"You two make a nice couple. That's what I thought when I saw you this morning, and I still think so now."
Shuya stared at him, his mouth agape.
Couple?
Noriko spoke first. Her cheeks were bright red. "You have it all wrong. We're not. I'm not—" Shogo looked at Shuya and Noriko and grinned. Then he broke out laughing. It was an unexpected, friendly laugh. He continued chuckling.
"That's why I trust you. Besides, you just said so yourselves. There's no end once you start getting suspicious. Isn't that enough?"
Shuya finally grinned. Then he said sincerely, "Thanks. I'm so glad you trust us." Shogo continued smiling, "Oh no, the honor's mine."
"I knew you were an individualist the day you transferred to our school."
"Easy with the fancy terminology. Sorry but I was born with these looks. I can't help it if I don't look friendly."
Noriko gave him a warm smile and said, "I'm so glad. Now we have one more on our side." Responding to Noriko, Shogo rubbed his finger against the stubble under his nose and made an unexpected gesture. He turned to Shuya and offered his right hand. "I'm glad too…now that I'm not alone."
Shuya squeezed his hand. Shogo's palms were thick. In keeping with his appearance, it felt like the hand of a fully mature man.
Shogo stretched, passed Shuya, and offered his hand to Noriko. "You too." Noriko squeezed his hand.
Then he looked down at Noriko's leg wrapped in bandannas and remarked, "I'd forgotten about this. Show me your leg wound first, then we'll talk about our plans."
29 students remaining
20
The sunlight reflecting off the opaque window with the detailed patterns began to turn white. As sunlight came directly through the top of the window into the building where Yumiko Kusaka (Female Student No. 7) was sitting against a wall, she squinted her eyes. She was remembering the trite phrase repeated in the sermons given by the local priest of the Halo Church which her parents and she (before her name was even registered) attended, "The sun will come every day, blessing every one of us with joy." Oh yeah, I am so blessed to be part of such a wonderful game, ha ha ha.
Yumiko lightly shook her short, boyish hair with a sarcastic smile. She looked over at Yukiko Kitano (Female Student No. 6), who was sitting near her, also against the wall. Yukiko remained in a daze, staring at the wooden floor bathed in light. Even though it had the bombastic name "Okishima Island Tourist Association" the building resembled a plain town council hall. Down by the lower entrance, there was an office desk, a chair, and a rusty file cabinet. The desk had a phone (she'd tried using it, but of course, as Sakamochi had warned, there was no dial tone). Inside the file cabinet they only found some unattractive tourist flyers.
Yumiko and Yukiko had been friends ever since nursery school. At nursery school they were in separate classes and lived in different neighborhoods too. They met thanks, once again, to the Halo Church where their parents took them. When they met it was Yumiko's third visit, but for Yukiko it seemed like it was her first, and she looked intimidated by everything there including the gong ringing with every chant and the general atmosphere of the heavily decorated church. So Yumiko approached the quiet girl left alone by her who were preoccupied with some other task and said, "Don't you think this is all so stupid?" The girl looked a little shocked, but then…she smiled. They were friends ever since. Although their names sounded similar, they were very different from each other. Yumiko was energetic and got labeled a tomboy. Even now (although the chances of that "now" returning were very, very low) she batted fourth on the softball team. Yukiko was domestic and baked cakes for Yumiko. Yumiko was now fifteen centimeters taller than Yukiko. Yukiko often said she envied Yumiko's height and her well defined face, but Yumiko was in fact more envious of Yukiko for her petite body and round cheeks. That's right, they were totally different, but they were still best friends. That didn't change. Fortunately (well, that's putting it harshly), the death of Yoshitoki Kuninobu (Male Student No. 7) before his scheduled departure enabled their own departures to be only two minutes apart from each other. After Yumiko left the classroom, she hid behind a pole and waited for Yukiko, whose face had turned white. They left together (twenty minutes later Yoshio Akamatsu returned to begin killing, but they were unaware of this) and headed north far beyond the residential area, following the road on the eastern shore. A little ways up the northern mountain they found a single building standing alone on a hill. They locked themselves inside here.
…over four hours had passed since then. They were exhausted from the extreme tension and remained sitting next to each other as time flew by.
Yumiko looked away from Yukiko and along with her stared at the floor.
Even though she was in a daze, she continued to think. What in the world were they supposed to do now?
Sakamochi's announcement was audible even inside this building. Aside from Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, nine classmates were already dead. Aside from Sakura Ogawa and Kazuhiko Yamamoto…the others couldn't have been suicides. Someone was killing someone else. Right now someone might have been dying. In fact she thought she'd heard gunfire right after the 6 a.m. announcement.
How could you kill your classmates? Of course those were the rules, but she couldn't believe there could be people who'd actually follow them. But…
But if someone tried to kill her… if she could assume that much, then she would probably fight back. Yes.
If so, then…
Yumiko looked at the megaphone lying in the corner of the room. Could she use that? If she could…
Wasn't there something she could do? She was simply afraid of doing it, though. Not just of doing it. Because while she couldn't believe anyone was playing the game, she also couldn't rid herself of this overwhelming fear. That's what made her seek shelter here with Yukiko. What if…what if someone really did…
But—
She recalled something from when she was in elementary school, the face of her best friend. It wasn't Yukiko. The friend was crying. For some reason, the only clothes she could remember on her friend was her pink sneakers.
"Yumi," Yukiko said and interrupted Yumiko's thoughts. She faced Yukiko.
"Let's eat our bread rolls. We won't come up with any good ideas if we don't eat." Yukiko provided a kind smile. It felt slightly forced, but it was still her usual smile.
"Okay?" Yukiko repeated and Yumiko returned her smile and nodded.
"All right."
They took out their bread rolls and water from their day packs. Yumiko looked at the two cans inside. The cans were a greenish silver, and at the top a cigar-sized stick stuck out, attached to a lever and a metal ring approximately three centimeters in diameter. She assumed it was a "hand grenade." (Yukiko's
"weapon" was a set of darts. It must have been some kind of joke. It even came with a wooden target board.)
After she finished half of her roll and took a sip of her water, Yumiko said, "You feel a little better now, Yukiko?"
As Yukiko chewed on her bread, her round eyes grew wider.
"You've been shaking all this time."
"Oh," Yukiko broke into a smile. "I think I'm fine now. I mean with you by my side." Yumiko smiled and nodded. She wondered whether she should bring up "what they should do" while they ate…but decided against it. She just wasn't feeling confident enough about her idea. It could be extremely dangerous. To go through with it wouldn't only endanger herself but Yukiko as well. But on the other hand, it was this kind of danger that was forcing everyone to panic over the deadline. What was the right thing to do?—Yumiko just wasn't sure yet.
They remained quiet for a while. Then Yukiko all of a sudden said, "Hey, Yumiko."
"Hm? What?"
"You might think this sounds stupid but…" Yukiko lightly bit on her small but full lips.
"What is it?"
Yukiko hesitated but then finally let it out, "Did you have a crush on anyone in our class?" Yumiko's eyes suddenly grew wide.
>
Wow. This was exactly the kind of topic you discussed at night when you're on a study trip. After going through the rituals of playing cards, pillow fighting, and checking out the inn, late at night you could bitch about your teachers, or talk about the future, but none of those were in the same league as this topic. It was the holy topic. And of course she'd expected to have this kind of conversation during their study trip, until they'd fallen asleep on the bus.
"You mean, a guy?"
"Yes."
Yukiko's downcast eyes bashfully looked over at Yumiko.
"Hmm." Yumiko hesitated a little but then replied honestly, "Yes, I did."
"I see." Yukiko looked down at the knees of her pleated skirt and said, "I'm sorry I never told you, but I like…Shuya."
Yumiko nodded without saying a word. She already had a hunch.
In her mind Yumiko pulled out her file on Shuya Nanahara. He was 171 centimeters tall, weighed 58
kilograms, his eyesight was 1.2 in the right eye, 1.5 in the left, and although he was thin he was muscular. In elementary school he was a Little League shortstop and batted first, but he quit and now preferred playing music. He was an excellent singer and guitarist. Because of his status as the team's best player during his Little League days, combined with the fact that the first kanji character to his last name meant
"seven," he had the baseball nickname of "Wild Seven," just like the cigarette brand. His blood type was B, and he was born, just as the first character of his first name indicated, in the fall. He lost his parents when he was young, and now he lived in a Catholic orphanage called the Charity House. He was best friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu (oh God and now he was dead) who also lived in the Charity House…His strongest subjects were in the humanities, literature, and English, so he was a decent student. He had a unique face, his lips were slightly curved, but his double eyelids were sharply defined and kind looking, so he wasn't bad looking at all. His hair was slightly wavy and long, covering his neck and touching his shoulders.
That's right. Yumiko's file on Shuya Nanahara was filled to bursting (she was pretty confident hers was more thorough than Yukiko's). One of the more important subjects in the file was his height. Because, she thought, if Shuya didn't grow any taller then she wouldn't be able to wear high heels with him, because that would make her taller than him if they walked together.
But now that she was sure about Yukiko, she wouldn't be able to share these thoughts with her.
"Huh." Yumiko tried to look as calm as possible. "Really?"
"Yes."
"Hm."
Yukiko looked down. Then she made the point she'd wanted to make all along, "I really want to see him. I wonder what he's doing."
As she sat with her hands glued to her thighs, she burst into tears.
Yumiko gently touched Yukiko on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Knowing Shuya, no matter what happens—" Realizing though that this might have sounded funny, she immediately added, nervously, "You know how athletic he is, plus he seems really gutsy. I mean I don't really know but..." Yukiko wiped away her tears and nodded, "Uh huh." Then as if she felt better, she asked, "So who do you like, Yumiko?"
Yumiko could only look up at the ceiling and force a moan, "Hmm," as she thought it through. She was in trouble. Maybe I'll just randomly pick someone just to avoid the issue.
Tatsumichi Oki was a star player on the handball team. Even though his face was kind of coarse he seemed like a nice guy. Everyone called Shinji Mimura a genius basketball player, and he knew so much. He even had a "following" of girls who were into him. (They weren't from their class, maybe because his general reputation among the Class B girls was that he was a playboy.) Mitsuru Numai acted like he was a badass, but he didn't really seem so bad. He was kind to girls (oh God but he's dead too now). Hiroki Sugimura seemed to have a brooding quality that was kind of cool. Some girls were afraid of him because he practiced martial arts, but to Yumiko that was attractive. But he was close to Takako Chigusa. Takako would get on my back if she ever found out, she can be so harsh. But she's a good girl. Come to think of it, everyone was, both boys and girls.
I'm back to the same question. Should I not trust them?
"So who is it?" Yukiko asked again.
Yumiko faced Yukiko again.
She hesitated again—but then she decided to let it out. At the very least, she should bring it up. After all, Yumiko was the ideal companion she could share her thoughts with.
"Can I ask you something?"
Yukiko tilted her head, puzzled.
Yumiko folded her arms to concentrate. Then she asked, "Do you really think there are people who want to kill others…in our class?"
Yukiko knit her brows slightly.
"Well…I mean the fact is that…they di—" As she pronounced the word "died" her voice trembled,
"…died. All of them. It was announced this morning. Nine students have already been killed since our departure. They couldn't have all been suicides…Besides, didn't we just hear gunfire a little while ago?" Yumiko tilted her head as she looked at Yukiko. She spread out her hands. She noticed for the first time that her left cuff was slightly torn.
"Now look. You see how terrified we are here. The two of us, right?"
"Uh huh."
"And I think the others are in the same state. Everyone must be terrified. Don't you think so?" Yukiko seemed to mull over her point. Then she said, "Yes, maybe. I've been so preoccupied with my own fear, that thought didn't even occur to me."
Yumiko nodded once and continued, "And because we were lucky enough to end up together it's probably nowhere near as bad as being alone, which I'm sure would be absolutely terrifying."
"Yeah, you're right."
"And what would happen if you encountered someone in that state of fear, Yukiko?"
"I'd run away."
"What if you couldn't?"
Yukiko seemed to consider the situation carefully. Then she spoke slowly, "I-I-I just might fight. If I had something I might throw it… or if I had something like a gun I might, I just might shoot it...Of course, I'd try to talk. But if it happened quickly and I didn't have any choice.
Yumiko nodded.
"Exactly. That's why I think no one here really wants to kill anyone. I think it's because we're so terrified we become deluded that everyone else is out to kill us and so we resort to fighting. And in that state even if no one attacked, we might even end up attacking others on our own." She interrupted herself, unfolded her arms, put her hands on the floor, and continued, "I think everyone's just terrified." Yukiko pursed her small, full lips together. After a while, she looked down at the floor and said in a halting voice, "I don't know. I just can't trust some of them, like Mitsuko Souma's gang…and Kazuo Kiriyama's—"
Yumiko forced a smile and moved her sitting position by shifting her legs under her pleated skirt. "I'll tell you what I think, Yukiko."
"Hm"
"We're going to die the way things are going. Time limit? If no one dies in the next twenty-four hours?
Even if we survive that long, we'll still end up getting killed."
Yukiko nodded. She looked scared again. "That's… that's true."
"So the only thing we can do is have everyone cooperate to find some way out of here, right?"
"Well…yes but—"
"I have to tell you something..." Yumiko interrupted Yukiko and then tilted her head slightly.
"I once had a horrible experience because I didn't trust someone. I was in elementary school." Yukiko stared at Yumiko "What happened?"
Yumiko glanced up at the ceiling. She recalled the face of her friend crying. And the pink sneakers. Yukiko looked back at Yumiko.
"Do you remember the Egg Cats? They were such a big fad. Everybody loved them."
"Yeah, they were character figures. I had a celluloid board with them on it."
"And I had an Egg Cats tri-tip ballpoint pen. The limited edition. I mean it seems like such a silly thing now, but at the time I absolutely ador
ed it."
"Uh huh."
"Well, it disappeared…" Yumiko looked down. "I suspected my friend of stealing it. She wanted it so badly. On top of that, I realized it was gone after first period gym class and she'd excused herself from gym because she wasn't feeling well and returned to our classroom. And, this is really awful, she didn't have a father and her mother worked at a bar, so she didn't have a good reputation." Yukiko nodded slowly. "Uh huh."
"I bombarded her with questions, but she said she didn't know. And I even told the teacher about it. Our teacher, come to think of it, the teacher must have been biased too. The teacher told her to tell the truth. But she just cried and said she knew nothing about it."
Yumiko looked back at Yukiko.
"When I came home, I found the pen on my desk."
Yukiko remained silent and continued listening.
"I apologized to her. She said it was all right. But it just turned out all awkward and she ended up—I think her mother ended up remarrying—transferring schools and that was it. We were such good friends, as close as you and me. But in the end I wasn't able to trust her." Yumiko shrugged and then continued.
"So ever since that incident I've been doing my best to trust people. I want to trust people. If I can't then everything falls apart. This is different from what the folks at that stupid Halo Church preach. This is my belief. I hope you understand."
"I do."
"So let's consider this situation now. Well yeah, Mitsuko Souma does seem dangerous. That's her reputation. But I doubt she's so bad she'd actually get off on killing people. She can't be that bad. No one in our class could be that bad. Don't you think?"
Several moments later Yukiko nodded and replied, "Yes."
"So…" Yumiko continued, "…if we could just contact everyone appropriately then the fighting would stop. Then we could figure out together how to deal with the circumstances. No, even if we couldn't do anything, at the very least we could avoid killing each other. Don't you think?"
"Yes…"
Yukiko nodded, but she sounded hesitant. A little worn out from talking, Yumiko took a deep breath and shifted her legs again.