Don't we love the Christmas fillers? We sure do!

/= [DAY 92] =/

Charice couldn't help but notice Matthew dazing off during class. While she was busy handling the photographs, Matthew would quietly drag himself along and stare at the Christmas ornaments that were hanging on the walls. He seemed to really enjoy the ones that can actually show his reflection. She couldn't help but stare.

"What're you looking at?"

"N-nothing…" He mumbled back. "I just didn't get much sleep last night."

"Well, that's bad. People need sleep!"

"Yeah…I know that…"

"You need a break. Here, sleep on that bench over there. I'll stay nearby and take pictures for us."

"Are you sure?"

"All's cool, all's cool~"

Matthew didn't have any time to object as she pushed him to the nearby bench for him to sleep on. He watched as she pranced away with her usual grin and began to harass the sadly nearby Italian brothers. Maybe going to sleep was a good idea after all…

"Is she chasing them off again…?"

"Hm?" Matthew looked up. "Li Xiao? What are you doing out of class?"

"Different schedule. I don't have a class at this time period."

"Oh…I didn't know we operated like a college…"

"Fun times, isn't it?"

"I guess so…" Matthew stared at him. "So what are you doing here? Never saw you here when we crossed through a couple times."

"I usually just hang out in one of the lounges with Yong Soo. He's harassing Yao now that he found his hiding place, so now I have nothing to do."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"…Li Xiao?"

"Hm?"

"How long were you with Charice? Fighting the Shadows and all?"

"Quite some time. Charice found out about the Shadows after Carlos was murdered, so she became my partner afterwards…"

"So…you know more about this than she does?"

"I know all about the Shadows, Matthew. Carlos taught me."

"…Cuba…?"

"Yeah. He was a Shadow hunter too, taught me everything."

"He never told me anything about this…"

"Not surprising. If all the nations learned about something like this, we would end up trying to figure out how to use their powers"

"T-that's dangerous, isn't it?"

"If that's bad, try imagining how the humans would've reacted to it."

"…some of them would try using it…exploit their powers…"

"I heard Hitler did."

"He did?"

"That's what Carlos told me. From what he heard, he was a victim just like you and the others. He fell into the other world and saw the sadistic side of what I would imagine to be a Jewish psychopath. Went insane…literally believed all that he was thinking…and went ahead with the Final Solution. It ended up being so powerful that it affected Ludwig as well, hence what his Shadow was."

"…he saw his Shadow…?"

"And was most likely possessed by it. Unlike us nations, humans can either be killed by their Shadows or possessed by them. In those cases, most people think they just lost their heads out of nowhere. That's how most of them actually occur. Normal people can't handle the other side."

"But how did you? Last time I checked, you have a human body too."

"All of us do. And like how some people can obtain a natural immunity, me and Carlos just happened to be able to enter the other world without any ill effects. In fact, we didn't even have to face our Shadows. We already had our Personas when we fell in by accident…well, when I fell in. He was doing it since birth."

"Natural…immunity?"

"Charice had the same immunity too when she followed me in to save you. But unlike the both of us, she had the ability to change Personas at will."

"I've seen that ability. I talked to Arthur and he called it the Wild Card."

"It's a very useful ability, but it just tells us so much more about Charice…"

"I-it does?"

"A Shadow is supposed to be created when a problem arises and the mind cannot find an answer to it. In a Wild Card's case, he or she would've had multiple problems that they had solved by themselves, deep enough to actually obtain this ability. But for Charice…she's different…"

"How so…?"

"I know you wouldn't understand because you're not as sensitive as me and Arthur, but her aura is extremely unstable…"

"Unstable? But she's the sanest one out of all of us, right?"

"Yes…but it had been waxing and waning instead of stabilizing…I've only seen this once before."

"Once? When?"

"Ludwig. During World War II."

"What?"

"It's strange…she has all the symptoms to snap and turn psychotic…but she's not."

"Unless it's something pertaining to her Cute-Obsession mode."

"That would be true if the effects were minor…but it's literally taking over her body."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"This might be…worse than actually being killed by her Shadow…"

"H-how?"

"It's as if…her Shadow is literally feeding off her…"

"What?"

"Stuff like this usually ends up with cutting their lives in half…something is poisoning her from the inside…"

"Oh my god…w-what about Rizal? He's the Philippines too, so…!"

"He's not affected. I've seen him before…he's perfectly normal. Maybe it's because he still has a grudge against Antonio, but…"

"So…you're saying that it's because she's hiding a secret from us…?"

"Everyone's hiding their own secrets. Hers is literally eating her soul from the inside."

"W-would it be because of her rule under Antonio…?"

"No, if it was Antonio would've realized it. But Rizal was the one that fought him."

"So we're back to square one…"

"Yeah…but there's something interesting about it…"

"What do you mean…?"

"The fluxing of the aura…it's centered around her left arm for some reason..."

"Is that…weird?"

"That kind of fluxing means that the Shadow had touched her before."

"Like…it attacked her?"

"If that was true, then she wouldn't be alive. Shadows don't show mercy until they turn into Personas…"

"So she handled the Shadow on her own?"

"That still won't explain why her soul is deteriorating…"

"W-what about those markings that we got from the day we turned into robots? Are they doing anything?"

"No. If anything, they're actually calming the aura down and straightening it…it's the only reason why I'm not panicking right now."

"…do you think that the murderer is doing this to her?"

"Keeping a hostage that they're going to use later…when the time needs for it…that bastard. I'm not forgiving whoever this person is…never."

"Can we save her…?"

"Until we know what's affecting her, no we can't. We can only watch…"

Matthew watched as he saw Li Xiao's hand slowly clench into fists, glaring and turning away as if he was holding something back…or perhaps not going to turn into a rage. They fell into silence, trying to figure out what was going to happen to her now.

"W-who else knows this?"

"Arthur, who told me everything…and Kiku. The both of us discussed it while we were eating out one day."

"He's worried too, isn't he?"

"Just as much as I am. Those two are good friends, you know."

"Yeah, I know…I guess it was pretty weird to ask such an obvious question…"

"It's fine."

"…does she know about all this?"

"…no. She's a ticking time bomb and she doesn't know it…"

"T-that's horrible…"

"Hey~! What're you two talking about?"

They looked up and saw that Charice was standing in front of them, still wearing that smile on her face and having the camera dangle quietly around her neck. The smile no longer looked as innocent as it used to be…it looked more like a smile of a terminally ill patient who accepted what was going to happen.

"Just school stuff." Li Xiao answered. "That's all."

"Geez…don't feed into the Asian stereotype! People listen, you know!" Charice laughed. "Well, sorry to cut this short but me and Matthew have to go back to class!"

"That's fine. My class is starting soon anyway." Li Xiao stood up. "You should go."

"Y-yeah…"

Matthew looked at Li Xiao with a worried look before going to follow Charice back to his classroom. Li Xiao sat there for a few minutes before pulling off his sleeve to his left arm, shining a green mark that had his emblem surrounded by green dragons. And on one of the green dragons was a long scar that touched the dragon's tail.

I'm going to save you, Charice…we all will…

/=+=/

Again…I'm losing filler ideas. Once the Christmas arc and the New Years arc is over, then I'm getting into the story arc. Relax.