Chapter 15

(0/22) Shortly before the start of Cloudy Beach… A dark room—the curtains were drawn, and the lights were off. The only glow came from a single computer monitor, in front of which sat a girl who stared fixedly at the screen. A video was playing on the monitor, depicting scenes straight from hell. People were dying left and right; it was a snuff film. The footage was of Candle Woods, a legendary game in the industry in which the girl made her living. She had recently succeeded in getting her hands on the video, which allowed her to, despite being a player, observe the game as a viewer. The game continued to unfold, reaching its final stages. “—And there’s no way I’ll lose to a punk like you!!” That powerful shout came from a girl who was wearing a bunny-girl costume and had the aura of a phantom. Her player name was Yuki. She was a protégé to the mighty player Hakushi, and she had inherited her mentor’s goal of clearing ninety-nine consecutive games. In this scene, she was snapping at Kyara, the homicidal maniac who had gone on a rampage in Candle Woods. As the footage played out on the monitor, the face of the girl watching twisted into a grimace. It’s her. She’s my fated opponent— (1/22) Mitsuba lay dismembered in her cottage. (2/22) She had, for the most part, met the same fate as Essay. Her limbs had been torn off, her torso was resting on the table, and her insides had been scattered across the room. It was the kind of corpse the average person would go their whole life never encountering, yet Yuki had seen bodies like this one several times before. The body belonged to the girl who had nearly drowned Yuki the previous day. However, Yuki did not experience schadenfreude upon learning of the girl’s demise; in fact, she felt sympathy. It was no pleasant sight for Yuki to see a player whom she was at least somewhat acquainted with meet a gruesome fate. She took care not to let her emotions show on her face. Yuki was not the only living soul in the room; all six surviving players had gathered in Mitsuba’s cottage. They had waited and waited, yet the girl still hadn’t shown up for the morning meeting, so they’d decided to go to her, as they had with Essay one day prior. When they had reached the cottage—the result had been no different from the previous day. “In light of this new development,” said Koyomi, “let’s have another long discussion today.” Koyomi motioned to leave the cottage. She was likely planning on returning to her own, like the group had done the other day. “Wait a second,” Yuki said to stop her. “Let’s hold the meeting here.” “—What was that?” Koyomi stared at Yuki for a moment before shooting a glance at Mitsuba’s body on the table. “In front of a corpse?” “Yes. We don’t want to risk the possibility of the body disappearing again.” Yuki’s remark elicited a look of confusion from one player: Maguma. It appeared she was unaware of Essay’s disappearance, since she’d spent the previous day alone. “Essay’s body vanished,” Yuki explained. “We went to check out her cottage after yesterday’s meeting, but it was already gone by then.” “Huh… So you all weren’t the ones who cleaned it up?” Maguma’s question implied she had also visited the scene at some point the day before. “True, it might be better to keep watch over the body today,” Koyomi said. “Everyone okay with that?” Koyomi looked around the room, but since no one voiced opinions to the contrary, the group ended up holding the meeting in Mitsuba’s cottage. First, the players cleaned the place. They gathered Mitsuba’s individual parts and pieced them together in their rightful places in a corner of the room. After covering the girl’s body with a blanket, several players joined their hands as if in prayer. The group then cleared away most of the blood turned white fluff, before sitting down around the table where Mitsuba’s torso had been moments prior. Maguma sat directly across from Yuki. She was wearing the same swimsuit from the day before, but a greater proportion of her skin was now covered. There was cloth wrapped around her arms and legs, plus other parts of her body. “Maguma, what happened?” Yuki asked. “Huh?” Maguma looked down at the cloth wrapped just beneath her left elbow. “It’s one of Essay’s gowns. I borrowed a spare one from her cottage yesterday.” “No, I figured that out… Why did you wrap it around yourself?” “I got a little injured yesterday, so I bandaged myself up.” Yuki raised an eyebrow. Injured? That rock-solid body? When? Where? Yuki wanted to hurl those questions at Maguma, but before she could— “Let’s get this show on the road,” Koyomi declared, forcing Yuki to back down. “First, each of us will report about what we did yesterday.” Koyomi looked around at the other players before her gaze fell on Airi. “If you don’t mind, could you start us off? And tell those two about what we found yesterday.” Koyomi gestured to the “two” she was referring to—Maguma and Hizumi. “Right. Let’s see…” Airi shared the events of the previous day. After the morning meeting, their group had stayed behind in Koyomi’s cottage to chat. Then they had gone to retrieve food from Mitsuba’s room before heading over to Essay’s cottage. When they’d arrived, they’d found that Essay’s body had vanished into thin air. The five players who had been together—Yuki, Airi, Koyomi, Mozuku, and Mitsuba—all had alibis. That meant the only people capable of hiding the body were— “—You two,” Koyomi said. Maguma and Hizumi. Everyone else stared at the two players who had left Koyomi’s cottage immediately the previous day. “Don’t look at me,” Maguma responded. Hizumi didn’t speak up, but she shook her head. “Really?” Koyomi replied. “That would mean the culprit isn’t one of us.” Yuki looked over at Maguma, again scrutinizing the cloth wrapped all over the woman’s body. “Maguma, where did you get those injuries?” Yuki asked. “Huh?” “You said you got hurt yesterday. Can you tell us when and where that happened?” “I don’t see why that matters.” “Like Koyomi said, you and Hizumi are the only ones who were physically capable of hiding Essay’s body. You two also happen to be the ones who said you’d prefer to act alone. And today you show up with injuries. It’s almost like you got hurt fighting someone.” “You accusin’ me of being the culprit?” It didn’t seem that Maguma was intentionally being threatening, but Yuki winced at her intimidating aura nevertheless. “Spare me the bullshit,” Maguma continued. “If I was the culprit, I wouldn’t need to be all sneaky and attack during the night. I’d just kill however many players I have to right here and now.” “It’s possible some conditions have been imposed on the culprit that we aren’t aware of. Like maybe they’re limited to killing at most one player per night, or they need to keep their identity hidden from the others. If we take that into consideration, there’s plenty of reason to suspect you, Maguma.” “…………” “Can you tell us what happened?” Yuki’s staredown with Maguma lasted a few seconds. Maguma was the first to look away. “I cut myself on tree branches, that’s all,” she admitted. “I spent all day yesterday walking around the forest. Before I knew it, I was all scratched up. Nothing strange about getting a couple of cuts and scrapes walking around in a swimsuit, right?” She had a point. That was especially true for a player with a giant frame like hers. “I just didn’t want to fess up to it, okay? ’Cause it’s embarrassing getting hurt by something that isn’t a trap. Wanna see the scratches?” “…No, it’s fine. Thank you for answering,” Yuki said. “Don’t mention it,” Maguma responded. “Let’s move on,” Koyomi said, turning to Airi. “Keep going. We investigated the cottage… Then what happened?” (3/22) After that, the meeting continued without a hitch. Each player shared what they had gotten up to the previous day. First was Airi. After investigating Essay’s cottage, she had gone into the forest surrounding the beach. While coming up with ideas for weapons she could use against the culprit, she’d searched for a spot that had seemed suitable for sleeping outside. She didn’t explain exactly what kind of weapons she had prepared or where she had slept, but she revealed to the group that she hadn’t spent the night in her cottage. Yuki went next. After investigating Essay’s cottage, she’d explored the beach. Although she’d gone quite far out into the water, she hadn’t learned anything particularly useful. She also mentioned running into and having a conversation with Mitsuba, though she kept quiet about having nearly been killed by the girl, out of a desire to avoid unwanted misunderstandings and out of frustration at herself. Next were Koyomi and Mozuku. Both had apparently spent the rest of the day in their individual rooms after investigating Essay’s cottage. Setting Koyomi aside, Yuki was rather curious about what Mozuku had been up to, as the girl had shown an aversion to having her cottage investigated. Still, since the mood didn’t seem right for an interrogation, Yuki suppressed the urge to ask. Then came Maguma. Like Airi, she admitted to spending the night outdoors. She had been walking around the forest to find somewhere to sleep, which was how she had gotten scratched. Compared to the previous four players, she divulged little information. It was unlikely she had spent the entire day preparing to sleep outside, so Yuki figured she must have been up to something else—and Yuki suspected that “something else” was the true reason for the woman’s injuries. Finally, it came time for the last player to speak—Hizumi. “I wasn’t doing anything.” That was all she offered. “…Should we take that to mean you were in your cottage the whole day?” Koyomi asked. Hizumi nodded. The girl’s statement was beyond suspicious, but since pressing her for specifics would also seem unusual, Yuki let it slide. There was no information about more detailed rules of the game, nor clues that could help identify the culprit. Had nobody uncovered any, or was someone intentionally hiding what they knew? Regardless, the meeting came to an end, and just like the previous day, Maguma and Hizumi immediately stood up from their seats. Unlike the previous day, however, only four players were left behind in the cottage. (4/22) The air in the room was taut with tension. The reason was obvious—Mitsuba was no longer with them. She had been a free spirit, the kind of player who unabashedly opened another’s fridge and munched on what was inside. Her absence made clear just how much she’d influenced everyone else’s moods. Yuki glanced over at Mitsuba’s body, which was hidden underneath a blanket. At that moment, she missed the girl’s free-spirited ways. We lost a good girl, she thought. “—I’ll cut to the chase.” Koyomi spoke up. “What do you all think of those two?” It was immediately obvious which “two” Koyomi was referring to. The two players who had persisted in acting alone. The two players not presently in the cottage. The two players most suspected of having carried away Essay’s body. Maguma and Hizumi. “I mean, I am suspicious of them,” Yuki replied, “but even if we point a finger at them, some things still can’t be explained. They wouldn’t have had the time to hide Essay’s body before we reached the cottage.” Even when they factored in the amount of bloodshed, Essay’s corpse still had to weigh around a hundred pounds. Carrying the corpse away in the span of a few minutes would be quite the arduous undertaking even for an iron-armed player like Maguma, with or without Hizumi’s help. “…Why did anyone need the body gone in the first place?” Mozuku asked. “Did it have something incriminating on it that they didn’t want being found…?” “If so, we might learn something new this time,” Airi said, looking over at the corner of the room where Mitsuba’s body lay. She turned to Yuki and asked, “Yuki, do you suspect Maguma?” “To some extent,” Yuki replied. “Only relatively so, compared to other players. It’s not like I strongly suspect her or anything. If you only judge her by her attitude, she seems awfully suspicious, but she’s always been like that. A lone wolf, so to speak.” Players generally settled into individual playstyles by the time they crossed the Wall of Thirty. Yuki’s was one of “altruism,” which involved helping out other players in various ways so she could gain a shallow but wide network of allies. Mishiro—the haughty, princess-like player Yuki had clashed with some time ago—had possessed a “domineering” style, characterized by the manipulation of others into doing her bidding. And although she had yet to cross the Wall of Thirty, Koyomi, who had avoided dangerous games like Candle Woods altogether, could be said to have adopted a “cowardly” playstyle. On that scale, Maguma’s playstyle was defined by “independence.” She sought survival through enhancing her individual capabilities to the greatest conceivable extent. Others played no role in her strategy, a fact that frequently resulted in discord between her and her peers. She was a maverick of a different kind than Mitsuba. In past games, Maguma had isolated herself in similar ways, too. To accuse her of being the culprit based on her attitude alone would be jumping to conclusions. Yuki continued, “Still, she does seem to be hiding something… I’m almost certain she lied about getting injured in the forest.” Maguma would never be so careless as to suffer avoidable injuries. As Yuki had suggested during the meeting, Maguma had likely gotten hurt in a fight with someone—or she had faced an anomaly on the scale of the Wall of Thirty that was too much for even her to escape unscathed. “Um…” Mozuku spoke up. “This may be inappropriate, but could I say something?” “What is it?” Airi asked. “So far there’s been one victim each night, right? And if we take the average survival rate into account, it makes sense for there to be three victims in total. In which case…will the game end after tonight?” “Ah…” It was by no means an inappropriate remark—it was a crucial observation. The group had fallen down the rabbit hole of looking for the culprit, but this was a survival game. The game would not end by unmasking or chastising the killer—it would end by letting this player take lives until they were satisfied. “The rules aren’t any clearer today than yesterday, huh?” Koyomi said. “But, Yuki, your theory probably hits the nail on the head. The rules haven’t been explained because there’s no room for misinterpretation: Everyone besides the culprit needs only to survive for a week. The issue is just how many players the culprit has to murder…” At the very least, the number of victims had to be no fewer than two, as two players had already ended up dead. The theoretical maximum was seven players, if the culprit killed one player each night across the entire one-week duration of the game. However, that would be far too harsh a victory condition for the culprit, and considering the average survival rate, it made sense to assume the required number of victims would not be that many. “If you think about it, it’s probably around three or so,” Yuki said. “Still, we have no way of knowing if the game will end after tonight. There’s no guarantee the culprit has to kill one player each day. They could be planning to take the evening off after two consecutive nights of murder.” “I’ve been wondering about that, too,” Airi said. “Both Essay and Mitsuba were killed during the night, and on different nights at that. Is there a reason it has to be that way?” The game was modeled after a closed circle mystery, set on a secluded island in the ocean. In which case, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be various conditions outlining how the culprit could kill. For instance, maybe they could only off someone during the night, or maybe they could only murder in a cottage. The dismemberment of the bodies was probably a consequence of one such condition. However, since Yuki was not the culprit, she had no way of knowing the truth. Beyond that, much about the game remained unknown. There was far too little information afforded to players who were not the culprit. That may have been an intentional design choice to force players to make their own deductions, but such a setup was a poor match for Yuki, who had chiefly relied on instincts rather than intellect to survive throughout her career as a player. What should I do to raise my chances of survival? Yuki racked her brain for an answer, but— “…Whatever. I’m too sleepy for this.” As her head started to ache, Yuki frowned. She had stayed awake the entire night, wary of the culprit, and the consequences of doing so were now taking their toll. She figured she would have to take a short nap. “How about you fill your stomach?” Koyomi suggested, pointing at the refrigerator that had lost its owner. “That should help wake you up.” “I’ll do that…” Yuki shuffled over to the fridge on her knees and took out a bottle of ramune. She stood up in the kitchen in order to pop open the marble inside the cap. It was then that the triangular strainer in the corner of the sink entered her field of vision. It was empty. (5/22) Afterward, the four players investigated the scene. The state of the cottage was practically the same as Essay’s had been the day before, save for the fact that the group had cleared away the white fluff around the table and the corpse was still in the room. That was to say, in sharp contrast to the dismembered body, the room was virtually spotless. There were no dents in the floor from the swing of a club, nor was there a single scratch on the table from the slash of a knife. The group wrapped up their investigation of the cottage and moved on to Mitsuba’s body. Upon removing the blanket, they discovered the corpse shockingly—or rather, unshockingly—remained there in the same grisly glory as before. Although the players had positioned the body parts back in their proper locations, none of the connecting joints were intact. The body had been thoroughly mutilated. “I wonder if there’s a reason the killer chopped her up like that,” Koyomi mused. Yuki gave the idea some thought. It was possible the culprit had done so for a practical reason, such as to obfuscate the cause of death, or maybe they were simply someone who took pleasure in cutting up bodies. Yuki believed there was a decent probability of the latter being true. “These cuts aren’t clean at all,” Airi remarked, with an eye on Mitsuba’s cleaved right arm. “Her limbs certainly weren’t lopped off with a sharp blade. It seems like the culprit took great pains to cut through by hacking away at the same spot multiple times.” “Which means…they aren’t used to wielding a blade?” Yuki asked. “That, or it could have been intentional. Mutilating a corpse and severing limbs uncleanly are two sides of the same coin, after all.” Airi looked deep in thought. Yuki tried to mimic her expression but was unable to come up with any new revelations. The four players split up after examining the body. Airi told the group she had something she wanted to investigate and headed off to Essay’s cottage. Koyomi and Mozuku returned to their own cottages, apparently intending to quietly spend the day inside for the second day in a row. After seeing the other three off, Yuki began to wonder about her own next steps. She was 99 percent certain this was a survival game. Players would essentially clear the game automatically, so long as they were not chosen to be one of the victims. From the perspective of the culprit, it seemed most reasonable to target the weakest players first, but in reality, the game had not turned out that way. The first victim was Essay, a death-game veteran in her milestone fiftieth game. The second was Mitsuba, a free spirit who was also facing a milestone: her thirtieth game. Rather than going after the weakest players, the culprit appeared to actually be targeting the strongest of the bunch. There was a decent chance Yuki would be chosen as the third victim. What Yuki found curious was the fact that both Essay and Mitsuba had been taken out so easily. Mitsuba had made a total fool of Yuki on the beach the previous day. Could she have really gone down without fighting while being fully aware of the culprit’s existence? And if so, was there some secret as to why she had been unable to resist? Had the players overlooked something crucial in this game, something that had even been able to take down Essay and Mitsuba? On the topic of secrets, there was also something up with Maguma. She was covered in injuries she’d claimed were scratches from tree branches, but what were they actually from? Assuming her secret had nothing to do with being the culprit—could she have possibly stumbled upon the trick behind the game? Had she discovered a vital piece of information that would essentially determine who would make it out alive? Could she have been trying to hide it, without shying away from the risk of being suspected as the culprit? Yuki decided to look for Maguma. And so she entered the forest. (6/22) Fortunately, Yuki located Maguma almost immediately. To be more precise, she discovered something that suggested Maguma was close by: a trap. The players hadn’t come across any when they had explored the forest two days prior. It was a simple trap, one that consisted only of sharpened stalks of bamboo jutting out of the ground. Still, a trap was a trap, and it was clearly man-made. Yuki was convinced Maguma had set it up. Airi had also spent the previous night in the forest, but the probability was low that this was her doing. Traps were a potential source of discord with other players, as they could harm someone who wasn’t the culprit. Only Maguma, ever the individualist, would set up something like that. Maguma’s roost had to be ahead. That was the implication of the trap, which was designed to deter intruders. It also meant the secret Maguma held was nearby. Continuing onward would come at great risk, as Yuki would likely need to overcome more traps in the process, but the risk that came with not doing anything at all was far greater. If the killer chose Yuki as their third victim, she had no guarantee of survival. She wanted to do everything she could to boost her chances of making it out of the game alive. So Yuki proceeded deeper into the forest. (7/22) Airi returned to her cottage. (8/22) After the four players had disbanded, Airi paid a visit to Essay’s cottage. She had suggested to the others that she was going there because of something she was curious about, but that was stretching the truth. Although she hadn’t lied, she had made an intentionally misleading statement. She had gone to Essay’s cottage not to investigate something she was curious about, but rather to retrieve a specific item she would need to investigate what she had in mind. The item in question was Essay’s outfit. Essay had been wearing a gown reminiscent of a lab coat, and there were still spares of it inside the dresser of her cottage. It seemed Maguma had not taken them all. Airi grabbed one of the gowns and returned to her cottage. After thoroughly searching the entire room to make sure no one was hiding anywhere, she sat on the sofa. She looked down at her left arm and firmly rubbed a spot just above her elbow—the same spot where Mitsuba’s arm had been severed. Upon feeling a strange texture, Airi stopped moving her hand. I knew it, she thought. There were objects around the size of a pill embedded under her skin. One in her inner arm and one in her outer arm, positioned directly opposite each other. They would have been almost undiscoverable if she hadn’t been examining her arm under the strong hunch something was there; there were no signs the surrounding skin had been cut open, nor were there any abnormalities with her arm’s mobility. In fact, Airi hadn’t suspected anything until this very day—the third day of the game. In all likelihood, most of the other players still had yet to realize it. The only ones aware of the existence of these objects were the culprit and Airi, and probably Maguma as well. The moment she felt that texture, everything fell into place. Why had the bodies been dismembered? To conceal the existence of these objects. How could Essay and Mitsuba have been killed without putting up a fight? Because of these objects. Why did Maguma have cloth wrapped all over her body? To hide the scars made from extracting these objects. These things represented the traps devised for this game—implanted devices. Before the start of the game, the organizers had implanted devices into the bodies of the players, almost certainly for the purpose of giving the culprit an advantage. Their most obvious function would be to transmit the locations of the other players to the culprit. Since the island had no shortage of hiding places, it would make sense for the devices to do that. Airi had previously speculated the culprit was watching the surveillance camera footage along with the audience, but that line of thinking had been far too naive. The culprit had direct knowledge of her location. That meant there was no difference in safety between sleeping inside a cottage and braving the night outdoors. Furthermore, in light of Essay’s and Mitsuba’s deaths, it was reasonable to assume the implants had an additional function: specifically, the ability to generate an electric current. After more thoroughly feeling around her entire body, Airi found the same implants in her right arm, as well as four in each of her legs, for a total of twelve. If her hunch was correct, activating the implants would immediately cause a player to become paralyzed, incapable of moving any parts of their body. And what if the culprit had been given a remote control to manage the devices? What if they activated that function while standing right in front of Airi? If that happened, Airi would be unable to put up any semblance of a fight and would be chopped up at the whim of the culprit. These devices had even rendered experienced players like Essay and Mitsuba completely helpless. With these things in play, safety was but an illusion. “…I have to dig them out,” she muttered. It was unconfirmed as to whether the implants could generate an electric current, but if she assumed they had that functionality, they likely had restrictions on their usage. Since only one player had been killed each evening, the culprit was probably limited to using the device once per night. Regardless of what restrictions there may have been, however, the implants had more than enough potency to compensate. Now that she knew they existed, Airi was not so foolish as to shrug them off. She had to remove them as soon as she could. Airi slipped her hand under her off-the-shoulder swimsuit and pulled out a glass knife. She had secured the weapon the previous day, fashioning it from a shard she had broken off from a window in Essay’s cottage. The blade was dull enough that it could be safely stored underneath her swimsuit, but it was still sharp enough to cut into human flesh, so what was inside could be extracted. Airi stood in the kitchen. With the tip of the knife, she tapped at the spots on her body that had devices underneath. As she imagined what she was about to do, she felt genuine hesitation. However, she convinced herself it had to be done. She then wondered if she would be able to find a better tool for the job than a blunt blade; perhaps she could dismantle the microwave and use one of its metal parts, or she could rip off and sharpen a bone from Mitsuba’s corpse. Although she could have done either, it would not change the fact that she would never find the perfect tool. She would never be able to completely dispel the thought of there being something even better. Seeking perfection would undoubtedly lead her to getting trapped in an endless mire. This was the time to compromise. This was the time to break through her hesitation. She pressed the knife hard against her skin. She didn’t look away. She wasn’t the type to do so. Airi would always stare straight at the needle when getting shots as a child, and even when her mother had told her she couldn’t attend high school because of their family’s financial situation, she had quickly accepted it out of resignation. Even when she had been handed a knife and instructed to kill in Candle Woods, she had found herself unable to enter the cage of escapism, and even when she had been trapped on that snowy mountain during her thirtieth game, she’d only been able to resign herself to the situation, unable to grow upset or angry like the other players. It seemed people needed rose-colored glasses to be happy. I suppose that means I’ll never be able to find happiness. If only she hadn’t realized the existence of the implants, she wouldn’t be cutting into her own skin, wouldn’t be feeling the pain of her heart beating faster than twice its normal speed. Although it was not her first time injuring her arm, that didn’t change the fact that it hurt. Thinking it would be problematic if she let out a scream, she decided to bite down on the gown she had taken from Essay’s cottage. Initially, she had decided to perform the procedure in the kitchen, so as to ensure the white fluff from the resulting wound would not fall onto the floor. However, she couldn’t maintain her composure, and by the time she had extracted one of the pill-sized objects, she was lying on her bed, panting heavily. Sweat streamed down her face like it would if she were a character in a manga. Airi grabbed the device and tossed it into the sink strainer. Even though it hurt just to move her left arm, she still flipped it over and touched the implant in her outer arm with her right hand. As usual, Airi’s voice of reason held out, reporting to her a number in an exceedingly composed tone. Eleven more. (9/22) The whole ordeal lasted no more than thirty minutes, but for Airi, those thirty minutes were an interminable hell, enough to make her think she had died and been reborn. After extracting all twelve implants, she felt around her whole body to make sure there were no more. She found none, at least where she was able to search. Perhaps there was a thirteenth device implanted close to her heart and her efforts up to now had been completely in vain, but Airi maintained her calm state of mind and figured she would just have to accept it if that turned out to be true. With the pieces of Essay’s gown she had cut, she bandaged the wounds on her body, leaving her in the same state that Maguma had been in that morning. Since no other players had done the same, at this point it seemed only Airi and Maguma had realized the existence of the devices. Now that the killer had lost half their advantage over her, Airi’s probability of being selected as the third target after Essay and Mitsuba should be hovering close to zero. Airi was conflicted over how to handle the knowledge of the culprit paralyzing victims with an electric current. Like Yuki, Airi had adopted a playstyle of cooperating with other players to a certain extent, but she figured disclosing the truth would go beyond “a certain extent.” If everyone extracted the implants in their bodies, the risk of the culprit targeting Airi would rise. Not only that, but if the culprit discovered Airi had exposed the existence of the devices, then they would have motive to go after Airi specifically, out of revenge for her stripping away their advantage. Was it better to share the truth or to keep quiet? Airi hemmed and hawed but ultimately decided to defer the decision. She had until the next morning’s meeting to make up her mind. In any case, she had bolstered her defenses. Next, it was time to go on the offensive. Airi’s discovery had offered her an additional clue: Devices were implanted under the skin of every player on the island besides the culprit. That meant checking everyone’s bodies would make identifying the killer a breeze. While she couldn’t deny the possibility the culprit also had real or fake implants—the homicidal maniac in Candle Woods had modified her own body, after all—there was a good likelihood that wasn’t the case. The players had been forced into only taking defensive maneuvers since they lacked clues to the culprit’s identity, but now Airi had gained an avenue of attack. She couldn’t pass up the opportunity. This was a survival game. Players only needed to survive for a week, so identifying the killer was unnecessary. However, Airi was skeptical about whether the game would play out according to the rules. If that girl was the culprit—if she was the kind of person Airi imagined her to be, there was no guarantee the number of victims would stop rising after reaching the presumed threshold of three people. At worst, the killer might even take out an outrageous number of people, way more than the rules required, just as in Candle Woods, that unforgettable game. She needed to confirm her suspicions for herself. Depending on the situation, she would also need to devise countermeasures. And so Airi headed to Hizumi’s cottage. (10/22) Hizumi—a player with an absent-minded demeanor. To be perfectly frank, Airi was wary of the girl. She had managed to convey as much to Yuki the previous day, but she believed the protégé of Kyara had slipped into the game, and she strongly suspected it was Hizumi. Both Essay and Mitsuba had been dismembered. It made sense the killer would need to mutilate both girls to extract the devices from them, thereby concealing the existence of the implants, but it seemed highly unlikely that was their sole reason. In fact, the culprit’s butchery had completely failed to conceal the implants, as it had led Airi to grow suspicious over the unnatural manner in which the bodies had been cut. There had to be another motivating factor. When Airi began to think about what it could be, the image of that psychopath immediately sprang to mind. Kyara—a fiend who had killed more than three hundred players, driving the death-game industry to the brink of collapse. With both Airi and Yuki, survivors of Candle Woods, playing in this game, there was only one answer: The corpses served as a message. A protégé of Kyara was lurking in this game, plotting to bring about a repeat of Candle Woods. Through the mutilated bodies, they had declared they would slaughter every last player on the island—including, of course, the two who had sent Kyara to hell. All the pieces seemed to fall neatly into place. And the player most suspicious of being the psychopath’s protégé…was Hizumi. “…………” Are you a moron? Airi’s voice of reason said to her. It was complete paranoia. A fantastical theory built upon speculation after speculation. Airi knew it was equivalent to a baseless accusation. Her mental constitution was not so simple that she would give in to mere delusions. However—those corpses were utterly grotesque. Even in this world of death, bodies like those did not show up often. It was impossible not to link them to Kyara. And since quite some time ago, Airi had grown fearful of the second coming of Candle Woods. Although those misgivings were essentially unfounded, she couldn’t help but harbor them. Once those feelings took root inside of her, she felt compelled to make sure for herself. If she was mistaken, then the story would end there. Airi knocked on the door to Hizumi’s cottage. After she waited for a short while, the door opened without warning, and Hizumi appeared in the doorway. The girl fixed Airi with a death glare. “What?” Hizumi asked. While feeling overwhelmed by the girl’s peculiar aura, Airi said, “I wanted to ask you for a favor…” “What?” “Could you let me search your body?” “Why?” Thinking that coming clean was the only option, Airi explained, “I discovered the organizers implanted devices in our bodies.” Airi rubbed the cloth wrapped around her left arm. Hizumi instinctively glanced down at the same spot on her own body. “I believe they function as transmitters and can also generate an electric current like a stun gun. That has to be the reason veterans like Essay and Mitsuba were taken out so easily. I only realized it a short while ago, and I rushed to extract them.” Hizumi touched her own arm, likely to confirm the veracity of Airi’s remarks. The reaction seemed genuine for a player who was not the culprit, but Airi couldn’t discount the possibility it was an act. “Would you mind if I check you?” Airi asked. “We should be able to determine the identity of the culprit based on who has or doesn’t have these implants. I want to see if you have them. It won’t take long at all, so please…” Airi took a step forward. Hizumi retreated the same distance. “—No,” she said. “Don’t come any closer.” “…Why?” “Stay away.” Was she wary of Airi being the culprit? Or was she simply pretending to be on her guard? Airi put her hands in the air. “I’m unarmed.” “Liar. You’re hiding something in your swimsuit.” Airi looked down at her off-the-shoulder swimsuit. True, it was possible to store a weapon under it. In fact, she had been concealing one there until a little while ago. “I’m not hiding anything,” Airi responded. “I’ll take it off if that will convince you, but it would be a bit embarrassing…” “Stay back!” Airi was shocked, not only because she was being shouted at, but also because it was the first time she had heard Hizumi raise her voice. Hizumi adopted a fighting stance. Things were on the verge of exploding. Airi wondered how she should interpret the girl’s attitude. Was she genuinely wary of Airi, or was she actually the culprit trying to avoid being investigated? “I understand,” Airi said. “I won’t press the matter, then. Can I ask you a question instead?” “…What?” “Are you familiar with a player by the name of Kyara?” Hizumi’s eyes opened wide. Apparently, her stare hadn’t reached its final form. “She has agarwood-colored hair. If you know anything—” Airi’s words were cut short. Hizumi chopped at her with her hand. (11/22) Outside weapons were prohibited in death games, as the presence of tools not envisioned by the organizers could interfere with the flow of a game. Players were only allowed to bring in their bodies and the designated outfit, plus a few items that constituted exceptions, such as hair accessories and glasses. However, taken another way, the organizers had no issue with players modifying parts of their bodies into weapons. In this world where minuscule differences could determine life and death, many players sought ways to exploit that loophole. For example—nails. Although players could not turn them into actual blades, they could polish and sharpen them. By using them to pierce vital spots like an eyeball or the neck, one could potentially inflict fatal damage. Hizumi’s hand had come close enough to hitting Airi that it had gone out of focus. Airi leaped back, retreating faster than Hizumi could approach. She had done so on the spur of the moment, lacking the leeway to pay attention to her posture. Consequently, she toppled backward and landed in the shallow waters around the cottage. As Airi tried to get back on her feet, Hizumi drew closer with a furious look on her face. Before Hizumi could lunge at her, Airi grabbed ahold of the girl’s hands. The two ended up grappling with each other, Hizumi on top and Airi on the bottom, neither of them able to use their hands. “—Did you know her?” Airi asked. “Have you met Kyara? What’s your connection?!” “So what?” Hizumi replied with a gaze so intense, it seemed her eyeballs might pop out. “So what if I knew her? So what if I was her protégé? Are you trying to say I’m a fan of chopping people up? Are you trying to say I’ll go crazy like my mentor?” Mentor. Protégé. Hizumi had volunteered that information without Airi mentioning either word. “You’re all the same! You only see others how you want to see them! I’m me! I’m my own person, with my own free will and body! Don’t make me out to be someone I’m not!” Hizumi must have been unaccustomed to shouting, because she continuously adjusted the volume of her voice as she yelled. “Listen up! I’m acting tame for now, but soon I’m gonna kill every last one of you! There won’t be a single bone left of you when I’m done! You’re all gonna die, and I’ll keep living!” Airi thought the girl was being awfully incoherent. While the meaning of each of her sentences came across, her words sounded incomprehensible when taken together. Airi only understood one thing—at this rate, Hizumi could very well kill her. So, with no other choice, she steeled her resolve. Airi lifted her knee and struck Hizumi in the stomach. —A counterattack. Hizumi gagged. It was only for a second, but the girl flinched. Airi used that opening to escape from under Hizumi and flee, splashing through the water as she ran. “Wait!” Hizumi called out. However, by the time the girl had gotten back on her feet, Airi had already opened a considerable distance between them. Given their difference in height, Airia presumed Hizumi wouldn’t be able to catch up. Airi reached dry land, sprinted across the shore, and dashed into the forest. Without slowing her pace, Airi began to think. She hadn’t come across any definitive proof, nor could she fully dismiss her doubts. All that was certain was Hizumi had reacted abnormally upon hearing the name of that psychopath. And although it hadn’t been a direct admission, the girl had indicated she was Kyara’s protégé. Was she actually the culprit? (12/22) Yuki retreated. The farther she proceeded—the closer she came to Maguma’s hideout—the more ferocious and well-concealed the traps became. Although Yuki had unwavering confidence in her ability to avoid traps, her opponent was one step ahead of her, and Yuki found herself caught in a pitfall trap, the bottom of which was lined with bamboo spears. Although she avoided becoming a shish kebab and escaped with only scratches, she deemed it too dangerous to continue any farther. So she retreated. Thinking that her efforts had been all for naught, Yuki walked through the trees. “…Ah.” “Ah!” Suddenly, she came across Airi. “…Hey there.” “Long time no see.” Airi looked at Yuki’s scratched-up body. “How did you get injured?” “I got caught in one of Maguma’s traps… I was hoping to see her.” “Ah…” “And you, Airi? Did you get hurt?” There was cloth wrapped all over Airi’s body. She was in a similar state as Maguma had been that morning. “…I’ll leave it to your imagination,” she replied. Even her reaction mirrored Maguma’s as well. She seemed to be hiding something. Upon taking a closer look, Yuki noticed the spots Airi had bandaged up were exactly the same as Maguma’s. “…………” Yuki rubbed her arm. (13/22) After she and Airi went their separate ways, Yuki headed for a cottage. Not her own—Essay’s. It was where Airi had gone after the morning meeting, after mentioning wanting to investigate something. Inside, Yuki retrieved one of Essay’s spare gowns and a shard of glass from a broken window, then returned to her own cottage. There, she sat on the sofa and touched her arm. Like earlier, she felt a strange object. Maguma had cloth wrapped all over her body. Later, Airi had shown up in the exact same condition. Yuki was not so dense as to overlook the implication of that apparent coincidence. In this game, every player except the culprit had been implanted with devices. The primary function of these implants was likely to incapacitate a player via an electric current or some other means. It was the atypical weapon supplied to the culprit. Additionally, it was possible the implants also functioned as transmitters and monitors of each player’s vital signs. The girls’ search earlier that morning had turned up no such devices inside Mitsuba’s body, which meant the killer had probably removed them from the scene. The body had been dismembered so as to conceal that fact. Yuki was impressed Airi had still managed to sniff out the existence of the implants. On the other hand, Yuki was frustrated at not having realized it herself. It wasn’t a completely inconceivable trick. After all, in her thirtieth game, Golden Bath, she had very nearly participated with a device inside her body—although in that case, it had been against the rules and ultimately had not happened. As excuses for missing the devices streamed through her mind—for one, she had stayed up the entire night—Yuki stood in the kitchen and began using the glass shard to extract the implants. Since Yuki had had all four of her limbs severed in a past game, she ran into no trouble whatsoever. After recalling the parts of her body Airi had bandaged up, Yuki endured the pain and finished extracting ten devices— “…Whoops. That was close.” She then discovered implants in the heels of her feet. Since Airi had been wearing water shoes, there was no fabric around her feet, so Yuki hadn’t immediately realized there were implants there. After she extracted the devices in both feet, that made twelve in total. Following a thorough search of every inch of her body, Yuki confirmed there were no more. Then she let out a sigh. Yuki was ashamed she had needed to glean this information from someone else, but beyond that, she was relieved. Now the probability of her being selected as the culprit’s target this coming night would fall dramatically, and even if she were attacked, she would be able to put up a fight. As soon as relief washed over her, a thought popped into her mind. Guess I’ll take a quick nap. Yuki got into bed. Though she wasn’t expecting to enjoy a peaceful sleep, she figured a nap wouldn’t hurt. After all, she had removed the implants, and the murders had only been occurring at night. While clinging tightly to the edge of her consciousness, Yuki lulled herself to sleep. Soon, evening came. (14/22) It was the dead of night. Maguma flew awake. (15/22) Maguma was inside a makeshift tent constructed out of bedsheets. Even a player like her, who was in a league of her own when it came to brawn, needed to adequately prepare to sleep outdoors. Although she had camouflaged her tent, it still stood out. Even though it was easy to spot, however, approaching it was a different story. Maguma had set up numerous vicious traps in the vicinity, paying no heed to the possibility of injuring a third party. On the off chance someone managed to break through, a tree vine tied to her wrist would inform her of the intruder. And moments ago, that “off chance” had just occurred. It took no more than a second for Maguma to spring fully awake. After exiting the tent, she instantly spotted the intruder standing several yards away from the entrance. They had bandages wrapped around their entire body like a mummy. Maguma immediately realized the bandages were pieces of cloth trimmed from Essay’s gown, as she had done the day before. Although it was nighttime, Maguma got a good view of the mummy’s figure thanks to the light in their left hand. The faint glow was emanating not from a tool like a flashlight or a lantern, but rather from an electronic gadget the size of a smartphone. Maguma had a good idea about what it did. The mummy inched closer and closer to the tent. “—I’ve already removed them,” Maguma said. “You don’t wanna waste that on me, do you?” The mummy did not reply. Deciding to show concrete proof of her claim, Maguma picked up the objects lying in her tent and tossed them onto the ground—while avoiding touching them with her bare hands, of course. They were twelve devices, each around the size of a pill. “My guess is you can only use that thingamajig once per day, right? And after running the current, you have to wait another twenty-four hours before activating it again. That’s why you had to go after one player at a time, instead of killing three at once.” As before, the mummy remained silent. Maguma continued, “That’s not the only function, is it? You found my hiding spot, so those things have gotta work as transmitters, right? But you didn’t know I had already dug them out, so that means they don’t measure heart rate or body temperature. Must’ve been quite the shock for you.” “How did you figure it out?” the mummy asked. The voice startled Maguma—because it belonged to someone she didn’t expect. “Huh… So it was you? Now it’s my turn to be surprised.” “How did you figure it out?” “‘How’ is something I should be asking you…,” Maguma muttered before going on to answer the mummy’s question. “Might not look it, but I take real good care of my body. So I’d realize immediately if something got put inside me. I thought these things could be important, so I left them in on the first day, but I tore ’em out at the start of the second. Sucks for you, huh? You should’ve gone after me first.” “Did you tell anyone?” “Why would I? Who do you think I am? At today’s morning meeting, it didn’t seem like anyone had caught on. Go take your pick of the others.” The mummy didn’t respond. The light of the electronic gadget flickered off, and they vanished into the darkness. After making sure the assailant was fully gone, Maguma returned to her tent. She rewound the tree vine around her wrist, adopted the same posture she had been in a few minutes before, and closed her eyes. So she was the culprit all along. That naturally implied a certain truth. Maguma had doubted whether modern science was capable of such a thing, but there was no denying it now. That was the kind of person the culprit was. Maguma snorted. “I’m no fan of the way she does things.” (16/22) Yuki made it to the morning of the fourth day. Once again, she had stayed up the entire night. Although the probability of the culprit targeting Yuki was low, as Yuki had extracted her implants, she had still remained awake. Part of the reason why was because she hadn’t been able to fall asleep, since she had taken a nap earlier in the day. For the second consecutive night, the killer had not shown up on her doorstep. As the sun appeared over the horizon, Yuki headed toward Koyomi’s cottage. This time, however, she wasn’t the first to arrive. “Yo.” It was Maguma. She was waiting by the door, like Yuki had done the previous day. “…Hello,” Yuki greeted. Maguma took a good look at Yuki, who had bandaged herself in the same places Maguma had. “Huh, so you figured it out?” “Not on my own, though…” Yuki glanced at Koyomi, who stood by the window. Since she had on a short coat, Yuki couldn’t tell at a glance if she had extracted the implants. Even if Koyomi was unaware of their existence, she would surely realize the truth after taking one look at Yuki’s and Maguma’s matching bodies. The three of them took their seats around the table. Soon, Airi and Mozuku also arrived. With the number of players in the room equal to the number of current survivors minus one, Maguma rose to her feet. “All right…” “Where are you going?”—asked not a soul. (17/22) Hizumi had been murdered. Her dismembered body was lying in her cottage. Although the scene should have been the ultimate shocking sight, since the girl’s body was no more or less mutilated than the previous two, it offered Yuki’s brain little stimulation. “That makes three,” Koyomi said. “Does that mean…the game is over? Nothing new is happening, though…,” Mozuku commented. “We may have to wait out the entire week, regardless of the culprit’s kill count,” Airi said calmly. “Or maybe the game isn’t over yet. The rules may call for four or more victims…” “If it’s over, the culprit shouldn’t have a problem coming out,” Maguma said. “Until that happens, we should keep our guards up.” “…………” Yuki contributed no words to the conversation. Hizumi had possessed a profoundly mysterious air about her. From the girl’s aura and the fact that the victims had been dismembered, Yuki had privately suspected that Hizumi was the second coming of Kyara, but the girl seemed to have met her end without a whimper. It appeared safe to assume her theory was no more than needless worry, as the bodies had only been mutilated to hide the existence of the implants. However, the unrest in Yuki’s chest refused to settle. Who was the real culprit? Why had the game not ended? Besides the implants, were there still more secrets to the game? (18/22) Once again, the players decided to hold their meeting at the crime scene. Since it was their second meeting of this kind, they efficiently cleared away Hizumi’s body and cleaned up the cottage before moving on to their accounts of the previous day. Koyomi and Mozuku had stayed in their respective cottages, while Maguma had spent the entire day in her forest hideout. Airi reported that after extracting the implants in her cottage, she’d returned to her base in the forest. Yuki also told the truth about her actions from the previous day. Neither she nor Airi kept the implants a secret. Since three of the five players had cloth wrapped around the exact same sections of their bodies, the truth would have gotten out one way or another. After completing their reports, Airi proposed searching everyone’s bodies for the implants, as a way to identify the culprit. The investigation confirmed both Koyomi and Mozuku had devices embedded in their bodies. The players who had already removed their implants—Yuki, Airi, and Maguma—temporarily returned to their respective bases and brought back the devices they had taken out. “…Where does that leave us?” Koyomi asked. “All of us survivors have or had devices in our bodies. Does that mean the culprit isn’t one of us?” “To be precise, Yuki, Maguma, and I—the three of us who already removed our implants—are not cleared of suspicion,” Airi said. “We could have retrieved Mitsuba’s or Hizumi’s devices, turned in one set here, and purposefully injured ourselves. Faking it isn’t impossible.” Although it certainly wasn’t inconceivable, any ruse would be immediately exposed after a check of the players’ wounds. If there had been implants in their bodies, their wounds would have cavities of the same shape. It would be implausible to fake that just by hurting oneself. “I guess the culprit wasn’t actually a player,” Yuki remarked. “That’s the only way to explain the disappearance of Essay’s body…” “…That raises a question, though: Where have they been hiding?” Koyomi asked. With several mysteries still left unsolved, the meeting drew to a close. The group disbanded. Maguma went off somewhere, leaving behind the usual suspects. “Koyomi,” Yuki called out, “if possible, I want to talk to you alone. Is that okay?” “…Alone?” Koyomi parroted back. Reservation showed on her face. That was only natural. Although three players had already been killed, there was no guarantee the game had reached its end. Being alone with another player was still something to be avoided. “…I don’t mind if we stay here,” Yuki said as a compromise. “There’s something you want to talk about between the two of us?” “Yes. It’s about my mentor.” Hakushi—a player who had lost her life in Candle Woods. “Koyomi, you were acquainted with my mentor, right? And you heard about me from her…” “Ah, yes. I’m quite familiar with the two of you.” “…What did she say about me?” Yuki asked, feeling conscious of Airi’s and Mozuku’s gazes. It was something Yuki had always been curious about. Since the topic had nothing to do with the game, she had avoided bringing it up, but now that things had settled down somewhat, she figured it would be okay to ask. “Hakushi said a lot, you know. Let’s see, if I were to boil it down to a few sentences…” Koyomi took a few seconds to search for the right words. “She said you were a foolish protégé,” she said. “A lazy sloth. The ultimate simpleton. The kind of athlete born with natural talent who would vanish immediately after making a big play. That’s generally how she viewed you.” “…I see.” Yuki felt somewhat disappointed. On second thought, those comments made sense. While the Yuki of today was a different story, the player she had been at the time of Candle Woods definitely fit those phrases. Koyomi snickered. “Were you itching to know?” “Well, I guess…” “Essay asked me the same thing after we met. Seems like you’re on the same wavelength.” A giant question mark appeared in Yuki’s mind. “Essay? Why?” she asked. “Why, you ask? Weren’t you fellow pupils?” “What does that mean?” “Oh? Did you not know?” Koyomi sounded surprised. “You had the same mentor. Essay also learned under Hakushi as a protégé.” “…For real?” The shock caused Yuki to slip into casual language. “Yep. First time hearing about it?” “Yeah.” Yuki nodded. “I had no idea. I didn’t even know my mentor had other protégés…” “Of course you wouldn’t be the only one. We’re talking about a ninety-five-game veteran. Of course she would have multiple protégés.” That made sense. Hakushi had never told her about having other protégés, nor had Yuki ever imagined the possibility. Koyomi continued, “Well, she didn’t actually take on that many protégés… The most she had at a time was five, maybe? Who knows how many of them are still alive…” “…I don’t know what to say,” Yuki said. “It’s ironic one of them ended up dying in the same way as her mentor… And it had to be that gruesome manner of death, of all the ways.” This time, a question mark lit up above Koyomi’s head. “What are you talking about?” “Huh? I mean, Essay was killed and torn apart, right? My mentor died in the same way, so I was just thinking that both of them met the same fate…” “……?” Koyomi appeared more and more bewildered. “Hakushi’s dead? Since when?” “Huh?” “She’s still alive. We went out for drinks just last week.” (19/22) Yuki couldn’t process what she had just heard. “…Huh?” “We chatted for an hour or two at our favorite stomping ground. We even talked about you and Essay. She brought up how you were making a name for yourself after clearing thirty games.” “No, but… What?” Yuki clutched her head. She looked back up at Koyomi a few seconds later. “Um, just to confirm, we’re both talking about Hakushi, right?” “Yep. Her player name is Hakushi. I think her real surname is Shiratsugawa.” “And she’s…alive?” “Isn’t that what I’ve been saying? Do you want to go see her after the game? If you tell me your contact information, I can set up a meeting.” “No, but… Her body was mutilated, wasn’t it? By a psychopath named Kyara. In the same way as Essay’s and Mitsuba’s were… Even her liver was sticking out of her body. How can she even process alcohol?” “…Really? She told me she retired after Candle Woods, but I wasn’t aware she had taken that kind of damage to her body.” Koyomi’s expression grew more profound. “Wait, hang on… Then that means…” Yuki probably had the same look on her face. In her mind, she pieced together the facts that had come to light, one by one. Her mentor’s survival, despite her body having been mangled almost beyond recognition. A fellow protégé, killed in exactly the same manner. The inexplicable state of the game, in which there seemed to be no plausible culprit. Yuki’s and Koyomi’s voices overlapped. “It can’t be—” (20/22) Beneath a cliff, a player covered in bandages sat up. (21/22) The cliff, which had been formed by waves crashing against the land, was located along the perimeter of the island. At the bottom was a space barely wide enough for a single person to lie down. As the surface consisted entirely of rock, the location offered no comfort for sleep, and it was extremely dangerous to descend to reach that point. No ordinary player would consider using this spot as a base. For an unordinary player, however, it was the perfect place to set up camp. A player covered in bandages sat up. She picked up the machete and electronic gadget next to her. The organizers had given her both items four days ago to grant her an advantage in the game. The player’s face was reflected in the black screen of the device. Although her face was also wrapped in bandages, the wind had undone some of them while she was sleeping, exposing the top of her head… …and her bluish cotton-candy-like hair. Out of the eight players, only one on the island had that kind of hair. It was Hakushi’s protégé, a seasoned veteran playing in her fiftieth game—Essay. She was the one and only culprit. (22/22)