After their little pep talk, the four not-yet heroes returned to their matches. Over and over again, they fought more and more Heartless, easily destroying them and taking minimal damage.
"I hope this is over soon." Reimu said nonchalantly, smacking down a Red Nocturne. "I wonder, do the gods here like sake? I want some after this."
"Thinking about drinks at a time like this?" Sora laughed at her over a mob of Blue Rhapsodies.
"Gives me something to look forward too!" Reimu called back.
"Hey, we could use some help over here!" Donald yelled at them. He and Goofy were back to back, surrounded by the magic-wielding Heartless. Sora and Reimu rushed over to their aid, and within minutes, the Heartless were all gone. The four were once again met with cheers from nowhere, and waved and smiled to the empty stands around them. Phil motioned for them to go over to him.
"You guys are better than I thought! Wish he was here to see this."
"Who?" Sora asked.
"Heracles." Tenshi said, tracing her finger along the cover of Alice's grimoire which Reimu had asked her to look after while she fought.
"Hercules." Phil said, rolling his eyes at Tenshi. "He's a hero if ever there was one. Too bad he's off visiting his father."
"His father?" Goofy asked. Tenshi grinned and simply pointed up at the cloud above them.
"All right, break's over! Go, go!" Phil shooed them away before they could ask more of this mysterious hero and his father.
Yet again, the four fought more Heartless, dispatching them with little discomfort. Yet again, the four smiled and waved victoriously at their spectators. However, this time, there were three extra audience members watching from the shadows.
"Alright. Those little punks are your next opponents, okay?" The god of the Underworld was speaking to the spiky-haired blonde, who was leaning against the wall, looking at the ground. The black cat, purring against the god Hades' leg, was staring up at the young man expectantly. "Now, don't blow it. Just take him out."
The man looked at him with bored, blue eyes. "…The great god of the Underworld is afraid of a couple of kids? Sorry, but my contract says-" He was cut off by the cat hissing furiously at him. It rose onto its hind legs, and the man watched uninterestedly as the cat grew and grew until, with a flash of green light, it changed into a girl with red hair and a dark green toga dress, and the same black cat ears on the top of her head. He looked at the girl with the same bored expression as she glared at him like he were something disgusting.
"You'll do what Master tells you to, when he tells you to, stupid human!" She hissed. She was about to say more, but Hades put his hand on her head, and she quieted down, still glaring at the man.
"I know what your contract says. I wrote it. I know it says you're only required to kill Hercules in this tournament. But you've gotta fight those kids to get to him. Come on."
The man looked at the four through the bars of the gate.
"Hey, it's like that old goat says." Hades smirked at the man. "Rule number 11: it's all just a game. So let loose and have fun with it!" The man looked back at him, his eyebrow raised. "I mean, a casualty or two along the way is no big deal, right?"
The girl giggled and he patted her head. The man didn't say anything, but got up from leaning on the wall and walked towards the door leading outside. Once he had left, Hades stopped smiling and scowled.
"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home, eh, Orin?"
'Orin' giggled again and nodded.
"Well, still. Suckers like him are hard to come by…"
Orin meowed and with a flash of light she was once again a cat. Hades picked her up, placed her on his shoulder, and disappeared.
"Man, is this almost done yet?" Reimu was complaining again, though she was really doing it to annoy Sora. Again, they were fighting the annoying little Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies, which seemed to enjoy freezing, then burning, then freezing again Donald over and over.
"Aw, come on, Reimu!" Sora seemed to be oblivious to Reimu's attempts of annoying him, distracted by how much fun he was having. He and Goofy saved Donald from the Heartless swarming him, who then unleashed a wicked Thunder spell, destroying them all.
"Thanks!" Donald said, healing the two of them, and Reimu as she skipped over to the boys.
"Oh. Is that actually it? Are we done?" Reimu asked, for this time, no cheers resulted from their victory.
"Hey, isn't that-?" Goofy pointed at the other end of the ring, and the four collectively gasped (Reimu especially) as they saw their next opponent.
Tenshi placed the grimoire down next to Phil, and strode over to the side of the ring. She gave a big smile to the four and the man, and began to speak in a suddenly magnified voice.
[BGM: Demystify Feast]
"GODS AND GODDESSES! Here it is, the fight you've all been waiting for! I do hope you all haven't been so bored that Dionysus had to bring out more wine than you should be having!" She laughed, and up above rumbling thunder could be heard from the large cloud. "Our challengers today are a bunch of foreigner rookies who think they can become heroes! All the way from who knows where, I present for your approval Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy!"
Their names were met with the loudest cheers yet, and more rumbling thunder. Tenshi looked over at the young man.
"And over here is a personal favorite!" She lifted her hand towards him, her fingers outstretched. "His sword is bigger than his own body mass, and he knows how to use it!" Either subconsciously or deliberately, she scratched at her arm, where Sora noticed had a rather large scar. Had that been there before…? "Also from who even cares, I give you Cloud Strife!"
Once again, loud, wild cheers and thunder were heard from all around them.
"Is everyone ready?" Tenshi looked from Sora's party to Cloud. "Is everyone set?"
All the participants nodded. Goofy was sure he heard a cat meowing somewhere.
"Then, like cruel angels, become legends!" Tenshi yelled, and skipped back to sit with Phil. Immediately, Cloud rushed forward and slashed at them with his sword. Sora jumped out of the way quickly, and Reimu hadn't been within range of the slash, but Donald and Goofy both got caught in it and flew through the air, hitting a pillar. They quickly got up, shook it off, and ran to help Sora and Reimu.
Sora tried to come at Cloud from behind, but every time he thought he was going to make a hit, the older man swung out with his sword, nearly hitting him. The third time Sora tried it, the sword did hit him, sending him flying. Cloud jumped high into the air and gripped the handle of his sword with both hands, and thrust it down into the ground, where Sora's head would have been if Reimu hadn't pulled him away at the last second.
It went on like that for a while. It seemed like all they were doing was running away from Cloud's attacks, while he seemed immune to getting tired at all. Occasionally, Sora looked over to Tenshi and Phil to see if they were going to help at all, but while Phil looked concerned for them, Tenshi just sat back with her arms and legs crossed, with a big smile on her face.
"Fire! Blizzard!" Donald cried out, throwing spell after spell at Cloud. Goofy held his shield tight and spun like a tornado, hitting Cloud over and over again. Sora used this chance to finally successfully hit Cloud from behind, but their good luck wasn't staying with them for long, as Cloud smashed his sword into Goofy's side, sending him flying into the stands behind him, and knocking him out.
"Goofy!" Donald cried. "Don't worry! Cur-" But he couldn't finish the incantation, as he too fell victim to Cloud's sword.
"No!" Reimu reached out towards Donald, but flinched as Cloud slowly turned to her. She couldn't help feeling her cheeks grow hot and blushing as he looked at her, but she snapped out of it as he began to walk towards her. She took a few steps back and raised her gohei, while slowly reaching behind her back with her other hand. Cloud lunged at her, but what he didn't expect was for her to lift off into the air, summoning Homing Amulet and attacking him with the amulets.
"Ngh…" He used his sword as a shield, the amulets covering its side. Reimu looked over at Phil and Tenshi, silently asking if what she was doing was okay. Phil was watching her in amazement, but Tenshi answered her unasked question with a smile and a thumbs up. Reimu looked over at Cloud and was satisfied with him still staying behind his sword from her onslaught of amulets, leaving him wide open for Sora to…
"Sora, what are you doing? Now's your chance!" She yelled at him.
Sora was staring intently at Cloud. He knew that now was the ideal time for him to make an attack, but he was worried at what Cloud was capable of. After all, he had already taken out Donald and Goofy, and what if he did attack him now, and Cloud was still able to hit him even with Reimu's onslaught? Then he'd be out and Reimu would be all alone against this guy. If only there were a way to hit him from far awa-
"Fire!" Sora yelled, shooting a ball of fire at Cloud, who grunted as he was hit. He glared over at Sora, and made to run towards him, but was having trouble while shielding himself from the amulets. "Heh, yeah!" Sora laughed. "This is for Donald! Blizzard!" A chunk of ice smacked into Cloud's face. Sora gulped as the ice melted away and he saw Cloud's face, intense and frightening, and to Sora's horror he outright sprinted towards him, ignoring the amulets and making to swing his sword at Sora.
"No!" Reimu flew towards Cloud, stabbing his head with the gohei, but he swung at her and she reflexively recoiled. Sora ran for it, haphazardly shooting fire and ice behind him, and hoped to whatever gods were listening that he wouldn't be caught by Cloud.
This isn't working… I can't do it… We can't beat him without Donald and Goofy! He thought bitterly, looking over at Donald and Goofy's unconscious bodies. We're all a team. Reimu and I can't beat this guy by ourselves! He heard Reimu yelling something, probably casting Homing Amulet again, but quickly realized much too late that she was yelling at him, as with an explosion in his head he figured out that Cloud had caught up to him and his sword had collided with Sora's head. He flew through the air and landed hard on a pillar, and slid down it. The Keyblade clattered to the floor, and he shakily managed to lift himself up onto all fours. He spat something out, and grimaced as he looked at his own blood on the ground. He looked up to see Cloud swinging vainly at Reimu, who was furiously both shooting her amulets and attacking with her gohei at him. Both of them seemed to think that Sora had fallen unconscious, which was fine with him. His head was splitting, and he tentatively reached to where Cloud had hit him. When he brought his hand back, he saw his fingers smeared with blood. He actually felt like crying; the pain was so strong. But no, there was no way he would cry. Heroes didn't cry. And he would prove that he and Reimu and Donald and Goofy were heroes! What was that weird thing Tenshi had said before the fight?
"Like… cruel angels…" He slowly and shakily got up, using the pillar for support. He reached out to the Keyblade, and in a flash of light it returned to his hand. Something felt like it was burning in his pocket, and he curiously opened it to see what it was. He pulled out the medal Reimu had thrown at him earlier, glowing with a bright golden light and seeming to pulsate with energy. He smiled and looked up at the cloud in the sky. "Thanks." He said softly. He looked back at Cloud and Reimu, who both still hadn't noticed him. He slowly raised the Keyblade to the sky. "Like a cruel angel, I will become a legend!" His shout alerted Cloud and Reimu, and they both looked to him, surprised. "THUNDER!" Sora yelled to the heavens, and a blast of lightning shot down, much like Donald had done many times before, straight at Cloud. Completely caught off guard by the spell, he didn't have any time to dodge it, and it hit him straight on. Reimu landed next to Sora, warily watching Cloud. Cloud coughed, and fell onto one of his knees, breathing heavily.
"Ha…had enough?" Reimu asked.
"…" Cloud didn't answer, just looked up at the two of them. He glanced behind them, his eyebrows rising, and sighed. Reimu kept her eyes on him, but Sora looked behind them, and was overjoyed to see Donald and Goofy running towards them, fully awake and healed.
"Sora! What did he do to you?!" Donald cried, seeing the blood. "Cure!" Instantly, Sora felt absolutely perfect, the pain in his head disappearing.
"Heh… I'm alright." Sora put his hands behind his head. "I'm more worried about you guys."
"Aw, Donald fixed us both up right quick!" Goofy said. He looked at Cloud. "Er…"
"…I give." Cloud said. "This is way too much trouble. I didn't sign up for this." He used his sword as an aid to stand up. He looked between Sora and Reimu. "…I can see why he's scared of you." He smiled. "You put up a pretty good fight."
"You did too!" Sora grinned, though he didn't know who Cloud was talking about, and glanced over at Reimu. He stopped himself from laughing when he saw her blushing again, but nearly lost it when Reimu shyly giggled as she agreed. She was acting so out of her normal character he wondered if she had gotten hit on the head as well.
"Well, it's a forfeit, then?" Reimu turned to Tenshi and Phil over in the stands, but was confused as she saw the two spectators looking in surprise and horror at them. She looked back to see what they were staring at, and gasped as a huge black paw seemed to come out of nowhere and crush Cloud to the ground. A monstrous, three-headed dog was standing over them, its jaws snapping and barking wildly. On top of the middle head, a red-haired girl with cat ears and a green dress, surrounded by what looked like floating, flaming skulls, was smirking.
In the shadows of the gate, Hades was talking to no one.
"Oh, right, there was one other rule I forgot: Accidents happen." He smirked and turned away into the darkness. "Orin, make sure they don't survive."
Outside, the cat-eared girl was laughing maniacally.
"Alright, my cute puppy!" She shouted, clapping once. "If we crush these guys, we can carry off their corpses for Master! Now go!" The dog's heads barked together and was about to pounce onto the foursome when it was suddenly stopped and lifted up by a man with a blue cape who had rushed onto the scene.
"Herc!" Phil yelled from the sidelines.
"Heracles you sly devil you!" Tenshi laughed. "Have you been watching the fights this whole time?"
"Not now, Tenshi!" Hercules called back. "Get them out of here!" He motioned with his head to Sora and the others.
Tenshi didn't respond, but she quickly made her way to the four, thrust the grimoire in Reimu's arms, then amazingly grabbed all four of them and quickly carried them to the lobby, with Phil scrambling to follow behind her. With a last look back and nod at Hercules, the satyr followed them inside.
"What is that thing?" Reimu asked, shaking. The six of them were in the lobby, heavily panting and listening to the sounds of Hercules fighting the dog, and the girl's maniacal laughter.
"A bad dog." Tenshi crossed her arms. "Cerberus, the beast who guards the Underworld from intruders. Also the most dangerous of Hades' pets, except maybe for that idiot bird…"
"Hades?" Goofy asked.
"He's bad news." Phil said. "The god of the Underworld. He's always making trouble for Herc and the other gods."
"…Um, what does he look like?" Reimu asked, looking worriedly at Sora. He knew exactly what she was worried about.
"He wears black and his head is covered in blue flames." Tenshi said. "And he always has that stupid cat around. She's his favorite pet, I think."
"…" The four grimaced in unison. To think it was thanks to him that they were able to enter the games in the first place!
"Who was that girl on Cerberus's head?" Sora asked.
"Her? That's Hades' cat. Her name's Rin, I think. She can change forms." Tenshi replied. "But it doesn't matter. Heracles has faced way more dangerous things than this before. He'll beat them both, no sweat!"
"I don't know… It'll be pretty tough to take on both Cerberus and Rin while taking care of that guy…" Phil looked back at the door to the arena worriedly.
"Oh… That's right." Reimu said. "Cloud. I hope he's okay…"
"Well, we'll just have to go see!" Sora said, and made towards the door.
"Hey, now!" Tenshi grabbed his shoulder. "Look, kiddos. I know you want to be heroes and all, but this is something out of your league."
"Come on! We can do it!" Donald said angrily. "Just watch us!"
"We're not afraid." Reimu smiled. "You can decide whether we're hero material or not."
"…" Phil and Tenshi looked at each other, and sighed and giggled respectively.
"Careful, you idiots!" Phil gestured to the door of the arena. The four of them nodded and rushed out into the ring. As they entered, they passed Hercules carrying the unconscious Cloud over his shoulder. He looked at them as he passed and nodded.
"Oh? The great and mighty Hercules is calling in for backup?" Rin laughed. "Fine by me. Cerberus! Let's get through these light snacks before the real feast!" She laughed as Cerberus lunged at them, its three jaws snapping, trying to get a bite out of the four. The boys began attacking the dog, but began having trouble as blue flaming skulls began appearing and ramming themselves into them, distracting them enough that the dog was able to swipe at them and almost gobble up Goofy. "Ha! What are you snacks going to do…?" Rin's laughter stopped short as her skulls were destroyed, and glared over at Reimu, who had summoned Homing Amulet and was slowly floating up into the air, until she was at the same level as Rin. Rin scowled. "So, it's a catfight you want, is it?"
"That was terrible." Reimu said, smirking. "You should stay away from puns."
"It wasn't a- Whatever! Cerberus, just play with those boys!" Rin herself rose up into the air.
So, she can fly. So that means… Reimu swallowed. It's time, then. My first real Spell Card battle…!
Rin hissed. "I'll drag your corpse back to the Underworld!"
[BGM: Corpse Voyage ~ Be of Good Cheer!]
The two girls began circling each other in the air, ignoring the dog and boys below them. Rin held out her hand, and with a flash of blue flames, a card appeared in her hand. Reimu braced herself.
"Cat Sign: 「Cat's Walk」!" Rin cried, and with a flash of green light she was a cat again, her two black tails twitching angrily. She began leaping through the air as if pushing off against ground, and every time she "landed", a large ring of bullets shot out, which Reimu dodged effortlessly. Rin began jumping all over the air, and the rings began to overlap, and Reimu was having some difficulty dodging them. She calmed herself and began shooting Homing Amulet at the cat, thankful that she could focus on dodging rather than shooting with the amulets' automatic targeting.
On the ground, the boys were having as much difficulty with Cerberus as Reimu was having with Rin. The dog was shooting fire out of its mouths, and while Sora and Donald were able to keep their distance and attack with magic, Goofy kept getting burned by the flames. Eventually he just ran underneath the dog's body to escape the fire… which was a pretty good idea, actually. He began attacking the dog's legs and underbelly, making it furious but effectively getting the job done. Sora and Donald grinned at each other and nodded, and Donald went to join Goofy underneath the dog as Sora stayed behind as a distraction. For a moment, the dog was furiously snapping at the two hiding beneath it, and Sora took that free moment to look up at the bullet fight above them, and marvel at how somewhere in that huge cloud of bullets, Reimu was in there kicking that lame cat's ass.
"Man, I hope the rest of your cards aren't so easy!" Reimu taunted as the bullets disappeared, having successfully captured the card. The truth was that she had been worried for herself during the whole card, since she was fighting against a hostile opponent this time, but she couldn't help taking a stab at the other girl. Rin, turning back into her human-looking form, merely hissed at her and with more blue flames summoned another spell card.
"Cursed Sprite: 「Zombie Fairy」!" Blue bullets began to spiral from Rin towards Reimu. It was an extremely simple pattern- it was literally just a huge spiral of blue; easily dodgeable. But what concerned Reimu about the card was the sudden appearance of what she assumed to be the titular zombie fairies. A sizeable crowd of young looking girls with wings and dead appearances began floating towards her, looking malevolently at her. Reimu raised her eyebrows and began dodging the spiral of blue, and simply shot at the zombie girls- and gasped as they exploded into fast, small bullets. She gasped again as the girls got right back up and started coming after her again.
"Wh-what the hell?!" She shouted. Her amulets were going for the fairies, not Rin, and when they got hit they just made more bullets! How would she capture this spell? She calmed herself and began flying with the spiral instead of just dodging it, leading the fairies in a circle (thankfully, they didn't seem to be that smart). This created a huge opening for her to shoot at Rin, and after quite a few rounds, she managed to capture this spell card as well. As her bullets and zombie fairies disappeared, Rin's face got even redder and angrier.
"Hnnngh! Let's see how you like this?!" She snapped and she was surrounded by the blue flaming skulls from before. Another snap, and another card appeared in blue flames. "Malicious Spirit: 「Spleen Eater」!" Bullets began to surround Reimu, and soon she realized there was no way out from them. With a sinking feeling she saw the bullets begin to close in on her, and she frantically looked around for an opening. She saw one, and she shot straight for it, managing to get out of the bullets just in time for them all to hit each other and cause an explosion, then grow outwards again. The same thing happened again, and this time Reimu knew where to go to avoid getting caught. It was another simple but intimidating spell card, but unfortunately, Reimu took quite a bit of time with it, as the bullets suddenly disappeared; the card had timed out. Rin looked upset that Reimu hadn't been hurt by it, but also seemed to be pleased that at least she hadn't managed to capture it.
"Even still…" Reimu smiled to herself. "For a first-time spell card battler, I'm doing pretty well. I wish Alice could see me…"
Down below, the boys were running around wildly. Sora wasn't quite sure what or how the dog had done it, but dark circles had begun to appear on the ground, shooting out spears of dark light. The circles were chasing after them, and they were having a bit of a tough time dodging both them and the fire that Cerberus was shooting out of its mouths.
"Sora! Look out!" Goofy yelled, and Sora rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being smashed by the dog's paws. He grunted as he got hit with a blast of fire and a spear at the same time, but instantly felt relieved as Donald cast Cure on him. The circles eventually stopped appearing, and the boys went back to their previous strategy of each attacking a single head. Finally, after what seemed to be forever, the dog's heads howled and it fell over, unconscious.
"We did it!" Sora yelled happily. He looked up to the sky to see how Reimu was doing. She was looking down at them, clapping and cheering. Rin, on the other hand, looked absolutely mortified that her precious Cerberus had been defeated. She glared at the boys below, and screamed in fury. She held out her arm high into the sky, and a huge burst of blue flame erupted, fading out to reveal one more spell card. Reimu swallowed; this was probably going to be a hellish one.
"SMALL DEMON'S REVIVAL!"
Reimu was frozen, unable to think. She was surrounded on all sides by flaming blue bullets, and once again those zombie fairies were coming towards her. Suddenly, her vision was clouded by red; the fairies had let loose enormous red bullets, and they were coming straight at her. She vaguely heard Sora, Donald, and Goofy's yells, and Rin's laughter, and feeling odd just as she was about to be completely submerged in bullets. She vaguely recalled lifting her arm up as everything began to move in slow motion towards her. She vaguely registered that she was yelling something aloud herself.
"Dream Sign: 「Evil Sealing Circle」!"
She vaguely remembered seeing all the bullets around her disappear, as she was surrounded by a ring of white. As her consciousness faded, she thought she saw her amulets shooting out from everywhere, but how could that be?
Then she didn't remember anything.
"Wake up already, you lazy bum!" Sora had been yelling in Reimu's unconscious face for quite some time now. They were all in the lobby- the boys, Phil, Tenshi, and Hercules, though Cloud seemed to have left before Cerberus and Rin had been defeated. And what a defeat it had been; none of them had expected Reimu to use her new spell card so soon, and after Reimu had said that it had needed something else before she could use it! Sora remembered watching in terror as the huge bullets had been about to engulf her, when he heard her shout, and suddenly she had been shooting out bullets, and Rin's all disappeared as she had been overcome with the red amulets of the new spell card. Sora still didn't quite understand spell cards, but even still, he was very impressed and awestruck at how powerful they were.
Both Rin and Reimu had fallen to the ground after that, though Reimu was unconscious, and the boys had to catch her before she hit the ground. Rin had seemed to be absolutely exhausted herself, and she had spat out insults and curses at them as she had made her way to Cerberus, and had lifted her arm to the sky; beneath both her and the dog, a huge magic circle had appeared in blue flames, and with a flash of blue light, they had disappeared, and the circle had faded away. The boys had then carried Reimu to the lobby, and had been trying to make her wake up ever since.
"Come on, Reimu! Wakey wakey!" Goofy said, gently shaking her.
"She'll be okay, right?" Donald asked. He had cast Cure on her, but he was getting very worried, as she had still not woken up.
"I'm sure she will be." Tenshi nodded. "She's a tough one! Danmaku isn't lethal anyway, so even that crazy cat's cards wouldn't be able to kill her."
"You know about this stuff?" Sora asked, though he honestly couldn't say he was surprised.
"Sure I do." Tenshi grinned. "I fight with it in tournaments sometimes, and I like to have proper flying battles with some of the denizens of the Underworld."
"Reimuuuuuuuuu." Sora went back to trying to wake the unconscious girl. "Come on, Reimu, Tenshi says you'll be fine… Hey!" He smiled as Reimu's eyes began to twitch. She slowly blinked awake, looking groggily around at everyone.
"Huh…? Wh… What happened? Where… Where's that cat? What…?"
"Good morning." Goofy said happily.
"Morning? Huh?" She shook her head and blinked a few times, and slowly got up. "What happened? Did I win? Is she gone?"
"You did it!" Sora said. "You used your spell card and kicked her butt!"
"My?" Reimu said. She held out her hand like she normally did to summon Homing Amulet, but when the familiar flash of light appeared, there were two cards instead of just the one. "Ah…" She looked closely at it. "But… I didn't finish it… It finished itself?"
"It must have resonated with you subconsciously." Tenshi crossed her arms. "Tricky magic, spell cards are! You subconsciously knew you were in huge trouble and so you finished your spell card right on the fly! Pretty impressive!" She gave Reimu a thumbs up.
"Ahem." They looked over at Phil and Hercules, who had been politely waiting through their talk of spell cards, but it seemed that Phil was tired of waiting. "You kiddos did pretty impressively out there, so I wanted to say something." He moved closer to the four of them, as Reimu stood up. He coughed importantly. "You have fought for and protected this coliseum well! Thus, I do hereby dub thee junior heroes, and confer upon thee full rights and privileges to participate in the games. Further-"
"Hey! What do you mean 'junior heroes'?" Donald interrupted angrily.
"You rookies still don't understand what it takes to be a true hero." Phil replied. Tenshi giggled.
"So, uh, what does it take?" Goofy asked.
"Well, that's just something you'll have to find out for yourselves." Hercules said with a smile.
"Yeah, like Heracles did!" Tenshi added.
"No problem." Sora said confidently. "We'll start by proving ourselves in the games!" Donald and Goofy nodded excitedly with him. Phil, Hercules, and Tenshi glanced at Reimu, who was shaking her head slightly and looking at them with pleading eyes. She was done with this place. Phil grinned and winked at her.
"There ain't gonna be any games for a while. Gotta clean up the mess from what you guys just did first."
Reimu beamed at him. The boys didn't notice.
"Okay, we'll be back, then." Sora waved at them. "C'mon, guys." He, Donald, and Goofy headed out the door. Reimu hung back, and bowed to the three others.
"Thank you all so much for your time. And…" She rose from the bow. "You guys wouldn't happen to have seen any kids around our age named Riku, Marisa, or Kairi, have you…?"
They shook their heads. She sighed, thanked them again, and left.
"Hm. I wonder who they are." Tenshi said.
"Probably just some friends." Hercules answered. Phil was silent.
"What's the matter?" Tenshi looked over at him.
"I still can't believe those guys were able to take down two of Hades' pets."
Hercules leaned towards him. "Just between us three, I'd already worn Cerberus down by the time the little guy jumped in. And Rin's the weakest out of Hades' pets, too…"
"Our lips are sealed." Phil said, and Tenshi nodded with a giggle.
"What took you?" Sora asked Reimu as she hopped down the steps. The boys had been about to leave when they realized Reimu wasn't with them, and had been waiting for her.
"Sorry." She replied.
The four of them started towards the gates. They were so engrossed in their cheerful conversation that they didn't notice Cloud, sitting on the stone steps leading out of the coliseum, until Sora stepped close to him and he edged away.
"Oh!" Reimu said, her cheeks becoming a bit pinker. Sora grinned. "Are you okay?"
Cloud looked up at her, then at the others. "Yeah." He simply said, quietly.
"Hey, you were working with that Hades guy, right?" Sora asked. "Why did you go along with him, anyway?"
Cloud rested his chin on his hands. "I'm looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired." He stood up. "I fell into darkness, and I couldn't find the light."
"You'll find it!" Reimu said. "We're searching, too."
"For your light?" Cloud smiled at her, and Sora thought her face would turn as red as her clothes. "Don't lose sight of it." Suddenly, the gates behind him opened, and they all turned and backed away as someone came through, singing very loudly in a slurred voice.
"Pettaaaaaan! Pettaaaaaaaaaaaan! Tssssssssurupettaaaaaaaaan!" A girl swinging around a large purple gourd stumbled towards them. She had bright orange hair, a purple toga dress, and she was covered with chains and shackles. But what struck everyone the most about the strange girl were the huge horns coming out of her head.
"Uh… Do ya need help, miss?" Goofy asked.
"Huh? Lord Oyassssssshiro?" She looked up at him, her face bright red. Was this young girl…?
"…She's drunk." Cloud said. The girl looked over at him.
"Hey. Hey hey hey hey hey hey. 'Sh thish…. 'S thish the colisssssssseum?"
"Yes." Reimu said.
"Yahoo! Made it!" The girl yelled happily. "I told her, I told her I woooooould! I tooooooold that Tenkoooooooooooo!"
"Tenshi?" Sora asked. He suddenly remembered their first meeting with Tenshi. Hadn't she left the coliseum to go talk to someone? Could this drunken girl have been invited? The girl began singing again, even louder than before, stumbling towards the doors to the lobby.
"…" Cloud sighed. "I should probably help her before she hurts herself." He effortlessly picked her up with one arm, and walked towards the lobby, the girl laughing with glee. He looked back over his shoulder to them. "See you around."
"Goodbye!" Reimu said, a little too quickly, and she blushed and turned away towards the gates, embarrassed. Sora rolled his eyes at Donald and Goofy.
"Let's go, before anything else super weird happens."
Donald and Goofy laughed, and the three boys followed the embarrassed girl out of the world.
Soon after they had left, everything went dark, and something super weird happened.
"He's strong, he's kind." A model of Hercules was flexing its muscles and smiling. "He's always there for you, and he's handsome to boot." The model crossed its arms and nodded, standing in Hades' hand. The cat on his shoulder was staring at it with slanted eyes. "He's perfect. Perfect. Perfectly infuriating!" He tossed the model to the ground, where the cat leapt down to and began biting its head off. "He makes me crazy!" Hades yelled, and his normally blue color scheme turned into a fiery red. Flames erupted everywhere from his body, lighting up the dark coliseum with hot fire.
The cat morphed into Rin. "M-master, please calm down. I failed you this time, but don't worry! You still have plan B, right?"
Hades turned to her and scratched her head.
"Yeah, yeah. We let Hercules and those idiots train the kids. In the next games, I'll take care of them all." Rin meowed, and he chuckled darkly, but stopped as Rin began to hiss. He looked behind him to see a woman in dark clothes and a small, blonde girl in a black dress standing close behind her, holding on to her robes. "Who invited you to the party? Stay out if this. This is my show."
"As you wish." The woman said. "Fight to your heart's content." She turned from him and walked away. The blonde child, still holding the woman's robes, followed while looking back with curious red eyes at Hades and Rin, who were glaring after them.
Sorry for the evangelion references (I'm not sorry)
What? This didn't take another month to complete? It is a Christmas miracle. Good job, me.
And congratulations Reimu, you have discovered death-bombing. What a wonderful game mechanic it is. And just like the game mechanic, it will be very rare that you actually manage to pull it off, so you probably don't want to rely on it.
And Rin cheated, of course. Here we were, having a nice normal leveled fight, and then she decided to whip out a lunatic level card? Shame on you, cat.
And we get the appearances of a drunk girl, a woman in black, and a cute little girl! Who could these mysterious ladies be? Who?!
Next up is... I don't know. Either Deep Jungle or Youkai Mountain. Or maybe I'll combine the two? (No)
Wait. Better idea. You guys tell me. Shall I stick to the normal Kingdom Hearts formula and go to DJ and then YM, or would you like a little variety and have it YM then DJ? I mean, either way we're going to get to them and I'm gonna write this shit but you know. Reader input and all that.
I notice I've been getting these kids bloody a lot. What? What. That's going to be a regular thing. I might as well rename this to "Cute Kids Getting Beat Up and Bloody All the Time".
Maybe I'll start drawing pictures for this and putting them up on my tumblr or something. I'll let you guys know if I decide to not be so lazy and do that.
Comments, questions and suggestions always appreciated! Thanks for reading! uwu