After listening to Mori Shinra's entire plan, Yukinoshita Yukino's mood was a bit complicated.
It wasn't that there was a problem with his plan... the plan was fine, it was just... "Isn't this a bit too despicable?"
"If they were really that close, my plan wouldn't work anyway. Conversely, if their relationship was built on the foundation of hurting others, then my plan is guaranteed to succeed. And a toxic relationship like that... it doesn't matter if it's destroyed, right?"
The plan Mori Shinra had come up with on the fly was simple: have the five anonymously vote for the two people they disliked the most.
The votes cast by those two would be invalidated, and they would be left behind for the "resurrection round" (which was just completing the original challenge).
The other three could skip the trial and clear the stage.
It was a classic "two peaches kill three warriors" scenario.
The solution was also simple: as long as all five were willing to stay behind and face the challenge together, the conspiracy would fall apart.
Of course, the plan also required adding some horror elements to the final trial.
After all, if the final trial wasn't challenging, how could it highlight the "superiority" of the other three?
After finalizing the details with Yukinoshita, Mori Shinra rushed off to find Hikigaya, who was wandering through the woods like a ghost.
"Huh? You want me to be the guard for the final stage?" Hikigaya was confused.
"Kawasaki twisted her ankle. She can't hold her sword," Mori Shinra lied without batting an eye.
"Wait, what does a sprained ankle have to do with not being able to hold a sword?"
"Don't worry about the details. Just go. When the time comes, you'll act as Kawasaki-san's ghost, just jump out and scare those elementary schoolers. That's it."
"Why don't you do it?"
"I'm not as scary as you."
Hikigaya: ...
This guy has no manners!
What does he mean, "not as scary as him"? Do I look scary?
Hikigaya thought about the elementary schoolers he had run into on patrol, who had screamed and scrambled away from him like they'd seen a ghost...
Okay, compared to those kids, Mori Shinra's comment was practically polite.
"Got it." Hikigaya agreed.
He then saw Mori Shinra start walking with him towards Kawasaki Saki's "set."
"Why are you following me?"
"I'm afraid you'll scare Kawasaki, and she'll chop you up with her sword."
I take it back. Mori Shinra is the one with no manners.
In reality, he was going to coordinate their stories with Kawasaki Saki, just in case she saw only two kids and asked, "Where did the other three go?"
Hmm? If she actually asks that, the effect might be even better.
After completing all the preparations, Mori Shinra once again returned to Yukinoshita's location.
He didn't rendezvous with her, but instead put on the patrol vest he had "borrowed" from Hikigaya and "coincidentally" ran into Tsurumi Rumi's team.
"Ah, it's that big brother from before!" Yuka, who was at the front of the group, was the first to spot him.
Because Mori Shinra had helped them during the orienteering, they all remembered him.
Plus, he was wearing a patrol vest, looking like a staff member.
They wondered if they could get some more "convenience" from him.
The four of them trotted over to Mori Shinra.
Tsurumi Rumi, who was lagging behind, also wanted to come and say hello when she saw it was him.
But after seeing the other four surround him, she dismissed the thought and just watched quietly from the side.
"Big brother, why are you wearing that vest? It's so ugly!"
"I know, right? And the other big brothers and sisters were dressed so normally. It wasn't scary at all. A test of courage like this isn't scary."
"You guys are high schoolers, how can your ideas be so lame?"
"Sigh. It's not that I want to. We just got a report that we're looking for someone. The guy at the last stage went too far, and one of the teams got so scared they scattered. It's pitch black out here, I hope nothing bad happens." Mori Shinra sighed, feigning exhaustion.
When the elementary schoolers heard a team had gotten scared and gone missing, they immediately tensed up.
"Is the last stage... really scary?"
"I'm not sure, but I heard it's pretty terrifying. Even if you know what's coming, you still get scared. But... I think you can skip it."
"Skip it!"
The moment the elementary schoolers heard there was a shortcut, their spirits lifted.
Komori, the girl with the ponytail, quickly asked, "Big brother, do you know how to skip it?"
"You'll be at the altar soon, right? Just tell the Yuki-onna that you want to answer the 'hidden question'. After you answer, it'll count as clearing the stage. Then you just have to wait by the altar, and someone will take you straight to the finish line."
"It's like an Easter egg for the test of courage. It's just hidden really well. No team before you has been able to find it."
"No team has found it!"
Hearing this, the four girls' eyes lit up in unison.
If they could complete this, couldn't they brag about it when they got back to school?
No one else found it, but we did. Doesn't that mean we're better than everyone else? When we argue with our rivals back home, our voices will be that much louder!
Easter eggs are great! We have to do this!
Thinking this, the four little girls, as if injected with chicken blood, didn't even say goodbye and just ran off towards Yukinoshita's location.
Tsurumi Rumi, seeing this, had no choice but to follow.
But as she passed Mori Shinra, she said in a low voice:
"Thank you for your hard work. Goodbye."
With that, she disappeared into the woods.
After they left, Mori Shinra took off the vest, took a shortcut to Yukinoshita's altar, and, after greeting her from behind a tree, hid himself and activated his all-seeing surveillance mode.
Emotion Perception, activate! One Leaf Blocks the Eye, activate! Pri... let's not activate that one yet.
In Mori Shinra's perception, the emotions of the girls were as conspicuous as lighthouses in the dark.
Soon, the five clumps of emotion representing Tsurumi Rumi's team merged with Yukinoshita's.
"Yuki-onna-oneechan! We want to do the hidden mission!"
"We found the Easter egg!"
"No one else found it, right?"
The four girls assailed Yukinoshita with questions.
When Yukinoshita heard the "Easter egg" and "hidden mission," she immediately knew it was Mori Shinra's doing.
She didn't correct them, but very naturally went along with it. "Finally, someone has asked about the hidden mission. Are you prepared?"
"We're ready!" the girls said in unison.
Yukinoshita Yukino took five pieces of paper and pens from her wide kimono sleeves.
This thorough preparation made the team members even more certain of the hidden mission's existence.
The timid Hitomi asked, "As long as we complete the mission, we can clear the stage, right? We don't have to go to the last stage?"
"That's right. After completing the mission, three members of your team will be considered to have cleared the stage. You will only need to wait for the two chosen members to complete their trial, and then you can all proceed to the finish line."
"Wait, what do you mean, only three members?" Komori spotted the catch.
"Activating the altar requires a sacrifice. Therefore, you will anonymously vote for two members to act as sacrifices and complete the designated trial. See the paper and pen I just handed out? Write the names of those two members on it, and then give it to me."
Yukinoshita paused, and finally gave a subtle hint. "Of course, you can also choose not to write anyone's name, and volunteer to take on the trial."
Not writing was impossible.
The moment they learned that completing the hidden mission required selecting two sacrifices, the atmosphere within the small team instantly tensed up.
Although Yukinoshita had not forbidden them from talking, they spontaneously avoided each other's gazes.
They were cautious, yet extremely sensitive to where the other four were looking.
The nervousness and anxiety in their eyes were almost palpable.
When writing down the names, each of them was afraid of being seen, squatting on the ground and shielding the paper with their sleeves.
Tsurumi Rumi, after getting her paper, wrote her own name without any psychological burden.
She handed the note to Yukinoshita and went to stand by the altar.
She knew very well that one of the two sacrifice spots would be hers. As for why she didn't write another name... one, it was unnecessary, and two, she felt that picking any one of them would be letting the other three off too easy. So she'd rather not choose.
After Tsurumi Rumi handed in her note, the other four became even more nervous.
They began to exchange more and more glances, and suspicion began to spread.
Several of them simultaneously started to change the names on their papers.
Clearly, after making eye contact, some had realized they might have been voted for. In retaliation, they had to vote back.
This made the vote results even more chaotic.
"Time is almost up. Please hand in your notes as soon as possible."
Yukinoshita took it all in, her eyes showing no emotion, as if she was used to it.
Not long after she spoke, the girls handed in their notes one by one and returned to their original spots.
But this time, the four of them no longer huddled together.
A subtle distance was kept between each of them.
They were no longer chirping as they had been, but were silent, like lambs awaiting the witch's judgment.
Yukinoshita collected the notes and silently tallied the votes for each name.
After calculating the result, for the first time tonight, a look of surprise appeared on her face.
"The chosen sacrifices are... Yuka and Hitomi."
When the result was announced, Tsurumi Rumi, who had been preparing to step onto the altar, was stunned when she heard her name wasn't called.
A look of disbelief flashed across her lifeless little face.
Could it be... that someone else was the one being ostracized? Or was there a mistake in the count?
"Was there a mistake in the count?" Yuka, who had been chosen, asked in a trembling, incredulous voice.
But Yukinoshita's cold reply completely shattered that hope.
"Yuka, three votes. Hitomi, three votes. Rumi, two votes. Komori, one vote. Total, nine votes. The tally is correct."
"Wait, if everyone gets two votes, why are there only nine? Shouldn't there be ten? You definitely made a mistake!" Hitomi shrieked, as if grasping at a final straw.
"That is because Rumi only wrote her own name," Yukinoshita Yukino revealed the answer.
"How could..."
Rumi only wrote her own name, but in the end, Hitomi and Yuka were the ones voted out. When this dark, comedic scene played out before them, the girls all fell into a long silence. This meant that among the four of them, at least three didn't write Rumi's name, but had instead turned on each other...
In fact, the moment they had written those names on the paper, the false friendship they had built on the foundation of 'feeling secure by hurting others' had already been destroyed.
Even if Rumi had been one of the two voted out, a crack would still have appeared in the friendship of the remaining four, leading to an irreversible collapse.
A fake is still a fake. No matter how well it's packaged, a friendship obtained through despicable means will eventually fall into the abyss over some trivial matter.
After a long silence, the first to erupt was the sacrifice, Yuka.
"Who voted for me? Komori, I know it was you! It's always like this, two-faced!" Yuka's delicate face twisted into a demonic expression.
She glared at Komori, who was avoiding her gaze, and let out a soul-piercing question.
Komori, realizing the situation was bad, immediately retorted, "Didn't you vote for me? And why don't you say Hitomi voted for you too?"
The timid Hitomi, who was already on the verge of collapse after being chosen, immediately exploded when Komori pointed the finger at her.
"You're lying! It was definitely you who voted for both of us!"
"I only have two votes! Even if I voted for both of you, what about the other four votes? You two definitely voted for each other. Stop pretending to be the good guys!" Komori knew she couldn't hide it anymore and ripped away the last shred of decency.
None of the three pointed their fingers at Tsurumi Rumi.
Because Rumi had only voted for herself. How could they blame her? For not attracting enough hate? There was nothing to attack.
Seeing the drama about to escalate into a full-blown brawl, Mori Shinra had to put his vest back on and walk out of the woods.
He pretended to be completely unaware of the situation and interrupted, "Yukinoshita-san, can I have a word?"
Mori Shinra leaned in and whispered a few fake words in Yukinoshita's ear.
He then went to the feuding five-person team and announced, "There was a problem with the staff's props at the last stage, so it's been temporarily canceled. I'll give you the 'clear' tokens directly. Everyone just needs to follow the signs to the finish line now."
Mori Shinra had originally planned to let these kids feel the 'Hikigaya Shock', and at the same time, use the 'suspension bridge effect' to help Rumi bond with the other unlucky girl, allowing her to escape her isolation first. But he hadn't expected this result. Did he rig the votes? Of course he did. But the problem was, he had only shielded one person. How did these two end up getting voted out?