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December 25th, Christmas Day. Known also as the birth of Christ, the son of God. Many people celebrate it as a time of coming together as a family, exchanging presents, reveling in joy and camaraderie, and yet...
"Dear god, please answer this prayer... the birth of your son is celebrated by billions worldwide, but only after his death... Why is that? Why does his birth only get celebrated after his death? He is dead, so why are so many people happy? Should they not be mourning? I guess what I'm trying to ask is..."
The girl paused for a second, tugging at her short, smooth hair.
"Can the death of one person really make the lives of so many people happy? And... what is Christmas cheer...? How do I celebrate this holiday properly...?"
That is the question Kuroe prayed for God to answer.
---
"Felicia, stop it already!" Yachiyo Nanami berated the 14-year-old blonde girl, whom was busy tossing Christmas ornaments at the tree. Miraculously, they were all staying hung on the tree, but regardless, tossing such fragile decorations with so much force and speed was reckless, as Felicia was bound to miss and break something eventually.
"Ehh? But this way is way, way more fun! Don't hamper my fun on Christmas, you old hag."
"You REALLY sure you want to call your landlady an old hag?"
"Well..." Felicia gulped, but before the conversation could continue, Ui diverted it in another direction. "Felicia-san, the goal of a Christmas tree is to make it as pretty as you possibly can, and it's far easier to do that when you place the decorations in place with accuracy and purpose."
"Eh? What does that mean?"
"It means that instead of tossing the ornaments at the tree with remarkable accuracy and finesse, we should instead hang them up slowly and carefully, like this," Ui said as she grabbed Felicia's wrist and guided her from behind. "Slowly, carefully, hang it on the tree..." she gently whispered directly in Felicia's ear, not noticing how tense the blonde was becoming. "I... I see..."
"And then, once it's on the tree... look at it... isn't it so pretty?" the pinkette asked, directing the blonde's gaze at the freshly hung ornament. "Yeah, uhh... I need to go piss!" Felicia shook Ui off of her and ran to the toilet, locking herself inside. Not noticing how flushed the blonde girl's cheeks were, Ui simply tilted her head in confusion, not knowing why did Felicia suddenly need to piss.
"...I think your little sister might be a lady-killer-in-training, Iroha." Yachiyo deadpanned, and the older pinkette simply returned an awkward grin.
"Ummm..."
"We have run out of stuffing!" Tsuruno declared boisterously, Sana furiously nodding along. "What? How?" Yachiyo cried out in distress; considering they made plenty of stuffing, she saw no situation in which they'd run out of it (seemingly) before the turkey was fully stuffed, unless...
She turned to face the kitchen, looking directly at the bowl of stuffing, only to find a white-haired 19-year-old stuffing her face full of stuffing. "Mifuyu!"
"I'm sorry, Yacchan, but this stuffing is SO GOOD, and I am SO HUNGRY! I was not prepared for this Christmas dinner at all..." Mifuyu groaned with a full mouth. "And we don't have any more ingredients to make stuffing..." Yachiyo sighed in exasperation. "Iroha, I'm sorry to ask you to do this so late, but would you mind running to the store and getting more ingredients for stuffing?"
"Sure thing! Already heading out!" The pinkette grinned, truly already standing by the door, putting her shoes on.
She waved to the residents of Mikazuki as she grabbed her keys and wallet, then headed out.
---
Getting the ingredients for the stuffing was so quick and easy that even though they were truly in a hurry, Iroha decided she could allow herself to take a detour, and walk through a dimly lit, snow-covered public park. The air was chilly and snippy, but she liked it nonetheless.
Besides, in hindsight, taking a detour through that park was the best choice she could've made, because of who she found there.
Standing in front of a statue in the middle of the park square, wearing a purple button up jacket, a long purple skirt, brown boots and a thick, fluffy, pink scarf, looking at her hands as if praying was none other than Kuroe.
"Kuroe-chan...? Kuroe-chan!" Iroha cried out to the girl, who sharply turned to face the pinkette, surprised. What Iroha saw was alarming, though; the eyes of the raven-haired girl, which were usually a gorgeous shade of violet, were red and puffy; she had clearly been crying. "Are you OK, Kuroe-chan...?"
"Hmm, me? Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine! I'm fine..." the girl repeated like a broken record, letting out an awkward chuckle, but despite her assurance, Iroha didn't buy it. "What brings you here during Christmas day? Shouldn't you be at home, preparing for Christmas dinner with your family...?"
"Yeah... Yeah, I probably should, shouldn't I...? And yet, here I am..."
Iroha couldn't really tell what was going on in the raven-haired girl's head, but she could tell Kuroe was not in a good place. "It looked like you were praying earlier, but... this isn't a shrine..."
"I'm Christian," Kuroe said plainly. "Ah, I see, but... don't Christians usually pray to God in churches?" Iroha felt somewhat proud of her knowledge of Christianity, as small as it was. "Yeah... I wasn't praying to God, I guess... this is a statue of the missionary saint who brought Christianity to Japan, so I'm praying to it, I guess..."
"I see... And you came here all the way from Takarazaki... to pray to the statue of a saint, instead of in the church we have back home?" Iroha asked, not convinced. "Ah, well... praying to saints on Christmas is good luck, and there's no statues of saints in Takarazaki, so..."
"Isn't Jesus Christ a saint, though? And I'm sure there's a statue or visage of him at the church back in Takarazaki, so couldn't you pray to that?"
Kuroe tried to think of a response, fumbling over half-spoken words, before finally giving up, her voice quieting down, rising again only to whimper and whisper. "Show me your soul gem," Iroha demanded, and Kuroe obliged, handing it to the pinkette. The ring transformed in her hands into an egg-shaped jewel, which Iroha could clearly see was almost pitch black.
"You came here because you were spiraling again, didn't you?" Kuroe nodded. Iroha paused for a second, thinking, before finally knowing what to do. "Come with me," she said decisively as she pulled Kuroe by the hand, dragging her along. "Tamaki-san?! Where are you...?"
"Come on! We're having a Christmas dinner at Mikazuki villa, and we have more than enough food for one more guest; why don't you join us?"
Kuroe hesitated for a second, but then... "O... OK!" She nodded, a small grin on her face. With her free hand, she pulled out her cellphone, opened LINE, and entered the text history she had with her father. He was worried sick, asking her where she was. Kuroe responded with a single sentence.
"Sorry for running away, but I'm fine now; celebrating Christmas with friends, don't worry about me :)"
Having sent that message, Kuroe truly felt like this Christmas might be good, like she might be truly capable of finally understanding what is Christmas cheer, after all these years.
"God... thank you..." she muttered to herself under her breath.
---
"Hmm? Iroha, you're back..." Yachiyo's voice trailed off as she looked at the doorway, a small grin spreading across her face as she saw whom was standing next to Iroha. "And I see you brought a friend with you, too..."
"Everyone, look who I found!" Iroha said with nigh oblivious excitement, presenting Kuroe. The raven-haired girl raised her hand and waved awkwardly. "Hello, everyone... Um, I really hope I'm not intruding, Nanami-san...!"
"Nonsense - we have plenty to accommodate you. Why don't you hang your jacket on the rack and go sit down in the living room?"
"I... I can help, if you'd like that!" Kuroe weakly cried out, her eyes closing on instinct. 'Even if I'm a guest here... the least I can do is help, even a little bit! If I just sat there and did nothing, I truly would feel awful...!' she thought to herself, however, her selfish hopes were quickly dashed when Yachiyo uttered the following.
"No. You're a guest; guests don't help, they rest, now sit on the couch, OK? I'm sure you must be tired," Yachiyo said warmly but firmly, smiling at Kuroe. The girl thought she'd feel bad, but... the smile on Yachiyo's face was so gentle, even she couldn't feel anything but warmth. "Yes, Nanami-san..." she muttered quietly as she hung her jacket on the coat rack and sat down on the living room couch as she was instructed, where she found Ui Tamaki and Felicia Mitsuki decorating the Christmas tree, and (strangely enough), Mifuyu Azusa, waving at her from the couch. "Azusa-san! What are you doing here, instead of helping with the cooking?" Kuroe asked, somewhat bewildered.
"Ahaha, well, I ate a lot of the stuffing, so Yacchan banned me from the kitchen..." the girl with the white devil horns chuckled somewhat awkwardly, however, her face quickly fell when she saw Kuroe wasn't also laughing. "I'm sorry - I promise I'll try better," she said with a somewhat crushed spirit, prompting Kuroe to feel like she should respond SOMEHOW, but... how? Should she hug the older girl? Pat her on the head? Hold her hand? Tell her that she believed in her? What would be an appropriate reaction at this moment?
"Umm, well, don't worry! I... I believe in you, Azusa-san!" Kuroe said in panic, her cheeks immediately being washed with red as she uttered those words, feeling ridiculous. She expected Mifuyu to mock her, or get angry, so the white-haired girl's actual response surprised her. "Thank you, Kuroe-chan; I'm happy to know that someone still has some sympathy for me..." Mifuyu said with a slight whimper as she pulled Kuroe into a hug, the raven-haired girl feeling her body tense up from the sudden contact, right before proceeding to feel guilty about tensing up. 'She's just trying to show gratitude, and I can't even appreciate that properly; I really am a failure...'
"Oi, Kuroe, you wanna join?" Felicia called out, snapping the raven-haired girl out of her self-loathing trance. "Join?"
"Yeah, y'know, help decorate the tree! Well, I mean, we're almost done, but you can put the star on top of it, if you want!"
"If I want..." Kuroe muttered to herself, somewhat tempted to agree, before quickly shaking off that ridiculous thought. 'No matter what, I'm just a darkened star... If I touch that star, it too will become a darkened star, and... a darkened star doesn't belong at the top of a Christmas tree, right...?'
"I... I don't think it's a good idea I touch that star, Mitsuki-san..."
"Come on, Kuroe-chan; It'll be fun!" Iroha said from behind her, pushing her forwards. "T-tamaki-san?!"
"Yes, you seem to have stable hands and a good eye for aesthetic; I'm sure the star will be wonderful, and maybe other things, if you want to decorate the tree any further," Yachiyo said, now also standing behind Kuroe. "Nanami-san...?"
"Now, just take it, and slowly, carefully..." both girls said as they each took hold of one of Kuroe's hands and guided them to the shining Christmas star ornament. Kuroe wanted to resist; she SHOULD have resisted - she could physically see the color draining from the star ornament, that turning black the instant she touched it with her hands, but... 'Tamaki-san... Nanami-san... they're so warm and soft... Maybe just this once, I can allow myself to be selfish...'
"And place it at the top of the tree..." they gently whispered in her ear, making her stand on the tips of her toes as she truly did place it on the top of the tree. Felicia quickly plugged the Christmas lights into the socket, and flipped the switch, causing them to spring to life, and...
'It's... glowing...'
"The star... It's glowing..." Kuroe marveled. "Of course it is, Kuroe-chan," Iroha smiled. "Yes... Of course it is..." She muttered to herself as she saw that once darkened star, glowing at the top of the Christmas tree.
The death of one man can allow billions to joyfully celebrate his birth, but... maybe that's not always necessary. Maybe the glow of one person can allow even one person to joyfully celebrate that glow.
And maybe, just maybe, just this once...
This Darkened Star can sit at the top of the tree, and shine too, alongside the bird and the scorpion, embracing her so tightly.