Chapter 29 – Reacquainting With Caren

Attis' apartment

'Is this the place?' Caren thought to herself, as she stood in front of the door to Attis' apartment.

It's been a number of days since the events with the Black Beauty Sisters, and things have started to settle down. Attis had gone back to work with enthusiasm, and Maki was glad that he gave Attis the time to recover. Today however, Attis had the day off due to the restaurant being closed for a few reasons.

Caren looked around and thought, 'Interesting place he has here. Might as well ring the doorbell.' She looked and pressed the doorbell and waited for a response. From the other side Attis called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me Caren!" Caren shouted back. She heard a noise before the door opened, with Attis on the other side saying, "Hey Caren, good to see you."

Attis moved out of the way as Caren walked in saying, "So this is where you're stay now huh?" She took a look around and found his place to have this homely feel. That's when she noticed something interesting on the couch, which happened to be Mogie pretending to be a stuffed doll.

The Moogle didn't know that Caren was a Mermaid Princess, and that she had knew about Moogles from Attis. Still, Attis was about to go to the kitchen when Caren said, "Oh, I didn't know you kept a stuffed animal around Attis."

"Uh, that's not-!" Attis began to say, but then Caren went over and picked it up saying, "You know, it kinda looks like those Moogle things you told me about ten years ago…"

Hearing that, Mogie decided to wiggle a bit and say, "Oh, if you know about Moogles, then you must be a Mermaid Princess kupo. Ah, I see the shell necklace too…kupo."

That freaked out Caren and it nearly made her throw Mogie across the room, if the Moogle didn't hold onto her hand saying, "Please don't throw me miss, kupo!"

Attis ran over and said, "Wait Caren, don't move!" Caren froze on the spot as Mogie wiggled himself free saying, "Whew, that was scary kupo! Her reaction was worse than the other Mermaid Princesses kupo!"

"…Attis, could you explain what's going on?" Caren asked, letting go of her posture. Attis looked from Caren to Mogie and said, "Caren, this is a Moogle name Mogie that's staying with me. Mogie, this is Caren, the Purple Pearl Mermaid Princess of the Antarctic Ocean."

Mogie nodded and said, "Oh, I see now kupo. I'm really sorry for scaring you Ms. Caren kupo." As the Moogle bowed in apology, Caren said, "Whew, I understand, and Moogles really do say 'kupo' a lot."

"I guess I should've warned you beforehand Caren." Attis said as he headed back to the kitchen. Caren sat down on the couch as he heard her say, "You think Attis?"

After preparing tea, Attis sat down on the couch beside Caren as he asked, "So, any leads on where Gaito's castle could be?"

"No, apparently many mermaid search teams have been dispatched, but so far, I haven't heard anything." Caren replied sadly as she drunk the tea Attis offered her. Attis sighed and said, "I see…"

There was a moment of silence before Mogie said, "I'll be going now. I have to synthesize a few things." Mogie then flew over to the door to his room and shut it right behind him as Attis said, "Alright Mogie."

"You know, I've been wondering," Caren started, "What have you been doing ever since you came to this time Onii-chan?"

Attis replied, "Oh man, a lot of things happened, and it's going to end up being a long, long story you know…"

"Don't worry, I'm quite used to your stories Onii-chan." Caren said with a smug look. Seeing that, Attis sighed and started to tell her from the beginning what had been going on for the past few months.

When he reached the part about Gaito and Mayluna crashing Lucia's coming of age ceremony on her birthday, Caren said, "Both of them showed up at the same time?!"

"Yeah, Gaito suddenly decides to crash the whole thing, while I found Mayluna sneaking around the palace looking for Lucia. Honestly I don't know what goes through her mind half the time." Attis told her.

"I see, so what happened next?" Caren asked. Attis went on with the story, telling her how he got found out thanks to his broken mask, and that he was confronted by the three Princesses a few days later, which earned a small giggle from Caren after he spilled the details.

That's when Attis went on with his story, up until the point where the Mermaid Contest was taking place that Caren said, "You know, when I saw you for the first time, I thought I was seeing things. I thought to myself that it must be just a coincidence seeing you at the contest."

"Really…? Well, what surprised me was our confrontation back in the forest, when I hadn't regained my lost memories." Attis replied, "By the way, I saw you giving weird looks at Mitsuki-san back then. Mind telling me what that's all about?"

"…I can't really say," Caren replied as she took another sip, "I just had an odd feeling about him for some reason."

"Okay…" Attis said, unsure what to say to that. Then he went on with the story, and when he reached the part about the whole wedding deal and Meru, Attis said, "I even have pictures from that time. You want to see?"

Caren nodded, and Attis brought them over. She looked through them, though when she stopped to look at the picture with Attis and Rina, Caren couldn't help but feel a slight twinge in her chest for some reason. Then she handed them back to Attis saying, "It must've been quite interesting to say the least."

"Yeah, especially when Izuru and Eriru were there and caused a lot of ruckus." Attis told her.

When Attis went on with the story, he even told her how he regained his memory when he fell unconscious, though he omitted the part about Solaris and Lunaria. If there was one thing he kept tight-lipped at all times, it was about his twin Keyblades' secret.

"…And that leads up to now." Attis finished, "There's my story, so how about you? Did you keep touch with Noel after you two became Mermaid Princesses?"

"Sadly, we couldn't, because things became so busy for us, that I couldn't even send Onee-chan a message." Caren told him with a sigh. Attis just nodded and said, "Well, when we rescue her from Gaito, and settle this whole mess, you two can catch up."

Caren smiled to that as the both of them finished their tea. That's when Attis remembered something and said, "I just remembered, there's a festival going on at the school where Lucia, Hanon, and Rina are attending. You want to come and check it out?"

A few seconds of silence passed by before Caren replied, "Sure, why not? I don't have anything else planned for today."

"Great, just let me get ready and we'll leave." Attis told her. Caren nodded, and when Attis was dressed properly, which all he did was put on a black dress shirt, the two of them left the apartment and made their way to the school festival.


School Festival – School Hall

After arriving and touring the festival, which Caren happened to find very interesting by the way, they made their way to the school hall, where the play that Lucia and the others' class was performing, which would be 'The Mermaid Princess'.

The two of them were standing at the back, since there weren't any seats left, and Attis had to bribe the ticket person to let them into the hall. He sighed as Caren said, "So Lucia, Hanon, and Rina are going to be in this play?"

"Yup," Attis replied, "Honestly, I'm curious as to how this play will turn out." He looked around, until he spotted two figures that were also standing, and were all too familiar to him. Attis sighed and whispered, "Better be careful, two water demons are standing to the right of us."

Caren stiffened a bit at that and she leaned over slightly to see Izuru and Eriru standing at the other side of the entrance. She whispered back, "Should we take care of them?"

"Nah, they're not making any trouble at the moment, and we don't know what they're up to. So we'll just let it go for now." Attis told her. Caren just nodded, but she was still a bit weary of them as she leaned back onto the wall.

When the play started, the curtains opened up revealing Lucia, Hanon, and Rina in their mermaid costumes. Attis nearly laughed at the irony at that as Caren said, "They're the opening act?"

Attis couldn't reply as he saw that Lucia had a case of stage fright, and that made her forget her lines. That's when Hanon stepped up and shouted, "Hey!" making Lucia turn and asked, "W-what is it, Hanon?"

A smirk came out of Attis' lips as Hanon said, "Who's this Hanon you speak of? I'm your older sister!"

"A-ah! Yeah, that's right!" Lucia said with embarrassment over her blunder. That made the some of the audience giggle, as well as Attis and Caren as she asked, "Please don't tell me Lucia's playing the part of the Mermaid Princess."

"Sure looks like it." Attis said with amusement on his face. The play went on with Hanon asking, "Don't you have something you want to ask us?"

"Ah, y-yes, I do!" Lucia said. Attis couldn't help but notice Rina looking on with an odd look on her face as Lucia said, "O-Onee-sama, please listen to what I have to say about what's above the sea." That's when Lucia went off and she struggled, "There's more…umm…more Kaito…no, that's not it…umm…"

Hanon couldn't believe what was happening as the audience laughed. Attis and Caren suppressed their own laughs as Caren asked, "Is she serious?"

"Wait, maybe this gets better." Attis told her. Onstage, Hanon gave a sigh saying, "Ah… The play's already ruined…" while Nikora, Taki, and Hippo sweatdropped as Hippo closed his saying, "I can't bear to watch this any longer!"

That's when Lucia suddenly remembered her line and said, "Oh… I remember now! Please listen more to what I have to say about the human world!" She tried moving, but she lost her balance and fell through the castle background. Lucia struggled to get out shouting, "S-someone save me! It's dark in here! It's really tight!"

Attis and Caren burst into laughter at that, as well as the audience as Hanon shouted, "What're you doing Lucia?!"

As Lucia continued to struggle, Rina covered for her saying, "How sad! She's still thinking about the stormy day when she saved the prince! Even now, her heart still hurts so painfully that she cannot say any words and cannot be moved from her sadness!"

For some reason, Attis couldn't help but think Rina sounded a bit dramatic at the last part, but it did draw away from Lucia's blunder. Meanwhile, Hanon was elated about Rina's adlib saying, "Ah, that's my Rina! It's not in the script, but it's still a nice cover!"

Two supporting fish actors came by and pulled Lucia out of the background and she turned around to say, "That's right, Onee-sama!"

Suddenly, there was a ripping sound coming from Lucia, and she looked down to see that her leg had ripped out of her mermaid tail costume. Hanon shouted Lucia's name, while the audience was laughing at the scene. Attis and Caren clutched their stomach while laughing as Caren said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you brought me here Attis! Ha ha ha!"

"I'm glad I came here too! Ha ha ha!" Attis said while laughing.

Rina tried to adlib again by saying, "Whoa! For this to have happened! You've already been granted legs by the witch?"

Unfortunately, that would twist the play too much and Hanon knew that. She shouted, "Ahh Rina! If you say things like that so soon, we won't be able to continue with the rest of our lines!"

Lucia panicked while on stage, while the audience continued to laugh as the curtain fell down to close the act. Caren was still laughing as she said, "I can't believe those three, they're you-know-what, but can't act like it!"

"I can agree with you there." Attis nodded, "The only one that was able to keep her cool was Rina, but she couldn't cover everything, unfortunately…"

They laughed a bit more until everyone calmed down, and soon, the next number of acts opened up with not much to laugh about, though there was a certain part where Lucia tripped on her tail again, crashing into Rina, which in turn got Rina's butt poked by one of the trident props held by one of the mermaid actresses.

Soon, the next scene opened up to show Kaito on the boat prop and Lucia, Hanon, and Rina on the bottom looking up. As the scene went on, the doors to the side suddenly opened and a water dragon came through, making Attis and Caren look as Attis said, "That's one of Izuru's summoned dragons!"

"What do we do Attis?" Caren asked as they watched the water dragon miss Lucia and Rina, and grabbed three of the mermaid actresses. Attis had an annoyed look on his face as he said, "We can't do anything now, there's too many people here right now…"

They watched as the audience were concerned for the girls, while Izuru and Eriru appeared onstage, thinking that they actually caught real mermaids. That's when Rina got an idea and said, "So you've shown yourselves, you evil witches!"

Izuru and Eriru were confused by that, while the audience calmed down, thinking it was just part of the play. Caren couldn't believe it and whispered, "Are humans this gullible?"

"You don't want to know." Attis replied. As the scene was being played out, Rina addressed the audience, "Now everyone, watch us beat these evil witches with our beautiful voices!"

"She doesn't mean-?" Caren asked. Attis nodded and said, "It's exactly what you think." Caren couldn't believe it until everything went dark, and when the lights came back on to show Lucia, Hanon, and Rina in their idol forms. The audience grew ecstatic by their appearance, while Caren couldn't believe it, but at least they would be able to get rid of Izuru and Eriru, she figured.

When the three started singing Super Love Songs, it started to have an immediate effect, and the dragon let go of the girls and it ran away in the face of the songs. When it in ended with their signature, "Love Shower Pitch!" Izuru and Eriru vanished, while the girls asked, "How about an encore?"

The audience started shouting for an encore, which Caren found a bit disbelieving. She was about to say something when Attis told her, "Oh, they'll sing for them. I told you they've done it before."

They watched as the girls transformed into their super idol forms, which made Attis ask, "Don't you have a super idol form Caren?"

"Yes, but I don't use it unless I really have to." Caren replied. That made Attis ask, "So why didn't you use it against the Black Beauty Sisters?"

"They snuck up on me and trapped me before I could transform. I was able to turn into my idol form in the bubble, but it prevented me from turning into my super idol form. You can figure out the rest." Caren told him.

Attis gave a nod saying, "I understand completely." They watched as Lucia, Hanon, and Rina sang a song that was new to them, and the name flashed though Attis and Caren's head: Yume no Sono Saki he.

As the song went on, Attis couldn't help but ask, "Do all you mermaids love to sing?"

"Of course! What kind of question is that Onii-chan?" Caren asked him suspiciously.

Attis just sighed and as the song ended he said, "Just asking…" However, he was on the lookout for any Heartless that might appear, but none showed up as the curtain fell. Attis was a bit relieved at that, while a part of him was suspicious as the next scene showed itself, with Kaito and Lucia onstage.

As the scene went on, Attis and Caren grew a bit concerned when the play took a turn with Lucia starting to talk. As things started to take an emotional turn, Attis leaned over to Caren and asked in a whisper, "Lucia won't turn into bubbles, will she? I mean, this is only just a play and all."

"I don't think so," Caren whispered back, "Unless she explicitly tells him that she's a mermaid, nothing will happen."

"Let's hope so." Attis whispered as the stage went dark. When it came back on, there was nothing but foam where Lucia stood. Attis gave a look to Caren, but she just shook her head and the two of them applauded with the audience at the end of the play.


School Hall – Backstage

Backstage, Attis and Caren found the room the others were in, and they heard Hanon say, "Lucia! What are you going to do about the script that I wrote?!"

"But…" Lucia whined, unable to find an excuse. Rina stepped up to say, "But anyway, I'm really glad…that you didn't turn into bubbles, that is."

"Yeah!" Lucia agreed happily. That's when Attis said, "Good thing too, 'cause I don't think we can afford to lose a Mermaid Princess."

Everyone turned around to see Attis and Caren walk in, and Lucia said, "Oh, Attis, Caren, how did you like the play!"

"It was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen at first," Caren said without restraint, "But overall, it was pretty good, especially with dealing with those water demons. Overall, I would say that it went well for the most part."

"I agree, but I think the best parts were the ones were Lucia messed up." Attis said with a laugh. Caren nodded to that and she started giggling while Lucia said, "Oh, it wasn't that bad."

Attis, Caren, Taki, and Nikora burst into fits of laughter while Hanon and Rina eyed her with scrutinizing looks, while Hippo just shook his head in disbelief. When they calmed down, Caren turned to Nikora and Taki saying, "So you two must be Nikora-san and Taki-san. I'm Caren, the Antarctic Ocean Mermaid Princess."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Caren-sama." Nikora said and the two shook hands. Taki nodded in greeting too as Caren said, "Please, just call me Caren for now."

Lucia, Hanon, and Rina were surprised by Caren's change in attitude, while Caren said, "Let's go Attis, there's some more things I want to see."

Caren grabbed Attis by the arm, and dragged him out of the room with him saying, "Hey, wait a minute Caren! I can walk by myself…!"

When they were gone, Hanon said, "You know, I thought about this before, but does anyone know what the connection is between Caren and Attis?"

Everyone in the room was silent for a bit, since they didn't know, when Hippo suggested, "Maybe you can ask Attis-san about it later. I mean, it couldn't hurt I guess…"

"I guess we can do that…" Rina said. For some reason, she had this slightly odd feeling in her stomach when she saw Caren drag Attis off, but she dismissed it as being hungry.


Attis' apartment

After finishing touring the festival, Attis and Caren went their separate ways, with Attis saying that she could stay with him or at Pearl Piari if she needed too, with her telling him that she'll keep it in mind. Attis just smiled as he watched Caren go off into the ocean and swim away thinking, 'Whew, we should go to another one, but with Noel next time.'

When Attis returned to his apartment, he couldn't help but feel slightly exhausted as Mogie came over and asked, "Are you alright kupo?"

"Yeah, just a bit tired Mogie, nothing serious." Attis replied. He went over to the middle of the room and held his hands out, summoning Solaris and Lunaria in his hands. Mogie was surprised by that and said, "Wow! You got the twin Keyblades back kupo?!"

"I sure did Mogie, and it feels great." Attis replied. Then he put them down on the table and held out his right hand, this time summoning Aqualis. He looked at it and said, "You know, I wonder why I can still summon this Keyblade. Aqualis was supposed to be just a replacement until I got Solaris and Lunaria back, as well as the Castle Key…"

Holding out his other hand, the Castle Key appeared in his hand and that's when he got the idea, "Fu fu, maybe this will work out too. I've been a duel wielder for a while now, and this kind of match up might be good too…"

Making all four of his Keyblades vanish, Attis sat down on the couch, thinking about his techniques that he managed to reacquire. Not to mention the magic that he had recovered thinking, 'I have first level and second level magic all down. I feel the 'ga' magic is somewhat around the corner, but 'ja' magic…man that was hard to learn… It took me a year to master four of them, and even then, there's still Flare, Meteor, and Ultima. Ha, this is going to be tough alright…'

The rest of the day was uneventful, except for the small intrusion of Lucia, Hanon, and Rina, who asked him what his connection to Caren was. Attis told them the story, and the three of them were surprised to hear that he knew Noel as well, something that puzzled Rina, since she never mention him to her before. After that Attis had dinner with the girls at Pearl Piari, talked for a bit, and went back to his apartment to go to sleep.