Flag Game Chapter 23

The twenty third chapter of the Darwin's Game ~Flag Game~ novel.

## Summary

Even though six years had passed, Shuka's memories about her parents were still vivid and hadn't begun to fade at all. Her father was a nonfiction author who researched underground culture in various countries. He'd spend a couple months doing research in a country, then spend another couple of months in his study, and as such Shuka didn't really have memories of going somewhere with her father, nevertheless her father didn't complain when she stuck with him while at home. Her father's books didn't really sell that well, however their family didn't have any problems due to her mother, who, as the only child of a well known family, had inherited an extremely large amount of money. Although her parents were rarely at home, they gave Shuka as much love as possible, and she grew up to be a simple and innocent child who was a little selfish.

The day that Shuka lost her parents was during the weekend, and it was rainy in addition to being chilly for spring. Despite this, both of her parents were home, causing Shuka to be in high spirits for the entire day. She'd finished dinner, bathed, and had gotten into bed, though she decided to go to her father's study since she didn't want this happy day to end. She had her favorite kumihimo in her hand as she wanted her parents to tie her hair.

She immediately noticed that something was wrong when she came down to the first floor. She smelled a rust like smell and felt the damp outside air rush through the opening made by the open door to her father's study. Peeking inside, she saw an unknown elderly man standing in a pool of blood with fingers transformed into blades. Those blades were piercing something large, which she realized was her father after a few moments. Fuli then lowered his arm, dropping Shuka's father onto the ground, and at that moment Shuka realized that her mother was lying next to her father. Once he shook his hand to clean the blood off of his blades, Fuli transformed his fingers back into their usual form.

Although she couldn't remember whether she screamed or not, Shuka definitely knew that she had locked eyes with Fuli, nevertheless the man ignored her and silently left through the study window he had entered through, leaving behind a crying Shuka and the bodies of her parents. She didn't know why Fuli had let her live, nor did she care, as her life goal was now to exact revenge on the man that had murdered her parents.

News of the death of Shuka's parents spread and the police launched a large investigation. However, the police dismissed the 10 year old Shuka's claims that the man had transformed his fingers into blades, claiming that Shuka's eyewitness testimony was nonsense and she simply misunderstood what had happened because she was confused. Once her parents' funeral was over, she had her mother's asset management company look after her inherited fortune and insurance money, and Shuka began her lonely battle.

Shuka began searching through her father's research notes, hoping to find something about the killer in them as she didn't have anywhere else to search. While she did so, she found a smartphone she'd never seen before hidden deep inside of the drawer in her father's desk. She easily unlocked it since the password was her birthday, and while she hoped she'd find something, she also didn't expect to find anything at all. However, the smartphone would definitely change her fate as she found something called Darwin's Game among the phone's other apps.

The app wouldn't start despite her tapping it, making her wonder if the phone was broken, though she quickly found out that it wasn't since the other apps worked, but there was nothing she could do since she wasn't knowledgeable about computers. Leaving that aside, she recalled that the phrase "D Game" frequently appeared in her father's notes, causing her to reread the notes, and she realized that her father had been researching the Darwin's Game. Nevertheless, she couldn't figure out why he'd been researching it.

In the present, Shuka finished her story by mentioning that nothing noteworthy happened for another 5 years until one of her friends sent her a Darwin's Game invitation. All of the clan members aside from Xulan were gathered in the recreation room to listen to her story. Rein organized the information inside of her head, theorizing that Shuka's father had become a player while investigating the app, and Shuka had been unable to use her father's app because the app somehow prevents players from using other players' accounts. She thought it was strange that Shuka's father body hadn't disappeared, as that meant Fuli had killed her parents outside of a Darwin's Game match.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to ask Shuka about it, Rein noticed that the others had become silent, and some were crying like Sui and Ryuuji. Ryuuji agreed to help since he knew what it was like to have a family member killed, and assumed that Kaname knew about Shuka's past already based on his reaction, which Kaname confirmed, though he added that this was the first time hearing about the specific details. Rein asked Shuka about her father and Shuka confirmed that her father didn't disappear. Hearing this, the giant puzzle inside of Rein that was waiting to be solved immediately began to assemble itself.

## Characters

* Karino Shuka
* Sudou Kaname
* Kashiwagi Rein
* Maesaka Ryuuji
* Sui
* Ximing