40

"Get down," Shogo said. He carefully surveyed the area while holding on to his shotgun. Carrying Noriko on his back, Shuya obeyed Shogo. The area was shaded by a large elm tree. They must have covered two-thirds the distance to the medical facility by now. They should be in the vicinity of sector F=6 or F=7. If they were headed in the right direction (Shogo was leading them, so they couldn't be far off), the school building should soon appear below them to their right. Moving along the shore, they first passed through C=4. Then they moved east along the foot of the northern mountain. Moving in broad daylight did turn out to be difficult. They would move a little, quiet down their breathing, and when they had to get through thick vegetation Shogo would throw several pebbles ahead to make sure no one was there. It'd already taken them half an hour just to get this far. Noriko continued to breathe heavily.

Shuya tilted his head back the way mothers do with their infants and told her, "We're almost there, Noriko."

"Uh huh…" she answered.

"All right, let's go," Shogo said. "We're going for that tree over there."

"Got it."

Shuya got up and proceeded through the soft, grassy soil that must have been a farm field. Shogo was right next to them, holding their belongings with his left hand and his shotgun in his right, indicating directions with the motion of his head. The muzzle of the shotgun would point in the same direction as his head.

They reached a thin tree and stopped. Shuya took a deep breath.

"Are you all right, Shuya?"

Shuya gave him a smile. "Noriko's light."

"We can take a break."

"No," Shuya shook his head. "I want to get there as soon as possible."

"All right," Shogo said, but Shuya felt uncertain. Maybe he was being an idiot. He was always jumping to wrong conclusions, failing to check the important details.

"Shogo."

"What?"

"Does that mark on the map really indicate a clinic?"

Shogo snickered. "I believe you were the one who claimed it was."

"No, that was—"

Shuya was embarrassed, but Shogo immediately said,

"Don't worry, it is. I checked it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I walked around the island last night until I met you guys. I should have had the foresight to take some more medicine. I didn't think I'd need it."

Shuya let out a sigh of relief. Then he reproached himself. He had to get his act together. Otherwise, he'd end up not only getting himself killed but Noriko as well.

Even as they talked, Shogo was searching for their next spot.

"All right—"

Then they heard the gunfire. Shogo froze. He nervously crouched down and surveyed the area. So…had Shuya been too optimistic, hoping they could reach the medical facility without any obstacles?

But there was no one in sight.

Shuya looked over at Shogo, who stretched out his left arm as if to shield them and looked ahead toward their left, where they were headed. There was a gentle slope leading up to rows of tall pine trees approximately ten meters away, cutting off their view. Did he mean they were going through there?

Shuya finally let out the breath he'd been holding.

"It's all right," Shogo said in a hushed voice. "We're not the targets." Shuya decided against pulling out his gun and, still carrying Noriko, said, "It's close." Shogo nodded silently. Then the gunfire continued. Two, then three shots. The third one somehow seemed louder than the first two shots. Then another shot. It was a smaller sound.

"A gun fight," Shogo mumbled. "They're pretty pumped up." Now that he knew they were safe, Shuya felt relieved, but he kept on biting his lip. Whoever they were, his classmates were trying to kill each other again. In fact, it was happening right near them. And he was just trying to stay quiet, waiting for it to end. That was just…

The image of the men in black crossed his mind. Now then, you're next, and you. Fortunately, Mr. Nanahara, your time still hasn't come.

His back facing him, Shogo said, as if he could read Shuya's thoughts (didn't he say something silly about reading his mind on a clear day?), "I hope you're not thinking of stopping them, Shuya." Shuya held his breath and then mumbled, "No…" That's right. His priority was to take Noriko to the medical facility. If they got mixed up with someone else's fight they'd end up risking their own lives. Then Noriko suddenly said from behind, "Shuya." Her fever was so high, he could even feel it through his back. She was practically whispering.

Shuya turned his head around. He saw Noriko's eyes squinting right behind his shoulder.

"Let me…stand…" she finally uttered and continued, "We have to see…make sure…whoever it is…" Her words were cut off by her heavy breathing, but he knew what she was getting at. What if someone who didn't want to participate, in other words, someone innocent, was about to get killed right now? In fact that could be the case with both parties exchanging bullets right now. The area they were in was a direct southward descent from the northern peak where Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka were killed. But they weren't hearing a machine gun now. Therefore, neither of the fighting parties right now had killed Yukiko and Yumiko. But what if…Yukiko and Yumiko's killer heard this gunfire? He could show up at any moment.

More gunfire was exchanged. And then silence again.

Shuya clenched his teeth. He quickly let Noriko down. He had her rest against the tree trunk where they were hiding.

Shogo turned around. "Hey, you're not…"

Shuya ignored him and said to Noriko, "I'll go check it out." He pulled out his Smith & Wesson and said to Shogo, "Look after Noriko."

"H-hey…"

He heard Shogo, but he was already on his way.

He climbed the slope carefully, keeping an eye on all sides, and made his way through the coniferous trees.

There was thick vegetation beyond the trees. Shuya made his way into it. He got down on the ground and proceeded to make his way through the long, sharp needles pricking at him from both sides. More gunshots. Shuya finally reached the edge of the grove and slowly poked his head out. There was a house. It was an old wooden, single-story building with a triangular roof. A typical farmhouse. On his left was an unpaved entrance road. The mountain escarpment surrounded the property further down. The area above was covered in deep forest. And even further up, you could see the viewing platform on the northern mountain where Yumiko and Yukiko had been killed. The farmhouse was on his left side. Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No. 10) was crouched against the wall in front of the building. Hirono was looking beyond the yard at what appeared to be a shack for farm equipment right beside the entrance road. He could make out the figure of a girl beside the entrance. The girl looked up, and that was when he realized it was Kaori Minami (Female Student No. 20). And both of them were holding guns. They were less than fifteen meters apart from each other. He had no idea how they ended up shooting at each other. It was possible one of them was out to get the other girl, but Shuya could tell this wasn't the case. They probably stumbled into each other, and because neither of them could trust the other, they ended up shooting at each other.... This guess might have just been based on his own favorable opinion of girls, but in any case he couldn't just sit back and let this happen. He had to stop them.

As Shuya tried to grasp the situation, Kaori stuck her head out from the shack's entrance and fired at Hirono. She handled the gun like a kid playing with a water pistol, but unlike a water pistol the gun exploded, and a small brass shell flew into the air. Hirono fired two shots back. She actually handled the gun well, and her shells didn't fly out. One of her bullets hit the post of the shack, which shattered into sawdust. Kaori quickly tucked her head in.

Hirono's body was almost entirely visible from where Shuya was standing, and he saw her open the cylinder of her revolver to extract the shells. Her left hand was soaked crimson. Her arm might have been wounded by Kaori. But she managed to reload her gun quickly with that hand. She aimed her gun at Kaori again.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, but right before he was about to act Shuya was once again overwhelmed by the sensation of being in a nightmare. Kaori Minami loved pop idols, so she'd often talk about her favorite stars with her friends, or share a photo taken in person that thrilled her to no end. Then there was Hirono Shimizu, who hung out with Mitsuko Souma, so there was something jaded about her. But they were both third-year students in junior high, they both had charming qualities. Now these two…were shooting at each other. Seriously, with real bullets. Obviously. I have to do something now.

Shuya stood up and fifed his Smith & Wesson into the air. Oh great, so now I'm playing the sheriff, he thought for a moment. But without hesitating, he shouted, "Stop it!" Hirono and Kaori froze, and then together looked over at Shuya.

Shuya continued, "Stop it! I'm with Noriko Nakagawa!" He thought it was best not to mention Shogo's name for now. "You can trust me!"

As he said this, he realized how lame his words sounded. But he had no other way to put it. Hirono was the first to move her eyes away from Shuya to Kaori. And…Kaori was gazing at Shuya. Shuya realized at that moment how half of Kaori's body was exposed beyond the entrance—she was in the open now.

What happened next reminded him of a traffic accident he once witnessed. It happened on an autumn evening before he turned eleven. Maybe the driver had fallen asleep or something. His truck lost control, rammed through the guardrail, rode up onto the sidewalk, and hit a young girl walking home from school, just like Shuya, who was behind her. It was unbelievable but her backpack came off her shoulders and flew into the air, tracing a different trajectory from the girl's body. The girl landed on the sidewalk before the backpack did, falling on her shoulder. Obstructed by the wayside concrete wall she slid along the edge of the sidewalk and then stopped still. Blood came flowing out, leaving a trail on the bottom edge of the concrete wall over one meter long.

It all looked like—from the time the truck swung off the road and crashed into the girl—as if it was happening in slow motion. Anyone there could tell what was going to happen, but there was nothing anyone could do. That's what it felt like.

Hirono aimed and fired at Kaori, who'd completely let her guard down. Two shots in a row. The first one hit Kaori in the shoulder, making her spin halfway to the right. The second shot hit her in the head. Shuya saw a part of her head—from the top down to her left temple—explode.

Kaori collapsed by the front door of the shack.

Hirono glanced over at Shuya.

Then she turned and ran to his left, westward, where Shuya's group came from. She ran into the bushes and disappeared from sight.

"Damn!"

Shuya moaned. After some hesitation he ran to the shack where Kaori had collapsed. Kaori was lying down, legs jutting out from inside the shack that only housed a decrepit tractor. Her body remained twisted as blood came flowing out the corner of her mouth, mixed with the blood from her head and shoulder wounds, turning into a puddle on the shack's concrete floor. Tiny dust particles from the floor were floating on the surface of the puddle. Her eyes stared out at the sky. A thin gold chain hung down from her sailor suit onto the floor, and the golden locket attached to it looked like an island in a lake of blood. A famous male idol singer was smiling cheerfully from it. Shuya was shaking as he knelt down beside her.

Oh, man…what the…so this girl…can't gossip about pop idols anymore, she can't go to their concerts anymore. If he had been more careful…maybe she wouldn't have been killed?

He heard a sound and turned around. It was Shogo, holding Noriko with one of his arms as they looked out from the woods.

Shogo left Noriko there and trotted over to Shuya.

Shogo's expression seemed to be saying, "See, what'd I tell you?" but he didn't say a word. He just calmly picked up Kaori's gun and day pack, and then as if it occurred to him as an afterthought, he crouched down and shut her eyes with his right thumb. Then he told Shuya, "We're going. Hurry up." He knew it was dangerous. Anyone—especially the killer with the machine gun—could have heard the gunfire and might be showing up now.

Still, Shuya's eyes were glued to Kaori's corpse until Shogo tugged his arm back. 

22 students remaining