Battle Royale (16 page)

"You mean, a guy?"

"Yes."

Yukiko's downcast eyes bashfully looked over at Yumiko.

"Hmm." Yumiko hesitated a little but then replied honestly, "Yes, I did."

"I see." Yukiko looked down at the knees of her pleated skirt and said, "I'm sorry I never told you, but I like…Shuya."

Yumiko nodded without saying a word. She already had a hunch.

In her mind Yumiko pulled out her file on Shuya Nanahara. He was 171 centimeters tall, weighed 58

kilograms, his eyesight was 1.2 in the right eye, 1.5 in the left, and although he was thin he was muscular.

In elementary school he was a Little League shortstop and batted first, but he quit and now preferred playing music. He was an excellent singer and guitarist. Because of his status as the team's best player during his Little League days, combined with the fact that the first kanji character to his last name meant

"seven," he had the baseball nickname of "Wild Seven," just like the cigarette brand. His blood type was B, and he was born, just as the first character of his first name indicated, in the fall. He lost his parents when he was young, and now he lived in a Catholic orphanage called the Charity House. He was best friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu (oh God and now he was dead) who also lived in the Charity House…His strongest subjects were in the humanities, literature, and English, so he was a decent student. He had a unique face, his lips were slightly curved, but his double eyelids were sharply defined and kind looking, so he wasn't bad looking at all. His hair was slightly wavy and long, covering his neck and touching his shoulders.

That's right. Yumiko's file on Shuya Nanahara was filled to bursting (she was pretty confident hers was more thorough than Yukiko's). One of the more important subjects in the file was his height. Because, she thought, if Shuya didn't grow any taller then she wouldn't be able to wear high heels with him, because that would make her taller than him if they walked together.

But now that she was sure about Yukiko, she wouldn't be able to share these thoughts with her.

"Huh." Yumiko tried to look as calm as possible. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Hm."

Yukiko looked down. Then she made the point she'd wanted to make all along, "I really want to see him.

I wonder what he's doing."

As she sat with her hands glued to her thighs, she burst into tears.

Yumiko gently touched Yukiko on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Knowing Shuya, no matter what happens—" Realizing though that this might have sounded funny, she immediately added, nervously, "You know how athletic he is, plus he seems really gutsy. I mean I don't really know but..."

Yukiko wiped away her tears and nodded, "Uh huh." Then as if she felt better, she asked, "So who do you like, Yumiko?"

Yumiko could only look up at the ceiling and force a moan, "Hmm," as she thought it through. She was in trouble. Maybe I'll just randomly pick someone just to avoid the issue.

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."

"I bombarded her with questions, but she said she didn't know. And I even told the teacher about it. Our teacher, come to think of it, the teacher must have been biased too. The teacher told her to tell the truth.

But she just cried and said she knew nothing about it."

Yumiko looked back at Yukiko.

"When I came home, I found the pen on my desk."

Yukiko remained silent and continued listening.

"I apologized to her. She said it was all right. But it just turned out all awkward and she ended up—I think her mother ended up remarrying—transferring schools and that was it. We were such good friends, as close as you and me. But in the end I wasn't able to trust her."

Yumiko shrugged and then continued.

"So ever since that incident I've been doing my best to trust people. I want to trust people. If I can't then everything falls apart. This is different from what the folks at that stupid Halo Church preach. This is my belief. I hope you understand."

"I do."

"So let's consider this situation now. Well yeah, Mitsuko Souma does seem dangerous. That's her reputation. But I doubt she's so bad she'd actually get off on killing people. She can't be that bad. No one in our class could be that bad. Don't you think?"

Several moments later Yukiko nodded and replied, "Yes."

"So…" Yumiko continued, "…if we could just contact everyone appropriately then the fighting would stop. Then we could figure out together how to deal with the circumstances. No, even if we couldn't do anything, at the very least we could avoid killing each other. Don't you think?"

"Yes…"

Yukiko nodded, but she sounded hesitant. A little worn out from talking, Yumiko took a deep breath and shifted her legs again.

"In any case, that's my opinion. Now let me hear yours. If you're against it, then I won't do it."

Yukiko looked down at the floor in contemplation.

After two full minutes she mumbled, "Remember how you once told me that I'm always too worried about other people's opinions?"

"Hm?…Did I say that?"

Yumiko examined Yukiko's face. Yukiko looked up and their eyes met.

Yukiko smiled gently. "I think you're absolutely right. That's my opinion."

Yumiko smiled back at her and said, "Thanks." She felt grateful towards Yukiko for seriously considering the idea on her own before sharing her thoughts. And now it seemed that her response confirmed the validity of her idea.

That's right. We have to do this. I don't want to die without putting up a fight. If there's a chance then let's go for it. That's right. Just as I said to Yukiko, I want to trust people. Let's try it.

Then Yukiko asked, "But how are we going to do this? How can we contact everyone?"

Yumiko pointed at the megaphone lying in the corner of the room. "We have to figure out how to use that."

Yukiko gave several small nods and looked up at the ceiling. Then she uttered, "If all goes well, I'll be able to see Shuya."

Yumiko nodded. "Yes, I'm sure we will," she said hopefully this time.

29 students remaining

21

"All right."

Shogo tossed the needle and thread onto the day pack beside him and said to Shuya, "I need the whiskey again."

Noriko's bent right leg rested on its side. The wound on her calf was sewn up with coarse cotton thread.

Shogo had managed to stitch it up. Of course they had no anesthetic, but Noriko managed not to cry during the ten-minute operation.

Shuya offered the flask to Shogo. Next to them was a small rock pit. The empty can rested on top of the charcoal, and the water inside was boiling. (Shogo had explained how he'd found the charcoal along with the needle and thread at the supply store.) He disinfected the needle and thread with the boiling water, but applying it directly to her wound was out of the question. Shogo had already soaked her wound with whiskey before he began stitching. He was going to disinfect again. Noriko, who'd managed to relax a little, now grimaced again.

Shuya looked at his watch. Because of the time it took to boil the water, it was already past 8 a.m.

"Okay," Shogo said as he pressed the disinfected bandanna on her wound. Then he quickly wrapped another bandanna around Noriko's leg. "We're done."

He added with a note of concern, "I hope the wound hasn't been infected."

Noriko tucked in her leg and showed her gratitude to Shogo, "Thank you. That was impressive."

"Well, I'm good at playing doctor," Shogo said as he took out a Wild Seven cigarette from his pocket, put it between his lips, and lit it with a disposable lighter. Did he get those from the store, or did he bring them along for the trip? Like Buster and hi-night, they were a popular brand.

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.