Hey Guys,
Sorry for my late Christmas special
I tried...very hard...but the more I try, the slower it seems to get
That and my lack of sleep from real life parties and game time _
not enough time in a day :P
Sorry I really haven't been able to check over this chapter. I just really wanted to get it out before holiday feeling is gone
I hope it's ok
BTW I have made minor changes to ch 9 and 12 b/c i mentioned Cards in them
I have decided to use "Monster Essense" in replace of cards
This was my guildie's idea..which was awesome...i really liked it...so i went back to change things
so from now on...putting cards into equip is enchanting items with monster essence :P
In Prontera field
The sun is setting and the air is crisp. It's gotten colder since its December, but not cold enough for snow as of yet. Mikan can be seen walking back to Prontera from her garden.
When she was walking home, someone dressed in a red suit with a rather large belly crashed into her.
He snickered as he got up and ran away.
"How rude, he didn't even say sorry." Mikan muttered as she continued to walk home.
When she got home, she began to unpack her stuff only to find her diary missing.
She started to panic and turned her room upside down looking for it.
"What if I dropped it when I bumped into that person on my way home?" Mikan thought when she still couldn't find her diary.
With that thought, she ran back out into Prontera field and started searching for her diary.
Since it was dark, she used Ruwach to help illuminate the surrounding area but still searched with great difficulty under the limited lighting. In the end she went home empty handed.
Next Morning
"Hotaru, I lost my diary. I think I must have dropped it when I bumped into someone last night," Mikan whined to Hotaru.
"Why did you take your diary out of the house in the first place?"
"I like to write in it at the garden. I was coming home when I bumped into someone. He was very rude and dressed really weird. He was dressed all in red and had a big belly." Mikan said as she was thinking of what had transpired last night.
"Wait, you said you couldn't find your diary after bumping into him?" Hotaru asked for confirmation.
"Yup."
"Sigh, you didn't drop it. It was stolen." Hotaru told Mikan straight up.
"You probably haven't seen the notice around town." Hotaru said as she led Mikan to the closest Bulletin board in town.
"Read that notice." Hotaru told Mikan as she pointed to a Wanted notice on the board.
"Antonio, wanted for theft and impersonation of Santa Claus. Have stolen countless number of items across the country including many gifts from Santa's workshop." Mikan read, "That's horrible! If he impersonates Santa, then it will give Santa a bad name!"
"Actually, what they don't post about is how the real Santa will reward you for helping catch Antonio and returning the items. Antonio doesn't like Christmas very much and is trying to make it horrible for everyone else. He also hates Santa and wants everyone else to hate him as well which explains his get up." Hotaru explains.
"We should help catch him! Then we can return the stolen toys to Santa and everything else he stole to the rightful owners. On top of that I can get my diary back!"
"Since you bumped into him in south Prontera field, let's go check Izlude to see if anyone has seen him there." Hotaru said as they left Prontera to walk to the satellite town Izlude.
Once in Izlude, they went to the guard station and asked them about any disturbance in town last night. The guards told them about how there was a large amount of reports on stolen items, mostly Christmas presents.
"Looks like Antiono has already hit this town." Mikan commented.
"Yeah. He has two choices to go from here if he's going south. He could go to Payon or Morroc. Which one do you think he'll go to?" Hotaru asked.
"I don't know. But maybe we can ask Ruka to be on the lookout in Morroc while we go to Payon ourselves to search." Mikan said.
"But then we'll have to split the rewards with him too." Hotaru stated.
Mikan Sweatdropped, "All you care about is the reward isn't it. What about helping all those poor people that had their goods stolen?"
"It's just an added bonus that they get their items back. Receiving a reward is the most important thing." Hotaru replied.
Mikan sighed and shook her head. Then she called Ruka on her communicator, "Hey Ruka, you there?"
"Hey Mikan, what's up?"
"Have you seen the notice about Antonio stealing presents and different items from people?"
"Yeah I have. What about it?"
"Well you see, Hotaru and I want to try to catch him. He just hit Izlude last night so we think he's going south. Can you keep an eye out for him in Morroc while we go search Payon?"
"Sure thing. I'll let you know if I find anything."
"Thanks Ruka. Keep in touch." Mikan said as she closed off their communication link.
"Let's take the Karfa warp to Payon and walk from there back towards Prontera in case he's still on the road somewhere." Hotaru suggested.
"That sounds good." Mikan replied and went to the Karfa worker and paid for a warp to Payon.
In Payon they talked to different people asking about lost or stolen items. It seems like the people in town haven't had their items stolen yet so they know Antonio haven't reached this town.
As they were about to leave the town, they heard a group of people complaining about missing items.
"Excuse me, did you say you got your items stolen?" Mikan asked the adventurers.
"Yeah, we camped in one of the fields on the border of Prontera and Payon last night. When we woke up this morning a bunch of our stuff was missing." One person in the group replied.
"He stole the gift I was bringing home to my girl friend." Another member said angrily.
"Sounds like Antonio." Hotaru commented.
"Which field was this?" Mikan asked.
"The one right south of Poring Island. You can get there by going field west and another north. West of here are the War of Emperium castles of Payon."
"Cool. Thanks, we'll start going that way." Mikan replied.
"Hum, he might try to go into the Castles before coming to town. Let's go there and try to camp it out." Hotaru suggested.
"Hai," Mikan replied as they went to the Castle area.
Mikan and Hotaru decided to hang around the entrance to town from the Castle area. They hid in bushes waiting for someone to show up. They figure there's no way they'll miss him since this is the only entrance in town.
"Mikan, when he shows up, we have to knock him out fast. He can use teleport and disappear if we don't do it fast enough." Hotaru told her.
"Oh, just like my teleport skill."
"Yes, exactly like yours. He'll be able to teleport to in the near by field and we'll have to find him again. So lets not give him that opportunity."
Mikan nods in response.
After some time
They were getting tired of waiting for Antonio to show up. Their bodies were aching from being crouched up in their hiding positions. The bush was making them itchy. Basically they were very uncomfortable.
Mikan had just about enough and was going to stand up when they heard footsteps approaching.
Mikan quickly casted her support spells on both her and Hotaru quietly.
The glanced out of the bush to find someone completely dressed in red with a big bag on his back.
"It's him!" Mikan said quietly but with alert.
"Help me attack him too to make this fast." Hotaru commanded as she started to target him with a spell.
Mikan quickly got out of the bush and tried to ambush him. She jumped on his back and covered his mouth with her hands in an attempt to stop him from chanting the teleport spell.
"Mikan jump." Hotaru called out just as she finished casting her spell.
Mikan jumped off his back to watch him get pushed back by the force of a lightening ball. The lightening ball did major damage and knocked him right into a tree. Due to the damage he suffered from the spell and hitting his head against the tree, he slumped to the ground unconscious.
"Yes we did it!" Mikan said happily as she jumped up and down.
"Yes, but he's too heavy for us to move to the guards. Can you quickly go into town and get the guards to come get him. I'll stay watch here." Hotaru said.
"Okay." Mikan responded and ran back into town to get the gaurds.
After a few minutes Mikan came back with the guards who took Antonio into custody.
"Can you girls come with us to the command centre? We'll need to take your statements." One of the guards told the girls as the others carried Antonio's unconscious body away.
The girls nodded and followed the guards back to the command centre.
At the command centre, Mikan explained what had happen the previous night and told them how they came up with a plan to capture Antonio.
The chief thanks them and allowed Mikan to look through the bag for her diary.
While Mikan was looking for her diary, Hotaru went to collect their reward.
"Ah, yes, here's the reward for capturing him from the guards of Midgrid." The chief said as he handed her 5000 zeny. "Can you please return the gifts he stole from Santa to Santa directly? Santa wants to thank the people who have captured Antonio personally."
"That's a lot of stuff he stole. How do we know which are Santa's gift and which are the ones he stole from other people?" Hotaru asks.
"Just leave it to Santa, once he gets them all he'll be able to sort them out." The chief responded.
"Ok, but I guess we'll need some help to get all the gifts back to Santa since there's so much." Hotaru said.
"Ask someone from the merchant class to help you. Their carts can hold lots of items." The chief suggested.
"Thanks for the suggestion. One last thing, where is Santa located?"
"Go to the town of Al De Baran. Some of Santa's worker work from a building in the north east corner of that town. He can warp you to Lutie field. From there go North into the town of Lutie. Lutie's is Santa's private village. It's open to adventurers so you can visit it any time."
Hotaru nods and leaves to find Mikan.
Hotaru finds Mikan sitting in the middle of a mountain of gifts squealing happily as she holds onto her diary.
"Baka, did you get Anna and Nonoko's communicator information?" Hotaru asks.
"Yeah I did."
"Great, give them a call and see if they can help us. We need to bring all the presents to Santa and it'll be great if we can put it in their carts." Hotaru told her.
"Oh my God," Mikan screamed, "I get to see Santa?!"
"Quiet down and give the girls a call."
"Hai," Mikan responded excitedly and called the girls to explain what's happening. The girls agreed to help and warped from Alberta to Payon and meet up with them at the Guard's office.
Once they got to the office, they began to load everything into the carts. "Wow, how did he manage to steal so much stuff?" Anna asked?
"I have no idea." Hotaru responded as she helped packed the items into their cart.
"The boys said they'll meet us in Al De Baran." Mikan told them.
"I wish they'll come here to help carry some of this." Nonoko said while struggling to move her cart.
"Good thing we're taking warps all the way there." Hotaru replied.
"Ah, why don't I go to Al De Baran first to Memo and then come back and warp all of you. That way you don't have to take multiple warps to get there." Mikan suggested.
"That sounds great. Go get the memo while we finish up packing. We'll wait for you here." Anna told her.
Mikan nods and then teleports back to Prontera to use Karfa warps to get to Al De Baran.
She walks to the North East part of the town and found the workshop the chief was talking about. The memo the location and then left to go back to Payon.
"Hey guys, I got the warp." Mikan told them.
"Great, we just finished packing. We'll push the carts into the warp first before going in ourselves I guess." Nonoko suggested.
"Okay," Mikan said as she opened the warp to Al De Baran.
Anna and Nonoko pushed the carts in one by one before stepping into the warps themselves, Hotaru went into the warp after them. Then before the warp closed, Mikan stepped in herself.
In Al De Baran
"Hey guys," Ruka called out to them as they materialized from the warp.
"Hey, great you guys are here. Take some of the stuff out of the cart. It's actually too much for the carts to hold but we needed a way to get them all here." Mikan told them.
The guys started to take the some of the items out of the cart to load into their own bags.
Once everyone finished setting up, they asked Santa's worker to warp them to Lutie.
In Lutie
"Brrrr, it's cold." Anna said with a shiver.
"Look at all the pretty snow!" Mikan exclaimed as she pranced around in the field
"Mikan aren't you cold" Nonoko asked while hugging Anna for warmth.
"Um, just a little. But the snow is so pretty, I can't help but play in it. Plus running around seems to keep me warmer." Mikan replied.
"Yeah, keep moving around to keep yourself warm." Hotaru suggested while she summons a Fireball to keep herself warm.
They trudged their way across the snow heading North of where there appeared.
Mikan played with Marins along the way. Marins are monsters in the poring family that lives in the cold. They're as adorable as porings themselves but much stronger. (A/N I have a thing for porings 3 3)
They ran away from big white bears called Sasquatch. They didn't want to try to fight any of the monsters here since they were carrying so much stuff. Soon they saw the entrance into the town of Lutie.
Once they stepped passed the invisible boarder the monsters stopped trying to follow them as they were inside the town barrier. Each town has one of these magical barriers encasing the town to stop monsters from outside coming in. So even if there are no real gates into the town like Lutie, the monsters still won't get in to harm the residences.
"Ho ho ho, you must be the adventurers that captured Antonio." Santa greeted them.
Their eyes sparkled as they saw Santa coming up towards them. Mikan started to squeal in excitement.
"Are those all the gifts and such Antonio stole this year?" He asked the group.
They nodded for an answer.
"Great, here put it in this bag I have here and my workers will get started on sorting everything." He said as he handed them a red bag.
"But Santa, this bag isn't very big. How will everything fit?" Yuu asked.
"It can handle a lot more then you think." Santa replied with a smile. "How do you think I carry the billions of gifts of for the children all around the world?"
The group looked at each other trying to see if someone knew the answer.
Santa gave a small chuckle and answered, "With magic of course. This is a magic bag. It's capacity is unlimited."
Once all the gifts were inside the bag, the workers took it away.
"Let's go to my house now for a nice mug of Coco and your rewards." Santa said as he led the way through town.
"Hi Mr Snowy, how are you today?" Santa asked the snowman that was just south of the tree.
"Fine thank you. Are those new friends we have?" He asked.
The group was quite shocked to see a talking snowman.
"Yes they are, they helped capture Antonio and returned everything he has stolen!" Santa told him.
"Wow, that's great. Thanks for doing that guys. You really saved Christmas." The snowman said to them, "Why don't you swing by later after you're done with Santa? I can show you some magic tricks."
The group nodded and they continue pasted the Christmas tree further north into town.
"Here's my humble home." Santa announce when they stopped in front of a house.
They went inside and sat around the fireplace to warm up.
Mrs. Claus came and served them hot coco drinks and they thanked her.
Santa told them stories while they drank their coco and warmed up by the fireplace. Louise, one of Santa's helpers, made special Santa hats for everyone. The Santa hats are enchanted with magic so that around Christmas time, it helps increase your resistance to devil and angel monsters. Also there's a small chance that it will automatically cast blessing (a spell that Acolytes have) and heal on the wearer of the hat when they're being hit.
Everyone was having such a grand time in Lutie they lost track of time.
Before they left to go home, Santa handed them each a present.
"Thank you once again for your help for capturing Antonio. Have a Merry Christmas everyone."
With that said and done, Mikan opened a warp portal for everyone to go in. They were reluctant to leave but it's the end of the day so they had no choice.
Once they were back in Prontera, open their gifts from Santa. Everyone had received an equipment of some sort that would be useful for them.
After everyone had gone home, Mikan runs quickly to her garden. Seeing no signs of her assassin friend, she climbs up onto the tree he usually naps in. She took out a present from her bag and tied it to the trunk of the tree with a note. She hopes that he'll like the present. When she saw it in Santa's workshop she was immediately reminded of him so she asked Santa if she could have that for a friend. After some questions Santa wrapped up the gift for her and told her to take good care of him. She only wish she could see his reaction to the present. It was a Drooping Kitty, which is a black cat doll headgear. It looks like a black cat sitting on your head.
After she had secured the present to the tree, she teleported back into Prontera and went home. (A/N she has learnt to be lazy and use her teleport skill whenever she wants to return home. :P Plus, she wouldn't want to run into another thief at night again.)
Thanks so much for reviewing:
sakuraheartz, oObroken-wingsOo, HyuugaYingLang and ilovelunae (which i'm guessing is annoynomous but thanks so much for reviewing!)
Cookies for the reviewers :)
and yes now that most of the people have been introduced and everything...i can get on with getting more Natsume time in :)
YAY