"And that means…?" said Nanase, inquisitively.
"It means that there's another piece of information that we can gather
through these repeated GPS searches."
If you were to look at the information and break it down by grade level, like,
for instance, if you looked at just the first-years or the third-years, then you
could see other things. For example, the third-year student groups showed
some strikingly unique patterns of movement.
"You can see that some third-year student groups have been exhibiting
strange movements throughout the day," I explained. "It also appears that
Nagumo's group and Kiriyama's group have been actively involved with the
other groups who were moving strangely. When I looked into it further, I found
something interesting."
I focused solely on Nagumo's group, observing their movements over each
hour, starting from seven in the morning on the sixth day of the exam.
"First, Nagumo's group was in area B8 at seven that morning," I pointed out.
"Does that mean that B8 was their last designated area on the fifth day of the
exam?" asked Nanase.
"I'd say there's a strong chance you're right about that," I agreed. "But they
were situated in the southernmost part of B8. It's possible that the area to the
south, B9, could have been their previous designated area. At any rate, at the
time that they set out for the day, you can only see GPS signals for people from
their group in that area; there was no one else near them."
However, an hour later, around eight o'clock that morning, several other
groups started to gather around Nagumo. This trend became even more
pronounced at nine o'clock that morning, with even more groups gathering
around Nagumo's position. And then, from that point onward, this collective of
groups went on the move together. Things really started to look interesting
when you noted their movements at ten and eleven o'clock that morning.
"So many groups coming together and all moving as one… They're like a
school of fish," Nanase observed.
"If you pull back and look at the whole image, you might not see it, but I bet if
you zoom in, you'll notice something out of the ordinary," I told her.
Once I had explained that to her, Nanase nodded twice. Then, she proceeded
to swipe through the images, stopping on the one from three that afternoon.
"Are they moving like that so they can monopolize Tasks?" she asked.
"With a system like this, I'd say Nagumo can likely take first place in any given
Task without difficulty, depending on how well he coordinates with his peers."
It wasn't complicated at all. This was an extremely simple, yet powerful
strategy.
"But none of the groups other than Student Council President Nagumo's will
earn points this way, will they?" Nanase pointed out. "I can't imagine that
they're all in the same Table either. They're working together to make one
specific group win… I think that's an idea that anyone might have thought of at
least once or twice, but it would be impossible for anyone to actually put such a
plan into action."
For this plan to work, the other groups would need to head for designated
areas other than their own. On top of that, if the Tasks were being handed over
to Nagumo's group, then the other groups wouldn't be able to get high scores
on Tasks either.
"That's right. Putting this strategy into action means ignoring the basic
premise of the uninhabited island exam. Why couldn't we work together to
make it so that one specific group wins?" I asked Nanase, testing her.
"That's because Class Points and expulsion are on the line, of course," she
answered.
I then went ahead and showed Nanase the students from the groups that had
gathered around Nagumo.
"They… The groups that they're using as fodder are all made up of
upperclassmen from the lower-level classes…" Nanase realized.
"That's right. There isn't a single Class A student among those groups," I
confirmed.
"It seems like the gap in Class Points between Class A and all the lower classes
is so extreme for the third-years that catching up must seem hopeless to them,"
remarked Nanase.
"Put another way," I said, "it also means that whether Class 3-B or Class 3-D
loses, it won't have any impact on their battle."
Neither the first-year nor the second-year grade levels were ready to give up
on their inter-class battles just yet. Since those grade levels were still fighting
tooth and nail with one another to become Class A, they were determined to
not let themselves fall into the lower ranks. The third-year students, and only
the third-year students, could ignore that impetus, and all four of their classes
could cooperate with each other.
"The strength of this strategy lies in the fact that the groups that are sinking
to the bottom of the rankings can basically do whatever they like during the
exam," I added. "Whether they have only a single point or if they have fifty
points, their disadvantage as a group from a lower rank remains the same.
They'll just lose Class Points and get expelled. That's it."
"If they're doing everything in their power to back up one particular group,
though, then shouldn't their point totals be as close to zero as you can get?"
asked Nanase. "Those third-year student groups are most definitely in the
bottom of the rankings, but they still have like twenty or thirty points or so,
don't they?"
If you were ignoring the Basic Movement system and didn't bother with any
of the Tasks yourself, then of course you wouldn't score any points. Nanase was
saying that it wouldn't be unexpected, then, if these groups had around zero
points thanks to successive penalties. Instead of answering her, I gave her some
time to think. Then, she slowly started to pick up on the answer. To give her
another push, I provided one small hint.
"Once this strategy is discovered, it becomes less effective. What could they
do to avoid being detected?"
"Well, if there were two or three groups that had zero points, then it would
be clear as day to the other grade levels that there was something going on,"
Nanase mused. "So, they would need to have at least some points to make it
more difficult to notice that they're up to something…"
She looked over to me after she finished speaking. She seemed to have been
able to work out the reasoning on her own, and she was exactly right. You could
see how extraordinarily good Nagumo was from this strategy. If several groups
had zero points, it would have been far too obvious. They might as well have
outright declared that they were up to something devious.
"While it does indeed seem like there are multiple groups supporting
Nagumo," I said, "each group is making sure to have at least one of their people
hit their respective designated areas."
"That's so they can avoid accruing penalties and getting more and more
points deducted, right?"
By doing things that way, those groups would get at least a bare minimum
level of points.
"The groups that are cooperating with Nagumo's group should make sure that
they're seen as being competitive," I agreed. "As long as they're giving up first
place to Nagumo, it doesn't matter who takes second or third as it's all the
same in the end. That's why even among the lower ranks, the positions might
change sometimes, or groups might have differences in scores."
You wouldn't be able to detect this strategy unless you performed those ten
GPS searches. Even if you felt like there was something suspicious, you wouldn't
be able to make anything of it.
"So are the students from those groups fully prepared to get expelled to make
sure that Student Council President Nagumo wins?" asked Nanase. "Even if they
cannot move up to Class A, wouldn't they want to avoid expulsion?"
"There might be some eccentric students out of the bunch that are doing this
on a whim, but basically, yes, Nanase, that's correct. I'm sure that Nagumo has
devised some kind of peculiar back-up plan to help them out as part of this
whole scheme."
"What could that be?" asked Nanase.
"As things stand, it's impossible for any of the students in Class 3-B or below
to graduate from Class A, even if they tried their best in the special exams," I
said. "But what if there was a possibility that they could move up to A by
working together with Nagumo?"
"If that were the sole option available, then…I suppose people might
cooperate, yes," answered Nanase.
If those students were forced to choose between graduating from B or below
or taking a sink-or-swim chance to graduate from A, then it wasn't surprising
that some of them would volunteer to help Nagumo.
"Somehow, I can't really tell if the school is administering this exam or if the
Student Council President is," Nanase sighed.
"That's exactly the question. Nagumo has his entire grade level in the palm of
his hand. That means that he's not on the side of those who must follow the
rules; he's on the side of those making and controlling them."
That was precisely how this situation had come to pass. It wouldn't be an
exaggeration to say that Nagumo was probably the first and only one of his
kind, even if you were to go back through the entire history of the Advanced
Nurturing High School. Of course, we second-year students weren't going to
just twiddle our thumbs and let Nagumo do whatever he wanted though.
On the fifth day of the special exam, I had approached Ryuuen and
Sakayanagi with a proposal.
The idea was that at least some of our grade level would come together and
cooperate by working together to complete a specific Task. If I were to describe
it simply, it was something of a similar nature to Nagumo's strategy. However, it
was not about concentrating points to ensure that one specific group won, like
Nagumo was doing. Since we second-year students were still competing against
each other, there was no way we could reach an agreement when scoring was
involved. Therefore, the proposal was made on the condition that we would be
cooperating on things other than scoring points.
There were several groups made up of students from Sakayanagi and
Ryuuen's respective classes who they felt somewhat uneasy about anyway. So,
we all negotiated with each other as equals, offering to support one another.
For example, in exchange for helping raise the maximum number of group
members for Sudou's group, which was formed of Class 2-D students, we, in
turn, would help raise the maximum number of members for a Class 2-A group.
Although our class leaders were enemies, they would work together without
hesitation if their interests aligned. It was one of their superior qualities. Of
course, had this been our first year in school, I don't think that we would have
been able to pull this off quite so well. It was precisely because we had all
accumulated a year and half of experiences together that we were able to make
this happen.
"I understand. So, that means that paying ten points in exchange for this
information wasn't that big of a risk for you, senpai. Right?" said Nanase.
"It's not like I've entirely abandoned the idea of trying to get into the top
spots," I replied. "But Kouenji is fighting tooth and nail to take the top spot too,
fortunately enough. Besides, I think I'd rather have the means necessary to be
able to support my allies at any time."
"Kouenji-senpai really is quite amazing," said Nanase. "He's single-handedly
keeping up with Student Council President Nagumo's group."
Kouenji was certainly impressive. However, the situation was a little
misleading. Kouenji and Nagumo were in a neck and neck race right now, each
potentially about to overtake the other. Or at least, that's what everyone must
have been thinking when they checked which groups were in the top spots.
They would think to themselves, "Kouenji is holding his own against Nagumo's
group all on his own." In reality, Nagumo's group was only pretending to be in
such close competition with Kouenji. It was nothing more than an act.
Nagumo would likely maintain the status quo until the end of the twelfth day,
when the top ranks could be confirmed. Then, during those last two days when
the scores couldn't be checked, he would make a mad dash for the finish line.
That way, the results would only show that Nagumo had defeated Kouenji by
overtaking him in the endgame once Kouenji had run out of steam. The fact
that Nagumo was using a large network of allies to raid Tasks wouldn't be
exposed. I supposed if Nagumo was willing to go up against Kouenji, then there
was a chance that we could win this thing.
"Now then," I said, "let's use the information we have to see what kind of
movements Amasawa was making on the sixth day of the exam."
Hearing those words, Nanase understood that there was even more value to
those ten points that I had spent.
"It looks like Amasawa wasn't inside the designated area as of that morning,"
I pointed out.
It wouldn't have been surprising if she'd been camping out in the same
designated area that we were in, considering that we were in the same Table to
begin with. However, her GPS coordinates placed her two areas below that. She
must have spent the night alone as we couldn't see any other GPS signals
overlapping with hers.
"This was her position at eight in the morning, one hour after the designated
area was announced," I added.
"And we were headed for B6, right?" said Nanase.
"That's right. It looks like Amasawa took a different route than we did to get
there."
Looking at the distance she had traveled in just one hour, she must have been
going quite fast. Was it just that she was traveling faster than the general
walking speed? Or was it because she had moved with precision along the best
possible route? In any case, I found it hard to believe that she was just some girl
walking through the woods all on her own. When I proceeded to the screenshot
of the map one hour later, I saw that Amasawa had been in area C6, just one
space to the right of our designated area. We could assume that she had
entered the designated area during that one-hour time frame and then made
her way to a nearby Task. At least on the morning of the sixth day of the exam,
Amasawa must have been taking this exam seriously, just like the rest of the
students.
"Once again, I have to say, this is really impressive," Nanase remarked. "I can
see each and every person's movement on the map, plain as day."
Then, we focused on Amasawa's movements from the third screenshot to the
seventh screenshot, in order. There wasn't anything particularly unusual; she
had appeared to participate in three Tasks and visited each of the designated
areas in time. Whether she had actually won anything from those Tasks was
something I could more or less find out by looking at Nanase's tablet, but the
results Amasawa had gotten from those Tasks weren't important.
"At the very least," I said, "as of five o'clock in the evening on the sixth day,
there weren't any signs that Amasawa was approaching us or making any kind
of suspicious movements."
"…I suppose this means that we've gotten nothing from this then," said
Nanase. "What a shame."
"No, we've gotten plenty," I assured her. "At the very least, Amasawa appears
to be engaging with this special exam with at least some degree of seriousness.
And this all means that she hasn't given us any kind of opening to find out
anything about what she was doing with the GPS search."
Without a doubt, it was safe to assume that she had been engaged in other
activities during the evening and early morning hours, outside of the special
exam period for the day. While it was possible to do a GPS search during those
times, it would be a total waste of points.
Just then, we received an additional notification from the school regarding
the suspension of special exam activities today.
"Because students were only able to complete one-fourth of the day's
activities for the seventh day of the exam for both the Basic Movement system
and Tasks as a result of the inclement weather, we have decided to compensate
students in the form of doubling all rewards earned from Arrival Bonuses, Early
Bird Bonuses, and Tasks on the final day of the exam. Also, please note that the
forecast predicts that the weather will be back to normal by tomorrow
morning."
The final day of the exam was like the first in that it was only three-quarters
as long as the regular exam days. So, in that sense, I supposed that it was a
good choice to allocate our compensation to that day.
"This might make it possible to turn things around, don't you think?" said
Nanase.
If points gained were doubled on the last day, the day we could expect most
showdowns to be decided, then it was even likelier that an upset could happen.
"Announcing their decision to double points on the final day of the exam right
away was the correct move on their part. This way, it gives students time to
rethink their strategies for the second half of the exam so they can decide what
kind of moves to make," I reasoned.
Also, since today could be used as a day of rest, groups would be thinking
about how best to pace themselves starting tomorrow so they could carry
through to the end of the final day. I supposed that it wouldn't be surprising if
some groups took advantage of this opportunity to push forward with
everything they had starting on the eighth day, while other groups were slowing
down. But for me, personally, neither today's severe weather nor the decision
the school had made to deal with it were welcome developments.
After staring down at my tablet for a while, I noticed that Nanase had started
speaking less and less and she seemed to be nodding off. Her eyes closed and
opened over and over, as if she were on the verge of passing out.
"I know it's still daytime, but wouldn't it be a good idea for you to get some
sleep?" I asked her.
She had basically forced herself to climb a mountain this morning. After that,
we had our fight, which drained all her stamina in one go. She must have
pushed herself beyond her limits more than once or twice by now, so I was sure
her fatigue was catching up with her.
"O-oh, uh… I'm sorry," said Nanase, flustered.
She quickly tried to sit up straight once more, but it wasn't like you could
make drowsiness go away that easily. Especially if you had bruises all over your
body.
"…I'll be going back to my own tent," she said.
People know their own bodies best, after all. If she stayed here any longer
while she kept nodding off like that, she'd only end up being a bother to me.
"Yeah, that's for the best," I replied.
Thanks to the rain, we likely wouldn't be able to move around much at all for
the remainder of the day, anyway. It would be best for us to take this
opportunity to relax as long as we could and rest our bodies. That being said, it
wasn't exactly comfortable inside the tent, so it wasn't that great a reprieve. As
Nanase was just about to exit my tent, she turned to look at me.
"As soon as it stops raining, I'd like to go ahead and pursue Amasawa-san,"
she told me. "Now that it's clear that she's a student from the White Room, I'm
curious about what she's going to do in the days to come."
It was true that sticking with me wouldn't reveal anything more about that
situation. Amasawa was unlikely to get the opportunity to do anything
malicious to Nanase either, as they shared the same Table.
"The fact that Amasawa was able to make it through the White Room all this
time, until she reached her current age without any difficulty, means that she is
a threat," I warned her. "It's important that we don't underestimate her
because of her gender or age."
"I don't understand the situation fully, but I'll take it that you mean she's an
extremely powerful opponent," said Nanase.
If we were talking purely in terms of combat prowess, it was safe to say that
Amasawa surpassed the likes of Sudou and Ryuuen. They might have been
superior to her in physical strength, but she was leagues ahead of them in terms
of technique. No matter how hard Nanase might try and resist Amasawa, she
stood no chance of winning.
"Besides, you have Housen in your group too," I added.
"Right. He isn't an opponent I could best in terms of raw strength, either,"
Nanase nodded.
It wasn't just his strength that made him dangerous. If anything, it was better
to think of Housen as the type of opponent who didn't make moves based on
brute force alone.
"While I think the chances of Housen being a White Room student are
extremely low, this whole thing with Amasawa has now made me feel less
certain of that. At any rate, put me second on your list of priorities and protect
yourself," I told her.
If Housen's top priority wasn't getting me expelled, that is.
"I'm not afraid of being expelled. I intend to do whatever it takes to protect
Ayanokouji-senpai."
It didn't seem like Nanase was going to take my warnings to heart.
"Let me rephrase that," I replied. "Careless action on your part could
potentially cause me unexpected harm. I would like for you to avoid risky
behavior." I wasn't worried about her. I had apprehensions about harm
befalling me.
When I said that, though, Nanase went from looking courageous to looking
like a sad little puppy.
"That's… You're right, that won't do. I cannot cause you any more trouble,
Ayanokouji-senpai," she said.
"If that's what you think, then please just be prudent. Okay?"
"I understand. I promise," said Nanase.
I figured that if I told her to be careful, she wouldn't do anything too rash. I
was sure that she wouldn't want to do anything potentially disgraceful that
could make her feel even more ashamed than she already did.
After Nanase returned to her own tent, I lowered my gaze to my tablet once
more. I checked the scores of the groups in the top and bottom ten. I also
wanted to assess my current situation based on my own score.
Top Ten Groups by Points:
2
nd Year Kouenji's Group: 168 Points / 1
st Place
3
rd Year Nagumo's Group: 166 Points / 2
nd Place
3
rd Year Kiriyama's Group: 150 Points / 3
rd Place
3
rd Year Sozoe's Group: 133 Points / 4
th Place
3
rd Year Ochiai's Group: 133 Points / 4
th Place
2
nd Year Ryuuen's Group: 128 Points / 6
th Place
2
nd Year Sakayanagi's group: 127 Points / 7
th Place
1
st Year Takahashi's Group: 115 Points / 8
th Place
2
nd Year Kanzaki's Group: 104 Points / 9
th Place
3
rd Year Kuronaga's Group: 101 Points / 10
th Place
And then there was me in forty-ninth place with seventy-eight points. There
was a difference of ninety points between me and Kouenji, who was currently
sitting in first place. Though it seemed like that difference was completely
insurmountable, I supposed it was possible to scale it. If I arrived at a
designated area first and earned the top Early Bird Bonus, after factoring in the
Arrival Bonus, I could get a total of eleven points. Granted, since there were
four designated areas to visit per day, it would only be possible for me to catch
up if I arrived at my designated areas first, nine times in a row. And, of course,
this was also assuming that my opponent didn't accumulate a single point.
If Kouenji didn't slow down his current pace and continued to keep scoring a
fair number of points, then he would likely end up with somewhere around 350
points when everything was said and done. If I wanted to catch up with him,
then I'd have to earn almost forty points per day. I'm sure that if any other
group was asked to do something similar, they would have said it was
impossible and given up. But even the practically inhuman Kouenji should be
slowing down in the second half of the exam.
"So, tenth place has 101 points, huh…" I muttered to myself.
When all the rules for this uninhabited island exam were explained to us, I
expected that all of the groups would have had slightly higher scores than I was
seeing now by this time. It was the halfway point of the exam, after all. But
considering the score of the group in tenth place, and the fact that I was
currently sitting in forty-ninth place with a total of seventy-eight points, I was
getting the strong impression that the rate of scoring overall had been rather
sluggish, right from the onset of this exam up to now. After people started to
peak on the second or third day of the exam, their fatigue started to show. It
was clear that the number of times groups had failed to reach their designated
areas, the number of penalties, and the number of times groups had missed
registering for Tasks were all increasing.
However, the total number of groups was gradually decreasing as well, as
smaller groups were slowly but surely beginning to merge with one another. I
couldn't forget about that. I was going to need to really go for it in the second
half of the exam if I was going to make it into the top rankings. And the key
would be the tenth-place score. That was exactly why I didn't push myself too
hard in the first half of the exam and instead just quietly observed and
prepared.
Things were going to pay off starting tomorrow, the eighth day of the exam.
But even so, I could expect another major spike in activity on the eighth and
ninth days thanks to the fact that today, the seventh day of the exam, had been
cancelled on account of heavy rainfall. This would also provide an opportunity
for some groups to conserve their energy in order to focus on getting double
points on the final day.
This special exam appeared unwinnable for someone going it alone. The exam
rules, the Basic Movement system, and Tasks were all at odds with each other.
If you aimed to get to your designated areas as quickly as possible, you might
miss Tasks. If you focused on Tasks, there was an increased chance that you'd
miss Early Bird Bonuses. This was a common issue shared by all, whether you
were operating alone or were with a large group made up of many people.
The Early Bird Bonus reward was determined by when the last person in your
group got to an area. As for Tasks, you could only gain a large number of points
through them if you got the chance to actually participate when they appeared,
and you had to win as well. Both of those facts showed that this exam was
made up of well-designed systems.
It was unclear whether it would continue raining tomorrow or not, but I
intended to fight through the second half of this exam using a new strategy.
There were a few things that still concerned me, though—like Nanase's
presence.
Chapter 3:
Just Keep Going and Keep Quiet
THE HEAVY RAINFALL kept coming until just around dawn. It cast a shadow of
intense anxiety over the students. However, around the time that six o'clock
rolled around, the rain clouds vanished. The sky was so clear that you could
hardly believe it had rained at all. The weather looked sunny and clear, having
returned to what it was like the day before yesterday. The sunlight didn't really
shine through the trees when you got deep into the woods though, so it would
likely be some time before the muddied paths dried up and it became easier to
walk around again.
"Guess I'll need to take care of food issues when the time comes again too…"
I muttered to myself.
I hadn't been able to maintain the daily caloric intake that I needed as a high
schooler. Slowly but surely, I was starting to run out of energy. As I had never
intentionally trained myself to deal with chronic food shortages, this would be
my first experience with prolonged hunger. At the very least, if I was able to
maintain my water supply and stay hydrated, I could remain somewhat active.
But even so, that wouldn't be great. It would lead to my immune system
weakening, therefore making me more susceptible to illness.
Eating wild animals and insects was a possibility, but that was only something
I'd do as a last resort. If you had points left over, you could go back and
purchase food at the starting area, but only in small portions. That meant that
basically, the only way to get food was to complete Tasks and make sure that
you placed near the top, or if you received food as a participation prize. The
Tasks that we could obtain food from were going to become fiercely contested
from here on out.
"I'm all set," said Nanase, approaching me with her backpack slung over her
shoulders. She had apparently finished putting away all her stuff.
"Amasawa will be hitting the designated areas, right?" I asked.
"Considering that it'll increase her score, I'm certain that's what she'll be
doing first today," she replied. "So, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if
you would allow me to accompany you to our first designated area."
I didn't say anything back, only answering her with an affirmative nod. If we
were headed for the same destination, then I didn't have any reason to push
her away. Not long after we started walking, Nanase opened her mouth to
speak once more.
"Amasawa-san started following us on the evening of the sixth day of the
exam and into the morning of the seventh day, correct?"
"If we think it through simply, we should assume that when she approached
us early on the morning of the seventh day, she did so using the search
function," I answered.
Since we couldn't access anything like a search history, there wouldn't be any
evidence of any kind that suggested Amasawa had used it for certain. However,
if we could see that her group's score went down on the seventh day, then we
could take that as proof that either Amasawa or Housen had made a GPS
search. Since they didn't appear to be in either the top or bottom ten groups
though, only Nanase could confirm that fact since she was in the same group as
them.
"I did check our information on my tablet, of course. However…as far as I can
remember, our group's score wasn't reduced by even a single point from what
we had accumulated as of the morning of the seventh day," said Nanase.
So, if Nanase's memory was to be believed, Amasawa had not used the GPS
search.
"While it's unclear where exactly Amasawa-san was that morning, we were in
quite a hurry at the time," Nanase went on. "It wouldn't have been an easy feat
for her to have caught up with us unless she was somewhere close by already,
don't you think?" reasoned Nanase.
"That's why she had devised an ingenious way to catch up with us," I said.
Unlike Nanase and I, who were walking along with our backpacks, Amasawa
had been traveling light at the time. This meant that she had been stationed
somewhere close enough that she could easily close the distance between us.
"We should assume that there was some kind of trick she used to find out our
specific location," I added.
"Are you saying that Amasawa-san got your location from someone else,
Ayanokouji-senpai?"
"Maybe."
Whatever method she might have used, it would be difficult for us to get
definitive proof at this stage.
3.1
"WELL, SENPAI, I suppose this is where we say goodbye for now," said
Nanase. We had just reached area E3, having traveled from D3, and both of us
had earned a single point from the Arrival Bonus.
"How are you planning on joining up with Amasawa and Housen?" I asked.
The GPS search was an excellent feature for finding out your opponents'
locations, but it wasn't exactly ideal for trying to meet up with people. Items
that allowed for direct conversation like walkie-talkies would be better suited
for the task.
"I can't imagine that I'll be able to run into them even if I move about at
random, but it's not as though I can repeatedly use the search feature to try
and find them. I'd selfishly use up the points that we worked so hard to
obtain," said Nanase. "For the time being, I'll just use one point to search now
and follow their GPS signal. If I can't find them after that, then I'll just have to
go on to the designated area."
I supposed the bare-minimum approach would be to look for Amasawa and
Housen throughout the day, as time permitted. Since there wasn't any point in
me asking her what Amasawa's location was right now, I decided not to bring it
up.
"I also think that it would be difficult to investigate what the first-years are
doing unless you were also a first-year student, like me. If I find anything
disturbing, I'll rush to your side, Ayanokouji-senpai," she added enthusiastically.
What I was most afraid of was that she'd drag me on some kind of wild goose
chase.
"Don't do anything excessive," I replied.
Nanase bowed and promptly left, tablet in her hand. Hopefully she'd be able
to join up with her teammates soon, but that all depended on the remaining
two people in her group. If they were constantly moving within their designated
area, then that'd be it. But I wouldn't be surprised if the two of them ended up
doing something unpredictable.
After I saw Nanase disappear into the woods, I took out my own tablet. Now
that I was finally back to being alone, it looked like I could get the second half of
this exam started.
"Doesn't look like there are any Tasks nearby," I muttered to myself.
There was a Task that was a straight shot from where I was, about 400 meters
away. Unfortunately, registration began twenty minutes ago, and considering
that it would take fifteen minutes for me to get there, I'd get there thirty-five
minutes after registration had opened. Only five groups could register for it as
well, so it didn't allow for many people.
I determined that, realistically, it would be difficult for me to get in. I decided
to not overdo it, and instead just took it easy. I would wait right where I was for
the next designated area to be announced. Once my strength returned, I'd get
back up. Thus, when nine o'clock came around, I took out my tablet and started
to take action. Whether I would head straight for my designated area in the
shortest amount of time possible or whether I'd head toward a Task would
depend on what the announcement said.
I looked at my tablet to check. It turned out that this designated area, my
second for the day, was the random one. It was fairly close for a random
designation, relatively speaking: it was in E6, just three spaces below my current
location. I immediately started walking, but I didn't put away my tablet. I
continued to use it as I moved, checking what Tasks were appearing right now
so I could set my course of action.
I needed to be efficient if I was going to rack up a lot of points in a single day,
especially a day in which time was limited. And, to achieve that, it was essential
that I eliminated factors influenced by "luck" as much as possible.
3.2
IT WAS JUST BEFORE four in the afternoon. I had finished the Task that I had
registered for and was just about to get going.
"Ayanokouji-kun?"
Just then, I spotted Horikita for the first time since we parted ways on the first
day of the special exam. She looked a little surprised, but she didn't seem
particularly fatigued or anything.
"We haven't seen each other since that first day," she said.
"Sounds about right," I replied.
Here in F7, we were meeting again for the first time since the exam began.
"Did you come here for a Task, or are you just passing through? Where are
you headed?" I asked her.
"G8. I'm just cutting through on my way there. What about you?"
"F8. Looks like we're heading in the same direction then," I observed.
Apparently, Horikita's destination was just one space ahead of mine.
Nothing was as big a waste of time as just standing around and talking, so
instead, we started walking side by side as we talked. If we were following the
same route to our destinations, at least for part of the way, this would be the
best solution.
"You seem to be doing better than I thought you would be, physically. And
from the looks of things… Are you still alone?" I asked.
"That's right," she replied. "There are plenty of hardships, but there are also
many aspects that are easier when you're alone."
It was true that if you were alone, you didn't have to worry about anyone else
or try to match your pace to other people's. Come to think of it, Horikita's name
hadn't ever appeared in the bottom ten yet. That might've been proof that she
had been performing well and scoring points, but even so, it was strange that
she didn't seem to be tired at all.
"Do you find it that strange that I'm still feeling fit?" she asked.
"Most of the students I've encountered have seemed pretty exhausted," I
answered.
"Has anything unusual happened?"
"Unusual? Oh, yeah… Come to think of it, have you heard anything about
Shinohara and the others?"
"Yes. I just heard today," she said. "With that in mind, I'm glad that I could
meet up with you."
From the sounds of things, Horikita had stopped back near the starting point,
and was approached by a student from Class 2-A. Then, she met up with
Sakayanagi and learned that Komiya and Kinoshita had been eliminated from
the exam. She then heard about the strategy that I had proposed to Sakayanagi
earlier and had accepted the terms of the negotiations.
"So, you didn't turn it down," I remarked.
"I didn't have any reason to," she said, "and we absolutely must avoid letting
Shinohara-san get expelled. From what I've heard, you were the first to discover
what happened. Did you find out any details?"
"No, not especially. I think it was both an incident and an accident."
I explained what I saw, as someone who had examined the scene of the crime
up close. I didn't mention that Amasawa had been lurking in the background at
the time, of course.
"Shinohara-san's group dropped hard in the rankings," said Horikita. "Her
group is now sitting at seventh from the bottom. At this rate, she's likely going
to drop even further in the rankings before the day is out, into a position where
she'll be in danger of expulsion. We need to hurry. If, in the worst-case
scenario, she cannot find a group to merge with, then I'll make my move. I was
fortunate enough that just before I met up with you today, I completed a Task
that allows me to increase my group size by three."
That was good news. There were only a few Tasks that allowed you to
increase your maximum group size, and those Tasks drew quite a crowd. It
couldn't have been easy for Horikita to get first place.
"But if you take her in, then you and Shinohara would have to score points
with just the two of you," I pointed out. "If possible, I'd like for you to
coordinate with Sakayanagi to work this out smoothly, and make sure
Shinohara is absorbed into a group that's in decent shape."
Horikita seemed to share my opinion, agreeing with a nod.
"Also, as I've been walking around this island for the past eight days, I've
noticed there are far more groups using walkie-talkies than I imagined there'd
be," she said. "I've seen them in use all over the place; Sakayanagi-san used one
to relay details about Shinohara-san's case to her fellow students from Class A."
"They seem to be especially useful for the upper-level classes with good
leadership and the means to afford them," I mused. "Tools that allow you to
exchange information over long distances can be well worth the high price,
depending on how you use them."
"I wonder…" said Horikita, "if we could've done the same thing, if we trusted
each other a little more."
Perhaps she found the idea somewhat difficult to imagine as she was pursing
her lips somewhat tightly.
"It could've been a waste if we had gotten them, though," I said. "You know,
pearls before swine. They wouldn't necessarily lead to a net positive in this
exam."
"I suppose," she replied.
I took out my tablet and checked to see whether any new Tasks had appeared
yet. A Task had appeared nearby that offered food just for taking part, and it
was both risk-and hassle-free. Moreover, fifteen groups could participate,
which was quite a high number. On the other hand, it wasn't very appealing in
terms of point value. You could only receive one point for it as a participation
prize.
"I'm running dangerously low on food, so I'm thinking of stopping by this
Task," I told her. "What about you, Horikita? What are you going to do?"
If she were after the Early Bird Bonus for reaching her designated area, then it
would be better if she continued on without bothering with the Task.
"I don't exactly have that much food left myself, so I'm going to stop by that
Task too," she replied.
Since Horikita and I both had the same priority now, we decided to change
our route slightly and head over toward the Task. While I was quite grateful for
this Task being there, simply getting in was going to be somewhat competitive.
Both Horikita and I picked up our walking pace and hurried to its location. While
we were on the way, we started to see more and more first-year and third-year
students and, of course, second-year student groups as well. They were all
headed in the same direction, presumably for the same purpose that we were.
Most of the groups started to take off running as soon as they realized they
were surrounded by rivals.
"Don't worry about me, Horikita. Go ahead and hurry there," I told her.
"You're one to talk. If you're so incredibly low on food, don't you think you
should take the lead and hurry over there?"
"I don't have the energy to run anymore," I replied.
"I'm in the same boat," said Horikita.
Even though we were in a hurry, we both were trying to avoid using up too
much energy unnecessarily. I also started to see that Horikita, who had
continued working alone in this exam, still had some energy to spare, just like I
did. She was taking this exam at the same pace I was.
We managed to get there in time to register for the Task. Once we arrived, we
decided to chat a bit with our classmates that we hadn't seen in a while.
Besides, even if we rushed over toward our next designated area, we wouldn't
be able to get the Early Bird Bonus anyway.
In that case, I figured it was better that we stick around and trade information
until the last possible minute so we could make the most out of our time in the
second half of the exam. Furthermore, many students were unaware of
Shinohara's situation.
I had received four points from the Basic Movement system today and taken
part in four Tasks, scoring fourteen points. In total, I had earned eighteen points
today. My overall score was now ninety-six points, and I was in twenty-third
place in the rankings. I had the impression that, on the whole, students had
moved more actively than on the fifth and sixth days of the exam, but there
were some groups that had hardly moved at all. I had the clear impression that
everyone was divided into two distinct categories: those that were strictly
trying to maintain their energy, and those that were not.
I had expected that the eighth day of the exam was going to be a fierce battle,
but it ended up not being that bad of a day, actually. There hadn't been any
major shakeups in the scores in the top ten either. Kuronaga's group was
hanging on at tenth place with 111 points. Tomorrow, I wanted to reach and
stay at my ideal ranking. If possible, I wanted to meet with Sakayanagi in the
near future too. I decided to get a little sleep, hoping that my next designated
area would be somewhere in the direction of the starting point.
Chapter 4:
Fighting Against Solitude
I BRUSHED THE SPIDERWEBS off my clothes, slowly took my backpack off, and
set it down. The ninth day of the uninhabited island exam was as hot and humid
a day as ever. Having safely arrived at my fourth designated area, I let out a
deep sigh. I had reached my destination on time, just as I planned. The sweat
beading on my forehead slowly trickled down to the bridge of my nose, and I
wiped it off with my arm.
My fourth designated area for the day, which was announced at three in the
afternoon, had been quite the trek. It took me from area H9 all the way to D5.
Making it there in time had been a rather arduous journey. One Task that I
could have snatched up had appeared while I was on the move, but I decided to
forego it to reduce my risk of getting hit with a penalty.
Despite it taking nearly two hours for me to get to where I needed to go, few
other groups had come to this area, including students from other Tables. I
successfully managed to arrive early enough to get the third place Early Bird
Bonus. Though I was, by and large, not dissatisfied by the results, I wasn't able
to meet up with Sakayanagi because I wasn't near the starting point. I'd used up
lot of my energy to push on ahead already, and I didn't want to overdo it.
I passed by several groups of Class 2-A students and reached out to talk to
them, but unfortunately, none of those groups had walkie-talkies. Should I push
my luck tomorrow morning? No… That'd be dicey. I set the matter of contacting
Sakayanagi on hold for the time being and proceeded to summarize the day's
events.
"So, after adding up all of the points I got today, that brings me to a total of a
112… Huh," I muttered to myself.
Kuronaga's group had maintained their position at tenth place in the rankings,
with a total of 123 points. I had moved up to thirteenth place—and there was
now only an eleven-point difference between my score and Kuronaga's group's.
Considering that it would soon be five o'clock, there was a good chance that the
day would end with this gap as it was. My goal had been to get to eleventh
place, but I supposed that an eleven-point difference in scores was more or less
acceptable.
Although I had gotten here later than I planned due to the whole incident
with Nanase and the severe weather, I had reached the perfect position: the
spot I had been aiming for since the beginning. That's right: I had been aiming
for eleventh place since the start of the uninhabited island special exam. I was
in thirteenth place today, a little below where I wanted, but the important thing
wasn't necessarily getting to exactly eleventh place. What was important to me
was making sure I got to just barely below tenth place and that I stayed there.
I needed to work hard to accumulate points so that I ended up on the winning
side. That was unavoidable. But whether I was working alone or whether I was
in a large group that had seven people in it thanks to having the One More card,
if I broke into the top ten, I'd stand out even if I didn't want to. That was
because the top ten groups were announced publicly. If I were to stand out,
then my rivals would become wary of me, and the risk of sabotage in the near
future would surely increase.
To avoid those risks while still giving me a chance to shoot for the top ten
later, the ideal ranking for me to reach was eleventh place. However, this
strategy did have several drawbacks. Because of the nature of this plan, I
needed to be extremely careful in managing my score. Any failure in that
department could result in me popping into the top ten too soon, even if just
for a moment. If that happened, then my strategy would fail.
An even bigger drawback was that this plan was highly dependent on the
group in tenth place. The closer that the tenth-place group got to the first-place
group, the easier it would be for there to be a shakeup. But on the flipside, the
more points they needed to catch up to first place, the more difficult it would
be to pull off a surprise victory later. This was precisely why it was so important
to have those groups at the top drag each other down for me.
Well, that hadn't been happening as overtly as I'd hypothesized, and now,
some groups had basically pulled far, far ahead of everyone else. I wouldn't call
it compensation or anything, but the second-years as a whole had been able to
fight this battle from a relatively advantageous position. That is to say, we
weren't feeling much pressure pushing up against us from below or pressing
down on us from above. Trying to sabotage another group more or less
amounted to an act of self-sacrifice, which meant that it was difficult for anyone
to actually pull some kind of stunt unless they had the luxury of extra points to
spare.
What concerned me most was whatever Nagumo was up to. I anticipated that
he might have tried to do something to Kouenji since he was competing with
him for first place, but from what I could tell by checking their movements via
the GPS, there was no sign of Nagumo interfering with him in any way. I
supposed that could have been because Nagumo was focusing his efforts more
on building up his own group's score rather than kicking opponents off the
board, but…
"Well, even if I don't win, if Kouenji takes first and I get second, I wouldn't
really have anything to say to that," I muttered. "That'd be fine."
If I maintained my place in the rankings, staying somewhere close to eleventh,
then I wouldn't stand out. And even if I did lose time due to sabotage by
Amasawa and the first-year students, I wouldn't drop down into the lower ranks
either. What I needed to do was to keep hiding in plain sight among the higher
ranks until the end of the twelfth day.
I took it easy for a bit, resting in the shade of a big tree and wiping off my
sweat. Then I slung my backpack over my shoulders once again and headed
toward the neighboring area, which was only a short distance away. I decided
that I wanted to find a clearing that was a little further out of the way from the
boundary line.
The sun was starting to set, and I needed to decide where to set up camp for
the night. Just then, I noticed a lone single-person tent had appeared in my field
of view. Someone else must have gotten here already. Since the tent's entrance
was shut while it was so hot outside, I wondered if the tent's owner, whoever it
was, was away at the moment. They could be conducting reconnaissance of the
surrounding area, or perhaps they were using the bathroom.
"It's a nice spot," I remarked out loud, to no one in particular.
There didn't seem to be that many places in the nearby vicinity that were
reasonably open and flat. For my part, anyway, it would be quite easy for me to
set up camp in this area. However, now that I no longer had Nanase
accompanying me, I was a single guy traveling alone. If the owner of this other
tent happened to be a girl, then carelessly approaching them could lead to
trouble.
More importantly though, I had to wonder—what did it mean that there was
a sole single-person tent here? Was this person acting separately from their
group? Or had they been going it alone from the start? If it was the latter, then
whoever this person was, it was almost certainly someone that I knew.
Regardless of whether I ended up setting up camp here myself, I wanted to
identify this other tent's owner.
I decided to stand around for a while to see what was going on. If they were
out walking around, they'd be back before the sun went down completely. And
if I heard any noises coming from inside the tent, then I could just call out to
them without delay. I knew that it would be more efficient for me to just try
calling out to them right away, but… Well, you get the idea.
I proceeded to wait for about ten minutes or so. But even after waiting that
long, I didn't see or hear any sign that they were coming back. I wondered
about the possibility that maybe they had gone to bed early, by some chance.
Since there was no sign of any of their comrades coming this way to join up
with them, I decided to steel myself and just say something.
"Is anybody there?" I called out from beside the tent.
I held my breath and quietly waited a few seconds to see if I could hear any
kind of reaction, but I didn't hear a single thing.
"Sorry for the bother, but I was thinking of setting up my tent near here. If
that's an inconvenience, let me know," I added.
After assuming that the other camper wasn't around, at least for the time
being, I lowered my backpack to the ground. Of course, I made sure to set up at
an appropriate distance from the other tent. Although I was a little curious
about who this other person was, I finished setting up camp in short order. I
was once again impressed by just how much easier it was for me to set up a
tent this year compared to when I was on the island last year.
I also rather liked single-person tents because I didn't need to worry about
anyone else. Well, I suppose thinking that way might have been the reason I
didn't really have many friends. A cheerful person, I figured, would find a tent
that couldn't accommodate that many people to be rather boring. I wondered if
a day would come when I felt that same way.
"…I can't really imagine that happening," I muttered to myself.
That was a future that was never going to come to be.
Just as I was getting ready to get changed and stuff, though, I heard someone
call out to me from behind.
"I thought I saw something strange. Turns out it's just you."
Apparently, the owner of the solitary tent nearby was none other than Ibuki.
"Was I being loud?" I asked.
"Not really."
She only said a few words, and she glared at me right after answering. I
thought she was going to say something else, but then she quickly ducked back
inside her tent. There was something about the way she looked that made me
uncomfortable, so I decided to go over to her tent to check on her.
"Hey, do you have a minute?" I called out to her.
I didn't get a response. However, I could hear a faint sound coming from
within her tent.
"I just wanted to ask you something," I said, trying a different approach.
I didn't get any response that time either. I thought that maybe she was just
ignoring me, plain and simple, but it felt like she was up to something sneaky
instead.
"Hey, I'm going to open your tent and come in," I said. "Okay?"
I waited about thirty seconds, just to be on the safe side, and then I
proceeded to open the entrance to her tent.
"…What?" she huffed.
When I peeked inside, I saw Ibuki sitting down with something in her mouth.
"You're really— Wait, what are you eating?" I asked.
"Jerky," she replied.
"Jerky? That wasn't in the uninhabited island manual they handed out to us."
That meant she must've gotten her hands on some fresh meat by purchasing
it or some other means and prepared it herself. However, it would take a
considerable amount of time and effort to make jerky all by yourself. What's
more was that Ibuki had issued a challenge to Horikita right at the start of the
exam, and then had immediately set out for her designated area. It was obvious
that if she had been walking around with fresh meat on her, it would've spoiled
in less than a few hours during the summer season.
In that case, could I assume that all of Class 2-B knew how to make their own
jerky? Maybe some groups had taken it upon themselves to make it for
everyone.
That way, it could be done readily and at a considerably lower price. Dried
foods were quite effective options for quick, portable meals. However, preprepared foods like jerky that could be stored for an extended period of time
didn't have a great cost-to-performance ratio, considering the high number of
points needed to buy them outright. That was why even if you were preparing
the same amount of food, it would be more cost-effective to make the jerky
yourself from fresh beef since it was cheaper to produce in large quantities.
Although I hadn't seen any of Ryuuen and Katsuragi's food, I felt it was safe to
assume that they were operating in much the same way, carrying around
emergency rations, namely jerky. Even if they could only scrimp on just a few
meals by doing so, that still meant they'd be able to pass up a hotly contested
Task that offered food without worry.
"What does it matter anyway? It's none of your business," snapped Ibuki.
Although I had taken the liberty of imagining what could be going on with the
jerky situation, it didn't sound like I was going to be able to hear the truth from
Ibuki. At any rate, even though Ibuki had been tackling this exam all on her own,
her name hadn't appeared in the bottom ten up until this point, at least as far
as I knew. She must have been pushing ahead as hard as she could, collecting
point after point. In her case, it was hopeless to try and get high scores in any
Tasks that involved academic ability, so her main sources of points must have
been Arrival Bonuses for reaching her designated areas and Early Bird Bonuses.
I supposed that with her skills, that narrowed down the Tasks she could take
on to ones that primarily focused on physical ability. That meant, of course, that
she would inevitably become more fatigued than the other students. And
because of that, she probably sustained quite a lot of psychological suffering as
well. It was plain for anyone to see that, and it wasn't an exaggeration to say
that she'd already pushed herself past her limits.
"How many people have you talked to since the exam started?" I asked.
"Huh…?" she huffed. She must not have slept very much either, as she had
dark circles under her eyes. "Horikita. I told her I wasn't going to lose to her,"
she said. "You heard it too, didn't you?"
"In other words, you haven't had an actual conversation with anyone since
the exam started," I concluded.
I figured that, at most, she had probably only opened her mouth to say yes or
no to staff members at Tasks sites when she was trying to register.
"You should probably talk to someone, even if it's just a little," I told her.
"I don't talk to enemies," she replied.
"Then you should talk to your classmates. If you wander around a bit, you
might run into one of them," I suggested.
"I don't consider anyone in my class my friend."
So, she had been hiding within her shell, and that was how she was
continuing to act, even today. I was impressed that she had lasted for nine days
in this state, but there were still five days left in the exam. If she were to let it
all out, even just for a second, she'd most likely immediately fall apart. Of
course, if Ibuki got eliminated, then it was inevitable that she'd get expelled,
since she was on her own.
The collective understanding that we all shared for this special exam was to
avoid letting groups from our same grade level get expelled as much as
possible. The best thing for her to do would be to spend an entire day resting. I
didn't count the seventh day as rest, even though it had been cancelled
anyway. But if she could spend a full day peacefully doing nothing at all, then
that alone would restore a great deal of her strength. It wouldn't be impossible
for Ibuki to survive the other remaining four days with the strength she had
recovered from that day of rest.
But reality wasn't that kind. It might sound simple on paper, but it was
exceedingly difficult to actually spend an entire day just resting. Even if Ibuki
forced herself to take a physical break, whether she could revitalize her spirits
was another matter. While she was taking it easy, her rivals would be scoring
more points. She'd be pressured by the threat of being overtaken and sinking
down to the bottom of the rankings.
Under those circumstances, any ordinary person would find it impossible to
spend time recuperating and clearing their mind. Besides, simply failing to reach
your designated areas would lead to a loss in points too. If she racked up more
penalties, then she would suffer even more in the days to come.
"Get out," said Ibuki.
"…I'm going."
Even though this was Ibuki I was talking to, she was still a girl. Peeking into the
tent of someone of the opposite sex at a time like this when it was getting dark
out was absolutely not the right thing for me to be doing. Even if Ryuuen had
been here right now, I was skeptical that we could've fundamentally solved this
issue anyway.
After leaving Ibuki's tent, I got back to checking out my clothing situation
which I had been in the middle of doing. The wind blew calmly outside now, so
it seemed like I'd be able to stay at least somewhat cool tonight.
"Hey."
Ibuki must have settled down more now that she had finished whatever she
needed to do. She got out of her tent with a wobbling, dazed gait, but she
walked straight ahead. She then stuffed her hands in her pockets and
approached me.
"How many points do you have now?" she asked. Just when I was thinking
about how surprised I was that she had finally emerged from her tent, she came
out and asked me something so audacious.
"We're enemies, you know," I reminded her.
"So, you can't tell me, huh," she said in a low mutter. It sounded like she was
implying I was stingy and tight-fisted.
There wasn't a single person on this entire island who would benefit from
knowing I was in thirteenth place.
"Yep, that's how it is," I answered.
"Okay then, in that case, just tell me if your score is higher or lower than
mine. Mine is—"
I cut Ibuki off with a wave of my hand just as she was about to go ahead and
divulge her own score to me.
"Sorry, but I can't answer that question in any way, shape, or form," I said,
interrupting her.
Even if I were only telling her that my score was above or below hers, I'd still
be giving her a clue. That'd be true even if I lied about my score. It might have
seemed like a safe bet if I told her that I was ranked lower than she was, but if
she thought that I was struggling to get points, then she might come after me
aggressively and try and force me into a corner. I had to avoid letting
information carelessly slip and allowing it to take on a life of its own.
Ibuki, hands still in her pockets, clicked her tongue at me. "Oh well… Fine.
Whatever," she snapped. "Dealing with you is a waste of time anyway."
"There you have it. Besides, your real favorite is Horikita, isn't it?"
The second I uttered Horikita's name, Ibuki's attitude immediately changed.
She had been looking worn-out, but she made the effort to yank her hands out
of her pockets and glare at me with her middle finger raised.
"If you see her, tell her that I am never, ever going to lose to her."
"That's all well and good, but I'm not the one you should be giving the finger
to, am I?" I replied.
"You're the same as her. Since you two are such good pals," she said.
Well, no, we weren't, actually. I wasn't close with Horikita, but I guessed it
was all the same to Ibuki. She must have only come out of her tent to ask me
about my score because she soon turned to go back inside.
"Wait a second," I said.
Ibuki stopped and turned back toward me, and I took a few steps closer to
her. She was clearly wary of me. When I reached my hand out to her, she grew
even more suspicious and moved out of the way.
"Huh? You wanna go?" she said defiantly.
She must have determined that I was arbitrarily fixing for a fight with her. She
balled a hand into a fist.
"That is absolutely not my intention in the slightest," I protested, quickly
reaching my hand out toward her once again. I didn't give her the opportunity
to escape and grabbed onto her wrist.
"The hell are you doing?!" she shouted.
Flustered, she lashed out with a kick, but I blocked it with my other hand. I
thought she was going to try again, but she just let out a deep sigh and turned
to look the other way. It was like all the venom drained out of her.
"I admit that I can't beat you. But someday I'm definitely going to land a good
kick on you."
I didn't want her to go ahead and set such a troubling goal like that.
"So, what now? Did Horikita tell you to sabotage me?" said Ibuki.
Not only had she failed to understand my true intentions, she had also even
started to raise some strange suspicions about me. Well, I was one of Horikita's
classmates, so I supposed nothing I said would get through to her. If I thought
about it, there was no way that Ibuki would accept the idea of taking a break
that easily, so there was little hope for her.
"Your pulse is elevated," I told her.
"So what?!" she snapped.
"And the area around your mouth looks dry. Your lips, especially, are really
cracked. You're obviously dehydrated," I explained.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before her watch emitted a Warning Alert. It
might have already sounded once already. The reason she had been sitting so
quietly in her tent was most likely due to fatigue…but it might've also been
because she was trying to get her pulse down so that she could suppress the
alert.
"I'm not really all that thirsty… I mean, I'm not thirsty anymore," she said.
"Not 'anymore'? Does that mean that you were dehydrated before?"
When I let go of her wrist, Ibuki made a face like she wanted to bark back at
me again, putting some distance between us.
"I don't need your help," she said. "I'm not in any real trouble."
When she turned back around, I quickly ran past her, overtaking her.
"Hey, what the— What are you doing?!" she yelled.
She wasn't the sort of person who would listen even if I tried, so I walked
ahead of her, crawled into her tent, and pulled out her backpack.
"Show me what's in here," I told her.
"Huh?" she said. "There's no way I'm showing my bag to a guy. Actually, I
wouldn't even show my bag to a girl."
"I figured," I replied.
Since there was no way that she was going to give me permission to do so, I
went ahead and opened her backpack anyway.
"What the hell?!" she snapped.
Inside her backpack, I found clothes, toiletries, and a small amount of food,
like jerky. I spotted just one single 500-milliliter water bottle, which was empty.
Garbage bins were offered at various locations, such as Task sites, so I guessed
that she had tossed out anything she didn't need a long time ago. There wasn't
even a single drop of water in the plastic bottle, so she must have finished it
quite some time ago. I also didn't see anything she could use to communicate
with others, like a walkie-talkie.
"When did you last have a drink?" I asked.
"I don't have to answer y—"
"I said, when did you last have a drink?" I repeated, cutting her off, speaking
in a forceful tone and looking at her with a stern stare.
"About…one day ago. And then some," said Ibuki.
"Have you been walking around in this condition?" I asked.
"I haven't," she replied. "I've been resting here this whole time today."
"That's a blatant lie," I said. "There wasn't any GPS signal in this area this
morning."
"What, did you do a search?" she asked.
I hadn't, of course. It was a bluff, but the most important thing was that she
seemed to have bought it. I lied simply because I couldn't imagine that Ibuki
would actually choose to rest when she so desperately wanted to beat Horikita.
"Did your Warning Alert go off?" I asked.
"It did… About an hour ago," Ibuki admitted. "That's why I didn't have any
choice but to go to sleep early."
The Warning Alert on our watches was designed to stop sounding after a
while unless there was some kind of continuous anomaly detected. If time
continued to pass and the warning system hadn't escalated to an Emergency
Alert, the watch would sound the Warning Alert again.
"At the rate things are going, if you can't rehydrate, the alert is just going to
keep going off even if you do rest," I warned her.
Ibuki's pulse was elevated. She wasn't going to be able to get it back down,
and eventually the alert system would move up to an Emergency Alert. By that
time, she would be fully dehydrated, and the inevitable medical check-up would
result in the teachers declaring her elimination from the exam.
"I'll do something about it tomorrow," she replied. "If push comes to shove,
I'll just head back to the starting area. So just leave me alone."
"The starting point is over two kilometers away from here. If you collapse on
the way there, that'll be it for you," I reminded her.
"Then I'll just do a Task or something," she said.
"You obviously can't do that," I argued. "That's why you're struggling so much
right now."
I shot down her irrational protests with sound arguments. I had to calm her
down. I went into my tent and got my backpack. Then, I took out two 500-
milliliter bottles that I had gotten earlier today from completing a Task.
"Let's trade," I told her.
"Huh?" She blinked.
"This is perfect. I'm in trouble right now because I'm running low on food," I
said, matter-of-factly. "On the flipside, I just so happen to have a surplus of
water, which means I have more than I need. I think that I can make a fair trade
with you here, Ibuki, so I hope we can negotiate."
Ibuki audibly cleared her throat at the sight of the plastic bottle full of water,
even though it wasn't cold anymore.
"So, what do you say? Let me just say, once again, that this will be a fair
trade," I reminded her. "I'll be expecting a reasonable share of food in return."
"Who in the hell would trade with—" she protested. I cut her off again.
"You can turn me down if you want," I interjected, "but I'm not going to offer
a second time."
As long as I kept command of the conversation with an aggressive attitude, I
could get Ibuki to stop talking.
"With how dehydrated you are, you'll get eliminated at this rate," I told her.
"Then your loss to Horikita will be set in stone. You know, I ran into her a little
while ago. She looked good. And she didn't seem to be having trouble with food
or water either."
There was an essential key word here to get Ibuki moving—or rather, a name.
Instead of bringing up the threat of expulsion, I simply had to mention Horikita.
"Fine, fine, I get it…" grumbled Ibuki. "I'll accept your trade or whatever. But
how much should I give you?"
With the way things were going, Ibuki's food supply would be exhausted in
less than two days. But if I only took a small amount from her, then you could
hardly call that a fair trade.
"Half your remaining supply. That'd be good," I said.
"And you're sure you're okay with that?" she asked.
"It's a heck of lot better than having to eat weeds because I'm struggling to
find food."
And so, Ibuki and I each traded what we had: my water for her food. As soon
as we finished making our exchange, Ibuki slammed down about half of the
water in the plastic bottle, gulping it in one go. Normally, I would have told her
to be careful, but considering that she was beginning to show signs of
dehydration, she needed to have something to drink as soon as possible.
She must not have liked the fact that I was looking at her because she shot
me a sharp glare. Even though the issue of her dehydration had been improved
somewhat, her mental state was clearly not normal. Ibuki had to continue to
challenge herself while under intense stress, and she had absolutely no room to
breathe and relax. How much more was her mind and body going to be able to
endure?
Would she last a few hours? A few days? Hopefully she'd be able to hold it
together until the end of the final day of the exam. We were in different Tables,
though, so if I parted ways with her right now, I probably wouldn't see her again
during the exam. Should I at least try to say something else to her now?
"I'm not going to say thank you," she snapped. "It was a fair trade, wasn't it?"
"I'm not really asking for you to thank me," I answered.
"Then what is it?"
She was probably extra sensitive to having someone try and talk to her right
now because her nerves had been sharpened throughout the day. That ability
would be useful in short intervals, but right now, she was basically torturing
herself with it.
"If you're not falling into the bottom of the rankings at this point, don't you
think it would be a good idea for you to spend tomorrow resting to recover your
strength? Or you could switch things up and focus on getting food and water," I
suggested.
"What, you're telling me to give up on scoring points? Hah! Quit joking,"
sneered Ibuki. My proposal had only stoked the flames. "I'm not trying so hard
to avoid expulsion. My only goal is to beat Horikita."
I understood that, I really did. I was simply offering advice to help her to
increase her chances of winning, and yet… Well, ever since Ibuki found out that
I was X, she started to hate me as much as you could possibly hate someone.
Everything she said or heard was filtered through those extreme feelings, so not
even the truth behind my words could get through to her.
"I'm not talking to you anymore," she said.
And with that, she went back into her tent. I knew that it would be pointless
to try and persuade her, but I supposed that at best, my message might have at
least come off to her as a warning. At any rate, there wouldn't be any problems
with Ibuki's physical condition today or tomorrow. Now she just had to get back
on her own two feet and get more food and water on her own.
Since she was going it alone, I was somewhat concerned about how many
points she was getting. But since she was such a strong-willed contender, I
couldn't imagine that she'd fall to the bottom of the rankings.
There was still plenty of time left today, but I already used up a lot of my
energy, so I figured I'd take a rest myself. It was still sweltering and humid
outside, so I decided to wind down and spend the night here.