6A.N. Posting this early since I might be busy during the holidays. Happy early Christmas, and enjoy this (non-canon) omake!
Omake: Saint Tohsaka
Winter.
Midnight.
December 25th.
The city of Argus was dyed pure white in snow.
Freezing winds blew against the windows, the falling snow turning into a blizzard.
Yet this was nothing new to the people of Argus, too used to cold weathers from years prior.
It's been several months since Rin defeated the Allies and saved Argus from their attack.
And today was Christmas.
"—Jingle Bells~ Jingle bells~ Christmas time is here~"
Uncharacteristically scantily clad was Rin wearing a costume of Santa Claus, albeit showing off a lot more bare skin than the jolly old man.
"—Alter took a break this year and I took her place instead~"
She wore a bright red piece of clothing, the classic Santa hat, and even had a large white bag sitting next to her stuffed to the brim with presents.
"—Jingle Bells~ Jingle bells~ Remnant's reindeer~"
To her surprise, Rin discovered that Remnant also celebrated similar holidays to that of her previous world. While the history behind the holiday differed greatly, there was in fact a day of celebration called Christmas, and an iconic myth about an old man named Santa Claus.
"—Nero can't sing, but she tries anyway~ Singing padoru~ padoru~ ooh!"
A voice interrupted her.
"Rin, can't you be quiet? We're supposed to be sneaking around, not yelling at the top of our lungs."
Pyrrha shivered from where she stood next to the chimney, having layered up to combat the cold. Dressed similarly to Rin, Pyrrha was sporting her own Christmas costume sporting colors of red and green.
"A cowardly thief would sneak away in the night, but Father Christmas leaves with his loot amidst songs of victory!"
The loot in this case being cookies and milk.
"Guess someone's already hit the spiked eggnog."
"Don't tell Terra. Saph made me promise I wouldn't rat her out."
The two girls stood on top of the roof of a large building, both enduring the harsh weather and cold as they huddled near the chimney. To any adult watching, it was obvious what their plan was. Many a huntsman or huntress often took similar jobs of some kind during the holiday in previous years.
But to truly explain this situation, the origin of this story goes back to several days ago.
It began during one of Rin's shifts of babysitting the faunus children that were involved with the Allies situation. While most of the children had eventually been identified and sent back to their respective homes, there were still a few unidentified that had no choice but to stay at the base while others looked into their situation.
As expected, taking charge of over a dozen children was definitely going to be troublesome.
So left without any other option, Rin decided to have them all settle down as she told them the tale of Santa Claus.
Flying through the night on his famous sled, Santa Claus would climb through their chimneys and deliver gifts to the houses of good children.
Since most of the children were only averaging ages of four to six, the faunus were enchanted by the idea of a jolly old man and thought Rin was telling the truth.
Seeing the look of absolute belief in their eyes, Rin couldn't bring her heart to say that it was only a story.
And thus, over the next few days, the children would go around doing their best to help however they could in order to be considered 'good' children in hopes that Santa would visit.
Hearing the children continuing to chant "Santa is coming" several days in a row made Rin nervous.
Coming up with a plan, she recruited Pyrrha to join her on this important mission.
To dress up as Santa Claus and deliver the presents herself, transforming into the Santa Servant—Saint Tohsaka.
Otherwise known as Operation Sa_n_t_a.
"What does 'padoru padoru' even mean?"
"It's an onomatopoeia for the sound reindeers make when their hooves trot against the ground."
"Okay… so, what's the plan?"
Huh, didn't Rin already tell Pyrrha what they were going to do?
"Easy. The two of us are going to sneak into the commons room next to their sleeping areas and fill the stockings we had set up a few days ago. I already figured out what each of the kids wanted, so we'll just have to match up each gift to the name written on each stocking."
"Right~" Pyrrha's voice drawled. "And tell me, what's your plan on how the two of us will sneak into the most secured facility in the entire city?"
"Well…"
Argus Base.
Damaged during the attack, the last few months have been spent on repairing it and upgrading its previously poor defenses to the current leading-edge Atlas security systems. Supposedly, the base was now capable of defending against several Leviathan-class Grimm using nothing but their automated defenses.
And Rin realized at that moment that she forgot to inform the stationed soldiers that she was going to be doing this.
"I mean, why else would they leave their chimney completely unprotected?"
"Rin, large buildings don't have chimneys. They have Dust-powered heating installed instead. I'm pretty sure this just leads to the ventilation system."
"I always did want to reenact a Spruce Willis spy film…"
"I'm telling you, Rin. This is a bad idea."
It seems that Pyrrha was insistent that this was going to completely flop. To be fair, Rin realized that she probably should have put more thought into this plan before she decided to break into a military facility still traumatized from their last takeover.
"Ugh, fine. If you help me do this… I'll owe you a favor where you can ask me to do anything you want."
"I dunno…"
"That includes giving you a perception filter tool that can allow you to hide from your more diehard fans."
"Done," Pyrrha lifted the bag of gifts from the ground and gave out a bright smile. "Alright, let's get this show on the road!"
Too easy.
Well, now that the issue has been settled, time to start this mission!
Rin banged against the metal sheet covering the vent and ripped it out before tossing it aside.
The two girls immediately began their descent as they both began traveling through the ventilation system.
While Rin was crawling around through the chutes, she paused as she heard a voice coming from below her.
"I'm telling you, the P.E.N.N.Y. Project is still not complete yet."
It was a familiar voice, and Rin quickly matched it to Pietro Polendina, who decided to remain in the city for the past few months. Peering through a gap so that she could spy on them, Rin saw that he was currently talking to Winter Schnee.
"Really? Well, I was under the assumption that Miss Tohsaka's recent contributions should have moved the timetable further up. Surely just activating the robot won't hurt?"
"This isn't another one of Atlas's droids. You can't simply turn her off once you activate her core program."
Rin's focus was taken away when Pyrrha bumped into her from behind.
"What's the hold-up?"
"Bad news, Winter is here."
The two continued to whisper, even as both of them realized exactly how bad it would be to get caught at that moment. Had it been any of the other Ace-Ops, Rin figured that they could have gotten away with breaking into the base considering her past contributions. But with Winter, who was a stickler for the rules, neither of them was willing to risk the chance of getting found out by her.
"W-What do we do?!"
"Nothing. We just need to keep moving forward, it's not that much further from here."
Both nodded, before continuing their crawling through the vents.
Once they were a good enough distance away, Rin descended into a dark room with Pyrrha dropping down behind her.
"Huh." Rin blinked. "That's weird, I don't recognize this room."
"Really? Is that something we have to worry about?"
"Not really," she shrugged. "We just need to get into the hallways, I can probably figure out the way to the commons room from there."
"Alright, just as long as we don't get cau—" Pyrrha suddenly cut off her words. "...hey, Rin? Why exactly is there a naked girl floating in that tank over there?"
Rin whirled her head around and turned towards where Pyrrha was looking.
Hovering in some kind of fluid was the body of Penny, long cables holding her up by connecting to her back. The fluid itself was glowing a dim green, allowing it to be visible even though the lights in the room were turned off. Since she was a robot, it wasn't as if the two were bothered by seeing her bare body. Still, it made for quite the strange sight.
Both stared at the glass casing with mixed expressions.
"Wait," Pyrrha blinked. "Is this the P.E.N.N.Y. Project Doctor Polendina was talking about earlier?"
"Yup," Rin confirmed. "From the looks of it, it seems that most of her body is already built. Seems like they're just running tests to see whether the new Aura battery's gonna hold up."
A strange impulse ran through her body at that moment and Rin glanced at the electronic lock that held the door shut.
"Hey, Pyrrha."
"Yes?"
"Remember that time I took you on a flying adventure from CCT Relay to Argus Base?"
"Ugh, sadly."
"I was thinking of doing something similar for our version of Santa's sled at first, you know. But I couldn't figure out how to fit all the mana reactors onto it to power the sleigh."
Pyrrha suddenly had a bad feeling, and she turned to give Rin a suspicious look.
"What exactly are you getting at here?"
"Well, I've read some of the schematics for Penny's flight capabilities. If I recall correctly, it might be possible to use her as a sort of assistant guidance control to pull our sleigh for us."
"Rin," Pyrrha's voice had an accusatory tone to it. "Are you seriously insinuating that you want to have an android… act as our reindeer?"
"I dub thee Rudolph the Ginger Battle-Maid Robot."
"Rin, no."
"Rin, yes!"
Without warning, Rin pressed on the keypad and the case opened with a hiss.
}-{
"Reindeer Penny, onward we march!"
"R-Rin, you can't call someone that. It's demeaning!"
"Hush, Elf Pyrrha! All orders by Saint Tohsaka are to be followed without question."
"At least call yourself Santa Rin! What's with this Saint Tohsaka nonsense?!"
An emotionless Penny walked in front of the two girls as they argued. Since Rin wasn't planning on activating the android's personality matrix yet, she simply used the simple artificial intelligence software that was commonly found in most Atlesian robots.
As such, this couldn't truly be considered the 'true' Penny. At most, the current Penny was only capable of processing simple commands instead of complex thoughts and orders.
"[Master, we have arrived at our destination. Awaiting further orders.]"
"Good job, Penny. Stay here for now while Elf Pyrrha and I canvas the place."
"A-Are you seriously going to keep calling me that from now on?"
"Elf Pyrrha, onward we march!"
Both Rin and Pyrrha made their way inside the room, leaving Penny by herself waiting outside. For some reason, Rin thought she heard the cry of a young awkward girl's soul as she closed the door behind her. Rin then made a promise to herself never to drink eggnog before going on heists again.
At any rate, the two of them had successfully infiltrated the commons room.
Hanging on the nearby shelves were bright stockings with individual names sewn onto them. Thanks to a recent arts and crafts project done by a few soldiers, Rin and Pyrrha wouldn't have to take time figuring out how to sort the gifts inside the bag of presents.
"Quick, take out the gifts and match them to each person."
"How will I know which is which?"
"The presents have stickers on them saying who they go to."
Both quickly got to work as they opened the bag and began filling each stocking. Several minutes passed in silence as the two quickly worked together.
So far, everything was going according to plan.
"Mmn… who's making all that noise…?"
Both girls froze as they heard someone speak.
This was bad, one of the kids was awake!
"R-Rin, what do we do!"
As Pyrrha continued to panic, a young girl entered the room while rubbing her eyes. Without hesitating, Rin quickly crossed the distance between them and lowered her face to meet the faunus child.
"Sleep~"
As Rin's suggestion magecraft took hold, the girl's eyes rolled back as she fell unconscious in Rin's awaiting arms.
"There, problem solved."
"Did you just hypnotize her?!"
"Don't worry, she's fine. From the looks of it, she won't be waking up until a few hours later. But just in case, let's tuck her onto the couch for now and let her sleep there."
"Rin, sometimes you do things like this that completely terrify me."
How rude, Pyrrha was making it seem like she was some kind of terrible person.
Both quickly finished the rest of the job before backing away and admiring their work.
"Good, looks like the kids will wake up to a surprise in the morning."
"I swear, Rin. Never ask me to do something like this ever again."
"Hey, why not? This wasn't so bad, was it now?"
Right as she said that, klaxon bells began sounding throughout the building. A crackling voice rang through the intercom.
"—Warning, intruder detected. Soldiers, be warned of a potential hostile threat inside the base. Note that permission for lethal force has been granted. Be alert for any potential enemies."
Someday, Rin would learn better than to tempt fate like that.
Both girls immediately sprinted for the door and opened it to find Penny awaiting them with a blank look on her face.
"Penny, we're getting out of this place!"
"[Yes, Master.]"
Alarms continued to ring as the three ran down the hallways. Already, they could hear the sounds of footsteps marching towards their direction from behind them.
"Rin, what's our escape plan?"
"Get back to the roof, I have our sleigh stationed up there."
"You mean the broom? I thought you said that we wouldn't be using that."
Rin shook her head.
"No, I mean quite literally what I said. There's a sled waiting for us up there."
"Rin, how in the world is a sled supposed to help us escape the ATLAS MILITARY!?"
Before Rin could answer, her eyes widened before she quickly pressed something against her neck. Pyrrha also reacted at that moment, pulling out her shield and blocking Winter's surprise attack.
The Specialist stared them down.
"Intruders, identify yourselves."
It was lucky that Rin had several countermeasures set up. Thanks to her mystic code, their identities were currently hidden from others by affecting the temporal lobes of others to prevent facial recognition and identity association. A form of suggestion magecraft, as long as their faces weren't captured on camera, their identities were unable to be discerned by others.
Not that it solved the problem of how they were going to get out of there.
"Wait a second," Pyrrha blinked in surprise. "What are you wearing?!"
Winter was dressed in a luxurious red coat and hat, her white hair tucked underneath a Santa hat of her own, a large white sack slung over her shoulder. Judging by the quality of her outfit, it was obvious that she had her outfit personally tailored. Seeing the normally strict woman dressed in such an outfit, the two could only stare at her in shock.
A faint blush could be seen on Winter's face.
"W-Wha—so what? Even someone like me can be Santa Claus. But the real question is, who are you?! I thought I was supposed to be Santa Claus this year."
Rin stared at Winter, then down at herself.
There couldn't be two Santa Claus, could there?
Then maybe she should change out of her outfit and support Winter instead.
After all, technically she had less of a claim here since she wasn't supposed to be here.
No!
This was a matter of pride.
Pulling a gun out of her pocket, Rin pointed the barrel towards Winter.
"There can only be one!"
She understood now, this was merely a trial. A test to see whether or not she was worthy of taking on the role of Santa.
As such, she had to win this fight.
This Christmas, Saint Tohsaka was going to be Santa.
And by defeating this faker, she shall gain the qualifications to become the True Santa!
"Oh?"
Winter raised an eyebrow at the action, then gripped her weapon firmer.
"If that is the case, then meet my blade Santa."
"And you, other Santa."
Next to her, Pyrrha slapped her forehead in shame.
"Why am I surrounded by idiots?"
""HAAAAAHHH!""
The two Santas charged at each other.
}-{
To summarize, they won the fight.
After all, with both Rin and Pyrrha teaming up on Winter, there was no contest. Not only did Rin cheat by using her magecraft to quickly incapacitate the older woman, but Pyrrha's assist in manipulating Winter's weapon with her Semblance also made their victory pretty much guaranteed.
Yet, the damage was done.
False Santa had done her job and had managed to distract them long enough for the soldiers to catch up to them.
The three of them were backed in a corner as they were surrounded from all sides.
"R—erm, I mean Santa! We're trapped!"
"I can see that, Elf."
"[Master, I await your orders.]"
"Don't worry, Reindeer. Help is on the way."
"What help? We're the only ones that were stupid enough to do this in the first place!"
"Have you forgotten? What embodies the true power of Santa? What is the sole reason he is able to travel the world in an instant to deliver presents to all the good children out there? The symbol of his legend?!"
A strange sound could be heard coming from the wall behind them.
"Everyone, move out of the way!"
Rin's warning barely allowed the other two to move right as the wall exploded into rubble as something crashed into it. From the wreckage, a large wooden sleigh emerged as it hovered slightly above the ground.
"Is that…"
"Yes, the [Sa_n_t_a Sleigh No.1]—(Ride Through The Holy Night - Winter Event). The ultimate mystic code that only reaches its full potential on Christmas!"
Fitted with several mana reactors within it, gravity dust to allow it to actualize the mysteries of limited flight, modern thrusters to propel it forward, it was a feat of magecraft and engineering that was only possible through the power of Christmas.
"Elf, get on. We're making our escape!"
"R-Right!"
"Reindeer, get to your position!"
"[As you command.]"
The stupefied soldiers could only watch as Rin and Pyrrha climbed into the vehicle while Penny took to the front and held onto the reins.
"And don't forget the soundtrack!"
Rin pressed a button on the interface in front of her, and from the speakers attached to the sides of the sleigh, music began to play.
"—Dashing through the skies~ In a magic-powered sleigh~ O'er the fields we go~ Screaming all the way~"
"Go now, Penny!"
"[Understood, Master!]"
A burst of light exploded from her boots as Penny pulled the sleigh with her. Soon, the three of them were streaking through the skies as soldiers finally began to act and shoot at them from behind.
"—Penny pulling us~ Pyrrha crying out~ What joy it is to leave with loot amidst songs of victory~"
"We're going to die!"
"Stop whining, Pyrrha. Sing along with me!"
"—Jingle Bells~ Jingle bells~ Christmas time is here~ Alter took a break this year and I took her place instead~"
"—Jingle Bells~ Jingle bells~ Remnant's reindeer~ Nero can't sing, but she tries anyway~ Singing padoru~ padoru~ ooh!"
}-{
And thus ends the tale of Saint Tohsaka, along with her friends the Elf Pyrrha and the Reindeer Penny.
In the morning, Penny's body was later found back inside her tank with none the wiser of her disappearance. Although, a later inspection by Pietro would reveal unexpected data in her memory banks that remained inaccessible to his confusion.
Waking up, the faunus children would find that they had received twice the amount of presents that they had asked for. Watching over them while nursing her wounds, Winter would bitterly smile as she grudgingly accepted that her position of Santa had been taken from her this year.
And as for the two main instigators behind this event…
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzhh~"
The two girls would later be found by Terra sleeping together, completely exhausted from the events of the night before.
Seeing the content smiles on their face, Terra would simply smile before closing the door gently behind her, letting them relax on this winter holiday.
…that is, until she later finds a brutalized sleigh crashed into her living room.
In the end, Saint Tohsaka was quite the naughty child this year.
School recently finished for me, so now I'll have a lot more free time for the next few weeks to write more. I'll try and see if I can get back to working on Argus Magus.
Note that there are a dozen more omakes like this on the SB version of Argus Magus. See the full Christmas cover on my DevianArt page under the name MrPurpleBook or find it on the SB version instead.