The mood shifted inside the cabin.
Towa guided Kanako to sit down and rest.
Kurusu and Rion stayed with them, while the Ono, Itou and Mikoshiba moved toward the back, talking quietly among themselves.
They all needed time to process everything, and gradually, the space near the exit cleared until only the three of them remained.
“…There’s something else I want to confirm.” Yarai asked.
Akira glanced at him.
“What?”
“During the turbulence… did either of you notice anything unusual?”
Mariya thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“No. I blacked out almost immediately. If anything happened, I didn’t see it.”
Yarai nodded, then looked at Akira.
“…What about you?”
Akira scratched the back of his head.
“…Yeah,” he admitted.
“I saw something. I just didn’t talk about it because it didn’t make sense.”
Mariya turned toward him, adjusting his glasses.
“What did you see?”
Akira hesitated, then spoke slowly.
“…It looked like something came through the wall of the plane,” he said.
“Like a massive beak or something and everything around it looked distorted.”
Mariya narrowed his eyes.
“…Sengoku, are you sure you didn’t hit your head harder than you think?”
Akira’s face turned red.
“That’s exactly why I didn’t say anything!”
Mariya sighed and looked toward Yarai.
“…What are you getting at?”
Yarai was quiet for a moment before answering.
“Before I spoke to you about this, I had already heard similar accounts from Towa-san and Akagami.”
Mariya’s expression changed slightly.
“They both told me they had seen something during the turbulence that looked like a large beak passing through the aircraft.”
Akira stared at him.
“…Wait. They saw it too?”
“Yes. Their descriptions were not identical, but the main detail was the same. Both of them saw something resembling a large beak pass through the aircraft without damaging the wall.”
Akira was silent for a moment.
“…So I wasn’t imagining it.”
“Not if you remember it correctly,” Yarai replied.
Mariya adjusted his glasses and thought for a moment.
“Three people independently describing the same phenomenon makes it difficult to dismiss as imagination. There may be some kind of explanation for what they saw, even if we don’t understand it yet.”
Akira frowned.
“Then why did only the three of us see it? Mariya and Oomori-san were on the plane too. They disappeared during the turbulence just like me.”
Yarai answered calmly.
As Mariya mentioned, he blacked out almost immediately, so he may have missed it.
The same could have happened to some of the others.
Others may simply not have been looking in the direction where it appeared.
We can’t assume everyone on the plane would have seen it.”
Akira looked uneasy.
“…That sounds like some kind of supernatural shit.”
Mariya shook his head.
“I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. It could have been some kind of optical illusion, a visual effect caused by whatever happened during the turbulence, or something we haven’t identified yet.”
He adjusted his glasses.
“But whatever the explanation is, I don’t believe an actual object could simply pass through the aircraft without leaving any damage.”
Yarai nodded.
“I agree. But we don’t have enough evidence to determine what it was.”
He paused briefly.
“That is also why I didn’t bring this up in front of everyone else. We already have enough unanswered questions. Telling everyone that something impossible may have appeared inside the aircraft would only cause more fear without giving them anything useful.”
“…Then the others who disappeared might have also ended up somewhere else on the island?” Akira asked.
Mariya nodded slightly.
“It’s possible. If the same thing happened to the other missing passengers, they may have been scattered across the island.”
Akira’s expression grew more serious.
“Then they could be in serious danger. We were lucky to have found each other after waking up. What if they woke up alone and ran into something like that Diatryma?”
Mariya lowered his gaze slightly.
“That is the problem. We have no idea where they are or what they have encountered. And if there are more predators like the ones we’ve already seen, their chances may depend entirely on where they woke up”
Akira clenched his fist.
“…But if they are out there, they could already be fighting for their lives.”
Mariya nodded.
“Let’s hope we’re wrong.”
Akira lowered his gaze.
“…Yeah.”
Yarai had been listening quietly until then, then finally spoke.
“…There’s another issue,” he said.
“The animals we have seen don’t seem to match what we know about them.”
Mariya glanced at him.
“You mean their behavior?”
“That too,” Yarai replied.
“But I’m more concerned about their physical appearance. They match the reconstructed models in your encyclopedia far too closely.”
Mariya’s expression changed as he considered it.
Akira looked between them.
“…I’m lost again.”
Mariya rubbed the back of his neck before explaining.
“Extinct animals are reconstructed from incomplete fossil records. We don’t know everything about them. Their appearance, posture, and even some aspects of their behavior have to be inferred from limited evidence.”
Akira still looked confused, so Mariya continued.
“Take Tyrannosaurus rex. Our idea of what it looked like has changed over time. Older illustrations often depicted it with a more upright posture and its tail dragging behind it.”
He pulled up several images on his laptop and showed them to Akira.
“Modern reconstructions look very different. We know much more about its posture now, and there has even been debate about whether it had feathers.”
Akira’s eyes widened.
“…Feathers? Seriously?”
Mariya nodded.
“The point is that our understanding changes when new evidence appears. Reconstructions are never guaranteed to be completely accurate.”
He looked toward Yarai.
“But the animals we’ve seen don’t have those uncertainties. Their proportions, skull shapes, and overall structures match the reconstructions almost exactly.”
Yarai nodded.
“…That’s what bothers me.”
Akira’s expression grew more uneasy.
“…So what are you saying?”
Mariya lowered his gaze for a moment.
“I don’t know yet. But if our reconstructions are based on incomplete evidence, we shouldn’t be seeing these animals with this level of accuracy. Something about that doesn’t add up.”
Yarai remained silent for a moment.
“Then we shouldn’t assume our knowledge is complete.”
He looked toward the jungle.
“We need to observe more before we decide what any of this means.”
After a brief silence, Akira asked,
“What’s the plan now?”
“We’ll gather more supplies,” Yarai said.
“We’ve already checked the cabin. Next is the cargo hold.”
Mariya looked at him.
“The cargo hold? How do we access it?”
“Towa-san mentioned a maintenance hatch inside the cabin,” Yarai replied.
“It leads to the cargo section.”
Yarai turned toward Ono, Itou, and Mikoshiba.
“You three, come with us. We’ll need help carrying everything back.”
Ono nodded.
“Alright.”
Itou stretched his arms.
“Sounds like heavy work.”
Mikoshiba sighed but followed them.
Akira grabbed Mariya’s sleeve before he could say anything.
“Then let’s go.”
“W-wait,” Mariya protested.
“Why am I going? I can supervise from here.”
Akira ignored him and started dragging him along.
“Sengoku, you bastard.”
Yarai followed behind them, watching their exchange without comment.
They soon reached the others.
Rion was sitting beside Kanako, carefully stitching the torn fabric of her skirt.
“You’re good at this,” Kanako said quietly.
“It’s nothing special,” Rion replied.
Kanako hesitated, then glanced at her and muttered,
“…Are you and Akira-kun… in a relationship?”
Rion froze.
Her face turned red almost instantly.
“N-No! It’s not like that,” she said quickly.
“We’re just childhood friends.”
Towa let out a soft laugh.
“Just friends, huh?”
Rion looked away, flustered.
At that moment, Akira walked in, followed by Mariya, Yarai, and the others.
“Rion, why is your face red?”
Rion immediately hit him on the head.
“What the hell what did I even I do…” Akira winced, rubbing his head.
“Shut up, idiot. It’s your fault.”
Kanako and Kurusu couldn’t help but laugh.
Yarai moved towards Towa and asked
“Towa-san, show us the hatch. We need to access the cargo hold.”
Towa nodded and stood up.
“Alright, this way.”
They moved to the rear section of the aircraft and stopped beside a reinforced panel embedded in the floor.
“This is it,” Towa said.
“It’s narrow, so be careful.”
Yarai looked at it briefly before speaking.
“I won’t fit through that. The rest of you go down.”
Akira nodded.
“…Alright.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Ono and Itou pried the hatch open.
The panel gave way with a dull metallic sound.
Akira lowered himself first, followed by Mariya.
Ono, Itou, and Mikoshiba climbed down after them.
The passage was tight enough to force them to descend carefully, but it opened into a much larger space below.
Rows of luggage filled the cargo hold, stacked tightly in place.
Akira looked around.
“…That’s a lot.”
Mariya stepped forward.
“Expected. Now don’t waste time.”
They began opening the luggage.
“Focus on essentials,” Mariya instructed.
“Food, sealed supplies, tools, batteries. Ignore unnecessary items.”
Ono unzipped a bag and pulled out a pile of clothes, letting them fall carelessly to the floor.
“…Man, people really bring a lot of useless junk.”
Itou smirked and nudged another suitcase aside with his foot.
“Yeah, what are we even supposed to do with this?”
Mariya didn’t look up.
“Then stop wasting time and move on,” he said flatly.
Itou clicked his tongue.
“Relax, glasses. We’re checking.”
Ono tossed another handful of clothes aside, scattering them further.
Akira frowned as he stepped around the mess.
“Hey, don’t just throw things around.”
“Why not?” Ono shrugged.
“We’re not taking it anyway.”
A cold, calm voice came from above, causing the trio to freeze.
“Listen to what he is saying,” Yarai said.
“Follow his instructions properly.”
His tone darkened slightly.
“If I have to come down there because you’re wasting time or ignoring him, I’ll throw you outside myself.”
Ono stiffened.
“…Tch… understood,” he muttered.
Itou clicked his tongue but didn’t argue.
“…Yeah, yeah. We’re listening.”
Mikoshiba stayed silent, immediately adjusting his behavior.
Akira glanced up toward the hatch, then back at them.
“…That worked fast,” he muttered under his breath.
Akira exhaled quietly and glanced at Mariya.
“…He’s serious,” he said under his breath.
“Obviously,” Mariya replied, continuing to sort through the luggage.
“Now get back to work.”
They continued opening the luggage, but now with focus.
Items were no longer scattered carelessly.
Food, tools, and supplies were separated into small, organized piles.
After a while, Mariya spoke again.
“If you open a bag, finish checking it before moving on.”
Akira scratched his head as he worked.
“You’re taking this too seriously.”
“Efficiency matters,” Mariya replied.
“We won’t have time to search later.”
Time passed as they worked through row after row.
Eventually, Itou straightened and stretched his back.
“…Even if we take only what we need, carrying all this up is going to be a pain.”
Mikoshiba nodded.
“It’ll take too long.”
Mariya adjusted his glasses.
“Then we don’t need to carry it individually. Pack everything into a few bags.”
They reorganized everything again.
Food, tools, and useful items were consolidated into a small number of bags and packed tightly to avoid wasting space.
By the end, five bags sat ready near the center of the cargo hold.
Itou let out a long breath.
“…Done.”
Mariya looked over the arrangement and gave a small nod.
“This will do.”
He looked up toward the hatch.
“We’re done.”
A moment later, footsteps moved above them.
Yarai stepped away from the hatch and approached Towa.
“Tell me how to open the cargo door from the outside,” he said.
Towa pointed toward the rear of the aircraft.
“There’s a latch near the lower panel,” she explained.
“It’s stiff, so you’ll need to pull hard.”
Yarai nodded once and turned to leave.
“Be careful,” Towa added.
Yarai nodded before walking toward the exit.