Battle Royale

All of a sudden, everything came back. Sakamochi, Mr. Hayashida's corpse, Yoshio's departure, discovering the bow gun in his day pack once he found some shelter in a small shack, his returning here, observing Takako Chigusa (Female Student No. 13) whose face was a little severe but beautiful, looking tense now as the track team's best runner dashed away at full speed, him struggling up the thin steel ladder by the side of the building in order to reach the roof. Then how, due to the trouble he had loading his bow gun with an arrow, Sho Tsukioka (Male No. 14) also managed to escape his reach. And then...

He turned around and saw the girl in the sailor suit uniform lying there.

It didn't exactly come as a surprise to Yoshio. What he felt now in conjunction with his memory wasn't guilt over killing one of his classmates so much as it was fear. It might have resembled a gigantic billboard sign standing in the middle of a wasteland inside his mind. On the sign were letters in blood that read, "I'm going to kill you!" In the background all his classmates held weapons like axes and pistols, attacking Yoshio, who stood in front of the sign as if it were a 3D movie.

Of course killing your classmates was wrong. And besides once the game time had expired they were all going to die anyway so it might have been absurd to fight at all. But that was just too rational. The fact was that Yoshio simply did not want to die. He was petrified by any of his classmates who'd bare their teeth at him. Just think about it, you're surrounded by a swarm of assassins.

And so his choice to reduce "the enemy" as efficiently as possible wasn't motivated by rational thoughts but instead from a deeper, primal fear of death. There was no need to discern your allies from your enemies. Everyone had to be an enemy. After all when Ryuhei Sasagawa used to pick on him, everyone looked the other way.

Yoshio scrambled to his feet. First, Shuya Nanahara, who'd been in front of him. Where did he go?... The bow gun. I have to get the bow gun. Where did it?...

Yoshio felt a blow against his neck as if he were struck by a club.

He fell forward with thud. His body twisted into the shape of a V, and his face scraped against the moist soil. The skin of his forehead and cheeks peeled away, but this no longer mattered to him. He was already dead by the time he had fallen.

The same kind of silver arrow which he had shot Mayumi Tendo with was now planted in the back of his neck.

38 students remaining

9

Kazushi Niida (Male Student No. 16) emerged from the building two minutes after Noriko Nakagawa. He stood at the exit for a while, shaking. The bow gun lying next to Yoshio Akamatsu's body was still loaded with an arrow. Although Kazushi had picked it up, he had no intention of shooting Yoshio. But the moment Yoshio stood up, he reflexively pulled the trigger.

Kazushi did his best to overcome his panic. That's right, the first thing was to get out of here. That was the priority. What he should have done in the first place was ignore Yoshio Akamatsu and Mayumi Tendo completely and run away. Given the circumstances, he had no other choice but to kill Yoshio. Yoshio Akamatsu had obviously killed Mayumi Tendo. So Kazushi hadn't done anything wrong.

Kazushi was very good at making excuses. Once he thought like this, the numbness in his head began to wane.

As he lowered the bow gun, he automatically grabbed Yoshio's day pack, which was loaded with arrows. Right before he moved on though, he stopped and picked up Mayumi Tendo's day pack too. Then he hurried off.

38 students remaining

10

Had they been running for ten minutes now? With his arm still wrapped around Noriko, he signaled they should be still, and they both stopped. Under the hazy moonlight shining through the branches overhead, Noriko looked up at him. Their heavy breathing echoed like a giant wall of sound, but Shuya tried his best to listen beyond the wall for other sounds in the area enveloped in darkness.

No one seemed to be chasing them. They were too short of breath to sigh, but they could relax a little now.

As he dropped his bags, a sharp pain ran through his right shoulder. He was in poor shape. An electric guitar was heavier than a bat, but it wasn't something you swung around. After putting the bags down, he placed his hands on his thighs and tried to rest.

Shuya urged Noriko to sit in the dark grove. After he checked again for any other suspicious sounds, he sat down next to her. The thick grass underneath them made a crunching sound.