So chapter four is up! You're going to notice something weird: music associated only with the other world? Duh, cause that's just how I roll!

/="Lost Forest" by Professor Layton=/

She found her feet touching snow. Looking up, she realized that she had landed in a strange area, covered with snow-covered trees and a dull gray sky. It almost had a depressing mood to it. As she looked around she realized that Li Xiao Chun was there as well, wearing strange red Chinese attire. She looked down and realized that she was wearing her red attire as well…skirt and everything.

That's when she realized that she was freezing cold.

"Gahhh!" She shivered. "What is this place, and who turned down the thermostat to nonexistent?"

"We're on the other side…though I'm surprised that this place is oddly tame." Li Xiao looked around. "This…is Matthew's world."

"Matthew's world?" She lowered her arms. "Wait…MATTHEW created all of this?"

"Not willingly, no…but that's all I know." He looked up. "Hate to say it, but I am almost as lost as you are."

"WHAT? Are you saying you just jumped in here without any clue on what's going ON?"

"I've only done this once before…with Cuba."

"…Carlos?"

"…come on. We have to go find Matthew here. The longer he stays here, the more danger he's going to see."

"Right, right! Lead the way!"

"I don't know the way…we need to find the path."

"WHAT?"

"Carlos told me that when nations die prematurely, they leave behind a sign…something calling to others to bring them full circle in the reincarnation process." Li Xiao looked around. "The last time I came here, it was a path of flowers…but the farther they are from slipping away, the less noticeable these signs are."

"Wait…does that mean that Matthew…?"

"I don't know…but whatever happened, we need to think of later. We have to find the sign."

She and Li Xiao slowly wandered the area, looking for anything that could lead the way. Before she knew it, she turned her head and saw a strange bear sitting just a few feet away from them. Charice tilted her head in confusion as she walked up toward it as he was wiping his head from his head.

"Hey, Li Xiao…what about this?"

"Eh? Hey, be careful! That might attack you!"

Charice jumped away in shock as Li Xiao ran toward her. They stared at the bear in front of them before they realized it wasn't going to do anything. They continued to stare at it for a few minutes before Li Xiao blinked in surprise and a surprised gasp escaped him.

"That's Kumajiro."

"It's a mountain?"

"That's Kilimanjaro, the mountain. This is someone different." He sighed. "Carlos stated that Matthew carried him around a lot."

"So do you think he's the sign we're looking for?"

"It's a good conclusion, but…don't go too deep with that conclusion." Li Xiao looked at him. "Kumajiro, where is your master?"

He stared at him for a few minutes before he waddled off somewhere. They quickly ran after him, surprised that the damn bear could actually run that far. Before they knew it, they noticed that the bear was running into a strange cloud. She blinked as the clouds formed into strange circles with tongues. Yes, she screamed.

"What the hell are THOSE?"

"…Shadows." Li Xiao lifted his hand. "They're after Matthew too…"

/="Must Eliminate…" by Fragile Dreams=/

"What the hell is going on, Li Xiao? Seriously! This whole place is a nutcase!"

"Never mind that. We have to get these shadows out of the way. Otherwise they'll go after us." Li Xiao glared. "Hope you know how to fight."

"I know a few things. Thank my brother for that."

Li Xiao nodded before charging into battle and drop kicking three of them into oblivion. Charice grinned as she found her hand holding the clip in her hair and pulling out a shining yellow poleaxe from the sun, slashing out two other Shadows in the process. The Chinese man looked up and stared at her sudden morphing of a weapon.

"…I guess it's parallel world logics!" She laughed. "Don't think about it!"

"…O…K…"

They start bashing through a few other Shadows, only shocked to see that there were more of them hanging around. Charice was about to panic when she saw Li Xiao lift his hand. Instantly, a card appeared in his palm, showing the image of an eye under a lamp.

"Lü Dongbin." He smiled. "Take them apart."

She looked up and saw a man appear from the card, wearing a red robe and bore green skin. He swung his hand, and instantly a whole wave of fire shot out toward the Shadows, eliminating the entire row. She stared at him as the card sank back into his hand.

/="Lost Forest" by Professor Layton=/

"…what the hell was that?"

"That is my power." He answered. "It comes from the depths of my soul…and does my will."

"…like a slave?"

"Only he is me."

"…you're an immortal?"

He stared at her.

"You know what I mean."

"No, I'm not a deity. He's only a figment of my soul, not really me…a Persona, if you will."

"So you're not a Chinese god?"

"No, I'm not."

"This is getting confusing."

"You're making it confusing. Now where's Kumajiro?"

"I see him! He's right there!"

They turned their heads and saw Kumajiro crawling toward the depths of the forest, tempting them to follow. During their otherwise quiet walk, Charice couldn't help but notice that she was getting a strange sense of dread and fear from inside the forest. There were so many feelings running through the air that she couldn't catch them. But then her nose caught a strange smell.

"Li Xiao Chun…? Do you smell that?"

"Hm? I don't smell anything."

"I smell smoke." She blinked. "Burning cloth?"

"Burning cloth…" He took two steps forward. "I smell it now…"

"What does that mean?"

"You can go ahead and try and figure that out, but I'm going to look into it."

"Who says that I'm going to think about it? Wait up!"

/="Prisoners of Fate" by Chrono Cross=/

Charice followed the man through more of the forests until she could smell all of the smoke, filling up her extremely trained nostrils (that's what she gets when she can smell food a mile away). They looked up and saw in shock that it was a huge clearing of trees filled with flags smoldered with fire.

"What the hell is this place…?" She gasped.

"These are his inner thoughts…" Li Xiao lifted up a flag. It was China's. "He hates everyone from ignoring him…"

Charice walked through all the ashes, viewing all the flags that were covered with ashes. What was weird was that some of them were more burnt than others, and then there are some that were just slashed in half. She turned her head and saw the Italian flag sliced in half and burned. But it didn't compare to the American flag. In fact, it was so burnt that she couldn't even tell that it was the American flag until she saw one of the stars.

"Hey! Look at this!" She lifted up a flag. "This one's hardly singed!"

"Seriously?" Li Xiao looked at it. "That's the Cuban national flag…"

"Well, at least he doesn't hold any grudges against him." She turned her head. "Hey, and here's mine too! And look, my section of the flag is perfectly clean!"

"Your…section?"

"Yeah. Rizal is the blue half and I'm the red half." She looked back to the flag. "But my god, his side isn't even blue anymore…"

"God, no one remembers me…and when they do, they're only there to mock me…why?"

They turned their heads to see Matthew walking toward them, almost as if he was a zombie. He had the same strange purple aura around him, startling Charice, and when he opened his eyes they were glowing a strange gold color. She had to scream for that.

"You're here to mock me too, aren't you?"

"Eh? What makes you say that?" She stated. "We're here to get you out of here!"

"Why should I leave? It's perfect this way." Matthew answered. "Here, no one mocks me. Here, no one continues to ask me who I am anymore. Here…I belong."

"Belong to who?" She blinked. "There's no one here!"

"Exactly…here, I finally belong to myself…why can't you honor that promise?"

"Because you are still a nation." Li Xiao Chun stepped forward. "If you were to stay here, your country will suffer. Your people will suffer. And when your people suffer, you will die here. ALONE."

"It doesn't matter…I want to speak out for myself for once!" He was mad. "Why should I go back there? No one loves me anymore! And with Carlos gone, who's going to be there for me?"

"What about your brother, Alfred?" Charice blinked. "Doesn't he care for you?"

"No…none of them do! That's why I belong here! You can't get me to go back out there! If you are, I'll kill you where you stand!"

"Whoa, that's much!" Charice backed up. "What's his problem?"

"…is this his…?"

She turned her head to see that Matthew's body was glowing a strange color, completely covering his body. She backed up as Li Xiao got ready to counter. The fog got bigger and bigger until it was at least four times the original size, making Charice hold her poleaxe.

"This Shadow…it's stronger than I had ever fought before."

"Ah, don't worry about it. The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" She grinned. "Come on, it can't be that ba-"

She looked up and saw that the figure had turned into a huge man covered with scars, burns and chains that were colored by a lot of the national flags. His cheeks were swollen, his eyes were red, and his whimpering was quite scary. What was weirder was that he was…naked?

"-aaaaaa…fuck."

/="Battle Theme (Summoned Beast)" by Final Fantasy X=/

"I am a Shadow…the true self…"

The…true self… Charice blinked. What is he…?

"You can't bring me back out there! There's nothing for me back home! No one loves me there!"

The chains started to straighten out into battering weapons as Li Xiao and Charice tried their best to dodge as much of the swinging as possible. She found herself hit in the leg and found herself swinging high in the air, landing on her back. It hurt, let's say that much.

"God, does he even recognize me anymore?" She stood up. "I thought I was on the list of people he didn't hate!"

"It's just a Shadow, Charice! The one that was created when Matthew made this world!" Li Xiao kicked hard into the monster's side. "If we get him out of the way, he should be safe!"

"Yeah, like we haven't really figured out what happened to him!" Charice sliced through his stomach. "Geez, what the heck is this guy working out with? DARK MATTER?"

"That makes…no sense." Li Xiao lifted up his Persona card. "But we must end this quickly."

"NO FREAKIN' DUH!" She yelled. "You have a plan?"

"Just one. Dongbin!"

She jumped out of the way and landed just as Li Xiao blew the fire Shadow on fire, beating him out of the way. She was about to recharge in there when she realized that there was something in her hand that didn't feel like a poleaxe. She lifted her hand and noticed that there was a card in her hand, bearing the picture of a guy with a dog.

["I AM THOU."]

She darted her head to the side and saw an exact replica of her standing a few feet away from her, with the same strange glow that Shadow Matthew had. However, she didn't seem to make a move to attack her. Instead, she politely gave out a little wave and smiled.

"You're the same as Matthew…"

["AND THOU ART I."]

"I get it now…this isn't a Shadow at all…" She turned to her. "If you're really me…then help me."

The other Charice started to glow and form into the image of a man with flowing white robes and sandals. She stared as he pointed toward the Shadow with a smile on his face, and that's when she knew what she had to do. She squeezed her hands.

"Maguimba!"

The Persona flew in front of her and spun toward the heart of the Shadow, completely obliterating him front the inside. She stared in shock as the card flew back to her and the Shadow turned back to Matthew's form, feeling it sink back into her skin.

/="Who am I?" by Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days=/

"Oh…my…god." She breathed out. "I'm badass."

"Have fun with that thought. I'm doing it."

"W-w-w-w-wait! Doing what?"

"I have to destroy the Shadow! If not, it's going to kill Matthew!"

"Li Xiao, listen to me! Look, this might be something completely out of the blue, but…" She pointed. "THAT'S Matthew."

"That's not Matthew! It's only a manifestation of his doubt and guilt! That's what all Shadows are, Charice!" He pointed out. "All the Shadows here are just physical representations of sadness and murder!"

"Don't you think that manifestation could in fact hold part of him?" She stated. "If he knew about Matthew's pain in the real world, don't you think he might actually be a part of him?"

Li Xiao stared at the Shadow in front of them, who was now sobbing at their feet confused out of his mind. Charice had to look at the Chinese man to make sure that he doesn't make a lunge toward him.

"I don't belong there anymore…ever since he died…"

["Do you really believe that? You do belong."]

Everyone turned their heads in confusion to see that Kumajiro had crawled toward them and was now just sitting there staring at him. That's when the realization hit her.

"OH MY GOD the bear talks!"

["Your brother still loves you…your father still loves you…everyone loves you."] Why does the bear sound like a child? ["These two were willing to give up everything for you. That is belonging."]

"…Kumajiro…"

["Go back. They need you."]

"…I understand…everyone needs me…even though they may not need me now…" He smiled. "All right…I'll go back."

Kumajiro smiled as the Shadow began to dematerialize into a cloud form, merging with Kumajiro as it began to glow a strange blue. When the cloud vanished, it had changed form into a child version of Matthew. He looked up to his hands in surprise before looking up and instantly getting tackle glomped by Charice.

Hey, it had to happen.

"Charice…you're breaking him."

"But he's so cuuuute!" She chirped. "We can carry him on the way out now!"

"Yeah, great…do you know how to get out of here?"

Oh, right…

"D-don't you have to follow the string?"

"The what?"

"The string! Behind you!"

They turned their heads to see that Charice's left pinky finger had been tied to a red string this entire time, leading through the entire path while they were wandering. She chuckled in nervousness for a few minutes before going down the path as quickly as she could.

/=+=/

"Aaaand…here's the path!"

She had led the entire group back to the TV set that they had wandered through, the screen still flickering out as usual. She turned back to the other too to see Li Xiao's interested grin and Matthew's light smile on his face…wait a minute…

"Whoa, Matthew! You grew!"

"Eh?" He stared at himself. "I'm…normal?"

"Hey, Li Xiao? You have an answer for this?"

"No, I don't. But even if I did, I wouldn't explain it here." Li Xiao stated. "We'll talk about it once we're back home."

"Right, right!" She turned to Matthew. "It's not that hard. All you have to do is go through the screen!"

"Eh?"

"Like this!"

And she stuck her hand through the screen. Matthew blinked before sticking his hand through the screen. He nodded a little bit before going through. She smiled before turning to Li Xiao, who was staring at her.

"Ladies first."

"Ah. Right. See you on the other side."

/=+=/

MYTHOLOGY LESSON ;D

Lü Dongbin is one of the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology. He was a bit of a womanizer at first but was told to undertake ten tests before achieving immortality status. He passed all ten of them and was turned immortal, and he spent the rest of his human life showing the world how to let go earthly desires. [Li Xiao Chun- Hermit]

Maguimba is a Filipino deity more focused around the Batak people. He was more focused toward medicine and was responsible for providing the ways to the Batak way of life. He had the ability to cure all illnesses and even to bring the dead back to life. [Charice Pacquio- Fool]

Well…see you next chapter!