Title: Can Rukawa be unscrooged? Not!
Part: 1/1
Pairing: None
Genre: AU, OC, OT, non-yaoi... I think o.O
Rating: Up to you.
Author: Mia_Alexia
Email: Angelic_approdite@hotmail.com
Warnings: This is a crazy fic, which I came up with while doing Biology on
the 5th day of Christmas and thought of the movie 'Scrooged'. I mixed a
little of the traditional and the modern days, so this should be
interesting.
Notes^ this is nothing like the normal story of Scrooge. Where Ebenezer
Scrooge repents and become the good guy. I got slightly bored of that
particular tale and decided to put a twist into the story.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, I am just writing about
them.
----
As you all know, Ebenezer Scrooge is well... a scrooge. He hates Christmas, makes people work over-time, refuses the kind gesture of friendship and invitations to party. He was an old, ugly and miserable guy who pretty much made other people lives miserable.
But in my story (drum roll please! Okay, character introductions!), Scrooge is portrayed by the pale faced, cold hearted and very handsome (I know, it's an exaggeration) Kaede Rukawa, his over worked and under payed staff are the unfortunate Hanamichi Sakuragi, Hisashi Mitsui and Ryota (I thought that these three would have great chemistry). The ghost of Christmas past is Kenji Fujima, the ghost of Christmas present is Akira Sendoh and last but not the least, the ghost of Christmas' to come is Shinichi Maki (I thought he looked handsome yet serious enough for the part).
Lets begin... (Music to make it sound mysterious)
***
(Deep, ominous voice starts...) On a dark winter's night (Woo... try to imagine the howling of strong winds if you don't get the picture), the streets were dark. But a light remained lit in the office of Kaede Rukawa, a poor soul worked, his hands shivering from the cold. An oddly familiar ringing sound penetrated his thoughts, then suddenly, Kaede Rukawa stood in front of him saying repeatedly, 'Wake up! Your phone is ringing!'
'ARGH!' a tall man with red-hair cloth in a pristine white shirt and polyester pants stumbled awake to his feet.
'Whoa! Down boy, where's the fire?' a familiar voice coming from a man with short messy hair, penetrated the man's still sleep fogged mind.
'Missy! I had a horrible nightmare! It was of that guy, he was standing just in front of me, demanding I pick up the phone,' the red-headed man said, scrunching his face with distaste at the mention of THAT man.
'HANAMICHI! How many times do I have to tell you? It's not MISSY! It's MITSUI! And no, you CANNOT call me Hissy! By the way, your phone WAS ringing, but it was I who was standing here telling you that it was ringing, so you're lucky this time,' Mitsui said, or rather yelled, everybody in the office stopped working to stared at them.
'Nothing, it's nothing!' Hanamichi shouted, urging everyone to go back to work.
'Slept late again last night?' Mitsui asked, concern mirroring in his eyes.
'Yeah, Mr Scrooge wanted me to double check all the accounts so I stayed up till two hours ago,' Hanamichi replied, rubbing his face wearily.
'Man, thank goodness I'm not an accountant. I would have probably needed to stay back and help you DO the accounts,' Mitsui said, thinking hard.
'Yeah, it would be too big a burden for you, you'd probably just shove it all to me and probably fall asleep,' Hanamichi said, sneering at Mitsui's remark.
'Well, than I should thank you for being the accountant. Anyway, it's already a killer working as Scrooge's coffee boy, he demands his meals strictly by the exact minute of the exact hour, just yesterday he made me race across the city to look for this chinese restaurant which he said served his favourite Kung Pao chicken. I had an hour to locate the restaurant, thankfully I made it, with ONE second to spare,' Mitsui said, heaving a weary sigh.
'Yeah, don't you wish that you could make him change? I mean; you know the show 'SCROOGE' right? What is he was visited by ghosts?' Hanamichi suggested, scoffing at the ridiculous nature of such a suggestion.
'Well, I wish that would happen, we could put that as a wish into the Christmas wish box downtown. Hope we get it,' Mitsui said, rushing off as the buzzer at his table buzzed, signalling that Kaede wanted something from him.
So later, after running his errands, it was knock-off time. The two of them met Ryota who worked on another floor and caught a bus downtown.
'Ow... my feet are killing me,' Mitsui complained as he trudged his way through the mall towards the wish box.
'What did he want today?' Ryota asked as he walked along, surveying leather shoes with impossibly high prices.
'He wanted sushi! He demanded that I go to his favourite restaurant to collect it. He had already ordered it and it would be ready just in time for me to take it. I had ONE hour AGAIN, to locate the bloody freaking place and bring the stupid sushi to him!' Mitsui exclaimed, not caring for his observant occupants of the mall.
'So anything happened to you today?' Ryota asked Hanamichi who had been silent through out the entire trip to the mall when he was usually yakking away.
'Hmm? Sure, a lot of things happened today. First he made me write a report on the checking I did, then he made me double check a whole new set of accounts and then he demanded that I write a report on that too and just before it was time to leave, he gave me a whole new set of accounts to check, he SO helpfully helped me ship the boxes home and told me that I should do a report on ALL the accounts that I had checked including the new one that he HELPED ship home,' Hanamichi grumbled as he too trudged through the mall.
'WOW! That's a lot of checking AND reporting. Anyway, I had no work AT ALL!' Ryota said cheerfully.
'WHAT!' Hanamichi and Mitsui yelled, advancing on Ryota.
'Guys, guys... That's not all...' Ryota said dejectedly.
'Well? What else is there?' Mitsui asked, fuming mad.
'I got DEMOTED! They felt that I wasn't working efficiently enough and so I got demoted to being a coffee-boy. But since no one eats at all, I had nothing to do, I could call in sick and nobody would care,' Ryota said mournfully.
'Oh!' was all that the two men could say as they stopped advancing on Ryota, their anger diffusing out off them.
'I'm sorry, but shall we go and try and get our wishes granted?' Mitsui suggested, their spirits lifting at the thought of Kaede Rukawa being a changed man.
So they all made their wishes that the ghosts of Christmas past, present and Christmas' to come would visit, the cold hearted man. Oh! By the way, it was the eve of the eve of Christmas.
Christmas Eve! Jingle-bells, Jingle-bells, Jingle all the way!
'I hope we didn't make those wishes too late,' Ryota said, looking at his watch.
'Oh well, we'll know by tomorrow,' Hanamichi said, punching in his time card.
'I hope so!' Mitsui said, wishing fervently.
(Now we get to the exciting part!!!! YES!)
'Mandy? Get the coffee boy in here now!' Kaede Rukawa's cold steely voice said, his cold tone jolting his PA even though she was separated from him by at least two solid walls of concrete.
'Yes Sir!' Mandy replied, quickly jumping out of her seat to buzz Mitsui.
'Hisashi Mitsui, sir,' Mandy said, tentatively, admitting Mitsui into his office.
'Who is he?' Kaede asked, not looking up.
'The coffee boy, sir,' Mandy replied, quite irritated that her boss could not remember the coffee boy's name.
'Ah yes, you may leave,' Kaede said, looking up and recognising Mitsui's face.
'Okay, here's what I need. Fried rice, pomegranate chicken and a bowl of herbal soup, you can get all these at a restaurant in downtown called 'Your wishes come true', you have one hour,' Kaede said, not bothering to look if Mitsui exited his office or not.
'Yes sir,' Mitsui gritted out between his teeth as he exited, passing Mandy to accept money from her for Kaede's lunch.
'I'm really sorry about his attitude,' Mandy apologised, handing out big denomination bills.
'Well, I hope my wish come true and then he'll change,' Mitsui muttered under his breath as he entered the lift, synchronizing his watch to that of Kaede's and rushing out to catch a cab.
***
*KNOCK-KNOCK!*
'What is it, Mandy?' Kaede demanded, not looking up once again.
*SILENCE*
'Mandy?' Kaede asked tentatively, finally looking up from his work.
'Argh! Irritating staff!' Kaede muttered in frustration as he got up, rounded his desk and approached the door.
'What is it?!' Kaede demanded as he swung the door open, only to be greeted by silence.
'Wait till I find out who pulled this practical joke, I'll sack them!' Kaede yelled, slamming the door shut.
'KAEDE!' an ominously deep voice said.
'What?!' Kaede snapped, thoroughly frustrated, turning around quickly.
The sight that he saw thoroughly shocked him.
'Father?' Kaede whispered.
'Yes, look at what I have become. You will be like this too if you carry on with the selfishness now. But you can be saved!' the dead rotting corpsed rasped as he walked gingerly towards Kaede.
'Please... of course you're like that, you're dead. For at least seven years. It is simple science you know, you taught me yourself. Bacteria...' Kaede said, trailing off as a wail of pain came from the rotting corpse that was once his father.
'Oh Kaede, what have I done to you?' the corpse rasped once again.
'You made me into a multi-millionaire,' Kaede replied simply.
'Exactly, but I also taught you to be selfish and ignorant to all your needs,' the corpse said, walking closer to Kaede.
'In order for you to be saved, you will be visited by three ghosts. The ghost of Christmas past, present and Christmas' to come, heed their warnings my son and you shall be freed of the treacherous path to self- destruct that you are on, expect the first ghost at 11 o'clock tonight,' the decomposing corpse rasped one last time before vanishing.
'Hmm... that was weird. Oh well, where's my lunch? That boy has five minutes left,' Kaede murmured to himself before going back to his desk to continue on his proposal.
Later that night, as Kaede got into bed, his gaze strayed to the grandfather's clock, which he had in his hall. He saw that is was already 10.30pm. He went to bed but was awoken by the chiming of the clock.
A pearly shimmery light filled his room; a diminutive shadow appeared in the light.
'I am the Holy ghost!' the voice boomed.
'Holy Ghost?! I thought I was suppose to expect the ghost of Christmas past...' Kaede said, looking at the shadow in disbelieve.
'Really?' the voice became slightly softer.
'Yes, that's what my dead father told me,' Kaede said, getting out of bed and crossing over to the shadow.
'Oh okay then,' the voice said once again. He flung off the cloak to reveal a boy with feminie features; he wore a shimmery white suit and white shoes.
'You? You are the ghost of Christmas past?' Kaede asked sarcastically.
'Well, I may not look like it but yeah. With the previous scrooges, I was a fairy, and then it was a cab driver. God seriously thinks it's funny to put me in all those disguises. But let me tell you, it is very stifling, the heat that those costumes trap, sheesh, you could end up a slowly cooked turkey,' the boy said once again.
'And so... what are you? And who are you?' Kaede asked, eyeing the boy critically.
'Well, for starters, I'm an angel. Where's my halo? Oh, here it is. I have various roles; I played part of the singing angels, you know the ones who announce Christ's birth to the shepherds. I was the shining star, which led the wise men to him, but later on I was relieved but a fellow angel. And as I've told you, I played the fairy and a taxi driver to the previous two scrooges. And finally, my name is Kenji Fujima,' the boy said as he patted his pockets as if he were looking for something and took out a circle of light which he flipped and it fell neatly into place on the crown of his head.
'Really? I'm suppose to believe all that crap?' Kaede asked, gesturing to Fujima's halo, seeing that the halo had stopped glowing.
'Yes, anyway, we need to be on the way,' Fujima said, giving the halo a flick with his fingers and taking out a pocket watch.
'Okay, let's get this show on the roll,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers.
Kaede's bedroom flickered and shimmered and solidified again. But this time he was no longer in his bedroom. They were outside a house, it was a mansion and its grounds were decorated with all sorts of Christmas decoration.
'Come on, they're waiting for us,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers once again.
'Who is?' Kaede asked, seeing that once again his surrounding were fading and shimmering.
'Your family,' Fujima said as the room came into focus.
There, they saw that the entire room was full of decorations; a gigantic tree dominated the room. It had tinsel, baubles of different designs and colour and various ornaments that glinted and sparkled in the firelight.
'Yeah! It's Christmas!' came a yell and a thundering of footsteps down the stairs.
'Kaede darling, slow down,' came a feminine voice, accompanied by slow and subtle footsteps.
'Oh wow, thank you, mum!' the young boy who had opened the first presents which just so happened to be his mother's. He now held a very handsome steam train set.
'I wonder what Dad got for me,' the boy said, rummaging through the pile of presents to search for the particular present, which held his father's name. In his excitement, he could not see the knowing look of disappointment and concern that was on his mother's face because she knew that he was bound to be disappointed.
'Oh...' the younger Kaede said, disappointed as he held up four thick wads consisting of twenty hundred dollar bills each.
'Merry Christmas, son,' his father said as he came into the room, dressed in a suit.
'Merry Christmas, Dad,' the younger Kaede said softly, a sad look upon his face.
'What's the matter, son?' his father asked, noting the sad look.
'Well, it was just that... I hoped that you would get me a present this year instead of giving me money again,' the younger Kaede said, touching the wads slowly.
'Well, now you can go out shopping with your mum and go and get gifts for yourself,' his father said as he exited the room.
'But mum...' the younger Kaede said, disappointed once again.
'I know dear, we'll go later today,' his mother said, going back to her room.
'Okay, so what's this suppose to tell me?' Kaede asked as he saw the room dim and fade again.
'It's trying to say that it was because of these such Christmas' that you turned out to be cold, selfish and miserable man,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers again.
'Okay, yeah, whatever. What's next?' Kaede said, yawning delicately.
'Well, I return you to your time. There you shall wait for the ghost of Christmas present,' Fujima said as Kaede present bedroom formed it's shape around them.
'Well, thank you for showing me the past,' Kaede said as he climbed back into bed.
'You're very much obliged. Your mother definitely taught you proper manners,' Fujima said as he disappeared into the light.
'I wonder what time the next ghost is coming,' Kaede murmured, yawning and falling into a light doze.
*Sound of clock chiming*
'Huh?' Kaede mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
'Hi!' a REALLY cheerful voice said from behind Kaede.
'AH!' Kaede yelled as he got a shock, tumbling off his bed.
'I'm SO sorry,' the grinning person or something said as he helped Kaede up.
'It's... it's okay,' Kaede said, clearing his head.
'Okay, I'm... what's my duty this time? Wait a minute, will you?' the grinning person said while he rummaged through his pockets like Fujima had.
'Um... I think I can tell you,' Kaede said, a little frustrated at the waiting he had to do.
'Hold on just a minute, will you?' the person said again before yelling, 'Yo Fujima, what am I this time?'
'You're the ghost of Christmas present, you numb skull! And you're not supposed to be doing this! When are you ever going to memorize your jobs? You are one of THE most forgetful angels ever!' Fujima could be heard yelling from the heavens.
'Okay, okay... Sorry! I'll try my best next time, all right?' the grinning person asked again.
'Whatever,' Fujima's voice echoed one last time.
'Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, I am the ghost of Christmas present. And thank you so much for saying we did not need those costumes, do you know that the tutu is very tight? And also that those infernal wings... And I keep forgetting the stupid wand, anyway, my name is Akira Sendoh,' Sendoh said as the fiddled with the halo above his head, still grinning away.
'Okay...' Kaede said, not knowing what else to say.
'So, let's go, I have another assignment after this, we have to fly through this,' Sendoh said, snapping his fingers.
'Where are we?' Kaede asked once the place came into focused.
'We're at... oh yeah, Hisashi Mitsui, Miyagi Ryota and Sakuragi Hanamichi's house... did you know that they were room-mates?' Sendoh replied after searching through a clipboard then smiling at Kaede.
'No, was I suppose to know?' Kaede asked, not the least interested.
'Oh dear, I see that Maki will have a lot of work to do,' Sendoh said as he led Kaede into the apartment.
'What are we doing here?' Kaede asked, looking around the just nice apartment.
'You'll see,' Sendoh said, his grin widening.
They entered a door and saw a party going on...
'Yo, how come none of you invited Mr Frost?' an employee yelled from across the room.
'Mr Frost, Mr Scrooge, Mr Cold-hearted moron, who cares, he didn't even bother to give us a raise for the festive season,' someone yelled back from across the room.
'Yo everyone listen up, On the first day of Christmas, Mr Kaede got from me, A brand new personality!' Hanamichi sang, quite joyously and very obviously drunk.
'So, what do you think? Your staff is celebrating Christmas without you and they are making fun of you,' Sendoh asked, grinning, hoping to get a positive response.
'See, I'm so great that they even make up songs about me!' Kaede said triumphantly.
'Oh my, you're unrepentant, well, it's time for you to go back. Maki will come for you at around three, good luck,' Sendoh said as he snapped his fingers once again.
'These ghost, angels whatever they are have to find a better tactic, this is getting boring,' Kaede said as he yawned and promptly feeling into deep slumber.
*Sound of clock chiming*
'Finally... this had better be good,' Kaede thought to himself as he woke up.
'Yo, are you ready to go?' a shadow in a dark cloak asked, holding out his hand.
'So, you are the ghost of Christmas' to come... do you have a face like the others or are you going to hide you face under that cloak forever?' Kaede asked, crossing his arms.
'Well, technically I have a face, but God was insistent that I try and scare you but I can see that it is not working so why not!' the person said as he ripped of the cloak, to reveal a suit, shoes and a halo similar to Fujima's and Sendoh's, 'Now scram...' he told the little bodies clinging to his.
'That's better, I hate to talk to a person when their eyes are hidden behind something,' Kaede said as he uncrossed his arms.
'Thank you, those imps were beginning to irritate me. The cloak was stifling and they were beginning to make coffee under there. By the way, I'm Shinichi Maki,' Maki said, smiling slightly.
'Okay, so what time are we going to?' Kaede asked as Maki snapped his fingers.
'Year 2050... Fujima and Sendoh were right. Nothing much fazes you anymore. We'll be seeing the gruesome reality,' Maki said as the place surrounding them solidified.
They were in a small crematorium...
'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the burial of a great man...' the priest droned on...
'Whose funeral are we at?' Kaede asked, trying to peer into the hole that he stood too close for comfort to.
'Yours,' Maki said, pushing Kaede in with a finger.
'Noooo!' Kaede yelled as he felled on top on the coffin and they started to fill it in.
'AH!' Kaede yelled as he jumped up in bed, waking from his horrible dream.
'Oh well, it must have only been a dream,' Kaede thought, as he got ready for work.
***
'Wonder if it worked...' Hanamichi asked Ryota and Mitsui who were sitting on his desk.
'Well, we'll just have to wait to find out,' Ryota said, turning to Mitsui who had a paging.
'Looks like it will be sometime soon...' Mitsui replied, picking up the phone.
***
At Kaede's office,
'Good morning, sir,' Mandy called as Kaede walked past her.
'Good morning, Mandy,' Kaede replied stopping at the entrance of his office.
'Oh and Mandy, will you call Hisashi Mitsui? I want my breakfast,' Kaede said as he entered his office, leaving Mandy gaping in his wake, that he actually recalled the coffee boy's name.
***
'Mitsui, Kaede wants you. He called for you specifically by name,' Mandy said as she met Mitsui at the elevator.
'He did? I wonder what brought about that change,' Mitsui asked, thinking he fully knew what happened.
'Sir? Hisashi Mitsui!' Mandy said, admitting Mitsui.
'Thank you, you may leave,' Kaede said, looking up from his work.
'Mitsui, I want fried rice today from the same restaurant as last week, step to it, you have one hour,' Kaede said as he dismissed Mitsui.
'Well? Anything different?' Mandy asked as she handed Mitsui the money.
'No, he is just a LITTLE more attentive that's all,' Mitsui said mournfully.
'Oh well, you can't expect him to change overnight,' Mandy said, sighing sadly.
Kaede demoted Hanamichi or rather he cut his pay for making that stupid song up, Ryota he put back in his old position and gave him more work to do. He made Mitsui work twice as hard to bring him his meals. ***
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere,
'I told you he wouldn't change that easily, that son of mine, he's got nerves of steel, he's not some easily scared off pussy,' Rukawa senior boasted, puffing his decomposing chest.
'Mr Rukawa, you were suppose to help change your son not support him,' Fujima said in reproof.
'Well, I can't help it but be proud of him, like father like son,' Rukawa Senior said, grinning, his teeth and bugs falling out.
'Oh well, we tried to save him,' Maki said, playing halo hoops with Sendoh.
'You can't say we didn't try,' Sendoh said, grinning, after he managed to ring a halo around the pole.
'Silence! I send all of you to save a soul and here you are telling me that you tried your best?' God's voice boomed through the heavens.
'Lord have mercy, your saw our efforts, they just didn't work on him,' Fujima said, gesturing helplessly.
'Yes well, I suppose we can't save every one of them...' God said, his voice becoming softer as he approached them.
'In that you are right, God... Kogure...' Fujima, Maki and Sendoh said in unison.
~ The End ~
Hehehe, so... how is it? Do you like it? I know, God was a bit of a surprise right? You never expected it to be him right? I think you expected it to Akagi or Uozumi or someone like that right? Yeah well, I decided against the odds. So this is my insanely outrageous idea, finished in one day.
As you all know, Ebenezer Scrooge is well... a scrooge. He hates Christmas, makes people work over-time, refuses the kind gesture of friendship and invitations to party. He was an old, ugly and miserable guy who pretty much made other people lives miserable.
But in my story (drum roll please! Okay, character introductions!), Scrooge is portrayed by the pale faced, cold hearted and very handsome (I know, it's an exaggeration) Kaede Rukawa, his over worked and under payed staff are the unfortunate Hanamichi Sakuragi, Hisashi Mitsui and Ryota (I thought that these three would have great chemistry). The ghost of Christmas past is Kenji Fujima, the ghost of Christmas present is Akira Sendoh and last but not the least, the ghost of Christmas' to come is Shinichi Maki (I thought he looked handsome yet serious enough for the part).
Lets begin... (Music to make it sound mysterious)
***
(Deep, ominous voice starts...) On a dark winter's night (Woo... try to imagine the howling of strong winds if you don't get the picture), the streets were dark. But a light remained lit in the office of Kaede Rukawa, a poor soul worked, his hands shivering from the cold. An oddly familiar ringing sound penetrated his thoughts, then suddenly, Kaede Rukawa stood in front of him saying repeatedly, 'Wake up! Your phone is ringing!'
'ARGH!' a tall man with red-hair cloth in a pristine white shirt and polyester pants stumbled awake to his feet.
'Whoa! Down boy, where's the fire?' a familiar voice coming from a man with short messy hair, penetrated the man's still sleep fogged mind.
'Missy! I had a horrible nightmare! It was of that guy, he was standing just in front of me, demanding I pick up the phone,' the red-headed man said, scrunching his face with distaste at the mention of THAT man.
'HANAMICHI! How many times do I have to tell you? It's not MISSY! It's MITSUI! And no, you CANNOT call me Hissy! By the way, your phone WAS ringing, but it was I who was standing here telling you that it was ringing, so you're lucky this time,' Mitsui said, or rather yelled, everybody in the office stopped working to stared at them.
'Nothing, it's nothing!' Hanamichi shouted, urging everyone to go back to work.
'Slept late again last night?' Mitsui asked, concern mirroring in his eyes.
'Yeah, Mr Scrooge wanted me to double check all the accounts so I stayed up till two hours ago,' Hanamichi replied, rubbing his face wearily.
'Man, thank goodness I'm not an accountant. I would have probably needed to stay back and help you DO the accounts,' Mitsui said, thinking hard.
'Yeah, it would be too big a burden for you, you'd probably just shove it all to me and probably fall asleep,' Hanamichi said, sneering at Mitsui's remark.
'Well, than I should thank you for being the accountant. Anyway, it's already a killer working as Scrooge's coffee boy, he demands his meals strictly by the exact minute of the exact hour, just yesterday he made me race across the city to look for this chinese restaurant which he said served his favourite Kung Pao chicken. I had an hour to locate the restaurant, thankfully I made it, with ONE second to spare,' Mitsui said, heaving a weary sigh.
'Yeah, don't you wish that you could make him change? I mean; you know the show 'SCROOGE' right? What is he was visited by ghosts?' Hanamichi suggested, scoffing at the ridiculous nature of such a suggestion.
'Well, I wish that would happen, we could put that as a wish into the Christmas wish box downtown. Hope we get it,' Mitsui said, rushing off as the buzzer at his table buzzed, signalling that Kaede wanted something from him.
So later, after running his errands, it was knock-off time. The two of them met Ryota who worked on another floor and caught a bus downtown.
'Ow... my feet are killing me,' Mitsui complained as he trudged his way through the mall towards the wish box.
'What did he want today?' Ryota asked as he walked along, surveying leather shoes with impossibly high prices.
'He wanted sushi! He demanded that I go to his favourite restaurant to collect it. He had already ordered it and it would be ready just in time for me to take it. I had ONE hour AGAIN, to locate the bloody freaking place and bring the stupid sushi to him!' Mitsui exclaimed, not caring for his observant occupants of the mall.
'So anything happened to you today?' Ryota asked Hanamichi who had been silent through out the entire trip to the mall when he was usually yakking away.
'Hmm? Sure, a lot of things happened today. First he made me write a report on the checking I did, then he made me double check a whole new set of accounts and then he demanded that I write a report on that too and just before it was time to leave, he gave me a whole new set of accounts to check, he SO helpfully helped me ship the boxes home and told me that I should do a report on ALL the accounts that I had checked including the new one that he HELPED ship home,' Hanamichi grumbled as he too trudged through the mall.
'WOW! That's a lot of checking AND reporting. Anyway, I had no work AT ALL!' Ryota said cheerfully.
'WHAT!' Hanamichi and Mitsui yelled, advancing on Ryota.
'Guys, guys... That's not all...' Ryota said dejectedly.
'Well? What else is there?' Mitsui asked, fuming mad.
'I got DEMOTED! They felt that I wasn't working efficiently enough and so I got demoted to being a coffee-boy. But since no one eats at all, I had nothing to do, I could call in sick and nobody would care,' Ryota said mournfully.
'Oh!' was all that the two men could say as they stopped advancing on Ryota, their anger diffusing out off them.
'I'm sorry, but shall we go and try and get our wishes granted?' Mitsui suggested, their spirits lifting at the thought of Kaede Rukawa being a changed man.
So they all made their wishes that the ghosts of Christmas past, present and Christmas' to come would visit, the cold hearted man. Oh! By the way, it was the eve of the eve of Christmas.
Christmas Eve! Jingle-bells, Jingle-bells, Jingle all the way!
'I hope we didn't make those wishes too late,' Ryota said, looking at his watch.
'Oh well, we'll know by tomorrow,' Hanamichi said, punching in his time card.
'I hope so!' Mitsui said, wishing fervently.
(Now we get to the exciting part!!!! YES!)
'Mandy? Get the coffee boy in here now!' Kaede Rukawa's cold steely voice said, his cold tone jolting his PA even though she was separated from him by at least two solid walls of concrete.
'Yes Sir!' Mandy replied, quickly jumping out of her seat to buzz Mitsui.
'Hisashi Mitsui, sir,' Mandy said, tentatively, admitting Mitsui into his office.
'Who is he?' Kaede asked, not looking up.
'The coffee boy, sir,' Mandy replied, quite irritated that her boss could not remember the coffee boy's name.
'Ah yes, you may leave,' Kaede said, looking up and recognising Mitsui's face.
'Okay, here's what I need. Fried rice, pomegranate chicken and a bowl of herbal soup, you can get all these at a restaurant in downtown called 'Your wishes come true', you have one hour,' Kaede said, not bothering to look if Mitsui exited his office or not.
'Yes sir,' Mitsui gritted out between his teeth as he exited, passing Mandy to accept money from her for Kaede's lunch.
'I'm really sorry about his attitude,' Mandy apologised, handing out big denomination bills.
'Well, I hope my wish come true and then he'll change,' Mitsui muttered under his breath as he entered the lift, synchronizing his watch to that of Kaede's and rushing out to catch a cab.
***
*KNOCK-KNOCK!*
'What is it, Mandy?' Kaede demanded, not looking up once again.
*SILENCE*
'Mandy?' Kaede asked tentatively, finally looking up from his work.
'Argh! Irritating staff!' Kaede muttered in frustration as he got up, rounded his desk and approached the door.
'What is it?!' Kaede demanded as he swung the door open, only to be greeted by silence.
'Wait till I find out who pulled this practical joke, I'll sack them!' Kaede yelled, slamming the door shut.
'KAEDE!' an ominously deep voice said.
'What?!' Kaede snapped, thoroughly frustrated, turning around quickly.
The sight that he saw thoroughly shocked him.
'Father?' Kaede whispered.
'Yes, look at what I have become. You will be like this too if you carry on with the selfishness now. But you can be saved!' the dead rotting corpsed rasped as he walked gingerly towards Kaede.
'Please... of course you're like that, you're dead. For at least seven years. It is simple science you know, you taught me yourself. Bacteria...' Kaede said, trailing off as a wail of pain came from the rotting corpse that was once his father.
'Oh Kaede, what have I done to you?' the corpse rasped once again.
'You made me into a multi-millionaire,' Kaede replied simply.
'Exactly, but I also taught you to be selfish and ignorant to all your needs,' the corpse said, walking closer to Kaede.
'In order for you to be saved, you will be visited by three ghosts. The ghost of Christmas past, present and Christmas' to come, heed their warnings my son and you shall be freed of the treacherous path to self- destruct that you are on, expect the first ghost at 11 o'clock tonight,' the decomposing corpse rasped one last time before vanishing.
'Hmm... that was weird. Oh well, where's my lunch? That boy has five minutes left,' Kaede murmured to himself before going back to his desk to continue on his proposal.
Later that night, as Kaede got into bed, his gaze strayed to the grandfather's clock, which he had in his hall. He saw that is was already 10.30pm. He went to bed but was awoken by the chiming of the clock.
A pearly shimmery light filled his room; a diminutive shadow appeared in the light.
'I am the Holy ghost!' the voice boomed.
'Holy Ghost?! I thought I was suppose to expect the ghost of Christmas past...' Kaede said, looking at the shadow in disbelieve.
'Really?' the voice became slightly softer.
'Yes, that's what my dead father told me,' Kaede said, getting out of bed and crossing over to the shadow.
'Oh okay then,' the voice said once again. He flung off the cloak to reveal a boy with feminie features; he wore a shimmery white suit and white shoes.
'You? You are the ghost of Christmas past?' Kaede asked sarcastically.
'Well, I may not look like it but yeah. With the previous scrooges, I was a fairy, and then it was a cab driver. God seriously thinks it's funny to put me in all those disguises. But let me tell you, it is very stifling, the heat that those costumes trap, sheesh, you could end up a slowly cooked turkey,' the boy said once again.
'And so... what are you? And who are you?' Kaede asked, eyeing the boy critically.
'Well, for starters, I'm an angel. Where's my halo? Oh, here it is. I have various roles; I played part of the singing angels, you know the ones who announce Christ's birth to the shepherds. I was the shining star, which led the wise men to him, but later on I was relieved but a fellow angel. And as I've told you, I played the fairy and a taxi driver to the previous two scrooges. And finally, my name is Kenji Fujima,' the boy said as he patted his pockets as if he were looking for something and took out a circle of light which he flipped and it fell neatly into place on the crown of his head.
'Really? I'm suppose to believe all that crap?' Kaede asked, gesturing to Fujima's halo, seeing that the halo had stopped glowing.
'Yes, anyway, we need to be on the way,' Fujima said, giving the halo a flick with his fingers and taking out a pocket watch.
'Okay, let's get this show on the roll,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers.
Kaede's bedroom flickered and shimmered and solidified again. But this time he was no longer in his bedroom. They were outside a house, it was a mansion and its grounds were decorated with all sorts of Christmas decoration.
'Come on, they're waiting for us,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers once again.
'Who is?' Kaede asked, seeing that once again his surrounding were fading and shimmering.
'Your family,' Fujima said as the room came into focus.
There, they saw that the entire room was full of decorations; a gigantic tree dominated the room. It had tinsel, baubles of different designs and colour and various ornaments that glinted and sparkled in the firelight.
'Yeah! It's Christmas!' came a yell and a thundering of footsteps down the stairs.
'Kaede darling, slow down,' came a feminine voice, accompanied by slow and subtle footsteps.
'Oh wow, thank you, mum!' the young boy who had opened the first presents which just so happened to be his mother's. He now held a very handsome steam train set.
'I wonder what Dad got for me,' the boy said, rummaging through the pile of presents to search for the particular present, which held his father's name. In his excitement, he could not see the knowing look of disappointment and concern that was on his mother's face because she knew that he was bound to be disappointed.
'Oh...' the younger Kaede said, disappointed as he held up four thick wads consisting of twenty hundred dollar bills each.
'Merry Christmas, son,' his father said as he came into the room, dressed in a suit.
'Merry Christmas, Dad,' the younger Kaede said softly, a sad look upon his face.
'What's the matter, son?' his father asked, noting the sad look.
'Well, it was just that... I hoped that you would get me a present this year instead of giving me money again,' the younger Kaede said, touching the wads slowly.
'Well, now you can go out shopping with your mum and go and get gifts for yourself,' his father said as he exited the room.
'But mum...' the younger Kaede said, disappointed once again.
'I know dear, we'll go later today,' his mother said, going back to her room.
'Okay, so what's this suppose to tell me?' Kaede asked as he saw the room dim and fade again.
'It's trying to say that it was because of these such Christmas' that you turned out to be cold, selfish and miserable man,' Fujima said, snapping his fingers again.
'Okay, yeah, whatever. What's next?' Kaede said, yawning delicately.
'Well, I return you to your time. There you shall wait for the ghost of Christmas present,' Fujima said as Kaede present bedroom formed it's shape around them.
'Well, thank you for showing me the past,' Kaede said as he climbed back into bed.
'You're very much obliged. Your mother definitely taught you proper manners,' Fujima said as he disappeared into the light.
'I wonder what time the next ghost is coming,' Kaede murmured, yawning and falling into a light doze.
*Sound of clock chiming*
'Huh?' Kaede mumbled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
'Hi!' a REALLY cheerful voice said from behind Kaede.
'AH!' Kaede yelled as he got a shock, tumbling off his bed.
'I'm SO sorry,' the grinning person or something said as he helped Kaede up.
'It's... it's okay,' Kaede said, clearing his head.
'Okay, I'm... what's my duty this time? Wait a minute, will you?' the grinning person said while he rummaged through his pockets like Fujima had.
'Um... I think I can tell you,' Kaede said, a little frustrated at the waiting he had to do.
'Hold on just a minute, will you?' the person said again before yelling, 'Yo Fujima, what am I this time?'
'You're the ghost of Christmas present, you numb skull! And you're not supposed to be doing this! When are you ever going to memorize your jobs? You are one of THE most forgetful angels ever!' Fujima could be heard yelling from the heavens.
'Okay, okay... Sorry! I'll try my best next time, all right?' the grinning person asked again.
'Whatever,' Fujima's voice echoed one last time.
'Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, I am the ghost of Christmas present. And thank you so much for saying we did not need those costumes, do you know that the tutu is very tight? And also that those infernal wings... And I keep forgetting the stupid wand, anyway, my name is Akira Sendoh,' Sendoh said as the fiddled with the halo above his head, still grinning away.
'Okay...' Kaede said, not knowing what else to say.
'So, let's go, I have another assignment after this, we have to fly through this,' Sendoh said, snapping his fingers.
'Where are we?' Kaede asked once the place came into focused.
'We're at... oh yeah, Hisashi Mitsui, Miyagi Ryota and Sakuragi Hanamichi's house... did you know that they were room-mates?' Sendoh replied after searching through a clipboard then smiling at Kaede.
'No, was I suppose to know?' Kaede asked, not the least interested.
'Oh dear, I see that Maki will have a lot of work to do,' Sendoh said as he led Kaede into the apartment.
'What are we doing here?' Kaede asked, looking around the just nice apartment.
'You'll see,' Sendoh said, his grin widening.
They entered a door and saw a party going on...
'Yo, how come none of you invited Mr Frost?' an employee yelled from across the room.
'Mr Frost, Mr Scrooge, Mr Cold-hearted moron, who cares, he didn't even bother to give us a raise for the festive season,' someone yelled back from across the room.
'Yo everyone listen up, On the first day of Christmas, Mr Kaede got from me, A brand new personality!' Hanamichi sang, quite joyously and very obviously drunk.
'So, what do you think? Your staff is celebrating Christmas without you and they are making fun of you,' Sendoh asked, grinning, hoping to get a positive response.
'See, I'm so great that they even make up songs about me!' Kaede said triumphantly.
'Oh my, you're unrepentant, well, it's time for you to go back. Maki will come for you at around three, good luck,' Sendoh said as he snapped his fingers once again.
'These ghost, angels whatever they are have to find a better tactic, this is getting boring,' Kaede said as he yawned and promptly feeling into deep slumber.
*Sound of clock chiming*
'Finally... this had better be good,' Kaede thought to himself as he woke up.
'Yo, are you ready to go?' a shadow in a dark cloak asked, holding out his hand.
'So, you are the ghost of Christmas' to come... do you have a face like the others or are you going to hide you face under that cloak forever?' Kaede asked, crossing his arms.
'Well, technically I have a face, but God was insistent that I try and scare you but I can see that it is not working so why not!' the person said as he ripped of the cloak, to reveal a suit, shoes and a halo similar to Fujima's and Sendoh's, 'Now scram...' he told the little bodies clinging to his.
'That's better, I hate to talk to a person when their eyes are hidden behind something,' Kaede said as he uncrossed his arms.
'Thank you, those imps were beginning to irritate me. The cloak was stifling and they were beginning to make coffee under there. By the way, I'm Shinichi Maki,' Maki said, smiling slightly.
'Okay, so what time are we going to?' Kaede asked as Maki snapped his fingers.
'Year 2050... Fujima and Sendoh were right. Nothing much fazes you anymore. We'll be seeing the gruesome reality,' Maki said as the place surrounding them solidified.
They were in a small crematorium...
'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the burial of a great man...' the priest droned on...
'Whose funeral are we at?' Kaede asked, trying to peer into the hole that he stood too close for comfort to.
'Yours,' Maki said, pushing Kaede in with a finger.
'Noooo!' Kaede yelled as he felled on top on the coffin and they started to fill it in.
'AH!' Kaede yelled as he jumped up in bed, waking from his horrible dream.
'Oh well, it must have only been a dream,' Kaede thought, as he got ready for work.
***
'Wonder if it worked...' Hanamichi asked Ryota and Mitsui who were sitting on his desk.
'Well, we'll just have to wait to find out,' Ryota said, turning to Mitsui who had a paging.
'Looks like it will be sometime soon...' Mitsui replied, picking up the phone.
***
At Kaede's office,
'Good morning, sir,' Mandy called as Kaede walked past her.
'Good morning, Mandy,' Kaede replied stopping at the entrance of his office.
'Oh and Mandy, will you call Hisashi Mitsui? I want my breakfast,' Kaede said as he entered his office, leaving Mandy gaping in his wake, that he actually recalled the coffee boy's name.
***
'Mitsui, Kaede wants you. He called for you specifically by name,' Mandy said as she met Mitsui at the elevator.
'He did? I wonder what brought about that change,' Mitsui asked, thinking he fully knew what happened.
'Sir? Hisashi Mitsui!' Mandy said, admitting Mitsui.
'Thank you, you may leave,' Kaede said, looking up from his work.
'Mitsui, I want fried rice today from the same restaurant as last week, step to it, you have one hour,' Kaede said as he dismissed Mitsui.
'Well? Anything different?' Mandy asked as she handed Mitsui the money.
'No, he is just a LITTLE more attentive that's all,' Mitsui said mournfully.
'Oh well, you can't expect him to change overnight,' Mandy said, sighing sadly.
Kaede demoted Hanamichi or rather he cut his pay for making that stupid song up, Ryota he put back in his old position and gave him more work to do. He made Mitsui work twice as hard to bring him his meals. ***
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere,
'I told you he wouldn't change that easily, that son of mine, he's got nerves of steel, he's not some easily scared off pussy,' Rukawa senior boasted, puffing his decomposing chest.
'Mr Rukawa, you were suppose to help change your son not support him,' Fujima said in reproof.
'Well, I can't help it but be proud of him, like father like son,' Rukawa Senior said, grinning, his teeth and bugs falling out.
'Oh well, we tried to save him,' Maki said, playing halo hoops with Sendoh.
'You can't say we didn't try,' Sendoh said, grinning, after he managed to ring a halo around the pole.
'Silence! I send all of you to save a soul and here you are telling me that you tried your best?' God's voice boomed through the heavens.
'Lord have mercy, your saw our efforts, they just didn't work on him,' Fujima said, gesturing helplessly.
'Yes well, I suppose we can't save every one of them...' God said, his voice becoming softer as he approached them.
'In that you are right, God... Kogure...' Fujima, Maki and Sendoh said in unison.
~ The End ~
Hehehe, so... how is it? Do you like it? I know, God was a bit of a surprise right? You never expected it to be him right? I think you expected it to Akagi or Uozumi or someone like that right? Yeah well, I decided against the odds. So this is my insanely outrageous idea, finished in one day.