In which Sora and Nemurin become (temporary) royal bodyguards!
As soon as the light faded and Nemurin felt her feet were firmly on new ground, it took only one look around for both her and her set of companions to be hit with an immediate wave of deja vu. Subtle, as where they were now wasn't identical to a place they had been by any means, but it certainly took notes from it - romantic, old-fashioned, French. Immediately, Sora seemed to move forward for a second or so, his usual breezy demeanour leaving his eyes as he came to a halt, turning his head around in observation. Nemurin clenched her fist, rubbing her knuckles at her her eyes as if to be sure she wasn't seeing things due to her perpetual sleepiness.
"Um...are we back in France again?" she asked. "It looks similar, doesn't it...?"
Scanning their surroundings, Sora crossed his arms as he thought, "Huh? And yeah, it does. It doesn't feel the same though...wait, if we are, we don't have to deal with Frollo again, do we...?" he added.
Sheppy squeaked loudly at the mere thought, Morgana prodding her paws and kicking up dirt beneath her at the sheer mention of the name. Scratching her head, Nemurin shook her head. "No, no...that doesn't feel quite right. I mean, he's not like us, and I don't think a fall from the height he was at was one he could survive, so I think we can safely say that guy's finished...this isn't Notre Dame..."
A pause. "Uh oh...I do hope the royalty won't mind that we took that guy out." Nemurin added, biting her lip as the realisation hit her.
Where they stood certainly had a royal air to it, clearly being some sort of grand palace or chateau. Lines of pristine windows and balconies ran alongside the building's walls, boxing the courtyard in, the entrance inside made apparent by a set of elegant steps. The four of them stood on a long stretch of sand and dirt, and she suspected from the abandoned equipment - training dummies, weapon wracks - that lined the innermost parts of the area that this was probably used for training combatants of some kind.
Plus...Frollo was supposedly the Minister of Justice or something to that effect from what they heard during their time there...she wasn't an expert on how things like that got picked, but if Paris was the capital and this was the palace, then they might have found out by now. That would be what, world number four potentially where the authorities couldn't stand either of them? Nemurin certainly hoped not, especially with the exhaustion gripping her bones and draining her of her colour.
"Well, we were only doing the right thing...! They should understand. Wait, how would that make sense anyway...? We already sealed the Keyhole, didn't we?" Sora wondered, crossing his arms as he thought. "Why would we be back...?"
"Well, we ended up back in Traverse Town, didn't we?"
"Yeah, I guess, but still-"
"OI! You two!" another voice called out, lumbering and accusing.
"Oh, what now..." Nemurin drooped.
"...Oh, you're kidding." Sora similarly deflated, but it seemed to be for a different reason.
When the pair of them looked up, they saw two figures staring straight at them - one was a large doglike creature, with black fur and a tall stature, his chest puffed up with self-importance befitting his attire, a large beige-yellow hat with a crimson feather, and a blue uniform with a particular insignia on it. The other was a bit more friendly-looking, another anthropomorphic animal, with large black mouse ears, a little fluff for hair, and a pink dress so classically princess-like she could have been pulled straight out of a kids book.
"Yeah, you two! Just who do you two twerps think you are, breakin' into our princess' royal courtyard!?" the captain-esc figure questioned. "Get your butts over here!"
Spotting the look of exasperation on her friend's face, Nemurin whispered to Sora as they did the half-walk, half-run of shame up the steps and before the eyes of the pair, Sheppy quickly bouncing alongside her, as if he was just as hurried as them, though Morgana lagged behind, taking her sweet time. "Sora, you know this guy?"
"That's Pete. He's a lackey of this hag Maleficent back home-" Sora whispered back. "But why is he here?"
"Ohhh...right." Nemurin nodded, sighing deeply, her sleeves drooping with her movements. "So much for making a good first impression during our time here. At least he won't remember you...? You said Jiminy didn't, right?"
"Yeah, there's that...and at least Queen Minnie's here..." Sora said, glancing aside, very aware of the fact that they were probably going to be disliked for a completely different reason now. "We're sorry for the intrusion, your majesty," he looked to the mouse princess - another person he seemed to know, so she just decided to roll with him. "We've only just arrived, we didn't mean to-"
"Your majesty, are you really gonna believe these two?" Pete questioned, gesturing to the pair. "Look at these shady sorts! What if they dropped that safe on ya? And brought about those monsters?"
"Dropped a safe!?" Sora and Nemurin repeated, aghast.
"I told you, it was almost done - and might I add you're lucky it was almost, Captain Pete!" Minnie scolded her captain, before turning her attention back to the two of them. She narrowed her eyes, taking in their obvious shock - it was hardly the sort of thing you expected to hear, after all, and they didn't seem to be faking it. Sighing out loud, she went to speak more calmly - only for the familiar sound of Nightmares being summoned to fill their ears.
"See! Leave this to my musketeers!" Pete said - failing to note the fact that they weren't currently any in the yard.
"We'll handle this, your majesty!" Nemurin bowed, hopping down from the ledge as Sheppy rolled after her, Sora quickly sprinting in the same direction along with Morgana.
Staying back, the princess observed what followed with keen eyes; these creatures appeared like flowers, except with faces and an urge to attack anything in their path, accompanied by what seemed to be demonic eagles that swooped from above, sharing their allies' taste for violence. And yet, despite that violence...these two (four, counting their own more softly-coloured companions) dealt with them with remarkable ease, the spiky-haired boy especially - swinging his blade deftly, cutting the enemies down while his friend blasted a light at them that seemed to render them more peaceful, a 'Nemurin Beam' as she called it. Still, compared to the boy, she stumbled more, as if only partially awake or having to wrench the ability to fight out of herself - though there was still a respectable level of skill, one that couldn't be denied in either of their cases. The princess' eyes grew as wide as saucers, a thought crossing her mind - very aware of the fact that by the time her captain had brought out a handful of musketeers from inside, the enemies had already been taken care of.
"Incredible..." she breathed out, running down the steps to speak to them, her gloved hand on her chest. "Simply incredible...! However did you do that...?"
As his Keyblade vanished, Sora put his hands behind his head, offering the princess an assuring smile. "Nemu and I have been taking out these things for a while now." he said. Remembering that Minnie wouldn't recognise him, he added quickly, "Oh...! My name's Sora, and this is Nemurin- your majesty," he knelt, after then remembering his courtesies.
"A pleasure to meet you, miss..." Nemurin said, politely, giving a small wave even as she bobbed into a curtsy, but a wave of dizziness meant her foot went a bit too far to one side, causing her to stumble briefly.
"What you two did was very impressive~" Princess Minnie beamed. "And fortuitous, as I'm looking for bodyguards. As you heard, I had...an unknown assailant has attempted to hurt me, and I fear my musketeers aren't quite enough to hold them off."
"Musketeers?" Sora tilted his head.
"They're the palace's guard, under Pete's tutelage. They have a special creed - all for one, and one for all~" Minnie clarified.
"Ohhh, right..." Sora caught on.
"So, for the time you're here, at least until I can find suitable candidates amongst my musketeers - I'd like to ask you, Sora, Nemurin, to be my bodyguards...!" Minnie requested, much to the captain's visible indignation; though a sharp look from his liege quickly prevented him from saying anything in protest.
"Sure...! We'd be happy to help, your majesty," Sora said.
"Hmhm...~" Nemurin joined.
"Ohhh, who do those two good-for-nothins' think they are?!"
Captain Pete huffed, his massive fists balled up as he stormed slowly along a gilded corridor, steam almost coming out his ears. One second, he had the perfect ruse - throwing in those three bucketheads who couldn't even watch the chateau's plumbing systems without something going wrong so his Beagle Boys could snatch up the princess, and in waltz two strangers able to take out those Nightmare things no sweat...! He only had so long until the opera tomorrow night to get rid of her majesty - but how was he supposed to do it now when her bodyguards were actually credible?! And if he said so himself, that spiky-haired kid had too good a nose for his own good, as he already seemed to figure he was up to something.
Which he was, and with no shame, but he didn't want anyone else to know that!
Still, a lightbulb had been lit in his head; he could still use those three dunderheads, given all three clearly admired him (not that he could blame them, of course) and would probably listen to anything he said...so suppose he went to them, declared them as 'official Musketeers' and warned them about two potential impostors wanting to take advantage of poor Princess Minnie's good graces...ohoho, yes! That'd be perfect!
A/N: Free time is back, and so is my writing inspiration at the moment! I'm gonna stop tempting fate by saying I'm gonna be able to write more because whenever I say that it dries up like a damn desert. A quick moment of silence though for my old favourite writing site, Quotev - it's taken a hard-ass fall since July 1st, basically removing the best parts about it, so I've not been using it these days. It's taken some time to adjust, but I'm getting the hang of it now, I just hope my fourth and final year of university isn't as shit as third year was, as I'd like to get more updates out! Especially since I've been going through Kingdom Hearts again - I'm on KH3 now, so hopefully my lore/familiarity should be more up-to-date than before. Sorry this chapter's shorter than usual by the way, I kinda started to feel the drag at the end due to having to stop in the middle to do something, but hopefully my next chapters whenever they emerge will be closer to my old length. I'm debating on if I should try writing another fic at the same time, as that hasn't ended well for me before, but on the other being able to split my time and do other fandoms than just these two would be fun.
Now for reviews, as per usual! I'm so happy you liked the last chapter, Keijou Hikari, and that it was a pleasant surprise! I hope this one is like that too. I'm definitely thinking of throwing in one of the Magical Girl friends for these worlds, as I've not done it for a bit, and Nemurin is getting weaker, so it'd make sense. I also agree with the sentiment about Sora remembering Nemurin, especially cause he's active and aware of the Dream World, whereas the people who Nemurin interacts with in that context don't seem to be, at least not to the same degree.
Thanks to TheMotivatedOne for the review too, I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!
As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!