A Very Motley Christmas

Part 1

"December 24th," Michi said, examining the hand-drawn calendar carefully. "You know what that means, right?"

"It's winter," Nao responded. "We should get some heavier coats."

Michi laughed. "No, silly, it's Christmas Eve!"

The crew turned to her. "What's that?" they all said together.

⛄

"You mean you don't know? Christmas is the most special holiday of the year!" Michi exclaimed. "There's snow, and Santa Claus, and candy, and presents, and-"

"Presents? I'll go for that," Akira said.

"Santa Claus? Does he have claws or something?" Reiko asked.

"Wait, I think I've heard of Christmas," Masa said slowly. "There's something about mistletoe."

"What the hell is mistletoe?" Nori asked him.

"It's a plant that you hang from the ceiling and you kiss under it," Michi explained to Nori.

"What a horrible idea."

"Why don't we celebrate Christmas this year? It'll be fun, I promise," Michi said to all the crew.

Kei shook his head doubtfully. "This seems too weird. Michi, you're from the north and you know about these things, but Reiko and Nao are from the south, Nori had no upbringing, I was in the Rose Marquis, and Akira was living with savages, so you can't expect us to be much of a help."

"What about me?" Masa asked hopefully. "My town didn't celebrate Christmas, but at least I heard of it."

Reiko snorted. "You won't be any help."

"You know, I think this Christmas thing isn't as hard to accomplish as it seems," Nori concluded. "As long as we listen to Michi, we should be fine." She smiled kindly at Michi, who smiled back. "So what do we have to do?"

"We should stop at the nearest town, since we're up in the north. I'll handle the shopping." Michi gestured to Masa for a piece of paper and he scrounged around in his pockets for a piece of paper and a pen. She took both and started scribbling away.

"Hang on, we're shopping?" Akira said. "Why not just raid them?"

"That isn't the Christmas spirit," Michi said. Akira's finger circled his ear while he made a crazy face at Reiko, who giggled.

"What kind of spirit is that? We're pirates. That's what we do, we raid stuff, we don't pay for it," Nao said hastily before Michi noticed Akira.

"We've got plenty of money, millions of pastil. Don't worry about it," she said after she was done with her writing. "Okay, done."

"Is that a battle plan?" Nori asked her.

Michi laid the paper down in the middle of the deck and flattened it. Everybody made a circle around the paper. "Of sorts. This is what we need for decorations and food."

"Tinsel? A tree? Lights?" Akira looked extremely confused. "I know I've been living under a rock my whole life, but this seems ridiculous." He pointed at something on the list. "What's that, Michi?"

"Eggnog! A delicious and traditional holiday drink."

"And what about these socks?" Kei asked Michi.

"Stockings. You hang them over the fireplace and Santa puts presents in them while you're sleeping."

"This seems crazy enough to work. I'm in!" Nori said. Everybody agreed cheerfully. Nori got up and went to the helm to steer them to the closest island, which Masa calculated to be Tenuto. It wasn't long to Tenuto, and once they had pulled into the docks, Michi gave Nori another bit of information.