Before the game...

4 months before the second game.

Shinzo was quietly installed in his room. On his computer there was a USB flash drive. This USB was the key that contained everyone's information during the Sacrifice game. He also found out that it contained the profiles of all the other people who made the first game. Honestly, it was no longer useful to him too much, a single look per profile was enough for him to fully retain. He closed his eyes and then remembered the 76 profiles that were on the computer in a single thought, face, name, first name, age, ability, fear, quality. Some were quite strange, but he didn't pay attention.

He opened his eyes and then went further on the application. He went straight to look at the files. Then, on the file information, he saw this :

2 people currently connected.

He was part of it, but there was another person who had access to the information. He went further to find out about the other connected person and found that they were in the same neighbourhood.

The application was only present on the computer of the first game where it was, and no one had been able to access it. He thought it must have been one of the game's organizers, and this presented him with a good opportunity to find and destroy him. Shinzo came up with a strategy : He would dress as a police investigator and question the entire neighbourhood to find out if they knew a "Shinzo Tanaka" and that any lie referred to 2 years in prison.

He quickly went to the bathroom, made a smooth bowl cut. He cut his hair on the sides. Then he went to his room and took a pair of sunglasses that looked like private investigator glasses. He took a black hat in his father's room and then a grey-black coat. He took vintage shoes from the 1920s and went to his computer to look at the models of the investigator's card. He printed one and put it in a bus card pocket. He made a hole in the card and then put a rope around his neck. Shinzo put green lentils on it just in case.

He finally left his home and tried the most risky : to approach police officers and then ask them for an escort. Miraculously, the police officers accepted without asking questions. There were two standing beside him. He went to question the whole neighbourhood who knew nothing of a "Shinzo Tanaka" and then he came across a rather small but renovated house. He knocked on the door. A man with blue hair opened. He was quite tall. Shinzo saw clearly in his eyes that he was panicked. Also, the man had a kind of lamp on his forehead, as if he was doing some work. Shinzo showed up.

"Eiji Daisuke, police detective. Do you know a man named Shinzo Tanaka ? He is highly sought after and we need help."

The man seemed suspicious, but he obeyed. It was obviously wrong, he had never been researched but he thought that lying would cause this person a particular reaction which would be remarkable, or a distorted answer.

"Yes, vaguely but yes. I haven't seen him since, sorry."

Shinzo now had confirmation that this man was the one who had access to the computer of information due to his answer. But it would be too risky to stop him, Shinzo thinks he may have prepared a strategy.

"What is your name, sir ?"

The man looked wide and then answered more coldly than before.

"Oreki Kobayashi."

The two policemen arrested Shinzo.

"Um, sir, we should go. We got a call to the police station."

The investigator nodded and then left. Shinzo saw very well in the face of this "Oreki" that he had guessed that it was not a real investigator, but no importance. He greeted the two police officers and returned home. He stood in front of his computer and then searched only for the name Kobayashi. He had noticed that this man had lied about his first name and perhaps his last name, but he had to try everything for the whole thing. He found the name of Yuji Kobayashi. Shinzo found that this man looked very much like "Oreki". It must have been his father. He searched his first and last name on the internet and then found that it was a programmer / developer.

This explains it.

Days later, Shinzo was walking through the streets of his village with Renjiro. Shinzo looked very serious.

"You have it all, Renjiro ?"

Renjiro nodded, looking equally serious. After a few minutes of walking, the boys came across a child, alone. Renjiro approached him.

"Hey... kid. Where are your parents ?"

Shinzo could see if his only hope of finding out the truth was here. The boy seemed lost, and especially desperate.

"My mother is in the hospital and my father, I don't know where he is."

He began to burst into tears before the crowd who were starting to look at them. Shinzo waved to Renjiro to hurry up. The boy resumed.

"I... don't have enough money to pay for my mom's care..."

Shinzo started to walk away to avoid trouble. He knew what Renjiro was going to say: it was part of the script.

Come with us, we have something to offer you to save your mother.

"Come with us, we have something to offer you to save your mother."

The child was starting to follow him, and obviously the crowd didn't care about the boy, with some attempt of kidnapping. Shinzo followed Renjiro from behind, wearing the same detective outfit he had when he met the man with the computer info. Renjiro took the boy to a house, the house that Shinzo had told Renjiro about. "His house," even though it didn't look like one at all. He saw Renjiro glancing at the name of the street, as if he didn't want Shinzo to see him, except that Shinzo saw him. Renjiro started talking to the boy about what Shinzo had told him to say.

"Boy, I have a favor to ask you. I promise to offer your mother's care if you go home where I will tell you to go."

Shinzo thought that Renjiro's acting was very good, a real world-renowned actor. Renjiro started to take out a suitcase of fake money that Shinzo had made himself. Renjiro also told the boy the house where he was going. The kid looked a lot happier.

"So, child, you must say this: I know you, I know you know everything, all this precious information."

Shinzo thought that, seeing the guy's head as a psychopath and a snatch, he would surely answer by laughing how he knows. He knew. Renjiro tells the kid what Shinzo just said and then tells him to say something else if only Kobayashi would say that.

"You will say, I know, that's all."

The child nodded. Shinzo wanted to avoid his plan turning sour, so he had bought a chip that could hear everything and then an electric necklace that he had designed himself to shoot a discharge on the kid if only he would confess everything to Kobayashi. Renjiro continued.

"So I trust you, kid."

He put his hand behind his back, where he placed the chip. Shinzo was suspicious of Renjiro, so he watched carefully what he was doing, and to avoid trouble again, he had summoned Renjiro in the morning without telling him about the plan once before and had stayed with him all day. So he was sure that Renjiro wasn't going to install a fake chip. In any case, Shinzo would have known, he could see on his phone if sound was detected from the chip, and he could hear it if he wanted to.

"Then I'll put this calf collar on you, don't worry, it's just to find out where you are in case. But if you say anything other than what I have said, the necklace will hurt you very much."

He placed the collar on his calf and then lowered the pants to hide it. Shinzo chose this location because the calf had a sensitive muscle. If he received a shock, the pain would be horrible, with a 124 volt shock. The kid thanked Renjiro and asked one last question.

"What is your name, sir ?"

In case anything happened, Shinzo had a ball gun that looked like a real pistol. He pointed that gun at Renjiro, knowing that he also wanted to avoid trouble, and that he would surely let the name Shinzo Tanaka so that Shinzo take his place. Renjiro saw the gun and changed his mind.

"Renjiro Todoroki. Go ahead, run."

Shinzo's eyes were empty and calm. No emotion appeared. Yet when the boy left and Renjiro looked at Shinzo's face, his face made him uncomfortable. The only emotion that Renjiro could feel from Shinzo was fear, a real fear coming from Shinzo. For, certainly, his face did not let anything pass, but the fact of remaining in the moon and so empty represented an anxiety about something. 

At that moment, Shinzo knew that Renjiro had betrayed him. Well, he already knew that since the first game. What confirmed his suspicions was the fact that Renjiro, on the road where he took the boy, had said a few words to him in the ear while Shinzo had told him not to talk to him on the road. He also spoke to her just as he glanced at the street name. It may not have been a betrayal, but it was better to act than cure. He approached Renjiro, more serious than any moment.

"Renjiro, you'll stay with me the rest of the day to find out what the kid is going to say to Kobayashi."

He activated the sound of the phone and started to bring it closer to his ear. He was going to hear the conversation between the boy and Kobayashi. The boy knocked on the door and then Kobayashi opened. The boy started the discussion.

"I know you, I know you know everything, all this precious information."

Kobayashi was always calm, he knew very well what the kid was talking about.

"How do you know ?"

"I know, that's all."

Shinzo, after some research, had discovered that Kobayashi's first name was Riku. Suddenly, Riku slammed the door in the kid's face.

"If you pretend to know everything, then I don't care, it's not as if I'm in danger at all."

Shinzo suspected Riku of being in cahoots with the police or the FBI: Any other human, in his place, would have threatened the kid or done something to him. Here, Riku did nothing to the boy, while he has a crucial information to make him take a good sentence, so, for Shinzo, he had the help of an organization influential enough not to be afraid of such a threat. In addition, the police officers from earlier had particularly disturbed Shinzo.

They didn't get a call from the police, they wanted to keep me away from this man.

Shinzo heard nothing else that could help him. He cut his sound and got up, he had to hurry: it was 5:46 pm and at 6:00 pm he had an appointment.

"Hi Renjiro, I'll see you later."

Renjiro saluted him and left. The spring heat was mild enough to make Shinzo forget his problems. Before leaving, Shinzo left his phone, well hidden, next to the house where they were. He went back home, his real home, then he dressed in a red sweater and grey jeans. He put on relaxing sneakers then went outside, hands in his pockets. He walked to the corner cafe, reflecting from the depths of his blue eyes that looked at the ground how he should do it. It was a much more important appointment. He entered the café and saw the person waiting for him at a table. This appointment was actually...

A date.

The girl who was waiting for her had brown hair, beautifully purple eyes, average height. She was very well dressed. She had a raglan sleeveless sweater and then a brown jacket that didn't reach her shoulders. A perfect outfit for Shinzo. She had a flower in her hair and was called Eloise Shimizu, a French-Japanese woman with a Japanese mother and then a French father.

"Salut ! Ca va ? (Hello! How are you?)"

Shinzo sat down on the table. He was admiring her accent very honestly. He understood French perfectly. He had learned just for her in a few days. French was difficult to learn, being in 10th place of the most complicated languages compared to English, which he learned in 5 hours.

"Ouais, et toi ? Tu as passé une bonne journée ? (Yeah, how about you ? Did you have a good day ?)"

Eloise finally got back to speaking Japanese, not that speaking French was complicated for Shinzo, simply because he really wanted to talk with her without laughing by speaking Eloise's native language.

"Yeah ! I had a great day. There's another guy who told me how he felt... It breaks my heart but I had to refuse again, I didn't like it."

Shinzo was obsessed with this kind of news, since his meeting with Eloise, or, a little more than 7 years ago. She was always a very popular girl, asked for by boys almost every day. For her, it became a habit. For Shinzo, despite the fact that they have known each other for 7 years and she refuses all the time the proposal of brave boys who love her, he was always afraid that she announces that she is finally in a relationship. Shinzo always loved him but never dared to tell him. He still planned to wait for a while. Shinzo was the rare boy who spoke to her very often and he had not been able to contact her during the game of the Sacrifice. Shinzo replied after a few seconds lost in his thoughts.

"It's not a big deal, one day you will find the rare pearl, and you will not regret having said no to all the boys who asked you. If you refused, they were not up to the task."

Despite the fact that Eloise was very nice, he saw through her eyes that she had almost forgotten the last couple's request, as if she didn't care.

"You're right, Shinzo. And what about your day?"

"Oh, all right, as usual, I'm busy with people, having fun!"

In one sentence, Shinzo made Eloise sad, even though she hid it as much as she could. She was jealous.

"Oh, that's cool for you !"

Shinzo tried to catch up.

"Well, I was spending time with some friends of mine, and still a virgin ahah, no girl on the horizon."

Eloise seemed a little more reassured. She began to drink her cappuccino which was installed on the table. Shinzo looked out the window, without a word. Eloise smiled.

"This reminds me of the first time we met face to face, we were too shy to talk."

Shinzo smiled in turn and then looked at the one he hoped would be his partner.

"Still so good at guessing what I'm feeling, huh ?"

Eloise resumed.

"Why don't you go to school ? We could be together, and then you can have a dream life later! For I know you are a genius."

"I absolutely do not want to, and then, I have no time for it. I am far from being as intelligent as you, genius as you are. You are also in the council ! You are also strong in martial arts."

"It is true that if you are in danger, it will be more my job to protect you! You may be below average physically, but you're still smart, Shinzo."

Shinzo remembered his childhood with Eloise.

"Well, I saved you in some situations more than you did. I found your cuddly toy."

He said that with a hint of pride in his voice. Eloise burst out laughing.

"Well, when I need a blanket, I'll call you."

A distant, very distant memory that remained preciously buried in Shinzo's head, he will remember forever the moment when Eloise cried, because she had lost her cuddle all alone and then he had found it. He never told Eloise that he had gone to the bottom of the river to get his cuddly toy and risked his life for it, because for Shinzo, it was a normal act to save someone's good, especially someone he cared about. He obviously decided not to tell her. He changed the subject, but before that, he saw on Eloise's knee a bruise which she apparently wanted to hide.

"What is this, Eloise ?"

He pointed to the blue, then Eloise quickly hid it. Before she could answer, Shinzo saw that she was going to lie.

"Nothing special, fell down the stairs."

One bad lie ! Already that falling down the stairs is serious. And then, you will have more bruises.

"Don't lie, Eloise, I know it's not true."

She stared at Shinzo, worried, then she escaped.

"One guy hit me in the knee, for no reason, so I fell to the ground... But it's okay, he might be angry. It happens to everyone."

Hit the most popular girl in high school, unintentionally ? In the knee ? Anger ? Yeah.

"Did this guy ever ask you out ?"

Eloise looked at the ground, embarrassed, reflecting.

"I don't know, no memory."

Indeed, for Shinzo, it was a strange answer. That is, there were so many guys who declared their love to her that she didn't even remember some of them. He sighed, not knowing what to do, so he took out his phone and looked at the phone that he had installed at home via his phone.

In fact, I just made a video call on the other phone that I stole from the kid to see what's going on through mine, because I suspect Renjiro gave Riku the address of this house, which also proves...

Riku is in cahoots with the cops.

Shinzo swallowed his saliva, a chase between him and the police was almost certainly going to start. He got up in a hurry, he was panicking slightly so he thought at full speed to avoid getting caught. He already knew that nobody knew his face, he had done well to use the boy as an intermediary.

"Come on, let's get some air."

Eloise nodded, put the money on the table and followed Shinzo outside. Shinzo thought. Already, he was more or less secure, because the house that Renjiro brought back to Riku was not his home, and if the cops found the phone, he could not have information since it was not his. The fingerprint was not notifiable either because he had taken the phone with his jacket. Once outside, Eloise saw that Shinzo was looking paranoid.

"Is there a problem ?"

"No."

Shinzo went in the opposite direction from where the house was, which was probably already being searched by police. Shinzo thought for a few seconds about a possible mistake he had made and then remembered it.

I... I had told Riku the name and first name of the person I wanted to search. He may have guessed that I was this person, now he has my name and first name.

He was panicking, he thought of a strategy in less than a second, he didn't even have time to breathe that he already had a strategy.

I'm going to hack into the TV system and tell the location of a fake house to save time, I am able, and I will do it next to a prison, I know they are able to guess where the call comes from, so I will do this with a phone that will be placed in an uninhabited house for sale. Since the death sentence has been authorized recently, I will release a death sentence by disguising myself with a fake transfer just after the hacking of the television, since I would be next to the prison. At least, I will not be suspect. After the death row prisoner is temporarily released, I will force him to report to the police station next door under the name of Shinzo Kobayashi. That will save me some time again. He will have to do it, because in any case he is sentenced to death.

Shinzo put his jacket back on, said goodbye to Eloise and then put a hood on.

I'll have to go unnoticed until my home.

For this, Shinzo would go behind all the houses, passing by the shopping center. Shinzo clearly remembered: Behind the fake house where Renjiro had taken the kid, there was a large shopping center that allows you to cross the house without being noticed. There must have been some cops in that house according to Shinzo. He walked into the mall, pretending to be a normal guy, just with a hoodie. He quickly crossed the building and saw a policeman next to him, who stood in front of a store of various technologies. Shinzo heard the police officer's talkie making a noise. The policeman quickly replied.

"No, no trace."

Shinzo tried something risky: He entered the technology store passing by the policeman as if nothing had happened. He stayed there for 15 minutes, as if he hesitated about something, then he came out of the empty store. Then Shinzo came out of the store, and he was right: The house was gone. He had passed it. He continued on his way to his home. He entered it discreetly, then went to make up to make believe that it is another person, he also changed his jacket, because Riku had most likely given a photo of him as an investigator to the cops. He went into his living room and took a tablet that he hadn't used in a long time. He left his house and went to another abandoned house. It was a big house and nobody was in it. Shinzo broke in unnoticed and then placed his tablet. He stayed there about 3 hours, the time to hack the whole TV system, he had scheduled to broadcast at 1am (it was 22h). And the screen, on TV, would appear white with a text :

"I have won."

He would talk through his phone saying that he won and now he doesn't care. He left the house quietly and went back through the mall, headed to his city jail, then set off for a location without a camera. He programmed the broadcast at best during the 3 hours that remained to blow.

It was 1 a.m. The broadcast began and he spoke with a voice modifier via his direct phone connected to the tablet.

"I won, whatever, you're all scum now. Oh... I'm a little embarrassed, sorry, I've never been on TV."

When he finished speaking, he disconnected and entered the prison then did all the process to release the condemned. It took a few hours but he managed to free him. The man sentenced to death was Juichiro Kimura, who was convicted of multiple crimes and then rape of a minor. He is 31 years old. Shinao had seen him on the news and he remembered it very well.

It was the man on death row who killed Shinzo's mother.

He wanted revenge, but he was going to do it in the proper way that his father taught him. He took the condemned man out. Shinzo was extremely cold.

"Juichiro Kimura, you will follow me. You will have to go to the police station next door and then say that you are Shinzo Kobayashi. You will be arrested."

The criminal looked at Shinzo with a murderous look.

"You're crazy. I'm free, you think I'll obey your orders."

Shinzo didn't get angry.

"I say this for you... because I can send you straight back to the stake. Or else, do as I tell you and you gain some life time."

The criminal took Shinzo by the collar, his eyes red with hatred.

"You don't have to give me orders."

Shinzo finally lost patience. He passed behind the criminal extremely quickly and then kicked him in the ribs. Shinzo was so fast that the criminal saw him disappear as if he had teleported himself. The blow was so strong that Juichiro was stuck on the ground, paralyzed. Shinzo resumed.

"You will do as I say, or I will kill you with my own hands."

Finally, the criminal nodded, growling. Shinzo told him to follow him. Juichiro followed Shinzo, limping. They headed for his home. Once at home, Shinzo took a razor and shaved the criminal's mustache and beard.

"Let's dress you up a little."

Juichiro recognized the house immediately.

"It is..."

Shinzo cut him off.

"The place where you killed my mother, you bastard."

The old criminal is silent, not knowing what to say. A few minutes later, Shinzo drove him out of his house.

"Go to the next police station and do as I say."

Right now, the police in this neighbourhood should be at Shinzo's second fake house where his tablet was located, because they had detected him.

So it leaves him the free way.

He had picked up the electric collar that was on the boy and put it on Juichiro. In the same place, with gloves. He knew the criminal was going to betray him, so he would kill him with the necklace and then the cops would find out that the only traces left on the necklace are those of Renjiro installing the necklace on the kid. Shinzo saw the criminal through his window heading towards the police station in the next town. Then, suddenly, he got a message on his phone: "A new game is coming soon."

He thought that what he was doing there was enough to last until the next game.

On the criminal's side

Juichiro had no choice but to go there. In any case, he would be sentenced to death.

And then shit ! I thought I was released.

Juichiro thinks for a few seconds and then he thinks that the guy who had released him did not know where he was. He took advantage of it to start running away, then a voice resounded from the necklace.

"Don't try to run away, it would be sad to die on this."

He finally took the right path, for fear of dying. Once arrived at the nearby police station, he went to the cops.

"Hello, I am Shinzo Kobayashi. The famous criminal who is so much sought after."

He closed his eyes, thinking that it was over for his life, then made a last effort shouting with all his strength.

"There's a fat son of a bitch who put this necklace on me !"

He pulled up his pants to show the necklace, but he didn't have time to do it. The necklace gave him a shock, which caused him to faint instantly. Everyone around him was shocked. The secretary called an ambulance very quickly then the cops took him to a nearby seat.

Back to Shinzo's side.

Great, I did not win much time, well, I will certainly win because they will check if the criminal was indeed Shinzo. Finally, it's not over, I'm far from winning.

Shinzo took his phone in his hand and started calling someone. The person at the other end of the line picked up and Shinzo spoke first.

"So Namjoon ?"