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Disclaimer: I don't own Tokidoki Bosotto Roshiago de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san or any of its characters...

"Alya-chan, why did you do that…?"

Maria Kujou walked out of the pantry with a big box in her hands, something which she was struggling to carry because her mind was elsewhere.

A full day had passed, yet the young woman couldn't stop thinking about her sister's actions yesterday. The events were still fresh in her mind that it even seemed like she dreamt about the whole thing in her sleep.

Masha was so out of it that she didn't even notice the person that happened to be walking in front of her, which resulted in her bumping into him.

"—ah!"

"Watch out!"

The sudden collision snapped Masha out of her thoughts, but she was too late to realize that she lost one grip on the box she was carrying. Luckily for her, the person she bumped into grabbed it and kept it from falling out of her hands.

"Masha-san, are you okay?" asked Masachika, sending the older Kujou sibling a look of concern.

"—er, yes! I'm sorry for bumping into you, Kuze-kun."

"No problem. Here," he grabbed the other end of the box and checked to see how heavy it was. He blinked in surprise when he felt that it was indeed heavy, too heavy for someone like Masha at least. She'll definitely need help with this. "I'll carry it for you."

"Eh? I-It's fine, I can handle this—"

"You looked like you were having a hard time. Let me do it."

Without waiting for her approval, Masachika took the box from her hands and carried it himself. It wasn't as bad as carrying a pile of lumber, but it still needed a bit of effort to stay upright with the package in his hands.

In the end, Masha couldn't help but smile at him, grateful for his unexpected assistance.

She might be unaware of it, but this was exactly what she needed after being unable to get the issue with her sister out of her mind.

"Thank you, Kuze-kun."

"No problem. Just lead the way, Masha-san."

After informing him that they're supposed to take the box to their makeshift farm, the two walked out of the lodge and continued on their way.

Things were silent between them at first, but it's due to Masha not knowing what to say. She wanted to talk to him about what took place yesterday, but would he even be comfortable discussing it?

Will it be too much for poor Masachika to remember the hurtful words that Alya told him?

If she was him, she would try to avoid it as much as she can, but can the same be said for the boy?

"Please forgive my sister, Kuze-kun. I know she said some very harsh words yesterday, but she didn't mean any of them," she simply decided to be subtle in her words and see where things go from here.

"Like I said, don't worry about it. I get why she's angry. Any sane person would feel stressed about being stuck on an island for this long."

"I'm glad," she sighed in relief upon seeing that he wasn't affected by that incident. "I really don't know why she suddenly lost her cool. Alya-chan is normally calm and collected. When I saw her shouting at Kuze-kun, I didn't know what to do at first…"

"I'm still processing the fact that you yelled and got angry at your sister, and I'm sure everyone else will agree with me on that."

A look of absolute panic washed over the girl as she buried her face into her hands.

"Ahhhh, I didn't want to do it! But everything was happening so fast that I only realized what I did after the whole thing… I feel so ashamed… I want to talk to Alya-chan as soon as possible so I can apologize…"

"I don't think anyone would blame you for it. I never thought I'd see the day that Alya would lose her temper like that. I mean, I've seen her being angry before but I don't think those times can compare to how she was yesterday."

"I agree… Alya-chan didn't even want to talk to me after it. When I went to her room last night, she just told me to leave her alone. She didn't even let me in…" she explained, her eyes reflecting the sadness she felt at the moment.

"I hate to tell you this, but you may have to leave her alone for now, Masha-san. Trying to force her to talk will only make her refuse even more."

"You're right…" Masha sighed in defeat, before recovering from her slump mere seconds later. "That being said, it's a really good thing that you stopped the whole thing from getting worse, Kuze-kun. You handled it better than I did, and you're continuing to show my sister kindness despite what happened. I can't thank you for that, Kuze-kun."

The young woman flashed him a smile and began patting his head affectionately, causing him to blush slightly.

"Even until now, you're still going to pat my head like I'm a kid…"

Despite this thought, Masachika couldn't exactly say he hated the headpat.

As a matter of fact, after Masha's hand left the crown of his head, he felt strangely motivated to continue carrying the box in his hands for as long as he has to!

The power of headpats is truly amazing!

Masachika cleared his throat to get himself back on track. "Fighting amongst ourselves will only make things worse, especially if everyone's morale is already at a low point. There's no point in arguing when we're on our own."

"That's right, that's right. We should be sympathetic towards each other instead. At this point, without Kenzaki-kun and everyone else, all we have is one another."

Masachika nodded in agreement as the pair reached the makeshift farm located within the forest, at an open clearing with no trees within five meters of the land.

The group found this area after the typhoon that ravaged the island finally left; the storm was strong enough to topple over many trees in the forest, and it so happened that this place was the most affected.

Everyone worked together to remove every fallen tree from the area, which allowed them to have an open space that could be used for anything they wanted.

They left it alone at first, but after going one whole week without so much as a call from the group that set out from the island, they made the decision to turn the area into a farm just to stay prepared.

"Still, I remember when everyone went in panic mode after we went a whole week without an update from Tadokoro-san and the others who were at the yacht with him."

"Until now, it's scary… I hope nothing bad happened to them and that they're still fine…"

Masachika placed the box on the ground carefully as he turned to his companion. "...so what are we doing here, Masha-san?"

"Chisaki-chan decided that we should plant these extra crops inside the box and maintain the food surplus we got from the last batch. The bigger surplus we have, the better meals that Alya-chan and Ayano-chan can cook for us."

"If it means that we won't have to ration food anymore, then I'm all for it. We're lucky enough that electricity and water are still available and we're not gonna run out anytime soon."

"Yes. Imagine how bad it would have been if we didn't have those, Kuze-kun."

The two shared a short moment of laughter after those words, but they were painfully aware of how worse their situation could have been either way.

"I don't even want to."

"You're right, you're right," Masha knelt down with a trowel in her hand, ready to start planting a new set of crops. "But in the end, no amount of crops will matter if we don't get out of this island eventually, so I hope that we'll be rescued soon."

Masachika opened the box and grabbed a carrot from the pile of crops inside, while nodding in agreement.

"Yeah. I hope so too, Masha-san."

The days passed by so quick that everyone seemed to have forgotten that they have been stranded on the island for more than a month now, but it could very well be attributed to their daily life.

It took some effort, a bit of hard work, and a lot of perseverance, but the group of eight managed to strike an equilibrium between their goal of getting home and staying safe the entire time.

It can be said that Kuze's words about making it home in one piece lit a fire in everyone else's spirits.

They wanted to get back to Japan, but that doesn't mean they should ignore their own safety while they're at it!

And so, despite their bizarre situation, they finally adapted to the circumstances that they were forced to deal with and found a steady rhythm in doing so.

Instead of prioritizing being rescued and relieved from this island, they focused more on their survival and well-being. Sure, there were still instances where they would talk about how much longer they'd have to remain here, but it would be forgotten almost immediately after a good reminder of why they're prioritizing their safety a lot more.

Almost everyone worked more productively in their everyday tasks, now that they had a bigger reason to do so.

Only one person wasn't as motivated as everyone else, and it didn't feel like she was going to change anytime soon.

While everyone else headed to their respective bedrooms at the second floor (Taniyama and Miyamae shared one, Sarashina shared hers with Kenzaki, while Suou and the Kujou siblings each had their own rooms) to get their much-needed rest, Alisa remained downstairs for a while longer.

Alisa was all alone there, but she didn't seem to mind the lack of company. Either way, it's not like she was doing anything of the sort… she was only staring down on the floor as if she was in deep thought.

By the time that she was ready to head inside her room, the girl noticed the presence of someone nearby, but she didn't even turn her head to acknowledge him.

"Good night, Alya. I hope you a good sleep."

"Tch," she scoffed at his attempt to speak with her before disappearing into her room.

Masachika sighed. Looks like Alya was still affected by what happened between them over a week ago and she still had no intention of even talking to him.

He screwed up badly, didn't he?

Masachika had accepted that this current rift between them was his fault alone, so he continuously made attempts in the past few days to break the tension between him and Alya, after which he would then apologize to her for making her upset.

But so far, he had been unsuccessful.

Every attempt he made had resulted in either the girl glaring at him, sneering at him, or straight-up ignoring him.

This was by far the worst of all the times that Alisa had gotten angry with him, because it happened alongside their current dilemma and because she was avoiding any kind of interaction with him.

Masha, who had already spoken and made amends with Alya beforehand, offered to be the bridge between him and her sister but he politely refused, wanting to resolve this matter himself.

This didn't sit well with everyone else, who were all in agreement that he didn't actually do anything wrong and that it's Alya who's being unreasonable.

But that's a matter for another time, because he wanted to rest his body already.

"Guess I'll try again tomorrow," he shrugged to himself before treading up the staircase at the far end of the corridor.

As for him, his room was on the third level of the house. It was the only room there and it could almost be considered as an attic, but it was still as wide and spacious as the bedrooms down below.

Right as he sat on his bed, Masachika then heard a knock on his door, which made him wonder who it was. It can't be Alya, can it?

"Onii-chan, are you still awake?" he heard a familiar voice from the other side, which was all he needed to deduce who it was that paid him a visit out of nowhere.

Upon opening the door, he was met by the sight of his sister, dressed in her pajamas and flashing her usual smile.

"What is it, Yuki? I was about to sleep."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"You? Coming to talk? The world must be ending. Tell me the real reason why you're here."

Raising an eyebrow at her answer, he prodded her to give him the real reason why she visited him but strangely, Yuki didn't say anything else.

"What, no wisecracks coming from you?"

"I'm not really in the mood," she shook her head and chuckled, which made him blink in surprise. "Because it's been so long since the last time we talked."

Her brother couldn't help but agree with that, "You do make a good point, but it's probably because we've both been busy. I stay here most of the time while you're out there exploring the rest of the island for anything salvageable."

"Yep, now are you gonna let me in or not?"

"Depends. What if I say no?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

The girl smirked and planted her hands on her hips in a cocky manner. "It's not like I'm planning to leave anyway, when I can just keep you awake the whole night by knocking on your door until you give me what I want."

"There's the Yuki I know," he smirked in amusement before he moved aside to allow his sister in.

"Yay~!" Yuki threw her arms up in victory before stepping into his room so they could have their 'talk'.

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance