Still, jokes aside, Shiro and Kohei were aware of the real issue.
Now that Iori was here, they no longer feared being ridiculed. They could finally ask Senpai for help.
"Alright, alright. Kitahara, take out your phone. If we don't go back soon, the party's gonna be over."
Shiro reached out his hand to Iori. If they hurried, they might just catch the end of it.
"Phone?"
Iori patted himself down. He felt like something was missing after he jumped down.
Oh, right!
His light!
When he came to find Shiro and the others, he had used his phone for light.
Even if he jumped, the light shouldn't have disappeared, right?
Frantically, Iori checked all over himself. No phone.
Then he looked around. Maybe it had fallen somewhere during the descent?
Unfortunately, there was no light nearby.
Seeing this, Shiro had a bad feeling.
"You idiot… don't tell me you didn't bring your phone?!"
This fool really was the kind of person who'd do something like that!
"No way! I clearly remember using my phone's light to search for you guys!"
Iori vehemently denied it. Sure, he'd had a lot to drink, but he wasn't drunk enough to forget something that simple.
Hearing that, Shiro could only join Iori in searching around. This was the last hope of their whole group!
"Kitahara, did you have the flashlight on when you came down?"
Just when they were about to give up, Kohei spoke up.
"Yeah!"
Iori and Shiro looked at him in surprise. "Did you find it?!"
"Well, sort of." Kohei had a weird look on his face as he pointed back up the slope.
The two of them followed his finger and saw a bright light shining from the top of the slope—most likely from a black little box.
"..."
The group fell silent.
Their village's last hope... was gone.
Kudo leaned hopelessly against the slope. "I told you we should've asked for help earlier. Now look—exactly what I said would happen did happen."
"Now we can only keep on…"
But mid-sentence, Kudo noticed something off—the atmosphere had turned tense.
He looked up.
Shiro, Kohei, and Iori were all staring at him with menacing expressions.
"Wait?! What's with those faces?! Don't blame me! I didn't do anything!"
He'd been practically invisible this whole time! Why were they suddenly turning on him?
In response to Kudo's complaints, all he got were flurries of fists and shoe soles.
As everyone knows, when a plan fails, there's always a scapegoat for morale.
And Kudo—
Was that scapegoat!
Reason: he jinxed it!
"Not the face!"
"Please, bros, I was wrong! I won't jinx anything again!"
"No wait, I won't say anything ever again!"
"Aaaaahhhhh!!!"
Kudo regretted it. He really did. If he had another chance, he wouldn't have said a word.
Wait, if he'd done that, they probably would've beaten him up for breathing.
No, what he truly regretted—
Was coming to this deserted island at all!
(っ╥╯﹏╰╥c)
"Phew… I really do feel better after venting."
"Yeah, now I finally understand why punching bags were invented."
"Let's start over again~"
The three—Shiro, Iori, and Kouhei—stood up refreshed and relaxed. As expected, you can't bottle up your frustration. If there's a need, it must be vented.
"You three bastards! I hate you..."
Wearing only his underwear, Kudou silently shed tears, like a girl who had been violated.
The three ignored him and sat back down on the ground. After all, they knew exactly how much strength they'd used.
Kudou only looked miserable—his condition wasn't even half as bad as Shiro's pig-headed state earlier.
"So, what do we do now? Can we still get in touch with our senpai?"
Iori asked Shiro, apparently misunderstanding why Shiro's phone had been off earlier.
He thought it was just part of the act.
"Should be okay. It just takes a bit of manual effort..."
Shiro silently handed his phone and a hand-cranked generator to Iori.
(′｀;)?
"What's this?"
"A generator. Charges pretty fast, try it."
Though a bit puzzled why his best buddy would carry such a thing around, Iori still took it.
At least the hand-cranked generator looked quite well made.
Five minutes later...
BANG!
The hand-crank generator was thrown violently to the ground by Iori. He even stepped on it a couple more times for good measure!
"What the hell is this piece of junk?!"
Iori had had enough—five minutes and it hadn't even charged 1%—an absolute disgrace to generators everywhere!
Shiro looked at Iori with a quiet stare. "If you break it, remember to compensate me 50,000 yen."
"This trash is worth 50,000 yen?! Which scam shop did you get this from?"
With 50,000 yen, he could buy a whole bunch of power banks to carry around.
"I made it myself..."
"..."
Iori went silent. He slowly raised his foot again. He should've realized it from the start—nobody would actually sell a junky generator like this.
But in a way, Shiro really was a top student.
The semester wasn't even over yet, and he'd already made a hand-crank generator...
Hmm. Still trash.
Tch!
Burning with envy!
They all skipped class, so why could he make this stuff?!
Damn it!
"Anyway, let's get a fire going first."
Having vented their frustrations earlier, the three of them were still in pretty good spirits despite having no way to call for help.
Shiro gathered some small sticks from nearby to use as firewood.
Then, under Kudou's dumbfounded gaze, he pulled a lighter from behind his back~
Flick~
Light! Returned to this world once more!
Kudou, who had also chosen to give up, came over and sat next to the fire.
The summer nights here were actually quite chilly.
"Hey, is your butt like Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket or something?"
Kudou finally asked the question that had been bugging him.
He had been keeping track—since this bastard fell down the slope, he'd pulled out a camera, a phone, a hand-cranked generator, and a bunch of other stuff.
These pants hold more than even those yoga pants in China!
"Oh, the lighter? I brought it to check if something is water or not."
"..."
Kudou's mouth twitched. He couldn't tell if the guy in front of him was an idiot or just messing with him. "I wasn't asking why you brought it. I was asking about how, man, how! And also—why would you use a lighter to determine if something's water? Is your drinking party in hell or something?"
A lighter… water's color…
Only thing that comes to mind is "Aqua Vitae," right? Do people really drink that kind of stuff at a party?
"Oh, you were asking about how? All boys have a four-dimensional space behind them. You don't?"
Shiro tilted his head in confusion, as if having a 4D space was totally common knowledge for boys.
"...What manga did you pull that from?"
Kudou had a black cloud over his head. That kind of story would only fool little kids.
Just like the idea that boys' bathrooms are actually secret bases—total nonsense.
"We're back!"
"This much should be enough."
Just as Shiro was about to discuss the concept of four-dimensional spaces further with Kudou, Iori and Kouhei returned with armfuls of firewood.
"Other than firewood, did you guys find anything fun?"
Shiro looked at them expectantly. He had been so bored he was chatting with Kudou, after all. He desperately needed something interesting to pass the time.
"Of course we did."
Iori and Kouhei looked smug—they had found something pretty incredible.
"We found some wild yamaimo (mountain yams)."
"..."
"We found some wild mushrooms."
"..."
"And we found wild whiskey."
"...!!!"
Shiro's eyes lit up the moment he heard "whiskey," abandoning all prior expectations.
He gave them a big thumbs-up. "You guys never disappoint!"
"Don't underestimate us."
"We did plenty of homework before coming here."
Watching the two smug bastards, Kudou felt like his entire worldview was crumbling.
"Hold on a damn second!"
Why the hell is there such a thing as wild whiskey?!
And why did these two just calmly accept wild whiskey as a thing?!
His shattered worldview made him look suspiciously at their pants. "Do you two also have four-dimensional spaces?"
(′｀;)?
Iori and Kouhei looked at each other, confused. They'd only been gone a few minutes, but this senpai's mental state seemed to have worsened?
Meanwhile, the culprit, Shiro, was happily sorting the spoils Iori and Kouhei had brought back.
With all this, they could have a mini drinking party right here~
Sluurp~
Buzz~ buzz~ buzz~
"Alright, everything's ready!"
By the fire, mushrooms were skewered and roasting.
The three were still discussing how to cook the yamaimo.
"Should we just toss them in the fire?"
"That'd just turn them into charcoal…"
"I got it! Roast them on a stone!"
"Good idea!"
"Ahh... I wish we had soy sauce. Kitahara, how about going to look for some wild soy sauce?"
"..."
Watching the three joke and laugh so casually, Kudou felt strangely out of place, as if he was the odd one out.
Unable to hold back, he spoke, "Even in a situation like this, you guys are really taking it easy."
"Keep your mindset calm, Prince of the Messy Club. Our senpai are really reliable. They'll definitely find us."
Shirosaid nonchalantly, showing no awareness that they were currently lost.
Thinking about it, it was probably the thick muscles of their senpai that gave them that kind of security~
"But you might not be so lucky. Your teammates probably don't even realize you're missing yet (λ?_??)"
(?°?д°?)
"You're seriously pissing me off. I'm still a club president, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah, a club president who got himself lost."
"Damn it! I'm still your senior!"
"Yup yup, a senior who got himself lost and needs the president of another club to rescue him."
"..."
Kudou fell silent, realizing for the first time how embarrassing it was to be called "senpai."
Seeing Kudou withdraw into himself, Shiro's conscience—what little was left—suddenly gave him a hard tug.
Had he been too harsh with Kudou...?
Thinking back to everything he'd done earlier, he suddenly felt he'd gone a bit overboard.
It was time to do something to repair the relationship!
Shiro patted Kudou on the shoulder and gently offered him a skewer of mushrooms. "Don't worry about it, senpai. Here, have a mushroom skewer."
"Shiro..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know—I know you're touched. Think of this mushroom as my apology."
"But…"
"No buts! Be a man—don't get all sentimental on me!"
Shiro said with irritation. He hated it when guys got all emotional.