Chapter 8: The Holographic Hubris

The next morning...

'Hey, wake up!'

'Mmph... Huh?' Harold opened his eyes. 'What are you waking up so early for?'

'I dunno.' responded Yaoi. 'I guess I'm just kind of excited.'

'Excited? Why?'

'Well, I guess it's because of the battle...'

'Wait, you mean the battle with Monika? But, she's a lot more powerful now! She could probably kill us! To defeat her, we would probably need the power of that Orb, too! What is there to be excited about?'

'Well, I guess... It's 'cuz if we won, then this whole crazy... thing would be over! And I think we can do it, too! I mean, we beat M'choakumchild, and we won the battle before that...'

Harold thought for a while. 'Well, I guess it's better than not being ready to battle. And besides, there's not much you can do in here anyway. There's only a few books, and... Hey, when did we get a goldfish?'

'Oh, don't you remember?' said Yaoi. 'When Satsuma's book turned into a goldfish? Well, in all the confusion, I managed to get it into a bowl of water. Somehow. And, well, it hasn't really done much except swim around, but, I guess it's some extra company, huh?'

'Hey, by the way, what happened to your sword? I haven't seen it for a while.'

'Oh, I... don't know. I think the last time I had it was in that weird room where we had a fight. But, it's not that important. I mean, I could barely carry it, and we managed to beat M'choakumchild without it, so...'

'You know...' said Yaoi. 'We've come pretty far, for a couple of normal people. I mean, I never imagined I'd have to beat up people and travel through dimensions, but I think we've done a pretty good job of it. Now, let's go!'

Harold and Yaoi went into the basement. Pretty soon, they saw a hooded figure standing in the middle of the corridor.

'Hmph.' said Monika. 'I thought you would've been too scared to fight me. You must have a death wish, or something. Well, looks like your wish will be granted!'

But there was something unusual about Monika. It was almost as if she was slightly translucent. But Harold didn't have time to think about it, before Monika shot a blast of magic at them. Harold and Yaoi both moved out of the way.

'Hmph. Well, try... this!'

Monika shot a much larger blast of magic, that was the size of the whole corridor. Quickly, Harold and Yaoi both ran away, and went into a nearby storage closet.

'Jeez, it's pretty cramped in here.' said Yaoi.

'Shh! Or she might hear us!' replied Harold.

Monika stood outside the door. 'Heh heh... There's nowhere to hide! Come out, Harry and Yaoi~ '

Harold and Yaoi both closed their eyes. Suddenly, the door swung open, and there was a loud 'SMASH!'

Monika was lying on the floor. 'Heh... heh...'

'Well... uh... I didn't mean to do that.' said Yaoi. 'But it worked!'

Monika stayed lying on the floor. Then, she said two simple words.

'I... win...'

'That orb must've really messed with your brain, Monika. You've obviously lost!'

'No... you... idiots...' said Monika. Suddenly, she started flickering, and disappeared. Then, a voice came from deeper within the corridor. 'I win.'

Just then, there was a bright flash, and Harold and Yaoi couldn't move. Monika stepped forwards.

'You thought you were fighting me, huh? Well, it was actually... a hologram! And all I was doing was wasting your time, so I could charge up my freezing spell! Heh heh heh... It's so easy to smeckledorf you two fools!' But, the spell won't last long. I could kill you now, but I've got a better idea! How about I trap you here forever, with nothing but the knowledge that you've doomed the entire universe!'

Without warning, the walls started to move, encapsulating Harold and Yaoi in an inescapable prison.

'Goodbye! Next time you see me, I'll be ruling over everything!'

'Well...' said Harold. 'Just how are we going to escape from this one?'

'Didn't you hear her, Harry? We're stuck in here forever! Wait... We're stuck in here forever. '

Suddenly, Yaoi started to panic. 'WE'VE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE! HELP! SOMEBODY! I THINK I'VE ALREADY STARTED TO GO CRAZY IN HERE!'

'Whoa, Yaoi. Calm down!'

'SORRY! IT'S JUST THAT I'M KINDA CLAUSTROPHOBIC! AND IT FEELS LIKE WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF OXYGEN DOES IT FEEL LIKE WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF OXYGEN TO YOU?'

'Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find a way out. But for now, there's not much to do except sit here and wait...'

Later...

'Ugh... G... Huh? W... where... am I? And... what happened?'

A girl sat up in the middle of a pitch-black room.

'Hello? Is anyone there?' she called out. But there was no answer.

'It feels like I woke up from some kind of nightmare or something...' the girl thought to herself. 'And my head hurts, and it feels like there was something around my neck...' The girl sat in silence for a while, as she thought. 'Wait!' she said to herself. 'I think my memory is returning. The last thing I remember... There was Monika, and that magical rope, and then... well, that's all I can remember. I must have gone unconscious after that...'

Suddenly, the girl felt a wave of sadness. 'Wait! Tangelo! He was...' She fought back her tears. 'Maybe I shouldn't think about that right now. I've got to figure out what happened, and... if my friends are still alive...' The girl thought for a moment. 'I've been hiding from my problems for too long... From now on, I'll try not to be so scared. This will be a new start for me... Satsuma Citrina!'

Meanwhile...

It was a regular day on the planet Cephalodia. The inhabitants of the planet, octopus-like creatures, were going about their day, minding their own business, when suddenly, a dark vortex appeared in the sky. And out of it... came a creature that none of them had seen before.

A crowd of Cephalodians had gathered around the mysterious figure, who started to speak.

'Well, hello there. My name is Monika. Now, I suggest you do exactly as I say, or there will be... severe consequences. You there! Step forward.'

A Cephalodian wearing a crown and cloak stepped forward.

'So, you're the king, hmm? Well, not anymore! I'm the new ruler of this planet! And soon, the whole universe! That is, if you'll comply...'

The Cephalodian King spoke in some kind of incomprehensible language, while shaking its head angrily.

'Hmph. Pretty foolish of you to think you can defy me.'

Monika shot a blast of dark energy at the king, killing him instantly.

'And if anyone else tries something like that, then you'll get the same punishment too. Now, welcome your new ruler!'

'It's no use.' said Harold. 'This wall's too thick, and too strong. It'd take forever to dig an escape tunnel. Uh, Yaoi? What are you doing?'

'Well, I dunno. Just kind of... staring at the wall. I mean, I've got to amuse myself somehow.'

'Huh?' said a voice from the other side of the wall. 'Harold? Yaoi? Is that you?'

'Yes, it's- Wait, who said that?' asked Harold.

'It's me, Satsuma!'

'Wait, WHAT?' said Yaoi. 'But-but-but- I thought you were... dead!'

'Well, the strange thing is... I do remember... well... dying. But, somehow, I came back to life?'

'Forget about that for now.' said Harold. 'Can you help get us out of here?'

'Yeah!' said Yaoi. 'Couldn't you, like, get really angry and punch the wall down?'

'Well, I don't really think I can just... make myself angry like that.'

'Oh, by the way, what happened back there?' said Harold. 'That led to you... dying?'

'Well, I went down into the basement to look for you... Now I realise that that was a foolish idea, but, well, I was just really worried about you. But anyway, I ran into Monika on the way, and... and...' Satsuma started breathing heavily.

'Uh, you OK?' asked Yaoi.

'MONIKA! She... she was the one who murdered my brother!'

'Wait, what?' said Harold.

'And... and... she didn't even care! She doesn't care about anyone! Only her stupid plan to rule over everything!' shouted Satsuma.

There was silence for a moment.

'Sorry about that. It's just... a lot has happened lately... Wait.'

'Huh? What's wrong?' asked Harold.

'When I got angry just then... my other soul didn't take control of my body like it normally would... Wait a moment! I think I know how I survived!'

'How?'

'Well, you know about how I have two souls? Well, from what I can recall, I was overcome with anger as I died. So, maybe, it was only that soul that... died? And that's why it didn't take control of my body. So, I guess I'll just have one soul for the rest of my life...'

'Wait...' said Yaoi. 'So, does that mean you can't break us out of here?'

'I guess not...'

'So... is this how it ends? Trapped behind a wall of solid concrete?'

'Wait a minute...' said Harold. 'Concrete! That's it!'

'Huh?'

'Satsuma can eat concrete, right? So, she can get us out of here! You'll do it, right?'

'...I'll try.' said Satsuma. 'But I've never eaten this much before...'

'Aww, come on!' said Yaoi. 'You can't just leave us here.'

'Don't worry, Yaoi!' said Satsuma. 'I'm going to eat you out!'

'You probably have no idea how wrong that sounds.' said Yaoi. 'But I'll explain it to you some other time. Get us out of here!'

Later...

'Ugh... Can't... eat... any... more...'

'You don't need to. I think this hole will be big enough to fit through.'

Harold stepped through the hole, and Yaoi followed.

Suddenly, Yaoi ran up to Satsuma, and hugged her.

'Satsuma! I'm so glad you're OK! Even if I don't really understand all this stuff about souls and... stuff, it's still good to see you again!'

'Heh... It's good to... see you again, too... But... can you please not... hug me so tightly? It's a little... hard to breathe.'

'Sorry.'

'So, have I missed anything important?'

'Well,' said Harold, 'We had another run-in with M'choakumchild.'

'And we got transported to another reality!' said Yaoi. 'It was really cool! And there was this weird floating pyramid guy, and... and...'

'Oh, and one more thing.' said Harold. 'Monika's disappeared off into some other dimension or something. Basically, she's not here anymore.'

Satsuma thought for a moment.

'Well, that will give us more time to think of a plan.' said Satsuma. 'But it's getting late. We should probably go to sleep soon. I need to get my thoughts together as well.'

'Good idea.' said Yaoi. 'Then, next morning, we'll be ready to... uh... what will we be doing?'