Battle Royale

"Hold on," Shogo said. He slowly got up, approached Noriko, and checked the pulse of her right wrist. It was what he did every twenty minutes. He rubbed his increasingly stubbly chin again and looked at them. "You won't know what medicine to use." He tilted his head slightly, looked at Shuya, and said, "All right. I'm coming with you."

24 students remaining

39

Although over half an hour had passed since she'd been shot in the back three times and though she'd lost a large quantity of blood from the arrow wound in her leg, Takako Chigusa was still alive. Mitsuko Souma had disappeared, but Takako couldn't care less about that.

She was half dozing, half dreaming. Her family...her father, mother, and younger sister were all waving at Takako from the front gate of their house.

She could tell her sister Ayako, who was two years younger, was crying. She was saying, "Goodbye, Takako, goodbye." Her handsome father, from whom Takako had inherited most of her features and her mother who shared her looks more with Ayako, were both silent, looking very sad. Their pet dog, Hanako, drooped her head and wagged her tail. Takako had taken care of Hanako, smart female dog, ever since she was a puppy.

Oh shit, Takako thought in her dream, how awful. I've only lived fifteen years. Hey Ayako, look after Mom and Dad, okay? You're so spoiled, so learn from your older sister a little, huh? Then she saw Kahoru Kitazawa. Her one really close friend, the petite girl she'd been buddies with for seven years now.

Time to say goodbye to you too, Kahoru. That's right. You were the one who said that nothing, not even hell, could scare you as long as you gave it your best shot. That's right, I'm not afraid. But...it's still kinda hard, dying alone like this....

Then Kahoru seemed to be shouting. But she couldn't hear her well. It sounded like, "What about him?"

Him?

Then the scene changed to her track team locker room. She knew it was the summer of her second year because this room had been torn down last fall, replaced by a new clubhouse.

Hey, this is no dream. This actually happened. This...

An older teammate. His buzz-cut hair stood up in front, and he wore a white T-shirt with the words "FUCK OFF!" on it and green track shorts with black lines. Playful but gentle-looking eyes. He was the guy she had a crush on. He was good at running hurdles. Now he was concentrating on taping up his knee which he'd injured a while ago. There was no one else besides them. Takako said, "You have a beautiful girlfriend. You two make a great couple."

Ah well, when it comes to him, I turn into an average girl. How lame.

"Yeah?" he lifted his face and smiled. "You're prettier than her."

Takako smiled, but felt a little odd. She was happy to hear him praise her looks for the first time...but the fact he could tell another girl she was prettier also indicated how strong his relationship with his girlfriend was.

"Don't you have a boyfriend, Takako?" he asked, smiling.

The scene changed again.

She was at the park, but everything appeared very low.

Oh, this must be from my childhood. I must have been in the second or third grade.

Hiroki Sugimura was crying in front of her. He wasn't tall the way he was now. In fact back then Takako was taller. A bully had taken away his brand new comic book.

"Come on, boys don't cry. Don't be such a wuss. Be strong. Come on. Our dog just had puppies. You wanna see them?"

"Okay..." Hiroki wiped his tears and tagged along.

Come to think of it, Hiroki started martial arts school the year after that. He also went through a growth spurt around then and eventually ended up taller than her.

Up until the end of elementary school they often visited each other. Once, when she seemed preoccupied, Hiroki asked her, "What's wrong, Takako? Something wrong?"

Takako thought about it and then said what was on her mind. "Hey, Hiroki, what would you do if someone said they liked you?"

"Hmm. I don't know, since it's never happened to me."

"...don't you have a crush on someone?"

"Hmm. Nope. Not at this moment."

Takako then thought, so I'm not even in the running?

Whatever. She continued, "Oh, really. Well you should find someone you can confess to."

"I'm too chicken. I don't think so."

The scene changed. Junior high school again. They became classmates in their second year. They were talking on the first day of class. At some point, Hiroki asked, "So I heard there's this supposedly hot guy on the track team." Although he didn't directly say it, he was implying she had a crush on him.

"Who told you?"

"Just heard. So how's it going?"

"No hope. He has a girlfriend. What about you? You still don't have a girlfriend?"

"Leave me alone."

...we were always on the verge of being close. We both had a thing for each other but...or am I just imagining things? At least I liked you. I mean, it was different from how I felt about my track teammate. You know what I mean?

Hiroki's face appeared. He was crying. "Takako. Don't die."