It was nighttime when Mashiro looked out a large window in the dining hall. He looked depressed from missing Kokoro a lot and exhausted from another day of work. The Controller clinked and jingled on his neck.
"I had a dream of becoming a hero... Just like Mario, Link and Fox..." he thought, "I thought I could just get the girl and win, but..."
He looked at the Controller. It was almost full save for the 'Start' button. He took a deep breath before heading to a table to eat some dinner.
The next afternoon, he was playing his new 3DS when he heard kids cheering and men yelling. Mashiro turned off the handheld and ran downstairs. It was the village children wanting to meet him and the guards backing them away.
"But mister, we wanna see him!" whined a little boy.
"I'm sorry, but the castle grounds are off-limits!" one of the guards commanded.
"Aww..." the kids all whined before walking away.
Mashiro was shocked. He'd never turn away from a little kid, let alone a crowd of them. He was about to talk to them when a butler grabbed him by the collar.
"What're you doing, Yapol?" he asked in an angered tone.
"But sire, these are just rambunctious children. If you were to take pity upon them, it will be an endless stream! If they don't live in the castle, they can't be here." answered another guard.
Mashiro went upstairs to change his clothes. A while later, he came back in his uniform with Matsu flying beside him.
"If the village can't come to me, I'll come to them." he demanded as he dashed to the door, but only Matsu passed them, sitting on a gatepost.
The guards stopped Mashiro by crossing their spears.
"Sire, what are you doing? You can't go outside the castle grounds!" one guard warned.
"Just watch me." Mashiro replied, fireballing their spears in half and walking to the village.
"Let him go, boys." Yapol told the guards, grabbing their shoulders.

Mashiro and Matsu wandered through the town and saw everybody working on rebuilding everything, from their homes to their stands. Everybody was busy. Something suddenly caught Mashiro's eye.
Some of the people were hiring at a hospital next door to the church. Mashiro wanted to be a doctor since he was little, so he got the job. Left and right, he helped people from a simple bruise to multiple fractures. The townspeople were in awe that their prince was volunteering at the hospital.
After his first day working there, he came the castle grounds with Matsu, watched the townspeople and gently smiled.
"I know the heroes go through obstacles like me, but they not just save one person, they save entire worlds..." he thought.
"And maybe I've found my own way to be a hero to everybody, Matsu..." he said to Matsu, who squeaked mechanically, "For the good people in Logshka, I can do this."
"And this is how I'll be a hero!" he exclaimed.
After he spoke, the Controller under his shirt began to glow. Mashiro pulled it off and it hovered briefly away. The buttons began to glow. Different colored silhouettes of Mario, Link, Fox and the others appeared around the Controller. They absorbed into the 'Start' button spot. It then came back in Mashiro's hands.
"As proof of the eighth hero, representing all colors of emotion..." he thought as he looked at the new button.
It was not a solid color like the other buttons, it had the colors of them all in one.
"...My rainbow 'Start!'" he thought in amazement as he stared at the multicolored striped button.

Kokoro had just returned to town to see everybody standing in line in front of the castle. While showing the town minister around, she saw a young girl come out the front door with her leg bandaged up.
"I wonder why these blessed souls are lining up here instead of the hospital." the minister wondered until he saw Mashiro giving them check-ups.
"The prince? Why is he doing medical work here?" he asked angrily.
"Please, Father Shish. It's alright." she reassured him with a soft chuckle.
"That's the way of my... No, Logshka's prince..." Kokoro added, looking at a painting they had received for their wedding day.
The painting had Mashiro twirling Kokoro around with Matsu flying around them, all in their royal garb.

The morning sunshine leaked through Mashiro's bedroom. He awoke surrounded in his issues of Nintendo Power scattered about, his Link-covered bed and holding a plush of Pikachu in his arms. He got up with his harvest gold hair in a mess and his Mario pajamas twisted and coming off.
"That was a really weird dream..." he thought groggily as he got dressed, applying his patch last.
After breakfast, he grabbed his Mario-covered schoolbag and his Pokeball lunchbox. With Matsu and his Game Boy Advance hidden in his bag, Mashiro put it in his bike's basket and pedaled off to school.
"I wonder what would happen if my dream became real, Matsu." he asked Matsu as he rode.
Matsu squeaked mechanically in reply.
"I guess I'll never know..." he contemplated as he reached the school grounds.

The End