This is like a sequel to episode 228, except instead of the beach they're on the mountain. It follows the same plot pretty much, except there are some differences (other than it being in the snow).
The members of the SWA left early that morning to go shopping for some new snow gear, since none of them owned a thing suited for cold temperatures. Rangiku browsed the racks of jackets, searching for something cute to wear but not finding anything. Most of the other girls were having a much easier time since they didn't really care as much. I mean, c'mon, they're jackets, not bikinis.
Eventually everyone found something they liked and they left the store, heading to the cabin they'd rented for their use. As they assembled on the deck, Ichigo and the other guys arrived. "So what are we doing here this time?" Ichigo asked in an annoyed voice.
"The women of the SWA are on vacation again, and we figured since we all had so much fun last time we should invite you all again," Nanao explained.
"Yeah, I got that part," Ichigo said, "but why are we on a mountain? Couldn't we go somewhere warmer?" he complained.
Rangiku started shifting nervously on her feet. "Well, you see…" she trailed off with a nervous laugh. "We recently published a photo album featuring Captain, but he didn't like it and threatened to take away the vacation. I offered to let him come along, on the condition that he got to choose the destination, so, yeah…"
Ichigo nodded in understanding. "Gotcha," he said.
"Well, I think this is a wonderful spot, don't you think, Byakuya?" Ukitake said happily.
"It does seem rather nice out here," Byakuya admitted. Their cabin was located right at the bottom of the slopes and surrounded by lush evergreen forests.
"Hey, should you even be out here, Ukitake?" Ichigo asked, concerned for the sickly shinigami. Ukitake waved him off.
"Oh, I'm fine. I've actually been feeling quite well these past few days," he replied. "But you know, it does…seem quite…cold," he managed before passing out. Ichigo and Renji sprang into action, catching him before he could hit the ground and then dragging him inside to warm him up.
"Ichigo, go grab some blankets," Renji instructed. Ichigo nodded and walked to one of the rooms to grab a blanket, but he ended up getting lost and arriving in the dining room where Orihime was setting the table for later.
"Orihime!" he exclaimed, surprised to see her. "I guess the entire gang is here."
"Oh, Ichigo!" she said, finally noticing him. "I thought you'd be outside," she mused.
"Nah, I'm just in here to grab some blankets. Ukitake fainted, so we're trying to warm him up," he explained. Orihime's eyes widened and she rushed from the room. Ichigo debated on whether or not to follow her, but before he could move she came back with several blankets in her arms, which she dumped into his.
"Here, and I'll go get some hot chocolate for him," she said, pushing Ichigo back out to the main room where Ukitake was resting by the fire. He gave Sentaro and Kiyone, who had just arrived, the blankets and then walked back outside to the others.
"Hey," Ichigo said, catching their attention. "You know, I haven't seen Toshiro anywhere. Where is he? I thought he was the one who wanted to come here in the first place," Ichigo said, now noticing the missing captain. He looked around the cabin grounds, trying to differentiate the snow from Toshiro's hair.
"Captain Hitsugaya is already on the slopes, you idiot," Rukia said, punching his arm. "He's not hiding in the snow."
"Oh look, here he comes!" Rangiku said, pointing up the mountain behind them. Ichigo looked, and sure enough, there was a small figure making its way downhill. They all watched in awe as he performed spectacular tricks off the small ramps every once in a while, twisting and turning in the air with ease before finally coming to a stop not far from where they were standing.
"Wow, Captain, that was so cool!" Rangiku exclaimed, running over to give him a hug. She held him there for a little while before releasing him, but he overbalanced, and because both of his feet were still stuck to the snowboard, he fell backwards into the snow.
"Matsumoto," he growled, sitting up and undoing his boots from the board. Ichigo couldn't help but notice the jacket he was wearing was thin compared to theirs, and he was wearing jeans with it. It surprised him Toshiro hadn't frozen already, but then again, he did have an ice dragon in his inner world, which must've helped.
Before Toshiro could say anything else, Ukitake came back outside wrapped in several blankets. "That was amazing, Toshiro! I saw you from the window. You're really good," he said, complimenting the younger captain.
"Of course," Toshiro scoffed, turning away and crossing his arms, slightly embarrassed.
"Anyways, I have an announcement to make," Ukitake continued, catching everyone's attention. "We will be holding the first-ever snow sculpture competition!"
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "You mean like last time?" Ukitake nodded and everyone dashed off in the same groups as last time.
Ukitake frowned. "I probably should've mentioned there won't be any prize money this time," he muttered to himself. He was about to go back inside, when he noticed Toshiro was tugging on his sleeve.
"I think I'm gonna join this time," he said, blushing slightly. Ukitake nodded and smiled encouragingly, watching as Toshiro wandered off to start his sculpture.
Ichigo noticed the small captain working alone and called out to him. "Hey, Toshiro! Want to work with us?" Renji and Ikkaku noticed this and stopped their work to hear his response.
"That's Captain Hitsugaya!" he retorted automatically. "And why would I want to work with you buffoons? I'll do it myself!" Ichigo frowned at the insult and turned back to his work, muttering under his breath something about 'bastard midgets.'
~ on the balcony ~
Nemu looked out at the forest from the topmost balcony. Below her feet, some of the snow started moving and forming shapes, groaning all the while.
~ back at the competition ~
Byakuya and Rukia had decided to make a Chappy bunny on a snowboard as their sculpture. Or rather, Rukia had decided. Byakuya only went along with it because he found he couldn't shape the snow as he wished to save his life. Rukia, on the other hand, seemed to be a natural at it, so instead of trying to make his own failure of a sculpture, Byakuya settled on making hers as perfect as possible, because nothing less would be acceptable by a Kuchiki. And thanks to him, it actually resembled the bunny it was modeled after.
Rangiku and Orihime were putting the finishing touches on their snowman, but they couldn't make up their minds. At first they had started to build the usual snowman, and then later they added spiky hair and a scowling face. What they couldn't figure out was who it was: Ichigo or Toshiro. It could've gone either way. That's why they were trying to put the finishing touches on it to help differentiate the person, but they couldn't agree on whether or not to add the lump that Orihime claimed was Zangetsu or the long stick Rangiku had found that was going to be Hyorinmaru, once she added her pink scarf as the sash.
Elsewhere, Nanao and Isane were walking around the different competitors, observing the different sculptures in process. As they were walking, a bit of moving snow in the forest caught their attention, and, curious, they headed over to investigate. Before they knew it, something had grabbed their ankles and was dangling them in the air.
Ichigo paused in his work to wipe some sweat off his face and admire their handiwork. Both Renji and Ikkaku had wanted to build their temple-thingy again, and because their two votes overruled his one vote, Ichigo had no choice but to agree. Thankfully, this time it didn't collapse on them when they dug out the secret tunnel.
Suddenly, Ichigo heard screaming and turned towards the source to find Isane and Nanao being held in the air by giant mutant snowmen. He instinctively reached for his combat pass, which he did have on this time, only to remember it was inside the inner pocket of his inner jacket. Realizing he had no time to dig for it if he wanted to save them, he reached down to the ground and formed a snowball. His perfectly thrown snowball hit one of them in the head, doing practically nothing to harm it. Instead, it made it worse because now it looked like it was growing a second head out of its first.
Ichigo frantically tried to come up with another smarter plan when both snowmen were suddenly destroyed by ice cannonballs, causing the snowmen to release the two girls. Surprised, Ichigo looked in the direction the ice had come from and found the largest ice fort he'd ever seen, complete with towers and mounted cannons. Standing at one of those cannons was the owner of the fort, Toshiro Hitsugaya, who was grinning like he was actually having fun.
"Congratulations, Captain Hitsugaya, for destroying the snowmen," Unohana said from the deck of the cabin.
"There aren't any more, are there?" Ichigo asked, glancing at the woods suspiciously.
Unohana laughed. "No, there were only those two this time," she reassured him. "But now that they've been destroyed, we can get on to the judging."
"I think it's clear who won this time," Ukitake announced, and everyone looked over to the ice fort Toshiro had built.
"Hmph. I would expect nothing less from the weilder of the strongest ice-type zanpakuto," Byakuya said, a little miffed he and Rukia hadn't won, again.
Then a thought struck Ichigo. "Hey, doesn't Rukia have an ice-type zanpakuto as well? Why isn't yours as cool as Toshiro's?" he asked, earning a punch in his gut, courtesy of Rukia.
"You fool! It's a snow-type, and nowhere near as powerful as Captain Hitsugaya's!" she said angrily. "And besides, thank to my brother it looks even better than it normally would, so you can't say it's not cool." Ichigo looked over at her Chappy sculpture riding an invisible snowboard and sweat-dropped comically.
"Sure," he muttered, aware of the fact Byakuya was glaring at him as if daring him to insult it. 'Sure' was the closest he could get without actually insulting or complimenting it.
"Hey guys! We were following this deer we saw, but then we heard the screaming and came back. What did we miss?" a voice said from off to the side. Everyone turned to find Yoruichi and Soi Fon walking out of the woods.
"Nothing much," Ichigo replied. "Just a few snow monsters, but Toshiro took care of them."
Yoruichi looked sad at missing the fun, but she quickly got over it. "I know, let's have a snowball fight!" she suggested.
"No, let's not and say we did," Ichigo said. Yoruichi gave him a sly grin as she reached down and picked up a handful of snow, keeping her eyes on Ichigo the whole time. She got ready to throw it, and then Ichigo felt something hit him on the side of his face with a 'splat.' He looked wide-eyed at Yoruichi, but her snowball was still in her hand. Then he heard a snicker from the side and turned to see Toshiro reloading his newly-modified snow cannon.
"Oh, alright then. It is on!" Ichigo said as he and the other shinigami scrambled away from Toshiro's fort. Both Yoruicih and Soi Fon headed towards his fort, where he allowed them in. The sides had been chosen.
It was painfully clear to those on the ground who was going to win. Every time one of their heads popped up from their make-shift wall they were bombarded by a hail of snowballs. Once, Rangiku tried to change sides, but Toshiro refused to let her through the doors. She was then promptly hit with snowballs, courtesy of Yoruichi and Soi Fon.
A little while later, many of them were beginning to head inside, tired of being pelted by snow. Byakuya was one of the first to go after being hit in the face by Toshiro's snow cannon. The other senior shinigami left as well, until it was only Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji vs. Toshiro, Yoruichi, and Soi Fon. The battle began to take a turn for the worse when Rukia started using Kido to attempt to break his fort, but each attempt was met by an ice cannonball, nullifying it. Rukia once even tried using Hakuren when they got desperate, but it was met by Hitsugaya's Hyorinmaru and she never tried it again. Soon after, though, the sun began to go down and the temperature dropped significantly, prompting a temporary truce to be called. They all then headed inside for some nice hot chocolate.
Or almost all of them.
Several hours later, as everyone was getting ready to leave, Toshiro finally walked inside. "Oh, Captain, there you are! Where have you been?" Rangiku asked, noticing his entrance.
"Outside," was his curt response.
"What! Why would you be out there? It's so cold," she said, surprised.
"Shut up! I like the cold!"
Alright, there you have it. Sorry if it was a bit rushed in the end. I'd originally planned on a different ending, with Rangiku going out to find Toshiro still in his snow fort, but I wanted the ending to be like the show, where Rangiku finds Toshiro inside because he doesn't like the heat. Oh well, it is what it is. Let me know what you thought about it in a review, please :)