Sakura | 桜

"Am I crazy? I'm starting to feel like I'm crazy." I ask the question mainly of myself. The grass behind my back makes no answer, and neither do Thdwee or Dweebert. I nestle my gloves farther behind my head and keep watching the pure-white clouds high in the sky above. "I mean, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. And that's... basically what I've been doing these past few weeks."

"Dwee," Dweebert assures me. I sit up to look at him. He's knitting a bright blue blanket with an oversized pair of knitting needles (actually a pair of cooking chopsticks he begged off of Chef Kawasaki the other day). Not far behind him, near a blooming cherry tree, Thdwee is chasing a red-and-orange-winged butterfly as it flutters between wildflowers.

I watch Dweebert as he clacks his 'needles' together for a moment, and then turn to face the sea. As always, it is an empty, glassy expanse. The waves wash onto the empty beach that, just a few months ago, was a center of frenzied activity. But ever since the Waddle Dees left, it's been back to being calm and usually empty, aside from the occasional Cappy fisherman. It's not warm enough to swim yet, so there's not really any beachgoers.

I sigh and curl my gloves into loose fists, and shove them between my feet towards the ground. "I don't know why I bother coming out here. There's nothing to see. The Waddle Dees will come back when they're ready... if they ever come back—which, I'm sure they will, eventually." My words are hardly convincing even to myself anymore. "Me waiting here won't make them show up any sooner."

The air goes quiet aside from the warm Earlspring breeze stirring the grass and letting loose a flurry of petals from the natural cherry tree behind us. "Dwee," Dweebert says a moment later.

"Yeah," I mutter. I flop onto my side, my gloves still held in fists against my tummy. "I don't know. Maybe I should give up. I just... I feel like... I don't know."

Thdwee hurries to my side a moment later, holding his paws out to me. I sit up and look at what he's got. "Awh, you got the butterfly to land on you?" I say gently. He nods proudly. "That's so cool, Thdwee. But be careful, okay? Butterflies' wings are covered in tiny scales, and if you touch them it might not be able to fly anymore." He nods again, serious now. I glance down from his eyes back to the insect. "It's really pretty. I've seen tons of butterflies around here, but never one just like this. It's very unique, huh?"

Thdwee tilts his head at me in a 'smile.' The butterfly flutters its wings a couple of times and then takes off towards the sea.

"There it goes," I smile. "Bye-bye, butterfly."

Thdwee goes up on his tiptoes and waves eagerly after it, reminding me very much of Bandanna when he was younger. The butterfly continues flapping towards the sea, until eventually it seems to simply vanish. I blink a couple of times in mild surprise, but shrug it off a moment later. It probably just flew out of sight. It's a really small critter, after all.

I glance up at the sky again. It's about noon. "Maybe we should go grab some lunch at the castle," I suggest gently. Thdwee looks over at me and eagerly nods.

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees calmly from behind.

I turn to glance over at him. "Oh, nuh-uh. I'm not letting you try to eat again, mister. It took us hours to get the jam daubed off your face without stretching your yarn the last time you tried eating."

"Dwee," he agrees, same tone as always.

Thdwee grabs my glove and jumps up and down. I grin and stand up. "Alright, alright, let's g—" Just then, something sparkles in the corner of my eye.

Out towards the sea.

Frowning, I look up from Dweebert and out at the ocean. Nothing seems different. It's still just the calm sea, the waves breaking on the shore below with distant splashes, the sun sparkling on the water.

I must have just noticed the sun, I tell myself. But something... feels different.

Thdwee keeps jumping up and down, latched onto my glove still. I gently tug it out of his grip. "Just a second, Thdwee. I think... I think I might have seen something."

Thdwee rolls his eyes and flops on his back to watch me. I keep my eyes on the ocean, staring at the horizon.

Nothing happens. But it feels like something's going to, any second.

Another glint. I release the breath I didn't even know I was holding. That definitely wasn't the sun on the ocean. It was definitely the sun reflecting off of something else.

The question is just what.

I take a couple steps closer to the cliff, my heart pounding. It might be the flagpole atop the crow's nest of the tallest ship. It had a little brass bulb on top that might catch the sun like that. It might be the Waddle Dees. They might be home.

The glint happens again, and then again, and then suddenly, it is constant.

Something is poking over the far horizon.

My breath catches in my throat. "Something's out there," I manage to wheeze out in my excitement. Thdwee pops up in surprise and stands beside me, squinting as hard as he can to see past the sudden shine. Dweebert sets aside his knitting and comes to stand next to me in a slow, silent lumber.

We all stand there, staring, as a flag and then a mast creep over the horizon.

I let out a joyous squeal and grab Thdwee's paws in my gloves, spinning him around at arm's length. "They're back! They're back! They're finally home!" I drop Thdwee gently in the grass, his face painted with silent laughter. "Oh, my gosh, they're finally back," I giggle, my smile so big it hurts. I turn to face the sea again. "Look! There's the second mast!"

A few seconds pass, and Dweebert raises his paw. "Dwee!"

"The third!" I squeal. Thdwee starts running circles behind us, careful not to get too close to the cliff's edge. "All the ships made it safely back! They're all here! They're all fine!" My eyes burn, and I blink quickly to keep from crying. I don't watch to have trouble seeing for a single instant. I want to be able to watch it all. I start to do an awkward sort of happy dance, twirling around and running crazily through the grass like Thdwee. "They're home! They're all safe and they're here and they're home!"

"Dwee," Dweebert suddenly interrupts. I pause in my dancing, breathless, and follow the line of his pointing paw.

And then excitement fades just a tiny bit. "Four?" I say in confusion. I slowly step to Dweebert's side, squinting at the ocean again. "That's not right. There's supposed to be three."

But sure enough, there are now four glints on the ocean, one of them taller than the rest and now, quite obviously, a mast with a crow's nest.

Shaking my head in bewilderment, I reach into my cape for the spyglass Meta gave me last week. "Maybe... they found more of them, back in the Origin, and persuaded them to come back with them," I suggest lamely as I pull the telescope out to its full length. "Well, if that's the Saint Bert of Dwe—I mean, the flagship, we'll be able to tell by its flag. They put a Waddle Dee on it, after all."

"Dwee," Dweebert agrees. Thdwee hurries up to stand by my side again, his face about as confused as mine must be right now.

I hold the spyglass up to my eye and blink past the glint. "There's a flag," I say, able to make the flapping rectangle out past the shine. "But it's... the wrong color..."

A cloud passes over the sun, and I can see.

The flag is a pale blue, not the bright yellow of the Waddle Dees' banner. And rather than a Waddle Dee, it bears a symbol I've never seen before—a white five-pointed star, sharp instead of rounded like the Warp Stars of the Star Warriors' emblem, and emblazoned on it in sapphire—

"The letter N," I state in confusion. "Their flag is a white star with a blue, fancy letter N."

I slowly lower the spyglass from my face. The rest of the flagship is slowly coming into view. "The rest of the new Planet Popstar," I murmur. Thdwee suddenly grasps onto my arm, scared. "Someone from out there has found us."

A thousand worried thoughts go through my mind in a rush. Do I stay here and try to figure out more about what's coming for us? Could that possibly do any good when we have maybe thirty minutes to an hour to prepare, anyway? Should I let Meta know? Should I let Arthur know?

"Dwee," Dweebert states, yanking me out of my frightened, frantic ponderings. I jolt the spyglass up to my eye again to look at the ship, which has fully crested the horizon at this point.

"It's got... a really weird figurehead," I say. "It's like... some weird sort of gangly creature with long limbs on top, and a fish on the bottom, and a crown on its head. And it's got long hair down to its waist covering most of its front." I scrunch my nose up in mild disgust as the disfigured thing. "Why would you want to—"

But then I see a creature on the bow of the ship up above it.

A sour taste grows in the back of my mouth. The thing is massive; it's got to be something like six feet tall if I can see it this well from here. Most of its body is covered in white cloth with sapphire blue and gold trimmings. It has a torso similar to the figurehead, but this thing is even worse. Its lower limbs are even longer and ganglier than its upper ones. Who knows if the thing even has feet at the end of those things; I can't tell from here.

I shudder in fear and look upwards. It has a pale, pale face with tiny eyes, a small, tight mouth, and a large, bulbous nose right in the center. Above its eyes are two slashes of brown hair, and then on top is a frightful mess of lighter brown hair.

And protruding from either side of its head are long, pointy ears, bare of hair or fur, as unnervingly pale as its face.

"Star Power help us," I breathe in terror. But just when it seems like it can't get any worse, the thing frowns and pulls a spyglass out of its pocket. It centers the object on me. And just as I get ready to drop to the grass, afraid to be spotted, it pulls the spyglass away from its eye and opens its mouth in a strange, small farce of a grin.

I scream and drop the spyglass. "It has a mouth full of teeth! Tiny, sharp teeth!" I grab up the spyglass and shove it in my cape, and then yank up Thdwee. "Dweebert, I'm going to get help from the outpost; hopefully Meta or Forest'll be around. Get back to the castle as quick as you can, and find somewhere to hide." Dweebert nods, and I spread my wings and take off with a hard, stiff downstroke, holding Thdwee carefully and tightly in my gloves.

It takes only a couple of minutes to get to town, but it feels like far too long. I all but crash-land on the porch of the outpost, and gently let Thdwee go once I've regained my balance. "Thdwee, go to Kawasaki's and don't come back out until I or one of the others come get you, okay?" He nods, bright blue eyes full of fear, and takes off sprinting into town.

Meanwhile, I throw the door open and rush into the outpost's front room. "There's an emergency," I gasp out past heavy breaths, only to feel my heart sink the instant I see who's manning the desk.

A bored-as-Shotzo Sir Nonsurat raises an eyebrow at me from where he sits doodling at the desk. "What? Ran out of pretty things to stare at all day?"

I growl and take a 'ready' pose without really thinking about it. This guy always puts me on edge. He seems convinced that because I'm a girl, I must be a frilly airhead who cares about nothing serious. "Sir, I need to speak to Sir Arthur posthaste." Forcing myself out of the 'ready' pose, I stand at attention instead, hoping I can bureaucrat my way into this. "There is an unfolding situation which requires an instant and immediate response."

Nonsurat rolls his eyes. "Oh boy. A real emergency. No more silly romance novels to page through, then."

"Grrr," I let slip from the back of my throat without meaning to, trying to keep a neutral expression on my face. I can't even admit I do actually like romance novels to this guy; he'd just take it as extra evidence of my useless femininity. I force my voice to calm and try one more time. "I'd appreciate it if you'd quit joking around; there's a real emergency going on—"

The door to Arthur's office suddenly opens a tiny bit, and his unmasked, un-helmeted head pops out. "Who is it, Sir Nonsurat?" he asks at first, only for a huge smile to paint his face a moment later. "Ah. Lady Dee. A pleasure, as always." He opens the door the rest of the way and steps out. "My, my; don't you look worried. Whatever is the problem, dear lady?"

"Ships," I say. "Four ships, coming towards the beach. They'll be ashore within the hour. We have to prepare—"

"Ah, the Waddle Dees have finally returned, eh?" he interrupts, smile growing even brighter. "I'm afraid I'm far too busy to go and welcome them—you can go in my stead, alright, dear lady? Give them a proper welcome on behalf of the Army." He comes over and places a gentle, somehow-condescending glove on my shoulder. "You may be a civilian, but I trust you to represent us well all the same."

I politely shrug off his glove, shaking my head fiercely all the while. "No, Sir, not the Waddle Dees. It's... someone—something else." I shudder and feel sick, thinking of the pale, giant, toothy creature I spotted. And if there's four ships, there must be dozens, even hundreds of the things. "Something I've never seen before. We have to respond—"

"Ah, so Cappy fishing boats or some such. Again, I'm sure you can handle a proper welcome." He pats my head twice with a fond smile. "I appreciate your loyalty, Lady Dee, in reporting this to me. But really, you underestimate yourself. I'm sure you can handle this just fine." He pulls his glove back once more and gives me a condescending, weak salute. "You have your marching orders. Be a dear and run along, now; I must get back to work, I'm afraid. No time to chat further at the moment, but perhaps sometime soon we can finally have that tea I keep having to put off."

I just stare after him in shock as he turns away and reenters his office, preparing to close the door behind him.

But then someone else steps through the door behind me.

"Miss," Sword Knight says coldly as he marches stiffly past me. I incline my head to him politely without taking my eyes off Arthur, still positively seething. Sword stops just short of the desk and stomps one foot into attention. "Sah Ahthah. Me and the lads 'ave finished the ditch you sent us to dig over on the other side of town, just behind the restaurant."

"Ah, good," Arthur assures him, voice suddenly rather bored. "Please proceed to fill it back in; I've realized I want it dug elsewhere." I could almost swear I see a smug glint in his eye. He gets some kind of twisted joy out of running Meta's men ragged doing pointless tasks; I'm certain now. "You have your marching orders," he adds with a flippant wave of his glove, clearly shooing the lead Meta-Knight. "Go on, now, Sir Sword. Thank you."

"Pleasure," Sword grunts through a clenched jaw, and spins on his foot, gloves in tight fists, and heads for the door in a march that borders on a stomp.

Meta. I'm not sure where he is right now, but I know who I'm sure has a direct link to him somewhere, even if he doesn't want Sir Arthur to know about it. I dig through my brain, trying to remember the nickname the Meta-Knights always used for Meta when I was living around and among them as little Bucky.

"Wolfsbane," I suddenly sputter out. Arthur freezes in shutting the door again, confusion on his face, and Sword pauses, halfway out the door. I spin to face Sword, pleading he'll listen to me even though we're still fairly cold towards each other and he has no idea I used to be Buccaneer Waddle Dee. "Please, please tell Wolfsbane that Bucky needs to meet him at the bridge straightaway. Wolfsbane needs to know; it's an emergency."

"Wolfsbane?" Sir Arthur asks in amused confusion. "What on Star World is she talking about?"

"I dunno, Sah," Sword says lamely. "Must be some stupid girl game." With that, he walks out and shuts the door roughly behind him.

Arthur chuckles warmly, the sound directed at my back. "Ah, dear Lady Dee. To be as young and innocent as you once more." And with that, the door behind me goes closed again, too.

I just stare at the door to the outside for a long moment, until Nonsurat speaks again.

"Must suck, being a useless, weak little female nobody ever takes seriously," he says mockingly.

As my mouth fills with the sharp taste of fury, I hurry out the door and all but slam it behind myself.

Sword hasn't gone far. "Wait!" I shout out after him, but he doesn't stop or turn around. "Sword, I said—"

He holds one glove out to the side and punches up at the air twice as he walks away from me. I freeze. He points back towards me with his thumb, to the side of his head with his pointer finger, and then taps slightly up from there on his head three times before repeating the double punch to the air.

The old hand signals we created so Sailor and I could communicate with the others. All good. You, I hear, I understand, all good.

Basically, I hear you. I understand. I'll do what you said.

I sigh in relief and turn around. Spreading my wings, I take off again and hurry towards the tiny wooden footbridge at the lowest point of the valley between Cappy Town and the castle. If Sword really does tell him, Meta should be here within a few minutes.

Sword apparently had already told him even before I saw him outside the outpost, because when I arrive at the footbridge, I can see both Meta and Forest flying up, one on the wing and the other on his Warp Star.

The maskless Forest lands on the bridge an instant before Meta, and once again, his Warp Star shrinks itself down and affixes itself to his left shoulder guard as soon as he's dismounted. "Blossom! What's the matter? Meta got a weird Morse Code message on some doo'ickey inside 'is cape that said you needed 'im 'ere asap."

I land on the ground and turn my wings back into a cape, and quickly try to catch my breath. Meta lands next to Forest a moment later and starts doing the same. He gets his breath back even before I do.

"Ships," I gasp out right away. Both of the boys' faces take on a look of confusion. I swallow, and take a couple more quick, deep breaths. "Four ships... coming... towards the beach. They fly a flag... I've never seen before, and they have... strange creatures aboard."

Meta instantly goes tense, although Forest still mainly looks confused. "What sort of creatures?" Meta demands.

I have my breath back at this point, so it's easier to answer. "Giant, gangly, with long, awkward limbs and cloth over most of their bodies. Hair only on their heads, from what I could see. Mouths full of teeth." I shiver at the memory and clutch my gloves into fists. "Meta, they're at least three times our size; even Nonsurat would be less than half as tall the thing I saw."

"Okay, calm down," Meta waves at me gently, golden eyes gentle behind the mask. My eyes must flash in frustration, because he adds, "No, I believe you, and we're going to take this seriously. Panicking won't help, is all I'm getting at, Sakura."

I nod, the momentary anger quickly fading away. "You're right." I take a deep breath and start rocking on my heels, still anxious. "Sorry, I just—the things are hideous, like nothing I've ever seen before. I'm just... taken off guard."

Forest half snickers, though it's a weak sound. "Considering how many monsters you've seen, Blossom, that's saying something."

I roll my eyes and manage a tiny half-smirk. "To be fair, at least I'd seen or at least imagined spiders and dragons and stuff before facing those things. This is something out of an eldritch nightmare. It's like... its face was sort of like Nightmare's, same with its upper limbs. Besides that, it's literally like nothing I've ever seen before."

"Did you see any weapons?" Meta asks, keeping his voice calm. I can see in his brown-tinged eyes, though, that he's quite worried, too.

I shake my head, but then pause. "It had a scabbard at its side, so I'm guessing it has a sword. And they're in ships, so they might have cannons, for all we know."

"Swords and cannons. So I guess we can assume they at least have basic intelligence," Meta nods thoughtfully.

"Even the idiot monsters we fought early in the war could use swords and cannons, mate," Forest reminds him, his face slowly getting more worried as well. "That's not really a sign of intelligence."

"You have to remember, though, Nightmare is dead now," Meta points out.

"Doesn't mean all 'is monsters are."

"Their flag didn't look like anything Nightmare would make," I interject. "It was a pale blue background, and bore a white star with a sapphire N in the center."

Forest raises an eyebrow. "So they're at least semi-literate, or at least their flag-designer is."

"Very helpful, thank you, Sir," Meta jabs at him with a roll of his eyes, but neither the statement nor the gesture seem to bear any spite.

I'm suddenly struck by an odd thought. "Wait. What were you doing that Forest knew when Sword called for you to come meet me?"

Meta rolls his eyes, and Forest laughs. The blue one tells me, "This... gentleman, shall we rather loosely say, has taken to insisting upon bothering me as frequently as he possibly can."

"Oh, shove off, Mets; I know you appreciate the company. Can't tell me you don't get bored doing your Arthur-directed patrols all the time."

I smile to myself, glad to see them slowly but steadily getting along better again. Time heals all wounds, I guess. But then I remember the current situation, and my smile vanishes. "They're gonna be coming ashore within an hour, whether they're intelligent or not. What do we do?"

Meta takes a deep breath. "Well..." He glances over at Forest, and then over at me. "I say we run under the assumption that, at least, they understand the common language and are smart enough for basic discussion."

I shake my head, afraid. "What if they're not and they're just here to attack? We can't take dozens of these things—"

"We can't, but if anyone could, it'd be Kirby," Meta points out. "Besides, if they're here solely to attack, we'll probably know before they reach the shore. They'll probably start battering away at the shoreline with their cannons or arrows or something."

"That's a good point," Forest agrees. "So... what should we do for now?"

Meta tilts his head and closes his eyes for a moment in thought. He opens them seconds later, and turns them on our green friend. "Forest, you go get Kirby and Bandanna Dee. I'm assuming they're at his house or somewhere nearby; if you can't find them, send your Warp Star after them to fetch them. Bring them to the beach as soon as you can."

"On it," Forest agrees without question. He reaches up and taps his Warp Star badge twice, and it pops off his pauldron and grows to its full size. A moment later, he's zooming off in the general direction of the woods. Kirby's house is near the treeline.

"What about us?" I ask worriedly. "Do we just go straight to the beach?"

Meta Knight looks into space and exhales through pursed lips, obviously deep in thought. "...I wish I knew where my men were so I could go and get them."

"Can't you just page them the same way Sword paged you?" I question dubiously.

He shakes his head. "What Sword used is basically a last-ditch communication method, and unfortunately it only goes one way with our current set up. Arthur was smart enough to take all their walkie-talkies and whatnot. You lucked out that Sword's the one you ran into; he's the only one who can contact me this way other than Javelin, and Javelin still has only figured out how to send random dots and dashes."

I almost ask why a robot wouldn't know Morse Code, but then I remember what Javelin is like and quickly decide against it.

A moment later, though, I can feel my face light up. "I know where the Meta-Knights are."

Meta snaps his eyes to mine. "You do?"

I nod, feeling a smug grin creeping across my face. "Arthur let it slip right in front of me without even thinking about it." Meta's eyes go even wider, either in shock at my luck or Arthur's apparent stupidity. I explain innocently, "I'm just the useless girl, after all." I put my gloves behind my back and pout, batting my eyes. "I'm too dumb to hewp the big boys with their big, sewious probwems, and too stupid to go tewwing the things I overheawr, I guewss."

Meta snorts back a laugh and stares up at the heavens so he doesn't have to look at me. "Sakura, you're being painfully ridiculous. Please stop."

I laugh back and retake a normal pose. "Trust me, I'm pretty sure at this point that that's how Arthur hears me whenever I try talking to him. But in all seriousness," I spread my wings and take off into the air, "The Meta-Knights're digging and filling in ditches for Arthur just behind Kawasaki's restaurant."

"Sakura, bless you, you're a lifesaver," Meta tells me, "and if you weren't already airborne I'd give you a hug."

I laugh joyfully. "Coming from you, that's an incredible prize," I tease. "I guess I'll just bug you for one later."

He snorts again. "We'll see." He takes to the air himself. "Alright. Forest is fetching Kirby. You and I go get the Meta-Knights and meet them at the beach."

I grin and nod, but my smile quickly fades into worry and fear as we fly towards Cappy Town. "And then we meet the giants."

Meta Knight nods once, his own expression now dead serious as well. "And then we meet the giants."