Editing A Simple Survey:Volume2 Reaper04 (section)

===Part 3===

A few seconds passed.

Silence filled the area.

Higashikawa’s erratic breathing and pounding heart sounded unusually loud to him. He had chosen his own death. Instead of avoiding it, he had chosen it himself. His mind was horribly clear. All worldly thoughts had disappeared from it and no hint of human feelings remained.

This may have been the mental state of someone who jumped from a tall building or subway platform.

(It’s over.)

He muttered those words in his heart as well as under his breath.

It was over.

When would his fear return? As Higashikawa wondered that, he realized the fear did not seem to be returning at all. He only felt an odd heat swirling in his head. Some important part of the nerves in his brain may have already been fried and he would never regain the ability to think normally.

When the actual task of killing him began and he felt unimaginable pain, the fear might return.

Or he may have been broken beyond the point of feeling pain.

“…”

His breaths were sometimes shallow and sometimes deep.

Finally, the other bags hanging down entered into Higashikawa’s vision.

They looked just like the bags used to hold goldfish.

The thick, transparent plastic and the thick wire made for an extremely unreliable gondola.

Higashikawa looked over to view the result…and then he froze.

Hiyama was contained in the neighboring bag.

He had seen the color of her card.

It was black.

For an instant…

For just an instant…

The unpleasant heat in Higashikawa’s head disappeared. He could not process what he was seeing.

And after a few seconds, it finally hit him.

He realized what it meant.

“You-…!!”

His strategy had failed. Not all of the other nine had chosen red. This was a pointless death. He had no idea why she had done it, but Hiyama would simply be killed along with him.

But…

His expectations were overturned even further.

When he looked again, Hiyama was not the only one to choose black. Anzai, Matsumi, and Rachel had too.

More needless deaths.

Once half of them died, the survivors would be suspicious of each other. This would kill all of them, just more slowly.

But he was wrong again.

''There were even more.

“Eh…?”

He looked around.

He looked around again.

He finally realized that every single card was the same color. It was not just that a few had chosen black. All 10 participants had chosen black. Every card was black as if it had been arranged ahead of time.

(Why?)

That simple question filled Higashikawa’s mind.

This was the best result, but he had seen no way for it to happen.

“We had no choice,” spat out Kazakami. “You were going on about choosing black on your own, so there was no other way to save ‘us’.”

“You could say we woke up,” continued Hotaru. “That bunny girl set up all sorts of rules, but there was never more than one option.”

“Your conviction to choose black no matter what gave us the push we needed,” said Harumi.

Matsumi then said, “To be honest, I was hesitant to not choose red. But then I wondered what I would do in the future attractions if I survived alone. I need to use anyone that might be useful.”

“From our position running the attractions, we saw you working together to complete them,” added Aisu.

Kozue said, “If you had not stepped in when the Player 1 and Player 2 structure collapsed, I would have died. It felt wrong to not repay that debt.”

“We may have argued about a lot in the attraction.” Anzai let out a slow sigh after he was sure everyone had chosen black. “But those conflicts were necessary for us to all survive. Once someone decided to choose black, it was obvious what we had to do.”

“…”

It was simple.

It was a simple truth.

Higashikawa Mamoru had put together his strategy on the assumption that he would not survive. With that assumption, the high score was the survival of the other nine and the elimination of any source of conflict.

But…

They had thought about it differently.

It had not been about whether they would survive themselves.

It was about whether everyone would survive or not.

While Higashikawa had quickly given up, the others had continued to struggle for total survival.

That was why they had come to an impasse and why they had argued.

Seeing the all black result finally woke Higashikawa up. The self-sacrificial thought processes he had built up to escape the fear of death came crumbling down.

He was not strong or clever.

He had simply looked away.

The ones who deserved that award were the other nine who had continued arguing while never giving up on their ultimate objective.

“You may have been imagining this as 9 against 1 or 5 against 4 against 1,” said Hiyama as she held her injury. “But we are simply 10. And it is all thanks to you betraying us all to protect us all.”

Higashikawa could find no words to speak.

As he sat there in a daze, he heard the bunny girl’s voice.

“Ooookay… Kind of unexpected, but I’ll announce the attraction’s result anyway.”

She was disappointed.

Dejection filled her voice.

And then the true cruelty of the attraction showed itself.

“Hiyama Tomoko-san, Kazakami Shinzou-san, Matsumi Shirauo-san, Rachel Skydance-san, Anzai Kyousuke-san, Harumi Quartervalley-san, Hasegawa Hotaru-san, Kusaka Kozue-san, and Yakushiji Aisu-san. ''According to the rules of the attraction, the above nine people will be killed.''”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Ah?”

This was more than a splash of cold water to the face.

Every thought in his mind was cut off.

A noise escaped his mouth, but it held no meaning.

This truly unreasonable and unexpected turn of events sealed off even a shout.

“Why?” muttered Higashikawa finally.

He could feel his entire body trembling. The unpleasant heat swirling in his head before was completely gone. Now he felt like the core of his body was filled with icy water.

“Like hell that’s the result!! We all chose black!! Every single one of us!! Why does that mean the other nine have to be killed!?”

“Oh?” said the bunny girl in obvious mockery. Hers was the voice of someone who had not been damaged in the slightest. “The rules said the following: If you do not all choose the same color, only those who chose black will be killed.”

“And!?”

“And,” repeated the bunny girl. “Higashikawa-san, your card is a very dark brown.”

He felt like his entire personality had been wiped clean.

The ridiculous situation caused his tear glands to writhe oddly. His expression crumbled under an odd torrent that could not be classified under any of the standard emotions.

The card.

The card itself had been sabotaged.

He forced his trembling body to move and looked down. He looked at his own card. He observed it in the dimness.

It looked black.

It could be nothing other than black.

But…

Even so…

“Well, I don’t blame you for not noticing with normal eyesight. Under the CMYK values, the magenta has been increased two or threefold. But that is still technically classified as a very dark brown. It isn’t black. When the brown pigment melanin is concentrated enough, we call it black hair, but technically…technically, it is still classified as brown!!”

“D-don-…Don’t mock us!!!!”

“And so you unfortunately failed to all choose black! You failed!!”

He should have thought of the possibility.

He should have been on the lookout for a trap when those cruel organizers prepared an option that would allow them all to survive.

But even if he had…

Even if he had…

“You were trying to corner me, right!? You knew I would be isolated sooner or later, so you lost interest in watching me! If you kill them, you won’t be able to continue these attractions that toy with our group psychology!! Are you really fine with that!?”

“Oh, come on.”

The bunny girl seemed to be enjoying herself.

She sounded like someone who had stuck an insect in a maze and was watching it as it struggled to find its way.

“You think this attraction was just for you? Just to eliminate you? ''Why would we go to all this trouble just for you?'' Aren’t you thinking a little too highly of yourself?”

“…!!”

“Also, our objective is not to continue these attractions forever. In fact, this sudden end, this unexpected conclusion, and this unreasonable turnaround is much more important.”

“What…are you saying…?’

“After all, that’s the nature of the absurd.”

She truly, truly seemed to be enjoying herself.

The bunny girl’s voice sounded enchanted.

This was different from the mocking voice from before.

“Seeing an obvious story structure would hardly be absurd, now would it? When the cute heroine does not die and is always assumed safe, that is not absurd. If the protagonist of a two hour drama survives the entire two hours, that is not absurd. …We seek the absurd. And that is why we must destroy all of those standard assumptions.”

“The absurd…?” muttered Anzai in shock. “Did you just say the absurd!?”

“Ha hah ha! It is sometimes referred to by the name Objective Alice. Securing that White Girl who is associated with the Banshee and Prometheus is no easy task. After all, this is a difficult existence to deal with. Her only rule is that no rules can govern her. Even after running an emulation experiment, our odds of success are completely unknown. But not being able to read anything about the situation may be proof that we are approaching Alice who stands in the center of the absurd.”

But Higashikawa could not guess the true meaning of those words. He did not have the mental leeway left.

He had misread the enemy’s objective.

The bunny girl had not set up the attraction using red and black cards in order to eliminate Higashikawa.

That was why he had failed.

That was why he had failed…or was it?

“Now then, now then! I am sure you have all vaguely realized it by now, but you are going to die!! This is quite an absurd turn of events, don’t you think!?”

Higashikawa’s footing shook.

After that vibration of another arm latching on, the wire began to be reeled in.

He was being taken up.

He alone was being taken away from death. He alone was being lifted up to safety.

“Wait…”

Higashikawa had tried to save the other nine by choosing black and having them choose red.

The other nine had all chosen black despite the danger so they could save him.

The killing was beginning.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”

Shouting out was meaningless.

Higashikawa was dragged up to the bar alone and the pitfall closed beneath him.

That single panel divided this safe area and the abyss.

And in the darkness below, nine lives were lost.

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