Battle Royale

by Koushun Takami

  Fortunately though, they managed to find what appeared to be a private fishing-equipment warehouse along the shore south from the harbor, which was now forbidden along with the residential area. In spite of the fishing rope being weathered out from exposure, in spite of its heavy weight and size, given how it was over three hundred meters long, Shinji and Yutaka managed to divide it up, transport it, and hide it in the farm coop.

  Leaving these resources behind, they came up here.

  Shinji stared into the dark. The foot of the northern mountain, where they were now, spread out around this side of the school, in other words, the north side, and his right, the west side. To the left of the school, the woods on the east extended up to the northern side of the residential area and the seashore. Beyond the school there were paddy fields. There were clusters of trees here and there, and between them he could see some houses. Beyond the houses, Shinji could barely make out the farm coop warehouse where they had left all their equipment. Immediately to the left the area became gradually crowded with rows of roofs that extended over the border of the forbidden zone into the residential area. Yutaka tapped him on the shoulder. Shinji looked to Yutaka, who was on his right. Yutaka pulled out his student notepad and began writing something.

  That's right, before they started moving, Shinji had warned Yutaka with another message that they mustn't give anything away by talking. After all, if Sakamochi and his men found out they were up to no good again, this time Shinji was sure they wouldn't hesitate to blow their heads off by remote control. He'd already gone over why Sakamochi chose not to ignite Shinji and Yutaka's collars. It was probably because it was best for the game if the students fought each other as much as possible. Shinji had some theories about this. It had to do with a rumor he'd heard that high-ranking government officials placed bets on this game. If that was true, then he was sure the star shooting guard of Shiroiwa Junior High, The Third Man, must have been the top seed. All the more reason why Sakamochi couldn't just finish him off. That was Shinji's hypothesis. Meanwhile Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi were irrelevant players. Or, to be blunt, no one had placed any bets on them. Still, even if that were true (what a bastard that "Kinpati Sakamocho" was), as long as Sakamochi was in charge of this game, he could blow their heads off at any time. Shinji could only pray that wouldn't happen until they managed to bomb the school. Of course Shinji found the idea despicable. The thought of someone else having so much control over him was entirely revolting to Shinji, who learned from his uncle how to be totally self-reliant for everything in his life.

  As he looked down at the light from the school though, he shook his head. That was neither here nor there.

  He recalled his uncle once telling him, "Don't worry about stuff you can't do anything about. You do what you can even if your chances of success are less than one percent." Yutaka seemed done writing his message and tapped his shoulder. Shinji turned away from the view and examined the note under the moonlight.

  There's no way we can toss that enormous rope over there. Besides we left the rope behind. What are we going to do?

  That's right. He hadn't explained that yet. They'd been too frantic in their search for the equipment. Shinji nodded, took out his pencil, and wrote on the student notepad Wire. I brought some. We'll reel out the wire down to the other side and tie it to the rope. Then we'll draw in the rope by pulling the wire right before we execute our plan.

  He handed the pad over to Yutaka. After reading the note, he looked at Shinji and nodded, as if satisfied. Then he wrote You're going to tie a rock to the wire and throw it over there?

  Shinji shook his head. Yutaka opened his eyes, surprised. Then after some thought he wrote again Are you going to make a bow and arrow and shoot the wire across?

  Shinji shook his head again. He took the pad and began scribbling That might work. But even I can't throw a rock 300m away. And I can't afford to miss. If the rock hits the school we're done. And if the wire gets caught somewhere and we end up breaking it…I have a better plan. Yutaka didn't take up his pencil this time and only gazed back at Shinji as if saying, "?" Shinji took the pad and continued First, tie the wire to a tree here. Then go down the mountain with the other end of wire. Stretch it taut when we're on the other side.

  Yutaka read this but then almost immediately knit his brows skeptically. He wrote quickly, You can't do that his note read It'll get caught in the trees. Somewhere in the middle. Shinji grinned.

  He couldn't blame Yutaka for doubting him. The path they'd taken here was covered with trees, both large and small. Even if they managed to drag the wire out while avoiding G=7 and tugged on it later, the wire might get caught. It would make for an odd-looking piece of outdoor contemporary art. "This installation piece is gigantic, but five meters away it turns obscure. The piece addresses the delicate balance between nature and humans..." On top of that, sector G=7 was filled with dense forestry bordering up to the school. Unless you were a 100-meter-tall giant (wasn't there a video his uncle had shown him, an old special-effects movie where the superhero saves the world by fighting against monsters as they completely tear up the city? They don't make movies like that anymore) you'd have to cut down all the trees if you wanted to put the wire near the school. It was so obvious. And that was why Yutaka insisted it was impossible.

  But Shinji elegantly spread his arms out (given how they were on their stomachs though, the effect wasn't so impressive) and wrote How about launching an ad balloon, huh, Yutaka' ?

  Yutaka read the note and knit his brows. Shinji signaled Yutaka to get off the cliff rock and follow him. Once they sat under the rock, he rummaged through his day pack. He pulled out the contents and lined them up on the ground.

  A half dozen gas canisters, several hundred-meter reels of thin fishing wire (that was all he found at the farm coop), plastic tape, and a box of black plastic garbage bags.

  Shinji took one of the canisters and showed it to Yutaka. It was painted blue with bright red letters which read "VOICE CHANGER" (underneath the ad copy read, "Now you'll be the life of the party!" huh!), and under that there was an illustration of a duck—Shinji recognized where it came from—based on a

  "Walt Disney" character. A whistlelike object poked out of the canister. Shinji wrote I remembered seeing these at the house where I found the PowerBook. You know what this is?

  Before taking the pulley, Shinji had gone into the nearby house to retrieve these canisters. What in the world would the occupant of that house do with all these things, though? The files left on the PowerBook's hard drive offered a clue. Given how they had names like "5th Grade Science" or "Third Term Report Card Drafts," the owner of the machine must have been an elementary school teacher. Yes, he was probably one of the real teachers at that school.

  Yutaka touched his throat and opened his mouth. Shinji nodded.

  Right. It makes you sound like a duck! It's helium. And this one's a defect. So it's still loaded with gas.

  Yutaka still seemed unconvinced. Shinji thought an actual demonstration would get his point across quicker so he tore open the pack of garbage bags and pulled out a bag. He opened it up, inserted the canister valve (which was supposed to be sucked) into it, and taped it to the bag with the plastic tape. He sealed the edge of the bag with more tape. Then he pressed the valve button and the bag began to inflate. With his finger on the button, Shinji thought, this would be a lot more entertaining with condoms. But even if they had condoms they would have been a little too small. Huh?

  Do I have some on me? Well, I mean, come on, this was supposed to be a study trip. Anything can happen, right? You tossed your clothes, but you're still holding onto these? Yeah, I dunno, I do still have them. Well, you never know when they might come in handy. Let's not go into details. After filling up the bag, Shinji twisted the edge right above the canister and sealed it with tape. He took a reel of fishing wire and tied its end to the end of the bag. Then he removed the tape below to release it from the canister. Just to be sure, he folded the e
dge over again, sealing it again with more tape. The garbage bag floated upward. It rose until the wire was taut to the point where it almost seemed to lift the reel—but it stopped right at Shinji and Yutaka's heads.

  "See?" Shinji said out loud. Yutaka had probably realized what was going on while Shinji was working on the canister. He'd already nodded several times.

  Shinji tied another piece of wire from another reel to the wire stretching under the balloon. Just to be sure, he secured this to the balloon with tape. With the pair of wires in both of his hands, he moved the balloon as if it were walking on a pair of legs. Then he pointed to a nearby tree. He moved the string. Yes, in other words, these were the legs of the giant. They were too frail to crush a city and right now they're shorter than me, but…

  Yutaka seemed to understand completely. He gave two huge nods. Then he moved his lips without saying anything. It looked like he was saying, "Awesome, Shinji." Or maybe it was, "Enough already." Whatever, it didn't matter.

  Shinji took the memo pad and wrote, We make one or two more balloons and attach them to each other. But I still don't know how far up the wire can be stretched. There's also the wind. Let's just go for it.

  Yutaka read this and nodded.

  Shinji glanced up at the sky. The bags were black, so even under the moon, Sakamochi and his men wouldn't see them. Right now there wasn't much wind either. But he had no idea what it was like further up there in the sky.

  Then he said, "Let's hurry."

  Shinji signaled Yutaka to hold onto the first balloon and proceeded to pull out another garbage bag. 20 students remaining

  48

  Shogo rose a little after 10 p.m.

  Shuya had been looking after Noriko, who remained resting in bed. Shuya groped through the nearly pitch black room and entered the waiting room.

  "I'll make some coffee," Shogo said as he looked up at Shuya. Then he walked down the hall. He seemed to have good night vision.

  Shuya returned to the beds, where he found Noriko up without her blanket.

  "You should rest a little more," Shuya said.

  Noriko nodded, "Uh huh…" Then she mumbled, "Could you ask Shogo…if he's going to boil some more water if I can get an extra cup?" Noriko was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands by her thighs. Moonlight spilled in over the curtain from the window. She kept her chin tucked in as she looked over to her side.

  "Sure…but what for?"

  Noriko hesitated and then answered, "I sweated so much…I just wanted to wipe my body…maybe it's too much to ask for."

  "Oh no," Shuya replied and quickly nodded. "No prob. I'll go tell him." He left the room. Shogo was boiling water in the dark kitchen. The tip of the cigarette between his mouth glowed red, and the charcoal flame under the pot resembled a strange firefly stirring to life.

  "Shogo," Shuya said. Shogo turned around. The afterimage of his cigarette traced a thick line before vanishing. "Noriko was wondering if she could have some hot water. She said one cup was enough—"

  "Ah." Shogo didn't let him continue. He removed his cigarette from his mouth. Shuya could see Shogo was smiling in the dim moonlight coming through the window. "Sure. A cup or an entire bucket, fine with me."

  As he moved he scooped up water with the bowl from the bucket and added it to the pot. He repeated this five times. He kept a low charcoal flame going to keep the water in the pot boiling. Shuya felt some steam drift by.

  "She's a girl," Shogo said.

  It turned out Shogo wasn't as slow as Shuya was. He knew why Noriko asked for hot water. Shuya was silent and Shogo unexpectedly continued on his own.

  "She wants to stay pretty cause she's with you."

  Then he exhaled some smoke.

  Shuya remained quiet, but then asked, "Can I help you?"

  "No." Shogo seemed to be shaking his head. Squinting his eyes, Shuya could see three cups and a coffee dripper already loaded with a filter on the table. There was also a tea bag for Noriko.

  "Hey," Shogo called him.

  Shuya lifted his brow, "What is it? All of a sudden you're so chatty." Shogo chuckled. Then he continued, "I understand how you feel about Yoshitoki, but don't forget about Noriko's feelings."

  Shuya fell silent again. The he spoke. For some reason, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. "I know."

  "You have a girlfriend?" Shogo proceeded to ask.

  Shuya shrugged. "Nope."

  "Then what's the problem?"

  Shogo continued to look at the window, smoking his cigarette. "It's not a bad thing to be loved." Shuya shrugged again. Then he asked, "Don't you have someone?" His cigarette glowed brightly. He didn't say anything. The smoke drifted slowly through the dark.

  "A secret, huh?"

  "No…" Shogo began to speak, but then he removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it into the bucket of water. "Get down, Shuya," he whispered and crouched down. Shuya nervously obeyed him. Was someone going to attack? He grew tense.

  "Get Noriko. Be quiet though," Shogo whispered again. Shuya was already on his way to the examination room, where Noriko was.

  Noriko was still sitting in a daze on the edge of the bed. Shuya signaled her to duck down. She must have immediately understood because she got off the bed, holding her breath. Shuya offered her his hand for support as they moved to the kitchen. He looked over to the entrance on the way there, but there was no one beyond the glass door.

  Shogo had already gathered their day packs which he'd packed with refilled water bottles and other items, and now he was on his knees by the back door, holding his shotgun.

  "What is it?" Shuya asked in a hushed voice. Shogo lifted his left hand to silence him. Shuya didn't say another word.

  "Someone's outside," Shogo whispered. "We'll exit through whichever door they don't enter." The only thing visible in the dark was the bright charcoal flame under the pot. Given the location of the sink, it couldn't be seen from outside.

  Shuya heard a tapping sound. It came from the entrance. The door wouldn't open because of the stick jamming it. The glass was broken, so the person outside must have realized that someone had entered the building and that it was probably still occupied.

  There was a clacking sound, but then it stopped. It sounded like the person had given up. Shogo groaned. "Damn, we'll be in trouble if this one tries to set this place on fire." They remained quiet, but there was still no sound. Then Shogo signaled for them to move towards the entrance. He might have heard a slight sound.

  They were nearly crawling down the hall.

  As they made their way, Shogo, behind the other two, reached out to Shuya who was leading. They stopped. Shuya turned around and looked over his shoulder at Shogo.

  "He's circling back to the front." He waved his hand to the back. "Let's go out the back." So they went towards the kitchen down the hall.

  Shogo stopped again before they entered the kitchen.

  "Damn, why?" he muttered.

  …the person outside was now coming round to the back door again.

  The silence continued. Shogo held onto his shotgun. With Noriko between him and Shogo, Shuya also gripped the SIG-Sauer that had once belonged to Kaori Minami. (He'd given the Smith & Wesson to Shogo. Shuya decided to hold onto the gun that had more bullets.)

  But the silence was suddenly broken. A voice called from outside the kitchen window. "It's Hiroki," he said. "I'm not fighting. Respond, you three. Who are you?"

  It was undoubtedly the voice of Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11), who along with Shinji Mimura was one of the few classmates Shuya could trust.

  "What the?…" Shuya moaned. "That's incredible..."

  It was a stroke of luck. He never thought they'd see Hiroki. Shuya and Noriko looked at each other. Noriko looked relieved.

  Shogo stopped Shuya as he tried to get up.

  "What?"

  "Shh. Don't raise your voice."

  Shuya stared at Shogo's serious expression and then responded with an exaggerated shrug
and smiled.

  "Don't worry. I'll vouch for him. We can totally trust him."

  Shogo shook his head and said, "How did he know there were three of us?" That thought hadn't occurred to Shuya. He thought it over while looking at Shogo. But he had no idea. That didn't matter though. The important thing was that Hiroki was here. He just wanted to see Hiroki's face now.

  "Maybe he saw us go in here, from far away. That's why he didn't know who we were."

  "What took him so long to get here then?"

  Shuya thought again. "He probably deliberated over whether he should find out who was here or not__In any case, we can trust Hiroki. I'll vouch for him."

  Shuya ignored Shogo, who looked like he wasn't satisfied. He raised his voice and directed it beyond the window. "It's Shuya, Hiroki. I'm with Shogo Kawada and Noriko Nakagawa."

  "Shuya!…" a relieved voice replied. "Let me in. Where should I come in?" Before Shuya could answer, Shogo raised his voice, "This is Shogo. Go to the front entrance. Keep your hands behind your head and do not move. Got that?"

  "Shogo…" Shuya was about to protest, but Hiroki immediately responded, "Got it." What looked like the upper body of Hiroki crossed the frosted glass window.

  Shogo bent down to look out of the cracks in the glass. Holding onto his shotgun, he yanked out the obstructing stick and opened the door.

  Hiroki Sugimura was standing with his hands behind his neck. He was slightly taller than Shogo, but more slender. His hair, wavy like Shuya's, went down the middle of his forehead. His day pack was by his feet and for some reason there was a 1.5-meter stick on the ground.

  It was true. Shuya shifted his eyes, as if it were a miracle. Shuya's face made Hiroki grin.

  "I have to do a body check."

  "Shogo, come on…"