[Play Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - Thirteenth Discretion]
The principal lowered himself enough to study her face, one hand reaching to turn her head slightly as though she were a specimen from a shelf rather than a student's project. Luz held herself stiffly, trying to keep her expression dull and abomination-like while her eyes betrayed more panic than sludge could hide.
"Hmm. Abomination, rise."
Luz obeyed at once, pushing herself upright with jerky obedience. Her knees almost locked from nerves, and she tried to let her arms hang loosely at her sides the way Amity's abomination had done.
"Abomination, lie."
"Uh, viral fame is a worthy pursuit. Your cat would never eat you if it got the chance. Chemtrails are real—"
"Oh, no, abomination. How strange for it to get the command wrong. I mean, lie down." Principal Bump pointed to a nearby desk.
Luz whimpered softly and moved toward it. She climbed onto the desk and stretched herself out, trying not to look toward Willow too desperately as her disguise stuck to the wood in damp purple patches. Sora remained behind Willow and Gus, his body still and his attention sharp, while Amity watched from near the door with the restless satisfaction of someone waiting for a lie to tear open.
"So very lifelike," Principal Bump said.
He approached the desk with Willow beside him, the red demon on his head casting a strange little shadow over his face. Willow's hands fidgeted at her sides, and Gus stood with his mouth slightly open, clearly trying to think faster than the room was moving.
"When Miss Blight told me about your abomination, I had to come by, see what she's made of."
Willow seized on the safest possible answer and reached for her school things. "Oh, I have her list of ingredients right here."
Hearing that caught Sora's attention.
"No. We were hoping..." Principal Bump slipped one hand into his sleeve and drew out a dagger, its edge catching the classroom light. "for a closer look. Willow, I'll allow you the first cut."
Willow accepted the dagger because refusing it would have drawn attention even faster. Her smile was small, brittle, and terrified. She stepped toward Luz, who lay rigid on the desk, the two of them close enough now that Willow could speak under her breath without Principal Bump immediately hearing.
"Uh, you can't just cut open a human, can you?"
Luz shook her head, quick and small.
"Willow, go ahead and make the first incision."
[End Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - Thirteenth Discretion]
Gus suddenly lifted his hand, his voice breaking in the moment before Willow could be forced another step. "Wait, Principal Bump! Uh, high five!"
He lunged into action with all the desperate confidence of a boy who had learned a human custom minutes ago and was now using it as a battle strategy. His movement knocked into three nearby abomination pots. They toppled from their places with heavy ceramic clunks, breaking open across the floor. Purple goo spilled out in thick streams, ran together, and rose as the mixed abominations pulled themselves upright in unstable, groaning forms.
"Run!"
Luz and Willow bolted from the classroom. Luz slid off the desk and hit the floor running, while Willow dropped the dagger and snatched at the doorway as they disappeared into the hall. The sudden abomination mess lurched between the others and the exit, buying only a few seconds, but seconds were enough.
[Play Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - Scent of Silence]
Principal Bump and Amity turned toward the remaining movement in the room, and for the first time their attention landed fully on Sora. He had stayed back too long to remain unnoticed now. Amity's eyes widened, then narrowed as recognition struck her.
"You! You were with them the whole time! You knew about them! Who or what is that 'abomination'?! Who are you?! And how did you even get in here without suspicion?!"
Gus cut in before Sora could answer, still standing near the spreading abomination goo. "He was given a tour of the school!"
"What?"
Principal Bump's gaze settled more heavily on Sora, his suspicion sharpening. "Strange. I don't recall authorizing any tours or allowing guests."
"Uhh..."
Sora glanced toward the open doorway where Luz and Willow had fled, then toward Principal Bump and Amity. The false explanation had lasted as long as it was going to last. His hand moved, and light gathered around it.
"Aw, forget it!"
[End Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - Scent of Silence]
[Play Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Tumbling]
His Keyblade appeared in his grip in a burst of bright force, and he immediately unleashed a flash of light that filled the classroom from wall to wall. Amity cried out and threw an arm up. Gus stumbled back. Principal Bump stiffened, his hand lifting too late to stop the glare. In the white brilliance, Sora ran for the door, slipping past the disoriented abominations and out into the hall as fast as his feet could carry him, hoping to catch Luz and Willow before the school closed around them.
The light faded. The classroom returned in pieces: overturned pots, shivering purple goo, blinking students, Amity's furious face, and Principal Bump standing very still.
"They're getting away!" Amity said.
"No," Principal Bump answered. "The intruders won't get far."
He crossed to the wall with measured purpose. Raising one hand, he traced a large spell circle across the stone, the motion precise and practiced. The circle burned into place, and then he slammed his palm into the center of it. Red light burst outward in branching patterns, running along the walls and spilling across the floor like veins waking beneath the school's skin.
[End Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Tumbling]
Willow and Luz ran until the hallway bent ahead of them and forced them to stop. Both of them came up against the corner breathless, Luz with abomination goop still clinging to her clothes and hair, Willow with her hood half-slipped back and her hands braced on her knees. Behind them, the school had begun to change. A red glow pulsed faintly along the seams of the walls, still distant, but spreading with the steady certainty of something that knew every corridor better than they did.
[Play Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - La Pace]
Luz looked at Willow, guilt rising through her panic as soon as they had enough quiet to hear themselves breathing. "This is all my fault, Willow. I just wanted to see what a real magic school was like."
Willow managed to glance around the hall despite everything. The polished floor, the tall windows, the banners, the lockers, the very walls now filling with Principal Bump's spell—all of it surrounded them at once. "Well, how do you like it?"
"It's lovely, actually."
The absurd honesty of it broke the fear for half a second. Both of them giggled, breathlessly and too loudly for fugitives.
"Hey!"
Luz and Willow turned at once. Sora came running toward them from the far end of the hall, his footsteps quick against the floor, his face brightening with relief as he saw them still standing.
"Sora!" Luz and Willow said together.
He slowed near them, looking first at Luz, then at Willow, searching for injuries. "Are you two ok?"
"Yeah," Luz and Willow answered. "How about you?"
"Welp, they found me out. So I bailed."
[End Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories OST - La Pace]
Willow straightened, the danger returning to her face as the red patterns crawled closer along the walls. "Okay, we should get out of here before—"
The spell reached the nearest doorway. Red light gathered at the frame, then snapped across the opening in a hard, glowing shield. Another doorway sealed a few yards away, then another beyond it, each barrier forming as the lines spread through the school like burning veins. The halls that had seemed enormous before began to feel smaller with every closing path.
"...Bump seals us in."
Sora turned sharply, spotting one opening ahead that had not yet been claimed by the spell. "Look!"
Luz and Willow followed his gaze. The doorway stood clear for the moment, its frame still pale stone rather than red light.
"Let's go!"
[Play Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Tumbling]
The three of them ran. Willow's shoes slipped once on the polished floor before she caught herself, Luz kept one hand on her messy disguise to stop it from flapping apart, and Sora stayed close enough to cover them if anything came from behind. They reached the central atrium, where the school opened around them in broad circular levels, gold railings curving over the empty space and tall columns rising from floor to ceiling. But even there, the spell kept moving. Doorways around the atrium sealed one by one, red shields flashing into place beneath banners and arches.
A shadow fell across them.
They turned and gasped. Principal Bump stood across the atrium, composed and severe, directing a cluster of abominations toward them with a lifted hand. The purple creatures dragged themselves forward in uneven, heavy motions, their bodies groaning as they spread out to cut off the paths between the columns.
The three ran only a short distance before there was nowhere good to go. They ducked behind a pillar, pressing themselves against the stone while the abominations moved on the other side. Willow slid down to the floor, fear and shame finally catching her all at once.
"Oh, this is awful." She sank lower, wrapping her arms around herself. "I don't know what to do. Amity's right. I'm just Half-a-Witch Willow."
Luz crouched in front of her, still dripping purple goop, her expression fierce despite the mess. "You're Full-Witch Willow. And you're great."
Sora knelt beside them, keeping one eye on the edge of the pillar while speaking gently enough that only Willow would hear him clearly. "Luz is right. You're good at magic. We saw how you healed that flower earlier today. You're really good with plants."
Willow's face warmed. Even with abominations searching the atrium and red shields cutting off the exits, the praise reached her in a way she had not expected. She looked between them, her blush small but visible, and a fragile smile broke through her fear.
Luz's eyes sharpened with sudden memory. "And plus, someone once told me great witches are resourceful."
She dug into her pockets and pulled out everything she had been carrying: bits of lint, scraps, and finally the greasy slime ball from the beach. It sat in her hand, wobbling faintly, the same disgusting lump Eda had insisted she keep. Willow stared at it, then reached for it with sudden recognition.
"That's it!" She took the slime ball.
"You mean that greasy slime ball?"
"Luz, it's a seed! Thank goodness you had it on you."
"Yeah. Thank goodness someone told me to hold on to it."
Willow placed the seed in her lap and drew a spell circle over it with careful, urgent motion. Green light gathered around her hand, cleaner and brighter than the red magic sealing the halls. Her voice trembled, but it held.
"Please grow!"
The seed split open.
Thorny vines burst upward, not as scattered lashes of anger this time, but as a great living surge guided by Willow's hands and will. They climbed the pillar, whipped across the atrium, and reached for the ceiling in thick twisting lengths. Abominations turned toward them too late. The vines stabbed through the purple creatures and lifted them away from the floor, pinning some against walls and sweeping others aside as if clearing debris from a garden path.
[End Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Tumbling]
Principal Bump looked up as the growth rushed toward him. The vines wrapped around him and carried him upward, sending him to the ceiling and pinning him there with firm, flowering force. He gasped, not in simple fear, but in startled recognition.
Within moments, the atrium had changed completely. Vines curled around pillars, crossed the railings, and climbed from the lowest floor to the high ceiling. Pink petals drifted down through the open air, soft against the stone and polished floors, while flowers opened along several of the thorned lengths in bright clusters. The red spell lights faded from the doorways, overpowered or interrupted by the sudden living growth filling the heart of the school.
Principal Bump stared at the transformation from where the vines held him. "Remarkable."
Luz saw the nearest barrier vanish. "There's the exit!"
Willow set the seed down on the floor, her hands lingering over it for one grateful second before she rose. Then she followed Luz toward the open doorway, with Sora close beside them as petals continued to fall through the atrium behind them.
Amity stepped into the open doorway before they could reach it, planting herself between them and the path out. The last of Willow's vines still curled through the atrium behind them, shedding soft pink petals over the floor, but the hall ahead had narrowed around Amity's small, furious figure.
"Not so fast!"
Luz and Willow gasped, stopping short.
Amity's eyes locked on Willow with the sharp certainty of someone who had carried the same thought through every hallway and classroom since the badge had changed hands. "I'm not letting you get away so easily. I. Want. My. Badge!"
Sora moved to the front before Willow could answer. He looked from Amity's face to Willow's startled expression, then back again, trying to understand how this had become the thing that mattered most in the middle of everything that had just happened.
"Wait, what? A badge?"
Willow's hand moved uncertainly to the front of her uniform. "She's talking about this badge."
She showed Sora the top student badge. Its gold star caught the hall light, bright and small against all the panic that had carried them there. Sora looked at it, and then the day arranged itself in his mind: Amity earlier, pointing at her own badge after the abomination had drawn a little star on Willow's forehead; the teacher taking the badge from Amity after class and giving it to Willow; Amity's glare in the cafeteria, her suspicion, her fury. All of it had been circling this little piece of metal.
Sora turned to Amity, incredulous. "Wait... that's what this is about?! You've been giving Willow nothing but grief over some badge?!"
Amity pointed at him, her face tightening with offended disbelief. "Clearly you don't get it! That badge symbolizes superiority. Proof of high-level skill. ME!"
Then she turned her finger toward Willow, and the force in her voice sharpened until the hall seemed to hold still around it.
"I'M the top student! SHE is not! SHE'S just half-a-witch! A NOBODY!"
[Play Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - Tears of the Light]
The words struck harder than any spell Amity had thrown that day. For a moment, the halls fell silent, no footsteps, no distant bell, only the faint rustle of petals drifting somewhere behind them in the atrium. Willow looked down. Her shoulders drew inward, and she pulled her hood forward until it shadowed her face, but not before Luz and Sora saw the shine of tears gathering in her eyes.
Luz took a step toward her, anger and concern rising together. "Willow—"
Willow's hand clenched around the badge before Luz could say anything more. She stood there shaking for one breath, then another, and when she lifted her head, the tears were still there, but anger was included.
"You are such a stupid brat!" Willow yelled.
Amity flinched, not just because of the insult alone, but because Willow had said it with such anger she'd never before.
"You really want the badge that badly?" Willow shouted as she ripped the badge from her uniform with a sharp tug. "Fine! Take it!"
Willow threw the badge down hard. It struck the floor between them with a small metallic crack that sounded much louder in the silence.
"I don't care about it! I never cared about the badge! All I ever wanted was to do my best! But no matter how hard I try, you and everyone else always find a way to make me feel like I'm never good enough!"
Her voice broke at the end, and she turned away before anyone could answer.
"But I guess that's who you really are. In the end... you're rotten to the core."
She ran down the hall, her hood still pulled forward, one hand up near her face as though she could hold herself together long enough to get out of sight.
"Willow!" Luz called out, starting to run after her.
[End Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - Tears of the Light]
But Sora didn't move right away. His eyes were on Amity. For a moment, beneath the shape of her anger and the pride she held so tightly around herself, he saw it. Darkness.
"Sora?" Luz said, torn between him and Willow's retreating footsteps.
Sora did not look away from Amity. "Luz, go find Willow."
"Sora—"
"Go."
Luz paused. The firmness in his voice stopped her from arguing, though worry stayed clear on her face. Then she turned and ran after Willow, leaving Sora in the hall with Amity, the fallen badge, and the dark pressure only he seemed to notice gathering around her.
Amity stood in the hallway with Willow's words still hanging around her. For a moment she did not move toward the badge. Her eyes remained on the path Willow had taken, and something uncertain crossed her face so quickly that it might have been missed by anyone who had not been watching. The anger had not left her, but Willow's voice had reached some place beneath it, a place Amity did not seem ready to examine. Her mouth tightened. She shook the feeling off as if it were an insect near her ear, then knelt with renewed pride to reclaim what she believed belonged to her.
Sora moved before her fingers reached it. He planted his right foot firmly over the gold star, pinning it to the floor.
[Play Terra - Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST Extended]
Amity looked up at him, disbelief flashing into outrage.
"What the heck? Move!"
She shoved at him with both hands, but Sora did not budge. The polished hall echoed faintly with the scuff of her boots as she tried again, harder this time, and found him still standing over the badge as though he had rooted himself there. Her face twisted, and she swung a punch toward him in a burst of frustrated fury.
Sora caught the motion with a calm step and drove his palm forward. The strike was not cruel, but it was firm enough to send Amity skidding backward across the floor. She caught herself near the wall, one hand braced out and her eyes blazing as her boots squeaked to a stop.
"What's your deal?!"
Sora glared at her from over the badge, his shoulders squared and his voice low with anger held tightly under control. "You caused all this trouble just cause you can't handle Willow having her moment in the spotlight for once."
Amity drew herself upright, gathering wounded pride around herself as if it were armor. "She doesn't deserve it."
"And you think you're so great?"
"I don't 'think'. I KNOW I am."
Sora's eyes narrowed. The last petals from Willow's magic drifted into the hall behind him, pale against the red remnants of Bump's spell lines fading from the walls. He lifted one hand, and light gathered into shape with a bright metallic sound. The Keyblade appeared in his grip, its strange form catching Amity's eye despite herself.
"In that case..."
He pointed the Keyblade at her.
"I challenge you to match!"
Then he stepped back, bent down, and picked up the badge. Without taking his eyes off Amity, he placed it on himself.
"Hey!" Amity snapped. "That's mine!"
"Since you're so great, you should have no problem taking it from me."
Amity stared at him for a heartbeat, then scoffed. Her smirk returned, sharp and confident, though the dark pressure around her still clung close enough for Sora to feel it. She looked at the Keyblade, thinking it was some decorative wand, then at the badge on his chest, and the challenge seemed to arrange itself in her mind as something simple, something she could win and display and use to erase the words Willow had left behind.
"With pleasure. As the top student, I'll defeat you easily. Abominations, attack!"
The abominations lurched forward at her command. Their heavy purple bodies dragged themselves across the hallway, groaning as they charged Sora from several directions. Amity's smirk widened as they closed in, but Sora only lowered the Keyblade slightly and exhaled.
[End Terra - Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST Extended]
"Stop," he quietly muttered.
The word passed through the hall like a key turning in a lock as time froze instantly.
"Freeze."
And so, time resumed.
Before Amity could make sense of what she was seeing, she found her abominations suddenly encased in ice blocks. Even more to her shock, Amity herself was trapped in a block of ice, rendering her body, except from the neck up, frozen solid.
"What the- how did you- what did you-?!"
Amity struggled at once. Her shoulders jerked uselessly inside the ice, her fingers trapped where they had curled in surprise. The block did not crack. The more she fought it, the more helpless the motion looked, and the shock in her eyes sharpened into fury.
Sora de-summoned his Keyblade. The light around his hand faded, leaving only the quiet hallway, the frozen abominations, and Amity's ragged breathing.
"You lose."
Amity stared at him as if the words themselves were impossible. Sora reached up and pulled the top student badge from where he had placed it on himself. For a moment he held it out between them, letting her see the little gold star that had pulled so much cruelty from her over the course of one day. Then he closed his right hand around it.
The metal bent with a sharp, ugly crunch.
Amity's eyes widened.
Sora's fist tightened, and the badge gave way completely. When he opened his hand again, the pieces slipped through his fingers and fell to the floor in broken flecks of gold and twisted backing. They scattered near Amity's frozen feet, useless now, no longer bright enough to mean what she had wanted it to mean.
"How dare you!" Amity yelled.
Sora turned away from her and started down the hall.
"Hey!" Amity shouted after him, straining against the ice again. "Get me out of here!"
He stopped. For a few seconds, he stood with his back to her, the last of Willow's pink petals drifting past him and landing near the shattered badge. Then he gave a small scoff without looking back.
"Hey, you're the 'top' student, right? Get yourself out."
[Play Kingdom Hearts BBS OST Night in the Dark Dream (Realm of Darkness)]
He turned enough to face her again, his expression no longer heated with the first rush of anger. It had settled into something firmer and colder, the kind of seriousness that did not need to be loud.
"I don't know what your deal is exactly," he said, "but I can tell that whatever it is, it's unnatural. But one thing I do know for certain, there's a lot of darkness in your heart because of your inflated ego. If you don't let go of that, then it'll be the end of you."
Amity's glare faltered for a fraction of a second, not because she accepted the warning, but because it struck too close to whatever uncertainty Willow's words had already stirred. Sora did not wait for her to answer. He turned and began walking away again, his steps even across the polished floor.
Then he stopped once more and glanced back over his shoulder.
"Before I forget," he said.
Amity's jaw tightened.
"You keep saying Willow is weak, and that you're better than her. You called her half-a-witch all day. But here you are, defeated." His eyes stayed on hers, steady and unkind only in their honesty. "Well, guess what... Willow was never 'half-a-witch'. You are."
He turned away for good this time, leaving Amity frozen in the hall with her abominations trapped around her and the broken badge glittering in pieces at her feet.
For a moment she was silent. The words worked through her anger, through her pride, through the humiliation she could not move enough to hide. Then Amity threw her head back as far as the ice would allow and yelled in frustration, the sound echoing through the sealed hallway long after Sora had disappeared around the corner.
[End Kingdom Hearts BBS OST Night in the Dark Dream (Realm of Darkness)]
The main entrance of the school was quieter now, though the quiet had come after too much noise to feel peaceful. The great doors stood shut behind the wide front hall, and the pale light from the windows fell across the floor in long, softened shapes. Farther back, through the open passageways and across the atrium, Willow's vines still filled the heart of Hexside, curling around pillars, railings, and upper balconies with flowers blooming among the thorns. Pink petals drifted down now and then, gentle in a place that had spent the last few minutes full of shouting, running, and spells.
Willow sat near the entrance with her knees drawn close and her face buried in her arms. Her hood hung forward, hiding most of her expression, but the small tremors in her shoulders made the sobs impossible to miss. Luz sat beside her, one hand moving lightly over Willow's back, her own face drawn with worry and guilt. She did not try to fill the silence with too many words. She stayed close, letting Willow cry as the last of the fear and hurt worked through her.
Footsteps approached from the hall.
"Hey."
Luz and Willow looked up. Sora was walking toward them, his pace steady now that the danger had passed. Willow quickly wiped at her face and stood with Luz, though her eyes were still wet and her breathing uneven.
"Sora, what happened?" Luz asked.
"I challenged Amity to a match."
Willow gasped. "You did what?"
Luz leaned forward at once. "Did you win?"
"Oh yeah," Sora said. "She wasn't tough at all. In fact, turned her into an ice sculpture."
Willow's eyes widened.
"You froze her?!" Luz asked.
"Don't worry, she's fine. Right now, she's having a meltdown about her loss to what she believed me to be an inferior person."
Luz stared at him for half a second, then broke into a grin. "Totally cool."
She lifted her hand, and Sora met it with a clean high five, the sound echoing lightly beneath the entrance arch.
Willow stared at them, still trying to fit the image of Amity frozen in the hallway into the day she had already survived. "Wow. But why would you challenge her?"
Sora's expression eased, but the answer came plainly. "Amity's ego was really getting on my nerves; I figured she needed a cool-off."
Luz chuckled at that, unable to help herself.
Sora's expression softened when he looked back at Willow. "But more importantly, when she said all that horrible stuff about you, I couldn't help it. I don't like people who hurt my friends."
[Play Kingdom Hearts 2 - Dearly Beloved]
Willow went still. The surprise reached her before the meaning did, and when it did, her eyes lit with something fragile and unbelieving.
"F-friends?"
Sora nodded as if there had never been any question. "It's not fair that people look down on you just because of one skill you have trouble with. I mean, look at all of that."
He gestured back toward the atrium. Willow followed his hand, and so did Luz. The vines stretched through the school like a living monument to the very magic Willow had been told to ignore. They wound around stone columns, climbed toward the ceiling, and held their flowers open in the filtered light. The petals continued to fall, small and pink, gathering over the floor where abominations had been stopped, and doors had reopened.
"When I said that your control with plants is really good, I mean it," Sora said. "This is proof, and 'really good' doesn't begin to cover it."
He turned back to Willow and placed his hand on her shoulder. The gesture was careful, warm, and steady enough that Willow did not flinch from it.
"Willow, you may not be a pro when it comes to abominations, but that doesn't mean you're not a good student. If anything, seeing this work of yours, in my eyes, you're more than good enough. You are not half-a-witch. You are the best."
Willow looked at him as though she needed to hear the words twice before she could believe they had truly been said to her. "Do you really mean that?" she asked, her voice small but hopeful. "And... you really do want to be friends with me?"
"Of course," Sora said, and his smile brightened without hesitation.
Luz leaned in beside him, eager and gentle at once. "And if you wanna throw me in the mix, you get two."
Willow tried to smile, but her eyes filled again before she could manage it. This time the tears came differently. They did not fold her inward or send her hiding beneath her hood. She wiped at them with the back of her hand and then stepped forward, hugging both of them before her courage could disappear. Luz hugged her back at once, squeezing tightly despite the dried abomination goop still clinging to her clothes, and Sora returned the embrace with quiet warmth.
"Thank you..." Willow whispered.
They stood that way for a moment beneath the entrance hall light, with petals drifting far behind them and the whole school slowly recovering around their small circle. When they let go, Willow breathed a little more evenly and looked back toward the vines.
"You two should go. I gotta stay here and clear out these vines."
Luz shook her head immediately. "Wait, at least let us help."
Sora looked toward the atrium, then back at Willow. "I think Willow's got this, Luz."
"But, Sora—"
"It's ok," Willow said. Her voice was still soft, but it no longer sounded broken. "He's right. I got this. Go on."
Luz hesitated. Leaving Willow there felt wrong after everything that had happened, but Willow's posture had changed. She was not shrinking from the work. She was looking at it as something that belonged to her, something she had made and could now guide back into order.
"Ok," Luz said at last. "Bye."
"Bye, Willow," Sora said. "Hope to meet up again sometime."
Willow turned her head toward them, and this time her smile came bright and unhidden. "We will."
Luz and Sora walked through the great doors, waving as they went. Willow lifted her hand in return, standing in the entrance hall with the vines waiting behind her. The door closed behind them with a heavy, echoing sound.
Outside, Luz paused on the front steps and looked back at the school, her expression still carrying a little worry. Sora placed his hand on her shoulder.
"She'll be fine."
Luz let out a small breath, then nodded. "Yeah."
[End Kingdom Hearts 2 - Dearly Beloved]
Luz walked beside Sora with dried abomination goop still clinging to places on her clothes, though she hardly seemed to notice it now. Her mind was still back in the entrance hall, where Willow had smiled through tears and stood in front of the vines as if she finally believed they belonged to her.
"Sora?"
"Yeah?"
Luz looked over at him as they walked. "You did an amazing job cheering Willow up with your words."
Sora gave a small shrug, but there was warmth in it rather than dismissal. "I do what I can."
A familiar figure appeared farther down the road, waiting with the kind of slouch that made impatience look like leisure. Eda stood near the path with King nearby, her staff balanced against one shoulder and her expression already suspicious of whatever state the two of them had returned in. Luz's eyes widened with sudden delight.
"Eda!"
She ran up to Eda and hugged her before the older witch could retreat. Eda stiffened at once, arms half-raised and face twisting with the same discomfort she always showed when affection arrived without warning.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! What is this? Ugh! I never understand when you do this."
Luz held on anyway, too full of relief and excitement to care. "Your lesson worked! Keeping junk in my pocket saved my life!"
Sora caught up a few steps behind her, smiling at the strange truth of it. "Wait till you hear what happened with us."
Eda looked from the dried slime on Luz to the pleased look on Sora's face, then narrowed her eyes. "What happened?"
Before either of them could begin, two voices came from the direction of the school.
"Luz! Sora!"
Willow came running up the path, with Gus close behind her. She reached Luz and Sora in a rush and pulled them both into a group hug, all the happiness she had not had time to spend yet spilling out in one breath. Gus joined at the edge of it, equally thrilled to be included in any gathering involving humans, recent danger, and possible friendship customs.
Eda looked at the group with open bewilderment. "Seriously, what is that?"
Willow drew back just enough to speak, her face bright in a way neither Luz nor Sora had seen when they first met her in the woods. "You won't believe it, everything is perfect now!"
Luz blinked. "It's true. I don't believe it."
Sora leaned forward a little. "What happened?"
"Principal Bump was so impressed by my plant work he's switching me to the plant magic track! Look!"
[Play Sora's Victory Theme | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]
Willow stepped back, lifted her hands, and snapped her fingers. Green magic flared around her in a clean, lively glow, circling her sleeves and leggings as if the color had been waiting beneath the fabric all along. With a quick twirl, the magenta of her abomination track shifted to green, bright and fitting against her smile. Luz squealed and rushed into another hug.
"Yes!" Luz laughed. "Whoo!"
Willow hugged her tightly, then turned and hugged Sora with the same jubilation, her earlier shyness overwhelmed by gratitude.
"Haha, congrats, Willow!" Sora said.
"Thank you."
[End Sora Victory Theme | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]
They let go, and Luz glanced back toward the school with a more cautious kind of curiosity returning. "Oh. What about Amity?"
Gus lifted one hand as if reporting from a highly important field observation. "Last we saw, she was asking Bump if today could count as extra credit. Also, he was thawing out some ice she was covered in."
Sora placed his hands behind his head and grinned. "Ha!"
Luz and Willow giggled, the sound traveling lightly through the trees. For once, the thought of Amity did not pull Willow's smile away.
Luz turned back to Willow and Gus, already imagining another visit despite the danger, the disguise, and the principal with a knife. "Well, I can't wait to see you in action next time I sneak in."
Willow winced.
Gus reached behind him and produced two posters, holding them out with a careful grimace. "Uh, about that. You and Sora are kind of, sorta... banned."
The posters showed Luz and Sora beneath the large, unmistakable word "BANNED." Luz's eyes widened as she took in her own face marked as a school intruder, and beside her, Sora studied his poster with mild surprise, as though he had expected consequences but not official artwork.
Eda's face lit up with pride. "That's my kids!"
She cheered while Luz stared, still processing the fact that her first day at magic school had ended in a permanent ban. Willow placed one hand on Luz's shoulder and the other on Sora's, her expression turning gentle.
"But we could come here and teach you what we learned."
Luz softened at the offer. "Aw. That would be nice. But... I have a pretty great teacher already."
For a moment, Eda's usual smugness faltered into genuine surprise. Then happiness pushed through it, warm and unmistakable, though she quickly dressed it back up in her usual confidence.
"Yeah, that's right. Luz is MY student."
She snatched the posters from Gus and held them like trophies. "Back off, academy twerps."
The teens laughed. Eda looked down at the posters again, pride swelling in her voice as though Luz and Sora had brought home excellent report cards instead of ban notices.
"Ah, my two babies' first wanted posters."
She turned to Luz first. "Good job, kid. Looks like I taught you something after all."
Then she turned to Sora, eyeing him with amused approval.
"And you, Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, showing off a little bad boy side. I'm so proud of you."
Eda hooked both Luz and Sora close with one arm each and patted their heads with exaggerated fondness. Luz smiled despite the roughness of it, warmed by the praise, while Sora let out a small laugh and accepted the affection with good-natured embarrassment. The road, the school, and the whole chaotic day seemed to settle around them at last.
Gus stepped closer, watching Eda's hand pat their heads with sincere concern for the accuracy of human customs.
"Uh, you high-five with your hands, not your head."
Eda, Luz, and Sora all paused in confusion at Gus's words. Sora then approached Willow as he remembered something.
"Hey, Willow?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you still have that list of ingredients for abominations you mentioned earlier? When your principal walked in?"
Willow blinked, then remembered the paper she had tried to offer Principal Bump before everything had gone wrong. She reached into her pocket and drew out the folded list, its edges slightly bent from the day's running, hiding, and vine-related disaster. "Oh yeah."
"May I have it?" Sora asked politely. "I've been curious about how abominations actually work the whole day."
Willow's smile came. She held it out to him without hesitation, and the paper passed from her hand to his. "Sure! Now that I'm in a track I truly belong in, I don't need it anymore."
"Thanks, Willow."
Sora unfolded the list carefully. Luz leaned closer at once, still standing beneath the embarrassing glory of her banned poster while Eda watched with mild interest. The page was filled with ingredients, notes, measurements, and little specifications written in neat school handwriting, with marks that described consistency, binding behavior, stability, responsiveness, and the basic signs of a properly formed abomination.
Luz peered over his arm. "Think you can figure it out?"
Sora read down the list, his eyes moving from the ingredients to the notes and back again. The more he looked, the more the strange purple creatures from the classroom and hallway began to make sense as something less like simple goo and more like a constructed body held together by rules. He turned the page slightly to catch the light, then nodded.
"I think so," he said. "If I can, then abomination magic will be very useful in the long run."
Willow looked pleased that something from the track she was leaving behind might still help someone, and Gus looked fascinated by the possibility that a human might learn abomination theory. Eda, meanwhile, gave the list a sideways glance and smirked.