7

The hall was unlit. Only the light from the classroom shone on the floor planks. The windows on the side of the hall were also sealed with sheets of black steel. They provided protection against attacks from rebellious students like Shuya who might decide to escape the game. Of course, as soon as they were off, this area would already be forbidden.

He looked to his right. There was another room, then another, both identical to the room he'd just exited. And then at the end of the dark hall there was what looked like a double-door exit. At the end of the hall there was another room on the left.

Was it the school's faculty room? The door was open and the lights were on. Shuya looked beyond the door, where a legion of Special Defense Forces soldiers were sitting on steel folding chairs behind a wide desk. Twenty or thirty? No, there were as many soldiers as there were students. In fact, Shuya was hoping that if his day pack came equipped with a gun (it was possible—along with

"knife wound" and "choking," "gunshot wound" was listed as a cause of death in the Program reports), or if some of the others waiting for him were equipped with guns, then they could use them against Sakamochi and his men before everyone departed, in other words, before the school became a forbidden zone. But this hope was immediately extinguished. The three men with Sakamochi weren't the only soldiers accompanying him. Of course, that wasn't at all surprising. One of the soldiers tilted his head and glanced up from the mug in his hand at Shuya. Like the faces of the trio in the classroom, his also lacked any expression.

Shuya took to his heels and hurried to the exit. He rushed impatiently. So now…now the only thing they could do was unite. But…maybe there were soldiers stationed outside to prevent them from waiting for each other? Still…

Shuya quickly ran through the dark corridor and went through the double doors. He descended several porch stairs.

Under the moon, an empty athletic field the size of three tennis courts spread out beyond the building. There were woods beyond the field. To his left was a small mountain. His field of vision expanded on the right. A pitch-black darkness spread out—the sea. Small points of light twinkled beyond the ocean. It must be the mainland. The Program officially took place within the prefecture of the selected junior high school. Sometimes the location was a mountain surrounded by high-voltage fences, or abandoned prison houses that hadn't yet been demolished, but for Kagawa Prefecture the Program was usually held on an island. According to the local news reports he'd seen (of course, in each case the location would only be announced after the game was over), every game in Kagawa took place on an island. This time was no exception. Sakamochi didn't mention the name of the island, but once Shuya checked its shape on the map he might be able to tell. Or maybe a building would reveal the name of the island. The soft breeze blew in. He could smell the sea. It was cold for a May evening but it wasn't unbearable. He'd have to be careful when he slept not to tire himself from exposure. But first…

There was no one. There weren't any soldiers, but Shuya was disappointed to find none of his classmates there. As Sakamochi had anticipated, everyone was hiding out. Even Hiroki Sugimura wasn't there. Only the soft breeze mixed in with the smell of the sea came drifting through the athletic field. Damn it. Shuya grimaced. If we scatter like this, we'll fall into the government's trap. It might be all right if you were forming groups with your friends. Sakura Ogawa and Kazuhiko Yamamoto might be meeting somewhere, likewise Kazuo Kiriyama's gang. But anyone hiding alone would eventually have to confront someone....Who knew what would result from that kind of chaos? Wasn't chaos essential to the progress of the game?

That's right. Well at least I'm going to wait here for the others. First I have to wait for Noriko. Shuya glanced back at the dark interior of the school building. They were told anyone loitering in the hall would be immediately shot, but the soldiers in the room at the end of the corridor didn't pay any particular attention to Shuya. They weren't exactly chatting up a storm. They just sat around, unarmed. Shuya licked his lips and decided it was best for him to move away from the door. He looked outside again.

That's when he noticed it.

He didn't see it last time because he was too preoccupied with the overall view, but this time he saw something that looked like a garbage bag lying at his feet.

Shuya wondered whether it was someone's day pack, dropped by accident, but then his eyes widened. It wasn't a garbage bag, nor was it someone's day pack. There was hair growing out of one end. Human hair.

It was a human being. Wearing a sailor suit school uniform. The body was in a V-shape, lying on its side, face down. The single pony tail tied with a wide ribbon looked familiar. No wonder. He'd just seen her off only three minutes ago. The stiff body belonged to Female Student No. 14, Mayumi Tendo. Right beside her lobster-shaped braided hair, a dull, silver, twenty-centimeter stick poked out of the back of her uniform, diagonally, like a transistor radio antenna. There were four tiny flaps resembling a fighter plane's tail at the end of the stick.

What the…hell was this?

What he should have done was immediately seek cover. Instead Shuya stood there, stunned. He recalled Sakamochi's reply to Kiriyama, who asked when the game began: "As soon as you leave here."

It was unbelievable—who could have done this? Did someone return to kill Mayumi Tendo just as she left the school?

Shuya stopped speculating and cautiously crouched down and checked the premises. For some reason…there was no sign of the attacker. No arrows had flown at him when he'd been standing in a daze. Why? Satisfied with killing only Mayumi Tendo, did the assailant leave the premises?

Or…was this some engineered "provocation"? Did the soldiers at the end of the hall kill her to convince everyone that some of their classmates were already willing to play the game? But if that were the case…

All of sudden Shuya realized Mayumi Tendo might still be alive. She might be unconscious from the shock of her wound. In any case, he should look at her.

If he hadn't realized something odd and restrained himself from taking a step forward a split-second later, Shuya would have dropped out of the game early. In other words…

A silver object whizzed right by Shuya's eyes. Yes—it came directly down, from above. Another antenna was planted in the ground.

Shuya shuddered. If he hadn't been standing at the exit, waiting for Noriko, he would have been immediately shot down. The assailant was on top of the building.

Shuya clenched his teeth, snatched up the arrow, and ran to his left. He moved impulsively but in an erratic way that eluded the assailant. He turned around and looked up. Under the dim moonlit sky, a large, dark shadow loomed above the gabled roof of the single-story school building. Could that be…not Shogo…

He had no time to think. The shadow pointed its weapon at him.

Just to surprise him Shuya threw the arrow at the shadow. But thanks to Shuya's gifts as a star shortstop, the arrow flew at incredible speed and traced a fine arc right at the shadow. The shadow groaned, held its face, hunched over, and then began to sway. Then it fell.

Shuya stepped back and watched the shadow fall from a height of at least three meters and land with a thud on the ground. The object in the assailant's hand fell with a metallic crash. Light leaked through the building exit. The large shadow was lying face down, wearing a school uniform. It was Yoshio Akamatsu. He was motionless now, perhaps because he was unconscious. A hybrid between a bow and rifle—were they called bow guns?—was lying by his hand. The day pack that had fallen by Yoshio's feet was half open. Shuya saw a stack of silver arrows inside. Shuya felt a sudden chill. It was true. He was participating! Yoshio Akamatsu was in on this game. Yoshio had taken his weapon, returned here, and killed Mayumi Tendo!

Someone was coming from behind.

Shuya turned around. It was Noriko, who'd taken the situation in as she held her breath in surprise. Shuya's eyes went from Noriko's face to Mayumi Tendo—he ran over to Mayumi and touched her neck to check her pulse. She was dead. There was no doubt.

His brain felt like a fuse fizzling out. Others might be in the same state of mind as Yoshio. And one of them might just suddenly return this time, perhaps with a gun.

Shuya had no choice but to change his attitude toward the game now. So this was it. When Sakamochi said, "As soon as you leave here," this was what he'd meant.

Shuya stood up and ran to Noriko. He took her by the hand.

"We're running! Do your best, you have to run!"

Shuya began running, half-dragging Noriko, whose leg was injured. Which way though?

He couldn't afford to deliberate over his decisions. He headed towards the grove. First they'd hide in the grove, then they could, no—he dismissed the thought. Given Noriko's condition, they were defenseless against any attack. Staying near the area was too dangerous.

Waiting in front of the building for the others was completely out of the question. He rushed Noriko, and they entered the grove. Tall trees mixed in with short trees, and the ground was covered with fern. Shuya turned to yell some warning to the remaining eleven students coming out (in their class of twenty-one pairs of boys and girls, there should have been twelve students following Shuya's and Noriko's seat numbers, but Fumiyo Fujiyoshi had to be counted out), but he gave up on the idea. Shuya reached the somewhat forced conclusion that they probably weren't as foolish as he was, so they'd flee the moment they emerged from the building anyway, especially once they saw Mayumi Tendo's corpse. For a moment he thought of Shinji Mimura—but he gave up on this idea too. Once again he forced himself into believing that there had to be some other strategy, another way for them to meet up. In any case, they had to leave.

Holding Noriko Nakagawa tightly, he haphazardly led their way into the grove. A bird cried out, "kaw kaw," and ruffled its wings as it flew away. He couldn't see it, but it didn't matter. He had no time to observe it anyway.

39 students remaining