[BGM: Fall of Fall ~ Autumnal Waterfall]

"Stop it, damn it!" Reimu yelled over the roaring waterfall at the Heartless swooping at them. She had to protect the boys and kappa, since the six of them weren't exactly able to fight for themselves at the moment, what with three of them being carried and the other three doing the carrying. "I don't know why they decided to show up NOW of all times!"

"Yah!" Sora swiped at a nearby Heartless, sending it plummeting down the water with a bonk on the head with the Keyblade.

"C-careful! It's hard to hold you if you're doing that!" Nitori yelled.

"Huh? What?" Sora looked up at her, having not heard due to the waterfall.

"Nevermind." She rolled her eyes, swerving to avoid a crow.

"Nitoriiiiiiiii! This isn't what we signed up for!" Satoko yelled at her.

"We didn't even sign up for this!" Satoshi added.

"Quit whining! The faster we get up the falls to the top of the mountain, the faster this can be over with!" Nitori snapped.

"We sure are mighty grateful to you for helpin' us." Goofy said to Satoko.

"What did you say?" She yelled at him.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP." Reimu screamed. She was in a frenzy, shooting Homing Amulets at Heartless left and right, and had even begun kicking them into the waterfall below them, and the others watched gleefully as they were dragged down by the water. There was no stopping, however, for the Heartless made no signs of becoming smaller in number, and there was still a lot of waterfall to fly up.

"This waterfall is huge!" Donald yelled. "I've never seen one so big!"

"It's the Waterfall of Nine Heavens." Satoshi said. "It's three thousand feet tall and home to plenty of tengu patrols." He looked over at Nitori. "Speaking of which-"

"Satoshi, if they were gonna stop us, they would have done so a long time ago. Besides!" She gave a short burst of speed up to allow Reimu to shoot at a crow making its way towards her. "They probably have their own hands full dealing with these monsters!"

"If we're lucky, they've already taken care of the big scary one." Satoko yelled.

"That'd be nice." Sora said. "But are these tengu guys really as strong as you guys keep making them out to be?"

"They're super strong!" Nitori yelled.

"They're super fast!" Satoshi added.

"They're super cool!" Satoko chimed in.

"They're super unhappy that intruders would dare enter their territory." A girl with a large sword and shield said, flying straight out of the waterfall and slashing at a large flock of the crow Heartless, destroying them in three strikes. The girl turned and looked at them. She had messy white hair and bright red eyes which were currently narrowed at the seven of them in suspicion.

"I-it's a wolf tengu!" Satoko cried, nearly dropping Goofy to the poor dog's horror.

"We're so sorry! We didn't mean to intrude!" Satoshi yelled.

Reimu finally stopped her ferocious shooting at the Heartless to look at the newcomer. The newcomer looked her up and down.

"You're a shrine maiden, I see."

"You're a tengu, I see." Reimu scratched her head. "I mean, I guess. I've never seen a tengu before. I've been seeing a lot of new things lately."

"Are you affiliated with the god at the mountain's peak?"

"No." Reimu shook her head. "But we are actually on our way to see her. Er, after we take care of a little problem we've been trying to finish off that's been avoiding us."

"Ah. So you all are chasing the beast that's been harassing us." She said, nonchalantly slashing a crow behind her without even turning around.

"Yup!" Sora said cheerfully.

"Excellent." The tengu said. "Then you all plan on destroying it, I presume?"

"That's right." Donald said.

"Good." The tengu nodded. "Well, I regret to inform you that you will be unable to accomplish your task."

"Huh? Why? Did you guys already get it?" Nitori asked.

"The creature attacked our base of operations with more of these mockeries of crows," the tengu kicked at one, "but we easily overpowered it, of course. It escaped towards the shrine of the wind god. The goddess will take care of it easily, so you humans and kappa and…" she raised her eyebrows, trying to figure out Donald and Goofy, "…in any case, you will not have to worry."

"Oh." Reimu said, a little dejected. "I wanted to beat it up."

"Well, we better get to that shrine then, right?" Goofy asked.

"Uuuuugh! I have to carry you all the way up theeeeeere?" Satoko complained.

"That won't be necessary." The tengu said. "Since you do not plan on staying in tengu territory, it would be permissible to aid the associates of a fellow Dai-shogi player." She smiled at the kappa, who all giggled. The tengu whistled loudly- so loudly that it was clearly heard over the roaring waterfall. She nodded her head at the kappa, and Sora, Reimu, Donald and Goofy all gasped together as three more tengu had just suddenly appeared next to the first one.

"H-how?" Sora asked.

"We told you. Tengu are super fast!" Satoko giggled.

"Inubashiri." One of the new tengu said. "You called."

"Yes." Inubashiri said. "These seven require aid in getting to the wind shrine."

"Humans and kappa?" Another tengu asked. "Why are they here in the first place?"

"As I just told you, they are going to the wind shrine. They have business with the beast we chased up there."

"Ah." The other tengu all nodded in understanding. The three of them floated over to the kappa and their luggage, and held them.

"And I shall take you." Inubashiri said to Reimu, grabbing her.

"N-now, hold on a minute!" Reimu protested. "Why can't I just fly there myself?"

Inubashiri smiled.

"…I see." Reimu said seconds later, as they all landed on the ground, no waterfall- or Heartless- in sight. "How… how far are we from where we were?"

"We are now at the peak of Youkai Mountain." One of the tengu said. "Welcome to Moriya Shrine." He pointed, and they all turned to see stone steps leading underneath a torii up to a rather well kept looking shrine. Sora noted that though it looked similar to Reimu's family's shrine back home, it was considerably cleaner and fancier than hers.

"You said you chased that monster up here?" Satoshi asked. "Where is it?"

At that moment, a loud howl was heard from somewhere behind the shrine, and an enormous splash of water rose into the air.

"I would guess that the goddess here has cornered it at the Wind God's Lake, behind the shrine." Inubashiri pointed. She muttered something to her fellow tengu, and turned back to them. "We will leave you all now."

"Oh! Thanks for helping us up here!" Sora said.

Inubashiri smiled. "Do not enter tengu territory again, or we will attack you. And we won't hold back."

"U-uh, noted." Sora gulped. The tengu all nodded at the kappa, and within seconds they had flown away, so fast that the others hadn't even had time to blink.

"They were really scary…" Donald scratched the back of his head nervously.

They all looked at the shrine as another blast of water rose into the air, this time with an explosion of color, cries from the wolf, and… yells from a person?

"Now, foul demon, begone! Divine Festival:「Expanded Onbashira」!" A woman's voice boomed throughout the air. The seven of them ran (or flew) up the stone steps to the shrine's front, and made their way as fast as they could behind the shrine. The sight that met them made them collectively gasp: the wolf Heartless was stuck in place in the middle of an enormous lake, impaled by huge red lasers, while it was being bombarded with blue amulets. The wolf snarled and snapped at the amulets and tried to free itself from the lasers, but to no avail. "My, my. You just won't disappear, will you, creature?" The red-dressed woman floating high above it said, narrowing her red eyes. "Just how much of my attacks have you withstood? It must be an off day for me."

"U-Um!" Nitori shouted, her voice quivering, and her face red. "E-Excuse me, L-Lady Yasaka!"

Lady Yasaka turned sharply towards them, to Sora's surprise. He hadn't expected her to be able to hear them, what with her being so far from them.

"Who goes there?" Her voice boomed at them.

"Lady Yasaka! Um, please leave that creature to these humans and come to safety!" Satoshi yelled. "They may not look it, but they're strong and they came to this mountain to kill that monster!"

"Hm? Humans?" Still firing lasers and amulets at the Heartless behind her, she flew a little closer to them. "A boy, a duck, a dog, and a girl…" her eyes trailed down to the gohei in Reimu's hand, her eyes widening and, alarmingly, the bullets firing behind her decreasing in speed and number. "…A….shrine…maiden?"

"L-Lady Yasaka! The monster-!" Satoko yelled, pointing. With her distraction at Reimu, the goddess's spell card had timed out, and the Heartless was furiously making its way towards them, feathers flying away from its body as it splashed through the water, aiming directly for Lady Yasaka.

"Hmph." The goddess shook herself and looked away from Reimu at the beast hurtling towards her. "I did not permit you to leave that spot." She held up her hand and a huge gust of wind blew from nowhere, slowing down the wolf and influencing the waters of the lake into huge waves, causing the wolf to once again be unable to do anything but snap angrily at them. Lady Yasaka looked back at them. "I am perfectly capable of handling this on my own. You all may sit there and wait for me to finish this, and then we can discuss your business here."

"W-wait!" Reimu yelled as the goddess flew towards the wolf. "That monster is our business here!" She flew after her.

"Reimu!" Sora, Donald and Goofy, being unable to fly themselves, made their way down from the shrine to the shores of the lake, tripping over rocks and bushes as they did so.

"Why'd she have to keep it stuck in this lake?" Donald said angrily, kicking at the water. "We can't fight it from here!"

"Do you want us to carry you again?" Satoko asked. The three kappa landed next to them.

"No, it wouldn't be easy fighting like that." Sora shook his head.

"Um, I could just…" Nitori started, but was cut off by Goofy.

"Y'know, it might be better if we stay outta this, fellas." he said. "We'd just get in the way of those spell cards of theirs, wouldn't we?"

"…" Donald crossed his arms, and Sora watched the goddess and Reimu shooting bullets at the Heartless.

"…It's not fair." Sora said.

"Huh?" The others looked at him.

"Reimu's been doing a lot of the work lately." Sora said. "Fighting the Heartless when we were flying up the waterfall, fighting this one now, and even back at the Coliseum, when we were fighting Cloud, and then that crazy cat…"

"Cloud? Cat?" Nitori asked.

"I just wish we didn't have to stay on the sidelines and let her do all the work!" Sora said, ignoring Nitori. "Ugh!"

"Well, we can't fly, and they're in the middle of that lake." Donald said. "We really can't do anything but watch."

"Well, guys, you know I-" Nitori tried to say something, but was again cut off.

"I know! We can't-" Suddenly, Sora stopped. He looked at the lake, then for some reason, down at his shoes, and then at Nitori, then back at the lake. He smacked himself on the forehead.

"What is it?" Satoshi asked.

"Sora?" Goofy asked.

"I'm sorry, Nitori. I totally forgot." Sora sheepishly said to her. "Um, could you maybe…?"

"That's what I've been trying to do for you!" She laughed, pointed at the water, and snapped. "Now go, run as fast as you can and stop making Reimu do all the work!"

Sora nodded and ran straight onto the water, and sped towards the Heartless attempting to bite Reimu and Lady Yasaka out of the air.

"Ah, that's right! I forgot too!" Donald cried, running after Sora onto the lake.

"Wait fer me, fellas!" Goofy yelled after them. He looked back at the kappa. "Er, you can stay there where it's safe if ya like!"

"Gladly!" Satoshi and Satoko saluted together. They looked at Nitori expectantly.

"What?" She asked.

"Are you gonna go fight that thing too?" Satoshi asked.

"You've been really weird all day. Like, really weird. Being nice to humans, and actually caring about other people, and we're just wondering if you're gonna add being a hero of justice to that list." Satoko said.

"What? Shut up." Nitori said. "There's no way I'd fight that thing, ever. Those guys can handle it."

"Really? Not even if it tried to steal the heart of someone you cared about?"

The quiet voice behind them made them all jump, but it made Nitori's own heart sink in her chest from how wrong it sounded, coming from its owner. She slowly turned around to face the speaker, ignoring Satoshi's gasp and Satoko's shriek, and found herself forcing herself not to do both actions as she gazed at the person who had spoken those words.

"Oh, wait, that's right. You don't actually care about that 'someone'. Of course you wouldn't protect them from that monster. After all, you've refused to protect them from much less scary things before, all because of your selfishness."

"H…Hina? W-what are you doing here? Wh-what's wrong with you? Why do you look like that?" Nitori asked, her voice shaking.

Hina Kagiyama smiled, the dark aura emanating from her spinning lazily around her. "Oh. I have business with Yasaka. Since the beast isn't working out, I'm going to have to do the deed myself." She shrugged. "Though, so many others being here will complicate things a bit."

"'The deed'? What are you talking about?" Nitori asked. "Hina! What's going on! What did you mean, I don't care about you?"

"Um. Nitori. Why are you talking with the Daughter of Curses like you're having a fight with a friend?" Satoshi asked, his voice quavering, but still resolute.

"I- I'm not…" Nitori quickly looked at him. "She's-"

"Ah. Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahahaha!" Hina laughed, a terrible, icy laugh, not like the warm laugh like the tinkling of bells which Nitori loved to hear when they would meet in secret. "You're right. We're not friends. I am the Daughter of Curses, and you all are just insignificant little ants I mean to crush. But that doesn't mean I don't like to chat with the misfortunate before I crush them."

"H-Hina?" Nitori looked at her, wide-eyed in disbelief. How could she be acting like this? What was happening?

"Oh, by the way. I would duck, you two." Hina addressed Satoshi and Satoko.

"H-huh?" The two of them said together, and collapsed together at that moment, as a wave from the lake without warning washed over them, hitting them both with large debris on their heads, knocking them out.

"What?! Why- Hina!" Nitori yelled at her.

"Oh my. How unfortunate for them." Hina giggled, but once again it was a wrong giggle, not a sweet one like she normally did when playing around with Nitori.

"Why are you doing this?!" Nitori yelled. "What's gotten into you?!"

"What's gotten into me?" Hina asked, her cruel laughing face suddenly going dark and angry, her voice suddenly softer but no less threatening. "Just the truth. I've been thinking, and I've realized that I am alone in this world. I have no friends. Friendship is just a delusion, a delusion I have freed myself from." She smiled. "My heart has found the comfort of darkness! Darkness has shown me the truth and let me realize my full potential as a goddess. I must share this wonderful truth with Yasaka, my fellow deity, and help her get rid of the pain she is feeling from the loss of her shrine maiden and Moriya. Darkness will let her know her true power, too! And then we will spread the wonders of darkness all over the mountain, and let everyone realize how worthless and horrible the light is. If we all work together to get rid of the world's light, everyone in this world will finally be able to live together in peace, don't you see? No more discrimination, no more scapegoats, no more hate, and no more of this sickness called friendship." She smiled widely, unsettlingly, madly. "Just the sweet darkness! It will be perfect for you, who has only ever thought about yourself. The beautiful darkness-"

"Oh my god Hina shut up." Nitori had stopped being scared of Hina now. She glared at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and you know what? I don't care. But you know what I do care about? You." She closed her eyes, her fists clenching. "You're right about something. I do only ever think about myself. I'm scared that people will find out about our friendship. I'm scared about what they'll say about me or treat me badly because I'm your friend. I'm selfish and a coward and I admit it!" She opened her eyes, fiercely gazing at the goddess in front of her. "But you know what? Seeing those humans has gotten me thinkin' about a lot of stuff. They're human, but they're strong. They're human, but they haven't been overwhelmed or died or been hurt in this place that's dangerous even for other youkai. They're even fighting with Lady Yasaka and not being intimidated!"

Behind them, on the lake, Lady Yasaka had used another spell card, this one having to do with rice or something, shooting huge rings of exploding red and purple bullets at the wolf, with Reimu flying between each ring and shooting Homing Amulet at it. Though the large waves caused by Lady Yasaka and Reimu's combined assault were bothering the wolf, it was not the case with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They used the waves to their advantages, running on top of the waves and jumping off to get hits on the wolf's head, saved from the Heartless's snapping jaws by the water itself. The wolf was staggering around, trying to use its paralyzing howl, but to no avail. Lady Yasaka's wind and waves drowned out all of its cries. Blizzard was proving to be a particularly effective spell for Sora and Donald to use, freezing the water where the wolf was standing and rendering it incapable of movement, leaving it open to the painful danmaku of Reimu's and Lady Yasaka's.

"It's been makin' me think." Nitori said. "They're a lot different than what I expected them to be. So I've been wondering, maybe it'll be different for us, too." She clasped her hands together. "Instead of being scared for myself, I just go right out and tell everyone how wonderful and kind and friendly you are and how you should be allowed to come visit all the time, and convince people that you're not the 'Daughter of Curses', but something much more!" She smiled. "The 'Daughter of Fortune', maybe! Or, er, something else. I'm not that good with naming things."

"…" Hina stared at her with the glowing yellow eyes that did not belong on her.

"Hina… stop it with all that wacky 'darkness' talk! Let's wait together for those guys to beat up that monster, and for Satoshi and Satoko to wake up, and then you can apologize to them and maybe Lady Yasaka can fix whatever's happened to you, and we can-"

"Enough." The aura surrounding Hina had darkened from a dark purple to a pitch black. "You're a liar." Nitori felt a bead of sweat go down her face as she listened to her friend speak in a terrifying monotone. "You're not my friend. You were never my friend. You don't care about me. No one cares about me. I'm all alone. The darkness is my only friend. No one no one nO ONe NO OnE NO ONE NO ONE no ONE nO One no one no one NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE NO ONE CARES-" She flung her head back and gave a piercing scream, clutching the sides of her head tightly.

"HINA!" Nitori ran at her, trying to touch her, but was thrown back by the terrible aura, landing with a splash in the turbulent water. She noticed that it begun to rain, which was odd. Wasn't it bright and sunny just a little bit ago? She turned to the group fighting on the lake. Lady Yasaka seemed to have decided to stop wasting spell cards on the beast, and was just using non-spell danmaku now, though the other four were using their same strategies as before. She tore her eyes away from the battle to focus on the trouble on the lake shore. Hina had stopped screaming, and was breathing heavily, staring at Nitori with those horrible yellow eyes.

"I'll get rid of you now, and then spread the good message of darkness to the old hag." She hissed at her. "Darkness will be the new, unquestioned faith of this mountain!"

"Like I'll let that happen!" Nitori yelled, jumping out of the water and floating up into the air, slowly reaching down into one of the pockets of her dress, and pulling out a spell card of her own. "Hina, I forgive you for all of this you're doing, so please forgive me for smacking some sense into you!"

"Fine, then!" Hina shrieked, lifting off into the air as well, her own spell card materializing out of the dark aura. "Now die, for the sins you have accumulated!"

[BGM: The Venerable Ancient Battlefield ~ Suwa Foughten Field]

"Bad Luck Sign: 「Biorhythm of the Misfortune God」!"

"Water Sign: 「Kappa's Great Illusionary Waterfall」!"

One hit. Two hits. Three hits. The wolf had given up, and simply stood there as Sora wailed on it with the Keyblade. Four hits. Five hits. Six hits. It was just about finished, he could tell. Seeing the creature look so pitiful and accepting of its fate made him feel a little bad for it, but he got over it. It was a monster of darkness, after all. It had been trying to steal Lady Yasaka's heart, and had tried to take Hina's and those innocent kappas' hearts as well. Seven hits. Eight hits. Nine hits.

"All together now!" the goddess yelled, and she fired huge purple bullets at the creature. Reimu elegantly twirled between them and smacked the Heartless's head as hard as she could with her gohei. Donald let loose an enormous bolt of lightning, fitting for the heavy rain pouring down on them, striking the wolf, and making Sora wonder why the three of them hadn't been hurt by it, what with them standing on a huge body of water and all. Goofy spun like a little tornado, striking the wolf many times. Finally, Sora saw his chance as a large wave went past him. He ran on top of it, and leapt off, bringing the Keyblade down on the Heartless's head. With a final howl that was lost in the wind and rain, the Heartless wolf covered in feathers and leaves fell to the ground… or, rather, water, disappearing into light as it sank in the water, a large, bright heart spinning up into the air serenely despite the harsh weather before also disappearing into light.

"We did it!" Donald and Goofy jumped up and down together happily.

"Way to go, everyone!" Sora yelled over the rain and wind.

"Oh. Allow me to…" Lady Yasaka cleared her throat, and yelled to the sky, "Calm down!" Instantly, the rain let up, though it did not stop. She looked down at them below her. "A good, blessed rain is fine enough as celebration for this accomplishment."

They all watched as the water of the lake calmed down as well, the waves getting smaller and smaller. Donald and Goofy stopped jumping and looked down as they saw that they had been jumping on a rock, not the water. Sora glanced down as well and noticed that he two had ended up on a rock. He shrugged and looked up at Reimu and Lady Yasaka, floating down to them.

"Well, now that that is over and done with…" Lady Yasaka looked at all of them, noticeably looking longer at Reimu than the boys. "Who are y…ou… all…." She was staring over their heads at the far away shore, and her triumphant face from beating the Heartless had shifted into a grimace. "What now." She said, unamused.

They all turned to look at what she was talking about, and were all surprised to see two flying figures, one blue and one black, quickly flying around in the air, the blue one letting out an insane number of bright blue bullets that seemed to be coming from the lake itself, and the black figure unleashing an equally lunatic number of red bullets.

"Is that Nitori?!" Reimu cried. "Who's that she's fighting?"

"…It can't be…" Lady Yasaka's eyes widened. "What in heaven has happened to her?!"

"What is it? Who is it?" Sora asked.

"It's… a lesser goddess… A goddess of misfortune. I gave her a job of keeping out humans from the Great Youkai Forest for their protection. What is she doing here, and what is the evil I sense even all the way out here from her?"

"Miss Hina? That's Miss Hina there?" Goofy cried, distressed. "That can't be! We left her by the river at the bottom of the mountain, didn't we?"

"Well, whatever the reason, it's making her and Nitori fight." Sora said. "Best friends like them shouldn't fight! Come on, guys!" He ran off the rock… and plunged into the water. He bobbed up and climbed back onto the rock, shivering and drenched. "I-I f-forgot she'd p-probably not b-be f-f-focused on keeping the water s-solid f-f-for us right now…"

Reimu shook her head and flew down and lifted him up from under his arms, obviously struggling with his weight.

"No, Reimu! I'm too heavy!"

"We need to get over there right now. I can handle it…" Her physical prowess (well, lack thereof) betrayed her however, and she nearly made both of them drop into the cold water below.

"…Ahem." Lady Yasaka scooped up Sora in her arms, and grabbed Donald and Goofy as well. It was a rather amusing sight, seeing the serious woman carrying the three silly boys, but Reimu knew that that particular moment wasn't one for laughing. She nodded to the goddess and flew quickly over to where the danmaku fight was happening, stopping a ways away as not to get in the line of fire. Lady Yasaka deposited the boys further away on the ground, and flew over to where Reimu was floating. She cleared her throat once again, and spoke in her booming, godly voice, "Cease this duel on my property at once!"

The two dueling girls did not hear her, or if they did, they ignored her. They were both in a trance, shooting thousands of bullets at each other at the same time, not seeming to care that they were bringing their fight dangerously close to the shrine itself. Lady Yasaka noticed this, and decided that if she couldn't tell these fools to stop their fight, she would at least get them away from her house. With a sweeping motion of her arms, a powerful gust of wind blew the girls and their bullets away, to over the lake itself, effectively swapping the places of the two parties. As the two girls had been spectators to Sora and everyone's fighting, now Sora and the others were the spectators to their fight.

"TIRED, YET?" Hina yelled at Nitori, unleashing a huge wave of diamond-shaped red bullets towards her.

"THIS IS JUST A WARM-UP!" Nitori retorted, motioning with her arms as if she were lifting something heavy, and many streams of blue bullets rose from the water, striking through the red ones and surrounding Hina.

"TCH! SCAR: 「BROKEN CHARM OF PROTECTION」" A huge wave of more red bullets surrounded Hina in a huge, intricate circle, before breaking apart with all the bullets going this way and that surrounding Nitori. Nitori dove between the bullets, closely grazing many and getting hit on her arms once or twice, but aside from that was relatively unharmed by the attack. She brought up bullets from the water beneath them to shoot at Hina, though Hina's constant spinning around made it difficult to hit her and dodge the bullets at the same time. Then, something odd happened: the bullets just stopped coming from the water. Nitori looked down in confusion and shock, and then yelped with pain as she was hit by multiple bullets at once. Her cries made Reimu wince.

"HOW UNFORTUNATE~" Hina laughed cruelly.

"To hurt her that much… that's… that's a lunatic level spell, isn't it?" Reimu asked.

"I believe it is." Lady Yasaka nodded.

"We should help her!" Reimu made to fly into the fray, but the goddess grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her back next to her.

"No, shrine maiden. This is their battle. It would be unwise to interfere."

"…" Reimu looked down at the boys, who had reached the shore right below them. Sora was looking up at her, confused. She shook her head and shrugged at him.

"G-guh… Y'THINK THAT'LL BE ENOUGH TO PUT ME OUT?" Nitori's yells echoed throughout the lake. "GET A LOAD OF THIS! DROWN: 「TRAUMA IN THE GLIMMERING DEPTHS」!" The water beneath them began to tremble violently, and a huge amount of glowing blue bullets began to form and rise into the air, quickly closing in around Hina. She glared at the watery bullets and flew between them gracefully, spinning around the beautiful water. She was heading straight for Nitori, with a malicious glint in her eyes- but was suddenly jerked back as her foot was caught in the water stream, and she was flung around, straight into huge blue bullets Nitori shot at her.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Hina screeched. The spectators on the shore all cringed at the sound.

"A-are you sure we can't help them?" Sora yelled up at Lady Yasaka and Reimu. Reimu looked at the goddess pleadingly.

"This is their battle." Lady Yasaka repeated.

"…" Reimu looked at the two girls, worried.

"I wonder what they're fighting about." Donald said.

"Why did Hina come up here, anyway?" Sora asked. "I thought she was gonna wait for us back at the foot of the mountain."

"Maybe she didn't want to wait alone in the rain." Goofy said, holding up his hand to catch some raindrops.

"I don't think that's it." Sora smiled, but stopped as they heard Hina yelling again.

"FATE: 「OLD LADY OHGANE'S FIRE」" Hina was suddenly surrounded by swirling, flaming bullets, which she directed to move towards Nitori. The kappa laughed.

"Huuuuuuuh? Really? You're using fire? I think you've spun around too much, your head's dizzy!" Nitori easily flew through the flames, shooting the same big blue bullets from before. The flaming bullets got faster and faster everywhere, but they were erratic and losing their pattern. Nitori managed to get a good look at Hina's face, and nearly stopped midflight at the sight. Hina, the prim and proper elegant doll that she knew so well, looked like a monster. The cold yellow eyes stared at her manically, and she was baring her teeth at her. "Hina…" Nitori wanted to reach out to her, to hug her, but-

"Nitori!"

She heard the yells coming from the shore, from the humans. She looked up to see she was about to fly right into a cluster of flaming bullets; the card had entirely lost its form now, and Hina was just madly shooting out flames every way. She shot more blue at Hina, and just in time all of Hina's bullets disappeared- the card had timed out. Nitori pulled out another card from her pocket, but stopped just before announcing it and stared in confusion as Hina suddenly fled…

…No, she wasn't fleeing. Hina was flying faster than Nitori had ever seen her do so before, straight at Lady Yasaka.

"You dare-?" The goddess yelled, swiping the air with her arm and firing differently colored amulets.

"Hey now!" Reimu yelled, flying back and summoning Homing Amulet. "What are you doing, Hina?!"

Hina didn't answer. Or rather, she did, but it was an inhuman growl. She turned her glowing yellow eyes on Reimu and flew at her, hand outstretched towards her heart. It was at that moment that Reimu noticed another change that had happened to Hina- the swirl that was on Hina's dress had become…

"My god." Reimu didn't hold back, and smashed her gohei into the side of Hina's head, knocking her back and sending her falling to the ground. "Guys! She's a Heartless!"

"WHAT?" The boys yelled, but looking at Hina slowly standing up, they understood. Now that they finally got a better look at her, they noticed that her dress was a lot less vibrant than it had been, and instead of the swirl on her dress, there was a huge patch of the Heartless emblem. She staggered one step, and dashed at Sora, reaching for his heart.

"H-Hina! I don't wanna hurt you!" Sora blocked her with the Keyblade, trying hard to push her back. Suddenly he lost all of his strength and gasped, pushing Hina back onto the ground and falling over himself, clutching his stomach and covering his mouth with his hand. He felt like he was about to be sick, as he had become uncomfortably used to lately. He felt Goofy gently grab him and bring him up just in time for him to see Donald freeze Hina, rendering her unable to move.

"Are you okay?!" Reimu flew down and landed in front of him, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "What was that? Was it a curse from her or something?"

Nitori and Lady Yasaka both landed next to them, looking concerned at Hina.

"…" Nitori looked around at the ground and noticed the unconscious bodies of the kappa siblings. She dragged them over to the rest of the group, then stared blankly at the frozen Hina, ignoring the others.

"How… how could she be a Heartless…?" Sora asked. "…You can stop shaking me, by the way."

"Ah. Sorry, it's kind of therapeutic." Reimu took a step back.

"She must've been attacked or something after we left." Donald said.

"…" Nitori said nothing.

"If I may ask…" Lady Yasaka crossed her arms. "You four are from outside this world, aren't you?"

"Huh?" The four of them said together.

"You wield the Keyblade, child." Lady Yasaka pointed at the key in Sora's hand. "I was preoccupied with that beast, but I noticed it. You are on a mission to purify the worlds, yes?"

"Um, we're actually looking for our friends…" Sora said.

"And our king." Donald added.

"But we're purifying along the way." Reimu smiled.

"…I see. I don't believe I caught your names."

They introduced themselves, and Nitori, who still did not speak or look away from Hina. Lady Yasaka nodded, satisfied.

"Well. I am Kanako Yasaka, goddess of this mountain, and I thank you all for aiding me in ridding that beast." She looked over at Hina. "Now we must decide what must be done with this one."

"Hey!" Nitori whirled around, glaring at her. "Hina is not a beast!"

"I did not say she was." Kanako raised her eyebrow. "But something foreign has corrupted her, and we must rid her of it."

"But how?" Sora asked.

Kanako smiled at Reimu.

"Isn't it a shrine maiden's job to purify evil?"

so how about that hopeless masquerade and double dealing character

Hey everyone, it's me, Frost. This chapter took forever and for that I am sorry.

I keep making Sora get hurt. Why does this keep happening? Sora, stop getting sick. Sora stop it.

but where are sanae and suwako? we just don't know

to be honest I don't know if I'm going to put Deep Jungle in this because a) I really really hate that world and b) I kind of want to get on with the plot i.e. going back to Traverse Town to meet up with you-know-who

eh

comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated! sorry I don't have much to say today lol

thanks for reading