Super Mario and Characters ©︎ Nintendo. Only the Original Characters are my own.

Chapter 11

Prologue

"I see… So very intriguing…"

This "room" had nothing.

No television. No tables. No chairs. Nothing.

In a way, it was referred to as the "World of Emptiness."

It was all black that you couldn't tell what was a wall and what wasn't. Out of world markings spread throughout the room.

The one from earlier that had spoken led out a slight smirk. They were in a wheelchair. If one were to look at them, they wouldn't know if he was from this world, Esalen, or from a completely different planet or dimension like Vanda.

This… man, was almost completely covered with black, could it be a robe? Or not? Dark turquoise markings spread all over his body except his hair, left side of the face and right foot. A regular turquoise colored glow would flow across his body with the help of the markings. Usually starting from the top, sometimes the bottom.

"So they have the potential…"

A weird ribbon-like object protruded from his left arm, it was all metal, but with the same characteristics as his body. It stayed in place, but spiraled upwards and then around him.

His hair was dead-gray, the type of gray that belonged to most grandparents that were about to be deceased.

The right side of his face was like the rest of the body. Where his right eye is supposed to be, a turquoise marking in the shape of an eye took the place of it. It couldn't close, nor did it have a pupil.

"Indeed, Alphrodius."

Another voice. It didn't belong to Alphrodius, the name of the mysterious man with strange markings.

There was nobody else in the room. However, it seemed the voice came from the ribbon-like object.

"You think we should?"

It spoke. Alphrodius chuckles lightly.

"No, not yet, my friend. Let's wait… a little while longer."

Amidst The Action I

A door opened. At the same time, a sound of someone swimming was heard.

There was a large box compartment made by strong glass. It reached all the way to the ceiling. Inside was, not water… It was a special type of liquid. Liqoire, it was called.

A girl with brown hair and short twintails had swam to the front of the compartment.

"Ah, you're home!"

She said. When the door opened, a short girl entered the room and ran to the compartment. A man with long black hair in a suit entered afterwards and closed the door.

"Glad to see you took care of the house while we were gone."

The voice belonged to Yatsu Monogari. The first Rank 8 Inducer.

The girl who had ran up to the compartment was his daughter, Maria Monogari. She also placed her hands on the glass, so did the girl swimming inside while letting out a smile.

"Why wouldn't I?"

The girl replied.

"Well, I still need to give you some adjustments. You don't have any weapons and such."

"I'm still surprised you managed to make this liquid. It lets me talk without the actual water interrupting."

"Maybe your body has gotten used to it, Audria."

Yatsu headed to the table and set down the food from the convenience store.

The girl in the compartment filled with the new liquid was apparently named Audria. Aside from brown hair with short twintails, she wore a light blue shirt with four lines across the chest area and also on the sleeves. A black skirt with shorts underneath alongside white shoes with black shoelaces.

It wasn't just her inside. She had her own couch, television, phone, bookshelf, etc. All waterproof thanks to Yatsu.

"I'll be heading out again soon."

Yatsu said. The two girls looked at him before Audria spoke.

"Again? But you just came home, Yatsu…"

"It won't be something big-"

"You always say that!"

Audria exclaimed. Yatsu just stood there and let out a sigh. His daughter came up to him and then looked back to Audria.

"It's ok, Audrey… Daddy always comes back!"

Maria let out a smile. Audria sighs. Why was she always worried about Yatsu's safety? He's a Rank 8! She shouldn't be worried.

"I'll be staying for a few and then I'll-"

He was interrupted by Maria who tightened her grip on his pants.

"... and then we'll leave."

"Alright…"

The trio decided to eat. Maria and Audria would be the ones talking while Yatsu stayed silent.

"Two years…"

He said. Audria heard this, told Maria to wait and swam closer to where the table was.

"What is it, Yatsu?"

Yatsu turns to her and then to the ceiling.

"... Two years since my wife disappeared. To this day I still don't know what happened."

This was the first time Audria heard of this. She looked down and then to the side. She felt guilty about reminding him.

"I will find her. I will not let Maria grow up without a mother."

Yatsu's hand turned into a fist and shook. A crack on the table formed. Before he almost broke it, he sighed and stood up.

"You leaving?"

"Yes."

Audria looked down again. Yatsu placed his hand on the glass.

"We'll be fine."

Audria placed her hand on the glass as well. On the same place Yatsu placed his.

"Maria."

The young girl looked to him, stood up and ran to her father. He took hold of her small hand and walked towards the door.

"Be careful you two…"

Maria waved before the door to the home opened and then closed. Audria shook her head, swam to the waterproof computer and started typing. If the reason Yatsu keeps leaving is to find his wife, she felt like she needed to help him. Especially since he helped her. Yatsu's the reason why she's still alive.

Part I

The Red Plumber, Mario.

The King of the Koopas, Bowser.

They both stood just a few meters from each other.

"Didn't think this would happen again."

The sentence came from Bowser's mouth. The turtle had his arms folded and glared at the plumber.

"Me neither, but I guess-a there's no choice."

The plumber responded. Debrie, Lydia and Shigra looked in the confusion.

"No, there isn't."

The turtle let out a sigh. The two, while have worked together before, never felt comfortable doing so. They did share one thing in common.

Both despise Dimentio. Bowser decided to take them to his own room. Inside was a large red bed, like ones you see in a Royal Castle. Decorated with paintings of his children and himself. Here, they started speaking… But...

"Before we begin… Just one question, who are these people?!"

Bowser unfolded his arms and pointed at the three females. They all stood still until Debrie spoke.

"So, you're Bowser."

"Yeah! What? Haven't you heard of me?!"

"Oh I have. You're the Third Hero of Light."

Indeed he was. In the Light Prognosticus, there are four heroes mentioned. One is described as a turtle. Due to the previous adventure, it was obvious that it was Bowser.

"Hero… Of Light?"

Lydia says dumbfounded. Debrie took a deep breath. The rest looked at her in order to listen to what she was going to say.

"As inscribed in the Light Prognosticus, the Heroes of Light are legendary beings. These people have the power to destroy Chaos and stop it from spreading throughout, not only Esalen, but the universe. I've added more info to the Light Prognosticus in me. As before, there are Four Heroes."

The girl in robes looked at Mario.

"Mario. The Protector of the Light Prognosticus. The first hero."

She turned to Bowser.

"Bowser. The One with Utmost Strength. The third hero."

Shigura cocked her head to one side.

"What about the second and fourth?"

Debrie continued while bringing her right index finger to her chin. She started with Mario and Bowser as they were the ones in front of her.

"The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Peach Toadstool. The One who can Wipe Tears."

"The Brother of Mario. Luigi. Assistant of the Light Prognosticus."

Bowser smiled, but only because he was proud of himself and was in an actual book. Mario could only sigh at Bowser's narcissistic attitude.

Lydia and Shigura still didn't understand much, but they did got the gist of it.

"Now, about-a why we're here,"

"It's about that guy right?"

Spoke Bowser, his arms crossed.

"Dimentio."

"You're looking for the pages right?"

"Yeah."

"And you want my help."

"Y… Yeah… You do realize that our planet's at stake right? We can't really beat Dimentio with a few of us."

Mario responded. Indeed, in order for Peace to take over Chaos, all the Heroes of Light should be there.

"You say that, but when we "defeated" that guy, he still came back."

Bowser replies with a very good point. That's one thing no one understood. They know why he came back, but the question on the minds of everybody was exactly how he came back. They weren't getting the bigger picture here.

"..."

The room fell silent.

"In order to catch you up, let me tell you what's been going on,"

The plumber broke the silence.

"So far we have Debrie here who has the Light Prognosticus embedded in her. Lydia has a bit of the Dark Prognosticus. And we've only found less than 10 pages of the Dark Prognosticus. The book was obliterated after Dimentio was "defeated" and thus all its pages spread across the world."

"So basically what you're saying is that we have to be lucky just to even find them."

Mario nodded before he continued.

"If only we had some way to make it easier for us to find them…"

Bowser looked at Lydia.

"Why can't she find detect them?"

With that question, came Debrie's answer.

"I don't think that's how it works. Let's just say the same thing happened to me. I won't be able to detect a page. They have the same aura, but they can't find each other. That's as far as I know."

"Argh… Well, as far as I know, there hasn't been pages of that book here in my kingdom… But I'll make sure to look around."

Bowser responded, working again with Mario didn't sit well with him. It never has. Same could be said for Mario.

"I'll let this slide. But after all this-"

"I know-a."

"... What have the other two said?"

Bowser questioned. He was referring to Luigi and Princess Peach.

"Nothing. We'll be talking with those two as well… However…"

Luigi came to mind. Last time, he was practically used by Dimentio and changed him into Mr. L.

"..."

He was stuck on that thought. He did say that all Heroes are needed, but… He didn't want that to happen to his brother again.

"Lord Bowser!"

A Hammer Bro. rushed into the room. Bowser stomped his foot.

"What is it?! Can't you see we're talking here?!"

"Eep! W-well… You need to take a look at the news right now…"

"I don't have time for stupid TV News right now!"

Bowser stomped his foot again. Lydia sighed and used her powers to snatch the remote from the table across the room. She pressed the power button and the television screen on the right wall of Bowser's room turned on.

"–The Mushroom Kingdom Castle has entered a Lock-Down. Guards have surrounded the building to make sure no one leaves or enters."

An eagle's eye view was being shown, most likely from a camera attached to a helicopter.

Mario looked at Bowser.

"What?! I haven't even attacked your stupid kingdom in months! Don't look at me!"

Mario clenched his teeth and fist. Leaving the room and shoving the Hammer Bro. aside.

"Ma-Mario! Wait!"

Debrie ran after him. Lydia and Shigura followes.

Bowser watched them all run off before sighing. Still… Even he wondered what was going on.

Debrie and the other girls caught up with Mario, trying to head back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

"W-wait for… Us…!"

They began panting because of the extensive running. All except for Shigura. Lydia looked at the robot and rolled her eyes.

"You act so human-like I keep forgetting you're a robot."

"Taking that as a compliment, Lydia."

Shigura responded with a smile. Of course she wouldn't get tired of running, she's a machine; Mario frowned.

"S-sorry…"

"No, it's fine, Mario."

The group stopped. After regaining much needed energy, they continued, this time Mario keeping his speed at a minimum.

"So… Do you know the Princess?"

Debrie asked the plumber in red. He nodded.

"For a while actually… Always bakes me cake when I visit her haha."

Lydia heard this and frowned a bit. Shigura looked back at Lydia.

"Something wrong Lydia?"

"... H-Huh? Oh, it's nothing!"

She responded. The topic ended like that, really abruptly.

Mario, Debrie, Lydia and Shigura enter a pipe leading from the Koopa Kingdom back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Upon returning, the entire streets were filled with people. It was so crowded, some stores were so hidden.

"…We won't be able to get to the Castle if these crowds get larger…"

It's been like this ever since the news broke to the public, many stayed in Mushroom Square to see the news on the big screen in Mushroom City's. Of course, people were afraid, they don't know what was going to happen with the ruler. Shigura widened her eyes and scanned the area before narrowing their options.

Lydia cracked her knuckles and picked up Mario, Shigura picked up Debrie.

"We can make it if we use our skills."

Says Lydia.

"Thanks to this ability of mine. For Shigura, it's quite obvious."

Debrie looked around.

"W-Wait… What are you going to-"

Shigura ducked and then quickly jumped into the air. The ground in which Shigura stood on was destroyed, dust particles

"Waaah!"

Lydia and Mario looked at Shigura carrying Debrie, in awe of her skills. Lydia shook her head.

"Hang on, it's our turn!"

Lydia, with her ability, made what seemed to be a hookshot. She aimed at the top of a building and then flew over the people below. During all this, Mario hung on and saw Shigura super jumping, Debrie barely hanging on and screaming.

(There goes my title of "Jumpman"...)

The plumber chuckles and sighs.

Part II

"Is that so?"

The voice of a woman echoed throughout the room. She was blonde and wore a pink dress. The ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom—Princess 'Toadstool' Peach.

"Why of course~ Or, we could do it another way."

It was a voice that belonged to Yosuru. He had knocked out guards and infiltrated the castle.

Yosuru had no problem dealing with them as his Dark Prognosticus abilities were much stronger. Especially more than Lydia's. Add that to the fact that the guards weren't really… Well armed.

"..."

The Princess stood silently.

"What? Don't you want to work with the Dimension King himself?"

Peach was tired of hearing anything about Dimentio. Even if Mario were to tell her what was going on, she would already know because of the person that stood in front of her.

"If I refuse?"

"Oh hoho… Come on, don't be like that. If you comply to his accommodations, just think, your kingdom will become better for the people living in it! If you refuse, I'll just deal with the Council myself. Or do you want the council to decide?"

The Mushroom Kingdom Council.

Made up of 14 high ups that help the Princess deal with the Kingdom. It acts as a backup if something were to happen to the Princess herself. However, the Council is unique for making some… interesting decisions. Sometimes, even the Princess can't trust them. By technicality, the Council has more power.

(... I can't let the Council make a decision… I need to keep them out of this situation…)

Peach didn't know what to do. Yosuru stood there smiling confidently, Black-Purple sparks appearing on his hands.

"What'll it be? I suggest making a decision right here, right now, Princess."

Toadstool didn't respond. There was no way out. If she said no, he would go to the council. If yes, then that's pretty self-explanatory on why that would be pretty bad. She kept her cool. Yosuru grew impatient and clicked his tongue, shooting a death glare to the leader of the Toads.

"Tch. You really are something huh… What a waste of precious time."

Peach wondered why he even threatened her. To be fair, she did intercept him from easily going and sneaking into the council.

"..."

More silence.

"Listen here, Princess-"

Crash!

A loud bang echoed throughout the room. Yosuru turned around, the entrance doorway to the room was forced open by none other than Mario and his female allies along with some of the guards that had stood their ground.

Mario, Lydia and Debrie already knew their face.

"Y-You…!"

Yosuru sighed deeply.

"... Aaaaggh… damn it, I would've been able to go the council if it weren't for this Princess' interception."

"Mario!"

The princess immediately yelled towards Mario.

"Are you alright, Princess-a?!"

Toadstool nodded. Yosuru cracked his knuckles while Lydia formed a spear with her own abilities.

"I don't know what you're doing-a here, but if you're looking to capture the princess-a, then I dare you to try."

The man chuckled.

"Kidnapping isn't really my style, but I can resort to it if need be. What a shame, I was going to bring the princess to our side before you showed up."

"As if the Princess would even join Dimentio's side!"

Lydia exclaimed. Shigura aimed her fingers towards Yosuru, knowing he was a threat after taking into consideration the reactions of Mario, Lydia and Debrie.

"Hmm? Who's your new friend?"

"I'm Shigura… but don't try to change the subject at hand."

Yosuru smiled. Forming a hammer-like weapon with his powers.

"Guess we'll be doing this again, hu-"

Before he was able to even finish, Lydia threw her spear, distracting him. Mario quickly ran to the princess, picked her up and headed back to where his allies were.

"Keh…"

Mario set the princess down on the ground. He looked at the guards.

"Take her somewhere safe!"

The guards nodded.

"But Mario…!"

"We'll talk later-a… After we finish dealing with him."

He responded. The Princess followed the guards, closing the doors behind them. Yosuru scratches the back of his head before looking around, his hammer in hand.

"You really want to fight and possibly damage your ruler's castle huh?"

"Says you! You almost destroyed the room behind us!"

Debrie pointed and yelled at him.

"Doesn't matter now!"

Yosuru swayed his left arm from right to left quickly, a purple wave headed towards the group. Mario picked up Debrie and they all jumped out of the way of its vicinity. Debrie was let go, but before the true battle began, she casted a spell by saying sentences from the Light Prognosticus.

The spell had increased Mario, Lydia and Shigura's defense.

"I'll stay back and focus on support, Mario!"

Mario looked at her and nodded before turning back towards Yosuru. Yosuru jumped in the air and was ready to swing down his hammer. Shigura aimed and then fired bullets to his arms, causing him to lose his hammer and fall to the ground.

"Kh..! Damn it! You're a robot aren't you?!"

Smoke lifted from Shigura's fingers as she pointed them at Yosuru once more.

"You're outnumbered, three to one."

"Heh, guess I'm at a disadvantage since you have a robot on your side."

He says, blood from his arm slowly dripping to the floor before wiping it away. Creating a shield and a hammer, he threw his weapon towards the robot, only to be blocked by Lydia's own shield.

Clang!

Lydia got rid of her shield, formed a whip and aimed it at Yosuru. Their enemy blocked it with his shield. Lydia kept using her whip. Yosuru grew tired of it. During this time, the plumber in red had sped towards him with his metallic hammer. Mario jumped towards him and swung his hammer down on Yosuru's shield.

Cracks appeared on the shield before finally breaking. Yosuru immediately grabbed Mario and threw him towards the room's entrance doors. Lydia created a hand to stop Mario from crashing through the doors. The plumber landed on his feet before the hand disintegrated.

"Bwegh…!"

Yosuru coughed blood, confusing everybody. He chuckled and looked at his hand.

"Well this is concerning… Boss is really sending me mixed signals…"

He cleaned the blood coming from his mouth. He staggered more. Creating another weapon, he coughed more, causing the weapon to disintegrate.

"N-No…! What the hell?! Why am I at my limit?! I didn't use it mu-"

Lydia ran to him, surrounding her fist with black-purple aura before aiming an uppercut, Yosuru landed on his back.

He laid still for a moment before opening his eyes. The blood on his hands still hadn't dried up. As he was about to get back up on his feet, Lydia grabbed him by the collar.

"What exactly are you here for?"

She asked. Yosuru coughed and grinned.

"What does it matter to you, traitor."

"Call me that all you want, I'm glad I escaped your boss's grasp."

"Tch… Don't you think it's kinda sad? Maybe underwhelming and anticlimactic that our fight only lasted for less than ten minutes?"

"Don't. Change the subject."

Mario, Shigura and Debrie walked to the two, the plumber resting his hammer over the shoulder and the female robot lowering her arms.

"I'm glad it was short, because now we can finally talk-a. You said something about the council. What of it?"

The red plumber questioned.

"... I could say something, but that would mean going against the rules given to me by the boss."

"Let-a me remind you that it doesn't matter what happens, your boss will still be somewhat discouraged from your loss-a."

"..."

He still wouldn't talk. He coughed even more, it was as if he was about to faint.

"Guess he's reaching his so called 'limit.'"

She says. Closing in on his face, Lydia glared at him.

"Send our regards to Dimentio."

Lydia opened the large windows and flinged him with the use of her powers. So far they couldn't even see him. Cleaning her hands from his blood that dripped onto her, she sighed.

"We could've talked more, but… I guess he wasn't going to budge anyways… we could've at least taken him to the authorities."

Spoke Debrie, Shigura shook her head in disagreement. Lydia inclined to disagree too.

"What's the point of a cell. His powers are the same as Lydia's, so a jail cell wouldn't do much."

"Right... Still… I question his so called 'Limit'… like… Of his powers?"

"Most likely," Replied Lydia, "That's strange though. If it's because of his powers, then that means I would have a limit too, but so far I haven't noticed or felt a single change within me."

"Maybe it has-a something to do with the fact that he has more of the Dark Prognosticus in him-a? Like, the more of it you have, the lower your limit, which also could-a mean that you would have to use it less and not so excessively-a… A win-risk situation-a…"

The plumber placed a finger on his chin, thinking about it. Lydia shrugged.

"Could be. Right now, I think we should worry more about what he came here to do."

"Let's check on-a the princess. She talked with him, so maybe she knows something-a."

The entire group nods and leaves the room. Shigura turns around, walks to the large windows and closes them before heading out herself. The castle was almost obliterated, there were scratches all over the walls and the carpet was ripped into pieces. The rest of the group were lucky that Mario was even allowed inside by the guards due to having a history with the kingdom, if he hadn't, they wouldn't've had made it through the big crowd and news reporters asking for updates.

Among the large crowd in front of the castle, there was a man in a green shirt and blue overalls.

"E-Excuse me, coming through-a!"

It took forever for him, Luigi, to make it through. He would've gone the long way around, but people flooded every single inch of the castle.

"(Ok so the people gather here when the Princess is in danger right now, but-a don't many times-a before…)"

It was true. Every time the castle was invaded, people didn't really flood the castle to at least check what was going on. This time, it's a whole different story.

"Eh!"

The Green Plumber continues going through the crowd until he was stopped by a bunch of reporters.

The guards were doing alright in keeping them back. One of them saw the plumber in green and told the reporters to move or else he'd use force to do so. Some moved, others didn't, either way, Luigi had enough room to fit through.

"Nice to see you here, Luigi, a good sight for sore eyes…!"

"Where's the princess-a?"

"She's inside! We can handle things here… I hope."

Luigi nods and rushes into the castle.

"By Shrooms… We need the Princess right now to calm all these people down so they could leave…"

The castle guard mumbles to himself.

The green plumber had seen the destruction from the earlier battle. Getting worried, he looked around and entered each door trying to find the Princess' whereabouts. Concurrently, Mario and his group caught up with Peach and her guards.

"Princess-a!"

"Mario! I'm happy to see you're still doing alright. Your friends too!"

"Tell-a me about it. You've never seen that type of person before… Maybe. At least-a I hope not."

He replied. Before going further, Mario introduced the princess to the other three female allies.

"Princess. We need to talk about that-a guy."

Just in case, Peach signaled the officers to lock the entrance doors to the room.

"Please, have a seat. Too bad I don't have anything to make tea in this room…"

Debrie shook her head.

"No, no, your highness, it's alright."

Lydia began after Debrie's response.

"What exactly did he want from you, Princess?"

The princess sighed before she began.

"It's the same old. He wanted me to sign on to his obviously disgusting plan. No way am I being forced to fight alongside with that Jester."

Mario placed a finger on his chin, so Yosuru really did mention Dimentio's return…

"I guess I don't-a have to mention Dimentio since you already know of it-a."

The Princess nodded.

"But you know… Out of all the previous incidents… I've never seen or faced anyone up close like him."

"You were the same way when-a Inducers came into the scene, Peach-a."

"Fair enough. Making new laws for them… I hope they're good enough to stop them from rampaging through the streets. However, getting back on track, all he really said is to join forces."

"So much for not talking about Dimentio… Your majesty—"

Lydia got cut off by the princess herself.

"Peach. You don't have to be so formal, especially when you're good friends with Mario."

"Uh… Peach… When that guy crashed through here, did he mention anything at all about the Dark Prognosticus? I'm just assuming he threatened you with his powers so he must've told you about it…"

Peach shook her head. She knew about the Dark Prognosticus itself, but didn't know all the current details.

"What does the Dark Prognosticus have to do with this?"

"Well… That's exactly where his power came from. Some of the book's text was embedded into him, that's why he has those weird powers…"

Lydia raised her hands and looked at them for a bit, almost smiling.

"It's the same for me…"

Black and purple aura spawned in between her hands before stopping it willingly.

"Not only that, but the Dark Prognosticus… What was it, again?"

Lydia looked at Mario and Debrie.

"Turns out the book was almost obliterated after we defeated him those years ago. Only the pages were kept in tacked, they just spread around the planet."

Debrie began.

"Lydia here has only… Four pages from it in her. Compared to Yosuru, who, with that amount of power, has… I'd say a fair range between sixteen and twenty."

"Th-That much?"

Peach was shocked, she became cautious of Lydia once she said she was similar to Yosuru. The Princess took a deep breath and let it go, if she's an ally of the plumber, then she can trust her, right?

Shigura had been looking around the room, in awe of its design, the windows were stained with beautiful colors that formed a shape of Peach. Whenever the sun's light shined through, the light would change colors as it hit the room's floor. The female android had also been taking in everything the rest were saying, it was pretty useful information to keep herself up to date with the events.

The princess had already noticed the markings on Debrie's robe and hands, as well as the stars in her eyes. That was the next topic.

"What's with those markings, Debrie?"

The girl looked at her robe and hands.

"These markings are from the Light Prognosticus. I'm… Pretty much a walking book ahaha…"

The girl chuckled a bit.

"My father was… Actually one of the ancients. He took ahold of the book after Dimentio's defeat and… Well… He embedded the entire thing in me to keep it safe, our village was attacked by a…"

She looked at Lydia, the woman crosses her arms.

"Nearly controlled Lydia. After that, she was able to master and control her powers. It happened recently and… I haven't seen him since then…"

Debrie looked down, the princess first looked at the chestnut hair colored woman who had turned to the side. So that's it, Lydia was able to control her Dark Prognosticus powers. Peach smiled.

"All of us have gone through a lot. Maybe not as big of a level, but… Chin up, keep your posture straight and everything will be alright in no time!"

Peach placed her hands on her hips with a confident smile. Debrie could see now, why the princess was described as 'The one who wipes tears'. The girl smiles. It was definitely a lot for Peach to take in however. She was still curious about Shigura.

"What about you?"

"M-Me?"

Shigura turned around and looked at her in confusion. The princess nodded.

"I'd like to hear your story."

"... I was created by an organization here, they tried making me the strongest android with human-like emotions. I ran away… I was… Being abused by the people there, I can't remember much past before running away aside from them hurting me… It wasn't until Mario showed up and helped me, he took me to a scientist who ended up fixing me up."

Shigura smiled.

"It truly is still the best day I've ever experienced."

The mood lightened up. How coincidental it was that almost everyone Mario's come across had their lives changed in one way or another. But that's just how Mario is, he's never been one to leave someone behind.

"Oh my, I can't believe we went off track! First we were discussing Dimentio and then we went to talking about you three's backgrounds!"

The princess placed her hand a few centimeters away from her mouth.

"It was a good way to get rid of the Dimentio talk though." Lydia said.

SLAM!

The door to the room was opened so harshly it could be compared to wood breaking.

"Princess-a!... Eh?"

It was the plumber in green. The four looked at him in surprise. Luigi looked at the door and then checked the wall, an indentation formed by the doorknob.

"Eh heh heh… Oops-a…"

Peach giggled and Mario raised a brow. Luigi took out a band-aid and placed it on the dent.

"There. Fixed-a!"

Luigi smiled before quickly turning around, closing the door and running towards the group, a sigh exiting his mouth.

"You're okay, Princess-a. I'm glad."

Luigi looked at Lydia, Debrie and Shigura.

"Who are you guys-a?"

Just like the princess, Mario introduced them to Luigi. Guards came into the room.

"Your majesty, we need you outside to show that you're alright! The crowds are getting too big!"

Peach nodded.

"This shouldn't take long."

The princess left the room with the guards, leaving the five inside. Luigi turned to Mario.

"So, what-a were you guys talking about-a?

Similar to Peach, Mario told him everything. Dimentio's return was surely a surprise to him and… became really afraid. He would never forget the time where he was brainwashed.

With a plant on his head no less.

It took awhile for the green plumber to digest all the info, especially Dimentio's return.

"You seem frightened, Luigi. You're even shaking."

Shigura stated. Luigi stopped trembling.

"W-Well, Dimentio b-brings-a back… a-a-awful memories-a…"

Shigura cocked her head to the side.

"What kind of memo-"

Lydia placed her hand on the female robot's shoulder to interrupt her.

"We're sorry to hear that, hopefully those memories leave soon… I mean, I guess they wouldn't after all these years, but anything can happen!"

Shigura looked at Lydia puzzled, obviously the woman tried to stop her from being rude to the green plumber by asking what bad memories he got.

"I'd-a also like to talk about-a the Dark Prognosticus itself. Let's wait for the princess to come back before continuing-a."

The rest of the group nodded.

Epilogue Part

"What a crowd…"

Kurushima mumbles to himself, watching as the people run forward crowding the streets. The news of the invasion of the castle had already been made public.

"Coming to you live from outside the Princess' Castle, we-"

The voice came from the big screen in Mushroom Square. It's always a big deal when the princess gets captured… sometimes. Most of the time not really, which gets Kurushima to question if the citizens even care about the princess or not.

The Rank 7 sighed before turning around and going the opposite way, taking his phone from his pocket in the process. While going through his texts, he heard a faint scream. He cocked his head to the side.

"..."

The screaming continued. Kurushima placed the phone back in his pocket. It definitely sounded like a young girl, something was up. The Inducer followed the screams, which started to slow down as he closed in. It all led him to a certain building.

Looking up, Kurushima mumbled:

"... Mushroom City Municipal Hospital…"

Hello one and all, it's-a me!

Been awhile eh? Sorry this Chapter took soooo long since… February… Anyways! I should be able to get back up to speed as I'll finally have time to continue! I can't apologize enough for the wait

It's a short afterword, buuuut it's good enough. Thanks for reading Chapter 11! Chapter 12 is in the works right now!

Hm… Wondering how'll the Rank 7 Inducer will handle it…

-岩止 俊樹 (Iwatome Toshiki)