Marisa swayed to the side to avoid another onslaught of projectiles coming from Puffies, silly looking clouds that wore shades on them.

Their shades unfortunately didn't protect them from Marisa's star counterattacks, as they were quickly swatted away in a natter of seconds

"Man they're really riled up here aren't they?" She shouted "Aren't y'all high up enough for your food to NOT be safe?"

"Yuh uh!" A puffy shouted, flying in with anger displayed on his face "Dedede's got his whole army up here even, we couldn't do a single thing against them anyway!"

"Dedede huh? Weird name" So that's the guy that ordered all these weirdos last night to steal her food, and all the others too.

For an incident, this has got to be in her top ten weirdest incidents that she joined in. Why would he hog all that food anyway? To satiate his hunger?

"He sounds like he's a glutton" She sounded her thoughts before nodding "Welp, im off to his castle then, thanks for that informative loredrop sentient cloud!"

"IT'S THUNDERLORD TO YOU, YOU IMBE- AAAH!" And the Puffy was soon taken out from the skies by her stars

"Pfft. Weirdo" She lowered her plasna filled jar before continuing to follow Kirby's trail of destruction, though she would eventually be met with obstacles in her way. Kirby hasn't really cleared out most of the enemies in his path towards Mount Dedede as evident with a few Kooklers rotating in a square formation, Koozers and..

"GAH! GET AWAY!" She panicked as an aggroed Scarfy tried to chomp her down, before it's mouth was met with searing hot stars. It backed off coughing before she smacked it down with two more stars. "Damnit! Whoever the guy obliterating the denizens here are, they should'va wiped these hellcursed cats out of this place, damn!" She cursed, adjusting her hat before flying off once again.

As she dodged both projectiles from incoming Puffies and invunerable Shotzos, her journey though Bubble Clouds would finally end with her finally witnessing Kirby in person, and another massive living cloud, cycloptic in nature with spikes lined up in it's edges, and seemingly out for the puffball's blood, if he had any.

Marisa stared as Kirby leaped out of the way of another swoop from the cloud before it dropped down two Waddle Doos, there Kirby would inhale one of them and swallow it up..!

Marisa covered her eyes from the bright light, as Kirby transformed into his Beam Form, something thanks to his Copy Ability that he was born with..

"The hell?" She voiced out loud with raised eyebrows as Kirby stepped from side to side from Kracko's lightning, before he retaliated back with his beam attack, whatever he is, he's sure beating that thing up!

Kracko's pupils shrunk from getting hit by Kirby's beam attack, right before getting angry and releasing two beam whips to both of its sides, swirling around as Kirby gasped and leaped out of the way again

Best to step in then! It's Marisa time!

"Yo! Need help there ze!?" Kirby turned his head towards the new voice, with Marisa flying in shortly after, making herself known to the two combatants in the middle of the fight

The beam whip from Kracko would cancel out as it blinked, scrutinizing the witchling with it's only eye

"So what's your name little puffball?"

"Uaahh.." Kirby placed a hand up his chin, where it would obviously be if he had one. " Kirby! Kirby!" He jumped in place with a bright smile

Marisa eyed back the living cloud in front of her before gesturing at it to Kirby "Kirby.. mind if I finish em off? It'll be flashy for you because it seems like it's bullying little poor you"

Kracko internally fumed from this. While the other Waddle Doo watching from the corner tilted his eye.

Kirby thought about it before shaking its face, stepping forward with his wand raised as his face took on a more determined look. "Humph!" He readied himself to continue the fight

"Alright then!" She would shake her jar before pointing the closed lid at Kracko "Prepare yourself! Cause I, Marisa Kasake, am here to solve this incident and beat you up!"

Kracko squinted its eye before becoming angry once again, conjuring up two more Waddle Doos and a Lil'Kracko behind.

And then the battle resumed, this time with Kirby using his beam to hit the Waddle Doos and kick them out towards the one in the corner, which resulted in the poor Doo flailing around before two knocked out bodies smacked him right in the eye.

The kick would make Kirby flail his arms out, almost losing balance before he properly stood on his two feet again, sighing before jumping back from one thunderbolt strike in surprise. He would begin attacking Kracko again with his beam

The Lil'Kracko would swirl around Marisa shortly before it tried slamming into her, who proceeded to slam her jar into its eye "Sorry bud, but that ain't happening anytime now!" She would aim her jar at the Mini kracko on the floor with a wink before finishing it off with a large star projectile.

"Now that's done with" She turned her head towards Kirby who was already engaging with the cloud "Don't mind if I barge in again!"

She would begin to circle around Kracko, firing salvos of stars at the cloudy being

Kracko was getting even more irritated, to which it would try and tackle Marisa out into the air

"Uuwah!" Marisa shrieked in surprise, scrambling to get out of the way before her body was flung towards a pillar

Kirby would immediately face his fallen ally with a gasp, running over and checking over to see if she's fine, while he turned parried the cycloptic cloud's incoming Lil'Krackos with his beam attacks

What can he do what can he do- oh! The leftover food he got from this ancient place, perhaps he can share it with her!

As she groaned, Kirby would immediately lean in fast and..

Face to Face

And Marisa's eyes immediately went wide open, Kracko pausing his attacks as they both stared at Kirby.

...

She would immediately blast the cloud in the eye with her jar, standing back up as she wiped her face, she would've felt much better after that.. if it weren't for Kirby here actually KISSING her in the face!

Her dignity! Good gods!

"Never talk about this to anyone ever again, m'kay?" She demaded with a darkened face, to which Kirby responded with a nervous chuckle.

He didn't understand why she was upset though, but it doesn't matter now, she was healed nevertheless

Anyway, as Marisa was recovering from that unexpected move, Kirby would turn and run towards Kracko, intent on finally finishing the fight. The Cycloptic cloud's eye as closed as possible from Marisa's anger infused star attack. Twirling his staff around, he would leap into the air as a beam whip would emerge from the gem, then he dived towards the cloud shortly before slashing it in half.

The cloud's eye opened, and it's pupil shrunk. Before it exploded violently from Kirby's attack, only leaving behind specks of cloud particles after the smoke clears

Marisa stared in awe as Kirby turned back to him, smiling

And then he proceeded to dance in Kracko's temporary grave.

"Ookay.." she said after Kirby finished his victory dance, too stupefied to even move a single muscle "Sooo you just did that.."

"Hai!" He responded, before remembering why he was here for "Ah!" The puffball jumped from his spot, as he proceeded to run out of the ruins.

Marisa would pick her broom back up and follow from behind, still stupefied judging by her expression.

She would see Kirby leaning over from the edge of the cloud, both Dreamlanders looking at the castle on top of the mountain, the castle having two angry eyes, it was starting to get dark too so the shadow casted over it's front gave it an omnious look.

"Dedede.." Kirby mumbled to himself, in awe of the castle's appearance

"So that's his castle??" She pointed at the castle with raised eyebrows "I've flew past it several times! How come I didn't know it was his?"

And Kirby could only shrug in response to her question, right before hopping back in place and standing right up with a determined look "hmph!"

"Eh, so you got an idea?"

And right on time, a large star twice the size of Kirby would fly in, stopping right infront of Kirby as he hopped right ontop of it, his handsholding on as tight as possible

It shook in place.. before zooming right off!

Leaving behind the witching as a result

"...H-Hey! You didn't have to leave me behind!" She shouted before scoffing

"Kirby you.. little puffball" she shook her head as she rode on her broom again, taking off from Bubbly Clouds and following Kirby from behind at top speed.

...

Spears spun around in the air before impaling the ground near Reimu, the beaten up Waddle Dees that previously wielded spears were all on the ground already.

She would spin her gohei, stopping it as she stared at Castle Dedede infront of her

From what she has heard from the guards that guarded the pathway to the castle and the local denizens around, it's where King Dedede lives, the incident perpetrator that ordered his army to steal all the food in this land.

Geez, for a king who decided to take control over Dreamland as a king, he sure is more of a threat to it compared to outside forces, I mean who even starves their citizens from their hard earned food?

Gripping the gohei tightly, she would begin to walk towards the castle, only glaring at a few Spear Waddle Dees that tried to approach her.

They immediately backed off as soon as they recieved her glare, but some that were in Dedede's army didn't back down.

"Better ready yourself little girl!" A massive Tick-Tock would walk in, and she pointed the gohei at him, nonverbally challenging him to a fight..

The walking clock immediately began ringing, musical notes appearing from his side as all of them bounced and homed in at her.

Reimu ran around them, ofudas appearing on her hands as she jumped into the air and slapped a few of them at Mr. Tick Tock.

The ofudas would explode, but it only left behind atleast a few scorch msrks on his skin

"Haha! Is that all you can do!?" The living clock being laughed her attscks off "I can take Poppy bombs all day lil sis! Better cry off before you make King Dedede mad!"

"Not gonna happen" she immediately responded, attempting to smack her gohei at him. To which the clock being flinched at the hit.

"Gh, nice power!" And then Reimu felt HARSH VIBRATIONS ALL OVER

She would step back from the clock, holding her hand with her othe hand

"G-gah.. damnit" she cursed, trying to stabilize herself as her senses were ringing

Mr. Tick Tock here had ringed much to her dismay, taking advantage of her melee attack by ringing as loud as possible.

Of course he would also take advantage of her stunned state too, her eyes looked up to see the large figure of Tick Tock hopping into tke sky and diving down straight at her

Grimacing, she would use all her strength to leap away from Tick Tock's stomp attack, shaking her head, her senses slowly returned to her.

"Hoh! Nice one too! But you've gone this far anyway! Prepare to-"

She didn't give him that much time as his preparation to ring again had been interrupted by rows of ofudas slapping onto him, exploding a second after.

She lets out an exhale, the Shrine maiden narrowing her eyes at the cloud of smoke..

A large clock plopped down face first infront of her. Signifying the Tick Tock's defeat.

She'd let out a relieved sigh as she sat down on the rocky ground, rubbing her temples with both her hands along with eyes closed. "Gods, that felt way worse than it seemed"

This would definitely top Seiga's flips as the most disorientating things that she had felt in both her first and second lives.

...Oh right, food heals here do they? Reimu had packed up a few snacks on her way plus a few leftovers that were found on tables and chests, most likely stuff left behind by Dedede's army, grabbing an energy drink from her pockets once more, she would open the lid before sipping on it.

Her aches were being relieved miraculously, and after taking a few more sips, she would feel a lot better compared to before..

"There, haah.." she leaned back, supporting her whole body with two of her disembodied hands.

This whole incident had her exhausted, beating up locals along the way took more effort compared to beating up fairies. Heck even in her teenage years in Gensokyo before the spell card rules were in place, she wasn't even breaking a sweat with some flying cannon fodders.

Perhaps once she grows more, maybe she'd be more resilient to attacks.. hmm.

Her rest would immediately be interrupted by a shooting star coming from the now orange clouds.

She would stare at it, mouth slightly open..

It crashed into Castle Dedede.

The guards that were infront of the entrance to their king's castle all scrambled as they entered the castle to stop the intruder.

"Well that just happened" she said to herself

"It did!" And Marisa would coincidentally fly in, Reimu would've also seen her face showing signs of irritation "that puffball left me behind damnit! And I helped em in a battle even.."

"Eh?"

"No time explaining, gotta catch up with him!" She would grip her broom tightly "If he's gonna try and beat me in solving the incident first, then I better beat Dedede up first!"

"Hey! Wait up-" the wind from Marisa zooming off would leave Reimu with clouds of dust, leaving her coughing and instinctively waving the air from her mouth "-I.. ah.." she lowered her hands.. "..."

"Best to catch up then" Her annoyance grew and she began to run towards Castle Dedede intent on finishing the incident up quickly.

...

The Siege of Castle Dedede was at full swing already, with Kirby in the front plowing through opposition with ease, even if he were to get injured a food or two would fix him up in no time.

Reimu and Marisa would finally enter the castle through the front gate and both incident resolvers can already see the destruction that Kirby had left behind

She grimaced

"Damn, he's really cleaning this place up" She looked around, noticing even the Waddle Dees stuck on the walls. "He's not even leaving behind anything for me!"

"Ok who's this 'he' again?" She turned to the Ordinary Magician with a raised eyebrow "Because from what im hearing he's a menace to everyone, I've seen this trail of destruction before."

"Oh so he already begun way before I joined in?" She chuckled, glancing at one of the rooms inside. And in it was a Broom Hatter, casually sweeping away the rubble caused by Kirby.

"Well, this feller's name is Kirby, in short he's a pink puffball, nothing much" She then shrugged "But he's got more power packed into him than I thought he would be. He'd be the epitome of 'cute but deadly' if I've ever seen one"

"Yeah right.."

And then the fighting echoing from afar went silent, shortly before both reincarnated Dreamlanders would hear a conversation echoing to here.

"-lright! Let's take this to the Boxing Arena then!" A loud booming voice echoed in the Castle, and then all went silent.

The duo paused in their tracks, processing what they've just heard now. Was that deep arrogant voice supposed to be Dedede? And then they were met with another question..

"Boxing Arena?" Reimu and Marisa looked at each other

They have no idea what it is, they aren't from the outside world, and they haven't really heard anything interesting from the Outside World either.. they soon shrugged, soon running off towards where the voice came from.

(...Girls are preparing, please watch warmly..!)

Reimu and Marisa stopped at a crowd that seemed to have formed out of nowhere, but from the looks of it, it's literally all of Dedede's soldiers from Waddle Dees to Tacs, Waddle Doos and even a few unexpected creatures such as Bronto Burts, Scarfies, Rockies and even.. Boolers?

Funny enough, when Reimu first saw an illustration of a Booler in a book that her mom have her, it heavily reminded her of these artificial ghost things that was created by a tank engineer, Rika long ago.

To see them in person threw her offguard by a bit, but soon composed herself later on

Anyway, the crowd seems to be huddling, trying to push into an entrance. The ones that could fly easily flew over the crowd while the others that couldn't decided to start a brawl with the others for some reason.

A Knuckle Joe was already throwing hands with a Flaming Leo infront of her..

Reimu sighed, crouching down just before she leaped onto the crowd, ignoring the cries of annoyance and anger as she hopped from person to person. They were from King Dedede's army so she didn't care

Marisa just flew in with her broom, snickering at the people that Reimu angered.

The room that they found themselves in was vast and big, with many people seemingly eager to see what was about to happen, Reimu would finall leap down towards a free seat, looking around her surroundings.

She was surrounded by Waddle Dees, unsurprising.

Marisa flew shortly right in, she seems to be lying down on her broom with one arm supporting her head up. "Sup?"

"Hey Marisa" She deadpanned "You'll fall off your broom if you keep doing that"

"No way that's gonna happen" she would flick at one of her cat ears "Im a cat now! Im nimble"

"And how does that relate to you not falling off?"

"Cats can easily balance on branches y'know, like Chen!" She chuckled "Besides it's not like im gonna fall down or any-"

A Bronto Burt flying past by bumped into her, which led to her almost falling down with a yelp

She grabbed onto her broom at the lsst minute, scowling at the Bronto Burt whose look was apologetic "Watch were ya going!" The magician reprimanded, before pulling herself up back in her broom "I hate Bronto Burts"

Reimu rolled her eyes, turning towards the boxing arena in the middle

"Ladies and gentlemen, here and I have decided to welcome you all.. to DDD's Royal Challenge!"

The crowd roared wildly, eyes raising up, and Marisa instinctively covered her ears from the voices

Reimu almost felt sorry for her.

"Here we have a challenger! A brave young puffball who has stepped up to claim King Dedede's food stash! Donning a bright smile, his name is.. KIIIRBYY!!"

Kirby puffed up and hovered over the fences of the boxing arena before letting the air out, he plopped towards the ground with an unintentional backflip before waving at the crowd

"Wait, that's Kirby?" She pointed at the pink puffball, looking up to Marisa with an incredulous look "The same guy that wrecked havoc in the halls? Or even outside in that matter?"

"Eeeyup" She nodded, waving at Kirby "Same lil guy"

He didn't seem like he kept his Beam Ability outfit this time, now wearing nothing in plain sight. Seems like him crashing into Castle Dedede had led to him losing it in the process.

And Kirby immediately noticed Marisa, giving her two waved in that matter "Haiii!"

Reimu couldn't believe that he's the same dude that wrecked Dedede's Army just to get to Dedede..

Some part of the crowd cheered for him, but the majority that were indifferent or even just raising tomatoes at him was just almost the entirety of Dedede's army.

"And now we move on to our star of the show, the royal heir to the throne, the one that united all of Dreamland, he inspires to be the best of them all.. his name is.. KING! DEDEDEEEEEE!"

A large penguin would finally leap from the shadows, the crowd absolutely roaring with anticipation and joy just from this guy's appearance.

Donning a red coat and no crown whatsoever, only a cap in his hat, King Dedede would wave at the crowd with a chuckle

"Yeah yeah! King Dedede!" He laughed "That's the name you should know! And that's the star of todays SHOOW!"

The crowd roared again, and Marisa could barely even bear the sheer pain from her ears, being born with them was fun but now she's starting to regret it, do every beast youkai have to deal with this sort of stuff!? If so then she can finally relate with them for once.

"Ahehe! Now then" He would bring out a hammer out of nowhere, slamming it down towards the ground before raising it and pointing at Kirby

"Alright little puffball, I've heard of you from my troops, from what words of mouth have reached my ears, you've been causing all kinds of ruckus in Dreamland!"

He wasn't kinda lying, I mean look at Kirby's path during the whole incident, he was just merciless to any grumpy Dreamlander that dared to attack him in his way.

Kirby would tilt his face from this instead.

"Anyway it doesn't matter" He would lift the hammer up, and place it on his shoulder "What matters now is that im clobberin' ya! Without the hammer nevertheless! Ya look like ya can't even hurt a fly! So im gonna make it easier for you then!" He grinned, putting the hammer back in his back

And Kirby still didn't understand what he meant by that.

"Alright, you all know the deal, whoever wins gets to use the food stash freely! So without further ado, let us begin the battle!"

[King Dedede Battle - Kirby Super Star Ultra OST]

And Reimu watched as King Dedede began the fight with a.. pathetic leap at Kirby, sliding at him head first.

The puffball would yelp and jump over his slide, and the King would get back up and attempt to do the SAME THING again!

Reimu grimaced, that's supposed to be how King Dedede fights?? Marisa wasn't even enjoying this at all, but the crowd would say otherwise as they're cheering onto Dedede's win.

Shaking his head, he would prepare himself, crouching down shortly before leaping up into the air, intent on flattening Kirby in a pancake

The puffball looked up and ran out of the way, as King Dedede slammed towards the Boxing Arena's ground, creating a crater with debris that flew into the air

Sensing an opportunity, Kirby inhaled the debris, and spat it out at King Dedede in the form of a Star Bullet!

"Hey that looks just like my star attacks!" Marisa commented, pointing at the Boxing Arena.

Kirby inhales three more wooden debris and spat them out, smacking Dedede in the stomach three times.

"G-gah!" He stumbled backwards from his four attacks, gripping the fence before clenching his teeth "Oh that does it puffball, now you're getting the good ol' hammer!" He would pull out the hammer shortly before rushing towards him.

Kirby rolled out of the way as Dedede slammed the hammer into the ground, with it came debris from the boxing arena too, to which he sucked up and shot back at Dedede

"G-gah! Why you little..!" Then he did the most unorthodox thing Reimu saw.

He tried to mimic Kirby's inhaling for some reason, attempting to use his lungs just to get back at Kirby.

It did work a bit as Kirby would step oit of the way of the wind funnel going into Dedede

But soon he'd have to exhale, placing a hand on his feet in order to rest "Damnit! Thought it'd work.. GYAH!"

Another Star Bullet hit him in the sides this time, Kirby had just decided to use the leftover debris from the craters to attack again..

Reimu did notice the crowd's noise slowly lowering down, then she'd look up to see Marisa letting out a relieved exhale. Rubbing her cat ears.

Kirby would inhale three more debris and stick it inside his mouth, stepping towards the center slowly. And King Dedede would step back, knowing what Kirby was about to do

"GAH! NOT THAT ATTACK AGAIN!" In a split second, Kirby fired the largest star bullet he's ever seen, with Dedede attempting to scramble away only to lunge out of the trajectory the moment it was about to hit him, the star bullet crashed into the boxing rings fence, ripping it apart and continuing onwards.

The crowd watching would yelp as they attempted to get out of the way of the star bullet.

It crashed into the crowd, launching Dreamlane denizens into the air and creating a cloud of smoke and debris that made said denizens cough from it. Reimu sighed at this and rubbed her forehead, not a minute in and Kirby's already causing collateral damage

Dedede would attempt to instead try his best at lunging for Kirby repeatedly, though each leap would only be unsuccessful as Kirby proceeded to jump out of the way of each of them.

"ALRIGHT THAT DOES IT!" He pulled out his hammer again and clenched his teeth "YOU OUGHTA DONE MESSING AROUND!"

Before Kirby yelped and ran back, the emperor penguin smashing down his hammer into the boxing arena floor once again. He then took advantage of it again by inhaling the wooden planks left loose by his attack.

Though instead he wasn't inhaling for the wooden planks, no..

"H-huh? Hey!" Dedede felt his grip loosen on the hammer, his eyes widened before he began trying to pull back the Hammer from Kirby's inhale.

It was one big tug of war as Kirby kept on inhaling and Dedede attempting to pull back his hammer, opting to place his feet on the hammer craters he made so as to anchor himself in place

"K-kirby you brat! Stop INHALING!" And with a burst of strength, he almost pulled away the hammer..

Only for it to slip out of his hands.

Kirby then finally sucked up his hammer, he took a few steps back.. And..

PHEW!

And King Dedede saw the biggest Star Bullet that he has ever seen in his life, the large projectile smacking into his body, and overall, launching him far from the Arena

"WAAAAAAAaaaa-"

BOOM!

The crowd, including Reimu and Marisa turned to the Dedede shaped hole in the ceiling..

Then the crowd turned towards Kirby.. silence overtaking the room.

"W-well it would seem like.. Kirby won this b-bout! Congratulations Kirby you now own King Dedede's Royal Food Stock! for some reason.."

And he started to dance in the middle of the arena, with four rainbow stars that slowly joined him in his dance..

"...Wait, Sparkling Stars..?"

"Aren't these supposed to be myths?"

Indeed they were supposed to be, not until Kirby managed to get them all from Lololo and Lalala up to Kracko.

"Ohoho I know this!" Marisa shouted, some eyes turning their attention to her "Apparently these serve as extensions of the Fountain of Dreams! The power from the fountain giving Dreamland fertile soil and such" she would give everyone the folded arms look "A true magician knows this!"

"No they do not!" A Simirror from the corner shouted

"Hey I also know this one! You're just living under a rock!" Another feminine voice shouted.

Reimu sighed, just before the four stars would lift Kirby up into the air..

And shatter the glass ceiling, shortly before his size EXPANDED as fast as Reimu saw it to be.

"h-huh!?" She voiced her confusion out, and just like that. The entire Castle shook, she would almost fall over, nearly shoving over a poor Waddle Dee into the floor.

"W-wanya!"

"Sorry sorry"

"H-hey what's going on this time!?"

"I didn't sign up for this!"

"C-calm down everyone! It's not like something bad is happening that's for sure!"

Marisa looked around, before shrugging

"I'll check the outside then. You stay here Reims." And then she flew off, to which the shrine maiden responded with a shout of surprise

She scoffed, before looking around for a gap to squeeze in- you know what how about she does the whole hopping from head to head again?

And so she did, receiving angry complaints in the process all the while the whole Castle shook.

Her process finally led her to the exit of the arena, to which she straight up bolted for the exit to Castle Dedede. Passing by several Broom Hatters that struggled to keep themselves standing from the shaking.

Her feet skidded to a halt, and she would shortly waddle over towards the gate, and felt a massive gust of wind blowing her garments and outfit

"Ngh- what the-" once she got a good look of the gate, her mouth widened.

They were incredibly high up, WAAY past high up to be exact, as fruits and vegetables all fell from the massive gaping hole underneath Castle Dedede.

She slowly stepped to the gate and gripped on something anchored to the ground as tight as possible, leaning forward to get a better look at what Kirby's dropping to the ground..

"S-so Kirby's giving back all the food to Dreamland!?"

"It would seem like it!" Marisa would meet her gaze at the gate, her broom barely even keeping up with the speed of the Kirby Air Balloon carrying the Castle. "There's tons of delicacies dropping down! Here have one I grabbed out of luck!"

She threw an apple

And the Apple fell towards the world beneath them

Reimu would glare at Marisa, to which she would laugh at her without a problem.

The whole spectacle lasted for several hours until Kirby stopped becoming a hot air balloon, and the four sparkling stars kept it from collapsing to the ground..

And with that, the Food Theft Incident was over.

..

Apparently the Stars that you collect at the end of each boss in Kirby's Dreamland had a purpose, they provided food, power or smth to the rest of dreamland but there's barely any lore built for them so.

Gotta do what I gotta do..