pepper is sitting in the park, he waits for Nidai to give him the money. As he sat on the bench he noticed that the snow from before is coming from the forest outside the city but it isn't too far away from the park, pepper is considering checking it out because the snow has been bothering pepper.
Nidai shows up and hands pepper a briefcase with the money inside.
"I'm surprised that you actually kept up your end, I appreciate it." pepper says to Nidai as he counts the money. Nidai stays quiet the entire time.
"You did a fine job, you may leave now, but remember be to back here in exactly 30 days." Nidai nods and walks away. pepper decides to take the money back to the hotel to make sure he doesn't lose it, then he heads back to the park to check out the forest and see what is causing the snow.
pepper looks from the outside of the forest, he notices something moving and immediately starts running to it, he feels his hand start to freeze from ice and looks down at it and watches it as he runs. Realizing that he's closer to whatever is moving, he looks back up and he sees a person with long, blue hair, just like pepper's, they walked between the trees.
'They look female.' pepper thought, but he isn't sure. He thinks it's stupid to walk towards the person because obviously he'd freeze, but pepper feels compelled to walk towards them.
As pepper grew closer, he grew colder, his hands and arms are covered in ice and are completely numb. It's hard for pepper to even walk to the person through all the snow and wind. pepper stops as he grew even closer, he thought he was seeing things but it looked like a fairy, that was about the size of a large baby, or toddler, was dancing in the air around the person as they walked. pepper yelled to them but the person didn't react, the fairy-like thing that pepper saw flew up and twisted its arms creating a huge blizzard that sent pepper flying all the way back to the park. pepper could see the person walking out of the forest and growing closer, pepper was able to make out their face, it was a girl with blue hair, like pepper thought, she had a right eye that was blue and a left eye that was red, just like pepper. pepper knew this couldn't just be a coincidence that they looked so similar, pepper quickly realized that he was lost in thought and noticed that the girl had disappeared.
pepper looked around for her, but he couldn't see since he was on the ground and she was at the bottom of the hill, his legs hurt from being blown away so he didn't wanna move too much but he was eventually able to stand. His eyes quickly looked at the top of the staircase that lead down to the park, after a short moment, he sees the girls' head as she walks up the stairs. pepper gets ready to fight her, she notices him and looks up at him, her mouth opened slightly, and her eyes widened, tears appeared in her eyes and like rivers they fell as she ran to pepper with her arms out ready to hug him. pepper instinctively crouched down and she ran directly into his arms, her arms wrapped around him as his wrapped around hers, all of the snow melted as she cried loudly, pepper cried too, but much more quietly.
The girl let go of him, she sniffled, and with a smile she said. "My name is Kumo, I'm so happy that I found you! What's your name?" pepper paused for a second, but quickly snapped out of it and replied. "Oh, my name is... pepper. It's really nice to meet you." pepper wasn't sure why but he felt like he had to protect this girl, as if that was his purpose, to protect Kumo.
"Do you mind if I become yours?" Kumo asked, titling her head.
pepper paused, snapped out of it again, and replied "Become mine? I don't really wanna own you, if that's what you're asking. But, if you want, I absolutely will protect you, you'll be by my side always." pepper couldn't understand why he felt so extremely attached to Kumo, but soon enough, he stopped worrying about it and gave in to his urge to keep her safe.
"I'd really love that! Oh, by the way... Can I call you Daddy, instead of pepper?" Kumo asked, looking up at pepper with sparkling eyes. pepper stood still as he felt clueless of how to respond to that, but he soon broke free of his clueless curse.
"Kumo, you can call me whatever it is that you could possibly want, okay?" pepper said, as he crouched down, sat his hand on Kumo's shoulder, and looked her in her eyes.
"Deal!" Kumo said with excitement as she proceeded to kiss pepper. They kissed for a while as pepper had never felt a joy similar to this. Kumo stopped kissing him and pepper's eyes widened with realization. "We just kissed? Hey, how old are you?!" pepper exclaimed, not specifically meaning to yell.
"Hm? I'm not exactly sure..." Kumo said, as she puffed up her cheeks feeling a little embarrassed. "I may be short, but I'm still older than you!" Kumo angerly continued, puffing out her cheeks.
"Okay, okay, I got it." pepper said with a face of relief.
pepper took Kumo back to the hotel because she looked tired. While in the bed with her, on opposite sides, pepper turned around to check the digital clock that sat on the desk on the left side of the bed which was behind him, he read ten fifty seven P.M. pepper realized how late it was and decided he should sleep too. Kumo quickly started cuddling pepper before he tried to sleep. pepper cuddled her back and they both smiled as they fell asleep.
As he woke up, pepper's first sight was Kumo, smiling while she cuddled him and slept, pepper smiled and stayed with her until she awoke.
"Good morning, Daddy!" Kumo said, with a huge smile.
"Good morning." pepper said, with a slight but genuine smile.
They both got ready for the day but pepper realized that Kumo doesn't have any extra clothes, and the clothes she has on are decently dirty and look like they were thrown in hell.
"Hey, Kumo, we should get you some new clothes, I've got plenty of money so we can get you whatever you'd like." pepper said, as he pointed to the suit case that holds their money.
Kumo's eyes sparkled. "Really, Daddy?! I can get anything?!" Kumo exclaimed, as she got closer to pepper.
"Yeah... anything... Uh, you're sure that you're older than me, right? You... sort of... don't act like it." pepper said, trying not to sound rude.
Kumo puffed her cheecks. "I never lie to someone I care about unless it saves their life! I promise you, Daddy." Kumo said, with a serious face.
pepper smiled. "Alright, from now on, I'll believe every word you say and I'll do my best to keep that as a promise." pepper said, as he patted Kumo's head.
Kumo and pepper left the Platinum Star, looking to get Kumo some new clothes. A store catches Kumo's eye. "Daddy! Daddy! Can we go to that one? It looks promising." Kumo says, pulling pepper's arm and pointing in the distance.
"Yeah, any one is fine. Which one are you pointing at?" pepper asked, as he failed to locate which store Kumo was pointing towards.
Kumo grabbed pepper's arm and used it to point at the store. "That one, Una's Girl Spice. It's the pink one with all the glitter." Kumo said, trying to explain what she finds obvious.
"Oh, yeah. Let's go." pepper says, as they walk to the store.
Kumo came out of the dressing room, she wore a pink jacket, a light blue T-shirt, black pants with two blue stripes going down both sides of the pant legs, and pink sneakers.
"Wow, Kumo, you look amazing! It really fits you. Was there any reason you chose this stuff, I'd like to get to know more about you." pepper said, genuinely finding her new look to be beautiful.
"Um, yeah, actually. The pink stuff is cause my favorite color is pink, the black pants is just cause it fits well and I'm not too big on skirts. Now, the light blue T-shirt... I'm not really sure, but I feel like this color means so much to me, like... it's hard to explain... Maybe I'll figure it out someday." Kumo said, as she failed to explain her feelings toward the color light blue.
"Oh, I see... that is interesting. Another mystery we'll just have to solve, I guess. But anyway, wanna grab something to eat? I know this ramen place and it's just the best!" pepper said, as he went on about different things.
"Are we there yet?" Kumo asked, as her stomach growled.
"Yep, should be right around this corner, I'll take you th-" pepper said, cutting himself off. 'What the hell is that?' pepper thought, as he witnessed a portal appear before his eyes.