Watching the two of them leave until their backs disappeared from sight, Chiba Yu finally relaxed his guard.
"Mm—mm!!!"
"Y-You... how much longer are you going to keep covering my mouth?!"
Only when he felt Karuizawa's struggles grow more forceful did Chiba Yu suddenly remember that he was still holding her against his chest, with his hand over her mouth.
The moment I let go of Karuizawa, she sprang out of my arms and gasped for breath.
Chiba Yu also noticed that her face was still slightly flushed, like a startled little white rabbit.
How should he put it? He felt like he'd bullied her.
"..."
As soon as the thought occurred to him, Chiba Yu immediately nipped it in the bud.
Karuizawa Kei seemed to have just come to her senses as well. In a somewhat uncertain tone, she asked, "Those two just now... were students from Class A, right?"
Looking toward where Katsuragi and the other student had disappeared from view, Chiba Yu nodded. "Probably. I've seen them on the forums before. The tall one seems to be Class A's current leader."
"I think I saw a green card in that man Katsuragi's pocket. Do you think that could be the leader's..."
"...Probably."
Karuizawa furrowed her brows. "What do you mean, 'probably'? If it's real, that means we got information about Class A's leader before anyone else! That's worth fifty points!"
Chiba Yu slowly stood up and turned toward the direction Katsuragi and the others had come from. As he walked, he said, "You can tell Hirata when we get back. He'll handle it."
"...Then why can't you tell him?"
"Because I'm lazy."
"..." Karuizawa was speechless. A helpless look crept into her eyes as she glanced at Chiba Yu, then looked around and asked, "Come to think of it, why are you going this way? Don't we still need to find a campsite?"
Chiba Yu didn't answer and kept walking. About half a minute later, the two of them came to a rocky cave.
Karuizawa stared at the cave in amazement.
"Don't tell me you already knew there was a cave here, and that's why you came this way?"
The two of them went inside. There was nothing else in the cave, and its gloomy darkness made Karuizawa a little nervous.
They continued farther in. Deep inside, a machine that looked completely out of place stood quietly.
"What's this?!"
Chiba Yu stepped closer and saw that, sure enough, it displayed a notice saying the site had been occupied.
"T-Then that means Katsuragi really was Class A's leader!" Karuizawa said excitedly.
After all, as far as she could tell, the site was marked as occupied, and Katsuragi had a leader's card in his pocket. Wasn't this practically points handed to them on a silver platter?
Chiba Yu didn't comment on Karuizawa's conclusion. Without looking back, he headed for the cave entrance, speaking in a peculiar tone as he walked. "Maybe."
That made Karuizawa feel a little uncomfortable again.
What was wrong with him? He kept saying such ambiguous things and dodging her comments. What, was she really that annoying to him?
But after thinking it over, Karuizawa realized that he'd never been particularly interested in this sort of thing. Knowing about it probably wasn't a big deal to him.
That thought immediately put her at ease.
That's right, exactly! It definitely wasn't because of me! (*^▽^*)
Meanwhile, Chiba Yu had no idea that Karuizawa had already acted out a whole drama in her head and even managed to gaslight herself successfully.
As he walked, he thought back to some of the rumors he'd heard at the time.
Katsuragi... That man was known for being cautious. Would he really make such a rookie mistake? Or was it...
"Hey! We should probably head back too. It's almost time."
Karuizawa's voice came from behind him, interrupting his thoughts.
Chiba Yu glanced at the time on his watch, gave up thinking about it, and started back toward the campsite with Karuizawa.
"Oh, right. I'll report what happened earlier to Hirata." Chiba Yu paused, as if he'd just remembered something, and said this.
For a moment, Karuizawa stared at him with wide eyes, as if she'd just heard something unbelievable or was looking at some rare treasure.
Uncomfortable under her gaze, Chiba Yu's mouth twitched. "...There's no need for that. What's with that look?"
"I was just wondering if the sun had risen in the west today."
"..."
Chiba Yu decided not to respond and quickened his pace.
The two of them soon returned to the campsite. The other students who'd gone out to investigate had also come back by then.
However, among the crowd, Chiba Yu noticed that Koenji was missing, even though he should have been back with the others.
Karuizawa went to tell Hirata that she'd gone out to investigate and hadn't found a suitable campsite. As for the rest, since Chiba Yu had said he would report it, she didn't mention what they'd seen. Chiba Yu, meanwhile, walked over to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
When he arrived, he happened to hear Ayanokoji explaining Koenji's situation to Horikita.
"You know I can't control someone like him. You understand that, right?"
Hearing this, Chiba Yu more or less understood what had happened.
Most likely, Koenji had gone off on his own again, and Ayanokoji and the others hadn't kept up with him, so the three of them had split up.
Just then, Horikita noticed Chiba Yu standing nearby and eavesdropping. She was about to say something when Hirata's voice suddenly rang out among the group.
"Everyone, we have good news! Ike and the others found a site near a water source. Let's go meet up with them!"
The group erupted in excitement, then eagerly got to their feet and followed Hirata toward Ike and the others.
Whatever Horikita had been about to say was forgotten amid the excitement.
"Look, this is the site we found!" When everyone reached their destination, they saw Ike rising from the river with his shirt off, his face brimming with pride and excitement.
After seeing the clear river water and the pleasant surroundings, everyone in the class praised the site, and they unanimously decided to make it their base.
Now, the next question arose.
Occupying a class base required the class leader. So, who would be the "leader" now...?