Reimu stared up at the mansion looming over the party. It was twisted, strange, and by all accounts should not have been able to support itself architecturally. Impaled pumpkins lined the rails of the stone staircase leading up to the manor, each one giving a gruesome grin towards the heroes. Donald and Goofy shook next to her, both looking incredibly creeped out by the spectacle. Jack merely frowned up at the house, muttering about how he was really gonna give it to Oogie this time. Remilia was nowhere in sight, even though she had said she would meet them there…

"You seem pretty calm about this, Reimu." Goofy said. "Aren'cha worried about Sora?"

"I'm sure he's fine." Reimu said. "This house though… A bit tacky, isn't it?"

"Is this really the time to be thinking about THAT?!" Donald squawked at her.

Reimu rolled her eyes and shrugged. She gripped the gohei in her hands and closed her eyes.

Ring, ring. Calling Sora.

gottarungottarungottarunYIKESrunrunrunrunrun-

Reimu's eyes snapped open. The connection between her and Sora had suddenly cut off! And what on earth was happening to him to warrant that being the only thing running in his mind? She looked over at the boys.

"Okay, Sora may be less fine than I thought. We need to get in there, pronto."

"Let's do it, then!" Jack nodded.

Their attempts to do it, then, where impeded by many Heartless appearing as soon as they stepped foot on the stairs. Donald dispatched some of them with thunder spells, while Goofy provided cover for Reimu and Jack to run through. Jack twirled and danced through the monsters, destroying some of them with elegant kicks. Reimu stifled a laugh- seeing Jack's incredibly long legs doing such silly dance moves was a sight to behold. Reimu shot a few Homing Amulets at some Wight Knights causing them to explode, leaving the area clear for them to open the tacky manor's front doors. Upon opening the tacky doors, they were met with an empty entranceway that seemed to be a dead end… Until the four of them looked up and saw there was a floor above them. Reimu was able to carry Donald up to it with her flight, while Jack used his spider-like long limbs to simply crawl up the stone brick walls with Goofy in tow. Donald would have been freaked out by it if he hadn't seen much stranger things on their journeys before this. They had taken only a few steps when once again they were accosted by Heartless, which Reimu had to take care of because of their wings not allowing the boys to reach them (besides Jack, who was simply so tall he could bat at them with his hands). They ran along the wooden path, and Reimu, Donald, and Goofy slowed behind Jack to take a look at the beautiful night sky they were surrounded by, complete with the largest full moon Reimu had ever seen. But something about it was strange… Even if this was a world dedicated to Halloween, surely there was something wrong with the moon if it was blood red like this?

"Hurry up, you three!" Jack called back at them. "We need to find Oogie and Sora!"

"Right." Goofy nodded. "Let's go, fellers- Oh?"

Goofy's surprise made Jack stop and look back, and the four of them watched as a swarm of bats flew from the night sky and landed on the walkway behind them. The bats dispersed and they found themselves facing Remilia Scarlet, who looked very irritated.

"There you are, Jack. I've been looking for you." She scowled. "Now let's find my sister already."

"All in due time, Miss Scarlet!" Jack said. "The most important threat right now is whatever Oogie's up to-"

"Fine. You deal with the bugbag, but I am finding Flandre." Remilia spoke in a very forceful manner, glaring at them all as if they had refused to help her find her sister.

"Isn't it past your bedtime, little lady?" Reimu asked. Remilia looked at her with disdain.

"Useless human."

"Let's go already!" Donald squawked angrily, and the others agreed, moving forward. Remilia led the way, but it was clear she had no idea where she was going, and was simply first because her flying speed was faster than Reimu's (and the boys' legs). More Heartless showed up to bother them, but Remilia held out her hands and let loose enormous red bullets that immediately destroyed them. Even Reimu had to admit she was impressed, though of course she wouldn't admit it. The vampire girl's bossy attitude was getting on her nerves. She wondered if she had ever been this bossy to Sora and the others.

It looked like they had reached the highest point of the manor, as they began passing large cracked roofs and shingles littering the walkway. Remilia held her hand out and a bat flew down from nowhere, landing on her fingers. She and the bat looked at each other for a few moments, then nodded and let the bat fly away. She turned to the others.

"My bats have been crawling through this ugly place. It seems my sister is with your friend, down in the deepest part of the basement." She scowled. "Where Oogie is. And, incidentally, it seems a wolf is trapped somewhere in here as well."

"Wolf? Oh no, it couldn't be Kagerou!" Jack cried. "But the basement…"

"We're too high up." Goofy frowned. "We gotta go back down."

"But there weren't any stairs down that I saw." Donald said. "How're we supposed to find our way down to the basement?"

"Simple." Reimu shrugged. "We blow up the floor until we get there."

"Hmph. Crude, but a good idea. I like the way you think, human." Remilia actually smiled at her.

"It's Reimu." She replied. "But thanks."

"Waitaminute, fellas." Goofy said. "D'ya hear that?"

The five of them listened, and they could all hear the sounds of giggling and laughter coming from nearby- presumably the room at the end of the walkway.

"That must be the trick-or-treaters." Jack said. "Those troublemakers."

"Those little maggots." Remilia said, her red eyes flashing with fury. "They're the ones who got Flandre near Oogie. I'll kill them."

"Let's not be too hasty, here!" Donald cried. "Why don't we just make them tell us how to get to the basement?"

"An excuse to punish them is fine by me." Reimu nodded. With the five of them in agreement, they all ran to the room and burst through the doors. They seemed to do so at precisely the right moment- or rather, having missed the right moment, as the first thing they saw in the evil looking playroom was Lock, Shock, and Barrel throwing the stolen heart into a chute that looked like a deranged face. The trio looked back at them in surprise, and instantly leapt at them all, spinning and hitting at them. Unfortunately for them, they were outnumbered and too small to actually do anything other than mildly annoy the five, and they were quickly beat into submission by Remilia. The others didn't feel very comfortable with physically assaulting young children, even if they were the enemy. The five of them surrounded the trio, who were sitting and whimpering on the floor looking up at them with fearful eyes.

"Let's get one thing out of the way." Remilia glared at them. "If you ever go near my sister again I will rip you apart and throw you into a well where no one will ever find you."

"Y-yes, Remilia!" Shock cried.

"That's MISS Remilia to you, worm." The vampire glared.

"Yes, Miss Remilia!" The trio wailed.

"Uh… I think you're being a little too much, here." Reimu whispered to her.

"Shh. I'm just scaring them. I don't even want to be near them, let alone have to touch them to rip them apart." Remilia whispered back. Reimu rolled her eyes.

"Where's Oogie Boogie?" Jack demanded.

"H-he's in his torture chamber!" Lock said.

"With Flan and that vampire guy!" Barrel added.

"How do we get there?" Goofy asked.

The trio pointed at the wall where a lever was. And next to the lever, tied up, unconscious, and with marker doodles all over her face and dress, was-

"Kagerou!" Jack cried. "Oh dear, are you all right?"

"We were only playing!" Shock said. "We didn't do anything to her!"

"For your sake, that better be true." Reimu glared at them. "We can't really take her with us, but we can't just wait for her to wake up or leave her here…"

"We'll take her home! Promise!" Lock said. "Honest to goodness!"

"We're sorry!" Shock said. "We'll put her back in the graveyard! Is, is that okay, M-Miss Remilia?"

"Do it. And get that garbage off her face while you're at it." Remilia said. "She better be safely back home and you better not do anything else to her, or else..."

"Yes, Miss Remilia!" The trio cried together, and collectively ran over, picked up the unconscious loup-garou, and headed out of the playroom.

"Can't we still play with Flan later, though?" Barrel asked as they left, shrieking as Remilia growled at his comment.

"Now that that loose end is tied up," Reimu said, "let's see here…" She went over and pulled the lever. There was a horrible groaning noise that seemed to have come from far below, perhaps at ground level.

"Probably a door." Donald said. "We didn't have to blow up the floor after all."

"Aw." Remilia pouted, looking actually cute. "I wanted to blow this place to smithereens."

"I mean, we still can." Reimu said. "After we get Sora and your sister out of here, of course."

"Of course!" Remilia smiled. She returned to her normal frown, however. "Flandre… I hope she's alright."

"And Sora, too." Goofy said.


[BGM: U. N. Owen was Her?]

Deep down in the basement/torture chamber of Oogie's Manor, Sora was most definitely not alright. What he had thought would be a relatively simple ordeal of running from the young girl's danmaku (well, as young as someone at least 495 years old could be) had turned into something much more dangerous- and despite his optimism, a part of him feared that he was dealing with something much deadlier than he had faced before. Perhaps it was the fact that the force of Flandre Scarlet's bullet patterns, as colorful and pretty as they were, were causing serious damage to the hallways he was running through, blasting through furniture, torture instruments, and casino equipment (all in all a strange assortment of things to have in a basement, in Sora's opinion). Or maybe it was the fact that no matter how long or where he ran, it seemed that there was no end to the hallways he was running through. He passed door after door, trying desperately to open them, but for some reason they were all fake; mere facsimiles grafted onto the wall. Or perhaps it was the fact that in addition to Flandre's happy laughter, indicating to him that she truly didn't understand that she was putting him in serious life-threatening danger, there was a low, scratchy male laughter coming from somewhere he couldn't see, even though he hadn't seen anyone else other than Flandre this whole time. Oh! Maybe what had tipped him off to the deadly nature of this game he was playing with the vampire girl was the fact that though he kept running as fast as he could, he was limping terribly, his right leg having been severely scratched by some of the debris caused by Flandre's bullets smashing into some furniture, just missing him. Adding to that was the bullets that had managed to hit him, which he remembered were not lethal by themselves, but still felt like he had been pelted over and over again by baseballs.

He winced and leaned against a wall. He looked down at his leg, but what caught his eye was the floor beneath and behind him- had he really been bleeding that much? No wonder Flandre had been able to find him despite his attempts at losing her in the countless hallways he had taken. He was leaving a trail! He grimaced and summoned the Keyblade. He had stopped carrying it after a while, as the bullets he was facing were too big and too many in number to successfully hit back at the girl. He closed his eyes and imagined a peaceful forest… The pain in his leg lessened considerably. He sighed in relief. Why hadn't he been using this Cure spell more often?

"Now, now, that's no fun! No fun at all!"

Sora looked around wildly, readying the Keyblade, but the source of that scratchy man's voice was nowhere to be found. He looked behind him, but he had truly successfully lost Flandre this time… So who spoke, and from where?

"There's no fun if you fix yourself up during the execution! Why, that's cheating, more like!"

"Who's that!" Sora yelled, but quickly brought his hand to his mouth. He may have healed his bleeding leg, but he was still limping. He couldn't afford to be found by her yet… But who was watching him?!

"I went to all the trouble of setting up this fun little torture chamber so sweet little Flandre could have some fun after so long, but you're really ruinin' it, kid!"

"T…torture chamber?" Sora breathed. "No way…"

"Oh, yes way!" The voice laughed. "I'm thinking of making this a regular thing, once I finally get those Heartless listening to me! A little bit of darkness, some magic… And presto! An endless, looping hallway, just for my new pal Flan to play in as rowdy as she pleases!"

"H-huh?" Sora realized he had been leaning against the wall for a while now, and needed to get moving again lest Flandre find him. He moved forward with more energy this time thanks to healing himself, and his limp was even starting to lessen. He didn't know what was going on, but it seemed whoever was jeering at him was taking advantage of Flandre's clearly unstable nature, and he absolutely would not forgive that! …But what was that the voice said about the hallway being endless and looping…?

"Anyone who tries to stop me from doin' what I want will have to deal with Flan! She doesn't get many playmates, didja know? That sister of hers… My good golly gosh, Flan, how can you stand how she treats you?"

Flan's distant laughter suddenly stopped. Sora figured of course she must have been able to hear the voice as well…

He really needed to get out of here. Wherever 'here' was.

"Hey, kiddo. Level with me here." The voice said, as Sora began to move again. "Are you a fool?"

Sora didn't answer. He kept going. He had to keep going.

"'Cos you sure look the part! What's up with that costume? Where's your fancy footwork with that Keyblade of yours? Is it that you can't do anything without those buddies of yours? Are you thinking they're gonna come and save you?"

"I don't need them to save me." Sora said. "I can handle this on my own." I just need to get Flandre to stop this 'game' of hers…

"Oh, good attitude, kiddo! I like your spunk. You should keep it, because just to reiterate, y'all are alone in here. No Jack, no big sister, no friends… Neither of you are getting outta there until one of you croaks, and let's be honest here, all my chips are on precious little Flan!"

"Wh-what?!" Sora yelled. "Just, just what is this?!"

"Like I said." The voice replied. Even though he couldn't see who was speaking, Sora got the feeling that whoever was, was smiling sinisterly at him. "It's your execution, boy. Hoo, Maleficent's gonna be all over me when I bring her your head!"

Sora frowned. This was a lot more serious and scary than what he had been previously dealing with. He sighed.

"That's what I get for being in a world all about Halloween, I guess." He looked up and kept walking, then stopped. If these hallways were endless, there was no point to running away. He turned around, holding the wall. He took a deep breath, and yelled, "FLANDRE! I'M HERE!"

He waited a moment, and soon heard the vampire's laughter getting closer and closer. He gritted his teeth, and cast one more Cure. He wanted to conserve his energy, but right now he couldn't afford to be limping. As the laughter got louder, he tested his leg and parts that had been hit by the danmaku- all better. He nodded to himself, and looked up to see Flandre illuminated by her wings, standing at the corner of the hall that led to the one he was in.

"I found you." She grinned, raising her hand towards him.

"More like I called you." Sora said. "Flandre, I'm tired. I don't wanna play anymore."

Flandre stared at him.

"That's not how this works." She pouted. "Mr. Oogie Boogie said I could play with you as much as I wanted."

"Didn't you say you didn't want me to break?" Sora took a step towards her. "I'd like to be your friend, Flandre, but your danmaku is too much for me! You heard- I guess that's Oogie Boogie watching us, right? You heard him, he's just using you to try to hurt me. That's not very fair, right? Don't you wanna play in a way that's fair?"

Flandre looked down, seemingly conflicted.

"Flan, what are you waiting for?!" Oogie's voice boomed through the hall. "You don't wanna lose our game, do you? Make that little rat go BOOM!"

Flan looked up at Sora, and held her hand out again. "Taboo. 「Cranberry Trap」."

Sora readied the Keyblade- he was done running. Thankfully, the bullets weren't too large this time that he was able to deflect them, but he soon understood the 'trap' part of the title- purple and blue bullets surrounded and closed in on him, and no matter where he dodged around, he was still the center point which the bullets went towards. He slashed the bullets when he could and jumped away when he couldn't. He didn't look at Flandre, but he could hear her grunts as with each bullet he hit, it went right back to hit her. Now that he knew there was nowhere he could escape to, he was determined to fight this out, even though he didn't want to hurt Flandre.

"Flandre, listen to me!" He called out, though he still couldn't really look at her on account of all the bullets filling the hall. "Oogie's a bad guy! He's working for someone who's trying to hurt everybody! Jack, Sally, even you and your sister! Please-" He dove to the ground, as the bullets all collectively disappeared- the spell must have timed out. He looked up at Flandre who was standing over him. "Please, Flandre. Let's get out of this thing he's trapped us in, and stop him from hurting everyone else in Halloween Town!"

"He's… hurting them?" Flandre asked. She looked up at the ceiling. "But he's helping me. My sister never lets me leave the house. She won't let me play with my friends. Mr. Oogie's letting me have friends and make things go boom like sis won't let me."

"…" Sora didn't want to outright tell her that she was clearly dangerous and that was probably why her sister kept her in the house. But what else could he say to convince her to stop…?

"Flandre… I'll be your friend." Sora said. "I'll be your friend, and I'll introduce you to my friends, and we'll come visit you, and we'll even ask your sister to trust you more and let you have some more freedom." He smiled. "But you have to help me get us out of here. Okay?"

Flandre stared at him, then looked down at her hand. She was silent for a while. She looked back down at him, and was about to say something, when-

"Oh for crying out loud! Blow him up already, you stupid kid!" Oogie's irritated voice boomed throughout the hall. Looking up at her, Sora saw Flandre's eye twitch. She stretched her hand out at him, and he braced himself to try and jump away- but she quickly lifted it towards the ceiling, and closed her hand into a fist. There was a large boom just short of deafening that filled the air, though Sora had to close his eyes and put his hands over his ears anyway. When it had stopped being so loud and he opened his eyes, he saw that they were no longer in the hallways- rather, they were on a large, fluorescent roulette wheel, and black smoke was quickly dissipating from it. Could it be that 'endless hallway' was actually just an illusion the two had shared, and they had been running on this wheel the whole time?

Sora looked up at where Flandre was glaring, and slowly rose to his feet. A large, burlap… thing was leering down at them, who he could only assume was Oogie Boogie. The bogeyman was holding the artificial heart Jack and the mad doctor had built.

"You're a mean, bad man, Oogie." Flandre said. Oogie sneered.

"You're one to talk ya little brat. I give you a playmate and you can't even blow him up right."

"That's enough!" Sora yelled. "You're working for Maleficent, right? Well I'm gonna put a stop to you right now!"

"Put a stop to me?!" Oogie laughed. "Oh, you're jokin', you're jokin'! I can't believe my ears! You better shut up boy, or I'll start drownin' in my tears!"

"You don't even have ears." Sora said.

Oogie was about to retort when a bang came from behind Sora and Flandre. They spun around to see Remilia, Reimu, Donald, Goofy, and Jack burst from a large pair of sickly green doors, which snapped back closed behind them.

"Sora! You're okay!" Reimu, Donald and Goofy cried with relief.

"Flandre!" Remilia said, her face alight as well. "I was so worried!"

"Huh? You were… worried?" Flandre seemed genuinely confused. Sora smiled and lightly nudged her.

"See? Your sister cares. Oogie was just manipulating you."

"…Yeah." Flandre turned back to Oogie Boogie, a fire in her scarlet eyes. "And he was wrong, about that game."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked. Behind them, the five ran over onto the roulette wheel to join them.

"It's not your execution that's gonna happen. It's his."

Oogie seemed a little nervous now that he was being confronted by not only his nemesis Jack but also two angry vampires, not to mention the four meddlers. He gripped the heart tightly in his nub hand.

"Oogie Boogie, give me back that heart!" Jack said angrily.

"You want it?" Oogie asked. "Well, then come on over and get it!" And he swallowed the heart whole.

"Uh, gross." Reimu stuck her tongue out.

"Agreed. I think a real human heart would be much tastier." Remilia nodded.

"…Yeah, no, I'm not getting into that." Reimu shook her head.

Oogie laughed as he finished swallowing the heart, smiling smugly at Jack. "Now, let's see if I can get their attention! Oh, Heartless!" He raised his arms above his head, and…

…After a few seconds, a mere two Gargoyle Heartless slowly flew down by Oogie's side. No more Heartless appeared.

"…This is it?" Oogie asked, looking at the two of them. His face scrunched up, with a large scowl. "Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" He stomped the ground, and pointed at the seven of them. "You're gonna get it!"

Before he could carry out his threats of 'giving it' to them, Remilia and Flandre exchanged knowing glances, of a kind that only two sisters could understand. In unison, their wings flared and they shot up into the air, Remilia raising her left arm up high, as Flandre lifted her right arm.

"「Gungnir」."

"「Lævateinn」!"

The two sisters shouted in unison, and two glowing red objects appeared in their raised hands- a spear in Remilia's, and a strange curved wand in Flandre's. Quickly and effortlessly, they threw the weapons, both piercing Oogie Boogie's body and firmly sticking him to the ground like a pinned bug. Before the Heartless could retaliate, Reimu shot them down with her own Homing Amulets, leaving Oogie all alone up on his platform, stuck to the weapons.

"Game over." Flandre said. "We found you guilty."

"Punishment has been delivered." Remilia said.

"Again. Trying too hard." Reimu muttered.

"Gh- You-!" Oogie couldn't say anything else. He went limp, and bugs began to fall from the tears in his body from the spear and wand. The bugs kept falling out and running away until there was nothing left but a flat piece of burlap stuck on the ground, as both weapons vanished in a bright red light.

"Kinda flashy, but at least it's over." Donald said.

"Aw. I was all ready for a fight." Goody seemed a little sad.

"Don't worry Goofy!" Sora grinned. There'll be plenty of that later!

"Oh boy!" Goody smiled.

"Sora!" Donald suddenly pointed. "Your leg!"

Sora looked down, and winced a little. Even though he had healed the cut, there was still a ton of dried blood on his leg, not to mention the bruises left by the bullets that had hit him. He had thought that there wouldn't be any bruises considering he healed them…

"Just what did you two get up to while we were away?" Reimu asked him.

Sora and Flandre looked at each other for a moment, then quickly both looked away down at the ground.

"Nothing."

"It's fine."

"Why don't we get out of here?" Jack said. He led the way out of the chamber, stopping to look back before he left. "I guess the heart was a failure after all…"


The group made their way away from the manor, nearly reaching the perimeter of the front "yard", when suddenly a rumbling like an earthquake made them stop in their tracks. They turned to see the manor distorting, warping, and changing shape. Slowly, it morphed into a huge, grotesque image of Oogie, fuse with his own home.

"Well, this is certainly in need of some remodeling." Reimu said. She looked at Goofy. "Ready for that fight you wanted?"

"There's no need for that." Remilia said. She smiled at Flandre. "Look at how pretty the moon is, Flandre. I made it red just for you."

"For me?!" Flandre stared up at the scarlet moon. "Why?"

"I planned ahead." Remilia said. "We're strongest when the moon is full of blood like this. I know you've been feeling bad because I won't let you play outside… So let's use this opportunity for you to go all out."

"Really?! Really, truly?!" Flandre's eyes positively sparkled. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She hugged her sister, jumping up and down. She let go and beamed at Sora. "Hey, hey! Look what I can do! I can really show you this time!"

"Is this… Making things go boom?" Sora asked nervously. "Like you did before?"

Flandre turned towards the amalgamation of Oogie Boogie and his manor. She lifted her outstretched hand towards the house. Her eyes glowed bright red along with the scarlet moon hanging above their heads. She once again closed her hand into a fist, and with a resounding bang, the manor exploded. It completely and utterly disintegrated, leaving nothing but Oogie Boogie's moans which soon disappeared with the wind. Everyone besides Remilia stared dumbstruck at Flandre, who looked very pleased with herself.

"…Yeah. That's really cool, Flandre." Sora smiled.

Goofy, however, seemed even sadder than before. "Aw."

"Wait, wait, look! Down there!" Donald pointed at the ground where the manor once stood. A bright light was emanating from the rubble, and grew in size until it was an enormous Keyhole of light on the ground. Sora and Reimu looked at each other and nodded, making their way down to the ground.

"It's a little big and flat to really point the Keyblade at, though." Reimu said when they got to it. "How are you gonna do it?"

Sora looked down at the Keyhole, then up at the scarlet moon. He raised the Keyblade up to it. The stars and sparkles appeared, and a beam of light shot from the Keyblade's tip towards the moon, then erupted into smaller streams of light which fell down into the Keyhole. The faint sound of locking was heard as the Keyhole filled with scarlet light. Reimu quickly put her seals down around the Keyhole, though thanks to its size it took her a little longer than usual. With her prayers said and over with, both the seals and the Keyhole disappeared.

The group made their way back to Halloween Town Square in high spirits. Sora officially introduced Flandre to Reimu, Donald, and Goofy, and they all promised to visit and play with her someday when they weren't busy 'fighting bad guys like Oogie'. Remilia seemed particularly upset that Reimu had to leave, which she denied, and quite unconvincingly said claimed it's not like she cares whether Reimu ever comes back or not, but she SUPPOSES she wouldn't mind it, so try to come back soon, or not, whatever, I don't care.

Jack was disappointed that the dancing Heartless plan fell through, but Sally assured him that next time, they would think of a plan for Halloween together. They left to go check on Kagerou, leaving the four heroes with the Scarlet sisters. After a few more promises of returning, they too left, and Sora, Reimu, Donald, and Goofy left the world of Halloween Town in good moods.


"Where to next?" Sora asked when they had all gotten comfortable on the Gummi Ship. Reimu kept having to rub her eyes, as they had gotten used to the dark muted colors Halloween Town had given their appearances, and the vivid red of her dress kept bothering her.

"I'm thinking we should go back to Traverse Town, don't you?" Donald said. "It's been a while."

"True." Reimu nodded. She looked out the window. "…I wonder how Marisa's doing. I hope she's been able to keep Riku in line."

"Oh… Yeah." Sora said, his good mood suddenly dropping with the thought of Marisa having to stop Riku from becoming… whatever was happening to him. The thoughts of Riku and Kairi's condition made him look down at the floor in silence for a few moments. Absentmindedly, he rubbed the dried blood on his leg, and winced. What? Why hadn't the bruises healed? Hadn't he cast Cure on them properly? "Hey, Donald?"

"Hm?"

"Is it normal for bruises not to heal when you use Cure on them?"

"Huh?" Donald looked back at him. "No, they should heal. Why? Is it your leg?"

"Yeah." Sora frowned. "I wonder… Could it be because it was from Flandre's danmaku? They have like, power levels, right?"

"Yeah. Easy, normal, hard, and lunatic." Reimu looked at him. "Did Flandre say what level she was?"

"Extra."

Reimu stared at him.

"Extra?"

"Extra."

Reimu grabbed Alice's Grimoire from the shelf on the ship's wall. She flipped through the pages. "I don't think… I don't think Alice wrote anything about 'extra' level spells. But, come to think of it…" Reimu looked up at Sora. "Didn't that fox back in the Netherworld say her spells were a league over hard or lunatic?"

Sora thought back to their meeting with the fox woman and cat girl. He did recall her saying such a thing.

"That must be it, then." Reimu said. "An even more powerful level than lunatic… No wonder Cure isn't healing it. Either you need a stronger healing spell, or those are some wounds you're just gonna have to let heal naturally."

"Oh. Well, at least I'm not limping anymore." Sora sighed.

"Just what happened while we were separated?" Reimu asked.

"Don't worry about it." Sora smiled. "Let's just take a nap while we wait for Traverse Town."

"Uh…" Goofy said, staring closely at one of the Gummi Ship's monitors. "A big ship is catching up to us."

"A… big ship?" Sora asked, spinning around to look at Goofy. Soon the four of them were staring out of the Gummi Ships front windows, as a large ship did indeed swoop right past and in front of them, moving very quickly despite being in space. It was clearly not a Gummi Ship- it was a proper water sailing vessel, with sails and a rudder and black flags flying from its masts.

"Wh-! Quit gawking! That's a pirate ship!" Donald yelled, quickly flipping switches and pulling levers on the dashboard.

"Space pirates?!" Reimu said with shock.

They watched the pirate ship get farther away from the Gummi… then turn around and start heading straight for them at breakneck speed.

"UHHHHHHHH?" Reimu looked wildly between the boys.

"We can't get out of the way in time!" Donald yelled.

"Hold on tight!" Sora cried. "It's gonna ram us!

The pirate ship got closer and closer, until, with a loud crash, everything went black for the four of them.


"Hey. Hakurei."

Reimu turned around to see the same group of annoying girls that always bothered her. They were around two years older than her, which always confused her because what self-respecting seven year old cared so much about bothering a five year old? Well, obviously these idiots. She was only five, but Reimu had always been mature for her age. Most folks on the island attributed it to her being one of the prestigious Hakurei clan, but she simply paid attention to how others acted more closely than other kids her age. …Which probably contributed to why she didn't really have any friends her age. Or at all, really.

"Can I help you?" Reimu said. Even if she didn't like someone, she had to be polite and treat them with respect. That was what her mother had taught her.

"The Hakurei Maiden's supposed to be all charitable and compassionate, right?" The leader of the girls asked condescendingly. Reimu didn't know any of their names. She saw no reason to.

"I guess so."

"So why don't you give us that bag of munny you've got there?" The girl pointed at the pouch in Reimu's hand.

"No." Reimu said bluntly, turning back to continue on her way.

"Wow. Some charity." One of the other girls said.

"I thought you were supposed to give to the poor!" Another said.

"It's mine. So leave me alone." Reimu said, continuing her walk.

"I don't think you heard me." The leader said, going up to her and snatching the back out of her hand. "Gee, thanks, Hakurei!"

"Give it back." Reimu said, grabbing for it.

"You don't sound very interested in it." The leader sneered.

"Ooh! Ooh! Throw it! Throw it here!" One of the girls laughed. The leader did, and the group of girls played a cruel game of keep away with Reimu, eventually shoving her to the ground.

"Thanks a lot, Hakurei." The leader smirked as the other girls laughed, moving to walk away from the downed Reimu, when-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The loudest yell Reimu had ever heard came from behind her, and suddenly someone was running past her at the leader of the bullies. Marisa Krisame whacked at the older girl with the bushy part of a broom, causing her to drop the stolen munny pouch. Marisa whacked at all the girls until they shrieked and ran away, leaving the munny pouch on the ground. "AND STAY AWAY, YOU IDIOTS!" Marisa yelled after them. "Hmph! Losers, right Riku?"

"Totally." Reimu looked up to see two more children walking past her- the silver-haired Riku, who bent down and picked up the munny pouch, and the bright-eyed Sora, who held his hand out to her.

"Here! Come on, it's dirty!" He smiled. Reimu stared at him, and slowly took his hand. He pulled her up off the ground and awkwardly helped her dust off the dirt on her dress.

"Here you go." Riku handed the pouch of munny to her. She accepted it.

"Are you okay?" Marisa asked her. She stared at the three of them, these three children who she had always wanted to speak to, to play with, but had always been too shy or at the wrong situation to ask.

"Thank you." Reimu said. "I'm fine."

"Well that's good!" Sora smiled.

"Reimu." Riku said. "Do you wanna play with us? We won't let those dummies bully you ever again."

Reimu looked at their smiling faces, dirty and scratched from obvious roughhousing and exploring. She wondered if she really fit in with them, with her pristine clothes and prestigious home life.

For the first time, Sora, Riku, and Marisa saw Little Miss Hakurei smile.

"I'd love to."


a memory never to be forgotten.

hello everyone, it's me, Frost. It's Been 3000 Years.

sorry to keep you waiting for like, a year? i'm gonna be honest with you guys i completely forgot about this. sorry! i'm a college gal! i have other things to do! but i'm here now! you can stop your sparkling anime tears.

anyway this chapter turned out the way it did because it's 2012 and i love dangan ronpa. well, see ya

next time: it's pirates.

comments, questions, and suggestions always appreciated! i always forget to respond but i always read them. ^q^