Battle Royale (8 page)

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 else 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.

The wound was on the outer calf. A section of flesh approximately four centimeters long and one centimeter deep had been scraped off. A thin stream of blood still flowed out of the ends of the pinkish flesh wound. It looked like she needed stitches.

Shuya quickly turned off his flashlight and grabbed his sports bag instead of his day pack. He grabbed the bourbon flask and two clean bandannas he'd packed for the trip. He uncapped the flask.

"This is going to hurt."

"I'll be okay," Noriko said, but once Shuya tilted the flask and poured the bourbon to disinfect her wound, she let out a small hiss. Shuya pressed one folded bandanna onto her wound. He opened up the other one, folded it, then began wrapping it around her leg tightly like a bandage. This would stop the bleeding for now.

After wrapping her leg, he pulled at both ends of the bandage tightly, tied them together, and mumbled,

"Damn…"

Noriko whispered, "You mean Nobu?"

"Yoshitoki, Yoshio. Everyone and everything. I'm not into this. I am so not into this."

As he moved his hands Shuya glanced at Noriko. Then he looked down and finished tying his knot.

Noriko thanked him and tucked her leg in.

"So Yoshio was the one who killed…" her voice was trembling, "…Mayumi?"

"That's right. He was above the exit door. I threw the arrow at him and he fell."

Now that he thought about it, Shuya suddenly realized he hadn't taken care of Yoshio. He'd instinctively assumed Yoshio would remain unconscious for a while, but for all he knew Yoshio might have woken up immediately afterwards.

Which meant he might have taken his bow gun, climbed up on the roof, and continued his slaughter.

Was I being too naive again? Should I have just killed him over there?

With this thought Shuya checked his watch under the moonlight. The old, domestically manufactured Hattori Hanzo limited-edition diver's watch (along with most of his belongings, it had been donated to Shuya through the orphanage) read 2:40. Everyone might have left by now. At most there were only two or three students left, regardless of Yoshio Akamatsu's state. Shinji Mimura had already…Shuya was nearly certain Shinji could easily escape Yoshio...By now he'd already left too.

Shuya shook his head. Now he felt foolish believing they could unite against their situation.

"I never thought someone like him would actually try to kill everyone else to survive. I understand the rules, but I didn't think anyone would actually participate."

"You might be wrong about that though," Noriko said.

"Huh?" Shuya looked into Noriko's face, too dark to discern under the moonlight.

Noriko continued, "You know how Yoshio was always timid. I think he was scared. That must've been it. I mean you have no idea who might turn against you. He might have been convinced everyone was coming after him. I think he was really scared. And that if he didn't do anything he would end up being…killed…"

Shuya sat down against the nearest tree trunk and stretched his legs out.

The ones who were terrified might try to kill each other…The same idea had occurred to Shuya, but he had also thought the ones who were scared would basically hide out. But if they were terrified out of their wits, they might actually take their own initiative.

"I get it."

I get it.

"Yes," Noriko nodded. "It's still horrible that he started killing indiscriminately."

They remained silent for a while. Then Shuya came up with an idea. "Hey, you think if he'd seen the two of us together he wouldn't have attacked us? Wouldn't it prove we're not playing the game?"

"Well yes, maybe."

Shuya started thinking. If as Noriko said Yoshio had just been overwhelmed by paranoia…

That moment back there was when he first realized someone was willing to play. That was why he fled.

But maybe that was wrong. How could they possibly kill each other? It was outrageous. Then should he have waited for the others, leaving aside what he should have done with Yoshio?

Either way, it was too late now. Everyone would be gone by now even if they went back. Besides, did Yoshio do that simply out of fear?

He was getting confused.

"Hey, Noriko."

Noriko lifted her face.

"What do you think? I fled from the school grounds the moment I realized there might be others like Yoshio. But…if he really did it out fear…in other words, do you really think any of us would actually participate? What I mean is that… I'm thinking of gathering everyone together to escape from this game.

What do you think?"

"Everyone?"

Noriko fell silent and tucked her knees under her skirt. Then she said, "Maybe I'm not as generous."

"Huh?"

"I couldn't handle some of them. I could trust my friends...." Noriko mentioned the name of their class representative, Yukie Utsumi. Shuya knew Yukie since elementary school.

"Like Yukie. But I don't think I could trust the other girls. There's no way I could be with them. Don't you think? I have no idea what was going through Yoshio's mind, but I'm afraid of everyone else too. I mean…I just realized I don't know a thing about everyone else. I don't know what they're really like. I mean…you can't see into someone's mind."

I don't know a thing about everyone else.

She was right, Shuya thought. What do I know about this group that I spend the day with at school? He suddenly felt like there was an enemy out there.

Noriko continued, "So I-I'd be suspicious. Unless it was someone I really trusted, I'd be suspicious of them. I'd be afraid they might want to kill me."

Shuya sighed. The game was horrible. But it also seemed flawless. In the end, it was a bad idea to invite everyone indiscriminately to form a group unless you were certain about them. What if—let's just say what if—they betrayed you? It wasn't just his life but Noriko's too he'd be endangering. Yes—it was only natural the others before him had immediately fled the premises. That was more realistic.

"Hold on a sec," Shuya said. Noriko glanced up at Shuya. "Then that means us being together won't necessarily prove we're harmless. The others might suspect that I plan on killing you eventually."

Noriko nodded. "Yes, I'll be suspected too, just like you. A classmate might avoid us once they see us together, but I also think anyone we invite will turn away. I mean it would depend on each person."

Shuya held his breath. "It would be scary."

"Yes, it's really scary."

So the ones who fled from the school premises might have been right. But what mattered to him was protecting Noriko Nakagawa, the girl Yoshitoki adored. Maybe he should have been content with the fact that at the very least Noriko Nakagawa was safe by his side now. He had done the safest thing.

But…

"But," he said, "at the very least I wanted Shinji to join us. I think he'd come up with a really good plan.

You'd be okay with Shinji, right?"

Noriko nodded and said, "Of course." Given the amount of time she spoke with Shuya at school, she had many occasions to talk to Shinji Mimura___Besides…

Shuya recalled how Shinji had helped her up and how he'd signaled him to calm down. He realized now that if Shinji hadn't done those things, he and Noriko would have remained dazed and been shot down like Yoshitoki.

As if she were thinking along the same lines that led to the inevitable, she looked down and quietly said,

"So Nobu's gone."

"Yeah," Shuya answered quietly, as if it were a bizarre fact, "I guess so."

Then they fell silent again. They could reminisce but now was not the time. Besides, Shuya couldn't bring himself to take a stroll down memory lane over Yoshitoki. It was too heavy.

"I wonder what we should do."

Noriko stiffened her mouth and nodded without a word.

"I wonder if there might be a way to gather the ones we trust together."

"That's…" Noriko considered it, then became silent once again. It was true—there was no way. At least for now.

Shuya sighed deeply once again.

He looked up and saw through the twigs the gray night sky dimly glowing under the moonlight. So this was what it meant to be in a "no-win situation." If they simply wanted everyone to join, all they had to do was walk around and shout. But that would be an open invitation to get themselves killed by any of their opponents. Of course he hoped there weren't any opponents but…in the end, he had to admit he was scared too.