Chapter 2- Four years later
Another day in paradise for many of the citizens of the Radiant Garden, except for one. The now four year old Sairu, despite having been taken in so willingly into a stable and loving environment, had grown up into an almost unreadable child. He was an incredibly exuberant boy in the eyes of many, which seemed to put off the other children whenever he was taken to the park because of how loud he was, always trying to get people to notice him. Nevertheless, his loud exterior was merely a façade; because everyone steered clear of him, it only made him louder, which pushed people further away, a vicious cycle with no end in sight.
It was morning, and after getting dressed into a long-sleeved blue shirt, white shorts and grey trainers, Sairu walked downstairs to meet everyone for breakfast. As he sat down next to Aerith, who had especially taken it upon herself to look after him, Sairu set hopeful eyes at the other side of the table, trying to meet the eyes of a certain Squall, who was dressed in a black leather jacket with a ruffled white collar, black gloves, a white V-neck shirt sporting his signature lion pendant, and black trousers and combat boots to complete the getup; however, the latter merely gave him a brief yet cold stare, before returning to the newspaper beside his plate. Having seen this, Sairu could only lower his head in sadness, until an affectionate ruffle of his hair from Aerith lifted his spirits, if only for a time.
After eating breakfast, Aerith and Sairu headed for the park, where he saw all the other kids playing with each other whilst being watched by their parents, and seeing their good time, Aerith proceeded to pick some flowers to take home, leaving Sairu to himself. Despite everything, it was a beautiful sunny day in this place perhaps best described as paradise. Flowers of varying colours grew out of every patch of soil, and all the children were in the playground, chasing each other over lush green grass or picking the flowers, laughing and playing with each other and their parents. This scene warms the hearts of many people, but there was an exception.
Sairu could only find a spot to stand and stare on the outskirts of the playground, as a deep sadness threatened to entrap him, gazing at the joy all around him, a joy that he felt he would never become a part of. That is until, someone in particular caught his eye: a boy who stood in solitude not unlike himself, with indigo-grey hair with bangs draped over the right side of his face. He wore blue jeans, black sneakers, a long white coat with rolled up sleeves to show his hands and a black V-neck shirt. As he looked towards the boy, something within Sairu began to stir; a sort of magnetism found himself walking towards the other boy, until, to his surprise he was right behind the boy in question. Not sure what to say, Sairu could only meekly say "Hi there". This got the other boy's attention as he turned to face him, and in that instant, Sairu felt a sense of déjà vu: the boy's visible eye bore an expression of sadness and loneliness just like him.
"Hello. I've seen you before, haven't I?" he spoke quietly, yet inquisitively. His formal approach took Sairu by surprise, but recovered and said "Yeah I guess. I saw you here on your own, and thought you wanted some company". Indigo then turned to face Sairu with suspicion in his gaze, catching Sairu off-guard again. "Tell me you aren't deceiving me. How do I know I can trust you?" he stated bluntly, watching Sairu warily. "Well... I wouldn't be talking to you if that were true, right?" he argued weakly. "Hey, where are your parents? Are they here?" he then asked, looking around until he noticed the growing sadness on Indigo's features. Realizing his error, Sairu hastily admitted "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to upset you-" but then he saw three boys approach, each with a look of sheer arrogance upon their face.
The one in the middle was rather plump and round, with cropped black hair, cyan T-shirt and navy shorts and blue and grey trainers. A skinny boy stood on his left, wearing a yellow shirt under a navy blue jacket with two matching yellow stripes running down the sleeves and grey trousers with white and blue trainers; he also sported a dark grey bandana wrapped round his forehead, showing his spiked blonde hair. The last boy wore sunglasses, with a dark-grey long-sleeved T-shirt, maroon trousers and black trainers with unkempt brown hair; he too was slightly porky.
"Look here, boys. Seems we got ourselves a double act: blue-haired weirdo with a red-haired freak" he quipped mockingly, his two thugs sniggering condescendingly at their joke. "Donny. What do you want?" Indigo replied, annoyance apparent in his voice, as the cyan-shirted boy sniggered in regards, then, surprisingly quick for his stature, he grabbed Indigo by the scruff of his neck and threw him to the ground. Sairu could only look on in horror as all this happened, and at this, gritted his teeth and turned to face Donny. "What's this? What's going on?" Sairu exclaimed angrily as he eyed the three boys. "Quiet!" Donny snapped and threw a punch at Sairu, hitting him in the chest, sending him to the ground, clutching his chest in pain. "Who said you can talk?" Donny stated authoritatively, looking down at Sairu in more ways than one. "Get Blue over there; Red here's not worth it" At this command, his flunkies approached Indigo and grabbed him by his arms, restraining him. Donny approached his victim, cracking his knuckles and standing right in front of him, struck blows into every available area of his upper body, even his face.
Seeing this, Sairu stood up again and then, to everyone's surprise, Sairu jumped on Donny's back, pushing him to the ground, and proceeded to wrestle each other until his flunkies rushed to help him and sent a punch into Sairu's chest again, forcing him to let go in order to breathe. As Donny rose to his feet, hatred blazing in his grey eyes, he then turned to face the indigo-haired boy and ran at him and despite his injuries, Sairu ran to catch up to him, and in the nick of time, stopped Donny's right arm from throwing a punch, which took Indigo by surprise. "Why...?" he asked, horrified. At this, Sairu turned to face him, smiling through the pain. "Because I think... you can trust me" and with that, with all his strength, Sairu pushed Donny to the ground. Seeing his resolve, Indigo's horror vanished with a look of confusion, and then, to himself, he smiled serenely.
The sheer effort was too much for Sairu, as he dropped to his knees, panting. Donny's blazing hatred was far from extinguished as he rose to his feet again, and proceeded to Sairu, growling like a snarling beast, until... both boys noticed Indigo standing in front of Sairu, looking Donny directly in the eye, loathing meeting defiance between them. In the end, Donny simply turned away and gestured with his hand for his flunkies to follow but not before giving them one final glare. Sairu and Indigo were confused but took it in stride as they faced one another. Indigo then offered a hand to Sairu, who, with a beaming smile, accepted it as he rose to his feet. "You were right... You were someone I could trust. You're particularly strange but I like that" Indigo stated before "My name is Ienzo, and I wonder what yours is" The beaming smile still set, Sairu gleefully responded "I'm Sairu. What a cool name you got". "No, it's not, really" Ienzo replied sheepishly, both of them chuckling.
"Are you alright? He punched you quite hard" Ienzo then asked looking over him. But before Sairu could respond, footsteps could be heard running towards them. Sairu saw it was Aerith, worry in her shimmering green eyes. As she quickly knelt down in front of Sairu, she saw the dirt on his clothes, and could see a bruise on the left side of his face. "Sairu, what happened? Are you OK? Was it him?" she hastily said, looking over him and then Ienzo with suspicion, the latter shaken by such an accusation. "Please wait, ma'am. I did not do this; the ones who did are gone now, but he helped me. I promise; it is the truth" Ienzo hastily argued, and turning to face Sairu, who nodded in confirmation, Aerith immediately understood "I'm sorry. Most kids don't usually bother him. I just thought-" but she was politely interrupted by Ienzo raising his hand "I understand; it did look suspicious. Is Sairu going to be alright?" he asked, concern evident in his visible eye. Aerith nodded as she turned her attention to Sairu and with a glowing palm, the bruise on Sairu's cheek vanished in a matter of seconds.
"It's time to go home, Sairu. I'll have to look you over for other injuries" Aerith then added sternly yet sweetly, to which Sairu reluctantly nodded. At this, he then noticed a man approaching them: a tall man with long, platinum-blonde hair, deep green eyes, dressed in a lab coat, a white collared shirt with a lavender ascot, black trousers and boots that reached his calves. His calculating eyes fell upon each of them present, with a somewhat severe expression as he noticed the state that Ienzo was in: ruffled hair and a soiled lab coat. "Ienzo, thank goodness I found you. We return to the castle immediately; you have some explaining to do in regards to this dishevelled state we have found you and this other boy in" he spoke bluntly. "Wait, Mr. Even. Before you say anything else, it was these other boys that did this to my friend here and myself. Sairu here was not responsible, I assure you" Ienzo swiftly yet calmly spoke, which caused Even to glance over Sairu once more, but merely returned his gaze to Ienzo and curtly nodded his head.
"Very well. I will give this friend of yours the benefit of the doubt. But let us ensure such incidents are not repeated in future; His Lordship will only grow ever more concerned" Even responded amicably, and gestured for Ienzo to follow. As they both took their leave, Ienzo turned to face Sairu one more time, smiling, and bid him farewell with a wave of his hand before running to catch up with Even again. After seeing this, Sairu couldn't help but give a genuine smile in their direction before being led home by Aerith.
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Later that afternoon, Sairu, shirtless, was being examined by Aerith in his bedroom. She had discovered that his ribs on his left side had been bruised, thankfully, not broken, so her magic took care of that quickly. Thankfully, his injuries were quite minor overall, but it did evoke concern with Aerith. She worried if it were to continue and he wasn't ready to defend himself. After she finished treating his wounds, Sairu put his shirt back on and went back downstairs for his afternoon session with Merlin. Just as with Squall, Aerith and currently Yuffie, Merlin took it upon himself to serve as a tutor for the young Sairu, helping him learn to read and write, and being educated in mathematics, science and, only recently, magic, considering how young Sairu was.
Today, Merlin was teaching the boy to conjure a fireball at a target in a separate dimension, courtesy of his magic. However, it was apparent that Sairu would never become an expert in magic; no matter how hard he concentrated, he could only create one that was too big or too weak to cause damage. Thankfully, he seemed to perform to expectations in the academics Merlin put him through. After days of countless attempts, Sairu was making little progress with his fireball training; he still could not get a consistent shape for the fire itself. In the end, an exasperated Merlin called off the session earlier, which served to sadden Sairu but nonetheless, he was somewhat relieved it was finished.
After a quiet dinner, conversation not being much of a tradition amongst this 'family', an exhausted Sairu retired to bed, saddened by his inability to control the fireballs he tried to create, yet ecstatic at the thought of his new friend, Ienzo. As he lay there in deep thought, replaying his performance, the door to his bedroom opened and surprisingly, it was Squall who had come to see him. "Is something wrong?" Sairu asked cautiously, yet Squall's gaze was much softer than he was expecting. "Aerith mentioned what happened at the park today. You and a new friend were caught up in a fight, where you took more damage than those wretched boys" Squall explained as he came and sat on the bed next to Sairu. "I'm impressed you stood up for that boy... Ienzo, was it? But it's apparent that there's room for improvement" Seeing Sairu's confused expression, Squall sighed in exasperation and continued "Starting tomorrow, you will be training with me and another... friend of ours. We're going to train you into someone who can take those beatings in future... and to prepare you"
"Huh?" Sairu said, understanding the training part; in fact, a part of him was almost excited at being able to train with his idol, but he was confused at the last comment of 'preparing' him. Then, he noticed Squall reach into his jacket and pulled out an object: a golden pendant shaped like a straight-edged heart preached on top of some sort of cross, attached to a length of thin black rope. "This is for you. I spoke it over with everyone and we decided you can have this if you promise to train when and for as long as we say so. What we're doing is going to be hard work, but I think this training will suit you more than magic and really pay off in the end, but only if you put in the effort" Squall elucidated, with a small smile, much to Sairu's surprise, as he proceeded to gently place the pendant around Sairu's neck, Sairu all the while gobsmacked at what had occurred. "So what do you say?" Squall asked firmly yet kindly, to which Sairu could only nod his head, receiving a ruffle of his red hair from Squall before he got up and walked back to the door.
Before he left however, Squall turned to face him and said in a harsh voice "But... don't tell anyone about this little moment. I have a reputation to protect" he said as he turned the corner down the hallway. Sairu, meanwhile, could only grin at what he had seen: Squall being nice to him. With what just happened, the sadness of today's session was all but gone from his mind, the joy of meeting his new friend, and his idol, who was usually cold and stoic, was warm and affectionate to him. Sairu had never felt so happy, even as he felt fatigued, falling asleep not long after, there was still a smile set in place on his face. Unbeknownst to either Squall or Sairu, a certain girl had overheard everything; Aerith couldn't help but smile at the thought of those two finally bonding with one another before she returned downstairs.
"Yeah... This day, was one of my most memorable. It was here that I began to connect with others for real. Back then, Squall was my idol; he was cold to me before, yet he was polite enough to us all the same. That air of confidence he emits made me want to grow closer to him. Either way, today was a major turning point for me: Squall began to take me seriously and see me for the first time, and it was when Ienzo and I became best friends. I thought we'd all be together forever."
A/N: Here's my second chapter; enjoy and please review! Just so you know, the Italic writing will be the thoughts of the elder Sairu, who is comatose after battling and losing to Xemnas. Normal font is, as you know already, the memories as the main essence of the story, to avoid confusion.