Koushun Takami - Battle Royale

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sakamochi replied. “With your wonderful performance I couldn’t resist telling you.”

“This is bullshit.”

Shogo looked away, but Sakamochi pressed more insistently, “A wonderful performance, but…” Shogo looked back at him. Sakamochi continued, “There’s something I don’t get.”

“What’s that?”

“Why didn’t you shoot those two right after Kazuo was killed? You could have, right? That’s the one thing I just don’t get.”

“Just as I told them,” Shogo, replied without hesitating, “I just thought I’d let them have one last look at their home. A little gift for them before their descent into hell. You may not believe this, but I can be pretty loyal. I mean, thanks to them, I won.”

Sakamochi continued smiling and uttered, “Hmmm.” Then he raised his cup to his mouth. He sat back on the back of the sofa with the cup in his hand and spoke again, “Hey, Shogo, I got hold of the data on the Kobe Second District Junior High School Program.” Then he stared at Shogo. Shogo stared back at him and remained silent. “And as far as I can tell from the data, nothing indicates you had any special relationship with Keiko Onuki.”

“Onuki? Like I said I made that up,” Shogo interrupted him, but Sakamochi spoke over him and continued, “As—” Shogo shut up.

“As you said, to Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, you saw Onuki twice—the first time only for a moment and then the second time right before you won, when she was already dead. Even according to the taped conversations, you never even once uttered her name. Not once. Do you remember that?”

“How could I? It’s like I said—there was nothing between me and her. You heard me, right?”

“But the thing is, Shogo, the second time around you stopped there for two hours.”

“That was just a coincidence. It was a good spot to hide and rest. That’s how I was able to remember that name so vividly. I tell you, she died a horrible death.”

His grin still glued across his face, Sakamochi nodded, hm hm . “The other thing is… the entire eighteen hours which transpired in this game—which is actually quite fast, maybe the designated area was too small—in any case, you didn’t exchange a single word with anyone. I mean, aside from saying things like, ‘Stop’ or ‘I’m not an enemy.’”

“That was just an act too,” Shogo interrupted him. “It’s so obvious.”

Sakamochi smiled, ignoring Shogo’s statement. “So I have no idea how you approached this game. You moved around a lot but—”

“It was my first time. I didn’t know how to play it smart.”

Sakamochi then nodded, hm hm . He held back a grin as if concealing his amusement. He sipped his tea and returned the cup to the table. Then he looked up and said, “By the way, about that photo? I’d like to look at it, if you don’t mind.”

“Photo?”

“Come on, you showed it to Nanahara and Nakagawa, right? You said it was a photo of Onuki. Let me see it. It was actually a photo of someone named Shimazaki, right?”

Shogo twisted his mouth. “Why should I show it to you?”

“Come on, just show it to me. I’m your instructor. Please. Come on, please,” Sakamochi said and bowed over the table.

Shogo reluctantly reached around and searched his back pocket. He raised his brow and swung his hand back. It was empty.

“It’s gone,” he said. “I must’ve dropped it somewhere when we fought Kazuo.”

“Dropped it?”

“Uh huh. It’s true. I dropped my wallet. Well, I don’t need it anyway.”

Suddenly, Sakamochi burst out laughing. As he laughed he said, “I get it.” He held his stomach, slapped his thighs, and kept on laughing.

Shogo looked perplexed but then he squinted his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling in the windowless room.

Despite the insulation of the patrol ship’s walls, he could hear the faint but definite whirring sound. It was definitely not the sound of the ship’s engine.

The sound became louder and louder and then after a certain point, it receded. Then it was almost entirely gone.

Shogo grimaced.

“Does that trouble you, Shogo?” He stopped laughing. He still had that creepy smile on his face, though. “That was a helicopter.” He reached out for his tea again and emptied his cup. He put the empty cup on the table. “It’s heading toward the island where you all fought.”

Shogo knit his brows, but this time his reaction seemed to have a different connotation. But Sakamochi didn’t care. He arrogantly leaned back on the sofa and changed the subject, “Hey, Shogo. Let’s talk about those collars again. Well, you know, they’re actually called ‘Guadalcanal No. 22.’ That doesn’t matter. Anyway, weren’t you telling Shuya about how they couldn’t be dismantled?”

Seeing how Shogo didn’t respond, Sakamochi continued, “In fact, your theory was right on the mark. Each unit is equipped with three different systems, so even if one of them has a one percent margin of error, with three systems, only one in a million can break down. In reality, the chances are even slimmer. So, it’s just like you said. No one can escape from them. Any attempt to remove it will ignite it, killing its wearer. It’s very rare someone actually tries that, though.”

Shogo still remained silent.

“The thing is,” Sakamochi then leaned over, “I just thought I’d get in touch with the Defense Forces weapons lab this time around. And guess what?” He looked at Shogo. “They said it could be deactivated by anyone with a basic knowledge in electronics, using basic transistor parts, the kind you find in a radio. Of course, that’s assuming you already know the circuitry inside the device.”

Shogo stayed quiet, but as Sakamochi’s continued staring at him, he suddenly said in a strange, blank tone of voice as if the thought suddenly occurred to him, “I don’t get it. Who could possibly have that information?”

Sakamochi grinned and nodded. He continued, “Yes. Well, anyway, if we were to assume the collar was disabled, then obviously it would transmit a signal informing us of the wearer’s death, right? In other words, if there was a student who could remove that collar, then he could survive without a hitch. He’d just have to wait out the game, and once the military leaves the premises he could take his time escaping. That’s right, just like you said to Shuya Nanahara. Say the game were to end in the afternoon, then the subcontracted clean-up crew comes the following day. So there’s plenty of time in between. Also, this time of year the water isn’t too cold to swim in.”

Sakamochi gave Shogo an imploring look, but Shogo only responded with a “Huh.” Sakamochi leaned back on the sofa. “This is absurd. The collar circuits are supposed to be top secret, right? How could a junior high school kid possibly know about it?”

Sakamochi replied, “He could, though.” Shogo looked back at Sakamochi. “See, all of this information, including your records, and the Guadalcanal device, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have looked up any of this stuff. I would have just sat back, impressed by your intelligence. This time though, I was contacted by Dictator Headquarters and the Special Defense Forces before the game began. I mean, on the twentieth.”

Shogo stared at Sakamochi.

Sakamochi continued, “They said someone hacked into the government’s central operations system in March.” He paused. Then he added, “Of course, the hacker thought he managed to leave without a trace. He was incredibly skilled, and although he encountered the administrator while he was hacking, he managed to erase his log-in access before escaping. But…”

Sakamochi paused again. Shogo kept quiet.