Chapter 3 – Learning a New Trick
Attis' apartment
The next morning Attis was getting ready to go to work. Wearing a pair of dark grey jeans and a white dress shirt, he cleaned himself up a bit as he thought, 'Ha, didn't think the whole time fiasco could do this. Make me even wonder if I should continue on with my mission…' Attis slapped himself thinking, 'No, I still have the power of the Keyblade, so no matter what, stopping the Heartless is something I have to do.'
After all of that, Attis left his apartment, and gave a glance over to Rina's and thought, 'School must've started, she's probably long gone by now.' With that Attis made his way over to Maki's restaurant for the first day.
Maki's restaurant
By the time Attis got there, it was ten minutes to ten, and he opened the door to find Maki setting up the place. Maki heard the door open and looked up to see Attis walking in, and said, "Ah, Attis-san, glad to see that you're on time."
Attis nodded at that and said, "So, what do I do Maki-san?" Maki looked at Attis for a minute, then asked him, "You don't mind putting on a black bow, do you?"
For a moment, Attis looked at Maki oddly. Then he replied, "Uh, I guess so…" At that Maki just laughed and said, "Don't worry about that, it was just a joke. What you're wearing is good enough, though you might want to wear something lighter during the hotter days."
"I'll keep that in mind Maki-san." Attis said, a bit amused at Maki's antics. Then Maki told him, "You'll be taking on the job of being a waiter most of the time. I'll ask you to do other things every now and again but taking orders from the customers is what you'll be doing from now on."
"Yes sir." Attis said, and he prepared himself. As the place opened Attis thought to himself, 'This is something that I shouldn't be doing, but with me being cut off from HQ, I don't have much of a choice here…'
Attis managed to get the hang of the job quick enough, and being new, it attracted some attention from a few of the regulars. By the time his first break came, Attis felt half exhausted from all the work. As he sat down to take a break, Maki came up to him and said, "Wow, you sure managed to get used to the workload pretty quickly."
"It's nothing really; I learned to be adaptive quite a while ago." Attis told him. That's when another customer called to have their order taken and Attis got up saying, "Well, I guess there's no time for breaks I guess."
Maki just laughed as Attis went over to take the customer's order. As time went by, Attis thought about the Heartless from time to time, one of his thoughts being, 'Hmm, from the odd behavior of the Heartless, it's most likely that they're taking orders from someone or something …but who or what is it?'
Soon, it was a bit after five, and Attis felt quite tired. That's when Maki came up to him and said, "Good work Attis-san. I must say, it was quite impressive for your first day. It was like you've been working here all this time."
"Haha, as I said, I'm just adaptive that way." Attis said, waving it off. Maki then told him, "Nevertheless, you did well for your first day. You can go home now…wait, I need to tell you something first." Maki led Attis to the staff room, and Maki said, "Next week is Golden week, and even though for most of Japan it's a holiday, this restaurant will still be open. Is it okay for you to come in next week?"
Attis instantly agreed to it, "Sure, it's no problem for me." Maki looked relieved and said, "Okay, now that's settled. The next thing I wanted to say was that the restaurant will be closed for a few days, due to some things that I have to settle."
A nod came from Attis and said, "Okay." Then he looked around and asked, "Excuse me, but are there other employees here Maki-san?"
"Yes, there is and one of them was supposed to be here already. I wonder what's taking him." Maki replied. Attis nodded and walked out the door saying, "Thanks for the info, and I'll see you tomorrow Maki-san."
Maki just gave a nod as he watched Attis leave the restaurant. He couldn't help but think, 'That boy sure is mature for his age. I wonder what made him turn out that way…'
Pearl Piari – outside
Attis was busy walking around the town, searching for any signs of the Heartless, but found nothing. He found it strange, but felt relieved at the same time, since Heartless would go after anyone to increase their numbers. Having less Heartless around meant the Mermaid Princesses were safe from harm.
As he was walking, he passed by Pearl Piari when he saw a strange site. Lucia was about to attack a woman with blond hair, wearing sunglasses and a trench coat. As he stopped in front of the hotel he heard the woman scream, "What are you doing, attacking a customer?!" From the look Attis could see on Lucia's face, she was surprised by what the woman said and replied, "Eh, a customer?"
That's when Attis called out to Lucia saying, "Is something the matter Lucia-san?!" That's when Lucia turned around and said, "Attis-san!"
Inside Pearl Piari, Attis watched the scene as Lucia apologized to the woman for trying to attack her. Taking a look at how the woman acted, Attis thought, 'She should stop trying so hard to act inconspicuous, since she's actually attracting too much attention.'
The woman noticed Attis looking at her and asked, "Is there something you want?" Attis just replied, "Nope, though I gotta say, trying to cover your face like that would attract a lot of attention."
A 'hmph' came from the woman and she just walked off, leaving Attis to roll his eyes. The woman behind the counter went up to him and asked, "Excuse me, but who are you?"
Taking a quick look at the woman's face, he saw that she had purple hair tied up along with brown eyes. Attis cleared his throat and said, "Sorry about that. My name's Attis Hale, but you can just call me Attis. I'm an acquaintance with Lucia-san over here."
The woman behind the counter looked a bit surprised by that and she said, "Well, I'm Nikora Nanami, Lucia's older sister and the manager of Pearl Piari." Attis took a quick look around and said, "Wow, a young woman like you managing a place like this? That's quite amazing."
"Oh, you're just saying that." Nikora said with a smile, waving him off. That's when Attis heard Lucia mutter, "She's not as young as she looks though." A sudden chill came from Nikora as she asked, "Did you say something Lucia?"
Lucia quickly shook her head and said, "Nope, nothing at all!" Then she quickly ran to her room and out of sight. Attis just smirked at that and asked, "Excuse me Nanami-san, but are you and Lucia stepsisters by any chance?"
For a second, Attis thought he saw that Nikora had been caught off guard by the question, but she then replied, "Yes, it's true. She moved here from her old home and I'm taking care of her right now."
Suddenly, Attis heard footsteps and he turned to see an older woman with long brown gray hair and dressed like a fortune teller. She even had a large green crystal ball in her hands. Before Attis could say anything, Nikora said, "Oh, Attis-san, this is Taki-san, our resident fortuneteller."
Attis bowed his head at Taki and said, "It's nice to meet you Taki-san. I'm Attis Hale, but you can call me Attis." Taki replied, "So you're name is Attis huh? Very interesting…"
Attis couldn't help but have an odd feeling about Taki, as Nikora said, "Taki-san, you're scaring Attis-san you know." That's when Taki asked, "Do you mind coming with me for a moment Attis-san?"
For a moment, Attis glanced at Nikora, who looked a bit surprised by Taki's question. Then he just shrugged and replied, "I guess so…" Taki nodded and said, "Follow me please."
At that Attis followed Taki into her fortune telling room, making Nikora think, 'That was odd, Taki-san didn't seem herself just now.'
Inside the dark room, Attis was sitting behind a table facing Taki and her crystal orb. Taki told him, "Usually, I would charge you for a fortunetelling, but I'll let it go just this once." Attis just sat there wondering as Taki went on with her orb, thinking, 'What am I doing here?'
Suddenly Taki said, "Hmm, I see you facing two obstacles, which are beyond your ability to overcome at this moment. Let's see…oh, but you will be able to overcome them with help from another source." A moment of silence went on before she said, "I also see something red, but I can't clarify it."
Taki gave a sigh and said, "I can't see anymore than that." Attis nodded as he and Taki got up. Attis said, "Uh, well, thank you very much for the fortune Taki-san. I guess I'll see what will happen later then."
A nod came from Taki as the two left the room. Outside they saw Hanon beside Nikora and Nikora noticed them walk out and asked, "So, how did it go?"
"It was quite…interesting to say the least." Attis replied. That's when Hanon said, "Attis-san! I'm glad to see that you're alright. I haven't seen you since you ran off at the surfing competition."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Attis said, scratching the back of his head. That's when Attis saw Hippo running up to them holding something pink that Attis couldn't identify. Hippo was about to say something when he noticed that Attis was standing there and kept his mouth shut. Attis saw Hippo and asked, "Who's this?"
"Oh, that's Hippo, Lucia's pet." Nikora told him. Attis nodded and said, "Well, I guess I better get going. It was nice meeting you Nikora-san, Taki-san, and it was good to see you and Lucia-san too Hanon-san. I'll see all of you later." Attis gave a wave and left Pearl Piari.
For a second, the red pearl in Attis' pocket shined, and it gave a pearl reaction on Hippo's pearl radar for a second. Hippo saw it and thought, 'What was that? Maybe I need to fix the pearl radar…'
Outside Attis looked to the sunset, still thinking about Taki's words. He shook his head and he walked off, not noticing that Kaito was nearby. Attis thought, 'Two obstacles that I can't overcome at the moment? And something red…maybe it refers to the Red Pearl that Aqua Regina gave me, but how will that help me?'
A moment later, he saw a car go by, and just for a second, he thought he saw Lucia's face in the back. That's when he felt a slight pulse of energy come from the Red Pearl. He took it out and saw that the light was pulsating like a heartbeat. It seemed to tell him something and he heard a faint voice say, 'Follow them…'
Suddenly, a small red light came from the pearl and floated in front of him. Then it flew off, making Attis think, 'It'll probably lead the way.' Putting the Red Pearl necklace back into his pocket, Attis ran after the red light, wondering where it led.
Unknown hotel
By the time the orb of light stopped, it was already night. Attis stopped in front of the small orb catching his breath. As the light vanished, he heard a familiar shout from the distance, shouting, "Love Shower Pitch!"
Knowing what was going on, Attis quickly changed into his cloak and mask, making sure there was no one around. Summoning Aqualis, he ran towards the source of the shout, despite feeling tired of running a long distance.
When Attis reached the clearing however, he didn't find anyone around, except two people who were on the ground unconscious. Attis quickly went over to check to see if they were alright and thankfully he saw that they were alright. He looked around and thought, 'What the…where are they? There's no Heartless, and even the Pink and Aqua Princesses took a hike already.'
Looking around for a bit longer, he was about to dematerialize Aqualis when suddenly, ten Shadows appeared from behind him. Attis got into fighting position and said, "A whole bunch of Shadows? Not exactly what I call threatening."
Attis spoke too soon, as the Shadows split into two groups, and then the Shadows converged on each other, looking like they were fusing together. From his point of view, it didn't look pretty as he thought, "What are they doing?!"
That's when the two black blobs formed a more definite form. There were two Heartless now, and the two looked more humanoid now. Attis recognized the forms and spat, "Shoot, they're Neoshadows. Those things are tough, and I don't think I have the strength to defeat them without going through a harsh beating." As Attis gripped Aqualis tightly, one of the Neoshadows jumped towards him and took a swipe at Attis which he barely dodged.
Attis ran towards the center of the parking lot they were in and tried fighting off the two Neoshadows. However, with an amazing amount of speed they had, as well as melding into the shadows, it was proving difficult to fight them.
From the ocean, both Lucia and Hanon were watching Attis fight the Neoshadows and Lucia said, "We have to help him." Hanon looked at her and asked, "And how do you propose we do that? The moment we get out there in our idol forms, those Heartless will be on us before we have the chance to sing!"
Also, from a nearby tree, Rina was watching the fight and thought, 'Who is that? And what the heck are those things…?' Then as Attis swung Aqualis around, striking a Neoshadow in the abdomen and sending it flying, it gave Rina a clear view of Aqualis and she thought, 'That weapon looks like a…giant key? Wait, could that story about Aqua Regina and the Keyblade be true? Then that means those creatures are Heartless!'
Back to the fight, the Neoshadows kept on attacking, and Attis was having a hard time keeping up with their speed. He thought to himself, 'Damn, these Neoshadows are faster than usual. And at my current strength, I can barely keep up. If there was only some way to level the playing field…'
That's when Aqua Regina's voice entered his head saying, 'Use the Red Pearl…' Attis blocked an attack with Aqualis as he thought, 'What…? What do you mean by that?'
'Synchronize the pearl with Aqualis… That is all I can tell you…' Aqua Regina's voice said, before it faded from Attis' mind. Attis quickly jumped back and used a Cure spell to heal himself a bit, then took out the shell necklace and quickly plucked out the Red Pearl from it. He had to duck from an attack as he put the necklace back in his pocket and ran to the middle of the parking lot.
What he did next would surprise the three onlookers, as he held the Red Pearl next to Aqualis and shouted, "Red Pearl Synchro!" There was a flash of light that blinded Lucia, Hanon, and Rina and when it faded, they saw nothing had changed, but the Red Pearl was now in the bottom hole that was next to the hilt of Aqualis. Lucia turned to Hanon and asked, "I've never heard of the Red Pearl. Have you Hanon?"
Hanon shook her head and said, "I never heard about it, but from the power I can feel, that pearl feels like one of ours." Lucia was silent at that as she turned her head back to the battle.
Near the tree, Rina was speechless at what just happened. She thought, 'That pearl, it feels as though it's just like mine and the other two…' Rina took out her necklace and looked at the Green Pearl that was inside it.
Back at the battle Attis could feel that he grew a bit stronger, and felt a spell unlock in his head which he recognized. He smiled behind the mask and thought, 'Now this might just do it.' Attis held out Aqualis and shouted, "Haste!"
In an instant, Attis was surrounded in a pink aura as the Neoshadows recovered from the light, and instantly went on the offensive. Now that Attis was faster, he was able to quickly dodge the attacks and strike back with equal speed.
The Neoshadows were losing ground bit by bit as Attis pushed back one of the Neoshadows and pointed Aqualis at it and shouted, "Fire!" A small fireball came out of Aqualis' tip and flew right at the Neoshadow, giving off an explosion that sent it flying.
Attis was starting to feel the effects of Haste starting to fade, so he quickly swung the Aqualis around, hitting the other Neoshadow right in the head, sending it skidding sideways. Then he quickly rushed over to the other Neoshadow and started attacking it with quick slashes, which the Neoshadow couldn't defend against.
Then, with a finishing blow, Attis stabbed Aqualis right through the Neoshadow's chest, causing it to collapse into a black mist before vanishing completely. Feeling the effects of Haste now gone from him, Attis quickly turned around and saw that the other Neoshadow was rushing over towards him with it's shadow merged in the ground.
Rematerializing into a solid form, the Neoshadow started to attack him mercilessly, with Attis barely able to block most of them. A punch to the gut got through, and it sent Attis flying right across the parking lot, close to the water's edge.
Coughing, Attis slowly got up and felt like he was about to fall apart. From the ocean, Lucia and Hanon were looking tense, worrying about Attis' situation. It's frustrated them that they couldn't help him and that all they could do was watch. Attis was starting to breathe a bit heavily and thought, 'I need to finish this now!'
"Haste!" Attis shouted, and once more a pink aura surrounded him. However, due to the state of his condition, Attis was only able to keep up with the Neo-Shadow, and things were at a standstill. Inside Attis didn't feel all that great and that was when he felt a sudden burst of energy starting to come forth.
Underneath the mask Attis smirked and whispered, 'I almost forgot about that…' That's when Attis focused on the energy coming forth and a thin, blue aura enveloped Aqualis. Suddenly there was a burst of energy and Attis said, "You had this coming!"
Then, with a burst of speed, Attis rushed over and started attacking the Neoshadow relentlessly, with his strikes much stronger than usual. That's when Attis knocked the Neoshadow into the air and jumped up after it, then released a fury of strikes before making one last blow, which slammed the Neoshadow into the ground. It exploded into black mist before fading completely as Attis landed on the ground.
The onlookers looked quite surprised at Attis' last stunt and Attis himself thought, 'Can't believe I forgot about Limit Breaks. The amnesia must've done a lot worse than I thought.' Then Aqualis vanished, which left the Red Pearl behind that Attis quickly caught. He then held the Red Pearl up to the night sky, leaving the three onlookers a clear view of it and Attis said, 'This little thing sure saved me today.' Then he quickly put it back in its shell necklace and put the necklace back in his pocket.
After that Attis tried hard on casting one last Cure spell on himself before he quickly withdrew from the area, seeing that the two people who were unconscious nearby starting to stir. As he ran Attis couldn't help but think, 'Wonder what happened to those two anyway…'
Quickly making his way back to his apartment before he felt like collapsing, Attis managed to take off the cloak and mask before he fell on his bed in exhaustion. Having the injuries he had taken from the Neoshadows healed up. All he felt like doing was going to fall asleep but he had a few things to think about first.
Attis replayed the battle mentally, and that's when Attis suddenly remembered what Taki had told him back at their fortune telling session, 'This sounds like what Taki-san told me. The two obstacles that I wouldn't be able to overcome were the two Neoshadows, and the help and red thing Taki mentioned must've been Aqua Regina and the Red Pearl!'
Not being much of a believer in fortunetelling, this shook Attis up quite a bit and thought, 'Wow, first time a fortune I was told actually came true. Maybe I should stop by tomorrow and see what else Taki-san has to say.'
Finding some energy to get back up, Attis went back to trying to materialize Solaris and Lunaria. Again, he had no such luck and just to make himself feel better, he materialized Aqualis. Looking at the Keyblade, he took a closer look at the eight holes that were in the blade. Knowing where the red pearl went, he speculated, 'The other holes must be for holding the other pearls of the Mermaid Princesses. I wonder why Aqua Regina made it this way, since it's not like I can just take the other pearls when I need them.'
Making Aqualis vanish, Attis took out the Red Shell necklace and put it on the table beside his bed. Getting changed, he quickly went to bed, and fell asleep quickly. With that a memory came back to him in the form of a dream.
Dreamstate – seven years ago, Attis' homeworld
Attis was wearing slightly ragged clothes, as he and six other children ran through the alleyways of a city, with the Heartless chasing after them. Being a ten year old orphan, all he could do was run at the moment, as the Heartless already devoured some of their friends and were after them.
Suddenly they ran themselves into a scrapyard and they were trapped, with the Heartless coming for them at the entrance. All of a sudden, a portal of light appeared behind them, and with no other options, five of the children ran through the portal without a second thought. The last child, a girl with long brown hair and gray eyes, wearing a dirtied white dress, was about to also go through the portal when she saw Attis go over and pick up a slightly rusted steel pipe.
As Attis walked back over the girl asked, "What are you doing Attis?! C'mon, let's go!"
"I can't do that Karen, I'll hold these things back, and you go after the others." Attis told the girl, named Karen, as he held the pipe with two hands, standing in front of the portal and Karen. Karen shook her head and tried pulling Attis towards the gate, as the Heartless slowly advanced towards them saying, "No, I won't lose you to those things like the others."
Attis wrestled free from Karen's grip and he pushed her through the gate saying, "Sorry Karen, but you're more important to us than I am." The last thing Attis ever heard from Karen was her shouting his name as she fell through the portal. Then Attis turned to the Heartless with pipe in his hand as he said, "Come and get me!"
Attis woke up in the middle of the night from the dream. He sat up for a second before thinking, 'That's right, it all started when the Heartless invaded my home.' Attis just sighed and went back to sleep, hoping that he wouldn't wake up again until the sun rose.
