Part 2 - Middle Stage

31 students remaining

Their first night broke into a bright dawn.

Shuya Nanahara looked up and watched the blue sky gradually turning white through the thicket. The branches and leaves of oak, camellia, some kind of cherry, and other kinds of trees wove an intricate net around them and hid them.

Shuya realized several things as he reexamined the map. The island was roughly diamond shaped. The hills rose upward on the south and north end of the island. They were now located at the south side of the northern mountain, near the slope on its west side. According to the map coordinates, the location seemed to be in sector C=4. Along with contour lines, the map was detailed, including the residential area and other houses (indicated by light blue dots), various buildings (there wasn't much besides symbols indicating a medical clinic, a fire station, and a lighthouse—and then a town hall, a fishermen's coop, that was about it), and roads small and large, allowing him to check where each area was according to the positions of land formations, roads, and scattered houses. At night he'd already confirmed as soon as they were higher up the hill that the map faithfully represented this island. Silhouettes of islands, large and small, were scattered across the black sea—and as Sakamochi had said, there was (almost exactly west of the island) the silhouette of what appeared to be a guard ship with its lights turned off.

Immediately west of where Shuya and Noriko were, the grove ended abruptly and was replaced by a steep slope. There was a small field below, and beyond it the slope continued on toward the ocean. There was a small shack with a raised floor in the middle of the field that they had passed through last night. Seeing the worn out wooden Shinto archway ten meters away from the shack, Shuya assumed it was a shrine (which was also marked on the map).

The front door was open, and there was no one inside.

Just as he had with the other houses, Shuya decided against hiding in this shrine. There might be others doing the same thing…and given how there was only one entrance, they'd be trapped the moment they were found.

Shuya settled on a place surrounded by shrubbery relatively near the sea, where they could lie down and rest. Higher up the hill the shrubbery seemed thicker, but he thought that would also attract others, and in case they met someone who turned out to be an enemy, he thought they were better off somewhere not too steep, where it was hard to run. After all Noriko's leg was injured. Shuya sat down against a tree, which was approximately ten centimeters wide. Noriko sat immediately to his left. She leaned against the tree, her injured right leg limply stretched out. They were completely exhausted by now. Noriko slowly closed her eyes.

Shuya discussed their course of action with Noriko, but they couldn't come up with much. He first thought of finding a boat to escape from the island. But he immediately realized how futile that'd be. There was a guard ship out at sea and furthermore—

Shuya slowly reached for his neck and touched the cold surface of "that thing." He'd gotten used to the sensation, but it felt heavy, as if it were their inescapable fate itself, choking out their existence. Yes—that collar.

Once a special signal is transmitted from the school, the bomb inside the collar explodes. According to rules this would happen to anyone caught in a forbidden zone, but of course the same would apply to anyone attempting to escape by sea. In fact these collars rendered those guard ships unnecessary. Even if they managed to find a boat, it was impossible for them to escape as long as these collars were on their necks.

Then—the only way out was for them to attack Sakamochi at the school and disable the collar locks. But even with that, the G=7 sector where the school was located had become a forbidden zone since the game started, so it was impossible to approach it. Besides, their locations were constantly being monitored.

He continued to think this through while the area was lit up by morning. It would be dangerous for them to move in the sunlight. He thought they should wait again for nightfall. But here again there was another problem, the time limit. "If no one dies within twenty-four hours." The last time Shuya saw someone die was when he left the school, which was over three hours ago. If everyone remained alive, in a little more than twenty hours everyone would be dead. Even if they made an attempt to escape, by nightfall it might be too late to get their act together. Ironically, more classmates dying would buy them more time to survive. Shuya tried to shake this thought off. They were trapped.

Shuya kept on wishing, if only they could meet up with Shinji Mimura. With his wide range of knowledge and accompanying broad expertise to apply it, a guy like Shinji could come up with a solution to their situation.

He also kept on regretting not taking the risk of waiting for Shinji after Yoshio Akamatsu's attack. Did I really do the right thing? Would I have been attacked as an enemy there? Maybe Yoshio Akamatsu had been the only exception.

No…that wasn't necessarily true. There might be a lot more "enemies." It was impossible to determine who your enemy was in the first place. Who was still normal and who wasn't anymore? But—maybe we're the ones who aren't being normal anymore? Maybe we're insane?

He felt like he was going crazy.

In the end we have no choice but to sit here and see what'll happen. But will we come up with a solution?

If that doesn't work, we can wait until night to look for Shinji Mimura—but will we even be able to do that? Even though the island was small, with a diameter of six kilometers, finding someone under these conditions wouldn't be easy. Besides, will we even have enough time between nightfall and the "expiration time"?

Furthermore—let's assume by some stroke of luck (what an expression) we end up hooking up with Shinji, or it's just the two of us, and we somehow manage to escape , we would be considered fugitives. Unless we emigrate somewhere, we'll spend the rest of our lives as fugitives. And then one day we'll end up being assassinated by a government agent in some abandoned alley, leaving our bodies for the fat mice that come out and nibble at our fingers—

In the end…you might be better off going crazy.

Shuya thought of Yoshitoki Kuninobu. He was shaken by Yoshitoki's death, but maybe Yoshitoki was better off insofar as he didn't have to experience this insanity. This situation that seemed absolutely hopeless.

We might be better off committing suicide. Would Noriko agree to killing ourselves?

Shuya glanced over at her and for the first time closely observed Noriko's profile in the peaceful, dawning light.

She had well defined eyebrows, eyelashes soft against her closed eyes, a cute nose with its flat tip, and full lips. She was a very cute girl. He could see why Yoshitoki had a crush on her. Now there was sand stuck to her face, and her hair hanging slightly past her shoulders was frayed. And—of course the collar. The gaudy silver collar wrapped around her neck as if she were a slave from ancient times.

This damn game was taking away all her attractive qualities.

Shuya then suddenly felt a surge of incredible anger. And with it, he came to his senses. We won't lose. We'll survive. Not only that, we'll fight back. It won't be some lame-ass counter-punch. They come with a straight right punch, and I'll wail back at them with a baseball bat. Noriko opened her eyes. Their eyes met and they stared at each other. Then Noriko quietly said,

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…well, I was thinking."

Shuya was embarrassed, because he'd been staring at Noriko, and she'd caught him doing this, so he just blurted out, "I know this sounds weird, but I just hope you're not thinking of committing suicide." Noriko looked down, her face ambiguous, forming what might have been a smile. Then she said, "No way…although…"

"Although what?"

Noriko thought for a moment. Then she continued, "I might want to commit suicide if we were the only ones left. Then at least you would be…"

Astonished, Shuya shook his head. He shook it frantically. He had mentioned the idea randomly. He didn't expect her to respond like this.

"Don't be absurd. Don't you even think of it. Look, you and me, we're together to the very end. No matter what. All right?"

Noriko smiled a little, offered her right hand, and touched Shuya's left hand. "Thanks," she said.

"Look, we're going to make it. Don't even think of dying."

Noriko smiled a little again. Then she said, "You haven't given up then, Shuya?" Shuya nodded with some force. "Of course not."

Noriko nodded and said, "I've always thought this, but you've always had this positive force."

"Positive force?"

Noriko smiled. "I don't know how to say this but you have this positive attitude about living. Like right now you're totally determined to live. And…" She still had a faint smile on her face as she looked directly at him. "That's what I really like about you."

Shuya felt a tinge of embarrassment and replied, "That's because I'm an idiot." Then he said, "Even if we could escape, you know, I mean it wouldn't matter to me, because I don't have any parents. But, you…you won't be able to see your mother or your father—or your brother. Would you be all right with that?"

Noriko smiled a little again. "I can deal with that—I made up my mind ever since…this game began." She paused, then added, "What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

Noriko continued, "You won't be able to see her anymore…"

Shuya hesitated. It was true, Noriko knew a lot about Shuya. As Noriko herself said, "I've been watching you for so long now."

He'd be lying if he said it didn't matter. He'd been so into Kazumi Shintani—all this time. The thought of never seeing her again was—

But Shuya shook his head, "It's not a big deal."

He thought of adding, "It was just a one-way crush anyway," but he was interrupted by the sudden blare of Sakamochi's voice ringing through the air.

31 students remaining