“I-I don’t know what to say or think. That girl I told you about, she’s now part of my squad. It feels a little weird, but I won’t let her down. It’s my fault she’s now part of this.”

After Bunberry left, Cherry was at a loss for words. He was face to face with the same person he had injured, along with the one who had taunted him. He said he was sorry but it was still a bit fresh.

Cherry stood there with his hands folded in front of him, while staring downward. “I uhh, I’m sorry.”

Dragon shook his head. “Kid, you don’t need to be sorry, I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you like that and called you a pussy. It was wrong of me.”

Cherry wasn’t used to someone apologizing to him. He always thought it was his fault when bad things happened to him. The Head of the Orphanage constantly told him so. It was his fault for being a “worthless specimen of a man.”

“Uh, okay, I’m sorry.”

Dragon facepalmed at the second apology.

“W-whatever. Anyway, it’s my own fault for being a dumbass. Let’s get out of here.” Dragon leaned forward and offered his hand. Cherry inspected it carefully, he wasn’t sure if it was a trick to hurt him again. Dragon gave a half smile to sedate him, so Cherry softened and took his hand, allowing him to lead him out the door.

“Not so fast, Dragon, we need to have a word.” Lamp Flower’s voice dripped with venom and Dragon gulped. Behind them stood a very angry Lamp Flower, holding some kind of diagram or medical papers, Cherry wasn’t really sure what it was.

“Y-Yes maam.” Dragon went back inside to talk with Lamp Flower. Their argument was a bit too loud, even for a private matter, Cherry didn’t even need to eavesdrop to hear most of it.

“—hy are you lying to me?” Lamp Flower’s anger could be felt through the wall.

“What are you talk—” The confusion in Dragon’s voice made Cherry wonder what exactly they were talking about.

“—ou aren’t even hurt!”

“W-What?”

“—machine says you have zero injur—”

“I-I am not lying it really do—”

“—ut of here! Now!”

Cherry heard footsteps as Dragon emerged, the discussion finished. Without a word, Dragon took Cherry back to Cherry’s room, then stopped at the door. “Okay, kid, go get dressed. If you don’t know how, just walk into your closet. After that, you’ll understand. Make sure to take a shower first though.”

Shower. That word terrified him more than any other. He’d have to face what had become of him. Cherry sighed and walked into his room. As soon as he was inside, he was struck with an unsettling sensation. He felt as if something had changed inside his room, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he found himself staring into the mirror. His beautiful brown face looked at him. The eyes in the mirror were so sad, yet inviting. It almost seemed to call to him, to make him see something he hadn’t seen before. He looked not only into the mirror, but into his very soul.

“What the fudge is wrong with you, Cherry?”

A disembodied feminine voice caused him to jerk upward, but he found he was not in the room anymore. He was in his own mindscape, the same place where he had seen his staff. His staff wasn’t hiding anymore, the cherry at the top was pointing right at him. He didn’t have any idea why it was like that, it seemed to have a mind of it’s own.

“Uhhh, hello, is there anyone there?” There was no response. No matter how hard he tried to look around, he couldn’t see anyone.

“Cherry, I’m right behind you.”

Immediately the boy turned around and there was the staff pointing at him again. He gulped at the implication.

“A-Are you the one talking to me?”

“No duh, dummy!” Despite it not having a face, he absolutely could feel the staff’s glare. It was as if in his mind he could visualize the emotions the staff was having.

“I-I’m sorry.” 

The staff sighed. “Cherry, why are you acting like this?” 

He didn’t know what she…  he…  it was saying. How could a staff even talk to him in the first place?

“I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes you do.” After a moment of hesitation, he suddenly realized what it meant.

“You mean… but it’s so hard, and it shouldn’t have happened!”

“Yeah, it sucks, but does that mean you have to just be a mopey dopey all day? Why can’t you just accept it and move on?”

“What?! Accept it, I’m supposed to just accept I’m a girl now? What next, are you going to have me dating men and becoming a mother and having a baby?”

“Cherry, you know what kind of person you are. You care about others, you just want to help, and you wish you could do more. Now you have the power to do so.” The staff’s words cut him deep. It was telling the truth. “Also why do you keep thinking about being a mother and dating a guy? You really keep going back to that over and over again. Have you considered that maybe you liked boys before you were ‘Adapted?’”

“What the hell?! That’s impossible. You know what the Head of the Orphanage said. It just can’t happen.”

“Do you really trust the words of someone who abused you nearly every day? Even if he never hit you, words can cut deeper than physical violence sometimes.”

“I-I never thought about that. How do you know so much about me anyway?”

“Because, I’m you, silly.”

“Wh-What? If you’re me, why do you sound so feminine?”

The staff winked, then smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Maybe you should figure that out for yourself.” With a final giggle the Staff disappeared. Cherry found himself sitting on his bed, no longer in his thoughts. His staff was right, it was time for him to stop being so upset. He was going to meet his heroine! He stood up and looked toward the shower. Taking a deep breath, he walked inside.

Feeling refreshed after a nice shower, he felt proud of himself. He had conquered his fear. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought. He still was unfamiliar with everything, but for now this was a victory, even if only a small one. He walked over to the closet. Nothing about it was all that special. It was just a basic walk in closet, but it was completely empty. He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to help him, but he decided to trust Dragon.

Cherry walked into the closet. To his surprise, in less than a minute clothes had magickally appeared on him. A knee length light pink skirt with lace at the hem, a white top with a peter pan collar and princess puffed sleeves, white socks peeked just above his shoes, and his feet were adorned with light pink mary janes. Lastly his hair was straightened with a light pink headband. Something was different this time though as he felt something fruity on his lips. He ran over to the mirror and saw he was wearing some kind of glossy lipstick. Not only that, he also had a bit of glittery eyeshadow. What bothered him the most though was why was he wearing so much pink? What in the world was wrong with this closet?

Cherry shook his head, he needed to get going, he could worry about his outfit later. He opened the door and outside was a sleeping Dragon. He was dressed in jeans, an orange hoodie, and sneakers with orange laces. Cherry walked over and shook him. Dragon immediately bolted upright.

“What the?!” He looked left and right until he saw Cherry, then smirked. “Oh, it’s you, kid. Finally done I see. Also it seems someone puked pink all over you. Nice.”

“Sh-Shut up! I didn’t choose this, that stupid closet did!” Cherry was embarrassed and crossed his arms with a pout.

“Okay okay kid, it’s fine. That closet reacts weirdly, I’ve been put in a disgustingly pink dress from it before. There’s a sort of… trick to it.” Cherry didn’t know what to think about that. What kind of trick could possibly cause such a bizarre change? “Some people say it gives you the outfit you desire, but that’s not true. It gives you the outfit you perceive you desire or rather, what you think you should be. That’s why I got the pink dress, I was so caught up in my transformation that I saw myself stuck as that girl my mother wanted. So I got my old outfit back my mother used to force me to wear. I was devastated but eventually got myself under control. Fluffy Ruby is a great therapist. You really should see her later.”

Cherry had much to think about, but he felt it wasn’t the time. He had to find his heroine. “So… we should leave. Miss Bunberry is waiting for us.” 

Dragon nodded.“You’re right, kid. Let’s go.”

“Oh, where do you plan to go, Draggy?” a familiar voice said. Elated, Cherry turned to see Dagger Flower. He’d been wanting to see her again. She was so cool. This time she was dressed in a rainbow-colored fluffy skirt with a petticoat, a white blouse with the words “Happy Pride, fuckers :D”, rainbow socks, and brown boots. Her hair was done up in a side ponytail held together with a rainbow ribbon, and lastly a little star on her cheek. Cherry already loved this girl. She was so weird and cool. He wasn’t sure what a Pride was, but he really wanted to go to it.

“Dag, it’s good to see you. Though I don’t have time, Bunberry wants this kid at J.J.’s place ASAP.”

“Okay, okay, I just wanted to see how you were.” Dagger walked over to Dragon, held her arms around him and kissed him. Dragon reciprocated by grabbing her waist and pulling her in for another. Cherry blushed at the two being overly affectionate. Dragon looked over at the blushing Cherry, broke his kiss, then face palmed.

“My bad, kid. Just haven’t seen my boyfriend in a while.” As soon as the word “boyfriend” left Dragon’s mouth, Cherry’s brain crashed. Boyfriend? Dagger Flower was a boy? Also Dragon was into boys? Wasn’t he a boy, though? What in the world was going on? He thought back to his staff’s words. Was his staff right? Was this really okay, let alone possible? Dagger Flower was dressed like a girl, how could she err… he be a boy? Dagger Flower seemed to catch onto his confusion and held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Dagger Flower, please call me Dag though. My pronouns are He/Him/His.”

“O-Oh okay, so, uhhh, you’re a boy, then?” Dagger Flower shook his head.

“Well, sort of? I’m sometimes a boy, and sometimes not a boy.” If Cherry’s brain was broken before, now it was in full shutdown mode. How in the world could he be a boy and yet not a boy?

“So… you’re also a girl sometimes?” Dagger Flower shook his head.

“No, never a girl. I’m a boy sometimes, and sometimes I’m something else. Specifically, I'm Gender Faun.” The confusion on Cherry’s face was palpable. “It means I’m Genderfluid between a boy, and then something that isn’t a boy or a girl. Okay?”

Cherry just nodded despite not having a clue what the world Dag was talking about. He just accepted that he should call him ‘he,’ just like he said. He really didn’t understand, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be respectful. There was so much Cherry didn’t know, so many new things that were cracking his world view. It would take time for him to figure it all out and now his attention was needed elsewhere.

“Anyway, how rude of me, what are your pronouns?”

Dag’s question baffled Cherry. “What do you mean by my pronouns?”

“Remember how I said, my pronouns are He/Him/His? It’s like that, what should I call you? Boy, girl, something else?”

Cherry wasn’t sure how to answer. His body was clearly a girls, wasn’t it? So wouldn’t that mean he should use girl pronouns? Though that’s not right, he’s a boy. It isn’t possible for a boy to be a girl. Though… Dragon was a boy despite being born a girl, and Cherry wasn’t sure what Dag was born. Was it really so simple? Cherry shook his head. No, he was a boy, there’s no way he could be anything else, they were just exceptions, he couldn’t possibly be like them.

“Uhhh, I think the same as you? I-I’m a boy, I think.” Cherry facepalmed, why was he so noncommittal to his answer. Was it really so hard to just say I’m a boy firmly?

Before Dag could answer he heard the click of heels behind him.

“Princess Dragonberry, why do you insist on hanging out with those kinds of people? They aren’t even real girls!” Cherry watched as a girl with purple hair and eyes approached Dragon. She was wearing stockings, a red dress, and heels and Cherry thought she looked really fancy. However, at that moment the air in the room seemed to change. Cherry looked at Dragon and saw fury in his face. The anger and hatred resonating from him terrified Cherry. Dragon slammed his fist into the wall. Impossibly, the force of his punch penetrated the wall and made a massive crater.

“Call me ‘princess’ or ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ again, Amethyst, and I’ll slam your fucking face against this wall.” Cherry could tell Dragon wasn’t kidding. He retrieved his arm, and the wall mysteriously repaired itself. Cherry thought he saw some liquid drip from it, as if there was a tear where the hole had been. He wondered if he had hallucinated that.

“S-Sorry, please don’t hurt me! I’ll never call you that again, promise.” Amethyst got on her hands and knees and begged. Dragon smirked, then Dag put a hand on his shoulder.

“Dragon, what did I tell you about overwhelming violence?” Dag asked sharply. Dragon’s face softened and became ashamed. While his devastating aura was now gone, Cherry was still shaking in fear.

“But Dag, she called me a princess. I can’t fucking stand when people do that!” Dag pointed towards Cherry, who was still shaking with tears falling down his face.

“That may be, but look at what you caused!” Dragon looked at Cherry and he reached out towards him, but Cherry retreated away.

“D-Damn it, sorry kid. I just sort of lose my temper when someone calls me girly crap.” Cherry shirked away back and forth three times as Dragon tried to comfort him. On the fourth attempt, Cherry calmed down then accepted his embrace. “I-I’ll try to be better.”

“You better be, you know what the Boss’ll do if you don’t.” Dragon gulped at Dag’s words, then nodded. Amethyst stood up and brushed the hem of her dress off.

“First Bunberry, now you, I hope one day you realize what I am trying to accomplish.” Dragon just rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I need to be going, I don’t need to be dealing with those disgusting Adaptions, especially you Dagger Flower.”

Dag just smirked then looked her straight in the eyes. “Am I an Adaption though?” Amethyst backed away into the wall.

“O-Of course you are, why else would you side with those other ones?” Dag gave her personal space but still had a mischievous grin.

“Who says I am? No one was there during my Ceremony, remember? Everyone was off on an important mission. No one knows if I’m an Adaption or not, not even my boyfriend.” Amethyst looked towards Dragon with sweat dripping from her brow, Dragon just shrugged.

“You know what’s the best thing about that? You will never know if I’m an Adaption or not.” Dag looked her dead in the eye, his grin continuing to grow. “So you can’t shove me away or you might be alienating one of your ‘precious sisters.’ Though if you welcome me into your fold, then you might be letting a “dirty Adaption” into your group. No matter what you do, you’re fucked because only the Boss herself knows the truth, and you know her policy on that.”

“T-T-Tú zorro estúpido!” Amethyst scurried away with tears running down her face as she seemed to realize that Dag was right. Dag was smug as a fox and Cherry giggled a bit at it. He really liked him.

“See Draggy, you don’t need to be violent to communicate your point or to win an argument. I never lifted a finger and she ran away crying.” 

“Guess you’re right Dag.” Dragon let out a hearty laugh and that made Cherry smile. He remembered Fred once more and felt his cheeks go red as they kissed again. Then Dragon placed a hand on his shoulder. “Anyway, Kid, let’s go see your hero.”

Dragon and Dag took each of Cherry’s hands and he felt like a small child led by his parents to an unknown destination. Though he’d never met his parents, he often wondered what they would have looked like, or how they would have acted towards him, had they not died. He liked to think they’d love him and hold him and accept him for who he was. Unlike the Head of the Orphanage who caught him doing… He didn’t want to think about it, it was such a painful memory.

After arriving at a large open hallway suddenly Dragon grabbed at his side and started scratching it. He continued scratching furiously at his back and side and couldn’t seem to stop the itch.

“What the hell? Dag help me, something bit me or something, I’m itching all over.” Dragon fell to the floor scratching himself violently. Dag immediately rushed to his side, and held him in his arms.

“Dragon, what’s wrong!?”

“Goddamn this itch, it’s awful Dag, can you check my back, maybe there’s a spider or something?”

Dag nodded, then lifted up Dragon’s shirt. Cherry watched as his back was displayed, and was utterly impressed at the amount of scars he had. His back looked scratched up and torn to hell, though there was part of it that just seemed untouched, it was weird.

“What the... this can't be possible. Cherry, I’m taking Draggy to the infirmary. The canteen is just up ahead. You'll meet with Bunberry there."

Dragon grabbed ahold of Dag’s arm and nodded. Dag pulled him over his shoulder and walked towards the hospital. 

Cherry looked at the entrance to the Canteen with both excitement and apprehension. What if she didn’t like him? What if she hated him? His eyes started to fill with tears at that thought. He shook his head though, then walked forward. He had to be strong, he had to be a man. As he got closer he started to hear a voice.

“—just don’t know J.J., it’s so hard.” He approached closer, hanging outside the hall just out of vision. The voice of Bunberry was heard.

“I know, but you can’t blame him. It’s not his fault. Raftilia has made up her mind, you know what that means.”

“Carajo... Esta bien… okay,” The words of Bunberry were unknown to him. He’d never heard that language before. What was she saying?

“There you go, It’s gonna be fine, I know how much this hurts you. Try not to think of him as the same as… you know who. Think of him as his own person. This kid is counting on you. Also seems to be a sort of fanboy from what I hear.” Cherry blushed at the words. The man wasn’t wrong, he really looked up to her. He wanted to be as cool as her.

“I know… I’ll try to be better. It’s gonna be tough, I just hope he’s not too hopeless.”

The man’s voice broke into a chuckle.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. Won’t you, little one.” Cherry heard the voice directed to him and yelped. “It’s okay, I aint mad you were eavesdropping. Come on, come out here.”

Cherry gulped, then carefully peeked out from the wall. The place was gorgeous, it was more like a fancy restaurant than just a café. He’d never seen a man like him before. He had skin like nighttime, even darker than Lamp flower, and his eyes were a beautiful dark brown. The man in question was incredibly handsome and made Cherry blush.

“There you are, come on. I can tell you're hungry. Let ol’ J.J. make you something scrumptious.”

Cherry’s tummy suddenly rumbled, breaking him out of his negative thoughts. The man was right. He smoothed his skirt under him, sat down, crossed his ankles, and held his head down with his hands firmly in his lap to make himself appear as small as possible. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do and didn’t want to offend anyone.

“Don’t be afraid, ask whatever your heart wants, no matter what it is.”

Cherry wasn’t sure how that was possible but he thought back to the orphanage and food he really wanted to try.

“I’d like some green ice cream with little brown things in it.”

“Mint chocolate chip? Good choice, that’s not enough though you need some real food too. Want some steak, a hamburger, shrimp? Whatever you want, just ask.”

Cherry thought deeply then remembered a food that had always made his mouth savor.

“Umm, what about the umm crispy chicken. They look so yummy.”

“Crispy chicken it is, and a little something special that I hope turns that frown upside down.”

J.J. walked over towards the back wall when impossibly a door opened up leading to a kitchen that he couldn’t really see. As he sat there and waited, Bunberry came, and sat next to him.

“Hey… Cherry. It’s gonna be okay. I’ll teach you how to defend yourself. Anyway, how are you?”

Cherry was suddenly on cloud nine. His heroine was not running away from him or calling him a freak or anything.

“Umm, I’m okay. I had a weird episode in my room. Is your weapon supposed to talk to you?”

Bunberry let out a laugh. “Yeah, they do that. It’s a bit difficult to face your inner self, but I believe you can do it.”

“I-I’m okay with that, it’s just… it was so feminine and... girly. What does that mean?”

Bunberry seemed deep in thought and cradled her chin with her finger and thumb.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It might not mean anything at all. Our inner spirits are… complicated. Their messages aren’t always clear.”

After about five more minutes J.J. emerged with a serving tray with some delicious looking crispy … chicken he had called it. Unfortunately there was no ice cream. Instead, the tray held a giant metal cup and a large glass. He peered inside and discovered he was wrong. It did contain ice cream as well as some kind of weird brownish-black liquid. It had a spoon inside it, so he decided to take a taste. The sugary drink combined with the soft ice cream felt wonderful on his tongue. And the crunchy chicken alongside the ice cream and drink made him feel as if he was in heaven.

“I see that you like it. Little ones always love their sugar.” J.J. gave a chuckle, which for some reason reminded him of Fred. It was probably his kindness, Fred was always so kind. Thinking of Fred gave him conflicting emotions. He was still extremely sad about what happened to him, but Cherry also felt butterflies in his tummy when he thought about Fred. Fred had always loved when he was positive. He was there for Cherry when the Head of the Orphanage had told him such horrible things. He missed his friend greatly, but he resolved to not let his sadness ruin his good mood. Fred had always made him smile when he was sad.

“Thank you very much, ummmm, J.J.? Uhhh, does that stand for anything?”

“It does, but just call me J.J. I hope that’s not too much trouble.” This man was far more polite than any man he’d ever seen. He was so unlike Dragon, and unlike the Head of the Orphanage or even the town mayor. Just who was this man, anyway? For that matter, why was he a man, if there are no Umbra Boys?

“Wait, are you an Umbra Boy? How are you here?” 

J.J. broke out in a snerk. “I was wondering when you’d ask that. No no, I’m not part of your squad. I’m just a normal, average, every day boring human. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Anyway don’t worry about putting your plate away, either. I’ll take care of it.”

Cherry finished the rest of his meal in silence, enjoying the feeling of the warm and delicious food inside his belly. He’d never tasted something so wonderful. After his meal, Bunberry held out her hand.

“Time to go Cherry.” Cherry nodded and took her hand. She led him to a familiar place, the training room.

Bunberry walked towards the bench then took a deep breath. “How much did Dragon teach you?”

“Oh he taught me a lot of stuff, about the four types of Luminescent, and that I can hurt or be hurt by other Umbra. The different types of magick, oh and… that I’ll never age past 17.”

“Good. Did he teach you about your Trait?”

“T-Trait? What is that?” 

Bunberry ran her hand down her face in frustration. “Okay, you know about your magick type, you know about your transformation, but he didn’t tell you about your Trait? One of the most important aspects of being an Umbra Girl?”

Cherry tilted his head to the side.

“Great, fine, guess he left it to me. Okay, listen. Every Umbra Girl… or err… person has a specific Trait. We don’t know a hundred percent why your Trait is what it is, but every one of us has one.”

Cherry nodded, this sounded really interesting.

“For instance, my Trait. It’s called ‘Stubborn’ but me and Dragon like to call it “Berserker.” No matter how much damage I take, I can continue to fight until my magick runs out.” 

No matter how he looked at it, this girl was incredibly cool. Even her Trait sounded awesome.

“Then what’s Dragon’s?”

“His is called ‘Brute.’ He has an insane amount of strength, which he can use whether he’s transformed or not. He might look lithe, but that guy has grabbed what was left of a building and smashed it into a Luminescent before to save someone.”

Suddenly Dragon’s earlier display made sense. That was how he had made such a huge crater in the wall.

“You’ve probably also noticed that whenever Lamp Flower talks to you, you feel sort of sedated right? That all of your anger or sadness is gone? That’s her Trait: Calm.”

Cherry felt a surge of anger. “So that’s why she always felt so motherly. She was using a dirty trick to take away from the fact she’s a monster!”

Bunberry’s voice grew angry.  “Listen here, Cherry. Don’t you ever call my friend a monster again. Lamp Flower is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. She has done more for the Umbra Girls than anyone, possibly even more than Raftilia herself.” 

“She’s the reason I got transformed, though. She helped her do this to me!”

Bunberry sighed. “Cherry, she’s not the reason you transformed.”

“She’s not? She helped Raftilia. I was there, you know. I saw as I was strapped to that table.”

“I don’t know why you weren’t told, or maybe you were and you didn’t understand. I know you’re just a kid, so I’ll let this slide but you need to understand that the moment you accepted Raftilia’s deal, you became one of us. The transformation just happened faster because of the Ceremony. Normally it’d take about a week or two. I knew... someone that tried to run away from the Ceremony, came back fully transformed in a week and a half. Later told me it was one of the most painful things he’d ever gone through.”

Cherry was dumbstruck, Lamp Flower wasn’t an accomplice. Just like she said, she genuinely just wanted to help him. Cherry’s eyes started to tear up at the thought of all the horrible things he’d thought about her.

“I-I-I’m sorry…”

Bunberry sighed. “It’s okay, you didn’t know, but you know now so you better not badmouth my friend again. Or else, got it?”

Cherry nodded. He didn’t want to get on her bad side any more. He was terrified of her hating him. Now that the conversation was over, Bunberry walked to the center of the ring..

“With a blade of darkness, I will cut through the light. Swallowed into blackness, You will be slain by my eternal spite!” Again, with a graceful dance she repeated the same series of motions along with the speech.

The gigantic dark bubble consumed her and her transformation finished in less than a few seconds. It remained no less impressive to Cherry. Her sword fell from somewhere above, just like before, and as soon as she grasped it the darkness went away.

“So cool…” Cherry whispered to himself.

“Cherry, your turn now.”

“Huh?”

“Cherry, transform.” Cherry sat there like she’d asked him to grow a third head. Bunberry facepalmed. “Cherry, look deep inside you, the words will come to you. Say them, then let your body do the rest.”

Cherry did as she instructed, but found something horrifying. There was no way he could say this, or do this. “I-I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“These words… there’s no way this is inside me.”

“Cherry, just say the words. It doesn’t matter what they are.” 

He nodded.“The Light and the Dark, cause countless innocents to suffer. However, I am the great equalizer, and I will put an end to it all!” Cherry felt his body move without his control, almost as if he knew these moves from deep within his subconscious and had performed them a thousand times. With, “The Light and the Dark,” he performed a perfect pirouette. Then “cause countless innocents to suffer” he clasped his hands and closed his eyes as if in prayer, and a single tear fell from his eye. With ‘However, I am the great equalizer,” he crossed his arms in front of him. Finally “and I will put an end to it all!’ he swiped his arm outward.

The dark bubble enveloped him and his transformation began once more. He heard a slurping sound as he felt his ears disappear into his head once more. He felt the bizarre sensation as his puppy ears reemerged. From behind him, his fluffy tail grew outward. The floating sparkling red cherries circled his head, then flew towards his feet. Starting from the bottom to the top his clothes began to change. His shoes changed to black mary janes with a red cherry buckle. White tights crawled up and encased his legs. A poofy light red skirt with a cute little petticoat shimmered into reality. A pink top with short princess puff sleeves with a single sparkling cherry embroidered on the ends appeared. He felt a pull as his hair split into pigtails with two ribbons that each had a cherry in the center.

“Oh fuck, you really are a Sparkle. And what the hell was that incantation?” Bunberry’s disappointment made Cherry’s puppy ears fold downward, and tears started to form in his eyes. Why would she like him? He was a freak, a loser, a monster. “Fuck, sorry Cherry. I didn’t mean it that way, I just meant...”

He felt a warm hand on his head and once again felt that scritching sensation that Lamp Flower had given him when scratching between his ears. He started to calm down and nuzzled into the hand that was giving him this wonderful feeling. He dried his eyes then looked up at the face of Bunberry. She was … smiling. She wasn’t upset with him. She wasn’t disappointed in him. She didn’t hate him.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful with my words from now on. Okay?” Her voice had lost the gruffness and had become something more soft and sweet. Her entire aura felt much more kind than she normally seemed. Cherry wasn’t sure how to respond, so he simply nodded. Even if she was acting weird, he still loved her giving him pets. He noticed his tail wagging back and forth, and blushed as she gave out a little giggle. Then, however, she stopped petting him and he felt a much more familiar air about her as her face twisted.

“Now back away, and show me what you used to take down Dragon.” Bunberry’s personality seemed to have changed back as her gruff voice and cool warrior’s demeanor returned. Cherry wasn’t sure what was going on, but he didn’t want to disappoint his heroine. He held out his hands and then… nothing. Bunberry face palmed again.

“Cherry, look inside of you again. Try to recall that attack you made, then say the words that come to you.”

Cherry nodded then looked deep inside himself. He saw his staff once again, and it seemed to look him in the eye and he felt it wink. The words landed onto his tongue and his staff materialized in his hands once more. He held it out in front of him, and pointed directly at Bunberry. “Cherry Cleansing Beam!”

Bunberry’s eyes went wide as a gigantic beam of white energy exploded from his staff and towards her. She immediately held her sword outwards to brace herself from the immense amount of energy. The energy crashed into Bunberry’s sword, forcing her back until she hit the wall. The wall started to groan as her body was pushed harder and harder into it.

“Now I see what happened.” Bunberry said through gritted teeth. 

Cherry let out a small cough, and his eyes felt a bit heavy. He thought that maybe he had not gotten enough sleep. Though he did his best to force them open. He wanted, no he needed to see Bunberry’s reaction to his attack. Was he as cool as she was now? Would she be proud of him? 

She smirked and looked Cherry directly in the eyes. “Dragon’s gone soft.”

Cherry’s brow furrowed, it looked clearly like he was winning. True, she had blocked his attack but how long could she hold back the immense beam. It clearly was overpowering her. She was being pushed harder and harder into the wall. He looked on at her and coughed loudly.

“This is your first combat lesson, Cherry. Listen, and listen well.” She said with a groan. Just when he thought she was finished, with a sweeping motion she swung her sword away from her. The force of her swing interrupted the flow from his staff, cutting off the beam and sending what remained of it flying twenty feet before it exploded in a white blast. How the fudge had she done that?! “An Umbra weapon cannot be destroyed by any means. Use that to your advantage if you find yourself cornered by the Luminescent, or in the direct line of an attack.”

She continued to be the cool warrior he wanted to be so bad. How could he learn to be as smooth as her? His thoughts suddenly started to fade. His eyes fluttered from open to closed, open to closed.

“Cherry? What’s wrong? Cherry, are you okay?”

Cherry found himself swaying back and forth. His balance was off, and he felt like he was going to fall over. He coughed into his hand again and felt something wet. Looking at it, he discovered he’d coughed up blood.

“Oh Goddamn it, you used all your energy in that attack, didn’t you? FUCK!” Cherry could just make out the words, but had no idea what she was talking about. He watched as she scooped him up and then ran out the door towards the central hub.

“Blue Bubbles, get me a portal to a low level incursion immediately.”

“Bunberry, you know I can’t do that. Raftilia isn’t here to a—”

“He’s dying Blue Bubbles, he used up all his Night energy, do you want to explain to Raftilia that another one exploded when they could have been saved? Especially a Sparkle?” Cherry wasn’t sure who she was talking to. He just was along for the ride, feeling the warmth of her bosom. He felt like he was being protected by a big sister. He could feel his breathing increase, and pain filling in his lungs. The last words he heard as his eyes started to close were:

“Goddamn it, Cherry, I’m not letting you die on me!”