AN: Well, here's Chapter three. Please forgive the pun in the title, I couldn't resist.

Chapter Three "A Black Christmas" (1)

"I'm going out!" Michiyo called, pulling on her coat.

"Where are you going?" Crawford asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"There are only three shopping days until Christmas, and I still have people to buy for." She explained.

"Are you going to the mall?" Farfarello asked.

"Yes, would you like to come?"

Farfarello thought for a moment before nodding. "Schuldig forgot to mail my letter to Santa, so I suppose I'll just go straight to the source."

'Letter to Santa?' She wondered.

'Just go with it…' Schuldig advised. He stood in the doorway. "Why don't Chibi and I come too? I can drive, and I'm sure Nagikins would like to get out of the house."

"Alright." She agreed. "I could probably use help carrying the bags."

"You coming, Bradley?" Schuldig asked, ignoring the glare he was receiving.

"No. I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on my stocks." Crawford replied simply.

"You make that sound like soap operas or something." Schuldig said with a sigh.

"I'll go get Nagi and we can go." Michiyo said with a smile as she headed off to the teen's room. Sticking her head in the partially open door, she asked. "Nagi-kun, we're going to the mall, want to come?"

Nagi looked up from his computer, quickly minimizing what looked like an e-mail. "Sure, I'll be right out."

"What are you doing anyway?"

"Just…reading fanfics." He said quickly.

"I read this really good one for 'Please Teacher' once." She commented.

Nagi thought about what she said, and got a severe nosebleed.(2)

"You ok, Nagi?" She asked concerned. "Crawford really ought to take you to the doctor. If you're sinuses are this bad, you should be on medication."

After a quick drive and a hectic time trying to find a parking spot, Michiyo, Schuldig, Farfarello and Nagi entered the mall.

"Nagi-kun…there are a lot of weirdos that come to the mall this time of year." Michiyo began. "Perhaps you should hold my hand…so no one tries to take you."

Nagi blushed while Schuldig mentally laughed. "What if someone tries to take me?"

"They'd bring you back." Nagi said, glaring.

"Behave, or Santa won't bring you anything." Michiyo joked.

"Where is Santa?" Farfarello asked.

"Just follow the sea of munchkins." Michiyo replied, motioning to a long, winding line leading to Santa.

"I don't know why parents allow their children to do this." Nagi commented, still holding Michiyo's hand. "He's nothing but a fat, hairy old pedophilic stalker."

Michiyo laughed. "What do you mean?"

"He's fat and old, and he wears a long bread to keep people from being able to recognize him in a lineup." Nagi continued as the group headed to a store. "What kind of grown up gets his kicks from small children sitting on his lap? And you've heard that song 'He sees you when he's sleeping, he knows when you're awake.' Stalker! Who really believes all of this flying reindeer, gifts to all the girls and boys nonsense anyway?" (3)

"I do." Farfarello sounded almost insulted.

Michiyo laughed nervously. "Why don't Nagi and I get a little shopping done, while you two get in line?"

'Why do I have to?' Schuldig whined mentally.

'Do you want to leave him alone with small children?'

'…Yes…'

'Just go…we won't take long. We'll meet up with you in a minute, and then you can go do whatever you like.'

'Fine…but you owe me.'

With that, thee group split, Farfarello and Schuldig joining the line to see Santa, and Nagi and Michiyo starting for the closest store.

"Hmm…what to buy…what to buy…" Michiyo pondered, looking around the moderately crowded toy store.

"Who are you shopping for?" Nagi asked.

"Well…I need to get you guys something…and I need to buy some presents for these nice florists I know. One of them is about your age, actually."

Nagi knew exactly who she was talking about. He sweatdropped at the thought of her finding out the truth behind her favorite florists.

"I've got it!" She exclaimed. She released Nagi's hand and bolted down an aisle. "Wait right there, Nagi-kun!"

Nagi sighed, and migrated to a nearby shelf of computer games. 'Hmmm…he'd like this one…' Nagi thought picking up a game. Moving to the checkout line, he kept his eyes peeled for Michiyo. After checking out, he decided to wait for her outside the store, not wanting to deal with small children crying for Barbies.

Michiyo emerged a few moments later. "I didn't see you, and got worried. But the saleslady said you were waiting outside." She smiled, taking her bag in one hand, she took his hand in the other. "What have you got there?"

"A gift for a friend." He replied, blushing slightly.

Schuldig sighed. The worse thing about waiting in line to see Santa wasn't all the odd looks he and Farfarello were getting, and it wasn't the annoyingly hyperactive thought of all of the small children. No, the worse thing about waiting in line to see Santa, was that most, if not all, of the mothers there were married.

Farfarello looked around, his eyes landing on a young girl about two years old. She had a candy cane and was messily licking at it.

"That looks good." He commented. Reaching down, he snatched it and put it in his mouth, ignoring the girl's cries. "Yuck, strawberry."

With that, he tossed it aside. It landed on a small boy's head, and he too began to cry.

'Mein Gott, Michikins, hurry up.' Schuldig begged.

"Now all we need to do is stop in the music store, then we can go." Michiyo commented. By now, she had to let go of Nagi's hand so they could both carry their bags. Well, her multiple and his one. "There's Farfarello and Schuldig. Come on, let's meet up with them first"

It was Farfarello's turn to see Santa, and Schuldig was flirting with a female elf.

"So, what do you say…"

"Schuldig…can you give me a hand with these bags? They're awfully heavy." Michiyo called, not liking the look of this woman for some reason. "The Chibi and I are starting to get tired."

The elf looked from Michiyo and Nagi to Schuldig before slapping him across the face. "I don't date married guys." She exclaimed, turning away.

Farfarello stood before an obviously terrified Santa. "Do I get to sit down?"

"Excuse me?" Santa asked.

"I'm supposed to sit on your lap and tell you what I want."

Reluctantly, Santa let him. "And…um…what exactly…do you…um…want for Christmas, Little…er…Big Guy?"

"A new machete and a hockey mask." (4)

"Alright…" Santa said. 'Weirdo!' He thought. "Have you been good this year?"

"Oh yes! I made sure to only do things that make God cry, just like I promised to."

"That's…good…" Santa said, still scared of the Irishman in his lap. "You can go on then. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Santa." Farfarello grinned at the old man before climbing off his lap, grabbing a handful of candy canes, and walking off to meet the others.

In the music store, Michiyo was looking over a rack of imported CDs, trying to figure out what Crawford might like.

"Can I help you, miss?" A voice asked.

She turned to look at the man who had spoken. He was very handsome. She blushed slightly.

"Well…" She said, turning to face him.

Schuldig, who had been close by looking over a CD by E Nomine(5), moved to her side. "We've got it covered, thanks." He replied.

"Alright then, I'm here if you need me." The man looked slightly downhearted, but smiled anyway as he walked off.

"What was that for?"

"Payback for earlier." He replied with a smirk.

She shot him the best glare she could muster. "Now how am I supposed to figure out what to get Crawford?"

"He's American, how hard could it be?" He replied before walking away.

Michiyo shrugged before grabbing the first American CD she saw. She added that to her small stack. She glanced at the CD Schuldig had been looking at, and smiled, grabbing it as well.

"Now what?" Nagi asked as they all left the store.

"I go home, and wrap everything." Michiyo replied. "Tomorrow I'll take my friends their gifts."

"Mission?" Ken asked when Manx entered the shop after closing.

"Not tonight…mostly, just a warning." She replied.

"Against what?" Omi asked.

"Schwarz has a new member, codenamed Pyro."

"Pyro?" Youji asked. "That's odd, even for Schwarz."

"The person more then likely has the ability to control fire." Aya stated.

"Yes, it's a pyrokenetic." Manx replied. "I'm afraid that's all we know at this time."

Crawford clicked off the TV as he heard the front door open and close. He stood, walking into the hallway to see what everyone was up to. Michiyo carried a ton of bags to her room, and returned a moment later with a smile.

"Did you miss us?" Schuldig asked with a smirk.

"No, I simply wanted to warn you."

"About what?" Michiyo asked.

"Weiss knows about you. I don't know how much they know, but until further notice, you must take someone with you anytime you leave the house."

"Who or what is Weiss?"

"They're this group of assassins that always show up and try to get in our way." Schuldig explained. Personally, I think they're more off then Farf, but that's just me." (6)

"If you just faced one of them, you'd probably be ok…but if it was all four of them, you may not fare as well. Which reminds me…" Crawford motioned for her to follow him as he led the way to the storage room. "It's time I issued you your weapon."

"Weapon? But I thought…" Michiyo began. What did she need a weapon for, wasn't her power enough?

"I don't want you to burn down half of Tokyo during our missions." Crawford replied. "Schuldig and I have guns, Farfarello has his knives, and Nagi…well, the one time we trusted him with a weapon, things didn't go according to plan. You will be using this."

He took something wrapped in black cloth and handed it to her. She set it on a small table in the room, and unwrapped the weapon. It was a shiny silver-grey scythe blade attached to a long chain made of the same metal.

"A chain scythe?" She asked.

"You're lessons will start tomorrow."

"I don't need any." She replied. "I watch Rurouni Kenshin." (7)

Crawford raised an eyebrow.

"I'm joking." She replied with a smile. "When I was a kid, I had an uncle who worked on a farm. He taught my brother and I both how to use them. I was really good with it…after a while.

AN: Well, I decided that was a good ending place for now. I'll finish up the Christmas thing in the next chapter. Now to explain the references, just incase you didn't get them.

(1) I'm sure you've all heard the song "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas" Well, I figured since Schwarz means black in German, this title was both cleaver and fitting.

(2) 'Please Teacher' is an Anime series about this guy who moves in with/marries/falls in love with his teacher. Well, since Nagi's currently living with his teacher, his mind roamed to that teenage boy happy place again, resulting in the nosebleed.

(3) Nagi's Santa rant was inspired by the sheer desire to be ironic, as was Farfie's belief in Santa. As far as the stalker thing…well, that came from a sugar rush…long story…

(4) My brother woke me up one day by turning on the overhead light, and yanking on the cover. Apparently, I gave him a level 5 shi-ne glare or something, because it scared him. Later on he was telling my mom that he expected me to come after him with a machete while wearing a hockey mask (Like Jason, ya know?) After that, it sorta stuck with me.

(5) E Nomine is a kick butt group I defiantly recommend them. They're German rock…at least that's how I describe them.

(6) I love Weiss…and Farfie…but this stems from my mom. She looked at my current desktop wallpaper (Weiss ) and simply stated. "They look gay." I laughed, then she told me she was sure they all had mental problems. My muse and I decided she wasn't too far off there. I love Weiss, but I also love to pick on Weiss.

(7) If you've ever seen the ending credits to Rurouni Kenshin (The dubbed anyway) Kenshin fights a bunch of farmers with chain scythes. It only shows them for a minute, so I thought it would be funny if that was her only experience.