Youthful Days (Book 1)

44. Found

"Are you sure we're taking the right way?" Sakuno asked dubiously as she hiked along the narrow dirt path.

Wiping her forehead, Ayuna said uncertainly, "To be honest with you, I'm not sure."

The trip to Nikko was not at all how Ayuna imagined it. The coach had rented a cottage near Kirifuri, a rural area some distance away from the Nikko city center. While the seclusion offered an unperturbed view of the mountains and the charms of nature, she wasn't spared a minute to take in any of it.

Isolated from civilization, everything had to be done by the helpers. This included plenty of cleaning, cooking, running errands for the coach, and catering to the training needs of the team. On the first night, she was so physically drained that sleep descended the second her head hit the pillow.

Today, Ayuna and Sakuno were sent away with yet another order. During morning training, coach Ryuzaki had realized she left the resistance belts back at the cottage. Instead of having the entire team backtrack, she requested Ayuna and Sakuno to fetch the missing equipment.

Looking ahead now, Ayuna saw that shrubs and weeds smothered the trail they were on without any opening to the main road. The midday sun beat down mercilessly, sending sweat oozing along her back. Sakuno, too, was struggling to breathe in the smothering humidity. Despite being the coach's granddaughter, she was shown no mercy when it came to helping the team.

"Maybe I should call grandma, just to check..." murmured Sakuno, slipping out a cellphone from her knapsack. As soon as she flipped up the cover, her eyes widened with horror. "There's no signal here!" With a panicked expression, her eyes darted back to Ayuna. "What should we do?"

Of course, Ayuna thought, her heart sinking. They were no longer in the city. Taking a cell phone around was a useless safety precaution.

After a moment of thinking, she suggested weakly, "Maybe we could just keep walking to see where this trail leads us..."

"But what if it leads us nowhere? Should we turn back instead?"

Ayuna didn't have an answer. She was no better than Sakuno when it came to navigating in the wilderness and outdoor survival. She was searching for an alternative route when a circular object sailed an arc over them and landed in plumes of tall grass nearby.

Sakuno jumped. "What was that?"

Ayuna rummaged through the knee-high grass and picked up the mysterious object. Incredulous, she said, "It's a golf ball." Peering into the thicket of shrubs on the opposite side, she saw nothing except shadows. "It came from over there. I'm going to take a look—there could be people nearby."

"Wait, Hanamachi-san, it could be dangerous..."

Ayuna ignored Sakuno. She jostled into the bushes and elbowed her way through the dense foliage. It wasn't long until she came upon a manicured meadow dotted with white-gold dunes. Across the wide, grassy field stood a few colored flags with bolded numbers, each one next to perfectly circular holes in the ground.

Overcome with relief, Ayuna could hardly believe their luck—it was a golf course! Surely whoever was playing could help them out.

"Hey, who are you?" rose a gruff voice from behind her.

Turning around, she saw an older boy loping towards her. He had shaggy blonde hair and a cylindrical canvas bag hanging from his scraggy frame. "You're trespassing! This is private property!"

"I'm sorry for intruding." She held up the golf ball as a form of explanation, "I was on the trail behind the course, and this came flying—"

The boy smacked a hand against his forehead, groaning. "You should've left it! This belongs to the young master! He was aiming for hole ten and now you've obviously ruined his shot. He's going to throw a fit!"