Day 3 of Disaster

Again, Sakura woke up to not find Arina laying next to her. Getting out of the tent, the first thing she saw was Kibe throwing his phone which had gotten tied by a rope into the air.

Curious, she approached him and asked for the purpose of his action.

"I thought if I threw this in the air while sending a message, it might go in range and I'd be able to call for help," was his reply. "Although I have been doing this for a while now, and it hasn't worked yet..."

"Is that so..." responded Sakura disappointingly. "Oh by the way, why haven't I seen Asano-kun?"

"Oh..." chuckled Kibe awkwardly, "Arina ran into a fight with him this morning, they're currently arguing over there..."

He pointed toward the rear of the forest, where they could spot the two, and apparently, Kanie Sato was also there for some reason.

Sakura opened her eyes wide, never had she seen Arina look so furious before, and Asano didn't lose in terms of the fury they both delivered at each other either. The only difference was that Arina was on the verge of tearing up. Meanwhile, Asano, as detached from emotions as he was, maintained a composed manner. Kanie Sato was like a third wheel, who had no business there but still wanted to gawk at the drama and check on how his Arina was doing.

Without thinking, Sakura dashed to the scene with the intention of checking out whatever conflict they were having.

"Arina! what's wrong?" she asked, concerned when she saw Arina finally tearing up, while Asano stood there not giving a damn. Kanie also broke into a panic and finally gathered enough courage to get involved in the scene.

To not worry them, Arina forced a smile as she grabbed both Sakura and Kanie's arms, and led them out of Asano's earshot. "I need you to tell me, how much are you willing to leave this mountain?"

"What are you saying Arina? Of course I'd give everything in to go home," replied Sakura, followed by a stuttered 'm-me too' from Kanie.

"If so, we have no choice but to sneak out at night then," said Arina, as the two froze in shock. "I really did have high hope for Asano-kun, but he keeps disappointing me for goodness' sake. At least just listen to me for once, and he wouldn't. I asked him kindly -- remember, kindly -- for him to pack our stuff and move out of here before we run out of supplies and energy, but then he insisted on wanting to stay here! As if he is secretly wanting to adopt the cavemen lifestyle but is too embarrassed to tell me, you know. I told him we could do that but I will miss my friends, my family, my comrade brothers, and my eyebrow pencil very much! See, I couldn't live with these faint eyebrows for the rest of my life! It has been two days since I left them faint. Even though I couldn't view myself properly as of now, I know my face is hideous to look at without dark eyebrows. And then you know what happened to me after -- he shouted at me. Just how pissed I was, of course I shouted back. I did it for everyone's sake, including his. But unfortunately, he didn't seem to grasp it. So if you guys want to leave with me, you may; only if I'm heartless enough to leave almost everyone behind..."

"Arina..." Kanie gently rubbed her back to comfort her, and Sakura was lost in the prospect of Arina's feelings and thought Kanie had been synchronized with her too until she heard his next sentence, "I find you attractive nevertheless even with these faint eyebrows."

"Kanie-kun!" said Sakura, as she facepalmed, "You're missing the point..."

And so another day passed with still no one coming to search for them. Asano thought it was finally time to send one person to navigate their way out of the forest and bring rescuers to them.

Day 4 of Disaster

Mr. Inoue had volunteered to be that one person. The problem that Asano was most concerned with was the amount of food they had to supply him with to ensure he'll be able to keep up with his journey.

Here's the thing that made it harder for them -- they were on an extra minibus, which means that almost all the camping supplies including food were being transmitted on the other main buses, as Asano couldn't help but felt bitter at times when he thought about that matter. Being a leader is hard, there's no denying it, and he felt like he has to protect his minions out of duty.

After discussing back and forth with Mr. Inoue, Asano eventually agreed to let him take half of the food and ready to embark on his journey. It was like casino gambling, if his bet was on spot, the teacher will return with a rescuer team and if not, it'll be over for them.

Maeda couldn't hide her tears as she bid a sweet goodbye to her loving Inoue-sensei, he also did in return. Unfortunately, everyone else except for her and Arina was rather worried about themselves than the teacher. How are they supposed to survive with this limited amount of food?

Of course, Arina acknowledged the difficulty also, hence why from that day she started to go find more wild plants, mushrooms, snails, and basically everything that was edible. Soon, she became the most reliable person in her imaginative cavemen band, being the one who takes care of the students' wounds and the one who keeps them from hunger by bringing them food from natural resources. Although sometimes she felt like Asano had taken all the credit for being such a 'reliable leader', which, further fueled her hatred toward him.

Day 5 of Disaster

Normally, it costs merely a day or even moments for Arina to completely forgive someone. But then she noticed how it was a different case this time with Asano. She was too well consumed in her hatred that she left Asano's wound for four days untouched (which was the evilest thing she could've done to anyone). But Asano's perfectionism was far more than what she expected, he could swiftly change his bandage with merely one hand in seconds.

During their task of filling the bottles with water from the nearby stream, Enoki asked why Arina wanted to befriend someone like Maeda, to which the girl replied:

"Why? she MUST like me!" said Arina, a typical young, childish girl who was too used to being the center of attention.

Enoki Osuke was like a stereotypical emo, his dark hair covering one of his heavy dark eyebags eyes, as he responded gloomily, "You wanna read the Burn Book? I will prove to you what you're trying to do is a waste of time."

"Hey! Put an end to your stupid Burn Book, wouldn't you?" Kibe barged in, anyone would think he was trying to defend Maeda, though, in reality, he was upset that he himself also got involved in nonsense claims without evidence to support them.

"Look Arina, here goes Maeda's slave,"

"SLAVE!? WHY WOULD YOU--"

"Oh, guys! Don't fight!" Arina's eyes sparkled, and her fingers intertwined. "It's always better to love each other than hate, you see...um, ehem! except for Asano-kun. He's way beyond what mortal beings could endure."

And there went Kanie Sato plastered a grin across his bony face. He was relieved that his Arina didn't fall for a perfect boy like Asano Gakushuu. He and Arina had something in common though, both loved to create fake scenarios in their head. This time Kanie used it for picturing the entire future ahead with Arina, dating, getting married, and having kids, then eventually dying together. Although the difference between them was that Arina won't be afraid of expressing it, while Kanie would likely keep it for himself for the rest of his life.

Day 6 of Disaster

Despite wanting to play outside with Sora, a.k.a Fluff Ball in Arina's perspective, it rained that whole day.

Sitting inside her tent, Arina continued writing her diary and shifted her attention to Sakura and check on how she was doing.

"Sakura-chan, you want to write a novel with me?" asked Arina excitedly. She had wanted to write a story about them ever since the cavemen band idea hit her that day. Now it was the perfect opportunity to write it.

"Oh, sure," smiled Sakura.

But it wasn't long for Arina to discover how Sakura hadn't had any spark of imagination in her.

"Sorry, Arina, I couldn't think of anything next."

"That's okay," beamed Arina. "I've got plenty of imagination to spare, enough for both of us!"

And so together, Arina was in charge of storytelling, and Sakura with writing down whatever Arina came up with. To be honest, Sakura was deeply invested in Arina's vivid imagination and praised her nonstop, as Arina couldn't help but claimed Sakura as a soulmate.

Day 7 of Disaster

Group two's Hori Sayaka was in charge of rationing the food that day while Arina was playing with her pet outside, but she quickly broke into a panic when realizing a carrot went missing.

"Eight, nine, ten..." counted Hori anxiously, "What should I do?"

Just then, Asano Gakushuu went into the tent to check her progress, as he realized that she was troubled with something.

"Did something happen?" he asked, as Hori nervously tilted her head toward him and reported that they were a carrot short.

"Are you sure you didn't miscount?"

"I'm sure of it," said Hori quickly, sweats rolling down her cheeks in anxiety.

"Which means there's a possibility someone stole it," said Asano thoughtfully, wincing in irritation.

"Stolen? By who?"

Asano placed a hand on his chin, he was quite sure that Chimon Ryo did, though he replied, "That's the point of contention. If we look for the offender in such an enclosed space, I'm sure it will breed paranoia in everyone."

Hori gave him a look of 'what shall I do then?', as Asano came to her and demanded she fetches him a knife.

Hori was oblivious and had no idea what Asano was going to do with it. He then placed the carrots on the chopping board and chopped them, while Hori's gazes were carefully observing him. Eventually, he placed the ten chopped carrots into eleven ones, as Hori was in awe at the trick he took.

"See, now we have eleven," smiled Asano, which made Hori's heart flutter more than ever.

"T-thank you, Asano-kun!" she said, blushing heavily.

Day 8 of Disaster

Asano grew more worried day after day, gradually losing hope in the school to go look for them. He couldn't trust Mr. Inoue either, as he constantly found himself thinking of resolutions to escape this mountain. Although, whatever thing he came up with isn't possible at all. And now the problem he had to worry most about was Miyake and Shirai. How is he supposed to carry them out of the forest? Given that everyone was getting weaker and weaker as time passed.

Strolling around the place, he suddenly heard Maeda's yelling from the two heavily injured girls' tent.

"Stop this! There are kids who'd beg to eat a meal like this!" shouted Maeda angrily at Miyake Fuyumi, whilst trying to feed her porridge. "Come on, eat! You've got a fever, so you need nourishment even more!"

"I don't want to eat!" insisted Miyake, which caused Maeda to lose her patience. "Please! Just let me off for now."

"What do you mean 'let you off'!? You make it sound like I'm bullying you!"

"What would you call berating someone until they do something they don't want, if not 'bullying'?" Asano barged in, to the girls' surprise, unraveling the tent to reveal himself.    

"A-Asano-kun," gibbered Maeda.

"If you insist upon pretending to be a good person in front of the weak, why don't you try to show some consideration for others?" said Asano sternly. He knew what was going on with Miyake at first glance, but couldn't do anything about it thus he asked them where Arina was, to which they told him she went along with Sakura to pick some medicinal plants.

"Very well, you may return to your tent, Maeda-san. Leave the rest to Arina and Hanazono-san."

And so as he requested, Maeda had no choice but to obey him and returned to her tent.

As soon as she left, Miyake thanked Asano for understanding her, as he returned her with his infamous smile along with 'no problem'.

He then waited for another five minutes outside of the girls' tent until Arina and Sakura finally arrived with the medicinal plants. Just like how he predicted, Arina didn't look so happy upon seeing him, while Sakura asked him why was he standing there.

"I'm waiting for both of you to return to take care of Miyake and Shirai. Arina," said Asano, turning to her whilst the girl ignored him nevertheless, "Remember to check on Miyake."

And so he walked away. Assuming there must be something important to make Asano wait for them, Arina rushed into the tent in a panic.

"Miyake-san, what's wrong?"

Having to see Arina freaked out, Miyake widened her eyes as she stuttered, "N-nothing!"

Hearing so, Arina turned to ask Shirai what happened earlier.

"Oh, I see," said Arina, and turned to Miyake. "Sorry for not noticing this earlier, Miyake-san," as she approached her.

"Wh-what do you mean?" said Miyake, pretending to not know what she was referring to.

"The reason you don't want to eat anything," Arina said, getting a hold of Miyake's sleeping bag zipper pull, about to pull the slider down when Miyake screamed.

"W-Wait! Please, no!"

"It's alright, Miyake-san. I know you're embarrassed, but we can't leave you this way, can we?" smiled Arina in comfort, but Miyake started to tear up out of embarrassment.

"Oh, dear Miyake-san, it's gonna be okay now," said Arina sympathetically, cupping her hand on Miyake's cheek. "Sakura-chan, sorry to ask, but could you go boil some water?"

"Sure!" said Sakura. She didn't acknowledge the situation until she got out of the tent when it finally hit her. Miyake wet herself...since she couldn't even stand on her own two feet. The reason she kept refusing food was that she didn't want to pass anything she ate...

Miyake was crying nonstop when Arina fully pulled the slider down.

"It's alright -- it's alright," smiled Arina. "It's an ordinary fact of life, isn't it?"

But Miyake showed no sign of calming down at all, hence why Arina promptly thought of a fun story to distract her. It worked, after all, Sakura came back seeing Miyake stopped crying but listened to Arina attentively.

Even though she knew that Arina was naturally kind-hearted to everyone, Sakura couldn't help but slightly felt jealous...

Day 9 of Disaster

Arina secretly started to investigate deeper into the forest to find a way down the mountain.

Asano had slowly lost his mind. The pressure of being a leader during these dark times weighed on his shoulders. The fact that Mr. Inoue had gone for six days contributed greatly to Asano's stress, to the point that now he couldn't even sleep properly, and a single bickering between the students could drive him nut at any moment.

The idea of him being the next one to follow Mr. Inoue's steps had crossed his mind before, although it was impossible considering he will have to take a decent amount of food with him, and leaving his minions behind was unacceptable.

Now that Arina's warning in the earlier days flashed through his mind, he started to feel guilty for not trusting and treating her like crap.

Day 10 of Disaster

Another rainy day...just like the students' mood.

Arina cooked porridge with snails in her tent and brought them to each student's tent. But at this point, they had been so sick of snails that merely eating them made them want to puke.

"Oh, how I wish I could bake you some delicious dessert now. That's why we shouldn't lose hope, aren't we? Let's keep fighting until we can taste them again!" beamed Arina brightly.

Although she was holding her current record of staying mad at someone for this long, Arina still got enough empathy in her to bring Asano a bowl of porridge in case he gets hungry.

Entering his tent, she saw him sitting there, wrapped by the gloomiest aura ever.

Arina was expecting Asano to yell at her for how she didn't bother to tell him beforehand that she was going to enter his tent, but to her surprise, he kept on sitting there, facing his back at her saying no word whatsoever.

"Eat...and cheer up, okay?" muttered Arina, as she put the bowl down for him and left.

Day 11 of Disaster

How was Asano supposed to cheer up under such circumstances? It rained that whole day again. Hearing the raindrops hit the tent drove the students mad. Their unsatisfied hunger only made it worse.

Arina and Sakura went to check on Miyake and Shirai's condition. Just as when Arina peeled Shirai's gauze off from her wounded stomach, some maggots fell off, leaving the girl to feel anxious. Maggots were eating Shirai's rotting flesh.

"I boiled some water," said Sakura, coming in holding a bucket of boiled water and a towel.

"Oh, thank you, Sakura-chan! Would you sterilize that towel with the hot water then wipe down Miyake-san's body?"

"Um!" Sakura nodded in agreement. She was about to turn away when her gaze accidentally met the maggots on Shirai's wound, which led her paralyzed.

"Ah! We're fine here, so take care of Miyake-san," said Arina, smiling.

"S-sure!"

Dipping the towel in the bucket of water, then squeezing it out, Sakura said gently to Miyake, "Just a second, okay? I'll wipe you down with a nice hot towel."

"I...wa...die..."

"Hm? What?" asked Sakura again for her words.

"I want to die..."

"It's all right," said Sakura, concerned, "There's just a little mold growing, that's all."

Miyake lay there half-naked with her body shaken. "My whole body itches. I feel like I'm going crazy...I could no longer take it anymore..." she said with a quiver in her voice.

"Hang in there. I'm going to get you nice and clean," smiled Sakura, as she started wiping the mold on her body, and left to reveal a scratch mark.

"We told you not to scratch..." said Sakura softly, getting sad over how much these girls had to endure.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stand it," sobbed Miyake, to which Sakura smiled and continued wiping her itchy body with a warm towel.

"Thank you, Hanazono-san...it feels nice. I'm sorry that I cause you nothing but trouble...I'm sure I'll die soon, so until then, I'm sorry..."

While eavesdropping on their heartbreaking conversation, Arina couldn't hold back her tears as Sakura immediately spoke up, "You mustn't say that! I'll wipe down your body anytime you want, so cheer up!"

"Yeah, I promise I'll pay back this debt..." breathed Miyake, smiling weakly.

"Do that. You'll have to survive until then, right?" Sakura said, a warm smile flickering on her face, as Miyake began to tear up badly.

"I won't forget this debt of gratitude even if I die."

Muffled a chuckle, Sakura told her to not say things like that anymore and assured her that she'll be alright.

Day 12 of Disaster

"Rainy day, rainy day, my mom will--"

Kanie Sato had seemed to lose his sanity. Standing under the rain, he casually sang and spread his arms out as though he was admiring the weather.

He wasn't the only one who had had enough of it and decided to go outside the tent to get some fresh air, completely ignoring getting wet from top to toe.

Maeda was annoyed by his singing thus she picked up a stone and threw it at him, "Shut up, Kanie!"

But Kanie was too mentally deranged by that point that he picked the stone up, got a good sniff of it, and threw it away, then continued singing:

"Pitter patter, splish splash, tra la la!"

"What the heck is that about?" asked Kibe in confusion at Kanie's behavior.

"He gets kind of funny every so often," replied Chimon Ryo, who shared the tent with Kanie, "but after a while, he goes back to being the same old Kanie-kun," as he said so, his big belly rumbled loudly. "Oops, sorry..."

Sakura then answered to both guys' curiosity, "Asano-kun said that on top of vitamin deficiencies from his dieting, he might be showing signs of mental impairment caused by his severely malnourished state..."

"That Hori is looking terrible, too!" complained Maeda, a hand on her hips as she approached them. "The dog's come down with a fever, and she's even given it her share of food. How dumb! she won't last that way!"

Kibe looked down in distress, and sighed, "Everyone's getting weaker and weaker. At this rate, we'll all die...perhaps we should've listened to Arina's advice earlier..."

About ten days have passed since Mr. Inoue left, yet help hadn't come as usual, and he hadn't come back either. Not even half of the students believed Mr. Inoue's assurance that he was going to bring back help. Even so, everyone believed 'what if?' somewhere in their hearts and hoped. Their hope grew thin as the days went by, and was at last superseded by their harsh reality.

It took all they had just to keep from dying. When they got hungry, they would eat weeds and insects. When they got thirsty, they'd drink raw water. They'd hunt high and low for things they could eat, and spend the rest of their time rubbing their diarrhea-riddled stomachs and just pretending to sleep. When they got lucky and managed to fall asleep, they were able to forget their agonies...

Day 13 of Disaster

Hori Sayaka's Sora died...at least it stopped raining that day.

The students stood there watching the girl collapse and weep painfully in front of her deceased pet.

Arina came to rub her back, as Sakura said, "Let's at least give him a decent burial."

"Oh, we're not going to eat him?" said Asano bluntly while raising an eyebrow, which, made the others jolt in shock and fixed their horrified eyes on him.

"Eat him? The dog?" ejaculated Sakura.

"Yes. We'll be saved by this little one."

Hearing so, Arina quickly examined Hori's face in concern. Just like how she imagined, Hori was looking as though her soul had been sucked out of her body, tears streaming down her face like waterfalls.

"Sure, Asano-kun's opinion is correct. Let's eat it," Maeda barged in.

"That will be Sora's final service to us," said Asano, separating his feelings from the right decision.

Roving her gaze around everyone to witness their approval, Hori broke down entirely, as she sniffed in pain, "I--I understand..."

Arina surely didn't know what to do with this situation, considering she also approved of Asano's decision, yet she was feeling sad for Hori when she tried to imagine herself in her place, thus she merely hugged the girl as a comfort.

"Then we should clean and butcher the body before bugs get to it," Asano added, making everyone gasp in horror.

"Who's going to do it?" he asked, looking around for one to volunteer.

Eventually, Kibe decided to take on the task. Although, when he was about to do it, his grip on the knife trembled, as he tried not to look at the dog's eyes while doing so, but it was no use...

"I--I'm sorry! I couldn't do it!" he yelled, his entire body trembling this time.

"Pull it together! You coward thing!" shouted Maeda back at him.

"I--I can't!" cried Kibe, "He's looking at me! There's no way I can do this!"

Asano didn't wait for him to finish his sentence as he sauntered toward the dog, picking up a stone and...

Smash!

Blood spilled everywhere, and the horrified students turned away by instinct.

Smash!

Hori Sayaka covered her ears whilst screaming in agony, as Arina held her tight.

Smash!

Asano gritted his teeth while doing so, a drop of blood splattered on his cheek. "Now you can't tell where his eyes are, right? Do your best," he turned to Kibe, encouraging him. Unfortunately, his effort was in vain.

Kibe immediately dropped his knife, "This is...this is too cruel! I can't do it!"

Sighing in hopelessness, Asano went toward where the knife fell and picked it up. He figured as a leader, he'd do it for his minions.

Then, Asano butchered the meat from Sora with merely his left hand, and the kids cooked and ate it. The taste of the first meat to pass their lips in ages was so delicious, it made them dizzy. There was so little that it was gone in a bite, but everyone shed tears at that nourishment, and chomped away, down to the bones.

When Arina looked over to Hori, she was sniffled over and over, her face wrinkled up, as she sunk her teeth in.

With that one bite of meat, their lives were extended. They were sure that they'll never forget the taste of that one bite of meat.