#yukimarimo

No idea how she ended up being in her father’s room, reading his diary again, before he had to go to the hospital. Kanade didn’t want to delve into those memories though. She was most likely dreaming, a nightmare to be precise. Besides knowing better, she read the passages her father wrote again though. 

Written inside there was how her music made him feel insecure about his own. That the song she gifted him to make him feel better, made him give up and doubt his own work. Him thinking only her music was worth being created now and how worthless she made him feel...

“Mafuyu was right...” In this despair, she remembered the adjective her friend used to describe her problem: “I’m cursed. An eternal curse, that won’t ever disappear...” An uncharacteristic sarcastic laugh escaped her. There was no salvation for her, even if one day she should be able to save someone with her music, it won’t magically get her father out of the hospital.

This work diary of his would forever be proof that she was the girl that hurt her own father. Ruined his life, without even realizing it.

“It doesn’t matter if I will be forgiven or not. I have to keep creating, like mother told me to, like father told me to do... I maybe can’t save him or myself, but before I disappear, I have to at least help someone... I promised...”

As usual, she put the diary, and with it her pain, aside to get up again. Now, why was she back home? She looked around in slight confusion but was almost tempted to just use the computer inside her room again in order to keep composing. It doesn’t matter where she was, she had to produce- else she was worthless.

And she really would have done so- if there wasn’t a stranger inside her father’s room. 

“Alright, let’s check what we’ll find inside here. Shall we, miss Sara?”

Weird, why did this feel so familiar. He and Sara teaming up to check out the building they just were trapped in. He felt like he already experienced this, but it was quite hard to tell why yet.

Anyway, his companion was waiting for him to move and check the cabinet she pointed at before. So he bent down to it and pulled on the sliding door with all it’s might. 

“Hah...!! Ya!!” 

...It wasn’t moving though, so he tries again:

“Huargh!! Urghh...”

How could this be?! He already spent all his power, and this stupid sliding door didn’t even move one inch yet! 

“No dice, I’m not strong enough to open this. It must be stuck or something. Should we search elsewhere meanwhile, miss S-” 

But as soon as he turned around to check on Sara, another girl staring at him as well. Both gazed at him with obvious disappointment in their eyes. How embarrassing, but that wasn’t what was important right now!

“Miss Setsuna?” Wait, this didn’t make any sense! Sara and Setsuna in the same room? Something didn’t add up, he was in that building right now. The building he was trapped in before getting dragged into another world altogether.

Only now he realized, what was wrong with this situation. He shouldn’t be here! He already left this place- not only, he even died in this place before. But if this was the case, why was Sara here? No, why were he and Setsuna here?!

Heine takes a few steps forward, reeling from the contact, and is seconds away from glaring daggers.  Except, he doesn’t.  Not when he comes to recognize the profile of the other: the red hair and eyes, the soft slope of her shoulders.  Embarrassingly, he’s studied either long enough through fleeting gazes to really tell.  

No way.  What were the chances in this new world?

He simply questions her presence for lack of better words or better anything.  Unfortunately, too many instances of mistaken identities and stranger circumstances have occurred to forgo caution.   “... Is that really you, Setsuna?”

Antarctic “Tumbleweeds”

Not really weeds, but apparently they do tumble:

Snowball ‘Tumbleweeds’ Blow Across Antarctica

Welcome to The Chronolium, Setsuna.

Whisperwood has sponsored you. You awaken in WW-06.

Stay safe, and make yourself at home.

Yukimarimo are balls of fine frost formed at low temperatures, between -50C (-59F) and -58C (-72F).

This phenomenon was first noted in Antarctica in 1995. The balls are formed by electrostatic attraction between ice crystals. Yukimarimo are very light and very similar to cotton. They behave a bit like tumbleweed in deserts.

Picture by Heather Moe, NOAA Corps