Chapter 16: Stockings, Cats, and Girls
Rainy days can bring fresh water and a sense of coolness, but they also speed up the decay of everything.
It was damp, moldy, and had a strange rotten smell.
"What's more terrifying is... I think I've gotten used to this bad smell..."
Utaha crouched inside the cage, staring sadly at the raindrops that were sometimes falling in from outside.
Rainy days meant that the people behind these bars would once again become victims of the savage humans' slaughter.
The people who lived there were unable to start fires when it rained. Because of this, the people who were going to be eaten today would be eaten raw.
Utaha felt sick to her stomach. She had just been thinking about that.
The number of cages in the fence was slowly getting smaller. Before long, they would all end up as food.
To make matters worse, Sora Ginko, who was next to Utaha, had caught a cold because of the wind last night and today's rain.
She had a fever and was starting to shake.
Seeing her friend weak from illness, Utaha could only curse the savages and the terrible weather. Then she pulled Ginko's small body into her embrace.
She hoped that, by doing this, Ginko's fever might go down a little.
"Kasumioka-senpai, if you hug me like this, you might catch the flu too. Just leave me alone."
Ginko looked at Utaha with a smile, but she was still half-conscious.
In a place like this, where there was no protection from the wind and food was only available once every three days, catching the flu was almost guaranteed to lead to death.
But for Ginko, that was okay. At least she could die before becoming food for those monsters.
"Don't say something so stupid!"
Utaha gently slapped Ginko on the cheek.
"If you die, I'll go crazy too. "Besides, if those wild people find out you're dying, they'll drag us out even sooner to eat us!
Utaha tried really hard to make Ginko want to live again.
She knew that once someone lost the will to live, their immune system would collapse.
When that happened, there was almost no chance of survival.
"I'm sorry... If I get eaten first, Senpai... I'd rather just die!"
Finally, Ginko found a reason to live again. She coughed a few times, then hugged her senior tightly through her tears.
"As long as Senpai doesn't give up, I'll survive too!"
Ginko found hope and comfort in Utah's warm embrace.
_ _ _
"It's raining..."
The girls, who had fallen asleep together the night before, hadn't woken up yet when they felt raindrops slipping through the cracks in the stones.
"Luckily, the campfire hasn't gone out, but the dry wood we gathered yesterday won't be enough to keep it going."
Rainy days were scary for people trying to survive.
"Then I'll go out and look for more wood..."
Yui offered something without thinking.
"No. Even in the forest, it's almost impossible to find dry wood when it's raining. We need to protect what we have. Let's just hope the rain doesn't last for days…"
Megumi used a big shell to collect rainwater, and then put it on the fire to boil.
Then, she grabbed some root vegetables they found yesterday—something like yams—and threw them into the fire.
"For food, we still have these 'black yams.' Hopefully they taste better roasted than raw."
The weather on this island was always changing.
When it was sunny, temperatures could reach forty to fifty degrees Celsius. However, when it rained and the wind blew, the temperature would drop drastically to ten or twenty degrees.
"I hope the rescue team finds us soon..."
Yui sat on a dry patch of ground and looked at the rain. She looked sad.
Almost a week had gone by, and there was still no sign of a rescue team. Not a single monkey had appeared.
"Here, eat this."
Megumi offered a roasted black yam to Yui, who was still daydreaming.
"Mmm!"
Megumi was always calm and relaxed.
Yui stopped feeling sad, then carefully peeled and took a small bite of the black yam.
"This is delicious!"
She had only tried a small piece, but it tasted much better than any roasted yam she had ever had.
"Ah! Hot!"
She took a bigger bite than she should have, and immediately covered her mouth—it was too hot!
It's too hot... ouch!
"This..."
Jun found a piece of black silk fabric sticking out of the sand on the beach.
"This... a trace left by someone else?"
He dug it out quickly.
"Hmm...this looks like Yukinoshita's stocking. It had just a few holes in it, and she threw it away? What a waste…"
The white line pattern on the stocking suggests that it was Yukino's.
Jun had hoped he would find evidence of another person, but it turned out to be nothing more than Yukino's buried stocking.
He brushed the sand off the stocking.
It would be better to keep it. You might need it later.
Jun was thinking about Yukino's pale calves while he held the stocking.
As Lu Xun once said, "When you see a short sleeve, you imagine a white arm, then a naked body, then sex... the Chinese imagination really leaps that far."
It looks like that quote was true.
Jun carefully put the stocking into his pocket.
Then he shook his head hard, trying to get rid of those thoughts.
Jun kept walking in the rain and eventually found something else.
"Ha ha! It looks like the trap I set yesterday worked!"
To keep other animals from stealing the Coconut Crab they caught last night, Jun set up three vine snares around it.
These noose traps tightened more and more the more something struggled, making it impossible for the creature to escape.
"A fox?!"
Jun saw a long-tailed creature with its neck caught in a trap made of vines.
It was red—but wait, it looked more like a cat...
But its body was longer than a regular cat's, with larger ears, sharper fangs, and a tail striped like a fox's.
But its face clearly showed that it was a wild cat.
It was probably a legendary fox-cat.
"Are you still alive? Seriously..."
Even though it was in a difficult situation, the fox-cat seemed smart. It wasn't acting like it knew it would be in trouble if it struggled.
So, when Jun released it, the animal was still able to move, though clearly weak.
Jun easily grabbed it by the scruff of its neck.
"Some people say that cat meat doesn't taste good, but the fur could be used to make gloves or a hat."
With one hand carrying the fox-cat and the other holding the heavy coconut crab, Jun made his way back through the rain to their cave camp.
Lunch that day was special. Coconut Crab meat was a bit oily, but it was absolutely delicious when mixed with coconut water.
Luckily, the crab survived until morning.
If not, the meat quality would have gotten worse.
The tension between Jun and Yukino from earlier that morning slowly disappeared. Neither of them mentioned the kiss again.
However, Jun saw something on the status screen:
[Yukinoshita Yukino: Affinity Level… 90…]
Almost 100%...
Even though Yukino was attracted to Jun, she didn't seem to notice him at the moment.
She was completely fascinated by the fox-cat Jun brought back.
She even started meowing at it.
She looked so cute, but at this rate, that fox-cat was never going to become gloves or a hat.
"Yukinoshita-san, you like cats, right?"
Jun fed the fox-cat bits of shellfish and crab shell.
After eating, the fox-cat, which was about the length of a meter, started to look more energetic. Its eyes lit up.
"No! I just think cats are cuter than humans."
Yukino stroked the fox-cat's fur as she replied.
"So, you like cats?"
Jun shrugged, feeling helpless.
"But Yukinoshita-san, this isn't just any cat. It's a rare animal—a fox-cat. Technically, it's more closely related to dogs than cats.
"Dogs?!"
As soon as Yukino heard that word, she pulled her hand away from the cat.
She had been afraid of dogs since she was a child. Even Yui's friendly Dachshund made her nervous.
"Katō-kun, you're kidding, right? This is clearly a wild cat. No way it's part of the dog family…"
"Not really. Its teeth and tail make it look more like a dog. But yeah, I said that just to mess with you. Scientists still classify it under the cat family."
Jun didn't scare Yukino, so he stopped trying to eat her.
"I knew it..."
Yukino glared at Jun, then went back to petting the cat.
"It seems like you really love cats and would never eat them. So, do you want to keep it?"
Jun crouched down and poked the cat's head, causing both the fox-cat and Yukino to glare angrily at him, showing their sharp teeth.
"Oh, come on! This cat is so cute! I'm amazed that there are people who would eat a cat!"
Yukino picked up the cat and looked at Jun with caution.
"You're terrible!"
She used the cat's paw to hit Jun.
"So, you're keeping it?"
Jun laughed while avoiding the tiny claws.
"Umm..."
Yukino nodded shyly.
But soon her face lit up again, delighted by the cute cat.
Yukino the cat slave, indeed...
Jun had heard rumors that Yukinoshita Yukino was a "cat slave" at school.
But it wouldn't be easy to tame a wild cat like this. Jun made a rope collar and tied the fox-cat to a wooden rack outside the cave.
Yukino, being more careful, even made a cozy little bed for it.
She really hoped the cat would become loyal and stay by her side like a pet cat.
"I really want to see her with cat ears..."
Jun watched Yukino playing with the cat outside the cave. He said quietly, sounding a little lonely.
He felt a little jealous of the cat for some reason.
Luckily, the heavy rain came and went quickly.
By the afternoon, the rain had stopped.
The sun finally came out, and the sky turned a warm orange color.
Jun and Yukino came out of the wooden shelter, excited. They looked at the sea, which was now golden in color. They felt the warm sea breeze again.
"Hakuna Matata..."
When he saw the beautiful sight of the sky meeting the ocean, Jun said the line from his childhood cartoon that he loved.
"Hakuna Matata? What does that mean?"
Yukino was confused by the foreign phrase.
"It's an old African saying. It means "no worries, forget your problems."
Jun repeated it, and somehow, the loneliness and anxiety in his heart eased a little.
"Hakuna Matata..."
Yukino agreed and smiled gently.
"You know a lot, Katō-kun."
"Yeah, in some ways, life on this island really is carefree..."
Far from the noise of the world, Yukino also felt a deep sense of peace from that old saying.
She didn't feel any pressure from school, her sister wasn't oppressive, and her mother wasn't stressful. Yukino lay down on the wet sand and looked up at the blue sky.
"Thank you, Katō... Jun-kun..."
Yukino tried calling Katō Jun by name. Her cheeks were red under the dim light.
"You don't have to thank me. As long as we want to survive, we have to help each other."
Jun stood up from the sand and shouted toward the sea as if he was releasing the stress from the rain.
"Aaaaaaaah!!"
"Do you feel like Tarzan now?"
He turned and asked Yukino shyly.
"Tarzan? It looks more like an orangutan."
Yukino laughed at Jun's antics. She stood up from the sand, trying not to laugh.
"Katō-kun is dumb! He's a show-off! He's a pervert! Hentai!"
She shouted at the ocean, but it was really an insult directed at Jun.
After she let out a sigh, her face looked much brighter. Before Jun could get mad, she laughed and ran off across the sand.
"Hey! Get back here!"
She yelled at him for no reason.
Jun chased after her angrily.
The two teenagers ran around on the sand, laughing and smiling.
[Yukinoshita Yukino — Affinity: 92]
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