Hayate, Vivio and Zwei had a, shall we say, lackluster Christmas with all their friends and family gone. And today, after New Year's Day was over with, Hayate had one thing set in mind as she called all her friends and family to get together:

You owed her (and Vivio especially) one Christmas.

So here she was on the WITCH Bus with some past due Christmas cakes a little fake tree that was as of yet undecorated but next to a box of ornaments.

Party. Now. Your (former) boss demands it. She also demands you were the santa girl outfits. No, seriously, she's handing them to you as you enter the door. "Zwei and I were hoping you get here sooner, but whatever, we had these prepared for ya."

There's a curtain to change behind. Hayate is pointing to it.

((Yes, there's one for you too Signum. Hayate and Zwei may have pulled an all nighter. Arf, you're a reindeer. The children have elf costumes.))

Being a kid was something Negi Springfield was incredibly bad at, but even he had his fandoms. One of them was the popular series Kamen Rider Ryuki. Ever since he discovered about the adventures of the Riders, he always wanted to be one. And in one brief moment, he had been.

It didn't turn out so well.

But here he was in the sensoriums, feeling rather good and deciding that he wanted to have some fun once in a while, although his idea of fun was to beat on something that didn't exist. Calling up a image of a random city, the cars, buildings and the world winked to life around him.

He had chosen at random of who he would emulate for this battle, and had taken the age candy just to make sure he wouldn't be found out and laughed at if he revealed his identity.

If one of his friends passed by, then fine. It was okay with him. If an adult passed by, well, hopefully they won't laugh too hard at a kid just being a kid.

In a flash of light, several monsters pulled themselves out of the reflective surfaces as Negi called up a simulation of a Advent Deck. He would have gone Double for this, but if Devlin wandered by, he wanted to have fun with that later on instead of being stuffed under a table.

A belt formed out of nowhere and attached itself to his middle as the monsters advanced. And in a smooth motion, he thrust his hand out.

"Henshin!" proclaimed Negi as he slid the deck in and three reflective surfaces appeared on his body as red and silver armor appeared. He hoped Ren wasn't too unhappy with his choice of Riders to emulate, since Ryuki had always been his favorite out of the show. Drawing his sword, he couldn't help but use Phillip's line. "Now then, count up your sins." And with that, the faux-Ryuki laid into the monsters.

It was playtime. And Negi was spending it the best way he knew how.