Justice
"We are surrounded."
"What are we going to do?"
I looked at the only door on my right in which there is no one.
"Let’s get out from that door."
"We don’t nominate?"
The clone of Mr. Nabeshima next to me spoke to me.
"Those three are too dangerous. Even if you could kill any one of those three people we nominated, the three of us alone are no match for their clones."
"Clones don't know who is Suguru Anzai, right?"
Tsutomu asked the clone of Shōta running alongside him.
"Yes. I’m sorry."
"Senpai, we should aim for Hiroto here."
Hiroyuki suggested me.
"We don't have time to hesitate to kill anymore. They are going to do everything they can to get us too."
"But this time, the clones won't move unless we humans order them."
"Such logic no longer work."
I was still feel hesitated. I should have made up my mind when Shōta was killed, but killing two more people right after that completely broke my resolve.
"What are you chatting? Here we go!"
I stared at Ryūichi face as he came running toward us at full speed from far away.
His face was full of lust and obsession, with discolored black blood. And his eyes, for some reason, sparkled even more than usual.
"Damn, I made up my mind. I will nominate the one most likely to be Suguru Anzai! But for now, let’s retreat."
I thought hard as I ran.
There are a total of twelve people alive now. Me, Hiroyuki, Tsutomu, and Mr. Nabeshima. And Kazuhiro, Risa, Hiroto, Kurumi, Ichirō, Ryūichi, Hiroshi, and Mikado. The objective of this game should be to eliminate one of the teams. So let's assume that there is no Suguru Anzai on our team, which has a low probability of survival. In other words, the mastermind is among the eight members of the opposing team. So far, we know that Anzai is connected to this school, well-versed in IT technology and maybe even psychology, and perhaps either someone who holds a grudge against this school or someone who could benefit from its destruction.
When you say you hate school, it might be about being bullied, or not being recognized for your efforts at all, or domestic violence, or no, no, wait a minute. This is the guy who does this kind of experimentations, maybe he just started it just for fun."
"Senpai, where should we escape?"
Tsutomu took the lead in guiding me and Hiroyuki.
"Let's get as far away from here as possible and shake off those three."
We left the gymnasium and ran across the schoolyard.
"In terms of bullying and domestic violence, the most suspicious person is Hiroto Momii. That boy looked weak as a kitten and tended to suffer from social withdrawal. And he is smart and has a skill of hacking a computer. On the other hand, should we exclude those three who often bully others?
I turned around and saw three people chasing after us, laughing.
And Kurumi shouldn't be the culprit either. Given how desperate she seemed, she must have had a fulfilling life with her boyfriend. How about Ichirō?
"Hey, Tsutomu and Hiroyuki. What kind of boy is Ichirō?"
"What? Umm…he has a strong sense of justice, and very athletic."
"I guess he is a hero to everyone. But Ichirō also has a flaw. He's incredibly stupid. So nobody wants to admire him."
He is like Shōta or Keisuke. If that's the case, then it's not Ichirō either. The killer is well prepared and very smart. But maybe, despite his best efforts, people don't rely on him, and that made him…
In terms of smartness, Risa and Kazuhiro fit. But those guys would never be stupid enough to start something like this. They were good at both academics and sports, had lots of friends, and people admired them. But they were both rather calm when the experimentation started, and they made it through the experimentations so far with no difficulty.
Damn, I'm so skeptical that everyone looks suspicious. I had to name the culprit at any cost and save everyone else!
"Senpai, somebody came from the front."
Soon, I came back to reality and looked around carefully. I found that we were already near the back entrance of the school.
"It is Ichirō, Kurumi and Risa!"
"Leave them to us."
Mr. Nabeshima, Tsutomu and my clone came to the front.
"Don’t kill them."
I gave an order to the clones.
"Yes."
"Senpai, who are we nominate?"
Tsutomu asked me while the clones are buying some time for us to escape.
It was clear to anyone watching that there was no time to lose.
"Yes, I'm thinking right now that the culprit is either Hiroto Momii, Risa Ōta, or Kazuhiro Noda.
I said it out loud.
