It was Christmas Break at the IS Academy, and almost all the students has gone home. Barely a soul remained to disturb the haunting peace of the hallways chrome. And as the few remaining dust bunnies bounce around the space, a faint noise can be heard-

"Wat'cha doing?"

"HM?!"

"Hey-o! Ho!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Just a little warm-up is all."

"For what?"

"A little contest with the boys. I hear there's a special Christmas present for the everyo~~~one!"

"They actually did it..."

And thus began the so-called ISL's first Christmas Break. Why ISL (Infinite Stratos League)? Well...

THE DAY BEFORE:

["There has been speculation that the IS World Community is considering assembling a group of skilled pilots to deal with threats similar to the Gospel seen in both America and Japan. While this has not been confirmed~~~"]

...blame it on that...news...for spurring Ichika and Lincoln into conjuring the craziest contest ever devised.

"THAT'S IT! GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!"

"We need a cook-off! Secret Santa! Game-Of-Games! Anything!"

"No, we need something harder!"

"A Mini-Mondo Grosso!"

"We've had one of those every month! Let's take it to the streets and fight PUBG style!"

"A battle royale to GET THIS OUT OF OUR HEADS!"

"No, bad idea! Chifuyu-nee's definitely gonna bleach our ears now!"

"SUPERHERO MY COLD HARD BUCK TEETH!"

THE DAY PRESENTLY...

Across from the madness of 1025, Charlotte, Cecilia, and Houki were trying different hair styles.

Much to Houki's disgust, "Why'd I let myself get into this..."

"Because if you don't diversify your hair very often," Cecilia explained, "your hair will be defaulted to those shapes and split ends."

"My hair is fine without the ribbon, o-" Houki stopped short of her hair done in a wavy ponytail, "...my...god..."

"D'HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!" Charlotte and Cecilia howled with laughter.

"I'm going to skewer you..." Houki collapsed, until she heard someone slamming the door open, "Who in the-"

"I AM CHALLENGING YOU ALL TO A DUEL!" Ichika.

"What's gotten into you?..." Charlotte was afraid to ask-

"NO EXPLANATION!" Ichika deployed his IS and rounded everyone up, "OUTSIDE NOW!"

Houki, Cecilia, and Charlotte lost their crud:

"ICHIKA?!"

"What the devil?!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA~~~"

And as Laura indeed wrote, the rest of the students had gone home for the holiday season. Only the first-year students with personal IS units, and a small handful of IS Academy faculty, remained. They all gathered at the cafeteria for a "special" contest.

"What on earth is a "Secret Santa"?..." and Laura wasn't entirely on board.

Neither was Houki, "Game of all...is this an American thing?..."

"I think "Secret Hitler" might be too high-brow for some people," Rin smirked at Cecilia.

"Oh, I thought you'd be the first to jump at the opportunity, Red Baron," Cecilia glared.

"Um, Ichika? Lincoln?" Charlotte asked nervously, "Would you care to explain this "Game of all games" you're imposing upon us?"

"Ok, so basically," Ichika said, "This is a Secret Santa tournament. Over the next three weeks, we're gonna play games that will determine how much money you're allowed, based on your performance in these games."

"Oh!" Cecilia exclaimed, "And at the end of the period, the total earnings will determine our budget for the Secret Santa!"

"Yep," Lincoln interrupted, "but there's a catch."

"A catch?" Charlotte shuddered.

"What?" Rin squinted, "Like we have to give away parts of our earnings or something?"

"No, nothing like that!" Lincoln shoved a hat in everyone's faces, "The catch is: you're gonna draw for your Secret Santa right now!"

"Really now?" Rin got excited. Her competitive mind saw through this ploy: she could decide whether to play for money, or throw the games and buy cheap, depending on who she got, "I'm game!"

"Wait," Laura said, "What's the point of this entire competition again?"

"I'll explain as we go," Cecilia placed her hand in the hat first, "For now, let's start the game!"

"Hey, no fair!" Rin shoved Cecilia aside, "You did a sneaky!"

"Calm down, you two!" Charlotte pleaded.

Laura just sat there blankly and waited until everyone else got their names to pick the last one of the pile.

"Ok, now everyone open up," Ichika said, "Nobody reveal who they got."

Everyone nodded, thereby binding themselves to the Secret Santa code. But no sooner did they uncrumple their piece of paper did they realize how big a curveball they've been thrown.

Lincoln drew Rin's name, "Oh boy..."

Laura drew Ichika's name, "What? Ugh..."

Rin drew Charlotte's name, "Wuuuuuh?..."

Houki drew Lincoln's name, "Uhh...huh?"

Cecilia drew Laura's name, "Um..."

But...

Ichika drew Maya's name, "Huh? I didn't write this."

And Charlotte drew- "Que se passe-t-il?!" ...Chifuyu's name... "Allez au diable..."

"Judging from your reactions," but Lincoln did, "I'm guessing you got the wild cards?"

Ichika and Charlotte glanced at Lincoln, "Are you trying to kill us?..."

"I just thought it might spice up the competition," Lincoln joked.

"In a war, maybe!" Charlotte snapped.

"Wow, dude," Rin nudged, "I know we got it bad, but you didn't have to drag us down with you."

Charlotte stammered, "I was just-"

"Enough with the pre-game banter," Cecilia stopped the conversation, leaving Charlotte to whimper, "There's no point in complaining now." She turned to Ichika, "So, what's our first game?"

"Wait, already?!" Laura jolted.

"Well," Lincoln quipped, "if you would follow me," and led everyone out.

Houki said nothing, already thinking ahead to shopping day.

Laura followed along just to see how the rest of the competition would unfold.

"Uh..." Lincoln flinched, "...spending their time more productively?..."

"Ahem..." Laura poked Lincoln with a wire dagger.

"YOWCH!" Lincoln jumped.

The missing persons had gone into the underground lab, and had just finished analyzing the core obtained from the attack on IS Academy. With a couple assistants.

"Analysis completed," Card Counter told Chifuyu, "Only 35% of the components used to construct the core are found within the common registry, and 3% of the components are foreign."

"Newly synthesized..." Maya muttered, "So this is a brand new core after all..."

"Then, how on Earth did Phantom Task hijack it?" Chifuyu wondered, "None of that would make sense unless this core had already been implanted into an IS and received by someone."

"Whoa," High Card our her hands out to physically halt the conversation, "You're saying somebody literally paid these guys to do it?"

"No, I wasn't," Chifuyu said, "but now that you mention it..."

"We need to make this information public," Maya pleaded.

"And track down where the Golem originated," Chifuyu added, "It's impossible for anyone to reprogram remotely into Tabane's lab."

Before the day started, Lincoln summoned High Card and Card Counter to assist Chifuyu and Maya in finishing the investigation of Core 468 and the Valkyrie Trace system. He passed on two random names to his sidekicks, who then gave those names to their assigned persons. Chifuyu got Cecilia's name. And Maya got Houki's. That alone motivated them to wrap up any and all unfinished business, hoping to completely forget about, or at least delay, the looming shopping day.

"Counter," Chifuyu said, "How long until we are able to extract the foreign components to their simplest forms?"

"With the equipment we have," Card Counter said, "Five hours."

"Oh boy, that's too short," Chifuyu sighed before signaling to Maya, "Prepare a conference call to Geneva."

"What?!" Maya exclaimed, "Why?!"

"We're gonna tell them what we found."

"Wha...WHADDAYA MEAN, WE?!"

High Card shook her head and texted to Lincoln, "Plan the remaining two as last-minute arrivals."

Lincoln saw the notification through tears of hilarity, as he had already failed the first game, "Ok, High...*SNICKER*...They'll be a secret..."

Rin grinned while staring down the entire group, "I have four eyes, multiple limbs, and a bald head. What am I?"

The group shrugged and waited for the answer.

And they got it. Rin struggled with her composure as she said, "Ugly."

"PBBTTT-HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA~~~" Mass laughter ensued.

"NO NO NO-HAHAHAHAAA-*SNORT*" Cecilia hated it, but the sudden twist broke her, "How...how could youuuuaaahahahahahahahaaaaa!"

"Can we cancel you now-hahahahaaaa?!" Charlotte seethed.

Houki and Ichika were lost causes.

"Oh man, that was rich," Lincoln giggled, "What'd you think, Lau-" his laughter stopped, "Laura?"

Laura remained expressionless, "What was I supposed to laugh at?"

And that in turn made Rin laugh, "PFFHAHAHAHAHAAAA! Oho, we have so much to teach you, sister!"

"Please, I already laughed at Loud's stupidity once," Laura groaned, "I do not need yours."

"Boo!" Lincoln wailed.

"Well," Ichika said, "That's a 100 yen budget for Laura, 50 for Rin, and 25 for everyone else."

"What?!" Houki complained.

"That's cheap!" Rin griped.

"But this only the first game," Cecilia pointed out, "I'm sure we have many more chances to earn budget money."

"Yeah," Lincoln said, "each worth a different value, too. I think there's two games worth 50 yen."

"Ok, that's enough for me," Charlotte stretched, "I think I will explore the campus at abandoned holiday season."

"Oh..." Cecilia shivered, and suddenly grabbed Ichika's hand, "Would you mind accompanying me to the shrine?"

"Uh...sure-ay!" Ichika was suddenly grabbed by Rin.

"And just where did you think you're going without me?" Rin demanded.

"Alright, can we talk about this?" Ichika regained his personal space, "Why don't we all go to the shrine, to get away from school?"

"Sounds good," Houki thought he meant her aunt's shrine, "I can lead the way."

"You?" Cecilia commented, "Oh, I forgot you were a shrine maiden."

"What gave you that impression?" Houki snarked.

Ichika led the group out, leaving Lincoln and Laura.

"Welp," Lincoln said, "I'm off to explore the legendary Sakura forest. What's your plan?"

"I believe Charlotte mentioned IS Academy's temporary abandoned status," Laura answered.

"That's all you," Lincoln quickly left, "Meet at the courtyard at 19:30 for the second game."

"Eugh..." Laura waited until she was alone to look for Charlotte.

Of course Lincoln knew better than to wander the city by himself, especially given the impact of the God-knows-what. In actuality, he was going to go to the Sakura forest after checking up on Margo. After that...who knows what this holiday season would bring him.