An Amulet
"Your plan seems well-prepared, but it was all just a matter of being prepared a little ahead of others. The tape of the end of the third experiment was set when you went to search the third floor."
"…"
"The tape recording of this morning's experiment must have been set after everyone had gone to sleep yesterday. I guess the groupings didn't matter. If you are on the team with me, your alibi is guaranteed. You were going to kill everybody else anyway."
"Oh, so you're saying I killed all the people who died today?"
"No, not all of them."
"Okay."
Minami paused for a moment before continuing.
"So you're saying I silently prayed for everyone else to kill each other? Weren’t you and Kazuhiro both trying to avoid fighting the opposing team back then?"
"That’s right. If that experiment of killing each other had taken place early yesterday instead of today, no one would have done anything that stupid. But in yesterday's experiments, you made it clear that you were seriously trying to kill us.
What was just a game showdown at first escalated into a killing match at some point. Humans must have fallen into a situation where they can no longer make a choice. In fact, more than half of the population were killed as of yesterday. They would have less hesitation of participation if they had to fight each other in a situation where they might die, and if the other party had been a machine instead of a living creature. That was the trigger that made everyone believe that orders had to be obeyed. You also used ruthless methods to drive us to the absolute limit of our mental endurance, as forcing us to kill our own parents with our own hands.
As of yesterday, we had our spirits torn to pieces that much. No one would have been able to keep a normal mind and make smart decisions anymore. And the thought that if we didn't do it ourselves, the opponent might just kill us led to the outcome of the series of experiments. At first, it was just a game and hoped no one would die, or that we would not be defeated by a mere machine, but eventually we came to think that as long as I survived, everything was all right. You, who have been taking advantage of human mental weakness and aiming to make us kill each other, could have foreseen this turn of events."
"Hmm…"
"Maybe you had prepared one or two more experiments to make the humans kill each other, just in case. But I alone survived, as you planned, so you asked me to get to the bottom of this game. I don't know what you wanted from me, but I have identified you as the culprit."
"And then you lured me out. You are a very naughty man, despite your appearance. I thought you were dead for sure."
"That was the same trick you used. Yes, the two experiments happened today, those are what stuck in my head."
"You told that the last experiment build on the results of the experiment before that, to hide your death, right? Your goal is to keep only me alive, everyone else must die. That includes yourself. You figured out a way to drop out from the game without anyone getting suspicious."
"…"
"The final experiment, the conditions for winning can be briefly summarized as nominating someone from the opposing team, having one of the clones on your side kill him or her, and having a human kill the clone of the guy you nominated. There are three acts that constitute violations: changing the nomination, killing someone other than the nominated person, and nominating a person when either the person or his or her clone is already dead. There were a total of five people who were dead on our team when the final experiment began: Ms. Shinjō, Mr. Nabeshima, Shōta, Okisada, and you. And the clones who were supposedly dead at that time were Minami, Ms. Shinjō and Hiroyuki. Then, when me, Tsutomu, and Hiroyuki were cornered, suddenly Ryūichi's head exploded. At this time I thought the opponent team was in violation because they had killed a clone of Mr. Nabeshima who was already dead, but in fact it was wrong. Mr. Nabeshima's clone was still alive at the time. I just checked that. Then what was the violation?"
"Tell me, what was it?"
With the acting skills of a ham actor, Minami pretended not to understand.
"You don’t have to pretend. I already solved that too. Because you killed a clone of our team."
"Oh, so that means I violated an order and our team would have died. Isn’t it?"
"I will explain step by step. First, the reason why you are alive."
"Yeah, you killed me and Ms. Shinjō at that time, didn't you?"
"True. It is true that I may have indirectly killed you, but it was the Mikado Konoe’s clone that I had pushed, killed you. Wasn't that clone originally designed to automatically fall off if you fell off without me having to drop it? And you survived, and Ms. Shinjō and Konoe's clone died."
"Hey, you saw it too. There were two human corpses there. And the report said that our team had four human deaths. Shōta, Okisada, Ms. Shinjō and me."
"No, the other one is not you. That report only said there were four of them, but it didn't tell us who died."
"Then who the hell was the fourth person?"
Minami wouldn't give up.
"Suguru Anzai."
"…!"
"That report was an answer derived from an AI simulation and should be accurate. Since you decided to start a game like this, you couldn’t have tampered with the AI’s answers. There had to be four people dead at that point, but since you're alive, there are actually three. Suguru Anzai was used to fill the fourth position. Well, I guess it's an alias."
This was probably the strongest defense Minami had prepared. Minami showed the most astonished face ever.
"In other words, you had someone who named Suguru Anzai participate in a series of experiments in advance. With your help, he could have survived until this morning.
When today’s experiment began and you separated from us, you took Anzai, whom you had put to sleep, and went to the rooftop and pushed him off the roof. Then you called Ms. Shinjō and the three clones of the enemy team. You put Ms. Shinjō to sleep, and when the clones gathered, you screamed. I guess it didn't have to be me. If only there was someone to witness your death anyway. As soon as the witness arrived, you and Ms. Shinjō jumped off, followed by the Konoe's clone. Only you get to be stopped in mid-air by a lifeline attached to something that you must have wrapped around your stomach. Immediately, you swung your body from side to side, used centrifugal force, and dove into a nearby window. That makes two dead people and one clone at that point."
"Wait a minute. You may have accidentally fallen at that time and I may have had time to jump to the window, but if a witness looked down right after we jumped, they would have seen me hanging in mid-air."
"No, even if I hadn't fallen, you would have had a few seconds to spare. After all, clones of the enemy team was standing in front of that witness."
"But that would be if the witness was from our team. When one of Kazuhiro’s team comes, those clones are…"
"No, you knew that. Someone on my team would get there first."
"How?"
"Wiretaps. You knew the number of dead in every experiments from the AI simulation, so you only used the surveillance cameras that were pre-installed in the school. But there was a danger that you might get yourself killed in today's experiments. Therefore, you had to know where we were for that. That's why you planted the tracking device and the wiretap."
"So you're saying that I bugged all over the school to find out who was where? There's no way I can do that."
"It is true that these were planted. But I never said anything about planting tracking devices on campus—I was just talking about the listening devices."
"Then where the hell did I plant them?"
"To ourselves."
"Hahaha! Are you kidding me? I didn't contact everyone who survived today and could have been noticed, right?"
"No, to our clones."
"…!"
Minami looked as if she had been through hell.
"Today's experiments were group competitions, we were all working with clones of the same team. If the clone had a transmitter attached to it, each registered to your phone in the clone's name, the clones would be the originals' name tags."
"But it was Okisada who said let's work with our own clones."
"If he didn't propose, you were going to tell us."
"…"
"Yes, in other words, today’s two experiments were nothing more than a stage you set up to fake your own death. That's why you divided us into two, enlisted Suguru Anzai and killed, and gave us order to kill specific human and his or her clone in the final experiment. All in order to pinpoint survivors' locations and ensure that someone in our team is there to witness your death. It’s quite an elaborate setup, even though it’s just to fake your own death."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Minami clapped her hands quietly.
"I see. That's a great deduction. So, if my death was faked, who did I kill in the last experiment, that led to the opponent team’s violation?"
"When it began, you killed the Suguru Anzai’s clone that you had hidden somewhere. That's it."
"Oh, then wouldn't that be a violation to us? I killed a clone of one of our allies."
"No, you're not on our team to begin with. You were in today's group competitions as a third party, belonging to neither side."
"Wai…"
Minami was about to argue with me, but I stopped her.
"Are you trying to tell me that you showed me in your e-mail that you are on the Reaper Team? You, as the culprit, can disguise that as much as you want."
"No, that's not it. It said on the air at the time. The people who were alive by then got split into eight to eight."
"So what? Instead of you not joining, our team had Anzai Suguru, that's all."
"…"
Minami made a bitter face once again.
"It is against orders to kill a clone of Suguru Anzai who was already dead in the previous experiment. That's how Kazuhiro and his team got wiped out. What do you think, any objections?"
"Huh. But you don't have any solid evidence that I killed them in the deduction you've been talking about at such length, do you?"
Minami smiled wanly.
"Certainly, there is no proof that you did all of these things, but the fact that you are alive at this point in time when I am the only one who should be alive is proof enough. Well, if you want proof that you've killed a few people, I've got it. In your pocket."
Minami tilted her head and stuck her hands in both pockets of her own skirt. She noticed something in it and pulled her own hand out of her right pocket.
"This is…"
She was astonished at what she had in her hand.
In her right hand she held a red-colored bag. In the center of it, written in yellow letters, was the inscription, "substitute protection".
"It’s Keisuke’s amulet. I found his body earlier and when I had a chance to search around a bit, it wasn't there. He carried that amulet with him at all times. Why would you have something like that?"
"This…"
"You're the one who killed Keisuke. He had cuts all over his body."
"Um…"
"Still trying to talk your way out of it? Then, if I go to your real hidden room, wouldn't I at least find your fingerprints? It's the wall on the right as you enter the broadcast room, right?"
"Why you know that?"
"Remember the first time we walked into the broadcast room after the first experiment? At that time, Shōta flew the trash can that was near the fake hidden room to the wall by the entrance. But when I went into the broadcast room this morning to gather the team in the cafeteria, the trash cans were a bit, well, off the wall. And just a few minutes ago, I went to the broadcast room and the trash can was opposite the wall, directly under the table where the microphone was placed. At first I thought maybe someone who came in after us shifted it, but if it's changed twice, that's weird."
"Isn’t that just someone came to the broadcast and moved the can twice?"
"No, I don't think so. Both of today's experiments were killing games. It is better to run away than to hide from the enemy team. Above all, the broadcast room was thought to be the hideout of the Suguru Anzai, so no one would have gone near it. In other words, only Suguru Anzai frequented the place."
"Damn…"
Minami's expression was falling apart more and more. I had a gut feeling that I just needed one more push.
"That wall is the type of door that pulls inward, right? It didn't even budged an inch when Keisuke leaned against the wall before. Then it's impossible for you to attach the trash can to the wall after you enter that hidden room. Still, you should have made sure you knew where the trash can was when you left that room."
Minami turned her face downwards as if she had run out of steam.
"Your fingerprints will be found in that room, as well as the plans for this series of experimentations, and other evidence related to the games. You can't get away with it now, can you? Minami Okazaki!"
After a moment, Minami looked up and smiled wryly.
"Alright…"
Sorry for a very long chapter this week. The original Japanese version is already published, so I could not add another chapter only in the English version. Next week will be the last chapter for this story. I greatly appreciate those who have read until here.
