We checked the photos I took from Karin’s smartphone.
The girls, the perverted monkey hugging Mana, and I look from behind.
「 This is… 」
I muttered
「 What’s up? 」
Mana asks.
The other girls wait for my answer.
「 I don’t think I see any settlement around. There are no irregular patches of trees nor deforestation. If there’s a settlement, there should be some trees cut down. There’s a possibility that they use treehouse, but that’s unlikely. If it is, then they would live in the cave from earlier 」
The photo shows a clean forest.
Smartphones these days are too efficient that you can get a wide-angle of coverage.
Even so, there are no traces of civilization around.
「 No good! 」
Arisa hangs her head.
The other three also have a clouded expression.
「 It’s not all in vain though 」
「 「 「 ?! 」 」 」
Hearing that, the girls regained their brightness.
「 Did you find something good? 」
Eri asks.
I nodded. Then showed a photo.
「 You can see the sea close by, right? That’s a good discovery 」
This photo shows the sea.
The distance is about several hundreds of meters.
「 Speaking of which, you said that you were looking for the sea, Hokage 」
Karin zoomed the image and shows the sea in the center.
It’s a cutting-edge smartphone, and so we confirmed that it’s the sea.
「 The sea has a lot of resources we need for living 」
I confirmed it with the photo afterward.
Other than the sea, we didn’t find anything.
「 I wonder if there’s a nearby island. 」
Mana speaks with a gloomy voice.
Karen zoomed a long distance but we can’t see other islands.
Or so we thought.
「 Wait, look, isn’t that one an island? 」
Arisa looked at another photo.
It’s one of the photos of the sea I took.
「 Which one? Where’s the island? 」
Mana asks.
「 This one. Look at this dot 」
Arisa leans on my right shoulder to look forward.
Then, her huge breasts touch my cheeks.
I’m grinning inside my mind, but…
「 Ninja! You’re in the way! 」
Arisa pushed my face away.
I said “Oops,” and moved sideways.
For a moment, my eyes met with Eri’s.
「 Look, this dot here, see? Isn’t that an island? 」
We looked at the dot Arisa’s pointing.
Mana and Eri tilt their head, wondering.
I see it but it’s too blurred that I don’t know if it is.
「 Can we make it easier to understand? Maybe we should go to the sea to take photos 」
「 I think that you can see it if you change the brightness. I’ll try it 」
Karin opens an editing app.
She used that and processed the image.
She edited the brightness, contrast, and all other stuff that I don’t know.
After doing that, the blurry dot becomes clear.
「 Look! That’s an island! 」
Arisa speaks triumphantly.
The girls and I agreed.
The dot in the image is an island.
Although, we don’t know if there are any buildings on the island or not.
However, we can confirm that there’s an island there.
「 Hokage, is that a good find? 」
Mana asks with a lively attitude.
She called me Hokage naturally.
I feel happy that she did. It’s like she recognizes me.
「 It’s a good thing. Suppose that this is an uninhabited island, that island might have some residents. If it doesn’t, it may have reception. If that’s the case, we might be able to contact anyone on the outside world 」
「 That means our chances of rescue will go up? 」
「 If this isn’t an Isekai that is 」
「 「 「 「 Ooh! 」 」 」 」
That was the loudest cheers from the girls today.
◇
We started walking towards the beach.
I wanted to see the sea and the girls want to take photos if there are islands on the other side.
「 Is this mark good enough? 」
Arisa makes marks on the trees replacing me whose arms are fatigued.
「 That’s good enough 」
「 This is hard, isn’t it? Are you sure that we need this? 」
「 This is all to make sure that we don’t lose our sense of direction. 」
「 We shouldn’t have any problems if we have a compass, right? 」
「 That’s only for making rough estimates. Besides, compasses don’t work all the time. The compass we have are digital 」
Including me, the five of us all have compasses.
However, it’s a compass app we have on our smartphones.
Once we run out of power on our phones, we can’t use them anymore.
「 Why does Hokage have no compass even though you have all the other tools? I don’t know much about survival but shouldn’t compasses be one of the basics? 」
Mana asks.
I show them a bitter smile.
「 It’s embarrassing to say but I forgot about it. Mana’s right, it’s basic but I didn’t think too much about it because of smartphones. I feel embarrassed 」
The compass on smartphones has the same use as the analog one.
It uses the built-in magnetic sensors that you can use them even without reception.
We moved southwest from the cave using this digital compass.
I’m thankful that the river, the sea, and the cave are in the same direction.
If they’re in opposite directions, we would be having a hard time going from the river to the sea.
「 「 「 「 「 ………… 」 」 」 」 」
Then, the conversation stopped.
Everyone recalled that they have to preserve energy.
I don’t know if she thinks that it’s awkward or not but Eri broke the silence.
「 Hokage-kun, you’re thinking of something while we’re walking, aren’t you? 」
She’s no longer calling me Ninja now.
Furthermore, she even adds a ‘-kun’ to my name.
It’s only Arisa who calls me Ninja now.
「 Yeah 」
「 What are you thinking? 」
「 About taking back the cave 」
「 Taking it back? From that big tiger? 」
「 That’s right 」
Actually, that cave is what matters the most to us right now.
If we’re talking about the necessities of life, the cave becomes the center of it.
If we can use that as our base, then the shelter will change greatly.
「 But how do you win against a tiger? 」
「 That’s the problem. Fighting it barehanded is out of the question and I won’t win even if I use my knife. Besides, I don’t know anything about fighting with a knife 」
「 Then what do we do? Are we going to get it while the tiger’s away? 」
「 No, we need insurance that the tiger won’t come back. If we’re living on this island, there will always be a chance that he comes to attack us. That’s why we will make the tiger think that it can’t win against humans, that’s our way of repelling it. Otherwise, the tiger will eat us 」
Arisa shrieks half-jokingly.
「 Then, as for the method of repelling it, I have an idea but I’m not sure if it works 」
「 That’s cool, Hokage-kun 」
「 Say that once we’re done 」
「 Ahahaha 」
We get off the forest while talking.
「 It’s the sea! 」
Arisa runs towards the coast.
The other three followed suit.
「 The sea looks good. We can use this 」
I give the seawater and everything around a light investigation.
「 Night is coming. Let’s go back before the sun sets 」
I call out the frolic girls.
They’re in the middle of writing SOS using stones but they didn’t complain.
They followed my instructions and stopped their work.
「 Go back? Where to? 」
Mana asks.
I replied, “Isn’t that obvious?”
「 The cave. We’re going to fight the tiger 」