Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Horikita's POV

The fourth day of the island exam. That meant that today was the halfway mark. I found myself actually dreading the fact that we were only half-way done. I already began to struggle with my deteriorating health, and still had three full days ahead of me.

Little did I know that this would be the worst day yet. A disaster, so to speak.

I was awoken by a hysteric crying sound. I leaned forwards and rubbed my eyes, before taking in the scene inside the tent. Karuizawa-san was crying her eyes out, while being comforted by the other girls like Kushida-san.

Not even bothering to ask anything, I forced myself up and made my way over to the doorway. A few of the girls shot me a look, since I didn't bother to spare a glance at the crying Karuizawa-san, but I ignored them and exited the tent.

I shoved my way out through the tent fabric, and stumbled out into the humid air outside. Things weren't much calmer out here. In fact, they were probably less calm than in the tent.

The boys, looking still half-asleep, were standing around with looks of confusion written on their faces. The rest of the girls, who didn't stay in the tent, were apparently berating them. Shinohara-san had taken the lead.

"What's going on? Why did you wake us up so early?"

"Sorry, Hirata-kun. This doesn't involve you, but... we've gathered everyone to confirm something."

Shinohara-san gave everyone except Hirata-kun a look of complete contempt.

"Well, this morning...Karuizawa-san's underwear went missing. Do you know what this means?"

"U-underwear?"

Even Hirata-kun, usually calm and collected, appeared visibly shaken.

"Karuizawa-san is crying inside the tent right now. Kushida-san and others are comforting her right now, but..." Shinohara-san looked over to the girls' tent.

"Huh? Huh? What? Why are you glaring at us over her underwear being missing?"

"Isn't that obvious? Someone went through her bag in the middle of the night and stole them. Our luggage was outside the tent, so if someone wanted to steal something, they easily could have!"

The boys, still in a state of drowsiness, all exchanged looks.

"No, no, no, no! Huh?! Huh?!"

Ike-kun, in a complete panic, looked back and forth between the boys and girls. One of the boys who'd been observing all this grumbled calmly.

"Come to think of it, Ike, you were pretty late getting back from the toilet yesterday. You took a really long time."

"No, no, no! That was just, well...I was struggling because it was dark!"

"Is that so? You stole Karuizawa's underwear, didn't you?"

"Y-you're wrong! I didn't do it!"

The boys started blaming one another for this particularly nasty crime.

As I was standing some distance away, silently observing the altercation, my eyes drifted over the only other person who was alone. Ibuki Mio. Could it be her...?

"Anyway. This is a huge problem, don't you agree? It's impossible for us to camp alongside a bunch of underwear thieves," said Shinohara-san, her arms crossed. She looked as though she was going to lose her temper.

"Hirata-kun, can you find the culprit?"

"Well, there's no evidence that the boys stole it. Maybe Karuizawa lost it."

"Yeah, that's right! We have nothing to do with this!" The boys shouted behind Hirata-kun, proclaiming their innocence.

"I don't want to think there's a criminal among us."

Doubting our own classmates seemed wrong.

"I know that you're not the culprit, Hirata-kun. But for the time being, let's check the boys' luggage."

Apparently, the girls weren't changing their minds on this. They had decided that the culprit was on the boys' side. Well, I supposed that it was only natural to think that.

"Huh? Don't give us that crap. We don't need to do that. Hirata, tell them no."

"For now, we'll try gathering the guys together and talking it out. Can you please give us a little time?" Hirata asked.

"If you say so, Hirata-kun. I understand. I'll try talking to Karuizawa-san. But if the culprit can't be found, we have some ideas."

"Speaking of the boys, isn't there one missing?"

At that, everyone scanned their eyes over the boys' side. I counted them, and quickly realized who had disappeared.

"You're right. Where is Kōenji-kun?" Hirata-kun asked in confusion.

"Kōenji has dropped out of the exam," a stern voice cut into our conversation. "He claimed that he wasn't feeling well."

It was Chabashira-sensei, who was standing a distance away and glaring at us coldly. As she said that, the atmosphere somehow became even worse, and chaos erupted.

"He dropped out?! Doesn't that mean we'll lose 30 points?!" Ike-kun cried out in horror.

"Yeah! Damn that narcissist!"

"I bet it was him that stole Karuizawa-san's underwear, and made off with it during the night."

Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun let out an involuntary snicker as Shinohara-san said that, but quickly stiffened up and zipped their mouths when they were shot an icy stare.

"Well this is just fantastic!" Sudō-kun fumed, kicking a nearby tree in anger.

"Yeah! We've been dragged out of bed early for something we didn't even do, and now we find out that egotistical guy decided to make us suffer losses just for his own self-benefit!" Yukimura-kun complained vocally.

"Never mind that! We have a more pressing matter at hand!" Shinohara-san snapped at the boys who were more concerned with our points than a missing underwear.

To be honest, though, I couldn't deny that I was also more worried about our points than the matter with Karuizawa-san. I've been feeling ill this whole time, but stuck it out for the sake of our class, while Kōenji-kun just goes and does that?!

"We aren't the culprits!" Ike-kun shouted angrily back at them, eyes full of frustration.

"Then you have nothing to hide! Give me your bag, now!" Shinohara-san retorted, equally angry.

It seemed that this incident, in combination with Kōenji-kun's dropout, had a severe impact on Class E's morale. I felt myself beginning to lose faith. I also felt some anger myself. Why was a superior student such as me stuck in this hell?

"Fine! I'll prove my innocence right here!" Ike-kun confidently grabbed his bag, but suddenly froze.

"Well? What's taking so long?" Shinohara-san pressed.

"Oh, nothing..."

He turned his back on Hirata-kun and the girls, checked the inside of his bag, and frantically closed it back up.

"Kanji?"

Ike-kun's face was pale, his body stiff. He was completely paralyzed. "On second thoughts, I don't think we should have to show our belongings openly to all the girls."

"What, you're the one that really stole them?" said Yamauchi, half-jokingly.

"Th-that's crazy talk!"

Ike frantically denied it, shaking his head while clutching his bag.

What a blatant overreaction. We weren't dumb enough to believe nothing was wrong.

"Wait, don't tell me..." Yamauchi said.

"What? You don't believe me?!"

"This all looks a bit suspicious to me."

Shinohara-san marched up to him, and firmly grabbed Ike-kun's bag. He tried pulling back on it, desperately clinging on, but Shinohara-san eventually snatched it from his grasp.

Ike-kun watched in horror, his face like that of a ghost, as Shinohara-san unzipped his bag and peered into it. When she turned her eyes back up, they were colder than ice as she glared at Ike-kun.

"W-wait, I can explain!" Ike-kun cried.

Slap!

Shinohara-san didn't give Ike-kun time to explain, apparently, because she struck him harshly on the cheek with her hand.

Ike-kun yelped in pain and jumped back, holding his reddened cheek. He looked at Shinohara-san with moisty eyes.

"I-I didn't steal them, okay..." he said dejectedly, on the verge of tears.

"Shinohara-san, he doesn't look like he's acting," said Hirata-kun, standing up for Ike-kun.

Once again, my eyes drifted over to Ibuki-san. I'd been suspicious of her for quite a while now. After meeting up with Ichinose-san, I'd discovered that she wasn't the only student to be 'exiled' from Class C. What's more, Kōenji-kun had taken to referring to her as 'Spy-girl' before he dropped out last night.

Could this be a trick orchestrated by Ryūen-kun, a way to disrupt our class? Should I voice my suspicions? No, bringing up Ibuki-san right now would only make matters even worse.

"I don't care. It's clear that one of the boys is a pervert, and that's how the underwear ended up in Ike-kun's bag!" Shinohara-san didn't back down, and pushed her allegations further.

"I'm telling you! It wasn't me! Someone put them in there to frame me!" Ike-kun pleaded his innocence desperately.

"Yeah, right."

Shinohara-san seemed adamant about the boys' guilt. Personally, I thought that this incident was a bit too far, even for Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun. The timing was also quite convenient – just as we'd started to get everything in order, this happens. It didn't make sense.

"Guys, we should stop accusing one another and think rationally. Fighting will get us nowhere."

Hirata-kun stepped in as the mediator and, eventually, the girls decided to drop the topic for now, albeit reluctantly. Such was Hirata-kun's influence.

"Unity is a vital component of this exam. We're doomed if we fight amongst ourselves," narrated Hirata-kun.

I finally decided to interject. "More importantly, we have things to do. We need to renew our spots, and then get moving with our tasks for the day. It'd be nice if we could find some more food naturally, to reduce our expenses."

"Ah, that's right. It's been over eight hours since we last renewed our spot, hasn't it? Everybody, gather around!"

Hirata-kun called a majority of the class over to the terminal. At the beginning of the exam, Class E had come up with a tactic to avoid our leader being spied upon; namely, having everybody stand around the apparatus so that the leader couldn't be identified within the crowd.

As always, we all crowded around the facility, ready to take control of the spot once more. I reached into my pocket for the key card, but froze as I grasped it.

"Horikita? What's wro—"

Hirata-kun called out to me, but also fell silent. He must've spotted the same thing that I did. One by one, all of our classmates began to come to the same realization.

We stared at the spot terminal in silence for a while. The spot terminal that read:

Class D

07:13:24

"C-Class D?"

Murmurs of astonishment spread amongst my classmates. I was still paralyzed by shock, staring blankly at the monitor.

"What about our other spot?" Hirata-kun asked anxiously.