The instant the familiar school ground disappeared, another scenery appeared around them.

At first glance it was a forest, at second glance it was a strange forest. The leaves and grass had a slightly bluish tint to them, and the tree trunks were also somewhat of in their coloration, with reddish and blackish tones. He had of course seen plants with strange colors before, but that was in gardens or on nature programs. If there was an entire forest like that, it certainly was not in Japan.

"Where are we?" Asked Haruna, while still hugging Alisa tightly. As a matter of fact wasn't she hugging her to tightly? Alisa's face was getting red and she started to squirm uncomfortably "Alisa-chan, I get that you're uncomfortable, but why are you squeezing my hand harder? It's not a competition, right?" Meanwhile, Tenya apparently also having his hands squeezed, made an exaggerated grimace while making some strange noises "Tenya man, are you joking around in this situation? Or are you really that frail? "

"Before discussing our situation, maybe you should let go of Alexandrova-kun, Nuoo...!"

"Oh no, I'm sorry Alisa-chan" Haruna let go of her smaller friend, who took a deep breath.

"Freedom..." She gasped "...Jiggly hell..." "What exactly was jiggly, Alisa-chan?"

"As for where we are..." Tenya said thoughtfully "In forest obviously, but... well"

"Yeah definitely not Japan" Kohei finished studying their odd surroundings suddenly coming to a realization "Where are everyone else? The people around us were definitely hearing the message and the countdown as well, so why are we the only ones here?"

Then followed a moment of silence, except for the noises of the forest.

"Well, I guess we ended up here together because we stuck together... Maybe?" Haruna said hesitantly.

"And the people around us ended up somewhere else" Tenya added "I guess that's the most reasonable explanation. Good work, Oyama-kun and Alexandrov-kun".

Alisa puffed her somewhat modest chest out proudly at the praise.

"Ah.." Haruna suddenly started going through her school bag. Having rummaged around for a bit she brought out her cell-phone and made a call. The others exchanged looks with each other and quickly followed her example, pulling out their phones.

Kohei immediately noticed that his cell-phone showed zero reception bars. He tried to call his home anyway, but all he got was a service unavailable message after a few beeps.

"Anyone else had any luck?" He asked, after trying a few different emergency numbers.

"No, we seem to be completely out of range, wherever we are..." Tenya answered without any of his usual annoying vigor. Alisa shook her head and then glanced at Haruna, the only one still trying to call looking increasingly desperate. Seeing her, Kohei felt increasingly desperate himself. What was going on? Where were they? Would they ever see their families again?

He felt like he had a painful lump inside of him that grew bigger the more he thought about it, he needed to do something, anything to take his mind of it. He took a deep breath and put his hand on Haruna's shoulder.

"Haruna..."

"Ko-kun, I can't reach anyone. Mom, dad, grandma or Souta, I even tried Yasaka-senpai but..." Haruna started to sniffle.

"I know, there's no reception, wherever we are, I guess we must be pretty far away from civilization..." Kohei paused to settle himself down, then continued "But you know, Haruna, our families are safe back home, and for now we must do what we can to stay safe in this forest until we can go home"

"But we will go home, right Ko-kun?" Haruna said swallowing her tears "Promise?"

"Of course we will, I promise" as he patted her shoulder, he exchanged glances with the other two, Alisa was unreadable as usual but Tenya looked morose and he was probably thinking similar thoughts as Kohei.

"The plants.. is there really a forest like this on earth? But.. the colors aren't that weird are they? I mean, it's not like the leaves are purple or anything" He showed those thought's aside and cleared his throat.

"For now, we should go over our equipment. Fortunately, we all brought with us our school bags, hopefully we should have some things we can use".

After sitting down on the ground, they started going through their belongings one by one, starting with Tenya.

"I don't have much I'm afraid. Aside from my cell-phone, keys and handkerchief, I only have the usual school stuff: a few textbooks, a notebook and a pencil"

Kohei took a few moments to think through the possible uses of Tenyas stuff.

"Even if we don't have reception, the cell-phone can still be used as a clock and as a light source when it gets dark. Speaking of which, we should probably turn our phones of to save the batteries, since there's no way to recharge them out here after all.

"But Ko-kun what if we get reception, but miss it because the phones are turned off?" Haruna asked.

"Ah, right.."

"We can have them turned on in shifts" Tenya followed up quickly "Let's start with having your phone turned on, Oyama-kun"

"Right let's do that!" Kohei added, maybe a bit forced, but Haruna didn't seem to notice "Thanks for the follow up, man" He added mentally to Tenya.

"Now let's move on with Tenyas stuff, the keys can be used in case we need to cut something for lack of better equipment. And when it comes to the school stuff, we might need to write something down later on, otherwise the paper can be used to start a fire or as toilet paper"

"As expected of a hardened hiking expert, you sure are used to living roughly" Tenya said, seemingly starting to regain his habit to annoy people.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult Tenya?"

"Whatever do you mean? I have nothing but the utmost respect for Kohei-donos survival skills, I'm sure without your guidance we would end up wiping our butts with poisonous leaves and.."

"Whatever man, let's move on to Haruna's belongings" Kohei cut Tenya short, before he ended up leading the conversation in a direction that would end up with Kohei being labeled a Sex-fiend yet again.

"I basically have the same things as Sanada-kun, except for a half empty water bottle, an empty bento-box and a pair of chopsticks"

"Okay, at least we have a little bit of water. We should probably ration it for now, if that's okay with you Haruna?"

"Of course" Haruna nodded.

"What about you Alisa-chan"

"Same school stuff... and a chocolate bar and...." Alisa suddenly came to a halt, but since that was the way she usually talked Kohei waited for her to continue.

"....."

"And..?" after waiting for a while Kohei tried to pry her into continuing.

"....." Alisa looked away, refusing to meet his eyes.

"What's the matter Alisa-chan?" somehow the atmosphere was turning very awkward.

"Ko-kun.." Haruna sounded annoyed and sent a glare towards him

"Wait.. what?" Had he been condemned for a crime he did not commit? what was going on?

"Kohei-dono" Tenya pulled him close and whispered conspiratorially "Alexandrov-kun might be on the petite side, but she is still a developing teenage girl blossoming into adulthood"

"Oh.. Um, sorry?" Kohei came to a sudden realization and desperately searched his mind for a way to move the conversation along "The chocolate! Right we need to eat the chocolate sparsely as well! Right Alisa-chan!?"

"Ko-kun, you sex-fiend..."

"Noo!" Kohei screamed out inside his mind "Not this again! I'm innocent!"

"With that let's forgive Kohei for now, and move on for now shall we?" Tenya said, even when being somewhat helpful he was annoying.

"Right, only my stuff left. Let's see here..." Kohei started rummaging through his backpack "Ah well the same stuff school stuff as everyone else, and two granola bars, well keep them for later as well, and then there's my cellphone and keys of course..." He came to a stop.

"What's the matter man?" Tenya asked.

"Well, it's just that I've been carrying it around out of habit for so long that I completely forgot about it" Kohei said, as he folded out the blade of an old pocket-knife attached to his keychain.

"Ko-kun! you were carrying that to school!?" Haruna burst out.

"Well, it's a memento from my grandpa so I just..."

"Even so, Yasaka-senpai would be disappointed in you Ko-kun!"

"Delinquent..." Alisa added.

"Now,now, Kohei might be a delinquent, but him having a knife will be a great help when he fight of any bears we might encounter"

"Don't just throw me to the bears, Tenya!"

"Oh, I'm just having faith in you, I'm sure a bear or two is no match for you with your savage survival skills"

"Ko-kun..." Alisa looked at him with eyes sparkling "You can do it..."

"Alisa-chan, where does that confidence in me come from? What sort of bear fighting delinquent am I in your eyes?"

"Anyway, now that we've gone through our belongings, let's decide on our priorities for now" Tenya said picking up his notebook and pencil It seemed like he had volunteered himself as secretary.

"Ko-kun's grandfather said that if we ever got lost in the forest, we should stay put and wait for rescue" Haruna said glancing at Kohei. When they were younger she had gone with Kohei and his grandfather on a few camping trips.

"Normally, that would be the correct course of action " Kohei answered "However, that rests on the condition that someone have a rough idea on where we are and will go looking for us or that we are close enough to civilization that we can somehow signal our location..."

"But in this case, we have been mysteriously transported to a strange forest in some unknown country" Tenya continued "Although the Japanese authorities will certainly be looking for us, they wouldn't know where to start. And as far as signals go we, have no idea how close we are to civilization".

"Right, so therefore I think we should try to find our way out of this forest ourselves" Kohei continued quickly, sensing the mood dropping. He took a look at the sky "Luckily we have several hours of daytime left..." "Wait, that's right, the sun is in about the same position as it was right before the transfer" Kohei thought "That would mean that we are still at the same longitude as Japan. And the temperature is about the same as before the transfer, meaning roughly the same latitude as well? But that's impossible, going by the vegetation this is clearly not Japan, nor any of the countries nearby..."

"Ko-kun..." Alisa's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She was looking at him frowning in concern "Are you... okay?".

"Yeah, Sorry I was just spacing out for a second" Kohei answered, hoping he sounded reassuring "Now, as I said, we still have some daylight left, so I think we should try to at least cover some distance".

"I see, well, you're the wilderness expert Kohei-dono, if you think that's the best course of action I have no objection" Tenya said and the other two nodded in agreement "However, how do we decide which direction to go in, just pick one at random?".

"Actually, I have an idea about that" Kohei pointed in a direction that he thought was roughly south going by the suns position "The ground is sloping downwards in that direction, if only slightly".

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"I see, walking downwards would certainly be easier than walking upwards" Tenya added thoughtfully.

"That's part of it, however there's also the fact that we have no compass. By continuously going downwards, we would at least be able to avoid going around in circles. And finally, since water flows downwards, we are more likely to find a source of water on lower ground. We have no idea how long we will be in this forest, so we should be on the lookout for food as well, but water is our highest priority".

Since none of the others had any objections to Koheis suggestion, they were soon on the move, walking through the strange forest and making their way through the underbrush. The fact that the others seemed to trust his judgment so completely left him somewhat unsettled.

Tenya might be calling him an expert, but he was nowhere near as sure of himself as the others seemed to be. The downwards slope wasn't that steep, and there was no guarantee for how long it would continue. What would they do if the ground suddenly started going upwards? Turn around?

They had been walking for around an hour, mostly in silence except for the occasional attempt at humor from Tenya. Walking in the lead, Kohei glanced backwards at the girls. Alisa looking expressionless as usual, was she frightened? Tired? Hungry? Since he couldn't tell, should he talk to her? But what would he say? Wouldn't he just make her think about the things that he himself didn't want to think about?

He had hoped that Haruna would take it upon herself to look after Alisa, if nothing else it would have distracted her from her own concerns. However, Haruna just trudged along, seemingly more aware of her cell phone than her surrounding, checking for reception bars and occasionally trying to make a call. So far she hadn't had any luck "Well, of course she hadn't, after all..."

"Kohei look!" Tenya's excited voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Kohei turned to see what his friend had discovered. The first thing he noticed was that the slope of the ground ahead had gotten steeper. The second thing he noticed was the trail, going through the underbrush.

"Finally, some sign of people!" Tenya continued, proud of his discovery.

"Really?" Haruna said, lifting her eyes from her cell phone with a look of relief on her face.

"Good work, Ten-kun..." Alisa added (when did he give him that nickname?)

"Actually, looking at it, I have a feeling this might be an animal trail" Kohei said, making Haruna's expression turn gloomy again.

"Bad work, Ten-kun" Alisa withdrew her previous praise, making Tenya deflate.

"No, this is still great" Kohei said quickly, trying to salvage the mood "Animal trails often lead to sources of water, we should take a quick break and rest up for a while, before following it".

There was a look of relief on the others faces at the mention of rest, even Alisa's. They might not have walked that far, but walking through a forest was quite different from walking on paved road, especially with shoes unsuitable for the task, and honestly none of the other three were particularly fit. Tenya might be tall, but his indoor lifestyle hadn't exactly made him muscular. According to what he heard from Haruna, Alisa was fond of P.E and quite energetic, but she wasn't part of an athletic club and was by far the smallest of the group.

As for Haruna herself... to be honest, the last few years she had gotten a bit on the chubby side. It wasn't like she was getting fat or anything, just a bit plump. It seemed to bother Haruna however, considering that he had overheard her little brother Souta tease her for trying out strange diets.

The four of them found suitable spots on the ground to sit down and rest, passing around Haruna's water bottle to take a small sip of the lukewarm water each, and they each took a small piece of Alisa's chocolate bar.

After a while Alisa leaned over to whisper something to Haruna and the two of them got up and started to walk of, taking Alisa's school bag with them.

"Don't go off too far" Kohei called, guessing what they were up to.

"We won't, but you two make sure you stay here" Haruna answered, blushing slightly "and don't look in our direction"

"Don't look..." Alisa echoed.

After the girl's had left to do their business, Tenya opened his mouth to speak.

"You know, when I saw that trail I really thought for a second that everything was going to be okay..." at first Kohei had expected some sort of bad joke about what the girls were up to, however his friend had a somber look on his face and talked in a tired voice "That we would follow the path, and then quickly end up on one of those camping grounds used for school trips.

We would be able to call for help, and after being driven home by the police or something my parents would scold me for getting in to trouble, saying all those computer games had messed up my head..."

Kohei sat in silence, waiting for Tenya to continue.

" But there's no way that would happen, this isn't Japan, after all, we have been transported to another world..."

"Yeah..." Kohei almost whispered. He had known from the start of course, he had tried to pretend otherwise, but once his friend said it out loud he could do nothing but admit the obvious truth.

Except for discussing why the four of them had ended up together while the surrounding students were nowhere in sight, none of them had mentioned the strange voice and the event itself. As if acknowledging the clearly supernatural event would make it real.

"I guess Alexandrova-kun also knows. After all, despite her stature she is not a child" Tenya continued "But what about Oyama-kun? The way she keeps trying to call on her cell phone...?"

"Haruna..." Kohei kun sighed before continuing "Haruna isn't stupid or anything, it's probably shock"

"Then what will you do about it?" Tenya asked "She's going to find out eventually and when that happens..."

"I don't know!" Kohei burst out somewhat irritated, why did he have to be the one to think of everything? as if he wasn't as scared as the rest of them" I don't know okay! Why don't you try to think of something for once!"

"Calm down man! She's your childhood friend so..."

They were interrupted by the Alisa and Haruna returning, the two girls looking at them suspiciously.

"Were you two fighting?" Haruna asked in a concerned voice.

"No, not really we just had a disagreement about..." Kohei searched his mind for some excuse, not wanting to worry her.

"Boobs!" Tenya Declared loudly "Kohei here insist That MisaMisa of AK-47 has the largest boobs in the group, although it's clearly RuriRuri! Really, this is why I can't stand casual fans!"

"...." Haruna was looking at the two of them coldly in silence, as they were two particularly disgusting bugs.

"Sex-fiends..." eventually the silence was broken by Alisa's monotone voice.

"Damn you four eyes! No, I was the one in the wrong earlier so I guess I'll let you have that one" He really shouldn't have snapped at Tenya, and he was glad they had been interrupted before he said something he couldn't take back "I guess I can live with cold gazes and accusations for a while".

After taking a few more minutes to rest up, they took of following the animal trail downwards.

As they walked, Kohei studied the forest. The colors of the vegetation might be odd, but not unpleasant in fact he found some of the surrounding trees quite beautiful with their dark reddish trunks and their light colored leaves with hints of blue and sometimes silver.

As they proceeded, the surroundings started to gradually change the undergrowth growing thicker with fern-like plants and vines as thick as his fingers crawling across the grounds and climbing up the tree trunks. If it hadn't been for the trail, he imagined they would have a much harder time making their way forward.

Idly, he wondered what kinds of animals had made the trail. They hadn't seen any animals aside from bugs, though they could occasionally hear high pitched noise that he assumed were birds, but since this was another world who knew?

"That's right, this is another world..." he came to an unpleasant realization. They were following a trail, that he assumed was made by large animals. Back in Japan, he was used to wild animals being generally harmless to humans. Boars and bears might attack you if you stumbled over them and surprised them, but generally they would try to stay out of the way of humans. He didn't know anything about the animals of this world however, and now they were walking down the trail completely unarmed except for his pocket knife. He hesitated, should they leave the path in case whatever animal made it showed up "No, that way we would just end up walking aimlessly, I'm sure we are approaching water considering the increased thickness of the vegetation. No matter what we do there will be risks involved, so we should at least choose the risk that is likely to reward us. Still, I must be more vigilant".

With that in mind, he scanned the ground for anything he could use as a weapon until he noticed a fallen branch about 80cm long and one end ticker than the other giving it a somewhat club like shape, it's color completely black rather than dark brown or red. He picked up the branch and weighted it in his hand, it's bark was smooth to the touch and it was a bit heavier than it looked. He lifted his club and struck a nearby tree with a loud smack, the branch seemed to have survived the impact mostly intact "Not bad"

"Ko-kun, what are you doing?"

He turned around to face Haruna who was looking at him questioningly.

"Uhm, well, since the underbrush is growing thicker I figured we might need something to clear the way" He answered. Considering the state of mind Haruna was in, still clutching her cell phone like a protective charm, he didn't want to cause her more worry for now " I will have to talk to her eventually though".

Haruna seemed to accept his answer with a "boys and their sticks" eye roll.

Alisa on the other hand tilted her head, looking at him somewhat suspiciously. Tenya glanced around the forest nervously, probably suspecting what was on Koheis mind.

As they moved along, Kohei continued to study his surroundings. This time, however, he was looking for potential dangers rather than taking in the beauty around him.

Occasionally, he thought he heard something move around in the underbrush, but when he looked around he never saw anything suspicious. Seeing however was definitely getting harder, the sun had started to set. "Should we stop here and start to make camp, before it gets dark?"

If they were going to sleep here they would have to clear away some plants, and he wanted to try to get a fire going.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sound coming from up ahead.

"Come on, just a bit further" he said as he turned around smiling to face his friends.

"what.." Tenya gasped, looking exhausted. The other two were in a similar state.

"Come on, you'll see" he picked up his pace, walking briskly. He was almost tempted to run but didn't want to risk leaving his friends to far behind.

Eventually he reached the end of the trail and there he found small clearing with a stream pouring through, making a murmuring sound.

For a moment he was tempted to dip his head into the stream and drink but stopped himself.

"No, we better make a fire to purify the water before drinking".

As the other three came stumbling into the clearing, he had to stop Alisa and Tenya from following the same initial impulse.

"Right, I know we are all tired, but we have things that needs to be done before nightfall, and the faster we get a fire going, the faster we get to drink"

The group started working immediately following Kohei's instructions, clearing away underbrush and gathering dry wood as well as stones to put around the campfire.

Tenya grumbled about his dignity as a civilized human being and not being suited for manual labor, but he did his job.

Alisa worked mostly in silence except for the occasional: "Work Ten-kun..." or "Lazy four eyes...".

It fell on Kohei alone to inspect the others work, He had hoped that Haruna would show some initiative and instruct the others, since she had at least some camping experience, but she just mechanically followed his instructions with a lifeless look on her face.

Still, they did manage to find plenty of fire wood, and Kohei even managed to get the fire started before it turned completely dark. Turns out the hand drill method of fire starting is a bit easier to use when you can include pieces of math book pages in your tinder nest (he wished someone had told his grandpa), although it was still pretty rough on his hands.

Eventually, they were all sitting by their campfire, snacking on half a granola bar each, and waiting for the water they had gathered from the stream to be ready to drink.

Luckily Haruna's bento-box was made of metal, so they could just fill the box with water and place it right next to the fire. Kohei had considered making some sort of contraption to hold the box above the fire instead, but he did not have the energy, and his hands were aching from rolling the spindle between his palms.

The fire wasn't all that large, but it was enough. It wasn't all that cold to begin with, roughly the same late summer temperature as it had been back in Japan (although the air was dryer here), and even in the short sleeved summer uniforms they were wearing, they were in no real danger from the cold.

The real purpose of the fire was to purify the water, give them some comforting light and hopefully keep away whatever animals that were moving around in the darkness of the night.

Of course he knew that not all animals avoided fire, but at least having a fire would help them detect any curious (or hungry) visitor.

He studied his black wooden club which was currently their only weapon. aside from his pocket knife. He considered cutting down a few saplings to make some spears "Oh, and we will also need to decide on the order we will take watch. Should I include Haruna, considering the state she's in? But wouldn't it look weird if she was the only one excluded? Maybe if I say that us guys can handle it and let both Haruna and Alisa sleep through the night?"

"...And that is why DoDo's mysterious shenanigans is clearly the superior work! Both from an artistic and storytelling point of view!" his thoughts were interrupted by Tenya, who had gotten into full, loud nerd mode.

"Cyclop cube..." Alisa disagreed.

"Really, your arguments rely solely on the nostalgia value and the influence on later works! You need to be able to view the works on its own merits as well, rather than just the larger historical context! Besides, if we used your criteria DoDo's mysterious shenanigans would also..."

Tenya continued his rant. What sort of discussion had they had? Could Tenya really interpret Alisa's short sentences into elaborate arguments? Or was he just talking loudly to himself a crazy person?

"Quiet... Four eyes..." After a while Alisa had seemingly had enough of Tenya and laid down, placing her head in Haruna's lap.

"Eh..?" Haruna let out a surprised sound as her attention was snatched away from her cell-phone.

Alisa stared up at her with a somewhat demanding look in her eyes. Eventually, Haruna started stroking the smaller girls blonde head.

Kohei was relieved that Alisa was looking after Haruna in her own way, distracting her from her fears and worries, but in the end, it would be him that would have to talk to Haruna about the reality of their situation, Tenya was right about that.

He didn't look forward to that discussion, but it was probably best not to wait for too long.

Kohei sighed "I'll let her have a night's sleep, then I'll find some way to break it to her tomorrow"

Haruna followed Alisa's gaze upwards toward the sky.

Kohei and Tenya followed their example leanings backwards to take in the starry sky.

"Hmpf, I suppose the great outdoors isn't entirely without its merits" Tenya said, begrudgingly.

Kohei nodded in agreement, not bothering to make a comeback. The night sky away from the lights and pollutions of the city was truly a thing of beauty.

Alisa and Haruna seemed completely absorbed in gazing at the stars. "Well, they are members of the astronomy club after all, so of course they would be interested ".

"This reminds me of the times we slept under the open sky, when we went camping with grandpa" Kohei said after a while, for a moment thinking that he saw some iridescent string like thing shimmering across the sky. Just his imagination? "Right Haruna?"

"It's wrong..." Haruna almost whispered.

"What?" Kohei answered, confused for a second

"The stars are wrong, Ko-kun!" Haruna burst out.

"Oh no" he thought

"None of the Constellations are there! None of it makes any sense!" at this point she was screaming and sobbing "This place this isn't earth!"

"Haruna..." he could think of nothing to say.

"You knew..." Haruna looked into his eyes with tears streaming down her face.

"You all knew..." she stood up looking around at the faces of the other's.

"Haruna..." Alisa said softly before turning away with a pained look on her face.

"Look, Oyama-kun..." Tenya tried, before being interrupted

"Ko-kun, you liar!" she screamed, while throwing her cell-phone into the ground "You're all liars"

"We are never going home..." she whispered, before rushing off into the dark forest.

For a moment the three of them could do nothing but sit there in stunned silence except for some soft sobs from Alisa.

"Wait, Haruna!" Kohei shouted as he stood up, grabbing his wooden club, and rushed after her.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" He thought as he ran through the forest not knowing if he others followed him. "Why the hell did this have to happen? Why the hell did we get taken to this place? And why the hell do they have to rely on me? Damnit!"

Fortunately, the moonlight gave him at least some illumination and he was definitely a faster runner than Haruna. He soon caught up with Haruna and found her lying on the ground. Well of course, if you ran around in a forest at night you would trip eventually.

"Haruna, are you okay!" He said as he started to pull her up.

"No, don't come close..." she whimpered

"Look, Haruna, I'm sorry but..."

"Noo..."

He realized that she was staring at something ahead of her.

He followed her gaze and saw several shapes moving around amongst the trees, almost invisible in the darkness except for the eyes reflecting the moonlight and long wicked teeth.

"Dammit".