╭───── (🏝️) CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX; THE ISLAND
KEIKO WAS IN THE GARDENING CLUB, in fact she was the only person in the gardening club along with a teacher, she would help plant seeds and clean up the gardens, it was quite a relaxing job.
She was busy watering the flowers when she saw Kaidou and Aren walk up to her, she smiled and waved "Hi there, you two! I didn't expect to see you both come over to the gardening club."
Aren smiled and looked at bright flowers that bloomed in his face "Actually Keiko, we came here because we have a question." he said.
Keiko stopped what she was doing and turned to face them both, both of them were struggling to speak up until Aren pushed Kaidou up, motioning for the shorter boy to speak "Uh well-" he started "Saiko invited us to go on this holiday cruise with him, but... he said we could go if only you came as well." he said shyly, he looked down with red cheeks and jabbed his index fingers together.
Keiko just blinked and fully turned to face the two "Why only if I come?" she asked.
"Probably his way of trying to impress you." Aren tutted.
Keiko gave both boys a sly smirk "Well it seems you two are impressed enough if you've come to me for it."
The two blushed and started to try and change what they meant before she stopped them "I'll come." she softly said "As long as Chisato, Yumehara and Teruhashi come along as well. I want to try and get closer with the other two again, especially Yumehara." she said.
Both boys bowed with large grins "Thank you, Keiko!" Kaidou beamed and pulled her into a warm hug, Keiko accepted. Although the two hugging friends begged Aren to join the hug who stuck up his nose and refused, they pulled him in so the three were all squished together with Keiko in the middle.
'I wonder if Sai is coming?' she thought to herself.
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Just with Keiko's luck, Saiki did join as well, along with Nendou and the three other girls, the group were told that they were leaving at night so they all walked down the docks together with Aren and Kaidou at the front "I can't believe we have to leave at night." Aren said.
"Yes, but at night it makes things more exciting." Keiko said.
"Yeah! We can all do something like a midnight feast!" Yumehara exclaimed in joy.
Kaidou looked down at his watch "Saiko's island is far away. If we don't leave tonight, we won't make it."
Yumehara's eyes widened "What? Then we have to sleep on the ship?"
Soon a snobby voice called out to the group "Hey! What are you doing? Get on." They all turned to see Saiko standing on top of a huge cruise ship, although Keiko hated to admit it, she was impressed.
"Impressed?" The gray haired boy asked "Only my family could own something of this size."
Keiko crossed her arms "Saiko, you don't need to ruin the moment by bragging about your riches, just be happy at the fact we turned up!" she shouted up, his ears and cheeks went pink before he grumbled something to himself.
"Sorry Keiko..." he muttered before crossing his arms and facing away, the entire group looked at the green haired girl flabbergasted, how did her charm manage to get Saiko, out of all people to apologize.
Soon the group was let on the ship and it set off the sail, what they didn't realize that in eleven hours time they were going to be stranded on a island.
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"Amazing!" Kaidou screeched as he saw the interior inside the cruise ship, it didn't even looked like a ship on the inside, it looked like one of Saiko's mansions, "Awesome! What is this?"
"It's extremely gorgeous!" Yumehara added.
Keiko turned around and noticed Saiki walking at the back alone, as the group chatted away, she slowed down and was now walking at his pace "Are you okay? Do you get travel sickness?" she asked.
"No, I'm fine. It's just Saiko's presence that annoys me." he told her.
"Oh? Then why did you come?" she asked, because of you. he said to himself, but he couldn't tell her that.
"My mum forced me to go." he lied.
She shrugged "That makes a lot of sense, she usually want's you to spend time with your friends. You know, she told me that before we were friends that you were quite lonely but I wasn't sure if you preferred being alone.I can understand if you find me to be a pest, would you be happy if I gave you space."
He didn't speak for a moment but then his fingers slower intertwined with hers, he then turned to look at her beetroot face "Not at all, you're the one who I can tolerate the most."
After Keiko's blush went away, Kaidou had clutched onto his stomach in pain and went to sit on a chair, Yumehara went rushing over to him "Kaidou! What's wrong? Are you sick?" she asked, worriedly.
"Yes. Just a little seasick." he weakly answered.
"I'll get you some medicine." Yumehara rushed away while Chisato run to get him some food which probably wouldn't help, Keiko unconsciously let go of Saiki's hand and knelt down next to Kaidou along with Aren, Saiki looked down at his hand and released how cold it had become without the green haired girl holding it, her hand felt so natural in his, he wouldn't of minded holding it forever.
Soon Kaidou was brought to bed and Yumehara stayed with him since the group knew about her feelings for the boy, they thought they would give her a chance to maybe get closer to him.
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Keiko was woken up by loud screaming, she opened her eyes and let out a groan, she lifted her head but stopped halfway when she could feel a sandy texture on her cheek, now with her eyes fully open, she saw the great blue sea waving at her, she then saw ship wreckage on the sand she laid on, this could only mean one thing.
She started to scream too, soon joined by Saiko and Aren, "What's going on?" Saiko asked, his face pale.
After everyone had woken and calmed down, they sat on logs together trying to think back what happened "This ship went down, and we drifted to this deserted island." Aren informed the group "Let's just wait until help comes. That is all."
Kaidou shot up "No, that's too vague. There is not time for that! We're stranded on a deserted island!" he shouted "You know it's bad when you see this kind of thing!" he then pointed up at something over his head but no one else could see what he was talking about, "Besides, this island is pretty small. It's the size of our schoolyard. We won't be able to find food."
Keiko got up and walked around as Kaidou kept shouting, she noticed how there were many palm trees, she looked up and her eyes sparkled at the sight of a large round coconut "Guys! I found some coconuts." she shouted, Kaidou stopped mid panicking and they all rushed over to the tree.
Keiko also saw a broken pantry which was tilted against a rock "Oh look, I also found the pantry from the ship as well." she cheered, she saw that there were still boxes of food, "How miraculous that it drifted here with us."
Nendou started to climb the palm tree to grab the coconuts while even else went over to Keiko "How did you manage to bring us so much luck while being stranded on a island, Keiko?" Chisato asked.
"Just pure coincidence." Keiko smiled, says the one who's power is luck.
"But the food will run out." Kaidou said "If we don't get help soon-"
"Help will come." Saiko said "It's not like we drifted here on a raft. Right now, they are using the ship's tracking device to locate where the ship sank, and are searching for us. I don't know where we are, but I know it can't be too far. Plus, the son of the world's leading financial conglomerate is here. I'm a world treasure. A giant search team is out there looking for me now. You should thank me." he finished proudly.
"So what?" Aren asked "You're saying we shouldn't worry?"
"That's right, little guy." Nendou replied casually "So, let's go swimming!" he announced as if being stranded on a island was a holiday resort.
"That's a little too carefree!" Aren shouted back.
'But we don't even know where we are stranded. It seems a little too weird that we all got washed up on shore, with food as well. It was almost like it was planned.' Keiko thought.
"Why did we sink in the first place?" Kaidou asked "I can't remember anything."
"What?" Aren asked, he forgot that Kaidou got seasick "Oh, right. You and Saiki were sleeping. You see..."
It had been some time after Kaidou went to bed from being sick, "What the hell are you doing?" A loud voice asked the group.
"Hey, what's up?" Nendou asked Saiko who had shouted out.
"It's all bad." he motioned towards were Chisato was tied up in the pantry surrounded by food that had been opened and eating, she had a fierce and anamalistic look on her face "This glutton ate all the food in the pantry."
"Damn you!" she growled like a wild animal.
"Don't growl at us!" Saiko shouted at her.
"There's like nothing left!" Nendou shouted as he inspected all the opened food.
Saiko had grabbed onto Chisato's shoulders when he saw she had a large piece of bread in her mouth "You're still eating?" he asked.
Keiko grabbed the piece of bread out the girls mouth "Chisato, calm down! We've been on the ship for half an hour, there will be no food left by tomorrow!"
Seconds later Saiki had collapsed onto the floor, he was breathing heavily and was shivering, Keiko gasped and rushed over to Saiki, she knelt down and grabbed his arm and waist, trying to hold him for support "Oh goodness, Sai. I thought you weren't seasick!" she said in a panicking tone.
As everyone started to fuss, Keiko helped him up and took him to his room, she placed him in bed and put a blanket over him, she saw him shaking and clenching his teeth like he was in pain, Keiko tried staying in the room but she was told to give him some space.
The rest of the group stood outside "So, Shun and Saiki are both seasick." Aren said, he had an arm wrapped around Keiko's shoulder and held her close, he could see how worried she was "Is there really no medicine for it?" he asked.
Yumehara looked down, avoiding eyes "Gee, I wonder where it could be."
Aren finished telling his story to Kaidou "I took Keiko out of his room so she could calm down, I saw how worried she was. But Teruhashi offered to go in and nurse him. Thinking his hairpin might be dangerous, she took it out. It happened right after that. The ship started rocking and water was coming in fast. Then all hell broke loose. The crew escaped on a small boat. I bumped my head and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was here. It was a miracle that everyone was saved.
Saiki had woken up and realized her was underwater, he saw that the rest of the group was under as well, he swum up and his first instinct was to go towards Keiko, he saw her lonely body floating alone. He faced her and held up her cheeks seeing she was passed out, gently grabbed her head and held him close to his chest. Still holding onto her, he swam to everyone else and grabbed them, he then teleported to the nearest island.
When everyone was safe and Saiki couldn't move the ship, he went to the island and knelt down to where Keiko was laying, he stared at her peaceful face and pushed her green locks out of the way so he could see it clearer, he was glad he could save her in time along with everyone else.
He could see the goosebumps rising on her skin so he took off his jumped and put it onto Keiko, she was more important than his warmth, anyway due to his psychic powers, he didn't get as cold easily.
"We have water but not much food." Aren said.
"We have enough for about a day, don't we?" Chisato asked.
Keiko nodded and placed a hand on her hip "I think so but we need to hand it out evenly, no one gets extra we need enough to share for everyone." she said, giving Chisato the side eye knowing the girl would accidentally eat it all if she could.
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It was day two of being stuck on an island, Kaidou had already lost all hope "Help isn't coming." he said like he was on his death bed "The world has abandoned us. We're going to have to live the rest of our lives here on this island. But we won't be able to live in a place like this." he then pulled out a felt-tip pen he randomly had and started to draw on himself "Soon, we will run out of food and things will become desperate. We'll start killing each other!" he drew weird markings on his face, he had gone insane after a day.
"Kaidou, don't be so pessimistic." Teruhashi said.
"Right. It's only been a day-" Aren started but Kaidou cut him off.
"One whole day! No one's ever going to come!" he screamed.
Nendou paid no attention to his complaints and smiled "Anyway, let's eat and go for a swim."
Aren and Teruhashi then started to speak about Saiko who sat on a rock alone, they thought that maybe he felt responsible so they asked the one person who they thought would get him to listen the most which was none other than Keiko.
She walked over to him "Saiko? Can you come over and eat with us please? I don't want you to starve."
"No, I'm good." he said turning to face her.
She sighed and got up on the rock next to him "But you didn't eat anything yesterday either." she said "Aren and Teruhashi thought you might of felt responsible for the ship sinking, it's not your fault, really. No ones upset with you."
"What are you talking about?" he asked "I would never eat their dirty poor food. If I had to eat scraps like that, I would rather die." he said in a disgusted tone.
She deadpanned at him "It's literally your food, from your pantry. Unless you didn't buy that, then it's yours. You just called yourself poor and dirty." she slyly added.
His jaw dropped and was lost for words "I- I have no idea what you're talking about." he huffed sticking his nose up and crossing his arms.
She shrugged "Fine, have it your way." she jumped off the rock "Oh, and just to let you know, I always preferred you when you were a nicer person when we were kids, your just a bit snobby now." she added before walking away which made the boy sit back and think.
As she walked back she heard screams erupt from the group, a snake had revealed itself but before it could attack it was impaled with a spear which was thrown by a fast moving object.
That object was actually Chisato who was now in a different attire, she looked like a true hunter "Mera? What's with that getup?" Kaidou asked, "Yeah, it's awesome, but still..."
Yumehara smiled "Since Mera is poor, I guess she's used to living in the wild."
"I don't think she's an animal, Yumehara."
Chisato then proceeded to make noises like she was a cave woman and gave a group a bag, it turns out she ate the food in the pantry and wanting to make up for it by collecting wild foods which was apparently edible to eat. After she gave the bag she swung on her heel and went back into the forest.
What Yumehara thought she meant was the food on the ship, she actually stole food on the pantry, when the group saw all the food was gone Aren went into his usual rage when he was angry, this time he had the same markings on his face as Kaidou did earlier and was holding a heavy rock "That amazon! I'll kill her!" he seethed.
"Calm down, Aren! You can't beat her!" Kaidou shouted.
"He's right! The forest is her turf!"
"'Calm down'? We don't have any food left!"
Keiko cleared her throat "Well... We do. But in this world we need to learn not to be picky eaters!" She emphasized making sure Saiko didn't hear, "If we can cook up-" Keiko turned to see Nendou was already eating the mushrooms from the bag "Hey!" she shouted, she sped over to Nendou and snatched the bag out of his hand "You can't just eat those raw, Nendou! And you need to share it with everyone else!"
"Oh, sorry. I didn't think anyone was going to eat them." he smiled "Don't worry, greeny. There's still a bunch left." he said making the girl face palm.
Teruhashi then noticed that there was washed up food on the beach, everyone sprinted to the food and jumped for joy when they found something that was edible to eat.
"Wait. We have canned goods but no opener." Kaidou said.
"And cup noodles but no kettle." Aren added.
Keiko then saw that a kettle and a can opener had washed up on shore "Look, a can opener and kettle!"
"It's a miracle!"
"Is this really by chance?" Aren asked "It's got to be because we have lady luck with us." he said motioning towards Keiko who went all bashful.
"That must be it! Hooray for Mochizuki!" Yumehara cheered.
Keiko giggled "Oh, don't be silly."
Kaidou then noticed Nendou was sitting up on shore holding a piece of wood "What are you looking at, Nendou?" he asked.
"Oh, this wood floats on water, doesn't it?" he asked "Which means, if we had a giant piece of wood, we would be able to ride it home, right?" he suggested.
"What? You mean, build a raft?" Kaidou asked "How are we going to do that without any tools?" he added.
Before anyone could say anything else, Saiki had a sudden burst of energy and threw himself up pointing at the piece of wood Nendou was holding, everyone turned in shock at his quick movement, and behind his emotionless face, Keiko swore she saw his eyes glittering.
"That's it!" he said, everyone was still confused but then he pushed them all to start making a raft together. Once again a bunch of tools randomly washed up on shore, this group was very lucky today.
Nendou had used a saw to cut down his tree quickly while Aren was still only halfway, he noticed that Keiko had not yet attempted to try cutting down the tree "Greeny, you okay? Need any help?" he asked.
She turned and smiled "Oh no, I'm fine. I'm just preparing to cut down the tree."
"Preparing?" Aren asked confused, not a second letter Keiko let out a loud grunt and sliced her saw through the tree in seconds, chopping it in half. Aren and Nendou stood there with their jaws dropped as they saw Keiko try and lift the tree.
"Nendou? Could you help me carry this tree back to the main land, I don't think I'm strong enough to carry it myself." she said but both boys stood there in shock from her previous strength.
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When the three went back to the mainland with a tree, Kaidou said that they would need extra help, the group looked towards a starving Saiko who was about the grab a crab "What are you doing?" Kaidou asked him making the boy jump "I knew you were hungry."
"What are you bums talking about?" he asked defensively "I'm not hungry at all!"
"But you just tried to eat that crab."
"No, I didn't!"
"But we saw-"
"No! You're wrong!"
Keiko ignored their shouting and asked Saiko if he could help with building the raft "What? You're building a raft?" he asked "I knew you guys were dumb, but this is your dumbest idea yet."
"Whatever. Just help us!" Kaidou begged.
Saiko turned away "No. If you guys want to commit mass suicide, then go right ahead. Help will come soon enough."
Keiko sighed, the only way for this to work was to charm him "Please don't talk like that, Metori." she placed her hand on his own "We really need your help. You should also eat something as well." her charm seemed to be working as his cheeks were going bright red "We are all so worried about you, especially me." her eyes glittered towards him while she batted her long lashes.
Saiko was still a mess as he went into an awkward movement "Well... Okay, I guess so. I shouldn't be stubborn at a time like this." he then realized what he was saying and his face went all serious again "But I refuse. One thing I hate is people telling me what to do. Now get away from me!"
Keiko sighed, she then smiled took a step closer to him "Fine, you son of a bitch." her tone went serious and it felt like her voice had gotten deeper, the whole group gasped at her words.
Keiko grabbed Saiko's ear and pulled him close "If you don't help build that raft with everyone else, I will personally shove my foot up where the sun doesn't shine and I will make sure you a crying, for days." she said staring into his soul.
He gulped nervously and slid off the rock, Keiko still held onto his ear and dragged him over to where they were building the raft, the group stood there and watched once again in shock.
"Wow, being stranded on a island really changes some people."
Throughout the rest of the day, the group managed to find Chisato who also helped build the raft, as night fell they had made a lot of progress, although it wasn't finished they would be done in not time.