Snowball

"Here's the park~!!"

Akane jumped around as she took the snow off one of the seats and ushered Haruto and Mahiru to come follow her.

"Where is she keeping all that energy?"

Seeing how energetic his sister was, he wondered if she would crash later on considering he knew how much of a hermit she was.

"She'll probably fall asleep when we leave later."

"So you had the same thoughts as me."

Mahiru didn't say anything else and ran off towards Akane who was calling her to leave Haruto and help her roll some snow off the ground.

Haruto watched Mahiru run off and faintly smiled before he walked around the park that changed considerably since the last time he came and played.

It had only been a couple of months and getting close to a year since he began to live by himself so some changes were bound to happen since he wasn't in the area he grew up in.

'Ah, they still have the uneven swings here.'

Haruto dusted off the snow resting on the seat and sat down to see if the swings from his childhood still moved the same.

He gradually swung his legs and collected the momentum before eventually jumping off the swing and perfectly nailing a landing without slipping despite the snow underneath him.

"I remember Tsutomu landing straight on his face when he did something like this when we were younger."

Haruto laughed to himself thinking about that moment and a light popped up in his head when he thought about his childhood friend.

He pulled out his phone and selected the number waiting for the call to pick up.

[Ello ello.]

"What are you doing right now?"

[What I'm doing? I'm just on my computer watching some videos.]

"Videos? So something naughty?"

[What? NO!]

"Then something vanilla?"

[Why does it keep going back to something elicit…]

Haruto kept his mouth shut when he heard Tsutomu talking to himself on the other side of the line and held in the snicker that threatened to come out.

"By the way, I'm at the park near my house if you want to come and visit."

[Huh, when did you come back home?]

"Just a few minutes ago actually but we're only staying here for a little bit since I'm going on a trip."

[Lucky… be sure to get me some souvenirs.]

"I'll see what I can get."

Haruto spoke with Tsutomu for a few more seconds before ending the call and walked back to where Mahiru and Akane were.

The two were patting some snow on a medium sized snow man which he found pretty impressive considering they were just at the park for a few minutes.

"How is it? We named him Plue!"

"I'm not going to lie but it's actually pretty decent."

"You hear that Mahiru?" Akane nudged Mahiru who was beside her after hearing Haruto's answer.

"I guess we still have more to go if we want to make it better than decent."

Mahiru huffed and grabbed a handful of snow in an attempt to add more details to the face in hopes of making it look much better than before.

Haruto saw what Mahiru was doing and looked for a small stick to help the two with adding more details to the snowman.

"By the way, Tsutomu said he's coming over here just for a little bit."

"Bowl cut is coming? I guess we need to prepare for a big welcome…"

"I'm happy you understood right away."

The two looked at each other and a sinister laugh came from the both of them, causing Mahiru to sigh feeling a bit bad for Tsutomu who would eventually end himself facing the siblings.

Minutes continued to go by before a guy with a distinctive bowl cut came walking towards the park where he spent most of his childhood playing in.

"Where is this guy…."

Tsutomu mumbled, breathing onto his hands to warm them up and looked around the park to see where Haruto was.

Walking right onto the main area where various structures were located, he was only able to see long blankets of snow and not a single person in sight, opposite to what he had expected.

"Did this guy leave already…"

Tsutomu thought of this for a second before brushing it off since he knew that Haruto wouldn't do something like that to him.

As he kept looking he noticed that in the middle of the playground was a medium sized snowman with a few brown branches under it which made him curious to see what it was.

He finally made his way towards the snowman to his surprise the brown branches spelt out two words.

".. Look…Back?"

Tsutomu followed what the words said and turned around to suddenly see a small snowball rush towards him which he narrowly dodged.

On top of one of the structures three people stood up and exposed themselves and Tsutomu saw how they each had a snowball in each hand.

"You actually suck."

Haruto clicked his tongue when he saw Akane miss her throw.

"I blame the snow. It is not compact enough to be thrown."

"I will just call it a skill issue."

"You ju—"

–SWOOSH

The two siblings heard something hit the structure they were standing on and noticed that a blob of snow was stuck onto the plastic wall in front of them.

"Tch, I just missed it by an inch." Tsutomu clicked his tongue and immediately ran closer seeing that his first attempt failed to hit one of them.

"He's fighting back huh."

Haruto smiled when he saw Tsutomu duck down to grab some snow and he began to throw some of the ones he had made in advance.

A series of snowballs began to rain down on top of Tsutomu who tried his best to run around and avoid each one being thrown at him.

"Shit, I ran out."

Haruto saw his supply had run out after looking at where Tsutomu was, he jumped down and hid behind some structures while he prepared some more snowballs to use in his fight against Tsutomu.

"Ah boys will be boys."

Akane sighed when saw the two begin their sudden fight and sat down beside Mahiru who seemed to enjoy watching Haruto do his part in the battle.

"This guy really is a slippery bastard."

Haruto hid behind a tree after he narrowly dodged Tsutomu's snowball that flew towards his torso.

Peeking through the small gap the tree had, he saw that Tsutomu was on the other side and deciding what his surroundings were like, Haruto began to run towards him at a fast pace.

As he got closer he noticed Tsutomu raising his eyes off the ground to which he raised his arm in preparation but he saw how Tsutomu suddenly jumped backwards with his arm equally raised. 

"Heh, I knew that you'll rush me."

Tsutomu smirked as he threw a snowball at Haruto.

Watching the snowball flying towards him, Haruto felt a small bump on the ground and shifted his feet to stand on that very bump.

He jumped to the side using the bump as a support and dodged the snowball flying towards his chest and while in the air threw his own at Tsutomu who was dumbfounded seeing Haruto narrowly dodge his attack.

–POOSH

"What the hell is that?!"

Tsutomu saw Haruto drop down to the ground but a victorious smile was plastered on his face.

Pieces of snow fell off his leg as he was hit and Tsutomu ran back into the park where he prepared to strike back at Haruto once again.

"I should have gotten him on the chest…"

Haruto mumbled as he got up and ran after Tsutomu.

The two began a game of chase but Tsutomu used his background knowledge of the area he was in quite well which had him successfully escape from Haruto for a brief period.

He leaned his arm against a tree to catch his breath and began to think of his next course of action.

"What are you doing?"

Tsutomu heard a deep voice call out from behind him and he immediately turned around to see who it was.

Seeing who it was, a huge smile began to form on his face before eventually walking towards said person. 

"Bingo~"

***

"Where the hell is this guy hiding…"

Haruto tossed a snowball in his hand repeatedly as he tried searching for Tsutomu for a bit but he managed to escape from him for quite some time.

"Well, well. We meet again."

"Of course we'll meet again. I'm trying to hit you with a snowball."

Haruto looked at Tsutomu strangely when he suddenly appeared right in front of him. Which was oddly out of character considering he's been running all over the place to avoid him.

The smile on his face also didn't help and further raised Haruto's suspicions that he was up to something.

"You may be a bit hard for me to handle so don't mind that I found some help okay."

"What are you sayin–"

Haruto was about to question him further when he felt something was off and saw how a small snowball rapidly came towards him on his left side.

–POOSH

He moved from his spot and hid behind a tree which was successful but he saw how the snowball blew up into many pieces showing the amount of power it had behind it.

Haruto looked to his left to figure out just who Tsutomu managed to get and saw the imposing figure of a guy with olive green hair and matching green eyes giving him a stone faced look.

"Haruto Watanabe."

"What the hell is Ushijima doing here!?"

But that was not the end of his shock as a tall guy with spiky red hair smiled at him and waved his hand to greet him.

"Hello~ It sure is surprising to see that Mr. Ace is somehow here!" 

Haruto felt his lips twitch when he saw the two new challengers and looked dryly at Tsutomu.

"Goshiki, now that I've done what you told me to do, tell me how this can benefit me in improving my arm swing?"

Ushijima looked at Tsutomu who flinched slightly before he whispered a few words to him.

"Throwing a small object can help with how you generate power and also if you practice aiming at a moving target you can aim where you hit the ball better."

"I see…"

Tsutomu felt relieved when he saw that his words seemed somewhat reasonable but it was a long stretch to reach.

"Plus don't you want to have the chance to beat Haruto in this game."

"...."

"Ohh! That sounds like something fun~"

Ushijima stayed quiet but Tendo seemed more than willing to participate aftering seeing a fun game being laid out in front of him.

"Whatever he just told you, he's scamming you two!!"

Haruto yelled out as he quickly picked up some snow when he noticed Tendo doing the same actions and eventually Ushijima followed along which caused a few drops of sweat to pour down his face. 

Ushijima cocked his arm backwards and threw the snowball using his left arm and it quickly left his palm like a rocket and exploded near the tree Haruto was standing by.

"This is some bullshit!! Fine! I'll take the three of you guys by myself!"

Haruto dashed backwards and threw some snowballs of his own while trying his best to dodge the assault that began to come his way.

"Mahiru…"

"Yeah?"

"Am I dreaming or are some of the top players on Shiratorizawa chasing after Haruto with some snowballs…?"

Akane took off her glasses and placed them back on as she couldn't believe the sight she was seeing right now.

"You're not seeing anything wrong…"

Mahiru also had an indescribable expression on her face when she saw this and wondered if Haruto would survive the flurry heading his way. 

–BZZT

As they continued to watch Haruto try his best to survive, Akane felt her phone vibrate and noticed that it was a text message from Yui.

"It looks like we can finally start our trip to the hot springs…"

***

I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.