I'm not the last ghost you'll be seeing tonight. And I'm not the last you'll recognize.
This warning in particular intrigued Satsuki. Would the other ghosts also be people who died because of her actions? Was this their revenge? Satsuki's morally questionable past coming back to haunt her was nothing new. Rei Hououmaru had already taken that idea in a rather literal direction, and Satsuki thought that she'd finally moved on once she was done with that ordeal. So what point was there in going through this again?
When the promised ghost arrived, few of her questions were answered, but some of them no longer needed to be.
"I-Inumuta?" She stammered. "But… you're not dead."
"I am not dead," Inumuta's apparent doppelgänger said, "but I am not Houka Inumuta either. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." He turned away from her. "Follow me, and you will understand."
Despite the growing dread she was still feeling, Satsuki did as she was told, and even when she saw him walking straight through the wall, she was quick to assume that under these circumstances she could do the same, and confirmed this by reaching forward. Once her entire body had passed through, she was surprised, not because she wasn't in the room normally on the other side of that wall, but because of where she was.
"It can't be," she said. "This is…"
"Elementary, Satsuki Kiryuin," he said. "The same one you attended with Nonon Jakuzure and…"
"Hey! Kiryuin!"
Satsuki quickly turned towards the source of the voice, but did a quick double take upon noticing someone else reacting to the same call. Although using the word 'else' would be misleading, because the person she saw was also Satsuki Kiryuin, minus over a decade of her life so far.
The younger Satsuki scowled when the person who had called her became visible. "What do you want, Takarada? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I can see you're busy," he said, "and that's the problem. It's Christmas! The whole world takes a break, so they can spend time with the people they love!"
"That may be how you see it," Satsuki said, "but for me the rest of the year is a break from that."
Takarada turned his back on her and shrugged. "You just don't get it, do you?" He headed home before receiving an answer.
"Apparently not," Satsuki muttered.
The current Satsuki spent a few minutes simply watching herself before another familiar face arrived.
"So," Nonon said flatly. "You planning on staying here forever?"
"More or less," Satsuki replied in the same tone. "I'm sure I shouldn't have to tell you why."
Nonon thought about what would be awaiting Satsuki at home and shuddered. "Well… Maybe you could stay at my place, just this once?"
Nonon usually wasn't one for manners, but at that moment Satsuki could very clearly see the word 'please' in her eyes. She saw other things in them as well, mainly hope, some hints of planning Nonon was to do while they were together, and…
The older Satsuki cringed upon remembering what it was she noticed. That was the moment she realized one of the biggest reasons that she was the only person Nonon had any respect for. Even though she recognized it instantly, it was something so unfamiliar to her, and she had no idea how to approach it.
And so Satsuki saw her former self decide: The best answer was not to approach it at all, but to drive it away until it was completely out of sight.
"I don't think I could," she finally said. "Doing something like that on such short notice may lead her to suspect something, and you know what happens when she suspects something. It's as I always say: The safest place to plot against her is right under her nose. So long as she can see me, she thinks I'm under her control."
"Oh," Nonon said. "Well… you're right. It'd be a bad idea. But maybe some other time? I mean, we've still got our whole lives ahead of us… assuming everything goes according to plan."
Satsuki didn't answer. In the years to come, she would still keep Nonon close, but even so she tried to avoid the full extent of the girl's affections at point blank range, and unfortunately, she was mostly successful in this endeavor.
Satsuki was reminded of the ghost's presence when she saw him wave his hand, causing an entire year to pass in a second. The younger Satsuki and Nonon were in just about the same place, and Nonon even made the same proposal again. She was turned down once again, and within two years, the elder Satsuki could see her struggling to just work up the courage and ask the question at all. On that year and the two that followed, she couldn't bring herself to do so, and when the next Christmas came she'd just given up entirely.
But it was only the second time around that Satsuki even noticed any of this. Back when Nonon still asked, the question was gone from Satsuki's memory by the end of the day to make room for supposedly more important things. It was only the second time around that Satsuki realized just what she was doing to Nonon, and it filled her with a regret that hurt her on a more personal level than anything she'd done as the tyrant of Honnou City.
"I see what you're trying to convey," she said, struggling to maintain her usual calm voice. "But I don't think I understand why you're trying to convey it."
"I must again stress that you'll understand in the near future," the ghost said. "But the future is not my domain. I can only show you the past, and the past is but one piece of the overall picture you need to see. For now, I shall return you home in anticipation of the next ghost."
"Very well," Satsuki said, looking visibly disappointed. When she got back, she found herself simply sitting on the end of her bed, waiting awkwardly for her next visit. She wasn't sure how the ghost would make its entrance, but the last thing she was expecting was for it to be accompanied by a heavenly chorus. And yet…
HALLELUJAH
"Hi!" Said the ghost, who looked suspiciously like Mako Mankanshoku. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present! It's nice to meet you!"
A/N: I was bad at timing my Christmas special last year as well. Just as I did then, I'm going to shift the final chapter deadline from "before christmas" to "before winter ends".
