Jayr POV - Nasuverse, Moon, SE.RA.PH, Tsukumihara Academy - 2030 AD
Together, we return to our Private Room while I shed the last layer of Spiral Cosmo, making the concealment fall as the door seals behind us, and only then does Nero really let herself relax, stretching like a cat who had just stepped into a patch of sunlight.
But she barely has the time to enjoy the comfort before the curiosity she had been holding back bursts out of her.
Without wasting any time, she began approaching me with a deliberate, regal stride that would make anyone else trip over their own feet, "That woman, that Queen, the one whose presence felt exactly like the ruler of a kingdom... Who is she? Her aura was… unusual but at times familiar. Heavy, but elegant. Like someone who has conquered her fears and her fate."
I blink for a moment before I say, "You mean Elsa."
Nero plants her hands on her hips and says, "Umu! That one! The beautiful blonde with the eyes that seem to radiate cold energy. It is clear that you recognised her. Explain her. Now."
For a moment, I rub the back of my neck while saying, "It's… complicated."
However, Nero doesn't give up and declares, speaking like she was issuing a decree to the Senate, "Then uncomplicate it. An emperor must not be left in ignorance, even more so in the presence of another ruler."
That tone, imperial, demanding, imperious, hits me with a flash of inspiration, 'Why tell Nero who Elsa is, when I can actually show her?'
With that thought, a mischievous grin slowly creeps onto my face, which makes Nero's eyes narrow as she warily says, "That look. I know that look. Praetor, what are you plotting now?"
In response, I ease the grin on my face a bit and say in an innocent tone, "Oh, nothing too outrageous, my Empress. I thought instead of explaining everything verbally… We could watch a sort of... theatrical play together."
Nero's expression brightened immediately as she asked in an excited tone, "A play? A performance? With music? Drama? Triumph?"
She then clasps her hands and says, "Praetor, if this is a ploy to distract me, I have never approved of anything faster in my life! Umu!"
Hearing that, I smile and declare with finality in my tone, "You'll love this one."
Then I don't waste any time and use my Spiral Cosmo to materialise a full home-theatre setup: a massive floating screen, surround sound speakers embedded in the walls, an advanced player, cushioned seating, everything sleek and modern with just enough flair to impress an emperor.
Then, I open a portal to my Soulbound Territory and summon a bowl of popcorn so large it could double as a makeshift hot tub.
Seeing that, Nero's eyes glitter as she comments, "What luxurious kernels! Truly, you spoil me."
After that, we settle onto the plush couch while I instantly recreate from memory the movie we are going to watch before inserting it into the player so that the "theatrical play" is ready to begin.
I wrap my arm around Nero's soft shoulders and hit play.
The movie begins with a crew of ice harvesters collecting ice from a frozen lake in the Scandinavian mountains.
Among them is an 8-year-old orphan boy named Kristoff, and his reindeer calf friend Sven, who try to emulate the harvesters, but their attempts are always fruitless.
Watching this scene, Nero leans forward and murmurs, "A child seeking purpose. Promising beginnings."
After collecting enough ice, the harvesters load it onto their sled and depart, headed for the town of Arendelle.
The scene changes to a castle in the kingdom of Arendelle. That night, 5-year-old Princess Anna is restless, so she tries to wake up her 8-year-old sister Elsa to play.
Elsa playfully brushes her sister off until Anna mischievously asks, "Do you want to build a snowman?", to which Elsa delightedly agrees.
Elsa obliges. They play in the ballroom, dancing on snowflakes Elsa conjured with joy. They build a small snowman, Olaf, who squeaks out his soon‑to‑be iconic line, making Nero giggle, "Adorable! A tiny homunculus of snow and delight."
But the playfulness ends abruptly when Elsa's control slips. A burst of power strikes Anna's head, she falls limp, and a streak of white slides through her hair, making Nero go still, "So young… and already burdened by guilt beyond her years."
Anna and Elsa's parents rush in. They ride the children to the mountains, with Sven and Kristoff trailing the tracks. The moss‑covered boulders reveal themselves as trolls, and their leader, Pabbie, warns them that Elsa's powers would grow, and fear would feed them.
Elsa is then separated from her sister. The castle gates are closed. The girls grow up in parallel loneliness, each reaching for the other across a locked door while the song "Do you want to build a snowman" plays in the background.
Anna begs for company. Elsa whispers apologies through the wood, never opening it.
Then comes the shipwreck, making Nero's voice soften as she comments, "Tragedy upon tragedy. A ruler carved by sorrow."
Three years later, Elsa is about to be coronated as the Queen of Arendelle.
Dignitaries from around Europe are coming to visit, including the Duke of Weselton, who wants to run Arendelle's profits dry.
Nobody is more excited than Anna, as they are finally opening the gates to the kingdom.
She is happy to see other people, and hopes for the possibility of meeting that special someone, but Elsa is still concerned about trying to control her powers and hide them from everyone, where the song "For the First Time in Forever" takes place.
The scene makes Nero laugh, "Such energy! This girl has the lungs of a seasoned actor."
Anna meets Prince Hans, quite literally, face-to-face. They flirt awkwardly but earnestly; however, Nero eyes Hans suspiciously while commenting, "I've seen such acts many times before. Too clean. Too polished. There is treachery beneath that hair, Praetor."
Inside the church, Elsa holds the orb and sceptre bare‑handed for her coronation, and frost creeps along the metal, making her nearly panic, but she quickly composes herself.
At the celebration, Anna danced with the Duke of Weselton, who Nero immediately labelled "a trembling rodent of a man."
Then Anna wanders off with Hans, and in the rush of youthful loneliness and charm, they declare love, making Nero snort in disdain, "Impossible. Love requires time, conflict, and passion. One cannot fall into marriage as one falls into a fountain."
When they ask Elsa for her blessing, Elsa rightly refuses, but Anna presses on, making the tension spike and as a result, a burst of icy power shot across the ballroom.
Guests scream. The truth is out. Elsa flees.
Anna chases her to the fjord, but the queen is already running across the forming ice, leaving a frozen sea behind, while Nero exclaims, "Look at her! A ruler forced into exile by fear, yet embracing freedom with every step!"
Anna calls after Elsa, but as she, Hans, and the other guests watch, the waters of the fjord completely ice over, and the air takes on an icy chill and moments later, snow begins to fall.
The Duke begins to panic, declaring they must take action and put an end to Elsa's curse.
Anna, however, refuses and volunteers to seek out Elsa herself and make things right, feeling that it is her fault for pushing her too far.
With Hans being left in charge of the kingdom, Anna heads off on her horse to begin her search for her sister.
Meanwhile, Elsa has found her way to a high precipice on the kingdom's North Mountain.
It is here she realises that far away from what she was taught, being on her own, she can begin to control her powers, and at this point the legendary "Let It Go" starts making Nero grip my sleeve subconsciously.
She constructs an elaborate ice palace, changes her confining wardrobe into a shimmering ice dress, and vows to stay in seclusion, where she feels she can be herself and harm no one else.
I'd seen this scene a hundred times, but watching her watch it is something else entirely.
Nero did not blink until the last note faded and whispered, "A metamorphosis worthy of stage and legend…"
The next morning, Anna rides into a blizzard, loses her horse, and trudges through snow until finding Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna.
Kristoff barges in seconds later, frozen solid, arguing with Oaken over prices, making Nero laugh and comment, "This Oaken has the spirit of a merchant emperor."
Anna buys Kristoff's supplies on the condition that he take her up the mountain. He protests, but she insist and Sven nods enthusiastically, making Nero smirk at their dynamic.
They ride toward the North Mountain, and wolves attack them. The sled burst into flames at the bottom of a ravine, making Anna promise to replace it, which makes Nero comment, "She destroys his livelihood and then swears repayment, such chaotic nobility. I love it!"
They met Olaf, who introduced himself and announced he loved warm hugs. Anna recognises him immediately while Nero chuckles, "The tiny homunculus returns!"
Anna and Kristoff tell Olaf that they want to find Elsa to bring back summer, and Olaf suddenly grows excited; it's his dream to see what summer is like, as he fantasises in a Bubsy-Berkeley-style dance number while singing "In Summer".
They do not see it fit to reveal that Olaf will melt in the summer heat, but follow him as he leads them to Elsa's ice palace.
Meanwhile, in Arendelle, Hans is providing shelter and help for Arendelle's people, much to the fury of the Duke of Weselton.
When Anna's horse comes back riderless, in the moment Hans confronted the Duke, Hans asks for volunteers to join him in bringing Anna back.
The Duke of Weselton volunteers his two bodyguards and secretly tells them to kill Elsa if they encounter her.
Later, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf arrive at Elsa's ice palace, and Sven waits at the bottom of the stairway leading up to the front doors as his feet can't get a grip on the icy steps.
Meanwhile, when they get to the front door, Anna tells Kristoff and Olaf to wait outside, warning them that the last time she introduced Elsa to a guy, she froze everything.
The dejected Olaf and Kristoff wait on the front steps and start counting down 1 minute while Anna enters.
Inside, Anna is stunned at the glorious interior of the palace and, even more amazed, to see the new ice dress Elsa has conjured for herself.
Though Elsa is happy to see Anna and quickly forgives her for the argument that happened at the coronation party, she becomes nervous and suggests Anna leave, so she can't harm her.
The conversation is momentarily interrupted when Olaf crashes the meeting.
Elsa is astonished to find that her powers include the ability to conjure up living snowmen.
As it turns out, Elsa is surprised to learn that her entire kingdom is frozen, and Anna is surprised to learn that Elsa doesn't know how to stop it.
But Anna insists her sister's powers are no reason why they should be so distant; However, having seen Olaf, Elsa flashes back to accidentally hitting Anna in the head with her snow abilities, causing her to grow scared and nervous, demanding Anna leave.
Elsa retreats to the upper portion of the palace, and Anna follows her, pleading with her sister that they can solve this problem together.
However, Anna's promise to stand by her sister's side and help her, Elsa only grows more agitated and nervous, resulting in her magic flaring again.
This time, a blast of magic bursts out and strikes Anna in the heart.
In desperation to get her sister to safety, Elsa creates a giant snow creature that Olaf calls "Marshmallow" to throw them out.
As revenge, Anna balls up a snowball and throws it at the snow beast.
Though it left literally no damage whatsoever, the lack of respect was enough to infuriate Marshmallow and cause him to chase Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf down the North Mountain while Sven, who ended up getting his tongue stuck on Elsa's icy staircase but got it unstuck and managed to leave, runs off into a different direction, which leads to the bottom of a cliff, and most likely eliminate them.
Marshmallow manages to corner them at the edge of the cliff, though Kristoff immediately begins digging a snow anchor by using a rope to safely guide himself and Anna down the mountain to safety.
Marshmallow, however, catches up to them, though Olaf tries to stop him.
Marshmallow, annoyed, kicks Olaf over the cliff and continues his chase for Anna and Kristoff.
He pulls them up to him by the rope and yells at them, "Don't Come Back!"
Nero then declares, "A noble protector!" Before she snorts and adds, "And Anna's snowball was indeed foolish. Never disrespect the guardian of a queen."
Anna then grabs Kristoff's knife and cuts the rope, and this sends the duo falling down, though they survive. With his mission to drive them away complete, Marshmallow returns to the ice palace.
As they recovered from the landing, Sven managed to find them and happily greeted Olaf by saying in a cute baby voice, "Who's my cute little reindeer?"
Then Kristoff notices that Anna's hair has started to turn white, and fearful that she may be injured, Kristoff takes her to his family, who happen to be a group of rock trolls, the same ones that saved Anna many years before.
Kristoff explains that, as he had no family at a young age, the trolls took him and Sven in.
A mix-up occurs, and the trolls insist Anna and Kristoff get married.
Anna collapses before the two can be wed by Gothi the Troll Priest, and Pabbie appears and examines Anna, but concludes that this time her sister's powers struck her in the heart.
Pabbie cannot save her; Anna's heart has begun to freeze, and if not cured, she will become frozen as ice forever.
Pabbie says, "An act of true love can melt a frozen heart." Kristoff quickly tells Anna that Hans can surely help, and they take off for Arendelle while Nero shakes her head and comments, "Wrong choice."
The next morning, Hans' party arrives at Elsa's ice castle, and shortly after they arrive, Hans orders that no harm is to come to Elsa.
While everyone agrees, the Duke's henchmen quietly disagree, still following the Duke's orders to kill her.
The moment they come close enough, Marshmallow reveals himself from the form of snow boulders piled up by the base of the stairs and jumps right into battle.
The archer immediately attacks the beast with their arrows, infuriating Marshmallow and causing his ultimate form to be unleashed.
Marshmallow is able to hold most of the guards off. Hans, however, proves to be a fierce warrior himself, avoiding each of Marshmallow's attacks and eventually using his sword to slice the snow monster's leg off and cause him to lose balance and begin tumbling over into a large gorge.
With Marshmallow wounded, Hans begins heading inside Elsa's castle.
Marshmallow, however, doesn't give up, giving one last swing in an attempt to drag Hans down with him. Marshmallow falls, plummeting down into the chasm below.
While Hans battles Marshmallow, the Duke's two men have managed to use the distraction to barge up the ice steps and into the castle, where they corner Elsa.
Despite her pleading for them to leave her alone, they shoot at her. She quickly forms walls of ice to block their shots.
Eventually, she has the beardless henchman pinned to a wall by several icicles and is on the verge of using a wall of ice to shove the bearded henchman off the balcony.
Hans and his men show up just in time, and Hans pleads for her to stop so she doesn't become the monster people accuse her of being.
Elsa settles down a bit at Hans' words, realising the demon she is becoming, and halts her magic.
The beardless henchman, still complying with the Duke's orders, aims his crossbow at Elsa's head and prepares to shoot her.
Hans suddenly runs up and deflects the bow; the arrow is released and hits an icy chandelier, which begins to fall.
Elsa tries to run, but the falling chandelier fragments hit her and knock her unconscious.
When Elsa wakes up, she's in a dungeon cell at Arendelle with her hands chained and encased in steel mitts.
As she looks out over the frozen kingdom and realises what she has done, Hans appears, telling Elsa that Anna has not returned, and pleads with her to stop the winter.
Elsa claims she can't and must be let go to keep others from being harmed.
Unaware of what happened to Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven arrive at the castle.
Anna's condition has grown worse, a chill coursing through her, and more of her hair has turned white. Several of the castle staff escort her in; she looks back as Kristoff and Sven leave.
Anna is brought to Hans and tells him that he has to kiss her to save her.
The castle staff in the room quickly leave to give them privacy. Hans carries Anna to a couch, leans in as if to kiss her, and then his smile turns into a smear, and he says, "Oh, Anna... if only there was someone out there who loved you."
As Anna looks at him in shocked confusion, Hans explains that, as the youngest of 13 brothers, he had no chance at claiming his family's throne, as he would be an old man by then, so he went looking for a royal family he could marry into.
Unable to get to Elsa, he made Anna's acquaintance and played on her naïveté, saying, "You were so desperate for love, you were willing to marry me just like that."
He intended to marry her before causing some form of "accident" for Elsa that would clear his path to the throne and make him the King of Arendelle.
However, with Anna becoming weaker and about to die, he plans to simply let her frozen heart overcome her, then kill Elsa, ending the eternal winter and bringing back summer.
At this point, Nero is unable to hold herself back, stands up and yells, "VILE CREATURE! A coward cloaked in princely silk!"
Anna, now hating Hans for his cruelty, blatantly says, "You're no match for Elsa," with Hans replying that she isn't a match for Elsa.
He extinguishes the fire in the nearby fireplace before locking her in the room.
Anna collapses with shock as the ice slowly spreads all over her body, causing her hair to turn completely white.
Hans goes to speak with the Duke of Weselton and several other dignitaries.
He feigns grief and claims that Elsa has killed Anna, but he and Anna recited their wedding vows before she died, making Nero mutter, "Even in fiction, politics rots." But her eye stay glued to the screen.
In part due to the eternal winter chaos, this apparently is enough to give him full authority to declare Elsa guilty of treason and sentence her to death.
The palace guards go to Elsa's cell, but are detained when a wall of the cell collapses.
While they are held up, Elsa freezes her shackles to the point that they shatter and then breaks through the wall to the outside.
Meanwhile, far from Arendelle, Kristoff and Sven walk away when Sven urges Kristoff to go back and confess his feelings for her.
Kristoff claims he has no need to, but as they look back at Arendelle, a mysterious swirling cloud of snow begins to engulf the kingdom. The two then take off towards the growing danger.
Anna's curse becomes stronger as her death process is nearly complete.
When Olaf arrives, he finds Anna in the library on the ground and quickly dying.
Olaf comes to Anna's rescue and starts a fire to warm Anna up. Olaf then asks what happened with Hans's true love's kiss, to which Anna reveals his betrayal, and that it was never true love.
Fearing he'll melt, Anna tells Olaf to leave. Not wanting to abandon Anna, Olaf stays by her side and nearly melts during this time.
Having lost her optimism for a whole, Anna brokenheartedly admits to Olaf that she doesn't even know what love is.
Olaf replies by telling Anna that love is putting someone else before yourself, using Kristoff as an example.
This reveals Kristoff's true feelings to Anna, much to Anna's surprise.
Suddenly, the library's window bursts open due to the strong winter winds.
Olaf rushes to close it, but then, using a pair of icicle-like binoculars, Olaf notices Kristoff and Sven rushing across the fjord to the castle.
Knowing Kristoff is truly the one who loves Anna, the two try to head out to meet him.
Olaf helps Anna up, but the storm outside is so bad that icicles spring up from the inside and block their path in the hallway.
Going out a window, the two slide down the castle's steep roofs. Anna attempts to make her way across the icy fjord, with Olaf close behind.
However, as the wind picks up, Olaf is blown away, and Anna finds her hands are turning to ice.
Even so, she continues to move forward, calling out Kristoff's name.
Meanwhile, Hans finds Elsa wandering the ice of the fjord. Thinking he's come for her, Elsa tells him to leave her alone and take care of Anna.
Hans lies and says that Anna was killed by Elsa's magic, and the pain of this causes Elsa to collapse, the snow in the air suddenly hanging in stillness.
This then gives Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. But at that moment, Anna hears a sword being drawn a short distance away.
In horror, Anna sees Hans about to strike his sword at Elsa and kill her.
With seconds to choose between saving her own life or Elsa's life, Anna takes one last look at Kristoff and runs towards Elsa.
Just as Hans is taking his swing at Elsa, Anna steps in front of him and freezes solid.
Hans's sword makes contact with Anna's frozen form, shattering and breaking it, and a sudden shock wave throws him brutally backwards and knocks him unconscious.
Olaf, Kristoff and Sven arrive seconds later and seeing Anna turned frozen solid, Elsa breaks down in tears, hugging her sister.
No one is sure what to say when Anna's icy form begins to change and gain colour.
Soon enough suddenly melts back to normal because her sacrifice to save Elsa is considered an act of true love.
Elsa realises that love is the key to controlling her powers, and with one move, she is able to melt all the snow on the ground in a matter of seconds, including the surrounding snow, revealing that they are on top of a ship.
Olaf, overjoyed, smiles with glee, but the summer heat starts to melt him.
Elsa restores him and gives him a small flurry cloud to hover over his body and keep his body temperature below freezing temperature, finally allowing him to experience summer and all its wonders.
When Hans awakens several moments later, he finds Arendelle thawed and peace restored.
Kristoff tries to march forward towards Hans to attack him, but while Elsa is touched by such a gesture, Anna generously deplores the thought of an assault between them.
She ultimately confronts Hans herself. Hans stutters with disbelief, "But she froze your heart!" Anna coolly replies, "The only frozen heart around here is yours," and sends Hans over the side of the ship railing and into the water with a single punch, making Nero nod approvingly while commenting, "A decisive blow."
She and Elsa then hug, with their friendship restored and stronger than ever.
As the sisters hug, Anna looks lovingly towards Kristoff, showing that she reciprocates his love.
Once again, Arendelle is restored to normal. Elsa is once again accepted as queen, with everyone finally understanding that she is no monster but a creator of beautiful magic.
Exposed as the manipulating, lying traitor he is, Hans is arrested and deported back to his own kingdom to face punishment from his 12 brothers for his treason.
Elsa additionally cuts off all trade with the Duke of Weselton. The Duke tries to claim that he was innocent and a victim of fear. But to no avail, he and his bodyguards are sent back in disgrace, with Kai deliberately keeping on calling the Duke's kingdom "Weaseltown" to annoy him.
Elsewhere, Anna leads a blindfolded Kristoff to the docks, though briefly runs him into a lamppost. She removes the blindfold, gives Kristoff a new sled, and reveals that Elsa has named him the Official Ice Master for the kingdom, so he can be with Anna.
He attempts to decline both the sled and the title, too modest to accept, but Anna points out that this is a direct order from the queen.
When she asks what his thoughts on the sled are, Kristoff picks up Anna and twirls her around in his arms, exclaiming he loves it and that he could kiss her.
Realising what he said, Kristoff immediately puts her down and stammers awkwardly that he'd like to, among several sentences of nonsense, leaving him embarrassingly flustered.
Anna kisses his cheek, saying to Kristoff, "We may," and the two share their first kiss, officially beginning their romantic relationship.
Elsa creates an ice rink in one of the castle courtyards and promises never to shut the castle gates ever again, and Elsa and Anna both know that nothing will ever come between them again as well.
Elsa gifts Anna a pair of ice skates made out of snow and ice. Anna is delighted but tells Elsa that she can't skate. Elsa delightfully and playfully helps her, and she is later joined by Olaf.
The film ends with everybody in the village happily skating in Elsa's ice rink.
In the post-credits scene, it is revealed that Marshmallow has survived his fall into the gorge and, to some degree, reattached his leg.
He is seen limping back into the castle, where all he finds is Elsa's discarded tiara. The monster looks around for a moment and smiles.
Then, Marshmallow happily crowns himself ruler of the ice castle while going back to his neutral and peaceful form, smiling and letting out a happy sigh, happily continuing his life in the North Mountain.
Nero sits silently through the credits, then she bursts into applause, loud enough to shake the room while exclaiming, "Magnificent! Majestic! Elsa embodies the spirit of a true ruler. One who suffers, one who rises above, one who accepts herself!"
She twirled dramatically, as if greeting an adoring audience, "Such music! Such spectacle! Praetor, you must show me more of these 'Disney epics.' I demand it!"
Seeing that, I smile wryly and mutter, "I may have created a monster."
"What?"
"Nothing."
She twirled like a performer leaving the stage. "Tomorrow, we study the soundtrack. Goodnight, Praetor."
I followed later, smiling at the thought of Nero Claudius discovering Disney and content with the quiet end to a chaotic day.