Deafening charcoal fire in front of us six propped different intricate reactions simultaneously.

"Waaaaaah!!! Our house!!"

It didn't occur to Kuzan that unleashing such a large cry midst all the fire smoke leaking out from the already burnt down house could fuck up his breathing whatsoever.

Out of all the six of us, I was the one closer to the fire itself, therefore should Kuzan have gotten in my range, I would've pulled him back. Without any sort of delay, I started to look into a single clue that would leak some sort of evidence, even if minimal to the arsonist.

"What the hell are we gonna do?! Damn it, we spend the whole afternoon building that house and now it's the night! We're screwed..."

Sagasuga had reminded Tatsu and Tsudo, who is currently with his knees on the blazing-tempered ground mourning about the house to bring their important belonging with them before doing the animal hunting. If the aim of this fire was to screw someone or delay something, then, would the person hit the words? It goes without saying that I'm not going to label the fact that this occurred at the exact time that we went for a hunt as a coincidence. It gets even more evident once the fact that it's the edge of the deep dark night right now. Meaning that our routes for adventure are severely limited.

There were a few options at sight right now. We all could grab sticks and make torches out of them in order to give us the option of temporary light so we can travel somewhere else safer, far away from this fire.

"You have the words, right, Kawahara?"

Tatsu asked, coming from behind me. His eyes tell me that he is eagerly curious as to why I'm in a daze while basking under the sight of this scouring wildfire.

"It goes without saying."

I turned my back on the wildfire, advanced mildly, and spoke to Sagasuga who was in deep thinking. Nonetheless, my approach alerted him which caused his attention to focus on me subsequently, just like the rest of them.

"We need to get out of here fast, otherwise the fire will spread even faster. Wasting time here is counterproductive because we have lost everything and we need to regain our momentum."

Though I launched logical words, Tsudo spoke rather emotionally instead of actually comprehending what I had just said, based on a selfish reason.

"He couldn't have gone far! Let's split up and look for him!"

I eyed Sagasuga momentarily. This was a signal for him to take this chance of taking this idea of Tsudo out of his brain or I would shut him up by force.

Adjusted and firm; my backpack was once again far more sustainable.

"We would waste a lot of energy just on an effort that might not even work. I say we go back to where we left the deer, keep on walking and search for a stable base. There, we will launch a bonfire and eat. Should we look for the culprit like this, we are playing right into his hands. That would be our downfall."

Sometimes, I feel like my words go ignored on purpose because the moment another person says the same exact thing under different words and under a different formal facial expression, that person's words just elegantly go through without any effort at all.

To enforce this ridiculous belief, Tsudo stopped being a little bitch and got up from the floor. Kuzan was standing on his knees while regretting building the house, so I grabbed his shoulder and told him to get up.

"Oh, you're right, dude."

"Thank you, Tsudo. Let's move on for now! Kawahara, a word in private, yes?"

Opening the path of our march, Sagasuga extended his right arm and indirectly told me to accompany him. Surely, he went through the exact same path where he executed the deer.

"Yeah. Come on you two little wusses, we don't have all day. Oh, oops, I mean night. Grab some nearby sticks and lit up a torch, every single one of you."

Before going along with Sagasuga, we all collectively lit up nearby sticks with a chalice of scarlet ardor fire.

It's not my style to prematurely assume things earlier, but I'm trying to not let my mind buy the idea that the culprit is imperially the other four and not us. Of course, the main arsonist can't be one of us six. I was thinking that the actual arsonist is connected to one of us.

Under the daring moonlight, we walked, getting blessed by random rays of light from the ethereal moon above; dethroning the platonic power of heat.

On the front, while the rest stayed on our backs, Sagasuga initiated the talk rather meekly, as if he didn't want anyone else to listen to it.

"...What do you think?"

"Three options already come to mind; the most obvious ones. First: the fire was intentionally done by the other four. By intentional, I mean how they are keeping their tabs on our activity, somehow. Second: It's a coincidence and one of them felt that it was the correct decision to burn our house down, which, raises a lot of fucking questions. Why would someone burn our house like that? And third: Even if highly unlikely, one of us six did it. Time and place, through a few methods can turn out to be irrelevant. Or maybe someone here has a connection with the main arsonist. A tag-team. Or more. You tell me."

Something else to note is that I'm opting to talk about this in "secret" with Sagasuga because this information is extraordinarily sensitive to the likes of Tsudo and the rest. Dealing with a tantrum is not only unnecessary but uncalled for in addition.

Isolating ourselves from the incessant galling fire has caused a certain reaction that will slowly become obvious to us and why it was of utter importance to be under a fire to sleep.

It's starting to get cold. Abundant contrast in temperatures is already starting to show. Just like a desert at night; the chilling air kept on threatening the atmosphere's temporal efficiency.

"What? Not gonna say anything? Are you seriously pretending that hard? Come on, come out of the closet and just say who you are connected with. Let's get this over with, Sagasuga!"

Someone with a normal attitude would feel the need to justify himself right now, but Sagasuga kept his bend index finger in the shape of the letter "Y" allocated to his thumb; demonstrating deep thought.

Thereafter, he spoke calmly.

"I was thinking about something you said. Why burn our house? Wouldn't it make more sense to steal it?"

"Steal it?"

"Sure--- it's not as simple as actually stealing. I am implying that if the person could have spread fire and the person knew about us, why not spread the forest on fire so we could get caught on it and then have the whole house for yourself?"

"Sagasuga, you psychopath, that's murdering someone. We both know that only brings consequences."

Unless heavily orchestrated thoughtfully, but it's dumb to get rid of the six of us like that. Way to bring attention to yourself.

He's furthermore trying to suggest that making an enemy out of the six of us is an option. I'm starting to feel offended.

"No, but what way is there to confirm that it was really you?"

"......"

That wasn't a silent reply for no reason. I wanted to see if Sagasuga had this superstition already or if he arrived at the superstition through this event alone only.

Superstition being...

"Someone's watching us from the inside. I don't detect any technology around this island. Have you detected any sort of cameras in trees?"

Do I lie here and make him paranoid? No, I'll tell the truth. Even if he just so happens to possibly be making all of this up. If he isn't, it's important to extract information, since we arrived from different spots and explored different places first.

"No. Maybe there isn't really anyone watching us from the inside. We just have to pass the exam by doing its tasks. Isn't that partial?"

"You don't have to play dumb with me. I can tell that you are aware."

"Do you have any idea the number of times I could've used that line against you back then, hypocrite?"

Far too many times to count.

"Ah, fair. So you know, then. I think this person gains something that we aren't seeing yet. This event has confirmed one thing."

"Such as?"

Alternatively, we were already close to the lake, but we were taking it somewhat slow, so in two or three minutes, we would arrive at the place we had dropped the deer. It was not in the lake, but it remained in its direction.

Nonetheless, I was curious as to what conclusion Sagasuga had arrived at.

"If the house that we built isn't worth the effort of saving it and if the forest itself isn't an option to lit up, then the arsonist gains something by burning down the house and furthermore... He loses something should he have killed us by erupting the forest in a sea of flames. Without a doubt, he is one of us. Therefore, the possibility of there being an outside source is low, yes?"

"True. Unless there is someone else outside of our classroom who is VERY familiar with our ways. A girl wouldn't be too strange, right?"

"That's even lower, Kawahara. Ah, man..."

Sagasuga lightly scratched the back of his head before abruptly smiling with his eyes closed to the pallid icy moon towering us. He also added just a single controversial line almost silently; borderline giggling.

"Hah, I'm so glad we built the house now..."

"What?"

"Uh, nevermind."

Nervously, he sealed his own lips, even though I heard his line loud and clear, which got me in an aggressive mood right away; to the point of conceding to the idea of persuation.

"No, you said you were glad that we built the house..."

"...Did I say that? I must've stuttered."

"Sagasuga, you can't stutter something like that."

"No, Kawahara, I meant to say that I regret building the house now."

"Even though you clearly said that you were glad?"

I was trying to not raise my voice, but Sagasuga kept checking back and forth, wondering if someone else had heard that. Giving up, he admitted something that almost made me want to slap the man's soul out of existence.

"Look... It served its purpose, right?"

"You made us build a fucking house just to test your own sick theory?!"

"Shh! Keep it down, what if the others know?!"

"I am getting sunburns on my body for probably weeks to come, you fucker..."

Perhaps my slightly louder voice tone raised the attention of those behind me.

"What's going on? Why are you two arguing?"

"Master likes to argue a lot, Tatsu."

Noticing the progression of the situation, Sagasuga intervened without any sort of hesitation just by mildly turning back to the rest of them.

"We were discussing the parts of the deer that we are going to carry and I proposed that Kawahara should grab the deer's rear. But Kawahara doesn't really like rears in general, it seems."

Did this fool really think it was wise of him to make a joke like this, especially when I massively appreciate the idea of glancing at a female's ass with a potency beyond normal?

"He's lying, we were actually discu--"

But I got interrupted by Tsudo.

"As it turns out, the gay agenda was yours all along."

"Don't say that with a serious mocking face, bitch. I will bend your spine and then I will carry you by your rear since you are convinced that I can't carry someone's ass."

"So immature! It was just a joke, broo!"

"Your face's a joke."

Admittedly, I glanced Sagasuga and kept on walking in front after delivering those words to Tsudo, who fumed instantly.

We both walked at a faster pace just to distance ourselves from the rest a little bit, which caused Sagasuga to speak more freely.

"Don't tell them, please. I think we can both agree that it had a very valuable reward."

"I already knew it though. It's not valuable to me."

"Well, in my defense, you didn't tell me anything about it."

"I had no reason to, Sagasuga. But it's an intelligent idea. That'll agree with. The nape is mine."

Yon nibble without any shred of strength to uphold any sort of resistance due to its fatal state. Rayazaki, Kuzan, Tatsu, and Tsudo took the exact same parts and started to carry the deer once more.

"Thank you. I'll take the other half then. Any destination in mind?"

"We move to the north direction. Finding out new places and encountering the rest is our top priority. Plus, if we encounter the others faster, the likelihood of unfortunate events like this happening again would decrease."

"Agreed. Let's go. One, two, and three!"

Through strength and precision, the deer was lifted for the second time in this virgin night.

Noticeably, I didn't wait this long to make a decision like this. I could've just said in the beginning that we could have gone to the oasis or even the jungle, but it sounded like a gigantic waste of effort since it was already common knowledge already for me. Surely, it might have not been the case for them, but I don't give a shit about that.

Something else to be aware of is that Tsudo, Rayazaki, Tatsu, and Kuzan have gone silent way more often due to the fact that our house got burnt down. They were beaming with a silent type of rage that was welling up.

Sagasuga was putting up an angry front, even though I'm fairly sure that he wasn't even remotely attached to the house he built in the first place. Due to the reason of the house being an experiment for him.

As for me... I'm both angry and okay with the situation. Sure, it took effort and a couple of hours, and I even allowed myself to completely believe that we were going to sleep under a nice ceiling like that. That's something to be mad about. On the other hand, I do share the sentiment of value that Sagasuga spoke of. Someone went out of his way to expose himself.

Akihiko? No sense there. He's aligned with me.

Regarding the bastard himself, he could have a couple of reasons, but this seems too open to be his own play. He'll eventually have to show up, but not this early. This is the early stage of hiding and seek.

Kan? Is he potentially so temporal about the possibility of having his word stolen that he would burn down the house as an act of vengeance? If he knew that the word was stolen, sure. Then, that would mean that the other three told him about it, which would mean that they are partially responsible. But, realistically speaking, that should not be the case. In the first place, you would really only be aware of the word if you had it and chances are, Kan's literally clueless about it so far.

Daniel's not worthy of my time and thought. He's not a threat. Just like the bastard, he'll eventually come out of hiding and the pieces will all fall together, thus making my plan live.

I just have to tread carefully...

20 minutes later.

The forest itself is beyond colossal. It was also oddly tasking for us to grab the deer's respective part with just one hand while having the other hold the torch. I could've proposed that we would have the weakest element in our group to not help carry the deer at all and instead be on the front holding on to the light. But I've become prone to examine their behaviors far more. I'm getting far more cautious as time goes by because this arsonist is supposedly aware of our actions. By being aware of our actions, you are either one of us, or you are obtaining information from one of us. It's absurd to consider someone else tailing us because I and Sagasuga keep on looking everywhere unconsciously just to make sure we aren't being tailed.

"Let's stop here."

Currently, we were in the middle of nowhere in this deep forest with trees tall enough to challenge the heavens above. I've thought about being stalked just simply because our torches emit a strong powerful light easy to trace. And even though this is the middle of nowhere, it's far more detailed than just simply the middle of nowhere. For instance, the trees here are more collected and attached than a few minutes ago whereas the trees were largely detached from one another causing an external physical gap. Sleeping far from one another could imply several things. I'm likely not going to sleep tonight, so I might as well make my best effort to stay vigilant.

"My God, finally. Heavy mother fucking deer."

"The deer did nothing wrong to get called like that."

"Oh hush it."

A random interaction between Rayazaki and Sagasuga came fourth as the deer was ultimately slammed into the leafy night ground.

There was yet another reason as to why I chose this place. Close to the trees' feet, there lied sticks that could be used for a bonfire. We weren't going to eat the deer raw, so there was no other choice but to be as manual as possible. I don't see any of these pricks having knowledge about this in the first place.

Cold but not windy. That is something to be thankful for. With that in mind, I started to give instructions.

"If you want to have a piece of this deer, hear me out here."

I summoned their attention effortlessly and spoke efficiently.

"The wind is barely non-existent, as the temperature is the only real issue, but even then, it's fine. Tatsu, you will dig a hole. It will serve as the fire's base."

"How though?"

The fuck?

"Man, fucking dig a hole with your own hands. Don't be a pussy about it. If you want to maintain your girly dignity, then grab the sticks and dig the hole. Just kidding, you can't. They will serve as wood for the fire. Dig it."

"But I can barely see anything though."

"The moonlight is enough, is it not?"

Just to make sure he could have ALL the possible assistance here, I pointed at the sharpest spot that had the most luminous moonlight, which was to the right. A spot where multiple light rays penetrated the haunting dome of leaves.

"I see. Can I have the assistance of someone else though?"

"The fuck? It's a hole, do it yourself. Everyone else is gonna be busy with tasks too. Don't be a burden."

I see what he's doing.

"Alright..."

I chuckled upon seeing him lightly obey my order like that. This reaction of mine taunted him consequently.

"What's so funny?"

But I simply ignored him and addressed the order to a new person instead. Transiently, Tatsu resumed his task and started to dig the hole with his hands. He would look in my direction from time to time while doing so, but I didn't look in his direction; I simply absorbed his eyesight without physically matching his so he couldn't tell that he was being under vigilance already.

High chances, really.

"Kuzan! Gather as many wood sticks as you possibly can!"

"Yeeesss sirrr!!"

Enthusiastically hopping around back and forth, like a child, Kuzan went to gather as many wood sticks as he possibly could, which was not a hard task given that the place here was chosen with the wood sticks around in mind.

"Tsudo, rocks."

"Yeah, got it. Wait... I don't see any!"

"Find them!"

"You purposely gave me the hardest task, you bastard!"

Tsudo's pointing at me like that's true, but that's actually not true. His task is hard, sure. I'll agree with that. But it's not the hardest. You don't give the hardest task to someone incompetent if your aim is to be successful. And I want this feast to be successful.

Moving on...

"Rayazaki, collected tinder bundles and leaves."

"Don't just ignore me. Man, what the hell..."

Despite being mad, Tsudo got his ass to work while Rayazaki simply gave me the thumbs-up signal. He's been rather silent lately. Is he suspecting someone from within this group? I did tell him to not trust a single thing that they say, so I am glad that he kept that in mind.

Lastly, was Sagasuga.

"Let me guess, you know?"

"I'm in charge of creating the friction?"

As expected.

I placed my carefree hands on my two hips and looked at the rest with Sagasuga on my right side, as a method of vigilance. But I didn't exactly reply to his question since he already knew.

Instead, I went with another topic of my own.

"Who do you think did it and why?"

"There's no point in telling who I think it is. But I think that it's someone that has an advantage that most don't have. So, I was thinking along the lines that our location was leaked?"

"Are you referring to the chip, Sagasuga?"

This was yet another hypothesis, but I didn't exactly want to believe it. We all have chips, in theory, which were given back on the rooftop. Chips meant to locate us. Only staff members should have it and I don't see them intervening. Sagasuga here is suggesting that someone else has such access. That would be an extremely overpowered factor that is hard to fight against.

Though... Should it be acquired... No more hiding and seek, essentially.

"Naturally, yeah. But... why would one of us have such an advantage? Assuming it's only one, that is."

"Well, that's only under the assumption that there is someone who is receiving such information in the first place."

"Are you afraid of over-thinking, Kawahara?"

Not quite, but...

"No. I will just regret it if it turns out to be a gigantic waste of time."

"Yet, isn't this exam basically telling us to think outside the box? We can't expect something normal..."

They are almost done. Tsudo has found three rocks, surprisingly. Rayazaki is overflowing with scattered leaves all over his arms. Kuzan is drastically overachieving the task by taking ahold of so many sticks. Tatsu is now finished.

On the other hand, what is the point that Sagasuga is trying to make? I looked at his cautious expression once again adjoining his index finger "Y" shaped to his thumb.

"Where are you going with this?"

Stopping his constant nonstop fixated look on the leaves below, Sagasuga marked his stare onto mine, matching my glare's prowess swiftly.

His eyes visible throughout the rays that illuminate our skin tearing down from above.

"Call me insane, but we have to get done with this exam quickly. If there is someone who is deliberately trying to delay our progress or mess with our sleeping patterns or food resources, then... Isn't that related to the date of the exam when it ends? April 30th is our deadline, but if someone gets screwing us daily like this, we would have no way of knowing if it wasn't truly intentional or not. I don't want to go through that sort of scenario. I feel like there's more to this exam than it suggests. Haven't our exams always been under massive manipulative schemes and orchestrated in ways to screw us up? Practically speaking, three weeks is a lot, so..."

I finished his sentence.

"So it means that we should hurry up and get shit done with as soon as possible. Correct?"

"Yes, exactly. At first, I was getting well-versed with the idea of taking it nice and slow, because we are on a deserted island, with limited resources. However, with someone out there who is willing to sabotage us, we need a counter-strategy."

Now we are talking.

"Save it for later, Sagasuga. After dinner begins."

Briefly after, the necessary steps to light up a small fire were done in a couple of minutes. Without any place to really sleep and without telling one another the fact that we didn't have any solid ground to sleep on, we were already accepting the fact that we were going to have to sleep on the forest's ground.

Mercilessly, we tore the deer's limbs apart with Sagasuga's ax and roasted them in no time. Pure heavenly bliss consumed us the moment we sat down in a full-out circle around the fire.

"Delicious!"

The first of us to rejoice was Tsudo, which was not surprising. Rayazaki started to literally cry without adding any commentaries. He was eating the deer's leg. Likewise with Tatsu, who limited himself to enjoying the other leg. Sagasuga was eating both of the deer's arms; showing not a slight lack of gluttony. He may have a polite stance, but he is apparently the type of guy to go at your fridge when it's 2 am. As for me, I was eating furiously the central parts, as they contained more meat than the rest. Although raw and perhaps less tasty, the protein is what matters, and truly, whenever consuming protein, you have to go through the stage where you simply just don't want to eat anymore yet you must.

Yeah, that should be all about there is. Overall, a great dinner. It almost compensates for the sunburns and the destroyed house I put hours of effort into it. Even this metasphriscal fire mixed with a vast pyramidical appearance is looking alluring in this moonlight's spotlight.

"Uh..."

Oh.

"What's wrong, Kuzan?"

I had forgotten about him for a second.

"Oh, um, why is there no food to me?"

I am so sorry, I apparently forgot to mention that a very sad boy with looming depressing eyes is admittedly madly glaring at us with a determined sheer rage due to the fact that he didn't get anything to eat. Every time he would reach out for a piece, someone else was faster.

Not to worry, I have a plan in store to make sure Kuzan doesn't starve. He is my subordinate, after all. You could actually argue that I'm about to give him royal service.

"What nonsense. What do you mean there is no food for you? Are you blind?"

For some reason, this caught the attention of every single person here. Their eyes widened and looked around. Only Sagasuga had arrived at the conclusion that was obvious, by looking at the deer's organs that are partial to this feast, in a separate area, outside of this circle.

Feeling like he was doing an act of justice, Sagasuga stepped out of his comfort area and extended the leg that he was eating. It was half-eaten. He did this silent, but you could clearly see the pain in his movement. Surrendering that leg must be quite an expensive act.

I'm not often a good person, but I'll make an exception this time.

Kuzan, who was ready to jump on the leg that Sagasuga was extending it for him got stopped by my sudden impulse as I pressed my dirty right hand on his shoulder to hold him down.

"M-Master...? Is there something wrong with me taking Sagasuga's generous action?"

His expression was trembling because he feared a tyrannical reaction out of me.

But seriously though... Kuzan doesn't learn at all.

"I don't mind, Kawahara. Kuzan doesn't deserve that kind of sinister treatment, for the record."

"Hush and listen up. Kuzan, would you prefer a mere half-eaten leg for dinner, or something else far more tasty and tender with a larger proportion?"

In response to my suggestive words, Kuzan's eyes widened and his smile opened a brand new horizon to me.

"Wait, Kuz---"

Sagasuga tried to interrupt me, but I spoke louder than him as a way to fight back. Midst this, I added a stick to the fire just to make the flame flare-up.

"Your expression tells me everything I need to know. What are you waiting for Kuzan? Feast on it."

It's right there. So extensive and massive. It's a deer, for crying out loud. The dimension of it is therefore utterly abysmal. Who, in their sane mind would complain about this? I'm too generous, seriously...

"Um, master, I am so confused right now."

"It's not only you, Kuzan. Even I am."

"Same here, just say it, Kawahara."

Rayazaki and Tsudo expressed their limped thought processes to me and I felt the need to be more direct about it.

So, I pointed at it, by contracting my right shoulder blade, since I was actually looking in the frontal direction. It was behind me but it was visible to everyone if they titled their heads slightly to the left, which they did.

"Okay, Kawahara... That's too much."

"Are you implying that Kuzan isn't worthy of royal treatment, Sagasuga?"

I knew that Sagasuga already knew what I was referring to, but it really isn't as bad as he probably thinks it is.

Nonetheless, in an exasperated mood, Sagasuga replied semi-defiantly.

"No one is worthy of that royal treatment of yours..."

"Master, I still don't see it."

It appears that I need to illustrate further, even though it's right there. Behind me. Not completely behind me, since I'm crooked right now. Yet, two meters away from my position, the rest of the vital organs that weren't taken to the equation tonight, still stand there regardless.

Pausing a part of the chest's bone on the edge of the fire, I got up and grabbed the piece of royal treatment, by scourging it quickly, causing disgust for everyone else.

"Oh my god, put that fucking thing down, Jesus Christ, you can even play rope with it or suicide!"

Tsudo's speaking nonsense per usual. You need a lot of strength to play rope with this and someone who doesn't have the physical prowess like him shouldn't say such lies in the first place even if it's just an example.

"Do you not have a sense of disgust? That's an animal's gut, for crying out loud!"

Screaming at me unreasonably, Tatsu's falsely accused me of taking ahold of the deer's gut.

"This isn't the deer's gut though."

"How are you comfortable holding onto its intestines like that?! Oh, God...! Blergh!"

Oh for crying out loud, Rayazaki just threw up his food. If I had known that he would have thrown up, I wouldn't have pulled out this prank...

"Master...!! I'm scared...! Blergh!"

"Kuzan! Damn it, not you two!"

That's my line, Sagasuga. Why is this happening? Two of my subordinates just threw up and one of them hadn't even eaten anything yet.

Are my jokes that catastrophic. I'm apathetic so to speak right now. I really didn't think that they would have such vast consequences.

"It was a joke! There's no way that I was serious about it!"

"Please bury that shit, my eyes can't take it anymore!!"

"Bury it!"

Tsudo and Tatsu suddenly grew a lot whiner than I thought. It's not fair that only two of my members got to throw up. They were even starting to crawl away.

"Sagasuga, you like balance, right? Hehe. Hehe..."

My grin grew wider as I closed the distance between me, Tsudo, and Tatsu. Sagasuga became alerted in sequence, causing him to stand up and defend his beliefs according to the situation itself.

Slimy and almost barely sleeping my hands, the intestines were losing the resistance they had before, so I...

"Kawahara, don't!"

I threw them towards Tsudo and Tatsu who were barely not glued to one another. As soon as the intestines were unleashed, they spread vastly and I can only imagine the sensation of pure horror as the intensities were scattered all over their faces.

"AHHHHH!!!!" x2.

"Bhahaha!!!"

I laughed so hard at their distorted expressions in horror that I had to punch my abdominals with my right hand while bending my spine below a bit in a spiteful manner.

"Master... That's cruel..."

"I've already said this before and I'm not afraid to repeat myself... You belong here, Kawahara."

They were no longer throwing up, but the same couldn't be said for Tsudo and Tatsu who were throwing up as they hurried the urge of clearing the ugly intestines away from them. In the middle of all this, Sagasuga put the palm of his right hand on his face and laughed maniacally at first in a childish way before regaining his speech form.

"Haha, man you're messed up... Haha... But that's not my balance."

Polite yet serious.

Well, it was time to wrap up the situation. I just wanted to have some fun. So, I got back to my spot, in front of the fire and looked at Sagasuga, who put on an equally serious look. He must've realized that I intended to have the conversation about the counter-strategy.

Ergo, Sagasuga sat down once again and spoke on behalf of his group.

"Given that Kawahara's malicious scheme made you two throw up, you can have the rest of my food."

"Seriously? Thanks, dude..."

"You're a life-saver."

Of course, the hero Sagasuga here gets appreciated while the villain Kawahara just doesn't get appreciated for his wild abnormal sense of humor.

Nevertheless, I had to do a similar action.

"You two, sit down. You're allowed to eat half of my portion."

"Ehhh!?!? Only half?! Sagasuga offered the rest f his food! Masteeerrr!!"

"You don't need that much food, Kawahara, you are fucking ripped, for crying out loud."

They both retook their seats rapidly. Even if their seats were actually the golden equivalent of staying with your bare ass on a sturdy ground full of scattered leaves which were somewhat comfortable, honestly...

"It's because I eat like a tyrant that I am ripped, don't get it twisted. Anyways, eat up."

"....Aye..."

"Even McDonald's leftovers are more generous."

"Oh shut up, that's not true. No way it is."

I refuse to believe what Rayazaki just said.

Partial to our conversation though, Sagasuga clapped his hands three times thus evoking our attention to his side.

It was finally about to start. Already ahead of time, I had thought of a singular imperial thought alone.

If Sagasuga's counter-strategy does not prove to be beneficial or if he spills too much unnecessary for the rest of them that he shouldn't, I will intervene and twist the strategy myself.

In light of his potential counter-strategy, it's essential to acknowledge the fact that he is aware of a few things such as the potential threat of someone knowing our locations through unfair methods that aren't available to us or someone trying to sabotage us based on our paths of progression.

Piercing seriousness alluded to our veils perfectly by making contact with Sagasuga's eyes simultaneously.

Now, what will you propose, Sagasuga?

"I think that we should have a serious conversation regarding what happened today."

To further emphasize his point, he distributed a stern glare on every single one of us before continuing, causing every single one of us to understand how serious he was at the moment.

"The time limit of this exam is all the way up to April 30th, but I believe that time is just an illusion here too, wouldn't you all agree?"

He didn't really explain himself. It's almost as if he's begging someone to call him out on his perhaps purposely self-made up inconsistency.

"What do you mean by "illusion"?"

Tatsu was the one who asked before anyone else could. Does he realize what this even implies? Well, unless...

"Nearly three weeks were given to us in order to complete the exam. You could argue that the time gap is gigantic, but what if it's not?"

"As I thought..."

Rayazaki added that as he looked at the bottom of the older tamer now fire.

"Aren't they just being generous considering that we were placed on a deserted island? 3 weeks to gather a couple of words can be considered little if the rest of the other four just play hide and seek all day long."

"No, that's wrong, Tatsu. We are all supposedly under the same conditions. Passing the exam is to the best of our interests, so it would make more sense for everyone to not play hide and seek forever."

Though I was not expecting it, Tatsu argued back instead of resuming silence like usual.

"That's where you are wrong, Sagasuga. Hyunda is one exam away from being expelled, so he will be forced to play this game, but take Daniel for example. He can just play hide and seek like you thought someone couldn't."

"That's true..."

Sagasuga's stance got meek and started to lose prowess so I took a short momentum to step into the conversation right away and argued against Tatsu's point.

"Odds are that the remaining guys are potentially working together or something like that. And Daniel is not someone who would play hide and seek. I know from his experience. His pride wouldn't allow him to do that. Sagasuga is right; playing hide and seek is counterproductive. Why deliberately fail an exam?"

"I don't know, maybe they got something to benefit from that? Or maybe they can afford to screw us up and not have to care about the consequences?"

"Do you even listen to yourself? You just argued that a guy like the bastard can afford to screw us up meanwhile the truth is that he will need our cooperation soon enough. Why?! Because we have fucking SIX words!"

Seven, but they just have no idea.

"That's kinda my point though. If Daniel is logica-"

"He's not. Stop it, I've known him from the beginning and I know him better than the majority of you. You, Tatsu... Don't judge someone who you haven't even interacted with."

When it comes to Daniel, I am positive that I have interacted with him the most... except not. He and the bastard are quite the birds from the same nest, aren't they? Completely different though.

"Plus, Aniki's really shattered right now. This might be rude, but I don't think he's emotionally stable to the point of conducting the exam properly."

Kuzan came out with his opinion and fantastically aided my point, so I continued.

"Kuzan's right, you know? I mean, for fuck's sake, his girlfriend killed herself. You are expecting someone who is probably going through worlds of pain to be able to pull out a hide and seek strategy and be successful with it. For the record, the hide and seek strategy will fail because they can't run away forever."

"You could just be underestimating him though..."

"Are you delusional or some shit?"

Does Tatsu's brain not minimally function? I even applied an emotional perspective. He seems oddly obsessed with his fucking point, which is becoming annoying.

"Well----Kawahara, Tatsu did bring a point that was actually the one I wanted to bring up from the start."

"Which one?"

He mentioned quite a few points, so I had to make sure.

Eagerly enough, Sagasuga raised his index finger up in the air and aimed at the rest of the island before saying anything back.

"The one about a person who can afford to screw us up. He's somewhere on this island. Let's look at the facts for a second, shall we? We grouped up recently and we are six now. Undoubtedly, we are the largest human force on this island. We also went hunting the deer at the same time. None of us could've burned down the house, correct?"

"I think so, yeah."

"I don't see it another way."

Kuzan and Tsudo agreed with Sagasuga while the rest of us kept their silence to allow Sagasuga to move forward with his point.

"I think our location was taken into consideration. How you may ask? I have no evidence of what I'm about to say but in order to win this exam... We have to think outside the bubble, so bear with me on this."

Taking a deep breath, Sagasuga readied his speech, which was about to be massive. Even his speed while talking brutally increased.

"Firsts and foremost, we were all given chips that most likely serve the purpose of knowing our locations. Kawahara and I ruled out the possibility of a staff member interfering. It wouldn't make any sense. Remember, the essence of this exam is to shape the profile of the orchestrator behind Yulia's suicide. Involving a staff member does not add up. Furthermore, this island has absolutely no technology so far. Our cellphones don't have any connection. We were instead given, however, personal phones from the staff itself were delivered to us. More or less, we can conclude that although there is no technology such as vigilance cameras, there are technological methods of tracking down our locations. Now, this is the part where it will sound ridiculous, but I ask you to really hear me out. Well--- there's no easy way to say this, but I believe one of us ten got an additional feature."

"Hold on... Are you implying that someone else among us got an extra gadget or something like that?"

I see.

No, it really would make sense. We are all under the assumption that we all just got the cellphone with the S.O.S button and the word box.

I tapped my own mouth out of shame for not being able to think about a loophole like this sooner. No, it couldn't be helped. Without a doubt, this sense of discovery was awakened in Sagasuga's mind due to the recent fire.

"Yes, Tatsu, that is why... Let's all empty our bags and confirm for ourselves that there isn't someone with any additional gadget that could FOR whatever reason leak our locations."

"Now, hold on just a second, Sagasuga. If any of us had that, what sense would it make for the person to keep it? Wouldn't the person just hide it?"

"Impossible, Tatsu. I've been keeping a really close look on you people. I never saw such movements from any of you."

"That's exactly my point..."

He's talking like he's the victim because he feels as if his point didn't get understood.

I want him to think that way. It's important that he does so. He's growing defensive, really.

"I share the same opinion as Kawahara. You can check my bag and---"

"Hold on, Sagasuga. I say we both take out the words' boxes first and then they can look into our bags. I am too tired to run away in case someone here decides to be a little thief."

"Reasonable... Any oppositions?"

None of them opposed.

So, I and Sagasuga took out the boxes from our bags, since we were the ones keeping the word boxes and their words.

In reality, I just didn't want to be forced into a scenario where I would have to make something up just to hide Kan's word.

Everybody has an equal desire to obtain the words. A thief emerging in the midst would not be strange at all.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a cellphone which is the same as ours."

We were checking every bag by passing our bags to one another since we are in a circle. Thirty seconds after, we arrived at the conclusion that none of us had any additional gadgets of any sort.

Normally, this would mean that Sagasuga's point had been destroyed, but in his mind, it just gave his point a sharper finer edge to work around.

Fire reflected in his eyes enlightened his speech once more.

"This confirms that none of us have it, which brings my point to the final stage. Kan, Akihiko, Hyunda, or Daniel; one of those four probably has the gadget. I also believe that this was random."

"Random...?"

Puzzled, Rayazaki posed the question and Sagasuga succinctly delivered a thorough reply.

"Think of it as winning the lottery. There are ten participants but only one of the ten can win the lottery. Perhaps the gadget has a condition that it can only be used if the student agrees to strict conditions such as... Stalling until the end of the month? Delay the progress of others? And so on..."

That was highly hypothetical from him. Is there really a need for such conditions in the first place? Having an additional cellphone that leaks the location of others is already sufficient. He's exaggerating at this point, so I'll cut to the chase.

"Conditions or not, I will agree that this case is too much to be a coincidence."

"And so, Kawahara and I have decided that it would be wise to form a counter-strategy."

The time had finally come. How will Sagasuga supposedly solve this?

"In essence, we are a group and we take on a singular task by ourselves since it's important to keep an eye on us. Not losing sight of a classmate in this exam is crucial. But... What if that mentality is exactly what's making us vulnerable to this person in the first place?"

"What do you mean...?"

Confused, Tatsu questioned Sagasuga's reasoning with a perplexed expression.

I'll admit that it's a good thing to point out the flaws of that mentality. Co-dependence makes us too predictable and being predictable is one of the many things I hate to be.

"If our location is truly being leaked and the person behind it sees us move in a group and if by some odd chance, the person checks where exactly we spent many hours in, he will grow curious. For instance, we spent HOURS building that house. Is it really strange to assume that the person behind this wouldn't be curious to check the location? What if when that person checked, he decided to burn the house down?"

True enough, if taken into considerations, our locations today have almost been one-dimensional. And the punk behind this can't assume we are sleeping since we were constantly moving around in the same location. Plus, it was afternoon, not in the night. Though one could argue that sleeping during the noon is possible, the person would be failing to take into consideration that our chips were in constant movement from building around the house and a person sleeping has to stand still at least for a while.

We were not still at all back then.

"Isn't that all too convenient...? That ability itself is really unfair."

"I agree, Tatsu. Henceforth, it must have some sort of drawback. A more strict condition to the user. But, we don't know that. And here is my counter-strategy to this occurrence..."

It was already predictable what he was going to suggest because Sagasuga mentioned the flaws of the mentality of co-dependence, so it wasn't entirely surprising to me.

"We will form pairs to avoid leaking our locations to the one with this feature."

"Seriously? I don't agree with this. Don't we just keep moving forward and find this person anyways? Only four are left. This is too premature, Sagasuga."

I was ready to jump in, in case Sagasuga gave a meek response like earlier to Tatsu, but this time he was relentless.

"What is premature is your way of thinking... For crying out loud, if the same thing were to happen tomorrow because we just wanted to test my theory, we would be spending a day if not more and furthermore, if we take damage like we did today, we all suffer in one way or another. By splitting into three pairs, the orchestrator will be forced to make a choice. If one takes a loss, two take a win. We can always recover, but as a group, it takes far more time to do so than in pairs."

Excellent answer...

To minimize potential damage, splitting up is the correct option here.

Getting rid of the chip isn't an option because Basara-sensei said so and going against the law is not quite the option.

"Isn't it better if we all take the loss though? And I don't agree with you when you said that a group takes more time to recover. Our resources as a group are massive, but limited in pairs."

His point was that some of us could end up starving or under the scenario of something unfortunate, aid might not come as quickly as it would come if you are in a group.

"I disagree, Tatsu... Not taking risks here is counterproductive. If we follow your strategy, we are bound to get targeted. However, to compensate for this, I believe we should all meet once a day."

"Once a day? Where?"

Rayazaki, seemingly curious, couldn't resist entering the conversation once again.

I took Sagasuga's line of speech with haste.

"We will have to alternate places every day, otherwise the clown will notice that we are just meeting everyday in the same place and target us. For example, tomorrow, we will meet where the burnt house is. Tomorrow, we will decide on the new location. We do this every day while this strategy is in play. Also, we should only report each to all of us for around 5 minutes. If we stack up for too long, then we might get ambushed. I would not like to deal with a fire like that on my ass."

"But if we stack up and create an ambush opportunity, we could bait out this guy by creating a predictable pattern."

Tatsu missed the whole point, but Sagasuga made sure to portray my words extensively.

"Tatsu, we don't have to deal with this person. If this person's job is to delay our progress, he will have to make a choice. One of the three pairs or nothing. Kawahara's point is that we can continue to be a group, we will just act split."

"....I see..."

Lastly, the final part was here. Sagasuga was about to administer the pairs. This was important and should I dislike the order, I will argue.

"Here are my pairs. I will stick with Kuzan. Rayazaki will stick with Tatsu. Kawahara, you will be paired up with Tsudo."

This is god awful, Sagasuga.

Even they know. Tsudo's look on his face tells everything I need to know. Sagasuga and Kuzan could probably work, but Rayazaki and Tatsu seem to be a pair that would take too much work in order to form decent cooperation.

"Are you pairing us based on what principle, Sagasuga?"

"Balance, of course. I believe I can balance out Kuzan's abilities through my own intellectual prowess. I feel like if Rayazaki and Tatsu agree on something, they will cooperate greatly. And you could help Tsudo out and we all win."

So his concept of balance ignores the fact that I and Tsudo are dysfunctional with one another? That Rayazaki and Tatsu's egos combined challenge a tsunami? I won't complain about his pair, but this is unacceptable.

"I don't think we should follow that principle here, Sagasuga."

"Why?"

He literally shot that rapid-fire question at me almost at mac speed.

It's not a problem, however. I have a plausible argument for cases like this.

"We two are the leaders. We should be together. We will guard the words. Together, anyone hardly poses a challenge when it comes to stealing the words."

The fire is so low and lonely right now. A flame that is begging for ignition. This conversation, just like the flame, is meeting its wit's end.

"So, you and me? For the sake of guarding the words?"

"Exactly. Should we split the words, then we might fight in-between. No offense, Tsudo, but every time you whine, I want to squeeze your gray mass and make lemonade out of it."

"No offense, Sagasuga, but even I will agree with Kawahara here. I fucking hate the dude, so do me a favor and not pair me with him..."

In the beginning, Sagasuga was adamant about denying my offer, almost. But now, he's taken some serious consideration.

He then laid down his judgment.

"I'll just change my stance of balance. Okay, here are the new pairs. Me and Kawahara. Tsudo and Tatsu. Kuzan and Rayazaki. How about it?"

"That's much better."

"Yeah, I guess it works..."

"Aw, I wanted to be paired up with Sagasuga..."

Tsudo and Tatsu were happy about it, meanwhile, Kuzan mourned about not being paired up with me.

All along, these pairs were the ones that actually made the most sense to me. As such, I will not oppose and I will promote this idea further.

"It should go without saying, but we will travel to different locations, in order to avoid being stuck under the same location. AND, we will not move out at the same time. What does this mean? Sagasuga and I will move out extremely early, while another pair moves out an hour or so early. Don't exactly match the hour. Go either a couple of minutes earlier, like 10 or 15, or add 10 to 5 minutes to an hour, in order to increase lack of predictability."

Tired of standing with my bottom on this rigid ground, I got up and stretched my trapezium immensely while yawning which emitted white breath from the cold.

I wasn't that tired, but I was tired enough to sleep.

"Are you gonna sleep, Kawahara? We should if we really intend to move out extremely early, as you've said."

Sagasuga also got up from the ground and confronted me.

Yes. The plan was to sleep so I could save my strength for tomorrow.

Alas, my eyes traveled all the way from Sagasuga to the two individuals at my left side who were still on the ground, basking on the heatwave mirrored.

"I am. But, before that, a word with you two."

With their eyes on me, I kneeled down with one knee only and placed my right hand on Rayazaki's left shoulder and my left hand on Kuzan's right shoulder.

"....What? You're creeping me out... Are you gonna die or something?"

"Are sunburns lethal, after all?!"

I smacked the two idiots with a mild slap on the back of their heads.

"Ow..." x2.

"Listen here. This strategy won't be forever, but until we can make notable progress without having to rely on conjunction, we won't be united. Of course, we will meet each other during the time the sun starts to dusk. Yes, you three, we will be meeting tomorrow at dusk. The time will be dusk, for now, we will most likely need to alter--- I'm getting out of line with my point. This is about you two. I want you two to work together. Being a pair isn't enough."

"Don't worry, we won't argue."

"Aye! Rayazaki and I are friends, after all."

"Damn right we are."

This is pretty nice, but they need something else in addition.

"Whenever one of you is in danger or needs help, remember to help the other out, as I would if I were there. If you see that your methods are failing, think of yourself as me and proceed. You will surely succeed. If the whole world copied my methods, we would be at the dawn of peace and harmony and----"

"Okay we get it, go to sleep now."

"Rest's important, master."

The narcissism part was just a joke, but I'm glad they got my point.

With a fierce look, I looked at Rayazaki and he reacted the same way, meanwhile, Kuzan was puzzled. I was making him remember to extract any information and that when the time comes for us to report, that he should keep the fine details to me. He's smart enough to get that, I feel like.

Not saying goodnight to anyone, I isolated myself in one of the trees and used my backpack as my pillow.

My isolation was quite far yet I could see the dying fire afar. That continual astral phantom-like flame... Every time I looked at it, I just want to praise it.

How beautiful...

April 12th.

4 am.

"It goes without saying, but do you have any idea where to go next?"

By erupting my jaw up, the clear terrestrial night sky was still nowhere near its end even though it wouldn't be long before a lighter illuminated canvas replaced this cryptic pitch-blacked one instead.

Constellations and a starry sky showing endless possibilities beyond our understanding. With a single hopeless reach to the stars above, the feeling of possessing a star consumes me for transience but that conquer is not reality.

Ending my perpetual observation, I replied back to Sagasuga, who was oddly doing the same as I was just a moment ago. Right now, we are walking through a path that we haven't been in yet. We are still in the vast seemingly endless forest nonetheless.

"If we go where I came from originally, then we could go towards the jungle and even an oasis."

"An oasis? Seriously?"

"Yes, that's where I found Rayazaki in the first place, how about you?"

He never really explained his origins in this island as no one else did, so I might as well press the issue now that I've delivered equal information.

This time, instead of having his eyesight locked on the black heaven standing supremely featureless aligned with his vision, Sagasuga matched my eyesight evenly and smirked.

"On the beach, of course. I also encountered jungle at first but quickly after, it was this forest only. So, in a sense, I haven't explored this island as much as you probably have."

"What about Tsudo and Tatsu?"

This could turn out to be relevant...

"The origins are the same, I think. On the beach's bay. I encountered Tsudo and Tatsu together firstly though."

"I see. To answer your question, we need to encounter a new habitat fast. This island probably has a variety of habitats that correspond to a very specific ecology. In other words, we keep on walking through the woods until we find something different."

Provided that words are essential for something, it was already implied that the cooperation of ten people will be necessary. Or, put more truthfully, ten words are necessary. However, what then? Do we get a pop-up notification if we gather all the words? Something cheesy like that sounds utterly unbelievable.

As we continuously marched and kept on repeating the same scenario time and time again, Sagasuga asked a question out of interest again.

"Don't you miss the female gender too? At first, I thought I wouldn't just mind, but when I think of living on a deserted island for a month with not a single girl around, it does make me wonder if others feel the same way. Hey, it's a perfectly natural question, right?"

If I miss the female gender? How do I reply to this question without revealing anything unnecessary...

I'll just ask him a question that will determine the answer.

"If there was a single person who you favored the most in your mind, then would it be appropriate to say that you miss the gender the person belongs to even though that wouldn't be exactly fully true?"

A single entity powerful enough to shatter that line of thought.

"Of course not. You miss that person. Not the gender then."

"There you go."

"So you are missing a girl?"

"No. That was just hypothetical."

I made the question up because I took it as something hypothetical.

Significant changes were starting to occur though.

"You took it awfully serious for a hypothetical question though."

"Drop the case already, fucker. Anyways, observe."

"Yeah, I've noticed. It's starting to fade."

Sagasuga was already as aware as I was that although we weren't exactly leaving the habitat that can be labeled as a forest, we were entering a different type of forest altogether. Towering trees remained yet the ground was drastically starting to shape itself into something far softer and I daresay, something easy to slip on.

If there were two things that were relatively similar in an aspect, then it was that the previous forest and this particular current forest that we are about to ponder whether we should enter or not are both silent and spectral. However, this forest is dense and ideally more tropical-like, which greatly contrasts our previous scenery.

Reluctant about the most noticeable trait that this forest had to offer us at first, Sagasuga asked me a question.

"This is a mangrove forest, right? Impeccable transformation."

"Sagasuga, pack your shoes on your backpack. Unless you have an affinity with the word dirt."

"It's unfortunate but mud invites our feet."

At the entrance of this mangrove forest, we were already attacked by mud that contains traces of water that resemble the exact opposite of the sparkly water I encountered on the oasis. Light brown-themed colors embraced our feet in an uncomfortable way as we kept on walking with far more sternity.

Abruptly shaped trees bending the reality that we witnessed not so long ago. A nearly coastal location this must be, considering the water. After all, mangrove forests are usually located near subtidal areas and if a beach is nearby, the odds are there.

Having put his shoes on his bag a while now, Sagasuga spoke to me and proposed something.

"Let's go with the plants. It's faster to jump from plant to plant since they don't break easily."

"Yeah, let's fucking do it, cause why not? Also, finding out the source of this water would be nice. I think it goes a whole long way. If there is a semi-habitable place around here, we need to find it."

Clinging to the plants, we started to formulate jumps while moving forward. Each step and jump required a precise impulsive momentum, otherwise, should I have stayed too long and hesitated to jump to another plant, my balance would've been shattered thus resulting in my downfall. The higher we jump to each plant, the higher our downfall becomes yet Sagasuga was eagerly traveling through each plant with ease.

"Eh, you're good at this, Kawahara!"

His uniform pants were fully sleeved to his knees by this point, to the point where the thickness in his legs didn't allow the sleeves to move back down.

We momentarily stopped by attaching our right hands to a mangrove plant that helped us remain at this altitude.

"You're an ape. You don't even generate impulse whenever you land, you just use the momentum."

"Can't you do that too?"

"Of course I can. But not generating impulse is purely flexing. You are supposed to be modest and use the impulse your landing creates to then unleash a bigger wider jump."

Essentially speaking, I'm calling him out.

Sagasuga replied with a low confident smirk.

"You on for a little challenge? The first to land on anything but mangrove plants wins. And the muddy ground on our left doesn't count."

"In other words, should we encounter a place that is habitable and that aren't mangrove plants, I win?"

"Yup. We follow the same path."

Eventually, this path must end. However, what Sagasuga is actually proposing is something oddly challenging to someone like me. An average person wouldn't think twice about refusing this because this is the equivalent of requiring tremendous arm strength and leg precision which is needed to balance out your movements alongside the impulse in them.

"What if I spot something habitable, am I free to change course?"

"Only if. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Worst case scenario, this mangrove forest can be ridiculously extensive which will add up to my fatigue later on. Outside of that, I am confident in my impulse techniques. Just like running, matching velocity with leg strength is something tasking, but I can't help get excited when there's a guy that literally is taking this easy without requiring impulse. To be able to solely go that fast without impulse and on momentum alone is something noteworthy.

"Wait. Retract back to my position. Otherwise, you have an unfair start."

"I see. Fai-"

Transiently, Sagasuga jumped to my own reign, which gave me the impulse to jump right to where he was just a second ago. With that, I had an advantage already. As I cross sights with the mid-airborne Sagasuga, he must've realized that in a mangrove forest you can't do anything while mid-airborne because there is nothing to gain impulse or generate momentum from except the plant that you will be resorting to once you land.

Only then a second after did Sagasuga reached the supposed starting point while I was already advancing two steps ahead.

"Honorable matches aren't lost relics, you know!?"

How rare. Though I could hear his whine, he usually has a polite stance and does everything possible to mask his childish behavior yet that was the loudest I've heard from him so far.

Through each mangrove plant on my way, I made absolutely sure to stretch out my arms as possible. In scenarios like this, should I just come to the mangrove plant, I will fall behind, and here is why: my arms have to continuously reach out to the mangrove plant. That's the benefit of impulse. If unleashing a physical impulse with your legs allows you to take a leap and you do nothing with that leap, then you have entered a state of momentum.

But...

That's wrong!!

Without ongoing impulse, the reliance on momentum becomes intoxicatingly addictive as the impulse was seemingly only ever created for the sake of a powerful unbreakable impulse.

7 minutes later.

Close. Too close, actually.

"If I'm the ape, then what are you? Godzilla? How don't your legs go numb from all that stress you put them under? You did this challenge only relying on impulse... Dude, you are seriously screwed, you know? I'm surprised you can even walk."

"Oh shut up, you were almost on top of me with those extraterrestrial acrobatics..."

When 2 minutes were left before I had arrived on actual land, he started to fling around the mangrove plants through various angles which gave him the opening to close the distance between me and him. That was super smart because since he was behind and he never got a second chance to revert that position, by flinging over and over differently every time, someone who was conducting his own impulsive and position, in the same way, would soon be in trouble.

In the end, I won though.

Strike first; win first.

"Oh, look. A lake."

"...The water is actually pure and clean, how surprising. I thought it was going to be-------

My attention was quickly divided by a single element in the terrain that we were almost entering. At first, Sagasuga was paying close attention to the lake factor due to its appealing associated elements such as brightness, clarity, deep blue, and a vast refreshing sense of overall water due to our current fatigue.

But none of those things were strong enough to take my eyes away from the small bonfire surrounded by a rocky circle of rocks, almost underneath the mangrove itself.

In addition to that, the bonfire was not extinguished; but live.

"A bonfire..."

Upon Sagasuga taking notice, I addressed the situation immediately.

"Someone was here recently... The bonfire is still alive."

Not just recently, even.

To be more precise, approximately a few minutes ago, someone was here.