Chapter Text
Kosuke had to get up a little early this time around, a little more early compared to his usual time. He knows how important this is to the youngsters, and that they're doing all they can to help his daughter in her time of need, and in turn, this is his way of helping her too. He wouldn't even know how to pay them back, or what to do if it weren't for them. He'll have to thank them later in earnest once this is all done and over.
He was sitting by living room, waiting for her, getting ready to leave. By the time that she's almost at the door, that's his cue.
"Nozomi." He called. She finally acknowledged him for god knows how long. "I got a letter that's under your name. would you like to read it?"
She sighs. "Sorry dad, but I'm busy right now."
"It's from your friends." He blurted, which was what stopped her in her tracks. "They were so worried about you that they wanted to give you something."
"Something for me?"
"Yes, and they all want to give you something as a… condolence gift."
"What's in there?" She asked suspiciously.
"I don't know." He lied. "They told me that I can't open it. This is something only you can open. I'll even give you some privacy to look at it."
She sighed again. "Okay. Tell them I said 'thank you.'"
"I will. Here you are." He hands the envelope to her and goes on his way.
She had no idea why they gave it to him to give it to her, but this coming from them so of course she'll accept it. She opens the envelope to find a letter that reads:
To the grief-stricken mother, Nozomi Sakamoto
We understand the pain of losing a child, and that no parent should ever have to go through it. However, you chose to confine yourself in your room as a means of running away from your demons instead of confronting it, and we cannot stand idle as you continue to suffer. In short, we will take those Desires to help you heal and live.
Nozomi couldn't help but laugh bitterly about the letter she received, coming from one of them that seemed to care so much for her.
"You, take my Desires? What is this, some sort of prank that you're playing?"
"Why are you after the Desires that I've collected? You should quit now while you still can. I won't guarantee your safety if you go any further. If you still want to go after them, fine. But you'll be left for dead when I'm done with you. I just want everyone to leave me alone."
Kosuke left the house quietly as to not disturb her, where Monsta X was waiting for him outside.
"Well, how did it go?" Lynn asked.
"It went smoothly." Kosuke replied. "I can't thank you enough for helping her. It really means so much."
"You can thank us later when we have taken care of the whole ordeal first." Ryu said.
"We should probably get out of here before she catches on."
"Yeah, good idea." Ike nods.
The door slams wide open, scaring everyone at the loud boom. It was Nozomi, running and screaming at them.
"Oh shit! Go, gogogogogogogogo!" Soren yells as everyone run off at different directions.
Nozomi was about to catch up to her dad to demand an answer from him, but she was body blocked by someone else. Ichinose just arrived.
"You better get going now. I'll handle this." She smiled.
"Thank you, much obliged." He starts speed walking to get away, with Nozomi still screaming at him to come back.
Monsta X was back in the Jail, recovering a little from the sudden outburst Nozomi pulled out.
"Oh man, that was close." Ken heaved.
"I can't believe that she can run that fast. Was she a part of a track team or something?" Shulk wondered.
"I'm not sure, but that lady is hella fast." Jackie sounded rattled. "Oh man…"
"But at least we're fast enough to get back in here." Soren caught his breath. "And at least her Shadow took the response well enough."
"Right. Let's get in there and change her heart." Mac looked out of their point of view of where the birdcage is.
They got back to the pier and ditched the yacht, resorting to Soren summoning Lapras for everyone to get on it and surf to the area of interest. By the time they arrived, they rush in to storm the front, and that's where they found her.
Inside the cage is what appears to be a childhood bedroom that has long been abandoned and destroyed. There are holes in the wall, paint scrapped off, the ceiling beyond reparation. Not only that, but the windows are broken, with glass all over the floor, wood and dead branches everywhere, toys and books trashed and ruined, and even some pictures have been charred to bits.
"My god, look at this place…" Shulk looked around.
"Here. For your protection." Kirby gave Ryu, Ken and Lynn sole pads to protect their feet.
"Thanks, Eunbi." Ken said as he puts his on and Ryu helping Lynn put hers on.
"So it seems that you've decided to come here after all." Nozomi said grimly. "I suppose that warning or dissuading you is out of the question."
"Sorry to break it to you, but we can't do that. Not when we have this to deal with." Richter told her.
"Look, this isn't one of those 'you're being rescued don't resist' type of scenarios. We genuinely want to help you." Jackie explained. "If you let us, we can get you back on track."
"Nozomi, please. We understand that you're in pain right now, but what you're doing isn't helping you." Shulk sympathized.
"Don't talk to me like you know me." Nozomi spat.
"Please do not misunderstand our intentions." Kirby said. "Yes, it is correct that we do not know you well, but we know that you are in severe distress. And by leaving you here by your lonesome, you will suffer endlessly."
"He has a point." Soren agreed. "Look, we all know you miss him so much, and we do too. But you can't keep doing this to yourself, man. I don't want to push this any further, but… your son would hate to see you like this."
"Don't you dare talk about my son like that!" She shouted.
"Whoa dude, I'm not! Promise!"
"Nozomi, please! You don't have to do this!" Robin pleaded. "You don't have to keep punishing yourself like this. That's not the way you want to live. Yes, losing Ryuji hurts so much, and you still grieve for him to this day. But you don't want to live like this forever. It's just like Soohyun said, he would be sad to see you in such a state. Please. You need to let it go."
Nozomi took a step forward, making them be on guard.
"I have listened to you prattle on and on… about how you are trying to control my life… You and I have nothing more to talk about. If I can't make you leave…" A dark aura seeps out from fer feet. "Then I'll just have to kill you!"
She was encased by the aura all around her, and disappeared on sight.
"Where did she go?" Ike wondered.
They looked around the area, trying to find her. They hear a rumbling sound, but not from below, from above.
"Up there!" Richter yelled.
The roof burst open as a giant ice monster crashed from above, making everyone jump out of the way. It's a great white shark that has sharp ice shards embedded on its back, eyes devoid of all color, fins and tails sharp enough to leave you bleeding, and 200 teeth ready to bite and kill.
"What the fuck, you can turn into ice?" Soren said.
"We'll talk about it later. It's time to fight." Ryu tells him.
The shark roars, the sounds echoing the room, and begins to charge straight at them, sharp teeth, baring at them.
Lynn blocked the teeth with her naginata, and threw it to the side.
"Guys, we need to be careful when we're fighting." she warned. "There's debris everywhere, and we can't touch the shark's fins and tail."
"What do you propose we do?" Kirby asked.
"I'm thinking about rusting its sharp edges in hopes of slowing it down a little. We'll be lucky enough to have it stop for just one moment."
They watch as the shark makes numerous attempts to bite the group, but was briefly brushed off by fire attacks.
"Yeah, with the way it's moving, we won't be able to lay a single scratch on it. We gotta slow it down." Jackie begins to think.
Shulk puts the Speed Monado on overtime, outrunning the shark for as much as he can while wearing the bunny hood. Soren and Ike made so many inaccurate shots with their shockwaves, because of how slow they move. Richter's items became more of a hazard than they are projectiles, with it reflecting them back to him. They were struggling. Really hard.
Ken and Mac weren't getting lucky either as their spells kept on missing. Feeling tired, they chug down on carbonated water to restore their energy. Ryu, on the other hand, has been picking up scraps that were left on the floor.
"Hyungwon, what are you doing?" Mac asked.
"I'm picking up some remnants of the debris. I think they have some use to it." Ryu answered.
"'Some use?' What do you mean by that?" Ken said curiously.
"If Aqua said that if we can't touch the shark, then perhaps we can use these as either a diversion or a distraction."
"I mean, that is true, but what about the item bag? Can't we use them, too?"
"We can, but we mustn't overdo it, unless we waste them all."
"Good point. Guess we'll start with these."
The other fighters went to pick up the pieces as Ryu has an idea in mind.
The shark scans its eyes around to find anything moving when they found the three non-weapon wielding fighters building something. It charged at full speed, ready to bite, until it was shot at the side at something faster than it. It was Jackie with the staff.
"Eyes on me." Jackie stared at it, waving the thing to get its attention. That made it change its target to him instead, maintaining the same speed. "Yeah that's right. Keep going." He waited for it to get extremely close, until it got rammed by Wheel Kirby, knocking it down. "That was risky as shit, but we made it work."
"Hmm, quite so." Kirby discarded the Wheel ability to become Tornado Kirby to create a mini tornado to drag the shark in, damaging it in the process.
Richter and Shulk summon Maria and Fiora to use their magic as extra weight to keep it in. Ike used a cracker launcher to fire the shots directly at the shark, hoping that it'll slow it down to a degree.
The shark span rapidly, breaking free from the confines, but it was badly damaged from the constant barrages it received.
"Looks like that did it. Now to slow it even more." Jackie pulls out a timer from his scarf to activate it.
But it didn't slow the shark down. It slowed HIM down instead.
" Oohh... Ssshhiiit." He cursed in slow motion.
"Well that didn't work." Lynn sighed.
Jackie was trying to duck down as the shark attempts at another bite, but was stopped by Draug with a Goron as his crutch. Soren managed to stop it right then and there, as he looks on with Ryu, Ken, and Mac charging in with what appeared to be a giant makeshift spear from the debris they had collected.
They made the broken glass to be the tip, and the wood to be their handle. Kirby commended their ingenuity, despite the handicap they face in the battle and turning it around in their favor. They slam their homemade weapon onto the shark, the shards embedded in its skin, and roaring ferociously, trying to break free.
"Soohyun!" Ken called.
"Yeah!" Soren acknowledged. "Mòrag!" He calls upon the Special Inquisitor with Vulpix by her side.
"Sean!" He calls his apprentice-turned-Spirit, pumped up to fight.
They command them to cast devastating fire at the shark, blasting it bit by bit.
"Did we get her?" Mac prayed.
The smoke dies down, but the shark is still moving.
"No. not just yet." Ike said grimly.
"So we gotta take it down again…" Richter sighs in frustration.
The shark broke off from its confinement, destroying the last bits of the spear. It also grew more sharp spikes around its body, fins and tail made sharper, and grew more teeth.
"Uh-oh." Lynn said.
"Not good!" Jackie followed.
"Everyone, get down!" Robin yelled.
They all duck down when the shark zoomed at breakneck speed, crashing into a wall.
"At this rate, we're going to be cut and eaten alive if we don't stop her!" Shulk told. "I don't think the Speed Monado can outrun her anymore."
"And the timer slowed ME down instead of her so I don't think I'm gonna use that again." Jackie remembered.
"Then we're gonna have to think really quick, otherwise we'd be dead in minutes." Ike brandishes his sword, ready to fight again.
He fires another shockwave, not at the shark, but at where he thinks it'll be. The shockwave almost hit it, but it did graze it, losing a few of its sharp spikes.
Robin and Ryu use the same idea, but instead got a beastball and a home run bat from the bag, with Robin throwing the ball at one direction, the ball reappearing in the other side, and Ryu swings the bat with enough force that the ball starts flying everywhere, zoning in and out of reality.
Thankfully, it didn't hit everyone as they're all on the same team, but it did do considerable damage to the shark, chipping off some of the spikes.
Soren and Shulk slid underneath it and sliced some of them off. The shark didn't take kindly to that, and flung them away. Thankfully for them, they were blocking it with their swords, but they still got knocked back, crashing into a wall.
"Uh, she's still not stopping!" Jackie says.
"And neither are we!" Richter throws his cross at the opposite direction, while running towards the shark.
"Wonho, nooo!" Lynn shrieked, watching helplessly as he would bravely, but recklessly charged at the shark.
Richter slid underneath it, and kick jumped to the wall to bounce off it to throw his holy water at it. The cross chipped off more of the spikes with the holy water slowing it down for a while.
"Oh. Uh... that was my bad, haha." She laughs, embarrassed.
"It is quite alright, Aqua." Kirby assured her. "But you must also understand that Wonho is not of a simpleton as you think he may be. Yes, he may be reckless when it comes to his prowess, but you must also realize that he gained the knowledge and skills from his trials and battles."
"Really?"
"Yes. The same can also be said for everyone else as well. When you peer into their souls, their fighting prowess, you will see that they have seen and been through their fair share of battles, including Soohyun and Jackson. Each and every one of them did not gain their strength for nothing. No, they grew stronger from it, and they had prevailed from it."
"…"
"I too had undergone trials of my own. There were far too many to count, but I found myself standing against the tests of time at every single moment. It is thanks to those trials that I, and everyone else here, are where we are as of today. You, Lynn, can forge your own destiny."
"I… I can?"
"Yes. Every one of us had made our own, and we will do all we can to assist you of achieving it. But you must remember, destiny is not about letting anyone control or decide for you. It is about taking your own charge and believing in yourself that will make the impact."
"Believe in myself…?" She felt as if she heard that before. But from who? Whatever that may be, it gave her the motivation and courage to do something. "You're right. I have to believe in myself if we're going to get through this. Thank you for helping me realize it, Eunbi."
"It is my utmost pleasure."
"And I think I know a way."
Lynn, with Azura summoned, sings a melody that captivated the shark, stopping it completely from attacking Richter and Mac. It somehow became attracted to her singing voice, drawing in closer and closer. This gave everyone the opportunity to start an All-Out Attack, breaking it down bit-by-bit without resistance.
Robin charges up a Bolganone intended for the shark, waiting for the others to do their thing.
"I know what it's like to have your whole world fall apart when you lose someone precious. Ryuji was your whole world, and to have that taken away from you… it must have caused irreparable damage to your heart. But by shutting yourself away and clinging to this empty space, you're only going to hurt yourself more. Nozomi… you need to let him go."
He throws his hand down to cast it, everyone jumping out of the way as the flames burn it to a crisp.
The great white shark was no more, and the Shadow was back to her human form. She fell to her knees, expression completely drained from the intense sadness, and her body worn out from grieving.
"I don't understand." Nozomi spoke. "What you mean by 'letting him go?' Are you trying to tell me that I should forget about him? That I should erase all the precious memories I had of him?"
"That's not what I meant." Robin said, having been a little too harsh on his word choice. "What I meant is that Ryuji had already made his peace, and you made yours with him. You've talked to him before when he temporarily came back, catching up on lost time. But when it was time for him to go, you had to say goodbye for the last time."
"And that was when I wished that time would stop, and I could have him by my side forever. I didn't want to accept the fact that he's dead and I'm still alive. I wish it was the other way around, but life doesn't guarantee you anything, no matter how perfect you plan everything. But you're right… I can't keep living like this forever. At some point in time, I still have a life to live, and by doing this, I'm going against his wishes."
She takes the handcuffs off easily. "There's no reason for me to hold onto this anymore."
"You know, there are plenty of resources out there that can help you with this kinda thing." Soren chimed in. "If you want, I can hit you up with one."
"Really? You would do that?"
"Yeah. There are plenty of them that know a thing or two about it."
"That… that would be nice." She cracks a smile. "Oh… that's right. I'll need to go apologize to dad. He's been nothing but kind to me, and all I've done is push him away."
"Don't worry. You won't be alone in this." Ken nods.
"Thank you, everyone. I'll be going home now. You'll be there, right?"
"Absolutely." Jackie gave a paws up.
That gave her great comfort as she disappears into the light. The Jail begins to rumble.
"We should probably go, Robin." Ike said.
"Yeah okay, no, let's-let's get out of here." The tactician nods.
Everyone went back to the real world to check up on Nozomi.