When he stepped out of the classroom, he felt a pang of regret, wishing he had removed it for her. 40 students remaining
7
The hall was unlit. Only the light from the classroom shone on the floor planks. The windows on the side of the hall were also sealed with sheets of black steel. They provided protection against attacks from rebellious students like Shuya who might decide to escape the game. Of course, as soon as they were off, this area would already be forbidden.
He looked to his right. There was another room, then another, both identical to the room he'd just exited. And then at the end of the dark hall there was what looked like a double-door exit. At the end of the hall there was another room on the left.
Was it the school's faculty room? The door was open and the lights were on. Shuya looked beyond the door, where a legion of Special Defense Forces soldiers were sitting on steel folding chairs behind a wide desk. Twenty or thirty? No, there were as many soldiers as there were students. In fact, Shuya was hoping that if his day pack came equipped with a gun (it was possible—along with
"knife wound" and "choking," "gunshot wound" was listed as a cause of death in the Program reports), or if some of the others waiting for him were equipped with guns, then they could use them against Sakamochi and his men before everyone departed, in other words, before the school became a forbidden zone. But this hope was immediately extinguished. The three men with Sakamochi weren't the only soldiers accompanying him. Of course, that wasn't at all surprising. One of the soldiers tilted his head and glanced up from the mug in his hand at Shuya. Like the faces of the trio in the classroom, his also lacked any expression.
Shuya took to his heels and hurried to the exit. He rushed impatiently. So now…now the only thing they could do was unite. But…maybe there were soldiers stationed outside to prevent them from waiting for each other? Still…
Shuya quickly ran through the dark corridor and went through the double doors. He descended several porch stairs.
Under the moon, an empty athletic field the size of three tennis courts spread out beyond the building. There were woods beyond the field. To his left was a small mountain. His field of vision expanded on the right. A pitch-black darkness spread out—the sea. Small points of light twinkled beyond the ocean. It must be the mainland. The Program officially took place within the prefecture of the selected junior high school. Sometimes the location was a mountain surrounded by high-voltage fences, or abandoned prison houses that hadn't yet been demolished, but for Kagawa Prefecture the Program was usually held on an island. According to the local news reports he'd seen (of course, in each case the location would only be announced after the game was over), every game in Kagawa took place on an island. This time was no exception. Sakamochi didn't mention the name of the island, but once Shuya checked its shape on the map he might be able to tell. Or maybe a building would reveal the name of the island. The soft breeze blew in. He could smell the sea. It was cold for a May evening but it wasn't unbearable. He'd have to be careful when he slept not to tire himself from exposure. But first…
There was no one. There weren't any soldiers, but Shuya was disappointed to find none of his classmates there. As Sakamochi had anticipated, everyone was hiding out. Even Hiroki Sugimura wasn't there. Only the soft breeze mixed in with the smell of the sea came drifting through the athletic field. Damn it. Shuya grimaced. If we scatter like this, we'll fall into the government's trap. It might be all right if you were forming groups with your friends. Sakura Ogawa and Kazuhiko Yamamoto might be meeting somewhere, likewise Kazuo Kiriyama's gang. But anyone hiding alone would eventually have to confront someone....Who knew what would result from that kind of chaos? Wasn't chaos essential to the progress of the game?
That's right. Well at least I'm going to wait here for the others. First I have to wait for Noriko. Shuya glanced back at the dark interior of the school building. They were told anyone loitering in the hall would be immediately shot, but the soldiers in the room at the end of the corridor didn't pay any particular attention to Shuya. They weren't exactly chatting up a storm. They just sat around, unarmed. Shuya licked his lips and decided it was best for him to move away from the door. He looked outside again.
That's when he noticed it.
He didn't see it last time because he was too preoccupied with the overall view, but this time he saw something that looked like a garbage bag lying at his feet.
Shuya wondered whether it was someone's day pack, dropped by accident, but then his eyes widened. It wasn't a garbage bag, nor was it someone's day pack. There was hair growing out of one end. Human hair.
It was a human being. Wearing a sailor suit school uniform. The body was in a V-shape, lying on its side, face down. The single pony tail tied with a wide ribbon looked familiar. No wonder. He'd just seen her off only three minutes ago. The stiff body belonged to Female Student No. 14, Mayumi Tendo. Right beside her lobster-shaped braided hair, a dull, silver, twenty-centimeter stick poked out of the back of her uniform, diagonally, like a transistor radio antenna. There were four tiny flaps resembling a fighter plane's tail at the end of the stick.
What the…hell was this?
What he should have done was immediately seek cover. Instead Shuya stood there, stunned. He recalled Sakamochi's reply to Kiriyama, who asked when the game began: "As soon as you leave here."
It was unbelievable—who could have done this? Did someone return to kill Mayumi Tendo just as she left the school?
Shuya stopped speculating and cautiously crouched down and checked the premises. For some reason…there was no sign of the attacker. No arrows had flown at him when he'd been standing in a daze. Why? Satisfied with killing only Mayumi Tendo, did the assailant leave the premises?
Or…was this some engineered "provocation"? Did the soldiers at the end of the hall kill her to convince everyone that some of their classmates were already willing to play the game? But if that were the case…
All of sudden Shuya realized Mayumi Tendo might still be alive. She might be unconscious from the shock of her wound. In any case, he should look at her.
If he hadn't realized something odd and restrained himself from taking a step forward a split-second later, Shuya would have dropped out of the game early. In other words…
A silver object whizzed right by Shuya's eyes. Yes—it came directly down, from above. Another antenna was planted in the ground.
Shuya shuddered. If he hadn't been standing at the exit, waiting for Noriko, he would have been immediately shot down. The assailant was on top of the building.
Shuya clenched his teeth, snatched up the arrow, and ran to his left. He moved impulsively but in an erratic way that eluded the assailant. He turned around and looked up. Under the dim moonlit sky, a large, dark shadow loomed above the gabled roof of the single-story school building. Could that be…not Shogo…
He had no time to think. The shadow pointed its weapon at him.
Just to surprise him Shuya threw the arrow at the shadow. But thanks to Shuya's gifts as a star shortstop, the arrow flew at incredible speed and traced a fine arc right at the shadow. The shadow groaned, held its face, hunched over, and then began to sway. Then it fell.
Shuya stepped back and watched the shadow fall from a height of at least three meters and land with a thud on the ground. The object in the assailant's hand fell with a metallic crash. Light leaked through the building exit. The large shadow was lying face down, wearing a school uniform. It was Yoshio Akamatsu. He was motionless now, perhaps because he was unconscious. A hybrid between a bow and rifle—were they called bow guns?—was lying by his hand. The day pack that had fallen by Yoshio's feet was half open. Shuya saw a stack of silver arrows inside. Shuya felt a sudden chill. It was true. He was participating! Yoshio Akamatsu was in on this game. Yoshio had taken his weapon, returned here, and killed Mayumi Tendo!
Someone was coming from behind.
Shuya turned around. It was Noriko, who'd taken the situation in as she held her breath
in surprise. Shuya's eyes went from Noriko's face to Mayumi Tendo—he ran over to Mayumi and touched her neck to check her pulse. She was dead. There was no doubt.
His brain felt like a fuse fizzling out. Others might be in the same state of mind as Yoshio. And one of them might just suddenly return this time, perhaps with a gun.
Shuya had no choice but to change his attitude toward the game now. So this was it. When Sakamochi said, "As soon as you leave here," this was what he'd meant.
Shuya stood up and ran to Noriko. He took her by the hand.
"We're running! Do your best, you have to run!"
Shuya began running, half-dragging Noriko, whose leg was injured. Which way though?
He couldn't afford to deliberate over his decisions. He headed towards the grove. First they'd hide in the grove, then they could, no—he dismissed the thought. Given Noriko's condition, they were defenseless against any attack. Staying near the area was too dangerous.
Waiting in front of the building for the others was completely out of the question. He rushed Noriko, and they entered the grove. Tall trees mixed in with short trees, and the ground was covered with fern. Shuya turned to yell some warning to the remaining eleven students coming out (in their class of twenty-one pairs of boys and girls, there should have been twelve students following Shuya's and Noriko's seat numbers, but Fumiyo Fujiyoshi had to be counted out), but he gave up on the idea. Shuya reached the somewhat forced conclusion that they probably weren't as foolish as he was, so they'd flee the moment they emerged from the building anyway, especially once they saw Mayumi Tendo's corpse. For a moment he thought of Shinji Mimura—but he gave up on this idea too. Once again he forced himself into believing that there had to be some other strategy, another way for them to meet up. In any case, they had to leave.
Holding Noriko Nakagawa tightly, he haphazardly led their way into the grove. A bird cried out, "kaw kaw," and ruffled its wings as it flew away. He couldn't see it, but it didn't matter. He had no time to observe it anyway.
39 students remaining
8
Yoshio Akamatsu regained consciousness almost immediately, but because he'd been knocked out cold by the blow to his head he felt as if he were coming out of a deep slumber. He first noticed how his head was throbbing. He felt out of it. What was it? Was it from playing video games yesterday way past midnight?…which meant that yesterday was Saturday, or was it Sunday?…then today must be Monday which means I have to be in school…but what time could it be…it's still dark, maybe…I can sleep a little more....
As he sat up, the sky and earth rotating ninety degrees, an empty field unexpectedly spread out in front of him. There was a mountain beyond the field, shaped like a bow, darker than the night sky. All of a sudden, everything came back. Sakamochi, Mr. Hayashida's corpse, Yoshio's departure, discovering the bow gun in his day pack once he found some shelter in a small shack, his returning here, observing Takako Chigusa (Female Student No. 13) whose face was a little severe but beautiful, looking tense now as the track team's best runner dashed away at full speed, him struggling up the thin steel ladder by the side of the building in order to reach the roof. Then how, due to the trouble he had loading his bow gun with an arrow, Sho Tsukioka (Male No. 14) also managed to escape his reach. And then…
He turned around and saw the girl in the sailor suit uniform lying there. It didn't exactly come as a surprise to Yoshio. What he felt now in conjunction with his memory wasn't guilt over killing one of his classmates so much as it was fear. It might have resembled a gigantic billboard sign standing in the middle of a wasteland inside his mind. On the sign were letters in blood that read, "I'm going to kill you!" In the background all his classmates held weapons like axes and pistols, attacking Yoshio, who stood in front of the sign as if it were a 3D movie.
Of course killing your classmates was wrong. And besides once the game time had expired they were all going to die anyway so it might have been absurd to fight at all. But that was just too rational. The fact was that Yoshio simply did not want to die. He was petrified by any of his classmates who'd bare their teeth at him. Just think about it, you're surrounded by a swarm of assassins. And so his choice to reduce "the enemy" as efficiently as possible wasn't motivated by rational thoughts but instead from a deeper, primal fear of death. There was no need to discern your allies from your enemies. Everyone had to be an enemy. After all when Ryuhei Sasagawa used to pick on him, everyone looked the other way.
Yoshio scrambled to his feet. First, Shuya Nanahara, who'd been in front of him. Where did he go?…
The bow gun. I have to get the bow gun. Where did it?…
Yoshio felt a blow against his neck as if he were struck by a club.
He fell forward with thud. His body twisted into the shape of a V, and his face scraped against the moist soil. The skin of his forehead and cheeks peeled away, but this no longer mattered to him. He was already dead by the time he had fallen.
The same kind of silver arrow which he had shot Mayumi Tendo with was now planted in the back of his neck.
38 students remaining
9
Kazushi Nüda (Male Student No. 16) emerged from the building two minutes after Noriko Nakagawa. He stood at the exit for a while, shaking. The bow gun lying next to Yoshio Akamatsu's body was still loaded with an arrow. Although Kazushi had picked it up, he had no intention of shooting Yoshio. But the moment Yoshio stood up, he reflexively pulled the trigger.
Kazushi did his best to overcome his panic. That's right, the first thing was to get out of here. That was the priority. What he should have done in the first place was ignore Yoshio Akamatsu and Mayumi Tendo completely and run away. Given the circumstances, he had no other choice but to kill Yoshio. Yoshio Akamatsu had obviously killed Mayumi Tendo. So Kazushi hadn't done anything wrong. Kazushi was very good at making excuses. Once he thought like this, the numbness in his head began to wane.
As he lowered the bow gun, he automatically grabbed Yoshio's day pack, which was loaded with arrows. Right before he moved on though, he stopped and picked up Mayumi Tendo's day pack too. Then he hurried off.
38 students remaining
10
Had they been running for ten minutes now? With his arm still wrapped around Noriko, he signaled they should be still, and they both stopped. Under the hazy moonlight shining through the branches overhead, Noriko looked up at him. Their heavy breathing echoed like a giant wall of sound, but Shuya tried his best to listen beyond the wall for other sounds in the area enveloped in darkness. No one seemed to be chasing them. They were too short of breath to sigh, but they could relax a little now.
As he dropped his bags, a sharp pain ran through his right shoulder. He was in poor shape. An electric guitar was heavier than a bat, but it wasn't something you swung around. After putting the bags down, he placed his hands on his thighs and tried to rest.
Shuya urged Noriko to sit in the dark grove. After he checked again for any other suspicious sounds, he sat down next to her. The thick grass underneath them made a crunching sound. He felt as if they'd covered a good distance, but given how they'd been zigzagging, and how they'd lost all sense of direction climbing the mountain, they might have only been a few hundred meters away from the school. At least the light leaking out of the building was no longer visible. This might have just been due to the thickness of the grove or the gentle slopes, though. Anyway it felt safer deep inside the dark grove. His decision was impulsive, but he was certain it was safer than the wide open seaside. Shuya looked over at Noriko and whispered, "Are you all right?" Noriko murmured, "Yes." She nodded slightly.
Shuya felt the urge to stay here for a while, but that wasn't an option. First he opened up the day pack. He dug into it, groping around, and found an object that felt like a bottle of water. Shuya pulled it out. The sheath felt like leather and a leather grip poked out of it. It was an army knife. Sakamochi said that the day pack was equipped with a weapon. Was this it? He searched the bag a little more, but nothing e
lse inside resembled a weapon. Only a bag that seemed to contain bread and a flashlight.
He unfastened the sheath and removed the knife. The blade was approximately fifteen centimeters long, and after checking it he returned it to the sheath and tucked it under his school uniform belt. He unfastened the lowest button on his uniform to make the grip immediately accessible. Shuya grabbed Noriko's day pack and opened the zipper. He knew he wasn't supposed to go through a girl's things, but Noriko didn't pack this bag.
He found something strange. It was a curved stick approximately forty centimeters long. It had the texture of smooth, hard wood. Was this what they called a boomerang? A weapon used for fighting and hunting in primitive tribes. An aboriginal village hunting hero might be able to knock down an ailing, sluggish kangaroo with this thing, but what use could it possibly have for them? Shuya sighed and returned it to Noriko's day pack.
They finally stopped heaving like drown victims gasping for air.
"You want some water?" Shuya asked.
Noriko nodded and said, "Just a little."
Shuya took out the plastic bottle from his day pack, broke the seal of the twist-off top, and sniffed the contents. He spilled some on his hand and licked it cautiously. Then after taking a sip, making sure he had no abnormal reaction, he handed it over to Noriko. Noriko took the bottle and only swallowed a small mouthful. She probably knew that water was precious. Each bottle only contained approximately one liter, and they'd only have two. Sakamochi said they had no access to telephones, but what about the water system?
"Let me take a look at your leg."
Noriko nodded to Shuya's request and stretched out her right leg, which had been tucked in under her skirt. Shuya took out the flashlight from his day pack. He cupped it carefully with the palm of his hand to prevent its light from leaking out and pointed it at her leg wound.