On Today's Episode: The trinity returns to Nordopolica to take part in the Blastia Cup tournament, with ten rounds of Heartless bashing to test their skills for the battles ahead. But who are these strange opponents waiting at the end of the bracket?
Episode 6: Tournament Fighters – Round 1
"Well, well, it looks like Nordopolica's pretty much back to normal after our last visit ended," Haruka quipped as the trinity disembarked at the entrance to the Nordopolica Coliseum.
"Yeah, from the chatter I heard, there was quite a mess after our escapade with that Zagi creep," Maylin stated, casually twirling Spellbinder in her hands.
"It doesn't look like Brave Vesperia is here anymore, though," Nick replied, looking around the city and seeing no sign of Brave Vesperia anywhere. "Guess they set off on their own adventure, huh?"
"Well, how's about we head to the lobby and see what this new tournament is all about?" Maylin proclaimed.
"You're all going to clean up in the tournament, I'm sure of it!" Sophia giggled from Nick's Gummiphone.
With that encouragement from Sophia, the trinity moved to enter the coliseum, but along the way to the tournament lobby, Nick was the first to notice a strange-looking treasure chest sitting off to the side of the hallway.
"Okay, that definitely wasn't there the last time we visited," Nick quipped, walking up to the treasure chest and tapping it twice with his keyblade. The chest popped open, but instead of a trinket or some kind of accessory, a quartet of small fairy creatures were stuck inside it.
The first one was a small fairy with lemon-yellow colored fur, navy-blue eyes with light blue highlights between his eyes, bearlike ears and a star shape at the end of his tail. The second one was a pale/light pink colored fairy with darker pink highlights and dark crimson eyes, hearts on the ends of her doglike ears and a heart-shaped tail.
The third fairy was a white fairy with mint green coloring, a furry neck, an orb on his tail is an orb resembling a computer mouse, a crown on his head, long heart highlights on his ears, and a diamond-shaped forehead mark. The last fairy was a white-colored fairy with a golden crown and a furry neck, a poodle-like tail, fuschia markings around her eyes to match the heart and diamond symbol at the center of her head, and heart-tipped ears.
"Um, I have several questions," Maylin stated.
Nick, however, quickly figured out what this was all about. "You guys must be Pretty Cure fairies, right?" Nick asked.
"Y-Yes, we are!" Mepple exclaimed. "How did you know that, though?"
"I ran into a pair of Pretty Cures back when my adventure first got started, and they said all of their fairy partners had been scattered to different worlds thanks to the Heartless attack," Nick answered.
"Oh, jeez, Nagisa and Honoka must be so worried about us!" Mipple gasped.
"Do you know where our partners are?" Pollun asked.
"If you mean Nagisa and Honoka, they're waiting for you guys in Traverse Town," Nick explained. "Can you handle teleporting over there?"
"Teleportation is no problem for us fairies!" Lulun laughed. "Hey, if you find any more fairies, tell 'em we'll be waiting in Traverse Town!"
With that, all four fairies vanished in a flash of light.
"Okay, so I'll ask the question: were there fairies in that treasure chest?" Haruka wondered.
"They're Pretty Cure fairies, basically the fairy partners to a bunch of magical girl warriors," Nick responded. "I met a couple of Pretty Cures back in Traverse Town before I met you two, and they wanted me to keep an eye out for all of their fairy partners, since they were all scattered to different places when the Pretty Cures' world got consumed by the Heartless."
"And it seems like they couldn't just teleport out of the chest because it was magically locked," Maylin quipped.
"I just hope the others are doing all right," Nick stated.
With that taken care of, the trinity headed to the tournament lobby to sign up for the first of the new tournament brackets, specifically the Blastia Cup.
"Good luck out there!" the receptionist proclaimed as the trinity walked up the stairs and into the arena, where, just like last time, there was already a crowd waiting for their arrival.
"Man, word travels fast around here, doesn't it?" Maylin giggled.
"Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blastia Cup tournament!" the stadium's announcer bellowed over the crowd's cheers. "Taking on this bracket today are three very familiar warriors who blazed their way through the preliminary games! Now let's see if they can blow this tournament out of the water! Fighters, are you ready?!"
The trinity simply summoned their keyblades in response.
"Then let's get this slobberknocker underway, shall we?" the announcer exclaimed. "Bring out the first group, Jungle Vice!"
The center platform brought up three Soldiers and four of a monkey-like Heartless covered in blue fur, a pitch-black face with jagged edges and beady yellow eyes, round, light-purple ears, large paws and feet tipped by sharp, black claws, and the Heartless emblem emblazoned on their chest.
"All right, who are the monkeys?" Nick quipped as Maylin cast Thunder to blast back the Soldiers.
"They're Powerwilds," Haruka answered. "They mostly like to get up in your face with lots of combos, and they're pretty strong for monkeys, so try to stay in long-range if possible."
One of the Powerwilds leaped through the air to strike at Nick, but he responded by casting his new spell, Aero, which created a spherical shield of wind around him and deflected the Powerwild's attack long enough for Nick to blast it with a Fire spell to the face.
Haruka backflipped over Maylin to slam Divine Rose into the face of another Powerwild that was trying to ambush Maylin, chopping it in half easily. Maylin then returned the favor by frying the last Powerwild with a Thunder spell.
"Enemy data registered!" Sophia stated, the Powerwild's information appearing on Nick's Gummiphone.
"Stupendous!" the announcer exclaimed. "The next group is Monkey and Magic!"
The center platform brought up a single Powerwild, surrounded by two Green Requiems, two Red Nocturnes, and five Yellow Operas.
"Yeah, I think we should let Laura take care of this one," Nick quipped as he brought out the Wavecrystal.
"Ooh, I'm all for that!" Maylin laughed as she and Haruka vanished.
("Viva! Spark! Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure" by Machico plays)
A large whirlpool of water sprouted underneath Nick, but didn't suck him in. Nick raised the Wavecrystal to the sky, and bursts of ocean water exploded from it and flew into the whirlpool. Nick looked down to see someone swimming through the whirlpool for a few seconds before Laura jumped out of the pool to finally reveal herself to Nick.
One of the Powerwilds lunged forward, but Laura simply raised her hand to create a barrier of water around Nick that bumped it backwards so they could go on the offensive. Laura leaped high into the air before coming down with a big splash that destroyed the Powerwild. Nick did the same to defeat the Green Requiems before they could start healing the others.
Nick continued to move around the battlefield, occasionally jumping alongside Laura to create a pool of his own and blasting Heartless away with each leap they made, much to the obvious delight of the crowd.
While they were leaping through water pools, every now and then Nick fired a blast of water from his keyblade to deter any Heartless from interrupting their watery dance.
Soon enough, the group of Heartless had been eradicated.
"Our challengers continue to surprise us!" the announcer proclaimed. "Let's see how they fare against Big Feet!"
The center platform raised up four Powerwilds and the Hammerlegs of the Guard Armor.
"Okay, if that's not a strange sight," Nick admitted. Laura just chuckled by his side.
Looking around at all the pools of water they'd created earlier, Nick and Laura decided that it was time for the finale, and they dove into a larger pool of water before jumping out of it, high above the battlefield, and thrusting their hands towards the Heartless. All of the pools they'd created during their rapid-fire jumping erupted with concussive water blasts that flooded the entire nearby area and utterly obliterated all of the Heartless that got caught in the torrent.
Her work finished, Laura swam over and planted a kiss on Nick's cheek before vanishing in an outwards burst of water that reformed into the Wavecrystal in his right hand.
"That was still fun," Maylin quipped when she and Haruka had returned.
"Now, our challengers face Magic Alert!" the announcer bellowed as the center platform brought out five Red Nocturnes and five Yellow Operas.
"They really like the wizard boys, don't they?" Nick stated as Maylin fired off a Blizzard spell at the Red Nocturnes.
Haruka danced around the thunderbolts being dropped on her by the Yellow Operas to cut them down with a single swing each. Nick finished off the last Red Nocturne by switching to Sniper Queen and spiking it into the ground with a swift jumping strike.
"Marvelous performance!" the announcer proclaimed. "Let's see if our challengers can put down the Nightwalkers!"
The center platform brought up five Powerwilds and a Large Body.
"Oh, fun, the tub-o-lard's back," Nick quipped.
"We'll take care of the monkeys, Nick," Maylin responded as she hit one of the Powerwilds in the face with a Blizzard spell. "You focus on the big guy!"
Nick nodded before turning to face the Large Body and jumping to parry its arm swing before flipping over it and striking its back a few times. This seemed to make it mad, though, as it started flailing around in its spot before sliding forward on its belly at a rapid pace.
Nick quickly guarded against the attack, and this left the Large Body in a stunned state that allowed Nick to finish it off just as Haruka mopped up the last of the Powerwilds.
"We're at the halfway point now!" the announcer proclaimed. "Our challengers now face the Hard Hitters!"
The center platform raised up to reveal four Shadows, three Blue Rhapsodies, and the Gauntlets of a Guard Armor.
"Very strange, I know," Maylin quipped as she bisected the Shadows with a few quick swings before unleashing her new combo finishing move, Magic Hour, in which Maylin thrust both of her hands upwards, a spiraling ring of magic orbs spinning around her that blasted away anything that got close to her.
Nick parried a punch from the Gauntlets before blasting them with a Ripple Drive, while Haruka slipped in to end the last Blue Rhapsody with a rising swing from Divine Rose.
"Our challengers inch ever closer to the peak!" the announcer bellowed. "How will they fare against the Indomitable?!"
The center platform raised two Large Bodies and six Green Requiems into the arena in response.
"Ooh, that looks fun," Nick stated. "And it feels like it's gonna be a bit before I can use my summon crystal again."
"Guess we're mopping these guys up the old-fashioned way," Haruka quipped as she swung Divine Rose with enough force to knock one Green Requiem into another, destroying them both.
Maylin dropped a Thunder spell on the other Green Requiems, weakening them enough for Nick to finish them off with a few swings from Sniper Queen.
"And now there's you," Nick stated before an idea came to him, rushing towards the Large Bodies and going into a Sonic Blade attack, landing at least seven super-speedy thrust attacks on the Large Bodies. Thankfully, Sonic Blade seemed to pierce the Large Bodies' frontal defenses, and Nick was able to mop them up easily after that.
"Closer and closer we get!" the announcer proclaimed as Maylin threw an Ether to Nick to restore his mana reserves. "Our challengers now face the Wild Corps!"
The center platform raised up to reveal Gauntlets, Hammerlegs, and four Powerwilds.
"Okay, now things are getting weird," Maylin quipped as she hit the Hammerlegs with a Magic Hour before they could stomp down on her. This left her open to an ambush from the Gauntlets, which punched her backwards.
Haruka moved in to attack the Gauntlets while Nick cast Cure on Maylin to get her back on her feet. As the Powerwilds moved towards her, Maylin cast Blizzard on them while Nick cast Aero on Maylin to give her a wind shield that deflected a kick from the Hammerlegs.
Nick cast Thunder on the Powerwilds, finishing them and the Gauntlets off and leaving the Hammerlegs to be destroyed courtesy of Haruka performing an overhead slash with Divine Rose.
"Only one remains before the big finale!" the announcer proclaimed. "Can our challengers outlast the Shadow Battalion?!"
The center platform raised up to bring four Yellow Operas, four Blue Rhapsodies, and the Armored Torso of a Guard Armor into the arena.
Almost immediately, the Armored Torso began spinning around the arena to attack the trinity, even knocking the little wizards away as it did so.
"So much for the bro code," Maylin teased as she fired rapid Fire spells into the Blue Rhapsodies to take them out. Haruka stood her ground and parried the Armored Torso's spinning attack with Divine Rose, causing it to fall to the ground.
Much like they had in their first battle against the Guard Armor, the trinity all rushed in to deliver a mighty slash at the same time, destroying the Armored Torso and leaving them free to mop up the remaining Yellow Operas.
"And now, all that remains is a dynamic twosome from another world, much like our challengers today!" the announcer proclaimed. "Can the challengers overcome this powerful pair to claim the Blastia Cup trophy?! Let's not keep you all waiting any longer! Everyone, please welcome the fiery lasses, Panther and Queen!"
The center platform raised one last time to reveal two teenage girls.
The first girl, Panther, had wavy platinum blonde hair styled in bushy pigtails with parted side bangs on the right side of her face, a single yellow hair clip above her left ear as well as small circular earrings on both ears and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a skin-tight red latex catsuit with a cleavage cutout and zippers, a matching red panther mask, pink gloves, dark red thigh-high boots, and a clip-on tail on the back of her catsuit. She was carrying a long and very painful-looking whip in her right hand.
The second girl, Queen, had brown hair in a bob cut with blunt bangs and a French-braid styled headband that matched her hair color, and reddish-brown eyes. She was wearing a dark blue and black skintight suit with a long black scarf, a dark gray corset-style leather breastplate, shoulder and knee pads with spikes mixed with boots that sport metal heels and toes, white gloves and an iron mask. She was carrying a iron tekko, a gauntlet-like weapon, in her right hand.
("Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" by Lyn Inaizumi plays)
"Let's get this final match underway!" the announcer proclaimed. "FIGHT!"
"Oh, who thinks this is going to be fun?" Maylin quipped as Panther lunged towards her, swinging her whip in varying directions to throw Maylin off.
Maylin jumped away from an overhead whip strike, only for Panther to crack her whip out to wrap around Spellbinder and yank it away from her.
"Gotcha," Panther giggled.
Maylin simply smiled, raised her hand, and recalled Spellbinder into her grip. This shocked Panther long enough for Maylin to knock Panther down with a point-blank Blizzard spell.
Knowing that Panther was weak to ice attacks, Queen made her move, backflipping over Haruka's attempt to hit her and landing on what appeared to be a slick silver motorcycle, then riding it forward to knock Maylin away from Panther.
However, this only put her in Nick's path, and he blasted Johanna with a Thunder spell to knock Queen off, but she retaliated by casting Freidyne, creating a greenish-blue dome explosion near Nick that forced him to step backwards.
By this time, Panther had picked herself back up and rushed in to start attacking Nick while he was dodging Queen's attacks. Nick dodged each crack of Panther's whip as best he could before retaliating with another Blizzard spell. This time, Panther jumped over the attack, called out what seemed to be a large woman in a very fancy ballroom gown, and charged her whip to imbue it with fire so that each swing created a trail of fire on the arena floor.
"Getting sneaky, are we?" Nick quipped as he dodged through the fire trails to land a few this on Panther before casting Aero on himself to defend against the fiery whip strikes.
"All right, try this!" Panther shot back, raising her hand to cast Agidyne, creating an upwards geyser of flames underneath Nick that his Aero barrier couldn't protect him from, throwing him backwards and into Maylin's path.
Naturally, Maylin didn't take that well, raising Spellbinder to cast Thundara, a more powerful version of her Thunder spell. This time, the lightning bolts that rained down were larger and stronger, forcing Panther and Queen backwards so Maylin could double back and cast Cure on Nick.
"You're gonna regret that, you know," Maylin proclaimed, reaching into her pocket to pull out what appeared to be a small stone coin inscribed with ancient runes. "Because you're gonna be the first ones to see my patented super spells in action."
Maylin raised Spellbinder and cast Gravity, surrounding Panther and Queen with a purplish-black dome of energy that pushed them down to their knees. Not wasting a second, Maylin tossed the spell coin into the air.
"Hold fast to the ancient laws, and let magic be my guide!" Maylin chanted, twirling Spellbinder around in dramatic fashion before striking the spell coin as it fell back down. "THUNDAZA!"
A circle of light beams surrounded Panther and Queen. Before they could think of an escape plan, still affected by the Gravity spell, multiple bolts of lightning began to bombard them from all sides before three wicked thunderbolts cracked down all at once, followed by another bombardment of regular lightning bolts, and finishing with one final, bluish-white thunderbolt surging down into them and causing a great explosion of electricity that instantly floored Panther and Queen at the same time.
"And that's game, everybody!" the announcer proclaimed. "Our challengers once again stand victorious!"
"And that's how it's done," Maylin stated before falling to her knees to catch her breath. After all, her super spells drained a lot of energy from her, which meant she tended to save them for serious situations.
"Aw, nuts," Panther groaned. "I really thought we had them there."
"Hey, I think we did a pretty good job regardless," Queen admitted as the trinity was presented with the Blastia Cup championship trophy and a shiny new Magic Crystal, this one glowing a dark purple.
As the trinity headed out of the coliseum to return to the Gummi Ship, they were stopped by Panther and Queen.
"Hey, you guys," Panther quipped. "Sorry if we kinda went a little overboard back in the arena. It's been a while since we had a good fight, especially since..."
"Let me guess, your world was destroyed, too?" Haruka asked. "That would explain what you're doing here, of all places..."
"Yes, our world was consumed by a strange darkness, and we were separated from our friends and fellow Phantom Thieves in the process," Queen explained. "I don't know if this means Shido had his way with the Metaverse or if something much worse happened..."
"I'm willing to bet it was the Heartless, if it was your whole world that got swallowed up," Maylin quipped.
"If we see any more of your fellow Phantom Thieves, we'll inform you as soon as we can," Nick responded. "Actually, would you be okay if we took you two to Traverse Town? It's a sort of waystation for people who've lost worlds to the Heartless. Maybe your friends might show up there eventually."
"That'd be very helpful," Queen proclaimed.
"All right, then, Panther, Queen, all aboard!" Maylin laughed as Haruka activated her wrist communicator to beam the entire group onto the Gummi Ship so they could make a quick detour to Traverse Town before setting off for whatever world needed them next.
But as the trinity departed from Traverse Town, Sophia couldn't help but think about something.
Even though she was pretty sure she'd never met Panther and Queen before, something about them felt... oddly familiar to her. The reason she hadn't spoken up about it was precisely because she wasn't entirely sure.
Did it have something to do with her missing memories, or was it another situation entirely?
She figured she'd find out sooner or later, though.
To be continued...
On the next episode...
Maylin: All right, so now we're in... another city. We're sure as heck getting the mundane-looking worlds lately, huh?
Haruka: I wouldn't be too sure, Maylin. There can be all manner of crazy hiding behind the buildings.
Nick: OOF
Maylin: Whoa, buddy, everything okay?
Nick: Hey, there, little girl.
Eri: P-please... don't go...
Haruka: Yikes, she looks scared out of her mind.
Nick: Well, trust me, miss, I would never let a scared child down when she clearly needs my help. Just tell me where you want to go and I'll take you there next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse, "A Bright and Shiny Future"!
Nick, Maylin and Haruka: May your hearts be your guiding key!