Earlier, Luna had left Kuro’s fortress to try to find the witch Sumire Shakespeare, who had escaped just as the tengu was about to vanquish her. Luna suspected that the witch had returned to her home, but nevertheless she wanted to search everywhere else before checking Sumire’s residence. The last thing that Luna wanted was to appear as if she was desperate to fight her. As Luna arrived in Old King Hamlet, her eyes widened in shock. The hamlet was is ruins. Buildings on fire. Corpses in the streets. Luna took a deep breath and a moment to regain her composure. “No doubt this was Kuro’s doing,” she thought to herself, as she wandered through the small village looking for survivors. How could any of these humans bow before Luna if they were dead? The tengu gritted her teeth.
“Kuro…” she grunted, “How dare she kill these humans?! How are they supposed to thank me for defeating her, now?!”
Luna pointed at the town square, jumping back as she opened a large vortex in the center of Old King Hamlet. Before long, the entire town was enveloped in purple energy. With one swift motion, Luna made the vortex disappear, the town vanishing along with it. The tengu put her hands on her hips and smiled at the empty space that the hamlet used to occupy.
“This’ll make a good spot for my castle, when I take over this world!” the wolf tengu chuckled to herself.
Next, Luna teleported to the forest where Noh had held his party. A sizeable amount of the hamlet’s former residents were still there, alive and ready to bow before the kinkind.
“Greetings, partygoers,” Luna bellowed, “I am Luna Wolfe, and I defeated the witch who has been plaguing this world for too long!”
A couple of partygoers looked up from their cellphones to Luna, before looking back to their devices. A few coughs and the sound of crickets chirping followed.
“Lady Kuro,” Luna growled, “I defeated her! Now bow before the strongest being in all Phantasia!”
“Who’s ‘Lady Kuro’?” a man asked.
Luna put her face in her palm and opened another portal into Sumire’s tatami room. Within seconds the tengu was standing in the empty room. Odd, she thought. She was sure Sumire would’ve come back there. She looked around. She entered the main room and started to investigate the other rooms in Sumire Shakespeare’s house. No one in Katherine or Jun’s room. Only a sleeping Kitty in the younger maid’s room. No one in the bathroom. No one in the dining room. Not even a sign of life in the garden (plants notwithstanding). Luna breathed a deep sigh and returned to the tatami room. Maybe Katherine still hadn’t arrived back home yet? Luna knew the first thing that the nekomata would do when she got back from Kuro’s castle would be to lie on…
“The couch!” Luna gasped, noticing that Jackie’s couch was no longer in the tatami room.
“So,” she thought, “Sumire took the couch back to London, eh?” Luna sat on the tatami floor and crossed her legs.
“But why?” she asked herself, “Why would Sumire take the couch back? It’s not like Jackie will be there to… use… it.”
Luna lowered her brow angrily and scowled.
“So… Sumire took Jackie from the Unconscious Zone?” she sighed, “I suppose she and Jackie are probably already in London by now…?”
Luna placed her hands on the floor to push herself up, pricking her finger on a sharp object sitting next to her in the process. Luna picked the object up and examined it.
“Shakespeare?” she asked, realizing this was a shard not unlike the ones that Vladimir had broken into when he died. “So… you’re dead, huh? Then that means you didn’t take Jackie back to Earth, did you?”
A light bulb lit up above Luna’s head. Eureka! That was it! Katherine and Noh were planning to take Jackie over the border and back to Earth in Sumire’s stead! The tengu pointed to the corner of the tatami room in imitation of Sumire as a purple vortex appeared in the direction of her pointing.
Back in London, Sarah returned home to her apartment and parted ways with her parents. Jackie’s twin locked the room’s door behind her and flopped dejectedly onto her couch. Wait a minute! Her couch?!
“T-The sofa,” Sarah yelped, jumping out of the couch and staring at it, “I-It’s back!”
Sarah noticed a piece of paper lying on one of the couch cushions. She picked it up and read the message that had been hastily scribbled onto it. Suddenly Sarah ran back to the door, unlocking it and flinging it open.
“Mum, Dad,” she called down the hallway and out to her parents as they were about to enter the elevator to leave, “the sofa’s back!” she beamed, “And Jackie left a note!”
The two middle-aged people glanced at each other, before looking back at Sarah and running over to her.
“Lemme see!” Joseph asked.
“What does it say?” Nicole inquired, taking the note from Sarah’s hands and reading it aloud.
“Dear Sarah (and also Dad and Mum, since chances are you probably called them as soon as you noticed I was gone),
Ok, I’m in a rush so I’ll just cut to the chase. I’m totally fine! I know it sounds crazy but I’m on another planet, or an alternate dimension or something. I’m not sure actually. I swear, I’m not joking and I haven’t started drinking or doing drugs either! I know it’s hard to believe, but please trust me.
Don’t worry about me! Everyone here is super nice and I’m coming home soon! Sorry about not calling you sooner, Sis. I think I left my phone in the apartment. LOL
I’ll bring back a souvenir or something! Oh, and can you tell Arthur’s parents that he passed away? I’m sure they’d want to know.
Well, I’ll see ya later, Sis!
Love, Jacqueline “Jackie” Wordsworth <3”
“Has she been acting this crazy around you, lately?” Joseph said, turning to his daughter.
“No,” Sarah shook her head, “I believe her.”
“You do?” Nicole asked.
“Jackie wouldn’t lie to us!” the youngest human declared, “Even if she’s just sick and hallucinating, I think Jackie’s telling us what she believes is true!” Sarah paused. “So what do you two say we invite a few people over and hang up decorations?” she asked. “Jackie needs a ‘welcome back’ party, for when she returns from this ‘alternate dimension’, right?” Sarah giggled.
