All of a sudden, I noticed a blue light appear from behind us. A familiar blue light...
"Hey, isn't that..." Jemily began to say, looking behind us.
No way, it can't be... Not now of all times!
I turned around slowly, seeing what the blue light was coming from.
It was coming from one of Crystana's portals, which was placed right in front of the cave exit.
"Your aid is needed, young hero... Quickly now..."
"B-but... why?!" I exclaimed in confusion. "You told me I still had a couple of days before your next test!"
"I apologize. B-but it's happening..." Crystana started to say, in an unusual uneasy voice. "Your dark half... is beginning to unleash his chaotic powers."
"W-wha!?" I said in shock. "Darkés is...?!"
"I'm not sure what location he is at exactly, but I have located the general area he is at presently."
"Oh no... Is it because of what I said to him? Did it hurt his feelings...?"
"I have already sent your two CSmon companions there as well. You must hurry!"
"B-but... Jemily..."
I turned around to look at her.
"I can't just leave her behind...!"
"... It's okay, Sérgio." Jemily told me. "I heard everything Crystana said, too. You have something important to do right now, don't you?"
"But I can't just leave you here! Besides, this forest is dangerous, so..."
"Then I'll go back, then."
"By yourself?!"
"It's okay; the cave wasn't dangerous, right? I'll be fine."
"B-but... are you sure? You won't be scared?"
"Hmph, I'm not that much of a scaredy-cat! Besides, when I know you'll be out there doing your best, it'll feel silly to be scared. I think... thinking of you will help me get through it okay by myself."
"I-I..." I paused, hesitating in what I was about to do. "I'll be quick, I swear! T-then we can try to find the herb in this forest again!"
"'kay! Can you give me the flashlight? I can't go back without it."
I handed it to her uneasily.
"I wish you luck, Sérgio!"
I made my way to the portal, but before I went in, I looked back at her one more time.
"What's the matter? Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! You hurry up and do what you've got to do, okay? I'll be waiting patiently for your return, as always!"
"Can I really do it? Can I really be friends with him, after all...?" I asked her, starting to feel uneasy and doubt myself.
"Of course you can." She responded without hesitation. "Sérgio, I know that when you put your mind to it, you can get through any situation, no matter what. You said you wanted to make everyone happy, right? I truly believe you can do that. No matter what anyone says, I'll always be cheering you on to do your best, so don't get discouraged!"
"... Thank you, Jemily."
I went through the portal at last, while still keeping one eye on Jemily. She waved to me as I was teleported out of the forest area.
--
I was warped into a small, wooden room. And in that room, waiting for me, were...
"Serge, Sprit! You two really are here!"
"Yep, we've been waiting for hours!" Serge exclaimed angrily.
"U-um, it's actually only been a couple of minutes..." Sprit corrected.
"Well, it's felt like hours." Serge sighed. "Whatever. Is it because you were too busy having fun with cootie girl that you took so long?"
"Actually, speaking of which..." I said uneasily. "We need to do this as fast as possible, because Jemily's waiting for me."
"What, at the beach or something? She and her cooties can wait."
"N-no, she asked me to come with her to find something her dad needed to make some important medicine. We went through a cave and ended up at a dangerous forest. We were right outside of it before I was brought here."
"W-wait, so Jemily's in that dangerous forest right now?!" Sprit shouted in worry. "What if something happens to her?"
"Don't worry, she's heading back out of the cave right now. The cave was safe enough, so she should be fine." I reassured him. "But still... I still feel kind of worried, leaving her alone like that..."
"I'm sure she'll be okay." Serge told me, reassuring me this time. "Even though she's a cootie girl, I don't think there's anything that'd want to hurt her or anything."
"Yeah, thanks Serge." I went up to the only unique thing in the room, a door. "Is this where Darkés is supposed to be? Beyond this door?"
"I guess." Serge shrugged. "But what are you going to do when you see him this time? Will you fight him? Or try to be his friend again?"
"... I don't know." I answered honestly. "But I hope... I can get through this without hurting him. Or anyone, really."
"I like that answer." Sprit said happily. "Let's go!"
"Yeah!"
No matter what happens now, I'm ready! With Serge's, Sprit's, and Jemily's support, I'm prepared for anything!
I opened the door, and took in everything in the next room before me.
... Okay, maybe not...
"W-what the..." I uttered.
"... heck!?" Serge finished for me, just as weirded out.
The new room had a similar shape to the last one we were in, but instead of being a dull wooden brown, it was instead all colorful and shiny. The shininess reminded me of Crystana's room, but the colors kept changing to different ones besides blue.
"It's kind of pretty." Sprit said in awe.
"It's weird, that's what it is!" Serge shouted. "And it's starting to give me a headache!"
"Maybe... it's just a distraction or something?" I suggested. "I mean, besides those three boxes over there, there's just a door at the other side of the room."
"Forget those dumb boxes, let's go for the other door. Hopefully the next room is a lot better than this one."
We walked over the the next door. I kept looking around for anything weird just in case, but nothing strange happened at all while we made it over to the other side of the room.
"Hurry and open the door, Sérgio!" Serge yelled at me.
"Okay, okay..." I grabbed and tried to turn the doorknob, but...
"Hey, what's the holdup?!"
"I-it won't budge! I think it's locked..."
"There must be a way to open it. After all, there doesn't seem to be anything of note in here..." Sprit stated.
"Do we have to hit those boxes or something?" Serge said.
"Um, I don't thin-..."
Before I could finish, Serge prepared his Roll Attack and launched himself at the boxes.
"... wait, Serge!"
... he then hit a box, and bounced off of it.
"... Huh." Serge uttered, remarking on the uselessness of what he just did.
But it turned out not to be so pointless after all, because...
"Blehh heh hehhk!" Three very familiar, black ghost-like creatures jumped out of the boxes and scared Serge away.
"Kyahhh!" Sprit hid behind me in fright. "It's them again!"
"T-the Ghosty Boys!" Serge said, after coming back to where we were. "Figures they'd show up!"
"But this is the place Darkés is supposed to be. Then...!"
"We don't have time to worry about that, Sérgio! Let's kick some ghost butt!"
"Right!"
Me and Serge ran back to where the Ghosty Boys were.
"Blehh heh hehhk!" The Ghosty Boys continued to laugh, oddly choosing not to move from where they were at all.
"Fire Kick!" I created fire in my leg, and sent a kick at one of the Ghosty Boys.
"Flame Cycle!" Serge surrounded his body in fire as well, and rolled at another Ghosty Boy.
Our attacks connected without fail, destroying the ghosts we both hit.
"Blehh heh hehhk!" The last Ghosty Boy continued to chuckle, still not moving at all.
What's going on? Something doesn't seem right...
"Flamespray!" Serge breathed fire at it, destroying the last Ghosty Boy. "There piece of cake!"
"But... wasn't that too easy?" I said questioningly. "I mean, they weren't even moving or anything..."
"I'm sure they were just stunned by our awesomeness!" Serge responded, putting his arms on his hips confidently. "Don't worry about i-..."
KERCHUNK! A strange sound came from the door that Sprit was still floating next to.
"Oh, it's unlocked now." Sprit told us, after turning the knob to make sure.
"Let's keep going, then!" Serge said. "Finally out of this room!"
All three of us went in through the door, to the next room. And what was inside it?
"It's the same thing!" Serge exclaimed furiously. "It's literally exactly the same as last time!"
"No, it's not." I pointed to the center of the room. "There's only two boxes this time."
"Oh my gosh, two boxes?! I'm in awe over how interesting and different that is!"
"Serge, can you check them the same way as before?" I asked him.
"Sheesh... I guess..." Serge sighed, then proceeded to roll into a box again.
"Blehh heh hehhk!" Two Ghosty Boys popped out, one from each box.
"You know, it's really not as bad the second time..." Serge uttered, not even bothering to run away this time.
"Fire Kick!" I wasted no time, kicking at one of them.
"Alright, my tu-..."
"Dual Fire Kick!" I used my second kick on the other one, defeating them both.
"... Hey, I wanted to attack at least one of them, y'know!"
KERCHUNK! The next door became unlocked.
"Sorry, Serge." I apologized to him, although keeping a serious expression. "Let's keep going."
"Hmph, alright..."
All three of us went in through the door to the next room. And what was inside of this one?
"The same thing... again." Serge remarked, not bothering to show any more enthusiasm. "What a shock..."
"This time there's just one box..." Sprit added.
"Is there seriously just one Ghosty Boy this time...?" I uttered in disbelief.
"Only one way to find out!" Serge rolled into the box without any hesitation.
"Blehh heh hehhk!" A single Ghosty Boy came out of the box, without any more appearing along with it.
"Fire Ball!" Serge immediately shot a ball of fire, burning the evil spirit. "Heheh, I got 'em this ti-... Wha!?"
Oddly enough, the Ghosty Boy wasn't destroyed right away this time.
"Too late... Y-you're... TOO LATE!" The Ghosty Boy cried, still on fire. "BLEHH HEK HEHH..."
The Ghosty Boy vanished, its laugh echoing throughout the room.
"Well, that was weird..." Serge said.
"Too late? About what?" I said in confusion.
Does it mean... about Darkés?!
"Let's hurry!"
I ran as fast as I could to the next door, hearing the sound of something unlocking again. I opened the door and went through immediately, Serge and Sprit following behind me.
There was... nothing. It looked all colorful and stuff like the other rooms did, but there was nothing in it. No boxes, and not even a door at the end of the room.
"Is this... the end?" I said in confusion. "This is all...?"
"Oh, come on! There's gotta be something here!" Serge shouted at the empty room. "After all the stupid rooms we had to go through..."
"I'm confused..." Sprit added, just as confused as the rest of us. "Darkés was supposed to be here, right...?"
All of a sudden, something came down from the ceiling. It was...
... a giant signboard, dangling from some thin strings.
"'CONGLATURATION. YOU ARE HERO.'" I read the sign. "Um... what?"
"What the heck does that mean?!" Serge asked me. "You sure you didn't read it wrong?"
"Maybe there's something behind the sign...?" Sprit desperately suggested.
"I guess... We might as well check..."
But before we could do that, the strings holding the sign broke, sending the sign crashing down to the ground. The sign shattered to pieces.
"Well, there goes that idea..."
Suddenly, a blue portal appeared next to us in the room.
"Huh? Does Crystana want us to come back already?" Sprit said, confused. "We never found Darkés, though..."
"Sérgio... I-I'm sorry..."
"C-Crystana?!" The way she's talking seems weird...
"I-I can't do anything to apologize enough for what I've done. I've made a terrible mistake..."
"W-what happened?!" I shouted, louder than before.
"I-I was... I was tricked. Your dark half sent a false power signature to your current location, in order to distance you all away from where he is actually located presently."
"Where is he?"
"... Dendritic Forest."
"D-Dendri-... Why is he...?!"
"You have a friend waiting for you near that area, don't you? You must hurry, before it's too late!"
I had no idea what was going on, but I didn't need to hear anything more. I jumped right into the portal.
--
I popped out of the portal, Serge and Sprit coming out right after me. I expected to be brought immediately to the forest. But...
"... What is... this?"
The once warm, foresty area was now cold, covered in snow and ice.
"W-what the heck?! I-i-it's so c-cold!" Serge said, shivering.
"Y-yes, very m-m-much so!" Sprit added, cuddling with Serge for warmth. "W-was it always this cold here, Sérgio?"
"N-no, it's completely different now... Is this even the same place?"
I turned around, and saw the exit to Groove Grotto. Other than some ice around it, it was mostly the same.
"So we really are back here. But why is..."
"W-well, whatever the reason is, i-it's a good thing c-cootie girl went back..." Serge stammered.
"Yeah, I guess it was pretty good timing after a-..."
Just then, I felt my foot step on something.
"Huh?"
I picked it up, wiping off the snow that had gotten all over it. It was kind of thin and long...
It was...
"W-wha...?!"
"S-Sérgio, is something w-wrong?" Sprit asked me worriedly. "Y-you're starting t-to look pale..."
T-this is... Jemily's flashlight... But why...
"What's the matter? Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! You hurry up and do what you've got to do, okay? I'll be waiting patiently for your return, as always!"
If this is here, then how did Jemily go back through the cave? Unless...
I looked out toward the entrance to the forest, frozen like the rest of it.
N-no way... NonononononononononononoNONONONONONONONONONONONO...
I sprinted toward the entrance, dropping the flashlight and entering the frozen forest.
"Sérgio, wait!" Serge and Sprit cried, but I ignored them and kept running into the forest.
Jemily, please tell me you aren't here! I'm sorry for leaving you all by yourself!
I frantically kept looking around, while running as fast as I could, looking for Jemily. I was starting to lose my energy and breath, but I didn't care.
"If you're by my side, I know I can get through this. Because of you, I don't have to be scared. So let's go!"
I should've just came to the forest alone!
I kept searching.
"... You know, I don't know if I've told you this, but I'm really glad I have you as a friend, Sérgio."
Or I could've brought Jemily with me through the portal, like before! Why didn't I do that!?
I kept searching.
"I-I always want us to be together! Forever and ever!"
Why didn't I bring Jemily with me?
I kept searching.
"I'm going to train with my mom to control my powers and get stronger. So if any villains come to our town and try to do anything to you, or anyone else here, then I'll beat them up and kick them outta here! I'll do my best to preserve the peace, no matter what!"
W-why didn't I bring Jemily with me...?
I kept searching.
"C-can I count on you? Can I really count on you, Sérgio?"
"Of course! I promise, Jemily."
WHY DIDN'T I BRING JEMILY WITH ME!?!?
I kept searching... until I made it to a clearing. Everything there was just as frozen as the rest of the forest.
Absolutely everything.
"J-J-Je-..."
I found her... I found Jemily. She was sitting near a tree, holding a baton in one hand, and a herb in the other...
... And like everything else, her body was completely frozen.
"You'd better keep that promise, okay?"
"JEEEMMIIILLLYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!"To be continued...
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Writer's Comments:
... One chapter left...
- CS-Masyet