Okay guys, just a head's-up: this story is a Christmas special/prequel for my ongoing story, Resonance Days, and as such it assumes that the reader is already familiar with the main story's setting, as well as contains spoilers. As such, if you haven't read Resonance Days yet but are planning to, you probably should to that first. If you haven't read Resonance Days and aren't planning to, you're more than welcome to give this story a shot, but I can't promise anything will make sense. And if you have already read Resonance Days, by all means enjoy!

…

Gift of the Puella Magi

The dead didn't often have need for motor vehicles, but they did make getting from the skyport to a solitary cabin at Pinespire's northern border much easier, especially considering the amount of luggage that was brought along.

The doors to the shuttle slid open, allowing two Japanese girls to disembark. Physically, they appeared to be in their mid-teens, and were dressed for Pinespire's snowy weather. The shorter of the two was blonde and full-bodied. Her hair, normally styled in two twirling, drill-shaped tails on either side of her head, was now done in a more practical ponytail and covered by a stocking cap. She wore a brown peacoat and white, woolen pants. Her companion was taller and slimmer, with shoulder-length pink hair and was dressed in a grey overcoat. A thin, whip-like tail stuck out of the back of her pants, and was covered by a special socklike garment. Both girls were laden with suitcases and gift-wrapped packages.

The cabin the shuttle had dropped them in front of was two storied, with a green roof and a covered porch. Twinkling Christmas lights decorated the edges of the roof. It sat partway up a mountain slope, with the forest reaching up at its back. The skyport that the girls had landed in earlier was further up, at the mountain's peak, while the city of Pinespire was further down. The lights were on, and voices could be heard inside. A thick layer of snow lay deep on the ground .

"So, this is the place?" said Mami, the shorter girl as she looked around.

"Looks like," Charlotte said as she checked the address on the side of the mailbox. "Looks cozy, I guess. Though I still don't know why they wanted to come all the way up here. I mean, it's freezing!"

"I guess you get used to it. Come on."

They crunched their way through the snow and made their way up the stairs. Mami shifted the bags she was carrying and pressed her elbow to the doorbell.

The tone of the voices changed, and someone inside shouted, "Coming!"

Soon after, the door opened, revealing a young woman with shoulder-length messy blue hair dressed in a grey wool sweater. Upon seeing Mami and Charlotte, her face brightened.

"Natsuru!" Mami said happily. "Merry Christmas!"

"Hey!" Natsuru said, enthusiastically throwing her arms around the two girls' necks and hugging them close. "You made it!"

Soon after Mami and Charlotte had arrived in what was, for all intents and purposes, the Puella Magi/witch Valhalla, they had been taken in by Natsuru Senou and her girlfriend Shizuku Sango, who had given them a place to stay and helped them settle into their new life. For about four years, the four of them had lived and worked together in an aquatic station known as the Nautilus Platform, harvesting the local kelp and becoming a part of the community of the seaside town known as Freehaven. However, earlier that year, word had reached Shizuku and Natsuru that the two remaining members of the Puella Magi team they had been a part of in life had also fallen in battle only to turn up in the mountain town of Pinespire. As such, they had decided to rejoin them, leaving the Nautilus Platform in their wards' care. By that time both Mami and Charlotte had fully adjusted and were more than capable of continuing operations on their own, albeit on a smaller scale, but they still missed their former mentors. As such, when they had received an invitation to spend the Christmas season with Natsuru and Shizuku at their new place, the response had been an immediate "Yes!"

Unfortunately, Natsuru's sudden greeting upset the careful balance of the packages they were carrying. Mami's ribbons kept hers in place, but the boxes under Charlotte's arms started slip.

"Whoa, mayday, mayday!" she said as she tried to keep anything from falling.

"Whoops!" Natsuru released her hold and hastily pushed the packages back in place. "Sorry about that."

Then someone walked into view beside the blunnette, this one a silver-haired girl wearing a red long-sleeved shirt decorated with tiny reindeer. She held a small glass of eggnog, and judging from her flushed cheeks, it was not her first. "Natsuru, you dope, don't just put them back, give the poor girls a hand!" she said, pushing the glass into the surprised Natsuru's hands and taking the bags Charlotte was carrying, who was all too happy to accept the assistance. "Sorry about that," she said to Mami and Charlotte. "She's so clueless sometimes."

"Hey, no I'm not," Natsuru said indignantly as she hurried to relieve Mami of her burden.

"Oh trust us, we know," Charlotte said. "We know."

"Hey!"

"Hey, you have a tail!" the loud girl said, pointing at Charlotte's rear end. "Cool!"

Charlotte glanced down over her shoulder. "Oh, yup. There it is."

"That's some of that leftover witch stuff, right? Can you do anything with it?"

Charlotte shrugged. She had long gotten over being embarrassed by it. "I can move it around," she said, curling the tail up and spiraling it around. "That's about it."

"Can you swing on it, like a monkey?" the girl pressed.

"Okay, I think it's time we all go inside," Natsuru said quickly, clearly embarrassed on her friend's behalf.

The four of them entered the cabin, Mami and Charlotte knocking the snow off their boots first. It was certainly comfortable enough, with three green couches and a number of easy chairs arranged around a large stone fireplace, over which six red stockings were hung, one for each of the cabin's residents and their guests. A large HoloVid screen was in one corner, and a white-flocked Christmas tree sat near the stairs to the second story, under which were a number of wrapped gifts. "Mikoto Kondo, by the way," said the silver-haired girl. "Shizuku said you'd probably get here today. Pleased to meet'cha!"

"Likewise," Mami said as they set their bags and packages down and shut the door. "I'm Mami Tomoe, and this here is Charlotte. We understand that you were friends with Natsuru and Shizuku in the past life."

In most cases, the phrase 'past life' would have been metaphorical, but Mami meant it literally. That was one of the interesting things of living in an afterlife: to many, the time spent premortem and the time after were similar enough that dying was less of a highly spiritual ascension to another plane of existence as it was simply moving to a different country. Granted, the afterlife was strange enough that no one would mistake one world for another, but not enough to make the transition especially traumatic, at least for most people.

Apparently Mikoto was like most people, because she didn't take any offense to Mami bringing up the fact that they were all, in fact, dead. "That's right! We all went to the same school, actually, and me and Natsuru here grew up together." She snickered. "Of course, she's gone through some really interesting changes since then."

Natsuru blinked at her. "Huh?"

"Changes?" Charlotte said in puzzlement. "You mean the contract?"

"Oh, that's part of it, definitely," Mikoto snickered. She retrieved her eggnog and knocked it back. "But there are many other parts as well, some of them popping up where they didn't use to be, and others disappearing entirely."

Whatever it was that Mikoto was hinting at, Natsuru seemed to have finally caught on, as her cheeks started to burn. "Oh, I'll, uh, go find Shizuku and Akane," she said, making a hasty exit.

"Good idea, I'll go with you!" Mikoto said, hurrying after her. "I need more eggnog."

Mami and Charlotte exchanged looks of bewilderment. "Changes?" Charlotte said. "Parts?"

"Probably has to do with whatever that thing they never talked about was," Mami suggested.

Charlotte nodded. Back when Natsuru and Shizuku had lived with them at Nautilus Platform, it had eventually become evident that there was something unusual about Natsuru, something that Shizuku had found to be endlessly amusing and Natsuru herself found to be embarrassing. And yet, they had both remained steadfastly tightlipped whenever they were questioned, with Shizuku dropping unhelpfully vague hints and Natsuru quickly changing the subject. Eventually both Mami and Charlotte had decided to mind their own business, but their curiosity remained.

At the end of the room, a door opened, and a familiar wry voice said, "Well, well, well, you made it. We were growing concerned that our directions would be too complicated and you'd end up getting lost in the snow."

Mami, who had long been inoculated to Shizuku Sango's condescending ways, just smiled. "Oh come on, give us some credit," she said, giving Shizuku a quick hug.

"I try to make it a point not to, as I so often end up disappointed," Shizuku said. She clapped her hand onto Charlotte's shoulder. "Nonetheless, it's good to see you."

Shizuku was a natural beauty, tall and pale-skinned. Her perfectly straight hair, which fell partway down her back, was inky black on the outside and softly glowing white underneath. Her poise and demeanor suggested that she was convinced of her superiority over everyone around her and found it to be a constant source of amusement, a suggestion that was entirely correct. Following reluctantly behind her was a shorter, mousy girl with spiky red hair and thick glasses.

"Now, judging by her quasi-drunken ramblings, I understand you have already met Mikoto," Shizuku said. She nodded to the shy-looking girl standing behind her. "This here is Akane Mishima, studious bookworm, gunslinger berserker, and shrinking violet extraordinaire. Akane, this here is Mami Tomoe and Charlotte, our one-time prodigies and successors in monopolizing the smelly balls of kelp mucus market."

A round of pleasantries was exchanged, this one more subdued than the one with Mikoto. As she shook Akane's limp hand, Charlotte wondered at the description Shizuku had provided for the bespectacled girl. While the "studious bookworm" and "shirking violet" parts were obvious enough, she couldn't see this girl being a "gunslinger beserker." However, she had long learned not to take anything at face value.

When everyone was done introducing themselves, Shizuku added, "Oh, just to give you fair warning, you and Mami will probably will face each other in at least one shoot-off before this week is over, and Charlotte is the reason we spent most of yesterday making sure that there is no cheese to be found within the house."

It was such an old joke that Charlotte had long ceased being embarrassed by the reminder of past indiscretions. "Hey, that only happened one-Okay, twice!" she said, laughing along with Mami and Natsuru. Mikoto and Akane, it should be noted, just looked confused.

"Three times, by my count," Shizuku murmured. Mami and Charlotte retrieved their non-gift luggage, and group started up the stairs. "There was the first time, at the platform."

"Huh?" Mikoto looked from one person to the next. "What happened? What'd she do?"

Ignoring the question, Mami added, "And after that, there was that time at the bakery."

"And then the supermarket," Shizuku put in.

"That one didn't count!" Charlotte playfully protested, giving Shizuku's arm a gentle shove. "I stopped myself in time, didn't I?"

"Stopped yourself from doing what?" Mikoto demanded. "Come on, tell me!"

Her confusion was met with another round of chuckles. "Oh, let's just say that Charlotte has something of a problem with substance abuse," Shizuku told her. "One that we learned about most unexpectedly."

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Jeez, you fall off the wagon one or two times, and suddenly you're branded for life."

Akane blinked, finally catching on. "Uh, substance abuse? Cheese?"

"Really?" Mikoto gaped.

Mami shrugged and smiled. "We all have our crosses to bear. This one's Charlotte's."

"Yeah, but cheese?"

"Given your recently discovered eggnog dependency, I really don't think you're in any position to throw stones," Shizuku said as she snatched Mikoto's still-full glass out of her hands and held it up just out of reach. As Mikoto yelled protests and tried to grab it back, Shizuku stopped in front of a green door, all the white constantly moving the eggnog out of Mikoto's grasp. "At any rate, this will be your room. It's smallish, but I daresay you'll find it cozy enough. There is an attached bathroom, and the kitchen's downstairs. Feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge, though Charlotte, I'd recommend against trying the eggnog for yourself unless it's within a controlled environment."

"Will do," Mami said as she and Charlotte walked through the door. "And are we still on for the parade tonight?" Pinespire was famous for its Christmas Eve celebrations, which included a parade that was either a spectacular spectacle or pretentiously garnish, depending on who you talked to.

"Oh, most definitely," Shizuku confirmed. "And soon we'll be having our annual snowball fight. Three on three, and you both are expected to participate."

"Snowball fight?" Charlotte said. "But we just-"

"No buts," Shizuku said as she let the door swing shut. "See you there. Oh, and we'll have to check those bags for contraband later. Have to make sure you're not smuggling string-cheese sticks again."

…

"Forever," Charlotte lamented. "Just a couple of slip-ups, and I'm stuck with it forever."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll move on in time," Mami said as she set her bags down. The blonde entwined her fingers behind her back and stretched. "After all, eternity is a long time."

"Yeah, just enough time for them to find some other embarrassing thing to make fun of me for." Charlotte looked around. "Hey, this is kind of nice."

It was. As advertised, the room was indeed small, but very cozy. Everything was done in dark, stained woods, with the green-sheeted double bed taking up the majority of the space. Directly across from it was a low dresser, on which sat a couple of framed photographs and a couple of carved knick-knacks. A nightstand was on the left-side of the bed, and a door, presumably to their bathroom, sat on the right, taking up the space between the bed and the far wall. A large window with green curtains showed the snow-covered landscape outside.

As Mami collapsed back onto the bed with a moan of relief, Charlotte walked over to the dresser and picked up one of the pictures. "Hey, check it out," she said. "This is us, last New Year's."

"Really?" Mami sat up and pushed a stray hair out of her face.

"Uh-huh." Charlotte sat down next to her and showed her the photograph. It showed the original Nautilus crew, all wearing kimonos and posing together at an outdoor restaurant as fireworks exploded in the background.

"Kind of funny, when you think of it," Mami said as she cuddled up to Charlotte. "They only left a few months ago, but it already feels so long."

"Time is weird like that," Charlotte agreed. "Here especially." She set the picture onto the nightstand wrapped her arms around Mami, holding her close. The blonde leaned her head into Charlotte's chest and let out a happy sigh of contentment.

Yawning, Charlotte lay back and let her eyes slowly shut. It had been a long trip, coming all the way from Freehaven to Pinespire, and they were both worn out. It felt nice to just lie still, holding Mami close and enjoy the shared warmth, even if they were still dressed in their bulky winter clothes.

After a while, Mami said sleepily, "Char?"

"Mmmmph?"

"We do need to unpack and get ready for that snowball thing."

"Mmmmph."

Mami let out a small, sighing laugh. "I guess that's as good as an answer as I'm going to get out of you, is it?"

Eyes still closed, Charlotte muttered, "Unpack later. Don't wanna move."

"Oh, don't you?"

Charlotte felt Mami's weight shift, and smiled as the blonde rolled over on top of her. Soon she felt soft lips press against her own. "Cheater," she murmured, but she didn't resist.

Given the nature of their first meeting, it was somewhat odd that Mami and Charlotte had fallen for each other as they had. After all, Mami had spent most of their first hour together trying to blow Charlotte to pieces, both before their deaths and after, and Charlotte was the reason Mami was in the afterlife at all. All and all, mutual (and successful) attempts at dismemberment did not make for promising first meetings. Even after the shooting had stopped, things had remained distinctly chilly between them for three days afterward.

However, once they learned the true nature of their personal circumstances, something interesting had happened. Suddenly, they had stopped being enemies forced to cooperate and instead realized that they were victims of the same cosmic scam, with both of their former lives destroyed as a result. This knowledge had worn down the walls between them, and a friendship and started to develop, which in time had grown to become something more.

Funnily enough, if asked, neither of them could say exactly when they had realized that they were in love with each other. It was something that had happened gradually, developing over time as they had grown closer and closer. Living together under the same roof had helped, and looking back, it was entirely possible that Shizuku had subtly encouraged their relationship, given that manipulating people was simply what she did. They weren't complaining, of course, as the time they had spent together since had been nothing short of wonderful. Charlotte was a firm believer in the idea that you created your own Heaven, and if their current life was any indication, she was right.

Which wasn't to say that theirs was a perfect, storybook romance. They had their fights, their spats and disagreements. Mami had a tendency to let past mistakes get the better of her and could be quite bothersome to be around during her darker moods, whereas Charlotte had a bad habit of saying the wrong thing and often ended up with her foot in her mouth. But as they always made up in the end, and seeing how they had managed to stay together for over three years despite their violent first encounter, they had to be doing something right.

The two of them held the kiss for another five seconds before parting. "Still don't feel like moving?" Mami asked.

"Mmmm, I think I'm starting to warm up to the idea."

"I thought you might," Mami said, planting a small kiss on Charlotte's throat. "After all that cold, a little warming up is exactly what we-"

Then someone banged loudly against the door, startling them both. "Hey!" Mikoto shouted from the other side. "Shizuku says to keep your clothes on and hurry up! Yearly snowball fight starts in ten minutes!"

Groaning with annoyance, Mami slid off of Charlotte and called back, "How can it be yearly if this is the first year you've been here?"

"Everything's gotta start somewhere, don't it?" Mikoto banged the door one more time. "Come on, everyone's waiting for you."

"How does she do that?" Charlotte wondered as Mami stood up. "Every time. Every single time."

"Maybe it's one of her Puella Magi powers," Mami suggested. "One she never told us about." Back when Shizuku and Natsuru had lived at the Nautilus Platform, Shizuku had always seemed to show up with some task or request just as Mami and Charlotte were starting to engage in intimate behavior. And judging by the smile she always wore when they protested, she knew exactly what she had just interrupted.

"No, I think it's just her," Charlotte said, sitting up and swing her legs around. "It's like something she was born with."

"That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. So, raincheck then?"

Charlotte glanced at the window. "Snowcheck."

"Snowcheck. Got it," Mami said, making her way to the bathroom. "Excuse me for a moment."

As soon as the door closed, Charlotte glanced around and slipped her hand into the deep pocket of the heavy grey coat she was wearing. From within, she pulled out a small jewelry box and opened it.

Inside was a ring of white gold. The center stone was a four-sided yellow diamond. Three pink stones of descending sizes were lined up on either side of it. Charlotte had special-ordered it back in July from the Magi's Gifts Emporium, something the store owners had found to be incredibly funny for some reason, and had been planning on presenting it to Mami that Christmas. Of course, they had not yet been invited to spend Christmas in Pinespire at the time, but that changed nothing as far as she was concerned.

Though neither of them had aged physically since coming to the afterlife, the two of them were still roughly eighteen-to-twenty years old. That was old enough to get married as far as Charlotte was concerned. And though they had never really discussed marriage beyond occasional lighthearted jokes, she felt they were ready. Their relationship had remained strong for over three years, they ran a successful business together, and were very much in love. Plus, though Mami had never said anything, Charlotte knew her well enough to know that her lover had been having many of the same thoughts. Mami had been brought up properly, so it was only natural.

Despite this, every time Charlotte thought of actually going up to her, getting down on one knee, and presenting her with the ring, her stomach started twisting itself into knots. She knew Mami would most likely say yes, but that didn't change the fact that she was still terrified. Everything had to be perfect. She had a speech that she had been mentally writing and rewriting for weeks now, one that had seen several incarnations due to her continuous dissatisfaction with how it was coming out. It was the darnedest thing. Charlotte never felt weird or awkward around Mami, and while she wasn't a natural romanticist they were at least comfortable enough with each other that it should matter. However, she was still extremely nervous. It wasn't even fear of marriage itself. In all likelihood, their life together would go on the same as it always had, only with additional jewelry and slight name modifications. It was the proposal itself that scared her, even if she wasn't sure why.

Sometimes she wondered if she should go to Shizuku for advice. Though the raven-haired girl and Natsuru weren't married themselves, Shizuku was the smartest person Charlotte knew. However, she was also the most manipulative and condescending person she knew, and while Charlotte didn't usually take offense to Shizuku's continuous jabs at everyone she talked to, this wasn't something she felt like being made fun of for.

Then there was the sound of a toilet flushing, and Charlotte hastily closed the box and returned it to its hiding place. The sink ran for a moment, and Mami reentered the bedroom. "Do you need a turn?" she asked.

"Nope," Charlotte said, hoping that her jitters weren't showing. "I'm good!"

"Good to hear. Well, let's head out. The battlefield awaits."

"Sure thing. And hey, have you ever been in a snowball fight? Because I haven't, at least none that I can remember."

"A few," Mami said with an uncharacteristically vicious smile. "And let me tell you: they have no idea what they're getting themselves into."

…

But as it turned out, Shizuku knew exactly what to expect from Mami, and had taken steps to ensure that she was not on the receiving end of whatever the blonde had up her sleeves. By the time the two of them had joined the others outside, the teams had already been decided: Shizuku, Mami, and Akane versus Natsuru, Charlotte, and Mikoto. A splitting of the couples, she had called it. This had made Mikoto and Akane protest, claiming that they weren't interested in each other like that. She had just smiled and told them to give it time, which had made both of them look rather uncomfortable.

At first, Charlotte had been confused as to why Shizuku had chosen Akane for her team. The girl seemed nice enough, but her demure nature wasn't exactly the sort you would want on your team for a snowball fight, whereas Mikoto was both energetic and athletic.

Less than five minutes into the fight, Charlotte had stopped wondering.

She dove headfirst behind the meager protection that a sizeable boulder offered her and pressed her back against the snow-covered stone. Less than a second after, a hurricane of snowballs and loud cursing assaulted the surrounding area.

"Didn't fucking like that, did'ja you shitheads?" Akane yelled. "Come out and fight like a bitch!

"Where is this coming from?" Charlotte said to Mikoto, who had taken shelter next to her. "She wasn't like this before."

"Eh, she has mood swings," Mikoto said in a causal tone, as if her partner's sudden violent change in temperament wasn't of importance. "She's all shy most of the time, but once the fighting starts-"

Another barrage slammed into the boulder, this one fierce enough to shower Charlotte with the debris.

"-she gets like this," Mikoto finished.

"And this is normal?"

Mikoto shrugged. "You get used to it."

The conditions for victory had been made clear at the beginning. They were to fight until all members of one the teams were unconscious. Charlotte personally felt that they were taking the "fight" part of snowball fight a little too far, but it was clear that Akane at least didn't have a problem with it.

"Gotcha!" Akane suddenly started crowing. "Eat cold death!"

Charlotte flinched, expecting to be buried under a barrage of cold powder. However, she wasn't the one Akane had been shouting at.

"Gang way, gang way!" Natsuru shouted as she frantically slipped and slid her way over to them. Judging by the amount of snow now coating everything from the shoulders up, Akane hadn't been lying.

"Hey," Natsuru said breathlessly as she brushed herself up. "I think we're losing."

"Gee, yah think?" Mikoto sneered.

Charlotte shook her head. "This is stupid. Akane's the only one actually doing anything, and we're still getting our asses kicked."

"Damned straight, you are!" Akane screeched from wherever she was.

"Good hearing on that one," Charlotte remarked. She stole a brief peek beyond the boulder's shelter, and nearly got a snowball in the eye for her trouble. However, she had managed to spot Akane, standing on top of a nearby hill. The unexpectedly aggressive girl wasn't even bothering to seek shelter. No doubt she considered the heap of snowballs surrounding her to be protection enough.

"I can keep this up all day if I have to!" Akane shouted as she rained down frozen artillery.

Of that Charlotte had no doubt. "Any sign of Mami or Shizuku?" she whispered to Natsuru. The blunette shook her head.

"Probably in the forest," Mikoto muttered, indicating the woods that clustered thick further down the hill. "Waiting for us."

"We're being herded, huh?"

"This is Shizuku we're talking about," Mikoto reminded her.

"Point. Explains why she's just pelting us from above instead of coming after us."

"Don't count on that lasting for too long," Mikoto warned. "Plan or no plan, she's gonna get impatient real fast."

Charlotte nodded. She had expected at much. Her brow furrowed as she thought.

"Hey, Natsuru?" she said at last. When the blunette looked at her, she said, "You know that thing you do with fire?"

Natsuru blinked in confusion and looked down at her palms. All Puella Magi had special offensive abilities. One of Natsuru's was the power to shoot balls of flame from her hands. "Yeah, but I don't think they're allowed in a snowball fight."

"Oh, I was suggesting you should hit her with the fire. Tell me: how do you feel about avalanches?"

…

When the three of them made their move, enough time had passed that Akane's berserker rage was starting to ebb. That just made her irritated, and was enough to convince her to forget her part of the plan and chase those shitheads out from behind that rock herself. Fortunately, before she could put that course of action into motion, they saved her the trouble by rushing out into the open.

That new bitch, Charcoal or whatever the fuck her name was, bolted to the right while Mikoto charged to the left, both of them hurling snowballs. Akane blinked in surprise and had to duck to avoid taking a face full of ice

"'bout fuckin' time!" she howled as she started grabbing ammunition from her arsenal and returned fire with gusto. "Take this, and that, and-"

It was then that she noticed that the snowballs she was snatching up weren't so much spheres of tiny compressed ice crystals as they were handfuls of slush. Wait, what? What was going on? Why were her snowballs melting? Then she looked down and saw what the layer of snow she was standing on was quickly becoming.

It occurred to her then that she had forgotten to keep track of Natsuru.

Moments later, she was screaming with rage as she tumbled down the side of the hill, swept up by the remains of her own her own firepower.

…

"Got her!" Mikoto crowed. "One down!"

"For now," Charlotte reminded her. "We still have to hunt down the-"

Then they heard the yelling.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Natsuru cried as she slipped and slid her way haphazardly down the hill. Mikoto and Charlotte grabbed her by the elbows as she went past, keeping her from sliding all the way into the forest.

"Thanks," she panted as she hunched over her knees.

"No problem. Good job, by the way."

Still breathing heavily, Natsuru nodded and turned her attention further down the hill. Past the unconscious and snowbound Akane, the forest was still there, silent and dark.

"So," she said as she straightened up. "We hunt?"

Charlotte nodded, a slow but vicious grin cutting its way across her features. "Oh yeah. We hunt."

…

When it came to squaring off against her friends in any sort of combat-related contest, Charlotte was at a natural disadvantage. She was the only one of the six to have turned into a witch in life, and as such she had lost access to whatever powers she had held as a Puella Magi. Of course she still had her witch abilities to fall back on, but the only one they knew of was turning into a giant, carnivorous worm thing, and Charlotte had long sworn never to so much as be tempted to try that particular ability out. As such, while everyone else had their own set of magical powers and weapons, she had to rely solely upon her physical talents.

She was okay with this.

Swift as the wind and as silent as a shadow, Charlotte slipped from branch to branch, making her way through the naked trees. Her senses were focused and searching for any sign of her quarry. They were around here somewhere, lying in wait and ready to ambush. All she had to do was find them without them noticing-

"You know, I really don't think that was in line with the rules."

Aw, nuts.

Charlotte leapt just in time to avoid Shizuku's snowball. From there, she jumped, twisted, and swung her way forward as fast as she could as one carefully aimed snowball after another sailed toward her, each one exploding less than a meter behind her.

Finally, she found a tree with a thick enough trunk to take shelter behind. She hid herself and waited. Sooner or later Shizuku was going to start taunting her again. Sooner or later…

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is supposed to be a snowball fight, is it not? In which case, wouldn't using fire be considered cheating?"

Smirking, Charlotte called back, "The rules say we can only use snow against each other. And we did. Akane didn't so much as touch an ember."

"Ah, clever, clever," Shizuku's voice said, accompanied by the sound of sarcastic applause. "Though something occurs to me: if snow in its slush form is acceptable, shouldn't the opposite end of the spectrum be allowable as well?"

Charlotte blinked. What was she…Oh. Shit.

Again she leapt out of the way just quick enough to narrowly avoid Shizuku's attack. A sphere of solid ice smashed through the tree, passing through the space her head had occupied. Attached to the iceball was a length of steel chain, which quickly retracted, taking the ice with it.

Moments later, Charlotte was racing through the treetops like a lemur, cursing under her breath as she fought to stay ahead of Shizuku's chain. Normally, the raven-haired girl's weapon was tipped on either end by a razor-sharp blade. Now each knife was encased by a heavy ball of ice, hard enough to smash up the trees and she whipped the chain around. Charlotte supposed that her current predicament was partially her fault. After all, she had provided Shizuku with a loophole to abuse.

Well, it was up to her to take Shizuku's advantage away from her. Up ahead, she spotted a clearing with a single tree. Quickly glancing over her shoulder to check her opponent's location, Charlotte slowed just enough to tempt Shizuku into taking a strike.

She took it, and soon a sphere of rock-hard ice was sailing towards Charlotte's head. She twisted out of the way and let several meters of chain pass by before grabbing it with both hands.

Before Shizuku could figure out what was going on, Charlotte was already swinging on the chain and circling around the tree, once, twice, three times, and four, wrapping the chain tight around the trunk. As a finishing touch, she shoved the iceball tip into a hole set in the tree's side, jamming it in tight.

Shizuku grunted and gave the chain a tug. "You are full of surprises," she said when the chain failed to free itself. "Unfortunately for you, all I have to do is-"

Charlotte slammed the heel of her boot into the tree's trunk a few meters below where the chain had been wrapped. The tree snapped in half, and the top portion was sent tumbling down, taking the chain with it.

Charlotte felt a warm rush of satisfaction as Shizuku was yanked off the branch she had been standing on and fell to the snow-covered ground. They may be friends, and it was true that she owed Shizuku a great deal, but Shizuku was just so smug all the time that taking her down a couple of pegs felt fantastic.

Sputtering and spitting out snow, Shizuku stumbled to her feet and looked around. Then her eyes fell upon Charlotte and narrowed. The pink-haired witch grinned and waved.

Muttering something inaudible, Shizuku picked up her length of chain. The part that had been wrapped around the fallen tree trunk constricted, crushing the log into splinters. Then it reared up above its master's head like a snake about to strike.

"Okay," she said. "I think it's time to-"

And then Mikoto dropped down from her hiding place and slam-dunked a cannonball-sized snowball right onto Shizuku's head. Shizuku collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Mikoto looked up at Charlotte and grinned. She held up two fingers. Charlotte nodded. One to go.

"Took you long enough," she said, jogging over to her teammate.

"Eh, you looked like you had it handled," Mikoto shrugged.

"Well, you're not wrong." Charlotte scanned the forest. "All right, two down. Now all we have to do is find Ma-"

Then there was a loud bang and the sound of a heavy concussion. Moments later, a flailing object sailed through the air far over their heads.

"Hey, is that Natsuru?" Charlotte said as she watched the object's arc.

"Yup," Mikoto said. "Wow, look at her go. It's almost majestic."

They continued watching until Natsuru crashed somewhere in the forest.

"Ouch," Mikoto said with a wince.

"Yeah," Charlotte said. "Well, at least we know Mami's nearby."

"And hey!" Mikoto said brightly. "It's still two-to-one odds!"

…

Well, Charlotte thought as she stared down at where Mikoto lay unmoving with her head submerged in a snowbank. That was nothing short of predictable.

The odds were now one-to-one, and that wasn't good. Charlotte may have been able to outwit Akane and Shizuku (something she fully intended to rub in for the rest of the day), but she was now facing off against someone whose primary method of offense was to summon an infinite number of firearms capable of using near-anything as ammunition. And, as Mikoto's humiliating removal from the game had just demonstrated, that list included snowballs.

This was far from a preferable situation. While Charlotte was confident she could take Mami in hand-to-hand combat, ranged warfare put her at a distinct disadvantage. She needed an edge, and she needed it soon.

Crouching on a shadowed perch, Charlotte watched as Mami strolled nonchalantly through the forest, a musket in either hand. She wasn't even bothering to hide herself, which was not a good sign.

Charlotte shifted her weight to the left, readying herself to take position behind the blonde. Unfortunately, her boot dislodged a piece of bark and sent it dropping.

Seconds later, Charlotte was frantically fleeing the area as fast as fast as her limbs would allow as the space behind her was swallowed up by what amounted to an airborne avalanche. As she did, she noted the dark irony in how much her current predicament mirrored the first time she and Mami had met. Granted, the circumstances were completely different, but the similarities were there.

Pushing that thought out of her head, Charlotte put her full focus into staying ahead of Mami's onslaught. She scampered her way through the treetops swifter than any squirrel, not daring to slow lest she join her fallen teammates.

Suddenly the forest opened up, and Charlotte found herself tumbling through open air over another sloping clearing. Yelling in surprise, she clawed at nothingness as she started to fall.

The next thing she knew, she was sliding on her stomach. She had just enough time to register the incoming snowbank before crashing headfirst.

For a moment she lay in a daze. Then, with a low groan, she pulled herself free.

"Okay, that wasn't supposed to happen," she muttered as she brushed her face off and shook the powder from her hair. Unfortunately, that just sent some of the snow slipping down her collar.

"Ah! Cold, cold, cold!" Charlotte cried as she tried to shake the stuff out of her clothes. Not for the first time, she wondered why Shizuku and Natsuru had left Freehaven for this place. It was pretty enough and the people seemed nice, but good God the temperatures were unbearable!

"Charlotte?" she heard Mami calling from higher up the hill. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she called back without thinking. "Just had a chilly landing." A second later she mentally kicked herself for giving away her position.

"Good!" Mami said cheerfully. "Then a little more won't hurt."

Sighing, Charlotte leapt behind the snowbank and rolled her way back into the shelter of the trees as Mami turned on the artillery. She might as well just give up now. Fighting Mami like this was like using a stick against a tank. She had been lucky so far, but this was just ridiculous.

Then, just as she managed to give Mami the slip again, she found her edge.

"Hi!" said a strange, airy voice, one that hadn't been produced by human lungs. "What'cha doing?"

Charlotte nearly leapt out of her skin. Addressing her was a shimmering blue orb the size of a basketball. It hovered in the air and, despite not having anything resembling a face, it still managed to give off the impression of curiosity.

"Christ, you scared me," Charlotte panted, holding her chest. "And keep it down!"

"What wrong?" asked the calliope, suddenly sounding serious. "Are you being hunted? Are you a runaway? A hardened criminal?"

Out of all the other species to have been courted by the Incubators, the calliopes were probably the most inhuman, biologically speaking. Hailing from a solar system not even visible from Earth, they were native to a gaseous planet known for its multicolored clouds and huge, free-floating crystals that flew tumbled through the atmosphere like snow in a snowglobe. But despite this, they were also the friendliest with their human neighbors. They found the meaty creatures and their culture to be both wonderful and fascinating, and vice-versa. There weren't a lot of them back home at Freehaven, but up here in Pinespire they were quite common. Up in Cloudbreak, the Free Life Alliance's capital city, there were even more.

"No!" Charlotte said in a loud whisper. "Snowball fight! And I'm losing."

The calliope brightened. Literally. "Really? Oh, I love snowball fights! Can I play?"

Charlotte blinked. While to the uneducated a calliope would be useless for such things, given that they had no limbs at all, Charlotte knew better. The calliopes were in possession of a number of interesting abilities, ones that could come in handy.

"Okay," she said. "You can be on my team. We're fighting a yellow-haired human. She has a bunch of guns that shoot snowballs, so we have to be careful.

"Got it!" the calliope said, bobbing eagerly. "I'm Ammonia, by the way. What's your name?"

Since the calliope naming system didn't make a whole lot of sense to their neighbors, they had all adopted secondary names for when they conversed with non-calliopes. This one had obviously picked out one that she thought was pretty. Charlotte wondered if the calliope knew what ammonia actually was, but decided that it wasn't relevant.

"Charlotte," she said. "Welcome aboard."

"Thanks. So, what do we do?"

Charlotte glanced out around the tree. Mami still hadn't found her, though that was only a matter of time. "All right, here's the plan…"

…

Moments later, Charlotte decided was considering letting someone else do the planning from now on. It just wasn't working out for her.

She was hanging suspended in a space between two trees. Her limbs were splayed out in four directions and tied tightly by yellow ribbons that crisscrossed between the branches. Grunting, she gave her arm an experimental tug and found it to be fastened quite securely. She tried reaching down with her tail to free one of her legs, but this proved fruitless.

"Well," she said to no one in particular. "This is problematic."

"You can say that again," Mami laughed as she stepped into view. The blonde was standing on a tree branch directly across from the captured Charlotte and carrying a musket over her shoulder.

"And a little embarrassing," Charlotte added.

"That too."

Charlotte glanced at her bound wrists and grinned. "But somehow comfortingly familiar." They both laughed at that.

"So, what happens now?" Charlotte asked.

"We discuss terms of your surrender."

"Are you sure? I'm thinking I can just cry foul and have all this excoriated. I mean, these ribbons aren't made of snow, so this is probably against the rules."

"All's fair in love and war," Mami said.

Charlotte grinned fetchingly. "And which one would this be?"

In answer, Mami unshouldered her musket and aimed it at Charlotte's head.

Charlotte sagged. "Oh. Damn."

"Exactly," Mami said cheerfully. "Now, I'm going to count to ten. You have until then to say 'I give up.' If you do, I win and we go back to the cabin and get warm by the fire. If you don't, I win and go back to the cabin and get warm by the fire, while you wake up in about an hour or so buried up to your head in snow."

"Yeah, I'm calling that bluff," Charlotte said. "You wouldn't leave me out here."

"Ten," Mami said.

"I mean, I might get frostbite or something, and you wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you?"

"No such thing anymore. Nine."

"Are you sure?" Charlotte challenged. "Most everything else has been replicated."

"Eight."

"And even if it hasn't, what's to say there isn't something worse? I mean, my soul vapors might freeze under my skin!"

"Seven."

"Or I could never wake up and end up frozen in a solid block of ice, only to be discovered by archeologists five million years from now! You wouldn't want me to end up in a museum, would you?"

"Six."

So focused Mami was on her countdown that she failed to notice a glowing blue sphere the size of a Volkswagen beetle slowing bobbing its way toward her from behind. Calliopes survived mainly on water vapor taken from the atmosphere, but they were capable of absorbing it, and other things, in other forms as well. They couldn't digest solids, but they could carry it around if needed, swelling up their bulk in the process. And from there, they could do other things with it.

While Charlotte had been keeping Mami busy, the calliope had armed itself by swallowing the snowbank Charlotte had crashed into earlier. The whole thing.

Right as Mami's count reached two, Charlotte shouted, "NOW!"

The calliope spewed out the snow it had been carrying. Caught by surprise, Mami was literally lifted up and swept off the branch.

It was then that Charlotte realized that she was still directly in front of Mami. "Oh, this isn't good," she said moments before snow and blonde alike slammed into her.

The ribbons vanished, and the two of were sent tumbling down through the forest. The next few moments were a confusing muddle of rushing snow, flailing limbs, and crazy laughter. Charlotte kept expecting their fall (and bodies) to be broken by a tree trunk, but they somehow managed to avoid any crippling impacts.

And then they ran out of forest. And ground.

Tangled up in each other's limbs, Charlotte and Mami looked up and realized that they were actually looking down. The current of snow had swept them both over the edge of a precipice, and they were now tumbling into a deep valley.

The two of them looked at each other. "This," Charlotte said. "Is going to hurt."

Mami nodded her agreement. And they started screaming.

…

Mumbling, sore, and very cold, Shizuku stumbled her way through the forest, all the while cleaning snow out of places that she hadn't known she had. She was quite annoyed at having been outsmarted, this was true, but she had to admit that she felt a small measure of motherly pride. She had trained those girls well.

"Sh-Shizuku!" she heard someone call. Turning, she saw a dazed looking Akane limping toward her, partially supporting, partially dragging a marginally conscious Natsuru with her. Akane's battlelust had died, and now she just looked worried and confused.

"Ah, more of the fallen," Shizuku said wearily. "What's the current score?"

Akane shivered. "I d-don't know. I ju-just woke up a little wh-while ago."

"Is that so?" Shizuku looked to the forest. "Well, Charlotte, Mikoto, and Mami were all still active when I lost consciousness. Natsuru was as well, but obviously that didn't last long." She sighed. "Well, as the eliminated, I suppose there's nothing to do now but try to find the remaining combatants, assuming any still arrive."

Putting Natsuru's other arm over her shoulder, the three of them entered the forest. Chunks of snow were splattered everywhere against the tree trunks, and it didn't take long for them to come across Mikoto sitting with her back against a tree with a shell-shocked look on her face.

"Guns," she said, her eyes wide and unfocused. "Snowball guns. Everywhere!"

Shizuku smirked. Picking Mami had been a wise choice after all. "Hello Mikoto, welcome to the losers club."

"Everywhere!"

Lowering the still-recovering Natsuru next to Mikoto, Shizuku looked around. "Well, I suppose that leaves the Nautilus girls as the final two. Now, I don't wish to be presumptuous, but I'm afraid that means victory is ours. As surprisingly effective as Charlotte has turned out to be, I really don't believe her to be a match for Mami's vastly superior firepower."

The taunt seemed to draw Mikoto out of her snowball-induced stupor. "Hey, don't count her out just yet," she said crossly. "She took you out well enough." Then she reconsidered her words. "No, wait, I took you out. But that thing with the tree was still cool."

"I'm not questioning her resourcefulness, I'm just noting the fact that she is hopelessly outgunned. Besides, Mami is no mental slouch herself, and can fully match Charlotte cunning for cunning any time of the-"

"Hello! Human girls! Help!"

Everyone turned to see a blue calliope frantically flying toward them. Shizuku recognized the Calliope from town.

"Ammonia?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Shizuku Sango? Hi! Were you all part of the snowball fight too?"

Shizuku and Akane exchanged a look. "Yes, we were," she said slowly. "Why?"

"Because I, uh, met two of your friends, and they…well, they fell off a cliff."

There was a long silence, and then Shizuku said, "Oh."

…

Two hours later…

"You know, when you guys said we were going to have a snowball fight, I pictured us throwing hiding behind our little forts and throwing normal snowballs at each other until we got bored," Charlotte complained. "I wasn't expecting a full on snowball war!"

Shizuku lowered the cup of tea she had been sipping to say, "Charlotte, really. When all of the participants are immortals with superpowers, you have to expect the competition to be taken up a few notches."

The seven of them were all back at the cabin. They had cleaned up, changed into comfortable sweaters and wool pants, and were lounging around the fire, sipping hot drinks and exchanging post-battle commentary. Ammonia floated near Charlotte and Mami. Surprisingly enough, Shizuku wasn't upset about Charlotte impromptu conscription of the Calliope. After all, the rules had failed to forbid recruiting randomly stumbled-upon civilians, though her tone suggested that an amendment would be drafted to prevent it from happening in the future.

As expected, Mami and Charlotte had been found partially buried in the snow at the bottom of the valley, neither of them conscious. Though they had recovered soon enough, neither of them could recall which one had landed first. As such, the game had been declared a draw and everyone had unanimously voted against a sudden death round. With that, they had gone home.

Mami, who was snuggled up under Charlotte's arm, said, "Can I just take this time to preemptively say that Charlotte is going to be on my team next year?"

"No," Shizuku said.

"Too bad. Charlotte's on my team next year."

"That's assuming we're even having a snowball fight next year," Charlotte grumbled, though not as harshly as she might have. She was feeling too comfortable to muster up any real rancor. "I think I'm all snowballed out for the rest of the decade."

Mikoto, who was lounging back in one of the easy chairs, said, "Hey, yearly means yearly. And admit it, you had fun."

Charlotte twisted her head around to glare at her. "I went over a cliff!"

"And I got blasted into next week, but you don't see me complaining. Come on, you had fun."

Sighing, Charlotte pulled Mami closer and smiled. "Yeah, okay. That was pretty fun." She glanced over to Ammonia, who had been noticeably quite during the whole exchange. "Hey, are you okay? You're looking a little green."

She meant it literally, as Ammonia's color had taken on a greenish tint. "Yes, I just feel a little woozy," the calliope said. "I don't think absorbing all that snow at once was a good idea."

"It wasn't yellow, was it?" Natsuru asked. The blunette was stretched across one of the couches with her legs in Shizuku's lap. It might have been cute, had Shizuku not covered them with a small tablecloth and was using them to support her saucer and a tray of cookies. Actually, it was still pretty cute, if not a little weird.

"Yellow?" Ammonia said in confusion. "Is yellow snow less nutritious than white?"

"Actually, it's probably more," Mikoto chuckled.

Akane gagged.

"I do not understand," Ammonia said.

"Snow being yellow usually means an animal or a person urinated in it," Mami explained.

"Urinate? You mean, liquid waste expulsion?"

"Yes."

"Ah. Then no, I don't believe that was the case. Human waste has a very distinct taste. I would know if I had accidentally absorbed some."

This pronouncement was met with an awkward silence.

"That was a joke," Ammonia explained at last.

"So anyway," Mami said, quickly changing the subject. "Are we still going to that parade later on?"

"Indeed we are. And in fact," Shizuku checked her watch and sighed, "we'd better start getting ready soon."

This was met by a chorus of groans from the exhausted magical girls.

"Now?" Charlotte said despondently. "It's not even dark out yet!"

"True, but as I understand it, space fills up quickly." Shizuku lifted her saucer and plate of cookies, and Natsuru moved her legs and sat up. "I have a place saved for us, but we were told that we need to claim it early, before people are tempted to steal it."

"Can't we just go tomorrow?" Mikoto said.

"No. The funny thing about Christmas Eve parades, it seems that they don't repeat on Christmas Day." Shizuku shrugged. "Odd, isn't it? Who knew?"

"Actually, I've really been looking forward to the parade," Mami said, sitting up. "I've only seen pictures, but it does look like a spectacular sight."

Charlotte sighed and let out a small laugh. "Well, that settles that. When she says she wants to go, we're gonna go."

Mami smiled and kissed her cheek. "You know me too well."

There were more groans, but everyone eventually got up and started getting themselves ready. Ammonia took that moment to say goodbye, claiming that she had promised to meet up with her friends at the parade grounds but hoped to see them all there.

"I'm going to go wash the jackets," Akane announced, moving toward where the heavy coats were hanging. "Does anyone have anything in their pockets they need to remove first?"

Charlotte, who was already halfway up the stairs, froze suddenly. Crap, how had she forgotten about that?

"Right, hold on," she said, jogging back down. "I've got a couple things." Stealing a glance at Mami to make sure she wasn't watching, Charlotte stuck her hands into her jacket's pocket to extract the ring box.

It wasn't there.

Blinking in surprise, she stuck her hand deeper into the pocket and, after confirming for certain that it was empty, quickly rummaged through every pocket the jacket had. Then she turned her attention to the rest of the clothes she had been wearing during the snowball fight. She turned up some loose change but no ring.

Oh no.

"Hey, Akane?" she said to the glasses-wearing girl, trying to sound casual. "Did, uh, you take anything from my pockets?"

Akane looked surprised. "N-no, I haven't touched anything. Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Charlotte said. "I'm sure it's…uh…"

Unable to think of another excuse, Charlotte bolted up the stairs and into the room she shared with Mami. From there, she tore through her luggage, searching every bag and pocket. This was followed by every drawer in the dresser and nightstand. All the while, her panic kept rising. Where was it? She had put it back in her pocket right before heading out, she remembered that much. So why wasn't it still there?

Her frustration was followed by a feeling of dread. What if it had fallen out sometime during the snowball fight? Her coat pocket had been deep, true, but she had been knocked about a lot and had taken some sudden impacts. That was the most likely answer, but if that was true, that the ring was lying in the snow somewhere out in the forest, then…

Charlotte stared at her tossed about luggage. No. Oh no. No, no, no, no.

"Charlotte?" a voice said.

"What!" Charlotte yelled, almost leaping straight up.

Mami stood in the door, a puzzled look on her face. "Ah, is everything okay?"

Charlotte glanced at the mess she had made, wondering how she was going to explain this. "Oh y-yeah, everything's…I was just, you know, looking for my wallet!"

"Your wallet? Isn't it in your purse? Er, was?"

Mami pointed to Charlotte's purse, which was pulled apart like the rest of her stuff. Her wallet could be clearly seen sitting next to it.

"Well, hey!" Charlotte said, throwing her hands into the air and forcing a grin. "Whadd'ya know, there it is! Mystery solved! Thanks!"

Mami frowned. "Char, what's wrong?"

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong! Why?"

"Char…"

"I said nothing's wrong!"

Mami pursed her lips. "Charlotte, don't give me that. Seriously, if you lost something important…"

"Nothing! I lost nothing! Everything's fine, so just…just leave it, okay?"

Mami gave her a long stare. "All right," she said at last. "If that's how you want to be. I'll be waiting downstairs."

She turned and left. Charlotte cursed under her breath and immediately started mentally kicking herself. Why had she gone off on Mami like that? This was supposed to be a happy time for the two of them, but not only had she lost the engagement ring, now she was starting another stupid fight.

Her first impulse was to run after Mami and apologize, but that would just lead to questions, questions that couldn't be answered. She felt like kicking the wall in frustration. Damn it, what was she supposed to do now? She could run outside right now and start looking, but that course of action was completely pointless. The snowball fight had covered a huge area, and the box wouldn't stand out from the snow.

Even though she knew it was a waste of time, Charlotte checked and rechecked all the places she had just searched. Not surprisingly, she found nothing.

Then someone started knocking loudly. "Hey, tail-girl!" Mikoto shouted. "We're ready to go! Hurry up!"

Nothing for it, she was trapped. Sighing, Charlotte grabbed her purse and walked from the room.

…

The walk to town was as uncomfortable as could be imagined. Hurt and worried by Charlotte's sudden change in behavior, Mami was noticeably quiet, responding only to direct questions from their friends. Mikoto, however, was not, and having against consumed a great deal of the spiked eggnog, kept pressing Charlotte for details concerning her status as a witch.

"So, you don't remember anything about being alive?" she asked, moving in uncomfortably close. "Like nothin' nothin'?"

Charlotte, who had other things on her mind and wished that the tipsy girl would just leave her alone, said, "Uh, yeah. Nothing."

"Wow, and whaddabout becomin' a witch? Nothin' 'bout that neither?"

Charlotte shook her head. At the moment, she was wondering if she could slip away during the parade itself to go hunting for the ring.

"So, like, you just woke up in one of those freaky cities with no memory of nothin'? You were like a baby or somethin'?"

Akane, who had noticed that her friend's drunken behavior was bothering Charlotte, tugged hesitantly on Mikoto's sleeve. "Uh, m-maybe you better leave her alone," she said. "I don't think it's polite to-"

"Huh? I'm not being rude. I'm just askin'!"

"Inquiring into a lady's personal life is not keeping with proper etiquette," Shizuku said over her shoulder. "Especially when it involves matters concerning her death."

"But we're all dead!" Mikoto protested. "All of us! Dead people! Why should it-"

As Mikoto ranted, Shizuku had stopped walking long enough for the two of them to be side-by-side. Once Mikoto was in range, the raven-haired girl reached over and shoved Mikoto off the road and sent her tumbling down the short but steep slope.

"And that my friends is how you deal with annoying drunk-acting people," she said, retaking her place at the front of the stunned procession.

"Thank you," Mami said. "And by the way, what did you put in that eggnog."

"Nothing," Shizuku said. "But I hinted that it might contain brandy. It's purely-"

Letting out a cry of rage, Mikoto leapt into the air, a flashing katana bared, bearing down onto Shizuku, mirroring the way she had disposed of her during the snowball fight. This time, however, Shizuku was both expecting the attack and had full use of her chain, which immediately snapped up, wrapped around Mikoto's torso, and cracked her down into the road.

"-a placebo effect," Shizuku finished as Mami and Akane rushed to help Mikoto.

Fortunately for Mikoto, Puella Magi could shrug off knocks that would have crippled a normal person. As such, save for some grogginess, she was none the worse for the wear for having been slammed facefirst into hard asphalt. Indeed, she seemed more concerned over what Shizuku had just said than any possible injury. "What?" she said, stumbling to her feet. "So, there's no alcohol in it? At all?"

"At all," Shizuku said.

Mikoto looked distraught at hearing the news. She turned to Natsuru, eyes pleading for the blunette to write off Shizuku's words as another one of her jokes. Instead, Shizuku grimaced but nodded in confirmation.

"Aw, dammit!" Mikoto swore, kicking a pile of snow and sending fragments flying. "That means I was just being an ass! Sorry Charlotte, didn't mean anything by it."

"Though Mikoto's faux-drunken ramblings did bring to light something worth noting," Shizuku said. She glanced to Charlotte with a meaningful look in her eye. "You have taken a sudden turn for the morose lately. Is something the matter?"

Mami's gaze shot from Charlotte, who suddenly looked stricken, to Shizuku. "Ah, it's nothing," she said hastily. "Victoria from the docks had asked us to bring along her gift for you, but we can't seem to find it anywhere. Charlotte was just worried that we might have forgotten it."

A lie, of course. Victoria's gift was among the packages they had left under the tree. But it was a suitable excuse, especially since they could always "discover" said package later. However, that just made Charlotte feel worse. Not only was Mami not holding Charlotte's earlier outburst against her, she now helping cover for her. Charlotte didn't deserve her; she was now more sure of that than ever.

"Oh, is that it?" Shizuku shrugged. "Not to worry. The Alliance does boast an impressive mail service. Just send it our way when you get home." However, her gaze lingered on Charlotte's face a moment longer than it should have. She suspected that the truth was something other than Mami's story, but wasn't going to press the matter, that much was obvious.

Fortunately, by then they had reached the outskirts of town, and the conversation was quickly forgotten.

Out of the thirteen species to have had dealings with the Incubators and thus have entered this afterlife, only four cared to cooperate together and form what was now known as the Free Life Alliance. In addition to the humans and calliopes, there was the ai'jurrik'kai, with their nine long, thin limbs; hard, glassy bodies; and glass-like webs; and the hairy jott, who were short but heavily muscled, with talon-like claws and massive mouths filled with teeth, but possessed a surprisingly gentle, almost scholarly, nature. And Pinespire was home to members of all four species. Then end result was…bizarre.

Wooden human buildings with a rustic cabin theme sat side-by-side with the ai'jurrik'kai's tall, thin citadels, and the underground was riddled with the jotts' tunnels. The calliopes built no structures at all, preferring to bob aimlessly through the air above the town like bloated, multicolored fireflies. On the streets, the humans and jotts rubbed shoulders as they went about their business, while the ai'jurrik'kai preferred to scurry along the walls and across the glass strands that they had extended from building to building, though city ordinance demanded that they leave enough space for the calliopes to pass through.

All in all, it was a certainly diverse place, one that had seen more than its fair share of culture clashes. The ai'jurrik'kai found the calliopes to be wonderful, almost deific creatures, but had taken a lot of convincing before they had accepted that the humans were not to be preyed upon, and by great misfortune the jotts resembled miniaturized versions of their principle predator, back on their home world. The jotts found the calliopes to be unnerving, but were fascinated by ai'jurrik'kai physiology, and had a great appreciation for human arts, especially the cuisine. The calliopes thought that the jotts were hilarious in all the wrong ways, were bemused by how the ai'jurrik'kai always seemed to defer to them, and thought that human customs were the most awesome things ever. And the humans found the ai'jurrik'kai to be frightening, enjoyed the calliopes' childlike curiosity as much as the calliopes enjoyed indulging in it, and had long been friends with the jotts.

Fortunately, most of the xenophobia had long since passed. Thanks to the difference in the flow of time between the world of the living and the afterlife, the four members of the Free Life Alliance had had a long, long time to work out their differences, and the fact that new generations no longer replaced the old did much to mellow out any distrustful feelings. It was hard to be suspicious alien faces when you interacted with the same alien faces for several centuries. And everyone was united in their mutual loathing of the Incubators that had deceived them and the Void Walkers that continued to trouble them.

Of course, trying to mesh all those cultures into a working society had taken some work. The calliopes had no real rituals or traditions of their own and had no problem in adopting those of their neighbors, but the other three had run into problems, especially when it came to the question of holidays. Everyone insisted that theirs continued to be celebrated while finding everyone else's to be nothing short of bewildering. In the end, a compromise had been struck: Christmas and Halloween would continue to be universal events celebrated by the whole town, while most everything else was kept to more private functions. In return, the town would also celebrate Bak'niggh, the Core Dance, the Night of Steaming Blood, and Vel'yion Yip Yip. Of course, everyone had been uneasy about the Night of Steaming Blood, as the name brought with it all sorts of unpleasant images. However, it turned out that the name was simply an unfortunate literal translation of a metaphorical phrase, and the celebration itself was actually quite wholesome. Vel'yion Yip Yip, however, was not, and had been met with horrified reactions of outrage, which in turn offended the ai'jurrik'kai greatly. It might have eventually resulted in civil war, but to everyone's relief the ai'jurrik'kai ended up discontinuing Vel'yion Yip Yip on their own, as they had discovered that a ritual disembowelment of an infant to win the favor of Ti'ya Yip, the mate of Death, was no longer practical, as there were no infants available, no one had any internal organs to be removed, everyone was immortal anyway, and in light of current developments, many of their people were becoming disillusioned with Ti'ya Yip anyway.

At any rate, all of this had taken place a long time ago, and these days all holidays were given equal importance by the city's residents, regardless of species. Even so, newcomers were often bewildered by the sight of caroling ai'jurrik'kai singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in their strange, whistling voices around Christmastime, not to mention humans whirling around madly while wearing impossibly tall, pointy hats come the Core Dance.

And as would be expected by a town run by immortal teenaged girls with superpowers from a cross section of four different species, the decorations tended to be a bit on the extravagant side.

"Wow," Mami said, staring. "Wow. This is…this is…"

"Impressive, is it not?" Shizuku said with a note of satisfaction, as if the spectacle were her doing.

Even Charlotte had been roused enough out of her funk to take notice. "We caught a little bit of it coming in, but…Hey, how'd the ai'jurrik'kai get their glass to glitter like that?"

"The calliopes helped," Natsuru said. "Some sort of dust they secrete. It sinks into the glass but dissolves after a few days."

"Handy. And here I thought Freehaven went all out during the holidays."

In time, they reached the center of town: a wide circular park surrounded by shops and governmental institutions, such as the post office and the court. The park itself only saw grass for roughly half the year and spent the rest covered by snow. And around Christmastime Pinespire's residents took advantage of the bit, empty space by transplanting a small but tall grove of pine trees, each one decorated according to a different theme: from reindeer to gingerbread to whatever in the world the ai'jurrik'kai had covered that one tree with. And in the center towered the Town Tree, decked out in white crystals and…

Mami frowned. "Wait a minute, those big bulbs on the middle tree. Are those calliopes?"

"Uh-huh," Natsuru said.

"And they just stay there the whole time?"

"Of course not," Shizuku said. "They operate in shifts. Their idea, actually. It does pay well, and those lucky enough to be on duty during this specific shift get the best spot to watch the parade."

That did make a lot of sense. Even though the parade had a few hours before it was to begin, the streets and surrounding airspace was packed. The shorter jotts were lining on the streets while humans took position behind them or on the rooftops. Ai'jurrik'kai clung to their glittering strands overhead, and calliopes floated everywhere, further adding to the dazzling effect given off by the lights.

Charlotte shook her head. "Welcome to epilepsy hell."

That got a small laugh from her companions. "No longer a problem, fortunately enough," Shizuku said.

"I know. And, uh, I think we might be too late already. There's barely enough room to walk."

"Also not a problem." Shizuku pointed toward an outdoor café. Though it was as packed as everywhere else, there were a few tables still empty, each one with a "RESERVED" note. "I took the liberty of procuring us a place ahead of time."

"Months," Natsuru said. "Like before she even invited you guys."

Mami shook her head. "You really do think of everything."

"Not true. If that were the case, I wouldn't have spent most of that snowball fight unconscious. But I do try."

Moments later, they were all seated around two tables, cups of hot chocolate and hot sandwiches in front of them.

It was as nice a place as one could wish for. The dining area provided an excellent view of the streets, the food was delicious, and small but powerful space heaters kept the diners from freezing in the meantime. They would be able to spend the wait in comfort, munching on their snacks while enjoying an unobstructed view of the festivities.

Despite this, Charlotte was anything but comfortable. Now that they were all sitting still, her mind kept returning back to that missing ring, which was probably lying somewhere in the forest. Why oh why had she kept it with her? Why hadn't she stashed it somewhere safe in her luggage? Some sort of ridiculous fear that Mami would be so inconsiderate to go rooting through her stuff without permission? Not for the first time, she wished that she had the power to turn back time, if only for a few hours.

Time ticked by, and her fidgeting grew worse. Her hand kept sneaking back into her pockets, as if the ring would suddenly turn up if she searched them again. Mami of course took notice, and kept sending worrying glances her way.

Finally she couldn't take it any longer. The ring was lost, she just had to accept that. But she did have a back-up alternative. "Hey, uh, when does the parade start again?" she said in a low voice to Shizuku.

"Hmmm." Shizuku checked her phone. "Another hour-and-a-half, it seems."

"Okay. Um, I'm gonna go look around for a bit. Take in the sights and all that."

Mami automatically rose from her seat. "Great! I'll go with you."

"No!" Charlotte said, a bit more harshly than she would have liked. When everyone stared at her, she immediately backpedaled. "Uh, no, that's okay! I, uh, wasn't going…"

Then Mikoto started laughing. "Oh, is that what this is all about?"

Charlotte felt a chill. "Wait, what?"

Pointing an accusatory finger at Charlotte, Mikoto gibed, "You forgot your girlfriend's present, and now you're gonna go buy a new one!" She started cackling, only to suddenly yelp in pain as someone, presumably Shizuku, dug their heel into her toes.

Her theory was close enough to the actual truth to give Charlotte the shivers, but she didn't immediately deny it. "Uh, sure, why not?"

Mami frowned. "But I distinctly remember seeing-"

"Anyway, bye!"

Charlotte quickly stole into the café's interior before more questions could be asked. This was getting ridiculous. She really needed to work on her improv skills. If she started acting any more suspicious Mami was probably going to start tailing her everywhere she went.

As she slipped through the thong of people lined up to pick up their hot drinks, she nearly collided with a girl who was just leaving the restroom. They both muttered apologies, and then Charlotte realized that it was Natsuru.

"Lottie!" Natsuru said. "Hey. Do you need to use the bathroom too?"

"Uh…" Charlotte cast a glance to gargantuan line outside the restroom door and was glad that she didn't. "No, uh, I was just going to, you know…"

Natsuru frowned. "Hey Lottie? Are you sure you're all right? You've been acting very strange." That was bad. If Natsuru of all people was noticing Charlotte's addled state, then she wasn't going to make it through the night without breaking down completely.

Sighing, Charlotte grabbed Natsuru by the arm and pulled her over to a relatively secluded point next to a trash can. "Look," she said. "I screwed up big-time, and I need help. Can you keep a secret?"

Bewildered, Natsuru said, "I, uh, huh?"

"Please, Nats! This is important!"

Scratching the back of her head, Natsuru said, "O-of course! But…this isn't about you forgetting Victoria's present, is it? Because you don't have to worry about that!"

Well, Charlotte had already gone this far, so she might as well go all the way. Natsuru wasn't exactly the safest person to confide in, but she was miles better than Shizuku, and Charlotte didn't know Mikoto or Akane well enough to trust them with something like this. And as scatterbrained as the blunette could be, she was kind-hearted and loyal enough to help. And Charlotte really needed help right now.

"Natsuru, look," she said. "We didn't forget Victoria's present. That was just a cover-up. The thing is…" She quickly glanced out the window to confirm that everyone else was still at the table and lowered her voice. "I'm planning on proposing to Mami before this trip is over."

"Proposing? You mean…" Natsuru's face lit up. "Wait, really? Wow, that's great! Congratulations! You know, you two really-"

"But that's the problem!" Charlotte said urgently. "I can't! It wasn't Victoria's present I lost, it's the ring I was going to give to her!"

It took a few seconds, but realization eventually dawned on Natsuru's face, which then went pale. "Wait!" she said, her voice a tad too loud, even with the general babble of the crowd. "You lost the-"

"Yes!" Charlotte said as she quickly put her hand over Natsuru's mouth. "And keep it down!"

"But how?" Natsuru asked in a much quieter voice.

"During the snowball fight, I think. It was in my pocket right before, and I found out that it was missing soon after, so it probably fell out of my pocket. And before you say anything, yes, I know it was stupid to keep it there, but I didn't know I would be jumping around so much!"

"The snowball fight?" Natsuru's mouth fell open. "But that-"

"Went all over the place, I know! Which is why-"

Natsuru grabbed her hand. "Come on! We can get there in about ten minutes if we hurry!"

She immediately started dragging Charlotte to the door. "Wait, wait!" Charlotte cried, digging her heels in. "I didn't mean help finding it, that's impossible! I was just going to buy her a new one!"

"A new one? But you haven't even looked for the old one yet!"

"But there's no way we'll be able to find it!"

Natsuru smiled. "You don't know that until you try! I have something back at the cabin that might help."

"But…but that'll take forever!" Charlotte said. "And the parade-"

"We still have over an hour." Natsuru glanced over her shoulder. "Besides, with this crowd? Trying to buy anything gift-like is going to take at least that long. Especially jewelry."

Well, she had a point there. "All right," Charlotte said. "Let's go!"

…

As Charlotte hurried into the café, Mami watched her, worry all over her face. "What has gotten into her?" she wondered out loud. "Usually when something's upsetting her, she doesn't have a problem with telling me."

"I take it you don't accept Mikoto's theory of her having forgotten your gift?" Shizuku asked. "Because I find that to be an extremely likely explanation."

Mami shook her. "No, I know she didn't forget it. I saw it right before we left."

"Hmmm, come to think of it, so did I," Shizuku said, tapping her lower lip. "Right next to the bottle of '63 Chateau du Malkavian you brought along. The one with the green bow and the note that reads 'From Vickie.'"

"Right, that…Oh." Mami's shoulders slumped. "I guess that was pretty unconvincing."

"Oh, I don't know. I think it was a cute way to cover for her. Though obviously not far from the truth."

Mami blinked. "What do you mean?"

Sipping her hot chocolate, Shizuku shrugged. "Based upon Charlotte's behavior, I'd say that Mikoto's guess was also not far from the truth. Charlotte has lost something of importance, and it's obvious she doesn't want you to find out about it, though her cover-up efforts really need work. As such, it really doesn't take a genius to figure out that you were the intended beneficiary of whatever it is that had her so worked up."

"I…I guess you're right," Mami admitted. "I just wish I knew what it was, so I could help."

Shizuku tsked. "Mami, one of the vital aspects of such surprises is that the person they're intended for shouldn't be involved in their development!" She craned her neck to see into the café. "Though from the looks of things, she doesn't seem to have a problem with telling Natsuru. It really didn't take long for her to crack, did it?"

"What?" Mami half-rose from her seat to look. Sure enough, Charlotte was urgently telling Natsuru something that Natsuru found surprising. After a while, Natsuru grabbed Charlotte by the hand and pulled her out of the front door and out into Pinespire's streets.

"And there they go," Shizuku said mildly. "Cute, but I really hope I haven't picked up another one."

Mami looked at her in confusion. "Another what?"

"Another rival." Shizuku nodded toward Mikoto and Akane. Mikoto had folded her napkind into a triangular shape and was teaching Akane how to use it to play napkin football. "I have my hands full with those two, and adding a third to the mix would only just complicate things."

"Oh," Mami said. "I suppose that…" Then she got it. "Wait, WHAT?"

…

Pinespire wasn't especially large, but it wasn't exactly small either. And with the tremendous crowd Charlotte and Natsuru had to work through, journeying from the center of town to the cabin should have met with numerous delays and thus have taken a considerable amount of time, nearing forty minutes at least.

Fortunately, both girls were gifted with superhuman levels of strength, agility, and speed, and were driven by desperation to complete their virtually impossible task within a limited space of time. Furthermore, jott tunnels were open to the public and surprisingly uncrowded; after all, almost everyone was topside.

Long story short: they made the trip in considerably less than forty minutes. In fact, it was closer to seven.

Natsuru didn't even slow down as the approached the cabin. "Okay, let me just grab something, and I'll be right back!" she shouted as she bolted toward the front door.

Charlotte fretted on the front porch, wondering what Natsuru was going in for. Time was ticking away, and they had a lot of ground to cover.

Fortunately, Natsuru rushed out again in less than four minutes. "Got them!" She held up a pair of bulky white gloves and a couple of silver headbands.

Charlotte stared. "Uh, okay, those headbands light up, right? I get that, but what's with the gloves?"

"Excavator Gauntlets!" Natsuru said proudly. "They're jott-made. Kind of a combination between a metal detector and a low-power magnet that you wear on your hand." She held the left-hand glove to Charlotte. "I kept losing my keys in the forest even when it wasn't snowing, so Shizuku got these for me. They're surprisingly handy for finding things you've dropped. Uh, no pun intended."

Charlotte brightened. "That's perfect!" She slipped the glove on and turned it on. It started humming, and she felt it tug toward Natsuru's belt buckle, though the pull wasn't strong enough to cause problems. "Thanks, Nats!"

"The magnetic beam goes straight out of the tip of the pointer finger, so just keep it pointed forward," Natsuru explained, slipping on her own glove. "It'll tug anything metallic into view, but won't make it come flying at your face." She put on one of the headbands and tapped its side. A rectangle started glowing in its center, shooting out a bright beam of light.

"Got it," Charlotte said as she took the other headband. "Okay, let's go!"

…

"Didn't I tell you?" Shizuku said, clearly enjoying Mami's reaction. "Once we had decided to stop competing and work as a team, most of our downtime was spent competing for Natsuru's affection. Aggressively."

Mami didn't even bother hiding her surprise. She glanced over at the two girls in question, who had left the table to join a small group of teenagers in a game of Ninja. "But…why?" she said. When Shizuku quirked an eyebrow, Mami realized she had phrased that wrong, and amended, "I mean, don't misunderstand me. Natsuru is a dear friend and a wonderful person. And while I'm not interested in her in that way, she is certainly very attractive. But…"

"She doesn't really strike you as the ladykiller, the type to amass a horde of admirers?" Shizuku filed in for her.

"No. Well, no more than anyone else on your team."

"Oh, you already know that I had my fair share of admirers," Shizuku said proudly. "True, they could get bothersome at times, but it was quite flattering." She smiled and shrugged. "As for Natsuru, it was really thanks to different circumstances for each person. She and Mikoto were childhood friends, and there no doubt were feelings there that developed naturally, only for them to bloom fully once Mikoto realized that she now had competition. And Akane was Natsuru's first real ally, and didn't have much in the way of friends before they met, so you can see how she would become infatuated with our blue-haired wonder."

Mami was fascinated and a little disturbed. Though she had lived under Shizuku and Natsuru's roof for four years and had heard a great deal of their previous life, she was never told of this bit of drama. She wracked her brain for all the details she could remember. "And you? I mean, didn't you two start off as enemies?"

"Oh yes, and that didn't exactly work out well. But they spared my life, for which I was grateful. And they allowed me to join forces with them, despite our previous rivalry. Besides, by that point I was growing quite suspicious of the Incubators' true intentions, and they were willing to help me root out the truth." For a moment a flicker of sorrow passed over Shizuku's perpetually smug face. "Not that it helped us in the end, but learning the truth did…simplify things. For a few months at least."

"And that's when you fell for her?" Mami asked.

"In a way. He…pardon me, she was cute and well-meaning, if a little dim, and I grew fond of her. And I've always been the competitive sort, so I suppose I got swept up in their antics." Shizuku took a long sip of her cocoa. "Of course, it wasn't until we were killed and spent a considerable of time in the afterlife that things between us became a bit more…genuine."

Mami felt very odd. Shizuku had never really been the sort to open up to people, not like this. In a way, she felt a bit honored that she was being trusted with this information. But still, something didn't really make sense.

"But wait," she said. "If…if Akane and Mikoto are you former romantic rivals, why invite them into your house? Or, at least, buy a house for all of you to share?"

"A number of reasons," Shizuku said. "For one, despite our rivalry, they are my allies and friends, and to shun them out of paranoia would be bad form. For another, I don't feel particularly threatened. For another, there are certain aspects about Natsuru that attracted them to her in the first place that are now…obsolete."

"What?"

"Never mind. And lastly, even if they were still a threat, which they are not, I'd prefer to keep them here, where I can keep an eye on them and mold them into something…harmless."

"You mean make them fall for each other," Mami said.

"It worked for you and Charlotte," Shizuku said.

Mami sighed. "Shizuku, how many times do we have to go over this? I explained it to you already, Charlotte and I fell in love of our own accord. Your…machinations might have helped, but it would have happened anyway, with or without your help."

"Hmmm. Well, whatever helps you sleep at night." Shizuku smirked, though her eyes were twinkling in a way that said that she was just teasing.

Mami let it go. It wasn't worth pursuing. "Regardless though, I am thankful that you decided to trust me with this part of your life."

"Think nothing of it," Shizuku said dismissively. "It really wasn't a big secret; I simply never had a reason to discuss it before. But with Akane and Mikoto here now, I felt a little background was needed."

Mami nodded, and hesitated. "And, ah, speaking of Charlotte and relationships, there's…something else I should probably tell you, as I'm probably going to need your help."

Shizuku's right eyebrow arched up. "Oh?"

"Yes. And I know you like to tease and drop hints whenever you learn about something sensitive, but you absolutely cannot let Charlotte know. No hints, no thing."

Shizuku mimed a zipping motion across her mouth.

Well, that would have to do. "You see, I'm planning on surprising Charlotte with something too…"

…

They started their search where Natsuru had set off that avalanche and worked their way down. Natsuru used her power over flame to melt away the surface snow, and they swept the area as thoroughly as they could.

Charlotte honestly didn't expect to find it. It was too wide an area, and the box was too small to be easily noticed. She wasn't even sure if the gauntlets could detect the metal of the ring through the box, though Natsuru assured her that they would. But even so, hope drove her on.

"Any luck?" Natsuru called to her after about twenty minutes.

"No," Charlotte called back. "Though I have pulled up a large number of beer cans. You guys really have a real littering problem around here."

"Tell me about it. There's this group of jotts that keeps sneaking around here to get drunk and sing really loudly. Shizuku keeps chasing them off, but they always come back."

"By the way," Charlotte said. "Thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it."

"No problem," Natsuru said. "It's the least I can do."

They worked in silence for a few minutes longer, eventually reaching the spot where Mami had driven Charlotte into a snowbank.

It was a strange turnaround. Only a few short hours before, the six of them had been out here having fun with no care beyond winning the game. Now, thanks to one stupid mistake that game had ended up jeopardizing the most important thing Charlotte had ever committed herself to. Not that she blamed the game or her friends for starting it, but the irony had to be acknowledged.

And as much as she hated it, there was still that small voice whispering in the back of her head, the one that she had been trying to ignore since she and Mami had first become a couple.

This happened for a reason, it told her. You were never meant to be together. You don't deserve her.

Charlotte's mouth tightened to a straight line. She had never believed in fate, and she wasn't going to start now. This had been the result of a stupid accident, nothing more. Still, as much as she tried to convince herself of this, that small voice was ever-persistent.

You murdered her. You have no right to call yourself her lover. And now you want her to become your wife? To bind herself to the monster that literally bit her head off? How selfish are you?

"Shut up," Charlotte muttered under her breath. Sniffing, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Time had made the voice easier to ignore, but now it was louder than ever. And really, it was right about one thing: she had been the one who killed Mami, and in horrible fashion at that. And while she hadn't been in control of her actions at the time, she had to have done something to have ended up as a witch in the first place. A bad decision, a stupid mistake. And an innocent person had suffered and died for it. And now, here she was, making more stupid mistakes. Who was she to ask for Mami's hand in marriage if she couldn't so much as keep track of the damned engagement ring?

"Hey, uh, Charlotte?" Natsuru said suddenly, shaking Charlotte out of her bitter musings.

"Huh?" Charlotte turned toward the blunette. "Did you find it?"

Natsuru shook her head. "No, sorry. But, uh, since we're out here, and since you're trusting me with this secret, there's…something I've always thought I should tell you guys."

Despite the situation, Charlotte perked up immediately. This was, after all, the first real confirmation that Natsuru was keeping a secret. "Uh, okay. What is it?"

Natsuru didn't meet her eyes. She just stared at a bare tree root. "Look, this is kind of embarrassing, and I'm sorry I never told you before, but I didn't know how you'd react, so…"

Charlotte frowned. "Look Nats, if it's personal, you don't have to tell me anything."

"No, I want to," Natsuru said firmly. She took a deep breath, tried to stick her hands into her pockets only to give up upon realizing that the gauntlet was too big, and finally looked Charlotte in the eye. "It's…Look, this is going to sound really strange, so please don't freak out or anything."

Now Charlotte was very confused. "Nats, of course I won't! You're my friend, after all."

"Yeah but…" Natsuru rubbed the back of her neck. "The thing is…I'm really a guy."

There was a long, long silence, and then Charlotte said, "Wait, say WHAT?"

…

Rare enough for her, Shizuku listened to what Mami had to say without providing commentary, though her eyebrows rose and fell at certain parts. When Mami finished, the raven-haired girl said, "Well now. That is certainly a thing."

"I know," Mami said, fidgeting. "So…what do you…"

Shizuku's lips parted in a smile. "Think? You even need to ask? I think it's a marvelous idea!"

Mami's heart rose. "You do?"

"Of course! Honestly, I was wondering what was taking you so long."

Feeling instantly relieved, Mami said, "Thank you! I just hope I can find the right time to-"

Then an inhuman but familiar voice cut into their conversation. "Mami Tomoe? Shizuku Sango? Hello!"

The two of them turned their heads to see a pale blue calliope soaring towards them. "Ammonia?" Mami said as it approached. "Hello! I didn't expect to run into you here."

"Actually, I was looking for you," Ammonia said as she neared.

"Were you?" Shizuku said. "And why is that?"

"Because I figured out what was making me sick. Hey, is Charlotte here?"

"Charlotte?" Mami blinked in confusion. "No, she and Natsuru left a little while ago. I'm not sure when they'll be back."

"Drat. See, it turns out I wasn't feeling sick because of too much snow. There was something in it that got stuck, and I think it belongs to her."

Mami and Shizuku exchanged a look. "That…belongs to her?" Mami repeated.

"Uh-huh. I think she dropped it by accident, and I ended up swallowing it, and it got stuck inside me. That's why I felt all funny. Can you give it to her for me?"

"Well, sure," Mami said, though she felt a little dubious. Calliopes sometimes had trouble distinguishing between human trash and treasure, and partially expected to be given a used tissue. In preparation, she covered her hand with a napkin and held it out.

However, the object that Ammonia dropped into her hand wasn't a tissue, and it definitely wasn't trash.

Every part of Mami's body froze, save for her eyes. Those just got wider and wider.

"Oh my," Shizuku said. "That certainly explains a lot."

"Explains what?" Ammonia said. "Did I do something wrong?"

Mami didn't answer. She couldn't.

"No," Shizuku said, giving the calliope a friendly pat. "Not at all. Thank you very much. We'll make sure Charlotte gets this."

"Oh good," Ammonia said, sounding relieved. "Well, I have to get back to my dance. Merry Christmas everyone!"

Mami didn't even notice her leave. Her eyes were fixated on the small box in her hands. Shizuku sat patiently, waiting for the blonde to make a move. When none was made, she reached over and slowly opened the box's lid. Mami gasped when they saw what was inside.

"As expected," Shizuku said. "This really does explain things."

"I don't believe it," Mami whispered.

"I do, actually. Though the timing is rather ironic. Quite hilarious actually." Shizuku reconsidered. "Well, maybe not now, but it will make for a great story later, once the shock has worn off."

"I…I…" Mami's fingers tightened around the box.

"Though of course, the question does remain: why are you still here?"

Finally Mami was able to turn her eyes away from the box to stare at her raven-haired companion. "What?"

"Charlotte is most likely combing the woods right now, looking for this very thing," Shizuku said. "So why are you still here?"

"I…ah…."

"Mami," Shizuku said, her tone serious for once. She placed her hands over Mami's. "The parade is a yearly event. It will come again. This, however, will happen only once, even in a lifetime as long as yours. Do not let it slip by."

Mami stared at her for a moment longer. A moment later, she was gone, running, jumping, and dodging her way through the crowd.

Shizuku watched her go, silently cheering her on. As much as she enjoyed messing with and teasing her two former prodigies, she really did think they made a cute couple. She hoped things worked out for them.

"Hey, where is she going?" Mikoto said as she and Akane returned to the table. "Why's everyone taking off? Is the parade cancelled or something?"

"Not at all," Shizuku said. "However, it seems that Charlotte and Mami had a prior appointment that they really cannot miss."

That surprised her two friends. "Bu-but the parade!" Akane said. "They'll miss it!"

"Seriously, is this thing really that important?" Mikoto added.

"Oh yes," Shizuku said, nodding. "Infinitely so."

…

Out of all the strange possibilities Charlotte had been considering for Natsuru's secret, this revelation was mostly definitely not one of them. Which wasn't to say it didn't make sense, given the clues that had been dropped. But even so, she had always been given to assume that there were no human males to be found anywhere in the Puella Magi afterlife, at least none that she would be in personal contact with.

"A…guy?" she said. "You mean like, a boy?"

Natsuru hesitated, and then nodded.

"I…" Charlotte wracked her brain to find a way to continue this conversation accidentally saying something offensive. "So…did you have…surgery or something?"

Natsuru shook her head.

"Uh, a wish then? Did you…wish to become a girl?"

"No," Natsuru said. Her cheeks were now burning red, visible even through the glare of Charlotte's headband beam. "Well, kind it. It's really, really complicated, but…Okay, you know how Reibey is like insane? By Incubator standards?"

Charlotte felt an involuntary shudder run down her back. Reibey was one of the principle figureheads of the Void Walkers, the principle enemy of the Free Life Alliance, and was, as far as anyone knew, the only Incubator to be found in the afterlife. He was also universally loathed by everyone who wasn't a Void Walker, due to both his species and his notoriously unpleasant temperament. "Yeah?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure Nanabey, the Incubator I contracted with, was the Incubator version of senile." Seeing that Charlotte was still completely bewildered, Natsuru backed up and tried again. "See, he had a tough time distinguishing between male and female humans, but still insisted that only girls could be Puella Magi, so when he realized his mistake…"

"He turned you into a girl," Charlotte said as realization dawned.

"Only when I transformed, but boy, did things get awkward." Natsuru shrugged. "I wasn't the only one. He kept screwing with the other people who made contracts with him. I mean, you saw how Akane flipped out during the snowball fight?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah, that was thanks to him. He didn't think she'd make a good fighter, so he, uh, changed her to be like that whenever the fighting started."

Charlotte frowned. "Doesn't that violate some sort of Incubator list of rules or something?"

"Probably. He disappeared soon after, so it's a safe bet that his bosses weren't happy." Natsuru returned her attention to the search, though she kept talking. "Anyway, me and Shizuku, uh, well, became casualties soon after, and when I woke up here, it was in my girl form, and well, I've been this way ever since."

"Wow," Charlotte said. "That's, uh, that's something."

"Yeah." Natsuru fidgeted. "Sorry we never told you. It's just I never figured out how."

Charlotte nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." Then she grinned. "And hey, this must be a paradise for you. The only guy in a world filled with girls."

"Right," Natsuru said, rolling her eyes. "Except I'm not a guy anymore, remember. And it's either that or a lesbian in a world filled with girls. Either way, it works out to the same thing."

"True, true," Charlotte agree. She thought on what she had just been told and wondered if this changed anything. She couldn't think of any reason why it should. After all, her first act upon meeting Mami was to bite her head off, so she was no one to throw stones for having an unusual origin.

"Thanks for telling me though," Charlotte said. "It must have been tough."

"Not as much as I thought it would be," Natsuru said.

The two of them continued their hunt, combing the forest over. They found aluminum cans, a couple of discarded appliances, and, to Natsuru's great embarrassment, one of her lost sets of keys, now thoroughly rusted. They kept going until they were at the foot of the cliff Charlotte and Mami had gone over.

"Find anything?" Charlotte asked after about five minutes.

"Nothing," Natsuru said. She looked over her shoulder. "Do you, uh, wanna go back and start again?"

Charlotte let out a sigh of defeat. "No. We covered the place the best we could. If it hasn't turned up yet, it probably never will."

"I'm sorry, Char."

Charlotte shrugged. "Well, it was a long shot anyway. And hey, crap happens. It's not like it's the end of the world." She tried to keep her voice steady, but it was hard to hide that she was on the verge of tears.

Seeing this, Natsuru awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "We'll get a new ring. You guys are staying for a few days, right? The shops should be easier to get into after Christmas."

But I wanted to propose to her on Christmas, Charlotte thought bitterly. However, instead of saying this out loud, she merely nodded.

The two of them leapt their way back up the hill. Charlotte would have preferred a slower, more melancholy trek, but they had to hurry. Their sudden absence would be hard enough to explain as it was, and missing the parade on top of everything would be a disaster.

Soon the cabin came to view, and the two girls slowed down to a walk. "By the way," Charlotte said. "Thanks for the help. I really, really appreciate it."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Natsuru said. "Thanks for listening and not freaking out."

"Oh, I'm freaking out plenty," Charlotte laughed. "Just not because of that."

"Don't worry," Natsuru said. "Mami's a great girl. She'll understand, and oh crap she's right over there."

Charlotte stiffened. "What?"

Natsuru pointed. Sure enough, Mami was sitting on a wooden chair next to the door, a very odd look on her face. Hearing them approach, she looked up.

"Mami!" Charlotte said, her voice squeaking. "Hi! What are…uh…"

"Hello," Mami said hollowly. She glanced at Natsuru. "Nats, would you mind giving us a moment?"

"Uh, sure." Natsuru grimaced, gave Charlotte a pitying look, and bolted, still wearing her gauntlet and light-up headband.

Charlotte couldn't move. She had forgotten how. She just stood and stared at Mami, who stood illuminated by Charlotte's headband.

Mami started to say something, stopped, thought for a moment, and finally said, "Charlotte. You…left very unexpectedly."

Charlotte's head twitched in a semblance of a nod.

"And you took Natsuru with you."

Another not-quite-a-nod.

"And you two went into the forest, and spent a long time in there." Mami took a deep breath. "Charlotte, is there something you'd like to tell me?"

And then Charlotte was struck with a horrible, horrible thought. No. Mami couldn't be thinking that, could she? "I wasn't cheating on you!" Charlotte blurted out. "Oh God, I swear I wasn't! I just needed her help with…something and…"

Mami actually looked shocked. "Wait, cheating? No! I…" Then to Charlotte's confusion, the drill-haired blonde started laughing. "Oh, my goodness, I guess it really did sound like I was accusing you of cheating. No, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."

"Uh…" Now Charlotte was completely bewildered. "Okay."

Wiping away a tear of mirth, Mami composed herself, coughed into her fist, and said, "But you two were still looking for something, weren't you? Something you lost during the snowball fight."

Charlotte swallowed. "Y-yeah."

"That's why you've been acting so strange, isn't it? You saw that…this thing was missing, and it wasn't something you could afford to lose."

Charlotte's eyes dipped down. She couldn't bear to make eye contact. "Yeah," she whispered.

Nodding, Mami walked down the steps to stand before the embarrassed witch. "Charlotte," she said softly. "Did this thing that you lost have something to do with me?"

Charlotte couldn't even answer this time.

"I see." Mami reached into her coat pocket and pulled something out. "Was this it, by any chance?"

Though she no longer possessed a physical heart, the sensation of it leaping into her throat was quite believable. Charlotte took one look at the object in Mami's hand and stumbled back a couple steps. "Where?" she gasped. "H-how?"

"Ammonia consumed it by accident when she absorbed all that snow," Mami said in a soft voice. "She stopped by our table soon after you left, looking for you."

"You mean it…She had it this whole time?" Charlotte buried her face in her palms with a moan. "Oh God, I should have thought of that!"

"Perhaps, but right now there's something more important that needs to be addressed." Mami took a deep breath, presumably to steady her nerves. "Char, is this what I think it is?"

Her shoulders slumping, Charlotte managed another nod. "I…yes."

"You were going to propose to me during this trip, weren't you?"

"Yes," Charlotte said again, her voice cracking. And then, before Mami could proceed to the next question, a dam within Charlotte was loosed, and everything suddenly came spilling out. "I'm so sorry, I know keeping it in my pocket was stupid, but I didn't know the fight would be that crazy! And everything's been such a mess, and I've been horrible to everyone, even you, and you've been nothing but wonderful to me, just like you always are, but I just keep screwing up like I always do, and I had this whole thing planned out where I'd take you outside during the party tomorrow and it was going to be all romantic and stuff, but now that's ruined and I don't even know what I was thinking, that someone like me deserved to be married to someone like you, because I'm such a stupid, selfish person, and it's my fault you're even here in the first place, and…"

Her throat closed up and sobs choked their way through her throat, rendering her unable to finish. Her body started shaking as she cried, and her legs lost their remaining strength.

Suddenly Mami's strong arms were wrapped around her waist, keeping her up and holding her close. Feeling absolutely wretched, Charlotte clung to Mami as she sobbed into her shoulder.

For a long moment, neither girl said anything or moved to break contact. They just held each other as Charlotte let everything come pouring out. Finally the pink-haired witch calmed down enough to stop crying, through her breathing was still ragged.

"Charlotte?" Mami said, her arms still around her lover.

Charlotte made a muffled noise of acknowledgement.

"That box I showed you? That wasn't the one you lost."

Charlotte blinked. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and slowly parted from the embrace. "It…it wasn't? Then…"

Mami extracted a second box from her pocket, this one almost identical to the first, though it was a bit more beat up and glistening from a layer of what looked like blue glitter. "This was the box Ammonia swallowed," she said. She opened the lid with her thumb, revealing the ring Charlotte had purchased, fortunately still in perfect condition.

Charlotte stared. "It…it is?" She looked at the other box, the first one Mami had brought out. "Then…what is that?"

Wordlessly, Mami opened the other box. Inside was another ring, of the same make and design at the one Charlotte had brought, only this one had a pink stone in its center bordered by yellow gems. "This is the ring I brought."

The sound Charlotte made then cannot be adequately described, but it did a perfect job of summing up the disorienting cocktail of emotions spinning through her. "You mean…you were…"

"Yes," Mami said.

"But it looks…"

"Just like yours," Mami said with a nod. She smiled. "Well, mine. Yes, I had noticed. You got this one from the Magi's Gifts Emporium too, didn't you?"

"Yes," Charlotte said. "Uh, when did you get yours?"

Mami's brow furrowed as she thought. "Hmmm, June I think."

A small grin was starting to crawl across Charlotte's face. "July for me." She let out a hiccupping laugh. "Oh God, that's why they kept laughing! They knew what you were going to do, so when I came in…Wow."

"They probably helped you pick the design, didn't they?"

Charlotte nodded. "Yup."

The two girls looked down at the matching rings in Mami's hands and, almost as if on cue, they burst out laughing. They couldn't help it; the feelings of relief, joy, and utter surprise were too much, especially, in Charlotte's case, after feeling so worried and miserable, this was such an utter turnaround that there was nothing else she could do.

Moment later, they were sitting side-by-side on the porch steps. "Well," Charlotte said. "This has definitely been the weirdest Christmas Eve I've ever had. And that's saying a lot."

"Story of our life, isn't it?" Mami agreed.

"Mami, we're dead."

"Oh, stop it," Mami said, giving Charlotte a playful shove. "You know what I mean."

"Something horrible turning into something wonderful?" Charlotte nodded. "Yeah, I hear you. Kind of like the way we met."

"Exactly," Mami said. Still laughing, she pushed a few stray strands of hair out of her face and said, "Well, I guess there's one last thing to do."

Before Charlotte could ask her what it was, Mami had slid off the step and was kneeling before her.

"What?" Charlotte said, stiffening. She saw that Mami was already wearing the ring with the yellow center stone. "Wait-"

The next thing she knew, Mami had slipped her ring, the one with the pink center stone, onto Charlotte's finger. "Charlotte," she said. "I know this question is redundant, but I'm going to ask it any way. Will you marry me?"

"I…"

"You are not a stupid person," Mami said firmly. "And you are no more selfish than I am. Making a mistake like that just means you're human, no matter what sort of changes you've gone through. And you are also beautiful, brave, kind, and the best thing that has ever happened to me." She let out a small laugh. "And yes, that's taking that head-chomp incident into account, because as bad as it was, it freed me from a life of ignorant slavery and brought me to paradise. And it gave me you. And there is no one I'd rather-"

She might have said more, but Charlotte chose that moment to lunge forward, wrap her arms around Mami's neck, and press their lips together.

…

By the time the cold finally convinced them that making out in the snow wasn't such a great idea, the parade was already underway. Mami suggested sitting it out, but Charlotte insisted that they return. After all, Natsuru was probably worrying about how the conversation went, and the others had to be wondering what in the world was going on.

So they braved the throngs of people, slipping through spaces tight enough to be uncomfortable, pushing and shoving their way until they finally made it back to the café. Naturally, their sudden reappearance had been greeted by demands of an explanation from Mikoto, worrying glances from Natsuru and Akane, and a patient but expectant look from Shizuku. In response, Mami and Charlotte showed them the rings they now wore.

After that, it was a full ten minutes before anyone felt like paying any attention to the parade. And though the procession was a spectacular display, neither of the newly engaged remembered any of it. They only had eyes for each other.

In fact, if questioned, Charlotte didn't even remember the return to the cabin. But they next thing they knew, they were back, and a celebration was in full-force. Shizuku had relented and brought out the actual alcohol, which Mikoto partook of freely and insisted that Akane do so as well. Round after round of toasts followed, and numerous congratulatory songs were mixed with off-key Christmas carols. A very relieved Natsuru insisted in hugging both of the brides-to-be, and Shizuku didn't let anyone go anywhere until multiple pictures were taken.

However, when Mikoto, Natsuru, and Akane were moments away from passing out but still managing to belt their way through another round of carols, Mami and Charlotte snuck away to their room. It was still in the same wrecked state Charlotte had left it in, but neither of them cared.

After they had cleaned up and changed into their pajamas, Charlotte started talking about future plans. "I'm thinking we could have the wedding on the platform itself," she said. "We'll have to hire some extra docks to attach to it, but we should be able to fit everyone, if we…Mami, are you paying attention?"

Mami wasn't, actually. She was sitting on the side of the bed, staring down on the ring on her finger, a dazed smile on her face.

Grinning, Charlotte supposed that there would be plenty of time for making plans later. She slid across the bed, wrapped her arms around Mami's waist, and let her tail loop around Mami's leg. "Merry Christmas, Mami," she said, resting her chin on her lover's shoulder.

"You too," Mami said, cradling Charlotte's head. "And you know, I still have that snowcheck to cash."

"That you do," Charlotte said. "Though I'm kinda tired of snow. I was thinking of something a bit warmer."

She allowed Mami to gently push her back against the pillows. Mami lowered herself on top of her, and as their lips met, they could hear their friends still singing drunkenly downstairs.

"And as long as you love me so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

…

You know, trying to tweak the canon of Kampfer to fit into the Puella Magi Madoka Magica universe makes for some truly bizarre results.

Of course, many are probably wondering why I chose to combine Kampfer, one of the silliest and dumbest magical girl stories out there, with that of PMMM, one of the darkest and smartest magical girl stories. And the answer is…uh, I like Kampfer? No, seriously, we watched the anime for one season in my anime club, so it's just one of the ones I'm most familiar with, so I cameoed a character as a joke, and things just kinda grew from there. So, there's your answer.

Anyways, weird-ass crossovers aside, this story is kind of a milestone for me, because despite being the huge yuri fan I am, and despite writing for one of the most yuri-heavy fandoms for nearly three years now, I never really tackled the subject of romance. There's a number of different reasons why, but it all boils down to me not really being sure I could do the subject justice. Still, it's something I was going to have to hit on sooner or later, so I decided to dive in with both feet. Hopefully this didn't come out too sappy, and if it did, keep in mind that I'm still new to writing for this topic and am still learning. Still, I hope you enjoyed the fluff nevertheless.

Merry Christmas, everyone!