Chapter 06 – Good Luck

A series of explosions shook the stool upon which the golden-haired Furuya Yasushi had been standing. He let out a shout and fell onto his bottom, the stool toppled over by him. Looking around, he found nothing that could have caused such fierce sounds—it sounded to him as though the explosions were occurring in the so-called Breathless Room.

Rather than be dominantly startled by this, Furuya was angry. During the fall, the chair of the stool had broken off, and he had no means of fixing the problem at the moment. The room was rather bare, and he had searched every cabinet and crevice. There was no means of piecing together these splintered parts.

"JAXA!" Furuya muttered, rage setting in. "First you put me in this game of yours, and then you give me a Green Card I can't even use!" Furuya sat up and reached over to drag his black carrying bag closer. His hand let go of the red strap, and he unzipped it. He searched through the contents until he found the Green Card. He read it again in his head:

"Proceed up the stairs in the Breathless Room. From the balcony, continue through the following hall, until you reach the second room on the left, past Pantry B and Restroom B. Hidden in the room will be an item beneficial to you in this exam."

Furuya had excavated the room thoroughly, and he had intended to use the stool to reach the top of the fridge, in case there was something hidden up there that he could not quite view from his current vantage point. Furuya was relatively short, and although he thought it unlikely there would be something like that up there, he refused to rule out the possibility.

Placing the Green Card back in the bag, he sighed while pressing his palm against his forehead. Furuya was Number 8 in the JAXA game, the blond who arrived last during the exam briefing. He was the one who originally questioned how they had to sign a sheet saying they would not back out of the exam, prior to being clued in on the rules and form of the exam. Now he wished he would have ripped up the paper and flung the remains at Tsurumi.

"But there's nothing I can do now," he thought with a flare of anger. "There's no way to escape this… If JAXA is orchestrating this whole thing this thoroughly and watching us with all those cameras—we'll have to continue this through the end. If I try to quit, I'll die. It's everyone for himself, and the weak links will just have to be picked away."

He looked back at the fridge. "And that was going to prevent me from being the weak link," he considered bitterly. Unlike the other candidates, Furuya had not dressed up at all. He wore a mustard yellow t-shirt with a grey triangle logo below the neck. His legs were warm inside baggy grey sweat pants, and his shoes were neither wrecked nor dressy.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at the bag. "I wonder if anyone else got a whole bag of stuff, like I did," he thought, his mind beginning to drift. "A gun, a knife, and what's in this bag—is that really enough to survive?" Then he heard a sound, the sound of a door knob turning.

Furuya scrambled to his feet, seized his bag, and turned toward one of the closest. It had been one of the first places he had searched in the room; it was completely empty. Furuya opened the door, jumped in with his bag, and closed the door—all before the intruder entered the room.

From inside the closet, a small amount of light entered. It was enough to give Furuya an idea. He crept down and silently located a pair of cordless headphones. There was a dial on each headphone, one that controlled the volume, and a mysterious dial that went from 1 to 12.

"The Loudmouth Diary," Furuya's thoughts stirred. "It seems that by switching stations, I can hear the words of other finalists and words spoken to them." This Diary uniquely worked in the present, unlike the Guardian Diary and the Gourmet Diary.

Furuya slid the channel dial from its starting point, the number 1, and continued forward through the numbers. The channels were all fuzzy, though, and he picked up only white noise. The Diary had its limitations; only people who were close enough could be spied on. He picked up a garbled frequency from Number 5. It cleared up a bit with Number 7, but there was still some fuzz. When the dial clicked to 10, he heard clear audio. This was the person in the room, Number 10—Jennifer.

Without the aid of his headphones, he heard some movement outside the closet. "Ugh, a broken chair!" He heard Jennifer mutter to herself, only thanks to the Loudmouth Diary, the whispers were magnified into discernible sound. "Was someone trying to look above the fridge? Ha, as though it would be up there, when it's really…"

There was a short break in speech, and then then he heard something being peeled off a surface. "…taped underneath the table!" Jennifer announced victoriously.

Furuya wanted to scream, but instead he just seethed inside and thought, "So it was under the table, this whole time! At least announce what it is, already!" No more words came from Jennifer, however, and after a moment, Furuya began to wonder, "Did she leave?"

Then came the sound of the door swinging open, and Furuya was about to make his way out of the closet, when he heard a new voice. "Ah, Number 10," said the male. "Just as I expected." Furuya furiously dialed back, to pick up on who this was, and the fuzz was now gone from the 7th channel. "Ozzy Smith," Furuya thought, curious already. "That old man…"

He pieced together everything from his memory, which was actually spot-on. He recalled Ozzy as having only patches of grey hair on the sides of his head. The suit he wore over his white dress shirt was only a slight variant of the shade of Ozzy's hair, thin eyebrows, and bushy mustache. A yellow tie was worn from his collar, and he gave Furuya the strangest impression when he first saw him, that this was someone who would look really good on TV.

Jennifer's purple jacket came to mind, which Furuya remembered her wearing over a white v-neck. A golden necklace was around her neck, and her black hair was kept in a bun with a lavender-colored scrunchie. She wore black pants and had a slightly stockier build. Jennifer always wore a pair of golden sunglasses with pitch black frames—even inside the JAXA building. Her lips were glossed over with hot pink lipstick, making Jennifer stand out as one of the more peculiar finalists.

"H-how did you know I would be here?" Jennifer asked, and Furuya imagined her taking a few steps back. "Did your Diary tell you?"

"Ha, ha!" Ozzy chuckled. "No, I watched you go this way. I was in the Breathless Room, too. I saw Mu-chan and Number 5 enter. I saw what happened to Number 2… And yes, I saw you on the balcony."

"Y-you what?" Jennifer stammered. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"I saw everything that happened. There is no need to try and hide it from me."

"Hmph. Yes, that was me. But how did you end up in the Breathless Room? I wasn't trying to get you there… You weren't my target, at all. Your Diary tell you to go there?"

"I have what could be called the Good Neighbor Diary," explained Ozzy. "My PDA gives me information on the upcoming actions of the nearest Diary holder. This would have allowed me to know your movement, if I happened to be closer to you than the others around—however, I did not use my Diary. I happened to go to the Breathless room by chance, before Number 5 and Mu-chan got there, before you even got there."

Furuya was engrossed in his own thoughts. "What happened in the Breathless Room?" He found himself horrified at the possibilities. "There were at least five finalists in that room at one moment… Numbers 2, 5, 7, 10, and 11. There were explosions. But what I really want to know is: who in the world still owns a PDA?" Such curiosities haunted him as he sat in the darkness.

"The Good Neighbor Diary, huh?" Jennifer questioned flatly.

"You don't seem all that surprised," Ozzy said a moment later. "As though you already knew."

There was a pause, in which no answer came from Jennifer.

"I told you about my Diary," Ozzy continued, in a friendly tone. "Thinking that you might return the favor, Jennifer."

Number 10 laughed. "What? I won't reveal something that important to you, just like that."

There was a click, and a long silence. "This is not a question, Jennifer," Ozzy said, his words taking on a different connotation all of a sudden. "This gun in my hand is loaded, and I will not hesitate to use it. You tried to kill Mu-chan, and I have wanted to bet that he would come out on top. I have a stake in his survival. So, tell me what your Diary is capable of, or I will fire a bullet—and if I do, chances are you will not live. Luck is on my side in this encounter, Jennifer."

Furuya listened to the response. "I have the Green Card Diary," she began hesitantly. "It gives me up-to-date information on what JAXA is up to. Like the name suggests, I know about the contents of each Green Card, before they are obtained… Green Cards are one of the ways in which Tsurumi, Hoshika, and Director Nasuda can influence the game. The first Green Cards were given to three players. Tsurumi gave Makabe-san a Green Card directly, Hoshika had a Green Card prepared in the Red Hall for Nanba-san, and Director Nasuda pulled some strings to get Furuya his Green Card.
Those were the first three, but more will appear."

She continued to speak, and Furuya listened in closely. "My Green Card Diary also tells me what everyone else's Diary can do. I whipped up some curry, using ingredients from the nearby pantry, to lure Number 3 out of hiding. When I realized that Number 11 was going to investigate the death of Number 2, I put his life in direct danger, so I could lure out Number 5, with his Guardian Diary. I have beaten all three of the Green Card holders to their items. I found a box of grenades in the Blue Hall that Tsurumi intended to give Makabe Kenji, and I found a map of this entire area behind a loose tile in Restroom A, down by the lobby, which Hoshika meant for Nanba Mutta to find. Now I have this, which Furuya missed out on."

The holder of the Loudmouth Diary was fuming within the closet. Not only had he lost the item, but Jennifer was not even going to pronounce what he was missing out on. That was a piece of valuable information only her and Ozzy were now aware of, but he knew he had overheard a sufficient amount already. He was wondering how to put it to use, even now.

"I had a feeling Teshima would be the first to die, and so I followed his progress from a safe distance," Jennifer explained. "I wanted to take out a large number of finalists at once, and knowing about the Guardian Diary—I had a hunch this could work out. There is a Weak Link Diary in place, which updates the user about the location and future actions of the weakest player remaining in the game. The one who killed Teshima used it to track him down, and after he made his escape, I tried to make the most of the moment. You saw how well that worked out. Bad luck, right?"

"This is a fact: Luck is what you make of it," Ozzy replied. "And that's enough information for me. I really appreciate your cooperation, Jennifer. We might be of some use to each other, if we keep this up."

"Are you asking me to team up with you?" Jennifer asked, skepticism in her voice. "With a gunpointed at me?"

"No, I wouldn't think of it!" Ozzy responded, with a hearty laugh. It sounded from Furuya's perspective as though the gun had been put back in its holster. The door creaked open, and from the doorway Ozzy continued, "I prefer to work alone, actually. Much more fun! However, I do ask that you leave Mu-chan alone. Save him for last, if that's how you choose to look at it. If you try to get in his way, however, I will get in yours."

After some silence transpired, Furuya picked up on Jennifer thinking aloud, when she whispered, "Number 7, Ozzy Smith… He is a strange one. He has a good Diary, but he doesn't seem to even use it. And why does he want to protect Number 11 so much?" Her stomach growled. "Perhaps I should just check the closet over here, for some food."

Furuya went completely white, and his hand drifted down toward his sheath. When the door opened, he would slash at her—that was his scheme. Jennifer sighed, however, and said, "On second thought, no. I don't need it. I need to get out of here, fast, and it's easier to do that on an empty stomach than on a full one. Number 7 knows my capabilities, but he doesn't know the full length of my strategy. I can still win this… I need to. It's my only chance."

The door slammed shut, and Furuya stepped out of the closet, breathing in the air, still heavy with a very peculiar atmosphere. "Looks like I got lucky," he muttered to himself as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "Whoever this Nanba Mutta is, he has some strange supporters…"

Moments after the camera observed Furuya's departure, the two watching the scene that had unfolded were still looking toward the monitor. Tsurumi leaned forward, putting his elbows down in front of the keyboard and resting his chin on his clenched hands.

"I would like to ask you this now, while Hoshika-san on break," Tsurumi began, "Why did you give Furuya Yasushi a Green Card?"

Director Nasuda, who stood with his arms behind his back, was looming over the official's shoulders. "On impulse, of course," he answered.

Tsurumi looked at him, in disbelief. "Just like that?"

His superior laughed into his hand. "Just like how you gave Makabe-san a Green Card, right?" He looked down, into Tsurumi's hard eyes. "Not everything can be explained away. Some things just feel right at the time, yes?"

"I suppose you are right," Tsurumi said gruffly, giving a nod. "But it looks like all three of us did not get our wish. All three items have fallen into the hands of a single player, and the balance of this exam has been monstrously tampered with."

Director Nasuda shook his head and smiled, saying firmly, "I do not regret my decision. Number 2 was given the best Diary in this entire examination, and he still managed to fail—it was inevitable, really. He was the Weak Link, yes, but not because of his Diary or even because of his skill set… It was because of his weak will, really. His Master Diary could reveal to him the future locations of every Diary holder. In the hands of someone like Number 10, he would have been unstoppable. But in this way, the balance remains intact. The strongest finalists have some of the weakest Diaries, and some of the weakest players have the strongest Diaries. And one of the strongest competitors here does not even have a Diary anymore."

Tsurumi narrowed his eyes and asked incredulously, "You don't mean who I think you mean, do you?"

"Don't act so surprised, hmm?" Director Nasuda turned to leave. "I like him. He will go far. But will he win? All the Green Cards we could put into play could change the real outcome of this examination. Number 7 might be on to something, that it is all about luck. Or he might be the next one to die at the hands of the 'Rubik's Cube Killer.' We will just have to see, hmm?"