Chapter One: Main Island, Filming Preparation (2)

 The first thing they did when they brought the stuff over was to separate all the items into two groups: indoor use, and outdoor use.

They decided to keep the cooking equipment, which was all outdoor use, near the front entrance, and the generator and three containers of gasoline next to the back entrance. The containers each held 10 liters of gasoline.

The area near the back entrance was covered as well as north-facing, so it wouldn't be exposed to much direct sunlight. There should have been no danger in storing gasoline there.

Afterwards, they brought in all the indoor use items and set them up.

It took them about an hour to complete the setup of all the self-assembling tents. Yuki, who mostly worked with the monitor, placed the headquarters transceiver next to it, and they were done.

Afterwards, Yuki sighed as he looked at the tents lined up in the multipurpose area. The tents, which were magenta and blue-gray, were arranged differently than he'd expected.

“Mr. Saijou... didn't I tell you to put the magenta one on the far right?”

One of the tents was reserved for the women, so Yuki had assigned the magenta one to that role to make them easier to distinguish.

Saijou, who had been in charge of setting up the tents, began laughing awkwardly.

“Sorry, I accidentally put it in the wrong place.”

“Mr. Ryuuzen's idea that pink is for women is outdated, anyway. I'll fix it.”

While spouting such harsh words, Shigaraki quickly moved the tents away. The two blue-gray tents were to be used by Unno, Yuki, Shigaraki, Saijou, and Motegi.

“By the way, these are two person tents, right?”

Saijou muttered that as he looked down at a tent, and Yuki gave a slight nod.

“The product description did say 'for 2-3 people', but they're smaller than I imagined.”

Incidentally, the reason they had tents was because they needed private spaces for changing clothes, as well as protection from mosquitoes and other insects. For that reason, a thin, airy product was chosen.

“...Honestly, the thought of a bunch of guys all huddled together in a tent for two nights is kinda depressing. Maybe I'll just sleep outside.”

Shigaraki said that bluntly. Yuki and Saijou looked back at him with sad eyes.

“You're being too honest again, Shigaraki.”

“Sorry for being an old man.”

Saijou had taken off his jacket and was now wearing a navy blue T-shirt as he crossed his arms. His height made him look intimidating. Shigaraki, who was usually talkative, began frantically waving his hands in front of him.

“I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it in a bad way.”

“That's not a good response... Well, never mind. Will the tents in the small rooms be used by Producer Kikyo and President Koga?”

Yuki finished placing sleeping bags inside the tents and answered.

“Those two will get mad if we don't do at least that much.”

It had been decided that the two rooms in the back would be treated as VIP rooms, and Shigaraki had set up individual tents for the two of them. They were both magenta.

“Well, no matter how considerate we are, it won't save us from getting told off.”

Rather than speaking his mind, Saijou was the type to accept whatever the other person had to say. Although he was about ten years older than Yuki and a senior in the industry, the two got along well.

On the other hand, Shigaraki was looking resentfully at the sleeping bags they'd just laid out.

“I'm so tired from being seasick, I just want to take a nap... But I haven't finished setting up the cooking equipment yet, and I still have to prepare food.”

As Shigaraki camped as a hobby, he had proven useful when they did a special on outdoor cooking for another program.

Even so, this was his first time cooking for nine people, but he seemed particular about the food. Yuki had heard that the menu had been carefully arranged, and Shigaraki had brought a variety of seasonings with him.

Yuki had also brought many bottles with him, but they contained one thing: sleeping pills. With great effort, he had managed to obtain ones that dissolved quickly in water and were colorless and tasteless. He'd then separated them into small vitamin bottles.

Later at dinner, he was planning to use them to spike the paper cups of everyone except Unno and himself. It was unlikely they'd suspect anything of the sudden drowsy spell, being already fatigued from the long journey and the motion sickness medicine they'd taken earlier in the day.

Even though he hadn't taken the pills yet, Saijou was yawning repeatedly, looking exhausted.

“I'll get sleepy if I stay here any longer. Time to start filming?”

“Sure.”

Yuki nodded and checked his watch. Almost simultaneously, Shigaraki let out a shriek.

“Oh no, it's almost 11:30! We've kept Producer Kikyo and Mr. Koga waiting for over an hour!”

There was no point in rushing, then. Yuki and the others made their slow, morose march from the building.

In front of the former community center, a barbecue grill, a gas stove with two burners, and several boxes of food and water stood unopened. They hadn't had time to set up out there, prioritizing the inside.

Among them, however, one thing was set up.

Kikyo, Koga, and Mikumo were sitting at a folding table. It looked like they'd taken it and their chairs out themselves. They'd even taken some extra-strength insect repellent for outdoor use from the luggage.

There were bottles of whiskey and soda water lined up on the table, alongside a metal bucket full of crushed ice. There was even an ice pick sitting next to it. The ice pick was a portable miniature one with a spike about 6 cm long.

Kikyo and Koga were holding plastic cups. The pale amber liquid full of ice was probably a pair of highballs. There were also snacks lined up, including bonito flakes and some fancy-looking cheeses.

When Yuki saw that, he couldn't keep his jaw from dropping.

...Where had they gotten a full bar? They were on an isolated island in the distant sea.

Even as he thought that, he realized he had some idea where they'd come from.

Among the luggage were two items neither Yuki nor Shigaraki had recognized. Both of them were suspicious, but they soon realized that they were Kikyo's personal possessions.

One was a portable freezer that could be used as a cooler, which he remembered Kikyo had borrowed the ship's power to charge. The other was an ordinary blue cooler. The portable freezer was probably full of ice blocks, and the cooler the supplies for the highballs.

Kikyo, who had an unusually strong tolerance for alcohol, began yelling at them with a face that looked completely sober.

“You morons are slow as usual. Just how long were you planning to keep us waiting?”

Yuki was sweating from carrying the heavy luggage, so there was no justification for someone who was sitting around drinking highballs in the middle of the day to say that.

What followed next was a tirade of nagging and sarcasm.

At times like that, Kikyo always spoke in a soft voice. Despite that, he would occasionally have sudden flashes of anger and start screaming, weaving into his rants remarks that completely undermined his target's sense of self and their right to exist... He would slowly wear you down with cutting remarks, then explode with something truly hurtful.

Countless people had suffered mental struggles and physical health issues as a result of Kikyo's harassment. More than five people had committed suicide after leaving the company.

As Yuki listened to his lectures over and over again, he noticed something. The balance between sarcasm and rage was always the same. It was exactly nine to one.

In fact... Kikyo didn't raise his voice because he was shouting abuse at his subordinates. It seemed like he was just pretending to be enraged because he knew it was the most efficient way to hurt people.

Kikyo just enjoyed hurting people and destroying things.

It wasn't just at work. Although he frequently bought pets, he never kept the same animal for more than a few months. Of course, he always made excuses, saying he'd given them away to someone else or that they'd died of illness, but it didn't take much digging to find out what he was doing to those poor dogs and cats.

To make matters worse, solely to make it harder for his abuses to be exposed, Kikyo only employed physical violence on his own pets and only mentally tortured his own subordinates.

Kikyo was a cunning, scheming, evil man. That made him the most troublesome of Yuki's targets.

Perhaps because the lecture was running on too long, Mikumo, who was sitting at the same table as him, was looking further and further down. She looked uncomfortable as she peered into her plastic cup of soda water.

In response, Koga spoke to the dog in his lap.

“I'm sorry there are so many noisy people here. It's scary, isn't it, Tara?”

The Pomeranian was licking a paper plate on the table. Yuki wanted to believe it was just water, but he couldn't ignore how much the liquid looked like highball.

Once again, Kikyo went into rage mode. Yuki wasn't really listening.

He'd worked hard to get into J. Production and JTV to get his revenge. So no matter how sneaky he was in his harassment, all Yuki heard was confessions that he'd murdered Naoko.

Kikyo's lectures lasted an average of 40 minutes each. Yuki knew that, so he waited exactly ten minutes before cutting Kikyo off.

“I'm sorry I'm so incompetent.”

“Anyone can apologize for their incompetence. The problem is-” 

“We've prepared private rooms for you, Producer Kikyo, as well as President Koga. Producer Kikyo, please use the room in the back, and President Koga, please use the room in the front.”

“Don't change the subject.”

“Oh, and don't eat the instant rice in the cardboard box without permission. That isn't ours, it belongs to the village office.”

“What!? Then who's going to eat it?”

Kikyo's eyes were full of murder, but Yuki just gave him his best “I don't know why you're yelling at me” face.

“That's enough... I forgot you aren't worth talking to.”

Kikyo sighed deeply and reached for a bag of dried bonito flakes. It seemed like he was done pretending to be angry.

“Well, we're going to start filming now.”

Yuki gave Kikyo a slight bow, then urged Mikumo and Saijou to head to the port.

One reason Kikyo had backed off so easily was because he couldn't really hurt Yuki with his words anymore. But that wasn't the main reason.

Yuki's father was the vice president of Ryuuzen Pharmaceutical, the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. As you'd expect, his family was still at the heart of the business. In other words, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the Ryuuzen clan had quite a lot of influence in the business world.

When he wanted to, Yuki could make full use of the Ryuuzen family's connections. It was all thanks to them that he was able to become an assistant director at J. Production and work under Unno.

Of course, Yuki could have also used his connections in his revenge, but he chose not to. There were several reasons for that.

One was that even if he pulled strings behind the scenes, it was unlikely he'd be able to completely destroy Kikyo and the others.

Kikyo in particular had deep ties with a certain member of the House of Representatives, one who had even once been a minister. Under his protection, Kikyo had built himself a strong presence in the TV, music, and advertising industries. It would be difficult for Yuki to break down that stronghold.

However, even if that certain ex-minister hadn't existed, Yuki wouldn't have changed his methods. Ordinary revenge... losing their jobs in a scandal, or even losing their lives in “unfortunate accidents”, wouldn't be a sufficient punishment for their crimes.

So Yuki prayed that the three of them would live their lives until this day of revenge without incident.

Having worked for them for half a year, Yuki had learned that all three of them feared death more than anything else. So it would be best to force them to fully experience the horror of dying, and then, as they lay bleeding out, whisper in their ears exactly why they had to die... Leaving that role to someone else was out of the question.

He gazed out at the subtropical forest that spread out before him.

There were no cell phone signals here. There was no risk of his targets escaping, and no need to worry about being interrupted. It was also convenient for him that it would take hours for the police to arrive, even after the report was made.

Kakuriyo Island... it was the perfect place for Yuki to exact his revenge.

 

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