On Today's Episode: Our keyblade-wielding heroes arrive at what appears to be a simple orphanage that takes care of children, but it doesn't take long for the group to discover a dark secret about Grace Field House. Namely, that the orphaned children are essentially being groomed to be food for demons. Our heroes team up with three particularly gifted children in order to help them plan out an escape, but it might not be easy with the watchful eyes of Sister Isabella and especially a member of Organization XIII...
For Today's World: It's time to play "hide and seek" from demons, because today, we're visiting the world of Kaiu Shirai's The Promised Neverland. I wanted to use this for a world in Key to Her Heart Deep Dive before that got canned, but I figured I'd revive that idea here. For this one, we'll probably be covering the first couple episodes. I may skip to later in season one on the second visit.
Episode 4: The Great Escape
"Why are we still stuck in a forest?!" Maylin shouted as the three keyblade wielders found themselves once again searching through a forest after landing in the nearest world.
"It seems to be a running theme lately," Haruka chuckled.
"Sophia, do you sense anything out of place?" Nick asked as he held his Gummiphone up and moved it around so that Sophia could scan their surroundings for any sign of trouble.
"Nothing appears to be out of place at the moment," Sophia answered. "I'm not sensing any Heartless nearby."
"That's a first," Maylin chuckled. "I'm used to Heartless just about always jumping up every time we land in a new world."
"I think Jr. and Ziggy once told me that the Heartless are actually afraid of the keyblade," Nick stated, remembering a conversation he'd had on his very first visit to Traverse Town. "That's why Heartless instinctively gang up on keyblade wielders if they detect any nearby."
"Um, not to cut in, but I think I see something up ahead," Haruka quipped, pointing just ahead towards a clearing in the trees. Outside of the clearing was a large building shaped like a farm house. Many children of varying ages could be seen playing what appeared to be a game of hide and seek across the outside lawn.
"Okay, if that don't beat all," Maylin stated.
"It seems like they're having fun," Sophia giggled.
"Wait a second, ladies, look!" Nick exclaimed, pointing towards the nearby hill. Four of the children there were standing by a tree and counting down to themselves, unaware of a quartet of Dusks that were slowly slithering towards them.
"Of course, if it's not one thing, it's another!" Maylin groaned.
"Let's get up there and take care of business!" Nick shouted as everyone rushed towards the house, Sophia jumping out of the Gummiphone and summoning her own keyblade.
"Ready or not, here we come!" the kids exclaimed before leaving the tree, only to bump into the Dusks before they could get far.
The Dusk in front hissed loudly before attempting to strike the kids down, only to be destroyed by a jumping cross chop from Nick.
"All of you, get somewhere safe!" Nick shouted as one of the kids with bright orange hair led the younger kids away from the lawn. "We'll take care of these things."
The Dusks contorted slightly before lunging towards the keyblade wielders. Maylin quickly blasted one back with a Blizzard spell while Nick let a few Dusks surround him before roasting them all with a Fire spell.
As the Dusks began to thin out, a small horde of Creepers appeared from out of nowhere, several of them turning into bladed objects and attempting to swipe at the group.
"Back off!" Sophia shouted, summoning Pandora to blast the Creepers with Kougaon before turning around to cast Rakunda on Nick in order to increase his defense.
Nick switched his keyblade to Earthen Heart and started attacking the Creepers before finishing his combo with a jumping slash that took two out at once.
Maylin cast a Thunder spell, using the "rain of bolts" variant to take out a bunch of Creepers at once while Haruka let another group of Creepers surround her before performing a spinning slice attack to destroy them.
It didn't take too much longer to take care of the rest of the Creepers so that the group could go and check on the children who supposedly lived here in this orphanage.
"Is everyone all right?" Sophia asked once all of the kids had calmed down.
"We should be," the girl with the orange hair responded. "Thank you for helping us out."
"It was nothing," Maylin chuckled. "That's kind of what we do."
Before Nick or the girls could explain anything else, one of the children came running out from behind the tree, crying in shock.
"What's the matter?" Sister Isabella asked as the child ran up to her. "Did something happen out there?"
"I-I'm sorry, but... I lost Nyla while we were playing in the forest!" the child cried. "I don't know if those weird white things got her, or..."
Isabella opened up her wristwatch to check something, her frown slightly widening into a soft smile as she kneeled down to reassure the child, unaware of Nick staring at her.
"There's no need to worry," Isabella proclaimed. "Everyone, stay here until I return, okay? I shouldn't be too long."
Isabella started walking towards the forest to find the missing child, leaving the keyblade wielders to ponder the strange feeling they'd had.
"...I assume you all felt that, too?" Haruka asked.
"How could I not?" Nick quipped. "I don't exactly know why, but I can sense darkness all over this place."
"Wait, this whole house is corrupted?" Maylin gasped.
"I'm not so sure," Sophia hummed, concentrating on her surroundings. She also had keen senses when it came to the darkness, though she figured that might have had something to do with her Persona's element being light. "When it comes to their hearts, I only sensed darkness coming from one of the older children here, and that woman who seems to be their caretaker."
"Yeah, she's definitely got some kind of ulterior motive," Maylin noted.
"I'm surprised you knew that just by looking at her," one of the older children stated. Nick and the girls turned around to see Emma (the orange-haired girl) and Norman (a boy with silver-white hair) looking at them.
"Let's just say we have a bit of a sixth sense for stuff like this," Haruka replied. "If you can, could you tell us what exactly that's all about?"
"Not out here," Emma answered. "Let's get somewhere where the other kids can't hear us."
However, one of the kids called out to Isabella, who had just returned, carrying a sleeping girl in her arms.
Emma and Norman were both stunned at this. Hadn't Isabella just left?
"How did she do that?" Norman wondered. "It's like she knew exactly where Nyla was."
"Now that you mention it, mom was always really good at finding us no matter where we hid," Emma stated.
"Hold on, that watch isn't a watch," Norman gasped when he realized it. "It's some kind of tracker, isn't it? That probably means we have a chip in our bodies. She wanted us to see her take out her watch, so we'd figure it out. She's effectively telling us 'I don't care who you are, you're never going to escape'."
"I'm starting to get the feeling that not everything is sunshine and rainbows here," Maylin noted.
"Let's get inside and we'll explain everything," Emma replied.
And so they headed into Grace Field House itself, unaware that Ray was watching from an upper floor window, or that a figure draped in a black cloak was observing from afar.
Inside the house, both Emma and Norman recounted everything they'd discovered since that day. Naturally, Nick and the girls were horrified to learn that every child living at this orphanage was essentially raised to be harvested as food for demons.
"Jeez, I've heard some sick tales in our travels, but that's a serious contender for the cake," Maylin gasped.
"Is there anything we can do to help you two in your big breakout plan?" Sophia offered.
"Well, first, we're going to need some rope," Norman stated. "I'm pretty sure I know where to find some, so let's meet back in the hallway around ten, okay?"
"W-Wait, Norman!" Emma gasped. "If they have tracking devices, doesn't that also mean that they have cameras or listening devices or other stuff like that or..."
"It's fine, Emma," Norman chuckled, cutting off Emma's rambling. "I took a look around already, and there's nothing like that around here."
"Wait, you did that already?" Emma quipped.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't have guessed that the actual security measures aren't actually located in this building," Norman admitted.
"Maybe that means we might have a chance to pull this off," Nick stated. "We've just gotta be careful in how we go about this."
"Yeah, and make sure the Heartless or Nobodies don't throw a wrench into those plans," Haruka replied.
"And besides, I don't think mom knows that it was specifically us who went out to the wall that night," Norman explained. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't know our location at all times, and can really only find us if she specifically checks."
"So, stay under the 'mom radar', got it," Maylin quipped.
Just then, one of the other children called out to Norman, asking for his help in finding something in the basement. According to the kid, the 'doors were acting weird all of a sudden'. The trinity thought that would be reason enough to go down there with Norman and see what was going on.
As they followed the young girl down into the basement, Nick began looking around for the source of the odd feeling he'd been getting.
When they reached the basement in question, the girl pointed to the oddly-carved doors at the other end of the large room. The door in question was made up of two ornate statues carved into a grey, hexagonal doorway. Each statue had one arm "trapped" in the door, though their claws were seemingly grasping the gold lock in the center of the door from the other side. Each statue on the door had the form of a muscular-looking demon.
"...not exactly subtle," Maylin giggled.
The young girl moved to try and open the door, as what she was trying to find was seemingly beyond that door, but all of a sudden, the doors transformed.
"GET BACK!" Nick exclaimed, jumping forward to pull the young girl into his arms and jump back just as the door's "arms" came to life and tried to flatten them. The statues became a pair of black-skinned demons with a thin, jagged mouth, spherical head, and beady, glowing yellow eyes, similar to a typical Heartless. Its chest, exposed arm, and each of its short, pyramidal horns sported a jagged, yellow pattern decorating them. Each one wore a green collar with four short, silver spikes on it, and their hands ended in three red claws. Their backs were lined by short spikes, and their lower bodies were actually curled, interweaving tails with yellow tips. Their lower and upper bodies were divided by a thick, sky blue "belt".
"What the heck is that?!" Maylin shouted as she summoned Counterpoint to her hands.
"A problem, that's what," Haruka quipped as she summoned Divewing to her hands.
"Norman, take the girl and get her somewhere safe!" Nick exclaimed as he summoned Earthen Heart to his hands. Norman did so, leading the young girl away from the Thresholder.
Sophia jumped out of the Gummiphone as well, summoning Super Yo-Yo to her hands.
The Thresholder roared loudly before raising its hands and sweeping them four times across the length of the room.
"Wonderful, it's trying to play keep-away with us!" Haruka shouted.
After parrying another arm sweep attack, Nick moved in and started attacking the "lock" in the middle of the Thresholder. After landing a couple hits, Nick had to jump back to avoid an overhead slam from the Thresholder's fists.
After a couple rounds of this, Sophia managed to slip in and blast the Thresholder with a Kougaon spell, causing it to freeze up and light to surround the lock.
Nick raised Earthen Heart and shot a beam of light into the lock, causing it to shatter briefly and expel a simple, gaseous creature that bore some resemblance to a Darkball, sporting a similar, jagged mouth and glowing, yellow eyes, seemingly made up of black, dark blue, and purple shadows.
"Somebody needs to whack that thing!" Maylin exclaimed. "The Possessor is what's bringing the door to life!"
Sophia did the honors of striking the Possessor a few times before finishing off with an upward spiral cut that caused the Possessor to screech in agony before flying back into the frozen Thresholder and reanimating it.
The Thresholder roared again before summoning a pack of Heartless to assist it. These Heartless were small and oval-shaped with short ears sprouting out of the top of its head. Its eyes were small and glowing yellow, and its Heartless emblem was on its chest. It had a jagged mouth and large wings attached to either sides, each sporting a silver spike close to its head. Their body was blue, and a short, silver chain connected its body to a large, red hook with a yellow base.
"And what are you bat things?" Nick wondered.
"I think those are Hook Bats," Haruka explained. "They're not too tough to beat, but there's usually a lot of them, and they like to do somersaults and blast ultrasonic waves. Here's a tip, though: if you can grab their hook, you can use them as a battering ram."
"Sounds like fun," Nick chuckled as the Thresholder started spewing dark energy balls from its lock, forcing all four keyblade wielders to scatter.
A few Hook Bats tried to follow Nick, but he reached out and snagged one of their hooks with the teeth of Earthen Heart. One cheeky smile later, Nick started swinging the Hook Bat in circles around him, bashing away any other Hook Bats who tried to get close to him.
After dodging a few more swings and swipes from the Thresholder, Maylin snagged another Hook Bat and started hitting the Thresholder's lock with it, eventually causing it to freeze up again.
Sophia performed the Release to drive the Possessor out of the door, only for the Possessor to float towards where Norman and the girl were hiding.
"Oh, no you don't!" Nick shouted as he jumped off of a nearby table to deliver a powerful downward chop that finally destroyed the Possessor.
This caused the Thresholder to evaporate into particles of darkness that dissipated to reveal the original basement door that it had been blocking off.
"Yay! You beat the scary door!" the young girl laughed as Norman walked her to find what she had been looking for.
"All in a day's work," Maylin quipped.
However, once their business in the basement was finished, the group went back up to the second floor, only to see Isabella staring down Emma.
"What should we do, Nick?" Sophia asked.
Thankfully, any awkward situations were quelled when Ray rang the dinner bell to catch everyone's attention. While the children of Grace Field House went to dinner, the trinity decided to patrol the outside of the house, mostly to keep an eye out for any Heartless or Nobodies, as well as to keep Isabella's suspicion off of them.
"Man, it just makes me sick to my stomach that someone's actually depraved enough to try and make children into demon chow," Maylin growled. "And trust me, Nick, I've seen some real messed up crap on our own travels."
"I think you're better off not knowing, because I know you'll want to find those monsters and kick their asses, distance be damned," Haruka chuckled. "But you can rest assured that we've taken care of most of them."
"Have you seen anything like that in your time with the Phantom Thieves, Sophia?" Nick wondered.
"The deviants I remember facing were mostly being manipulated by EMMA," Sophia answered. "The only truly despicable villains that the Thieves faced were from before I joined them."
"You know, I'm still surprised you didn't go back to your own world after everything with Yaldabaoth happened," Haruka admitted.
"Remember, I initially went on a journey with Ichinose to help her learn more about the human heart and emotions after she'd shunned them for so long," Sophia responded. "That's what I'd probably be doing if Ichinose was still with us..."
Nick quickly scooted closer so he could hug Sophia, knowing she was still a little broken up about losing her creator again.
The moment was interrupted when Maylin noticed something strange just through the clearing in the forest to the southwest of Grace Field House.
"Did you all feel that?" Maylin asked.
"How could I not?" Haruka quipped. "That feels like trouble."
"Let's go and check it out," Nick stated as the four keyblade wielders headed into the forest to search for the source of this odd dark energy.
After making it to a large clearing in the middle of the forest, with a small pond in the middle, Nick's eyes snapped over to a tree to the southwest, where a corridor of darkness could be seen opening up near said tree.
Out of the corridor stepped a middle-aged woman with straight shoulder-length white hair and rather long bangs, brown-gray eyes with reasonably long eyelashes, and wearing the signature black coat that marked her as a member of Organization XIII, the group of extremely powerful Nobodies that Eris had warned them about.
"You're with Organization XIII, aren't you?" Nick proclaimed.
"I'll take that as a compliment that you can tell just by looking at me," the woman responded. "My name is Rei Todoroki, and this is as far as you go."
"Oh, sure, like we're really going to be intimidated," Maylin taunted.
"What exactly is the Organization planning?" Sophia asked. "What do they need the power of Kingdom Hearts to do?"
"Do you really think we'd just tell you?" Rei reprimanded. "Regardless, I was sent here to dispose of all of you. You are clearly going to be a thorn in our side."
Rei flicked her right hand out and summoned a large shield to her right hand. This shield was shaped like an upside-down teardrop with two oval chunks taken out of each side, having the effect of making it vaguely resemble the Nobody symbol turned upside-down. The top of the shield was lined by four small spikes and a fifth, larger one in the middle. All of these spikes were red and resemble the spikes on the Nobody logo, the edges of the shield were black and the face of the shield was mostly a dark indigo, though the bottom tip was red, there was an upside-down red triangle marking on the top of the shield, and a red V shape in the middle of the shield.
Nick and the girls quickly summoned their keyblades as Rei prepared herself, Frozen Pride floating in front of her.
"Oh, wonderful, so we're playing that game, are we?" Maylin groaned.
Rei simply glided around the area, looking like she was concentrating, and Nick took a chance and moved in to strike at Frozen Pride with Earthen Heart a few times. Though it didn't seem to do any damage, it at least seemed like his attacks were landing.
"You fool," Rei taunted, swinging Frozen Pride upwards to surround herself with upwards-facing ice needles, forcing Nick to jump back to avoid getting skewered.
After the ice needles subsided, Nick once again went in to attack, but just before Rei could chastise him for trying the same thing twice, Nick snapped Earthen Heart down and cast a Fire spell around him that broke through and shattered Frozen Pride.
While Rei gasped in surprise at the destruction of her shield, Haruka took advantage of this opportunity and moved in to attack, landing four clean hits before sending Rei skidding backwards with a diving cross-chop.
Quickly regaining her composure, Rei glided backwards as Frozen Pride regenerated into her hands before gliding forwards to slash the shield's edge towards Haruka, who parried each swing before jumping back to put some distance between them.
"Don't push your luck!" Rei exclaimed, raising her right hand to create three icy shuriken that orbited around her in a fan formation.
Nick waited for the icy shuriken to dissipate before moving in to strike again, this time backflipping over Rei to hit her in the back where her shield couldn't protect her. Finishing the combo with an overhead spinning attack, Nick hopped away to avoid retaliation, knowing that his single long-range spell at the moment, Blizzard, obviously wouldn't do any good against Rei.
Rei stumbled back to her feet before swinging Frozen Pride upwards, causing five ice needles to sprout around her before they all spread out in a clockwise circle from her. Sophia parried one of the needles with Super Yo-Yo before summoning Pandora and casting Kougaon to blast Rei backwards, breaking her shield once again.
"Let's go to town, Haruka!" Nick exclaimed.
"Exactly what I was thinking," Haruka chuckled as she ran closer to Nick so they could join hands and unite into Valor Form, dual-wielding Divewing and Earthen Heart.
Before Rei could reform her shield, Valor Form Nick went on the offensive, rapidly striking Rei from multiple angles before knocking her into the air with a Brave Shot.
Maylin continued the combo from the ground, blasting Rei with a Thunder spell that sent her crashing to the ground.
"Enough of this," Rei growled, Frozen Pride reforming and spinning rapidly around her. "Now you will feel the piercing chill."
Snowflakes began to materialize rapidly around the clearing, swirling around Rei before exploding outwards as an icy shockwave that froze both Maylin and Valor Form Nick into ice blocks. Sophia just barely managed to escape by jumping back into the Gummiphone.
"You're mine," Rei laughed as she glided forward to slash Frozen Pride at her opponents, only for Sophia to jump back out of the Gummiphone and swing Super Yo-Yo to clash with the shield, driving Rei back.
While Rei was occupied, Sophia spun around and summoned Pandora to cast Dekunda on both Maylin and Valor Form Nick, glad Makoto had taught her that particular spell. The Dekunda spell shattered the ice entrapping them and allowed them to move normally again.
"Oof, that was not fun," Maylin groaned. "Not used to being on the receiving end of that kinda spell. Thanks for breaking us out, Sophia."
"Praise accepted," Sophia giggled.
"You're not getting away from me!" Rei shouted as she surrounded herself with five icy shuriken before unleashing a massive barrage of ice needles that followed Valor Form Nick.
"Somebody's gotta create an opening so we can finish her off!" Valor Form Nick exclaimed as he ran around to avoid the ice needles, a much easier task than normally since he could run a lot faster in Valor Form.
Maylin did the honors by casting Thunder again, this time as the "rain of bolts" variant to destroy the ice shuriken and give Valor Form Nick his opportunity.
Rei raised Frozen Pride to defend herself, but Valor Form Nick continued to strike the shield until he shattered it with a Sonic Strike, leaving Rei wide open.
Rei attempted to dance around the clearing and hope her shield would reform in time, but Sophia planted herself in front of her and lunged forward with a mighty cross chop that sliced through Rei's body.
A few seconds passed before Rei fell to her knees, little specks of darkness beginning to fall off of her body, no doubt a sign that she'd been defeated.
Valor Form Nick split back into Nick and Haruka now that the battle was clearly over, but much to Nick's surprise, Rei now looked almost sad that she'd been defeated. But according to Eris, Nobodies couldn't feel emotions due to lacking hearts of their own.
"I... I can't... let myself... fall like this..." Rei gasped even as her body began to disintegrate. "Enji... Fuyumi... Shoto... I can't... I can't..."
With that last call, Rei had spoken her last, her body fading back into the darkness.
Once the clearing was calm again, the four keyblade wielders all contemplated everything that had just occurred.
"Well, we actually took down a member of the Organization already!" Maylin laughed. "They're not as tough as I thought they'd be!"
"But I still worry that this will only embolden the remaining members," Sophia answered. "They will likely be much fiercer and more aggressive than Rei was."
"Hey, at least we know they're not unbeatable," Haruka quipped. "That's gotta count for something."
"And on that note, I think we've whittled away enough time dealing with the Organization," Nick stated. "We'd better get back to Grace Field House and make sure that Isabella's not causing any trouble for the kids."
As the quartet doubled back to get back to Grace Field House on the double, they missed movement in the trees.
"I guess they didn't need my help," Emperor Clow chuckled, Kingdom Key D resting on his shoulder as he jumped off to continue his own travels.
It was just about ten o'clock when the trinity returned to Grace Field House.
"It looks like everybody might be asleep," Haruka stated.
"Almost everybody," Maylin countered. "I'm pretty sure Emma and Norman are plotting something to deal with Isabella."
"You know, I'm honestly surprised that, aside from that giant demonic door, we haven't really seen any Heartless around, just a few Nobodies when we got here," Nick admitted. "After all, given the whole 'feeding children to demons' thing and what Isabella's really like..."
"Maybe they're just really good at hiding it," Maylin wondered.
"But shouldn't the Heartless be able to sense darkness in someone's heart no matter how well they try to hide it?" Sophia pondered as they re-entered Grace Field House.
"Yet another mystery we've gotta decipher, apparently," Nick quipped, only to accidentally bump into Emma on the way, who jumped back in a panic. "W-Whoa, whoa, easy, Emma, it's just us."
"Sorry if we scared you," Sophia apologized. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm all good," Emma answered.
"Isabella didn't give you any trouble, did she?" Maylin asked.
"We had a close call while you were gone, but everything should be good now," Emma replied. "I was actually going to meet up with Norman so we could discuss a plan to make our escape."
And so they did just that, with Norman lockpicking his way into a storage closet so they could grab some essential supplies for their scheme.
After this, they all headed out into the forest, towards the large wall that Norman had mentioned, the one that blocked anyone from leaving Grace Field House through the forest.
When they got close, though, pools of darkness opened up on the ground, spawning in a group of Hook Bats and a pair of new Heartless. This one in particular was a tall, skinny, humanoid creature with a spherical, black head with glowing yellow eyes. Its hour glass-shaped helmet, armored boots, breastplate, and gauntlets were all orange, the top of its helmet sported a short, curled, orange antenna on it, and it also seems to wear black pants with its Heartless emblem on its breastplate. The creature's lance was black with a silver, riveted base, a black handle and had a spiked ring around its center, its base sporting two curled, silver protrusions that resembled ears or horns, along with a jagged-toothed maw and angular, spiral, red "eyes".
"W-What the heck is that?" Emma gasped.
"Oh, wonderful, you're back," Maylin groaned as she summoned Counterpoint.
"Well, Nick, the guys with the lances are called Lance Soldiers," Haruka explained as she summoned Divewing. "They're usually not too troublesome, but they're pretty fast with that lance. It's weak to ice, but if it decides to go crazy, it's gonna be invulnerable for a few seconds, so try and take it out before then."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Nick quipped as he summoned Kingdom Key to his hands before going to town on the Hook Bats, letting a bunch of them surround him before casting a Fire spell to take them all out at once.
One of the Lance Soldiers lunged towards Norman in a rapid spinning attack, and though Emma placed herself in front of him to defend him, Haruka swung Divewing to knock it back, before destroying it with a jumping slash.
While Maylin and Sophia handled the rest of the Hook Bats, the remaining Lance Soldier started moving around like its lance had a mind of its own, and that gave Nick a bit of a crazy idea.
Nick let the Lance Soldier come to him, and just before it could strike, he reached out to grab the lance's handle with his free hand, and it took him with it as it tried to shake him off, flying all over the place. Nick took advantage of this and guided the lance into the ground before slamming it down, crushing the Lance Soldier and emitting a small shockwave that also destroyed the last few Hook Bats.
"That was... a ride," Nick chuckled. "Okay, so, what's your plan, you two?"
Norman showed off that he and Emma had stolen a bunch of tablecloths from the storage room, that they eventually planned to use as a makeshift rope to climb over the wall.
"But that still leaves the hard part, though," Norman admitted.
"The tracking devices, right?" Emma replied.
"And how to take all the other kids with you when you make your great escape," Maylin noted.
"H-Hey, Norman?" Emma asked. "I think we should probably tell Ray what's going on and get his opinion on all this."
"That's exactly what I was thinking, Emma," Norman responded.
"Yeah, the more of you all are in on this, the more minds you can put together to form a plan," Haruka stated.
"Ray doesn't seem like the type who would panic, and he's knowledgable on many things," Sophia explained. "I kind of picked that up the last few times I observed him."
"How about I talk to him when we get back to the house?" Norman offered.
"Or we could just do it now."
Everyone turned around at that voice and saw Ray standing there, staring intently at them.
"Sorry, but I followed you guys here," Ray admitted. "It's been bugging me all day, so I figured I'd just come right out and ask you."
Ray handed a book to Emma. "What exactly happened when you two went to the gate?" Ray demanded. "You know, when you went to deliver the bunny to Connie? You two came back empty-handed despite that, so..."
"Wow, you're sharp," Norman chuckled.
"And what's the deal with the four of you?" Ray quipped. "I know for a fact you're not part of our orphanage, so..."
"Well, that's... a bit of a story," Nick responded.
"But we might as well just spill the beans out here where we're not gonna get caught," Maylin stated.
Back at Grace Field House, Isabella continued to watch over the other children of the orphanage, though she stared at a certain tree in particular. She walked over to a nearby wall and leaned against it, watching the children have fun.
"It's time you dealt with those kids," a voice proclaimed to her, coming from right behind the door Isabella was standing near. "They know what this place is really for. It won't be long before they tell everyone else. After all, kids may be incredibly easy to entertain, but they're definitely not stupid."
"I know exactly what I'm doing," Isabella retorted. "It doesn't matter how much they prepare. I've taken all the necessary precautions."
"...we'll see, won't we?" the voice chuckled before disappearing through a corridor of darkness, thankfully unseen.
"...you underestimate me, Revali," Isabella stated as she glanced towards a faraway area, where another Sister was lying in wait.
"...so, you actually believe this whole story?" Maylin asked once Emma and Norman had finished explaining everything to Ray.
"Of course I believe it," Ray quipped. "Norman would never make up such an unbelievable tale. After all, he's not you, Emma."
Emma sighed in disbelief, realizing that Ray was onto something.
"That does leave us with some problems, though, like how many of the kids we'll be able to take with us..." Ray sighed.
"We're taking everyone," Emma immediately countered.
"...Emma, you're wishing for something that's impossible, and you know it," Ray retorted.
"I don't know, I think she can pull it off," Nick admitted. "I've seen a lot of things that would be considered 'impossible' before."
"Even so, we can't just escape," Ray responded. "That's not going to be enough. We have no idea what's beyond those walls, if anything. But consider this: there's a place we're meant to be shipped to. The fact that there's a farm and a buyer should give you a pretty good idea about what's lying in wait out there."
Emma had to admit that Ray had a point there.
"It's clearly a world of demons out there," Ray stated quite clearly. "There's no place for our kind in that world."
"Maybe that might explain why there's so few Heartless around here specifically," Haruka realized. "Because they're probably all traipsing around in the areas of the world that are infested by the demons. That would make more sense, given demons usually have a lot more darkness in their heart for the Heartless to prey on..."
"I know what you're going to say, Ray, but we're taking everyone and that's final," Emma proclaimed, surprising Ray. "I don't want to leave any of our family behind. I'd rather Connie be the last one those demons take. Even if there is no place for humans in a world of demons, then we'll just make our own!"
"You're being unreasonable, and you know it," Ray growled. "Norman, you need to say something to her! Tell her that if she goes through with this, you'll both die!"
"...you didn't see her the way I did that night," Norman answered. "I only thought she was crying because she was scared, but I was wrong. She may have been scared, but she was even more scared of just letting her family die. She's incredible, to be in that kind of position and still think about protecting others."
"Yeah, well, what if Emma is the one who dies because of your moronic scheme?!" Ray shouted.
"...she won't die," Norman responded, his gaze steeling. "I'll make sure of it. Anything to put a smile on her face."
"Ah, a kid after my own heart," Nick chuckled, knowing that this was exactly how he felt about his own family and loved ones.
"You say that you can't make a boat out of mud, but if you bake the mud, then it's possible," Norman quipped.
"You've lost it," Ray growled.
"Maybe I have," Norman laughed. "Maybe Emma and I have completely lost our minds. And that means you can't let us do this alone, right?"
Ray couldn't help but smile at that, clearly impressed by Norman's conviction.
"You jerk," Ray chuckled. "What kind of friend would I be if I did that?"
Just then, everyone heard a bell ringing from all the way back at Grace Field House.
"Wait, shouldn't we have had more free time?" Emma gasped.
"That means we'd probably better head back," Nick quipped.
Back at Grace Field House, Emma, Norman and Ray all headed for the dining room, where Isabella had told everyone to congregate.
However, before Isabella could explain what they'd been called for, something dropped down from the ceiling, seemingly phasing right through it.
It was a strange creature, almost reminiscent of a Darkball. The Heartless in question was a black sphere with several twisted tentacles sprouting out of it, two of which were large and sporting two metal bands around them, the other two smaller and placed more haphazardly around its body, the tips of all four colored orange. Its jagged maw was red on the inside, and its eyes were eerie, glowing, yellow circles with pitch-black rings around them. Its most prominent feature were the two large chains wrapped around its body, with each end of both attached to a conical weight.
"W-What is that?" one of the children gasped.
I've never seen a demon like that before, Isabella thought. They couldn't have gotten so hungry that they invaded the farm, did they? They certainly wouldn't have broken our agreement...
"Isabella, get everyone somewhere safe!" Nick exclaimed. "My friends and I will handle this thing."
Not wanting to blow her own cover, Isabella nodded as she started evacuating the children to the outside of Grace Field House.
"All right, ball boy, let's dance," Nick challenged as the trinity all summoned their keyblades, Sophia jumping out of Nick's Gummiphone and doing the same.
The Shadow Stalker bellowed a strange noise in response, its body unleashing a wave of darkness that began to transform the dining room into a shadowy, twisted mockery of itself with a completely black floor, almost as if it was possessing the room itself.
"You're not intimidating us!" Maylin exclaimed as she struck first, blasting the Shadow Stalker back with a Thunder spell before jumping over it as it charged towards her, then striking it a few times with Counterpoint.
In response, the Shadow Stalker flew up to the ceiling and absorbed itself into the chandelier on the roof, transforming it into a hideous spiked version of itself.
"Everybody, move!" Sophia shouted, and all four keyblade wielders took her advice and jumped away as the chandelier came crashing down to the floor, emitting a shockwave as it did so. The chandelier began to spin around, emitting laser beams and light blue flames.
Maylin ran to as far as the room would let her, thankfully just outside of the chandelier's range, and started rapidly casting Blizzard spells to hit the chandelier until it stopped spinning and showed an image of the Shadow Stalker's beady face.
Nick took that as his cue to get over there and jump into the air, aiming Kingdom Key at the chandelier to pour light power into it, much like he had against the Thresholder. This broke the Shadow Stalker's hold on the chandelier, driving it out, though the chandelier didn't return to normal.
Before Nick could start attacking again, the Shadow Stalker floated towards the window curtains, possessing them and turning them into large, grated claws that occasionally scratched across the floor to keep its opponents from approaching.
Haruka ran up to the claws once they'd stopped attacking and sliced Divewing across it, forcing the Shadow Stalker to drag itself out and sink into the floor.
A circle of light formed on the floor right underneath Haruka, and it quickly unfolded into a large mouth that swallowed her up for a few seconds before spitting her back out, having clearly taken a good bit of damage by the way she was stumbling from it.
Nick suddenly felt time slow down around him, which was usually a sign that he'd either acquired a new skill or relearned one he'd lost.
Nick raised Kingdom Key, its teeth now surrounded by a soft green light, and cast his spell. This caused a ring of green leaves to surround Haruka and heal the damage she'd taken from the Shadow Stalker.
"Hey, my buddy got the Cure spell back!" Maylin laughed.
"And just in time, too, apparently," Haruka chuckled. "Thanks for bailing me out, Nick."
"Not a problem," Nick quipped as he rushed the Shadow Stalker just as it emerged from the ground. Its beady eyes widened in shock as Nick delivered a powerful cross-slash across its body that caused it to seize up.
But instead of dissolving into wisps of darkness like a Heartless normally would, the Shadow Stalker simply fell backwards, its mouth opening wide, before surrounding itself in a cocoon of darkness.
"...I've got a bad feeling that we're not done here," Maylin groaned.
And sure enough, after a couple seconds of eerie silence, the cocoon expanded twice before shattering to reveal that the Shadow Stalker had transformed. This new Heartless was a massive creature with black skin, its entire body wrapped in teal thorns, and both of its wrists and ankles still had manacles on them. The chains on its arms were broken, but the chain connecting its feet wasn't. The creature also was muscular and had large hands and feet with rather thin limbs, each one sporting three digits with long red claws, and it also sported tow enormous orange horns and a massive orange mane. The creature also had a large heart-shaped hole in its chest, marking it as a Pureblood Heartless and not an Emblem.
"Oh, that's not pleasant," Haruka quipped.
The Dark Thorn roared in challenge and began galloping towards Haruka, swinging its claws in spiraling strikes. Haruka deftly swung Divewing to deflect each one so Nick could go on the offensive.
While the Dark Thorn was busy dealing with Haruka, Nick struck it four times across its back flank before knocking it back with a Blitz, a powerful jumping strike. In response, the Dark Thorn spread its hands out and summoned a barrage of dark orbs from the shadowy floor.
Sophia summoned Pandora to cast Kougaon and get rid of the dark orbs, then did a leapfrog off of Nick's shoulders in order to get enough height to smack the Dark Thorn in the face with a home-run swing from Super Yo-Yo, sending the Heartless reeling backwards.
"Don't take it personally," Sophia taunted.
The Dark Thorn simply growled back at her before clenching its fists and turning itself invisible.
"Okay, now that's just cheating!" Maylin shouted.
Still, Nick could detect where the Dark Thorn was by watching the immediate area for movement, or in a rather funny case, the Dark Thorn knocked over one of the floating chairs trying to get closer.
Nick switched over to Earthen Heart and swung at where he'd sensed the movement, managing to land a hit and make the Dark Thorn back off.
However, the Dark Thorn remained invisible despite this. Nick glanced upwards, towards the transformed chandelier, and thought of something.
When the Dark Thorn charged for him again, Nick parried the blow before jumping onto its hands and leaping high into the air, grabbing onto the stem of the chandelier and pushing, causing it to drop down on the Dark Thorn. Not content with just that, though, Nick began swinging the chandelier around the room, taking the Dark Thorn with it and throwing it back into the opposite wall, finally breaking its invisibility.
Sophia slipped in closer and hit the Dark Thorn in the back with another Kougaon spell, and it looked like they were close to finishing it off.
However, when Nick tried to sneak in for a finishing blow, the Dark Thorn noticed him and swept its left hand out to grab him, spin around, and throw him fiercely towards the opposite wall.
Before the others could think of what to do, Nick managed to land on a nearby pillar, spiral around it, and use the momentum to fling himself back into the Dark Thorn, striking it in the face with a harsh spinning attack.
This seemed to be the coup de grace, as the Dark Thorn reeled back before throwing its arms out, roaring in disbelief. The instant those roars stopped, light started pouring out of its body until it exploded in a flash of darkness.
Once the Dark Thorn was dead, the dining room returned to normal with everything intact, not reflecting any damage from the two straight fights.
"Now that's how we take care of business!" Maylin laughed.
"So you think."
The group all spun around to see another hooded figure, no doubt a member of Organization XIII, standing on the foot of the stairs.
"Oh, so another hoodie wants to get bonked like we did to little miss ice girl?" Maylin taunted.
"Trust me, the rest of us won't be as easy to beat," the figure chuckled. Nick could have sworn he'd seen a glimpse of the figure's face, and there was a bird's beak there. "But that's for another time. See ya."
And with that, the figure vanished through a corridor of darkness.
"This just keeps getting stranger and stranger, doesn't it?" Haruka admitted.
"Hey, at least we proved to them that we're not to be underestimated, right?" Nick quipped.
"All right, you can all come back now! We took care of the scary monster!" Sophia called out.
Once all of the children had made their way back into the dining room (with many of them even thanking the trinity for their help), Isabella introduced them all to another person wearing a dress much like hers.
"Everyone, this is Sister Krone," Isabella explained. "She'll be staying with us for the foreseeable future and helping us out."
"It's nice to meet you all," Krone proclaimed. She looked reasonable enough, but much like Isabella, her expression didn't betray her sadistic glee at the situation.
"We have another enemy," Norman whispered to himself.
"You four should probably leave as soon as you can," Ray whispered to the trinity. "The longer you stay here, the more she'll get suspicious, especially after what just happened."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Maylin admitted.
While Krone was introducing herself to the children, the trinity quietly slipped out of Grace Field House and made their way through the forest, eventually coming across what appeared to be a small plush bunny.
"W-wait, hold on, isn't that Connie's bunny?" Haruka wondered. "The one that belonged to the girl Norman and Emma saw getting... eaten by a demon?"
"What's it doing here?" Maylin asked, moving to pick up the bunny, only for it to be surrounded by a flash of light.
Earthen Heart flashed into Nick's hands, and he knew what he had to do.
As the bunny began to float into the air, Nick held Earthen Heart aloft as light energy began to swirl around the keyblade's teeth before projecting the image of a crown symbol, same as his pendant, underneath him.
Wind began to swirl around Nick until he found himself in the middle of a rusty-orange starry sky. The plush bunny shined brightly before firing a burst of light into the sky that eventually formed into a large keyhole.
Nick jumped back and twirled Earthen Heart around a couple times before firing a beam of light from the keyblade into the keyhole. Reality seemed to shatter around the keyhole for a brief moment before light began to shine from it, and after a loud "CLICK" resounded, Nick found himself back in the forest.
"Should we hold onto this?" Sophia asked. "If we return it to Grace Field House, Isabella might catch onto what we're planning."
"Point well made, Sophia," Nick answered. "We'll keep it with us for now, just until we can help the kids with their escape."
"Hopefully that's sooner and not later, considering the circumstances," Haruka noted as she activated her teleporter to send them all back to the Gummi Ship.
Back on the Gummi Ship, before Haruka could take the wheel, the entire ship suddenly began moving all on its own.
"H-Hey, what's going on?" Haruka gasped, clearly not expecting that. "We didn't get hacked, did we?"
"I didn't think it was possible to hack a Gummi Ship," Maylin admitted.
"It looks like we're heading towards Lost Jerusalem again," Sophia noticed, pointing out into the Ocean Between towards the structure that represented Lost Jerusalem. "I wonder if the Restoration Committee is who's drawing us there."
"Only one way to find out, I guess," Nick quipped as the Gummi Ship approached its apparent destination.
"It looks like everything is calm for the moment," Sophia stated while the group walked through the Borough towards the Restoration Committee Headquarters.
However, when they actually reached the headquarters, they noticed that the door was wide open, and a bunch of Soldiers were running out of the building.
"Yeah, not on our watch, boys!" Maylin exclaimed as she cast a Thunder spell to blast the Soldiers and make short work of them.
"We'd better go and make sure everything in there's all right," Nick proclaimed.
When they entered the building, the only one there at the moment was Julius, a little surprised but otherwise unharmed.
"Oh, thank goodness you're okay, Your Majesty," Maylin stated.
"Was it you who summoned us here?" Haruka asked.
"Yes, indeed, but it seemed that in my doing so, I left myself open to those infernal Heartless," Julius responded. "Of course, such lowly Heartless could not truly do much to me with my powers, but I was forced to hold back so none of the equipment was damaged."
"Yeah, Captain Matthews might have your head if you did that," Maylin chuckled.
"Anyways, what's with the impromptu call?" Nick wondered.
"Well, I happened to stumble upon this in the Zero District while MOMO and Junior were out on an assignment," Julius answered, handing off a very familiar book to Nick.
"H-Hey, that's the Pipo Storybook!" Nick gasped when he recognized it. The Pipo Storybook was a magical book that contained a whole entire world inside it, in which a bunch of rampaging monkeys were commanded by an evil monkey named Specter to conquer the world. Nick had helped a boy named Jimmy foil Specter's evil schemes inside the storybook world on their previous adventure.
"Yes, I remember that you were friends with everyone inside the storybook, so when I found it, I decided to tell you," Julius answered.
"How about you go and see how Jimmy and the gang are doing in there?" Maylin stated. "We'll cover for ya while you're gone, 'kay?"
Nick simply nodded, and Julius opened the Pipo Storybook and held it aloft, a bright green light shining from its pages.
Nick only had a couple seconds to notice that some of the book's pages were missing before the green light transported him inside the world of the book.
Nick landed inside what appeared to be an outdoor dining room of the adjacent building. This definitely didn't resemble the laboratory that Jimmy and Natalie had used as their home base before.
Before Nick could ponder what might have happened, he heard a loud crash coming from inside the nearby house, along with a lot of commotion.
Just then, a Pipo Monkey came jumping through the nearby window, and seeing him standing there, began to charge towards him, flailing its arms wildly.
"Oh, please," Nick chuckled as he raised Kingdom Key to parry the arm flail before striking back with a cross chop that stunned the Pipo Monkey long enough for someone else to jump through the window and rush the Pipo Monkey, swinging a very familiar Monkey Net to capture the monkey.
"Got it!" the girl exclaimed, just then noticing Nick standing there. "Um, who might you be?"
"Well, that's a story," Nick admitted. "But let's just say I've dealt with these monkeys before. How about we get inside and I'll explain?"
"Sounds like a plan," the girl replied. "Oh, my name's Yumi, by the way."
Yumi was about Nick's age, with lightly tanned skin and big green eyes, long burgundy hair tied into twin pigtails with two small pink ribbons. She was wearing a light pink jacket top with white lining with a single fuchsia line through the center, white pockets, a zipper, a heart on the left corner of her chest, and reddish-pink sleeves, along with blue gloves, a white ruffled skirt and black bicycle short-shorts, orange-colored tennis shoes, and a light blue-colored bunny backpack on her back.
Once they'd made their way back into the house, Nick and Yumi meant with Yumi's brother Kei and their aunt Aki, after transporting the captured monkey back to where it belonged.
"Just what the heck is going on here?" Yumi wondered.
"I guess this means that everything Natalie told us was the truth," Aki admitted. According to Aki, Nick had learned that this was the third time the Pipo Monkeys had been let loose, and this time around, they were broadcasting strange television shows across the world that turned anyone who witnessed them into "mindless couch potatoes", Natalie's words, unable to do anything but watch the shows. No doubt this was so that the monkeys could take over unopposed, and Nick had a sinking suspicion that Specter was once again behind this particular scheme.
"So the monkeys are causing havoc again, huh?" Nick quipped. "I guess it was only a matter of time..."
"We have to capture all of those monkeys and stop their television shows," Aki proclaimed. "Yumi, Kei, Nick, can we count on you?"
"Of course!" Kei and Yumi exclaimed in unison.
"I already helped out before, so you bet I'm rarin' to kick some monkey butt again," Nick chuckled.
"Kei and Yumi, I want you two to head out into the shows that the monkeys are creating, and capture them so the shows will stop broadcasting," Aki explained. "Nick, I assume you remember the last time, right?"
"Yeah, the storybook was missing quite a few pages when we found it before, and those pages all correlated to some of Specter's tougher minions," Nick responded. "Guess that means I'll have to come back when I've found some of the pages..."
"We'll take care of the monkeys while you're doing that, so don't worry about us, 'kay?" Yumi giggled.
"I'll be back as soon as I can, then," Nick answered as he ran out of the house to warp out of the storybook, while Aki moved to start rearranging the outside area into a suitable hub for the three of them to work.
"Well, that was quick, huh?" Maylin quipped once Nick exited the storybook. "What's the verdict?"
"As you might be able to guess, Specter and the monkeys are on the loose again, and I couldn't help but notice some of the pages are missing from the book," Nick explained. "Which means we're going page hunting again."
"Hey, we did it before, right?" Haruka responded.
"I'd been meaning to tell Ziggy that we'd found the book, considering it's apparently one of this world's most cherished elements, but maybe we should keep this to ourselves for the moment," Julius stated. "Now, then, this book isn't all that's cherished."
Dorothy appeared in the building almost as if on cue, having heard Julius speaking and knowing what he wanted. Dorothy flipped open her grimoire and concentrated on the spell she was looking for.
"Dream Magic: Spirit Convergence!" Dorothy shouted, a bright flash of pink light surrounding Nick's free hand and eventually forming into an oval-shaped silver charm connected to a necklace. On the jewel in the middle of the charm was an imprinted image of a witch hat.
"That's a little present for you, Nick," Dorothy giggled. "Simply concentrate on the charm and its power with all your heart, and you need only say the world to summon an ally who will assist you in your time of need."
"Ah, like the gems you reforged on our last adventure, right?" Haruka quipped.
"Essentially, except that the fellow you can summon with these charms are not refugees from destroyed worlds, but simply friends from another world," Dorothy explained. "Your connection will allow you to reach between worlds and summon them to your side."
"Now go forth, with your friends by your side," Julius proclaimed.
"You got it, Your Majesty!" Maylin proclaimed.
"We're definitely not going to let Specter have his way a third time, so we'll probably be back once we've found those missing pages," Nick stated.
However, as the trinity left the Restoration Committee building, they were swiftly surrounded by a group of Large Bodies and Soldiers, along with the occasional Lance Soldier.
"Oh, man, why does this keep happening?!" Maylin exclaimed. "Why do they always keep hounding us when..."
Maylin trailed off when she realized the common element. They were always suddenly surrounded by Heartless whenever Nick had made a new summonable ally, and that conveniently always allowed Nick to test out his new ally's powers.
"Well, then, Nick, shall we?" Maylin chuckled.
Nick brought out his new summon charm and clutched it tightly, Maylin and Haruka being surrounded by an aura of light. "Oh, hell yes, we shall," Nick quipped.
Maylin and Haruka vanished from sight as Nick held the Sunshine Charm into the air. "Give me strength!" Nick exclaimed.
("Genjitsu Mysterium" by Aqours plays)
A large, navy-blue magical glyph erupted from the Sunshine Charm, expanding rapidly until it completely surrounded Nick, before descending down to the ground, materializing his new ally by his side in a flash of blue light.
She appeared to be a young witch about his age with navy blue hair styled into a high bun on the right side and pinkish-red eyes, wearing a dark blue witch outfit.
Yohane looked around before noticing Nick and smiling brightly, pulling out a magical harp even as the Heartless continued to approach them.
One of the Large Bodies slid forward on its belly to attack then, but Yohane strummed on her harp and sang a few notes that completely stopped the Large Body in its tracks, allowing Nick to slip behind it and whack it a few times to get rid of it.
As different Heartless approached, Yohane continued to strum on her harp and sing a variety of short songs, each with a different effect, ranging from binding the enemy in their spot so Nick could attack, to drawing enemies in closer and allow Nick deal with multiple targets at once, to even a passive song that kept Nick's energy up.
After a while of this, only a few Large Bodies remained on the field, and Nick and Yohane both nodded to each other and decided that now was the time to end this.
Yohane played a longer melody on her harp, and this caused another magical glyph to appear, summoning her wolf friend Lailaps to their side.
Yohane gestured to Nick as she jumped onto Lailaps, Nick doing the same so they could both ride the rather large wolf.
Lailaps nodded as she charged through the Large Bodies before turning around to do it again, leaving a trail of magic behind her with each movement. After about five passes, Lailaps skidded to a stop and roared loudly, the magic created by her charges erupting into a swell of power that easily destroyed the remaining Large Bodies.
Yohane jumped off Lailaps and strummed one last tune on her harp before winking to Nick and vanishing in a flash of navy blue light, reforming into the Sunshine Charm in Nick's hands.
"Woo, that was fun!" Maylin laughed once she and Haruka had returned to the area.
"Your summons seem different now, but still just as powerful as they were on our previous adventure," Sophia quipped. "Here's hoping we can make even more allies on our journey."
"I'm sure we will, Sophia," Nick answered as the group headed back to the Borough so they could return to the Gummi Ship and continue their journey.
To be continued...
New summon acquired!
Yohane, Sunshine in the Mirror
Drive Gauge Points Required: 3
Anime of Origin: Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR- (2023)
Theme Song: "Genjitsu Mysterium" by Aqours
What They Do: Yohane is a primarily defense-focused summon, using her various magic songs to debilitate the enemy. Every Heartless killed while Yohane is active fills the Limit Gauge by 1/6th.
Summon Actions
Binding Song: Press /\ to have Yohane strum a song that binds all on-screen enemies in their place for a few seconds.
Draining Song: Press ] to have Yohane strum a song that knocks all on-screen enemies back, dealing damage and procuring small HP prizes from each.
Striking Song: Press X to attack an enemy, followed by Yohane strumming a song to deal extra damage on contact with each swing.
Lailaps Charge!: [FINISHER] When the Charge Gauge is completely full, select Lailaps Charge! on the Command Menu to summon Lailaps and barrel through all nearby enemies multiple times. Press /\ again before the Limit Gauge runs out to end the attack with a swell of magic that damages all nearby enemies.
On the next episode...
Nick: Hey, I think this is a familiar world.
Maylin: Yeah, we're back on Terca Lumireis again, aren't we?
Haruka: And it looks like there's once again trouble at Nordopolica, huh? You think they're still holding tournaments?
Sophia: That may have to wait. I sense malicious intent from somewhere inside the coliseum, not to mention a great power...
Maylin: Oh, that definitely can't be good if those goons from Leviathan's Claw are up to no good again...
Nick: I don't think that's Leviathan's Claw.
Haruka: Really?
Nick: It looks like this game is gonna be a lot more complicated than I thought, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse II, "Ballad of the Blastia"!
Nick, Maylin, Haruka, Marie and Sophia: May your hearts be your guiding key!