Published: March 21, 2026
Sato's suggestion had us — Kazuki, Hosoyama and me — searching for food. I looked around for a start.
The tree tops were so high they were out of sight, and each trunk was thick.
Even the three of us with our arms spread wide couldn’t wrap around one.
If the smallest ones were like that, how old must the largest trees be?
They grew so straight and tall.
I thought about that as I silently hacked marks into the trees to show the path we'd taken.
Kazuki had released his trained animals to search the area, and Hosoyama was looking through the grasses at ground level for anything edible.
I was probably the de facto guard — ready to react immediately if anything happened.
Still, there was something off about how the teams had been chosen.
None of us talked much, but Kazuki and Hosoyama in particular barely ever spoke to each other.
Thinking about it, Sato had grouped people who usually didn’t interact. I decided he must have a reason.
"Oh! You found something?"
Kazuki patted the trained animal that had landed on his shoulder with a berry in its mouth.
The creature purred and wound itself around him; unlike at the start, it was clearly very attached to Kazuki now.
When a trained animal bonds with its trainer, it means the trainer’s level has gone up a lot.
Kazuki probably had the highest profession level among us.
He looked like someone who didn’t think about much, but he'd been working quietly behind the scenes.
"Hey Hosoyama, look at this. Could it be a cherry?"
The fruit Kazuki offered was cherry-shaped, but each one was the size of a peach.
I glanced at Hosoyama’s face.
As a healer, Hosoyama was sensitive to poisons and harmful substances.
If she wasn’t saying anything, it probably meant it was edible.
"This a cherry? Wait a sec."
Without another word, Hosoyama took the fruit from Kazuki and popped it into her mouth.
"H-hey!"
Despite our worry, Hosoyama seemed completely fine.
I let out a relieved breath at how nothing happened.
"What the hell! What if it’d been poisonous!"
Kazuki snapped, clearly upset.
True, Hosoyama’s move was a bit reckless for her role.
She just smiled at us, though.
"It’s fine. Healers have a skill that neutralizes harmful substances inside the body. I only learned it recently, though."
So poison didn’t affect Hosoyama. That felt like a ray of hope for this survival life.
If she could taste-test food from other groups when we met up, it would be safe.
"Sorry I didn’t say earlier. I had to see what the skill could handle before I mentioned it," she added with a smile that gave me a chill.
She was calm, almost unnervingly so.
"For now, I’ll taste-test anything we find. And this cherry-like thing tasted like peach. The skin’s a bit astringent, so you’ll want to peel it before eating."
"Got it! Thanks, Hosoyama!"
Thanks to Hosoyama’s poison-tasting, our group found a good number of edible berries and fruits.
With this much we could all eat until we were about eighty percent full.
"The sun’s almost overhead. Let’s head back!"
Since we'd been walking more or less straight, we only needed to retrace our steps.
I followed the trail of marks I’d left on the trees and hurried toward the meeting spot.
"…Huh?"
Kazuki, who was leading, called out.
The tree marks I’d made stopped — and past that gap, the clearing where the meeting spot should have been was gone.