In which Sora and Nemurin go for a dive...

After bidding the cursed boys goodbye, the dreamy duo and their Spirits soon found themselves skirting the edges of the thankfully defunct Pleasure Island. In spite of its bright colours, no more sound could be heard off of it now - spotlights shone down on no one, the rollercoasters didn't rumble once with activity, and the attractions had been left like ghost towns. Normally, such a sight would have felt a tad 'off' to Nemurin, like those spooky images you could find of abandoned theme parks, picking up nothing but fog and vandals where visitors had once been, but after seeing what the park had been a front for, it provided the opposite effect; an uncomfortable weight was removed from her shoulders, instead of placed atop them. And once again, the only sound they could hear now was the slow breathing of the tide as it attempted to scale the edge of the cove face, the cove that had led them this close to the sea - this close without having to jump off a cliff, that is.

Stopping just off the edge, the magical girl turned to Sora, "You ready...?" she asked, gently.

"Yeah," Sora nodded, his eyes fixed on the sea before them, the sea which, somewhere, held their two friends. He shot her a small, determined smile. "Let's go, Nemu,"

"Right~" Nemurin agreed, breezily. "Time for a swim~"

Once he looked at her though, Sora seemed to pause, his smile fading. His brow slanted as he frowned, his expression concerned. "Hey...you sure you're okay, Nemu? You're starting to look...well, kinda tired." he asked.

Nemurin shook her hands, assuredly. "No, don't worry about it..." she yawned a little now. "I'm always kinda tired~ It's how I ended up becoming a Magical Girl, actually,"

Sora blinked a little. "Wait, really?"

Now to try and explain it... "Well..." Nemurin paused for a moment. "Yeah, kinda...!" she said, gesturing a little towards the sea. "Once we get to looking, I'll tell you about it~"

Not long after, the four dove into the water - and just as the Blue Fairy's magic indicated it would, they didn't even need to hold their breath. It was like the air up above and down here were no different from each other, if not even cleaner. A certain relief for Nemurin, given how wheezy she'd been feeling lately...the two were submerged by water that surrounded them, and underneath the waves, it was like a separate world was revealed to them. They landed on soft, wavy sand which shifted softly underneath their feet as they moved, with sparse plants of seaweed and brightly-coloured coral dotting the ocean floor, like an underwater garden. Wide expanses of large grey pillars stood before them, going deeper and deeper into the water, like tilted Greek columns, and cute little caverns appeared before the corners of their eyes.

"Woahhh..." the blonde girl gasped a little, smiling to herself. It was just like a storybook, where mermaids and sirens would go about their days in fairytales, singing the bitter end of vessels or longing for life on land.

"Cool, huh?" Sora said, grinning.

"You say that like you've been under the sea before~" Nemurin responded as they began to move forward, their eyes flicking about as they decided between the caverns or the pillars as their first directive.

The boy with the Keyblade seemed to think for a little bit, before looking about, as if making sure nobody else was listening. "I mean...I actually have...!" he said.

For a moment, the sleepy girl nearly shot awake, but then recalled the other strange worlds they had visited thus far. And they had just seen a Blue Fairy, so this probably wasn't the weirdest thing she'd seen or heard all day. Nodding curiously, Nemurin wondered, "Ooh? Like what?"

"I went to a place called Atlantica once," Sora recounted as he walked along the ocean floor. "It even had merpeople and everything...!"

They were moving to the cavern first now, the two swimming upwards as they reached the opening, white seafoam flowing along its walls, promising to lead to somewhere, the stone archway looming high above their heads - maybe not a difficult feat, given they weren't tall, even as they moved through the water like the world's open air. It might have sounded surreal, knowing you were underwater, yet not feeling all the telltale signs you normally did, but not particularly so for either of them. Both knew the experiences from their adventures, one in their own reality and the other in the constant surrealism of people's dreams, the lack of eyes stinging from the salt water, the removal of rawness from a throat drinking in too much sea water, and they were honestly glad for it now that they knew the free feeling well enough. Their Dream Eaters, similarly, didn't seem to think much of it, even if Morgana didn't seem particularly overjoyed to be in a place with so much water - then again, she was partially catlike in appearance, so neither had it in them to be surprised at that possibility.

"C'mon, you've gotta tell me that one..." Nemurin prodded, gently.

Sora was about to go on, but then a boyish grin glimpsed across his face as they turned. "Now hold it, didn't you say you'd talk about the whole 'how you became a Magical Girl' thing?"

She had to giggle a little. "Yeah, I guess I did," she admitted. "Suppose I should start, right?"

With Sora's curious gaze glowing into the front of her temple, Nemurin began, as casually as someone passing small talk over the dinner table. "Basically, the way me and the others became Magical Girls was through this app on our phones; I've always been...someone who liked her home, so I played a lot of games like that. It let you create your own avatar and do stuff in the game, and there were rumours that some who played the game got the ability to actually become one, for real..! Especially since they started helping people out in real life. I joined for fun, and...well, I ended up as one of them~ Before that we'd already picked out what our avatars looked like, so this is like my ideal self,"

Sora's eyes widened as he listened, his head nodding along intently with each word. "That's...that's so cool!" he said, brightly. "It must have been pretty shocking when it first happened, right?"

Nemurin shrugged. "Well...I might have been convinced at the time I was dreaming that up, so I kinda just went along with it until I woke up and realised it was all real...~" she admitted, as sheepishly as Sheppy.

Folding his arms as he thought, her companion answered, "I get that. I kinda felt the same, when I got caught up all of this in the first time. Sometimes you just gotta take the storm as it comes, even if it doesn't really let you fit in any questions."

"If you don't mind me asking..." the girl opened the gate, Winterprison's past words echoing in her head as they were surrounded by the cavern walls, which stretched out into a new section of the aquamarine sea. "How did you get caught up in all of this anyway?"

Sora let out a breath, one that voiced more than words how much he'd need to get into to answer that in depth. "Man, where do I start...? I guess, to sum it up...my world got caught in the darkness. It was Riku and Kairi and I's home, Destiny Islands. One day...the darkness came for it, and then we got separated. I ended up with the Keyblade and we all started looking for each other. And then everything kinda went...well, crazy," he summarised, little by little, Nemurin listening along carefully.

"It sounds like you and Riku and Kairi are really devoted to each other, huh?" Nemurin said.

At the mention of his friends, Sora's eyes lit up. "You bet!" he confirmed. "I can't wait to see Kairi and tell her how me and Riku passed with flying colours~" he continued, beaming.

With an encouraging smile, Nemurin's answer was simple. "You've got this, Sora- woah!"

As soon as they reached the mouth, it was as if it inhaled them, the four of them pulled past coral and anemones, the area widening out into a larger one, with even more openings like the one they'd just left - one stood at the precipice, seeming to go even deeper into the ocean than the one they started in.

"You think going through there could lead us to Pinocchio and Jiminy?" Sora wondered.

"Worth a shot, right?" Nemurin answered. "Now it's just to get up there...~"

Before they could decide between using Flowmotion or some other method, the group of four soon found a large, 'fishy' shadow swooping above them. At the sight of it, Morgana began to bounce, while Sheppy peered widely at the creature. Following their Spirits' gazes, their eyes soon landed on...a manta ray, the same shade of brown sand, staring at them, as if wondering what such strange-legged people were doing on the ocean floor, before continuing to drift around the area - passing the place they were looking to reach as it did so. In unison, the pair seemed to jump a little, realising its sudden presence.

"You think he'd get some of us over there?" Nemurin suggested.

"He probably could...hey, Morgana!" the boy swatted his gloved hand, noticing Morgana leering closer, as if wanting a taste of him. "I'll carry Morgana over with Flowmotion so she doesn't try taking a bite outta this guy." he said.

Swinging a little on her legs, the magical girl said, "Just like catching a bus...~ Sheppy and I will wait for him, then~"

With an agreeable nod, their next plan of movement set, Sora knelt down and heaved Morgana under one of his arms, prompting her to whine and squirm, before visibly deflating, her expression obviously irritated at missing a meal. "Relax - I'll feed you later, okay?" Sora compromised, earning a begrudging look of acceptance.

As the mantra ray began to swing back around, the spiky-haired boy knelt for a moment, magenta light emanating off of him as he picked up energy, before he took one large leap across the gap - he reached high, and just when it seemed like he'd have to try again, he used his free hand to hold onto the ledge, allowing Morgana up first before rolling himself into a standing position. As soon as he was back on his two feet again, he gave a sunny wave, and Nemurin waved back.

The manta ray lowered, and carefully, Nemurin allowed Sheppy to go on his back first - sure enough, he seemed pretty content to help them out, continuing to bob along. Now that fact had been tried and tested, she soon followed suit, lying flat on her stomach so as not to make it too uncomfortable for the creature. She smiled a little down at it, rubbing along its sides a little in affection. "Thanks, buddy~"

It didn't take long for them to drift over the stretch of sea - it all seemed so small from up high like this. With a small final ascent, the manta ray had circled around again to where Sora stood, the boy extending a hand out to her, prompting her to take hold of it as she hopped off, gesturing for Sheppy to follow.

"Thanks!" Sora beamed. The manta ray seemed to look at him, and then continue off into some unknown corner of the ocean.

"They definitely weren't kidding when they said manta rays were nice~" Nemurin said, breezily.

"Definitely nicer than Monstro, that's for sure." Sora added.

Knowing full well that stepping forward meant getting tugged into the whirlpool's inescapable pull, Nemurin responded, "I can imagine...say, have you dealt with him before?"

"Yep! Ended up inside of him and everything!"

Even someone as laid-back as Nemurin couldn't help but double-take a little at that. She blinked twice, and quite heavily. "W-wait. You were inside of a whale?" she questioned, sputtering slightly.

"Sure was...!" he confirmed, unperturbed.

Her eyes fell to Sheppy, who seemed to be staring up at her, almost like a puppy. Somehow, with all the weird stuff she'd seen in her tenures in the dream world, including throughout this one, her stomach still turned a little at that thought. Swallowing a little, Nemurin decided to question further. "Man...when did that happen? Since you've had a few adventures, I mean,"

"That was the first time, the first time everything happened," Sora clarified. "It's how I know Pinocchio and Jiminy, actually...! Though they don't remember..." he added.

"Oh yeah - that's that 'I'll explain later' bit you told me, when we first met up again, right?" Nemurin remembered.

"Yeah, pretty much! Basically, for Jiminy and Pinocchio, this is what happened before they ended up in Monstro, so they won't remember me, because at this point they wouldn't have met me," Sora thought for a moment, before finding the simpler terms he was looking for.

"Ah..." Nemurin nodded. "That makes a little more sense now~ Speaking of those two - we should probably get thro-"

Before she could complete her train of thought though, the two jolted as the system in front of them was shaken by a monstrous sound. Was it a roar? They couldn't quite state for sure, but it left shivers across the tunnel's walls, the remnants of which invisibly scattered across the ocean floor. It sounded far away, at least compared to them, but it sounded massive. The rattles of its movements even at this distance sent icy chills down their backs, the girl now feeling Sheppy cling to her legs. Like a pulse the call reached out to them, and once his initial shock had passed, Sora's eyes burned with recognition at the sound.

"That's gotta be Monstro." he stated. "And that means Jiminy and Pinocchio are gonna be through here - come on!"

With that, the boy took Morgana under one arm, and Nemurin's hand into his free one. Once he saw she had bundled up a shivering Sheppy with her, he leapt up - and just as before, the whirlpool reached a hand over them and pulled them into its mass, sucking them up like liquid through a stone straw. They were uncontrollable in its twists and turns, going through countless darkness-shrouded caverns, the ground littered with a floor of greyed out sand, until they were finally spat out into a large one. If the first area they'd been brought to by the whirlpools could be described as free and wide open, this one in turn was outright claustrophobic, yet somehow also remained huge regarding its size, endless and imposing. A faint, violet light crept up the long, thick walls, accompanied by deep-sea geysers that spat out a residue so thick it almost looked the same as cigarette smoke from the Red Light district back home. The group's landing was nowhere near as dignified as their first, with Sora landing flat on his rear end, Morgana bouncing in his hold as a result, all of them nearly tumbling off the edge of a small spot that jutted out from the wall. Morgana whined loudly, smacking a tiny paw against the top of Sora's head for jumping in so abruptly.

His hands flailed a little, "H-hey, sorry!" he apologised, awkwardly.

"A bit of a princess, our Morgana, huh?" his friend teased, lightheartedly, going to pull Morgana away from him before she could continue her assault.

"I'd say..." Sora agreed, rubbing his head. "Man, this place is huge..." he commented.

"Yet it feels kinda tight too, if you're asking me..." she said. "Like 'jumping into an endless abyss'...~" for those last few words, she deepened her voice and added in a fake monotone, as though to imitate a certain someone.

Fighting back the urge to laugh, a few ended up escaping as he replied, "Ha- you're not far off." he said. "Think you'll be able to spy anything down there so we can see where we're going, Nemu?"

"Hm...I should be able to - you mind giving me a light source?"

"No problem!"

With a quick puff, Nemurin made as tiny a cloud she could manage for the job, allowing it to float in midair and blink absentmindedly as it did so. Pointing his Keyblade, Sora chanted, "Fire!"

At his command, a small ball of flame like the one he'd used to light the way through the maze was conjured into existence and with the duo's direction, the cloud and its accompanying light dove into the darkness. She searched, finding nothing but smoking white geysers and the echoing of the monstrous whale's cry - but then it spotted something else. An exit out of here, at the peak of the other end of the cave. The cloud bumped and jolted more than once, forced back by something outwith the cave walls anytime it got close, but it at least provided a general sense of direction - straight ahead, and don't look down.

"Okay...so we've got two options here," the blonde-haired girl began. "I can either create clouds for us that'll float us across, or you can use Flowmotion,"

"Hm..." Sora folded his arms as he considered, before perking up. "Why don't we do both?" he suggested. "Putting too much stock into your clouds...I don't wanna do that when you're still not doing great. I don't know what's down at the very bottom but I definitely don't want you having to find out instead. But we'd also risk dropping someone if we were having to balance each other, y'know...? But if I can do Flowmotion while carrying Morgana, and you and Sheppy go on your clouds, it might be less difficult, since you're not carrying as many people. Plus...it means if you do fall, I can catch you,"

Nemurin thought about it; she did feel a bit better now that she wasn't at the height of battle, and worrying about the ticking down of a clock. She probably could carry herself and Sheppy now, especially if only for a little bit. "Hm...okay...!~" she decided to agree.

"If you start feeling like you're gonna go down again, tell me and I'll be right over, alright, Nemu?" Sora said as he went to lift Morgana again, the Dream Eater reluctantly accepting his plan, visibly hoping the next landing of theirs would be better than the last.

"Don't worry, I will~" Nemurin assured, waving her hand breezily. "Ready for a ride, Sheppy?"

Looking up at her, Sheppy bleated twice with relative resolve. With a deep breath, the magical girl placed her hands in front of her, and allowed the seat of clouds to form itself, little by little, until it was solid enough to hold the two, about the same size of a small park bench. Seating herself down, she relaxed a little as her Spirit companion hopped next to her. "Ready?"

Giving a determined nod, Sora answered; "Ready."

With that, the two began to move forward; Sora's body glowed with pink light, his hold on his Dream Eater tight and safe, and he jumped high into the air, landing sideways at a wall, ready to jump off of it. She felt his azure gaze on her, and she moved the cloud forward, over the abyss, moving along fast enough to keep up with him.

So far, so good.

Sora moved again, jumping from the wall on the left to the wall on the right, adjusting his grip to ensure Morgana was okay. And just as before, she and Sheppy followed along on their cloud, their legs dangling above an endless depth. Still okay, even if her nerves were beginning to fray a little, she just tried to relax like she would playing a game at what had once been her home, safe in her bed.

He looked to her again, almost uncertain - she gave a nod, and he let himself breathe a little. They looked ahead, and felt relief wash over them. Through the thick wall of darkness, their ticket out of here was almost here, even if the relief was soon joined by the quivering dread induced by the now far less distant groan of Monstro. It had to be, no creature could make a sound so large, so shaking. Nemurin held herself, allowing herself to move along this time, breathing in, out.

In, out.

Sheppy nuzzled into her side, as if to push her through. Her chest was tight, but no tighter than it had come to be, the tight she had began viewing as normal, what she had accepted as such until this mess was sought through and the one responsible was taken down. But even still, calling it a mess wasn't right in her eyes - she'd had fun, even in spite of the issue that led her here.

Maybe it was that moment of doubt that preyed on her physical wellbeing. Maybe it was the fact she'd acknowledged, however briefly, the strings pulling her lungs closer together, restricting the breaths they took in. Maybe whatever curse the guy in the black coat and his comrades had cast on her had finally broken through to the shell of magic the Blue Fairy cast on her before.

However it happened, she could feel the cloud beginning to crack and fall apart. Sheppy bleated out in panic, bumping into her side and crying out like a siren. Sora held onto a rock on the wall, and his mouth fell open in panic. "No! Hold on!"

With all the will she held, Nemurin tried to keep the clouds pieced together for as long as she could manage. Desperately she looked to her sides, for anything else to hold onto when the next few seconds passed and the cloud holding her and Sheppy away from the tug of the dark depths below. Thinking as logically as she could manage, she wrapped her long sleeve around Sheppy, hoping to toss him upwards, turning herself around; only to find her friend's eyes staring back at her.

In the small gap of time, Sora had sealed it shut and was now attached to the wall by the lifesaver of Flowmotion, grinding slightly against it as he drifted slowly down, but slowly enough he was safer than herself. Instinctively, she reached her arm up as far as she could manage as she felt the weight below her evaporate, readying herself for the plunge. Her body jolted for a moment, her hair swinging and falling again as Sora's hand reached down for her - and found its mark, grabbing hold of her elbow, holding tight.

"I've got you, Nemu!" Sora assured. He looked out - one more jump, and they'd be on steady ground again. "Hold on, okay?" he asked. Obliging, he lifted her up, allowing her to wrap an arm around his neck, the other still holding Sheppy, who bleated like a crying child.

"Here goes..." the spiky-haired boy muttered - and with a leap of faith, he jumped upwards, as high as he could force himself. She saw the roof grow closer, and then fall away from them again, and then - then, it was over. He landed on his own two feet, breathing out deeply. "Phew...you guys okay?"

Morgana grumbled but allowed Sora to put her back on her own two feet again, while Sheppy quivered, clinging to the pair like they were dear life themselves. Nemurin sighed aloud, catching her breath - she'd not even realised how long she'd been holding for it until she felt her chest loosen ever so slightly. "Yeah..." she assured. "Thanks for that, Sora,"

"Don't worry about it," Sora's hands rested behind his head. "It's just as I said - if you fell, I'd save you."

His response made her smile again; always a hero to anyone he met. He really did remind her a lot of Snow White and La Pucelle, and it invoked the same feeling of fondness.

Now standing upright once again, Nemurin felt her breaths steadying. "I think I'm okay. The sooner we get to Jiminy and Pinocchio, the sooner we can get things back in order, right?~"

"You've got a point," her friend acknowledged. "Let's go!"

And thus, hand-in-hand, they moved onwards, onwards into what was sure to be their next battle, one way or another...

A/N: And with that, we're almost at the end of Prankster's Paradise! Just two more chapters to go and we're out. I'm kinda glad because my lack of affection for Pinocchio made this arc kinda difficult to write in places - as probably evidenced by my spotty update schedule! But I've still had fun, and hey, it means we're more than halfway through the story now! Not to give too much away, but we're at about 53 chapters in my outline (though it's very possible more might end up being added or removed depending on how the writing process goes), and it feels so surreal knowing we've made it this far, and it's all thanks to y'all and your support! ^^ So thanks as always to all my readers, whether you be new or returning ones. Going into process/writing-based stuff for this chapter in particular, I'll admit this was more of a transitional chapter for the boss fight coming up, but I still enjoyed writing it once I got into it. Sora and Nemurin are really a duo I'm attached to now, and it makes me happy I still have a fuck ton more content planned for them and that we're only halfway and not near the end yet! Though I do have thoughts for them once Cosmogyral finishes, so this fic won't be the last you see of them. I did admittedly take some liberties with the setting this time for my own purposes, namely at the end there, but I think it works out decently enough.

Now onto the review from Tsuuji!

Thanks as always for the welcome back, and for being so patient. It really does mean a lot to me- ^^ Regarding Missing Link, I am legit excited to see some new KH content and I'll definitely check it out once it comes, I bet it'll be fun. I'd be happy to play with you too if you end up enjoying it! Also thanks for the idea about Nemurin getting kinda grossed out about Sora having been in Monstro before, I hadn't even thought of that at first until you mentioned it but it's definitely a fair point. I definitely enjoyed your story, and I'm glad you ended up picking up your friend's idea once they decided to drop it, as I think it really does have a lot of potential. Take all the time you need for your updates, as I said in our PMs. ^^ I'll be there to read it regardless~ Also you're more than free to send me stuff for KH and MGRP, honestly I really appreciate that you're wanting to help me with inspiration!

As per usual, if you have any thoughts or feedback for me, feel free to review as I love to read it. With that said, thanks as always to everyone for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter!