Flag Game Chapter 10

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

## Summary

"Kaji" made his way through the drainage ditch, using the rain from a couple days before to speed up his escape. As he did so, he wondered how long it'd been since he'd ran from a battle, and how long it'd been since he needed to transform into something that wasn't human. He didn't think he was at a disadvantage, but Shuka had the slight chance of killing him with her attacks. "Kaji" didn't feel bad about losing, having lost such feelings a long time ago, and staying alive would give him plenty of chances to kill the Sunset Ravens.

Instead, he noted that he'd gotten a lot of information on the Ravens, recalling Kaname and Rein from the Black Lotus base, but what caught his attention more was Shuka. He was impressed by Shuka's ambush from his blind spot and the fact that she simply attempted to kill her opponent without any hesitation or arrogance. At that point, he felt like he remembered Shuka from somewhere. It wasn't her name, which every Darwin's Game player knew, and it wasn't her appearance either, as he was able to recall the faces of people he'd seen. He then realized that it was the atmosphere, though he couldn't remember when he'd felt it. Bringing his thoughts back to the present, he thought of how to deal with the Ravens, and unconsciously smiled.

After passing out at the warehouse, Rein woke up in the Sunset Ravens base three days later in the morning. Overusing Laplace, in addition to using it on herself, had taken a toll on her. She woke up, ate a light meal while hearing the gist of what happened after she'd passed out from Sui, and returned to her room to rest. According to Sui, the Ravens had taken all of the weapons in the warehouse since "Kaji" didn't come back. The problem was that the dead body Shuka had found was the real Kaji, which meant that the real Kaji actually planned on having the deal and was killed by someone else who took his place.

Since a player could change their name using 1 point, and duplicate names were allowed, Rein focused on why there were two Kajis, first thinking of the possibility of twins but quickly disregarding the idea for a sigil. A sigil that changed a person's whole body was rare but not unheard of, though what confused Rein was the fact that "Kaji" had survived gunshots to his brain and heart, suggesting that he was able to move his vital organs around inside of his body, making her wonder how his body would function like that.

However, Rein knew that using a sigil that a player was given was different from being able to use it properly, especially since she'd just spent two days unconscious from overusing her own sigil. She recalled players that had accidentally killed themselves, such as a fire sigil user burning to death with their own fire, and a player with a strong telekinetic sigil found dead with hand marks on his neck due to replicating his own nightmare using his sigil. Even if "Kaji" had a sigil that could change both the outside and inside of his body, it was highly likely that his body wouldn't work properly.

Nevertheless, she knew that "Kaji" had done it without any problems, causing her to be somber at the realization that they were dealing with an incredibly dangerous opponent. The Ravens' win wasn't really a "win" either since he'd run from the battle. Rein knew they'd have to fight him again and she mocked herself for having bad feelings that were usually on the mark. If this was her solo information broker days, she would've chosen to run, but as a member of the Sunset Ravens, she resolved herself to protect her newfound "nest".

## Characters

* "Kaji"
* Kashiwagi Rein