Chapter 26

Day 1 <B> The Common Area I heard this was a game of kill or be killed. I thought I was appropriately attuned to the danger. But there’s no way I can deal with this. No one could imagine this sudden game over. The knife pressed against my throat digs in. I’m on the floor, and I can feel blood flowing down the back of my neck. “I got distracted.” A girl with nice features is speaking in front of me. “I got distracted when I saw it was you, Kazuki. I suppose it’s because some part of me wanted to help you. Maybe that means I’m still immature.” This girl is simply blinking like some sort of machine without the slightest change in expression, and what she’s saying means absolutely nothing to me. She loosens the grip on her knife a bit, then continues: “Anyway, I’m gonna tell you about myself for future reference. Only until that bastard Kamiuchi arrives, though, so it won’t be much. Damn, guess that means he’s alive, huh? He’s the one I really wanna kill.” What is she talking about…? Who is Kamiuchi? Hell, who is she? Why does she know my name? “I don’t have any amazing physical abilities, and my IQ isn’t off the charts. My memory isn’t photographic, and I don’t experience synesthesia. I don’t have a single one of those easy-to-understand special abilities. So why am I the way I am?” The blood-drenched girl tells me with no emotion on her face. “Because I have focus.” She carries on matter-of-factly. “Take the sprint, for instance. The first thing I do before I run is clear my mind of distractions. I block out everything, like thinking I can beat so-and-so, or that I’m at a disadvantage, or that winning here could take me into the national tournament or whatever. I simply analyze what an ideal run for the day will look like by examining things like the condition of the track and the state of my white muscles, along with the rest of my body, and then I run a mental simulation. Once I’m crouched in the starting position, I focus exclusively on sound. I ignore all extraneous noises, and I concentrate solely on the crack of the pistol. Sound travels around 1,125 feet per second, though, which is slow. I actually start as soon as I hear the very beginning of the shot, but I can’t do that in my head. So I base my start on the feeling of overtaking the sound itself. I run according to the simulation I put together beforehand. No excess thought is needed. That’s why, after I run in a tournament, I have no memories of the sprint itself.” Having said all that, she turns her emotionless eyes toward me. “Oh, sorry. I guess I got a bit long-winded. The main point is that by channeling all my energy in a single direction, I can summon abilities that people might call exceptional. I’m good at that, end of story, so I’m not a superhuman. Yeah, I suppose that information will prove helpful to you.” I can’t make any sense of it. She must have lost her mind. I realize the back of my head is wet. I can deduce what type of liquid it is, but I can’t check to be certain… And I don’t want to. Something else catches my attention. “Uh, ah—!” Maria’s body is lying on the ground. And she’s not the only one. I see other prone, motionless forms, too. “I might be angry, just a little. Koudai Kamiuchi’s atrocities are one thing, but then there’s that stupid bitch, too. She tricked me without a care in the world, not just in this game, but in regular life, too.” I’m not sensing any anger or other emotions from her expression, though. “That bitch Yuri said she hung around with me because she knew I liked her. And she didn’t even like me. She just wanted to make me suffer. She’s horrible. When she told me about it, I couldn’t come up with any plan besides a dying message even though I knew they were gonna kill me.” I’m through trying to make sense of what she’s talking about. “Still, I don’t think those emotions had any influence over what I did here. You don’t need emotions to win this. I was already prepared by the time they finished explaining Kingdom Royale.” “……Prepared?” “Yeah—prepared to maintain the focus needed to keep killing until victory is certain.” Then, without the slightest change in expression… …she kills me. I begin to lose consciousness soon after she slits my carotid artery. As I slip away, maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks on me, but I think I hear a wailing scream. As the voice enters my ears, I finally remember. Right, she’s the student council president. •Kazuki Hoshino, dead via slit carotid artery inflicted by Iroha Shindo