"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.
"I nearly forgot! You give other people presents. So use your money and buy something nice for everyone. Once you've bought it, you can wrap it in colorful paper and ribbons. Although I suppose you don't have to, since Santa will bring gifts anyways." Michi was in high spirits, but everyone else was confused and anxious they would get the wrong item. They dressed up with large hats and hoods so they wouldn't be recognized in town. Nori was clever enough to bring a large bag, so that the rest of the crew couldn't tell what she bought them. Her mission was to buy a string of lights, glass bulbs that Michi called ornaments, and christmas wreaths made of bent evergreen. What the point of these was, Nori did not know.
She felt awkward buying things in general, and this was no better, especially since she was buying such peculiar items. Fortunately, she found a store selling lights and ornaments, so she bought three long strings of red christmas lights and a box of ornaments to match. The wreaths had crimson bows in the center of each one that she thought was cheerful, although perhaps it wasn't Christmas Spirit (she wasn't sure). Nori had the strange paranoia that if she didn't buy enough, the clerk might think her suspicious, so she bought a golden star that people apparently used for decoration. Then it was time for presents. It was more complex than Nori thought. Every time she picked something up, she became anxious that its receiver wouldn't enjoy it. Finally she settled on a bag of expensive oolong tea for Kei, a ruby for Reiko's rock collection, a book on Anjing trading culture for Masa, a new leather whip for Nao, a gold-embossed hairbrush for Michi, and a (stolen) bottle of human blood from the hospital for Akira. All of these fit perfectly in her bag, even the whip. She was strolling back to the ship. People in the streets seemed unusually friendly, which made Nori even more uncomfortable. She wanted to set fire to each stranger who tipped their hat to her, or said "happy Christmas!" but she didn't think that would be the Christmas Spirit and would be frowned upon by Michi. Wreaths like the ones in her bag were being hung by street lamps. Garlands of silver and gold laced the storefronts. Altogether, Tenuto seemed much more welcoming than the last time Nori was here when she attacked it. She wondered vaguely if they remembered her, even under her disguise.
When Nori was back on the Oxblood, she unloaded her bag of the Christmas decorations. Nao and Reiko still weren't back, but the rest of them were. "Welcome back, captain! Put the ornaments and lights here. We can hang up the wreaths around the ship," Masa said. Even he was getting into the mood. Akira was expertly decking the Oxblood in shiny tinsel and ribbons. Kei, Masa informed Nori, was in the kitchen preparing eggnog and gingerbread. Masa bought the socks and Akira tacked them above the doorway to the galley. They looked abnormally long to Nori, and she wondered why anyone would wear them. "Hey, captain!" Nori turned around and came face-to-face with Akira, who was holding a sprig of mistletoe over both their heads. "How about a kiss?"
"Quit it, ya creep!" Nori laughed, trying to shove him away.
"No fooling around! Akira, put the mistletoe up high, okay?" Michi came sternly to break up the fun. Akira scampered off to put the mistletoe up the mast. "Captain, everything's running smoothly," Michi informed her proudly.
"I appreciate what you're doing, Michi. I don't think we've had this much fun in a while. But I'm kind of worried about Nao and Reiko, shouldn't they be back soon?" Nori said, looking around instinctively.
"Don't worry about them. I gave them the most important task, it might take a while. But look!" She pointed to the side of the ship. A small evergreen tree was carried on board by both Nao and Reiko. She was in the front, pulling it cheerfully, but Nao seemed exhausted.
"Oy!" he shouted at Michi as soon as he was on board. "You didn't tell us we'd have to haul this thing all through town! The bark stings my hands, and there are tons of needles, ya know."
