Date Her Instead Vol. 2

Chapter Eighteen: Here

"She's right!" Itsuki suddenly said. "We should all be out there looking for her!" "No way," Jasmine said, shooting down the idea. "Huh?! Whaddya mean no way?! Aren't you worried about Kana-chan?" Itsuki asked, somewhat irritated by Jasmine's reaction. "It's not that I don't care," Jasmine said. "But like, even if we use our flashlights, there's no way to guarantee none of us will get lost." "T-That's true, but..." Itsuki said, feeling defeated. "It'll be okay Itsuki-chan," Chiyo said gently and with a smile. "After all, Kana-chan's special to Haru-chi. If anyone's gonna find her, it'll be Haru-chi."

That reasoning seemed to be enough to tide Itsuki over for the time being. Taking a seat on the floor, Mayu joined her and did her best to comfort her friend. Now that the odds of anyone else going out were low, Chiyo turned her attention back to Michi, who was still standing near the staircase. "Mi-chan," Chiyo called, but she was simply met with a huff. Then Michi walked over to the kitchen table and sat down.

"I guess I'll have to talk to her later," Chiyo thought. She wanted to know what exactly happened between Michi and Kanako. She knew that if she asked Kanako, the girl would probably tell her, but Chiyo wanted to hear it from Michi. Through the whole trip, it had seemed like something was bugging her, and now that a fight had occurred, it seemed like it was time to try to get to the bottom of whatever was eating at Michi. "But in the meantime..." Chiyo thought. Her mind went to Haruna. "I hope you find her, Haru-chi."

*****

As soon as Haruna got outside, she headed down the steps of the porch and began to make her way toward the woods. She had no idea which direction Kanako had gone in, but looking around, it seemed like straight ahead made the most sense. The cabin was surrounded by a circular border of trees, but that didn't mean it was easy travel in every direction. Behind the cabin, the foliage was a little thicker, plus going that way meant that someone might've seen Kanako as she ran past a window. Since no one did, Haruna ruled it out. It was weak evidence and complete guesswork, but there wasn't much else to go on.

After exiting the cabin, on the left was more woods, but the path was cut off by the creek. It was shallow enough to cross it by foot, but that seemed unlikely, so Haruna took that option off the list too. That left going right or straight ahead. "50-50 shot," Haruna muttered to herself. In the end, she went straight.

Haruna began walking toward the wooden boundary, but with each step, her pace quickened. Faster and faster she began to move, and by the time she had reached the first tree, Haruna had broken into a full run. But, just as she did, she stopped. "Wait, how am I not going to get lost?" she wondered. Haruna had her flashlight on her phone, which she went to turn on, but with no Wifi, it wasn't like she could just pull up a map of the area. Looking around, Haruna saw some long-ish sticks nearby, which gave her an idea. "I'll stick these in the ground as I go," she thought. It wasn't a great plan, but with not much else to work with, she went with it.

Now having an actual plan of action, Haruna began to move quickly again. She couldn't quite run because if she did, she'd just have to constantly stop to put sticks in the dirt, but Haruna was still moving fast enough that someone could maybe jog next to her. Covering ground in large chunks, Haruna kept moving forward. The further and further into the woods she got, the more her panic began to set in.

"What if she got hurt?" Haruna wondered. "What if she got attacked by a bear?" The more she thought about bad possibilities, the more worried Haruna became. The sticks dropped out of her hand. Abandoning her efforts, Haruna ran. She ran through bushes and trees branches, plowing her way through. "I have to find her," she thought. "I have to find her!"