Chapter 33 : Hunger On Hillside
A/N: Yo guys! Here's this week only chap... Sadly yeah next ones should drop on Sundays too, at least until I can write more. I managed to write one this week-end without burning out lol (+1000 words per day).
Anyway sorry for the low update rate, but it's the best I can offer. I'll try to write 2 chaps per week so I can stack them up and when i'll have enough I'll post 3/4 instead.
Thanks for your understanding guys! I saw a lot of helpful comments in the previous chap!
Ayo sorry for posting late, i was eating and I forgot about it lol
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"Home!" Kurai shouted after finally reaching his team's island last, mostly because he stayed to talk to Rumi one last time before going.
Grabbing everyone's attention, Kurai shamelessly continued, "So it'll be our home for the next 3 or 4 days, huh?"
The other kids looked at him weirdly for thinking like this.
The island looked barren, the beach was amazing if they omit the fact that they were already hungry.
The forest was too dense to see anything, and every tree or plant looked threatening, weird or just too exotic for them. They didn't know which one was edible or not. That's also why they were so against his way of calling this plot of land 'Home.'
Kurai didn't care about their looks, spreading his arms and showing off his chest, he continued, "We should be organized guys! So I'd say we should choose a leader!"
Eyeing each of his 16 teammates, he didn't let them talk, "And so that's why I should be the leader."
Kurai grinned while relishing in their gobsmacked faces. 'So good, ahah!'
After some time a kid caught himself and interrupted Kurai, "Why should it be you? I say that we should do a vote, it's more reasonable and more democratic…"
Slowly he was joined by others, "Yes, he's right!
"Let's vote!"
"Democracy!"
…
...
"Huhuehue…" All of a sudden, a low throaty chuckle escaped Kurai's mouth.
It sounded more scary than anything, to their ears it was exactly like a villain's laugh.
Slowly raising his hung down head, Kurai looked straight into the first guy's eyes.
"Why me? Indeed, why me? Haha!" He started to walk toward the guy.
Now in front of him, Kurai perfectly articulated each syllable loudly, for everyone to hear him,
"Because I said so."
His golden irises were shining so dangerously that all the 16 participants couldn't speak.
"Come on? What happened?" Kurai got even closer, his face was a breath away from the guy's.
Tilting his head on the side, he bared his canines out, it looked as if he was going for his neck.
The guy fell back, his legs trembling, and his face ashen pale as if he saw a ghost.
"See… Only the strongest should be the leader."
"B-but who said—?!" Another guy, from the back, probably pushed by an adrenaline rush wanted to question Kurai but only one look made him swallow his tongue.
"Who said that I was the strongest? Right? That's what you wanted to know? Ahahah!"
Kurai started laughing as if it was the greatest joke in the world.
"Ahaha!" Wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye, he turned his head toward that guy's direction.
"Well, there's only one way to know… Wanna have a go with me?" Instantly his joking mood disappeared and his tone became neutral, close to indifferent even.
Although, that was what happened, for everyone else they felt like suffocating, as if the air became more heavy or just hotter. The pressure was clearly increasing, and the fight didn't even start. This was only his intent clashing with their young minds.
'Alright, it should be enough to discipline those brats.' His behavior toward those kids was just him being petty and him holding a grudge because of what they did or think about Rumi.
Though, they didn't need to know that.
"No one… Well… Since I'm a very understanding leader, we'll do a vote." On the outside, Kurai kept the pressure up.
"Let's start, who's voting for me?" Kurai naturally raised his hand for himself, some other kids wanted to vote for him too, but they couldn't move their arms, it was as if they were frozen!
"Okay, okay, 1 vote for me… Now this guy!" He continued the vote, pointing to his teammates one by one, unfortunately no one could really move, so…
"And 0!"
No one ever received a vote.
Ending the vote, Kurai told the results out loud, "Looks like I won. Aah… democracy is such a nice thing! You were so right!" He winked at the first guy, who was still on the ground, shaking.
"Good, we've lost too much time already!" Kurai clapped his hand and everything vanished; pressure, heavy air, it was as if noting transpired the last 5 minutes.
It was as if a flip was switched too, Kurai was now smiling gently, "My first order as a leader is to grab all the dry wood you can fetch!"
The other kids were shocked at this, one moment he was scaring the shit out of them and the next moment he was all kind? They couldn't believe their eyes!
"Come on, op op op! Stand up y'all!" He was encouraging them, and surely, slowly they started to get up and search for wood branches.
Although some were still looking back at him, to make sure if he was the same person as before.
'Okay! Gotta work too, I'm f*cking hungry right now.' Kurai walked up to the forest, which was still virgin, untainted by humans.
Amidst the worried look of everybody he stepped in.
…
…
…
It had been one hour since Kurai disappeared into the woods, it should be known that they were next to a tropical forest, one of the most dangerous genres of forest known to humanity.
So his disappearance actually worried his team even though he was so rude to them earlier.
They were gathered in a spot next to some palm tree offering shading, a bit away from the beach.
Close to them was a bunch of wooden sticks of diverse sizes.
"Should we call the teachers?"
"Let's wait for a bit…"
"Hmph, serve him right!"
"Oi! Don't talk like—"
All of a sudden everyone got a chill running down their bodies, they started hearing some rustling behind the plants.
The footsteps sounded heavy and slow.
"Is that a beast? Or a monster?
"We should run, this place is too scary!"
The footsteps were closing, and the bushes at the front started to get destroyed, slowly they could see a big shadow towering over their group.
*Tadum*
Something was thrown at them, and made a loud sound after landing on the ground.
It made some kids fall on their butt because of the fear.
"What is this?!"
"Let's run!!"
But just before they all started to go crazy, a well known and irritating voice was heard.
"Sheesh.... What scaredy-cats y'all are! It's me!"
Instantly they calmed down and looked at him again, he was standing tall with a wild boar on his shoulder.
In fact he had 3 of them, the one he threw, the one on his shoulder and the last one that he was holding.
Looking at him like that he looked more wild than the boars themselves, he had a few leaves in his hair and his upper body, which was naked, was dirtied by dirt or mud, they couldn't really distinguish.
Although he was dirty, right now he looked really savage, the girls were clearly dazed. What nailed them even more was his cat ears and tail.
He had activated this form while hunting.
It was like a nature call, all alone in the wild he felt like he should do it. He didn't have any more reason than that. It just felt n.a.t.u.r.a.l.
That's how he dirtied himself too, jumping from tree to tree, trying to kill those boars with his claws.
He even entered a charge competition with one of them… Well, in the end, the result was clear.
"Did you kill them?" One of the girls asked. Kurai shook his head.
"Yes so what?"
"But it's bad! Poor animal!"
He shrugged, it's not like he didn't anticipate this kind of reaction.
"Well you can just not eat it… Let's see if your reaction is the same in a few hours."
The girl was shocked by his 'inhuman' and indifferent comment.
"You're cruel! I'll find something else to eat!"
"Whatever." He saw her off with his gaze, actually she wasn't the only one leaving, 3 girls and 2 boys followed her too.
Which left the group with…"10? I guess 3 boars are now enough for us."
Hearing him, some frowned while others had a disgusted expression, though they were too hungry to go away like the previous kids.
"Oh I see that you brought the woods I asked for, nice!"
They all were observing him, waiting for another miracle.
"Time to make fire!"
He had a crazed look at the moment, they couldn't believe what an 11 years old kid like them did, and wanted to do.
'It has been such a long time since I didn't make a fire camp, let's see if I still got it.'
Under everyone's gaze, he started breaking and cutting wood with sharp stones. He even took some palm tree leaves and made a rope with it.
In the end he had 2 round sticks and a rope. He planned to make a fire with the friction power between those 2, he would be helped by the rope which will increase the speed. Well, he could actually just throw a bolt of lightning and be done with it.
'Nah, too soon for that.'
It was fun for him, he knew that he'd love to see their reactions after lighting the fire with own hands more.
He was obviously talking about the kids' reaction, but also the hidden teachers looking after them all, and the referee too: Ryuko.
He actually spotted them all during his trip because some of them followed him to assure his security, even though he didn't need it. He probably scored a few points with his hunt too, 'Well, I think I broke past their expectations…' He looked at the 3 boars on the ground.
'Alright let's start!' Kurai then started moving the 2 sticks.
Slowly smoke appeared, along with it surprised noises too.
Rubbing his hands even faster, Kurai continued to make even more smoke.
Smoke was arising, 'It'll Pop soon.'
And it did, a small red spark appeared, he got close and started blowing air on it.
Slowly, it was starting to spread around, the little spark became a small fire.
"Woah!"
"Amazing!"
"He really did it!" Even the guy who was holding a grudge against Kurai for scaring him was shocked.
'And that's how you make a fire.'
Standing up, Kurai called out to the remaining 10 people, "Alright guys, now we need to skin those boars."
"Huh… Well I'll do it, nevermind…" He relented after seeing their face, it was kind of dumb of him to expect 11 years old kids to skin big animals like boars.
That's how under the disgusted gazes of his teammates he proceeded to skin 3 whole boars and then they all feasted on the animals. The 6 other kids who didn't want to eat meat stayed on the side, their belly forever rumbling.
But Kurai didn't care, in the end it was their stupid choice.
Meanwhile, in the other island the atmosphere was more desperate.
Even though they luckily won the campfire, they weren't better set than the yellow team.
Indeed, they got nothing to eat. They didn't have someone like Kurai who was a pro at hunting, and they were even scared to adventure themselves in the forest alone.
And when it came down to the bushes or trees around them they didn't know what was edible or not.
In the end, they were all around the campfire, sitting cross legged but...
No one was talking, because, standing very close to the fire, was a certain bunny girl.
They knew from the start that she was someone not to be trifled with, and right now she had been looking at the fire camp for a while, glaring and murmuring something in a low voice.
They were the biggest team, with 23 members, they even had a clear advantage compared to the other team, sadly for them, and even if they didn't know it, the other team already reversed the situation.
Suddenly, in both islands, a bottle floating on the sea could be seen.
One kid from Rumi team alerted his mates, while the same thing was happening for team yellow.
Everyone gathered around the bottle grabber except in Kurai's team where he gave it to his leader, everyone now acknowledging him.
Kurai saw a paper rolled up in the bottle, so he took it out and read it out loud, "Second challenge: hold it for your team even if danger arises faster than you'd think."
This time, they were all confused, even Kurai.
He didn't have a single idea about the meaning of this sentence.
Giving the bottle to the guy who grabbed it, he shrugged his shoulder, "Welp guys, you can decode this thing, I'll keep eating."
Some kids followed him while some stayed on the beach trying to decipher the meaning behind it.
They all remembered Ryuko telling them that after a bottle, they had 1 hour to prepare for the challenge.
That's also why they were dedicating their precious time to this: if they could find a clue about the next challenge and win they might have a chance to receive an award too!
…
…
…
Unfortunately, one hour later, no one on both teams found the meaning of that note.
Both teams were now on another island, they were brought in by boats. It was the place for the next challenge. They were all excited about this one!
Even Kurai, he was only showing it with a grin while he kept looking at Ryuko, trying to make her spill the beans faster.
'Come on, show me what you planned!'