On Today's Episode: The trinity returns to Nordopolica to enter the Kritya Cup tournament, hoping to sharpen their skills just a bit more before they set sail for Lost Jerusalem. Ten more rounds of Heartless bashing await them, and so does Shion, who also signed up for the tournament to finally claim her promised rematch with Nick...
EDIT 2/6/23: Fixed an oops during the tournaments thanks to Lonnie.
Episode 16: Strength of Heart
"Wow, there's another big crowd here," Maylin quipped as the trinity walked up the stairs to the Coliseum. "This sounds like it's gonna be a good one."
"Then let's not waste any time and sign up already," Nick proclaimed. "We're gonna need all the experience we can muster from this tournament before we head off to Lost Jerusalem."
"All right, then, lead the way, fearless leader," Haruka chuckled.
The trinity headed to the lobby to sign up for the tournament, then walked into the arena, ready to fight.
"Our keyblade-wielding stars have once again returned, this time for the trickier Kritya Cup!" the announcer proclaimed. "With two victories already under their belt, will the third time be the charm, or is this where the tournament circuit has the last laugh? I'm sure you all came here to witness a fight, so let's not waste any time and get the Kritya Cup underway! Fighters, prepare for the Dusk Vanguard!"
The center platform descended to the lower level, then raised again to bring out five Gargoyles and three Shadows.
"Seems easy enough," Haruka quipped. "Shall we rumble?"
"Hell yes we shall rumble!" Maylin proclaimed, raising Spellbinder to cast Thundara, wiping out the Shadows and driving the Gargoyles back.
Nick switched to Reverberating Abyss and fired Fira spells one after the other to finish off the Gargoyles.
"Next!" Nick shouted.
"They're off to a nice start!" the announcer proclaimed. "But can they handle the Minions of Horror?!"
The center platform brought up four Wight Knights, an Air Pirate, and two Barrel Spiders.
"You can probably tell that Air Pirates like to stay in the air," Haruka explained to Nick. "They fight similarly to Gargoyles in they like to use all of their limbs to attack, but Air Pirates are trickier to catch off guard."
Maylin destroyed the two Barrel Spiders with the "ring of fire spinning around her" variant of Fira, then turned her attention to the Air Pirates. "Thankfully, they're not resistant to my magic," Maylin giggled, blasting the Air Pirate with a Blizzara spell that also hit the nearby Wight Knights.
Nick finished the cleanup with a Sonic Blade attack, causing the crowd to cheer louder.
"Impressive finish!" the announcer proclaimed. "Next up are the Buccaneers!"
The center platform brought up four Pirates and a Battleship, a large pirate ship with the Heartless symbol on its mast.
"Okay, right out of every Pirates of the Caribbean movie," Nick quipped.
"The Pirates aren't much trouble," Haruka explained. "The Battleship likes to fly around and avoid your attacks, so try to break its mast off to get it to stay down."
While Maylin and Haruka spread out to go after the Pirates, Nick stood his ground as the Battleship flew around, occasionally stopping to fire its cannon.
When the Battleship stopped to fire, Nick saw his opportunity and used a Strike Raid, throwing his spinning keyblade at the Battleship multiple times until he broke off its mast, then finished it off with the final throw.
The Pirates were all gone when Maylin and Haruka jumped back to Nick's side.
"Spectacular performance!" the announcer proclaimed. "But now is where things get just a bit trickier! Onward to the Stray Phantom!"
The center platform brought up four Gargoyles and three Wight Knights.
"What do you say, girls? Wanna rip 'em apart with a summon?" Nick offered.
"Do you have to ask, silly?" Maylin giggled as she and Haruka vanished from sight.
("Viva! Spark! Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure" by Machico plays)
A large whirlpool of water sprouted underneath Nick, but didn't suck him in. Nick raised the Wavecrystal to the sky, and bursts of ocean water exploded from it and flew into the whirlpool. Nick looked down to see someone swimming through the whirlpool for a few seconds before Laura jumped out of the pool to finally reveal herself to Nick.
One of the Wight Knights swung its arms forward, but Laura simply raised her hand to create a barrier of water around Nick that bumped it backwards so they could go on the offensive. Laura leaped high into the air before coming down with a big splash that destroyed the Wight Knight, Nick doing the same to attack the Gargoyles.
Nick continued to move around the battlefield, occasionally jumping alongside Laura to create a pool of his own and blasting Heartless away with each leap they made, much to the obvious delight of the crowd.
While they were leaping through water pools, every now and then Nick fired a blast of water from his keyblade to deter any Heartless from interrupting their watery dance.
Looking around at all the pools of water they'd created earlier, Nick and Laura decided that it was time for the finale, and they dove into a larger pool of water before jumping out of it, high above the battlefield, and thrusting their hands towards the Heartless. All of the pools they'd created during their rapid-fire jumping erupted with concussive water blasts that flooded the entire nearby area and utterly obliterated all of the Heartless that got caught in the torrent.
Her work finished, Laura swam over and planted a kiss on Nick's cheek before vanishing in an outwards burst of water that reformed into the Wavecrystal in his right hand.
"I'm surprised the tournament peoples are okay with us using summons," Maylin quipped.
"Hey, as long as the crowd loves it and it's not illegal, I guess it's fine," Haruka replied.
"And we have a special opponent entering the tournament now!" the announcer proclaimed. "You folks may remember this lady, who had our heroes on the ropes in the preliminaries before that one nutjob interrupted everything. Now, at last, she's here for a long-awaited rematch! Please give a big hand for Shion Uzuki!"
The center platform raised to bring up Shion Uzuki, who had already equipped her MWS for a fight.
"I did say you owed me a rematch sometime," Shion chuckled.
"And so I did," Nick quipped. "Girls, I'm going one-on-one for this."
"You would," Maylin giggled.
"Go get 'em, buddy," Haruka laughed as she and Maylin stepped aside so Nick could have his fun.
"No Zagi to interrupt us this time," Nick proclaimed. "Let's see what you're made of, Shion!"
"You asked for it!" Shion shouted as she charged for Nick.
Counting to three in his head, Nick dove to the right to avoid each swing from Shion's MWS, which seemed to have a lot of different weapons stashed away inside of it.
Eventually, Shion raised her MWS and started channeling electricity through it. "Lightning Blast!" Shion shouted, unleashing a shotgun-spread blast of lightning that Nick just barely dodged away from.
Nick made his move, slipping behind Shion and striking a few times with his keyblade before Shion jumped away.
"Gravity Well!" Shion exclaimed, casting a Gravity-like spell from her MWS much like she'd used in the preliminaries. This time, however, Nick was ready and sidestepped the Gravity well, then cast his own Gravity spell to bring Shion down to her knees.
Nick didn't waste his opportunity, relentlessly striking Shion with an Ars Arcanum, though she managed to block the final hit and jump to the other side of the arena.
Drat, almost had her, Nick thought.
Shion raised her hand and drew a glyph that she loaded into her MWS before aiming it at Nick, a spell circle appearing in front of her.
"Spell Ray!" Shion shouted, firing a massive beam of blue light towards Nick that he dodged away from, only for Shion to rotate in her spot and turn the beam with her. The Spell Ray hit Nick directly in the chest and sent him tumbling.
Naturally, Shion attempted to charge in and finish the job while her opponent was stunned, but Nick jumped back to his feet and retaliated with a Zantetsuken.
Shion stood there in stunned silence before she fell to her knees in defeat.
"I guess you wanted it more, huh?" Shion quipped as Nick walked over to help her back to her feet.
"Hey, you put up quite a fight," Nick responded. "That Spell Ray hurt."
"Now I feel like I know what you meant about strength of heart," Shion admitted. "Yours comes from your friends."
Maylin and Haruka couldn't help but smile as they rejoined Nick in the arena.
"Yeah, with these two by my side, I can conquer anything," Nick proclaimed.
"Your friends give you strength," Shion stated. "I struggled with making friends for a long time, considering the kind of life I've had. But recently, I've learned that it's okay to trust my friends."
Shion smiled, then reached her hand out. "And as a team, I'm sure the three of you can overcome anything," Shion proclaimed as she and Nick high-fived each other before she jogged out of the arena.
"What an electric duel that was!" the announcer proclaimed. "But our fighters are only halfway through this tournament, so I hope they're not getting too cocky just yet! Let's see how they handle the Red Legion!"
The center platform brought up eight Red Nocturnes and a single Search Ghost.
Maylin and Haruka quickly took care of this group to give Nick a little more time to recover after his battle with Shion, Maylin wiping out six of the Red Nocturnes with a Blizzara spell, while Haruka lured the Search Ghost and last two Red Nocturnes to her before destroying them with a Windcutter attack.
"They inch ever closer to the top," the announcer proclaimed. "And as they do, so does the championship! Can our brave fighters keep their cool in the face of the Dark Squadron?!"
The center platform brought up a Wight Knight, two Gargoyles, two Pirates, and two Air Pirates.
The Wight Knight immediately jumped towards Nick, but he jumped to meet it and destroy it with a Hurricane Period.
Maylin cast Thundara on the rest of the Heartless before throwing an Ether to Nick so he could replenish his mana reserves, and Haruka landed a couple hits to ground the Air Pirates so that Nick could strike them with his own keyblade and take them out.
This just left the Pirates and Gargoyles, who were no match for a double-cast Thundara courtesy of Nick and Maylin.
"Three battles remain! They're so close to the top!" the announcer proclaimed. "How will they fare against the Blue Legion?"
The center platform brought up seven Blue Rhapsodies and two Gargoyles.
"Someone really liked the Gargoyles, considering they keep showing up," Maylin quipped as she flattened four Blue Rhapsodies with a Gravira spell, allowing Nick to swiftly mop them up while Haruka dealt with the Gargoyles.
Once the Blue Rhapsodies were all defeated, Nick finished off the remaining Gargoyle with an Aerial Spiral attack.
"Just one more before the big finale!" the announcer proclaimed. "Our challengers are so close to the peak, but will they survive the Flying Pirates?!"
The center platform brought up two Battleships, two Pirates, and two Air Pirates.
"Okay, I'm not dealing with two of these things," Nick quipped, bringing out the Bloodrose. "Wanna let Nezuko handle this?"
The crowd cheered even louder, indicating they liked it when Nick showed off his summons.
"Well, buddy, the people have spoken!" Maylin laughed as she and Haruka vanished from sight.
("Akeboshi" by LiSA plays)
The Bloodrose swiftly unleashed a few spirals of demonic-looking violet flames that converged on the ground in front of him and formed into Nezuko's box.
Nick walked up and tapped the box twice with Reverberating Abyss before it opened all by itself, allowing Nezuko to jump out of it and pat Nick's head like she always did before focusing her attention on the Heartless in front of them.
As a Battleship approached, Nezuko charged it and jumped into the air to unleash a powerful downward axe-kick that smashed the Battleship into the ground. An Air Pirate attempted to collide with Nick by means of a horn charge, but Nezuko was faster on the draw, placing herself in front of the Air Pirate and ravaging it with a barrage of overlapping nail strikes before finishing with an X-slash, easily tearing the Air Pirate into pieces.
Another Air Pirate tried to get in close, but Nezuko simply swiped it into the air with an uppercut slash that trailed crimson-pink flames, leaving it helpless in the air so Nick could leap after it and finish it off with a Hurricane Period.
Eventually, the rest of the Heartless attempted to pincer them in, but Nick noticed a rose shape on all of the enemies, looked at Nezuko, and nodded. It was time to end this.
Nezuko raised her right hand towards the approaching Heartless, her nails glowing brightly.
"Blood Demon Art: Exploding Blood!" Nezuko shouted, clenching her fist and causing trails of crimson-pink flames to shoot out from her hand and eviscerate all of the remaining demons, their ashes falling all across the battlefield.
Once the field was clear, Nezuko turned towards Nick and raised her hand. Getting the message, Nick high-fived Nezuko before she turned into a small collection of crimson-pink flames and reformed into the Bloodrose in his hand.
"And we have at last reached the final round of the Kritya Cup!" the announcer shouted. "Just like the previous two circuits, the final challengers are two off-worlders! Say hello to the lovely Noir and the speedy Mona!"
The center platform brought up two people who were clearly part of the Phantom Thieves.
Noir was a seventeen-year-old girl with chin-length curly light auburn hair and brown eyes, wearing a dark purple cavalier hat with a feather plume tucked into a royal purple hatband, a long-sleeved pale pink blouse with a white neck jabot held there by a red gem pin, a black corset vest with gold buttons, bloomers that match her hatband, black pantyhose, a holster belt carrying ammo and lace-up pumps.
Mona was, surprisingly, an anthropomorphic and bipedal tuxedo cat-like creature with a large spherical head, predominantly black fur, a mask that covered much of his face with elliptic eyes consisting of white sclera, blue irises and black pupils, and wearing a yellow scarf around his neck and a utility belt around his hips, with two golden buttons and two bags attached.
"Hey, we've seen stranger things, haven't we?" Maylin admitted.
"Even stranger is, I think they brought a UFO with them," Nick quipped, pointing to high above the Nordopolica Coliseum, where there was indeed a fancy-looking UFO flying above the arena.
"Oh, that's just our friend Oracle," Noir stated. "She's not a fighter like us, so she stays out of sight and supports us from afar."
"Time for you to feel the fury of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts!" Mona shouted, drawing his slingshot as Noir brought out a massive battle axe.
("Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" by Lyn Inaizumi plays)
Noir was the first to go on the offensive, swinging her axe with such force that every swing that didn't hit the trinity left a hole in the concrete floor of the arena.
"Holy crapbaskets, she's so strong!" Maylin gasped.
"...finally," Haruka giggled.
"Um, what's with that look on her face?" Nick wondered.
"Nick, Maylin, you take care of Mona, 'kay?" Haruka proclaimed. "Noir is mine."
With that said, Haruka charged to attack Noir, which left Nick and Maylin to face off with Mona.
"Don't underestimate me because I'm small," Mona quipped. "I'm tougher than I look!"
Mona demonstrated this by firing a blast from his slingshot, and though Nick easily dodged it, this left him open as Mona summoned his Persona, Zorro, to cast Garudyne, shooting a barrage of cutting wind blades at Nick that he couldn't dodge in time. Though Nick was floored by the attack, Maylin quickly cast Cura on him to get him back on his feet.
"This may come as a shock to you, kitty," Maylin taunted, raising Spellbinder and casting Thundara, using the "projectile bolt" variant to send Mona sprawling. Realizing she'd found his elemental weakness, Maylin continued to cast Thundara over and over again, sending Mona scurrying around the arena to avoid getting zapped again.
While all of this was happening, Haruka continued to duel with Noir, countering every axe swing with a swing from Divine Rose and looking like they were dancing instead of fighting.
"Wow, you're pretty strong, too, huh?" Noir giggled.
"I am the muscle of our group," Haruka chuckled.
Noir leaped backwards, summoning her Persona, Milady, mid-jump so she could cast a Psiodyne spell, creating a dome-shaped explosion of psychic energy that Haruka had to jump backwards to avoid.
Noir landed back on the ground and threw her axe towards Haruka in a manner very similar to Nick's Strike Raid attack, but Haruka dodged it easily, leaving Noir in a bit of a pickle.
Realizing she was in trouble, Noir quickly summoned Milady to cast a Tetrakarn spell, thinking that Haruka would get physical again.
However, Mona came bounding by, still dodging Maylin's rapid-fire spell casting, and he eventually jumped towards Noir, after which Maylin hit them both with a Thundara blast, shocking both of them until they fell to their knees.
And that seemed to be enough for the tournament officials, as the crowd started cheering loudly, and the announcer himself came down to present the trinity with the Kritya Cup trophy.
"Also, as a reward for clearing all three tournaments in the current circuit, we reward you with this!" the announcer stated, handing Nick a keychain token shaped like Estelle's heart-shaped shield. "It may not seem like much, but friends of ours say you'll know what to do with it."
Nick attached the token to his keyblade and swung it horizontally, the keyblade transforming mid-swing. This new keyblade had a pink and gold handle, a handle guard shaped like the edges of the Nordopolica Coliseum, a hilt that resembled an octagon-shaped blastia core, a blade shaped like Yuri's sword topped off by the jewel on Estelle's wand, teeth in the shape of a winged heart, and the token connected by a keychain made of five jewels of different colors representing different types of blastia. The words Blastia Core ran through Nick's head as he studied the weapon.
"Man, that was a tricky one," Mona quipped after he and Noir had recovered. "I almost thought you had them with that axe throw. I probably shouldn't have gotten too close to you, though..."
"I think we did a good job, Mona-chan," Noir, real name Haru Okumura, responded. "Those three really are something else, after all."
"Nice fighting yourselves," Haruka giggled. "It was fun to finally go up against someone who can match me blow-for-blow when it comes to physical strength. That's rare in my travels."
Suddenly, the UFO that Oracle was piloting came flying down to the arena so its pilot could hop out of it.
"Hey, do you guys see that up there?" Oracle, real name Futaba Sakura, proclaimed as she pointed up to the sky, where light converged into the shape of a keyhole in the air just above the Coliseum.
"W-wait, is that Nordopolica's keyhole?!" Maylin gasped. "How come it never showed up until just now?!"
"Who really knows how the world works," Nick quipped as he raised Blastia Core to the sky, light shining around its teeth before firing a beam of light into the keyhole, sealing it off with a loud CLICK.
"So, is that all of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts?" Haruka asked.
"Well, almost," Mona answered. "We're still missing our leader, Joker, and I don't think he's around here..."
"Guess we'll just have to keep looking until we find him," Haru stated as she, Morgana, and Futaba followed the trinity out of the coliseum so they could take them back to Traverse Town.
Nick noticed that Futaba blushed slightly at the mention of Joker, which made him think that Futaba might have a crush on him. But knowing that it probably wasn't his business, he didn't push the issue.
"That could take a while, though," Morgana admitted. "There's clearly a lot of worlds out there where Joker might be, and I really think it was just luck that most of us ended up here in Nordopolica."
"We'll keep an eye out for him on our travels," Maylin quipped. "But for now, we're gonna take you three back to Traverse Town where the other Phantom Thieves are waiting, since we're going someplace that's probably gonna be pretty dangerous."
As they all boarded the Gummi Ship, with Futaba going into an excited spiel about the "awesome tech" onboard, Nick gazed out into the Lanes Between, hoping that Marie would be all right...
...and that he could knock some sense into Ellen before it was too late.
To be continued...
New keyblade acquired!
Blastia Core
Strength: 12
MP: 0
Recoil: 90
Critical Rate: x1.5
Critical Bonus: +6
Ability: Finishing Plus
Description: A keyblade representing a guild who journeys to seek their own truth in this world. A powerful weapon that is difficult to deflect, capable of inflicting mighty critical blows and unleashing successive finishing moves at the end of a combo.
On the next episode...
Nick: Well, readers, next time, we're off to Lost Jerusalem!
Maylin: Things are about to go down, and we'd rather not spoil any of it!
Haruka: Yeah, so we'll leave the preview at this and leave it to your imaginations what's happening next time.
Nick: We'll see you all at the big battle, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse, "When You're Lost in the Darkness"!
Nick, Maylin and Haruka: May your hearts be your guiding key!