Toilet

"No, absolutely not."

"Yeah, seriously, we'd die."

"Ugh... this portable toilet is just..."

One after another, the girls voiced their rejection of the portable toilet.

"If I could hold it, I would, but I'm pretty sure there are girls in this class who just can't accept it."

Karuizawa threw the question directly at all the girls like that, trying to gauge their opinions.

Almost every girl nodded in agreement with Karuizawa. The portable toilet was simply unacceptable for the girls.

"What's the big deal? Just make do with it, it's not that serious."

Ike pointed casually at the portable toilet beside them.

"No no, absolutely not."

Shinohara shot a look of disgust at the toilet Ike was pointing at, hit him with a triple denial, then huddled together with the girls in her clique.

"Actually, among the items you can buy with points, there are toilets."

Hirata's tone was relaxed and ordinary, but it immediately drew all the girls in the class to crowd around him, staring at the toilet listed in the rule guide.

"This one's good."

"We absolutely need it."

"Let's buy this."

"To use points, at least a majority of the class has to agree, right?"

"Well said, Yukimura. This is a great chance to accumulate class points. We can't waste points on this."

Ike gave Yukimura a thumbs-up as he spoke.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Shinohara was practically already on the verge of boiling over, her tone turning aggressive as her gyaru personality kicked in.

"If we can endure it, we shouldn't lose the chance to move up to a higher class just because you girls are being fussy."

Yukimura wasn't intimidated by her aggressive tone. Instead, he pushed up his glasses with his middle finger and replied calmly.

"You! It's only 20 points!"

"Oh? So you think 20 points aren't points? That's 20 points."

"How are we girls supposed to endure this, you jerk? I'm just asking for what we girls deserve!"

"Deserve? Hmph, this is the era of gender equality. If the boys can endure it, why can't the girls? What makes you think you can harm the class's interests just because of your selfishness? That's utterly unreasonable."

The boys nodded in agreement. For them, it was just a matter of aiming more carefully when peeing and putting up with a bit more stink when pooping. Not hard to accept.

The girls, on the other hand, were completely opposed.

"You're the unreasonable ones! We have 300 points to use! It's just 20 points!"

"Just 20 points? Hah, that's exactly why we're Class D. I don't plan on staying in Class D. To surpass the higher classes, even 20 points shouldn't be wasted."

Yukimura just pushed up his glasses again, calmly stating his thoughts, even though Shinohara in front of him was clearly burning with rage.

"It's only 20 points, no matter how you slice it? You think that's enough to surpass the higher classes? You're hilarious. No matter what, we're not backing down on this toilet!"

Shinohara cleverly used the word "we" to pull all the girls to her side. The girls stayed silent, but their expressions told the boys they weren't budging on this toilet.

"Hah, still don't get it? It's because you have that kind of thinking that you're in Class D, isn't it?"

"What!? You're in Class D too! And don't force your desire to move up to a higher class on us! What's that got to do with us? If you're really that capable, why don't you take the teacher's offer of 20 million Private Points to move up?"

Shinohara kept using "we." Some girls wanted to argue—they actually wanted to move up too—but they held back. Jumping in now would only bring trouble down on themselves.

"What did you say!?"

Shinohara had successfully gotten under Yukimura's skin. It was like she'd hit a sore spot. He clearly still had feelings about being placed in Class D.

At that moment, one boy stood out as an exception: Hirata. Look, he stepped forward.

"Both of you, stop arguing. Even if you keep fighting like this, it won't solve anything. Right, Yukimura-kun? And Shinohara-san too."

"...Since Hirata-kun says so... but I'm still not backing down on the toilet. I really can't accept that portable toilet."

"And you think I'll back down?"

Yukimura pushed up his glasses again. Both his tone and expression showed he had indeed calmed down.

"Hah?"

Shinohara went right back into her aggressive mode, like she was gearing up for round two.

Qiuyue: (...Tch... I can't watch this anymore. Even though I can guess the leader will win in the end, seeing this scene still makes me think Class D is hopeless.)

(Even if it's just a portable toilet, can they really not endure it? There are 40 people in the class. Using this would definitely take more time, and you'd still have to deal with the plastic bags full of waste. No matter how you look at it, a toilet is a necessary expense.)

(And Yukimura too. There's no need to be so fixated on petty gains. It's only 20 points. Besides, no girl in modern society could accept that portable toilet.)

(If it were me, I'd reject them at first, then reluctantly give in, making the girls feel like they've gained an advantage and gotten some psychological comfort, so they wouldn't keep making more excessive demands.)

(Arguing over something like this for so long—other classes have already entered the forest, yet Class D is still stuck here. What matters now is securing a base camp quickly; those 20 points will be back in no time. They've completely lost sight of what's important.)

Qiuyue stopped watching the farce, checked the time, and found it was getting late. While everyone was distracted, he prepared to slip into the forest.

"Qiuyue-kun, where are you going?"

"Don't worry, Kushida-san. I'm just finding a place to use the restroom. I'll be right back."

Once the Class D students were out of sight, Qiuyue took off his jacket. Taped to the inside was a map—the one Class C hadn't bought. He broke into a fast jog toward his destination.

Qiuyue stopped under a large tree to the left of a nearby base camp, looking up at a bundle lodged in the branches.

He climbed the tree and opened the bundle. Inside was a set of high-collared clothes, a hat, a mask, shoes, sunglasses, a voice changer, and a contract waiting to be signed.

All of these had been slowly delivered by drones.

Qiuyue didn't take off his gym uniform. Instead, he layered the new clothes over them and fastened the voice changer around his neck.

(Note: Reference to Subaru Okiya's voice changer from Detective Conan. Conan logic.)

He quickly arrived at the meeting point mentioned in the extra letter he had slipped into the map given to Class B earlier.

Class B's map had one more marked rendezvous point than the other classes.

Ichinose Honami and Ryuji Kanzaki had been waiting there for some time.

"Yo, sorry to keep you waiting."

[Name: None Student ID: None Gender: None Class: None Private Account: 8,700,000 pr]

[Name: Qiuyue Qi Student ID: 203458478287 Gender: Male Class: Year 1, Class D Private Account: 56,870 pr]