I walked through the forest while feeling the rain on my shoulder.

My face didn't show any emotion. I walked without any hesitation. It looked like I knew what every single step led me to. Yeah, how badass was I? Running into the dark forest while it was raining. Show no fear. Was my name Allan Quarterman or something?

But the truth was---

"Where the hell am I?" I moaned.

I was trapped in this forest for an hour. And I didn't know how to get out.

Seriously, kid. No matter how cool it looks. Don't jump into the forest on a rainy night without a map, a compass (that used to tell the direction, not to draw a circle), or a flashlight. Unless you were the cold-blood monster with the T-Rex who was trained from the secret organization for dominating and ruling Japan.

Of course, I had nothing like that monster. (cough--Except T-Rex part--cough. It was my little---no--big--really big pride.) But I have no choice but to do this because Horikita ran into the forest to chase Ibuki. I worried about her so I followed her.

But when things turned on like this, I started worrying about myself more.

"Oi, Horikita. Where are you?" I yelled but no one replied.

This was bad. About ten minutes ago, I heard the explosion's sound and the dragon falling from the sky. After making sure that I didn't take LSD by chance, I decided to go straight in that direction. I was afraid that something would happen to her.

I prayed that my concern wasn't true.

I looked around, it was very hard since this forest was too dark. But then---

"A--"

I felt dizzy, maybe because of turning my head too fast. I lost my balance and fell on the floor.

Then, I felt something soft under my body.

"Ayano---Kouji---Kun." That thing whispered like it didn't have any power left. "Get out of me----"

"Horikita!" I called her name with happiness. But because I moved carelessly, my knee pressed on her belly and made her moan with pain. "Sorry, Horikita."

I moved out of her and held her to sit. Horikita opened her eye slowly. "It's really you. No one will fall on the girl every two minutes except you."

"Ah, say what you want if I don't fall on you, I will never find you."

This was the first time that the H.A.R.E.M. protagonist's skill could do something more than satisfy my demand.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"I fight with Ibuki-San and lost..." Her eyes opened wide. "Wait. She stole my keycard! Where is my key card?"

While Horikita looked around panicky. I saw something laying on the floor beside her.

I picked it up, it was a keycard.

"Here." I handed it to her.

"Why it is here?" She mumbled with confusion. "Ibuki-San waited for six days for stealing it. Why she leave it here---"

Before she could finish her line, her face showed out her pain. The girl fell to the floor but I could take her.

"Are you okay?"

"My head----it's pain---" Her voice was trembling. And then, I discovered something that might be more impossible than the unicorn's existence.

Horikita's tear.

"Don't say anything. I will take you back to the camp."

I said to her before holding her in my arm and walking. Horikita tried to defy me but since she almost died, I felt nothing. Finally, she gave up.

"I apologize. Ayanokouji-Kun." Without any context, she whispered out.

"Apologize for what?"

"For letting Ibuki-San steal my keycard. If I have some friend that helps me hold it---"

"It's because of your illness---"

"It's still my fault though. If I wasn't that arrogant."

If Horikita accepted that she was sick and couldn't be the leader since the first day, the keycard would still be safe. This was what she wanted to say.

If Horikita accepted that her body wasn't good enough, she wouldn't force herself too much. And her body would be fine now.

If Horikita had any friends, she would ask him or her to help her keep the keycard. And our leader wouldn't be exposed.

"I can't insult anyone anymore. Compare to Karuizawa-San--that girl is more careful than me. Her idea to separate the boys and the girls are great. Although it stands on the misunderstanding."

She started blaming and looking down on herself.

Horikita's body was shaking because of the cold. I found the tree hollow, so I took her inside it. I decided to wait until the rain was stopped.

"You should go first. " She said. "If you missed the report, you would cause decreasing our class points. Just leave me alone."

"If you weren't there, isn't it the same? The rain would stop in a while, so don't worry. I will take you to the camp. " I promised but Horikita shook her head.

"This failure is because of me. I have to take responsibility on my own. " She said. "If I want to be class A with my power, I have to fix my mistake by myself."

I sighed. This girl didn't learn.

"You should leave the test and take a rest on the boat. I'm afraid that you will reach the end of your life before you reach class A if you continued torturing yourself."

"I can't, Ayanokouji-Kun. I have cause losing 50 points. If I leave this test, we will lose another 30 points."

Horikita tried to walk out of the hollow but she fell down.

She gritted her teeth and tried again. But I wouldn't let her do it, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her down.

When Horikita tried to walk away. I decided to hug her from behind. Pinned her with my arms.

"Release me, Ayanokouji-Kun. " She commanded.

"No. " I refused. "You're not in the position that you can tell me what to do."

"Saying like the hentai protagonist didn't change anything. I will go back to the camp no matter what. I prepared to be hated by the classmates but I won't cause anything but a victory!"

I hugged her tighter and whispered at her eyes.

"Please. At least, be with me until it's not raining."

Okay, I felt like we were in those erotic-romantic novels. It was enough, so I released her.

Horikita gave up with my word and decided to sit down.

We weren't talk anything to each other for a while.

Finally, she spoke up.

"Karuizawa-San--No, everyone will laugh at me."

"Not me. I can't laugh, remember?" I turned my face to her. Her pretty face was covered by the raindrop, it seemed sad, tired, and suffered. It reminded me of the first day we met. That Yamato Nadeshiko's face made me feel unlucky for not taking the same bus with her.

"Do you know why I know that you're sick?" I asked.

"Didn't you say the plot convenience?"

"I just kid. Do you think we are in the suck fanfiction? I knew it because of this."

I took something out of my tracksuit. Horikita's eyes opened wide when saw it.

Although it didn't fresh, it was dry and cold. But Horikita who devoted her life for it could remember it immediately.

"Moonshine's Waffles!"

It was a bag of waffles.

I opened the bag and took the waffles out.

"Back then, I was afraid that you will eat all of your waffles out before this trip ended. So I bought it too. Normally, you'll attack me as soon as you smell the waffles. But you didn't, so I knew you got a cold, your nose couldn't smell."

Horikita looked at the waffle, rubbing her saliva.

"W--Why don't you give it to me recently? Do you know how much I suffer without the waffle?"

I gave it to her, she grabbed it and started eating it as she didn't eat for a whole week.

"Because I know you'll eat all of this in one time, so I decided to wait until it's really needed."

Horikita turned her face to me. After eating waffles, it looked much better.

Her tress was hiding her eyes so I grabbed it and put it behind her ears. So I could look at her beautiful face clearly. Her cheek became pink.

"This is why you need a friend, Horikita. " I said. "Something, you can't do it by yourself, you need a little help from your friends. Someone who will hold the waffles for you when you can't control yourself."

Horikita blinked. "I--I need no friend---"

"You don't need to refer to them as friends. Call them whatever your want. Friend, comrade, brother in arm, allies, tool, pawn, weapon, or a genius pervert sexually harasser who falls on the girl every 2 minutes and hides his ability."

Horikita smiled a bit when I said that name. Um, this was the first time I saw her smile for anything but the waffles.

"The point is," I continue my words. "You can't win this world by yourself. There is something that you can't do, you need help from other people. No matter what you consider them, you still need to use them for your goal. You can say you need no friend as you want. But you can't say you need no one to help you. If you said so, you just announced your loss."

This was the fact of this world. You could be the tyrant who sacrificed everyone or the Shonen protagonist who got the power from a friendship at the last second, but you always need someone to fill your hole of ability.

Horikita looked at my face, then the waffles, then her hands.

"But---" Her mouth opened "No one wanted to participate with me."

"Don't say that. Sudo dotes you, and I promise you that I will help you reach class A. At least, we have two people. " I said. "And after what you did for our class, I can't imagine you will have only 2 allies until graduation."

Horkita bit another waffle and said something.

"Pardon?" Because she had the waffles in her mouth, I couldn't understand her.

"I said I did the big mistake. Do you think they will forgive me?"

"I don't know. " I told her the truth. "But I know you will get the chance to fix that mistake, if you can't fix it by yourself, find someone. Still can't, find another one and another one."

The rain was stopped. Horikita blinked again and looked at my eyes.

"Are you my friend?" She asked.

"Are you considering me as a friend?"

Horikita nodded slowly. "I think so."

"So I'm your friend."

"It's that so." Horikita shook her head and asked me again. "Are you considering me as a friend too?"

This was a hard question. But I decided to answer.

"Yes."

I was lying.

Again.

I never considered you as my friend, nor my classmate

Every human was nothing but the tools----

---to increase my Poonya.

To make me lucky. I did good, not because I wanted to help humanity or something.

I wanted only luck.

The luck that would make me become the ruler of Japan.

I did everything for that purpose.

Don't help someone because you want to help. Help someone because you want to get Poonya in return. Of course, helping without wanting something will increase your Poonya very much. But if you do that, you will become a kind person.

In this world, a kind person has the same meaning as a weak person.

That man's word reverberated in my head.

It concluded what was my duty.

Or I was supposed to think so.

But if I thought like that, I would never be free from the white room, from that man.

I still remember the last sentences that Kaxxxa said to me last time we met.

"Do you want freedom, Kiyotaka?" He asked me.

"Of course. I want."

"Me too, I want to stay outside of this place. Be the usual teenager. And do anything I want. My dream is stealing girl's panties."

"But it will decrease your Poonya!"

"Who cares? I want to be free. If I do a Poonya, I will do it because I want to do it. Not because This place told me to do." He laughed. "Listen, Kiyotaka. All men want to be free, but everywhere, they imprison themselves."

"Russo?" The thinker, not the sibling who directed the movie.

"Kaxxxa. I adapt from him. The point is no matter whether you are inside or outside of the white room. If you let this place control your thinking. You will never be free."

I believed him.

And I tried to be like that. I tried to be free.

But it was hard. Every time I did something, I calculated how much Poonya I get from that action. After I felt unlucky, I would do good to increase my luck.

All humans are tools for me.

And I was a tool for that man.

Therefore, Horikita, I couldn't be your friend. Someone like me shouldn't be anyone's friend.

I was just someone who would help you, You were just someone who would help me.

But one day, after I was truly free.

Maybe, that day, I wouldn't get any sin after telling you that you were my friend.

Of course, I didn't say anything to her.

I shouldn't and couldn't destroy her rare smile now.

"So the rain is stopped. " Horikita spoke out. I nodded slowly. "What if we head back to the camp now."

"You won't give up this test, will you?"

"Sure. These waffles gave me power. I'm fine now. And like you said, I will fix this mistake---of course, I need a genius pervert sexually harasser who falls on the girl every 2 minutes and hides his ability to be my tool this time." She said, her way to deliver the last words sounded more friendly than usual.

"Yes, ma'am."

I stood up and waited until Horikita stood up too. But after a little trying, she couldn't stand up.

"Need some help?" I asked her and extended my hand to her.

"I don't---" She stopped. "Thank you. Ayanokouji-Kun."

I grabbed her hand and helped her to stand up, I swore that I heard a little giggle from her.

"What's fun---"

Horikita saw him flinching without any sign, she might be confused so she said.

"Ayanokouji-Kun, what's wrong?"

Then, she realized that I was looking at her face. Her cheek started blushing.

"W-What're you looking at?"

Do you really want to know what I am looking at?

Well, it was---

A spider was on Horikita's face!!

This wasn't surprised that much, since we were in the tree hollow. This kind of insect always lived in it.

I forgot it though.

My eyes became empty. My brain became empty too.

Before I noticed it, my hand was moved by my instinct and hit that gross creature with the strongest slap that I ever did. The fear made it even stronger.

There was a cloud of smoke around my red hand.

The spider was gone.

"Sorry Horikita. I saw some---"

No answer from her.

I looked down and saw Horikita lying on the floor.

Her cheek became red, not because of shyness, but the big red mark. The blood came out of her mouth, she was completely unconscious.

At first, I thought that mark looked like a hand. Maybe it was me who hit her!

"Impossible. I hit the spider, not Horikita." I shook my head. "Oh, Spider!"

It must be that spider. I heard that on the pacific island, there was a dangerous poisonous spider.

That spider must be poisonous for sure and it bit Horikita, made her swoon and wound!

That spider hurt Horikita! I couldn't forgive it!

I held her body and ran through the forest. She needed aid first. I didn't care about the class points now. Luckily, I killed that spider before it gonna hurt this girl more.

Maybe the author was so tired because I reached the beach in 2 minutes. Although in the beginning of the chapter, I had been gotten lost in the forest for an hour.

I ran into the cruise and saw the teacher smoking at the boat bridge. She throw the cigarette into the sea as soon as she saw us.

"What happened, kid?"

"My classmate was bitten by the poisonous spider. Please help her."

The teacher opened her eyes wide and came to look closely at Horikita.

She considered the wound for a while.

"Are you sure she was bitten by the spider?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because the wound looked like she was slapped by someone."

"Maybe, it is that spider's unique wound."

The teacher processed for a while before nodding.

"Got it, I will take her to the nursing room."

She took Horikita from me and held her onto the cruise. Before she was gone, something fell down from Horikita's pocket.

It was her keycard.

I picked it up from the floor and looked at Horikita.

I knew it!

Horikita knew she couldn't be the leader with her injury.

So she told me to continue her job!

The poison might injure her tongue, so she couldn't talk and decided to give me a clue by dropping the card.

I understood now, Horikita.

I walked back to the beach and headed back to the camp.

I made the decision.

I was going to inherit her position.

I would take that responsibility---for her, Horikita.

You had nothing to worry about.

I would make your soul rest in peace without any concern.

(Horikita: I didn't die yet!)

On the 6th night of the test, we lost 35 points. 30 points from Horikita's retirement, 5 points because I didn't report myself.

Author's note: Ah, the serious(?) and drama (??) chapter. That spider is bad, right?

Also, I found something interesting in the light novel chapter 3.

It said Ayanokouji laughed after he knew Horikita realized that friends are needs. This was the prove that Ayanokouji could show the emotion. (Not much as Manga, but not as emotionless as Anime.)

But when I wrote this fanfiction, I decided to use his external personality as anime. Because it's more hilarious. (Of course, his inner personality can be described by the simp religious man.)