Having happily reunited with Raphtalia and their lost comrades, the group along with L'Arc's party board Ethnobalt's airship and safely flew back to Sikul as Glass happily reunited with Kizuna as she pulled the shorter girl into a hug.
"Glass… You're hurting me. Let me go…" Kizuna groaned.
"I finally… I finally found you! I'll never let you go!" Glass promised as Chris chirped.
"No, you're killing me…" Kizuna said.
"We are truly in your debt. It was because of all of you that we were able to reunite with Kizuna once again." Ethnobalt said.
"We were only looking for Raphtalia and Filo. Nothing more." Naofumi said.
"Hey…so I was so busy with all this stuff, I've been meaning to ask. You three said you met Naofumi and these people before, but in their world. What were you doing there?" Kizuna asked Glass.
"Um…well…." Glass said.
After returning to Sikul…
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Kizuna said as she started scolding Glass, L'Arc and Therese. "You went over to their world and tried to kill them? You know that makes you the bad guys here!"
"Please, try not to be too upset with Glass." Therese said.
"Just cause I'm mad at her doesn't mean I'm not mad at you guys too!" Kizuna said.
"Sorry." Therese said.
"Oh, jeez." L'Arc said before a servant walked up to him.
"Young master." he said as he said something to L'Arc the others couldn't hear.
"I see. Sorry, Kizuna. We'll talk about this later! You guys enjoy yourselves!" L'Arc said as he followed the servant.
"Still carefree. Though why is he acting like he owns this place?" Theo asked.
"Oh. That's cause L'Arc is the king of Sikul." Therese said.
"That guy…is a king?" Subaru said.
"I'm mad at you guys too!" Kizuna said. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"To avoid this exact scenario while on the road." David said.
"What is wrong with all of you?" Kizuna asked before turning to Glass and Therese. "So you thought if you killed the Cardinal Heroes in Naofumi's world, you could save our world from the Waves? Is that even true?"
"Well…" Glass tried to say.
"Even if it is true, it was wrong to rely on that! I'll find another way! There has to be a way to save Naofumi's world and ours!" Kizuna said.
"Yeah, I find this whole destroying one world to save another a bunch of bullshit." Simon said.
"What if there isn't? Then what? What if there's no avoiding it?" Naofumi asked.
"She'll keep looking until she finds the answer." Natyal said.
"How do you guys even know if Kizuna's way will even give her answers?" Naofumi asked.
"Because it's what we would do," Hope said. "There isn't always one path to take, Naofumi. You've seen it yourself while journeying with Mythos Hearts and working with us."
"...After we're done with Kyo, we're heading back. There's not enough time to do anything like that." Naofumi said.
Most of the group wanted to continue debating with Naofumi, but arguing over a topic like this would get them nowhere. When clashing optimism with cynicism, usually it would go on forever. But Naofumi then said something unexpected.
"When I get home, I'll look into what I can find about the Waves again." Naofumi said.
"Wait, you will?" Ethox asked.
"Despite how different we see things, I'll admit the mystery of the Waves does have me wondering some things too. Why do they happen? Why are the Cardinal Heroes forced to fight them? There's just so many things we don't know." Naofumi said.
"Like who started this whole thing in the first place." Ajna said.
The next day, the group was in town shopping for equipment to prepare for the battle against Kyo.
"Well we're now back on the same team once more. What are the odds?" L'Arc said.
"Yes. We feel honored to be with you, your majesty. Or should it be 'Young Master'?" Ty asked.
"Who told you? Therese?" L'Arc asked.
"Yeah. But we would've found out at some point anyway." Naofumi said.
"Looks like you're very popular, young master." Yuri smirked as some of the townspeople were seen smiling at L'Arc.
"Stop calling me that! It's embarrassing!" L'Arc said.
"We'll stop calling you that when you stop calling Naofumi and us Kiddo." Kat added.
"They're totally different things!" L'Arc said.
"Sure they are…young master." Ajna said.
"Stop calling me that, axe kiddo." L'Arc said.
"Okay, young master." Klonoa joked as he and some of the group laughed.
"I said stop!" L'Arc said.
"All teasing aside, you have to admit, this is better than fighting each other, right?" Ethox asked.
"Yeah, you've got a point. You guys weren't so bad when we first met on Cal Mira. Shame we still had to fight, but look at us now. Is making friends this easy a habit of yours?" L'Arc asked.
"Not always. Sometimes the people we befriend try to kill us first." Hagakure said.
"Most of us started as cultists that declared war on one of their kingdoms, and played a part in nearly destroying all of existence," Ethox said.
"I nearly destroyed all of time because my cult was broken up," Starlight said.
"And don't even get me started on how I used to be before I met these guys." Sunset finished.
"...Jeez, you guys are forgiving," L'Arc remarked with a bewildered expression.
"That's what I said!" Pinkie pointed out.
"A lot of us believe that some people can change. While others, aka Kyo and anyone like him, deserve to suffer for all eternity." Theo said.
"Yup, a special place in Inferno for scum like him." Simon added.
After the group made the arrangements for equipment, they were met with a new situation upon leaving as they were met at swordpoint by a girl with green hair.
"In the name of Kyo, I shall end your lives!" she declared.
The group just stood there looking more annoyed than scared.
"Seriously? This guy still has flunkies?" Kazuma said.
"You all. Cowards! Challenging me when you clearly outnumber me." she said.
"What? Weren't you challenging us?" Cobalt said.
"You foul vermin! But I can't let you beat me! Die!" the girl said before charging at the group.
"Okay…this is getting annoying." Cobalt said blocking with his shield before knocking her into a wall, defeating her. "Tie her up."
"As for this sword…" Simon said before crushing it with Uranus and Gaia
"Whoa dude, why did you do that? That was a sweet sword. I'm sure we could have sold it or…" Kazuma said before said sword suddenly exploded. "...Well, nevermind. Exploding weapons tend to drag the price down."
The girl saw the explosion and couldn't believe her eyes. "But… why? Master Kyo gave me that sword."
Natyal looked at the remains. "I thought the design seemed familiar. It's similar to that parasite we fought on the way to the Spirit Tortoise."
"Kyo must've rigged it to blow the second our new friend here came in contact with us. And she was too oblivious to know he was ready to throw her away to take us out." Ty said.
"I have a name, you know! It's Yomogi! But what does it matter? I failed in my mission to eliminate you for Master Kyo's sake. For his noble goal of stopping the Waves." she said.
"Kyo wants to stop the Waves? Yeah, I find that hard to believe after all the stunts he's pulled." Michiru said.
"Do you honestly think Kyo means what he is saying?" Tanya asked Yomogi. "Where's your proof that he's out to stop them?"
"From what we've seen, he doesn't care about anything but himself and his sick experiments." Jesse said. "Even if it is to stop the Waves, what he's done is beyond any justification."
"But…he's been a noble soul, ever since we were children." Yomogi said. "He's always been so brilliant."
It was then Yomogi explained the situation. She had been a childhood friend of Kyo's for a long time. The two of them worked side by side to make his dream a reality.
"Though…the way you all said his name…has he done something to make you all hate him so much?" she asked.
"Oh, a whole bunch of somethings, lady." David said.
"He sicked a Guardian beast on the world we came from and tried to kill us all. And then there's the fact that he constantly taunted us when he had us at his mercy. So yeah, he's done more than enough to hate his guts." Ty said.
"If what you say is true, then maybe we can cut him a little slack. Cool motive, still murder." DJ said. "Of course, that's a really big if. The guy didn't exactly scream 'I'm doing this for a good reason', more like 'I'm an evil jackass and loving every minute of it'. At least that's the reading I got." the former assassin said.
"Plus the Vassal Book he was holding doesn't seem keen on serving him and keeps trying to escape him," Kaze said. "If he's as noble as you say he is, then explain why that is."
"Or better yet…tell us where he is so we can kick the crud out of him." Jexi said.
Yomogi fought it for a bit before ultimately giving up. "Alright…I will take you to his lab." she said.
"Thank you." Ethox said in gratitude.
"However, I have a request." Yomogi said. "Whatever Kyo must go through to atone for his actions…I will also suffer alongside him."
"Uh…we'll put a pin in that." Ultra said.
Yomogi led the group to Kyo's Lab, which was based outside of Sikul.
"Not a moment too soon we can finally confront Kyo, huh?" Akane asked. "That bastard's got a lot coming to him, and we're gonna give it to him straight."
"We need to wrap this up. We still need to handle the….ah!" Kizuna said. "Something's wrong. The Wave countdown…it's accelerating!"
"What? How is this possible?" Kabuki asked.
"What? But how can…oh don't tell me he's actually…" Theo said as the skies above started to turn red as rifts started to open.
"My god…" Ethox said.
"So this is what Kyo was after all this time." Hope said. "He never had any intention of stopping the waves… he wanted to start one."
"This guy is absolutely crazy!" Rinwell said.
It was at that moment that Kizuna and her party suddenly vanished.
"Kizuna! Where'd they…?!" Klonoa asked.
"They're this world's heroes. Once a wave starts, they're summoned to where the monsters will start swarming out." Kaze said.
"If we stop Kyo, it should stop the wave, right?" Makoto asked.
"Don't know. But….we can't just run to Kizuna's side right now. Right now…we need to stop him for good." Naofumi said.
"Yeah. He's been playing god long enough." David said.
"Right." Ethox nodded before he steeled his gaze. "We're coming for you, Kyo. You better hope you regret everything you've done…but I won't hold my breath."
"And all those souls you stole…we'll see that they get their happy ending." Theo said, gripping his blade.
"We will….destroy you!" both brothers called out.