"We've really got our work cut out for us here, huh?" I asked Kirigiri.
She was staring at the wall, the eyes in her pallid face not betraying what she was thinking any more than they usually did.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a change of clothes?"
"I don't mind even if I have to wear these same clothes for a week."
"Well, I mean, you should probably mind a little..."
I'd thought something like this might happen, so I'd brought a change of clothes myself. After seeing the photos of the Sirius Observatory in the magazine article, I'd thought maybe I would be staying here during the interview process. And now it was looking like I was right.
Maybe part of the interview really is a test of endurance, just like Inuzuka said?
"What room do you want? We can stay together if you're scared," I asked.
Kirigiri seemed indecisive, looking between the two doors before finally pointing at one.
"Wow, what a coincidence! I was just thinking I might pick that one, too. Guess that's settled then! We'll have to room together!" I said, but Kirigiri just frowned back at me. "Kidding, kidding! That was just a joke. I'll take the leftover room."
Kirigiri silently turned her back to me and entered her room. Is she mad at me?
I, in turn, entered the fifth and final room. The sheets had been stripped off of the bed, and the bathroom door had been left open. Inuzuka or Amino must have left the room like this after investigating. I sighed, making the bed and then setting my bag on top of it. I glanced out the window just to check, but all that I saw was a white darkness. No surprises there.
When is it gonna stop snowing already? If by any chance... the storm got worse by morning, then maybe we would be staying here for more than just one or two nights. Suddenly anxious, I looked in the fridge. Just like in the other one, there was only juice and beer. No food.
That one fact highlighted a staggeringly enormous problem. There was a high chance that there was no food anywhere in the building. If we have to stay here for a few days because of the snowstorm, won't we starve?
I checked in my bag. I had a chocolate pastry and a bag of candy that I'd brought to snack on.
Could I survive on just these and water for who knows how many days...? We might be in a way worse situation than we think we are.
I sat on the bed, and took a moment to just put my head in my hands. My head felt a little fuzzy—maybe because I'd come here in the snow without even an umbrella. If I was coming down with a cold because of that, it would be no joke.
I stretched out onto the bed to stare at the ceiling. I took my phone out of my pocket to check—No Service. I couldn't suppress my reaction to reading those words. A bunch of detectives were trapped in a building in the snow, and my cellphone couldn't even get service?
The mystery client... Who exactly are they? When you get down to it, who would call us all here, and why?
No matter how much I tried to think about it... my mind was just in a haze.
