Gradually Gathering Class D

"I'm a Class C student. In other words, your enemy. Letting me into your camp—aren't you afraid I'm a spy?" Ibuki shouted at Takahashi's retreating figure.

"The more someone insists they're a spy, the less likely they are to be one. Only a real spy would claim to be a spy." Takahashi didn't stop walking, just spoke as he moved. Though the words were directed at Ibuki, they somehow felt like they weren't.

"Kamiya, I feel like that girl was hiding something."

"Oh?" Takahashi looked at the silly girl before him with some surprise. "Tell me why you think that."

"It's just that the spot where she was sitting looked like the soil had been disturbed, and there was dirt under her fingernails."

"Impressive. But you can't tell anyone about this, okay?" Takahashi freed a hand to pat Sakura on the head with a smile. He'd noticed it too, of course, but this was a good chance to test Ayanokouji.

About five minutes later, Ayanokouji and Yamauchi brought Ibuki back to the Class D camp. Ibuki sat down at a distance, claiming she didn't want to cause trouble for the other class.

But since Hirata wasn't there, the task of starting the fire fell to Nishito Takahashi.

"You guys know how to use matches, right? I'm heading off." With that, Takahashi grabbed Sakura and went to find Hasebe.

By the time he returned, the fire was already going. According to Ayanokouji, all the credit went to Ike.

Just before the last ray of sunlight vanished from the island, Kushida and her little group returned to camp, with Hirata accompanying them. Nearly half the class gradually gathered as their core members came back—everyone had finished their foraging tasks, clutching various things that looked like food. There were tight clusters of small red fruits resembling cherries, miniature "tomato"-shaped objects, even bunches like grapes, and oval fruits reminiscent of kiwis.

"Can we... eat these? They looked like fruit, so we brought them back."

Their voices lacked confidence as they crowded around other classmates asking questions. After all, everything was in shapes they'd never seen before—swallowing them would take considerable courage.

"I'm dying of thirst... and hungry too."

"Same here..."

As dusk deepened, students began voicing these complaints one after another. With dinner time approaching, the problems of food and water grew more pressing.

"Oh! Aren't these Black Bean Tree fruits? Little Kushida found them? Impressive!"

Ike, who had been by the campfire, came over upon hearing the commotion and picked up one of the fruits.

"Kanjou-kun, you know what this is?"

"This is the fruit of the Black Bean Tree. I ate it before when camping in the mountains. Tastes about the same as blueberries. And this is an Akebi Fruit—also really sweet. Man, brings back memories!"

He wasn't showing off deliberately like he usually did at school; he'd just found familiar fruit, and his face lit up with genuine delight. Seeing this, everyone cast admiring glances his way. Shinohara took the chance to point at other fruits and ask questions, and Ike answered them all honestly.

Although there had been plenty of conflicts in the class before, those disputes now seemed to vanish because of the food. Everyone began moving toward unity.

"Shinohara... I've been thinking it over. On this deserted island with nothing, living without a toilet is really tough. Even if it's for class points, I went too far with what I said before. I'm sorry." Ike was the first to apologize to Shinohara.

"Wh-why are you suddenly apologizing?" Shinohara was clearly flustered by Ike's abrupt apology, finally stammering out a reply.

"Because I remembered the first time I went camping with my family. The toilet situation was terrible—crawling with bugs and disgustingly dirty. Back then, I thought that kind of toilet was gross and couldn't accept it, kept throwing a tantrum and begging my parents to go home. And you're a girl... it must be even harder for you."

It took considerable courage for Ike to say these words, and though slow, his honesty quietly began to affect those around him.

Shinohara awkwardly looked away: "I was... wrong to lose my temper earlier too, and my tone was so... so bad. Saying I wouldn't drink river water... In this situation, if we don't take initiative ourselves, we won't keep any points."

Neither dared to look at the other, but they had clearly made up. Maybe Class D could unexpectedly hold onto some points? The other students probably had the same feeling.

Seeing the class atmosphere unprecedentedly united and harmonious, Hirata thought this was a good opportunity. He immediately raised his hand to gather everyone's attention.

"There's something I need to explain to everyone first. None of us have experience with this special exam, and I understand everyone's anxiety. Everyone has different thoughts, and conflict is normal, but I hope no one panics or rushes. Always trust your classmates, and let's all work together to win this exam."

Hirata's tone was firm, and he continued in a steady, clear voice: "Everyone wants to keep as many points as possible. I've calculated that by the end of the exam, we should have about one hundred and twenty points left."

"So you're planning to use one hundred and eighty points? I can't easily accept that." Yukimura frowned at Hirata, apparently unwilling to let him spend more than half the points.

Hirata opened the guidebook and explained bit by bit: "Hear me out first. Assuming all food is bought with points, the cheapest option is the nutritional food plus mineral water set.

- Buying food and water separately costs six points per meal each, the set is ten points per meal, two meals a day makes twenty points. - Assuming we eat one meal tonight and one on the final day, that's twelve meals total, one hundred and twenty points; if we skip the last day, it's one hundred and ten points. - Add twenty points for the temporary toilet, twenty points for two boys' tents, total one hundred and fifty points. The remaining thirty points are for unexpected expenses over the week, so total expenditure is one hundred and eighty points."

Hirata's clear explanation left the whole class in silence. "Everyone thinks one hundred and twenty points is too little, but that's only temporary. Don't just stare at three hundred points—look at the Midterm Exam and Final Exam results, and you should understand."

In the midterm and final exams before summer break, even the top Class A's class point changes were less than one hundred. From this perspective, keeping one hundred and twenty points in this special exam was no small amount. Plus, with extra points awarded at the end based on how many bases were occupied, the actual points retained would be even more.

"This is already the minimum expenditure plan I've calculated. If we can find one day's worth of food and water, we can save twenty points; if we don't need to worry about drinking water for the whole week, we could even save fifty points." Hirata looked at the slowly flowing river nearby as he added.

The implication was probably to make everyone realize the importance of the river water.

"I see... So if we grit our teeth and endure, the points can make a big difference..."

The same content, delivered with different rhythm and approach, had vastly different effects on perception. Hirata's rhetoric was masterful: first presenting the worst-case scenario of "only one hundred and twenty points left," then finally revealing the optimistic prospect of "possibly retaining nearly two hundred points," easily igniting everyone's desire to pursue a higher goal.

He wasn't conveying the pressure of "struggling hard to save points," but the easy logic of "accumulating small gains for incremental rewards"—repeating small efforts could build up like grains of sand forming a tower. This way of thinking was indeed easier to accept.

"Hirata, isn't this great? At minimum, we can get one hundred and twenty points. That means from now on, it's just about how many points we can save in every aspect of our lives, right? Let's give it a try!"

The person most likely to oppose—Ike—happily agreed and said loudly. Yukimura was still a bit reluctant, but since his partner in operations, Ike, had sided with Hirata, he gave up.

"Oh, right, Hirata, there's something I need to tell you..."

Ayanokouji spoke to Hirata, but unfortunately, the class was still in an excited frenzy, all eager to discuss things with Hirata.