Chapter Text
A blue figure sat alone at the edge of a cliff.
For how busy and populated Castle Town had become as of late, this spot was most likely the only place free of Darkners. A single island of quietness in the noisy ocean that was this darkworld.
Kris sighed as he enjoyed the silence. It had been a pain in the ass coming all the way up here, a spot that was only discovered because that thing liked to explore every small space of the world. The SOUL had been absolutely pissed when it found no reward after the hard climb aside from the view. But that alone and the quietness were more than enough for the human, who had begun visiting this peak more and more frequently.
It had been five days since the incident in his father’s shop. Five days without adventures. Days that Susie and him had spent in this dark world, from morning to night.
And he was already at his breaking point.
In the distance, he could see something that made his heart clench, the thing he was fleeing from right now.
A festival. An imitation of the one they just had a few days ago in the real world. Bigger and brighter still. Under Susie’s instructions, everyone had mobilized to give a big welcome to their newest Lightner member.
Noelle.
It was radiant, breaking away from the dark skies, even here the wind carried scents of food and the sound of music. He could already picture Noelle reacting to it, that particular shy and awkward smile she got when she didn't know how to tell people they were crossing a line. God knows she gave him that look too many times.
He smiled for a moment, but as of late, not even his memories were safe from bitterness. They were probably wondering where he was, or not. Right now he didn’t care.
The human picked up the bottle beside him. Taken from the bar before he had ripped his heart and slipped away from town, it had the form of a Whisky bottle with the label reading simply ‘Hard Liquor’ in bold letters. He sighed as he took it near his lips, knowing full well what was coming.
He took a long sip.
Apple juice.
Of course.
He drank anyway.
It was a strange thing, eating in the Dark World. Something that you didn’t catch at first but the moment you noticed there wasn’t turning back.
It tasted like food. It sat in your stomach like food. But it never filled you up, only restored your HP. He found that darkly funny, somehow. How a man could eat his fill here and still starve to death.
Exactly what was happening to Susie, and that it will soon happen to Noelle.
Everything in this cursed place was an illusion. A fantasy with teeth, one that sank in and didn't let go. The food. The streets. The people. All fake.
God, how he despised every single one of them.
Then, as if on cue, a sharp pain bloomed in his chest. Cursing as he lost his breath, he grabbed the bottle with shaking hands and took another big gulp. Just like that, his HP ticked right back to full.
"Dammit," he muttered, waiting for the echoes of pain to go away. He couldn't go long without that thing, but at least here in the Dark World the withdrawals were duller. A mercy, maybe, or just another part of the illusion. Still, it felt nice to move around on his own accord again.
As if it had heard his thoughts—and the bastard could—the little makeshift cage he'd found for it began rattling, the soul inside throwing itself violently against the bars. It was trying to escape and enjoy the festival below.
Kris shook it once. Hard.
It finally settled in place again. He stared at the heart with a cold smile, finding it funny how this thing was still furious that he'd cut the fun short. But he just couldn't stomach it anymore—making the rounds through town, smiling at everyone, watching Noelle and Susie sink deeper and deeper into this children's fantasy like it was something real.
He looked up at the empty sky. How can Darkners talk so much about dreams when even their stars above were fake? But the giant dark fountain in the background kept on churning its endless darkness, not caring a single bit about all the damage it was causing.
Kris wondered, briefly, how much Susie would cry when it came time to close it.
Then — a voice.
At first, it was low enough to be mistaken for the wind. Kris could barely make it out, but it sounded like someone shouting a distant, drawn-out:
“Youuuuu…”
But it quickly got louder, and at his side, small pieces of gravel began vibrating against the stone. The now very clear words echoed up:
“Daaaaamn!!!!”
Kris peered over the edge at the ground below. Beneath his bangs, his eyes opened wide in genuine surprise when he saw the blur of a figure ascending the vertical cliffside. He could make out how her gloved hands were gripping the rock hard enough to sink in, leaving deep dents in the stone face. Delicate arms were pushing her upward with a terrifying physical strength that didn’t belong at all to something so lean.
It had taken him seven grueling minutes to climb all the way to the top.
The figure did it in five seconds.
Once she reached the crest, she launched herself off the rock, spinning through the air in a magnificent, chaotic mess of pink and gold. When she finally slammed onto the solid ground, the bells on her hair made a sweet, crystal-sharp chime sound.
She was perfect. An elegant, breathtaking face that made Kris lose his breath for a short while. Her hair settled from the fall, not a single speck of dust or dirt in her pink dress.
But as soon as that thought came, the beautiful face turned. A gloved finger snapped up, pointing directly at his chest while her features twisted in pure, unadulterated rage.
The second new Lightner in town, aside from Noelle.
Pink, the self-proclaimed idol catgirl.
“Humaaaan!!!!” she shrieked.
Before Kris could react, she charged. That accusatory finger poked directly at the human's chest . "It's your fault! It's all your fault!" She was stomping her feet, and holy shit, the force of it was actually making the cliff face crack under her pink heels. At the end of the day, she was still a boss.
A very pissed-off boss.
Yet Kris swatted her hand away from his chest. He wasn’t on the mood for…wathever this was.
The human didn’t truly know what this crazy girl wanted from him. Even though it had been five days since she moved in, Kris had barely seen her, still he heard complaints from Ralsei and Susie about how much explosive damage she caused when she did decide to appear.
He also had never seen her real form in the light world. Yet here she was, at the highest peak in Castle Town , treating him like he’d just ruined her life.
Kris was genuinely at a loss on how to react. He was used to having Ralsei or Susie around to deal with these types of unhinged interactions. Even with his SOUL removed and him fully in control, he had to be careful—he couldn't afford to let anyone notice a sudden personality shift. He needed to play the quiet part, even if his patience was wearing dangerously thin and thoughts about throwing the catgirl out of the cliff were beginning to manifest.
He chose silence. Like always. And the girl didn’t seem to mind.
Pink was talking more than enough for two people.
Literally.
"It's his fault!!" Her furious expression automatically transformed into a serene, glassy-eyed smile. "We just have to explain it to him, dear. I'm sure he'll agree." The blinding rage snapped right back onto her face. "No! If I explain it, it'll make it seem like it's my fault!" The smile returned, smooth as porcelain. "Because it is." "B-but!"
In front of him, the catgirl looked like a carousel of conflicting emotions. Her frantic pacing had cut off his only route of escape. Kris glanced over his shoulder at the bottom of the cliff. It was a brutal drop. It could easily kill him.
He was genuinely weighing his options.
"I bought a rope! We don't need to explain anything when we have a rope! We can just kidnap him and save ourselves from shame!" She proudly held a thick bundle of rope high in her gloved hands... which she then immediately dropped to the dirt as her expression changed. "I'm afraid that's out of the question." the pink cat said, turning to Kris with a warm, apologetic smile.
Then, she reached toward her own chest. After a tense, brief argument muttered in fierce whispers, a pale grey hand slowly emerged from it. Like a surreal magic trick, another entity began to pull itself entirely out of the pink idol. This new version was identical in shape, but her colors were stained completely in monochrome shades of grey, and her face was twisted into a perpetual scowl.
"Maddie. Let's explain now." The pink part said, her tone sounding like a patient mother giving a stern lecture to a rebellious child.
Maddie? Kris wondered for a moment.
The pink one caught his look of confusion. "Oh, right, sorry! Ever since our battle, you've never seen us separate, have you? Together, we are Pink. But when separated, you can call me Mewmew, and her Maddie. It's her real name up there."
"We don't need to tell him that!" the grey cat—Maddie—suddenly barked.
"We do, actually... if you want to make him your boyfriend, that is," Mewmew replied smoothly.
"M-m-my boyfriend?!" Maddie’s face erupted into a violent crimson. "Nooo!!!! He's not my boyfriend! Just Pink's!!"
"Maddie, dear. Sit."
The grey ghost instantly complied, floating down to the rock, though her cheeks were now stained a deep, furious shade of grey.
Mewmew just sighed, turning her attention back to the human. "Excuse us, Kris. Please, hear us out. When we first came here, Maddie was a bit too excited, so she began... boasting."
"It's that damn ugly toaster's fault!" Maddie hissed from the floor.
"It's true Queen egged you on, but you fell for it even though I warned you," The pink cat countered, shaking her head. Then she turned to Kris. "Long story short, we have a concert tonight, for Noelle’s welcome party. And Maddie had…insinuated. Loudly. That in the event, you’ll appear as Pink’s boyfriend. To prove to everyone you two were dating.”
…A fucking fake boyfriend trope. This girl was truly from an anime. Or at least part of her.
Kris looked at the grinning pink cat. He looked at the blushing, furious ghost grey cat. Then, he looked back over his shoulder at the jagged rocks at the bottom of the deadly height.
...that was it. He chose to jump over the edge.
"Nooo!!" Maddie lunged at him, throwing her weight into his legs so he couldn't take another step forward. "Are you seriously running away?! Pink is a girl! (Mostly!) Popular! (Mostly!) And an idol! (Mostly!) You should be thanking me for the opportunity to date her!!" The grey ghost’s eyes looked up, seeking and finding her pink counterpart. "Quick, Mewmew! The rope!"
But the pink cat didn't even reach for it. Instead, a serene, glassy smile spread across her face, and she gently shook her head. "Now, now, Maddie dear. I don't think he would actually jump to his death."
She got closer now, unhurriedly and calmly. Unlike the ghost, she had a floral scent that flooded Kris's nose a little more with each steep. A smell that reminded him too much of his father's shop. And now right besides him, Kris could tell that she was deceptively tall, even more than Susie. Her gloved hand slid onto his shoulder, and it settled down with a weight that you wouldn't expect from such delicate arms.
Mewmew leaned down, cherry-pink lips parting as she brought them close to his ear. Her voice dropped to a whisper, low enough to ensure Maddie couldn't hear a single word.
"In your last save point, you still have that thing in your chest, right? So if you die here and retry, you will be possessed all over again, and you'll have to repeat this whole day from zero. And neither of us wants that... do we?"
It took a second for Kris to process those words—no, that threat. But when it clicked, his hands moved on pure instinct.
He swung his blade straight for the cat's neck.
The heavy steel of the sword slammed against a pink-and-gold kitty staff that had appeared on Mewmew's hand with a deafening crack. The sheer force of the collision rippled outward, making the ground beneath shudder for a moment. Kris had poured every ounce of his strength into the strike, but the staff on Mewmew's hand remained absolutely immovable. The cat still had a smile on her face, she had been fully prepared for his attack.
"Hey! What are you two doing up there?! I heard a clank! You better not be clanking without me!" Maddie’s voice called out from below. Still with her face buried on Kris's legs preventing him from moving, she was too low to see the deadlock happening right above her head. Sparks of metal flew out as the two weapons met on a lethal embrace. Neither of them conceding even a little bit of ground.
The pink cat and the human locked eyes. Behind her smile, a cold, wordless warning stared back at him: Stop. Then, Kris felt the pressure shift. He was losing the struggle, his muscles burning as she effortlessly pushed him back now. This damn cat was just playing around, she was stronger than him.
Conceding defeat, and with a sharp click of his tongue, the human reluctantly moved his blade away. Mewmew followed suit. Both weapons disappeared from their hands. As the cat posture instantly returned to the delicate idol facade.
Before Kris could move, she bent down and scooped the grey cat ghost off his legs.
"W-wait, what are you doing?! He's going to escape!" Maddie shrieked while scratching the air.
But a hard edge had crept into Mewmew's voice. One that didn't admit any talkback. She put the grey cat on the ground again "Maddie, could you please take a few steps back?"
The smile on her face was perfectly calm. Perfectly relaxed. And it made Kris's spine chill with fear.
"U-uhm? Okay?" The grey ghost did as she was told under the pink cat’s gaze. Moving a little far away from the two of them. "Is this okay?"
Mewmew nodded. "Thanks, darling."
Then she turned to Kris.
The smile was still there. But something colder had moved in behind it. He wondered for a second what she was planning to do. But, by the time he understood her intentions, it was too late.
The world around them dissolved.
Maddie was suddenly gone. The stars of the sky. The lights and music of the festival in the distance. All melted away into a space he knew far too well.
A battle had begun.
"Oh my, oh my." Mewmew stood across from him, staff cradled in her arms, the very picture of innocence. "Did cute little me start a boss fight by accident?"
Kris tried to swing his blade again. But his arm locked up, frozen solid in mid-air, refusing to move. Shit. He cursed the stupid rules of this world, and from the smug look on his opponent's face, she knew exactly how to weaponize them.
"Now, now, not so fast~" She wagged a gloved finger, her tail swaying playfully behind her. "We both know you get the first turn, dear. But the boss monologue always comes first." She winked, and an actual, translucent pink heart drifted up from her eye. "And it would be such a shame if I took too long... because it looks to me like you're already running low on health."
What?
His gaze broke from the smug catgirl across the field, darting down to the HUD just outside his peripheral vision. He could feel his stats, see his commands...and there, glowing in the dark, was his HP bar.
Fuck. Once again Kris cursed under gritted teeth. And his blood ran cold as he saw the yellow bar with his life steadily tick downwards. It was slow, sure, but it was already creeping toward the halfway mark.
He didn't have time to wonder why. A sudden, blinding sting of pain in his chest ruthlessly reminded him of the cause; he didn’t have his soul. He was missing the very thing that was keeping him alive. Behind its makeshift cage in his pocket, the soul began to rattle, as if mocking him.
"What shall we do, dear Kris?" She brought the tip of her staff to her lips as if pretending to think it over. "You're all alone against... how did you call my type again? A super boss? And your health is bleeding out by the second. Things are not looking good for you."
Mewmew waited for a reply, but she only received a venomous glare from beneath his blue bangs. So she spoke again.
"Drop the silent protagonist act, boy. There's no one else here. And that thing isn't riding you right now. You can speak."
It took Kris an agonizing moment, but his lips finally moved. His voice felt entirely foreign to him; lately, he had only ever spoken beneath the shadow of text boxes. "How do you know all this..." But realization struck before he could even finish the question. “The last shadow crystal…“
The cat nodded. "Maddie didn’t care for it you know, too happy to be in her new body to notice anything else, and I was also happy seeing her enjoy herself.” She gave a short laugh, but it turned into a sad smile just as quickly. “But even if you aren’t listening…it still speaks, Kris. It tells you things. Things that don’t make sense at first, but the more time I spend here—the longer I exist—the more the pieces start to click together. The more I know."
"You know nothing." He spat, unable to mask the raw venom in his voice.
But Mewmew didn't care. She was plenty angry herself.
"I know enough, human. Enough to understand the nature of this place. Enough to guess more or less what your ultimate plan is. Enough that if I decide to open my mouth about it to Susie and Noelle, you and your goat ‘friend ’ will be absolutely screwed." She paused, taking a sharp breath to recompose herself. Pressing a gloved hand to her chest, the calmness came back again to her voice. "And enough to understand that Maddie needs your help more than anything."
It took Kris a long moment to reply. He had to force his own breathing to steady. Darkners weren't always rational, but the girl in front of him clearly had an angle. And by God he swore he wasn’t about to let this entire plan be ruined by a living anime trope.
He let go of the grip of his sword. If she wanted a deal, he could at least hear her out. "...What do you want? Is this all really for a stupid dare between Queen and your friend?"
Mewmew gave a short, empty laugh at that as she shook her head. "Do you even have to ask what I truly want Kris?” For a moment, her eyes were filled with madness, not much different from the jester or the salesman. “I want what every single person in this world or the one above wants, and yet this acursed reality refuses to give. I want a happy ending for the ones I love." She paused, her gaze drilling right through him. "And to achieve that I can't let Maddie end up like your friend Susie."
That single phrase struck him with more force than the physical ache of his missing heart. He knew perfectly what she meant. And he knew it was his fault.
Before he could reel from the blow, Mewmew continued, a heavy layer of grief coating what was once a bubbly idol's voice.
"I… I try to help her, you know. I limit how many hours she can spend down here each day. I make her practice changing her ghost form so she can look how she wants in the Light World. I even began to teach her how to sing, so she doesn’t have to rely on my prerecorded clips.” The cat's hand gripped into a fist. Angry at her own impotence.”But she… she enjoys this too much. Being Pink. Being us. And by the angel Kris, I love it too.”
Her eyes began to blur, a few quiet tears spilling down the sides of her pristine face. Watching them fall, for a moment, Kris understood that those tears were the only real thing in this fake world.
“But I can’t help her out there," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I need someone like you, Kris. Someone who hates this place. Someone who understands how bad it is and anchors her to the real world."
Mewmew wiped her eyes, looking entirely spent. The happy idol facade only seems like a far away memory.
"...I'll stop talking now," she murmured. "If you open your ACT menu, you’ll find a new option. If you select it, this battle ends, and I won't breathe a word of what I know to anyone." She then tightened her grip on her staff, refusing to break eye contact.
Or you can attack and try to silence me. It was the unspoken alternative hanging in the dead space between them.
It was his turn now. His blade hung heavy in his hands as a cold, calculating debate warred inside his mind. His HP bar had already reached halfway, but he wasn’t looking at it anymore.
Maddie was irrelevant.
She wasn’t part of the prophecy. Whatever happened to her—be it good or bad—wouldn’t affect the ending of this world or change his plans in any way. Helping her was just a waste of time, and he had long given up on the idea of being any kind of hero.
But his eyes drifted back to the catgirl standing across the battlefield. Her expression was hard to define, but it was a look he had seen countless times before. It was a mix of sorrow at the future to come, rage over how unfair this world was, and the blinding determination to do whatever it took to save the person she loved.
How many times had he seen that exact same look staring back at him in the mirror?
Goddammit. One final curse.
Kris opened his interface and browsed through the glowing commands. He nearly—nearly—smiled when his finger hovered over the newly added option.
At least it was a good excuse to leave this place for a while.
“Heyyy!!!!”
The moment the combat grid dissolved and they snapped back to reality, they were greeted by a thoroughly furious grey catgirl. Maddie was practically vibrating with rage, stomping the ground as she stared daggers at the two of them. “Why didn’t you let me into the fight, Mewmew?! You should have told me that beating him was also an option!”
At Kris's side, her pink counterpart wore her usual pristine smile, as the last few minutes had been nothing more than a dream. Instead of answering, Mewmew simply lunged forward and threw her arms around Maddie in a sudden, suffocating hug.
“H-hey! W-what are you doing? Humiliation! I’m being humiliated in front of the human!” Maddie shrieked, flailing her arms.
“...Do you dislike it, Maddie?”
“N-no! But not in front of him!”
The pink cat finally let her go. Then, flashing a lovely smile that Kris still couldn't decipher as real or fake, she spoke in her flawless, pitch-perfect voice. “I had a wonderful talk with Kris. He has graciously agreed to a date to pretend to be Pink’s boyfriend.”
“Y-y-you actually did?!” Maddie whipped around, staring at Kris with absolute incredulity.
Not that he could blame her; he didn’t entirely believe it himself.
“I-I mean, of course you did!” Maddie quickly recovered, smugly crossing her arms. “Pink is great! She is lovely, fun, female, not at all angry at all! And no matter how much that Junkbot of a queen claims otherwise, she HAS game!” She let out a haughty, triumphal laugh. “C’mon, human. Let’s head down to the festival and teach every single one of those assholes how good of a couple we are.”
While Maddie laughed, Mewmew and Kris locked eyes.
Kris gave her a sharp, questioning look. “Festival? But your ACT option said that…”
“Yes, I know,” Mewmew whispered back to him, her smile never wavering. “But I still haven’t told her. Just… just give me a moment. This will be over soon. I know how to deal with her.”
She turned back to her grey counterpart, who was currently too busy laughing and loudly cursing at computers to notice them. “Maddie, dear, what do you actually know about Kris?”
“Kris? Well, he’s blue, he flirts with everyone, and I heard a rumor that he has a fetish for dressing up like a dog.”
No matter how true the flirting part was, it still hurt a little bit—wait. What did she just say about a dog rumor?
Mewmew shook her head, gently taking Maddie’s hands in hers. “If we don’t learn anything more about each other, Queen will catch on that we’re just pretending. So… why don’t you and Kris go out, buy a few snacks for the other Lightners, and then come back here?”
Maddie huffed, a deep blush creeping up her cheeks. “Well, it’ll be an honor for him, but I guess we need to know a bit more about him. Quickly, Mewmew, let’s fuse and have a short date before we present him to the others!”
“...Maddie, I don’t mean down here,” Mewmew said softly. “Go buy the snacks outside.”
Maddie froze. Cat eyes went wide as she realized what the pink cat was saying. “W-wait. Outside?! As if not in the dark world?!”
“That’s right.”
“B-but you can’t come there! Pink can’t exist out there!”
“Once again, that’s right, darling. I’ll stay here and organize a few things for our concert later tonight. It will be you, all by yourself, having a date with Kris…in the real world. To get to know each other better.”
A heavy silence fell over the cliffside. The two catgirls stared at each other, their bond deep enough that neither needed words to know what the other was thinking. For a long, agonizing second, the world held its breath to see who would break first.
And, like always, Maddie was the one who cracked.
“HELL NO!!!”
She spun on her heel and fled, sprinting toward the horizon at breakneck speed. “You can’t make me! I c-can't let him see me in the real world!” Her hysterical cries tore through the night sky, growing fainter and fainter as she vanished into the distance.
“Oh dear.” Mewmew sighed softly at Kris's side.
Slowly, she bent down and scooped up the rope Maddie had dropped earlier. She bundled it in her gloved hands, giving it a sharp, testing tug. “The old cat at the shop said this was magical. But I don’t trust him—and neither should you, Kris. No one who actively hoards those dark crystals can be trusted.”
She turned her eyes to him and winked. It was a radiant, beautiful expression, but it made something deep inside Kris shiver with primal fear.
“Let’s catch a ghost and see if it works.”
Then she moved. The ground literally exploded beneath her pink heels as she launched herself forward, tearing after the fleeing ghost with unbelievable, terrifying speed.
In the far distance, the muffled sounds of the castle festival were entirely drowned out by a sharp, panicked shriek as the ghost was caught and securely tied up in a matter of seconds.
Kris watched the dust trail settle in the quiet night air.
Yeah. It was definitely a good thing he hadn’t fought her.
The party was still going on. Now that they were so close to the edge of town, Kris felt a knot of dread tighten in his stomach. If someone spotted him, they’d immediately drag him right back into the center of the crowd. Fortunately, it seemed no one was watching the borders; every single ounce of movement was completely centered around the dojo right now.
Over the ambient roar of the crowd, the voice of a loud, energetic DJ echoed through the speakers.
“And for this grand welcome, Noelle will beat, in a one-on-one match, every single boss our heroes have ever fought! First up, fresh from jail, with murderous intent, the only actual bad guy in town—hereeeee’s King!”
This was immediately followed by Noelle’s horrified, frantic shouts over the microphone. "Susie, wait! No! I can't—he looks really, really mad—!"
“And for the final fight, we have a massive surprise!" the DJ shouted, completely ignoring her. "We will invoke a literal Titan in the middle of the party grounds and have Noelle figh—”
The audio suddenly cut out into a chaotic screech of feedback as the DJ was audibly struck by a simultaneous fire and ice spells.
While the dojo erupted into a frenzy of panicked cheers and elemental explosions, this small group of three still made its fair share of noise.
"I can't! I shan't! I'm not ready! My ectoplasm is all over the place today!" Maddie shrieked.
She was bound tightly by the rope Mewmew held, literally clawing at the floor and leaving deep, symmetrical gouges in the stone. Mewmew, however, kept walking forward, entirely unbothered by the ghost's frantic objections.
"We have practiced time and time again," Mewmew countered calmly. "It’s not perfect, but it will be more than enough for a small date." They argued back and forth as they walked, but it was abundantly clear who had the final say in their dynamic.
As they walked, both girls kept sneaking glances back at Kris.
Maddie glared at him with pure fury, which instantly melted into a furious blush, which then transformed right back into a defensive cat hiss. It seems the girl didn’t need to be two separate people to be bipolar.
Mewmew, meanwhile, was just making sure he was actually following behind, offering a quick, grateful smile whenever their eyes met. Kris was always the first one to look away.
Finally, they reached the pool of blinding light; the entry and exit point of the Dark World. The human tried to remember the last time he had exited a fountain with Susie. Nowadays, she always chooses to stay behind. And soon, he knew it would happen to Noelle, too.
Another sharp ache flared in his chest, and he desperately tried to pretend it was just his weak, physical body acting up.
"Okay, fine, fine!"
While he had been distracted, the two catgirls had finally concluded their discussion. Maddie was unbounded, trying to glare at Kris, but she couldn't even meet his eyes anymore without her entire face flushing a deeper shade of crimson. So settled to a point just above his shoulder.
"I'll go! I'll have the stupid date! J-just so I can rub it in that damn toaster's face! No other reasons whatsoever!" She pointed a trembling finger at him, opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and then aggressively opened it again. "B-but wait here! I need a minute to prepare myself—wait, no, five minutes! Wait, no—jus-JUST WAIT HERE FOR A MOMENT!"
With a hysterical cry of determination, she dove headfirst into the light, shouting curses that continued to echo even after her form had completely dissolved.
Mewmew waved her all the way to the edge. Even after Maddie’s form vanished into the beam, she held the gesture for a moment before letting her arm drop. Her eyes remained fixed on the fountain.
"She's trying so hard, you know." Her voice came out softer than usual, stripped of its idol theatrics. Real. "We practice how to change forms down here. But at the end of the day, it's much more difficult up there, where I can't help her be what she wants to be." She placed a hand over her chest. "In the real world."
Kris watched her. "Are you really fine with it? Leaving her alone with me up there?"
The cat was silent for a moment, as if weighing her words.
"Kris…I’m doing this because I trust you." Simple words that shook a little Kris' core. "What you are doing…even if I don't fully agree with it, I think it comes from a good place, one that Maddie needs.” A shy smile now settled on the idol’s face. ”And also, you are the only man who has managed to make our hearts go doki." She winked at him.
Kris was now the one dodging her face. "That was only a fight."
Mewmew shook her head. "I'm not that cheap of a girl that I'll fall for the first person who tells me sweet lies, you know? Battles in this world are special Kris, they are a clash of dreams, you connect your heart with your opponent's.” She got closer. Putting a hand to Kris' chest. “And there is still love in yours, Kris. Even though you think you have lost it, your heart still remains where you left it."
With a gloved hand she lifted his chin . Kris was too stunned to react. And the now empty heart on his chest gave the strongest beat he knew as a delicate kiss was put in his cheeks. In an instant, the boy jerked away, his skin turned into a deep shade of blue.
No matter how cold he tried to act, or how awful his days had been, a teenager was still a teenager. His sudden fluster made Mewmew smile—a true, radiant smile, meant neither for appearances nor her character archetype.
"We are a package deal me and Maddie. If the date goes well you better know I'm asking for one myself."
The kid was still too stunned from this kiss. Then, she shoved him. Putting just enough strength into it to send him tumbling backward into the pillar of light. His body instantly began to ascend.
As he floated upward, both the scenario and sound were consumed by the blinding light. Yet he still could see the idol cat standing by the fountain, pointing a confident finger up at him with a brilliant, sweeping grin.
"I trained that girl myself, you know! Mark my words, Kris—by the end of the date, she will be the one who makes your heart go doki doki!"
The Dark World dissolved into pure white.
Yet, the warmth on his cheek remained.