2

Wearing a broad grin, the man with long hair continued behind the lectern, "All right, all right. Then I shall proceed with the introduction. First of all, I am your new instructor, Kinpatsu Sakamochi." The man who introduced himself as Sakamochi turned towards the blackboard and wrote his name in large vertical letters with the chalk. "Kinpatsu Sakamochi"? Was this some kind of joke? Given the situation, maybe it was a pseudonym.

Suddenly the female class representative, Yukie Utsumi, stood up and said, "I don't understand what's going on here." Everyone looked over at Yukie. With her long hair neatly braided into a pair of pony tails, she looked pretty wound up, but her voice remained assertive. Nonetheless, Yukie probably had to delude herself into believing they'd been through a traffic accident or some other event that caused them all to lose consciousness.

Yukie continued, "What's going on here? We were all in the middle of our study trip. Right, everyone?" She turned around and looked at everyone, setting off an avalanche of cries:

"Where are we?"

"Did you fall asleep too?"

"What time is it anyway?"

"Was everyone asleep?"

"Damn, I don't have a watch."

"Do you remember getting off the bus, coming here?"

"Who the hell is he?"

"I don't remember a thing."

"This is terrible. What's going on? I'm scared."

After observing Sakamochi quietly listening to them, Shuya slowly surveyed the room. There were several others who remained silent.

The first one he noticed was sitting at an angle behind him in the back row in the middle. It was Kazuo Kiriyama. Beneath his slicked-back hair his calm eyes were staring at the man at the lectern. His look was so calm, it didn't even resemble a glare. He paid no attention to his circle of followers addressing him: Ryuhei Sasagawa, Mitsuru Numai, Hiroshi Kuronaga (Male Student No. 9), and Sho Tsukioka (Male Student No. 14).

Then there was Mitsuko Souma, sitting in the second row by the window. She was the one who looked jaded. Her seat was separated from the rest of her "group," which consisted of Hirono Shimizu and Yoshimi Yahagi. Of course none of the other girls, nor boys for that matter, would even attempt to talk to her. (On Shuya's left, Hirono and Yoshimi were speaking to each other.) Even though Mitsuko had the gorgeous looks of a pop idol, she always wore a strange, listless expression on her face. She stared at Sakamochi with her arms folded. (Hiroki Sugimura sat right behind her, talking to Tadakatsu Hatagami.) Shogo Kawada sat at the second to last row by the window. He was also silently staring at Sakamochi. But he took out a piece of gum, then began chewing it, continuing to stare at the teacher as his jaw moved.

Shuya looked to the front of the class. Noriko Nakagawa was still staring back at him. Her dark eyes were trembling nervously. Shuya glanced over at Yoshitoki, who was sitting in front of her, but Yoshitoki was busy talking to Shinji Mimura. Shuya immediately glanced back at Noriko, tucked his chin in slightly, and nodded. It seemed to have a calming effect on her. Her eyes seemed to relax a little.

"All right, all right, please be quiet." Sakamochi clapped his hands together several times to get their attention. The clamor suddenly subsided. "Let me explain the situation. The reason why you're all here today then..."

Then he said: "…is to kill each other."

Now no one responded. Everyone remained frozen, like figures in a still photograph. But—Shuya noticed—Shogo continued chewing his gum. His expression hadn't changed. But Shuya thought he'd caught a glimpse of a faint grin flash across his face.

Sakamochi continued smiling and resumed, "Your class has been selected for this year's 'Program.' " Someone shrieked.

42 students remaining