Battle Royale

Shinji tied another piece of wire from another reel to the wire stretching under the balloon. Just to be sure, he secured this to the balloon with tape. With the pair of wires in both of his hands, he moved the balloon as if it were walking on a pair of legs. Then he pointed to a nearby tree. He moved the string. Yes, in other words, these were the legs of the giant. They were too frail to crush a city and right now they're shorter than me, but...

Yutaka seemed to understand completely. He gave two huge nods. Then he moved his lips without saying anything. It looked like he was saying, "Awesome, Shinji." Or maybe it was, "Enough already." Whatever, it didn't matter.

Shinji took the memo pad and wrote, We make one or two more balloons and attach them to each other. But I still don't know how far up the wire can be stretched. There's also the wind. Let's just go for it.

Yutaka read this and nodded.

Shinji glanced up at the sky. The bags were black, so even under the moon, Sakamochi and his men wouldn't see them. Right now there wasn't much wind either. But he had no idea what it was like further up there in the sky. Then he said, "Let's hurry."

Shinji signaled Yutaka to hold onto the first balloon and proceeded to pull out another garbage bag.

20 students remaining

48

Shogo rose a little after 10 p.m.

Shuya had been looking after Noriko, who remained resting in bed. Shuya groped through the nearly pitch black room and entered the waiting room.

"I'll make some coffee," Shogo said as he looked up at Shuya. Then he walked down the hall. He seemed to have good night vision.

Shuya returned to the beds, where he found Noriko up without her blanket.

"You should rest a little more," Shuya said.

Noriko nodded, "Uh huh..." Then she mumbled, "Could you ask Shogo...if he's going to boil some more water if I can get an extra cup?" Noriko was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands by her thighs. Moonlight spilled in over the curtain from the window. She kept her chin tucked in as she looked over to her side.

"Sure...but what for?"

Noriko hesitated and then answered, "I sweated so much...I just wanted to wipe my body...maybe it's too much to ask for."

"Oh no," Shuya replied and quickly nodded. "No prob. I'll go tell him." He left the room.

Shogo was boiling water in the dark kitchen. The tip of the cigarette between his mouth glowed red, and the charcoal flame under the pot resembled a strange firefly stirring to life.

"Shogo," Shuya said. Shogo turned around. The afterimage of his cigarette traced a thick line before vanishing. "Noriko was wondering if she could have some hot water. She said one cup was enough—"

"Ah." Shogo didn't let him continue. He removed his cigarette from his mouth. Shuya could see Shogo was smiling in the dim moonlight coming through the window. "Sure. A cup or an entire bucket, fine with me."

As he moved he scooped up water with the bowl from the bucket and added it to the pot. He repeated this five times. He kept a low charcoal flame going to keep the water in the pot boiling. Shuya felt some steam drift by. "She's a girl," Shogo said.

It turned out Shogo wasn't as slow as Shuya was. He knew why Noriko asked for hot water.

Shuya was silent and Shogo unexpectedly continued on his own.

"She wants to stay pretty cause she's with you." Then he exhaled some smoke.

Shuya remained quiet, but then asked, "Can I help you?"

"No." Shogo seemed to be shaking his head. Squinting his eyes, Shuya could see three cups and a coffee dripper already loaded with a filter on the table. There was also a tea bag for Noriko.

"Hey," Shogo called him.

Shuya lifted his brow, "What is it? All of a sudden you're so chatty."

Shogo chuckled. Then he continued, "I understand how you feel about Yoshitoki, but don't forget about Noriko's feelings."

Shuya fell silent again. The he spoke. For some reason, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. "I know."

"You have a girlfriend?" Shogo proceeded to ask.

Shuya shrugged. "Nope."

"Then what's the problem?"

Shogo continued to look at the window, smoking his cigarette. "It's not a bad thing to be loved."

Shuya shrugged again. Then he asked, "Don't you have someone?"

His cigarette glowed brightly. He didn't say anything. The smoke drifted slowly through the dark.

"A secret, huh?"

"No..." Shogo began to speak, but then he removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it into the bucket of water. "Get down, Shuya," he whispered and crouched down.

Shuya nervously obeyed him. Was someone going to attack? He grew tense.

"Get Noriko. Be quiet though," Shogo whispered again. Shuya was already on his way to the examination room, where Noriko was.