Since the decision had been made, there was no room for dawdling.
“First let’s pry this suitcase’s lock open and see what’s inside.” Isac picked up a fragment of metal, lined up his angle, and gave it a few hard chiseling blows — only to find the results weren’t ideal.
Hold on — was it stuffed with gold bars or something, this kind of build quality?
“Try with this.” Yukinoshita Yukino silently passed over a thick, heavy metal plate that, by the look of it, had originally been a seat armrest.
Isac took the plate, lined it up squarely with the lock catch, and gave it two hard whacks.
There was a crisp snap from inside — the lock core had broken.
Tossing the metal plate aside, Isac ran the zipper around and got the suitcase open.
Yukinoshita Yukino shifted her body too, leaning in closer to see what treasures might be inside.
But the girl took only one glance before instantly pulling her gaze away — a charming flush rising fast across her pale cheeks, both ears blazing such a deep crimson they looked ready to bleed.
The reason was simple: the suitcase was packed with women’s intimate apparel — styles on the daring side, fabric on the pitifully scant side, and the quality… looked like one tug would tear it.
On top of that, there was a big box of condoms inside.
Had they stumbled onto a suitcase belonging to some AAA Coast-to-Coast frequent flyer?
Isac gave a small cough, casually pushed the suitcase toward Yukinoshita Yukino, then turned his back to her and said: “Ahem — want to pick out anything you can use?”
The styles were on the bold side, sure, but they were still intimate apparel — having something to wear beat having nothing.
Behind him, Yukinoshita Yukino didn’t reply, but the soft rustling of her rummaging proved that Isac’s words had gotten through.
A few minutes passed before Yukinoshita Yukino finally spoke: “You can turn around now.”
Only then did Isac turn back.
He glanced at the suitcase and confirmed some items were indeed missing, then he looked over at Yukinoshita Yukino — but those fabrics weren’t in her hands, and he had no idea where she’d stashed them.
He also didn’t dare ask.
After looking over what remained in the suitcase, one finding left Isac a bit curious.
‘Why didn’t she take the push-up bras?’
Isac instinctively shot a glance — and immediately understood.
Yukinoshita Yukino might have a face cute enough to be against the rules, but her chest was as flat as the clearing where the plane had crashed.
With a touch of regret, Isac pulled his gaze back.
He really was more of a major-leagues guy — not that the minor leagues weren’t fine, he just plain didn’t want his future kids going hungry.
It was all for the kids, see.
Although, given the current situation, forget about kids — whether they’d even get a tomorrow was anyone’s guess.
Yukinoshita Yukino sharply caught Isac’s gaze.
Her pretty eyes narrowed slightly, and she asked in an unfriendly tone: “Are you thinking about something rather impolite right now?”
“No — I was just thinking these fabrics might make a decent eye mask, to prevent snow blindness.” Isac answered without his expression changing a beat.
Yukinoshita Yukino was a touch skeptical, but seeing how perfectly straight-faced Isac looked, she ultimately didn’t say anything more.
“Oh — and that box of… uh, we should probably hold onto those too.”
Yukinoshita Yukino instantly went on guard, her hands unconsciously crossing in front of her chest.
“You can store water in them; on sunny days during the day they work as a convex lens to start a fire; on top of that they double as a stretch cord — useful for everything from setting traps to wrapping wounds.” Isac rattled off an entire list of clever wilderness-survival uses for condoms, his earnestness so convincing it was hard to argue with.
With the case laid out that thoroughly, what else was there to say?
Keep ’em, then.
With the pink suitcase fully searched, the next order of business was picking out supplies for the move.
Isac and Yukinoshita Yukino quickly took stock of everything they had on hand, prioritizing essentials like food, medicine, and clothing first, then factoring in the priority of the remaining items along with the carrying space left over, until they’d finally laid out a full supply list.
Medicine went without saying.
For food, Isac had turned up a grand total of sixteen airline meals, five cans of fruit-flavored soda, three packs of toast bread, and an assortment of small snacks — every last bit of which he was absolutely bringing along.
Next up was clothing.
On top of the two sweaters and the leather jacket they’d found at the start, Isac had since rummaged out of various busted suitcases a knit blanket, a ski jacket, three pairs of gloves, four scarves, and a good pile of damaged garments.
One of those three pairs of gloves was a set of ski gloves, pulled out alongside the ski jacket — clearly the original owner had been heading off for a ski trip, only to run smack into a plane crash.
Bit of bad luck, that.
Those damaged, unwearable garments — naturally Isac and Yukinoshita Yukino weren’t planning to keep all of them. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Setting aside the portion earmarked for making the tow strap, from what was left they picked out the softer, more thermally efficient fabrics to line the inside of the suitcase as a cushioning and insulation layer; the relatively clean pieces were set aside as backups, while everything else — neither clean nor insulating — got wound around thick wooden sticks to make crude torches, for nighttime illumination and driving off wild animals.
That said, with no grease or oil involved, the lifespan of these makeshift torches obviously wasn’t going to be ideal — they could only serve as a temporary emergency measure.
On top of that, they’d already worked out how to preserve a fire source: when the time came, they’d pick coals burning red-hot, drop them into the tinfoil tray from an airline meal, wrap the whole thing tight in cloth strips with only a small gap left so it wouldn’t suffocate out, and Yukinoshita Yukino would be in charge of carrying it.
For safety’s sake, they’d make three such fire-keeper boxes, so that if one died out by accident, they wouldn’t be left with no flame at all.
That left the tool-type items, of which they didn’t have many.
Things like cosmetics and sanitary pads — easy to carry, not heavy, and genuinely useful — those were absolute must-takes.
From the remaining items, Isac picked out a thermos, while Yukinoshita Yukino went with that laptop and its matching charging cable.
If they did manage to find an actual building, there might be a chance to charge the laptop, and from there maybe they could use it to learn something about this world.
Long shot, sure — but at least it gave them something to pin a little hope on, didn’t it?
And that covered everything for this round of relocating.
“That’s a lot of stuff — can you really drag it all?
Maybe I should just get down and walk after all.”
Yukinoshita Yukino still had her concerns.
Isac might look fairly sturdy, but with this much gear, plus her on top of it, plus a snowfield to march through — the stamina cost was easy enough to imagine.
“If I can’t keep it up, I’ll just say so straight out — I won’t push it.” Isac shook his head.
Seeing Isac that set on it, Yukinoshita Yukino thought for a moment and said: “In a bit, then, flip the suitcase upside down — overnight, pour water over the underside and let a layer of ice form on it.
That way it’ll cut the friction down some too.”
“Good idea.”
Whether it actually worked or not, only trying would tell — and if it really didn’t, no big deal, they’d just knock the ice layer off at that point.
“Then you rest tonight first — I’ll take the first half of the watch.
Eat your fill before you sleep, top up your energy; as a bonus, that’ll cut the load weight down too, especially the drinks.” Yukinoshita Yukino said.
“Sounds good to me.”