Chapter 15: Glucose
Several months have passed since the "incident" and Meta Knight has been making steady progress with his recovery. Even better, many of the physical scars he had from that incident had almost or completely healed thanks to Bio Gale's treatment. The only thing that honestly remained was the emotional and mental scars. While he doubted all those memories would simply fade away, they haven't resurfaced in a while thanks to his crew, Kirby, and Okino's help.
Today, he was preparing to leave Castle Dedede after another session with the psychiatrist when a certain flier on one of the bulletin boards caught his eye. It was a paper recruiting staff to help run an event, apparently called the "Cake Royale", that was scheduled for the next day. Underneath the flyer was several other pieces of paper that seemed to go into detail about the event. Slightly curious, Meta Knight took one of the fliers before returning to the Halberd.
It was around lunchtime, so the crew was concentrated in the cafeteria. The moment that Meta Knight entered, they immediately sat up in attention.
"At ease." Their commander said as he sat down and placed the flier on the table.
"What's that, sir?" Sailor Dee asked, trying to get a better look at the paper.
"Apparently, Dedede's doing some kind of fighting tournament tomorrow. It's called the Cake Royale."
Everyone appeared to blink at him in slight surprise.
"A tournament? Are you going to enter it, sir?" Sword Knight suddenly asked.
"Perhaps. I believe it would work well for additional training."
Hearing this, Captain Vul grabbed the paper and quickly skimmed through it.
"You sure you're not entering it for the grand prize?" he asked with a slight smirk.
"What grand prize?"
"It says right here. The grand prize is the cake of your dreams."
The knight seemed to scoff at that. "If I wanted sweets, I have many other places to get them. I plan on participating in this to make up for all of the training I've missed during my recovery."
This was something no one could deny. While he was being treated for the "incident", Meta Knight was unable to train as much as he normally did due to a mix of trauma and needing additional help to get his strength back from the taxing medical procedures. To gain a strong mind, he needed a strong body, he thought.
"Well, if that's the case, you should probably rest up." Sailor Dee suggested, receiving a nod from his superior in response.
"I do plan on doing that after a few warm up exercises. However, there was also another reason I wanted to call this meeting." The knight added and stood up, calling all attention to him. "Those that participate in this tournament need a partner."
He walked over and then turned back. "I need all of you to decide among yourselves who will be accompanying me."
It was like those words were a grenade and he had pulled the pin and tossed it into the room, as the entire crew except for Vul and Sailor began arguing amongst each other who would get to go with their superior. As a result of this, the only two that weren't fighting only gave a sigh.
The next day, Meta Knight called his crew to the main meeting room.
"Have you all decided on who will be joining me?" Considering that everyone appeared to be sweating bullets, that likely was not the case.
"Not yet, sir." Vul said, adjusting his hat. "After several hours of debating, most of the crew stepped down, except for those three."
He then pointed at Axe Knight, Mace Knight, and Trident Knight.
"I see. As much as I'd like to bring all three of you, we must also follow the rules of the tournament. There must be some way to come to a definitive decision." Meta Knight said.
Honestly speaking, he expected something like this to happen, knowing very well how his crew acts.
"Axe, Mace, Trident. I propose a game to decide who gets to join me. Rock, paper, scissors."
After he said that, he gained a couple of confused looks, surprised that he would suggest something like that.
"Rock, paper, scissors sir?" All three knights asked at the same time.
"Yes. It's a game of strategy and mind games as well as being an efficient way of deciding three-way arguments. The Royale starts in three hours, so I'd prefer we get this finished quickly."
Upon hearing that it was hard to argue with his logic. The three knights got into position, each ready to win.
"Whoever wins twice will earn the right to participate in the Cake Royale with Lord Meta Knight." Sailor Dee said, acting as the judge. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"
Mace and Trident both threw our scissors while Axe threw out rock, earning him a point.
"One. Two. Three!"
This time Axe was the one that threw scissors, but his two opponents threw out paper, making Axe Knight the winner.
"Alright! I'm ready to head out whenever you need me boss!" Axe Knight exclaimed excitedly with a salute.
Meta Knight gave his subordinate a nod. Axe would certainly be an interesting partner to work with, as his fighting style was the exact opposite of his superior's own. It would appear that he would be getting a good learning experience as well as a hopefully good fight.
Upon reaching the arena where the tournament was to be held, Meta Knight landed on a high location so he could watch over all the people gathered beforehand. Instantly, he noticed one particular detail: all the participants were various multicolored Kirbys with each one having their own Copy Ability. His first thought upon seeing so many different Kirbys was that his mirror counterpart must be involved, though he was quick to dismiss the idea. If he really was back and in Dreamland, he would have targeted him by now. If anything, he now had more questions than answers. Where did all of these Kirby copies come from? Why are they here? And, most importantly, what was the real purpose of this tournament? Honestly, there was no doubt that Dedede had an ulterior motive behind this event. Whatever it was, the knight could probably figure out as he went through the tournament. However, his thoughts then turned to all of the copies of his student.
"A battle of the Kirbys, huh?" He gave a slight chuckle. "How interesting..."
"Lord Meta Knight! Are you going to come down from there yet?!" His attention was called to Axe Knight, who was still on the ground. "We still have to register to enter!"
With a slight sigh, he jumped down from his vantage point.
Meta Knight and Axe Knight easily won their first set of battles and had already moved on to the Gold League. After that, they decided to stay and watch the other battles in the Silver League, as Meta Knight was particularly wanting to see the real Kirby in action. He had noticed that none of these copy Kirbys were pink, so as soon as he saw a pink one, he would instantly know it was his student.
"Hey, boss, look, it's that Waddle Dee that pals around with Kirby." Axe Knight said, pointing towards the arena.
Sure enough, it was Bandana Dee, and he was joined by a pink Kirby, who barely seemed awake. In fact, he didn't seem awake at all, almost like he was sleepwalking and barely being kept standing up by Bandana when he wasn't moving around. That was when two particular details hit him: the purple cap with yellow spots and a pillow.
"...oh, you have got to be kidding me...!" Meta Knight uttered, facepalming with both of his hands as Axe Knight gave a quizzical look in response.
"What's wrong, sir?"
"He's using the Sleep Ability... usually, it makes him instantly fall asleep for a few seconds. But seeing how he appears to still have the ability even after a few seconds, this version of Sleep appears to last longer than that."
He'll have to look into that later, but the fact that Kirby decided to use such a useless Copy Ability in this tournament was just plain frustrating. There was no doubt that he entered for that cake, so why would he use Sleep, of all Abilities?!
Soon, the announcer started the match and a blue Kirby with the Beetle Ability dashed right at the sleeping puff. To the surprise of the whole crowd, the real Kirby effortlessly dodged the horn strike and sent the blue imposter flying with an uppercut, or more accurately an upper pillow smack. He then blocked an attack from a yellow Sword Kirby by blowing a huge bubble that took the hit. The resulting shock wave from the popped bubble sent the Yellow Sword crashing into the wall of the arena. Meta Knight was simultaneously impressed and flat out confused. Kirby had never shown this off before and he wasn't the type to keep secrets. He would've no doubt heard about it before. The Blue Beetle had finally landed onto the ground, making a small crater in the process. He got straight up and dashed at Kirby, only to get slammed into the ground, this time getting knocked out cold. The Yellow Sword just finished getting out of the wall and was ready to strike again but was quickly dispatched by Bandana. The match was immediately over.
"That kid's gotten even stronger, huh, boss?"
"Indeed."
While he was certainly proud of his student winning with a Copy Ability like Sleep, something about it just didn't seem right. He knew Kirby and when it came to competitions like these, he always tended to use either Sword or Fighter.
"Come, Axe, we're going to investigate this competition."
His subordinate turned to face him in surprise. "Wait, don't you want to keep watching the kid?"
"There's no need, we all know he'll make it through." He then wrapped his cape around himself. "Besides, I'm sure you've also noticed that there's something strange about this competition."
As Meta Knight and Axe Knight began their investigation, they came across what appeared to be a "backstage area" where only tournament staff was allowed to be. Admittedly, not much was going on. There were just several rooms that appeared to be simply there to exist. However, upon walking close to one particular room, they both heard a feminine voice talking to herself.
"Oh... what should I do... the king's going to be so mad if he finds out that I couldn't dispose of this..."
Hearing this instantly caught both of their attention. With a nod towards each other, both knights quickly slammed into the door, knocking it down instantly. The room was apparently part of a kitchen area and the feminine voice that was speaking earlier seemed to come from the glasses and apron-wearing Waddle Dee now shivering in the corner.
"Wh-who said you c-could come in here? Th-this is a restricted area!" She nervously yelled over to them.
Meta Knight was about to say something when he noticed that the Waddle Dee was holding a spice bottle in her hand.
"Hey, missy, what's that you got there?" Axe Knight suddenly asked.
"I-it's nothing you should worry about! You're not supposed to be here anyway! If you're participating in the Cake Royale, leave now!"
It seemed that the more she talked, the more confidence she gained as she stepped towards them. In an instant, Meta Knight teleported to right behind her, instantly turning that rising courage into fear. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. One look at his eyes told the Waddle Dee everything she needed to know.
"Ok, I'll talk!" She squeaked.
"First, give us your name and what you're doing here." The knight said.
"I... I'm Yakushiji. I'm the head chef at Castle Dedede and the person in charge of catering for the Cake Royale."
Meta Knight gave a nod in response. "I see. And what are you hiding in your hand?"
"It's just a simple bottle of spices." She uttered, fiddling with the cap.
"You seem awfully protective of a simple bottle of spices. Are you sure that's the case?"
The Waddle Dee seemed to sweat a bit upon hearing that.
"So, what do you really have in that bottle then?" Axe Knight then asked.
"Um...it's medicine."
"What's it for?"
"None of your business!"
Meta Knight then glared at her, causing her to drop the bottle in fear. It rolled towards them slowly until the knight picked it up and read off the first ingredient on the list.
"Pseudo-Circadia root..." Meta Knight had heard of that before.
Those who ingested it tended to gain hyperawareness of their surroundings, even in their sleep. But there was one problem with that.
"Pseudo-Circadia root is a rare plant that isn't found on Popstar. Why do you have a medicine that uses it?"
The Waddle Dee became even more nervous. "Um... King Dedede gave it to me."
"For what reason?"
Yakushiji remained silent for several minutes.
"Please, tell me. If you do, I'll help you by disposing of this medicine for you."
The polite way he said that caused the Waddle Dee to seemingly calm down for a bit.
"Ok, then. As I told you, I'm the head chef of Castle Dedede and am the one behind catering at this event. The giant cake that serves as a grand prize was my work specifically, but I also worked on lunches for the participants. Knowing this, I was approached by King Dedede not too long after the Silver League began. He then gave me this medicine and told me to spike Kirby's... the pink Kirby's... food with it. You see, this medicine also has fragments of a Sleep Ability Copy Essence in it among other ingredients that would have forced Kirby to sleep through all his matches and therefore be disqualified from the tournament. However, I'm not sure why, but the medicine didn't exactly work as it should, as I think you both saw."
"Indeed. Under normal circumstances, Kirby wouldn't be able to fight with the Sleep Ability." Meta Knight said with a nod.
"Wait a minute, isn't that cheating?" Axe Knight asked after thinking about what he had just heard.
"I know! I told him that it was cheating, but he replied "I'm the king and it's my tournament! I can do whatever I want!"! So, I had to go through with it anyway!"
There was just one more question Meta Knight had.
"Yakushiji, could you tell us why Dedede is holding this tournament in the first place? And why he so desperately wants Kirby to lose?"
The Waddle Dee gave a slight sigh.
"The true purpose of the Cake Royale is to humiliate Kirby in revenge for all the times he was beaten by him. To do this, he baited Kirby with the giant cake, and he created a device called the Kirby Printer that can make multiple copies of Kirby with various colors and Copy Abilities. Dedede was fine with Kirby making it to the Bronze League since he wanted him to put up a fight. However, he was really mad when he heard he made it to the Silver League. He wanted Kirby to start losing immediately and began producing more Kirby copies with his printer! Then, to make sure, he gave me this medicine and... well, I think you already know."
Meta Knight wasn't surprised that this tournament had such a petty reason behind it. In fact, every aspect of it just screams Dedede.
"What now, boss? If this tournament is rigged, shouldn't we do something about it?"
It only took a brief moment for the knight to think of his response to that.
"Unfortunately, there's not much we can do, Axe. Even if we bring attention to what's really going on, Dedede will simply use his authority to shift things in his favor. For now, we'll continue to play this little game of his."
Upon leaving the restricted area, Meta Knight noticed Kirby and Bandana Dee walking and celebrating their advancement to gold rank. At some point Kirby must have been able to remove the Sleep Ability as he was now using his Ninja Ability. Which worked out nicely for him as now he didn't need to worry about anything holding his student back. A small smile formed on his face. It's been a long time since he and Kirby had a fair fight. No mind control, no world ending threat, just a simple competition. While it was true that he had been fighting clones of Kirby, neither of them possessed the same strength or spirit his student had. They were good for getting the hang of fighting again after his post-surgery rehabilitation, but that was it.
"Congratulations on your success, Kirby."
The moment he said that, Bandana seemed to jump at least a meter into the air.
"M... M... META KNIGHT?!"
"Meta-sensei?! What are you doing here?!" Kirby sounded surprised, but not as much as Bandana.
"I joined this tournament to test my strength. I was hoping I could also get stronger with all of these opponents, but I've had no luck. These copies are absolutely pathetic. But you, Kirby. I know that you will give me a worthy battle. Show me your strength, or this league will belong to me."
"Are you ok, Meta-sensei? You're kinda talking a bit weirder than normal..." Kirby scratched his head.
Without another word, he flew off.
"You're not waiting above the arena, boss?" Axe Knight questioned as he noted that his superior was standing on the ground.
"I've already gotten a good mental image of the arenas. I have no further need to observe from above."
With this new information on the various areas, he could now craft a proper strategy to fight against his opponents. While the Cake Royale had been extremely easy up to this point, it would likely get more difficult the moment they fought Kirby and Bandana.
"Come, let's prepare for the battles to come."
With a nod in response, Meta Knight opened a door and stepped into a waiting room. Immediately, he was greeted by a horde of copy Kirbys all shouting his name at once.
"META-SENSEI!"
The sudden and synchronized yell caused Meta Knight to briefly wince in pain.
"That machine even copied his personality?" he uttered under his breath, unable to think from the noise.
"That's odd, they weren't like that during all the matches. Why do you think it's different now, boss!?" Axe Knight asked, loud enough so that Meta Knight could hear him over the many copies excitedly talking at once.
"If I had to guess, it would be because we aren't fighting at the moment. Kirby tends to get serious during a competition, so it stands to reason that these copies would be similar." He shouted his reply while trying to push the copies away with an additional sigh.
Hopefully, all of these copies will disappear if that Kirby Printer thing gets broken. Meta Knight knew that there was no way he'd be able to handle more than one Kirby. Not only that, but it was clear that the amount of noise in this room was actually starting to bother him. Quickly thinking, Axe Knight grabbed his superior and slammed the door behind them.
"Thank you." He uttered with a sigh.
"Not a problem, boss."
The first set of battles were beginning soon anyway. They had to get to the arena.
Several battles later and Meta Knight and Axe Knight made it to the qualifier round. They had just walked out of their final fight when they overheard Bandana cheering about collecting all the needed points. Deciding to enter the conversation, Meta Knight walked over and spoke up.
"Well done, Kirby. I'm quite impressed you made it this far." His student responded with a pout.
"Of course we'd be facing Meta Knight in the qualifier battle..." Bandana uttered with a slight sigh.
"I go now to our battle. You had better fight your best, Kirby."
He turned his back to them and began walking towards the door. He stopped for a brief moment and looked back. "Do not hold back."
It was a phrase he was all too familiar with uttering to Kirby, but that was during training. This time, it was during a genuine competition.
It felt...exciting.
After three rounds of games that Dedede likely included to use as padding for the real match, the time finally came for the actual fighting part. Meta Knight had no interest in those short games and desired only to get to the actual fight. Even then, Axe Knight noticed that his superior seemed to be bursting with a energy during those matches. It was like the competitive nature Meta Knight had was finally reawakened after being dormant for so long. Then, came the final game: a straightforward two-on-two battle.
With a single call from the announcer, it begun. The moment the fight began, Meta Knight instantly went to attack Kirby, who drew his ninja blade readying himself to counter. While this was going on, Axe Knight jumped into the air and started to fall towards Bandana Dee who dodged out of the way in a panic. Axe Knight's meteor attack had two meanings to it. The first was to hopefully knock Bandana out in one hit, which sadly didn't happen. The second meaning was to separate Kirby and Bandana. Axe Knight knew how much Meta Knight wanted to fight his student, so he decided to prevent Bandana from interfering.
"What's the matter, you scared? Well, you better learn to deal with it 'cause I'm not going anywhere." Axe Knight declared to Bandana, whose eyes had a mixture of bravery and fear.
Bandana wasted no time and went on the offensive, doing multiple spear jabs in rapid succession, however each blow was easily blocked by Axe Knight's massive axe. Seeing this, the Waddle Dee decided to try a different approach and jumped backwards, throwing multiple spears, each of which were blocked. Axe Knight then threw his axe at Bandana, who dodged it and began dashing towards his opponent, hoping to capitalize on this chance. Axe Knight didn't look worried at all, because this was what he was hoping for. Bandana landed a hit, only for it to not even put so much as a scratch in his opponent's armor. Axe Knight then punched Bandana at full force sending him flying straight into... his axe that was returning to him just like a boomerang. Quickly regaining his senses, Bandana started to spin his spear like a helicopter blade and narrowly avoided a grizzly end. It was very apparent to Bandana that Axe Knight was his worst match up. Bandana relied on his quick strikes to trip up opponents and finish them quickly. Such an approach is worthless against a tank like Axe Knight. His only hope was back up from Kirby, which wasn't going to happen any time soon.
Meanwhile, Meta Knight and Kirby were in a deadlock, though the masked knight had a slight lead, as he had successfully landed three hits on Kirby while Kirby had only landed one. Kirby then disappeared using a smoke bomb, but his attempted sneak attack failed as Meta Knight performed a side kick to his left knocking Kirby away. He then teleported directly in front of the puff and slashed him six times. Before he could get a seventh, Kirby grabbed a hold of his mentor and performed the Ninja Ability's signature move, the air drop throw. Meta Knight teleported out of Kirby's grasp before he hit the floor. Then he had to block a wave of knives, only to feel a strong slash from behind as Kirby teleported there as soon as he threw the knives. The two once again entered a deadlock, each combatant throwing a flurry of slashes and Meta Knight was enjoying every second of it.
He was feeling something in this fight that hadn't felt in a long time during a fight. Pure joy. For the past few years, almost every fight was a battle to the death, sometimes with him being forced to fight on the enemy's side. This was different. This was pure combat. No diabolical schemes, no dire circumstances. Just him and his student having a fair fight. It was a feeling he never wanted to lose. However, he knew he was reaching a limit. He was pushing his still recovering body too hard and he knew it, so he had only one option left.
"Kirby, this will be my final strike! Can you match it!?"
He performed a dashing slash, with Kirby doing the same. Both fighters stayed completely still for a few seconds, then Meta Knight fell to his knee.
"Good job, Kirby." Meta Knight said, though mostly to himself.
If Kirby heard him, he didn't know as he was already moving to help his partner fight Axe Knight. The fight soon ended after that, as not even his superior defense could handle five air drops in a row.
Meta Knight and Axe Knight began to walk out of the stadium in silence. However, it was clear that the masked knight was in no way angry with this result. In fact, he appeared to be... happy? Knowing how competitive his superior could be, this honestly confused Axe Knight. Soon, Meta Knight came across Kirby and Bandana, who seemed to be talking with each other, and overheard their conversation.
"Even if it was a fluke... WE BEAT META KNIGHT!"
"No, it wasn't a fluke." The knight replied as he entered their conversation, making Bandana jump again in surprise.
"EEK! META KNIIIIIIIIIGHT!"
"Why are you screaming?"
"You came out of nowhere; you expect me not to!?"
The knight only gave a sigh before turning to his student.
"Kirby, you have shown me your true strength... and for that, I must thank you." He then gave a slight chuckle. "I've realized... I must train harder... I WILL TRAIN HARDER!"
Immediately, he pointed his sword towards Kirby, who looked absolutely puzzled.
"We will meet in battle again, Kirby! And next time... I'll be ready."
The child only blinked in confusion. "Meta-sensei, are you sick or something? You've been acting weird all day."
It was at that point that the knight immediately realized what he was saying and gave an awkward cough as he sheathed his sword and slightly turned away his eyes, which had turned fuchsia for a brief moment.
"...a-and by that, I mean I'll be preparing for our training session in two days. I hope to see you utilize some of those new techniques you've shown off today in the Copy Ability Exam next week...be sure you prepare your picks accordingly."
This was one of the many times Meta Knight was glad that he wore a mask, as he felt his face grow hotter and hotter as he spoke and remembered what he had previously said.
"Seriously, Meta-sensei, are you fine? Are you sick again?"
Without another word, Meta Knight transformed his cape into wings and flew up to the top of the stadium.
"...huh, well that was weird." Bandana uttered.
"I just wonder if he's ok..."
"He's more than ok, I think."
The duo turned to see Axe Knight was still standing next to them.
"I was slightly confused by it at first as well, but I think that fight made him pretty happy." He explained.
Kirby paused for a moment to think.
"Oh...so that's what I was feeling..." The child mumbled, gaining questioning looks from both people. "Oh, it's nothing to worry about! Come on, we gotta beat the Platinum League now, right, Bandana? I can almost taste that delicious cake!"
Before anymore words could be said, he dragged his friend over to the counter. Watching them from above was Meta Knight, who gave a satisfied sigh.
"I genuinely meant it when I said thank you, Kirby..." he uttered quietly.
With his high vantage point, Meta Knight was easily able to watch his student's progress on the Platinum League. In the final round, King Dedede himself finally participated. While the knight was too high up to fully hear what was being shouted, he could more or less fill in the blanks himself. It was likely Dedede throwing a fit about losing again and wanting to beat Kirby once and for all. Just being a sore loser and not knowing when to give in. Everything the knight expected from that oaf of a king. Suddenly, Dedede ran through one of the doors with Kirby following after him.
It was then that he decided to reflect on the events of today. It was... actually quite fun. At first, he thought this was just a stupid tournament, and it still was, but now he thought of it as something else. Ever since "that incident", most of his previous passion for battle had been drained entirely. But that fight against Kirby managed to light a spark within him. One that had allowed him to once again feel his genuine passion for the art of combat for the first time in months. From the bottom of his heart, he was truly grateful.
Then, he began to notice that a crowd was beginning to form outside of the stadium. Curious about this, he decided to leave his high vantage point and watch from the ground instead, meeting up with Axe Knight.
"Any idea what's going on?" he asked.
"Dedede's just being a sore loser and told Kirby to come after him to fight one-on-one."
His superior managed to suppress a laugh. "That's expected."
The knight then took a moment to notice the giant cake that took several Waddle Dees just to carry it. It was piled high with fruit and layers and honestly very much befitting of a grand prize.
Suddenly, the whole area was rocked by an explosion and a broken machine came flying out from inside of the arena. It was likely that Kirby Printer thing they had heard about. Noticeably, all of the Kirby copies began to vanish, to the knight's admitted relief.
"Th-they won!" One of the Waddle Dees suddenly shouted, beginning a series of roaring cheers from the crowd.
"Wow!"
"Amazing!"
"The winners of the Cake Royale are the pink Kirby and Bandana Dee!"
The doors to the arena opened, and the champions ran out in triumph. Unsurprisingly, Kirby was the first to rush to the massive cake, but then he said something that surprised everyone there.
"Everyone, let's eat!"
With that phrase said, he and Bandana began to hand out pieces of cake and its various edible decorations to everyone in the crowd, leaving the smallest and topmost layer for themselves. Even Dedede got part of the cake, though he was still a bit pouty, likely because he had lost yet again.
"So, what're we gonna do now, boss?" Axe Knight suddenly asked.
"I think we can leave now. The tournament is over, and we have nothing else to do here." His superior calmly responded.
He was about to prepare to take flight when he was cut off by a familiar pink puff running straight towards him.
"META-SENSEEEIIIIIIII! DON'T LEAVE YEETTT!"
Quickly, he turned in the child's direction.
"What is it, Kirby?"
With only a smile, Kirby handed Meta Knight and Axe two of the cookies that decorated the grand prize cake.
"I didn't want you both to leave without taking this!"
The mentor only blinked for a moment. "Well, thank you, Kirby. That's quite thoughtful of you."
His student then seemed to pout, as if noting the tone that he was using. "What? You thought me and Bandana were just gonna eat it all by ourselves? That's so mean! You think we'd really do that?!"
There was something about that response that forced the knight to suppress a laugh.
"META-SENSEIIIIII!"
Regardless of everything, today was a good day.
The entire plot of Kirby Battle Royale is just so funny to me that I had to include it. It also makes for a good breather chapter before the next one, especially with something that was as heavy hitting as the previous one.
And yes, including Sleep was absolutely necessary.
MarioFan2867 - Thank you! I thought it would be an interesting way to change up the usual formula for this story!
Good ol' Guest - Ah! Thanks! I'm sure the thought has crossed MK's mind once in a while as well, but the fact that he trusts his student that much is quite meaningful, don't you think?
grayisgrey - You are welcome, and thank you for your complements! It makes me happy to hear that it's good enough to read in a single sitting!