Eleven young girls, comprised of most of the Ojamajos and their Shadows, took seats around the Maho-Dou in preparation to tell the events that had occurred. When all was said and done, they…did not begin quite yet.
"Wouldn't it be better if we all took turns telling the story?" Pop inquired, "Not everyone witnessed every event, after all."
"No shit?" Shadow Aiko retorted, "Do you Light Beings always like pointing out the obvious?"
"Will you just get started already!?" Majo Rika yelled, making the Ojamajos jump.
"Yes, Majo Rika-san!" The Ojamajos replied.
Onpu took the first stance. "I'll start from after Majorin-san came here and summoned us to the Castle."
We had just entered the castle at this time. Here, Jou-sama and the Witch Senate had terrible news:
"Jou-sama!" the Ojamajos shouted, rushing into the throne room. Doremi, Hazuki, Aiko, Onpu, Momoko, Pop, and Hana took their places before the Queen and bowed.
"We came as soon as we got your call!" Doremi exclaimed.
"Then you know why I've summoned you all here?" Jou-sama inquired, gravely. Majorin and Megan flanked her sides, as they usually did nowadays.
It was very grim for everyone. The message we received from Majorin was so urgent. She even made sure we could be brought there quickly enough.
"I believe we have reason to worry," Jou-sama began, "A massive rift to Kage Kai has opened."
"EH?!" the Ojamajos gasped.
It was shocking, seeing as even the elder Witches were sharing whispers. I could feel dread on their voices. We were glad to know we weren't the only ones disturbed by the events, but…now we dreaded what was next.
"But, how?" Hana chimed in.
"We do not know," Majorin replied, "But it would appear Black Queen has hatched a new plot." She turned looked over the group. "You saw it on the way, did you not?"
On the way there, we saw a large plume of smoke in the distance. That was all we could see, but it was most certainly so much trouble going on over there.
"We saw a glimpse of it," Aiko confessed, "But…what's going on there?"
Jou-sama closed her eyes. "I've already scanned that area," she said, grimly, "It would appear that a rift has come into being there. It leads directly to Kage Kai."
"No way!" Hazuki gasped.
"Do you guys think we'll have to fight any Shadows?" Aiko asked.
"The spell we used the first time we encountered them all but locks the majority of their kind in their world," Jou-sama explained, "There is still the possibility we might end up fighting Black Queen, Evil Rin, or the Shadow Ojamajos due to their unfortunate exclusion."
"Yeah," Doremi replied, "They were dead when that spell was used and Black Queen was regenerating."
Megan clenched her fist at the line…
Jou-sama got up from her thrown. "We can seal the rift if we combine our powers," she explained, "Me, Majorin-chan, and Meg-chan will go the rift now." As she faced the Ojamajos, her expression turned to one of assurance. "If anything goes wrong, evacuate Majo Kai to Ningen Kai. Understood?"
"Yes, Jou-sama!" The Elder Witches replied.
"But what about you three?" Hana asked, taken aback. Jou-sama shook her head in reply. "But…!"
Jou-sama wouldn't let us help out, for she had already judged it too dangerous this time. Majorin conjured her Sorceress Staff while Meg-chan summoned her Yin-Yang Keyblade. Majorin was, well, she was intent on aiding Jou-sama with this new crisis; she would follow Jou-sama to the depths of hell. But Meg-chan was a different story; she was still down due to her last encounter with Kada and the loss of her locket. That meant that her power was effectively cut down to about our level.
"I will try my best," Megan said.
With those words, they left to deal with the problem at hand.
"Think they'll be okay?" Aiko asked, "I get the feeling they won't."
"Same here," Doremi replied.
Majo Heart stepped forward. "We can keep watch on them," she said, huffing slightly.
"Nothing out of the ordinary so far," Majo Rika commented, "Keep going?"
Onpu stood down, letting Aiko and Momoko take her place.
"The Elder Witches showed us what was going on around Jou-sama, Majorin-san, and Meg-chan," Aiko explained, "But they weren't fighting Shadows. At all."
Lala's eyes went wide at the reveal while Majo Rika's frown deepened.
"They were fighting these giant robots…and losing," Momoko continued, "We couldn't just sit back and watch them get killed or captured. So we decided we were going to ignore her orders and give them the Seven Seals."
"Always the goody two-shoes…" Shadow Onpu muttered, under her breath.
We got the Seven Seals from the vault and headed on toward the rift. Getting there was the easy part. Actually getting the Seals the Jou-sama was…ouch…
The battle was a complete disaster. Not only were those giant machines pouring in from Kage Kai, but they were outright shrugging their own powerful spells. Even Jou-sama's powerful attacks weren't getting through.
The defensive side of things wasn't any better. The machines' own attacks effortlessly broke past their defenses; only Jou-sama's could actually hold out. But the constant influx of beams from them pushed her barriers to their very limits, draining and shattering them within moments.
Dodging was their best bet, but even then they were playing a life-or-death game of chicken.
Finally, Majorin and Megan were knocked off their brooms by a stray slam from one of the machines and sent to the ground.
"Majorin! Meg-chan!" Jou-sama called out. She immediately realized she had taken her attention off the machines and quickly resumed dodging as they began closing in. "Is this…Is this the end…?"
"Jou-sama!" Doremi called. She and her fellows were flying in at high speed. "We're sorry, but we can't let you go down! Not when there's still a chance!"
We quickly threw Jou-sama the Seven Seals. Before she expressed her disapproval of what we did, she found herself having to use her magic to draw the Seals to herself. They glowed brightly and passed into her being, allowing her transform into her Super Witch Form.
She even empowered and healed Majorin and Megan, letting them to use their Super Witch Forms as well. We quickly flew out of the reach of the giant machines as the threesome took the fight to them.
Meg-chan couldn't fare too well without her locket's power. Sure, she split her Yin-Yang Keyblade in two to dual wield, but her blows just bounced off their thick armor and she was forced to keep her distance and shoot beams. Again, those just bounced off the robots.
Majorin fared better, deflecting the robots' energy attacks and even sending a few right back. The reflected bursts blew off some of their armor and revealed circuitry underneath. But the exposed wires were no weak point, and the damage was really just trivial.
Jou-sama fared the best out of them all. Not only were her attacks stronger, but they were leaving noticeable dents in the machines' armor in addition to blowing off entire sections. But like I said earlier; those were just trivial damages. Jou-sama, Majorin, and Meg-chan were still losing.
We helped as best as we could even though we were flying high above the battle. Usually, we used our magic to block an attack here and there and to make evading the machines' attacks easier. We would even stop time for a few seconds! Unfortunately, we really only have so much magic…especially Hana-chan.
That's when Jou-sama glowed with a silver radiance. When she stopped, she had changed to her Upgraded Super Witch Form. With it, she would at least be able to even the odds again. Then Onpu-chan saw something about the robots and cast a spell to point Jou-sama out to it.
Beneath their chest plates was a glowing object.
"Jou-sama!" Megan called, "Get away from it!"
"I think I have something!" Jou-sama replied. In seconds, she channeled her powerful magic into a seam, splitting it open on sheer pressure and revealing the full form of the glowing object. It was connected by several wires to the interior; energy was flowing from it and into those wires. "This has to be the power source!" Jou-sama surmised, "Which means that if I do this-" She pried the seam further apart before ramming her weapon into it. Time began flowing again right when she hit, causing the core-like structure to sputter energy before the machine collapsed to the ground. "-then this should happen!"
Majorin and Meg-chan took no chances and immediately went to work in getting to those cores. Majorin's weapon doesn't have an edge, but Meg-chan lending the blacker of her Keyblades to her solved that issue. Meg-chan still had a hard time and needed support from us to really do any real damage. We all pulled through and managed to defeat several robots. I think we fought for half an hour, but at least the army of giant robots was dead.
"We…We did it!" Megan cheered, "Majo Kai is saved!"
"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, Meg-chan," Majorin warned, "Whoever sent this army has more in reserve. That much I am certain of."
"They will just keep sending in one wave after another," Jou-sama added, "And more than likely, whoever made them will be improving them, making them stronger against our attempts to stop them. We must destroy them and defeat whoever we're up against first!"
The Ojamajos descended now that the machines were little more than smoldering piles of scrap.
"Jou-sama," Doremi began, stepping forward, "We're sorry. We didn't listen to you when you told us to stay behind."
"But when we saw you nearly lose," Onpu continued, "We just couldn't-!"
"I understand," Jou-sama replied, "We will talk about this later, but for now you have our gratitude."
"They left for Kage Kai after that," Pop finished.
"And that's where we come in!" Shadow Pop chimed in.
"I can see that," Majo Rika deadpanned, "Now explain yourselves!"
"Okay, okay!" Shadow Onpu griped, "We'll give our own side of the story."
We had just made it here from Kage Kai after it had been taken over. We didn't like it one bit, but whoever pulled it didn't leave us much choice. I guess the mastermind knows us shadows pretty well…
But to begin with, we were walking down the halls of Kage Kai Castle, having returned from a meeting discussing Shadow Hana-chan's friendship with her Light Half and how bad it would be for Shadows from Black Queen's point of view, and none of us were in the mood to dwell on it for the rest of the night. So we decided to just have the rest of the night off to ourselves so they could kick back and relax.
"Can you believe her?" Shadow Doremi blurted, "Calling a meeting just for that? I mean, come on! Since when has Shadow Hana-chan and her Light Half ever been that close?!"
"But it's true," Shadow Hana replied, "I've been close to Light Hana-chan for a while now."
"Then why won't you explain?" Shadow Pop asked, dejected, "What does your Light Half have now that I don't?"
Shadow Hana looked down. "I…well…it's a really long story and I'm not sure how to explain it."
"That was around the time when everything went to shit," Shadow Aiko finished.
"Outside, there were these huge machines scooping up Shadows left and right," Shadow Hana explained, "Smaller robots came inside the Castle and attacked the guards and us directly. There weren't any shadows there that weren't guarded by the bots."
"So you were forced to use magic to escape?" Lala asked.
Shadow Aiko, Shadow Hazuki, and Shadow Pop shot the fairy a deadpan look.
"We used Shadow Stage," Shadow Hana continued, "We just couldn't' take any chances."
"And then we witnessed Light Queen's, Light Rin's, and Light Megan's, uh, 'fight' with a small squadron of giant robots," Shadow Pop continued, "We stayed hidden even after the battle ended."
"We met them after Jou-sama, Majorin, and Meg-chan left for Kage Kai," Onpu finished.
There they were, hiding in the bushes. I guess they witnessed the battle and were either giving commentary or what have you. Still, it wasn't a pleasant surprise for us. Well, most of us…
We were about to leave and return to the Castle when a slight rustling caught our attention. We would have ignored it had it not been for a those whispers coming from the bushes; they all sounded very familiar. Too familiar, in fact, to be a coincidence. Doremi-chan spoke up first.
"We know you're hiding there!" the pink Ojamajo said, giving a commanding tone, "Come on out!"
A few grumbles later and the source of the whispering emerged. It's not hard to guess who they were, but there they were, making themselves known. And they were the last group the we wanted to see. Well, most of us anyway. The same could be said for one of them.
"Shadow Hana-chan!" Hana said, excitedly.
"Hey," Shadow Hana replied, biting her lip.
"What are you Shadow Ojamajos doing here?" Onpu asked, her tone somewhat demanding and cautious.
"What else?" Shadow Onpu retorted, "Getting away from those magic-proof bots not reason enough?"
"Touché…"
Hazuki cautiously eyed her Shadow. "Um, what happened in Kage Kai?" she asked, "Who's responsible?"
"Hmph!" Shadow Hazuki scoffed, "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Shadow Hana-chan spilled the beans anyway," Shadow Hazuki deadpanned, "Seriously, whose side is she on now anyway?"
Shadow Hana seemed to wither and shrink away when confronted on her loyalties. Hana stepped in to defend her.
"She's with whoever she wants to be with!" Hana replied, raising her voice, "If you were in her spot, then wouldn't you do the same?"
"Hey!" Shadow Aiko shouted, "We're worried that Shadow Hana-chan's friendship with you is going to get her either killed or banished! Why do YOU think we're questioning it in the first place?!"
"IDIOTS!" Majo Rika scolded, drastically raising her voice and making everyone jump, "There will be more time to talk of that later! For now, stick to the subject!"
Both groups reacted differently to Majo Rika's outburst. The Ojamajos gulped and decided to follow the older Witch's "suggestion". On the other hand, the Shadow Ojamajos –including Shadow Hana- merely gave an exasperated sigh before following their Light Halves.
"To put it simply-" Shadow Onpu began.
"We shook hands," Shadow Hana blurted, "For once, in most cases…"
"We put aside our differences and teamed up to take down whoever took over Kage Kai," Shadow Momoko said, breaking her silence, "And when we returned…it…it was…" She began to sob a bit as she recalled what Kage Kai looked like by the time the group returned…
It was horrible. Just…just…horrible! The place, well, it might not have been what you Light Beings would call beautiful, but it was our home. To see it so…so…UGH!
The land was just so terrible! Homes, homes, and more homes…all destroyed. Smashed apart. And in their place were these huge factories. More of those killer robots were most certainly being made in there. And maybe even worse robots...
The place was devoid of any other Shadow. I just hope they're all still alive somewhere, even if Black Queen or –ULP!- Shadow T-T-Tourbillon….c-could revive them…
"Oh my God…!" Momoko gasped, horrified at the devastation.
"Whoever did this must be very powerful…" Onpu remarked, "To do this kind of damage…"
"Will you guys stop gawking?!" Shadow Doremi shouted, "The sooner we get to the Castle and kick whoever's responsible's ass, the better off we'll be!"
"That won't happen if we get caught because of your yelling!" Pop muttered, under her breath.
And then we made our way over to the Castle. Our castle. Stealth was of the essence since there were still a bunch of giant robots patrolling the area. This was despite Light Queen, Light Rin, and Light Megan shredding more robots in the distance and turning our world into a scrapyard.
"But if that's the case," Lala began again, "Then shouldn't everything be back to normal by now?"
Shadow Momoko withdrew herself, having deemed herself as talking enough. Shadow Pop took her place, but it wasn't her that spoke up.
"It's not what was happening then," Pop replied, "It was what happened after we got to the Castle."
Majo Rika and Lala felt a wave of dread wash over them at those words.