Obsessed By Death
"Hey, which group are you in?"
"What do you mean by group?"
Minami looked at Kazuhiro with a shiver.
"It is written at the bottom of the email."
Kazuhiro turned the cell phone screen he was holding toward us with his sweaty hand.
There, painted in a circle like a magic circle, the head of a creepy goat is inlaid like a trophy that would have adorned the walls of a hunter's wood house.
The goat's eyes are like those of a dead man which have no shine with the hopeful glow, and a star, perhaps symbolizing the Star of David, was painfully etched on its forehead. This gave us ominous implications.
"What is this creepy looking sheep?"
"It is not a sheep, it is a Satan."
"A santa? So everyone in your group gets some kind of present?"
Kazuhiro let out a sluggish breath at Shōta's comment.
"It is a Satan, it is a devil."
I scrolled down to the bottom of my phone screen. There was a skull in jet-black armor riding a silvery-white horse. In his right hand he carried the reins of the horse, and in his left a sickle with a long handle. At first glance, he appeared to be a fallen warrior who had been defeated in battle, but his sunken eyes, prominent forehead, chapped cheeks and chin, and teeth that were chipped in places gave no indication of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness.
"The Death."
"Then, you and me are enemies."
Kazuhiro looked at my cell phone screen as he said.
"Is it a reference to tarot or something?"
While Minami stared at her cell phone screen, her voice was trembling.
"Do you mean either die or get unfortunate?"
Kazuhiro's mouth was smiling, but his pupils were wider than usual.
"I’m skeleton."
"I’m Satan."
"I’m in the Death."
"Seems like we split apart."
I, Minami and Shōta are in the Death. Kazuhiro, Risa are in the Satan. Finally, Hiroto rushed to Risa's side.
"Anyway, we'll work together in our group. There must be other members of the Death out somewhere."
"No, I don’t want! I don’t want to kill Risa and others!"
Minami tugs at the hem of my uniform.
"Don’t worry, we won’t kill them."
I told her confidently, but had not yet decided what to do in reality.
"Hey, Shūhei."
Kazuhiro stopped me from walking away.
"You know it, don’t you?"
Kazuhiro looked at me meaningfully.
"Yes."
"I’ll take care of mine."
"Right. I don’t want to see somebody dead anymore."
"To do that…"
Kazuhiro shifted his gaze from me to Minami and Shōta, who were beside me, and now turned around and exchanged glances with Risa and Hiroto.
"Become a demon, Shūhei. Left behind the half-hearted justice."
"I’m believing everyone."
"…you are going to regret it."
"You too..."
I felt I got to the core of Kazuhiro.
"Huh, anyway good luck. We are now enemies. No hard feelings in death."
"Yes."
Kazuhiro's rear view as he was leaving looked smaller and weaker than usual.
"Kazuhiro... Risa..."
"Come on, don’t cry anymore. Don’t worry. If you are with me you are safer than anybody else. So in return, I would like to…"
"Stop around there Shōta. she’ll cry this time from fear of being stalked by a pervert."
"Oh, my God, what are you talking about? I am not a pervert! I'm the kind of guy that if I help somebody, I want something in return."
"You are nastier than I expected."
"Anyway, where are we going? Here is the third floor."
Minami unusually stopped our squabbling.
"The broadcast room. We need to find our group members."
"Oh, I see."
The broadcast room. Here we go again. Why would the killer go to the trouble of playing the audio on a cassette tape with a microphone? Why doesn't he just go ahead and speak for himself?
Because others would find him? But then he can just email us everything. Why bother with a labor-intensive process? What's the point of still striking to that?
Because some people might not see it on a cell phone? No, people should be extra concerned about their cell phones because he used email in the first experiment. Then again, it's to prove an alibi. That means the culprit is staying in a group just like us.
What's more mysterious is why does the culprit occasionally report via email? Because he had no time to sneak out? Or was there specific meaning to be an email? Besides, if the culprit is participating in the experiment with us, there is a probability that he will die too. All previous experiments have been equal to humans. Perhaps the culprit is taking some kind of death-proof measure just for himself? If that's the case, I wonder if I can find it if I watch my group closely in this experiment. If it were Kazuhiro...
"Hey, Shūhei. Where should we gather at?"
Without realizing, we were inside the broadcast room.
"Umm…gather them in the cafeteria for now…huh?"
"What’s up?"
Minami noticed the change in my expression.
"No, nothing."
"But if the opponent group finds out that our team is all in the cafeteria, won't they come after us?"
"Oh, no need to worry about that."
At that time, I felt a sense of incongruity in this room.
