Battle Royale

Offering a subservient smile, Sakamochi raised his brow in response to his caller. He combed back the hair over his right ear with his free right hand.

"Whaaat?" he replied. "That can't be. I mean that occurred in March. I did receive the report. But if that's true, then right now...yessir. The central government officials are always prone to exaggeration. Besides, these are junior high school kids. Then they would have known we were listening in on them. Right now there are no signs that any of these students know this. Yessir. So...yes, yes, yessir. Very well then. Oh no, please, I couldn't possibly accept...well, if you must insist then, thank you very much, sir. Yes, yes. Well then, goodbye."

Sakamochi took a deep breath and hung up the phone. He held up his pen again and exclaimed, "I'm so busy!" He combed back his hair and began to write frantically on his documents, as if he were clinging to them.

27 students remaining

29

When Shinji first found Yutaka Seto, he seemed on edge from the shock of witnessing the deaths of Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, but after a while he seemed to calm down. In a spot beyond the thick branches, where the warm sunlight poured in, Shinji Mimura was listening closely again. There didn't seem to be anyone else around. Only the sound of a little bird chirping. Whoever killed Yumiko and Yukiko didn't seem to have noticed Yutaka and Shinji. Still, he had to be careful.

"Relax when you have to. But also be on your toes when you have to. The point is, make no errors of judgment."

His uncle had told him this. He was the one who taught him everything. Starting with basketball, he was the man most responsible for the education of the boy known as The Third Man. His uncle had also taught him computer basics. When his uncle showed him how to access foreign internet connections, he warned Shinji, you can never be too careful. And now was one of those times he had to be on his toes. That much was certain.

"Hey, Shinji." Shinji looked back at Yutaka. Yutaka was leaning against a tree, hugging his knees, staring between them. "Come to think of it, I should have been waiting for you in front of the school. Then we could have been together from the start." He looked up at Shinji. "But I was too scared "

Shinji crossed his arms with his Beretta in his left hand.

"I don't know about that. That might have been dangerous."

That's right, Shinji realized, Yutaka probably didn't know that Mayumi Tendo and Yoshio Akamatsu were killed in front of the school. Besides—

That was when he realized Yutaka was crying. His eyes were filled with tears which began to flow down his cheeks, tracing two thin, white lines down his dirty face.

"What's wrong?" Shinji asked kindly.

"I..." Yutaka lifted his wounded fist and wiped his eyes with a strip from the towel Shinji had wrapped around his hand. "I'm so pathetic. I-I'm a fool and a coward—" He stopped and then said as if spitting up something stuck in his throat, "I wasn't able to save her."

Shinji lifted his brow and glanced at his friend. This was something he didn't bring up, but since Yutaka did...

Shinji said slowly, "You mean Izumi Kanai."

Yutaka nodded, still hunched over.

Shinji remembered being in Yutaka's room when Yutaka told him, with a mix of pride and embarrassment, "I like Izumi Kanai." And Izumi Kanai ended up being one of the first to die. They were informed of her death by the 6 a.m. announcement. He had no idea where she died. He only knew she died somewhere on the island.

"There wasn't...anything you could do, though," Shinji said, "Izumi left before you did."

"But I..." Yutaka continued, his head still hunched over. "I couldn't even find Izumi...I was so scared...! thought, no, it couldn't happen to her, she's all right...I tried convincing myself. Then at six o'clock she was already..."

Shinji listened without saying a word. He heard the chirping again up in the treetops. There might have been another bird. The chirping overlapped, as if the birds were talking to each other.

Suddenly Yutaka looked up at Shinji. "I made up my mind," he said.

"About?"

His eyes still wet, he directly looked at Shinji. "Revenge. I'm gonna kill that bastard Sakamochi and the rest of the fucking government."

Shinji was surprised. He stared at Yutaka.

Of course he was also totally pissed off at this game and the government that ran it. He didn't really know Shuya Nanahara's best friend Yoshitoki Kuninobu very well—he was a little too laid back for Shinji—but he was a nice guy. And the government brutally murdered him. Then Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, and now as Yutaka said, Izumi Kanai, and then others like Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, killed right before their eyes, and then more classmates. But—

"But...you might as well be committing suicide."

"I don't care if I die. What else can I do for Izumi now?" Yutaka stopped and looked at Shinji. "Is it ridiculous for a wimp like me to be saying this?"

"No..." Shinji paused a bit and then shook his head. "Not at all, Yutaka."