With no sun visible overhead and no way to use it to determine direction, it was easy to get lost in the forest without a GPS to pinpoint their location.
Normally, you could tell which way you were facing by how thick the foliage was, but the weather wasn't cooperating. The wind kept tossing the leaves around.
Kamio Tatsuya glanced up at the sky. The clouds had grown thicker, and it would probably rain soon.
"Then I appreciate it." Kamio Tatsuya set down his backpack and took out some food and water. "You can have these as payment."
"I can't accept that. Besides, even if you weren't here, I'd still need Shibata to help me get back to the starting point." Ichinose immediately refused the supplies.
"Don't worry. Carrying all this stuff is just a burden anyway. This'll lighten my load, and Masumi isn't planning to be polite."
As he spoke, Kamio Tatsuya ignored Ichinose's protests and stuffed the supplies into Kamuro's bag.
"Who said I was going to be polite? Isn't it only natural for you to provide for me?"
Kamuro, his girlfriend, didn't hesitate to accept the supplies.
"By the way, there's no need to escort us very far. Just take Ichinose and me to the river. From there, we can follow it straight to E9."
Kamio Tatsuya made the suggestion again.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, no problem." Kamio Tatsuya nodded. "We may be competing against each other, but I can't let that interfere with your exam."
"Okay, I understand." Shibata nodded, then looked at his other teammates. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I've taken them to the river."
Once they'd settled things, Shibata set off toward the river with Kamio Tatsuya and Ichinose.
They reached their destination before long.
"All right, we can make