Battle Royale

Shogo's voice was kind, but Shuya looked down. The corpse of Kaori Minami, collapsed on her side inside a grimy farm equipment shack. The pool of blood gradually spreading, oozing outward. By now, beginning to congeal. But the body would just stay there, with no ceremony, just left there like a disposed mannequin sprawled inside that shack. Of course in that sense she was no exception to Tatsumichi Oki, Kyoichi Motobuchi, Yukiko Kitano, and Yumiko Kusaka. That's right, everyone else was in the same boat.

He felt like puking. They were all lying there, on the ground. Already close to twenty of them.

"Shogo." The words spilled out.

In response Shogo tilted his head and slightly moved his hand that was holding the cigarette.

"What happens to the dead...their bodies?" Shuya asked. "Are they left there until this stupid game is over? So they just start rotting while the game is going on?"

Shogo answered as if it were an official matter. "That's right. Once it's over, the following day a clean-up crew is hired to take care of them."

"...clean-up crew?" Shuya bared his teeth.

"Yep. I heard about it from someone who works for the subcontractor, so I'm sure it's true. Self Defense Forces soldiers are too proud to perform such menial tasks. Of course, government officials accompany the crew to collect the collars and examine the bodies. You know, so the news media can report the number of deaths by strangulation, all that stuff."

Shuya was pissed. He recalled that final part of the news report. The meaningless causes of deaths and itemization of each student.

But he also realized something and knit his brows.

Shogo saw this and asked, "What's up?"

"Well...that doesn't make sense. I mean these..." Shuya raised his hand up to his neck. His fingers touched the collar's cold surface, its sensation no longer so strange. "I thought these were a secret. Shouldn't they collect them before the hired hands come in?"

Shogo shrugged. "The cleaning crew have no idea what they're for. They probably just assume they're used as markers. The guy I talked to didn't even remember them until I asked him about them. So there's no rush. They can deal with the collars after the clean-up crew's collected the bodies, right?"

It was true. But even so, something else bugged him.

"Hold on. What if one of these is defective? Let's say it breaks down and someone who's alive is assumed to be dead. Couldn't that student escape? Shouldn't they confirm all the dead right after the game?"

Shogo raised his brows. "You talk like you work for the government."

"No...," he stammered. "It's just that—"

"I doubt they could ever be defective. Think about it. If they actually could break down, this game couldn't proceed smoothly. Besides, if a student equipped with weapons turned out to be alive, they couldn't even afford to check the bodies. It'd turn into another battle." Shogo took a drag as he considered it more thoroughly. "This is just my guess, but I think each collar is loaded with multiple systems, so that if one breaks down, another gets switched on. Even if one system became defective—the chances of that being at least less than one in a hundred—if the systems were combined the probability would practically be reduced to zero. In other words," he said, looking at Shuya, "it would be impossible for us to escape that way."

Shuya understood. He saw no reason not to object. (Once again, he couldn't help but be impressed by Shogo's intelligence.)

But then—

The question he promised not to ask crossed his mind. Which was:

How did Shogo plan to beat a perfect, escape-proof system?

Before he could consider it, Shogo said, "Anyway, look, I have to apologize."

"About what?"

"About Noriko. I was wrong. We should have treated her sooner."

"No..." Shuya shook his head. "It's okay. Thanks. I would have been useless on my own."

Shogo exhaled and fixed his gaze on a part of the wall. "We'll just have to wait and see. If it's just a cold, then her fever will go down as soon as she gets some rest. And if it turns out it's from septicemia then the medicine should kick in."

Shuya nodded. He was grateful they had Shogo. Without Shogo, he would have been helpless, doomed to watch Noriko deteriorate. He was also sorry for saying to Shogo, "You can forget about our deal," and heading off here. It was immature. Shogo must have made his decision after carefully weighing the risk of moving during the day against Noriko's condition.

Shuya decided he should apologize. "Hey, I'm sorry. Saying you were on your own and all. I just got so excited—"

Still looking away from Shuya, Shogo shook his head and smiled. "No. You made the right decision. End of conversation."

Shuya took a breath and decided to let it go. Then he asked, "Is your father still a practicing doctor?"

Shogo shook his head as he took a drag. "No."

"What's he doing? Is he still in Kobe?"

"No. He died." Shogo said it casually.

Shuya's eyes opened wide. "When?"