The Snowball fight, the final chapter of the Winter Saga

…

Timeskip: January 2st, next year

…

As if drawn to it by some magical force, Kagura, Kaorin, Osaka, Chiyo, Yomi, and Tomo all came to the fence right outside the high school's track field. (Which is covered in snow)

They all just kind of stared at each other in new admiration, each of them having gotten presents from the others.

After a moment, they all just bowed to each other.

"So, Yomi, been using those diet pills?" Tomo asked, in a very sincere way (Oh my god, something you'll never hear)

"Yes, and I can tell it's already working," Yomi said, having already lost a few pounds while eating Christmas food. "How's the manga comic?"

"Great. Thank you, so much," Tomo said. Her usual energetic want to annoy or be mean to people was gone (at least for a little bit)

"So, where are Joe and Sakaki-san?" Kaorin asked.

Joe and Sakaki came up to the school, walking arm in arm.

"We figured you guys would be here," Joe said.

As they walked up to the group, Chiyo gasped.

We didn't get them anything! Chiyo thought.

"I guess you probably thought of it, eh, Chiyo?" Joe said. "Yeah, Sakaki and I were the ones to organize getting all of you guys the specialty presents."

"You guys organized that?" Yomi asked.

"Although you guys got the presents, Sakaki and I figured it would be nice to do something special for you guys, since you don't have any boyfriends, and Kagura's been having troubles with hers." Joe said.

"Yeah, it really helped cheer me up," Kagura said. "Thanks."

"Hey, we should have a snowball fight, right in the school yard, like we used to!" Tomo said energetically.

She was answered by a snowball to the back of the head.

"Ha! Gotcha already!" Yomi yelled from across the schoolyard.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Tomo yelled, as she ran to the schoolyard, picking up some snow on the way, and throwing a snowball at Yomi, who dodged easily.

Chiyo, Kagura, Osaka, Kaorin, and Sakaki all ran into the school yard to start throwing snowballs.

Heh heh heh…must be nice having snowball fights for fun instead of wars, Joe thought.

Let's see how well they do in war, Joe thought.

He took off his super thick gloves, and pulled out from his pocket a second set of gloves, that were much lighter, and much thinner. He then picked up a pinch of snow, and rubbed it between his fingers. He smiled evilly.

Perfect, he thought.

…

Osaka did her usual "pick up a bunch of snowballs, and throw them into the air" trick, which most of the girls easily dodged.

Sakaki seemed to be moving seamlessly through the snow.

"It's been a while since I've had a snowball fight!" Chiyo said as she dodged another snowball from Tomo, and ducked one from Kagura. "The southern part of the United States rarely get enough snow to make snowballs!"

"They don't know what they're missing!" Kagura said, as she threw one at Kaorin, who barely dodged, as she had just ducked one from Yomi.

"Hey, Sakaki, where's your b…" Chiyo asked, looking around. Her eyes stopped on Joe, and the snowball in her hand dropped.

Tomo (who was on the other team) noticed Chiyo's frozen stare as she was picking up another snowball. She followed Chiyo's stare, noticed what she was staring at, and froze, with the face of total fear.

"Tomo, what the hell are you doing?! I need cover!" Kagura yelled, as she dodged another from Sakaki.

"Kagura…look…" Tomo said in fear, and pointed.

Kagura and Osaka, who were on Tomo's side, looked at where Tomo was pointing, and now froze, also in total fear.

Sakaki, Yomi, and Kaorin now noticed this, and looked themselves.

Every last Azu-girl now had the look of pure fear, and every last one of them had dropped the snowballs they had in their hands.

Joe was standing in front of the school, so he had a clear shot at every last Azu-girl. The ground around him was completely bare of any snow whatsoever. And in his right hand were snowballs, stacked up on top of each other a good three miles up.

And he had one of the most evil smiles you'll ever see.

"I hail from the upper part of the United States," Joe said. "Up there, the snow reaches up to a good two feet, unlike here. We don't have snowball fights there, we have snowball wars."

Every last Azu-girl started backing up slowly. Except for Tomo, who picked up the snowball she had been building, and threw it right at Joe.

Without moving his right hand, Joe simply moved out of the way of the incoming snowball, and moved back to his position.

"We all have come up with our own snowball maneuvers to really turn it to war. Let me show you mine!" and with that, Joe threw the snowball stack up into the air.

He then began to spin his entire right arm around slowly (looking at his right shoulder, his arm would be spinning clockwise). It then began spinning faster and faster, until it was spinning so fast you couldn't see it anymore.

The snowballs had hit the peak of the throw, and were now coming back down.

"COVER!!" Yomi yelled, and the Azu-girls started to run for the three trees that were in the school yard.

"Too late!" Joe yelled. "WINTER FURY!"

The snowballs started hitting the spin on Joe's arm. They made a shooting noise as they hit the spin, and shot out at Joe's target. So in all reality, it really sounded like they were getting shot at by a machine gun filled with snowballs.

Osaka got hit in the back 5 times (bambambambambam), and fell to the ground.

Tomo got hit in the left and right leg, which got her into the air. She was then hit in the arms to make her spin while she was in the air. She fell to the ground on her back, the spinning still going in her eyes.

Kaorin was hit in the arm, which threw her off balance. Another hit her in the leg immediately after that, which spun her slightly, and made her fall to the ground.

Yomi then tripped over Kaorin, and fell to the ground herself. She was then hit in the back with 5 snowballs all at once.

Which left only Sakaki, Chiyo, and Kagura to hide behind the trees (one for each tree). The firing of the snowballs continued, hitting the trees they were hiding behind.

Some snow fell in front of Kagura. She looked, but didn't figure it out in time. The snowballs that Joe was throwing were shaking the trees making snow fall out of them. More snow fell out of the tree, and this time hit Kagura right on the head.

"ARGH!! IT WENT DOWN MY BACK!! COLD!! COLD!!" Kagura screamed. She tried reaching back to get the snow out of her back, but in doing so, gave up her cover.

WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM!! The snowballs hit Kagura so fast and hard, she was pushed up right against the fence, and fell to the ground.

"You two…are the only ones left…" Kagura said.

Sakaki and Chiyo both checked their trees to make sure that no snow was up there to drop on them. Turns out poor Kagura was the unlucky one, having picked the only tree to have snow on it.

The snowballs continued hitting the trees that Sakaki and Chiyo were hiding behind. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

Joe stopped the spinning of his arm. His shoulder was sore from the spinning, but that he was expecting. He hadn't used that attack since before he went off to college.

Sakaki and Chiyo looked to make sure Joe just wasn't bluffing them out.

"Hey, Sakaki, I have a plan," Chiyo said.

Chiyo began whispering to Sakaki, who nodded as she heard it.

…

"Ah, crap," Joe said to himself, though he was still smiling. "Chiyo's planning something with Sakaki. This could be bad. Better prepare myself."

He cracked his shoulder so it would stop aching, and then left his spot to grab more snow for snowballs.

…

Sakaki and Chiyo grabbed their snowballs.

"Ready, Sakaki-san?"

"Ready, Chiyo-chan"

…

Joe had two snowballs (one for each hand).

Sakaki came running out of her hiding place behind the tree. She had her game face on.

Sakaki threw the snowball in her right hand. Joe simply moved out of the way.

Sakaki moved the other snowball from her left hand to right hand, and stopped dead in her tracks. She was only a few feet away from Joe. They stared each other down.

Joe just kept smiling.

He then threw the snowball, not in his right (dominate) hand, but in his left.

It had nowhere near the same accuracy or power as all the snowballs from his right hand, but Sakaki dodged it all the same, and then took the opportunity to throw the snowball in her right hand.

But what she hadn't seen was that Joe had thrown the other snowball from his right hand right at her.

The two snowballs hit in midair, and smashed into a million pieces. (Note: For those of you who haven't snowball fought before, this is really cool when it happens, for it rarely ever does)

Joe and Sakaki stood there for a minute, then Sakaki quickly bent down to pick up another snowball. As she did, however, Joe now saw Chiyo, standing right behind Sakaki. Chiyo had used Sakaki as cover.

Chiyo threw the snowball in her right hand. Joe simply moved out of the way (he slid left). Chiyo quickly switched the snowball in her left hand to her right, and threw this one.

Crap! Joe thought. Stopping in the snow to change directions was no easy matter. He moved his body weight forward, and his leg slid out from underneath him. He rolled, and avoided the snowball that had been thrown at him.

Then a snowball hit him right in the back. Joe looked back to see Sakaki, who had just finished throwing the snowball, with a smile on her face. She had waited for Joe to jump, and thrown the snowball she had picked up, and with Joe in a roll, he never saw her throw it.

"Checkmate," Chiyo said with a smile, "You lose."

Joe stood up, smiling. He had been beaten, on his own home turf (the snow).

"Yeah, I guess you guys beat me. But, was I to expect anything less from a child genius and my girlfriend?"

…

"So, you actually lived in the northern part of the United States." Kagura said. They were all walking home after the snowball fight (war). "But then how did you go to school with Chiyo?"

"I had gone to Massachusetts for about 2 years, and had completed my degree, when Chiyo showed up. I was the only one on campus who could speak Japanese, so the president of the school asked me to stay longer, and help Chiyo get accustomed to American life. I could barely contain my excitement, as I had studied the language and culture, but had never actually met a Japanese person up to that point." Joe explained. "And I've gotta say, I'm glad I did."

Joe's eyes went over to Sakaki, who was arm-in-arm with him again.

Yomi sighed.

"When am I going to get that?" Yomi asked.

Tomo opened her mouth to speak.

"Tomo, you say one word, and I'll stuff your entire Lupin manga collection down your throat," Yomi said.

Tomo decided (just this once) it might be better to just shut up.

"Don't worry, Yomi," Joe said reassuringly. "You'll get a boyfriend." (Spoiler!!)

"Well, I hope she gets a better one than I have," Kagura said, disheartened.

"Why did you start dating Heiko anyway?" Chiyo asked.

"Because I really wanted to get back at Yukari. She had spoken to some German guy, without knowing German, and just minutes ago she had made fun of me for not doing so well on my English" Kagura said.

Everybody eyes slitted as they looked at Kagura.

"That's it?" Yomi asked.

"Well, yeah, and he was at the Olympics, so I figured we had the same interests," Kagura said with a smile, and one hand on the back of her head.

Everybody sighed at Kagura.

"What?" Kagura asked.

…

Author's notes: I don't want to hear any sick jokes about snowballs (or balls in general, for that matter). Thank you for your understanding.

(realizes where he is in the story, and jumps for joy) Yes!! Next saga is the relationship saga!! We timeskip to Spring!!

Oh, and I also promise to have the names be a bit more creative than "Joe", although most of the girls will end up dating Japanese guys, I'm thinking. (And "Joe" seems like a very American name, don't you think?)

See you guys in the next saga (yes!!)

JBK2K1