Chapter 74: Slithering Through Idols
"Please be careful and make sure those plants aren't poisonous." Rinse reminded the students she was responsible for. At this point, a lot of the day had passed, yet there was still no sign of Ishi nearby. Considering the amount of time that had elapsed, this obviously meant that she was being saved for last on his schedule.
She was annoyed at the thought of being the final girl. This meant the others got the opportunity to be with him alone, for the most part. Sure to her, they didn't appear to be making any romantic moves towards Ishi. However, Chinae had already gone on a date with the boy, while the other two had known him throughout the entirety of their high school career. That said, she did hear what happened to Youna, so she planned on checking on that girl when they were going to be done for dinner.
Back on the thought about Ishi's absence. Rinse had found herself stopping every so often to look around to see if he had finally decided to come by. For the first time in in a long while, she was anxious about waiting for someone to arrive. A few times she had to catch herself before any of the other students noticed her odd behavior.
This was a strange feeling in her heart. Since Rinse had never fallen in love before, she never expected this to be what it was like. She felt her body get a little tense just thinking about Ishi coming up and talking to her.
But as much as it was enjoyable to be able to talk with him. There was still one major issue for her feelings about him. Her being an idol threw a massive wrench in any desire to confess to the boy. That job generally frowned upon any idols getting a boyfriend, since the fans might have a problem with it.
Of course, as much as she worried over that thought. There was still the issue that he would ever accept her declaration of love. This was Ishi she was thinking about. He had already made it clear the type of girls he was into, and they certainly didn't describe her in the slightest. The boy also mentioned that he had no plans of going for girls until becoming a university student. So the timing wasn't good for her either.
So what could she do about these feelings? There was no way that Rinse would simply live the rest of her life without telling him. Yet at the same time, the fear of rejection continued to creep up in her mind, seeing that it was unlikely that he returned her feelings.
"You should probably stop daydreaming and make sure the kids don't get themselves killed." A voice entered her head. It sounded an awful lot like…
"Ahh!" The voice belonged to Ishi, who had approached her without the girl even noticing his presence. His sudden appeared send Rinse into a bit of a panic as she lost her footing and fell to the dirt.
"Hope I wasn't interrupting anything." He commented with little concern about this incident. Then, he lent out a hand to support Rinse getting back onto her feet.
"Took you long enough." She said, crossing her arms. Her response was designed to show that she didn't care, despite caring immensely that he made her wait so long. "Did the others give you trouble?"
"For the most part, not really." He responded. "Other than Youna, which I'm sure you've heard of." His tone switched upon mentioning their class representative. Rinse was concerned about how upset he seemed to the matter. Partially because she was worried for his well being. However, it was the second part, which she felt more guilty about, that was a bigger factor.
Ishi really cared about Youna, didn't he? And a lot more than what a boy who only said that they were just 'friends' might feel about one specific girl. No matter what troubles their class rep found herself in, he was always there to come in and save the day. Before, Rinse felt bad about feeling jealous. The idol had gotten so used to the attention of adoring fans, that she assumed herself to be selfish for wanting more.
Yet as it turned out, she wasn't being selfish in regards to wanting more attention. Rinse had actually wanted Ishi's attention specifically. Now that she had realized her feelings, it only became more clear. "Anyway, I'm sure she's fine." He continued on. "And if she's got the worst of today, then I'd say things went well enough."
"It's still a shame that it happened though." Regardless of her conflicted feelings about the girl, she would never dream of wishing harm towards anyone.
"On the bright side, at least I finally got to see you again." He turned his mood around quickly, not wanting to be a downer now that he was nearly finished with his tasks. "I've been looking forward to seeing you all day."
"Eh?" She tightly gripped the side of her shorts from the tension her body felt once again. He was looking forward to seeing her again? Did he have some… Desires towards her as well? "You were?"
"Yeah, because I'm pretty sure the rest of this will be a cakewalk." His response was a massive disappointment for her. All Ishi was concerned with was that nothing bad could happen now that he was with her. "Let's be real, I doubt a bear's going to show up and ruin things for all of us." Even though they were taught how to handle potentially dangerous wild animals, he believed that they would be a lot of casualties should something like that pop up.
"Since you're here now, let's at least keep an eye on the other students together." She led him towards where most of the people had decided to put their time towards. It was mainly just a lot of looking at tracks and trying to scare the others by saying some giant monster created them.
"I'm pretty sure someone's dog left this behind." There were some students pointing out some feces that were claiming it to be from a bear. "And please don't anyone touch it either." Ishi was slowly remembering when he began his disdain for teenagers thanks to the behavior of the first years. "By the way, did Koto come by around here?" Throughout the entire day of running around, he somehow never saw his cousin aside from the beginning.
"He was here for a bit." Rinse told him. It seemed that the rotations resulted in them never seeing each other. Not that he minded about not seeing Koto. Since he hadn't heard anyone screaming for his name, Ishi could feel a little safer that his young cousin was fine.
They went around the somewhat dense forest. This was a prime opportunity to check out the wonderful sights the camp had to offer. Rinse was especially happy to see some of the blooming flowers, whose beauty radiated thanks to the sun's light. She came up to some of them to appreciate the view, which ended up being her fatal error. Suddenly, from above, a snake landed atop her arm.
"Ah!" She yelped out in fear as it quickly slithered into her sleeve and into her shirt. "S-snak-" Her voice was cut off as Ishi rushed towards the girl and covered her mouth with one hand, then his other arm was wrapped around her chest.
"Be quiet." He muttered to her with a face of complete seriousness. "Don't yell. Don't move. I know it's easier said than done, but we can't let this bite you." They were now in a real tense situation with a potentially deadly animal trapped in her clothes. Not only that, but he was really close to her. No scratch that. There was precisely zero space between the pair as he pushed his body up to her back while tightly hanging on.
"Wh-what are we going to do?" She asked with fear dominating her voice. Never in her life did Rinse feel this much fear in her body.
"Just don't move." He commanded her again. "I'm just going to untuck your shirt, so the snake can fall out." She took one deep breath as he hand reached down her clothes. This was a highly inappropriate maneuver by him were it not for the context as Ishi slowly pulled out her shirt from her shorts. Even he was worried about messing up and getting the girl bit as he slowly went around her waist.
After what felt like an eternity, he was able to get it all taken out. However, nothing seemed to be produced from his move as no snake came from her. "I don't understand, where is it?" He asked, scanning the floor to see where it could've landed.
"B-br…" She struggled to speak from how anxious she was feeling about this situation. "My… Bra." Finally, Rinse made it clear to him that the animal had gotten stuck in her most intimate of clothes. Now things were looking very tight for them as he knew there were few options left available to him.
"I'm sorry." He spoke after making his decision. "Please, don't hate me." Without warning, Ishi reached up her now opened up shirt towards her chest. For the second time in his life, he was about to willingly touch a girl's breast. It was pretty much the same as the first. As the boy did it for the sake of Rinse's life.
"A-ah." She moaned out as he made contact. This was the first time something like this had happened to her when she was conscious. A flood of emotions entered her head as he felt her up to find the snake. Finally, Ishi was able to find a moving bump that was obviously the creature. Taking the chance, he grabbed it.
Unfortunately for him, the gamble didn't pay off as he ended up grabbing the snakes tail. This upset it enough that the animal pulled itself from her bra and bit the hand tightly grabbing on.
"Ahh!" He yelled out in pain as he pulled out his arm from her clothing. Quickly, Ishi slammed the snake to the ground, then fell to his knees, from the pain. His hand tightly gripped the other on the source of the bite.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone