Health Matters

Look, Hiyori is very sensible and never mentions this topic.

After all, there are many things in the world that cannot be accomplished simply by using your brain.

Suddenly, the tension on the field inexplicably intensified. Kitagawa Ryo pointed humbly to the neatly parked motorcycles by the sea:

"Why don't we try them all?"

At the school's camp in Area D9, Horikita Manabu had just finished his work and let out a long sigh of relief, preparing to take a short walk by the sea to relax.

To protect against rain, the campsite was situated on high ground. As soon as Horikita Manabu arrived at the edge of the cliff, he saw three Jet Ski standing ready on the sea not far away, seemingly preparing to set off.

Having witnessed this scene for almost the entire morning, Horikita Manabu, who was quite accustomed to it, was about to turn away when he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure.

His younger sister, Horikita Suzune.

Realizing this, Horikita Manabu stopped again, moved his glasses further in, and confirmed that the driver of one of the Jet Ski was indeed Horikita Suzune.

Meanwhile, the two Jet Ski that seem to be competing with their sister are driven by Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami, respectively.

Don't ask Horikita Manabu why he's so familiar with these people.

Unaware that her older brother was overseeing the battle from the cliff behind her, Horikita Suzune was recalling the driving techniques that Kitagawa Ryo had briefly explained earlier.

First, insert the key, then put the key on your right hand and tie the control rope securely to prevent the key from slipping off or the motorboat from being thrown off while it is traveling at high speed.

Avoid sharp turns; maintaining your balance with the motorboat is the most important thing.

Unlike traditional motorcycles, the throttle of Jet Ski is not controlled by rotating the handlebars, but by the depth of the brake calipers on the handlebars. Pressing them down increases the throttle, and releasing them slightly decreases the throttle.

After memorizing all the operating procedures, Horikita Suzune prepared to start the machine.

In the nearby sea, the school's emergency lifeboats had been waiting there all morning, and the lifeguards in their life jackets looked even more nervous than Horikita Suzune.

I originally thought this job was just for getting paid, but who would have thought that there would be a student like Kitagawa Ryo who rented Jet Ski continuously, and during the only few days I worked, I was completely focused on him.

That's fine, but the key point is...

Horikita Suzune lost control of her speed right from the start and threw herself off the jet ski. Fortunately, she was wearing a switch rope, which stopped the Jet Ski's engine the moment she was thrown off, and she landed in the water with a hum.

Just as the lifeguards were about to set off, Kitagawa Ryo nimbly dashed ahead. Hey, you know what? He was even faster than these professionally trained lifeguards.

The female lifeguard, who had already prepared her entry position for the female student, quietly withdrew her leg.

If Kitagawa Ryo hadn't already rescued Miyake Akito from the water that morning, demonstrating his abilities in front of them, he would probably be shouting through a megaphone, "Please leave this to the professionals."

Kitagawa Ryo cleanly and efficiently carried Horikita Suzune back to the shore.

Considering that the other person had also been unable to learn how to catch goldfish no matter what, Kitagawa Ryo seriously considered for a while whether Horikita Suzune was incompatible with water-related projects.

Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Kei's Jet Ski started smoothly, and the two sped away one after the other, with the school's lifeboats following closely behind.

Why are it these two people again...?

Kitagawa Ryo was lost in thought, and Horikita Suzune didn't tell him to put it down. The two of them walked quite a distance, almost from the beach to the shore, before Kitagawa Ryo, feeling his arm getting a little numb, finally came to his senses.

"It's so heavy."

Having carried him the whole way, Kitagawa Ryo unconsciously revealed his true feelings.

Immediately, he felt a rather ominous gaze fall upon his face.

"... The clothes are so heavy after they get wet."

Without making a sound, Kitagawa Ryo added another sentence, then smiled at Horikita Suzune in his arms:

"Should we just carry Suzune to the shower room in the camp?"

"Then it's not necessary."

Horikita Suzune stood up somewhat hesitantly from Kitagawa Ryo's embrace. She rolled up her sleeves, as if to conceal some emotion from just now, and then strode aggressively back towards the beach.

"I'll try twice more."

"Okay, be careful."

Kitagawa Ryo shrugged, glanced back, Shiina Hiyori comfortably reading under the parasol Kitagawa Ryo had prepared for her, as she had already showered and changed into new clothes and dared not get too close to the beach for fear of getting splashed.

Suddenly, I remembered that Karuizawa Kei and I had just taken a shower.

It just goes to show how unpredictable life is; after all, no one could have imagined the current situation back then.

Not far away, Horikita Suzune's activation was successful this time, although only half successful.

After running a dozen meters with some difficulty, Horikita Suzune was dragged out again.

Kitagawa Ryo swam step by step into the sea.

The water is light green closest to the shore, turning blue further out, then gradually becoming bluer and changing to grayish-blue, turquoise, deep blue, and finally inky blue.

They had almost reached the azure water level when Kitagawa Ryo didn't immediately go to help her up. Horikita Suzune stay in place.

"Any further and you'll have to swim back yourself."

Kitagawa Ryo shouted at Horikita Suzune, but he still stepped forward and grabbed Horikita Suzune's arm.

"Or ask the school's lifeguards."

"Then I wouldn't have fallen into the water."

Horikita Suzune responded with a smile, letting Kitagawa Ryo pull her arm, easily relinquishing control of her body.

Just like how he once pulled her out of her self-created shrine.

Horikita Manabu, standing on the cliff, nodded in satisfaction.

It seems his wish to see the two of them officially become a couple before graduation is still quite likely.

Chapter 188: Health is very important

After another half hour of effort, Horikita Suzune finally learned how to drive the Jet Ski. Her movements were so smooth that Kitagawa Ryo even wondered if her previous clumsy behavior was intentional.

Just then, Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Kei returned in style on their Jet Ski. Since both insisted that they had won the race, Kitagawa Ryo declared it a draw.

They seemed to have ridden all the way along the coastline from the D9 area to the vicinity of the G9 area, bringing back some interesting intelligence.

"It looks like they're assigning some kind of research topic over there, right?"

Ichinose Honami turned to Karuizawa Kei and asked.

"Yes, I saw quite a few school staff members setting up the site."

Karuizawa Kei nodded. The Uninhabited Island Special Exam wasn't a video game; the topics couldn't be generated with a single click. Basically, all the topics were set up by staff in advance at the location. However, since they didn't necessarily know when the topic would start, most students wouldn't linger for long with the intention of finding something useful when they saw the setup. After all, if it was a topic that wouldn't start for several hours, staying there would undoubtedly be a waste of time.

So at first, everyone regarded this as some interesting but useless intelligence.

But Sakayanagi Arisu had been keeping an eye on the project (actually, mainly because she had nothing else to do), suddenly extended her wrist towards Kitagawa Ryo:

"G9 area, time to work on research projects."

[Project Title: Multi-party Tug-of-War]

[Topic Type: Sports]

[Project Description: There is no limit to the number of participants per group. Registration will close one hour after four groups have registered or the project topic has been announced.]

[The registered groups will compete in a tug-of-war as a team. For example, if there are two registered groups, they will compete in a one-on-one tug-of-war; if there are four registered groups, they will compete in Four-Way Tug-of-War.]

[Project Rewards:]

First place: 2,500 points.

Second place: 2000 points.

"The reward for this project is higher than for other projects... and only the top two finishers receive a reward."

Karuizawa Kei remarked that, unlike most of the previous projects which offered rewards of 1,200, 1,000, or 800, the reward for this project, titled "[Multi-party Tug-of-War]," was significantly higher.

"Because this is a topic that requires the participation of all team members to succeed."

Kitagawa Ryo seemed lost in thought. He wasn't interested in the extra two hundred points, but rather pondered what the topic revealed.

From the Uninhabited Island Special Exam to now, most of the rewards for the projects have been given to individuals. Although individual scores are directly credited to the group's account, this reward mechanism has also led to the emergence of action strategies like those of elite groups such as Kitagawa Ryo or Katsuragi Kohei, which involve splitting up and scoring from multiple points.

However, no matter how outstanding an individual's skills are, they cannot win in this event called "Multi-party Tug-of-War," because it is highly unlikely that one person can outmuscle four people.

For the vast majority of groups that are forced to stick together because they lack the capacity to operate separately, this is definitely a boon.

Perhaps in the Uninhabited Island Special Exam in the second week after the seventh day, there will be more questions testing team performance.

While Kitagawa Ryo was still thinking about what to do next, the others, including the Sudo Group, were already eager to try it out.

"Hey, if we're going to get to the G9 area by motorcycle, nobody should be faster than us, right?"

"This topic has only been up for two minutes."

As he spoke, Ken Sudō flexed his well-defined arm muscles and grinned, saying:

"Even if there are other groups, our group won't lose."

"Come to think of it, we seem to have exactly four groups here."

Ibuki Mio counted the number of people on the beach. She and Shiina Hiyori were in one group, Kitagawa Ryo's group, Ken Sudō's group, plus Karuizawa Kei's solo group, making exactly four groups.

"Why don't we just go there and register all the spots?"

"Then I'd just be a complete bystander..."

Karuizawa Kei sighed, feigning melancholy.

"That's called keeping the good stuff in the family."

Kitagawa Ryo Karuizawa Kei smiled, nodded, and waved his hand.

"Then let's go!"

But reality never goes as planned. Although they had envisioned that all four groups would fill up in advance, when Kitagawa Ryo and his group arrived at the G9 area on their motorcycles, they found that two groups had already registered.

With a casual glance, Kitagawa Ryo could only tell that one of the groups was from Class B, because the leader was Shibata Sō, their class's athlete. He wasn't very familiar with the other group, and it was only Ichinose Honami quietly introduced them to him that Kitagawa Ryo learned that the other group was from Class A, and the group leader was a boy named Takemoto Shigeru.

Perhaps because their entrance was so spectacular, Kitagawa Ryo and his group immediately attracted the attention of all the students and school staff as soon as they appeared on the shore.

With only two spots remaining, after a brief discussion, the solo group Karuizawa Kei and the duo group Shiina Hiyori also opted to withdraw, giving their spots to the full-strength four-person Sudo Group and Kitagawa Ryo.

"Squad leader? What are you doing here?"

Upon seeing Karuizawa Kei, Shibata Sō's group from Class B hurriedly ran over to strike up a conversation.

"I came to stop by with Liang and the others. Um—did you sign up?"

"I just registered."

Shibata Sō nodded in affirmation.

"Perfect, then I won't sign up, so I won't be a runner-up."

Karuizawa Kei waved her little fist encouragingly:

"Keep it up, you guys! Try to beat Liang and his team to a pulp!"

"..."

Shibata Sō was initially a little confused, but after glancing at Kitagawa Ryo's group's composition, he seemed to suddenly understand something and nodded seriously in agreement:

Don't worry!

The other group members behind him immediately patted their chests and assured him that their group consisted of three men and one woman—a seemingly odd combination that could only be achieved in Class B.

However, given the subject of "Multi-party Tug-of-War," their combination of three men and one woman was undoubtedly better than Kitagawa Ryo's group's combination of one man and three women.

Class A's Takemoto Shigeru group consisted of two boys and two girls. Even looking at the entire field, Class B was second only to Sudo's group.

"The four groups of students participating in this project can get ready!"

Once the number of participants was full, the teacher in charge immediately announced that the project was about to begin.

Under his instructions, the students in the four groups quickly took their positions.

The Four-Way Tug-of-War, as its name suggests, involves four groups positioned in the four cardinal directions (east, south, west, and north), each pulling on a rope. A red marker is tied to the middle of the rope where the four directions meet. The first group to pull the red marker into the marked area wins.

Kitagawa Ryo took the initiative to direct the group members to line up in order. He was rightfully in charge of guarding one end of the rope. In front of him was Horikita Suzune, then Ichinose Honami, and at the very front was Sakayanagi Arisu.

This must be Sakayanagi Arisu's first time participating in a tug-of-war. She looks a little flustered with her small frame. Although the rope is currently under her armpits, she has a feeling that if she really pulls it up, her feet will leave the ground under the force.