(Hello, there! I'm very sorry for the delay, but I was busy working on a Fic that was just recently started. It's a co-production between myself and two other authors, called Shades of Life…which I'm sure that most of you simply forgot to review. But don't worry, it's right there where you left it. And trust me, it's a neat read. You can go ahead and check it out as soon as you're done here. Don't forget to review before you go!)
Miro and Hugh are busy in the midst of trading fierce blows between each other. Miro was surprised at how nimble his weapon, the Keyblade was, but it really didn't seem all that great for landing hits. Of course, it wasn't the weapon that was to blame for that, it was the fact that whenever Hugh ever presented an opening, he managed to block it. However, Miro not wanting to blame himself for this, he steps back a safe distance and looks around for another weapon. Hugh lunges at him, but Miro dodges out of the way and continues to look around.
"What're you doing?" Hugh asks.
"I want to try double-handed." Miro says. "I think I need quantity to help me out."
"Well, you ain't getting it if I have anything to say!" Hugh says, taking a horizontal swing at Miro. Miro was right next to another glass display case and, when Hugh swung, he broke the case's glass. Miro notices something within the case and picks it up with his free hand before distancing himself from Hugh once again.
"Tch, what's that, a sword or something that you pulled off of a gargoyle?" Hugh asks sarcastically. Miro looks at the weapon. It did look odd, and the tag on it said 'Soul Eater'. Miro had never heard of it, but it did look neater and sharper than his current weapon. He held each of the weapons in one hand, and looked at Hugh.
"How do you like me now?" He asks, holding both of the weapons in a fighting stance. Suddenly, he feels different for a moment. His arms suddenly stretch out to either side, leaving him wide open to attack, but Hugh seems preoccupied watching what was happening to him. Miro couldn't let go of the weapons, and they were pulling him to the point that he feared he would be pulled apart. And so he was, kind of. He was coated in a white light for a moment, and Hugh covers his eyes, unable to look directly at it.
Finally, when the light dissipated, Miro found that he could move again. He also found that he was unarmed. He looked around for his weapons, and gasped when he saw where they had gone.
Standing to his right, holding the Keyblade, was himself. This self, however, looked to be at peace with everything, and looked relaxed and happy, and had slightly fuller, kind-of-pointier red hair. To Miro's left, holding the other weapon, was another version of him… well, 'him' in a sense, but this version was actually female, with slightly longer hair than him.
"…Okay, this is getting stupid." Miro says, looking at either of them.
"You said you wanted quantity." The female Miro says, shrugging.
"This is NOT what I meant!" Miro protests. "Having my essence split into three wasn't exactly what I had in mind!"
"Well, it's what you got, so live with it." The female Miro snaps impatiently.
"Well… What parts of me are you, exactly?" Miro asks.
"Your mother's side and your father's side." The peaceful-looking Miro says. "And may I say, it is good to be free again…"
"Oh no, not you!" Miro says. "You must be… You're the freak who takes over every time Kate and I…"
"And I'm the part that tries to keep that from happening. Call me Mira." The female Miro, now known as Mira, explains. "And now that he's finally out in the open, we can kill him!"
"Nay, nay, that would be a poor decision…" The peaceful Miro says. "Without me, you would be just like your mother."
"AAH!" Miro shouts, holding his heart. "Okay… good point. We need you to fight, anyway."
"Fight? I do not fight for senseless reasons." The other Miro says, shaking his head.
"Senseless?" Miro repeats. "It's not senseless! He's going to kill us to impress Lumina! It's him who's being senseless!"
"It's still a senseless reason." Peaceful-Miro says.
"But it's HIM who's being senseless!" Miro states, pointing at Hugh, who was shocked at first, but was now just patiently waiting for them to quit talking.
"Which makes the fight based on a senseless reason…"
"But not in our part, on his! We're fighting to defend ourselves, making our part the one that makes sense!"
"But wouldn't defending ourselves based on self-protection from someone who is fighting us for a senseless reason make our reason for fighting that person also senseless?"
"…NO! That's not how it works!" Miro says in frustration.
Mira, beginning to grow bored of this, leaves the group and begins walking to Hugh.
"How about you two come to a decision while I hold him off?" She asks.
"Just you?" Miro asks, turning to her.
"I'll be plenty." Mira reassures them. "Now that I'm not held back by anything, and I have this neat sword, Hugh's the one who will need help."
"You kidding me?" Hugh asks, smirking. "I'll take you on, no sweat."
"You sure about that?" Mira asks, holding her weapon at a ready stance.
"…Heh, you're kinda cute." Hugh admits.
"Watch it!" Miro and Mira both snap.
"I'm part of him, remember that." Mira says. "Now, I hope you're ready to lose a lot of blood."
"How can someone be ready to lose blood?" Miro asks, looking at his peaceful counterpart. The other Miro shrugs.
-
William, still armed with his flaming-gauntlet-root-blade thing, observes Celia to think up the best course of action.
"…The demon's host seems weakened, but the demon itself seems about as strong as it previously was…" William mutters to himself. "However, due to its present lack of weaponry and effective attacks, I should still be able to defeat it."
Just then, Celia raised both of her hands up, broom handle still in one, and Daachan's eye began to glow very brightly again. The many small broom-blades scattered about begin to rattle slightly, the one still lodged in Kai's head making him very uncomfortable, and then that one pulls itself out from him, the rest of them suddenly beginning to hover in the air, and all of them grouping together in front of Celia.
"…Correction, she still has effective attacks." William says to himself. Just then, all of the blades come rushing at him in a huge swarm. William summons a sheet of ice in front of him to block them. Thankfully, all of the blades stick into it and William is unhurt. He then jumps over the ice, toward Celia. Celia runs underneath him as he jumped and pointed her broomstick toward the ice sheet. The blades embedded in it pull themselves out and re-attach themselves to Celia's broomstick. There were now two brooms' worth of blades pointing out at all angles on the front of Celia's broomstick, making a mace-like weapon.
Celia dashes to William and swings the weapon. William jumps over it and tries to strike her with his weapon. Celia, however, blocks it with the broom handle and pushes William back. William staggers, but regains himself and pauses for a moment.
Nami, down below, watches this and is reminded of her fight with Celia.
"William!" She calls. "Get the weapon away from her, it's the only thing that she's good with! She can't hand-fight worth crap!"
William heard this and decides to try applying it. When Celia struck at him vertically, William grabs the broom handle, cutting his forearm slightly but not anything major, and yanks it from her grasp, throwing it over the edge. He then quickly focuses and encases the broom in a block of ice before it hits the ground, the broom shattering along with the ice once it does. William then took quick action and swung his blade at Celia before she could do anything, the weapon striking just close enough to her forehead to knock Daachan's eye off. The eye falls to the ground with a 'clink', whilst the now-unposessed, stunned Celia falls to the ground with a 'thunk'.
"…It is done." William says.
"William! Everything okay up there!" Ricca asks, not at the right angle to see everything. William turns and looks at Ricca, placing himself within sight.
"The demon has been dealt with, my mission is compl-" William begins to say. He is suddenly cut off, however. His eyes widen slightly and his mouth ramains partially open.
"No… William!" Ricca shouts in panic, seeing what had happened.
William slowly looks down at himself, seeing three of Muffy's claws protruding from his stomach. He had forgotten that the demon's other host was so close by, as was the wall that she was stuck to. Slowly, trying not to shift too much, William turns his head to see Muffy. With a quick swing, he strikes the demon's eye off of her forehead as well. Muffy's nails return back to their normal size, and Muffy falls limp, held up by the gum in her hair.
Allowing himself to fall to his knees, William bends slightly and holds one arm over his stomach. He begins breathing heavily, as most people who get run through by three very sharp objects are prone to do. Also quite present was a reasonable amount of blood collecting on his shirt and staining it beyond the hope of only needing a single run through the washing machine to clean off, to Elli's dismay. The fact that her son had just been skewered by three long fingernails was also a pretty big concern…
"Are you okay!" Ricca asks worriedly. It would seem, to most people, to be an obvious 'no', but after the punishment that William endured courtesy of Ricca, she knew that he could handle quite a bit of pain… at least now.
"I… will recover…" William says, straining a bit to speak. "I can heal… myself… but it will take time…"
"Okay…" Ricca says uncertainly.
"We'll come and get you as soon as we've taken care of Hugh!" Kate says.
The group, hesitantly at first, runs back to where they had come from, leaving William to take care of himself. Ricca glances back once, and quickly turns her head forward again. They continue to run until they turn a corner, seeing Hugh and someone who they assumed was Miro fighting each other outside of a store with bladed weapons. When they got closer, however, they noticed something very strange. For one, they quickly discovered that the person fighting Hugh was a strange, female, Nami-esque version of Miro, and another thing was that, standing just outside of the entrance, was what looked to be Miro again, and again… Two Miros standing there, watching the proceedings.
Mira ducks under a swing from Hugh, and manages to nick him across the cheek with her blade. Hugh steps back, his eyes narrowing, a small cut visible on his face now. Suddenly, he noticed the entire group behind him. The two combatants stop what they were doing.
The peaceful Miro looks to the group in front of him and noticed a particular someone in it.
"Kate, my sweet!" He says, running to her and locking her in a hug before anyone could make a response. Kate looked rather agitated by this, her eyes wide open and an eyebrow twitching. After a moment, she grabs Miro by the face with one hand and throws him off of her.
"You ever hear of 'parents are watching'?" She asks through clenched teeth.
"Let them watch, for they can never see it all. It is eternal!" Peaceful-Miro exclaims, running to Kate again. Kate stops him by holding a fist out and allowing him to run into it. He falls to the ground, mercifully unconscious. Kate puts her hand back down and clears her throat.
"…What the heck is going on!" She asks, looking from Hugh to the three different versions of Miro.
"…Long story." Miro and Mira say.
"Basically, I grabbed two opposite swords and their power split my essence into three." Miro says, shrugging.
"…Oh, that makes sense out of everything." Ricca says, rolling her eyes.
"It makes more sense than your choice of hair dye." Mira remarks, still keeping an eye on Hugh.
"…Excuse me?" Ricca asks, narrowing her eyes. "I'll have you know, this is a natural pink."
"Yes, and your choice of not using hair dye is what makes no sense." Mira continues. "Slather on a layer of some colour that we can look at without our eyes stinging, for all of our sakes."
"You are getting on my last nerve…" Ricca says, her teeth clenched.
"Which? The one attached to your brain?" Mira remarks.
"If Hugh doesn't get to you first-" Ricca begins, having to be held back by the people behind her.
"Speaking of which, have you noticed yet that you've lost, Hugh?" Miro says smugly, walking to him and standing next to Mira.
"Heheh…" Hugh chuckles, looking peculiarly smug for someone in his position. "Now, now, don't jump the gun, Miro. I knew that the ladies might not be enough to get rid of everyone, but I also knew that they'd be enough to take care of Whitey. Am I right?"
"His name is William…" Ricca growls acidly to him.
"Whatever." Hugh says, shrugging. "Anyway, I think you should know that I haven't 'lost', like I know you think I have."
"Yeah?" Miro replies. "And what do you think you know that would make you think to say that you think we should know that you haven't 'lost', like you know we think we have, do you think?"
"Easy." Hugh says. "I took a little something from Romana to make sure my plans are done, even if Muffy and Celia mess up."
"Oh yeah? What would that be?" Kate asks.
Hugh chuckles and looks to them in a sinister way, an evil smile playing on his face.
"Sewing classes."
-
William, meanwhile, was still crouched down, busy trying to heal himself and keep as much of his inside fluids inside as he could. If he lost too much blood, he could still bite it, even if he healed his body. He suddenly senses something very strange, and looks around for it. After a moment, he sees what it was. Daachan's eyes were beginning to float in mid-air, and were going to make their escape. Getting up as quickly as his body would allow, William dove for one of the eyes, but it shot away from him too quickly. William landed hard on the ground, and remained there for a few moments before getting back up to a crouching position, breathing heavily again.
It is no use… He thinks to himself. The demon has escaped me… If I tried to pursue, I would not live long enough to do anything… It is up to them now… to destroy it…
-
As the group watched, waiting for Hugh's plan to take action (which is quite a stupid idea, if one were to think about it…), Daachan's eyes fly toward him. Hugh holds his hands out and catches one in each hand. Smirking, he looks toward a shop with a very, very tall entrance, across from Things That Aren't Total Crap, and begins walking to it.
"…Hey, how about 'no'?" Ricca says, the brilliant idea of stopping Hugh from doing whatever it was he had planned crossing her mind. She, Nami, Miro, and Mira start running to Hugh, ready to stop him. However, Hugh turns to them quickly, holding out his palms and revealing Daachan's eyes. They emit a strong shockwave which knock the approaching four flat on their backs.
"Don't try to ruin the moment!" Hugh says accusingly, turning away from them and continuing to walk. Once he had reached it, he walked in and toward a light switch. The shop had no lights currently on, so no one could see very far inside it. Once Hugh had turned the lights on, however, they all gasped in amazement.
At the far end of the small store, leaning against the wall facing toward them, was a huge, stitched-together thing that looked to be made from many different things. Stuffed things. Things like stuffed animals, pillows, small mattresses, and other such things. All of this was carefully thrown together to create a gigantic… teddy bear, easily 10 feet tall. The only think missing on it; the eyes.
"Guess who's back?" Hugh says, smirking. "Take this new body and flatten these guys, Daachan!"
With that, he throws Daachan's eyes up to the huge stuffed bear. The eyes place themselves on the huge creation's face, right where the eyes should be. However, they did look quite small compared to the rest of the body.
Slowly, the huge bear comes to life, its arm twitching, and then its head moving around. Finally, its gaze fixes itself on the group in front of it. Its legs begin to move, the creature slowly starting to walk toward them.
"…Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…" Matthew mutters, him and everyone else backing away from it.
"Guys…" Miro begins.
"What? 'Go help William'?" Kate says sarcastically.
"No. Just run." Miro says.
"We're not leaving you, you idiot!" Kate says.
"You can't possibly beat it and Hugh!" Ricca adds in. The others in the group nod in general agreement with this.
"Well, of course not." Miro says. "I just need you to lure it away and beat it."
"Oh, okay then." Anna says. A moment later, however, they all look at him.
"…You want us to lure FrankenDaachan away, somehow defeat it, and hope that you can do the same with Hugh?" Nami asks.
"…Yep." Miro says.
Nami pauses for a moment, and then smiles proudly.
"…You're a man now, Miro." She says.
"Just like your mother." Jack adds, almost instantly receiving another crack to his already mosaic-like skull.
"…But how are we going to do that?" Cliff asks.
"Well, what are large, evil creatures usually lured by?" Mary asks.
"Screaming and running?" Matthew suggests.
"Yeah, that'll work!" Kai says.
"No problem for me." The hatted Jack says. "I was gonna do it, anyway."
"Yes, that sort of thing comes quite naturally in a situation like this…" Gray says.
"Okay. Well, we all know what to do…" Nami says, the rest of them nodding. They all take in a breath, and scream in terror, running down a hallway. Just as predicted, Daachan begins lumbering its way in that direction, leaving Miro, Peaceful-Miro, Mira, and Hugh all alone.
However, Miro hadn't noticed that a certain person in the group had tripped and fallen when they ran away. Kate was now sprawled on the floor, a sizeable lump on her forehead.
"Ugh… Oww…" She groans, getting up to her knees and holding a hand against the bruise. "No wonder Miro hates it when I hit him for saying something…"
She quickly came to realize soon after that that there was a fair bit of shadow where she currently was. Looking up, she sees the gigantic Daachan looming over her, looking down at her as menacingly as a big teddy bear could.
"Oh, crap… This is not how I wanted to go…" She mumbles.
Miro suddenly notices something and turns in the direction of the huge Daachan. He hears Kate scream and sees it lift its pawed foot up and smash it into the ground in front of it. He couldn't quite see what had happened, but he assumed the worst.
"K… Kate…" He mumbles, his eyes wide.
"Hmm… Well, there goes the bully of the town." Hugh says, smiling. "Serves her right for teasing me all these years."
"…Maybe she was a bully," Miro says, looking at him angrily. "but she did NOT deserve that!"
Peaceful-Miro looked to be shocked, and Mira was steaming mad.
Meanwhile, behind the large, decorative statue of a dead fish, Matthew was kneeling down to remain hidden, with an un-crushed Kate leaning against the statue, a bit shocked at what had just happened.
"You… How'd you do that?" She asks breathlessly.
"Being sneaky pays off sometimes. I saw you fall and decided not to let Miro down." Matthew says, peering around the statue to see what was going on. Daachan was standing nearby, looking around to see where Kate had gone. He could also see Miro, Miro, Mira, and Hugh a distance away.
"Well… you saved me. Thank you." Kate says. "But… don't think that you're gonna get anywhere with me."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Matthew reassures her. "I'm an Anna person. You're far, far out of my taste range."
He continues to watch the proceedings. As he did so, he noticed something very peculiar.
"…Oh no, my theory was correct…" He mumbles.
"What? What theory?" Kate asks.
"When you and Miro went into romantic phases for a second time, I theorized that if you were ever seen by him in a state of death or mortal danger, he would have a certain reaction… His romantic side would be shocked and possibly crushed…"
Indeed, Peaceful-Miro seemed extremely upset. He was pale, and his eyes wide. He couldn't even speak, he was so taken aback.
"…And as thoughts of anger go into his mind, his dark side will rush out in an almost supernatural manner…"
Speaking of which, Mira looked quite obviously peeved by this whole thing. She was gripping her weapon very hard and even seemed to be glowing a dark shade.
"…Not only that, but it would be fuelled by the deep feelings of his romantic side, and…"
Miro looked at his two alter-selves, and realized what was about to happen. He was standing right between them, and they both began to walk toward him.
"You know what to do?" Mira asks.
"I have some idea…" Miro states. "You two come back inside me, and I take my revenge on this evil turd."
"For Kate…" Peaceful-Miro announces.
The two alter-Miros rush into the original one, re-fusing back together in a bright, red light. Once the light had vanished, only one Miro was there, crouching down and looking at the ground. Slowly, it looked up and began to stand up. He had an extremely serious expression on his face, and there was still a very faint glow of red around him. When the glow had vompletely vanished, he continued to stare at Hugh, holding both of the weapons in his hands.
Kate, meanwhile, watched this along with Matthew.
"Should we tell him that I'm alive?" She asks.
"Naah, let's see how he fares against Hugh now." Matthew says.
Miro turned his head away from Hugh, and looked at Daachan, who had stopped and turned to see what this new power was.
"I…" Miro begins. "…am gonna SLAY YOUR TEDDY ARSE!"
He begins to run toward Daachan and reached him faster than anyone could have guessed. He had already cut three large gashes into its stitches and stuffing before Hugh could reach him and block a fourth attempt with the Soul Irritant.
"Not so fast!" He says. "You've still got me to deal with!"
"Fine, just as long as one of you pays for this…" Miro says, pulling his swords back and holding them at the ready.
"Tch, c'mon, let's see what you've got!" Hugh says. Miro obliges by running the Soul Eater into his chest and the Keyblade into his shoulder.
"…DAMMIT!" Hugh says, pulling himself free from the weapons. "Oww… DAACHAN!"
Daachan does what it did before, using a red sparkle of energy to heal Hugh completely. Miro's eyes narrow.
"That was a fluke!" Hugh says. "There's no way that that's happening twice!"
(Slice-Slice)
"OWW! DAACHAN!"
(Heal-Heal)
"Grr…" Hugh says, backing up a bit. "Just gimme a minute, will ya? Daachan, go after the others. I'll take care of Miro."
Daachan obeys and turns away, beginning to walk. At the same time, it mends the cuts that Miro caused it by using its power to mingle the fabric into stitching, closing up the gashes.
Kate and Matthew quickly go back to hiding behind the fish statue, watching as Daachan walked right by them.
"…That was close…" Matthew breathes out. Kate nods in agreement.
-
"Hmm… That might be dangerous…" an unknown, female voice in an unknown location says, watching the proceedings of the fight with interest by looking into a pool of water. "That evil Hugh boy's smarter than I thought. Oh, and I had hoped that I wouldn't have to get involved… But it looks like I will. Miro's turned into some sort of evil thing. We can't have two evil things here, now can we? No, no, we can't even have one. And if Miro ever gets possessed by Daachan in the state he's in… oh, it makes my teal hair curl just thinking about it… Well, that settles it. I'm on my way. Ta-ta!"