Digging a Pit

It was another night with a bright moon and sparse stars. Ibuki took the stolen item and headed deep into the forest. After checking her bag, Horikita discovered that one pair of her panties was missing, so she hurried after her. Horikita had no idea what Ibuki wanted with her panties.

Based on Horikita's guess, Karuizawa's panties had probably been stolen by Ibuki too. Now that she was using the same trick again, she likely intended to hide Horikita's panties among the boys' belongings, reigniting the conflict between the boys and girls that had only just settled down.

But what Horikita couldn't understand was that Ibuki did not head toward the boys' tents. Instead, she went deep into the forest.

Fortunately, Ibuki was not moving very fast, and with so many tall trees in the forest, Horikita easily followed behind her without being noticed.

What Horikita did not know was that Ayanokoji was following behind her as well.

Ayanokoji had been watching Ibuki's movements all along. According to his guess, there were still other members of Class C remaining on the island, and Ibuki would definitely go meet them. But it was still too early. There were two days left before the exam ended, and logically, Ibuki should have fled on the final day.

Ibuki arrived beneath a tree, but it was not the tree she had agreed upon with Ryuuen. Ryuuen had said they could only go to that tree half an hour before the exam ended, so naturally Ibuki would not go there now.

Ibuki was digging a hole!

Both Horikita and Ayanokoji were baffled. Ibuki had not stolen Class D's Magnetic Card, because it was with Ayanokoji. So why had she come here in the middle of the night to dig a hole?

Horikita did not reveal herself and continued watching to see what Ibuki would do next.

Then Horikita watched Ibuki toss her panties into the hole. There were no protective measures whatsoever. She threw them in like a piece of trash, then filled the hole back in!

Horikita's panties had been planted in the dirt by Ibuki like a seed.

Horikita rubbed her eyes in disbelief. What was this supposed to accomplish? No matter how she thought about it, she could not understand. Ayanokoji was also deeply puzzled by Ibuki's actions. They were too bizarre, with no discernible logic or motive, and seemed to have nothing to do with the exam.

While Horikita and Ayanokoji were still thinking, Ibuki had already started walking back. Horikita could only hurry away as well. She needed to return to the tent before Ibuki did. As for that pair of panties, Horikita was not too concerned. Since she now knew Ibuki had stolen them and buried them, she naturally did not need to worry about other boys getting hold of them.

After the two girls had gone far away, Ayanokoji dug up Ibuki's hole. He still felt that Ibuki would not simply bury a pair of panties for no reason. But this time, Ayanokoji had truly overthought it. Looking at the dirty panties wrapped in soil, he felt a little uncomfortable. "There are still many things in this world that I don't understand. I need to learn more."

After restoring the scene to its original state, Ayanokoji went back to sleep. Yet neither Horikita nor Ayanokoji could fall asleep. They could not understand it. They really could not understand it.

At the same time, there was one person from Class B who was still awake: Shiranami Chihiro.

She stood nervously before the water buckets. There were two of them, both filled with distilled drinking water. The next day, she and several girls would use one bucket's water to cook. After hesitating again and again, Shiranami finally poured out just a little of the powder from the cola bottle.

Afterward, she hurried back to sleep like a thief. But after a while, she became uneasy again and returned to the buckets. This time, Shiranami made up her mind and poured in all the powder from the bottle. To avoid being exposed, she even ran to the shore in the middle of the night and threw the cola bottle into the sea.

On the way back, Shiranami's steps were unusually heavy.

Having spent the whole night awake, Shiranami got up with dark circles under her eyes and prepared breakfast with the other girls. However, when breakfast was ready and everyone sat down to eat, Shiranami went to Ichinose. "Honami, there's something I want to talk to you about. Could you come with me for a moment?"

Although she was hungry, Ichinose cared more about her classmates, so she nodded and followed Shiranami away. The others in the class did not pay much attention to their departure. Girls going to the bathroom together was common enough, and Ichinose was so popular that no one found it strange when Shiranami pulled her away.

"What is it, little Chihiro? If you have any troubles, you can tell me. I'll help you." Ichinose was as gentle as ever.

It was precisely that gentleness that made Shiranami unable to pull herself away. "Honami, is there someone you like?"

"Huh? Why are you asking that? I don't have anyone I like right now." Ichinose had not expected Shiranami to ask something like that.

"But I heard that you do have someone you like. You're not lying to me, are you, Honami?" Shiranami wanted to buy herself a little more time, and she was already starting to be unreasonable.

"How could I? How could I lie to Chihiro-chan? If I ever have someone I like, I'll definitely tell all of you." Ichinose comforted Shiranami. She could vaguely sense that Chihiro was different from the other girls. She was more clingy, more sensitive, and liked acting spoiled around Ichinose more.

All of you. Shiranami's mood sank when she heard those two words. What she wanted was exclusivity. She did not want to share Ichinose with anyone else.

"Then... okay." Shiranami's smile was forced.

"Come on, let's go back. I'm starving." Ichinose took Shiranami's hand and led her back.

From a distance, Ichinose saw the miserable state of her classmates.

Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, unconsciousness.

They had been poisoned!

Too many students had been poisoned, leaving Ichinose flustered for a moment. With lives at stake, she could no longer spare any thought for the exam. After arranging for Shiranami to look after the others, Ichinose went to find a teacher.

In fact, not long after the students were poisoned, the school had already sent medical personnel over.

Watching her classmates get carried away one after another, Ichinose's heart sank to the bottom.

Hoshinomiya patted her shoulder and comforted her. "Ichinose, this isn't your fault. Don't blame yourself too much. The rest of the exam will depend on you and Shiranami."

"But thirty points are deducted whenever a student drops out midway through the exam. Our class's points have already been deducted to nothing." Ichinose looked dejected. How she wished she had been the one poisoned instead of her classmates.

"Isn't Class C also left with only Ibuki on the island taking the exam? We still have a chance. As long as we win when it comes time to guess the leader at the end, it'll be fine." Hoshinomiya's words revealed a great deal. Teachers were not allowed to interfere excessively with the exam, but Hoshinomiya was still too biased toward Ichinose. She could not bear to watch Ichinose blame herself like this.

If Ayanokoji had been there to hear those words, the outcome of the entire game would have been different. Unfortunately, he was still thinking about why Ibuki had buried Horikita's panties.

Those panties occupied Ayanokoji's mind for far too long. In the end, he had no choice but to reach one conclusion: this was Ibuki's personal little fetish.

In truth, he was already very close to the answer, but it was not important.

Every class had its own troubles, and Class A was no exception.