A/N:
This chapter is basically extended compared to the original version, though this time, it's Satone's chuuni persona who's playing as the Ghost of Christmas Past. There will be more OCs coming along aside from the one that was there in the original fic.
I had to fend off writer's block just to write the whole thing.
A Chuuni Christmas Carol: The Remake
Chapter 2
Sophia Ring SP Saturn VII . . . . . of Christmas Past
She decided to listen for the hour.
Making a glance at her alarm clock, Sanae saw the hour and minute hands move.
As the time went on from six to seven, and eight to nine later on, she was beginning to get stunned.
When the clock struck at twelve, she stopped.
It was past two when she returned to bed for some shuteye.
By the time Sanae woke up again a few hours later, her alarm clock was still at twelve.
Apparently, the clock got it all wrong. Sanae knew that the battery must have completely dried out.
"The energy resources needed to power up the clock seems to have been depleted," Sanae said to herself, "If this energy pack dies, it can be replaced."
After replacing the dried-out battery with a new one, she added, "If it was at 12 in the noon, this can't be right if the morning rays don't shine. Did time flow a bit differently and go out of course?"
After winding the clock to correct it to the right time, she laid it back into the desk and went to bed again.
While in the midst of her shuteye, Sanae was apparently immersed into the words of Chris' ghost, making nothing out of it.
The more she thought, the more she became puzzled despite being aware of whom the spirits are going to look like.
"Was this supposed to play out as if it were a projection from an alternate dimension?" she thought to herself, "Or so I may have thought."
Sanae went on in a sleeping state for the next several hours. By the time those several hours passed by, she suddenly came to remember that she was being warned that the first of the three ghosts will appear before her by the time the clock struck at one.
And by the time the clock did strike at the first hour, Sanae triumphantly said, "There. Nothing else but the hour itself!"
The alarm suddenly rang until Sanae snoozed it.
Sanae peeked from the bed covers after seeing that the room was immediately immersed in a ray of light.
When the light disappeared, she went out of bed to meet the unearthly visitor.
The appearance of the visitor in question looked too familiar in Sanae's eyes. It was a girl whose blue dress, maroon skirtalls, and belt on her waist slightly faded into a whiter color. She also donned an icy blue scarf that reached down to her knees. Her hair is classic pink, tied up into twin-tailed buns both clipped by hairpins with a black emblem of what looks like a cat. Her face had a heart-shaped sticker placed on her left cheek.
She wore thigh-highs on her knees as well as a pair of black boots.
The wand she was holding on her left hand had a flame burning on the winged round mauve-colored ball on its tip, where on top of it is a lavender-colored heart outlined in thistle.
"Sophia?"
"Nyahahahaha! Yes, that's right. I am Sophia Ring SP Saturn VII, at your service!"
"But why are you whiter in the way you appeared? Is it because you're the spirit whose visit has been foretold to me?"
"Yes."
"You're telling me you're the Ghost of Christmas Past?"
"Yes."
"Long past?"
"No. Yours."
"You also happen to call yourself the Magical Devil Girl, yes?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, because the name 'Magical Devil Girl' doesn't match well with my moniker as the Ghost of Christmas Past, I decided to temporarily refer to myself as the Magical Angel Girl. Tehehehe."
Sanae sighed. She then said, "Sophia, what do you want to do with me?"
"Simply put, I'll take you to the way you were in your past life," the Ghost said, pointing her finger at the window.
"You're telling me that I have to go with you in the window to do that? I cannot cast any magic that can help me fly!"
The Ghost tapped her boots, causing a pair of yellow magical circles to appear from the bottom of its soles.
"Just take my hand."
She was coated in a purple aura, starting to be lifted up in the air by a psychic power.
With a swing of her wand, the Ghost formed a portal in the window.
"Grab on!"
The Ghost dragged Sanae, both soaring straight into the portal.
The scenery warped into a snowy hill where a nearby building stood by.
"I think I spent my past life in this place," Sanae said, eventually wearing a smile.
The Ghost asked, "Do you know the way?"
It was a bit quick for Sanae to realize where she was. Her lips started to quiver.
"Seems you are trembling your lips. Do you know the way?"
"I can get there even if my line of sight is blinded by gamma rays."
Racing past Sanae were four children going down the snowy hill on toboggans and sleds.
"They are shadows of what have been," explained the Ghost, "They do not know of our existence."
"Those were my fellow allies in battle," Sanae said.
"We must go on."
The Ghost levitated Sanae with a psychic power, soaring above several trees and roads.
She then brought her along to a gate to a nearby grade school where they both landed their feet on the ground.
"I think I find the whole place pretty familiar too," Sanae said.
"It isn't completely isolated," the Ghost said, "someone abandoned by her allies . . . . . . . . , is still there."
"I know."
The two went inside the school, making a beeline for one of the classrooms, where a younger version of Sanae was feeling isolated, miserable, and lonely while sitting on an armchair.
"Poor girl," Sanae said, showing sympathy.
"Wielder of the Mjolnir Hammer, care to tour around some more?" the Ghost asked.
Sanae nodded.
A golden magical circle appeared from where Sanae and the Ghost was standing, warping themselves outside what appears to be a deserted two-story house.
Entering inside the living room from the porch, Sanae noticed her younger self, reading a storybook while sitting in a couch.
In all of a sudden, a man stood outside the window in foreign attire. He made a slight grin.
"I think I know who that was, he refers to himself as Thor!" Sanae said in ecstacy, "It's the good ol' Thor! Yes, yes, I know him! One Christmas, when this girl was left all alone, he showed up for the first time. Poor girl!"
Sanae noticed two boys go down the stairs.
"There's also Luke and his wild brother Jan. There they go."
Sanae and the Ghost went upstairs, entering a bedroom.
"And uh, what's her name again? She's apparently falling asleep at the Yggdrasil, don't you see her? And just when the king's bride was being turned upside-down by a magician, it turns out there she is upon her head! She's done goofed. Boy, I wonder what did she do just to get married to the Prince!"
Having to see Sanae in a hyper mood would have been a big surprise to her friends in middle-school in the city, indeed.
Sanae looked at a parrot in a hung cage near the sleeping girl's bed.
"Oh, look! There's her pet parrot too!" Sanae exclaimed, "Yellow body and green lower part that reaches to its tail, with something like a musical note on the top of its head!"
The Ghost smiled, continuing to witness Sanae's joy.
"Poor Chatot, she called it, when it came home after roaming around a region called Sinnoh. 'Poor Chatot, where have you been?' The girl thought she was in a trance, but she apparently wasn't. And here comes Ash, running for his life to start a new journey along with his partner rodent!"
Sanae's mood eventually reverted back to her usual character, being in pity for her former self.
"Poor girl!" she said, "I wish this could happen one more time, but it already happened."
"What's the matter?" the Ghost asked.
"It's nothing. There was a boy singing Christmas carols at home last night. I should have been moved to give him something, that's all."
"Care to see another Christmas?" the Ghost asked.
Sanae never got to say a word as she was warped back to the grade school.
The former noticed that the white-colored paint in the classroom was darker, and some parts of the ceiling were completely new.
Sanae came to notice her former self, having already grown up a little, still feeling sad in the classroom until someone came from the door.
He was taller than Sanae, and he bent his back to grasp her hands.
"Little sis, I have come to bring you home, along with our family maid, Mato," the boy said, "That's right. To bring both of you home."
"Home, Jun?"
"Yes, home. I never expected Dad to be so kind, and in fact, he spoke up to me one night. I never hesitated to ask him if you and Mato can come home, and he said yes. He even brought me in his car just to pick up both of you. The best part is, it gets even better celebrating Christmas! What do you think about that, Sanae?"
Sanae's past self had no choice but to hug her older cousin. She was shedding tears of joy.
"He can cleanse hearts very well," Sanae said.
The Ghost added, "He also died a man."
Sanae added, "He had First, Second, and Third Children."
The Ghost said, "Also, he's one of your cousins."
"Yeah."
Sanae suddenly rubbed her left eye.
"Something wrong?"
"It was nothing. Just some pixie dust in my eye."
The two then warped out of the classroom, soaring high up in the city in the sky. The two eventually arrived in front of a medium-sized convention hall.
The Ghost asked, "Do you know this place?"
"I think this is where the school's Christmas variety show was held!"
The two entered the building. Sanae noticed a woman in a rather conservative attire, but wore a multi-colored scarf on her neck.
"Why, it isn't the head master, Ms. Sawako! I never thought she was brought back to life again!"
Sawako, the head principal of the school Sanae studied in, laid down her pen on a table placed on the stage and looked up at the clock mounted on a wall.
It was 4:58 PM.
After a single glance, Sawako called out in a laid-back tone. . . . . .
"Students!"
Sanae's former self, apparently in her second year in middle school, was one of several students decorating the stage. All of them including Sanae herself came to approach Sawako downstage.
"Just to tell you, some of the allies who gathered are from the same section as me," Sanae said, referring to some of her section classmates, "One of them is named Mio. She's quite attached to me."
"Students, there will be no school starting tonight, Christmas Eve. You all did great decorating the stage," Sawako said, "The rehearsal will commence in two hours before the variety show proper begins."
All the chairs have been lined up in single file, facing the stage. The audio crew were making soundchecks on the audio equipment, including cords connected to musical instruments as well as testing the lighting and smoke machines.
The food caterers were preparing the food on two makeshift buffet tables on both sides of the hall, left and right.
After two hours of rehearsing, some of the students per section prepared their acts together. Night fell through when the program started.
"Sophia, don't try to miss out on my act once it comes," Sanae said.
The first act of the Christmas variety show after the dinner buffet was an interpretation dance number from some first year students in one section.
Another notable performance was in the third section of first-year students.
A student performed a magic trick in which he managed to make a coin disappear and appear again.
Several performances later. . . . . .
"Sophia, here it comes!" Sanae said with glee.
Several second year middle-school students appeared onstage to prepare the musical instruments.
Sanae's former self was one of those who showed up to face the audience, preparing to play the flute she was holding.
Several students from the class performed a medley of Christmas songs. The audience was awed by their performance.
The next act after that was a Christmas-themed roleplay.
The final act of the evening started with a band consisting of Sawako and three other school teachers in another musical number performing the vocals, electric guitar, bass, and drums respectively.
"She sure does have some talent," the Ghost said, referring to Sawako.
"Yeah."
The Christmas variety show ended with a disco party that lasted for 2 hours.
Sanae started to act like a woman out of her wits the whole time. Her heart and soul entered the scene, seeing her former self dance with her male classmate while the upbeat music played.
It was just now when Sanae came to remember the fact that the Ghost was with her the whole time, much to her embarrassment.
By the time the clock struck at eleven, the gathering broke up as the students went to their homes along with their parents. Sawako and the homeroom teachers greeted them a Merry Christmas as each one of them left.
"Those who witnessed the occasion have been hyped for so little," the Spirit said.
"Wait what, Sophia?"
"Why is it not? She is sane at what she's doing, trying to work up everyone including you."
"It's not that," Sanae replied, "Ms. Sawako has the will to make us both happy and unhappy or our service easy or hard. The happiness she gives is quite valuable."
Sanae felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.
"What is the matter?" asked the Ghost.
"Nothing too specific."
"Something, I think?" the Ghost insisted.
"No," Sanae replied, "I just want to say something to Mio. That's it."
"I'm not going to tend over to you for any longer," the Ghost said. "Hurry up!"
Sanae and the Ghost warped out of the scene.
The two were now standing in a waiting shed.
Sanae saw herself, having grown older.
She was in her last year of her middle school days where she and her classmate were sitting at one of the benches.
"Another one took my place. . . . . . . "
"Another one? What is it, Ryota?" Sanae's former self asked.
"A golden one, I suppose."
"Let's go read the Mabinogion again tomorrow. There's no way happiness is ever attained without checking it out again!"
"You know, Sanae, it seems you haven't changed a bit since the start of middle school."
"Me? I would never change."
"If you're talking about our friendship, it just gets old. It was made by the time we were still worked up by imagination, until it came that we grew up learning to control it."
"Wait, what?"
"You fear your sanity a bit too much. You did change, but it's right to the point where I only perceived you as just another somebody."
"I am me!" Sanae's younger self shouted.
Ryota sighed, and before he was about to leave, he said, "OK. You know what? I am now willing to leave you. You just don't learn how to grow up and move on. I am making a backlash at the delusional persona that I used to become."
"Hey, hold on. Have I asked you to betray me in death's name?"
"Verbally? That's no."
"If not, then what in death's name is it?"
"Something that your delusions can think of. You would definitely have to go with 'no' if this wasn't about us, and yet you tried to win me over."
"You wouldn't think of that, do you?"
Before Ryota left, he sarcastically added, "If you still try to think of this relationship of ours, that seems legit. I hope you are happy in the path that you have taken."
The middle-school Sanae frowned without saying a word, still sitting at the bench.
Ryota, on the other hand, took a ride in a car that has just arrived, apparently driven by his mother. It then left.
"Sophia, I wish to get away from here," Sanae said, starting to get anxious.
"You know, I have come to realize what your past life was," the Ghost said, "I want to see another remnant of it! Nyahahahaha!"
"No, Sophia! In death's name, I don't want to see any more of it! It's more embarrassing!"
The Ghost swooshed her wand all around Sanae, casting a magical power to tie her up in her own bola-tipped twintails.
The scenario changed, warping the two inside a house that appeared to look a mansion.
In the living room, four children appearing to be aged 14 and below were exchanging stories in front of the warm fireplace while their parents had dinner at the dining table.
"Miria," said the eldest one, turning to his younger sister with a smile, "I saw a schoolmate of yours while I was out."
"Who was it, Isaac?"
"Take a good guess."
"Isaac, if you don't give us a clue, we don't know," said the second eldest.
"Sanae Dekomori."
"Oh, Sanae Dekomori it was. It so happens that I passed by into her residence, and I could hardly see her. Word of mouth is that her cousin apparently died, and there she sat alone in her own room. Forever alone, I do believe," Miria said.
"Sophia," Sanae said in a broken voice as she quickly finished untying her twintails, "I wish to get the hell out of here."
"What happened back then in your past life already happened. Three words. Let it go."
"You know what, Sophia?" Sanae said angrily, twisting both of her long bola-tipped twintails, "You claim to be serving Mori Summer, but in actuality, she's nothing but a phony! Take me back!"
"What are you talking about?"
"If you're not gonna do it, I'm gonna kill that illusion of yours!"
"I heard what you meant there. Mori Summer is not a phony! You're just seeing things!"
"Give me that!"
Grabbing the Ghost's wand from her grasp immediately, Sanae swung it back and forth.
"I said take me back if you want to live!"
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Just as Sanae ended up turning the wand itself into a candle snuffer almost taller than her, she wore an evil grin.
"You wouldn't do something using it against me, do you?" the Ghost responded.
She push the snuffer down to the Ghost, extinguishing her.
Shrieking in agony, the Ghost said, "No! Don't do this to me! Your existence is one lived with a single regret!"
Sanae managed to stuff the Ghost inside, but after a few seconds later, it only caused a strong upward blast that warped her back into the night sky.
"I'm blasting off again!" Sanae exclaimed, clinging herself to the snuffer from the handle.
The snuffer disappeared from her grasp along with the sparking blaze that went along with it, causing her to make a huge fall.
Fortunately, everything around her warped, bringing her back into her own bedroom. Her face sank down into the bed.
"Such misfortune," Sanae muttered.