Hiyori and I left the Class B camp and headed straight for the Class A camp. According to the map Hashimoto had given us, their base was in the area with the cave.
As the vegetation gradually thinned out, jagged rocks began to fill our view. It seemed our destination was close.
After walking a little farther, the outline of Class A's camp gradually came into view—
"Temporary showers and two portable toilets... They really made full use of the supplies Ryuen provided."
Just as Hiyori had said, the area near the cave entrance had not only shower facilities but separate toilets for men and women. It was a somewhat extravagant setup, but they had indeed made the most of the support supplies Ryuen had provided.
But that was not the important part. What truly caught the eye were the black plastic curtains hanging over the cave entrance. Those stitched-together sheets completely concealed the cave's interior.
"Does that kind of setup really comply with the rules?"
"The curtains are probably right on the boundary of their base area, so it should be fine. All right, let's get started."
"Get started? Are you going to provoke them?"
"That's right. There are two guards. I don't know the other one, but one of them is Totsuka."
That guy's greatest weakness was his blind worship of Katsuragi. If I provoked him over that, he should take the bait easily enough.
"Although I have no right to stop you, Hikigaya... please don't go too far, okay? I don't want to see you get hurt again..."
Hiyori looked up at me with moist eyes and softly pleaded—that was just unfair. When she looked at me like that, there was no way I could bring myself to carry out the original plan. I could ignore the