Chapter 6 No One Can See

Aria's dreams the night before had been, for all intents and purposes, nasty. So many ugly, horrific images flashed through her mind while her eyes remained closed. Dead bodies, covered in blood. Hateful people, who bowed to said hate in order to start wars and commit crimes. Homes crumbling to ash. Snakes and spiders crawling over these ruins.

All of these and more appeared in Aria's dreams. While in bed, she tossed and turned, whimpering at the particularly disgusting images. It was a miracle that she didn't wake up, but in all honesty, she probably would've preferred being awake in the middle of the night as opposed to experiencing these night terrors. They were so real, so clear, so… dreadful.

As such, when morning came and Aria finally decided to wake up, she stayed in her bed for a few minutes too long. Her entire body shivered, and an icky feeling rested in her mind that was impossible to shake off. She pulled the covers tighter around her body, not sure if she wanted to get up or go back to sleep. If there was only a way to make these images seem less horrifying than they actually were…

Well, at the very least, the nightmares were gone. The morning sun sent sunrays down onto the world, so bright that they were worth singing about. Aria could very well brush off the imagery if she were to just get up, prepare herself for the events this day had to offer and bury her dreams in a pile of distractions. By the time she went to bed that evening, she would be feeling right as rain.

So, with a yawn, she sat up. She stretched her arms up to the ceiling, rubbing her eyes after she had finished. Feeling groggier than a frog in a swamp, she put her feet down on the floor and walked over to the bathroom at the end of the hall. As she did this, she ran through her agenda for the day in her head. Okay, first off, I need to take care of the Shadow Seeker. Then after I finish with that, I should probably look to see if I can uncover any information regarding that dig site in World 5. After that… eh, maybe I'll call Ludwig, and see how he's doing after the disaster that was last night. She shuddered. Oh, I hope he's okay. A Shadow Seeker isn't something that one can encounter and not feel taken aback by. She shook her head. Which is why I'm going to kill it today. No distractions, no excuses. This is going to be that demon's last day on this Earth, and we are all going to be much better off because of it.

She finally got to the bathroom. Switching on the light, she yawned once again, the action louder than it had been before. She made her way over to the sink, prepared to wash up and put her face on. She lifted her head, looked up into the mirror…

And gawked. Her heartbeat sped up a considerably degree. Her entire body trembled, it felt like she was just minutes away from fainting as she stared at her reflection. Or, the lack thereof.

Where Aria's face should be in the mirror was nothing but empty space.

What is this? Aria screamed in her head. She opened her mouth, ready to scream about her new, apparent invisibility. Except doing so oriented her to another problem, a problem that was just as startling.

No sound came out of her mouth.

Aria closed her mouth, feeling hot, invisible sweat running down her now invisible body. With her tail curling into a knot, she tried to speak. "Testing, testing, one two three!" Again, no sound came out of her mouth. She could feel the words in her throat, could feel her tongue bending in order to say those words. But the words were silent like the settings of her mouth had been altered to mute.

Aria's breathing spread up. She stared into the mirror, contemplating this. What was going on? Was this another dream? That would make sense, but when Aria pinched herself, the action hurt. So… this was actually happening. She was invisible and unwillingly put under a vow of silence. But if this wasn't a dream, then how in the world did this happen?

With her lips and nose wrinkling, Aria started to think. Okay, okay, what could be the cause of this? The most likely explanation she could come up with was that this was some sort of curse. Yeah, that made sense; science couldn't exactly explain this. This was caused by magic. The question now was, whose magic?

Aria thought about this for a minute, ultimately coming up with an explanation that made her heart skip a beat. This… this was the work of a demon. There was no other way to look at this; some sort of demon had placed her under this odd, frightening curse. But what kind of demon? It wasn't… oh no, was this the work of the Shadow Seeker?

"Oh no," Aria said "out loud." "This is the work of the Shadow Seeker, isn't it?" Her heart pounding in her ears, she rushed toward the room. "Please don't let this be the Shadow Seeker, please don't let this be the Shadow Seeker!" When she got to the door, her breath caught in her throat. It took a lot of willpower to lift her shaking hand and turn the knob. She opened the door, expecting the worst.

And the worst was exactly what she got.

"NO!" Aria screamed. She rushed into the room, noticing the jar that had contained the foul demon lying on the floor with the lid off. Shaking even harder, she bent over and picked up the container. Never before had the sight and feel of an empty jar in her hands caused her so much dread.

"It escaped," she uttered. Her shaking grew fiercer, more violent. "Which means now its going to cause havoc." Evidently, it already had, if Aria's curse was any indication. But Aria knew, just knew that her curse was just the beginning. Demons were smart, possibly the most clever creatures that the Mushroom World had ever seen. So, there wasn't a shred of doubt in Aria's mind that this wasn't all that the Shadow Seeker planned to do. This curse was a stage in a greater scheme. Now, what that scheme was exactly, Aria couldn't say for sure. However, she did know that it wasn't good.

So, trying her best to not enter hyperventilation mode, she dug her phone out of her hammerspace. She planned to text Ludwig, tell him about what happened and ask him if everything was okay on his end. Unfortunately, like the rest of her body, the phone was invisible, making texting with it an impossibility.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, now not even caring about the fact that she just cursed. She put her head in her hands. "Okay. Okay. Try not to panic. You're a professional demon hunter; you can easily deal with this even when you're cursed." She put on a determined face. "I'll just go up to Bowser's Castle myself." Of course, how she would be able to do anything to communicate with the people there while under this curse was a pretty major question. However, she decided right there that she would cross that bridge when she got to it. She couldn't waste time after all, and the Shadow Seeker needed to be dealt with immediately.

So, she made her way out of her house.

…

Ludwig stared out the window of the airship. The clouds looked so fluffy, so serene. The sky was also this beautiful shade of blue, a color that the Koopa Kingdom could rarely replicate even on the best, most smogless days.

Funny how the external surroundings failed to mirror Ludwig's internal fear.

The Koopaling sighed, leaning back in his chair as he put his head in his hands. Running his fingers through his hair, he did his best to try to calm down. Sure, he was in a human body. Sure, he was without his powers. Sure, he was going far away from his home, his place of comfort and peace. But he shouldn't freak out. Freaking out wasn't going to do anybody any good. Panicking wasn't going to reveal how to remove the curse; really, all it would do would be throwing the Koopa family another problem to deal with onto the mountain of problems that was accumulating within everybody's minds.

So no, he couldn't freak out. He wouldn't freak out either. He was, after all, Ludwig von Koopa. A strong soul, someone who didn't let external pressures deter him from being the rock that everybody needed to stand on. He could be that even now, couldn't he?

Right as he was thinking this was when Larry, Roy, and Lemmy descended into the cabin. Ludwig studied their appearances, not just because he still found their new human forms fascinating to look at, but because he wanted to gauge how they were feeling. Lemmy and Roy, surprisingly, had smiles on their faces as they looked at the youngest, who had a nose more wrinkled than a raisin.

"I'm telling you guys, there's nothing cool about being a human." Larry sighed. "I feel like such an icky sweat monster. Nothing about this is cool."

Lemmy beamed. "Oh, don't sweat it Larry." He giggled at this pun, with Larry and Roy giving him blank looks. "It's all going to be okay." His beaming somehow grew brighter, making his face rival the surface of the sun. "Human or Koopa, we're still the Koopalings!"

"Exactly!" Roy said, his smile returning to his face. He placed his hand down on Larry's shoulder. "We're still our awesome selves! We just look a little different, that's all."

Ludwig sniffed, a small smile growing on his face. Man, if only I had somebody to tell me that during the one hundred and three transformations I've undergone.

Larry sighed. "I guess." He looked over at Ludwig, sitting near the window. "You seem to be coping with this situation well."

Ludwig snorted. "Eh. Once you've transformed enough, it becomes less of a problem for you." While he said that, he pulled his legs up closer to his chest. He hugged them and looked out the window, humming a low C note as he rocked back and forth.

Larry just groaned. "So I guess it's just me who's got a problem with this." He shook his head. "Man, I've never wished for the power to shapeshift so much before. Would be really useful towards actually fixing this."

Ludwig almost said something, but quickly thought against it. What he wanted to say was that he thought the same thing toward and missed his own powers. However, he held his tongue because that wouldn't be a helpful thing to say here. Again, nobody needed to hear any more negativity; it would just make things worse for everybody involved.

At this point, Larry left the cabin (probably to go moan to somebody else). This just left Lemmy and Roy. The latter let out a content sounding sigh and collapsed in a hammock hanging from the ceiling. "I've gotta say, I think this is going well. I mean, it's not everyday we go to Peach's Castle. Heck, if we really want to, we can think of this as a vacation!"

"Oh yeah, you're right Roy!" Lemmy giggled. "It's a weekend staycation with everyone's favorite princess and plumber!"

Roy raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I get the favorite princess thing, but favorite plumber? Since when is Mario everyone's favorite plumber!" He leaned back further into the hammock. "I'm more a Waluigi fan myself."

Lemmy laughed. "Waluigi? He's not a plumber."

"He's not?" Roy sat up. "Then why in the world does he wear a plumber uniform? Just to confuse people?" He shook his head. "No, in my mind's eye, he's a plumber." Roy paused. "And a weirdo. A major weirdo."

Lemmy snickered. "We're all weirdos deep down." He turned toward the eldest. "Right Ludwig?"

Ludwig smirked. "If you say so." He looked back out the window. "I mean, you guys are weirdos; I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much."

The others laughed. All the while, Ludwig kept his eyes on the sky. A gloom filled his heart, as did a worry. Part of it was for himself and his siblings, but another part of it was because of the other people who weren't cursed to be humans. Sure, he knew why Bowser and Kamek were going to stay in the Koopa Kingdom. But at the same time, the fact that they were still made his stomach churn. How could they fare against a Shadow Seeker Aria herself had said it was one of the most gruesome foes someone could face!

Oh, Aria. A little whimper escaped from Ludwig's throat as he thought about her. If something happened in the Koopa Kingdom while the Koopalings were absent, what would become of her?

"Ludwig?" Lemmy asked. "Are you alright?"

Ludwig seized up. "Uh…" Once again, he thought about how unhelpful his worry would be. He didn't need to unload it onto his brothers. So, he opted to put on a smile and lie. "I'm fine!"

Surprisingly, neither one of the present Koopalings looked convinced. Not even Roy, who was known for not being too terribly intelligent. They both looked at Ludwig with concern in their eyes. The eldest sweat bullets, unsure if he could say anything that would prevent them from looking at him in that manner.

Thankfully, he didn't need to, as Bowser came down into the cabin. "Well kiddos! We're here!"