Restraining Morishita Ai, who was still using his back for bone-setting practice, Fuyuji Mikage gazed out beyond the cave.
Kito Hayato, who had been absent from the group the entire ti before, was now charging out of the forest at an extrely rapid speed. In no ti at all, he reached the cave entrance and imdiately locked his gaze onto Fuyuji.
"Good work, Kito-san." Fuyuji waved him over. "So? Have they left?"
"They've left." Kito caught his breath slightly, then continued his report. "Classmates have already been assigned to secretly tail them. If there's any sign of them turning back, they will imdiately return to report."
"They finally left. I was starting to think they'd keep arguing all the way until nightfall."
Fuyuji let out a long breath of relief and turned his head. "Katsuragi-san, I'm leaving things here to you. I'll leave a few of the boys with you. I'm taking the rest."
"Take care in all things." Katsuragi Kohei nodded gravely.
Fuyuji stretched lazily and patted the dust from his rear. Facing the boys inside the cave, he announced, "According to the earlier arrangents—those in my group, co with ."
Of the dozen or so boys originally inside the cave, more than half imdiately stood up at once, leaving only five or six remaining where they were.
Freed from the burden of carrying tents and other supplies, the boys, traveling light, jogged all the way and quickly returned to the sandy beach. Not the location where they had initially landed, but the other side, far from the staff tents.
In a corner near the shade of the trees, Hashimoto Masayoshi, leading a few of Class A's boys with better physical stamina, was continuously keeping vigilant watch over the surroundings.
"Any surprises?"
"All OK!"
Hashimoto flashed a hand signal, his tone carrying a note of excitent. "Everything went smoothly. I've been watching that direction ever since we disbanded. Absolutely no problems!"
"They're here." Sanada Kosei, who had been observing the surroundings the entire ti, clapped his hands together, signaling everyone to sharpen their focus.
While the few of them were talking, Shimazaki Ikkei, who had been prepared well in advance, was already leading Mashima Tomonari toward them.
"Are there still issues?"
Mashima swept his eyes over the students present. Basically, aside from Katsuragi, the vast majority of Class A's boys had all co here. Was so major operation about to take place?
"Mashima-sensei, everything listed here can be redeed and freely used by us?"
"As long as it's in there." Mashima gave an affirmative reply.
"In that case..."
Fuyuji spread open the redemption page of the guidebook and pointed his finger at a certain item on it.
"I want to redeem this!"
Mashima's gaze turned peculiar. "Are you certain?"
"To be honest, I've wanted to try this thing out for a long ti now."
"Fuyuji-kun, I ask you again—"
Mashima's words abruptly halted. Because, at this very mont, every single Class A student behind Fuyuji had fallen completely silent. Not a single one displayed any hint of dissatisfaction.
Redeeming sothing like this—what exactly was the sche hidden in that gourd?
With the students so insistent, he had no reason whatsoever to continue obstructing them.
"Since you all insist... wait a mont." Mashima took out his walkie-talkie. "It will be brought to you imdiately—"
"—two jet skis!"
...
Once the jet skis had been delivered, the staff mbers swiftly departed from the area. Only Mashima remained, standing ramrod straight on the sandy beach with his arms folded across his chest, showing absolutely no intention of leaving.
"Ahem. Mashima-sensei."
Fuyuji cleared his throat and spoke with a straight face. "You may leave now."
"As a teacher, I have the duty to ensure that my students do not encounter danger." Mashima remained unmoved, gazing off into the distance at the seaside.
"You may leave now. We will not encounter any danger." Fuyuji emphasized once more, the implication abundantly clear.
"I need to take responsibility for you—"
"Are you our Class A's horoom teacher or not?! Do you still want us to graduate from Class A or not?! Whose side are you actually on?!" Fuyuji exclaid in exasperation.
"At this mont, the horoom teacher occupies a neutral position." Mashima's expression remained perfectly unchanged. "The school administration does not permit horoom teachers to step in and directly assist their students. But I will, within the bounds of the regulations, help you as much as I am able."
"Then what we need right now is for you to leave this place, you rigid, perverted, robot-glasses teacher!"
"You may simply treat as though I do not exist. If you wish to do sothing, so long as it is not an act that violates the law, I will not report it to the school administration, nor will I assist you. In other words, at this mont, the horoom teacher is, in effect, in a state of transparency."
"Really?" Fuyuji expressed his skepticism.
"I generally do not lie to my own students."
"If you blab about this, next sester might not be so sweet for you~"
Lingering here in an endless argunt was no solution. He could only trust, for now, in this perverted teacher's character. Although even if they were truly discovered by the school, they still had room to maneuver...
...
On the golden sandy beach, Mashima pressed one hand to his forehead, the corner of his mouth twitching as he observed every single action of the Class A students.
Upon the azure blue ocean, two jet skis sliced across the water's surface like a pair of silver dining knives, sending up towering sprays of surf behind them.
One of the jet skis whooshed past right before his eyes, streaking from left to right. Fuyuji, seated at the back, raised his arms and shouted. "I'm going to be the man who becos the Pirate King!"
Wasn't this just playing around?
Thirty seconds later, that sa jet ski ca racing back. Fuyuji frantically pounded Kito on the shoulder. "Kito, hurry, hurry! Hashimoto and the others are overtaking us!"
Wait. Sothing's not right.
Mashima furrowed his brow, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Why were they driving further and further away? And why did it seem like they were only moving in one specific direction? Was there sothing over there?
The sunlight pierced the surface of the sea, reflecting a dazzling, fish-scale-like radiance, making it difficult to clearly discern the distant scenery.
Before Mashima could fully think through this question, the speed of the two jet skis began to slow. They ca to a stop simultaneously at the very sa position. Kito plunged headfirst into the ocean.
The three people aside from Kito were now sprawled over the sides of the jet skis, staring fixedly down at the water's surface without blinking.
Ten-so seconds later, a head broke through the surface from below.
The very next instant, a massive, spherical object, tightly and securely bound with ropes, surfaced!
That was... when had they put that there?!
Mashima's eyes widened. His mouth involuntarily fell open, slowly. The threads of his thoughts connected with the speed of lightning.
This position... was it during the broadcast? When they had secretly tossed it off from so inconspicuous corner of the ship?
In that case... the purpose of stirring the pot the day before had actually been a disguised warning to the other classes that this vacation was in truth a special exam—making them focus their attention entirely on the deserted island?!
They had tied the supplies to a rope connected to a heavy weight, sunk it directly to the ocean floor, marked the spot, and waited until all the people from the other classes had left before retrieving it?!
Before Mashima could fully unravel the complete truth, Fuyuji and his group had already fastened the supplies to the rear of the jet skis and dragged it all the way to the sandy beach.
An eruption of fervent, enthusiastic cheers burst forth from the group of boys who had long been waiting.
"Heaven never seals off all the exits! Grateful to the mysterious ocean for sending these supplies our way."
"No problem. These supplies are more than enough to sustain us for the next seven days. All that's left is to redeem the bare necessities, like the toilet."
"As expected of Fuyuji-san, to actually be able to—cough, in any case, let us give thanks for nature's bounty."
...
Off to the side, Mashima watched this scene, his gaze utterly stupefied, his mouth hanging slightly agape.
That was allowed too? Using that kind of excuse?
This wasn't how the special exam was supposed to go! You couldn't use this kind of thod to get through the special exam! Then what was all the hardship we endured back then for?!
"Aiya~"
Fuyuji hopped off the jet ski, wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, and spoke with a tone of dreamy reverence.
"Grateful to the beautiful great natural world. Just as a group of young people stranded on a deserted island were about to exhaust their supplies and plunge into a state of imminent death, the boundless and profound ocean delivered unto them the hope of survival—supplies fallen from so unknown shipping container. With this, they can successfully endure the next seven days."
Fuyuji clasped his own hands together and raised his head, gazing up toward the sky, deeply moved by his own words.
"It must certainly be because I have insisted, every single day throughout this period, on doing good deeds at the school—suppressing campus violence, resolving familial ethical quandaries, and from ti to ti bringing joy and laughter to the entire student body—that the heavens have chosen to bless such a good child as myself."
"..."
Mashima cast a somber, sidelong glance at Fuyuji. You bastards were the ones who put it there in advance—I'll eat my hat if you didn't!
But... according to Fuyuji's narrative, such a scenario wasn't entirely impossible. There was also no clause anywhere in the rules stating that one couldn't retrieve supplies from the ocean. The supplies inside had most likely had all their labels stripped off by them. There was fundantally no way to prove that they had been the ones to toss them down.
Even in the most extre case—if it truly could be successfully proven—the school would probably also just turn a blind eye.
The school was modeled on the broader social environnt. And in society, unlike school, there were far too many ways to acquire such items without being discovered.
Having uncovered the truth, the school administration would, at most, deduct a few behavioral conduct points for littering. Or they might even deduct nothing at all.
What the school encouraged was ritocracy above all. Since they had successfully exploited a loophole in the school's system, it could only prove that the exam designers had, in this respect, lost to them. This was a problem with the school's rule design—not a problem with them.
This year's students... had completely surpassed his own year's cohort...
In his youth, Mashima had likewise participated in the deserted island special exam as a student of the Advanced Nurturing High School. The only difference was that they had thodically and procedurally followed the school's pace and spent seven days on the deserted island, never once having imagined that one could step outside the boundaries of the school's rules.
"How did you think of it?" Mashima let out a sigh and gazed at Fuyuji.
Among the Class A students, the only one capable of conceiving such an unconventional, out-of-the-box sche was this loose-cannon thinker of theirs.
Katsuragi was outstanding, but far too conservative. He would likely only operate strictly within the bounds of the school's rules.
"You're not going to record this or sothing, are you?"
Fuyuji cast a wary glance at Mashima. "The mont I say it, you'll imdiately jump out and claim we violated the regulations, confiscate all the supplies, sothing like that."
"The regulation handbook contains no prohibition against doing such a thing. Everything you have done falls within the reasonable scope of the rules. On this point, you may rest assured."
Only after hearing Mashima's guarantee did Fuyuji relax slightly. Although that perverted teacher was sowhat overly rigid and impersonal, he did keep his word.
Fuyuji kept his expression taut and spoke with deep, solemn gravity. "I admit there was an elent of gambling. But it doesn't matter—we gambled correctly."
"Deserted island survival. Although I didn't know specifically what they would test us on, just from hearing the na, one could tell that supplies would definitely be the top priority of top priorities."
Having spoken, Fuyuji spread both hands open.
"At first, what I thought of was whether we could observe the tidal currents, simply toss the supplies in, and see if they could drift to shore. But the uncertainty in that approach was far too great."
"Later, I ca up with this thod. I sought out the sailors on the ship in advance and thoroughly inquired about the hydrological conditions around this island. I asked them what kind of topography had the weakest current impact. I tied one end of the supplies to weighted objects like sandbags, connected both sides with a rope, found sothing with a highly distinctive marker and attached it to the end of the rope for easy identification, and then dropped them overboard. Afterward, we waited until everyone had left, then cut the rope and let the supplies float to the surface."
"Anyway, this amount of supplies was worth, at most, a few hundred thousand personal points. Using it to place a gamble—our class wouldn't be losing out either way."
Mashima pondered deeply on the spot for a long while before nodding in approval. This was indeed a plan with a degree of feasibility.
But there were still considerable uncertainties. Firstly, this expanse of ocean was far too vast. Even if there truly was a conspicuously visible marker floating on the boundless sea, there was still a very high probability they wouldn't be able to locate the supplies. Secondly, this undertaking was far too risky. If it weren't for the fact that jet skis existed in this special exam, even if Kito, with the best physical stamina, had actually swum to that location and found the supplies, he would have had no way to bring the supplies back.
In that case, all they could do was leave it up to fate and see whether the ocean waves could deliver the supplies to shore.
But even so... even if the uncertainties were enormous, it was still worth a gamble. Once successful, they could save over a hundred points in supply costs, while the most they could lose was a few hundred thousand personal points.
Watching Mashima nodding his head repeatedly, Fuyuji revealed his signature grin of a sche successfully executed.
It was not, in fact, uncertain at all!
The truth was, the primary purpose in bringing Wild Pigeon along was precisely to have it help them search for the supplies' location across the vast ocean.
At the very start, he hadn't even planned on bringing all the supplies back. He had only planned to take back the small portion they specifically needed, based on the exam content—things like dicines, items small in volu and easy to carry.
For the remaining supplies, they would simply cut open the waterproof tarp and let the rise and fall of the tides carry them away. Roughly twenty percent of the supplies would end up washed ashore—more than enough to establish their advantage.
He had never expected that this ti, by a stroke of precisely the right luck, the school would just so happen to design a special exam thed around "freedom," which allowed the redemption of jet skis—absolutely perfectly suited to their plan.
As the two were conversing, the other Class A boys had already, beneath the shade of the trees, broken open the supplies and begun distributing them among the students to carry back to camp.
Tents, a number of them. Given the bulkiness of tents, they hadn't prepared enough for all forty people to begin with. They had simply used them to wrap and pack the supplies.
Food, a considerable quantity. Mostly compressed biscuits, easy to carry. A smaller portion of canned goods.
dical supplies, a number of these. These were the smallest in volu, allowing most of the ergency supplies to be squeezed in.
The rest were essential items like lighting, insect repellent, fire-starting tools, along with a few things Fuyuji felt might co in handy.
With all of this, Class A could get through this special exam in an exceptionally relaxed manner.
Food and such were already completely sufficient. Though eating nothing but compressed biscuits for seven straight days might make them want to vomit—but that could be alleviated by scavenging other food on the island.
With lighting, insect repellent, plus tents and the cave campsite, the accommodation problem was also entirely solved.
For the next seven days, the entirety of Class A would have absolutely no other burdens whatsoever. They could focus the core of their efforts on rooting out the leaders of the other classes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
If you want to Support , you can Read 100 Advanced Chapters on : [email protected]/Yuni_TL
50 [Power Stones] = Bonus Chapter!
User Comments
0 comments from readers