I groan. Shopping is fun to a certain extent, but not this much. Gathering presents for everyone inside of PsyCo was more than a bit troublesome. The fact that most of them could just buy whatever they wanted did not help. With a sigh, I drop off the last of the presents in my hotel room; I hope everyone will like them at least. I walk back to the elevator, planning to take a long bath after I get back to the penthouse.

As I enter the elevator, everything goes white for a second, and the next thing I know, I am in some kind of warehouse. I look around, seeing dozens of teddy bears working and building toys. I also see people guiding the bears by telling them what to make. I entertain the thought of grabbing one of the bears as a present for Rose but restrain myself. Connecting to the local network, I noticed that I am no longer in Europe. Well, that is a bit concerning.

While I am setting up the coordinates to jump back home, a colourful box slides over to me, humming a particular festive tune before the top pops open, and a literal clown girl jumps out, her hair decorated with Christmas ornaments.

"Yeah, nope!" I engage my warp drive and teleport back home. I return to the hotel lobby; well, that was weird, but whatever, time for some sleep. But before I can prepare the coordinates for my room, everything goes white again. The clown girl jumps at me, planting my own mask on my face.

"Oh, come on, where is your Christmas spirit?" the clown asks.

"Christmas spirit? That capitalist bullshit meant to take everyone’s money away?" I say, not amused.

Suddenly, the clown takes a plastic toy hammer out of her sleeve, which is way too big to even fit in there, and hits me over the head with it. “Hey, no cursing. There are children here.”

I rub my head in surprise. She was fast. “Right, sorry, my bad, won’t happen again, so what do you need me to do?” I ask, a bit confused.

“I need your help bringing back the true meaning of Christmas.”

“True? Meaning you realise that it is based on a Dutch celebration where slaves handed out presents to children.” I say, a bit confused.

The clown frowns at me, and I instantly back away.

“Okay, don’t worry, we can do it your way. So what do I do to restore the meaning of Christmas?” I say, trying to pacify the clown. If I am honest, she is kind of scary.

“Simple, we just have to create toys for all the good boys and girls.” She says, spreading her arms out wide as she does a little pirouette.

Is this how people feel when they are talking to me? Never mind, it’s not important. “Sure, presents, I can do that. Give me a moment to collect some materials from home. Be back in a bit.”

The clown girl smiles brightly at me. “Okay, friendo, see you in a jiff.”

I nod and teleport home, this time not even bothering with the hotel lobby and directly appearing in the living room. These little trips are going to cost me so much fuel.

“Daisy, grab my laptop and yarn, ooh, and the little portable 3d matter printer. ” I shout out into the hall.

“What are you up to now?” Cierra asks as she walks in. She is wearing a beautiful red evening gown that makes my heart skip a beat. My girl is so pretty.

“I am about to make a bunch of presents for all the kids in the world, to save Christmas,” I say in the most serious voice I can muster.

Cierra blinks. “You are going to be Santa?”

“No, I am pretty sure I am meant to be an elf.”

“Yeah, that makes more sense. You are at that height, just some ears and shoe-bells and you're there.” She says, trying to contain her giggles.

“Hey, I am trying to do something nice!” I say with a frown.

“Right, I am sorry.” Cierra says as she walks closer, lifting up my mask and giving me a kiss. “Is that duct tape?”

“A clown gave me this mask. I think it would be best if we don’t question it.”

“Right, well, be safe, okay?” she says as she puts my mask back on.

“Always, but why don’t you come with me? There are a lot of samurai there that you have never met before.” I say as I hold her close.

Her eyes start to twinkle. Guess living in a house full of samurai is still not enough to satiate the inner fan in her. “Yes, that would be so awesome. Thank you.” She says as she gives me a big hug

“Merry Christmas, I guess.” I say as I run my fingers through her hair.

At that moment, Daisy appears carrying a suitcase. And we are ready to go. I expanded the teleportation field to encompass all three of us and teleport us back to Canada. Once there, I immediately jumped by the clown again as she threw her arms around both mine and Cierra’s shoulders.

“You brought more friends. This is going to be so great, what kind of presents are you going to make?” she says excitedly.

“I thought I'd make a special game for the older kids and some stuffies for the younger ones.” I say with a shrug.

“Good, good, and you?” she says while looking at Cierra.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“I am not that good at making presents, but I can help organise and have some special data.” Cierra says.

“Data? What kind of data do you have?” Cassy asks in excitement.

“Well, I have a complete data set of every child on earth, including those living in the wilds, slums, and undercity. It also contains their personality so we could use it to pick the perfect present.”

“Why do you have that?” I ask, confused.

“You told me to recruit my employees from a young age to make them the most loyal.” She says, giving me an innocent smile.

Protectors, my wife is scary. “You know I did not mean it like that. Where did you even get that?”

“I bribed some PsyCo employees. It kind of helps when you are dating their bosses.” she says with a smile.

“Is this why Jason banned you from the hotel again?” I ask.

“Ooh, no, that was for a different reason.” she says as her face turns red.

“Well, regardless of where it came from, we now have Santa's Christmas list; let's go new friends, to the toy factory.” Cassy says as she runs off.

“She almost makes you look normal.” Cierra says, as she looks in the direction the clown went.

“I am very normal. I have a wife, a job, and even a child.” I say, offended.

“Last time you tried to do laundry, you put everything in the machine at once, flooding the entire floor,” Cierra says with her eyebrow raised.

“Okay, I see your point now. Anyway, I need to get to work, and you have other samurai to annoy. Have fun!” I say, as I put my mask to the side and give my wife a kiss.

Cierra laughs and walks off, following Cassy around. I decide to start working as well, and head further inside. I get interrupted before I can get far in. A little girl with a frog hoodie runs at me. Wait, no, not at me.

“Doggie!” the child screams in delight as she hugs Daisy.

“You should be careful, kid; not every animal is friendly. What if she tried to eat you?” I tell her.

Daisy makes a disgusted noise when she hears that.

“Hey, just because Sam and Yun Min keep giving you fancy meat does not mean you should become a picky eater.” I chide the beast.

“I am sorry, miss. I just am really excited today.” The little girl says.

I smile as I lean down to ruffle her hair. “It is fine. Daisy is very good with children, so there is nothing to worry about. My name is Maniac. Who are you?”

“I am Issi.” She says with a bright smile, “Is Maniac your real name or just your samurai name?”

“Both. Actually, it was originally my samurai name, and it became my own name.”

“I see, so just like Teddy then.” She says with a big smile.

“Yeah, I guess that is right.”

“So, are you here to help, too? What are you making?”

“I thought I make a game and put that on a little handheld device, and while those devices are getting printed, I make some plushies. What about you? What are you making?”

“I am not making anything. I am here to supervise.”

“Really, you not even making anything for your family?”

“I am not as good as the bears or the other samurai; anything I would make would look bad in comparison.”

I pat her on the head. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. Why don’t we make a plushie for each of your family members? Getting a personalised gift is always the best.”

Issi nods. “Yeah, that could be fun, but Teddy already has a lot of bears.”

“Then we just make her a wombat,” I say, smiling crookedly.

Issi tilts her head slightly. “Why a wombat?”

I wink. “Call it intuition, but I think it would suit her.”

We move a bit to the side, and I create some sensory dampening around us. We can’t have the bears spoil the surprise, now can we? Teaching Issi is not all that hard. The kid is actually rather smart, so we easily make a lot of progress creating the little dolls for her family.

Suddenly, a door opens up, and another little girl comes in, this time wearing a bear hoodie. She looks a bit grumpy. I mean, I guess it is winter. Maybe she is upset that she did not get to hibernate. As she looks around the room, our eyes meet, and she starts walking towards me. I stand up as well, blocking the view of our workstation.

“Hey there, teddy bear, how are you doing?” I ask, as she approaches.

“Don’t call me that. What are you doing here? Are you trying to forcefully adopt me again?” The angry girl asked while pointing her little finger at me; wow, Evelin was right. She is really cute.

I boop her on her nose. “Of course not. We are making presents for all the little children.” I say.

“It’s hard to believe that you would do something nice.” She says as she narrows her eyes at me.

“Hey, that is very rude, you little bear. Now run along back to your den to continue your hibernation. I have presents to make.” I say as I try to guide her away from our station before she can see the gifts.

“And what do you need Issi for then?”

“Beta tester.” I say to the bear girl. I look around, but I can not find the clown, so I just call out. “Cassy?”

Suddenly, the clown girl pops into existence, bringing the smell of pine needles and cinnamon with her. “What do you need?”

“Can you create a privacy screen around my workbench?” I ask the weird girl.

“I can, but why do you need such a thing? It is Christmas. We should all be together,” she asks, tilting her head.

“Uuuuh, Age restriction! The game I am working on is a bit gruesome, so age restriction.” I say, trying to hide my nervousness.

Cassy frowns but then shrugs, “Guess there are some older kids. Just keep it contained.” She says as she gives me a significant look.

I swallow. “I will, no problem, and thank you,” I say.

“Awh, you are a good girl, after all. Here, have a golden star.” she says as she takes out a sticker sheet and places one of them on my head before she disappears again.

“I can not follow that girl,” I say to myself.

“Really? I thought you guys were pretty similar,” Teddy says.

“Don't you have to, like, I don’t know, pull one of your bears out of a rabbit hole or something?” I say.

Teddy frowns. “What does that mean?”

“Wow, I am that old. Huh, anyway, there is a lot of work still to do before Christmas, so I got to hustle; good luck with whatever you do.” I say before returning to my workbench.

As I return to my desk, Issi looks at me weirdly. “Why were you bullying my sister?”

“I was not bullying her; I was distracting her. We don’t want to ruin the surprise.” I say, as I pat the kid on her head.

“But lying is bad. Jane said so.” she says with this cute little pout.

“Only if you lie for the wrong reasons. Lying is a tool like any other; if you use it to make people happy, it is fine.”

“Use it to make people happy?” she asks, looking at me, confused.

“Yeah, I mean, we lied to her but only to surprise her with a present, so we did it to make her happy.”

The little girl nods. “I see. I think I understand; in that case, I really like your laugh.”

“Awh, thanks. Hey, wait.”