Chapter Nine:

A Manga Artist's Colorful Fireworks Show

Crickets chirped in sync with owls hooting as stars twinkled across the dark sky above the gorgeous greenery of the Mushroom Kingdom. Axol hummed in a jolly manner as he made the last arrangements for the red and blue rockets. The fuses were still, and the rockets were aimed at the sky in near perfect sync.

One miscalculation was all it took for things to go wrong, for the castle to be potentially and accidentally decimated by a firecracker. Axol did not want that one and nor did he want anyone to get rowdy. The fireworks were meant to be exciting, not troubling.

"She's gonna love this." Axol said with a grin, "Tonight is just perfect. Just have to get this straightened and… here we are! Don't care if it's not New Year's or Fourth of July; people love a fireworks display. Ok, now let's get to higher ground."

He looked at the rockets once more, and then he looked at himself in the mirror, looking at his handsome and smooth reflection. Then he put the mirror away and examined the remote control, ensuring it was clean enough.

No delays. It was show time.

Axol headed up the hill and pulled out the blindfold. He wanted her to be thrilled by it. Even if it wasn't her birthday, Axol did this to impress her. He'd worked hard to make her happy and earn over the watermelon girl's heart. In his mind, a gorgeous anime waifu was the perfect girlfriend for an anime artist.

No, Saiko was never the apple of his eye, and neither was Meggy after she turned human. Who would want to see an axolotl lock lips with a girl who used to turn into a squid?

The axolotl cringed whenever he found someone asking for a comic about him and Meggy being together. He was also uneasy whenever someone brought up the idea of Mario being with Meggy. Like that would ever happen, Mario was an older man with a wacky mentality, and Meggy was several years younger than him. Plus, spaghetti was the apple of Mario's eye.

Dwelling on such ideas was useless, not when a manga artist like Axol was focused on other anime-related works. He was working on his Two-Piece manga, which adapted many of the episodes of the show he made in the Internet Graveyard while telling different stories. Plus, he had other ideas.

Axol found Melony lying under a tree, sleeping like her typical sleepy self, and a blanket lay wrapped around her shapely figure. The former resident of Inkopolis chuckled; it wasn't even that cold.

"Melon-y!" He sang.

"Wha...?"

She opened her eyes and sat up, seeing Axol close by. He held out a kind hand and gave her a smile. "Hope you're not too sleepy, Melony." The axolotl said, "I have a very special treat for you if you're interested."

Melony yawned and stood; the blanket slid off of her, and Axol saw the light-pink dress she was wearing, which matched part of her standard outfit that she'd worn since the day she was hit by the Fierce Deity Mask. Axol held her hand, and then he placed the blindfold around her eyes, causing the watermelon waifu to giggle.

"Axol?"

"No peaking, Melony." He said, tickling her shoulder.

The green-haired watermelon girl giggled again.

He took her hand, leading her away from the tree and towards the hill's peak. All Melony could see was blackness, her vision obscured by the fold, and she could only rely on her other senses. She felt her legs moving, her hand held by Axol, she smelled the night air filling her nostrils, and she could hear the crickets and the crunch-crunch-crunch of grass under her feet.

Melony walked and heard Axol chuckle excitedly, then she heard him stop, and she also stopped. The axolotl removed the blind, allowing her to see the countryside and the castle in the distance, beyond the peak of the hill.

Axol then brought up the remote and tapped the fiery-red button.

A beep emitted from the device, the signal relaying to the rockets below. The fuses ignited, and the small flame burned its way up into the barrel of the fireworks, setting off the chain reaction of the thrusters' ignition.

One by one, the rockets launched with a shriek, flying into the sky and leaving a colorful blue and red trail followed by yellow and green. The rockets flew high and exploded in a shower of sparks in the night sky, illuminating the land in many colorful shades like a rainbow. Axol sat down and looked at Melony, observing her reaction.

"Oooooh." She breathed, then her eyes lit up and she smiled with amazement. "W-Wow!" He heard her exclaim, "It's so amazing!"

"This is for you, Melony." Axol told her, "I was thinking about you."

"Axol, I-I don't know what else to say... It's... It's so pretty."

"Not as pretty as you."

Melony turned to Axol as more fireworks exploded. She looked at him with a blissful expression, and their gaze met, their eyes locking together. And the flow of time slowed to a crawl, the firecrackers began to sound distant, and all Axol could hear was his heart pounding even as he could still hear the sounds of fireworks going off.

And then, he heard a click, followed by music. Melony had just brought out a radio and a song was playing. "Hallelujah", not Waluigi's version of it, the real "Hallelujah". She looked down at Axol with a mesmerized and dreamy smile. In that moment, Melony was no longer someone with a little kid's mentality.

He stared into the eyes of a woman, a true waifu, someone genuinely gorgeous. He saw the woman whom he'd fallen for on that day when Melony changed forever.

"Axol..."

"Melony... I love you..." Axol replied, hearing Melony's alluring voice.

There were no barriers to separate them. Nobody could get in their way. She loved him, and she was the apple of his eye. It was like a match made in the heavens, the anime girl and the manga artist, perhaps what Boopkins and Saiko could have been if Saiko had not been so ax-crazy.

Stars danced around them and a flash of red and blue from the fireworks reflected off Melony's face as she approached Axol. He saw her feet leave her boots, which lay on the ground, and then he saw her reach up to the straps of her dress.

Melony peeled it away, letting it float to the ground, and revealed a lime-green and pale string bikini costume accentuating her curvaceous figure. And now, they were beyond the point of no return.

Melony lowered herself, her smooth arms folded around Axol's neck, and she pressed her stature upon his torso, letting the axolotl feel part of the watermelon waifu Axol's hands cupped her hips right as another volley of red and green illuminated their faces in the night.

It was perfect, with no prying eyes and no interruptions. After enduring a rough youth in Inkopolis, mocked by Inklings for his love of anime, and after the insanity of Anime Island, after going through so much as a rising manga artist and to ensure he kept his status as the world's greatest anime artist, Axol had the woman he could only dream of.

He didn't need a fully charged Inkweaver to bring her to life; she'd come to him. She'd found her true self and fate brought them together.

Axol sat still as Melony dipped her head and kissed him, he kissed her, and the universe was awash in a wave of love and fireworks. The starry heavens above twinkled as Axol and Melony shared the kiss of their lives below, even if it was the green-haired beauty who delivered the first kiss, and she was seducing him too.

On top of that, Axol was inspired. He could write a manga about something like this...

Just then, a shadow loomed over and the sound of fireworks began to fade. Axol and Melony looked up, and the peace was gone, replaced with terror, as they looked up to see a dark horror staring at them with a frightening red eye.

The beast reached down, reaching for Axol. Melony stood in front of him protectively and brandished her sword as darkness engulfed them all...

He sat up in bed with a light gasp and turned on the light. That dream, until that thing appeared, was... remarkable.

Axol looked around his room, looking at the clock on the desk and seeing that it was 3:35 A.M. He looked at the replicas of Watermelon-Kun and Apple-Chan on the wall, followed by his Inkweaver, which lay on the desk, in the state it had been after the Internet Graveyard.

After he'd used the power of a Magikoopa and his wand to fix it so he could compete in that manga artist tournament, and after he'd used it for a while to do his usual anime-related activities, the spell had broken down, and Inkweaver was broken again.

Oh, how it wouldn't be long before people noticed the lack of activity from Axol. Soon, they would take away his title as the best manga artist in the world. But for now, he was safe.

However, repairing Inkweaver wouldn't be easy, and it was unlikely that Axol would have any luck in getting a Magikoopa to permanently fix it with some sort of permanent spell. Inkweaver's missing half was in the Internet Graveyard somewhere.

But after he'd spent so much time in that place, Axol did not want to go there again, even if it had changed for the better.

Then, he thought about his dream, thinking of what he'd done for Melony and what had gone down between them during the fireworks display... before that monster showed up. It was inspiring; he wanted to talk to Melony about his feelings...

But then, he shivered. Was he the right person for her? Would they make it work?

Just thinking about the dream, Axol became inspired. He grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, and then he started to write down notes for a little manga piece. It wasn't an ordinary one, though, since the characters were just him and Melony.

Oh, Melony...

Axol then slapped himself, feeling his cheeks were flushing.

"Whoa, can't think about her too hard." He remarked, "Otherwise, Axol Junior is gonna get crazy down there."

The axolotl took a minute to control himself, but she was still on his mind. Now, he couldn't go back to sleep. Perhaps he could visit her, see how she was doing, especially with the new bed they got for her. Setting it up was no easy task, especially when his life was put on the line while he and Melony fought the bed when it went into attack robot mode.

Axol got out of bed and got dressed, then picked up the magic flute from his drawer. He'd found it while walking in a forest, an old Japanese man had told him that if he played it, it would take him to where he wanted to go.

He thought of Peach's Castle, then put the flute to his lips and played the tune. A harmonic sound filled his house, then a light flashed around him, and his feet left the ground. Axol blinked and found himself in the foyer of the castle. Axol put away the flute, and then he headed to the door on the right side that led to the room with a certain water land painting.

'Just be quiet and don't wake her up; she's sleeping at this hour, man.' Axol told himself.

The anime-loving axolotl reached out and touched the knob, then he opened the door and looked inside the room, seeing Melony lying upon the bed and deep asleep. The watermelon waifu snored softly, unaware that the manga artist was watching her.

Axol smiled and closed the door, then he left the castle and played the flute, warping back to his house.

Back inside the castle, Melony opened her eyes and looked around the room. She blinked, then she went back to sleep. At first, she thought someone was watching her, but perhaps she was just dreaming, and it was all in her mind...