Unlike what most of you might think, X-mas is NOT Christmas. Heavens, no. We live in a Shrine where we remember a Magic Emperor who tried to beat a Goddess to claim ultimate power so he could make the world a better place. That would not mingle well at ALL.
Instead, the Shrine celibrates X-Mas, the offical non-holiday of the holiday season. Where everyone treats it like christmas, just without all of the religous hoo-haw.
Anyway, we join our fellow man on this excellent time of year, like Roas, who is trying to hang the X-mas tree in the front of the Shrine lobby.
"Roas, are you sure you don't need help?"
The Galadinean looked up to see Skylark, flapping his black wings, upside down. This, however is wrong, because it's Roas whos upside down, fighting a futile struggle against one of the holiday's many stuggles, the hanging of the X-mas lights. Roas glares at his fellow warrior, and growls.
"No, thank you. I have everything under contro-AHH!"
The light finally give away, allowing Roas the honor of the second great stuggle of X-mas: the landing on your head after losing to the X-mas lights. He gets up and rubs his head.
"Damn, I fought in so many universal wars that I lost count, killed so many evil creatures that there's a section of Hell devoted to them, and saved the Universe from doom at least seven times." He looks at Skylark with a sad expression. "SO WHY THE HELL CAN'T I HANG X-MAS LIGHTS?!?"
"Umm... maybe it's a gift?" Skylark was watching his words very well.
Roas sighed. "So, where is everyone? I know Ninya went with Techno to check up on the food..."
----------------------
"This is a disaster waiting to happen."
When the sign says "catch your own turkey," Ninya and Techno didn't think it would be like this. Now they were in the middle of nowhere, with a fishing net between them, trying to catch wild turkeys. Mean wild turkeys. REALLY mean wild turkeys.
Techno was hiding behind Ninya as three more turkeys charged them. With only the fishing net, Ninya was having a really hard time trying to control her temper. "Why can't we just kill the damn thing here?!?"
Techno pointed upword. "I told ya, man. Greenpeace is watching us!"
As crazy as it sounds, it's true. There are cameras everywhere, and the greenpeace goon squads are always waiting for someone to hurt the eniviorment.
Ninya throws her net to the ground, grabs a turkey by the neck, and snaps it. A quick as she did that, Greenpeace surrounds them.
"That turkey existed in nature! Why did you do it?"
Ninya smiles. "Time for a haircut, hippies!"
The slaughter begins. Techno starts crying.
---------------------
Skylark started to tap his chin as he thought about it some more. "Humm... Zero and Kiyone went X-mas shopping..."
"Huh? Kiyone? I thought that one night at the Save Point was the end of it?"
Skylark smiled. "Nah. They're pretty good friends now. She helps him train by shooting him."
Roas's jaw drops. "Huh?"
"Kiyone shoots at Zero with her gun, and Zero stops the bullets with his dagger. It worked for a while, until the blade snapped." Skylark winced at that memory. "Ehh... that musta hurt. The bullet hit him the forehead. We were lucky Rune was around to heal him."
Roas looked up at him, a grin on his face. "What did he do with the hilt?"
Skylark had to think again. "Hmm... I think he left it on the weapon rack in the Battle Board. That thing means alot to him, he says that if anyone takes it, he'll steal their soul and put it in a moth."
Roas stood up. "Finish the tree, Lark. I getting Zero's X-mas gift."
Skylark grinned. "What are you going to do with the hilt?"
Roas looked back at him, a devious smirk on his face. "Fix it?"
-------------------------------
"So, who have you gotten gifts for, Zero?"
The soul stealer looked at the Galaxy policewomen and smiled. "Almost everyone. That's the nice thing about being resourceful, I have alot of sliver just lying around. You?"
Kiyone frowned. "I don't know how you do it. The only people I got gifts for so far are Tenchi and Ryoko. Ryoko's easy because she likes booze so much, and Tenchi... well, you could get that boy a cold and he'll thank you for it."
Zero smiled. "Ah, the easy to please type. Eh?"
Zero looks at the food court and sees a few more faces. It seems that Alis, Rune, Darknight, Anon, and Schala also had the same thing in mind, and had bag and bags of gifts surrounded them. Anon also notices the two and flags them down.
"Yo! Zero! Kiyone! Over here!"
Zero and Kiyone walk over to where everyone else is sitting. Kiyone looks at everyones gift bags and sighs. "Do all of you guys know how to shop better then me?"
"No, we just know each other increadbly well," Darknight says with a smile. "So, Zero, who do you have left?"
Zero looks at his list and checks it twice. "Umm... Roas, Ninya, Schala, and... umm... thats bout it."
Alis gives Zero a sly grin and whispers loud enough that everyone can hear it: "so, Zero, get Kiyone a gift yet? I mean, she is your girlfriend!"
The table breaks out in 'ohhs' and Anon gives out a fox whistle. Zero and Kiyone break out red, look at each other, and start to stammer like idiots.
"G-g-girlfriend?!?"
"W-w-what?!?"
"I-i-i think you have the wrong idea, Alis!"
"Y-y-y yeah, Alis, what do you mean by that?"
Alis starts to laugh out loud and puts her elbows on the table. "Yeah, I guess your right, Zero. I mean, after the whole hot springs thing, i'm pretty sure your hopes of a girlfriend are more or less shot!"
Zero's face goes from beet red to deathly pale in a second. You could cut the tension with a knife. Just not Zero's.
Kiyone looks at Zero and growls: "Zero, what is she talking about?"
Zero looks around at everyone's faces, giggles nervously, sighs, and snaps his fingers. In a flash, he disappears into the shadows.
Alis looks down at her drink, giggles nervously, and says simply: "oops."
----------------------------
Rune is restraining Roas, who holds Zero's dagger hilt like it possessed him. He starts to walk into his room, but Rune blocks his path.
"Roas, didn't you hear what Zero said? That dagger hilt respresents the last thing he has from his parents. If he finds out you took it, he'll rip out your soul and shove it in a moth! How are you going to pay rent that way?!?"
Roas grins. "Relax, he'll never know it was me! Trust me!"
Rune sighs. "Okay. Tell him that!"
Roas turns around to see Zero, eyes glazed over, looking at the hilt. Roas looks at him and starts to panic.
"Z-Zero! This ain't what it looks like! Trust me!"
Zero takes the hilt out of Roas's hands, glares at him for a second, then walks into the battle board. The next thing anyone knows the Shrine starts shaking violently.
Roas shudders. "Zero's blowing off steam."
Rune was not paying attention to Roas anymore. "Ninya, what the hell happened?"
Ninya and Techno are dirty, each holding a turkey in each arm. The images that Techno must have saw have already scarred him for life. Ninya just shrugs.
"Nothing important."
Techno looks over at Ninya with a terrified look in his eyes. "NOTHING?!?! Ask those hippies that! I didn't know bones could bend like tha--"
"SHUT IT, Techno!"
"Yes, ma'mn!"
Roas sighed. "I don't wanna know."