They weren't in the indoor bathing area, gift shop, or even the rec room. Where else could they have gone?

They might have gone outside.

I talked to one of the employees earlier, and she said she saw two girls with bath sets going outside. What if they were Nico and Chika?

Why would they go outside? Wait, actually…

[Fade in/out.]

There's an indoor public bathing area and an open-air bath, and there's a natural hot spring out in the mountains too…

[Fade in/out.]

That's it. They could have been heading for the natural hot spring in the mountains! We should go look!

[Fade in/out.]

Here we are. This must be the natural hot spring Chika mentioned. But no one's here. In fact, it looks like no one's come here, period.

Wh-What do we do? Nozomi's reading sounded awful. You don't think they really got themselves in trouble, do you?

Hanamaru, calm down.

No one's been here, huh? Let's see, the Chariot in the reverse position means setbacks, uneasiness, losing one's path… Oh!

Maybe… Maybe they took a wrong turn and got lost.

Lost? But there was only one path here. There was even a guide map on the way here. I just don't see how they could have gotten lost.

You're right. There's only one path marked, but I recall seeing something that looked like an unmarked path. If they thought it was a short cut and went down that instead…

EEEEEEEK!

EW EW EW! It's a bug! A HUGE bug! A BIG, HUGE, MONSTER BUG!

No more, please! I'm going home! I wanna go home! Help me, Mamaaa!

…

*Whimper* Huh? Wh-What are you all doing here?

Waaah! Nicoooo! Wait for me! Don't leave me behiiind!

Ch-Chikaaaa!

Th-Thank goodness! I'm so glad!

Your legs are all covered in mud. You all right?

Huh? You guys! Waaah! I'm so glad. I thought I'd never see you guys again!

Where in the world did you two run off to? We tried calling and everything…

We took an unmarked trail thinking it was a shortcut to the hot spring and got lost. Th-Then it got dark, and my battery died, and there were all those bugs and…and… *Sob*

There, there. It must've been scary being out in the mountains after dark. It's all right, everyone's here now.

*Sob*

I'm just relieved you two are safe.

Okay, let's get you two cleaned up. The hot spring is right here, so let's wash all that mud and fear down the drain.

Nozomi!

Since we're all here, you all wanna take a dip too?

That might be nice. I did sweat a little from our walk over.

I wanna freshen up with a nice hot bath, zura.

That's a great idea. Let's all get in the bath.

(Hanamaru, Chika, Kanata) Yeah! (Nico) Okay! (Shizuku) Yes!