When Tetsuki wakes up again the dawn of the second day is beginning to creep through the sky, the clouds an increasingly more saturated lilac.
It’s a prettier sight than her partner’s jacket which has only gotten grungier after using his watch shift to further bolster their trap defense. Between the overt traps and the hidden ones she can kind of sense, she can’t figure out the safe path to exit–actually, she’s not sure there is a safe path to exit.
Naruto Uzumaki also presents her with two dead rabbits which he can barely look at. Apparently it’s one thing to know that they’ll make a good meal, it’s another to actually turn them into one. For now, she’ll let him turn away: he did good on catching them, she’s fine on being the one to clean and prepare them.
Next time, though, she’s tossing him in the deep end.
Stalking the bloated group of their eight classmates in the early morning is both more and less difficult than it was last night. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say frustrating.
They’re all awake–which is something in their favor, at least–but they’re noisy and sluggish, stumbling around and yawning, rubbing at bleary eyes. They seem to be in dire need of some kind of leadership but also seem to be lacking–they begin arguing amongst themselves on their next course of action, something that goes on for at least a quarter of an hour, before someone sarcastically suggests a vote.
After a few more minutes of shouting, they end up actually taking that vote.
Between herself and Naruto Uzumaki there is no need for that much structure. Except for that first negotiation, they both know what needs to be done and incorporate the other’s suggestions. If there is a leader between the two of them, she thinks it might be her, but only because Naruto Uzumaki has the kind of impulse control that needs to be actively curbed.
Finally the group decides to split up–some members remaining at the camp, which will act as a home base for everyone, and others going out to look for corresponding tokens.
For a moment, Tetsuki thinks they might be spotted, that their classmates may just get their acts together and fight these two loners hidden not twenty meters away who have four tokens between them. Even halved, she doesn’t think she and Naruto Uzumaki can take on a concentrated attack so outnumbered.
Instead, the deployed half decides to… split themselves up again?
If she weren’t so baffled and grateful, she thinks she’d be disappointed. Instead, all she can think of is Hikari-san saying: if this were wartime, they’d be dead.
JackSGreyson Says 