Battle Royale

Tatsumichi Oki was a star player on the handball team. Even though his face was kind of coarse he seemed like a nice guy. Everyone called Shinji Mimura a genius basketball player, and he knew so much. He even had a "following" of girls who were into him. (They weren't from their class, maybe because his general reputation among the Class B girls was that he was a playboy.) Mitsuru Numai acted like he was a badass, but he didn't really seem so bad. He was kind to girls (oh God but he's dead too now). Hiroki Sugimura seemed to have a brooding quality that was kind of cool. Some girls were afraid of him because he practiced martial arts, but to Yumiko that was attractive. But he was close to Takako Chigusa. Takako would get on my back if she ever found out, she can be so harsh. But she's a good girl. Come to think of it, everyone was, both boys and girls.

...

I'm back to the same question. Should I not trust them? "So who is it?" Yukiko asked again. Yumiko faced Yukiko again.

She hesitated again—but then she decided to let it out. At the very least, she should bring it up. After all, Yumiko was the ideal companion she could share her thoughts with.

"Can I ask you something?"

Yukiko tilted her head, puzzled.

Yumiko folded her arms to concentrate. Then she asked, "Do you really think there are people who want to kill others...in our class?"

Yukiko knit her brows slightly.

"Well...I mean the fact is that...they di—" As she pronounced the word "died" her voice trembled, "...died. All of them. It was announced this morning. Nine students have already been killed since our departure. They couldn't have all been suicides....Besides, didn't we just hear gunfire a little while ago?"

Yumiko tilted her head as she looked at Yukiko. She spread out her hands. She noticed for the first time that her left cuff was slightly torn.

"Now look. You see how terrified we are here. The two of us, right?"

"Uh huh."

"And I think the others are in the same state. Everyone must be terrified. Don't you think so?"

Yukiko seemed to mull over her point. Then she said, "Yes, maybe. I've been so preoccupied with my own fear, that thought didn't even occur to me."

Yumiko nodded once and continued, "And because we were lucky enough to end up together it's probably nowhere near as bad as being alone, which I'm sure would be absolutely terrifying."

"Yeah, you're right."

"And what would happen if you encountered someone in that state of fear, Yukiko?"

"I'd run away."

"What if you couldn't?"

Yukiko seemed to consider the situation carefully. Then she spoke slowly, "I-I-I just might fight. If I had something I might throw it...or if I had something like a gun I might, I just might shoot it....Of course, I'd try to talk. But if it happened quickly and I didn't have any choice..."

Yumiko nodded.

"Exactly. That's why I think no one here really wants to kill anyone. I think it's because we're so terrified we become deluded that everyone else is out to kill us and so we resort to fighting. And in that state even if no one attacked, we might even end up attacking others on our own." She interrupted herself, unfolded her arms, put her hands on the floor, and continued, "I think everyone's just terrified."

Yukiko pursed her small, full lips together. After a while, she looked down at the floor and said in a halting voice, "I don't know. I just can't trust some of them, like Mitsuko Souma's gang...and Kazuo Kiriyama's—"

Yumiko forced a smile and moved her sitting position by shifting her legs under her pleated skirt. "I'll tell you what I think, Yukiko."

"Hm."

"We're going to die the way things are going. Time limit? If no one dies in the next twenty-four hours? Even if we survive that long, we'll still end up getting killed."

Yukiko nodded. She looked scared again. "That's... that's true."

"So the only thing we can do is have everyone cooperate to find some way out of here, right?"

"Well...yes but—"

"I have to tell you something... " Yumiko interrupted Yukiko and then tilted her head slightly.

"I once had a horrible experience because I didn't trust someone. I was in elementary school."

Yukiko stared at Yumiko "What happened?"

Yumiko glanced up at the ceiling. She recalled the face of her friend crying. And the pink sneakers.

Yukiko looked back at Yumiko.

"Do you remember the Egg Cats? They were such a big fad. Everybody loved them."

"Yeah, they were character figures. I had a celluloid board with them on it."

"And I had an Egg Cats tri-tip ballpoint pen. The limited edition. I mean it seems like such a silly thing now, but at the time I absolutely adored it."

"Uh huh."

"Well, it disappeared... " Yumiko looked down. "I suspected my friend of stealing it. She wanted it so badly. On top of that, I realized it was gone after first period gym class and she'd excused herself from gym because she wasn't feeling well and returned to our classroom. And, this is really awful, she didn't have a father and her mother worked at a bar, so she didn't have a good reputation." Yukiko nodded slowly. "Uh huh."