(Hello, there! This is going to be a very… interesting chapter, we can say. Now, I implore you… no, wait, I BEG you to send in a review! I got next to nothing review-wise for my last chapter, and I want every single opinion on this story that I can get! Thank you in advance!)
"So… Where first?" Miro asks, looking at Hugh in a sinister way, twirling his blades absently. He looked very different from what he usually was. His good side was badly hurt, and was fueling his dark side. The expression on Miro's face had absolutely no fear or pity in it, and for good reason. After all, he still thought that Kate was floor paste. He never bothered to look at the empty dent on the floor where Daachan had smashed its foot down.
"…What do you mean?" Hugh asks, holding his own weapon at the ready. He was actually backing off a bit, a bit concerned about how calm and dangerous this new Miro looked to be. Miro began to walk slowly toward him, making Hugh back off a bit more.
"I mean…" Miro begins, slowly and sounding quite evil. "…Is there any place that seems to have… a bit too much blood? I'd be more than happy to relieve it if that's the case."
Matthew and Kate, meanwhile, are watching this from behind the fish statue.
"Wow… that doesn't sound like Miro…" Kate says, sounding slightly concerned.
"It's an effect of the reaction." Matthew says. "I suppose it would… alter his personality. Now that his dark side is mingled and fueled with his good side, there's nothing to hold it back… I suppose you could call him Dark-Dark Miro."
"But… can he go back to normal?" Kate asks. "I mean, as cool as having a merciless, soulless, evil person for a boyfriend would be, I'd like to have the old Miro back…"
Matthew looks at her for a moment.
"…What?" Kate asks.
"…Oh, umm…" Matthew begins. "It's just the first time that you've called Miro that…"
"So?" Kate asks. "Why bother saying what everyone else knows?"
"You seemed a bit uneasy about it when Miro's mom said it." Mathew points out.
"She's a parent. It makes anyone uneasy, hearing that from a parent." Kate points out. "Now, you didn't tell me; can Miro go back to normal?"
"…I'm not sure." Matthew admits. "If his good side has been defeated, there's a chance that he may never return to his former self…"
Kate pauses for a moment, and then nods solemnly. That's what she feared. He'd be much harder to sneak up near riverbeds on now…
Back to the fight, Miro was beginning to grow tired of Hugh's hesitation.
"You're the one who wanted to fight." Miro begins. "Now lift up that sword of yours and attack me."
Hugh's eyes narrow, and he finally obliges, dashing at Miro and slashing the Soul Irritant downward. Miro blocked it and swiped the Soul Eater at Hugh, doing nothing but slightly cutting his muscle shirt. It was odd that he didn't manage to cut skin, since shirts are usually rather close to skin, but perhaps it was just Miro giving a warning.
Hugh steps back and growls, holding his weapon out again.
"I'm not gonna lose to you!" He shouts defiantly.
"…Put your weapon down." Miro says calmly.
"What?" Hugh asks.
"Come and fight me like a jock." Miro says, dropping his two weapons. "This way we'll know that one of us won fair and square."
Hugh pauses for a moment, and then chuckles slightly, an evil gleam in his eyes.
"Jocks don't fight fair!" He proclaims, going at Miro again with a vertical slash.
"Big mistake." Miro says.
With that, Miro effortlessly steps out of the blade's path, turning away from Hugh and clamping onto the flat end of it. He pulls it out of Hugh's grasp, since Hugh was in shock of how quickly Miro moved, and spins back around to face Hugh, holding the blade to his throat by still clamping onto the handle.
"Say the word, and this goes straight forward." Miro says seriously. "…Unless you want to fight fair."
"Uh… well, if you put it that way…" Hugh says nervously, shrugging to try to cover it up. Miro doesn't bother to wait for him to finish. He throws the blade away. Besides, by touching it, he was subject to the irritating sounds that it made in his head. Shaking his head slightly, Miro steps back and waits.
"…Begin." He says. Hugh takes a swing at him angrily, which Miro dodges and uses the opening to strike him in the back with his elbow. It didn't seem to do much, though, which was the big problem in this fight. Even with Miro's new speed and power, Hugh was just too tough to injure easily. Miro noticed one potential weakness, however, and once Hugh tries to strike him with a kick, Miro dodges again and aims a low, horizontal kick to the back of Hugh's knee, the one that he used to stay standing while he tried to kick at Miro. Hugh falls onto his knee and before he can get back up, Miro stomps his foot onto his back and grabs Hugh's upward-pointing tuft of hair, pulling his head back with it.
"Why don't you let me save my effort and break your own neck?" Miro asks, sounding quite serious.
"Grr… I don't think so, bud." Hugh says, suddenly standing up and throwing Miro off of him. Miro lands easily and decides not to waste time talking. He runs up to Hugh, dodges another punch, and raises a gloved fist, punching Hugh on the nose. As Hugh was recoiling from it, Miro jumped up a surprising height and kneed Hugh in the chin, sending him toppling backward to the ground. Miro lands easily again and looks down at Hugh.
"If you're quite done, you can die now." He says.
Kate, meanwhile, watched this with many different thoughts and emotions going through her. Finally, she decides to stick with one and express it.
"I… I don't want Miro to be like this… Sure, he's kicking butt, but he's just not himself… I want the old Miro back!"
"You've got it!" Comes a voice from… directly above her. Kate looks up and sees a woman with bluish-green hair and a blue dress that would take much too long to describe smiling down at her. She suddenly vanishes and re-appears next to Miro.
"COOL IT!" She yells enthusiastically, holding her hands toward Miro. Miro is suddenly surrounded in a blue light. He yells, struggling to escape, but he couldn't move his legs. Suddenly, there is a pretty flash of white light and Miro is on his hands and knees, looking stunned.
"There you go! You're back to normal." The woman says, smiling. "How do you feel, Miro?"
"Wh… But… H-how do you know my name?" Miro asks, stuttering. He gets up slowly and looks at her.
"How do I know your name? Let's just say I know a great many things." The woman replies.
-
William suddenly gasps, having suddenly sensed something.
"The… The Goddess… The Goddess is here…"
And get this: He's right.
-
Suddenly, Miro looks to be extremely mad.
"Why'd you do that? I WAS WINNING!" He shouts. He decides not to wait for a response and instead go to get his weapons again. Running to them as quickly as he could, he grabs the Keyblade and Soul Eater. However, when he stands up and faces Hugh with them, they yank themselves from his grip and fly in opposite directions, due to being opposite powers and all.
"Dammit!" Miro curses, now totally unarmed.
"Now, now, don't be cross." The woman, which if you haven't guessed yet is the Harvest Goddess, says calmly. "I had to do it. You were getting much too evil, and no one wants that. Besides, you'll have a weapon."
"Yeah? Will this be before I die?" Miro asks. "And hey, you seem tough, why don't you help me fight?"
"Love to, can't." The Harvest Goddess says. "I can't attack anybody directly, it's much too un-Goddesslike. I can only pretend to be helpful by thanking people for offerings and handing over the occasional gift. When I noticed Daachan for the first time, I sent William out to get him. And I'm afraid it's only one super-powered human courtesy of me per evil demon."
"Who made up that rule?" Miro demands.
"Me." The Goddess replies, smiling. "It's all so you get taught a lesson in life and things like that."
"…Wait, lemme guess…" Miro begins. "You don't want us to depend on you for everything because you're too lazy to help us out all of the time?"
"Yep." The Harvest Goddess says, nodding. "I guess I'll just leave you to it now. Oh…" She moves closer to Miro and whispers in his ear.
"Kate's not dead. She's hiding with Matthew behind that big fish statue."
"What? Why, that-" Miro begins, angrily turning to the statue and beginning to stomp toward it. The Goddess stops him, however, by making vines tangle around his feet.
"It's not like that." She reassures him. "Matthew just saved her life. They're deciding on whether they should go to fight Daachan or stay to see if they can help you."
"…Okay, fine." Miro says. "I guess I'll keep on fighting, then."
"Good." The Goddess says, making the roots vanish. "I'll be watching you. Bye now."
With that, she disappears in a flash of light. Miro turns to face Hugh, who was just getting up from the sharp knee he took to the jaw.
"Have a nice nap, Hugh?" Miro asks.
"Heh… I wasn't sleeping…" Hugh says, getting up fully but keeping his head lowered. "And I heard what you said… You're back to normal."
"Maybe, but I was handling you fairly well when I wasn't super-dark. Now that I've smacked you around a bit, I'd say that we're about tied." Miro says, getting ready to fight.
"Heh, in your dreams!" Hugh laughs. "I haven't shown you what I'm really made of! There's more to a jock than big muscles, Miro."
"Not much." Miro says. "Unless you're planning to beat me with sneering, half-baked insults and poor Math skills."
"You've got a big mouth, don't ya?" Hugh asks, raising his head slowly. "But I think you've forgotten one big thing about my type of people… We have perfect smiles."
Before Miro could question what Hugh meant about this, Hugh takes action. Raising his head fully, he gives Miro a perfect, toothy smile. The astonishing, phenominal, unbelievable, extraordinary… err… phantasmagorical shine of his teeth gave off a light so searingly bright, it bathed Miro in a pure white shade and caused him to stagger back.
"AUUGH!" He yells, covering his eyes. "THE SHINE! MY EYES ARE BLISTERING!"
Kate and Matthew look away from the fight and take cover behind the statue. Even though the light wasn't directed to them, it was still incredibly bright.
"Miro's in trouble!" Kate says. "What're we going to do?"
"Umm… We'll need something to stain his teeth…" Matthew begins, looking around. "But… there's no food or anything nearby…"
Kate suddenly gets an idea. She looks at Matthew eagerly.
"Matthew, I need you to stay here and make sure that Hugh doesn't hurt Miro… well, more than he already is hurting Miro with that Shiny Teeth Attack of his…" Kate says, getting up and beginning to walk away from them.
"And where are you going?" Matthew asks.
"I'm going to get Lumina." Kate replies, not looking back since the light would hurt her eyes. "There's no time to explain. Just do what I said."
-
The running, screaming group turn a corner in the main hall, all pressing their backs against the wall once they had done so. They took the time to catch their breath.
"Anyone have… a plan…?" Elli asks, out-of-breath.
"I've got one!" Anna says, putting her Rucksack down and opening it. She begins to fiddle through the things in it until she discovers what she was looking for. She pulls out a pump-action shotgun, skillfully loads it with shells, cocks it, and shuffles to the edge of the wall, looking around the corner and seeing Daachan lumbering toward them. Quickly, Anna steps out of cover, aims the gun, and fires, reloading and firing multiple times until it was out of ammo. There were many small holes present on Daachan now, but it uses its power to patch itself up again.
"Darn…" She says. Putting the gun down, she runs back to her backpack and pulls out a fully automatic machine gun. Loading it with a clip, she repeats the process of sliding to the edge of the wall, stepping into sight of Daachan, and firing. She completely empties her clip into Daachan's fuzzy belly and face, showing bizarrely impressive control with her weapon. Once the clip was out, Daachan repeats the process of repairing the many small holes in it.
"Oh, man…" Anna grumbles, throwing her gun down and running to her backpack again. After sifting through it and reaching into an extremely deep pocket, she pulls out a large, shiny grenade launcher. Loading it with a single, also-quite-large grenade, she repeats the slide-against-the-wall process for the third time and steps into view once again, aiming the large weapon at it. She fires, the recoil nearly knocking the gun out of her hands, and the projectile makes contact and explodes on Daachan's face.
"Haha! Gotcha!" Anna proclaims, seeing that a good portion of the front of Daachan's face had been blown right off. However, the eyes, which still clung to the rest of Daachan by some loose fabric, began to glow a bright red and slowly, the stuffing scatered about begins to float toward Daachan and re-fom itself into the same, evil teddy face. Once it was complete again, Daachan continued to walk toward them.
Anna whimpers slightly and then throws her weapon down in frustration, moving back into the cover of the wall.
"Well… I'm fresh out of plans." She says. "Anybody else?"
"Maybe… We can do something to distract it, and then run?" Kai asks. The Jacks nod at this idea.
"Well, I'd love to hear your suggestions." Nami says.
"…I think I know." Ricca says. She turns to Anna. "Anna, do you have a flamethrower in there?"
"Well, of course!" Anna says, walking to her backpack and pulling it out. "What do you want it for?"
"Well, teddy bears are flammable." Ricca points out. "I should know. I've put a few of them to the torch."
"Yeah, a few of mine…" Anna reminds her. She throws the flamethrower to Ricca, who catches it and readies it in her hands.
"…Do you even know where your daughter got all of those from?" Nami asks Ann.
"No idea." Ann says. "Although… When she said that she was going out for a party, I told her that it would be safer if she carried something around for self-defence… I guess she took the idea to heart."
"A party in Mineral Town?" Cliff says. "Jee, Ann, it's kinda hard to get away with something during a party when everyone in town knows each other, don't you think? I think you could trust that Karrie's not going to come at her with a knife."
"Karrie?" The non-hatted Jack asks. "Who's-"
"We don't have time." Ricca cuts in. "Get ready for my signal."
"What signal?" Popuri asks.
"I'll say 'run'." Ricca explains.
"Okay… So what'll we do once we hear the signal?" Jack asks.
Ricca sighs and doesn't bother to answer, running to the edge of the wall and stepping to face Daachan. She aims the weapon and pulls the trigger, sending a jet of flame into Daachan. Once the bear was completely bathed in flames, Ricca throws the weapon down and looks at them.
"Run!" She yells. Herself and the rest of the group then proceed to run, Anna picking up her backpack along the way. They continued to run until they spotted a toy store which had no lights on. They run inside and in between two shelves full of toys, taking cover.
"Whew… I think we lost it…" Elli says, breathing heavily.
"Yeah… Yeah, I think so…" Cliff agrees.
"Hey, where are Kate and Matthew?" Lumina asks, speaking for the first time in a while. She was the first to notice that they were gone.
"I don't know…" Mary says. "Do you think they stayed behind to help out your son, Nami?"
"…Either that or Daachan got to them." Nami says. "…But no, I know that Kate's able to fend for herself. Matthew, though… Naah, he's toast."
"Jee, thanks…" Gray mumbles.
"I can't see a thing…" Popuri mutters.
"That's the point, neither can it." Cliff reminds her.
"Sure, but I'd still be safer knowing where Kai's hands are at all times…" Ann says.
"We'll have to live without that knowledge for a while, I'm afraid." Nami says. "Now shut up and be quiet."
"…Ooh, hey, that's better." Popuri says a moment later. "But I thought you said that we shouldn't have any light…"
"Where's that light coming from?" Anna asks, looking around. "It's all red…"
"Oh, I know!" Jack chimes in. "It's coming from those two small, red lights towering over the shelf behind us!"
"Oh… Okay." Popuri says, shrugging.
The group remains silent for a moment, and then come to a sudden realization of what the lights were. Their faces go blank.
Screaming, they get up and begin running out of the store, just as Daachan smashed down the shelf that they were hiding behind. Once everyone was outside of the shop, Jack-from-Mineral-Town stops and turns back, pulling out his sickle.
"What're you doing?" Ann demands, looking back at him.
"It's just a teddy bear, I'm sure I can take him." Jack replies, watching as Daachan walked out the entrance of the shop.
"But didn't you see it fix itself all of those times?" Ricca says. "You can't hurt it!"
"Yeah, but it can't hurt me… badly." Jack reminds them. "I mean, it's only a giant, soft teddy bear."
"Hey, you're right!" His cousin says, pulling out his own sickle and standing next to him. "Let's get 'im!"
The hatted Jack runs at Daachan first, slicing into its leg with his weapon. Daachan simply continues to walk as it was already doing, kicking that Jack over in the process.
The other Jack is more wary, and keeps his distance from Daachan for a while.
"C'mon, you ugly excuse for a comfort toy!" He yells at it. "I'll slice you into mothballs! You've got nothing on me!"
Daachan's eyes suddenly begin to glow a very intense red, and a beam shoots from them, incinerating Jack's sickle.
"…Oh, SINCE WHEN?" He says angrily, running with the other Jack back to the rest of the group.
"Our heroes." Ann says, rolling her eyes. "Any other bright ideas?"
"Yeah, let's keep on running." One Jack says, the other Jack nodding at this. In general unison, the group continues running until, suddenly, Daachan uses its power to make all of the toys from the toy shop levitate and place themselves in front of the path that the group was running down, all at an amazing speed. The group was now blocked by a wall of toys and stuffed animals which moved to block their path whenever they tried to go around it. Finally, the group turns and faces Daachan, who continued to lumber on toward them.
"…We're toast." The hatted Jack says, everyone else looking to be in agreement with this.
"…Nami, can we kiss passionately before we die?" The other Jack asks, looking to Nami with a facial expression akin to this situation.
"…Oh, why not?" Nami says, pulling Jack into her arms and… well, I'm sure you can guess.
"Eugh…" Ricca says in disgust, looking away. "Not only are we gonna die, but our last sight's gonna be Miro's parents sucking face with each other…"
Sucking face… Sucking… Jack repeats to himself in his mind, thinking for a moment. He suddenly gasps mentally, since gasping physically might have caused some sort of gruesome inhalation of internal organs and the like. I've got an idea! I know how to beat it! …'Course, I don't need to share my ideas RIGHT away. I mean, what's the hurry? The bear's far enough away for me, thank-you-very-much. And it doesn't really move that fast. I'd say that I have a good 45 seconds before I need to share any info with the rest of the group.
45 seconds passed all-too-quickly for Jack, all-too-slowly for anyone watching. He pulls away and takes in a breath, looking refreshed.
"Okay, firstly…" He begins. "I haven't had a taste of those tonsils in a long time, and they are still DELICIOUS! …Oh, and I know how to beat Daachan."
"What?" Nami says in surprise, accidentally letting go of Jack and dropping him to the floor.
"I know how to… Oww, I think I bruised my spine… Anyway, I know how to beat him!" Jack repeats, getting up slowly.
"How?" Nami asks, the rest of the group listening intentively.
"With the family's secret weapon…" Jack says, smirking and reaching into his Rucksack. He fiddles around in it for a moment and then pulls out what he was looking for.
The Goat Milker.
"Of course!" Mary exclaims. "That's the perfect tool for removing the demon's eyes! There's only one problem… How do we reach it?"
Just then, Kate comes running from around the corner that they came from, eyeing the group and Daachan, and rushing toward them, careful to keep a distance from the huge bear.
"Umm… Can I borrow Lumina for a minute?" She asks.
"Sure, I guess…" Nami says.
"But can you help us first?" Kai asks. "We need to find out how to reach Daachan's eyes."
"…Have you tried jumping?" Kate asks.
"Would that work?" Cliff asks. "It's over 10 feet tall…"
"Just have someone act heroic! Then they'll be able to jump it automatically!" Kate says. "Trust me, I saw it on TV!"
"Well, okay…" Jack says. "Off you go, Lumina."
Lumina nods and shuffles away from Daachan, running toward Kate once she was a safe distance. Kate begins running back to where she came from once Lumina caught up, beckoning for Lumina to follow. She does, unsure of what this was all about.
"Umm, Kate?" She asks while running.
"Yeah?" Kate asks, looking at her.
"What do you have planned?" Lumina inquires.
"You're gonna help Miro out." Kate replies. She pulls out a tube of lipstick and throws it to her. "Here, put it on. And really layer it well, you need as much as possible."
"Umm… Okay…" Lumina replies, beginning to apply it. "Eugh… It's hard when I'm running… What're you doing with this stuff, anyway? You don't seem the type to carry lipstick around in your dress pocket."
"Oh… Well, it's cherry red. I have it with me just in case I need to look unattractive." Kate explains. "But I think it'll work on you."
"You have it so you can look unattractive? Don't be silly, you don't need lipstick to do that." Lumina replies, giggling.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kate asks angrily.
Lumina decided not to answer. They continued to run until they reached the fish statue, the two of hem needing to shield their eyes from the light of Hugh's teeth. Matthew had done what he was told, by throwing random, small objects at Hugh from the cover of the statue in order to distract him. Kate and Lumina duck behind the statue.
"So, what's the plan?" Matthew asks, noticing the lipstick on Lumina's face and grimacing slightly.
"Lumina, Hugh obviously likes you, so…" Kate begins. "…You're the only one who can do this. I need you to walk to Hugh, and I don't care how you do it, but kiss him. And I mean really get in there, lips, tongue, and whatever else'll fit."
"Oh, I get it!" Matthew says. "The lipstick will stain his teeth!"
"Exactly." Kate says, nodding. "So, Lumina, are you up for it?"
"But I don't wanna look cheap…" Lumina says in concern.
"You're rich, you can just buy your friends back." Kate reminds her. "Besides, no one but me and Matthew… and Miro, if he still has vision, will be watching, so don't worry about it!"
"Well… Okay." Lumina says, getting up and shielding her eyes, walking around the statue.
"Huuuuugh…" She calls out. Hugh stops smiling for a moment and look in her direction.
"Lumina…" He begins.
"Hugh, why are you hurting Miro?" Lumina asks. "You could've just asked… I like you, too."
"…Well, this is new." Kate says to herself, now watching intently and taking mental notes.
"Really?" Hugh replies, slightly stunned. "But why didn't you tell me…?"
"Well, I like you, but not as much as Miro or his Dad." Lumina points out.
"That sounds wrong…" Miro says while groping around and trying to recover from his blindness.
"…But they're both kind of taken, so you're going to just settle for me?" Hugh asks, looking a bit angry.
"Yep." Lumina says, walking closer to him.
"…Okay." Hugh replies, shrugging. "But I'm still going to get rid of Miro, just so you have nothing to regret for choosing me."
"Fine. But first you have to do one thing for me…" Lumina adds, leaning closer to him.
"…What would that be?" Hugh asks when her face was within in inch of his. The people watching sigh in frustration, mumbling curses. Undaunted, Lumina looks at him.
"Kiss me."
"What?"
"Kiss. Me."
"…What?"
"Kiss me!"
"…Why?"
"…I don't know… I can't remember…"
Kate was close to pulling her hair out in frustration, but instead starts pulling out Matthew's in order to save her the pain.
"Those two are meant for each other, I swear…" She growls through clenched teeth. "They're both thicker than wet cement…"
"Yeeeah…" Matthew says in agreement, obviously in quite a bit of pain. "Why… don't… you… remind her?"
"Hmm… Good idea." Kate says, letting go of Matthew's hair. Matthew quickly puts his cap back on and holds his head, groaning in pain. Kate stands up, showing herself.
"HUGH, YOU'VE BEEN WANTING TO KISS HER ALL OF THIS TIME!" She yells angrily. "SHE'S TELLING YOU TO, SO DO IT!"
"…I… I know that screech…" Miro says, rubbing his eyes and trying to focus in that direction. Finally, his full sight returns to him. "Kate! You're alive!"
"No duh, Miro." Kate says with a smile on her face. "But… didn't you already know that?"
"Oh yeah, the Goddess told me…" Miro says. "But now I know for sure! I actually have physical evidence!"
"Can you focus, please? Get ready for after they kiss." Kate says. Miro, unsure of the plan as of yet, nods and looks back to Hugh.
Lumina puts a hand around Hugh's head and throws herself into him, the two of them… Well, once again, you get the idea. They practically bury themselves within each other, Kate yelling words of encouragement like some sort of coach.
"C'mon! Get right in there! No mercy! Don't hold back! Give it all you've got! Just like in the movies!"
About a minute later, Hugh and Lumina part from one another, breathing heavily.
"Heh… That… was…" Hugh begins, not really able to find a word for it.
"Now, you just go finish what you were doing, and I'll be right back there, cheering you on." Lumina says, also quite flustered and out-of-breath. She turns longingly away from Hugh and rushes behind the cover of the statue.
"Great acting!" Kate says in congratulation.
"I wasn't acting…" Lumina replies.
"…So you're really on his side?" Matthew asks.
"Kinda…" Lumina says, looking down. "I'm not gonna fight, though. Hugh's going to win anyway."
"Don't be so sure!" Kate snaps. "I've seen Miro beat the original Daachan, I'm sure he has a good chance against Hugh!"
"If you say so…" Lumina says, sounding unsure on Kate's part.
Hugh turns to face Miro, who had gotten up and was ready to fight again.
"You want some more?" Hugh asks. "Here it is!"
He gives another smile. However, as was planned, Lumina's self-application of lipstick to Hugh had stained his teeth to the point of them not giving off a single sparkle of light. In fact, there was lipstick smeared all over in random areas of Hugh's face. He growls angrily.
"Lumina! You wrecked my good attack!" He yells, looking at the statue.
"Sorry!" Lumina yells back, smiling. "But don't worry, you can still beat him!"
Hugh sighs, and nods. "That I can."
With that, he holds his hand out to the discarded Soul Irritant, the blade retracting to him and landing in his hand. He holds it readily, smirking.
"Umm…" Miro begins, looking around randomly. He talks loudly, hoping to grab the Goddess' attention. "Hey, do you remember when you said that I'll have a weapon? Now would be a good time!"
In a flash of light, the Harvest Goddess appears beside Miro, just finishing fitting a flower into the physically impossible-looking bun on the right side of her head.
"Rush, rush…" She mumbles, completing this task and looking to Miro. "But I suppose I will help you by giving you a weapon."
She holds a hand in the direction of the hall that led to the main entrance, and waited for a moment. Suddenly, Miro's discarded baseball bat comes flying toward her from that direction, which William had thrown from his grip earlier, and she grabs it. Smiling, she hands it to Miro.
"…That's it?" Miro asks. "Couldn't you get me a… good weapon? Like a sword or something?"
"I can't help you that much." The Goddess replies. "I have to stay neutral from now on, or else I'd be making it too easy."
"Too easy?" Miro replies, snatching the bat as he speaks. "Unless you William-ize me, I don't see how you could possibly make this 'too easy'!"
"Oh, you'll live." The Goddess replies, a bit impatient.
"How are you so sure?" Miro asks.
"…Oh, that's right, you might not. Oh well!" She replies, smiling and vanishing again, reappearing beside Kate, Matthew, and Lumina.
"…Stupid omnipotent beings with their infinite wisdom…" Miro grumbles to himself, turning to Hugh and holding his bat out in a ready stance.
"Hmm… Hey, y'know what this place needs?" The Harvest Goddess asks before Miro and Hugh began fighting.
"What?" Kate asks.
"A gap." The Goddess replies.
"…Actually, I think I saw a Gap in the main hall a while ago." Mathew corrects her.
"Nonono, I mean, a GAP!" The Goddess yells enthusiastically, floating high above them, nearly to the roof, and holding her hands out with her palms pressed together. She slowly pulls her hands apart and, with a tremor, a huge, dark chasm slowly opened up beside Hugh and Miro, going from one end of the hall to the other. It was extremely vast, with no visible bottom, not unlike Van's limitless gut. Stupid jokes aside, it was large.
The Goddess returns to the ground, smiling.
"What're you doing?" Kate asks.
"Being neutral." The Goddess replies. "I thought I'd spice this fight up a bit, it was getting boring."
"How is that being neutral?" Matthew demands.
"Gorges are neutral. If someone falls in, someone falls in." The Goddess explains. "Bye now!"
And with that, she vanishes yet again in a flash of light.
"…We should get her therapy." Matthew mumbles.
-
"Okay, Jack, it's all you! Let's finish this thing for good!" Cliff says, trying to warm up the non-hatted, non-courageous Jack.
"B-but… It has laser eyes, and it's big…" Jack mumbles, looking up at the still-slowly-approaching Daachan.
"Jack, you're our only hope." Nami says, looking him sternly in the eyes. "If you can't do this… one of us will have to take the milker from your charred, crushed body and try it."
"Yeah… you're right…" Jack says, wiping a surprisingly large amount of sweat from his forehead and swallowing. "I can do this, no sweat."
"Exactly. It's gonna be no challenge at all." Nami says. "I'm sure you've done much harder things than this. Much harder…"
"Yeah…?" Jack says, going through his memory to try to think up anything.
-
"Well, this is your new home…" Takakura says, looking around at the old, neglected farmland. "It has old, but strong buildings and-"
"Ooh, what's this?" Jack asks, running off in a random direction. A 'thunk' is heard. "AAH! HELP ME! GET ME OUT!"
"That would be the garbage chute…"Takakura mutters, sighing.
--
"…Nope." Jack says, shaking his head.
"Think harder." Nami demands urgently. The rest of the group looked at Daachan slowly approaching. There wasn't much time left…
"Okay…" Jack says, beginning to think again.
-
"Rrrgh… Nyrrrrgh… GARRRRRRGGGGGAAAAHHHHRAGARAAAARHHH…"A youthful Jack says, obviously straining at something. He was sitting at the Blue Bar table, in the throes of an arm wrestle. After a few moments of struggling with his opponent, he is defeated, his arm slamming into the bar table opposite.
"Hehe! I win!" Muffy says triumphantly, smiling and throwing her arms up in the air.
-
"…Still no." Jack says, shaking his head again.
"Think, dammit!" Nami says, shaking him by his shoulders. "That bear's nearly breathing down our necks!"
"…Daachan doesn't brea-"
"You know what I mean!" Nami says. "Think of the absolute bravest thing you've ever done, something that would easily dwarf this situation, something that had the possibility of having your life ended in an instant!"
"…Hmm…" Jack begins, closing his eyes in concentration.
-
"Umm… err… I, umm…" Jack begins, a blue object being held behind him in his sweaty palm. Even with his gloves on, the sweat had seeped through enough to be visible."Well? What do you want?" Nami asks irritably. "If you're going to drag me all the way to this beach, you should at least have something worth saying."
"Umm… Y-yes…" Jack begins, attempting to balance himself kneeling down on one knee. His face was reddening, and his brow was slick with sweat. "I need to ask you…"
"…You want to finish that sentence today?" Nami asks. "Evening only lasts so long. It won't wait for your slow, staggering brain to make your mouth form words."
"Err… Okay, okay…" Jack says, taking in a breath. He slowly moves his hands from behind his back and holds them out to her, presenting the Blue Feather.
"Hmm… I think I've seen those before…" Nami says, turning her head to the side slightly.
Jack continues with his small speech, following Nami's instructions and finishing the sentence.
"I need to ask you… Will you marry me?"
Nami seems shocked for a moment… Well, shocked in comparison to most of Nami's reactions to things. Her eyes widen slightly and she pauses, mouth slightly open. She gradually recovers over the next few seconds of silence, and looks at him seriously again.
"…Marry you? I've only known you for a couple of months. What are you, on a deadline?" She asks.
"…Well, yes." Jack admits. "If I don't marry someone within the first year, I'm getting out of this town and going back to the city."
"…And I thought I was impatient…" Nami mumbles. "Well, I'll think it over."
Nami then walks toward the Inner Inn. Jack decided to follow in secret.
Once Nami had entered her room, she began to mull it over. There wasn't really much to mull, though. She'd either marry him or they would both be skipping town in the end of the year. Jack, as silently as he could, enters the room, making the mistake of shutting the door behind him.
"What made you think you could follow me?" Nami asks.
"I… thought you'd be done thinking." Jack admits.
"It takes a while to think, you know. But I guess I could forgive you due to your serious lack of experience." Nami replies.
"…Err, good. So…?" Jack begins urgently.
"…You say that you won't be here if I come back later?" Nami asks.
"…Well, yeah." Jack says.
"…Y'know what? Fine. Let's get married." Nami says, nodding. "It's just paperwork, anyway."
"So… you like me?"
"You could call it that…"
-
"GOT IT!" Jack says, clutching the milker in his hand with a look of serious determination on his face. "I married you, Nami, and that makes friggin' everything else seem easy!"
"Exactly! I've been training you for this sort of thing since the day we met!" Nami explains.
"…Really? I thought you were just evil." Jack says, humming in thought.
"…That too." Nami says, shrugging and letting go of Jack, stepping out of his way. "Now show me your stuff."
"You've got it!" Jack says enthusiastically. He cracks his neck left and right, and begins running to Daachan.
Daachan's eyes glow and it fires another beam at Jack, but he dodges it with impressive speed and then jumps up, not quite able to reach Daachan's face. However, instead of colliding with Daachan's fuzzy belly like everyone expected him to do, Jack begins running up Daachan itself, up and up until he reached its nose, which he grabs onto with his free hand and throws himself upward, turning the Goat Milker on while in mid-air, and thrusting it downward in his descent, plunging the suction device into its face.
The milker was too small to cover both of the eyes at once, however it did cover its right eye. After a moment of struggle, Daachan swings its paw at him, which Jack manages to dodge by clambering to the other side of Daachan's head. With a defiant flash of light, Daachan's eye succumbs to the suction and is pulled from its face, sucked into the mini-container inside the Milker. Jack pulls the milker off and is forced to jump from the bear, since it was swaggering unstably now. He lands and, after recovering from a slight daze, runs to the rest of the group.
"I did… what I could…" He says, breathing heavily.
"It seems more unstable now…" Mary points out, watching Daachan slowly stagger around. "I suppose, with only half of its power, it has less control over the bear."
"So let's finish it off!" Kai says, pulling a now-slightly-moldy swordfish from his backpack. "I haven't done anything in a while, let me do this!"
He runs at Daachan, holding his fish in a ready-to-slice position. Daachan takes a clumsy downward swing at him, which he thankfully dodges since it was strong enough to leave cracks on the ground. Kai then slices at Daachan's leg, causing it to fall to one knee. It was repairing itself, but much more slowly due to its lack of power.
"…We need to cripple it." Nami mutters. "If we do that, we can take its other eye with the Milker. I don't think that Jack can do a flashy move like that twice."
"No kidding…" Jack mutters, holding his side. "I nearly threw my hip right out of my body there…"
"But can Kai do that all by himself?" Ann asks.
"No, we'll have to help him." Ricca says. "I'll do it, he's my dad. Give me something to cut with."
"Here, take my scimitar." Popuri says, pulling the blade from seemingly nowhere and handing it to her with a smile.
"Err… Thanks, mom…" Ricca says, looking as confused and bewildered as the rest of them. She takes the blade and runs at Daachan, ducking under a fuzzy, horizontal swing and running behind it, hacking into its other leg. Kai was busy slicing the other leg faster than it could repair, and Daachan finally falls to its paws and knees. Jack takes action and walks to it. He would run, but his side was killing him and he would probably seize up. However, Daachan takes a last-ditch attempt to protect itself and fires a beam from its remaining eye. Jack dodges it but he hears a yell from behind him. He turns, seeing Nami looking stunned and shocked. He assumed the worst.
"Nami… It singed your hair!"
"Yes… Yes, Jack…" Nami mutters, looking at the bang of hair the once covered a portion of her face. It was all-but-gone, shortened to near the middle of her forehead. Jack was shocked. He looked at the culprit with renewed rage.
"DAMN YOU, DAACHAN!" He yells, running at it and shoving the milker deeply into its squishy face, almost reaching for its eye in doing so. The eye is quickly slurped into the void of the milker, and finally, the gigantic form of Daachan falls to the ground in a lifeless, fuzzy heap.
Jack turns off the milker, sighing. It was over. He turns to Nami worriedly.
"Are you going to be okay…?" He asks.
"I'll… I'll be fine." Nami reassures him. "It'll grow back…"
"Okay…" Jack says. "Now let's get back to Miro!"
The group agrees and immediately starts running back to where Miro was.
-
"Let's finish this." Miro says, swinging his weapon readily.
"Bring it on." Hugh replies, running at Miro. Miro blocks his initial attack but is then punched hard in the chest. Now, Hugh being very big and strong, and Miro being comparatively small and weak, a punch by Hugh to Miro would cause a very neat physical reaction. In this case, it was Miro being sent flying into a bookshop, scattering books everywhere. Smirking, Hugh begins walking to the shop, his weapon at the ready. Miro comes out, however, looking calm despite his fresh bruise. He was holding a book in front of his face, patiently reading it.
"…What's that?" Hugh asks.
"Well, it's known in some places as a 'book'." Miro replies, not looking up at him.
"I know that." Hugh snaps. "I mean why are you reading it?"
"…It caught my eye." Miro explains. He then shuts it and holds the cover out in front of him, looking at Hugh. The title read: 'Jet Li's How to Kick Butt in Fifteen Seconds'.
Miro then throws the book away, getting into a fighting stance and suddenly running at Hugh. Hugh clashes weapons with Miro, Miro blocking, countering, and striking back with neat movie-style-karate action. Hugh pulls back slightly and then comes at him again, aiming a deadly horizontal slash at him. Just in time, Miro backflips over Hugh in a style that would look absolutely cool in super-slow motion, and lands behind him. He aims a downward strike at him, But Hugh turns around and meets blades with him just in time. They push at each other's weapons for a while, both of them in a stalemate. What's more is that they were standing at the very edge of the chasm.
Kate, Lumina, and Matthew watch this with their breath held, until they hear a sound behind them. They turn, seeing the group running toward them. Forgetting the fight for the moment, the three of them run to the rest of the group until they meet.
"Are you guys all right?" Matthew asks.
"We're fine." Gray says.
"Except for Nami…" Jack says, looking in dismay at her mortal hair wound. "…And my hip's killing me, too."
Back at the climatic scene in the fight, Miro was beginning to lose ground to Hugh. However, seeing that Kate was no longer watching gave him a surge of inspiration powerful enough to begin pushing Hugh back. They remain at equal strength at the mid-point until finally, Miro begins shoving Hugh even farther back, until finally…
"You're… going… DOWN!" Miro yells, twisting his weapon and using Hugh's momentum to cause him to lose balance, accidentally step down where there was no floor, and begin to fall over. In an instant, Hugh takes action.
"And YOU"RE going with me!" He replies, grabbing Miro as falls over. They both disappear over the edge in a near-instant.
Kate looks over to where the two of them were and gasps.
"Miro!" She yells, beginning to run to the edge. She reaches it very quickly, kneeling down and looking over the edge. With much relief, she sees Miro hanging from the side, a few feet down from where Kate was.
"Miro!" She repeats.
"…Heh… We're a long way from home, aren't we…?" He asks, looking up at her.
"D-Don't even start with some crappy dying speech, I'll help you!" Kate replies, looking around urgently. Tears began to well in her eyes. "I'll throw you down a rope or… or something…"
"…Just forget it, Kate…" Miro says, pausing for a moment. "…I don't think I'm getting out of this one."
Kate stops looking around and stares down at him, still looking desperate. She gets down to her stomach and tries vainly to reach for him, but he was much too far down.
"…Kate," Miro begins.
"What?" Kate asks, keeping her hand lowered over the edge.
"I have to tell you something…" He continues. "I… I love you!"
"…And?"
"AND WHAT?"
"Well, I already figured that much." Kate says, shrugging. "I thought that you had something else to add."
"Okay, fine… You're bearing my child." Miro says.
"WHAT?"
"Kidding, kidding!" Miro reassures her. The rock that he was clinging to suddenly cracks slightly. He gasps.
"Kate, I… I don't have much time. Spend the next few moments reminiscing in a long flashback."
(Crack)
"…Maybe just a short flashback."
(Crack)
"Okay, forget the flashback, just add whatever you want to this conversation!"
"…How can you be funny right now?" Kate asks. "You're going to die, aren't you scared for yourself…?"
"…Well, if you're my very last sight, it doesn't bother me nearly as much." Miro replies. The rock suddenly snaps off completely, and Miro begins his untimely descent downward.
"W-wait, Miro! I forgot to say this! I love you, too!" Kate yells down.
"Oh, NOW YOU TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee………."