Satoi came out of the forest, her peach-colored hair swaying with the wind as she looked at the scene in front of her. Noroma followed soon after, peeking from behind. They saw Karasu lying on the ground, unconscious.

  Noticing the blood on Kenzou’s face, they quickly understood the situation. At that moment, they both felt immense danger.

  Just then, their wristbands vibrated slightly. “The first trial is over.” A male voice declared from their wristbands. “I will now announce the results.”

  ‘The voice, why is it different now..?’ Satoi carefully listened along, staring at her wristband.

  “In last place, we have..” The voice continued speaking as tears slowly dropped from Hana’s eyes.

  Kenzou snapped. “Damn it! I told you not to hide them! If we had been straightforward, then none of this would’ve happened!” He lashed out at Hana, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt.

  Though she didn’t resist, instead, even more tears dropped from her eyes. “I’m.. sorry.”

  “Sorry? You’re sorry?! You just used my athletic abilities to your advantage, overworking me to get as many coconuts as possible. And then you even hid them from the others, while they shared everything they had!” Kenzou’s grip tightened as Karasu’s blood slowly dripped down from his face.

  “You’re right..” Hana’s tears continued as she bit her lower lip. ‘It’s always my fault. They all always blame me..’ Her eyelids closed. She felt like she had completely shut off all of her senses, staring at a blank void in her mind.

  “How unsightly.” Satoi sighed, moving a few steps towards Kenzou. Noroma tried to stop her but was pushed back.

  However, something else stopped her. “You’re wrong!” Hana slapped Kenzou’s face. “You agreed on all of this! Stop blaming me for your own indecisiveness!”

  Kenzou’s eyes widened. He let go of Hana and stared at his blood-stained hands. ‘I.. I had fought for her safety, and now I’m doing this..’ He gulped and stared at Hana.

  She quickly retreated, holding her own hand. ‘I slapped him.. Is he going to hit me now? ..At least I did what I had to do!’ She firmly kept her ground, staring back at him.

  “..Sorry, Hana.” Kenzou looked down, his eyes void of all light. “I.. I don’t know what’s going on with me anymore. This trial.. it’s making me go insane..” The grass below him was stained with Karasu’s blood; it was an unsightly view.

  Just then, another person emerged from the forest. It was Hakaku. Her expression was indescribable. A vein was almost popping from her forehead as she tightly bit her lower lip.

  “In last place, we have Karasu Takashi and Hakaku Mikamoto with two coconuts. Such a disappointing performance.” the voice spoke in a mocking tone. At that moment, Kenzou and Hana looked at each other in disbelief.

  “We’re not last? We.. survived?” They looked at each other as tears rapidly fell from their eyes. These were not tears of despair, but of joy. They were dragged from earth all the way into hell, then brought back to life.

  The blue sky gained a tint of blazing orange as the sun slowly approached the horizon. At that moment, two figures came out of the forest. Rikou and Tenkai walked to the center of the island, their firm postures standing out from the rest. “It seems that everyone is already here, huh.” Rikou spoke, smiling confidently.

  “Rikku..?” Hana’s tearful eyes gazed at Rikou, noticing the wristband on his arm. “In third place, we have Kenzou Takado and Hana Yukina with three coconuts, what a close call.” the voice continued.

  At that moment, Hakaku angrily looked at the unconscious Karasu, then glanced at Satoi while clenching her fists. Satoi carefully watched Rikou, then her eyes wandered off to Hakaku, responding to her hate-filled look with a smile.

  “Sorry, Hakaku and Karasu, but lying about your hut is no good.” Rikou spoke as he glanced at Hakaku. “Your team did, in fact, give us the location of a hut, but not the one you resided in. There were two huts in the western region of the island. I noticed this when I secretly followed you after you stole Hana’s coconut.

  You went to a different hut, which had sticks all around it. Your team was very wary of others and wanted to mislead everyone into thinking that your main hut was the one Karasu showed me.

  However, the one where you actually kept all of your coconuts was the one you actually went to. You messed up the moment you dropped your guard right after Hana stopped chasing you.”

  “In second place, we have..” the voice kept going. Rikou and Tenkai then threw their backpacks on the ground as lots of coconuts rolled away. Four.. Six.. Eight.. Nine coconuts! “So.. So many!” Noroma’s eyes widened, while Satoi stared at them firmly.

  “Forgive us, but we took the liberty of helping ourselves with all those coconuts we had found in Karasu’s hut.” Rikou continued, those words hit Hakaku deeply, but Hana and Kenzou even more so.

  “You..” Hana and Kenzou both stared at Rikou and Tenkai. ‘He managed to steal the wristband and coconuts back.. If it hadn’t been for them, then we would’ve been in last place..’ Hana thought as the voice from the wristband continued, “Rikou Fukanou and Tenkai Shinichi with nine coconuts. Brilliant performance.”

  “..Second place?” Just then, Rikou and Tenkai’s eyes filled with disbelief. The first two teams had two and three coconuts, respectively, while they had triple the latter’s coconuts. ‘Did the voice behind the wristband make a mistake?’ Rikou and Tenkai had the same thought.

  Satoi smiled confidently as she crossed her arms. “In first place, we have.. Satoi Hokori and Noroma Kanzaki with ten coconuts. Splendid!” the voice exclaimed. They finally let go of their backpacks as a loud thud rang in everyone’s ears.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  She then kicked them, with a whole ten coconuts rolling out. “You thought we were simply standing around the whole time?” Even though everyone’s eyes were already wide open, they were surprised once more.

  Kenzou and Hana were struggling to get just one more coconut to feel safer, while those two teams had that many. What was that, a joke from heaven?

  No one said anything. However, at the next moment, applause could be heard. Rikou clapped as he looked over to Satoi. “Impressive. You really are outstanding.”

  Satoi felt slightly annoyed. Rikou was supposed to scream at her in anger. Why was he so calm?

  “Well done, seriously. I had thought that we’d win for sure.” Rikou couldn’t help but laugh. “Voice, I’m sure that you are watching and can hear us. I want to ask something. How many coconuts were spread across the island?”

  “…” No answer came. Everything was quiet.

  “Please, call me Erysichthon instead of ‘voice’. Twenty-four coconuts were spread across the island.” the voice replied after a small pause.

  “I see, so that means that the eight of us have collected all of them. We couldn’t have done anything to beat her anyway, huh.. How cruel fate is.” Rikou sighed, but he did not seem to be hung up at all.

  In fact, he chuckled. ‘So that’s why..’

  Just then, Karasu’s body shook wildly for a short period of time, as if he were being electrocuted. “The losers will now play a simple game to determine who shall take the blame.” Erysichthon replied as Karasu quickly raised his upper body. Simultaneously, the shock stopped.

  “What the fuck!? I seriously thought I was going to die there!!” Karasu yelled at the air as he slowly stood up. His body was heavily injured. His nose was broken, and a few teeth were missing. He blinked twice and shrieked back in fear when he saw Kenzou’s figure.

  “Karasu Takashi. Your team has lost, and you will have to play a game to decide who shall get eliminated.” Erysichthon spoke calmly.

  “Huh? To hell with your trial!” Karasu yelled at the wristband and raised his fist. Another shock came before he could break it. He screamed in pain before finally falling to the ground, then slowly standing back up.

  ‘Damn it.. What’s going to happen to me now?’ If he made any sudden movements, he would get shocked once more. He could only helplessly grit his teeth.

  He had fallen unconscious, and apparently, his team lost. “Hey.. Hakaku, where the hell are the coconuts that I had gathered? I told you to bring them with you right before the end of the trial, since I’d be out trying to get more.”

  “Rikou and Tenkai stole the coconuts in our actual hut.” She replied, then glanced over to Satoi. “And I also lost two coconuts myself.”

  Karasu’s gaze instantly focused on Rikou. “You! It was all you! You were the one who told me that-“ Just then, he got shocked again.

  “You will play the loser’s game. Stop wasting time.” Erysichthon scolded Karasu. He bit his lower lip and shut his mouth. He kept staring at Rikou with a scornful look.

  ‘I’d love to yell at this guy, but.. It’s not like I can do anything in this situation. If I hadn’t lost those two coconuts to her, then we’d still be safe..’ Hakaku sighed, staring at Karasu while waiting for the voice to continue speaking.

  “The game you will be playing is called Rock, Paper, Scissors. The loser of the game will get eliminated. You will have one minute to input your choice on the wristband.” Everyone felt fear when hearing the ambiguous word ‘eliminated’, but no one spoke.

  “The timer starts now. Please choose wisely.” The voice then disappeared as a pop-up with three different options appeared on Hakaku and Karasu’s wristbands.

  “I’m going to choose scissors.” Hakaku calmly spoke up as she tapped on an icon within the first few seconds.

  Satoi chuckled when she heard such a statement; it reminded her of something.

  Karasu’s thoughts raced through his mind. ‘Scissors? I see.. No one would play paper after hearing that, which means that she actually wants to play rock, so I should go with paper. ..No, that's exactly why she wouldn’t lie. She definitely expected that. I'll play rock and beat her scissors. ..As if I’d fall for that, how naive!’ With ten seconds left, he clicked on an icon shaped like a pair of scissors.

  “Both players have input their choice. I will now state the results.” Everyone was dreadfully awaiting the results. Sweat could be visibly seen on Noroma’s forehead as he watched the game unfold. ‘If it were me, I’d play scissors to be safe. If she isn’t bluffing, I’d tie. If she is, then I’d probably win, since paper is better than rock.’

  “Karasu chose scissors. Hakaku chose rock. Hakaku is the winner. Karasu must clearly be at fault for their team’s loss, isn’t that right?” the voice said, before fading away.

  “..What? What the hell?! You.. You’re a damn idiot! Fuck! I call for a rematch! I clicked the wrong button!” Karasu yelled out, his anger visibly turning into fear.

  Everyone there had the same thought. What was going to happen to him now?

  Just then, everyone heard the sound of a huge helicopter in the sky. The grass and leaves were being blown away by the rotor blades spinning at high speeds. Everyone looked up. Some gasped while others quickly distanced themselves.

  Of course, the thought of someone rescuing them was nonexistent. The helicopter landed, and the voice on their wristbands spoke out once more. “Please, ladies and gentlemen. Get in the helicopter.”

  Silently and fearfully, they entered one by one. “Stop. You are not permitted to get in the helicopter.” A tall man in a black suit and sunglasses stopped Karasu as he was about to enter. Karasu’s pupils dilated. “What? You must be kidding.. I was part of their group.”

  The helicopter blades started spinning as Karasu stood in front of the man. “Hey, hey! Let me in!” Karasu quickly ran past the man and tried jumping into the helicopter.

  However, a man inside the helicopter kicked him out. He already had deep wounds and fell on the ground, unable to withstand the force of the kick.

  The man in the black suit quickly went inside the helicopter as it lifted itself off the ground, gaining altitude. Karasu could only watch, lying on the ground like a wounded, helpless animal. “Fuck! Wait for me!! Please..!” Tears started falling from his eyes as he struggled on the ground, unable to move an inch from all the wounds he had suffered thus far.

  At that moment, multiple specks appeared in the sky. They got closer and closer till one could finally realize what they were. An immeasurable number of drones carrying coconuts appeared in the sky. Some approached the island and picked up a few more.

  ‘Drones? Their material.. isn’t that carbon fiber?’ Rikou stared at them, focusing his gaze as he recalled what he had found some time ago.

  “Huh.. Those are the coconuts I had collected..” Kenzou silently whispered to himself as he watched the scene before him unfold. No one understood what was going on till the drones finally halted in the sky above Karasu.

  One of the drones let go of a coconut, then another. “Hey.. you can’t be.. serious..” Karasu watched the coconuts get obliterated when they hit the ground right next to him.

  All of a sudden, multiple drones started letting go of the coconuts. One at a time, they swiftly barraged the island with coconuts. An ear-piercing scream could be heard for a few moments, until it suddenly became silent once more.

  Everyone within the helicopter was dead silent; some were shaking while others were looking away from the dreadful sight. Noroma tightly closed his ears and eyes, just like a child trying to escape from the world.

  Something heavy hit the window behind Hana and Kenzou. They turned around, being greeted by a large chunk of brain matter plastered all across the window. She shrieked in fear, while Kenzou’s pupils dilated. ‘I.. caused this..?’

  Hakaku gulped, and Tenkai quickly put his hands on his mouth, about to vomit.

  The cruel fate of those who failed the trials was on full display, the inhumane sight etched into their minds.

  Coconut Hunt – Fin.