part 1:
It was late at night when Yuuki was woken up by the pudding loving Ghost Miyako, who was holding a map in front of his face. The map looked like a treasure map, the one that could be found in pirate movies, and had dotted lines that lead to something known as the "supreme pudding".
"I need you to go on an adventure with me." she said with a determined look on her face. "I need help finding the Supreme pudding!"
"I think I'll pass." Yuuki said.
"What?" Why?"
"Well for starters Miyako, it's late at night. I don't want to sneak out of the guild house and go on an adventure with you, especially when Kyarl has been mad at me lately."
After coming home to find Yuuki kissing a naked Kuuka, she chased Yuuki down and tried to hit him with her magic. When she did finally calm down, Kyarl stated that she wanted her fellow guildmates to keep an eye on Yuuki, as he was becoming more and more of a degenerate.
Knowing that he was on thin ice, Yuuki tried his best to keep his nose clean, doing chores around the house, buying food for his guildmates, and doing a quest here and there and coming right back home after cashing in his reward money. While it did ease Kyarl a bit, Yuuki could still see the cat girl watching him every now and then.
"Besides that, what about your guild?"
"None of my guildmates believe this map is legit. Shinobu said she'd check it out with me tomorrow, but I can't wait for tomorrow! I need to find that pudding today!"
Yuuki wanted to continue to tell Miyako no, but he knew better. In the past his attempts at avoiding Miyako failed, and the ghost girl would even somehow make it into his dreams (not the ones showing what his life was before being stuck in Astrum.
"Alright look, I'll check it out with you alright, but we need to be quiet. I don't want my guildmates to think I'm sneaking out to the club or to hang out with some girls."
"Not sure why they would think that, but if it means you get to help me find this, then alright!"
As quietly as he could, Yuuki got on his equipment and grabbed his sword. He then snuck downstairs and quietly opened the door.
"Well that was easy." Yuuki said quietly.
Just then however, he heard the door open again, and saw a sleepy Pecorine walk out.
"Yuuki? Where are you going?"
"Uh…well you see-"
"We're looking for pudding."
"Pudding? This late at night?" Pecorine asked, sounding confused. MIyako explained to Pecorine what was going on, filling her in on the details about the map and how she wanted to find this supreme pudding as soon as possible.
"Oh, I see. Well then, would you guys mind me coming along?"
"If it's alright with you." Yuuki said.
"Sure it is. I'll make sure to quietly change so I don't wake anyone up." Pecorine stated.
While Yuuki wasn't' exactly happy that he had dragged Pecorine into this pudding adventure, he'd rather have Pecorine be the one to catch him sneaking out then Kyarl, who would most likely fire away at him.
"So what exactly are we looking for Miyako?" Pecorine asked.
"According to this map, we need to look for a cave."
"So, this pudding thing is in a cave?" Yuuki asked.
"That's what the map seems to imply."
"We're probably gonna need a torch then, or some type of light."
"Don't worry, I got us covered!" Miyako said, making a small orb appear. The orb was just as bright as a torch, and didn't flicker like one.
"Wow, that orb will be helpful!"
The trio found themselves outside of the cave in question. According to the map, the cave was made of brown rock. With the help of the orb once more, the gang checked the coloring of the cave rock.
"The cave is brown…" Yuuki said.
"What an interesting color. It sort of reminds me of Brownies."
"So what next Miyako?" Yuuki asked.
"Well, according to the map, we're supposed to go down."
"Down?"
"Yeah, though I think that just means we need to keep going deeper into the cave."
"I hope you're right."
The duo started to head into the cave before they heard a soft rumbling sound.
"What was that?" Miyako asked.
"Sorry guys, that might have been my stomach."
The rumbling sound got louder however, and before the trio knew it, the ground under them fell. While Miyako did stay afloat, Yuuki and Pecorine fell down the hole that had just opened up, causing Miyako to quickly follow them from behind.
Yuuki landed fast first into something soft and cold.
"What the heck did I land in?" he thought to himself. As Yuuki got up, he saw that what he landed on had a white color to it, and was soft.
"Ice cream?"
Yuuki took a look around and found that he was in some sort of land that was made up of deserts. There were mountains of ice cream, lakes of milk, and giant cookies standing up in the ground. Looking around more, he noticed that they were still in the cave, as he could tell by brown rock walls, but it was much brighter down in the cave, disputing the fact that they had fallen down it.
"Wow! Yuuki, look at all the giant food!"
"Uh Mikyao? Where are we exactly?"
"I don't know, but I'm guessing we're on the right path. I'm not a treasure expert but I'd imagine something with the name "supreme pudding" would be down here."
Yuuki couldn't wrap his head around the area. No where in Landsol was there a place with giant cookies and rivers of milk. He looked towards the light that lit everything up and saw that it was on top of a temple. The stairs seemed to be made of brownies, and the temple looked to be constructed of gingerbread.
"By any chance is that where we're supposed to go?" Yuuki asked, pointing towards the temple.
"Why yes, yes it is!" MIyako said, showing Yuuki the map. He couldn't see it quite clearly back in his room, but where x marked the spot, was a picture of a temple that looked like the one Yuuki had just pointed to.
"Come on guys! Let's get to that temple and grab that pudding!" Miyako said, floating off, leaving behind Yuuki and Pecorine.
"Hey, wait for us Miyako!"
part 2:
Despite the strange circumstances they were in, yuuki, pecorine, and miyako all traveled towards the shiny temple. Though it's shine reached them, it wasn't at all close to them.
Meanwhile, pecorine was trying not to eat everything she saw.
"Everything around here looks so yummy." pecorine said with drool coming out of her mouth.
"Don't pecorine."
"Aww, but why not yuuki?
"I don't exactly trust all of this. How can there be a big thing of food down here in the cave? Doesn't it seem suspicious?"
"True, but the food looks too good to pass up."
"Now that I think about it, where did you find this map Miyako?" Yuuki asked.
"I was out on my own searching for pudding, Shinobu usually comes with me but she was busy. That's when I ran into a golem. After defeating it, it dropped the map."
"A golem carrying a map?" Yuuki thought to himself.
"Now that I think about it, the golem was wandering around where the cave was."
Before Miyako could think further on it, a golem popped up from the ground. The golem was a dark brown color, looking as though it was made of brownies.
"Woah! It's a golem, but it looks different then the ones outside of Landsol." Percorine said.
Yuuki went to slice the golem and to his surprise, it went down in one hit. Also to his surprise, the golem didn't disappear, instead it split open to reveal its insides, which were indeed made of brownies.
"Even the enemies here are made of food?"
"Yummy!" Percoine said, rushing towards the golem and grabbing a piece of it. Before Yuuki could object, she stuck the piece of golem into her mouth and started chewing.
"Yuuki, Miyako, you guys have to try this! This golem is made out of brownies!"
Yuuki was still cautious to try anything here, but gave in enough to fit a small piece of the golem into his mouth. Indeed, the golem tasted just like pudding.
"Hmm, this food doesn't taste as good as pudding, but I do like it." Miyako stated after trying a piece. "Still, we shouldn't get too distracted, we have a supreme pudding to go after!"
"Aw, but Miyako!"
"No butts Pecorine lady!" Miyako said with a commanding tone.
"Sheesh, for a little ghost girl she sure is bossy."
"Tell me about it…" Yuuki said, flashbacks of all the times Miyako would harass the poor boy for pudding playing out in his mind.
All of the monsters Yuuki, Miyako, and Pecorine faced down in the dungeon were similar to monsters outside of Landsol, with the only, but big difference being they were all made out of food. Gelatines were made of jello, rock flowers were chocolate creatures that shot hot fudge, and elder clouds were floating pieces of cotton candy that shot lighting.
Dispute objections from Yuuki, Pecorine would take nibbles out of the monsters here and there.
"Come on Yuuki, what's the big deal?"
"I know in order to get energy you need to eat, but I'm still not sold on the idea of you eating candy monsters."
"Well, so far nothing has happened to me."
"I have to agree with Yuuki. You eating these monsters is slowing us down." Miyako said, pouting angrily. "We're never going to get to the supreme pudding at this rate!"
"Alright, alright, calm down Miyako. We've gotta be halfway there by now."
It seemed to be the case for the trio, as Yuuki could see the temple more clearly now than before. Its shine has dimmed enough to where he could make out the red doors on the temple, which unlike everything else didn't look to be made of candy.
"Well if I need to I'm going on my own, I don't want to wait for you slowpokes!" Miyako said, angrily.
"She's quite bossy isn't she?" Pecorine said to Yuuki.
"Yeah, but she's a good kid at heart. I actually feel bad for her. To be so young and pass away that quickly…I still don't know what happened to her. I just know me and fio met her in a cave-"
Yuuki was going to continue, when he felt a strong pain go through his head.
"Are you OK Yuuki?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"That was quite an interesting story you were telling me there. So you and this Fio chick met Miyako in a cave?"
Before Yuuki could answer that, he found himself getting knocked off his feet by a giant blast that sent him right into Pecorine.
"Damn it, well, at least I landed in some soft ice cream again." Yuuki thought to himself.
"You OK Yuuki?"
"Yeah, I'm alright Pecorine. Where are you? You sound really close."
"Well…"
Yuuki slowly lifted his head up to meet Pecorine's. It turns out, he didn't land face first into ice cream, he landed face first into Pecorine's chest. Before the two could get embarrassed over the situation, another blast sent them flying.
"Pecorine! Yuuki! Are you two OK?"
"What the heck is going on?" Yuuki said, quickly getting himself back up to his feet. Before the trio was a pirate ship. While the ship wasn't made out of candy (at least from what Yuuki could see), the ship's name sounded like it belonged in the candy wonderworld Yuuki was in, being named the S.S sweet tooth. The ship in question was floating on the river of milk.
A cannonball came towards Yuuki, but he was able to dodge it just in time. After dodging the cannonball, Yuuki activated his powers to power up Miyako and Pecorine. Pecorine sliced through the cannonballs with her sword while Miyako turned them into pudding and ate them.
"The boy is the one whose powering them up, after him!" someone with a gruff voice shouted. From out of the ship came pirates wearing red striped vests. All of them came charging at Yuuki, who fought them off as best as he could. Pecorine and Miyako tried to help out as well, but Pecorine got hit by a cannon, knocking her back a bit.
"Pecorine!" Yuuki shouted, before he got hit in the back of the head by one of the pirates, knocking him out cold.
"Yuuki!" Pecorine said. Miyako and Pecorine tried to go after Yuuki, but it was no use. The pirates carried the boy onto their ship and sailed off quickly.
part 3:
When Yuuki awoke, he found himself tied up on the deck of the ship.
"Captain, he's finally up!"
Coming over to Yuuki was a big man with black hair, and a brown beard. The captain's uniform was a light brown and he wore black pants with black boots. He stood before Yuuki with his arms crossed, looking quite displeased.
"Alright, where is it?"
"The map?"
The captain nodded. Yuuki didn't have the map on him, and he didn't want the pirates to go after Miyako or Pecorine, so he just sat there quietly.
"He's not saying anything captain…"
"I know that you idiot!"
The captain grabbed Yuuki by his shirt collar and pinned him up against one of the ship's posts.
"Now listen Young man, my name is Captain Pudding Beard. Me and my men believe that you've got your hands on something that belongs to us, that being the treasure map to the supreme pudding."
"Isn't it kind of easy to determine where it is though?" Yuuki said, pointing out the bright light that shines from the temple.
"You idiot, not only do you need the map to get there, you need to place it in the door to open it!" The captain snapped back at Yuuki.
"For many, many, many years, we tried. We tried every possible way to get in there and get that supreme puding, but alas, it was no use! Our cannons wouldn't break the doors down, we couldn't knock the doors down with our own two hands, and everytime we tried to climb the fence, a giant light would shine on us and send us back to our ship."
Yuuki could see the other men starting to tear up. This pudding seemed to mean a lot to them.
"To have that map, means that you're able to have one of the most delicious tasting puddings in the whole world. Even if you aren't a fan of pudding, you can't deny the sweet, sweet, flavor of the supreme pudding!"
"I hate to break it to you captain, but I don't have the map, and even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't give it to you!"
"Very well then, if that's how you're going to be…boys! Make this young man walk the plank!"
Two pirates grabbed Yuuki and placed him on a plank that dangeled on the edge of the ship. Below Yuuki was the running water of the milky river.
Yuuki tried to stand still, but the pirates' sharp swords made sure that he would walk closer and closer to his demise.
"Any last words before you fall into the milky river young man?"
Yuuki didn't say a thing, too busy trying to figure out how to get himself out of the situation he was in. He looked around but couldn't see Miyako or Pecorine anywhere. Yuuki felt a sharp jab in his back and then before he knew it, fell into the river below.
While the river wasn't as deep as Yuuki thought it would be, it was deep enough to get his head under, making it hard for him to keep above. Yuuki struggled to try and fight his way out of the ropes, but it was no use. The moving milky river sucked Yuuki under. Soon, he lost consciousness.
Yuuki started to come to when he felt a soft sensation touch his lips. He recognized this sensation from back when the girls from twilight caravan started giving him mouth to mouth to save him. Yuuki awoke to find Percorine, drenched, looking down at him with tears in her eyes.
"Yuuki?" Percorine said, seeing as Yuuki's eyes started to open. She then hugged Yuuki tightly.
"I'm so glad you're ok! I was worried about you!" she said in between sobs. "We were trying to catch up to the ship, but we lost it, then when we found it again we saw you get dumped off the side of it!"
MIyako then came over to hug Yuuki as well, her eyes puffy from sobbing.
"I'm glad you're ok yuuki! If you're a ghost, you can't get me pudding!"
Yuuki smiled and embraced the two. He then asked them where they were.
"Well, we should be closer to the temple where the pudding is." Percorine said, looking at the map.
"It's best if we hang onto that thing. According to the pirates, we don't just need that map to get there, we need it to open up the doors."
"Hmm? We need this thing to open up the doors?"
Yuuki nodded. "That's what the pirates said."
"Well then, it's probably best if we head off there right away! I'll let you have the first taste of pudding Yuuki!"
"Thanks." Yuuki said with a smile. After being helped up by Pecorine, Yuuki and the gang went ahead up to the temple in question. Luckily, the road there wasn't filled with monsters along the way. Unluckily for them however, they were greeted by the pirates when the arrived up the steps.
"Long time no see young man…" the pirate said grinning.
"You! You're the jerk who tried to drown Yuuki!"
"And you're the floating girl with the map! Normally me and my men are afraid of ghosts, but we're too close to the supreme pudding to back down now!" the captain said, pulling out his sword.
"Now hand over the map, and we'll let you go…" the captain stated. Yuuki turned around to see more pirates before them, it looked as though retreating wasn't an option. Yuuki grabbed a hold of his sword and powered himself, Pecorino, and Miyako up.
"So that's how it's going to be eh young man?"
Pecorine, looking to get back at the captain for drowning her friend, charged at him first. The captain was able to block the attack with his sword. Meanwhile, Yuuki fought off the other pirates, while Miyako hit them with her shovel.
"Normally I would turn you creeps into pudding, but I doubt you'd taste good!" she said.
Meanwhile, Pecorine and the captain fought hard on the top of the stairs, Pecorine wanting to get revenge on the captain for almost drowning her friend.
"Give it up princess! The pudding will be all ours!"
"Not a chance!" she said before doing her signature move, princess strike. The move sent the captain tumbling down the stairs and into the other men below.
"Good job guys!" Yuuki said with a smile. Before the pirates could make their way back up the stairs, the gang decided to open the door. On the door was a rectangular slot where the map could fit in. Miyako placed it there.
Once she did, the gang heard an unlocking sound. Slowly, the doors opened. Inside greeted them a single plate of pudding with 3 spoons before it. Yuuki, Percorine, and Miyako carefully approached the pudding, making sure not to step in any booby traps on the way just in case.
"So…this is the supreme pudding?" Yuuki said.
"It looks just like any other regular old pudding." Pecorine said.
"Well…pudding is pudding, let's dig in! Miyako said, grabbing a spoon and tasting the pudding. Pecorine and Yuuki did the same thing. Once the pudding hit their tongue, they were met with a delecious taste, one that was too good to describe. They didn't have much time anyway however, as a light shined on all 3.
The light was similar to that of when Yuuki goes into a dream about memories, shininging brightly and knocking everyone out. This time however, instead of dreaming of that world, Yuuki woke up in this one, facing the ceiling of the cave. Beside him was Pecorine and Miyako, who were also starting to wake up.
"What…happened?" Pecorine asked, yawning.
"Where are we, and what were we doing just now?" Miyako asked.
"You don't remember either? We were…we" Yuuki tried to remember what they were doing, but it slowly faded from his mind.
"Dang, I can't remember."
"Well, I know one thing, I could use some pudding right now!" Miyako said.
"Well, I'll tell you what Miyako, why don't you follow us back to the guildhouse, there, I'll make you some nice chocolate pudding." Pecorine said with a smile.
"Oooh, Miyako would like some nice chocolate pudding! It's been a while since I had it." she smiled.
The trio got up and out of the cave, making their way back to the guildhouse from the woods.
"I'm still curious to know what we were all doing there." Pecorine stated, still trying to wrap her mind around how the gang got to the cave in the first place.
"The only thing I remember is the light that usually appears sometimes."
"What light would that be?" Miyako asked.
"It's hard to explain. I know sometimes me and Yuuki will be doing something, and then all the sudden a bright light will shine out of nowhere, and we'll both fall asleep and have the same dream."
"Ooh, I know about that. I remember just last night I had a dream with Yuuki about visiting his home."
"As in our home?"
"Well, no. It wasn't the guildhouse, it was someplace different, and I remember telling Yuuki he made a promise to me to give me as much pudding as I wanted."
Yuuki wanted to say that he didn't remember making that promise, but he did indeed do just that.
"Say Yuuki, do you know what that light is all about?"
Yuuki thought for a moment. He wasn't sure if he should tell Pecorine the truth or not, but given everything that happened up to that point, he figured she ought to know.
"This might be a bit hard to believe, but basically some of those dreams are memories from another world."
"Another world?" Pecorine said, cocking her head to the side.
"That's the best way I can describe it."
"Hmm, well, maybe there's something more to that other world. I do feel like I belong more over there than here some days."
"For me, it feels nostalgic to be able to see Yuuki and ask him for pudding while watching him go to school."
It was only the tip of the iceberg, but Yuuki hoped that telling some of his friends about the other world would make it easier for them to go back, or unlock other memories of that place…