Chapter 6:

For the Man From Nowhere

by Captain Moonlight

I didn't really understand it at first. I had to blink several times. And then, several more times because profusely blinking my eyes had caused them to become rather dry. Yet they did not lie.

My eyes met Ryna who waited on her side of the door. Looking at me like I was crazy for looking at her like she was crazy.

"What?" she asked me.

"You are…wearing a Santa hat." I stated.

"Oh, you mean the Delibird hat?" Ryna touched the fluffy snowball at the end of her hat. "Oh, I guess your world most likely did not have this. But here, we have this holiday called-"

"Christmas." I finished her sentence. "This world has Christmas."

Ryna's eyes lit up. "Did someone tell you?"

"No! In my world we also celebrate Christmas!" I exclaimed. "How, though?"

Ryna shrugged. "That's odd. Who would have thought Aliens also celebrated Christmas?"

I smiled.

Ahh Christmas! The most jolly time of the year. I thought back to all the previous Christmas. Though, they weren't all that great. Still. It was definitely that time of the year. A time I wouldn't experience again.

My smile slightly faltered.

"Okay," I awkwardly said. "So, can we continue with the alphabet? I think I almost got it."

"Nope." Ryna said, popping the P at the end.

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what else do you want to do today?"

"Uhm, hello?!" Ryna pointed at the scarlet red hat atop her head. "We're going to celebrate Christmas?"

"WHAT?"

"Why else would I be wearing this?" Ryna rolled her eyes.

"Don't you have—"

"Nope!" Ryna silenced me.

"Bu—"

"Nada, she hushed me again. "Today, we will be celebrating Christmas together!"

"Don't you have other people to celebrate it with?" I asked hesitantly. "Besides, I didn't prepare anything."

"We are friends Ben," she said. "Why wouldn't I celebrate it with you?" She reached out to something behind her side of the door. It took a hard tug but eventually she managed to pull a big sack into the door opening. "Besides, I already bought Christmas supplies."

"Did you buy all of that?" I asked.

"Well, part of my job is to make sure you remain in good health, both physical and mental." She grinned. "And honestly, Christmas shopping while getting paid? Yes please!"

"Are you fucking using me?"

"Yes."

"Fair." I shrugged and stepped aside to allow Ryna to enter the room. She dragged the burlap sack behind her. It was clearly really big and heavy. It looked like the most atypical Santa sack I had ever seen. One big enough to dispose of a body…theoretically of course. Haha.

"And now she's looking at me in a weird way. Wait, did I say that out loud?!"

"Look," Ryna finally dragged the sack all over to the middle of the room. I helped her by moving the other single bed to the wall so she had more room.

"Wait, let me get Russ out. I think he would enjoy Christmas as well."

I pulled out the Pokéball and pressed the button on the front, causing it to pop open.

Russ, the Riolu, appeared in a bright flash. He gave the room one big look before looking at me.

'What's inside the sack?"

"Christmas supplies." Ryna answered, puffing and trying to catch her breath.

"Oh, okay." Russ said. "I already thought so…"

"You have no clue what Christmas is, do you?"

"Not really," Russ confessed, hanging his head low.

"Regardless, it doesn't matter, today is a day of celebration!" I lifted up Russ. I had the idea to spin him around like they did in the christmas movies I didn't watch.

"HOLY FUCK YOU ARE SO HEAVY!" Ouch my back!

"So cute." Ryna awed.

"Shut up!" I said as I slowly and carefully dropped Russ.

"Anyway," Ryna continued. "Inside this sack is everything we need to decorate your room."

"How is it so heavy?" I asked. "Are you moving concrete slabs around or what?"

"Actually—" Ryna pulled on the strings on top of the bag. Strangely, it caused it to open, revealing.

I stared. "What the hell Ryna. You brought a fucking Christmas tree?!"

Ryna smiled. "Uhm, it fell within the budget."

Somehow, and don't ask me why, Ryna had managed to get a tree inside the hotel room. It wasn't massive but still decently sized. It was even fully decorated with colorful Christmas ornaments and lights. The comically large christmas star – which made up one-third of the overall height of the tree – was only a few centimeters short of scraping against the ceiling.

"How did that even fit?" I asked, stunned by surprise.

Ryna put her finger to her chin. "Now you mention it, no clue."

I sighed. Things in this world still make no sense.

But Ryna was not even done yet. Because the sack, that was also a spatial anomaly for no fucking reason, still seemingly held stuff inside it.

Like a magician Ryna reached into it and pulled out a variety of other items. "Come on Ben, don't stand there gaping like a Magikarp. Help me out!" She handed a long string of lights that she pulled from the sack like it was a handkerchief.

"Help me Russ," I pleaded.

"I-I still do not know what Christmas is."

"There will be presents." Ryna suggested.

"Tell me what to do and I will do it, or die trying."

Good Riolu.

We spend the next half hour decorating the entire room with lights, Christmas bubbles, the fake white snow and other Christmas related stuff. We continued until the entire room was taxing the entire power grid on its own and even then Ryna still had more christmas lights left.

"How much did you spend?"

Ryna innocently peaked into the bag. I could only see a vast darkness inside the comically large sack but apparently she could reach into it as if it…you know, a normal bag.

"Oh you know how it works with the budget. If I don't deplete this year's budget I won't receive as much next year."

"You are joking?"

"I have gifts." Ryna suddenly pulled a perfectly wrapped box.

"I have no complaints whatsoever." Especially since I do not pay any taxes.

We decided to sit down in a circle next to the tree. It was really comfy with all the pillows Ryna had brought.

The lights peacefully flashed in all kinds of colors, contrasting the white snow falling outside the window. Outside things were starting to look really frosty, especially now the sun was under. Inside, things were warm and cozy.

"Okay, we prepared this trick." Ryna said. "Russ, you want Hot Chocolate?"

He looked at me. I nodded, telling him it was okay.

"Look at this," Ryna pulled out a flask and started pouring chocolate into a cup. However, it was cold.

"And now, Mana!" The Pokéball attached to her belt opened itself. An orange coloured Flareon popped into existence. She gave the cup a look.

"Come on," Ryna gave Mana a reassuring smile. Mana took a deep breath before releasing a small flame from her mouth aimed straight at the cup.

I expected her hand to be scorched black but Ryna didn't waver or cry.

When the flames subsided a second later her hand was still in perfect shape and the only thing affected by the flames was the cup which was now emitting steam and the smell of chocolate.

"Rio!"

"Ayo! How did you do that?"

She gave me a mysterious smile. "Good magician never shows her hand. But maybe you can catch it next time I try it?"

"I want a cup of chocolate as well!" I immediately answered.

Three more times did she do the entire process. 0 burned hands. 3 steaming cups of chocolate.

1 clueless world hopping alien.

"Guess you won't figure out my trick after all." Ryna gave me a pet on the head. "Maybe next year?"

'Boo!" I said.

We both laughed.

"Okay, presents," Ryna said after we finished the cookies and the hot chocolate.

Both Mana and Russ' eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"You first Russ," Ryna pointed towards one of the wrapped presents underneath the tree. It was a box wrapped in a typical green-red patterned paper with a yellow bow.

Carefully, Russ opened his box. Shredding through the paper without much regard for the wrapping. He opened the box and pulled a bracelet looking thing from it.

"Rio?" He asked.

"It's a focus band," Ryna explains, "It prevents Pokémon from receiving an instant knockout. This will be very useful if you and Ben continue to grow stronger as a duo."

"Wow. Thank you so much!"

"Next, you Mana," Ryna handed her one of the presents from under the tree. She skillfully unwrapped it herself while the Flareon watched in great anticipation.

When she was done a white envelope emerged from the box.

"Wow, you got paper!" I joked half heartedly.

"This is in fact," Ryna opened the envelope and pulled out a card. "A gift card for an afternoon at the Jubilife City Pokémon Spa."

"Flareon!" Mana said, smugly, her eyes already glazed over.

What a Pokémon would get out of a Spa was beyond me.

"Now, Ben. Our Alien resident from another world. Quite hard to think what an alien would want." Ryna twinkled, putting an emphasis on the word alien.

I rolled my eyes. "Give me back my space ship you darn earthling!" I said, my voice sounding like a pirate.

"Here's your gift." She tossed me a present. "Remember to be grateful, I scoured the entire earth to find something you might like."

Eagerly, I opened the present and pulled out a…

HOODIE!

A red colored hoodie with a Santa on it was in my hands. It was truly beautiful.

"You remembered." I whispered as I looked at my precious hoodie.

"Of course," Ryna said smugly. She frowned. "Are you crying?"

"WHAT?! No," I looked away and blinked the liquid out of my eyes. "Uh, some snow fell on my face."

"We are inside." Russ noticed.

"And now it's time for your gift!" I pointed at Ryna.

She tilted her head. "Y-you have a gift for me?"

"I didn't have a lot of time, and might have made-slash-bought it in the last hour but anyway. Here's your gift."

I gave her a hastily wrapped Christmas present. It was not nearly as stylish as her presents had been, but hey, I was only informed of this like, an hour ago.

She carefully opened the present and held a…

"Shut Up for One Day Coupon?" she read out loud.

"It's a coupon, if you give it to me I will shut up and stop bothering you for an entire day." I explained. "And yes," a sigh escaped me. "That means I won't be able to make bad jokes either."

"Huh," Ryna said. "That's surprisingly useful." She put the coupon in her skirt pocket. "Thank you."

"No. Thank you for doing all of this," I pointed at all the Christmas decorations and the presents.

"You didn't have to go through all of this effort and you did it anyway."

"Of course I have to Ben," she said. "You are my friend. That's reason enough."

My heart melted right on the spot.

"I hope you feel a bit more at home here, Ben." Ryna said. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas!"

That moment, and for the first time in months, I truly felt welcome in this world. Cheers.

AN: MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS! Well, not Christmas for me anymore but at least it's Christmas somewhere else. Special thanks to my boy Moon for writing this chapter. Yes, you heard that right. I didn't write this. Moon and I made a deal that both of us would write a Christmas chapter for each other's story.

I wrote a chapter for Moon's fanfic 'Welcome to the Insane World of Pokemon'.

And I felt terrible for that, not gonna lie. Read the chapter on his story and you'll find out why.

I decided to make this chapter canon because I like it so much and it makes sense since the last chapter took place during late November so a little timeskip won't hurt wouldn't it?

Anyway, that's all from me. Merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2023.

Ciao!

-Exotic