I was tired and busy, so reviews have been swapped for Battle Royale, since this was mostly done. Reviews tomorrow.

Anyway, Chapter 26 is more funtime with Shogo.

He leads them a hundred meters away and sets up his wire again. It’s now 9 am. So much happens in so little time.

They’re close enough to see the sea, which is beautiful, but that also means they see the boats – how most of them are far way, and the military boat is far but close enough they can see it has a machine gun on it.

Shogo asks why they’re so quiet. Shuya asks why Yumiko and Yukiko took such a risk. Come on, Shuya, you know why.

“I mean it should have been obvious. They could have anticipated that.

But a few chapters ago you didn’t think it would happen, and chapters before that you had a similar idea. Come on book, we don’t need to rehash this.

“They were part of some Shinto religious group called the Halo Church.

Huh, so it’s not a Christian thing? Also Shogo just goes on to say “Maybe that was part of it. You know, ‘Love thy neighbor.’ “ so…is this translation weirdness? Or is it some Shinto/Christian fusion or what?

Noriko says it didn’t have anything to do with religion, because neither of them cared much and just viewed it as a social thing.

“Well, the good aren’t always saved, and this game is no exception. It can be the irresponsible ones that end up making it. But I respect anyone who stands by their conscience, even at the risk of failing and being rejected by everyone.” He stared back at them. “They tried to believe in their classmates. They must have believed, if we could all get together, then we might end up being saved. We should commend them for that. We couldn’t do that.”

That’s a nice eulogy, Shogo. They took a gamble and it didn’t work out, but they’re not idiots for trying just because you chose the safer route and it’s worked out so far.

Then Shuya and Noriko repeat, yet again, that they trust him. But, Shuya says, why can’t he explain his plan? Or at least why he can’t explain his plan? Is he worried about other people learning it?

“Hold off on the interrogation. I’m not that smart.”

An interesting response. He then says that yeah, he’s worried about other people learning it.

and even if you two didn’t tell them, I wouldn’t want the others to even know that you two knew what it was.

Which is a pretty weird explanation from someone who a few chapters ago was saying they couldn’t even tell people a plan existed because they’d probably get shot before they could get a word out. And it’s suspiciously using the very explanation Shuya offered. But in actual conversation it would likely sound reasonable enough.

Then Shuya brings up the next point – he’s confused because there doesn’t seem to be any way out. I get it, Shogo’s plan is mysterious and unexplained and possibly fishy, can we move on?

Shogo actually gives something resembling a clear response. He says everything has a flaw, which he then says is a weak spot he’s going to aim for.

Shogo continued, “I know this game better than you two do.”

And now we’ll be getting the explanation. He asks if they know what happens to the survivor at the end of the game.

After you manage to make it through this absurd game, the Special Defense Forces soldiers shove you in front of the news cameras so they can have an image of the victor (“Smile. You must smile.”). But they had no idea what happened to the survivor after that.

This is shaping up to be a very Hunger Games-y chapter. It’s interesting how many more similarities there are than just the basic kids-killing-kids thing.

Shogo says that afterward, the winner has to transfer schools and never speak of it again. So I guess the broadcasts are entirely local. That’d also explain why Shuya’s surprised Shogo can know statistics about the game.

But anyway, so, Shogo’s a year older than the rest of them.

Shogo said, “I was a student in Third Year Class C, Second District, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture.” He added, “I survived the Program held in Hyogo Prefecture last year.”

Nice chapter ending!

Also nice to get another plot point I know from the manga out of the way. I’m not sure how obvious it would’ve been if I didn’t already know, but they really seemed to be laying it on thick for a while now.

Anyway, let’s consider this for a bit. This actually seems like an interesting thing to try – I’d expect the winner of one game to do really well at the next, because they’ve already gone through the whole shock and hesitation thing. Shogo’s calm under pressure, knows how to use weapons and can make basic defensive alarms. He could probably beat everyone but Kazuo because Kazuo is an anime character. Mitsuko might also be able to beat him – if he has any sex drive and decides to keep her around for a while before killing her too, she wins, but if he’s just killing people, she’d die too. Otherwise it should be easy to let the other kids kill each other and pick off a few as you go.

Actually, a previous winner would have been a really good replacement for Kazuo’s role in the plot. It kind of makes sense to me they’d want to screw over the winner by tapping them for the games again, so what if what makes this one special is that they have two previous winners?

The next chapter is all about Shogo explaining. There isn’t actually much point in the split.

“They even gave me a card autographed by the Dictator. What an honor that was. It looked like some kid scribbled on it, though I can’t remember the details, since I tossed it into recycling.”

Shuya’s stunned, because what amazing odds! Shuya, for god’s sake consider that maybe it’s not random. It’s a dictatorship, it doesn’t need to be random. It’s not like everyone supports it because it’s random but would be all shocked and horrified to know officials are actually picking the classes, everyone hates it because it’s taking a bunch of kids and making them murder each other.

Anyway, Shuya says it all makes sense how Shogo knows all about the game and also is all covered in scars.

He was hospitalized. It gave me time though to study a bunch of things including stuff about this country which is interesting. That suggests stuff like the number of games that end due to explosions is available data that most people just don’t know about, which in turn suggests there’s the occasional military/survivalist nut who’s studied every aspect of the game and is ready for it.

“So the ones who’ve been in it already aren’t exempt?”
Shogo grinned. “I suppose not, since I’m here. From what we’re told, classes are chosen randomly by computer, right? My experience gives me the upper hand, but I guess the computer doesn’t exclude me. So here’s another case of perverted equality.”

It’s subtle, but I feel like maybe Shogo isn’t that big of a fan of the government.

Interesting that fake equality keeps coming up, though. I wonder if that’s some cultural touchstone? I know that trying to make things more equal was a goal of the occupying Americans, so maybe there’s some general cultural tension on the idea.

He says that hey, at least now he has a chance to save them.

Anyway, Shuya and Noriko yet again repeat how they totally trust him. Book, editing editing editing, this would have been so much better if they hadn’t ended every conversation like that.

Chapter 28 is another new POV.

Kinpatsu Sakamochi (supervisor) was sitting at his faculty desk, rummaging through some scattered documents. To the north and south of him, a Special Defense Forces soldier stood by steel-plated windows equipped with gun ports.

I’m kind of disappointed to find it confirmed that he’s just a regular flunky, though it likely works better as a whole for the guy the kids see as holding all this power over them to be just another cog in the machine.

Some of the soldiers are watching computer monitors. Another three soldiers were wearing headphones connected to another machine that wasn’t a computer. Well that’s clear as mud. There’s also a generator.

I wonder if there’s always been generators and steel-plated windows and such or if we’re seeing the end results of a lot of classes trying to take the building out. Did someone in an early game manage to cut the power and after that they made sure to have an independent power source?

The room is also insulated from sound. Not sure why – I guess it’s to prevent external gunfire from being distracting, but it seems that it means none of the people inside will notice if you launch an attack at the half of them outside.

“Now then, Yumiko Kusaka died at 8:42 a.m. and, uh huh, Yukiko Kitano, she also died at forty-two minutes after the hour.”

The fact this is what he’s talking aloud to himself about really suggests they aren’t getting jack shit in the way of useful data. What was relevant is that they tried to get everyone to join forces from an exposed location followed by Kazuo attacking them both with a machine gun. If you’re tracking everyone’s location, it’d be interesting to see how many people moved and how many stayed where they are in response. And how far away was Kazuo, come to think of it? Shogo seemed certain the two girls would be taken out no matter what, so – was he already near there and that was opportunistic, or did he sprint toward the area, potentially exposing himself?

We know he’s chosen to play, but what exactly does that mean? The object is to survive until the end, but the intended method is to kill others. Which is he focused on? There was little practical value in killing Yumiko and Yukiko and it risked attack from anyone else attracted. Plus he seemed to get there relatively fast, which would suggest he was actually putting himself in danger sprinting through unknown territory just to get there in time to kill them himself. Indeed, if nothing else waiting would have produced more potential targets – either someone arrives to join them and he can shoot all of them, or someone arrives to kill them and he can kill that person to score three deaths rather than two.

He gets a call.

“Yes sir. This is Sakamochi, Superintendent. I appreciate all you’ve recently done for us. Yes sir. My second kid just turned two. Yes, and the wife’s getting bigger by the day with the third. Oh, no. Well, we just want to contribute to our nation, joining the fight against its dwindling youth population. And how can I help you, sir?”

It’s interesting how this seems like a standard chance to humanize him, but at the same time he’s coming off as an oily suckup.

Also, hm. I wonder if there’s any clause to prevent families from having more than one kid taken for the games. Or what about twins, are those always put in two different classes so that you never have both kids taken at once? The more likely option is that the government doesn’t care, of course, but it seems like it’d help stability if you aren’t accidentally wiping out families. And it might help the birth rate slightly if two kids ensured at least one would be okay, rather than just being an extra chance to be picked. It’s unlikely in a situation where the same kid can get picked twice in the first place – but given they’re sworn to never talk about it, it makes sense the government would want to get rid of even the survivor, so there’s a motive there beyond laziness.

Of course, the real question is if these games have anything to do with that dwindling. In another book the answer would be of course they do, why else bring it up, but of course that mirrors real Japan.

Anyway, the call is for betting. Maybe I should keep track of how much overlap there is between Hunger Games and this. The guy is betting on Shogo, while Sakamochi is betting on Kazuo, but he doesn’t hesitate to agree that Shogo sure will be a tough one. (He has experience, which is almost unheard of. which seems to suggest this is not the first time they’d have someone do more than one game.) What’s interesting here is there’s no sign of conflict of interest here. Sakamochi doesn’t seem at all concerned that he’s betting against his superior. That suggests that intervention after the games begin doesn’t happen, since he doesn’t seem worried about being held responsible if his guy wins and the other’s fails. (Although there is the cell phone thing – he totally got Megumi killed. How does that fit it? Maybe he’s given free range to fuck with anyone who no one bets on after the games start.) And with that in mind, perhaps the areas really are picked by a computer and at least semi-randomly (there must at least be some protection against separating areas from the rest). Otherwise Sakamochi would be able to manipulate things to favor the person he bets on by making sure it’s kids in other areas who are forced to move.

It does raise the question of if Sakamochi isn’t allowed to kill anyone in the initial orientation if they’ve been bet on. What if he’d killed Shogo then to give Kazuo an easy win? An easy fix there is to say betting only begins after their orientation, since everyone understands Sakamochi might need to stab some people. And since betting usually pays out in response to odds, even if he’s decided in advance he wants to bet on Kazuo, killing someone like Shogo who’s the most obvious challenger wouldn’t really help, since it’d mean the payout for the bet would be much less.

Anyway, the guy wants to know what’s going on. Sakamochi says he should be able to see it on the top secret website but the guy says he’s terrible with computers, so Sakamochi asks him to hold and consults with the soldiers to find out if Shogo is still hanging out with Shuya and Noriko.

The guy gives a curt affirmative.

Sakamochi was about to frown at Kato’s gruff attitude, but then realized how Kato was only one of the many problem students he’d had ever since he was a junior high school teacher

So he’s actually a teacher, or at least was. Weird.

He then reports back that Shogo’s still with the other two. Currently they’re talking about escaping!

Would you like to hear our recording of their conversations? Oh yes, sir. Hmm, I’m not sure if he is sincere. I mean it’s hard to say, but I’d say it’s a bluff. Probably. I mean it’s impossible to escape.

I find it odd Sakamochi isn’t more certain here.

He then gets the summary they have on Shogo.

He didn’t appear to have been the controversial type at his previous school. No anti-government actions or statements. Yes. His father died during the previous game.

His dad “provoked” their glorious government somehow while drunk – presumably just with talk, but maybe taking a swing at some soldier. Shogo apparently didn’t give a damn about that: ‘Good riddance. He was a bastard anyway.’ but I’m going to guess this is some sort of fakeout.

Sakamochi goes on to say that Shogo’s current strategy is a good one, since he’s safer with them, and how great Shogo is at playing them.

Then the guy says something about something that happened in March and a report, so presumably that report at the start of the book. He says he doesn’t think it’s connected and that the central office is just overexaggerating.

Besides, these are junior high school kids. Then they would have known we were listening in on them. Right now there are no signs that any of these students know this.

Except for Shogo, who’s mysteriously avoided giving his plan and wants to keep it a secret until the very end.

Then Sakamochi yessirs a bit and apparently is offered something he tries to demure and then thanks the guy for. Then he gets back to work.

He combed back his hair and began to write frantically on his documents, as if he were clinging to them.

Not sure what’s going on, but it’ll probably be important.