At 5:50 in the morning, the sky was still shrouded in a hazy dark blue.
Class D's camp was silent, everyone still immersed in sleep. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka silently rose from where he had been resting, making not the slightest sound. Avoiding the sleeping students, he went alone to the girls' tent.
Class D had only four tents in total, and each one was crammed with two people beyond capacity. The interiors were so crowded that there was no room at all for personal backpacks. Thus, everyone in Class D could only leave their backpacks outside the tents.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka found the only backpack in a different color. It belonged to Ibuki Mio, the Class C student they had taken in yesterday.
He had noticed something strange yesterday. When Ibuki Mio had argued with Yamauchi Haruki, her backpack had struck a tree and produced an odd muffled sound with a metallic quality.
He crouched down, carefully unzipped the backpack, and soon rummaged out a digital camera.
Before disembarking, the school had strictly inspected everyone's belongings. Digital cameras were not on the list of permitted items. That left only one possibility—the camera had been purchased by Class C using Exam Points through the school's supply exchange.
Ayanokouji already had some suspicions, but he had no intention of acting just yet. So he returned everything to Ibuki Mio's backpack exactly as it had been and went back to the tent.
"Good morning, Ayanokouji. Did you go to the bathroom?" Hirata Yosuke seemed to have just woken up. Seeing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka enter the tent, he deliberately lowered his voice so as not to disturb the others.
"Yes. I didn't wake you up, did I?"
"Not really. It's just that my body clock and this rock-hard ground reminded me not to sleep anymore." Hirata Yosuke