The intro opens with Anne's hands on the Calamity Box, opening it. Light from inside the box shines brightly before it switches to a scene that shows Kenji, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, looking inside. Suddenly there was a white light and everything when blank.
Kenji was on the ground when the light faded, covered in mud with Anne next to him. When he woke up, he looked shocked to see he was in Amphibia with Anne. The two friends stood up and looked at their surroundings in awe.
The camera then zoomed out and showed the entire world of Amphibia.
Tenohira ni kizama re teru
Tsugihagi no yona sono sen ni furete
The scene then changed to the town of Wartwood as the frog inhabitants go about their daily lives. As a pair of dragonflies fly past the camera, it followed them until stopping at the Plantar farmhouse while the sun was starting to rise in the sky.
When the camera changed to show the house's front door, Kenji and Anne stepped out from inside and out into the world. Ready to take on the day. But first, they ducked their heads under some dragonflies that passed them.
Hibiware sona atama to
Gurasu ga sasata kokoro de mae hashiru
The camera moves up to a window on the side of the house. Sprig opened the window with a telescope in hand. He looked through it at the horizon before slipping off the windowsill and started falling. Inside the house, Hop Pop was reading one of his books in his study when Sprig's falling and screaming made him look at his window. Down on the ground, Sprig had landed in Polly's bucket. His little sister responded by punching her brother in the butt. Sending him flying out of the bucket. She then dove back into her bucket of water.
Sprig landed on Anne's head, and the three of them smiled at one another. Then Sprig pointed at something. Kenji pulled out one of his Class Cards, and the friends rushed off into the unknown.
The scene changed to show Kenji, Anne, and Sprig hopping across multiple mushrooms that lit up when one of them landed on it.
Koware kake no sekai
Kuzure so o de memai
The next scene showed Anne, Sprig, and Kenji running for their lives from a giant chicken monster. Kenji summons a black steed from his Rider Card then gets the others on and gallops away faster from the giant poultry. The scene begins to break apart as red line spread across the screen.
The next scene showed Sprig, Anne, Kenji, Polly, and Hop Pop fishing together on a lily pad before it suddenly rose into the air. Underneath it was a giant fish that started swimming around as everyone started screaming. Kenji, however, started stabbing it with a white curved short sword. The scene to break apart like the scene before.
Another scene showed Sprig in a temple looking at something before Kenji and Anne came rushing down the stairs beside him. Anne picked him up as they ran away from a giant boulder that came crashing into the temple. And just like the last two scenes, it begins to break apart in red lines.
Karappo na karada de
Ibtsuna shikai
The next scene showed a red, dark area. Anne and Kenji had their backs together, and both having looks of determination. Anne raised her tennis racket, and Kenji raised his cards: Saber as it begins to glow.
Still, in the same scene, the viewer is suddenly pulled back to reveal that they were surrounded by dozens of twisted frog/toad/newt-like creatures and a giant snake crawling up from behind them. Towering over them and hissing.
Zokkuri to myako o utsu inochi no sen
Naifu de nazotte nobashite shimaetara
ne dareka oshiete Tsuki ga mierunara
The amphibian-like abominations started attacking as Kenji now armed with Balmung/Gram and Anne rushed towards the viewer. Smashing, slicing, and killing any twisted being that came at them. Just as the viewer watched them go past the camera on both sides, the Giant Snake lunged at the fleeing kids. Its mouth opens as it comes towards the camera before the viewer is in the blackness of the snake's mouth, but it didn't last long as Kenji swung his sword and cuts down the snake with one strike.
Kesenai de
mada kesenai de
The scene changed again to a split screen with the left side show Anne's photo of herself, Kenji, Sasha, and Marcy together being held in a gloved hand and on the right is an older man in his fifties with a grin on his face. A flash of light showed the man's face more and the infamous Toad Tower in the background.
Kienaide mada Kienaide
The final scene of the intro showed Kenji standing in the middle of a road looking at the Class Cards he has. He looked to his left and saw Anne walking over to him with a smile. Then Sprig came over to his right and jumped on Kenji's shoulders. Hop Pop and Polly walked/hopped over and joined the trio. The screen begins to pan downwards as it shows reflections not of the group but of legendary heroes of Earth's history.
The intro ends with the title of the story.
FATE / CALAMITY
Book 1: Amphibia
Chapter 2: Fated Best Fronds
[Small Flashback]
On Planet Earth, over a week ago, we see a nervous Anne and a reluctant Kenji standing inside of a random Thrift Store with their friends standing outside as they were gesturing at them to hurry up, and Kenji waved them off with an annoyed look on his face as Anne looks incredibly scared and wary about what their friends were basically forcing them to do. Seeing how nervous his friend was, Kenji reached over to grab Anne's hand as she calms down by this and gives him a thankful nod before looking up at the Music Box placed on top of a high shelf as it looks basically the same as the last chapter, except that the gems were colored blue, pink, green, and silver respectively.
After hovering over Anne to hide her from view, Kenji made sure to keep a lookout as Anne tentatively reaches up to grab the Music Box and, after a brief moment of hesitation, Anne hides it inside of her backpack as she zipped it up close and turned around to walk away with a frowning Kenji following after her as they walked out of the store and managed to get away with stealing the Music Box as the blonde-haired German-American teen girl gave her a thumbs up/sharp nod while the Chinese-American teen girl gave her weak smile and thumbs up as Anne and Kenji don't look enthusiastic by the fact that they stole something from a Thrift Store that was owned by an old lady.
An hour later, late at night, we see the gang standing on what seems to be a small playground in a large park as they were inspecting the Music Box that was in Anne's lap as they stared at it curiously and were about to open it however when she did that a bright light emanated from the box causing the teens to close their eyes to not go blind. While this was happening, Kenji heard multiple voice from somewhere but couldn't figure out where it was coming from as the teens disappeared from the park and this world.
…
'Do you desire strength?'
...
'For we are but tools, to be used by a wielder.'
…
'Use us, our Master.'
[Flashback Over]
"AAAAHHH!" Kenji screamed as he sprang up in his bed. Sweating profusely, he tried to catch his breath. "I just had a horrible dream that Anne, her friends and I got teleported to a crazy world of talking frogs!" He exclaimed, before claiming down. He then sighed and gained a chill smile. "Good thing it was all just a dream."
"Uh, Ken," said an all too familiar voice. Kenji slowly turned his head and saw Anne sitting up on her sleeping mat. Standing next to her were Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly. Hop Pop croaked.
"Oh...right...I guess that wasn't a dream," Kenji says awkwardly, feeling embarrassed at rambling on like that in front of the Frog family as he looks down.
"Yeah, it seems so," Anne says as Sprig recovered from one of his friends screaming and rambling as he smiled at them cheerfully.
"Good morning, guys. Did you two slept well?" Sprig asked as his Human friends shrugged.
"Eh, pretty good, all things considered," Kenji says with Anne nodding in agreement as they stood up from their beds, and the young teen girl flinched as she felt something crawl up on her stomach and shiver in disgust.
"Although, I can tell you for certain that waking up in the middle of the night to find random bugs trying to crawl in your clothes is definitely not pleasant," Anne says with a wince while lifting her shirt to grab onto the bug that was trying to crawl up her body as she threw it away with a yelp.
"Yeah, I can understand that." Sprig says with a nod as he was about to say something else when suddenly a protective Hop Pop and Polly pop up beside their grandson/older brother.
"Careful, boy! They could be hungry!"
"Yeah! For your guts!" Polly yelled while pulling out a rolling pin out of nowhere as she began waving it around threateningly.
"Alright, relax, dudes, if we wanted to eat you three, we would've done it in the middle of the night and eaten you already." A deadpan Kenji says as Anne nodded while looking down at the Frog family with her arms crossed.
"Besides, Ken and I are not going to eat something that clearly doesn't bathe," Anne says sassily while gesturing at Hop Pop's dirty, stinky body with flies flying around him as he overall looks dead.
"Fair point." Hop Pop says with a shrug as he quickly snatched one of the flies in the air with his tongue.
"See? I told you that they were harmless." Sprig stated cheerfully while pointing at the humans as Hop Pop narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously.
"Hmph. Sure, she's harmless for now," Hop Pop said sarcastically as he picked up Polly's bucket. "It's him that I'm concerned about."
"What's that supposed to mean," Kenji asked, a little offended.
"Just don't go doing to use like you did to that mantis," Hop Pop warned the boy before walking up the stairs with Polly. But then, the tadpole hopped out of her and hopped back down a few steps to glare at Kenji and Anne."
"Just give me an excuse to use old Doris here." She threatened the two while patting the rolling pin on her little flipper. Then she turned and hopped out of the room.
"I think the little one wants to kill us," Anne said.
"What was your first clue," asked Kenji.
"Yup. So, you must be so excited to be trapped in another world," Sprig exclaimed, before bending back to give the two ex-friends a teasing smile. "Very jealous." However, he bent too far back and fell over. "Oh!"
Kenji stared at him with half-lid eyes and scoffed as he leans against the wall.
"Oh, yeah, because I just love being stuck in another world, separated from my friends and family, and be stuck here with magical cards that transforms into weapons!" Kenji stated sarcastically, causing Sprig to shrink a bit as Anne smacks his side with a stern glare.
"Don't be mean to Sprig, Ken! He's just trying to cheer us up!" Anne says as Kenji grumbled but nods as Anne turned over to their froggy friend. "Anyway, Sprig, while it is cool to be in another world and stuff, we have been stuck here for more than a week, and we're just getting a little homesick. We miss our home, our parents, our stuff and... our friends. We just feel kind of lost, you know?" Anne says while sitting down on the ground as she placed her head on her knees and sighs sadly as Kenji hangs his head low somberly, and Sprig gave his new friends a concerned look as he then looked over at the photo of Anne, Kenji, and their friends that Anne had placed on the wall that was placed near her bed as Sprig hums and an idea popped into his head as he beams.
"Well, then, why don't I be your friend in the meantime?" Sprig asked with a cheery smile as Anne and Kenji turned to him with shocked looks on their faces.
"You?"
"Me!"
"You?"
"Really?" Kenji asked with crossed arms as Sprig rolled his eyes at the Human antics in annoyance and placed his hands on his hip.
"Come on, guys, it'll be fun! What did you guys do together with your friends?" Sprig asked as the humans began to think.
"Oh, you know the usual. The girls and I like to binge-watch dumb TV shows, drink soda till we vomited, shopping, try out each other clothes, have sleepovers, etc."
"The guys and I like to watch a lot of shows on TV and the Internet, play video games, rough house, parkour, skateboarding, etc.," Kenji says as Sprig looked in between his human friends with a curious look on his friends.
"Huh, it seems you two like doing different stuff with your friends." Sprig deduced as Anne and Kenji briefly glanced at each other before turning to Sprig as they shrugged.
"Yeah, it seems." Anne and Kenji said in unison as Sprig pursed his lips and crossed his arms as he stared at them with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, is there anything that you all like to do together?" Sprig asked as Anne and Kenji glances at each other and hums as they began to think.
"Well, we like doing sleepovers with each other, and we also like going to the beach." Anne says offhandedly as Sprig perks up at what she said excitedly.
"Oh, that sounds great! We got a lake that is placed nearby! Would going there with me make you guys feel less homesick?" Sprig asked as Anne and Kenji shared a look before turning to Sprig just as he started doing silly poses as he smiled at them. "It's going to be great!" Sprig exclaimed as Anne giggled while Kenji rolled his eyes with an amused look on his face as the duo nodded.
"I like your moxie, frog child. Let's do it!" Anne says as she, Kenji, and Sprig cheered at the declaration.
Kenji and Anne brushed their teeth together, before going to separate rooms to change into their swimming clothes. Then, after applying sunscreen, putting on their flip flops, and then grabbing their towels, they came back to the living room. Ready for a day in the sun. Kenji then looked at Anne as she wore her sleeveless black swim shirt, with cyan linings across the sides, lilac-colored shorts, and dark aquamarine sandals, which contain yellow straps. He himself had on a dark grey muscle shirt, with just a pair of black shorts with blue flames at the bottom, and a pair of blue sandals with black straps.
"Kind of weird that we both have our swim trunks in our backpack, huh?" Kenji asked. Anne shrugged and threw the towel over her shoulder.
Sprig, already waiting for them, placed his goggles over his eyes. "You guys ready to go?"
"Yeah-ah!" Anne said, ready for a day of fun after days of crawling through the mud and the dirty and surviving from everything that was trying to eat her and Kenji.
"Let's do this!" Kenji exclaimed with a big smile.
"Hey, hey, hey!" The three of them chanted as they ran over to the front door, only to be stopped by Hop Pop jumping in front of him.
"And where do you three think you're going?" he questioned
"We're going to the lake," Sprig said, pulling out his short and then letting them go, letting them smack back into his waist. "Ooh. Ow."
"Why? You want in? You want to come?" Anne asked.
"Yeah, the more the merrier," said Kenji.
"Absolutely not!" Hop Pop suddenly yelled at the three, before moving past Sprig to talk to the humans living with them. "Look, Kenji, Anne. You're a new, unsettling, strange, bizarre, gangly, horrifying-"
"Thanks. We got it." Anne held up her hand.
"Point is, the frogs in this town can be pretty small-minded," said the elder frog as he walked over the window and pulled down the shades to look outside, seeing some frogs walk and interacting with each other. When one that was walking his fly waving and saying hello to Hopediah. "And paranoid."
Kenji raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about everyone else or just yourself?"
"We just need to give them time to get used to you," Hop Pop said, ignoring what Kenji said before pulling out a key. "I think it's best you stay put."
He then locked the door, just as Anne started to protest. "But-"
"No buts!" Hop Pop said, slipping the key into the pocket of his shirt, before walking away from the two teenagers and his grandson. "Now I'm going to go into my study to get a little reading done."
"Ugh, Hop Pop." Sprig complained.
"Come on, man!" Kenji added.
"Don't do anything stupid!" Hop Pop told them, before slamming the doors to his study shut.
"Ugh!" Anne groaned. "Adults are all the same. Curfews. Rules..." she paused for a moment to think of a three thing. "Old."
"Yeah, looks like we're stuck here," Sprig said before getting an idea in his head. "Ooh! I know what'll be fun. Let's try some of Hop Pop's pain peppers."
"Pain peppers?" Kenji asked as he followed Sprig. The little red frog pulled out a wooden barrel that had some reddish liquid leaking from the top. Sprig then opened it and the two of them looked inside to see the peppers Sprig was talking about. They look like Red Habanero peppers. When in storage, they sit in a red, bubbling liquid. Scattered across the wrinkly surface are small "warts." Their stalks are short and dull green.
"So hot, they'll make you wish you were dead," he told Kenji who looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Oh, that's a load of baloney," Kenji said, waving him off. He then reached in and grabbed one of them by their stem. Having eaten a lot of spicy food in his life, the dark-brown-haired boy was expecting something that he was accustomed to.
However, he wasn't expecting the intensity of the pepper. His eyes widened at first, before screaming in pure agony as a column of fire came out of his mouth. He then started running around the room, screaming, "IT BURNS! BURNS! BURNS!" Sprig ran over with a jug of water, jumped on Kenji's shoulders, and started pouring the water down his throat. When it was all gone, Kenji still screamed. "It does nothing! Why isn't the water doing anything!?" He then collapsed on the ground, holding his neck, and reached his hand out in a dramatic way. "Someone just kill me, please!"
And then, Kenji went limp on the ground. Surely dead.
But then he sprung back up with a smile. "Woah! Man, was that something!" He said, before grabbing another one and held it out to Anne. "Here, Anne, you should try it. Once you get past the pain and agony, it's really good."
"No, thanks. I'd rather go to the lake," Anne said with determination.
Sprig was just about to eat a handful of the pain peppers when he turned to Anne. "What? But Hop Pop said, uh-"
"Sprig, you want to know the best thing about friendship. When you got your friend by your side, anything is possible," Anne said, which made Kenji smile as he stood next to her. Only for that smile to fade a little when she said, "Whatever you want, a real friend will help you get. And you know what I want?"
"The lake!"
"Yup. Now let's go rob an old man!" Anne proclaimed, pointing a finger to the air as Sprig looked at her with a cringed look and Kenji glared at her with his arms crossed.
"Really Anne?"
"Yeah, that didn't sound as cool as I wanted it to."
Kenji sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Did she really forget that stealing was the whole reason they were stuck in this world? Either way, he went along with it. So, he, Anne, and Sprig walked over to the doors of the study and looked inside. Reading Hop Pop had taken off his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair, and the very pocket that housed the key was facing them. Key sticking out of it.
"Any ideas?" Anne asked.
"I've got a few, but they involve using technology that doesn't exist," Kenji said. "But I've got another idea." He then started walking cautiously towards Hop Pop. His bare feet softly stepped on the wooden floor, trying not to make a sound.
But as he got a few feet closer, he heard something. He held up his fist, signaling for Anne and Sprig to halt and stay quiet. Kenji's eyes widened when he found out what it was.
"...You've got to be kidding me," he said in a low voice.
"What is it?" Anne asked.
Kenji turned to them and signaled for them to come over. "It's okay. He's asleep."
Anne and Sprig looked at one another before walking over with him. When they got to him, they were absolutely stunned to see that Hop Pop was, indeed, snoring. However, his eyes were wide open as he stared down at his book. Anne daringly waved a hand in front of his face to get a reaction out of him, but Hop Pop remained still.
"This might be the creepiest thing I've ever seen," Anne commented.
"Happens all the time," Sprig told them.
Kenji turned to him. "Really?"
"Yeah, he makes a great scarecrow."
Kenji then looked down at the key and carefully reached down and grabbed it out of Hop Pop's couch. gently pulling it out. They then tiptoed out of the study before Anne closed the door behind them.
"Alright, I've got the key," Kenji said, holding it up. He then looked a little guilty. "I still don't feel right about stealing it from Hop Pop like that."
"It's not stealing if we're going to give it back," Anne assured him. "Besides, we'll be back before he wakes up." Kenji looked a little skeptical. "Come on! Lighten up. Now, let's go to the lake!"
"To the lake!" Kenji and Sprig cheered with her.
The walk to the lake was a little longer than Kenji and Anne were expecting it to be, but they didn't really complain. In fact, for the first time since coming to the world of Amphibia, they were able to walk through the woods without having something chasing after them. Anne breathed in the fresh, marsh air before letting out a big sigh. "This is great. Three pals beatin' the odds to have some fun."
"It is nice," Kenji said, looking up at the sun that was blocked by some of the trees. "But I'm kind of used to this, really."
Suddenly Anne leaned with him with Sprig being held in her other arm. She then pulled out her phone that had a cat cover. "Here. Smile!" Anne stuck out her tongue, Kenji smiled and held up a peace sign, and Sprig tried to do a smile. She pushed the button, and the camera on the phone flashed. "Whoa. Hey, that turned out great."
Anne showed Kenji and Sprig the photo, and Kenji had to chuckle at how weird Sprig looked in it. "Yeah, we look so cool," he said.
"I don't know what's crazier, that you just stole my soul in a tiny box, or that we look so incredible," Sprig said before handing back Anne's phone. "I got to say, this friend's business is amazing!"
"Wait, you don't have any friends of your own?" Kenji asked curiously.
"Uh...well, you see, the kids around here..." Sprig trails off as he had a small flashback of the time that he tried to play a 'playful' prank and scare a couple of kids his age, but it ended up with them getting traumatized and running away as Hop Pop gave him a stern talking too about scaring the neighborhood kids. "...don't really get me." Sprig says with a sad, lonely look on his face as Kenji and Anne shared sympathetic looks before the young teen boy reaches down to pat Sprig on the head as he gave him a reassuring look.
"Well, nuts to them, dude. They are missing out because you're a pretty cool guy." Kenji says as Sprig perked up and smiled brightly at what he said as Anne nodded.
"Yeah, plus, you're like a really sweet, adorable guy." Anne coos as Sprig blushed slightly at what he said and laughed nervously as he heads on with Anne and Kenji shared a short yet good hearted laugh. After a few minutes, Sprig looks around and beams as he realizes where they are and turned to his friends.
"Hey, guys, good news! We made it! Come with me!" Sprig says while grabbing onto a yelping Anne and Kenji's arms as he had managed to dragged them as they reached what seems to be a large and beautiful lake as is has luscious greenish-white water with several large green lily pads floating in the water with a few of them even having beautiful pink flowers on them, large lily pads that tower over the water and provide some shade as there were even cute little insect creatures flying around.
"Whoa! It's so beautiful!" Anne exclaimed in shock and awe as Kenji nodded with a smile on his face.
"Yeah! This was totally worth sneaking out for!" Kenji says with a look of wonder in his eyes as Sprig smirked at his friends' reactions, and an excited Anne turned over to smile at her friends.
"You guys ready?"
"Heck yeah!" The boys yelled as Sprig took off his jacket and his hat while Kenji took off his shirt, causing Anne to blush a bit at the sight of her shirtless friend as she then shakes her head to compose herself and cheered alongside her friends as they began running over to the lake and were about to dive into it, but stopped as they spotted a large sign that says, 'DON'T SWIM!'
"Huh, that's weird. This was not here last week." Sprig says while scratching his head in confusion as Anne stared at the sign for a few seconds before leaning over to look at the beautiful, peaceful-looking lake as the Thai-American girl places her hand on her chin thoughtfully and gains a knowing smirk as she nodded with a chuckle.
"He, he, I know exactly what's going on here, boys. Some jerk just wants this beautiful lake all to themselves. Well, screw that." Anne says while casually kicking the sign away as she placed her hands behind her head and began walking towards the lake.
"Ah, I don't know, Anne. Whoever wrote this wrote it in a hurry, like they were scared to be here."
"Yeah, Anne, this doesn't look good," Kenji says with a frown subtle as both he and Sprig eyed the now broken sign warily.
"Or maybe they just had bad handwriting. Come on, guys, don't be such buzzkills and have fun!" Anne says while waving off their concerns as Kenji narrowed his eyes at the familiar tone that she used, remembering two certain people saying something like that as the boys watched Anne basically skipping over to the lake and takes off her flip flops as she dips her toes in it. "Ooh, that's nice," Anne says with a little smile before squealing in surprise as Sprig stretches out his tongue and latches onto her right arm as Kenji walked over to grab her left arm.
"Guys, what are you doing?!" Anne asked with an annoyed look on her face as Kenji and Sprig gave her stern/worried looks.
"I don't like the look of this, Anne. We need to go." Kenji says as Sprig nodded warily.
"Yeah, something's not right here. Let's just go back."
"Ugh, I thought you two were my friends. Why are you guys acting so uncool?" Anne asked while glaring at them as Kenji glared back at her and let's go of her arm as Sprig did the same.
"Yeah, we're your friends, Anne, that's why we don't want you to get into the lake. Something's off about this, and I don't like it." Kenji says sternly as Anne scoffed and rolled her eyes as she placed her hand on her hip.
"Great, once again, you're complaining about having fun. Would it kill you to cut loose occasionally, like Sasha does?" Anne says sassily as Kenji narrowed his eyes at this angrily and was about to speak up but was interrupted by Anne as she turned to glare at Sprig. "And Sprig, why are you stopping me? I thought you were trying to be our friend."
"I am, but this doesn't seem right." Sprig says as Anne places her hand on her head to soothe the incoming headache that was forming on her mind due to the boy's stubbornness and worriedness as she sighs heavily.
"Look, guys, this is what friends do, alright? They help each other get the things they want." Anne says as Sprig tilted his head confusedly while Kenji merely sighed in annoyance as he knew the incoming speech was coming. "Like, if a friend likes a pencil case, you get it for them. If your friend likes your new shoes, you give them to her. And if a friend and her cousin want you and your other friend to steal a crazy music box from a thrift store, you do it, okay?! Because if you don't...they might not want to be your friend anymore and forces everyone else to stop hanging out with you, including someone you consider a close friend." Anne says with a rather somber, sad look on her face as Sprig and especially Kenji couldn't help but to give her pitied, sympathetic looks as they look down in thought.
"Fine." Sprig says stoically while walking off as Kenji stayed behind with a conflicted look on his face.
"Fine," Anne grumbles with an emotionless tone as she sighs heavily and was about to turn around to follow Sprig but stopped as both she and Kenji were surprised to see Sprig running back while letting out a loud battle cry as he promptly leaped onto the lake.
"Whoo-hoo! Get in here, guys! The water is great!" Sprig says while surfacing as a big, excited smile began forming on Anne's face, and she beams as the Thai-American Girl cheers.
"Aw Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Anne said as she rushes in does a cannonball which resulted in a huge splash! As she surfaces, Anne turned towards Kenji and waves. "See it's fine. Come one in!"
Kenji looks around to see if anything was moving within the water to make sure before jumping in. After a few moments, he sighed. "Well, you only live once." He said to himself as he takes a few steps back and charges forward towards the lake doing a cannonball as well.
After that happened; Kenji, Anne, and Sprig begin floating on the lake lazily with content smiles on their faces as they swam forward as Kenji take a small dive to get rid of the sweat that was developing on his body. A giggling Anne and Sprig could be seen having a splashing contest with each other in the water as Anne was easily winning due to having bigger hands and long fingers as, unknown to them, Kenji jumps out of the water and sent a huge splash of water towards the two. Now it was an all out Splash War!
The trio soon find themselves underwater as Anne and Sprig were having a make pretend tea party as they 'cling' their imaginary teacups as they take a sip, then Kenji floats over and look like he was chugging down a beer mug, causing Anne and Sprig to move their arms up and down as if saying 'GO! GO! GO!'.
Sprig and Anne could be seen on land as they were eyeing a large insect-like creature with six longs arms anxiously/eagerly as they turned to each other and nodded as they cheered and leaped onto the creature, startling it as it neighs like a horse (For some weird reason) and runs off with the speed of a speedboat as they zoomed across the lake while laughing in excitement as they zoomed past a giant lily pad that Kenji was currently standing on top of and the young man narrowed his eyes as he crouches down and lets out a loud battle cry as he leaped into the air and tosses a rope with Anne catching it when suddenly the multiple long-legged insect picked up his speed as he zooms across the lake with the speed of a high-powered jet ski. Kenji yelped in surprise as he clung onto the rope and as the insect ran across the whole lake with the energy and speed of a hummingbird as Anne and Sprig screamed in excitement, and even Kenji couldn't help but cheer alongside his friends as they continued traversing across the lake.
The trio laughed with each other joyfully as they were having a small playful fight with Sprig sitting on Kenji's shoulders as Anne and the others were hitting each other with giant reeds in their hands as they laughed goofily.
The humans laid on a small purple blanket that Anne had brought earlier while Sprig was enjoying his swim near them as Kenji laid his hands behind his head with a relaxed look on his face as he wore a pair of black shades, and Anne yawns slightly as she unintentionally snuggled up closer to Kenji and the teen smirked lightly as he snuggles closer to her, but then the teens yelped as Sprig appeared out of nowhere and splashes them with water as they shot up in surprise and glared at a smiling sprig as Anne and Kenji gained playful angry looks and stood up as they ran over to leap onto Sprig, who squeals in surprise as Anne and Kenji crashed landed onto him before resurfacing as they all shared a small, joyful laugh.
However...Fate has a cruel sense of humor sometimes...
"Alright, guys, stay still," Anne says while swimming in the water with the boys as she held out her phone and smiled at the sight of the boys posing for the camera as Kenji could be seen flexing his muscles with Sprig doing the same thing as Anne blushed slightly, and her gaze lingered on a shirtless Kenji for a bit before shaking her head as Anne took a picture.
"How do we look? Did I blink?" Sprig asked as Anne checks the picture and smiles as she shakes her head.
"Nope, it looks great. You guys look awesome." Anne says as the boys smirked and shared high fives as they laughed. "Well, Ken, ready to say that you were wrong about the sign and that nothing bad was lurking in the lake?" Anne asked with a smug, cheeky smirk as Kenji rolled his eyes and sighed heavily as he placed his hands on his hips.
"Fine. I guess you were right about the lake not being dangerous. Sprig and I were just overreacting." Kenji says as Anne smiled and swims over to pat his cheek only form to swat her hand away playfully.
"He, he, good boy. Anyway, I was thinking of having one more ride around the lake before heading back home. Now, where is that..." Anne trails off as she saw a large shadowy figure swimming towards them, and the messy auburn-haired teen shakily lifts her arm to point behind the boys, who turned around as the trio eyes widen in shock/fear at the sight of a large aquatic creature emerging from the lake and stared down at a stunned Anne, Kenji, and Sprig threateningly. The aquatic creature is a twenty-foot-tall, male Water Snake as he has a huge serpent-like body with large orange eyes, four sharp fangs, a long forked blue tongue, light orange dorsal fins that spread across his whole body, and he has greenish-grey skin with large brownish-black spots across his back.
"...Hey, Anne? Once we head to safety, do you mind reminding me to say, 'I told you so'."
"Sure," Anne says casually just as giant snake roared at them as the trio screamed and quickly turned around to begin swimming away with Sprig easily gaining the lead due to being a Frog as the Humans' lagged behind. "Dammit! Curse our stupid non-webbed human hands!" Anne cursed in frustration as Anne and Kenji looked up as they saw the hissing snake leaping up from the lake and begins diving down towards them with his mouth opened to try and swallow the Humans whole as Anne screamed in fear and Kenji hugged her to shield her from the snake, glaring in defiance towards the serpent.
"Anne! Ken!" Sprig shouted worriedly while swimming over to leap onto a large lily pad as he threw back his head and then stretched out his tongue forwards as he uses it to wrap around Kenji's waist and the teen reacted quickly as he grabbed onto Anne's waist, causing her to squeak a bit with a blush as Sprig pulled on his tongue and sends the teens flying out of the water just as giant snake crashed landed onto the spot that they were originally residing as a screaming Anne and Kenji were sent flying over to the lily pad and crashed landed onto it as they groaned before the trio flinched as they saw the snake glaring at them and dived into the water as he swam towards them and arrived at the lily pad that they were standing on as the serpent began circling around it, waiting for his prey to get into the water to kill and eat them as Anne, Kenji, and Sprig eyed this nervously.
"Okay, this isn't good," Anne says with a whimper before remembering something as she turned to Kenji. "Oh, and Ken, you said something about remembering you to do something?" Anne says as Kenji stared at her confusedly before he realized what she was talking about as he nodded.
"Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me," Kenji says calmly before glaring at Anne and Sprig sternly as he reached over to flick on their foreheads, causing them to yelp in pain as they rubbed their slightly bruised foreheads. "I TOLD YOU SO! I knew that swimming in the lake was a bad idea! No one just puts up warning signs for no good reason! But no, you two decided not to listen to me, and now we're about to be eaten by this giant snake thing!" An exasperated and angry Kenji screamed as the duo flinched by his yell but then a guilty expression flashes on Anne's face as she looks down and sighs somberly.
"Don't blame Sprig for this, Kenji. This whole mess is my fault. I was the one who basically forced you two to swim with me even though there was clearly a sign warning us of danger. I should've listened to you guys about the lake being potentially dangerous, and right now, you two are going to face the disastrous consequences of my reckless mistake. That's not fair, so I propose that you two should get out of here and go back home while I stay here to distract that giant snake and give you guys an opening to escape." A conscience-stricken Anne says as Kenji and Sprig stared at her in surprise by what she said as they turned to share a look just as Anne about to stand and face the giant snake as the boys had a secret message with each other and nodded as Kenji reached out to stop Anne from doing what she was about to do.
"No, Anne, we wouldn't run away knowing that you're in danger. Sure, this whole mess is your fault, but the fact that you're willing to sacrifice yourself to help us escape shows that you're remorseful enough about your actions, so we forgive you." Kenji says sincerely, causing Anne to gasp and stare at the boys in shock, surprised that they're willing to stay behind and help her deal with Fang as Sprig nodded with a determined smile on his face.
"Yeah, besides, I'm not about to let one of my first real friends get eaten by a giant monster, and also, we're a team!" Sprig exclaimed as Anne jaws dropped by what he said, still stunned but a little touched that the boys would stick by her through the very end, unlike a couple of people that she knows, as Anne smiled and hugs the boys tearfully.
"You guys are the best." Anne says as the boys smiled back at her and hugged her back before letting go of her as Anne gave them a confident, determined smirk. "Now, let's go and deal with this monster together as a team!" Anne yelled while the boys nodded as they stand up together.
As they did this, the giant water snake begins to surround them with its whole body with its head above them, ready to strike and eat them alive. Kenji, with no other options left, pulls out the Saber card from his swimsuit pocket causing Anne to look surprised while Sprig looked confused.
"Wait?! You had that with you the whole time?! / What's a card going to do for us?!" Anne and Spirg asked / shouted as Kenji turned towards the two with a serious look on his face, causing the two to flinch at the stare. The look in his eyes shows that he was ready for what he was about to do here.
"Anne. Sprig. When the snake back off, head back to shore as fast as you can. I will take of this serpent." Kenji said as he turns back towards the giant snake with a look of defiance on his face. Waiting long enough, the Water snake shoots forward to eats the preys in front of it. As the Water Snake came close, Kenji said only this…
"Include: Saber."
A light filled the lake causing the giant snake to back off from the group and causing Anne and Sprig to cover their eyes…And when it cleared Anne and Sprig uncovered their eyes and looked surprised as Kenji stood tall, a greatsword with a blade of glowing blue in his right hand, a short sword of the same glowing color blade in his left hand in a reverse grip, and four floating blue-edged daggers circling around him. Kenji looked confused at what
"Woah!" Both Anne and Sprig said in surprise at what just happened. Now with the chance they got, they swam back to shore as Kenji raised the large glowing blade of blue into the sky, and instinctively he knew its name. Gram: Dawn of Ruin. The blade of one of the greatest Norse heroes: Sigurd.
'My blades shall cut down your enemies and sever through even fate itself!' A voice within his mind declared, filled with strength and pride. 'Now strike this beast down! With all the force of the Sword of the Sun!'
"Here I come, you slippery bastard!" Kenji roared as he charged at the Water Snake with blistering speeds. The beast didn't even have time to react as four slashes happened to its head, as Kenji sped past it at blinding speed and landing on a giant lily pad, then putting enough energy into his arms and legs, Kenji shot forward and swung with all his might before coming to a grinding halt back on the beach with the others. Kenji swung his swords to remove the excess blood on the blades as the head of the giant Water Snake was sent soaring through the air, mouth open as if roaring in pain as it begins to split into four pieces, before the body slumped and it began to sink into the darkness of the lake, along with the head.
As Kenji stood up, Anne and Sprig walked towards him in awe and smiles on their faces as Sprig spoke up first. "Ken! That was amazing!"
"Yeah Ken! You were like *WOOSH* and bam! Man, you were great Ken!" Anne said with a smile on her face. After a few moments of silence, Both Anne and Sprig lost their smiles as they notice that Kenji wasn't moving or responding, but he was gripping the glowing blue greatsword and short sword tightly as it was shaking. "Umm…Ken?"
Kenji grunts as he abruptly fell to one knee, planting the greatsword into the ground and begins panting heavily. In a burst of light, the greatsword, shortsword, and daggers vanished, the Saber Class Card falling to the ground beneath him.
'Hmph… Your inexperience led you to using all your power at once,' the voice noted in an observant tone. 'Well, I am certain we shall make a fine warrior out of you yet, Master. I am Sigurd, the King of Warriors. I look forward to working alongside you. The one who aided you with his sword from before was Siegfried, the Tenacious Dragon Slayer and I'm sure that soon we will meet face to face. Be ready for when that happens.' The voice, now named Sigurd, finished as his presences disappeared from Kenji's mind, for now.
"Woah Ken! Are you ok?" Anne said as Kenji nodded as he picks up the Saber card and begins to stand up with Anne's help to get him back on his legs.
"I'm good guys, just exhausted. Let's get back home before Hop Pop finds out we got out." Kenji said with a weak smile on his face. Anne and Sprig didn't look convinced, but they know if they stay here longer the more likely Hop Pop will wake up and notice that they left the house, so they nodded as the three proceeded to head their way back to Plantar Home.
The day was finally ending as the sun was starting to set over the horizon. Hop Pop was still sleeping with his eyes open but was finally starting to wake up. Sighing as he blinked and mumbled to himself. However, he quickly realized that he had fallen asleep and gasped. "I'm up! I'm awake!"
Remembering why he was in the study, he looked back and immediately checked the pockets of his jacket. Only to find nothing. "The key. It's gone! Oh, no. Did they get out?" Hop Pop started to panic and ran over to a window to look outside. "Is the town rioting? Are they dead? Has Anne and Frank eaten the kids, THE WHOLE TOWN!" He flailed his arms like Kermit the Frog.
Rushing out of the study, Hop Pop ran to the door with the intent to go find the kids. However, he stood when he saw the lock was still on the door. "What's this now? It's still locked."
A wary and anxious Hop Pop walks over to Anne and Kenji shared Basement/Bedroom as the white-haired Frog opens the latch and pops his head inside as Hop Pop was surprised to see his grandson and the human, who were all now wearing their normal clothes, sitting around on the ground as they were playing one of Sprig's many board games.
"Come on. Mama needs a new pair of shoes...seriously though, I do need new shoes." Anne says with a straight face while shuffling a couple of dice in her hands as Kenji turned over to give her a confused eyebrow.
"How did you lose one of your shoes, by the way?" Kenji asked as Anne shrugged.
"I don't know. One day, I was showering on a nearby waterfall, and when I was dressing up, I noticed that one of my shoes were gone." Anne answered as Kenji nodded just as Hop Pop walks down into the room as he made his way over to the trio with a suspicious/confused look on his face.
"You guys been here all day, huh?" Hop Pop asked as the teens turned to him to nod with big smiles on their faces.
"Yeah, at first, we were disappointed that we couldn't go to the lake, but after thinking about it, we realized that you were right. Maybe it is best that we stay low for a while until the townsfolk get used to us 'monsters'." Kenji says while using finger quotes as he rolled his eyes.
"So, to pass the time, we decided to play some of Sprig's board games. I'm on a winning streak." Anne said as Kenji gave her the stink eye.
"That's only because the rules of this game are dumb!" Kenji said, gesturing to the game.
"I owe her my first-born child," Sprig said.
"You see what I mean!"
"Oh, by the way, Hop Pop. We found this on the floor," Anne said, pulling out the key that they had stolen. She looked nervously at him. "You must have dropped it.
Hop Pop took the key and stared at it for a moment. "Dang shallow pockets. Well, you get what you pay for," he said, slipping the key into his shirt pocket.
"So, what do you say? You trust us now with not eating you all?" Kenji asked with a hopeful expression.
"Hmph, trust isn't as easy to earn as it is to break," Hop Pop said, causing Kenji to look down with a somber look on his face, "But since you're willing to listen about staying put for today, perhaps it's a step in the right direction." He finished with a small smile, causing Kenji to look up to him surprise, as he begins marching up the stairs and exiting the cellar just as Polly appeared as she landed on the staircase and waved her rolling pin around with an eager, sadistic smile on her face...before pouting as she saw the supposed monsters playing a friendly game with her older brother.
"What's up, Polly?" Anne says while waving at her as Polly groans.
"Great, so you two are not going eat us? You two aren't even going to try? Disappointing." Polly says while shaking her head as she sighs dramatically as she bounces off and locks the hatch behind her as the trio turned to each other...and snorted as they shared a quick laugh.
"Ha, ha, that was great, guys. I can't believe that we pulled it off." Kenji says as Anne giggled.
"Yeah..." Anne says before trailing off as a guilty look appeared on her face and places her head on her knees as she sighs somberly. "Hey, guys, I know that I already apologized, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry that I almost got you guys killed."
"Ah, it's okay, Anne. I know that you didn't mean for us to almost get killed by a giant Water Snake, so let bygones be bygones." Kenji says with a casual shrug as Anne smiled lightly and nodded as an excited Sprig jumps up.
"Yeah, and besides, that was the most exciting thing that's ever happened! You managed to defeat a giant Water Snake with no problem! Man, my heart was beating faster than a dragonfly on a sugar rush. In fact, I'm feeling a little...sleepy." A now drowsy Sprig says as he yawns and closed his eyes as he fell onto the ground and quickly went asleep as the humans smiled down at him amusedly with Anne even supplying him with one of her pillows and blankets as she then walked over to sit beside Kenji, and both had unreadable looks on their faces as they stared up at the ceiling.
"Hey Ken?"
"Yeah Anne?"
"So, what happened to you? After you took down that giant snake, you nearly collapsed. What happened to the sword that you had from before?" Anne asked as Kenji pulls out the Saber card from his coat pocket and looks at for a moment before shaking his head as he places it back.
"I don't. I thought I was going to pull out that silver greatsword from before when I used the card, but instead it gave me that glowing blue greatsword instead. Perhaps the guy who gave me these cards can give me a proper answer the next time we meet him." Kenji said as Anne nodded.
"Yeah, same here. I thought something was off when he gave you those cards for free…Man I hope Sasha and Marcy are doing alright. Hopefully they're nearby somewhere in this world." A hopeful Anne asked with a small smile on her face as Kenji purses his lips and places his hand on his chin thoughtfully.
"Same here Anne but try to not get your hopes up to high. We don't have enough evidence to verify that our friends are here, but we will keep our eyes open. OK?" Kenji says, not wanting his friend to get her hopes up for nothing, as Anne's excited demeanor died down and frowned as she sighs.
"Yeah, I know." Anne says as Kenji stared at her for a few seconds only to then awkwardly look away as he seems to be struggling to come up with something to cheer up Anne before making his mind as he turned to give his best friend a reassuring, sympathetic smile.
"Hey, Anne? I-I just wanted to say that no matter what happens, I will still be here by your side to protect you because I, uh...care about you a lot." A shy and awkward Kenji says as he scratches his cheek in embarrassment with Anne going wide-eyed for a bit and blushes slightly before smiling warmly as she scooted over to hug Kenji.
"Thanks, Ken...I-I care about you too, and if I was going to be suddenly teleported into a world full of talking frogs, I'm at least grateful and happy that I'm able to share this experience with you." Anne says with a blush as Kenji smiles and hugs Anne back as the messy auburn-haired girl glances up at the ceiling with a little smile on her face.
"Sasha...Marcy...if you all are really out there, I hope you guys are okay because we are." Anne thought to herself with a content look on her face before going back to continue hugging Kenji as Sprig's snores rang out across the room.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, we zoom out of Wartwood Swamp as we cue to a location situated near the edge of the Valley's Mountains, where we see a huge castle made of stone bricks and surrounded by a mountainous region, compromising of snow-capped mountains and ravines as there are many barren trees seen surrounding the tower and its walled exterior. The castle itself is built atop a rocky cliff with one leading pathway connecting it to the mainland, serving as its only entrance. Many fire torches can also be seen, hung at the entrance as well as along the tower's battlements, and a single long red flag is placed at the top of the tower. The tower also has many rooms, including a stable where tarantulas are kept, has a main dining hall, and the whole castle was called 'Toad Tower'. Anyway, after getting a good look at the castle, we zoom into Toad Tower and see a teenager placed in a prison cell as she is held in place by thick metal chains that were wrapped around her right leg and a large humanoid toad could be seen staring at them threateningly as he stepped up to talk to them.
The human is a 5'7-feet-tall, German-American, 16-year-old teenage girl with long blonde hair that was wrapped up into a high ponytail with a brown scrunchie, almond-shaped brown eyes with black-discolored marks around them, a pointy small nose, a beauty mark placed near her right eye, D-Cup breasts, pale Caucasian skin, a slender build, a big ass, and her outfit consists of a dark blue jean jacket with a worn out and ripped white shirt with a pink collar underneath as the shirt has a 'Saint James High School' crest embroidered on it, a padlock necklace wrapped around her neck, a short pink skirt, white socks, and a pair of very shiny black Mary Jane shoes with small heels. Her name is Sasha Waybright, one of Anne and the others' close best friend.
The toad is a humanoid, 4'10-feet-tall, 45-year-old, Toad male with a slit pupil-less glowing yellow-green eye as his other eye was injured and had a pink scar that leads down to his lower jaw, a bald head, sharp yellow teeth, four-fingered clawed hands, mucky dark green skin with a light green underbelly, a very large muscular build, and his outfit consists of light brown metal armor with a dark purplish cape attached to it, leather shoulder padding, and dark brown boots. His name is Captain 'Grime' Grimothy, the ruler/leader of the Frog Valley's Toad Tower and captain of the Toad Army garrison of said tower.
"Take a look at this, please, Sasha." Captain Grime says with his usual scowl while showing off one of Anne's shoes to the blond teenager, whose eyes widen in surprise as the Toad smirked at this slyly. "It was found far from here, in the South Forest, and, judging by the fact of your shocked looks, you recognize this shoe. And now we know for sure that you have been lying to us. Now we know that there are more of you." Captain Grime says as Sasha glared at the old toad as lightning flashes showing her distain towards the old toad.
Outside the Toad Tower, Far away from the place is a young woman in her early-mid teens with a slender physique, soft skin, and golden eyes. She has "finely textured" blonde hair that seems "as if sprinkled with gold dust." Her face shows some signs of elegance, but she shows no emotion which made her look like that of a doll. Her outfit consist of a black hooded trench coat with the hood over head, a black one-piece swimsuit with blue leggings that reached her thighs, black gauntlets on her arms, and black shoes with metal plate at the front of them. The one thing that actually stands out was the weapon that she was carrying, The weapon has a futuristic knight-like handle and guard but instead of a normal blade, the weapon emits a beam of red light from the guard with the beams length being that of a normal blade.(1)
The woman was looking intently at the castle as to identify and observe the flaws of the tower for possible infiltration to get food or supplies. After she observes for a few moments, the woman's gaze stops towards a specific spot of the tower, which is the tower prison cells where Sasha was being held. After a few moments, the woman turns around and retreats towards the dark forest before she gets spotted by those in the guard towers nearby.
1. M.H.X.(A.)