Chapter 2

As Christmas neared many people were busy Christmas shopping. They were so busy none of them noticed a pig who is giving a ride to a hamster strumming his guitar. This hamster was known to many as Jingle, the wandering poet.

"Wherever the snow falls, I look toward hear that special…call?" He heard many familiar voices from behind.

"Hey Jingle!" Jingle turned around to see the other ham hams.

"Hey. Its Hambobo"

"Its Hamtaro!"

"You changed your name again?" All the ham hams fell over anime style.

"Never mind that." Panda said getting up. "We're looking for someone by the name of Crystal."

"Yeah. Bossman's been pretty sad lately. So do you know?" Stan asked.

"Crystal is a wandering hamster with blue fur" Jingle began. "But meeting her is a blur." Everyone paused for awhile. Howdy finally broke the silence.

"Do y'all know how to speak Jinglese?" All the ham hams sighed.

"What he means is that he's never seen Crystal." All the ham hams were disappointed. Hamtaro asked another question.

"Do you know anyone that knows Crystal?" Jingle thought long and hard. He finally came up with an answer.

"Those who know Crystal knows that water is clear, for Kenshin and Hiroshi are always near." All the ham hams gasped

"You mean Kenshin and Hiroshi know her?" Pashmina asked. Jingle nodded.

"Hiroshi the desert bandit wanders the desert all day, but Kenshin the rurouni (wandering swordsman of swordsham in this case) comes this was." (I think I should stop rhyming. I can't do this!) Jingle pointed toward an alley. Everyone was surprised that one of the mentioned wanderers was already here.

"Thanks Jingle. Is there anything we could do to repay you?" Bijou asked.

"Well you can start by inviting me to this Christmas party of yours."

"Done." All the ham hams ran toward the alley. However several things looked awfully familiar.

"This place looks and smells creepy. I say we turn back." Oxnard warned them.

"That's just the smell of fish." Cappy reassured Oxnard. But then they all paused. This wasn't any ordinary alley they were in. It was…

"FISH ALLEY!" They were all frightened for fish alley is the place where all the cats go. Luckily ever since their battle at ham ham land, Hamtaro and Bijou have kept their swords close to them. Hamtaro took out the ryusaiga while Bijou readied the Kasshin no Tachi. Still some of the weaponless ham hams were still frightened.

"Hey quit yer shivering!" Howdy said.

"I'm not shivering." Dexter told him. It went on and on until they found out who was shivering.

"I'm not shivering its… I'm busted." Oxnard said trying to cover himself up.

"Oxnard stay in the middle so you won't be lonely." Hamtaro told him. They went farther into fish alley. Suddenly…

Meow! All the ham hams turned around and didn't see anything. However when they turned to face front again there was a large cat ready to pounce on them. Hamtaro and Bijou got ready to protect the other ham hams. That is if the cat didn't already fall unconscious. They wondered how the cat was already defeated. Then…

"Damn. Another weak cat. Is there anyone worth fighting here?" Behind the cat was a black hamster with red stripes. This hamster was none other than…

"SHADE!" Shade saw the other ham hams and smiled.

"We finally meet again Hamtaro. How about a match?" Shade drew his sword ready for battle. However he was stopped by a similar looking hamster who had blue fur and yellow stripes.

"I think you've already had enough brother." the hamster said stopping his brother.

"KENSHIN!" Kenshin turned around and smiled.

"Its nice to see you all again." Other voices started coming from behind.

"Hey where are you Kenshin?" said a pink hamster.

"Hey there's Shade-sama!" said a tan hamster. The tan hamster quickly hugged Shade. Shade was having trouble breathing. The pink one rushed up to Kenshin.

"So where were you Kenshin?" She asked.

"Oh I was just meeting with a few friends." Kenshin turns around to introduce his girl ham. "Ham hams this is Kaoru. Kaoru meet the ham hams." They both greeted each other.

"And I'm Misao!" said the tan hamster.

"And I can't BREATHE!" Misao finally noticed that Shade couldn't breathe so she finally let go.

"Oh I'm sorry Shade-sama!" Shade just smiled at Misao.

"Oh that's alright." Finally Hamtaro spoke.

"Kenshin we need your help?"

"What is it?" They all told him about Boss lately. How they are trying to bring back Crystal to cheer up Boss.

"Hmmm. I see. Unfortunately I haven't seen Crystal in a while. Sorry guys." The ham hams were so disappointed. Kenshin came up with an idea. "However I do know this. Crystal travels in the deserts of ham ham land a lot. You can probably ask Hiroshi. He has seen her many times."

"Thanks for your help Kenshin." Bijou thanked him.

"I'm sorry guys. Is there anything we could do to help?" Panda had an idea.

"Maybe you could…" Panda whispered in Kenshin and Shade's ears. They smiled at the plan.

"It's a deal." Hamtaro spoke again.

"Alright me, Bijou, Cappy, and Penelope will take the ham ham flyer to the desert while everyone else gets the party ready." Hamtaro told them.

"But how are we going to get Boss out of the clubhouse?" Sandy asked.

"Don't worry. I've got that taken care of." Panda winked.

The next day Hamtaro, Bijou, Cappy, and Penelope got on the ham ham flyer while Boss went to Cappy's owner's store to get his hat again. Those guys are up to something. Boss thought. The ham ham flyer took off. Everything started out fine since there was no wind to blow them off course. However…

"Ken, Christie, Kyle, Marimo, you can all come out now." Hamtaro said to the blanket covering four hamsters.

"But we're not here!" Marimo smacked Kyle.

"Baka! Now you gave us away." However Bijou reassured them.

"We already knew you were there." They all gasped. "But its alright." All the ham ham children came out of the blanket and saw the scenery except for Kyle who stayed under the blanket.

"Awww. Is little Kyle afraid of heights?" Kyle practically jumped out of the blanket.

"I am not afraid of heights!" Kyle told Marimo.

"cough denial cough"

"Shut up already!" As Kyle and Marimo argued all the others laughed.

Back at the clubhouse Boss was coming back after Oxnard once again ate most of the sunflower seeds. Boss was coming back from getting more sunflower seeds from the elder ham. Now I know something is up. What are they planning? He was answered with Pashmina, Misao, and Snoozer at the front of the door.

"Hey why are all of you out here?" He noticed that Misao was crying.

"Its awful. Kenshin and Shade got into a fight and have blocked all the doors so no one would get hurt." Misao kept trying fake her cry. Boss put his ear on the tree to hear a bunch of battle roars and clashing swords.

"The others went for help." Pashmina told them. Boss lowered his head. "Don't worry. Oxnard said that you could stay with him for today." Boss lowered his head even more and headed toward Kana's house.

Inside the clubhouse…

"By the way. The style of the Hitokiri Battousai is neither Kamiya Kasshin nor whatever style you use. He uses Hiten Mitsurugi, ultra sonic killing style that would slaughter many unless the sword happened to be reverse bladed." In order to make it sound like Kenshin and Shade were fighting without actually fighting, they turned on the Rurouni Kenshin marathon as they helped the other ham hams fixing the place up.

"Ah there is nothing like drinking on a day such as this." However Kaoru snatched the sake bottle from Shade.

"Don't get drunk yet. Save it for tomorrow."

"Oh come on!" The others laughed.

At the desert Hamtaro, Bijou and the others have already arrived.

"Its too hot here. Are we there yet?" Kyle complained.

"Quit complaining Kyle." Christie told her cousin as she held Ken's hand. Ken finally noticed and both of them started to blush a bright red. Kyle and Marimo grinned.

"Don't like each that much eh?" Kyle said as both he and Marimo started to laugh.

"HEY! WHAT SO FUNN-" They were cut off as a sandstorm suddenly appeared.

"Not this again. Hiroshi its us!" When the sandstorm died down there were two hamsters in front of them. One was a brown hamster with a cape and a saber. He was known as Hiroshi the desert bandit. The other was one they couldn't believe. He looked similar to Hamtaro only he was blue. The only difference from before was the sword he had.

"JOE!"