Chapter 24 is just aftermath.

They hear the final two shots, and Shogo says it’s over with.

Shuya’s lip is trembling so he’s probably a half second away from tears. He demands to know why Shogo is so inconsiderate. Shogo says he’s just bad about expressing himself, but the point is, now they’ve seen that people are entirely willing to play the game.

And let me just add that this wasn’t something Sakamochi and his crew cooked up. They don’t want to die either, so they’re cooped up in that school.”

Hm. That does seem to be the best possible point of failure, getting them overconfident enough that they venture out of their protected area.

Noriko is stunned by how horrible things and wonders how much worse it’ll get. Shogo doesn’t answer this and says they’ve got to get going. Whoever was up there isn’t fooling around and has a machine gun, so they should move a little ways in case he’s making his way toward where he heard the gunshot.

Next chapter is another POV switch, to Yutaka. All we know about him so far is that he’s the class clown. He’s running/crawling down a slope.

His size-S black school coat
covering his small body had nearly turned white from dirt.

So he’s also tiny. At least his formerly distinctive clothing is getting some camouflage – interesting that the dirt’s white, that makes it sound like maybe clay or something?

He was hiding out on the northern peak, the very place Yumiko and Yukiko picked.

He kept on hesitating, deliberating over what he should do, but finally right when he decided to join them, he heard the sound of distant gunfire. He thought he could see the two look in the opposite direction from him. Then as he hesitated over whether he should go check it out, within a matter of ten or twenty seconds he heard the sound of rapid typewriter-rattling gunfire and Yumiko Kusaka’s amplified shriek.

For some reason, it goes on to say They were probably still alive at that point. But Yutaka just could not bring himself to come out and rescue them. which seems really harsh of the book. I see people get shot, scream once and go down, I’d assume they’re more likely dead. Sure, if I can I’d check out to see if they’re alive and there’s anything I can do, but I wouldn’t be making decisions assuming they were alive. And how can Yutaka rescue them? They’re visible and someone just shot them, anyone getting near them would presumably be shot too. This is getting phrased like it’s some moral failing of his, but this doesn’t seem like a situation where you could save someone but you’re paralyzed by fear, I don’t think he could have done anything.

Yutaka instead justifies things to himself as being a joker, not a fighter, and his weapon is a fork, because come on military what’s even the point of this? At least the dart thing might give you interesting results because you’d see if the kid tried to use it on anyone when you examine the bodies. Maybe someone could put someone else’s eye out with it, which would likely be painful and disorienting enough that they could be finished off some other way. But odds are there were plenty of forks in the houses, so there’s no point supplying it even if you want to find out if anyone would use it.

He hears two more gunshots and just like he somehow could tell they’re still alive, he now knows they’re dead.

The moment he realized this he took his bags and slid down the side of the mountain. I’m the next target! I know it! After all I’m the nearest one!
All of a sudden Yutaka realized he had created a cloud of dust all around him.

Distractingly, this turns into a “yo mama” joke, but let’s just ignore this and focus on the kids not being supersoldiers. This is a pretty good sequence – he panics and tries to flee, in the process giving away his location.

Yutaka then changed his approach, keeping his palms (his right hand held the fork, so it was clenched) and shoe soles on the ground to make sure his body wouldn’t slide down the slope. He felt the skin of his hands scraping away, but he didn’t care.

God, he’s bad at this. There’s also something disturbing about the fact he’s actually carrying around the fork. I wonder if something that happens is that the kids are more likely to attempt to use an obviously bad weapon just because it’s given to them rather than seek out better options? Presumably if you dumped him with no weapon at all he’d be more likely to actually try to find something useful.

He only moves for a few minute before stopping, but the summit is more distant now so he thinks maybe he’s safe. Then something touches him, and he screams, and the other person calls him a fool and covers his mouth instead.

But Yutaka was completely oblivious to this voice, utterly convinced he was caught by the killer

While this doesn’t at all fit with covering his mouth, I doubt most people would be thinking too clearly here. He attempts to stab them with his mighty fork, without even opening his eyes to aim properly.

Luckily, the fork was blocked by Shinji’s pistol (Beretta M92F) Shinji is left-handed, and apparently the only lefty in the class. Does this have meaning in Japan or is it just a quirk?

Shinji is Yutaka’s best friend. I’m not sure if that means Shinji and Yutaka are closer than Shinji and Shuya, or if Shinji just has more than one best friend.

Yutaka shouts happily and Shinji hisses at him to shut up and get moving.

Yutaka suddenly wonders if Shinji is the one who killed Yumiko and Yukiko. Why wouldn’t he just have killed him? Well, actually…

I always thought of him as my best friend, and Shinji knows that. If we’re together, Shinji could, for instance, have me keep watch and help him increase his chances of survival. Then, when we’re the last two left, Shinji could kill me. Wow, what a great idea! If this was a video game, that’s what I’d do.

Yutaka is already a lot smarter when he’s not actively fleeing. That’s some pretty good reasoning. Luckily he also notices that Shinji lacks a machine gun and apparently he knows only machine guns make that sound. And also, Shinji’s a great guy in general and wouldn’t kill people.

After a little ways, he points to a string and says to step over it. Shinji’s set up a can tripwire, where anyone coming will cause it to rattle.

When they finally stop and sit down, Yutaka realizes he’s still clutching the fork. He lets go of it only to finally notice how he’s torn up his hands during his slide down the mountain. Shinji washes them off with half a towel, then tears the other half into strips for bandages.

“I caught a glimpse of you from here moving around in the bushes. You were pretty far away, but I could tell it was you.

This is either because they’re so close it’s easy to recognize him, or because rushing around like an idiot is so him.

Yutaka is overcome by Shinji’s kindness in risking his life to save him.

“Even if I die, I wanted to make sure I got to see you.”

Wow, I guess they really are best friends. Yutaka nearly cries at this and then confesses he didn’t help Yumiko and Yukiko. Shinji says there wasn’t anything he could do either, and Yutaka trembles a bit.

And…that’s it for the chapter, I guess.

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: 6.
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. Close to Chigusa.
12 Yutaka Seto: Class clown. Best friends with Shinji, joined up with him. Fork weapon.
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. Best friends with Yutaka, joined up with him. Pistol weapon.
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: Yumiko’s friend. Dart and dartboard. Crush on Shuya. Killed by Kazuo.
7 Yumiko Kusaka: Yukiko’s friend. Hand grenades. Crush on Shuya she’s hiding. Uses a megaphone to try to talk to the rest of their class and convince them to stop killing and join up with each other. Killed by Kazuo.
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: Close to Hiroki.
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.