What Goes Around Comes Around

I couldn't stand the heat from the crowded tent or the sticky feeling of being covered in sweat, but for the sake of everyone's sleep, I stayed still and didn't move.

At last, though, the urge to use the bathroom defeated me, and I decided to leave the tent.

I gently pulled the clothes covering me aside and felt my way toward the tent's zipper.

"Rattle, rattle—"

I kept reminding myself not to wake everyone. They were exhausted after a long day. I slipped quietly out of the tent and fanned its flaps as well, letting the night breeze carry away the heat inside.

Phew. The night air really was cooler. I'd get some fresh air and hurry back to rest. If I wasn't alert tomorrow, there'd be plenty of things I couldn't do.

In the darkness, it was hard to make out anything around me. The only thing I could clearly sense was everyone's calm, steady breathing.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

I heard the sound of leaves and branches being stepped on, but paid it no mind. I figured it was just the night breeze making them rustle, so I didn't think much of it. I never imagined it was a warning of the fright I was about to get.

I crept forward a step at a time in front of the tent, bending over as I searched for the lantern.

My eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark yet, and I couldn't see what was underfoot at all. If I tried to find the temporary toilet like this, I'd surely stumble around and bump into things.

"Ah, there it is..."

No, no. I needed to keep my voice down.

I picked up the lantern and gently turned its knob, setting it to the lowest brightness. Once I could make out my surroundings, I searched for the temporary toilet. I couldn't find it, but I did spot a dark silhouette.

Could it be a ghost?

The moment the thought crossed my mind, my body froze. I'd been half asleep a moment ago, but now I was wide awake. I fearfully took a step back and rubbed my eyes. When I opened them again, the shadow was gone.

"I must've imagined it..." I muttered under my breath, trying to work up my courage.

The toilet should be in that direction...

Once I'd calmed my nerves, I slowly headed toward the temporary toilet.

Though it was called a temporary toilet, it was just as good as the one at home, and it even flushed. The only problem was that it was difficult to set up. It needed a fairly large area with relatively level ground.

That left very few places where it could be installed, so we had to consider our options carefully. It weighed over a hundred kilograms, and moving it would be a huge hassle if we didn't like where we'd put it.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

What... was that sound...?

I heard a noise that wasn't coming from my own footsteps, and my body immediately stiffened. But the sound didn't stop.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

It seemed to be coming from behind me.

I swallowed nervously and turned to look behind me.

I couldn't see anything else, only the screen of the instrument, glowing a faint green.

C-could it really be a ghost...?

Just then, the sound suddenly stopped. I fearfully raised the lantern to chest height.

I held that position.

"..."

Nothing appeared.

"I'm probably just tired," I told myself, then took a deep breath and turned back toward the temporary toilet.

But the instant I straightened my gaze, a face suddenly appeared right in front of me.

"WAAAAAH!"

"WAAAAAH—"

"Shh!" I clamped a hand over Ichinose's mouth and used my other hand to hold down her thrashing body.

For some reason, when Ichinose saw me, she looked at me as if she'd seen a ghost. She was so frightened that she even dropped the lantern.

Most people would assume that anyone they ran into in the middle of the night had gotten up to use the bathroom too. But nothing about Ichinose's reaction supported that assumption.

I tried to calm her down, but her body had decided on its own that she was in a life-or-death situation, and adrenaline had amplified the strength of her struggles.

How had a chance encounter turned into this?

With no other choice, I had to speak up.

"Don't be scared. It's me."

"&%#￥"

"..."

Wouldn't hearing my voice make her freeze in surprise or calm down right away? Why was she still struggling and making... uh, alien noises?

"It's Raku," I explained to Ichinose again.

This time, she seemed to have heard me, but the strange noises she was making still left me questioning whether I'd understood correctly.

"&%%#￥Mm~"

"...Sorry. Anyway, Ichinose, try to calm down. Everyone's still asleep." I leaned down and whispered in her ear.

At last, Ichinose calmed down.

"Mm..."

I gently patted Ichinose's back and let go of her mouth. She immediately started gasping for breath. I bent down to pick up the lantern from the ground and used its faint light to illuminate our faces.

Ichinose looked shaken. It was as if she had a little rabbit tucked inside her chest, its heart pounding so hard I could see her chest rise and fall. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

It looked as if I'd scared her half to death.

"..."

I felt guilty from the bottom of my heart about how things had turned out.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think I'd scare you..."

"I wasn't really scared. I just panicked for a moment."

You'd been trembling all over a second ago. It was impressive that you could still say that so stubbornly...

I helped Ichinose over to the rest area we'd put together that afternoon.

"Are you all right?"

"I need a moment..." Ichinose patted her chest and took several deep breaths. "Everyone... wasn't woken up by me, were they?"

"I didn't hear anything, so I think they're still asleep."

"That's good... Raku, did you come out to use the bathroom?"

"Yeah. I'd just come out of the toilet when I saw you standing there with a lantern, not moving. I thought you were sleepwalking."

"I don't move around much when I sleep. At most, I just turn over."

"Then why were you standing there?"

"It's all your fault, Raku. You made so much noise walking around that I thought I'd run into a ghost..." Her voice grew quieter and quieter until it was as fine as a spider's thread in a crack beneath a door.

"...Ichinose, are you afraid of ghosts?"

Fear of the unknown, the strange, and the uncontrollable was a natural defensive response in humans and even lesser animals. It was a psychological mechanism that helped us survive.

Normal defensive reactions were necessary, but when a response like fear seriously interfered with daily life, it became a psychological problem.

To overcome that, I'd once been forced to endure a lot of unpleasant experiences.

They'd tricked me with promises of candy, but in the end, it had all been "surprises."

"N-no..." Ichinose stubbornly turned her head away and said, defiant. After sneaking a glance at me, she changed her tune. "Maybe just a little..."

"Everyone's right nearby. You're still scared with so many people around?"

"I can still be scared. Being asleep and being awake are two different things... Aren't there novels where it's like that too? When the protagonist gets 'attacked,' everyone else is fast asleep..."

"...At least that won't happen here. If something really does go wrong, just wake everyone up, Ichinose. We'll help you right away."

"Everyone needs to rest too. Waking them up over something like this would be selfish."

"Then wake me up instead. I slack off every day anyway, so I've got plenty of time to rest."

"...Wouldn't I be a bother, Raku?"

"If that little bit of trouble puts your mind at ease, then I think it's worth it. If you fell ill, your classmates might not be able to keep their spirits up."

"...Do you mean I can keep bothering you from now on, Raku?"

"..."

No, it was too soon to say that. You could do that if you needed to. I had to confirm whether something was true before I could give her an answer.

"That's not what I mean. If Ichinose kept bothering me with little things, I'd get annoyed too. But if it was something important and I could help, I'd try."

"That's enough for me. If I really run into a problem, I'll come to you for help, Raku. But do you really get annoyed? I've never seen you get angry. You do look exasperated or bothered pretty often, though..."

Really? Was I that bad at showing it? I'd thought my facial expressions were pretty varied.

"If you're human, you're bound to get annoyed. I once cried and made a fuss over a piece of candy."

"You cried and made a fuss over a piece of candy... I can't imagine you doing that, Raku."

"That's how I was when I was little... I used to cry over the smallest things."

I thought back to when I was two or three. I seemed to have cried five or six times every day back then.

"Let's stop chatting. It's getting late, so you should get back to sleep, Ichinose. We have to get up early for the cornfield tomorrow."

"Mm. I just wanted to get some fresh air outside, too. The tent was so stuffy. I'll be going back to sleep soon."

I nodded. "Then I'll leave you to take care of the lantern. I'm going back to bed."

"Wait—"

"Is something else wrong?"

"Um, could you not tell anyone what happened just now? I mean, about me being afraid of ghosts..."

"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. If you're worried, I'll do my best to forget that you're afraid of ghosts."

"It'd be better if you remembered, Raku."

"Hmm?"

"No, um... I meant, I meant the promise you just made." Ichinose hurriedly tried to explain.

"I can't guarantee it, but I'll do my best."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

After that little nighttime incident, I went back to my bed.

A promise... At least when it came to something I'd said out loud, I didn't want it to become a lie.

Karma Comes Sooner or Later

Despite a few little incidents, we still got up on time at six o'clock. Since it was summer, the sky was already quite bright at that hour, and the temperature, which had settled overnight, was starting to rise again.

Ichinose organized a few people to go with Kanzaki to the cornfield and gather corn. Everyone else continued working on the camp's setup and preparing the food.

"Takashima, are you feeling all right?"

"I'm full of energy. The well water's perfectly safe to drink. I haven't felt like I was going to get diarrhea at all."

"Doesn't that mean we don't have to worry about the water supply anymore?"

"Yeah, and the food's on its way too. Once this exam is over, our Class Points might go up by two hundred."

"Then we won't be far from Class A."

"It's not that simple. How could Class A possibly stand still?"