Chapter 40: Ultimate Recruitment Begins

"Where do you think Motonui is?" Moana asked Maui.

"Chief, I am not a tracker," Maui said.

"I was just asking for a suggestion, but okay," Moana said.

"Maybe that cave?" Because Maui felt bad that he did not give an answer that Moana wanted, he gave her suggested as he pointed at the nearest cave.

"Why is there a cave on each and every island we land up at?" Moana asked with her left arm performing the 'why' gesture.

Maui placed both of his arms behind that back of his head and said, "I wish I knew the answer to that question, chief." However, while they were walking towards the cave, the cave slowly turned into a hill. "Ugh, Motonui..."

"Is this part of her jokes?" Moana asked, starting to be a little irritated.

"Oh no, honey, this is not a joke, this is sorcery," Motonui said as she smirked and looked into her orb. There was, of course, no way that Moana and Maui would be able to hear.

The duplications of Motonui that she created surrounded Moana and Maui. They both looked around, like confused Heihei. "Wha...?" Maui asked as he looked around.

"Which one is real?" Moana asked herself.

"None of us are real, you ignorant mortal and even more ignorant demigod," the duplicates said. They were controlled, even their speech, by Motonui. "Catch me if you can." Motonui controlled them to take their fighting stands.

"Challenge accepted," Moana said as she raised her oar. 

"Never underestimate Maui, the demigod of wind and sea, a hero to all," Maui raised his fishhook. 

"Never underestimate Moana, chief of Motunui, a hero to nature," Moana raised her oar. "I added the 'a hero to nature' myself. It's true, though." Moana and Maui stood back to back.

All the duplicates ran towards them.

"Well, let's not make this too loud, should we?" Maui asked Moana as he turned his head a little bit to face Moana's head.

"With pleasure," Moana said with a smirk. 

Maui swung his hook with his full strength. All the duplicates he cut through all screamed as they vanished. Their screams echoed and disappeared into the air, just like their appearance. He blew on his hook and said with a sly smirk, "Check."

Moana swung her oar at each three of the duplicates and vanished. They also screamed as they vanished. Their screams also echoed and disappeared into the air, just like their appearance. She blew on her oar and said with a sly smirk, "Mate."

"Not bad..." Motonui said as she looked into her orb. "Let's see if you guys can survive this..." She flicked her hand and sparkles emerged from the end of her fingers and it flew in the air.

"Let's see what Motonui brings up next," Moana said. 

"We can't let our guards down," Maui said.

"I know," Moana said. "We don't know what illusions she is going to use or how are she and her illusions are going to hurt us."

"Everything is gonna work out!" Maui said confidently.

"You help me become even more confident!" Moana raised her oar boldlier than ever. They both marched into the fickle cave as they each picked up Pua and Heihei. Before they entered, the door opened and closed violently and aggressively repeatedly. 

"May I do the honors?" Maui asked as he held the fishhook with both of his hands.

"As you wish," Moana said with a gesture to lead him to the way to the door that he can shatter. They then entered the cave to get one step closer to Motonui.

Motonui was impressed rather than annoyed. "You've passed the two parts of my first test," Motonui chuckled as she saw Moana and Maui walk into the cave. Her first test was her duplications and  "Now, I wonder if you guys will pass, or even survive, my second test... huhuhuhuhuhu..." She saw Maui and Moana walk across the way in the cave. "Let's see if you have a taste for this!" Motonui said tauntingly as she flicked her hand.

Coconuts started to glide towards Moana and Maui. Moana swung aggressively as she was startled and screamed. All the coconuts she hit disappeared.

"Huh?" Moana wondered what was going on.

"They're probably the illusions." As soon as Maui finished his sentence, a real coconut hit him in the face and it shattered. Maui's face was now covered with shattered coconut shells and coconut water. "Nice comeback."

"We can play that game!" Moana said as she held her oar tighter.

"Oh, really?" Motonui asked as she heard Moana say that through her orb. "Try this on for... size." She flicked her hand.

Several ropes made of straw flew towards Moana. If you're trying to tie us up, you can forget it, Moana thought as she threw her oar at the rope. The ropes tied up her oar and she dodged the rest of them. When she picked up her oar, more coconuts flew to her. She spun the oar to block all the coconuts. When the real coconuts dropped to the ground after she blocked them, she picked them up and threw it at more ropes that were approaching. Moana smirked in success until Maui called behind her.

"Kid... tied up," Maui said as he was tied up by the ropes and flattered like a fish out of water. Or better, when he was unable to control his fishhook at one time and lower half of his body was turned into a shark. "A little help here...?" He asked as he chuckled nervously.

"All right, you big baby," Moana said as she untied him.

"Gee, thanks, princess!" Maui said as he hopped up to stand up.

"If you're thankful," Moana said. "You can start paying attention to what is going on here." She smiled, and turned around to pick up her oar, loosened the ropes around it, and marched forward.

"Yikes," Maui said under his breath.

"Nice... nice..." Motonui said. "Now, allow me to make a point here." She flicked her hand. The stone spikes emerged from the top and sides of the cave as soon as she flicked her hand.

"GAH!" Moana yelped as she flinched and lifted her leg, twisted her body, crossed her arms that were few inches off of her face. She was so surprised that she let go of her oar.

"Time for me to shine!" Maui said as he raised his fishhook. Despite the fact that the stone spikes emerged from the cave, with his muscles... and fat... the spikes only poked and tickled him a little. He swung his fishhook around. Some broke and some vanished. He helped Moana escape through the spikes as he chopped off the spikes surrounding her. 

"Hmm..." Motonui was surprised. She never knew that they would easily survive her trials. Moana was very intelligent and fearless, Maui was powerful and physically built. "Well, I'm impressed..."

"Well, you better be!" Moana's voice entered from one of the openings. When Moana looked at Motonui, she was very slender, much slender than anyone she has seen. She had long, black, fair hair, copper skin, brown eyes, and bright pink lips. She was wearing a tan dress that had a lighter color tone than her skin, strands of her robe were sticking at the end of the robe, she also had blue bracelet around her arm.

In the chamber, there were holes everywhere that were big enough for Maui to go through. The chamber was also roomy that made Moana, Maui, and Motonui look like small figures. "Enough tricks. Let's settle this properly!" Moana said as she pulled out the charm.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Motonui said. "You passed my first trial and my second trial. I'm very impressed. This will be your final trial." She snapped her fingers. There was a large sound of all of the holes closing at once. The opening was still there, but they knew there was no place to escape anymore. "Let's see if you can get me!" She exclaimed as she duplicated herself into at least a hundred of herself. "Just so you know, all of us can attack, and you only need to capture one. I can keep on doing this all day."

"Challenge accepted," Maui said as he held up his fishhook.

"We can make this easier by getting into this charm," Moana said as she held up the charm and pointed at it with the other hand. 

"No way..." Motonui said that quietly at first, but then she screamed all of the sudden. "I am NOT LETTING YOU SEND ME BACK TO KAPU'UILA! IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!"

Before Moana was able to say something, another charm flipped out from Moana's pocket and persuaded, "We are not being sent back to Kapu'uila! You have to trust Moana and Maui that we can be freed."

"That's easy for you to say, wisp!" Motonui screamed. "Get back there! We settle this now!" She shuffled herself with her duplications. When they were done shuffling, they all flicked their hand to create a fog. The fog surrounded everywhere in the room, blinding Moana and Maui. They were able to see faint silhouettes but that was about it. Every time a silhouette approached towards them, they swung their weapon, whether it was their oar or fishhook. Motonui was not physically built as Moana, but she was still able to punch. One of her duplicates kicked Moana in the face that her oar was loosened from her hand.

Then the wisp whispered, "Moana, it is time you called us. For the last five, you will have to summon one of us. All you have to say, 'Awhina Poto' and one of us will be summoned to help you." 

"All right," Moana said. She took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Awhina Poto!" 

One of the wisps emerged from the stack of charms. It exerted as a red light and sent the message to Moana and Maui's head, "I now present you the power of vision..."

As soon as the spell was cast upon them, their vision was better than ever.  They were not able to clearly see through the fog and the real Motonui was seen as it seemed like she exerted sparkles.

"Maui!" Moana called.

"Way ahead of you, chief!" Maui said as he transformed into a hawk so that Moana can hop on his back with Pua and Heihei. Maui chased after Motonui.

How were they able to find me? Motonui thought as she flew away from Maui. 

While the chase was going on, Moana would strike the duplicates who were trying to distract or sabotage them. Because she had a better vision, she was able to stop and block them all. As Maui became close to Motonui, Moana jumped and leaped forward, and struck Motonui with her full force. Motonui lost her conscious as she fell to the bottom, Maui dived towards falling Motonui so that Moana can slap her with the charm before she falls to her death. As soon as they sealed her, the image appeared in their heads:

Motonui was a little girl who had trouble relating to everyone else. She was not able to make any friends due to her uniqueness. Instead, she would always draw something in her mind, such as a tree with more than fifty coconuts, an enormous shrimp eating a whale, and a grill fighting a giant volcanic monster. She let her imagination come alive on a piece of cloth and ink. Her parents were very supportive of her. In fact, when they saw one of her works, they showed them to everyone in the village to impress.

Thus, she became a very special artist and designed clothes and ceramics, even though she was still a teenage girl. Her parents would hug her tight and caress her head whenever she finished her project.

One day, when she was a young adult, her parents passed away. Due to the depression, she had artists' block and she was no longer able to draw. When she was all devastated, Kapu'uila showed up and erased her pain and gave her special power of illusions.

After she was done with her project, she would perform illusions to create her parents and hug them tight and let them caress her head for doing a great job with her work.

Kapu'uila wanted her to stay with him, but with her determination to please everyone with her art and her power that healed her heart, she turned his back on him.

Sometime later, she was cursed by Kapu'uila, which made her illusions turn into a weapon. Due to her large pain caused by despair by her parent's death, she became a powerful illusionist instead of a monster or a creature like the other subjects blessed by Kapu'uila. Some of her spells were just illusions and some were real. Her illusions destroyed the village, setting it in the fire, having spikes emerge from the earth, and coconuts slamming on people, injuring people especially their hears and face. Then she was captured along with other Kapu'uila's cursed people and was locked up with everyone else. 

"Wow..." Moana said. "Her pain is probably one of the strongest out of all we encountered so far..."

"Just like the wisps said," Maui said. "Stronger the pain, stronger they become. Thankfully the wisps helped us."

"Let's... go back," Moana said. Maui agreed and they flew back to their boat. Once again, Maui carried the boat out.

"We now have four creatures left!... or should I say, souls..." Moana exclaimed hopefully. 

"Anything you would like to label them as," Maui said.

Moana looked through the four red charms and "Only if we can hustle up and save all of them." She then opened the map. "Hm... the next island is... Matatiki... spring?"

"I guess it's an island with a bunch of hot springs," Maui said.

"All right!" Moana tightened the mainsail. "Next stop, Matatiki!"

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top