Mikan's photo shoot starts off fine...

There wasn't any time to worry over the details. Mikan might have slipped up on her task, but Mahiru had gone over her photography scene with her multiple times, ironing out and fool-proofing against every possibility for the accident-prone nurse. Mahiru would have to trust her friend to get ready; for now, she left the auditorium and found Mr. Nicholas still talking on his phone.

She almost didn't recognize him, at first. On the phone speaking to his associate in hushed tones, Mr. Nicholas seemed like an entirely different person, all hard edges and no trace of a smile. She only had a moment to witness this before the man finished his conversation and pocketed his cell phone. As soon as it left his hand, he'd put back on a friendly grin. "Young Ms. Mahiru! I trust you've finished preparing?"

"... Y-yeah, for the time being," Mahiru agreed, nodding and trying to gulp down her nerves. She held the door for him as he passed ahead of her. "You're welcome to watch as little or as much as you like, of course, but with this first shot, I'm hoping to leave you fully confident in what you're backing."

Yasuhiro welcomed himself back into the group, clapping Mr. Nicholas on the back in a way that made Mahiru jump after the stony demeanor she'd seen from the older gentleman outside. "No way Mr. Nicky and I'll be dippin' out early. If my prediction's correct, you're gonna wanna stick around for a Christmas spectacular! These ain't gonna be simple photos: Mahalo here is gonna make some treasured family heirlooms, Norman Rockwell quality pieces suitable for framin'! Parents and kids are gonna gather around these things and feel the spirit of the season for generations, ya get me, Nicky?"

"Ho ho ho!" The man laughed, taking his spectacles off and polishing them as he smiled. "Well, it'll be my pleasure to witness until the end. And, of course, oversight by all three of us is in the contract." Holding his smile, Mr. Nicholas replaced the glasses on his face and clapped a hand to Yasuhiro's shoulder. "Calling me 'Mr. Nicholas' is also in the contract, young Mr. Yasuhiro."

Mahiru watched Yasuhiro laughing along with Mr. Nicholas in response. She thought about giving the other student a friendly warning, but if the stories she'd heard were true, Yasuhiro had survived associates much more dangerous than a contract-focused philanthropist. Instead, she cleared her throat to call attention to the main event as she closed in on Mikan's setting. "Now, for the first shoot: the rooftop scene! My classmate, Mikan Tsumiki, will play the part of a jolly female Santa preparing to descend the chimney and deliver gifts and toys for the good little boys and girls of a quaint household."

The backdrop looked just as impressive as when Mahiru had inspected it, with a convincing night sky curtained around the walls, a fake pitched, snow-covered rooftop to stand on, and an unlit brick chimney about three feet above the roof ridge. In a rare case, Mikan was upright, relatively clothed in her red-and-white getup, and wearing a big, genuine smile. She had a sack of present boxes over her shoulder and gave a wave to the group. "Hello, hellooo! I-I'm a nice elf, here to make the dreams of kids all around the world come true! B-because they're fine with me, I bet they'll forgive my little home invasion, ehehe..."

Mr. Nicholas laughed at that, his belly shaking. "Oh ho ho! I should hope kids would forgive Santa's yearly home invasion."

"D-do you think they wouldn't?" Mahiru's good cheer immediately vanished as she suddenly yelped in a shrill voice. "I'm working so hard for all of them, a-and they depend on me to deliver these! They won't get any without me, so they should just-"

Mahiru interrupted. "Aha, of course the kids love you, Mikan! Who doesn't love Santa Claus on Christmas? Just hold that thought, that everyone loves you and depends on you." As she saw her model's good mood restored, she turned to Mr. Nicholas and apologized quietly. "Sorry, some of my classmates really, uh, put themselves in particular headspaces for their roles. The coaching was really... particular... so it'd be good to leave me to my method, if you don't mind. Don't sweat it, though, you're going to love the final product."

The Santa lookalike flashed Mahiru a thumbs-up, apparently willing to let the Ultimate talent he was investing in run her show.

Mahiru gave him a thankful clap of her hands, then turned back to Mikan. "Okay! For the first shot, we establish the scene. It's hard for Santa to get down a chimney with a whole sack of toys, so she takes just the gift she needs. She's checked her list and knows exactly what Tommy wants. In this shot, we see Santa's concentration and determination to do her job right."

Mikan looked at Mahiru and nodded emphatically before, quickly, coming to a stop. "Ah... Mahiru, now that I think about it... Do you want me to do it like in the rehearsal?"

"Ahahaha! Gee, Mikan, that's a funny question," the photographer replied, trying not to show the sudden panic that question elicited. "Of course I want you to do it exactly like in the rehearsal, silly."

"O-okay, I'm sorry, it's just... y-you want me to crouch as I dig in the sack? Would it be okay if I... p-prop it against the chimney and look through it without crouching?"

"Please just do it exactly like we rehearsed," Mahiru begged. "Okay? And keep that smile on! Presents for kids depending on you! Hold that thought!"

"O-okay..." Mikan replied, but she looked almost sheet-white as she slowly bent her knees to dig through the sack as the photo required. To Mahiru's consternation, the nurse seemed to be moving in slow motion, constantly fiddling with her skirt. When she'd finally entered position, with her legs bent at sharp angles to lower her body, her nice legs were well-displayed in side profile.

Mahiru couldn't understand why Mikan was flushing so hard, but her presentation was basically on point. Big smile, perfect gesture, and the costume was titillating without being full-on pinup, just as the photographer had imagined it. With that taken care of, Mahiru wasted no time getting a series of side shots that capture the entire process of Mikan successfully finding and retrieving the present. "Now!" Mahiru turned to Mr. Nicholas again with a finger raised. "The close-up shot, where Santa holds the present next to her cheek with a big, bright grin that really shows the love she feels for these children and the pride she takes in her work. This kind of shot is my specialty, Mr. Nicholas. You won't be disappointed."

The photographer approached Mikan. The nurse was holding the present to her cheek as instructed, but it was supposed to be with both hands... Instead, Mikan had a slightly strained, goofy looking smile as she tried to balance the present with one hand and hold her skirt tight to her legs with the other. "L-l-like this?" Mikan asked.

"Mikan, lose the hand on the skirt! I'm not gonna take a panty shot, I'm a professional," Mahiru hissed in a whisper. "It's a face shot, there's nothing to worry about. You're doing so good, Mikan, everyone's gonna love your photos and those kids are gonna have a great Christmas because of you. Just give me a big smile, both hands on the present."

"A-alright!" Convinced, Mikan successfully adjusted, now placing both hands on the small package to hold it beside her face in the perfect framing Mahiru had envisioned. When the shot was taken, it was truly the most cheerful Mikan had looked in front of any of her classmates the entire year, the kind of smile where the adjective "heart-warming" wasn't an exaggeration.

The shot was perfect, and it seemed like even Yasuhiro and Mr. Nicholas could tell Mahiru had struck gold... So, both of them were surprised when she quickly approached them, stepping away from Mikan like the nurse had started making a ticking noise. "Well, there's two shots! These last two were so good, I'm making the executive decision not to go for a third. If you're happy, you can leave me to it, or you can feel free to join me at the next scene-"

"Surely you're joking!" Mr. Nicholas commented, shaking his head. "Ms. Mahiru, I apologize if I haven't been properly respectful. I can tell I'm dealing with a real professional in the making! Even as a layman, I can tell you're getting so much emotion without a single reshoot. Well, I intend to get my money's worth and see every promised shot."

"Yeah!" Yasuhiro agreed unhelpfully, pumping his fist. "I've never seen Micky smilin' like that! Did you use some kinda shapeshiftin' bodysnatcher?! I'm gonna be more blown away if you tell me she's the real deal, dude!"

"Oh yes, it's really, really Mikan," Mahiru muttered, nervously clutching her camera. "Okay, okay, we'll do it. Mikan! Please do the next scene exactly as we practiced... You're gonna climb up onto the chimney and I'll take some shots of you merrily dropping the present down. Do it carefully, okay? Think about Santa delivering presents to those kids she loves... carefully!"

"Aw, you're sweet to worry about me," Mikan giggled, placing one of her hands on the chimney bashfully. "This isn't real snow, though, remember? It's not slippery. And I don't even need a ladder to climb... We worked hard ironing out every problem! So... r-rest easy, and trust your hard work."

"Sure. Just be careful, please."

"I'm always care-" Mikan started, showing Mahiru her big, confident smile as her hand slipped from the edge of the chimney she'd been climbing on the edge of. "Foooooool~!!" she finished in a wail.

For most people, one of two things would have happened next: either she'd catch herself after a slight tumble, or she'd fall at a bad angle and injure herself, giving a potential scare. Mikan, however, was not most people. Instead of catching herself with her other arm, both arms managed to somehow go straight down the chimney, followed by her entire body, headfirst.

The chimney didn't go anywhere, and it wasn't actually much deeper than the three feet of it that were visible. So, even without filling the width of the chimney, the nurse was left stuck with her upper body hidden and her lower body on full display, her short dress and dark hair pooled all around the edges of the chimney and gradually sliding into it as they lost their fight against gravity. Her red-booted legs thrashed in the air while her panicked yelps came muffled from inside her prison.

But that wasn't even the worst of it. Like Chekov's Gun, the danger Mahiru had seen moments earlier inserted itself into her photoshoot. It wasn't Mikan's ordinary underwear, or even an embarrassing holiday pair. Mikan was, in fact, completely commando beneath the dress, and as she struggled to free herself, her three spectators and the suddenly growing crowd of her female classmates were witnessing both her exposed pale, curvy ass and every detail of that region between her legs they cared to gawk at. They could all see Mikan's good grooming hygiene, although with the nurse's near-hourly improbable pratfalls, most had already gotten a hint of it before.

As Mr. Nicholas, Yasuhiro, and Mahiru watched in stunned silence, not one of them able to move to help Mikan out of her predicament, Mahiru's mind searched for some way of salvaging her situation. Instead, her mind unhelpfully explained to her what was happening in front of her. "My note didn't say anything about the underwear. Somehow, Mikan interpreted that as me telling her the costume shouldn't have any underwear... and, for some reason, she went along with it. Oh my God... This shoot is ruined... No, forget the shoot. Am I ruined as a photographer? If people find out my first high-profile client was treated to this kind of circus... How do I come back from that?"

The model Santa was still flailing helplessly, which only helped her put on a show of waving her jiggling butt for the audience. A murmur was running through the other students, but Mahiru herself couldn't move her legs to help, her arms to raise the camera, or even her tongue to stutter some excuse. She needed a real Christmas miracle...