Battle Royale

Shuya gazed at the package, illustrated with silhouettes of motorcycle riders. He had no idea what they were referring to. The cigarettes piqued his curiosity, because Shuya's baseball nickname was the same as this cigarette brand. The name came naturally. Shuya was the star player of his Little League team. He was a great clutch hitter with men in scoring position, and once he was on base, and no one else could get any hits, he could create his own scoring opportunities by stealing a base (he held the impressive record of stealing home three times in one season). When the bases were loaded, and their pitcher was in a pinch, he'd make the play to get them out of the jam, and if the pitcher was too tired, he'd switch from shortstop to pitcher. "Wild Card Nana (Seven)" hara. That's right.

In his second year of junior high he became classmates with the star shooting guard of the basketball team, Shinji Mimura. Shinji's nickname was "The Third Man," which he got during his first year when he sat on the bench as the second backup guard. But with five minutes left and their team trailing by twenty in the district finals, this third man came onto the court and single-handedly brought his team to victory. Ever since then Shinji was a fixture in the starting lineup, and Shiroiwa Junior High turned into one of the prefecture's top-ranked basketball teams. But because of that game, and because of the kanji character of "three" in his last name, the "Third Man" name stuck.

For this year's class games, the girls as a joke made a pair of uniforms stitched with the numbers 7 and 3. Shuya and Shinji wore these uniforms during the games. It felt like a remote world. Shuya wondered again where Shinji was. Shinji would have been a big help.

As if the thought suddenly occurred to him, Shogo searched his pockets and pulled out a small leather pouch.

He took out a sheet of white pills wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic and gave it to Noriko.

"Pain relievers. You should take some."

Noriko blinked. But then she took the pills.

Shuya said to Shogo, "Hey..."

"What?" Shogo slowly blew smoke out his mouth and looked at Shuya. "Don't stare at me. It's not that uncommon to see a junior high kid smoking. Anyway I'm old enough to be in high school. And you're the one who brought your own supply of whiskey."

So high school students are allowed to smoke? Well, that wasn't his point anyway. Shuya shook his head, "That's not what I meant. Did you find those pills at the store too?"

Shogo shrugged. "Well yeah. It wasn't exactly merchandise. I took it out of the first aid kit behind the cash register. It's not a big deal. Just some aspirin called Gomez. What an obnoxious name for aspirin, huh? Anyway it'll stop the pain."

Shuya pursed his lips. Well, he might be telling the truth, but... "I don't get how you can be so well prepared. And where'd you learn to stitch up a wound?"

Shogo's mouth broke into a wide grin. He shrugged and replied, "My dad was a doctor."

"What?"

"He ran a small dump, a clinic in the slums of Kobe. I've seen him sew people up ever since I was a kid. In fact I was a pretty good nurse. I even did some work myself. My dad couldn't even afford to hire a nurse."

Shuya was speechless. Was he telling the truth?

Shogo held up the cigarette between his fingers, as if to cut off Shuya's response. "It's true. Just think about it and you'll see how important medicine is in these circumstances."

Shuya kept quiet for a moment, but then recalled something else that puzzled him. "Oh yeah..."

"What?"

"You mind if I ask—"

"Skip the formalities, Shuya. We're in this together."

Shuya shrugged once and then rephrased what he had to say. "Back on the bus, you were trying to open the window. You must have realized there was sleeping gas."

Hearing this, Noriko gave Shogo a puzzled look.

This time Shogo shrugged.

"So you saw me? You should have lent me a hand."

"I couldn't. How did you know what was going on, though? I mean there was no smell or anything—"

"Oh yeah there was," Shogo replied and rubbed his half finished cigarette into the ground. "It was faint, but if you've smelled it once you'd recognize it."

"How did you recognize it?" This time Noriko asked.

"My uncle actually worked at a state chemical lab and—"

"Come on," Shuya interrupted him.

Shogo grimaced and said, "If I have to, I'll explain it later. As far as I'm concerned I blew it big time. I should've noticed sooner. And I certainly didn't expect this to happen...but we should be focused on the present. Do you have any plans?"

If I have to, I'll explain later? That statement bothered Shuya, but Shogo was right. Their priority was to come up with a plan for their escape. He put his questions on hold and said, "We're planning on escaping."

Shogo lit another cigarette and nodded. Then as if suddenly remembering what he had to do, he tossed dirt onto the charcoal inside the rock pit. Shuya heard the sound of Noriko swallowing a pill with water.

Shuya continued. "How hard do you think it'll be?"