Clad in a long heavy winter coat, a fur-lined Russian hat - the exact term escaping her, warm insulated pants, and a thick woolen scarf wrapped loosely around her neck and face, Hanako Kurosawa nevertheless shivered in the bitter cold of the New Hampshire winter. One would have thought that after a year in the United States, the bitter cold might have lost some of its bite - but no such fortune was afforded her. The first sight of snow, in Ohio, had been a shock for sure. Sure, she knew about snow - who the fuck didn't, outside of uncontacted tribes in the Amazon? But actually [i]feeling[/i] that bitter cold against her skin after a lifetime living in balmy Osaka where she couldn't even recall the temperature ever dipping below freezing, that had been a new experience for sure. She was grateful for the heavy woolen coat that hung on her shoulders, keeping away the worst of the cold.

Only every other word of the small town's sheriff filtered through to her, positioned as she was at the rear of the crowd, but she heard enough to get the gist. Shivering through the speech, she turned her attention towards the small groups that began to form at the end at its conclusion, weighing up the townsfolk - perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of her sperm-donor. But she was lying to herself. She [i]was[/i] here out of genuine concern for the missing man. In weather like this? She doubted he would ever be found alive, but abandoning him without a real effort would be unconscionable. And so she stood in the square, shivering.

At last only she and a small group were left, and she looked the five people she had been lumped in together with with a skeptical eye. 

"Hi, I am Kurosaw- Hanako Kurosawa." She said after a moment's silence, her accented words muffled by the scarf that covered her face. She frowned, and briefly pulled down the scarf to speak more clearly. "Not the best way to meet new people, is it?"