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At dawn Masato stirred from sleep. It was the second day. His body felt stiff and his stomach felt empty. He had slept sitting up, legs and knees drawn to his chest with his arms folded on top and head pillowed in them. Like the two nights before he hadn't expected to fall asleep, too used to his insomnia keeping him up. His new power was draining something from him and forcing his body to rest if it couldn't eat. Last night he had actually [i]wanted[/i] to sleep, at least. 

After things had calmed down last night he'd taken stock of the camp. Maeda had carted Todokawa away at some point, but they were both still around. Two had left and hadn't come back yet. It was likely that they'd lose one more, permanently.

Kogen's parting words had haunted him in sleep. He'd gone to bed feeling helpless, angry, and miserable while replaying the events over in his head. Reading the book over and over again. He couldn't stop those types of thoughts this time, was too tired to push them out of his head. Upon waking the intense feelings of the night before had dulled, but they were still present. And there was a new feeling too, like he'd woken up before something had happened. An apprehensive feeling. Without fully unfolding himself Masato rubbed his eyes on his forearms to clear some of the drowsiness away. He let out a heavy sigh. His head hurt.

It didn't take him very long to get up and start the day. A mental checklist began to form. [i]One, check with the night watch.[/i] Since they hadn't been violently woken up in the middle of the night he assumed there wasn't an attack, but he wanted to make sure they hadn't seen anything - like a stalking monster scoping them out from the forest or something.

[i]Two, get breakfast started.[/i] Or make sure someone was getting it started, or else risk botching it. [i]Three, check on Endo.[/i]

He knew what he would find before he made it to the hut the other boy had been housed in. There was a heavy atmosphere around the area. His ears picked up the sound of digging, the nostalgic kind like children looking for worms. It could only have been for a grave. Masato slowly processed the information. A burial, not cremation? No, no, it made sense... if they cremated Endo, what would they even keep his ashes in? A bento? Or else dump the ashes into a hole just like that?

Masato took a detour, finding Stewart a little ways from camp. Without a shovel or spade he was forced to use his hands. He was silent as he worked. Masato thought about helping him, but he didn't. He didn't know Endo well, and he suspected that Stewart didn't want company, especially from anyone besides a close friend. He could offer his condolences though.

But he didn't.

He left the boy to finish digging. Burying a body... it seemed like the right thing to do, but it could be dangerous. An animal could smell the corpse and dig it up if the grave was too shallow. A [i]monster[/i] could. But it seemed like Stewart had gone pretty deep already, since the hole was already deeper than the basketball player was tall.

Masato had to get his shit together, step up and make sure things got done right, which meant being the asshole again - but for now Stewart was spared from any rude reminders. If he treated this... predicament like it was school, like he really was still their student council president, then it might be easier to compartmentalize. 

Considering Endo just a corpse or body was easier until Masato saw him. Endo had been in some kind of coma before, but they could tell that he was alive. Now, though he looked just the same as last night, there was something vital missing from him. Masato had left Stewart to finish digging and poked his head into the shelter. He stared at the boy's face and was quiet for a few moments out of respect, and because he was trying to pull his thoughts into place. 

[color=B1E4FC]"If we're not interrupted, we'll have a service,"[/color] he said. Interrupted by weather, by monsters, by infighting... he didn't know what might happen, but hopefully nothing did. He gave Hoshino and Ohta a sympathetic look. Tried to, at least. He wasn't sure if he succeeded. Then he gave them some space.

[i]Three-B, see if Takehara will help with that.[/i] His next stop was to find the girl and rouse her. As he moved, he filled out more of his mental checklist.

[i]Four, hunting.[/i] He had been against it. But losing Kanamori... losing [i]Kogen[/i]... the class now found itself lacking in both defensive and offensive power. Killing or driving out everything around his area sounded like a good idea now, to make it as safe as possible. Masato would be out hunting today no matter what. He wanted to be useful in a more concrete way, but even if he'd wanted to stay at camp that wasn't really an option. Their awakened numbers had dwindled, Stewart and Hoshino were drained from working all night, Todokawa was... like [i]that.[/i] So it was left to either Inaba or himself, or both of them.

Inaba's facsimile would come in handy for it. It seemed to be useful for a lot of things. Masato lifted his hand, looked at his palm. Yesterday he hadn't been able to manifest Hoshino's threads. He doubted he'd be able to magically slice through things like Inaba either. He could still use his bare hands though. Channel some destructive force through them and whatever he managed to find in the woods. 

The last items on his agenda were could wait for a while.

[i]Five, find out what Hoshino knows.[/i] Last night the pink haired boy had made a surprising statement - and he had connected with Masato. In exchange for the information Hoshino had shared with him, what of Masato's had been shared with Hoshino? And when had he begun to call Hoshino by his first name? Masato didn't want to be suspicious of his fellow student councilman, but after seeing a fraction of Hoshino's past, it was possible that the threads had made Masato think better of his classmate, or consider him closer, whether intentionally or not.

[i]Six, deal with Oros.[/i] Masato would have to connect with Maeda and find out what he'd learned. Because right now, Masato had no idea what to do about Todokawa. Based on what the blonde said, he'd make his decision.

For now though, he was still on item three. Takehara, then service, then hunting.