Kogen stood up and let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the bearwolf's corpse. The boy looked at the hammer he was holding, the one he had used to kill the beast. It had definitely seen better days, especially before this debacle. His mauled shoulder ached with pain as he lifted it up and rotated it a few times. Really, he was almost surprised it was still there, let alone he could still move it.

Still, the damage on the hammer, the struggle he had to kill the bearwolf... it was all beyond normal. Not that the situation they were in was anything normal to begim with, but why did it take so much effort to kill the beast in the first place? And, more importantly, how did a couple of kids manage to pull it off? Kogen was almost certain they all would have died there.

As the dust settled and that peculiar warmth began to cool off, Kogen once again realized their current situation. Whatever happened before did not matter, as right now they were stranded in an unknown world full of things like that monster that would try and eat them. They needed to prepare for what was to come, even though whatever else would come after them would not be something they would be prepared to deal with.

Taking cues from Masato's angered response at the bear, Kogen would walk up to its corpse as well, kneeling down and jamming what was left of the hammer's claw into its own shoulder. As expected, its hide was quite tough, but not as tough as it was just moments ago... Now that Kogen had thought about it more, did the bearwolf perhaps attempt to will itself to resist his attack? And with that same logic, would that mean that whatever it was that allowed hum and his classmates to kill that monster, it was a similar sensation?

Eh, too much to think about, really.

Kogen would hand Inaba what was left of her hammer back rather awkwardly, flashing her a thumbs up before walking off as well. This time, however, Kogen would make his way a bit farther from everyone else, but he did try to stay within view of his classmates. Looking off into the deeper wild, Kogen would wonder just what else was out there for them to run into. Still, wonder as he might, there was one thing that Kogen knew for sure.

He killed a bearwolf.

"What? Is that all you've got, Otherside?! Send us more bearwolves if you want! Bearlions, too! Or better yet, throw us a Bearspider! Whatever you've got in store for us, it doesn't matter! This is a declaration of war! From the One-Eyed Demon King, himself!"

Kogen would shout almost triumphantly, attempting to raise his left fist into the air, realizing that it was still in pain and instead raising his right one instead.

---

//Day 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

“Shit! Shit!”

It had been over before he could even get up and help, but now, in the aftermath? It took all of Daisuke’s effort just to keeping going. Adrenaline faded now and the emotions he had locked up were bursting out of its dam, his veins popping out of his forehead as he pushed his fingers beneath the slain wolfbear and lifted. The still-warm corpse offered little resistance as it was rolled off his friend, but what remained didn’t look good either. He had seen his fair share of horror movies during training camps, had even gone and checked out some wild-ass execution videos out of morbid curiosity with Hiroshi, but this was something else. This was someone he knew. Someone he practiced with, played with, gamed with.

Guts torn out of the stomach, then mashed up by a prickly mass. Skin like ash, lips coated with too much blood. The golden-haired youth fell down, felt the weight of this great burden. Who was it that thought to charge? Who was it that got everyone involved? Sasuke offered the opportunity, but he…he had pulled the trigger.

“Fuck…” His head slumped. Shoulders slumped further.

“DUNCAN!”

And there was his little girlfriend too, running across the field. Haruko’s eyes, too bright to bear. Back to a corpse. Back to this mess. Daisuke brought his fist up and then smashed it against his jaw. It stung. Could feel one of his teeth loosen up. A cut inside his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What was he thinking? They were fucking middle schoolers, and none of them even did martial arts! They had nothing! He raised his fist again, muscles tensing with a fury that desired oblivion and ob-

His arm stopped, held back by another. There was only one person that could’ve done it.

“Sasuke, don’t stop me.” Words spat between clenched teeth. He deserved far worse than what he was doing to himself.

But the blue-haired youth didn’t let go. He cast his gaze towards Asahi briefly, his dojo friend having fallen down in shock, paralyzed once the adrenaline faded, then turned back towards Daisuke. “Look, please. Look.”

“I don’t s-”

But Daisuke did see it. And so did Haruko, caught between shock, disgust, and confusion.

They saw what everyone present saw.

They saw Duncan’s organs drag themselves back into the cavity of his stomach, saw the flesh slowly ooze itself back together. As if a time lapse in reverse. As if magic had occurred. A miracle, even.

A miracle, however, that wasn’t shared with Yuki.

...

It was funny, what people noticed at the weirdest times.

And in that moment, rather than smelling Ayana’s burnt hair, Shun instead felt the roughness of Yuudai’s lips pressed against her palm, along with the stickiness of the blood that seeped from those cracks. She couldn’t keep her hand there long though, even if she did enjoy the sensation: the crew cut boy was basically suffocating, after all.

“Phew!” He inhaled, then winced at the pain in his body. His voice was so much fainter than before, but he could still crack a smile. It took less muscles to do so, after all. “Thought you were trying to fini- Oh, uh, her, hair???”

He tried to make a move, but his body didn’t respond, and Yuudai overall was just entirely bewildered by how the class’s disaster magnet somehow didn’t realize her hair was on fire. It was surreal enough to make him forget that he could even feel some parts of his body. Thankfully, before Ayana went entirely bald, Tsubaki appeared. For a brief moment, she was paralyzed by the state of Yuudai, her brain scrambling through all the medical equipment they had (which was fucking zero, in truth), before her eyes settled on Ayana and she decided to deal with the more immediate problem.

She pushed the disaster magnet down and then stomped the fire out. The twintail was never going to be a twin again, but on the other hand, an asymmetrical hairstyle wasn’t terrible either.

More importantly, though…

“We can’t really carry him like this. Gonna need a stretcher for Yuki too.” She gnawed at her thumb, brows furrowed. An infection was basically guaranteed, huh? And though Yuudai could put on a brave face, reality was against him. But the girls didn’t need to know. “You two should go to the others. Hiroshi’s figuring something out right now. I’ll stay by Yuudai.”

Not that she could do anything. Not that any of them could really do anything.

With a sigh, Tsubaki sat down, cross-legged.

Yuudai returned her presence with a crooked smile.

...

What Kogen didn’t notice during all his grandstanding was that Rin, exactly a half-second after he returned her hammer, collapsed, falling unconscious.

And, regardless of his triumph, he also didn’t notice Masato’s back. Didn’t notice that beyond the layer of blood that obscured everything, that the flesh was mending itself, closing off that wound.

“Nice going, chuuni kid!” Despite everything, even Masato’s whole refusal to help her up, Maki had managed to get up, hopping over on her good leg to deliver a resounding slap to Kogen’s back. “Got a real killer spirit, don’tcha? Oh, Sohei! Rin’s right…well, guess you can already see her.”

And indeed, Sohei could. The older of the Ito twins slid to a stop right beside the unconscious Rin, a deluge of expressions flickering past his usually mature look, before finally settling upon relief. Against all odds, she looked mostly unharmed and was definitely breathing, her complexion healthy enough that it didn’t even really look like she was doing anything but sleeping. Without a word exchanged, he swept Rin up into his arms and strode off, rejoining the group.

“Sheesh. Didn’t figure he was such a prince-type.” Maki grinned. “I can get over there myself, so hurry up n join em, demon king. This may as well be your new debut, ya know? Same with you, Prez.”

And the cluster that was forming in the clearing certainly was growing. Except for a few pockets of injured fellows, it looked like the class was coming together. As for whether the discussion was going to be fruitful or not…

...

...Hiroshi seemed to be set on making it so.

At Kuroshio Ogata, he had been a weirdo who stuck to the library all day long, reading up on random shit and sniggering quietly to himself. He was part of the weirdo trio that never actually joined the Literature Club yet always showed up to their meetings, after all. The sort of guy who'd pull out trivia from his brain that no one asked for and no one cared for. But now? He almost sounded dependable.

Well, maybe with Masato still pulling himself together, Daisuke too concerned for Duncan to join the meeting, Mayumi still unwilling to grasp for authority in such a situation, and Rin too knocked out to bring up her hare-brained schemes, Hiroshi was only in charge by default.

It was still weird though, how wholly calm he was here.

"Yup, so we're in deep shit, but it could be worse. Those fanged deer were scary, but some of us here seem to be able to fend them off. That means rather than having dead students, we only have dying students. Which is still not great."

Ayano gripped Fujita's hand. She didn't make the wrong decision, pulling him away from Kogen. She didn't.

"We have food though. And we have fire. We need water and shelter."

Kumi's stomach growled and she clutched her stomach against her legs, ears burning up.

"Hana said she can prepare the fanged deers, if she gets help. But we'll need wood to build a proper fire up. And we need people to go off to look for water. People to build a shelter too, especially for those who were hurt. And we need a couple people to take stock of what we have too. At this point, anything could help. Even textbooks could."

As tinder, Kunio suspected. He was set though. He was 100% joining the water-searching party. The mood here was way too awful to stomach, and more importantly...the burning bus was still a beacon to draw more unwanted attention.

"The sun's probably going to set in another three hours. These tasks are not up for debate, so get organized and get going. And...Kogen, Masato, Ayana, Shun, Asahi."

Ayane's gaze turned towards her half-sister, incredulous both at her current appearance as well as for whatever 'special' treatment she was receiving right now.

"I don't believe I can order any of you around, but since you five seem to have become more capable than the rest of us, I hope you think carefully about how to best use your time. It's going to be hard but..."

Mayumi's face the entire time was one of sheer incredulity, lambasted as she was by this new side of Kuroshio's number one trivia nerd.

"...if you figure things out, the dying might not become dying."

Endo Yuki. Suzuki Maki. Higasa Yuudai. Stewart Duncan. Maybe even Inaba Rin.

Their conditions may be different, their situations may be as well, but in the end, without food, water, or a place to properly rest, they would be the first to die.

---

Asahi had never felt this level of rage and hatred before since the first time he was bullied for being who he was. He remembered the smug look on their faces, their sneering voices and laughter, and their fingers outright pointing at him. Asahi felt like something in his chest was about to burst and as he raised his fist to punch at one of the bullies, his father shouted at them as he brandished the big knife he'd use to chop off thick heavy fishes. They ran in fear while they cried as well, his father taking him in an embrace as Asahi cried the hatred away. He didn't care that his dad reeked of the smelly sea. For the first time in his life, he took pride in being the kid of fishermen.

Now, he couldn't even imagine the look on his dad's face as he punched the wolfbear with all his might. Each time his fist made contact with the animal skulls, he would grunt in anger and his tears dripped down to mix with the blood splattering all over. He was seething with anger at their situation but moreso, Asahi would realize he was much, much afraid of what could happen to all of them. Would their parents and the authorities be finding them right now? Could they same these teens?

Could they even save themselves?

Eventually, Asahi noticed the wolfbear wasn't reacting to his punches anymore and stopped, not before throwing in a few hard punches for good measure. Once the rage gradually dissipated from his system, he could finally see the aftermath of what he did to the wolfbear. Its eyes were a bloody mush, its skull broken and smashed to bits and pieces under its thick fur, and its blood and possibly even Asahi's blood as well splattered all across its face. He didn't know how they did it but they actually did the impossible. They actually did save themselves! For once, Asahi was filled with hope, until he remembered he wasn't the only one fighting the wretched freak of nature.

"Duncan-" The pink-haired lad gasped as Duncan managed to raise a thumbs-up, stupidly grinning as blood rushed out of his mouth, and his arm went limp just as the wolfbear was too. "Duncan!" Asahi shouted in panic and immediately rushed to try and push the wolfbear off him. With the adrenaline disappearing from his body, he felt himself getting weaker from exhaustion but he still did and tried his best. "Guys! Help me take this thing off Duncan! Help me!"

It was Daisuke who helped take the wolfbear off Duncan and Asahi fell down to the ground in shock and exhaustion when he finally recognized what happened to Duncan. His insides were... His body was... It was too much even for Asahi to comprehend what happened to Duncan. It felt like it was just yesterday that he was showing off his stupid flashy grin to everyone as he boasted about whatever he's proud of, and now he's just dead in front of them. In his state of tiredness and despair, Asahi could barely notice Daisuke, Sasuke, and even Haruko as she shouted for his name and ran towards their group.

Afterwards, Asahi really felt he lost his mind when he mistakenly noticed Duncan's intestines twitch. Eventually, his eyes widened and he crawled back in fear and shock as his organs really were moving back inside the blond teen's body right in front of them all.

"Wha-Wh-Wha-What... What the fuck... What the fuck is happening to us?!" Asahi said softly in disbelief and horror.

When will this concussion go away? Shun felt like throwing up like how Masato did a few hours ago. The sense of loss came in and out at strange intervals. Shun felt fine when she got out off the bus and fought the wolfbear, but when the calm came is when the concussion started to come back. The student leaned against a tree and took periodical deep breaths. If there was to recover, this small period of time would be enough to gather her bearings.

When the wolfbears had either run off or died, everyone regrouped quickly as they could. Tsubaki came over and helped out Yuudai. For Yuudai, Shun could only pray that he recovers from his injuries. They were only middle schoolers, and Shun was sure they didn't know, just like herself, any medical knowledge. As of right now, Tsubaki was most likely the one who would be taking care of the injured. She reassured both Ayana and Shun that they would be alright. They had found a temporary base if it could even be called that, and they had finished discussing what they should do.

For her, she found herself looking for a water source along with Kunio, Masami, and Masato. They could live five days without food, but they couldn't last a day without water. That was what she remembered anyways. Additionally, Shun was feeling quite parched. Fighting a wolf bear inside a burning truck didn't exactly do her wonders for her thirst. Smoke and heat clogged her senses as she exchanged blows with an animal that was probably twice her mass and height. It would have felt exhilarating but Yuudai...

No, Yuudai was fine. He was going to recover and stand back up on his two feet. What she needed to focus on was the conversation at hand. Masami suggested finding some sort of water vein in the ground. Shun didn't exactly understand how that worked. Why would water be in the ground? Though Masami seemed confident and she belonged to a priest household. Maybe priests had a spiritual affinity for ground that had water trapped in them?

The other option was trying to find a river or lake, which was suggested by the resident fisherman student Kunio. A river or lake would be far more sustainable than what Masami suggested. However, that did bring up the question. How were they going to find a river, and how far was it? The question of how they would go back to the temporary camp was left unsaid, but Shun was sure they'd find a solution. Hopefully, the trees and foliage weren't too thick.

"I agree with Kunio!" Shun said as she raised her hand. "I think digging up for underground water would be boring, so let's go around and find a river!" While she sounded like her usual self, there was a tinge of stress underneath her movements. "Plus, it would be good to explore the forest, wouldn't it?" They had to do it eventually, so they might as well look around. Along the way, they might find something useful or even find whatever Masami was looking for.

"I wonder what the water would look like?" Shun pondered aloud to herself. "Maybe the water here is purple instead of the clear blue! Oh, oh, maybe the fish can walk on land! That'd look weird, right?" Man, she was getting excited over exploring this place. However, her mindless rambling did bring up more questions. Would the river really be safe? If the monsters they encountered were abnormal, then what lurked in the waters of the river? There was only one way to find out.

"Let's just go find one of those weird animals! Since they're alive, they must require water too. We'll track one down and follow it until it leads us to a body of water!"

@Yankee

---

The Inaba junkyard was always full of treasures. The bits of sharp dented metal and broken vehicles--things that could hurt a child--were far away from where Rin had been cordoned off. The Inaba family was always busy. Always something to do, always something to fix. They could only give Rin a watchful eye and whatever cleaned up junk a child would enjoy. The young Rin didn't mind, however. She didn't really feel frustration when her family couldn't play with her. Even as a youngling, her mind wandered away from emotions and towards the objects in front of her.

Still, she wanted to get over that barrier. She wanted to see what objects lay beyond the wall. Her body was too weak and stubby to climb or push it. The most she had was the objects in front of her. A circular thing, a length of rope, and a bunch more bits that she enjoyed playing with. Her mind immediately went to work. The weakness of her stubby little form had been overcome with instinctive mechanics. The wall had been torn down. Of course, her mother was watching the whole thing and immediately ran out to grab her before she could explore. Ever since that day, Rin was intoxicated by the power mechanics could bring.

...

Rin waking up was always a strange thing to watch. Where normal people would stew in their bed on the verge of consciousness, Rin would rocket to a sitting position with her mind functioning at 100% capacity. Unfortunately, for Sohei, his moment of gentle bonding was cut short. Her head glanced a strike against his and her body straightened until he was forced to drop her.

"Sorry it happened again," Rin said with an anxious look on her face. Not because she had impacted Sohei's head again, but because of her tools. She had her hammer, but not having anything else made her feel naked. Immediately, she ran back to the dead beast that had launched her sky high. She needed her tools.

Her bag was donezo, but that didn't mean she had no way of storing it. She had pockets and socks. If she needed to, she would tuck her pants into her socks and use her entire set of overalls as a new bag. Recollecting her tools were of the upmost important. It was a good thing she kept spares in her bag. Even if one was permanently lost, she might luck her way into its double.

...

Collecting what she could, she returned to the group with her mind calmed. She did her best to ignore the screams and sobs. She'd join up with the shelter-team. Building was always one of Rin's forte. Even if the concepts to her blueprints weren't sound, her techniques were. Her role was more leaning towards advisement. How to tie knots, how to put the structure together, etc. What she was really doing was sharpening sticks that seemed particularly strong.

She was making simple spears. Just in case.

______________________________________________________________________

'You five seem to have become more capable than the rest of us.' What the hell was that supposed to mean, really? Masato massaged the sides of his head as he mentally picked through everything that had happened, was happening, and what Maeda said while he tagged along with the water-fetching team.

It was true that something weird was happening. A lot of the students, including Hoshino and Kondo, claimed that Stewart had been disemboweled - and yet he hadn't been by the time Masato had rejoined the group. Plus his own wounds seemed to be healing much, much faster than they normally would. The skin of his back and legs felt tight as it knitted itself together, and they had already stopped bleeding. Was it the nature of the Otherside making this happen? If so, why did it only have effect on some of the students and not all of them? Had he been infected with something? Bacteria from the monsters claws, maybe?

This really sucks, was all he could think on the matter at the moment.

The water-fetching team consisted of himself, Takehara, one of the Ito brothers (The younger one... I think?) and Kanamori. It was possible that they would venture the farthest away from the others in their search, so for the greatest protection there were two of those "more capable" on this team. For Masato, it was the most useful thing he could think to do. Plus he was eager to wash himself off. This was one of the reasons he disagreed with Takehara's ground water plan, though he didn't say it aloud.

"If we were in a safer location, digging for water would be a good idea. But we're all tired and it'll take too long to get enough for everyone." Well, probably. He'd never dug a well before. But if they found a body of water that wasn't too far away, maybe they could move the entire group there. It went against his initial thoughts about staying put in case of emergency, but desperate times.

His personal reason of preferring searching for a river had to be better than Kanamori's though. Masato shot the girl an incredulous look when she said she was more concerned with which option was more fun. She mused out loud about what weird things she thought they might see while Ito Kunio started his way up a tree to listen for water, but when she mentioned finding more monsters.

"Stop," he snapped at her. "There are five people really hurt because of those things and you want to find more? Kanamori, take this seriously."

It was incredible how nonchalant she seemed about the whole situation, but Masato did not share in her whimsy whatsoever. He breathed in and let the air out in one aggressive puff through his nostrils.

"Come on, help me carry all the water bottles we can," he told her, borrowing one of the backpacks that was still intact so that once Ito or Takehara pointed them in a direction they'd be all set to get going.

______________________________________________________________________


Ayana finally had some time to recover from the rush of adrenaline and the subsequent pushing and stomping of the fire by Tsubaki. She was starting to think, that no matter what creature or threat that they came across, that it would always pale in comparison to Tsubaki. Beginning to believe that Tsubaki was quite scary in her own right when she wanted to be. She was at least thankful that Tsubaki had put the fire out, even if it had cost her one of her twin tails. Even with its loss, she didn’t bother to change up anything else and just let it be for the moment.

There were far more pressing concerns and matters to be handled now that the primary concern and threat had been taken care of. There was the matter of survival still at hand which needed to be addressed. Wood to be gathered, water to be collected, shelter to be built, it was quite a list, but one that none of them could hope to live on without.

Not even the incredulous gaze of her half-sister caught her attention in the moment. There was a lot to consider, but not a lot of time to consider it. However, Ayana knew what task she would excel in the best at the current time. After all she was in a lot better shape and condition then a fair few of her fellow classmates after the wolf bears had wreaked havoc. She had also noticed that the scraps, bruises and burns she had gotten in the brawl with the wolf bear all seemed to have faded away like they had never happened. Though she had been quick to note, this same fact didn’t seem to apply to her lost tail.

“Aye Aye Captain” bringing her hand up to her forehead in a salute upon hearing Hiroshi’s request. Taking a rather rigid pose for a moment as she held the salute. With what he said under consideration, she knew she would be best served to go fetch the wood. As it seemed to her to be the most strenuous activity with the most foot work. Figuring she would be one of the best to venture out with the shape some of the others where in. As she still felt quite energized for some reason, which came as a surprise. But she didn’t have time to think about it too hard, the faster she and the wood gathering group got going, the better.


As she got situated and figured out who was all part of the group. She noticed that amongst the other three, she was quite unfamiliar with all of them. She had not ever really interacted with Sasuke, Kumi or Juro before in the past. This could prove a useful opportunity to know them better and even maybe make some friends along the way.

Taking a deep breath before she expressed her thoughts to them. Feeling quite nervous as she gathered up her courage. She wasn’t used to speaking up too often. Nor was she all that fond of being the one in charge as it usually led to disaster. But, she felt in this moment she should share her thoughts about how to proceed.

“So, about gathering the wood, I think it will be best to try to fetch wood from further out from the camp, if we gather the stuff close to the camp site, we will exhaust our resources far quicker, if we leave the stuff closest to us, it allows us to gather it when we need it in case of emergency, at least that is my opinion about how to gather it, plus it will give us the chance to learn more about the surrounding area” Her Sapphire gaze moving between the trio of classmates as she finished up. Though she tried to keep it cool, her nerves were at a all time high. Trying to hide any sign of them behind her best attempt at a stern and serious expression. Which didn’t seem all that serious or stern as one of her eyebrows was twitching at the effort.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

It was curious thing, how time flexed and fluctuated as it continued its path down the stream. In one moment, seconds could be draw out to weeks, and in another, hours could be condensed into a single phrase. The Sun, if it was truly the Sun that all the students were familiar with, fell soon, casting a summer’s blue into the deep magenta hues of twilight. Open skies invited foreign stars whilst whisking away the dry heat that had once been so oppressive but remained now only a pleasant memory. It was something else that Hiroshi had warned them all about. The heat that remained upon the surface of the clearing would be reflected back up if there were no clouds blocking the way.

It would be a cold night for the students who had been dressed with the expectation that they’d have a home to return to, and despite the Shelter-Building team’s best efforts, despite the abundance of tools they had, it was still a tall order to create a shelter large enough for twenty-eight adolescents, some of whom were well above the average size of a Japanese middle schooler. They had no ropes for lashing things together either, so while Rin’s theories about knots could’ve been helpful, there were few places for actual application. In the end, the best that they accomplished was a simple lean-to utilizing forked branches and thick brush. Leafy branches served as a springy, but uncomfortable mattress, and more of them were set up within the charred frame of the bus. Perhaps five people could fit inside the lean-to; the rest would have to make do.

Fire, however, wasn’t nearly so big of a problem. While Kumi was complaining about blisters and Juro was picking out splinters from his palms, the firewood gathering team returned with two armfuls of wood each. Without an axe, they couldn’t come away with a thick log or anything and without a way to more effectively carry wood, they were limited by the length of their arms, but regardless, it was enough. Juro caught a flame from the smouldering remains of the bus while Sasuke and Ayana continued to make more trips to gather more wood. By the time night had fallen, they had enough to at least seen them through the night. And with the blaze cooking up the flat rocks that Kumi had found, she was ready to start cooking.

And thankfully, there was indeed something to actually cook.

The processing of the two wolfbears had been a messy task. Without a spare change of clothes or even an apron, Hana cautioned both Tsubasa and Kogen about being careful. Getting dirty here would mean that the stench of death would cling onto them for a fair long while, unless they were willing to sacrifice some water. With Kogen’s strength however, they were able to gut the beasts and drain them of their blood a good distance away from the clearing. Skinning was a more difficult task and the trio had practically mangled the first wolfbear owing to their inexperience. The chuuni of the trio, however, made an important discovery: the hooked claws of the wolfbears were wickedly sharp, somehow even sharper than Hana’s knife. Though they didn’t have an edge, they were still good enough for roughly parting flesh. And the claws were good…then so were the teeth. Incisors were popped out from the bloody gums, the longest of them nearly the length of Hana’s index finger. It was a grisly task, perhaps even more disgusting than simply butchering the beast, but she continued on. There were tools to gather, tools that could make future forays into this matter easier.

Between Kogen’s silent schemes and Hana’s silent craft, Tsubasa was the only one that remained focused on the task at hand. Though the meat stank and would likely be stupidly tough, they still had a lot of it, and the fur, though bristly, may make for a decent enough blanket too, once they had the time to scrape the fat that still adhered to it. Perhaps it’d be better tomorrow, once they had more daylight to work with.

Perhaps tomorrow, there would be more bottles of water to fill too.

Though Masami set a good pace once the water-searching team’s method was settled on, and though Kunio, Masato, and Shun were all capable of keeping up with that pace, it had still taken them far too long to find water. They had to be on the lookout for more monsters, after all, while their own fumbling through the woods would no doubt have scared away any prey animals in the vicinity. The occasional stints of tree-climbing that Kunio did to try to get a vantage point was ultimately for naught as well, with the forest itself serving to mask any sound of running water. They were fumbling in the dark, figuratively. Soon, they would be fumbling in the dark, literally. It was a stroke of luck then, when two hours into their search, they came across a small, running stream. The flow was languid, the water was murky, but none of them were willing to leave empty-handed. So on Kunio’s recommendation, they drained the clear, filtered water that was in their own canteens, and then filled it with the stream. Maybe if they followed upstream, they would find its source. Maybe if they followed it downstream, they would find a reserve.

Of course, no one back at camp was really willing to try out the water they brought back, not after Asahi’s inventory count proved that everyone had water (some even tea or miso soup) and that most of them had their lunch boxes too, filled with nutritious, filling meals!
Except for Ayano, who was dieting. She combined bentos with Fujita.

Kumi was at her element now, searing steaks of gamey meat on hot rocks, using fire-hardened sticks to flip them. She received the murky water gratefully from Masami, washing her hands off with it as she continued to work with Tsubasa and Sohei to manage the fire and the cooking. With bento lids gathered up, Daisuke went back and forth, delivering cuts of wolfbear meat to the students gathered around the fireplace. It couldn’t be considered peaceful, really. But it was an illusion of it, at the very least. Some compassion was all you needed to calm the howling mind.

...

And that was what Duncan awoke to.

Like the others who had been injured, he found himself looking up towards a lean-to, his head propped up against his schoolbag. Haruko looked down upon him, her large, blue eyes blinking twice, before she squeezed them shut, as if holding back everything that she wanted to say.

Instead, she flashed her teeth pulling out his box of smokes from her own skirt’s pockets.

“No smoking until after you get something to eat and drink, ok? Maki, Daisuke! He’s up!”

It didn’t take long for familiar faces to gather. Maki hobbled over, her arm wrapped up in a rudimentary splint as she chewed on an oversized rice ball, nudging Duncan’s side with her foot as she greeted him. Daisuke dropped by too, the relief in his gaze far clearer as he did the wholly-heterosexual way of hugging someone: clasping their shoulder before offering them a plate of meat.

“Good to see you up. If you think you can chew, try this. Otherwise I’ll see if someone’s still got some miso left.”

...

By the fire, Kumi bemoaned the lack of a pot, while Tsubasa carved more strips of meat out for cooking. Sasuke watched the treeline in muted silence, chewing on a skewer of tough wolfbear flesh while tactfully ignoring the glances that the gourmet girl snuck every once in a while. Masami herself was eager to spark up conversation, but had ended up being relegated to snapping branches to halves in order to make them easier to burn. Cooking was serious business after all. Though the eye may wander, the mind shall not.

...

Mayumi, Hiroshi, Hana, and Juro made for a strange quartet under normal circumstances, mostly because of the inclusion of Mayumi, but their discussion was nevertheless spirited. Hana provided the experience, Juro served as a middleman, and Mayumi and Hiroshi both appeared to have very different ideas behind what was reasonable to expect. Regardless of what the topic of the conversation was, however, it was clear to any onlooker that despite not wanting the weight of responsibility to be automatically hoisted upon Masato, the gawky student council member also didn’t want the biggest weirdo of the class to take on the mantle of leadership either.

...

For all the self-esteem and confidence that he had built up over the last year with Ayano, Fujita was still but a fledgling popular kid and he certainly wasn’t all that at ease when his girlfriend was cuddling up against him while her best friend watched with a wry smile. Ayane had a mature charm that Ayano didn’t, and the population quotient only continued to rise when, after a moment’s pause, Ayane waved towards Ayana, the cutesy-klutz who still scored in the top five of the cutest girls in class. Perhaps in times of disaster, one naturally sought to rekindle their relationships with family. Perhaps she was just making sure her half-sister didn’t slip up and knock over a lean-to or something. Regardless, Fujita was soon to be the sole guy in a trio of very attractive ladies, and it was all he could do to search for help, any help. If only his Master would answer his silent plea! If only Yuki was up and about.

...

But Yuki wasn’t. Neither was Yuudai. And while the rest of the students could feign ignorance, Tsubaki couldn’t. It was all they could do to press clothes against the wounds, hoping the blood would clot, before using travel-sized containers of hand sanitizer to clean up what they could. Yukiko tried to help where she could, but honestly, she couldn’t do much. They didn’t have the medical equipment to treat injuries like these. They didn’t even have a pot to boil water with, to disinfect banadages in. It was all Tsubaki could do, dabbing the sweat off the foreheads of the two boys while Yukiko stoked a smaller fire between the four of them, hoping that the warmth could help stave off the chill of the night. It was too dark, at least, to make out the true state of their wounds. That was both a blessing and a curse. What use was water if they couldn’t drink it? What use was food if they couldn’t eat it?

...

Akito watched that unfold from a distance, watched the girls’ and their futile efforts. It brought a scowl to his face though, and he slipped into the carcass of the bus, claiming the first bed of branches for the night.

...

As for the Ito twins?

“Bro, ya gotta get to doing it.”

“Now? Kunio, you want me to do it now?”

“I mean, when else are you going to?”

“Maybe after we get out of this alive?”

“Big maybe, at this point.”

“Sheesh, someone’s feeling grim.”

“I’m just saying, don’t leave regrets, yeah?”

“Yeah, but still. Who’d do a confession now? I don’t want all this to be a suspension br-”

“Thinking too hard, man. Gotta move on from headbutts eventually, you know?”

They, evidently, were talking about love.

"Well, that was unfortunate. But hey! At least we found water in the end." Shun cheerfully said as they returned to their base of operations. The entire ordeal was uneventful, with no mishaps happening along the way. They didn't find any monsters, and they got to look around the surrounding area. It was a little disappointing but also a relief that nothing had happened during all of that. If more than one monster came up to them, Shun wasn't sure if Masato and her could protect Masami and Kunio while fighting them off.

Right, Masato. What she had said probably tipped him off more than anything. While she wasn't going to apologize for what she said, Shun understood Masato's sentiment. They were in a dangerous environment with a variety of unknowns that could potentially kill them all. It wasn't like she wasn't unaware of it. After all, she was responsible for Yuudai getting tackled into the burning truck. But now everything was fine. They'll get through this, and all survive in the end. It wasn't like they were going to die. Plus, everybody would be weirded out if she didn't act like how she is now, wouldn't they?

Though for, Shun was semi-aware that she was currently in denial about their situation. It was to protect herself from the fact they were so far from home. Would she be able to see her mom? Her father? She wanted to run up and give them the biggest hug that her arms could afford. She wanted to ride Satoshi-chan around and experience the breeze flowing through her air. There were so many things she wanted to do when she returned back to the real world.

That wasn't all. Denial was to protect herself from the guilt of everything. The guilt from having Yuudai protect her from the wolfbear. The guilt from nearly piercing Ayana's head with a steel pipe. The guilt of trying to be herself. Everything seemed to be on a tight string that was going to snap at any moment. Not to mention that the water they obtained might not even be safe to drink, so did they even make progress?

"Well, you know, they say. Rome wasn't built in a day. If we return back later, I bet we'll-" Shun stopped all of a sudden. "Uh, actually, I'll be right back for a moment. Here, Kunio, bring my backpack to camp, will you? I need to use the restroom." Without waiting for Kunio's response, Shun shoved her bag containing the water into his arms before disappearing off into the woods. It wasn't long before she came to a stop at a nearby tree.

Shun led against a tree and began vomiting out the contents of her stomach. She heaved as it spilled out of her oral cavity. Once her body seemed satisfied, Shun leaned against another tree and began panting. The concussion wasn't going away. Shun thought that if she gave it enough time, then maybe it'll be able to solve itself. After all, her wounds were healed after the fight with the wolfbears. Though perhaps it was wishful thinking. Pulling her legs together, she rested her head against them and took deep breaths. They would get out of this together, no matter what.

---

Asahi was exhausted.

It took all of his being by fighting with that wolfbear. He didn't know why he was so deeply tired, he wasn't one of the boys who talked and pushed the animal down with their entire body. He was just the one who took every chance he got in hitting the freak of nature. Still, his hands were shaking, covered in cuts and blood, his and the wolfbear's. He even saw blood on his clothes, and he didn't need a mirror to know he had some on his face too. Its blood was absolutely repulsive, even more so than the smell of the bus driver's corpse that's probably burned to a crisp by the still lit-fire.

Asahi glanced back at Duncan. He could still remember how his organs pulled themselves back into his body like they have a mind of their own. Duncan was supposed to be dead yet he wasn't. He was relieved Duncan was going to live but the effect this place had on his body appalled Asahi the most. Whatever kind of god was playing these sick twisted games with them was more monstrous than the wolfbears, and he cursed that god, whoever deity it may be, as he saw the bruises and wounds on his bloodied fists started to slowly heal up to.

The rest of the students, those still alive and had most of their bodies with themselves anyways, grouped up and discussed what to do. It was clear all of them were completely tired and still in shock about the bloodbath that had happened to them, but they also knew they will never be able to live another day here unless they continued to do what was needed to survive.

The class grouped up with themselves and trudged on to fulfill their tasks. Since Asahi wasn't in the mood to do any sort of manual labor, he volunteered to go check up what's left of their inventory. The smell of the bus was disgusting but he just powered through and tried to salvage as much as he could. He collected as much as he could into a pile then classified them according to the type of object that they were. There were 28 backpacks in total, 22 water canteens, 17 bento boxes with food that were thankfully still edible, two extra pairs of men’s shoes, and a badminton racket. There were also plenty of textbooks, feminine hygiene products, stationaries, and gym strips, all of which could be useful in specific instances. The rest were things Asahi didn't think would be useful for the group for now like makeup kits, smartphones, chargers, a tablet with a bit of power left, money, and other random stuff that were not of importance.

Soon enough, everyone would regroup in the clearing to provide shelter and start the fire just as the sun started to set in the horizon and bathing everything in warm golden light. Asahi took a second to look up at the darkening sky, wondering what the time was back at their hometown. He knew little to nothing about the Otherworld and he was trying so hard to keep himself from freaking out by distracting himself with tasks. He helped tend to the wounded, using various handkerchiefs and towels he managed to get on his inventory-checking. He figured tomorrow he'd ask Mayumi and the others where they found water so he could wash up at least some their dirtied, bloodied clothes.

Night eventually came and Asahi became astounded by the multitudes of stars glittering up in the sky. If they weren't in such a deadly place right now, he would've been content with gazing at the stars. For now, he just ate his fill as his classmates did. Some were talking amongst themselves as he heard Haruko call Maki and Daisuke over to Duncan. The blockhead must've awoken by now and it took all of Asahi's willpower to try not to barf the food he ate as he remembered what happened to him. He'd glance at Sasuke who was part of the group tasked with searching wood for fire. Asahi would often find excuses to get close to him, whether offering to help him start the fire and tending to his wounds, but he still kept a reasonable distance from his crush. The least Asahi could do was to make their already dire situation more awkward.

Despite knowing all that, Asahi found himself sighing before walking towards Sasuke. He was gay-panicking on the inside but of course he didn't show it on his face as he sat beside the boy. After a few minutes of thinking real hard, Asahi cleared his throat softly. "Um... So... H-How are you...?"

______________________________________________________________________


Dusting herself off after noticing some dirt and bark left over on her clothing. Ayana was quite satisfied with the amount of wood that they had been able to bring back. Though it had been quite an ordeal for her as she had tripped over a tree root and scattered her entire load of wood as she got near camp. Outside of that she was quite happy that no other major events occurred and that they had all made it back without issue.


Out of the corner of her eye she noticed someone was waving at her as she turned her head towards the source. Being quite surprised that it was Ayane of all people that had been after her attention. The klutz shrugging her shoulders as she made her way over to the group glancing around to take in everyone that was with Ayane. Noticing that Fujita and Ayano were the two accompanying her half-sister. It wasn’t often that Ayane sought her out or wanted to interact willingly. So Ayana surmised that Ayane wouldn't seek her out unless she had a pretty good reason for it. Figuring she may as well find out what it was at the very least. Plus it had the added benefit of getting to know Ayano and Fujita a bit more.


“You wanted to see me, Ayane? is there something that you need?” Ayana questioned as she reached the group tilting her head with a quizzical expression on her face, her sapphire eyes looking over her half-sister. Before she turned to face Fujita and Ayano bowing her single tailed head to them both in a gesture of greeting. “It is good to see that you both seem to be well and in good health, I wasn’t sure who all was in rough shape after we got attacked” Feeling a sense of relief that some of her fellow classmates, including her half-sister all seemed in good spirits and shape. Even though she wasn’t the most familiar with either of the two, she still didn’t want anything to happen to any of her fellow colleagues.


Though she likely wouldn’t say it aloud, she was glad that her half-sister was safe and sound. Despite their differences and their issues, Ayana still cared about her. They hadn’t always had the best of relationships, but at the end of the day, if Ayane ever needed her help. Ayana knew she wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever she could to help her out. After all, despite their hesitation to associate with one another publicly, they were still family after all.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing
_@Vertigo
The meat stank in the way that only poorly-handled wild meat could. The fat-to-muscle ratio was almost all muscle, the lack of seasoning made it taste like boiled chicken breast, and the texture was the closest Duncan had gotten to chewing on a shoe. Even Kumi didn’t seem able to work her magic here, and she must have decided to err on the side of well-done rather than risk any parasites, resulting in a slice of meat that was awful.

And yet, for Duncan? It was delicious. He found himself hardly chewing, his teeth tearing great chunks out before swallowing them. He felt famished, and every bite he took felt like the first bite of food he had ever had. It was almost incredible how hungry he was, in truth. Had it been because his stomach was emptied out in all the wrong ways? Had it been because his body had eaten itself up to recover? Or maybe there was just something about this steak in particular…

Regardless, the sensation of something sliding down his throat and then broiling inside the digestive juices of his stomach answer the question of his guts at least. As for the rest?

“Asahi’s up and about,” Daisuke said, jabbing a thumb over at where the pink-haired Student Council member was. There was a flicker of hesitation, before he powered through. “And Yuki’s alive. Just recovering.”

The snapping of a lighter sounded, followed by the sizzling of embers. Haruko handed over a lit cigarette. “Seven left,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Most of them got squished up.” By his guts and blood and wolfbear fur, was what was left unsaid. “But really, Duncan. How are you feeling?”

“And more importantly, is that your cheat ability or something?” Maki squatted down, peering closely at the absolute nothing that was covering his fully-healed stomach. “Like, regenerating from all of that?”

_@baraquiel

Sasuke didn’t turn when Asahi approached, but he didn’t shift to the side either when Asahi sat down. His gaze, as steady as the ocean before the storm, remained towards the darkness, towards the moonlit shadows and the inscrutable brushery. Was it the whisper of the wind, or the howl of the beasts? If one focused, it was easy to pick out the sounds of nature from the sounds of chatter, and nature was alive.

No, for Asahi, he didn’t even need to really focus to hear it. He could hear the heartbeats of those around him, some faster, some louder. He could hear the distant howling of beasts, the rustling of leaves or branches as unseen birds flitted between shadow and light. He could hear pained grunts, gasped in fitful unconsciousness. He could hear Sasuke’s breathing, deep and rhythmic, matching the tempo of his heartbeat. He could hear the mountain and the cave, the dirge and the blade, keening with a ferocity that sought t-

“I’m fine.”

Asahi’s senses retracted. Sasuke’s words were weighty, meaningful. Even when they sounded so rote.

“Thanks for asking. Are you?”

Before a response could be made, however, the smell of grilled rice wafted into Asahi’s nostrils. “H-heyo!” Kumi said, looking a touch too frantic. “I figured since the rice was cold I’d grill em up into uh, balls! You two, try them! Tell me how they are, please!”

Beside the fire, Masami narrowed her eyes, doing the mental strategizations on how to smoothly insert herself into that trio, while Tsubasa looked away, hiding a wry smile while hoping the second-hand embarrassment doesn't obliterate all three of them.

_@Nakushita

Fujita’s silent plea was not answered, so he just did his best to keep quiet and eat. This too, will hopefully pass. Just keep one’s eyes on the food, and…

“Fujita, aaaaaah~”

Lord God spare him.

While the lovers were showing off, Ayane shifted off to the side to give Ayana some space to sit, favoring her with a raised eyebrow. “Figured you’d have no one else to eat with. Suppose it’s too late to play at being sisters, but, well, we can still be classmates.”

She managed a smile.

“I’m more impressed that you’re still in good health, Ayana. Outside of your hair. That’s a disaster that’d require a stylist to fix.”

---

As Asahi nervously sat beside his crush, he kept on eating bits and pieces of his food so it wouldn't be too awkward for him. Maybe it was a mistake to approach him since it looked like Sasuke was exhausted from wrestling with that monster of an animal from earlier. Asahi could understand that, but he couldn't just go and leave quickly when he just got there.

So he waited, looking around him and contemplating the choices he made in his life that led him to this very moment. He could hear the sounds of nature all around their camp. Perhaps a little too well, in fact. Kunio and the others said it took them at least two hours to find a source of clean running water and yet Asahi could hear it like it was just a few minutes away from them. He heard this faint rumbling sound all over the place and panicked for a bit because he thought a group of beasts were charging at them, but it turned out he could hear the heartbeats of all his classmates. Several animals howling in the night, the wings of birds fluttering against trees, insects chirping, twigs snapping, leaves crunching, mouths breathing, mo-

It wasn't until Asahi heard Sasuke's voice that he got snapped out of his trance. He looked at him almost in shock, the light from the fire reflecting against his steel-grey eyes. Asahi felt grounded with the way he spoke to him, and his voice... Ugh. He felt he was melting just from hearing Sasuke's voice. He wanted Sasuke to speak more, to get to know him better, to try and take even the tiniest of peaks through the mysteriousness that was him.

"I-" He put his hand on his chest to compose himself because the voice that just came out of him sounded a little cheapmunk-ish. "I'm... I-"

Of course, Asahi couldn't have anything easy in life. Kumi, may the gods bless her heart, chose the wrong and most awkward moment to join one of the rarest instances where Asahi could speak to Sasuke. Asahi tried so hard not to look completely annoyed as he knew Kumi, again may the heavens show her grace, was only trying to be nice because she was a very nice person indeed.

"Wow, Kumi. They look... great." He said, still not sure whether he should be very mad or just be slightly irritated at her. Well, I'm sure they'll turn out really good like what you did back at our cafe but eh, if you insist." He put on the kindest smile he could muster as he took one of the balls and took a bite of it. "It... Oh wow, it's-it's really good. How can you make grilled rice taste like this?" He asked in bewilderment as he took another bite, unknowingly moving closer to Sasuke until their shoulders were touching as he got interested in Kumi's cooking.

---

With her sharpened sticks completed, Rin had a nice weapon she could test out. Really, spears were great. They kept the user safe, could double as a barrier when buried in the earth, and be used to roast some meat. These were, of course, not the best quality. The wooden tips left something to be desired; rock or metal would be better. She didn't know the qualities of the branches, either. What strength id they possessed from their grain? Fortunately, they were only prototypes. The first iteration of a weapon.

She'd have to test it to figure out further procedures, whether it be fire-danubing or actual spear tips. Testing meant that she needed Kunio. She saw something important when she looked for him: a second test subject. Indeed, the Ito twins were having some brotherly conversation. Something definitely about a matter that required familial input.

Well...

It probably wasn't anything important to Rin. What was important, however, was checking out how Rin's weapons of war turned out.

"Try to break these by swinging them at things." She said to the twins in a Rin jumpscare.

Shun returned to the camp after finishing up her business. Masato and the others had probably stored their water for future use, so she did not have to do anything about that. Her stomach felt empty, and all that walking made her hungry, so she was going to get herself some food before a group meeting took place. Afterward, she'd check on how Yuudai was doing.

Picking up some food, she decided it was best to chat with her classmates. That being said, Shun wasn't able to read the atmosphere and followed sat right next to Asahi. Clapping her classmate's back, she made herself comfortable. "Hello-o, Bansen, Hoshino, and Kumi!" Leaning closer to the fire, she smiled at the three of them.

Taking a bite out of her food, she chewed and swallowed it just as fast as she consumed it. "Oh, Kumi-san. May I have one?" Shun suddenly changed her tone once Kumi offered up her food.

Whether or not Kumi offered one to her, Shun continued talking. "How were your tasks?" An earnest question. While her group didn't get much out of their search, they still managed to find something. "For me, we managed to find some sort of spring. Suppose you could call it a spring anyways. I'm sure we'll be able to find something soon if we keep looking."

______________________________________________________________________

The water-fetching had been less than successful, but at least it wasn't a total failure as Kanamori had said. When it came down to it, they could boil the murky water to kill off any bacteria. Masato knew that much, at least. Hopefully one of the students had a steel bento to use for that, he didn't think plastic would cut it over a fire. They'd lugged the water bottles back from the tiny stream to find that Hoshino had rounded up water and food for most of them. They wouldn't need to rely on the procured water just yet. It was ultimately a good thing, but the fact that the four of them had bumbled around out there for hours when they could have been doing something else to help took a lot of the wind out of Masato's sails.

He'd washed quickly at the stream after they'd filled the bottles and physically he felt a little better, but he was still in a weird headspace. He'd shed his jacket earlier and tied it around his waist for what little good that would do, considering it was just as ripped if not more so than his slacks. Tomorrow when it was easier to see he'd ask Hoshino if there was a sewing kit in any of the stuff people had. One of the girls might carry something like that around. For now he put it back on to eventually prepare for sleep... though he wasn't sure if that would come easily to him. Insomnia was common for him even on the calmest nights back home. It was more likely he wouldn't sleep at all short of passing out from exhaustion.

He picked a spot a little away from the fire but close enough to feel its warmth, quietly giving a "thank you" to Nakagawa when a cut of bear-wolf meat was delivered to him. He wasn't skittish about eating it, despite the dubious nature of the beasts of the Otherside. It was cooked, well-done from the look of it, so it would probably be fine. The taste was about what he expected, tough and bland, though he wasn't about to complain about it either. They'd done the best they could with what they had. That said, he finished it off more quickly than he expected. His appetite came back to him all at once after the first bite, and he hastened to sate his hunger. Was it because he'd puked earlier and his stomach was empty? Hopefully he could keep this food down.

From his spot he could also overhear some of the other students. From one of the lean-tos he could hear Norifuku exclaim that Stewart was awake, but there was no such announcement for the other two boys. He thought if they could make it through the night then their chances of recovering would be good. Sisters and brothers chatting reached his ears but seeing as they were quieter, more private conversations (until Inaba crashed the latter) he did his best to tune them out.

He also heard the love triangle shenanigans closer to the fire (though he didn't read it as such, just regular shenanigans). He glanced over, happening to catch Sato's eye as she looked away from the small group. In response to Masato's slightly confused stare her eyes flickered back over to Hoshino, Bansen, and Murakami (just before Kanamori joined them), then she rolled her eyes before meeting Masato's again. He got the feel her expression was more playful than not, and her smile mellowed a little when she spotted a similar one playing at Masato's lips. He could take his chance to talk to her, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to while in the state he was in.

Eventually he turned away from her and sighed. Alright, everyone was slowly going back to normal so now it was time for Masato to do the same.

He stood up and approached a group of four who were talking amongst themselves, half of them animatedly and the other half much less so. Ryuugasaki, Maeda, Ichibangase, and Kondo. He did sometimes run into the first two the few times he needed to check something out of the local library, and Ichibangase more so than them. With Kondo among that group, he had an inkling of what they might be discussing. Earlier he'd thought that he didn't particularly want to be in charge of the class in this kind of life or death situation, but he did feel a sense of responsibility for them. It would be easier for everyone if they picked one or two "leaders" whether that included him or not, so he went to involve himself in that discussion.

"Doing alright?" he asked them, a half-polite greeting before moving on.

"I'm going to stay up and keep watch tonight," he said in a tone which brokered no discussion on the matter. "But I'm not sure what I should be expecting from animals or... Portals." He figured that the most well-read students would have some knowledge about it, and Ryuugasaki with the hunting experience she'd revealed. Any kind of sign that trouble would be around besides the obvious would be good to have. That, and, "As for tomorrow, might be better to come up with a plan of action before everyone goes to sleep. And if we need to move, some kind of sign to leave behind in case a rescue team shows up."

It was apparent that Masato was still conflicted on if they should actually move or not, but was resigning himself to leaving the clearing. The bus fire had already died out, but he had no idea if the lingering smell would attract monsters more or less than the blaze had. Plus being surrounded on all sides by forest with no defenses seemed like a bad idea.

______________________________________________________________________


Glancing over at the two love birds as she furrowed her eyebrows, deciding it was best to just let them be. She took a seat next to Ayane seeing her offer her a spot by shifting to the side. “Oh, that is likely true, it isn’t uncommon for to me have lunch alone any other time normally, people seem to be more nervous around me, especially around lunch time.” Not seeming too bothered by that fact. Looking around the area as her gaze drifted from grouping of students to grouping of students. Each student seemingly drifting off too their respective groups as they would any other regular school day.

“I doubt most of them even know or realize that we are even related at this point honestly, so that is fine, we never had similar interests or goals, but being classmates sounds like a fine idea that I think I can agree with you on for once” turning her sapphire eyes towards her sister. Just in time to catch her smile as she seemed surprised by her comment.

Reaching a hand up to the burnt, crisp end of what use to be one of her two tails. Taking the burnt hair into her fingers as she let out a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. “It was a necessary sacrifice, I couldn’t just run and hide and leave Shun and Yuudai alone to face one of those beasts…..I don’t mind having to look like this, if it is for the sake of my fellow classmates, besides it could have been far worse then just a lost bit of hair” Her mind drifting to another thought as she considered it in her head. Wondering if it would be worth mentioning to Ayane, though she did ponder how she would react to it.

“Speaking of good health….I know that I got a lot of little scratches, burns and other little things, but when I got out of that bus, and finally had time to look and pay attention to it, I couldn’t find a single burn or scratch or even a bruise anywhere on my body, but it doesn’t quite make any sense to me….though my hair of course has remained the same, but I don’t think I was just imagining things….” Expressing her thoughts openly with Ayane as it was something that had been eating away at the back of her mind. A small frown on her face as she leaned back stretching out her arms and legs as she felt better then ever despite her battle with the wolfbear.

---

//Night 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

_{@baraquiel@AThousandCurses}

“Ehehe…” Kumi scratched the back of her head bashfully at Asahi’s comment, sneaking a glance over towards Sasuke for his own reaction. The youth took a small, delicate bite, and then, after a moment of deliberation, nodded with his approval.

Well, he nodded with approval for most of the things he ate, so it was hard to tell which ones stood out over the others, and more importantly, Kumi wasn’t so blinded by Asahi’s moves that she didn’t catch him taking the opportunity to lean in closer to Sasuke. She pursed her lips, considered all her possibilities, calculated emotional damage, and then, at the end of it, decided to go for her suicide move. She would utilize Asahi’s question as an excuse to drag him away, ensuring that this nighttime encounter was a draw!

That was, until Shun showed up out of the blue.

“Oh, uh, I’ll make another for you real quick,” the gourmet girl said by reflex, only to immediately internally scream after. “And Asahi, I just rendered some fat from the giant wolverine to grill ‘em up. You…should come over. I’ll show you how!”

And with that, Kumi shuffled back over to the fire, crouching beside Masami, who clapped her on the shoulder in a consolatory manner.

“Our group,” Sasuke spoke, brushing the last grain of rice from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, “headed further away into the woods to collect wood. There was enough deadfall, but it would have been better if we had a saw.”

A pause.

“I heard you were alone in checking over the bags, Asahi. Thanks for that.”

_@OwO

Around Kuroshio Ogata Middle School, there were two ways of telling the Ito twins apart.

The first way, the boring way, was by checking to see which one wore glasses. If they did, they were Sohei. If they didn’t, they were Kunio. Rumors, of course, were such that Sohei only wore glasses to make himself look more respectable and responsible than his freespirited younger brother, but the fact of the matter was that when Sohei was playing sports, he would take off his glasses.

The second way, the fun way, the way that works when there were no glasses involved, was to see which one of them could be surprised in any way. If they could, they were Sohei. Kunio, after all, had developed a sense for danger a long time ago, obviously rooted in some dramatic trauma. And now? Kunio’s sense of danger popped up once more, and even before Rin could rustle her way into their conversation, he said “good luck”, flashed a v-sign with his fingers, and disappeared to join the others.

Rin had certainly heard two people talking, but by the time she poked her head out, there was only one left: Sohei. And Sohei, confused and certainly not too prepared, could only look at the wooden stick that Rin had handed him and say the first thing that came into his mind.

“This is a spear, right? Why are we swinging them?”

_@Yankee

“Ah, Masato,” Mayumi turned, shifting over to give him some space to sit down. “Given up following uniform regulations?”

It was a joke, but delivered like that, the only response from the entire group was a total silence. Awkward…

“Yo, Prez,” Hiroshi said, restarting whatever the hell that was with his trademark sharktooth grin. “We were talking about that sorta stuff too. Night watch and all. Not that you’re going to stay up all night doing that, though you’re good for going first if ya want.”

“Keep the fire low if you are.” Hana glanced towards the night sky. A half-moon stood above, patchy clouds covering foreign stars. “It’ll ruin your vision.”

Mayumi spoke up as well, having coughed out whatever had possessed her in that moment. “It’d be best to move, but we can’t really, right? Considering all those that got hurt. The bus is destroyed, but we can build around it. Make a better shelter out of it.”

“One got away,” Hana replied. “Three is too small for a pack. They’ll be back here.” And even if the smell of a gasoline fire was gone, the smell of a cooking fire took its place.

“Read in the news that the incident in Mexico three years back took two weeks to resolve.” As always, Hiroshi had remembered what most others had forgotten.

A flight headed to Cancun from Los Angeles disappeared partway through. Search and rescue parties had taken a half-day to arrive at the last pinged location of the missing aircraft, within which they found a Portal, and from there, the UN established an elite strike force to retrieve the missing passengers. The operation began two days after locating the Portal. And still, despite all that, it had taken thirteen days after, for the Portal to be closed and those within it to return.

The strike force had survived with no casualties. The passengers and crew, despite the safe landing their airplane had made on the Otherside, had their numbers cut down by 338, from an original number around 500. Perhaps the larger number meant they attracted more attention from the monsters of the Otherside. Perhaps the environment there was harsher than the summer-kissed forest that the students found themselves in. Perhaps there were extenuating circumstances.

But Masato knew. If he hadn’t changed in some way when he arrived upon this Side, he would be dead. If none of them had changed in any way, they would all have been dead.

“Two weeks,” Hiroshi continued, “is too long to be staying in one spot. If nothing else, it’d be good to find a place closer to water. Still. We’d have to make stretchers too.”

“Medicine first,” was Juro’s sole contribution.

There was something about Hiroshi's expression that made it appear as if he was already dismissing the idea, even before he spoke up. “Medicine...dunno how you and Duncan did it, Prez, but water and cloth won’t cut it for what Yuudai and Yuki’ve got.” Hiroshi leaned in closer. “Don’t suppose you came across any herbs or something in the forest?”

_@Nakushita

"We share the same family name," Ayano responded, flicking Ayana on the forehead. "Of course they know. Not like I'd lie when they ask."

It really could've been worse though. On the lower end of the spectrum, Ayana could have been bald by now, while in worst case scenario, she'd be dead, having accomplished nothing. Ayano had always figured her half-sister to be on the reckless, airheaded side of things, but in this case? The short-haired girl fell into a quiet contemplation. Was it just luck? Or was there something else at play here?

Well, not like she had a way to figure that out.

"Some of the others had the same thing happen. Heard Duncan had it the worst, but made it out alright."

"Not that your clothes are in any sorta good shape, Ayana~" Ayane spoke up then, looking over the scorch marks and tears that marred the school uniform she was in. It wasn't nearing levels that would be considered risque, but the light material used for summer uniforms hadn't stood the test of a suplex inside a burning bus all that well. "Got anything you could swap out into?"