Chapter 11: The Fall of the Mouse King and Queen
Luka kept her arms extended freely as she preserved her sense of calm to maintain the illusion over the dolls. Such a massive spell could not be cast and forgotten – she needed to concentrate on her task.
Once she and Miku set off inside the castle, she would release it… by that point the chaos within the ranks of the mice would be enough to allow the dolls to storm the castle and try to defend it. Or so they all hoped. She was relying entirely on the military strategy of a yet untested general who'd ascended to her role quite by accident.
But as the loud roar of the "King of all Cats" scattered the first wave of mouse soldiers, she felt a strange sensation. Was she actually… eager for the fight?
'A faerie full of bloodlust… that is most unbecoming…'
"FORWARD!" Miku shouted as she tugged some more levers.
With a great jerking motion the cat reared back… leaping forward most impressively for being a gigantic metal toy. The sight of such a large creature pouncing seemed to have frightened the mice more than even the roar.
"Charge forward!" Meiko shouted to her army.
"No, no, the King of all Cats is going to destroy us all!"
Mice were not brave creatures… they liked fights they could win. Usually they relied on numbers. But a certain instinct took hold of them upon seeing their age old nemesis amongst them.
The wall of the castle grew closer…
"We don't have a ram for that door…" Meiko said in a low voice.
"Then we ram it!" Miku said.
"ARE YOU INSANE?!" the princess shouted, "We're riding the cat!"
"Then just hang on!" the pigtail girl shouted as the creature began to pick up speed.
"Miss Luka, please talk her out of this madness!"
But the princess's pleas fell on deaf ears as Luka gave her a calm smile. "Oh, I think it's a fine plan," she said, "I can't break the illusion yet to blast the door down anyway."
Luka tried not to laugh as the princess gulped and grabbed a large piece of metal. The girl could show some true bravery when called upon, but certain moments still made her jump back into being a sheltered child.
The faerie secured herself carefully as the cat approached ramming speed. The only person's fate she had any inkling of… was Kaito's. And only if he did what he was supposed to do.
Everything else was up to herself.
The stars told stories of the directions of all mortal lives, but until the events took place, that's all they were. Stories. Some of her kin believed them to be more than that – fixed and unchanging. But not Luka. More and more she saw them as warnings and chances, but just as malleable as clay.
She recalled that Gakupo was missing from her vision of Kaito's victory. She had an inkling of why now. She'd heard stories of outsiders consumed by magic, but having finally seen it happening in front of her to Miku gave her some insight as to how swiftly it happened and the nature of how it consumed them.
And how to save the person from themselves.
The great iron door buckled the second the cat crashed into it. Meiko let out a yelp, but Miku's focus was too high for her to relent. Luka maintained the illusion just a little longer as she saw the doll army reaching the doors. "The mice are starting to turn back to the castle…" Meiko said under her breath, "I should stay out here and make sure they don't get in there…"
"We can handle what's inside," Luka said calmly, "Miku is not by herself."
Luka wondered what it would feel like to fight the Queen again. She would not underestimate her a second time – for all of her inexperience in magic, she was dangerously clever.
Once more the cat rammed into the door, bringing it down. The cat began to shake and jolt. "Ah! I don't think we built it strong enough to be a battering ram!" Miku gasped, "We need to get down about…NOW!"
The faerie summoned her orb… stretching it into a thin barrier… "Jump! I'll protect you!"
Kaito tried to follow the sounds of silence to find his way to the roof. With the chaos of the fight outside, his loud footsteps were easily forgotten.
"That cat is as tall as a tower! No, a mountain!"
"It's grey like death! It will devour us all!"
"Prepare the cannons! Start getting them down the stairs!"
He shook unsteadily as he heard a ramming noise. 'They must be trying to get inside!'
The Nutcracker saw light peaking down from a stairwell and hoped he was looking for the right rooftop.
When he heard a girl's familiar crying… he knew he found the right rooftop.
Sunlight streamed down on him as the cries of battle outside the castle surrounded him. But he saw her… the Mouse Queen, deeply embracing her King as he tried to calm her.
"Why does it hurt so much… why does trying to remember hurt, Len?"
The boy held her tightly. "It must be a trick… the Nutcracker is trying to tear us apart so he can kill us…"
"I won't kill you."
The twins looked up at him, the Queen in fear, the King in anger. "Liar! Everything you've shown us has been nothing but… but… lies!" the King shouted half-heartedly.
Kaito wanted to be patient – he had no idea how long they could have been stuck like this. He'd completely forgotten being anything but a doll when he was taken over by sleep. It was only rational that they'd behave in anger as well.
"Everything you saw was the truth!" Kaito said, "I don't know where you really came from, but it's not here. You're not mice! You can still end this if you let go of what made you into the mice!"
Silence. For once neither of them had a retort. Maybe he was getting somewhere. He pressed on. "You forgot everything because it hurt too much…I understand! I've felt it, I've lived with it! I spent fifteen years as a toy, and… and I almost didn't wake up! That's why I…"
"Shut. Up."
Kaito's speech stopped as Len looked at him with dangerous eyes. "I… I won't let you keep hurting us like this… Rin and I survived this long by staying away from people like you."
Rin released her brother, wiping her tears and nodding in agreement. "I'm not about to trust a would-be murderer. You've committed one crime too many, Nutcracker!"
"No, I promise, I – "
Kaito's words were silenced as the twins clutched each other's hands. "We'll stomp you like the pest you are!" they shouted in unison.
Their bodies dissolved at once into inky blackness, merging into one great cloud. It began to take the form of a gigantic mouse… but to Kaito's horror, as the creature's head formed, another sprouted next to it… and then another…
As the beast solidified again, Kaito counted seven heads in all. Each head wore a silver crown between its ears, roaring loudly at the hapless Nutcracker. "Wretched creature!" they cried out with seven voices, "You'll be nothing but sawdust before The Great Mouse Lord!"
Before he could stop it, he saw the animal grab the clockwork heart and toss it in the air… only to be swallowed by one of the many heads. It stomped its feet as lightning crashed down around Kaito. He ran around trying to avoid getting hit as more bolts began to fall.
He had no weapons. He hadn't been able to find any in his flight to the top.
'No, I won't accept that I failed! I just have to… um… wear it out! Right! I'm a doll and it isn't!'
As lightning crashed close enough to nearly fry him, Kaito realized wearing the Great Mouse Lord down would be no simple task…
He nearly fell over as the castle shook from being rammed again. He leapt close to the wall at the edge of the roof to see a great clockwork cat… and a white bubble of light with three people inside drifting down…
'I have to hang on… I promised her I wouldn't die…'
It felt a slight disturbance… then nothing. The object controlling him had vanished, absorbed into another.
It was free.
"We… we must go protect the castle! From the c…c…c… cats!"
It tested its strength as it shook against the chains holding it against the wall… with several loud snaps, they came undone to its brute strength, though its shell revealed several dents from the force.
"It's up AGAIN?! What are we supposed to do!?"
As the chains fell to the floor, it charged straight for the steel door, wrenching it loose from its hinges as if it were nothing. Just seeing it made the mice in the dungeon with it begin to panic. "Ahhhh! Send out the word for reinforcements! It must not reach our rulers! Smash it to pieces if you must!"
It had only one drive – find him, protect him. Black smoke surrounded it as it crashed through the confused beasts. It would only break those that tried to stop it from reaching him.
It knew where he was. Before the control was lost, it saw through the great beast's eyes and it saw him fighting it. Outside, atop a roof. It remembered glimpses of him being dragged towards a throne room… so it had some idea of where it needed to run to fulfill its commands.
The mice tore at it, screeching and hurling insults it paid little attention to. It would kill them, but only if they interfered with its path to the Nutcracker. Burst of smoke accompanied its hasty footsteps as he crashed through them.
Before it left the dungeon, something glittering with multiple colors caught its eye. It ceased its run as it recognized it as a weapon, a sword. A sword was suboptimal – some kind of rifle would be better. It heard another mouse leaping towards it.
The sword would suffice.
It reached for the sword, slashing out and effortlessly slaying another mouse that tried to stop it.
It heard something from outside bar the heavy doors to the dungeon. Naturally, it began to crash against the doors at top speed. It was flawless, it could endure the damage.
The doors finally shattered to its strength and it exploded through, ignorant of the splinters, ignorant of the screeching, and ignorant of the rattling of metal in its shoulder…
Miku landed in the snow gently as Luka's spell vanished. "I thought you said we couldn't fly?" she asked.
"I never said I couldn't float."
Meiko turned back to look through the doors. "I… I want to go inside with you but…"
She looked out to her army. "I can't sacrifice them for our safety either…"
Miku touched her shoulder. "I understand," she said, "We'll sweep through the inside and find Kaito and Gakupo."
"I'll ensure the mice don't interfere with us," Luka added, her familiar white orb floating in her hands.
Meiko tried to flash a confident smile. "Please… when you find Kaito…"
She started to have second thoughts about her words. "No, just bring him back safe. We can talk then."
Miku and Luka ran inside the dark, dank castle. The moldy odors and ragged furnishings took her by surprise – this was a far poorer castle than the great Marzipan Castle that Gakupo had built for her! Luka twitched her fingers and the light from her orb grew brighter in her finger tips, keeping the path illuminated as the corridors grew darker. "How can they live like this?" Miku asked.
Luka's answer was quick and to the point. "They are mice. They don't need fineries… just food and shelter."
Miku tried to keep herself alert to the attack she was expecting at any moment. There had to be more mice in here, none had flooded out when the attack began. So where was the resistance? She glanced to her faerie companion, and Luka appeared to be bracing herself for a fight that still hadn't happened.
And then they heard it. The sounds of dozens of mice screeching and howling through the corridors. "Get ready!" Luka hissed.
Out of one of the halls a small brigade of mice came charging out. "Must protect King and Queen! Must protect King and Queen!"
When they put their beady mouse eyes all over her, Miku grabbed for her sword. "ACK! Intruders! Get upstairs, get the heavier artillery!"
To Miku's surprise, the mice simply abandoned her on sight, fleeing up the hallways. "What… in the world?" she said in awe.
Her answer seemed to be barreling towards her. She heard the sounds of loud metallic footsteps, and several more mice banging against a thick metal shell.
And then she finally saw a clockwork automaton with purple hair and a familiar overcoat charge forward through the mice… running with a nearly single minded purpose…
For just a moment she saw its empty grey eyes…
"Wait! Godfather!"
But the clockwork man only stopped long enough to hurl off one of the mice that had tried to jump on top of it, killing it at once from the force. It didn't even acknowledge that someone had called out to it.
Miku looked helplessly to Luka. "He's already gone… will this still work?"
Before the faerie could answer, she looked behind Miku and leapt through the air, performing a delicate twirl as an explosion of light filled the corridor behind her. Smoke wafted out of the hall. "That took care of his pursuers…" she whispered, "We need to try and catch him. We'll try the new heart out when we do."
Miku clutched the heart in her coat, trying to rely on its steady ticking to keep herself calm. "Well, maybe he knows where Kaito is…" she muttered.
The two women tried to keep up with the automaton. From the noises they heard ahead of him, the mice were still trying to hold it off. At one point Miku just barely got another glimpse of him as he was pounced by several more of the creatures who proceeded to try and beat him with clubs. While her godfather prevailed, by now it was becoming apparent his metal body was hardly indestructible even if his will was powerful. His clothes were tattered from the constant attacks, dents and scratches all along his metal shell.
As they continued their path further into the castle, Miku saw signs of light. "Are we nearing… the roof?"
"OPEN FIRE!"
For just a moment Miku smelled the scent of gunpowder as she saw cannons lit at the end of their current path. "Luka, get ready!"
Several large cannonballs rocketed through the hallway. A wall of light just barely stopped them, but the faeries footing slipped as she tried to keep herself and her companion safe…
…and a familiar automaton slammed into it.
"NO! GODFATHER!"
As the shield vanished, Gakupo crumpled to the floor, the cannonball that had crushed his chest cavity rolling away with it. Metal gears and bolts scattered all around him. At first Miku thought he was dead before he started to jerk around.
"Miku. Stay with him."
Luka leapt through the hallway, the orb dancing around her arms. Miku tried to prop what was still left of Gakupo up. With him right in front of her, the extent of the damage to his body was far more obvious.
"Find him… must find him…"
The tinny voice that emerged from his shell frightened her, but watching him try to jump back up to his feet even more so. Even if his will was intact, his body wasn't, his legs collapsing back under him. "Godfather… stay put… we're going to help you…" she whispered to him.
Miku feared another volley of the cannons, but it never came… a blast of smoke filled the halls, but no gunpowder. Luka ran back over to Miku, kneeling at Gakupo as he still kept trying to force himself up. "Luka, is he… is he dying?!"
The faerie touched a hand to his metal shell as he shook. "The spark is… weak…" she murmured, "There's nothing that says he's invincible like this…"
"Flawless…" he murmured again.
Miku quickly tugged the heart back out of her jacket. "Okay, what's next?"
Luka took the clockwork toy in her hands. "I… I'm not sure this will work the same way…" she stammered, "Not when he's injured like this…"
"No, Luka, don't say things like that now!" Miku argued, "We've come so far!"
The faerie's eyes shifted from the heart to the severely damaged automaton whose movements seemed to be slowing. "I put the original heart into his body to try and grant him some semblance of humanity again, but he never truly became human… he still had that metal body underneath the flesh and blood."
She looked him over, lingering on the cannonball damage. "I could well kill him trying it like this…"
'No! This isn't… godfather won't…'
Luka gave Miku back the clockwork heart. "Miku, listen to me very carefully. You know better than I what happened to him, what that magic feels like. You survived it."
She wanted to forget it, the horrible sensation of being overwhelmed and snuffed out by the crushing force. "Tell me what it was that you fell into so we might save him!"
The automaton's arms slipped. "I was to be… flawless…" The voice sounded so weak.
Miku tried to plunge herself back into the events of the last twelve hours. Luka had told her she attracted dark magic to her… but what was the catalyst?
"I felt like I failed Kaito and Gakupo. I just wanted to hollow myself out and hide. I felt so fragile and weak."
She tried to hold back her tears for once. "It felt like an escape from the inevitable."
"Gakupo… did you want to escape?" Luka whispered.
He didn't answer. "No… that's not what you've been saying…" she said, "You wanted to protect him, not evade him."
"Gakupo… you feel like you failed Kaito?" Miku asked.
She placed her hand on his cheek, feeling the cold metal that remained of his face. "You've lost more than just him… do you blame yourself?"
She tried to look into Gakupo's grey eyes. "Please, Gakupo… what was it you told me? That even though you lost Kaito, you were grateful to have us too!?"
Finally her tears fell more freely as she thought of what he meant to her. "Gakupo… you remember when you built me that cat I asked you for? Right outside, I built another one… a big one… and I was so excited to show you how well I did…"
He started to twitch, an incomprehensible stream of noise emitting from his mouth. "I… I made you a new heart… I used your own plans and everything… I wanted to bring you home… I can't face mother and Mikuo with you gone!"
She sniffled. "Gakupo, you always inspired me to be more than I thought I could be! All I wanted when I was a little girl… was to be your apprentice! To make toys and inventions and… and make everyone else as happy as you made me!"
Miku saw a slight glow from the heart in her hands, and a slight whisper emitted from Gakupo's shell. "Flawless… I must… be… flawless… for them…"
Luka clutched one of his metallic hands, but this time she didn't shed a single tear. 'Is she trying to be strong for him now?'
"Of course you're flawed. You're a mortal, all of them are."
'ACK! Luka!'
But Miku's panicked reaction didn't stop her. "I… am no different, after all. From the beginning I could have protected you from these wretched events… sent you home to your family, or drew them near… but all I could think of were my duties and not how they could hurt you…"
She lowered her head closer to the metal face. "Seeing you in pain… when I could have acted to stop it… I'll never forgive myself for that. That's why I stayed here. To protect something that seemed so fragile compared to myself… but you weren't fragile in the end. Even when you gave in to this horrible power, you still bent it to your will to try and save the ones you love."
She stroked his forehead. "Well, the time is now… a hopeless faerie and her broken toymaker must mend everything…"
She lightly kissed his cheek. "I will always regret hurting you… but I will never regret that I fell in love with you."
After Luka's words, the machine fell entirely silent. Miku feared even asking if he was safe, not wishing to hear an awful truth. But after a moment she felt an odd heat from the toy in her hands. She held up her clockwork heart as it began to levitate in her palm, beams of light shining out of it. "Ah! Luka, is this it?!" Miku asked.
The faerie did not speak as the heart vanished in a blast of light…
… and suddenly Gakupo melted right in front of them. "OH NO!" Miku cried out, "Godfather, no!"
As the liquid metal pooled on the floor, only the metal heart remained. Before Miku could burst into tears again, the metal rose around it like bread dough, bubbling up and slowly taking the solid form of a male figure. Clothes began to form around it as the shiny grey gave way to rosy flesh and lustrous purple hair.
Gakupo's eyes flew open as he gasped for breath… they were bright blue and filled with confusion as they darted to Miku and then Luka.
"Gakupo…. Gakupo you're safe!"
Before Miku could say anything else, he put a hand to his mouth, sitting up slowly and patting down his right breast pocket from where Miku could hear a familiar ticking.
From his jacket, he removed Miku's toy heart.
"I can't believe it… I haven't had a real heartbeat in 15 years…" he said in awe, turning the piece over in his hands.
Before he could say anything else, Miku flew out and hugged her godfather, just grateful he was alive and safe. Gakupo gave her a paternal pat on the head before pushing her off. He placed the toy heart into her open hands. "You should keep this… I won't be needing it. It's good to keep your first real work close anyway!"
As he rose to his feet, steady in his movements for the first time Miku had seen since his heart had been stolen, he glanced over to Luka with a smile on his face. "We'll have time for a real reunion later," she said softly, "We have but one more task to complete."
He nodded his head. "Kaito… is on the roof. We'll put an end to all of this."
Miku clutched the toy heart close and stuffed it back into her jacket.
Kaito's wooden body was covered in scratches, his clothing filled with holes and rips. His little hat had been blown off some time ago. But he still had plenty of strength left in him.
Unfortunately, so did the "Great Mouse Lord."
"Where are they now, oh Nutcracker?!" it taunted.
"They're coming for me!" Kaito said, "I believe in them!"
"WHY!?" it shouted in rage, "You who've suffered so much, do you truly think there's a miracle waiting for you!?"
This time as it stomped it's feet, the entire roof shook. Kaito tried to keep his footing as a magical blast came zooming right towards him. Finally getting winged by it, his body rolled along the stones before coming to a stop. He tried to get ahold of himself, trying to force his body to move as the disconnect spread through him. Then he saw the great beast standing over him, holding a ball of crackling black lightning in its fist. "You should have thought of yourself alone!" it cried out, "Then you wouldn't be a pile of SPLINTERS!"
But before that magic came down on him, he saw a flicker of white light shine above him… spreading out like diamonds and protecting him one more time…
"Kaito, Kaito we're here! You're not alone!"
'Miku… Auntie Luka…'
The monster moved its great foot, surveying the two women who stood atop the roof. Miku ran close to Kaito, scooping him up as he tried to regain his momentum. "When I saw the cats… I just knew you had something to do with it!" Kaito said, his smile wider than ever.
"How are you whole again, toymaker!?"
Kaito started to sit up, and all his worries ceased as he saw his uncle, human and safe again. "Because I happened to have two very determined people in my life that never gave up on me!"
Gakupo had his sword out, pointing to the Mouse Lord. "It's not very sporting to try and fight an unarmed opponent!"
Luka deftly shifted her orb between her hands. "Do you think you can defeat us a second time?"
The distraction worked – the Great Mouse Lord stomped away from Kaito and Miku to engage their new opponents. "Miku, we can't kill them!" Kaito started to say.
"… I know. We talked it over on the way up… we knew you wouldn't want to… and…"
She looked nervous for just a moment. "I believe you. About what happened to them."
He felt some relief – at least he wouldn't be trying to do this alone anymore. "You're okay with it?" Miku added, "Luka said defeating them might not require killing them, but we don't know if it will free you…"
It wasn't even a choice for Kaito any longer. Even if it meant he might never feel anything again. "I'm certain!"
Kaito swiftly recalled his visions of Rin and Len and how swiftly they were swallowed up. "Ahhhh, it's such a shame too…" he lamented, "That heart Gakupo built, it can be used to see other people's memories. I finally started seeing theirs but now they went and swallowed it up…"
"It can do what?!"
Miku reached into her coat and to Kaito's surprise he saw a very familiar toy. "You did it, Miku! You built the heart!"
"I did but… I don't know if it can do magic like that!" she exclaimed.
Kaito looked it over. "Okay… well, we have to try! Getting them to remember their past was working before…"
He touched it carefully as Miku held it out. "Did they do anything special to it?" Miku asked, "I don't have any magic!"
"Well, Rin kept using some kind of spells on it… but… maybe we don't have to! I mean, somehow I made her see the memories I wanted!"
Now his plan was starting to sound impossible…
Miku's fingers curled around the heart. "Kaito… this heart probably isn't as powerful as the one Luka had, but it IS filled with magic…"
She tried to recall the words she'd embedded in every one of the nodes. "The commands I gave it are the same ones Gakupo used… Listen to the pace of my heart… Release the spring in time with my heartbeat… Remember my love and never cease…"
As she considered the last command, she and Kaito's eyes met. "Isn't that a little…" she started to say…
"…vague?" Kaito finished.
He touched one of his hands to his cracked up chest. "All the memories it gave me… were about people I love…" he said quietly, "When I saw Rin and Len's, they were always about each other too…"
Right now any idea seemed worthwhile. "When it healed Gakupo, we kept telling him to remember parts of himself… that's when the heart activated…" she murmured.
She held it out for Kaito. "Let's try it… let's try and remember something important. Maybe we'll kickstart the magic again."
Miku felt Kaito's wooden fingertips on hers. "Something we both lived through…" he whispered.
For Miku, it was starting from the beginning. She held a toy nutcracker in her arms and told it all of her problems. She just wanted someone to listen, even if it was only in her imagination.
… he had listened.
For just a moment, she thought she was back in the garden, Kaito in her lap…
Was she… singing?
It sounded so beautiful…
Wait, didn't he used to sing?
He thought so… maybe he could try now?
But his wooden body stayed rigid and silent no matter how he tried to move it.
She sounded so sad. 'Okay… I'll just keep trying to speak… I can tell her I'm listening! I can just…'
"Well! You've been a wonderful little listener, my Nutcracker. Thank you!"
It was like breaking through a wall, but he managed to say just two words…
"You're… welcome…" Kaito said slowly.
"Kaito… it was like I was in your head…"
Miku was shaking – for just a few moments she'd seen everything as Kaito had seen it. "We did it!" he said with a big smile, "Okay, now if we can just find some way to get it to work on Rin and Len…"
A loud roar sounded off as all seven heads of the Mouse Lord cried out. "This is pointless! Only the Nutcracker needs to fall!"
As it continued to scream, wisps of black smoke began to form on the roof… taking the forms of more and more mice. "Crush them and leave the Nutcracker to the Mouse Lord!" it cried out.
The newly formed swarm began to surround Gakupo and Luka. "No! Luka, Gakupo!" Miku shouted. She could still see the bursts of light from Luka's magic, but it seemed as though for every creature that died, ever more sprang up.
"Miku, move!"
Kaito released the heart and tried to stand in front of her as the great monster pounded towards them. "Even now, you still trust this stupid girl! You only just met her!"
Miku felt the heart warming up in her fingers. 'Ah! I can still make it work! While they're still so close…'
The creature swiped at Kaito, scratching up his torso again but not harming him. "What makes her any different from any of the others who failed you and abandoned you?!"
She tried to pull out something important, something she shared with Kaito, and for just a few moments she was back in her home, seeing it through another set of eyes…
He scrambled up the tree with his awkward boxy wooden body. Why were they trying to hurt him?! But now he'd led them far enough away that at least that kind "Miku" girl would be safe…
He saw the mice climb up the trunk – he was running out of room! He started grabbing the great glass balls around him and trying to drop them below! He needed to escape, but as he ran out of branches, he realized that wouldn't be happening…
He crawled out to the end of one of the branches as that blonde mouse boy crawled out to him, spouting threats at him. He was so frightened, he didn't know what he'd done to make the mice hate him, and now he was all alone and trying to fend for himself… he wanted to speak but his jaw wasn't working…
WHOOSH!
SMACK!
A large shoe clobbered the Mouse King… he turned to look in the direction of his savior and just barely saw a pair of pigtails fly back behind the couch…
Miku clutched the heart close. "I've… I've always fought for ones I love…" she said, her voice shaking.
Her courage started to well up. "No, not just for them! I'll fight for anyone who's weak! Even a tiny little nutcracker doll deserves to be protected and loved!"
The heart felt so warm in her hands as she tried to stay focused on the memories it was feeding off of…
She looked into Kaito's eyes and smiled for him. Kaito smiled back to her, and he stared into the many eyes of the beast. "And I keep on fighting because no matter what… I've never been alone. When I was asleep, Gakupo protected me. When I awoke, it was Miku who never left me…"
At once the great beast began to scream as a blinding light began to shine inside of its chest. "No! These are lies! You can't trust anyone!"
"You don't believe that…" Kaito said softly, "Because even now you two trust each other completely! You live and fight as one!"
The light consumed the Great Mouse Lord entirely. Rin and Len split apart, collapsing to the ground as the seven crowns scattered around them. Miku looked back and watched the mice on the roof begin to vanish. She looked back to Kaito, who carefully picked up the heart they dropped. The second he touched it Miku felt the toy in her own hands warm up again and her eyes were blinded by light…
At once, Miku was in a snowy forest after dark, far from the hard stone of the castle she'd just been standing on…
"Miku, are you okay?"
She turned and saw Kaito standing behind her. "I am but I don't know how we got here!"
She looked out around the trees. "Did it teleport us?"
The more she examined her surroundings, the more she realized she'd seen these woods before… in her home. She tried to touch one of the old trees, only for her hand to pass through it. "I think we're still in a memory…" she murmured.
"Len… I'm freezing…"
Miku bristled at hearing that familiar voice again… but she stopped when she found the source.
Unlike what she'd feared, seeing the Mouse Queen and King, she was watching two human children carefully stepping through the woods, holding each other's hands. It was unmistakable who they were, but they were free of the malice and anger…
Rin clutched a coat around herself all the more tightly. "We still haven't seen any faeries… what if Ryuto was wrong?"
Len stopped walking, staring out into the forest as if he was looking for something. At one point he stared right into Miku's eyes, but he saw nothing, only further convincing her this was merely a window into an event that had already taken place. Finally the boy turned back to Rin. "I'll do whatever you want, Rin," he said calmly, "Maybe this was just a crazy idea anyway… if we run too far, the police will just look for us anyway and try to take us back to the orphanage…"
On hearing those words, Rin seemed to tense up. "No! We'll just… look a little longer," she said.
The children kept pressing onward. Miku gestured for Kaito to follow her and the Nutcracker did as he was told.
"The lamp of the crescent moon, the shining stars, and that lights of the town had all vanished… Even if I'm enveloped in darkness, even if I can no longer be seen, I am by your side…"
"Wait… do you hear something?" Len said quietly after just a few minutes of walking.
"It's like… someone singing…."
"Even in this era coming to an end, surely there is a sprout of life. Look… If you close your eyes, your heartbeat is gentle now…"
They picked up their footsteps, Miku running after them as well. Finally they saw her – for just a minute – a beautiful dark-skinned women with violet hair, a flowing pink and orange top, and a scandalously short black skirt. Though she sung with energy, her face bore a familiar stoic smile… just like Luka's…
"Even if they are hidden in darkness, there is still the fragrance of flowers and the buzzing of insects… If we understand each other, let's hold hands when we feel each other…"
'So Luka's not the only faerie that thinks about love…' Miku thought to herself.
Rin and Len curled up behind a tree, watching the odd woman. "Is… is that…" Rin whispered.
"Let's cross over that nostalgic hill, the obstructing forest, the rough crag… Without any hesitation, let's go down this road together…"
As if confirming Rin's suspicions, the strange woman began to walk into one of the tall trees… and she vanished at once, her lovely song fading along with her visage.
Rin and Len looked to each other and nodded. "If we go through there, we might not ever come back," Len warned, "Still wanna do it?"
Rin nodded vigorously. "When we go there… everything will be better! We'll find nice food and a good home… and we'll always have each other!"
She smiled brightly. "Let's go! Ready when you are!"
Len smirked. "Awww, I knew it wasn't even a choice! Okay, I'll race you!"
The twins laughed as they ran into the tree and disappeared. Miku wondered if she were meant to follow them, but she heard sobbing around her. Kaito clamped her hand tightly, the sudden crushing pain causing her to turn behind her.
There stood the King and Queen of Mice. Both of them had tears running down their faces. "Len… Len, how did it turn out like this?" Rin said in fear.
Len stared at the claws on his hands. "They… they didn't leave us any choice!" he said stubbornly.
Kaito broke away from Miku, risking being seen. This time when the mice noticed him, they tensed up but didn't attack him.
"I'm sorry the people there hurt you so much…" he said quietly.
How very like him. The only reason he sympathized with their plight was because of what they did to him.
"You don't understand!" Len protested, "Everywhere we've gone we've been cast out to fend for ourselves!"
Miku took a few steps forward. "Quiet!" she scolded, "I'm sorry you two were hurt so much, but that doesn't make what you did right!"
Kaito shot her a look of surprise, but she didn't let him silence her. "What of the dolls that you kept injuring in that war? What of the curses you laid?! Did you think because you were in pain that made it okay to hurt others in return!?"
"Nobody… nobody ever showed us kindness!" Rin shouted back.
"That isn't true!" Miku shouted, "Kaito has shown you kindness over and over again, even after everything you took from him! But even if he hadn't… Kaito suffered too but he never hurt others for it! What did you accomplish chasing him so far?! What did you ever expect to get out of your revenge!?"
"Miku! That's ENOUGH!"
She'd never seen Kaito yell at her before, but whatever she'd said finally upset him enough to interrupt her. He turned to the mice again. "I can't speak for everyone… but…"
He smiled for them. That same smile he gave when he just wanted someone else's pain to vanish.
"I forgive you."
Rin fell over into the ground, sobbing her eyes out. "Why?!" she cried, "You've known nothing but suffering and… and you still… forgive everyone that's ever hurt you!"
That smile began to waver. Kaito walked over to the twins, knelt down, and put his hand on Rin's shoulder. "I didn't understand it at first either…" he said, "I used to just want everyone else to be happy, even if it hurt. I never liked it when people I loved were upset… so I just pretended to be fine so I wouldn't make it worse. Eventually… I thought it would be best if I just vanished so they wouldn't get hurt anymore… but… that didn't work."
'Kaito… when you fell asleep… you were trying to…'
Miku's anger at the mice was replaced by fear for the poor Nutcracker as she realized what Kaito had wished for. "I started trying to get stronger… I learned that if I forgave them and let them try to fix things… it made it easier for me to move on too. If I just tried to get revenge it's no different, is it?"
The little mouse girl looked into Kaito's eyes. "How... how do I make it better?" she said, her voice shaking, "I want all of the pain to end… for me… for Len… for everyone…"
Kaito looked up into Len's face. "You both came from the World Beyond…. You just didn't know what happened to you when you got so scared…" he said, "This world's magic took advantage of you, twisting all that fear and devouring you when you were at your weakest. But it's not permanent. You can still be humans again. You can still go back to who you were."
Len looked at his hands again. "I… I don't want to ever hurt another person again… human or doll…"
He held his head. "I just want to go home…"
He looked over to Miku for a moment, and she could only see the eyes of a lost and frightened child. "Miss… I'm sorry…"
Rin stood up and looked to Len sadly. "But what happens if we go back? If they don't even remember us? I don't know how long we've been gone…"
Miku started to notice something different about Rin's face… her whiskers were falling off and her black nose was changing into a human's nose. "Then we'll start all over again…" the boy said, "We'll have each other…"
But his voice sounded unsure. Miku swallowed and stepped forward. "This forest is close to where I live!" she said calmly, "I'll come and look for you, I promise! So… so you'll have someone new that you can trust."
Len looked up at her in shock. Now he was looking more like Rin, losing his mouse-like face and now his floppy ears were shrinking. "You'll really do that?!" he said in surprise, "After everything we did to hurt you!?"
Miku nodded calmly. "I know what it felt like to be swallowed up… I only survived because I had friends that fought it with me."
She tried to put forth a braver face. "If you're really sincere… then I can forgive you just like Kaito."
Kaito tried to smile for them. "I'll take you home myself if I have to!" he said, smacking a wooden fist against his chest, "And when everything is done… I'll come and find you two! So now you have me AND Miku!"
Len looked to his sister, grasping her hand. Neither twin had a single mousey feature left. They looked just as they had when they'd disappeared. "Okay! We'll hold you to that!" Rin said, smiling with true happiness for the first time.
"We'll make ourselves a new home and… you can come see us whenever you want!"
A blinding light consumed Miku's vision. She fell to the ground, the two hearts falling with her. "Miku, Kaito, are you all right?!"
She heard Gakupo's worried voice as he ran over to her. "We're… we're fine…" Kaito said, "Where's Rin and Len?!"
Miku looked up to see her godfather kneeling before her. "There was this great flash of light… and the four of you just vanished…" he started to explain.
"I was about to start flinging as much magic as I could to locate you, but then you came back…" Luka said, "And all the mice are disappearing into smoke…"
She made her little orb disappear in her fingertips.
"Rin and Len went back home…" Kaito said with a bright smile as he stood up, "The King and Queen of Mice have fallen forever."
Miku stood to her full height, looking Kaito over expectantly. They'd defeated the King and Queen… so now his curse should be gone, right?
But after several moments, he looked no less the banged up toy he'd been before. Kaito looked over to her and noticed her upset expression. "Miku, I thought you were happy they were saved?" he said curiously.
"But Kaito, you're not saved yet!" she said, "You're still a doll!"
Kaito looked himself over, but then he shook his head. "Oh, it's okay! I did what I wanted to… so…"
He started to walk over to the wall, looking down at the battlefield. Miku followed close behind, and they both saw the wreckage of the battle. While the dolls had taken some injuries, it was nowhere near as severe as the ambush. Gumi seemed to notice them from below and she started waving to them full of excitement.
"I'm so sorry Kaito," Miku apologized.
"What for?" he asked, still confused.
She looked up into his painted on eyes, seeing the grain of his face, his little wooden nose, and his false mouth. "I wanted to save you too."
Kaito tried to smile anyway. "It's okay though! Rin and Len are human again, and now everyone I care about is safe…"
His smile began to fade as he walked closer to Miku. "… does it matter? If I'm still a Nutcracker, will you still…"
Everything seemed to blur around her… she felt exhaustion tugging at her. "Miku…. If I was a Nutcracker forever, would you still be able to love me?"
Before Miku could answer, she felt her legs growing weak. Days of not sleeping weighing her down. "Miku? MIKU!"
She felt Kaito catch her in his wooden arms as she collapsed, claimed by the lost slumber…
A/N:
Phew. Happy Valentine's Day and… Happy Kaito's 10th Birthday (the first one.) I guess there was some romantic stuff in here though… though not really for Kaito XD
To be honest, a lot of plot points from earlier in the story came about all to work up into this chapter and the turn of events with Rin and Len. In the original story, both the Mouse King and Queen are evil and they are killed. I ended up not choosing to do that because the second I put actual child Vocaloids into those roles, it seemed very callous. I had some different endings in mind where Kaito would kill the two Mouse Royals and that would somehow "free" the real Rin and Len but trying to explain how he could do that was much more complicated than it needed to be. So working out how I could create an actual redemptive villain arc led to a lot of other arcs coming together. Even Clockupo didn't exist until I started solving this arc.
Similarly, I always wanted Miku to basically charge the mice riding a giant toy cat, it was always a question of how to get there. But that was more because I thought it would be a lot of fun and I love giving my leads a Big Damn Heroes moment.
Remember how I said all the way back in the author's note for the first chapter that the Mouse King had seven heads? Welp, this is how I worked it in :)
Gakupo melting and leaving a heart behind is a direct reference to the fate of the poor Steadfast Tin Soldier. Not only does the poor guy die in a fire along with the ballerina, their bodies melt together to form the shape of a heart in death. Except I'm not a depressed Dutchman with serious relationship issues, so of course Gakupo is fine.
Song Credits: In case it wasn't obvious, yes that faerie in the woods was Merli, and yes, that's one of her only original songs, "Beyond the Darkness". I wanted to get the two actual fairy Vocaloids into the story, and Lapis got a speaking role so naturally Merli got the singing role. I kind of lucked out that a Merli song with a subject matter appropriate to the story was actually translated into English. She actually completely tanked and has very few songs at all, let alone translated songs.