SWEET!!! Her Royal Highness: Princess Cupcake! [Part 4]

My appetite became nonexistent as I worried about what was surely to come. Jack’ll say something to anger the woman, she’ll try to hit him, and then he’ll overdo things and knock her out by accident. Next thing you know, we’ll be at the arcade with him complaining about losing his job again.

…Oh no. The crowd was backing away. Things are going south fast.

“I said you need to—“ Jack shouted, only to have himself cut off.

Watching the top of his head over the crowd, I could tell he was getting into a scuffle again.

“I better do something,” I said, jumping out of my seat.

I didn’t have a chance to take a step before I was shocked by a horrifying sight. Soaring above me, dangerously close to the skylight, was a bewildered Jack. He flew over me, over the rails, then down to the lowest level of the mall toward the ice rink.

“JACK!!!”

If not for the guard rail, I would’ve ran right off the balcony and fallen to the lower level myself.

“JAAAAACK!!!” I screamed again.

By some miracle, his body spun around, changing its trajectory so that he crashed onto a pile of bean bag chairs being sold at a stall next to the ice rink. If not for that, I fear things would have turned out horribly.

“Jack! You okay?!” I shouted.

“She sure is a toughie!” He answered, sounding unfazed.

“Do you need help?!”

“Nah! I’m good! Just gonna sit here for a bit. But don’t you worry about me!”

“Oh my gosh,” I said, just about collapsing from relief.

Just what kind of person has the strength to throw someone Jack’s size halfway across the mall?!

When I turned and looked back at Kuma Cakes, I got my answer.

The crowd seemingly took the hint and gave the irritated woman who started this incident some space, finally allowing me to get a better look at her.

She looked a few years older than me, wearing denim short shorts and a puffy pink windbreaker jacket. A teal baseball cap sat atop her head… where a pair of cat ears poked through two holes on the top. A furry cat tail swung behind her like it was real.

“Ah…” Red Sandrea said. “Guess I overdid it there.”

Red Sandrea?! When did she get here?! Was this an insidious plot of some kind?!

There wasn’t time for me to think about it. I had to quickly transform and take her down before anyone else risked getting hurt. And it wouldn’t be long with the way the security guards were moving in to subdue her.

But where could I transform? Even though the mall wasn’t that busy, there were still people everywhere. If I go looking for somewhere to change, then that risks leaving all these people in danger. And despite everything that's happened, they’re still not dissipating! Come on, guys! Worry about your lives a little bit more! The cake will still be there when you come back!

Red Sandrea was furious, cursing up a storm as she shoved the security guards. “Don’t ya dare touch me!”

She grabbed one of the security guards by the arm, ready to throw them.

…But she stopped. And not like she just stopped what she was doing and dropped the guy. She stopped stopped. Frozen in place. Like someone had hit the pause button on a video.

It wasn’t just her, either. Everyone and everything had frozen in place. I was the only person unaffected by this bizarre circumstance.

“Quick! Transform!”

“Huh?” I said, looking around in confusion.

Poking out from behind the frozen mob was Belliney.

“W-what’re you doing here?!” I yelled.

“There’s no time! I can’t keep time frozen for too long without major repercussions! Transform into Magical Knight Lune, now!”

“Right,” I answered. Best not to waste this opportunity.

Hastily, I rushed through my transformation, becoming my alter ego: Magical Knight Lune!

“Thanks!” I said.

Belliney responded with a thumbs up and a determined smile. And with that, she resumed time and stepped back to watch as an observer and not get directly involved.

“Stop right there, Red San—“

She finished her throw, hurling the security guard at me unintentionally. Good thing I was Lune, or else I would’ve been crushed by this muscle bound tank of a security guard. Instead, I gripped onto him like a mother catching her child who ran and jumped into her arms.

Suffice to say, it was incredibly awkward for the both of us.

“Thanks,” the security guard said, embarrassed.

“Don’t mention it!” I forcibly smiled.

After gently putting him down, I marched over to Red Sandrea and confronted her as she was in the middle of grappling with multiple security guards at the same time.

“Hey!” I shouted.

“Can’t ya see I’m busy?!” she furiously yelled back.

It wasn’t until she looked up at me that she immediately froze, still gripping the security guards’ heads underneath her armpits in some sort of wrestling hold.

“L-L-L” she stuttered, her face turning beat red. “N-nyooo~! What’re ya… I mean, what are you doing here?!”

“I could be asking you the same question!” I said.

Red Sandrea tossed aside the security guards and looked down at her attire, mumbling some sort of curse as she continued to blush. It was obvious that she didn’t want to be seen in such a state.

“It’s, uh…” she fumbled her words, trying to figure out what to say. “It’s, um, my newest scheme!!! Yes! That’s it! Nyahahaha~!”

“...Huh?”

She crossed her arms in triumph. “That’s right!”

I was confused. None of this really seemed like much of a scheme. Her usual motif was to annoy and disturb people, but from what I saw, it looked like she was just angry about not getting the cake that she wanted and causing enough of a disturbance to get the… wait a sec!

“So that’s it!!!” I yelled, thrusting my finger at her.

“Nyhuh?”

“You came to this mall knowing that there would be a massive line for Kuma Cakes, so you could secretly absorb the negative energy from the never ending line! But that wasn’t enough for you, was it!? So to increase the negative energy output, you disguised yourself! You pretended to be a customer and caused a huge scene because you couldn’t get the cupcake you wanted! Then, the whole line would have to wait for your scuttle against the security guards to end, causing them to wait even longer!”

“Uh…”

“Well, you made a big mistake this time, Red Sandrea. After what you did to Jack, I’m not gonna go easy on you!”

“...Who’s Jack?” she asked.

I probably shouldn’t have said that.

“Doesn’t matter!” I yelled. “In the name of love, friendship, and happiness, I’m taking you down!”

Red Sandrea stared at me like I had a few screws loose.

Was I wrong? I mean, that’s what she’s all about, right? Intentionally irritating people to absorb their negative energy? There’s no way she’d actually come here just for cake!

Red wondered, tilting her head to the side.

“...Was I wrong?” I asked, now sincerely doubting myself.

Red Sandrea glanced at me, then gave a mischievous smile. “Great investigation skills, Lune!”

Ha! Knew it!

“You may have figured out my plan, but that doesn’t mean you’ve won just yet!” she yelled, extending a hand above her.

A swirl of smoke spiraled around her, spinning around until it formed a tornado that engulfed her entire being—the crowd looked like they were regretting their decision not to leave.

The swirling black smoke exploded, revealing Red Sandrea in her usual garb with her long cape flowing behind her.

“Nyohoho!” she cackled with a hand to her mouth.

It was only then that the crowd went berserk. They quickly got the message that their lives were in danger and fled from the scene in a wild stampede.

Why’d they wait until now to finally get out of here?!

“Come forth, Shadownyans!”

A large portal opened behind Red Sandrea. Strong gusts of wind blew from the portal, ruffling her hair and cape. I had to plant my feet to avoid getting knocked over by its strength.

And then… Nothing?

Huh?

“...Nyah?” Red Sandrea said, puzzled by the lack of shadownyans bursting from the portal. “Ugh!”

She leaned into the portal, her top half vanishing into the dark void. Her tail swung back and forth rapidly, then shot up in exclamation as she fell backward into our realm with a single black noodle cat in hand.

It was fast asleep.

“Wake up!” she yelled, shaking its torso. “It’s time to get to work!”

The shadownyan opened its eyes, confused by how it wound up in the mall. “Nya?” It meowed, looking up at Red Sandrea.

“Change of plans,” she answered. “I moved the date up. We’re engaging now, so get to work!”

“Nya!”

Though it still appeared confused by its circumstance, the shadownyan was quick on the uptake. It looked around the area for something to do. Most people had already fled the scene, so there wasn’t anyone for it to bother in the immediate area.

“Nyah…. Nyah!”

What followed was a wholly unnecessary tragedy. One that I would never truly recover from. A tragedy that, in a sense, was the catalyst for the trajectory my life would soon take. For the shadownyan locked eyes on my Princess Cupcake!

Without hesitation, it flew over to the cake. The royal treat was still completely untouched, save for my fork jammed on top, waiting to be brought to my mouth.

“Nyah!”

WHAP!