Previously:
"They're rocks from the mountain we climbed earlier," Yarai said. "Do you notice something different about them?"
"…?" Matsumoto said as she and the others looked too.
"Rocks…?" Shigeno said, furrowing her brow.
"They're just rocks!" Segawa said.
"I don't know..." Kurusu-sensei said.
"…!" Torako said when she saw what he was talking about. She furrowed her brow. "I see..."
"Eh? You know something, Fukui-chan?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Hey, hey… you guys need to shape up!" Yarai said, furrowing his brow, looking at everyone but Torako. "This island is much more dangerous than you think! Listen up, Sensei… if what I'm thinking is right… that mountain was made by man. It's a man-made mountain! Right, Fukui?"
"Right," Torako agreed.
"Eh!?" the others exclaimed, shocked.
Chapter 8: Lighthouse
{ December 1st, Day 59 }
"… Eh!? A man-made mountain…!?" Kurusu-sensei said. 'That giant mountain was…!? No… No way…!' "I… I don't believe it. That mountain was made by people's hands… What does that mean, Yarai-kun!?"
"..." Yarai looked at them. "… Do any of you know how a mountain is made in the first place…?"
"Yes," Torako said.
"Anyone other than Fukui?" Yarai asked, suppressing a small smile when she pouted a little. "There are essentially two ways that mountains are made. Mountain ranges come from either an erupted volcano's magma that has cooled and hardened, or from two tectonic plates clashing against each other and protruding up out of the ground. That's why the dirt and rocks on a mountain are more or less the same as the magma underground or whatever was on the surface of the plates… understand?"
"Of course!" Segawa said, crossing her arms.
"… Then isn't it strange?" he asked them. "Look… there are way too many different types of rocks!!"
"… Ah…!" Segawa gasped as she and everyone but Torako looked closer again.
"It… It's true…!!" Kurusu-sensei said. "B… But that doesn't necessarily mean it was man-made..."
"Did you see the clear pieces?" Torako asked.
"Eh?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"… Look carefully, see how there are a few clear bits mixed in?" Yarai said.
"Ye… Yeah..." Kurusu-sensei and Segawa said.
"This isn't a mineral… It's plastic, melted down after being scorched with fire," Yarai said, holding up one of the bigger pieces of it. "They look similar to 'PET flakes' you get from smashing bottles made from PET. It costs money to recycle PET bottles, it seems like even the government is overflowing with this stuff."
"So you mean they buried the trash…?" Kurusu-sensei asked. "But someone might have just thrown away their bottle."
"At first, I thought so too… but after looking carefully, it was scattered everywhere on the mountain," Yarai said. "It's just not normal to have so much trash everywhere on the ground, is it?"
'Oh, so that's what he was doing...' Torako thought, recalling how he had been squatting down looking at the ground here and there when she woke up after sleeping off the bad trip from the fruit.
"B-But a man-made mountain… I've never even heard of something like that..." Kurusu-sensei said.
"That's not true!" Yarai said. "Man-made mountains are called 'artificial mountains', and even exist in various places around Japan."
"Right. Like Mt. Hakone in Shinjuku city or Mt. Moere in Sapporo," Torako said.
"There's even a plan in Germany to build a 1000m tall mountain," Yarai added. "Isn't this mountain even bigger than that…?"
"..." Kurusu-sensei and Segawa and her friends stared at him, amazed.
"Even so, making a man-made mountain that size… would require an enormous amount of money..." Torako said, holding her chin, voicing Yarai's own thoughts.
'Who would do something like this, and for what purpose…?' Yarai thought. 'This island… the more we investigate, the more mysterious things we find...' He looked at Torako and then their teacher. "…?" Was it just him or did their teacher look a little dazed. "You can't daydream forever, Sensei! … Don't tell me you didn't notice anything!"
"Th… That's..." Kurusu-sensei said.
"Hey, hey… you did graduate from university, right…?" Yarai asked.
"H-Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Kurusu-sensei asked, blushing a little out of embarrassment. "I'm your teacher..."
"To be fair, she was busy hallucinating when we were on the mountain..." Torako said.
"That's right! Besides, it's fine!" Kurusu-sensei said, holding up a finger. "It doesn't matter if I'm good at science. Because… I'm a math teacher!"
"… Ehhh..." Yarai and Torako both said, staring at her with jaded expressions.
"Wh-What's with that look!" Kurusu-sensei asked indignantly. Yarai and Torako exchanged a glance. They both smiled at their teacher.
"Well, I guess you're fine like that," Yarai said.
"Yeah, Sensei is good just the way she is," Torako agreed.
"Geez! You keep teasing me!' she scolded Yarai. "And don't join in, Fukui-chan!"
"..." Segawa furrowed her brow as she watched.
—∞—
Torako noticed some Andrewsarchus tracks nearby, so they moved further down the beach, away from their territory. Yarai was fishing for dinner. Matsumoto and Shigeno were cheering him on.
"Kyaaahh!! Is it a big one? It's fighting so hard!" Matsumoto said, getting excited.
"Don't let it get away, Yarai!" Shingeno said.
"..." Yarai wondered when they had gotten so attached to him. It was big change over when they used to cower away from him.
Meanwhile, Segawa was trying to start a fire with Torako's ferro rod and strike plate. She was getting good sparks off it, but the wood wouldn't light.
"Do you want to switch, Segawa-san?" Kurusu-sensei asked as she and Torako returned with more wood for the fire.
"… Sensei..." Segawa looked at both of them with a furrowed brow. "I'm fine! I can do this myself!"
"That's okay! We're good at starting fires, leave it to us!" Kurusu-sensei said. "Let's see… It looks like the problem is the tinder is too thick…"
"I can fix that," Torako said. She pulled a twig out and carefully stripped it with her knife until they had a pile of thin curls of wood.
"Thanks, Fukui-chan," Kurusu-sensei said. "I can handle the rest." She took the ferro rod and strike plate from Segawa and created sparks that immediately flickered into a flame on the new tinder. "See? The trick is to make sure your tinder is dry and thin."
"… Sensei," Segawa said seriously.
"Hm? What?" Kurusu-sensei asked, looking up, while Torako blew on the new flame a little to make it catch the kindling.
"You're quite close to Yarai, aren't you?" Segawa said.
'Huh?' Torako thought. 'She can't be serious...'
"… That's not true," Kurusu-sensei said. "I think we're normal… I'm about as close to him as I am to Fukui-chan... But he has started talking to me more since we got to this island… Although, as usual, there are times when I don't know what he's thinking and it worries me… Yarai-kun is my student after all. As his teacher, I need to stay with him!"
"… Is that really all there is?" Segawa asked.
"… Eh?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"Sensei, how old are you? Do you have a boyfriend…?" Segawa asked, crossing her arms.
'I can't believe she's going after Sensei now...' Torako thought, sighing.
"… Why do you ask..." Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Don't play dumb!" Segawa snapped. "… Because I like Yarai-kun…!" It was bad enough when she only had to worry about one other person going after him, but now there were two?
"… Eh?" Kurusu-sensei said, surprised.
"Answer me honestly! What do you think of Yarai…!?" Segawa asked, getting in her face.
"What do I think…? There's nothing like what you're thinking of going on between us," Kurusu-sensei said. "How many years apart do you think we are…? And I'm his teacher, nothing more..."
"..." Segawa stared at her. She thought about how Yarai had looked at Torako. How he had smiled at their teacher. 'Yarai doesn't look at me or smile at me like that...' "… So what if you're his teacher…? I can't trust you!! I mean, you're a woman too!!"
'Ah, she's saying that again...' Torako thought. But she couldn't laugh this time. Segawa was too earnest, and she could see her point with Kurusu-sensei.
"… Eh?" Kurusu-sensei said, blushing a little.
"… Ngh!!" Segawa turned red in the face. She stood up and hurried away. "E… Excuse me!"
"Ah… Segawa-san!"
"What's wrong, Saki… Your face is all red!" Shigeno said when she joined her friends.
"It… It's nothing," Segawa said.
'Segawa-san...' Kurusu-sensei thought. She smiled a little. 'She's amazing… such honestly...'
"..." Torako added more fuel to the fire. Now that Segawa had brought it up… how did Yarai feel about their teacher? He was always helping her and carrying her… Was that just because she needed help or was there something more…? Torako didn't like the way thinking about that made her feel, so she pushed that idea aside and locked it in a closet. They were still in a life-or-death situation. She couldn't let her feelings get in the way of their survival.
"… Have you lit the fire?" Yarai asked, walking up behind them.
"!" Kurusu-sensei and Torako said, a little surprised. They turned to face him.
'She doesn't need to worry about anything so absurd… I'm just his teacher...' Kurusu-sensei thought. "It's perfect! What about you, did you catch..." She froze when she saw that he was shirtless. "Kyaaaahh!"
'Wow, he's totally ripped!' Torako thought. She managed not to blush. While filming the show, they had stayed with a couple of tribes where the men wore less, but it was something else seeing the guy you liked like that.
"Hm? What's wrong, Sensei?" Yarai asked, clueless to the effect he was having on them.
"Y… You're… N… N… Naked..." Kurusu-sensei managed to stammer out, blushing.
"This guy was so big… that the line almost snapped, so I jumped in after it," Yarai said, holding up a big fish. "Let's just throw it on the fire." He squatted down by the fire and laid it on the flames. "It's skin is thick, so it'll just bake itself. Make sure to eat up, especially you Fukui. You're so small that if you lose any weight, you'll disappear."
"I'm not that small," Torako said. Maybe compared to him, but not next to other girls her age.
"Ye… Yeah..." Kurusu-sensei said. "Thanks." Yarai smiled at them. Torako blushed a little bit, and Kurusu-sensei was surprised when she felt something as well. She remembered how Segawa said she couldn't trust her because she was a woman. "..." She looked at Yarai again. 'Sure, Yarai-kun's become reliable, but… but no way...'
"..." Torako saw the way her teacher was looking at Yarai and could tell she was thinking about it. She furrowed her brow a little bit and hugged her knees.
—∞—
{ December 9th, Day 67 }
They had continued along the shoreline for eight days after that. The shore had become rocky and the wind blew fiercely. Roach-like insects skittered across the rocks to get out of their way.
"Haa haa haa haa," Kurusu-sensei breathed heavily while trying to keep up with Yarai. He and Torako seemed to have an easier time treading the rocks than the rest of them. Torako was breathing harder than usual too, but she was keeping up with him. "Wai… Wait a second, Yarai-kun…!" Segawa, Shigeno, and Matsumoto were breathing hard too, fighting to keep their skirts from being blown up by the wind as they hiked. "Wha… What is that…?" Kurusu-sensei asked when she saw an unbelievable sight.
"Isn't this a deserted island…?" Segawa asked. "Then why… why is that standing there!? How could it be possible…!?" Yarai came to a stop. The wind swept through his blond mane as he stared out at the lighthouse he could see on an island in the sea.
"… Lighthouse!? What a damn unbelievable thing!" Yarai said.
"… But… not completely unexpected, with what we know about the mountain..." Torako said, also staring out at it. "This place really was made deliberately..."
"But still… that is… a lighthouse!?" Segawa said. "Why is a lighthouse..."
"Roughly around 50m away from here..." Kurusu-sensei finished.
"… Hoh, 50m? Then it's not so hard to reach..." Yarai said. "I'm gonna check it out. You all stay here." He jumped into the water.
"Wait…!" Kurusu-sensei said, but he was already swimming away.
"Eh!? What…?" Shigeno said. "Is he going to swim there…!?"
"Wait, Yarai-kun! It's too dangerous to go alone!" Kurusu-sensei said.
"I agree!" Torako said. "I'll go with him, Sensei. You keep an eye on everyone else."
"Eh!?" Shigeno said as Torako jumped in too.
"I'm going with you!!" Kurusu-sensei said, walking down to the water.
"Eh… Sensei!?" Matsumoto said.
"The rest of you wait here!" Kurusu-sensei said as she took to the water.
"..." Segawa watched Torako and Kurusu-sensei swimming after Yarai with a furrowed brow. "I will go too!!" she declared.
"Ehhh!?" Shigeno said.
"Hey… Wait for me..." Matsumoto said.
"..." Yarai swam underwater. Below the surface he could see all sorts of fish and underwater plant life. '… Seems there's no dangerous animals here…' He resurfaced for air. 'But it's totally unknown to us, I'd better speed up...'
"Yarai-kun—!!" Kurusu-sensei called.
"…!?" he said, startled. He was shocked to see Kurusu-sensei swimming past him on her side with a weird swimming style.
"Uh… Why… Sensei…?" Yarai asked.
"Surprised?" Kurusu-sensei asked. "It's an ancient swimming style my deceased grandfather taught me! You should speed up, or Fukui-chan will pass you up, too."
"Eh?" Yarai said, looking behind him. He saw Torako was swimming breast stroke and coming up on him fast despite not being able to use the hand that was gripping her spear and the drag from her backpack.
"Let's move on, Yarai-kun!" Kurusu-sensei called.
"..." Yarai furrowed his brow, feeling a little disgruntled. He told them to stay back for their own safety, and now they… Kurusu-sensei suddenly disappeared under the water. "!"
"What happened?" Torako asked, coming up next to him.
"..." Yarai thought that was a good question. "… Sensei…? Wait here," he told Torako, diving back under. 'Damn it! You must be kidding! There's no dangerous animal here, then what the hell happened...'
'I thought this area was safe…!' Torako thought, putting her head under the water to look around for threats.
'!?' she and Yarai thought when they saw their teacher holding her seemingly uninjured leg.
'It was just a cramp...?' Torako thought. 'Well, at least that's all it was...'
'… Tut. Cricks on the leg,' Yarai thought, putting his arm around Kurusu-sensei. 'You should take care of yourself...' Torako swam the rest of the way with Yarai, who was holding their teacher. They all took a moment to catch their breaths when they reached the rocky shore the lighthouse was on.
"..." Yarai stood there, holding Kurusu-sensei in his arms.
"Sorry..." she apologized.
"Do you think you can walk, Sensei?" Torako asked.
"I-I think so… It's starting to feel better," Kurusu-sensei said.
"..." Yarai stared up at the lighthouse. "… Seeing it from nearby, it's much taller than I thought..."
"…" Torako looked up at it, too. She would have to agree. It was much more imposing up close.
"15m… no, even more…?" Yarai said, letting their teacher down so she could try to stand.
"Seems to be as tall as a 6-floor building," Kurusu-sensei said, gingerly testing her sore muscles.
"… And quite old," Torako said. "I wonder when it was built?"
"Isn't it weird…?" Kurusu-sensei said, leaning on her students for support.
"Ah?" Yarai said.
"We've never seen any other architecture till today," Kurusu-sensei said. "And this tower obviously requires high techniques to build. Then why is such a grand architecture here, but nowhere else..."
"… This might not be the only one..." Yarai said.
"Eh…? What do you mean…?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"… I'm not sure, just guessing..." Yarai said.
"I think you may be right," Torako said. "This island is a big place. We've only explored part of it."
"Totally wet, it sucks~~~" Shigeno said after she climbed up out of the water with Segawa and Matsumoto.
"The seawater got me slimy, disgusting—" Matsumoto said. Segawa wrung the water from her hair while she watched Yarai with Kurus-sensei and Torako.
"..." Segawa furrowed her brow.
—∞—
"… Are those three all right…?" Segawa asked as she, Shigeno, and Matsumoto stripped down to their underwear to wring the water from their clothes and let them dry. "Sensei, Yarai, and Fukui-san just went ahead with wet clothes on."
"They'll be fine," Matsumoto said. "It won't take long to investigate the tower..."
"Is this tower really a lighthouse…?" Shigeno asked.
"If so, we may be able to send signals from the top of it..." Segawa said. "Then someone may see the signals and help us!"
"Hoh, well, sounds a little bit ideal though," Shigeno said.
"Yes, you are right..." Segawa agreed.
"—Hey! Anyone think they're having an affair?" Shigeno asked.
"You mean Yarai and Fukui-san?" Matsumoto asked.
"Or Yarai and Sensei," Shigeno said mischievously. "Or maybe it's a threesome!"
"Wha… What are you talking about? How could they have an affair?" Segawa asked, putting on a brave face. "A threesome is just ridiculous! Fukui-san barely has any curves, and Sensei is so much older than him. Besides, they are teacher and student..."
"That's why romance bursts, doesn't it?" Shigeno said. "The prohibited love… Goes like: 'May I, Sensei?' 'Oh… No… Yarai-kun...'"
"..." Segawa reared back, appalled.
"Kyaaa—Kurusu-sensei is gonna have a love lesson~~~" Shigeno said.
"Shh—be quiet, they would hear us!" Matsumoto said. "Anyway, I vote for Yaraki-kun and Fukui-san. They definitely have something!"
"You think so!? They have been together all the way before coming across us!" Shigeno said.
"..." Segawa really wanted to tell her friends to shut up. None of them noticed the dark shadow gliding through the water or the head that peeked up at them from just off the shore. Frog-like fingers gripped the edge of the rocky ground.
"Here is the entrance," Kurusu-sensei said when they found a metal gate in the wall. She pulled on the bars. "Can… not… open..."
"There's something inside," Torako said, peering into the dark interior. "It looks like… desks?"
"Those are desks…?" Kurusu-sensei said, looking too. "Hell! Why can't it be opened…?"
"… This is the black rust," Yarai said, looking closer at the bars. "The red rust can erode the inside of metals while the black dust only erodes the surface and protects the metal..."
"Eh—!?" Kurusu-sensei exclaimed. "So you mean it can't be broken!? Is there any other way to enter…?"
"..." Yarai stared at the gate.
"The wall around the gate might give before the bars do..." Torako said. "We'd probably need to make a sledgehammer first..."
"… Um?" Yarai looked around and noticed something. He squatted down and picked up some pebbles from the ground. "… This is!"
"…? What's wrong, Yarai-kun…?" Kurusu-sensei asked as she and Torako looked at him.
"Fukui, Sensei, look at this!" Yarai said, holding out his hand with the pebbles. "Look familiar to you…?"
"… Eh?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Are those from the mountain?" Torako asked.
"No," Yarai answered. "I found them here."
"Eh?" Torako said. "Then this piece of land also…?"
"Probably!" Yarai said.
"What are you talking about?" Kurusu-sensei asked. Yarai pulled out the pebbles from the mountain.
"See? This is gravel we got from the mountain," he said, holding the two samples side by side. "… Exactly the same, right!?"
"R… Really! But that mountain is artificial, isn't it?" Kurusu-sensei said. "Then why is this gravel the same as those from the mountain..."
"..." Yarai stared at the two samples. 'Maybe it was carried here by the flow of rain water? That's impossible… It's probably like Fukui said, this is reclaimed land too...' "… Huh. Sensei, you are right. There should be something in this tower..."
"… Then we have to get into it… but how..." Kurusu-sensei said. She pulled on the bars again.
"Kyaaa!"
"Uh?" Kurusu-sensei said as she and her two students turned their heads to look in the scream's direction.
"Help… Help~~~" Segawa cried as she and Shigeno and Matsumoto ran towards them in their underwear, clutching their clothes.
"Eh!?" Kurusu-sensei and Torako exclaimed.
"Segawa-san!? What's going on!?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Is something chasing you!?" Torako asked. That was the only explanation she could think of for all of them to be acting that way.
"They're coming—" Shigeno and Matsumoto yelled. Torako and Kurusu-sensei were startled to see large sea creatures that were about 250cm in length, with web-towed hind feet like a sea lion, long front arms, a dolphin-like tail, and long, cone-shaped snouts filled with pointy teeth. Torako was willing to bet they were meat-eaters. They were certainly, in her opinion, the freakiest creature that she had seen so far. She gripped her spear tightly.
"What, what the hell is it!?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"We… don't know. They suddenly came to attack us..." Matsumoto said. Yarai looked the other way and saw them there, too.
"More coming from that way!" he informed them.
"What… Why can't I open it!?" Segawa yelled, trying to open the metal gate. "No way to get out!! We will die here… Just do something, Yarai…!!"
"Too many enemies here, Fukui and I can't protect everyone of you..." Yarai said with his brow furrowed. "We have to give up some of you."
"—!?" the girls gasped.
"No… horrible..." Segawa said.
"We can't do this!" Kurusu-sensei said. "How can we give up any one of us..."
"I'd rather go down fighting than do that!" Torako said.
"… Then the only way is..." Yarai said, grinning. He kicked the metal gate.
"Ya… Yarai…!?" Torako and Segawa exclaimed.
"Are you gonna break this iron gate by kicking!?" Kurusu-sensei asked. "You crazy!! However could you kicking break this…" Torako furrowed her brow and gritted her teeth. She started kicking the gate, too.
'Crazy is all we have left right now…!!' Torako thought. Yarai was right. They couldn't fight all of the creatures off by themselves. Some of the creatures growled at Matsumoto and Shigeno as they drew closer.
"Yaa!" matsumoto cried.
"…" She and Shigeno trembled with fear. They ran to stand in front of the gate with Yarai and Torako, banging on it.
"Get… open—!!" Matsumoto shouted.
"Please, get open—" Shigeno cried.
"Please! Please!" they cried together.
"Please… Please get open!!!!" Kurusu-sensei and Segawa yelled, joining the rest of them in banging and kicking the gate. The stone above the gate cracked, releasing the iron bars inside, allowing them to knock the whole gate down. "It… It's open!!"
"Everyone inside!" Torako said.
"Hurry—!!" Kurusu-sensei yelled as they scrambled to get into the building. One of the creature's almost grabbed Kurusu-sensei's foot, but Torako pulled her in away from it. Yarai grabbed the gate and put it back up.
"… Hey! Bring the desks here!!" Yarai shouted.
"Y… Yes!!" the girls said. They quickly worked together to grab desks and chairs and pile them up in front of the gate to keep it up and the creatures out. The creatures growled and snarled at them.
"Haa haa," Segawa breathed heavily.
"Lucky… They can't come in..." Shigeno said.
"… Seems the loosened rock… has saved us..." Kurusu-sensei said. "Thanks, Fukui-chan..." The other girls started putting their uniforms back on. "… Um. What's that smell…?"
"Haa haa," Yarai was also catching his breath after all that kicking. "… What… the hell is this tower…" He looked around as his eyes adjusted to the dark. "… Huh. Looks like more than a simple lighthouse… Here's a stairway to go upstairs..."
"..." Torako stared up at the spiral staircase. She could only see part of it in the darkness.
"What's up with this place?" Yarai asked as they approached it.
"..." Kurusu-sensei looked around too. She held her nose. "It's really dark, but my eyes are getting used to it. What's that smell?"
"What… What're these?" Matsumoto asked, holding up a large, corroded and hollow cylinder.
"N-No clue! Maybe some empty cans or something," Shigeno said.
"Cans..." Torako said, getting an idea. "Where did you find that?"
"Right here," Matsumoto said, pointing to the floor. There was a rusty circular piece of metal on the floor the same size as the cylinder that looked like it used to be part of it.
"… Could it be a trash can?" Torako asked.
"Trash can?" Shigeno asked.
"You know, like the waste baskets at school," Torako said. "There were desks in here, so maybe it was an office or that kind of environment.
"Ah, I see your point," Matsumoto said.
"Kyaaa!" Segawa cried when she slipped and fell on her bottom.
"Sa-Saki!?" Shigeno said, concerned.
"Ow! It hurts!" Segawa said. "Gosh! Why is there so much rubbish here!!"
"Looks like there's nothing really special here," Kurusu-sensei said.
"No… some of it might have been..." Yarai said, looking at the wall.
"Might have been…?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Oh, look at this wall," Yarai said. "There is a distinct line on the wall. When the tide rises, this must get submerged. Due to that and the stuff the waves bring in, it smells of rot in here. And that is also the reason why we don't have a clue of what was actually here."
"Huh? 'What was actually here,' you say! Wasn't this just a lighthouse?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Then why are there desks in here?" Torako asked. "Those were too big to have been washed in through the metal gate. I've never heard of so many desks being at the bottom of a lighthouse before."
"..." Yarai looked around again. "Somehow, don't you think there's too many rooms in here?"
"Eeh?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"… Now that you mention it..." Torako said.
"… Well, never mind," Yarai said. "Let's go on to the second floor." The walked up the stairs.
"Hey, Yarai-kun!" Kurusu-sensei said. "What did you mean when you said there are too many rooms here?"
"Do you guys know what a light house is for?" Yarai asked.
"Isn't it for guiding ships?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"To show the location of the port and such?" Segawa said.
"That's not entirely correct," Yarai said.
"What?" Segawa said.
"Lighthouses exist to let ships mark their own positions. From a fixed position, they guide ships on their path," Torako said.
"Right. There are more than 3,300 lighthouses in Japan. Also, they are not manned by people," Yarai said. "If it was only for ships to mark their positions, there wouldn't be a need for people to man it. If so, why would this lighthouse have so many rooms?"
"..." Kurusu-sensei and Segawa stared up at him.
"… Perhaps this isn't just a lighthouse..." Torako suggested.
"..." Yarai furrowed his brow. 'I don't like this.' They reached the next level. "This is the second floor..." Segawa tried to open a door. There was a keyhole on it. It wouldn't budge.
"Ah… It won't open!" she said.
"Looks like this door needs a key, too," Shigeno said, trying the next door.
"Damnit. These doors are really thick!" Yarai said, knocking on one.
"Then… What do we do?" Matsumoto asked.
"It looks like all the doors require keys… Isn't that weird? It's strange for the doors to be so thick, too," Torako said.
"..." Yarai furrowed his brow more. "Anyway, let's go up and take a look first." They traveled further up the spiral staircase. "Eh…? Hey, don't touch that area. It looks like it's corroded through."
"Got it," Torako said, avoiding that part of the railing.
"..." Kusuru-sensei said.
"Hey?" Yarai said, wanting a proper answer. She didn't look so good.
"Sensei?" Segawa said.
"Are you all right?" Torako asked, looking down at her.
'Ah… What…?' Kurusu-sensei thought, holding a hand to her head. Suddenly the room was spinning. "Ah..." She fell backwards into Segawa.
"What?" Segawa said as she was knocked off balance. They fell into the corroded part of the railing, and it broke beneath their weight. "Kyaaaa!"
"Sa-Saki!!" Shigeno cried. Torako reached for them, but Yarai pulled her back.
"You idiots!" Yarai yelled, jumping over the side to grab them. With one hand, he gripped the stair step, with the other he caught Kurusu-sensei. "Segawa! Grab my leg!"
"!?" Segawa gasped. She grabbed his leg and held tight. "…!!" They hung there with Yarai gripping the stairs with one hand. "Whoaa!" Yarai grunted as he kept his grip on the stairs. He was holding them up with his fingers. Torako stepped down and grabbed his wrist. Shigeno and Matsumoto grabbed onto her.
"Go to the level below us!" He told Segawa, swinging closer to the stairs below them to make it easier for her. She let go of his leg and dropped down onto the stairs. Yarai swung himself onto the stairs next, still holding Kurusu-sensei. Torako let go the minute he did, and they landed safely. "Haa haa haa," he panted, catching his breath. "Hey, what are you doing!?" he yelled at Kursu-sensei.
"I-I'm sorry!" she said, flinching. "Se… Segawa-san, I'm really sorry!"
"It-It's okay! I'm all right," Segawa said, though she still had tears in her eyes. She was irritated. 'A leg? A leg for me? You catch Sensei and leave the leg for me?'
"Really… Want to tell me what happened to you?" Yarai asked Kurusu-sensei.
"I'm really sorry about this!" she said.
"Did you catch a cold, from the time you swam over?" Yarai asked.
"Eh, yes. That might be the case.." Kurusu-sensei said. 'Suddenly, my eyes felt... really odd...' Torako and the others waited for them to walk back up, then Torako took the lead while Yarai brought up the rear, keeping an eye on Kurusu-sensei incase she had another funny turn.
"Ah," Shigeno said. "Hey, heeey! Look up!" she said, pointing up. "That light… isn't it coming from the top?"
"Yeah, let's hurry!" Matsumoto said.
"Hold on! We don't want to make a mistake because we're going too fast," Torako said. "The railing might be corroded in other places as well."
"Th-That's true," Matsumoto said. They proceeded at a quick but cautious pace.
"If the light house is still lighted, then there should still be electricity, right!?" Segawa said.
"Though since it looks really old, there might be a torch fire, right?" Shigeno said.
"If… If so, then that would mean fire starting materials like oil or gas or something!" Matsumoto said. "Then we might be able to send out a signal!"
"Y-Yeah! And since we're so high up, someone will definitely see the signal!" Shigeno said.
"Wait a minute," Torako said. "If that's the case, then who would be lighting and maintaining it? And wouldn't we have seen something from the jungle?"
"Don't be such a pessimist!" Segawa told her. "We'll be rescued for sure!"
"..." Yarai wasn't so sure. Torako reached the top and stepped out of the way so the others could come up.
"We're… We're here!" Matsumoto said as she, Shigeno, and Segawa hurried up the last steps.
"It's the top level!" Shigeno said. Their smiles fell when they saw that the top room was empty apart from some debris on the floor. "What?"
"What is this?" Matsumoto said.
"Nothing! There's absolutely nothing here!" Segawa said.
"I guess it isn't a lighthouse after all," Torako said.
"Hmm… I thought as much!" Yarai said, stepping forward.
"Ya… Yaria?" Segawa asked.
"If you think about it, it's quite logical," Yarai said. "The scale of the building is way too big for such a tower. And who would ever build a lighthouse so close to the shore?"
"B-But then..." Kurusu-sensei said.
"Yeah. Like Fukui said, this isn't even a lighthouse!" Yarai said.
"..." Segawa and her friends stared at him. They sank to their knees.
"Wh-What in the world?" Shigeno said.
"Even though we had such high hopes for this..." Segawa said. "We… what should we do next?" Kurusu-sensei leaned down and put her arms around them.
"Don't let this get to you!" she said with a wink. "It's not good to lose your spirit after coming this far, now is it? We've got to keep going!"
"Se-Sensei..." Shigeno said.
"..." Yarai and Torako looked out across the room. "!" They noticed something on the floor. They walked over to it.
"What's this?" Yarai asked. He pushed it with his foot, rolling it.
"This shape… is it a bell?" Torako asked. Yarai looked up.
"There are signs of something having been hung on the ceiling," he said. "Yeah, there's no mistaking it. This bell was hanging there."
"So this is a belfry?" Torako said.
"Could this have been some religious establishment? If so, then why would it be built in such a deserted place?" Yarai asked.
"It wouldn't be that strange… Lots of monasteries are built in remote places," Torako said. "Like the Hanging Monastery that was built into the side of a sheer cliff in China."
'Even so...' Yarai thought. 'This really wasn't a lighthouse, but… if I'm not wrong, it might have been a much more important place than that!!'
"Ya-Yaria, come over for a bit!!" Segawa said urgently. "We've found something really strange here!!" It was a barrel.
"What is it? This is… a barrel?" Yarai said.
"Isn't it mysterious?" Segawa said. "It's sealed shut and we can't open it. So we have no clue as to what's inside..."
"Then it' straightforward," Yarai said, raising his leg. "We kick it open!" He kicked the barrel hard, and the top popped off. The naked corpse of a woman rolled out. They were all horrified and disturbed.
"A coffin? A-A corpse?" Segawa exclaimed. "Wh-What in the world?"
"Th-Though somehow, this corpse seems new, doesn't it?" Shigeno observed.
"..." Yarai kneeled down next to it to have a better look. Torako also came over to have a look, though she didn't get as close.
"This… This should be adipocere," Kurusu-sensei said.
"Adipocere?" Matsumoto asked.
"Yeah. That's when fatty tissue in the corpse hydrolyses, forming adipocere, also known as grave or corpse wax," Kurusu-sensei explained. "When adipocere is formed, a corpse will not rot for tens of years or even hundreds of years. Rosalia Lombardo's body was preserved through adipocere formation and is on display in the Capuchin catacombs in Italy. She has been perfectly preserved for over 80 years since her death."
"However, adipocere formation usually doesn't take place in such a warm place, because it requires a very cold and humid environment," Yarai said.
"Yarai-kun..." Kurusu-sensei said.
"This should be a 'wet corpse'," Yarai said.
"A 'wet corpse?' What is that?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"There seems to have been a very strange corpse found on the excavation site of a certain tomb from ancient China," Yarai said. "This was a perfect example of the Maoutai Family Relics as it was later called. They discovered a 2,200 year old female corpse. Yet the fingerprints were still present and the skin still retained its elasticity. It wasn't like a 2,200 year old corpse. Why didn't it rot over the years? This question has never been answered. And it seems almost identical to this one. Huuuh..."
"Then this is also a very old corpse?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"..." Yarai held his chin while he stared at the corpse's face. "Eh?" Something was glinting in its mouth.
"Is that… a key?" Torako asked, leaning closer. It was. Yarai removed it from the corpse's mouth.
"… 303..." Yarai read the numbered tag on it. "A key to the room on the third floor..."
They went back down to the third floor.
"So this is the third floor..." Kurusu-sensei said. "Compared to the second floor, there are almost no rooms here."
"That room must be fucking massive," Yarai said.
"It seems that it must be some kind of special room, huh?" Torako said.
"…! That is..." Kurusu-sensei said when they finally came to the door.
"Yeah," Yarai said. "It's the room of that mummy with the key in her mouth!" he held the key up. "Well, now we're gonna find out whether we can open the door with this key." He put the key in the lock. He tried to turn it, but it refused to cooperate. "..."
"…? Wh-What's wrong?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Is the lock too rusted?" Torako asked.
"Yes. Damn! It ain't gonna turn!" Yarai said.
"Eeeh!? So what do we do now, if that's the case?" Kurusu-sensei asked. Yarai forced the key to turn and their was a loud snapping sound.
"Ahhh!?" Segawa and Torako gasped, startled.
"Wh-What!? That sound… yo-you've broken it!" Segawa said.
"… Shut up!" Yarai told her. He turned the doorknob, and pulled. The door opened.
"!!" Kurusu-sensei and the girls gasped.
"It… It opened!" Kurusu-sensei said. Inside the room was full of birds. A whole line of them was perched on top one side of a large, broken glass tank. A nest had been built inside of it. Others were hopping and fluttering around the room.
"Bir… Birds?" Kurusu-sensei, Segawa and her friends said.
"Wh-What's up with these birds!?" Segawa asked as they entered the room.
"Where did they fly from…?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Shit! It's from that window!!" Yarai said, spotting a broken window. They shooed the birds out of the room. It took a lot of effort because they didn't want to go. "Haa haa," he breathed. "Damn! Really! But either way..." He looked at the rest of the room, which was a mess.
"..." Torako looked at all the bird poop. She wasn't looking forward to touching that.
"So this must be the locker… for this huge water tank here, huh?" Yarai said. He kicked a big rectangular object on the floor that was about the size of a filing cabinet. "What the…?" he squatted down and took a closer look at it.
"What are you doing, Yarai-kun?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"This thing is… a computer processor!" Yarai said.
"!" Torako said.
"Eh!?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"Com-Computer processor?" Segawa asked.
"Yeah, not only that, but by looking at it, it's a supercomputer that's designed to perform high speed calculations," Yarai said. "The kind that is used in creating 3D simulations and such." he traced the wires. "It looks like it is connected to all of the computers here."
"Ca-Can we use that then?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Not a chance, not only is the computer itself broken, but there aren't even basic power supplies around here!" Yarai said, picking up the hardware for a computer.
"Then why would that thing…?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Who knows? But it seems this supercomputer was made around fifty years ago," Yarai said, judging by the state of decay. "In the past fifty years, there were people living here!"
"The-There were people!?" Segawa said. "Th-Then why isn't anybody here today? What's going on?"
"Maybe it was like Jurassic Park?" Torako suggested. "They created those extinct beasts on this island like a kind of zoo, and they lost control?"
"This isn't a movie!" Segawa said.
"Well, whoever they were, they must have had advanced technology for the time, because it looks a lot like the stuff we use today..." Torako said.
"..." Yarai furrowed his brow. He ripped the computer apart.
"!?" Segawa gasped. "Hold on! Why are you smashing it up!?"
"Although I have no idea why there aren't any people on the island today..." Yarai said, ripping out the hard drive. "But the answer, might be found on this thing here!"
"A hard drive?" Segawa asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Bu-But, even if we have that, we have no way of seeing the data inside."
"…" Yarai tucked the hard drive into his jacket. "We'll think about it when we get there."
"What about Mariya-kun?" Torako suggested. "He has his laptop. If it's still working, he may be able to do something with that."
"Maybe," Yarai said. He couldn't believe he had forgotten about that.
"All right!! Everybody check whether there is any more useful stuff," Kurusu-sensei said.
"Ye-yes, Sensei!" Segawa and her friends said. Something glinted on the floor as Kurusu-sensei walked past.
"Eh?" she said. She leaned down and picked it up. "This thing is… an ID card!"
"Ah!? Th-That person…" Matsumoto said, getting excited when she saw it.
"What's wrong, Matsumoto-san?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Sensei! The person on this photo… she might be the mummy!" Matsumoto said.
"Eh!?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"Because the hair color and hair style match," Matsumoto said. "And don't you think that the face looks similar as well?"
"Ri-Right! Now that you mention it..." Kurusu-sensei said. "Wh-Who was she? Her name is…!?"
"W-Wait! The words that're written beside it… It looks like English..." Shigeno said as she and Segawa walked over.
"… Jennifer… Jennifer Hackman," Kurusu-sensei read. "An American…?" 'This room, in the past… it must've been this person's room. I wonder? What was this person doing here? What was she doing, at this kind of place?' They continued to look around the room.
"Whew! It looks like there isn't anything of interest," Kurusu-sensei said eventually. "Let's end the search here."
"Yeah, I agree," Shigeno said. Torako paused in front of a piece of paper or the remnants of some kind of poster that was hanging on the wall. It was almost falling off and was hanging with its back facing out.
'I might as well...' Torako thought, pulling it the rest of the way off the wall.
"Fukui," Yarai said, calling her.
"!" Torako gasped and her eyes widened when she looked at the image on the piece of paper in her hands. "Yarai-kun!"
"What?" he asked, going over to her. "!" He was also surprised when he saw what was on it. "A map!?"
"A map?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"Is it a world map or…?" Segawa asked.
"No, this… could it be a map of this island!?" Yarai said.
"Eh?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"I think it is!" Torako said.
"Ho-How can you tell that's a map of this island?" Kurusu-sensei asked.
"Just look at this," Yarai said, pointing to a spot on the map. "This thing here is the mountain we just went past, right? Our group followed this river towards the sea, then we went along the coast. Just like that."
"!" Kurusu-sensei gasped when she saw a picture of the tower they were in on the map. "And this is this tower!? The design is exactly the same. Th-Then this really is a map of the island?"
"…" Segawa came over to have a look too, although she didn't like how close Yarai was standing to Torako to read over her shoulder. "H-Hey! There are strange markings drawn in the map."
"Yeah. If those sketches really do exist, then… then the map shows that on this island, there are four towers!" Yarai said.
"No, No way! There are other towers besides this one?" Kurusu-sensei said.
"J-Just what in the world would they be there for?" Matsumoto asked.
"..." Segawa and her friends looked at each other.
'Hmm, this just got more interesting,' Yarai thought.
"S-So what do we do?" Shigeno asked. "Are we going to check out the other towers?"
"Bu-But we don't know if there is other useful stuff lying around here, so if we just search once more..." Matsumoto said.
"That's right, we haven't checked out the fifth and sixth floors yet," Kurusu-sensei said. "Everyone should split up and search."
"Well, maybe into groups of two or two groups of three..." Torako said. "I don't think we should wander around blindly on our own."
"Good idea, Fukui-chan," Kurusu-sensei said as they began leaving the room.
"Huh?" Segawa said, pausing when she noticed something. 'There's a piece of paper in the nest.' She leaned down and picked it up. 'Cardboard, huh? And it has a drawing on it. The drawing was a picture of a bird with a large beak and small wings. "…?" 'What's this? A sketch of some animal? Though its quite good, huh...'
"What are you doing? We're going now!" Matsumoto called back to her.
"Ah, sorry! Wait up!" she slipped the picture into her pocket.
—∞—
"This door doesn't open either..." Segawa said, trying another one. "I doubt there's anything worth finding left here."
"..." Yarai stared down the empty hall with his back to her.
"Hey, Yarai! Any luck on your side?" Segawa asked.
"..." He didn't answer her. Segawa pouted.
"Hey, what the hell!? Why are you so angry!?" she asked, crossing her arms. "Just because I've decided to tag along with you!?" She had claimed that spot before Torako could, and Torako couldn't argue without saying why.
"I'm not," Yarai said, looking back at her. "Just what are you on about?"
"Ah… Ri-Right," Segawa said, covering her mouth. She recovered and put her hand on her hip. "Matsumoto and Shigeno are talking about the suspicious relationship you and Sensei have! But that can't be possible now, can it? Not with the age gap and all!"
"..." Again, Yarai didn't answer.
"..." Segawa stared at his back, losing confidence again. "O-Or maybe it's Fukui-san you like! Even though she's the least likely candidate..."
"..." Yarai didn't know why she was bringing all of this up now, or why Torako was the 'least likely'.
'D-Damn it, say something!' Segawa thought, furrowing her brow and blushing. 'Or is it… that you, Yarai, really are...' She gripped her skirt tightly in her hands. 'That's a lie, it can't be possible!' "Hey, Yarai! Ba-Back when I received your love letter, what happened then was a misunderstanding, right? But I couldn't forget about that in those two years, and do you know why? Th-That's because… I… I..." She blushed more. "I have always..." Yarai's eyes widened. He looked back at her and saw that her face was red and tears were in her eyes.
"..." He stared at her, wondering why she was crying.
On a different floor, the group made up of Kurusu-sensei and Shigeno and the group made up of Torako and Matsumoto were splitting the duty of checking the doors, for some reason. Torako couldn't help feeling this was somehow the result of Segawa wanting to be with Yarai on her own.
"As I thought, these doors are locked, too!" Shigeno said. "But still, it sure is a surprise. That there's a computer in this broken down place..."
"I wonder what this tower's original purpose was?" Matsumoto said. "Hm, do you think there's some corporation involved?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," Torako admitted. 'It wouldn't surprise me if a government was involved either...'
"..." Kurusu-sensei stared at the ID card in her hand. 'If this really is an ID card, then the contents at the bottom should be the name of the department!' It said 'SPIRAL'. 'Spiral… Now that we're talking about it, there aren't any elevators, only staircases. And all the stairs are in a spiral pattern. Is there a link between them?' She suddenly felt faint. "… Eh?"
"Either way, I wonder why that woman would die at that place?" Shigeno said.
"Yeah, strange, I doubt she would die naked while holding the key in her mouth like that," Matsumoto said.
"A barrel like that would have been sealed from the outside..." Torako agreed.
"What do you think, Sensei?" Matsumoto asked, and they all looked in her direction. Torako's eyes widened when they saw that she was on the ground. "Eh? Sen… Sensei…?" She was covered in sweat, and her face was red. Her eyes were open, but they were dull.
"Se-Sensei!?" Torako said, rushing over to kneel down beside her. Shigeno and Matsumoto followed. Torako saw that Kurusu-sensei was unconscious.
"Wh-What's wrong!?" Matsumoto asked as she kneeled down too. She moved to shake their teacher.
"Don't!!" Torako said, stopping her. "You shouldn't shake an injured person!"
"So-Someone help! Hurry!!" Shigeno shouted.
"Yarai!!" Torako yelled.
"Sakiii!!" Matsumoto yelled.
