A Nuts Day.
The next morning, Merlin knocked the door on Kairi's room.
"Come in." Answered Kairi.
"Thanks, Kairi, I would have just teleported in, but I have manners, and know not to just appear in a girl's room. Talking about that, nice room you got…" Said Merlin, entering Kairi's room.
"Are you really living in a terrible tower?" Asked the girl.
"Yes, my powers are so amazing, that Sir Walrus gave me the worst place in the castle, even the dungeons would be more comfortable. If I wasn't teaching Wart, I'd be on my nice house in the forest, or in my house in Radiant Garden, or in my house in Enchancia…" Complained the wizard.
"Enchancia?" Wondered Kairi.
"Oh, you haven't been to that world yet, oh, it doesn't matter. Now, Kairi, have you ever thought about… being a squirrel?" Suddenly asks Merlin.
"… What do you have in mind?"
The Young Arthur was on the kitchen, washing a massive amount of dishes, probably from every single person in the castle, suddenly, Kairi and Merlin appeared next to him.
"Well, good morning Wart. Are you ready for your next lesson about… gravity?" Asked Merlin.
"Ah, sorry Merlin… I don't think I can…" Apologized the kid.
"Oh, I see, so you don't want to learn anymore?" Questioned Merlin.
"Oh, no, no! It's not tha, is just that… I have to clean all of this." Arthur quickly explained, pointing to all the dishes.
Kairi opened her mouth in shock at the amount of dirty dishes in the room, making small mountains.
"They make you work… like this?" Asked the princess in shock, not believing someone would be heartless enough to make a child do that.
"Oh, don't worry, I've been doing this since years, you could say I'm an expert." Arthur answered.
"….." Kairi didn't know what to answer.
"Kairi, you have to remember that this is the absurdity of the medieval age, many things changed through the time… though is not like the modern age is super amazing either." Reminded Merlin to Kairi.
"I guess, still…" Said Kairi.
"Anyway, as long as I stay here, Wart, you won't have any cleaning stopping you from learning, watch this, as I'll make an assembly line!" Merlin says, pulling out his wand.
"Now Kairi, would you like to help me a bit? It's a simple spell, I can do it myself, but is convenient to learn." Asked the old wizard.
"Of course, Master Merlin." Agreed Kairi.
Kairi summoned her Keyblade, and pointed it the same way Merlin points his wand.
A clean performance:
Merlin will cast a cleaning spell and move his wand around, correctly follow the wand's movements with the Keyblade to keep the spell going.
Merlin began a spell, that also acted like some kind of song, and pointed towards the many, many dishes, and Kairi did the same.
The wizard pointed his wand up alongside the princess, and the dishes started to float and move forward, then they pointed to a barrel full of soap and raised their wand/keyblade, making it hover over the ground.
Then, moving forward, the dishes went towards the barrel, so the duo constantly moved their catalysts down, up and forward.
When the dishes started to constantly go into the barrel and out by themselves, they pointed at a smaller barrel which only had water, raising it, and constantly aiming up and down so the water falls on the dishes with soap.
"Haha, good job, Kairi! Now princess, if you ever have your own medieval castle, and need everything to be cleaned as soon as possible, now you know this spell." Merlin said, as now everything automatically kept cleaning itself.
Then, for the help, Merlin pulled an item out of his pocket, and gave Kairi a Magic Boost, which she quickly absorbed to increase a bit her magical power.
"I think I'm fine right now without my own castle." Kairi honestly answered.
"Well, if you say so. And now Wart, what do you think about becoming a Squirrel?" Asked the wizard.
Later on, in middle of the forest, 3 squirrels were running and jumping through the trees, a Brown squirrel, a pink flying squirrel, and a blue squirrel, which was the biggest of the three, the blue and pink one were running after the Brown squirrel.
"Wart! Stop! Not so fast, my boy! You still have not fully learned how being a squirrel is!" Pleaded Merlin the squirrel.
"It's fine Merlin, just look at this." Answered the young squirrel, as he reached the tip of a branch, and then made a big leap towards another tree.
"No! You still didn't train your long jumps! Gravity Wart, gravity!" Exclaimed the blue animal.
Arthur barely managed to reach the other tree, and smilled while the other 2 went there too, Merlin making a smaller jump to a closer branch.
"What am I gonna do about you, boy?" Merlin wondered.
"Kairi, did you see that jump?" Asked Arthur.
"Yes, I did, but now watch this!" Kairi confidently said, as she jumped from the tree, started to glide around (cheating a bit actually using her own Glide ability too), and went pass many trees, then returned to the tree with the others.
"Wow…" Said Arthur in awe.
The trip kept on walking through the trees, Kairi picked up a few chests with ítems on the path, when suddenly, in middle of the path a female red squirrel appeared right in front of Arthur, not letting him move past.
"Huh, excuse me, can you give me way?" Asked the boy.
The red squirrel said something in squirrel and smiled, as she got closer to Arthur's face.
"Huh, Merlin…?" Asked Wart for help.
"Oh, sorry boy, I can't do anything about this, you are on your own." Smirked the wizard.
"W-what do you mean?" Questioned Arthur.
"Boys will be boys… she likes you, Arthur." Kairi said with a laugh.
"W-what!? But, this isn't right, you see, I'm not a squirrel, I'm a boy!" the poor boy tried to explain.
The female squirrel laughed, and went behind Arthur and grabbed his tail, playing with it.
"No! Stop!" Arthur exclaimed, pulling his tail away from her as he started to run away, with the female following her…
But the fun moment was suddenly interrupted when a bunch of small black monkeys appeared out of nowhere in front of Arthur, the red squirrel squeaked in fear, and ran away.
"Heartless!" Kairi exclaimed, summoning her Keyblade in a front paw, and dashed towards them.
Being a squirrel, her movement was great and far faster, reaching to the Heartless son, and casting a Thundara so they get away from Arthur and focuses on her.
Yellow monkeys appeared away in the sidelines too, Bouncywilds, and many aimed their slingshots towards Kairi, firing projectiles, who she reflected with her Barrier, sending them back to the monkeys and stunning them a bit.
The Powerwilds jumped towards Kairi, attacking with their claws, she dodged most of them, but a sudden projectile from behind, courtesy of a Bouncywild, stopped her for a second, and a Powerwild hit her, dealing some damage.
The princess squirrel casted Aerora, trapping several monkeys in a tornado, and then casted a Thundara, hitting all of them at once, and then sending the Heartless away when the tornado stops.
Some more Heartless appeared, two Green Requiems floating around, and a lot of Bouncywilds. Knowing what the Requiems can do, Kairi went straight for them, starting to hit the mage Heartless, through the monkey's slingshots made it annoying, but she managed to defeated the healers, then deflected several incoming projectiles, stunned the Bouncywilds, used Aerora and then Thundara, and the Heartless were defeated.
"W-what were those things?" Asked Arthur in shock after the encounter.
"Those, my boy, are the Heartless, literal Darkness taken form, with their one purpose being to steal other's Hearts, and consume a world in darkness." Explains the wizard.
"They wanted… to take my Heart!?" exclaimed Wart.
"They tried, but don't worry, I won't let that happen." Assured the Wielder.
"Very well, thanks…" said Arthur, sighing of relief.
After the Heartless disappeared, the red squirrel came back, annoying poor Arthur, who kept trying to run away, but the female would chase after him, on a moment they ran over Archimedes, who was sleeping, waking him up and making him complain.
"Ah, love, a most curious, and a most befuddling thing." Merlin commented.
"I agree, Master Merlin." Agreed Kairi.
While they watched the boy be chased by the lovestruck squirrel, a big, brown squirrel slowly walked close to Merlin, and got close, very close.
"Huh, no, ma'am, this isn't right, you see, I'm not a boy, I'm a squirrel… I mean, I'm not a squirrel, but a boy!" Tried Merlin to stop the squirrel.
The brown squirrel laughed, grabbing Merlin's tail, and hiding her face below it.
"Ma'am! Where are your manners? I ask you to stop." Said Merlin, annoyed, pulling his tail out of her grasp, and running away too, Kairi started to laugh.
"If only Sora was that direct with me, we'd be on something since a long time…" Kairi said, remembering.
While she was deep in thought… a young black squirrel walked towards Kairi, and started to get close, she quickly noticed it and stepped back.
"Oh no… not me, sorry, I already have someone else in mind!" Kairi said to the black squirrel before he got too close.
The squirrel ignored her, probably not understanding, and got even closer, so Kairi was forced to run away, chased by the male. She then remembered that she can fly, and jumped off the tree, but as the started to fly, the male jumped too and grabbed her tail, hitching a ride.
"No! Get away! Sora can't learn this!" Exclaimed Kairi.
As the trio was chased by lovestruck squirrels, during Arthur's chase, he ended up falling from a tree, pushed by the big brown squirrel, and landed on a big branch, which started to break, him and the red squirrel looked down, and saw a big wolf walk below the tree, and open his mouth to catch the boy, the female tried her best to grab Wart, but the branch broke, landing on the wolf's head.
Arthur then tried to run away, but his tail got stuck in the branch, and the wolf stopped him from moving. Seeing this, the red squirrel made angry sounds, and climbed down the tree, then bite the wolf's leg, who screamed in pain.
Kairi from above the trees heard it and looked down, seeing the wolf and the trapped Arthur, she gasped, and quickly moved her tail, flinging the black squirrel away, then flied down towards the wolf, smacking him in the head with her Keyblade, and then sliced the branch, freeing Arthur, before facing the wolf.
Information: Get rid of the wolf! Use the environment to your advantage.
The wolf howled, and then leaped towards the squirrel girl, who did a slide to dodge it, and being a squirrel, it was even faster. Then from a side of the big wolf, Kairi casted Firaga, which was a big small fireball, hitting it and making the predator yelp, making he turn and try to bite Kairi, who used her barrier.
The wolf picked up the barrier on his mouth, and then tried to bite and break it, believing it was some weird shell.
Barrier Struggle.
Kairi fought against the bite, by trying to keep up her barrier as much as she can, after some seconds of trying to crush the strong barrier, the wolf got a bit tired…
Barrier Surge.
With her barrier still up, Kairi charged forward, damaging the wolf from inside the mouth, and escaped, then her barrier shattered in front of the wolf's face, hurting him further and making him fall to the ground, which Kairi took advantage of to smack the canine many times in the head until his stagger stopped.
The animal proceeded to try to stomp Kairi, who narrowly dodged it, until suddenly, the wolf jumped and tried to stomp the squirrel with his whole body, but the slides away. So after the failed body stomp, the wolf began to slowly stand up…
And Kairi heard squirrel sounds from above, she looked, and saw the red squirrel from before pointing a branch to her, a big one that was right above the wolf in the ground, seeing that, Kairi aimed at the branch with her keyblade, and casted Thunder, breaking it, and making it fall on the wolf's head, stunning him again, and this time the wielder casted many spells on his head.
When the stun stopped, he howled in anger, and suddenly began to relentlessly chase after Kairi, with several stomps and bites, making her start to run away, she heard squirrel sounds again, and saw the red squirrel pointing towards a direction, so she ran there, and then they reached a cliff, at the last moment, Kairi jumped and started to glide away, the wolf jumped too, but missed her, and fell down the cliff, hitting a log that was there, and falling on the river, while inside the log.
Maximum HP increased.
After the encounter with the wolf, Kairi glides back towards where the others are, the red squirrel that helped her was hugging Arthur tightly after his close encounter with the wolf, the big brown squirrel was annoying Merlin again, who suddenly became human in a small explosion, making the squirrel scream in fear and run away.
"There, now you see? I'm a grouchy, horrible, old man!" Merlin exclaimed to the squirrel.
"Merlin!" Exclaimed Arthur, still hugged by the female.
"Oh, there you are." The wizard said getting closer, with a smile on his face.
"Quick Merlin, the magic!" pleaded Wart.
The wizard did a spell, and Arthur turned back into human, the female still didn't notice, until Arthur laughed, then she stepped back.
"There, you see now? I'm not a squirrel, I'm a boy." Said the now human Arthur.
The squirrel climbed up a tree, and looked at the boy from there.
"I tried to tell you that I'm a human boy." Tried to explain Arthur.
The squirrel sniffed in sadness.
"If you could only understand…" Said the boy.
The poor female started to cry, and went inside a hole of the tree. The still squirrel Kairi approached Arthur, and looked up towards him and Merlin.
"That wasn't nice… her heart is now broken." She said sadly.
"I couldn't do much more, she is a squirrel, and I'm a boy…" Stated Arthur.
"Love… it's a very powerful thing." Said Merlin, thinking.
"Greater than Gravity?" Questioned Arthur.
For a second, Kairi thought that Merlin gave Arthur a sad look, before his expression returned to normal.
"Yes boy, in it's own ways…" He answered.
"It's so great, that I'll see if I can calm her down." Said Kairi, looking at the hole in the tree.
"Ok, Wart and me will get going to see if anything happened on the castle." The wizard said, as he and Arthur walked away.
Kairi climbed up the tree, and slowly went into the hole, where the sad female was looking at the boy walking away.
"Hello?" Kairi asked, wishing that this form allowed her to speak squirrel.
The red animal looked at her with a sad look, and looked at Arthur and then towards her, Kairi understood.
"Yes, I'm a human too, I just feel bad for you." Confirmed the princess.
The red squirrel left the hole, and climbed further up the tree, until she reached the top, and Kairi followed her.
From there, they saw the duo walking away from a big distance, and for a few seconds, Kairi imagined Arthur being Sora, walking away, and then vanishing on the trees.
They both stayed there for a while.