Author notes: It was a long hiatus but I continued to receive more support throughout. I cannot thank you all enough for finding enough worth in this story! Although as usual, I am not satisfied with this chapter and had honestly expected to do better after so much time for planning – I am sorry, I really do not believe I managed to do this section satisfactorily and it is going to seem fast paced so again, I am really sorry for this drabble. Thank you Miss Okami Tsuki, waterflower20, Akuma Heika, BloodyFangKing 95, Suki Kana, Rose's Fox, Windninja 1000, Mgaraptor, Blackwolf 2111, Path Keeper, miezi 10, Aira Aura, Himuro Miharu 102398, and the old followers who have continued to support me. Thank you very much, all! I am sorry if I misspelled names.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the bad plot.

It got much colder in roughly five seconds after she turned back to face her opponent. From the look on her face, Yura Keikain wondered how long the Yuki Onna had waited and longed to do this. Amber, ringed eyes narrowed and glowing, long blue-black tresses of hair and pearly white kimono swaying, snowflakes swirling all around her perimeter...it could all very easily terrify a human, freezing them with only one look.

"Last chance," she said in a lower voice. "Go back or I'm not responsible for what happens to you here."

"Likewise," the black-haired one cocked her head to the side and gave a sweet grin, the koi fish shikigami ready on her hand already. "Even if this was just a snowball fight I'd say that."

She aimed instinctively in front of her neck with her other hand holding a few other ofuda. A torrent of flames burst out in her defense from the freezing mist that the amber-eyed one had let out without her even seeing it – there was too much snow around her to clearly see what she was up to. As the fire roared in front of her, lighting up the whole clearing with a reddish glow, temporarily making the snow youkai step back, it did not cover everything and her leg partially became covered with some thin layers of ice.

I can't let these slide. She could manipulate her own ice just by thinking about it, no matter where it is.

So she thrust her leg to the fading flames, watching the Yuki Onna as closely as she could as the ice on her leg melted off and the flames faded. If anything, the cold sensation returned instantly afterwards and multiplied. Brambles of snow were quickly spreading everywhere, even as the onmyouji watched, the trees became covered with them so quickly one would a furious blizzard of legendary intensity was passing through this forest.

Wait, I shouldn't be thinking like this...

But she noticed the damage too late. So fixated on the changing scenery, she had not noticed the shikigami on her arm becoming frosted too and now that she did, she could have been wearing an ice sculpted pot for a weapon. It was not the worst of it though, she had shown awe in front of the youkai and that had probably fed her power over her. The white maiden had only to lightly step on the ground for all the snow to become solid ice everywhere around her, even the ground, lose the friction it provided and for a blizzard of the same intensity as she had imagined beginning at that moment in the icy clearing. Her hair whipped all around her face, the frost bit into her flesh and made her tremble reluctantly as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Black mists were creeping up the amber-eyed one's silhouette and her arms were now folded, watching her contemptuously.

How long is this going to go on? The onmyouji on the losing end asked herself in frustration as snow gathered over the ice rink that the ground was and all over her and she kept dusting it off however much she could at the same time as trying not to drop her gaze from her opponent. I underestimated her. If she could do this much, she could've wiped out Kyuso and his rats all by herself! Why didn't she then?

"Know your place, little human," the maiden said over the howling of the blizzard that was making her hair blow to the side mystifyingly, yet it did not distort the sound of her voice. "Just who do you think you're trying to challenge?"

I suppose she was that guy's bodyguard for a reason, unlike that other one. As a large spike of ice sprouted from the ground just as she backed away in time, she lost her balance thanks to the wind pushing her and fell on the quickly accumulating snow, her hand hopelessly grating against it. It seemed hopeless now. With just one slip, she had been beaten before she could even put up a fight at all. There was no point in impulsively unleashing a shikigami when it could just as easily get frozen like Rentei and there was no clarity left in her mind to think of a proper strategy. She did not usually use that much in the first place. Her willpower was all she had, what was keeping her hand moving on the ground, longing for a way to fight back.

"Who do I think?" she asked quietly though she knew the blizzard would not affect the opponent's hearing. "You're the one who just strolled into a school of little humans, youkai."

Tsurara gave a grunt at that sentence but was distracted from retorting when she saw a cyan aura emanating from the downed girl as she slowly, shakily got to her feet and proceeding to aim with her frozen fish.

Something was giving Rentei the ability to move, even if the shikigami was covered in ice and even if the mistress was being pushed by fierce winds passing through from everywhere. But it did not seem to matter because she was swaying so badly, unable to shield herself from the force that her arm was wavering a lot from the right direction. Even the ofuda she took out blew away from the clearing in an instant – it was exactly why Tsurara was not bothering to do anything else but enjoy throwing her confident words back at her in the weather she loved.

But then, a sudden rumble from the ground away from their arena diverted her attention. It was not negligible enough that she could avoid turning her head back in curiosity but, when she turned back after two seconds, a snowball hit her squarely, splat in the face, slowly sliding down her nose and then falling uneventfully to join the snow it came from.

"I'm over here, ayakashi," the girl said unsteadily, staggering even more now. "Don't turn away until you kill me!"

"Fine, if that's what you want," addressed person stopped folding her arms and inhaled, eyes narrowed angrily again. This time, several clouds of freezing mist escaped her, mixing in with the wind.

The onmyouji was ready this time. In the air, several ofuda arranged themselves like a wall, blocking the effect of the new deadly mist completely though the blizzard was still making her teeth chatter, she refused to respect or fear it anymore. If she had been ready before, she could have used the fire at a later stage. Once the opponent gritted her teeth in anger, she retracted her ofuda and charged straight on with the movement her almost-asleep legs could provide, into victory or into death, she was unsure which. She ran swerving as more ice formations erupted from the ground, nearly at the same time to stop her but the wind was still making her swerve, even if only by a small amount and one of them grated against her knee sharply and painfully, promptly making blood trickle out of the kneecap.

Take it out on her, take it out on her...

Still the onmyouji did not stop and aimed, not bothering to yell out the name of the technique. Her first shot was too high and it flew far over the youkai's head, even higher because of the wind force. Her second went very close to her shoulder and was revealed to be not an energized water bomb but one of pure ice that looked like the top of a large flail, small pointed spikes all over it. Surprising the ice youkai, it managed to scrape her waist as she saved her arm but did not react completely appropriately. To make matters worse for her, the rumbles were now louder and sounded too close to their battlefield.

"Heads up, Yuki Onna!"

Yura spun her arm and then hurled another snowball at the white clad maiden who could not resist the temptation to investigate the source of the noise. This one got her on the face again and she aimed another one on the same spot. Presumably due to her rage, the blizzard intensified even more and the onmyouji then focused on blasting the spikes of ice that were now forming spike beds for her to lie on all around. If she relied on dodging she was quite sure there would be nowhere to stand without a frost cone poking out of her canvas shoes.

Black mists escaping her as her rage was now at its peak, an ice naginata materialized in the youkai's white hands and she raised it to attack herself while the girl was busy finishing the thorns and shrapnel, not even focused on her rather badly bleeding knee while her own white hand was clutching her waist before.

On an earthquake-like rumble, the terrain, which was now frozen stiff, cracked visibly. As both of them stopped for a moment, Yura backing away and Tsurara looking at one side, they finally saw the source of the trembles the ground had been experiencing.

"Kana-chan, thanks for helping with dinner," a pleasant, mellow voice called outside her room, belonging to her aunt.

"Sure, no problem!" the brunette hollered cheerfully.

She felt a good deal better than before when it was nearly impossible to not constantly look in all four-directions one by one and wish she could see them simultaneously as she had come to this house. Now in a comfy four-poster bed, she entertained herself by reading a joke book, a plain bedside lamp lit on the table beside her. So far, nothing bad had happened and that by itself was a relief greater than the pain she had felt in these two days or any regret. Her wounds were recovering nicely too and when she considered the ones who caused them, it was a mercy that they contained no poison. For the current two weeks at least, she ought to remain here and then talk with her parents to find some way to let her stay here permanently.

"Oh, I should give Yura-chan my number..." Kana Ienaga said to herself suddenly, got up, stepping on the brown-carpeted floor and went over to the white-colored phone on the table near the white door. "And the other two..."

There was a school her aunt and uncle had enrolled her in here and she would be starting tomorrow, after a day of rest. Hopefully tomorrow would be good. And a couple of days later was her thirteenth birthday. For a reason unknown to her though, thoughts of that day made her feel threatened but she comfortingly reminded herself that she was no longer close to him and should no longer be a target for any youkai. Friend or not, this ought to keep her safe more than anything.

Just as she thought this, the doorbell rang downstairs. Obliged to want to be helpful again, it was nevertheless easier to consider letting her aunt receive whoever it was but she pushed that thought out of her mind, got out of her room and headed to the front door.

The enormous, tens of feet tall, grey coated animal charged in with tumultuous footfalls, its trunk waving madly and the ice covered obstacles in its way breaking into hundreds of pieces as it went past, knocking the Yuki Onna back and going straight for the onmyouji who looked not the least bit surprised by its arrival. Its huge trunk rose and sucked in much of the wind blowing all around when Yura touched it.

"If you want to blow him away, I think you'll need to do it for the trees too," the partly frozen girl remarked, snowballs still clutched in her hand as her opponent picked herself up. "Your precious master wouldn't like you doing that, I guess." The elephant then released the wind it had just sucked up in one vacuum blast at the white youkai again, lifting her off her feet and slamming her onto the tree nearby with so much force that the ice on the tree cracked in several places and large fragments started falling down on her. Yura did not pay it mind, throwing up the two snowballs in her left hand and catching them again while frowning. The shikigami on her arm was recovering – the ice had already cracked in several places and her power had saved it from being frozen too deeply to be able to convalesce.

"I've got nothing more to say. Return, Kyomon."

The shikigami at her side reverted back to the small scrap of paper that had been blown away from her hands and started walking away, though keeping Rentei alert. Soon she passed the clearing without further event, however, and once she returned to warm greenery, she clutched her knee in pain and collapsed, the other shikigami reverting to an ofuda as well.

"Can't rest...I've got to get Kiyotsugu and the others out of here..." the weakened young girl admonished herself and staggered back to her feet again, unable to keep herself from limping any longer. "...Tsurara Oikawa, she really is a powerful enemy... Tanro!"

The huge wolf shikigami came to her side and she unsteadily mounted him. "We're going to Rokuson. I think he's found Shima-kun...hopefully..."

If this was how strong just the underlings were, she was sure her current strength was not enough to handle their boss. Just a look from him had started to make her feel afraid. But she was going to aim for it anytime soon anyway. Her time in Ukiyoe had been allocated to training and defeating, not recklessly challenging and losing.

"Ah..." the honey blonde leaned her back against her armchair and groaned. "It's criminal to be at this classy place and not go to the hot spring..."

"You said it," her cat-eyed friend disappointedly agreed, swinging her legs idly as she sipped some juice laid for them on the table. "It's a good thing we went outside though, or we wouldn't have found Kiyotsugu at the entrance."

"And just what was he doing there anyway?" the blonde demanded of the unconscious, wavy-haired youkai fanatic, his face comically stunned by whatever made him like this.

The door slid open and to their surprise, the black-haired Yura, with an unconscious Shima slumped over her shoulder, looking shaken and a little bruised. They got up at once, especially when they noticed that her knee was pouring with blood.

"Hey, what happened?" Saori asked, quickly going over to the two of them.

"Maki-san, Torii-san..." the younger girl laid Shima down and clutched her shoulder which had also been wounded badly.

"Y-Yura-chan, are you ok –?"

"That isn't important," the onmyouji panted in interruption. "Listen, all of us have to leave this mountain right now. It's filled with youkai...we have to get out of here!"

The two girls could not argue back, not when they saw her in this beaten up state.

"Yeah but how're we going to leave? We'd only be in danger if we go outside then," Saori mumbled weakly, her eyes wide with fear.

"And what about Oikawa-san and Nura-kun?" Natsumi pointed out.

I can only rely on the shikigami; it's better than staying here. There's those three Tengu to worry about too, they could be kidding when they said they called a truce...what a mess...

"Come with me, outside. There's five of us, there will only be five of us and I can still make do. I'll explain later," she wheezed, gradually gaining control of herself.

"We should at least give you first aid or something!" Natsumi Torii insisted.

"No time, we've got to go! As an onmyouji, my first priority is your safety! Come on," she brushed off her offer and opened the door again. "It's better if those two stay as they are and I won't have to explain. I can still take Shima-kun."

"Alright," Saori agreed and she and Natsumi went over to Kiyotsugu to haul him up.

While going outside, Yura thought back to how an entranced Shima had reacted when she finally found him and unwisely sent away Tanro. Thanks to the Yuki Onna's freezing, sharp fragments of ice were still scattered around where she met him and he had stabbed her the moment she came within spitting distance, aiming for a vital point until she swung to one side. Then he had kicked her in the stomach and it was upon summoning Tanro again as her knee did not allow her to defend herself properly at all, that she managed to restrain him, knock him out and bring him back. While having Rokuson do the job, there had been three anthropomorphic crows she had come across, very near the resort and seen two of them holding the arms of a youkai with a horse-shaped skull on his head.

The boy had asked her to exterminate them while she watched them from the ground but before she could reply with anything, the three crow youkai had announced a truce and flown off with greater speed. It had been too close to the resort for comfort and she had immediately rushed back.

She had been highly unprepared for this pain and was fighting the urge to scream, still feeling cold from her other battle: in short, it was clear as day that more training, more preparation and careful thinking were only barely within her current capability. It was time to retreat.

"Let's go!" she announced once the organizer of the trip and the girls were safely atop Rokuson, looking uneasy, and she was on Tanro with Shima. Upon her command, the deer sprang upward, making the riders go into peals of frightened squealing and the wolf started running.

The force of her own blizzard had outdone her. It was a humiliating way to be defeated although the girl had proven far more resilient than this Yuki Onna expected. Blearily gazing up at the frozen haven Fear had created, disregarding the small stream of blood running down from her forehead as it would heal very soon, she also noticed someone bending over her, blinking twice to make sure it was who she thought it was.

"W-Waka?" escaped her tired body as she looked into piercing red eyes that were narrowing as they swept over her form.

A quiet, deep and threatening murmur was all he seemed willing to reply with.

"Who did this to you, Yuki Onna?"

Author Notes: So far the arcs are going differently than in the anime and manga. Mezumaru targeted Yura directly for what she did to Gozumaru by making Shima a puppet and then decided to head to the hot springs, only to get caught by the reliable Sanba Garasu. You will all remember which character the anime was centered on as well as the manga and I thought people would like a change though I don't think I did this well at all. I am sorry because I might end up disappointing you.

I was willing to write more but context wise only this much can fit into the title of this chapter. The real confrontation will begin in Ukiyoe anyway. The title means snow battle and it is actually a snowball fight competition in Japan as a sport. Oh and PLEASE SEE, I am aware of the inconsistencies in my writing style with Japanese terms and their translation sometimes being used instead of the other. Please bear with me, I am still working on a definite style or if anyone can help me, please do.