Kazuo Kiriyama stepped down onto the ground. He held the tin-box-like machine gun in his right hand as if nothing had happened.
Hey—
Shinji felt like he should burst out laughing. For all he knew his blood-soaked lips might have even formed a smile.
You gotta be kidding.
By then Kazuo fired. Shinji this time met a full frontal parabolic shower of 9mm bullets and staggered back into the ground covered with debris. Something was pressing into his back. As of now there really was no need to check it, but he thought it was the front of the parked station wagon. The station wagon had also been blown up by the blast, its back stuck into a wooden telephone pole now lopsided from the impact. Another object seemed to have smashed into its windshield, which resembled a spider’s web.
Surrounded by the bright flames burning in the building, Kazuo calmly stood still. Then beyond him Shinji saw Yutaka lying on his face, half buried in the debris. Right near him was Keita Iijima lying on his back, his face staring at Shinji.
He thought, Kazuo, damn, so I ended up losing to you.
He thought, I’m sorry Yutaka, I let my guard down for a moment.
He thought, Uncle, how lame, huh?
He thought, Ikumi, fall in love and be happy. Looks like I won’t be able to… looks like…
Kazuo Kiriyama’s Ingram burst out once again and Shinji’s thoughts came to an end. The bullets had torn apart his cerebral cortex. Near his head, the cracked front windshield was now shattered, most of its fragments sliding into the car, but some of the finer mistlike particles fell on Shinji’s body already covered with dust and debris.
Shinji slowly fell forward on his face. Debris bounced up on impact. It took less than thirty seconds for the rest of his body besides his brain to die. The memento of his beloved uncle—the earring worn by the woman he loved—was now stained in blood running down Shinji’s left ear, reflecting the glow from the building now consumed in red flames.
And so the boy known as The Third Man, Shinji Mimura, was now dead.
PART 3:FINAL STAGE
52
In the bushes with her blanket over her shoulders, Noriko hugged her knees and stared at the ground. It was still very dark and insects were humming the way a fluorescent light sputters out before it dies.
Sakamochi’s midnight announcement came on right after they reached this area. He announced the death of Hirono Shimizu (Female Student No. 10), who had—although Noriko herself didn’t see it—killed Kaori Minami and fled from Shuya, followed by the addition of three forbidden zones. At 1 a.m. F-7, at 3 a.m. G-3, and at 5 a.m. E-4. Noriko and Shogo’s sector, C-3, was still safe. Shuya’s name wasn’t mentioned, but…
Ten to twenty minutes later, there was distant gunfire again and then the sound of that machine gun. Noriko’s heart froze. The sound continued.
She couldn’t forget it. It was unmistakable—the sound of Kazuo Kiriyama’s machine gun. Unless someone else had the same gun. Regardless, the sound was enough to make her wonder whether Kazuo had finally caught up to Shuya.
Before Noriko could mention this to Shogo though, there was an incredible explosion. The hand grenade they encountered when they were fighting Kiriyama was nothing compared to this. And then there was the faint sound of the machine gun, once or twice. After that the island returned to silence.
Even Shogo seemed surprised by the sound. He was carving an arrow-like object with his knife when he suddenly stopped and said, “I’m going to go have a look. Don’t move,” and walked out of the bushes. He came back immediately and told her, “A building’s on fire on the east side.”
Noriko started to ask, “Could it be—” but Shogo shook his head and said, “It’s quite a ways south from where Kiriyama was. Shuya escaped into the mountainside, so it can’t be him. Let’s wait for him here.”
Noriko felt relieved for the time being. But nearly an entire hour had passed since then. Shuya still hadn’t returned.
Noriko held her wrist under the coin-sized moonlight coming through the branches and checked her watch. It was 1:12 a.m. She’d been repeating this gesture as if it were a magical ritual.
Then she buried her head between her knees.
A horrible image flashed by in her thoughts. Shuya’s face. His mouth half-open and eyes looking off into the distance, the way he looked singing a song called “Imagine” (Shuya said it was a rock standard) during one of their breaks in the music room, out of the teacher’s sight. But this face had a large, black dot similar to one worn by a Hindu worshipper. Without warning, red liquid came oozing out of the dot. The large dot was in fact a very dark and deep hole. The blood poured out from his brain, covering his face… like cracks running through a piece of glass.
Noriko shivered and shook her head, dismissing the thought. She looked up at Shogo, who was leaning against a tree trunk, smoking a cigarette. There was a handmade bow next to him and several arrows stuck in the ground.
“Shogo.”
He looked like a silhouette in the dark. He removed the cigarette from his mouth and rested his right wrist on his upright knee.
“What is it?”
“Shuya should be here by now.”
He put his cigarette in his mouth again. Its tip reddened, faintly lighting up his calm face. Noriko felt impatient. His face darkened again and smoke drifted out of his mouth.
“Yeah.”
His calm tone also irritated her. But then she reminded herself how he’d saved her and Shuya several times over, so she restrained herself.
“Something must have happened.”
“Probably.”
“What do you mean, ‘probably’?”
His silhouette raised its arms. The lit cigarette moved. “Calm down. That was definitely Kazuo’s machine gun. Unless they supplied an identical machine gun to someone else. And given how the explosion occurred over there, it means that Kazuo was fighting someone besides Shuya. Shuya escaped from Kazuo. I know that much.”
“But then why isn’t he—”
He interrupted, “He’s probably hiding somewhere. Or he might have gotten lost.”
She shook her head. “He might be hurt. Or even worse…”
She felt a chill run down her spine. She couldn’t continue. The image of Shuya with the red spider-web face and half-open mouth flashed by again. Shuya might have escaped from Kazuo, but he might have been severely wounded, he might be dying right now. Even if that wasn’t the case, what if he was attacked by someone while he was running through the mountains… or what if he fell unconscious somewhere, and what if that was in a forbidden zone, then Shuya would end up dead. Shuya might have run into the base of the northern mountain which was in sector F-7, directly north of the school, sector F-7 which was a forbidden zone as of 1 a.m. And now it was past 1 a.m., which meant…
She shook her head again. That couldn’t be. Shuya couldn’t die. Because… Shuya was like a holy man with a guitar. He was always kind to everyone, he was always so sympathetic to the sorrows of others, but he would never lose that powerful smile, he was so upright and transparent and innocent but also tough. He’s like my guardian angel. How could someone like that die? There’s no way he could… but still…