Further down the aisle, a small group of students had gathered together.
After the attack, none of them wanted to remain alone.
Aya Tokiwa stood beside a window, watching the area beneath the aircraft.
Her eyes followed every movement outside, and she fell silent whenever something brushed against the vegetation.
“Aya…” someone called softly.
She did not respond at first.
After a moment, she spoke without turning around.
“It’s still there,” she said quietly.
Nearby, Takashi Yamaguchi adjusted his glasses and looked toward the front of the cabin.
“We need some kind of plan,” he said.
“If this continues, we can’t keep waiting without knowing what we’re supposed to do.”
“You’re starting again,” Shizuka Hatsuse said.
“Keep it short. No one is going to listen to a long explanation right now.”
Takashi’s shoulders slumped.
“…Right.”
“Good grief.” Shizuka rubbed her forehead.
Not far from them, Yuki Sakuma watched her classmates move through the cabin, her expression remained tense.
“Everyone, return to your seats if you’re not helping,” she called out.
“Stop wandering around. You’re only making it harder for everyone else to move.”
A few students returned to their seats, though several remained close to the windows.
Near the rear section, Maya Miyauchi leaned against a seat..
“That thing was big,” she muttered.
“If only we had something to fight with.”
Someone nearby stared at her.
“You’re thinking about fighting it…?”
Maya scratched the back of her head.
“No. I’m saying we need something to protect ourselves.”
The students beside her sighed in relief.
Gradually, the noise throughout the aircraft grew quieter.
Passengers returned to their seats.
Some leaned against the seats and closed their eyes as exhaustion caught up with them.
Others remained awake, too tense to rest.
Yarai returned to his earlier seat near the window.
Andrewsarchus…
The name came to him naturally, as though he had seen the creature many times before, but not like this.
Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember where that knowledge had come from.
It was an extinct land predator that had lived millions of years ago.
It should not have existed beneath a modern aircraft.
The plants, the animals, and the environment did not fit together.
Any one of those things might have had an explanation, but the more he observed, the less likely that seemed.
There was not enough information to understand the island yet.
Only enough to know that something was seriously wrong.
As the immediate danger passed, the tension in his body began to ease.
The exhaustion he had been holding back caught up with him.
He leaned back against the seat, intending to rest for only a few minutes.
He fell asleep before he realized it.
For the moment, the situation inside the aircraft appeared to have calmed down.
However, the tension that had been held down since the attack had not disappeared, and it slowly began to rise again as the passengers grew increasingly anxious.
From the middle of the cabin, a voice suddenly rose above the others, cutting through the uneasy silence.
“How long are we supposed to wait like this?”
Several people turned toward the voice.
A man had risen from his seat, his expression tense with frustration.
“You said the radio is working, right? Then where is the rescue?”
“That’s right,” another voice added nearby.
“It’s been a while already!”
“My family is missing!” someone else shouted.
“What are you doing about that?!”
“Why aren’t we moving?”
“Why are we still here?!”
The crowd surged forward and began banging on the cockpit door.
“What’s the meaning of this?!”
Tsuchiya stepped out of the cockpit.
His expression tightened as he faced the growing crowd.
“Please stay calm,” he said, raising his voice just enough to be heard.
“Rescue will be there soon.”
“That’s not good enough!” the first man snapped.
“You expect us to just sit here after what happened?!”
The voices began to overlap as more passengers joined the argument.
Their demands grew louder, and the tension inside the cabin quickly turned into anger.
“Quit messing with us!”
Hearing the noise from the front, Rion, Eiken, Arita, and the others noticed the crowd moving toward the cockpit.
“What’s happening?” Rion asked.
“H-hey… let’s go take a look,” Eiken said.
As they approached, they found Towa kneeling beside Eiji while Asami stood nearby, watching the crowd with a worried expression.
“Oh God… what happened?” Rion asked as she looked at Eiji.
“Passengers tried to force their way into the cockpit,” Towa replied, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at Eiji.
“Eiji-san tried to stop them… they beat him badly.”
“That’s terrible…” Rion said, her voice filled with shock.
From the front, the noise only grew louder.
“Please check on the captain,” Asami said.
“I’m afraid the crowd might do something in anger.”
Rion and the others knew they couldn’t do much, but they still nodded and moved forward.
By the time they arrived, several passengers had already surrounded Tsuchiya. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“You better explain, captain!”
“Hey, you can’t go in!”
The crowd pushed forward and forced Tsuchiya back as they entered the cockpit.
The moment they saw inside, their expressions changed.
Their anger rose further at what they saw.
The radio was damaged and its casing was burned.
Arita, who had stepped into the cockpit, froze as if his soul had left his body.
“What the heck?!” he shouted.
“So this is your ‘working radio’?!”
The crowd immediately turned on Tsuchiya.
One passenger grabbed his tie and pulled him forward.
“Get out! All of you!”
“It was a lie, wasn’t it?!”
“You said the radio contact was restored and rescue is coming?!”
“Listen!” Tsuchiya tried to speak.
“I had no choice but to say that…”
“Liar!”
“Shut up!”
The argument continued as the passengers crowded around Tsuchiya.
Amid the pushing and shouting, someone forced their way forward and Tsuchiya suddenly gasped.
His body stiffened before he stumbled backward, and only then did the people around him notice the blood spreading across the front of his shirt.
“What… he’s been stabbed…”
“Why is there a knife?!”
“Who did it?!”
“How should I know?!”
“Dammit… we’re done…”
“No…”
“Waa…”
Rion rushed forward and dropped beside him as blood spread quickly.
“Mister Captain… hang in there…”
“Eiken-kun! Go get sensei!”
“Okay!”
“I… I will be alright… it’s dangerous… get away…” Tsuchiya said weakly.
“Don’t talk,” Rion said.
“Please…”
“Eiken-kun, hurry!”
The passengers were already moving in panic.
They pushed past without care.
Some even stepped over him.
“Out of the way!”
One passenger shoved Rion aside.
“Akagami!”
Eiken was pushed back as well.
He ran back to find the teachers.
The situation collapsed completely and the next moment, complete chaos broke out as passengers began attacking each other.
“Who did it?!”
“Someone in this crowd has a knife!”
“Get away from me!”
A man shoved the person beside him.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“You were standing right there!”
Another passenger pushed between them, but someone struck him from behind.
The first fight broke out near the cockpit
Within seconds, people farther back began shouting as well.
Rumors moved through the cabin faster than anyone could stop them.
“He has a weapon!”
“They’re attacking people!”
“Get away!”
Passengers pushed through the aisle, knocking into seats and one another.
Some tried to reach the exits, while others fought anyone who grabbed or blocked them.
“Nooo…!”
“Please spare me… argh!”
“Kouhei-kun!”
“Kouhei-kun, help me!”
“Bitch… how dare you!”
Some people completely lost control.
Several men began assaulting female passengers.
They grabbed their clothes and forced them down.
“Ahh!”
Aya reacted before the man in front of her could grab her again.
She drove a small blade into his arm and pulled away, then ran toward the other side of the cabin.
Not far away, Towa and Kurusu were dragged down by their hair.
Their attackers covered their mouths as they struggled against them.
“Unh… unh…!”
Just then, a kick struck one of the attackers in the face.
It sent him crashing into the wall.
Yarai had woken when the shouting began.
He pushed forward through the aisle.
People were still fighting around him.
Some stumbled into his path, but he forced his way through without stopping. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
By the time he reached the front section, the situation had already broken down.
Without saying a word, Yarai stepped forward and drove his fist into the first man’s jaw, sending him sideways into a row of seats.
Before the second man could react, Yarai stepped in and drove his knee into his stomach.
It knocked the air out of him.
He followed with a sharp blow to the side of his head.
Both men collapsed and remained motionless.
Towa and Kurusu remained frozen, still in shock.
“…Th-thank you…” Towa said, her voice trembling.
During the chaos, Towa forced away from Eiji and dragged toward the rear section of the cabin.
Towa quickly grabbed Yarai’s sleeve.
“Please help Eiji and the captain,” she said urgently.
“Eiji is injured, and a few students went toward the cockpit as well.”
Yarai didn’t answer.
He moved through the aisle.
The farther he went, the worse the situation became.
As he pushed through the cabin, he noticed Asami crying beside Eiji.
His body was twisted in the aisle, and one side of his face was bruised and covered in blood.
The injuries were too severe to have come from a single blow.
Asami looked up when she noticed him approaching.
“I tried to stop them, but no one would listen”
He crouched beside him and checked for a pulse, but found none.
Yarai clicked his tongue, and a faint irritation crossed his face.
They had not known each other for long, but Eiji had treated him with more understanding than most of the adults around them.
Yarai lifted the body and placed it carefully across a nearby seat so it would not remain in the aisle.
After adjusting his position, he looked toward Asami.
“Go back. It’s safe there now.”
Asami hesitated and glanced at Eiji.
“…Alright.”
Yarai gave a small nod before turning toward the cockpit.
A few people still tried to block his path.
“For me… this is much easier than fighting an Andrewsarchus,” he said quietly.
The first man who tried to grab him didn’t see it coming.
Yarai twisted his arm and drove him face-first into a seat.
Another lunged from the side.
Yarai stepped in and struck his throat just enough to drop him before pushing him away.
He didn’t swing wildly.
Every movement was smooth, and every strike had a purpose.
A third man rushed him in panic.
Yarai sidestepped, grabbed his collar, and slammed him hard against the aisle floor.
The impact alone was enough to make the others hesitate.
That hesitation spread.
People began to pull back.
Some tried to climb over seats just to get away from him.
Yarai continued toward the cockpit.
When he entered, he immediately understood that Tsuchiya’s condition was critical.
Blood had soaked through the uniform, and far too much had already been lost.
Rion knelt beside him, crying as she held tightly his hand
When she noticed Yarai, relief briefly crossed her face.
Tsuchiya’s fading eyes shifted toward him, and a faint smile appeared.
“Ah… Yarai-kun…” he said weakly.
“The last time I woke… I saw you… and now… as I’m closing my eyes… I’m relieved to see you again…”
Yarai didn’t pull his hand away when Tsuchiya grabbed it.
“The controller… was broken from the start,” Tsuchiya continued, coughing.
“Only Eiji and I knew… the radio was broken too… we thought… it could calm them… until rescue came…”
He coughed harder, blood spilling from his mouth.
“But after seeing this place… we lost hope…”
“You don’t need to explain,” Yarai said.
“Save your strength.”
Tsuchiya gave a weak laugh.
“…I know I’m going to die…”
His breathing grew uneven.
“Thank you… young lady… for staying with me.”
“Yarai-kun… this island… wasn’t on our route… we checked the map… there was no island… where we were in the air…”
He coughed again, struggling to continue.
“I hope… you take care of Towa-kun…Asami-kun and Eiji-kun… the crowd… will turn on them…”
“I will,” Yarai replied.
He did not mention Eiji.
There was no reason to make Tsuchiya’s final moments more painful.
Tsuchiya smiled faintly, tears forming in his eyes.
“I wish… I could see my wife and son again…”
His breathing grew weaker until it finally stopped.
Rion covered her mouth as she broke down.
Yarai remained beside Tsuchiya for a moment before closing his eyes.
He rarely got angry, but this time, his expression turned cold.
“Did you see who did it?” he asked.
Rion shook her head.
“No… There were too many people. They were pulling him in different directions, and then…”
Her voice trembled.
“…Someone stabbed him”
Yarai took a deep breath and turned.
Rion looked at Tsuchiya one more time, then stood and followed him.