Setting Foot on the Island

Shiina Hiyori gently released Hoshino Kanade's hand. A faint chill still lingered where her fingertips had brushed his palm.

Up ahead, a teacher shouted through a megaphone, "Class C, get ready to disembark!" A slight commotion stirred at the back of the line. Shiina rose onto her toes and looked toward the end of the pier, a few strands of silver-gray hair lifted by the sea breeze.

"It's our class's turn." Her soft voice carried a warm ripple in her violet eyes as she turned to Hoshino Kanade and Kiyona.

She stepped back half a pace and folded her hands in front of her, her tone as earnest as if she were discussing a mystery novel in the library. "Well... I'll head over first."

After a brief pause, her gaze lingered for a moment on their joined hands. The corners of her lips curved into a delicate crescent. "Please be sure to remember our promise, okay? We're going on 'vacation' together afterward."

"Yeah. See you on the island." Hoshino Kanade nodded, the faint chill in his left palm not yet fully faded.

Shiina Hiyori gave Kiyona one last knowing smile, then turned. The hem of her tracksuit swayed lightly as she drifted into the stream of moving Class C students like a silver butterfly.

Her slender figure receded through the scorching air, finally disappearing around the bend in the pier.

The moment Shiina Hiyori vanished into the Class C line, Hoshino Kanade felt Kiyona lightly pinch his right hand with her fingertips.

He glanced sideways. Kiyona was gazing in the direction Shiina had gone.

The sea breeze swept past, lifting a few strands of her dark hair by her ear and inadvertently revealing a faint blush on her fair earlobe.

"She seems to be looking forward to it." Kiyona's voice was softer than the sea breeze, her tone unreadable. But her interlaced fingers quietly slipped between Hoshino Kanade's, as if confirming some exclusive anchor.

Hoshino Kanade rubbed his thumb over the back of her cool hand. "It's her first time taking part in a 'group vacation.'" He put special emphasis on the last four words, a hint of meaning flickering in his eyes.

Shiina Hiyori's solitary ways until now stood in subtle contrast to her decision to make a promise with them. The girl who had always curled up in a library corner with mystery novels was now awkwardly, but sincerely, trying to step into other people's world.

A sudden howl from Kanji Ike came from the front of the line. "Those Class B guys are drinking water in the shade! Teacher! This is favoritism!"

Class B students were gathered in the shade at the dock, handing out bottled water. A few even waved provocatively at Class D, while Class D was still left waiting in the blazing sun for inspection.

Chabashira Sae's icy voice rang out through the megaphone. "Supplies are distributed by class. Class D, keep order."

The stark class divide once again stabbed into view.

Hirata Yosuke immediately called out to reassure them. "Just hang in there a little longer! We'll be on the island soon." But frustration was already spreading through the line like a heat wave.

Yamauchi Haruki irritably tugged at his collar and cursed. Karuizawa Kei frowned and fanned herself with her handbook, her sweat-damp hair clinging to her flushed cheeks.

Amid the simmering resentment, Hoshino Kanade felt Kiyona's fingernail lightly scrape his palm.

He looked down and saw her pull a small packet of individually sealed wet wipes from the side pocket of her regulation backpack with her free left hand. She had packed them before departure as a permitted item, calling them "cleaning essentials."

"Hand." Kiyona tore open the packet, pulled out a wipe cool with menthol, and pressed it against Hoshino Kanade's sweaty left hand without asking.

The icy touch spread from his knuckles to his wrist, making him start slightly.

Hoshino Kanade raised an eyebrow and let her carefully wipe the sweat from between his fingers. "Why didn't you take it out while Shiina was here?" he asked quietly.

He meant that her left hand had been free the whole time. She could have offered him this bit of cool relief sooner.

Kiyona didn't stop moving. Her lashes lowered as she focused on cleaning the sweat from between his fingers, her voice flat. "It wasn't hot then." As though she hadn't been standing under the sun herself.

The moisture evaporating from the wipe carried a minty scent, creating an invisible pocket of cool between them.

"Smuggled contraband?" Hoshino Kanade watched her finish wiping his hand, the corners of his lips curling.

"Survival supplies." Kiyona didn't so much as blink. She folded the used wipe and rubbed it over her slender neck.

A bead of sweat slid along the graceful line of her collarbone and disappeared into her collar. Hoshino Kanade's gaze unconsciously followed its path, and his Adam's apple bobbed silently.

She suddenly looked up, her cool gaze catching his wandering eyes. "What are you looking at?"

"Checking whether my 'survival supplies' are well stocked." Hoshino Kanade calmly tightened his right hand, gripping her fingers more firmly as she tried to pull away.

The faint blush by Kiyona's ear deepened at once. She only gave a soft huff and turned her face away, letting the sea breeze sweep her hair over his shoulder.

At last, a teacher up ahead called, "Class D, begin disembarking and inspection!" The long line finally began to move.

As Hoshino Kanade's shoe touched the scorching sand, heat immediately seeped through the sole.

He instinctively looked back, his gaze passing over the azure sea. The enormous white cruise ship—the steel fortress that represented order and rules—hadn't sailed away. It was still anchored quietly in the nearby bay, like a silent white island.

Shiina's parting words about "going on vacation together," Chabashira Sae's cold tone as she read out the rules for distributing supplies, and the lingering coolness in his palm, left there by Kiyona—all the clues mingled and rose soundlessly in the island's scorching air, beneath the watchful presence of that enormous vessel nearby, coalescing into the naked first challenge of this survival trial.

After all, this was his first time truly facing a wilderness survival environment.

Though he had learned everything in the books by heart, and the island before him was far from a truly untamed place, the moment he stepped onto this simulated "uninhabited island" and felt the heat of the sand beneath his feet and the primeval air drifting from the depths of the forest, the excitement he had kept restrained with reason quietly stirred like a sprout breaking through the soil.

"Let's go." He curled his fingers around Kiyona's hand, holding it tighter, as if her slender palm held the power to pierce the unknown.

His gaze passed over the noisy crowd and settled on the depths of the dense forest, where lush branches cast mottled shadows. Hoshino Kanade's voice held a keen edge, almost expectant, that was difficult to detect.

"Our 'vacation' has begun."