It's like,

One day you find the treasure in childhood

Tried to share that pleasure

But no one would listen

It turned into a fragile heart

So you tried to be a treasure of someone else

But if there's no one to take you either way

There's no reason to stay no need to be fake

Toward somewhere else you're suppose to be

Just make it a brand new day

It's time to walk away

I left a note on the door

"Don't worry about me!"

'Cause I won't come back until I see…

Freely cast all your cares aside

I'm sure they'll be a brighter side

Where all these sorrow start to shine!

Dreams can bring the things you need

Your hand will reach the other side

I'm sure it's really not so bad!

Brighter Side, by Saga

**Viewtiful Joe (animation) opening theme**

Chapter 01: The Shadows Fall

"All ye children who love stories gather 'round…!"

~Drosselmeyer, Princess Tutu

--A Loop in Time—

Herr Drosselmeyer watched through one of the gears that served as his window to the worlds beyond his Time Loop, a young girl, ten or eleven at the oldest, pictured in it. Around him superfluous gears clicked and turned away, but he paid them no mind as all his attention was focused on the girl, and the item she held.

She had long, shimmering black hair and a heart shaped face accented by large green eyes and a cute little nose. She wore a simple light blue pleated skirt with a similarly colored blouse.

This girl's name was 'IntoRapture', and at the moment she happened to be inspecting what appeared to be a very large key she'd found.

"My heavens…" the old fairytale author mused. "I finally find the Key I'd lost, and it's up and chosen a new master, one who is a far cry from the girl I'd intended it for.

"Still, this might be interesting," the old man thought aloud. "However, a good tale is nothing without proper villains."

He mulled over this for a moment or two, a smile slowly curling his lip. "Well, thanks to 'that woman's' interference, I now have a new Keybearer, and the door of possibilities has literally been thrown wide open. I'm sure I can find a few talented players in this world or that who'd be more than happy to play the villain."

He laughed jovially. "Oh, this will be fun! I can hardly wait to see what happens next!"

--The Play-World—

"Hey! Wake up, you lazy bum!"

DonJuan's eyes snapped open, and he came face to face with his beloved Larsa.

Her smiling face, shimmering with pure beauty, radiated upon him. She had the appearance of royalty about her, with a regal stature in her face. Her smile could charm anyone, and with the innocence in her gracious heart, she could make enemies become friends. "Five more minutes mommy…" Don replied cheekily, grinning broadly at the girl.

A year older and yet a couple of centimeters shorter, Don had a slightly darker complexion and slightly stockier build than she; a somewhat of a paunch in his stomach. His face was rounded, with a softly pointed chin, accented with large blue eyes and a broad nose. His garb was a bit flamboyant, consisting of a green vest over a white t-shirt with dark-blue shorts. Hair that was a dark brown, cut short and swayed back away from his face.

After having his nap interrupted, he stood and dusted himself off, giving a little look around at the cozy grove of trees where they and the other kids had build a small clutch of tree houses to play in. The storm that'd struck the night before had caused quite a mess, and so the gang was supposed to be on clean up duty today.

"I had the weirdest dream just now," Don said in passing.

"Oh?" Larsa inquired, turning to her attention to him.

"Yeah. It had something to do with shadows." He scratched the back of his head, having trouble recalling the rest of his dream. "Shadows and a sword… and that's all I can remember."

Larsa smirked, looking at him superiorly. "My, but aren't we emo today," she said tauntingly, patting him on the head. "Well, when you're done being all steeped in darkness would you mind giving the rest of us a hand?"

Don sneered at his beloved, but a moment later chuckled lightheartedly. "Sure."

And so the day was spent undoing the damage from the previous night's storm. For the most part this entailed some routine housework, with a little bit of repair work. By days end, the faux village was almost back to the way it usually was.

"Hmm…" Elad hummed musingly as he replaced a damaged plank of wood.

Don looked over quizzically toward the youth, a boy with midnight black hair and matching eyes, though one would hardly notice that considering the large glasses marked with swirl patterns that obscured them.

Elad was a boy (though his appearance and voice might contradict that statement) with a soft face, somewhat angular though not very, which had a petite little nose. His face-length hair fell in straight curtains around his face with light bangs obscuring his forehead. His build was lean, and somewhat feminine, with a complementing complexion.

When it came to his attire, that day featured him in a white t-shirt that was about two sizes too big underneath a blue windbreaker, with long shorts of a matching color, and simple sneakers of white with blue trim.

"This was the worst storm we've had in a while, wasn't it?" he said observationally, beginning to hammer the board into place. "I mean, it actually pulled some of these boards out of place."

"I guess…" was Don's simple reply, not really having much of an opinion on the matter.

"I mean, they are just a bunch of tree houses we built ourselves. Can't really expect them to hold up that well."

"I guess, but still. I figure something strong enough to pull some of the wood off these places would be a bit more noticeable, and I hadn't even known about the storm until I came out here today." Elad paused, checking that he'd aligned the board properly while musing over a few things. "Then there's the fact that IntoRapture's been missing since yesterday."

"Yeah," Don nodded, remembering how their friend and defacto leader hadn't been at school that day, and her parents hadn't seen her around since the day before, either. "I hope she's okay. Do ya think she got caught in the storm?"

Elad shook his head. "I don't know…"

"Hey, you guys talking about IntoRapture?" asked Kelsey, who just happened to be passing, carrying some supplies over to them.

Kelsey was at least the second tallest of the lot (with only Namanda being taller), being she was almost a whole head taller than DonJuan. Her face was round, coming to a soft point at the chin. Her eyes were large, shining and blue, with a small nose set between them. Her hair fell to the small of his back in ragged white locks. Her build was lean and a bit lanky, and she wore a gray vest over a white shirt with gray pants.

"I was just talking to Chibi_Riki and Larsa about her," he said, setting down the supplies he'd brought. "Chibi_Riki said that the day of the storm, IntoRapture said she'd found something a little ways into the forest from here. Something she hadn't ever notice before, and she wanted to check it out."

"Maybe we should look there when we're done," DonJuan suggested, to which the other two nodded.

They'd finished shortly before sundown, the six of them gathering to admire their handiwork.

"Not too shabby…" Namanda observed.

She was a brunette youth with short hair, and a thin face that came to a pointed chin, complemented by narrow, dark eyes and a pointed nose. The tallest and--at eighteen-- the eldest of the lot, she was half a head taller than Kelsey and her shoulders were level with Don's nose. Her build was medium, compensated by broad shoulders.

"Great! Now we can go home and I can go sleep for a while," said Don, both his arms now drooping with his fatigue as he attempted to stretch his limbs.

"I thought we were gonna go look for IntoRapture," Kelsey pointed out helpfully.

"Oh… right… we'll look for IntoRapture, and then I can go home and sleep," Don repeated sheepishly.

The sun was setting rapidly in the distance, but even before it had sunk completely an unnatural darkness enveloped the grove. The six looked about them, wide-eyed at the abnormal gloom.

"What's going on?" asked Chibi_Riki, making an effort to sound calmer than she felt.

She stood somewhere between Larsa and Namanda, both physically and in height, with a build that was slightly stockier than Larsa's. She wore a pair of somewhat baggy jeans and an oversize shirt. Her facial structure was a soft oval, a tiny nose at the center of her face and bright hazel eyes set around it. She felt like they weren't alone and craned to her right, and she turned her head to notice shrubs nearby rustling. "Something's in there…" she pointed out to the others.

While the others merely looked curiously, Don actually crossed over toward the bushes, inspecting it closely. "Whaddaya see, Don?" Elad asked.

"I don't--" his reply was cut off when… something… suddenly leaped from the bushes, bowling him over and pinning him to the ground.

He looked on, thunderstruck, at the thing that'd pinned him. Its small, ape-like body was solid black in color and devoid of detail, all except its face, which was bleach white and resembled a skull. There was a large circular hole in the center of its chest, like a tiny window through which one could see completely through it.

And then a voice rang out within Don's head, one he'd heard before in a dream, and he knew the monster's name. "…Hollow!"

"Arg!" Namanda grunted as she rushed over and kicked the hollow as hard as she could, sending it sailing off Don's chest and away. "What the hell was that thing??"

Immediately, Larsa and Kelsey rushed over to join them, and together the two of them helped Don back onto his feet. "It's… called a hollow," he explained, holding his head. "…And it's not done yet!"

He pointed, and indeed the hollow was back on its feet and coming at them again. This time, however, he dodged nimbly and broke into a run, waving the others to follow. "C'mon! let's get outta here."

The others were quick to follow as Don led them down the road back into town, but they'd barely made it a fraction of the way when they ran into another problem. Namely, about a dozen more hollows. As they stood frozen to the spot in shock, the shadowed creatures advanced on them slowly, until finally one grew bold enough to leap at them. In that instant, reacting solely on instinct, Don stepped in front of Larsa and smacked the hollow away with a double axe-handle strike. The blow seemed to be like a starting gun to the other hollows, and they all leaped at the group with bloodthirsty gleams in their glowing yellow eyes. Stunned and frightened, the six of them swung and flailed their arms desperately, doing all they could to repel the attacking monsters.

A flash of light, the shriek of the hollows, and then…

DonJuan felt a weight drop into his hand, and when he opened his eyes he found himself holding a most peculiar sword. One shaped like an enormous key. And then a voice entered his head, and he knew what this weapon was called…

"Keyblade…"

Prying his eyes away from the mysterious key, he looked up to see that Kelsey and Namanda were also holding strange weapons. Namanda was holding a long and elegantly crafted stick that appeared to be made of oak, and resembled a wand, and Kelsey bore a shield roughly the size and shape of a hubcap, decorated with an ornate heart pattern upon it.

Having assessed that, he returned his gaze to the hollows, which had backed off a couple of meters after the flash of light, but from the look of them they were quickly regrouping for another charge. Immediately DonJuan decided what to do.

"Larsa!' Don called to her, gripping the hilt of his keyblade with both hands. "You and the others get outta here! Kelsey, Namanda and I will hold them off while the rest of you make a run for it!"

"Hey!" Namanda shouted indignantly. "Would you mind not volunteering me to fight monsters, DonJuan?? Especially when all I've got to fight with is a friggin' stick!!!" She shook the wand angrily as she cursed it. "Wha'm gonna do with it? Jab it in the monster's stupid eye??"

No sooner had she said those words then did a jet of red light shoot from the end of the wand, shelling across and slamming into the chest of one of the hollows with enough force to knock the thing flat on its back.

Namanda looked from the wand to the hollow she'd laid out with it and back again several times before a pleased smile slowly spread its way across her face. Shifting to a fighting stance, she held the wand high and at the ready. "Okay, I guess I'll stick around…"

That was all the go ahead the others needed, and as Larsa nodded and led them away; Don, Kelsey and Namanda lined up shoulder to shoulder, ready to fight.

--A Loop in Time—

Herr Drosselmeyer grinned excitedly as he watched things unfold before him. "I certainly didn't see that coming," he said to himself elatedly. "Another Key appearing out of the blue like that? Perhaps 'she' is still interfering…"

The flamboyantly dressed old man scratched his chin ponderingly for a moment, then grinned. "Well, even if 'she' does meddle, it should still make for an interesting story. So bravo to you, madam! I applaud thee!"

--The Play-World—

Larsa led the way as she sprinted away from the battle, Chibi_Riki and Elad close behind. In truth, she had little idea of where to go, as the main road back into town was being blocked by the creatures. With no where else to go, she directed them back toward their tree house village.

They all rushed back to the play-village with all their might, and were left winded by the time they arrived. Larsa petered to a stop, doubled over and panting heavily, the other two mirroring this as they tried to catch their breath.

"What--*pant*--were those things??" Elad asked while still short of breath, his hair clinging to his face and forehead with sweat.

"Don--*pant*--called them 'Hollows'," Chibi_Riki pointed out.

"A good name, I'd say," the bespectacled boy replied, wiping the still clinging hairs from his forehead. "Did you notice those holes in the middle of their chests?"

"I was more focused on those glowing eyes and--"

"Sshhh!!" Larsa silenced them suddenly as her ears craned about. "I think I hear something…"

The three of them looked all about them, their fear growing steadily as almost one by one, dozens of hollows emerged from bushes, from behind trees, and even out from the doors of the tree houses themselves. The three of them huddled together in terror as the hollows advanced on them slowly, finding no reason to hurry as their prey was obviously cornered with nowhere to go.

"Yah!" They heard a call from the darkness, and then something flickered in the gloom, zipping back and forth among the closest of the hollows, striking them down one after another. Each felled creature keeled over, its skull like face cracked, shattered or otherwise destroyed, as the things seemed to fade back into the darkness that spawned them.

And then in a flash, a strange woman with dark skin, long purple hair and dressed in orange and black stood before them.

"Come with me if you want to live!" she stated calmly and simply.

The three of them looked to each other for a brief moment, them immediately nodded. When they did, the woman dashed off toward the forest, and they were forced to break into an immediate run to catch her.

This woman was fast. Larsa and the others had trouble keeping up with her, and though it was obvious she was holding back she still pulled further and further away from them little by little. Just when they thought they'd lose sight of her, she suddenly stopped in front of a tree.

"We're here," she stated simply, and as the others approached, they found that there was a strange door built into the tree, one that was oddly ajar.

The dark skinned woman pushed the door further open, gesturing for Larsa and the others to enter. "Get in," she stated simply.

"Wait," Larsa began. "What is this place?"

"There's no time for that," began the woman. "We'll be safe inside. Just get in and I'll explain everything."

Larsa murmured deep in her throat, while Chibi_Riki gave the woman a dirty look.

"We're not supposed to go with strangers," she stated needlessly.

The purple haired woman smirked superiorly, leaning nonchalantly against the tree. "You can take your chances with me, or you can take your chances with the hollows. It's your choice."

It didn't take them very long to think it over, and Elad made their decision clear. "I guess we take the weird tree-door and the mysterious lady in the ugly orange and black outfit."

"Hey!" the woman cried indignantly, but by then the three of them had already rushed through the door.

--Betwixt and Between—

They emerged into a strange room, so vast that its limits seemed to fade into darkness before they could be clearly defined. At the heart of this cove was a circle of pillars, each of them bearing a door with a strange symbol on it.

"Where in blazes is IntoRapture?" asked the purple haired woman as she entered, closing the door behind her.

"IntoRapture??" declared all three at once, Larsa quickly adding: "You know IntoRapture??"

"I figured you were the friends she'd mentioned she had in this world," she said incomprehensibly, crossing her arms superiorly. "Yeah, I met her a little while ago, after she fell into my world. She's been helping me investigate a matter involving the execution of a woman there."

"Execution…" the blue haired male asked, arching an eyebrow. "You mean they're going to kill her?"

"Exactly, coke-bottles," the woman said, nodding. "IntoRapture and I have discovered information that suggests that the execution is just a cover for something much bigger.

Exactly what, though, we haven't figured out yet."

The three of them listened intently as the woman explained all this, but as she finished Elad noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly discovered that it was a note pinned to one of the pillars' doors, said door having been left slightly ajar. Padding over to it, he retrieved it, reading the name 'Yoruichi' written upon it.

"I think this is for you," he said needlessly, passing the note to the dark skinned woman.

She nodded appreciatively, and took it, opening it and reading quickly. "She said she went back to my world to follow up on a lead."

"Wait!" Chibi_Riki spoke up roughly. "What's all this 'my world' and 'your world' stuff, anyway? And who are you??"

"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself yet," the woman said, nodding with

acknowledgement toward the cat-girl. "My name is Yoruichi; I'm a member of the Soul Society Stealth Force. And this…" she paused, and waved an arm at all that surrounded them. "…is Betwixt and Between. It is the world between worlds, a nexus from which other worlds can be accessed.

"Each of the dozens of doors you see before you is the gate to another world," she explained, pointing out a door that bore a carving of a katana surrounded in blue flames on it; the one Elad had retrieved the note from. "That one, for example, is the door to my world."

"So IntoRapture is behind that door?" Chibi_Riki asked.

"Yes. She's somewhere in my world," Yoruichi replied, nodding.

"Wait'll the others hear about this."

"Don!" Larsa interrupted Chibi_Riki's train of thought when she remembered their friends. "And Kelsey, and Namanda! We have to go back for them!"

"Ugh!" Yoruichi slapped a hand to her forehead in vexation. "Why didn't you say so before?? I already closed the door!"

"So?"

"So??" the woman shot back exasperatedly. "IntoRapture's the only one who can open it again! She's the only one with the key!"

"Key?" Elad inquired on behalf of the others. "You mean like that big key Don was holding?"

"'Big key'?" Yoruichi repeated with surprise. "You mean there's another Keybearer??"

--A Loop in Time—

"Ah, so a new player enters the game, and an acquaintance of my new little Keybearer no less," Herr Drosselmeyer observed, and were his hands not folded in his lap one would get the distinct impression that he'd be patting himself on the back. "I'm sure now that it was the right decision to let her keep the present she'd found.

"Oh, but don't stop there," the old author commanded slyly. "The exposition's not done yet."

--The Play-World—

While the others fled, true to their word, DonJuan, Kelsey and Namanda fended off the hollows with all their might. For her part, though, Namanda spent much of the early fight experimenting with her new wand. At first, she repeated the entire phrase of: 'Wha'm gonna do with it? Jab it in the monster's stupid eye??' to cast her spell, but later discovered she could shorten it to simply 'Stupid Eye' and later still realized that the phrase she was supposed to be saying was 'Stupify', shortening her casting time significantly and making her just as much a threat to the hollows as Don and Kelsey…

…who for their part were going at the monsters in melee combat, bashing them about with shield and keyblade alike. Though even as the two attacked, parried and counter-attacked again and again, the hollows seemed to simply get back up no matter how many times they were knocked down.

Finally, it was the Kelsey who'd discovered the secret to destroying them, though purely by accident. She managed to catch one just as it was about to strike DonJuan from behind, and quickly stole up in front of it and smashed it in the face with her shield. Between a surge of adrenaline and anger at how the thing would strike at her from behind, she'd struck it so hard that she shattered its skull-like face and sent it skiddng several meters away.

The blow was savage enough that it made a resounding crack, drawing the attention of Don and Namanda to what Kelsey had done just in time to see the hollow skid to a stop after being hit. Then, right before their eyes it seemed to dissolve, its body breaking up into tiny particles that dissolved into the air bit by bit until there was finally nothing left of it.

"Whoa…" Don breathed with amazement at the sight of the vanquished hollow. "How'd you do that??"

Kelsey shrugged sheepishly. "I… smashed it in the face with my shield really hard and broke it…" she explained thickly. "I guess that's how you kill them."

"Stupify!" Namanda suddenly shot a jet of red light from her wand, which sailed just passed Kelsey's head and struck a ready-to-pounce hollow behind her, hitting the beast in the face with enough force to shatter it. Much like the other monster, the hollow keeled over and dissolved into nothingness.

"Seems so…" Namanda observed, arching an eyebrow curiously.

With this new knowledge in hand, the remaining hollows were almost a breeze to deal with. A few precision strikes with keyblade, shield and wand to their skull-like faces, and before long the lot of them had vanished, leaving an exhausted but otherwise unscathed trio to catch their breaths.

"I guess… we should go find Larsa and the others now," Don suggested, taking a deep breath.

--A Loop in Time—

"Perhaps I can be some help with that," said Herr Drosselmeyer, taking up an oddly shaped staff from behind his chair.

The main shaft of it looked like the minute hand of a large clock, though splintering off from the tip of it was what looked like a crooked quill, the feather jutting out from just before the tip of the minute hand then angling sharply to point up toward the top of the staff. Said staff had a handled grip from which Drosslemeyer held it, and said handle was surrounded by a circular guard that looked very much like one of the many gears that floated in the air of the author's Time Loop.

"After all, it would only be boring to watch these three stumble through the woods until they discover the door Madam Yoruichi led their friends through," he said observantly, pointing his staff at them through his viewing gear, and held as he did now it was plain to see that the old man's staff was meant to look like a large, oddly shaped key.

--???—

It was at that moment that Don's keyblade suddenly pulsated, and as Kelsey and Namanda looked on, the forest around them seemed to fall away to be replaced by an empty world of white. They looked around, flabbergasted for a moment, until they noticed Don staring up at something above them. Following his gaze, they soon found themselves staring at what looked like a giant black keyhole.

Don raised the arm with which he held his keyblade, his gaze going from the weapon to the large hole in the white sky and back again several times, making the obvious connection. That decided, he gripped his keyblade's hilt with both hands and pointed it up at the keyhole far above, and the strange weapon shot out a beam of the light, which pierced the keyhole right through its center. A resounding clunk echoed in their ears, like the sound of gigantic tumblers falling, and then the world of white fell away, to be replaced not by the forest again, but by the world that the woman Yoruichi had called…

--Betwixt and Between—

"Don!" Larsa cried, the lad seemingly having appeared from thin air. However it happened, she didn't really care, however, and the instant she recognized him she rushed over toward him, having to restrain herself from throwing her arms around him.

"Whoa…" he muttered thickly as his beloved Larsa took his free hand, looking around him first to see that both Kelsey and Namanda were still with him, both just as perplexed, and then at the strange world they'd materialized in.

There was the light sound of a door closing, and the click of a lock, and Don whirled around to be face to face with a door bearing a letter 'K' on it. He stared at it for a few moments, and then turned back around toward Larsa and the others. "What's… going on here?"

Quickly, Larsa, Chibi_Riki and Elad relayed the story of what'd happened to them after they'd split up; about meeting Yoruichi, learning what'd happened to IntoRapture, and finding out about this place and that there were other worlds beyond theirs. It was a lot for Don, Kelsey and Namanda to take in all at once, and several times one of them would ask Larsa's group to slow down, repeat, or elaborate on what they'd said, and to their credit Larsa, Elad and Chibi_Riki would do their best to accommodate them.

"Where's this 'Yoruichi' lady now?" Namanda asked at last.

"She went through the door back to her world," Elad pointed out helpfully. "Said she needed to find IntoRapture."

He pointed out the door with the katana and blue flame insignia on it, and Don padded over to and placed a paw on its surface. "IntoRapture's in there?" he asked.

"Yup!" Chibi_Riki nodded. "But we're locked in here. Yoruichi closed the door behind her, said it was too dangerous to leave it open, and IntoRapture's the only one who can open it again."

"Wait!" Larsa spoke up, pointing out Don's keyblade. "Maybe Don can open it. He's got that 'key' too."

DonJuan looked down at the weapon he held, and then up again at the door. "I… don't know… but I guess it's worth a shot."

That decided, he took a few steps back from the door and then, gripping his keyblade's hilt with both hands, pointed the weapon directly at it…

…After several moments, nothing at all had happened…

"C'mon! Work like you did before!" he scolded the weapon, giving it a few shakes.

"Keyblade, open! Open the door, keyblade! Open sesame! Open, open, open!"

Large beads of sweat hung on the sides of the faces of all present save Don, Kelsey frowning sheepishly while Namanda observed: "This… is just pathetic…"

--A Loop in Time—

"Hohohohoho!" the old man laughed, his staff pointed at his viewing gear. "Sorry, little DonJuan, but that would just be too easy, and what's a good story without at least a touch of strife and conflict?"

He gave his staff a little wave, and then a new set of gears behind him began to turn. "Let's see how you handle this…"

--Betwixt and Between—

After several more tries Don was about to give up, when at long last his keyblade reacted.

"Finally! This thing is doin' something!" he said, again pointing it at the katana/flame bearing door.

The keyblade shined brightly before shooting off a strong beam of light at the door. However, when the light struck it immediately ricocheted off, splitting in two and bouncing around the vestibule from pillar to pillar, the six youngsters being forced to duck several times as the beams nearly struck them in the head.

After a few more ricochets, the beams finally struck a pair of pillars across from Yoruichi's, one bearing an insignia of a kunai knife and one the insignia of a crossed wand and thunderbolt.

After being struck by the beam of light, the doors glowed briefly, then blew open with sudden, violent force. Then gale force winds blew through the room, the now open doors pulling the group toward them like a vacuum. Larsa, Chibi_Riki, and Elad were able to find cover in time, but Namanda, Kelsey and DonJuan weren't so lucky. Their screams resounded dully in the atrium of Betwixt and Between as they were pulled through the doors, Don and Kelsey through the kunai marked door and Namanda through the wand and thunderbolt marked one, before at last the doors slammed shut, sealing them in those new worlds…

…To be continued