Yuffie and Aerith teach Naminé and Riku how to make snowballs and forts as Leon watches. With their guards down, Leon, of all people, packs a snowball and throws it at Yuffie.

"Oh! It's on!"

It is war.

Yuffie packs snowballs so tightly that they land on her targets (Leon, most of the time) as if they were rocks thrown at them. It doesn't help that Aerith enables her, casting Blizzard on one of them to turn them into total ice, in order to get revenge on Leon, who had struck Aerith in the face with a snowball before.

The locals take it easier on Riku and Naminé at first, however, who don't quite yet know how to pack snowballs. Their snowballs, when thrown, fall apart midair.

After a few attempts, Riku manages to hit Leon with one, as Naminé hits Yuffie with a snowball as well.

They stop taking it easy on them after that.

After a particularly nasty snowball manages to hit Riku, he steps out, stating that he's too tired, which Yuffie takes as an excuse.

"Sure. You're just jealous of my skills." Yuffie taunts

"Whatever, I'll just watch you guys," Riku replies

"Aw, boo!-" Yuffie is interrupted by Aerith throwing a snowball at the side of her head.

"Aerith!" Yuffie protests, but her only response is a laugh.

"Yuffie, there's an even number of players now. We can form a team." Leon speaks up.

"And what makes you think that I would accept a partnership with you?"

Deadpan, Leon says, "I hide the snacks in the locked chest by the window. We win, and I tell you the password to the lock."

Yuffie blinks. Then she jumps and settles into a battle-ready stance beside Leon, clueless as to the false bottom that awaits her inside the chest, even if she does get the password.

"Okay, Naminé, you're with me! Riku, can you be the referee?" Aerith says, walking to stand beside Naminé.

"Sure, what are the rules?" Riku asks

"Um... The first one to 'knock-out', which means hit someone with a snowball three times, the enemy team wins. Right?" Naminé says, uncertain.

"Right!" Aerith nods.

And so the battles begin. Team Naminé and Aerith wins, which ends up with Yuffie asking for the best two out of three matches. Which turns into the best three out of five. Which then turns into the best six out of eleven.

Though Yuffie is extremely agile and can dodge snowballs with ease, Naminé has the uncanny ability to sneak up behind her. While Aerith and Leon are evenly matched, at least, after Riku tells her to stop casting Blizzard on the snowballs.

Yuffie's about to ask for more matches, as team Yuffie and Leon is currently one win behind, until Riku tells her, "Yuffie. It's getting dark. I'm cold, and you're probably freezing." which stops her right in her tracks.


CONTINUE