"How much longer until we get to the world?" I inquired. My brash tone probably made it sound like an order, but I really didn't care what the captain thought of me. I wouldn't have to deal with any of these scumbags for much longer.
"However long is it, it won't be soon enough," he muttered. Evidently, he wasn't enjoying this any more than I was. But we were both working under Maleficent, so neither of us had much choice.
"Cap'n Hook, Cap'n Hook!" A sniveling, whimpering lackey with a voice almost as annoying as Sora’s duck friend came scurrying over.
"What is it, Smee?! I've got better things to do than listen to your..."
"Cap'n, look!" He gestured off the ship into the deep expansive void. There was a large blue object about 500 yards away.
"What?! A giant whale?! Avoid it, at all costs!"
"No," I countered. "Bring the ship towards it. I want a better look." Even from here, I could see a small flash of red, which resembled a certain rocketship a certain Keyblade master had told me about when last we met.
"Are you out of your head, boy?! He'll swallow us whole!"
"I think someone I know is in there. I'll go alone, none of you have to risk your precious necks."
That put Claw, or whatever his name was, into a frenzy. "WHAT?! Are you calling me a coward?! That's it, I'm going in with you!"
"This matter doesn't concern you," I blandly stated. "Just get me over there, then stay onboard and guard the ship."
"OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhh, how I can't STAND that boy!" I heard him whisper to his lackey behind my back.
******************************************************************************
I couldn't believe I was doing this. Sneaking around the mouth of a whale so I wouldn't have to confront Sora. This really wasn't my style. But I didn't want to reveal myself here, as he'd be able to escape too easily. No, I needed a place where he couldn't run away. I easily navigated past the rubble, keeping myself underwater so that I wouldn't be seen, only coming up for air behind the wooden piles, where I could not be seen. At last, I reached the base of a boat, the almighty blade-wielder on top. He was apparently distracted by some old man. It was no problem to swim around to the other side of the boat unnoticed. I quietly exited the pool and made a mad dash toward the nearby gaping hole. Sora was really going to pay for making me sneak around like this. I entered the hole and found myself in a room with two new holes. Suddenly, a Heartless appeared. It was different than the black ones I was used to seeing, and it had that odd heart mark on it. It had a sort of tail, and it had an eye hanging out of its socket. But its appearance didn't matter to me. I disposed of it in three seconds flat and leapt for the nearest hole. I wasn't a moment too soon, for just as I hid myself an odd little boy came clunking into the room. His joints were making odd noises. I looked again, then suddenly did a double take. He was wooden! There was a wooden puppet walking around! There were no strings, and I couldn't see any ventriloquists at all. He was moving completely independently! But all my thoughts were cut off as THEY entered, hot on his trail.
"What are you doing?" I froze. Had Sora grown that perceptive in the short time we'd been apart to notice me? I had hidden myself well and hadn't moved a muscle. But he didn't approach me. It was then I realized he was talking to the puppet. I guessed that if the puppet was moving on its own, then it might be able to talk as well. "Come on, let's go back."
"You know," cautioned the dog-looking thing. "Geppetto's awfully worried about you." Gepetto? The name didn't ring a bell at all. I supposed it didn't really matter.
"Pinocchio, stop fooling around!" Sora spoke again. Pinocchio? What an odd name. He still seemed to be addressing the puppet, so I assumed Pinocchio was the puppet's name. "This is no time for games!" He then turned around and walked with his strange comrades back toward the mouth. Crap, he was going back. Oh well, it was now or never.
"But Sora," I called, stepping out of my hiding place toward the puppet. "I thought you liked games. Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?"
Sora's reaction was better than I could have hoped. Unlike my cool, confident personage, he was caught completely off guard. "Riku! Wh-what are you doing here?" Good question. I thought quickly. Well, if he was going to find some new friends, I might as well. What was this puppet's name again...?
"Just playing with Pinocchio," I responded, moving toward the puppet.
"You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Did you find her?" It took all my energy just to keep myself from fighting him then and there. Did I find Kairi?! What had HE done? It amazed me that he could stand there and ask that without even thinking about it. But here was not the place to finish this. He was still too close to the exit. And his concern for this wooden boy was useful.
"Maybe. Catch us, and maybe I'll tell you what I know."
"Come on!" the great Keyblade master protested. But I had already grabbed the puppet and run into the hole I had shamefully hidden in only seconds before.
******************************************************************************
I ran through the whale innards like a madman, Pinocchio trailing behind me like a sail. I encountered more of those strange, ghostlike Heartless, as well as the more familiar Heartless I'd seen before. But I didn't stop for anything, not for them, not for the treasure chests scattered throughout. Whenever I entered a new area, my only goal was getting to the hole I hadn't come out of. At last I halted. I was on a ledge above many sections I recognized from my passing through earlier and facing only one hole, one I had not been in yet. I could sense a foreboding presence in it, and I had a sickening feeling I knew who it was. I looked down, and saw Sora's trio running through one of the sections down below. It wouldn't be long before they caught up with me. "Wait here," I cautioned the puppet. It was pathetic, really. He had believed this was all a game, even when I was pulling him by the arm through the chambers. I guess it hadn't hurt him, since wood has no nerve fibers. "When Sora and the others come, run to me. I should be finished with what I have to do in there." He nodded. I walked in, confirming my suspicions.
"Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all."
"I don't care about him," I reasoned, both to the witch and myself. "I was just messing with him a little."
"Oh really?" she retorted. "Of course you were." My fists were clenched, but I knew she was right. Why was I leading him on this chase? Making sure he couldn't escape couldn't be the only reason. "Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless pray upon it." She then turned around, walking into one of her annoying trademark portals.
"Mind your own business!" I called after her, just before she vanished completely. Pinocchio ran in at that moment, and, as I had hoped, Sora and his oddballs were trailing him.
"Riku, what's the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don't you realize what you're doing?"
I WAS taking precious time away from finding Kairi, but he had taken much more than I had. Of the two of us, he was evidently the one to blame. "I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days." Now to find out what his REAL intentions were. "Do you even want to save Kairi?"
"I do," he stated. I was about to debunk that when I heard a voice I hadn't heard before. It was coming from the next room over. I quickly looked around and noticed Pinocchio was missing. I ran into the bowels, pausing only for a second to think of the consequences. Sora and my replacements followed me.
******************************************************************************
Just great. A Heartless. Stronger than the rest of the ones in here, I gathered. It was purple, with a nondescript head and a cage for a body, with Pinocchio trapped inside. His hollering was the first time I had heard his voice, and it sounded just like one that may have been mine or Sora's in our youth. But why would this Heartless want Pinocchio? I would understand if it had a human trapped in there. The Heartless would want its..... that was it! If this puppet could walk and talk, then it most likely had a heart! And if a puppet has a heart, then it has to be incredibly pure! Almost as pure as.... her's. Now I had a new reason for obtaining this puppet, but I realized that I couldn't do it alone. Sora and his goons also seemed intent on fighting this Heartless. "You up for this?" I asked him.
"No problem. Let's do it!" Talking as if he'd never left my side.
"Hmph," I muttered. And then we got to it. Sora leapt up to the head and continuously slashed at it. The duck and the dog were less intelligent, standing next to the creature and jumping to hit it. The Heartless would merely swing its tentacles and smack them both. I, on the other hand, ran around the room, leaping and striking the head every so often. In retrospect, I should've taken Sora's approach. I overestimated this Heartless, and would have been able to deal a lot more damage without the danger of being knocked out. But regardless, the Heartless fell soon enough. Once it did, it expelled Pinocchio into a hole it had been sitting upon, and lifted itself up into the inner workings of the whale. Without hesitation, I leapt in after Pinocchio, leaving Sora's group behind.
******************************************************************************
Going through the bowels was not a pleasant experience, and it is suffice to say I wound up hanging onto the whale's tail with Pinocchio, now heartless, in tow. It seemed I had been too late in preventing his heart from being snatched. This, however, could be remedied by defeating that Heartless again, this time for good. But first I'd have to get back inside the whale. I climbed onto the tail and carefully treaded across the whale's smooth skin until I reached its blowhole. I jumped into it, landing back in the mouth. And wouldn't you know it, I fell right on the boat, next to the old man. He had been sleeping, and my crash landing stirred him. I dove into the water just as he fully came to his senses. "Pinocchio? Sora? Where are you?" I didn't want to deal with this old coot, but I couldn't stay here. It was then I noticed a hole above the one I had first gone into. I recalled the Heartless had pulled itself upwards, so going upwards myself seemed like a logical course of action. I noticed a wooden pile that extended upwards toward a pathway which conveniently stretched to the higher opening, so I quietly jumped my way up off extending platforms. Once I got to the pathway, however, the old man finally noticed me, just as Sora and his almighty warriors dropped in. "Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please, give me back my son!"
His son? Then this man must have made Pinocchio. Although how he got Pinocchio to be animate and, more importantly, to possess a heart, was beyond me. But whatever his methods, I needed the puppet more than he did. "Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet."
"He's no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!" This man, in addition to possessing the ingenuity to construct a facsimile boy, must have had the quality of senility. This puppet may walk, talk and have a heart like little boys, but in the end he's a compilation of buttons and nails. Yet how could buttons and nails have a heart....?
"He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost their's." It was true. I wasn't fully convinced this would work. But I'd try anything to restore life to her.
"Wait a minute. Are you talking about Kairi?"
Wow. As quick as his thoughts as he was with his friends. "What do you care about her?" I spat, then immediately ran into the higher opening. I'd wasted enough time here already. Once I walked through the hole, I was greeted with a series of platforms and Heartless. Like before, I wasted no time in fighting them, I only jumped my way up the platforms. I saw a hole, which was constantly opening and closing, at the top, so I headed toward that. It turned out I didn't need to, as I was sucked up the hole when I got close enough. I was deposited in a room with a central platform, along with many other platforms attached to the wall around it. The only way to go was up, so I set Pinocchio down and paused to think.
******************************************************************************
Why was I constantly running away from Sora? What did I have to gain from making him follow me like this? What did I have to hide? Did I want to make sure he didn't stop me from taking Pinocchio? Did he really not want to save Kairi? Then I remembered our life back on Destiny Islands. How the three of us had always played together, sometimes with Selphie, Tidus and Wakka, but usually on our own. How much fun we had. Could it really be possible that Sora had ignored all this and started a new life with those creatures? I had accepted it as a sad truth when Maleficent convinced me of it, but now that I thought about it without her leaning over my shoulder, I began to think that there was no way Sora could have forgotten about either Kairi or myself. Come to think of it, I didn't know whether he had joined up with those two characters by choice or not. Maybe he had only wanted to go with them temporarily, until he found me. I decided I'd give him another chance. He now knew what I wanted with Pinocchio. And if he loved Kairi enough, he'd want the same thing. With the Keyblade master by my side, I could shed my dependence on the witch and we could save her... together, as friends. At this point he entered. It was the moment of reckoning for us both. "Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku."
"A puppet that's lost his heart to the Heartless..." I gestured toward the said puppet. "Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi," I stated. I wanted to have the proposition fresh in his mind. Then came the leap of faith. "How about it Sora?" I asked, extending my hand toward him. "Let's join forces to save her. We can do it, together." Almost instantaneously his Keyblade was out. I had built myself up so heavily for this moment that at first I couldn't believe his gesture. "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" "Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience."
"Conscience?" I repeated. What did that have to do with anything? We had to save Kairi... no matter what.
"You might not hear it, but now it's loud and clear. And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!"
Well, that was it then. I couldn't possibly understand how he thought anyone trying to save one of his best friends could be on the wrong side, but since he wasn't a part of the solution, he was part of the problem. "Then you leave me no choice."
"Pinocchio! Pinocchio!" An incredibly short insect was pleading with the heartless puppet. I made a move to brush the insect aside and claim Pinocchio, but was stopped short when the puppet's eyes suddenly opened partway and he spoke.
"Jiminy..." he groaned. "I'm not gonna make it." I was flabbergasted. His heart had been stolen by the Heartless! How could he simply wake up? Granted, he didn't look fully awake, as his eyes were drooping and his breath labored, but the idea of him waking up at all was preposterous! But then an even odder thing happened. His nose increased in length, by about three or four inches. His eyes opened wider and his voice grew louder and more enthusiastic. Pinocchio was exactly the same way he'd been before. "Oh! I guess I'm okay!" The insect began to jump around in excitement. Now I was dumbstruck. His heart can't simply come back to him! Then his nose shrunk down to the length I was used to. At this point I really didn't understand what was going on. And to top it all off, the Heartless from before fell from out of nowhere onto the central platform. If Pinocchio's heart had truly made its way back to him, then the Heartless probably wanted it back. I noticed one of Maleficent's portals appear behind me, and it didn't take me long to accept. If Sora cared about Pinocchio and his heart more than he did Kairi and hers, then he was going to have to defend it alone. Furthermore, if Pinocchio could regain his heart once, then he could probably do it again, before I could give it to Kairi. So I left Sora, his companions and the Heartless there, terminating whatever past life we'd had together.
******************************************************************************
All the dialogue within Monstro is taken word for word from the game. I used Oliver Kong’s script from Gamefaqs.