Winter Snow

**Characters** | Miyuki Winfield
Arctic Winfield
Guinevere Winfield
Lynn Winfield

**Description:** While skating on the frozen ice during her first debut, Miyuki Winfield recalls an unforgettable experience.

**Winter Snow Preview**
## Skater's Solo:

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our next contestant: Miyuki Winfield!”

The loudspeaker overhead announces the next skater before a young woman clad in light blue strolls onto the large ice rink. The large spectating crowd roars with a mix of cheers and applause as she quickly skates to the center of the rink with a warm smile on her face, feeling welcomed in the ice-skating arena. The lights significantly dim in the audience area as the spectators quiet down for the performance to begin. At the same time, the full moon shines through the large skylight onto the rink illuminating Miyuki’s outfit with its moonlight glow, including the ice Dust crystals, one embedded in each arm warmer. Miyuki quickly glances at the attentive audience for a moment before her light blue eyes fall to the three judges in front of her, knowing the three will be judging her performance. Feeling the mix of both excitement and anxiety, she closes her eyes and takes a couple of deep breaths to focus.

*‘This is it. My skating debut.*’ She thinks to herself, giving a bow to the judges, ‘*I’ve been training for this night for a long time... I can do this!’*

A few moments later, the song she chose beforehand echoes throughout the arena as it reaches Miyuki’s ears. She begins to silently hum to the melodic tune that she rehearsed multiple times during her practice sessions. The skater slightly waves her hands to the tune before she pushes herself as she begins to skate in front of the crowd. Her captivating ice dance accompanied by different twirls and spins throughout the rink was exactly as she practiced while the classical tune plays. It was soft, quiet and peaceful as first though soon, the song quickens in pace. While gracefully skating across the pure, smooth, somewhat scratched ice, Miyuki closes her eyes and follows the tune of the music. This particular song reminds her of one of her most precious memories with how an ordinary day at home became an unforgettable experience.

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The event takes place a year before she graduates from Sanctum Academy when she returns to her home in Tethys, a thriving port town located in Solitas near Atlas and Mantle. It was a welcoming respite to return here after another arduous semester with her aspirations to travel the world, learn more about being a Huntress, and study more advanced ice-skating techniques. Her family is overjoyed when she reunites with them as she enters the log cabin home.

“…And that’s how I was able to turn the battle around and won the match.” Miyuki concludes after she regales her family with another story from her time at Sanctum, “It was a really tough one too.”

“Wow, that sounds so cool!” Her younger sister exclaims excitedly, hugging Miyuki’s arm in admiration, “I wish I could have seen that!”

“I know, Lynn. Maybe someday you can.” Miyuki nods, hugging her sister after taking another sip of her hot chocolate, “Anything’s possible.”

“Of course. We’re very proud of you, Miyuki.” Her mother, Guinevere, praises as she walks into the living room to sit onto the couch, “Maybe you can teach Lynn some moves when she gets older.”

“Yeah! Please?” Lynn begs while she glances at her with her cute puppy eyes and quivering lip, “Please?!”

“All right, all right! I will when you get older.” Miyuki chuckles before glancing at her father, Arctic, who was also sitting on the couch after Lynn squeals with joy, “Hey Dad, all of those tricks you taught me paid off when I was training over there.”

Arctic crosses his arms, flashing a smile at her.

“That’s good to hear. I’m glad that it did help you against other opponents.” He comments as he took a sip of his freshly brewed coffee, “Even all of my close combat tips?”

“Definitely! They saved me in a few matches over there.” The skater responds after giving a nod, “All of that extra training with you has paid off in a big way.”

“That’s my girl.” Arctic praises before he rises to his feet, “Miyuki, meet me in the backyard in fifteen minutes. Bring your weapons.”

“Really?” Miyuki exclaims in surprise, staring at her dad in intrigue, “Do you want to challenge me?”

“Yes. I want to see how much you’ve truly grown as a fighter and see your true strength with the weapons you created.” Arctic elaborates, heading out of the living room to prepare, “I want to find out firsthand what you’re capable of after three years of combat school.”

“You got it, Dad!” Miyuki shouts in excitement as she clenches her hands into fists and immediately rises from her seat, “I accept your challenge!”

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When Miyuki continues to skate, she returns to reality upon hearing the next part of her song. At that time, she realizes that the song was halfway through and it was almost time to perform her extraordinary moves to the attentive audience that was captivated by her routine. The judges are also closely watching the performance, entranced by her smooth movements.  All eyes in the rink glance at her in awe, which is a good sign to Miyuki, which helped her relax while she maneuvers around the ice-covered stage. Miyuki smiles to the audience and waves her hand to them before performing a couple more spin which she then follows up with a couple of axel jumps. The skater jumps and briefly soars in the air, performing a quick spin midair before gracefully landing backwards on the ice, causing the crowd to cheer at the stunning move. When the performance was approaching its peak, the skater continues to think back to her fond memory, remembering how she originally came up with her dazzling moves in the first place.

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Miyuki ventures outside of the log cabin with her Dust arm warmers and Dust infused ice skates in their inactive mode and steps into the fresh packed snow, her father waiting for her in the middle of the backyard. With her hands clenched into fists, she slowly but confidently strolls over to him. When she briefly turns her head towards the back porch, she sees Lynn and her mother emerge outside to watch both her and Arctic. After giving a warm smile towards the duo, she turns her attention back to her father as she continues to walk forward before stopping a few feet away from him on the makeshift battle area.

“Are you ready to begin?” Arctic asks as he adjusts his Dust gauntlets.

“I am.” Miyuki nods as she prepares herself by moving into her fighting stance before noticing his Dust gauntlets, “Oh wow! You’re using Icebringer this time! You don’t usually use your weapons when we spar."

“I heard all about your adventures and what you’ve accomplished at Sanctum Academy in the past couple years. Now I believe is a good time for me to judge your skills personally.” Arctic explains with a sly smirk before taking his fighting stance, “You should feel honored that I won’t be holding back as much.”

“I do feel honored, Dad! Now, I’m really psyched for our match!” Miyuki exclaims with awe before clearing her throat and regaining her composure, still beaming with excitement, “I’m ready when you are!”

“Great to hear!” Her father responds with a faint smirk before he charges towards her,” Let’s see what you’ve learned!”

As Arctic rapidly approaches her, Miyuki quickly jumps away from him before casting a few ice Dust shots from Blizzard’s Touch. Her father weaves through the attacks before the Dust attacks land and create piles of small to medium sized ice mounts, closing the distance between the two. After landing back on the ground, the young ice skater decides to engage in close combat by rushing towards her father and the duo begins exchanging a series of straight punches and cross hooks with each other. Her father counters her incoming punches and hooks with his own before being caught slightly off guard when Miyuki kick him back with a side kick and using the opportunity to quickly shuffle backwards to disengage. Blocking the blow with both of his forearms, the father felt himself being slightly pushed back while standing his ground, giving her a slightly impressed nod. After Miyuki sees her father slightly pushed back, her eyes widen when she witnesses him activate the Dust knife function on both of his knuckle blades and charges towards her one more time. She firmly slams her hands to the ground and casts some ice Dust towards her father as he was running towards her, ice mounts begin to rise from the ground below him. The first couple mounts catch him off guard, stopping in his tracks for a moment before he begins to slash through thinner mounts or weaves through thicker mounts. Miyuki uses this time to think before she spin jumps into the air to activate Winter Tempest by preforming the appropriate foot motions in the air.

Her boots transform into their ice skate mode just before she gracefully lands onto the arena and activates her Semblance so she can skate around the snow-covered area as a nearly unnoticeable white Aura is seen around her ice skates for a moment. She then rushes towards her father while firing more shots of ice Dust from her hands, creating more medium sized ice mounts while they slowly started to cover the arena. Her father did weave and dodge her ice Dust blasts as Miyuki planned, though little did he know, that’s what she wanted him to do. As the barrage of Dust shots continued, more ice mounts appeared, each a little larger than the last, slowly surrounding her father. Arctic decides to activate Icebringer’s Dust glove form and set the Dust setting to use fire Dust. With his gloves enveloped in fire, he begins to punch through some of the ice Dust projectiles coming towards him without realizing the increasing amount of ice mounts.

Once Arctic saw Miyuki stop firing for a moment, he sheathes his knife mode and took this chance to activate his Dust gauntlets by turning the snowflake shaped knob to the lightning Dust stored inside it. Lightning envelops both of Icebringer’s gauntlets before firing a few shots of lightning Dust towards Miyuki. Seeing this counterattack, the young ice skater gracefully weaves between the medium sized ice glaciers and coming lightning strikes as she finally let out a Dust wave to cover the ice glaciers on the other side, making an ice wall. Her father barely ducks from the wave before lunging at the skater with his lightning gauntlets. Miyuki spots her father coming and performs a low spin, using one of her skate blades to counter one of his gauntlets. She feels a jolt of electricity that disorients her before her father tosses her backward. After hitting the ground and tumbling, her white Aura flickers. Arctic glances at her with slight worry plastered on his face, deactivating Icebringer’s lightning Dust mode before sighing in relief when he spots her slowly standing onto her feet and briefly shaking her head to shake off the nasty tumble and jolt.

“I won’t give up that easily!” Miyuki proclaims before she begins to skate towards Arctic.

Arctic gives a smile before he charges at his daughter with the same bravado, activating the ice knives mode of his gauntlets. She then preforms a camel spin, spinning while lifting her lift leg to counteract one of his knives. With a quick motion, she swaps her legs and kicks her father back with her right ice skate blade before she pushes herself away. Her father, caught off guard by the sudden blade counter, collapses back onto the ground a foot away from her, his light blue Aura starting to flicker.

“Impressive. You’ve learned a lot, Miyuki.” Her father complements with a hardy laugh while slowly rising to his feet and switching the mode of his gauntlets to their active Dust mode and using ice Dust instead, “Very nice counterstrike.”

Miyuki gives a large smile to show her happiness at her accomplishment, but she couldn’t let her guard down yet, knowing that her father had a couple more tricks up his sleeve. Miyuki skates towards him and before her father could punch her back like before, she jumps over him and gracefully landed on the other side where the ice wall she created was. Her father glances at Miyuki in awe slight surprise when seeing her splendid spin jump and charged at her once more. Miyuki fires a couple more blasts, in which her father dodges and creates a large ice mount that was now covering their view of the house. She blocks a couple of punches from him before a couple pushed her back to the wall.

With Miyuki’s back against the makeshift ice wall, she uses the wall for support as she activates the lightning Dust in her skates with a couple of back leg taps on the ice behind her. When her father begins to close the distance between them, she places one of her legs against the wall behind her and spins forward to kick Arctic. Her father was pushed back further as Miyuki decides to the turn back to the wall and skates up it to rise into the air. With Arctic glancing up at the sky toward her daughter, she flips and smacks her father’s gauntlets with her ice skates, making him fall to his knees before the skater jumps off and lands gracefully on her feet. His Aura shimmers once again before he shakes his head and quickly stands, feeling the jolt from Miyuki’s skates. Once Miyuki sees her father on his knees from her special move, she starts of pant in slight fatigue and closes her eyes for a moment to catch her breath.

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Once Miyuki returns to reality, she performs some extraordinary, astonishing moves to the audience. The spins and jumps that she used against her father are also included which caught the interest of the judges, judging from the audience claps from some of her moves landing perfectly. She listens to her music and smiles to herself upon learning that it was time for the finale with the song reaching its conclusion. Her performance was a success so far and she herself is pleasantly surprised since her skating now is much better than she did during practice. The young skater then proceeds to execute a couple of spins before performing a quadruple axel jump as part of the finish. She charges to gain speed before the skater jumps into the air, her outfit glowing in the moonlight with each spin she performs in the air. Once Miyuki lands, the spectating crowd roars with applause and cheers while approaching the center stage. This very moment that she pulls off with her finale reminds her of the most important part of that memorable day with her father.

                                                                                         \*\*\*\*\*

After taking a few breaths and opening her eyes, Miyuki sees that both her and Arctic begin to breathe slightly heavy from the battle. They both come to the same conclusion that this battle needed to end. When Miyuki charges at her father to finish this, her father switches the Dust that he uses in his right gauntlet to ice Dust and smacks it to the ground, causing a huge wave of ice to rapidly head towards her. She then decides to use her own Dust gloves to mimic the same attack towards her father. Once the mounds cross each other, Miyuki and her father were both struck by each other's attack. Miyuki hit the wall and collapsed on the ground while her father was sent to the ground as both of their Aura’s flicker and disintegrate, showing that their exciting battle ending in a draw. Both Guinevere and Lynn glance at the battlefield in shock, seeing that both Miyuki and Arctic are both unconscious from their final moves.

“Hey sis, can you hear me? Yuki… Yuki!”

When she slowly flutters open her eyes upon hearing Lynn’s voice, she sees Lynn’s worried face and realizes that her head was laying on her sister’s lap. With a slight groan escaping her lips, the young skater slowly sits upright, removing her head from her sister’s leg as the skater saw her loving parents also crouching beside her since the former woke a couple minutes before her.

“Dad? Mom? Lynn? What happened?” Miyuki asks still in a slight daze before her father suddenly tightly embraces her while her sister and mom smile in relief.

Even though Miyuki is surprised by her father’s action, his loving embrace was warm like his kind heart, and she returns his embraces with an equally joyful smile on her face.

“I’m glad that you’re alright and I want to let you know that we’re all so proud of how far you’ve come.” Her father compliments while glancing at his daughter with a smile, “You’ve grown so much to the point that you were able to hold your own. I know that you’ll be a fine huntress one day, my little snowflake.”

Miyuki excitedly smiles when she hears his kind remarks as her mother and sister joined in on the loving embrace. For her, this was a very memorable memory to her that she holds very dear and will always remember.

                                                                          \*\*\*\*\*

At the same time, the skater performs her final moves in the center stage. Miyuki begins to spin with one of her skates. While she gains momentum from the spin, she slowly picks up her other leg by her ankle to perform a donut spin and lift it even higher to perform a Half-Biellmann spin. After a few rotations, she places her foot down and spins with both skates. At the same time the song ends, she stops spinning and poses for the last move. The crowd wildly cheers and the arena roars with applause while the judges stand and clap in amazement after her magnificent performance finishes. Miyuki smiles to the audience as she gives a couple bows before waving to everyone with both hands.

*'I finally did it! Everyone loved my skating debut!’* Miyuki thinks to herself giving one final bow to the audience and the judges, ‘*As long as I give it my all, I can accomplish anything!*’

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                    <------ Moonlight Stars Menu

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                              Crescent Moon Preview ------>

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## Gallery

Team MLIT First RevealMiyuki Skating Example During Beacon