Shinken Reunion Party – Holiday Version
I'm taking a break from my crossover fic to bring you yet another Shinkenger one-shot (I will try not to keep y'all hanging too long). Two reasons why I went with a new story instead of writing the next chapter of my Shinkenger/Go-onger crossover; 1) I wanted to write a Christmas-themed Shinkenger fic after remembering Phinal Phantasy's "What to Get Tono-Sama For Christmas," and 2) I'm still trying to figure out how the next chapter in the crossover will go down. As with my previous Shinkenger fics, Chiaki and Kotoha are a couple in this story.
Synopsis: The Shinkengers want to reunite for Christmas, but with Mako and Genta overseas and Chiaki in Kyoto to spend the day with Kotoha, will the reunion have to wait until next year? Post-Act 49.
The obligatory legal stuff: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, all characters, and all references therein are the property of Toei of Japan. PlayStation Portable is the property of Sony Computer Entertainment. I own none of the aforementioned properties; original characters, however, are indeed mine.
Saturday, December 25, 16:05 PM, Kyoto, Japan
Kotoha and Mitsuba sat at the table in their den, each with a slice of Christmas cake and a cup of tea in front of them. They watched with curiosity as Chiaki, after taking a sip of tea, plugged a webcam into his laptop computer, which was connected to the phone jack in the kitchen, and clipped it to the top of the screen.
Chiaki's visit to Kyoto was a complete surprise to the Hanaori sisters; he had told Kotoha that he would be spending Christmas with Takeru, Ryunosuke, and Kaoru at the Shiba house. Kotoha was disappointed, but accepted what Chiaki had to say and sent him his Christmas present, a hand-knitted muffler, so that he would have it in time for the holiday.
On Christmas Eve, when the postman brought their mail, the top of the stack had an envelope bearing only Kotoha's name. Inside the envelope was a simple card on which was printed, "Come to the back of the house." Following the instructions on the card, Kotoha was surprised and overjoyed to find Chiaki sitting by the wood pile, wrapped up in his new muffler, and playing on his PlayStation Portable. After happy tears were shed, and warm hugs and tender kisses exchanged, Kotoha eagerly brought Chiaki into the house. Mitsuba welcomed Chiaki warmly, then poured him a cup of hot tea to help him warm up after being outside in the cold.
Christmas morning, Chiaki presented Mitsuba and Kotoha with gifts; a handbag for Mitsuba and a silver chain with a teddy bear pendant for Kotoha. He also brought out a tin of Danish butter cookies that now sat in the middle of the table with half of its contents having been consumed earlier by the trio.
"Chiaki, what are you doing?" asked Mitsuba.
"You'll see in just a minute," Chiaki answered, grinning crookedly. He started up his laptop and clicked on the icon for his video conferencing software on his desktop, waving Kotoha and Mitsuba over to sit close to him. He, Kotoha, and Mitsuba stared nervously at the screen until a window popped up with the faces of Takeru, Ryunosuke, Hikoma, and Kaoru bunched together. "Yes!" hissed Chiaki triumphantly. "Hey, Merry Christmas, guys!"
Kotoha's eyes were wide. "How cool! Tono-sama! Ryu-san! Jii-san! Hime-sama! Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas!" boomed Hikoma. "This is amazing!"
Ryunosuke stared in disbelief. "Am I seeing things? I was told that you would be calling, but I didn't expect this!"
Takeru chuckled. "Believe it, Ryunosuke. You know Chiaki's quite the techie. I'm impressed. Merry Christmas, all of you."
Kaoru nodded. "Greetings, Chiaki, Kotoha." Seeing Mitsuba next to Kotoha, she introduced herself. "I'm Kaoru Shiba, 18th head of the Shiba clan. Who might you be?"
"This is my sister Mitsuba." Kotoha pulled back to allow Mitsuba to introduce herself to the party on the screen.
"Very nice to meet you, Mitsuba-san." Kaoru bowed.
Takeru nodded. "I'm Takeru Shiba, 19th head of the Shiba clan. Nice to finally meet you, Mitsuba-san. Your sister is an amazing samurai, and I'm honored to have gotten to work with her," he said proudly.
"As am I," added Hikoma. "I am Hikoma Kusakabe, Tono's guardian. You can call me Jii."
"Mitsuba-san! My name is Ryunosuke Ikenami. Very nice to make your acquaintance!" cried Ryunosuke. "I always wondered about you."
"Goodness," said Mitsuba, "I feel honored to be face to face with all of you. Kotoha's told me very much about all of you, and I've seen pictures, but it's wonderful to get to see everyone in person. Well, in a way."
"The honor is ours," said Takeru modestly.
"So anyway," Chiaki cut in, "I'm really stoked that this is working, but connecting Tokyo to Kyoto is only part of the plan." He began to slide his finger on his touchpad and clicked a button. He held his breath anxiously.
Friday, December 24, 21:14 PM, Kapolei, Hawaii, U.S.A.
Mako was in the kitchen with Kyoko, pulling their last batch of holiday cookies out of the oven. She inhaled deeply, savoring the cookies' vanilla fragrance. She finished transferring the cookies to a cooling rack and had moved a few cooled cookies onto a plate and poured herself a glass of milk when Mamoru called, "Mako, your computer just beeped."
Mako's heart began to race. "Sorry, Mom. I've been waiting all day for this." Mako carried her milk and cookies to the den and set them on the coffee table next to her laptop. She tapped the finger pad on her laptop and pulled up her video conferencing software. Two windows came into view; one with Chiaki, Kotoha, and a girl that she presumed was Kotoha's sister, and the other with the faces of Takeru, Ryunosuke, Kaoru, and Hikoma. "Hi everyone!"
"Look, there's Mako-chan! Hi, Mako-chan!"
"Mako! Merry Christmas!" said Ryunosuke.
"Hey, Nee-san! Welcome to the party! Merry Christmas!"
Mako waved at everyone excitedly. "Actually, it's not going to be Christmas for another 3 hours yet here in Hawaii, but it doesn't matter. Merry Christmas, everyone!"
Takeru felt a lump building in his throat as he looked at the windows open on his computer desktop. He had been resigned to spending Christmas with just Kaoru, Hikoma, and Ryunosuke. He knew that Chiaki was going to Kyoto to spend Christmas with Kotoha and Mitsuba, and was going to try to set up a conference call from there. Even though he had full confidence in Chiaki's technical aptitude, Takeru found himself moved much more than he had anticipated at the sight of Kotoha, Mitsuba, and Chiaki smiling and waving from a window on his computer screen. Now, with Mako joining the conference call, Takeru's heart felt so full that he was worried that he would cry if he dared to say a word. Nevertheless, he managed to keep a straight face as he addressed Mako, "Merry Christmas, Mako. You're looking nice as always."
"Same to you," said Mako to Takeru. "In fact, all of you look great!"
Kotoha introduced Mitsuba to Mako and the two chatted briefly before Chiaki got an incoming call message. "Just a minute," he interjected. He accepted the call, and yet another window popped up on his laptop screen.
Saturday, December 25, 09:17 AM, Paris, France
Genta's face lit up as three windows popped up on his computer monitor. "Bonne matin, everyone! It's Christmas morning here in Paris! Joyeux Noel! Take-chan! Merry Christmas!"
"Hey, Gen-chan! Merry Christmas from Kyoto!"
"Gen-san! Merry Christmas!" chirped Kotoha. She waved at the screen. "How wonderful! We're all together for Christmas!" Kotoha began to feel her eyes welling up. "We're all together," she whispered.
"Genta?" Takeru's eyes began to fill with tears. "This is…" He sniffed and quickly wiped his eyes. "I'm… I'm overwhelmed. Thanks, Chiaki, for setting all this up. This is… more than I expected."
"You're welcome," said Chiaki soothingly. "I know that we all wanted to be together for Christmas, but…" He tipped his glance up slightly and bit his lip, hoping to keep the others from seeing him cry, but a couple of teardrops escaped and trickled from his eyes. Kotoha passed him a tissue. "Thanks," he said to her. Chiaki wiped his eyes and nose before he continued. "Sorry. Because we couldn't actually be together in one place, I thought I'd try this as the next best thing. I'm totally amped that it was a success!"
Ryunosuke smiled broadly. "Chiaki, you never cease to amaze me. I didn't know that this was even possible!" His composure began to fail him, and he began to bawl. Kaoru, whose typically stoic demeanor was itself cracking, withdrew a handkerchief from a pouch in her kimono sleeve and handed it to Ryunosuke, who buried his face in it.
"Man, I miss all of you guys!" sighed Genta. He swallowed hard as tears crawled down his cheeks. He swiped the tears away with his fingers.
"We all miss you, too! Is Paris still working out for you?" asked Mako.
Genta nodded. "Paris is magnifique, and so am I!" Suddenly, he turned his sight away from the screen. "No one move; I'll be right back." Genta's face disappeared from the screen.
At that moment, a group of kuroko entered the sitting room, each one holding a tray with a slice of white Christmas cake and a cup of milk tea. They passed the trays out to everyone before briskly leaving the room. Genta reappeared on the screen with a tray that held two cups of coffee and a plate with several pastries. With him was a shy-looking girl with brown hair and blue eyes.
"Everyone, I'd like for you to meet Cosette, my girlfriend." Genta announced.
I thought he was joking when he mentioned a girlfriend when I talked to him last week, thought Takeru. I guess he wasn't.
"G-girlfriend?" sputtered Ryunosuke. "Since when? Tono! Did you know about this?"
"Hello, Cosette. Oh, she's pretty," marveled Kotoha to Mitsuba.
"Nice, Gen-chan!" Chiaki nodded approvingly.
"How wonderful!" beamed Mako. "Bonjour, Cosette."
"Congratulations, Genta," said Kaoru.
Genta turned to Cosette and introduced each person on the screen one by one, with Kotoha helping to introduce Mitsuba. "Cosette and I met a few weeks ago," he explained to the amused and bewildered faces on screen. Turning back to Cosette, he said to her softly in French, "Go ahead. Don't be shy. Just remember what I taught you."
Cosette smiled meekly and said, "Merry Christmas, everyone," in shaky, but serviceable Japanese.
Everyone cheered and applauded Cosette's effort. "Merry Christmas!" they all cheered back.
Genta picked up one of the cups of coffee, handed it to Cosette, then took the other one. "I really wish that I could have brought Cosette back to Japan with me, but I have to work tonight, so I really appreciate this. Merry Christmas, guys." He raised his coffee cup in a toast, and Cosette followed suit.
In Kyoto, Mitsuba, Kotoha, and Chiaki raised their teacups. "Merry Christmas." Chiaki pecked Kotoha on the cheek, making her blush.
In Kapolei, Mako raised her glass of milk. "Merry Christmas, everyone." She looked over towards the kitchen to see Kyoko roll into the room. Mako turned the laptop's screen towards Kyoko. "Say hi, Mom," she said.
Kyoko nodded. "Hello everyone! Merry Christmas!" She waved at the computer screen and beamed when everyone waved back and wished her a Merry Christmas in return.
In Tokyo, everyone raised their teacups. "Merry Christmas, everyone," said Kaoru.
Takeru turned to clink his teacup against Kaoru's, then Ryunosuke's and Hikoma's, and everyone else on the screen turned to the people in the room with them to clink glasses. Facing the computer screen once more, Takeru smiled. "Even though some of us may be on the other side of the country, or on the other side of the world, we'll never truly be apart. Next year, let's see if we can't all reunite here at the house. Until then, Merry Christmas, to all of you… my friends… my family."
I will admit that I do not have Skype or any other video conferencing software, so if my description of how it works is inaccurate, I apologize.
A holiday present from me to all of you... regardless of your faith and what celebration you participate in, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!