Battle Royale (37 page)

But Shinji elegantly spread his arms out (given how they were on their stomachs though, the effect wasn't so impressive) and wrote
How about launching an ad balloon, huh, Yutaka'
?

Yutaka read the note and knit his brows. Shinji signaled Yutaka to get off the cliff rock and follow him.

Once they sat under the rock, he rummaged through his day pack. He pulled out the contents and lined them up on the ground.

A half dozen gas canisters, several hundred-meter reels of thin fishing wire (that was all he found at the farm coop), plastic tape, and a box of black plastic garbage bags.

Shinji took one of the canisters and showed it to Yutaka. It was painted blue with bright red letters which read "VOICE CHANGER" (underneath the ad copy read, "Now you'll be the life of the party!" huh!), and under that there was an illustration of a duck—Shinji recognized where it came from—based on a

"Walt Disney" character. A whistlelike object poked out of the canister.

Shinji wrote
I remembered seeing these at the house where I found the PowerBook. You know what
this is
?

Before taking the pulley, Shinji had gone into the nearby house to retrieve these canisters. What in the world would the occupant of that house do with all these things, though? The files left on the PowerBook's hard drive offered a clue. Given how they had names like "5th Grade Science" or "Third Term Report Card Drafts," the owner of the machine must have been an elementary school teacher. Yes, he was probably one of the real teachers at that school.

Yutaka touched his throat and opened his mouth. Shinji nodded.

Right. It makes you sound like a duck! It's helium. And this one's a defect. So it's still loaded with
gas.

Yutaka still seemed unconvinced. Shinji thought an actual demonstration would get his point across quicker so he tore open the pack of garbage bags and pulled out a bag. He opened it up, inserted the canister valve (which was supposed to be sucked) into it, and taped it to the bag with the plastic tape. He sealed the edge of the bag with more tape. Then he pressed the valve button and the bag began to inflate.

With his finger on the button, Shinji thought, this would be a lot more entertaining with condoms. But even if they had condoms they would have been a little too small. Huh?

Do I have some on me? Well, I mean, come on, this was supposed to be a study trip. Anything can happen, right? You tossed your clothes, but you're still holding onto these? Yeah, I dunno, I do still have them. Well, you never know when they might come in handy. Let's not go into details.

After filling up the bag, Shinji twisted the edge right above the canister and sealed it with tape. He took a reel of fishing wire and tied its end to the end of the bag. Then he removed the tape below to release it from the canister. Just to be sure, he folded the edge over again, sealing it again with more tape.

The garbage bag floated upward. It rose until the wire was taut to the point where it almost seemed to lift the reel—but it stopped right at Shinji and Yutaka's heads.

"See?" Shinji said out loud. Yutaka had probably realized what was going on while Shinji was working on the canister. He'd already nodded several times.

Shinji tied another piece of wire from another reel to the wire stretching under the balloon. Just to be sure, he secured this to the balloon with tape. With the pair of wires in both of his hands, he moved the balloon as if it were walking on a pair of legs. Then he pointed to a nearby tree. He moved the string.

Yes, in other words, these were the legs of the giant. They were too frail to crush a city and right now they're shorter than me, but…

Yutaka seemed to understand completely. He gave two huge nods. Then he moved his lips without saying anything. It looked like he was saying, "Awesome, Shinji." Or maybe it was, "Enough already."

Whatever, it didn't matter.

Shinji took the memo pad and wrote,
We make one or two more balloons and attach them to each
other. But I still don't know how far up the wire can be stretched. There's also the wind. Let's just
go for it
.

Yutaka read this and nodded.

Shinji glanced up at the sky. The bags were black, so even under the moon, Sakamochi and his men wouldn't see them. Right now there wasn't much wind either. But he had no idea what it was like further up there in the sky.

Then he said, "Let's hurry."

Shinji signaled Yutaka to hold onto the first balloon and proceeded to pull out another garbage bag.

20 students remaining

48

Shogo rose a little after 10 p.m.

Shuya had been looking after Noriko, who remained resting in bed. Shuya groped through the nearly pitch black room and entered the waiting room.

"I'll make some coffee," Shogo said as he looked up at Shuya. Then he walked down the hall. He seemed to have good night vision.

Shuya returned to the beds, where he found Noriko up without her blanket.

"You should rest a little more," Shuya said.

Noriko nodded, "Uh huh…" Then she mumbled, "Could you ask Shogo…if he's going to boil some more water if I can get an extra cup?" Noriko was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands by her thighs.

Moonlight spilled in over the curtain from the window. She kept her chin tucked in as she looked over to her side.

"Sure…but what for?"

Noriko hesitated and then answered, "I sweated so much…I just wanted to wipe my body…maybe it's too much to ask for."

"Oh no," Shuya replied and quickly nodded. "No prob. I'll go tell him." He left the room.

Shogo was boiling water in the dark kitchen. The tip of the cigarette between his mouth glowed red, and the charcoal flame under the pot resembled a strange firefly stirring to life.

"Shogo," Shuya said. Shogo turned around. The afterimage of his cigarette traced a thick line before vanishing. "Noriko was wondering if she could have some hot water. She said one cup was enough—"

"Ah." Shogo didn't let him continue. He removed his cigarette from his mouth. Shuya could see Shogo was smiling in the dim moonlight coming through the window. "Sure. A cup or an entire bucket, fine with me."

As he moved he scooped up water with the bowl from the bucket and added it to the pot. He repeated this five times. He kept a low charcoal flame going to keep the water in the pot boiling. Shuya felt some steam drift by.

"She's a girl," Shogo said.

It turned out Shogo wasn't as slow as Shuya was. He knew why Noriko asked for hot water.

Shuya was silent and Shogo unexpectedly continued on his own.

"She wants to stay pretty cause she's with you."

Then he exhaled some smoke.

Shuya remained quiet, but then asked, "Can I help you?"

"No." Shogo seemed to be shaking his head. Squinting his eyes, Shuya could see three cups and a coffee dripper already loaded with a filter on the table. There was also a tea bag for Noriko.

"Hey," Shogo called him.

Shuya lifted his brow, "What is it? All of a sudden you're so chatty."

Shogo chuckled. Then he continued, "I understand how you feel about Yoshitoki, but don't forget about Noriko's feelings."

Shuya fell silent again. The he spoke. For some reason, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. "I know."

"You have a girlfriend?" Shogo proceeded to ask.

Shuya shrugged. "Nope."

"Then what's the problem?"

Shogo continued to look at the window, smoking his cigarette. "It's not a bad thing to be loved."

Shuya shrugged again. Then he asked, "Don't you have someone?"

His cigarette glowed brightly. He didn't say anything. The smoke drifted slowly through the dark.

"A secret, huh?"

"No…" Shogo began to speak, but then he removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it into the bucket of water. "Get down, Shuya," he whispered and crouched down.

Shuya nervously obeyed him. Was someone going to attack? He grew tense.

"Get Noriko. Be quiet though," Shogo whispered again. Shuya was already on his way to the examination room, where Noriko was.

Noriko was still sitting in a daze on the edge of the bed. Shuya signaled her to duck down. She must have immediately understood because she got off the bed, holding her breath. Shuya offered her his hand for support as they moved to the kitchen. He looked over to the entrance on the way there, but there was no one beyond the glass door.

Shogo had already gathered their day packs which he'd packed with refilled water bottles and other items, and now he was on his knees by the back door, holding his shotgun.

"What is it?" Shuya asked in a hushed voice. Shogo lifted his left hand to silence him. Shuya didn't say another word.

"Someone's outside," Shogo whispered. "We'll exit through whichever door they don't enter."

The only thing visible in the dark was the bright charcoal flame under the pot. Given the location of the sink, it couldn't be seen from outside.

Shuya heard a tapping sound. It came from the entrance. The door wouldn't open because of the stick jamming it. The glass was broken, so the person outside must have realized that someone had entered the building and that it was probably still occupied.

There was a clacking sound, but then it stopped. It sounded like the person had given up.

Shogo groaned. "Damn, we'll be in trouble if this one tries to set this place on fire."

They remained quiet, but there was still no sound. Then Shogo signaled for them to move towards the entrance. He might have heard a slight sound.

They were nearly crawling down the hall.

As they made their way, Shogo, behind the other two, reached out to Shuya who was leading. They stopped. Shuya turned around and looked over his shoulder at Shogo.

"He's circling back to the front." He waved his hand to the back. "Let's go out the back."

So they went towards the kitchen down the hall.

Shogo stopped again before they entered the kitchen.

"Damn, why?" he muttered.

…the person outside was now coming round to the back door again.

The silence continued. Shogo held onto his shotgun. With Noriko between him and Shogo, Shuya also gripped the SIG-Sauer that had once belonged to Kaori Minami. (He'd given the Smith & Wesson to Shogo. Shuya decided to hold onto the gun that had more bullets.) But the silence was suddenly broken. A voice called from outside the kitchen window. "It's Hiroki," he said. "I'm not fighting. Respond, you three. Who are you?"

It was undoubtedly the voice of Hiroki Sugimura (Male Student No. 11), who along with Shinji Mimura was one of the few classmates Shuya could trust.

"What the?…" Shuya moaned. "That's incredible..."

It was a stroke of luck. He never thought they'd see Hiroki. Shuya and Noriko looked at each other.

Noriko looked relieved.

Shogo stopped Shuya as he tried to get up.

"What?"

"Shh. Don't raise your voice."

Shuya stared at Shogo's serious expression and then responded with an exaggerated shrug and smiled.

"Don't worry. I'll vouch for him. We can totally trust him."

Shogo shook his head and said, "How did he know there were three of us?"

That thought hadn't occurred to Shuya. He thought it over while looking at Shogo. But he had no idea.

That didn't matter though. The important thing was that Hiroki was here. He just wanted to see Hiroki's face now.

"Maybe he saw us go in here, from far away. That's why he didn't know who we were."

"What took him so long to get here then?"

Shuya thought again. "He probably deliberated over whether he should find out who was here or not__In any case, we can trust Hiroki. I'll vouch for him."

Shuya ignored Shogo, who looked like he wasn't satisfied. He raised his voice and directed it beyond the window. "It's Shuya, Hiroki. I'm with Shogo Kawada and Noriko Nakagawa."

"Shuya!…" a relieved voice replied. "Let me in. Where should I come in?"

Before Shuya could answer, Shogo raised his voice, "This is Shogo. Go to the front entrance. Keep your hands behind your head and do not move. Got that?"

"Shogo…" Shuya was about to protest, but Hiroki immediately responded, "Got it." What looked like the upper body of Hiroki crossed the frosted glass window.

Shogo bent down to look out of the cracks in the glass. Holding onto his shotgun, he yanked out the obstructing stick and opened the door.

Hiroki Sugimura was standing with his hands behind his neck. He was slightly taller than Shogo, but more slender. His hair, wavy like Shuya's, went down the middle of his forehead. His day pack was by his feet and for some reason there was a 1.5-meter stick on the ground.

It was true. Shuya shifted his eyes, as if it were a miracle. Shuya's face made Hiroki grin.

"I have to do a body check."

"Shogo, come on…"

Shogo paid no attention to Shuya's protest and moved forward, holding onto his shotgun. He went behind Hiroki and first checked his hands behind his neck. Then he rubbed his left hand over Hiroki's school coat.

His hand stopped at a pocket.

"What the hell's this?"

"Go ahead and pull it out," Hiroki said with his hands held together. "But give it back to me."

Shogo pulled it out. It was the size and shape of a thick notepad, but it was made of plastic or steel. The cover panel reflected the moonlight. After fiddling around with it, Shogo said, "Ah ha." He moved his body with the object in his hands and then looked down at the cover panel against the moonlight. He nodded and returned it to Hiroki's pocket. Then he thoroughly searched Hiroki down to his pant cuffs.

He also checked his day pack and finally announced, "Okay. Sorry about that. You can put your hands down."

Hiroki unlocked his hands and picked up his day pack and stick. The stick appeared to be his weapon.

"Hiroki." Shuya broke into a smile. "Come on in. We have coffee. You want some?"

Hiroki nodded somewhat hesitantly as he went through the entrance. Shogo looked outside and then shut the door.

Hiroki stood still. With his back to the shoe cabinet that was filled with slippers, Shogo stared at Hiroki.