Twilight Town; 'Haunted' Mansion
Menma found himself at the iron gates of a large, admittedly beautiful, house. The forestry about the area the so thick only one path lay open to him on the way there, he hummed to himself before tapping Harmony against the gates, amusingly they swung straight open.
As he walked towards the entrance he was stopped, a figure - somewhat familiar - stood guard at the door suddenly, appearing in a flash of dark energies.
"Ansem." Menma greeted, the man's body language was tense but he reciprocated the gesture.
"Menma. How did you find this place?" Ansem questioned.
"I came here looking for a kiddo named Sora, he's got a heart fragment that doesn't belong to him." Menma said simply, Ansem seemed shocked or at least enough to have his body flinch slightly, "A boy named Ventus, it's his. I'm not here to hurt Sora, just ask him to come with me to give back what he's held onto for however long it's been."
"Ventus… How do you know that name?"
Menma blew a strand of hair out of his face as his frustration slowly began to bubble, "A woman named Aqua led me to him, apparently they're quite close because she won't even leave his bedside for a moment. Currently the both of them are on my world, resting in the hospital."
"Aqua's alive!?" Menma suddenly appeared before Ansem, grabbed his collar with such force that his hood fell down, revealing a tanned man with brilliant amber eyes and silver hair, saffron gold burned into Ansem's very soul.
"Is Sora here?" Menma questioned with a deathly quiet.
Ansem tried to wriggle out of his grasp but the man found that Menma had an iron grip, "I can't let you hurt him."
"Ansem." Menma said, his patience trying its damndest to stay alive, taking a deep breath through his nose he continued, "I'm not going to hurt him, I'm going to talk to him, and so help me god if you persist being a fucking thickheaded fool, I'm going to hurt you!" Menma shook Ansem furiously when he tried to get out of his grip once more.
"Tell me where the boy is!" Furious Shadows rose in the area round Menma, each of them twitching angrily as their - oddly enough - purple eyes locked onto Ansem.
"There's no need for violence, my friend." A new voice said, the door to the mansion opened, a man draped in a red cloak, red bandages covering his face and hands along with a duo of black belts. His long almost dress like robe flowed with each step he took, several pouches down his left side.
A single amber eye peered towards the tallest one in the area, "DiZ…" Ansem muttered, abashed.
"You seek Sora? Well if you would be so kind as to release my assistant, I can take you to him." DiZ, for apparently that was his name, said.
Menma's mood settled as the need for intimidation waned, he released Ansem and walked behind the red clothed man.
Ansem looked upon the swathe of Shadows before the sunk into the ground and rejoined in the actual shadow of their creator.
The heavy steps echoed through the dilapidated and ruined mansion, he was led through a library and into a basement, past a large computer setup and some kind of machine built into the wall, until finally Menma was led through a well lit hallway, crystalline flowers holding two figures in stasis, they weren't a human boy so he didn't care.
He was idly unnerved at what the sight though, a bipedal dog man and a giant duck?
DiZ led him to the final room, much larger than the others, and within was his quarry.
"As you can see, Sora is currently resting. When we are finished chaining his memories together he will awaken and you may speak with him, until then I ask you to be patient." DiZ was a reasonable enough fellow so Menma nodded.
He offered his hand to the older man who took it and shook it, "Thank you for you time, DiZ. I appreciate your transparency."
"I appreciate you not gutting my assistant." Ah, gallows humour, a personal favourite.
"So what's the real reason you allowed me down here?" Menma said, pulling the man closer through their handshake and staring at him critically.
"Good to see I'm not dealing with the average youth with power. Very well, I've a favour to ask of you, that could expedite the process of Sora's awakening."
"And what would that be?" Menma questioned.
"Protecting his Nobody from a miscreant named Axel." DiZ said simply.
This would require explanation.
Later
Menma once more found himself in Twilight Town Sandlot, though this time during the simulated Struggle Championship. Menma watched on and on as Roxas, whom shared an identical face and voice to Ventus, marched his way across the competition, easily flattening his peers and trouncing the now-shamed Champion Setzer.
Then the Dusks started to appear, 'Aaand, that's my cue.'
"Stop!" Each of the Dusks immediately wilted in their approach to the now-keyblade wielding boy, who turned sharply to see the approaching man, his hands held in an assuring gesture, "Don't fret, pal. I'm here to help, names Menma, Uzumaki Menma."
"What did you do to these… things?" Roxas asked, genuinely confused at everything that was happening.
"These creatures…" Menma swept a hand across them as he placed his other on Roxas' shoulder, "Are called Dusks, they are a type of Nobody. Nobody's occur when a strong-willed person falls into despair and surrenders to the darkness, a Nobody lives in between life and death, flitting across the river styx like an indecisive swimmer."
"Huh…?"
"Alright, lemme change it up. So a Nobody is what's left over when your soul leaves your body, right?" Roxas nodded as he got that part down, "Easy breezy, so these guys are your garden variety… say like, some average guy died and couldn't let go of a few things in life, his soul left but his body kept on truckin', that's what you get."
"So they're… kinda like zombies?" Roxas asked, unsure but trying to understand, the man smiled brightly and nodded.
"Spot on kiddo, well done." Menma grinned brightly and ruffled his hair, Roxas' cheeks flushed at the forward nature of the older male, "So anyway, the reason I'm here to give ya a hand is because I gotta make sure you get through all the crazy stuff that's been happening' recently."
"So… that guy in black coat, and when one of these… Dusks stole the photos, or how everyone's frozen at the moment, stuff like that?" Roxas asked, getting another wide, friendly smile and a nod.
"Aced it." Menma snapped a finger and summoned Harmony, "I can even give ya a few tips on how to use that bad-boy."
"You've got one too!" Roxas smiled as excitement bubbled, finally some answer!
"Who are you and what are you doing with Roxas!" A new voice shot through the silence, both turned to see a lankier figure wearing a black coat, he strode forward and looked like a defensive cat with the way his back was arched.
"You must be Axel." Menma said simply, as the man removed his hood, a wild, windswept corona of red spikes vibrant green eyes were the first noticeable things, along with two purple markings just below his eyes, admittedly the man was a good looker unfortunately the scowl on his face ruined it somewhat.
"What nonsense are you filling his head with?" Axel demanded with fervor.
"I was actually just telling him what Dusks are, also don't talk like Roxas isn't here, that's rude dude." Menma said with a wave of his hand.
"Roxas, you've gotta come with me we'll get you outta here and fix your memories." Axel assured as he produced his chakrams, flurries of flame leaping to life and forming two intricate circular weapons.
"Alright bud, sit tight he's gonna need a stern talkin' to." Menma pat Roxas on the shoulder as his small army of Shadows took care of the Dusks before forming a protective ring around the boy much to his fright.
Menma strode forward and Axel grit his teeth, "Alright bud, spill it. Why are you here?" Axel made to strike but Menma grabbed his wrist and twisted it painfully, "Listen up chucklefuck, I'm more of a talker when it comes to resolution than an abuser, so if you wanna talk this out like adults I'm happy with that. But don't for a second think that I'll let you get in the way of me protectin' this kid."
"Protecting him?" Axel snapped suddenly, his eyes widening with shock, "You're human, why are you protecting a Nobody?"
"Because you idiot, I don't care what you've been told you aren't a traditional nobody." Menma released Harmony and pressed his hand against the man's chest, a heart beating quickly beneath his coat, "You've got your heart idiot, it doesn't dictate what you feel. It's all chemicals and familiarity, you lack a 'Heart' because of what you are, but in reality it just means you're in half."
"Wh-what are you talking about! That's not important right now, what are you doing here and what are you planning to do with him?" Menma released Axel and crossed his arms.
"I'm not planning anything, I'm waiting for Roxas to reunite with Sora because he doesn't belong to Sora. He belongs to another boy whose soul connected with Sora's under duress. Once Sora wakes up, Roxas can go back to where he belongs."
Axel looked at the other man with a hard gaze, "You think I'll just let you do that, huh? I'm not letting my best friendfade away!" Axel moved to attack.
"Ventus." This gave the firestarter pause.
"Excuse you?"
"Ventus. That's the boy's name, he's another Keyblader. If he doesn't wake up someone I know is going to waste her whole life by the bedside of a comatose corpse, I'll not let that pass by."
"I… I know Ventus." Axel admitted suddenly, he blinked for a second, swallowing thickly and looked over Menma's shoulder to look at Roxas, old memories surfacing. "Roxas is… his Nobody, isn't he?"
"Now you're getting it." Menma said, a smile growing on his lips as he nodded, "From what I've been able to piece together, Roxas is the by-product of Sora and Ventus' hearts connecting when the two were younger. If I can put everyone back where they're supposed to be, it means that everyone gets to be happy, and you get your friend back."
Axel pursed his lips as his shoulder shook for a moment, taking a breath he leant towards the black haired male, "If I find out you're givin' me the runaround I'll turn you to ashes."
"I feel like this is the start of a beautiful friendship, Axel." Menma chuckled and pat the man on the shoulder, pulling him close as the duo walked towards Roxas, "Ahh feel that, that's the feeling of reason and sense making a step forward."
"Roxas, I know you've probably got even more questions right now but trust me pal, if you need me, just call I won't be far." Menma saluted the younger man with two fingers and called back his Shadows, "We've got your back, right Axel?"
"Y-yeah, it was good seeing you again Roxas." The two disappeared into a sunset coloured door Roxas' eyes widened before he palmed his face.
"I'm so damn confused."
DiZ's Computer Lab
Menma and Axel appeared once more, "I see you managed to take care of the situation, and without violence, I'd say you have a talent for diplomacy but then I think my assistant would disagree."
DiZ spun in his chair to address the duo whilst Ansem grunted, Axel quirked a brow, "Who's this guy?" He said, gesturing with his chin at the other cloaked man.
"Ansem." Menma answered in his place, "DiZ anything else you need from me for now? I should check back in at the hospital."
"No, for the time being you've already made everything go along swimmingly. Without Axels interference there's little to fear that Roxas cannot handle, I will alert you should he call for you." DiZ handed Menma some odd circular device.
"What's this." The screen on it was small and overall the device was roughly the size of his palm.
"It will flash red when I recall you, Menma. Simply put, it is a pager." Menma made a noise of acknowledgment and nodded, tucking the pager into his pocket. He turned to Axel.
"You're comin' with me."
"Why the hell should I?" Axel asked, trying to regain some ground he'd lost in the face of the previous events.
"Because I don't see you doin' anything else. What do you even do?" Asked the man as he opened the way home, Axel grunted and began espousing exposition about Organisation 13.
"Do you really believe that Axel will give up so easily?" Ansem asked, his amber eyes looking to DiZ.
The older man chuckled and spun back to his monitors, "Truly? No. But for the time being it seems our mutual friend has managed to convince Axel that our way is the way to return Roxas to him. Regardless of the semantics involved, he's not completely incorrect. If all goes according to plan, Roxas will return to Ventus and the boy should awaken."
"And should Axel… decide that it is not the case?" Ansem questioned.
"I hardly see how that could be an issue, you have experienced his power first hand. What do you make of it?" DiZ questioned over his shoulder, Ansem considered this for a moment before answering.
"Wild. Untamed. It's like being in the face of an eclipse, but at the same time he's so unfamiliar with the way of the Keyblade he's easily exploited. It's… an interesting experience."
"And as we both know, Axel is much the same. Through either his Somebody's personality or his aspect of fire, he battles in a way akin to a manic animal." DiZ said simply, "If they should come to blows, I propose… that with the combination of his Heartless, Menma would emerge victorious."
"I suppose we'll just have to wait."
Konoha; A Day After Menma's Departure.
Aqua sat in the hospital, the bags under her eyes were heavy as she sat at the bedside of Ven. The sound of the heart monitor was slowly becoming soothing, the rhythmic beeps attempting to coax her to sleep.
Suddenly a hand fell on her shoulder, followed by another hand on her other shoulder, tired blue eyes looked to gentle purple, a wan smile grew on her face as a pair of arms wrapped around her, Aqua stilled at that, placing a hand over the forearm of the one hugging her.
A pair of lips touched her temple, the intimacy of the gesture stirred something strange in her, "Sorry for how I acted." Came the whisper into her ear, gradually the world fell back into place as a long curtain of black fell over her eyes, Menma had leant over so his face was upside-down and looking at hers.
"C'mon, Aqua. You've gotta get cleaned up and have a bath. If you don't relax, by the time Ventus wakes up you'll probably be dead." Menma tugged her out of the chair and kept one arm around her shoulder.
"Axel. you're on watch." A black coat, wild red hair.
"I'm so tired…" Aqua muttered into her friend's side.
"That's an understatement." His voice held an amused lilt to it, "C'mon, we'll get ya showered and tucked in."
"Thas'ounds 'ood." Muttered Aqua into his side, Menma allowed an amused smile to slip onto his face as he picked her up and carried her to the public baths.
Axel remained, looking directly at Ventus and frowning. He ran his hands through his hair and shook it out, "Man, what am I even doin' here? Talked into something so stupid." He frowned and took a seat, kicking his legs up onto the edge of the bed.
"I bet you don't even remember me, huh?" Axel said to the comatose boy, "Ol' Lea and Isa… those were… better days. Heh, I can't believe I gave you smack for using a wooden keyblade when I walked around with frisbees damn I was corny." Axel broke into a fond chuckle as he reminisced.
"I did always wonder where you ended up getting to, Ventus ya'know? Where that cool guy I met disappeared to, Radiant Garden got kinda boring after that. Well until everything that happened… happened." Axel frowned as flashes and memories passed his mind.
He shook them away, it did one no good to remember being taken down by a Heartless. That did pique his interest though, "Where is my heartless? If it's still out there, when I go down… I suppose that'll make me a whole corpse at least." Axel chuckled morosely and hung his head.
He sunk into the chair and threw a hand up, patting Ventus' arm for a moment. "Sleep well pal… when you're up and about we'll go for Ice-No… I'm not replacing Roxas with you, that wouldn't be fair to him. If you remember that'll be that, when Roxas comes back to you I'll… well I've got your back, because I mean…"
Axel's gaze took a fond turn once more, "What are friends for?"
For a moment Axel could have sworn he saw the corners of Ven's lips perk upwards.
Konoha; Afternoon, Uzumaki Household
It was definitely an experience trying to get a sleep deprived Aqua to bathe. He'd have to deal with her judgemental gaze later as he ended up having to come into the bath with her to stop her from falling asleep and drowning, he did wear swimming trunks but women were finicky about that kinda stuff sometimes.
That being said she smelt a hell of a lot better afterwards, because hoo-boy, sitting in a hospital for hours on end is not good for the body.
Regardless she was in bed in the Clan Head's home. His mother had been rather insistent that he actually start taking that roll more seriously and whilst he agreed with her in a sense he didn't want to start dealing with the politics of it all at the moment.
He needed more time to mature, his temper already flared to easily and that just wasn't how a Clan Head was supposed to act. Also it didn't help that there were only a handful other people in the clan to begin with, his cousins Tayuya - whom had been found as a street rat by his mother at some point - and Karin, who came from… somewhere to seek out the Clan after hearing of its re-establishment.
Tangents aside, he was going to give it a little bit longer for his young blood to settle before he took up the position formally.
Currently he was eating lunch with his little brother, sitting in the backyard of a his parents abode with his back against a tree and his jacket off to the side, two bowls of ramen between himself and his brother, Menma snapped his chopsticks and tucked in as he began regaling his brother with current events.
"So-" Menma licked his lips of excess broth as he paused his eating to begin, "Turns out there are other worlds out there." He allowed that to sink in for a moment before continuing, "And boy howdy are there a lot of weird lookin' people who inhabit them, I saw a bipedal dog today, Naruto. A bipedal fakkin' dog. Not what I wanted, nor expected I tell ya."
A few bubbles of laughter left the back yard and Kushina looked out the window with a small, sad smile on her face.
Her long, glorious red hair was tied back into a ponytail, the idle thought of her son dying his hair crossed her mind but she brushed the thought away, he'd repeatedly said when he was 'Ready to be a man' he'd stop doing so and take his goddamn seat!
She was a young woman, only 38! She didn't want to spend her days attending meetings, let the kids do that, that's what they're there for!
An amused grin tugged at her lips as she shook her head, "Ooii! Kushina-sama!" Kushina clicked her tongue at having her thoughts interrupted, her young cousin Tayuya strode in.
Short red hair beneath a dark purple bandana, wearing a simple white t-shirt and denim shorts combo. Her light brown eyes sparked with the grin on her lips, " I smelt food and came'a runnin'."
"Of course you did." Kushina rolled her eyes, a fond smile on her face as the young woman sat across from her, the table was set with various amounts of deliciousness, when she heard her little boy was visiting for lunch she kinda went a little crazy.
Cheeky shit already brought food for himself, though at least he brought a guest for her to throw food at.
"Where's Karin?" Kushina asked as she nibbled at her lunch.
"She's comin' just wanted to make sure she was all dolled up for tall dark and gloomy out there." Tayuya scoffed.
"Why so huffy, Tayuya? Are you jealous?" Kushina teased lightly with a cheeky smirk.
"As if! He'd be lucky to get all up on this." She gestured to herself grandiosely, "I ain't all about that though, he's not my type."
"I'm sure the fact that he treats you like a little girl still has nothing to do with it."
"Mother! I can sense you meddling, stop it!" Menma's voice shot through the house from the back yard easily, Kushina burst into a fit of laughter as Tayuya grumbled and ate her food.
"So, I gotta ask… what's he doin' out there?" Axel suddenly questioned, both women turned to him, Kushina went to answer him only for Tayuya to suddenly scream in shock and fall out of her chair.
"Holy shit what the everloving fuck!" Tayuya looked ready to murder somebody, she did not like being scared.
"Maybe keep your eyes open next time, kiddo." Axel said simply, shrugging with a grin on his face, impish though it may be.
"Oh great, another one." Tayuya grit her teeth and righted her chair, "Who the hell are you supposed to be?"
"Names Axel, got it memorized?" The green eyed firestarter's introduction never lost its luster.
"Probably not, you look pretty forgettable." Tayuya waved him off, Kushina hid a smile as Axel frowned.
"Well, that's just rude." Axel said as he grabbed a piece of fish and wolfed it down, the two met eyes and sparks danced between their glares.
"Menma-sama~!"
"Aaand here we go." Tayuya groaned into her bowl as Karin walked into the house.
Bright red hair, like blooming roses one half down and sleek, the other wild and spiky, intense red eyes with a ruby-like shine to them framed by a pair of dark glasses, and fair skin the only markings being a - what appeared to be - bite marks along her arms.
At the time she wore a dark blue vest with the zipper undone just enough to give a tempting hint at her cleavage. A pair of tight fitting leggings that showed off her toned legs and tight buns.
Gotta love them buns.
"He's having lunch outside, dingus." Tayuya muttered, her cousin however remained unfaltering and took her seat at the table between her fellow Uzumaki and Axel.
"Hey there stranger, Uzumaki Karin." She greeted easily, Axel accepted the offered hand in his own gloved one and shook it firmly.
"Names Axel, pleasure."
"I'm sure it is." With a confidant wink she dug in to lunch.
"To answer your earlier question, Axel-san." Kushina began, her expression becoming a sombre one.
"Menma is sitting outside with his brother." Tayuya cut in, her teeth gnashing against a strip of meat.
"That's nice and all but it's just him ou-oh." Now he saw it, Axel stood up to get a better view from the window, Menma had seemingly wrapped up his conversation and was relighting some incense.
A small photo and a plaque were all the firestarter could make out but he got the idea.
Menma was sitting with a grave.
End
Hope you guys liked it, if you did lemme know and I'll get all jolly and motivated.
If not also let me know, my forte is usually character interaction but I'd like to keep improving.
Raxychaz!
