Battle Royale

Yoshimi came to her senses and looked at Mitsuko (of course she had been looking at her all this time, but she was too incapacitated to process this visual information), who proceeded to wrestle with the sickle to dislodge it from the back of Yoji's head. She gripped the handle with both hands and tried shaking it loose, swinging Yoji's head along with it. "No!.. "

Yoshimi screamed and shoved Mitsuko aside. Mitsuko fell back onto the grass, exposing her well formed legs, from the hem of her pleated skirt up to her thighs.

Yoshimi shielded Yoji's body. The sickle was still planted in his skull. Her tears fell onto his body. The sickle was telling her: shaking me won't revive me, don't shake me, there's a sickle stuck in me, man, that hurts.

Her chest tightened with waves of remorse. She felt as if she were drowning, as if the world were coming to an end.

She thought of the cause behind all of this, and her tear-stained eyes glared fiercely at Mitsuko. If looks could kill, her glare would have. Yoshimi couldn't care less now what kind of game this was or who her enemies and allies were. That's right. If anyone was her worst enemy, it was Mitsuko Souma, who'd killed her love. "Why'd you kill him!?"

The words sounded empty to Yoshimi. She felt as if she had become a hollow bag in a human shape. But the words came pouring out. The human body could do strange things.

"Why! Why'd you kill him!? It's horrible! It's just too awful! You're evil! Why'd you have to kill him!? Why!?"

Mitsuko contorted her mouth in an expression of dissatisfaction. "You were about to get killed. I saved you."

"No! I got Yoji to understand me! You're so evil! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! Yoji understood me!"

Mitsuko shook her head and shrugged, pointing the .45 at her. Yoshimi's eyes opened wide.

And so Yoshimi heard the dry pop one more time. Her forehead felt as if it were being crushed by a car. That was all.

Yoshimi Yahagi fell onto the corpse of her beloved Yoji Kuramoto and remained motionless. The .45 caliber bullet had demolished the back of her head. But her mouth remained open as if she were screaming and blood came flowing out from its side. It soaked Yoji's school coat, oozing out into a dark patch.

Mitsuko lowered the smoking Colt .45 and shrugged again. She'd planned on using Yoshimi to shield her from bullets.

She leaned over and whispered into the ear of Yoshimi's half-destroyed head, "I'm sure he understood." There was a strange topping of gray jelly brains and blood on her earlobe. "I killed him because it looked like he wasn't going to kill you after all."

Then, once again, she proceeded to pry loose the sickle from Yoji's head.

25 students remaining

31

The faint sound reached Shuya and the others. Shuya looked up. Then they heard it again. They waited, but that was it. They only heard the rustling sound of treetops deep inside the thicket shaking in the wind.

Shuya looked at Shogo, who was sitting next to him.

"Was that a gunshot?"

"That was a gunshot."

"Then someone's already..." Noriko began to speak, but Shogo shook his head and responded, "We don't know for sure."

They had all remained silent for several minutes, but the gunfire prompted discussion.

Shogo spoke up, "Look, as long as you trust me, it's cool but...like I said before, we have to survive till the very end. So I just want to make sure." Shogo looked over at Shuya. "Are you willing to be merciless against the enemy, Shuya?"

Shuya swallowed deeply. "You mean the government?"

"Including them, yeah." Shogo continued, "As well as your other classmates, if and when they attack us."

Shuya nodded slightly and then answered, "If that's what it comes down to, I will." His voice sounded feeble, though.

"Even if the classmate was female?"

Shuya's lips tightened as he looked back at Shogo. He looked down again. "If I have to I will."

"All right then. As long as we're on common ground." Shogo nodded and grabbed the shotgun resting on his crossed legs. Then he added, "Someone else will finish you off if you get too hung up on every person you kill."

Shuya was about to say something but hesitated. He decided it was best not ask, but couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "So you were merciless a year ago?"

Shogo shrugged. "I killed. You want to hear the details? How many guys I killed? How many girls I killed until I won?"

Noriko crossed her arms over her chest and brought in her elbows.

"No...forget it." Shuya shook his head. "That's pointless."

They fell silent again. Then Shogo said, as if offering an explanation, "I had no choice. Some of them lost their minds...and then some were willingly killing as many as they could... Most of my friends died pretty quickly, and I didn't have any time to hook up with anyone. And I-I just couldn't offer myself up and get killed by someone." He paused and added, "I also had something I had to do, so I couldn't die."

Shuya lifted his face. "What's that?"