Burning Bright

Consequences

Segawa's thoughtful silence didn't last long. Things returned to normal after a few days, and she was bugging Yarai and Torako so much that it was starting to get on their nerves. But they had started to build more permanent shelters. The idea of a room with solid walls and a solid door that he could lock Segawa out of appealed greatly to Yarai. Two members of the 'pyramid' group who had been an architect and a construction contractor were supervising everyone, helping them pick the right materials to design a stable, functional structure that could last. They managed to find a way to fell trees with the limited tools at their disposal, and they were making log cabins.

"Hey, Sengoku!" Miyauchi said, walking up to him with Tokiwa. "We've been thinking, ever since the incident with Fukui... We should have some sort of law enforcement agency, don't you think?"

"Sounds good to me!" Rion said.

"... Yeah, you're right..." Akira said. "What did you have in mind?"

"Tokiwa and I want to start a vigilante corps..." Miyauchi said, grinning.

"Vigilante?" Akira asked.

"Well, we're not cops," Miyauchi said

"That's true..." Akira agreed. "All right. We'll try it. Recruit people you think you can trust, and we'll decide the rules later, during break."

"H-Hey... Wait a minute..." Suzuki said, looking at the plans for the new shelters. "These... things... there are only six of them, and they're huge! What's the meaning of this!?" he asked the architect.

"Well, there's only so much we can do with our resources... and we can't use all of the trees in this area, because we need to make sure we have enough for the boats. And there's limited space inside of these walls. So rather than a lot of separate houses for smaller groups, we'll have everyone live closer together in a few large houses, which can hold up to fourteen or fifteen beds," the architect explained. "I've done the math. We'll actually use fewer trees this way."

"W-Wait a minute... fifteen people to one room...? Does that mean we'll have to share with the men!? Please tell me there's a changing room included!" Takahashi said anxiously, while Suzuki and another boy high-fived each other in the background.

"About that... We were thinking that the men and women should be in separate shelters... at least for changing and sleeping," the architect said.

"W-What!?" Suzuki and the guy he had high-fived exclaimed, shocked and dismayed. Takahashi breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"What bullshit is this!? Who decided that!?" Suzuki asked.

"Huh? What are you saying? We all did, last night... Weren't you paying attention?" Igarashi said as he passed them, carrying a log with twenty other men.

"Huh!?" Suzuki said.

"It was decided that was the only way the women could have any privacy, and after that unfortunate incident the other day, the women are really wary of being so exposed in front of men or possibly ending up trapped alone with them..." the Architect said.

'Th-That rapist bastard!! Ruining everything for the rest of us!!' Suzuki thought furiously. And if everyone was crammed together, then there would be no privacy, which meant he and Kashiwagi were going to have to find someplace else to do it!

"We're going to make water troughs and a small infirmary while we're at it," the architect added, either completely oblivious to the boys' feelings or completely indifferent to their adolescent drama.

"So... the women and men are going to sleep separately from now on..." Kurusu-sensei said. She, Torako, Segawa, Shigeno, and Matusmoto were slated to go in the first cabin along with Miayuchi, Tokiwa, Rion, Yuki, the vice president, Rei, Kashiwagi, Oomori, Mami, and Isurugi Miina (once she was better). Yarai, Akira, Suzuki, and any other men who might have been sharing shelters with them were going into the first cabin for men, because the temporary shelters were being cleared away as they were emptied of their occupants.