"Sniiiiiff…I felt a big heap of energy around here!" André sneered to himself as he flew across the valley. "Yeh…I smell that Chiptoon like the inside of a toad's guts! It should be right around…!"
The region beyond the valley was eclipsed by an indescribable distortion. "Wait… isn't this place…" He was getting a sense of déjà vu. "I, uh… maybe I'll just wait 'til… someone clears this up first. Yeh! This is a… little too scary for my taking." (Play "Quiet and Falling" from Celeste.)
Dream 6: Mado no Nikki
Mission: Fix the Lost Dream.
Madotsuki first entered a green door. She had entered what appeared to be a forest of coniferous trees, but it appeared the trees were fizzing in and out of existence. A pink ghost drooling green was sitting on the path, and when Mado touched it, the ghost wrapped its tail around and stuck to her, its drool drooping on her head. Her movement was weighed as she could only run forward at a slower pace. Madotsuki jumped some small platforms to ascend a tree, but had to apply extra force to her legs with the ghost weighing her down. Once on the next ledge, a purple ghost threatened to latch onto her. Mado could water a small cloud with Sadness's Tears, which could bounce her just high enough to glide over the ghost, despite her weight.
Mado carefully jumped some tree platforms over a chasm, but upon missing a jump, she fell to a lower ground. There was a pair of green diamond pillars, and when she passed through, Mado was warped to a zone of floating Face Carpets, being released from the ghost's grasp. There were bird humanoids in normal clothes called Toriningen, chasing Madotsuki with insane purple eyes. She shot bubbles to take them down before leaping overhead, but it seemed she was unable to step on the fizzy Face Carpets. Mado instead made her way over the Toris to the other end of the room. She passed through another gate and returned to the forest zone. Madotsuki dropped down a few steps and discovered a frog. It was large enough to sit in her hands.
"A frog…?" Madotsuki knelt down and patted the amphibian.
A monochrome vision filled with static appeared in her mind. One night, it rained. But the next morning, it was partly cloudy. Puddles still filled the streets. A younger Madotsuki stood over one and viewed her reflection. Then a frog jumped in the puddle and rippled it. It happily hopped along. Madotsuki crouched like a frog and hopped in the puddle. "*&$H*(?" The next part of the vision was flooded with static, Mado unable to make anything out.
"I'm a frog." Her younger self answered. Then, there was more static. "Ribbit. Ribbit." Madotsuki hopped around the park. She jumped in all the puddles. She seemed to jump further each time. "Ribbit…" She saw a blonde-haired girl with a ponytail sitting behind a tree. "Ribbit." She looked rather lonely, so Madotsuki hopped over to her. She hopped on the lap of the girl's skirt. She merely stared at the frog with narrowed blue eyes. Mado hopped off. The girl stood up and walked away without a word.
Madotsuki's head morphed into a frog as the creature leapt into her window. The forest cleared of static, but as the trees gained a more solid shape, a red Aztec monkey began to hover in the dark sky. Mado returned to the Face Carpet Plaza and was able to jump on the floating faces, with the frog form adding a little boost in her jump. She avoided the spiky platforms that shifted left and right and discovered a rotating red block at the top.
Touching the block transported Mado to a dense Red Maze. The sight of it was a strain on her red eyes, and she wandered lost in the maze for a great many minutes. Perhaps it wasn't the longest time spent, but with nothing eventful happening, she would rather not recount the adventure.
Madotsuki eventually found a stack of red blocks and was warped to a checkered tile path. The narrow path of purple tiles was a welcome sight after the complexion of the maze, floating in a purple misty sky with floating lamp posts. There seemed to be a platform with a short lamp, tree, and cabinet underneath the path, but Mado had no way to drop down to it. She dealt with a Toriningen briefly before reaching a striped pyramid. Mado had to shrink herself via the potion to enter the pyramid's small entrance. She resized once on the other end, finding herself in a realm of candles.
There was no visible ground to stand on in this dark realm, so Mado was only able to jump across platforms of candles, using Sadness Tears to put them out. Some of the candles came to life, surprising her as they charged with a pair of legs. Mado had to quickly douse their fires before Bubbling the Walking Candles. Madotsuki reached a safe, long platform with a small dwarf. The dwarf perked and ran from Mado. She could catch up with her running speed, having to jump over candles that the dwarf could run through. It jumped up to a higher ground and ran the opposite way, Mado using a cloud platform to catch up. They were about to restart the loop on the lower path until Mado caught up and seized him.
One day, Madotsuki was at home, playing with her toys. She stacked blocks like buildings beside her dollhouse. She noticed how small the toys were compared to normal things. She wondered what it was like. "I wanna be small."
With another cluster of static, Madotsuki shrunk. She entered her dollhouse and explored it, interacting with each plastic item. She climbed her blocks and viewed the expanse of her room from the top. She always wanted to climb Karakura's big buildings, but this seemed just as fun.
Madotsuki shrank. "But I could already do that with the potion." But this time, she split into seven clones. Madotsuki resized for the time being and dropped to the lowest level of the Candle World. She found a black door that warped her back to the Door Nexus. "I guess I should just search for more of these memories. Sigh…I wonder where April and Marshadow are." She decided to enter the door close to the Forest Door.
Mado appeared in a hallway where the walls repeated purple faces with zippers and leg arms. Several orders of numbers would appear on the ground in random fashion. She wasn't very good at math, so it made sense if this were in her nightmare. Madotsuki navigated the maze and discovered a room full of floating beds. The beds served as excellent bouncing platforms, though the ones with lumps under the blankets would injure her as Wheelies popped out, circular heads with odd designs and human legs. After being attacked by the first Wheelie, she preemptively attacked the others. From the highest bed, Mado used her grappler to hook up to an enclosed area with 0's and 1's. Mado entered a red door and appeared in a dark world full of lamp posts.
Mado could cling and jump between the lamps, but as they were scattered all around the air, there was no clear path. This was until Mado realized some of the lamps were lit, so she only jumped toward those ones. Doing so brought her to a platform with a walking lamp. She picked the lamp up and placed it in her window.
"It's &^*)! I can't see anything!" Madotsuki cried. It appeared that there was a blackout in her house.
A lamp appeared amongst the sea of static, hanging from an unknown source.
Madotsuki's head became a lamp. …She didn't like this, so she turned back. "I could use that for a dark area. …Dark." Madotsuki noticed a word was muted in that flashback. "I couldn't see anything… because it was 'dark,' right?"
Madotsuki navigated the Lamp World for any other secrets. She discovered a short post on a lone platform. That post warped her back to the Checkered Path; the secluded platform with the cabinet she couldn't get to. She opened the cabinet to find… herself, sleeping in a curled position. There was a monochrome tail sticking out from behind her, so Mado used the magnifying lens to examine it.
The Kittentia went to go sit on a bed in a dark room and watch reruns of Danny Phantom for the next 1,000 years. Sephiroth was also in a corner of the room, stuffing himself with pots of honey.
Madotsuki backtracked to Lamp World, but with nowhere else to go, she backtracked to Number World and back to the Door Nexus. She entered a neon-lit door and entered an area that was rather dimly lit. There were worms, masks, and other monochrome creatures frozen like statues. Madotsuki had to navigate several rooms that branched into four paths, able to reach the upper paths with her Hookshot. Madotsuki eventually discovered the only colorful thing in this world: a Neon Parrot. When she approached the parrot, it entered her window.
Madotsuki wandered off on her own during a trip to the zoo. The bird exhibit contained a colorful parrot. "When it's dark, do parrots go bright?"
Static… "…I…n't know…"
"If I was a parrot, I'd wanna be a bright one!"
Madotsuki's body lit up like neon. All the monochrome walls and people in this zone attained such colors, creating a jovial atmosphere. Madotsuki giggled at the sight of the dancing glow worms. She was almost sad to exit this zone, but she couldn't stick around forever. After returning to the Door Nexus, the next area she chose to enter was one inhabited by fluorescent, ovular Shield Folk.
As she platformed across floating mounds of graffiti, the Shield Folk threatened to shove her off. However, they would position their shields overhead when she jumped, allowing Mado to platform on them and jump to higher ground. She reached a group of platforms where a pink cat token was flying around in an almost random fashion. In her attempt to jump the Shield Folk and catch it, Mado missed her jump and was booped down to the very bottom. Mado made her way up again, jumping the shields with more precision until she seized the token.
"I wanna be a cat." Mado said after seeing a cat pass by her house. In a brief moment of static, she turned into a pink little kitten. "Meow meow." She began to repeat as she wandered around on all fours. The ponytailed girl, who Mado nicknamed Poniko, was walking on the sidewalk. The kitten trotted beside her, going "Meow meow." Poniko ignored her.
Mado grew cat ears and a tail. "Meow meow." This didn't seem to do any apparent good. Regardless, Mado kept exploring the Shield World until she discovered a black, diamond door. It led to a room of pitch-blackness, but was startled as static began to flicker every few seconds. She approached the ladder on the other end—but was stopped by an invisible wall. Madotsuki felt her way around an invisible maze and eventually made it to the ladder. "Sigh, that would've been a lot easier with April's paint…"
She climbed the ladder into a bright light… and found herself in the middle of a bright, 8-bit forest, in which she herself became 8-bit as well. Being a fan of retro games, the sight was rather welcoming for Madotsuki. A lone yellow house was all that existed, so she showed herself in. The seemingly small house had a long stairway that sloped down, branching off into a maze of doors and stairs. As she explored the depths of the house, Madotsuki came upon another long stairway that carried her up to a door.
This door led to an area that resembled castle ramparts, patrolled by blue-skinned, green-clothed swordsmen. One of them was giant while the others were small, but they charged to attack her. Madotsuki could swing Hook Gems to go over them should they get too close, quickly striking the Goblins until they all fell. Her accomplishment caused an Electoon Cage to spawn. She broke the cage open before exiting and reexploring the house. Mado reached a low part of the basement with a door guarded by mushrooms. She Bubbled the mushrooms and entered a room where a demon roamed. Mado approached the 8-bit creature as it seemed to enter her pixelly window.
Little Mado was happily playing an 8-bit RPG. She was fighting an oni boss. "On Halloween, I wanna be an oni."
Madotsuki acquired red skin, horns, and a tiger-striped dress. She could sense an aura of darkness in this room and mustered some power to create a portal. The portal led to a cavern area where Lizardmen roamed on several cement-colored platforms. By attacking the lizards, a textbox of random numbers would appear, serving as platforms for Mado to climb higher. Mado reached a cliff with a purple, one-eyed creature. As the creature entered Mado's window, she felt her body become wobbly.
Mado curiously poked a piece of gelatin she was having for dessert. "If I was made of jelly, would I be bouncy?"
She carefreely began to bounce around in her boneless, jelly body. She bounced off the cliff and down the high climb, crashing on the ground with enough force to bounce her much higher. She could bounce over several tall pillars and find an exit to the cavern. Madotsuki exited into a rather peaceful Barracks Settlement, inhabited by ghostly Shadow Men, having humanoid shapes but no face. The world was no longer in an 8-bit form. "Um…excuse me?" She approached one of the shadows. "Have you seen… a smaller shadowy person wandering around?"
The shadow answered with a three-note chime. Mado frowned in disappointment. She silently crossed the village until she was out in the desolate wilderness. The desert of cane-shaped flora had nothing to offer, so all Madotsuki could do was walk. There was an archway sitting out in the middle of the desert, but Mado decided to keep exploring. She could jump onto a large block with a frowning face and spring up to another block, continuing up a sequence of the flying blocks until she reached the edge of a great stairway.
Madotsuki ran and ran and ran up the unending stairs. They were so high that she was unsure if there was an ending. "Huff…huff…huff…" Higher… and higher… and higher…
It felt almost unreal when she reached the top. She was almost expecting some sort of hidden civilization… but it was really an ordinary park, surrounded by trees and covered in grass and light posts. Madotsuki welcomed one of the benches to rest her weary self on. "Huff…huff…" Once her stamina had returned, Mado explored the park. There was a thin, one-eyed, blobbish creature called Organoid. Mado went to touch the blob, but it warped to a different corner of the park. She ran after it, but it would return to its starting position. Interacting with it would only lead to the same results. Perhaps if Mado could move faster, she could catch him…
Regardless, she decided to continue past the park. A trio of green humanoids were overlooking a distant town from the edge of the park, leading to an infinite drop into darkness. She gasped: a little shadowy imp was viewing the town with them. "Marshadow!"
"Huh?" The spirit looked around one of the people to face her. "Madotsuki… I thought you didn't wanna be near me."
"I didn't mean that for you. I…" But she couldn't finish. The black, bleeding titan of a monster rose beyond the city boundaries, venomously crawling in her direction. "…!" She backed away in utter fear.
Marshadow sighed in dismay. "I just don't get you, anymore. Why do you come to me… only to run away?"
"I'm sorry… I don't know why I'm so afraid of you now. I don't know anything about this place!"
"Then just go away. If you hate me that much, then leave."
"But I… don't hate you…"
"Madotsuki? It's me, Masada. There are pieces of your past you still haven't remembered. Until you fully remember your past… and accept it… you will not be able to approach him."
"Marshadow… I…" Madotsuki glared with determination. "I promise I'll figure out what's happening. I'll come find you when I do!" Madotsuki turned and ran away. She first noticed a garage and decided to go down into it. Inside was a red, one-eyed ghost. Madotsuki welcomed the ghost into her window.
One day, she saw a birthday party taking place in a backyard. Some kids that were in her class were there. She wasn't given an invitation. "I wanna be invisible." she requested. The static turned her invisible. Madotsuki approached the fence and watched the party from there. They had balloons and cake. It looked very tasty, and fun.
Madotsuki donned a Triangle Kerchief that could turn her invisible. She left the garage and returned down the flight of stairs to the desert. "Are these memories from the real world or Dream World? I mean, those things couldn't happen in reality. Unless someone were using magic. Or is it… my imagination…"
After dropping back down to the desert, Mado explored a little more to the east and discovered a wriggling, red-eyed towel creature. Mado caught the living towel and stuffed it in her window.
"Achoo…achoo…" Mado was sick as she took a bath on a cold winter's night. An adult man wrapped the child warmly in a towel after she got out.
The towel felt very warm and comforting around Mado… but she had no use for it now. Madotsuki returned to the door in the middle of the desert and entered. Beyond that door was total darkness. Madotsuki turned herself into a lamp and could see clearly in the dark. All she needed to do was swing up a series of Hook Gems and follow the directions that the hand designs pointed. She then landed on a platform… with a knife. An ordinary kitchen knife. Perhaps, when Mado placed it into her window, she would attain some memory of helping in the kitchen.
A slightly older Madotsuki quietly crept out of the bedroom. Making sure the strange man didn't notice her. Quietly… she took a knife from the counter… and stabbed him.
Madotsuki fell over on the ground, hyperventilating. "W-What…what did…" What did she just do? Did she…did she… no… she would never kill. She didn't have the heart for it… She wouldn't even kill villains. But she didn't know who she was before this… In those other memories, she didn't seem like a bad person. So, why would she commit murder? Who… Why… How… "Is this why the KND erased my memories?" Did she end up becoming some kind of serial killer? No, then there would be wanted posters or something.
Madotsuki sighed. She got to her feet with a heavy heart and left the Dark World, finding a door back to the Nexus. She just had to keep moving forward and find the truth. Madotsuki entered a door with eyes. Fittingly, this realm was filled with severed, red eyes. The floating eyes served as platforms, much to her disgust, but she had to avoid the severed arms reaching from either above or below. Madotsuki eventually found some ghost-like, misshapen faces with bleeding eyes. There was another hand between them, but it had an eye in its palm.
Madotsuki tried to run several times, but those pair of hands would envelop her vision and return her to her room.
Fittingly, as that eye peered into her soul, Mado was returned to the Nexus. "Who…who is that man?! Was he… hidden behind the static?" Madotsuki entered the next door and appeared inside a realm of graffiti. The design of an enormous, cellular organism drifted in the black sky. Madotsuki was situated within a graffiti square and overlooking a complex, enormous monkey design. (In gameplay, the graffiti is a bunch of semi solids in which she can only move downward via gaps.) Madotsuki made her way down the monkey design and dropped onto a very long, wavy trail. To the very left of that trail was a dead end with an outhouse. "Wait, if I use the bathroom in a dream, then I'll wet myself in real life. …Maybe I shouldn't." So she didn't. Mado headed rightward, jumping up the vertical parts of the semisolid graffiti. The trail led her to a fish design, where she had to jump her way up and head up-left to the fish's angler. Inside that angler was a bike.
Little Mado carefully tried to pedal on her bike, but was held back by the static. The static let go, and Mado breathed nervously as she tried to pedal on her own.
With this bike, Mado would no longer need to run! She could move faster than ever on this baby! Feeling immensely rewarded, Mado dropped all the way off the fish design and located a small building with an elevator door. The door led her to an escalator, taking her down into a mall. There was a tan-skinned, shirtless, surfer dude walking around, as well as other easygoing shoppers. Mado dropped down a few floors and explored a room to the left. There was a purple creature with a round, θ-shaped head playing a flute. It let Mado borrow the flute.
During a visit to the dentist's office, Mado walked up to a man playing a flute. He noticed Mado's curiosity and decided to let her try it (after cleaning it off, of course).
Mado began to play a jovial tone on the flute. She smiled at herself after doing so. It was suddenly refreshing to have another pleasant memory… but she didn't understand how such dark memories could be bunched with more happy memories. Madotsuki exited the room and explored the mall until she found another escalator. It led Mado to another exit, into the Dense Woods.
She followed the grassy road downward until she landed on a straight road. She heard the faint, yet near sounds of a motor vehicle… but there was nothing in sight. Madotsuki turned left toward a road block… and there lay a dead man, likely run over by a car.
Madotsuki was crossing the street with a man, a woman, and another girl, whom she considered a friend. It was nighttime and it was raining. A renegade car ignored the stoplight and ran them over, only missing Mado since she skipped ahead. Their bodies lay dead on the street. Bones were squished out of the girl's body. Her mother, at the time, was pregnant-
Madotsuki fell on her back and scooted away from the dead body. "M-Mom… Dad…" Was that who they were? She only vividly remembered, but… was this man supposed to be her father? Is that what happened… to her parents? And another friend of hers?
Madotsuki pushed herself up and continued to the right. She crossed an extremely long road. A large tour bus was about to run her over—she stopped it with her newfound Stoplight. She could climb some platforms on the bus's front and go over the roof. She then continued across the road and discovered a train car, similar to the one she was riding earlier. Madotsuki sighed to herself and decided to ride it again.
There were some new, alien passengers in this time. She sat on the bench in a calm manner. It didn't seem they were driving toward that monster this time. The train eventually came to a gentle stop as Mado stepped off. She arrived at the shore of a vast lake under a starlit sky. There were tall, faceless, but pretty blue-dressed girls standing at the shore. The setting put her heart at ease as she began to cross a very long bridge over the lake. There were odd formations protruding from the lake, resembling surreal creatures. The bridge led her to the Witch's Island. On this island was a decayed tree with branches raised like arms, red eyes, and a gaping mouth. It appeared as if this tree was trying to pull off a cheap scare. However, leaned against the tree was a broomstick. When Mado picked it up, she donned a witch's outfit.
Her vision was totally filled with static, though a faint shape could be seen. "'Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived alone in the woods. She was a witch, born with magical powers. People feared her for her magic.'" Madotsuki dreamed she was flying on a broom, dressed in a witch's cloak and hat. "'So she was all alone. Then, a girl came to her house.'" Mado stopped flying and saw Poniko walking by down below. "'A cute girl with golden braids.'" Poniko seemed to glance up at the witch, but turned around and ignored her.
"Someone… was reading me a story?" Mado asked herself. "Maybe it was my mom or dad. Hmm…" Mado mounted the broom and levitated slightly off the ground. "This feels nice. But I wonder who that Poniko girl is? Was she… my friend?"
For the time being, she needed a quick way to get back to the Nexus. She used the Hand Eye ability to warp back in a flash. The next door she entered led to a realm with a bunch of large murals, resembling ancient Paracas artwork. She navigated the mural platforms via Hookshot and found two, big-mouthed blobs in separate areas. One was brown and another was blonde. They each gave Madotsuki the ability of long hair and blonde hair.
"…Well, that's useless." Mado said. "I could've just untied my pigtails if I wanted long hair. But the blonde is nice, I guess." The only memory that came up was wanting to try different hairstyles, using temporary dye at one point.
Returning to the Nexus, Mado entered a realm full of blocks, assuming countless different shapes. It reminded her of her vision of wanting to be small and exploring her blocks like a city. As expected, the blocks were rather complicated to navigate, but as she steadily made her way down, she found a secluded corner with a hat and scarf. When she put these on, Mado simply gained the flashback of building a snowman in the winter.
Madotsuki noticed a black door on a high platform, but had no way to reach it. She explored the Block World more and found… a floating hat and scarf? Wondering if it was someone, Madotsuki approached… but when she touched the unseen person, she was warped onto a rather tall block. "Huh?" The "person" came with them, so she touched them again… and was warped beside a huge, long, hollowed block.
The person disappeared, so Madotsuki entered the hollow block. She exited from a darker block in a field of windmills. The windmills projected currents that Madotsuki could float in via Hover Bubble. The windmills guided her to a Fisherman sitting on a platform. When Mado touched the Fisherman, she was warped to a dock area, similar to the Witch's Lake. As Madotsuki crossed the pier, Sea Snakes would emerge from the water, but Mado could strike them in the eye to make them retreat. Madotsuki located a thin, red being who seemed to be gorging their selves on something. When Madotsuki touched him… her body swelled.
Little Mado was carefreely eating powdered donuts at school during lunch. Some kids were snickering behind her. "Madotsuki's gonna get fat! Hey, Fatotsuki, can I have some??"
Madotsuki blushed at her rotund stature. "Well… it's kinda cute, but still…" She drank some shrink potion to deflate to normal size. "Let's go back…"
Mado warped herself back to the Nexus and chose the next door. This world existed under a cloudy sky with numerous puddles covering the ground, as well as lamp posts. The world appeared very empty, until she found an umbrella laying in a puddle. When she took it, she acquired the vision of walking home with a woman on a rainy day. Madotsuki decided to open the umbrella—it immediately began to rain. The puddles rose into a flood, but her Frog form enabled her to swim. She simply floated and rose with the flood until it carried her up to an Electoon Cage. She then had to swim back down and go through the exit door.
There was only one door left to go through, apparently. And Madotsuki was treated to… a land of snow. She was shivering terribly, so she put the hat and scarf on… and transformed into a snowman. It was awkward, but also silly, and this atmosphere made her feel at peace. Madotsuki found a village of igloos, but most of them were empty. The exceptions were one with a friendly Tori, one with a pink pool, and one with a sleeping girl curled up. She had a gray shirt and black bottoms and resembled Madotsuki a bit. Mado tried to wake her up, but she seemed to be in deep sleep… except for the occasional shivering.
Before checking out the pink pool, Madotsuki explored the rest of the snows and found a Snow Woman wandering the pine forest. When Mado approached, the Yuki-onna entered her being and garbed Mado in her frozen robe.
Madotsuki accidentally locked herself out of the house one winter's night. She thought she saw a deer in the yard and wanted to go see. But one of her parents locked the door, possibly having woken up as well and thinking they left the door unlocked. They went back to sleep before Mado could try to get back in, and was left out in the freezing snow. Eventually, they would realize their mistake and hurriedly tuck her back in bed, but Mado would be left shivering in her sleep.
"Hm…is that why that girl was shivering? Was she… supposed to be me? And maybe this is why I was sick."
Beyond the Yuki-onna, Madotsuki found a bed. "Maybe I should bring that girl to this. Then again, it's pretty far. Yawn…" Mado decided to lay and warm herself in the bed for a while.
…
"Huh?!" She awoke with a start on a flight of stairs surrounded by hands rising from the abyss. Nervously, she headed downward into a corridor. A great flame was burning from a doorway, but the power of the Yuki-onna was able to disperse the flames. She could then enter a storage room with another mouth blob monster, similar to the ones who gave her new hair styles… except this one was made of poo.
When the monster entered Mado's window, not only did her hair turn into poo, she acquired a horrible memory where some bullies dumped poo over her temporary blonde hair. She remembered crying in her room all day… and in her deepest of imaginations, she wished something bad would happen to them. She imagined… someone… striking them with lightning…
Either way, she hated this poo hair, so she changed out of it! Madotsuki returned to the Snow World and investigated the pink pool. By splashing inside, she emerged on an island in a Pink Sea. Her eyes alit with wonder, Madotsuki crossed the island. She picked up a yellow balloon that gently carried her across the sea. It was slowly sinking, but Mado was able to grab a red balloon and continue the flight. She set foot on a new island with rainbow, conical structures that looked like party hats. Madotsuki could enter a grouping of three cones.
To her curiosity, she had entered a completely ordinary house inhabited by a blonde, ponytailed girl in a green sweater. "P…Poniko?" She remembered the girl from her flashbacks. Poniko glared at her and turned away. "I…I remember…I remember you, now! We used to go to school together. You would always get annoyed when I started pretending. I'm not too sure, but… I think I wanted to be friends with you. But you kind of ignored me. You were never mean, but…"
Poniko simply ignored her. Mado frowned. "I wonder where you are now. Maybe… I'll try to look for you. I wonder if you remember me…?" Mado remembered something. With a smile, she went to the lightswitch and began to flick it on and off. She could tell Poniko was growling in frustration. "Hehehe! I remember thinking you were cute when you were-"
In a flash of lightning, Poniko turned into a black, blobbish demon with a white face. "AAAAAAAHH!" She had no time to run before the monster devoured her. (Play "In the Mirror" from Celeste.)
…
Madotsuki awoke in a desert of white sand. "…!" She was unsure why, but this sand… it was horrible. It was utterly horrible. She traversed the dust with unspeakable disgust… There were all kinds of disturbing shapes, like hands reaching out of eyes and cow udders. She nervously crossed the desert and entered a tunnel. Inside the tunnel was a monochrome, pigtailed girl in bare feet. When Mado tried to jump over her, the girl would jump and block her. Mado used the Stoplight to freeze her in place-
Extra arms sprouted from the girl's left shoulder, right elbow, and head. Her eyes were askew with one of them oozing, and there was a tear in her shirt. Madotsuki immediately remembered who she was: in the same flashback as the traffic incident, along with Mado's parents, another girl was run over. Her name was Monoko. Though she and Mado weren't incredibly close, Monoko hung out with them on occasion… but what a terrible occasion that was. Her bones jutting out of her body.
"Monoko…" Madotsuki fell on her knees and cried. "How…how could I forget you?! After that happened… I'm so sorry!"
"…Mado…tsuki…" She spoke in a raspy voice. "You… remembered… Thank… you…"
Madotsuki sniffled. She was free to jump over Monoko and go out the other exit. Beyond that end… the monster loomed over the valley again. Madotsuki trembled as the horrific being extended one of its inescapable arms. She turned and crouched, holding her head down.
"Until you fully remember your past… and accept it… you will not be able to approach him. Although you don't remember, you've already come to peace with your past."
She remembered Masada's words… She was still afraid, but there was no other option. She had to… confront this creature. Confront it… and remember the full scope of her horrible past. Madotsuki stood and faced it. The monster's grasp was just barely out of reach. She walked forward… swallowing every ounce of her breath. Her pupils shrank as the hand loomed nearer… and firmly grabbed her.
The monster shattered as his memory was absorbed into Madotsuki. In a flash, everything came coursing back through her. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" She remembered that horrible night… when her parents and friend were run over. Seven-year-old Madotsuki ran around, lost in the dark of the city, until she was snatched up by that man. Locked in his apartment, she was- "AAAAAAAHHHH!" She was crying and begging him to stop. The horrible memories all came back like a tidal wave, and she collapsed on the spot, crying.
"MADOOOO!" Trapped inside Mado's bedroom, April could hear her friend's cries. She slammed herself against the door with greater desperation to escape, fearing what could be troubling Mado. With more force than she expected to muster, she broke the door down. Disregarding the bits of shrapnel in her arm, April bolted across the quaking dreamscape, following the source of Mado's voice. Running through the Block World, she dodged giant blocks that fell from the shaking. April bumped into the invisible girl, Mafurako, and was warped up to a black door.
The door led straight to the white desert where Mado was screaming. The force of power threatened to push April away, but she fought it and trudged her way to the despairing Madotsuki. "Mado! Mado!" April fell over and grabbed her palette, painting her friend in green, the Color of Soothing. The exertion of Mado's fear blew the paint off, but Mado ceaselessly painted more, exhausting every ounce of her green. Mado's screaming and squirming slowly… slowly… waned…
"Huff…huff…sniffle…" Though her heart grew calmer, her voice was broken, and she was reduced to tears. "Sniffle…April… I… remember… everything…"
"Madotsuki…" April knelt over and hugged her green-drenched friend. "It's okay… I'm here for you… It's only a dream… it's only…" Even though it was all in the past, April couldn't imagine what Madotsuki went through. She had only heard about it from Harvey… but to think such horrible things could happen to an innocent little girl. April had been through her own troubles… but they weren't nearly as terrible…
"Sniffle…sniffle…" Madotsuki mustered what she could to sit up. "I…I'm so glad you all were… there to help me… You taught me how to smile again… but it feels like… I was there all over again… it's so horrible…"
"I'm sorry… I should've told you before. If I already told you what happened… it wouldn't have hurt this much when you remembered…"
"I know… but I see why you didn't tell me. I just… I want to forget… all over again…"
"I know you do… but Madotsuki… you shouldn't. Otherwise, the same thing will happen over and over."
"Sniff…you're right. I…" She struggled to stretch herself up. "I have to… be… strong… because these people…" The images of her parents, Monoko, Poniko, Mafurako, Kamakurako, and Masada appeared in her mind. "In reality or dream… alive or dead… I have to remember them…"
April helped her to stay on her feet. "Come on… we have to find Marshadow…"
"Yeah… I should be able to approach him now…" (End song.)
Sky Garden
Marshadow was trembling and crying before one of the lamp posts. He could feel that surge of fear from afar. "It…it's because of me, isn't it?" He stared at his hands in guilt. "Are my powers coming back? Am I… doing this to Mado's dream? I really like being around her… but like this, I can't… If I do, I'm just gonna keep terrifying her… she'll have horrible nightmares forever…"
Madotsuki remembered the way back to the Sky Garden. April offered to drive the bike while Mado shrank herself to ride in the basket. Following the Bubble Dreamer's navigation, they were ascending the great stairs to the Sky Garden. "…?" Madotsuki saw a round, blue hat drifting in the wind. "A hat?"
"Hm? Did you say something?" April asked her little friend.
"I just saw a hat."
"Hehe, the only one that could be is my hat!" April tipped her pink round hat.
"No, it was…" Mado held her head again. "No… there was more. April… what am I still forgetting?"
"I don't really know… The Seven Lights Quest? New Galaxia?"
"I remember all that stuff… but there's still… something missing."
"Hey, we're here."
Once at the entrance of the garden, Madotsuki grew back to normal. Already, they saw Marshadow by the lamp. "Marshadow!" (Play "Joy of Remembrance" from Celeste!)
He gasped and faced up at them. "Madotsuki! You shouldn't be near me!"
"No, it's okay! I…I'm not gonna be afraid, anymore!"
"Yes you will! No matter how you try to feel, I'll always make you feel worse! I'm a Nightmare who can only bring you misery. I don't deserve to be held by anyone!"
Madotsuki gasped: when Marshadow began running away, she saw it again: the hat. The hat whisked in the breeze and landed right on Marshadow's head. "…!" As he took off from the edge of the garden, a sky-blue cloak appeared. It flapped from the spirit's back as he drifted further away. "Th…There's someone…" Madotsuki stumbled forward with a sudden, hasty jog, eyes pouring tears. "THERE WAS SOMEONE ELSE!"
"Madotsuki!" April ran to keep her friend steady. "What do you mean 'someone else'?"
"When I was…When I was captured…" Madotsuki sniffled as she gazed at the pale blue cloak and hat that covered Marshadow's distant form. "When I thought I lost everything… When I thought I would never escape… Someone was there for me. But who…who were they? What was their name? If I don't find out… I'll always be empty!"
She ripped open her window and withdrew the broomstick. She mounted it and became a witch, flying across the abyss and leaving April behind. "Wait… come back…" She pled to the faint memory of the clothing that drifted further and further away. "LET ME REMEMBER YOU!"