Seen Through the Eyes of Goodwill

Chapter- 5 (Gamble- 1)

We all walked past them as Yahiko and Katsuragi stood there speechless. Even if we have more favourable odds than them for guessing the leader, at the end of the day it is still a game of luck for now. We will need more clues to take them down.

Ascending the ladder as fast as we can. Once we were out of sight of the Class A students we started jogging towards the green spot.

The blue spot would presumably be in a pre-occupied state by now. Still we must not completely avoid it as there is a slight chance it might still be unclaimed remains.

As we trotted through the woods eventually Horikita overtook me. She was clearly in better shape than me and Ayanokouji who was running alongside me seems to be doing well.

Within some minutes we started spotting some students in jerseys carrying firewood. We all came to a standstill at once and hid in the bushes.

"I think. . .hah hah .... That the blue spot here .... Have been claimed already."

"It appears so, we should proceed to the next spot coloured green. I suggest we change our course slightly towards the cliff so that we could avoid anyone who might possibly tail us."

Horikita-san was able to speak without any difficulties unlike me, I surely am out of shape. I just nodded in agreement.

"Let's get moving."

Even though it had low probability I deep down expected this spot to be unoccupied, so it was a little setback to me. But now we were already in the gamble, there was no turning back now.

We covertly passed through the woods at the maximum pace which was feasible for keeping a low profile. In spite of the fact that the fear of discovering other classes slowed us down, it was favourable for me since I was feeling a little out of breath again.

After another solid 15 to 20 minutes of running Ayanokouji stopped.

"I think this might be the spot, let us head towards the cliff."

Following his directions we advanced towards the cliff carefully. On reaching there we split up and started searching for a way to descend it, since this cliff edge was no path for a stroll there was no way a spot would be located here on the cliff even as the map hinted.

Just as I was about to take another step someone pulled me back, it was Ayanokouji.

"You plan to walk on air?" he said with an apathetic expression as he held me.

I was apparently going to head down the cliff with the next step, all this running had clearly left my brain oxygen depleted. Which did inhibit my ability to think ultimately.

"I am sorry, I will need to rest a little. Thanks for saving me."

"You two! I have found the ladder."

Horikita looked understandably perplexed to find me lying in Ayanokouji's arms.

"Let's go."

I forced myself up on my feet, I needed to go down there to act as the camouflage of the leader.

On descending the steel ladder we looked around the beach but nothing that looked like a spot came into our sights. On turning back to the cliff I discovered a cove cave.

"Hey guys look there."

I would have believed that it was natural but something felt off, probably school had altered it to manufacture a spot. We rushed into it but ... the equipment was already displaying a countdown, it said Class B.

We all stopped in our tracks, the cove cave was most probably spotted by someone from Class B while they were on cruise. There is no way one would find it after disembarking.

My knees buckled as I fell on the earth. This was too much for a setback, one after another spot we discovered to be preoccupied.

Ayanokouji and Horikita also sat down beside me.

"I don't think there are any spots left, we should head back to the base camp."

"I agree, there is a high chance even the other spots might be claimed as well. Seems so the map was useless after all."

Apparently Horikita held the same opinion as mine.

"No, we should head for the next two spots." Ayanokouji opposed me in an indifferent tone.

"Why are you saying that, Ayanokouji-kun? We can still save some time if we turn back now."

"We might miss out on two good spots if we do that."

"Are you even considering the fact that we just came across two spots which were preoccupied and not to mention the spot we occupied would have been claimed by another class as well if we had found it after a small delay."

Horikita was clearly not willing to head to the other spot, indeed I share that thought. On taking her arguments into account I highly doubt we will find success on stretching this lost gamble further.

"What you said is true but look at the map, the next two green spots are clearly different than these two."

As if to consider Ayanokouji's words she took up the map as I peeked over her shoulder. The spots appeared pretty same to me, like, they were just green spots like this one. Although he was right the green spots were hard to discover yet classes did find them anyways.

"I do not get your point."

"Beats me as well."

He took the map from Horikita and faced it towards us.

"See unlike the other two spots which were located near the cliff these two are well hidden deep in the forest. That fact alone significantly decreases the probability of it being discovered from the cruise ship.

And on top of that if you factor in the certainty that these green spots are hard to find, it makes them nearly invisible without help of this map. So risking it by delaying the search would not be a wise move."

He taught us like some teacher who was teaching an elementary schooler. Is this the quality Chabashira-sensei was trying to hint? A little by little I started to grasp the situation as he explained to both of us.

"Very well I am convinced, but if we happen to fail then we might as well lose not only 15 points in our roll call but also leave our base camp vulnerable for a small period of time."

"Indeed we will need to pick up the pace."

Both of them looked at me, I was clearly more of a hindrance to them than I was of help. Should I just avoid this gamble? I don't think I can make it.

NO! I will give it my all, there is no way I will become a dead weight. These two here are ready to run the same distance we have already covered even without food or water. Who am I to disrespect them by giving up so soon.

I looked at my watch, it showed 3:30. Apparently we had made it here from the hut in roughly 40 minutes. With that in mind I assume we will need approximately 200 minutes to cover all the spots and return to our camp.

The question is if I can run at the same pace as before for 200 minutes without food and water continuously? There was only one way to find out and that was to run.

With my heart filled with determination I climbed the ladder to get back to the island.