"First of all, it would be nice if our class can look for a base camp as soon as possible. I'm sure all of you are suffering under the heat and it'll probably get worse later at noon." I started laying out my thoughts. "Hirata and I will take the lead. Ken, Akito, and the other guys will help us carry the tent. I want each guy to carry something apart from their things. The girls are free to help if they want."
"Where will we go from here, Ayanokouji-kun?" asked Hirata.
"Look, Class A's starting to move. They'll probably explore the forest and find someplace to set up camp. Of course, we'll do the same. However, since they're going on the west side of the island, I want us to explore the east side for ourselves, but we'll have to move now. If we make our base first, Class C and D will have no choice but to scramble along the center," I explained.
"That's so smart! Since Class A is our most dangerous opponent, it would make sense if we avoid them by monopolizing the opposite side of the island!" Karuizawa commented with a clap.
"As expected of Ayanokouji-kun!"
"He's so decisive!"
"Alright! We'll beat them by occupying more spots in the east!"
My excited classmates began gathering their things. We moved towards the east side of the island and passed by Ichinose's Class C.
When they saw us, Ichinose, along with Minamikata and her friends waved at me and Kikyou. It seems like there were still thinking about their next course of action.
"I understand Kushida-san being close with Ichinose-san and Class C, but it's great to see that even Ayanokouji-kun is on friendly terms with them," said Hirata.
"Well, I guess you can call us friends. I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't think Class C is our enemy."
"Kiyotaka-kun actually got pretty close with Ichinose-san from way back, you know?" Kikyou joined in on our conversation.
"Ohh... With how the class system works in our school, it's certainly rare to see two class leaders get along well with each other." Hirata smiled wryly.
"Don't worry. I'll still prioritize our class over my friendship with Class C."
"O-Oh, that's not what I'm getting at, Ayanokouji-kun... I also think having a friendly relationship with other classes is wonderful. Sorry if I sounded hostile."
"Ah, you didn't, don't worry. It was my fault for misunderstanding your point."
The small talks continued as we walked towards the east-side forest. Our classmates were engaged in their own conversations, too.
After a short while, Hirata and I stopped in our tracks and turned to everyone.
"Is there anyone here who has experience with the outdoors? I have to admit, I am not adept when it comes to these situations," asked Hirata.
"The same goes for me," I added.
Everyone stopped and listened to our plea, but only silence and our classmates' hesitant expressions greeted us.
"Uhh..." Ike slowly raised his hand.
"Ike-kun, do you have any experience with moving around in this environment? It would be of great help for the class if you can teach us a thing or two." Hirata instantly set up the stage for Ike.
"I don't know if it's considered experience, but I used to go camping with my family ever since I was a kid..." Ike explained. "Ah-- but of course, I'm nothing compared to those who were in the boy scouts. If anyone in here was a member, then they're probably more worthy of your time. Ahaha..."
Ike would've been very hyped up to tell us all about his camping expertise. However, after that incident with Class D, Ike became visibly discouraged with his words and actions. He was severely and harshly criticized by the entire class along with Yamauchi. It's perfectly reasonable for his self-confidence to dip like this.
"Well, it doesn't seem like anyone else fits the bill. I want you to lead the class with us, Ike. I'm sure your knowledge would be helpful."
I don't know how knowledgeable Ike really is, but he's probably our best bet right now. On the other hand, Yamauchi is, objectively speaking, still completely useless at the moment.
"I'm not against it. If anyone has some sort of survival skills like Ike-kun, please feel free to let everyone know. We're all in this together."
And with that, Hirata encouraged cooperation. Well, at least I'd hope so. It's not that easy, especially in this environment. However, I think that as long as no conflict arises within the class, we'll probably be fine for the most part.
1st Day, 9:39 AM.
"Alright, everyone. This is a good place to stop and gather our thoughts. Please cool off among the shade," instructed Hirata.
"Ike, do you have any suggestions?"
"You're asking me?"
"Well, yeah. I'd like your input right now. The map in the manual is basically useless, but if I were to guess our current location, it'd probably be around here."
I pointed towards the middle-right part of the map, a few areas before the eastern beach. Well, it wasn't really clear if there was gonna be a beach on the east-most part of the island based on the map alone. The page where it's printed was as useful as a blank piece of paper.
"Then... I think our priority should be a clean source of water," replied Ike.
"Excellent, let's head straight from here. I'm pretty sure there's a river along the way."
"Oh! That's great!" Ike slowly started feeling more energetic.
"Normally, I would suggest making a few search party teams to find a good place for a base, but I think Ayanokouji-kun's instruction will yield us a much faster result," said Hirata.
Our classmates listened to our conversation in silence. At this moment, they had no choice but to rely on us. Since everyone knew the importance of cooperation, no one really went against the decisions we've been making so far. It's not like anyone had better suggestions, anyway.
After a considerable amount of time has passed, I felt a sudden change in temperature. Ike's body perked up as he approached me.
"Do you feel that, Ayanokouji? It suddenly got colder. A big water source is probably near. The river you were talking about might be right around the corner," he whispered.
"Alright, Ike. Can I ask you and your friends to go ahead and scout the area?"
"Sure!" Ike walked up to his friends and asked them to go with him.
Professor and Ijuuin declined as it was already taking their all just to keep up with us. It was an understandable response given how they were built.
After they left, Horikita approached me from behind.
"It's great that Ike-kun and the rest are finally having their time to shine, but I suddenly feel useless," she sighed.
It's rare for her to confide in me with something like this.
"That's just the way things are when the battlefield is in a completely foreign territory. But don't worry about it, Horikita. I'll need you later, that's for sure," I replied.
"I'll cooperate as effectively as I can."
After a few minutes, Ike's group finally reunited with the class.
"It's up ahead! There's a river just a couple of minutes away from here!" he announced.
"That's great!"
"A river!"
"Nice!"
"Good job on finding it, Ike-kun. We'll head there together. You lead the way." Hirata praised them accordingly.
"It's all thanks to you, Ayanokouji. You knew about the river from the start, right?" Ike addressed me excitedly.
I only nodded in response and let Ike direct the entire class. When he said "a couple of minutes", Ike probably referred to 'running speed'. It took us ten or fifteen minutes of walking before we finally saw and heard the running river water.
"Here it is!"
"Wow, so clean!"
"We have water!"
"It's tempting us to swim in it!"
The class was excited upon seeing the river. We walked on the hard, grassy lands beside it to find the perfect place to set up camp.
"Ayanokouji, we saw it around here. A mechanism of some sort." Yamauchi and Miyamoto called out to me and pointed towards a direction that was a little further ahead.
"A mechanism?"
Class B continued its march before finally arriving at a very conspicuous place. An unnaturally placed boulder was sticking out on the riverside.
"This should be the equipment for occupying a spot," announced Hirata.
A screen of some sort was attached to the boulder. Like Chabashira-sensei has said earlier, we'd need the leader's key card to officially occupy this spot.
"Woohoo! A spot!"
"We're totally killing it!"
The class celebrated happily upon hearing his words.
"This should be a good place to set up camp, right Kiyotaka-kun?" Kikyou asked as she approached me with a bunch of her friends.
There were a lot of noticeable places on the island. On the west side, a cave, a tower, a cliff, a strange forest area, and a small gulf were easily recognizable from the ship. It makes sense as to why Class A would head in that direction. Their initial position only helped avoid suspicion unlike us who were obviously aware of where we were going.
On the surface, it seemed like the western parts of the island were the best places to horde spots and points, however, I never saw any suitable water source near that area. Since the southern beach was our starting point, it only makes sense that there would be no immediate spots that we can find and occupy. However, if we go on a small journey, the northeastern side had a river. If we go directly east from there, we'd be on the north side of the eastern beach. From the cruiser, I also noticed a small landform. At first, I thought it was another cave, but as the ship moved along, it actually turned out to be a small rock tunnel. I wonder if there's a spot in that place, too. Directly south of the eastern beach was a very noticeable live oak tree due to its enormous size. It's very likely for that area to have a spot somewhere, but the absence of food and water source would render that place unsuitable as a base.
In the end, this riverside is the most ideal place we can find in the meantime.
"Let's find a grassy and balanced terrain. We'll make our base there," I suggested.
"Okay!"
It was 11:57 AM when I checked my wristwatch. In my opinion, we were pretty fast in finding a nice place to stay. We didn't need to split up or do anything risky. I wonder how the other classes are faring right now?
Authors' Notes:
The pier was on the southern beach of the island. When the classes were given supplementary instructions, Class A to D was positioned from west to east, respectively. This was the reason why Class A was observed to explore the western part of the island after going straight north from their starting position. On the other hand, Kiyotaka's Class B would arrive at the middle part of the island if they went straight north. If this were to be the case, they would most likely find the well that Ichinose and her class initially found in the canon. However, Kiyotaka's strategy is to monopolize the spots in the eastern part of the island. Class C and D's initial positions were near the east. That was also the reason why Class B passed by in proximity of Class C as they went into the forest. In the canon, since Kiyotaka was in Class D, their initial position was already in the eastern-most part of the student body. That's why they found the river even if they only walked straight north from their starting position.