The Computer

Shinzo spent a few moments with the secretary and got to know her. Her name was Anji Kimura, she was 17 and had had a difficult childhood. She had been brought up by her father, who often abused her, and then confessed that she was now a streamer, flaunting her breasts to generate money, under a different identity. They walked into a room that appeared to be the infirmary, looking for useful items. Then Shinzo found some medicine and handed it to Anji before cutting the silence.

"Anji, could I have the key to the computer room, please ?"

At the same time, he handed out bandages, chemicals, pills, sanitary pads.

"What do you want it for ?"

Shinzo closed the cabinets containing the medicines, then turned back to her.

"Just to get at it."

"Then no."

"If I access it I can delete the video of an embarrassing moment from your stream, that's more exactly what I want to do. Someone had mentioned it to me, and the moment was saved, you know, the moment where we see a bit too much of your breasts."

"What ? How ?! But... it's hard to delete that !"

Shinzo headed for the exit while helping Anji carry the stuff.

"I'm a developer, it's actually supposed to."

"Okay... I trust you... but please don't check it out too much!"

So Shinzo rushed to put the stuff down in the main room, grabbed the keys and left. Of course, it wasn't true, he'd just used the fact that she was showing her breasts to say that a moment had twisted... there must have been lots of them, it was just a question of logic. Arriving at the doorway to the computer room, he checked his surroundings and then entered.

The room contained several computers and was relatively dark, like a hacker's room. He walked over to one of the computers and switched it on - there was no password required. When he reached the desktop, there was a window with a name at the top.

"Léana Dubois"

What was displayed shocked him : all her info could be seen, including her chest size, crimes committed, and more basic things like birthday, height, name, and past. He clicked on the arrow on the right, then students scrolled down to his profile.

"Shinzo _____ (name unknown)"

Birthday: September 15

Age: 16

Height: 1m75

Family: Father imprisoned, mother deceased

Phobia : Being in the dark

Quality : Intelligent

Crime(s) committed : None

Physical level : Below average

All Shinzo's information was shown. He was surprised and slightly panicked, as Namjoon surely had all his information at his disposal, which explains why he knew Shinzo had a father in prison. This computer is destructive. In any case, he thought he shouldn't use it. He turned off the computer and left, locking the door and heading for the main room. When he arrived in the main room, Namjoon was waiting for him, with all the others, seated, waiting for time to pass.

"So, Shinzo, what have you been doing ?"

He ignored him then went to the middle of the room, took a deep breath of air before screaming for everyone to hear.

"Someone here raped two girls !"

A brown-haired boy in his nineties stood up, then protested.

"How can we believe you ?"

Shinzo turned to this boy then confronted him eye-to-eye, with no apparent fear.

"You believe me if you want to, and I'd advise you to. There's a source, which I can't reveal, it's up to you whether you believe me or not, except that what's at issue is that you're going to exclude me, a simple human with criminal descent instead of a current rapist in amongst us."

Everyone began to think and doubt, even if some remained impartial in the face of Shinzo's warning. One of them stood up and addressed another, named Kaito Ryota.

"I think you're the rapist, and I'm not afraid to say it out loud ! Before the game started, I saw you hanging out alone with several girls, and when you came back, you looked like you were in a state of ecstasy !"

The other boy, named Hiroki Yuto, defended himself.

"If I'm not even allowed to hang out with girls anymore, then I wonder where the world is going !"

As they continued to fight, Shinzo looked around before seeing a frightened but dark face of Ame, the analysis was short-lived for Shinzo, who turned away to sit in a corner alone. Namjoon, with no reaction to Shinzo's warning, stepped between the two boys.

"Calm down, we have no proof that anyone raped anyone else here."

Then he turned back to Shinzo, and spoke loudly for all to hear.

"If you don't want to give proof, then I won't let this pass for something true."

Shinzo finally stood up, then took Ame's hand and walked with her to the bathroom. She began to panic, but Shinzo comforted her.

"Don't worry, I just want to discuss something."

Ame didn't reply, even though Shinzo could see from Ame's face that she had little confidence in him. When they were in the bathroom, Shinzo sat down next to a toilet, then questioned Ame.

"Are you scared ?"

"Why do you ask ?"

Her voice was soft and she sounded embarrassed, at least that's what Shinzo noticed.

"I've often seen you scared, and you'd told me you didn't like conflict, so I was asking this with the conviction that you were, but you can lie to me, it won't do anything."

She hesitated for a few seconds, then took a deep breath of air before speaking.

" I'm afraid indeed, very afraid, I don't want to lose anyone, and worse, I don't want to lose myself."

"You won't get lost, I'm here for you, whatever the circumstances, group members always take care of each other."

In the end, she was slightly convinced. Shinzo sighed, stood up and left without taking Ame with him. When he found himself back in the main hall, he pointed at Namjoon.

"Namjoon, is it allowed to enter the computer room ?"

Namjoon covered Shinzo with his dark, menacing stare, in contrast to Shinzo's neutral gaze.

"No."

Shinzo looked at the floor, waited a few moments, then spoke again, raising those eyes to Namjoon.

"And you, are you allowed to enter, or have you already entered ?"

Namjoon gave a little grin, fake but convincing.

"No, never, it's private, so I respect."

Shinzo walked over to the camera security computer then went to the recent audio recordings, among them was an audio of Namjoon explaining to Shinzo the reason for his confinement in the small room. He pressed the "Play" button.

"So, let me explain the situation, I've locked you up for a specific reason, you can't be trusted. You're probably wondering why, well, it's simple, when we were living in this little room and I decided we were going to move out of this place, we moved everything out, remember? So why do you come back when there's nothing left? Oh, yeah, I know! I saw you trying to get into the computer room, probably to gather information about us, so you could escape on your own, without anyone's help. Then, the discussion where I said that the key was in the small gym room was totally on purpose, because I knew you were going to be nosy, except that this is even worse! The gym's code was private, I hid it all the time with my body, except that you knew how to put it on without any difficulty. So you're done for, you tried to betray us and you're going to pay. You'll stay in the dark, since I know you're afraid of the dark, and you won't be allowed food or water until the end of the game, until you've sacrificed yourself for us. Why should you ? Because you were going to betray us. Now, I wish you good luck."

After playing the audio, Shinzo pressed the "Pause" button. He turned back to everyone and yelled loudly.

"Where's the mistake ?"

Of the twenty or so people present, all didn't know what to say, because they didn't know anything. Shinzo sighed, then raised his arms with an indescribable smile, or... the only adjective that could be given to his smile is... total euphoria. At the same time, Ame returned to the room. Shinzo's voice returned to normal, but he kept smiling.

"Namjoon, you've never been in this computer room, so how do you know we can get anyone's info, as you said in your audio ?"

Namjoon seated himself, then watched his entourage stare at him before responding sharply.

"Simple deduction !"

"I've been there, we can well and truly get the info from anyone."

Everyone began to look worried, including Namjoon, and Shinzo noticed that. Then Ame spoke up with a menacing look.

"Give him a break ! He didn't do anything, don't start with your stupid bullshit stories !"

A few people stood up with approving cries, then Shinzo waited for them to sit down again to protest.

"Ame ? Why are you creating conflict even though you hate it ?"

Ame grunted a few incomprehensible words before going to sit down next to Namjoon. Namjoon put his hand on the table, looking dark.

"Is that all the evidence you have to put me down (put down = beat me up) ?"

Shinzo giving him a shifty wink.

"When I was in the room in complete darkness, how did you know that the number I dialed was my lawyer's, and why did you look panicked when I came back ?"

Namjoon grabbed Shinzo's hair violently, then took on a killer look... very creepy.

"What proof do you have that we knew it was your lawyer ?"

Shinzo laughed, then grabbed Namjoon by the neck, with a dark... or even red, extremely threatening look.

"When Anji released me, she asked me not to call my lawyer, so I guessed right away that she was behind the camera with you, and that you, Namjoon, had said EVERYTHING."

Namjoon laughed for a few seconds, starting to perspire.

"She's the secretary, she has access to all the info, who's to say she didn't know beforehand?"

Shinzo let go of him, then calmed down.

"It's simple, she knew I wanted to call my lawyer, she could very well have known my lawyer's number, but without being in front of the camera, she couldn't have known I wanted to call him. What's more, there are no cameras in the building other than the ones you used. On the floor plan of the building at the entrance, the only place where cameras are apparently present are where you used them."

Namjoon, short of justifications, mumbled just a few words.

"That's not good enough."

Shinzo knew the layout of the building, because a week and a half ago, he had seen this plan at the entrance, which is no longer visible. The plan includes multiple corridors and rooms. Shinzo remembered everything for a week and a half.

Shinzo took a USB key from his pocket and installed it on the security computer. It played a video. Shinzo's lawyer was in front of Shinzo, engaged in a discussion.

The lawyer began chatting with Shinzo, pulling out a folder.

"Good evening Shinzo, what did you want to know ?"

"Who has my father's number ? Do you have any recent contacts who have asked for my father's number ?"

The lawyer passed his eyes over his file, then answered.

"Yes."

The lawyer pulled out a folder of the most recent correspondents.

"Okay, thanks."

The video stopped there, where Shinzo pointed to Namjoon Kim's name in front of the camera, an arrogant smile on his face.

Shinzo took the USB key back, but before he did, he looked at the day the video was recorded: one day before the Sacrifice game.

Namjoon began to panic, then to talk nonsense.

"You're a criminal ! You really dare falsify evidence like that ? You're a piece of shit, with a criminal father !"

Shinzo sighed, then assumed a comfortable position in his seat, with one leg over the other.

"How did you predict the Sacrifice game ? What I mean is that you wanted my father's number without fully knowing me, the only discussion we had about our old men had lasted only a short time, and I revealed almost nothing."

Namjoon sighed, then protested softly.

"Know that I did this to destroy you, a criminal. Who agrees with me ?"

Of the 24 people, 17 raised their hands.

The Sacrifice game was at its most destructive, and Shinzo had to stop it at all costs, by any means necessary.