Chapter 1 = Snowfall in April
6:00 AM April 18 20X4
It was a sunny and cloudless day. Blue birds hung from tree branches singing, and there was a gentle rain of pink petals coming from blooming Sakura trees. It was a picture perfect morning with scenery fit for a poem. But this day in particular was one that many gunpla fans were anticipating for months.
The city did not hold back on events for international gunpla day. There were posters of gundam scattered all around the city, on every electricity pole and on every wall's flat surface. Blimps were soaring in the sky, displaying commercials for the new gunpla battle features that were being teased relentlessly for the past month by PPSE. Not everybody knew what the newest battle update was going to contain, but everybody knew that it would come out on the 18th of April. Easily the biggest attraction of the day which even non gundam fans had to marvel at was the 1:1 scale RX-78 Gundam on display in the city center. Every major city in every country had one, tucked away in a warehouse somewhere just for this one special day. It was standing in the central district, proud as a monument, and surrounded by tents and stands for an event later that night.
Taijin Sakamoto was in bed, covering his ears with his pillows to deafen himself from the violent screaming coming downstairs from his friends that shook the wooden floor. A single ray of blinding light pierced through the blinds landing directly on Taijin's face. He felt like his dark, black hair was going to fall off from his head. He slowly opened his dark brown eyes and glared at the ceiling blankly. He thought about its pale, white color. How long did it take to paint the ceiling? How much did it cost? The questions didn't matter, all that mattered was that it would keep him distracted for a few moments from the hell of a day he was about to face.
A loud, high pitched female voice screamed out to him from downstairs, breaking Taijin's peaceful state of mind. It didn't matter much to him anyway, he knew it wouldn't last.
"Taijin-kun! TAIJIN-KUN! Wake up! If you aren't downstairs in the next 10 minutes I'll drop a COLONY on you!"
Still covering his ears, Taijin absent-mindently gave out a sickly groan. He shouted
"Shut up! Geez, why are you guys so loud this early in the morning?!"
He continued lying down on his bed, and turned around so he faced the window. Through the blinds, he caught a glimpse of the blimps floating in the sky with gunpla commercials, and immediately he sighed. He cursed himself quietly.
"Honestly, what is with the world and gunpla…"
His phone, placed on the side desk close to his right, suddenly started vibrating. Taijin reached out for and was greeted with an email notification. He groggily wiped his eyes and blinked twice before he decided he was ready to face the brightness of his phone screen.
Upon reading it, he sighed again, but instead of a sigh of disappointment, it was a sigh of relief. He read it over again to himself quietly, to make sure he wasn't still dreaming.
From: Principal Jugo SANSHIRO
To: Taijin SAKAMOTO
Subject: New Student today!
Good morning.
I'm writing to you to inform that from today, you shall have a new resident in your school dorm house of C1.
Her name is Kosetsu Yukimura, a talented art student just like you. You shall be in charge of picking her up and showing her around for the first few weeks of the coming holiday. Make sure she is comfortable with the city before the next term starts.
Today you have permission to leave school early from Period 3, Physics for you I believe, to head to the train station to pick her up at about approximately 10:30 AM. When you arrive at the train station, look for a blonde haired girl around your age carrying a large red suitcase.
From then onwards, you are to show her to the dorm house of C1, and make sure she is comfortable with everything by tomorrow.
Best of luck. Have a nice gunpla day.
Taijin's face was lit with a warm smile, something that was not present on his face for a long time. He thought to himself, He had an excuse to get away from school, to get away from gunpla battle class. The perfect timing as well – Period 3 is gunpla battle class. So all he needed to do was come in briefly for around two hours for physics, and he was free for the day. Heck, not just for the day. Gunpla day marks the end of the school term, so there would be a holiday for about 1 month.
A new female student as well, what could be better? In the household there were currently two guys and one girl, excluding Taijin – and girly isn't exactly the best word to describe Takahashi Mina. Even though her figure was indeed feminine, her ridiculously childish mentality makes her seem like a 12 year old tomboy, even though she's the oldest out of all of the residents being 17 years old. She would test out wresting moves on people just because, and it doesn't help that she has incredible physical strength. One time she even sent a student to the nurse with a drop kick, and justified it with "experimentation". Despite all of this though, Mina was a kind and honest girl – and easily one of the most reliable people Taijin has ever met in his life.
As Taijin was staring at the window daydreaming, a red haired female student burst into his messy room without warning, carrying a large rubber hammer. She charged right at Taijin, and gave him a solid whack on the head.
"I did warn ya man, if you weren't out in five minutes I'd drop a colony on you!"
Taijin, limping out from his bed, squealed
"Y-You said ten minutes…"
With a gleeful smile, she leaned over Taijin, who was lying on the floor in pain.
"Little details don't matter, Tai! What is important is that now you're awake!"
While Taijin was struggling to get up, a faint sizzling sound could be heard coming from the ground floor, which was soon accompanied by a booming, low pitched yell from a panicking male student.
"MINA! The pancakes! They're burning! HURRY!"
"NO! SAVE THE ZAKUS!" She screamed as she instantly raced out of Taijin's room, completely ignoring the fact that he was lying on the ground in agony. Within a matter of seconds, the door was slammed shut, and Taijin was left alone in his room once again.
In a neat white shirt and blue pants uniform, Taijin walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. He was greeted by all of his other housemates already on the kitchen table, with oddly shaped pancakes in front of each of them. There was an empty chair, in between Mina and another male student. He was tall and muscular, and he had light brown hair. His name was Grind Coleslaw, a close friend to Taijin as well as the gunpla fighter with the best win: loss ratio in the entire grade.
Also on the table was another male student, with light grey hair that went down to the top rim of his glasses. His school uniform was collared all the way up to the top, and he was very careful about his sitting and eating posture. He was Mitsuo Kimura, and he was the vice president of Raizen High's student council.
Upon sitting down, Taijin was greeted with a strange looking pancake. Mitsuo passed him the maple syrup, and he calmly reassured
"Don't worry Taijin. It's a BuCue from Gundam seed. Unlike in the show, it's not going to bite."
Taijin reluctantly squeezed the maple syrup all over the pancake, and began to slowly cut it up and eat it. After his first piece, he asked the group
"Why can't we just have a normal breakfast… these pancakes feel weird and overcooked…"
Grind laughed out loud as he patted him on the back
"Blame Mina. When she went up to drop a colony on you she forgot that she was making these pancakes. That's why they're so overcooked."
Mina bolted up from her seat, her face completely red with embarrassment. She ferociously pointed at the oddly shaped pancake in front of her.
"Well this Zaku ain't no Zaku to me if it can't hold its own in the pan! Real Zakus can survive the vacuum of space, what's your excuse, pancake Zaku!?"
Mina still had food in her mouth as she spoke, so what she said was barely understandable. Somehow, Grind seemed to have understood every word, and swallowed his piece before responding.
"Well I don't think pancakes can survive the vacuum of space…" He then turned to Taijin, and continued talking "Today is gunpla day. That's why we are having these pancakes instead of the normal breakfast."
Taijin let out another sigh, as he continued to eat the pancake. Finished before the others, Mitsuo stood up from his seat, carrying his clean plate in his hands. He glanced at his wristwatch and noticed the time.
"Hurry up guys. Even though it's gunpla day, I don't think the school will let us off for being late."
The walk to school felt long and endless. As they strolled down the sidewalk, there were gunpla posters at every corner, and massive gunpla themed blimps were proudly soaring the skies. Mitsuo, Mina and Grind were cheerfully chatting about how ridiculous the battle between Celestial Being and the world was. Taijin was there, reading the email to himself over and over. About halfway through the walk, he told the group that there would be a new resident in the house, and they responded by discussing about how cool it would have been if she played gunpla battle.
No matter what the topic, Taijin could not escape from gunpla.
Taijin's only lesson of the day, physics, was gunpla related as well. Because it was gunpla day, the physics teacher discussed the physics behind nuclear powered gundam and how it was impossible for the freedom and the impulse to survive the nuclear explosion caused by the Freedom's nuclear reactor.
The entire school had gunpla posters all over the corridors and lockers as well, advertising a private tournament exclusive to the school. Teachers, instead of wearing their usual shirt and tie, were permitted to wear gundam shirts. One teacher even found the time to make a gundam helmet, and wore it to school.
Taijin left school after two hours of gundam physics, and thanked god for the brilliant timing of his leave. If he had stayed in gunpla battle class on gunpla day, who knows what would have happened.
He walked down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground. There weren't gunpla posters, blimps and battle stations on the pavement surface, but there was the occasional dropped leaflet. Despite leaving school grounds, he still wore his uniform tidily. As he walked down the streets, he glanced at his watch, and noticed that it was only 9:00 AM.
"Geez. I have so much time before I have to go…"
Taijin continued walking straight towards the train station, despite how early he was. Even though he was walking at a purposefully sluggish pace, he arrived with 45 minutes to spare.
The train station was rather empty, and gunpla posters were also all over the train station. It was one of two stations in the city, and this one came from an area of the country that not many lived in, so it made sense that it was rather vacant. It was clean and sanitary, with reliable security. There was only one rail for the train to arrive, and on both sides of the rail was a sidewalk for passengers to come and go. Taijin sat on a bench by the sidewalk, waiting.
At 9:45 one white bullet train arrived, covered in gundam paintings and stickers. Leaving the train was only a family of three - the father, the mother, and one son. The son was wearing a gundam shirt, and after leaving the train the first question he asked was
"Papa! Where is the battle room?"
Taijin was just sitting there, watching as the family wandered into a small room with large glass windows, not so far from where he was sitting. He glanced at the curved metal roof of the train station. He had a lot of time to waste, and undeniably, he was bored to tears. He looked around and saw nothing but gunpla related posters, leaflets and magazines. He sighed.
"I have some spare time anyways…45 minutes…might as well check it out. Better than nothing"
Standing up from the bench, he slothfully strolled towards the room. As he approached it, he cringed as he heard the robotic voice that was all too familiar to him.
"Please set your GP base"
He arrived at the window of the battle room and peeked inside. There was a large octagonal machine right in the middle of the dark room. The young boy, who was on one side of the octagon, placed his GP base onto the slot as his parents stood on the sidelines. The robotic voice spoke once more
"Please select game mode"
Taijin's face was lit up with genuine surprise. The command was completely new and unfamiliar to him. He was used to the machine setting the field right after the base was inserted, not asking for what kind of game mode the player wanted. He then remembered the blimps in the sky today advertising a new update. He nodded and whispered to himself
"So that's what this is all about…Geez…It just keeps getting bigger and bigger"
He continued watching, as the child squawked voice commands at the machine to get the game mode that he wanted. The machine started emitting light blue particles, as they rose up from the sides of the machine to create transparent azure walls. Within those walls, more particles filled the machine, dancing around and changing colors, until it formed an accurate replica of a desert.
"Field 3 : Desert"
Taijin let out a small chuckle as the robot announced the field. It was one of his favorite fields despite his detestation for gunpla battle. There wasn't anything striking about the field for him, it was just like any other field. It was just that the machine would mispronounce the name, and it would end up sounding more like dessert. The robot's accent was one of the things that Taijin looked forward to when playing gunpla battle in classes.
"Please set your gunpla "
The boy reached for a small holder that was mounted on his belt. He opened it, and he pulled out a gunpla. It was a black gundam, with a large shield on its left hand, and a yellow claw mounted on its right hand. Taijin leaned in against the window, to get a closer look at the gunpla. He instinctively began narrating quietly to himself the features of the gunpla, critiquing it as if he built it himself
"Nub marks are still present. Foil stickers applied. No panel lining. No paint applications. Scratch marks on its left shoulder and right elbow. Shield has a total of three cracks on it. This is a straight build, and it's probably very old as well…"
Taijin, despite disliking gunpla, had a very sharp eye when it came to the construction of gunpla. He was a talented artist, and he could build undeniably beautiful gunpla. It's just a matter that he couldn't control it even if his life depended on it – which ended up in his gunpla getting destroyed on the first run no matter how great it was.
The boy placed the black gundam on a panel directly above is glowing GP base, and the eyes of the gunpla lit up as he did. More particles began flowing out from the machine, surrounding the boy, creating another smaller octagonal wall around him. Two yellow floating orbs appeared in front of him, and he placed his hands on it.
"Battle start"
The boy, with a smile, announced
"Blitz gundam, let's go!"
The gundam was pushed down the launching catapult by two rails attached on the gunpla's foot, and it was flung into the desert arena. On the opposite side of the arena, a green mobile suit was slowly hovering towards the blitz, despite having no human pilot as an opponent. Once more, Taijin leaned in to inspect the gunpla closely
"An unmanned unit by the computer… A regular Zaku II. Superior in model quality, but just slightly. Nub marks have been neatly cleaned up and sanded down, and the gunpla has been panel lined neatly as well. A simple, average, straight build."
The Blitz gundam pointed its shield towards the Zaku II, and a single spear shot out from underneath. The Zaku made a swift maneuver to the right, and dodged the flying projectile. Taijin was observing closely with mild fascination from the window as the boy moved the yellow orbs back and forth.
Drawing its heat hawk, the Zaku II rushed in close to the Blitz. With a quick swipe, the corner of the black Gundam's pointed shoulder armor was cleanly cut off. A kick in the stomach from the blitz sent the Zaku II flying back from right where it came, cracking the cockpit slightly.
Suddenly, an uncontrollable wave of pain rushed through Taijin's head. He felt his heart beat with the force of a wild storm. He felt his vision collapse and he turned away from the window. He started to breathe heavily, and he slowly kneeled down on the floor. He cursed himself quietly
"Crap…this always happens when I watch or play a gunpla battle"
After a minute of sitting down against the wall breathing heavily, Taijin stood up again and walked away from the battle room, completely ignoring the intense, loud battle sounds coming from the machine. He sighed as he sat down on the bench he did before, and continued to wait for the train. He never looked back at the battle room again.
At precisely 10:30, a red train covered with Sinanju decals, arrived at the train station with a quiet screech. Taijin stood up from his bench, and approached the sidewalk. He looked down at his watch to confirm the time, and he opened his phone to make sure the time was perfect.
"…aproximatley 10:30 AM…"
Coming from the train was only one person, a girl around his age with a red suitcase. This had to be the new resident.
But it wasn't like anything that he had expected.
From the moment he saw her, Taijin saw something special in her pure sapphire blue eyes. Her silky cream hair drifted with the wind, as majestic as a painting of a goddess. Her skin was smooth and perfectly toned. She had a look of pure innocence on her face, and her head shifted from side to side absentmindedly. She wore a plain white jacket and a short white skirt, as well as blue trainers and a blue shirt. She strolled out of the red train casually, using her hand to brush away the hair that obstructed her vision.
She gave Taijin an innocent gaze as she looked him in the eye and asked
"Are you the one?"
Taijin, slightly taken aback, managed to muster a response
"Y-yes…you're Kosetsu? Nice to meet y-you…"
He rapidly turned away from her the instant he felt his cheeks flush red. Kosetsu pulled her red luggage across the sidewalk and walked to his side. She smiled an innocent smile at Taijin. He swatted the air awkwardly and started walking back to the dorm.
"Let's go, Kosetsu. This is the way back to the dorm."
The majority of their walk to the house of C1 was relatively eventless and quiet. She would gaze off into the distance as Taijin escorted her down the sidewalk. About halfway through their walk, they approached a crossing, and they had to wait through a green light. She was still staring into sky, as three older guys, who noticed her from a distance, began walking towards them.
They were wearing black jackets, and were smoking. One of them was carrying a baseball bat, while another of them was flipping a coin as they walked along. They approached them with a nasty grin. They were talking amongst themselves in their raspy, low voices.
"Damn, that girl is cute…"
"Let's go and have some fun with her"
"Who knows, we might even be able to take her home tonight…"
Taijin, who caught them out of the corner of his eye, instantly turned around. He gave the gang a hostile stare. The gang continued walking towards the two high school students, and telling from the hungry look in their eyes, Taijin knew that they were not the kind of people to make conversation with. As they approached closer their eyes grew hungrier, and Taijin struck a defensive martial arts stance. He declared to them as they were still eerily approaching
"I'm in charge of making sure that this girl arrives at her destination safely. I'll make sure that that happens, so if I were you I wouldn't do anything funny."
The men laughed, as they continued walking towards her.
"Get out of the way kid."
"Yeah, we've been a little thirsty lately. We need that girl more than you do. A guy's needs have to be fulfilled"
Smiling confidently, Taijin taunted them
"Really? You really dare call yourself a guy doing something like this? Go and buy some makeup."
The gang stopped dead in their tracks. Their faces burned red, and they started to crack their knuckles. Taijin leaned over to the girl, and whispered
"Cross the street, and keep walking. In about a minute, you should come across a fork, and take the right turn. C1 is down that road. I'll meet you there soon. Hurry, go."
Seemingly completely oblivious to the situation, the girl continued staring blankly at the sky, still dragging her luggage along with her. Taijin was panicking, and he was thinking that of all the times for someone to be daydreaming, it had to be now when they could potentially be a victim of kidnapping.
One of the three men charged at Taijin, with his fists clenched. He swiped right at his head, but a sudden duck made the punch completely miss. Taijin kicked the man right in the groin, knocking him onto the ground and making him squeal helplessly. Repairing his stance, Taijin faced the two remaining men confidently
"My father's a detective and master martial artist. Still want to keep going?"
The two men violently charged at Taijin at once, with one of them wielding a metal baseball bat. They let out a wild battle cry, as Taijin immediately shifted to a defensive stance, bracing himself for a painful attack.
As swift as the wind, the girl dashed around Taijin while carrying her massive red suitcase. Swinging it around with incredible strength, the base of the heavy suitcase slammed right into the heads of the men with a deafening thud. The two delinquents were sent flying, and landed on the ground unconscious, right as the green light turned red.
As if nothing out of the ordinary just happened, she knelt down to dust off some dirt that was on the base of her luggage. She glanced at Taijin, and said in a calm, monotone voice
"Kosetsu Yukimura. Nice to meet you"
Blushing again, Taijin responded
"T-Taijin Sakamoto. Nice to meet you as well"
There was a gentle rain of Sakura petals as the two of them smiled at each other. They shared a precious moment as the pink shards of glass swirled around them. Looking back, Taijin thought about how the petals fell like ashes from the sky, an unnecessary presence in an already dead day. The ugly remains of a burned out, destroyed life, raining down especially on the one day that celebrated the monster that fanned the flames.
But at that very moment, Taijin thought about how the petals fell like snow from the sky, a beautiful, elegant rain of color that left perfection where it lands with its blanket of white. A purifying feeling ripples through wherever it falls. Snow marks the end of the old and the beginning of the new through a magic trick of white and blue.
Taijin knew that both interpretations were correct. He smiled at Kosetsu earnestly.
He could feel a new story beginning. A story of ash and snow.
Author's note
Thank you for reading my first chapter! I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
If you guys are wondering why the Chapter title is "Snow in April" , It's because Kosetsu means snowfall in Japanese. My Japanese isn't great, so correct me if I'm wrong ^.^
A chapter will be released every Sunday, so Gundam Build Fighters Ash and Snow Chapter 2: Gundam Fiesta will be released on the 27th of April. Please look forward to it!
Have a nice day!