CHAPTER 11

"You've arrived!" Suzuki-sensei smiled as we came to a halt when we reached her.

I groaned, holding up my thumb and index finger. I aimed my index one at her head. "Crime Coefficient 91. No enforcement action required."

Clicking my tongue, I rested my fingers by my side.

Suzuki-sensei deadpanned at what I was doing. "Were you pretending to shoot me with an imaginary gun?"

"Hey!" I warned her, immediately holding up my 'Dominator' again. "Don't try me sensei."

"What?" she asked. She looked at Hinata and Wannabe who were accompanying me. "Did she hit her head or something?"

They both held their hands up in defense.

"I don't know," Hinata responded.

"I think she's just naturally this weird," said Wannabe.

Shaking her head, Suzuki-sensei glared at me, hands at her hips. "Be quiet, Miyuki. Or else I'll make you."

I gasped at her threat. Immediately, I pointed my 'gun' at her again. "Just as I thought..." I murmured happily. "Oh I have been waiting for this day..."

She rose a brow. "Huh?"

In the best monotoned voice I could, I spoke again, "Target's Threat Judgement has been updated. Enforcement mode is Destroy Decomposer. Target will be completely eliminated."

"Miyuki, could you stop this please!" she demanded.

I stumbled back a few steps. "Oh no! Sh-she's trying to kill me! Naraku, no matter who you use, I will not let you have the Shikon Jewel-"

"Miyuki!?"

At the shriek of my name, my lips clamped shut. My eyes grew wide, and I faltered back a step.

Suzuki-sensei was red in the face due to her immense rage, and she angrily stomped her foot. "If you open your damn mouth one more time, I promise I will sew your lips shut!"

Her sudden dark change of behaviour caused a shiver to run down my spine.

I swallowed hard. "With a... real needle, sensei?"

"Of course with a real needle!" she snapped. "Am I clear, Miyuki?"

Knowing that retorting something would end badly for me, I saluted stiffly. "Aye sir!"

Shooting one last glare my way, Suzuki-sensei breathed out loudly. "Are we all gathered?"

"Yup," answered Yuji.

Him, Saki and Hiro had somehow ended up behind me and I let out a sigh before retiring back to where Wannabe and Hinata stood.

"This is gonna be a long day..." I mumbled to myself as Suzuki-sensei merely continued.

"Okay, so now that we're all here, I will be announcing what we'll be doing!" Suzuki-sensei declared, shifting her attention away from me. "The first event will be a scavenger hunt!"

"Scavenger hunt? What are we, kids?" Hiro commented.

She laughed. "Now, now! This game has a bit of a twist! There are twenty items on the list and you will have to go through hardships to obtain each and every one. You will venture through the forest and come across clues along the way. Each one will have a sentence or two telling you where the item is. As groups, you have to crack and figure out the clues' meanings together if you're to find the items!"

"That shouldn't be too hard," Hinata whispered to me. "I'm good with puzzles."

"Sadly, you're not Oreki Houtarou so your words don't reassure me," I said before Wannabe could speak.

Hinata blankly stared at me for awhile before asking, "...Is this anime character good with scavenger hunts?"

"Nope, but he is with mysteries," I explained, smiling at him. I was quite proud that he piqued his interests in anime for the first time ever. "Plus he's really lazy like me so I relate to him. I agree with his moto perfectly: "If I don't have to do something, I won't, but if I have to, I'll do it quickly.""

Wannabe's eyes widened. "Wow that is you."

My smile grew wider. "See! You two should totally check Hyouka out and—"

"Miyuki are you talking again?" Suzuki-sensei's voice jolted me.

I swiftly avoided her darting eyes and whistled innocently. These lips will not be sealed—much less with something as painful as a needle and thread—anytime soon.

"Another important thing," she went on. "As both groups will be going for the same twenty items, they will begin at different starting points in the forest." She extended her finger and pointed to the two entrances and trails. "And since there are twenty items, obviously the one with the more of the twenty will be the winner."

Doesn't that mean if we both get ten it'd be a draw...? Hopefully that doesn't happen then.

"This scavenger hunt won't be too hard but once all twenty items have been collected, I will call you all back so we can begin the next event. Like I stated earlier, the team with the most items by the time they arrive here will the winner. So work hard, efficiently, and do your best to get more than ten items!"

Putting the whistle she wore around her neck into her mouth, the hag spoke before blowing it.

"Now... BEGIN!"

Saki, Hiro and Yuji, after fumbling for a bit, immediately dashed down their forest trail while Wannabe and Hinata tried to as well.

"Hoshino! You have to hurry up or else we'll be left behind!" Hinata called over to me.

I rolled my eyes as they jogged in place. "I don't want to run though..."

"But you do want the prizes, right? You could ask for anything!" Wannabe prodded. "Anime merchandise for example!"

I perked up a bit. "I guess that is a reason to try, huh..."

Hoping that my headache wouldn't return during this event, I gave in and began to run alongside them. We easily crossed paths with a white note stuck to a short tree and Hinata stopped to take the sheet off.

"What's the first clue?" I asked him as I slowed down.

"Uh... The item you're looking for is somewhere neat; it's close and tall and near a sheet," he read off.

I made a face at the odd riddle, peering over his shoulder and at it. "I bet Suzuki-sensei made these rhymes," I said.

"Most likely," Wannabe agreed. "But near a sheet? Does that mean where this clue was found?"

Hinata's eyes lit up. "Yeah, that has to be it. Search around the tree."

"Wait!" I shouted and they gave me a startled look.

"Huh?"

"Why?"

I climbed up the tree like an expert and got the flag that was hanging from it. "I wanted to be the one to grab it." I grinned at them before hopping down to the ground. "Hey, I know. Let's make a deal where the one who collects the most items between us has the others treat them to whatever they ask?"

For some reason, Wannabe and Hinata shared a look.

I blinked slowly, addressing to them like I would foreigners. "What? You no understand Japanese or something?"

"We already know what you'd ask from us," Hinata told me.

"Well duh," I said. "But I'll be nice enough to let you choose cheap stuff."

"Who says you're going to win?" Wannabe asked with a raised brow.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Who says I'm not going to win?"

The two of us shared an intense stare-down between one another, one where we were sizing each other up.

"Uh...guys," Hinata began, "We have to hurry..."

"It's on Tamaki-wannabe." I smirked at him, holding out my hand for a shake.

"My name is Kazuya." He connected his hand with mine. "But sure."

"Uh, guys..."

I let go of his hand and inched back. "From here on out, we're enemy hunters!"

"On the same team," he added calmly.

"Doesn't matter," I waved him off, "I know what it takes to be a good hunter. I'll find and trap those twenty items myself before you could even find Ging."

Wannabe rose a brow slowly.

"I'll find them before Luffy can find the One Piece?"

Still nothing.

"Before Nanami Haruka actually ends up with a guy-"

"Just go!"

The shout from Hinata was like a bullhorn and Wannabe and I went dashing down the forest trail. My eyes were peeled in case for any passing clue I could find. And nothing was going to stop me.

At least, that was what I thought...

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"It's raining..."

I gritted my teeth as Hinata's words settled in. Much less raining—it was pouring. The torrential rainfall made it hard to stand in, let alone walk in. That was why the three of us had taken shelter under trees.

"I didn't bring a rain coat," Wannabe sighed.

"None of us did," I groaned. "What kind of situation is this? I was on a roll too."

I peered down at my bag of six items. Ever since Wannabe and I had begun our intense hunting contest, I had managed to score two more items than him. I glanced downwards at my muddy clothes. Granted, the last one was because I slid for it like a batter sliding to home in Diamond no Ace. Nevertheless, out of the ten items in our path, we had gotten them all.

"Should we head back to camp?" Hinata asked aloud.

"We need at least one more," I told them.

"But we managed ten at least," Wannabe pointed out.

"Ten isn't enough though," I enunciated. "We need eleven if we're going to beat Saki's group."

"But it's already raining this hard," Hinata stated. "Let's just hope they only managed to get nine and returned also."

I puffed up my cheeks, mainly because I knew he was right. We couldn't afford staying out here much longer. "What a complete waste of energy this was..." I murmured quietly, "I might as well should've stayed home today..."

Wannabe laughed at my response. "There, there."

"There, there," I mimicked him, putting on my best Wannabe face. I scoffed and elbowed him gently in the side. "You still owe me y'know."

He blatantly cringed - he most likely forgot our deal. "O-oh yeah..."

I rolled my eyes. On the count of three, we all raised our arms over our heads and ran as fast as we could. Of course, we made sure to be careful enough to watch our footing. We didn't want to slip y'know.

During our rush back to the cabins, Hinata let out a chuckle. "Hoshino, you're surprisingly competitive, huh?"

Whilst trying to defend myself from the pouring rain, I scowled at him. "Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

"It's not," Wannabe reassured me, running at my left. "It's just you always seem to hate getting involved with whatever we do because it's a 'waste of time'—"

"That's true."

"—And yet even when you're unsatisfied with something, you never give up on it."

At his words, a frown flitted onto my face. Is that what it seemed like to them? I racked my brain for answers as to why, and only one surfaced.

"Maybe it's because giving up is stupid," I finally said, my voice probably muffled due to the teeming rainfall. "I can whine all I want but that doesn't necessarily change anything. Especially with you guys. Plus, it's partially my fault because I am easy to bribe and provoke—"

"That's true," they said simultaneously.

I held back the urge to snap something. "Anyway! If I give up on something I already put my mind on to do, I'd probably regret it."

"Wow," Hinata said in awe.

"And we all know regrets can last a lifetime." I sighed. "And in eleven years when I'm twenty six I'll send a letter to my sixteen year old self that tells me to reverse all my regrets. So why not make it easier now, right?"

Silence filled the air.

"Was that an anime reference?" Wannabe asked Hinata.

"Most likely," he responded.

Wannabe sighed, probably because for some reason, a novice like him didn't see it coming. "As much as I respect you, Hoshino," he drawled, "I really can't at all."

Hinata laughed in agreement.

"Wow, thanks guys," I said wryly after breaking out of my Orange reverie. "I totally don't respect you either."

.

.

.

"Welcome back!"

Suzuki-sensei along with the other three were waiting for us in our cabin when we finally barrelled in through the doors.

"You're back!" she continued to cheer, full of joy and happiness (ugh).

"You sure took your time," Yuji murmured, though he was too immersed in a card game against Hiro.

"I seriously thought you guys got yourselves lost," Hiro agreed.

"I was just about to go searching for you!" Saki cried, dressed head to toe in waterproof gear. "I was so worried!"

Unlike us, all three of them were completely dry with no traces of rain whatsoever, which irked me to no end.

"Why the heck are you three fine even though it's raining so hard out there?" I demanded in disbelief.

"We obviously came back when there was a light drizzle," Hiro responded, finally sparing a look in our direction. "We're not idiotic enough to stay outside searching for items when it starts raining."

"Plus we already collected ten items so we decided it was enough," Saki went on. She pulled out three towels from the bag slung over her shoulder and tossed them to us. "Mi-chan!" she pouted, grabbing it and hurriedly rubbing it over my hair. "Hurry up and get yourself dry!"

"Alright, alright! Stop it!" I grunted, pulling free from her constricting hold. I clenched my teeth as I proceeded to dry it myself.

Ten items? Ugh, so we are tied. It infuriated me to know that they were able to find all ten items before we could and yet still make it back unscathed...

Without warning, a shiver ran through me and goosebumps arose on my arms. I looked Kazuya and Hinata's way who appeared no better than I did at the moment.

Wannabe let out a shaky breath. "We're so going to get sick..."

"Yup..." I agreed. "But don't worry, they say idiots don't catch colds."

Wannabe had animated tears in his eyes. "H-hey..."

"Man," I drew out, wrapping my towel over my bare arms, "This was totally worth coming here today."

"Is that sarcasm?" Suzuki-sensei demanded with a warning look.

I peeked over at my homeroom teacher in an absolutely impassive manner. Knowing that I had nothing more to lose today, I exhaled loudly, "Yes, sensei, yes it was."