On Today's Episode: The trinity is called back to the Kingdom of Clow by their queen Su Yung, as something has happened to the Cornerstone of Light, a magical jewel that protects the kingdom from the forces of darkness. But when the cause is revealed to be an old foe returned from her destruction, the trinity will have to journey to a very special world in order to fix this problem. Can they figure out the secret of the White Space in order to save the Kingdom of Clow before it's overrun by darkness?
For Today's World: This is a bit of an interesting case, since I don't think there was ever a "Kingdom" of Clow in Cardcaptor Sakura, so this is technically an original world. The Kingdom of Clow is where a bunch of characters from Cardcaptor Sakura currently reside, taking up the job of monitoring and protecting the worlds. And of course, we've also got our Timeless River stand-in here.
Episode 6: Echoes of Eternity
"Looks like we've found our next world," Nick quipped as Haruka continued to pilot the Gummi Ship through the Ocean Between, searching for their next destination.
The structure that Nick had noticed resembled a classic medieval castle, though hanging out from the underside was a much more technologically advanced glass done filled with what looked like, of all things, Gummi Ship parts.
"Is it me, or does that kinda clash?" Nick noted.
"...wait, wait," Maylin gasped. "Isn't that...?"
"No doubt about it, that's the Kingdom of Clow," Haruka answered.
"Is that the world the two of you came from?" Sophia wondered.
"Just me, actually," Maylin admitted. "Haruka's from a different world. The Kingdom of Clow is actually part of an alternate dimension in my own home world, a place where Emperor Clow set up shop a long time ago."
"Essentially, it's the 'home base' for us and our friends, who have dedicated ourselves to fighting the threat of the Heartless," Haruka continued. "I lost my own world about five years ago, and I was brought to this one by Emperor Clow so I could help them out."
"You think Emperor Clow might be down there?" Maylin gasped.
"I don't think it would be that easy, to be fair," Haruka sighed.
"Regardless, if the Kingdom of Clow actually showed up in the Ocean Between, then that must mean something's going on down there," Nick realized.
"...and that's a serious problem if it is," Maylin gasped. "Let's just say that the kingdom has special defenses that keep the darkness from getting in."
"Then we'd better disembark and see just what's happening," Haruka proclaimed as she piloted the Gummi Ship towards the Kingdom of Clow. "Prepare for landing, everybody!"
Once the Gummi Ship was parked in the main hangar, the trinity all stepped off the ship and into the Gummi Ship Control Room, which had a winding stairway that led upwards back into the main castle.
"Yeah, that definitely clashes," Nick chuckled.
"It was Emperor Clow's idea," Maylin quipped.
Haruka, however, was looking around at the room, and though everything appeared to look the same as the last time they'd been here, she still had that uneasy feeling.
"I think you were on the money, Maylin," Haruka stated. "Something here just doesn't feel right..."
"There you two are!"
Nick glanced upwards towards the top of the stairway, where two young ladies about their age were waiting. One of them had short brown hair and emerald green eyes, and was wearing a rather flashy magical outfit. Her partner had wavy waist-length grayish-violet hair and purple eyes and was more modestly dressed, but she did have a pair of shoulder pauldrons.
Both Sakura Kinomoto and Tomoyo Daidouji raced down the stairway to meet up with the trinity halfway.
"Oh, thank goodness you made it back all right," Sakura gasped. "Things are really nuts here, and..."
"Whoa, whoa, Sakura, calm down, okay?" Maylin responded. "What's going on here?"
"Long story short, the castle's in danger," Tomoyo answered. "The queen might be able to shed some more light on what's happening, so let's get the three of you to the library on the double."
Sakura and Tomoyo both raced out of the Gummi Ship Hangar, and the trinity followed them out into the Courtyard, a large circular area in just about the direct center of the castle.
"Wow, this place is pretty awe-inspiring," Nick admitted.
"You get used to it after a while," Maylin quipped.
While Sakura and Tomoyo scanned the area for the right way to go, they almost missed a Heartless creeping towards them.
Sophia quickly jumped out of the Gummiphone and summoned Super Yo-Yo to parry the charging Heartless and knock it back. This particular Heartless had a thin, armless body with short, thin legs without feet, a spherical blue head covered by two halves of a dark brown shell resembling a stereotypical bomb, a large, jagged opening around the middle of its shell exposing its glowing yellow eyes, its top half sporting a long, white fuse and its Heartless emblem embedded on the front of the top half of the shell.
"W-What the hell is that?!" Maylin gasped.
"That would be a Minute Bomb," Haruka explained as the trinity all summoned their keyblades for battle. "They don't really do much, but they will try get up close and self-destruct in your face. Either lure surrounding enemies into the blast, or try and parry it to break its fuse so it can't do anything."
"Not that, you doof, I know what a Minute Bomb is," Maylin retorted. "I'm more concerned with the fact that there are Heartless in the castle! That's not supposed to be possible, right?!"
"That's... part of the problem," Sakura admitted. "Let's just get to the library. I hope Her Majesty is okay..."
More Minute Bombs appeared alongside a small group of Shadows, and the trinity got to work, Nick jumping over one Minute Bomb's charge attack before whacking it in the back with Blastia Core to send it flying into a group of Shadows and explode, obliterating all of them.
Maylin jumped around to avoid the Minute Bombs before casting Thunder to blast a bunch of Minute Bombs with a rain of lightning bolts from above, while Haruka let a bunch of Shadows get close to her before slamming Divewing into the ground, creating an upheaval around her that destroyed them.
Even Sophia got into the action, spinning Super Yo-Yo around her like they were her actual yo-yos to knock away another group of Minute Bombs that were trying to surround her.
When the area appeared to be clear, Tomoyo guided the group through a secret passage behind a curved wall to a door that took them to the Colonnade, an upwards staircase that took them through a long hallway towards the library and even past a much larger door.
The problem is, there were Heartless practically overflowing in this area. Granted, they were all the weak Shadows, but there were still hundreds of them.
"Okay, this is just getting ridiculous!" Maylin shouted.
"Let me give it a try," Sakura responded, bringing out her Clow Staff and twirling it around. Tomoyo got the idea pretty quickly and threw a Clow Card towards Sakura. "Windy, become the chain of punishment and bind my enemy!"
Sakura struck the card with her staff, and it released an ethereal woman made almost entirely of the winds who flew forward and bound most of the Shadows in their spot with tendrils of wind, making them easy pickings for everybody else.
With this in mind, it thankfully didn't take long to reach the Royal Library, where Nick could now see a young Chinese woman in her twenties or thirties, with red makeup over her piercing brown eyes. She had long black hair, tied in an old Chinese style, and wore a golden fan hairpiece with a circular green gemstone and a pair of wings on either side, a long cream-colored flowing skirt, and orange and red traditional Chinese dress over top, with sleeves so long they fell past her hands, along with a pair of sparkling silver ribbons.
Both Maylin and Haruka snapped to attention. "Your Majesty Su Yung, we're back!" Maylin proclaimed.
"Oh, good, you are all unharmed," Su Yung sighed in relief.
"Um, Your Majesty, were you the one who brought us here?" Haruka asked.
"Yes, I was, though I told Sakura and Tomoyo to contact you," Su Yung answered. "As you can no doubt tell, something is very wrong here."
"Yeah, like, what the heck are the Heartless doing in the castle?!" Maylin gasped.
"Oh, my, so those infernal creatures are the Heartless," Su Yung stated, just now noticing that Nick was there as well. "Ah, so you must be Nick, I have heard much about you from Emperor Clow. He says you're a very brave young man."
"I'm just doing what I can to help, really," Nick quipped. "Do you, um... know where he is right now?"
"I'm afraid I do not, but for the moment, we should focus more on the matter at hand," Su Yung proclaimed. "There is something I would like you all to come and see. Shall we make for the audience chamber?"
"Wait a minute, Your Highness, we haven't gotten the chance to warn everyone else in the castle about the danger," Sakura gasped. "We need to make sure they're all hiding somewhere safe!"
"Then let's go tell 'em," Nick answered.
"The whole castle?" Maylin sputtered. "This place is huge, Nick!"
"I think we can cover more ground if we split up," Haruka stated.
"I'll make sure everyone knows what's happening," Nick proclaimed, though Maylin feverishly shook her head.
"No offense, Nick, but you don't know this place," Maylin responded. "You'd just get hopelessly lost."
"...that's a good point," Nick conceded. After all, he didn't really have a good sense of direction when he was a kid, something he definitely shared with Marie. "Then how about Sophia and I stay with the queen?"
"That'll work," Haruka quipped. "All right, you guys, let's motor!"
With that in mind, both Haruka and Maylin followed Sakura and Tomoyo out of the Royal Library, the two pairs then splitting up to cover more ground.
It was only then that Nick noticed what appeared to be a glowing page floating near the bookcase at the other end of the library.
"Hey, I think that's one of the pages from the Pipo Storybook," Nick gasped as he took hold of the page and it shrank into the Gummiphone for storage. "Guess we're heading back to Lost Jerusalem when this is all over..."
Sophia jumped back out of Nick's Gummiphone and bowed to Su Yung. "It is nice to meet you, Your Highness," Sophia proclaimed. "I am Sophia, humanity's companion."
"That is something I have wanted to ask for a while now, Nick," Su Yung wondered. "How do you have a Gummiphone? Only this world has the technology to make one."
"That's one question I still don't have an answer to," Nick admitted. "I was given this phone by my parents a little over a year ago as a present. I guess mom and dad didn't realize it was a one-of-a-kind thing, though now I'm wondering where they got it. Maylin and Haruka said the same thing, too, and the interesting thing is, my Gummiphone came with Sophia in it."
"I was created to be an artificial intelligence to assist humanity," Sophia explained. "When my world was taken by the Heartless, I evidently found myself trapped inside the Gummiphone, though I could still do everything I was created to do from within it. Due to events that happened in Lost Jerusalem, I managed to gain a physical body of my own through the strength of my heart."
"Now that you mention it, Sophia, I wonder if Ichinose had somehow gotten hold of a Gummiphone before everything went to hell," Nick noted. "Considering you were inside it when I got the Gummiphone, it would make sense, right?"
"We might never know now, though, with Ichinose gone," Sophia sighed.
"Hey, buck up, Sophia," Nick responded as he gently pulled Sophia closer to him. "Our boat runs on happy faces, remember? I'm sure you'll see Ichinose again someday. You never know, she could be back in your own world waiting for you."
"...yes, that is true," Sophia admitted before she looked back up at Nick and smiled. "But for now, I want to stay with you."
Sophia leaned back in and hugged Nick tightly. One thing Nick had learned about Sophia since she'd gained a physical body was that she was very affectionate, always giving him hugs whenever she could. Nick surmised that it had something to do with Sophia initially being an artificial intelligence who had only had a physical body inside the oddball world of the Metaverse.
Su Yung couldn't help but smile at the display.
"We should probably get going, Nick," Sophia stated. "The castle needs our help."
"You said something about the audience chamber, Your Highness?" Nick asked.
"Yes, let us be off," Su Yung proclaimed.
Nick and Sophia both exited the Royal Library with Su Yung right behind them, only to be accosted by a swarm of Shadows and Soldiers when they got back out into the Colonnade.
"You Heartless will not touch Her Highness while I'm still here!" Sophia shouted, summoning Pandora to cast Kougaon in front of her, blasting away a bunch of Shadows that had tried to gang up on then.
Nick even sent a bunch of Shadows flying with a few wicked swings from Kingdom Key, only for a pair of Soldiers to leap over him and charge straight for Su Yung.
"...oh, please, do not think you intimidate me," Su Yung proclaimed, waving her hands to unleash a barrage of water magic that blasted the Soldiers clean across the hallway so fast that Nick and Sophia didn't even see them fly before they burst into wisps of darkness against the outer walls.
Through this relay, it didn't take long to reach the large door in the middle of the Colonnade, which Nick could now see was locked by a veil of silver magic.
Su Yung walked up to the door and raised her hand.
"As soon as I realized something was wrong, I made sure to seal this room off in order to prevent any further problems," Su Yung explained.
"Must be something pretty powerful in there," Nick quipped.
The magical veil dispelled itself, only for a small part of the lower door to open separately, granting them access.
Unfortunately, when they entered the Audience Chamber where Emperor Clow's throne rested, a bunch of Heartless had already made their way inside.
This particular Heartless had a spherical black head with glowing yellow eyes, placed near the base of a tall, vaguely pyramidal structure that was predominantly red with yellow and lavender patterns decorating its edges. Four large, conical, yellow spikes were set in its base, and three smaller, silver ones adorned its top, along with a curled, brown antenna on its top.
"They even made it in here, too?!" Su Yung gasped.
"I've got this," Nick quipped as he and Sophia charged ahead to attack the new Heartless.
The Bolt Towers occasionally bent backwards before slamming their bodies down to unleash a shockwave, but Nick simply jumped over the strike and started whacking the head with Blastia Core, since that seemed to be its weak point.
After destroying a Bolt Tower, Nick moved to help Sophia with one she was trying to fight, only for another Bolt Tower to snag Nick inside a laser bolt and carry him into the air.
Not wanting to be blasted, Nick pushed back against the ray's pull, eventually spinning around and kicking the blast back into the Bolt Tower, blowing it up and unleashing an explosion of electricity that destroyed a few other Bolt Towers that got too close to the blast.
Eventually, the three of them were able to make it to Emperor Clow's throne, but still more Bolt Towers were spawning in to harass them.
"Oh, give me a freakin' break here!" Nick shouted.
Su Yung jogged towards the throne before bending down and pressing a hidden button underneath the left armrest. A loud rumbling began as the cement slab the throne rested on started to move, eventually exposing a hidden pathway underneath the throne. A massive flash of light started to reverberate from the hidden passage until it engulfed the entire room.
When the flash of light died down, every single one of the Bolt Towers had been destroyed instantly.
"...wow," Nick gasped.
"I concur," Sophia answered.
"The room below us is known as the Hall of the Cornerstone," Su Yung explained. "Our castle has always been safe from other dark elements, thanks to the Cornerstone of Light we keep safe down there."
"The Cornerstone of Light?" Nick repeated. "I'm willing to bet that someone's messing with the Cornerstone in some way, and that's why everything's as whacked out as it is."
"Let us go and see," Sophia answered as they headed down the stairway into the Hall of the Cornerstone, where they could see a large crystal sphere filled with swirling lights sitting upon an ornate pedestal. Large, evil-looking thorny vines were twisted all around the room.
At that moment, both Haruka and Maylin skidded to a stop inside the Hall of the Cornerstone, with Sakura and Tomoyo right behind them.
"Hey, guys, did we miss... anything..." Maylin asked, only to trail off when she saw all of the thorns constricting the room. "W-What the hell is this?!"
"These thorns could only be the work of someone incredibly evil," Su Yung pondered. "But who, exactly?"
They would get their answer almost immediately, as a burst of evil green light erupted from a spot near the Cornerstone, and from it came a slightly transparent Kuon Ichinose, the creator of Sophia and the orchestrator of most of Nick's previous adventure, having been the one to guide villains from many different worlds to overrun the worlds with the Heartless in a misguided attempt to claim the power of Kingdom Hearts.
"Oh, there's no freakin' way," Maylin gasped.
"I-Ichinose?" Sophia gasped.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Ichinose chuckled. "I guess I should have figured I'd see my own misguided creation again. And look, all of your friends are here, too. How convenient for me."
"You wanna say that to my face?!" Maylin challenged, summoning Counterpoint.
"All in good time, my dear mage," Ichinose retorted. "I promise that you'll be able to partake of my vengeance very soon, but you must learn patience first. Apparently, that's not something the four of you share..."
"And just what do you think you're doing here?" Su Yung proclaimed, water magic swirling around her.
"Ah, the beautiful queen Su Yung, radiant as always," Ichinose quipped, bowing in a slightly mocking way. "I guess you could say I'm on a bit of a property venture. I'm looking to make this castle my own, but it's far too 'bright' for my own plans. I guess that means I'll just have to fill every single room with my own personal touch of darkness."
Ichinose attempted to touch the Cornerstone, only for it to pulse and push her hand away.
"You'd better back off right now, if you know what's good for you, Ichinose," Nick proclaimed as he hefted Kingdom Key. "We stomped you once, and I'm sure we can do it again!"
"You don't look as tough as you did last time, you know," Ichinose taunted. "I wouldn't put too much stock in your own abilities. But you know that I'll only stop once this castle and everything in it belongs to me."
With a soft cackle, Ichinose vanished completely.
"She still hasn't lost that hag energy, has she?" Maylin sighed.
"I'm more curious as to how she's still up and kicking," Haruka wondered.
"We'll find her and make her answer," Sophia proclaimed. "I have some questions to ask her myself."
"I still am not sure how Ichinose is doing all of this," Su Yung admitted. "That's why I was in the library earlier. I was searching through all of our records, but I couldn't find a single clue that could help us..."
"...you know, maybe we should go ask somebody who knows a lot of things that aren't in books," Haruka stated. "Like, say, a powerful wizard?"
"Oh, yeah, we can go ask Julius if he could help us!" Maylin exclaimed.
"That sounds like a fantastic idea," Su Yung responded. "Julius may know something about this mess. We should ask him for advice posthaste."
"There's a shortcut through that door over there that will take you back to the Gummi Ship hangar," Tomoyo stated, pointing to a hidden door that thankfully hadn't been covered by thorns. "Please hurry back."
"Trust us, we're already gone," Nick quipped as the trinity all entered the secret passage so they could return to the Gummi Ship as quickly as possible.
After a short trip back to Lost Jerusalem, the trinity entered Restoration Committee Headquarters, only to find nobody there.
"Oh, come on, you guys, this is the worst time for you all to be away on an assignment," Maylin groaned.
Almost as if on cue, a cloud of magic appeared near the computer console and Dorothy stepped out of it.
"Oh, it was you," Dorothy giggled. "I kinda figured it'd be you."
Dorothy walked up to the trinity, studying them closely. "It definitely looks like you've learned a bit since the last time, huh?" Dorothy chuckled.
"Wait, wait, wait, can we please talk about the problem here?!" Maylin shouted. "Ichinose is back, and she's trying to take over Clow Castle!"
"Wait, are you serious?" Dorothy gasped. "Then we'd better get there quickly."
Dorothy flipped open her grimoire, turning quickly to the page she was looking for.
"Julius is busy with the other members of the Restoration Committee, but I can still help you guys out," Dorothy proclaimed. "Now let's get going. Dream Magic: Dreamy Gateway!"
A swirling vortex of pink light appeared right above Dorothy, who quickly jumped inside of it, the trinity following as well.
In what felt like a split second, they were now back in the Hall of the Cornerstone, and Dorothy walked over to where the Cornerstone was resting, studying both the Cornerstone and the thorns choking the room. After that, she flipped through a few pages of her grimoire and began looking for something.
"What do you think is happening, Dorothy?" Su Yung asked.
Dorothy's perpetual smile fell briefly when she put everything together, and the trinity knew that Dorothy was usually always smiling. If she wasn't, then things must have been serious.
"...this is very not good," Dorothy admitted. "In fact, I'd say this officially qualifies as an emergency. Julius taught me a very powerful spell recently, but he told me only to use it in absolutely dire circumstances."
"And I'd guess from your expression that this qualifies as such a dire circumstance?" Nick wondered.
"Nailed it in one, buddy," Dorothy answered, flipping her grimoire to the page she was looking for. Her body was suddenly surrounded by a fierce aura of pink light as she concentrated for a few moments. "Dream Magic: Spatial Conjuring!"
A vortex of pink light spiraled around a spot just to the left of the Cornerstone for a few seconds before forming into a large silver door.
"What's the door for, Dorothy?" Maylin wondered.
"This door, my friends, is actually a gateway that leads to a very special world," Dorothy explained. "I don't know what exactly is happening, but I know for an absolute fact that somebody in that world is responsible for what's happening here in the castle."
"Then let's go and pound this nutball already!" Maylin exclaimed.
"Wait just a minute," Dorothy responded. "The bad guys needs to be stopped, sure, but there's also something else you need to do. Somewhere in that world, there should be another door that's pretty much exactly like this one. I've got a feeling that the bad guys are using that door to screw with things here, and as long as that door stays open, this castle is in big trouble. Nick, listen to me, okay? You need to find that other door and lock it with your keyblade."
"Sounds simple enough, really," Nick quipped. "Find bad guys, give bad guys the boot, lock the door."
"There's one last thing you need to know, though, and this one is super important," Dorothy cut in. "Like I mentioned, you're heading into a very special world. While you're there, the nature of that world may tempt you to do something, well, dark. You've gotta resist that temptation by any means necessary!"
"...what do you mean by that?" Haruka asked.
"You'll see soon enough," Dorothy quipped. "But don't worry, I believe in you!"
Nick just nodded as he reached out to grasp the door's handles and pull it open to reveal a tunnel of bright silver light. Looking back to his friends, Nick walked into the light, the rest of the trinity following.
When Nick could see again...
...he wasn't sure what he was seeing.
...or if he was even seeing anything.
Indeed, when the trinity came out on the other side of the door, they had found themselves in, quite literally, an empty void of nothingness. There was only white as far as the eye could see, and the door they'd entered this place from.
"Okay, so I'm not the only one who's super confused here, right?" Maylin asked.
"Oh, good, so it's not just me," Haruka answered.
"Hey, look up ahead!" Sophia gasped, pointing to just ahead of them where she'd seen a bright flash.
The trinity all jogged forward to check it out, and when they got there, they were surprised to see the Cornerstone of Light sitting there on its pedestal, seemingly completely untouched.
"It is still completely intact," Sophia noted. "But does it look a little more dull than normal to any of you?"
"Must be because of whatever Ichinose is trying to do," Nick stated. "And don't forget, that Ripto guy is apparently working for Ichinose as well, so I'm willing to bet he's got at least something to do with this."
"Okay, so here's my question," Maylin wondered. "How, exactly, are we supposed to fix this place? Because I'm pretty sure that this world is not supposed to be a completely empty void with just the Cornerstone and our door."
"I think our first order of business should be to try and find the door Ichinose is using," Haruka answered. "That's the one Dorothy said we need to lock, right?"
"Yeah, but which way even is anything in this trippy void?!" Maylin gasped.
"...wait, hold on, now I'm seeing something over there," Nick gasped, pointing towards something that had just appeared in the distance, to the southwest of the Cornerstone. It seemed to resemble a Japanese mansion, though it was completely devoid of all color much like the rest of this void.
"Eh, it's as good a place to start as any, I guess," Haruka quipped.
As the four keyblade wielders jogged towards the mansion, Maylin couldn't help but think it looked familiar to her for some reason.
When they reached the mansion, they found that the entrance was instead replaced with a strange, floating door, though it didn't remotely resemble the one they'd entered this place in.
Nick put his hand on the door's frame, and all four of them were sucked inside, finding themselves inside the mansion's pool room.
"What is this door trying to show us?" Nick wondered.
"It kind of looks like everything in here's frozen in time for some reason," Haruka noted. "Though at least this place has color, unlike the White Space."
"...White Space?" Maylin groaned.
"Well, we've gotta call it something, right?" Haruka admitted.
Sophia suddenly noticed a group of Heartless approaching them. These Heartless had a thin, black body with yellow bracelets around its wrists, a grey belt, four-fingered hands, and yellow and purple shoes, a spherical pitch black head with glowing, yellow eyes and a black, jagged mouth. Its torso and head were enveloped in a red suit attached to an enormous, red hammerhead, both ends of which were black, and the Heartless emblem is printed on its front tip, and a long, curled, black antenna sprouted out of the top of its helmet.
"Oh, goody, the Heartless are here," Maylin groaned as she summoned Counterpoint to her hands. "Just what we don't need right now."
"That thing's a Hammer Frame," Haruka explained to Nick. "They don't have many attacks, but they like to pound the ground with their hammer schnozzes and create shockwaves. They can't do much in the air, though, so try that option."
"Actually, you wanna go Valor Form and show 'em who's boss?" Nick chuckled.
"I'd be delighted," Haruka replied, reaching out to join hands with Nick so they could both merge into Valor Form, dual-wielding Divewing and Blastia Core.
While Maylin and Sophia hung back to cast spells at the Hammer Frames, Valor Form Nick rushed forward, swinging both keyblades at once to parry one of the Hammer Frame's tackles before knocking it into the air with an upward slice, then jumping high into the air after it and laying into it before finishing with a Sonic Strike, sending it flying before it dissipated.
Another Hammer Frame pounded the ground to create a shockwave, but Valor Form Nick jumped over it easily, thanks to High Jump, and knocked the Hammer Frame around before destroying it with a Sonic End.
With the Heartless beaten for the moment, a ripple effect seemed to pass by the scene and unfreeze it. Valor Form Nick split back into Nick and Haruka so they could watch what was about to play out.
All of a sudden, a slightly younger Sakura skidded forward, flailing her arms in panic before she took a tumble right into the pool. A slightly younger Tomoyo followed to make sure she was all right.
"You okay, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked.
"...mostly," Sakura admitted. "I'm just glad I didn't mess anything up. I just slipped, and..."
"Honestly, it was cute," Tomoyo giggled.
"...wait a minute," Maylin gasped. "I think I remember this now."
Thankfully, the younger Sakura and Tomoyo didn't react to her, as it seemed like the trinity were merely spectators for this scene.
"You always say that," Sakura chuckled. "You always say that everything I do is cute."
"I only say it because I mean it," Tomoyo answered. "And, well... there was something I wanted to talk to you about."
"About Li, right?" Sakura replied, having figured out where this was headed. "I just don't know what happened, Tomoyo..."
"He's always gone, Sakura, you know that," Tomoyo replied. "Even if he's doing a noble thing by scouring other worlds to keep us safe, it's just..."
"And that's the hard part, too!" Sakura exclaimed. "He wasn't mean about it, he wasn't bitter, he just said 'I lost fair and square'. To who, though? That's what I don't get!"
Tomoyo jumped into the pool and floated closer to Sakura. And by the look on Tomoyo's face, Sakura seemed to finally understand what Tomoyo had always been driving at with the things she said about Sakura.
"T-Tomoyo?" Sakura asked, hoping that this wasn't a dream. "Are you..."
"I wanted to say it while I still had a chance," Tomoyo responded. "Before I possibly lost you to someone else. I've always said that your happiness is my happiness, but I also always wondered what could have been, you know?"
As Tomoyo continued to ramble, the pieces at last clicked together in Sakura's mind, and she decided that, quite frankly, she'd kept Tomoyo waiting long enough.
Before Tomoyo could continue, Sakura leaned forward and kissed her. Though she was surprised, Tomoyo quickly returned the kiss with all the emotion she could muster.
"Does that answer your question?" Sakura giggled before floating closer to hug Tomoyo. "I love you, Tomoyo. I'm so sorry my dumb self didn't realize it sooner..."
"It was worth the wait," Tomoyo admitted. "I love you, too, Sakura."
"Still as cute as the first time I remember it," Maylin giggled.
"Was that... a memory of the past?" Sophia asked.
"Yeah, that was when Sakura and Tomoyo finally hooked up after all the waffling," Maylin answered. "She'd dated my cousin Syaoran Li for a while, but he was always away scouring the worlds, so he let her go to Tomoyo."
"Um, not to cut in on this conversation, but what is that?" Nick wondered, pointing to a floating window that had just appeared right behind them.
Haruka walked over and pulled the drawstring to open the door, and the 'screen' of the window began to play something.
She simply scoffed at him trying to make excuses.
"You blithering fool," she taunted. "Don't think I haven't seen your failures. And what's worse, you foolishly thought you could take my place while I was gone?"
"W-Well, somebody had to keep the place clean before you..."
"Oh, just save it already," she retorted. "As of right now, you can consider yourself officially fired. Mark my words, there won't be a place for you when our time comes."
And with that, she walked away, leaving him to ponder.
"Yikes, somebody was angry," Maylin quipped as the group returned to the White Space. Once they stepped out of the gate, the mansion suddenly became colorful and full of life again, like defeating the Heartless had 'restored' that area. Alongside that, part of the background of the White Space began to fill in as well.
"I'm still not sure I understand what is happening," Sophia admitted.
"Let's just keep looking," Nick answered. "We've restored this place, but I've got a feeling we're not done just yet."
So they continued to explore the White Space for another spot to restore, occasionally noticing that no Heartless or Nobodies were attacking them out here, even though they'd encountered Heartless inside the mansion area.
After a bit more wandering, they eventually came across a large aquarium complex, also completely devoid of color.
"Okay, I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, but let's check it out," Nick quipped as they entered the doorway, finding themselves deep inside the aquarium, though everything seemed to be underwater.
"We're not actually underwater, are we?" Haruka wondered.
"It does not seem like it," Sophia admitted.
"Um, try telling them that," Maylin stated as she pointed towards a group of Heartless that were approaching them. This particular Heartless had a dark and spherical main body with a small blue jagged mouth and pair of beady yellow eyes making up its face. On top of its head was a set of aqua-colored cracks, some of which connected outward from the small blue horn atop its head. From the sides of its body extended a pair of bat-like wings with long arms that led down to a set of claws. The bottom of its body was covered with jagged watery spikes which primarily extended downwards, with one larger spike sticking directly out of the bottom of its body.
And this particular Heartless didn't have an imprint of the Heartless symbol, which meant it was a Pureblood and not an Emblem.
"Oh, they don't look pleasant," Nick chuckled.
"Those things are Water Cores," Haruka explained. "They can use that water around their bodies in many different ways, and as you can guess, they're very slippery. But if you can hit them with a Fire spell, it'll snuff 'em out pretty quickly, and I know that sounds weird, but we've tried it and it works."
"If you say so," Nick replied as he let a few Water Cores surround him before snapping Blastia Core down to cast a Fire spell around him, the circling ring of flames actually destroying all four of them. "...hey, that actually worked."
"Told ya so!" Maylin laughed as she did the same to another pair of Water Cores, launching fireballs into their faces to eliminate them.
Sophia summoned Pandora and cast Rakunda on a pair of Water Cores, temporarily removing their water barriers so that Haruka could leapfrog off of her and whack each one in the face with Divewing.
Once the Water Cores had all been defeated, a ripple effect passed over the aquarium and the water-y presence faded to make it look more like a normal aquarium.
Suddenly, a younger Sakura came running through the aquarium, being chased down by a woman who appeared to be completely made of water.
"Over here!" Sakura exclaimed as Watery flew towards her, taking the bait. When Watery was close enough, Sakura opened the door so that Watery flew into it before slamming it shut.
"Hey, that was when Sakura captured Watery," Maylin chuckled. "I remember some of the stories she told me about the wacky ways she captured some of the Clow Cards. That was when she still only really had Windy, so she had to improvise to capture that one."
"Gotta say, luring a water lady into a freezer is obvious, but still genius, especially considering Sakura was, what, only ten when she started catching the cards?" Haruka quipped.
"There's another window behind us," Sophia stated.
"Wonder what these are supposed to be about?" Maylin asked as Nick pulled the drawstring to see what this window would tell them.
"Aw, man, she didn't have to be so harsh," he groaned. "Okay, so my schemes have been foiled more often than not, mostly no thanks to that infernal dragon... but I'm a lot more things than useless. Why, when I was starting out in my conquest of Avalar, things were so good until that dragon ruined everything... oh, what I wouldn't give to go back in time and teach that beast a lesson..."
Suddenly, a bright light behind him and he looked back, noticing a large door had appeared at the opposite end of the room.
Now curious, he walked over and opened it, and gasped at what he saw inside.
"W-Wait, is that...?"
"He found a door?" Nick asked as they returned to the White Space, the aquarium structure regaining its color and more of the background returning as well, though some of those background elements were starting to look familiar.
"It looked kind of familiar," Sophia answered. "Almost exactly like the door that Dorothy conjured up for us."
"So, it should come straight here, right?" Maylin asked. "...right?"
"Man, this is making my brain hurt," Haruka admitted. "But I think we're starting to get somewhere, so let's keep at it."
The group returned to where the Cornerstone was resting, then headed off in a different cardinal direction from it. According to what they could glean from the terrain, especially now that they could actually see the terrain, the area where the Cornerstone and their entrance door were acted as a sort of central hub that split off into four different directions, each path leading to a different structure that had been drained of color and life, and defeating the Heartless inside of each structure would restore that structure and return more color and life to the White Space.
After heading to the south from the Cornerstone, they came across a third structure, this one resembling the gardens of Clow Castle.
"Okay, now what are we about to experience?" Maylin wondered as they entered the structure, finding themselves in the castle gardens where a slightly younger version of Haruka could be seen sleeping by the flower field in the center.
Before Haruka could question what exactly this was, pools of darkness opened up around them and spawned in a group of Neoshadows.
"Oh, I was hoping to never see these things again," Maylin groaned.
The Neoshadows immediately began attacking them, diving into the ground before leaping back out and spinning towards them. Nick quickly raised Blastia Core to parry one before splitting it in half with an overhead chop.
"I don't know, Maylin, they seem different from the last time we fought Neoshadows," Nick quipped. "These ones don't seem to be coordinating their attacks."
Haruka got in close and bonked a Neoshadow in the head before destroying it with a lunging slash, while Sophia let a cluster of them get close before obliterating them with Kougaon.
One Neoshadow jumped into the air, then attempted to dive down with a wicked scratch attack, but Nick was faster on the draw, jumping up to meet the Neoshadow and laying into it with a double sideswipe from both sides before finishing it off with a forward stab.
Once all of the Neoshadows were gone, a ripple effect passed over the gardens, and Almost immediately, Young Maylin groaned, knowing how hard it was to wake Haruka up when she was zonked out like this.
"Sorry, partner, looks like I've got no other choice," Young Maylin sighed, flicking her right wrist to summon Spellbinder to her hand in a flash of light.
"I didn't wanna do this, Haruka, but this is an official emergency," Young Maylin quipped, raising Spellbinder and concentrating. "Force, know my plight, Release the light! THUNDER!"
The teeth of Spellbinder sparked with electricity, and a second later, a bolt of lightning lanced down from the sky and struck Young Haruka in the chest, causing her to jump up in surprise.
"Good, you're awake," Young Maylin teased despite her distress.
"Did you have to use Thunder on me?!" Young Haruka sputtered.
"You were zonked out, what else was I supposed to do?" Young Maylin responded. "Listen, we have a problem on our hands."
That definitely got Young Haruka's attention, as she quickly hopped to her feet and summoned Divine Rose.
"Now, Haruka, we should probably keep this a secret until we know more about what's going on," Young Maylin proclaimed.
"...even from the queen?" Young Haruka asked, glancing at something nearby.
"Especially from the queen!" Young Maylin exclaimed. "She's gonna flip if she finds out what this problem is!"
"Am I interrupting something, ladies?"
Young Maylin immediately froze comically when she heard the voice of Su Yung behind her, only able to laugh nervously at the sight of the queen giving her a confused glance.
"That was... right before this whole madness really kicked off," Maylin quipped.
"What the heck is this place doing with our memories?" Haruka wondered.
"Maybe that window will give us some more insight," Sophia answered.
Nick quickly moved to pull the drawstring, hoping this window would give them something.
She looked with awe at whatever lay beyond the door.
"How fascinating," she chuckled. "This appears to be a doorway to the distant past."
"Yeah, it's the strangest thing," he answered. "I have no idea how it got here, but..."
"Then stop gawking and think of a way we can use this to our advantage," she retorted. "Now, then, perhaps I'll give you one last chance to redeem yourself."
"Oh, thank you, thank you! I promise not to let you down again!"
"Patience, now. Hmmm... what is that beyond the door? Why, that must be the Cornerstone of Light that keeps that wretched Kingdom of Clow protected from us. It seems like we can take the castle from those fools now, but we'll have to proceed with extreme caution. No doubt those pesky keyblade wielders will quickly catch on..."
"T-That was Ichinose!" Maylin gasped as they returned to the White Space, the gardens structure regaining its color and more of the background filling in to the point that the White Space now resembled the interior of Clow Castle.
"She must have known all along if she was involved with this," Nick quipped.
"Wait, wait, so if that door is connected to the past..." Haruka pondered.
"No, it comes here, doesn't it?" Maylin wondered before it all came together. "Hold on just a flip-trucking minute, we're in the past?!"
"That must have been what Dorothy meant by 'resisting the temptation to do something dark'," Sophia admitted.
"Man, my head hurts from all this," Nick groaned.
"It is as you say, Nick, time travel is a cornucopia of disturbing concepts," Sophia giggled.
"Looks like we only have one more path we can follow, so hopefully that means we're getting closer to ending this," Haruka stated. "Let's go find that last structure."
They doubled back to the Cornerstone and went down the only remaining path they could go down, eventually leading to a structure that resembled a more traditional Japanese house.
After entering the structure, they found themselves in the basement of the house, surrounded by a bunch of Hook Bats and Neoshadows.
"You know something, I'm eager to bust these guys up and get it over with, so how about we let Yohane take care of business?" Maylin offered.
"I was just about to say the same thing," Nick chuckled as he brought out the Sunshine Charm.
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 Yohane by his side in a flash of blue light.
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 Neoshadows spun through the air towards Nick, but Yohane strummed on her harp and sang a few notes that completely stopped the Neoshadow 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 Neoshadows 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 Neoshadows 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 Neoshadows.
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.
Once everything was calm again, a ripple effect passed over the basement and a younger Sakura walked down the stairway, wondering what exactly that voice calling her was or who it belonged to.
Sakura stepped through multiple boxes as she moved through all the different shelves, eventually stopping in front of a mysterious book.
After opening it to see what was in the book, Sakura picked out the card lying on one of the pages, but after she read its name aloud, the book started shaking, eventually releasing a massive gust of wind around her that scattered the cards to many different places.
"Oof, that didn't look too pleasant," Haruka admitted.
"I think that was when Sakura had found the Book of Clow and accidentally freed the Clow Cards," Maylin chuckled. "That set her own adventure into motion."
"Gotta love when you find mysterious objects just conveniently in your own house, right?" Nick quipped.
Almost on cue, one last window appeared behind them, and Nick pulled on the drawstring to see where this particular tale would end.
"All right, then, listen carefully," Ichinose stated as she and Ripto carefully observed the doorway. "On the other side of this gateway is where they're planning to begin the construction of that accursed castle. Until then, though, their precious Cornerstone of Light is completely vulnerable, with all of its power still intact."
"What's a... Cornerstone of Light?" Ripto wondered.
"That damned light bulb is the very thing that prevents us from entering Clow Castle," Ichinose answered. "I assume you know what needs to be done, then? No go and prove your worth, and don't you dare fail me again."
Her explanation spent, Ichinose walked away, leaving Ripto to think about how to handle this situation.
"Oh, of course, I just have to smash that big glass sphere to smithereens and the castle will be ours!" Ripto laughed as he trotted for the doorway. "But first, let's see if I can't get myself a new staff. This one's kind of outdated..."
"I should have figured ol' shorty had some kind of plan up his non-existent sleeves," Maylin stated as they all walked out of the house structure, its color returning to it as well as the last remaining background filling out. Now, the White Space more closely resembled Clow Castle from the inside.
"I'm more surprised that Ichinose's somehow back from the dead," Nick admitted. "Any guesses as to how that's possible?"
"...oh, no!" Sophia gasped when she noticed something very wrong.
The trinity all followed Sophia back to the central pathway, only to find that the Cornerstone wasn't on its pedestal anymore.
"Wait, who took the Cornerstone?!" Haruka exclaimed.
"Probably Ripto," Maylin stated. "Ooh, that little guy is really cruisin' for a bruisin' now!"
"But where did they go?" Nick wondered.
That was when Sophia noticed that a new pathway had formed, branching off from directly behind their own entrance door, a path that led towards what appeared to be the town below the castle.
"...wait, if that's Tomoeda... they wouldn't dare!" Maylin shouted.
"They're going to fill the castle and the surrounding town with darkness!" Sophia gasped. "We need to hurry!"
The trinity all charged down the new pathway and towards the facsimile of Tomoeda, where Ripto could be seen trying to lug the Cornerstone along by means of a magical barrier, and not having much luck to his short stature.
"Ugh, this is a lot harder than it looks," Ripto groaned. "Sometimes, I hate being short..."
"Oh, so you actually admit that you're a shorty?" Maylin taunted as the trinity all rushed over to confront Ripto. "Maybe Spyro was onto something after all."
"Don't you dare talk about that infernal dragon!" Ripto growled.
"This is the only warning you're getting, Ripto," Nick proclaimed, aiming Kingdom Key for Ripto. "Drop the Cornerstone right now."
In response, Ripto just cackled maniacally.
"You really think I'm going to listen to a bunch of snot-nosed punks?!" Ripto challenged as he formed his own barrier around himself again.
"So, round two it is, then?" Sophia proclaimed as everyone summoned their keyblades.
"This time... we play for keeps!" Ripto exclaimed as he waved his staff and conjured waves of fire that swept across the ground, forcing everybody to jump to avoid them.
Just as Haruka landed, Ripto barged through, knocking her backwards with his barrier, but Haruka cut a midair flip to regain her balance before jumping back in and striking at Ripto's barrier to see if she could break it.
"That won't work, little girlie," Ripto cackled. "Brute force doesn't always help you!"
"...oh, does it?" Haruka chuckled. "Sophia, over to you!"
Before Ripto could defend himself, Haruka swung Divewing like a home run batter would, striking Ripto's barrier and knocking him towards Sophia, who cast Rakunda to shatter the barrier before sending Ripto flying with a Kougaon spell.
"Don't think I'll fall as easily as I did before!" Ripto taunted as he raised his staff to conjure a wicked lightning bolt that he threw out like a whip, slashing it in multiple angles to keep his opponents at a distance.
"So that's the game we're playing, huh?" Nick quipped as he cast Thunder himself, having relearned the spell during their visit to Terca Lumireis. A bolt of lightning erupted from the teeth of Kingdom Key and struck Ripto in the chest, sending him rolling.
However, Ripto quickly floated back onto his feet and conjured a trio of spiky ice crystals that orbited around him, daring the trinity to come closer.
When Maylin decided to cut out the middleman and start flinging Fire spells to melt the ice crystals, Ripto snapped his staff down and cast a gravitational fluctuation on top of Maylin, forcing her to her knees.
"Yes, yes! Bow down to my superior might!" Ripto exclaimed, unaware that Nick was sneaking up behind him.
"Surprise, shorty," Nick laughed as he switched his keyblade to Blastia Core and struck with a swift three-hit combo that ended in a windmill spin attack, sending Ripto flying back over a park statue.
"Oh, I'm not done just yet!" Ripto exclaimed as he surrounded himself with a barrier made of three long trails of fire that formed a sphere around him.
"Okay, so I've gotta admit, you are a pretty good mage," Nick quipped.
"Ah, so you finally recognize my power?" Ripto laughed.
"Ah-ah, you didn't let me finish, dino boy," Nick retorted. "You may be a good mage, but you're still nowhere near Maylin's league. You wanna teach him that, partner?"
"...oh, you freakin' know it!" Maylin proclaimed as she raised Counterpoint and cast her patented Water spell, encircling her with a quick barrier of water before it lashed out as a jet of waves to dissipate Ripto's barrier effortlessly.
Maylin continued the magical combo by rapid-firing Blizzard spells to push Ripto away from the Cornerstone, then Thunder spells, and even a Gravity spell of her own.
By the end of it all, Ripto was down on his knees, exhausted from the magical beating he had taken.
"...ugh, this can't be happening," Ripto groaned. "I will not lose to a bunch of weaklings like you!"
"You seriously want to keep this runaround up and see where it gets you?" Nick taunted. But before he could charge in to end this fight...
"Stand down, Ripto. I'll take it from here."
A corridor of darkness opened up nearby, and Kuon Ichinose herself stepped out of it, her hands glowing a soft black.
"B-But, Ichinose, I didn't mean to... I didn't think they'd..." Ripto sputtered.
"Calm yourself, Ripto," Ichinose replied, causing Ripto to settle down. "I should have foreseen that they would find a way to interfere. Therefore, I'll deal with them myself."
"Ichinose, why are you doing this again?" Sophia asked. She had to know. "I thought we had come to some sort of understanding the last time we defeated you!"
"...but I meant what I said," Ichinose chuckled. "Truly, Sophia, you are my greatest creation. Therefore, proper measures must be taken, especially considering what I am after this time around."
"...and just what do you mean by that?" Nick retorted.
"It's really none of your business, is it?" Ichinose answered. "Regardless, if we are to proceed with my investigations..."
Ichinose spread her hands outward, an aura of darkness erupting from her body.
"...you all must be exterminated."
Ichinose raised her hands to the sky and fired a blast of darkness into the air, which covered the entire town in a cocoon of darkness that gave it an eerie look.
"Ichinose, don't make me do this again," Sophia proclaimed. "Once was already bad enough."
"Oh, what, do you not have the guts this time?" Ichinose taunted...
...only for Sophia to dash up close to Ichinose.
"I meant what I said, too," Sophia answered. "As long as your desires remain twisted and distorted, then I will be the one to take them back every time. That is the oath I made as a member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts!"
Not giving Ichinose a chance to retaliate, Sophia summoned Pandora and hit her with a Kougaon spell to drive her back before also casting Dekunda to dispel the power boost Ichinose had granted herself with that dark aura.
"I see you've learned a few things since the last time, eh, Sophia?" Ichinose chuckled as she raised her right hand. Ichinose waved her hand over her face...
...and a mask appeared over her face in a very familiar flicker of blue flames.
"W-What?!" Sophia gasped.
"Unfortunately for you... so have I," Ichinose proclaimed, grabbing the mask with her other hand and ripping it off of her face. "Arise, Hecatoncheires!"
A green-skinned, multi-armed creature with at least five eyes materialized behind Ichinose at this call.
"Oh, no freakin' way, now she has a Persona?!" Maylin exclaimed.
"Now we'll see who truly is the better of us," Ichinose stated, aiming towards Sophia and commanding Hecatoncheires to cast Tarukaja on herself to boost her own power.
"We might be in trouble," Haruka admitted. "I never expected her to awaken her own Persona!"
"Then we've just gotta fight that much harder!" Nick exclaimed. "Sophia, you're with me!"
"Right!" Sophia responded, charging alongside Nick. She knew that Hecatoncheires was weak to Bless spells, so she could still effectively combat Ichinose like this.
"You will come no closer!" Ichinose shouted as she used Heat Wave, unleashing a blast of fierce flames in front of her to stop Nick and Sophia in their tracks.
"What, did you forget about me?" Maylin taunted as she snuck in from behind and whacked Ichinose in the back a few times, finishing up with a Magic Hour that sent Ichinose into the air.
Sophia jumped off of Nick's shoulders to get enough hang time to charge Super Yo-Yo with a Kougaon spell before slamming it into Ichinose, blasting her back to the ground in a great burst of light.
Ichinose slowly stumbled back to her feet, knowing that last attack had hurt.
"I'm not done yet," Ichinose growled as she jumped towards Nick and Sophia, and Hecatoncheires used Swift Strike to punch them both away.
"Please, Ichinose, snap out of it!" Sophia shouted.
"Now why would I do that?" Ichinose retorted as she opened her palms to unleash a burst of dark energy straight towards Sophia, knowing she couldn't possibly dodge it at this close range.
However, Maylin quickly cast Reflect on Sophia to block the blast and send it right back into Ichinose, though it predictably didn't do much damage.
It did, however, give Nick a chance to move in while Ichinose was recovering and hit her a few times before finishing with a wicked forward chop.
Despite this, however, Ichinose still stood, Hecatoncheires at the ready.
"Dang it, I thought that would have finished her," Maylin groaned.
"Trust me, I've learned a lot since we last crossed blades," Ichinose chuckled. "I'm sorry to say that you won't be getting up from this one.":
As Hecatoncheires prepared to use Gatling Blow on Nick, though, a large magical pressure forced Ichinose to step backwards. The cause was revealed to be Nick, now surrounded with a bright aquatic blue aura. Much to his surprise, Maylin was also surrounded by that same aura.
Nick and Maylin both stared at each other for a brief moment before realization dawned on them, and then they both smiled in a cheeky manner.
"Well, Maylin, you want to teach her a lesson?" Nick quipped.
"Couldn't have said it better myself, buddy," Maylin giggled as she ran forward.
Ichinose threw her hand out to make Hecatoncheires cast Heat Wave again, but Nick and Maylin jumped over the blast and joined hands in mid-air, Nick's clothes glowing a bright silver before Maylin vanished from sight.
An explosion of silver light erupted from Nick's clothes, and when he landed on the ground, he had transformed into a new Drive Form.
Nick's clothes shifted to shades of blue and black, with an emblem resembling blue flames imprinted on the ends of his pants and sleeves. Specks of blue light floated around his legs, and a magical blue mist surrounded his feet while three blue wisps of light circled around him in a double helix formation. He was casually twirling Counterpoint behind him, spinning it in his hands occasionally.
"W-What is this?" Ichinose gasped, clearly not expecting this development.
"Couldn't have picked a better time to unlock a new form," Wisdom Form Nick chuckled, speaking in a combination of Nick and Maylin's voices. "Now how about we see what it can do?!"
Wisdom Form Nick started gliding forward, actually gliding, towards Ichinose, who made Hecatoncheires use Gatling Blow to keep him away, only for Wisdom Form Nick to raise Counterpoint and start firing magical bullets from the tip of the keyblade that broke through the strike and hit Ichinose in the chest.
Wisdom Form Nick continued to fire until flipping around acrobatically to fire a barrage of bullets all at once, sending Ichinose stumbling backwards.
"Oh, that was just a taste of what I can do now, Ichinose," Wisdom Form Nick laughed. "Now taste magical doom!"
After gliding forward again, Wisdom Form Nick cast Firaga, now able to access Maylin's higher-level magic while in this form, though this time the ring of fire was much larger and came out as three concentric rings that pushed him forward.
While Ichinose was scrambling to defend herself, Wisdom Form Nick cast Blizzaga, which came out as five large chunks of ice that spread out before converging on Ichinose and breaking her guard.
For the finishing blow, Wisdom Form Nick then cast Thundaga, coming out as a super-swift rain of five lightning bolts in a small area around Ichinose, which sent her flying and caused Hecatoncheires to disappear.
"H-How... I thought I had the upper hand," Ichinose gasped.
"Well, you did for a bit," Wisdom Form Nick admitted. "...but then you didn't."
"Ichinose, I think a tactical retreat would be the best option right now," Ripto stated.
Though frustrated that even her new Persona powers hadn't been enough, Ichinose conceded on this matter and raised her hands to summon a door exactly like the one the trinity had used to get here.
"This isn't over, I swear it," Ichinose proclaimed as she and Ripto opened the door and left through its tunnel.
"Nick, that's the other door!" Haruka exclaimed.
"Don't worry, I'm already on it," Wisdom Form Nick responded, raising Counterpoint towards the door. A large keyhole appeared on the front of the door so Wisdom Form Nick could fire a beam of light into it, sealing the door with a loud "CLICK" and causing it to dissolve into wisps of silver light.
That job accomplished, Wisdom Form Nick split back into Nick and Maylin.
"Okay, that was awesome!" Maylin laughed. "I wasn't expecting us to become such a magical powerhouse in that form!"
"It's you, Maylin," Nick chuckled. "Were you expecting anything less?"
"And with that, it looks like our job is done here," Haruka answered. "We should probably scoot our butts out of this place before we mess with anything more than we already have."
As the trinity made their way back to their own door, Sophia couldn't help but ponder over these recent developments. She definitely hadn't expected Ichinose to awaken a Persona of her own, especially considering she hadn't even had a Shadow when she and the Phantom Thieves were dealing with EMMA.
What had changed since then, though?
It was a question Sophia would no doubt be asking herself for a long time.
Su Yung looked up when she noticed a strange twinge of energy in the air, but Sakura and Tomoyo were the first to notice that the thorns surrounding the room were glowing brightly before they all dissolved into motes of light that rained down upon the Hall of the Cornerstone, the room itself completely back to normal and the Cornerstone itself restored to full brightness.
"...the thorns have vanished," Su Yung gasped.
"They did it!" Sakura laughed.
"Of course they did," Dorothy giggled. "I always had faith in them."
The doorway to the White Space rattled a few times before opening itself up, allowing the trinity to walk out of the door. Dorothy waved her grimoire to make the doorway disappear, since they no longer needed it.
"I cannot thank you all enough," Su Yung proclaimed. "Thanks to your brave efforts, our world is safe and protected from the darkness again."
"I just hope you all didn't do anything reckless while you were there, if you know what I mean?" Dorothy asked.
"Well, we saw some memories of things that happened in this world a long time ago, but we couldn't really do anything to interact with them, just watch," Haruka answered. "Aside from that, we just did our thing and sent Ichinose packing."
"Nick and I even unlocked a new Drive Form to rain down magical devastation!" Maylin laughed. "So yeah, that was fun."
Suddenly, the Cornerstone of Light began to glow brightly. As soon as Nick's keyblade flashed into his hands, he knew what had to be done.
Nick held Kingdom Key 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 Cornerstone shined brightly before firing a burst of light into the sky that eventually formed into a large keyhole.
Nick jumped back and twirled Kingdom Key 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 Hall of the Cornerstone.
"I would assume that means you gotta go again?" Tomoyo asked.
"Yeah, we've got other worlds to see, after all," Nick quipped. "We're just glad we could help out."
"Now you two play nice with each other, okay?" Maylin giggled, to which Sakura and Tomoyo both began blushing.
"...Meiling, you haven't changed a bit, have you?" Sakura whispered to herself, still not sure how Maylin felt about her original name, the one she'd 'let go of'.
"Wait, before you go," Su Yung proclaimed. "I have something for you, Nick. Consider this a gift for fighting so bravely to save our world from the forces of darkness."
Su Yung raised her hand and unleashed a small burst of magic from her palms. The light flew into Nick's keyblade and transformed it. This new keyblade heavily resembled his Kingdom Key, but the guard was instead a deep, pastel blue color while the handle itself was a deep indigo, the shaft was light-blue and rounded, ending with an orb past the teeth, which were formed by a spike and a five-pointed star of the same color, a gold rainguard at the bottom of the bar. The keychain token was a five-pointed gold star and was attached to the hilt of the keyblade with a silver chain.
It took a couple seconds, but Nick quickly found that he recognized this keyblade. "H-Hey, isn't this the Starlight keyblade that Ellen uses?" Nick gasped.
"It is not just her," Su Yung answered. "Long, long ago, in the age of fairytales, this keyblade was wielded by many prospective wielders."
Nick definitely believed that, considering the fact that merely holding this new keyblade seemed to bring back feelings of adventures he'd been on in the long distant past, a past he knew he hadn't been around for.
...had he?
Nick landed inside the TV Station, the hub area of Aki's house that Kei and Yumi used to hunt down the escaped Pipo Monkeys. The trinity had returned to Lost Jerusalem so that Nick could put in the Torn Page that he'd found in Clow Castle.
"Oh, Nick, you're just in time," Aki stated. "Yumi's already gone on ahead of you. We've detected a particular strong reading over there."
"That's what I figured the missing page would be about," Nick quipped. "So, how do I get there, then?"
"I've already set the coordinates for Yumi, so just step on the front pad of the Travel Station, and it'll warp you right over there," Aki answered.
Nick did so, jumping onto the pad and warping out to meet with Yumi on the bridge of a very medieval-styled castle, not unlike Clow Castle itself.
"Oh, you made it," Yumi stated.
"Just got here," Nick responded. "Looks like we've got something interesting over here, huh?"
"That's the vibe I'm getting," Yumi noted.
As both Nick and Yumi reached the drawbridge into the castle, it suddenly fell down to reveal a large, silver-white mechanical dragon being piloted by a mad scientist-looking Pipo Monkey with a very customized helmet.
"Well, well, there are still some humans that haven't been affected yet?" Monkey White laughed. "Okay, then, have some of this!"
The robotic dragon opened its maw to breathe a stream of fire, and though Nick and Yumi managed to dodge it, the fire did destroy most of the bridge they'd used to get here.
"All right, you, get out of our way!" Yumi shouted, waving her Stun Club towards the mecha dragon.
"Aren't you frightened? Scared out of your skin?" Monkey White exclaimed. "This dragon has rained fiery death upon many a valiant knight!"
"...are you sure? It looks pretty goofy," Yumi groaned.
"W-W-What?! THIS WILL NOT DO! You dare belittle my ultimate creation?!" Monkey White shouted.
"Trust me, dude, I've seen fancier robots," Nick taunted.
"Hey, we're the ones who should be saying that," Yumi proclaimed. "You'd better fix everybody you've hurt this instant!"
"Oh, like that's really going to happen," Monkey White laughed. "I have orders to affect everyone in the world."
"Orders? From who?" Yumi wondered.
"Why, from Specter, of course, who the heck else?" Monkey White cackled.
"I should have figured Specter was behind this one, too," Nick quipped, summoning Starlight to his hands. "He just never learns, does he?"
"...oh, boy, I forgot it was against the rules to say his name," Monkey White sighed before making his mecha dragon advance on Nick and Yumi. "You little brats, this is all your fault!"
"You're the one who blabbed, not us," Nick chuckled.
"Oh, shut up!" Monkey White exclaimed. "Well, now that you know our secret, I'm afraid you're not going to be leaving this place alive. I was going to make a movie that starred my glorious self, but I guess it's time for a change in scenario."
The mecha dragon started advancing on Nick and Yumi.
"Your time has come, brats!" Monkey White shouted as the mecha dragon slammed his head into the ground to create a shockwave that Nick raised Starlight to parry before casting a Thunder spell, hitting the mecha dragon in the face with a much stronger projectile bolt, no doubt due to Starlight's innate magic strength.
Yumi jumped over little bombs that the mecha dragon was dropping to whack the mecha dragon in the face with her Stun Club before it swung around, forcing both Nick and Yumi back.
"I'M GONNA SHISH-KABOB YOU!" Monkey White screamed as the mecha dragon suddenly breathed a massive stream of flames that created a wall of fire in front of it, stopping Nick and Yumi from getting closer.
"Well, this might take a bit, huh?" Nick sighed.
"Actually, I've got just the thing for this," Yumi chuckled, reaching for a green hexagonal device strapped to her wrist. "Morph Gear Transform: Fantasy Knight!"
A bright green flash of light swallowed Yumi up, and when it cleared, she had transformed much like Nick did with his Drive Forms. Yumi was now wearing a purple top, black pants, purple and gold shoes, black gloves, a light purple jacket with golden lining and four green buttons, and a purple witch hat on her head. Her hair was now in long, braided pigtails held with a yellow sphere near the bottom, and she now wielded a white wand with red gems on the top and bottom.
"Get behind me, okay?" Yumi quipped. When Nick did so, Yumi clenched her free hand and a magical glyph appeared in front of her.
"Time for you to burn!" Monkey White laughed as the mecha dragon breathed a continuous stream of fire in Yumi's direction...
...but it didn't burn them.
In fact, the fire was actually curving around Yumi's glyph shield.
Yumi continued to march forward with her glyph shield held high, defending both her and Nick from the fire breath and the fire wall until they reached the mecha dragon.
"D-Don't come any closer!" Monkey White shouted.
Nick and Yumi ignored him, moving closer to attack the mecha dragon's head from both sides until it could take no more, and collapsed onto its belly before exploding in glorious fashion, scrap and debris being flung every which way and Monkey White falling to his knees in front of the wreckage, completely dazed by his defeat.
This allowed Yumi to drop out of Fantasy Knight form and swing her Monkey Net to capture Monkey White at last. The instant that Monkey White had been captured, a satellite dish that had been transmitting on top of the castle towers imploded and fell to pieces.
And this was definitely noticed by Specter and his associate, who were watching the battle unfold from their control room.
"Well, well, it looks like things have gotten quite interesting, haven't they?" Specter chuckled. "Shall we go and say hello?"
"Why, yes, an exquisite idea," the associate quipped. "Very well, please wait here while I get ready."
Back in the TV Station, both Nick and Yumi explained everything they'd encountered.
"So, Specter is behind all of this again, is he?" Aki sighed.
"Wait, who's Specter?" Kei asked.
"And why does he sound familiar?" Yumi wondered.
"You two don't know?" Aki gasped. "Specter is an ultra-intelligent monkey that wishes to rule over all of mankind. He had once been one of the most popular attractions at the Monkey Park, but he turned to evil when he got a hold of a prototype Pipo Helmet, and now he's the evil monkey's boss."
"I'm no mere boss, I'm their glorious leader!"
Suddenly, the viewscreen near them changed to a video feed of Specter inside his control station.
"Well, you obviously aren't fans of my show," Specter laughed, and Nick was amused to see that Specter was actually wearing clothes this time, notably a business tuxedo.
"Well, well, long time no see, Specter," Nick quipped. "So, what's your big ol' scheme this time?"
"Oh, I heard that somebody dared to stand in my way, so I wanted to see who it might be, and I gotta say, I'm pretty relieved it's just you," Specter chuckled.
"Did you really just insult us?!" Yumi exclaimed. "You'd better surrender now, while you still can!"
"Yeah, you know how well this ended for you last time, Specter," Nick taunted.
"You really think you're going to catch me again?" Specter cackled. "Oh, trust me, I'm not going to make the same mistakes I did last time. I've actually teamed up with this hu... man..."
Specter trailed off when he realized his associate hadn't shown up on cue.
"Wait, where..."
"Are you talking about me, Mister Specter?"
Another man showed up on the screen, wearing a long scientist coat and a very ridiculous-looking afro on his head.
"That's right, I am a human, but I am also humanity's end! These monkeys have cleanly won over me, the ultimate scientist! I am twenty-eight years old, still single, six foot three including hair, a hundred and forty-five pounds also including hair, my favorite color is turquoise, and I have an IQ of 1300! And they call me... DOCTOR TOMOKI. And don't you forget it."
"Just what the heck do you think you're doing?!" Specter sputtered. "Why can't you ever introduce yourself normally?!"
"But I thought it was an exquisite introduction," Tomoki admitted.
"Oh, for crying out loud, cut, cut, cut to commercial!" Specter exclaimed as he attacked the camera, the screen briefly flashing a Specter TV-theme technical difficulties screen before returning to the control room. "A-Anyways, we really have nothing to fear from you fools. Right, doctor?"
Both Specter and Tomoki began to laugh evilly until...
"Oh, is that you, Doctor Tomoki?" Aki giggled. "You always did have a good head on your shoulders. How have you been?"
"A-Aki?" Tomoki gasped, clearly having some history with Aki, though he quickly brushed it off. "Um, yes, right, well, Specter, we shouldn't waste our entire day talking to them. We have work to take care of, don't we?"
"Huh? O-oh, right. So, anyways, just relax and enjoy the show," Specter laughed. "And if you still insist on resisting us, then we'll be glad to crush you like vermin. ...ciao."
"Bye-bye!" Tomoki laughed before the feed cut out.
"Hey, Aki, are you friends with that guy?" Kei wondered.
"Well, long ago, I was, but that's not important right now," Aki responded. "We need to focus on finding Specter."
"We'll go back out and keep finding more of those monkeys," Yumi stated. "What about you, Nick?"
"I'll probably be back once I've fonud another of those missing pages, since I'm pretty sure they all correlate to one of those special monkeys just like the last time I was here," Nick responded.
As Kei and Yumi headed back to the Warp Station, Nick raised Starlight to warp out of the storybook so he could continue his own journey.
Aki glanced at the viewscreen, wondering why exactly Tomoki was working with Specter. Did it have something to do with why he'd disappeared for so long?
To be continued...
Keyblade acquired!
Starlight
Strength: 6
Magic: 6
Length: 100
Ability: Lucky Strike (Will bring luck by increasing the drop rate of items. Equip to the whole party to further increase the drop rate.)
Description: A keyblade that survives from antiquity, wielded by many in the distant age of fairytales.
Drive Form acquired!
Wisdom Form
Form Focus: Merge with Maylin to utilize your magic to its fullest.
Drive Gauge Points Needed: 3
Experience Points: Gain 1 EXP for every Heartless defeated while in this form.
Action Abilities
Wisdom Shot: Changes the Attack command to shoot, allowing you to fire magic bullets at enemies.
Mobile Action: Actions can be executed while moving.
Magic Haste: Shortens magic casting time and enables rapid magic combos.
Magic Spice: Powers up the finishing move of magic combos.
Retaliating Slash: When knocked down, quickly regain balance and counterattack with [].
Growth Ability
Quick Run: Tilt the left stick and push [] to sprint rapidly. Keep the button pressed down for distance.
Support Abilities
MP Hastega: Increases MP restoration speed by 75% after MP is fully consumed. Equip more to increase the effect.
Combo Plus: Increases maximum combo by 1 when on the ground. Equip more to enable more combos.
On the next episode...
Nick: So, we're back in the city again, huh?
Haruka: I don't think there's supposed to be giant demonic trees growing in the middle of a city, right?
Maylin: What in the hell is that thing?!
Sophia: Hold on, I think I recognize someone who's trying to fight the tree.
Maylin: Hold on, is that Usagi?
Nick: She looks... a little different.
Haruka: I'm more surprised she survived that whole spiel in the North Pole.
Nick: Well, I guess we'll have to find out and help her prune this demon tree, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse II, "Legend in Moonlight"!
Nick, Maylin, Haruka, and Sophia: May your hearts be your guiding key!