Free Battle Royale by Koushun Takami Page A

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
    8
    Yoshio Akamatsu regained consciousness almost immediately, but because he'd been knocked out cold by the blow to his head he felt as if he were coming out of a deep slumber.
    He first noticed how his head was throbbing. He felt out of it. What was it? Was it from playing video games yesterday way past midnight?…which meant that yesterday was Saturday, or was it Sunday?…then today must be Monday which means I have to be in school…but what time could it be…it's still dark, maybe…I can sleep a little more....
    As he sat up, the sky and earth rotating ninety degrees, an empty field unexpectedly spread out in front of him. There was a mountain beyond the field, shaped like a bow, darker than the night sky.
    All of a sudden, everything came back. Sakamochi, Mr. Hayashida's corpse, Yoshio's departure, discovering the bow gun in his day pack once he found some shelter in a small shack, his returning here, observing Takako Chigusa (Female Student No. 13) whose face was a little severe but beautiful, looking tense now as the track team's best runner dashed away at full speed, him struggling up the thin steel ladder by the side of the building in order to reach the roof. Then how, due to the trouble he had loading his bow gun with an arrow, Sho Tsukioka (Male No. 14) also managed to escape his reach. And then…
    He turned around and saw the girl in the sailor suit uniform lying there.
    It didn't exactly come as a surprise to Yoshio. What he felt now in conjunction with his memory wasn't guilt over killing one of his classmates so much as it was fear. It might have resembled a gigantic billboard sign standing in the middle of a wasteland inside his mind. On the sign were letters in blood that read, "I'm going to kill you!" In the background all his classmates held weapons like axes and pistols, attacking Yoshio, who stood in front of the sign as if it were a 3D movie.
    Of course killing your classmates was wrong. And besides once the game time had expired they were all going to die anyway so it might have been absurd to fight at all. But that was just too rational. The fact was that Yoshio simply did not want to die. He was petrified by any of his classmates who'd bare their teeth at him. Just think about it, you're surrounded by a swarm of assassins.
    And so his choice to reduce "the enemy" as efficiently as possible wasn't motivated by rational thoughts but instead from a deeper, primal fear of death. There was no need to discern your allies from your enemies. Everyone had to be an enemy. After all when Ryuhei Sasagawa used to pick on him, everyone looked the other way.
    Yoshio scrambled to his feet. First, Shuya Nanahara, who'd been in front of him. Where did he go?…
    The bow gun. I have to get the bow gun. Where did it?…
    Yoshio felt a blow against his neck as if he were struck by a club.
    He fell forward with thud. His body twisted into the shape of a V, and his face scraped against the moist soil. The