Chapter 3

Chapter 3 : The Nanese girl

Amaya walked through the town that was now covered completely by snow. She hated the cold, because she could never go swimming in this weather. Though, she had tried to swim in the cold weather before-which she had gotten scolded for and a high fever. That was something that she would never do again in the freezing weather.

As she came closer to her home, the snow had started down harder, getting the entire town engulfed in snow. The black haired girl then started to jog up the stairs. Once she reached her home, she didn't hesitate to swing open the door and closing it quickly after.

" I'm home!" she called, throwing the scarf off her neck. It had been one her father had given her, and it was the first time she had used it. The house seemed empty for a moment before she could hear the running footsteps of her younger brother. Not letting her take off her shoes first, the young boy hugged his sister tightly, almost making her fall to the ground.

" Sister, you're home!" he exclaimed. Amaya smiled as he let her go.

" Yes, I am and I would like it better if you didn't almost make me lose my balance Hikaru." Hikaru smiled as Amaya took off her boots. The siblings had something in common, and that was their appearance. Some have mistaken them for twins-with their black hair and ocean blue eyes-despite having a big difference in height. Hikaru was about two years younger than his sister, and having to be involved in her business most of the time.

" Where's Mother?" Amaya asked, standing up.

" She's resting right now. She had a lot to do today, and Father isn't home for the time being."

Amaya nodded, she already knew what her Father was doing. Their Mother would often watch him swim on TV. That was something that excited her when she was younger, wanting her to be just like her Father. Though, in the back of her mind, it seemed like it was a big risk for something like that.

About an hour later, Aimi Nanese had awoken to find her kids in the kitchen, with Amaya making Hikaru something to eat.

" Amaya, Hikaru?"

Both of them turned to face their Mother with smiles on their faces.

" Mother, you're awake," Hikaru said, setting down the book that he was reading.

" I'm sorry, I was exhausted from work," she admitted. Amaya waved her Mother off.

" Don't worry about such a thing Mother. We already know how hard you have been working since Father went back to swimming."

" Amaya." She smiled. " I have to thank you for making food for Hikaru."

" No worries. There's some here for you as well Mother, make you're comfortable." Aimi looked at the plate that was next to her daughter. She smiled at how neat it was.

" Thank you Amaya."
" No need to thank me, just have something to eat Mother."

When dinner was over, Amaya lied back in her bed, staring at the ceiling in wonder. She wondered how her Father was doing right now with this swimming. She already knew that he was in another country and would be coming back home some time before Christmas.

Amaya sat up and looked out the window, which had been frosted.

When is he coming home?, she thought. He had been gone for quite some time now.

On the other part of town, Yoshi, Kaiya, and Eri had been making snowmen in Yoshi's backyard.

" Hey, who does this look like?" he asked the twins. The both of them looked at Yoshi's snowman, which had some black string and blueberries, signaling for blue eyes.

" Amaya?" Kaiya guessed. Yoshi grinned and nodded proudly.

" Yep, doesn't this look like her?" he asked.

" Looks like another weird version of her," Eri admitted, before returning back to his own snowman.

" Whatever Eri, you're just jealous of my art skills."

" Really? Those are art skills? Well, the mistakes you make you really call art," he remarked. Yoshi rolled his eyes before patting the snow down. He had wanted to see Amaya again someday, because he wanted to race her. None of that reunion crap.

" Make fun of me all you want," he muttered. " But someday we will meet again."

" You know, talking to yourself says that you're crazy," Eri said.

" Aw, shut the hell up already!" Yoshi shouted, earning a smirk from Eri.

" Alright, settle down children," Kaiya joked. " No more fighting. Understood?"

Both of the boys laughed at her motherly personality.

" Honestly, sound like Mom," Eri said.

" I may sound like Mom, but I do have Dad's glare, you don't want to try me." Eri's laughter died down as he backed away from his twin, who looked quite stern at the moment.

" Yeah, sorry."

The door then slid open, revealing Suzume Matsuoka. " Hey, come inside for some hot tea."

Yoshi groaned " Do we have to Mom? We just started playing out here."

" Maybe if you weren't avoiding your younger sister, then you wouldn't be in this problem." She jerked her thumb behind her. " Inside, now."

Yoshi sighed. If there was one thing he had gotten from his Dad, it was his stubbornness. Yoshi had a mixture of the two, having strawberry colored hair instead of bright red-which his sister had gotten. As the three stepped inside, his younger sister, Akira, smiled. She was a year or two younger than her brother.

" You're back," she said. She was sitting at one of the chairs at the table, though she hardly reached the table at all. With her arms being short, she had help around the table often.

" Yeah, we're back," Yoshi said, grabbing one of the cups off the counter. " Though, I wanted to stay out there more. I made this awesome snowman."

" More like snow woman," Eri muttered into his mug. He earned an elbow in the ribs from Kaiya, for trying to start another fight.

" How is Sousuke doing?" Rin asked. Both Kaiya and Eri looked up with shocked looks on their faces. They hadn't heard Rin ask about their father in a while. They both shared a glance, before Kaiya smiled-glad that he was worried about his best friend.

" Dad is doing fine," she said. " He's been busy helping Grandfather with things at work."

" I see," Rin muttered. " I should pay him a visit again. We haven't seen each other for a while, nor have I seen Haru."

" Haruka Nanese?" Yoshi asked. " His daughter Amaya goes to school with your other friend. Makoto, was his name, right?"

Rin nodded as he put his hands behind his head. " Yeah, seeing them again will bring back good memories. After all, when we graduated high school, we haven't seen each other a lot."

" Actually," Eri stepped in. " I heard from the twins a while back. They said that everything is fine, but that's just their opinion."

Yoshi smiled, " Actually, after winter is over we're planning on racing them again."

" Racing?" Akira repeated. " I thought you did that when you were at the same swim club?"

" Yeah, but it will be different this time, because I know we can win this."

That was another thing he had gotten from Rin, he cockiness.

A/N

There will be pictures of the next generation on my Tumblr or Devianart. Thank you for reading.

Tumblr: HappyAnime34

Devianart: Alisa173 or HappyAnime34