Since Ichika casually followed him back, Kaoru had little choice but to bring her along to the campsite.
Fūka, meanwhile, appeared to have become completely obsessed with fishing. She stayed by the river until well into the afternoon before finally returning, and the moment she saw Kaoru, she proudly showed off her haul.
Eight whole fish!
Kaoru very deliberately counted them by number rather than weight.
There was no need to crush Senpai's enthusiasm.
Mio, on the other hand, reacted badly to Ichika's arrival. She hid inside the tent and refused to come out.
Maybe she was embarrassed about her current situation, or maybe she simply found the fact that she had somehow ended up stuck with Kaoru too humiliating to face another person.
Fūka felt no such embarrassment.
She had already changed properly after teasing Kaoru that morning. Otherwise, Kaoru would never have taken her outside with him. If someone had stumbled across them, that would have created an entirely different disaster.
Their campsite was relatively secluded, so leaving Mio there alone for a while was not particularly dangerous.
Besides, Mio was extremely capable in a fight.
She just happened to keep losing whenever her opponent was Kaoru.
Strangely enough, Ichika sniffed the air near the tents when they returned, then silently gave Kaoru a thumbs-up.
Kaoru pretended not to understand.
"Is your underclassman alone too?"
Fūka crouched beside Kaoru as he prepared lunch.
"She doesn't seem to have brought a tent. Why not let her stay here tonight?"
Kaoru paused.
Coming from another girl, that question might have carried a trace of jealousy.
But he already understood Fūka well enough to know she was probably just asking out of curiosity.
"She has a teammate. She won't be sleeping here tonight."
Admittedly, the idea was somewhat tempting.
Without meaning to, he had somehow gathered three completely different kinds of beautiful girls around the same campsite.
The cool and independent senpai.
The prickly classmate.
And the mischievous underclassman.
Ichika really had cursed him earlier.
This was starting to resemble some kind of dating game where he could stumble into anyone's route at any moment.
Not that Kaoru intended to pursue anything like that.
He already had enough complicated relationships to deal with.
Fūka rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
Ichika, meanwhile, wandered over as well and cheerfully inserted herself into the conversation.
"What are you two talking about? Want me to help cook?"
She mimed rolling up nonexistent sleeves.
"Don't underestimate me. I'm actually very good at cooking."
"How come I never saw you cook over the past few days?"
Kaoru looked at her perfectly clean hands with undisguised skepticism.
He had serious doubts about the domestic skills of a White Room student who had spent the entire trip letting Tsubasa handle meals.
"That's because little Nanase was around! I never had a chance to show off."
Ichika answered without the slightest shame.
"If Senpai gets to eat something I personally cooked, you'll definitely be overwhelmed with gratitude!"
Kaoru believed none of it.
The harder Ichika tried to sell herself, the more certain he became that there was a bottomless pit waiting beneath the offer.
"Hey, hey! Am I really that untrustworthy?"
Ichika sounded offended.
"If you like little Nanase so much, why don't you just call her back?"
"Call her back?"
Kaoru initially looked puzzled.
Then he realized he had reacted too naturally.
Sure enough, Ichika immediately narrowed her eyes.
"Come to think of it... Senpai never once asked why little Nanase wasn't traveling with me today."
"You said you came here by yourself."
"You're still supposed to ask what happened to her. Don't you know how to show concern for girls?"
"Fine. What happened to her?"
"Hmm... I don't know either."
Ichika tilted her head.
"Little Nanase has been busy with something for the past two days, so we split up."
Then she smiled knowingly.
"But~"
She deliberately dragged out the final syllable while staring at Kaoru.
"How strange. I feel like I suddenly understand what's going on."
White Room students really were frighteningly perceptive about these things.
Kaoru suspected Ichika would become terrifyingly good at catching secret affairs someday.
"Sometimes little Nanase really is sneaky. Doing things with Senpai behind everyone's—mmph!"
Before Ichika could finish, Kaoru suddenly covered her mouth.
She blinked and immediately prepared to slap his hand away.
Then she noticed his expression.
He was serious.
Fūka noticed as well.
Following Kaoru's gaze, she looked toward the distant forest.
"You two stay here."
Kaoru released Ichika.
"I'm going to check something."
Even while joking around with them, he had never stopped monitoring the Marauder's Map.
And now another figure was approaching their campsite.
...
At roughly the same time, Tsubasa had no idea that Ichika had once again attached herself to Kaoru.
She was listening seriously to Honami.
"We already questioned Yamada-kun and Haruno-kun. Both of them deny entering the C3 area that morning."
Honami looked unusually focused.
"Unfortunately, the school refused our request to inspect their GPS history."
Yes.
They were still investigating the ghost.
Yamada and Haruno were the two students who had drawn suspicion during the original incident.
Both of their watches had mysteriously malfunctioned around the relevant time, leaving gaps in the location data.
And they were not the only ones.
There was one more student whose watch had malfunctioned.
"We still haven't spoken to Hōsen-kun."
Suzune continued Honami's explanation.
"Someone saw him replace his watch that morning as well."
"His group's campsite was also the closest to the Class A group that lost its luggage. Judging by the timing, he could have left more than an hour early, reached their camp before they woke up, and removed their supplies without being noticed."
Suzune was genuinely annoyed.
As far as she was concerned, the school should have investigated the matter properly from the beginning.
Instead, its attitude remained frustratingly ambiguous, almost as though it had deliberately decided not to see anything.
Then again, that was typical of this school.
As long as nobody was caught in the act and no decisive evidence existed, the administration had a remarkable ability to become completely ignorant.
Ryūen had once ruled his class through violence.
Ordinary students knew it.
There was no chance the school had been unaware.
But without complaints or proof, the administration simply pretended nothing had happened.
"Yamada-kun and Haruno-kun are both from Class 1-A."
Hiyori thought for a moment.
"Logically, neither of them should have needed to steal another group's supplies."
"I examined the traces around the campsite. There appeared to be only one person's footprints."
Hiyori found the situation frustrating.
A single person could not realistically carry away that much equipment over a long distance.
The culprit had probably hidden the stolen supplies somewhere nearby.
If they could locate the cache, they might uncover more evidence.
"Hmm. Hōsen-kun is certainly suspicious."
Honami scratched her cheek.
"But I still don't understand the motive."
"Was it really just for supplies? If so, I can't accept what he did."
Tsubasa considered Hōsen's personality.
It did sound like something he might do.
As his classmate, she finally spoke.
"I think it was probably meant to target the Student Council president."
"Hōsen-kun has always wanted to challenge upperclassmen."
Suzune immediately experienced an odd sense of déjà vu.
After thinking for a moment, her mouth twitched.
Wasn't that essentially Miyabi's old obsession with her brother?
"Oh!"
Honami looked enlightened.
Then a strange smile appeared on her face.
"So that's why you came to help us. This was Kaoru's idea, wasn't it?"
Tsubasa had appeared unexpectedly yesterday, shortly after Ai and the others had joined the investigation.
She had happened to encounter Honami's group along the route, heard that they were investigating the ghost, and joined them without hesitation.
They had arranged to meet again today.
"N-no. I did talk to him about—"
Tsubasa's cheeks warmed.
She instinctively tried to deny the connection between herself and Kaoru.
Even though Kaoru really had asked her to help.
Then she realized what she had just admitted.
"Oh?"
Honami blinked.
"You discussed it with him already?"
Her smile grew more playful.
"Did you two meet last night?"
Suzune glanced sideways.
She had not expected Honami to develop such a talent for teasing people.
They all knew Kaoru's general movements anyway.
Ai's group had explained yesterday that he had been traveling along the same route since the first day and had often camped nearby.
Ai and Miki simply had not joined today's investigation.
Miki did not want anything to do with ghosts, and their groups were following different routes, so they could not realistically accompany Honami forever.
"W-we... the President and I are following the same route..."
Tsubasa started stumbling over her words in front of Kaoru's openly acknowledged girlfriend.
She had done nothing wrong.
Yet somehow she still felt guilty.
"I heard Morishita-senpai talking about the ghost and your investigation yesterday. That's why I came to take a look."
"What a coincidence."
Honami smiled in a way that revealed nothing.
"I'm almost jealous."
She did not expose Tsubasa's clumsy excuse.
Hiyori gently cleared her throat.
"Ahem. Perhaps we should focus on resolving the case first. The ghost rumors are becoming increasingly ridiculous."
After several days of evolution, the story had somehow transformed.
The ghost was now supposedly an American biological weapon accidentally released onto the island, capable of wiping out human civilization at any moment.
The school, naturally, did not believe any of the students' nonsense.
Staff remained adamant that the sightings were probably some unusual wild animal and had even dispatched a search team to inspect the island for anything abnormal.
Unfortunately, this only strengthened the rumor.
Students who had previously been skeptical began to waver.
If there was no ghost, why had the school sent a search team?
What exactly were they searching for?
Over the last two days, it was no longer only exhausted students retreating to the harbor to recover.
Quite a few girls had become frightened enough by the ghost rumors that they were also staying near the port and avoiding the deeper parts of the island.
The rumor was beginning to interfere with the exam itself.
It sounded absurd.
But an isolated island was essentially a closed information environment.
Rumors could easily become an echo chamber.
Unless someone eliminated the original source, the story would continue spreading, exaggerating itself every time it passed from one student to another.
"You're right."
Honami scratched her head in frustration.
"The priority is figuring out what this ghost actually is."
"What kind of thing glows green at night?"
Witnesses described a terrifying white creature with glowing green eyes.
Honami's first thought had been night-vision goggles combined with some kind of disguise.
Then she asked Hoshinomiya Chie.
Chie flatly denied it.
The school had not sold a single pair of night-vision goggles during the exam.
Honami had fallen into deep thought after hearing that.
What she did not know was that her own boyfriend had unintentionally sabotaged the investigation.
She had naturally assumed the original ghost sightings and the later luggage theft had been committed by the same culprit.
They had not.
"Could you leave Hōsen-kun to me?"
Tsubasa had regained her composure.
"I can't guarantee he's responsible, but we're classmates. I may be able to get something out of him."
Suzune remembered several previous incidents and remained silent.
"I don't mind."
Honami looked concerned rather than pleased.
"But little Nanase, your group isn't on the same route as ours. Won't this interfere with your exam?"
"It's fine. My teammate can handle the designated areas."
Tsubasa pressed her lips together.
"Besides, there are only two people in my group. We were never going to benefit much from group scoring anyway."
"Eh?! That makes it worse!"
Honami's eyes widened.
"With only two people, you could fall toward the bottom incredibly easily. No, no. You need to go back!"
A two-person group that stopped collecting points could be slaughtered in the rankings.
Tsubasa was about to answer when a girl's voice suddenly came from the forest.
"Don't worry. I'll take responsibility for Nanase-san's group."
Tsubasa froze slightly.
She turned.
Kaho emerged from the trees with a bright smile.
"Ta-da! Rejoice, everyone! Your hero has made her brilliant entrance!"
The petite girl struck an absurdly heroic pose.
"Komiya Kaho has arrived!"
"Waaah! Kaho-chan, that was so cool!"
Honami's eyes immediately filled with stars.
"Ehehe~"
Kaho could not suppress her grin.
Then she quickly became serious again.
"I heard Honami-oneechan was having trouble. Please let me help!"
"Kaho-chan!"
Honami apparently stopped hearing the actual words.
"You're too cute! Come here, let me hug you!"
Suzune gave her a strange look.
She knew Honami had a younger sister.
Was she projecting that relationship onto Kaho and automatically entering big-sister mode?
"Eh?! W-wait!"
Kaho was abruptly caught.
"We haven't seen each other for a little while, but why did Honami-oneechan suddenly become this clingy?!"
"Because you called me Onee-chan!"
"D-does that really have this much power?!"
"It absolutely does. I'm going to treasure Kaho-chan properly from now on!"
"Uuu..."
Tsubasa watched awkwardly as Honami hugged Kaho.
She was unsure whether she should politely look somewhere else.
"Honami-oneechan, we have important things to discuss!"
Kaho struggled.
Was there some kind of regulation against being crushed by an overenthusiastic hug?
"What important things?"
Honami abruptly returned to reality.
"Oh! Are you joining the ghost investigation too?"
"Hehe. I'm only helping!"
The moment Kaho remembered Kaoru's promise to her, the corners of her mouth lifted.
Honami paused.
A faintly strange feeling began growing inside her.
"She isn't the only one."
A calm voice came from nearby.
Arisu and Masumi emerged from the forest.
Seeing Honami and Suzune's surprise, Arisu smiled.
"It concerns our class, after all."
"If the culprit continues wandering around freely, even I would become somewhat irritated."
Because of the so-called ghost, Arisu had been forced to absorb one of Class A's damaged groups.
Instead of gaining additional supplies from the merger, she had actually lost resources supporting them.
Honami's cheerful expression faded slightly.
She looked directly at Arisu.
Through every advantage she had accumulated, Arisu had now risen into a commanding second place overall.
She was only a little behind Rokusuke.
Coming here would inevitably slow her point accumulation.
Yet she had come anyway.
Suzune looked at Honami.
Then at Arisu.
She knew the two had some tension between them.
Unfortunately, there was not much she could do besides stand there awkwardly.
Maybe if they started arguing, she could imitate Kikyō.
'Everyone, stop fighting! Why don't we all have a party together?'
Suzune immediately hated the thought.
"Of course."
Honami suddenly gave Arisu a huge smile.
"I'd love to catch the culprit together with Sakayanagi-san!"
Without the slightest hesitation, she walked forward and extended her hand.
"Sakayanagi-san, I'll be counting on you."
Arisu paused.
Then her lips curved into an amused smile as she accepted Honami's hand.
"Not at all. I'm the one who should be asking for your cooperation, Ichinose-san."
Their eyes met.
Neither girl said anything else aloud.
Yet somehow, each seemed perfectly capable of hearing the other's thoughts.
'I'm especially interested in learning how you managed to win that man's heart. How fascinating.'
Honami's smile never changed.
'I didn't trick him at all.'
'I simply gave him everything I had.'
For several seconds, the two girls continued smiling pleasantly at one another.
Suzune suddenly had the distinct feeling that catching the ghost might be the least dangerous part of today's investigation.