Chapter 138: Monster, An Absolute Monster
As she thought this through, Ibuki Mio felt a growing sense of shock.
From the moment Class C "withdrew" from the exam, from the moment Ryuen Kakeru decided to remain on the island alone, Katsuragi Keima already knew where he would be hiding. It wasn't because he had followed him, and it wasn't because he was lucky; it was because he understood Ryuen Kakeru all too well. He knew what kind of tree hollow Ryuen would choose, what route he would take, and which areas he would avoid.
He knew all of it.
"..."
Perhaps he didn't even wait until Class C withdrew to find out. It was possible that from the very beginning, Katsuragi Keima had predicted the plan Ryuen might implement. If that were true, then he was a true monster.
Ibuki Mio looked toward the entrance of the hollow. The rain slanted down into the dense jungle, and as the sky turned completely dark, the entire mountain was enveloped in a gray mist, making even the silhouettes of the leaves blur into obscurity. She crouched at the entrance, leaning forward slightly, her tense arms trembling.
Looking into the hollow, Ryuen Kakeru remained in a curled-up position, leaning motionless against the rough wooden wall. He even seemed to have a faint smile on his face, looking for all the world as if he were simply asleep. Under normal circumstances, Ibuki Mio would never have imagined that a man like Ryuen could be rendered unconscious by someone else.
However...
The last time, Ibuki had been knocked unconscious by Katsuragi Keima along with Ryuen. Even Ibuki, who had practiced martial arts since childhood, hadn't been able to see the man's movements. In the past, Ibuki would have felt only humiliation. Now, however, that massive gap in strength left her unable to even entertain such a thought.
She looked closely at Ryuen. That face, which was usually held high and filled with arrogance, was currently mottled with mud. Dust mixed with rainwater had left streaks down his cheeks, making him look pathetic—even a bit blackened, as if he had been through an explosion. His bangs were soaked through, sticking to his forehead in clumps and hiding his usually sharp eyes, stripping away all his edge and hostility.
The man who ruled Class C with an iron fist, using absolute dominance and intimidation to control everything, was now lying defenseless in a dark, damp tree hollow. His usual aura was gone, leaving only an undeniable vulnerability.
Ibuki watched him silently, her heart full of mixed emotions. She had followed Ryuen for a long time and was accustomed to him always being in control of the situation. In her mind, though
she didn't agree with his methods, Ryuen was omnipotent—the absolute core of Class C who could handle any hardship and break any deadlock in his own way.
But now, this leader she followed lay like a piece of abandoned driftwood in the wilderness, lifelessly unconscious in this remote hollow. The contrast left her panicked and confused, a sense of foreboding gripping her tightly. She knew very well that she couldn't just leave him like this.
No matter how fallen or pathetic Ryuen appeared now, he was still the leader of Class C and the core of this survival exam plan. According to the original plan, the entirety of Class C would pretend to give up the exam while Ryuen remained on the island in hiding to secretly gather intelligence on other classes, waiting for the chance to turn the tables. The plan was interlocking, and Ryuen was the most critical link.
If any accident happened to him here, everything they had meticulously planned would go up in smoke—forget finishing the exam; she wouldn't even be able to face the rest of Class C. Ibuki had no idea what to do next.
At that thought, Ibuki took a deep breath, forcing down the panic and lingering fear in her heart. She slowly moved in front of Ryuen, her gaze lingering on his face for a moment. Seeing his closed eyes and furrowed brow, she hesitated for a second before reaching out to gently shake his shoulder.
"Ryuen Kakeru."
Her voice was kept low, yet it was exceptionally clear in the silent hollow. Ryuen's body moved slightly, his brow furrowing deeper as if he were entangled in a persistent, annoying dream he couldn't escape. A muffled, incoherent groan escaped his throat, and his eyelids flickered a few times, but he still didn't open his eyes.
Seeing this, Ibuki knew a gentle shake was useless. Growing impatient, she bit her lower lip and applied more force, shaking his shoulder again. Her voice rose slightly, tinged with urgency:
"Ryuen, wake up! This isn't the place for a nap. Wake up now!"
This time the shaking was obvious enough, and the force was much greater. If he didn't wake up now, she would have to resort to physical means. Ryuen's eyelashes trembled violently, and after a long moment, he finally lifted his heavy eyelids.
The first thing his cloudy vision hit was a dark, blurry shadow. The light was dim, making it impossible to see the surroundings. Then, a familiar yet anxious face gradually became clear.
It was Ibuki Mio.
Her face looked exceptionally pale in the dim light, devoid of color, and her eyes held a complex emotion he had never seen before—unconcealable worry, shock at seeing him like this, and a trace of detachment and calm.
Ryuen's brain felt like a rusty gear; it jammed for a long time before finally starting to turn slowly. Having just regained consciousness, his mind was still foggy. His whole body was riddled with exhaustion and pain; every bone felt as if it had been taken apart. He opened his mouth, and the sound from his dry throat was incredibly raspy, only able to produce two broken syllables: "...Ibuki?"
His tone was full of confusion, his eyes vacant as if he didn't understand why he was seeing her here, or where he even was. He laboriously moved his eyes to scan the area—the damp, cold tree walls, the tangled roots, the rain pitter-pattering at the entrance. Everything was strange yet real.
But the memories remaining in his mind were fragmented, impossible to piece together.
"Why are you here?" Ryuen struggled to sit up, pushing against the ground with his arms. But the moment he moved, a sharp, throbbing pain shot through the back of his head like a needle, making him gasp. His body went weak, and he slumped heavily back against the tree wall.
"Tch... my head... it hurts..." He raised his hand to the back of his head. There was no obvious wound or swelling where his fingers touched, but the slightest contact brought a clear, heavy throb of pain that showed no sign of fading.
This real pain reminded him clearly that what had happened earlier wasn't a hallucination. Yet the broken images in his mind were so absurd they felt ridiculous even to him. A flying broomstick, glowing fruit rolling out of a sack, and a golden fruit with a distinct human face that exploded in front of him without warning...
Elsie...
Those images were too bizarre, too contrary to common sense to exist in the real world. How was it possible? How could a broomstick fly on its own? How could fruit have a human face and explode? It defied logic—those were things from fairy tales or ghost stories. It couldn't be real. It had to be a dream, a nightmare born from physical exhaustion.
He looked around. There were no fruits, and no signs of an explosion.
'It really was a hallucination.'
Ryuen closed his eyes, trying to untangle his messy thoughts and forcing himself to calm down. But those broken fragments only circled more clearly in his mind, refusing to leave. Every image was vivid, so real it made his heart race. He frowned, muttering to himself with a vacancy he didn't even notice:
"I... I think I just had a very strange dream... incredibly real, and bizarrely illogical..."
Ibuki Mio crouched in front of him, watching his dazed state. The shock in her heart slowly faded, replaced by an indescribable complexity of emotion. The Ryuen Kakeru she knew was
always calm and self-assured. No matter the desperation or the trouble, he stayed cool; he would never show such a lost and helpless expression. The contrast was almost funny.
"A dream?" Ibuki couldn't help but speak, her tone carrying a trace of mockery and a hint of frustrated resignation. "What did you dream about?"
Ryuen described the blurred fragments in his memory. Hearing his words, Ibuki couldn't hold it back and let out a laugh.
"Ryuen Kakeru, has your brain rotted? You can't even tell reality from dreams? You don't look like you have a fever."
Her words were like a needle, lightly popping Ryuen's chaotic thoughts. He snapped his head up to look at Ibuki, his eyes flashing with the indignation of being insulted. He was a proud man who hated being questioned. Normally, he might have thrown a punch, but his anger was currently suppressed by his confusion. He could only ask in a low voice:
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?" Ibuki raised an eyebrow, her voice devoid of emotion but perfectly clear. "I mean you aren't in a dream right now. You're in reality, deep in the jungle of a deserted island, inside a crappy tree hollow. You've been lying here unconscious. Do you need me to remind you of the 'previously on' for your life?"
Ryuen's pupils contracted. He stared blankly at Ibuki as his brain stalled again.
'Right, right. Those absurd images were definitely just hallucinations from being unconscious.'
He tried to convince himself repeatedly, but the real pain and the clear visuals kept refuting his thoughts, plunging him into a deep contradiction.
"I... in the dream, I also saw Katsuragi Keima's sister, Elsie..." Ryuen's voice was light, filled with a hesitation he couldn't even hide from himself. He tried to piece together the fragments to tell her, but the words felt too ridiculous to say out loud. "Forget it, it's nothing."
"But Katsuragi and Elsie were just here."
"What?"
"I'm afraid your plan was seen through from the very start!" Ibuki said immediately. "That plan of yours to have Class C pretend to withdraw collectively was exposed long ago!"
Ibuki immediately poured out her inner thoughts.
"What?"
"Katsuragi knew your plan all along. He even found your hiding spot and came over to knock you out!" Ibuki continued. "He knew our internal conflict was fake before the exam even started, and he even took away my transceiver."
From her perspective, that was exactly how things were. She had followed Katsuragi Keima all the way here and then found the unconscious Ryuen.
"No wonder you haven't contacted me... Then why... why are you here?!"
"I realized something was wrong with them, so I followed them all the way... though I'm afraid my appearance here was also within their calculations." Ibuki stated her suspicion.
"I see..." Only now did Ryuen's consciousness fully clear, allowing him to roughly understand what had happened. From beginning to end, it was all Katsuragi Keima's arrangement.
"He led me here to find you as a warning, I suppose," Ibuki said.
"No, it's not just a warning!" Ryuen's brain spun rapidly, piecing together the information he had at maximum speed.
"Then... what is it?"
"It's a threat," Ryuen said with a serious expression. "He wants to make a deal with me."
"A deal?"
"He probably even knows about the matter between me and Katsuragi [of Class A]... That monster. Ibuki, did you get any intel during your time in Class D?"
"I saw the owner of the keycard... it was Elsie. Not only was her name on the card, but she even occupied a spot right in front of me. It was very strange."
"I see..." Ryuen said grimly. "Impressive... truly impressive, Katsuragi!"
"What? What did you understand?"
"What you saw might still be an illusion! Once you tell me that news, our Class C will be beyond redemption!"
"Ha?"
"All of that must still be fake. The keycard might be a forgery; after all, you can buy anything with points. Besides, when Elsie swiped the card, were there other people around?"
"Yes... could it be?!" Ibuki's eyes widened as she realized something.
What if... Elsie swiping the card was just an act? What if, in reality, it was someone else nearby who was swiping the card!
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