In which Sora and Nemurin deal with many mirrors.
What awaited Sora and Nemurin, as well as their animal companions old and new, at the end of that winding path was a large building, cast in an amber glow by twin light posts under the perpetual evening sky. The structure's rainbow of colours was set ablaze visually, in the most vivid way such a term could be used, by the strength of such light — but the shadows it cast were thick and voluminous, crawling out across the blades of the grass surrounding the twisted path and leaping off into countless corners of the surrounding area, and Nemurin had almost zero clue whether she found it charming and welcoming or just plain disconcerting.
As they drew close to the entrance, they were greeted by a large sign, brazenly declaring itself, "PLEASURE CIRCUS", yet the promise of pleasures simply made her skin crawl in a way she hadn't taken full notice of, though that might also have been Sheppy shivering behind her legs, that which he was remaining as close to as he could, now that he'd been reunited with her. Sora in turn narrowed his eyes briefly as they drew up in front of it, but the tension he felt appeared to be temporary; but by now, the words of his friends had made the boy put that down more to bravery, and the fact there was someone in need inside.
'Someone who'd probably still need it even if the Dream Eaters weren't here,' a foreign voice implied at the back of his mind, but he didn't allow them to crawl their way up to his conscious thoughts, never mind up to his voice.
"Looks like Pinoke's gone in here," Jiminy remarked anxiously, peeking his tiny hatted head from behind Sora's many spikes of hair. As if in agreement, Morgana made some pudgy steps forward, head held high; almost as if to say, 'I can always guide us in, thank you,'.
"Yeah," Sora said with a determined nod. "C'mon, Nemu!"
With that, the party made their way through the open entrance, walking sharply along. The path they were given now was just as winding as the path that led them there (with that likely being the reason the sign near the entrance of the path called this area 'Windup Way'), a long stretch of corridor curving widely to the left and leaving its contents decidedly unknown. Beneath their feet was a long crimson carpet, which covered most of the grey checkerboard-styled floors. Nemurin made a distinct effort to avoid looking at the navy and gold walls too much, as the flashy diamond pattern on loop on them was almost enough to give her a headache, so she joined Sora in looking on straight ahead.
Fortunately, once they traversed the first curve, the walls grew far less of an eyesore; they became hard, solid stone, lined with red and blue banners, almost like that you'd find in a castle. "Honestly, the look of this place is kinda..." Sora began, as if reading her mind.
"Weird...?" Nemurin answered.
"Yeah, I guess that's one word for it," Sora accepted, folding his arms in thought as he walked along. "I mean, we've been to bright places before, and to mono-" he continued, only to recall that saying something that specific could count as a violation of the world order since that wasn't particularly normal. "Duller, duller places, and there's been bits in-between, but this place seems almost..."
Nemurin pondered, before making her suggestion, "Artificial, huh?"
"You get it!" Sora confirmed, beaming a bit.
"It's almost too much; it's enough to give you a headache, and that's just..." Nemurin explained, before giving a yawn, stretching in typical Nemurin fashion. "Tiring," she said, sleepily.
"Heh, you said it." Sora agreed. Looking up ahead, he took in the slightest change of their surroundings; a little moving display of what looked like an old-timey town, with milkmaids and old and young men off to work, and little children off to school, but no Pinocchio among them.
"You two do have a point though if I do say so myself." Jiminy chimed in. "Now I may be just a conscience, but I really do feel there's something bad about this place," he said before shivering, pulling his little coat tight around himself. "I mean, it's even got your little friend there spooked too!" he gestured towards Sheppy, who indeed seemed to look anxiously off to each side, as if expecting something to jump out at any moment.
"Yeah, it is kinda...off 'off', and not just Nightmares 'off'," Nemurin conceded, looking towards Sheppy. She reached a hand down and gave an affectionate nestle behind the ears, slow and caring. "It's okay, buddy. I'm not going anywhere~" she assured, gently, earning a happier bleat in reply.
The distant echo of circus music, faint and jolting its way along the notes, was the only other sound aside from their steps and their chatter, the melody almost as if it were being pushed slowly towards a cliff's edge, with both the Keyblade Wielder and the magical girl putting in their utmost to try and ignore it, instead focusing on the tune of friendly voices. It was peculiar, almost; how a place could both appear eerily quiet and uncomfortably loud all at once. And even then, their chatter didn't hold them long, as aside from a few more mildly charming displays, of a mermaid dancing about in a reverie of blue tides and white water, of four heroic friends setting off for adventure, adorned in wide hats with feathers and tunics of heroic blue, of a beautiful landscape shaped by music (music that couldn't be the stilted song left to repeat itself within the long halls, Sora and Nemurin thought), the final spot they were led to was a set of doors. Its edges were lined with a gold colour, as were the handles, while the rest of its surface was a deep blue.
A set the doors were, as though they were identical, a thin line between them marked them as separate, as opposed to a set of double doors. With a thoughtful hum, Sora looked at the others, and then at the door closest to him. "I'll open one, you open the other?" he suggested.
Nemurin nodded, offering an agreeable smile. "Sounds good to me," she said.
With a clear step forward, the pair took hold of their respective handles, and tugged at the door, seeing which way its weight fell, only to feel something fall in them at the realisation they'd need to push as opposed to pull. Still, neither voiced it, nor did they show it, and it was with that push their pairs went inside each door — and as soon as all were behind it, a distinctive click marking them locked inside sounded.
"Hey!" Sora cried out, almost in protest. "Hey, Nemu, you can hear me, right?"
"Yeah, don't worry. I can~" Nemurin answered, her voice slightly muffled by virtue of coming from the other side of the wall. "Can hardly see anything though..."
"Me neither. Hey, I'll unlock my side...!" Sora proposed.
"Still...Pinocchio could have went either way, either mine or yours..." Nemurin pointed out.
"Hm..." Sora responded. "You're not wrong..." he admitted, glancing into the perpetual wall of shadows he was enveloped in. "Do you have any way of getting light in there, Nemu?"
Nemurin thought to herself for a second, considering the best option; eventually settling for a good old flashlight, small and not difficult to recreate in a puff of clouds. With a cartoony pop, it now rested in her palms, and with a click, a circle of illumination appeared in front of her, though she'd yet to take in much of her surroundings. If anything was going to dice her to pieces, it would have leapt out by now, and what little of the light she could see showed nothing but more walls and floor, though the details of them were currently lost.
"Got one now~" Nemurin assured, breezily.
"Alright; Jiminy, Morgana and I will keep watch for Pinocchio in...whatever room this is. And if you need backup, I'll be right there!" Sora promised. Without needing to see him, she knew he had that smile on his face, and it prompted one to appear on her own face.
The blue-eyed boy's gaze flicked towards the cricket seated on his shoulder, turning his smile towards him. "Guess I should light things up for us too, huh?" he said. His hand felt for Morgana in the dark, and sure enough, she nuzzled at his fingers, sniffing a little for a moment as if to confirm it was him.
In his other hand, his Keyblade glinted bright white, and he pointed it forward; legs apart, hands firmly grasped on the handle. His eyes closed, and he let magic flow through him as rivers did to the sea, as stars did through the long reaches of endless sky back home on the islands. Once his eyelids slowly lifted, the three were greeted by a pure light that remained burning against Sora's Keyblade, allowing some vision of the expanse of wall beside them.
"I say...!" Jiminy gasped, almost breathlessly. "That weapon of yours, it sure is somethin'!"
Sora grinned, gratefully, "Thanks." he said. "Now...let's try and see what we can find in this place..."
"There, there now..." Nemurin hushed. "See?" she gestured, her sleeve dragging slightly across the floor as she knelt down besides Sheppy. She pointed her flashlight at the wall, and then at the floor, and then in a circle around them. "Nothing to worry about~ And hey, I know you're big and strong,"
Sheppy bleated once, as if a question mark was floating above his head. Reinforcing her words like a barricade, she nodded, "Hmhm~ Big and strong. After all, you helped us fight tons of Nightmares, not to mention Frollo..."
At the mention of the sinister minister, Sheppy's ears seemed to be trying to cover his eyes again, and Nemurin responded with a patient shake of the head. "Yeah, I know he was a jerk...but we beat him, right?~"
A reluctant, but admitting nod. "Right!~" Nemurin said. "And I'm not planning on going anywhere. And if I do, not without a goodbye, okay?~ Honestly, once we're done with all this, I'd be quite happy to have you come with me on my day job," she suggested, prompting the sheep-like Dream Eater to perk up. "There we go...~ Now...let's see what's in here,"
Rising to her feet once again, Nemurin slowly trod forward, pointing her flashlight ahead. It was a straight line from here, at least it looked that way thus far; only for a blinding sensation to burn her eyes, even if only for a second. For a moment, she turned her head away, putting her hand up to her brow for protection. Quietly, Sheppy let out a baa of questioning, and Nemurin kept their light-source steady, unveiling a long line of mirrors, a whole collection of them, all identical both in shape and in size. Tilting his head slightly, the Dream Eater at her side observed the reflection in the glass, being met with a copy of himself...at first remaining steady as he walked by her side.
But then, the image almost seemed to ripple, to distort, to...shift. Staring back at them was no longer the silhouettes of a tired magical girl, her hair and eyes dulling and her face growing weaker, and her Spirit companion but instead, a void of violet sea, stretching out into an unending horizon. Floating high above the water's surface (at least...Nemurin assumed it was water...it had to be, right?) were clumps of stone, ranging in size and in the stability provided were you to try standing on one, all floating some small distance from one another, though there wasn't much consistency to it. But lurking in the spots any human could even try to walk were creatures, though different from the Nightmares in appearance, just as deserving of the title — and arguably more, if you asked her. Many were large, and had long limbs, claws the size of a human head. Little golden balls acted as eyes, emotionless little things that likely had nothing to offer the dead or the living, and what it could would be the last thing anyone would want. She could feel it, just looking at them, and she felt an involuntary shiver shake down her spine.
Scanning the room with her flashlight, she realised that each mirror showed the same image; as though it were a hivemind, all wanting to share the same message, the same idea. The unsettling image before her then shattered, replaced now by...
"Wait a minute..." Nemurin spoke, coming to a sudden stop. She pointed the flashlight at the mirror closest to her; she knew the place being shown to her.
Admittedly, she didn't know it, know it. She had only been there once, and hadn't been there since then, but she had been there. From the barrier between, she had dropped from the sky like a star and plunged into the ocean, after two dreamers...after Sora, and Riku. "These islands..." her free hand touched the glass. "It must be important to them, huh...?"
Upon approaching however, she saw it; something...odd about the mirrors. It was like watching a video through someone else's camera, with tiny tremours, glances to the side; or rather, watching a memory through someone else's eyes. From what little she could catch at the corners, there was a flicker of blue and white on one side, and green, black and yellow on the other. And standing before them was a figure, tall and ominous, with a monster lurking on guard right behind him. The closest comparison Nemurin would have made would be to that figure from earlier, Xemnas, if she recalled rightly. They had a similar build, a more muscular one from what little she could catch, and long silver hair, drenched in black.
So, they couldn't get creative when terrorising them and Riku presumably on the other side with monsters, and they couldn't get creative with what they wore either, how wonderful.
What ensued there, in the mirrors as she continued to walk, was a battle, one that seemed to carry a great weight behind it. Maybe it was the force and energy given by the combatants, or maybe it was just the sense she got every time she looked at the image in the glass, but it struck her as important.
The islands...she knew they had to be connected to Sora and Riku, or at least one or the other. And she was willing to bet her dream life on it that the one they were fighting had something to do with that guy and Xemnas, even if she didn't know how...
"Are these..." Nemurin wondered, Sheppy looking up at her now. "Memories...?" she asked. Sheppy seemed to consider it himself, before giving an uncertain nod, which Nemurin translated into an 'I think so'. "It looks like one — like looking through someone's eyes, y'know?" she added.
Just as she was considering such things however, the torch displayed to her the state of the looking glasses; they were rippling again, the images beginning to distort and turn to a void of pitch black, unable to produce anything even when lit by her flashlight. Nemurin gnawed her bottom lip a little, her eyes looking back over her shoulder — unable to find or see anything — and then forward again. It felt like she stepped into one of those endless hallways, the ones you see in weird horror movies...but she hadn't gone nuts, she didn't think, so she doubted it was that which caused her to end up here.
Was it the Nightmares doing this? Or could it be the dream itself?
Nemurin came to a halt at that, Sheppy looking to her with his quiet questions, bleating a little as if to voice them. The dream itself...she came in here via Sora's dream, and she recalled quite thoroughly the image of the strange gate Beautiful Calamity Mary had displayed to her when she had been dumped in the barrier between the waking and sleeping world. She wondered...was Sora experiencing something similar? Was he, knowingly or not, thinking about his past? Was he being bombarded with such peculiar images on his side of the wall, and were they his own? Or would he be seeing something else, if anything?
By now, the image in the mirrors had become a singular entity again, all showing the same place; a silvery void of nothing, endless and scratched with some form of pattern that Nemurin couldn't quite make it out. Like the hallway she seemed to find herself in, it stretched on and on, until grey shadows obscured any potential ending, to the point she couldn't tell if it was just a wide open space or some form of domed chamber. There was someone at the edge of the mirror's view again, and the little glances she could get of him made her mark this person as Riku, what with the similar shades of yellow in his attire and his lavender-coloured hair, long, almost like a weeping willow's (though she'd confess the Riku she saw at the start of all this didn't exactly have that cut). And once again...they were fighting, a figure in a coat; not black this time, but slashed with white, forming blade-like patterns. She knew the face of the enemy this time — Xemnas. She might not have seen his face long, but she'd seen enough of it to recognise him. Her eyes narrowed a little at the sight of his face, her heart steadily thumping in her chest, in a way she hadn't realised she could notice.
The looking glass' image broke apart, and Nemurin waited with bated breath for what might come next. By now, the silence was nonexistent, as Sheppy seemed to have several bleats of commentary for each image, growing louder and high-pitched. At the appearance of Xemnas, he hopped up and down, tugging at her pyjama sleeve.
"I know...it's that guy again..." she acknowledged, slowly.
Upon her confirmation, Sheppy stomped a tiny hoof against the floor, ducking his head down as if preparing to bowl himself into him, prompting a small giggle from the sleepy magical girl, and just as she felt some of the tension building up across her weakened shoulders slowly float off of her, it dropped as heavy as an anvil as she suddenly was beset with a horrific noise, and a glint of violet shadows trickling at the mirror's head, the same as those that entangled the dream gate. It began as little at first, a single smash, only to then double up, and then triple, and then onwards from there, the sound piercing and scratching at her eardrums and twisting her stomach all over.
A startled gasp, and then a shriek escaped her throat, as tiny daggers of glass exploded all across the chamber, and Nemurin swiftly ducked, diving forward straight into the wall in front of her, forcing Sheppy close to herself, turning her back to the eruption of the looking glasses. As Sheppy let out a wail, she winced as she felt some of the jagged pieces lodge into her; not many, and most not very large, but the sudden stinging ripped across her skin regardless.
For a few moments, she remained there, knees up to her chest, Sheppy cuddled to her face, the sheep Dream Eater licking her cheek gently for comfort. Slowly, she let one breath, two breaths, ease their way into her chest. On the floor, the flashlight rolled and came to a stop, surrounded by showers of broken mirror shards, its small circle of light partially illuminating a corner of Nemurin's shoulder, revealing a small trickle of red down one of the many cuts that had torn through the protection of her clothes. Silence suffocated the chamber as the girl slowly allowed herself to turn around, now that the barrage had seized, her hand slowly, yet shakily reaching out towards the torch on the ground, just barely managing to avoid pricking her finger on the glass below. With a swift movement, she took hold of it, allowing her to light up the area. Her back pressed hard against the wall, and she turned the torch to her right, revealing a door, though whether it was locked or not she'd yet to find out.
Just as she was shifting herself around, and her light source with it, Nemurin felt her reality change; like a new one had swallowed her whole, and then spat her back out just as fast, the floor she sat on changed to ivory, and the broken mirrors were replaced by a circle of snow-coloured thrones. And standing there, in the mirror, was a hooded figure in black, their face obscured, except for the glint of golden eyes.
Those eyes!-
She didn't know what it was about them that forced her backwards, but something in it did. A staggered gasp came sprinting past her lips as she stumbled backwards, away from the mirror — and through the door. Sheppy trotted at a running pace close behind her, nudging her as she landed flat on her back against a dirtied, circular area — like that found in a circus. Blinding light, yellow like foil, burned her eyesight, as she instinctively rolled, almost as if in bed, onto her side, her breaths panting their way out of her.
"What...what was that..." Nemurin wheezed, hacking coughs escaping her lips. As she got up to her knees, she came to a jagged halt, once, twice, more than that, her chest tight, only easing as the familiar blue light of Sister Nana's magic glowed about her back. Breathing in again, this time clearly, she felt a slow relief, even amidst her confusion; one that was broken by a boy's shrill cry.
"HELP! MISS! PLEASE, HELP!"
Her head turned in the sound's direction; and once she followed it, she found a boy, one she didn't know, but one she realised she was looking for. He was an odd collaboration of humanity and puppetry, with wooden joints, yet warm brown eyes, and the clothes of a young child, like that you'd find in a children's film. Trembling, his brow was slanted as he looked down from atop a trapeze's platform, its ladder collapsed somewhere along the dusty floor. And there, at the bottom, reaching up with large claws and tongues, spreading ice at the foundations, was a legion of Nightmares.
She'd found Pinocchio, that much was for sure — and she had to save him, and she had to save him now.
Meanwhile, as Sora had brought some visibility back to the room, he soon found a glint against a mirror; a wall of them. They formed a line in front of him, and as he stepped forward, there was only one small opening, into what looked like some sort of mirror maze.
"A maze?" Sora sighed. Now, normally he wouldn't be surprised to see something like that at a funfair, normally he'd be happy to participate in one...but they didn't exactly have mountains of time available to them.
After all, Pinocchio could be anywhere by now, and Nightmares could be wandering anywhere in turn. He didn't want to think about the sort of danger he could be in right now at their hands, an involuntary shiver beginning to creep up through his heart at the idea of someone else he couldn't help, an ache left unspoken and hardly resolved. Yet there was also something else that nagged at Sora too, something else that made him want to get through here quickly as possible — and that was his partner in the room opposite of this one. Sure, she seemed to be acting the way she normally did...but something struck him as 'off' about her. Like there was something wrong that she was trying to evade mentioning. He knew by now, that Nemurin was a sweet person, someone who likely would rather people not worry about her, even if something was wrong, and it left a certain unease he couldn't shake.
"Sora?" Jiminy's voice broke through his thoughts, as did Morgana nudging at his leg, eyes slanted with what looked to be concern. "Ya alright there?"
Shaking the thoughts off like dust off your back, Sora gave a smile, "Y-yeah. Just thinking," he assured, vaguely. "C'mon. The sooner we figure out how this maze works, the sooner we'll find Pinocchio, right?"
"Right..." Jiminy agreed, though he didn't appear to be fully convinced.
Even so, guided by the light off of Sora's Keyblade, the boy, his Dream Eater and the cricket on the former's shoulder began to try and navigate the mirror maze. His movements were somewhat slow, as he knew sprinting ahead was just a one-way ticket to probably smacking his face straight into the glass, but he didn't stick around one part of the area too long. He eased his way around at first, feeling along the mirror, initially faced with just his reflection at first, and that of Jiminy on his shoulder. Morgana slowly trudged along at his side, sticking close to him once she realised trying to decipher the endless lines of reflections reflecting each other was a hopeless endeavour.
"So, Sora, have you and Nemurin known each other long?" Jiminy asked.
"Eh, I guess not really that long," Sora answered as he moved; not noticing at first that his reflection was beginning to disappear. "We met a while back, and we've been travelling together since, though...some stuff happened that got us separated for a while," he recounted, the lingering voice of Donald and the world order keeping him from going into detail. "I'm glad you found her," he added, cheerily.
Mulling over Sora's words, Jiminy nodded, and then remarked, "I am too!" he said. "I do say, you two seem to look out for each other. I try to look out for Pinocchio, but...it's not always easy, bein' a conscience. Ya gotta keep a young boy without one out of all sorts of mischief,"
Glancing to Jiminy again, Sora said, sympathetically, "I can imagine...! And you do a good job at being a conscience, Jiminy. I'm sure of it. Just trust me on that. Yeah...I guess we do look out for each other. I do my best to, anyway!"
"Well then, let's keep doin' our best at- As I live and breathe!" Jiminy suddenly gasped, his gloved hand pointing at the little part of the mirror that was illuminated.
Sora's head tilted in confusion, "What is it?" he asked, only to turn back to the mirror. "Woah!" he cried out in startled surprise.
Stumbling back slightly, the glow of the Keyblade allowed a clearer view of what was being reflected in the glass. It was Sora's reflection no longer, but rather that of a boxed-in garden; lush and vibrant green, with bushes that almost seemed to be painted on the walls, a cobbled path forming a cross in the centre, leading to a splashy blue fountain there, and then a set of bulky wooden doors at another end, a scene idyllically crafted. Gathered in the lounge was a group of people, and it took little time for Sora to recognise their faces.
'Wait! Those people there at the right...that's Sister Nana! And Winterprison! And Top Speed! I don't know who that one is with her, though...' Sora thought, though he didn't admit that out loud, figuring out just as he was about to that it'd probably confuse Jiminy more. 'And there's someone else, there at the doors...' he thought. 'But...who is she?' he wondered.
The girl standing by the wooden doors was a Magical Girl; Sora knew it the second he saw her, which was honestly what his mind would have jumped to. Her hair was pale pink, and her eyes a gentle gold, and she was clad in a white pure and heroic, her and ears waist adorned with flowers, though the outfit itself reminded him more of one you'd find in a school. The snow-white-clad magical girl bowed as she greeted someone (presumably whoever's eyes they were currently looking through) as Sora made his way around the next corner, the image simply repeating on whichever one he was directly in front of.
"Well, I'll be...! Those girls, they looked...well, outta this world, wouldn't you say?" Jiminy remarked. "Like...like Nemurin!"
Sora pondered for a second, only for a light of realisation to dawn on him. "Yeah! In fact, three of them? Nemurin introduced me to them not that long ago!" he explained. "So what we're seeing must be connected to her somehow. But...why is it showing up here?"
"Beats me..." Jiminy answered, a bit more grim this time. "I oughta say...somethin' about it don't feel right."
"Hmhm.." Sora nodded. "I don't really get it either...it's gotta be the Nightmares or something. I mean, if they appeared as a copy of Pinocchio earlier, they must have some weird illusion power, right?"
Morgana meowed a little, as if to echo his statement. "Possibly..." Jiminy said. "Either way, we'd better find Pinoke, before he gets lost in all this illusion!"
"Right!" Sora agreed, resolve fiery and bright. "I think we're almost outta here. I think it's just a few more turns..."
Just as he said that offering at least a little bit of security, the mirror's image shifted again, and their attention was instantly drawn to it. The fantastical sight of the green garden soon dispersed into nothing, and in its place, a far more mundane scene. It was a bedroom; with a light pink lining the walls, and a relatively clean wooden floor. There wasn't much on the floor, or really in the room, except for a closet, a bright teal carpet and a table, with various books strewn across it. The mirror seemed to look through someone's eyes, so he had little clue as to what their face looked like, but he could see what looked like a baggy red hoody sleeve, comfortable grey pants and a comfortable bedsheet, thick and easy to sink into at night.
It wasn't until the person looked up, at a pitch-black computer screen, that Sora could see their face.
"Nemu!?" Sora said, instinctively, warranting two puzzled looks fixed in his direction both from Jiminy and Morgana.
He knew her eyes, though there was a soft brown to them as opposed to their usual purple. Everything about her was technically different, to the point that most probably wouldn't have been able to spot anything similar between them.
Nemurin's hair was blonde, with violet tips. The girl's hair was chocolate brown, tied back into a ponytail, with one bit sticking up. Nemurin was constantly clad in pyjamas, and armed with a pillow, the girl wore a simple hoodie, though they looked equally comfortable. And her face definitely looked semi-different to Nemurin's when he first met her...but not so much now. Ever since the incident in the Grid, that girl's face and Nemurin's had overlap, an overlap that was now right in front of him.
Morgana was making something of a ruckus now, even as Sora stepped back from the mirror, as the image continued to play for as long as it lasted. Jiminy turned away from it, and instead looked to Sora, the lack of understanding of the situation splayed across his face. "Ya alright there, Sora?" he questioned. "It was almost like ya saw a ghost!"
"W-wha?" Sora repeated, dumbly, before the words sunk in. "S-sorry," he apologised. "I think I've been looking through these mirrors too long. I thought I saw Nemurin, but...I've gotta be seeing things,"
Before Jiminy could even have the chance of calling his bluff, however, they were disrupted by a sound; the sound of 'clopping', rapidly approaching them. Sora's mouth could only form a confused 'o' in the seconds between him noticing the noise, and being suddenly slammed against the mirror. He cried out in pain as the surface of the mirror thumped against his spine, as Morgana booted the figure in the rear; yet, what Sora found when he looked took him off-guard, so off-guard it was like being pushed off a cliff.
Looking up at him with eyes pleading for life, was... a donkey? Dubbed in clothing no less, including a sailor's hat and uniform...and what's more, the shaky creature was sobbing, glancing over his shoulder as if watching out for an approaching pursuer, "P-please, mister! Ya gotta help me!"
"Wait, slow down!" Sora said. "What happened to you?" he questioned. Meanwhile, Jiminy's eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at the donkey, who continued to sob and hiccup before them, speaking... as a boy would. "What's going on...!?"
"It's me...A-A-Alexander...! I know you probably didn't see much of me, but I saw you fight those monsters earlier...!" the donkey explained, hastily, as Sora listened, worry growing thicker in his chest the more he said. "T-t-that coachman, one second I was on one of the slides, the next...I-I turned into this! I-I just wanna go home to my mama...! Please, ya gotta help me, Sora...!" he begged. "Please...! They're gonna come get me, you can't let 'em! Please don't let 'em!"
"No one's going to get you...!" Sora promised, frowning. "I'm not going to let them, okay...? Just calm down...I'm going to get you out of this," he said, saying what he could to try to ease his panic, even if only slightly. His ears perked up, hearing the sound of approaching figures; running ones. "Alexander, get behind me! Jiminy, hide!" Sora urged, and both parties gladly obeyed.
The area Alexander had come sprinting through was a narrow tunnel, leading to a door, and he knew the figure in red without even having to see him fully. Sora's brow furrowed into a glare, a glare that waited for the figure at the end of the hall, but at the back of his mind, he couldn't help but chastise himself; whatever they were doing, no matter how what happened to Alexander had happened, it had and he had been too late to realise it. All he could do now was try to put a stop to it, before anyone else got hurt...!
"Now, just where do you think you're going!?" the coachman bellowed, marching out; only to stop at the sight of Sora. Briefly, his eyes flashed with surprise at the sight of him, but hardened just as fast. "Well, well, well...what a surprise, Sora."
"You! What have you done!?" Sora demanded, now pointing his Keyblade at the coachman, as Morgana growled at their new enemy, standing firmly on all fours.
"Me? I think that question would best be directed at you, boy." the coachman taunted in reply.
"No more games!" Sora snapped. "What did you do!?"
The coachman chuckled at that, folding his arms. "I simply make these boys into what they really are! You saw them yourself, give a lad with a taste for mischief enough rope, and he'll soon make a fool outta himself! A 'jackamule', if you will," the coachman explained. "Course, I knew the second you jumped into that battle that doing the same thing to you would be hopeless, so while you were running ragged dealing with the Nightmares...I've had a smooth operation, all night long!~"
Guilt plunged deep through Sora — he knew it already, deep down, but his words brought it to the surface. Still, the daggers he shot remained sharp even so. "You won't get away with this...I won't let you!" he declared.
"Well, that's a shame," the coachman said in fake lament. With that, a circle of Nightmares surrounded Sora, appearing with the click of the red-coated man's fingers. "Ah well. Looks like your stay here will be extended, Sora!"
A/N: Good grief, writer's block is an unforgiving beast. Sorry for the delay, folks! Fortunately, I felt the urge to write recently; though y'all may have gotten a hint of that already, what with me updating my other story the other day! The other thing that prompted me to go for Cosmogyral specifically was the fact that...well, September 3rd was the first anniversary of the publication date! It feels really surreal, knowing that I've had this story going for a whole year, especially because I still remember writing the first chapter quite clearly. Maybe not as if it was yesterday, but pretty close. So, first things first, a special thank you to everyone for reading my story. Whether you came in from the beginning, the middle or just today, I'm really grateful to y'all! You've made Cosmogyral such a fun ride so far, and I'm excited to keep going! ^^
Now onto the usual stuff! Thanks to cooking samurai for the favourite and to pinkumocha777 and Aquanort343 for the follows! I hope you're all enjoying the story!
And now for reviews! Starting with Captain Imaginat, glad to see you again! I'm happy you enjoyed the return of more of the Pinocchio cast, as to be honest, even though I said I wasn't especially into that movie, it does feel kind of weird to have Prankster's Paradise, as without them, it's kinda just…a fun fair. And I feel with the idea of Pleasure Island and the deceptions involved, it deserves a bit more than that, especially because it's such a famous moment I think, that whole twist and how fucked it is. I'm also happy you enjoyed Sora and Nemu's reunion! As said, it was probably one of my favourite parts to write in a while, and I'll be honest and say the last chapter was kinda just build-up to that reunion, so I'm glad you enjoyed that as much as I did~ ^^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!~ I'm starting to try and combine stuff from the film with bits from the game, though that'll become more clear once the next chapter goes up!
Next is Tsuuji! First things first, it's a relief to see such positive feedback for that part! ^^ It was definitely a bit I sought to get right - in fact, it was originally written so that it happened at the end of Chapter 25, but I moved it forward because it just…wasn't working right the way it was, and I knew it was a part I needed to land, so I'm honestly really relieved to see that it did! Now that you mention it, I'm also gonna feel so bittersweet when we hit the finish line. We're a good way away from that still, but we've definitely made a good bit of progress and already came quite far, and I'm honestly really attached to these two myself. Maybe it's because this is one of the first long-runners I've been really serious about, maybe it's because I'm naturally attached to both of them as characters (Sora's my favourite character in the games and always has been, ever since I was twelve, and though I don't have that same long-running familiarity with MGRP as I do Kingdom Hearts, Nemurin was still a character I took a lot of interest in and couldn't help but really like), or maybe because it's a lot of fun writing them as a pair, but I'm honestly just proud I was able to create a pair with a connection like that. I'll definitely have Sora and other characters interacting with more Magical Girls in the future, and it'll definitely be fun to write his potential reactions to some of the other ones, particularly the more dangerous and/or malevolent ones, or even just the more complex ones. Oh lord though, whatever it was you had, it definitely didn't sound fun and I'm glad you've got rid of it! It definitely does sound like it could have been flu you might have had, since I remember a similar exhaustion hitting me when I had my own case (I knew it was that specifically because I'm not a sleepy person by nature, either I sleep heavy or I don't sleep at all), but it's really rough either way. DX Thank you for the well wishes! I'm doing way better now, it's gone more or less completely. I'm a little nasally at night (not helped by the fact the weather's playing silly buggers over here again) but aside from that, I'm much better, so thank you. ^^
As for your question, it's actually a really interesting one…! I'd not even really considered the whole slot limit thing, but you make a good point on it - thus far, I've namely been trying to stick to a small pool of spells to start with that gradually grow stronger, I guess is the best put way of putting it. As for cool downs…hm. Well, story-wise I've not considered it much because I try to avoid reusing too much of the same spell, at least where combat is concerned; I find with fight scenes, doing too much of the same thing gets really boring really fast, and I aim to try and do things like use the environment and the nature of the opponent to the characters' advantages and detriments. I even took notes before starting to write the fight with Rinzler from a few chapters ago, so I could best consider how to do it. I do think there is some form of cool-down, and if I had to explain it in lore, I'd either guess perhaps a potential risk of exhausting the spell itself or potentially the caster. We do see in KH3 with Donald's Megaflare that a powerful spell can make you drop, so it is possible there could be a certain strain with overusing spells too? I might just be talking out my ass, but that'd probably be how I'd try to explain it in lore, at least my take on it.
I hadn't actually heard of the games you mentioned as being the origin of your profile picture, but honestly, I'm definitely considering checking them out now! ^^ They sound like they could be neat. You're welcome though…! I'm sure you'll do great, just make sure not to overwork yourself. You can get through these classes! Honestly, your comments really made me melt. It brought a genuine smile to my face reading everything you've said; it just means a lot knowing you enjoy my writing, and that you look forward to it! ^^ I blushed reading it. I really just think it's only fair that I acknowledge those who support my story; whether by reviewing, or by favouriting and following, as every little bit counts.
In regards to your story, I'm not sure if it's some technical issue of mine, or if it's some form of setting I have on my messages but for some reason I've not gotten any alert/link? I could try PMing you, to see if that works- ^^ Sorry for the inconvenience, I really don't know why your message's not gotten through. Anywho, I hope you have fun with The Black Cauldron, I'd love to see what you think of it!
Funny you mentioned Young Xehanort actually...! Since, since Dark Road, I have...no fucking clue what my thoughts on him are. I've not gone through it thoroughly yet, but I get the gist and it honestly is really sad, I think, his backstory, I mean. It definitely has made me rethink certain scenes of him in it, that's for sure. Ultimately, I do feel some sympathy...but I still think the version of him we see in 3D and III is still a dick. Like I get your reasoning dude, but must you be such a colossal arse about it? That's the general summary for why I don't like him; his writing's fine, interesting even...just the way he comes off through most of his screentime just has that exact formula of things that get under my skin specifically. Anyway! Thanks as always for reading, Tsuuji! I honestly love long reviews like yours, so don't worry about that! ^^
Now, with all of that said, thanks to everyone for reading, I'll see you next chapter! Thanks for helping me keep this going a whole year!~