PROLOGUE

"Oooooooooh." A pair of stubby pink arms wiped the sleep off of his large, blue, innocent eyes. "Oooooooooh." Those stubby pink arms were attached to a perfectly round, fat little circular body that was just as pink as the arms. He looked like a round, pink marshmallow. He was also wearing little red shoes, although he had no legs. They were simply stuck to the bottom of his…well, bottom. The walking pink ball with feet and stubby arms had a name though, and it wasn't "Pink Marshmallow". It was Kirby.

As Kirby walked outside of the bathroom of his house after finishing his shower, he headed for the kitchen. Jumping up to the cupboard on top of the counter, he pulled out a bowl of sugary cereal…then put it back. He'd learnt better. He got some less sugary cereal instead, but balanced it out by then grabbing a chocolate milk carton from the fridge.

Sitting down to eat his breakfast, he thought about the period of time when things had been much different, when he had been dieting. Those had been some of the healthiest days of his life. Of course, guys like him described healthy as "I didn't die".

"Now that I think about it…" Kirby thought to himself as he poured the cereal into his little blue bowl along with the chocolate milk, "I kinda owe that nice kid a thank you for all the help he gave me. I wish he'd stayed longer, it was nice having him around."

"Helloooooo? Hellooooooo?"

A voice at the door. Kirby quickly gulped down his meal and jumped out of his chair with a cheery cry of "Comiiiiiiin'!" He raced to the door and opened it up. "Good mornin', Mr. Mailman!"

The mailman, a tubby, tanned individual with big black eyes and a blue uniform smiled. "You're in a cheery mood. Here, I've got something that'll perk you up even more…you got lots of mail today!" He handed Kirby three letters from his pack, along with two packages, one large, one tubular. "The tube one came from outer space according to the return address and the…well…"

Kirby looked at the amount of postage on it. There were 4 stamps on it. Interestingly enough, they spelled out "Poyo", a favorite exclamation of Kirby's.

"Any idea who's it from?" The mailman asked.

Kirby beamed. "Oh I KNOW where it's from! Thank you, Mr. Mailman!" He eagerly shook the mailman's hand with great gusto, then ran back inside, opening up the tube package. Sure enough, out come a very nice-looking blow-up image of Gustave, his favorite TV chef…personally signed by the chef himself!

Kirby slowly moved his hands over it. "To My Biggest Fan, Kirby. From Gus…Gustave." He read slowly. "PS: You have a…a good friend."

Kirby smiled. Yeah, he did have a good friend, he thought to himself as he went to his room to get some tacks to put the poster up. He had a good friend indeed.

It was too bad that his friend had left early, he'd wanted to play with him more. But then again, if he'd stayed longer, he might have made Kirby go on a longer diet for "the good of his health". No thank you! He had learned his lesson.

It had taken a while though…

A very long while…

And it had started in a very strange way, with a very odd curse…

KIRBY:

TEMPERANCE

(Scene of looking up from his house at the stars, blinking in wonder.)

Kimi ga warau,

Kaze ga mieru,

Tsunai da sora,

Toki no mukô...

Sekai no hate de matteruuuu!

(He gets an idea, and runs inside his house.)

Maiagare,

Oshiminai yuuyake niiiii!

Inochi wa mezame utaebaaaaaa!

Kitto todoku!

(He suddenly zooms out on his warpstar, laughing. He passes by a brown-haired youth who salutes him with middle and pointer finger as Kirby whizzes by him on the hill he's lying back on.)

You will get your chance to shine!

Hajimari wa ima!

Janpushite…

Hashiridashite…

Omoi wa kitto todoku!

(He passes by King Dedede on his castle balcony, Meta Knight in the court-yard, Tiff and Tuff by their house, and finally zooms up through the air towards the stars.)

One day you will get your wings!

Ai tôsô subete!

(The sun breaks through as dawn finds Dreamland. Kirby whizzes back to his house on his warpstar.)

You can fly through blue, blue skiiiiieeees!

(He jumps off his warpstar and punches the air, going "Poyo" as he does so.)

You can touch the blue, blue skyyyyyyy!...

(The sun rises up from behind him and his house. The title appears above them all.)

CHAPTER ONE

"KIRBYYYYY!"

That cry echoed throughout every nook and cranny of Dreamland, home of Kirby the Star Warrior. It was bellowed to the skies at least once a day by at least one angry individual. Someone ALWAYS had a bone to pick with Kirby.

Why?

Well…

"GIMME BACK MY FISH!" Chef Kawasaki snarled as he raced after Kirby through the market. Kirby was clutching a huge yellowtail tuna to his chest, shaking his circular body/head and going "No no no no noooo" as he ran.

"You gotta pay for that!" Kawasaki groaned angrily, brandishing his meat cleaver. He had his usual chef's hat on, along with that white apron and his blue shoes. He wasn't the best of cooks, but one thing WAS for sure…his ingredients were always choice. Kirby had taken it upon himself to score the main ingredient for what would have been Yellowtail Sushi Surprise for Kawasaki's customers. He felt he was doing them a favor…usually Kawasaki's cooking made people vomit, or gave them diarrhea, or gave them boils on-

WHAM!

Suddenly he realized that he hadn't been looking where he was going. Mostly because he'd closed his eyes and had kept on shaking his head going "No no no" in response to Kawasaki's requests to give back the huge tuna. He fell to the ground, still clutching the fish in one arm, but groaning and rubbing his sore head with the other "Poyoooo…" He moaned. Kirby opened his eyes…

And stared face to face with two other people, little Cappies by the looks of it. Their canary-yellow skin gave them away. Normally Cappies were of a darker shade of yellow or had tanned bodies, like Kawaski or the mailman. But these kids…the girl, anyhow, were the color of that pretty little bird he sometimes saw in the mayor's window. He'd hit the girl, obviously, since she was the one rubbing her head in pain as another kid, apparently her brother, helped her up.

The girl had a pale yellow ponytail and light green eyes. She was wearing a pink and green shirt, and frowned at Kirby. The boy had tanned skin, yellow hair with a green tint on the end that hung down, obstructing anyone from seeing his eyes. He had purple overalls with red buttons on.

"Who are you and why are you stealing that fish?" The girl asked. She seemed a little bossy.

The boy spoke up. "Yeah! Give it back to Kawasaki or I'll pound ya!" Hmm. He had a gruff kind of voice for a little kid.

"Uh…er…" Kirby muttered. "Who-who are you?" Somehow they seemed familiar.

"I'm Tiffany Ebaum, and this is Tufayl Ebaum. But everyone calls us "Tiff" and "Tuff"." Tiff suddenly looked at Kirby in a strange fashion. "Somehow I feel like I know you…"

"Yeah, you're kinda familiar." Tuff agreed.

Kirby rubbed the back of his head, blushing slightly, little round pink spots appearing on his cheeks. "Uh, well, er, nice to meetcha! Uh, I'm just gonna be going now, I'm starving and stuff…"

"Oh no!" Kawasaki growled, coming up from behind him. "Every day you guzzle down our food and never pay your tabs! And when we don't let you take anything, you steal it!"

"I'm HUNGRY!" Kirby moaned.

"You can't possibly be that hungry." Tiff said. "You just seem to like to eat."

Kirby shrugged. "It's not a crime to eat, is it?"

"No, but it is a crime to steal just so you can have something to eat!" Tiff scolded. "You should be ashamed!"

Kirby blushed again. "Bu-bu-but…"

"Hey, what's goin' on here?" A voice called out. It sounded like a country bumpkin in a way, yet there was a hint of authority in it. "Somebody causin' trouble-oh, it's that there Kirby."

Kirby gulped as the owner of that voice walked up behind Tiff and Tuff, who let him approach Kirby. He drew the huge hammer he kept with him and pointed it's massive wooden head with the star insignia on each end right at Kirby's quivering pink body.

"Howdy, Kirby." King Dedede, ruler of all Dreamland said. He was a blue, penguin-like creature with a yellow beak, in big fancy robes. He also wore a poofball hat. "I'm placing y'all under arrest for disturbing the peace, stealin' food, general mayhem and not payin' yer tabs."

"Uh…can I just pay a fine instead?" Kirby pleaded as Dedede dragged him to the castle.

As he was dragged in, he suddenly noticed the king had stopped. Someone was in the way…the local fortune teller.

"You got somethin' to say to Kirby, I reckon." Dedede said. He lifted Kirby in front of her.

She…looked mad. This was probably because Kirby had been eating the pies off her windowsill for the past three weeks.

"Uh…I can bake you new ones." He offered.

She suddenly smacked a strange, long and thin paper sheet on him. He felt a burning sensation which soon vanished. Then…

"You will never know peace, Kirby! Not until you control your gluttonous actions! This…I VOW. I curse you, Kirby!" She snarled, walking off with the tag. "CURSE YOUUUU!"

Kirby blinked. "Uh…can I just pay YOU a fine instead?"