For once, the randomizer actually didn't hate me and gave me a pair that I actually wanted to write for even before this countdown stream began. As the cover image may or may not have given away already: today features both the face of the franchise as well as the character who has, by far, the most popular seiyuu in the franchise. Toyama Kasumi and Udagawa Tomoe respectively, everybody!
Special thanks, once again, goes to the amazing Reiriniverse from Tumblr for making the cover image for me!
I don't think I need to say it anymore, do I? But I will just in case… I do not own BanG Dream!
It was cold. So very very cold.
The past couple of days had seen a record amount of snowfall in the country for this time of the year, and the city where Toyama Kasumi resided in was no exception to this. As a matter of fact, it even seemed like they had received more snow than some of the other neighboring cities.
When Kasumi woke up on this fine morning, she was elated. She was excited. Snow was not something that she could enjoy very often, so having this much snow on a weekend was like a dream come true for her.
Before anyone could stop her, Kasumi was already on her feet and dressed, ready to go out. She would have made a beeline for it if somebody hadn't forcefully pulled her by the collar back inside the living room.
"Ow…" Kasumi whined, rubbing her sore neck as she looked around for the offender. As there was only one other person in the room, it didn't take long for Kasumi to find who had stopped her, "Why did you do that?"
"You really have to ask that?" Kasumi's younger sister, Toyama Asuka, scolded as both her hands were placed on her hips and the younger Toyama glared at Kasumi. Kasumi would have flinched at the tone of Asuka's voice alone in any other day, but now was not that day.
Kasumi had to try hard to keep a straight face.
This did not go unnoticed by Asuka who was quick to respond to this, "What?"
"Here, let me help you, A-chan~," Kasumi smiled, leaning up to Asuka and using her fingers to casually pick the breadcrumbs from Asuka's left cheek before flicking them in her own mouth. As she was chewing, Kasumi noticed the change in Asuka's expression and quickly voiced her new discovery, "What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing!" Asuka blurted out quickly, turning around on her heel and about to walk off. Something made her change her mind, however, and Asuka gently added over her shoulder, "If you're going outside, at least have the decency to wear clothes that are suitable for the weather. You shouldn't get a cold now."
"A-chan…" Kasumi said softly, her eyes wide as she looked at her sister in both adoration and admiration. She didn't have the time to say or do anything else, however, as Asuka had already taken her things and walked off to her room upstairs.
Kasumi knew better than to try and annoy her sister more than she already had, so instead, she ended up rolling on her back and silently wondering to herself what to do.
She had the whole day to herself and almost nobody to spend it with, that much she already knew. The other members of her band had all said that they would be busy today, with the reasons that they told Kasumi ranging from family reasons to busy part-time job schedules.
Even some of Kasumi's friends from outside her band she knew would be too pre-occupied with their own things today to spend it with her.
"Right!" Kasumi exclaimed to herself, sitting up on the couch in one smooth motion while her brain was working at a fast pace as the same thought continued to keep coming back to Kasumi. She would not let the fact that everybody else was busy deter her from spending this day the way that she wants to spend it.
Remembering what Asuka had told her, Kasumi rushed back to her room to change into some warmer clothes for the day, said her goodbyes to her parents who she ran into on her way back downstairs, and headed outside.
"A-chan was right…" Kasumi muttered to herself, wrapping her arms around her to try and keep as warm as she possibly could. She knew that she would have been freezing had Asuka not dragged her back inside earlier, and Kasumi made a mental note to thank her sister for that when she came back home.
But for now, the snow-covered city was Kasumi's to explore and enjoy. And explore and enjoy it she would.
Meanwhile, as Kasumi was getting ready to leave the Toyama residence in favor of exploring the city, another girl was walking through the streets not too far from where Kasumi was. A red-haired girl who, despite her looks, was only a handful of months older than Kasumi, was mumbling softly to herself as if in an effort to remember something whilst slowly but surely making her way through the snow-covered city.
"Did Ako want this one…?" the red-haired girl muttered as she looked through the plastic bag that was held in her hands.
With a sigh and accepting her fate if she ended up bringing home the wrong brand of potato chips, Udagawa Tomoe decided that it would be about time for her to go back. A decently strong breeze had started to pick up some time ago, forcing Tomoe to wrap her scarf tighter around her to try and keep herself warm.
"At least I don't have to go far for these…" Tomoe's voice was muffled by the soft fabric of the scarf in front of her mouth as she made her way through the snow-covered streets towards where she wanted to be.
Tomoe did not have a good start to the day whatsoever. After having been woken up forcibly by her younger sister, Udagawa Ako, Tomoe was then sent on a grocery run. In sub-zero temperatures, no less.
And normally, Tomoe would not have minded being the person who had to buy the groceries. As a matter of fact, any other day she would have been enjoying herself since it would be a great way for her to be alone with her thoughts.
But not when she had to do it in sub-zero temperatures…
"But I guess it cannot be helped…" Tomoe sighed to herself, gently massaging her stiff shoulder with her free hand before she looked around her to get her bearings right. Even though Tomoe was already used to being in this part of the city, even she had problems recognizing things when everything was covered with a noticeable layer of snow.
Tomoe was about to walk up to a passerby to ask for directions when she heard her name being called.
"Ah, Tomoe-chan!"
Turning around on her heel, barely managing to prevent herself from slipping on the slippery ground, Tomoe came face-to-face with somebody she recognized all too well.
"Kasumi?" Tomoe said as she eyed the girl in front of her, Kasumi smiling brightly in response to show the drummer of Afterglow that she had recognized her correctly. With a small smile of her own, and before she could stop herself from saying it, Tomoe added, "Interesting running into you here."
"Isn't it?" Kasumi beamed cheerfully as she took the few steps needed to get close to Tomoe, "What's Tomoe-chan doing here? Don't you have practice with the others from Afterglow?"
"I do, but it isn't until the afternoon," Tomoe said while she moved the plastic bag over to her other hand, the weight of the plastic cutting in the flesh of her left hand being a bit too much for the redhead. With a sheepish smile, Tomoe continued, "You know how some of my bands' members are. Moca's probably still asleep right now and Tsugu's still helping over at her family's café."
"But Tomoe-chan still gets the chance to practice with her band members, right?" Kasumi said, trying to sound innocent but knowing that her façade would not work in front of Tomoe. Tomoe grew up living under the same roof as Ako her entire life, after all, and both girls knew this.
"Is something wrong, Kasumi?" Tomoe asked, making sure to take her time to choose her words very carefully to prevent herself from saying the wrong thing. She knew that she wasn't particularly close with Kasumi, so saying something in the wrong way could backfire horribly.
However, Tomoe never got the response that she would have wanted; she had lowered her guard for long enough for Kasumi to take advantage of the opening.
"What was that for?!" Tomoe cried out indignantly as she used her free hand to clear her face from the snow that had not been there three seconds ago. Much to Tomoe's surprise, she saw that Kasumi was laughing not too far from her.
What worried Tomoe the most was when she saw what Kasumi was doing: the brunette had been gathering two handfuls of snow in her hands and had already shaped it in a somewhat deformed ball.
"K-Kasumi?" Tomoe stuttered out, suddenly sounding a lot more scared as she had a growing suspicion of what Kasumi was planning. Tomoe quickly found out that trying to negotiate with Kasumi was out of the question, so she tried to turn on her heel and run back to where she came from.
She was too slow, however. Not having made three steps and Tomoe felt the weight of the snow hit the back of her head, the force of the hit almost being enough to make Tomoe fall facedown on the ground.
"Since Tomoe-chan is still around, why not play in the snow with me?" Kasumi offered in a sing-song and teasing voice that only managed to remind Tomoe of another girl playing the guitar that she knew all too well.
"I think that it is only fair to warn you…" Tomoe said slowly as she got back on her feet, casually and nonchalantly brushing off the snow that was still in her hair before turning her head to face Kasumi. Much to Kasumi's surprise, however, Tomoe had a menacing grin on her face.
Kasumi was about to quickly apologize and beg for her life when Tomoe finally continued, "If you're challenging me to a snowball fight, you're going to regret it."
And with a cheerful cry to indicate the official start of the all-out war, the two girls began the snowball fight that would end up taking up over two hours of their life.
Once both Kasumi and Tomoe had decided that they had played around in the snow long enough, they decided to look for an empty patch of snow to lie down in. With Kasumi lying on the right and Tomoe on the left, the two of them were catching their breath and resting their bodies.
"You're… not bad…" Tomoe panted some time after the two girls had laid down. Tomoe wanted to say more but she knew that her body couldn't take it so she let her words die off. Luckily for her, Kasumi managed to gather the strength to reply to her soon after.
"Right back… at you…" Kasumi grinned tiredly before falling silent again as if she were contemplating something. Before Tomoe could ask her if she was all right, Kasumi surprised the redhead by raising her clenched fist up in the air in an offering, "Shall we record today as a tie then?"
"Let's…" Tomoe grinned in return, bonking Kasumi's fist lightly with her own before heaving herself back on her feet. After carefully patting her clothes free from all the snow, Tomoe turned back around and offered her hand to Kasumi, "You shouldn't lay there too long or you could get a cold."
"Right right…" Kasumi chuckled sheepishly, accepting Tomoe's hand and allowing herself to be pulled up by the redhead. Kasumi was almost certain that she could hear Asuka's condescending voice in the distance, but she tried to shrug it off as she didn't want to arouse suspicion in Tomoe.
"So… where are you going now?" Tomoe asked casually after having picked the plastic bag that she was carrying earlier up again. Tomoe turned around in time to see Kasumi shake the snow out of her hair and had to suppress a smile.
"I don't know… see what Saaya is doing, I guess…" Kasumi said with a shrug before remembering that Saaya would probably be too busy with helping out her family's bakery to spend time with her. Kasumi pushed this thought to the back of her head, however, when she remembered something else, "Good luck with your band practice later!"
"Thank you," Tomoe smiled, stretching out her open hand for Kasumi to accept. Kasumi did, and with a wider smile Tomoe added, "Until we meet again."
"Right!"
And with that, the two girls who had run into each other by pure chance and who had bonded over a simple activity such as a mere snowball fight bid their farewells and went their separate ways.
And that wraps up today's oneshot! I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until tomorrow for the next oneshot!
Countdown currently on: seven!