Toshi was walking home. It was a perfect day, if a little breezy, however as soon as he heard someone familiar call out his name, the skies literally instantly clouded up. Mizu soon came running up to her long-time friend and grinned widely.

"So how was your first few days of your new school?" Mizu asked, just trying to get a conversation started. Toshi sighed. Even if he did like her and she didn't feel the same way, he couldn't completely ignore her.

"Well, let's see, if I survive long enough, I know I'm going to have plenty of Valentine's Day gifts," he replied. "Those girls are suckers for cute faces, aren't they?" Mizu smirked.

"Well, Mr. Cute face, did you ever get into a deep conversation about how the teacher is just plain mean with any of them?" she asked. When Toshi shook his head, Mizu said, "Exactly. That's why you'll always be known to me as the little seven-year-old boy I first met who wouldn't play with me because he thought I had cooties." They got to Mizu's house at that point, but before Mizu went inside, she felt something brush her shoulder. She blinked as she took it in the palm of her hand.

"That's weird, it usually doesn't snow until later in the winter," she stated, but didn't dwell on this as she soon heard a crash inside, and Keitaro came to the window.

"I didn't do it, Mizu! The little gnomes that live inside the potting soil did!" he exclaimed. Mizu rolled her eyes as she opened the door.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then, Toshi," she stated, but didn't wait for an answer before she slammed the door shut and started running after her little brother who was by now starting to recover from his flu. Toshi sighed as he walked down the side-walk which by now was covered in a light dusting of that powdery, get-you-out-of-school goodness.

***

Purple haired Satu, Chiyu's ten-year-old sister, sat at the desk in her room trying to concentrate on her homework when the phone rang. She quickly picked it up, thankful for any chance to ignore her homework.

"Hello?" she asked. "Oh, hi Daddy. A snowstorm? Yeah, I can see it now. Well Megami's home but Chiyu's probably out with some of his friends. Okay, bye." Satu hung up the phone and stood up and walked out of her room.

"Megami! Have you seen Chiyu?" Satu yelled. Megami soon came walking out of the bathroom, shaking her head.

"No," the fifteen-year-old replied. "Shouldn't he be home by now, though?" Satu nodded.

"Think maybe we should go looking for him?" she asked, but her older sister looked skeptical.

"Shinjuku is a pretty big place," Megami stated. "Plus, we could get caught in that storm." There was a minute of silence, and then the two sisters grinned at each other.

"I'll do it!" they both said at the same time and ran towards the hall to get their jackets and shoes. (Well, we know who's been watching a little too much Survivor. Yes, I know there isn't a Survivor with a snowy place, but just work with it, okay? They ARE Chiyu's sisters, after all)

***

Despite the weather waging outside, the Shinjuku mall was still fully functional, and this is where we could find our two favorite blonds at the moment. Of course not in the same place, thank the gods. Nariko had learned from past mistakes, and she certainly didn't want chocolate ice cream on her uniform. However Nariko just happened to be in the same shop as Chiyu so...

"Hi, Chiyu!" Nariko exclaimed from behind a rack of shirts that looked tighter than a Barbie dolls waist. To put it mildly, Chiyu was not happy to see her. Nariko couldn't tell that, though, and walked right over.

"How'd the interrogation of that girl Kamlyn last night come out?" she asked in a sickingly happy voice. Chiyu looked stunned.

"And you're not mad that it was just me and Mizu?" he asked, and Nariko shook her head, still smiling.

"Mizu told me herself she doesn't like you like I do," Nariko replied. "So I don't have to worry about that." Chiyu mentally rolled his eyes. That's one person's opinion against, well, everyone else�s, and let's just say Chiyu knows a lot of people. Chiyu then looked out the store windows to see Kamlyn, and for some reason she was staring right at him and Nariko. Chiyu shivered. Was it just him, or did the room literally get colder just then?

"Nariko, maybe we should go," Chiyu stated. "I've got a bad feeling someone's near, and they don't wanna be friends." Nariko blinked but nodded and followed Chiyu out.

***

Keitaro had finally managed to calm Mizu down about the broken flower pot, and was now staring out the window when he saw someone through the blurriness of the snowstorm. As the figures got closer, Keitaro recognized them and quickly ran to the door.

"Chiyu, Nariko, get in here before I tell your Mommies; you are not supposed to be out in this storm!" Keitaro yelled in an accusing voice, then grabbed them and pulled them in. "What were you doing out there, anyway?" Chiyu brushed snow from his jacket.

"Being insane?" he asked, and Nariko glared at him, much to the shock of both the boys. "Actually we were just trying to get home." Keitaro accepted that answer.

"Well you're not gonna right now!" he exclaimed. "Me and Mizu will watch you until the storm lets up, or our mom decides you need to go home. She's not home right now, though, so you don't have to worry about her." Nariko blinked.

"What about your dad?" she asked. There was silence after that. "What? Did I say something wrong?" Mizu, who was sitting on the couch at that point, finally piped up.

"We don't even know where our dad is," she said casually. "He and our mom weren't even married and as soon as Keitaro was born he just packed up and left. For all we know he could be in Central America by now." Nariko was shocked.

"I-I'm sorry," she managed to say, and Mizu shrugged.

"Ah, don't be," she reassured the blond girl while flipping through what channels came up through the storm. "It's not like I remember much about him anyway. So come, sit, and I shall see if I can make popcorn without blowing the power again." With that, Mizu stood up and walked over to the kitchen, followed by Keitaro. Nariko and Chiyu slipped off their shoes and took seats in some arm chairs. Nariko, however, was still very pale.

"Something the matter, Nariko?" Chiyu asked.

"I guess I just never visualized Mizu like that," Nariko replied. "I always thought she was little-miss-perfect to tell you the truth." Chiyu raised his eyebrows.

"She told you not to feel sorry for her, so don't," he told the girl. "I may not know Mizu like some people do, but one thing I know is she doesn't like people feeling sorry for her." The two sat in silence after that, the popcorn popper and the occasional "Keitaro, I told you not to touch that" from Mizu the only sounds.

***

"But I want to attack now!" a girl hidden by the shadows complained. A taller girl shook her head.

"No, Akuma, we must wait," she replied calmly. "The hikari Kamis must build themselves before they are worthy of attack, and so must we." The shorter girl nodded.

"Yes, I guess you're right, Kamlyn," she agreed. "But how are we to know when they have new members added to their team?" The taller girl, Kamlyn, smiled an evil smile.

"We will know," was all that she said.

***

Sakura sweat dropped at the scene she saw when she came home from work. There was popcorn everywhere and several disregarded popcorn bowls, and Nariko, Chiyu, Mizu and Keitaro were all yelling at the movie they were watching. Sakura then walked up to the TV, turned it off, and turned around, arms folded. Mizu grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, hi, Mom," she greeted. "I didn't hear you come in." Sakura then smiled.

"Yes, I suppose you wouldn't," she replied. "But don't mind me, I'm just passing through. Supper'll be ready in about a half hour and your friends can stay if they want." With that, Sakura turned the TV back on and walked out.

"Oh and by the way, you wouldn't mind cleaning up all that popcorn, would you?" Sakura asked from the kitchen. "Vacuum cleaner's in the hall closet." Mizu nodded.

"Sure, Mom, in a little bit," she replied without taking her eyes off the TV.

"You want to run that by me again, young lady?" Sakura asked in a mother tone. Mizu sighed and stood up.

"Sure Mom, I'll do that right now," she said as she headed towards the hall closet. As soon as all the popcorn was vacuumed up and the vacuum put away, Nariko decided to ask a question that had been bothering her.

"That's your mom? But she looks so young!" she voiced her opinion, and Mizu nodded.

"That's because she IS young, Nariko," Mizu replied. "Twenty nine if my math serves me right." Nariko looked positively shocked out of anymore that she could have said. Mizu looked out to see that the snowstorm had finally stopped, leaving not even an inch of snow, much to anyone's surprise considering how long and hard it had snowed, when the phone rang. Mizu picked it up before Keitaro could, which was actually a good thing if you knew Keitaro's phone skills.

"Hello, Kaori residents," she said into the phone. "Oh, now you decide to call, Tenshi. Yeah, I know about that storm, it's kinda hard to miss." There was a long pause after that and Tenshi could be heard over the phone repeatedly asking if Mizu was still there. "Um, yeah, I'll be there later." With that, Mizu slowly hung up the phone.

"What's the matter, Mizu?" Chiyu asked, seeing Mizu's pale face.

"Tenshi says that storm wasn't natural," Mizu replied. "That someone, a Kami, made it, and it wasn't by accident." Nariko looked more shocked, if that was possible. She had learned to never doubt Tenshi when it came to things like this.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Keitaro asked.

"Tenshi says she wants to meet up with all of us later," Mizu replied. "She said that we need to find the person that created that storm before they can do it again and cause some real damage."

"Speaking of damage, Mizu, I'd really like to know what happened to the popcorn maker!" Sakura yelled from the kitchen.

"Ask Keitaro; he's the one that flew a paper airplane into it while it was still popping kernels!" Mizu yelled back. She looked to her side where Keitaro had been sitting, only to see him gone. She looked down the hall and saw Keitaro sneaking up the stairs and sweat dropped.

***

"So just who are we looking for, anyway?" Mizu asked Chiyu. Tenshi had split the group up to look around, and she insisted on bringing Nariko and Keitaro with her, saying they're the ones that'd cause the most trouble and she wanted to deal with them if they did, so Mizu was left with Chiyu. The boy shrugged.

"Tenshi said it was a boy with blue hair, but knowing our luck, half the male population in Shinjuku has blue hair," Chiyu stated. The two walked in silence for a little while until Chiyu couldn't stand it anymore and just brought up a random topic.

"Um, I ran into Toshi earlier today," he stated. Mizu slightly smiled but didn't say anything. "He told me to keep my hands off you or something like that." Mizu sweat dropped.

"Toshi's possessive," she finally said. "He thinks that we like each other, so he doesn't like you. Kinda stupid, don't ya think?" Mizu smiled at Chiyu after she said this. "I mean, I do like you, just not that way. I guess that just doesn't occur to him." Chiyu blinked a few times.

"Say, what does his full name mean?" he asked, and Mizu thought for a minute.

"I think it means year of snow," she finally said. "Yeah, Toshi means year and Yukino means of snow. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing, really," Chiyu replied. "But retracting my earlier comment, Toshi's the only boy I've met with blue hair, and it's kinda weird that his name has snow right in it." Mizu blinked a few times.

"You think he might be our boy?" she asked, and Chiyu nodded.

"Thank you, anim�-style name puns," Mizu said up to the sky, but then she realized something. "Neither of us knows where he lives. We'll have to wait until school tomorrow." Chiyu nodded.

"Yeah, but right now we should probably find Tenshi," he stated. Mizu nodded and they were off.

***

Mizu laid in bed just staring up at the ceiling. It was the middle of the night, but she just couldn't get to sleep after all that had happened. Not just what had happened that day, but the whole big thing. The image of Toshi telling Mizu that he liked her came back into her head.

"Dammit," she muttered as she turned over onto her side. "Why couldn't I just have a normal life? Instead it's more like a cross between a soap opera and an action manga." She laid there for a little while longer until she heard someone's voice in her head.

"Mizu, you awake?" Tenshi asked. She was using her telepathic powers to communicate with Mizu.

"Yeah, for the last five hours," the water kami mentally replied. "You're a psychic, Tenshi, can't you tell me just why as soon as this whole 'save the world' thing starts, both my love life and social life take a turn for the worse?" Tenshi mentally chuckled.

"I can tell you about the social life, but I'm in a dark just how bad your love life is right now," the psychic replied. Mizu scowled.

"Well, let's see, everyone thinks I'm in love with Chiyu, so most of the girls won't talk to me, and my best friend back in Hiroshima moves here. I should be happy, right? But no, he ruins it all by telling me that he still has feelings for me!" she stated, practically mentally shrieking the last part of the last sentence.

"Wow, your life really IS becoming a soap opera, isn't it?" Tenshi asked. When Mizu stayed silent, Tenshi added, "But don't worry, soap operas almost always have a happy ending." Mizu rolled her eyes.

"Where have YOU been the past twenty something years?" she asked. "Soap operas on TV are so angst filled it makes you gag, and they hardly ever have a happy ending! And manga soap operas, like Marmalade Boy, they may be popular, but admit it, they don't exactly encourage if you end up with a love life just as bad as the manga-ka describes in the manga." There was silence for a while after that.

"So just what's the name of that boy you and Chiyu think is the next Kami?" Tenshi finally said.

"Toshi Yukino," Mizu replied. "That old friend from Hiroshima I mentioned earlier. The one that said he liked me. Sheeze, I'd rather go out with Chiyu than him; Toshi can be way to possessive!" Tenshi smiled.

"I'll tell Chiyu you said that then," she stated. Mizu's eyes went wide.

"Tenshi, wait!" she mentally yelled, but got no answer. The mental link had been closed for now.

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