On Today's Episode: The trinity makes another pit stop in Traverse Town to activate their newest summon gem and take on more of the Freaky Monkey Five, and after that, it's off to Nordopolica for the next tournament. Ten more rounds of Heartless bashing await, alongside a duel with two more of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. What are they doing here, and why does Sophia find them strangely familiar?
Episode 10: Sidequesting Adventures
Maylin couldn't help but notice Nick's conflicted expression as they arrived back in Traverse Town. Of course, she knew why he was probably feeling this way, as they had just fought his girlfriend before leaving Lunatea.
After all, the way Nick had often talked about Ellen made it sound like the two of them were hopelessly in love with each other.
And of course, Maylin also had an inkling as to who was behind Ellen's strange personality shift.
"Ooh, just wait until I get my hands on Ichinose, I'm gonna wring her pasty little..." Maylin growled.
"Um, excuse me?"
Maylin stopped in her tracks when she noticed who had just addressed her, that being a small, floating blue sphere with wide eyes, two disconnected hands, a star on his head, and a halo underneath him.
"Okay, if that don't beat all," Maylin quipped.
"Oh, sorry if I startled you," the sphere replied. "My name is Huepow. I wanted to ask you if you've seen someone. I know this is a refuge for people who have lost their worlds, and, well, I haven't seen Klonoa anywhere, so..."
"Wait, you know Klonoa?" Nick quipped. "We were just in Lunatea helping him out."
"He's all right?" Huepow gasped. "Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. I assume you know that Klonoa is a Dream Traveler that goes to different dream worlds. He was a visitor in my world, and well... I miss him dearly."
Huepow floated closer to Nick and placed a keychain token in his hand. "If you see Klonoa again, tell him that I still think of him every day," Huepow proclaimed before floating away.
"Guess the whole concept of 'other worlds' isn't as alien to others as we thought it was," Haruka stated.
"You mentioned something about 'protecting the world order' a while ago," Nick stated as he attached the token to his keyblade.
"Yeah, normally we're not supposed to tell people that there are other worlds," Maylin answered. "But we've kinda had to skirt that rule lately, given what the Heartless are trying to pull off."
Nick swung his keyblade horizontally, the weapon transforming into a new one mid-swing. This new keyblade was mostly simple in design, with the hilt and handleguard shaped like Klonoa's Wing Ring, the handle being shaped like the Wind Bullet, the blade and teeth resembling one of Klonoa's long ears, and the token being Klonoa's hat with the Pac-Man shape on it. As Nick studied the weapon, the words Dream Traveler ran through his head.
Nick looked up and saw another glowing ball of light flying through the night sky of Traverse Town. Recognizing it as a Pretty Cure fairy, he started running through the Second District, turning the corner to make his way to Nagisa and Honoka's residence.
Sure enough, at least a dozen different fairies, maybe more, were all flying around the house, happy as can be.
"We've made quite a bit of progress, haven't we?" Haruka stated.
"Tell me about it," Nagisa replied as she and Honoka entered the living room, still dressed in their Pretty Cure outfits, though their hair was different now, with Nagisa's hair grown out and her bangs slicked aside, and Honoka's hair grown in length and curls, with a small ponytail on top of her head bound by a white ribbon with a blue heart in the middle.
"Did you find a hairstylist, too? Because that's pretty slick," Maylin giggled.
"Not quite," Honoka replied, gesturing to their Heartful Communes strapped to their waists. "These are our Pretty Cure hairstyles."
"Yeah, we can transform again!" Nagisa laughed. "And hopefully it won't be much longer before we can head back to our own world, too."
Nagisa walked over to Nick to place something in his hand, which he noticed appeared to be another Torn Page from the Pipo Storybook.
"We found this mailed to us, but we think it'll help you more," Honoka stated.
"Keep an eye out for any more of our fairy friends, 'kay?" Nagisa quipped as the trinity left the house to make their way to the Third District and their actual target for this visit, the Mystic Cavern.
When they entered, they noticed that Julius was absent, but Dorothy was there.
"Oh, hey, guys!" Dorothy laughed. "The Wizard King's out searching for something, so it's just me for right now. Oh, you found another summon gem?"
"Yeah, we're racking them up pretty quickly, apparently," Nick chuckled as he handed the summon gem off to Dorothy as brought out her grimoire and opened it, flipping its pages to the spell she wanted.
"Dream Magic: Spirit Reconfiguration!" Dorothy proclaimed, the pages of her grimoire glowing and surrounding the summon gem with a cloud of multi-colored magic. After a couple seconds, the cloud vanished, and the summon gem had transformed into a bright violet pink crystal shaped like a small rose flower.
"That's three brand new friends," Dorothy stated. "Must be nice to have so many allies from other worlds, huh?"
"No kidding," Nick replied as he jogged over to the Pipo Storybook.
"Oh, hey, hold on juuuuuuuuuuust a second," Dorothy stated, opening her grimoire again. "I noticed that you've learned a lot of magic spells. So, I wanted to give you something to congratulate you for learning so much. Dream Magic: Spirit Replication!"
A bright glow surrounded Maylin's hand as Spellbinder appeared in it, and then that same glow surrounded Nick's hand before transforming his keyblade into an exact copy of Spellbinder.
"There ya go," Dorothy giggled. "Something to prove you're becoming a gifted mage, too."
"Thanks for the gift, Dorothy," Nick proclaimed as he placed the second page into the Storybook before being sucked inside of it.
When Nick could see again, he found himself in the center of what could only be described as a Japanese sumo wrestling ring with a field of spikes surrounding the ring. Jimmy was already there waiting, his Stun Club at the ready.
Thankfully, Nick didn't have to wait long for their opponent, as said opponent dropped from the sky into the ring, that opponent being a large and rotund yellow-skinned Pipo Monkey wearing a clown-themed Monkey Helmet.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Yellow Monkey laughed in a rather grating, squeaky voice. "In case you were wondering, I'm Yellow, the sparkling gemstone of the Freaky Monkey Five! And welcome to my ring. Would you two lovelies care to join me for a match?"
"A match of what?" Nick taunted, summoning Dream Traveler to his hands.
"Oh, please do be careful with me, I am so very delicate," Yellow Monkey chuckled.
"Yikes, what's with this monkey?" Jimmy sighed in confusion.
"Now, now, you won't be able to just attack this stout body of mine willy-nilly," Yellow Monkey laughed. "You or me, which one of us do you think will fall out first? How... very... delightful. LET'S GET READY TO TUSSLE!"
Yellow Monkey wasted no time in charging towards his two opponents. Jimmy used his Super Hoop to speed away while Nick did a dodge roll to the side, and this caused Yellow Monkey to skid to a stop at the edge of the ring, stumbling around to avoid falling into the spikes.
Jimmy took advantage of this to whack Yellow Monkey right in the keester with his Stun Club, causing Yellow Monkey to fall butt-first into the spikes. Yellow Monkey hopped back into the arena, yelping in pain and clutching his butt, allowing Nick to leap towards him and land a few hits with Dream Traveler, finishing in a Hurricane Period that sent Yellow Monkey skidding backwards.
In response to this, Yellow Monkey leaped into the air once he'd recovered and spun around in the air before coming down in the center of the arena, his stomp creating a shockwave that Nick and Jimmy had to jump over.
Yellow Monkey then charged for Nick and Jimmy, only to miss again, allowing Nick and Jimmy to repeat the same process to knock him into the spikes and allow Nick to land some hits.
As Yellow Monkey's helmet headlight changed from blue to yellow, he eventually flipped over to one of the light poles surrounding the arena and started hitting it, causing objects from the roof above them to start falling down onto the arena. Nick stayed just slightly away from the shadows of the objects, then swung Dream Traveler to knock as many as he could into Yellow Monkey to get him to stop.
Eventually, the same process repeated itself a few more times, and after three more rounds of this, Nick was able to send Yellow Monkey flying with a Sonic Blade attack.
But before Jimmy could make a move to capture him with the Monkey Net, Yellow Monkey hopped right back to his feet.
"THAT REALLY HURT, YOU JERKS!" Yellow Monkey shouted. "Don't you dare get full of yourself just because you beat me! I was on a diet, so I wasn't really eating my daily dose of Vita-Z Bananas. Next time, you'd better watch out. I'LL GET YOU YET, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYS!"
And with that spiel, Yellow Monkey dashed away at impressive speeds for his weight, leaving Nick and Jimmy to wonder what had just happened.
"Hey, you'll get him soon enough, I'm sure," Nick quipped. "He can't run and hide forever."
Jimmy gave him a thumbs up before jumping into the air and warping back to the Travel Station. Nick looked around to find a way back as well, until the area around him began to distort and warp itself.
When the distortions stopped, Nick now found himself in what appeared to be a beachside resort, on the opposite end of a large pool filled with giant flower-shaped floaties in the water, with Jimmy right behind him, and the third member of the Freaky Monkey Five on the opposite end of the area on a giant stage.
"Oh, did you two come all this way just to watch my show?" Pink Monkey gasped. "It really warms my heart that so many people out there have come all this way just to see my debut performance."
Nick and Jimmy looked around, not seeing anyone in the area but themselves, Pink Monkey, and an occasional enemy resting on one the flower floaties.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response," Nick sighed.
"So, to thank everyone here, I'm going to blow your minds with my new debut single," Pink Monkey giggled before suddenly turning serious. "No escape for you!"
With that said, Pink Monkey raised her microphone and began to sing.
("First Love Story" by Luce Twinkle Wink plays)
Jimmy opted to try just swimming through the pool to reach Pink Monkey (after all, he had the Aqua Net), but Nick quickly nixed that idea by noting that the current of the water was too strong and would keep them from getting any closer.
So the only option was to hop along the flower floaties, swiping enemies away and trying to avoid flying pink hearts coming from Pink Monkey's microphone.
After a few hops, Nick and Jimmy made it to the stage, where Pink Monkey threw a row of hearts to stun Jimmy so she could knock him off of the stage. But Nick was there first, slashing at Pink Monkey with Dream Traveler until he landed an overhead chop that sent her crashing into the back of the stage.
Just then, the loudspeakers to either side of the stage erupted with a loud sonic boom that drove Nick and Jimmy back into the pool.
Thankfully, Pink Monkey didn't seem to do much else, so Nick and Jimmy simply retreated the process two more times. Upon the third combo against her, however, Pink Monkey dropped to her knees in frustration.
"How... how dare you ruin my performance?" Pink Monkey gasped. "I've been looking forward to this debut for so long! What gives you the right to shatter a poor monkey girl's dream?! ...do you have something against pop stars?"
"Um, if only you've seen Ellen's music collection," Nick quipped. "That girl is a pop junkie."
"You're just jealous that I'm famous and you're not," Pink Monkey cried. "There's no turning back now. This is my final chance to become a pop idol, and YOU WON'T STOP ME!"
Pink Monkey's voice turned growly and echo-ey as her body was surrounded by a pink bubble of light and her hair stood up in the vein of a Super Saiyan. Eventually, her gathered energy exploded outwards, destroying the pool and cracking the foundations around the stage.
"Ooh, boy, she's mad now," Nick quipped as he and Jimmy started running around to avoid the electrified beach balls that Pink Monkey was throwing at them.
After a few seconds of this, Nick noticed that the barrier around Pink Monkey had vanished as she telekinetically grabbed more objects to use as projectiles.
Seeing his opportunity, Nick moved towards the stage, jumping over a crack in the floor and lunging forward to land a few hits on Pink Monkey until she used the loudspeakers to blow him back off the stage.
During all this, Jimmy had snuck in behind Nick while Pink Monkey was distracted, hiding under the left corner of the stage while Nick swung Dream Traveler to bat more of the bomb enemies back at Pink Monkey in hopes of breaking the barrier.
When it finally did go down again, Jimmy jumped to the top of the stage and whacked Pink Monkey with his Stun Club.
One more round of this and Pink Monkey's barrier went down again. Nick quickly jumped to the top of the stage and attacked Pink Monkey with an Ars Arcanum, finally doing enough damage to send her flying into the large sign just above the stage before collapsing to the ground.
As Pink Monkey revered to her normal self, Nick looked at her while twirling Dream Traveler.
"I don't have anything against your music, but you're still working for Specter," Nick proclaimed. "You knew how this was gonna end. Jimmy, she's all yours."
Jimmy nodded, switching to his Monkey Net and swinging it overhead to capture Pink Monkey, which teleported her away.
"That's three down," Nick stated. "Hopefully it won't be much longer before we can find Specter and kick his monkey butt."
"Yeah, he's got a lot to answer for!" Jimmy proclaimed as he warped back to the Travel Station, which left Nick to raise his keyblade and vanish in a flash of green light.
"Well, buddy, how'd things go?" Maylin asked. She and Haruka had just returned to the Mystic Cavern after a trip to the local synthesis shop, just in time to see Nick return from the Pipo Storybook.
"Three down, two to go," Nick answered. "We're that much closer to finding Specter and taking care of him. So, what's up?"
"We just heard through the grapevine that there's another tournament getting underway in Nordopolica," Haruka answered. "What do you say, Nick, you wanna give it a try?"
"Sounds like fun," Nick quipped.
However, when they exited the Mystic Cavern and returned to the Third District, the trinity suddenly found themselves surrounded by Heartless, mostly Green Requiems and Large Bodies.
"Oh, that's not pleasant at all," Maylin groaned. "This could take a bit."
"Wait, didn't Nick just get a new summon?" Haruka asked.
"I was waiting for someone to suggest that," Nick quipped, reaching for the Bloodrose in his pocket and clenching his fist around it. "Give me strength!"
Maylin and Haruka nodded to each other just as they vanished from sight.
("Akeboshi" by LiSA plays)
The Bloodrose swiftly unleashed a few spirals of demonic-looking violet flames that converged on the ground in front of him and formed into...
...a tall, wooden box.
Slightly confused, Nick walked up and tapped the box twice with Kingdom Key before it opened all by itself. Someone jumped out of the box and landed in front of Nick so he could get a good look at his newest ally.
She was a petite young girl with fair skin, visibly large and prominent fangs, and sharp, stiletto light-pink nails. She had long, wavy black hair that reached to just below her waist, turning a flame-orange color as it passed her elbows, and soft-looking, pale pink eyes that appear a lighter color around the rims of their irises. She was wearing a light pink kimono with a hemp leaf pattern, the lining a paler pink, secured by a red and white-checkered hanhaba obi with an orange-threaded obijime and a green obiage, a long dark-brown haori over the kimono, a small pink ribbon on the left side of her head, and a small bamboo muzzle lodged in her mouth.
Though Nezuko Kamado looked ready to strike at something, her eyes widened when she looked up at Nick, then she walked up to him and lightly patted his head. Nick couldn't help but chuckle at the affectionate treatment even as the Heartless closed in on them. Nick and Nezuko swiftly spun around and prepared for battle.
As a couple Green Requiems approached, Nezuko charged it and jumped into the air to unleash a powerful downward axe-kick that smashed the Green Requiem into the ground. Nick noticed that a small red rose, similar to the shape of Nezuko's summon gem, had appeared on the Green Requiem.
One of the Large Bodies attempted to collide with Nick by means of a belly-slide, but Nezuko was faster on the draw, placing herself in front of the Large Body and ravaging it with a barrage of overlapping nail strikes before finishing with an X-slash, the strikes actually piercing the Large Body's frontal defense.
Another Large Body tried to get in close, but Nezuko simply swiped it into the air with an uppercut slash that trailed crimson-pink flames, leaving it helpless in the air so Nick could leap after it and finish it off.
Eventually, the rest of the Large Bodies and Green Requiems attempted to pincer them in, but Nick noticed a rose shape on all of the enemies, looked at Nezuko, and nodded. It was time to end this.
Nezuko raised her right hand towards the approaching Heartless, her nails glowing brightly.
"Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood!" Nezuko shouted, clenching her fist and causing trails of crimson-pink flames to shoot out from her hand and eviscerate all of the remaining Heartless.
Once the field was clear, Nezuko turned towards Nick and raised her hand. Getting the message, Nick high-fived Nezuko before she turned into a small collection of crimson-pink flames and reformed into the Bloodrose in his hand.
"Wow, that was pretty nuts, huh?" Maylin quipped once she and Haruka had reappeared. "Our summons keep getting crazier and crazier with each new one we find."
"I just hope they can all get back to their own worlds someday," Haruka stated. "It can't be fun being stuck inside a tiny gemstone all the time."
Nick glanced at the Wavecrystal and the Fireglow in his pocket, placing the Bloodrose in the pocket as the trinity boarded the Gummi Ship.
When they arrived in Nordopolica, the first thing they noticed was that there were quite a few spectators filing into the arena, no doubt getting ready to watch the tournament.
The trinity moved to the lobby themselves so they could sign up for the Aer Cup Tournament, and Nick noticed that the trophy they'd won from the earlier Blastia Cup Tournament was displayed proudly on a nearby trophy case.
Nick smiled proudly as the trinity made their way into the arena.
"Welcome back to the Nordopolica Tournament Circuit, brave attendees!" the arena announcer proclaimed as Nick, Maylin and Haruka stepped into the arena. "Once again, our brave trio who fought their way through the preliminaries and the Blastia Cup have returned to strut their stuff! But the Aer Cup is where the games get trickier, so let's hope they've been keeping up with their training! Are you ready, everyone?!"
The crowd cheered loudly as Nick, Maylin and Haruka all summoned their keyblades for battle.
"Good luck out there, everyone!" Sophia proclaimed. "I'm rooting for you!"
"Well, then, let's get this battle started, shall we?" the announcer proclaimed. "Let's start with the Ghost Bandits!"
The center platform brought up two Search Ghosts, a Bandit, and three Air Soldiers, a dark-skinned Heartless wearing a modified aviator cap that covered the upper half of its face with a propeller on top, a pair of shiny-rimmed goggles, bat-like wings, black pants with an inverted brown Heartless-symbol silhouette at the knees and bulky brown boots with blue and gold toes.
"The Air Soldier's mostly kitted out for aerial combat," Haruka explained to Nick. "They like to hover just out of reach and pelt you with diving attacks, so try to pick 'em off from afar."
Haruka juked in to duel with the Bandit while Nick switched over to his Spellbinder to enhance his magic, firing off three shots of Fira to blow away the Air Soldiers.
Maylin cast Gravity to flatten the Search Ghosts before chopping them in half with one swing each.
"That was easy," Maylin giggled.
"That's only the beginning, though," Nick quipped.
"He's not joking there!" the announcer proclaimed. "Bring out the Marauders!"
The center platform brought up two Bandits, three Barrel Spiders, and four Shadows.
The Shadows were easily dealt with when one of the Barrel Spiders tried to charge at Nick and explode on him, but one of the Shadows got in the way and took the hit, which destroyed the other Shadows as well.
"Oops," Maylin taunted as she blew up the other Barrel Spiders with Fira spells.
"Oh, stop, you're not sorry," Haruka chuckled as she chopped a Bandit apart. The other Bandit tried to jump towards Nick, but he met it with a leap of his own and finished it off with a Hurricane Period.
"So far, so good," the announcer proclaimed. "Let's see how they handle the Sluggers!"
The center platform brought up two Large Bodies, a Fat Bandit (which resembled a Large Body, only wearing an orange, pointy-shouldered vest trimmed in light yellow, light orange wristbands, a yellow sash, and bright green baggy pants), a Pot Spider, and a Barrel Spider.
"Any difference between the Large Body and this thing?" Nick asked as Maylin cast Thundara to eliminate the two Spiders and knock back the larger enemies.
"The Fat Bandit likes to use Fire attacks, so I think Blizzard will make them chill," Haruka quipped.
Nick dodged to the right as the Fat Bandit started breathing fire towards him, jumping into the air and casting a Blizzard spell to rain ice crystals on all three rotund Heartless, finishing off the Fat Bandit and damaging the Large Bodies enough for Haruka to get in behind them and finish them off.
"Our challengers are dominating so far, but how long will that streak last?" the announcer proclaimed. "It's time for Pots and Bolts!"
The center platform brought up five Pot Spiders, three Yellow Operas, and two Green Requiems.
"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or not," Maylin quipped.
"Let me handle this one," Nick replied, moving in to cast Gravity on the enemies before transitioning into an Ars Arcanum that made short work of the Heartless.
"Ooh, nice combo," Haruka chuckled.
"Our challengers have definitely gotten stronger since the last tournament," the announcer proclaimed. "Let's see how they like The Big Combo!"
The center platform brought up two Fat Bandits and four Search Ghosts.
Nick quickly back-stepped to make some room before moving into a Strike Raid, alternating tossing Dream Traveler between the two Fat Bandits to stay away from them while Maylin cast Gravity to flatten the Search Ghosts and Haruka performed a Windcutter technique to destroy them.
"That was quite the impressive display!" the announcer proclaimed. "But can our challengers take on the Toadstool?"
The center platform brought up three Black Funguses, a mushroom-shaped Heartless with a spherical, pitch black head, two glowing yellow, beady eyes, a round, purple cap on its head that sported two black, angular spirals on its front, and wearing a navy blue smock that completely covered its legs and thin, fingerless arms, its Heartless emblem present on the front of this smock.
"Okay, then, that's an interesting one," Nick quipped.
"The Black Fungus is an annoying little bugger," Haruka explained. "They don't take too long to take down, but they have a lot of defense, and they can poison you if you get too close."
Maylin quickly moved to attack one of the Black Fungi with a quick four-hit combo from Spellbinder, only for the Black Fungus to turn its body into stone before she could land the final hit.
"And that," Haruka quipped. "They can do that, too."
Nick decided to cast Gravity on the Black Fungi, only to find that the spell actually defeated them all in one shot.
"...huh, I never thought Gravity could do that," Maylin stated. "That'll be useful if we ever face those damn things again in the future."
"This tenacious trio is more than halfway through the Aer Cup!" the announcer proclaimed. "Here comes Pots and Barrels!"
The center platform brought up five Barrel Spiders and five Pot Spiders.
"Breather round?" Haruka asked.
"Breather round," Maylin teased as she and Nick both cast Thundara at the same time to wipe out all the Spiders in one fell swoop.
"That may have been a breather round for our chipper challengers, but let's see how they fare against the Giant Impact!" the announcer proclaimed.
The center platform brought up three Fat Bandits and two Large Bodies.
Maylin immediately cast a Gravity spell on the Large Bodies to do damage right off the bat so Nick could jump behind one of the Fat Bandits and start chopping away.
Thankfully, it didn't take much longer to defeat this group of Heartless.
"They're almost there, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer proclaimed. "Only one more group of enemies stand between our challengers and their final opponents, so let's see if they can outlast the Bad Union!"
The center platform brought up a Bandit, two Powerwilds, a Large Body, a Fat Bandit, and a Soldier.
"I don't feel like dealing with these things," Nick quipped, bringing out the Fireglow. "Should we let Maki handle these goons?"
"I like the way you think, Nick!" Maylin laughed as she and Haruka vanished from sight.
("Spark Again" by Aimer plays)
Swirls of fire began to surround Nick as he raised the Fireglow above him, concussive bursts of fire exploding outwards from it to create a magic seal on the ground in front of him. Nick spun the Kingdom Key in his hands before jamming its blade into the center of the seal and turning it, causing the seal to erupt upwards in a column of fire that eventually cleared away to reveal Maki Oze, the Witch Queen of Company 8, who spun around and saluted to Nick, one which he returned just as enthusiastically before they both stood side-by-side to face the oncoming horde of Heartless.
The Large Bodies lunged forward, only for Maki to snap her fingers and create a ring of Sputters and Flares to surround Nick, protecting him from the Large Body's lunge.
One of the Powerwilds tried to attack Nick from behind, but Maki raised her hands to create geysers of fire around him that incinerated the Powerwilds before it could even get close.
Eventually, Maki backflipped into the air and summoned her Iron Owls, two large cannon-like metal pieces that Sputter and Flare, her fire spirits, made their way inside. Nick jumped off of the Fat Bandit to join Maki in the air, aiming his keyblade towards the Large Bodies.
The Iron Owls began to gather fire energy, as did Nick's keyblade, and they both let out a loud battle cry before unleashing their energy as three bright orange-red beams of energy, two from the Iron Owls and one from the Kingdom Key, that joined into one massive burst of fire energy that scorched the entire immediate area, incinerating all of the Heartless that had gotten caught in it.
Once the blast had dissipated, Nick and Maki gracefully landed on the ground, then saluted to each other once again, Maki smiling brightly as she burst into a bunch of little Sputters and Flares that reformed into the Fireglow in Nick's free hand.
The crowd around them cheered loudly as Maylin and Haruka returned.
"I think they liked that," Haruka giggled.
"And that just leaves our final opponents!" the announcer proclaimed. "Much like last time, our challengers face two fighters from another world, eager to prove themselves in the ring! Let's bring out the brash knuckle-duster Skull and the icy artist samurai Fox!"
The center platform rose to reveal the trinity's final opponents.
Skull was a seventeen-year-old boy with short spiky dyed blond hair and dark brown eyes, wearing a matching black jacket with elbow pads and what appeared to be a metal vertebral column attached to its back, pants with knee pads and a double-sided holster belt with ammo on each side, a red ascot, combat boots, a pair of yellow gloves with metal knuckle protectors and a skull mask over his face.
Fox was a sixteen-year-old boy with dark blue hair with parted bangs slightly covering his left eye and gray eyes, wearing a traditional kitsune-style half mask, a black high-collared puff-sleeved jumpsuit with a striped sash worn across his hips, white motorcycle boots, and bright blue gloves, with a white foxtail attached to the jumpsuit.
("Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" by Lyn Inaizumi plays)
Skull readied his bludgeon and Fox raised his katana as the trinity prepared themselves, both sides waiting to see who would make the first move.
"All right, they're mine!" Skull exclaimed, rushing forward and swinging his bludgeon in wide, sweeping attacks that Nick swung Kingdom Key to parry as best he could.
Eventually, Nick was able to knock Skull back with an upward slice before firing a Thunder spell into Skull. To Nick's surprise, Skull simply tanked the bolt before leaping through the air to slam his bludgeon into the ground, creating a shockwave that threw Nick for a loop.
"Okay, note to self, do not use lightning on this guy," Nick quipped as he hopped back to his feet just in time to avoid a slash from Fox's katana.
Haruka strafed around the arena, waiting for a lull in Fox's attack to move in. As Nick jumped over Fox to avoid a horizontal slash, Haruka made her move, running towards Fox and uppercutting him with Divine Rose, causing him to stumble.
Maylin, naturally, took advantage of this by hitting Fox with a Fira spell, but when she noticed him react strangely to it, continued to pelt Fox with Fira spells, having figured out his elemental weakness.
This barrage only stopped when Skull summoned his Persona, Captain Kidd, a caricatured pirate riding a flying ship, to cast Zionga on Maylin and force her to move away before she got zapped.
"You okay there, buddy?" Skull asked as Fox regained his balance.
"I shall be all right," Fox proclaimed as he summoned his own Persona, Goemon, to cast Bufula, sending a wave of icicle spikes along the ground towards Haruka.
Haruka simply vaulted over the spikes and slammed Divine Rose into the ground, creating a small tremor that knocked both Skull and Fox off balance.
Nick moved in while both Phantom Thieves were trying to regain their balance and wailed on the both with a Sonic Blade.
Skull managed to recover himself before the final hit and charged towards Maylin, until she cast Aerora on herself for protection, after which he backed off slowly, knowing he was weak to wind-based attacks.
Too bad for Skull that Maylin caught on to this and smirked wickedly, raising Spellbinder to cast Aerora offensively underneath Skull, sending him crashing into a nearby wall via a swirling wind current.
Fox immediately rushed in to assist, only to be knocked off balance when Nick hit him with a Strike Raid, the final throw sending Fox crashing into Skull.
And that seemed to be enough, as the crowd began to cheer while the announcer declared the trinity the winners of the Aer Cup.
"Aw, man, I thought we had something going there," Skull groaned as he and Fox picked themselves up.
"It appears that we were the ones who were suckered," Fox replied.
"Nice work, you two," Nick stated. "You really put on a show out there, just like Panther and Queen did."
"Wait, wait, you know the others?" Skull gasped.
"If you're talking about other Phantom Thieves like you, then yeah, Panther and Queen are actually waiting for you in Traverse Town," Maylin quipped. "We fought them in the previous tournament."
"Ooh, man, I hope we can stomp the little shit who messed up our world," Skull growled. "I sincerely hope it wasn't Shido, that son of a..."
"I highly doubt Shido would have that much power over the Metaverse," Fox admitted. "I am willing to bet it was those strange creatures we saw in the tournament..."
As the trinity escorted Skull and Fox out of the coliseum and towards the Gummi Ship so they could reunite them with Panther and Queen in Traverse Town, Sophia once again wondered why these Phantom Thieves seemed so familiar...
...until it hit her with all the force of a crashing airliner.
These were the Phantom Thieves she knew, even if it seemed like they didn't remember her, given Ryuji's surprised expression when Nick mentioned "the girl in my phone".
Though, given the whole concept of other worlds, maybe these Phantom Thieves were either from a world where they'd never met Sophia or they simply hadn't gotten to that point in time yet.
If Sophia could get migraines, she probably would have from all the implications. It was definitely "a cornucopia of disturbing concepts", as Nick would often say.
To be continued...
New keyblade acquired!
Dream Traveler
Strength: 6
MP: 0
Recoil: 10
Critical Rate: 100%
Critical Bonus: +5
Ability: Critical Plus
Description: A keyblade representing the lone soul who travels through many different dreams. Has a shorter reach, but always finishes a combo attack with a powerful critical blow and increases the chances of landing a critical hit by 50%. Equip more to increase the effect.
New keyblade acquired!
Spellbinder N
Strength: 4
MP: +2
Recoil: 30
Critical Rate: x1
Critical Bonus: 0
Ability: Cheer
Description: A keyblade representing gifted mages of all kinds. Raises max MP by 2, and significantly enhances magic and summon power, while also allowing summons to stay on the field longer.
New summon acquired!
Nezuko Kamado, the Adorable Berserker
MP Required: 3
Anime of Origin: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019)
Theme Song: "Akeboshi" by LiSA
Action: Press /\ to have Nezuko attack any nearby enemies with one of three different special skills.
Occasionally, Nezuko will protect Nick from an attack.
Locking on to enemies will have Nezuko tag enemies with a blood rose.
Every Heartless killed while Nezuko is active fills the Charge Gauge by 1/6.
When Nezuko's Charge Gauge is full, press /\ to have Nezuko use Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood, causing a trail of demonic fire to incinerate any tagged enemies.
On the next episode...
Nick: Well, this place is very old-school Japan.
Maylin: That's because I think it is. This is supposed to be the Feudal Era, right?
Haruka: I don't like those strange sounds I'm hearing. Are there monsters here worse than the Heartless?
Nick: And now I'm being told by this strange demon girl who controls wind that I don't belong here because I have a keyblade?!
Haruka: Yeah, if she knows about other worlds, then something's clearly wrong.
Nick: I guess we'll have to see if we can do something about this world's demon problem next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse, "Demons and Humans: A Blurred Line Between Them"!
Nick, Maylin and Haruka: May your hearts be your guiding key!