Chapter Summaries

Kazehara Tetsu extended his lead in the rankings by winning several morning tasks before heading to D9 Area for the open-water swimming competition. There, he met Onodera Kayano and Koenji Rokusuke, who challenged his swimming ability, leaving the competition about to begin.

• Kazehara Tetsu checked the rankings, saw his team in first place with 345 points, and traveled to G7 Area for the morning’s designated-area reward.
• Kazehara Tetsu won memory-puzzle, plant-identification, and mineral-identification tasks, earning 20 points.
• Kazehara Tetsu reached E8 Area in second place, then won a balance-beam task while traveling toward D9 Area.
• At D9 Area, Kazehara Tetsu registered for the two-kilometer open-water swimming competition and ran into Onodera Kayano, who was confident she could win the girls’ event.
• In the boys’ changing room, Koenji Rokusuke sized up Kazehara Tetsu and boasted that he would struggle to keep up with Koenji’s swimming speed.

Kazehara Tetsu competed against Koenji Rokusuke in the boys’ two-kilometer open-water swim and overtook him near the finish to win first place. Koenji finished second, stunned by his defeat.

• Kazehara Tetsu, Koenji Rokusuke, and Onodera Kayano entered the sea as the open-water race began.
• Koenji surged into the lead while Kazehara stayed close behind, and Onodera focused on holding first place in the girls’ group.
• Koenji increased his pace repeatedly but could not shake Kazehara, who maintained a steady two-meter gap.
• With two hundred meters remaining, Kazehara unleashed his full speed and overtook Koenji.
• Kazehara touched the finish platform first and earned 20 points, while Koenji finished second and remained in the water, shocked by his loss.

Kazehara Tetsu beat Koenji Rokusuke in a swimming race, then met Sakayanagi Arisu at the Lounge Area, where she warned him that new GPS tracking and violent attacks could threaten his lead. The chapter left Tetsu aware that Ryuen was hunting for the person who injured two of his classmates, while Tetsu still hoped to collect an old debt from him.

• Kazehara Tetsu rebuffed Koenji Rokusuke after keeping pace with him in the water, and Koenji accepted the loss before walking away.
• Kazehara Tetsu changed out of his swimwear and went to the Lounge Area, where he found Sakayanagi Arisu and received a portable walkie-talkie.
• Sakayanagi Arisu warned Kazehara Tetsu that students would gain access to GPS positioning the next day, making it easier for rivals to target his top-ranked group.
• Sakayanagi Arisu told Kazehara Tetsu that Komiya and Kinoshita had withdrawn after being pushed down a tampered slope, according to Ryuen.
• Kazehara Tetsu asked where Ryuen had gone and joked that he wanted to collect the fee Ryuen owed him for a previous ride.

Kazehara Tetsu told Utsunomiya Riku that his enormous point lead came from reaching each exam area in under three minutes, leaving Riku and Tsubaki Sakurako to consider the gap between them and refocus on the twenty-million-point bounty on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

• Utsunomiya Riku asked Kazehara Tetsu how he had earned so many points, and Kazehara said he completed listed tasks after traveling between areas in under three minutes.
• Utsunomiya Riku asked whether students could take first place from Kazehara, who instead questioned whether they were focused on making Ayanokoji Kiyotaka accept expulsion.
• Kazehara Tetsu revealed that the bounty on Ayanokoji was already widely known, then started to leave.
• Kazehara Tetsu tossed Tsubaki Sakurako several candies as a substitute for her missing lollipops.
• Tsubaki Sakurako judged that Kazehara was probably telling the truth, and she and Utsunomiya Riku decided to focus on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

Kazehara Tetsu encountered Horikita Suzune and Ibuki Mio while setting up camp, and Horikita questioned his exam results and his acquisition of the Free Ride cards. She suspected Kazehara planned to use Student Council influence to change school rules and pursue Ichinose Honami, but he denied knowing what she meant.

• Horikita Suzune called Kazehara Tetsu a monster over his results, and he learned that she and Ibuki Mio had just passed a hundred points.
• Kazehara observed that Horikita and Ibuki were continuing to work together, prompting Ibuki to leave and set up her tent nearby.
• Horikita asked how Kazehara had obtained Kushida Kikyo's Free Ride card, and he admitted he had threatened him.
• Horikita revealed that Class D had bet three remaining Free Ride cards on Kazehara and kept one for Nagumo's group.
• Horikita said Kazehara had bought all of Class B's Free Ride cards from Ichinose Honami and suggested he wanted to use Student Council power to alter school rules and target Ichinose.
• Kazehara denied Horikita's suspicions, and Horikita ended the conversation and went to join Ibuki.

Kazehara Tetsu caught Amasawa Ichika sneaking near his campsite and refused her attempts to keep him company or lure him out of his Tent. Amasawa left after her nighttime raid failed, while the mystery of who pushed Komiya and Kinoshita down the slope remained unresolved.

• Kazehara Tetsu heard someone outside his Tent and found Amasawa Ichika hiding behind a tree.
• Amasawa claimed she was out for a walk and followed Kazehara, asking him to keep her company.
• Kazehara went into his Tent and shut Amasawa outside, refusing to risk breaking the school's rules.
• Amasawa offered information about who had caused Komiya and Kinoshita to withdraw, but Kazehara said he did not want to know.
• Amasawa tried to entice Kazehara with a sexual invitation, but he saw through her act and rejected her.
• Amasawa gave up on her nighttime raid and walked back into the woods as Kazehara lay down to sleep.

On day six of the island exam, Kazehara Tetsu raced to secure his lead while Nagumo Miyabi sent third-year students to hunt him using GPS. Kazehara repeatedly escaped their traps and remained ahead of his pursuers as night approached.

• Kazehara Tetsu left Horikita Suzune and Ibuki Mio at camp and hurried to an F4 task to claim the first-place arrival reward.
• After finishing a Chemistry test, Kazehara spotted five students waiting to intercept him and sprinted through their blockade before they could act.
• The interceptors spent another point to track Kazehara, while he reached a slope and anticipated that the pursuit would become harder after dark.
• Throughout the morning, Kazehara evaded repeated interception attempts, including a human wall outside a puzzle task tent, and continued toward the next task.

Kazehara Tetsu assessed Nagumo Miyabi’s pursuit and rejected Kiryuin Fuka’s offer of help, hinting that he intended to deal with his pursuers himself. After Kazehara escaped into the forest, Kiryuin refused to answer to Nagumo’s followers, who resumed tracking him.

• Kazehara concluded that fewer than twenty third-year students were pursuing him and expected Nagumo to send more.
• Kiryuin Fuka offered to help Kazehara, but he declined and suggested that his pursuers might be permanently crippled in the mountains.
• When several third-year boys arrived, Kazehara leaped from the rocks and disappeared into the forest.
• The boys accused Kiryuin of helping Kazehara, but she dismissed Nagumo’s authority and left.
• The leading boy restarted location tracking, and the group chased Kazehara into the forest.

Kazehara Tetsu prepared to hunt the students pursuing him by arranging for Sakayanagi Arisu to locate them. He disabled his watch’s GPS chip and staged a fall to make its tracking failure look accidental, then set out into the night.

• Kazehara Tetsu contacted Sakayanagi Arisu and asked her to locate the students who had followed him that day.
• Kazehara Tetsu smashed his watch, removed its GPS chip, and damaged it so it could no longer transmit his location.
• Kazehara Tetsu returned the damaged chip to the watch and restored its casing to make the device appear intact apart from its cracked screen.
• Kazehara Tetsu fell backward down a fault line and dirtied himself to support the cover story that an accident had damaged his watch.
• Kazehara Tetsu gathered his backpack and supplies as he prepared to pursue the students during the night.

Nagumo Miyabi’s group lost track of Kazehara Tetsu after his Electronic Watch stopped transmitting, then came under a hidden attacker’s barrage of rocks in the dark. The boys were left injured, trapped, and unable to locate their assailant.

• Nagumo Miyabi’s ten pursuers complained about Kazehara Tetsu’s speed as they rested in a clearing.
• The group leader discovered that Kazehara Tetsu’s Light Spot had vanished from the Tablet Terminal and guessed his Electronic Watch had broken.
• An unseen attacker struck the leader’s shoulder and calf with rocks, then pelted the other boys throughout the clearing.
• The boys tried to flee, but the attacker hit a runner behind both knees and brought him down.
• Four uninjured boys hid in a hollow, where the attacker repeatedly struck the dirt around them and kept them cowering inside.

Kazehara Tetsu ambushed and incapacitated the twenty students Nagumo Miyabi had sent to hunt him, using stones and surprise attacks while Sakayanagi Arisu tracked the groups. He left them on the exam grounds rather than forcing them to withdraw, hoping their fear would spread to Nagumo Miyabi’s future hunters.

• Kazehara Tetsu knocked out four boys hiding in a depression after using a falling branch to distract them, joining the other unconscious students in the clearing.
• Kazehara Tetsu contacted Sakayanagi Arisu, who reported that two groups of six and four students remained nearby.
• Kazehara Tetsu attacked the six-boy group from over a hundred meters away and knocked all of them unconscious with thrown stones.
• Sakayanagi Arisu gave Kazehara Tetsu the location of the final group near a dry riverbed, and he incapacitated all four students there.
• Kazehara Tetsu left all twenty students on the island without pressing their withdrawal buttons, intending for their fear to deter Nagumo Miyabi’s next hunters.

Ichinose Honami got lost after her electronic watch failed and overheard Tsukishiro Tokinari and Tsukishiro Takuya discussing a plot against Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. She fled into the forest, leaving her backpack behind, while telling herself they had not seen her face.

• Ichinose Honami discovered that her broken electronic watch had left her lost on the island and set out to find D9 Port.
• Ichinose spotted Tsukishiro Tokinari and Tsukishiro Takuya and followed them through the forest instead of asking them for directions.
• Ichinose overheard the men discuss a disguised homeroom teacher, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the White Room, and a plan to finish him off at I2.
• Tsukishiro Tokinari turned toward Ichinose's hiding place, and she ran into the forest, throwing away her backpack to escape.

Ichinose Honami was caught by Tsukishiro Takuya and Tsukishiro Tokinari after stumbling through the forest, and they threatened her into silence. Kazehara Tetsu then appeared, forcing the two men to reconsider how to handle the witnesses.

• Ichinose Honami fell in the mud while fleeing and Tsukishiro Takuya grabbed her, demanding to know what she had heard.
• Tsukishiro Tokinari stopped Tsukishiro Takuya from knocking Ichinose Honami unconscious and threatened to withdraw a team from Class 2-B if she spoke.
• Tsukishiro Takuya put on rubber gloves and offered to handle Ichinose Honami, but Kazehara Tetsu suddenly emerged from behind a tree.
• Kazehara Tetsu showed his damaged watch and injuries, explaining that he had rolled down a slope and wandered through the forest.
• Tsukishiro Tokinari weighed the risks of dealing with Kazehara Tetsu as well as Ichinose Honami.

Tsukishiro Tokinari and Tsukishiro Takuya let Kazehara Tetsu and Ichinose Honami go, then discussed how Tetsu’s priorities made him difficult to control. Ichinose accompanied the injured Tetsu to the port, where a medical examination cleared him to continue the exam, and she stayed close as he went to replace his Electronic Watch.

• Tsukishiro Tokinari tossed Ichinose Honami’s backpack to her and left with Tsukishiro Takuya after Kazehara Tetsu warned him not to threaten her.
• Tsukishiro Takuya questioned why they were letting the pair go, and Tsukishiro Tokinari explained that Tetsu would not be deterred by threats against his classmates.
• Ichinose Honami worried over Tetsu’s injuries, and he told her they could have them checked at the port.
• Ichinose carried her backpack as she and Tetsu reached the D9 Area, where Faculty Members took him to the medical tent and sent her to replace her Electronic Watch.
• Ichinose received a new Electronic Watch and waited outside until Tetsu emerged, cleared of internal injuries and fractures.
• Tetsu headed to the logistics supply tent to replace his Electronic Watch, and Ichinose quietly followed him.

In the rain, Kazehara Tetsu urged Ichinose Honami to stop following him and condemned her naive attempts to help everyone. Ichinose accepted that she could not help him yet, promised to grow, and returned to her companions as Kazehara headed into the forest.

• Kazehara Tetsu told Ichinose Honami that Tsukishiro could not threaten him and dismissed her questions about his injuries and attackers.
• Kazehara Tetsu reminded Ichinose Honami to rejoin Shibata and the others, then called her foolish for believing she could save everyone and said he no longer wanted to travel with her.
• Ichinose Honami admitted she was currently unable to help, but asked Kazehara Tetsu to trust her if trouble arose again.
• Kazehara Tetsu took Ichinose Honami's hand, told her to regroup with her companions, and left for the forest.
• Ichinose Honami composed herself, checked her location on her Electronic Watch, and ran to rejoin her group.

In a downpour, Nagumo Miyabi tracked down Kazehara Tetsu and confronted him about the destruction of his twenty watchers. Nagumo proposed a contest, and the two agreed to settle it with a fight in a more spacious part of the forest.

• Kazehara Tetsu used his Tablet Terminal to see Nagumo Miyabi and two subordinates approaching his shelter through the rain.
• Nagumo Miyabi accused Kazehara Tetsu of taking out the twenty people who had been watching him, but Kazehara denied it.
• Nagumo Miyabi admitted that sending people to slow Kazehara down would not stop his first-place ranking and proposed a contest.
• Nagumo offered to keep his subordinates from interfering with Kazehara if Kazehara won, and asked Kazehara to help him crush Koenji if Nagumo won.
• Nagumo Miyabi chose a fistfight, ordered Gowaki and Tonokawa to stay behind, and led Kazehara toward a more spacious spot in the forest.

Kazehara Tetsu and Nagumo Miyabi discussed the island exam, Nagumo’s ambitions, and the future student council before meeting in a clearing to fight. Nagumo attacked first, but his punch missed Kazehara, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Nagumo Miyabi told Kazehara Tetsu that Kiriyama had accepted his authority and that he planned to use the exam to demonstrate his strength.
• Nagumo Miyabi said he would not hinder Kazehara’s pursuit of Class Points and looked forward to seeing how far he could rise.
• Nagumo Miyabi predicted Ichinose would be the likely next Student Council President and suggested Kazehara could benefit from their relationship.
• Nagumo Miyabi and Kazehara Tetsu reached a clearing, where Nagumo took a fighting stance and Kazehara declined to prepare or attack.
• Nagumo Miyabi charged and threw a jab at Kazehara Tetsu, but his fist passed through empty air.

Kazehara Tetsu defeated Nagumo Miyabi in a single move, and Nagumo agreed to leave him alone for the remaining week on the island. As Kazehara settled into the cave, Morofuji Ritsuka, Isoyama Nagisa, and Shiina Hiyori arrived seeking shelter and found him there.

• Kazehara Tetsu blinded Nagumo Miyabi with rainwater and knocked him unconscious with a strike to the back of his neck.
• Nagumo woke in a nearby cave and recognized that Kazehara had defeated him in one move.
• Nagumo promised not to send anyone to bother Kazehara and said he could roam the island freely for the next week.
• After Nagumo left, Kazehara planned to rest in the cave but heard people approaching through the rain.
• Morofuji Ritsuka entered the cave, called for Isoyama Nagisa and Shiina Hiyori, and was startled when she spotted Kazehara.

During a heavy storm, Shiina Hiyori, Morofuji Ritsuka, and Isoyama Nagisa took shelter in a cave where they found Kazehara Tetsu. After their tent was destroyed, Tetsu gave them a groundsheet for privacy while they changed into dry clothes, leaving them to wait out the rain together.

• Shiina Hiyori recognized Kazehara Tetsu in the cave and greeted him as “Tetsu-kun,” surprising Morofuji Ritsuka and Isoyama Nagisa.
• Hiyori explained that a windblown branch had torn their tent and soaked their sleeping bags, forcing the three girls to seek shelter.
• Kazehara Tetsu told the girls to sit down, warned them about staying in wet clothes, and gave them a groundsheet to use as a changing curtain.
• Morofuji Ritsuka and Isoyama Nagisa changed into spare sports uniforms behind the groundsheet while Tetsu waited at the cave entrance.
• Shiina Hiyori finished changing, and Kazehara Tetsu returned to his place beside the rock wall.

Kazehara Tetsu sheltered Shiina Hiyori, Isoyama Nagisa, and Morofuji Ritsuka from the storm in a cave, where the girls questioned him about his relationship with Hiyori and his high score. He left before they woke, and Hiyori’s classmates teased her about her feelings for him as they prepared to rejoin their class.

• Isoyama Nagisa asked Kazehara Tetsu how he knew Shiina Hiyori, and Hiyori described them as important book friends.
• Morofuji Ritsuka asked how Tetsu had earned so many points, and he said he had put in a little effort without explaining further.
• Shiina Hiyori arranged the sleeping places so she lay between Tetsu and her classmates in the cramped cave.
• After the rain stopped, Tetsu left the cave before the girls woke, taking one of the groundsheets with him.
• Morofuji Ritsuka and Isoyama Nagisa teased Hiyori about seeming heartbroken and possibly liking Tetsu, while Hiyori urged them to pack and head for the designated area.