Mizore
As soon as his brain recognized the yuki-onna’s name that was written before him, the paper in Tsukune’s hand ceased to exist. In his normal state of mind, Tsukune might have wondered if the entire game the Newspaper Club found itself playing was a plan by Mizore or her mother. The holiday season overlapped rather conveniently with the winter season after all. But thanks to the magic of the santa hat, the young man’s thoughts were now consumed with trying to decide what would be an appropriate gift for his snowy stalker.
Besides, if Mizore was the responsible party, she was doing an awfully convincing job of pretending to be swept up in the merriment. Okay, crouching behind a couch with her eyes riveted on the santa hat may not have struck most people as ‘merry’, but anyone who knew Mizore well would have described the way the corners of her lips were curled up as proof of downright giddiness.
In her mind’s eye, Mizore could just picture herself alone with her soulmate, handing him a box which despite being wrapped with a bow had an easily removable lid. Tsukune would peek inside, see the mystery object within, and instantly come to understand just how much she loved him. Such was the power of the Spirit of Giving that had taken possession of the gathering that the idea of Tsukune buying a gift for her never entertained her thoughts for a moment.
Meanwhile, two other girls were also hoping the holiday cap would grant them the perfect opportunity to win Tsukune’s affection, and neither had the snow maiden’s patience. Theoretically, logic held that so long as no one revealed the name they drew, every person had the same hypothetical chance of drawing their desired recipient as anyone else. Realistically, the idea that someone else might grab Tsukune’s name out of the hat before her devoured whatever discipline Kurumu had on hand, and the succubus made certain her hand was the next one to pick out a slip of paper.
“Oh, Tsukune, this one must be yours, I can feel it!” the blue-haired beauty proclaimed before unfolding the scrap in her hands. It should have been the worst-kept secret in all of documented history. Either her entire face would light up in delight or a depressed sadness would cast a pall on her genetically perfected features. Instead, her eyes widened and her expression became almost blank as a single, overriding objective occupied her thoughts, just as it had for Tsukune and Moka.
“Is the paper magic, or are one of you making them disappear like that?” Kyoko asked as she rummaged around in the hat trying to decide between the last two slips within. Moka and Kurumu were monsters with who-knows-what kinds of mystical powers, and while her cousin was a normal human, for all she knew he could have picked up some magical abilities while at school. That witch girl Yukari seemed pretty normal after all; maybe she showed him a trick or two to save his neck.
Kyoko gripped the slip of paper as tightly as she could, but it too vanished into nothingness despite her best efforts. ‘Rats! I couldn’t tell what happened,’ she thought at first. Then, the same compulsion the others felt to gift-shop took root in her psyche. ‘Now where did I leave my coat? In the hall closet probably... I’d better hurry, who knows how crowded the stores are at this time of day.’
The thought of saying “Goodbye!” or “See you later!” to her cousin and his friends before she left never occurred to the single-minded girl. It wouldn’t have mattered much anyways, since Tsukune, Moka, and Kurumu had already hurried out of the room themselves on their own personal errands. With the coast cleared, Mizore came out from behind the couch and picked up the discarded hat. With her connection to the nature of the winter season, she alone could tangibly feel the sensation of the reserves of magic the stocking cap harbored. Yet without hesitation she reached within and pulled out the final name.
“Better luck next year,” she murmured out loud to herself as she read another girl’s name. Her disappointment was short-lived though, as her thoughts supernaturally gravitated instead towards the task finding the best christmas present her selected victim, er... target would ever receive. Unlike the others, she did not stop at the closet to put on a jacket and instead simply walked out the door into the falling snow while wearing the same boatneck top and short skirt with stockings she regularly wore.
Mizore looked up at the falling snow and caught a delicately intricate ice crystal on the tip of her finger. She found that she could not admire the snowflake’s beauty without being reminded of certain acquaintance who was also gorgeous, and would be even more so if she ever decided to behave in a more cold and reserved fashion. She was worthy of being frozen and displayed on a pedestal for the ages, but since the others seemed to have a dim view of that kind of gift, she would have to find something else to let her know how she felt.
He ran down a still familiar, still snow-covered street. The falling snow had almost managed to completely erase his earlier passing, only to be thwarted with a fresh set of boot prints now headed in the opposite direction, towards the center of town. Tsukune still had no clue what he was looking for, but with the majority of the shops competing for shoppers near the heart of the large village, he knew his best chance for finding the perfect whatever-it-may-be was there.
Hand warmers? No, not nearly special enough. A fur coat? Well out of his price-range and probably unwise, considering he had no clue whether Mizore cared about animal rights or not. She seemed pretty tolerant of the cold anyways. Summer swimwear then? At the thought of the snow girl in a bikini, blood dribbled from his nose but froze before it got too far. Just as well, finding swimwear in the dead of winter was probably a fool’s errand, even if Mizore’s exact measurements were inexplicably known to him at that moment.
Eventually he arrived at the business district and began to look around, hoping that inspiration would strike. And surprisingly, it did. There, across the street, he became absolutely certain that the perfect gift for Mizore was there, somewhere inside...
Sun Dec 15 04:51:36 2013
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