The eighth chapter of the Darwin's Game ~Flag Game~ novel.
Summary[]
Inside Ryuuji's humvee, Rein continued to attempt to contact Shuka but received no response, while Kaname sent a message to Kaji and received a normal response back that they were ready to make the deal. Although they could come up with plenty of reasons as to why things seemed weird, Rein still felt a bad feeling, not to mention they didn't have any justification in canceling the deal, and they needed to pick up Shuka. In an attempt to get a better signal, Rein opened the hatch and brought half of her body outside. The group soon arrived at the warehouse and noted that there weren't any guards just like Shuka had reported earlier.
Seeing that there wasn't anyone around, Ryuuji wondered if Black Lotus had any intention of making the deal, and rang the humvee's horn a couple times, though there wasn't any response. Kaname decided that he and Ryuuji would go to the warehouse, Rein would stay behind and keep trying to contact Shuka and act as support if necessary, and Sui would keep watch on the surrounding area. The two men entered through the gate and cautiously made their way over to the office building. Suddenly, the warehouse door began to slowly open, with Kaji coming out moments later, apologizing for not greeting them.
Back at the humvee, Rein felt that there was something strange about Kaji, though she couldn't express it in words. She used Laplace to check but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Sui was relieved that it didn't seem to be a trap, nevertheless Rein told her to not let her guard down and to be ready to drive the car. Sui sometimes acted as the backup driver when Ryuuji wasn't around, despite not having a driver's license or feet long enough to reach the pedals, and was able to control the humvee better than Ryuuji could.
Giving up on trying to contact Shuka through the wireless transceiver, Rein sent a message through the Darwin's Game app, though as usual she received no response. The fact that she received no response meant that something was wrong, however they weren't able to see the problem, causing Rein to fully realize that her plan was weak to irregular events. She began to feel regret and became impatient with herself, her sweaty hands shaking, though she quickly calmed herself down and realized what she needed to do. Asking Sui to be aware of their surroundings, Rein used Laplace on herself in order to figure out what the problem was.
At the warehouse, Kaji told Kaname and Ryuuji to check the weapons inside, and began to walk toward the warehouse without waiting for an answer. However, a cautious Ryuuji rejected his offer, telling him that they'd do so outside, prompting Kaji to tell them that Black Lotus wasn't trying to ambush them, a statement that was proven to be true by True or Lie. Kaji continued by saying that it would be impossible for him to carry all of the weapons outside since he was the only one there, explaining that he was the only one there because it'd been his decision to make the deal, and he hadn't told any clan members about it. While Kaji's claims of "his own decision" and "he was the only one there" were true, his claim that "he hadn't told anyone about it" was false, though Ryuuji couldn't understand why he'd lie there.
Nevertheless, Ryuuji decided that any more questions would make Kaji's impression of the Sunset Ravens worse, not to mention that it could potentially lead to him figuring out what Ryuuji's sigil was. As Kaname and Ryuuji looked at each other, Rein contacted them, asking them to draw Kaji's field of vision away from her and then ask him what his name was. Although it was a strange request, Ryuuji didn't hesitate, as he knew that she was trying to analyze something. Pretending to agree to Kaji's request, Ryuuji began walking toward the warehouse, with a smiling Kaji following next to him. When he was sure that Rein was outside of Kaji's field of vision, he asked Kaji what his name was, claiming that he was bad at remembering people's names. "Kaji" claimed to be Kaji, which Ryuuji saw was a lie, causing him to signal it to Rein. Upon seeing the signal, Rein pulled the trigger.
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