Author's Note: Happy Birthday to Ophis! December 31st/January 1st
EDIT: This chapter is non canon to MessiahXDragon and was given more leniency with ideas added in, however reading the reviews and looking over the chapter again with a fresh pair of eyes does show some issues. I've moved Minato's christmas adventure into a small section before the Author's Notes for anyone who still want to read them along with the Warner Sibling Cameo.
Minato took a moment to enjoy one of the seasonal songs playing on the TV, his last Christmas was weighed down by The Fall with SEES being given the choice of fighting a seemingly unwinnable battle or dying ignorant of the horrors that had befallen them. In contrast this Christmas was shaping up to be far more pleasant.
"We are NOT having mistletoe in this house!" Lilith said, burning the decoration Aika attempted to hang up.
Aika looked to the Persona of the Mother of Demons and Devils with a pout "Oh come on, lighten up a little it's just for a little fun"
"Remember who hangs around him" Lilith pointed to Minato as he helped decorate the tree with Ophis and Aoi, who was letting Jaajaa and Nana pick out what to put up next "This house is going to become a bloodbath and I am not starting the new year with a bloodied house, especially not after all the renovating and rebuilding we had to do"
Aika thought about for a moment before sighing disappointed "Fine, no mistletoe. I thought you were the fun mum"
Lilith rolled her eyes at Aika's before going over to help finish up the Christmas cards with Adam and Eve, originally it was Joseph and Maria but everything other Christmas card reminded them of trying to find a place to stay and ending up in a stable.
"I'm so nervous" Aoi said as she scooped up Jaajaa and Nana into her arms "Our first family Christmas together" Aoi looked down to her daughters with starry eyes.
Minato gave Aoi a reassuring smile "It doesn't have to be perfect Aoi, we went over this during Hanukkah at the beginning of December"
Aoi nodded "I know, still I want it to be the best it can be"
"I just hope it's memorable for all the right reasons" a photo flash went off, the digital camera being used by Ionna (Diodora's former Pawn). Ioona looked at the photo's screen to see the picture of Jaajaa and Nana with reindeer horns on their heads with Aoi having a Santa hat on "Either way, I'll be sure to get plenty of photos"
"Well, we have a top class photographer to capture it all" Minato said, placing a small Christmas bauble that had a feathered dragon pulling a sleigh on one of the tree's branches.
After they finished the Christmas tree was covered in decorations with lights both coloured and non-colours wrapped around it, there was just enough space for the top piece to sit without hitting the ceiling, with a covering blanket at the base of the tree several brightly wrapped gifts were placed beneath the tree. Ophis looked at the gifts, her mind in turmoil.
"I have no idea what to get him for Christmas" Ophis confessed, she paced back and forth in frustration as she racked her brain searching for the answer to what to give Minato.
Vali looked at the frustrated Dragon God with some amusement "How about searching for gifts for others, take your mind off it"
"I. Can't." Ophis said, gripping her head "I have gifts for everyone else picked out already"
Vali quirked an eyebrow "Really?"
"Yes" Ophis paused for a moment in her pacing to turn to Vali "I won't tell you want I got you, but I will say I got the Breast Dragon Emperor twelve terabytes of porn"
Amusement turned to confusion and concern "Ophis, where did you find that much porn?"
"They were selling it in a store, I used a Khaos Brigade credit card to pay for it" Ophis turned away from Vali, already knowing a blush was coming as she remembered what she had learned "I purchased it for... research material, originally"
'So, they weren't making it up' Vali thought to himself as the memory of a crying Jeanne saying she couldn't get married any more, not wanting to remain on that tangent he focused on the issue at hand "Ophis, I really am sorry. But I don't know how much help I can be with this, Minato seems to be a modest person from interactions I've had with him so I'm sure he'll love whatever you give him"
"But" Ophis paused, looking down defeated "Nothing that I come up with seems good enough" while she was able to get gifts for everyone else with a moderate amount of effort, but when it came to Minato there was always something within her saying it wasn't good enough.
"Ophis, you and Minato have been together for nearly a year now. I can easily say you may be the one person in this world who knows him the best, or at least the longest, so use that time together to come up with something only you can give him" Vali winced slightly at the impatient Albion in his mind "I have to go, Albion is getting antsy and doesn't want Ddraig giving his gift to Aoi and the twins first, and I want to keep as much distance as possible from the people I saw my great-grandfather fawn over the assess of"
A white draconic aura covered Vali as his eyes began to glow "Even if I agree with Lucifer that Adam and Eve have amazing butts, I still want to keep my distance and if I can't do it physically I'll do it spiritually [Dragon Switch]!" the draconic aura condensed as Vali's eyes became yellow and reptilian.
Dragon Switch was an odd power Albion and Ddraig developed that no one was sure quite how, when they learnt of Aoi being their daughter [Jaajaa and Nana being their grandchildren] the two dragons gained control of their hosts for a time when it seemed like they were about to enter Juggernaut Drive. Issei and Vali could wrestle control back easily so it wasn't a major concern as it let the dragons have room to breathe outside of their Sacred Gears.
Albion picked up the gifts Vali had brought before giving Ophis a toothy grin "You still got plenty of time to come up with something, Ophis. That, and knowing his luck Arisato is bound to get involved in something that will keep him busy as you search for something" Divine Dividing manifested, looking more organic rather than metallic it usually was. As they flew away Ophis felt the burden on her heart lessen to a degree, deciding to go over everything again to see if anything jumped out at her with a different mindset.
Still, what were the odds Minato had to prevent some crisis so close to Christmas?
"I know this is last minute but we need your help now!" a woman wearing a green coat with white fur said as Odin drank a bottle of unknown liquid.
Minato sighed as he handed Valerie the mixing bowl "What is it this time?"
"After what happened to Great Red, Sandman is making a power move using holidays to become the sole deity of dreams" an anthropomorphic rabbit controlling giant robotic eggs answered, he shot an annoyed look over Minato's shoulders "Miss Tooth, you can do this later"
A small fairy gave the rabbit an embarrassed look before winking to Aoi and the babies "Just, keep in mind I'll pay handsomely for those dragon teeth when they fall out" hearing Ddraig and Albion growls as the small fairy flew over to a large bearded man in green.
Minato held his head in his hands before pinching his temples "Okay, okay. Let's get this over with before Christmas day because I am not missing it. I had to deal with an end of the world event last time and I am not carrying that burden into this year"
"Wonderful!" The large bearded man exclaimed, raising up a large staff in one hand and an axe in the other "Let us be off, to battle Guardians!"
Ddraig shot Albion a dirty look, reaching into Issei's pocket to hand his rival the money placed on their bet.
Ophis returned to her mix tape idea, the concept of having a series of songs dedicated to a particular person, event or time period was an amusing concept when she originally learnt about it years ago. With Minato's love of music it made sense to compile music he liked together with Ophis adding what she felt he would like, though that idea was made redundant when she realized he could have done the same himself easily making the gesture feel lackluster.
However, coming back to it with a fresh mind brought forth another option, creating a playlist with music synonymous to their time spent together held more merit as it could be seen as a celebration of their time spent together and what could come next. Her usual avenue of discovering new music hit a roadblock when the music channels were fixated on festive music that would become outdated most of the year, however Ophis would not allow that to stop her from reaching her goals.
Using humanity's global interconnected information network she searched for music fitting her purpose, searching the top 100 music charts before delving deeper into more specific music while limiting herself to Japanese, English and French music. She knew Minato could understand all languages with his Personas but she didn't want him using that power every time he listened to the music and it narrowed down her search area. She had little time and combing through all available music efforts of humanity was something she could do at a later date.
After collecting everything Ophis went about arranging it all in a sequence that not only worked for the selected music but also fitting their chronological time together, once it was all done Ophis placed all the music onto a new purple MP3 player with matching black headphones with purple highlights. The sound quality was good and the music blended well together, connecting to speakers also proved to have excellent sound.
Ophis took a moment to listen to the music, feeling a weight lift from her shoulders as the music began playing.
...
...
...
...
...
...Music that was starting to sound romantic, and beginning to edge into something else.
"Ophis?"
The Dragon God calmly paused the music, not turning around as she got her heart rate under control "Yes?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I heard music coming from the room and I was curious of who it was" Xenovia said as she stood outside the doorway to Ophis's room, in her arms was something as tall as her wrapped in blankets.
"I was trying some new music" Wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible she pointed to the thing Xenovia was carrying "What is that?"
Xenovia readjusted her grip on the large thing she was carrying "This? This is something I had put together with help from the other Holy Guards, handcrafted just for Minato himself" Xenovia gave Ophis a wink "It's a secret til Christmas Day, not only that I can use it to better hide the other gifts I got for everyone"
Seeing Xenovia smiling confident in her gift selection made Ophis's doubt return, she boxed up the MP3 and Headphones as a backup before searching for a better option.
"I am going to break his legs" a statuesque woman said as she glared at anything in front of her, stomping down the hall creating holes in the floor that Aoi needed to avoid tripping over as she followed behind.
Aoi pleaded with her mother with tears in her eyes "Mother, please. It's not what you think, Minato is a great father and this is a wonderful home"
Aoi's mother was prepared to rebut her daughter's claims, having half a mind to leave what she saw as a house of debauchery with her daughter and grandchildren, when she saw something that ended all other trains of thoughts "Is that Ophis? Knitting?"
Ophis pricked her finger with the knitting needle again, silently fuming as she had already broken ten needles already since she started. Shooting Aoi's mother an annoyed look Ophis got up and closed the door into her room, locking the door and activating magic to soundproof the room.
Taking a calming breath Ophis returned to her latest project, a scarf. She distinctly remembered Minato having a fondness for the piece of clothing and spent some time looking for one of a specific size out on a whim, using that scarf as a reference for size Ophis gathered the materials needed to make the scarf.
Threads of blue, yellow, black, red and purple weaving together to form a greater whole as they brought out the best of one another. Raising up the finished product Ophis gazed up her work, and found herself wanting. The sitch work was good but the pattern was off, straight lines drifting to and fro with the shapes coming out lumpy.
Ophis winced, considering putting the scarf through dye to hide the messy pattern before discarding that idea entirely as it would have meant she used multiple threads for nothing!
"Brat, surprised we haven't heard from you-" Great Red opened the door to Ophis's room, forcing the door open and breaking the lock in the process. Ophis glared at the Dragon of Dreams before throwing a knitting needle at her, the needle impacted Great Red's eye and shattered on impact with no harm done to the Dragon of Dragons "-with all the noise going on"
Ophis silently cursed as that made eleven knitting needles before turning back to her work, looking through the open book on knitting to see if there was a fix for her problem "Go away Stupid, I don't have time to deal with you"
Great Red picked up the remnants of the destroyed needle before using a minuscule amount of power to destroy it entirely, not wanting broken needles laying around a home with small children, before looking to Ophis as she flipped through a book with a scarf on her desk "Ophis, is everything alright?"
"Why would you care?"
Letting out a sigh Great Red stepped into Ophis's room fully "Look, you and I have never really had much of a positive relationship. But if you need help with something I am willing to offer a hand" Great Red got a twinkle in her eyes "For a price, that is"
Ophis turned to Great Red suspicious, normally Ophis would never entertain the idea of making a deal with the Red Idiot but with the way things were going...
"And what exactly would this price be, little Red?"
Great Red and Ophis turned to see Maria standing outside the door looking over the two, Ophis hasily hid what she was working on with her snakes before using more snakes to cover the previous snakes with blankets while Great Red looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Nothing major, I swear!" Great Red said, feeling the pressure from Maria's stare "The price would be an incredible minor thing, nothing to write home about and all for a bit of fun" Maria's stare became more intense.
"Maria, I can handle the idiot"
Maria gave Ophis a concerned look before relenting "Very well, I'll be out in the hall helping to repair the holes Aoi's mother created. Satou and Kosho were able to clear up whatever misunderstanding threw her into a range" she turned to Great Red and looked at the Dragon of Dragons as if they were an unruly child "Name the price and what Ophis gains from it, if she doesn't go through with it accept it as her backing out. Otherwise, we're going to have words"
"Do you say that as Minato's Persona?" Great Red asked, sweat forming on her brow "Or..."
"I'll leave that to your imagination" Maria left the room, after waiting a few seconds Ophis went over to close the door as well as it could close after Great Red broke it.
Great Red shivered "How is it the Queen of Heaven can be that scary?"
"Talk idiot" Ophis turned to Great Red with her arms crossed over her chest.
Great Red settled her nerves before standing up straight to make their size difference more apparent "Well, the price for my helping hand is simple. I want us to share whatever Minato gets you and me for Christmas" Ophis's fists tightened "I doubt anyone's going to give me anything and I don't want to feel left out, so I want you to share whatever he gets you with me"
"Why Minato?" Ophis asked, doing her best to keep her power in check so as to not destroy her room or sink Japan.
Great Red rolled her eyes "Because~ He's the one you're having trouble getting a gift for"
"...Fine" Ophis said, defeated, raising a hand to shake Great Red's own to cement the deal. She was almost out of time and there was no telling if Maria, and by extension Minato, knew about the scarf already.
"Well, that was too easy" Great Red said, disappointed she couldn't get a rise out of the Infinite Dragon God 'It's really affecting her that badly, huh' Great Red hid her wince, her plan to mess with Ophis becoming more malicious then she planned "Get him money"
Ophis looked to Great Red confused "Money, but" Ophis paused, considering her words "That's too, impersonal"
Great Red shrugged "Consider it at least, impersonal it may be but having more money could really help the guy out considering he's working multiple jobs already. That, and he can use it to buy something that catches his eyes later" Great Red looked to the side, scratching her cheek "At least, consider it. If only for a fall back plan"
After Great Red left the room Ophis stood for a minute before returning to the scarf, her snakes moving out of the way for her to look it over again. Looking over the scarf in her hands and looking at the clock only one thought passed through Ophis's mind, one she didn't want to go through with.
'I need money'
Walking through the front door Minato trudged forward, making sure to make as little noise as possible. The little adventure he had with The Guardians taking more out of him then he expected, if it wasn't facing Sandman and toon mind bending battles it was learning about the Guardians themselves.
Granted there was nothing wrong with the Guardians, he could offer support one at a time but having it all piled on his plate while trying to save the world at the same time was a bit much to ask. And that wasn't counting Yakko, Wakko and Dot joining in for their 'Holiday Special'
All he wanted to do was go to bed and get some sleep, something he wasn't going to get as he decided to join sleep on the coach.
"Oh my~ It seems like Santa brought us quite the gift this year~"
Minato didn't need to look to know who was talking "Kuroka, I'm too tired. Do whatever you want just leave me presentable for tomorrow" Minato mumbled into the cushion he was laying on. Feeling a blanket being put over him Minato accepted it without hesitation.
"While tempting any other time, you need your rest for tomorrow" Kuroka gave Minato a small kiss on the check "Goodnight, and Merry Christmas"
Christmas morning was a loud affair of the Arisato Residence, filled with laughter, christmas crackers and party poppers. While the urge to open the presents as soon as everyone got up they had already agreed beforehand to have Christmas dinner first before opening gifts, the Christmas dinner was a full feast where no stomach was left empty.
However, Ophis didn't eat much. Too nervous about the upcoming gift giving, she had put the scarf, MP3 and money together hoping to relieve some of her anxiety.
Ophis focused on the small box Minato handed to Great Red, the Dragon of Dragons looked at the little box surprised for a moment before accepting it.
"Keys?" Great Red looked at the keys in question before picking up one with a sleeping dragon keychain.
"There's a motorcycle outside for you" Minato said, adjusting the Santa hat Jaajaa and Nana made with Aoi that had 'best gift' stitched into the side "Nothing too fancy, but it's reliable, easy to repair and customize. I figured after what happened you wanted something to do tricks with until you are able to regain your dragon form"
Great Red looked at the keys again before giving Minato a toothy smile, throwing the key into the air before catching it mid-air "Thanks for thinking of me, bu-" Great Red looked to the side, doing her best to not let anyone see her face "I don't exactly know how to ride a bike"
Minato gave the Dragon of Dragons a grin "I'll teach you, don't worry. It'll be a bonding experience"
"You just want to see me fall over" Great Red said, feigning a hurt tone of voice "Though, I suppose you'd be one of the few who wouldn't laugh at such a scene"
Minato turned to Ophis to see the Dragon God shooting Great Red a pointed look, reaching into a large bag Minato pulled out a thick metal suitcase. The act gaining everyone's attention as Minato opened the case to remove what looked like a phone, he held it out for Ophis to take which the Dragon God did as she looked at the device confused, looking closer Ophis saw that on the screen were the word 'Default' "I needed to get a lot of help from a certain someone to get you that, try it out" Quickly turning to everyone with a reassuring smile "Don't worry, everything will be fine. It's perfectly safe"
"Minato" Bennia said with a concerned look as she kept her eyes on the unknown device in Ophis's hands "We weren't worried before, but we are now"
Curious Ophis pressed the button and felt herself beginning to float, her surroundings become a swirling mix of iridescent colours. Looking she saw a place she hadn't seen in a long time, the Dimensional Gap with everyone with her.
Ophis's eyes widened in shock as she used her snakes to protect everyone from the 'nothingness' of the Dimensional Gap, before anyone could realize where they were each already had one of Ophis's snakes protecting them.
Seeing everyone was safe Ophis took a moment to catch her breath and when she did she noticed something was off, she wasn't sure what exactly but something about the place they were didn't quite feel like the Dimensional Gap.
"A Device able to replicate the Dimensional Gap without the harmful elements, I couldn't help you reclaim the Dimensional Gap you remembered so this seemed like the next best thing" Minato explained, Ophis pushed the same button again causing the room to revert back to normal.
Ophis looked around the room to gauge the reaction of the others, only to see them all smiling. This threw Ophis for a loop for a moment before arriving at the most straightforward answer "You all knew about this gift ahead of time"
Satou nodded "Senpai told us about it ahead of time so we wouldn't panic, though seeing it in action was something else entirely"
"I think Jaajaa and Nana liked the Dimensional Gap's colours" Aoi said as she looked down at the twins to see them pouting with the swirling colours of the replicated Dimensional Gap gone.
Satou's Aunt, Kosho, looked under the tree and around the room searching for something "Hmm, are all the presents opened already?"
"Nope!" Great Red said, appearing behind Ophis to push the smaller Dragon God forward towards Minato "Ophis still has one last gift to give~!" Great Red bent down to whisper into Ophis's ear "You can do it"
Ophis, The Infinite Dragon God, froze as Minato looked to her. She could feel her heart race and her legs begin to shake, sensations she never knew in her long life but became all too familiar with since she started spending time with Minato. Feeling her face heat up Ophis looked down as she presented the gift, not looking as Minato accepted and opened the gift.
"Are these Diamonds?" Minato asked, Ophis looked up to see he was already wearing the scarf with it wrapped around his neck with the MP3 and headphones held gentle in his hands. His eyes wide with shock and confusion at the collection of fist size diamonds amounting roughly to nine hundred million yen (ten million US).
Ophis nodded "Yeah, I hoarded some things over the years to entice more materialistic beings to my cause of beating the idiot" everyone turned to Ophis and away from the diamonds, the christmas lights giving them a warm glow "I, don't need them anymore. I'm giving them to you, in case the other things weren't enough" Ophis said in a soft voice.
"I love the scarf and MP3 player" Minato replied with a smile. Those simple words were music to Ophis's ears, her nervousness fading as a burden was lifted from her heart "I can tell you put a lot of thought into these gifts, and that is enough to make them perfect"
The two shared a hug, a tender moment between two souls that had found a home with each other in a world not their own.
Later that night
Aoi yawned as Jaajaa and Nana slept in their crib, falling asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, a piece of paper fell from her hands to drifted to land close to the slightly opened door. When Ophis went to check in on Aoi and her little nieces she saw the piece of paper on the floor, picking it up Ophis saw it was a list with several things checked off.
Reading the only thing left unchecked on the list Ophis took it to Minato to explain something to her, finding him playing with Bridget in the living room as he laid on the couch she showed him the list "What's this, Aoi's list?"
Some time after Jaajaa and Nana were hatched she put together a list of 'Family Firsts' that she felt had to be perfect, everything was checked off except for one near the bottom of the page. First Birthday(?). There was some discussion on when Jaajaa and Nana's birthday was, was it when Aoi laid their eggs or when they hatched, a literally question of which came first the dragon or the egg before they landed on when Jaajaa and Nana hatched.
"Looks like all that's left on Aoi list is Jaajaa and Nana's first birthday" Minato said to himself as he turned to Ophis, wondering why she brought him Aoi's list of firsts.
"What are Birthdays?" Ophis asked Minato, she frowned as she saw Minato raise a questioning eyebrow "I've only heard the term before, never gave it much thought as to what it was about"
"What are birthdays" Minato repeated, never really expecting he needed to explain something like that to Ophis. Though, thinking about it, it's not unbelievable with her fixation on defeating Great Red "It's a celebration of someone's birth, it can be either someone still living for a celebration of another year to their life or celebrating them after their death"
Ophis looked around the room at all the decoration hanging around the room they had used in the celebration of Christmas, seeing this Minato answered Ophis's unanswered question "Birthday celebrations for the living varies greatly, from decorating an entire home to a much more simple affair, though the giving of gifts to the one being celebrated is common. For the dead, it usually celebrates something great they did with a possible holiday made for them in specific regions" As he was explaining the concepts of birthdays to Ophis he realized something "Actually, when is your birthday?"
Ophis tilted her head(?) as she considered the question "Don't know. Can't track time in the Dimensional Gap and I never concerned myself with such things as birthdays" Ophis tapped her chin with a finger as she looked upwards "I can't even tell when I left the Dimensional Gap"
"Hmm, when do you want your birthday to be?" Minato asked Ophis, surprising the Infinite Dragon God with his question "You can pick whatever day you want"
"Why?" Ophis wasn't sure why Minato wanted to her to pick a date for birthday, in the back of her head she had an idea but she wanted to hear Minato's reasoning.
A smile greeted her as Minato answered "Well, people tend to throw birthday parties for the important people in their lives and your very important to all of us and to me. So having a day of the year were we celebrate you coming into our lives doesn't sound too bad"
Ophis silent hoped the lights of the Christmas tree hid her blushing, not taking any chances she decided to snuggle up to Minato to try and hide her blush "That, sounds nice. As for gifts, I already have everything I ever had wanted and things I never knew I wanted or need" she could feel her heart beating fast again, however unlike last time when she was giving Minato his gift this beating feel far more pleasant "All I want, is to spent the day with you"
Minato hugged Ophis closer "In that case, I'm all yours for the day"
After some discussion on picking the right day to celebrate Ophis birthday they landed on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the end of the year and the beginning of the next. However, Ophis's birthday was a little different than how others marked theirs in that Ophis's Birthday begins on December 31st on 12pm and ended on January 1st at 12pm. A day that held both the beginning and end of the calendar seemed appropriate for the Ouroboros dragon, a creature described as eating it's own tail.
However, things did not go quite to plan.
Days later, on New Year's Eve.
Minato drank deep from his coffee mug, he was planning to sleep in till noon with Ophis so they could spend her birthday together when a loud series of knocks coming from the front door woke up everyone in the house. Opening the door he was greeted with the sight of a man holding a tome trying to get a group of teenagers under control, normally Minato would have assumed they were door to door carolers looking for donations but, looking at them Minato could feel a familiarity with them all as if they all shared a bond he didn't know about.
His pondering was cut short as a set of twins ran to hug him ""Papa!"" In that moment only two thoughts were on Minato's mind, why were this girls calling him papa and why did they look so much like Aoi?
Nearly an hour later, he got an answer.
"Okay, you and the kids are from the future" Minato asked the man who tried and failed to stop the children from coming to the Arisato Residence.
Woz bowed his head in shame "I beg your forgiveness my lord, but the Princes and Princesses were insistent on coming here" Minato and Woz looked to the living room to see the children interacting with their mothers.
Aoi was having the easiest time adjusting to the situation, dotting on the future versions of Jaajaa and Nana while the present day babies were in her arms.
Kiyome wasted little time on quizzing her alleged son from the future, only answering her correctly did she consider the possibility he was her future son.
Satou was cuddling her future daughter with the brightest smile Minato had ever seen on her, next to them Kosho was talking to her son about his reasoning for a brawler wearing fake bandages.
Xenovia was asking questions about the future but her daughter was keeping tight-lipped on everything except for training regiments.
Valerie was caught between her twin idol daughters as she was caught in their group hug.
Bennia was either discussing previous pranks or doing hero poses with her future son, Minato had to do a double take due to how closely his and Bennia's future son looked like Ryoji.
Kuroka was beside herself with joy as she showered her future triplets with attention, and going by their purring they were loving it.
Ophis was glaring at Minato, her future son doing his best to calm his angry mother with sweets with some success. Great Red had passed out when her son showed himself, that piece of information being too much for the Dragon of Dragons and the reasoning for Ophis's glare.
Looking back to face Woz Minato drank all of his coffee in one go, using healing magic to undo the burns the hot coffee caused his throat, "Okay, what brings back to our time Woz? I can't imagine time travel being a common holiday plan"
Woz gave Minato a curious look "Do you truly? May I ask why, having a stranger arriving at your doorstep proclaiming himself as your most loyal follower with your future children in tow isn't something people could easily accept"
"I'm not sure how to put it into words" looking up to the ceiling for a moment as he collected his thoughts, feeling a strange sense of Deja vu with the talk of time travel, Mianto lowered his head to look at Woz in the eyes "I feel a connection with you and the kids, not sure how it came to be but I know it is genuine"
Woz was silent for a moment before tears of happiness began rolling down his cheeks. When everyone was caught up they sent out to find the anomaly that was causing the future the kids came from to implode in on itself, it didn't take too long as they came across a group trying to kill Minato who also claimed to come from the future.
Woz looked over the group with a weary eye "I see, the children of the Welsh Dragon Emperor from another timeline have found themselves in our own. Believing you my lord are the anomaly that needs to be erased to restore the timeline" his eyes narrowed as he opened his tome "We should best disciple them"
Minato shook his head "No, this whole thing is a misunderstanding. Besides, their not exactly wrong about me being an anomaly" Minato took out his phone and began searching through his contacts "Besides, a simpler path remains open to us"
"Your calling the Breast Emperor?" Great Red asked, recovering from her earlier fainting spell and was beginning to bond with her son over bikes.
Minato blinked in realization "Huh, not a bad idea. Kuroka, could you call your sister to get Issei and his group over here. We might need the extra hands"
Ophis leapt up onto Minato's shoulders "Who are you calling?"
"The person who made the Dimensional Gap replicator" As the phone rang Minato spoke to the person on the other end as soon as they answered "God, it's me. Yeah, mostly doing good. Except for time traveling children trying to kill me, I know your still recovering but do you think you could lend us a hand for a minute" Minato was silent as God spoke on the other end "Wonderful, see you soon"
"To call upon the creator himself to deal with irrational children" Woz looked to Minato in awe "Truly, none are greater than you my lord!"
Minato gave Woz a tired look "Did future me say anything about you praising him or me?"
"Not in public and kept to a minimal" Woz answered with a smile, he opened his tome to read something as it began to glow.
Looking to his future children for a moment, a storm of emotions within him with a notable one being joyous celebration, Minato adjusted his head to look at Ophis to see her deep in thought as she looked at Makoto and Great Red. He was about to apologize for the changes to the day plan when Ophis spoke up.
"Remember when I said all I wanted was to spend the day with you, I want something else now" Ophis tightened her grip on Minato, showing her possessive side for him "I want more eggs then Great Red"
Ophis's words drew everyone's attention to her and Minato, Woz looked up from his book for a moment while the children from the future looked embarrassed with Yuuki and Makoto holding their heads in their hands.
"W-Well" Minato began to say, unsure how to proceed forward "I suppose in the future-"
"I want them now"
"Cool off you snake!" Great Red latched onto Minato's free arm, pressing it into her chest "Think about us, you being greedy might erase my Makoto! I may never have considered being a parent at all in my long life before but I like my potential kid, and if I'm going to have kids with anyone it might as well be with someone who doesn't laugh when I crash head first through a tree" Ophis and Great Red glared at one another, neither giving ground as Minato became ensnared by the Dragons of Infinite and Illusion.
"Who's going to tell them the timeline will correct itself so long as we kick the invaders out and don't kill anyone?" Asahi asked aloud, stopping his mother and cousin from joining in on the fight for Minato, he looked around his siblings to see them all looking at the scene with various expressions of embarrassment with his little half sister/cousin Shio hiding behind him.
"I'll do it if I can tell them Makoto and Yuuki are technically twins due to being born on the same day~" Ryuji offered with a grin, he put pointed a thumb to the fighting Infinite Dragon and True Dragon with Minato caught in the middle "Besides, this is hardly different from when Mama Ophis and Mama Red bullied each other in our time"
"The difference Nya" "Is that in this time nya" "They haven't had the same experiences as ours Nya" the Nekoshou triplets said together.
"Be ready, they draw near!" Woz said as a group of people with Issei and the Occult Research Club trailing behind them "The ultimate battle begins now!"
Extra stuff that in retrospect served little purpose and bloated the chapter.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry we dragged you into this" a tied up Santa Claus said as he hung upside down along with Minato and the Easter Bunny, beside them hung the Tooth Fairy in a cage. The servants of the Sandman, old cartoon characters brought into reality, sung and danced around along with their master as they explained their plans.
Minato looked to Santa for a moment before turning back to the dancing toons "It's fine, certainly better than the last Christmas were me and my friends needed to save the world"
"I don't suppose there were any similarities to this?" The Tooth Fairy asked, looking around nervously for a way out.
Minato looked around the frozen tundra they were in "Well, there were certainly no musical numbers. And no tower of doom with this one"
The toons were reaching the crescendo of their song "-return this world to grey, welcome to our gospel of dismay!" as their song ended the earth shook as a tower born of the dreams and nightmares of humanity rose into the air.
"You wouldn't happen to mean that doom tower" The Easter Rabbit said, wiggling as if he was searching for something in his pockets.
Sandman approached the Guardians, it's golden and black features shifting as half lidded eyes looked over the captured heroes "I am on the verge of attaining victory, my old friends. It's not too late, join me and you'll rule along with me as new gods" Sandman gave Minato a side glance "You fought bravely, young messiah. I extend the same offer to you, as it would help establishing ourselves as a new Pantheon"
Santa Claus laughed, a loud hearty laugh before looking at Sandman with a smile "Counter offer, you stop this now and we put all this behind us. It's not too late Sandy" Santa Claus's smile didn't reach his eyes "Please, don't do this Sandy"
"What other choice do I have?" Sandman said grimly "If I don't do this someone foul entity may attempt to take the Great Red's position of power over Illusions, this is something that I must do Nicklaus"
"If this is something you must do, then WE must do what we must" Santa Claus offered his old friend a sad smile "Have you forgotten, Sandman" the sound of chains could be heard as arrows rained down on the toons "Santa never rides alone"
Krampus let out a bestial roar and charged as Cupid fired their arrows, the distraction being enough for Easter Bunny to use an egg shaped device to cut them out of their bindings.
Minato summoned forth Jack Frost and Pyro Jack to distract Sandman's toon servants with slapstick and comedy, as he did Minato saw through the eyes of his already summoned Personas.
Good news, the others were safe.
Bad News, his 'mother in law' was visiting and she was furious.
"Again, I'm really sorry" Sandman said, nursing his bruised eye. He sat in Santa's sleight with the Guardians as they began delivering presents to the children of the world, his 'manic episode' setting Santa Claus's time table back significantly.
Santa gave his friend a toothy grin as he had a glowing candy cane between his teeth "Ah, all in the past" "It was ten minutes ago" "What matters is delivering presents and giving to those in need, not to mention we may have come across someone to help us with our duties. Speaking of which, how is the young man holding up?"
Using his sand Sandman condensed it into a glass ball that glowed with power, with the light the ball showed Minato helping Santa deliver presents by summoning a Persona of Santa Claus with his sleigh and reindeer. For a moment everything seemed fine but looking closer Sandman saw something concerning, not hearing anything from Sandman Santa looked over to see what was happening "Ah, I see some of your cartoons are still in our realm"
Three anthropomorphic black dog cartoon characters with bright red noses were riding with Minato, they were helping in their own way. Though how much an impromptu musical number about Christmas was debatable.
"Their your toons, why did you summon the Warner Bros and the Warner Sister?" Sandman countered, looking down to see the Warner Siblings being strangely well behaved and seemed to be helping with delivering gifts.
Santa laughed "Like so many other lives are brought into this world, it was the heat of the moment"
[Surprise Warner visit]
The two shared a hug, a tender moment between two souls that had found a home with each other, ruined by what was hiding under Minato's clothes.
"""Ah~!"""
From beneath Minato's Santa hat appeared the Warner siblings, they leapt out from under Minato's hat to land by the fireplace.
"I thought you three went home!" Minato asked, shocked to see the Warners still in their reality.
Yakko crossed his arms "What, and miss the emotional climax? That's no way to end a story"
"Though I'm concerned about the type of show we're in" Dot looked to the reader "Well, fanfic anyway"
"Argh, we missed dinner!" Wakko lamented as he saw the table cleaned of food, Wakko fell to his knees and wept "We overslept!"
Everyone present was dumbfounded by the arrival of cartoon characters, before they were able to react to them properly sand exploded from the fireplace and wrapped the three cartoons in nets of sand. An argument could be heard up on the roof with snippets of the argument filtering down the chimney, from what Minato could make out it sounded like Sandman and Santa.
"That's our cue. That's all folks, now let's get out of here before we genre drift into whatever suspect thing this is" Dot said as she pointed a thumb towards everyone around the Christmas tree, Dot looked to her hand to see it had gone from four fingers to five, pulling out a mirror from nowhere she saw her eyes had gone from simple black dots to expressive anime eyes. Dot screamed in terror, her brothers looking on in shock for a moment as they themselves underwent similar transformations.
Yakko kissed the palm of his hand before waving goodbye "Good Night everybody!" the Warners were pulled up through the chimney before Sandman unceremoniously threw them back into their reality.
Looking outside everyone saw a sleigh riding through the sky "Ho Ho Ho! See you next year!"
Staring out the window for a solid minute, Valerie turned to everyone else "What was that?"
"""High level use of Illusion""" Great Red, Minato and Ophis answered together.
Sighing, Minato hoped nothing else would happen until New Years so that they could end this year without incident. Still, this was turning out to be his best Christmas he could remember.
Author's Notes:
For a running score of crossovers added in this particular chapter, some just added for fun and will NOT being showing up again, besides what the main crossover is [SMT Persona 3 & High School DxD] and much smaller crossover added in [Happy Sugar Life characters]. Added in series:
-Aoi, Jaajaa and Nana from [I got a wife and twin daughters, but their dragons] added in mostly due to how people seemed to like them in the previous chapter Omake that ended up being longer then the real chapter.
-The Guardians, from the Rise of the Guardians. Didn't plan a part bigger then keeping Minato messy for a couple hours or so while Ophis worked on getting a gift.
-Bendy and the Ink machine charachers along with the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister being summoned minions.
One internet cookie to whoever gets the 12 Terabytes of porn reference.
For those curious at how much 12 terabytes is, it's roughly 3.000.000 Photos or 6.000 hours of HD video.
To finish off what happens with the kids, they fight a little with some heated moments between Xenovia and Kuroka's kids. Realizing their in the wrong timeline the EX kids go back to their time with some of our heroes to kick Loki and his alien lackey's asses.
Happy Holidays everyone, now to go over some things that people may ask and answering things left in reviews.
First, let me say I am happy to see you loved Mama Dragon Aoi and Dragon baby twins Jaajaa and Nana. I still haven't decided if I should add them into the main story of Messiah X Dragon but if they are it won't be for a while. Whereas Satou and her Aunt were easy enough to slot in a single mother dragon and her newborn twins will need a bit more work especially with them developing a connection with Minato. What I'm saying is it will be a couple of chapters before they can be integrated with some ground being retrended but hopefully enough new stuff so it's not a copy and paste job.
As for what I have planned for Diodora's former Peerage [who three of have been named already] it will be touched on in the next chapter. The truth is, what I have planned for them is half the reason I made MessiahXDragon a series of snippets instead of a series of unrelated things with MinatoXOphis so I won't say anymore and risk spoiling it.
When I give Gamer!Keyblade!Minato it's own story I won't be making the same mistakes as I did with 'Everyday Gamer' as in having half the screen being skills and stat screens, spitballing ideas for a title at the minute so you could suggest possible names or Companions to join Minato on his new journey. May or may not act as a continuation of a variation of MinatoXOphis.
Surprised no one mentioned the binary code message when Gamer!Issei used Observed on Minato. To save you the time it reads "I see you"
Yes, Minato and those staying with him celebrated Hanukkah which was took place on December 1st to December 9th. Hanukkah is marked on a Lunar calendar instead of the solar calendar so it can land on different days throughout the years.
Why is Great Red there? Seemed like a fun idea and I have a what if Omake in the back of my head where it's Great Red approaching Minato instead of Ophis, that and a love triangle with Ophis and Great Red isn't something I've seen before. So... Great Red x Minato x Ophis?
Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy are pretty much a mixture of The Guardians movie and book counterparts, minus the alien backgrounds. Also, Sandman and Nightmare King were fused together to create this version of Sandman. Odin was brought in to introduce The Guardians to Minato, while drinking heavily due to past experience with the Guardians.
For those that didn't catch the reference, Sandman summoned the Bendy and the Ink machine characters to act as his servants and Santa brought in his own toons to help them which is where the Animaniacs came in.
Aoi's mother didn't really have any plans for beyond "Misunderstanding about the place Aoi was living at and Minato as a person, sees Infinite Dragon God Knitting in another room"
Maria is caring, loving and dislikes violence, but that mama is carrying enough power to bitch slap gods and get away with it.
Since to my knowledge we never got a good idea on what exactly Great Red can do I decided to make their power a form of reality warping, like how a lucid dreamer could control their dreams.
Minato worked with God of the Bible to create the Dimensional Gap replication device.
As for New Years, a expy of Kamen Rider Zi-O Woz came back in time to restore the timeline after Issei's time traveling kids landed in the wrong timeline.
What are the kids names?
Minato + Aoi = Jaajaa and Nana
Minato + Ophis = Yuuki
Minato + Great Red = Makoto
Minato + Kiyome = Raidou
Minato + Satou = Shio
Minato + Kosho(Satou's Aunt) = Asahi
Minato + Xenovia = Zen
Minato + Valerie Tepes = Sera and Integra
Minato + Bennia = Ryuji
Minato + Kuroka = Kurobara, Ai and Chika
Issei's future children, for those who haven't heard of Highschool EX, a novel written and sold with the Blu-ray of Highschool DxD BoRN.
Issei + Rias = Ex Gremory
Issei + Akeno = Kurenai Himejima
Issei + Xenovia = Zen Quarta
Issei + Koneko = Shirayuki
Issei + Kuroka = Kurobara
Issei + Asia = Airi Hyoudou
Issei + Irina = Shin Shidou
Issei + Ravel = Robertina Hyoudou
Issei + Rossweisse = Helmwige
Issei + Elmenhilde Karnstein = Ernestine Karnstein
Issei + Le Fay = Mordred Hyoudou
To those reading this I wish the best for you, it's a hard time for everyone this year and I hope these snippets bring you some enjoyment.
Happy Holidays with love.