Song of the chapter: Yuki no Hana (Snow Flower) by Mika Nakashima (RELife's ending)

Some hours ago…

Hisako was skiing around in hope of finding the comfrey plant. This plant would help both Erina-sama for her ligament injuries, as well as Tadoroko-san who was complaining of sore throat and sensible gum. Time was flying by too fast and it was nearly 3:50. She would have to go back soon so that Erina-sama wouldn't worry. She tried to go around the area one last time, and just when she was going to give up and turn back, the medicine expert saw the distinctive purple bell flowers of comfrey. They were growing on the edge of the mountain cliff. She made sure to approach it carefully and paid extra attention while advancing.

However, just as she was reaching out to the lushing green leaves, she misplaced her foot into a hole covered by the thick snow, slashed part of her left calf in the process and was going to fall off the edge. With a rush of adrenaline, Hisako caught a tree vine near there, and held onto them for dear life. With that grip, she attempted to set a footing and tried to crawl back up. She succeeded but landed roughly on her side and she was now lying on her stomach, surrounded by a good 10 cms of snow and being barely able to move.

Her body shivered, and her breath bounced inside of her lungs sharply. The icy cold ate at her skin with small pinches, until she eventually became numb. Staggering across the frozen field, the not-so-warm-anymore blood froze on her wound, at least preventing her from bleeding to death.

The loss of feeling and dead nerves made it difficult to balance, but she kept trudging through the steep snow. It was only a matter of time before she could no longer move anything-she had already become paralyzed in her arms-and would collapse into the white blanket.

Her teeth chattered, and her dry tongue swept across them, noticing how much colder they were than anything else. Hisako attempted to lick her severely chapped lips, but ended up having to fight to get her tongue to unattach from her lip. "Hnn..." A shiver ran down her spine in ripples, and she couldn't even use her hands to rub her arms for friction.
It wasn't long before her lips were so blue and her skin was so pale that someone-if someone was actually there-would mistake her for a mannequin doll. Her breath finally hitched in her all-too-dry throat, and her feet stopped moving, against her will. "N...no..." she pleaded in a raspy voice. It seemed to take forever when her legs started bending, and she fell once again into the powdery white slush.

Her eyes started to flutter closed, despite Hisako's desperation to stay awake. As a familiar with medical knowledge, she knew that her chance of staying alive would decrease tremendously if she fell asleep now. As her mind was switching back and forth on the verge of consciousness, the last thing she thought about before seeing darkness was how the whiteness of the snow reminded her of that guy's hair.

Meanwhile, with the guys…

"Alright so Yukihira, Kurokiba and Ibusaki can go in one group to search in the eastern area, Tsukasa-senpai, Marui and Kuga will search in the northern area; the Aldini brothers and myself will look at the western area. Nakiri-san's employees will take care of the southern area." Instructed Isshiki while showing them the rough map of the mountains. "The Yukihira group will try to help Hayama searching for Arato-san if you meet him in that area. Remember that we don't have enough time before the storm will hit the hardest, be careful during your search. We will meet up here once again no matter the results in 20 minutes. Be careful everyone."

The others wasted no time to get into their snowmobiles and sprinted out. Hayama already took one of the snowmobiles when they came to the warehouse where they were kept. The search teams tried to look for Hisako's distinct red hair amid the white snow. The wind kept getting stronger and the sun was setting down pretty quickly, taking it with it the precious light source that assisted with their search.
Isshiki was a bit surprised at how Hayama was the first to notice Hisako's absence. Something was definitely going between them. He sincerely hoped that their team will be able to find the two of them.

Yukihira and Kurokiba were trying to look out for Hayama as well as Arato, as they knew how reckless both of them could be.
"Stay safe, you two! Don't you dare do anything rash, Hayama." Thought Yukihira.

Meanwhile, at the eastern part of the mountain…

Despite going around this part of the mountain since 30 minutes ago, the spices prodigy still couldn't find any signs of his former opponent. If she was to see how desperate he looked right now, the medicinal cooking expert would probably laugh at him. His snowmobile just had to break down halfway, and Hayama wasted no time to kick it aside and kept going to look for the red-haired girl on foot.

"Calm down Akira, think! If she was going to pick the comfrey leaves, she would most probably be on this side. Please let me find her before it's too late."
His pleas were finally answered as he finally glimpsed a mob of red near the edge of the mountain, the only color in the field besides white.
Hayama wasted no time and rushed over in that direction. Stopping short, he glanced down to the ground. It was only a few locks of magenta red hair, but it was enough confirmation for him. Pushing his arm into the deep snow, he felt her form. Feeling the steel-cold sensation of her skin, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and yanked her body up.

An involuntary yelp came unconsciously from her throat at the pain of his yank.
"Arato! Arato! Wake up!"
"Ara-Hisako!"

He laid her flat on her back to check for her wounds. The red ice glued to her calf indicated a deep cut. His eyes glanced back to the rest of her body. She didn't seem to have any other wounds anywhere else. Cellphones were useless this deep into the mountain, and Hayama didn't see any signs of the others coming near where he was.

Placing a hand on her forehead, he noticed it was scolding hot. The shiver of her body made him think twice about waiting to move her. Arato Hisako may not like him and they may not have the best first interaction with each other, but he wouldn't let her die in a place like this before being able to explain himself to her properly.

Hayama grounded his teeth together and furrowed his eyebrows at how there didn't seem to be any housing in the near vicinity. He took note of the fact that her skin was now a tinged purple, and he placed two fingers against her neck. The slow pulsation worried him, and the girl showed no signs of waking up despite his shaking. Hayama knew that she won't make it if she fell asleep at that moment. There was no time to find some heating waiting for her to wake up, so he did the only thing he thought possible to wake her up.

He kissed her.

He kept on doing mouth to mouth, alternating with shaking her and slightly slapped at her frozen cheeks, in hope that the pain will help her wake up.

W-where am I? How long was I out?
Ah, I remember now, I was trying to get the comfrey leaves for Erina-sama and Tadokoro-san, but I lost my footing and nearly fell down the cliff.
It's cold. I can't see anything. The house should be there. No there… no way. I got lost..
I can't feel anything now. I can't move. Am I dying?

No, I don't wanna die. I have a dream. Graduate from medical school, develop my own medicinal cookbook, help Erina-sama managing the Totsuki Academy, travel around the world, and-and… show that guy that my cooking is not limited at all…

Then the snow-filled scenery suddenly changed, and Hisako found herself standing in front of an altar at the church, wearing a white wedding gown.

"You're going to get married today", announced the priest.

"Wait, what? I'm getting married? Who's my husband?"

Then as if on cue, a guy in a black suit whose face she couldn't see well approached Hisako, and put both his hands on her cheeks and proceeded to kiss her.

"Hey, I can't see your face well. Hey stop it." Cried Hisako while trying to make sense of all this, being kissed and married to some strange guy whose face she couldn't even see. She tried to push him back, but the guy kept on kissing her deeply.

"I said stop it!" Shouted Hisako with her eyes now wide open. The first things she saw was a pair of emerald eyes.

"Good, you've woken up. I thought I was too late." Said a deep husky voice which Hisako's fuzzy brain finally supplied to her that it was none other than the guy she was desperately trying to avoid these last few days.

"H-Hayama…? H-how…W-Why are you here?" croaked out the red-haired girl, flinching when her voice sounded even raspier than she expected.

"You must have fell and lost consciousness here for the last two hours. A storm is coming soon so let's find some shelter, can you stand up?"

"I can try." But her pained expression betrayed her.
Hayama wasted no time when he saw that. Picking her up, one hand under her knees and one under her shoulders, he turned around and was already searching for some sort of shelter.
"Hey! Wait!"

"We don't have enough time. The mansion is 2 km away. We have to spend the night here. Let's try to find a place to stay before you die from hypothermia." Explained Hayama matter-of-factly, but Hisako could still sense a tint of worry in his voice.