Day 2 - CRACK OF DAWN

The hooded woman runs through the Field of the Sun as though her life is depending on it.

She stops, looks around, then takes off again, fast enough to leave two after-images of herself trailing behind.

As she reaches the northern border of the field for the fifth time, a woman's voice inside he head says "Master, I don't mean to be rude to you, but I still think what you are doing will bear no fruits. If she could help, then I'd believe this search would be more worth it."

The hooded girl summons her Keyblade, jumps and twirls once, strikes various Poison Plants, immediately after landing she slides left and strikes two Soldiers into dust in one hit, then quickly dashes forward, strikes one last Poison Plan, then calls off her Keyblade and starts running again as the released hearts fly to the sky.

As she turns away from the border of the field, she says "you heard what she said. If I can find the trace left behind by the dragon, we'll be able to find out where she took the mouse and br-err, I mean Ail."

She suddenly stops and looks around a path of bent sunflowers that lead to where she just came from, while the voice says "well, I have confidence in your skill, and I'm sure you'll find their trace, but- Oh, and it seems you found something already."

The hooded woman nods and says "this trace is not Kimi's. This is something else. Doesn't feel dark, but doesn't seem to be alive either. How strange."

"Hey! You suspicious character over there, what are you doing talking to yourself! ? That's very suspicious!"

The hooded figure turns to face Tenshi, whom holds an uprooted Poison Plant by the stem and points with that very hand at the figure, while Iku stands on her knees, softly saying "the poison... is bad. Oh lords, I'm going to vomit."

The Heartless on the celestial's hand appears to be begging to be killed, but is ignored by all, and just slumps sadly, resigned to its fate.

After waiting so long for a response, Tenshi crushes the poor monster's stem, making it gag and cough, then threateningly says "so, you are one of them! Trying to keep Ail and the mouse man trapped, huh? Well, it's a good thing I stayed here to snoop around!"

She tosses the Heartless to the air, cuts it to pieces with her sword after suddenly revealing it while swinging it wildly above her head, and as the creature becomes black dust, she turns her attention to the mysterious girl, points her sword at her, and says "I'll stop you and help those guys out, then that stupid Hakurei will have to show me some respect for once!"

The hooded girl seems hesitant about starting a fight with the celestial, though who can blame her, seeing as celestials are incredibly strong creatures.

"Scared of me, huh? Well, you should be," says the cocky blue haired girl, while her agonizing friend says "m-m-Miss Eldest... urk, Daughter. Need... medicine."

Tenshi sighs irritably, turns around and crouches beside her friend, and whispers "look, I'm intimidating this suspicious person so we can save those guys and girls. Be strong, just for a little longer."

Iku suddenly smiles, stands up straight, takes a refreshing deep breath, turns around, then says "wow, thanks! I'm all better now."

The celestial's face almost melts off as she looks up behind herself at the person her friend is thanking, and it's none other than that suspicious hooded woman in black.

She starts sweating bullets while saying to herself "oh crap, she's already here, and the cunning witch made Iku all better. It's a plot to get her against me, but Iku is loyal to me! She'll never betray my trust."

"Oh, those two? Well, the dragon flew over there before disappearing."

Tenshi's skin turns to stone when hearing her friend spit out such sensitive information so easily, roars as she breaks free from her own stoning and stands up, then exclaims "YOU TRAITOOOOOR! IKU, HOW COULD YOU! ? That's classified information meant of allies only!"

The oarfish youkai and the hooded figure look so casually at the celestial, ticking her off some more, then the violet-blue haired girl casually says "but she is and ally. She healed you and me while we were crouching."

The celestial looks around herself and notices her bruises from the Gummy Ship's crashes are gone, then she looks at the hooded girl, squints her eyes while pouting, then says "she just wants information."

"N-no! I'd never do that to you, Tenshi!"

The girl gasps and covers her mouth, while the celestial gasps, her face turns a bit pale, then she points at the woman, and says "wait a minute. I know that voice."

The hooded girl points to the sky away from herself, Tenshi and Iku both look away, then the girl jumps incredibly fast toward where Kimi, Ail and Mickey were last seen, dances around the air while holding out a pink napkin, then disappears as fast as she can, leaving two very confused girls wondering what the hell just happened.

MORNING

Kyo, Maribel, Luna, Reisen, Medicine and Goofy stand in front of the entrance to Eientei's grounds, where Eirin loudly says "remember, when you make contact with her, try to keep your distance while you tire her out. Udonge, if, and only IF she proves too dangerous for all of you, give me the signal."

The Moon Rabbit bows to her master, and softly says "I understand Master. I trust that won't be needed."

The boy quickly steps up, and asks "are you sure about this? I really don't want to involve Kaguya in this mess if you don't want us to, really."

The Lunarian Pharmacist raises her hand to quiet the boy down, then says "nonsense. The Princess has already agreed to this, and seems she's delighted with the idea, so save the macho crap and get going. The sooner you take Mokou down, the sooner you'll get back to the shrine."

Maribel twitches when hearing these words, and noticing the reaction, Luna says "don't worry, I'm sure Renko is just fine. Now remember, we are going to assist them from behind. We still need to recover from yesterday's wounds, ok."

The cat-eared girl nods, though doesn't look away from the ground, then looks up when Goofy places his hands on her shoulders, and says "you gotta have more faith in your friend there, Miss Maribel. Otherwise, you'll be hurtin' your heart, and hers, for not believin' in each other."

Kyo, as bluntly as ever, says "that's right, so strengthen that heart! We are hunting Heartless after all. We need you at your best!"

Maribel sniffles, a tear escapes her right eye, and as she flicks it off, she smiles and with a cracked voice says "y-you're right. I have to be strong, for Renko, and all my friends."

Medicine groans impatiently, throws her hands to the air, and shouts "you humans and your crap! Hurry this sappy sob chat so we can go hunt that girl! I'm ITCHING for some payback!"

The poisonous youkai earns herself many scowls, but simply shrugs and says "what? Weeping here won't get us that crystal, OR any closer to getting home, so why don't we just move this party already."

Kyo shakes his head, but, while wrapping an arm around his girlfriend, he admits "as annoyingly rough as she is, Medi's right, people. Let's move."

As they walk away from the safety of the mansion, Eirin loudly says "remember what I told you. Don't hesitate to use the signal, but please try to tire her out before you call!"

And after a wave from Kyo, and a reassuring bow from Reisen, the party seemingly disappears from sight after leaving the illusion protecting Eientei, while the silver haired Lunarian remains lost in thought, as though trying to solve a complex puzzle in her mind.

"EUREKA!"

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, Mima's victory cheer frightens the few fairies in the area, and wakes up Donald and Marisa, the latter muttering "dammit, I'm awake early in the morning again."

The witch's morning sourness is quickly dissolved when her eyes and nose are met with the delights of a hearty breakfast waiting for her at the table; a meal clearly made by Mystia and Daiyousei again.

"Please eat up," begins Daiyousei from the kitchen. "We made plenty for everyone, but please eat now, before Rumia breaks free again."

Marisa and Donald notice one rolled up futon bouncing and wriggling around on the other futons occupied by the heartless girls, wrapped at the center with seals clearly made by Alice, and from within, Rumia shouts "come on, I'm still hungry! Just another bowl, pleeeaaase!"

Meanwhile, Alice, Mima and Patchouli walk out of the room corridor, through a magical hole made to Reimu's right, and by the looks on their faces, they seem to have succeeded at something.

"So, your experiment worked, I assume?" asks Marisa with her soup bowl on hand.

Her former mentor's beaming face tells her she's right, and the spirit knows it, yet she eagerly says "oh yes it did! From now on we can communicate with you as if we were right there next to you. And that's not all!"

Patchouli takes the front of the group and says "we succeeded in extending its range, and we also succeeded in augmenting the vision function too."

Alice raises a finger to the air as she proudly says "it was a simple matter of focusing the third eye with cooling spells and shading barriers. Quite simple, really."

Mima holds one of two new crown-shaped emblems, squeezes it against her chest, and excitedly says "now I can even look at Hunk's butt as if it were right in front of me. *Sigh* Too bad I can't squeeze it."

"Hey, we heard that loud and clear," says the annoyed Kyo, whose voice comes crisp and clear from the spirit's emblem, while said woman chuckles playfully, and says "well that's good. I won't have to explain myself again."

Both Kyo and Luna groan at the same time, then the boy asks the golden question, "so you did all of that in one night. That's wonderful. Can you contact Ail and Mickey now?"

All three faces quickly become long, though Patchouli's seems more normal as she says "yes, and no. The signal is strong, but there's something blocking us from seeing clearly where they are, or from contacting them successfully."

"It's like some sort of barrier," complains Alice while she rubs her forehead. "Ugh, I hate to admit it, but we need Yukari's help if we are to find them."

From the emblem, disappointed sighs can be heard, then Kyo asks "say, where the hell is Yukari? I thought she'd reveal herself by now."

Nobody is able to produce a sound after that question, and after a few moments of silence, the boy asks through whispers "right, I see. Anyways, how is Renko? Maribel's been all gloomy about her friend since midnight, so can she speak to her for a bit to calm her down?"

Faces darken all around, then Alice quickly breaks the news. "I'm afraid she's gone."

Mima quickly takes the emblem away from the others, and whispers "Kyo, she was taken by one of those gassy vortexes. The ones that brought and took you Cid friend, as well as Yuffie. We have no clue where she is now."

Meanwhile, at the shrine's veranda, Cirno, whom has Hourai sitting on her shoulder again, carefully explores her Keyblade with her eyes while lifting it against the light of the sun, then the little blonde asks "why are you staring at that thing so much?"

"Why are you hanging around me all the time?" coldly asks the ice fairy.

After a few seconds of silence, the little girl admits "you make me feel safe. It's like I'm with mama Alice and Shanghai when I'm with you."

The ice fairy hums a bit, then says "well I'm curious about this thing. I just ripped off a wing to make a sword, like I always do, but when I did that last night, after Wriggle... well, it turned into this, and now I can turn it on and off whenever I want."

After saying that, the Keyblade disappears from her hand, then reappears exactly as it was, then from her left, Rumia says "that's impressive. Can you give it a keychain, like the one the mouse man had?"

Without looking back, Cirno focuses on her hand, the Keyblade flickers on it, and this time, after becoming solid, a keychain linked by dark-blue beads appear on its bottom, sporting a blue emblem at the end of the beads that looks just like Cirno's ice wings.

The ice fairy, then, looks at the darkness youkai, and asks "so, what's next? You and I are strong; though I'm still stronger. What do we do now?"

"HOW THE HECK DID SHE GET A KEYBLADE?", screams Kyo from the emblem, to which Mima replies "when she and the little black blob saw their friend fall, they cute little hearts ignited, and they just started kicking butts and taking names like nobody's business."

"And what's the name of that thing?" asks Marisa before shrugging and adding "you know, like Mickey's Star Seeker and Ail's Kingdom Key."

Cirno lifts her Keyblade, stares at it for a while, then says "it needs a powerful name. The strongest name ever, so I'll call it The Cirno Keyblade!"

Even from the emblem, groans of disgust are heard all over, making the little fairy complain and wave her arms around, knocking Hourai off her shoulders.

Rumia places a dangerously friendly arm on her friend's shoulder, then smiles as she says "just call is the Razor Wing, or I'm going to shove that thing up your-"

Back at the Bamboo Forest, Mima, speaking through Kyo's emblem, says "alright, we'll be moving the downed girls to Reimu's room. Kyo, as soon as you are done with Mokou, come on over. Even with Marisa, Donald , that cute ice fairy, and that weird blob girl, we may still need help with the Heartless."

"But everything seems to be fine over there. Are you sure?", questions the boy, to which the spirit playfully replies "that's how things started yesterday~"

With a grimace, the bulky boy looks to the sky and says "oh yeah. Everything seemed to be going so well in the morning. Jeez."

That's when he notices Goofy and Reisen trying their best to cheer Maribel up, and before he asks, Luna walks closer to him, and whispers "she heard what happened to Renko. Just don't mention anything to her about it, and let's keep an eye on her."

Kyo looks at his girlfriend and nods, saying "yeah. the Heartless will be all over her in that state."

"HEEEY-A!"

All eyes go to Medicine and Su-San, and the black dust dissipating in front of them, then the blonde youkai looks back with furrowed brows, a cocky smile, pumps her fist, and says "oh yeah, finally some action!"

Powerwilds and Fluffbounds start popping out of black vortexes in front of the large party, and just as those Heartless start jumping around threateningly, Kyo commands "Goofy, Medicine, with me! Reisen, keep Luna and Maribel safe!"

Two small parties are made, and the boy, the dog and the youkai doll rush to meet with the monsters head-on, while the other three girls step back with their backs pressed against each other.

Kyo raises his golden-flamed sword and strikes three Heartless at once, releasing their hearts with one blow, Goofy jumps and body-slams two Fluffbounds with his shield, and Medicine covers her hands with poison and starts smacking Powerwilds on the center of their faces, while Su-San flies by, cutting them with a beam of light.

One of the monkeys jumps at the boy from behind, but the humanoid dog intercepts it, and smashes its face with his shield, then smashes it against the ground, where it becomes black dust.

"Thanks," says the boy with a thumbs up, before turning around and slicing various rabbits and monkeys in half, releasing their hearts at once.

The little blonde finishes off the two remaining Heartless, turns to face the muscled boy as those monsters slowly turn to black dust, and angrily says "stop taking all the fun for yourself! I want to kick Heartless butts too!"

The black dog wants to tell the girl Kyo is just doing his job, but instead, he points up to the top of the bamboo and exclaims "look! It's Miss Mokou!"

"So nice of you to remember me, Goofy," quickly begins the possessed girl as she hovers slowly around, threatening to go to the three girls while saying "you guys owe me for taking Keine's body from me, so I'm here to collect."

As she continues flying toward the human girls and Moon Rabbit, Kyo tries to get her from behind, but Mokou merely flashes his face with a pair of flaming wings and continues her way.

"Maribel, dear, you look tired and pained. Come with me to the darkness and let me take your sorrows away," softly says the immortal as she slowly gets closer to the girls.

Reisen's face becomes twisted and wildly feral as her red eyes glow intensely, but Mokou merely smiles to this, her eyes glow purple, and the Moon Rabbit starts to scream when her own eyes get covered with a black substance that seems to form right in front of her lids.

With the rabbit girl screaming on her knees, the darkened immortal easily reaches the humans, extends her arms, and sinisterly whispers "Luna, I know how you feel. He still has you in doubt and won't propose, while you actually want to start a family. Forget all that. Come with me, and you'll never feel alone or in doubt again!"

Both Luna and Maribel look at each other, then at Mokou, whose eyes seem to glow with a faint purple aura, and slowly, the blonde girl lifts her hand towards Mokou's.

Fujiwara smiles vilely, Medicine and Goofy call for the girl as they run fast to get to them, then several pink and maroon hearts blast the immortal girl off her feet, and send her crashing against a wall of bamboo, where she turns into a purple mist, and disappears.

Everyone sighs with relief, including Reisen, whose eyes quickly return to normal, and Maribel herself, who whispers "that one felt good."

"Hahahaha! Excellent! You guys won't be so boring after all. Put up a fight and amuse me to no ends. I'll still take all your hearts, and there's nothing you can do about it! KEAHAHAHAHA!"

Mokou's voice echoes all over the forest, and stops as soon as it started, then Kyo, who finally manages to stand up and see clearly, looks at Maribel and Luna with relieved eyes, and ominously says "she's gotten stronger."

Goofy helps Reisen to her feet, then cheerfully says "ah-yup! But you remember, we got a strong ally now. She won't get away from us this time!"

Even Medicine looks a bit worried, but manages to relax a bit after hearing Goofy's reassuring words, then says "that's right. That's very right! You guys got ME, so there's nothing to worry about!"

Kyo sighs as he face palms, points his sword toward where last Mokou disappeared, and commands "come on! She's hiding this way! Let's get her!"

"Remember," begins Patchouli from the emblem, "when you remove the crystal from her, be very careful."

"Yes, yes, that thing about Shanghai, I know!" complains the boy.

There is a short pause as the party regroups, then the magician calmly says "actually, I'm starting to have second thoughts about that. Still, best be safe than sorry. Be careful either way."

"Wake up, princess! It's going to be lunch time in just a few more hours, so it's high time to GET THE HECK UP!"

Yuka's sweet, sweet voice is the first thing Sanae hears as she opens her eyes and gets off the silky-soft, cloud-comfortable, fuzzily-warm, white-sheeted bed she's on, and after a moan, she mumbles "whu-hmm... What happened?"

Her blurry eyes can make out the squiggly shapes of the youkai woman, and the pink-clad girl, who sweetly says "don't you remember? We crashed into a large white castle and lost consciousness as soon as the floors stopped moving."

The shrine maiden's eyes finally adjust themselves, Yuka smiles and waves, then turns away, then the girl looks to Aerith, and says "oh... Oh, that's right! We tried to stop, but everything we tried made things worse!"

The ample room they are in is completely white, save for a few red flags with yellow borders that have black a motif that looks suspiciously like Mickey's face, which hang around the windows, the bathroom sign, which is pink, and the knobs on the doors, which are gold.

The brown-haired girl smiles sheepishly as a drop of sweat rolls down the side of her head, and mumbles "um, right. You hit all those buttons..." then loudly says "well, yes, that. Um, it seems we are at another world now, so..."

Sanae gasps, almost choking on herself, then exclaims "Ail-kun! Where's Ail, and Mickey! What happened to my Ail-kun, and with Kimi! ?"

Yuka groans impatiently from the background, and says "man, humans are so slow!", then Aerith sighs, and says "please, try and wake up. Remember what happened. It's impossible for us to know what happened."

The green-haired human holds her chin while in thought, looks out the windows and admires the clean blue skies with white fluffy clouds, then starts to remember getting run over by Mickey's ship, scooped up by a net, pressing a button in the ship and causing it to take off, then pressing more buttons in her attempt to not crash against the white castle with blue towers, and then crashing anyways.

"Ohh yeah," calmly says Sanae while nodding to herself. "Then those cow and chicken men came over, saying we were under arrest."

There is a very loud crack and a bang, two disturbingly loud clunks, and when the attention goes to Yuka she tosses the broken door with two dents away, points with her thumb at the two armored humanoid dogs falling unconscious on the ground in front of the open door, then says "now she gets it. And now we get out of here and go back home, alright."

The girls just blink at the flower master, but immediately follow after her, carefully hopping over the unconscious guards on the floor.

They make their way down the beautifully mirror-polished balcony adorned with red and yellow, and blue and yellow flags and curtains, hopefully making their way to the exit of that castle, when they suddenly come across a gathering hall, where a girl cries "but I'm not here to cause trouble, really! My name is Renko, and I don't know how I ended up inside your king's bath tub!"

"By the way, it was very comfortable and nice," adds the girl, then Sanae gasps and says "hey, that's Renko! We have to help her!"

Yuka smacks the back of the wind priestess' head and says "don't point out such obvious things, or I'll smack you!"

Tears hang under the girl's eyes as she holds the back of her head, and cries "don't warn me after hitting me."

Aerith just giggles softly and heals the girl's fresh bump as they make their way into the large room.

As soon as they get inside, a large red and black rooster humanoid wearing a helmet and breastplate, shinier than the other guards', shouts "the prisoners have escaped! Don't let them run around the castle!", then proceeds to point his spear at the girls.

Renko looks over the multitude of cows, chickens and ducks, then smiles when she sees the girls and exclaims "you guys, I can't believe this! I'm so happy to see you! Even you, Yuka!"

Yuka smiles ever so ominously toward the guards and Renko, and sweetly says "my, I should feel flattered, yet somehow..."

She spots her umbrella, Sanae's gohei and Aerith's staff at the end of the room, stomps her right foot, and ominously continues "...I feel somewhat offended. I. don't. LIKE. feeling offended."

"Don't try anything funny, woman! I got my eye on you!" threatens a dog humanoid guard as he points at the flower youkai with his spear.

Sanae and Aerith press their backs against each other as a rooster and a bull humanoid threaten them with spears, then the pink-clad girl says "we're not really here to cause any trouble. We would just like to go back home."

The guards and maids suddenly scream, Aerith staff falls on her hands, Sanae's gohei falls on her head, then Yuka, whom has her parasol back on her hands, cackles and says "now, one of you is going to be so kind as to point us to the exit, or I'll have to get a little rough on you."

"WAIT, WAIT," cries Sanae while gently tapping the youkai on the shoulder and getting her attention. "We're not supposed to cause trouble! We're the good guys!"

The mentioned guards and maids are now either hanging upside down by vines wrapped around their legs, or are being slowly eaten alive by beautiful giant flowers, but all are actually marveled by the beauty of the flowers Yuka has summoned all around them, and even though in danger, they can't help but gasp and awe in admiration.

The flower master starts to blush and looks away to hide this, then Renko points out "aww, she's blushing. She never gets this much praise."

"Odd! If she can produce such wonderful flowers, it's a mystery she doesn't get more praises!"

"The queen!" exclaims a guard. "Queen Minnie!", calls a chicken maid. "My queen, please, leave this place! These people are dangerous!", commands the rooster man.

Minnie Mouse looks similar to Mickey, save for the fact that she's got long eyelashes, her head looks a little thinner, wears a golden tiara with red jewels on her head, and wears long white elbow gloves, and a long, puffy pink dress that covers her completely, and symbolizes her stature in the kingdom.

She walks to Yuka, cooing while caressing the red flowers growing on the vines she passes by, which makes the youkai shiver and flush, and once she's in front of the woman, she sweetly says "I must say, these flowers are beautiful. Maybe you could help us with our garden. We've been having nothing but bad luck with it, and would greatly appreciate your assistance."

The flower youkai seems to tremble as she looks down at the queen with apparent fear, and stammers "um, but I, wup. That is", and thinks "such gentle hands! What a sweet voice! Her mere presence makes me feel like she's tending to me with outmost loving care!"

Without realizing it, and to Sanae, Renko's, and even Aerith's surprise, the flower master smiles, as though lost in a trance, and nods to the queen.

The mouse girl giggles sweetly, covering her mouth with her hand, then says "alright, thank you very much. Um, would you mind letting my servants go? I'm sure they would very much like to get back to their regular duties."

Without saying a word, all the threatening flowers and vines slither away from the room, leaving only the harmless flowers behind adorning the white walls, then Sanae crosses her arms under her chest, and complains "ok, this is just fine and stuff, but what about Ail and Mickey?"

"Mickey? What happened to Mickey?" the queen's voice comes out a bit high pitched out of shock and surprise.

Meanwhile, at the World of Darkness, Mickey groans as he wakes up, opens his eyes, and lifts himself up with great effort to meet Ail's face, while said boy is currently sitting on a dark rock in his Yozoragan mode and is healing the king's back injury by touching him with the ethereal wings.

"Urgh! Whoa. What happened to us?", groggily asks the black mouse while shaking his head and testing his limbs, one by one.

The brown haired boy shakes his head, calls off his wings, then says "I'm not sure where here is, but Kimi has stranded us here aright. It's all I know at the time."

Mickey looks to his friend with concern, finally manages to stand, and says "Ail, buddy, you don't sound so good. Are you injured?"

The boy just shakes his head, places the tip of his fingers on his forehead, and while looking at the black sky between his fingers, he sadly says "I just feel so strange. Like I'm depressed about everything. I don't even want to get up from this spot, even though I know we have to go."

The king runs in front of the boy, grabs him by the shoulders, and furiously commands "SNAP OUT OF IT, AIL! Get on your feet this instant before I smack yer head upside down with the Star Seeker," then strikes the side of his friend's face with the back of his gloved hand.

Anilan springs on to his feet, blubbers while shaking his head, and sounding more energetic, he looks around and asks "wha-wha-what? What happened? Whoa! What in the world happened to me? It's like I just wanted to get consumed by the darkness!"

He looks down to the kingly mouse and says "thanks Mickey! I owe you one!"

"Naw," begins the king while flapping his hand once in the air. "You owe me nothin'. But Ail, this world is unnaturally dark. We must keep our hearts strong at all times. I'm afraid of what might happen if we fail this simple task."

The dense boy quickly turns his thoughts to Sanae, seeing her as she happily greets him when he returns home, takes a deep breath, filling himself with the warming light that image brings to him, and with a smile on his face, he says "alright, I got 'cha. I'll keep my light shining brightly."

Mickey nods and says "good," then looks around the dark beach and continues "now that we got that settled, how about tryin' out one of your rifts to see if we can go back to Gensokyo?"

Ail mentally beats himself on the head repeatedly when he realizes he didn't even think of such an obvious thing to try, but he quickly composes himself to make himself look a bit less sheepish, stands up, then aims his hand away from himself and the mouse.

A few seconds later, a pitch black gap opens up, and inside of it are a pair of round yellow eyes looking back at the boys.

The humanoid mouse jumps back and summons his Keyblade, while Ail simply closes his gap faster than he can think about it, then looks at his partner and nervously says "let's not try that again!"

The mouse nods and says "y-y-y-yeah, let's just see if we can find a way out of here that doesn't involve that gap again."

After a quick nod in agreement, Ail and Mickey make their way deeper into the darkness, hoping to find a way out of that depressing and dark world.

MIDDAY

At the Bamboo Forest, Kyo jumps from one bamboo wall to the next, slashes the Powerwilds below him while flying through the air, then jumps off the next wall, somersaulting as he lands in the middle of a group of Fluffbounds, causing an explosion of energy that sends the few surviving Heartless flying all over the place, while releasing the hearts of the rest.

Goofy cheers as he intercepts two of the airborne Heartless with his Rocket skill, turning those monsters into dust, while Reisen sharp-shoots the rest from a safe distance, and Maribel and Luna make sure the rabbit's back is covered.

On an area immediately aside the first battleground, where everyone is working together, Medicine and Su-San are taking out Heartless all on their own, sometimes releasing hearts, other times simply turning them to dust.

The little flying doll strikes a Fluffbound before it kicks the large doll, causing it to fall on its back, then the doll youkai grabs the rabbit by the ears and swings it around with all her might, striking various other Heartless around her, and turning most to dust, then pierces the chest of the rabbit with her hand, releasing its heart.

The second she's done there, she runs forward, tackles a Powerwild on the stomach with a poison-covered shoulder, releases its heart, releases a thick cloud of black poison, which Su-San spreads around by flying in rapid circles, and all the Heartless in the area are defeated, though only a few have their hearts released.

Immediately afterward, the blonde jumps left, kicks another Powerwild on the chin, grips its tail with a poison-covered hand, pulls it toward herself, then the tiny doll gives it an uppercut that releases its heart and sends the body flying as it turns to black dust.

From his side, Kyo defeats three more Fulffbounds in one swing, then shouts "Medi, you're pushing yourself too hard!"

Medicine finishes off the last monkey in front of her, raises her fist to the boy, and shouts "hey, I'm doing just fine, so save your worries and start kicking more Heartless butts!"

A Fluffbound headbutts the girl on the back after taking off the ground like a miniature rocket, and that blonde rolls several times after bouncing off the ground once, then skids to a stop right in front of Reisen, who kneels down with a green bottle that contains a yellow star inside.

As she applies the rejuvenating liquid potion on the doll girl, she sighs and says "please be more careful. These potions aren't going to last forever."

Medicine lifts her head and glances upward, revealing her wriggled frowning lips, watery eyes, her body convulsing with frustrated sobs, but before she breaks down, Luna kneels down and hugs the girl, cooing "there, there, calm down. You just let your guard down and got hit."

The blonde youkai simply melts in the girl's embrace, and sighs contently while letting her head rest on the human's shoulder, all while Su-San approaches them with a disappointed look in her eyes.

Goofy stares at the situation from a safe distance, bends slightly to the right, then whispers "say, Kyo, is that really Medicine? She seems a bit off at the time."

Kyo bends left to get closer to Goofy, reveals a hidden camera in his pocket, and whispers back "don't tell her, but I took three pictures of this right now. I'm going to use these until I'm satisfied."

"MOKOU!" barks Maribel, pointing toward the left, just as the purple image of the immortal flies by, heading toward the Human Village, then, without saying a word, the whole party chases after Kyo, whom runs deeper into the Bamboo Forest instead.

"Kyo, sweetheart, she went the other way," calls Luna, whom still holds Medicine in her arms.

Reisen looks back and shouts "that's a fake! She's going to her house! Trust him, he can feel her wavelengths thanks to that emblem of his!"

A wall of fire ignites right in front of their path, then another ignites behind them, and before they know it, a giant, thin Heartless with what look like zigzagging arms made from paper and spindly legs resembling scissor jacks, falls from the sky and starts juggling purple clubs as it lifts itself up.

The extra tall Heartless' long head is composed of various faces alternating in red and black, all with little yellow dots for eyes and jagged mouths, and wears a black armor with red shoulder pads and a black codpiece that cover its thin red body, the top half of its skinny legs are red, while the bottom are black, and its feet are black with a curved tip.

It appears to struggle to keep its heads balanced, showing off its red and black heart emblem on the top of its last head, and after gaining its balance again, it begins to juggle while walking around, generating shockwaves with each step taken.

"Dammit, GET BACK EVERYONE!", commands the boy as he readies his wind shield and sword, then looks back to Luna and says, "there's something fishy about that thing, so keep an eye out, and try to keep as far away as you can from it!"

He quickly turns to Goofy and Medicine, whom rejoins the black dog as the boy commands "those legs look tough, and those arms seem pointless! Try to hit its body and head! Now, CHARGE!"

The three of them rush toward the tall monster, stop to avoid getting swatted away by one of those clubs, then Kyo and Medicine take flight, while Goofy rockets up and strikes the monster's hip.

The doll youkai and the boy attack the chest and head directly, and while the little girl and her tiny doll damage the monster's chest, the human boy strikes the top head with his shield, then cuts down at the other heads with his sword.

The Heartless seems to roar without making an actual sound, crouches down, allowing the humanoid dog to hit its head, then springs to the air and lands fast and hard, pushing its attackers away with the air pressure it causes.

Maribel starts shooting fireballs at it, while Luna shoots her colorful kunai bullets, and Reisen her own white bullets.

The monster seems to pay no mind to the shooting girls, and casually makes its way to the wall of fire, while, from the emblem, Mima cheerfully says "that hard butt of yours really comes in handy for tough landings, hunk."

"We're kind-a busy here," angrily begins the boy just as he stands up. "If you're just calling in to tease, please call some other time."

There is a second of a pause before the spirit says "aww, so cold. Anyway, that's a Trickmaster. Don't let it ignite its clubs with fire, or you'll be in lots of pa-oh..."

Just as she is saying that, the Trickmaster places its clubs next to the flaming walls and they quickly ignite, and now it turns around and quickens its pace toward the attacking party.

"I wish that hadn't happened," comments the boy before kicking off the ground and flying toward its face.

Medicine is already on it, and readies to spit some poison at this flames, but as the Heartless juggles its flaming clubs, balls of fire rain down on the girl, burning her up and forcing her to retreat hastily.

Goofy gets in front of her, blocking the fireballs with his shield, and shouts "go ahead Miss Medicine! Give 'im yer best shot!"

"Thanks," replies the little blonde while preparing a thick, and concentrated cloud of poison she spews over the dog's head, which quickly blinds the Trickmaster, and makes it act erratically.

Kyo chuckles softly, quickly approaches the large Heartless, going through the cloud of poison, and even though blinded in said cloud, he swings his sword with deadly accuracy, while keeping his windy shield in front of his eyes, keeping the thick poison away from them.

"Alright, just one more hit, and-"

Kyo's declaration is cut short when Reisen shouts "PRINCESS!", and a cackling madwoman showers the Trickmaster with innumerable amounts of colorful bullets, turning it into dust and releasing its heart in the most violent way possible, right on front of the brave boy.

The muscled boy quickly gets out of the dissipating poison cloud, lands behind Goofy and Medicine, looks up to the sky at the crazy girl, and shouts "Kaguya, what the hell? That monster was ours!"

The Moon Princess covers her smiling mouth with her sleeve and says "whoops. Pardon my rudeness. It's just that you were taking so long, I was getting bored of watching you flail about."

"FLAIL ABOUT!" parrot both Medicine and Kyo at the same time, sounding raging mad as they both shake their fists at the princess.

Luna holds the doll youkai back and Goofy holds the boy, while Reisen and Maribel approach the Lunarian, then the Moon Rabbit bows and ask "Princess Kaguya, what are you doing here? What about Eientei? Weren't you supposed to wait for my signal?"

The girl casually flaps her right hand, and says "I got bored of doing all that stuff with the barrier, so Eirin's taking care of that now. But that's not important. What's important now is that we go and kick Mokou's butt in five seconds!"

The entire party, except Goofy, stare at the princess with tiny white dots for eyes.

The humanoid dog just stares rather casually, then suddenly snaps his finger, points it at the black haired girl, and says "a-hyuck! Now I get it! Yer majesty's just feelin' lonely, so she decided to come join us and have fun at the same time."

The Moon Princess just stares at the dog in complete shock, and gags on her own words, finding it impossible to reply something intelligible.

Meanwhile, at the Hakurei Shrine, a Fluttering Fury appears to shriek in fear when an icy Keyblade is an inch from its head, and as soon as it is touched by the weapon, its heart is released.

At the same time, a Soldier cowers at a corner outside of the shrine's storage house, waves its hands defensively in front of itself, then a black sword with a red glow falls on its head, releasing its heart and finishing it off.

Cirno sighs as she swipes the cold sweat from her forehead, then says "phew! That's the last of this wave. How are things on your end, Rumia?"

The little blonde in a black leotard and brown shorts giggles as she places her sword secure against her rope belt, and says "Heartless eliminated! Time to move to the next level!"

The ice fairy smiles as she waves her arms above her head and cheers "I don't know what that means, but we are awesome," a cheer that Rumia easily nods to.

The two little warriors make their way into the shrine's living quarters, and there they are greeted by two amused fairies of light and a tiny blonde girl whom looking at a hysterical evil spirit banging her hands hard on a table while laughing to the point of tears.

Sunny, Star and Hourai look back at Cirno and Rumia, point at Mima, then monotonously say "her brain broke."

The supposedly evil spirit takes a few, unneeded breaths, looks at the two fairies and tiny girl, then says "I can't help it! That Lunarian got served by Goofy, and he wasn't even trying!"

"I HEARD THAT!",shouts Kaguya from the emblem. "I don't know who the heck you are, but you have NO right to make fun of me! Inaba! Find that cretin and teach her some manners! Do it in TEN seconds!"

Mima resumes her fit of maniacal laughter, and almost to tears, she shouts "she's so stupid! HAHAHA! Oh my goodness, what an amusing party member she is! I like her!"

Ignoring Kaguya's unladylike curses, cusses and threats, Alice sighs irritably and says "first those Heartless, then Shanghai, then youkai losing their hearts... and now a foul-mouthed princess. Gensokyo never holds back its punches, doesn't it?"

Patchouli glances around the shrine for a bit, notices Mima has calmed down, though seems to ignores this, and asks hey, where are Marisa and Donald?"

Marisa and Donald are walking up the river's edge at the Youkai Forest as they head toward the Youkai Mountain; the witch having a steeled intense look in her eyes.

The duck sighs, which seems like a long squawk, then asks "so, what are we doing here?"

"Yes. What are you doing there, Marisa?", says the disappointed voice of Patchouli from the heart emblem on Maria's hat, whom obviously notices Donald laughing quietly behind the witch's back, and strictly adds "you too, Donald!"

The duck aws, while the blonde just keeps walking as if nothing, and coldly says "I'm looking for the one person that can help us find those lost hearts."

There is a short pause before Alice asks "Marisa, didn't we agree that we wouldn't split up? Please, come back. What happened to Shanghai was not your fault."

There is a long moment of silence, and Donald thinks of answering for his partner, but Marisa beats him to the punch, and smiles as she says "that's why I'm with Donald. Don't worry."

"Marisa..." is all Alice can reply, to which the blonde witch says "I love kicking your butts all over the place, you know that Alice, but this was too much. Don't get me wrong, I'm not doing this for any of you. I just want peace of- No, I just want to get back at those Heartless."

"That's not the point," begins Mima, who clearly sounds disappointed. "Marisa, what if we are attacked by large groups of those creeps again! We need your firepower here. And if you can release hearts too, then-"

"You have Cirno and Rumia there. There's also Alice, and she's no pushover. You've got plenty of firepower," interrupts the witch, whom stops her walk, summons her broom to her right hand, which appears the same way Mickey's and Cirno's Keyblades appear, and says "now if you'll excuse me, some people need my help."

By now they have left the river behind, and are now entering a dark and humid cave, where Donald says "um, maybe we should go back. I'm getting a bad feeling about this."

Marisa turns around and angrily says "don't be a chicken, you quack! We're going in, and that's final!"

When she turns around again, she gasps with fright, while back at the shrine, the girls can hear a loud thud, Donald squawking Marisa's name desperately, then the giggle of what sounds like a little girl.

"Marisa!" desperately calls Mima, punching the table hard before closing her eyes and angrily saying "you! What did you do to Marisa? Answer me, you little creep!"

Meanwhile, back at the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Kyo and Goofy arrive first to a run-down house squeezed in a clearing in the forest, and are quickly joined by the girls, whom pant for a bit.

"I shouldn't be this fatigued," says Luna while looking at the house with the broken boards on the roof, the lose boards on the veranda, and the burned holes on one of the walls.

"I should listen to Renko and walk more. But flying is so much fun," says Maribel between breaths.

Reisen is the first of the girls to recover her breath, and says "right. I'm actually surprised I got so tired from that little run. Must be that drug master-"

As the rabbit's voice trails off, Medicine, whom has already recovered her usual self, looks around the dead grass, wooden bits, and pieces of trash around the run-down house, and with a grimace she asks "so, Mokou lives here? That's kind of brutal."

Kaguya smacks her dry lips, looks around the depressing broken down house, but the expected taunt never comes. Instead, she looks back at Kyo and asks "so, is she here?"

The boy nods, points at the house, and says "she's inside, so I'm sure she's waiting to ambush us."

Medicine walks in front, punches her hand with rhythm, and says "alright, time for some payback. That girl will be sorry she made me mad."

With a cheeky smile, Luna quickly says "sure, act tough now. Just don't get hit and cry again, ok."

The blonde youkai's face turns red, steam rises from her head, she throws her fists down, and growls out loud, while the girls all chuckle softly behind her.

"That was... H-It just caught me off guard! I got surprised," screams the little girl while looking to the ground.

Kyo shushes the girls, and he, along with Goofy and Kaguya, glare toward the wooden house, from where slow steps can be heard getting closer to them, and then Mokou's soft chuckle echoes all around the clearing.

The way back gets sealed up by a purple, glass-like barrier, the left side of the immortal becomes visible through the doorway, and her mixed and twisted voice echoes all over as she says "so, you brought her with you. Thank you. This saves me the trouble of hunting the princess down. Now, hold still, your majesty, while I take your heart and plunge you into the darkness."

The Moon Princess cracks her fingers while stretching them, eager to start a fight with her hated adversary, and with a bloodthirsty smile on her face, she says "yeah, yeah, sure you will, but you'll have to kill me first, and the odds of that happening today are zero to none."

The entire area seems to squiggle, making Kyo feel a bit sick to his stomach, but this is short lived, and with his golden flamed sword and wind shield on hand, he bends his body forward and commands "I've heard enough! Let's go get 'er!"

Before he charges forward he quickly realizes something is wrong, so instead, he stands his ground and studies his surroundings.

Goofy, Kaguya, Luna; everyone seems to be frozen in time, yet it is obvious that he and Mokou are the only ones able to move.

"Surprised?", softly asks the immortal as she takes a step forward, revealing herself to the boy, who gasps when looking upon his target.

Mokou's right eye has turned purple, its iris has become a dark blue flame, the area around that eye is growing what seems to be a black web, the right side of her hair has turned dark purple, and the fingers on her right hand have become black claws.

She grins widely at the shocked boy, and says "it's funny how, with a little taunt, I was able to make that girl power up. I used that aura of hers to mimic her powers of eternity. Right now, time has stopped for them, but... Well, you did the math, so let's skip the obvious dialogue."

Before Kyo asks why, Mokou's twisted, warped and echoed voice vibrates all around the clearing while she laughs manically, and as soon as she stops laughing, she looks at the boy and says "out of all these idiots here, you present the most danger for us. I simply plan to erase you from this plane of existence to make master's life a little easier."

In the blink of an eye, both Kyo and Mokou are face to face, pushing her black fire against his wind shield, and somehow, the boy manages to match the immortal's strength.

He swings his sword at her face, and as expected, she jumps away, though not before getting struck on the thigh, which gives the boy the chance to follow up with a shield on the stomach, then on the face.

The immortal girl takes flight, rubbing her nose, looks down as she raises her hands above her head, and shouts "you think you can beat me? You... THINK...", a massive ball of black fire twice the size of her body appears above her hands, and she screams "WROOOOONG!"

Kyo clicks his tongue and takes flight so that the shot doesn't hit anybody else, but the twisted girl throws it straight at Luna and cackles madly.

The boy calls out for his woman and gets in front of the flame, calls off his sword to expand his shield so that it covers his and her body completely, and is almost pushed back, but he keeps his ground.

Mokou laughs as she flies to his right, smiles as the boy stands helplessly on that spot, then lifts her right claw, eager to strike him hard.

"THINK AGAIN," shouts the boy when he suddenly moves the entire fireball along with his shield to his right, crushing Mokou with white wind and black fire.

The impact causes her to bounce helplessly in mid-air, where Kyo jumps after her and summons his sword to slash her in a cross formation, creating a golden 'X', then expands his shield after calling the sword off again, and pushes it with all his might on the center of the 'X' his sword created.

The immortal woman screams as loud as she can when this light penetrates her skin and blows her all the way against her own barrier, which makes her bones crack and the boy wince.

He ignores the obvious pain she's feeling and rushes forward to attack, but that's when a pink blur flies by him, and he winces again when Kaguya sinks a very vicious fist into Mokou's stomach, making the girl cough and her barrier to crack.

"I'll teach you to use my own powers against me, red-pants," declares Kaguya as she picks her immortal rival by the neck and lifts her above her own head.

She spins the girl around until she looks like a human disk, flies as high as she can, then shouts "Kyo, go!"

The boy calls off his shield to summon his sword with augmented strength, obvious due to the large golden flames surrounding it, and he nods, acknowledging the princess' plan.

Kaguya coos quite happily after tossing Mokou towards Kyo, the boy roars as he prepares to swing that blade, and strikes the possessed phoenix girl on the back, making her yelp out loud and forcing her to the air again.

The moon princes giggles as her rival is once again within her reach, then said lone wolf barks "ENOUGH", then Kaguya yelps and covers her face with her sleeve.

Kyo follows her example as quickly as he can, and just in time too.

Mokou roars furiously, her entire body ignites with blue flames, and after another furious roar, those flames consume themselves and explode as a powerful flash of blinding light that lasts for a few seconds; enough for the flaming girl to run and hide.

When the light fades, the princess meets with the boy, waves her arm all around, freeing everybody else from their eternal bonds, and says "she's gone back into hiding! Can you tell where?"

"Hey, what's going on here? Where's Mokou?", asks the confused Medicine, while she and Goofy exchange confused stares.

Kyo points inside the house, and says "she's in there, but there's something very strange about-"

"Everyone, listen well. It seems the Heartless have turned that place into a base. The moment you enter there, the only way out is to defeat Mokou."

Patchouli's soft and calm voice clashes with the tension currently being felt, and knowing someone is bound to smart-mouth her because of that, she quickly adds "I don't care about my tone. You just focus on the task ahead, and make sure you're prepared before heading inside!"

A quick hum escapes the muscled boy, then he looks to Goofy, Medicine and Kaguya, and all nod to each other, then he looks to Luna, Maribel and Reisen.

"No way, Kyo," complains Luna. "We're in this together! And besides, we have shown you we are strong enough, right Maribel?"

The blond cat-eared girl nods with steeled determination, then says "that's right! We are going in there too, and see this to the end! And Miss Reisen has proven to be able to care for us, so we'll be just fine."

Reisen nods, then says "and I'm not letting the princess go in there unprotected either, so stop giving us that look and let's move!"

Kyo smiles, sighs, then shrugs and says "fine, fine, I won't argue with you. It's impossible to do so. Just do me a favor and show those monsters no mercy."

Luna walks over to her boyfriend, kisses his lips, and after a disturbingly malicious giggle, she says "don't worry. I plan to give them hell."

Back at the Dark Blowhole, Marisa, whom has a trickle of blood trailing down from her head to her cheek, grits her teeth while looking around herself, then looks to Donald to her left, and whispers "you take the left, while I distract her!"

The duck nods, then the witch runs out of hiding and shoots various lasers from a pair of orbs that fly around her, while at the same time she holds her broom on her hands in case she needs a quick flyaway, or finds an opening for a beating.

Hanging above her is Kisume, who has dark teal hair tied to twin pig tails with white bobbles, her eyes, instead of dark brown, are currently purple, she wears a white kimono, sits inside a cherry-brown bucket with black bands on the top and bottom, and has a dangerous black and purple aura swirling around her head.

Not only that, but she's holding on the Yamame Kurodani's limp body by the left leg, and seems to want to swat the human blonde with the blonde spider youkai.

The spider's hair is tied up to a bun, though seems it's about to break lose because of the loosened brown ribbon, has brown eyes, and wears an brown overall dress tied with yellow ribbons at the skirt, and a long-sleeved black shirt underneath.

One of the witch's lasers cuts the tsurube otoshi's rope, bringing her and the knocked-out spider down, and that's when a group of five Heartless pop out of dark blobs in the darkness.

These creatures look like tiny blue dogs with large heads, big yellow eyes, large jagged-toothed maws, short feet without visible digits, all have a silver-spiked red collar around their waists, and they have their black and red heart emblems on their behinds.

"Aww, COME ON!" roars Marisa when she sees Donald taking on three more of those dogs, distracting himself with the dogs and messing up her plans.

Kisume simply chuckles, tosses Yamame at the witch's feet, then starts hopping away, deeper into the cave.

"STOP HER!" declares the black and white witch, but the Heartless quickly gather in front of the girl and duck, then growl just before they rush in to attack.

Marisa spins her broom around her fingers, ends up holding it near the brush, like some make-shift sword, then a bronze Keychain with a turn color star at the end appears under the brush, and some key-like teeth grow out of the broom's tip.

She swings the broom/Keyblade once, and takes out three of the mutts, releasing their hearts, then calls "Mima, Patchouli, new Heartless! Can you give us a few pointers?"

Donald lifts his small staff and declares "Ice Sign, Blizzaga," a spell card appears at the tip of his weapon, then quickly unleashes a set of thick icicles that spread into snowflake saws that strike several enemies at once.

After his spell is cast, he looks back and shouts "what's goin' on? Why aren't they answering?"

The witch rolls left to avoid getting pounced on, her orbs shoot thin lasers that push some of the dogs back, then she grabs the emblem on the tip of her hat and shouts "Mima-sama, don't do this to me! Please answer!"

"MARISA!"

Donald's call helps the witch realize she is completely surrounded by the blue dogs, and just lets her breath go when she feels she's done for.

Blood red lasers that bounce on the walls strike the dogs on the heads, finishing off most of them, startling the few left, fly past the blonde's head, and seeing this the witch smiles upon looking to her left, and with great relief she says "Mima!"

The green haired spirit flies inside the cave and grabs Marisa from the ground, saving her from a shower of will-o-the-wisps Kisume started throwing, and casts a spell on the flames that burn the Heartless instead.

At the same time, a web string from Yamame's wrist saves Donald from the pulse howl attacks the mutt-like monsters were attacking him with, causing said monsters to yelp as they get stuck against a wall.

Mima's gaze seems to be that of a peaceful woman, but a closer look and a chill to the heart lets all present know otherwise.

This causes Marisa to stop her mouth before asking her former mentor of her presence, and gulps when the spirit coldly says "Rabid Dogs. I'm disappointed in you, Marisa. These should be nothing for someone like you."

The tip of her staff glows gold, a golden beam flies out of that glow, eradicating the remaining monsters, then she points that staff at Kisume, up on the ceiling, and says "but this little monster here did hit you hard, so I'll chuck it up to that."

The little bucket girl yelps, quickly turns around, but before she can start her escape, she's struck by another golden laser at the back, and knocked out immediately, then the spider youkai screams with fright as her friend falls.

A blonde woman with long hair, red eyes, a red horn on her forehead, and wearing a white shirt with red borders, a semi-transparent blue skirt with red stripes, a pair of getta sandals, and has chained shackles on her wrists and ankles, catches the dark-teal haired girl with her bucket, and says "crap, I'm late. You're still paying me for coming all the way here."

"Kisume! Kisume! Is she alright?"

The worried spider youkai picks her friend from the oni's hands and watches as a purple mist leaves the little girl and flies deeper into the cave, while Mima places the dizzy Marisa on the floor, and says "what are you talking about? You're guiding us down there, so be prepared to earn your pay."

Though dizzy from the blow to her head, the witch still manages to look surprised at her former master, but before she can even begin to thank her, the spirit angrily says "next time you talk to me when you plan on doing something so STUPID. After so many things have happened I thought you were more prudent! You put yourself AND Donald at risk, not to mention almost worrying me to my second death!"

The black and white scowls, fronts up to the spirit, and bravely says "this isn't some game, Mima-sama! I'm doing this because Satori is the only one that can help us find their hearts, and I'm not leaving here until I have her help!"

The green haired woman lifts her hand, the blonde winces, but soon finds herself being motherly rubbed on the head, opens her left eye, then Mima calmly says "I understand. You feel guilty for what happened to that fairy and Alice's girl while on your watch, but like I said, next time be more prudent and talk to me. You'll be no help if you're defeated too. Now come on, more Heartless could pop up at any minute."

Yuugi's grin widens, she pounds her fist on her hand, making a bit of a shockwave, then says "Heartless huh? Haven't had those in a while. Seems this is going to be fun after all."

Donald looks at Yamame, then at Marisa, then back at the blonde oni, then asks "so, are we going in already, or what?"

Yuugi stares back at the duck with famished eyes, starts to drool, points at him, and says "I don't know what you just said, little morsel, but you sure look tasty! I got the sake, so who's got the grill!"

The white-feathered duck squawks frantically as he runs behind Marisa, then peeks his head from the left of her hip, hiding it again as soon as he sees the hungry oni's red eye locked on him.

Back at the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, after having had their lunches and healed their wounds, the large party hunting Mokou prepare to enter the ruined house, which they now notice of having no light from outside shining through the open door or windows.

Kyo stares inside, trying to study what he's currently laying eyes on, then looks back and notices hesitation in Luna's eyes, and says "if anyone wants to stay behind, do so. Nobody will judge you for it."

From the emblem, Alice says "and for those of you that go inside, a word of ad- dammit, just a second..."

Explosions, screams and hurried shouts are heard clearly from the emblem, then, when things settle down, the puppeteer can be heard muttering "stupid Heartless won't stop," then continues "anyways, when you go in there, be prepared. You might even lose contact with us, so stay alert, and come back alive!"

The boy nods, his girlfriend grabs his arm, reassuring him that she is going in there with him, and looking at her with a smile on his face, he commands "alright, you heard the boss! We go in there, kick butts, and come back for sake at the shrine!"

Everyone, including Goofy, cheer while raising their hands in the air, then rush inside the building after the muscled boy and his girl.

As they pass through the doorway, everyone feels as though being misplaced for a second, and the next second after that, they all find themselves inside a place where the entirety of the massive world looks like wavy bands of purple, dark violet, black and navy blue waving, crumpling and pulsating all over.

There is no floor, no roof, no walls, only a vast sea of that odd wavy, crumpled darkness moving around very erratically.

Maribel holds her stomach, covers her mouth to avoid throwing up, then says "this is like one of those funhouses Renko used to love, back in the world outside."

Kaguya grins widely, and while looking around she says "so, Mokou finally redecorated. Not bad. Much better than that hovel of a house she used to have."

Reisen and Luna each hold on to the princess' shoulders, then the Moon Rabbit says "please Princess, stay close. We don't know what could be hiding in here.

Goofy and Medicine walk over to Kyo's side, then the doll youkai bravely says "let's start moving. I already don't like being in here, so I'd love it if we could get out of here as soon as possible."

The humanoid dog moans sadly while looking around, then says "I'm with Medicine on that. This place is givin' me the creeps."

The boy moves his eyes left and right to look at his friends, then says "alright then, let's move! Keep a sharp eye out. I'm sure there's more than just Mokou and her ghost lurking around here."

"What a relief! We still have contact," coldly says Patchouli from the emblem. "Everyone, remember to keep each other safe at all times."

The very second she finishes her sentence, a ridiculous amount of Shadows pop out of the darkness, their yellow eyes being the only thing visible of them, then the cold magician sighs and says "looks like you have your work cut out for you already."

There is a loud pop, all eyes turn left to Luna, whom dances around with her swords held tightly on her hands, turning Heartless into dust quite rapidly, and bravely declares "what are we waiting for, to get killed? ATTACK!"

Everyone roars as they rush to the tinny, yet annoying Heartless, while Maribel claps her hands together to summon pure light to them, then starts shooting bright white hearts while declaring "FOR RENKOOOOO!"

Unknown to the party, thirteen spherical bodies float silently behind them, slowly getting closer to Goofy and Maribel, and when they are at least eight feet away, three of those spheres lunge forward.

"AIIEE!" yelps Maribel after falling forward from being knocked on the back of the head.

"WHOA!" yelps Goofy after being bitten on the back and pushed forward, yet he manages to keep on his feet.

Kyo looks back at the spherical black monsters with blue streaks on their bodies, three tentacles with frayed pink tips growing out of their top and bottoms, tiny yellow eyes, large jagged-toothed mouths that are blue inside, and shouts "we've got new ones!"

He quickly goes for the closest monsters, hits it with four slashes from his sword, turning it into black dust, then shouts "Patchouli, what are these things? They're tough!"

Luna goes to Maribel's aid, but when she hits her spherical monster once, it turns to a purple mist and moves away from her, then suddenly expands and strikes the girls with the wide wave it emanates, pushing them back.

Reisen and Medicine go after the one that hurt Goofy, but all three are struck repeatedly when that monster flails about in a berserk rage, and flies away.

From the emblem, Patchouli gasps and says "Darkballs! Attack them relentlessly, or they'll do lots of damage!"

Right after saying that, two Darkballs rush toward the boy, chomping their large mouths furiously, but Kyo swings his sword five times, almost drawing a star on the monsters' paths, and turns them to dust before rushing off toward Luna and saying "thanks Patchouli! Will keep you posted!"

Kaguya blasts the last of the Shadows from existence, turns around, smiles, then says "well those look like fun."

Kyo and Kaguya meet on their way to take on the Darkballs, look at each other and grin, then they both dive in head-first into the battle, while Mokou's laughter echoes all around them.

Just as the afternoon is about to reach Gensokyo, at the World of Darkness, Ail and Mickey are fighting two Darksides, and seem to be quite fresh and relaxed as they jump around dodging their attacks.

The mouse runs up his monster's muscled arm after it missed a punch, reaches its head, and with a single swing from his Keyblade on the creature's head, it turns to black dust and disappears.

At the same time, the boy jumps high to avoid a fist from connecting with his body, winds his Keyblade of Light as he falls back down, and strikes the arm with all his might, easily turning the monster to dust, and causing himself to spin several times due to the momentum of his swing.

With the Heartless defeated, Mickey chuckles and says "that's seventeen for me, twelve for you. You're gettin' sloppy."

Ail stops spinning, calls off his weapon, then looks at the king and says "sure, you say that, but you're practically a master while I'm a novice with a Keyblade."

The black mouse taps the boy's head with the tip f his Star Seeker, and holding it on the boy's head, he says "don't say that. The only reason I'm better at this than you is because I've had my Keyblade for a longer time, and thanks to that I've learned to strengthen myself. My rank has nothing to do with any of it, only my heart."

He calls off the weapon and the two of them resume their walk down the dimly lit purple road, and the mouse continues "your heart needs to get stronger, Ail, and when you do achieve that, you'll understand that anyone has the same potential as everyone, even if their abilities differ."

The human stares at his partner with confusion present in his eyes, but before he asks the question, the kingly mouse says "once you gain full control of your Keyblade, you'll understand what I mean."

The dense one bends his body slightly upward to look at the darkness above while resting his head on his hands, then asks "so, depending on the strength of my heart, my skill and power with the Keyblade is affected?"

Mickey nods, then says "the stronger your heart, the better. The Keyblade reflects this strengthened heart, augments it, turns that light from your heart into tangible form, and that is what makes it so lethal to the Heartless, who prey on weak hearts."

Ail straightens up, looks down at the kingly mouse, then smiles and says "hmm, I think I get it. You would make a pretty awesome master."

The king chuckles while bashfully looking away, then stops walking very suddenly, tenses up greatly, then starts to look around frantically.

"What's the mat-" Ail's question is quickly put on hold when he feels some odd energy, and starts to shiver when a strange and cold chill crawls up his spine.

Mickey looks around, summons his Keyblade at the same time as the dense boy, then nervously whispers "we gotta get outta here. Ail, can you fly?"

The boy leans closer to his partner and nervously whispers "not in this world, but in my Yozoragan more I can at least run fast. But something tells me running is a very bad idea."

They both hear a soft snarl, rocks shifting around them, then Mickey nods, and nervously whispers "I agree. But what do we do. I don't like this one bit. This ting... feels frighteningly powerful."

The dense boy doesn't need to say it. He knows what Mickey says is true, and that's what's so frightening about this thing that's stalking them from the deep darkness.

There is a very low growl, the entity stops moving, and with a loud gulp, both Ail and Mickey say "it's going to attack."

They can hear four set of claws moving rapidly toward them, a bright white light appears before them, both boy and mouse gasp, and the light appears to consume them as a creature gets close to them and roars furiously.

AFTERNOON

At Disney Castle, Sanae, Renko, Aerith, Minnie and Yuka walk out of the exceedingly elegant dining room, wiping their mouths with silky white napkins that have a symbol that looks like Mickey's face, just like the many adornments around the castle.

"What a nice meal," comments Renko, to which Aerith replies "oh yes. It's the first time in a long time since I actually asked for seconds."

Yuka sighs, burps softly, making sure she does so in a manner that nobody hears her, then groans contently while stretching, and says "oh yes, I'm definitely ready to help grow a garden or two right now."

Minnie giggles, covering her mouth with her gloved hand as she does so, then looks up at the towering green haired woman, and says "wonderful. I shall personally escort you to our garden then."

Sanae smiles weakly, then says "Queen Minnie, I'm so glad to see you smiling like that again. And I'm sorry I couldn't help King Mickey more. I really did try."

The mouse queen stops, turns around to look at the shrine maiden with her sweetest smile, then says "it is hard to hear these things sometimes, but my heart is always connected with the king's. I apologize for overreacting like I did. It is still hard for me to hear those kind of things, but I always remember that as long as I can feel his heart connected to mine, that that means he is alright, and that he'll come back home to tell me of his adventures."

All the girls, including Yuka, sigh after hearing that, their cheeks turn pink, then Renko says "ah, that's true love. How lucky you are to have found him."

The mouse queen just giggles, then looks at Sanae, and says "you should have a connection like that to your Ail. From what you have told me, you two have connected really well already."

The green haired girl places her hands on her cheeks while giggling, then says "maybe~ I actually don't know. How do I know?"

Minnie smiles, walks over to the girl, then says "well, close your eyes, concentrate on him, his name, his smile, all the things about him that make you happy, and when you start feeling that tingly sensation, you'll know you are connected. If you don't... well, we'll get to that if it happens."

All the girls start to giggle around Sanae, making it seem as though they are all silly little schoolgirls swooning over silly things, like a crush on a boy, or a chat about cute things that make no sense to us men.

The shrine maiden finally shushes the other girls, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and focuses.

Her smile widens, and she chuckles a bit when thinking about Anilan, then suddenly whispers "oh, I can feel it, the tingle. I can feel him. ...Wait."

That smile slowly becomes a frown, with her eyes still closed, she raises her right arm and whispers "Ail-kun? Wh-where are you? It's so dark."

"Sanae, what's happening," softly asks Aerith from the side.

The green haired girl takes a step forward, still lifting her right hand, and nervously says "there's the light. Go to the light."

By now, the queen closes her eyes and focuses, then Sanae suddenly shouts "GO TO THE LIGHT, YOU IDIOT!"

She falls on her knees, panting hard, taking deep breaths through her mouth, cold sweat rolls down her cheeks and neck, mixing with her tears, and almost choking on her own throat, she asks "what was that thing? what was it doing to my Ail-kun?"

The girls stare at the shrine maiden as if looking at a helpless alien, unsure of what to do, what to ask, or what to say, and just stand back.

Queen Minnie opens her eyes, walks over to the green haired girl, places her gloved hand on the girl's head, and sighs.

To be continued...

Touhou-Project Shrine Maiden elements belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-

Kingdom Hearts elements belong to Square Enix and Disney Interactive

Other elements belong to their respective owners.

Ail, Kyo, Luna Rivers and Kimi were created by Willie G.R.

MAY 8, 2012

Written by

Willie G.R.

A/N:

And so, another chapter is FINALLY done. I took too long again. Seriously, I have NO motivation to continue these, so I'm gonna go ahead and write other things in the meantime. I mean, the support for this fic is almost not felt. The only reason I know somebody is reading it is because of the hit/visits counter this site offers. I love those. Anyways, I pray I won't take TOO long to come back to this. In fact, I might add a paragraph once in a while of the next chapter, while writing the other things. Anyways, to those of you enjoying this, please be patient, and don't worry, I WILL finish this crossover. I won't leave it hanging.

This Chapter's New Heartless

Rabid Dog - Mima was justly angry at Marisa for almost falling to these. They run around, trying to either bite you, or hit you with their howling. They are very weak, and even in large numbers, they are easy to deal with.

Darkball - Now THESE are a pain. They have really high defense, and hit hard and repeatedly, especially when they go all berserk and start biting all around while moving forward, or at a specific spot. Not only that, they dash toward you at full speed, and can knock you back, PLUS, when they turn to purple mists, they become invulnerable, and when they suddenly expand, they have a pretty long range of attack. These things are seriously annoying and strong.

Boss Heartless - Trickmaster - This guy may seem easy, and he is, but if you lower your guard, you'll find yourself with that annoying alarm that warns when you are about to die, and there will be nothing you can do about it. First of all, you cannot harm its feet, and this thing is tall. Second, the shockwaves it creates with its feet is when it stomps only, and not all the time (as I made it seem here). He'll walk around, juggling those clubs, and smack you with them, and when he ignites them with fire, it does double damage. It's good to have an ice spell ready for it when that happens. I admit I don't remember it showering fire on its attackers, but I still liked that idea for this story.