His expression didn't change even by a millimeter.
Breakfast eventually went relatively peacefully, although Misa complained the whole time about having dirty hands and Kazuya was the target of constant teasing from Killua, who reminded him at every opportunity how he had almost let himself be "enslaved" for a pretty smile.
The morning was dedicated to the children's program. The group, led by Nami and Jin-Woo, headed into the forest to look for various types of leaves for a herbarium. Kazuya was in charge of supervising the boys.
"Hey, Koushiro. Don't you want to leave that computer in the tent? We're in the forest; you should be enjoying nature," Kazuya said to the small, quiet boy walking at the back of the group, who, instead of leaves, was constantly looking into his yellow laptop.
Koushiro adjusted the glasses on his nose. "I can't, Kazuya-san. I'm analyzing certain data from meteorological stations here. I like tracking weather fluctuations."
"There's no Wi-Fi in the forest. What do you need that box for if you can't connect to the network?" remarked Killua, who was walking beside them with his hands behind his head and a blade of grass in his mouth.
"I have offline encyclopedias downloaded here and I'm taking notes. And by the way, my sensors show that the barometric pressure is behaving very anomalously. As if some front is approaching, but according to forecasts, it's supposed to be clear, sunny weather all week," Koushiro answered matter-of-factly.
"Maybe it's just a device error. Surely nothing is happening. It's the middle of summer after all," Kazuya said, wiping sweat from his forehead. The temperature was rising toward thirty; the air was heavy and saturated with moisture.
During the lunch break, the heat was almost unbearable. Even the children, otherwise full of energy, sat in the shade under the trees and drank water from bottles. Yamato played a melancholy melody quietly on his harmonica, while his little brother Takeru fell asleep leaning against his shoulder. Joe, the oldest of the children, was nervously going through the schedule.
"We're late. According to the plan, we should have already had free time for reading. If we don't follow the schedule, the whole camp system will collapse!" Joe panicked, sweating behind the thick lenses of his glasses.
"Calm down, Joe, nothing will collapse. We're here to rest, not to be in the army," Sora laughed and handed him a glass of water.
Misa sat under the largest tree, fanning herself with a large fan and sighing. "I'm going to die here. I'm sure my hair is melting from this heat. Kazuya, bring me some ice water!"
"We ran out of ice this morning," Kazuya answered, exhausted, lying in the grass nearby. He didn't even have the strength to stand up.
Kazuya suddenly realized that the sound of cicadas, which had accompanied them continuously since morning, had suddenly fallen silent. The forest went quiet. It was a deafening silence.
A strong, freezing wind began to blow.
Kazuya sat up, suddenly full of energy that the cold air drove into his veins. "W-what was that?"
Nami, who was counting some bills in her notebook nearby, frowned and looked at the sky. "Wind? In this heat?"
Koushiro immediately opened his laptop. His fingers began to fly over the keyboard. "This is impossible. The temperature dropped fifteen degrees in the span of two minutes. And it's still falling."
Killua, who until then had been dozing on a tree branch with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. His instincts kicked in fully. He jumped down and landed without a single sound. That amused, childish expression disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a cold sharpness.
"Something is happening; my instincts never fail," he said quietly.
Jin-Woo, who was chopping more wood in the distance, stopped. He left the axe stuck in the log and slowly turned toward the sky. His warrior instincts, although he now possessed no superhuman abilities, clearly told him that this was not a normal meteorological phenomenon. The atmosphere was heavy, charged with an unknown energy.
"Nami, I'm cold. I... I want to go inside," Misa shivered and hugged her shoulders. Her crop top with her soft but flat belly exposed didn't protect her from anything at all now.
"All children! Immediately run to the tents for your sweaters and jackets! Everyone! And gather by the main building; don't go anywhere into the forest!" Nami shouted immediately, her pragmatism taking control.
The children, confused and a little scared, ran to their tents. Taichi grabbed his ski goggles, Yamato took Takeru by the hand, and Joe shouted something about how this wasn't in the program.
Kazuya stood in the middle of that chaos and was unable to move. The temperature was falling at a crazy pace. He saw a small cloud of steam rise from his mouth when he exhaled. It's July! In the middle of summer! How is it possible that steam is coming from my mouth?!
Suddenly, something hit him on the nose. It was wet and cold. Kazuya rubbed his nose and looked at his fingers. It was water.
No. It wasn't just water.
He looked up at the sky. The blue summer sky had changed to leaden-gray. And from those gray clouds, white flakes began to fall.
"Snow?" whispered Taichi, who had just run out of the tent with a jacket in his hand.
"It's snowing... in the middle of summer," Yamato added, his usually cool expression replaced by pure shock.
Everyone stood still. Kazuya, Nami, Misa, Killua, Jin-Woo, and the seven children. They stood in the clearing and watched as thick, white flakes of snow landed on the green trees, on the wooden roofs of the cabins, and on the dusty ground, which within a matter of minutes began to be covered by a white layer.
It was beautiful, but at the same time, absolutely terrifying.
"It doesn't make sense, satellites, sensors... everything has gone crazy. The Earth's magnetic field in this area is completely collapsing!" Koushiro repeated, staring at his computer monitor, which began to flash and show error messages.
Kazuya felt panic creeping into his heart. His hands were shaking, and not just from the cold. "Nami... what should we do?" he asked, looking to her for that usual certainty.
But even Nami looked lost. She tightly squeezed her notebook, her lips were thin, and she watched the sky. "I... I don't know. We must keep them warm. Jin-Woo, build a large fire, now! Use all the wood you chopped!"
Jin-Woo just nodded without a word and ran toward the fire pit. He didn't ask about anything. He reacted.
Misa began to cry. This time it wasn't an act; they weren't fake tears over potatoes. "I want to go home! This is scary! My phone has no signal!"
"Stop whining, you're only making it worse," snapped Killua, who was standing nearby. He was breathing deeply, not taking his eyes off the surrounding forest. He felt something strange. Something... electric in the air.
Snow wasn't the only thing that changed. When the sun was completely covered by strange clouds and a premature dusk fell, the sky suddenly lit up.
Kazuya tilted his head back. He couldn't look away.
High above them, through the layer of falling summer snow, the sky began to tear. And through those rifts, light began to penetrate. It wasn't sunlight. There were wavy, gigantic bands of green, purple, and blue. They rippled like giant, heavenly ribbons in an invisible current, illuminating the snowy summer camp with a magical, alien light.
"An aurora..." Sora whispered, clutching the sleeves of her jacket.
"In Japan? And during the day... this defies all physical laws," Koushiro added, already almost in shock.
Kazuya stared at the phenomenon above them. The aurora danced in the sky, accompanied by a quiet, buzzing sound that reminded him of the sound of an old TV without a signal. He felt the hair on his arms stand up. It was like a feeling as if reality itself around them was beginning to tear and fall apart.
Everyone was silent. Twelve people, united in awe and fear, stood in the snowy forest and watched as a door into something that would forever change their lives opened above their heads.