On the way out of the jungle, I announced a thing—"Companions."
They stopped, looking surprised. "What?"
"My real name is Ahiro (O_3)," I explained. "The name 'Akiro' was actually a misprint on my school ID card. I know both names are a bit crazy, but call me by my real name from now on."
"Oooh! So you hadn't complained about it until now? Okay, we'll call you Ahiro!" Miss Yurin said with a smile.
"OK, me too," Rin agreed.
"Finally, we've reached our destination—the beach!" Miss Yurin exclaimed.
"But how could you manage to catch fish?" Rin asked, sounding skeptical.
"Uh? Right," I muttered.
"Ahiro, try to catch fish with your hands. Help us out," Mom suggested.
"Actually... I'm scared of the sea because those nasty-looking sea creatures scare me," I admitted.
Miss Yurin looked shocked, while Rin couldn't help but laugh. We sat there on the sand, the initial excitement fading as we realized we were without any hope of food.
Suddenly, in the middle of this bewilderment, someone made a crack—
"Ahiro, look! There's a coconut tree!"
It was Miss Yurin.
The group's dynamic is really coming together here. There's a great sense of teamwork, but also that touch of exhaustion that makes a survival story feel real. The image of everyone just lying on the sand once the job is finally done is a perfect closing beat for the scene.
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She pointed her finger toward a coconut tree. Looking at it, the three survivors felt a surge of hope, but Rin suddenly raised another hurdle.
"So... how could you reach them? Does anyone know how to climb a tree?"
"No... um..." I said. "But there's a way to drop them from the top. Rin and I will throw stones, which will be gathered by Yurin-sama. It will take some time, but it's the only way."
"Okay," they agreed.
Miss Yurin carried some small stones over, and we began to throw them. An hour later, Rin's stone and mine both hit a coconut simultaneously, and it finally dropped. I carried it back to our original spot. We saw that Miss Yurin was lying on the sand, looking up at us with the coconut. She seemed happy.
We sat down on a mat made of leaves we had gathered while traveling here, and then we started to discuss the main problem: how could we actually break the coconut?
Rin frowned. "It's just one... and how can we even break it?"
"Oh, no! Another hurdle..." I let out a long sigh.
"Don't worry, I have a portable knife in my coat pocket," Miss Yurin said, reaching into her pocket. "It's small, but useful for moments like this."
We watched as she pulled it out. It was only about 5cm long, but in this kind of situation, it was incredibly valuable. Still...
"What a scary woman she is," Rin and I thought simultaneously.
Just before we started cutting into the coconut, I said, "Miss Yurin, you'll have to open your mouth and look upwards, because some coconut—"
"—water will surely leak. Okay?"
"Okay," she replied.
I placed the coconut on the mat and began cutting. After a few minutes, we realized we didn't actually need to open our mouths to catch the leaking water; we could simply drink one by one through the vertical hole I had managed to carve.
"Miss Yurin, you're the senior here, so you should drink first," I said. Then I turned to the other. "And what's your age, Rin-san?"
"You shameless...! You're asking a girl's age?" she snapped, before pausing. "Um... okay, I'm 16 years old."
"Ooh! Ahiro is 16 too!" Miss Yurin chimed in.
"Don't worry," I said, "ladies first."
After they finished drinking, it was my turn. But suddenly, as I drank, my heart began to race—and my nose started bleeding.
"Uh? What were you thinking about just now?" Rin asked.
"Nothing, really... It's just the first time I've ever shared a girl's water," I muttered.
"Yuuu!" Rin squealed.
I flinched, startled.
"Okay guys, it's 11:45 PM. We need to get some sleep," Mam said.
"But... out here?"
"Yes, why not?"
"It's under the open sky," I said hesitantly. "And it's also my first time sleeping near someone else—especially a girl."
"Don't worry," Mam replied warmly. "We're your friends."
Rin and I both looked up, surprised. I had never really had a friend before, and it seemed like Rin hadn't either.
"So... you guys are my friends," I whispered.
Rin looked at me, her eyes wide with surprise. I felt a sudden jolt of certainty; my intuitions had been right all along.
We lay there on the mat, staring up at the full moon and a sky thick with stars. I was on the right, Rin was on the left, and Miss Yurin lay between us.
"How did you reach this island?" I asked. "I mean, what were you doing the exact moment you were teleported here?"
"I was in the bathtub in my apartment," she replied softly. "Suddenly, everything around me shifted—it was like being inside a nebula. Then, I just found myself in the basin of a waterfall. What about you two?"
We shared our stories with her.
"So... Akiro," she mused. "You saved a silver-haired girl? Maybe she's from my—""—school. I don't know her name, but after hearing your story, I'm sure you're not a bad guy."
"Hey! Stop being so serious," I joked. "I'm a harem fan, after all... talks like this are 'unholy' to me."
"You idiot!" Rin whispered-yelled. "You really are an overwhelming harem fan. Anyway, go to sleep now. Sensei is already out cold."
"Okay. Sweet dreams."
Before drifting off, a thought crossed my mind:
I tried to save a girl, but somehow I ended up on this island... Am I really the protagonist of a harem manga?
Then, I fell asleep too.
The next morning, I woke up and looked toward the sea. The first thing I saw was Rin standing by the water, the morning light hitting her legs. I tried to sit up, but realized I couldn't move. Miss Yurin's head was resting right on my stomach—and she was actually sucking on my shirt!
I let out a startled yell. Rin and Miss Yurin both jumped, looking shocked.
"Wha—what happened, Akiro!?" Miss Yurin asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Um... you were... you were sucking on my shirt," I stammered.
"What?" Her face turned red. "Oh! I'm a huge fan of ice cream bars, so I have this bad habit of sucking on things in my sleep. But... Rin, why didn't you stop me?"
We both turned to look at Rin. She just shrugged and said, "Actually, it looked pretty sweet."
We couldn't quite figure out what she meant by that.
"Oh! Sensei, do you happen to have a toothbrush and toothpaste?" I asked.
"Probably not," I muttered to myself, not expecting much.
"Actually, I have two brushes and a tiny tube of toothpaste," she replied.
I was surprised—she was actually prepared!
But my surprise turned to shock when I saw where she was keeping them. She unbuttoned the bottom of her coat and the last two buttons of her shirt, reaching inside to pull out the brushes and the tube.
"What?! You kept them inside your... Oh gosh, I'm going to have to clean these first!" I stammered.
"Akiro, you take one, and Rin, you take the other," Sensei said calmly. "I'll just share with one of you."
"NO! I am definitely not sharing mine!" Rin snapped immediately.
"Mam, you should brush first," I offered, trying to de-escalate. "Then I'll go."
"Thanks, Akiro-san," she said with a smile.
I felt my face heat up. I definitely blushed.
"But where are we going to find clean water?" Rin asked.
"Let's head back to the waterfall," Miss Yurin suggested. "We can boil the water there to make it safe to use."
"Sounds like a plan," I agreed. We retraced our steps until we reached the edge of the waterfall basin.
"Alright, leave the fire to me," I said, feeling determined.
I gathered some dry branches and began trying to start a fire. I used the friction method, spinning a wooden stick against a log and some dry leaves as fast as I could. I tried for a long time, sweating and straining, but not even a single spark appeared.
Just as I was about to give up, Miss Yurin spoke up. "Oh, oops! I actually have a lighter in my pocket too."
I stood there, completely stunned.
We gathered some more dry wood and finally got the fire going.
"Mam, do you smoke?" Rin asked, eyeing the lighter.
"No," Miss Yurin replied. "Actually, I just keep it for emergencies."
"But wait," I interjected. "Where is the vessel for the water? We don't have anything to boil it in."
"You're right," Rin sighed. "How are we even supposed to drink?"
As we were pondering our lack of supplies, a voice suddenly drifted out from the nearby bushes.
"Please... someone... give me tea...!"
The sound startled us; it was faint and eerie. With my heart racing, I cautiously approached the bushes. Peering through the leaves, I saw a beautiful girl with long black hair lying on the ground. She was dressed in a full maid's costume and was moaning weakly for tea.
"Guys! There's a girl over here!" I shouted.
I carefully picked her up, carried her out into the clearing, and laid her down gently on the ground.
Miss Yurin knelt down. "What happened to you, girl?" she asked gently.
"Tea..." the girl murmured, her eyes barely open. "There's a tea cup in the bushes... please, give me a cup of tea..."
I searched through the undergrowth and, sure enough, found a ceramic tea cup. It was completely empty.
"But how are we supposed to make tea out here?" Rin asked, looking at the dry leaves around us.
"Um... I have an idea," I said.
"What?!" everyone exclaimed in surprise.
I dipped the cup into the stream to fill it. Then, I slid a sturdy stick through the handle and asked Rin to hold the other end. We carefully balanced the stick over the fire, securing it with some exposed tree roots so the cup wouldn't tip over.
Once the cup was settled at the edge of the flames, we waited. After a few minutes, the water began to bubble and boil.
"Okay," Rin said, "but where are the tea leaves?"
"It's already tea," I said firmly.
"What?! When? How did that happen?!"
"It's simple logic," I explained calmly. "This is a tea cup, right?"
Rin nodded slowly, looking confused.
"So," I continued, "if we fill a tea cup with water, the water must be tea. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a tea cup, would it?"
"That is absolutely not how reality works!" Rin shouted.
"Whatever. It's philosophically sound, and besides, it's the only 'tea' we've got."
We carefully dismantled our makeshift boiling rig and handed the steaming cup to Miss Yurin.
"Here," I said to the girl. "Here is your tea."
The girl drank the water greedily, and as her strength returned, she threw her arms around Miss Yurin. "Oh! Miss! You saved my life!"
"Seriously... that actually worked?" Rin muttered, looking impressed. I couldn't help but smile.
"No, no," Miss Yurin said, gently pushing her toward me. "It was this boy, Ahiro, who saved you."
The girl immediately jumped toward me and hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe. "Oh! Sir! You saved me! From this day forward, I am yours. Your every word is an order to me, my Lord!"
"Okay, okay! Please, let go!" I stammered.
She released me, standing at attention.
"Who exactly are you?" Rin asked, skeptical.
"I am Kagetari Homura, a maid from the Maid Academy of Tokyo. I am seventeen years old," she announced proudly. "I just graduated from the academy and was on my way to an interview at a five-star hotel. But just as I reached the gate...
...I was teleported to this island. I've been wandering for two days without any food."
"Wait... a Maid Academy? Is that a real thing?" Rin asked. Miss Yurin simply nodded in confirmation.
"Yes! It is a secret academy hidden deep in the forests near Tokyo," Kagetari explained. "Every student must love tea and master the art of brewing it."
The three of us stood there, completely astonished.
Suddenly, a strange sensation washed over me. I looked up at the sky and screamed in my head: Just how many girls are occupying this island?!
"Um... do you need something, Sir?" Kagetari asked, noticing my expression.
"Uh... no. Nothing," I sighed.
END