Divergence

"Excuse me, Teacher Chabashira, I'd like to ask—what should we do if we need to use the bathroom?" Kushida posed the question to Teacher Chabashira on behalf of the female students.

"I was just about to talk about the bathroom situation." Teacher Chabashira tapped the cardboard box, tore off the tape, and pulled out a stack of folded cardboard sheets.

"What's this?" The girls erupted in chatter.

"Portable toilets, one per class. Use them carefully."

"Girls have to use these too?!" Shinohara exclaimed—she wasn't part of Karuizawa's clique in the class, but she still had her own presence.

"Shared between boys and girls, but we'll provide lightweight tents, so don't worry about privacy."

"It's not about privacy! Using the bathroom on a cardboard box? I absolutely can't do that!"

Teacher Chabashira ignored the girls' protests and skillfully assembled the toilet: she slipped on a blue plastic bag and placed a thin white cloth inside. "This is an absorbent cloth. Covering the waste with it eliminates odor. One bag can be used about five times. Bags and cloths are supplied indefinitely, so if you can't handle it, you can swap them out each time."

The girls fell silent. If this were a disaster, they might endure it, but asking them to "treat this like a disaster zone" was clearly too much.

"Absolutely not!" Shinohara led the opposition.

Ike couldn't stand it anymore: "It's just a toilet, right? Just suck it up and deal with it. What's there to argue about?"

"Easy for you to say!" Shinohara glared at him. "This has nothing to do with the boys, does it? I'd rather die than use a cardboard toilet!"

"The decision is yours." Teacher Chabashira drove the point home. "But remember, it's forbidden to relieve yourselves anywhere on the island, including in the sea or rivers."

Teacher Chabashira was about to move on to the next explanation, but Shinohara still resisted: "Cardboard boxes are completely unusable! And with the boys right there, it's disgusting just thinking about it!" She grew angrier as she spoke, especially venting her frustration at Ike: "Look at him—he's obviously a pervert!"

"Hey, lumping us all as perverts is going too far! I'm super gentlemanly!" Ike protested.

"You? You're always fawning over the girls every day—you're clearly the top pervert candidate!" Shinohara was merciless—she'd always looked down on Ike's "wooing the whole class" attitude.

The two argued fiercely, with most of the girls frowning and siding with Shinohara. Ike shrugged and sighed: "Are you seriously going to hold it in for a whole week? Is that realistic?"

Just then, Teacher Chabashira suddenly frowned and looked behind Takahashi.

"Yahallo!"

A lazy voice rang out, and Takahashi's cheek was gently pinched by a hand.

"Summer is the perfect time for love, you know~ If you confess to a girl you like by this beautiful seaside, your chances of success will definitely be high!"

"Really? Then I'd better study the school handbook carefully to see if taking a beautiful teacher to watch the sea counts as losing class points." Takahashi teased, looking at Hoshinomiya.

"Hoshinomiya, I think I've told you before—please stop sexually harassing my students." Teacher Chabashira said, looking at Hoshinomiya.

But Hoshinomiya, upon hearing this, immediately trotted over and hugged her from behind.

"What are you doing?"

"Having some skin-to-skin contact, of course~ How's little Saeda been lately?"

Hoshinomiya spoke softly while gently stroking Teacher Chabashira's hair. "Your hair is always so smooth to the touch, no matter when I touch it!"

"Are you clear on the school regulations? Eavesdropping on other classes' information violates school rules."

"I'm a teacher, so even if I hear something, I'll absolutely keep it a secret~ Besides, isn't it fate that we both ended up on this island at the same time?"

"Shut up and go back to your Class B!" Teacher Chabashira coldly brushed her hand away. "I'm warning you—if you keep this up, I'll report this as problematic behavior."

"Don't be so harsh... Fine, fine!" Teacher Hoshinomiya stuck out her tongue, waved her hand, and bounced back toward Class B, throwing Takahashi a wink before she left.

Only after Hoshinomiya was far away did Teacher Chabashira speak again:

"Alright, now you can decide on a representative. The representative will hold the representative card to occupy the base points."

"More importantly, I really need to go to the bathroom!" Sudo hoisted the portable toilet Teacher Chabashira had assembled, set up the lightweight tent, carried it a short distance away, and ducked inside. Shinohara and the others frowned and stepped back, clearly repulsed. Teacher Chabashira took a step back, making it clear that "you figure it out yourselves."

"Hirata-kun, we need to settle the bathroom issue quickly, right?" The girls' urging wasn't unreasonable—other students would soon have needs too.

"Actually, there's another way." Hirata flipped through the guidebook and looked up. "It says here we can use points to buy a temporary toilet."

At that, Shinohara and the others immediately crowded around. The temporary toilet was fully functional, looking almost identical to a home toilet in the photos, and even had a flush. For the girls, this was clearly more acceptable than the cardboard box. But the problem was: the temporary toilet cost 20 points.

"We have to buy this!" Shinohara declared first. "Even if I'm reluctant, it's still better than the cardboard box!" Many girls chimed in agreement—for them, the toilet's priority was even higher than food or water.

"Hold on! 20 points just for a toilet?" Ike jumped in to object, and some of the boys shook their heads too. They were dead set on saving points, thinking spending that many points on a toilet was a huge waste.

"It's just a toilet, what's the big deal? We already have one, right? We need to save points for critical moments! Don't you want to earn more class points and get more personal points next month?" Ike clearly wanted to save those points badly.

Before Ike could finish, Shinohara frowned and cut him off, then turned her gaze to Hirata, lightly tugging at his sleeve: "Don't decide everything on your own! You're the one consolidating opinions, right, Hirata-kun? Can we buy a temporary toilet, please?"

Hirata hesitated, scratching his cheek: "Well... at least we should give the girls a proper bathroom environment..."

"Consolidating opinions is your job, but don't just make the call yourself! And a lot of us guys haven't even had our say yet!" Seeing Hirata waver, Ike raised his voice to interrupt, tapping his knuckles on the desk. "You know, once points are spent, they're gone forever."

Shinohara stomped her foot in frustration, then suddenly turned to Karuizawa, grabbing her sleeve like a lifeline: "Karuizawa-san! Say something too! Girls clearly need a clean bathroom more, right?"

Karuizawa, who everyone expected to oppose first, gently shook her head, twirling a strand of hair with her finger in a carefree manner: "It's a hassle, but I'd rather have the points. We can just tough it out. The school will provide basic supplies, and we can handle bathing with river water, right?"

"Karuizawa-san... how can you say that!" Shinohara's eyes went wide, her fingers clenching the hem of her skirt. She suddenly realized that with Karuizawa's stance, most of the girls would default to following her lead, and her own insistence had lost its footing.

"Airi, what do you think about this bathroom issue?" Takahashi asked Sakura beside him.

"Huh? You want my opinion?" Sakura showed a hint of surprise, not expecting Takahashi to suddenly ask her.

"Yeah."

Sakura looked at the group, thought for a moment, and then spoke: "I think we should buy it."

"Why?"

"Even though there's that simple toilet, if everyone in our class uses this one... one person occupying it could mean a lot of people end up waiting." Sakura said, sneaking glances at Takahashi from time to time, afraid she might say something wrong.

He patted Sakura's little head. "Good observation."

Then, Takahashi spoke to the few people who were arguing:

"Everyone, quiet down for a moment, let me say a few words..."