So, let’s go over the class list one last time now that they’re all dead.
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: Shinji’s former friend who he’s been avoiding since he proved to be cowardly. Wasn’t playing. Shinji shoots and accidentally kills him.
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: Bulletproof vest. Strangles Hirono, gets her gun. Attacks but fails to killed Hiroki. Killed by Kazou.
5 Shogo Kawada: Looks older than the rest, has facial hair already, transferred in, scarred. Shotgun. Saves Shuya and kills Kyoichi. Doctor skills.
6 Kazuo Kiriyama: Awesome. A sociopath who decides to play the game by flipping a coin. Possesses several guns. Attacked but failed to kill Shuya, Noriko and Shogo. Kill count: 14. Finally shot by Noriko.
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. Yoshimi’s boyfriend, attacks her. Killed by Mitsuko.
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 Takako. Has a device that shows him when someone with a collar nearby, also armed with a staff. Searching for two girls, one of which was Takako and the other is Kayoko. Stabbed fatally by Kazou, shot by a panicking Kayoko.
12 Yutaka Seto: Class clown. Best friends with Shinji, joined up with him. Fork weapon. Had a crush on Izumi. Decides to take on the government. Killed by Kazou.
13 Yuichiro Takiguchi: Teamed up with Tadakatsu and ran into Mitsuko, who he felt sympathy for. Shot attempting to defend Mitsuko.
14 Sho Tsukioka: Part of Kazou’s gang. Escaped Kazuo’s massacre. Gay. Had a gun. Stalked Kazuo, tricked into a forbidden zone and killed.
15 Shuya Nanahara: Main character? Minor but utterly harmless teenage rebelliousness. Popular with the girls. Killed Tatsumichi. Attempted to stop Hirono and Kaori’s shootout, failed. Escaped Kazou but fell off a cliff, then was patched up by the girls who found him.
16 Kazushi Niida: jock, soccer. Killed Yoshio by accident. Had a crush on Takako, tries to get her to stay with him and assaults her. Asserts he’s chosen to play. Killed by Takako.
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.” Teamed up with Yuichiro, accidentally shoots him when trying to shoot Mitsuko. Killed by Mitsuko.
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. Uncle probably part of the rebellion. Decides to take on the government. Shot and accidentally killed Keita. Killed by Kazou.
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. Insane, believed she was specially chosen to fight demons and had magic powers. Attempted to kill Kazou, failed.
2 Yukie Utsumi: class representative, braided hair, Haruka’s volleyball teammate. The first one to speak after their abduction. Noriko’s friend. Not playing. Sees Kazuhiko and Sakura’s suicide. Managed to collect a group of girls – Haruka, Yuko, Yuka, Satomi, and Chisato – who hide out at a lighthouse. Saves Shuya when they find him injured, has a crush on Shuya. Shot by a panicking Satomi.
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: The other girl Hiroki is looking for. “The one who, in spite of being into tea ceremony, seemed more playful than elegant”. Shoots him when he approaches, only realizing he wasn’t going to hurt her afterward. Shot by Mitsuko while she mourns.
9 Yuko Sakaki: Sees Shuya kill Tatsumichi and runs away unnoticed. Found by Yukie’s group. Terrified of Shuya, attempts to poison him but accidentally kills Yuka and causes Satomi to kill the rest in a panic. Falls off the top of the lighthouse.
10 Hirono Shimizu: Part of Mitsuko’s group. Tormented Megumi. Killed Kaori in a shootout, left Shuya alone. Shot Toshinori but failed to injure him and was killed.
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 two knives and a gun. Seems to have resented Takako. Hiroko knows she murdered Takako and passed the message on to Shuya’s group. Liked Yuichiro for being kind. Kill count: 7. Killed by Kazou.
12 Haruka Tanizawa: Yukie’s volleyball teammate, exceptionally tall. Not playing, joined up with Yukie. Killed by Satomi, who she also kills.
13 Takako Chigusa: Close to Hiroki. Track star. Ice pick weapon. Rebuffs Kazushi and is attacked by him. Kills Kazushi. Shot by Mitsuko. Found by Hiroko shortly before she dies, tells him Mitsuko killed her.
14 Mayumi Tendo: The first death in the game, killed outside the school by Yoshio.
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. Was sick but appears to have recovered.
16 Yuka Nakagawa: Yoshitoki says she’s fat. Class clown. Accidentally poisoned by Yuko.
17 Satomi Noda: “model student who wore wire-rimmed glasses which suited her calm, intelligent face” Joined up with Yukie. Panics after Yuka’s death and shoots the others.
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. Had a crush on Shinji. Shot by Satomi.
20 Kaori Minami: A friend of Megumi’s. Yukie asks her to join her group, but she was too afraid to do so. Pistol. Sees Hiroki briefly. Cracking under the stress of the games. Killed by Hirono.
21 Yoshimi Yahagi: Part of Mitsuko’s group. Colt weapon. In love with Yoji. Killed by Mitsuko.
A lot of people have died.
It’s just Shuya, Noriko and Shogo left.
Shogo led the way up the mountain. The weapons he picked out of Kazuo’s assortment were tossed into the day pack on his shoulders. He didn’t offer them to Noriko or Shuya. It wasn’t necessary for the time being.
They’ve cleaned up Noriko’s injuries. Shogo advised against stitching her cheek and they just used a lot of bandaids instead.
It was already getting dim in the mountains, but there was no need to make their way through bushes, so it was relatively easy to climb. The ground strewn with piles of leaf mold was damp from an entire afternoon of rain.
It’s interesting to think of how small the place must actually be. A lot of this reminds me of my few experiences with more actiony death games, where there’s a great deal of crawling around trying not to be noticed and short distances turn into uncrossable vastness. With everyone else dead, traveling from one place to another is easy. You just walk there.
They’re climbing because Shogo told them to, although he hasn’t explained why.
The peak with the viewing platform where Yukiko Kitano and Yumiko Kusaka were killed and its southern side had become a forbidden zone a long time ago. Shogo stopped right before they entered that area, in the upper mid-region of the mountain.
…
The slope and woods ended here, and the area offered a good view. They could see the entire island, now immersed in dim blue after sunset, where the fierce battle between the classmates of Third Year Class B Shiroiwa Junior High School took place. However, the school holding their final enemy, Sakamochi, was hidden by hills.
After looking out at this, Shuya asks what the plan is.
Shogo smiled without looking at Shuya. Then he said, “Relax. Take a look over there.” Shuya and Noriko looked over where Shogo was pointing.
It was over the southern mountain. Although it was growing dim, they could still make out the ocean, several islands, and beyond, the mainland. Shuya could make out a mist of lights scattered over the mainland. If they were closer, they could have discerned which ones were neon lights and which ones were lights along the shore highway.
Now Shuya also knew that this was Okishima Island in the Takamatsu-shi Bay. There were two others islands, Megijima and Ogijima, forming a vertical row of islands, where Okishima was the one at the far northern tip. Which meant that the small island beyond the southern mountain was Megijima, and beyond that was Ogijima, and beyond that was the mainland—Kagawa Prefecture of Shikoku.
Shogo said, “It’s not very familiar to me, but that’s your home over there. Shiroiwa-cho must be over there. You won’t see it again, so have a good look.”
Did he mean they’d never return because they were escaping the country? Still…
Shuya looked back at Shogo. “Don’t tell me we came all the way up here for this.”
Shogo snickered. “Hey, what’s the rush?” Then he said, “Show me your gun. There’s something I need to check.”
Well this doesn’t sound ominous at all.
Noriko hands the gun over and Shogo checks it to see if it’s loaded.
He took a deep breath and said, “Do you remember how I kept on saying I might be doing this just to have a group, and that my intention might be to kill you off in the end?”
Shuya raised his brow. Yes, you said that, but?…
“Yeah, but?…”
“So,” Shogo said, “you both lose.”
Well. That’s a quite a cliffhanger, isn’t it? So let’s continue.
Shuya, just as he failed to see any of the above as threatening at all, tells Shogo this isn’t the time for jokes.
It is, though, the time for seriously telling people that you’re going to kill them, so that doesn’t change anything. Shogo says they can spent more time looking, though, since they’ll never see it again.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You are so thick,” Shogo responded with a shrug. “I’m going to kill you both. I’ll be the winner. My second in a row.”
Shuya can’t believe it, but Shogo points out that helping them was practical – if he hadn’t, he’d be dead at Kazou’s hands by now. Shuya asks if the story about his girlfriend is true either.
“It was true I participated in the Hyogo Prefecture Program last year, and it’s true there was a girl named Keiko Onuki. But there was nothing between us. The girl in that photo’s my girlfriend, but her name’s Kyoka Shimazaki, a totally different person. She’s still in Kobe. She’s out of her mind…Well, anyway, she insisted I hold onto this photo. I got to say she was a good lay, though.”
Ah, taking relationships casually, a good little villain tidbit to throw into your speech.
Shuya still doesn’t quite believe it and asks about the whistle. He just got it from the store in case he needed it. To hammer it in, he says as soon as they trusted him, they’d lost.
Noriko spoke out before Shuya, “Shogo…is this some test to see whether you can really trust us? Is it because Keiko couldn’t trust you?”
They just really won’t believe it. I guess…if they believe he’s going to kill them, then they’re still going to die, so what’s the point in it? Shogo doesn’t agree with me:
Shogo shrugged his shoulders and said, “Unbelievable how you still believe in that fairy tale.”
Those were his last words. Shogo held the gun in his hand and slowly pulled the trigger.
Two gunshots rang out as evening descended upon the island.
1 student remaining—GAME OVER—Report from Third Year Class B Shiroiwa Junior High School Program Headquarters Tracking System
Well.
That was unexpected.
Shogo’s spent the game avoiding the question of how to escape and we haven’t heard any clues about ways it could happen beyond Shinji’s virus, which it seems came to nothing. While initially it seemed like he would be going through a lot of effort for little gain, the previous chapter shows that allies really are extremely useful in a pinch, even ones you have to run all over the island trying to heal up first. Shogo helping them took effort but was extremely low risk. And this has been a pretty dismal story overall – the Shuya and gang chapters were the most cheerful with their philosophical talks about how their country is evil and resistance is doomed. The only other alliance we’ve seen that was functional and didn’t fall apart was the quickly murdered duo of Yumiko and Yukiko. To end in betrayal fits fine with how things have gone.
But. It did do the cutaway thing for their deaths, and this book has shown every death so far in lavish detail.
I’m on to read the next chapter.