Sunlight peeked through the curtains of Yu Narukami's room.
The light woke Hazel up. The teen slowly sitting upwards, before yawning heavily while stretching her arms up. Looking around the room, she noticed that Yu was missing, but she quickly heard him helping Nanako in the kitchen. Hazel reached towards her left, and grabbed the bag she had with her. Fumbling through to find her phone, she felt something fuzzy at the bottom of her bag. Pulling it out, she remembered why what she pulled out was in the bag.
Despite being an avid fan of boots, Hazel always struggled to wear boots without thick socks. Even with a pair that had been broken into, Hazel was always doomed to fall to the curse of blisters and bruises. To combat that, she would always throw a pair of thick, purple fluffy socks into her bag. Despite it being Summer back in her universe, it appeared that she forgot to take a pair out of her bag. At this moment in time however, she was thankful to her past self for forgetting to remove the socks from her bag.
As she pulled the fluffy socks over her feet, she heard Yu call out towards the room. "Are you awake, Hazel-Chan?"
"Yeah, I'm up!" Hazel replied. Hazel pulled the bed sheets off of herself, before standing up and leaving the room to meet with Yu and Nanako.
"Morning." Nanako said to Hazel.
"Good morning, Nanako-Chan." Hazel replied.
"Did you sleep well?" Nanako asked.
Hazel paused. Her dream suddenly came back to mind. "Yeah, I slept really well."
Yu noticed the pause, but planned to address it when Nanako was out of the room. "Good to hear." He said. "By the way, Dojima had to leave for work just before you woke up. So Nanako and I decided to make breakfast for the three of us. He added.
"We'll be having fruit topped pancakes for breakfast!" Nanako said with a smile.
"Yay!" Hazel exclaimed, her sweet tooth and inner child showing all at once. "Pancakes and fruit are a perfect breakfast combo!"
"Someone's got a sweet tooth." Yu said, with a chuckle. "I'm plating them up now. Do you want the fruit on now, or did you want to do it yourself?"
"I'll top them myself, if that's ok." Hazel replied.
"No problem." Yu said, bringing over three plates of pancakes. While Nanako brought over syrup and fruit. The three kneeling down by the Kotatsu
"Tabemono o arigatÅ!" Hazel said with a small bow.
"DÅitashimashite." Yu replied, as three trio began to dig into their food.
With breakfast finished, Yu sent a message to each of the members of the Investigation team.
Yu Narukami: Hey everyone. Given the current situation with Hazel-Chan, I would like to call another team meeting. There's something in particular that I would like to bring up.
Yu looked up from his phone, and listened in to what Hazel and Nanako were talking about.
"You go to dance practice too?" Nanako asked.
"Yep." Hazel replied. "I go to ballet practice, but I learn ballet to use it as a base for learning other dance styles. Tap, Modern and Jazz are my favourite styles of dance." She added. "What about you? What do you like about dancing?"
"I love to dance with Big-Sis Kanamin!" Nanako exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. "We practice together at least once a week!"
"Oh that's right!" Yu remembered. "You've got practice with her later on today, don't you Nanako?"
"Yep!" Nanako replied with a nod. "If Hazel does dance, I'd love for her to come along too!"
"Well, Rise wants the rest of us to join her for another project, so she can join us in the studio." Yu responded. "I'll just let Dojima know first."
"Speaking of which." Hazel began. "I should probably sort things out with Yukiko-San at The Amagi Inn."
"Nanako and I will join you on the way." Yu said. "We need to stop in Junes for a few things."
"Sure thing." Hazel said, before addressing herself. "Just let me get dressed first."
"...taba-chan?" Makoto quietly said, lightly shaking the girl's shoulder. "Futaba?"
"Uggggghhhhh..." The orange haired hacker groaned. "Five more minutes, Sojiro..."
"Futaba-Chan! You must awaken from your slumber!" Yusuke suddenly, and loudly exclaimed.
Futaba suddenly shot up, with a slight gasp. "Dammit Inari!" She exclaimed.
"Nice of you to finally join us." Jacob quipped. "We've been waiting for a few hours for you. Hell, most of us managed to fully shower in the time it took for you to wake up."
"Why are you all up so early...?" Futaba asked, tired.
"Futaba." Akira began. "It's nearly half past two. In the afternoon." Akira then sighed. "You stayed up all night to get through the security cameras didn't you?"
"Yep." Futaba said with a yawn. "Took a while, but I managed to find the files of interest!"
"Ha." Jacob began. "Futaba was on Cams all night."
Everyone looked at Jacob, all deadpanned and unimpressed. "That was not funny." Futaba said. "It was however, outdated, irrelevant, and cringe."
Ryuji rushed right over to Futaba. "Alright! Ignore him, and bring on the scoop!" he exclaimed.
As everyone began to surround Futaba and her laptop, she brought up what appeared to be a super-cut of security camera footage.
"So, an hour before the tournament was due to start..." Futaba began. "Doctor Eggman went into the mansion's workshop, and continued to do his usual routine of tinkering with his tech."
"How does this link to...?" Ann questioned, before Futaba placed a finger against her lips.
"Don't go there just yet!" She said. "It's getting to what we need. Exactly ten minutes before the tournament, a tall and lanky figure suddenly struck something down on Egghead's back! Futaba commented, with the all the enthusiasm of a sports commentator. "Knocking the dude out. Cold." She finished.
"We can tell that Sonic would be happy with whoever it was." Jacob said. "With Eggman out cold, you could tie him up and lock him up."
"It would appear that our mystery lanky man is not of that same opinion however." Yusuke interjected. "Rather than doing that, he holds something in his hand..." Everyone suddenly looked puzzled. "And Eggman suddenly rises?" Yusuke finished.
"But look at the way he does rise." Morgana said.
"He rises almost like a puppet on strings." Haru added.
Jacob looked at the footage again, before he pointed something out when Eggman rises. "Right as he gets up, there's a flash against his body."
"It looks like we'll have to look into this section ever further." Futaba said. "Leave it to me! I'll leave no stone unturned!"
As this was going on, Mario Sonic and Eggman had reached the same point that the Thieves had reached in their investigation. However, Eggman had begun to run the footage they had been examining through software that would colour the black and white footage to the closest possible colours it could pick up. After a few minutes wait, the footage had been processed.
"It's come through!" Eggman said, getting the attention of Mario and Sonic.
"Alright." Sonic said. "What does that flash look like now?"
Eggman pulled the footage up, and cut to the moment where his body rises. Slowing the footage down, they watched as the lanky figure hold something towards Eggman once again. With the addition of colour, they were able to make out a predominately white flash, but during the final few frames purple replaced the white.
Sonic and Eggman put it together almost instantly. "The Phantom Ruby!" they both exclaimed.
"No, that doesn't make sense!" Sonic exclaimed. "The ruby went with Infinite after he warned me and Knuckles about that black hole at home!"
"No, it makes sense." Eggman replied. "When Infinite re-emerged, he broke an outer shell of the ruby with the real one still in his chest. After opening the black hole, he threw the shards of the shell into that black hole."
Sonic suddenly realized where Eggman was going. "You seriously not suggesting...?!"
"...That the shards have fallen into the wrong hands?" Eggman questioned in response. "That's exactly where I'm going. In fact, I'm willing to bet that our lanky friend managed to get his hands on a shard, or possibly multiple."
"Shit." Sonic muttered. "This is worse than I thought."
However, Sonic and Eggman took notice of Mario, who seemed to be pretty angry. "So it was you... This entire lockdown was caused by you, because you're that pathetic."
Mario quickly stormed out of the room. Sonic and Eggman glanced at the screen, but were unable to see anyone in the room.
"You go ahead, Sonic." Eggman said. "I'll start looking into what's gone on with my robots."
"Gotcha." Sonic replied with a nod. "I'll be back soon."
Mario marched over to where the assist trophies stayed. Finding the right door didn't take long. Before he knocked, Sonic arrived.
Looking at where Mario was, Sonic nodded. "I was gonna ask what's got you riled up, but the location we're at has confirmed suspicions."
Mario fiddled with a device in his pocket. "That's connected to the computer we were just on. There's no chance for him to deny it now."
"Let's do it." Sonic said with a nod.
Mario faced the door, before pounding on it. A few seconds later the door opened, and Mario was met with (a cockier than normal) Waluigi.
*Play Song - Tension (Persona 5)*
"So, you figured it out." Waluigi said, a huge smirk on his face. "I must say, I wasn't expecting you so soon." he added.
"So, it was you." Mario simply replied. "Why?"
"Why do you think?" Waluigi responded. "The gift of power, I power I've never had, and I finally get to show everyone what I'm capable of."
"Wow." Sonic said. "You are Pathetic. You'll use the Phantom Ruby shard that you shouldn't even have to attack an entire mansion because you're upset that you'll never be a fighter."
Waluigi began to laugh. "I'm beyond being a fighter in this tournament." he began. "I will be the one to finish this fight! Once that stupid doctor's robots breach mansion security, everyone will be too distracted by them to focus on me, and then I'l-" Waluigi stopped suddenly. "Why should I bother telling you my plan?" Clutching the ruby shard in his hand, he clenched his hand tight. "Let me show you what's going to happen!" He exclaimed, as the ruby shard in his hand glowed a powerful purple
The familiar sound and sensation of the Phantom Ruby washed over Sonic and Mario. The mansion suddenly began to shake and crumble around the three, the floor crumbling to pieces beneath their feet. The three floated however, as they saw Eggman robots destroy the mansion, as well as fighters and other mansion members dropping like flies.
"The robots will take everyone's attention..." Waluigi's voice rang out, before the mansion halls switched into the Smash Mansion basement.
"The basement contains the core that balances this crossover..." Waluigi continued. "As everyone fails the fight, I'll take the core and harness its power!"
Waluigi laughed, before continuing. "And then, I'll use that power to..." Waluigi paused. "Eh, I'll figure it out!"
The mansion suddenly returned to normal, Mario and Sonic stood in a defensive stance. "I'm finally on the path to victory!" Waluigi exclaimed. "The day of reckoning comes ever closer! And there's nothing anyone can do to stop me!" Waluigi finished, before breaking into a fit of manic laughter.
Waluigi finished laughing, and starred at the two fighters in front of him. "Unfortunately, that's all the time you have." He said, clutching the Phantom Ruby shard. "Goodbye, you two!" Waluigi unleashed an attack from the ruby, somehow hitting Mario and Sonic hard enough to send them flying down the halls. Sonic dropping a few rings as they flew back to where they came from.
Satisfied with his attack, Waluigi turned back into his room. He looked over to the creation that he used Eggman to create. It was a surveillance system that hacked into every single camera and device in the mansion. He replayed something that he heard through one of the few active phones.
Skull sighed. "You sound miiiighty relaxed considering your situation right now."
"Oh that." Hazel said. "You honestly don't have to worry about me. I'm in Inaba with the Investigation Team."
"Inaba... are you?" Waluigi said aloud. "You stupid Sora supporter!" Clutching the Phantom Ruby shard in his hand, He opened a portal before facing an army of Egg Pawns that Eggman had created under his control. "Go into the portal. Take care of the loose end, those Persona users will not get in our way!" Waluigi faced another group of the robots. "And you guys go after the Phantom Thieves." He said, as all of the robots went off on their missions. As the Inaba mission team went on their way, Waluigi went to the surveillance console. He smiled, as he clutched the ruby shard tighter. "You can try your change of heart nonsense all you want, I'll be waiting for you Phantom Thieves!" He said, before breaking into a fit of manic laughter.
*Stop Song*
After seeing Nanako off with Kanami and Inoue, Yu and Hazel met with the other members of the Investigation Team.
"Alright, let's begin this meeting." Yosuke said.
"Hey! That's Yu-Senpai's line!" Rise complained.
"It doesn't matter." Yu replied. "We've got more serious things to deal with." Yu took a quick glance at Hazel and Rise, before continuing. "It's been brought to my attention that Hazel's "visit" has caused some... deep thoughts."
Rise sighed. "I'm really sorry, Hazel-San. But It's hard to not think about."
Kanji spoke up. "So... How much of our struggles and the such are shown in your universe?"
"A lot of them." Hazel replied. "Pretty much everything that came up during your dungeons, and the rest of your major journeys, is part of the media that you guys are in."
The Junes table was suddenly silent. The weight of what she was saying setting in deep. "And that's when you aren't turned into characters with a singular personality trait." Hazel added.
"Oh jeez. That sounds fun." Yosuke moaned. "I'm guessing it's bad?"
"Yep." Hazel replied. "If you're curious, Teddie and Chie-Chan get it the worst in my opinion."
"How bad?" Chie asked, bracing herself.
"Well..." Hazel began. "You become a borderline zombie with how much you love meat. And Teddie becomes a straight pervert. In fact Yosuke becomes about as bad as Teddie is currently."
"Wow." Yukiko said, surprised. "What we have now isn't the worst Teddie can be?"
"Somehow, yes." Hazel replied.
"Are you saying that my charm doesn't work in universe?" Teddie asked, sounding defeated.
"Dude, I will pay you in endless Topsicles if you can find any universe where your "charm" actually exists." Yosuke replied.
"I'll find that universe just fine!" Teddie said, determined. "All the beary pretty girls will be waving for me, just you watch, Hazel-Chan!"
Hazel stifled a laugh. "You're kidding, right?" She giggled. "The only time your name is in the same sentence as the word waving, is when Yosuke-San is complaining that you're waving his magazines in front of his parents."
Yukiko suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, burying her head against her arms and resting them on the table. At the same time, Chie, Kanji and Yu were trying hard to not burst out into a fit of laughter. Yosuke slouched in his seat, yet he couldn't help but find humour in the ordeal.
Suddenly though, a distorted sound gained everyone's attention. Looking to the distance, a dark purple portal opened, and an army of round orange robots poured out.
"Shit!" Hazel exclaimed. "Eggman robots!"
"What the hell are they doin' here?!" Kanji yelled.
"ELIMINATE THE SORA SUPPORTERS!" The Egg Pawns exclaimed. "WALUIGI RULES SUPREME!"
"What the fuck...?" Hazel thought. "Why the hell is Waluigi ruling supreme?"
"You know what? It dosen't matter where they came from or why they're here!" Kanji said, grabbing the folding chair he was sitting on. He then folded it, and held it in a defensive stance. "They ain't going back to see Eggman anytime soon!"
"Kanji!" Yu yelled. "What are you doing?!"
"Fightin' these creeps off!" Kanji exclaimed, with a fighting spirit. "I'm not ridin' into battle at dawn, I'm ridin' into battle at midday!"
Your adventure begins at next midday. Keep a steady pace and you'll come through fine."
*Play Song: Awakening (Persona 4)*
That same voice rang through Hazel's mind yet again.
It seems... that next midday is now upon us. It's now or never. Are you ready to open the door?
A steely determination flowed through Hazel. Closing her eyes, she spoke with a true conviction.
"Let's do it!" She exclaimed.
That's the spirit... And just to sweeten the deal,
Thou art I, and I am Thou.
Thou hast received the strength to open thy's door.
Thee has been blessed with the strength of the Keyblade.
As such, thou is to be granted the blade known as the Kingdom Cook-Key.
*Play Song: Awakening (Persona 4) from 0:49*
Hazel found herself engulfed in a shadowy mass, similar to the one that Sora was absorbed by in Kingdom Hearts 1. After a second or two, a bright light engulfed Hazel's view. The light exploded into a mass of white, affecting the surrounding area like a strong storm, before Hazel burst out of the light, her arms out and her head back. She looked towards the Egg Pawns, and held her hand out. And out of thin air, a Keyblade formed in her hand. The blade itself was the exact same shape as Sora's Kingdom Key, even down to the keychain being of Mickey Mouse's head. The chain itself was a shiny gold, instead of silver. The most striking difference however, was that Hazel's Keyblade resembled a giant gingerbread cookie, the Mickey chain being made of three chocolate chip cookies combined into the shape.
Hazel held the Keyblade in an offensive stance. "You robots have dealt with Sonic The Hedgehog, but let's see you deal with Kingdom Hearts!"
She spun her Keyblade in her left hand, before pointing it at the Egg Pawns. "Let's go!" She exclaimed, ready to fight.