated over whether he should find out who was here or not__In any case, we can trust Hiroki. I'll vouch for him."

Shuya ignored Shogo, who looked like he wasn't satisfied. He raised his voice and directed it beyond the window. "It's Shuya, Hiroki. I'm with Shogo Kawada and Noriko Nakagawa."

"Shuya!…" a relieved voice replied. "Let me in. Where should I come in?"

Before Shuya could answer, Shogo raised his voice, "This is Shogo. Go to the front entrance. Keep your hands behind your head and do not move. Got that?"

"Shogo…" Shuya was about to protest, but Hiroki immediately responded, "Got it." What looked like the upper body of Hiroki crossed the frosted glass window.

Shogo bent down to look out of the cracks in the glass. Holding onto his shotgun, he yanked out the obstructing stick and opened the door.

Hiroki Sugimura was standing with his hands behind his neck. He was slightly taller than Shogo, but more slender. His hair, wavy like Shuya's, went down the middle of his forehead. His day pack was by his feet and for some reason there was a 1.5-meter stick on the ground.

It was true. Shuya shifted his eyes, as if it were a miracle. Shuya's face made Hiroki grin.

"I have to do a body check."

"Shogo, come on…"

Shogo paid no attention to Shuya's protest and moved forward, holding onto his shotgun. He went behind Hiroki and first checked his hands behind his neck. Then he rubbed his left hand over Hiroki's school coat.

His hand stopped at a pocket.

"What the hell's this?"

"Go ahead and pull it out," Hiroki said with his hands held together. "But give it back to me."

Shogo pulled it out. It was the size and shape of a thick notepad, but it was made of plastic or steel. The cover panel reflected the moonlight. After fiddling around with it, Shogo said, "Ah ha." He moved his body with the object in his hands and then looked down at the cover panel against the moonlight. He nodded and returned it to Hiroki's pocket. Then he thoroughly searched Hiroki down to his pant cuffs.

He also checked his day pack and finally announced, "Okay. Sorry about that. You can put your hands down."

Hiroki unlocked his hands and picked up his day pack and stick. The stick appeared to be his weapon.

"Hiroki." Shuya broke into a smile. "Come on in. We have coffee. You want some?"

Hiroki nodded somewhat hesitantly as he went through the entrance. Shogo looked outside and then shut the door.

Hiroki stood still. With his back to the shoe cabinet that was filled with slippers, Shogo stared at Hiroki.

The Remington muzzle was pointed down, but Shuya noticed Shogo's finger still on the trigger and felt slightly annoyed. He did his best not to let it get to him, though.

Hiroki looked at Shuya and Noriko again, and then glanced over at Shogo. That was when Shuya realized that Hiroki was troubled not so much by him and Noriko as he was by them hooking up with Shogo.

Shogo addressed the issue. "Shuya, Hiroki seems to want to ask whether it's all right for you guys to be with me."

Hiroki smiled slightly and looked over at Shogo, and said, "No…I just thought it was an odd combination." Still smiling, he continued, "Shuya would never be with you if you were hostile. Shuya can be pretty stupid when it comes to certain things, but he's not that stupid."

Shogo responded with a grin. He still kept his finger on the trigger though. In any case, for now Hiroki and Shogo were finished introducing themselves.

"Ah, come on, Hiroki," Shuya gave him a smile.

Then Noriko said, "Come on in. It's not our house, so I can't apologize for its messiness."

Then Hiroki smiled, but he stayed at the entrance. Shuya supported Noriko with his left hand and then pointed at the hall.

"Come on in. We'll have to get going soon, but we have a little time. We'll throw you a welcoming party."

But Hiroki stood still there. Shuya realized how he'd forgotten to share an important detail. Hiroki might have been appalled Shuya was using the word "party" in this situation.

"Hiroki, we can get out of here. Shogo is going to help us."

Hiroki's eyes widened a little. "Really?"

Shuya nodded. But then Hiroki looked down. Then he looked up again.

"Thing is…" he said and shook his head, "there's something I have to take care of."

"Something?" Shuya knit his brows. "Why don't you first come on in—"

Instead of taking Shuya up on his invitation, he asked, "Have you three been together all this time?"

Shuya thought it over and then shook his head. "No…me and Noriko were. And then…"

Then he remembered what happened this morning. It'd been a while since the image of Tatsumichi Oki's skull split open assaulted him, and once again he felt a chill run down his spine.

"…yeah. A lot of stuff happened, and we ended up joining Shogo."

"I see." Hiroki nodded and then said. "Hey, have you guys seen Kotohiki?"

"Kotohiki?" Shuya repeated. Kayoko Kotohiki (Female Student No. 8)? The one who, in spite of being into tea ceremony, seemed more playful than elegant?

"No…" Shuya shook his head. "We haven't but…" He thought of Shogo and looked over at him, but he also shook his head, saying, "I haven't seen her either."

Of course Kayoko Kotohiki had to be on this island. As long as her name wasn't announced yet in Sakamochi's announcements, she had to be alive. That's right—unless she was killed after 6 p.m.

Once again he realized how he was letting most of his classmates die and felt awful.

"What about Kotohiki?" Noriko asked.

"Oh…" Hiroki shook his head. "It's no big deal. Thanks. Sorry, but I have to get going." He gave Shuya a parting glance and turned to go.

"Hold on, Hiroki!" Shuya stopped him. "Where are you going? I told you we're safe with us, didn't I?"

Hiroki looked back at Shuya. There was a sad look in his eyes, but they still gave away that humorous trace of irony. It might have been a look all his close friends shared. Yoshitoki Kuninobu (deceased, damn), and of course Shinji Mimura, and—now it seemed—Shogo Kawada.

"I have to see Kayoko Kotohiki about something. So I have to go."

Something. What could that possibly be in this situation where moving around would only increase your chances of dying? Finally Shuya said, "Hold on. You can't go…not with any real weapons. It's too risky.

And how are you going to find her?"

Hiroki bit his lower lip. Then he pulled out that object resembling a mobile data terminal from his pocket and showed it to Shuya. "This is the 'weapon' I got in my day pack. Professor Kawada over there could explain." He pointed at his neck while his hand held the device. The silver collars around the necks of Shuya, Noriko, and Shogo were all shining. "Looks like this device detects anyone wearing these collars.

Once someone's in the vicinity, they show up on the screen. But you can't tell whose collar it is."

Shuya finally figured out the answer to Shogo's questions. It was thanks to this device Hiroki had been able to announce there were three of them and detect their movements. Like the computer at the school monitoring their positions, it could detect the position of anyone wearing a collar, even if, as Hiroki said, you couldn't tell who it was.

Hiroki put the device back into the pocket. "See you—" He was ready to go when he suddenly stopped,

"That's right…beware of Mitsuko Souma," he added. He gave Shuya and then Shogo a stern look.

"She's playing the game. I don't know about the others, but I know for sure she is."

"Did you fight her?" Shogo asked.

Hiroki shook his head. "No. I didn't, but Takako…Takako Chigusa said so before she died. Mitsuko killed Takako."

Shuya suddenly recalled how Takako was already dead. After hearing Sakamochi announce her death, he'd been concerned about its effect on Hiroki, but he was so happy to see him he'd forgotten this dreadful fact.

That's right, Hiroki and Takako Chigusa were close. For a while, Shuya actually thought they were going out. But when he'd casually asked him about it, Hiroki chuckled and said, "She's in a different class.

We've known each other since we were kids. You know hide-and-seek, that kind of thing. When we used to fight, I'd be the one crying." That sounded (of course Takako Chigusa was an amazing athlete, and pretty aggressive, but her taking on Hiroki, who was now over 180 centimeters tall and ranked in martial arts—a while back, that's right, the only time he visited his house, Hiroki reluctantly showed him how he could split a piece of pine wood with the palm of his hand) preposterously funny.

But now Takako Chigusa was dead. And…given the way Hiroki had just described it, he was there when she died.

"So you were with her?" Noriko asked quietly.

Hiroki shook his head. "Just the very end. I…when we left, I hid in front of the school, waiting for her…

but then Yoshio came back, and I got too distracted, so I lost Takako… then… as I looked for Takako I ended up losing my chance to join you, Shuya, and Shinji."

Shuya nodded several times. So Hiroki was in front of the school until Yoshio Akamatsu returned. He probably hid in the woods. It was dangerous, of course. But that only showed how important Takako was to Hiroki.

"But…" Hiroki continued, "I found Takako…I was…too late though." Saying this much, Hiroki looked down. He shook his head several times. Without being told, Shuya understood that by the time Hiroki had found Takako she was dying from being attacked by Mitsuko.

Shuya thought of telling him how Yoshio Akamatsu had killed Mayumi Tendo, and how he had almost killed Shuya as well, but…it was irrelevant now. Yoshio Akamatsu was dead now too.

"I don't know what to say, but…I'm so sorry," Noriko said.

Hiroki smiled a little and nodded. "Thanks."

"In any case," Shuya said, "Come on in. Let's talk it over, what's the—"

He meant to say, rush, but refrained. If Hiroki wanted to see Kayoko Kotohiki while they were both still alive, what else could he do but rush? While Hiroki's connection to Takako Chigusa was clear, Shuya had no idea why it was so important for him to find Kayoko Kotohiki. But in any case, as they sat here talking, she could be fighting someone, or she might even be dying.

Hiroki grinned. It seemed he knew what Shuya was thinking.

Shuya licked his lips. He glanced over at Shogo and then said, "If you insist…" He looked at Hiroki and continued, "We'll find her with you."

But Hiroki flatly refused. He pointed his chin at Noriko. "Noriko's injured. It's too dangerous. No."

Shuya found the situation unbearable. "But you could be saved with us__How are we going to meet again if you leave?…" That's right. Once they separated it would be nearly impossible for them to meet again.

"Hiroki." It was Shogo. He still held the shotgun, but his finger wasn't on the trigger anymore. Hiroki looked over at him, and Shogo pulled out something small from his pocket with his open hand. He lifted it to his mouth and bit on its metal end, twisting it. It made the chirping sound of a bird. It was a loud, brilliant, and playful sound. Like a robin or chickadee.

Shogo released his hand from his mouth, and Shuya realized that it was Shogo's device—a bird call?

Forget why he would have one in the first place…it was one of those things that mimicked the sound of birds chirping.

"Whether you meet Kayoko Kotohiki or not," Shogo said, "if you want to see us, make a fire somewhere and burn raw wood to get some smoke going. Make two fires. Of course, leave as soon as you make them because you'll only attract attention. And make sure you don't cause a fire. Once we see that we'll make this call every fifteen minutes, say, for fifteen seconds. Try to find us by following this sound."

He pointed to the bird call.

"This sound is your ticket out of here. If you're up for it, you can come aboard our train."

Hiroki nodded. "Okay. I will, thanks."

Shogo took out his map. He unfolded it and handed the map and his pencil over to Hiroki. "Also, I'm sorry for keeping you, but I need you to mark where Takako was killed. If you saw anyone else, I need to know those locations too."

Hiroki lifted his brow slightly as he took the map. He spread the map out on the shoe cabinet, under the moonlit window, and held the pencil.

"Give me your map. I'll write in the locations of the bodies we know," Shogo said. Hiroki stopped writing and handed over his map. The two began marking the maps side by side.

"I'll bring some coffee over," Noriko said and left Shuya's arm. She limped down the hall, using the wall as support.

"Did Takako say whether Mitsuko had a machine gun?" Shogo asked as he wrote.

"No," Hiroki answered without lifting his eyes, "She didn't say anything about that. I do know that she was shot several times. It wasn't a single bullet." I see.

As the two proceeded, Shuya explained the fates of Yoshio Akamatsu, Tatsumichi Oki, and Kyoichi Motobuchi. Hiroki nodded as he continued to write.

Shogo was done marking Hiroki's map. He pointed at it and explained, "This is where Kaori Minami was killed. Shuya saw Hirono Shimizu escape. She might have done it in self-defense. But either way, you should be careful."

Hiroki nodded. Then unexpectedly he said, "I saw Kaori too," and pointed at the map. "Before noon.

She fired at me, but I think she was in a panic."

Shogo nodded and exchanged Hiroki's map with his.

Noriko came out into the hall, holding a cup. Shuya went down the hall and took it from Noriko, who walked unsteadily. He offered it to Hiroki, who took a sniff, whistled lightly, and then held it. "Thanks,"

he said and took a sip. Then he put the cup on the raised entrance floor. It was nearly full.

"I'll see ya."

"Hold on." Shuya pulled out his SIG-Sauer from under his belt. With its grip pointed at Hiroki, he offered it to him. He also pulled out an extra cartridge from his pocket. "If you still insist on going take these, okay? We have a shotgun and one more gun."

The first gun was Kyoichi Motobuchi's, and the Smith & Wesson was now with Shogo. Shuya's handing over the SIG-Sauer gun would decrease their fighting capacity, but Shogo didn't intervene.

But Hiroki shook his head. "You need that, Shuya. You better protect Noriko all right. I can't take that.

Even if someone attacks me, I just can't do it." He tilted his head and then examined both Shuya and Noriko. He broke into a slight grin and then added, "I always wondered why you two weren't going out."

Then he nodded at each of them and quietly opened the entrance door.

"Hiroki," Noriko called. Her voice was quiet. "Be careful."

"I will. Hey, thanks. And best of luck to you guys."

"Hiroki…" Shuya was getting choked up, but managed to say, "We'll meet again. That's a promise."

Hiroki nodded and left. Shuya held Noriko and stepped through the front entrance, watching Hiroki as he quickly ascended the mountain.

Without a word, Shogo gestured to Shuya and Noriko to move back and close the door.

Shuya took a deep breath and turned around. He could barely see the steam still rising from the cup Hiroki had left on the floor.

20 students remaining

49

The moon was high in the center of the sky. There wasn't a single cloud. The white light from the nearly full moon cast a thin film over the rest of the sky, obscuring the stars.

Shogo, who was leading, stopped. Shuya, who was supporting Noriko with his shoulder, stopped too.

"Are you all right?" Shuya asked Noriko.

She nodded. "I'm fine." But Shuya could tell she was still unsteady.

Shuya looked at his watch. It was past 11 p.m. now, but they'd already left G=9, which was now a forbidden zone. They had to find another place to settle down.

They were tracing their way back along the foot of the northern mountain. The area was scattered with trees. A little further down and they'd be near where Kaori Minami was killed. Immediately to their left, Shuya saw a flat, narrow area that extended from the island's residential area on the eastern shore. The flat land spotted with houses then became increasingly narrow, like a triangle. The road traversing the island supposedly passed through this pivot and headed to the western shore.

Shogo turned around. "Now what do we do?" Noriko's blanket was tied to the top of the day pack on his shoulder.

"Can we stop at a house, like we did just now?"

"A house, huh." Shogo looked away from Shuya and squinted. "It's really not a good idea. As the number of zones decrease so do the number of houses. The moment someone needs something, they'll want to enter a house. Whether it's to eat or whatever."

"Hey, if you're worried about me, I'm fine now. Even outside," Noriko said.

Shogo flashed a smile and then silently looked over the flat land. He looked as if he was taking Hiroki's marks on his map into consideration as he took in the view.

Along with the bodies he'd seen, Hiroki had given detailed explanations of how they had died. The body of Kazushi Nüda was right near where Takako Chigusa had died. Along with his eyes being gouged out (!), his throat had been stabbed. In the residential area that was now forbidden was Megumi Eto. Her throat had been slashed by a blade. (Shuya felt a pang in his chest over this one, since Noriko had told him how Megumi had a crush on him.) To the east, Yoji Kuramoto and Yoshimi Yahagi were killed where the eastern shore's residential area met the southern mountain. Yoji was stabbed in the head, and Yoshimi had been shot. At the southern tip, Izumi Kanai, Hiroshi Kuronaga, Ryuhei Sasagawa, and Mitsuru Numai were all found dead together. Mitsuru Numai was shot several times, while the others'

throats were slashed. Three of Kiriyama's group had died together, the only exception being Sho Tsukioka, who got caught in a forbidden zone.

"Shogo," Shuya said. Shogo looked back. "Do you think Mitsuko Souma killed Yukiko and Yumiko?"

Even now, as he asked this, it all felt so unreal. He didn't believe a girl could do such horrible things. Of course he had no doubt, since it was Hiroki who'd informed them, but he still couldn't restrain the urge to dismiss it all as a delusion.

"No," Shogo shook his head. "I don't think so. After Yukiko and Yumiko got killed by that machine gun, you know how we heard pistols going off? That was to finish them off. But Hiroki said Takako was alive after being shot when he found her. Which means her killer wasn't as thorough. Of course she might have let Takako go, knowing she was going to die anyway. But given the times and locations, I just don't think Mitsuko Souma's the one with the machine gun."

Shuya recalled the machine gun fire he heard before 9 a.m. The killer was still roaming around the island.

And the distant gunfire they heard a little afterwards…was that Mitsuko Souma?

"Eventually we'll…" Shogo forced a grin and shook his head, "…meet him or her. Then we'll know for sure."

Shuya recalled something else that had been bugging him. "When Hiroki showed us his radar, I was thinking how Sakamochi must know we're together and our positions as well."

Shogo answered as he surveyed the flat land, "That's right."

Shuya moved his shoulder to give Noriko better support. "Won't that hinder our escape?"

Shogo chuckled with his back to Shuya. "Nope. Not at all. Don't worry." Shogo looked over the flat land again and said, "Let's go back to where we were."

He continued, "A common strategy players in this game take is to show up anywhere they hear some action. That's because of the 24-hour deadline. Because of that limitation, they kill when they can. And the fact that they're on a killing spree means they're on their own, so they can't afford to sleep much. So the match has to be kept short. If something happens near them, they go there, and if there's a fight already going on, they sit back and then they finish off any survivors. That's why we should stay somewhere we can avoid confrontations. If we get mixed up with someone who's panicking then one of the top players is bound to show up. If we go back where we were it's unlikely we'll meet anyone. Since Tatsumichi Old and Kyoichi Motobuchi, who'd been hiding there, are no longer around, that area is pretty much uninhabited."

"But Hirono ran in that direction."

"No, I doubt she's gone that far. It wouldn't be necessary." Shogo pointed to the flat land with his thumb.

"But we'll avoid this mountain where she might be hiding. We'll take a different route."

Shuya lifted his brow. "Is it safe for us to move through the flat land?"

Shogo smiled and shook his head. "The moon may be shining, but this isn't daylight. I think we're safer there than in the mountain, where there's too much cover."

Shuya nodded. Shogo took the lead and began descending the slope. Shuya held the SIG-Sauer tightly in his right hand and followed Shogo as he supported Noriko.

The trees turned into a field of short grass. The first farm they came across had a field full of squashes.

Beyond this field there was a wheat field. This island was so small these probably weren't for domestic consumption. Of course the Republic of Greater East Asia was incessantly issuing orders to promote national self-reliance, so even a small farm like this might contribute a little to the effort. As they moved along the edge of the farm, the soil under their sneakers felt dry. Maybe it was because several days had passed since the area had been evacuated. Still, Shuya was struck by the pleasant, rich odor of wheat drifting through the evening air, anticipating the summer.

It was a nice smell. Especially after having smelled so much blood.

There was a tractor to their left. Beyond the vehicle there was a house.

It was an ordinary, two-story house and appeared relatively new. It was probably one of those cheap, mass produced buildings resembling Banana Homes or Vertebrae Houses. Even though it was in the middle of the farm, it was enclosed by a concrete wall.

Shuya looked at Shogo's back as he moved forward.

Something irked him.

He looked back. Noriko was leaning on his left shoulder as she walked, but he noticed something high above her head in the middle of the sky. Something flashing in the moonlight, tracing an arc. This object came flying at them.

20 students remaining

50

What made Shuya such a star athlete in his Little League days was his incredible ability to perceive objects in motion. Even in this dim light Shuya could tell that the object flying towards them right now resembled a can. Of course, they were in the serene Seto Inland Sea region, so it couldn't possibly be an empty can falling from the sky from a hurricane. There was no way it was an empty can.

No.

Shuya suddenly released his shoulder, which was tucked under Noriko's right armpit. He couldn't even afford to call on Shogo, who must have realized something odd though, because he also suddenly turned around, while Noriko tottered without Shuya's support.

Shuya dashed out. His jumping ability was quite extraordinary. Just as in the past, during the Little League prefectural semifinals, he could make the ultimate play from any given position, stealing the opponents' winning home run in the bottom of the eleventh inning.

Shuya caught the ball—no, the can—in mid-air with his left hand. He put it in his right hand, and as he came down he twisted his body and threw it as far as he could.

Before Shuya landed a bright light shined through the night.

He felt the air burst as a sonic boom tore through his eardrums. The bomb blast blew him away before he could land, and he fell sprawling onto the ground. If he'd waited for the hand grenade to fall, he, Noriko, and Shogo would have all been mincemeat now. Although Sakamochi's crew might have reduced the grenade's explosive power so that it couldn't be used against the school, it was more than capable of killing human beings.

He raised his head. He realized, he heard nothing. His ears were screwed up. In this state of silence, Shuya saw Noriko collapsed on his left. Then he lifted his face to look back at Shogo and saw…another can flying at them.

Another one! I have to…but it was too late now.

His disabled ears all of a sudden heard a definite but muffled bang, almost simultaneously followed by another explosion in the air. This sound was also muffled, but this time it felt a little further off and Shuya wasn't blown away. Right beside him Shogo was on one knee, holding his shotgun. He had shot the hand grenade, as if he were skeet shooting, blowing it to bits before it managed to explode.

Shuya ran over to Noriko and held her up. She was grimacing. She seemed to be moaning, but he couldn't hear her.

"Shuya, get back!"

Shogo waved his hand and fired his shotgun with his right hand. Shuya then heard a different sound, rattling gunfire, and the wheat heads right in front of him scattered into the air. Shogo fired another two shots. In a state of confusion, Shuya pulled Noriko into the shade of the ridge marking off the farm. He got down. Shogo slid to his side, firing several shots as he went. The rattling continued, and the ridge soil blew up, grains flying into his eyes.

Shuya pulled out his SIG-Sauer and looked out from the shade of the ridge. He fired blindly in the direction Shogo was firing.

Then he saw him. Less than thirty meters away, the unique slicked-back hair behind the break in the house's concrete wall.

It was Kazuo Kiriyama (Male Student No. 6). And although Shuya's hearing was impaired, he could recall the sound of the rattling gunfire. It was the same sound he heard from far away when Yumiko and Yukiko fell at the northern mountain peak. Of course he might not have been the only one with a machine gun, but even so, Kazuo, who was right in front of their very own eyes, had just tried to kill them without warning, with of all things a hand grenade!

Shuya was certain Kazuo was the one who'd murdered Yumiko and Yukiko. He thought of how they were killed and felt a flash of rage.

"What the…what's the hell's he doing!?"

"Stop shouting, just shoot!" Shogo handed the Smith & Wesson to Shuya and reloaded his shotgun.

Shuya held a gun in each hand and began shooting at the concrete wall. (Two-hand shooter! This is crazy!) First the Smith & Wesson, then the SIG-Sauer ran out of bullets. He had to reload!

Having waited for this moment, Kazuo got up. BRRRRATTA. Sparks flew out from him. Shuya ducked, and Kazuo revealed part of his body that was behind the wall.

Shogo blasted his shotgun away. Kazuo's body once again vanished. The swarm of shotgun pellets blew off part of the wall.

Shuya ejected the empty magazine from his SIG-Sauer and pulled out a loaded magazine from his pocket. He opened the Smith & Wesson cylinder and pushed the rod in the center of the cylinder to release its spent shells, puffed up from the explosions. One of the shells nearly singed part of his right thumb. It didn't matter. He quickly loaded the .38 caliber bullets Shogo had rolled over his way. Then he aimed at Kazuo's house.

Shogo shot again, blowing off another part of the wall. Shuya also fired several shots into it with his SIG-Sauer.

"Noriko! Are you all right!?" Shuya yelled. Right next to him, Noriko answered, "I'm okay." He could make out her response, which made Shuya realize his hearing was back. He saw her in the corner of his eye reloading 9mm Short bullets into the SIG-Sauer's empty magazine. Of all the things he'd seen since the game began this one really sent his head reeling. How could a girl like Noriko be participating in a battle like this…

A hand appeared from the other side of the wall. The hand was holding a machine gun. It rattled again.

Shuya and Shogo ducked.

Kazuo got up. As he continued shooting, he came forward. Then he ran behind the tractor. The distance between them was shrinking.

Shogo fired a shot, blowing off the tractor's driving panel.

"Shogo," Shuya called, after shooting twice.

"What?" Shogo answered as he reloaded his shotgun.

"How fast can you run the hundred-meter dash?"

Shogo took another shot (annihilating the tractor's rear light) and answered, "I'm pretty slow. Maybe thirteen seconds. My back's strong though. What?"

Suddenly Kazuo's arm stuck out from behind the tractor. Sparks flew as Kazuo revealed his head, but as Shuya and Shogo fired back, he ducked again.

"We can only retreat into the mountain, right?" Shuya spoke quickly. "I can run a hundred meters in almost less than eleven seconds. You and Noriko go ahead. I'll keep Kazuo there."

Shogo glanced at Shuya. That was all. He understood.

"At the place we were, Shuya. The place where we talked about rock," Shogo said quickly. He gave Shuya his shotgun and retreated into a ducking position. He moved around over to Noriko.

Shuya took a deep breath and shot three times into the tractor with the shotgun, prompting Shogo to lift Noriko and run in the direction they'd come from. Noriko's eyes flashed by Shuya's for a moment.

Kazuo's upper body appeared from behind the tractor. Shuya fired his shotgun several times. Kazuo, who had his gun pointed at Shogo and Noriko, ducked. Shuya realized he was out of shotgun shells so he picked up the Smith & Wesson instead and began shooting again. He immediately used up five bullets.

He opened the SIG-Sauer and loaded the extra magazine Noriko had loaded with bullets and began shooting again. It was crucial he keep on shooting.

He saw Shogo and Noriko disappear into the mountain.

The SIG-Sauer was empty, and there were no more extra magazines. He could only reload bullets....

But then this time Kazuo's arm appeared from behind the tractor's blade. The Ingram machine gun rattled away. Just like before. Kazuo was running towards him!

Shuya had to get out of this gunfight. He held onto only the empty SIG-Sauer (he still had seven more individual 9mm Short bullets), turned around, and ran. If he could reach the mountain where there was plenty of cover, Kazuo wouldn't be able to get too close to him. Shuya decided to head east. Noriko and Shogo would be headed west to get where they were yesterday. He wanted to lead Kazuo as far away from them as he could.

It all came down to his sprinting speed. He had to get as far away from Kazuo as possible in a short span of time. A machine gun basically offered a shower of bullets so it was impossible to dodge at a close distance. What mattered was how far he could get.

Shuya ran. As the fastest runner in the class (at least he thought so. He was even a fraction of a second faster than Shinji Mimura, unless, that is, if Kazuo wasn't really trying during his test), he could only rely on his speed.

Right when he thought he was five meters away from a tree he heard a rattling sound. He felt a severe blow against the left side of his stomach.

Shuya groaned as he began losing his balance, but he kept on running. He ran into a row of tall trees and made his way up the slope. The rattling resumed and this time his left arm reflexively flinched up. He realized he'd been shot right above his elbow.

But he still ran. He continued east—hey, yo, that's a forbidden zone—and moved north. More rattling. A thin tree to his right crackled and burst into matchstick-sized splinters.

More rattling. This time he wasn't hit. Or maybe he was. He couldn't tell anymore. He only knew he was being chased. At least he was buying time for Noriko and Shogo.

He made his way through the trees and vegetation, climbed a hill, and then descended it. He couldn't even afford to worry that there might be someone else hiding in the dark, waiting to attack him. He had no idea how far he'd gotten. He wasn't even sure which direction he was running. Sometimes it seemed like he could hear—sometimes it seemed like he couldn't—the rattling sound. He couldn't tell maybe because his hearing had been impaired by that explosion. In any case now was not the time to be relieved. Farther. He had to get farther.

Suddenly Shuya slipped. He'd somehow reached a cliff, and all of a sudden realized that the slope just dropped off. Just as he'd done when fighting Tatsumichi Oki, he tumbled down the steep slope.

He landed with a thud. He was no longer holding the SIG-Sauer. And as he tried to stand up…

He realized he couldn't. He wondered, in a daze, am I delirious from blood loss? Or…did I hit my head?

Impossible. I'm not injured so badly I can't stand up...I have to get back to Noriko and Shogo...I have to protect Noriko, I promised Noriko…

As he tried to get up though, he fell forward…

…and lost consciousness.

20 students remaining

51

It was almost pitch dark, but beside the dimly moonlit window Shinji tossed the item in his hand once again onto the floor. The sound of it hitting the floor was muffled by the thick folded blanket, but there was a popping sound along with a ring.

Shinji immediately picked it up off the floor and then tucked the small plastic item inside the blanket. The sound stopped.

"Come on, let's go," Yutaka said. He'd been watching over Shinji, but Shinji signaled him to calm down.

He repeated the test again.

Pop, zing. It made the same sounds. Shinji picked it up, and it stopped.

Was it all right? But if this malfunctioned, then all the careful preparations they'd made would come to nothing. One more try—

"We have to hurry…" Yutaka said again, and Shinji's face was about to flush with anger—but he managed to suppress it. Although he wasn't entirely satisfied he said, "All right," and concluded his test.

He unhooked the lead wire connecting the battery and mini-motor which was used for the test and began peeling off the plastic tape attaching the motor unit to the battery.

Shuya and Yutaka were back at the "Northern Takamatsu Agricultural Cooperative Association, Okishima Island Branch."

Along with the school and harbor fishery coop, it might have been one of the largest buildings on the island. The space, unlit of course and enveloped in darkness, was the size of a basketball court, and there was farming equipment strewn all over the area, including a tractor and combine harvester. There was also a light truck with a missing wheel lifted on a jack, probably to be repaired. Then in the corner were piles of sacks of various kinds of fertilizer. (And hazardous ammonium nitrate was further beyond them, stored in a large cabinet with a provisional lock that Shinji had busted open.) The slate walls were at least five meters high, and there was an upper floor attached along the north wall where more fertilizer, insecticide, and other supplies had been stored. On the opposite, or east, wall was a steel staircase diagonally descending from the second floor, and underneath the stairs was a large sliding warehouse door. Next to this sliding door, in front of the stairs in the southeast corner, was an officelike space made up of partition walls. Beyond its open door he could make out office equipment, including the outlines of a desk and fax machine.

Setting the wire across sector G=7 where the school was turned out to be a hassle. First, Shinji tied the end of the wire to the tip of a tall tree behind the rock they'd climbed on. Then he took the other end and began walking between the trees, but then a gust in the upper region of the sky acted up, so guiding the garbage-bag balloons proved to be difficult. There were at least ten occasions where he had to climb up a tree to loosen the wire. On top of that, given how the enemy could be anywhere in the dark, he had to worry about Yutaka, so the endeavor ended up exhausting him.

But he'd managed to set the wire after a full three hours, when he heard the gunfight. It was past 11 p.m.

He heard an explosion as well, but he couldn't afford to get involved, so he hurried back to the farm coop with Yutaka. By then the gunfire had ceased.

Finally Shinji began building the electric detonator, but this also turned out to be difficult. He didn't have the proper tools, and furthermore the device required a delicate balance. Electric current had to run through the device at the moment of impact against the school, but at the same time he had to make sure it wasn't so sensitive it'd be ignited in the middle of the rope cable by, say, a bump or knot in the rope.

But somehow he managed to build it, using a motor (which he removed from an electric razor) instead of the detonator for the test. It was right when he began testing, in other words, only moments ago, that the midnight announcement was made. The only one who died was Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No.

10), whom Shinji saw immediately after the game began. He thought it might have been a result of that intense gun battle, but in any case Sakamochi had announced something far more urgent, at least to him and Yutaka. Sector F=7, which included the cliff rock they'd climbed up on to survey the school, was designated to be a forbidden zone as of 1 a.m.

No wonder Yutaka was so impatient. If they couldn't enter that area then all their preparations would amount to nothing. It would be the end for them. He didn't want to be in the situation of, after a clever play, being just one move away from checkmate only to fall into a fatal trap.

Shinji quickly pulled out the electric detonator from the tube chained to his knife. He connected the two cylinders— their dull metallic exterior shone in the dark—and peeled off the insulation from the lead wire.

Then using tape, he first secured the small plastic spring serving as the electrical switch, then took the end of the lead wire extending from the detonator and tied it to the wire from the charge device. He taped the connection over and over so it would be completely secure. Then next to the battery he installed a condenser circuit board taken from the flash component of a camera. In order for the detonator to be absolutely reliable, he needed a high voltage output. He connected the wires to this device as well. To prevent any accidental detonation, he decided he would work on the remaining wire from the electric detonator at the top of the mountain, taping the exposed end of the wire to the side of the battery.

"All right."

Shinji stood up, and then put the completed detonation device in his pocket.

"Let's hurry. It's time."

Yutaka nodded. Just in case, Shinji tossed his equipment, including the electrical pliers and extra lead wire into his day pack, and then lifted several piles of rope they had divided up onto his shoulder. He looked down. There was a gas can filled up with a mixture of gasoline and ammonium nitrate. To add oxygen, he stuffed in insulation material filled with air and folded in pleats. The opening was shut with the lid, but next to it another rubber lid functioning as the detonator holder was tied to it with a plastic cord dangling from the handle.

Then he looked at his watch. It was 12:09. They had plenty of time.

Okay then. He was trembling from excitement. It took a lot of effort, but now they had everything they needed. They would connect all the ropes they had, tying one end to a tree in H=7. Then they would tie the other end of the rope to the end of the fishing wire secured by the weight of a rock. They would unravel the rope and leave it there and then go around the school, going up the mountain into F=7. He would take the wire tied to the top of the tree and reel it in immediately. The rope stuck to the wire would then come to them. He would proceed to attach the pulley to the gas-can gondola with the detonation device and thread the rope through it. Then he would stretch the rope taut with one swift motion and secure it to a tree. Then the rest is…party time, dude. Have fun! Here we go! Make it happen!

Once they had done some damage to the school's computer, or its electrical current or wiring, Sakamochi's staff would suspect a system failure, no, given the power of explosives here once the entire computer, no, in fact half the school was blown up, then they would take the tire tubes they'd already hidden behind the rock in F=7 and run towards the western shore, escaping by sea as planned. If they could mislead the government by sending a false SOS signal using their transistor radio and get to the next island, Toyoshima, in less than a half an hour as calculated, then they would take a boat. (He had experience with a motor boat. He was really appreciating all the wisdom his late uncle had imparted.) Then they would probably escape into Okayama, hopefully landing on an obscure shore, and then they'd be fine. They could take a freight train heading to the countryside. Or they would furnish themselves with a car passing by. After all, he had a gun. Carjack. Nice.

Shinji looked down at the Beretta M92F tucked into his belt. He was planning on slipping through by misleading the government, but just in case they were found at sea, he'd filled several Coke bottles with his special ammonium nitrate-gasoline mixture and stuffed them into his day pack. But without a detonator they were basically just Molotov cocktails. If they were detected, it would be best to swim toward the guard ship and get on board to fight. If all went well they could get their hands on the enemy's weapons, and if they could operate the ship, it could provide their means of escape. But he would have to be a good shot to accomplish this.

He was a little…concerned. He'd been running all over the island with his Beretta, but come to think of it, he hadn't fired it once. And even his uncle didn't have a gun, so he'd never learned how to use one.

But Shinji shook his head. The Third Man, Shinji Mimura. No prob. The first time he held a heavy basketball and tossed a free throw, the ball swooped right through the basket.

"Shinji." Yutaka called him.

Shinji looked up. "Are you ready?"

"No…" Yutaka said pitifully. And then he nervously wrote something on the memo pad.

Shinji read it under the moonlight by the window. It read, I can't find the pulley.

He glanced at Yutaka. For all he knew he might look really mad. Yutaka suddenly drew back.

Yutaka was in charge of half of the rope supply and the pulley. Ever since Shinji took the pulley from the well, Yutaka had been in charge of it, bringing it over here and putting it somewhere.

Shinji put his bundles of rope and day pack down again. He began searching the area on his knees.

Yutaka did the same.

They groped in the dark, looking beyond the tractor and below the work desk, but they couldn't find it.

Shinji stood up and checked his watch again. Instead of 12:10, it was approaching 12:15.

Finally, he decided to take out the flashlight from his day pack. He cupped the bulb area with his hands and turned it on.

He did his best not to let any light leak out, but the interior of the warehouselike pseudo farm coop glowed a faint yellow. Shinji saw Yutaka's worried face and then beyond his shoulder, he easily located the pulley, lying beyond the moonlight from the window on the floor by the plain wall behind the desk. It was less than a meter away from Yutaka's day pack on the floor.

Shinji signaled Yutaka and quickly turned off the flashlight. Yutaka snatched up the pulley.

"I'm sorry, Shinji," Yutaka said apologetically.

Shinji forced a grin, "Get it together, Yutaka."

Then he shouldered the day pack and rope once again. He lifted the gas can. He was confident about his strength, but two of these items were pretty heavy. Carrying the rope would only be partway, but he would have to carry the twenty-kilogram gas can to the top of the mountain. And they had to hurry too.

Yutaka carried his bundle of rope (the heavy load made him look like a tortoise weighed down by its shell. Well, Shinji looked no different), and they walked to the sliding door on the east side of the building. The door had been opened approximately ten centimeters, letting in a thin ray of pale blue moonlight.

"I'm so sorry, Shinji," Yutaka said again.

"It's all right. Don't worry. Let's just make sure we get it right from here on."

Shinji shifted the gas can to his left hand, put his right hand on the heavy steel door, and slid it open. The pale light spread out.

Outside there was an unpaved parking lot. Its entrance was on the right. The farm coop faced a narrow road. Near its entrance was a station wagon. The wide longitudinal road traversing the island was slightly south of this road.

In front of the door, east of the parking lot, was a farm made up of several houses. Beyond that area was another cluster of houses, and even in the dark you could see them.

To his left Shinji saw a small storage shack at the end of the property, and further on up was the school, and above it, as if it were embracing it, the cliff. There were some trees right by a two-story house in front of the school. They were planning on tying the rope to the tallest tree there. They had secured the wire near the farm's waterway immediately left of the tree. So the wire went by the school and directly up into the center of the mountain, where the overlooking rock was, covering an amazing distance of three hundred meters.

I can't believe I came up with this plan. I wonder though, whether that wire will really lift the rope up to the mountain without getting cut?

Shinji took a breath and then after considering it, he decided to say something. It wouldn't matter whether they heard him say this.

"Yutaka."

Yutaka looked up at Shinji. "What?"

"We might die. Are you prepared for that?"

For a moment Yutaka fell silent. But then he answered immediately, "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Okay."

Shinji gripped the handle of the gas can again and was about to form a smile…

…that froze when he saw something in the corner of his eye.

Someone's head emerged from the farm east of the parking lot.

"Yutaka!"

Shinji grabbed Yutaka's arm and ran back behind the sliding door into the slate-walled farm coop building. Yutaka teetered for a moment, partially due to the heavy rope, but managed to follow him. By the time they were crouched over behind the sliding door, Shinji already had his gun aimed at the figure.

The figure shrieked, "D-don't shoot! Shinji! Please don't shoot! It's me! Keita!"

Shinji realized it was Keita Iijima (Male Student No. 2). Keita, relatively speaking, was friendly and got along with Shinji and Yutaka (after all they'd been classmates since their first year), but Shinji wasn't relieved someone was joining them. No, he felt like this meant trouble. That's when he realized he hadn't given much thought to the possibility of others joining them until now. Damn, why now!

"It's Keita, Shinji. Come on, it's Keita."

Shinji thought Yutaka's excited voice sounded a little inappropriate.

Keita slowly stood up and proceeded toward the farm coop premises. He held his day pack in his left hand and what looked like a kitchen knife in his right. He spoke cautiously.

"I saw the light."

Shinji clenched his teeth. It must have come from the flashlight he'd used just that one time to find the pulley. Shinji chided himself, how could he have screwed up like that, rushing to use that flashlight?

Keita continued, "So I came here and saw that it was you guys…what are you doing? What were you carrying? Rope? Let me…let me join you guys."

Knowing how their conversations were monitored, Yutaka knit his brow and looked over at Shinji, his eyes opened wide, realizing how Shinji hadn't lowered his gun.

"Sh-Shinji, what's going on?"

Shinji moved his open right hand and signaled Yutaka not to move forward. "Yutaka. Don't move."

"Hey," Keita said. His voice was shaking. "Why are you pointing that at me?"

Shinji took a deep breath and said to Keita, "Don't move." He could tell Yutaka was getting tense.

Keita Iijima's pitiful face was visible in the moonlight as he took a step forward.

"Why? Why won't you let me? Have you forgotten who I am, Shinji? Let me join you guys."

Shinji cocked his gun with a click. Keita Iijima stopped. They still had plenty of distance, seven or eight meters.

"Don't come near us," Shinji slowly repeated. "I can't let you join."

Yutaka whined right beside him, "Why, Shinji? We can trust Keita."

Shinji shook his head. Then he thought, that's right, there's something you don't know about us, Yutaka.

It wasn't a big deal. In fact it was a trivial incident.

It happened during their second year near the end of the term in March. Shinji went to Takamatsu to see a movie (there was no movie theater in Shiroiwa) with Keita Iijima. Yutaka was supposed to go too, but he had a cold that day.

That was how Shinji encountered three tough-looking high school students in a back alley off the main street near the shopping arcade. Shinji and Keita had already seen the movie, and once they were done checking out the book and record stores (Shinji bought imported computer books. They were lucky finds. Even though they were technical books, the government strictly prohibited books from the West so they were difficult to come by), they were heading over to the train station when Keita realized he'd forgot to buy a comic book and went back to the bookstore alone.

"Hey, you got any dough?" one of the high school students asked. This guy was at least ten centimeters taller than Shinji, who at 172 meters was short for a basketball player.

Shinji shrugged. "I think I have 2,571 yen."

The interrogator looked at the other two as if saying, how lame. Then he leaned over by Shinji's ear.

Shinji was annoyed. Maybe it was from getting wasted on paint thinner or some wacky drug that was hip these days, in any case the guy's gums were receding, and the smell of his breath coming between his teeth reeked. Brush your teeth, man.

The guy said, "Give it up. Come on, now."

Shinji gave an exaggerated look of surprise and said, "Oh, so you guys are homeless! You know you should be content with twenty yen then. I actually might give you something if you get on your knees and beg for forgiveness."

The guy with a gap in his teeth looked surprised while the other two grinned.

"You still in junior high, right? You should learn to respect your elders," the guy said and grabbed Shinji by the shoulder. He kneed Shinji in the stomach. Shinji tightened his stomach muscles to take the blow. It didn't hurt that much. It was just a threatening knee kick. These guys could never take on someone their own age.

Shinji calmly pushed the high school student away. Then he said, "What was that? A Russian hug?"

The guys probably didn't even know where Russia was. But the guy with the gap in his teeth seemed irked by Shinji's tone of voice, and his thin, ugly face contorted.

"That's it." He punched Shinji in the face. This also didn't hurt much, though the inside of Shinji's mouth got cut.

Shinji stuck his fingers in his mouth to check the wound. It stung a little. He pulled out his fingers and found blood on them. It was nothing.

"Come on, give us your wallet."

Still looking down, Shinji broke into a grin. He looked up. When their eyes met the guy with the gap in his teeth looked intimidated.

Shinji said playfully, "You made the first move," and then with the motion of a short hook punch he swung the hardcover imported book in his hand into the guy's filthy mouth. He felt the guy's teeth break, his head fly back.

It took ten seconds for the fight to end. Of course his uncle's teachings had included fighting lessons too.

It was trivial.

What wasn't trivial was something else.

As he glared at the passers by who were staring at the high school students on the ground, Shinji headed back to the book store and found Keita in the comics section. The book he went back for was already in a shopping bag. He seemed to be browsing aimlessly, and when Shinji called on him, he said, "I'm sorry.

I remembered there was another book I wanted…" Then his eyes opened wide and he asked him,

"What happened to your mouth?"

Shinji shrugged and said, "Let's go home." He knew though that Keita had actually turned the street corner for a split second and ducked back when he saw Shinji surrounded by three high school students.

Shinji had thought Keita might have gone to call the police. (Well, given how they were so occupied with the suppression of civilians instead of criminals they weren't all that dependable anyway.) Oh, so there was another book you wanted. I see.

Thanks to this incident, the train ride back to Shiroiwa-cho wasn't much fun.

Keita probably thought Shinji could take on three high school students without any problem. And he was right. Keita probably didn't want to get hurt by getting involved in the fight. And okay, Shinji could understand how the high school students might take note of Keita's face if he'd called the cops. Uh huh.

And Keita had no intention of apologizing to Shinji. Sometimes you need to lie to make the world go around.

These things happen. As his uncle often used to say, cowards can't be faulted for being sly. They can't be held responsible for everything.

But the cover was torn on the technical book Shinji bought. On top of that, the edge was stained with the guy's saliva and dented by his teeth. That really got Shinji. Every time he'd open that book he'd have to recall that annoying face. On top of that, and he might be called anal retentive for this, but he hated it when his books were torn or dirty. He always put covers on them when he read them.

His uncle also said this. When you can't accept the results, then you have to punish whoever was responsible for them. Even the score.

So from then on as a form of punishment Shinji decided to keep his distance from Keita. It wasn't such a severe punishment. After all, it wasn't like he decided they were enemies. They were both better off this way.

So it was a trivial story. And he'd never shared the incident with Yutaka.

But maybe trivializing a story like that one could get you killed in this game. This isn't revenge, Uncle. This is what you'd call the real world. I simply can't be friends with him.

"That's right." In response to Yutaka's statement, Keita Iijima spread his arms. The kitchen knife in his right hand reflected the moonlight. "I thought we were friends."

Shinji still refused to lower the muzzle of his gun.

Seeing how adamant Shinji was, Keita looked like he was about to burst into tears. He threw the kitchen knife onto the ground. "See? I don't want to fight. Do you see now?"

Shinji shook his head. "No. Scram."

Keita's face flushed with anger. "Why? Why won't you trust me?"

"Shinji—"

"Shut up, Yutaka."

Keita's face froze. He turned quiet…and then said, his voice trembling, "Is it because of what I did that time, Shinji? When I ran off? Is that why you don't trust me, Shinji?"

Shinji aimed the gun at him without a word.

"Shinji…" Keita's voice once again turned pathetic. He was practically sobbing, "I'm sorry about that Shinji. I'm so sorry, Shinji—"

Shinji's lips tightened. He wondered whether Keita was being sincere or whether he putting on an act.

But then he dismissed the thought. I'm not alone. I can't risk Yutaka's life too. There was an aphorism he'd heard claimed by a Defense Minister of some nation, "We must defend ourselves according to our opponents' ability, not their intentions." They were approaching 1 a.m.

"Shinji, what is going on—"

Shinji held Yutaka back with his right hand.

Keita proceeded forward. "Please. I'm so scared. Please let me join."

"Don't come any closer!" Shinji shouted.

Keita Iijima shook his sad face left and right and stepped out. He was approaching Shinji and Yutaka.

Shinji pointed the gun downward and pulled the trigger for the first time. The shell popping out of the Beretta traced a pale white arc in the moonlight and a cloud of dust rose in front Keita's feet. Keita stared at it as if it were some rare chemistry experiment.

But then he started walking again.

"Stop! Just stop!"

"Please let me join. Please."

Like a wind-up doll Keita stepped forward. Right, left, right.

Shinji clenched his teeth. If Keita was going to pull out something besides his knife, it would have to come from his right arm.

Can you aim well? This time it won't be a threat. Accurately?

Of course.

There was no time left. Shinji pulled the trigger again.

He felt his finger slip.

A split second before the popping sound, Shinji suddenly realized that he was sweating. He was sweating from the tension.

It happened so suddenly. Keita Iijima bent over as if his upper body had been punched in. He spread out his arms like a shotputter does right before throwing a shot, then bent his knees and fell on his back. Even in the dark Shinji could clearly see the blood spurting out of the hole in the right side of his chest like a small fountain. This was also instantaneous.

"Shinji! What'd you do!" Yutaka screamed and ran to Keita. He knelt beside him and put his hands on Keita's body, his mouth agape. Then after hesitating for a moment he touched his neck. His face went pale. "He's dead...."

Shinji remained frozen, still holding onto his gun. He felt like he wasn't thinking, but he was. How lame, the voice echoed in his head. Although it was irrelevant, the voice echoed the way it does when you talk to yourself in the shower.

How lame. I thought you were supposed to be The Third Man, Shinji Mimura, who never missed a shot.

The star shooting guard of Shiroiwa Junior High, Shinji Mimura, right?

Shinji stood up and began to walk forward. As if he'd suddenly turned into a cyborg, his body felt heavy.

One day Shinji Mimura woke up to find out that he had become the Terminator. Great.

He slowly walked over to Keita Iijima's body.

Yutaka glared back at Shinji.

"Why, Shinji! Why'd you kill him!?"

Standing motionless, Shinji answered, "I thought we'd be in trouble if Keita had another weapon besides the knife. I aimed for his arm. I didn't mean to kill him."

Hearing this, Yutaka checked Keita Iijima's body. As if to make a point, he looked through Keita's day pack too. Then he said, "He had nothing! How could you, Shinji!? Why didn't you trust him!?"

Shinji suddenly felt hollow. But…it was necessary. Hey, Uncle, I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Right?

Shinji looked down at Yutaka without saying a word. But—that's right—they had to hurry. They couldn't let their mistakes drag them down.

Right before he was about to say this, something changed in Yutaka's face.

His lips trembled. He said, "Oh no, Shinji, don't tell me you—"

Shinji had no idea what he was referring to. He asked, "What?"

Yutaka quickly stepped back. He distanced himself from Shinji.

Yutaka spoke through his trembling lips, "Shinji, you didn't do that on purpose—"

Shinji's lips tightened. He gripped the Beretta in his left hand.

"You're saying I shot Keita to buy us time? That's..."

Yutaka frantically shook his head. Then he slowly retreated. "No…no…this whole plan—"

Shinji knit his brows and stared at Yutaka. Yutaka, what is it you're getting at?

"This whole thing about our escape, that was just, that was—"

Yutaka still didn't make any sense, but Shinji whose brain's CPU was amazingly fast finally had understood what Yutaka was thinking.

No, it can't be—

But what else could it be?

Yutaka was accusing Shinji of having no intention whatsoever to escape, that he had been planning all along to "play" this game. That's why he shot Keita.

Shinji's face gave a look of absolute dismay. His mouth might have been hanging open for all he knew.

Then he shouted, "Don't be stupid! Why the hell would I be with you then!?"

Yutaka was trembling, shaking his head. "That's… that's…"

Yutaka didn't say anymore, but Shinji understood that too. He probably wanted to say that Shinji was using him to survive, for instance by having him keep watch so Shinji could sleep. But waitasec here, I used the laptop to take on Sakamochi, and even after that failed, I came up with this other plan. So you're saying since I'm smart I was playing around with the cell phone and laptop to gain your trust and that my hidden intention was to use the gasoline and fertilizer to protect myself and win the game. That since I only had one gun, a special explosive would come in handy to survive in this game? That right before executing the plan to bomb the school I was going to say, "Nah, let's not"? Just like how I'd said,

"It's not working" when I was computer hacking? Look, waitasec though, what about that wire we installed by the school? Are you saying I wanted to start a wire-can phone business on this island where all the phone circuits have been shut off? Or you're just saying that was another act? Or that I had some plan you couldn't even conceive of?

When I said I'd help out after you told me you were going to avenge Izumi Kanai's death, you cried. So my response was another deception?

That's too much, Yutaka. I mean there's no end to suspicion once you get going. But you're going too far.

This is absurd. Really, it's hilarious. Funnier than your jokes. Maybe you're losing it from fatigue.

That's what Shinji thought on a rational level. And if he could have gone through each explanation step by step then Yutaka would have realized how foolish every one of his suspicions were. In fact, everything Shinji could come up with might not have corresponded to Yutaka's suspicions. It might have been a simple case of fatigue combined with the shock of witnessing his close friend die suddenly giving way to a suspicion lurking somewhere in the back of Yutaka's mind. But…it came to surface because it had been there in the first place, his suspicion towards Shinji. And the thought of suspecting Yutaka had never even occurred to Shinji.

All of a sudden, the exhaustion he felt was overpowering. A horizontal twelve-cylinder turbo engine. This level of exhaustion is top-class, yessir, it really is a steal, sir.

Shinji uncocked the Beretta and tossed it over to Yutaka. Yutaka hesitated but received it.

Emptied out, Shinji threw his hands onto his knees.

"If you don't trust me then shoot me, Yutaka. I don't care, just shoot me." Crouching, Shinji continued, "I shot Keita to protect you, Yutaka. Damn."

Yutaka suddenly looked at him blankly. Then ready to burst into tears, he uttered, "Oh…oh…" He ran to Shinji.

Yutaka put his hand on Shinji's shoulder and began sobbing out loud. Shinji stared down at the ground with his hands on his knees. He realized his eyes too were filled with tears.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was telling himself, hey hey, don't you have more urgent matters to attend to? Look how vulnerable you guys are bickering like this. Have you forgotten, you're surrounded by enemies? Look at your watch for crying out loud, you're out of time…the voice resembled his uncle's.

But Shinji's nerves were too worn out, his body too tired, and emotions too rattled from Yutaka's suspicion against him to take heed of this warning.

He merely cried. Yutaka. I was trying to protect you. How could you suspect me? I trusted you…but then again, maybe Keita Iijima felt the same way. How horrible to be suspected by someone you trust. I did an awful thing.

Amidst these worn out emotions of sadness, exhaustion, and regret, Shinji heard a rattling that sounded like the tapping of an old typewriter.

A split second later, he felt as if burnt tongs were poking through his body.

The wounds were fatal by then, but the pain made Shinji come to his senses. Yutaka, who had his hand on Shinji's shoulder, fell to the ground. Over at the far end of the farm coop parking lot was a figure in a school coat. He held a gun—something bigger than a pistol. It looked more like a tin box. Shinji realized he'd been shot—of course with bullets, damn—with bullets that had exited through Yutaka's body.

His body felt hot and stiff (the guy just lanced me with lead bullets, duh), but Shinji reflexively fell to his left and picked up the Beretta Yutaka had taken and dropped. He aimed it at the figure, Kazuo Kiriyama (Male Student No. 6) and fired several times at his stomach.

Kazuo Kiriyama shifted to the right before the shots got to him, though. Then along with the rattling sound, the tips of his hands flashed like out-of-season fireworks.

The blows he felt in the right side of his stomach, his left shoulder, and chest were much worse than the one he'd just felt a moment ago. The Beretta fell from his hand.

But by then Shinji had already begun running toward the farm coop. He staggered for a moment, but then crouched down and dashed off, leaping through the sliding door head first. A stream of bullets chased after him and right when Shinji thought he'd escaped them, it managed to blow off the tip of his right foot's basketball sneaker. This time Shinji grimaced in agony from the pain shooting through his body.

But he had no time to rest. He grabbed the gas can in the shadow of the sliding door and retreated through the dark where the tractor and combine harvester were, practically crawling on his left arm and left leg. He dragged the gas can with his right hand.

Blood was pouring out of his mouth. There were at least ten bullets in his body. And despite the sharp pain that shot up from his right foot he managed to glance at the vanished tip of his basketball shoes and thought, I guess I can't play ball anymore. Impossible now. Even if I could I'll never be in the starting lineup. So much for my basketball career.

But Shinji was more concerned about Yutaka. Could he still be alive?

Kazuo—Shinji coughed up blood as he clenched his teeth—so you've decided to play the game, you bastard. Then come after me. Yutaka can't move, but I can. You can take care of Yutaka later. First come after me. Come on, come after me.

As if responding to his wish, Shinji could see from underneath the tractor a figure in the blue pale belt of light coming in through the sliding door.

Then along with the rattling sound, lights flashed like camera flashes, and bullets scattered across the building. A part of some farm equipment was blown to bits, and the window across from him was smashed into fragments.

It stopped. He was out of bullets. But Kazuo would reload another magazine.

Shinji grabbed a screwdriver near him and tossed it to his left. It made a clanging sound and tapped onto the floor.

He thought Kazuo would shoot over there, but instead he scattered bullets across in an arc around the screwdriver. Shinji ducked, praying he wouldn't be hit. The shooting stopped again. Shinji looked up.

Now…he could tell Kazuo was inside the building.

That's right, Shinji's blood-drenched lips formed a smile. I'm over here. Come over here—

Shinji lifted the gas can with his right hand and placed it on his stomach. He moved back again with his left arm and left leg, trying his best not to make any sound. His back hit a hard, boxlike object, and he slid around it as he continued to retreat. His movements weren't completely silent. Kazuo already knew he was hiding somewhere in the dark here. The blood dripping out of him was a dead giveaway.

Kazuo crouched down and checked under various farm tools and the pickup truck as he approached Shinji.

Shinji surveyed the area. He could barely make out the outline of the upper floor on the opposite side of the building as well as the steel stairs that led up there from the door. If his body was in adequate condition he could have jumped on him from up there. But that wasn't possible anymore.

There was a cart on the east wall. It was a pushcart with four small wheels used to carry equipment. The office in the corner with partitions was beyond the pushcart and next to it was an exit. The sliding door, if fully opened, was large enough for a car, but this one was only for people. The door was shut.

That door…1 locked it along with the other windows and every other door. How long would it take me to unlock it?

He had no time to think it over. Shinji dragged his body over to the pushcart. Once he was there he placed the gas can on it. He opened its lid. He pushed in the rubber object dangling from a plastic cord.

He took out the detonation device in his pocket. His fingers were clumsy—probably due to his wounds—but they finally managed to peel off the tape on the side of the battery, revealing an exposed wire dangling from the detonator tube. Shinji connected it to the wire tip of the condenser circuit. He pulled off the insulation of the battery case. As he heard a faint, high hum from the rapid charge of the condenser, he quickly peeled off the tape on the charge device switch and shoved the detonator tube deep inside the gas can's rubber cap. He left the rest of the unit, including the charge device, the battery case, and circuit, on top of the gas can. He had no time to secure it. He could see Kazuo's feet to the right of the threshing machine.

His chances were slim. But now that Yutaka and me are injured there's no way we'll ever make it up the mountain. So…

…here's a special something for you, Kazuo.

Shinji kicked the pushcart with his left leg as hard as he could. As the cart skimmed by the other equipment, Shinji leaped for the exit door without even checking to see if the cart was heading towards Kazuo.

He unlocked it in 0.2 seconds. He even utilized his right leg with its missing foot tip to crash through the door and leap out of the building.

The slate walls of the farm coop behind him suddenly burst with an explosion that shook the entire dark island. The sound of Kazuo's hand grenade that had temporarily disabled Shuya's hearing was nothing compared to this explosion. Shinji realized, whoa, there go my eardrums.

His body slid on the ground from the blast of the explosion, scraping off the skin on his forehead.

Fragments and scraps blew by. Still, Shinji managed to look back quickly and see, right where the building's wall should be, the light truck floating in the air upside down. Probably due to its raised position from the jack, the blast had slammed it with incredible pressure, blowing it upwards. It spun around slowly in air filled with fragments of glass, slate, and concrete (he felt as if they were also stuck into his body too, but the ones he saw now didn't come flying out directly, but were blown up into the sky), traced an exaggerated arc, and crashed on its side in the middle of the parking lot. It rolled over another ninety degrees and stopped, completely upside down. The back carriage was nearly torn off, twisted up like a wrung out rag, and the wheel with a missing tire somehow managed to still spin around and around.

Fragments continued showering down. Immersed in clouds of smoke the farm coop was now reduced to only its frame. The only wall remaining was part of the one on the north side, along with the upper floor.

But the upper floor was completely exposed behind the smoke. The south side of the roof was completely blown away, and the machines, including the farm equipment, were scattered around on their sides. Even in the dark Shinji could tell they were burnt black. He saw several bright flames. Maybe something was on fire. The side exit Shinji used to escape through was barely connected to the remains of the wall by the bottom hinges, bent over his way, as if bowing. The office with partitions had completely vanished without a trace. Well, actually there was the office desk still hanging on, glued to the part of the wall that escaped destruction, pushed from behind by the combine harvester that was also probably blown away by the explosion.

Something must have been blown up high in the sky because, completely out of sync with the other debris, it was finally landing somewhere in the smoke with a high metallic ring. Although Shinji could hardly hear it.

Next thing he knew, Shinji was struggling to get up from the debris of wall and other materials, staring at the ruins of the building. He gasped.

Yes, the handmade gasoline can bomb was well made. With that kind of destructive force it would have certainly annihilated the school.

But that was all over now. The important thing now was that he'd defeated the enemy coming after him.

And even more urgent was—

"Yutaka…"

He mumbled as he finally got up, kneeling on his right knee on the debris. The moment he opened his mouth, blood came gushing out between his teeth, and he felt an incredible surge of pain running from his chest down to his stomach. It was a miracle he was still alive. But he stretched out his arms and put his right leg down on its heel and then stretched out his left leg and somehow managed to stand up. Shinji looked over to the edge of the parking lot where Yutaka was lying…

…when he saw the overturned light truck's door—it must have been busted—open with a dull creaking sound. (He could hear it faintly. Some of his hearing seemed to be coming back.) Kazuo Kiriyama stepped down onto the ground. He held the tin-box-like machine gun in his right hand as if nothing had happened.

Hey—

Shinji felt like he should burst out laughing. For all he knew his blood-soaked lips might have even formed a smile.

You gotta be kidding.

By then Kazuo fired. Shinji this time met a full frontal parabolic shower of 9mm bullets and staggered back into the ground covered with debris. Something was pressing into his back. As of now there really was no need to check it, but he thought it was the front of the parked station wagon. The station wagon had also been blown up by the blast, its back stuck into a wooden telephone pole now lopsided from the impact. Another object seemed to have smashed into its windshield, which resembled a spider's web.

Surrounded by the bright flames burning in the building, Kazuo calmly stood still. Then beyond him Shinji saw Yutaka lying on his face, half buried in the debris. Right near him was Keita Iijima lying on his back, his face staring at Shinji.

He thought, Kazuo, damn, so I ended up losing to you.

He thought, I'm sorry Yutaka, I let my guard down for a moment.

He thought, Uncle, how lame, huh?

He thought, Ikumi, fall in love and be happy. Looks like I won't be able to…looks like. ..

Kazuo Kiriyama's Ingram burst out once again and Shinji's thoughts came to an end. The bullets had torn apart his cerebral cortex. Near his head, the cracked front windshield was now shattered, most of its fragments sliding into the car, but some of the finer mistlike particles fell on Shinji's body already covered with dust and debris.

Shinji slowly fell forward on his face. Debris bounced up on impact. It took less than thirty seconds for the rest of his body besides his brain to die. The memento of his beloved uncle—the earring worn by the woman he loved—was now stained in blood running down Shinji's left ear, reflecting the glow from the building now consumed in red flames.

And so the boy known as The Third Man, Shinji Mimura, was now dead.

17 students remaining