Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ✔

Chapter 15 - Deserted Island Special Test, Part 2

I woke up early the next morning to take a fresh breather from the night in the tent. I'd never actually spent my time outside in a tent before, and that made me realize how hot those things actually get in the morning. During the nights, cold air would flow in through the mesh, but the heat from the morning sun also gets trapped inside the tent to an extent. Furthermore, the stench of sweat inside a boy's tent is not something that can be ignored.

I took a moment to appreciate the natural beauty of the island. There was greenery as far as the eye could see, clear sparkling water flowing down from the stream, and birds were already up and about on their morning routine. I cracked an unintentional smile, and closed my eyes, feeling the true beauty of nature seep into me.

"Why, it's handsome-existence-kun, marveling at the sights and scenery of this pathetic excuse of a test."

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see Rokusuke Kouenji beside me in all his bare-bodied glory, getting ready to enter the stream to take a bath.

"Good morning, Kouenji-kun."

 "Good morning, Takeyama-boy. It seems even someone like you, who knows how it feels like to be wanted by the fairer sex, has come to acknowledge my perfect existence and body."

What? Did I say something like that?

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Kouenji."

"Oh, you soon will, boy. You and this pathetic class of defects will certainly come to marvel at the perfect and significant existence of someone like myself", Kouenji said. This man was a strange one.

Kouenji did not come off as a bad person to me, unlike the rest of the class, who seem to look at him like he were walking garbage. My first encounter with him was on the bus to school, but we hadn't spoken to each other properly until right now. He is definitely narcissistic, and I agree to it. But whatever Kouenji says and does other than that are always backed up by a well-reasoned and fine tuned argument. During the ordeal on the bus, I was inclined to support Kouenji's cause, because every single one of his points was absolutely correct.

The young population in Japan was slowly rising. In the future, these people would be the ones to carry the future and aspirations of the country. It would then definitely be clear that it was the teenage and young adult population that was more important than the senior citizen population. It's an easy and wise answer, isn't it?

However, Kouenji did not care for the class. He did not care for Class Points, nor did he have any real friends in his class that he cared for. All his Private Points were supplied by 2nd and 3rd Year girls, and there wasn't a shred of sincerity in the man. For all I know, he was capable of dropping out of this island exam just so he could get back to the ship. That's just the kind of person he was.

Slowly, the rest of the class woke up as well. None of us actually had a good night's sleep, seeing that we were in fact sleeping on the ground. My body did not hurt much, but it was payback for staying awake for over half the night. As long as I got 4-5 hours of sleep and a bit of rest, I was good enough to go ahead and start the day.

Our class first gathered around the checkpoint in our base camp, and we renewed our Spot ownership. I passed the keycard around the entire class and made everyone swipe the card on the machine deliberately without activating it, and that would effectively make it impossible for a spy to pinpoint who had indeed activated the checkpoint. However, a drawback could be discovered if someone were to think about it carefully, and monitor the timings and order in which the card swipe was done. They would then be able to narrow down the potential leader by looking at the checkpoint and checking how much time had indeed passed.