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The Keys of the Kingdom HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue Turbo Hyper Champion Edition Gold.
By OverMaster and Shadow Crystal Mage.
Chapter Seven.
Mahora:
"You won't touch her. She's under my protection now."
Shiomiya Shiori, junior librarian at The Island, was not a member of the Library Exploration Club. While her greatest passion in life was books, what she liked about being surrounded by them was the peace and quiet reading brought. Actually adventuring into the depths for more volumes, no matter how tempting the prize, was just too much for her.
While Saotome, Konoe, Ayase and Miyazaki were her juniors, she had never been as bold as them, and always remained behind, quietly organizing what the Explorers brought from their trips, categorizing and filing it, doing her best to stay away from trouble.
Only now, trouble had come right to her, as she walked out of her night shift and began making her way back to the dorms. There, she had been ambushed and surrounded by strange creatures out of a horror novel, crawling and leaping out of the boulevard's shadows, giggling and gurgling and hissing as they came closer, and closer, until...
"You won't touch her. She's under my protection now."
That was exactly what Shiori had heard right then, even before realizing that other girl had just dropped to her feet between her and the impossible creatures. Brown skin, light silver hair, and now Shiori looked up from where she had cuddled into a ball on the ground, she could see there were strange markings on the girl's stoic face, as well.
After a moment of doubt, as if recognizing the newcomer for what she was, the Heartless charged forward. The girl barely flinched, but her hands changed, long, sharp claws like blades jumping off each finger. She moved her arms in a circular fashion, with smooth and fluid grace; and while Shiori shrieked in terror and fainted, the shredded remains of the monsters went down slowly, turning into dust that the nocturnal breeze softly blew away.
And then, a voice that was much more human, but no less threatening, than those of the Heartless spoke from the darkness.
"Huh. It really must be the end of the world. Who'd have thought you get so attached to the infinite little meatbags, Poyo honey. Does your mom know about this?"
"I always was looking towards their interests, poyo," she coolly replied, lowering her claws but remaining just as battle-ready all the same. "Why would this surprise you now, poyo?"
"Yeah, but you only used to care about the big picture, not the little details, Poyo" the voice chuckled roguishly, as greenish smoke began to slowly swirl around her. Still on edge, Poyo allowed a corner of her mouth to move slightly aside, which was as far as her emotions would allow themselves to be expressed. "Losing cute little Zazie's must have hit you harder than I thought, poor Poyo. If only there was somebody who could do something about it for you, Poyo honey..."
"So, is this your handwork, poyo?" she asked. "It's very unusual for you to ever show up in person, poyo. And stop taking my schnicht, poyo. Ending sentences with -poyo is my thing, poyo."
"Hah, funny! Well, I didn't want to, but I just had to come up when I heard the boundaries between realms were cracking around my favorite remaining sixth-degree niece," the shape now vaguely visible between the shadows pondered ominously, tapping with two long, bony fingers on an elongated, grayish chin. "Who could have ever caused something that awful, I wonder?"
Poyo Rainyday picked up Shiori's limp body in her arms. "Uncle, poyo. I'm not in the mood right now, poyo. If you and my mother are scheming something, please have the decency to leave Mahora out of it, poyo. And don't tease me about my sister, poyo. We both know you'd never do anything for her, poyo."
"No. But I'd do it for you. Assuming, of course, you would do something for your dear uncle and a few of his friends first. Come on? Whattadya say? Let's make a deal..."
Grinning like a shark, the figure that towered above her finally stepped close enough as to be within reach. His green eyes flaming as much as the fire that passed for the hair on his head.
He gestured with one of those large hands with nails as sharp as talons, and opened one of those portals Poyo had just never been able to master, no matter how much she tried.
"But why don't we discuss that at my place?" he asked her.
Murakami Natsumi shuddered and hugged her legs tightly after lowering her cellphone with a defeated expression. "It's useless," she moodily lamented. "No matter what, I can't contact Mom or Dad, or Uncle Freddy and Auntie Daph. Can you, Chizu-nee?"
The much taller and bustier girl sitting by her side on the floor of Haruna and Ku Fei's room shook her head after her latest own pointless try with her phone. "I'm afraid I haven't had any luck with Father either. Nagase-san," Naba Chizuru added, looking towards the corner where the tall, athletic Nagase Kaede stood, talking in hushed tones through her respective phone, "I assume you were successful in contacting Tatsumiya-san after all?"
"Please wait a sec de gozaru," Kaede spoke to the person she had been talking to before nodding in the other girls' direction, making Natsumi sigh in relief. "That's right, Naba-dono, it seems short range calls still work. This one's rival was tending to her family shrine, and has holed herself up there holding back the few demons that have made it that far into the woods."
Them without missing a beat, she offhandedly backhanded the closed window, dislodging a tiny Heartless that had just clung onto it from the outside, in answer to its own frantic bashes and claw slashes. The small ugly creature lost its balance and dropped to the ground two stories down, even as Fuuka and Fumika kept on hugging each other and shrieking in fear. Natsumi, who had also been screaming in terror all the while when this chaos had started and even while Chizuru all but dragged her to the relative safety of Ku Fei's room, wasn't screaming anymore, partially because she was somewhat getting used to it, but mostly because her throat was too sore for her to keep yelling by now. She wished she had a Scooby Snack. Uncle Norville always said Scooby Snacks were good for sore throats from screaming about monsters.
It wasn't like the demons or imps or whatever they were stopped coming in if you kept yourself silent and quiet. They swarmed everywhere, trying to get in through every croak or fissure no matter where you went. However Nagase-san, who had arrived with the twins even before Naba and Murakami had, claiming their own room had been invaded, still smiled at her as if the situation wasn't dire at all.
"It would seem the situation at the shrine isn't as serious as it is here de gozaru," Kaede informed, while listening to more of her rival's report. "Maybe they fear approaching holy ground? Tatsumiya-dono is asking me right now if we can't make a beeline for it, what do you think?"
"B-But you heard President Fujino's message over the speakers, we're supposed to lock ourselves indoors until... well, the staff can deal with this!" hesitated Izumi Ako, who had stumbled in shorly after Chizuru and Natsumi, stammering nervous excuses that didn't sound all that coherent about Akira's absence.
Ku Fei, who sat with her back to the bedroom's door, firmly holding it back against the violent, repeated hits from the outside, several rips on her clothes and a few slash marks on her limbs, clenched her teeth. "I say we can no stay here much longer! Hitting and running for refuge sound good now!"
Kaede nodded grimly, cutting the call and pulling several shuriken and daggers out of her sleeves. "This one agrees, Ku-dono. Twins, stop crying already and get up. And find something to wear, I'm sure Ku-dono can spare a few of Haruna-dono's shirts. Remember the training this one's given you. I know this one's never been the best of teachers, but I know I haven't trained you to become crybabies in the face of the supernatural."
"That's easy for you to say, Kaede-nee," Fuuka sniffled as she helped Fumika up from her knees, and headed to raid Haruna's closet. It was a measure of the emergency that no one had made mention of their nudity. The familiar lewd smell didn't bear mentioning either. "but weren't you running away in terror from all those frog demons?"
"This one could have dealt with any demons but frog demons," Kaede sighed sadly while helping Ku with the door. "Okay, here's what we'll do de gozaru. Ku-dono and I will attack the demons as we burst out, opening a path for you. Never stop running, don't look back for us, we'll be fine and every step of the way behind you..."
"W-Wait, we can't possibly outrun those... demons or aliens or whatever they are, and that's assuming we don't start running into more of them!" Natsumi protested. "We should at least try calling for Chachamaru-san or Chao-san again, they know martial arts too and could help...!"
"Too late for that!" Ku grunted, finally letting go of the door at the same time as Kaede, both fighters readying themselves to bash, kick and cut into the horde that would no doubt break in right now. "We only can hope for Chao to— aru?"
The demons weren't breaking in. Instead, they had begun screaming even more violently, in higher, hellish pitched tones that sounded like the devil himself dragging his fingernails across a chalkboard of agony, or possibly someone trying to sing 'It's A Small World'. Naba, Natsumi, the Narutaki twins and Izumi could only cover their ears and cringe, but the horrible sounds subsided just as quickly, and then, for a moment, there was only a sinister silence...
... before Zazie Rainyday kicked the door, already precariously hanging off its hinges, down from the outside, leaving behind a long trail of destroyed furniture and shredded black remains of creatures that had been alive seconds ago, walking in with her usual lack of expression and carrying an unconscious girl in her arms.
"Good evening," Zazie greeted, as impassive as ever, while walking past the stunned girls and leaving her sleeping load on the lower bunk of the bedroom, pausing for the shortest moment to gently pat her on a cheek. Just as soon, she turned back around and began walking back towards the downed door. "Please take care of her. I have things to do. Elsewhere."
Fuuka and Fumika gasped. "Zazie… CAN TALK?-!-?-!-?-!-?"
"Things... to..." an incredulous Natsumi trailed off. "No! W-Wait! Zazie-san, you c-can't go out there all on your own, that's too dangerous!"
"Are we the only ones caring about the talking thing?" Fuuka said.
"Seriously, she's talking! With grammar!" Fumika said. "Maybe she's possessed? Did one of those things get her somehow?"
"It's okay," Zazie flatly said, walking past Kaede and Ku without either trying to stop her. "I'll be with my uncle."
"Your... uncle, what uncle, you never told us you had an uncle!" Fumika cried. "You've never told us anything! What's all of this, you know something, don't you?! What are these weird things that appeared out of nowhere and began destroying everything, why are they—!"
Zazie stopped briefly, pointed at Kaede with a finger, said, "Ask her," and then ran away down the hall at an impressive speed, especially from someone who usually acted borderline catatonic.
And she was gone, just like that.
Natsumi, Chizuru and the twins gave flat, fixed looks at Nagase, who sighed while already cradling the knocked out Shiori in her arms. "No," she said, as Ku and Ako tried their best to look innocent and oblivious. "This one will let Tatsumiya-dono handle that, sorry. Let's keep going, I know a few shortcuts through the woods..."
"Yes, yes, can we get back to how Zazie is talking now?" Fuuka said. "Because that's just weird!"
When Poyo made it back to the spot where she had left her uncle, she found him sitting on a bench and enjoying a large ice cream cone. He realized her return a moment later and waved with his available hand, chuckling in amusement.
"So, it went all right, I assume? Got to tuck your girlfriend safely under the covers and had a sweet goodbye kiss as thanks?" he asked her.
"She's not my girlfriend, poyo," she said. "I just happened to save her because she was someone in need, poyo. It's not like I like her or anything, poyo. Of course, I wouldn't expect you to understand about good deeds done without wanting anything in return, poyo."
"C'mon, girl, you wound me," the ancient entity said, extending the cone of sweetness towards her. "You know perfectly well I'm one of the nicest in the family! Here, you want some? I didn't expect them to have decent sea-salt ice cream here, but what do I know? They do! With extra caramel! No wonder Hild sent you here. Nice place, this. It'll be a shame to see it go!" he grandly sighed, taking his head back and shaking it.
"No thanks, poyo," she said. "Do you know you sound like a yakuza shaking someone down for protection money when you say that, poyo?"
"Your loss," he shrugged, taking another big mouthful. "I'm sure Skuld wouldn't have been that rude. You are studying with Skuld right now, aren't you? Poor girl really needs some replacement sister figure at the moment, let me tell you..."
As she only stared humorlessly at him, the robed pale man exhaled, swallowed what was left of the ice cream, hastily licked the leftovers off his bony fingers, and opened the portal again. "Are you scared?" he asked her.
"Why would I be, poyo?"
"Where I'm taking you, not even your mother has any jurisdiction, Poyo. It's my home. Where I belong," he warned.
"If her influence doesn't reach there, I should feel better there, poyo," she reasoned, and that made him chortle softly. He stepped aside and bowed, gesturing for her to walk in first, and she did so without hesitation.
Then he followed her through the rip in time and space, and it disappeared from sight instantly, as if it had never been there in the first place.
Soon, she was being sailed away, surrounded by a relentless darkness barely mitigated by some faint lights that came from the murky waters below. The dark skinned girl's hands were sporting claws again now, instead of retaining the 'normal' appearance she liked to preserve around human beings, so her uncle guessed she still expected for a double cross of some sort or another any moment now.
Smart girl. Much smarter than her younger sister, that was for sure.
She was sitting on a boat, with the eerie lights floating from the river said boat was navigating. Furthermore, there were two men standing on the boat, with their backs to the girl. Both were quite tall, but the shorter and thinner one was completely wrapped into a black robe, and moved the boat with a wooden oar that was taller than Poyo herself, which he quietly pushed and pulled into the fetid waters, following a steady rhythm. The taller man had very wide shoulders and a bald head on which it looked like someone had placed a fire CGI effect. Above them, there was a cavernous rock ceiling, full of shrieking bats, that appeared to be impossibly high, as high as that of a domed stadium at the very least.
"You've been so quiet all the way. You don't have to pretend being Zazie while you are here, you know?" the man with the flame hair finally asked, folding his arms behind his back. "Frankly, I could use some more talkative people down here, you'd think this was some sort of cemetary! The only ones who are always up for any kind of chatter are Pain and Panic, and they're so stupid, talking with them is almost as maddening as the silence, and—" He glanced back at her over his shoulder, flashing a smile full of little teeth as sharp as a piranha's. "Well, I'm not bothering you by telling you this, am I? I mean, I'm sure you have your own serious problems, although trust me, girl, all problems at that age look bigger than they really are! You should enjoy your youth while it lasts. It's not supposed to be eternal, even for the likes of us..."
Poyo took a very deep breath, did her best to supress her urges to just tell him to leap down into the Styx, and asked the terrifying man, "Why won't you start the talking, poyo? Like, by telling me exactly why you invited me here, poyo?"
"Not yet," the man with fire for hair shrugged, somewhat annoyed when she hadn't told him to jump into the river. "Just give it a while. You should count yourself lucky, young lady; it's not like many others in the family would invite you for something like this! Here am I, being nice enough as to go personally to you and taking some of my valuable time off to ask you to meet my new business associates, people who are almost sort-of important for me, and what do I get? Some thanks, some token gesture of appreciation for my effort and kindness? No, you didn't even want for a taste of the ice cream, as if I'd poison it or anything? Who do you think I am-"
"Uncle Hades," Zazie-san stiffly said, "you're rambling again, poyo."
The man smirked, patted on one of Rainyday's shoulders, and said, "Aw, isn't that sweetly hypocritical, Mommy's Little Princess criticizing others' ways of speech, poyo. Tell me again, since when aren't you going to your therapy to get rid of that silly 'poyo' tic, poyo?"
"That isn't your problem, poyo," Poyo said, colder than the river they were traveling. "And I've told you I hate it when you do that, poyo. Where are you taking me, poyo?"
"Well, niece, if you REALLY are that impatient and want to spoil the surprise no matter what, I'm taking you to my office, seeing how you're a big girl who can talk business with her elders now. Would you like a book to read in the meanwhile?" He sank a meaty arm into the river, felt around with an expression of concentration, and finally pulled out a tome he dropped into Poyo's hands. "Enjoy your reading! After all, I heard you could use help with your grades!"
Poyo looked at the volume in her hands, then dropped it with a grimace of disgust after reading the title. "Twilight, seriously, poyo?"
"Well," Hades frowned, picking the book back and tossing it back over a shoulder and into the Styx, before it could burn a hole through the wood, "were you expecting wholesome reading from the damned? Oh, never mind, we're almost there." He rose back to his sandaled feet, now pulling a long bone from his other sleeve, and waving it high towards something gigantic and black that growled and barked on the shore. "C'me here, c'me here, Cerberus, Daddy's back home! Who's been a good bad puppy, who, hmmm?" With an icy chuckle, he tossed the bone up, and one of the three massive heads with glowing red eyes that drooled and slurped in the darkness sprang ahead from the others, catching the bone between its titanic fangs and quickly crunching it to the marrow. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find a girlfriend for him, would you?" Hades casually asked Poyo. "We're looking for a litter now we're expanding the place. I don't trust your new-age security systems. Alarms are a pain, and demons are always triggering them just for laughs…"
"I'm sorry, but animals have never been my field of expertise, poyo," Zazie admitted, unwilling to debate the point on demons despite being a demon herself. After all, she knew better; she truly couldn't deny the foilings of her species. "This business you are discussing with your associates, poyo... What would it be about anyway, poyo? Because I don't see how I could help you, poyo..."
"Oh, actually, it's mostly about how we can help you," the God of the Underlord pleasantly said, bringing his hands together, rubbing them against each other slowly. "It's, how should I put it, a matter of royal state property, and who better to advice us on the subject than a Princess...?"
"What are you up to this time, Tetch?" Negi demanded, growing quite angry, and aiming his staff at the Mad Hatter. "Is Sextum-san with you? Were you the ones who brought us to this world?"
"So many questions should be discussed over tea," the Hatter said, pouring himself another cup and adding two lumps of sugar into it. "Won't you come and sit down? It's well past four o'clock, after all, so why to stall it any further?"
"From where do you know this man?" Alice nervously asked Asuna. "And why does he seem to know me?"
"He knew someone named like you, and who looked like you, long ago," shared Negi, who had made a point of reading on all the super criminals they had faced at Kyoto after that particular fiasco. "Don't accept anything that comes from him. He's extremely dangerous and… deranged."
The Hare who sat near the Hatter lifted his own cup, took a long, messy drink from it, and then mused aloud, eyes crossed and tongue half-hanging out, "If he's deranged, then who is ranged? Of which range are we talking about, by the way? Is it a strange range? Or have I manged the range of the term 'range'? Also, could I have more tea?"
"You couldn't have any less," the Hatter chuckled, pouring him more of the steaming drink.
"Mr. Tetch," Skuld tensely asked, "what have you done to the actual 'Mad Hatter' figure of this place? Where is he now?"
"Where is he?" the Hatter blinked, surprised. Then he placed a hand on his chest. "Why, he's here, naturally! Where else would he be? And where else would I be? I am the one and only Mad Hatter of Gotham and Wonderland alike! And should anyone think differently, I would just shoot them and kick them down the river! It wouldn't be the first time either…" he chuckled maliciously, savoring distant memories of once dispatching a mustachioed impostor in the Gotham City underworld.
Alice shuddered, clutching onto Asuna's side. "What is he talking about? Is he an actual criminal? Should we call on the guards?"
The Hatter made a distraught face at that. "Alice! No! The whole point of Wonderland is having a place full of mirth and nonsense! Why would you call on guards to disrupt that? The Queens always spoil everything, with their guardsmen and rules and laws! Wouldn't you rather sit here to share some tea and celebrate this joyful day under the sun?"
"What are we supposed to be celebrating?" Alice warily asked.
"Is it your birthday?" the Hare asked.
"No," she said.
"Mine neither," Gadget shook her head.
"I'm never sure, being an orphan and all, but it's not the birthday Takahata-sensei gave me, that's for—" Asuna began.
"Asuna-san! Don't play along with them!" Negi scolded her.
Asuna pouted. "Just answering wasn't hurting anyone!"
The Hare clapped his hands together, with raw enthusiasm. "Oh, that's good, good! Then we'll have a collective unbirthday!"
"Unbirthday?" Alice echoed dubiously. "What is that?"
The Hatter answered with sibylline enjoyment. "Every one of us has a single birthday every year, which leaves us all with 364 unbirthdays every other day. Wouldn't it be much better to celebrate all those unbirthdays than that single birthday? And since all of us happen to have one unbirthday today, that means we can party all day long and far beyond!"
"This year has 365 days, not 366, or am I wrong?" the Hare asked, drinking more tea as he consulted a calendar he had just pulled out of his chest pocket.
"Well," Alice said, "that sounds very amusing, but after a while, wouldn't the novelty disappear? What makes your birthday special is that it only comes sparingly."
The Hatter grimaced, his top hat sliding slightly towards the left side of his head. "Alice! I truly expected better from you. Have these bad companies spoiled your sense of decorum? You haven't even sat down despite being invited to do so!"
"Oh, my deepest apologies, but it's just, I'm still confused about what—"
"Don't even think about it," Asuna warned. "This madman is a real rotten egg. I have no idea how he got there, but seeing how he knows us as well, I'm pretty certain he's the same guy who once helped an evil b… witch to kidnap one of our dearest friends!"
"That was the Red Queen's idea, hardly mine," the Hatter said, twiddling his fingers together. The boy still had that powerful stick zeroed on him, so he couldn't reach for his handgun, despite of how much his trigger finger itched. He would have to make use of the gift bestowed upon him before being sent to Wonderland. Again. "Your friend was an inferior, awful Alice! She was not even blonde!"
"What, are you an Aryan supremacist now?" growled Asuna, gesturing towards him with her harinsen while Alice gasped at the barbarism rampaging everywhere, from everyone. "Girls don't come much better than Konoka, so watch your mouth while you still have those oversized teeth in it!"
Gadget frowned mildly as she absently caressed her own front teeth with a finger.
"Asuna!" Skuld gasped. "You could pronounce 'Aryan supremacist' flawlessly! Wow, I *am* that good!"
"Can it, Skuld-sama," Asuna muttered.
"Get up slowly, and with no tricks, Tetch," Negi coldly told the man. "You know you're no physical match for me. And I can see you have a gun in your pants," he added as the scowling Hatter obeyed slowly, hands going up. "Drop it down. Now!"
Chamo sighed as the Hatter let the large handgun on the grass. "Oh, that's a relief. So he wasn't just happy to see us, especially Alice-chan!"
"What did you mean with that?" Alice asked, puzzled.
"Ask your mother," Skuld grouched.
"You may think you have won without even starting to fight, vain young man," the Hatter bitterly said, "but things hardly ever are what they seem, and this side of the mirror, anything is possible. March Hare, you can pour the special tea now."
"The special tea? FINALLY!" with the air of a possessed person, the twitching, excited Hare quickly took hold of another teacup and poured its black, thick contents into his cup, before anyone could stop him. All the eyes that had been on the Mad Hatter moments ago now went to the cup as it quickly overflowed, its contents surging up in a way that startled even the March Hare, making him stumble back and fall on the manicured grass. The Dormouse hiccupped in his sleep, lazily lifted his head, looked at the dark mass rising from the tea right before his nose, and then mumbled as he simply went back to sleep.
Negi watched in horror as the darkness took on a massive, towering shape, reminiscent of a medieval knight. It wore some sort of dark blue armor materialized out of nowhere over his sleek, powerful black frame, and all of its face but its slitted, icy cold white eyes was covered by a metallic looking helmet with two tall and sharp horns, one on each side of its head. On its broad chest, there was an emblem shaped like a stylized black bat; in a heavy clawed hand it held a shield, and a long sword in the other.
"… man," Asuna said. "You Gotham freaks really are obsessed with Batman-sama, aren't you? Not that I don't understand the appeal, he's a real stud, but still... "
"Kill everyone but Alice. Don't touch a single hair of hers, or you will pay," the Hatter dryly commanded, and then the Heartless Knight lunged ahead with his sword towards the closest target. Negi.
"Tea?" said one of the two tiny demons who had been eagerly waiting for Lord Hades when they arrived to the sinister dark chamber of doom and no smoking, please, offering her a steaming cup of something vile and vicious with a finger floating in it.
"Or coffee?" asked the even shorter, chubbier demonic imp at her other side, offering her a cup that looked and smelled just as bad, but this one had a toe in it instead.
"Thank you, but wouldn't you happen to have something without any body parts, poyo?" Poyo calmly asked.
The two imps looked at each other, highly confused at that strange request, before they reached into the drinks, pulled the finger and the toe out, and then offered the cups to Poyo again, sporting identical toothy, nervous smirks. "We do now!" they chorused.
One eye slowly floated up to the surface of the skinny blue imp's drink. "That wasn't supposed to be there," he said.
Poyo quietly picked the eyeball from the drink, flicked it aside, and began sipping from the cup. Any 3-A student would always choose tea, after all. "Don't worry about that, poyo. Thanks all the same, poyo."
Meanwhile, Uncle Hades sat by her side, but this once, he was not at the head of his own meeting table. The table was incredibly wide, and of course it was black, smooth and well polished, shiny under the light of the green candles set before each seat of those gathered. It was an old tradition of the Underworlds, granting access to important gatherings and conferences through the delivery of green candles that had to be lit at the stroke of midnight and then held during the visitor's stay in the realm of the dead.
It was the only way Zazie knew a mortal could survive the trip to Hades' domains and leave while keeping their life. And, against her expectations when she was brought there, there had been many mortals in attendance, which was against Uncle's normal customs. He hadn't had a single live human visitor that she knew of since Orpheus, all those centuries ago.
"Look, I just had to bring her in, okay?" Hades shrugged, comfortably sitting on his dark seat of ominous dread, helpfully marked with a 'II' engraved on its back. "She's got prior experience working with Cosmo Entelecheia, and she knows the kids better than anyone. If I could manipulate time and space to simply reach all the way there and crush them myself, do you think I'd have the need to associate myself with you guys? Not to offend any of you, naturally..." he laughed throatily, perversely, folding his hands under his chin. "Still, I vouch for the girl. True, she's a bit soft hearted, but she'll grow up! Besides, she understands average mortals are supposed to be fleeting like that. Again, no offense..."
"Some God you are, then," the tall, lean, horned figure in complete back sitting at the head of the table sneered. "And you are quite offensive for someone who never means any offense, Lord Hades."
"Hey, hey hey," Hades frowned. "Did I ever say any of you fellows were 'average'? Mortals, maybe, but whatever your many faults are, 'average' certainly ain't one of them. You at least strive to get better, I can appreciate that. I'm the same, that's why I want to get this place up and running better than ever now. You'll see, it's just we aren't working at full capacity ever since we only get the sinners and misfits! We've got a lot of them, true, enough as to get by, but it's still not the same thing as before. Used to be, they sent everyone else down too, so I got a nice little cosmic macrocosm of life, but nowadays I only get the lowlifes and nobodies. Standards have really gone down... Anyway, do you know why half of the suckers here were sent to me? Betrayal!"
"Meaning?" the leader of the Council coldly asked.
Hades fumed loudly and slammed a fist on the table. "Meaning I wouldn't bring anybody here if I was sure they could, in any way, shape or form, betray us! The willingness to do so, of course, being another matter altogether, but let's be honest, you can't ask for much honesty and loyalty in this business, I understand that. I'm only saying I trust all of us, yourself included, niece, to be smart enough as to realize none of you could get away with betraying the Council. I thought it'd be nice to address this before anything else."
"How considerate of you," another tall, thin figure wrapped in red and black, with a small red parrot perched on a shoulder and trying to hide behind its owner's tall collar, sneered dismissively. "Although I fail to see why we should be unable to ever deal with a failure in your part, if you feel we must resort to subterfuge to deal with a child and his witless associates."
With the flair of a ringmaster, a thin man in the white suit of a stage magician, with a curly black moustache, laughed with a scenery-chewing gusto Poyo, a show-woman herself, might have found likable under other circumstances. "Oh, Vizier, Vizier, I come from the future, do you remember that? I know things! There's nothing normal about that child. You said it yourself, nobody should be able to stand a fight against those Heartless of yours, and yet they have done so without the need for one of those 'Keyblades' you seem to be in so much awe of!"
"Why don't we turn them into Heartless?" asked a huge, adipose monster of a woman, eight slimy black tentacles oozing and squirming all around her. "That should settle things quick enough!"
"I'm not sure that is the wisest course action," sounded the smooth, composed voice of a bald man in an expensive black business suit, who sat while absently caressing the glowing green ring in his right hand. "According to all the information you supplied me... and I'm acting under the impression it would be in your own best interests to be as accurate as possible... turning that boy, not to mention the vampire pulling his strings, into more of your monsters would only turn them into uncontrollable beasts that would need a serious waste of efforts as to dispose of them. Better to strike them down while they are relatively weak and disoriented."
"Forget about the lad!" another man, also tall and lean, swinging a sharp hook replacing his left hand, shouted acridly. "How can you be so gleefully ignoring the most important fact? The King and his Keyblade have been found! It's him we should be focusing on! Swoggle me eyes, why should we be minding them bilge rats!"
A very attractive woman with long wavy purple hair, clad in an enticing, form fitting green onepiece with matching gloves and boot, gave a mischievous smile. "Captain, my dear Captain, you of all people should be aware of the folly of understimating children. Besides, there's not much we can do about the King as long as Heracles is near him. Better to write that world off as a momentary loss. It gives us an excuse to seize the Lifemaker's creation without going back on our terms with Cosmo Entelecheia."
Poyo made her best to prevent herself from flinching at that coldly callous remark.
"Ha ha ha! That's right, just imagine the looks on their faces then!" cackled a deep voiced, wide and tall figure that stunk of rancid worms and putrefaction, wrapped in a dirty white mix of a full bodysuit and an oversized burlap sack. "First we claim the smaller prize, and then the big one! I like that! A full house!"
"Indeed," grimly intoned a muscular caped man, hiding his face behind a metal mask, folding his arms on the table's surface. "We will stride the worlds like giants, humbling the greatest of man's scion while, at the same time, helping them into true greatness."
"That's right, a greater team of humanitarians and do-gooders has never been assembled before! Oh, how noble we all are! A veritable order of sisters of mercy!" loudly taunted the Council member who chilled Poyo the most, despite being the least powerful by far. He was the only one of them who had struck at Negi-sensei and his forces before, and she knew well he would greatly enjoy their suffering. Even the other Council members seemed clearly uneasy and uncomfortable around the man, who was as white as the skull of death, and grinned from ear to ear, red wide lips sprawled while showing uncountable long teeth, yellowed and disorganized like the keys of a broken piano. "Ha ha ha ha ha!"
The Joker.
"Enough," the Council Leader said, rising from her dark throne, as a crow flew from the darkness to stand on one of her shoulders. She slammed the end of her long staff against the cavernous floor and sternly added, "There are enough of our forces to deal with both sides of the opposition. They will surrender to us, or be swallowed by darkness. Either way," and this woman's purple thin lips curved up in a way that was much subtler than Joker's but no less threatening, "they will end up being useful..."
Meanwhile, sitting alone at the head of the wide dinner table of her resort's core building, Evangeline A.K. 'definitely will never be Yukihime' Mc Dowell fumed to herself, one leg slung over her chair's armrest, and her chin on a fist. Her emerald eyes were fixed on the wall opposite her, her brow curved down with intensity.
Chachamaru's sensors, always so handy at reading any given situation, were useless this once. Even without them, she had become quite handy at reading her mistress' emotions, but not this time. It made her actually... she supposed she could use the term 'nervous' under such peculiar circumstances. She had never seen Evangeline like this, not even when she pursued Negi's blood. Evangeline's mood at the time was completely bitter and downright fierce, and when Chachamaru had suggested going back to the others, the vampire had nearly physically lashed out at her, something she had never done before.
Chachamaru had stuck regardless, for Negi and Ala Alba had each other, but Evangeline only had her. Evangeline had spent most of the subjective days since locked up in the resort, which she had sealed from the inside, trying to remain as isolated from Chachamaru herself as possible. It was clear she was dwelling on something that tormented and angered her, but subtly asking about the subject had been met with nothing but growls, evasions, and outright "shut up"s.
Until that subjective morning, when Eva asked Chachamaru to bring her a box of toys she had once bought from a traveling collector. She often did that, and added them to her impressive collection of dolls and playthings. Chachamaru wondered why she would want these now, however. She had never showed any special attachment to them, and they were not expensive or particularly fine, in purely material terms. Still, perhaps they would lighten the Master's mood, so Chachamaru obeyed quickly, contented to be asked for help at last. It was progress, of some sort.
So why did she hesitate now, stopping at the dining room's doorstep, with the cardboard box in her hands?
"Well, what are you waiting for? Bring it to me already," Evangeline curtly ordered without looking back at the door.
"Yes, Master," the gynoid quietly said, walking to her and delicately placing the box on the table.
Evangeline looked inside and nodded only once. "You can go now."
"Indeed. I'll be waiting outside of your room in the event you—"
"I mean," Evangeline snarled, "you can go. Out. Away. Back to your creator. I don't need you anymore."
"Master?"
"You don't even need to call me Master," the vampire said, standing up and pointing for the door. "Leave. If I ever have need of your assistance again, I'll let you know."
"But, should I contact you if Hakase-san and Negi-sensei learn anything about how to head back to Mahora?"
"Why would I ever want that? I'm free now. I have no further need for Boya or his blood, or for anyone else, for that matter. That includes you, so go and search for your own happiness. You won't find it at my side."
"With all due respect for your instructions, Master," Karakuri said, "I won't ever be happy if I suspect you aren't enjoying any measure of happiness yourself. And if I can say so, your actions of late have hardly been those of a happy person."
"I'm a creature of the night, fool! My sole true happiness lies in being alone, apart from mankind! And you have become far too human for my comfort. So leave! Shoo! Scoot! Forget you ever knew me! I'll drop the resort's seals just long enough for you to leave, and don't bother coming back afterwards. You'll find them in place again!"
"This is nothing but a temper tantrum, Master," Chachamaru calmly replied. "Is this the mid-life crisis we were warned about"
"I! Don't! Throw! Temper! Tantrums!" Evangeline slammed a foot on the floor with each word, rather petulantly. "And I don't have a mid-life to have a crisis of! But I'll throw you out if you don't leave soon!"
Chachamaru blinked, then reached over and tugged on one of Evangeline's ears. "Stop acting like a dumbass, you gorgeous powerful foolhardy gem, you!" she shouted in a perfect copy of Evangeline's voice.
"What's that for, you moron?!"
"It's what you instructed me to do in the event you ever became too irrational and childish for your own good," she honestly replied. "Has it worked?"
"NO! Now leave already before I... before I shatter you into a million pieces!"
"Can I be back by Saturday?"
"NO!"
"Sunday, then?"
"NO!"
"Very well. Monday, in that case. Enjoy yourself in the meanwhile, please," said Chachamaru, deeply bowing to her before turning around and leaving.
Evangeline hissed and seethed viciously, rubbing her aching ear, while listening to her soft steps down the hall, growing softer and then silent. Her eyes gained her warning golden on black colors, and she muttered to herself, fangs showing. "I should have destroyed her..."
Never mind that now. It's time to start unraveling this damned puzzle, she thought as she pulled the toys out of the box and aligned them before her, neatly, one by one. Then she stared angrily at them, waiting. When no answer came by, she pushed two fingers against the chest of the old cowboy action figure she had placed at the head of the group, whose colors were fading, both on its exposed face and the clothes he was wearing.
"Stop playing the fool, will you?!" she yelled. "I want some damn answers, and I want them now!"
The cowboy plopped down on his butt and then, making a muted grunt, moved one of his hands, taking it to his chest. "This is why we don't like playing with you! You play rough!"
"And that's because I'm not a child anymore," she growled, grabbing the cowboy and pulling him up face to face with her, as the other toys also stirred to life and began to moved, looking up at them in several different levels of concern and surprise. "The man who sold you to me said he'd gotten you from a parallel world. While passing through a place called 'Traverse Town'! Who left you there in the first place, and when?!"
"Look, it's not my fault, okay?" Hades shrugged, comfortably sitting on the dark throne of ominous dread at the end of the chamber. "It's just like I was telling the guys and gals, if I could manipulate time and space like some other people who still do nothing for others despite claiming moral superiority, do you think I'd have to do that whole thing with the potion and the Titans and all that? Hmmm? But hey, these fellows, well, they offered me a seat at the big kids table, what was I supposed to do? I had to play along, but believe me, Poyo dear, I know a rat when I see one. I know how to play them without being burned, but that doesn't change the fact sometimes you've gotta play with them in the first place."
Poyo, who sat seiza on the ground before him, barely made comfortable by a pillow Pain and Panic had brought for her after the meeting was over and the other Council members left, said nothing.
"Now, I know what are you thinking," Hades smiled, taking a finger to his forehead. "You're thinking I'm trying to fool you, to sweet-talk into thinking I've turned a new leaf, to convince you I'm an unwilling party in all of this. Because you're such a smart girl, Poyo."
"If you say so, poyo," she plainly said. "And what have I told you about my schnicht, poyo?"
Hades formed a cigar out of thin air and began smoking it, blowing skull shaped tiny clouds. "You know I hate being here, don't you?"
"It's a frequent topic of amusement for Mother, so she makes sure to mention it at least once per visit, poyo," Poyo said.
"Isn't that just like Hildy?" Hades chuckled, with some deeply bitter semblance of fondness. "Well, yes, there used to be a time where I to take Zeusy's big cushy Laz-E-Boy, move into the big house, to take over creation forever and cast them down here, so they'd know how it feels, while I spreaded my darkness around all of existence... And then, well, there was that whole stunt with Herc, and I nearly succeeded, if not for some bad luck, and you know what that near-success led me to realize?"
"That you can't fight fate, poyo?" asked Poyo.
"No, that's was defeat taught me," Hades sighed. "What near-victory made me realize was, I'd have extended my darkness over everything. Darkness which I didn't originally have, mind you, but that's the breaks, I guess."
"I fail to see how that would be a realization, poyo," Poyo said.
"Come on, see the pig picture, Poyo... girl," he said, remembering just in time to not make it sound like he was stealing her thing. "By making everything like Hades, I'd have been trapped in the same kind of place I detest! But now that place would be everywhere! I'd just be trading a prison for an even bigger prison, and 'bigger' is no relief when you're a god!"
"So basically, you are trapped in a situation you can't escape, poyo," Poyo observed. "You can't just take over without being yourself, and contaminating everything, poyo. You would end up living, not in Olympus, but in an Olympus turned Hades, poyo."
Hades nodded and let out a miserable sigh. "Isn't that just like a Greek Tragedy, I ask you?"
"You might just try to change yourself for the better, poyo."
Hades made a face of disgust. "Hey, I used to be better! I used to be a nice guy! Even mortals remember how it used to be! I didn't go around screwing everything that walks, flies, swims or came from a tree like everyone else in my branch of the family! I came in to work every day, made a ton of money, didn't go out a night to party... I was the responsible one! The one who actually worked his butt off in an eternally thankless job!" By now, everyone was leaning back slightly as Hades caught fire, the flames licking higher and higher. "I tried you know, I tried going along with it, I tried my best at being patient and a good sport. ASK ME HOW THAT WENT?!" Abruptly he deflated, the radiant, towering inferno that had been rising towards the near-invisible ceiling of the Underworld disappearing into a little puff, the bright orange flames turning back to cool blue. "I'm cool, I'm cool... Remember what the Doc told me… Anyway, I brought you here because it's the only place where I'm sure those guys can't hear me or see me. Because no one can look into the realm of the dead until their time is due... or they're using some real good necromatic mojo to cheat... or they're Telute, because death gets everywhere... but hey, it's STILL one of the most secure places to have a conversation in creation. No one can hear you. Not even the walls, they're made of corpses."
"I've noticed, poyo," said Poyo, giving one of the walls covered by bones and skulls a disapassionate look. "But I still don't understand what would you need my help with, poyo?" she asked. "Don't you have enough with your allies, poyo?"
"Pffft! Forget my so-called 'allies', they're in this only for their own agendas," Hades waved a hand in a circle. "Maleficent acts all high and mighty with her Mistress of All Evil farce, but in fact she's just a big softie who wants to own her little precious sleeping princess and doesn't want anyone to learn. I did, though, 'cause I'm that damn good, heh heh. Lex is just playing things up so his Earth will fall into chaos and he can take over as its savior. Hook and Kadabra are only glorified thieves. Joker and Oogie Boogie are simply nutballs who go around wrecking things for fun. Polaris is delusional and as detached from reality as they come. Ursula and Jafar are in this for mere petty power and self-validation, and Circe... she's going through a mid-life crisis, that's all. Let your Unca take care of those bozos, what I really have in mind for you is... well, follow me and I'll show you, kid!"
Hades stood up and led her towards a planetary model at the other end of the chamber, one depicting a planet wrapped into heavenly mists. He waved a hand around it, and the floating model that was made of some otherwordly material more consistent than light, but far more ethereal than stone, metal or wood, gave a zooming closeup, showing several areas covered by ancient Greek architecture. Small cities, great metropolis of days long gone, and hillside villages, were all visible in great detail. Hades moved a finger through the scale landscape until it stopped at a gigantic Coliseum in one of the bigger cities.
"Do you know why I was fated and foretold to endure long past my siblings, those living in the clouds surrounded by luxury?" Hades asked.
Poyo actually sighed. "Because death and taxes are the only constants in the existence of man through the ages, no matter what, and death is the only mystery they will never figure out, poyo? The only frontier only faith can break through, poyo?" she droned. "And no matter what, dead people have to go somewhere, poyo?"
"Yup," Hades hissing, grinning perversely again. "That's why. The clock keeps ticking, and everyone of my sibs and their kids get forgotten or kiddified, and I come out on top. Nice guys finish last, yanno. But now, now guys have been playing fast and loose with time and space– and if I say someone's playing fast and loose, you know it's serious crap– in no small part because of all the instability your egghead classmate caused... now, this has reappeared."
"Your homeworld, poyo," Poyo dispassionately said. "So, is everyone there, poyo...?"
"Existence is re-creating itself," Hades growled, his burning eyes nailed on the model. "And now to things that definitely should not be happening are, well, happening. My nephew, who's shown up on your world looking like a steroid overdose who got hit with the ugly stick as the mindless Servant of a little princess (which I think is hilarious and no big change, by the way) is back here too!" He poked a finger angrily into another part of the world, as if trying to stab it with his sharp nail. "And I don't like that! At all!"
"So much for leaving your past alone then, poyo," Poyo said.
"It's not like I have a choice," Hades huffed. "Anyway, I want you to look into that for me. Lend your poor uncle a hand, and I'll see what can I do for Zazie. I'm not even asking you to make him slip on a banana peel, just look."
"Do you want me to go up against Hercules, poyo? Are you sure you don't want to try again, now these allies of yours have given you a chance, poyo? Why should I believe your earlier claims then, poyo?"
"Because, if I just wanted to strongarm you, I wouldn't even need to lie, would I? I'd just need to pluck Zazie's soul out of storage and threaten to do the usual nasty stuff to it, but that's just barbaric, right? It's the kind of thing those Christians do over... there" He waved vaguely as, his face looking annoyed, as if he was talking about an annoying neighbor who held karaoke parties long into the night with the volume turned all the way up. "I'm a civilized Greek, we don't do things like that. And we're family. Look, just help a poor uncle indulge in an old grudge, for old times' sake, that's all. Come on, it's not like I'm going to pull a Zeus on the kid and rape him or turn him into a tree. Just a little straightforward suffering, maybe a few monsters, and make him wish he was dead! It's just a little payback."
"The best revenge is living well, poyo..."
"I DON'T WANT TO LIVE WELL! I CAN'T LIVE WELL!" Hades' body burst into flames again, and far from him, Pain and Panic shrieked and hugged each other. "I JUST GOT A DO OVER SO I WANT TO GET THINGS DONE RIGHT THIS TIME! CAN'T YOU GET THAT, YOU STUPID GIRL?!"
There a moment of stillness.
I just want to get things done right this time...
And then he, just as abruptly, turned the flames off, slicked his 'hair' back, and recomposed himself with an elegant gasp. "E-hem! Sorry about that. Anyway, yeah, just do that, or I'll pull Zazie out of storage and crush her. Since you force my hand that much." He tried to look cool and intimidating and serious as he said it, which was kinda hard to do when he was looking away nervously fully aware he might have said something that hit just a bit too close to home.
"Mother would destroy you, poyo," Poyo said levelly.
"I doubt she could, given the way things have turned out all of a sudden," he said, recovering some of his cool. "But do you really want to risk it? Hrmmmmm?"
Poyo, for the first time in a long while, actually frowned deeply, claws flexing in and off at her sides.
But she ended up shaking her head anyway. "No. I don't want to risk it, poyo."
The Mad Hatter took another elegant sip from his tea, now he had taken his seat back, and quoted, "You will observe the Rules of Battle, of course?' the White Knight remarked, putting on his helmet too."
Asuna grunted in exertion as the Knight Heartless swung his sword at her, once again barely missing her and Negi. It was fast, very fast, giving Negi little room or time to charge any spells, and constantly closing in on them, so they had to fall back on purely physical defense.
Hatter chuckled, pouring a refill for himself and another for the March Hare, who looked sort of sullen over being batted back earlier, but apparently would put up with it over the tea. "`I always do,' said the Red Knight, and they began banging away at each other with such fury that Alice got behind a tree to be out of the way of the blows."
Alice, who inded was behind a nearby tree now with Skuld, Gadget and Chamo, blinked at the latest quote from the small man. "How curious," she said. "Are you saying there is a story about another girl named Alice, and he is obsessed with it?"
"Sort of," Skuld grunted, keeping a Skuld Bomb in hand, but not daring to toss it at the criminal or the Heartless until she could find a proper opening. Giant paper fans and wooden staffs, even ones of magical origins, were not the best instruments to block strikes from bladed weapons, so Asuna and Negi were really against the ropes by now. Only the fact there were two of them and each was keeping the Heartless' attention in a different direction was buying them enough room and time to survive. "Any ideas on what to do now?"
"The gun in the man's hand," Gadget pointed towards the Hatter, who was holding his cup in one hand and the handgun he had picked back from the grass in the other. "Even if the Professor and Asuna prevail, he can use that to shoot them down while they're tired and in shooting range."
"I'm on it, Hon!" Chamo made a brief salute with a flip of a paw, before quickly disappearing between the bushes.
"He'd better not have taken that as an excuse to escape..." Skuld mumbled.
"Asuna-san, I'll go low, you go high!" Negi shouted, ducking and striking with several Sagitta Magica to the Heartless' legs.
"Roger!" the girl nodded, using her greater height to begin pummeling the Heartless' torso in rapid succession as the creature lost footing. While its armor absorbed most of the blows, they still made it fall, and once it was down, Negi raised his hands and blasted him with a quick barrage of successive Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens. The Heartless howled savagely as most of its armor flew apart, shattered, but it incredibly leapt back to its feet, swinging its shield and catching Asuna in the face. "Ugh!"
"Asuna-san!" Negi cried as the girl flew, batted aside and momentarily stunned. Seething in anger, he conjured a Flans Saltatio Pulverea and blasted the Heartless with it, sending the dark being crashed against the tea table, greatly startling Hatter and the Hare.
The Dormouse, giving a few small snores, flipped around in the air after the collision, fell into an empty cup, and kept on sleeping as the cup slide down the broken remains of the table to softly land on the grass.
Mad Hatter growled, pushing the goofily chuckling Hare off himself and taking aim at Negi with his gun. "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't— OWW!"
Chamo, who had jumped onto his hand while he hadn't been looking, had sunk his teeth on his fingers, and the pain made him drop the gun, long enough for Skuld to find the chance to toss her concussion Skuld Bomb in his face, knocking him back and making him cough as the gas from the projectile enveloped his face.
In the meanwhile, the Heartless rose again, running towards Negi and slashing at him. Negi blocked just in time, but the sword was so sharp it left a large dent into the wood. The Heartless pushed Negi back, and then brought his helmeted head down, hitting the child's own head with it. Negi cried and stumbled back, stunned by the impact, which had left a small bleeding gash on his forehead. The Knight kicked him in the stomach, while Alice shrieked in terror; and Negi fell to his knees, gasping for air, head spinning.
The Heartless stood over him, brought his sword up, and then brought it down...
Only to find it blocked by another sword. Although its face itself was not visible, its widening blank eyes said everything.
Negi lifted his head and gulped, almost as surprised. "Asuna-san!"
Asuna smiled, teeth awkwardly clenched. "You spend so long trying to get the sword, then you get it only once without the actual chance to slash with it, and then it only reappears when you have to save a brat...!"
With renewed energy, the girl pushed the Knight back; Alice watched on in pure awe how that girl, barely older than herself, swatted such a gigantic weapon with such ease and power. "I'll never hear the end of this from Misa and the others now!" she raged, redoubling her efforts with great rage, striking furiously at the Heartless, slowly overwhelming it. "They'll get the wrong idea, and it's all your fault! It's not like I could let a child die, but you think they'll take it that way? No, no, no, no! You idiot! You just brought me a whole world of pain!"
"Asuna-san, I doubt it can understand you!" Negi said, trying to come to her aid, but unsure of what angle to take without getting in her way. The way she was attacking wasn't helping him there.
"I was talking to you!" Asuna growled, swinging her newfound sword from below and up into the Heartless' now mostly exposed upper body, cleaving it cleanly by half. "NEGI, YOU DAMN FOOL!" was her desperate cry as the Heartless' body exploded into black sparks that flew everywhere.
Then, while the black specks floated down slowly, blanketing the grass, Asuna hissed and grumbled, limbs trembling slightly. "Last thing... I needed... was your jealous girlfriends on my case now...! Why me, why...!"
Negi gulped. "Asuna-san, I'm so sorry over that, but... I'm also so thankful... You just saved my life, and—!"
Then he felt another sharp, metallic thing being tightly pressed against his throat from behind. And he saw another figure, as tall as a man but shaped like a giant playing card with a head and limbs, appearing behind Asuna as well, pressing a long spear's tip against her back.
"Halt!" the card soldier detaining Asuna shouted, with a strong and manly voice. "You all are under arrest in the name of the Queen of Hearts!"
"... aw shit," Chamo muttered from the grass.
"... is it your unbirthday as well?" asked the Hare. "What a happy coincidence!"
The Dormouse blinked lazily, looked at the card soldiers that were filling the clearing now from all sides, turned his cup around so it covered him, and just kept on sleeping underneath it.
To be Continued.
