53. The Morning

Here, we will start the Madotsuki Arc, which is a crossover with the game, Yume Nikki.

Apartment in Karakura, Japan

The morning sun peered over the horizon at 6:00a.m.. In an apartment on the 45th floor, the room's occupant awoke. She was a 12-year-old girl with brown hair in pigtails. She wore a dark pink sweater with a window design on the chest, a purple skirt, and warm red socks. The girl sat herself up, but she didn't open her eyes.

A Bubble Dreamer and hikikomori

MADOTSUKI

Madotsuki weakly pulled off her blanket and stepped out of bed. She crossed the red carpet that bore a pattern of tiki faces, and opened the glass door that led out onto her balcony. Madotsuki rested her elbows on the railing, listening to the echoes of honking cars throughout the city as the morning sun lightly shone through her eyelids. She looked right. There was a small set of movable stairs next to the balcony's edge. Madotsuki could walk up them, and walk off. If she wanted to.

Madotsuki reentered her apartment. All she had was the tiki carpet, her bed, a desk with her diary and a chair with wheels, a bookshelf, and a TV with an old Famicom hooked up. Madotsuki walked up and turned the TV on. …It displayed a test card, but this was the only channel she had. Madotsuki sat down and decided to play her Famicom. The only game she had was NASU, where she played as a little red creature that caught eggplants falling from the sky. The background was black, and the ground was a green bar that displayed her score.

The game started. A 3-note 8-bit music played. Madotsuki moved the character right to jump and catch an eggplant. …She missed by an inch, and when the eggplant hit the ground, the Game Over screen displayed for seven seconds. She started again. She caught the first eggplant close by. She hurried left to catch the second. She missed… Game Over for seven seconds. She started another round. She caught the first eggplant… then the second… the third… fourth… She missed the fifth. Game Over.

Madotsuki turned the game off and stood up. She faced the door to her room. She approached and reached for the handle… she shook her head 'no.' She had not in a long time… and she will not. Not now, not ever.

Madotsuki went to sit at her desk. She opened her diary, where her records were written in Japanese letters. She wrote another passage.

Dear Diary… Tomorrow is my 13th birthday. I wonder if that means a new door will appear. A new one always seems to appear on my birthday. But I still haven't finished exploring the other ones. There's so many rooms. I get so lost. But I have been making some friends. Maybe I'll find more. Until later, Diary.

She closed the book. Then, with nothing else to do, she swerved her chair around to face her bed. She got up, walked over, and climbed under the covers. 3… 2… 1…

She woke up, opening her red eyes. The Famicom was gone. When she went to turn on her TV, an eyeball displayed. Madotsuki went out onto her balcony. Karakura's bustling streets were gone, replaced by an empty sunrise void. Madotsuki went back inside, and faced the door to her room. She approached, and slipped her feet into a pair of red boots. She turned the knob on the door and opened.

She was in the Nexus, the room in which 12 different doors would lead her to regions of the dreamscape. The ground and sky were black with Aztec floor designs. "Where should I go today…" Madotsuki thought to herself. "Maybe I'll go in that one." She approached a purple door with a block-shaped hourglass design.

She entered a world where the floor was covered with colorful graffiti designs that looked like amoebas and cells. There was a gigantic image of a cell floating in the sky that looked like a mitochondria. Not that Madotsuki knew which cells were which; however, two areas on the cell looked like eyes that were glaring at her. Madotsuki walked around the graffiti tiles. Each one made its own sound under her steps. Madotsuki decided to hop and skip around the tiles and make herself a little song. But there was no certain rhythm, and she would probably never remember it.

A path of graffiti markings led Madotsuki to a lone bicycle. "Oh, here's where I left it." She said as she touched the bike. Her hand glowed upon touch, and when she moved it away, a bike icon floated in a small hand-size bubble. Madotsuki made a real bike materialize from that bubble. She climbed on and began to pedal across the Graffiti World, making more fast-paced notes on the tiles. Madotsuki wasn't a fast walker, so the bike was very helpful.

"Where to go next…" Madotsuki pedaled out of the world, back to the Nexus. "How about that one?" She entered a door with dark-red blocks and green lines in-between. She was in the Forest World, a maze of pine trees and a red Aztec monkey floating in the sky. The only sound was the hypnotic dong of a clock. There were pink ghosts that oozed magenta drool, and purple ghosts that oozed green drool. "Hey, get off me." Madotsuki said when these ghosts latched their drool onto her head.

"Ribbit. Ribbit." A little frog hopped over to her.

"Oh. Hey, Froggy." Madotsuki touched the creature. Another bubble appeared with the frog's icon. She popped it on her head, transforming into a frog with a human body. "Ribbit. Ribbit." She started to hop about happily.

Magician's House

Ales Mansay and André watched Madotsuki on a small computer screen, from an overhead perspective like it were an RPG. The girl hopped around the forest with her frog head. "…This… is… so… BORING!" the Black Lum shouted. "Why are we watching some crummy little girl goof around?! Don't we have a job to do?"

"We can't rush these things." Mansay replied. "First, we must remind her why she longs for the Dream Realm. And that… will not take much longer." He smirked.

"Well, whaddo we do about that sponge kid snoopin' around?"

"Hmm, good point. We can't risk him ruining this. Take your Hoodlums and take care of him. But make sure Madotsuki doesn't see any of you."

Plankton's Crab Craft

Aranea had picked off a strand of her hair and was using it to pick the lock of Sector W's cell. "Sigh, how long is this gonna be, Aranea?" Anthony asked, pacing back and forth.

"Hey, I'm doing my best. You think using hair as a key is easy?"

"I thought you girls would at least carry around one of those knife thingies for your nails."

"You mean a file? And I did, but it's on that desk with the rest of our weapons. Gah!" Dennis suddenly grabbed Nea's hand.

"Nice hair." The hunter said as he took the light-blonde strand and held it by his sunglasses. "Feels a shame to waste it." He snapped the strand in half with little strength. He then pulled up a chair and sat in front of them. "But I'll be keeping an eye on you kids 'case you try anything."

"Uuuuugh." Anthony leaned his hands against the cell bars and let his head droop. "Maybe if I focus really hard, my metalbending will awaken like Toph."

"Anthony, you can barely gembend, how do you expect to bend metal?" Sally questioned.

"Hey, you never know, it could happen." Harvey shrugged. "That'd be sweeeet."

"Bluh!" Sheila Frantic jumped awake. She turned to the other Lights and yelled, "Oi, Jessie, help me out! Mr. Dark got me dreamself stuck in some Western dream, and I need me a Bubble Dreamer!"

"You're trapped in a dream? Well, alright, I'll-" Jessie pulled out his Sleepytime Suds.

"You'll stay put!" Plankton grabbed Jessie by the arm in his muscular form, lifting the boy and throwing the pink soap bubble aside. "We need to keep you here for our plan!"

"What plan?" April asked with a scowl.

"Ah, there he is now!" Plankton perked up when Mr. Dark materialized from a self-made vortex.

"Ah, April Goldenweek. I was hoping you'd be here." Mr. Dark zapped purple lightning at April, blowing her against the wall.

"THOU BODILESS BEAST!" Fybi yelled, drawing her B.O.W. to aim at the Dream Spirit.

"DON'T EVEN!" Dennis grabbed Anthony through the cell bars and pulled him against them, holding a knife up. Fybi was forced to lower her guard.

"So, April…" Mr. Dark approached the singed girl. "Do you remember what you are now? Do you remember that you and Mary are Imaginary Friends? Even I would not have known if I hadn't come across that Ib child. I must say, the illusion was convincing."

"Why were you so interested in us?" April asked.

"Because, April, I want to know how. I am certain that Weiss Guertena knew the secret to making the imaginary reality. And I am certain you know now, too. So… how did you and Mary become real?"

"Like I would tell you!"

Mr. Dark snapped his fingers. Dennis raised Anthony higher and held the knife to his ankle. "A foot as large as this would look nice on my mantle."

"Okay, gross." Aranea said.

"TELL ME the secret!" Dark demanded.

April clenched her teeth. "Grr… In the Guertena Gallery, we fell into a sub-dimension created by Guertena. We became real by killing Ib and Garry and switching realities with them." She wouldn't bother to explain the real story behind that.

Mr. Dark's yellow eyes widened with sudden realization. "Of course!" He smacked the forehead of his hat. "Why didn't I think of it before?!" He began to pace. "To steal the existence of a real person… that person must die in the Dream World! Which can only happen if their real body is in the Dream World itself!"

"What?"

"Listen, April, it wasn't just a sub-dimension that was in that gallery… but Guertena, that brilliant man, actually created a portal into his own dreamscape, from the real world! But because Guertena was a Worldbuilder, one who can create their own fictional world and establish laws, his dreamscape could not be entered from anywhere else! It is no different than the Wonderland created by Alice… It is like a dreamscape that exists in the real world, and yet, it is still bound to dreams…" He pressed the Protoon to the chest of his cloak in a loving fashion.

"And now, April," Dark turned to her with evil eyes, "I know how to become real. I simply must bring a human into the Dream World and slay them. But first, I must-"

"EUH!" Sheila ran at Dennis and kicked him in the crotch. He threw his knife up in the air, and Sheila punched him away before he could grab it. Sheila spun both fists and bashed Sector W's cell open. "I praise thee, Sheila!" Fybi cheered.

"Ugh! I've no time!" Mr. Dark spun his vortex and began to warp.

"HEY!" Harvey grabbed his and Sally's yo-yos from the desk and threw them at the cloaked man. The yo-yos ended up sucked into the vortex, and Harvey spiraled in with them "Whooooaa!"

"HARVEY!" His friends cried when the portal shrunk and vanished.

Hall of Doors

"AAAH!" Harvey hit the grass ground when they rematerialized, and Mr. Dark shook the yo-yo strings off. "What are you doing?" He glared at the boy.

Harvey scrambled to his feet and looked around the strange jungle. "Where are we?!"

"This is the Hall of Doors of the Dream Realm. When you grabbed hold of me, you warped with me into the Subconscious Plane."

"The…The Dream Realm?!" Harvey filled with fear, remembering what Mr. Dark just confirmed.

"Yes…" The Dream Spirit hovered over the boy threateningly. Harvey backed up, afraid of becoming his sacrifice. "And the only way back is through my Protoon. How easy it would be to destroy you… and take your reality."

"W-Wait! I don't wanna be a dream person!" Harvey waved his hands in defense. "What if I dream I'm naked in school, but I'll never wake up?!"

"You'll find, boy, that even in reality, there are nightmares you can never wake up from." Mr. Dark raised a hand lit with purple lightning. "And your nightmare is JUST-"

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Harvey screamed at the top of his lungs when Mr. Dark blasted a powerful bolt of lightning through his chest. The smoke cleared and… Harvey was still in one piece.

"What?!" Mr. Dark yelped, looking at his hand. "Am I not able to hurt humans that come into the Dream World?"

"Heh! I guess your plan's a bust!" Harvey retorted. "But I wonder if I can hurt YOU! HEEEE-YAH!" He leapt to kick him in the eyes.

Mr. Dark popped a pink shield into being with his Protoon and bounced Harvey back. "No, I am able to touch you." He observed. "However… perhaps I cannot wound you. This could complicate things…" He stroked his scarf (his imaginary "chin"). "Urgh, I can't waste time with you. It doesn't matter to me if you die, but you're not the one I want to kill." With that, Mr. Dark flew a short way down and splashed into a portal on the starry river. Harvey hurried in that direction and saw the portal was labeled Mado no Nikki.

"If he's the only way back… then I have to follow him. Here goes!" With a determined look, Harvey dove into the portal.

Dimalanta Household

Nolan York, Yuki Crystal, and Crystal Wickens dressed in their casual attire since it was broad daylight, though their Sandmobile wasn't parked far down. Nolan rolled up to the front door of the house and knocked.

"MY TURN THIS TIME!" Inside the house, Mason and his mother, Yin, bolted up to the door and rammed each other, falling down dizzily. Yin reached an arm up, twisted the knob, and let it slide open.

"Are we… interrupting something?" Crystal asked regarding their position.

"Nah, it's just their routine." Nolan said. "Usually, Haru and Matt do it. Hello, Yin, Mason."

"Hey, Mr. York!" Mason got up first. "If you're looking for Dillon, he's at the treehouse."

"Good to hear. But we're actually here to see Haruka."

"Haru's down in the basement." Yin replied, standing up. "We set it up to be her own personal laboratory. She spends a lot of time down there when she's home lately."

"It may work in our favor." Nolan rolled in first; he had a few milk bottles on his lap. "We should only be a minute."

"So, how's the quest going?" Yuki asked as they followed.

"It's going well so far." Mason answered.

"After working so hard, he needs to stop by home once in a while!" Yin happily pinched her son's cheek. "Saving the world like the strong little man he is!"

"Moooom! You said not when we have people over!"

"Oh, relax, son, we're adults, we see this thing all the time!" Crystal giggled, twiddling her fingers at him.

The basement had tables and shelves lined with glasses one would see in science labs, filled with various liquids. Haruka wore a pair of goggles and rubber gloves as she lifted a tiny vial of blue, fizzing liquid by her face. "Hmmm…" She observed it closely.

"Set up your own secret meth lab?" She flinched at a semi-familiar voice, hearing thumping down the stairs when three people (and a wheelchair) were stomping down.

"Ho, Mr. York." Haruka pulled up her goggles. "No, I'm not making anything like that. Since I've become more adapt with my parasite powers, I figured it was safe for me to experiment with real chemicals. I'm getting a real jump start ahead of all the other college students!" She winked.

"Very impressive." Crystal said, viewing the bottles of potions. "But don't you also need a labcoat to work with this stuff?"

"No, if my antibodies can eat Fear Toxin or Candy Virus, they can survive… most of this."

"Haruka, I have something I need you to look at." Nolan set the milk bottles on an empty table and gave one to Haruka.

"To see if your milk expired?"

"It's not milk. We robbed those from some trucks and they contained a substance I don't recognize."

Haruka set a small rectangular glass on the table, opened the bottle, and used her bending to make a small drop of the milk float out. It had a greenish shade to the white. "Well, it definitely isn't real milk. …" Haruka put the drop on her tongue and pulled it back.

"Don't do that!!" Yuki shouted. "Even Nolan said a taste test was a bad idea!"

Haruka held up a finger, implying 'wait.' She let the drop dissolve on her tongue, the taste spread. "It tastes… not bad. I'll make my antibodies eat it in case there are damaging effects."

"These bottles were being shipped to local stores before we stole them." Nolan explained. "Clearly, they were meant to be drunk by people. But if it were to poison or kill them right away, I'm sure news would get out and prevent anymore customers."

"And yet, it's definitely toxic enough for me to poisonbend." Haruka bent another drop out and put it on the small glass. "The question is, what's inside it?" Haruka slid the glass under a microscope and began to observe its cellular structure. "Hmmm…"

"Could you tell us what's in it?" Crystal asked.

"I dunno, you might not understand me. Are you a doctor or an engineer?"

"Er… They can be one in the same!" The witch flushed.

"No they cannot." Haruka remarked, still focused tight on the substance. "But it does contain milk's properties like casein… but I'm seeing other molecules that… I don't recognize." Haruka went to grab a book on compounds. "It's in here somewhere, I'm sure of it." She began to skim pages.

"Well, if you don't mind, we need to go out and patrol." Nolan said. "Call us if you find out."

As they were coming out of the basement, they saw Matthew Dimalanta in the midst of a phone call. "What?! You're kidding!" He whipped around in panic and noticed Team Sandman. "Nolan, good, you're here! Jeremiah's daughter's been kidnapped by GUN!"

"Kidnapped?!"

"Not just her, but her friends, too. Kami saw it all happen at the park."

"Tell them we're on our way over!" The heroes rushed out of the house.

"Jeremiah, Nolan said they're going to the park to help." Matt said into the phone. "No, he didn't say if he knew anything—I don't know what this is about either."

"MATTHEW!" Yin raced in from the kitchen. "Marine just called from Washington—Sheila and her friends were kidnapped by a giant crab!"

"SHEILA?!" Mason exclaimed.

"What's all the yelling about up there?!" Haruka called.

"WE'RE BEING INVADED BY ALIEN CRABS!" Mason screamed. "We gotta go to the treehouse!"

"I can't right now, I'm doing something! Just get the others and go!"

"A-Alright! Later, Mom and Dad!" Mason raced out of the house.

"Ugh… This is stressing me out." Haruka sighed, placing a hand on her forehead. "How do I know what I'm looking for in this book… Who would know… ugh…"

Mado no Nikki

Harvey came out the other side of the portal, finding himself in a pine tree forest. "Where did he go…" Harvey asked himself as he began to wander around. There was a red Aztec monkey in the sky and a distant donging of a bell. Harvey explored the forest for several minutes, seeing many pink and purple drooling ghosts. He had never been in the Dream World before, but from what he could make of it, it was really weird and creepy.

"Hehn hehn hehn…" came a weak laugh from a familiar high voice. Harvey looked left and gasped at seeing Spongebob, with two of those drooling ghosts attached to his head. "You guys feel like balloons made of squishy tarter sauce…"

"Spongebob!" Harvey raced up to him. He used his bladed yo-yos to chop the drool of the ghosts, scaring them into fleeing. Spongebob shook the drool off himself.

"Now, that wasn't very nice!" Spongebob said.

"Spongebob, we've all been captured by Plankton! Your real body is aboard his ship, and he's got Jessie and the Lights, too."

"Oh, no! Wait, who are you again?"

"My name's Harvey, from Sector W. I tried to grab onto Mr. Dark, but I got sucked into the Dream World with him. I need to find Mr. Dark and make him take me back."

"Well, then I'll help you!" the sponge proclaimed happily.

"No, you should wake up and help the others."

"But who will be here to help you? If you're stuck in the Dream World, then you're more trapped than they are."

"M-Maybe, but…but I'm worried about them."

"Spongebob NEVER leaves a friend alone! I'm not going back without you! I'm sure your friends will be fine, as long as they have each other."

"I guess if they have Sheila…" Harvey looked away for a moment. "Augh, alright, you can help me. You are a Bubble Dreamer… whatever that is. W—WAIT A SEC! Spongebob, Sheila's trapped in a Western dreamscape! She needs a Bubble Dreamer to escape, but they're keeping Jessie from saving her!"

"One of Jessie's friends is trapped? Then I'll go save her first!" Spongebob raised his bubble wand proudly. "I'll be back for you soon!"

"YOU'RE NOT going anywhere, Squarebob!" André flew down as a band of Hoodlums surrounded the two, guns aimed.

"Who's the talking fly?" Harvey asked.

"The name's André Black! I'm the boss of these Hoodlums, see? And by the order of Mr. Dark, you twerps are under arrest!"

"You know Mr. Dark? Where is he? I need him for something."

"You won't get the chance! Shoot him, Marvin!"

One of the Hoodmongers from behind Harvey shot him in the back. The bullet phased through and left no wound. "What the-?!" André yelped.

"I'm from the real world!" Harvey retorted, stomping up to the fly. "You can't hurt me!" He smacked André.

The Black Lum rubbed the sore spot… then, out of curiosity, he lightly poked Harvey in the nose. "No, but we can touch you normally." He smirked. "Hoodlums, GRAB THEM!"

Spongebob blew some Bubble Torpedoes to knock out some Hoodlums. "Let's get outta here!" He grabbed Harvey's arm and stormed through the other Hoodlums, getting away from the crowd. They saw two green polygonal rectangles standing next to each other and ran between them, warping to a room where purple and cyan carpets were lain around the floor, designed like African masks. The field was also within a ring of spikes.

"Hurry up, we have to lock them up someplace!" The Hoodlums were appearing from the gate they just passed through.

"Crud, where do we go?" Harvey asked panickingly.

"Let's ask that red block for advice!" Spongebob pointed at a spinning red block with a hole in its center. He pulled Harvey with him as they ran to the block, and warped upon touching it.

"WHOA!" Harvey flinched at the event. They ended up in a bright red maze with walls that had wobbling black dot designs, under a red sky. Harvey's eyes were already burning from the sight. "Where are we now?"

"I dunno, but we can lose 'em in here!" The two kept running, turning several maze corners and getting their selves lost among the redness. They heard the Hoodlums shouting in the distance, likely getting lost in their search for them.

"Darn it, we'll never find Mr. Dark at this rate." Harvey said, still squinting his eyes. "Spongebob, don't you know if there's another way for me to leave the Dream World?"

"Mmm, I don't know, Harvey. I didn't even think it was possible for someone to physically enter the Dream World. But don't worry, I'll find a way for you, yet! Ooo, maybe that bird lady knows!" He saw a humanoid woman with a bird's face, brown hair in pigtails, casual clothes, and crazy purple eyes.

"Spongebob, don't-!" Harvey tried to stop him, but Spongebob raced up to the Toriningen excitedly.

"AAAAH!" The bird lady sprouted wings and talons, grabbed Spongebob in said salons, and soared away. "HAAARVEEEY!"

"SPONGEBOB!" Harvey threw both his yo-yos to wrap around Spongebob and be carried up with him. He tugged the strings and tried to yank Spongebob free, but the latter ended up dropping his wand and bubble bottle. "AAAAAHH-!" The yo-yos loosened and caused Harvey to plummet without his friend. Within the maze, there was a large red, one-eyed monster that looked like a toilet (it had a big mouth on its 'seat'). He fell toward this monster, who opened its mouth and swallowed Harvey inside.

"OW!" Harvey landed on a footprint path within a black space. More of these toilet, seat-mouth monsters were sitting around, and they had different colors. They looked dimwitted and stood still. Harvey brushed his shorts off and ran across the footprints. "Darn it… now I'm all sorts of lost. Who the heck would dream a world like this, anyway?"

Snow World

Madotsuki entered a purple door in the Nexus. It led to a beautiful snowy plain, populated with coniferous trees and igloos. It was Madotsuki's favorite of the 12 worlds she dreamed about. She was only a little cold, but it was pleasant. Her boots left prints in the snow, but they would always get filled up by the endless falling flakes. And yet, the snow never grew deeper than it normally was.

Most of the igloos were empty, and were only small enough for her to crawl into. She wandered the tundra in the hopes of finding company. Then, she encountered a Toriningen. But unlike the lunatic Toriningen that carried her away to an inescapable, isolated island, this one was friendly. The smiling, kind-looking bird woman led Madotsuki another direction across the snowfield, past some trees to another igloo.

Madotsuki crawled in this igloo. There was a girl with short brown hair, a gray shirt, black pants, and blue shoes. She was sitting and fast asleep. Madotsuki didn't recognize her, so she called her Kamakurako (Igloo Child). All she did was sleep in this igloo. Although, there was something about her Madotsuki thought was… familiar.

Madotsuki wandered the snows some more. She came across a rather short woman of white skin, dark blue hair, and a pale blue kimono. With her sleeved hand over her mouth and nose, and her frigid appearance, there wasn't an ounce of heat about her. She was the Yuki-onna, a snow woman from Japanese folklore, which Madotsuki took an interest in. And when Madotsuki touched her, she donned this frigid appearance. She was very cold, and the snow fell like a blizzard. She wandered the wilderness, desperate to find a means of warming herself. Then, as if by good fortune, she found a bed in the middle of some trees. She climbed under the covers to warm up.

Madotsuki woke up on a stairway leading deep into the abyss, surrounded by a forest of ghostly hands that rose up from nowhere. Madotsuki walked down this stairwell, not knowing where it would go. The stairs seemed to descend into infinity… but they eventually brought Madotsuki into a furnace. A huge burning flame was bursting from the door ahead. Using the power of her Yuki-onna, Madotsuki unleashed a blizzard that dispersed the flame. Madotsuki took off the Yuki-onna and entered a sewer library. There was a blob monster made of poop, and had a large mouth. When she touched the monster, her very hair transformed into poo.

"DAAH!" A sewer hatch on the ceiling suddenly burst open. A boy with green eyes and wearing a black ushanka fell in and looked up at her. He looked about 7 years old. As Harvey Harper helped himself up, he whiffed the awful smell. "EEEWWWW! Is your hair made of POOP?! That is so GROSS!"

"…" Madotsuki opened the window on her shirt, pulled out a bubble with a cat icon, and slapped it over herself to become a neko. The poop icon was stored in her window. "Meow meow." She waved her paw at Harvey before turning to leave.

"Huh? W-Wait, come back." When Harvey tried to follow, Madotsuki equipped her bike and pedaled away faster. He chased her through a seemingly endless sewer corridor. His legs were still tired from running around that maze. "Huff… I wonder if she… knows her way around here…"

Madotsuki climbed a ladder out of the sewer, to an island in the center of a vast, Pink Ocean. There were colorful balloons adrift about the sea. To cross this ocean, Madotsuki transformed into a frog. She dove in and began to swim. Harvey witnessed this when he made it out of the sewer. This girl appeared more odd by the minute. However, there was a strange energy he felt about her… he had to follow her. Harvey jumped in the Pink Sea and swam after, but he proved to be less proficient in the act.

Madotsuki resurfaced on an island of colorful tipis, which looked like giant party hats. After taking off her Frog Effect, she approached a house designed like three tipis. She turned the doorknob and entered. Inside was a very pretty, pink room with a green carpet, a desk, a bookshelf, and a bed. The house's resident was a girl with blonde hair in a ponytail, a green shirt, brown skirt, and red shoes. She was half turned away from Mado, with narrowed blue eyes. The girl didn't speak and Mado didn't know her name. So she called her Poniko, or "Ponytail Girl."

When Madotsuki approached, Poniko walked the opposite way. Mado got on her right, but Poniko turned the other way. She always acted like this when Madotsuki visited. But Mado thought she looked pretty, and an ideal friend she could have. She wanted to get the girl to acknowledge her. Madotsuki donned a Long Hair Effect. She got in front of Poniko and brushed her new long hair with her hand, smiling. Poniko turned away. Madotsuki changed into blonde hair and tried to show it off. Poniko turned again.

Madotsuki became a cat. "Meow meow." She said. Poniko still ignored. The ponytail girl heard Mado transform again. Then, three Mini Mados climbed up her body, resting on her shoulders and head. Two of them sat on Poniko's feet, another swung on her ponytail… but she still didn't acknowledge them. The Mini Mados jumped off and reformed as she changed into a frog. "Ribbit…ribbit…" She began to hop circles around Poniko.

Magician's House

Ales Mansay propped his head on his hand in boredom. Madotsuki hopped around Poniko as a frog, turned her body boneless and jellied as she wobbled, then made herself faceless. "Yaaaawn… Come on, we don't have all day. We still need more Lums…"

Poniko's House

Madotsuki put on a blindfold while standing in front of Poniko. And when she took it off, she was once again facing the ponytailed's backside. Harvey watched all of this through the house's window. "Boy, she must really want her attention…"

Madotsuki frowned and stopped using Effects. She approached the room's lightswitch and turned it off. The room turned black with neon lines appearing on the edges of all the objects. Mado turned the light back on, restoring the normal pink colors. Turned it off, switched to night mode. Turned it on, back to day. Turned off, turned on. Madotsuki gave up trying to get her attention. She pinched her cheek and dispersed into bubbles, waking up.

Harvey decided to enter the house. "Excuse me, are you a real girl? Like, someone who's dreaming? Because I need help getting back to the real world; I'm actually a real person who… got trapped here."

From an outside perspective, that made no sense, Harvey thought. Poniko looked at him from sideways vision and turned away. "Hey, I'm talking to you. Is something wrong? And what was with that other girl just now? Hey." Harvey turned the lights off, turned on, lights off, lights on, lights—

A FLASH, Poniko transformed into a black blob with a white, ghostly oozing face. Eyes appeared on the pictures, the wardrobe, the window, and the carpet, and the room was trembling. Harvey gazed at the monster with fear in his emerald eyes. Uboa's face swirled like a portal and sucked Harvey inside.

The child felt his feet sink into a white, marsh-like liquid. He was stranded in an ocean of white ooze, the sky pitch-black. And in the distance, the size of a mountain, a creature more hideous than anything Harvey had ever seen. It was black like the sky, but the only indication of a body were its eyes, tongue, and hair, all the color of blood. It had multiple arms that were each gripping a hill.

Harvey couldn't bring himself to move or to think. He didn't understand anything about this, but it was all so hideous, he didn't want to. A portal materialized above him, and Mr. Dark appeared. "YOU! How DARE you try to interfere—and wander in HERE of all places!" The cloaked mage grabbed Harvey, pulled him in another vortex, and reappeared over a lone barren space within a forest. He dropped Harvey there. "BOTH of you will stay put!" He warped again.

"Harvey!" The boy jumped at the familiar voice and turned around.

"Spongebob?"

"Thank goodness you're okay. What happened to you? You look like you've seen a million ghosts."

"N-No, it's… It was something really disturbing."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But Harvey, I don't think we're going anywhere. I lost my bubbles, and these trees are too thick to squeeze through or climb over. But if I wake up, maybe I'll appear in my own Dream World if I fall back-"

"No, don't! Plankton's not letting Jessie go to sleep, and if he knows what you're up to, he won't let you, either. He's probably only letting you sleep now 'cause he doesn't know."

"But what if Mr. Dark tells him?"

"Yeah, he might. …Hang on, when Mr. Dark brought me here, he tried to kill me so he could steal my reality. But when he couldn't do that, he said something about wanting to kill someone else. Then he flew into this world."

"That could only mean he's targeting the owner of this dreamscape. But who could that be?"

Harvey thought for a second. "A few minutes ago, I was following this girl around to ask if she could help. But she pinched her cheek and vanished. I guess she woke up."

"But if she's the dreamer of this world, we need to save her!"

"I know. But first we need to get out of here…"

Dressrosa

Cheren, Carol Masterson, and Sugar flew a S.C.A.M.P.E.R. to the island and parked on the royal palace's courtyard. "The town looks like it's calmed down." Cheren noted. "This place seems pretty empty, too."

"No it isn't." Carol informed, indicating another ship a few yards away. Three men who were guarding the ship decided to approach them. They wore dark gray uniforms.

"Wait, I know them! They're Mom's sons!"

"Your older brothers?" Sugar asked.

"No, I mean—Carol's sons."

"Do I look old enough to be their mom? ?" Carol remarked.

"No I mean—AUGH!"

"Hm hm, chill, Cheren, we know who you mean!" Sugar said as Carol giggled.

"Look, Walt! It's Cheren!" Larry pointed. "We shared a bed with him! Ow!" Walt smacked him.

"Pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Uno." The eldest son spoke in a sinister tone. "Can we inquire as to why you chose to revisit this castle?"

"We found out Doflamingo had something that belongs to us, and I'm here to reclaim it." Cheren said with a glare. "Is your mom here, by any chance?"

"Yes." Igner smiled dimwittedly. "Miss Morgan asked Mommy to get something from Flamingo's office."

"What if it's Azelf… or better yet, her Spirit Ball?"

"I'll take you to his office!" Sugar yelled, running ahead while the two followed.

Doflamingo's office was large and hollow, except for the desk placed before a great window where the sun shone in. Above the entrance, a massive painting of the flamingo-feathered president hung, his grin big and bright like the original. The doors creaked open as Mom walked in. She got to her knees and searched the drawers of the desk, which faced the window.

"You would think something like a 'Spirit Ball' would stand out." She thought aloud. Mom was unaware that another being snuck into the office before the doors closed on their own. "Come on, where did the feathery bastard keep the damn thing?" The shadowed being was getting closer. "Unless he hid it someplace else… or if Morgan decided to send me on a wild goose—AAAAH!"

Mom was stabbed in the hip by an Anti Guy. The black Shy Guy had an adorable, blank expression common among his kinfolk. He extracted the knife as Mom gripped the wound, forced to keep her body propped with the other hand. The Shy Guy also stabbed through the cast she was given on account of her snapped back. "Something is 'wild' all right, but it isn't a goose." The familiar voice spoke. Mom looked at the ceiling, glaring at President Morgan's staticky image. "I'm afraid it was you all along, Carol."

"Morgan! What the devil are you—cough!" She winced from pain.

"You shouldn't have thought you could keep the secret from me. Bringing Cheren to do your dirty work. Your faith was in the wrong person, anyway. But now… I'm returning the favor."

The Anti Guy raised his knife for the final blow on the 142-year-old president.

Mado no Nikki; Dense Woods

Harvey whirled both bladed yo-yos around while Spongebob stayed ducked, but they made no progress in chopping the trees that encased them. "Grrrrr! If these stupid yo-yos could chop up an Ice Titan, then why can't they do it to a bunch of TREEEEEEEEEES!" He mindlessly flailed the yo-yos about… Spongebob's limbs were cut off. "Er… oops."

"It's okay, Harvey. I regenerate!" The sponge sprouted new arms and legs. "Still, I don't think there's any way to get out of here."

Harvey sighed, calming his anger. "I might have… one more idea. Can you keep a secret?"

"Ooooo!" Spongebob made a creepy curious expression. "A seeeeeeecreeeeeet?"

"Er, yeah… I was keeping it secret, but I figured my friends would find out eventually, so… Just stand behind me." Harvey stood silent for a while and remembered the horrible monster he saw moments ago. He never felt more afraid of anything, the mere memory haunted him. However, Harvey's fear of the horror was stronger than that anyone else would feel. He concealed the emotions… but now he would let them burst. He would unleash them in the form of… a mega laser.

"AAAAAAHH!" A powerful beam burst from his lungs, and he swept it across the trees to burn them down. Harvey stopped himself, already burnt out after using his powers for the first time in ages. "Huff…huff… I'm an emotionbender."

Spongebob stared awestruck at him. "Wow… that's a nice secret."

"Yah, we're pretty rare. Now's our chance, let's run!" They raced over the steaming tree stumps and found their way to a street road that seemed to cut through the forest. There were lamp posts giving indication to the road. The duo took the left route of the street, hoping it could lead to a town where they could ask for help. It was beginning to rain. The kids came to a stop before a road block. There was a bloodied corpse lain before the block. It had green skin, black hair, a brown shirt, and blue pants.

Harvey and Spongebob needed a moment to mourn the stranger. Harvey took off his hat and bowed his head. He may not know this man, but there was still reason to be sad. "You really enjoy poking your nose into other peoples' dreams, don't you." They flinched and whipped around. Mr. Dark glared at them, his form made more terrifying by the night and rainfall.

"Spongebob, it's him!" Harvey yelled.

"Mister Dark," Spongebob made a karate pose, "prepare to feel the power of the Sponginator-" Mr. Dark zapped the sponge with purple lightning, scorching him with soot. "Ow." He gasped hoarsely.

"Impudent child. If you want me to take you out of the Dream Realm, I will gladly do it."

"Not so fast!" Harvey declared. "I know what you're up to, Dark! You're trying to hurt that girl! The one who made this dream world! And I bet you're the one crudding it up, too!"

"What are you implying?" His yellow eyes narrowed.

"That ugly monster, the blonde girl turning into a blob, and what about this guy?! You killed him, didn't you!"

Mr. Dark flashed lightning, scaring Harvey. "How DARE you… For your information, I have no intention of ruining this place more than it already is. That unsightly monster, this person lying dead… these things have been around the moment Madotsuki dreamt them."

"Madotsuki? Is that her name?"

"Yes. And sad as it is, her dreams are her only escape. It is her means of escaping her fears… but it has failed. Let me ask you, have you ever read those stories where the author inserts their self into the story, as an actual character?"

"What about 'em?"

"You see, a story is like the author's sort of dreamscape, and their means to 'insert' their selves in the story is their way of envisioning their selves as… someone better. They imagine their selves in a better world and portray their selves in a positive light, regardless of a few minor flaws they may give their selves. But it is the major flaws they choose to ignore, the parts about themselves that they wish to forget. Madotsuki uses her dreams for similar purposes. However, no matter how much she dreams, her fears continue to torment her. She wanders endlessly, only to find no escape. Even though she is a Bubble Dreamer, the Exit Portals will not welcome her. She is trapped."

"Well, even if she is, what's the point of trying to hurt her? You're only making her dreams scarier."

"There is no harm I can do to her that is worse than anything that has been done to her already. As a matter of fact, I am trying to SAVE that girl!"

"BULL crud! It looks to me like you and your bugs are here causing trouble! What do you know about this girl, anyway?! How is any of this YOUR business?!"

"DON'T TAKE that tone with me!" The dark man thundered. "I have known Madotsuki since she was little. I bore firsthand to her suffering. She created me when she was three years old! I am her Imaginary Friend!"