Each Person's Starting Line

June 2nd, 8:00 AM, Advanced Nurturing High School gymnasium. The briefing for the first phase of the inter-class collaboration task was held here. A row of long tables had been temporarily set up on the basketball court, with Chabashira, the Disciplinary Committee Chairman, and Sakagami seated behind them. Sakagami's presence made the atmosphere subtle. This gray-haired retired teacher had not held a frontline teaching position since the end of the last semester, appearing only occasionally in the library and archives. Today, however, he sat in the center of the judging panel, a yellowed record of the Old System spread out before him, a cup of unsweetened black tea at his side. When Shiina Hiyori walked into the gym, Sakagami looked up and gave a slight nod. The nod was so subtle that only Kanzaki Toru, sitting next to Shiina, noticed it. He recalled the pencil-written line Sakagami had left on the edge of the Old System archives: "Keep an eye on the person who took this photo." The composition of that photo was identical to the countless shots of the high walls that Sakura Airi had taken on the rooftop.

"The content for the first phase of the inter-class collaboration task has been sent to your terminals." Chabashira stood up, skipping any unnecessary opening remarks. "This task is the Uninhabited Island Survival Exercise. Each group will undergo five days of wilderness survival training on an uninhabited island under the school's jurisdiction and must complete designated collaborative tasks according to the requirements. The island is equipped with safety monitoring points and emergency evacuation routes; all actions will be recorded in real-time and factored into the collaboration score."

Uninhabited island. These two words fell under the gymnasium's vast dome like a pebble dropped into deep water, the ripples spreading across every face at different speeds. Sudo Ken's eyes lit up—not with the violent glint seen during a fight, but with the excitement of finally waiting for an event he excelled at. Ike Kanji muttered under his breath about "having to feed the mosquitoes again," only to be pulled in and shaken by Sudo. Ishizaki Daichi stood in the back row of the Class C area, head bowed as he looked at the equipment list on his terminal, his finger repeatedly sliding over the "first aid kit" entry. The palm he had gashed while climbing the wall of the Old School Building had not yet fully healed, but at this moment, he wasn't concerned with his old injury, but rather with this familiar item on the list. Shiina Hiyori quickly searched the library database for all borrowing records related to wilderness survival and noted the name of her group's Class B member, Hamaguchi Tetsuya, in her memo. Hamaguchi had helped the basketball team with their physical training plan last semester and was no stranger to outdoor activities.

Karuizawa Kei stood near the assembly point for Group 8, clutching the portable mosquito repellent patch that Sakura Airi had shoved into her hand that morning. She tore open the packaging, stuck a patch onto the back of her hand, and then quietly slipped the rest into the equipment bag of the Class C girl in her group. After Sakura told her on the rooftop that she was "lowering her guard," she decided to try a more relaxed way of interacting with others during this exam.

"Group 12: Kanzaki Toru, Shiina Hiyori, Hamaguchi Tetsuya, Ishizaki Daichi, Morishita Ran, Nomura Takuya. Assembly point: left side of the basketball court." As Kanzaki Toru walked toward the assembly point, Ishizaki was already standing half a step behind him. He no longer kept his uniform collar open like he did the night at the Old School Building, ready to take or throw a punch; he simply stood quietly with the kind of tacit understanding found only in sports teams. Hamaguchi Tetsuya ran over from the Class B side carrying an equipment bag, stuffed a box of waterproof matches into the communal pack, patted Ishizaki on the shoulder, and waved to Morishita Ran and Nomura Takuya.

After the briefing, the groups boarded the ships one after another. Four small ferries were docked at the pier, each heading to one of the four landing points on the uninhabited island. The sea breeze, carrying a faint, salty tang, blew in from beyond the high walls. Sakura Airi stood on the pier and looked back at the gray-white wall behind her. When she first set up her tripod on the rooftop last semester, the lens had been aimed exactly here. Back then, she wasn't sure what she wanted to see through the viewfinder; perhaps she was just waiting for a signal that didn't exist. But today, she knew she would keep pressing the shutter on the island. Not to collect evidence, but to record. To record how Ishizaki handed the first bottle of water to Morishita Ran when Group 12 was distributing supplies; to record how Karuizawa stuck a mosquito patch on her fingertip and pretended it was a new nail art; to record how Kanzaki Toru tilted his head during a group discussion so that the sunlight fell perfectly into someone else's line of sight. She opened her phone; Karuizawa had sent her a message while she was organizing her gear last night. It contained only one line: "You don't have to photograph me, but if you get a shot of that Class C girl in our group, could you ask her for me—if she had to stay on the island for five days, would she choose wet wipes or candy as her necessity?"

Sakura didn't reply, but she took a screenshot of the message and saved it to her album. At this moment, she walked a few steps behind Karuizawa, her hat brim pulled low, yet her steps were steadier than they had ever been before.

The notification for the independent task group arrived at the same time. Ryuen Kakeru stood at an observation point on the other side of the pier, holding an observation log and a yellowed record of the Shared Pool Allocation. He was to sit in on all collaborative meetings during the first day of the uninhabited island exercise as an independent observer, submit two observation reports, and complete a literature review on the Shared Pool Allocation within five days. His terminal still displayed the video Ishizaki had sent last night and a voice message that remained unreplied. Ishizaki had said, "Next time there's something that needs climbing a wall to check, call me." Ryuen hadn't replied at the time, but now he typed three words—"Get on board"—before deleting them and sliding his phone into his pocket.

The engines of the four ferries started almost simultaneously, their propellers churning the gray-blue seawater. Twelve collaborative groups and one independent observer set off at once, sailing toward the uninhabited island half-hidden by sea mist beyond the high walls. And after everyone had boarded the ferries, Sakagami remained seated in the corner of the gymnasium's judging panel. He flipped to the page in the records and timeline where the inter-class report signatures had been returned, flipped back to the composition of the same angle in the old photo, then closed the file and picked up his cup of tea, which had long since gone cold. The skylight in the gymnasium dome was being cut by the morning sun into a clean, diamond-shaped patch of light, landing squarely on the empty basketball court floor.