Act 8: Reunion With the Magical Princess

*Ka-shaaang!*

A large number of sharp shards of window glass are splattered on the luxurious scarlet carpet of the hotel’s annex…!

The monster’s powerful arms continued to mow down the interior glass walls of the second-floor atrium with all its might, gouging out at the floor, grabbing the white café table that had been launched, breaking it apart, and hurling it toward a single point.

*Ka-whaaam!*

The terrifying, destructive throws appeared to crush the poor waiter who happened to be present near the kitchen… but they were all blocked by a cobalt blue psychic barrier and they shattered into pieces.

“Don’t interfere with our business, monster! I’ll get rid of you!”

The one who cried out, his whole body glowing with a psychic green light, was Silver, a silvery-white psychic hedgehog.

The monster standing in his way was a giant golem made of a collection of toys and junk. Silver, his black waiter apron fluttering in the air, is about to exert his “power” at the monster when…!

*Ka-boooom!*

This time, an arrow of red flame grazes Silver’s side and hits the monster. It blows its huge body away.

After a thunderous roar, the maid, who had gone down as if protecting Silver while sweeping away the veil of flame, turned around with her elegant black silk apron skirt fluttering, and announced to him without moving an eyebrow.

“Get out of here, waiter. This is no place for a civilian.”

…Silver is not amused by being suddenly interrupted and treated as an amateur.

“You’re a maid, aren’t you, telling me this? Who even are you?!”
“The protector of the weak against evil demons… I’m Blaze, the Magical Princess!”

“Magical… princess…?”

Blaze jumped into the monster, leaving Silver in a daze for a moment. Silver was in a hurry to catch up with her and protested.

“Who are you calling ‘weak’?!”

The battle with the monster is defensive.

Blaze’s fire hits the monster, but it only shatters the surface of its body… and the fragments are soon drawn together by a mysterious force and return to their original state.

“First of all, I came here with the intention of going undercover as a maid, but I didn’t realize that I would suddenly find myself involved in a battle…”

Blaze, unable to move as much as she would like in her maid’s outfit, clicks her tongue.

“I was asked to be a bouncer at this coffee shop, too, and I was a waiter, anticipating the monster, but I didn’t know it was as big as this…”

Silver agrees that it is an unexpectedly tough foe.

“Actually, this place provides uniforms, you know? Why did you bring your own maid’s uniform?”
“Th-That so? Amy told me to wear this…”

Blaze flinched at the unexpected remark and blushed as she picked at the frills on the top of her shoulders, but then, trying to mend the situation, she turned around and spoke to Silver.

“D-Don’t move around in front of me! You are in my way and I can’t concentrate my firepower!”
“Your attacks aren’t working, are they? We need to find the weakness that’s triggering its recovery!”

Finally, the fight was ignored in favor of an argument. And the monster didn’t miss a beat…

*Thump! Ker-bonk…!*

The monster slowly and deeply gathered its strength, thrust both fists upward, and fired its full force toward the ceiling. The impact caused a massive collapse that penetrated the ceiling of the coffee shop floor and then the ceiling of the floor above to the roof of the hotel.

A huge waterfall of debris of terrifying weight swooped down on Blaze and Silver, the muddy stream growing stronger as it fell. When they looked up, it seemed that it was too late…

And the next moment, it happened!

“Haaah!”

Silver instantly leaps over Blaze’s head, and as if to shield her, he opens his arms and deploys a psychic barrier…! As he deflects and repels the incoming massive collapse, Blaze uses it as a decoy to repel the attack of the monster that attacked Silver from within the dust with a tackle, simultaneously blowing away the surrounding dust with an explosion of flames.

…This is a truly perfect coordination without any prearrangements in the moment. The two finally opened their mouths to talk, catching their breath in the midst of a near-critical situation.

“My body moved on its own… I feel like I’ve met you before.”
“…Right.”

Blaze then regained her posture, and while looking at the monster that was closing in on them, Blaze continued with a serious look on her face.

“I made two mistakes: first, I underestimated the enemy and came here unprepared.”

She continued in the same position, this time looking into Silver’s eyes.

“Waiter, can you give me 20 seconds…? Please.”
“I don’t mind, but… Before I do that, can I ask what was the second mistake?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Blaze nevertheless answered resolutely.

“Second, I looked down on and was disrespectful to a comrade I was supposed to rely on. Um…”

Silver interrupts Blaze’s words of apology, and accepts her request.

“It’s okay Blaze, it’s mutual! No problem. I’ll hold out for 20 seconds or even 200 years! …So, can I say something too?”
“…?”

“My name is Silver.”

The next moment, Blaze is immediately enveloped in a scorching fire. She closes her eyes and concentrates her mind… Silver intuits that she is trying to control some great power.

“Thank you, Silver. …Haaaahh!”

Blaze was willing to risk exposing her unprotected form to deliver the coup de grace that would change the situation in some way. The anticipation and trust inspired Silver.

“Let’s do this! Haahhh!”

Silver deploys his full power psychic energy in all directions. It holds debris throughout this floor, preventing the monster from restoring itself, while at the same time psychically smashing and pummeling everything in its path for a deterrent attack…! He protects Blaze.

However, a drawn-out battle defending something that does not move is a disadvantage. Since he has to take and endure every attack that comes his way without avoiding it, the situation is getting gradually worse and worse.

Silver’s strategy was to use his moves to keep it from attacking… but the monster, realizing his strategy, intensified its attacks even further.

Twenty seconds is a long time. How much longer can he hold out? When Silver’s knees were about to drop down after being hit by a series of projectiles…!

*Boooom!*

As the loud blast of fire spread, Blaze finally unleashed her power and blew away the monster in a dazzling blaze so blinding that he could not even open his eyes. She was ready.

“Haaah…! Mystic Sun, respond to the power of my flames…!”

One by one, the seven jewels on Blaze’s pochette grow luminous with flame as her power rises.

Just as the monster was about to attack with all its might, all the power implodes on her… Blaze declared the execution of the great force.

“Magical Princess Blaze! Burning Unlimited mode! Haaah!”

Wearing a garment of seven colors of flame, Blaze transformed into a single pillar of scorching heat. Huge wings of flame spread across her back for a moment, then quickly dissipated and condensed on her outstretched arms…! The flames rush toward the monster in a tremendous torrent of fire.

“Haaaaahhh!”
“Arrgghhh!”

The monster tried to resist with a defensive posture, but it could no longer withstand it as Silver supported Blaze from behind as it was pushed by the recoil of the flames, which increased in power.

Everything that formed the monster was blown away, and the energy body at the center of the monster exploded.

*Baaaaam!*

A great roaring explosion that seemed to reverberate to a distant island in the sky. The monster had finally disappeared.

“Chao-chaoooo!”

After the dust from the explosion finally dissipated, there was a small glowing Chao wailing in the remains of the monster’s blast.

The true identity of the monster was the residual thoughts of the Chao.

As Blaze and Silver watched, the glowing Chao eventually found a hole in the battered floor and happily walked into it, as if it had noticed something.

“…?”
“What’s this?!”

When the two followed the Chao and looked, to their surprise, they found a park in the basement of the coffee shop, under the floor, with clear water and abundant greenery.

Then, the glowing Chao advanced into it and looked around, then disappeared as a pale light with a satisfied smile. The two understood what it was all about…

“When they were building this coffee shop, they blocked off the Chao’s habitat…”
“So that monster was a mass of deep-seated grudges from the Chao who wanted to go back home.”

The two of them, now that they have a clear picture of what has happened, look satisfied with their settling of the issue… but breathe a sigh at the disastrous scene around them. The area is completely destroyed, and there is no trace of that wonderful interior.

“Well, we’ve more or less solved the case… we’re gonna have to clean up now that we’ve wrecked the place so spectacularly.”

Blaze smiled at Silver’s thoughtful tone and responded in a gentle manner.

“All right. What do you want me to do?”

When they looked up at the light coming in from above, they saw through the hole in the collapsed ceiling a dazzling blue sky cut out beautifully like a painting. It was filled with perfectly clear light, as if it reflected the cloudless sunshine of their hearts.

1 month later……

After a major renovation, that mysterious Chao park was connected as an open-air café area, and the restaurant was redesigned as “Chao Garden,” a maid-style café that combines formality and Chao-friendly warmth, and was very well received.

While Silver and Blaze are busy working there helping to rebuild the store, an unexpected visitor shows up. At first glance, the two stiffen without even serving the customer…

“S-Sonic…?! Are you Sonic?!”
“Why are you guys dressed like that? …Wait, we are too?! What the heck is going on?!”

The moment they saw Sonic, Blaze and Silver regained their original memories.

“Hey! You guys…!”

Sonic was surprised at this, but Tails did not miss the fact that Sonic and the others’ Chaos Emeralds… or their mutated ornaments, Blaze’s tail jewelry and Silver’s pendant, all glowed faintly at the same time. While Tails was pondering, the two traced the memories before and after the anomaly.

“The moment I came to this world under the guidance of the Sol Emeralds, I was caught in that light.”

So said Blaze as she patted the seven jewels in her pochette. She ponders what happened to Marine, who came with her.

“I was fighting at Eggman’s base just before. I was trying to keep some kind of weapon from activating…”

Silver is having a hard time remembering it well.

“But still, how did you both get your memories back?”

So asked Sonic when Tails took out his prized “energy sensor” and explained.

*Beep-beep-beep…*

“I knew it! Blaze’s tail jewelry and Silver’s pendant are mutated Chaos Emeralds! Just like ours!”

Based on the wavelength of the energy emitted, Tails explains that they are definitely Chaos Emeralds, and that they definitely glowed when the two regained their memories.

“As a phenomenon, anyway, Chaos Emeralds have the power to resist this anomaly. And one is not enough, but several are nearby, and one of them has the original memories… I’m thinking that’s a requirement for recovery.”
“That certainly seems to be the way to think of it. Way to go, Tails!”

Tails gets bashful from Sonic’s praise, and Blaze and Silver also respond.

“I hear that the Emeralds sometimes attract each other in times of crisis with their mysterious powers. This one of mine was forced on me by Amy because it was guided by the stars… Maybe this is one of those powers.”
“That’s a good point. I can’t believe that four of them can easily come together like this… Wait a sec, isn’t that strange? If that’s the case, how come Sonic and Tails, who only have one each, were fine?”

The natural question draws the eyes of all three to Tails.

“Well… at the moment the anomaly occurred, me and Sonic were both together, each with a Chaos Emerald. I think that’s why it was ineffective from the beginning… M-Maybe. Sorry, I can’t be certain…”

Tails was starting to lose confidence as he continued to reason on top of reasoning, but Sonic smiled and gave a big assurance.

“In other words, I’m safe because of Tails, and vice versa, right? Then it’s great, because it fits us like a glove! That settles it!”

Blaze and Silver agree as they look at Tails, who looks perplexed and greatly embarrassed.

“Indeed. It might be best to proceed at this point with a better interpretation of the detailed truth. Most importantly…”
“You figured out how to bring our friends back to normal!”

“Yes! You got it!”
“Yeah!”

Tails, finally regaining his bearings, began to propose a plan of action to his friends.

“…I’ll give Blaze and Silver the sensor as well. With this, we’ll split up to find the others who have the Chaos Emeralds and restore them! And finally, we’ll collect the seven Chaos Emeralds. I’m sure they’ll be our trump card.”

“Gotcha. I’m on board with your plan. I guess what happens after that will have to wait.”
“Understood. My Sol Emeralds say we should do just that.”

Blaze agrees, patting the Sol Emeralds, which emit a pale light of flame and shiver as if they’re nodding.

“This is getting interesting,” Sonic says in his usual tone of voice as he stands up, and the remaining three prepare to leave with fearless smiles on their faces.

“Watch out, Eggman. I don’t know what you’ve done, but we’re gonna hunt you down!”

Sonic and his team took another step forward, and with a new weapon of hope in their hands, they advanced by taking a few steps more…!

Source: Sonic Channel

Translation: Windii