047 Hiyori: Is Assistant-san a foot fetishist?
The eleventh day on the uninhabited island.
Time flies so fast. Before I knew it, the special exam was already drawing to a close. Counting today, only four days remain.
Shimizu Akira briefly looked back on his experiences over these past few days.
He successfully completed the "first time" with Kei, began dating Chiaki, progressed to the point of kissing just two days ago, and had become much closer to Nanase Tsubasa and Horikita Suzune as well.
As for his points, he is currently ranked eleventh, having participated in nearly twenty tasks.
Looking at it this way, it seems he really has done quite a lot.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the daily intel refreshed right on time.
[1. Second-year Class A's Morishita Ai likes to raise shrimp in a water tank and writes observation diaries about the creature.]
[2. First-year Class B's Yagami Takuya hasn't been sleeping well these past few days.]
[3. Second-year Class C's Shiina Hiyori's father is named Shiina Katsumi and is a novelist.]
Morishita Ai really does do strange things. Most people keep fish, but not her—she raises shrimp and even writes observation diaries.
As for the second item, the guy Yagami actually hasn't been sleeping well? Could it be because of the night patrols he's been doing with Ayanokouji?
Speaking of which, because he really couldn't find anyone these past few days, Ayanokouji has been the one giving Shimizu Akira special training half the time.
Was he scared out of his wits for some inexplicable reason?
The last item is information about Shiina's family.
So her father's name is Shiina Katsumi, and he's a novelist?
No wonder she mentioned before that she had plans to write a book herself.
Shimizu Akira just so happened to plan to find Shiina Hiyori today to talk and ask her to investigate the incident involving Ike Kanji.
Well, now there is a topic of conversation.
The special exam of surviving on the uninhabited island is still quite tough for ordinary students.
The school only gave out 2,000 points at the beginning. After buying essentials like tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, and chargers, the remaining money for basic food and water was already very tight. Food was alright; he could buy meal sets, two meals a day—biscuits with luncheon meat—which were monotonous but wouldn't let a person starve.
The real big problem was the water source.
This year, whether out of intent or negligence, the school did something completely different from last year: there were no water meal sets at all; one could only buy it in small quantities by the milliliter.
It came in several sizes: 500ml, 1,000ml, and 3,000ml. The unit price for the large bottles was cheaper but inconvenient to carry, while the small bottles were expensive but easy to handle.
On day zero of the uninhabited island, after consulting with Ibuki Mio and another girl from Class 2-C, Shiina Hiyori decided to purchase three large 3-liter bottles of water, plus nine 500ml small bottles.
Each person carried three 500ml bottles every day, with the large bottles kept in the tent as reserves to refill the smaller ones once finished.
After a few days, although the three of them had been very frugal, they were girls, after all, and they liked to drink water.
By the evening of the fifth day, the water reserves had all hit rock bottom.
What to do without water? They had to rely on participating in hydration tasks.
Shiina Hiyori's brain worked quickly; she soon discovered that as long as one followed behind the teacher delivering water in broad daylight, they were guaranteed a top-three finish.
But since yesterday, which was the tenth day on the uninhabited island, her good friend Ibuki Mio said that the number of smart people had increased—seven or eight people were following the teacher, so it was no longer possible to get a top-three spot as easily as before.
"Hiyori, what should we do?" Ibuki Mio licked her slightly cracked lips and crawled into Shiina Hiyori's tent early in the morning. "I didn't get a single drop of water today. If this continues, forget about the tasks; even checking in will be a problem."
"Don't worry, I still have some here. Drink this first." Shiina Hiyori crouched down, rummaged through her bag, and handed over a 1-liter bottle of water.
Ibuki Mio was stunned.
"Ah? How do you still have water?"
She subconsciously took the bottle and unscrewed the cap, but noticing Shiina Hiyori out of the corner of her eye, she thought for a moment and screwed it back on.
"Have you drunk any?"
"Don't worry about me." Shiina Hiyori pointed to her own rosy lips and said with a chuckle, "I've already drunk some."
"Where did you drink it? By the way, where did this water come from?" Ibuki frowned. "Did you participate in the hydration task? But your physical condition..."
She wasn't looking down on her friend's physical fitness; she was just being realistic. Shiina Hiyori's athletic ability was in the upper range of the OAA, and she would be panting after walking for half an hour.
For this uninhabited island special exam, she only checked in two to three times a day. She would try her best to rush to knowledge-based tasks, but because she walked slowly, she was often beaten to it by others. However, as long as she managed to sign up, she was almost always in first place.
The remaining member of their group naturally wouldn't say any idle gossip, and even if they wanted to, Ibuki Mio would dare to flip out on the spot.
"I went to the starting point this morning and met Sakayanagi. She saw I wasn't in good shape and let me drink quite a bit of water." Shiina Hiyori shook her head. "This bottle is what I exchanged with my remaining points; I've spent all of them. This is all that's left."
"Then are you full?"
"Mm, quite full. I also saved a bottle for the other girl." She looked at Ibuki Mio with a supervisor's gaze. "Mio, you are the backbone of our group. If your health collapses, we will really be in danger. Drink up, quickly."
Ibuki Mio clutched the bottle, looked at her, and only then unscrewed the cap and began to drink in small sips.
She drank half a bottle, stopped, and tightened the cap.
"Save the rest."
"No need to save it, just drink it all," Shiina Hiyori said.
"No." Ibuki Mio shook her head. "You said it yourself, the hydration tasks are becoming harder to rank in. We have to be frugal."
She put the bottle into her bag and sat down next to Shiina Hiyori.
"Hiyori, how many more days do you think we can hold out?"
Shiina Hiyori thought for a moment.
"If we can secure a rank in the hydration tasks every day, holding out until the end of the exam is no problem. But if we can't..."
She didn't continue, but Ibuki Mio understood what she meant.
"That Sakayanagi, how much water did she give you today?"
"A 500ml bottle of mineral water," Shiina Hiyori said. "She originally wanted to give more, but I didn't take it."
"Why didn't you take it?"
"Because one bottle can be called a favor between friends, but if she gives too much, it becomes an interaction between classes. Sakayanagi explained it very clearly when she gave me the water."
Ibuki Mio felt inexplicably annoyed.
"Aren't you friends? Why does she have to draw such a clear line?"
"Don't blame Sakayanagi," Shiina Hiyori comforted her. "She said that if I went to the starting point to keep her company and talk every morning, she could cover all my subsequent water sources. But giving water from her group's supply is out of the question. Sakayanagi isn't familiar with you two, so that's human nature."
"Then are you planning to go every day from now on?" Ibuki Mio asked again.
"No. The starting point is too far; going there is quite tiring." As Shiina Hiyori spoke, she took off her shoes and then her socks, revealing her small, delicate feet. "This morning should have been the last time."
Sure enough, as she had expected, the soles of her feet were already red, and the ankles were also a bit uncomfortable.
She hurriedly rubbed her feet.
Ibuki Mio watched her rubbing motion and asked with concern.
"Does it hurt?"
"It's okay, just a little sore," Shiina Hiyori smiled. "Because of walking too much."
Ibuki Mio finally relaxed and sat down next to her.
"Don't walk so far in the future. If we don't have water, we can think of other ways."
"What kind of ways?"
"For example..." Ibuki Mio thought for a moment. "How about borrowing from Ichinose? I heard her relief station is running quite well."
This relief station setup by Ichinose Honami was much more popular than Ibuki Mio had imagined.
It was fine during the first few days; everyone had water and food, so almost no one went.
But the closer they got to the end of the exam, the more people went to the relief station. At least as far as Ibuki Mio knew, at least ten people from their own class had gone.
"Buy water from Ichinose? That's not a bad idea," Shiina Hiyori said. "But the two of us still need to keep a bottom line of 2 million personal points as a reserve, and it seems there aren't many left, right?"
"This... it seems so."
Ibuki Mio felt a bit embarrassed.
Last year, Shiina Hiyori helped Ryuen Kakeru a lot, so she had about a million points on her phone. It was only after she lent him one million that she became strapped for cash.
She thought for a moment and said, "But many classmates in the class don't have any points at all, and Ichinose-san still gave them water."
"Mm, Ichinose-san is indeed very kind; she wouldn't care about these things," Shiina Hiyori said rationally. "But personally, I feel it is better not to exploit others' kindness and take such preferential treatment for granted. Not to mention, she also helped me a huge favor recently."
"What huge favor?" Ibuki Mio asked subconsciously.
"This... is a secret." Shiina Hiyori kept her in suspense.
"Tch, fine, don't tell me!" Ibuki Mio turned her head away, but after a short while, she couldn't help but turn back. "By the way, what did Ryuen Kakeru want with you two days ago?"
It was probably around the fifth day on the uninhabited island when that guy Ryuen swaggered over, specifically called Shiina Hiyori out alone, and it was unknown what he said, but it was all very mysterious.
"He asked me to investigate the truth behind Kinoshita Minori's accidental slip and fall, suspecting that someone did it on purpose." Shiina Hiyori shook her head. "But my physical condition is too poor. On this uninhabited island, just checking in every day exhausts all my strength; there is simply no energy left to investigate."
"That Kinoshita Minori, she seemed to have framed Horikita last year." Ibuki Mio snorted coldly. "There's no need to handle that kind of thing for him first."
Don't let Ibuki Mio's usual disdain for Horikita Suzune fool you; she actually defends her quite a bit at times.
However, Shiina Hiyori only dared to think this in her heart; if she said it out loud, Mio would get grumpy again.
"Back to the topic," Ibuki Mio said. "Who should we find to solve the water issue? There are still four days until the exam ends."
"Mm... if Shimizu-kun is here, there shouldn't be any problem."
"Eh? You're counting on him?"
"Mm."
"You seem very surprised."
"Of course I'm surprised! How should I put it, Hiyori, you have a very good personality and have no shortcomings in any aspect, but you are usually very reserved. Just like just now, you wouldn't easily trouble Ichinose-san. This time, you suddenly took it for granted to ask that man for help—it's a bit strange."
In Ibuki Mio's eyes, Shiina Hiyori is the girl closest to a Yamato Nadeshiko.
Gentle, steady, intellectual; her personality seems weak but is actually strong; she possesses an unconventional character and a resilient mentality.
It is actually rare for such a girl to naturally ask a boy for help.
"Mm, to be precise, I feel that Shimizu-kun will proactively come to me and ask me to do something. Then, we can take the opportunity to bring up the water source and other conditions."
"Ask you to do what?"
"The same as Ryuen Kakeru, ask me to investigate the truth behind Ike Kanji's fall. Ike-kun and Kinoshita-san were actually in the same group, and both of them were injured, you know."
"Eh? How did you know about this in advance?" Ibuki Mio was long past being surprised by her best friend's deductive abilities, so she wasn't too stunned. "Could it be that you deduced this as well?"
"This kind of intelligence cannot be obtained by simple deduction," Shiina Hiyori said with a wry smile. "Actually, Kushida-san came to me yesterday to ask about the progress of the investigation. I only found out about this then, but I pretended that I had already received Shimizu Akira's request."
"In other words..." Ibuki Mio slowly sorted out her thoughts. "Kushida asked Shimizu Akira to come to you for an investigation a few days ago. She thought her boyfriend had already come to you, but in fact, he hadn't. So, you indirectly learned about Shimizu Akira's plan to find you in the near future through Kushida."
"That's right." Shiina Hiyori looked at her with a beaming smile. "Mio is very clever; you guessed it right away."
Ibuki Mio felt a bit embarrassed by her praise and turned her face away.
"What's clever about that? It's just that you let it slip yourself."
"Yes, yes, yes." Shiina Hiyori nodded with a smile and rubbed her ankle again.
Ibuki Mio suddenly asked again.
"Then why hasn't he come yet? A whole day has passed, you know!"
Mentioning this, Shiina Hiyori also had some small grievances.
Judging from Kushida Kikyou's tone, he should have come yesterday morning.
Now it was already the eleventh day on the uninhabited island, and it was almost noon, yet the person concerned was still nowhere to be seen.
She, like Ibuki Mio, was, to put it nicely, reserved, or to put it bluntly, couldn't bring herself to lower her pride; it was impossible for her to take the initiative to find him.
Having waited for more than a day, even Hiyori had accumulated quite a few small grievances.
"Could it be that guy was attracted by other girls on the way again?" Ibuki Mio curled her lips. "Maybe he took the opportunity to make a few more girlfriends and is now so happy that he's forgotten all about you."
"That won't happen. Shimizu-kun is not that kind of person." Shiina Hiyori shook her head. "It should just be that he was delayed by something important. Besides, that is Kushida-san's request; he wouldn't pretend not to see it."
She thought to herself that Kushida Kikyou is Shimizu Akira's number one girlfriend; her status is indisputable.
Whatever she says, Shimizu Akira has no choice but to obey.
However, at the thought of this Kushida Kikyou—and she didn't know if it was an illusion—when she talked to her yesterday, she seemed quite proactive and lively, even subconsciously not seeming to repel her contact with Shimizu Akira.
She hurriedly shook her head.
She must have overthought it.
The most pressing matter was when Shimizu Akira would arrive.
Before she had finished digesting her increasingly petty thoughts about Shimizu Akira, Ibuki Mio spoke up concisely.
"Ah, he'll be here in five minutes."
"What? How did you deduce..." Before Shiina Hiyori could react, she saw Ibuki Mio amusingly shove the tablet into her arms.
"What deduction? Naturally, by checking the GPS location," Ibuki Mio said. "Look at how far he is from you and whether he is approaching you; won't that tell you when he'll arrive?"
Shiina Hiyori took the tablet and looked down; Shimizu Akira's location was indeed moving towards them, less than a kilometer away.
Her heartbeat sped up more than a beat.
"How is it? I was right, wasn't I?" Ibuki Mio said triumphantly.
"Mm." Shiina Hiyori put the tablet down. "Since Shimizu-kun will be here soon, I need to prepare a bit."
"Prepare what?"
Shiina Hiyori looked down at herself: her hair was a bit messy, one sock was off, the other was crooked, and her pant legs were rolled up.
She blushed slightly.
"Mio, I need to tidy up my hair, change my socks, or something. Being like this doesn't look like the usual me."
"You!" Ibuki Mio couldn't help but laugh. "You were just complaining, so why has all your anger vanished the moment you heard he was coming?"
"You actually don't need to be so concerned. You are usually too serious; occasionally showing a bit of contrast will make a deeper impression. And... it can also let that guy see that you are working so hard every day that you can't even walk. He naturally won't force you to find out the truth within the remaining four days, and he'll even sympathize with you."
Shiina Hiyori was stunned for a moment, then laughed.
"Mio, when did you become a love master?"
"Do you think the hundreds of movies I watched all last year were for nothing?" Ibuki Mio crossed her arms. "If some people can become criminal masterminds after watching hundreds of movies, there's no reason I can't become an expert after watching hundreds of romance movies, right?"
Shiina Hiyori couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Fine, fine, fine, love master. Then please, Master, guide me: what should I do now?"
Ibuki Mio thought for a moment and said with a straight face.
"First, don't be in a rush to change your socks."
"Why?"
"Because as you are now, you look like someone who has walked a long way and is exhausted." Ibuki Mio pointed to her half-off sock and rolled-up pant leg. "This is called a sense of contrast. You are usually neat and tidy; seeing you like this suddenly will definitely make him ask a few more questions. Then you can logically say that you've walked a long way and that your feet hurt, and so on."
Shiina Hiyori was thoughtful.
"And then?"
"Then he will subconsciously sympathize with you!" Ibuki Mio said with increasing enthusiasm. "Once he sympathizes, he will treat your request more seriously. The things you want to ask him for help with, he will naturally pay more attention to. The same goes for the water issue; he won't be embarrassed not to give it to you."
"Mio, you really have researched this."
"Of course." Ibuki Mio puffed out her chest, but immediately deflated. "However, these are all theories; whether they are useful in practice, I can't guarantee."
"It's okay." Shiina Hiyori laughed and took off her other sock. "We'll know after we try."
Ibuki Mio stared at her for two seconds.
"Hiyori, did you never intend to change your socks in the first place?"
Shiina Hiyori smiled without a word.
Ibuki Mio suddenly realized.
"You said you wanted to tidy up just now, but you were actually saying it for me to hear? Otherwise, you would have already started changing clothes."
"Not on purpose. I just thought that what you said did indeed make sense."
Ibuki Mio looked at her with skepticism.
At this moment, footsteps came from outside the tent.
The two of them went quiet at the same time.
Ibuki Mio lowered her voice.
"That guy is here. I'm going."
"Mm."
Ibuki Mio lifted the curtain and walked out, just happening to run into Shimizu Akira, who was walking towards them.
"Ibuki, good noon!" Shimizu Akira subconsciously raised his hand.
Ibuki Mio nodded expressionlessly and left quickly.
"Eh? Did I offend her recently?" Shimizu Akira was confused, but he immediately looked at the tent entrance.
"Shiina? Are you there?"
"I'm here," came Shiina Hiyori's soft voice from inside the tent. "Please come in."
Shimizu Akira couldn't help but nod.
Last time, Shiraishi Asuka said Nishikawa Ryoko's voice was very beautiful, but in his opinion, the most beautiful voice he had heard to date had always been Shiina Hiyori's.
Shimizu Akira lifted the curtain and bent down to enter the tent.
The light inside was a bit dim; Shiina Hiyori was sitting in the back, with a piece of paper that wasn't fully written on spread out in front of her.
Her hair was a bit messy, one sock was discarded to the side, the other was dangling crookedly on her ankle, and her pant legs were rolled up, revealing a section of fair calves.
She looked quite different from the usual detective lady.
Shimizu Akira was stunned for a moment, then slowly averted his gaze.
"Sorry, I came too hurriedly. Are you... changing clothes?"
"No." Shiina Hiyori shook her head, trying to put her sock on properly. "It's just me... my feet are a bit inconvenient."
Shimizu Akira noticed her ankle was slightly red.
"Are you injured?"
"No, just walked too much." Shiina Hiyori smiled. "It's okay, it will be fine after resting for a while."
Shimizu Akira sat opposite her, his gaze lingering on her ankle for a second before moving away.
"I actually came because..."
Shiina Hiyori put away the paper and pen, then looked up at him. "Kushida-san told me; you came because of Ike-kun's matter, right!"
"Eh? You heard?"
"Mm. Kushida-san thought you had come the day before yesterday."
"Uh..." Shimizu Akira didn't know what to say.
Kikyou has already run over to ask as the real employer?
However, speaking of which, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but Shiina-san seemed to be a bit angry.
He thought for a long time before speaking seriously and explaining.
"I was handling Ayanokouji's matter the day before yesterday, and I spent some time getting intimate with Chiaki yesterday. She just became my girlfriend, so I spent a bit more time."
"Is she your new girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"I see... that makes eight."
Shiina Hiyori was thoughtful, and Shimizu Akira was suddenly sweating buckets.
Even Shiraishi Asuka couldn't put such great pressure on him.
However, Shiina Hiyori stared at him for several seconds before quickly letting him off.
"You want me to investigate the truth of that day; Ryuen-kun also said the same thing."
"Well, after all, Kinoshita from your class is injured, and Ike from our class is also injured; we both have reasons to investigate."
His gaze, however, uncontrollably fell on her small feet.
Don't misunderstand.
The detective lady's feet were fair and transparent, with fine blood vessels vaguely visible, but the ankle was clearly somewhat red and swollen, and the sole was also red.
"Are you pushing yourself too hard? Your feet..."
"It should be fine after resting for two or three hours," Shiina Hiyori interrupted him. "I can help you investigate, but there is a condition."
"What condition?"
Shiina Hiyori pointed to the empty water bottles in the corner.
"Our group... has no water to drink."
Shimizu Akira noticed then that there were indeed several empty bottles in the corner.
"I see... just need water? Nothing else?"
"Mm."
Shimizu Akira nodded and took two 3-liter bottles of water from his bag and placed them in front of her.
"You can drink these today."
Shiina Hiyori looked at the two bottles of water, feeling somewhat puzzled.
"You carry water with you?"
"I just grabbed them on my way out," Shimizu Akira said. "Actually, this is my personal quota."
Shiina Hiyori stared at the two bottles of water for a few seconds. This water was enough for her to drink for two or three days; it could even fill her up completely, and yet it was just his one-day quota?
When she moved her gaze away from the water, she found that Shimizu Akira had been staring at her all along.
To be precise, he was staring at her ankle.
He was looking very seriously, the kind that lasted a full three or four seconds.
Shiina Hiyori couldn't help but bite her lip, her complexion turning slightly rosy.
Ibuki Mio told her to show her feet so Shimizu Akira would sympathize with her, but there was no need to sympathize for this long.
Could it be that he is a so-called foot fetishist?
Shiina Hiyori subconsciously wanted to pull her feet back, but the pain from her ankle made her movement stall.
"Don't move," Shimizu Akira suddenly said.
Shiina Hiyori was stunned for a moment.
Shimizu Akira rummaged a towel out of his bag, dampened it with the water he had brought, and handed it to her.
"Applying this will feel better."
Shiina Hiyori took the towel and applied it to her ankle.
The cool sensation permeated through the towel, indeed relieving the burning sensation caused by the swelling.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"Why are you saying thank you between us?" Shimizu Akira immediately waved his hand. "I just looked at it carefully; the swelling in your ankle isn't serious, but it's not like what you said—it won't get better after just an hour or two of rest. You need to rest properly for at least a day or two, and don't walk around aimlessly for these two days."
"Eh? Is it that serious?"
"Mm. I come from a boxing club; it's very easy to sprain your ankle while boxing, so the captain taught us quite a lot of knowledge in this area. Shiina, your physique is naturally weaker than ordinary people's, and you must have forced yourself to walk a lot these past few days, right? This is actually something that has accumulated over a long time."
Shiina Hiyori was speechless.
In the past few days, she had indeed ignored her physical discomfort several times and forced herself to participate in tasks.
"Is there any way to recover quickly? I would like to be able to act sooner if possible."
"There is. Go to the starting point and buy some spray for sprains; it will feel much better after applying it. Otherwise, there is only massage."
Shiina Hiyori looked at him almost subconsciously.
No matter how one thinks about it, the best candidate for a massage is this Assistant-san in front of her, right?
Eh? Could it be that this person has been laying the groundwork all along, and his goal is to massage her feet?
But how did he know she had no points left? She had only indirectly told Sakayanagi Arisu about it.
Wait... Sakayanagi said she had exchanged intercom contact information with Shimizu Akira.
Wait... could it be...
In short, a storm of thoughts rolled directly through Shiina Hiyori's brain.
Shimizu Akira didn't know what she was thinking at all and just said naturally: "Actually, my Kei, as a manager, has only ever massaged me, but I think..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Shiina Hiyori had already stretched her foot towards him.
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