Battle Royale (64 page)

Otherwise…we'll decline into a third-rate country, like the American Empire. You know, right? That country is in turmoil from all kinds of problems like drugs, violence, and homosexuality. They're living off their past glory, but it'll only be a matter of time before they fall apart."

Shogo remained silent. He clenched his teeth. Then he spoke quietly, "Let me say one thing."

Sakamochi raised his brow. "What? Go ahead."

"You guys might call it prosperity, but…" Shogo's voice sounded tired, but still dignified, "…it'll always be phony. That truth won't change even if you kill me now. You're doomed to be phony. Don't forget…that."

Sakamochi shrugged his shoulders. "Are you done with your speech?" He pointed his gun at him. Shogo tightened his mouth and glared at Sakamochi, ignoring the gun. He seemed ready to face the consequences.

"Later, Kawada." Sakamochi nodded as if to bid him farewell. Then his finger began pulling the trigger when—

BRRRATTA…the tapping, typewriter-like sound pierced through the room.

Sakamochi's finger stopped for a moment. He glanced at the door for a split second.. Jong enough to be distracted. By the time he looked back Shogo was right in front of his face. Even though there was a table in between them, he was only ten centimeters away. He'd moved instantly, like a magician, as if he'd teleported.

The rattling sound continued outside the room.

Shogo's left hand held down the gun in Sakamochi's right hand. Sakamochi froze up and looked up at Shogo's face, now within kissing distance. His long hair wasn't too messy. He didn't try to swing his hand loose from Shogo. He merely looked at Shogo with his mouth closed.

The rattling sound again.

The door opened. "An attack—" Nomura stopped once he grasped the situation and attempted to lift his rifle.

Still holding Sakamochi's right hand down with his left hand, Shogo spun Sakamochi's body around as if dancing a tango. As he turned, he squeezed Sakamochi's index finger on the trigger and began firing away. Three shots pierced Nomura right above his heart. He groaned and collapsed. The rattling sounded louder now, with the door open.

Shogo looked into Sakamochi's eyes again. Their bodies still entwined, he drove his right fist under Sakamochi's chin.

Sakamochi coughed out blood. His eyes stared up at Shogo. The blood spilled from his lips, dripping down to his chin and onto the floor.

"I told you, it was a waste of tax money." Shogo twisted his fist further into Sakamochi's chin.

Sakamochi's eyes rolled away from Shogo. Then they slowly rolled upwards.

Shogo moved away from Sakamochi, and Sakamochi crashed onto the sofa. His throat was now exposed. A brown stick poked out of his windpipe like a strange ornament. Closer up, the gold logo,

"HB," on its butt-end was visible. This was one of those pencils that everyone, including Shogo and Shuya, had written, "We will kill each other," but Kinpatsu Sakamochi probably had no idea.

After glancing down at Sakamochi he tucked the gun into his belt. He dashed over to Nomura, who was lying face up, and picked up his rifle. He took the extra magazines from his belt and left the room. He opened the two doors down the corridor on the right, but there were only rows of bunk beds. No one was inside.

The rattling was approaching him. A soldier came tumbling down the stairs beyond the narrow corridor.

Unarmed except for the gun in his hand—maybe he'd thought he was safe now that the game was over—it was the soldier Kondo, now dead.

Shogo stepped around Kondo's body, entered the staircase, and looked up.

There was Shuya Nanahara (Male Student No. 15) holding an Ingram M10, standing next to Noriko Nakagawa (Female Student No. 15). They both looked down at him. They were soaking wet.

78

"Shogo!"

Seeing that Shogo was safe, Shuya cried in relief. Upon hearing the gunfire besides his shots, he thought they might have been too late.

Shogo ran upstairs' with a rifle he'd taken from one of the soldiers.

"So you're all right?"

"Yeah." Shogo nodded. "Sakamochi's dead. Did you get rid of everyone?"

"We got everyone on deck. But we couldn't find that one called Nomura—"

"Then that's everyone. I got rid of Nomura," he said. He passed by them and ran to the bridge where the pilothouse was located.

There was one body lying in the corridor leading to the pilothouse, then two more inside and outside the briefing room under the pilothouse. One of them was the soldier Tahara, the others were the ship's naval crew, but Tahara was the only with a gun, and it was only a pistol. Shuya had blown them away with the Ingram. There were two others lying on deck, the first naval soldiers Shuya killed.

After glancing at Tahara's body, Shogo grabbed the railing that led up to the pilothouse and said, "You were merciless, Shuya."

"Yeah." Shuya nodded. "I was."

Once he was up in the pilothouse, there were two more of Shuya's victims, crew members sprawled in the corner. In the dark window were several holes formed either from stray bullets or shots that had torn through the crew members.

The ship passed an island lit up with residential lights (probably Megijima). Shuya wondered whether the gunfire could be heard over there or even further into the sea around them. Well, it wasn't that uncommon to hear sudden gunfire in this country, so he wasn't too worried.

Shogo looked straight ahead. Shuya and Noriko looked in the same direction and saw what looked like a gravel carrier approaching them on their right. Shogo held the steering wheel and shifted the bar next to it methodically.

"I hope you didn't catch a cold," Shogo asked.

"I'm fine."

"And you, Noriko?"

"I'm okay too." Noriko nodded.

Shogo squinted ahead as he said, "I'm sorry. I did the easy work this time." The gravel carrier was approaching.

"That's not true," Shuya responded as his eyes shuttled between Shogo's hands and the ship ahead of them. "I wasn't in any condition to take on Sakamochi. He was armed. You were the right man."

As he kept watch, the carrier loomed larger and larger. But…they managed to skim past each other. The carrier's lights receded.

"Phew." Shogo took a deep breath and then let go of the steering wheel. He began pressing the intricate rows of buttons on the nautical instruments. He gazed at the panel for a while, and after seeing one of the diodes go out, he took the radio transmitter. A voice came through the speaker, "This is the Bisan Seto Inland Sea Traffic Advisory Service Center." That's what it sounded like.

Shogo responded, "This is Defense Patrol Ship DM 245-3568. We need you to confirm our location."

"DM 245-3568, we cannot confirm. Are you having trouble?"

"Our DPS navigation device seems to be broken. We will stop the boat for an hour or so to repair the device. Could you notify the other ships?"

"Yes. We need your present location."

Shogo read off the display on the nautical instrument. Then he ended the transmission.

He was only buying time to move the ship somewhere. Shogo steered the wheel now and made a sharp left turn. Shuya felt the ship rock from the wide turn.

As he cautiously handled the wheel Shogo said, "That bastard Sakamochi realized what was going on.

I'm glad I had you guys get on board."

Shuya nodded. Water dripped down from his bangs.

He was right. After Shogo had shot his gun twice into the air, he pressed his fingers against his mouth, signaling Shuya and Noriko, who were both blinking, to stay quiet. He took his map out of his pocket and scribbled on the backside. The note was obscured in the dim light, but they managed to read it. Then Shogo removed their collars. All he used was a wire attached to a transistor—which he had for some reason—a knife, and small screwdriver. And then Shogo took out a simple ladder made of bamboo and rope from his day pack. He scribbled more on the map, "Sneak into the ship they put me on. It'll be nighttime, so you'll be fine. Make your way to the harbor by beach. There'll be a chain tied to the anchor.

Tie the rope ladder to it and hold on. Once the anchor comes up, and the ship starts moving, climb up to the deck and hide behind the life preservers on the ship's stern. Then attack when the time's right."

Of course…it was no easy feat holding onto this flimsy rope ladder as the ship sped up, stirred up waves, and dragged them through the sea. It was also hard to reach the deck less than half a meter above the top of the ladder. Without his left arm, Shuya just couldn't do what should have been an easy task. But Noriko managed to lift herself up there despite her wounded hand, then offered a hand to Shuya.

Noriko's strength took Shuya by surprise. In any case…they managed to do it.

"But…" Shuya said, "…1 wish you'd told us about this earlier."

Shogo returned the wheel to the right and coyly shrugged his shoulders.

"It would have made our actions less natural. Sorry, though."

He let go of the wheel. The black sea spread out in front of them. For the time being, there was no sign of any ship approaching. Shogo then began checking several of the ship's meters.

"It's amazing," Noriko said. "You managed to hack into the government computer system."

"Yeah, really," Shuya agreed. "You were lying about being computer illiterate."

His gaze still fixed ahead, Shogo grinned. "Well, they found out anyway. Anyway, it all ended up working out."

Shogo seemed satisfied with the meter readings and moved away. He walked up to one of the soldiers on the floor. Wondering what he was doing, Shuya and Noriko looked on as Shogo went through his pockets.

"Damn," he said, "So even the Defense Forces aren't smoking now."

He was looking for cigarettes.

He did manage to extract a crumpled pack of Buster from the other soldier's breast pocket. The pack was covered in blood, but he casually pulled out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it up. He leaned against the side of the helm, and as he squinted his eyes, he exhaled contentedly.

As she watched him Noriko said, "If our group was too large…we wouldn't have been able to escape like this."

Shogo nodded. "That's true. And it had to be at night. But there's no point in going over that. We're alive.

Isn't that enough?"

Shuya nodded. "That's right."

"Why don't you two go take a shower," Shogo said, "It's in front of the stairs. It's tiny, but it should have hot water. You can just steal the soldiers' clothes."

Shuya nodded and put the Ingram down onto the low desk by the wall. He clutched Noriko's shoulder.

"Come on, Noriko. You go first. Wouldn't want you to get sick again."

Noriko nodded. They were about to head towards the stairs when Shogo stopped them. "Shuya," he said, "wait, hold on." He rubbed out his cigarette against the bottom of the helm. "First I'll show you how to steer this ship."

Shuya raised his brow. He figured that Shogo would take care of guiding the ship. Come to think of it, Shogo probably wanted to take a shower too. Shuya and Noriko would have to steer the ship then.

Shuya nodded again and returned to the helm with Noriko.

Shogo took another deep breath and lightly tapped on the wheel. "I'm steering the ship manually right now. It's less confusing than having it on auto-pilot. Now this…" Shogo indicated the lever by the helm.

"It's like an accelerator and brake. Tilting it forward increases the speed and backwards slows it down.

Simple, huh? And over here…" Shogo pointed at the round meter installed right above the wheel. The thin needle was tilted leftward. It was surrounded with numbers and letters indicating directions. "This is a gyro compass. It gives our direction. You see that ocean map?"

Shogo indicated the route they were taking to weave their way through the islands and reach the mainland Honshu from their current position east of Megijima Island. They would be best off, he said, landing on some hidden beach in Okayama Prefecture. Then he provided simple instructions for the radar and depth gauge.

He touched his chin. "That's about it for your crash course. That's enough to steer this thing. Now, you always steer right of an oncoming ship. And the other thing is that you can't stop immediately. As you approach the shore you have to slow down well in advance. Got that?"

Shuya raised his brow again. He wondered, why is he advising me about docking too? He continued to nod, though.

Shogo added, "The notes I gave you guys. Do you still have them? It actually has your contact information."

"Yeah…we have them. But…you're coming with us, right? Right?"

Shogo didn't respond immediately to Shuya's question. He took out one of the cigarettes he'd stuffed inside his pocket, put it in his mouth, and lit his lighter. It lit up…but right then Shuya noticed something strange. Shogo's hand holding the lighter was trembling.

Noriko seemed to have noticed too. Her eyes were wide open.

"Shogo—"

"You guys asked me…" Shogo said over Shuya's words, his cigarette dangling from his mouth. His trembling hand tossed the lighter by the helm. He continued, "…to come with you to the U.S." He removed the cigarette from his mouth with his shaking hand and exhaled. "I thought it over. But…" He stopped and put his cigarette in his mouth. He removed it, then he blew out smoke. "It looks like I won't need to answer that anymore."

Suddenly, Shogo's body slid down. His head slumped forward as he fell on his knees.

79

"Shogo!"

Shuya ran over to Shogo and grabbed his right arm and held him up. Noriko also ran over to him and held his left arm from the other side.

Emptied of strength, Shogo's body felt heavy. That was when Shuya finally realized how Shogo's back was soaked. There was a tiny hole right below his neck. It was Kazuo's shot. The one Kazuo fired at him. Shogo claimed it was nothing. Why…why didn't he treat it immediately!? Or did he know it was fatal? Or…did he delay it so Shuya and Noriko could get aboard?

In their arms, Shogo's body slowly gave way, and he slumped down on his butt.

"I'm sleepy. Let me sleep," he said.