Battle Royale

Shuya shuddered. If he hadn't been standing at the exit, waiting for Noriko, he would have been immediately shot down. The assailant was on top of the building.

Shuya clenched his teeth, snatched up the arrow, and ran to his left. He moved impulsively but in an erratic way that eluded the assailant. He turned around and looked up. Under the dim moonlit sky, a large, dark shadow loomed above the gabled roof of the single-story school building. Could that be...not Shogo...

He had no time to think. The shadow pointed its weapon at him.

Just to surprise him Shuya threw the arrow at the shadow. But thanks to Shuya's gifts as a star shortstop, the arrow flew at incredible speed and traced a fine arc right at the shadow. The shadow groaned, held its face, hunched over, and then began to sway. Then it fell.

Shuya stepped back and watched the shadow fall from a height of at least three meters and land with a thud on the ground. The object in the assailant's hand fell with a metallic crash.

Light leaked through the building exit. The large shadow was lying face down, wearing a school uniform. It was Yoshio Akamatsu. He was motionless now, perhaps because he was unconscious. A hybrid between a bow and rifle—were they called bow guns?—was lying by his hand. The day pack that had fallen by Yoshio's feet was half open. Shuya saw a stack of silver arrows inside.

Shuya felt a sudden chill. It was true. He was participating! Yoshio Akamatsu was in on this game. Yoshio had taken his weapon, returned here, and killed Mayumi Tendo!

Someone was coming from behind.

Shuya turned around. It was Noriko, who'd taken the situation in as she held her breath in surprise. Shuya's eyes went from Noriko's face to Mayumi Tendo—he ran over to Mayumi and touched her neck to check her pulse. She was dead. There was no doubt.

His brain felt like a fuse fizzling out. Others might be in the same state of mind as Yoshio. And one of them might just suddenly return this time, perhaps with a gun.

Shuya had no choice but to change his attitude toward the game now. So this was it. When Sakamochi said, "As soon as you leave here," this was what he'd meant.

Shuya stood up and ran to Noriko. He took her by the hand.

"We're running! Do your best, you have to run!"

Shuya began running, half-dragging Noriko, whose leg was injured. Which way though?

He couldn't afford to deliberate over his decisions. He headed towards the grove. First they'd hide in the grove, then they could, no—he dismissed the thought. Given Noriko's condition, they were defenseless against any attack. Staying near the area was too dangerous.

Waiting in front of the building for the others was completely out of the question. He rushed Noriko, and they entered the grove. Tall trees mixed in with short trees, and the ground was covered with fern.

Shuya turned to yell some warning to the remaining eleven students coming out (in their class of twenty-one pairs of boys and girls, there should have been twelve students following Shuya's and Noriko's seat numbers, but Fumiyo Fujiyoshi had to be counted out), but he gave up on the idea. Shuya reached the somewhat forced conclusion that they probably weren't as foolish as he was, so they'd flee the moment they emerged from the building anyway, especially once they saw Mayumi Tendo's corpse. For a moment he thought of Shinji Mimura—but he gave up on this idea too. Once again he forced himself into believing that there had to be some other strategy, another way for them to meet up. In any case, they had to leave.

Holding Noriko Nakagawa tightly, he haphazardly led their way into the grove. A bird cried out, "kaw kaw," and ruffled its wings as it flew away. He couldn't see it, but it didn't matter. He had no time to observe it anyway.

39 students remaining

8

Yoshio Akamatsu regained consciousness almost immediately, but because he’d been knocked out cold by the blow to his head he felt as if he were coming out of a deep slumber.

He first noticed how his head was throbbing. He felt out of it. What was it? Was it from playing video games yesterday way past midnight?...which meant that yesterday was Saturday, or was it Sunday?...then today must be Monday which means I have to be in school...but what time could it be...it's still dark, maybe...I can sleep a little more....

As he sat up, the sky and earth rotating ninety degrees, an empty field unexpectedly spread out in front of him. There was a mountain beyond the field, shaped like a bow, darker than the night sky.