Making the flower pin wasn't too difficult in the end. It might have taken all of us to actually make it, but the directions in the books explained things well. It was actually pretty fun doing it with everyone pitching in. Truthfully, I thought making the part with making the rope would be hard, but it wasn't too bad. Since it was made from a tree vine, it had a sort of rustic look, which really fit for the hairpin's style.

Usami was right. It was lovely. I'm not one for fashion or anything, but I wouldn't deny that we did a pretty good job for our first try. Sure, it had a few imperfections, but things like that add to the charm, right?

Seeing that we were done, Usami pranced over happily. "Okay! You did vewy well!" she cheered, "I'll give you some tickets!"

As promised, Usami handed a small amount of ticket-shaped slips of paper to me then went to the others to continue distributing, leaving me to inspect them curiously. 'Trip Ticket'. What did that mean exactly? "I'll cawefully explain how they work later, so make sure you don't thwow them away!" she announced as she finished handing out the rest. So, they're important? Guess they have to be if they're what we're being rewarded with for finishing the crafts. And so, I slipped the tickets into one of my parka's pockets. I know it wasn't really a secure place for them, but I didn't exactly have a bag to put them in at the moment. It was convenient enough.

As soon as everyone stashed their tickets away, Usami giggled as she asked, "How is it? Do you undewstand how to do it now?"

"This is just too easy!" I heard Teruteru laugh, seemingly relieved that the tasks we had to do weren't too bad... But everyone knows what happens when someone comments on how easy something is.

"Hm... Since it's not too difficult, we might be able to do this."

... Peko, not you too.

Seeing the collective optimism accumulating from each student, Usami began to gush with excitement. "Nice work, evewyone! Now then, pwease do your best to gather matewials for next time!" she instructed happily as she flew on top of the table and took the pin, "Even if you don't do it well at fiwst, you'll get the hang of it with enough pwactice!"

She then jumped off of it and made her way to the front of our group to continue her lecture. "However, pwease don't overwork yourselves. It's also impowtant that you west if you get tired. Also, make sure you keep your wooms cwean! If they get too diwty, you'll have to do something unpleasant..."

The way she got so stern about having our rooms clean was actually pretty intimidating. Especially the fact about having to do something 'unpleasant' if they were too much of a mess. I get that we had to keep the place nice, but it was going to extremes if we'd do something 'unpleasant' for it. What exactly would we have to do? Thinking about it really didn't help with my general stress levels. Especially since I wasn't really good with keeping my room tidy.

"The main goal of this school twip is to gather all the Hope Fwagments before time wuns out! Pwease don't fowget that!" Usami said once more to us. If she was drilling it into our heads this much, then whatever these were, they were more important than the Trip Tickets. And would it really take approximately over a month to get them all? If so, then hot damn.

"Now then, here is your next cwass goal!" she announced as she made her way to the sign, "The next goal is... The same thing! This time, pwease make it by gathewing matewials! I'll check in four days to see if you've finished!"

And with that, the magical bunny vanished behind the statue, leaving us to figure out what to do. "So... She said for us to go to different areas of the island, but where exactly should we go?" Kazuichi asked the rest of us as he looked around awkwardly, "Like. This place is big, right? The materials could be anywhere."

"That's true, but I think Usami has that taken care of," Chiaki replied as she approached the table and picked up one of the booklets labeled 'Locations', leafing through it while nodding, "Yeah. These have a catalog of the items needed for the crafts and where to find them. Seems like glue can be found in Rocketpunch Market, the seashells can be found on the coast and in the ocean, the red flowers can be found in the mountains, the green flowers can be found in the forest, the tree vine can be found in the ruins, and the knife can be found in the military base."

I nodded through the first few locations until it got to ruins and military base. As I took that information in, my bewilderment was no surprise. "Th... There's a MILITARY BASE here?!" I asked through my trembling voice. The ruins that were mentioned might just be decorative for all I know, but MILITARY BASE?! REALLY?!

Chiaki's serene smile was what calmed me down. "Don't worry. We'll only send you there if it's really necessary, okay?" the girl reassured, "We should start distributing people to places starting now though. Where does everyone think we should start with?"

"I think it'll be better to go four ways and have four of us each visit some required areas to look around for the materials all at once," Hajime replied, which resulted in Togami nodding in approval. To be honest, I liked that direction as well. Best to get things out of the way, right?

In the end, it was decided that the places we would begin our material-searching would be the ruins, the forest, the mountains, and the beach. But as for where everyone would go? That was to be decided with chance. After writing locations onto sixteen slips of paper, each one of us chose one from a cup that was passed around from person to person. Upon selecting my slip and handing the cup to Gundham, I opened it up and read the location I was given.

'Mountains'.

Huh. It was actually the one I was eager to see. Maybe that's because I got it? Because of the whole luck thing? Who knows. Seeing as everyone now had their slips, it was time to see who was going with who. "Um... I got mountains, so anyone else who has it can just gather around over here with me?" I offered, backing away from the group to make some room. Well, it seemed like Ibuki, Mahiru, and Gundhan weren't in my group seeing as they had separated themselves as well and announced their own different locations in order for whoever with the same ones to gather with them. After everyone was in their respective groups, I now took a glance to my own crew.

Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Hajime.

Two people who hate me. Great. At least Hajime was here as well, so it wouldn't be too bad... Looking to us, he cleared his throat, "Okay, so I think one of these books is a map of the island. Let's find where the mountains are and make our way over there to begin."

"Don't tell us shit we already know. Just shut up and stop acting like you're the boss of me," Fuyuhiko snapped back, "It's hell enough that I gotta stay here for so long. I don't need any dumbasses here telling me the obvious as well."

The more Fuyuhiko spoke, the more I felt as if it would take a miracle to get that stick out of his ass.

After the teams were properly divided, each of us took our turns with finding where our respective locations were in the booklet containing the map. This also helped me have a good look at the overall layout. Hm. Seems like each bridge connected to an individual island rather than two connecting to a larger one like my previous hypothesis. Which would mean that there really were five islands in total... Exactly how many locations were we going to go to for materials in general?

Whatever. I'll look more into the other locations later. For now, I had to pinpoint where the mountains were.

After pinpointing the location (which was coincidentally on the same island where we had the beach party), our group of four began travel to the destination. Seeing as the only things that we really needed were the red flowers, it wouldn't be too difficult to find them... Right?

As the other groups disappeared to their own locations, realization hit me instantly. I might have actually just jinxed myself with that thought process. No way would it be that easy. It never was, after all. Especially since I now had this double-edged luck.

After a trek across the '2' bridge, I could see that a new path had been constructed. No, it wasn't necessarily a proper road so to say. It looked more like the start of a hiking trail if I had to be specific. What stood out about it the most, however, was the ramshackle arrow-shaped sign that had what appeared to be a cartoony mountain drawn onto it.

It didn't really take a genius to figure out that this must be where we should go. Especially since the trail was leading to a literal mountain on the horizon. And so, we began to hike.