Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Arena, Day 8 Part 3

It was finally time to put her plant knowledge to good use.

After eating the last of their dried fruit, Fuyuko decided to insist on being allowed to find her alliance some edible plants. They were running low on meat, too, but at least they could survive on a vegetarian diet if things got rough. There should have been plenty of edible plants in a jungle, after all.

"Should we split up?" Piero asked curiously. "I mean...they wouldn't add more mutts right after an arena event, right? And no one's seen the Careers come down from the ruins. So many trees are down, we'd probably see them from a mile away anyway."

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with that," Marco admitted. "Is your back better?"

Piero experimentally rolled his shoulders. "...Better as it's gonna get. I can move now, at least. ...Can I please have my shirt back?"

"Fine, you can have your shirt back," Marco sighed, crouching down to go through the backpacks he was carrying. He found Piero's torn shirt buried under two of Fuyuko's mines and handed it over. Piero immediately pulled it back on, sighing in relief.

"This feels much better," he muttered. "Fuyu, maybe you and Marco can go together, I'll go alone?"

"...I actually think I'll be okay alone," Fuyuko admitted with a shrug. "I mean, this whole arena's a big obstacle course now that it's been torn to shreds in the earthquake. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's that. Plus, like you said, Careers ain't come down from the ruins since we got here and they're the only threats in this Game."

"I don't think that's true," Marco said.

"I'll be careful," Fuyuko assured. "If we all split up, we can cover more ground. Maybe, uh...leave our blanket here to mark the spot, we take thirty steps in one direction, search around there? I'll teach you boys about all the cool plant facts I know."

Fuyuko had a bit of an ulterior motive for wanting to be alone. She was still jittery from the previous day, keeping to herself as much as possible. Things with Piero remained extremely awkward despite Fuyuko's best efforts to ignore her reopened trauma wounds. She didn't really feel like being around either of the brothers for an extended period of time.

The time alone would give her space to think without nerves getting in the way. It was a chance to prove her usefulness and a chance to process her complicated emotions at the same time.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" Marco asked worriedly. "I just...have a bad feeling about it. I think we should just stay together."

"If we do that, it'll take us thrice as long to find anything," Piero countered. "We'll be fine, fratellino. I promise."

Marco blinked, seemingly surprised to hear this nickname; he smiled warmly after a moment, shifting. "...Just promise me you will be careful, fratello. Okay? Promise. And...Fuyu, don't go too far. I-I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'll be careful," Fuyuko repeated, smiling despite herself. She did owe Marco a thousand favors by now; promising to stay alert and keep herself safe was the least she could do.

"I promise, I'll be fine," Piero insisted with a chuckle. "Alright, Fuyu. What can you tell us about plants?"

It took Fuyuko an obnoxiously long time to teach Piero and Marco about jungle fruits. She took her time explaining their appearances, textures, and harvesting methods as she remembered from her literal hours spent studying, as well as sharing all the warning signs of a plant that was definitely toxic. They took their blanket out of the backpack, tying it to a fallen tree with the remnants of their wire, to mark a meeting spot, and promised to take only forty steps in any direction and meet back in fifteen minutes. They would repeat the process as many times as they needed to find enough food to last them a while.