Karuizawa

After the Class C students left, Ike hurried over to Takahashi, but it was already too late—the girls closer to Takahashi had already surrounded him.

"Takahashi, that was so cool just now, so manly."

"Takahashi, have you studied martial arts?"

"..." "Ha ha... thanks... just a little bit!"

It took a long time, with help from Hirata and Kushida, to calm the crowd's heightened emotions.

"Phew... thanks for that." Takahashi exhaled, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead as if he'd just been through a big battle.

"You're welcome, Takahashi-kun. And just now, Takahashi-kun was really cool." Kushida didn't hold back her praise either.

Then she turned to Takahashi and Hirata and said:

"Um... if everything's fine, Onodera and I are planning to go pick some more fruit from where we went yesterday."

"Then we'll leave it to you, Kushida-san." Hirata replied with a gentle smile.

"Kushida, when you guys pick fruit, do you just carry it back in your arms?"

"Yeah, is there a problem, Takahashi?" Kushida pressed a finger to her lips, tilting her head slightly as she looked at Takahashi.

"Um... nothing. You could ask Teacher Chabashira for some of those temporary toilet bags. They're provided free and unlimited by the school anyway."

"Oh right, that way we won't have to worry about getting our clothes dirty." Onodera said excitedly from the side. "And those absorbent cloths too—if we ask for more of those from the teacher, we can put them under us at night and not have to sleep so uncomfortably."

It seemed the girls were also troubled by sleeping on the hard ground.

"I'll go talk to Teacher Chabashira about it now." Hirata, happy that they could solve the sleeping discomfort issue, headed toward Teacher Chabashira.

After that, no new incidents occurred on the island until the third day...

Holding a half-empty bottle of mineral water, Takahashi and Ayanokouji looked at the Class C camp. The barbecue, soda, and various entertainment equipment from before had now disappeared, and the Class C students were nowhere to be seen. They had probably spent all their points and used feeling unwell as an excuse to return to the ship.

Just as the two were idly observing their surroundings, Ichinose's voice came from behind:

"Are you two here to scout too?"

Takahashi turned around to see Ichinose and Kanzaki walking toward them.

"No, we were just wandering around to see if there were any edible wild vegetables or something. We noticed the Class C camp was empty and came to check it out." Takahashi replied.

"I see. So Class C really doesn't have a single person left now, just like Kanzaki-kun said—they adopted a strategy of giving up midway." Ichinose pressed a finger to her cheek and sighed before continuing: "I was originally planning to guess who Class C's representative is, but with things like this, there's no way now. If the whole class withdraws, we won't even have any clues."

"Ha~ Doesn't your class camp have that Class C guy named Kaneda? Our class camp has someone named Ibuki too. Just keep an eye on them." Takahashi yawned, turned, and walked toward the forest, saying as he went: "Ayanokouji, I'm going to look for some food first. I'll head back to camp for a nap later. What are you planning to do?"

"Mm... I plan to go back to class and tell Hirata about the Class C camp situation." Ayanokouji said, watching Takahashi's retreating back.

Takahashi, how does he know there's a Class C student in the Class B camp?

After the others left, Takahashi arrived at this beach again, then walked into the forest in a different direction from before.

"Hey, I gotta say, you're really going all out." Takahashi said, handing over the mineral water.

"Heh, as long as I win, that's all that matters." Ryuuen took the mineral water and, seeing Takahashi about to kick the cardboard at his feet, spoke again: "Hey, that's where I sleep."

"Mm... sorry about that." Takahashi withdrew his foot, but his gaze fell on the snacks and drinks on the other side of the cardboard.

"You're going to survive on this island for four days with just these chips and drinks, Ryuuen, you bastard."

"Save the chatter."

"Fine. Horikita likes to plan out Class D's exam life issues downstream by the river. That's probably when she'll expose herself as the representative. You can have Ibuki go check it out. Ah, Ryuuen, when it comes down to it, you still don't trust me. Would I lie to you?" Takahashi said, turning to leave, and deliberately stepped on the cardboard a couple of times.

Morning of the fourth day of the special exam.

Having slept a lot during the day yesterday and barely slept last night, Takahashi was resting with his eyes closed when he heard Shinohara's shouting from outside:

"Hey, I said you boys, get out here right now!"

Then several girls followed up with angry shouts of "Get out here" and the like.

Sensing Hirata, who was sleeping beside him, get up, Takahashi stretched lazily and slowly rose. The other students in the tent also gradually got up, muttering things like "What's going on?"

"Sorry... Hirata-kun, could you please call all the boys over?" Shinohara said to Hirata, her tone carrying a hint of pleading, as if she felt bad for disturbing his sleep.

"No need to apologize. Can you tell me what happened? They're all up now and should be out soon."

Feeling that this had nothing to do with him, Takahashi sat down against the tent, yawned, and glanced at Hasebe in the nearby group. Seeing her give a slight nod, he closed his eyes to continue resting.

"What's all this noise so early in the morning? Can't a guy get some proper sleep?" Sudo said loudly as he came out of the tent, followed by the other boys one by one.

Once all the boys were out, Shinohara said to Hirata: "I'm sorry, Hirata-kun. Even though this has nothing to do with you... there's something we need to confirm, which is why we disturbed your sleep."

Then Shinohara cast a contemptuous look at all the boys except Hirata—though this didn't include Takahashi, who was sitting off to the side where Shinohara hadn't noticed him.

"This morning... Karuizawa-san found that her underwear is missing. Do you know anything about this?"

"Ah... panties?"

Hirata, usually so calm, showed surprise at this unexpected situation. He then looked toward the group of girls and indeed didn't see Karuizawa, her clique, or Kushida.

"Karuizawa is crying in the tent right now. Kushida and the others are comforting her..." Shinohara said, glancing at one of the girls' tents.

"What's this all about? Why do we have to be woken up just because some panties went missing? And with that attitude, too." Ike, perhaps irritated by the sudden disturbance, spoke up.

"Isn't it obvious? One of you guys must have rummaged through Karuizawa's luggage in the middle of the night and stolen them. Her stuff was left outside—anyone could take it if they wanted!"

"You can't just accuse us out of nowhere, can you?"

"Who's accusing you? Ike, you didn't steal them, did you?" Shinohara glared at Ike.

Seeing Ike's flustered expression, Yamauchi chimed in with a sarcastic tone:

"Come to think of it, Ike. You went to the bathroom last night, right? And you took quite a while to come back."

"No, no, no! That's because it was dark, so it took a little longer!"

"Really? You sure you didn't steal Karuizawa's panties?"

"I-I'm not! I'd never do something like that!"

Then, among the boys, they began shifting the blame for this unpleasant accusation onto one another.