The board

The view that the group witnessed could not be expressed into mere words. As the ship slowly approaches the gigantic island, sounds of awe and screams could be heard echoing off the walls of the ship.

"Alrighty, you guys have arrived!", yelled the ship's captain.

The boat docked beside the island quickly and skillfully, so much so that almost no rocking could be felt. Certainly, that was good news. Throughout the whole boat trip, only two voices could be heard. "About damn time!" Ryoma roared, before proceeding to move his gigantic body into a more comfortable position in order to leave the boat. "Listening to Ishida wailing over a little rocking is driving me nuts."

"I-Its not my fault. Sea-sickness is a common syndrome for those not accustomed to the sailor life." Ishida whimpered softly. His voice was so soft it is basically not audible at all. Maybe that was why Ryoma didn't bother to reply Ishida's retort. Or maybe he just didn't want to acknowledge Ishida's presence any longer.

Those two really do not have a good history together. Almost every day you can hear Ryoma going down on Ishida's throat, like a tiger clawing its prey to death. It takes a lot of mental tenacity to bear with bullies like that without any complaints.

The two noises that were prevalent on the ship were really just a mixture of Ishida's screams and Ryoma's complaints. The mixture was so immiscible that it became difficult to tell the two sources of noise apart from one another.

What a horrible trip, Naoe thought while silently praising the fact that the trip was over.

"Hmmph. Why must they come along? This trip is totally gonna suck." Miyuki complained while flicking her hair. Her sentence was immediately followed by loud audible giggles.

"Oi, oi. Don't be like that.", Takahashi intervened. "Let's all have a good time shall we?"

"Okayyy~" Miyuki sang.

Naoe, silently eavesdropping on their conversation started to smirk. Takahashi definitely possessed superpowers.

"See you guys in about 3 days!", the captain yelled at the group while waving his arms.

"See you!" all 10 individuals replied almost in unison. Almost. The thought of replying to a goodbye never crossed Naoe's mind. He was only reminded of it after the rest had already begun shouting.

The sound of the ship's engine echoed away while the 10 onlookers stared on. Perhaps to enjoy the view of the ocean. It was definitely breathtaking. The ocean really seemed endless from their point of view. No matter how far they looked, all they saw was water. The ocean met the sky in a beautiful straight line, making it seem like the ocean was the reflection of the sky. The calm, soothing sea breeze gently blew into Naoe's face, making him forget about his very existence.

"This just might be fun.", Naoe whispered to himself.

Unknown to him, Yui overheard Naoe's almost silent monologue and giggled softly.

The dock was a good distance away from the mansion. In between the dock and the mansion was a miniature nature walk. A small pathway with trees and bushes on both sides.

"Hah... This is the most exercise I've done this week.", Yuki groaned as he bent down and placed his hands on his knees in order to gasp for air.

"Yea. No kidding. What a walk. Twists and turns everywhere.", Ryoma replied.

"Woah, even the fittest guy found it tiring.", Ishida suddenly blurted out, immediately after his outburst, he covered his mouth with both hands.

"Not tiring. Just annoying."

"We, we are almost there.", Takahashi panted.

It seems everyone was tired from that walk. It has only been a good 10 minutes since they departed from the port.

"Look! The mansion is right there.", Akari yelled excitedly while jabbing the air with her index finger towards the direction where the mansion can be spotted.

Hurriedly, Naoe picked up his bags and slung it on his shoulder, preparing to make a final spring towards the mansion.

"Now come down everyone, the key is with me. Reaching there early wouldn't help you." Takahashi taunted.

After a good 5 minutes, everyone finally reached the front door of the mansion.

"I-it's so grand!", Kasumi squealed.

The mansion was so big that you can't even see the top of the mansion if you tried to look up while standing in front of the front door. It is that big.

The design of the mansion also looked very western, with symmetrical features that seem to date back to the late 19th century.

There was even a statue of a knight in front of the main entrance.

"Something doesn't make sense here.", Naoe exclaimed while looking at the statue.

"Look, the mansion is so well maintained, the door is so clean like it was just polished recently. But look at this. This statue is very peculiar. First of all, the head of the knight is missing. Secondly, the statue is filthy, look there is so much dust. It's almost as if no one bothered to clean this statue at all.", Naoe ran his fingers across the base of the pedestal where the statue stood and showed his dusty finger to everyone.

An irritated voice blurted out, "Ah. Screw it. Who cares. Someone just didn't bother about the statue! Stop this hold up and let us enter the freaking mansion."

Naoe didn't even have to look to know whose voice that belonged to. Ryoma. It's always Ryoma.

As Takahashi opened the door and everyone rushed in impatiently. All except Naoe, who was still studying the statue.

On the pedestal, there was a line of words, words that were chipped into the stone statue by hand. It was done so roughly that some of the letters were illegible.

"I never left"

"Oi, Naoe I'm going to lock you out if you don't enter right now."

"Coming..." Naoe yelled, before grabbing his bag and rushing towards his teacher.

Maybe it's just some ancient relic. Naoe thought. Brushing what he just witnessed into his subconsciousness.

"Every female will get their own room. While the males get to share 2 rooms. Or should I say one lucky boy will get his own room.", Takahashi explained while rummaging his bag to find the keys.

"I will leave it up to you boys to decide who will be getting his own room."

"Let's be fair. We have to play rock paper scissors for it. Winner gets the room to himself." Yuki proposed.

"Ready... and shoot!", all 4 males yelled.

"Hah. I win. You kids have fun", Yuki sneered.

"Tch"

"Alright, these are your keys. Remember, each one of you is entitled to your own key. Don't come crying to me if you lost your key, I can't help you. Understood?"

Naoe, Ishida and Ryoma are sharing one room, Yuki and Takahashi have their own rooms, while every girl has their own individual rooms.

Yuki's room is the largest room though. Instead of simply having just one living compartment, it had two separated by a wall. Thus, Yuki took two keys. One key to unlock his main door while the other key unlocks another door within his room.

"Remember, 8 room, 9 keys. By the end of this trip, I want every key back. Not one must be missing. You guys understand?"

"YES!"

Shirakosu island.

9.30 am.

The day is only just beginning.