There Are Still Many Ways to Leave School

"Good morning, Ichinose. Why are you here so early today?"

Having not had a haircut in a while, my hair had turned into a bird's nest after an all-nighter.

If Ichinose's knocking hadn't woken me up, I would have likely waited until Hiyori arrived with the spare key to wake me up in her gentle way.

"Eh? Could it be that I've come at the wrong time?"

Ichinose took out her phone to check the time. It was 9:00 AM on a Saturday; by now, the salarymen of Japan would have already finished their convenience store rice balls and be sipping vegetable juice or coffee at the office.

"No, it's just that I went to bed too late last night. I'm not quite used to seeing the sun yet."

I have no idea how I managed to spout such nonsense.

Considering there was an Uninhabited Island Exam this summer, I wanted to finish all the preparatory work for my manuscripts before then.

The manuscripts to be mailed home, the ones I promised to give away, the Leave of Absence Forms for Hiyori and me, and plenty of other tasks—all of this needed to be wrapped up in these next few days.

It's no wonder Sakayanagi mocked me last night for being a chronic procrastinator, the type who doesn't move until the deadline is staring them in the face.

What time did Hiyori leave last night? Two in the morning?

I remember it was dawn when I finally went to sleep, but the details are a blur.

If I had just stayed up all night, I wouldn't be this groggy, but after pulling an all-nighter and then sleeping for only two or three hours before being forced to wake up, I truly couldn't handle it.

"Ma, Masaryu-kun? Are you alright?"

After opening the door and letting Ichinose into the Activity Room, I habitually tried to head back to my bed in my slippers for a nap, only to trip over the step reserved for the shoe-changing area, resulting in an intimate encounter between my entire body and the floor.

"I'm fine. If you don't mind, Ichinose, could you close the door for me? And please bring the quilt from the chair over here. I'm about to die of exhaustion."

Seeing me sprawled on the floor, Ichinose knelt beside me, trying to help me up.

I actually found the wooden floor quite comfortable. Aside from the lack of a pillow, there was nothing wrong with sleeping here; in my state of extreme fatigue, I couldn't even feel the floor digging into my back.

"Ah? Th-this is? Ichinose-san, Masaryu-kun, what are you two doing?"

Ichinose didn't let me sleep on the floor, as I would catch a cold, so she chose to pick me up and drag me toward the bed.

However, just as Ichinose lifted me, I heard Sakura's voice. Why was she here so early? And isn't today Saturday? I remember saying that people didn't have to come to the Activity Room to study during exam week.

"Th-that, this is—"

"Sakura-san and Ichinose-san? What are you doing?"

Just as Ichinose was about to explain to Sakura, Sakayanagi and Hiyori arrived at the door of the Activity Room.

By the time I woke up again, it was already noon. Looking at the setup on the table, it seemed Hiyori and the others had held a tea party.

For some reason, the moment I thought of a tea party, background music started playing in my head.

"So, Masaryu-kun, what time did you go to sleep?"

"Seven-thirty."

Seeing that I was awake, Hiyori picked out a set of clothes and helped me put them on. During the process, she pinched my waist while interrogating me about my sleep schedule.

I did go to sleep at seven-thirty, just seven-thirty this morning.

"Masaryu-kun went to sleep at seven-thirty last night? That early?"

Sakura felt it was incredibly unbelievable when she heard I went to sleep at seven-thirty.

"That wasn't seven-thirty last night. I left at eight last night, so he went to sleep at seven-thirty this morning. Aren't you afraid of sudden death?"

Sakayanagi glanced at Sakura, surprised that her train of thought was so different from the average person's.

"Let's set my issues aside for a moment. I was just pulling a normal all-nighter. I think there might be more pressing matters regarding Ichinose-san."

If I let them keep talking, I was going to become a sinner nailed to the cross of sleep deprivation.

"We already discussed that issue while Masaryu-kun was sleeping."

Hiyori sat down beside me and began filling in the missing information on her Leave of Absence Form.

"Oh? What did you say?"

"It's about the summer vacation. Ichinose heard that the school is organizing a trip for us to vacation on an island in the south."

So that was it. That godforsaken uninhabited island might be a vacation for Class C, but for the other classes, that remains to be seen.

"Vacationing on a southern island? Can Sakayanagi-san go?"

According to the original story, Sakayanagi shouldn't be able to go, but now that special exams have been added, I wasn't sure if she could still make it, so I decided to confirm.

"If I want to go, then of course I can. After all, the cruise ship we'll be taking belongs to my family's business."

After that special exam concluded, and after Sakayanagi and I finished our match, Ryuen and I gave her a proper brainwashing.

At the very least, the current Sakayanagi is much more efficient at utilizing resources. Being the chairman's daughter and the future heir of the Sakayanagi family—titles like those aren't bad things, so why not use them?

"If you can go if you want to, that means under normal circumstances, the school wasn't planning on letting you go, right? In that case, this so-called southern island vacation is bound to be very 'exciting'."

How could an uninhabited island not be exciting?

"Our daily exercise quota during the vacation will surely be quite high as well."

Hiyori followed up on my words, peeling back another layer of the veil covering this vacation.

"I wonder if the island chosen as our vacation spot will have beautiful scenery?"

Sakura's focus wasn't on the vacation itself, but on the island's landscape; she had already finished photographing just about everything within the school grounds during this time.

"When we get to the vacation spot, could you hang out with me, Masaryu?"

"?"

As soon as Ichinose said those words, the gazes of the other four people present all converged on her.

"Sorry! I misspoke! I meant to ask if you, Hiyori, and Ryuen—who isn't here right now—would like to organize some recreational activities between Class C and our Class B."

Realizing she had mixed up her inner thoughts with social pleasantries, Ichinose began to backtrack with a blushing face.

"If the chosen vacation spot is nice, then that should be possible."

Any promise made at a time like this was fine, as it wouldn't be fulfilled anyway.

However, how could Ichinose have obtained information regarding a summer vacation spot without knowing about the Uninhabited Island Exam that this school held every year?

The channel through which Ichinose received this news was somewhat problematic.

"Finished. I'll leave the rest to you, Classmate Sakayanagi."

After a while, Hiyori finished filling out the forms and handed both of our Leave of Absence Forms to Sakayanagi.

"This is? A Leave of Absence Form? Wasn't it said that we are under a closed-campus system for these three years?"

Upon seeing these two forms, Ichinose and the others questioned Sakayanagi one after another.

"In principle, students are not allowed to leave the school during the three-year closed-campus period, but there are exceptions to everything.

For example, clubs like the Baseball Club, Soccer Club, or Calligraphy Club need to go off-campus to participate in competitions, so the school arranges for dedicated personnel and vehicles to take them out. However, they must follow certain rules while off-campus, or else they will be expelled."

Sakayanagi used other clubs as examples, noting that the Basketball Club had taken a team off-campus once after their selection process this semester, an outing supervised by school teachers alongside Student Council officers.