"You had to choose the darkest path, didn't you?" France really wasn't pleased at all with the situation they were in.
"Stop complaining; we didn't have much choice anyway, aru," China said, also not looking very happy about where they were.
"This is all England's fault," France continued to complain. "If he hadn't taken such an interest in this cursed music box, then we wouldn't all be here."
"I have to agree, aru," China commented.
They continued to walk in silence with just a creepy music box melody quietly playing in the background. Suddenly the three of them found themselves surrounded by ghostly figures. They all stopped where they were and looked around. There was no way to get around them.
"What are these things?" France asked; he felt very terrified.
"They are ghosts, da," Russia calmly said.
Russia glared at the shadowy figures and they suddenly disappeared. He then turned to face the ghosts behind him, and they also fled. Just seeing Russia's scary expression was enough to cause all of the ghosts to leave purely out of fear.
"There, now you don't have to be scared," Russia said.
France and China just froze out of shock. They couldn't comprehend how Russia had scared away a crowd of ghosts with just one look. They were conflicted about whether staying near Russia would be a bad idea or a good one.
"Scared of what exactly?" France asked, trying to suggest that Russia was much more terrifying than the ghosts.
"Let's just keep going, aru," China said as he continued to walk, trying to avoid the awkward tension growing amongst their group.
"If there are ghosts here, people must have died here, da?" Russia suggested.
"I guess so, aru," China nervously replied, wondering if Russia was just stating the obvious just to make them even more scared in their situation.
As they continued to walk, China and France did feel slightly safer knowing that the creatures in the music box realm were scared off easily. It also helped that the path appeared to be slightly getting brighter the further they walked.
After a long time they reached what appeared to be a dead end. However, it couldn't be a dead end because there was part of the wall where light was seeping through a gap in the same way light would be visible in the edges of a closed door.
"There's obviously something on the other side, but there's no way through," France commented upon observing the gaps in the wall.
"Maybe we can break through," Russia suggested as he held up his pipe.
"It's worth a try, aru," China said, not able to come up with a better plan himself.
Russia raised his pipe and hit it as hard as he could against the wall. After multiple hits against the wall, it showed no sign of breaking down. Russia didn't want to give up so quickly, and after another hit, a small part of the wall did break off. However, this wasn't a simple piece of rubble; it was shaped like a cog.
"What is this for?" France asked as he picked up the piece.
"Look at the wall, aru," China said as he closely examined it. "There are gaps all over the wall and they're all shaped similar to that piece, aru"
"So Russia knocked the last piece out?" France questioned as he failed to see anymore pieces on the wall. "It doesn't seem to be opening a way though."
"Aiya! That probably means we have to fill all the gaps with the right pieces to open it, aru," China explained, not sounding pleased about the idea of doing a puzzle.
"Don't we need all of the pieces before we can do that?" Russia asked. "We only have one."
"Exactly, aru," China said. "And we have no idea where all of the other pieces are."
"There are some more on the floor," France pointed out as he began picking them up.
There were many cogs scattered all over the floor, and each was different in size and shape, and the wall was like a blank canvas. The possible placements of each cog appeared to be endless. China ran his hand over the cold wall and felt for any gaps in the wall. Fortunately his could feel a few cog shaped gaps, meaning that it was just a matter of placing all of the pieces in the right gap. It seemed simple enough, but as the three of them picked up all the cogs they could find and began placing them into the wall, they seemed to really struggle.
"That piece goes there, aru!" China shouted."Aiya! France, just give that one to me; it goes here!"
"No, it doesn't take a genius to places cogs into a wall," France protested, refusing to hand over the pieces he was holding. "Just let me do it."
France continued to try placing cogs in the right place, but just seemed to be trying to get the small ones to stay in the larger gaps, while trying to squash the non flexible, larger pieces into the gaps they were a bit too big for them to fit. China was really getting annoyed with him, and so he hit him over the head with his wok, causing France to drop half of his cogs on the floor.
"Ouch! That hurt! What was that for?" France complained.
"If you can't place any of the pieces correctly then just leave it to me and Russia, aru!" China continued to nag.
"You didn't need to hit me!" France was becoming increasingly annoyed, and his head really hurt.
"If you two are fighting," Russia interrupted as he stopped placing pieces into the wall. "Can I join? Kolkolkolkolkol."
"No, and we're not fighting, aru," China said. "I'm just trying to maintain some order. We'll never get this done if France can't place a single piece properly, aru."
"Fine!" France said firmly as he threw down the cogs he was holding. "I'm going on a strike. I won't even try to help you out anymore."
"That's fine with me, aru" China said as he crouched to pick up all the pieces France had let go of.
France walked a bit away from China and Russia, not too far that he felt unsafe, but far enough to feel out of their way. Without France wrongly placing the cogs, China and Russia were quickly able to finish inserting every piece they had. For some reason, the wall still didn't open up as they had expected. China inspected the wall and found another gap that was missing a piece. After telling Russia, they both began searching the floor to try to find it on the floor nearby. The search was unsuccessful.
"France, did you take a piece?" China asked, glaring at France.
"Why are you accusing me?" France replied. "I threw all the pieces I had on the floor where I was standing."
"Maybe there are more that what were left by the wall," Russia suggested.
"I guess we'll have to look around, aru" China said as he started walking back along the path they just walked.
Russia followed him, leaving France all by himself.
"You're just going to leave me by myself?" France asked, worried that the ghosts would reappear without Russia nearby to scare them off.
"Well you didn't want to help," China called back as he continued to walk.
While China and Russia were searching for the last piece, France started to look around nervously. However, it wasn't any ghost, monster, or creature he spotted, but the piece they were missing from the wall. France was now conflicted about what to do. He had already said that he wouldn't help, and not only would giving them the piece be helping, but would also make it seem like he had the piece the whole time and was just trying to annoy China.
France decided that he would just put it somewhere that China would be more likely to find it. He walked over to the cog and kicked it towards the wall near where the other cogs were placed. Russia and China soon returned not looking so happy after unsuccessfully being able to find the piece.
"Well it must be somewhere, aru," China said upon return.
China took a look around and saw the piece on the floor where he was sure they had already checked.
"Was it really here the whole time, aru?" China questioned, sure that he checked the place properly before conducting a search elsewhere.
His uncertainty of the whereabouts of the missing cog caused him to glare at France; he was even more convinced that France had the piece the whole time. China picked up the cog and inserted it into the wall. As he pushed it into place all of the cogs on the wall began to rotate. After they had all rotated a full 360 degrees each, the wall opened up. The section of the wall covered in the cogs slid to the right, giving the trio access to a new area of the realm.
Suddenly the extremely loud sound of the music box playing echoed throughout the realm. Everyone covered their ears just as they did the first time the sound played and waited for the sound to stop.
"That noise sounded strangely familiar," Russia commented as the music stopped.
"Well of course it did. That was the same sound that was played when we first got here, aru," China explained.
"Does that mean more people have joined in on this excitement?" Russia asked.
"For their sake, I hope not, aru," China replied.
With that commotion over, the three of them stepped into the new room that had discovered. It was slightly better lit than the path, but still appeared very dim in places. The room was very large, and appeared to stretch very far.
"Aiya, there is not even anything here, just a large empty room, aru" China complained, disappointed that they still seemed so far off finding an exit.
"Either this is a giant room or just another large path to take," France commented as he glanced around the room. "There's no way out as far as we can see, and it seems to stretch even further into the distance."
"Looks like we have more exploring to do," Russia said, not sounding bothered at all that they were to be spending even longer in the dangerous realm. "Let's keep going and see what is ahead."
After just walking a few more steps into the room, France stepped on something and soon began to cry out in pain.
A/N: Just thought I'd let you know that I'm not saying what has happened to France until chapter 7, but I'll be introducing another character to the story in the next chapter.