Shortly after we made it out of the Seikan Tunnel, our funds ran dry. And unless we could somehow withdraw money via an ATM or debit card, that meant we were going to be penniless for the whole remainder of our journey. Guilty as I felt for stealing, we had to eat to survive, so there was little I could do about it.
Not long after I found a table, Akira came over and sat down across from me. She’d brought with her a fully loaded tray of food, featuring not only a Milano sandwich but a slice of cheesecake and a hot cocoa as well. I couldn’t help but stare at this impressive spread—a testament to both her shamelessness and her appetite.
“…You got somethin’ to say?” said Akira, glaring at me.
I did, in fact, have quite a few things I wanted to say. Yet my sympathy toward her from this morning—not to mention my usual cowardice—made me chicken out of scolding her for being so brazen.
“Just surprised you can eat so much first thing in the morning,” I said.
“Aw, put a sock in it.”
Akira took a big bite of her sandwich. I watched the crumbs fall from her mouth out of the corner of my eye as I ripped open the packaging of mine as well.
After we finished eating, we made some preparations for the next leg of our journey. Then we departed from Aomori to continue south through the Tohoku region, setting our sights on the city of Morioka in Iwate prefecture as our next destination.
We were now walking along the expressway—not the sort of path one could usually tread, barring extraordinary circumstances like the ones we now found ourselves in. It would make for a bit of a roundabout journey to Morioka this way, but I could tell from the map that this would be by far the less strenuous route when you took elevation change into account. And yet…
“H-how much farther does this stupid hill go on for, anyway?” Akira grumbled, sweat dripping down onto the asphalt from the tip of her chin.
It had been a gentle but steady incline ever since we stepped onto the expressway. It was such a slight upward angle that you might not even notice if you were standing still—but when you walked up it for several hours, it definitely made its presence known. My legs felt like they were ready to give out.
“Eugh…” I groaned. I was pretty damn sweaty myself; the back of my shirt was soaked through, which would’ve been super uncomfortable even without a heavy backpack on. And with no breeze blowing by, it felt a whole lot hotter than it actually was. I was ready to stop and take a breather anytime now, but I didn’t see a good spot to rest. In fact, I hadn’t seen anything but unending pavement for over an hour now.
“Th-that’s it, I gotta take a break…” said Akira, plunking herself down on the median. Her shoulders heaved as she panted to collect her breath. This was not my ideal place to stop and rest, but it seemed Akira was making the decision for us. I hunkered down on the ground and pulled out a water bottle, twisted the cap, and glugged down some of its lukewarm contents.
“Phew…” I pulled the bottle away from my lips—only to see Akira glancing over at me with an imploring look in her eyes. “Wh-what’s up?”
“…Nothing,” she said, turning away in a huff. “Don’t worry about it.”
For someone who’d given me such a hard time for not speaking my mind, she sure was being evasive when it came to speaking to her own. I assumed she was just trying to act tough, but with how plainly she wore her emotions on her face, it was pretty easy for me to tell something was up. I took another sip as a test. Sure enough, I caught her glancing over at me again, and our eyes locked. She looked stunned for a moment, then averted her gaze. Just what in the hell was she doing, staring at me like this? She was the one who’d wanted to take a break—you’d think she’d at least want to take a drink of water as well. Assuming she hadn’t emptied all of hers already.
“Sure you don’t wanna hydrate?” I asked.
“…I’m all outta water.”
“Wait, really?” I hadn’t expected her to have actually drunk it all—especially since I was pretty sure I’d only seen her go through one bottle so far.
“Water’s way too heavy to lug around. Been trying to pack light.”
“Ah, I see…”
She wasn’t wrong there. Water was heavy, and it took up a lot of backpack space, to boot. I’d thought about lightening my load in that regard several times now. I could understand exactly how she felt—and why she was now looking at me the way she was.
“Sorry, but this is my last bottle too…” I said.
“I never asked you for any!” Akira said, pouting. “Like I’d ever want your nasty water… Get real… I can go without drinking for a bit. I’m sure we’ll find a rest stop soon enough.”
“I dunno about that…”
Something told me we probably wouldn’t see another one of those for a while yet. I couldn’t see anything but trees for miles around, and there hadn’t been any road signs indicating how far it was to the nearest rest area. And no matter what she said, I couldn’t have her fainting due to dehydration. I pulled the cleanest towel I had out of my backpack and used it to wipe off the mouth of my water bottle.
“You sure you don’t want a drink?” I asked, holding it out to her.
“Huh?!” she sputtered. “N-no way! I don’t need your filthy water… Prolly full of backwash and everything…”
“It’s fine. I wiped it off and everything,” I said, pretty unsurprised that she was one to care about such things.