Battle Royale

In any case, the kiss ended. They heard a rustling sound. They sensed someone in the bushes behind them. That was their signal: all aboard. The train is departing, so you better get on board.

They had nothing left to say. They could have fought against the intruder. He could have taken his gun and aimed it at the person behind them. But she wouldn't want that. What she wanted was to leave this world quietly before they got sucked into this horrible massacre. Nothing was more important to him than her. There was no room for compromise. If this was what her trembling soul wanted, then he would follow her. Had he been more eloquent he might have described his feelings as something like, "I'm going to die for her honor."

Their two bodies danced in the air beyond the cliff, the black sea in the background, their hands still clasped together.

Yukie Utsumi (Female Student No. 2) poked her head out from the bushes a little. She held her breath and watched them. She had no intention whatsoever of harming anyone, so she had no idea that the noise she made signaled their departure. She was simply stunned by the sight of the No. 1 couple in class vanishing beyond the grassy cliff. The sound of waves quietly brushing up against the sheer rock face continued and the small clovers Sakura dropped remained lying on the grass.

Even when Haruka Tanizawa (Female Student No. 12) approached her from behind and asked her, "What's wrong, Yukie?" Yukie just stood there trembling.

32 students remaining

13

Megumi Eto (Female Student No. 3) sat in the dark, hugging her knees while her small body shook violently. She was inside a house slightly removed from the island's most populated area on the eastern shore. The lights might have worked, but Megumi didn't dare try them. The moonlight coming through the window didn't reach under the worn out kitchen table she was hiding under. It was almost pitch black, so she couldn't check her watch, but two hours had probably passed since she sat down here. It was probably almost 4 a.m. Was it one hour since she heard that distant, faint sound that sounded like firecrackers? No, Megumi didn't even want to think about what that really was.

She raised her face and saw, silhouetted against the moonlight, the cupboard and kettle right above the sink. She was aware the government probably relocated the island's residents to some temporary housing units, but the remaining traces of someone's life in this house was unnatural and creepy. It reminded her of the ghost story she'd heard as a child, about the ship Marie Celeste

whose entire crew suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving behind their meals and possessions in mid-use. She became even more terrified.

Immediately after her departure she had no idea where she was headed. Next thing she knew she was in the middle of this residential area. The first thought that occurred to her was that there weren't too many students out yet. She was the sixth to leave the school. Five were already out...but only five. There were fifty or sixty houses in this area, so the chances of encountering one of them were close to nil. And as long as she locked the door and kept the place to herself...then she would be safe at least until she had to move. The collar that would explode if she remained in one of the forbidden zones was oppressive, but there was nothing she could do about it. Sakamochi had warned that, "If you try to pry it loose, it will explode." In any case, the important thing was to make sure she could hear Sakamochi's announcement of the time and location of each forbidden zone.

So Megumi had tried to enter a house, but the first one was locked. So was the second one. She went to the backyard of the third one and broke the sash window with a rock she found on the ground. It made such a huge sound, she ducked under the veranda. No one seemed to be in the area, though. She entered. There was no use locking the sash now. She had to laboriously close the storm door. Once it was shut, the inside turned pitch black, and she felt as if she'd wandered into a haunted house. She managed to pull out her flashlight though and searched the house. She took two fishing poles and used them to jam the storm door shut.

And now she was under the kitchen table. Killing each other was out of the question. But what if...just what if this area (checking the map, she found the whole area was almost completely inside sector H=8) never turned into a forbidden zone, then she might end up surviving.