Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

by geddiknight

As it feels like the worst is behind her, Now-Queen Peach resumes rule of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sadly, due to the costs of having upheld the Ultimate DoubleDash Tournament, everything seems to only be getting worse. With Rates of Violence reaching new highs and rates of approval dropping by the day, can Queen Peach handle her self-inflicted destruction? (Now rated M)

18. House Arrest

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

House Arrest

This chapter returns to Peach's perspective. Almost the entirety of this chapter revolves around her.

Through a stormy night, Peach found herself in a dark, empty, seemingly abandoned house. The sound of heavy rain and thunder was all she could hear coming from the outside as she ventured through the darkness of the crooked wooden hallways and furniture inside. Coming towards the stairs, she started to hear voices from floors above. Trying not to make any noise or creeks from the floorboards, she tip-toed slowly on her ascent, soon to the point where she ended up crawling her way up the rest of the stairs. The unknown voices started to become distinguishable, the dialogue decipherable.

"You see the state of me now. All wrinkly and flushed and weak and frail! All consequences of her devious act of selfishness. Now you see her below doing only my bidding as she should. Can you see the pain this curse has done to me?" She heard the voice of what was seemingly an old man. Going up the stairs, she saw some light coming from outside all the way beyond a corridor with a half-open door separating her from it. The voices sounding most likely coming from beyond it. She stopped and remained low just at the top of the staircase, hiding out of the light rays coming out of the doorway.

"Wise master, surely there is a way to undo all of this using her in return?" She saw Fawful humbly approaching somebody, presumably the old sounding man through the gap in the doorway. A glimpse of his side profile was seen, confirming that this person was Fawful, and he looked slightly bruised and very cowardly.

"Cannot use her, she has to be royal!" The old man smote Fawful back. "Send word to Cackletta. Summon her for me." A flick of green magic zapped Fawful, vaporising his body upwards just after he nodded in agreement with the old man behind the doorway. With Fawful gone from the room, two other Koopas stood in his former place, just about able to be seen by Peach from through the corridor. "Ah… my most highly decorated advisors, Sheridan and Bertram. Will you be able to send word to your father about the news? My most sincere apologies for my delay. It's the only thing stopping me from helping him." The old man's voice was crooked, and was met with a kneel by one of the two Koopas. The other that stood up spoke first.

"I will go." The Koopa nodded, his voice, deeper than any Koopa she had ever heard before. "I don't think my brother's men were keen on the boat journey through the storms. Have them watch over the city."

"A good suggestion. I hope they soon learn to overcome this weather. It's sort of a permanent thing here." Peach noticed a slight change in focus from the Koopa on the right, looking almost towards her through the corridor. She quickly lowered herself and hid below the top stair, trying her best not to be seen. The old man was still talking to the Koopas, but something else said by him caught her attention again. "You are right, the sooner I recover, the quicker they can leave. Perhaps I will let her go from her maid duties and put the responsibility into her to save me. She got me into this, so she can fix it. I taught her well enough to return me one of the Princesses." The two Koopas nodded in agreement.

"It is fate." The Koopa that bowed stated.

The conversation went on with the Koopas looking at the old man behind the doorway for a little while longer. Unfortunately, seconds later, Peach started to hear footsteps coming up the stairs, causing her to panic. Two Koopas stared straight at her from down the stairs, noticing her and quickly grabbing hold of her. They both pinned her down on the floor in the hallway, alerting the Koopas in the other room too. Peach was being dragged forward down the hallway and through past the door, shoved onto the floor just in front of both of the Koopas.

"She's here for you now." Peach turned around, too mentally frozen to speak. The Koopa that spoke laughed before her as she was dragged across the floor, partially by magic but also by the brute force of the Koopas from downstairs.

"Step aside, Sheridan." The old man husked with a rather angry voice. "You see how weak she feels now! That's what she is now. Her only chance of redemption is by doing this for me. For intruding, however, she must learn her punishments again." Peach, feeling lost of the grip of her body, began to shiver, mentally distressed and trapped in what felt like a lifeless body. Looking at the state of the old man in the chair distorted her mind, and just before she could regain focus, the old man started shouting magical incantations and with his hands, sent a green beam of light, striking her on the floor. The pain maximised, causing her to scream a scream sounding deeper. Her vision turned to white.

…

"Ah!" She screamed far more quietly than before, waking up on the floor in a familiar bedroom. This was a bedroom of a house nothing like the dark crooked one from moments ago. No… this was Ellis' house. She remembered the navy blue carpet she slept on when resting in her bedroom and she remembered her bed being to her right. The spare pillow from the bed she used as her own for the night and a small blanket for covers. Everything was normal. The door to her bedroom opened and the friend walked in whilst brushing her teeth. She tried to speak to Peach but with the toothbrush in her mouth, she made nothing clear.

"What?" Peach clarified to her that she made no sense. Ellis exhaled and smiled upon realising, quickly heading out of the room to finish brushing her teeth and walking back into the room shortly after rinsing the toothpaste in her mouth.

"Sorry… you made some worrisome noise, bad dream or something?" Ellis was already dressed in her school clothes, almost like she was ready to leave for school soon. There seemed to be no sign of anyone else in the house, so the environment felt a little more peaceful.

"It was." She replied to the girl. "It felt almost too real… I was in some dark house and the weather was bad, and there were these Koopas, like they were part of some sort of cult. The problem was… I've never seen these Koopas before in my life." Ellis walked closer to Peach while she was still on the floor and sat on her bed briefly, listening in to Peach. "There was this decaying old man there as well… and he was talking about how he wants to capture me, except, I was presented to him anyway… and then he tried to kill me." Ellis couldn't think of anything to say to it. She just let Peach go on with her thoughts. "The biggest problem about that was… I had never seen the old man before either." After not saying anything for a few more seconds, Ellis finally spoke.

"I can't tell you anything. I'm just a fifteen year-old girl from Earth. You'd be more educated on anything about your dreams than anyone else." Ellis leaned across the bed to pat Peach on the shoulder. "Anyways. I've got to head for my bus soon for school. Hopefully I'll be able to speak to Rynmar about anything he may have done yesterday. When I get home, I'll update you on everything." The two nodded in agreement to each other, with Peach still partially under the blanket. She didn't want to get up just yet as she realised she didn't have to.

"How long do you usually spend in school?" Peach turned a little bit to the left and became blinded by the sunlight shining through the window, quickly turning back to Ellis.

"Seven, eight hours maybe." Ellis broke the news to Peach, causing her eyes to widen.

"Eight hours?" She gasped. "What if I need to reach out to you for anything?" The girl sighed, looking at the time. If she were to stay at home for any longer, she would probably be missing her bus unless she would run for it.

"Fine. I'll get the next bus." Ellis walked around her bed and over towards the desk in her room, turning on her bedroom computer. "Do you know much about computers? Have you used them before?" She sat in her desk chair and waited for the screen to flash up.

"Yes. I've used computers before."

"Good." Ellis nodded. "Have you worked with emails before?" After half a minute the screen showed something that wasn't off or black. She got ready to log in whilst Peach was getting out of her makeshift bed on the floor.

"I think so. They're basically mail, right?"

"You got it." Ellis watched the screen load everything up. "I'm going to set a way we can write messages to each other whilst I'm in school. I'm going to trust you not to ponder over other things on my computer. Promise me you won't do anything stupid?"

"I promise." Peach smiled, standing behind Ellis in the chair. "You can count on me." She watched Ellis load up an internet browser and go to the emails section on the browser. "Ah, I've seen Google before. I know what that is." She then watched Ellis set up a new tab where she logged in to an email account.

"Ok, pay attention to how this works." Ellis began to demonstrate as she started to write out an email on the account she signed into. "The email account I have right now is a backup email. The email address is 'e-l-l-i-s-h-a-r-p-e-r-2-at-g-m-a-i-l-dot-c-o-m'. If you want to send an email to me, simply put this address into the recipient and write in the subject or description section what you want to send to me." Peach seemed very confused at first, but understood most things about it.

"Why would I send an email to myself if that's the email I'm using?" She also learned that this was an almost completely empty email account. There was nothing in her inbox. She watched Ellis send an almost fully blank email and after three seconds it reappeared in her inbox.

"The reason you're sending emails to yourself is because I too am logged in to this email on my phone." She watched Ellis get out her phone and present the notification of a received email on her phone's lock screen. "See. I'll be able to see the emails we send to ourselves because we're sending the emails to ourselves. Do you understand me now?" Immediately, Peach understood everything. The swift solution made by the girl amazed her, making her love to have her as a friend and a helping hand more.

"That's amazing."

"You try it now." Ellis got up from the seat and allowed Peach to work the computer. She used the mouse and selected the send email button. Ellis then watched Peach type the exact same recipient with no spelling errors. It was a slow process of typing but she got it perfectly.

"So then… subject. I guess I should put something like 'message from Peach', and then… message… 'do… not… miss… your… bus'. Then, send." Ellis went to look at her phone again, and in a matter of seconds she got a notification for an email, sent by herself.

"You've nailed it." She showed Peach the notification. "To avoid confusion, make sure you put your name in the subject each time. Whenever I reply, I'll put my name in my emails too so you know it's me."

"How long will it take you to respond back to me when I send emails? I assume you'll be a bit busy with your school work."

Ellis agreed. "Yes, I'll most likely be able to respond within minutes, but if not… within the hour." Realising the time, she felt that she definitely had to leave now. "Anyways, the kitchen area downstairs is where you can get your breakfast and lunch. Cereals, there's a toaster, there's bread, milk, juice, fruits and vegetables and things. Don't make a mess, don't burn anything, don't get lost, and don't talk to strangers I guess. I've got to go now, but I'll see you later."

"Yes, I am human you know." Peach laughed. "Royalty in fact. I know how to keep tidy."

"Nice." Ellis started making her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs of the house. "See you in the afternoon. Hopefully you'll manage." Peach went onto Ellis' bed, intending to get off and get ready for the day but upon hearing the girl close the front door to head on her walk to the bus stop and head to school, as well as realising that there was no rush for anything, she laid back on the bed, feeling warmth from the sunlight shining through the window. She felt extremely thankful yet unable to tell Ellis about her hospitality she was receiving from her. A free house to herself from what was only a stranger just days ago, and while there were possibly worries from the Mushroom Kingdom to worry about, there was nothing she could do today about them, so she decided to block any thought of it from her mind and relax in bed for a little while longer. She was extremely tired from the day before, being awake for most of the day in her usual time zone as well as trekking all the way here from both the school as well as Rynmar's house, equating to several miles. Finally this was a day for her to do very little, whether she deserved it or not was out of the picture. Instead of going down for breakfast as she originally wanted, now she just wanted to rest for a little while longer. It was only 7:30 in the morning. The two didn't actually have that much sleep, and for Peach, it was equivalent to 2:30 in the morning, something she only remembered now. Knowing that Ellis' mum was gone for almost the whole day and Ellis herself going to school for hours, Peach felt that she could sleep in for at least another two or three hours…

…

No dreams or nightmares this time. Peach felt a bit tired but she was with more energy now. She opened her eyes after a long nap and started to sweat a little bit; the first signs of salvaging enough sleep in the daylight. She leaned up and stretched her arms, looking over to the alarm clock on Ellis' bedside table, 9:50. At least she was able to kill some time that way. Unfortunately, Peach caught sight of the computer screen looking off. She gasped and her eyes widened, quickly crawling across the bed and sliding off it to get back into the chair. The worry came in to her mind, was she to always be around it to make sure that it stayed on? Did the computer have a bug and switched itself off? After realising it was still making a bit of background noise, her nerves calmed rapidly. A minor shock, for shaking the mouse caused the screen to reappear on. The emails tab still the focus of the monitor screen. Peach exhaled, slouching in the chair after realising that computers have a sleep mode. There was one new email that she noticed on the screen. An email sent to herself with the subject 'From Ellis – small details' sent and received at 8:27am.

Hi.

Hope you haven't trashed the place yet.

I'm at school now and my day has just started. At 10:30 I have a morning break so I will try and talk to Rynmar then. We share no classes today so it will be impossible for me to speak to him outside of breaks. I also have a lunch hour at 1pm and we'll be able to talk a lot more then. I'll also tell him about you as well.

We will try to update you about everything he did last night soon.

Ellis.

Peach found this very wholesome and felt compelled to write something back. She sat up straight at the desk and composed another mail to be sent to herself for Ellis to receive on her phone. The subject: From Peach – my reply.

Dear Ellis,

Thank you very much for your e-mail. It was very kind of you to write me another message while I am in your house! I apologise for the late reply; I had a lie-in for a bit as we did not get that much sleep. I'm sure you don't usually stay up as late as last night when you have to be up that early every day. It was a good sleep – no dream and I feel a lot better. It was a good way to kill some time before you come back home.

I only woke up a few minutes ago so now I will go downstairs and make myself breakfast. I will clean up any mass I make should I make any mess. As for Rynmar, I hope he's well! I'm looking forward to hearing from him. He should be able to let us know about what happened in the castle last night too.

Hope you have a great day. Let me know if you want me to do anything for you at home while I'm here!
Royal Regards,
Peach Toadstool

"And send." She smiled to herself after finishing the mail. To her knowledge, she expected to receive a response back from Ellis within the hour as she said. Within that time, she hoped Ellis would have seen Rynmar and spoken to him, so news will come to her in the next email. With that delightful insight, Peach now decided to get ready for breakfast, yawning and doing another stretch before getting out of the chair.

10:30AM

School

Ellis indeed couldn't see Rynmar today, and hadn't been able to contact him over phone either during small breaks between lessons. The only place she could resort to going now was the small reserve on the edge of the school field. This morning break wasn't very long and there was no time to waste.

"Ellis, you not coming to the other classroom?" One of her female school friends asked her as the group of students walked out of her own classroom, noticing her quickly heading in the opposite direction.

"No, I've got something to do. I'll see you later." Ellis was blunt and straight to the point, wanting to return to the quiet place as quickly as possible. Knowing Rynmar, he'd arrive there before her too. Her classroom was situated almost on the other side of the school, two floors to descend and many, many classrooms to walk past just to exit the building of that section of the school. On the way, she checked her emails sent to herself and saw the one that Peach had sent from her computer in her bedroom. It was very lengthy which annoyed her a little bit, but for a complete stranger she thought it was expected from her. She composed another email on her phone whilst walking through the crowds of younger students hoarding the doorway and causing congestion. The email was a reply email from the one she had sent in the morning when she arrived at school. The subject appeared as 'Re: From Ellis – small details'.

Hi again.

Thanks for your message this morning. I'm going to see Rynmar. My morning school break has just begun.

When you write your next e-mail to me, reply to your old message to avoid clutter. That way, all mail written by me will be like it's chained up together. The same will apply to your emails.

Will update you in half an hour, if not then, then perhaps soon after. We'll see how it goes.

Ellis.

Eventually, after the distant walk, she arrived to the small reserve area by going along the inner edge of the school field. She could see Rynmar in his usual spot, alone and not very happy.

"Hey." Rynmar waved from the distance.

"Not answering calls earlier?" She wasn't happy with him either. "You made me have a feeling you weren't in school at all… or worse, still stuck in that other world." She put her bag down and sat by him. He didn't seem to talk much, and didn't speak at all after her, confusing her a little bit. "Well? How was it? Peach stayed at my place last night and she's still there now. I've got a somewhat reliable way of contacting her for the time being. We're sending emails to ourselves but she's logged in to my computer at home and I'm logged in on my phone. That way we can both see what we're sending to each other."

"Oh that's cool." Rynmar sighed but smiled at the same time. "Sorry. I'm really tired because I barely got any sleep. I only got back at around five or six in the morning, so I technically had no sleep. What's worse is I forgot to charge my phone as well because I was so tired. I just fell onto my bed and forgot about it. My phone's out of charge." Ellis walked and sat next to him on the log that he would always sit on in the woodland reserve, comforting him for his experience in the other world last night. Now she just wanted to know what exactly he did last night too.

"Fair enough. I didn't get much sleep either. Peach didn't get much also but she slept in because my mum wasn't at home. Anyways… what was it like?" She looked at him in the eyes, actually excited to hear what he had to say. She hoped it would wake him up a little to describe his encounter of the Mushroom Kingdom with her. "Did you meet the other people Peach knows? Like Mario and Luigi?" Rynmar however did not look happy at all to be reminded about it.

"It was… really bad actually. I'll start from the beginning though." Ellis leaned in closer to listen in as he was speaking very quietly, showing a true lack of ambition and enthusiasm about it. "I told Princess Daisy everything that Peach wanted me to, which was fine. Everything was made clear to her and I even presented my phone to her. Then she decided to take me to see the others. There was Mario, Luigi, even Yoshi the dinosaur. He looks almost identical to how he's portrayed in the cartoons and games too!" Everything Rynmar said gave Ellis a feeling of delight. Seeing him slowly perk up when describing everything made her excited, giving her the feeling of wanting to join him one day in having the chance to go to the new world. His tone improved too; he sounded less miserable about it at first. "There were also some other Koopas there too. They're the ones that look like turtles a bit, didn't recognise any of their names either. As it turns out, she wanted to bring me with them all on this sort of mission they had because apparently they had managed to track Duncan to a district in the city because I believe they have cameras on the other end of that portal and they saw him in some of those, also, I did in fact see him last night." Ellis' eyes widened with excitement, being reminded of her brief encounter with him the evening before as well.

"We've both seen him now."

"Anyway." Rynmar continued. "Daisy led a giant police force with us to basically the equivalent of a rough area of the city. They grouped me with those Koopas and they… basically sent us to a whorehouse. There were pimps and clients and stuff, and it seemed that they saw me as an adult because there aren't many humans around these parts. I obviously didn't engage in anything, because we were wired. I don't remember what we were tasked to exactly, but I bumped into Duncan in the toilets down there, but again, neither of us were there for pleasure because he sort of came from the other side which was like a restaurant… and, that was him alright."

"What was he like?" Ellis was very intrigued.

"He was different, but still him on the inside if you get me. It's still Duncan, but not the Duncan we grew up with in lower years. The problem was he sounded like he was trying to hide from the Toads and the police and stuff. I couldn't stop him because he's apparently good with magic now too."

"No I get you." Ellis agreed. "When I briefly saw him yesterday trying to get back to the school, I think he flew over the field gates, or at least did some sort of super jump."

"It's crazy that this is all real."

"Yeah…"

"Well, I had to let him go, but I remember him saying to me something like 'we'll meet again soon'. The problem is, after he left, the worst happened. I don't know if this is exactly what happened but… the place caught fire and there was a massive shoot-out with some evil Koopas and the police, and then all of a sudden one of the cops wanted to drive me out of the city. He said… he…" He sighed, unsure whether it was worth it or not to tell Ellis the last part, but he eventually folded and gave in. "He said Mario died, and that Duncan might have killed him." Ellis looked at the floor, her excitement immediately dropped. She couldn't ever take Duncan for a murderer.

"Duncan, killing Mario… isn't that Peach's fiancé or something? I never really asked her about him that much yesterday, but I got the impression that those two were dating." Ellis' heart began to feel heavy for Peach, even for someone she had barely just met, something like this would be almost impossible to break to her given her current location situation.

"You can basically say that they are dating. You know… main character and love interest if you think about it. It's what the games are all about. Peach never said Duncan was that bad of a person. I highly doubt it was him, and to be fair there were other Koopa mobsters in that whorehouse, so maybe it was one of them, but still… I don't know what we're going to do with Peach. The Toad Brigade Captain told me to never go back to the Mushroom Kingdom, but Peach will want me to. Also, he drove me into the wilderness, so I don't know how I could get back to her castle if I don't know where I am back in the other world."

The morning break was a short one, and this thought will be disturbing both Ellis and Rynmar throughout the remainder of the morning. They had over two hours of lessons until the lunch break now, and with this one ending soon, the two would have to leave the woodland reserve and get back to their classes.

"This is… worse than difficult. This feels impossible to tell Peach about at the moment. What are we going to do? I can't even abandon her. She's bound to my house." Ellis began to worry. "We've got to get back to class now. I don't even know what to write back to her in the meantime." The two grabbed their things and started walking out of the area, heading back to the school buildings.

"I can barely stay awake in these lessons. I thought I'd be fine doing this thing often, but I've done it properly once now and I can hardly get through the days. It's fucking Monday as well. This would be so much better for us on the weekends." Rynmar felt drained, and while Ellis appeared more worried visibly, she tried to show optimism to help get each other through the day.

"Hey." She patted him on the shoulder. "We'll be back here at lunch time. Try not to fall asleep. We've got double economics later so maybe we could think about something then. Besides, we've both seen Duncan now. Soon we might able to see Tobias, and maybe one day we'll both be able to go to this new world and the four of us will get the best of both worlds. It'll be like the good old days. Anyways, I'm in L building so I've got to rush. See you later." Ellis rushed on ahead going around the outside of the school buildings. Rynmar, hardly able to recall what lesson he had next, had no interest of showing up on time to his next lesson. He was more fixated on what Ellis just said to him.

"You never hanged out with us in the past." He whispered to himself with a strange look on his face as she disappeared around the corner in the distance.

Ellis looked at her phone on the way back to class, unsure of what to write to Peach. She began replying to the same message thread.

Hey,

Saw Rynmar earlier. He told me LOADS. I don't have a lot of time left but at lunch time I'll write everything to you then. All is good.

See you later.

Ellis was paranoid going through the school to her next class. The best thing for her to do was not let it get in the way of her studies for the day; therefore she chose to ignore everything for now.

1:25PM

This was very unsuccessful however. The three periods of classes Ellis had between the morning break and the lunch break were her French class and then a double class of Economics. Her school year's French classes were all at the same time, and while she didn't share this class with Rynmar for he was in a different set, she used to share this with both Duncan and Tobias. Those two have never shown up to any classes since January, and obviously were declared as missing pupils in the local area, still not found. The thought of their absence and the prospect of finding them in the other world occupied her mind for the entire duration of the lesson. Then when it came to double Economics, things became a lot worse. She also used to share this with both Duncan and Tobias. Not only that, but Rynmar also shared this class with her. Unfortunately, the class's seating plan had been in such a way that Rynmar and Ellis were seated on opposite sides of the class. She was near the front and Rynmar was all the way at the back. As their teacher was one that was very laid-back for this class, Rynmar was able to get away with sleeping through most of both of the lessons, with Ellis being constantly distracted by worrying about what he was doing if he ever woke up. Now that the lessons were over, she waited for him to get his things ready to leave the classroom.

"I don't have any food on me." Rynmar said quietly to Ellis while they were leaving.

"Well I can wait for you then to get some. Then we'll go back and sort everything out." The two stood in the corridor and leaned back to the walls as two other boys from the class were the last to leave.

"'Scuse me. Thanks." One of the boys tried to move past Rynmar and Ellis, looking back at them after getting out of the classroom corridor. "Woah. Never expected you two to be dating." Rynmar closed his eyes and shook his head at the classmate. It was a friend of Rynmar's but nowhere near close to his friendship with Duncan or Tobias in the past.

"Fuck off, Jorge." Ellis tutted back at the classmate, dismissing his remark.

"Hold on a second." Rynmar walked out of the corridor and tried reaching out for the others. "Jorge and Jake?" The two turned around and looked back at Rynmar just before walking down the nearby staircase. "What do you think really happened to Duncan and Tobias?"

"Get over it, Ryn." Jake grinned, walking down the steps first. Jorge decided not to say anything and followed his friend away.

"I think it's best we don't mention it to anyone else." She warned him as they left the corridor.

"You're right." Rynmar sighed. "Let's go back to the reserve. I'll get food later when it's less busy." He wanted to retreat to his quiet place for most of the lunch period, which was almost an hour in length. "Sorry I wasn't really cooperative during the lesson today. I'll copy things in the week."

"You didn't miss that much if you weren't paying attention. You know how our teacher is; so good at his job that he can go so quickly, so these lessons are just revision." The two did have practice exams to think about in the next two months, but they didn't want to focus on that for the time being. A lot of today was spent worrying about what to do with Peach as well as any chance of going back to the Mushroom Kingdom. The two walked together through the school canteen, going straight across it to get towards the exit closest to the nature reserve. The two boys Rynmar spoke to briefly earlier also noticed them walking together and stared at them as they went across the large room, but said nothing to them about it. Rynmar's intention was to go to the school canteen to get some food much later in the break, focusing on the problem at hand first. As they arrived to the nature reserve, they made sure nobody saw them on their way here, so they could make the most use of their time here.

"Did you write back to Peach at all during this time? You know… your self-sending emails or whatever." Rynmar sat on the log and put his shoes up on it as well, almost sitting cross-legged. He watched Ellis sit down and get out her phone as well as her lunch that she prepared for herself in the morning before she left for school.

"I just told her that a lot happened and that I'll talk to her later in the lunch break. I hadn't actually checked my phone for any responses back during the lessons because I wanted to focus and I let her know that I wouldn't be. I basically said 'he said loads, I don't have time to write it now, I'll write to you at lunch, see you later'. Now to see what she's said back to me." Ellis budged up closer to Rynmar and showed him her phone, allowing him to see all the emails that popped up in the inbox. There were three different messages sent by Peach. One was at 11:01AM, almost immediately after the morning break had ended, one more at 12:06PM, and then the third just before 1 in the afternoon. Ellis presented each one to Rynmar in order, reading the first one first.

Hello Ellis,

That's good news at least! I can't wait to hear from you later. I remember you saying that your morning break doesn't last very long and I bet Rynmar spent most of it just talking about his amazing fantasy experience in the Mushroom Kingdom!

So glad that everything and all is good. I am looking forward to having him share everything with me when he gets the chance. There's so much for both of you to learn about the place! In the meantime, I am doing some stretching exercises in your garden just to keep myself in shape. It's one of the best things to do when I am staying at your house today. I promise not to make any mess or touch anything I shouldn't!

I will update you on my day later. I hope you two are having a wonderful day!

Sweet Kindness,

Peach

"That's the first one." Ellis swiped to see the next one.

Hello Ellis again,

I hope it's not awkward for me to write consecutive e-mails before you reply to the first one. I guess you are very busy and might not be able to all the time as you said. I've been looking at some more of those websites about how you found out about the games that company made after us. Some of them are very interesting!

I'm looking at getting some lunch soon as well. It's a shame yours is so late in the day, but I suppose you don't have many lessons left after lunch!

You don't need to reply to this. I'm just updating you on my day. I think that it's better for me to do this than to keep it a secret in case anything bad happens.

Royal Regards,

Peach Toadstool

"She must be really bored at your house." Rynmar wondered after reading it all. "She's probably feeling guilty to touch anything."

"To be fair, I never really told her any ways she could keep herself occupied. So including the stretches, everything she's doing is improvised." Ellis swiped to the last email.

Dearest Ellis,

I'm sorry for writing again, I'm getting very excited. Lunch was great! Hope yours coming up is good too! I'm here and in the bedroom so I can reply to you as quickly as I can when you do finally get around to writing back to me. Always at your service.

See you soon,

Queen Peach

"Right." The two were finished reading through them all and leaned back against the trees next to the log. "What should I write back to Peach then? You don't want me to break the news to her, do you?" Rynmar sat and contemplated it all, having no concrete plan of what to say to Peach yet.

"I don't want to believe that he's dead. I'm not a hundred percent sure that he's dead. I'm fairly certain that the Toad Brigade captain said that he was but… it's Mario and in a world like that, there's no way he dies, let alone dying the first day I show up there to help out." Rynmar pondered on possible things to say in the email to Peach. He pulled his sleeves up and had a look at his portal device on his arm. "Do you want me to go back to the other world now to see if I can do anything?" Quickly, Ellis shook her head, rolling his sleeve down again.

"Don't do anything like that here. It's better to do that at home. In fact, you should come back to mine after school today. That way you can see Peach for yourself and let her know about everything face-to-face. Actually, I have a better idea." Ellis started to write something in an email on her phone. Rynmar leaned over to look at her phone again and watched her write.

Peach.

I'm going to call the house phone in the next minute. Please pick it up and answer it.

Ellis.

"If she's at home and by the computer, then she'll see this very quickly. We can speak to her on the phone instead if it makes it any better."

"I'm not going to talk about Mario to her." Rynmar thought and Ellis nodded in agreement.

"Whatever's actually happened to him if it's bad or not, don't talk about him to her. Just make everything look good, okay? I'll put the phone on speaker anyway so we can both talk to her." They nodded to each other.

"Go for it." Rynmar was ready.

"Ready?" The two nodded again and watched Ellis call up her house number on her phone. At her home, Peach was in the bedroom, reading the email. Very soon after, she heard the house phone ring from downstairs. Peach rushed through the hall and down the stairs to quickly get to phone, answering it promptly.

"Hello?" She said, hoping it was Ellis.

"Hey."

"Hey." Rynmar and Ellis both spoke to the phone. Peach was delighted to hear them from the house end.

"Oh, where do I start? I hope you're both doing okay. Everything's clean and spotless at home, no worries here. How was your time in the Mushroom Kingdom last night Rynmar?" She seemed very excited to hear from both of them, which only made Rynmar start to feel nervous quickly. He was unsure what to say first and almost froze on the spot. Ellis nudged him after noticing the anxiety in him, prompting to speak up.

"It was… It was good! Yes, good. I saw Daisy and told her everything on that list. She's doing fine is happy to know that you're well back here. She wishes you the best too so that you may return as quickly as possible. She's also got some good news for you as she's trying to find Duncan as the cameras spotted him after he shut the portal down." After some time, Rynmar was confident in himself and was able to get the ball rolling in explaining things to Peach. He made sure not to mention Mario at all if Peach ever brought it up as well.

"That's really good news! Glad to hear that Daisy's happy, and so happy to hear that they're able to track him down. See you have helped already! How's the progress on that. Were they able to get him? What did they do last night?" Rynmar needed just a few seconds to figure out what exactly to say, trying to remember everything he could able his encounter in the Mushroom Kingdom that night, specifically in Webcapstow.

"I think they're going to go after him today. I remember another thing Daisy said about some sort of undercover mission in a suburb. You wanted to find out a lead for how some Koopas got into the city? Well good news, we found it. There was a way in that was discovered… and… we… we found a Koopa involved in it. I think the Toad Brigade made an arrest. I don't remember much about it, but Daisy said it was… it was job well done!" Rynmar shook his head, indicating to Ellis that this was something that he was lying about. He mouthed the words 'didn't happen' to her whilst on the call with Ellis.

"Ah, more good news to my ears. I really wish I was able to go back with you and handle the situation myself. But it seemed like Daisy's outdone herself and managed to handle it all so well! Did she get Mario and Luigi to help her?" The name was mentioned. Rynmar froze. He was trying to say something but his mental block stopped him from making any noise. Ellis quickly intervened and improvised.

"Yes." She said. "They're fine too. Rynmar's… he's just got food in his mouth." She giggled to try and laugh it off even though Rynmar's mouth wasn't occupied with any substance. Only his nerves were preventing him from saying anything, but seeing Ellis cover for him gave him some relief.

"I'm so happy to hear from you two and I'm so delighted to know everything's fine. I can't wait to see you both in person again. You said a lot happened so I bet you're struggling to remember it all on the spot. I bet it was so overwhelming for you! I hope you'll be happy to travel back again this afternoon. This time, hopefully we'll be able to interact more often so I could perhaps give Daisy and the others some live updates with notes I'll be writing on your phone. Remember, when you go back next, try to get hold of Toadsworth so he can power up your device. I bet it's on very low charge. Oh, one more thing. Where are you in terms of location in the Mushroom Kingdom? I'm assuming you're back in the chambers." One concerning thing that Rynmar couldn't lie about was that his portal device was almost fully charged thanks to Duncan powering that up again with his own magic. Ellis had a look at it when Peach mentioned it and noticed that herself. With Ellis tempted to speak for him again in case he was suffering from stuttering and anxiety again, Rynmar held her back, confident in himself to speak this time.

"Ah, actually. There is actually one bad thing that happened last night." He spoke in a far more clear tone of voice, reassuring Ellis.

"Go on…" Peach's voice changed too, but Rynmar hoped that would soon be changed back to normal.

"After everything that happened last night, instead of taking me back to the castle and to the chambers… the Toad Brigade Captain, is he called Tranko?" He asked to confirm Peach's engagement.

"Yes, Tranko."

"Right, so Tranko decided instead of taking me back to the castle, he took me and only me in his van and started driving out of the city. Apparently he already knows about the portal devices, which surprised me." He exaggerated his tone changes in his speech, trying to sound very surprised. He also heard Peach in the background, relaying back the surprised feeling to indirectly give him a confirming sense of agreement. "What he ended up doing was he drove me out to a place that was really… uh… not near anything. It was like a place near a forest and he basically said to me 'get out because you're done', like a… 'Don't come back' sort of speech. He said that you'd be unhappy with me if I returned. Now, I'm just telling you what I was told. As a human who was invited here only by your permission, I felt like I shouldn't argue with him and just accept his orders." By this point, Rynmar was smiling to Ellis, confident in saying this to Peach. Ellis decided to go on board with it, regardless if it was immoral in what he said or not. She just nodded to him, happy to see him with his confidence back

"Well… That's very strange for Tranko to behave like that. I will definitely have to have a word with him about that, and I'll have to get Daisy informed about this too somehow. The problem is I'd have to be there to tell him off about his actions."

"Yeah it felt a little bit cruel because it was almost like he told me to pack my bags and fuck off. Your work here is done sort of. I didn't see Daisy or Luigi much after we made the arrest. I don't think they are happy with me being there."

"That is really unfortunate to be honest with you Ryn." Peach's voice sounded noticeably sympathetic. "I can't exactly tell you to tell them that I told you to say what I want you to say because if they're in that bad of a mood about you, they're not going to believe you." She sat in a chair in the living room next to the house phone thinking of what she could do whilst trapped on Earth in terms of communicating with Daisy and the Toad Brigade. "Did you see Mario at all after your mission there that night?" Both Rynmar's and Ellis' eyes widened, unsure what to say.

"I think Mario was a bit busy afterwards." Rynmar replied anxiously. "Something to do with the Toads I think." He improvised.

"I hope he believes in you, considering the job went well, right? We'll soon get Duncan and Tobias back for you two and everything will be fine. I think when you do come home and we meet each other this afternoon, we'll probably use some time trying to get you back to somewhere recognisable. If you're lost, then you'll have to somehow document to us what the place you're at looks like. I should be able to help you navigate back to the city and then the castle." When listening to Peach just then, Rynmar started thinking of his phone, using the camera to record videos and take pictures of his surroundings, then he could use the notes app on his phone to write more things down. The question now for him was whether assisting Peach in this way would lead her closer to finding out the truth about Mario, which he wanted to avoid dearly. What also felt tough for him to think about was if he did end up meeting up with Daisy and Luigi. Peach will think that they're not that cross with him, but maybe they are deeply enraged with him, partially blaming him for their loss of Mario.

"Will it not be dangerous though?" Rynmar wondered. "A young human on his own trying to get through to the castle?"

"We'll figure out something later. I'm sure there's a way to go about this." She remained blindly optimistic, worrying both Rynmar and Ellis, with the latter being more annoyed about the lack of things she could do to help in the meantime. Everything she felt that she could do, Peach could do better. The only thing she felt that she had over Peach was the truth and an assist to Rynmar in bending the so-called outcome believed by Peach to work in both hers and Rynmar's favour. What she cared about the most was seeing Duncan and Tobias back, then it would be the chance to actually get to the Mushroom Kingdom, just once or twice, and then… would she actually consider genuinely helping Peach further.

"Sounds good."

"We have to go now. See you in maybe… three hours or less." Ellis spoke over Rynmar, wanting to end the call abruptly.

"Sure! No problem. Thank you and goodbye!"

"Bye!" The two both said politely as Ellis took the phone back and hanged up the call. She looked straight back to Rynmar, feeling really awkward. "I've now got a twenty or thirty-something year old woman in my house that I can't get rid of, and now we've got to lie to her about her fiancé." She sighed. "You know I was thinking about it, you could go back there and start to take pictures of what you see. That would at least help her with trying to find out where you are and how to get back you to the castle. What to do at the castle is another problem though."

Rynmar agreed with her, coming up with a brilliant idea soon after. "Give me back your phone and I can hop there for a few minutes to take some pictures of the place. That would at least make you believe it fully, right?" He insisted, offering his palm out to take Ellis' phone whilst preparing his portal device. I shouldn't be any more than five minutes."

"I hope I don't kick myself for putting this much faith in you to deliver what you say you'll do. You better not disappear."

"I promise." Rynmar smiled, taking Ellis' phone. "I'll be brief." He stood on top of the log and looked around to see if there was anybody nearby. They were so far away from other students in the lunch break as nobody else really went this way, and to go here wasn't actually allowed under normal school rules.

"Go hide over there." Ellis pointed to a relatively open area at the back of the reserve, almost next to a tree that had branches that went as high as the school's front hedge fence. She watched Rynmar but also kept guard in case there were oncoming voices. Within a matter of seconds, the boy configured the portal device and started to disappear. Now alone, Ellis awkwardly sat on the log and waited, without anything else to do.

IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM, SOMEWHERE…

Rynmar reappeared in the same woodland area as before. It was entirely empty but this time it was a lot brighter than before as it was only around eight or nine in the morning. Knowing what he was here for, he got out Ellis' phone from his pocket and started to take pictures of all directions from where he was standing. Most of what he saw was natural, resembling a normal forest on Earth. That was until he noticed something that would never exist on Earth. Very close to where he arrived upon teleporting back was a clearing in the forest; an area in the woods where the autumn sunlight shined through the clouds and lit up the ground. However, right in the very centre of the clearing and far above the ground were two objects with sharp shadows on the ground. There was a brick block and an obsolete question block that had been punched what could have been years or even decades ago. Only those two remained in the clearing, and they had too been left untouched for what could be years or decades. Rynmar took pictures of the two blocks in the air and declared that they were completely unreachable. He thought perhaps in the past there were other brick blocks much lower down that people could jump on to, but they must have been punched, broken, or ground-pounded on in the past making the remaining ones inaccessible. The last thing Rynmar decided to do was to record himself.

"Hello." He said to the phone as he was live. "As you can see, the sun in the sky is not quite directly above me. I think it's around eight in the morning here, maybe nine. I'm not a hundred percent sure. The grass is smooth and long, and the plants look a little bit… fictional." He then presented the phone's camera to the blocks. "Here's the first evidence of something unrealistic. Flying blocks." He moved around the clearing with the phone, keeping the camera pointed at the blocks above the ground. "As you can see… I'm going all the way around them, proving that at all sides they are not attached to anything. They are simply freely flying stably above ground." He lowered the camera and ended the video, keeping it saved on the phone. Rynmar then decided to leave the clearing as an open place could still be somewhere other people could go to. Somewhere near it would be a place isolate enough to teleport away without being seen by anyone, if there were anyone nearby.

…

Ellis spent the time without Rynmar lying down on the log and reading through her notes made in some classes today. Rynmar's reappearance in the reserve area came to her with a bit of a shock, almost like she forgot that he had gone. The place he departed from started to glow again and eventually he reappeared, with the glow fading away.

"You're going to love what I made." He returned the phone back to Ellis. She went straight to looking at her recent camera roll, seeing all of the pictures taken by Rynmar in his current location in the other world. There were several pictures, including the ones of the grass, the plants and the blocks, as well as the video of him recording the blocks from all angles.

"Well there's definitely magic in that world." She smiled, overwhelmed at what she was looking at.

"That's nothing as well. That's just… background shit." Rynmar walked over to his school bag and picked it up to wear it. "I need to get some food now. I guess we'll meet each other at the end of the school day as well?" The two didn't share class for the last lesson of the day.

"The school gate is fine." Ellis mentioned. "We can meet up there and walk through the park to my bus stop. It might be a bit busy at the school gates but not that many people go through the park to head home." Rynmar nodded in agreement, still worrying in his head about a few other things.

"Do you think that people in our year will think we're a couple walking together a lot nowadays?" He hesitated to bring it up to Ellis, stuttering a few times in his speech.

"I don't care." She rolled up her sleeves and smiled. "If anyone wants to joke about it, it means nothing to me. We've got more important things to worry about. Anyways, I think you should get yourself some food and I'll see you later." She picked up her bag and started walking out of the woodland reserve. Rynmar wasn't ready to leave yet. He sat down on the log instead and waved her away. She had other things to do and other friends to see. All he had to do was grab food and there was still plenty of time to do that. He didn't even care if he was going to be late for his last class.

4:00PM

A few turns of the head from other students in his school year, but nobody ever confronted Rynmar about spending a lot of time with Ellis. It was worse for her though. Her chavy social circle that she hanged out with started asking more questions about him to her but she decided to ignore most of it, stating it was just a friendship and nothing else. The journey home was simple: walk out of the school and go through the park next to it, followed by a bus journey and then a small walk the rest of the way home. Unfortunately for Rynmar, it was mostly out of the way of his way home.

Peach was in the living room of the house watching television at the time the others reached the front drive. Nearly an hour ago she had received an email from Ellis, telling her that school had finished, to which she acknowledged and replied back. Now, upon seeing the two walking down the road to the house through the front window, she quickly got up and waited by the door to open and let them in.

"Oh, hello." Ellis was mid-conversation with Rynmar until she noticed her front door opening before she got to it. Peach was on the other side, waving to both of them.

"Why hello to you two too!" Peach waved and smiled with delight. "How wonderful it is to see you two after a long and busy day!" She stood out of the way to let them both in.

"Yeah, hard to believe that it's what we have to do five days a week as students." Ellis joked, walking inside and looking amazed at what she was seeing before her. "You… cleaned up the place a bit." Not even mad at her, she was thankful that Peach had very little to do in the house. Everywhere was spotless. The kitchen area looked completely cleaned up as well as the front room looking spotless. Rynmar was anxious arriving into the house. He took off his shoes and left them near the front door, unsure what to do now that Peach was around him.

"I'm sure you two would love to relax now. I don't suppose either of you two are going to be able to help me out here. I know that Daisy knows about my absence I'm sure. There's one other person I need you to inform about my absence." She beckoned Rynmar over and got him to sit on one of the chairs in the living room. "That aside, how was your day? I bet you're very tired, Rynmar." He grinned and first looked at Ellis, feeling nervous to talk to Peach.

"Am I allowed to lie down on the sofa?" He asked Ellis, to which she nodded back as she was off to the kitchen to get herself and Rynmar some water. Peach had already got herself some water earlier. "And yeah, I'm in a bit of a sticky situation… Ellis? Could I charge my phone here actually? We should show Peach the images so she knows whereabouts I am in the lands." She was still in the kitchen but after some time, Peach went to assist her with the cups of water. While Peach was doing that, Ellis went to the phone charger and brought it over to Rynmar on the sofa.

"Here." She tossed it to him and pointed to the nearby plug socket. Peach walked over and got close to the boy as he received her phone as well as the charger for his own. "You can show her the pictures as well." Ellis said whilst Peach gave him his water.

"Pictures?" Peach wondered.

"I made a little trip over to the other world and took some pictures on her phone. I still got some charge, but hopefully this could help you figure out whereabouts I am." He handed the phone over to Peach and the two sat together, looking closely at the phone while Peach swiped through the pictures. She saw the grass, as well as the open clearing with the two floating blocks in the middle.

"It looks… north somewhere. Do you remember where you were in the car? There's a road nearby, right?" Rynmar nodded.

"Yeah. I remember heading off across the road so I think I remember which direction is going back into the city. Is it wise for me to head that way?" He hoped for a quick answer from Peach, but she sighed and was unsure what to say. Ellis returned with her drink and sat on a nearby chair, lowering the volume on the television to pay closer attention to the two across the room.

"You're really far from the castle. The castle's in one of the southernmost parts of the Capital, and to be even further than the northernmost part is quite concerning. It's going to take you a lot of time to get back." She leaned back and slouched on the sofa, annoyed at the situation. "Why did Tranko do this to you? I'm a little concerned because if you did the right thing then I couldn't see why he would try to send you away."

"I did nothing wrong." Rynmar butted in exhaling a few times, surprising Peach. "They made an arrest. They found the lead. At the end, we were all told to leave the place because it was… it was a brothel and that alone was disgusting." He was hesitating in his mind, unsure what pieces to include and what to leave out.

"Wait a minute." Peach leaned up and grabbed the other two's eye focus. "My own phone." She felt her clothes and searched her pockets, feeling her phone still inside it. Whether it had charge was another question. "How could I charge this if there's none left?" She got out her phone and tried to turn it on. Nothing seemed to work. Rynmar and Ellis leaned in to examine the phone, noticing it was an entirely different make to anything that they had seen before. The shape of it looked normal, but the charging port looked completely different. It looked nothing like any sort of USB. Both of them shrugged, but with Rynmar's portal device in her far peripheral vision, she turned to him. "When you next go back, you need to take this with you. Find a way to charge it, ask around, do anything that you can. You need to do this for me because I need you to make the calls for me." She handed the phone over to him, ensuring that it went straight into one of his safe pockets. "You could call Mario or Luigi or any of my saved officials. They'll be able to pick you up from wherever you are in the Kingdom and you can explain everything to them. We will need proof of this as well."

"Get a picture of you two together." Ellis realised. "Is your phone on yet, Ryn?" She stood up in the middle of the living room and started at the two sitting together. She smiled, confident in her idea. "Maybe we could get a video of you two together to show that everything is okay and you're being cared for well." Rynmar went to check on his phone being charged, soon ready to be turned on and usable, despite it going to be on a very low percent.

"I have another contact you need to call, and this one is a very important one. I just realised." Peach looked back to Rynmar. "This one will be able to help me out the most. I'm sure of it. It's another person like you who has spent a lot of time in both worlds. His name is Muji. All you need to do is tell him that I'm stuck here. He'll know what to do."

"Stay there on the sofa." Ellis grabbed Rynmar's phone while it was on and on low charge and took a photo of the two sitting together. "Smile." She wanted to take a second one with the two focused. "Peach, would you be able to make a video of you and Rynmar together just telling him that everything's okay? I'm going to start recording you now." She pressed play.

"Oh, okay." Peach giggled. "Hello everyone. I'm doing just fine here. I may be a bit stuck but I'm being well-looked after by these two here. Rynmar to my left, and Ellis… well, she's recording the video. Say hi Ellis! Anyways, Rynmar to my left here is a sweet and kind-hearted assistant of mine in this land. He's been trained well and has been given access to a portal device, which is why he's able to act as my messenger for now. Please understand that everything he says is true and genuine, and that his intentions are under my wishes. Please treat him well and with respect. Thank you." And with that last part, Ellis ended the video recording, saving it to Rynmar's phone.

"That should do." She said, putting the phone back on charge.

"It seems like you're tasking me with doing a lot again, but… I suppose it is my duty now." He made Ellis look away, trying not to laugh at him. Peach blushed at him, wanting to give him a big hug for his efforts. "Before I go, I should probably let my parents know that I'm here and I will be home later. I haven't spoken to them since this morning before I left to school and they probably don't know that my phone was dead for the entire time." Peach watched Rynmar fixated to his phone whilst texting his parents. After he was finished sending them a message, he fell back onto the sofa, struggling to keep his eyes open. "I'm so tired." He groaned. "My phone needs to be charged a little more."

"When it's ready, I need you to do this to me. You can sleep afterwards." Peach patted him on the leg, excited as much as he was tired. "You don't have to do much for me today. All you need to do is charge my phone, then call the others and return back to the castle. Everything will be fine for now once you do those things."

"That's fine." Rynmar lied back down on the sofa, closing his eyes and curling himself up into a sleeping position, his legs resting against Peach. "Give me half an hour. Let the phone charge."

"Right that sounds good to me. I'm going upstairs to do some homework. Peach, watch over him and make sure he teleports in a safe place. I don't want him getting stuck in a wall or morphing into the television or something." Peach laughed, waving Ellis goodbye as she took her schoolbag upstairs.

"I'll watch over him. Don't worry." She smiled. She looked back at Rynmar, in awe of how cute he looked to her sleeping next to her. All she could do now was watch the television again for another thirty minutes. It seemed like there was some sort of quiz show on the current channel.

…

"Alright, fine." Peach was fixed on watching TV until she heard Rynmar stretching and getting up from the sofa. He yawned and looked towards the back of the house, waiting for his vision to sort itself out after getting up so quickly. "What do you want me to do again?" He went to his phone first and unplugged it from the charger.

"Get back to the castle, charge up my phone, call Muji." Peach replied, following him through the kitchen and towards the back door to Ellis' garden. "If you forgot anything in particular, don't hesitate to come back. Otherwise, you could always write the things down."

"I think I remember most of the stuff now, anyway." He said back to her.

"Try to be back before seven if you're going to be long." As the two walked out into the garden, they heard the window directly above open and Ellis call out from it. "My Mum's probably getting home around then." Rynmar gave her back a thumbs-up before readying his portal device, but Peach felt concerned about herself over his.

"What's going to happen to me when your mum gets home?" Peach called up to Ellis, who was still looking down on them out the window.

"I don't know yet. Maybe you could… take my phone and go for a walk somewhere and I could email you again when it's convenient to come back. We'll see when Rynmar gets back." She watched from above.

"I could walk him home." Peach wondered, with the two seemingly agreeing on that. As for Rynmar now, he was ready to port back to the Mushroom Kingdom, signalling to Peach that he was ready. With this all sorted for Ellis, she shut her window and went back to her schoolwork.

"I'll follow the road back and ask around for help." Rynmar whispered to Peach, making sure there was no noise from other houses nearby. "Maybe I could get some assistance from a Toad Brigade or something."

"Great plan. Remember the video on your phone. It'll work like a charm." Peach stood back and waved him a goodbye as he now readied up his portal device. Once again, Rynmar would be making another trip to the Mushroom Kingdom…

March 16, Noon

Somewhere northwest of Mushroom City

Nobody was in sight. Only the road was a sign of a path to civilisation. Everywhere around him in the edge of the forest was the same, and everything he remembered from the night before looked the same. Now it was the early afternoon, and going left to follow the road back to the nearest town was the way for him to go…

He arrived in Nikoda: a settlement town a few kilometres away from Webcapstow. These parts were officially out of the capital, but were connected by some underground train lines. The streets were busy, mainly occupied by Toads, and everyone's minds were focusing on themselves. Hardly anybody paid any attention to the young human showing up. Rynmar's instincts had two objectives: find a train station or means of transport to quickly get back to the castle, and find someone who could reach out to a place that could charge phones from this land. Chances are it would not be free, and having no coins or other currency at hand gave him a little bit of anxiety. Having to interact with strangers was hard enough for him; interacting with an entirely different species – on his own – was something entirely new to him.

Eventually, he found a patrol group of Toad Brigade soldiers in the distance, positioned on the opposite side of a large road intersection. They had their eyes in all directions, as if they were on the lookout for someone. To their assumption, if they were informed by Tranko that Rynmar was sent back to Earth, then there would be no reason they would be specifically looking for him. While standing on the other side of the road, Rynmar simply stared at them until one of them looked back his way. One did, and when they did, Rynmar started to wave, trying to grab their attention. The Toad Brigade soldier became startled, informing the others and arming themselves. They proceeded with caution along the crossings, passing through the crowds and hurrying themselves over to him, to which again, Rynmar stood and watched.

"Hi." He waved at the soldiers as they surrounded him.

"Sir, please do not move or pull out any weapons. We have you surrounded." One of the Toad Brigade soldiers tried to grab hold of his arms, confusing the teenager.

"Good. I have a… I've got a message from Queen Peach and I need to present it to anyone in the government with power." The Brigade got closer to him, scaring the nearby crowd and causing them to disperse. They pointed their guns right up to Rynmar as he was pulling out his phone, his other arm up high in the air.

"Don't shoot!" He cowered slightly, holding both arms in the air. "My phone in my hand. It contains a special message from Peach. Allow me to show it to you. You see… I'm not the type of human you're looking for, assuming you're still looking for those older boys." The head Toad Brigade operative lowered his weapon and walked right up to Rynmar, looking at his phone as he was preparing the video. "Before I show you this video, I must also present to you this…" He pulled out another phone. "This is Peach's phone. She gave it to me for special use, and it is out of charge. I need to find a place to charge it as I need to make some calls to certain people on her behalf.

"Give me your phone." The Brigade operative demanded. "I must be proven of this video you claim to have." Rynmar handed the phone over to the Toad with the video up and ready to play. This operative and a few other soldiers gathered around to watch the video as it played on the phone, showing them all that Peach was looking alive, well and healthy, and sitting next to Rynmar in the video.

"That's me and her, you see." Rynmar explained. "We're trying to find the teenager Duncan as he is the person who holds the gateway key between the worlds. If I can get this phone of Peach's to call someone regarding this, then we'll be able to bring her back-."

"We're not supposed to be discussing matters like this." The Toad Brigade operative interrupted Rynmar. "We hear your word and will get you back to the castle. Do not mention more of this matter however, for the good of the people." The Toads grabbed Rynmar and took him away, clearing an area in the road to get back to the Brigade police cars. Before going into one of the backseats of a police car, the Toad Brigade operative pulled Rynmar over and whispered into his ear. "It's forbidden to talk about the other world in public, but we understand the situation." Rynmar nodded back and happily went inside of the police car now, both phones in his possession. His final request to the Toad Brigade soldiers was to go to wherever Toadsworth was. Somebody high in government authority but not influenced by yesterday's disaster. To Rynmar's surprise, he didn't get the impression that these Toads knew about what happened to Mario yet. Still, it was best to keep that a secret for now. If they weren't told by now, then they weren't told for a reason.

The journey back took longer than he thought at first, as Toadsworth's location was even further away than Peach's castle. He was one of the many that moved away from the capital as a result of departing after the events of Rainbow Road. The Toad Brigade sector that drove Rynmar today informed the Toad in advance that he would be expecting a human visitor and secret ally of Peach. The journey went mostly around the eastern side of the city, skipping the city centre and the castle area entirely, heading all the way south to Rivuba, on the southern side of Toad Lake.

At this point, it was nearly one in the afternoon and only one police car travelled down all this way to the much quieter and peaceful town. Rynmar checked the time, hoping not to stay too long here today. At least seeing the car park on the Toad spell-caster's road gave him some relief. Now he could actually do what he was tasked to do. The Toad Brigade operative opened the car door for him, allowing him to get out and walk with him all the way to the new residence. It was another Mushroom cap house, just like how he remembered them in the cartoons when he was younger. The operative led the way and another Brigade soldier followed him all the way to the door, knocking and waiting patiently. After a few more seconds, Toadsworth had opened the door, seeing everyone outside.

"Deputy Tosad."

"Toadsworth." The operative and the other soldier bowed down to the honourable Toad hero they saw at the door. "We have a human here who has rightfully claimed that he's in contact with Peach. He has proven this to us and has brought two phones with him. One of which is his own, the other… the Queen's. He told us that he has good intentions to help bring Peach back to the Kingdom following yesterday's gateway incident. His first request was to see you." Toadsworth looked at Rynmar, who gave him an awkward wave. Toadsworth wasn't looking very pleasant. He was very pale, and looked very disappointed with Rynmar. He wasn't sure if he had heard the news about Mario, or maybe it was still about Toadbert.

"How did he prove this to you?" Instead of speaking to Rynmar, he looked back at Tosad, the Toad Brigade operative.

"There was a video on his phone. It had the Queen speaking a message to us, and he was in it too. She spoke good words of him, so I would take her word for it if I were you." He remained silent for a bit, confusing Rynmar. His behaviour was nothing like what he expected the Toad magician to be like.

"Show me this video." He demanded. "I'll believe it when I see it." Rynmar offered to hand over his phone again to Tosad and Toadsworth once he had brought it up on his phone.

"I have Peach's phone here too, but it is out of charge." He handed both phones over to Toadsworth. With Peach's he got out his wand and zapped it, charging it up to full battery capacity in an instant. He handed it straight back to Rynmar.

"You can give that back to her when you head back with that thing on your sleeve." He said monotonously as he started to watch the video. His eyes were locked onto the screen, but his expression was still unconvincing. "Does she know?" He looked at him in the eyes.

"Does she know what?" Rynmar was slightly confused.

"Does she know?" After a few seconds, he realised what he was referring to.

"No." He kept watching the video, seemingly convinced of the fact that it was genuine. He handed back the phone and invited him inside to his house, assured that Rynmar would do no harm to him.

"Just him." He said to the Toad Brigade soldiers. "Forgive me officers for my mood today. I know what this kid wants, and I know how to deal with him. In fact… relieve him from your possession. I'll handle this."

"Are you sure, senior Toadsworth?" Tosad looked back at Rynmar, not entirely convinced of his safety.

"We'll stay in touch." Toadsworth replied monotonously again, dismissing the officers. "Come inside, boy." He gave a last nod to them before seeing them away. Rynmar slowly walked into the house, anxious now being left alone with the Toad magician. Before Toadsworth closed the door, Rynmar stepped inside and got a glimpse of the new home. Everything was so polished and clean; the inside looking nothing like the outside but still very fashionable to the typical old Mushroom standard. Decorations everywhere, pictures hanging on the walls, ornaments, jewels, everything a rich Toad would possess. "Go to the table." Toadsworth ordered after closing the door.

Rynmar walked in silence across the room, sitting on the nearest chair and waiting for the Toad to be ready with him. He remained waiting by the door, making sure that the Toad Brigade officers had departed from the area.

"I must say, mister Toadsworth… this is a very beautiful house. It's certainly very different to Toad Town." He watched the Toad walking over to the table, still feeling a little bit anxious.

"I've been told that you were cast away on orders of Luigi and Daisy… yet it seems like Peach is still convinced of your supposed prowess to be of assistance." He was now sounding like he was going to interrogate and question Rynmar with a raised voice and a feeling of threat. Unsure if this was true, Rynmar remained resilient. "Tell me boy, what did you see? Did you see the greatest hero fall before you and you were unable to assist him? Tell me that of prowess." Rynmar became nervous. The Toad he believed to be full of wisdom and a source of inspiration, breaking down on the outside and threatening him. He slammed his fists on the table from the opposite side, staring right into the teenager's eyes.

"Toadsworth, you have to understand… I had no idea what I was getting into as soon as I arrived here on orders of Peach. Besides, I was doing exactly what I was tasked to do. Mario went off on his own-."

"Don't tell me that!" Toadsworth shouted back at him, interrupting him. His face becoming just as worried as Rynmar's was. "There's no way that could be true! Mario would never…"

"I didn't even know that he died there. It was only when the Toad Brigade Captain told me about it when he sent me away. Are you sure that he's dead?"

"I wish it wasn't the case." Toadsworth slammed the table again, pointing his wand at Rynmar. "The first day you show up and the worst is about to break out in these lands… don't you think that's a bit more than just a coincidence? I think not!"

Rynmar backed away from the chair, walking back to the wall of the room. "Put the wand down. I'm here to help you. I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't. Remember, Peach… your Queen… needs help to get back here."

"How do you think she's going to feel when she finds out that you were responsible for the death of Mario? Even if it wasn't the case, you'd never be able to convince Peach and Luigi."

Rynmar now began to break down. His face started to turn red, with tears breaking free from behind his eyelids. Toadsworth, still with his wand pointed at him, started to realise a bit of sincerity in the boy's words. He didn't see him like the rest of the older humans. This teenager truly cared, and he's only frightened him with threatening to harm him with magic. Toadsworth dropped the wand onto the table, guilt filling his mind.

"I know nothing about here." Rynmar cried. "You talk to me like I should know everything. I just wanted to help Peach get back home." He was covering his face, lowered all the way down to the floor in panic. Toadsworth's body began to shake looking at the boy. Few memories of dark times flashing before his eyes. Suffering, pain, even torture from others worried his mind even more. Two broken people resided in this residence, with one of them only having it forced on to him without choice… and he is only fifteen years old.

"I was informed that the necklace portal has closed down. She's trapped somewhere on the other side of there?" Toadsworth asked, slowly trying to reason with the boy to assure him that he wasn't going to hurt him.

"Peach told me that… that when I get her phone charged, that I'm to make a phone call to Muji: one of her contacts. She said she would help her in a case like this." He tried to wipe the tears off of his face and clean himself up. Opening his eyes and seeing that Toadsworth no longer intended to be threatening, he got up and took the phone back out of his pocket.

"Try giving him a call then." Toadsworth suggested. "He could perhaps help you then." He himself would soon be occupied again, for another person was due to show up to his house today: a Toad friend who also moved out of the Toad Town with him. Of all those with high authority and affiliation with Peach, Toadsworth was the only Toad who has yet been informed about Mario's passing. Toadette, the Toad he could see through one of the front windows and coming into his front garden, did not yet know. As she and Toad have been slightly disconnected with the government in recent days, they don't actually know about Peach's disappearance yet. For now, Rynmar walked into a different, quieter room to call the contact. Toadsworth remained alert, waiting for Toadette at the door but made no indication to her that he had someone else in the house.

"Hello?" Muji's voice could be heard from the other end.

"Hi… This isn't Peach, I'm sorry, it's a friend… from… Earth?" He wasn't exactly sure what to say but thinking about the situation, he could only hope that this contact with a rather unique name to him would have some knowledge about the other world. "She's stuck on Earth. The portal to England has been closed and I'm the only person with a registered portal device that works for me." He heard silence for a few seconds, wondering if this was a sham or not, but eventually he heard a response.

"Alright… What's your name then?" He felt a bit more optimistic now.

"Rynmar."

"OK Rynmar. You're saying you've got a portal device, I'm guessing one that Peach lent to you?"

"Yeah."

"So you're trusted with one then. I take it you're able to still use it? So that you can hop between worlds?"

"Yep."

"Do you have an Earth phone in your possession? If not, you will need one when you go back there. If you can reach out to Peach when you go back to Earth, I will need you or her to make a phone call to a number registered there." Rynmar agreed to the order and allowed Muji to speak out the phone number. It was one registered to the UK, so thankfully there wasn't any fuss about international calling. "Good. The person on the other end of this phone is another old friend of Peach's. His name is Ledro, and he will be able to sort out everything so that she can get safe passage back via the main pipe portal."

"That's good. So glad to hear it. Thank you." Rynmar smiled.

"I wish her the best in her health. By the way, if you have any details about the closed portals, please let me know. I am happy to assist on finding a way to re-open them again. I'm going to assume the gem has gone missing."

"Duncan has it."

"Oh…" What followed felt like an eternity of silence. "Do you know whereabouts he might be right now?"

"No idea. I think he's in this world though." Rynmar replied.

"Fair enough. I'll try and get a hold of him within the coming days. Perhaps I might be able to get it from him without doing much to him. I can tell in these times I prioritises privacy."

"All we know is he was last seen leaving the capital. No idea where he's going though."

"Alright." Muji sighed. "We'll do our best to get Peach back first. Have a swift journey back to Earth."

"Thank you." Rynmar said his goodbyes over the phone and hanged up, returning back to the main rooms of Toadsworth's house a few seconds later. He found Toadsworth and Toadette in his kitchen having hot drinks together, conversing on something he knew or heard nothing about. He stopped immediately upon realising that the two noticed he was still there.

"Oh…" Toadette grinned and looked back at Toadsworth. "Did I pick a bad time? Who is this human?" She was briefly looking full of joy and happiness, but turning back to him, her expression worsened. She found the presence of a human inside of a Toad's house to be rather unpleasant, especially since it's a stranger to her.

"No, it's fine." Toadsworth replied to her then checked on the teenager. "Are you finished? The door's that way." He redirected him. "I'm sorry for this. He's… a friend of Peach and just needed help with some things… but he's seeing his way out now."

"He better be." Rynmar overheard Toadette bickering about him as he reached the door. "Too many immigrant humans here recently, and they're all boys too. No wonder we're all leaving the capital. Don't tell me we've got to leave here too!"

"Relax. It's not like that at all." Toadsworth tried to calm her down. "I know he's not one of us, but this one has true genuine intentions." Instead of overstaying his welcome, Rynmar finally left the house, choosing not to listen to the rest of whatever Toadette had against him. Heading outside again gave him a hit of blushing cool wind. The sky was cloudy and the day was very bright, and also considerably warmer than back home. He found it very nice out here, but it was now time to find somewhere out of sight to disappear from. The houses in this neighbourhood were very sparse with a lot of space in between; any space behind some bushes seemed viable enough for him to warp. It was a relief enough to be away from Toadsworth with how crooked he was with him just recently. Hopefully it would all change once he goes down as the human who brought Peach home…

6:30PM – UK Time

Ellis was still in her bedroom. Her mother had not yet returned home from work in the city. Peach was in the front room reading through a magazine from the sofa when she noticed the shadow of Rynmar going through the kitchen as he approached the back door. She looked up and put the magazine down, rushing towards him as he came through the door.

"He's back." Peach first said quietly to herself, then she called up to Ellis a lot louder for the second time. Rynmar looked clean, and Peach was delighted to see him still in good condition. "How did it go?"

"I spoke to the Muji guy over the phone…" Rynmar replied, walking over to the front room to sit back down on the sofa. "He gave me a phone number that you need to call. He said everything you're going to need to get back will be given to you over the phone. I've just sent it now to Ellis in case you're calling it on there." The two watched as Ellis started walking down the stairs, stopping halfway down.

"Is everything sorted?" She asked in a rather disappointing tone. Rynmar nodded back to her, but was confused from her rather bothered mood.

"Everything OK?" He felt something else happened between his departure and arrival from the house garden.

"Yeah no… everything's fine." She nodded back rather awkwardly. "My mum's going to be here soon so I guess…"

"Yeah I know. I've got to head home too. I'll head to the bus stop and should… be fine."

As the sun was setting, the ground outside looked darker and the view outside from the front windows was much darker than on the other side. With the sky getting darker and thus making the front room darker without any lights on, Ellis reacted to a sudden change in the brightness of the room, noticing an external source outside lighting up the room.

"Oh shit, she's early." Ellis walked down and rushed to near the window.

"Oh, fuck." Rynmar gasped.

"Back door, Peach. Now!" She ordered Peach as she walked over to the door. "Hide outside somewhere. Don't make any noise!" Peach nodded and rushed to the back door.

"It'll be like you just invited me round." Rynmar mentioned to Ellis. "She doesn't say you can't have friends round, right?"

"Yeah, you're fine." Ellis opened up the front door. Her mum was in fact here, parking her car on the drive way. The white 2013 Honda Civic Type-R was more than enough for a single mother of one, but perhaps the money from all the other sufferings gave the household some money to spend on other things.

"Ah good." Ellis' mother was relieved to see her daughter at the front door waiting for her. "Help me bring all of these things in. I've got to take something else back to the big Sainsbury's near Cray anyways so I'm going to be another hour… Oh, hey there." She noticed Rynmar and gave him a wave for he was standing next to Ellis at the door.

Peach, still being in the back garden, was overhearing the three talking. With Ellis' phone in her possession, she was waiting until the conversation on the other side was finished before calling the number that Rynmar had texted to it.

"This is Rynmar mum. He's a friend of mine and also a friend of Duncan's. You remember the kid from school?"

"Oh yes, and the other one, Tobias? You must have all been really close. Poor boy, it's tough these things. Isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Here, you were heading off, right? You don't want to stay for dinner? Oh, well, it would take a while anyway. I understand. Where do you live? Maybe I could give you a lift home while I've still got to be out…" Peach re-opened the door and slowly crawled through the house, trying to hear everything better. "Crayford? Yeah easy! It's on the way. Ellis, you want to come or you going to put the shopping away?"

"Yeah I'll come as well. Sure." Peach's crawling position allowed her to see Ellis from all the way across the ground floor of the house. She and Rynmar were still at the front door.

"Here let's all take these in together then get back in the car after." Ellis' mother started bringing in the first batch of shopping bags. Seeing her footsteps enter the house, Peach quickly crawled back out into the garden, hiding behind the wall and beneath the kitchen windows. "What's the back door open for, were you two out in the garden?"

Peach froze. She couldn't even tilt her head slightly without making any noise. In her rightmost peripheral vision, she could see Ellis' mother sick her head outside as she was ready to close the door.

"It was very breezy and nice earlier." She overheard Ellis through the window as her mother closed the door.

"It's getting cold now though. Don't keep the door open, it might slam."

"Sorry about that."

"Is that everything?"

"Good."

"Let's get you home then." Some time passed and as the voices started to get quieter, Peach stood up and looked through the kitchen window, noticing everyone leave the house. She started to hear the voices more clearly again as they were outside. The sound of car doors closing also indicated to her that they were ready to leave the house and depart. Peach opened up the back door again from the outside, seeing that nobody was in the house. She slowly walked over to the front room and checked briefly through the window. The three were gone in the car, and Peach was seeing it reach the end of the road. She took Ellis' phone from her pocket and saw the text Rynmar sent to it on the lock screen. (Forwarded): Muji Number: [+44 …]

Peach dialled the number and waited for the response. At first, it sounded automated or like she was calling a help centre.

"Hello, Brazier Merchandise Support speaking, how can I help you today?" Peach was speechless. She quickly checked to see if the number from Rynmar's text matched the one she called. It was identical. The quaint-sounding female voice on the other end was a surprise to her. Not at all what she expected.

"Hi… It's… Peach… Peach Toadstool."

"Hello there Miss Toadstool, what can I assist you with today?" Something seemed terribly off about this call.

"Uhh…" She wasn't sure at first.

"Are you here for orders, returns, or referrals?"

"R-referrals?"

"May I have a code or name for the referral please?"

"Uh… Muji." It was all she could think of. Hopefully his name would provide some use for the other end of the call.

"Sorry could you say that again? I don't understand."

"Muji, Muji Kuti. He sent for me." The call went quiet for about ten seconds until the other end eventually responded.

"Please wait patiently while I redirect your call."

…

…

"Princess Peach, is that you?" Her eyes widened. This was a voice she recognised. It was a human voice and it was of an old friend that she remembered from years ago, but she had forgotten his name.

"Oh my goodness. Is that who I think it is? It's been so long, sorry." The name eventually came back into her mind. "Ledro, right?"

"How are you doing, Princess Peach? How goes life in the Mushroom Kingdom?" Any feeling of stress of panic that Peach had in her mind was completely erased. This familiar, friendly voice on the other end of the call made her feel completely safe and secure again.

"Ah, it's good. It's going good. I'm guessing this is what you get up to nowadays on Earth? I remember Muji told me something about you needing to go back home. Something about homesickness."

"Yeah pretty much. Hey, I'm sorry if it was a little complicated for you to be redirected here. Colleague of mine said that Muji was a reference and I'm like, why didn't she just say my name you know? I'm guessing Muji forgot to say that the name you're looking for is me, he-ha. Anyways… enough with the small-talk. I'm here to provide all you need through Muji's funds here to help you. You said things are going good in the Kingdom but you're calling up this number so something's gone wrong. What can I do for you?"

"Yeah umm…" Peach sighed. "The England portal's closed. Tom's portal. I think Duncan closed it, and he's… well, in Muhu Delfethal, and I'm… in England. I need to get back, and fast."

"I see…" Ledro acknowledged. "Closed portal, and I'm assuming no way of re-opening it from this side. What you're going to need then is a fast way to get back to Brooklyn as that's the only reliable portal back into the Kingdom. Here's what I am going to do and you're going to have to listen to me very closely."

"Alright." She said once Ledro paused.

"You're going to be booked for a private jet at London City airport. All details will be provided and sent to the number you called from so please do not lose the phone as everything confidential and important will be texted to you on there. Of all these important details, included in it will be a link to your electronic boarding pass. It acts as a ticket for your private jet. To these people, you are known by Ms. Reen, one of my trusted associates. The plane will go from London City L.C.Y to New York J.F.K and from there, there will be a taxi service for you, also under the name Ms. Reen. That taxi will take you back to Brooklyn, where I'm staying. From there once we've discussed payments I will personally take you back to the pipe at your discretion. Is everything clear, Princess Peach?" Pure delight. Everything Ledro said to her sounded perfect. It was the best way she could get home. A private jet, surely all for herself, hospitality from the airport as well. The only issue she had was she wasn't sure how to get to the London airport.

"All clear, yes." She seemed very happy to him. "Whereabouts is London City Airport however? How am I able to get there? I don't have a lot of ways I can travel around, and when is the flight?"

"You should have received the text by now with all of the important details. I will send you an exact location of the airport as well for you to get there. The flight is at around midday tomorrow. It can always depart sooner. Try and get there for 11 in the morning. You'll want to head to the private terminal, look for the plane's reference code and have your pass attached to the link scanned. The people there should be able to redirect you to the plane. By the way, when I mean 11 in the morning, I mean get to the terminal at 11 in the morning. Ideally, you'd want to arrive to the airport… maybe ten thirty, just because I'm assuming you're inexperienced with a lot of this Earth stuff."

"I need to find a way to get to the airport. It's actually not that far away for me, given I'm close to the England portal. The only problem is… it's across a river. I think I might need a train to get there. Money, I need Earth-money again, British Pounds. Loose change. Ugh."

"Unfortunately, Muji was unable to set up a direct bank account for you here when growing up so we're unable to sort out direct electronic funds."

"I may have some complications tonight, trying to get to the airport tomorrow morning if I can't go by train without money." Peach sighed, looking at how dark it was outside. "Eleven in the morning, it's going to take a couple of hours maybe if I have no idea where to go. What am I supposed to do?"

"…We could arrange to have you driven there. Stay on the line." Peach kept the phone close to her ear as the sound of Ledro's voice only turned quieter as he was further away from the phone. She knew that at this point he wasn't talking directly to her but to someone else instead. While listening in, she went on the maps app on Ellis' phone to search up the city airport. Directions to it were better than she thought. A drive, though at this time of night, would only take half an hour. "I'm going to need to make an arrangement for Ms. Reen to be taken to the city airport private terminal. Are we able to get someone to do that for us? A taxi?" She could also hear some indistinguishable murmuring in the background that must have been someone else's voice. "You still there? Where would you like this taxi to pick you up from? I need a house address."

"Alright. Uhh, say… 9:45?" Peach walked through the house and out the front door, looking at the house number. She also walked further down the street to identify the name of the road that Ellis lived on, giving Ledro the exact details. "It's in the southeast." Luckily, Ledro was able to look up the exact address."

"The journey should take no more than three quarters of an hour. We're going to arrange and pay for someone to pick you up at that time. This should give you more than enough time to get through everything and be on the private jet between 11 and 12."

"Alright, thank you." Peach began to tear up with emotions, sitting on the sofa and looking outside on the dark street after walking back inside and closing the door.

"Everything will have been paid for. You will not need a single penny in England or America on your journey. I hope this will help you get back to the Kingdom, and I'm more than happy to welcome you in Brooklyn should you desire to stay here for a bit." She couldn't think of what to say. After all this time dealing with kids from a school and struggles with the portal, she was finally able to get back home by tomorrow. The Mushroom Kingdom will be under her watch and protection again very soon.

"How much do you think this is going to cost me by the way?" She remembered a bit from earlier. "You said stuff about payments."

"We'll finalise it all, but we're probably looking at around a hundred, hundred and fifty thousand."

"Hundred and fifty thousand what?" Peach gasped.

"Pounds, dollars. Oh… that's about three or four coins. Let Muji know, he'll sort it out." She felt immediate relief upon realising the absurd currency exchange rates.

"That's fine then. You had me there for a moment."

"You should all be covered. Don't forget about the taxi."

"Thank you then Ledro, I will see you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow and have a safe flight."

"Thank you again." She hung up the phone and took a deep breath. Unknowing when roughly Ellis and her mother would return home, she wasn't sure whether to stay in the house or not. With the girl's phone in her possession, the only thing she can think of to do right now is to inform Rynmar.

His phone didn't pick up. Maybe he was chatting away with Ellis and her mum in the car or maybe he was dealing with his parents if he had already been dropped off by now. There was always later for Peach anyway, Ellis is bound to ask what happened while they were gone. She walked upstairs, and instead of going into Ellis' room, she went into her mother's room. It was as one would expect for a mother's bedroom; very clean and nicely decorated with cream and white wallpaper. She sat on the bed and looked out of the window, patiently waiting for the white car to return to the road. At least for now, she had a true reason to smile…

EOC: Another chapter down. At this point the rate of uploads is now considered random. Too much is going on to have concrete releasing times.

See you in the next one.