Yayz, new chapter. I don't think I have any new thank you's to add this time. Ooh, no I lied. Thank you to the creators of Pinocchio as well as the creators of Owen from The Cluefinder's Third Grade Adventures.

Have fun reading this chapter.

This is the first ever proven sighting of a squid this size! Found by a Japanese fishing boat, the squid was at least 80 feet from top of the head to the tip of its longest tentacle. Several digital photos as well as one of its tentacles were preserved…

"I know Mister President,' a man said into his telephone as he flicked off the television. "The UN is working very hard to get to the bottom of this."

"The media needs some sort of response to this. The people are wondering why their worst nightmares and creatures they thought only existed in science fiction novels are wandering the streets and appearing in people's homes," Mister President replied.

"We have things under control Mister President. We have one of them in our possession," the man assured looking through a glass window to an interrogation room where he could see a young boy struggling against the restraint of several agents.

"I'm a real boy!" The young child screamed repeatedly.

The man watched his nose grow steadily longer at the same time as Mister President asked, "What is it?"

Cautiously the man answered, "I believe it would be Pinocchio."

Then he hung up the phone because he had heard Pinocchio concede, "Okay, okay, I'll tell you anything you want to know."

We enjoyed our afternoon with Tiara very much, and as long as we kept talking, Nori didn't regress back into his depressed state. It was kind of strange that as soon as there was a lull in the conversation, he would get a distant, worried look on his face. We quickly learned to just never stop talking. Eventually, though, it was time to return home. We had to leave before night because the 'robot patrol' had a strict curfew which allowed them to strip search anyone out after a certain hour. And all for Nori. What on Earth had he done?

Tiara drove us to a couple blocks away from the gate so we wouldn't have to walk so far. When the gate was in clear view, however, we noticed two Mexican men destroying Nori's bike with baseball bats. Quickly, he pulled me into the same alleyway we hid in on our way into Japan. He pulled out his video phone and started banging his head on the wall, trying to remember Tiara's number.

"We can't go out that way," he explained to me as he thought. "They're waiting for us."

I whispered back, "I know those guys. They followed me around the day you showed up at my house. Who are they?"

"They're CrawFish's eels," Nori replied shortly, deciding to start walking back to Tiara's place.

"What?" I asked because I didn't understand what he said.

"Uh…do you know Ursula, that octopus-lady?" He inquired, stepping onto a trash can.

I followed, answering, "Yeah."

He climbed onto the roof and then helped me up. "Remember how she had two eel assistants who would go gather victims for her, and she could see through their eyes?" I nodded in agreement. "Well, CrawFish has a couple assistants too, that always show up right before he does."

"Oh." I understood then. After a few moments, I wondered, "Are we gonna walk all the way back to Tiara's?"

"Nah," Nori responded, "She's got a friend that lives in one of these houses. Once I recognize it, we'll knock on their door and see if they've got her number."

We walked silently across a few flat roofs. On either the fourth or fifth one, Nori tripped over an almost invisible fishing line stretched from one end to the other. He fell flat on his face, letting it show that it hurt a little. When red lights began flashing all around and a siren went off, Nori sat up smiling.

"We found it," was all he said.

A split second later an animated pirate was on the roof with a club in each hand and a sword in his mouth. He let them all drop to the ground and asked curiously, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

Nori smiled embarrassedly, "Yep."

The man turned off the alarm and questioned, "What are you doing here?"

"I need Tiara's telephone number."

The man invited us in and then called Tiara for us. Before saying anything else, he held the phone up to Nori's face and asked Tiara if she recognized him. She said she did, so the pirate handed the phone over to Nori. Nori told Tiara what had just happened, and she agreed to come back to get us from the pirate's house. We didn't leave when she showed up, though.

She dumped a bunch of stuff on the pirate's table and stated, "These otta make you unrecognizable."

Nori fingered through the items Tiara had brought. Holding up one of her puny, superhero outfits, he joked, "Awesome, I always wanted to wear this!"

"Not you," Tiara countered, grabbing the outfit from Nori. "This is for her."

I looked at Tiara in shock. She wanted me to wear that?

Confirming my fears, she tossed it to me, commanding, "Go put it on. We'll work on you first."

I did as she asked, and it actually fit really well. All except for the bust, that is. She was much larger than me in that regard. At first, she just laughed at me because it looked strange. After an outburst from both her and Nori, however, she took a kimono from the table and stuffed it down the shirt.

She explained, "This is in case you think someone has found you out. Go into some alleyway and throw this on." She stood back for a second to think of what she would need to do next. "Your face is not anime," she muttered to herself, "you need a new haircut. I can't make your eyes bigger, but…" She grabbed the scissors from the table and started cutting my hair.

In the end she put a bunch of gel in it, so it looked all spiky. It was so not me. While that was the point, I wasn't sure I would be able to live with it like that until my next hair appointment. It almost looked like I was from the eighties, only more anime-ish. Nori laughed at me when Tiara turned my chair around so the pirate and he could see me. I felt like I needed a dog collar and a lip ring.

After a moment of wanting to cry, I wondered, "But what if I change into the kimono? Wouldn't this hair be a little exotic for that?"

"Ah-ha, you're wrong," Tiara corrected. "If you must change into the kimono, get your hair wet, brush the bangs down, tie these parts back with this ribbon," she took the ribbon and tied it around my arm like a bandana, "and re-gel the bottom parts. You'll look much calmer like that."

Then Tiara turned to Takeshi, "Now you Nori. We've gotta make you match her."

Nori stopped laughing for the first time since we got to the pirate's house. I, on the other hand, would have fun with this. Tiara threw him some really baggy, holy, camo pants and a white tank top. The pirate got assigned to take care of his jewelry—which meant we got to pierce Nori's ear because pirates like that kind of jewelry. He tried to make it seem like it hadn't hurt, but Tiara and I knew it had. The pirate also gave him a silver necklace fully accompanied by the necessary bling, and a chain to hang from his pants.

Tiara spent the whole time dying Nori's hair; though, only she knew what color it was. I got to give Nori fake tattoos with a semi-permanent pen. I started with just lines on his fingers, which confused him at first, but it quickly became obvious that I was drawing spider webs up his arms. Both webs ended at the inside of his elbows with a tarantula. The tarantula on the left arm was much better than the one I drew on the right arm, so I added a skull and crossbones to his right shoulder to make up for it.

His hair ended up light blue in the end. She put a lot of extra gel in his hair too, so it stood up more than normal. It seemed a strange combination at first, but we all agreed that it looked good once Tiara gave him some small, square glasses, especially if he was standing next to me. Tiara then took his backpack—which looked all right with our new styles—and stuffed a suit and dress shoes in it for Nori to change into when I changed into the kimono. Realizing she didn't have much time to admire her masterpieces, she kissed Nori on the forehead, gave me a hug, and then assigned the pirate to make sure we made it home.

From there we went to a Japanese bullet train and rode it all the way across Japan to the other gate. We were sitting across from each other, so that each of us had a full three seats to ourselves, when I noticed that he was falling back into depression. I was about to say something, but two blonde anime girls sat down on either side of him, squishing him a little bit. They started chatting with him in Japanese. I couldn't understand what they were saying, obviously, but I could tell they liked him by the embarrassed look that came over Nori's squished face.

One of the girls was obsessed with his tarantula tattoos. That I could tell. Nori tried to stay in character, but every time he looked over to me, we both almost broke out laughing. The girl who wasn't obsessed with the tattoos was on her knees on the seat to Nori's left fingering his hair. She kissed his temple lightly and then whispered a question into his ear. He looked almost as embarrassed as when I first recognized him and was trying to figure out if he was real. He smiled slightly and looked to me like I had to find the way out of this.

"What did she want?" I lipped silently.

"What?" Nori lipped back, apparently not able to read lips. That was a talent I'd have to give him later.

Suddenly, an idea came to me and I stated randomly, "Maybe we should dye your hair blue more often, eh Takeshi?"

Nori smiled a thank you but instantly had to fake a shocked look when the two girls glared at him.

One asked in Japanese, "Who is she?"

Not exactly sure how to respond, Nori swallowed and then went back to his first explanation as to who I was. "A cousin," Nori growled through his teeth, also in Japanese, as he stood up and approached me. He pulled me to my feet and muttered, "I thought I told you not to interrupt me."

I was out of ideas again but was saved by an announcement that the train was nearing the next stop. Calmly, I replied, "We can't have you missing our stop, can we? Mom wants you there before the wedding starts."

Nori grumbled, and the two of us exited the train, quietly followed by the pirate. As the train pulled away, the two girls looked to each other in surprise as if saying, "They're going to a wedding dressed like that?"

"The wedding?" Nori asked when we got off the train. "What could possibly have prompted you to say we were going to a wedding at this time of night?"

I smiled embarrassedly. "It worked, didn't it?" I noted.

"Yeah, thanks. She asked me to go skinny dipping with her."

I broke out in laughter and Nori quickly followed suit. The pirate, however, mentioned, "You should have said yes."

"What?" Nori asked cheerfully.

"As a pirate, I know. When you find a girl, you take advantage of the opportunity. But now, we're just standing here waiting for the next train."

I smiled slightly at the difference in cultures between the three of us. Nori wiped his face and leaned against a pillar, distantly waiting for the next train to arrive. Worried about how he had been acting that day—and since no one had told me anything about what was causing him to act that way—I walked over to him. After giving him a second to start some other conversation on his own, I brought up the subject.

"Takeshi…" I began. I gave him a moment to respond, but since he didn't, I continued, "Whatch'ya thinkin' 'bout?"

"Nothing," he replied dully.

"It's obvious your mind is somewhere else Takeshi...You can't lie to your author…I gave you that look."

"This place has a lot of memories."

"Some of them aren't such good memories, I suppose," I probed.

"Yeah, I guess." He shifted uncomfortably. Remembering what Vash had told him earlier, he knew that he should really tell me the story, but he didn't want to. "You know how everyone keeps asking why I don't wanna kill you, and all?" He began. Then, he continued, "I didn't react too well to Chiyo dying is all. I did some things I probably shouldn't have because I was angry. None of it turned out too well."

"So, being here makes you feel guilty?" I asked, starting to get the picture.

"Sure."

Still hoping he would explain more, I let the tension grow by creating an awkward silence. I could tell it was getting to him because he ran his fingers through his hair, itched his nose, and started swinging his foot. All of those were quirks I gave him when he was nervous. I laughed a little, just because I couldn't help it. It was too easy to read him. He shot a glare at me, not quite understanding why I was laughing at him.

Thinking it was in some way related to the conversation we had been holding, he defended, "Hey, I needed someone to blame, okay? You weren't exactly around yet, so CrawFish made for a good target. I got ten of my friends together to help me take him out. It was a good plan too…have you ever heard of the Bottomless Pits of Doom?"

"You mean the ones in the ancient Sumerian city, from that video game?" I questioned, thinking I knew of the right pit.

Nori thought for a second. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure Owen was from a game."

All of a sudden it dawned on me where he had gotten that video phone from because I hadn't given it to him, but I just let Nori continue, "Anyways, he told us about the place, where CrawFish would fall and fall eternally with no end or way of getting out. It seemed like a good idea, 'cuz we couldn't kill him or get rid of him any other way. We had a perfect way into the forest straight to his castle, 'cuz we converted one of his guards to our side, and eleven of us could surely drag him to the pits. There was only one little problem."

Then, he stopped, and I had to nudge him along again. "What was it?" I wondered.

He pointed into empty space towards the upper left corner of the station. "Cameras. CrawFish's got 'em scattered about Fiction-land so that he can watch over ever inch of what goes on."

"So he can hear everything? How are we supposed to make a plot—"

"No, silly, not everything. That would take way to much work. The cameras have a built in word scanner that sets off an alert anytime someone says one of a hundred words on his list—like his name, or my name if you're in Japan, or that word on ships that means the crew rebels against the captain."

"Oh, mut—"

"Don't say it!" He interrupted. "When a camera catches one of those words, it tells the guards. Then the guard will watch the whole conversation from a couple minutes before the word to a couple minutes after the word to see if there was any 'questionable content.' We didn't know that though. The whole plan was laced with rebellious words. We didn't even make it a block away from my house before CrawFish showed up."

"And then?" I prompted when Nori had stopped again.

"He took us to the Bottomless Pits…I'd rather not say all of what happened. Tia Dalma had to save Vash, Tiara, Usagi and her sister Chibiusa, me, and someone else."

"Chisagu and Hubi-who-sa?" I questioned, very confused.

"Usagi and Chibiusa…" Nori corrected, but realizing I didn't recognize the names he clarified, "Sailor Moon and her little sister Rini…The other five died, in the closest sense of the word."

"Usagi and Chibiusa…" Nori corrected, but realizing I didn't recognize the names he clarified, "Sailor Moon and her little sister Rini…The other five died, in the closest sense of the word…hung eternally in space with nowhere to go and nothing to do."

"Oh," I muttered sadly. That would be a hard thing to live with. For a while I was lost in thought, still wondering what exactly had happened, but knowing I didn't want to know. Nori obviously didn't want to tell me either. I hadn't meant to create another silence, but one was starting to creep in. Nori was being affected by this silence just like all the others, falling back to that night…

Nori was laying on the ground around ten feet away from Lionel who was holding a boy Nori didn't recognize over the edge of the pits. Nori had a strange pain in his lower back and knew he couldn't get up again. He tried anyway, knowing he couldn't watch another friend fall into the dark hole. Less than a foot off the ground, he collapsed back onto his face. Lionel laughed, coming toward Nori to kick him once again.

Chibiusa broke away from her older sister's grasp and ran between Nori and the lobster, shouting, "You can't hurt Nori-san any more!"

Lionel just laughed again, slightly lowering the young boy. "And what will you do about it, young lady?"

"I, Chibiusa Tsukino, acting as chief Sailor Chibi Moon, will fight you to protect my friend," she stated firmly, planting herself in the ready position.

Usagi ran to her side. "No, Chibiusa! You can't fight him." When Lionel took another step toward them, however, Usagi stood in front of her sister. She too was willing to die for Nori.

"Nori…Nori…Nori!" Pulled him out of his thoughts. It was me, and when he finally looked at me, I asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he answered after a little delay. He sniffed and leaned his head back against the wall.

"Right Nori," I agreed sarcastically. "You're about to cry."

"Am not," he countered, "and remember, don't use that name."

"Nori, Takeshi didn't get your attention…" He turned away from me, biting his lip, so I grabbed his chin to make him look at me. "You can cry if you want to."

"No I can't. What kind of gangsteh with spider web tattoos cries in a subway station?"

"What kind of gangsteh is named 'Bamboo Tree'?" I retorted to nullify his excuse. "Nori, anime tears are magical."

He laughed through his watering eyes. "Anime tears aren't magical. What made you think that?"

"Yes, they are Nori. Every anime tear I have ever seen has been accompanied by a magical 'ding' noise when it falls." I took his cheeks in my hands and squeezed them together, so they bunched up around his eyes, making him look funny. Then, I continued in a really strange voice, "Cry Nori. It'll make you happy."

Nori smiled and pushed my hands away. "Yeah, right," he muttered, walking over to a bench a few feet away and sitting. Instantly, his mind drifted back to where he had been before…

If the two girls were going to keep fighting, Nori was going to join them. He took a deep breath, mustered all his strength, and ignored the pain it took to get to his knees. He took a break there, closing his eyes to blink away the pain moving had caused. It was certainly more than just laying there. Nori never got a chance to climb to his feet, though.

Noticing that Nori was trying to get up, Lionel declared, "If you get up again, I'll slice the boy's head off before dropping him over." The boy was once again being held directly over the pit, Lionel's claw at his throat. The boy was sobbing and had been the whole time.

Helplessly, Nori fell back to the ground, gaining only the slightest comfort from the warm presence of Vash's hand on his shoulder. Nori buried his face in the dirt, asking himself, Why did you do this? How could you force yourself to lose everyone in the same day? He couldn't watch the boy die, not after watching Owen and half of his other friends die. His eyes had been watering ever since they arrived at the pits, but when he closed his eyes that time, one single tear dropped down his nose and into the dirt.

He didn't open his eyes again until he heard a familiar voice enter the area, saying, "That's enough Lionel." It sounded more like, "Daz enou' Lee-nel."

Nori turned his head to the side so he could see who this new person was. She stood there between Lionel and the four friends in a ripped and dirty dress which looked like it was from a couple hundred years ago, and her hair was a mess.

Lionel recognized her immediately and exclaimed, "Tia Dalma! You're just in time for the climatic ending."

"Ees over Lee-nel. Go back to ya fancy palace an' lea'e (leave) deez poor kiz alone."

Lionel protested, "You're not involved in this Tia. They tried to kill me."

Tia Dalma grabbed the sobbing boy from Lionel's claw. "Seez friends eez too many to lose een one day. Dey's learned der lesson…Go."

After a few seconds, Lionel gave in. "Fine," he growled as he walked off, "but next time I'll get you…Nori-san."

Tia Dalma walked the young boy over to the four of us and handed him over to Usagi.

Nori's friends looked at Tia Dalma in shock, Usagi managing to ask, "Are you really the Tia Dalma?"

"Der's only one Tia Dalma kiz," Tia responded kindly.

"Thank you," Vash stated, knowing that if she hadn't shown up, all of them would probably have died—or spent an eternity waiting for their authors to kill them.

Tia Dalma didn't make it seem like a big deal at all, simply brushing Usagi and Chibiusa to the side a ways so she could kneel next to Nori. She lifted his head and warned, "Be careful kiz. Lee-nel don't geev up so easy." The look on Nori's face made her add, "Poor boy," as she clicked her tongue and tried to help him to his feet.

Nori's eyes rolled to the back of his head about halfway up, and he limply fell back to the ground with a groan. Tia Dalma clicked her tongue again.

Then, she ordered Vash, "Get da poor kid t 'a doctor." She lifted Nori's face one last time, and since he barely opened his eyes at her, she noted, "Chiyo wouldn't be proud of ye fer dis," before she walked away.

Nori was brought back to reality that time by a warm drop of something hitting his hand. He had started to cry again, he realized as he stared in a daze at his hands folded in his lap. A cold wind chilled his wet cheeks as the bullet train pulled up. Great, he thought, I can't go on there crying like this. Then, a hand clutched his hands. It was my hand.

I whispered comfortingly in his ear, "It's all right Takeshi. I'm sure whoever you're crying for would be proud of you for trying."

He sighed and stood up to get on the train. "No, Tiara, they're not…but on second thought," he continued, trying to appear cheerful, "my tears might be magical."

We didn't say much between getting back on the train and arriving in Fantasy-land. No other girls tried to flirt with Nori either, since he was now crying and depressed looking. We got off the train at the gate with no problems, and rode a taxi back to the Fantasy-land gate. Nori told Short Stuff the right password this time, and we started on our trek back to his house. We decided to walk to Kairi's house first, so Nori could drop me off like a proper gentleman, but about a block away we were suddenly surrounded by strange, short black creatures with long fingers and antennae.

Nori muttered under his breath, "Damn them Heartless."

"What do you mean Heartless?" I asked curiously as I looked nervously from one dark creature to the next.

"You knew who Sora was," Nori mentioned. "Don't you know his enemies too?" He and the pirate stood back to back with me in the middle to form some sort of protection.

"There should be someone here who controls them any minute," the pirate said.

"We're not waiting for that!" Nori exclaimed as he shook one off from biting his arm. "You've got all the weapons Dude. I need something to fight with."