Chapter 3: Twin-tastrophe
Isabelle's natural canine colorblindedness didn't stop her from noticing just how gaudy the color scheme of Nookway was. Honestly, the entire island was like a rainbow ocean, and the shih tzu appreciated the loud, bright palette. In contrast, the truly functional white and green of Tom Nook's convenience store — no doubt meant to emphasize his devotion to his one true love, cold hard cash — looked decidedly tacky.
She huffed. No matter — soon enough, he wouldn't be around to bother this town any longer.
She stood in the shadows of the tree line just a few yards away from the sliding door of Nook's shop, peering through the window as the raccoon went naively about his day. She watched him fiddle with inventory and tinker with his cash registers. She watched him count his money. She watched him kick back and relax when he thought nobody was looking.
Truly, she'd never really much cared for Nook in the first place. He'd always been a bit of a blunt personality, passing it off as 'businessman charm.' She'd always happened to think he was just a bit pushy and rude, but the Mayor had been reticent to agree. Isabelle supposed she understood; the town's soul was, essentially, in the entrepreneur's greedy little clutches. She hoped everyone knew that, deep down, even if they were content to let him steamroll their lives — and she hoped that once he was out of the picture, they wouldn't weep, but would take the opportunity to truly seize the means of production and reinvent this place.
New horizons lied ahead for the island, she just knew it. Call it instinct, call it a gut feeling, but she truly felt that with this dastardly monster removed from the planet, doors would open and her fellow citizens would walk through, even if she herself got left behind because of the carnage.
She emerged from the trees, skipping confidently toward Nookway with her characteristic smiling face. The sliding door opened and she hopped gleefully over the threshold like a racer crossing the finish line.
But she wasn't finished — not yet.
"Oh, dear, there she is," the bastard-currently-known-as-Tom-Nook droned as she entered. He slid onto a stool behind the counter and kicked his feet up casually, a direct affront to Isabelle's presence. Certainly, her normal purpose here would be on official business for the Mayor, so his aloof act was clearly meant in disrespect. Isabelle wasn't phased, and merely flashed the raccoon a grin. He scowled a bit as he watched his attack fall ever so flat. "And to what do I owe the pleasure, my dear?"
"Routine visit, Tom—" she started.
"—oh, it's Mr. Nook to you, my dear," Nook interrupted.
Isabelle took a deep breath. "Of course, Mr. Nook," she waved a paw at him, as if it was no trouble at all dealing with his infuriating superiority complex. "Anyway, as I said, a routine visit," she continued, taking a finger and rubbing it along a nearby shelf, "just here to pick up the Mayor's financial statements for the week. The ol' ball and chain, y'know."
Nook scoffed absentmindedly. Isabelle lifted up her fingers and blew some grime into the air.
"A bit dusty today, eh?" she smirked.
For what seemed like an eternity, Tom Nook eyed her from his lounging position behind the counter. Isabelle kept his stare, the tension between them growing more palpable by the second. As they maintained eye contact, she sat her purse down on an empty spot on the shelf and opened it up. Her hammer was inside, ready to pop out at a moment's notice and decorate the walls with raccoon brains.
Suddenly, she felt… thirsty for his death. This kind of bloodlust hadn't existed when she'd murdered the Mayor, but something about this particular encounter felt almost fun, like she knew that when she finally got to destroy Tom Nook from the tip of his furry ears to the end of his bushy tail, she would enjoy it.
Any day before this, that type of violent appetite might've scared the golden shih tzu. But even in just the past two hours, she'd transformed into something completely different than she'd ever been before — or, no, perhaps she'd just finally come into her own, finally allowed the psychopathic pup hibernating on the inside to come out. Tom Nook and the Mayor might be the first victims of her newfound bloodlust, but would there be… more?
She couldn't dwell on that. Right now, she had to focus on being the savior of her town. Right now, she had to focus on killing Nook.
Ding-a-ling-a-ling!
Isabelle's eyes snapped toward the door. Shit, she thought. She'd waited too long; customers were coming in, and she couldn't possibly murder this capitalist tyrant in front of customers. They wouldn't understand.
But the pair of faces that bounded in weren't customers at all, but miniature versions of Nook: Timmy and Tommy, the raccoon's apprentices that ran the shop when he was off on another island performing some undoubtedly super sketchy business deal, and served as cheap labor for him when he was in town.
"Mr. Nook! Mr. Nook!"
"Bossman!"
The young raccoons chirped as they sped past Isabelle and over to the counter. Nook himself strode out from behind and engulfed them both in a big, group hug. He scratched behind both of their ears affectionately as they crashed into his slightly-rotund abdomen, and for just a moment, Isabelle felt a pang of guilt begin to creep up her spine.
"Boys, boys, good to see ya," he grinned, gesturing for them to step back. He reached into the pocket of his emerald green jacket and pulled out two small bags of bells, shaking them a little bit so the boys could hear the clinking of the currency inside. "Did you both get to accomplish the job I gave you this morning?" he asked, his eyes darting for just a few seconds up toward Isabelle. The golden shih tzu noted the glance, and blinked a bit, crossing her arms. What was this little bastard up to?
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell," Timmy started.
"Not exactly, bossman," Tommy continued. At that, the two tiny raccoons spun around and looked up at Isabelle, and Nook's eyes trained on her more permanently. "You see, we went to deliver the Mayor's financial statements to him, but…"
Isabelle felt her body go a little bit stiff.
"…well," Timmy took over, "y'see, the Mayor wasn't there."
"Not there?" Nook quirked his head to the side, "like, he was out somewhere?"
Shit, Isabelle thought again. How the fuck had she missed these little bitches on her way over here? They must've gone a roundabout way to get to City Hall to have avoided her. Suddenly, she felt like the inside of Nookway was becoming, very, very hot — or, at least, something was making her fucking sweat.
"Well, that's what we thought," Tommy shrugged.
"But you'll never guess what we found…"
Isabelle lifted her paw from her purse and threw a party popper toward the trio of raccoons. It exploded inches in front of Timmy's face, and the miniature Nook squealed and stumbled backwards. The elder raccoon dove behind the cash register, lifting it up and ripping it from its cords and tossing it towards Isabelle.
"Woah!" Isabelle shouted, stepping back and colliding with the wall as the register smashed into the tile floor just before her. She stared at it for a second before retraining her gaze on the raccoons just in time to see Tommy leap up and tackle her face. He latched on, scratching — in a violent way, not a nice way — at the fur between her ears, screaming obscenities that honestly no child his age should have any way of knowing.
"Fuck you, you stupid dog bitch!" the miniature tanuki screeched, and Isabelle growled beneath him, swatting up and launching him clean into some shelves. He crashed into them with a loud, resounding "ouch," and Isabelle turned back to the counter just in time to see Nook pull a secret lever on a shelf and be whooshed through the wall and out of the store.
"Fuck!" the dog shouted.
Timmy stood, finally regaining himself after the party popper's sparks had temporarily blinded him, and lunged for Isabelle. She reached into her bag and pulled out the hammer, watching as it grew three sizes and swiped just past the little guy's face. He leapt up and wrapped his grimy little paws around the handle, gripping tightly and latching on. Isabelle groaned, swinging the thing wildly around and trying to dislodge her unfortunate stowaway, when suddenly she felt the head stop suddenly.
Tommy, having dug himself out of the pile of shelves he'd crashed into, had unfortunately landed himself right in the hammer's path as Isabelle attempted to fling his brother off of it. He blinked a few times as he stumbled backwards from the blunt force of the weapon, and then finally his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed backwards on the floor, little raccoon blood leaking out of his nose. Isabelle simply stared at the little, motionless raccoon as Timmy let go of the handle and rushed toward his brother.
Fuck, she thought, he's just a kid.
"Tommy! Tommy, get up!" the twin pleaded, kneeling next to his brother and feeling around for a pulse. Isabelle watched as hope flew out of little Timmy's eyes, and the light left little Tommy's. "You fucking killed him!"
Inside her head, she mentally ticked off another kill on her list — little Tommy was number two. Timmy screamed, burying his face in his brother's light-green shirt, and Isabelle took this moment to duck out the front door of Nookway. She scanned her immediate surroundings for Nook, but there was no sign of the raccoon anywhere. Deep within her, a bunch of different feelings jumbled and twisted together — anger that she'd let her quarry get away, guilt that little Tommy had gotten caught up in all this and paid for his boss's crimes…
…and determination that now, more than ever, she had to finish the job.
"Isabelle!"
She turned to see Copper sprinting toward her, pulling his taser out from his belt.
"Isabelle, stop where you are and put your paws up!" he shouted, aiming for the golden shih tzu. "Anonymous tip just came in, girl. What the hell are you doing here?"
Isabelle scowled. She wouldn't be caught now. Nook couldn't have gotten far, and she had to catch him — once that was done, she would face the music for little Tommy's death, but right now, she had a job to do, and this stupid akita wasn't going to get in her way.
She ducked into the tree line, disappearing into the shadows just as Copper got in range and launched his taser. It flew towards where she'd been and fell limply to the ground, and by the time the orange dog could see into the woods, Isabelle had disappeared.