#isolation chapter 2

At first, when the first flakes of snow began to drift down, Kumiko had been ecstatic. Okay, so having the Murder bear hijacking what was supposed to be her super-fun beach party and motive-ing it up wasn’t the best thing to happen to her, but she supposed it could have been worse - at least nobody died, right?

But snow; now, that was exciting. Being from Naha and having only left Okinawa for sporting ventures (or to visit her grandparents in Hawaii, which wasn’t exactly cold either), she’d never actually seen or felt snow for herself. So when she saw it begin to fall, delicate and precious, Kumiko had actually shrieked with joy at finally being able to experience the real deal for herself.

“Yeah! Yeaaaahhh!”

After a good ten or so minutes spent trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue, however, reality kicked in. It was night, and soon she would have to settle down inside one of the tents and wait it out until morning. Maybe the snow would settle, and they could build snowmen and have snowball fights? She sincerely hoped so!

But for now, she was reminded that she had a duty as part of Jinya’s Super Squad - or, something like that. Granted, she wasn’t entirely sure how her headcount duties transferred from one situation to another, so she reasoned that if she counted the number of people in the campsite before telling Jinya then that would be good enough. Then all she’d have to do would be to leave her arm somewhere to charge for the night, dibs a tent and try to sleep through her excitement.

Skipping along as though she wasn’t wearing shorts and a tank top on a snowy night, she made her way to the campsite in order to gauge how many people were there. What time was it, anyway? Maybe she should have listened to Jinya more carefully. Well, she could always ask for clarification later.

She was just about to arrive at the campsite when she stopped. Not for any particular reason, but-

“Huuh - huuuuh-”

“ACHOOO!”