Narration begins by talking about the falling snow. It falls like it’s illuminating the world and hiding it, silently drifting down from above. The summoning circle appears, and a man awakens to see all this. He stares in a daze and makes no attempt to brush the snow off himself, slowly coming to an understanding of his situation.
Tomte finally inclines his head, and he starts processing things like it’s all happening to someone else. He has no idea who he is and he has no idea why he’s there. He can’t remember anything really, and a dull pain in his head interrupts his attempts to remember his own name.
Tomte compares his amnesia to having his head split apart, and he stumbles around as if trying to cling to something he might have lost. He asks what he should do and where he should go, asking for someone to tell him. He asks for someone to give him a role he should be doing before collapsing into a pile of snow.
The pain in Tomte’s head continues to pound at him, but he persists in trying to remember. He begs for his memories and his whole being to stay with him, though his desperation for it has the undercurrent of someone else’s tone to it. He begs for his role to be given back.
Tomte seems to black out briefly before Christmas Evils find him, and White Ded shows up shortly after commenting that Tomte has wandered a bit away from the Gate he came in from so it took some time to find him. Tomte stops trying to think as he turns towards Ded.
Ded starts talking about how it must’ve hurt, and that memories broken into two can’t be repaired that easily. Ded is more concerned about how hurt Tomte looks, then spins his index finger around. Light shines from the trace he makes, which then wrap up around Tomte. Tomte comments on how warm it is and asks what the light is. Ded figures that Tomte not knowing who he is means he just came from another world, then places a hand on his cheeks.
Tomte says nothing, so Ded asks if it’s warm before introducing himself. He also describes himself as a person who hands out happiness to young children. Tomte asks about this, but Ded says it’s fortunate it’s the day it is or else they might not have met. He can only make connections one day a year because of the role he has, but he shrugs it off as part of the deal.
Tomte comments that Ded’s weird for seeming happy to meet him. He asks if they’ve met before and begs him to tell him if so. Ded keeps his smile on as he shakes his head, apologizing for not being able to give him an answer he wants. He says it should be their first meeting. When he was flying in the sky, he saw the light pillar of summoning glow and something fall from the Gate, so he investigated out of curiosity and found him.
Tomte has trouble understanding the ideas of summoning, other worlds, and Gates as he asks what happened to him. Ded says he’ll explain those things later and brings up something more pressing for him to deal with. Ded then starts talking about how he can’t leave Tomte alone like this, so he has an offer. He invites Tomte to enroll in his school.
Naturally Tomte doesn’t understand, so Ded talks about how people from other worlds are called Transients. There are also stray Transients who don’t have summoners and have to deal with hardships though. If Tomte joins Ded’s school as a student though, things will change again. Ded says it only needs to be as long as it takes for Tomte to gain independence and offers to help him find his path forward.
Tomte thinks about it before asking whether why he’d go so far for a total stranger since there shouldn’t be anything in it for him. Ded laughs and says it’s because he’s Santa. As Tomte mulls that over, Ded snaps his fingers and pulls an umbrella out of his sack, then invites Tomte to join him underneath it and to join his school. He finally agrees, and narration says that Santa School goes on to make a deep impression on him.
Title card pops up, and this chapter is just called Prologue.
Things then tune over at the Santa School as narration starts expositing about it. The Santa School is in Shinjuku and is a school for those who want to be Santas or people who support them. When December rolls around for that special day, the school heats up in excitement for their specialty.
Scene shifts into some classroom inside the school as Black Ded calls for an emergency Santa meeting to start with some gunshots. The topic is about the main program for the Santa Sendoff Ceremony, as while many ideas have been put forward, none have been decided upon. Ded says he’ll head the meeting because of that and barks that everyone better be ready to go, firing another shot into the ceiling.
Ded decides things should start with a briefing of the situation and orders Yule to come explain what the Santa Sendoff Ceremony is. Yule stands up and introduces himself as a 2nd year Santa student before beginning.
So anyways, on the night of Christmas Eve, a large number of Santas will be flying out when the clock strikes midnight. The ceremony is a time to welcome people from outside school and is like a school festival for them. It’s got a fairly big scope, so every year they cosponsor with another school to hold it. A bunch of people will be there to see the Santas off, and the students think of it as the greatest stage to show off the results of their work.
Yule asks if that’s good enough, and Ded says it’s an ideal answer. He also calls that sack Yule has as proof he’s looking good for the part. Yule thanks him for this, and Ded continues with his lecture exposition. Visitors are increasing, as are the schools hoping to be cosponsors, and Ded credits this to the students’ hard work and compliments them.
The students cheer for a bit before Ded cuts it off to remind them they shouldn’t slack off since things can get tough in a hurry. He also says they need to face their problem head on before ordering Krampus to recite the three Santa principles.
Krampus stands up and states that he’s a third year student before naming those principles as visual, sneaking, and ideas. The visual part is that they need to be recognizable as Santas in a second. Sneaking is for giving presents without being noticed, and ideas are for being able to adapt to whatever situation arises.
Ded says he’s correct and adds that he just escaped with his life from a simple problem. But back to the main topic, he says there has to be a solution since it’s Christmas time. Everyone there has been picked from the Santa, Black Santa, and Reindeer departments, so he challenges them to come up with ideas, starting with some girl in the regular Santa course. He goes through the classroom this way and writes down their proposals onto the blackboard.
Once all that’s done, Ded starts reading off some of the ideas given. People have mentioned things like all you can eat events, workshops, fashion shows, leisure stuff, and plays. Ded says they’re good ideas, but he wants something with more impact. Yule questions this since he thinks there’s been too much already.
Rando Girl decides to agree with Ded since she’d like to surprise people, and Krampus and other black Santa students support that. Yule gets the feeling there’s some sort of misunderstand going on though. Wolf B wonders if they should brainstorm ideas again, and Krampus shrugs about it and says Santas have to do their best no matter what it is they do. The nameless mobs in his course start cheering for him to his embarrassment.
Yule laughs and agrees with it and is about to ask Ded to start going through the class again, but he stops when he notices Ded staring in silence. Ded eventually apologizes as he tunes back in and realizes there’s something he has to do. He says one person didn’t give an idea earlier and used the Santa style presence concealment to hide themselves. Yule is confused, and Krampus tells everyone to hit the deck when Ded pulls out his guns.
Ded fires with all his barrels, and Tomte is revealed to be here and somehow sleeping through the barrage. Also for the record the game labels him Well Built Fairy. Ded is mildly irritated at his sleepyhead tendencies and wonders if he’s used to his morning calls.
Wolf Guy points out Tomte and is amazed that his sneaking ability is so good he went unnoticed all this time. Yule is amazed Tomte can sleep through the gunfire. Krampus tells him to stop with that and help him to wake up Tomte. Meanwhile, Ded is humming to himself and reloading for another blast with all his guns as some other girl points out.
Krampus and Yule try to slap Tomte awake or something as Krampus says Ded will rain fire down on him if he doesn’t wake up. Tomte starts reacting to this, and Yule is glad he seems to be up until the point where Tomte suddenly picks him up and starts running with him.
Tomte yells about needing to check on his reindeer and tells people to come with him. Yule tries to protest that he’s technically a reindeer*man* and not a reindeer, but Tomte isn’t really listening too closely as he says he’ll let him go once he’s sure he’s okay. He even stakes his reputation as the school’s top breeder on it.
Guy C goes oh no at Tomte trying to run off with Yule, and Krampus says this seems all kinds of stupid before saying they need to go after him. Before he starts though, Ded yells at Tomte to wake the hell up already and fires a few more times. Tomte finally wakes up for real and wonders what he was doing and why Yule is on his back.
Ded grumbles about Tomte making a mess of the meeting and finally says his name for the first time for the story. Tomte looks around gormlessly as he still tries to catch up to what’s happening. Krampus asks him to put Yule down so he can explain what’s up.
After an offscreened explanation, Tomte understands that the meeting is fishing for ideas for the main event for the ceremony. Ded is a little mad that he slept through the beginning of the meeting, though he sets it aside since he knows how much work Tomte does. He starts telling Tomte that he needs to make some sort of suggestion, and the episode part ends as Tomte yells out the idea of having a sauna and people being baffled at this.
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