As Grooms jumped into the vast darkness within the cellar, a wave of chill passed through him. He saw there was an open freezer containing some ice cream in a corner of the cellar, so he went over and closed it. There was a flight of stairs which he promptly ascended to get back to the main floor.
Climbing the stairs that were enveloped in the darkness, he eventually reached the top where there was a door with light leaking out from the crack where the floor and door met. He heard some noise from the other side, so he put his ear up to the door and listened...
"Kupo~ kupo~ kupo~"
Grooms recognized the noise being a Moogle from the Final Fantasy games. He knew that Moogles were friendly, so without a second thought he began to open the door.
The door was extremely old and rickety, and as soon as the door was halfway open it fell down away from Grooms' direction and onto the Moogle!
"Kupopopo!" the Moogle shouted as he went squish.
"Ahhh sorry!" yelled Grooms as he was able to just barely manage the door off of the Moogle.
"That hurt kupo! Now my pom-pom is all ruined and it's all your fault!"
"Uh... sorry, but I didn't mean for the door to suddenly fall down like that."
"Well kupo, now you have to make it up to me kupo. Nathan was supposed to give me bath kupo as you can see I'm all dirty kupopo..."
"So let me guess, you want me to give you a bath then, is that right? Grooms responded.
"Kupopo! You got it!" the Moogle shouted joyfully.
"Um yeah... sorry but I've got other things to do, like saving senpai Decho from that evil Nathan."
"You want to kill Nathan kupo?"
"Well if it means saving Decho, then yes."
"Then you're going to need something special to beat him kupo, and I can help you with that kupo!"
"Well then, I'll take any help I can get."
"First give me a bath kupo!"
"..."
"Or kupo, if you want I can just alert Nathan that you're here right now and he will kill you yay kupopo!"
"Uh, why are you so eager to go against him?"
"Because I'm the Moogle of Chaos kupo!"
"Okay fine, I'll give you your bath, where to?"
"Just follow me kupo!"
Grooms followed the Moogle throughout the massive mansion, and eventually they came to a door that was labeled "Tai's Bath Keep Out". The Moogle entered followed by Grooms.
The room was very steamy and warm, being about twenty degrees higher than the rest of the mansion. There was a heavy layer of moisture in the air which made it a tiny bit difficult for Grooms to breathe. In the center of the room was a giant square pool that contained water about one foot deep. The Moogle went ahead of Grooms and stopped right before entering the pool and stripped off all of his clothes.
Grooms was mildly disturbed by the site of a naked Moogle.
Grooms wondered to himself is this was going to be worth it.
The Moogle said to Grooms, "The shampoo is over there kupo." as he pointed to a sink in the corner. As Grooms went over to the sink to get it, the Moogle hopped into the pool.
Grooms walked over to the pool and squirted some shampoo in his hands and lathered it together. "What about soap?" he asked. The Moogle responded, "Moogles are all fur unlike you humans kupo, we don't have a use for that stuff kupopo." Makes sense, Grooms thought.
With the shampoo all lathered and smelling like cherry blossoms, he began to scrub the Moogle's head. "Careful of my pom-pom kupo!"
Grooms scrubbed the Moogle's head, his arms, his body, back, legs, and feet.
"Okay," Grooms said. "you're all clean now."
The Moogle responded, "Not yet kupo, clean my dick kupopo."
"Ohgod what the fuck hell no!"
The Moogle giggled and Grooms looked like he was going to puke.
"Hey now kupo no puking in my bath kupopo!"
"Ugh I didn't sign up for this." groaned Grooms.
"Well I suppose you did help me out a bit kupo, so I'll give you what you need kupo."
Grooms breathed a sigh of relief.
The Moogle dashed out of the room.
Grooms thought, "At least put your clothes back on."
Twenty seconds later, the Moogle returned still sopping wet.
"Here; take this kupo."
He handed Grooms a pom-pom that looked exactly like the one on the Moogle's head.
"A Moogle pom-pom, what am I supposed to do, wear it?"
"Yep that's right kupo! It's magic and will protect you from some of the magic that Nathan uses kupopo."
"Right... well, if you say so."
Grooms attached the pom-pom to his head.
"So where is Nathan? I need to hurry and rescue Decho from him."
"Nathan's lair doesn't exist in this plane kupo. However, if you want to get to his lair, just click your heels together and say the phrase 'there's no place like Nathan's lair' three times kupo."
"What that's stupid, only a lazy writer would think of a poor-excuse for a plot device like that."
"I know kupo, but that's the truth!"
With Grooms not wanting to stare at this naked Moogle any longer than he has to, he thanked the Moogle for his assistance and left the bathroom.
After he left the room, he made sure that his new pom-pom was on tight and that his golf club was in good condition.
"Here goes nothing." Grooms said as he clicked his heels together three times while saying, "There's no place like Nathan's lair."
*To be continued in the finale of part 5*