"Excuse me," Satsuki said, "is this where the donations are made?"

"Yes, it i-" The woman she was speaking to did a sudden double take. "Aren't you…?"

Satsuki immediately shushed her. "I'd like to make this as quick as possible."

"Yes, very well," she said. "Um… what shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing," Satsuki said.

"...nothing?" She said. "You came here just to tell us you won't donate anything?"

"I…" Satsuki paused to recognize the misunderstanding and figure out how best to sort it out. "What I meant is that I wish to be anonymous. As for how much I wish to donate…" She began to whisper.

"Mister Takarada, sir? You'll want to hear about this."

Kaneo's bloodshot eyes moved towards the secretary at the doorway. "What is it?"

"We've just received an anonymous donation," she said.

"Really?" He said, sounding apathetic. "How much?"

"Well," she cleared her throat, "rounded to the nearest billion, it's something like…"

It took her just over ten seconds to recite the number, but during those ten seconds, Takarada could practically see his proverbial high horse rushing back to him, until finally he was standing proudly on its back with a familiar twinkle back in his eye.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He said. "With the hard work that can afford, we'll easily have a roof above us by Christmas day!"

Even after last night had forced Satsuki to realize how distant she'd become from Nonon, it still astounded her to realize that this was the first time she'd actually been to Nonon's house.

"Hello?" Nonon opened the door while rubbing some sleep out of her eyes and wearing the cutest dressing gown and slippers Satsuki had ever seen. "What do you… Satsuki?"

"Good morning, Nonon," Satsuki said. "I just wanted to come and wish you a merry Christmas."

"Christma-" Nonon took a moment to remember what day it was. "You're sounding like the underachiever. Christmas is weeks away."

Satsuki went silent and made the same calculations Nonon just had. Of course it wasn't today. If the ghosts, assuming they were real, had waited until the very last night to warn her, there'd be no time to make any meaningful progress in Osaka.

"...so it is," she finally said. "But you know me. I am a person who believes in making lots and lots of plans. If I'm welcome in your house, we could plan for what we can do on Christmas day together."

Nonon's jaw dropped. "R… really?"

Satsuki nodded.

"In that case…" Nonon stood aside, allowing her to enter. "I really hope this isn't a dream."

When Christmas day finally arrived, things were in full swing at the Mankanshoku household. As expected, Mako was busy attaching as much mistletoe to the ceiling as possible, but that was all put on standby when Ryuko arrived with some friends.

While most of the Elite Four was present, Nonon was the one exception to this. But in her place was someone Mako was far more excited to see, and someone who looked very excited to be there.

"What's up everyone?" Takarada beamed. "Seriously, what have you been doing, because it can't have been a party unless someone else already brought… kushikatsu!"

And that was enough for it to be the best Christmas Mako had ever had.

But it was about to get better. Nonon soon made her appearance, looking more into the Christmas spirit than anyone could have reasonably expected her to be. Mako thought she knew why when she noticed that Nonon's hand was intertwined with someone else's, but that someone else was currently stood too far to the side of the doorway to be easily identified.

Just as she was about to enter, Nonon realized what Mako had done to the ceiling and pointed it out to the person with her, who, shaking off their deja vu, brought their head into view to kiss her, surprising quite a few when she finally turned out to be Satsuki.

"Satsuki!" Mako said. "You're just in time to see Mataro make a miraculous recovery from that awful disease that hunts down kids his size every Christmas!"

To many present, including Ryuko, this was the first they'd heard of such a thing, and their shocked looks towards Mako said so quite clearly.

"Are you still spreading rumors about that?" Mataro said. "I keep telling you, it's just a cough. Dad triple checked me just to shut you up, remember?"

"Oh, is that what that was about?" Mako said. "In that case, since it's really official that you're not going to die, aren't you going to say it?"

"Say wha-" He was interrupted by his sister shoving a cue card in his face. "Oh. Seriously?" A quick look into Mako's eyes reminded him that she was always serious. With a sigh, he met her expectations.

"God bless us, everyone."

By the end of the day, Satsuki finally saw the appeal in spending Christmas with loved ones, but she found it exhausting nonetheless. She left the party after being assured that she wouldn't disappoint anyone in doing so and they were glad she'd attended for as long as she had, and Nonon quickly followed. Soon, they were both relaxing in armchairs at home, until Nonon felt the need to discuss a fairly uncomfortable issue.

"That dream you had," she began. "You still haven't told anyone other than me about it, have you?"

Satsuki braced herself for what she knew wouldn't be an easy conversation. "Not yet, no."

"A few of them can already tell something's wrong," Nonon said. "Matoi and Soroi in particular."

"They would be the first I'd tell," Satsuki noted. "But it doesn't surprise me that they've worked it out on their own. In addition, Mankanshoku may or may not be dropping hints that she actually remembers being the Ghost of Christmas Present. As always, it's impossible to tell with her."

Nonon rested her face in her palm. "Great. This was already heavy enough without any 'maybe it's more than a dream' tacked onto it. I mean, if she was really there as a ghost, then what does that mean for the oth…"

She stopped herself upon realizing they'd already reached the most disturbing part of this subject: the final ghost.

"That's another part that makes me wonder," Satsuki said. "Dreams are a product of one's own mind, and I find it hard to believe that the idea of her regretting any of her atrocities would have been anywhere in my mind before that night."

"I know what you mean," Nonon said. "Kind of makes me wonder what could have happened on the other side to change her mind."

Satsuki shifted into a more relaxed position in her chair, looking like she was minutes away from falling asleep. "Perhaps it's best if we never find out."

A/N: Remember at the end of last chapter when I argued that it was still winter because it snowed? Yeah, turns out it was some kind of super snow that cryogenically froze me for nearly two years. In conclusion, I would describe the experience as both chilling and incredibly plausible. Merry Christmas.