Let's Survive This, Together

"Now everyone you can now proceed to your islands and start looking for your lunch and initial supplies"

As soon as everyone in bridge two heard this, they started pacing towards the island, not in a hurry, but quickly enough to arrive in a few minutes.

Once the students set foot on the island they started looking around for the food that was prepared for them. Everyone was looking around dubious where it may be located, but one student couldn't take her eyes away from the, in her eyes, dashing detective.

"Himiko you can do this, there is no time to take it slow," Himiko thought to herself as she slowly approached Shuichi from behind, trying to start a conversation. "Hey Shui-"

"Everyone! Gonta found the food, it appears to be meat! Come on everyone let's eat together, Gonta will fetch some water from the dinner" Gonta started running towards the dinner, he definitely seemed hungry, but his gentlemanly side was a priority.

"Gonta wait! It'll be better if we eat in the dinner, let's catch up to him, Himiko, Angie" Shuichi suggested as he picked up various plastic bags from the floor and started jogging towards the dinner.

"Ah! Wait, Shuichi! That food is specially delivered by Atua for us, we need to thank her properly first!" Angie followed Shuichi, leaving Himiko alone with her failed intent.

"HIMIKO! What is wrong with you! You were slow! Too slow! Come on at least talk to him today" As she told this to herself, something sparkled up in her brain. "That's it! Each day I can set a goal until the final act! That's amazing Himiko, no one could've seen this trick coming!" Himiko's thought she was innovating her original, but in reality, she just set backed her all-out attack plan. "Now let's go I can't keep them waiting too long, after all, I will need to regenerate some mana." Himiko started marching with pride towards the dinner where everyone was waiting for her.

"What took you so long? We were waiting for you to say our prayers to Atua!" Angie received Himiko as she walked inside the dinner.

Inside Himiko was astonished by the 50's design used in the dining room. A bar where people could sit down, ask for a shake and eat, or you could sit down on a booth like the one everyone was on. Himiko rushed to her seat next to Angie and front to Shuichi, which made her feel anxious.

"Now let's see what Atua has in store for us!" Angie couldn't wait anymore to start eating. She started unpacking what it seemed like to-go plates. When Angie grab the first one, she almost got herself burned, these were extremely hot. This was amazing even though they been sitting out for god knows how much time.

Now that everyone had their plate they opened them to discover a small three-course meal, in the center a beefsteak with dripping juices and an aromatic sauce on top of it, vegetables like broccoli, small steamed potatoes, and carrots accompanied the steak, with a decent amount of mashed potatoes bathed in a brown gravy sauce.

"It smells really good! How about we get at it?" Shuichi proposed, everyone took a plastic fork, which was provided in the bag and started eating.

"WOW! Gonta had never tasted any steak like this! Momma Reptile always fed Gonta other types of meat" Gonta was clearly amazed by the food he was chowing down.

"I just hope it wasn't any weird meat" Angie whispered to herself.

Everyone enjoyed their meal nonchalantly, however they hadn't thought about what was in store for them, at least the majority of them.

"Okay everyone, how about we start planning? We won't get a better moment to discuss this, also maybe this will be our only minutes to relax" Shuichi said in a more serious tone. "We need to secure a food and water source, and a place to spend the night. If I can propose somewhere would be the beach house, not only we have water near, but also the oceanic breeze can cool us if the heat is unbearable." Shuichi had a game plan in mind since the moment he took a step on the island.

"I agree with Shuichi!" Himiko quickly replied to Shuichi's proposal, but maybe it was a bit too sudden of a response, her cheeks flushed as she realized, "I mean it is important to be fresh at night, and we can get water from the ocean as well" Himiko proposed with a calmer voice.

"Actually that wouldn't be ideal, we can't drink water from the ocean unless we built a filter and pass it through there, that is going to take a lot of time." Shuichi quickly rejected Himiko's idea, this felt like a hook to Himiko's liver.

"Sorry, I didn't know" Himiko looked depressed, about not being up to par with Shuichi's intelligence.

"Gonta would've thought the same thing, for Gonta water is water" Gonta tried to make Himiko feel better, he could get a grasp of the situation pretty quickly.

"Sorry, Himiko I didn't mean it in that way" Shuichi tried to apologize to Himiko.

"It's okay, but then how about the waterfalls near the huge cave?" Himiko proposed yet another idea, with the fear of being rejected once again.

"Waterfalls?" Shuichi was clearly confused about this.

"Oh yeah! You mean the ones behind the library right? It isn't that big to make a ruckus out of it but the place is ideal for inspiration and praying" Angie contributed.

"That will be amazing if we manage to get a natural water spring from the get-go it will help us reduce a great amount of work" Shuichi was invested in the idea, "Thank you Himiko that was really helpful" Shuichi gave a heart felted smile to Himiko.

Himiko's heart slowly melted at the sight, "Oh it was nothing, it's just natural for the ultimate magician" She puffed her chest as she prides herself on her ingenious proposal.

"The last thing we need to worry about is food, we need a constant source of food," This was the point Shuichi was the most worried about, and it was clear by the way he talked about it, "In our way here I took a quick glance to the trees around us, some of them are supposed to grow oranges and some palms grow coconuts, however, I realized that all of them were cut off," Shuichi said with a worried look.

"No wonder the instructors told us this is going to be harder for us, we have an easy island but not too many resources," Angie thought out loud.

"If food is problem, then Gonta can help," Gonta raised his voice, "Gonta used to fish all the time with Pappa Reptile, Pappa Reptile and Gonta swam all-day, catching fish with teeth" Gonta reminisced as he looked in the far distance with a gentle smile.

"With your teeth??" Everyone except for Gonta reacted in unison.

"That certainly is useful, we can fish by the beach, but let's use our fishing nets first, if we don't get anything, you can use your teeth Gonta" Shuichi didn't want to leave all the workload to Gonta, it wasn't the right thing to do.

Hours passed and the group started accommodating themselves inside the beach house. The house had one big central room with some bar fridges, a couple of pieces of furniture, and a rug on the floor. Everyone set the sleeping-bags provided to them, in the living room. There wasn't a lot of space between one and the other, at best a foot of distance. They didn't set any boy or girl boundaries in the room. Angie was not bothered by the idea of sleeping next to a boy, Gonta was a bit shy about it, Shuichi wasn't against the idea but just like Gonta he was a bit nervous about the idea, and Himiko was thrilled about it.

Night fell, everyone was having dinner supplied by Rantaro and Tsumugi, just as lunch, it was left by the entrance of the island and it came in these hot plates.

"We should definitely pay a visit to the chef, once this challenge is over" Shuichi suggested while everyone was eating dinner. "Has any of you be able to meet him?" Shuichi asked curiously.

"Hmmm now that you mention it is weird how he isn't around, right? right?" Angie shared her opinion with the group.

"Everyone, Gonta thinks we should start heading to bed. Everyone needs energy for tomorrow!" Gonta told everyone out of concern.

"Nyeh... I think you are right my eyes are getting kinda droopy.." Himiko was in her last footing. She walked inside the beach house and plummeted into the nearest sleeping bag. "Nyeh.. so tired.." Her mind has been overworking more than usual, so it was natural to get that tired. Her eyelids felt heavy, they closed until she wasn't able to see anything, just hear.

"May Atua be with all of you! Good night!" Angie gave her goodnights while she laid on her sleeping bag.

"Everyone has a wonderful night" Gonta with his heartwarming goodbyes, went to bed.

"Goodnight everyone, see you all tomorrow" Shuichi's voice surprised Himiko, not because of something he said, but how close it was.

She opened her eyes to find Shuichi's staring right at her. "Nyeh....?!" Himiko though, her face started to blush, however, she couldn't move an inch from where she was.

"Sorry, I thought you were already asleep," Shuichi said in a soft voice, not trying to discomfort anyone.

"No....It's okay...I may as well sleep go to sleep now...." Himiko proposed, pausing her voice in each sentence, grasping bit by bit the air she needed.

"Goodnight Himiko" Shuichi smiled and faced upwards while closing his eyes.

"His face is so close" Himiko started moving towards Shuichi slowly.

"In a few more inches I could get closer..." Without making any sound.

Himiko's face was right beside Shuichi's cheek, she could hear his breathing, feel the heat his skin exuded. She was so close.

"What am I doing?"

She closed her eyes, returned to her sleeping bag, stared at him for a couple of minutes, while the starry night and the breathtaking moon illuminated the room.

"Good night Shuichi..." Himiko closed her eyes with a faint smile on her lips.