In which the curtain closes on Traverse Town...
Beyond anything else, aside from the claws ready to tear her and Sora to pieces and the teeth that looked as though they could gnaw through metal, there was a thick aura of poison, of discomfort laid like smoke billowing in the peak of a burning home, filling the lungs and silencing those who couldn't be rid of it forever. The best way to preface it was that there was darkness to it, worse than that the Nightmares always carried with them. Nevertheless, its massive figure left little harm in trying to shoot the Nemurin Beam at it; but even though there was no harm, there was also no effect, even as it took it straight to the face. Either way, it didn't seem to take kindly to that; roaring aloud and sending a chill through them, swiping and slashing the air and sending poor Morgana and Sheppy tumbling down to the ground, just as Neku had been.
"I don't think anything that guy makes could be purified, Nemu..." Sora confirmed her suspicions, gravely, his eyes clearly flickering in worry for Neku and their Spirit companions, who was still on the ground below the garden. "I'll deal with this guy for now, you check on Neku!" he said, just as the large creature moved for the attack.
"Right. You be careful...!" Nemurin agreed, her eyebrows slanted in unease and haste.
Hopping off the glass and sliding down it and back onto the ground of stone below, she did not have to look far for the boy, his spiked orange hair defining him even from a mile away. He laid flatly on the floor, and for a moment she felt her heart stop once again, only feeling it go again once she reached his side and she heard a quiet groan of pain. Sheppy and Morgana padded next to his side, the former nudging lightly at his spiked head and Morgana looking between him and the battle that had begun atop the roof. Offering her hand underneath her sleeve, Neku lifted his arm and grasped tight onto her hand, adapting rather quickly for someone who had been slammed into a wall at an unnatural speed.
"Thanks," Neku said, bluntly; aside from having the wind knocked out of him, he at least didn't seem too injured, at least on the offset.
"You alright...?" Nemurin asked.
"Yeah," he answered, just as simply. However, when he moved to rejoin Sora on the roof, his leg gave way with a sudden crack, sending him back to the floor again with a grunt. A cat-like Dream Eater padded close to his side, having hidden from view until now, it looked towards him with eyes wide and gold and almost fearful for his sake, despite the distance that their animalistic features had from that of humans.
"Stay down here, okay?" Nemurin requested, allowing her usually breezy voice to chime in again, despite her concerns. "This will take care of you," she added. With that, a cloud appeared from the air, carrying what looked like a sachet. Walking up to it, she took the cold cloth simmered ice into her palms as she rested it over his sprained leg. For what it was worth, her limited knowledge of nursing seemed to help, the pain seeming to ease.
"We'll take care of this in a sec~ aaa, these Nightmares are tiring, aren't they, Neku?" Nemurin remarked, turning her head towards him.
"Yeah, you can say that..." Neku replied, clearly having dealt with his fair share. "...Thanks again, Nemurin,"
Giving a smile, Nemurin hopped, and in one fell swoop, she had returned to the glass roof. Her face hardened once more as she registered what was happening now; the monster was thrashing its massive hands, once to the left, another to the right, Sora holding up his Keyblade in a block, his feet being pushed against the glass which continued to tremour dangerously beneath his feet. The beast turned swiftly around, Sora rolling underneath his arms, once, twice, thrice, as it tried to hit him over and over.
"Take this!" Sora shouted, just as he barely dodged another of the punches.
From nothing, three bright, floaty balloons appeared around the Nightmare, exploding abruptly upon impact, forcing it into a stumble. Howling aloud, it was about to pound its large fist down upon Sora's head in retaliation, only for it to feel a small figure patting along its back; two large sleeves grasped around its head, that of Nemurin's. Heaving aloud, she tugged it backwards, forcing it abruptly to the skylight's floor. A large crack broke across the surface of where it was pulled down, swiping at her - and scratching the side of her arm, but otherwise, nothing that couldn't heal within the blink of an eye. Taking advantage of its moment of distraction, Sora used his powers once again, a familiar light set aglow all over him as he leapt into the air, Keyblade high in his hands.
"Yah!" he yelled, bringing it down atop its head.
The monster grunted, swiping at the boy; and unfortunately hitting its mark, making him cry out in pain as he was sent forcefully to the wall, just barely hanging onto the edge. Nemurin glared and caught her breath, before sprinting along the splintering rooftop and leaping upwards - just as its face met her own, she raised her leg into a kick, followed by another, one thump, two thumps, three thumps! Slapping where she had jumped, she hissed slightly as she tumbled through the air, sliding across the shattering glass and reaching the edge of the roof, where Sora was struggling to pull himself up. Gasping for a moment, Nemurin extended her arm to him, his hand quickly finding her thin appendage as she tugged him upwards, now rolled flat on his stomach.
"Thanks, Nemu," Sora said, gratefully. "Huh...I've been saying that a lot,"
"It's fine...~" she assured with a wave of her unseeable hand, only for a completely un-unseeable shadow to rise up, swallowing their own and thus the amity that had formed between them for that moment. The Nightmare stood tall, heaving and livid far too close for comfort, before looking down at the glass that held their feet.
"It's gonna smash it, isn't it." Sora asked flatly.
"Yep..." Nemurin sighed, tiredly.
Only a second after they made this prediction, the Nightmare leapt up and smashed the fragile ground like clockwork; it gave way swiftly beneath their bodies, sending them screaming to the garden grounds below. Before it could make a whole new world of agony in their backs, Nemurin puffed up another small cloud above the spot she and Sora were going to land, letting them land at least somewhat delicately, even if with a start. Shards of glass split in pieces all through the air, embedding themselves into the grass, the dirt, even beheading some unfortunate flowers, and with that, the Nightmare descended with a rattling crash upon the ground as its solidity was lost. Huffing out, the Magical Girl stood up and landed on her feet, her dusted apparel and rustled appearance not seeming to diminish the spark in her friend's eyes.
"I've got an idea," Sora chimed in as he got to his feet, the two dodging throughout the wide green garden as the monster punched and swiped at them, hoping to crush them with one strong swing, though they were, fortunately, faster, and the Nightmare was fortunately not all that intelligent; it was a brute - like the giant lizard monster from dreams past as Nemurin thought about it - and the two of them knew it. Enough that Sora had pulled out a plan within only seconds.
"Okay, so!" Sora began to explain, rather hastily, ducking underneath one of the punches, and then rolling them both out of the range of its spinning move. "You know how you were able to grab the guy earlier?" he asked.
"Yeah?"
"Chuck it up into the air...and then I'll use Flowmotion to finish it!"
Nodding, Nemurin replied, "Right. And aah...I was wondering what that move was,"
Truthfully...asking had just slipped her mind, but it slipped away again as the next section of the battle came into fruition. Reaching the garden's dead end, that of a locked solid door, Nemurin gave a nod for Sora to go up ahead - quite literally - turning on her heels to face the Nightmare. With a confident little smirk, she dodged past its next few punches with a sleepy yawn, before roundhouse kicking its leg, sending it stumbling backwards again with a howl; it pounded a clenched fist up through the air, but she weaved past it like a dance of dreams, light as a feather touching the ground. Seeing another opening before her, she dived her body forward, namely her head, slamming it straight into the box-shaped torso. At the corner of her eye, she could see him - Sora leaping up from wall to wall, spinning his way up a light post.
Now.
Taking advantage of the creature's disorientation, Nemurin jumped into the air, her clouds floating wildly above her head like those on a gusty day; her hands reached downwards until she had a good grip of its fur in her palms - and there, she mustered all of the strength the Magical Girl Raising Project app had given her when she transformed into Nemurin for the first time. With a giant tug, she jumped again into the air, and then bent her body backwards, waiting until the enemy in her grasp was pointing upward, releasing just as it was in the perfect position to fly through the open gap in the skylight.
It was strange from afar, particularly for a not particularly-pleased Neku who had been pushed out of the action, to see something so huge darting through the air like a bullet. It was even stranger to see a silhouette half its size going even higher, pointing his blade downwards, distinguished by a glowing, pure light. His eyes flicked upwards as he watched the figure dive; his blade pointed straight for the Nightmare's head.
Letting out what could best be described as a battle cry, Sora readied his blade; slamming it straight down. Light erupted from the mark it made, the Nightmare shrieking in a strange hybrid of shrillness and depth as its body slowly disintegrated into shadow. Then, the shadow floated up, illuminated a bright light which rose into the dark sky, finally splintering into what looked like stardust, falling through the air as beautiful as snow. With that final move, Sora landed in a rain of remaining glass at the centre of the botanical garden, finally catching his breath. Looking left and right, a relieved grin made its way onto his face as he scanned the scene for his partner, the one who'd allowed for their dynamic finisher.
"That was amazing, Nemu!" Sora exclaimed as he ran over to the sleepy Magical Girl, taking her hands into his own, eyes glimmering with excitement. "I knew you were strong, but that was incredible!"
"You were too, you know. You were the one who took the guy out!" Nemurin responded, breathlessly. Tiredness filtered across her body as it always did, but there was an energy, like a rebooting system, a system that had been running on autopilot for a while. This was the sort of adventure she hadn't had in ages.
"Gotta say, that was quite the show." a blunt voice spoke up from above their heads, none other than Neku. Morgana, Sheppy, and the cat Dream Eater from earlier hurriedly followed him, the remnants of magic fresh off of them. She'd left Neku with them for a reason, after all, so he could heal up any wounds he'd picked up.
"It was his idea," Nemurin answered, gesturing to Sora.
Her friend laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Couldn't have done it without her," he gestured to her.
With that, the pair of them walked out of the garden and onto the walkways that decorated the left side, allowing them to see the final strains of light as they fell from the sky. Truthfully, there was a simple beauty that Nemurin struggled to take her eyes off of; up until her train of thought was brought to a stop.
"Riku!" Sora's voice called out.
Turning around, Nemurin was met with a peculiar sight; it was like a projection, physical enough to make out, but clearly not there, not anything you could touch or make contact with. It would explain why Riku, the boy from before (also in new clothes different from the ones she saw him in during their brief oceanic encounter), wasn't showing any reaction to the sight of Sora in front of him. What made it odder was that he wasn't alone - there stood a girl. She had long dark pink hair which, like seemingly everyone around here's seemed to, fell in spikes at the bottom, though it seemed more normal compared to Sora and Neku's hairdos. She also wore a pink crop-top, a dark yellow short skirt with a brownish-grey belt, matching boots, a large newsboy hat, and bundled in her right arm, a positively adorable black plushie of a cat, with black colourations and white lines for its eyes, nose, and paws. Sora gasped quietly as the girl suddenly ran ahead, taking Riku by surprise.
"Shiki!" Neku shouted out, reaching to the girl; but she walked right through him.
"Huh...?" Sora said aloud.
"That's your friend, right?" Nemurin wondered.
"Yeah...but...why can't he see me?" Sora questioned, eyes still set on Riku.
Before they could give chase, an unfamiliar voice spoke in calm, smooth tones; "Hold on, Sora, Nemurin,"
To their side appeared a golden, radiant sphere with spikes surrounding it; inside of its visage was what looked like a logo, showing a town of brown and blue buildings and bright decorations. Within a spark of light, and a sudden glow, a boy - this time, one who was actually there - appeared, smiling at them in a fashion neither could quite discern. His hair was wavy and thick, coloured platinum blonde, and jutting out into curls here and there. The boy's build was slender, emphasised by the dull blue dress-shirt he wore, along with dark grey trousers and sneakers. There was a certain aura to him; the types who knew a lot, the type of person who often had a lot behind their eyes that they never really showed to anyone.
"Joshua," Neku spoke up, flashes of recognition appearing in his eyes.
"Ah, Neku. How long the days without you have felt," Joshua replied, his smile not fading.
In another spark of light, the familiar face of Rhyme appeared before them, allowing her to release a breath she hadn't quite realised she was holding amidst the adrenaline. "Rhyme!" Nemurin said, the relief falling thick across her face.
"We're glad you're okay," Sora added, speaking the words that came to mind in Nemurin's head.
Rhyme smiled at them once again, the sphere fading away behind her. Sora looked towards Neku, who stood by the steps now. "Hey, Neku, do you guys know each other?"
"Yeah. I do. Let's say..." Neku began, before halting. It seemed a long history waited behind his eyes, behind that thought, the type he likely didn't have enough time to tell. "He's my friend," he decided.
"I guess you're the one who protected Rhyme, right?" Nemurin began, casually.
"Huh? How did you figure that, Nemu out?" Sora asked, startled.
"Just a hunch..." Nemurin replied with a shrug, yawning a little again. Joshua chuckled a bit to himself.
"Anyways, and...how did you know who me and Nemurin were?" Sora wondered.
"Relax. I'll field your questions one at a time. Nemurin might have gotten a feel for this already, but I'm holding onto Rhyme's dreams for her. Her dreams are, what you'd call, a gateway between worlds. As for how I recognise the two of you...well, I'll let you in on a secret. This place...it only appears to those in need of help, in need of shelter. Right now, it's made up of my dreams. Honestly, it'd be harder for me not to know Nemurin - you've probably seen a few signs of it, but she's...got her tricks around here,"
"In the Dream World?"
"Right...~" Nemurin confirmed, honestly just relieved she wouldn't need to go onto the whole spiel.
"So of course I know you, Sora; I dreamed you up. I know your friend Riku too. Let's just say I'm...kind of omniscient." Joshua explained. That last part explained to her how he and Neku could be friends; it wasn't the sort of thing you heard every day, after all.
"I got that feeling off of you..." Nemurin remarked.
"Well, of course," Joshua responded. "Aside from me, Nemurin carries her weight around here - outside here, too."
"So, Riku...where is he?" Sora questioned, eyes wide, silently appearing to plead for answers.
"He's...he's in another imagining of this world, and thus, inside of this projection," Joshua turned towards where Riku and Shiki had run off. Curious, Nemurin wandered over; only to feel something clutch at her heart again.
Riku, who previously gave off an air of imperviousness, stepped back; whether in shock, fear, or something else, she didn't know, but something in her gut suspected it was nothing good.
"There's another Traverse Town? Can...can I get there?" Sora added.
"Well...my portal wouldn't work for you. It only opens to me, since I'm the one with Rhyme's dreams. I don't know much about Nemurin's powers by comparison, but I imagine it might not work there either."
"Huh? Why not? And hey...how did this world get split into two anyways?"
"Ask that guy."
Sure enough, that same irritating face; or hidden face, rather; walked into view. The man in the black coat. "Him again!" Nemurin and Sora said, their expressions holding varying levels of disdain.
"Sounds like you two have had your run-ins..." Rhyme remarked, looking between them; only to see a familiar face behind her. So close, yet still so far. "...Beat..." she said, wistfully; the first glimmer of recognition she'd heard for anyone who she hadn't met in the town.
It had to be their Partners.
The discussion had passed quietly afterwards, and a certain tension filled Nemurin's stomach, even if she wasn't quite sure of what it was. Perhaps it was seeing that the person who had something to do with her wavering abilities was also interfering with Sora and Riku's mission. Perhaps it was seeing how he had affected those in this world. Perhaps it was the fact that all of this just...seemed so strange to her. For a few moments, she sat there at the edge of the pool of water, looking down at her reflection for a second - it glistened and rippled, showing the distinct appearance of a Magical Girl; but, if only for a moment, she saw something else. A plainer, normal girl, brown-haired and brown-eyed, and with a sleepy look upon her face. Gasping a little, Nemurin stumbled backwards, only to feel a familiar nuzzling at her legs.
Sheppy bleated, his curved eyes gazing up at her like a puppy. He bleated again, as if speaking to her, and it made her startled wide eyes enlarge to their normal gaze, and her teeth that gnawed at her lip pull back.
She smiled, "Hey little guy," she said, kneeling down and petting him on the head, her sleeve dragging across the floor once more. "Don't you worry about me...just the eyes playing tricks." she yawned aloud, and Sheppy imitated her. "Just a long dream, that's all..."
"Hey, Nemu...you okay?"
It was Sora, whose head tilted as his eyes softened. Despite that though, it was clear he felt the thick air of tension, and it...it bothered her. Turning around, she nodded. "Yeah...are you?"
"Yeah...hey, Nemu; I know this...might be a bit much - but I was wondering, about earlier..." Sora trailed off, looking up to her with questioning eyes.
"I guess you want me to explain the whole Dream World thing, right...?" Nemurin inquired. Rubbing the back of her neck, she bowed her head a little. "Sorry for not mentioning it...just cause it's a bit tiring to go into, y'know?"
"Yeah, I get that. Don't worry about it." Sora smiled. "I was just wondering - you said you were a Magical Girl earlier, right? Well...is it like, your power's entering people's dreams?" he wondered.
"Yep~" Nemurin replied with a nod. "That basically sums it up, really. I became one a while ago, and it's always been what I've been good at, so I've been...here for a while,"
"I thought something like that," Sora admitted. "But yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, I was wanting to ask..."
"If I can take you to Riku, right?" Nemurin finished with a soft smile. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure I could. Never done it before, but...I'll definitely try,"
It was as if you'd made him embody sunshine itself, right there; his eyes lit up bright, and his lips formed into a wide open grin. His body language loosened, as he dove into a hug. "Ahh, thanks, Nemu! You're the best!" he exclaimed, pumping her lightly on the shoulder. "And hey, if it does work..."
"I could maybe reunite the others with their partners, if Joshua doesn't find a way to first~" Nemurin concluded. "Man..." she yawned a little, but with contentment.
"This is the busiest I've been in a long time," she said. And she...could feel a sensation of light fill her heart as she thought about it.
The process was simple; a test run, and little more at the moment - unless things went well, which they all hoped for, but if not, then they couldn't say they didn't give it a shot. When she told Joshua, his response was simple, yet seemingly holding more, "Sure; it's worth a try, isn't it? After all, if this is the place I hold some power over, then surely you hold it over the outside, right?" he remarked.
Nemurin would say one thing about him thus far; he certainly seemed to know a fair bit.
She stood there, atop the remnants that had once made up the roof of the botanical garden. Rhyme and Neku watched from below, one more eager than the other; though likely still equal in spirit. Inhaling deeply, Sheppy looked up at her with eyes not quite the size of saucers, but getting near enough. Morgana stood patiently at Sora's legs, waiting and staring out at the same space of open-air which Nemurin was beholding. Sora stood close behind, but not enough for disconcertion. Breathing out once again, Nemurin waited for a moment more; almost expecting that same terrible pain to rattle her body and bring her to the floor, but it never came. Eventually, feeling secure enough where she stood (for even if the worst happened, Sora was in good position to catch her and prevent her from tumbling head-first into the garden below), she called upon her magic like an old friend.
It pulled and grasped and felt across her palms, and she could feel it too. In her mind, she envisioned Riku's face as if it were a mirror she was staring into instead of the sky, she envisioned his dream, the version of Traverse Town he was in, the dream he was in by his lonesome. For a moment or two, she felt a spark against her fingertips, and a large creak rung in her ears. A space of bright white had formed in front of them like an open door, possessing a wide, almost limitless pathway.
"You...you did it!" Sora cried out, joyfully, as if fireworks had been set alight in his eyes. He moved forward, reached a hand out-
It was so sudden. She didn't know what happened, or how, but when he made contact with the gate that should have been wide open, it almost seemed to repel him; his eyes emptied of their soul, becoming a dull ocean of blue with no black circle, no white light, and his body fell backwards, straight for the ground, for the gardens.
"Sora!" Nemurin gasped, quickly diving across the roof with a skid, just barely reaching the edge where Sora was. Acting as fast as she could, she fumbled her arms and grasped tight upon his wrist, his body dangling dangerously. Breathing out, she looked back at the portal, and nudged it; it was like an electrical field, shooting out anything that didn't belong in it, and it was...rejecting her, rejecting all of them.
As she looked at him, she could feel wires tightening around her heart, making it ache in dread; the life in Sora had almost seemed to disappear for the time, as he was still not responding to the concerned cries of his friends, the panicked barks of Morgana, Sheppy's fearful bleating, Neku's mad dash to the rooftop. Then, as if nothing happened, he blinked; and he looked normal again, taking in a sharp gasp. Releasing the breath she knew for sure she had hitched in her chest, Nemurin heaved him back up, the portal behind her cracking away, and shattering into nothingness, and the repulsion it offered them in turn. A second or so passed, and she breathed in and out, catching it.
"W-wha?" Sora asked, dumbly. "What happened?" he blinked, looking between them.
"What are you talking about? You touched it for one second and you nearly got knocked out!" Neku pointed out, harshly.
"I did?"
"Yeah. You did..." Nemurin confirmed.
"What was that about?" Neku inquired, looking at where the portal had been.
"I...I don't know. Normally you just walk right through, but it's like...it's repelling us. Like nothing's to go in or out of this dream," Nemurin explained to the best of her ability, a certain tired puzzlement showing, like when you were bombarded with questions upon awakening from a bad sleep, and she couldn't answer why to that either.
Joshua by this time had made his way up, and had a hand at his chin, deep in thought. "So what you're saying, Nemurin," he began. "Is that you can't go out, and anyone else can't either?"
"I think so...I can feel it..." Nemurin answered. "I'm...I'm going to admit. I feel like...I've had less power lately, less than I usually do, like I'm growing more tired and less...like this. But I've no clue why...except...except for maybe...that guy, that guy in the black coat,"
"So," Neku interjected, bitterly. "He's the one causing our problems, right?"
"It would seem likely," Joshua deduced. "So - you can't leave Sora's dream, and he can't leave to go find Riku in that case."
"It's...it's fine," Sora spoke up, almost faintly. "I can keep going. As long as I find the Keyhole to this world, then things will be fine." he trailed off, though there was still a sense of daze in his tone. "I'm just sorry that...I couldn't help you and Rhyme get to your partners," he lamented.
Neku shook his head. "It's not your fault. You shouldn't apologise for it." he stated, bluntly.
"And..." Nemurin trailed off. "If he's gonna cause you problems anyway, Sora...and it looks like he's being a pain and causing my problem...why don't we find a way to deal with him...? Together? Y'know...?"
"That's...that's a great idea!" Sora agreed, brightly. "We'll do this together; we'll take out the Nightmares,"
"And that jerk..."
"Right!" Sora nodded. "And when we do that...you guys can..."
Before Sora could finish however; it would appear that, amidst their own commotion, they had failed to detect the holograms that had began a swift and brutal battle below in the ruins of the garden. A familiar silhouette of silver hair, holding a blade like Sora's, fought a creature all too familiar to Nemurin and Sora; for it was a dead ringer for the one they had sent packing moments before, just with a fresh coat of paint.
This guy couldn't even be creative when terrorising them all!
They had missed most of the display though, watching the climax as a burst of magic tore through the air and right into the box chest of the hologram Nightmare, with it fading away just as it had for them.
"Riku..." Sora said, in a fashion that made her heart fall a bit.
It was then, in that moment, that a gallery of white engulfed the world in a rather peaceful array. The streets were emptied, with Nemurin standing beside Sora, appearing as a glitchy hologram on another side of this world, as a pure, flesh and blood being on another side of the scale. Joshua stood behind them, prompting them to turn around.
"In their world..." Joshua began. "Something happened to them, something that..." he looked down, as if in reflection. "Something that brought their existence to an end. I gathered up what was left of their dreams, and sought a place of shelter for them. Then, just when I thought my search was fruitless - this place appeared and answered my call. It was thanks to Rhyme's dreams we were able to reach it, that the pieces of their dreams could make them whole again. That, if linked together, I could make them... exist again."
Riku voiced something, though she wasn't certain what, but Joshua answered all the same. "Well? Why can't it? By ourselves, we're no one. But once somebody sees us, and sees someone, that's the moment we start to exist. All they needed...was for someone to connect to, for someone to see them...I have you three to thank for a big part of it,"
"Joshua..." Nemurin spoke softly, gazing at him.
"Just...who are you?" Sora asked.
"Let's say...a friend," Joshua answered. Suddenly, something upon a pile of unexpected things happened, in that final few minutes in Traverse Town. White, long wings, that an angel of the heavens would possess, sprouted long from the side of his back. Without another word, the boy - if you could even say that - disappeared into the blackness of the sky.
"Woah..." Nemurin gasped, Sheppy staring off - you could see the equations, floating around his mind.
And then, something familiar; the appearance of a Keyhole. 'So...that's the Keyhole Sora was trying to find, huh?~' she thought to herself. 'Just like before...'
The curtains closed swiftly; two blades, pointed in unison. That bright pure light. And then, nothing, but white. The feeling that everything was okay...
But...Nemurin knew better than that. She could feel herself floating again, but not by her lonesome. This time, it felt as if she, they, were being pulled somewhere. So, it was an adventure, then. Adventures were tiring...but they were also fun, and she hadn't had one for a long, long time.
Little did she know, this was only the first step of hers, and Sora's, and that which would lead to many others...
A/N: And so, that's Traverse Town's conclusion! Thought I'd be nice and give y'all two chapters this week instead of the usual one. I hope y'all enjoyed that first arc, as we still have several left. In response to Captain Imaginat's questions about Heartbinders and Forms, I actually didn't think of using them originally - since they never featured in 3D, which this is a very loose novelisation of in a way, it just never really came to mind. However, I'm actually considering using the Heartbinders in some way, as I feel they could be implemented fairly easily, at least at some point in the future, a! You'll just have to wait and see~ As for Joshua, I was originally gonna do a lot more with him this chapter, but unfortunately I've not played The World Ends With You and don't really feel I know enough; but I'm going to be playing on it a bit later when it feels more 'right' so to speak. And to answer further...I'll definitely be implementing more of the characters both in this story, namely in Snow White's parts, but also in...well, that's a bit too much to give away, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it when it comes.