The eighteenth chapter is a brief one. We jump to Yuko, who just saw Shuya yanking the hatchet out of Tatsumichi’s head. It really seems like a lot of stuff would be helped if Shuya hadn’t done this all in dead silence, because now she’s convinced he’s a super killer. Anyway, then she ran away rather than die like the usual viewpoint character.
On to the nineteenth.
We’re back to Shuya’s group. They head back to where they were (and where all the stuff was dropped). Shogo says it’s a bad location because they can’t see around them properly. Also, the cat’s fled. Poor cat. I hope it ends up okay. I guess now it’ll be able to eat some of the corpses and won’t be starving.
Shogo leaves them to look for the bags of the two dead kids, Kyoichi and Tatsumichi. With luck, they won’t have used up their water or anything. That seems like one of the major issues, particularly since while the island may have had running water in the houses, with most of them now in a forbidden zone there’s no way to access that.
Shuya’s left guard with the revolver, which really creeps him out to hold after seeing Kyoichi prying his own dead fingers off it. Noriko decides angst and breakdowns are for later and decides to stick a bandaid on Shuya’s cut ear instead.
As she carefully wrapped it around his earlobe, she said, “I wonder why so many of us came here. Five students, if we include Shogo and us.”
Hm, that’s a good point, Noriko. If it’s more than just bad luck, it’s something to consider. You have a decent sized island, so it should be possible to avoid people. On the other hand, Shogo seems to know what’s up and he didn’t manage to avoid it – but then again, maybe he was trying to find people.
Shuya considers.
We came here to get as far away as possible, right? We avoided climbing the hill and avoided the shore, where there’s too much visibility. Maybe we were all thinking the same thing and ended up at the same place, thinking we’d be safe here, including the representative and Tatsumichi.”
Well, probably sort of yes, but on the other hand Kyoichi was on the plains where there was visibility. Only Tatsumichi was really in the same area.
But Shuya can’t really consider that because now he can’t stop thinking about Tatsumichi and his horrible split face, lying just down the hill… He starts shaking all over and confesses he’s scared. Noriko hugs him. It reminds him of distant memories of his mother hugging him. I’d have expected the people in charge of the orphanage but I guess we’re going very oedipal here.
This does lead to a bit of info about his mom.
Her face, oh man, looked a lot like Kazumi Shintani’s. She was always exchanging smiles with his father who, with his mustache, didn’t seem like your typical salaryman. (Wrapped in her arms, he would hear her say, “Your father works in law and helps people in trouble. It’s a very important job in this country.”)
Well, I guess now we know why they’re dead. A minor point in favor of the government not just going on random purges.
Apparently he decided to marry someone just like his mother so he’d have a happy marriage just like theirs and really Japan why must everything be incestous with you, and then he says Noriko smells nice.
Thank god, Shogo then appears. He’s found the other kids’ packs, including more bullets for the pistol. He’s also got some wire, which he’s using to set up an alarm. See, he’s pulled it onto a notch on a small tree. If anyone hits the wire further out, it’ll be yanked from the tree. He assures them that the person won’t even notice, which I find a bit hard to believe – it seems you’d probably notice hitting the wire itself – but certainly it won’t tell them where the group is, and it’s not going to be noisy and attract more people like say, a can alarm system would.
Shuya, instead of wondering where Shogo learned to do that, just wants to know where he got the wire. Shogo got it from the store, where he went first. Shuya’s impressed at his foresight. The better question is, where was that store? It’s presumably near the residences, which means there’s a good chance it’s now out of reach.
He suggests breakfast. Shuya does not want any.
“What’s wrong? You feel nauseous from killing Tatsumichi?” Shogo examined Shuya’s face and said casually, “Don’t let it get to you. Let’s say each person kills one person. The game’s like a tournament. It’s forty-two, no, forty students, so if you kill five or six, then you’ll be the winner. Four or five more, that’s all you’ll need.”
This pisses Shuya off. Which I guess is more productive than finding it creepy – it opens up the possibility of there being a reason to ally with people initially even if you plan to play.
See. Shuya and Noriko aren’t contenders, right? But they are distractions. As a group, the odds of anyone killing Shogo in particular go way down. If he can pick up a decent number of allies, then slaughter them at the end, he wins.
But that’s not what Shuya’s thinking. He glares, Shogo apologizes for the joke.
Shuya asked in a hostile tone, “So you don’t feel nauseous? Or did you already kill someone before Kyoichi?”
Shogo merely shrugged.
“Well, this time, it was my first.”
Yeah, the hints about why Shogo is super prepared for this exact thing are getting pretty heavy. Really, just the fact he was the one who tried to smash open the windows on the bus should be enough to guess.
Anyway, Shuya thinks it’s weird and decides that he should totally change the subject instead. He decides to talk about Kyoichi. Shogo gets really defensive and says he had no choice, then goes on a spiel about not being Jesus.
Shuya says no, he just means maybe Kyoichi attacked because he killed Tatsumichi. But why did Tatsumichi attack in the first place? He was even with Noriko at the time.
Shogo says not to spend a lot of time trying to understand.
“I’m only a transfer student, so I don’t know much about you and your classmates. But what do you know about Tatsumichi? Maybe there’s someone really ill in his family, so he felt he had to survive. Or maybe he was just being selfish. Or maybe he went insane from fear and lost his capacity for reason. Or there’s even this possibility: you were with her. He might have thought you teamed up with her. How can he tell whether he’s invited? You and her might have decided he’s a threat. Or if you were actually playing the game, then you could use this same excuse to kill him. Hey, did you provoke him at all?”
The book seems to get rather preachy about the never knowing what someone thinks. It just seems more productive here for Shogo to go with spending your time trying to understand people trying to kill you is a bad idea, rather than encouraging speculation like he is now. What he’s saying here is humanizing Tatsumichi, and Shuya’s already a mess about all that.
Anyway, Shuya remembers going for the knife, but he says that doesn’t really count as provoking. Shogo says it does, but to not stress over it, because Tatsumichi made the choice to play. All that matters is, if someone attacks you you have to attack back or you’ll die.
Then he says it’s a bad idea to trust people.
Shuya considers again if Tatsumichi really wanted to kill him, but decides Shogo’s right and it’s better to shelve that kind of thing. So instead he asks why Shogo’s joined them.
Shogo says yes exactly, you want to be suspicious.
“That’s not what I mean.” Shuya shook his head. “You saved me. No, you also risked your life trying to stop Kyoichi. I’m not suspecting you.”
Internally, Shogo is probably smacking himself in the head right now. He points out that actually, there’s an advantage to being in a group.
“Do you think I was risking much to stop Kyoichi? Do you think ordering him to stop would have actually stopped him? Maybe I was already planning on killing Kyoichi. Did I really have to kill him? Kyoichi never struck me as the type who’d attract a group, but maybe I ordered him to stop just to put on an act for you guys to join me. Wouldn’t it be in my best interests to join you guys and then kill you off later?”
I wonder if the moral here is that Shogo kind of has a death wish.
Anyway, Shuya is a good shonen protagonist, so he decides that this sure is logical, but his gut says they’re buddies anyway, therefore trust.
Stupid Shuya, you can totally logic this one out. If Shogo meant to take advantage and then turn on them, he’d be better served by not prompting them to be suspicious. Admittedly, the same is true in most situations, but overall from the way he’s talking it’s like he thinks there’s a decent chance he’ll die midgame by some random chance occurance so he needs to get Shuya as up to speed as possible.
Noriko agrees with the trusting thing. Noriko really isn’t much of a character herself.
Then Shuya asks why Shogo trusts them, if trust is so bad.
He says he doesn’t like the rules or the game. Which actually gives a possibility that he’s so competent and aware just because he’s sort of an activist who’s found out as much about them as possible. Also, they make a cute couple, so he has to help them out. Noriko blushes hotly and denies that they’re together, and Shogo laughs and they all repeat that they trust each other.
Finally, Shogo offers to look at her wound, and the chapter ends. This probably means the wound’s going to be a big deal.
1 Yoshio Akamatsu: “the biggest kid in the class, the timid type, the kind of kid who’d always end up the target of pranks and insults.” Bowgun weapon, kills Mayumi, killed by Kazushi.
2 Keita Iijima
3 Tatsumichi Oki: jock, handball. Hatchet. Runs into Shuya and Noriko, attacks when Shuya reaches for a weapon and accidentally killed in the resulting fight.
4 Toshinori Oda
5 Shogo Kawada: Looks older than the rest, has facial hair already, transferred in, scarred. Shotgun. Saves Shuya and kills Kyoichi.
6 Kazuo Kiriyama: Awesome. A sociopath who decides to play the game by flipping a coin. Current kill count: 4.
7 Yoshitoki Kuninobu: Shuya’s friend since childhood, they grew up in the orphanage together. Killed for threatening Sakamochi.
8 Yoji Kuramoto: Seen briefly by Mitsuru.
9 Hiroshi Kuronaga: Part of Kazou’s gang. Killed by Kazuo.
10 Ryuhei Sasagawa: Delinquent. Part of Kazou’s gang. Bullied Yoshio. Had a younger brother. Killed by Kazuo.
11 Hiroki Sugimura: Tall and knows martial arts. Seems tough but is actually shy, likes Chinese poetry. Shuya’s friend.
12 Yutaka Seto: Class clown.
13 Yuichiro Takiguchi
14 Sho Tsukioka: Part of Kazou’s gang. Escaped Kazuo’s massacre.
15 Shuya Nanahara: Main character? Minor but utterly harmless teenage rebelliousness. Popular with the girls.
16 Kazushi Niida: jock, soccer. Killed Yoshio by accident.
17 Mitsuru Numai: Delinquent. Part of Kazou’s gang, pistol weapon, tried to keep Ryuhei from bullying Yoshio, believed himself Kazuo’s adviser. Killed by Kazuo.
18 Tadakatsu Hatagami: jock, Shuya’s friend when they were younger. ‘Shuya had started playing electric guitar, which was considered an “unpatriotic” activity. Tadakatsu’s mother was uptight about that sort of thing.”
19 Shinji Mimura: Shuya’s current friend. ‘short hair and wore an intricately designed ring on his left ear’, highly athletic, knows a lot of information, particularly about the outside world. Extremely cool under pressure.
20 Kyoichi Motobuchi: Class representative, dad’s a government official. Sees Shuya’s fight with Tatsumichi. Pistol. Killed by Shogo.
21 Kazuhiko Yamamoto: Sakura’s boyfriend. Gun. Commits suicide.
Females
1 Mizuho Inada: A friend of Megumi’s.
2 Yukie Utsumi: class representative, braided hair, Haruka’s volleyball teammate. The first one to speak after their abduction. Noriko’s friend. Not playing, joined up with Haruka, sees Kazuhiko and Sakura’s suicide.
3 Megumi Eto: Friends with Mizuho and Kaori. Had a crush on Shuya. Diving knife. Killed by Mitsuko.
4 Sakura Ogawa: Kazuhiko’s girlfriend. When she was young, she saw her father killed by the government. Commits suicide.
5 Izumi Kanai: ‘the preppy whose father was a town representative’. Killed by Kazuo.
6 Yukiko Kitano
7 Yumiko Kusaka
8 Kayoko Kotohiki
9 Yuko Sakaki: Sees Shuya kill Tatsumichi and runs away unnoticed.
10 Hirono Shimizu: Part of Mitsuko’s group. Tormented Megumi.
11 Mitsuko Souma: Delinquent group leader. “Even though Mitsuko had the gorgeous looks of a pop idol, she always wore a strange, listless expression on her face.” Has a sickle and a diving knife. Killed Megumi.
12 Haruka Tanizawa: Yukie’s volleyball teammate, exceptionally tall. Not playing, joined up with Yuki.
13 Takako Chigusa
14 Mayumi Tendo: The first death in the game, killed outside the school.
15 Noriko Nakagawa: She has a crush on Shuya he’s unaware of and Yoshitoki has a crush on her she may be unaware of. She’s nice and likes literature. Suffering a leg injury.
16 Yuka Nakagawa: Yoshitoki says she’s fat. Class clown.
17 Satomi Noda : “model student who wore wire-rimmed glasses which suited her calm, intelligent face”
18 Fumiyo Fujiyoshi: Killed for whispering to Yukie. “She was the nurse’s aide. She was quiet but very caring.”
19 Chisato Matsui: always quiet and withdrawn
20 Kaori Minami: A friend of Megumi’s.
21 Yoshimi Yahagi: Part of Mitsuko’s group.