Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 3: Stars Amidst Darkness

Chapter 4

Meta Knight | メタナイト

Sighing heavily, I take a close look around my training room to see if I've missed anything. I've packed some dried food in case Sakura forgets to gather some herself, some blankets, some electric lanterns; all the things I brought along on our quest to fight the Lightning, really. I can't think of anything else we might need, but I've still got the sort of nervous feeling that usually means I've forgotten something.

That's not what you're nervous about, some buried part of my subconscious reminds me.

I try to shove it away. Just because we're all going on a quest together again doesn't mean it's going to end the same way the last one did. I'm not going to lose her again.

By her, do you mean Sakura, or Blossom? the same pesky part of my subconscious asks.

I roll my eyes. Both, I think back at it. She's the same person, after all. In an effort to hush it up, I go over to one of my chests of various items and artifacts and take out a couple extra strands of rope, which I tug segments of in my gloves to make sure it's still good and strong. The coarse material scratches over and catches on my gloves here and there, so I have to be careful to avoid tearing the fine fabric with the rough twine.

The voice in my head, unfortunately, still refuses to shut up. What if she never remembers, though? What if you never really get Blossom back?

All the better, then, for her happiness. I'll just be content knowing she's alive, I respond. That alone is more than I was ever expecting, after all. And if she remembers everything that happened in River Village... I sigh once again. I don't want her to have to relive some of the events we experienced.

I am silent inside for a moment, but my subconscious is, surprisingly, kind enough not to poke in again—at least, for now. With a firm nod, I tuck the rope into the depths of my cape and then turn to go, only for a knock to sound at the door a moment later.

"Sir Knight?" Sakura's voice—but with, still, the obvious traces of Blossom's accent—calls out to me. "May I come in?"

"I'm finished in here; I'll come to you," I call back to her as I cross the room to open the door. When I do, I am met with the sight of Blossom's face grinning up at me, taking me back to a hundred different childhood memories all at once. For probably the hundredth time today, I fight back an overly-emotional reaction and try to shove all of the memories out of mind for the time being.

She steps aside so I can switch off the lights, step outside, and shut the door. "I made sure to pack plenty of bread and dried fruit and stuff," she tells me. "The Waddle Dees were surprisingly helpful, considering that, last I remember, they were still ignoring me."

"They might not recognize you as a Waddle Dee at all, anymore," I muse as I fiddle with the key in the old lock, trying to get the grinding old mechanism to click into place. "They might assume you're a new inhabitant of the castle." After all, in some sense, you are.

Her presence turns slightly sadder in response. "Maybe so."

"Chin up, Lady Dee," I remind her gently, making a face once more at the way the words feel ever-so-slightly wrong coming out of my mouth in reference to her. She is Sakura, she is Lady Dee, and yet, she's more than that. And the fact that I can't acknowledge that truth makes the whole situation feel just the tiniest bit off-putting. "Even if they don't remember you, you'll always have a place with me, Kirby, and Bandanna Dee. You know that, correct?"

"Yeah," she agrees. As the lock finally clicks into place, I turn to her, only to have my mask come within two or three inches of a giant, knit face. "And Dweebert too, now, I guess."