Although Asakura intended to find an opportunity to spend some time alone with Tsurumi Rumi to see what exactly was going on with the girl.
However, after lunch ended, the boys (excluding Totsuka Saika) were driven by Hiratsuka to repair the wooden cabins.
Of course, it wasn't the kind of repair done by professional repairmen; it was purely simple work like nailing a wooden board over obvious holes, or covering rotten roofs with waterproof tarps weighed down by planks and bricks to prevent rain leaks as much as possible.
But while it looked very simple, it was actually quite difficult when you got your hands on it.
Frankly speaking, under the circumstances where he couldn't openly use magic spells, many tasks were also full of challenges for Asakura.
On top of that, whenever there are more than three high school boys together, an "idea guy" always emerges; someone would inexplicably pop up with a random idea, and then a whole group of people would think it made perfect sense and join in on the antics, making Hiratsuka so furious that she stopped drinking her beer.
In the end, the progress of the work was dragged down significantly, and after everyone was caught red-handed by Hiratsuka, they could only desperately try to lock the stable door after the horse had bolted.
In short, he was so busy spinning around in circles that he completely forgot about going to find Tsurumi Rumi.
"Finally, I can rest..."
When the sky gradually darkened and they ate the dinner prepared by the girls, Asakura returned to the wooden cabin lazily.
Actually, at first, Asakura thought all the wooden cabins were the same as the one where Tsurumi Rumi and Sakiko stayed, featuring two quite respectably large beds, but when they started repairing the other cabins, they discovered that wasn't the case.
The other cabins all contained eight beds; by the looks of it, a standard room was meant to accommodate eight people. The room Tsurumi Rumi and the others stayed in initially was probably meant for instructors or teachers, so it was a bit more spacious, and its state of maintenance was better than the other cabins.
With a whole row of over twenty cabins in the campsite, Asakura and the others hadn't even repaired half of them in a single afternoon. But even so, when it was time to sleep, they could divide up the rooms a bit, so a huge crowd of people didn't need to squeeze together.
The one staying with Asakura was naturally Hachiman.
"Sigh."
At this moment, Hachiman was still sighing and groaning: "So where exactly did things go wrong?..."
"What?" Asakura asked him while yawning.
"Why can't I stay in the same room as Komachi!" Hachiman said.
Asakura instantly lost all interest in bothering with him.
"First, ask your own conscience about your hideous siscon desires."
"No such thing!"
"Aren't you a siscon?"
"My meaning is, my desire for Komachi isn't hideous!"
"The moment you have a desire for Komachi, it's already no longer a question of whether it's hideous or not."
"Damn it, I was led astray by you! It's not some desire; between me and Komachi is pure and flawless sibling love!" Hachiman complained, playing the victim.
"Pure and flawless, you say," Asakura sneered.
"Where is the problem! Komachi once said words like 'When I grow up, I want to become Onii-chan's bride'!"
"You remembering this sentence so clearly is exactly where the problem lies, right?"
"Even if I can't be with Komachi, I wouldn't mind sharing a room with Saika!"
"Like I said, it's precisely because you express your desires too blatantly that Hiratsuka-sensei arranged the rooms this way."
"Damn it, what if Saika is defiled by that fellow Hayama!" Hachiman pounded the bedboards, making the sound of an incompetent husband.
"If Hayama is the one on the offensive, the one stirring the pot is the one who is defiled in the literal sense, right?" Asakura said randomly, feeling half-asleep.
"Asakura, you just said something deeply terrifying so casually..."
"I just don't want to continue arguing with you," Asakura yawned again, wiping away the tears at the corners of his eyes, and muttered: "I was driving the whole time last night, and right now I'm exhausted and really want to sleep."
"Sorry, you go to sleep first then."
"Tsk..."
"What's wrong?"
"The moment your tone turned gentle, Hachiman, it disgusted me so much that I got goosebumps, and my sleepiness vanished instantly." Asakura shuddered, rubbing his arms vigorously as he spoke.
"...I'm deeply sorry that my gentle voice is that disgusting!" The more Hachiman thought about it, the angrier he got: "Damn it, give me back my brief moment of consideration from just now!"
"How about you count sheep for me instead?" Asakura suggested.
"I'd rather recite English vocabulary," Hachiman countered.
"Otherwise, how about I tutor you? That way, you might fall asleep very quickly." Asakura was eager to try.
"No, no matter how you look at it, I'd be the one falling asleep first, right?" Hachiman responded in bewilderment.
"I just feel that tutoring an excessively incompetent student might make me faint from pure anger."
"Is there something wrong with your understanding of falling asleep?"
Hachiman complained.
Rather, if one got so angry that their blood pressure rose, it would only have the opposite effect and keep them awake.
"In short, let's start tutoring with the subject you're not good at." Asakura sat cross-legged on the bed: "Is it mathematics? Or physics? Don't be polite, bring it on, I am number one in the grade after all."
"Then please start by teaching me how to avoid being disgusted by the rose-colored romantic atmosphere of others," Hachiman said listlessly, keeping his dead-fish eyes open.
"Sorry, I am still learning that myself. Or should we just return to basics and start teaching from romance?" Asakura rubbed his chin and asked.
"No need, and you'd better not say that..."
"What's wrong? Are you that allergic to romance topics?"
"No, if a strange fellow happens to hear it... tsk, seems I spoke too late."
Following Hachiman's gaze, Asakura discovered Ebina standing at the doorway, watching them with glittering eyes.
"Ah, don't mind me, you guys can continue to chat freely about each other's romance and share the love." For some reason, the glasses-wearing girl, carrying a slight scent of decay, said to them with a chuckle: "Just treat me as background scenery, or the rose screentone in a manga background will do fine too~"
"Don't put it in such a disgusting way," Asakura pressed his palm to his forehead: "This is the boys' bedroom, what are you doing here, Ebina?"
"Oh, actually I have something to notify Asakura-san and Hikigaya-san about."
Ebina said in a disappointed tone that practically screamed, 'Huh, you guys aren't going to continue?'.
"What happened?" Hachiman asked while subconsciously pulling some distance away from Asakura at the same time.
"Actually, it's not a big deal. It's just that when Hayama ran into me just now, he asked if I had seen Tobe-san."
Ebina said: "Of course, I hadn't seen him, so he asked me to come over and pass the message to see if Asakura-san and Hikigaya-san had seen him."
"What is up with that fellow Hayama?" Asakura knitted his brows: "He didn't come to notify us himself, but sent a girl over instead?"
"Ah, please don't mistake Hayama-san. Actually, he initially asked me to go ask Yumiko and Yui and the others, but because I felt there might be good stuff here... ah, no, my sense of responsibility told me I should make a trip here, so I actively took on this mission!"
As she spoke, the young girl also pumped her fist secretly, wearing a face that screamed, 'I really came to the right place!'.
"Come to think of it, Tobe! Who was he grouped with?" Asakura asked curiously.
"Why put a heavy emphasis on that fellow's name... In short, he was originally a one-person group since there are five boys, which leaves an extra when paired up. But he said he didn't want to sleep alone, so he desperately squeezed his way into the room on Hayama's side." Hachiman said in a thoroughly dissatisfied tone.
Unaware whether he was dissatisfied with Tobe's selfishness or dissatisfied with the other party being able to sleep in the same wooden cabin as Totsuka Saika.
"But with things turning out this way, does it mean Tobe-san has gone missing?"
After the topic turned a fraction more serious, Ebina looked like she had transformed back into an ordinary girl. She adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose and said with some worry: "If he happened to get lost inside the woods, that would be troublesome."
"Visibility in the woods at night is indeed very low."
Hachiman's expression also grew a lot more serious, though it was quite hard to tell just from his dead-fish eyes.
He subconsciously looked toward Asakura.
In an angle where Ebina couldn't see, Asakura raised his finger, gave it a gentle wave, and then shook his head toward Hachiman, indicating that the 'eyes' he had deployed around the campsite had not detected any trace of Tobe.
This caused Hikigaya to subconsciously sink into deep thought.
"Pfft..."
"Ebina? Are you okay?" Asakura was startled, snapping out of his thoughts.
"N-No problem!" The girl covered her nose, speaking indistinctly.
"But your nosebleed is literally spurting out in a thoroughly ridiculous manner, you know?"
"This is because catching sight of the perfect telepathy between you two made me feel uncontrollably moved!"
"Does a normal person squirt nosebleeds when they're moved?" Hachiman couldn't resist complaining.
"A nosebleed is... the tears of the soul!"
"So what on earth is your soul bawling its eyes out for anyway?"
Ultimately, because Ebina's situation would likely require using the cotton from the medical kit, Asakura and Hachiman simply brought her along as they headed toward the 'Teachers' Cabin' where Hiratsuka was staying.
And over there, they ran into Hayama, who was currently discussing something with Hiratsuka.
"Oh, Asakura and Hikigaya, you guys came too... Holy crap, what on earth is this situation?! Ebina, are you okay? Did Asakura and Hikigaya do something to you?" Hiratsuka had just greeted Asakura and the others when she was startled by Ebina, whose face was covered in blood behind them.
With a smile resting on her face, Ebina looked at Hiratsuka, and then slowly raised her right hand.
Hiratsuka: "?"
Ebina gave a thumbs-up, a flash of white light glinting off the lenses of her glasses: "In my entire life, I have zero regrets!"
"Deliberately dropping a classic old trope on me makes it feel nostalgic, but at the exact same time subtly aggravating, you know! So what on earth happened anyway, hey!" Hiratsuka shouted and clamored.
☆ Misunderstanding Clearing Up Mode
After Ebina received proper treatment, she was temporarily settled into her own room by Hiratsuka.
Only after this did she explain the current situation to Asakura and the others.
"The headcount for the girls is normal, but among the boys, that fellow Tobe is missing... I have no idea where he ran off to, and he doesn't answer his phone either."
"Could he have eaten something bad and run off somewhere to nurse a bout of diarrhea?" Hachiman asked.
"Everyone ate the exact same dinner, so there shouldn't be any scenario where he ate something bad, right?" Hayama shook his head and said.
"That's not necessarily true." Asakura said out of nowhere.
"What do you mean?" Hayama blanked.
"I happened to hear from Itsuka that the curry for dinner actually had too much water added to it initially. So after it came out of the pot, the girls added a fraction of extra seasonings to boost the flavor." Asakura crossed his hands and hooked them under his chin, posing exactly like a certain commander as he spoke: "If Tobe! ended up with the portion of curry Yui was responsible for... then the answer is glaringly obvious!"
Hayama was completely in the dark.
"Ah, about that, it seems you've made a mistake, Asakura."
Out of nowhere, Hiratsuka spoke up cold and suddenly.
"What?" Asakura blinked his eyes, looking toward Hiratsuka.
Could there actually be some flaw in his flawless deduction?
"The seasonings for Tobe's portion were handled by Togawa, while Yuigahama was responsible for your portion—this was explicitly requested by her personally." Hiratsuka said.
Asakura clutched his stomach and collapsed to the ground, his face turning an absolute shade of pale green.
"Hachiman... I don't feel so good..."
"It's just your imagination, it's not like Thanos snapped his fingers." Hachiman said coldly.
"If it really were Thanos, it would actually be a fraction better..." Asakura muttered.
After all, that creature looked rather scrubby in the movies, so it probably wouldn't stand a chance against himself.
"Alright, quit playing the fool."
Hiratsuka patted Asakura on the shoulder: "In short, the boys will just have to do a bit of hard labor and search for him around the campsite. It's best to go in pairs of two, don't stray too far from the camp, and keep your mobile phones in a state where you can communicate at all times. I absolutely don't want to add a few more names to the missing persons list before we've even found Tobe. I'll mobilize the girls to do a thorough search inside the camp after this."
As she spoke, she pulled out her phone to verify the screen: "The current time is nineteen thirty-four, and in another half an hour, if it hits exactly twenty o'clock and Tobe's tracks still haven't been discovered, I'm going to get ready to call the police."
Hachiman's face was entirely written over with a deep longing to be paired up with Totsuka Saika.
However, after catching sight of Asakura winking at him with his one intact eye, he still raised his hand with a somewhat weary heart and said: "Then I'll just group up with Asakura."
"Pfft..."
"Ebina, are you truly okay? How about when we call the police in a bit, we tell them to bring a blood transfusion pack along while they're at it?" Hiratsuka looked toward Ebina, who was lying flat on the bed.
"N-No need... if possible, please absolutely let me go along with Asakura-san and Hikigaya-san..."
"No, don't even think about it." Hiratsuka refused without a single shred of hesitation.
"What a shame..."
Just as Asakura planned to lead Hikigaya out of the cabin, Hiratsuka's phone suddenly went off.
She opened it to look, uncontrollably revealing a somewhat startled expression: "It's a text message from Tobe!"
"What? What did he send?" Hayama asked out of concern.
"Koukan? What on earth does this mean?" Hiratsuka's face was a complete blank of utter bewilderment.