When sunlight entered the shelter, Kasumigaoka Utaha opened her eyes.
Her vision was still slightly blurry, but the warm, comfortable sensation on her forehead was gone.
She reached up and touched it.
The hot compress made from her underwear had already been removed and folded neatly on a nearby stone.
Beside it were several pieces of smoked crocodile meat and a cup of water that was still slightly warm.
The fire was still burning, but the person who had been sitting beside it was gone.
The backpack was gone.
The steel rod was gone too.
“…Aoyama-kun?”
No one answered.
The shelter was empty, filled only with the fresh scent of rain-soaked air and vegetation.
It felt as if the entire world had been washed clean overnight.
Utaha pushed herself up.
Her head still felt slightly dizzy, but the unbearable heat that had consumed her entire body had already faded considerably.
She touched her forehead and found that her temperature had dropped significantly.
It was not completely normal yet, but at least the fever was no longer severe.
“Where did he run off to this early in the morning…?”
She muttered quietly, picked up the cup beside her, and took a sip.
The warm water slid down her throat, easing her discomfort and making her feel much better.
As for whether Aoyama had abandoned her and left, Utaha trusted him.
…
At the same time, Aoyama was walking along a narrow path deep inside the forest.
The forest after the rain looked as if it had been freshly painted.
Everywhere he looked was filled with vibrant shades of green.
Water droplets hung from the leaves, while sunlight filtered through gaps in the canopy, creating golden beams that stretched toward the ground.
He held the steel rod in one hand, while the sharpened ballpoint pen knife hung at his waist.
His pace was steady, neither hurried nor slow.
His eyes constantly scanned his surroundings, searching for anything that might prove useful.
When he passed by the roots of an old tree, his footsteps stopped.
Beneath a patch of damp vegetation, he recognized several herbaceous plants with fine hairs covering their leaves, serrated edges, and small yellow flowers blooming at their tips.
“Thorowax.”
Aoyama crouched down and carefully pulled several plants out by the roots, shaking off the dirt.
He continued forward for a while longer before finding another medicinal herb in a wet area near a bend in the path.
The leaves were heart-shaped with a purple-green color, and crushing them released a strong fragrance.
“This is perilla.
A common herb used to dispel cold and relieve exterior symptoms.”
He separated the two herbs, wrapped them in large leaves, and placed them inside his backpack.
Just as he was about to turn back, an unusual sound came from deep within the forest ahead.
“Was that a human voice?”
Aoyama immediately moved behind a large tree and listened carefully.
The sound grew closer.
It was mixed with heavy breathing, hurried footsteps, and the hoarse shouting of a man.
“…Don’t, don’t chase me anymore…
please…”
“Leave the stuff behind!
You can’t escape!”
The next moment, two figures burst out of the bushes one after another.
The man running in front was in his early thirties.
He wore a jacket covered in mud and bloodstains, and a bulging hiking backpack was strapped to his back.
The sleeve on his left arm had been torn open, blood dripping down his fingers.
His face was pale, and his entire appearance was miserable.
The man chasing him was slightly younger.
His skin was dark from exposure, and he carried a long knife polished until it shone.
Dark red bloodstains remained on the blade.
His eyes carried a nearly insane viciousness.
His movements were steady and fast, clearly showing that he was far more experienced than the man in front.
“…”
Aoyama stood behind the tree without moving.
But the man carrying the backpack had already seen him.
At the edge of life and death, he seemed to have grabbed onto his final lifeline.
He screamed and rushed toward Aoyama, trying to drag him into the middle of their pursuit.
“Brother…
help me!
He’s trying to kill me…”
After running a few more steps, the man with the knife also noticed Aoyama.
His movements paused briefly, and his eyes quickly swept over him.
A teenager wearing a school uniform.
A steel rod in his hand.
A tall but not particularly muscular figure.
The man’s expression quickly changed from caution into the sly look of someone who had already found a plan.
“Brother, don’t listen to his nonsense!” the knife-wielding man shouted, his voice deliberately warm and friendly.
“That bastard stole my stuff!”
“His backpack has a lot of food and medicine.
Help me stop him, and we’ll split it between us!”
The backpack man’s face instantly turned pale.
He glared back at the knife-wielding man, then looked toward Aoyama, his lips trembling as he tried to explain.
But Aoyama ignored him.
He did not even spare the backpack man another glance.
“This distance is enough.”
At the exact moment the knife-wielding man shouted those words, Aoyama moved.
His speed far exceeded the expectations of both men.
His entire body shot forward like a black shadow.
A sharp sound cut through the air.
It was the sound of the steel rod tearing through the air at high speed.
The knife-wielding man’s expression was still frozen in the middle of his scheme when the steel rod in Aoyama’s hand pierced straight through his chest.
“Puuh!”
The crisp sound of penetration echoed.
The rod entered his flesh, pierced his heart, and burst out from his back.
The tip of the steel rod emerged again, carrying a spray of dark red blood.
Blood flowed down the metal surface in streams.
“You…”
The knife-wielding man lowered his head in disbelief, staring at the steel rod that had pierced through his chest.
His throat produced several unclear gurgling sounds.
His eyes widened as if he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
Aoyama did not let go.
Holding the end of the steel rod with one hand, he suddenly lifted his arm upward.
The man’s body, weighing over a hundred kilograms, was lifted off the ground with one arm, hanging in the air like a heavy sack.
“…Is this even human?”
The backpack man stood frozen as if his soul had been ripped away.
His mouth was wide open, his eyes almost falling out of their sockets.
Aoyama flicked his wrist and threw the body off the steel rod.
The corpse spun halfway through the air before crashing into the muddy ground several meters away, splashing mud everywhere.
The long knife slipped from the loosened right hand and fell onto a stone with a metallic clang.
“A knife will make things much easier.”
Aoyama bent down and picked up the weapon, carefully examining it.
The blade was around fifty centimeters long, sharpened on one side with a thick back.
Although it had not been maintained perfectly, it was clearly a real metal weapon.
He weighed it in his hand.
The balance felt good.
Compared to the steel rod, it was far more suitable for close combat.
Holding the knife, he turned toward the backpack man.
“You…
you…”
The man’s face had changed from pale to ashen.
His lips trembled, and his entire body shook uncontrollably.
He had witnessed everything.
A teenager in a school uniform had used a steel rod to pierce an adult man’s heart in only two or three seconds, then thrown the body away like trash.
That kind of strength and speed was completely beyond what a normal human should possess.
“A monster…
he’s definitely a monster!”
“Don’t…
don’t kill me…”
The backpack man dropped to his knees with a thud.
His knees struck the wet mud, splashing dirt onto his face.
He clasped his hands together and begged incoherently.
“I…
I’ll give everything to you!
Everything!”
“There are canned foods, compressed biscuits, medicine, and water in the backpack…
I’ll give them all to you!
Just let me go!
Please, let me go!”
As he spoke, he hurriedly removed the backpack from his shoulders and pushed it toward Aoyama with trembling hands, as if handing over a burning piece of metal.
Aoyama glanced at the backpack.
It was stuffed full.
The zipper was not completely closed, and he could clearly see that it contained many supplies.
Then his gaze returned to the man.
The wound on his left arm was bleeding.
It was not life-threatening, but without treatment, infection was almost guaranteed in this environment.
If he let him leave, with his current condition, he probably would not survive long in this forest.
“And besides…”
Aoyama thought of Kasumigaoka Utaha.
For both him and Utaha, unstable people like this were dangerous variables.
Aoyama smiled faintly.
“Idiot.
If I kill you, these things still belong to me.”
“Huh?!”
The backpack man froze completely.
“Wait…”
Aoyama stepped forward.
The long knife in his hand flashed with a silver arc.
One minute later, his backpack had gained another bulging hiking bag.
And behind him were two more corpses.
Aoyama crouched down and opened the backpack, checking through its contents.
The supplies inside made his eyes brighten.
“Three cans, two packs of compressed biscuits, a small first-aid kit containing bandages, iodine, and several packs of antibiotics, plus a flare gun and two signal flares.”
There was something else hidden inside the bottom compartment.
A folded waterproof map.
Several locations had been marked on it with red ink.
One of the marked points was near the southern coastline of the island.
Beside it were several crooked handwritten words.
“Gathering point.”
“Resource point.”
“…So it really wasn’t only me and Kasumigaoka Utaha who were transported here.”
Aoyama folded the map and put it into his pocket before stuffing everything back into the hiking backpack, including the compressed biscuits and canned food.
He stood up, carrying two weapons.
The long knife and the steel rod.
With the fully packed hiking backpack on his shoulders, he started walking back the way he came.
After taking a few steps, he stopped and looked back at the two bodies lying in the mud.
“The other people on this island need to be watched carefully.”
He withdrew his gaze and disappeared into the dense forest.
…
Aoyama’s pace was much faster on the way back.
About half an hour later, he saw the outline of the shelter.
The fire was still burning, and orange light leaked out from within.
“…I’m back.”
When he entered the shelter, Kasumigaoka Utaha was sitting against the stone wall.
She had already put her school jacket back on.
Her black hair fell over her shoulders, and her complexion was much better than yesterday.
Although she was still slightly pale, the unhealthy flush from her fever was gone.
Hearing his voice, she raised her head.
Then she saw the long knife in his hand, the bulging new backpack on his back, and the faint dark red marks on his sleeve that had been washed lighter by the rain but were still visible.
Utaha’s pupils narrowed slightly.
“…”
But her gaze only lingered on those marks for a moment before moving away.
She did not ask what they were.
She did not ask what had happened.
She only looked at Aoyama and softly said,
“Welcome back, Aoyama-kun.”
“Are you hungry?
I reheated the meat.”
Standing at the entrance of the shelter, Aoyama was silent for two seconds before nodding.
“Yeah.
Drink the medicine first.
I found some herbs.”
The corners of Utaha’s lips curved slightly.
She did not ask any more questions.
She quietly accepted the thorowax and perilla he handed her, then watched as he sat down beside the fire.
The uneasiness in her heart finally disappeared.