Battle Royale (5 page)

"See?" Sakamochi said. "He was already dying. Now then, please return to your seats."

"Oh…" Noriko looked down at Yoshitoki's deformed head, "…my…"

Shuya was also stunned. His eyes were glued to Yoshitoki's face, lying between the legs of the desk. His thoughts were completely paralyzed, as if his own brains had been blown to bits. Memories of Yoshitoki flashed through his dazed mind. The little adventures they took, camping or walking down the river, a rainy day spent playing an old board game, mimicking "Jake and Elwood," the heroes who, like themselves, were orphans in the American movie
The Blues Brothers
(amazingly, it was a dubbed version, although the voice actors were horrible), which had become a blackmarket hit, and then just recently, Yoshitoki's face when he said, "Hey Shuya, I got a crush on someone." And then…

"Are you two deaf?" Sakamochi repeated. Yes, Shuya was deaf to his words. He just stared at Yoshitoki.

Noriko was no different. If they hadn't moved, they would have followed in Yoshitoki Kuninobu's footsteps. Right beside Sakamochi, Tahara pointed his gun at Noriko, while the other two pointed theirs at Shuya.

But it was thanks to a calm, in fact light-hearted voice calling out, "M-m-m-mister Sakamochi," that Shuya was brought back to his senses, at least enough to gaze numbly at the caller.

Beyond Yoshitoki's empty seat, Shinji Mimura had his hand raised. Noriko slowly looked at him too.

"Hm? Let's see. You must be Shinji Mimura. What is it?"

Shinji put his hand down and spoke, "Noriko looks injured. I was wondering if I could help her get back to her seat."

Despite the extremity of their situation, Shinji spoke in the usual voice of The Third Man.

Sakamochi raised his brow slightly, but then nodded.

"All right, go ahead. I really want to get things moving."

Shinji nodded, stood up, and walked towards Noriko. As he approached her, he took out a neatly folded handkerchief out of his pocket and leaned between Yoshitoki's corpse and Noriko. He first wiped Noriko's face, which was covered with Yoshitoki's blood. Noriko hardly reacted. Then he said, "Stand up, Noriko," and put his hand under Noriko's right arm to help her get up.

Then, with his back facing Sakamochi, Shinji looked at Shuya, who remained half-standing. Under his sharp, well defined brows, his eyes which always had a mildly amused look were now dead serious. He raised his right brow and moved his chin, shaking his head slightly. His left hand pushed down, as if he were making a pressing motion. Shuya didn't understand this signal. Shinji made the same move again.

Although he was still dazed, Shuya finally understood that Shinji was telling him to calm down. He looked back at Shinji…and slowly eased his way back into his seat.

Shinji nodded. After returning Noriko to her seat, he turned around and returned to his seat.

Noriko sat down. Blood poured out of the wound in her right leg dangling from her seat. Her white socks and sneakers were soaked in red, as if she were wearing Santa Claus boots, but only on her right foot.

Noriko was coming to her senses a little too. She seemed to be making a gesture to thank Shinji. But as if he could see out the back of his head Shinji shrugged his shoulders to stop her. Noriko withdrew and saw once again Yoshitoki's body lying below her right hand. She stared at him without a word but her eyes seemed to be brimming with tears.

Shuya also looked again at the corpse, his view partly obscured by the desks. Yes, it was a corpse.

There was no doubt about it. It was hard to comprehend, but Yoshitoki had become a corpse, the corpse of someone with whom he had shared ten years of his life.

As he looked at Yoshitoki's gaping eyes, Shuya's anger became more pronounced and clear, like a throbbing pulse. The anger rushed through his entire body so powerfully that it almost made him shake.

His feelings, which had been muted by the initial shock, were beginning to surface. Shuya turned and bared his teeth towards Sakamochi.

Sakamochi looked amused by Shuya. Shuya would never forgive him for this. He was going to kill the bastard.

Shuya had been on the verge of blowing up the way Yoshitoki did. But then…

Shinji Mimura had intervened at the crucial moment, telling him to calm down__Shuya immediately recalled how he got the signal from him only moments ago. That's right…of course if he blew up now he would end up like Yoshitoki. And more importantly…now the girl whom Yoshitoki adored so much was severely injured. If he were to die now…what would happen to Noriko Nakagawa?

Shuya tried his best to tear his eyes away from Sakamochi. He looked down at his desktop. He felt wretched, as if his heart were being crushed from anger and sadness that had no outlet.

Sakamochi quietly laughed. He looked away from Shuya.

Shuya clenched both of his fists tightly under the desk in order to calm down his body which was shaking uncontrollably. He clenched them tighter and tighter. It was no easy feat to control his emotions though, with Yoshitoki's corpse lying right in front of him.

This was incomprehensible. How could it be? How could you lose someone…someone so close?

Yoshitoki has always been with me. It doesn't matter how trivial our experiences were. What about the time we played in the river, and I saved him from drowning? Or when we got our kicks collecting tons of grasshoppers, stuffing them into a small box, and how they died as a result? We both felt really bad about that. Or when we fought for that dog Eddie's attention? Or when we pulled a prank in school and ended up hiding in the faculty room attic? We almost got caught, but after we managed to escape, we had a good laugh___Yoshitoki and I were always together. It was a fact.

He was with me.

So how could he be…gone now?

Shinji raised his hand again, "I have another question, Mr. Sakamochi."

"You again? What is it?"

"Noriko is injured. I understand we will be participating in the Program, but doesn't this make the game unfair?"

Sakamochi looked amused.

"Well, perhaps, yes. So what is it?"

"Which means she should be treated, which means the Program should be postponed until her recovery, no?"

Shuya had barely managed to hold back his anger, so he was amazed by the contrast in Shinji Mimura's calm conduct. It was a bit strange that Shuya could actually afford to be impressed. Yes, Shinji Mimura was a lot calmer than Shuya. Shinji was right. If Shinji's request was granted, that might buy them some extra time. Then they might be able to escape.

Sakamochi's face contorted into laughter.

"That's a very interesting suggestion, Shinji."

Sakamochi instead offered an alternative solution, "Then shall we kill Noriko Nakagawa now, and make the game equal?"

Noriko herself along with the rest of class suddenly froze up again. Shuya could see Shinji's back underneath his school uniform stiffen as he immediately responded, "I take it back, I take it back. Come on, I was just kidding."

Sakamochi burst out laughing again at Shinji's humorous tone. Tahara, whose right hand had been on his holster, quickly returned it to the strap of his rifle hanging off his shoulder.

Sakamochi clapped his hands again.

"All right then, listen up. First of all, each and every one of you differ according to your intelligence, physical dexterity, etc., etc. We're born unequal. So we will not treat Noriko Nakagawa—over there!!

No whispering!" Sakamochi suddenly yelled. He threw a white object where Fumiyo Fujiyoshi (Female Student No. 18) was in the process of whispering something to the female class representative Yukie Utsumi, who was sitting next to her. Shuya wondered whether it was chalk for a moment, but of course that was absurd, given the circumstances.

The object made the thumping sound of a nail being pounded into a coffin. A thin knife was planted in the middle of Fumiyo Fujiyoshi's wide, fair-skinned forehead.

Yukie stared at the sight, her eyes open wide. A stranger sight though was Fumiyo herself raising her eyes, struggling to locate the knife planted in her forehead. Her head arched back in this attempt.

Then she collapsed to the side. As she fell, her left temple hit the corner of Yukie's desk and nudged it.

Now there was no room for doubt. Who could survive a knife planted in one's forehead?

No one moved. No one spoke a word. Yukie took a deep breath and stared down at Fumiyo. Noriko was also gazing at her. Shinji Mimura kept his lips pursed as he looked at Fumiyo collapsed between the desks just like Yoshitoki.

His throat dry, Shuya held his breath and thought, "He did that on a whim! A whim! Damn it! Our lives are totally at the mercy of this asshole Sakamochi!"

"Oops, I did it. I'm so sorry. The instructor killing someone, that's against the rules, huh?" Sakamochi closed his eyes and scratched his head. But his face became serious again and he said, "I need your undivided attention. Impulsive actions are strictly prohibited. That means whispering will not be permitted.

It's hard on me but if you whisper, I'll toss another knife at you!"

Shuya clenched his teeth. He told himself to be patient and repeated this over and over to himself while two classmates were sprawled dead on the floor.

Still, he was drawn to Yoshitoki's face and couldn't help but look at him. He felt he was about to cry.

40 students remaining

5

"Allow me to explain the rules."

Sakamochi returned to his cheerful voice. The classroom began to reek of Yoshitoki Kuninobu's fresh blood, an odor entirely different than that of the dried blood of their instructor, "Dragonfly" Hayashida.

Shuya couldn't see Fumiyo Fujiyoshi's face from his seat, but it seemed like there was very little blood coming out of her.

"I think you all know how this works. The rules are simple. All you have to do is kill each other. There are no violations. And," Sakamochi wore a wide grin, "the last remaining survivor can go home. You even get a nice card autographed by the Dictator. Isn't that wonderful?"

In his mind, Shuya spat to his side.

"Now you may think this is a horrible game. But in life the unexpected is bound to happen. You must at all times maintain self-control in order to respond properly to accidents. Consider this an exercise then.

Also, men and women will be treated equally. There will be no handicaps for either side. I do have good news for the girls, though. According to Program statistics, 49% of past winning survivors have been girls. The motto here is, 'I'm just like the others and the others are like me.' There is nothing to be afraid of."

Sakamochi made a signal. The camouflaged trio went into the hall and began to haul in the large, black, nylon day packs. The packs formed a pile right beside the body bag of Mr. Hayashida. Some of them were lopsided, as if they might contain a pole-shaped object inside trying to poke out.

"We will have you leave one by one. Each one of you will take one of these bags prior to departure.

Each pack contains food, water, and a weapon. Let's see, as I said, every one of you differs according to ability. So these weapons will add another random element. Well, that sounds complicated. In other words, it will make the game all the more unpredictable. You will each end up with a randomly selected weapon. As you leave in order, you will take the pack on top of the pile. Each pack also contains a map of the island, a compass, and a watch. Are there any of you who don't have watches? You all do? Oh, I forgot to mention this, but we are on an island with an approximate circumference of six kilometers. Its never been used for the Program. We had the residents evacuate the island. So there is absolutely no one else here. So…"

Sakamochi faced the blackboard and grabbed a piece of chalk. He drew a rough diamond shape next to where he had written his name, "Kinpatsu Sakamochi." On the top-right he drew an arrow pointing upward and the letter "N." He wrote an "X" inside the diamond, right of its center. With the chalk still pressed against the blackboard, he turned towards the students.

"All right then. We're in the school on this island. This is a diagram of the island, so this indicates the school. Got that?" Sakamochi tapped the symbol with his chalk. "I'm going to be staying here. I'll be overlooking your efforts."

Sakamochi then drew four spindle shapes scattered to the north, south, east, and west sides of the diamond.

"These are ships. They are there to kill anyone attempting to escape by sea."

Then he drew parallel vertical and horizontal lines over the island. The diamond shape indicating the island resembled a warped grill now. Starting from the top-left, Sakamochi wrote markers in each grid,

"A=ll," "A=2,"…in order. The next row read, "B=ll," "B=2," etc.

"This is just a simplified diagram. The map inside your packs will look something like this." Sakamochi placed his chalk down and clapped his hands to clear off the dust.

"Once you leave the premises, you are free to go anywhere. However, announcements will be made across the entire island at the hours of twelve and six, in the morning and at night. That's four a day. I'll be referring to this map when I announce the location of zones that will be forbidden after a certain time.

You must examine your maps closely and check your compasses against them. If you are in a forbidden zone you must clear out of the area as soon as possible. Because…"

Sakamochi put his hands on the lectern and looked at everyone.

"…of the collars around your necks."

Until he had made this remark, several students had failed to notice the collars. They touched their necks and looked shocked.

"That device is the result of the latest technology developed by our Republic. It is 100% waterproof, antishock, and uh-uh, no, no, it can't come off. It won't come off. If you try to pry it loose…" Sakamochi took a small breath, "…it will explode."

Several students who had been fingering their collars immediately released their hands.

Sakamochi grinned. "The collar monitors your pulse in order to verify signs of life and transmits this information to the mainframe at this school. It also pinpoints your exact position on the island for us.