"I'm sorry, I was only able to catch two, and I don't think I will have anymore luck today since it's so dark already."
"That's alright! We can each take half then."
"Oh, no they are both for you two. I don't need anything."
"Don't be ridiculous…"
"You will need it more than me, trust me. Besides, aren't you tired? I'm not. So you get the food. As simple as that."
"We will not convince you to eat, will we?"
"It's better this way."
"…Fine…"
"I still have some work to do down there. If you need help with anything or the fire goes out just throw something down, I'll notice and come back up. Or come down, if that's not too troublesome."
"Okay…"
Yamato flew down again. Once he was on the ground, he was basically invisible because of how dark it was and how far away they were from the ground. It sure was an experience which they never dreamed of before meeting Yamato. Their lifes had changed a lot since then. Besides the occasional sound of falling trees, it was comfortable enough to fall asleep quite easily and before they knew it, it was morning again. After waking up, both Lily and Andrew flew down since Yamato still appeared to be down there. They found him tying a knot around a tree next to the wall, but they could not spot anything else or where the rope was leading. Although Lily felt a little stupid for asking, and normally she would have let Andrew ask so he would be the one to look stupid, she did anyway.
"Have you finished what you were doing? Which was what again…?"
"Oh… Almost… We don't have much time left. I believe they could arrive any second now."
"Any second?! As in, literally now??"
"Yeah, about now. Depends on if they fly or not. Probably not if she's playing careful, which she probably is. Y'know, she really wants to win. But don't worry, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I bet you will be very surprised by each of them."
"You still haven't told us why she does this… Or why you do this…"
"Well, why she does it is fairly obvious, right?"
"Because you told her to?"
"See? Obvious."
"You're gonna keep dodging, are you?"
"Pretty much."
"I'm starting to see a pattern…"
"Pattern recognition is a useful skill. It makes you harder to manipulate, y'know?"
"Thank you…?"
"Anyway, can you two hold onto that rope and make sure it doesn't break?"
"Sure… But shouldn't we get into position, if they will be here so soon?"
"About that…"
Yuki had the worst night EVER! Unable to use her Yamato withdrawal emergency kit, since so many people were around, and she had to wait for them since they needed to sleep, which she did not. She slept yesterday after all, so she could go on for two more days now without any. And even though there was a camp for girls and one for boys, she was still repulsed by the proximity of the boys. Despite spending the entire night trying to get a read on Yamato's strategy, she had no clue. Obviously, he would lose a direct confrontation, so he had to get creative. Maybe use his environment? It was difficult to imagine what he could be planning when you have to worry about maybe going into the complete opposite direction of him. Then again, there was no way she chose wrong. She did not even chose, the wind- No, fate did. Still the thought made her uncomfortable.
When it was finally morning, watching how slow everyone was getting ready, she never wanted to just go solo more than now. It would be faster, obviously. But giving up her numerical advantage was not something she was willing to do based on impatience. On top of that, the target could be among them, which meant she could not risk leaving it unguarded. It was best to move as a group. Too bad class 2 already split. But she just had to hope they did not have the target, or they did have the target but walked in the wrong direction, which of course was what she was hoping for anyway since it meant she was walking in the right one. Once they finally started walking again, they reached a small pond which a river led into, so everyone filled up their water supplies before starting to walk alongside the river again.
"Yuki?"
"Hm? What?"
"Is it that important that we know about who the target from our groups is?"
"Of course it is. We have to know who to not put on the front."
"But wouldn't that behavior like… Make it easier to guess who it is or something?"
"Yeah but if you have enough recourses to defend them it doesn't matter that much. We are 30 students here for a reason, y'know?"
"Huh… You really think so?"
"Yeah. Why, is something wrong?"
"N-no, nothing's wrong… Just wondering!"
"Aha…"
"…Look! There are logs in the water!"
"…So?"
"Isn't that weird?"
"A little… We might be close. Looks like he built something. Everyone, be careful and look for traps!"
As they walked past the two large logs floating downstream into the direction they came from, class 3 was rushing forward once again, despite Yuki's clear instructions. And just like that… Someone stepped on a suspended rope covered by leaves, which… Did nothing?
"Huh… Maybe he didn't have enough time? What do you think, Yuki?"
Before she could respond, twenty logs came rolling down from the side directly at them at a relatively fast speed. Yuki flew up and so did everyone else, leaving the trap with no casualties.
"What was that all about?"
She flew over to where the logs came from, and discovered a whole system with gear ratio's and counterweight to open a wooden container, in which the logs must have been waiting.
"Ah… Master, what incredible talent you have… This would have killed anyone who couldn't fly… But you knew we all can… So what was the point? Slow us down? In which case you would be gone by now… Unless… You were not trying to leave… You were trying to get us to leave, by making us think you were… In which case you would still be here waiting for us to go look for you… So, where would you hide?"
She looked around some bushes, before her gaze went upwards. As she rose up inspecting the walls, it was not long before she spotted a hole covered by plants.
"Eh… There's no way…"
She turned away and started going back down again since there was nothing of interest here after all. Before suddenly dashing inside ripping the plants away and covering the exit.
"Gotcha! Huh…?"
But it was… Empty? Only a small put out campfire and improvised beds, but no Lily, no Andrew and a million times more important, no Yamato! Just when she wanted to leave, she spotted a note on the bed.
"Aw… I was so sure… But a love letter from Master makes up for it~!"
However as she picked it up… It only read: "Got ya, dumb bitch" before exploding and throwing her out the cave into the air. However it did not do any damage at all.
"....Andrew!!!"
She yelled so loud it was probably echoing through the entire canyon. Arina got caught completely out of guard as she was just about to land on one of the logs since the entire ground was covered by them, which caused her to fall over onto the ground. However a kind looking student with brown hair and glases, which seemed familiar but also not extended his hand to her to help her up.
"Ouch… Thank you…"
"No problem. Oh, you dropped this…"
He handed her… The target card?! Which she quickly took back and stuffed inside her pocket.
"Ah! Thank you so much!"
"No problem. You should take better care of it though. Otherwise we will lose just like that…"
"Yeah… Sorry… I was just…"
"Like I said, no harm was done, so it's alright, right?"
"Right…"
He just walked off with that, and Arina went to the furious Yuki, who proceeded to just smile at her once they were facing each other.
"Are you… Alright?"
"Never been better! Why~?"
"Uh… You screamed?"
"Haha, maybe a little. Don't worry about it."
"Oh… Okay…"
"Anyway… I think they are close. I should be able to track their mana now."
"That's great!"
"Come on, let's get to the ground."
"Yuki, wait… I have a confession…"
"…I'm in love with Yamato, sorry."
"It's nothing like that!"
"Oh. Okay then. Please proceed. Forget I said anything."
"You just…-Whatever… What I wanted to say was… I'm the target."
"Gasp!"
"…Why aren't you surprised?!"
"Pft, please, it was obvious after your weird questions earlier. You thought you were helping by keeping it a secret, huh? I guess somewhat it did help. You really could have told me sooner though."
"I know… But it wasn't obvious! I concealed it good enough to fool you!"
"Yeah, until you felt bad about lying and had to ask for reassurance "Is it that important that we know about who the target from our groups is?" Like, geez, just say you are drowning in guilt."
"You're so mean! I was trying to be considerate!"
"Thanks a bunch."
"You're welcome a bunch!"
"Haha. Anyway, when you're done whining, I'd love to focus now so I can try and locate them."
"I'm not…-Fine! Just do what you want!"
With that Arina flew back down and Yuki was left quite amused. As much as possible without Yamato present or violence involved at least.
"Alright then… Tracking them shouldn't be too difficult. Even though I still can't track Master, I can track Lily's mana and Andrew's too… That little plague… When this exam is over he can be happy if he can write at all after I'm done with him… "Got ya, dumb bitch"… You're dumb… And a little bitch… Shit's half my size and thinks cuz he's in Yamato's team once he can act like a big boy… Stupid child…"