First Day Of Ski Trip, At The Lodge: Trouble

Zombie Tag had been underway for thirty minutes. Having been caught almost immediately, I spent the rest of my time aimlessly patrolling the slopes. To be perfectly honest, I simply lacked the willpower to actually run away.

When the IT person, Nakazaki-san, tagged me, he looked concerned. “What’s wrong? You seem completely out of it. Are you feeling unwell?”

No, it’s not my physical health that’s the problem—it’s my heart.

After that, I cruised through various pockets of the resort, checking off the names of those who had turned into zombies on my roster. Once the afternoon hit, heavy clouds suddenly rolled in. The weather report from this morning had explicitly claimed it would be a clear day. Along with the clouds, the temperature plummeted rapidly. It was fine while actively carving down the slopes, but whenever I sat frozen on the ski lifts, a bitter chill cut straight through my body. A sparse flurry of wet snow began to flutter through the air.

…At this rate, we might have to wrap things up earlier than scheduled…

With that thought in mind, I was just about to head down toward the resort entrance—our designated gathering spot—when I noticed a group clustered together where several trails merged. Nakazaki-san was among them, alongside a few others. Every single one of them was a headcount checker.

“Is something going on?” I asked, approaching the group.

Nakazaki-san turned to face me. “Yeah, a ski patrol officer just warned me that the weather is taking a massive turn for the worse. We’re looking at a transition from sleet into a full-blown blizzard—the absolute worst-case scenario.”

Sleet mixed with rain creates horrific conditions for skiing. Even with waterproof ski wear, water eventually forces its way inside through your collar, hood, and wrists if the rain keeps falling. To top it all off with a blizzard would be the absolute worst of the worst. If your clothes get soaked and your body is exposed to freezing winds, hypothermia can set in before you know it.

“Because of that, I’m cutting the game short and shifting the conclusion to 2:00 PM. I’ll broadcast a message to every single member, but there’s a chance the signal won’t go through. Just in case, I need everyone here to patrol their sections and tell whoever they run into to head straight back to the resort entrance by two o’clock.”

“““““Understood!”””””

We all voiced our agreement and scattered across the resort to resume our patrol.

An hour passed. The vast majority of our members had been successfully contacted and had likely retreated to the gathering spot. At that moment, I was standing right by a lift station located just beneath the summit on the western edge of the mountain. I was actively informing the club members who passed by that they needed to head back down to the resort entrance due to the incoming storm. The clock was rapidly ticking toward 2:00 PM.

Fortunately, because I had been patrolling the higher elevations of the resort, I hadn’t been hit too severely by the sleet. However, the snow was growing incredibly heavy, and the wind carried a biting chill.

“I suppose I should start heading back down myself,” I muttered to myself.

The exact second the words left my lips, a hand suddenly clamped onto my shoulder from behind. I spun around to find Kazumi-san standing there, flanked by Honoka and Meika-chan.

“Isshiki-kun, have you seen Touko anywhere?” Kazumi-san demanded, her face completely pale with worry.

“No, I haven’t run into her even once today.”

“Touko is completely nowhere to be found!” Kazumi-san blurted out, her features twisting with anxiety.

“Eh? Nowhere…? Have you checked with the other headcount checkers?”

Kazumi-san nodded vigorously. “I just did. The vast majority of the club has already gathered at the bottom, yet Touko hasn’t shown her face at all…”

“Weren’t you keeping her company, Kazumi-san?”

“I was assigned as a headcount checker too, remember? I got turned into a zombie pretty early on, so I split up from Touko to patrol my assigned section.”

“Has Touko-san been completely alone this entire time?”

“Yeah. Her demeanor was incredibly bizarre this morning. One moment she was forcing herself to act boisterously cheerful, and the next she would suddenly sink into a deep depression… I’ve never seen Touko act like that in my life.”

I was left completely without a word to fire back.

“She ran into Mina and the others mid-run, but right after that, Touko insisted on riding alone. She would normally never choose to isolate herself like that.”

“And she’s the only one who hasn’t been located yet?”

“Exactly. I’ve queried every single headcount checker, but absolutely no one has caught a glimpse of Touko.”

Right then, Honoka broke down into tears behind her. “I-It’s my fault…”

“Hon-chan,” Meika-chan murmured, wrapping her arms around Honoka’s shoulders to support her.

“I-It’s because I pulled that horrific stunt yesterday…”

A sharp, suffocating pain twisted inside my chest. “It’s not your fault at all, Honoka. Everything happened because of my own actions. You did absolutely nothing wrong.”

“Wait, what on earth are you two talking about? What exactly happened?” Kazumi-san demanded, looking completely lost.

“The truth is, last night…” I quickly laid out the entire context of last night’s incident to Kazumi-san.

“Good grief… how could you possibly…” Even Kazumi-san could only clutch her head in utter disbelief. Meika-chan shot a fierce glare of silent reproach straight at me. I stood entirely speechless, hanging my head in shame.

But we couldn’t afford to waste time wallowing like this forever.

“I’m going to go look for Touko-san. Kazumi-san, where exactly was the last spot you split up from her?”

Faced with my resolve, Kazumi-san snapped her head up. “Right. Standing here spouting complaints isn’t going to solve anything. It was at the lift station near the summit in the central area. She skied off toward the western slopes from there.”

If she headed west, that means she could be stranded somewhere on the western edge.

“Understood. In that case, I’ll take over searching the western side. Kazumi-san, could you head east from here and make your way back down to the gathering spot? There’s a chance Touko-senpai might have already returned through a different route.”

Turning my gaze to Honoka and Meika-chan next, I added, “I’m sorry, but I need you two to head straight down to the entrance right now and explicitly report to Nakazaki-san that Touko-san is missing. After that, please return to the hotel and verify whether Touko-senpai has slipped back to her room.”

“Understood!” Meika-chan answered firmly, standing in for a weeping Honoka.

“I’ll broadcast a message to Nakazaki-san myself, but the freezing temperatures are draining my phone’s battery incredibly fast. I’m relying on you to deliver the verbal report.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I immediately kicked off, carving forward single-mindedly toward the western courses.

I swept through the western section of the mountain. I methodically checked every single major trail, but I couldn’t spot a single trace of Touko-san. The heavy, sleet-heavy snow was gradually transforming into a crisp, powdery drift. However, along with the change in texture, the winds were becoming intensely violent.

Mid-search, my phone buzzed with an incoming call from Kazumi-san.

“I’m currently at the gathering spot double-checking with everyone, but it’s absolute—no one has seen Touko. Furthermore, Meika-chan just pinged me; Touko isn’t at the hotel either.”

So she truly is still stranded somewhere out on the mountain.

“Is Touko-san’s mobile phone completely unreachable?”

“It won’t go through at all. I’ve dialed her number countless times, but it goes straight to out-of-service or the battery has died completely.”

“No way…”

It’s true that the low temperatures at a ski resort inflict a heavy toll on battery life. On top of that, because you are constantly on the move, your smartphone drains an immense amount of power just aggressively searching for signal base stations. Still, a major resort like this usually has dedicated base stations installed; if you are on a major carrier, it should be almost impossible to lose signal completely.

Right then, a sudden realization struck me. Most areas of the resort possess a perfectly fine signal. But what if she was in a zone where the signal explicitly couldn’t reach? What about the dead zone between two entirely separate resorts? I remember hearing that this mountain features a connector trail branching off from the forest course, linking straight to the adjacent ski resort. If Touko-san was desperately wishing to avoid running into anyone today, wasn’t it highly possible she had wandered down that exact path?

“Kazumi-san, is it possible Touko-san took the connector trail from the forest course toward the adjacent resort?”

“What?! No way, that connector trail is explicitly outside the boundaries of today’s game. Touko would never intentionally ignore the rules like that…”

“But with this horrific weather, the visibility is incredibly poor. She might have accidentally made a wrong turn and wandered onto that trail by mistake!”

“…”

“Furthermore, that trail intersects with a mountaineering route utilized by workers on the mountain, doesn’t it? If she accidentally slipped onto that path, it would perfectly explain why absolutely no one has spotted her.”

“That possibility… is actually entirely viable.”

“I’m heading out to trace the forest course all the way to the connector trail!”

“Isshiki-kun, wait a moment! Going alone is far too dangerous—”

“I know exactly where I’m heading, so I’ll be perfectly fine!”

Without waiting to hear the rest of Kazumi-san’s warning, I cut the call. The entrance to the forest course should be located just a short glide down from my current position. I charged forward across the slopes, which were already becoming entirely deserted.