Chapter 18 – Christmas in Kagutsuchi

Pre-Chapter Author's Note: This chapter is a non-canon Christmas chapter. I hope you all enjoy it! ^w^

Jacky yawned and stretched as he quietly strolled out of the room he shared with Ragna. Bang's house was nice and warm, despite how cold it was outside. It was winter and snow was falling from the sky. Although in most cases, Jacky would increase the temperature and melt it, he did not this time, for he loved the sight of snow. He walked outside of Bang's home and enjoyed it. As the hours passed, the children of Ronin-Gai began to leave their homes with jackets and mitts to play in the snow. The scene was heartwarming and the Beastkin warrior sat back and watched happily.
Bang came out and joined him. "I see you are enjoying the scenery, Master Ray," he said. "Yeah, it's a great sight to see, isn't it?"
"Indeed it is. Fresh-falling snow, children playing with smiles on their bright faces, and not a single conflict in sight," Bang agreed. The mood was peaceful and they took all of it in happily.
Ragna woke up a few hours later and stretched, heading to the bath and soaking in it for a while before getting dressed in a heavy jacket and stepping outside to find Bang and Jacky playing with the children. "Heh, what a couple of clowns," he muttered. "I think it's nice, Ragna," Noel said as she stepped out. "I guess so."
"Ragna, when's the last time you had fun?" Noel asked. Ragna was taken aback for a moment. "Define 'fun'," he replied. Noel took a mitted hand and grabbed his arm and led him out into the snow towards the others. Violet came and joined her friends a few moments afterwards.
Rachel watched them all in the snow having fun. "They appear to be enjoying themselves quite a bit," she said. "They're just a bunch of bumbling idiots jumping in the snow like that," Nago remarked. The young vampire slammed her clenched fist into Nago's head and teleported away with Valkenhayn, leaving Nago and Gii behind. "Wait, Princess!" her familiars shouted.
When Rachel arrived at Bang's house, everyone was taking a break from the playing and were drinking hot cocoa inside.
"Whatever are you all doing?" She demanded. "Ah, good afternoon Madam Rachel, Valkenhayn," Jacky greeted politely, "What brings you here?" Rachel smiled graciously and replied, "I witnessed your play and found myself utterly bored. I thought a bit of company might be necessary."
"Then why don't you join us, Miss Rachel?" Noel suggested. Although Ragna didn't say anything to her, he offered her a small smile, finding himself in a good mood. "Whatever are you drinking?"
"It's hot cocoa, a perfect drink for winter," Violet said kindly, "Would you like some?"
"Valkenhayn?" Rachel said. The old butler took a bow and collected two mugs of hot cocoa, tasting the contents of one for himself, a blissful smile on his face. "It is quite delicious, Violet," he complimented before handing Rachel the other mug. She herself took a sip and smiled as well. "I must agree, Violet, it is wonderful."
"Thank you very much. I'm happy to hear you say that, Miss Rachel," she said. The group exchanged pleasant conversation before most of them went back outside to play with the children again. Then, Noel suggested a snowball fight. The group agreed with gusto, especially Ragna. Rachel wouldn't join in, but she had Valkenhayn join the battle in her honor. The teams were split between Noel, Ragna, and Valkenhayn on one team and Violet, Jacky, and Bang on the other. The six of them made snowballs as fast as possible and began throwing them at each other. Violet carried her snowballs with a magic spell and threw three at Noel while Noel threw hers back at Violet. The snowballs knocked the two girls down and out of the game before five minutes had passed. Bang and Valkenhayn were throwing a volley of snowballs at each other like mad and their epic battle lasted for about twenty minutes before Bang was vanquished. Ragna and Jacky were fighting hard too. Jacky had managed to put Ragna on edge, forcing him to push past his limits. "You're not bad, Jacky," he said as he raised his right arm.

Restriction 666,
Released!
Dimensional Interference Field,
Deployed!
Blazblue,
Activate!

Seither flooded into Ragna and he tossed snowballs at Jacky with seither, shaping the snowballs into sharp-toothed snow monsters. Jacky summoned Drakos and destroyed the snow beasts and threw a snowball at Ragna so hard that its force knocked him off his feet. "No cheating, Ragna," Jacky laughed. He turned to Valkenhayn and prepared a snowball. "I may not be able to beat you in a regular fight, Valkenhayn, but I can certainly beat you in a snowball fight!" Valkenhayn accepted his challenge and the two started beating each other down with snowball after snowball. This snow battle was the longest of them and went on for hours before, finally, the two managed to knock each other down.
"That was a lengthy battle, but quite entertaining," Rachel said with a few claps of her pale hands, "You both fought quite well, I must commend you."
"Your compliment has been well-received, Madam Rachel," Valkenhayn said with a bow. "Thank you, Rachel," Jacky added as he stepped back inside with the group. After eating dinner, they all went to sleep, and Rachel had decided to stay in Bang's house for the night, for tomorrow would be a day she would love to stick around for.
At around Four in the morning, Jacky got out of bed and, joined with Ragna, left Bang's house, heading to the Market district of Kagutsuchi. Thankfully, a number of stores were still open for business and the two took full advantage of that.
Jacky and Ragna were recognized by a civilian at one point and the NOL was almost called on them, but Jacky managed to apprehend the man knock him out. Jacky raised the blade of Drakos over the man's forehead. "Woah, woah, don't you think that's a bit drastic?" Ragna asked, stopping him. "I'm not going to do what you think I'm going to do Ragna." The tip of the sword lightly pressed against the unconscious man's forehead and Jacky got to work. Runes appeared on the blade and upon the man's forehead. A strong sensation burst forth from the sword, but quickly receded and Jacky dismissed the Drakos.
"What did you do?" Ragna asked. "I erased his memory of seeing us," he answered. "Woah, you can do that?"
"Unless I have a child, the Drakos will erase my existence. I can utilize that to erase or in the very least, bind memories. Just one of the powers of the Drakos," Jacky explained. Ragna shivered and walked ahead of Jacky saying, "That's kinda creepy, but whatever. Let's hurry up and get back."

Two hours later…

Jacky and Ragna attempted to sneak into the house when the lights suddenly turned on and the two were greeted by the other residents of the house. In unison, they all shouted, "Merry Christmas!"
"How did you guys know we were out?" Ragna asked.
"We got up way earlier than you guys," Violet said. The two men walked in and sat down before receiving their presents from their friends. "We didn't expect-!" Ragna started. "Didn't expect to receive gifts, Ragna?" Bang finished. "What fools to think you would bring us gifts and not expect gifts in return," Rachel said.
"Sorry," Jacky muttered quietly. Violet handed her present to him with a kiss. "It's all right, you two. You didn't mean to offend us." Jacky opened Violet's gift to him and found an orange and black jacket greeting him. He removed the jacket from the box and found an orange emblem of a dragon on the back. He slid the jacket on, finding that it fit him perfectly. "Thank you, Violet!" Noel's gift to Ragna was a red and black scarf with toothy ends. "Wow, where'd you get this?"
"I made it!" Noel exclaimed happily. He was caught off guard as he was coiling the scarf around his neck. "Your handiwork looks marvelous, Noel. It's just such a shame your hard work is being wasted on such a worm," Rachel commented harshly. "Hey, that was uncalled for, Rabbit!" As Ragna began to protest against her insult, Rachel passed out two small boxes to Ragna and Jacky. The two of them opened the boxes. For Ragna, there was a silver bangle with a blood red Garnet embedded in the center. Jacky received a stopwatch with an Amethyst on the exterior. "I cannot simply receive a gift without giving to others first. Even if one of my gifts goes to a filthy mutt," she said.
"Thank you for the gifts, Rachel," Jacky said with a soft smile. Ragna passed her an elegant dress that looked extremely expensive. "My goodness, what an impressive piece of clothing," Rachel admitted. "I barely got enough money for that and Noel's gift," Ragna replied. Rachel reluctantly thanked him for the gift and Ragna passed his gift for Noel to her. Noel opened it up and found a stuffed bear in it. The bear was extremely fluffy. (And I'm pretty sure that's all she needed to know)
Later that day, the group all had dinner while Jacky had gone missing with Valkenhayn for a while. When they returned, Jacky and Valkenhayn were holding trays full of tea cups, a tea kettle, and cake. Both of which were dressed in butler uniforms. "Madam Rachel, Miss Noel, Miss Violet, Ragna the Bloodedge, and Mr. Shishigami, we have prepared hot tea and cake for the evening." The two set down the trays and passed slices of cake and cups of tea to everyone. The cake was delicious and not too sweet and the tea was well-prepared. "It is quite wonderful and fitting for the evening, Valkenhayn," Rachel said. "I must say that I am undeserving of your thanks, Madam Rachel, as I am not the one who prepared it this evening. It was all Master Ray's doing," he said, "I merely helped carry it here."
"It is very well made, Jacky." Everyone ate their cake and drank the tea and had to agree. "I was only able to do this because of the time I spent in your castle, Madam Rachel," he said politely. Later that night, after everyone went to sleep, Jacky and Violet looked up at the now clear night sky on the porch. "Today was a great day," Violet said. Jacky pulled a small box out of his butler uniform and handed it to her. When she did, she found a silver chain with a large teardrop-shaped locket hanging from it. She opened the locket to find a picture of her family.
"Thank you," she said, choking up. Jacky gave her a kiss and whispered, "I love you," in response.
"I love you too." Then she gave a chuckle and said, "You look pretty good in a butler's uniform." Jacky laughed with her and gave her another kiss.

Orient Town

Tsubaki was waiting in Litchi's clinic for her to grab her medical tools when she heard a noise outside. Tsubaki stepped outside into the snow and yelled, "Who's out there?" She barely caught sight of someone running away, but it was so dark that she couldn't identify who it was. She almost gave chase, but she managed to catch sight of something in the snow by the faint light given off by Litchi's clinic. A large piece of ice that was perfectly sculpted in the shape of a bouquet of flowers; but not just any flowers. They were Camellia Blossoms. Laying atop the sculpture was a note with the Kisaragi family seal. Tsubaki picked up the ice bouquet and broke the seal, unfolding the note.

For the one dearest to my heart,

Though you continue to lose light, I send this heartfelt gift in the hope that should you lose your sight, you will continue to look upon these eternal ice flowers and think of me, as I do you. Merry Christmas, Tsubaki.

-Jin

Tears streamed down Tsubaki's face from her red eyes and a hard smile broke her serious visage as she sniffled. "Thank you so much, Jin!" Litchi came out of her clinic with her arms loaded with medical supplies when she caught sight of Tsubaki's face. Before she asked her what was wrong, she looked down at the ice flowers and the Kisaragi seal that lay upon the note. "I won't tell the Imperator about this, Tsubaki."
"Thank you, Miss Litchi."
Jin stood in an alley, listening to them speak and smiled softly as he looked up at the sky. "Those flowers will never melt, Tsubaki, so I hope that you will keep them with you for as long as you wish. I love you, Tsubaki." He strolled deeper into the dark alleyway and made his way out of Orient Town.

Post-Chapter Author's Note:

Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading this Christmas Chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I wanted there to be a happy, comedic, and romantic mood about this chapter. So if it made you feel happy, made you laugh, and warm your heart when I had intended, then I'll know that I succeeded in making this chapter as I wanted it.
If you wish to say anything about this chapter, I will be more than happy to read and respond to the review or PM. As always, thank you for reading.
Having a Merry Christmas, everyone.

Reploid7,

Signing off!