Battle Royale

by Koushun Takami

  He entered. It was a cylindrical space made of bare concrete. The tower. This was the lighthouse. There was a thick steel column in the center and a spiral steel staircase winding around it. There were no windows, only a sliver of light from above.

  "Yuko!" Shuya yelled. He began climbing the stairs as he yelled, "What happened, Yuko!?" Yuko wasn't there at the top of the stairs. But…he heard the sound of her scream "AIEEE" echo through the cylindrical space of the tower. Shuya knit his brows…and began quickly climbing the stairs. The wound in his side began to ache. He thought he might be bleeding because his bandages now felt damp. 9 students remaining

  64

  Yuko Sakaki ran out of breath as she climbed up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse. The Cyclops-like Fresnel lens was at the center of the landing, and there was enough space to move around it. She saw the cloudy sky beyond the windproof windows of the lantern room. On her left was a low door that led to a narrow balcony, and frantically she opened it. She was outside now.

  Maybe it was the height, but the wind was stronger than she'd expected. She caught a strong whiff of the sea breeze.

  The ocean was right there in front of her. Reflecting the cloudy sky, the sea was dull indigo, and the white waves were woven into it like some fabric. Yuko edged over to the right. The northern mountain was right in front of her. There was a small, open lot in front of the lighthouse building. On her left an unpaved road stretched out around the foot of the mountain, and there was a white light truck right by a barely functional gate in front of the road.

  Yuko held onto the steel handrailing around the balcony. The room she was inside only moments ago was down below. She saw the roof of the single-story building annex. Following the railing, she continued circling the lantern room, but didn't find what she thought she would—a steel ladder. Yuko never had the chance to keep watch so she didn't know the exterior of the lighthouse. There was no way out. She was standing, facing the sky. She was trapped now. Realizing this, she was about to panic, but she clenched her teeth and held herself together. If there was no ladder… then she'd have to jump. She was panting. She ended up returning to her previous position. She looked down again. It was high. It wasn't as bad as leaping to the ground, but it was still high. In fact, it might have been impossible to jump at this height, but before she could make a rational choice the image flashed across her mind again. This time it was her head, alone, split open. Blood spraying up. Shuya's face covered with its blood. She had to escape. No matter what. She just had to escape. She had no time to lose. Yuko crouched down and slid between the haphazardly installed steel fence. Its bars were widely spaced. She got through. Holding onto the railing from outside, she cautiously stood on the edge of the balcony barely ten centimeters wide, but…

  …the view below her feet made her dizzy. It was way too high…jumping down was out of the question…it was just way too high…

  Her view suddenly shook. Her feet slipped. The side of her shin hit the concrete edge of the balcony (she felt her skin scraping off), and Yuko's body flew out into the sky. "AIEEE," Yuko shrieked. Simultaneously, her hands groped around and managed to grab a thin steel bar from the steel fence. Yuko's body hung from the edge of the balcony.

  Holding onto the railing, Yuko was panting. She nearly…nearly died.

  However, she took a deep breath and put all her might into her hands. First, that's right, first she had to lift her body up and get back to the other side of the railing. Then she would have to figure out some way to fight Shuya Nanahara. That was the only—

  The strong wind whistled by and shook her body. She shrieked, "AIEEE," but it didn't do much. Her hands clutching onto the steel bar slipped, and now the palms of her hands barely managed to hold onto the edge of the balcony. Now she couldn't even reach for the steel bars. She was appalled to find her palms were oozing sweat. She was overcome with fear and panic. How, how, how, how could she be sweating now? Her hands…her hands were slipping___

  Her right pinky slipped off the edge of the balcony.

  "No!" Yuko screamed. Then her ring finger. Then her entire right hand fell off the railing (she felt the nail of her index finger catch, but it peeled off and that was that). Her body swung, her left hand now the fulcrum. And now her left hand too…

  "Ahhhhhh—" As she screamed, Yuko was overwhelmed with a dreamlike sensation that she was falling. But then she felt an impact run down her arm to her shoulder. Her fall came to a halt less than half a meter below.

  Swinging like a pendulum on her left arm, Yuko gazed up…and then saw Shuya Nanahara beyond the railing extending his body, stretching his right arm out, holding her wrist. For an instant Yuko gazed at Shuya's face, but then the next moment she screamed, "No—!" Of course if she let go she would die, but it was Shuya Nanahara holding her hand!

  "No! No!"

  Her eyes wide open, her hair tossed around, Yuko continued screaming as she wondered, why? Why are you trying to save me? Is it because you want to use me to survive? Or, oh, I get it. You want to kill me with your very own hands!

  "No! Let me go!" Yuko screamed. Any trace of rational thought had all but disappeared. "No! I'd rather die here than let you kill me! Let me go! Let me go!"

  Whatever he thought in reaction, or maybe he wasn't thinking at all, in any case, his expression stayed the same, and he yelled, "Don't move!"

  Yuko gazed up at Shuya again…and realized the bandage under the silver collar covering his neck wound oozed with blood now dripping down his bare shoulder.

  The blood dripped down his arm and reached her left hand.

  "Ugh," Shuya moaned. He gripped Yuko's hand tighter. His face was breaking into a sweat. That's right, it wasn't just his neck, his entire body was covered with severe wounds. Given how he was not only holding her entire weight with his right arm but attempting to pull her up, he had to be in incredible pain. Yuko's jaw dropped. Why? Why would you try to save me when you're in so much pain? That's—

  Strangely enough, it suddenly all came to her. The black mist clouding her thoughts suddenly cleared as if blown away by the sea breeze blowing against her body. The image of Shuya holding the blood-soaked axe, looking down at Tatsumichi Oki's corpse, suddenly vanished as if shredded by the wind, and all her previous (although it was only two days ago) memories of the Third Year Class B classroom along with the cheerful expressions of Shuya Nanahara came back to her. How he joked around with his friends Yoshitoki Kuninobu and Shinji Mimura, how he looked so serious repeating a difficult guitar line while practicing in the music room, how he posed triumphantly at second base after making a perfect hit down the third base line during gym class, which she managed to see from the gym where she was playing volleyball. And then when she was pale from menstrual cramps, how he'd gently said to her, "What's wrong, Yuko? You look pale," interrupted their English teacher Mr. Yamamoto, and called on the nurse's assistant, Fumiyo Fujiyoshi. How he looked so concerned then.

  Oh no. Yuko finally understood the situation. This is Shuya. Shuya is trying to save me. I…why? Why did I have to think I had to kill Shuya? Why did I believe that? It's Shuya. And I always thought he was kind of cool…that he was really nice but no—

  Then a different thought occurred to her. The action she took and its results. Yuko once again turned pale.

  I…my mind was all screwed up…and…and that's how I ended up—

  Yuko burst into tears. Shuya saw this and looked puzzled.

  "Shuya!" she screamed. "I-it was me! I tried to kill you!" Shuya looked surprised as Yuko looked up with despondent tears in her eyes. Yuko continued. "I-I-I thought you'd killed Tatsumichi…! saw you two…and I was scared. I was so scared. So I tried poisoning your food…but Yuka ended up eating it…and then everyone…everyone…" Shuya then understood everything. Hiding in a nearby bush, Yuko had seen him extract the axe from Tatsumichi Oki's head after fighting him. She didn't see how Kyoichi Motobuchi and Shogo appeared afterwards. She'd only witnessed that one moment. She could have interpreted it
as an act of self defense on Shuya's part or as an accident, but Yuko was too frightened to trust Shuya. And so she poisoned the food to kill him, but Yuka ate this by mistake…and everyone panicked with suspicion. The culprit, Yuko, ended up being the only survivor…

  "It's all right!" Shuya shouted. "It's all right, just don't move! I'll pull you up!" Shuya was nearly lying flat on the balcony, his body jutting out between the bars, but because his left arm was useless, he couldn't grab onto the railing. Still, he twisted his body, and finally managed to tuck his right knee up to his body so he could rely on his back. He did his best to hold onto Yuko's wrist. The pain from the wounds all over his body, his side, his left shoulder, and the right side of his neck was mounting. But…

  Her face soaked with tears, Yuko shook her head. "No. No. It was my fault everyone…everyone…" she said, and suddenly her hand began to pry his fingers loose. The tight grip he'd finally managed to get on her came loose. Shuya gripped tighter in response, but…the blood dripping down from his neck suddenly made his hand slip.

  Yuko's hand left Shuya's. The weight on Shuya's arm suddenly vanished.

  Yuko's face looking up at Shuya receded—

  With a thud, Yuko fell on her back onto the roof of the single-story building below. Instead of slipping from his hand, she seemed to have appeared there suddenly via time-lapse photography. Her body wrapped in her sailor shirt and pleated skirt was sprawled out…and her neck was crooked, which made her head look oddly disjoined from the rest of her body. The top-right side of her head spurted out a red substance in the shape of a shriveled up maple leaf.

  "Ah…"

  Shuya stared down at her, his right arm still hanging over the balcony.

  8 students remaining

  65

  Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11) took a deep breath.

  He'd heard the rapid gunfire approximately ten minutes ago. He'd been wandering around the northern mountain, but he quickly headed east toward the shots. Then…by the time he arrived it was already quiet at the lighthouse. He knew it was there from the map, but he assumed Kayoko Kotohiki would never hide there alone in such a conspicuous location, so he'd ignored it until now. He wasn't sure whether this was where the gunfire occurred. He looked down from the cliff over the lighthouse and saw a girl lying on the roof of the brick annex by the lighthouse. Even from a distance he could make out the red color…and see that she was dead. The short hair and petite body resembled Kotohiki, as Megumi Eto's corpse did when he discovered it.

  He slid down the edge of the cliff. As he descended, the corpse on the roof disappeared from view. He reached the front entrance of the lighthouse. There was a pile of chairs and desks beyond the open door. Someone had formed a barricade, but for some reason this barricade was also torn down. He looked at the window that was sealed shut with planks and cautiously walked down the hall. (There was a room with a bed right by the entrance, and for some reason its door had been knocked down.) His detector responded. Six. Hiroki proceeded cautiously—

  And stood frozen in the room splattered with blood.

  The bodies of five girls were scattered all over what appeared to be a kitchen. There was the female student representative Yukie Utsumi on her back by the center table. To her right was Haruka Tanizawa, her head nearly torn off (!). And further down Yuka Nakagawa, whose face had turned nearly black. Chisato Matsui was lying face down in front of the side table to his right, her pale blue face turned his way. And then one more girl was lying face down behind the table, covered in blood. The four girls, including Yukie, were clearly dead. But this one whose face he couldn't see was…

  Hiroki cautiously checked the room once again. He listened for any sounds beyond the opened door on the other side of the room. There didn't seem to be anyone else hiding.

  He tucked the gun in his left hand in back, walked between the bodies of Yukie Utsumi and Haruka Tanizawa, passed by Yuka Nakagawa's body, and walked around the table. The soles of his shoes splashed against the blood all over the floor. He crouched down beside the girl lying face down, put aside the stick in his right hand, and lifted her body. He felt a sharp pain from the wound in his right shoulder where Mitsuko Souma had struck him. The gunshot wound Toshinori Oda had inflicted on his thigh though was only a scrape, so there wasn't much bleeding or pain there. Hiroki tried to ignore the pain, in any case. He turned over the body.

  It was Satomi Noda. There was a red hole in the left side of her forehead, and her glasses, though crooked, managed to stay on her face. The left lens probably shattered when she fell. Of course she was dead.

  Hiroki put her down and looked over at the opened door on the far side of the room. That was where the tower was. That led up to the lantern room.

  The other person on the detector was that girl on the roof. She was no doubt dead as well, but he had to check and make sure…as long as she resembled Kayoko Kotohiki.

  Hiroki took his gun and entered through the door. There was a steel staircase. He quickly climbed them with hushed footsteps. Someone might still be up there. He held the stick and radar in his right hand, checking it as he went up.

  There were no new responses as he came out into the lantern room. Hiroki put the radar in his pocket, tucked his gun also in back, and came out onto the balcony around the lantern room. He put his hand on the steel railing. He took a deep breath, leaned over the railing, and looked down. There was the corpse in the sailor suit. Her neck was twisted in an odd way and blood spread out from under her head but the corpse…wasn't Kayoko Kotohiki's. It was Yuko Sakaki. Still…

  He gazed at the sea. There was a strong breeze. Six girls had all died here at once. There were no guns in the room, but given how they were wounded and how the walls and floors were ridden with bullet holes, he was certain the gunshots he'd heard had occurred here. The most logical scenario was that…the girls somehow got together and cooped themselves up here, but then someone attacked them. The five girls were shot down there first, and then Yuko Sakaki managed to get this far and fell to her death without being attacked by the assailant. Then the assailant left before Hiroki got here.... But given how they'd formed a barricade at the entrance—the planks nailed over the windows, every entry point probably sealed—why would they tear the barricade down? Did the assailant shove it away as he left? But then how could he or she have entered in the first place? Could it be…there were seven of them? And one of them had suddenly betrayed the rest—no, revealed his or her true intentions? No, that can't be...The other thing was that Yuka Nakagawa didn't look like she died from gunshots. She looked like…she'd been choked. The blood splattered all over the table also didn't make any sense. How could that large amount of blood end up there? There was more. The door to that room right next to the entrance. Why was it torn down?

  There was no use trying to figure it out. Hiroki shook his head, checked the roof of the building, and returned to the lantern room.

  As he descended the steel spiral staircase in the dim tower and gazed at the inner walls of the lighthouse, Hiroki felt a light sensation of vertigo as if the spiral movement of the stairs were internalized. It might have been from fatigue, but still…

  So now there were six students less. Sakamochi said there were fourteen students left, as of the noon announcement. Then there were at most eight students left now.

  Was Kayoko Kotohiki still alive? Wasn't it possible she might have died between noon and now in some area he didn't know about?

  No, Hiroki thought, she has to be alive.

  Even though he could hardly justify it, for some reason he was nearly certain. Eight students remaining, possibly even less. But I'm alive, and so must be Kotohiki. This is taking too much time. It's been a day and a half since the game began, and I still haven't managed to find Kotohiki. But…I will eventually. Once again he was nearly certain.

  Then he thought of Shuya's trio. None of their three names had been announced. Shogo Kawada had said, "If you're up for it, you can come aboard our train."

&n
bsp; …was there really a way out? And would he really be able to reach that station with Kotohiki? He wasn't sure. But at the very least he wanted Kotohiki to board that train. Shall I offer you a hand then, mademoiselle?

  It sounded like something Shinji Mimura would have said. Now he saw how Shinji could be good friends with Yutaka Seto. Shinji liked to kid around. The jokes were different from Yutaka's, of course. They were more sarcastic and at times biting. Shinji seemed to value "the importance of laughing it off." At the closing ceremony before New Year's, when they were in their second year, during the regional education representative's dull speech, Shinji said, "My uncle once said laughter is essential to maintain harmony, and that that might be our only release. Do you understand that, Hiroki? I still can't quite get it." Although he could relate to it a little, he also felt he didn't fully get it. It might have been because he was young. But in any case Shinji Mimura and Yutaka Seto were both dead now. He could no longer give Shinji a reply.

  As he pondered these thoughts, soon enough he was back in the kitchen filled with five bodies. Once again Hiroki looked over the room covered in blood.

  He hadn't noticed because of the stench, but now he saw the gas stove pot and caught a whiff of the appetizing odor. There was no gas of course, so they were probably in the middle of cooking using solid fuel. He went to take a look. The flame under the pot was out, but there was still steam rising from what looked like stew.

  Ever since the game began he'd only had the bread the government had supplied (when he ran out of water he retrieved some from a house well), so he was famished, but he shook his head and peeled his eyes off the pot. He just couldn't bring himself to eat it. Not in this terrible room. Besides, he had to hurry…and find Kotohiki. Hurry up…and leave.

  He staggered out into the hall. Not having slept at all, he was feeling dizzy. Someone was standing at the entrance at the far end of the long corridor. Because the hall was dim, this person looked like a silhouette outlined from behind by the light.