Battle Royale (21 page)

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

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

"Who was the next one though?…"

"Shuya."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"And given what happened to Yoshitoki…"

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

So Shuya had to take care of Noriko."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Yeah."

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

"…really?"

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

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

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

Anyway, I booked out of there."

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

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

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

"You didn't call out to her?"

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

Yutaka nodded.

"The other one I saw was Shogo Kawada."

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

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

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

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

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

Shinji nodded. "I heard it too."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shinji nodded. "I did."

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

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

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

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

Yutaka looked astonished.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

27 students remaining

30

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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