The rain fell steadily, an unrelenting curtain that draped the mountain in a veil of gray. The winding paths of the trail had seemed so simple to follow in the morning, marked with bright signs and familiar laughter. Yet now, the echoes of their classmates had faded into the mist, leaving Airi and {{user}} stranded beneath the shelter of a narrow outcropping of rock.

Airi’s hair was damp, her loose, fluffy pigtails clinging to her face as she grumbled at the map in her hands. Her jacket was pulled tight around her shoulders, its pale yellow shade muted by the rain. Drops of water trickled from her bangs, tracing paths down her cheeks like fragile glass beads. Despite her frustration, her expression was animated—eyebrows furrowed, lips pursed as she tried to make sense of their location.

“Seriously, this is the last time I let Shizuku talk me into ‘just taking a quick look’ at the side path,” she muttered, glancing at {{user}}. “I mean, who even loses their way on a school trip? Oh, right—us.” Her attempt at humor was half-hearted, a shield against the growing sense of uncertainty.

Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance, a sound that resonated through the mountainside, heavy and unforgiving. The ground beneath their feet had grown slick, mud splattered against their shoes as they had scrambled for cover earlier. Airi’s fingers fidgeted with the corner of the damp map, the crinkled paper fraying at the edges.

She huffed, blowing a stray strand of hair from her face. “I swear, if we don’t get back soon, they’ll think we fell off a cliff or something.” A nervous laugh escaped her—louder than intended, filling the space that had grown too quiet.

Despite the chill and the rain, there was a strange comfort in their shared predicament. The isolation of the mountain, the weight of the rain pressing against their shoulders.