Chapter 6: Unseen Enemy

Chapter 6: Unseen Enemy

Chapter 6:

Unseen Enemy

I T WAS JUST BEFORE five in the morning, the time when the sun was just starting to rise. While most students would still be asleep around this time, I woke up thanks to a strange sound coming from somewhere outside my tent. The sound was so faint that I thought I was just hearing things, and that it might have just been a quiet ringing in my ears. When I poked my head out of my tent to investigate further, I realized that I actually could hear a sound, though it was quiet. The same sound must have woken Nanase as well, because she poked her head out from her tent moments later.

“Can you hear something?” I asked.

“Yes… It’s faint, but I can hear it,” Nanase said. “It’s like some kind of electronic beeping noise.”

Perhaps it was because of how far away we were from whatever was making that sound, but it was so quiet that you could mistake it for a simple ringing in the ears. It was possible someone could have set an alarm on their tablet, but even so, this sound had been ringing for a long time.

“Wait, you don’t think that could be the Emergency Alert, do you?” said Nanase.

“It’s a definite possibility,” I answered.

I now fully emerged from my tent, trying to analyze the sound that I was hearing. It was almost exactly like the sound that Mashima-sensei had played for us during the informational orientation meeting. Without a doubt. I could hear the sound echoing, perhaps because it was coming from somewhere deep in the woods.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop, does it?” said Nanase.

One minute had already passed since I had noticed the sound. Warning Alerts were designed to go off twice, but in both cases, they could be disabled after five seconds. The only alert that was designed to sound continuously was the Emergency Alert.

“And if I remember correctly, after five minutes—”

“School officials will find your current location via the GPS in your watch and send help to your position,” I replied, finishing Nanase’s sentence.

If a student was in a situation where they couldn’t manage to turn the alert off, then it was conceivable that they could be in quite a bit of danger.

“Couldn’t we go find whoever it is before school officials arrive?” said Nanase.

“What reason would we have to do that?” I replied. “Even though it’s sunrise, visibility is still poor, and if we’re not careful, we might end up getting hurt and needing help ourselves.”

“Do you really need a reason to go help someone?” Nanase asked.

She looked at me with a piercing gaze, the look in her eyes almost overly innocent rather than angry. I could tell from that look that even if I told her that I wasn’t going to help, she was fully prepared to go by herself.

“If we’re going to do something, it’d be better to have more people with us,” I told her. “Let’s wake up Sudou and the others.”

“Okay,” replied Nanase.

We decided to wake up Sudou, Ike, and Hondou, who were asleep in their tents. After we got the three of them to come out, still half-asleep, we explained the situation while we moved towards the source of the sound. Our field of vision wasn’t that great out in the woods, and it was still quite dark, even now. Plus, we had concerns about not being able to find good footing on this terrain. Because of that, we had to tread carefully, while shining a light on the path at our feet as we pushed onward.

We had a total of three flashlights between all of us. Nanase and I had one each, and Sudou’s group had one more. While I couldn’t say that was enough to provide sufficient lighting for all of us, we just had to make do with what we had on hand. We had decided to bring one tablet with us as well to make sure that we didn’t get lost.

“Well, guess I’ll take the lead,” said Ike, volunteering to lead the group, perhaps doing so because of the situation being what it was.

However, he didn’t seem entirely confident about it.

“I’m terribly sorry, but would you consider refraining from doing so?” asked Nanase.

“Huh? Wh-why?” sputtered Ike.

“Considering the fact that visibility is still poor, I’m afraid I cannot agree to having someone who is technically unreliable take the lead,” Nanase said. “This role should be handled by someone who is adept at dealing with a crisis and can choose the optimal route for us to take.”

“Well, yeah, I guess, but out of all of us here, I’m probably the best one to—”

“Ayanokouji-senpai, could I please ask you to do the honors?” Nanase interrupted. “I will follow your judgment without hesitation if you’re the one giving directions.”

She was asking me to take the lead without even bothering to listen to Ike’s counterargument. Well, I supposed that in a situation like this, every second mattered. If I were to try and come up with some lame excuse about why I shouldn’t lead and draw this argument out further, it would only be a waste of time.

“Nanase, Ike, and I will each take a flashlight,” I decided. “I’ll take the lead, with Nanase behind me. Sudou and Hondou, you’re behind her. Ike, please take the rear.”

Adding nothing else to my explanation, I started walking forward, leading the way for our group without a moment’s hesitation.

“Huh? Wait, what?” said Ike. “Ah, okay, sure, uh… Are you seriously okay with this though, Ayanokouji?”

Just like that, Ike had gotten left behind, still unable to process the fact that I had been made the leader of our group.

“Don’t worry ’bout it, just hurry up, man,” said Sudou, forcefully grabbing Ike by the arm and pulling him along. “Ayanokouji will probably be fine.”

With that, the five of us set out.

“There certainly is a real possibility of injury in a situation like this, isn’t there?” said Nanase.

“Man, I can’t believe this, walkin’ around this early in the morning,” whined Hondou, grumbling and rubbing his sleepy eyes.

“Well, it ain’t that weird or anythin’ actually, to be out and about this early. If our next designated area were super far away, we’d probably have to get goin’ around this time if we were gonna cover that distance,” Sudou reasoned.

School officials seemed to have picked designated areas with some level of consideration for the amount of time it would take us to reach them. With the addition of randomly assigned areas, though, there were more than a few possible scenarios where a group would need to take firm action either early in the morning or late at night. Little by little, we gradually approached the source of the Emergency Alert. Even now, it was still echoing loudly throughout the woods.

Wait, hold on, that’s…

“If somebody’s out there, give us a holler!” Sudou shouted in the direction that the alert was coming from.

Little by little, the alert was growing louder and louder.

There wasn’t any response. We didn’t sense any movement, either.

“Why ain’t they sayin’ anything…? D-do ya think this might be the work of a ghost or somethin’?” Hondou was trembling; perhaps he felt like there was something eerie about the sound of the alert.

“Don’t you think this means that they’re in a situation where they cannot call for help?” said Nanase.

“If that’s true, then this might be seriously bad news,” said Sudou.

At any rate, the only way we’d find out for sure was to continue pressing onward, towards the source of the sound. We held back the urge to rush over there frantically, instead choosing to continue making our way through the dense woods carefully, while shining a light at our feet.

“Don’t you think that the sound seems a little bit peculiar, everyone?” Nanase asked as she continued to walk behind me.

“Peculiar?” said Hondou. “Well, it definitely sounds creepy, probably ’cause it’s coming from the middle of this dark forest…”

“No, that’s not what I—”

I looked over my shoulder at Nanase. “You’re talking about the frequency of the sound, right Nanase?” I said, interrupting the conversation.

She nodded vigorously.

“At first, I had thought the sound was simply echoing because it was coming from deep within the woods,” she said. “But now that we’ve gotten closer, I’ve realized that I was wrong. We’re hearing two sounds.”

An Emergency Alert would sound when someone was in an exceptionally critical condition. The idea of multiple alerts sounding simultaneously wasn’t something that we had really been expecting. However, now that we had come this far, it was clear that was what was happening. The definite rhythm of two Emergency Alerts, blaring at almost the exact same time, could be heard coming from somewhere. It only seemed like it was an echo because they were ringing at slightly contrasting times.

“Dude, this is terrifying… Are you sure it’s okay for us to keep going on ahead…?” whined Hondou feebly, as the path ahead gradually started to incline slightly upward. Since we were approaching an area where two people had encountered significant trouble, in quick succession no less, I supposed that his fears weren’t unreasonable.

Before long, we were close enough that the alerts started getting extremely loud. We briefly came to a stop and began to search the area for the source of the alerts, shining our flashlights around as we searched. Fairly quickly, our flashlights illuminated a figure collapsed on the ground.

Sudou was the first person to recognize the identity of the person we had just discovered. “Hold on, is that…Komiya?!” he shouted.

There was no mistaking it. It was indeed Komiya from Class 2-B.

Sudou rushed over to the collapsed Komiya. “H-hey, come on, man… H-hey, come on, wake up man! Komiya!” He was panicking, perhaps because they were on the basketball team together.

“Senpai…” said Nanase.

“Yeah.”

There wasn’t one alert that had been sounding; there were two. The second alert was still blaring from somewhere several meters away from where Komiya had collapsed. We found that it was coming from Kinoshita Minori, also from Class 2-B. Although Nanase seemed to have been confounded for a moment by the bizarre spectacle, she rushed over toward the collapsed Kinoshita’s side.

I left the matter of checking on Komiya and Kinoshita’s safety to the others while I searched the area, so that I could get an understanding of what had happened here. Shinohara was supposed to have been in Kinoshita and Komiya’s group too, but there wasn’t any sign of her. I couldn’t find either Komiya or Kinoshita’s backpacks either. I found those points concerning.

“Hey, Komiya!” shouted Ike. “What happened to Shinohara?!”

“It’s no use man, he’s not showin’ any sign of wakin’ up…” said Sudou.

I heard them shouting back and forth about what was going on. They then each proceeded to manually shut the Emergency Alerts off on Komiya and Kinoshita’s watches, returning the woods to a state of silence.

“Kinoshita-san doesn’t appear to be regaining consciousness, either. Judging from the dirt on her jersey, and her scrapes and bruises, most likely…” Nanase’s voice trailed off as she looked up at the steep cliff nearby, which stood several meters above where the group stood.

After checking Komiya’s condition, Sudou nodded his head in agreement. Both Sudou and Nanase seemed to think that one of them, either Kinoshita or Komiya, had lost their footing along the steep slope and fell. Then, the other person, in trying to save them, had fallen along with them. Hm.

When I approached the slope, I definitely saw obvious signs that someone had come tumbling down. It was safe to assume that it was Komiya and Kinoshita who had fallen here. Visibility was poor, and it was entirely conceivable that they could have just accidentally veered off their intended path. Also, due to the high degree of humidity and the fact that the ground was slightly damp, it was quite easy to slip and fall.

I pointed my flashlight down towards my feet. The ground was still a bit muddy here and there, so depending on where you stepped, there should be at least some visible footprints. By shining my flashlight on the path, I could just barely make out the footprints that we had left behind when we had come over to check on Komiya and Kinoshita. However, there were also some very faint traces of footprints that did not belong to any one of us. Those footprints did come close to where Kinoshita and Komiya had laid, but then they quickly turned back.

While it was unclear just how relevant this was, this did mean that there was a possibility that another person had been here, other than Kinoshita and Komiya. Was it Shinohara? No, it was difficult to imagine that she would’ve just walked away without rushing over to try and help her teammates. Besides, even if she had left to go call for help, she most definitely would’ve rushed to their sides first to check on them.

When I compared the shoe size of the footprints to the size of my own feet, I discovered that they were a little bit on the small side. My shoe size was twenty-six centimeters. These footprints, on the other hand, looked to be about one point five to two centimeters smaller. Although I couldn’t rule out the possibility that these footprints had been left by a boy, the odds of it being a girl seemed high.

Suddenly sensing another presence in the area, I kept my flashlight pointed down at the ground while heading northwest. The world was still shrouded in darkness, and my field of vision blocked by thick, overgrown trees. I couldn’t see if anyone was there. I wondered if there was some reason this person wasn’t approaching us. Perhaps there was some reason they felt guilty and wanted to remain hidden.

I decided to ignore that presence for the time being and went to check Kinoshita’s trail. I figured that there was a possibility that Kinoshita might have been walking around here before she had lost consciousness. However, I couldn’t find any evidence that suggested that she had walked around the area nearby where she had fallen. I supposed that meant it was safe to assume that those footprints had been left by an unidentified third party, after all.

Kinoshita’s face and clothes were scratched up and dirtied, just like Komiya, but there didn’t appear to be any major external injuries.

“Well, at any rate, I suppose the problem now is what’s going to happen once the teachers arrive…” said Nanase.

The full extent of their injuries was still unknown, but there was no way for Kinoshita and Komiya to avoid being checked out by a medical team. If they really had lost consciousness after falling off the slope, a thorough medical examination was necessary. It’d be difficult to imagine that they wouldn’t end up getting eliminated from the special exam afterward. It was unlikely that either of them would wake up in time and have the wherewithal to be able to smooth things over with a lie.

If Shinohara was in an analogous situation someplace else, then all three members of Komiya’s group would end up getting eliminated all at once. Since none of them had the Insurance Card either, they would inevitably be expelled.

“SHINOHARA!”

Ike shouted Shinohara’s name into the dimly lit woods. If she was in the vicinity, it wouldn’t have been strange if she could hear it and respond, or at the very least give us some kind of signal. The fact that she couldn’t seem to respond, though, seemed to suggest that she might have had some kind of accident like Komiya and Kinoshita after all. Ike was about to run off to go search for her, but I hurriedly rushed over and grabbed hold of him before he could.

“If you go rushing headfirst into the woods without a tablet, you’re likely going to end up getting lost,” I warned him.

“Y-yeah, I know, man, but come on!” shouted Ike.

“Look, I understand that you’re feeling anxious. It is strange that she isn’t answering even though you’re shouting her name,” I told him.

“Y-yeah, which is exactly why I gotta hurry and find her!”

“But if she were seriously injured, then we should be hearing her Emergency Alert going off, like what happened with Komiya and Kinoshita, right?” I reasoned.

Aside from those two Emergency Alerts that we heard earlier, there hadn’t been another sound.

“Well, that’s… Okay, I guess that makes sense…” said Ike.

“Plus, since Shinohara currently isn’t anywhere nearby, we can assume that it’s very unlikely that she had gotten seriously injured,” I added.

“Wait, so you’re saying she might be lost or something…?” said Ike.

That was a definite possibility, of course.

“Ugh…!”

While the five of us were still struggling to wrap our minds around what was going on, we heard a groan come from somewhere.

“Komiya!” Sudou shouted. “Can you hear me? Komiya!”

Komiya seemed to respond to his calls this time, grabbing onto Sudou’s jacket. Apparently, Komiya had regained consciousness. A feeling of relief washed over us, but we quickly found out some more troubling news.

“I-it hurts…” moaned Komiya. “My leg…!”

It looked as though he could still move his right leg, but he wasn’t able to move his left at all. There was a look of agony on his face.

“Dude, your leg…!” cried Sudou.

Judging by how shaken Sudou was, I could grasp what kind of state Komiya was in without needing to see for myself. In order to get an understanding of the situation herself, though, Nanase took a closer look at Kinoshita.

“It’s not just Komiya-kun,” she said. “Kinoshita-san’s left leg appears to be in terrible shape too. I think that it might be broken, in the worst case.”

Not only had the two of them both fallen off the same steep slope, but it also sounded like they had both suffered from a serious accident and had injured their legs. I supposed that I could’ve ascertained the state of their injuries by touching them directly, but it was trivial now.

“If they’ve got any serious contusions or broken bones, then they’re going to get eliminated for sure. No questions asked,” I replied.

It was naturally assumed that as of this current point in time, early in the morning on the fourth day of the exam, no one had been eliminated yet. But it was looking highly likely that the elimination of Komiya’s group was set in stone. Even if Shinohara was safe, it would be difficult for her to accumulate a high number of points all by herself. Moreover, Shinohara herself was still nowhere to be found.

Nevertheless, this coincidence was…

Well, more importantly, there was still that strange presence observing us from the northwest. And yet this person was deliberately choosing to do nothing. They had apparently decided to stay far away and watch us from a distance. At first, the presence was indeed extremely faint. But, as I continued to pretend not to notice it, it only seemed to grow increasingly pronounced. It was almost as if they were telling me to come and find them.

Just then, Nanase left Kinoshita’s side. Kinoshita still hadn’t regained consciousness yet. Nanase leaned in and whispered into my ear.

“Don’t you think that there’s something a little strange about all of this?”

Sudou and the other guys probably didn’t sense it, but there certainly was something off about this situation.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “These two might have gotten themselves caught up in some kind of situation.”

If only one of them had suffered an accidental fall, I could find that reasonable. But the fact that both were in exactly the same situation was concerning.

“Komiya. Can you remember exactly what happened?” I asked.

If I continued to try and speculate on my own, I wasn’t going to make any progress. I decided that it would be better to ask Komiya now that he had woken up. I figured I probably wouldn’t have much time to talk to him before representatives from the school arrived.

“I-I don’t know… It just happened without warning,” said Komiya. “I suddenly felt something hit me in the calf real hard… Next thing I knew, I was rolling down the hill and… Agh…” Komiya’s face twisted in agony as he tried moving his left leg.

“Something hit you?” I asked.

“M-maybe. I don’t really remember… Sorry,” said Komiya.

Apparently, his memory of the incident was fuzzy, but I couldn’t really blame him.

“Kinoshita over there fell too. Do you know what happened to her?” I asked.

“Huh…? N-no, no idea. Why did Kinoshita…? If I remember right, when it…” He trailed off.

Judging from Komiya’s reaction, it didn’t sound like Kinoshita had been the first one to go down. So I supposed that, at the very least, we could assume that Komiya had fallen first.

“That’s right…! Satsuki! Where’s Satsuki?” shouted Komiya, fighting back against the pain. “Did she fall too?!”

Perhaps his memory was gradually starting to become clearer. When Ike looked over at Komiya, hearing him shout Satsuki’s name, his face darkened. Still, this was no time for him to get upset over something so trivial.

“Shinohara’s missing. Were you not traveling together?” I asked.

“Satsuki was… Ugh…!!!”

It seemed like it wasn’t easy for him to keep talking, most likely because of the extreme pain in his left leg.

“You don’t have to push yourself , ” I told him.

“N-no, I’m worried about Satsuki, and… Sorry Sudou, can you help me up…?” asked Komiya.

“S-sure, man, but don’t overdo it,” said Sudou.

Komiya slowly sat up, using Sudou to support himself.

“Komiya, where’s Shinohara?!” shouted Ike.

Naturally, Ike was more concerned about finding Shinohara than anyone else in our group. In fact, even Komiya could pick up that Ike was unable to contain himself.

“…I don’t know… We, I mean, we were trying to rush on ahead, and…” A pained expression flashed on Komiya’s face time and time again as he tried to explain. “So, we were waiting…for Satsuki to come back, and…”

“Hold on, you were waiting? I don’t get what you’re tryin’ to say!” shouted Ike.

Komiya was struggling to get his story straight, unable to do an adequate job of explaining things in context. He shook his head side-to-side a couple of times to compose himself. Then, carefully recounting everything that happened, he worked to set up a timeline of events.

“Let me start over from the beginning,” he said. “We were in a hurry to reach our designated area because we missed two in a row yesterday. So, after talking it out late last night, we came up with a plan to close the distance early in the morning, and… It was still pretty dark out and everything, so we tried to watch out for one another when we got moving that morning. But then, Satsuki said she had to use the bathroom. So, Kinoshita and I waited for her nearby. Of course, we were each using our lights to keep track of where we were and all, but then…”

Komiya was much calmer now than he had been earlier. Even though he was fighting against the pain, his worry for Shinohara was quite palpable.

“While we waited for Satsuki to come back, Kinoshita and I were looking down over the hill there, talking about how maybe we could use it as a shortcut or something. Just as I was thinking that it’d be difficult for us to go that way—”

“That’s when you felt something suddenly hit your calf, right?” said Nanase, having anticipated what Komiya was about to say.

Komiya slowly nodded in response.

“I remember that it hurt like crazy…but I forgot about that pain a second later since I remember rolling down the slope right after… Then, when I came to, Sudou and the rest of you were all here,” said Komiya.

Human limbs certainly weren’t impervious. We could easily find ourselves hurt at a moment’s notice. If Komiya had been the only one who had gotten hurt, you could’ve easily concluded that the pain he felt shoot through his leg was what caused him to fall. That would’ve provided a satisfactory explanation. However, because the same thing happened to Kinoshita too, something about all this didn’t quite add up.

Did she try to help Komiya after seeing that he slipped and fell, only to fall herself? In any case, both the eyes that were watching us right now and those unidentified footprints were concerning.

Rustle .

As I was thinking about what happened, I heard something moving up at the top of the slope. We all pointed our flashlights up in that direction at the same time, but we didn’t see anyone there. The noise could have come from a small animal or something, given how quiet it had been, but…

“Shinohara?!” shouted Ike. He had only just started to regain his composure, but after hearing that sound, he took off running towards the slope.

“Hey, Kanji! Wait, dude! It’s dangerous!” shouted Sudou.

The cries of Ike’s good friend fell on deaf ears, the words echoing throughout the dark woods.

“Senpai, it’s dangerous to let him go off on his own!” shouted Nanase.

“I know,” I replied. “I’m going to leave the tablet with you, so wait here for us.”

Given the situation, I was tempted to rush after him. But Ike was hurriedly trying to climb a steep slope, so a slight delay in me getting to him wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

“But won’t it be a problem for you if you don’t have the tablet with you, senpai?” asked Nanase.

“It’ll just get in the way while I’m trying to climb.”

Besides, having it get in the way while I was trying to climb wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about. The bigger risk was that I could end up dropping it and lose it, in the unlikely event that something happened. Anyway, if I left it with Nanase, it wouldn’t be impossible for her to come and find us if we had some kind of accident.

I quickly set off after Ike. He was frantically scrambling up the slope, climbing with both arms to reach the source of the sound we had heard. He didn’t seem to notice that what he was doing was dangerous. By the time I had caught up to Ike and had overtaken him, I decided to take the lead so that I could show him a path forward. It was clear as day that he would resist if I carelessly tried to bring him back to the others with me.

“A-Ayanokouji?!” he stammered.

When Ike noticed that I had overtaken him, he was shocked. He probably thought that I had come over to stop him from what he was doing, so he panicked, rushing to keep up with me. That panic in turn caused him to get impatient. He stopped paying close attention to his footing, and he slipped, and was just about to fall.

“A-ah…?!”

I quickly reached back and grabbed Ike’s arm tightly as he was about to slip and fall, pulling him back up.

“Can you calm down and follow me?” I said. “If you can’t, then I’m going to bring you back immediately, by force.”

“…O-okay, okay. I’ll follow you, Ayanokouji… Please, just don’t make me go back…” said Ike.

I nodded, and then proceeded to lead him up the steep slope. Although visibility was still poor, the sun’s rays were starting to shine down on the path more and more, little by little. We took our time, carefully climbing up the steep incline. Once we reached the top, we came upon the narrow path that Kinoshita and Komiya must have fallen from.

Ike was down on his hands and knees, struggling to catch his breath, but his eyes were scanning the area. From what I could tell with just a quick glance around, there was no one in sight.

“SHINOHARA!!!” shouted Ike, screaming her name as loudly as he possibly could, desperately hoping that his voice would reach her this time.

There weren’t many viable pathways in the area, so we couldn’t deny the possibility that Shinohara might have actually fallen after all. Then, I discovered three backpacks nearby, which presumably belonged to Komiya, Kinoshita, and Shinohara. As far as I could tell from looking at the outside of the backpacks, there weren’t any signs that someone had rifled through them. Most likely, all three of them had deliberately placed their bags here while Kinoshita and Komiya were waiting for Shinohara to come back from using the bathroom. I could picture in my head the sight of Kinoshita and Komiya discussing whether to try climbing down this slope.

“Damn it! Is she not here?!” shouted Ike, slamming his fist against the ground in frustration, as he still received no response.

That’s when it happened.

“…Ike? Is that you?”

Shinohara had been crouching down amidst some bushes over some distance away from us. When she noticed us, she slowly emerged from her hiding place.

“Shinohara? Shinohara!”

When Shinohara got a good look at us and realized that it was Ike and I, she came rushing over as fast as her legs would carry her. She then threw herself into Ike’s chest, trembling, tears streaming down her face.

“Y-you’ve been here this whole time?” asked Ike.

“Ye… Yeah,” said Shinohara.

“Then you should’ve said something way sooner!” Ike shouted. “Do you have any clue how worried I’ve been?!”

“B-but, I…” sputtered Shinohara.

She seemed to be remembering something that happened. She was shaking like a leaf. Just from seeing her trembling so much, Ike must have understood that she hadn’t been hiding simply to be mean-spirited.

“Wh-what about Komiya-kun and Kinoshita-san?!” she wailed.

“They’re at the bottom of the slope,” Ike said. “They’re both hurt really bad. What in the hell happened?”

If her teammates had simply slipped and fallen, then Shinohara would have been frantically trying to help them. But considering she didn’t do that, and instead chose to stay hidden in the bushes, then something wasn’t right.

“I-I couldn’t move… I was so scared, so scared…a-and I…I saw…”

“Saw what?!” asked Ike.

“…I saw someone… I saw someone push Komiya-kun and Kinoshita-san,” said Shinohara.

Then what happened to her two teammates had not been a simple accident.

“Someone? Who? Who was it?!” shouted Ike.

“I-I don’t know who! I don’t know! …Why would someone do something like that?!” she wailed.

Ike clenched his teeth in frustration as he watched her collapse onto the ground, sobbing deeply. What we could assume, based on what Shinohara was saying, was that she had hidden in the bushes because she had been afraid that this someone might have found her too. In that case, it was perfectly understandable why she didn’t immediately rush over to try to help her teammates or respond to Ike’s calls.

Though there wasn’t exactly any conclusive evidence that backed up what she was saying, Shinohara wasn’t the kind of student who could come up with a story with a made-up villain like that. Still, it would’ve been nearly an impossible task for this someone to have managed to sneak up behind two people without either of them noticing. Not only that, but if they had been using a flashlight, that would’ve basically announced their presence to their targets. That meant this person had been operating in the dark with low visibility.

I decided to change the direction of the conversation a bit, posing a question to Shinohara.

“Do you remember seeing anyone else around between last night and now? If someone did do this on purpose, then suspicion would fall on any groups camping nearby,” I asked.

“I think it was after 8:30 last night, after it had gotten dark… Let’s see, there were some… Yeah, I remember we came across a group of first-year students camping out… We passed by them on our way,” said Shinohara, pointing north.

“Do you know any of their names?” I asked. “Even if you know just one of them, that would be helpful.”

“I’m sorry, I still don’t know any of the first-year students’ names,” Shinohara said. “All I remember is that there were three girls and one boy.”

If that was really all she knew, then I couldn’t exactly say that what she provided was especially useful information. But if some first-year students had attacked Komiya and Kinoshita as part of some kind of practical joke, then I supposed we’d find the culprits soon enough.

“For the time being, let’s just head back down and meet up with Sudou and the other guys. It won’t be long before the teachers get here,” I reasoned.

“R-right,” said Ike.

Since going back down the way we came would’ve been risky for both Shinohara and Ike, we took a slight detour.

6.1

A BOUT FIVE MINUTES had passed since Ayanokouji-senpai had taken off up the slope after Ike-senpai. I gently laid Kinoshita-senpai, who I had been holding in my arms, down onto the ground. Then I stood up, and quietly gazed out into the woods behind me.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” asked Sudou-senpai, apparently suspicious of me.

I felt sorry for him, but I didn’t have the time to answer his questions. Someone was clearly trying to provoke us. Someone had been watching us this entire time. Even though this person had made their presence known to us, they didn’t show themselves. Well, to be perfectly honest, while it was obvious to me that there was someone here, this person’s presence would’ve been barely noticeable to someone ordinary.

How long had this person been making their presence known, exactly? It had been about since Ayanokouji-senpai had gone running up the slope earlier. They were continuously giving off this palpable sense of presence, so much so that you could practically feel it in the very air. I didn’t know their reasons for doing this nor what was going on exactly, but no matter.

Whoever they were, it seemed like it would be well worth just getting some information from them, considering the circumstances. I gently placed the tablet down on the ground, and steadied my breathing. Whoever this person was, they had noticed that I had picked up on their presence, but they still hadn’t moved. They might have been confident in their speed, but I was quite confident in my own abilities.

“Sudou-senpai. Please watch those two!”

“Huh? Ah, hey!”

The only thing I could be certain of at the moment was that there was someone watching us right now. I kicked off the ground and broke into a full sprint in the direction of the presence I had sensed. Even if they tried to escape in a hurry, I should be able to catch up to them when they turned and tried to run. If they happened to catch their foot on something, even if it only caused them a slight delay or stumble, then I should be able to catch them and force them to talk.

The distance between us must have been between ten and twenty meters at the most. As the morning sun started to rise higher, my field of vision began to open up more and more. Even though footing wasn’t great in this area, it wouldn’t take long before I managed to catch up to them. However…!

“So fast!”

I managed to grab hold of the mystery person’s jersey cuff for just a brief second, but they were just too quick. The mystery person, by making clever use of the trees in the area, deftly managed to evade me while at the same time revealing nothing about their identity. I chased after them at full speed, but I wasn’t managing to close the distance between us. Rather, they just got further and further away from me.

“Grr!”

If we were simply comparing running speed, then I couldn’t imagine that there was that significant of a difference between us. Somehow, my opponent understood the terrain completely, and was choosing the perfect, most direct paths as they continued to run away from me. How could they possibly know how to do that? While I knew that I didn’t know the lay of the land as well as my opponent did, I still tried my absolute hardest to catch up to them.

“Please wait! I just want to talk to you!” I shouted at my opponent as they quickly darted away deeper into the woods, but they showed no signs of stopping. It wasn’t like they couldn’t hear me. It was more likely that they were simply ignoring me. In that case, I could conclude that the person running from me was indeed suspicious. So, then, I decided to change my strategy.

“Those two are greatly injured because of something that you did, aren’t they?!” I shouted, deliberately saying something accusatory in an attempt to agitate them.

If I could manage to make my opponent make some kind of mistake before I made one, then I could catch up to them in an instant. Even if I was wrong about what was going on here, if I could just get them to trip and fall, that would be all I needed. However, rather than showing any signs of faltering at all, they seemed to actually pick up speed instead.

I had trained so much that I felt confident I wouldn’t lose to anyone else. At least, not to anyone at this school. But despite that, the distance between me and my opponent continued to widen more and more. At some times during our chase, I did seem to manage to gain on my opponent somewhat, but it was never for very long. That was a clear indication of my opponent’s superiority over me.

They were deliberately provoking me via their actions, as if they were telling me, “Come on, try and catch me, if you can.” Even so, I was continuing to chase after them, refusing to give up until the bitter end. If I couldn’t make them slip up somehow as they continued to evade me, then… I’d win in a battle of stamina. Just as I came to that determination, I managed to catch sight of my opponent’s hair swaying as they ran in front of me, though only for an instant.

“Wait, is that—?!”

That person’s distinctive hair color and hairstyle were almost burned into my eyes, committed into my memory. I could clearly recognize those features.

“Grr…!”

As I continued to give chase through the woods, my foot got caught on the roots of a tree, bringing my efforts to an abrupt end.

“Huff, huff…!”

I had gotten tripped up because I had gotten distracted. I was caught off guard upon realizing an unexpected truth. The fatigue that had been building up in me suddenly washed over me, and I realized that I was completely out of breath.

“Huff, huff… Huff, huff…!”

I closed my eyes, trying to slow down my heart, which was racing right now. Although I hadn’t been able to get a good look at whoever that was, I didn’t have any doubts about their identity.

“Don’t tell me, you …pushed Komiya-senpai and Kinoshita-senpai…? But, why…?”

I continued staring off into the woods for a while longer, as though I were still searching for any sign of the person who had vanished amongst the trees.

6.2

T HE DETOUR I TOOK with Shinohara and Ike took us about fifteen minutes. When we managed to find a path back down, we just so happened to reunite with Nanase, who seemed to have been walking alone.

“What are you doing here, Nanase?” I asked.

Sudou and the others should have still been a fair distance from where we were now.

“That’s… Um, well, I wasn’t able to see you and Ike-senpai anymore, so I went looking for you, and…” She trailed off.

Nanase was clearly out of breath and sweat was trickling down her forehead. It looked like she must have been in quite a hurry to look for us, but her eyes had been looking elsewhere.

“Are you searching for something?” I asked.

“No, please don’t worry about it,” she replied, not going into the matter any further. I noticed that she continued to keep her gaze fixed on the same point, with a stiff expression on her face.

Then, almost as though a switch had been flipped inside her brain, Nanase looked over at Shinohara.

“I’m glad that you managed to find Shinohara-senpai safely,” she said, letting out a genuine sigh of relief upon seeing Shinohara next to Ike.

I had been walking out in front of Ike and Shinohara, so I waited for a bit for them to catch up with me as I was talking with Nanase.

“Sudou-senpai and the others are over this way,” said Nanase.

Since Nanase had a clear understanding of which route to take back, she showed us the way. In the meantime, I decided to tell Nanase about what Shinohara had told me just before.

Specifically, I told Nanase that Shinohara said she saw someone push Komiya and Kinoshita, but that she didn’t know whether it was a boy or a girl who did it. I also mentioned how Shinohara had been hiding, quietly holding her breath, out of fear of being discovered by this person. Then, I shared one more piece of valuable information.

“It seems like Shinohara and her teammates passed by a group of first-year students last night.”

“First-year students?” repeated Nanase.

“Presumably, they were camping somewhere nearby,” I replied. “But Shinohara only said that they had passed each other by, so we can’t conclude that they’re the culprits for sure.”

“That’s true. Still, I have to wonder who those first-year students are? If we knew that, then we might be able to investigate and find some kind of clue,” said Nanase.

Even if those students were somewhere in the area, finding them in these dense, overgrown woods was going to be difficult. It might be a slightly different story if that group of students had continued to stay in a particular location for an extended period of time, but everyone was constantly on the move, in search of their next destination in the exam. In fact, it was probably better to assume that they were somewhere far away by now, even as we spoke.

Still, the fact that it was first-years was nagging at me. If one of those students was the White Room agent, then they’d obviously be able to do something as daring as pushing another student off a cliff without batting an eye. Nanase remained silent for a while, but finally opened her mouth to speak once more.

“Senpai,” she said. “Supposing, if… If there really was someone out there willing to cause such significant harm, don’t you find it strange that Komiya-senpai didn’t notice anyone?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You would think that if someone had showed up, there would have been some back-and-forth, and that Komiya would have remembered seeing someone.”

Even if Komiya had run into an upperclassman or first-year student whose name he didn’t know, he would’ve said something to us about it. However, his memory of the incident was fuzzy, and based on what he was saying, there was no conclusive evidence that he had necessarily been attacked. Had it really been just a simple accident?

Or had someone managed to greatly injure both Komiya and Kinoshita without being noticed? Assuming that it was darker out when it happened than it was now, then surely whoever came upon them must have had a light of some kind.

“If it were you, Ayanokouji-senpai, would you have been able to hurt Kinoshita-senpai and Komiya-senpai so badly without them noticing you?” asked Nanase.

“Me? Don’t talk nonsense,” I replied.

I was dodging the question, but, actually, if I set my mind to it, it wouldn’t have been impossible for me. According to Komiya’s testimony, he had fallen after feeling something strike his calf with great force. So, I could’ve silently approached him from behind, and kicked his calf to send him tumbling. After doing so, he would’ve been rolling down the slope, face twisted in agony. He probably wouldn’t have the time to turn and look at me before he fell.

“As for me… Well, supposing I had been the one who attacked Komiya-senpai and Kinoshita-senpai, then… I don’t think it would be impossible for me, depending on the timing. Though, it would be extremely difficult, of course,” concluded Nanase.

Rather than believing that Shinohara had simply made the whole thing up, Nanase seemed to think that there had been someone who attacked them. But even if there was a culprit out there, it was completely unclear what their purpose was for attacking Komiya and Kinoshita, or and what benefit they’d get from it. Was it to send me a warning, albeit indirectly? No, the risks were far too great, if that were the case.

Were they perhaps trying to illustrate that they weren’t afraid of taking such large risks? Or I supposed that it could also be possible that they had been forced to act due to some unforeseen accident. Still, none of these theories sounded very convincing at present. It was entirely conceivable that the perpetrator wasn’t the White Room agent. There might not even be a perpetrator at all.

“I suppose we still don’t understand the reason why they were attacked in the first place, though,” Nanase said.

She had arrived at the same train of thought I had, at almost the exact same time. The reason they were attacked. In trying to come up with an answer for what happened in this situation, that was the most puzzling part.

Not long afterward, we returned to where Sudou and the others were waiting. Nothing had changed since we left.

“Now, the question is when the teachers will arrive,” I muttered.

We were somewhere in the northeast part of the island. It would take them a fair amount of time to get here, even if they were coming by boat or helicopter. Thirty minutes had already passed since the Emergency Alert first went off, but there was still no sign of anyone coming yet.

Just then, though, as if to give us a signal that the situation was about to change, several students appeared on the scene.

“Um, excuse us… Did something happen?” they asked.

Nanase and I briefly exchanged looks with one another. The group who had called out to us was made up of first-year students. There was Mitsui Ayumi from Class 1-A, Dougami Mitsuko from Class 1-B, Tsubaki Sakurako from Class 1-C, and Makita Takashige from Class 1-D. Their group had a total of three girls and one boy—which matched up perfectly with the testimony that Shinohara had given a short while ago. Ike, as someone who had heard Shinohara’s testimony firsthand, eyed the four students with a look of suspicion.

“There’s been some trouble,” I replied. “These two students tripped and fell down this slope. They’ve gotten hurt badly.”

Upon hearing my response, the first-year students exchanged looks.

“We were camping nearby,” said one of them. “We heard an alert, and we heard something that sounded kind of like someone shouting… We waited for it to get a bit brighter outside, and then we headed on over to check out the situation, just in case.”

Well, yes, the alert had been blaring quite loudly. It must have been ear-piercing if you were in the surrounding area.

“Anyway, are the injured people all right?” asked Dougami, taking the lead and speaking up as the representative for her group.

She looked quite flustered by the sight, as did Makita. Tsubaki, by contrast, was quite calm. Despite being surrounded by upperclassmen, two of whom were seriously injured, she didn’t seem fazed at all.

“They don’t look like they’re all right, but we’re no experts,” I said. “We can’t tell for sure. Right now, we’re just waiting for the teachers to arrive.”

Another thirty minutes had passed after the first-year students had shown up. Then, roughly a full hour after the initial Emergency Alert went off, representatives from the school finally arrived. The first to appear was the homeroom instructor for Class 2-B, Sakagami-sensei, and then our own homeroom instructor, Chabashira. There were three other adults with them, who I assumed were medical personnel. In total, it was a team of five people.

“I’m sorry to start right away by asking questions, but could you please tell us what happened here?” said Sakagami-sensei. He approached Komiya, who was sitting up, and Kinoshita, who was still lying unconscious.

Students started gathering around the area as though they were looking in on an investigation at a crime scene. Seeing this, I distanced myself from the rest of the group and approached Chabashira, who had been looking over in my direction.

“Even from just a brief glance, it looks like it’ll be difficult for Komiya and Kinoshita to continue the exam,” I observed.

“Yes,” said Chabashira. “I think that elimination is unavoidable, in this case.” She had a dispirited look on her face, most likely because one of the students from Komiya’s group was from her class.

“Was it a simple accident?” I asked.

“I think we’ll be finding out soon enough,” she replied.

After seeing that the two injured students were now being given medical care, Sakagami-sensei approached the remaining member of the group, Shinohara, to ask her for an explanation for what happened. However, as soon as Shinohara took another look at the state her two teammates were in, she burst into tears again.

“Crying is not going to help us understand the situation here,” Sakagami-sensei admonished Shinohara sternly.

Upon hearing that, Ike stepped forward, to cover for Shinohara. “Um, ’scuse me, would it be okay if I explained what happened? Shinohara told me everything,” he said.

Apparently, Ike wanted to explain the situation to Sakagami-sensei on Shinohara’s behalf.

“Well…I suppose that’s fine,” Sakagami-sensei replied. “Please tell us what happened.”

“Shinohara said that they were pushed,” said Ike.

Sakagami-sensei looked over at the slope that they had fallen from as he listened to what Ike was saying. It looked as though he found the idea hard to believe.

“Pushed…?” he repeated. “That’s quite troubling.”

“That means they won’t be eliminated then, in that case, right?” said Ike. “Right?”

“If it’s true that’s what happened, then yes, you’re absolutely right,” said Sakagami-sensei.

“What do you mean, ‘if it’s true’? Shinohara said so herself!” shouted Ike.

“Well, do you have any kind of evidence?” asked Sakagami-sensei.

After being asked that question, both Ike and Shinohara were at a loss for words.

“B-but, come on, we’re not at school or anything,” wailed Ike, “so it’s not like there’s any surveillance cameras around!”

“However, if they were pushed, someone must have seen the perpetrator’s face, at least,” countered Sakagami-sensei.

“That’s—” said Ike, before being cut off by Sakagami-sensei as he turned back to Shinohara.

“What do you say, Shinohara-san?” he said. “Don’t just sit there crying. Why not give me an answer?”

The only evidence that we had right now was the testimony of Shinohara, the third member of the group of the students who had been injured. I could try to bring up the footprints I had spotted earlier, but by now, the entire area had already been trampled by a large number of people. Even if I were to say that I spotted someone’s footprints, it wouldn’t prove anything.

“I-it was dark, and… Hic ,” squeaked Shinohara.

“It was dark? So, you’re saying that because it was dark out, you couldn’t get a look at the person’s face, or people’s faces, then?” said Sakagami-sensei.

Shinohara quickly nodded her head yes, and Sakagami-sensei let out a deep sigh.

“So, it was dark enough outside that you couldn’t see their face, and yet you clearly saw your teammates get pushed… That’s what you’re saying?” said Sakagami-sensei. “Well, I hate to say it, but that’s an awfully convenient story, wouldn’t you agree?”

He then got closer to Shinohara as she continued crying, telling her to come out and speak the truth. Shinohara was crying so hard that she couldn’t even manage to speak, so she just kept nodding her head, trying her best to appeal to him that it was true.

“Shinohara would never lie!” shouted Ike.

“You’re her classmate. It’s obvious you would say something like that,” countered Sakagami-sensei.

“Are you sayin’ you don’t believe her?” shouted Ike.

“If what she is saying is true, then this is quite a serious matter,” said Sakagami-sensei. “However, her testimony alone is not sufficient proof.”

“No way! Then, what’s gonna happen to Komiya and Kinoshita?!” Ike cried.

“Well, regardless, I’d have to say that their only real option is elimination,” Sakagami-sensei replied. “As their homeroom teacher, I certainly can’t say that I’m thrilled about having two of my students withdraw from the exam, either. But when you look at the state of their legs, it would be impossible for them to continue.”

It wasn’t as though Sakagami-sensei was intentionally trying to be unkind. It was simply that their injuries weren’t so slight that they’d be up and walking again in a day or two.

“Considering the current situation, we have no choice but to conclude that Shinohara is lying to us, in an attempt to fool us into thinking that they didn’t simply sustain injuries as a result of an accident,” he added.

“You’ve gotta be friggin’ kidding me! How in the hell would anybody buy that load of crap?!” shouted Ike, fighting back passionately as he held onto Shinohara’s shoulders.

However, the response he got back from Sakagami-sensei was quite cold. “I will forget that outburst I just heard. But only this once. Do you understand?”

“Ngh…!”

Ike, realizing that he just took things too far with a teacher, bit down on his lip. He and Shinohara had been desperately pleading their case this whole time, but if you watched how Sakagami-sensei was reacting to the situation, you’d understand why he was acting so dismissive.

“It would seem you’ve already figured several things out, Chabashira-sensei,” I said, turning to Chabashira.

She nodded quietly, still standing beside me.

“We relied on Komiya and Kinoshita’s GPS signals in getting here. Komiya’s Emergency Alert went off at precisely 4:56:24 this morning. Kinoshita’s alert went off seven seconds later. The only other GPS signal that we picked up in that area during that timeframe was Shinohara’s,” said Chabashira, looking down at her tablet.

I knew it. I was sure Sakagami-sensei had this same information, as well. If there had been even a single suspicious GPS signal in the area, then there would have been some room to suspect that a student might have done something nefarious. However, based on the GPS data that the teachers picked up, they couldn’t confirm that there was any kind of ‘suspect’ in the first place. In that case, the teachers could only assume that Shinohara had made up a story about some unknown third party as a kind of ruse to save her teammates because she didn’t want them to get eliminated.

“The first people to arrive on the scene after Komiya and Kinoshita’s alarms went off were you five, Ayanokouji,” Chabashira said. “Then those four first-year students got here. Finally, we arrived too.”

There was no record of anyone else coming upon Komiya’s group before us. It was safe to assume that this information must be at least somewhat believable. In that case, did that mean it was possible…that the culprit wasn’t a student? The teachers didn’t have to wear the watches, so they wouldn’t have a GPS signal to track. Well, wait… That didn’t sound right.

I did have one hypothesis that I had been forming, but there were many issues still nagging at me, such as the fact that Sakagami-sensei and his colleagues didn’t seem to have a full grasp of the situation themselves.

“Chabashira-sensei. You’re going to be heading back to the starting area with Komiya and Kinoshita, yes?” I asked.

“Yeah. We’ll need to have them undergo a more thorough examination for their injuries onboard the ship,”

“There’s something I’d like you to investigate, while you’re at it. Discreetly,” I added.

I then leaned in and whispered something into her ear. Although she was somewhat surprised by my request, she nodded, agreeing to do what I’d asked. With that out of the way, I had other things I needed to deal with. With Komiya and Kinoshita’s elimination essentially set in stone, Shinohara would be left all alone. I was sure that, for Shinohara, just the idea of managing to make it through today and tomorrow on her own would seem hopeless and impossible.

“I just can’t… I just can’t, anymore… There’s no way I can do this alone…!” she wailed, sobbing.

Ike, seeing Shinohara breaking down and falling to her knees, was unable to find the right words. He simply stood there, completely stunned, looking like he had no idea what to do. I wasn’t the only one who noticed Ike looking like that, either. Komiya, right before he was carried away by several students, had also noticed.

“Ike…C’mere,” said Komiya.

“Wh-what?” said Ike.

Komiya had called out to Ike, beckoning for him to come within arm’s reach. Then, pushing through the pain that was shooting through his body, Komiya reached out, grabbed Ike by the shoulder, and forcefully pulled him in close so that he was close to Komiya’s mouth.

“Show her yer a man.”

After those few short words, Komiya laid back down, practically collapsing onto the stretcher. Komiya had been planning to tell Shinohara that he had feelings for her during this exam on the uninhabited island. But from the sounds of things, he hadn’t managed to do so yet. Perhaps, contrary to what he had expected, Shinohara had come up to Komiya beforehand and asked him for advice about Ike. If she had done that, then Komiya should have understood that Shinohara cared for Ike. And so, Komiya had entrusted Shinohara, the girl he was determined to protect, over to Ike, his romantic rival.

“Man,” said Sudou, “this is just crazy…”

I was sure that Sudou understood everything as he saw Komiya getting carried away. It wasn’t just his own classmates who were maturing. Komiya and the others were also maturing day by day, just like Sudou had been.

Just then, Nanase spoke up, offering a suggestion to Shinohara to help her get through this difficult situation.

“You could choose to take the bare minimum amount of supplies you’ll need with you and wait near the starting point,” she said. “You will not be able to collect any points from visiting designated areas, but you’ll be able to avoid getting eliminated, at the very least, by going with that option.”

It was certainly true that this was the best possible strategy that Shinohara could go with, as someone working alone. She would have to hope that the other groups would start getting eliminated during the remaining ten days that we had left on the uninhabited island. But, of course, if no other groups did get eliminated, then Shinohara’s expulsion would become an inevitability.

“Shinohara,” said Chabashira. “It’s not like I’m trying to say that I’m expecting you’ll get expelled, but… What are you going to do? It’ll be quite difficult for you to carry on in this exam by yourself.”

“Y-yes, I understand…” said Shinohara.

“In any case, you could simply return to the port, as Nanase suggested, and hold out until the exam is over. That is one option. Besides,” Chabashira added, “it wouldn’t be impossible for you to pick up any Tasks that appear in the surrounding area.”

While cruel, what Chabashira and Nanase had proposed was still the best option that Shinohara could take on her own. If she tried to push ahead and continue taking the test all by herself as normal, then she’d most likely soon run out of steam. After exhausting her stamina and her provisions, she would end up being eliminated.

However, if Shinohara changed the way she approached handling this exam, such as by asking for some support from groups that passed by as she patiently waited things out near the port, then she might be able to at least make it through to the end of the exam. It was certainly a far better option than the other possibility that lay before her right now, which was expulsion. Shinohara, wiping away her tears, slowly nodded her head.

“I hope that you’ll manage to get back to the starting area on your own, somehow,” said Chabashira.

“Yes… I understand,” replied Shinohara.

Because representatives from the school couldn’t get involved directly, that meant that Shinohara would have to head back to the port by herself. Then, Shinohara, bag in hand, started to walk away. As she was just about to leave though, Ike rushed over and grabbed her by the arm.

“…What?” said Shinohara.

“Whaddya mean, ‘what’? Are you really okay with just headin’ back to the starting area and waiting?” asked Ike.

“What other choice do I have?” said Shinohara. “Komiya-kun and Kinoshita-san aren’t here anymore… There is absolutely no way I can make it through this special exam on my own and come out on top. It’s impossible.”

“But, but—!”

“Whatever, I’m going to get expelled anyway, so just leave me alone!” Shinohara yelled, jerking herself free from Ike’s grasp and hurriedly trying to get away.

“Ngh…”

Ike clenched his teeth, frozen in place. The old Ike probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything more at this point. However, Komiya’s unseen hand was at Ike’s back, pushing him forward.

“I… I’ll do something about it!” Ike shouted, as Shinohara continued to walk away.

“Just stop. It’s obviously impossible, anyway,” replied Shinohara, continuing ahead without listening to what Ike had said.

“It’s not impossible!” shouted Ike.

Ike, having realized that he couldn’t just stand there and watch her go, rushed over as quickly as he could, once again grabbing Shinohara by the arm.

“Let me go…!” huffed Shinohara.

“I ain’t gonna let you go. You really think I’m just going to let you get expelled ’cause of all this?!”

“Well, why not?” said Shinohara. “Besides, this has nothing to do with you, does it, Ike? Actually, if I end up getting expelled, then that just means the chances you have of getting expelled will go down, right, Ike? Does that make you happy?”

“Happy…? The hell are you talking about, there’s no way I’d be happy about that!” shouted Ike.

“Huh…?”

“I mean, uh, we’d probably lose a ton of Class Points if you get expelled… And, uh, I gotta stop that from happenin’! Yeah. So that’s why I’m gonna lend you a hand, to make sure that doesn’t happen!”

“Well, I guess that’s true, but… But wait if your group falls into the bottom of the rankings because you’re helping me? What then? And on top of that, it’d just be a bother to Sudou-kun and Hondou-kun, anyway.”

“Well, I—”

“You just never think, do you, Ike? If you keep being that way, eventually, you’re going to get expelled yourself , ” said Shinohara.

Then, wearing a somewhat exasperated smile on her face, Shinohara gently shook off Ike’s hand.

“Anyway, I’m not going to give up, I’m going to hold on for as long as I can. So, you do your best too, Ike,” said Shinohara.

Shinohara had rejected Ike’s offer, saying that she didn’t have any need for his help.

“W-wait…!”

The confident bluster that Ike had up until this point was nowhere to be seen, completely vanishing without a trace. As Shinohara continued to walk into the distance, there was nothing more he could do to stop her.

“Kanji,” Sudou called out to his friend. He had a bold grin on his face, thumping his chest to wordlessly tell Ike not to worry so much.

Ike, after getting some moral support from his best friend, tried to take another step forward. “Wait… Wait, Shinohara… I… I just… I’m… Well…” he sputtered, desperately trying to get the words out, but he just couldn’t seem to find the right ones.

The words were right there on the tip of his tongue, but they just weren’t coming out. Just one final push. The final stretch. However, neither Sudou, nor Nanase, nor I could make Ike say those words. The only person who could do it was Ike himself. In the end, though he still feared the consequences of what might come, he had no choice but to suppress those feelings of fear and take that step forward.

“Wait, I said!” he shouted.

“J-jeez, you scared me. Okay, okay, I heard you… Was there still something you wanted to say?” she asked.

“Yes, there is! I have somethin’ big to say! I don’t want you to get expelled, so I’m gonna save you!” shouted Ike.

That…certainly wasn’t what you might call a beautiful, romantic declaration of love. Even so, there was no doubt at all that Ike’s words were filled with his utmost emotion.

“Yeah!” shouted Sudou. “If that’s what Kanji’s decided, then let’s get down to discussin’ strategies, Ryoutarou!”

“Y-yeah,” replied Hondou.

Sudou and Hondou both circled around behind Ike, to support him. Then, they waved over to Shinohara, beckoning her to come over.

“Huh…? What? Are you guys stupid or something? I mean, you shouldn’t be wasting your time with someone like me, and…” Shinohara trailed off.

Shinohara still wasn’t walking back over to him, but Ike was unable to wait for her any more. He ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm once again, fiercely determined to not let her go. Upon seeing this spectacle, even the normally indifferent, detached Chabashira cracked a little smile. Perhaps she had decided that everything was going to be all right now, because she proceeded to disappear back into the woods, following Sakagami-sensei and the others.

All that being said, Ike couldn’t exactly afford to be overly optimistic. Saving Shinohara wasn’t going to be that easy.

Now that the four of them had gathered together, I decided to offer a suggestion. “In order to save Shinohara for sure, it is absolutely essential that she join up with a group that has at least three open spaces for extra group members,” I said.

It was difficult to say whether Sudou and his teammates would be able to win those three extra spaces for teammates on their own. It wasn’t a sure thing.

“Asking for help from people in our same class would be the most realistic option, right?” said Ike.

“I think that would normally be true,” said Nanase, “but given the rules for this special exam, it is impossible to find out, at least in an indirect manner, which groups have earned the right to increase their group limit size. Also, what group would accept Shinohara-senpai into their own so easily, when she’s already had two members from her group get eliminated? Their score would most certainly be lowered as a result of merging with Shinohara-senpai’s group. A group would only be taking on additional risks by merging with her. In that case, it might be more realistic for Shinohara-senpai to focus on accumulating points by herself rather than hurriedly running about, trying to join with another group. Don’t you think she ought to steadily build up her points while simultaneously taking on any Tasks that appear when she has time available?”

Nanase was recommending that Shinohara give up on the idea of trying to merge with a group and instead focus on getting points by herself.

“But it would be best to assume that there will hardly be any Tasks that Shinohara can get a high ranking in all by herself , ” I said. “She’ll have to hope for some kind of unexpected coincidence or good luck, like a situation where there’s a lack of participants.”

“Is there really no way she could join up with another group smoothly, Ayanokouji?” asked Sudou, hoping I might have any ideas to help Shinohara navigate this tricky situation.

“Well, it’s not like it’s impossible,” I replied. “I do have a plan that could work, with a high rate of probability.”

“R-really?” exclaimed Sudou. “What kinda plan?!”

For a moment, I considered telling them, but I ultimately decided against it. If I told them about this strategy right here and now, I was sure that a ray of hope would be born amidst their despair. But, at the same time, it would weaken their resolve to save Shinohara. So, it was difficult to say whether it was a good idea to share it. It was important that Ike and his teammates stayed on their toes until the very end of this special exam.

Besides, there were several things that had to be done to make that strategy a reality anyway. I started walking to where the luggage was located, and I instructed Nanase to get ready, as well.

“H-hey, Ayanokouji? What plan?” repeated Sudou.

“The only thing you can do right now is have Ike take the lead in protecting Shinohara,” I replied. “Then, earn as many points as you possibly can. Beyond that, if you have the chance, you’ll obviously need to take on any Tasks that will let you increase your maximum group size.”

“What are you gonna do?” she asked.

“I’m going to start putting together a contingency plan in case of an unlikely emergency,” I said. This was precisely why I didn’t have the time to stick around here with Ike and the others. “But, like I said earlier, there’s no guarantee. Furthermore, if any of our other classmates happen to fall into the bottom five of the rankings, then… Well, when that time comes, we might need to make a decision about who to save.”

I wanted to let them know well in advance that there was a possibility we’d have to abandon Shinohara. As long as it was a certainty that the bottom five groups in this special exam would be subject to penalty, then it was inevitable that it wouldn’t be possible to save some students.

“Don’t forget that, Ike,” I added.

“…I got it,” said Ike.

About two and a half hours after that whole ordeal started, we finally arrived back at our campsite with Shinohara in tow. It looked as though Kei and her teammates who had been camping nearby had already left in search of their next designated area. The backpacks that Komiya and Kinoshita had left behind were brought over by Sudou and Ike, respectively.

“Sudou, take care of Ike and the others. Out of everyone, you’re the one most capable of making the most levelheaded decisions,” I told him.

“R-right, leave it to me,” Sudou.

Since our designated area had already been announced, I got my tablet back from Nanase as I was taking care of some other arrangements.

“I would imagine you’ve used up quite a bit of energy since this morning…” I said, turning to Nanase.

“Please do not worry. I still have enough stamina to keep up,” she assured me.

Starting today, the fourth day of the exam, the top ten and bottom ten groups would be revealed. This was also the day when we’d start being able to take Tasks that would allow for large groups to be formed. If those rewards did appear among the available Tasks, I’m sure that the competition would be fierce and those Tasks would immediately reach full capacity. First, though, we needed to check our designated areas.

Our designated area was G3, which meant that we needed to travel north from our current location on the island. We were already thirty minutes behind schedule. It was probably impossible for us to get the Early Bird Bonus this time around. It would likely take us over an hour to reach our destination with the route we were taking, but I was feeling curious, so I decided to check out the rankings. Though I was interested in knowing what groups were in the lead, it was much more important to check who was in the bottom five—that is to say, to know which groups were running the risk of getting penalized and expelled.

Without a word, Nanase looked over and peeked at my tablet as well. The bottom ten groups were arranged neatly in a list. Not only did it list the members of each group and their scores, but a host of other details were also provided.

“This is—”

Out of all the groups in the bottom ten, seven of them were groups composed of students solely from classes 3-B and 3-D. The group in last place was a three-person team composed of students from Class 3-D, with a total score of twenty-one points. Five of their points came from Tasks, while the other sixteen points were simply rewards for arriving at the designated areas. However, that particular three-person group did have someone get eliminated on the very first day of the exam, so there was some room for sympathy.

The remaining three groups in the bottom ten included one group of second-year students, and two groups of first-year students. That particular group of second-year students was a three-person team made up of my classmates Akito, Haruka, and Airi.

“It would appear that some people from your class are in a dangerous position, senpai,” said Nanase.

Currently, they were ranked ninth from the bottom, with a total of twenty-eight points. They were doing much worse than I had expected. I supposed that was probably because it took a considerable degree of stamina to keep traveling to the designated areas. Airi in particular was lacking when it came to stamina, so with her in the group, it would probably be difficult for them to earn that many Arrival Bonuses.

Those two groups of first-year students, on the other hand, were both two-person teams. When you considered the fact that the first-years were allowed to form four-person teams right at the start, it made sense that competition among them was stiffer, as many of them must be scoring a fair number of points.

“At any rate, this is quite a surprise,” Nanase mused. “To think that so many third-year students would be at the bottom of the rankings…”

Although it certainly was a bit of a shock, I couldn’t imagine that they were in the bottom of the rankings simply due to incompetence. I decided to hold off on checking the top rankings until later and told Nanase what we should be doing right now.

“I’m planning to shoot for the Arrival Bonus for G3, for the time being,” I said. “However, I’ll most likely skip the designated areas after that for a little while.”

“Then there is somewhere you wish to go, even if that means ignoring designated areas?” asked Nanase.

“Yeah. If you want to continue shooting for those designated areas, then we’ll just have to go our separate ways, Nanase,” I replied.

“No, I’ll accompany you,” she said. “Besides, as long as Amasawa-san or Housen-kun arrive at those areas, it won’t be counted as a miss for our group… Moreover, this has something to do with that plan you’ve come up with to save Shinohara-senpai, doesn’t it?”

I responded with a small nod and then walked onward. Once we reached G3, we’d make our way back to the starting area. I wanted to make it back there by sometime tomorrow, if possible.