Clannad; In The Snow - Part 1

"Huh, look at that…" Akio said, "The snow hasn't come down this hard ever since that... day…"

Sanae looks at Akio with gloom in her eyes.

Akio agitatedly responds, "Uhhh, sorry…"

They both stand at the shop's counter in silence as if they are left alone in this world.

"I hope Ushio's getting better, I just can't… I can't believe that she has to endure the same things Nagisa had to…"

"She'll definitely get better, there's no doubt about it. She has that brat beside her, to protect her and to cherish her."

Sanae gives Akio a hesitant smile as she wipes her tears away, "Should we close down for today, I don't think we'll be getting any customers today with snow like this."

Akio nods and says, "Sure."

The snow came down in sheets, covering the town. Cars and trains came to a standstill, everything stopped moving as if the town's been paralysed from an illness. Akio finished closing down the shop, he yanked the security shutter down as if he was shutting someone's eyes, he went inside the building right around.

Akio hears a sobbing from the living room and rushes in, "Senae! What's wrong?" he went down on his knees to comfort her.

"I-I… I have a bad feeling about Ushio and Tomoya, what if something had happened…"

"S-Sanae… don't be ridiculous, everything'll be alright, just like I said." Akio says.

He puts his hands on the sides of her arms, but she looks at him as she was begging him for something.

"Alright… do you want to go check on them?"

Sanae nods and so Akio follows up, "Okay, let's go."

Akio and Senae walked together side by side through the influx of snow, they both left footprints behind as they marched on. The houses surrounding them had their roofs and porches painted in pristine white. As they trudged heavily through the snow, Akio's eyes had caught something as if a fish had been caught in a net, there were two bodies lying, almost covered in snow.

"Wait, who is that." He points.

Akio and Sanae begin trotting towards the bodies, Sanae gasps as Akio is left standing with nothing to say, after a few moments, Akio leaps towards those two people and wipes the snow off of them, revealing two familiar faces, one grown adult and one female child.

Ushio and Tomoya Okazaki.

"Brat! Wake up! Wake up! Both of you!" Akio vociferates.

Sanae falls down on three of them, "WAKE UP!" She shouts desperately.

Akio shakes both of them, "C'mon, don't leave us like that, Ushio… Tomoya… please… you can't leave."

As Sanae's tears flow from her eyes, she wails in desperation, people begin surrounding them.

"What happened!?" A man asked.

"CALL THE DAMN AMBULANCE…" Akio clamours.

As the man rushes back inside his home to call someone, both the Furukawa's howl in heartbreak, but the snow just keeps coming down, nonstop.

As it always had.