Battle Royale

by Koushun Takami

  "…really?" Shuya felt like he was constantly repeating this phrase to Shogo. Shogo broke the seal of the small bottle and injected it with the syringe, filling it up with the liquid from the ampoule. After removing the syringe, he held the bottle and shook it vigorously. Then he injected the syringe again to extract the liquid mixture.

  After preparing another syringe like this, he finally approached them.

  "Is she going to be all right?" Shuya asked again. "What about side effects or shock?"

  "That's what I'm going to check for now. Just do as I say. Pull out Noriko's arm." Unsure of the situation, Shuya lifted the side of the blanket and rolled up both the sleeves of his school coat and her sailor suit. Her arm was very thin and her healthy looking dark skin had now become excruciatingly white.

  "Noriko," Shogo asked her, "have you ever had any allergic reactions to any medicine?" Noriko opened her eyes again in a daze.

  Shogo repeated, "Are you allergic to any medicine?"

  Noriko shook her head slightly.

  "Good. I'm going to test you first though."

  Shogo held her arm out with her palm up, then took a cotton swab soaked with disinfectant and wiped the area between her wrist and elbow. He slowly inserted the needle, injecting only a small amount of the liquid. A slight bump formed on this area of her skin. Shogo took out another syringe and performed another injection.

  "What are you doing?" Shuya asked.

  "One of them is real medicine. If she's in the same condition fifteen minutes later, we won't have to worry about side effects. It means we can probably use the medicine. But…"

  "But?"

  Shogo quickly took out another larger bottle from the cardboard box. He placed it on the small desk nearby, prepared another syringe, and looked over at Shuya. "It's not easy to diagnose septicemia. To be honest I can't tell whether this is from septicemia or just a cold. Antibiotics are pretty potent, and that's why we're testing this on her, but the fact is my experience and knowledge is pretty limited, so injecting her with this syringe could be pretty dicey. On the other hand…"

  Holding Noriko's hand, Shuya waited for him to continue.

  Shogo took a breath and continued, "If she is suffering from septicemia, then we have to treat her as soon as possible. Otherwise, it'll be too late."

  Fifteen minutes passed by quickly. In the meantime, Shogo checked her pulse again and took her temperature. The thermometer read 39 degrees Celsius. No wonder she could barely stand. Shuya couldn't tell the difference between the two adjacent marks from the syringes. Shogo also appeared to reach the same conclusion and took the larger syringe.

  Crouching down slightly, Shogo asked, "Noriko. Are you awake?" Noriko answered with her eyes shut, "Uh huh…"

  "I'll be honest. I don't know if you're suffering from septicemia or not. I think you probably are." Noriko nodded slightly. She must have been able to follow Shuya and Shogo's conversation moments ago.

  "It's all right…go ahead."

  Shogo nodded and inserted the syringe, this time deeply.

  He injected the liquid and removed the needle. Then he wiped her arm with the cotton and told Shuya,

  "Hold this."

  Shogo took the empty syringe and walked over to the sink to toss it away. Then he came back.

  "Now she's got to sleep. You look after her for a while. If she looks thirsty, you can use the whole bottle."

  Shuya said, "But that's—"

  Shuya shook his head.

  "Don't worry. I found a well behind the building. As long as we boil the water we can drink it." Shogo left the room. Shuya turned towards the bed. With his right hand pressing the cotton swab and his left hand gently holding Noriko's hand, he watched over her.

  22 students remaining

  42

  Noriko fell asleep almost immediately. Shuya checked to make sure she wasn't bleeding from the shot, then he tossed the cotton swab, tucked her arm under the blanket, and left the room. The doctor's living quarters was beyond the waiting room next door. There was a kitchen at the end of the hall on the right. Shogo was in there. The gas stove next to the sink wasn't operating, but on it was a large pot filled with water, and under it a pile of charcoal was glowing red. Shogo was standing on a table, looking through a built-in ceiling cabinet across from the sink. That's when Shuya noticed for the first time that Shogo was wearing New Balance sneakers. He'd assumed they were some domestic brand like Mizumo or Kageboshi. New Balance! He'd never seen them before!

  Whatever. "What are you doing?" he asked.

  "I'm looking for food. I found some rice and miso, but nothing else. The vegetables in the fridge are rotten."

  Shuya shook his head. "You're stealing."

  "Of course I am," Shogo said dryly and then added while he continued rummaging, "Forget about it. Just be ready. Anyone could show up at any moment. If the machine gun shooter shows up, we'll be dead. So be ready."

  Shuya replied, "Yeah, all right."

  Shogo jumped off the table. The New Balance shoes squeaked against the floor.

  "Is she asleep?" he asked.

  Shuya nodded.

  Shogo pulled out another pot from under the sink, walked up to the plastic rice container in the corner, and poured rice into the pot.

  "So you're boiling rice."

  "That's right. Noriko won't recover eating that terrible bread." Shogo scooped up a bowl of water from the bucket on the floor and poured it into the pot. He combed through the rice and only changed the water once. Next to the boiling water, he placed several pieces of charcoal from his day pack onto the other burner, then took out a pack of cigarettes and emptied them into his pocket. Then he crumpled the pack, lit it with his lighter, and stuck it into the charcoal. Once the charcoal was lit, he put the lidded pot of rice on the burner. It was an impressive sight.

  "Damn," Shuya said.

  Shogo took a break as he lit up a cigarette and looked at Shuya.

  "You're so good at everything."

  "Yeah?" Shogo answered lightly. But something else flashed through Shuya's mind. The moment Kaori Minami was murdered…you know what's going to happen but there's nothing you can do to stop it. Slow motion. Kaori spins around and the left side of her head's blown off. It was blown away, did you see that?…If it had been Shogo instead of Shuya, the outcome wouldn't have been so horrible.

  "Are you still bummed about Kaori?" Shogo said. Once again, Shogo's psychic powers were on. The sunlight doesn't reach this far inside, but that didn't seem to affect him. Shogo shook his head. "Don't let it get to you. It was a bad situation. You did your best." Shogo's voice was kind, but Shuya looked down. The corpse of Kaori Minami, collapsed on her side inside a grimy farm equipment shack. The pool of blood gradually spreading, oozing outward. By now, beginning to congeal. But the body would just stay there, with no ceremony, just left there like a disposed mannequin sprawled inside that shack. Of course in that sense she was no exception to Tatsumichi Oki, Kyoichi Motobuchi, Yukiko Kitano, and Yumiko Kusaka. That's right, everyone else was in the same boat.

  He felt like puking. They were all lying there, on the ground. Already close to twenty of them.

  "Shogo." The words spilled out.

  In response Shogo tilted his head and slightly moved his hand that was holding the cigarette.

  "What happens to the dead…their bodies?" Shuya asked. "Are they left there until this stupid game is over? So they just start rotting while the game is going on?"

  Shogo answered as if it were an official matter. "That's right. Once it's over, the following day a clean-up crew is hired to take care of them."

  "…clean-up crew?" Shuya bared his teeth.

  "Yep. I heard about it from someone who works for the subcontractor, so I'm sure it's true. Self Defense Forces soldiers are too proud to perform such menial tasks. Of course, government officials accompany the crew to collect the collars and examine the bodies. You know, so the news media can report the number of deaths by strangulation, all that stuff."
/>
  Shuya was pissed. He recalled that final part of the news report. The meaningless causes of deaths and itemization of each student.

  But he also realized something and knit his brows.

  Shogo saw this and asked, "What's up?"

  "Well…that doesn't make sense. I mean these…" Shuya raised his hand up to his neck. His fingers touched the collar's cold surface, its sensation no longer so strange. "I thought these were a secret. Shouldn't they collect them before the hired hands come in?"

  Shogo shrugged. "The cleaning crew have no idea what they're for. They probably just assume they're used as markers. The guy I talked to didn't even remember them until I asked him about them. So there's no rush. They can deal with the collars after the clean-up crew's collected the bodies, right?" It was true. But even so, something else bugged him.

  "Hold on. What if one of these is defective? Let's say it breaks down and someone who's alive is assumed to be dead. Couldn't that student escape? Shouldn't they confirm all the dead right after the game?"

  Shogo raised his brows. "You talk like you work for the government."

  "No…" he stammered. "It's just that—"

  "I doubt they could ever be defective. Think about it. If they actually could break down, this game couldn't proceed smoothly. Besides, if a student equipped with weapons turned out to be alive, they couldn't even afford to check the bodies. It'd turn into another battle." Shogo took a drag as he considered it more thoroughly. "This is just my guess, but I think each collar is loaded with multiple systems, so that if one breaks down, another gets switched on. Even if one system became defective—the chances of that being at least less than one in a hundred—if the systems were combined the probability would practically be reduced to zero. In other words," he said, looking at Shuya, "it would be impossible for us to escape that way."

  Shuya understood. He saw no reason not to object. (Once again, he couldn't help but be impressed by Shogo's intelligence.)

  But then—

  The question he promised not to ask crossed his mind. Which was:

  How did Shogo plan to beat a perfect, escape-proof system?

  Before he could consider it, Shogo said, "Anyway, look, I have to apologize."

  "About what?"

  "About Noriko. I was wrong. We should have treated her sooner."

  "No…" Shuya shook his head. "It's okay. Thanks. I would have been useless on my own." Shogo exhaled and fixed his gaze on a part of the wall. "We'll just have to wait and see. If it's just a cold, then her fever will go down as soon as she gets some rest. And if it turns out it's from septicemia then the medicine should kick in."

  Shuya nodded. He was grateful they had Shogo. Without Shogo, he would have been helpless, doomed to watch Noriko deteriorate. He was also sorry for saying to Shogo, "You can forget about our deal," and heading off here. It was immature. Shogo must have made his decision after carefully weighing the risk of moving during the day against Noriko's condition.

  Shuya decided he should apologize. "Hey, I'm sorry. Saying you were on your own and all. I just got so excited—"

  Still looking away from Shuya, Shogo shook his head and smiled. "No. You made the right decision. End of conversation."

  Shuya took a breath and decided to let it go. Then he asked, "Is your father still a practicing doctor?" Shogo shook his head as he took a drag. "No."

  "What's he doing? Is he still in Kobe?"

  "No. He died." Shogo said it casually.

  Shuya's eyes opened wide. "When?"

  "Last year, while I was playing this game. By the time I got back he was dead. He probably got in a scuffle with the government."

  Shuya's face stiffened. He was beginning to understand the glimmer in Shogo's eyes when he'd said, "I'm going to tear up this fucking country." The moment Shogo ended up in the Program, Shogo's father must have tried some kind of protest. Which must have been met with a shower of bullets. It occurred to Shuya that the parents of some of his classmates might have ended up the same way.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

  "Don't worry about it."

  Shuya paused and then asked another question, "Then you moved to Kagawa Prefecture with your mother?"

  Shogo shook his head and again replied, "No. My mom died when I was a kid. I was seven. She died from illness. My dad used to cry over the fact that he couldn't even save her. But my dad specialized in surgery, like abortions. Nervous disorders were out of his field."

  Shuya apologized again, "I'm sorry."

  Shogo chuckled. "Hey, it's all right. We both don't have parents, right? And it's true about getting a lifetime pension. I've got enough to live on. Although they don't give you as much as they say they do." Bubbles began to form at the bottom of the first large pot. The charcoal under the rice pot was still mostly black, but the charcoal under the large pot was flaming red. The heat reached the table where Shuya and Shogo were standing next to each other. Shuya sat up on the table, which was covered with a flower-pattern vinyl tablecloth.

  Without warning, Shogo suddenly said, "You were good friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu." Shuya looked over at Shogo and looked at his profile. Then he looked ahead. It felt like a while since he'd last thought of Yoshitoki. He felt a little guilty about it.

  "Yeah," he answered. "We've known each other forever." After hesitating a little, Shuya continued,

  "Yoshitoki had a crush on Noriko."

  Shogo continued smoking, listening.

  Shuya wondered whether he should continue with what he was about to say. It had nothing to do with Shogo. But he decided to tell him anyway. Shogo was a friend now. It was all right for him to know, and besides, they had time to kill right now.

  "Yoshitoki and I were at this orphanage called the Charity House—"

  "I know."

  Shuya nodded and continued, "There're all kinds of kids there. I ended up there when I was five. My parents were killed in a car accident. But that's unusual. Most of them—" Shogo understood. "They end up there because of 'domestic' problems. They're illegitimate children." Shuya nodded. "So you know."

  "A little."

  He took a deep breath. "Well, Yoshitoki was illegitimate. Of course, no one at the orphanage told him, but there are ways to find out. He was conceived from an 'illicit affair' and both sides refused to take him in. So…"

  The water made a gurgling sound.

  "I remember something Yoshitoki once said to me. It was a long time ago, probably when we were still in elementary school."

  Shuya recalled that moment. They were in the corner of the school playground, rocking back and forth on a big swing made of a wooden log and wire rope.

  "Hey, Shuya. I was thinking—"

  "What?"

  Shuya responded in his usual casual voice, kicking at the ground to rock the log. Yoshitoki didn't put much effort into it, letting his legs dangle from both sides of the log.

  "Well…uh…"

  "What is it? Spit it out."

  "Well…do you have a crush on anyone?"

  "Oh, please," Shuya grinned. He knew it was something about girls. "So that's it? What's the matter? You have a crush on someone, huh?"

  "Well…" Yoshitoki evaded the question and once again asked, "Well, do you?" Shuya thought about it and then moaned, "Hmmm."

  By then he was "Wild Seven." So he'd gotten several love letters. But at the time he never fell head over heels for anyone in particular. As it turned out, he wouldn't until he met Kazumi Shintani. He answered, "Well, I think there're some cool girls…"

  Yoshitoki didn't say anything back so he assumed he wanted to hear more. He continued speaking in a light tone, "Komoto's not bad. She actually wrote me a love letter. I haven't, uh, responded though. Then there's Utsumi, who's on the volleyball team. She's pretty cool. That's my type. You know, real outgoing."

  Yoshitoki looked pensive.

  "What is it? I told you, now you tell me. Who is it?"

  But Yoshitoki only said, "No, that's not it."

/>   Shuya knit his brows.

  "What is it then?"

  Yoshitoki seemed quite hesitant, but then he said, "You see, I never really understood."

  "?"

  "I mean…" His legs dangled passively as he continued, "I think if you really loved someone you'd marry her, right?"

  "Uh, yeah." Shuya replied with an idiotic look on his face. "Yeah. If…if I loved someone, I'd want to marry her…I mean I don't feel that way about anyone."

  "Right?" Yoshitoki said, as if it were only natural. Then he asked, "So let's say you just can't get married for some reason. If you ended up having a kid with her, wouldn't you still want to raise the kid?" Shuya felt a little uncomfortable. He'd just begun to get the idea of how babies were made.

  "Having a kid? Hey, you're still a kid. That's dirty stuff. You know I heard that that's—" That was when Shuya finally remembered Yoshitoki was born as a result of an illicit affair and that neither of his parents wanted him. Startled, he held back what he was about to say. Yoshitoki was staring at the log between his thighs. Then he mumbled, "My parents weren't like that." Shuya suddenly felt really bad for him.

  "H-hey, Yoshi—" He looked up at Shuya and said somewhat forcefully, "So I-I just don't know. Loving someone. I don't feel like I can trust that sort of thing."

  Shuya continued pushing with his legs, but he had no choice but to stare back at Yoshitoki. He felt as if he were being addressed in a language from another planet. At the same time, it sounded like a dreadful prophecy.

  "I think—"

  His hands by his waist, Shuya gripped the corners of the table covered with the vinyl tablecloth. Shogo continued smoking, squinting his eyes.

  "I think Yoshitoki was a lot more mature at that point already. I was just a silly kid. And ever since then, Yoshitoki, even since we entered junior high, and I fell for someone," this was Kazumi Shintani, "he never brought it up. That kind of worried me."

  Another gurgling sound.

  "But then one day he told me he liked Noriko. I acted like it wasn't a big deal…but I was so happy for him. And that was, that was…"