Koushun Takami - Battle Royale

“…the government system has tight security. It has a another secret log-in system that records every operation. Of course, they usually don’t monitor this system, and the administrator didn’t think there was anything abnormal at the time. That’s why they took so long to discover it. But they found it. Yes, they did.”

Shogo sealed his lips and stared at Sakamochi. But his Adam’s apple moved ever so slightly. The movement was hardly discernible.

“Look,” Shogo said. “A subcontractor really did tell me about rounding up the corpses. I was having a few drinks at this bar with him. The topic just came up. And the instructor from our last game told us the Program hardly ever ends from just time running out. You can even ask him.”

Sakamochi rubbed his right hand under his nose and stared at Shogo. “Why are you telling me this? I didn’t even ask you about that.”

Shogo’s Adam’s apple moved again. This time it definitely moved.

Sakamochi then snickered and continued, “So apparently some of the hacked data included information on the Program. In other words, technical specifications on the Guadalcanal collar. Why would someone take such useless information? I mean, what’s the point? Even if the hacker were to publicize it, the government would only design a new collar, and that would be the end of that. There’s no sign of that for now. But maybe we can assume this much: the intruder was driven to access this information at all cost. Don’t you think?”

Shogo didn’t respond. Sakamochi sighed and picked up the envelope he’d tossed out. He flipped it over with one hand and pulled out the contents. He placed them side by side in front of Shogo.

There were two photos. They were both black and white and printed on B5 paper. One of them had no contrast at all, so it was hard to tell what it was, but the other one clearly showed a truck and three black dots scattered around it. Given how it was the top of a truck, the three dots were obviously heads.

“You see, right?” Sakamochi said. “That’s the three of you just a while ago. Right after you killed Kazuo. Those were taken by satellite. We don’t usually do this kind of thing. But I want you to take a closer at this other photo. See? You can’t really make out anything, right? But that’s actually a photo of the mountain. It was taken when you shot those two. There wasn’t enough light, and it’s obscure because you’re all hidden by the woods. You can’t see it.”

He fell silent. The ship swayed a little, but Shogo and Sakamochi stared at each other, completely still.

Then Sakamochi took a deep breath and once again combed back his hair behind his ear. He broke into a smile and spoke in a strangely intimate voice, “Say, Shogo. I’ve been keeping track of this game from the very beginning. Right? After you shot Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, Nanahara took fifty-four seconds to die, while Nakagawa ended up taking one minute and thirty seconds to die. They should have died instantly if you shot them point blank. So what’s this time lag about?”

Shogo was silent, but—whether he was aware of it or not—his cheeks stiffened. He managed to speak out, “It can happen. I’d have thought they died immediately but—”

“Enough.” Sakamochi cut him off. He said in an adamant voice, “Let’s put an end to this.” He looked into Shogo’s eyes and nodded as if admonishing him. Then he said, “Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa are still on that island. They’re still alive, right? They’re hiding in the mountain. You’re the one who hacked into the government central system. Or one of your friends. You knew how to dismantle that collar. You knew we could monitor your conversations, so you gave us that radio drama performance of shooting those two. Then you removed their collars. Am I right? I didn’t say it was a wonderful performance. You’re still in the middle of that wonderful performance.”

Shogo gazed at Sakamochi. He grimaced through clenched teeth.

Sakamochi kept on smiling and continued, “Didn’t you give them some messages about meeting spots? And you were supposed to hook up together later, right? Well, you can forget about that. That helicopter that just flew by is going to spray the island with poison gas. It’s a composite poison mustard gas developed recently called Greater East Asia Victory No. 2. The guard ships are still over there. Nanahara and Nakagawa are finished.”

As he stared at Sakamochi, Shogo dug his fingers into the synthetic leather elbow rest. Sakamochi took another deep breath and sank back into the sofa. He combed back his hair. “We have no precedent for this. Strictly speaking, you’re not really the winner. But one of the education committee officials I work for bet a lot of money on you. So I decided to treat this internally. It’ll help my career if I help him out, therefore, you’ll be the official winner. According to the records, you’ll be the killer of those two. Are you satisfied now, Shogo?”

Shogo was utterly stiff, as if he might start shaking any second now. But as Sakamochi raised his brow, Shogo looked away from him and stared down at the floor. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” he said. He nervously opened and then clenched his fist several times. He glanced back at Sakamochi and then anxiously said, “Why bother spraying gas? You’re just wasting tax money.”

Sakamochi snickered. “We’ll soon see whether I am.” Then he said, “Oh, that’s right.” He pulled out a small automatic pistol from under his coat and pointed it at Shogo. Shogo opened his eyes wide. “I’ve decided to take care of you as an internal matter too. You have dangerous ideas. I think it’s against this country’s interests if we let someone like you live. Have to toss the rotten apple out of the box. The sooner the better. You arrive DOA due to injuries from the game. How’s that? Oh, don’t you worry. If you happen to have friends too, we’ll hunt them down. We won’t have to interrogate you.”

Shogo slowly tore his eyes away from the gun and looked at Sakamochi. “You…” he said. He was now baring his teeth. Sakamochi broke into a grin. “Bastard!” Shogo howled in a voice full of indignation, despair, probably mixed in with a dose of fear towards everything incomprehensible. What he wanted to do most was grab Sakamochi by the neck. But the gun restrained him. He could only clench his fists over his thighs.

“D-don’t you have any kids? How can you accept this fucked up game?”

“Of course I have kids,” Sakamochi replied casually. “You know, I like to have a good time, so we’re about to have our third.”

Shogo didn’t respond to the joke, yelling instead, “Then how can you accept this? One of your kids might end up in this game in the future! Or is it that kids of high-ranked officials like you are exempted?”

Offended, Sakamochi shook his head. “That’s preposterous. How can you say that, Kawada? You read the Program Requirements, right? There are no exceptions. Of course I’ve done some sneaky things. Using connections to get my kid into a prestigious school. I’m human. But being human also means we have to abide by certain rules… oh, that’s right, you weren’t able to steal that, huh?

“The top secret agenda also had information on the Program. I’ll tell you now, this country needs the Program. The thing is, it’s not an experiment at all. Come on, why do you think we have the local news broadcast the image of the winner? Of course, viewers might feel sorry for him or her, thinking, the poor student probably didn’t even want to play the game, but had no choice but to fight the others. In other words, everyone ends up concluding, you cant trust anyone, right? Which would extinguish any hope of uniting and forming a coup d’etat against the government, hm? And so the Republic of Greater East Asia and its ideals will live on for eternity. Naturally everyone has to die equally for the sake of this noble goal. I’ve passed this wisdom onto my kids. My oldest kid is in the second grade now and she’s always saying how she’ll sacrifice her life for the Republic.”