That year was the coldest Edo had ever been, and it even began snowing in late November. People seemed to have started their holiday mood much earlier than before, up to the point of abandoning their responsibilities in the name of Father Christmas. A name so conveniently utilized by almost every Japanese people in town, but not even one person actually knew who he was and if he actually existed. As long as it entitled them to make excuses to see their significant others, family, or even a few love affairs—the people of Edo were all jolly in unison this holiday season.

However, three people living in the crowded city had completely different opinions to that matter. As they sat on the cold ground somewhere in a snow-covered park, the trio of the "Yorozuya Gin-chan" grumbled in unison. Not only were they pissed off by the horrendous amount of happy couples around them, they were void of one thing that's essential for a human body—food. The end of the month would always translate to a time period where Yorozuya members have to live off a few days with very limited money left, and a lot of times they didn't have enough to buy any proper food.

"Gin-san, I'm hungry…" Shinpachi groaned, rubbing his empty stomach. "Besides, why are we even here in the park? My butt feels cold sitting on the ground, you know."

Gintoki led out a sneeze and replied, "I don't know, this was Kagura's idea. As for why we are sitting here… Is because all the benches are taken by those annoying lovey dovey couples! Grr, I wish I can wipe off those annoying fake smiles with Sadaharu's poop."

"Arf!" Their pet dog, Sadaharu barked upon hearing his name being called.

Glancing at their dissatisfied expressions, the last member of the group, Kagura made a smug look on her face. She then adjusted her extremely season-inappropriate sunglasses and said, "I pity you all for not knowing what I brought you guys here for. Hmph."

"So? What is it? Are you here trying to destroy other people's snowmen again?" The bespectacled man sighed in exasperation, and shook his head. "I'm going to go home right away if that's the case, okay."

"No, no. You are so naïve, Shinpachi-kun. I am here to… make some money!" She announced with a gleeful face, before standing up and placing her hands on the hips.

"Money?" Gintoki asked with a puzzled look.

Kagura then answered, "You two, look around you! There's something abundant that's available for free and we can totally make money out of it! That is…"

"That is…?"

"…Snow!" The orange-haired girl replied confidently. "We can totally make shaved ice out of this and sell them! Right? Right?!"

"…"

The other two males remained silent together, dumbfounded at what their other partner had to say. Not only concerning the countless hygiene issues from eating snow that everyone's filthy shoes had trampled upon and other possible dangers from eating them…but who the hell eats shaved ice during winter?!

Plus, there was one last problem that the trio face—

"Kagura… I really don't want to burst your bubble, but we don't even have enough money to buy a bottle of syrup for the shaved ice." Shinpachi sighed again, feeling somewhat disappointed that he had actually expected this girl to come up with a legitimate answer.

"Really?" Kagura answered in disbelief. "How much do we even have?"

"20 yen. Nothing more, nothing less." Gintoki replied. "I can't even by the latest edition of JUMP! This is a catastrophe. A disaster!"

Having to accept the harsh reality, Kagura then dejectedly sat down on the ground with a sour look on her face. However, she then still made an effort to make this suggestion, "Guys, if we can't sell the snow, can't we just eat it? I think it's better than being hungry for another 3 days…"

"Well…"

At that moment, everybody was too hungry to come up with another idea to fill their empty tummies—and that was the story of how the Yorozuya trio were all admitted into the hospital due to a bad decision. Not only had everyone felt even more pain in their stomachs, but even more in their pockets.

-end-

Author's note

Hey it's yuta here! I'm really, really sorry for not updating anything in a long time. I'm pretty busy with uni for the last year or so and I also had a major writer's block during that period too… so yeah. Am pretty unproductive with writing last year;; This one-shot (also uploaded in my AO3 with the same name) is part of a project I'm doing daily to write one-shots of at least 500 words in order to get out of my writer's block! I hope it works, and I would really like to finish the projects I started some time ago… _(:3

Anyways thanks for reading and hope you have a really nice holiday!

(p.s. this story was inspired by a Gintama mug I bought earlier this month… OTL)