Pinkshuchan: LALIHO! Hey this is Pinkshuchan! The story is getting closer and closer to the end and I only have a few days to put all the chapters in. Luckily, these next chapters won't be as long as the last chapter so this story should be done by Christmas Eve. I don't own the song used in this chapter. Anyways, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter 10
The Sugarplum Kuma
Right after Yuki had been taken by the Mouse King, Shuichi tried looking for help. He ran back to the village and asked for help. No one would try to help him; they wouldn't even give him the directions to the Mouse King's castle. They all told him that he would be committing suicide to go there. In the end, Shuichi was giving squat and it frustrated him. After being rejected by the villagers, he ran back to the lake, hoping there was at least something to show him the way.
But there wasn't a single trace of anything.
Shuichi gave up. No one was going to help him and nothing could show him the way. She stood there, staring at the lake and began to cry. His tears welled up but wouldn't fall no matter what he did. He then imagined Yuki and an entire montage of him dancing with the nutcracker appeared in his mind.
It began with Yuki lending his hand to Shuichi as they stood by the lake. When the pink haired male took it, he was brought into the nutcracker's arms and they began to dance. It felt so real that Shuichi actually started dancing. Twirling in the arms of his beloved nutcracker, he gazed into those golden orbs until they stopped. They stared at each other as Yuki wiped away Shuichi's tears with his wooden hand. Then they closed their eyes and leaned in to kiss each other until the imaginative Yuki disappeared, causing Shuichi to fall into the soft green grass. He looked up before remembering that the Yuki in front of him was only from his thoughts. He got up and just sat there, his tears actually falling this time, shining under the light of the moon, because he knew that he may never see his beloved nutcracker again.
But now let's cue in the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, shall we?
Suddenly, what looked like big light pink sparkles began raining down over the entire lake. Shuichi looked up at looked at all of them. He was confused. Why was there light pink sparkles raining around him. He then heard a voice.
"Please do not cry!" said the voice, "Seeing you cry makes me want to cry, and that's not sparkly at all!"
Shuichi looked around. "Who's there?" he called out, unsure where it was coming from. He then looked up to see a light pink sparkle that seemed to be bigger than the others. When it reached the ground, a figure appeared before him…
And was facing the opposite direction with his back facing Shuichi.
The figure appeared to look like a giant pink rabbit with light blue fairy wings wearing blue overalls with a golden chain around its neck and a golden crown on its head. Facing the opposite direction of Shuichi, the rabbit began blabbing away.
"Hello there Sparkly Shuichi," the rabbit began, "I know that it must be a shock to see me standing here in front of you, but I just couldn't stand to watch you cry. I like to keep everything here in the Land of Sweets 'sparkly' because who doesn't like sparklies?"
As the giant rabbit spoke, a smaller sparkle but still bigger than the other sparkles, came down and revealed a small pink rabbit that also had light blue fairy wings with big beady eyes and a golden pendant with a ruby on its neck. The smaller rabbit realized what the bigger rabbit was doing and tried to get its attention. The bigger rabbit wouldn't respond to the little rabbit and continued talking until he realized: "Hey! Where did Sparkly Shuichi go?" The smaller rabbit tapped the bigger rabbit's shoulder and pointed to Shuichi's actual location, in which now the latter was standing. The bigger rabbit turned around with a big "Oh! There you are!"
Shuichi managed to get a good look at the bigger rabbit's face, which shocked him that the bigger rabbit was actually a guy in a bunny suit. He had short brown hair, ocean blue eyes, and a goofy expression. Shuichi stared at him for a bit with his head tilted before he spoke up.
"What is the Easter Bunny doing in a Christmas story?" he asked.
"Silly Sparkly Shuichi!" the rabbit guy fairy thing replied, "I'm not the Easter Bunny. At least not in this particular moment, as it's only a part time job I take every Easter. I'm Ryuichi, the Sugarplum Kuma!"
The pink haired male gasped. "You're the Sugarplum Kuma?" Ryuichi nodded. Shuichi's gaping face became a face of rage. "Where the hell were you? Yuki and I called for your help six chapters ago!"
The Sugarplum Kuma nodded. "Yes, you and your silly nutcracker friend wanted a few things. The nutcracker wanted to defeat the mouse that was after him and you wanted to return home where you belonged. But that changed, didn't it? Secretly you don't want to return home now. All you want is to stay here with your beloved nutcracker!"
Shuichi lowered his head before realizing something and looked back up at the fairy in the bunny costume. "Wait a moment! How do you know that?"
"You think that just because I didn't show up in front of you when you called for me, I wasn't there with you at all?" Ryuichi asked, "Ever since you called me out for help I had been watching you."
This confused the pink haired boy. "What do you mean?"
The Sugarplum Kuma waved his paw and summoned a shiny pink laptop. He then began clicking through and looked up the story 'A Gravitation Nutcracker'. Once he found it, he went through all the chapters.
"Here we go!" said Ryuichi, "In chapter 4 it said that someone was watching you even though you didn't realize it. That was me! And that entire bit with the candy cane monkey from chapters 6 to 9, the monkey was Kumagoro in disguise, isn't that right Kumagoro?" The pink bunny nodded. "And the mysterious man that got Yuki's arm back in chapter 9 was me again disguising my voice and it was me that slipped that silver pendant you're wearing on your neck. You see? I didn't appear in front of you because I knew that if I did, you wouldn't be feeling the things you feel now. I think that these feelings you feel now are better than not knowing them at all."
Shuichi lowered his head again. "But now Yuki is held captive by the Mouse King who plans to kill him. I need to reach his castle before he makes firewood out of my Yuki, but I don't know where it is nor do I have a way to get there."
Ryuichi placed his paw on Shuichi's shoulder. "Of course you have a way to get there!" he replied. "You just need to believe you can, and what better time to believe than on Christmas Day. Once you believe you can do anything."
The pink haired boy shook his head. "There's no way it could be that easy!"
The Sugarplum Kuma moved his paw to Shuichi's hand and held it as he began guiding Shuichi around. "You just haven't properly tried it yourself! In fact, no one ever does. In order to do anything they want, all they have to do is believe." He giggled. "Yay! It's time for my musical number." And then Ryuichi began to sing.
Ryuichi
Children sleeping, snow is softly falling
Dreams are calling like bells in the distance.
We were dreamers not so long ago
But one by one we all had to grow up.
When it seems the magic slipped away
We find it all again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste
It's time to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
Ryuichi began to fly, taking Shuichi with him. The pink haired male screamed with suddenly being carried into the sky. He closed his eyes, not wanting to look down. He didn't want to fall. He just wanted to stay up there if he could. But after wondering what was going on and why he couldn't feel Ryuichi's paw anymore. He opened his eyes to see that he was floating in the air by himself without any support. Ryuichi then led Shuichi across the lake and over many patches of land and ocean. As they flew, Ryuichi continued with showing everything he was talking about.
Ryuichi
Trains move quickly to their journey's end
Destinations are where we begin again.
Ships go sailing far across the sea
Trusting starlight to get where they need to be.
When it seems that we have lost out way
We find ourselves again on Christmas Day.
Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste
It's time to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.
If you just believe.
If you just believe.
If you just believe.
Just believe.
Just believe.
Ryuichi covered Shuichi's eyes with his paws, making him unable to see anything else. When the Sugarplum Kuma moved his hands, Shuichi found that they were standing at a castle. Could it be? Shuichi looked around but tried to keep himself hidden. He knew where he was the moment he saw the mouse soldiers.
He was at the Mouse King's castle.
Shuichi was so filled with joy that he hugged Ryuichi. "Thank you!" he cried, "Thank you so much!" He then opened up his eyes to see that Ryuichi already disappeared. The pink haired male took that as a sign that said 'Just go find your nutcracker!' Shuichi nodded to himself and began roaming around, trying to find where he could find Yuki.
Even though he left the spot where he was with Shuichi, he didn't move far. Ryuichi and Kumagoro were watching Shuichi from above. Kumagoro began saying something in rabbit speech that shocked the Sugarplum Kuma.
"You worry about him?" he asked, "You think that without us right there beside him he might not be able to save his nutcracker?" Kumagoro nodded. "Well, why don't you go with him? Keep a close eye on him! I'm sure you would be able to protect him just fine."
Kumagoro nodded before disappearing, leaving the Sugarplum Kuma to watch from above.
Pinkshuchan: Yay! Shuichi may just be able to save Yuki after all! The song used this chapter in Believe by Josh Groban. It's a good song. Read and Review!