We had won our first match.
That meant we needed two more victories to earn the event reward.
Shouko rode Mashiro, while Chiyu and I climbed onto Micron’s back, and we started moving.
Being able to sense where the enemy was through Mashiro’s nose was incredibly helpful.
Without that, we would have burned a lot of time just trying to find them.
After we had gone a little way, Shouko shouted.
“Sousuke, Mashiro says something’s weird!”
“Weird...?”
“‘There are a whole bunch of the same scent’? Mashiro, what does that—”
“Eek!”
The moment that adorably sweet little cry reached us, a figure appeared nearby.
The phantasmal beasts came to an abrupt stop.
Looking closer, I saw that it was one of our female classmates.
She had black hair tied up on both sides, with pink inner color peeking through. She was a girl with a sweet, youthful face and a distinctly sugary voice.
Shion was the kind of beauty boys admired on their own and confessed to without her doing anything. This girl, on the other hand, was the type who actively talked to boys and triggered misunderstandings.
Ever since first year, I had watched several boys go down in flames after convincing themselves that they and she were mutually in love.
“Oh, it’s Momo.”
“Shouko! This is scary, so could you come down first and talk?”
The girl Shouko had called Momo pleaded with teary eyes.
“Uh, umm...? Sorry, that might not work.”
The girl immediately looked around, then spotted me.
“Oh, Kuno. You’re one of Shouko’s companions too, right? Thanks for giving us all that stuff the other day. I heard you made it, and—”
“So-kun, waste of time. Cage.”
“...Ch-Chiyu? Listen—”
“So-kun. Cage.”
Under Chiyu’s pressure, I dropped a stone cage over the girl’s head.
“Wa, wai—!”
The girl disappeared inside the stone cage.
“She’s obviously stalling. Be careful not to get caught by that kind of thing.”
“Y-yes...”
“Chiyu, you’re ruthless...”
We pulled ourselves together and were about to start moving again when something strange happened.
“Hey! Kuno, isn’t that mean!?”
The same girl appeared again from the shade of a nearby tree.
“What!?”
Shouko’s eyes went wide.
“So-kun, make the next one a barred cage.”
“R-right.”
As if responding to Chiyu’s calm voice, I dropped a stone cage with bars.
“I said—! At least hesitate a little!”
I understood the reason right away.
Chiyu was trying to figure out the girl’s ability.
The first stone cage only had air holes, so we couldn’t see inside it.
That meant we couldn’t tell whether two identical girls had appeared, or whether she had dodged with high-speed movement or something similar.
“Geez!” “I told them I didn’t want to do this!” “Ryouka told me to!” “Actually, wouldn’t it be better to just get along with Shouko Team normally!?”
More and more girls with the same appearance appeared.
—An illusion ability...? No. Considering what would be useful on a deserted island, it’s more likely to be a cloning ability.
In a survival situation on a deserted island, an ability that let you secure “extra hands” by yourself would be useful.
And if they were clones, they were copies of yourself, so there was no need to worry about them betraying you.
“Momo can use cloning arts!? Sousuke! What do we do!?”
“I don’t know how many clones she can make! Can you ask Mashiro to deal with them so not even one reaches our base!?”
Here, I wanted Mashiro’s nose to make sure every last clone was defeated without missing any.
“O-okay...! He says, ‘I hate putting my fangs on a beautiful girl, but this time it can’t be helped’!”
“What!?” “You’re really going to make a huge doggy fight a cute girl like me!?” “Even though Momo is such a beautiful girl!?”
She seemed to place a very high value on her own cuteness.
Personally, I found that more likable than clumsy false modesty, but still...
“We can’t afford to lose either, Hisako.”
“Don’t call me Hisako...! It’s not cute!”
The girl flew into a rage when Chiyu called her by her given name.
“Shouko, get on Micron.”
“Got it!”
Once I confirmed that Shouko had gotten down from Mashiro and climbed onto Micron, Micron began to ascend.
“Ugh, come on...! This was impossible from the start!”
The girl’s shout rose from the ground, but it quickly grew distant.
We had already worked out the general direction, and the first match had taught us that bases were set up in open areas, so we were able to find the enemy base even without Mashiro’s nose.
Along the way, we also successfully trapped two female students who appeared not to have abilities in cages.
“...So you’ve come, Kanna Shouko!”
The one leading the all-girls party was Suou Ryouka, a beauty with wavy long blond hair and small buns on both sides of her head.
“I’m here, Ryouka!”
“Oh my, Kuno Sousuke is with you today? How about it? Would you like to join my party?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll pass.”
“Grr... So you’re saying Kanna Shouko is better!”
Suou groaned in frustration.
“Oh, Sousuke... You don’t have to show off our relationship here.”
Shouko started scratching her cheek in embarrassment.
Where, exactly, had there been anything to show off?
“So-kun.”
“I know.”
The last member of the enemy team was the girl who had wished for “immortality” in the first white dream.
It was an extraordinary ability, but under the rules of this event, we could handle it by immobilizing her.
Like the others, a stone cage should be enough to neutralize her.
“Wait. If Momohara Hisako’s disruption has failed too, this party has no path to victory left. I surrender.”
Suou raised both hands in an exaggerated gesture.
If she said she wasn’t going to fight, then we had no reason to go out of our way to attack her, but...
“Suou, this party wasn’t meant to win, was it?”
At my words, Suou widened her eyes in surprise.
“Oh? What makes you think that?”
“Hmm... There are a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is... you don’t look frustrated.”
It had been the same when I said I wouldn’t join her. Suou clearly had a sense of rivalry toward Shouko.
So it was a little strange that she would so readily accept the defeat of a party she was leading.
There were other signs too, like the fact that Matoba, who had seemed to hold an aide-like position during our previous visit, wasn’t here. That made me think she might have created another party.
“............I see. You’re exactly right. This party is, so to speak, the sub team. Depending on how the matches unfold, the main team and sub team can share information, we can increase the number of matches to add to the mental strain on enemy teams, and if the main and sub teams face each other, we simply throw the match. There’s no downside.”
True, even if physical condition recovered, nobody had said mental fatigue would be healed too.
The effect one’s mental state had on physical performance couldn’t be ignored, so as a strategy, it was valid.
And after the main team and sub team fought different enemies, once they finally faced each other, they could exchange information on the enemies each of them had fought.
After that, they just had to hand the win to the main team, so as Suou said, there really was no downside.
If I had to name one, it would be the risk of revealing who had grouped up with whom, and potentially exposing their abilities.
“And there is one more reason. It’s an appeal to you, Kuno Sousuke.”
“An appeal?”
“There are many attractive girls on our side too, you know?”
Suou gave me a bewitching smile unlike the ones she usually showed.
To my shame, my heart skipped a beat.
“So-kun?”
“Sousuke?”
The pressure from the two girls riding behind me was so intense that I was afraid to look back.
“S-sorry, but my current companions matter to me.”
“Oh, what a shame. But don’t worry. I won’t give up.”
Suou giggled.
Then she and the remaining girl moved aside from their base.
“Go ahead and break it. I’ve achieved my objective.”
Micron, however, lashed her tail in clear displeasure and slapped the enemy base with a series of wet smacks.
Apparently, she had managed to upset not only Chiyu and Shouko, but Micron too.
Still, a win was a win.
The enemy base crumbled away.
Our vision turned white, and we were sent back to the pure-white space once more.
It was fair to call the match a complete victory.
Even so, I could not help coming away with one impression.
Suou was a formidable enemy.
