A/N: I don't own Prince of Tennis, and I don't own "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens...because it was written a reeeally long time ago, and I'm not that old...I'm just borrowing both to bring some amusement to this world. I guess it helps if you know the story of "A Christmas Carol" but if you don't, you might even find this amusing anyway. Or, you'll think I'm completely stupid. Either way, it must be worth a try! This mess is in four short parts. The next three will be posted over the next few days, with the last on the twenty-third ... just before Christmas! Yay!

Part 1

It was Christmas Eve, and poor Oishi Cratchet was cold. That was not a surprising fact, given that his boss would not let him put another coal on the fire, because it would cost him more money. Oishi Cratchet's boss was a real stick in the mud.

Ebenezer Tezuka was well known for his crappy attitude towards anyone and everyone who crossed his path. He was especially infamous for his views on Christmas. "Bah humbug" was his catchphrase at this time of year; and for the rest of the year, he had no catchphrase, as he never talked to anyone if he could get out of it.

But we were talking about poor Oishi Cratchet, who was shivering and shaking in his sad little office. He was Tezuka's one and only employee, and he was being paid far less than minimum wage...and he wasn't even allowed to burn another coal to get his hands warm. His hands felt like blocks of ice. In fact, on closer inspection, he could see the frost beginning to collect under his fingernails.

Well, that was the last straw. Oishi Cratchet gathered his courage, and went into the other room, which was much warmer and better furnished, where Ebenezer Tezuka sat counting his money.

"Mr. Tezuka," Oishi Cratchet said miserably, "Can I please burn another coal?"

"No," Ebenezer Tezuka replied shortly. "Back to work, or you will have to run twenty-six laps around the building."

Oishi Cratchet sighed, and was about to go back to his pathetic office, when the door of Tezuka's office swung open, and Ebenezer Tezuka's polar opposite entered the room. This polar opposite was infinitely cheerful and he loved Christmas almost to death, in fact he'd almost drunk himself to death just last Christmas, at a rather extravagant party thrown by himself and a bunch of his friends...and he just happened to be Ebenezer Tezuka's nephew, the charming Momoshiro, or as he preferred to be called, Momo-chan!

"Uncle Tezuka!" he cried. "I'm drunk again! Merry Christmas!"

"Get out of my office," Tezuka growled.

"Not until I make you love Christmas!" Momo exclaimed.

"Sixty-two laps, now," Tezuka ordered. Momo blew a raspberry, then turned his attention to Oishi Cratchet.

"Merry Christmas, Oishi baby!" Momo cried.

"Merry Christmas, Momo," Oishi replied, smiling at Momo's antics.

"God bless you!" Momo exclaimed, and then he belched. "Up yours, Uncle Tezuka! Oh, and if you get over yourself before tomorrow, you can come to this year's Christmas party, where I'm going to get even more drunk! Cheers!" Momo hiccupped his way out of the office, and slammed the door behind him.

"Why are you still standing there?" Ebenezer Tezuka demanded of Oishi Cratchet. "Get back to work!"

"Anou, Mr. Tezuka...I was wondering...Tomorrow being Christmas and all, do you think I could maybe possibly have they day off?" Oishi Cratchet asked boldly.

"Sure," Ebenezer Tezuka replied. "You can have tomorrow off. In fact, you can have every day off. You're fired."

Oishi Cratchet felt the ground drop out from underneath him. He'd just been fired. How was he going to support his wife and their fifteen children, especially the very sick Tiny Tim, who had a strange illness that no doctor they could afford could cure?

He ran from the building sobbing. Ebenezer continued counting his money until the clock struck five, and then he made his own way home.

There were some people outside of his office, waiting for him.

"Mr. Tezuka!" they cried. One was a rather angry-looking redhead, and the other was a very pretty boy with longish hair and a bored expression on his face. It was Kamio and Shinji, the two annoying charity collectors who always pestered him no end.

"Please consider making a donation, Mr. Tezuka," Kamio said, shoving his collection box in Mr. Tezuka's face. "It would make the children very happy!"

"The children are starving, Mr. Tezuka. I hate to think of children starving. I was a child once myself, I ate too much when I was little, maybe I should have saved some of the food for the children who are starving now, although it would have past its expiry date by this time I guess, and it wouldn't be good for them to eat anyway, because they'd get sick..." babbled Shinji.

"I'm not making a donation," Tezuka said, folding his arms across his chest. "So stop bothering me."

The look on his face could have scared away the bravest of men.

"Stupid jerk," Kamio muttered to Shinji as they walked away.

Shinji nodded. "That he is. I wonder what his problem his. How could you hate Christmas? It's such a cheerful beautiful time, when families get together...although when my family gets together they usually fight a lot, especially my third cousin Bill, because he thinks he knows everything and that gets on the nerves of my second cousin Bob..."

Meanwhile, Ebenezer Tezuka was walking in the other direction, towards his home. He went inside, kicked off his shoes, and almost hit the ceiling when he saw someone sitting in his favorite chair in his lavish living room.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

The person sitting in his chair was Inui Marley, his former business partner, who had passed away a year ago due to some sort of illness that Ebenezer Tezuka had never bothered to consult a doctor about because it would have cost the company too much money. Inui Marley had been a wonderful partner, though. He sure knew how to make money. He'd had notebooks full of data on the money-making process, and no one had been able to match him...

"Marley...What are you doing here?" Ebenezer Tezuka asked again, when he got no reply. "You're dead...I must be imagining things. I think I should go back to bed."

"You're not imagining this," Inui Marley said. "It is one hundred percent real. Now listen to what I have to say, and listen carefully, Ebenezer. I was a bad man in life, and now look at me! I'm covered in chains...a chain for every bad deed."

Indeed, Inui Marley was covered by very heavy looking chains.

"I don't want you to suffer the same fate, so I did some research, and discovered the best way of getting you to change your ways. You're going to have three visitors tonight. Listen to them well."

"Hn." Ebenezer Tezuka glared at the supposed ghost of his former partner. "I still don't believe you're real."

"I know. You're a realist...but I am real, Ebenezer. I am real, and these chains are real, and you're going to rot in Hell like me if you don't change..." Inui Marley started to disappear. "Your visitors will come at approximately one o'clock, two o'clock, and three o'clock..."

Ebenezer Tezuka shook his head, and went up to bed. It seemed that he desperately needed sleep, if he was beginning to imagine things like this. He must have been overworking himself.

TBC