Who Is the Real Dark Master?!

Using my best stealth, I made my way over to the Imperial Palace right as Kenichi and Hideaki entered the castle. I could barely hear the two already in conversation as I got closer to them.

“So, have you figured out what your first act as the new ruler of Earth would be?” Hideaki asked him.

“Once all the world's leaders surrender to me, I will demand the immediate and absolute dismantling of the world's nuclear arsenals,” Kenichi answered.

As I crept down the halls of the Palace, I noticed something was not sitting well with Hideaki.

“Are you sure that is a good idea ~nanoda?” Hideaki then asked.

“Are you questioning my judgment, Hideaki?”

“No, no! Of course not, ~nanoda!” Okay, something was definitely up with Hideaki. I felt a strange aura about him. Maybe he was trying to manipulate Kenichi into an evil plan. “I just want to make sure you're thinking of every possible contingency.”

“There is no possible contingency that would require the use of nuclear weapons,” Kenichi insisted.

“We create giant monsters on a regular basis ~nanoda,” Hideaki told him. “That's basically the same thing, but with extra work.”

“Why do we create giant monsters, anyways?” Kenichi asked.

“It's a display of our power ~nanoda. It makes people afraid of us.”

Kenichi seemed confused by Hideaki's words. Meteron had not been telling the entire truth. Obviously, there was no Emperor here. He had already evacuated along with the rest of Tokyo. Instead of heading towards the throne room, Hideaki was leading Kenichi in another direction. If I had any hope of talking sense into Kenichi, I needed to separate him from the bunny.

They walked further, and I kept following them from a distance. It was clear Hideaki was heading for a location deep underground, far from the palace itself.

“Where exactly are we headed?” Kenichi asked.

“There's a secret room somewhere in these premises,” Hideaki explained, though I had a feeling he was not telling the entire truth. “The Sacred Treasures are hidden inside. Taking possession of them will make you the new Emperor ~nanoda.”

“I assume that will lend more legitimacy to my cause,” Kenichi wondered.

“Their location is hidden away from the public in order to maintain the legitimacy of the Imperial regime,” Hideaki continued. “Ah, we're here.”

A giant door stood before us, much taller than even Kenichi. Only Hideaki knew what lay hidden on the other side.

“A super duper secret password is needed to unlock this door ~nanoda,” Hideaki explained, “passed down through generations of specially selected priests. Luckily for me, I was once the pet of one of those priests, so I should still know the password. Let's see… Yononaka, hokahoka nanoyo!”

Like a giant round stone, the door began to roll to the left as it opened. As it did, Hideaki began to cackle wildly.

“Yes! They are here!” Hideaki shouted as he jumped into the massive opening. Laughing maniacally, Hideaki emerged from the room with three specific objects: a sword in his mouth, a broken mirror on his head, and an orb of obsidian hanging from a necklace.

“Huh, that is not what I expected the Sacred Treasures to look like,” Kenichi observed.

“That's because they're not the Sacred Treasures,” Hideaki told him. I was not aware a bunny could smile as big of a smile Hideaki had at that moment. “Every sacred treasure in the world has an equal and opposite cursed treasure. The Japanese government had these hidden away after the last Dark Master was defeated. But now, they're all mine! Mine! Mine!!!”

“Don't you mean mine?” Kenichi asked.

“Ehh… no.” Hideaki then cast a spell that knocked Kenichi three meters down the hallway.

“What gives?!” Kenichi asked.

“Your usefulness has run out, Kenichi,” Hideaki replied. “You were the perfect cover, allowing me to acquire these three Cursed Treasures. Now, I can rid this world of you pesky humans once and for all!”

“You… you used me?”

“It is true,” Hideaki answered. “I needed the Dark Master to make himself known so I could open the door to the treasures. The treasures would only appear in your presence.”

I ran over to help Kenichi, who was very hurt by the sudden betrayal. As I lifted him off the ground, Hideaki noticed me.

“Ah, Magical Intern Ayame, what an unexpected surprise ~nanoda,” Hideaki said to me. “And by unexpected, I mean completely expected!”

He attempted to fire off another blast.

“Pulse Field!!” I shouted as I danced my way into a quick block.

“You're just in time to witness the extinction of the human race ~nanoda,” Hideaki told me.

“That was not a part of our contract,” Kenichi protested. “We had a contract!”

“Your contract just expired,” Hideaki replied.

Kenichi collapsed to the floor in an instant. Clutching his chest, he appeared to be having a heart attack. A small yellow orb erupted from within him, the source of his Flower Power. The immense pain caused him to pass out.

Hideaki carefully placed the broken mirror on the floor. Standing upright (something I did not know Hollows could do), Hideaki held the sword in his little bunny paws. Being a bunny Hollow must have made holding the sword more difficult, as the sword was much longer than he was tall. But somehow, he managed to turn the blade on himself.

“Jigoku-no-Arashi-no-Tsurugi! Grant me the power to cleanse the world ~nanoda!” Hideaki chanted before plunging the blade into his fluffy body. Instead of going through him, the sword completely disappeared into fluffspace. The mirror released a bright red light that completely enveloped Hideaki. His body began to grow to enormous size.

“Ayame!” Aichi shouted as he found us. “We've got to get out of here ~woof!”

I grabbed the small yellow orb on our way out.

•

The three of us just barely made our escape in time to see a 100 meter tall Hideaki emerge from the ground.

“Dear Frith…” was all Aichi could say in response.

Sayori, Shōko, Fumiko, and Sachiko, joined by the surprise appearance of Apollo and the talking cat Hollow, had found us. All anyone could do was stare in awe and horror at the sight of the monstrous Hideaki.

“How on Earth are we supposed to defeat that?” Sayori asked.

“He has the full power of the Dark Master,” Aichi explained. “The only way that has ever been defeated was with the combined strength of the Flower Powers. But they haven't been combined in over four hundred years!”

“We don't have enough time to find the rest of the Flower Powers!” Sayori replied.

“There has to be something we can do, ~bo peep!” Sachiko said.

“I have an idea!” I told the others. “I need the rest of you to distract Hideaki while I fly into fluffspace.”

“Are you crazy?” Apollo asked me. He looked like he had been roughed up quite a bit on the way here. “I'm pretty sure that plan will get you killed!”

“We haven't got any better plans,” I admitted. “We have to do something. Even if it doesn't work, we still have to try…”

“~nya Aren't you forgetting someone?” the cat Hollow asked. Everyone looked down at her. “I told you… Hideaki is mine.”

With the reminder of my promise to her in mind, everyone agreed to the plan.

•

The giant Hideaki attempted to level Tokyo with his bare paws. By the time we got to him, he had already crushed hundreds of homes and businesses and toppled several skyscrapers. Fortunately, the entire Tokyo metro area had been evacuated this morning due to the other giant monsters. Kenichi had unfortunately just lost his magic, and so was forced to sit this one out.

The cat Hollow flew out to meet the giant Hideaki while the rest of us distracted him with any attacks we could dish out. I got in a few good punches before I got smacked away like a mosquito. Shōko swung her enormous hammer at Hideaki's paws, causing him to scream in pain. He tried to squish Shōko in response.

With little time to react, Shōko shouted “Hide Away, Hide Away!” and disappeared from sight. The fortunate timing of that spell prevented that disaster from happening. Apollo tried to launch a Boogie Blitz spell, but somehow missed the giant bunny entirely. Fumiko, Sachiko, and Aichi tried to wrap up Hideaki and hinder his progress with vines, Pulse Fields, and Sleep Pollen. The Sleep Pollen had no effect on him, and he just broke through everything else. Nothing actually stopped him, but our little annoyances were enough to slow him down and provide enough of a distraction for the cat Hollow to make her move.

“Ayame!” she shouted at me. “Do you nyow why we're called Hollows?”

“No, Aichi never explained why that is,” I answered.

“It's because we're hollow on the inside!”

“What's the plan?” I asked her.

“I may be out of mana, but I'm still a cat!” the Hollow explained. “And Hideaki is just a giant stuffed bunny! Nyaaaaaaaa!!!” She slashed right through Hideaki's skin, exposing the magical fluffspace inside to the air. The cuts caused all the dark energy inside of him to be released, forcing him to shrink back down to his normal bunny size.

The Cursed Treasures were scattered all over Tokyo, and Hideaki lay on the ground with a giant gash in his fur. Quite frankly, he looked like a plushie with all the stuffing removed. Despite everything that happened, he was still fully conscious and willing to put up a fight. The only problem for him was the fact that he seemed unable to move.

“This… this isn't over… ~na… nanoda…” Hideaki tried to say as we all looked down at him. He was surrounded and unable to move.

“~woof, big bro,” Aichi commented. “What could have possibly happened to make you go all chaotic evil and try to kill all of humanity?”

“Humans have done… horrible things…” Hideaki answered. “Awful things… wars, famine, pestilence, corruption…”

“Humans may have done horrible things,” Kenichi said to him, “but I only agreed to form a contract with you because I thought I could use these powers to rectify that. Some of us are trying to make the world better, Hideaki. I hope one day you can see through your hatred of humans and understand that.” The rest of us, human and Hollow alike, nodded in agreement.

“Maybe I should make you live for six hundred years,” Hideaki replied. “Maybe then you'd see things my way…”

“Alright, big bro,” Aichi interrupted the bunny, “into the bubble you go. Heh, that rhymes. Quiet Bubble.” Aichi then sealed Hideaki away, sending him, if the cat Hollow was anything to go by, to live inside my closet.

Despite huge swaths of Tokyo having been destroyed by a giant bunny rabbit, things were oddly enough looking bright.