Night had well and truly fallen on the amusement park now, but it was so brightly lit that it felt like midday still. The guests had all congregated around the main street, where Christmas decorations had been set up and Christmas music was blaring through the loudspeakers. The street itself was empty, as it had been cleared out for the parade that was about to start.
“Oh, there they are!” Myu exclaimed, pointing to the end of the street. She was nestled in Hajime’s arms and looking excitedly over at the night parade. Since it was Christmas, the park was doing a more extravagant night parade than usual.
“Oh, look, they have us too, mommy!”
“Oh my, you’re right. They all look so pretty, don’t they, Myu?”
Indeed, there was a float filled with mermaids on it. They were sitting on a bed of beautiful shells and pearls as they smiled and waved at everyone. With each wave, bubbles shot out of their hands, making them seem even more fantastical.
Of course, they were dressed like what people on Earth imagined mermaids to be, which meant they looked like fish from the waist down. At first, Myu and Remia were surprised by that, but they seemed to take it in stride.
In fact, they were so enamored with the designs that next summer they’d ask Hajime to use metamorphosis magic to turn them into Earth mermaids to go explore the ocean. They’d also get spotted by a very surprised diver, but that was a story for another time.
“Look, Myu, there’s vampires too. Over there,” Yue said, pointing to a different float.
“Oh, hey, they have bunny girls too!” Shea exclaimed.
“Alas, no dragonmen, though. There are regular dragons at least, I suppose. I’ll have to be satisfied with that.”
“I guess that makes Lily the princess, me the angel, and Shizuku-chan...the swordsman?”
“That angel looks like she’s never hurt a fly in her life...that swordsman is old enough to have a full mustache and beard, and I...well, maybe eventually I’ll have a figure that full...” Liliana said, trailing off.
“N-Now, now, no need to sweat the little details, Lily,” Shizuku said with a strained smile as she watched Liliana pat her own modest chest.
At any rate, everyone was happy to have found some fantasy character that at least roughly represented them.
“Oh, there’s a guy with a gun! He’s just like you, daddy!”
“That looks like a ray gun. I’m pretty sure he’s supposed to be the protagonist of that really popular sci-fi movie,” Hajime said, looking down at Myu who was smiling up at him.
However, some among them couldn’t find anyone they related to.
“I’m sorry, Aiko-oneechan,” Myu said as she searched high and low, unable to find an Aiko-like.
“W-Well, it’s not like teachers are particularly popular, so you won’t find one in a parade like this... Ha ha...”
Aiko tried to play it off like it was nothing, but there were tears welling up in the corner of her eyes as Myu shot her a pitying look.
When around half the floats had passed, Hajime suddenly put Myu down. She looked up at him, confused.
“Sorry, Myu, but I just remembered there’s something I need to do. I’ll be right back, so wait here with mommy and everyone, okay?”
“Okay...”
Myu looked visibly depressed, but she didn’t try to stop him. Seeing how hard she was trying to hold in the desire to tell him not to go was so touching that Hajime reflexively clutched at his heart. But today was Myu and Yue and everyone else’s first Christmas, and he wanted to do something special for them no matter what, which was why he needed to step away for a second.
“Fu fu, good luck, Hajime,” Yue said to Hajime as he walked past. Like Shea, she, and most likely everyone else, had already caught on to the fact that Hajime was preparing something special for tonight. Kaori and the others also smiled knowingly at him and he looked away awkwardly.
“Uhhh, yeah, thanks.”
Blushing slightly, he dashed off through the crowd.
“Don’t worry, Myu, he’ll be right back,” Remia said, patting Myu on the head.
“Mkay!”
Myu cheered up a little and went back to focusing on the parade. But while her eyes still sparkled with excitement, they were dimmer than they had been when Hajime had been around.
“Is daddy going to take much longer?” Myu asked around the time the parade was nearing its end. The final float was in sight, and Myu had been hoping to at least see the end with him.
Just then, the sound of bells rang out through the night. At first, everyone assumed it was part of the parade, but as the bells grew louder, people started looking up in confusion. It sounded like the bells were descending from the sky.
The parade was pretty much over, so more and more people started focusing their attention from the floats to the sky, which was when they finally saw it.
“Oh, it’s Santa!” a kid shouted, pointing up. Seconds later, everyone else started shouting as well.
“Whoa, he’s actually flying!” “How’s he doing that?!” “Are those real reindeer?! No way!” “It looks so much like the real Santa!”
Indeed, flying through the sky was someone who looked very much like the real Santa Claus, bushy white beard and all. He had a sleigh being pulled by reindeer as well and was flying through the sky. At first, people thought it was some kind of acrobatic act being held up with wires, or a projection made with smoke and lights, or some kind of newfangled drone, but this Santa seemed too real to be any of those things. It was impossible to figure out how he was flying so freely through the air too.
Normally, people would have been confused, or perhaps scared by this inexplicable phenomenon. But this was an amusement park, a land of fantasy and wonder. A place that made magic real. As a result, people were more accepting of unexplained phenomena while they were here. The adults stopped worrying about what technology was powering this and decided to enjoy the show for what it was. Before long, people erupted into cheers and shouts of delight.
Of course, the people running the parade and the amusement park staff were just as shocked by the sudden appearance of this Santa as the crowd, since this wasn’t part of their program, but no one thought too deeply about that. The sight of Santa Claus running through the night was simply too magical to worry about.
After doing a few circuits around the amusement park, Santa started spiraling down toward the ground as if sliding along a spiral staircase. Now that the floats had all gone past, the main street was empty, and he alighted onto it. Santa then got off his sleigh and walked over to a little girl also dressed as Santa—Myu. He knelt in front of her and said, “Merry Christmas, Little Santa.”
His voice was gruff but jolly, as befitting of old Santa Claus. His face was also hidden by the bushy beard and spectacles, and his stomach was quite round. But even then, neither Myu nor any of the girls around him were fooled for a second.
“Daddy, what are you doing?”
Santa Claus froze in place for a second.
How did she figure it out?!
Yue and the others burst out laughing as they saw his reaction.
“I’m not your dad, I’m Santa.”
“But...”
“I’m Santa.”
“Da—”
“I said I’m Santa!”
“Okay.”
Hajime’s voice was so desperate that Myu finally gave in with a nod. She truly was an obedient kid.
Yue and the others were desperately trying to hold in their laughter, and Hajime could see their shoulders shaking. He coughed loudly to try to reset the atmosphere.
“Now then, little lady, you’ve worked really hard this past year. Your mother and your father are very proud of you, since it wasn’t an easy year to weather.”
“Daddy...”
“I’m Santa.”
“Okay.”
Who just snickered? Was that you, Kaori? No, it was you, wasn’t it, Shizuku? I’m going to have words for you later.
Hajime glared at Shizuku, then cleared his throat again and turned back to Myu.
“Because you’ve been such a good girl, Santa has a present for you.”
“A present?” Myu repeated, cocking her head to one side. People had started spilling out into the main street and were now gathering around Hajime and the others. They were curious to see what was going on.