2nd Day
Who… who were those creatures? What do they want? Do they intend to hurt my friends? Why are they here? I need answers… I need answers!
Awoken from a dream, Fusa was catapulted from her sleep in shock. She was breathing hard and shifting her eyes around the room to see if there was any of the grey creatures around to go after her. Luckily, though, she was able to relax and give a sigh of relief that there wasn't any in the room. Still, the events of yesterday had confused her. Did Vivi really save her? Was she seeing things in her head? And what ever did happen to her friends?
Nonetheless, Fusa scratched her head with her left hand in puzzlement. Perhaps she was imagining things. One thing was for sure, though: she was expected at the Usual Spot.
Once she got out of bed, Fusa was able to get dressed in her normal outfit from her pajamas and grab her backpack.
"Maybe my friends would know what happened yesterday," she told herself as she got out of the house and to the streets to head over to the Usual Spot.
Close to the entrance to the Usual Spot, nearby the lamp-post and post board, Fusa stopped and looked around, believing that she saw a man in a black cloak in the corner of her eye. She shook her head when she thought of it as preposterous and headed to the Usual Spot without stopping. Unbeknownst to her, however, there was a man in a black cloak watching her in the shadows.
Upon arriving to the Spot, where her friends were at, Fusa noticed that Hayner didn't appear to be damaged from yesterday's events. That, and they were having sea-salt ice cream with one more for her. She was slightly confused at first; still, she didn't want to question it at all.
"Hey, Fusa, how's it hanging?" Hayner asked her with a grin as she received the ice cream from Olette.
"Fine, I guess…" she answered in an unsure tone as she began eating her ice cream. He only cocked his head to the side as if she was thinking of something else.
"What's wrong?" He asked again as if concerned.
"It's just that- well, summer vacation's drawing a close," Fusa answered, not wanting to bring up the accusations nor the grey creatures yesterday. "I fear that neither of us would be together as friends. It scares me to think about it. Then again, it's a part of growing up, I guess."
"All of us are," Pence stated to her as she turned her attention to him. "But still, we're still gonna be friends, even if we're not together. We'll never forget each other because friends never forget each other."
Fusa thought about what Pence stated to her and gave a smile with a nod. "You're right, guys."
"I think I know what we should do before this vacation ends," Hayner spoke with an idea in mind as the others listened to him. "We could all go to the beach! Blue seas, blue skies, the sand between your toes- it would be great!"
"Sounds like a great idea, Hayner," Olette stated as Pence and Fusa turned their attention to her, "But there's a problem: we're broke."
"You forgot that I'm smart," he humorously responded before running out of the Usual Spot. Once they were finished with their ice cream, Pence and Olette tossed their ice cream sticks into the trash and followed behind Hayner to Market Street.
Once again, Fusa remained behind to think about what happened the previous day before, wondering why her friends can't remember what happened. However, she hoped to put it past her and stood up to follow behind Pence and Olette, still holding onto her bar of sea-salt ice cream.
Upon arriving outside, Fusa spotted a nearby map that contained the locations of Twilight Town and picked it up, examining it carefully. With it, she rolled it up carefully and placed it in her backpack for future reference. Then she noticed her friends in front of a poster for the yearly Struggle Tournament, to which Hayner entered into the finals for due to his quick senses. Upon arriving, Hayner looked behind him and moved a bit for her to join in with the others.
"Just two days to go," he stated to his friends. "No matter what, if I win, the four of us split the prize!"
"You gotta make it to the finals, Hayner," Fusa replied with encouragement and a nod. "I've seen you fight like no one else!"
"You're gonna clean up!" Pence pitched in.
"Go get 'em!" Olette added.
"You got it, guys," Hayner responded with confidence in his heart. Then he remembered about the beach trip. "Okay, let's get down to business. One ticket to the beach is 900 munny. How much for the four of us?"
"3600 munny," Olette answered to him as Pence and Fusa listened in.
"And 300 each to spend there. What's that for all of us?" Hayner asked her again as he looked at her with a questioned look.
She answered him again, "1200 munny. A total of 4800 munny."
"To spend on what, exactly?" Fusa inquired to them, trying to figure out what type of object has that amount.
"Pretzels, of course! What else is there?" Hayner answered her as she crossed her arms with thought.
"Well, there's always watermelon," she answered to him in a humorous tone, trying to lighten the mood.
"Too pricey," he responded to her as he shook his head as a "no" to her, "They're, like, 2000 munny apiece."
Taking her munny out of her pocket and counting it in her hand, Fusa sighed and agreed with Hayner, "Pretzels it is."
Once they had the type of snack for the beach trip figured out, Hayner questioned as if he forgotten the topic and asked his friends, "So, where were we?"
"We need 4800 munny altogether," Olette answered him, "But all we have is…?"
"I've got 800 on me," Pence answered upon getting his munny out of his pocket.
"650 on me as well," Olette added in.
"150. Sorry, guys," Fusa stated as she showed her friends the amount of munny she had in her hand before putting it back in her pocket for safekeeping.
"That's 1600 munny! We need another 3200," Hayner stated after he counted up the total amount of munny that his friends had. Soon he had an idea upon seeing the job bulletin on the board on a nearby wall. "Let's find ourselves some odd jobs and earn some dough! We have 'til the train leaves to earn 800 munny each!" Then he made a head start ahead as the other three waited for him on what to do next. He called out to them as he ran, "Meet me at the station with cash in hand!"
Pence merely rolled his eyes and crossed his arms behind his head, asking to the girls, "Didn't he say he had it covered?"
"At any rate, those pretzels are sounding pretty good," Fusa answered to him before she, Pence, and Olette headed up to Market Street to apply for odd jobs. She only hoped that the odd jobs themselves would be able to take the previous day's events off her mind. It would be the last thing she needed right now.
As they left, however, the man in black was in the shadows and was observing Fusa carefully before walking in her direction.
Upon arriving to the job bulletin board in Market Street, Fusa read the job descriptions for at least three of them: "Mail Delivery", "Cargo Climb", and "Grandstander". She figured that she could boost up her strength first just in case those creatures decided to come back. So she chose "Cargo Climb" and headed to the top of the hill, where a man was waiting for someone. Upon arriving, he turned to her and examined her carefully.
"I'm here to make some munny, sir," she stated to him politely as he looked at her with suspicions, "Just tell me what to do, please."
"If you want 50 munny, you gotta get that cargo into the garage in less than 30 seconds," he instructed to her carefully, "Any type of delay will give you 10 munny. Are we clear on that, missy?"
"Yes," Fusa answered to him with a nod. He took out a stopwatch out of his pocket and showed it to her.
"You see this?" he asked her before explaining to her, "I'm gonna be timing you so that you get the job done fast. I only hope that you have a strong back."
She nodded in response and headed over to the large bag on wheels, prepared to do the job done and fast. Fusa cracked her fingers and waited for the time to go, examining the cargo itself. It seemed heavy, she noticed with wide eyes, hence the wheels. But when she heard the man call out for time, she pressed her palms into the bag and began to push as hard as she could upwards the hill. Despite its heavy weight, she continued to push it upwards, trying to avoid slipping and being crushed if it rolled back. Midway in, about 21 seconds, Fusa almost slipped and nearly slid down. Thankfully, she caught herself and continued to go upwards until reaching to the top and pushed the bag into the garage, where the wheels collapsed underneath.
"Time!" the man called as he stopped the stopwatch. "You did… somewhat decently. You clocked in at 35 seconds. However, you do earn more than 10 munny."
With that, he gave her 30 munny as reward. However, she felt unhappy with her mistake and turned to him.
"Is it possible that I could try again, sir?" she asked him upon putting the munny into her pocket. He looked at her as if she was insane.
"Try again? You sure?" he asked her as he raised an eyebrow. She nodded her head as a sincere "yes". "Fine; you get another chance."
She made a sigh of relief and noticed another cargo bag waiting down the hill for her. This time, she began to point out to herself where it would be best to hold her balance. Once she was able to be down the hill behind the cargo, the man waited for her to be ready. She became settled and he restarted the stopper.
As soon as the timer was set, Fusa started to push the bag up the hill. This time, she was able to use where she could get her balance and push the cargo up the hill. Unlike her previous attempt, where she nearly slipped, she used the balance as her advantage and was able to push the cargo up at a quicker yet careful pace. Upon pushing it to the top, she used the last of her ability to push it into the garage so it would be with the first bag. She wiped off a bit of sweat of her brow and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Impressive- 25 seconds," the man stated as he showed her the timer so she would see what she got this time. "Looks like you've earned it." He then gave her the 50 munny as guaranteed and placed it in her hands.
"Thank you, sir," she thanked him before putting the munny in her pocket. "Maybe later this week I can do more?"
"Anytime you want, kiddo," he answered before she ran off to the bulletin to see what else was there.
She noticed that there was an opening for a "Grandstander", or one that could make cheap entertainment with a ball in the air by juggling. To her, it was still entertainment regardless of quality. According to the job description, there needs to be someone that could make that entertainment happen. Though not exactly the performer type, Fusa seemed interested in it. Maybe she could try it out to see if the entire incident could go away.
"Excuse me," she spoke after quietly clearing her throat to a child who had a large ball in her hand, "Is there a sign-up sheet for this job?"
"No, there isn't," the little girl answered as she shook her head as a "no" at Fusa, "But are you applying for the 'Grandstander' position?"
"Yes," Fusa answered honestly.
"The rules are simple. If you make 20 or more juggles in the air without dropping the ball five times, you earn 50 munny. Make five to 19 juggles and you earn 30 munny. However, if you make less than four juggles, then you only earn 10 munny. You can use that Struggle bat if you want to."
When she said this, the little girl pointed to a Struggle bat on the ground close by where they were standing. Fusa snapped her head to see where the Struggle bat was at with confusion. She didn't notice the bat when she approached the little girl. In fact, the bat wasn't there when she arrived. Still, she went over to the bat and picked it up, feeling the dotty texture of the handle in her hand. Holding it in her hand brought back that memory of the previous day of being challenged by Seifer to fight him, being told off by Hayner, and being chased by those grey creatures. This time, she had to hold it in her hand and turned to the little girl with a spark of hope that she can do this.
"I can try to do it," Fusa stated to the little girl once she was settled.
"I will be counting the amount of juggles you make," the little girl responded to her with a nod before tossing the ball to the center of the area, where a crowd has gathered to watch.
Fusa took her backpack off and placed next to a nearby wall so that there would be less weight on her back, literally speaking. A light crowd gathered around the soon-to-be performance, including Vivi, as Fusa prepared herself to entertain the crowd. She felt a little nervous about doing it in front people, especially with someone from the Committee. Once the little girl tossed the ball into the air, Fusa held the Struggle bat in her hand and made her first hit at it. Though it wasn't high enough, it was able to give her concentration. That, and the crowd was easily entertained.
Once the ball was in the air, Fusa took a chance and made a high jump at it, using the bat to thwack it to keep it in the air. Gravity pulled her back down as she landed on her feet carefully, not knowing that the crowd's cheers subsided. She turned and found that the ball has fallen to the ground as well. She had 4 tries left. So she tossed the ball in the air and made a quick hit on it in the air, causing it to hit the wall before falling back onto the ground again. 3 tries left. No time to mess up. She rushed over to the ball and picked it up to hit it again, but something caught her eye.
It was a man in black from where Vivi should have standing in, for he was just watching her move. She thought that she recognized him from earlier today, but she thought that it was strange to see the man in one day. This distraction, however, had cost her another try when the ball came back down. The crowd grew impatient for entertainment, grumbling in disappointment. Fusa was able to pay attention and snap back into reality. Before she could pick it up again, however, the little girl approached her with a sour face and snatched it from her. The crowd became disgruntled and left the area, making Fusa worried that she did something very wrong to them.
"You suck at this, y'know that," the little girl berated the 14-year-old before putting the ball away. "And you scared the customers away. Just take the 10 munny and go away." With that, she threw the 10 munny at Fusa's feet before leaving her distraught by the harsh words.
Feeling hard on herself, Fusa picked up the 10 munny off the ground and put it in her pocket as she stood in unsure thoughts, looking down at the ground. Her thoughts were interrupted when Vivi approached her in a hobble out of concern.
"You okay, Fusa?" he asked her in a kind tone.
No answer came from her.
"I thought you did pretty well," Vivi complimented nicely.
This got her attention and she looked at him with a puzzled look.
"Really?" she inquired in a low tone.
He nodded "yes" as an answer.
"Not even Seifer can do something like that," Vivi stated to her, causing her to give a small smile at him. "You'll get better at it. Don't let anyone like that kid get you down and out."
"Thank you, Vivi," Fusa thanked Vivi as she got to his eye level and gave him a warm hug. Once she pulled out and stood up, she asked him, "How about you join me and my friends for sea-salt ice cream? We would like it greatly."
"I don't know if Seifer would let me go with you guys," Vivi answered to her invitation. "But I've always wanted to try it out. So maybe tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow it is, then. See you then, Vivi." With that, Fusa waved goodbye to him, grabbed her backpack and put it on, and left for the bulletin board on the wall. When she left, however, Vivi was gone again.
In front of the bulletin board on the wall, Fusa examined on what was next for the odd jobs list. She noticed the last of the three: "Mail Delivery". The requirements listed that the person would be able to deliver mail to carrier pigeons while they were in the air and while the person was on a skateboard. She had to re-read the last requirement just to be safe. She groaned to herself upon realizing that she's not so good with skateboarding of all things. However, there was no other option except to try it out for size.
With that said, she headed over to the mail-lady with a bag of mail inside and a skateboard with a post stamp at her side. Fusa brought upon herself to approach to the mail-lady to get the final job. As long as it was get enough munny for the beach and pretzels, she knew that she would have to try skateboarding now.
"Are you here for the job, kid?" the mail-lady inquired to Fusa once the 14-year-old approached her.
"Yes, ma'am," she answered with a nod.
"Okay, here are the rules to do the task," the mail-lady explained to Fusa as she handed her the bag and skateboard. "There are five letters in that hand-bag and they need to be delivered to five carrier pigeons. However, they need to be delivered in under 20 seconds. Get the mail delivered in under 20 seconds, you get 50 munny. Past those 20 seconds and you'll get either 30 munny or 10 munny. I will be timing you during this time. Got that?"
Fusa nodded and was sent to work for the job. She hoped that the man in the black cloak would not distract her again to make a fool out of her. Upon finding the first pigeon flying in the air, Fusa stood on the skateboard and started to quickly skate. She grabbed the first letter and held it in her hand. When she looked at the pigeon, the bird instantly exchanged her look at her and made a dive to her, receiving the letter successfully.
She continued to skate down quickly within 6 seconds, getting to the next pigeon. In 10 seconds, she got two more. Once she spotted the final pigeon, it was almost in 15 seconds. She had no choice but to throw the letter in the air, hoping that the bird would get it. Turns out, however, it made a quick dive to the letter and grabbed it with its feet. Fusa looked up with surprise and made a skate to the mail-lady, who stopped the timer to review the time. The woman's face was full of awe and surprise, to which she looked at the young 14-year-old girl with wide awed eyes.
"You made it by under the 20 second mark- 19 seconds, a new record," the mail-lady stated to Fusa before reaching in her pocket to get the munny out. "Here's your pay for the job well done." With that, the mail-lady gave her the 50 munny, allowing Fusa to accept it and put it in her pocket.
"Thank you, ma'am," Fusa thanked her before returning the skateboard and handbag to the lady and heading out of Market Street, running to Station Plaza to meet up with Hayner.
When she left, the man in the black cloak stood next to the lady without a word. Neither of them seem to acknowledge each other's existence.
Upon arriving to Station Plaza, Fusa saw Hayner standing a few yards away from the Central Station, along with Pence and Olette. They were just standing there without anything to say to each other. Fusa figured that they were waiting for her and approached them without a worry. When she arrived, they turned to her and gave a smile.
"You got the munny?" Hayner asked her.
"Yes- about 140 munny," Fusa answered upon showing him the earned munny and combining it to her own, "Now I have 290 munny in total."
"That'll work," he responded as Olette put the 290 munny into the handmade pouch to store the munny in. "So how much do we got, Olette?" Hayner asked the brunette haired girl as she counted up the munny in the pouch.
"We're 500 munny short of 4800, guys," she responded with dissatisfaction. Fusa frowned and looked away with worry that it was her fault. "We don't enough for the trip…"
"Well, what do we do with the munny, anyway?" Hayner asked before Pence looked over at Fusa with concern before looking at Olette with an idea.
"I think I have an idea," Pence stated before being given the munny pouch and walking over to Fusa, who turned to see him. "I think we should give the munny to Fusa. After all, she did work the hardest of the four of us out there. She deserves it." Then he placed the pouch in her hand with a smile.
"Guys, I-I don't know what to say about this," Fusa stammered with a flustered blush, holding the munny pouch in her hand. "But I don't truly deserve it. What about the beach trip? What about the pretzels? If it's alright with you, then I would buy-"
"But then there wouldn't be enough for you to join us," Hayner responded as he shook at his head with a chuckle. "After all, you're still our friend. Friends never forget each other. We can never forget each other in our hearts. Even when things look bleak, we would always remember the good times we share. Besides, we'll hit the beach before summer vacation ends."
"You're right, Hayner," Fusa responded with a bright smile, knowing that he was indeed right, "When we go, I promise to treat you guys to those pretzels." Then she remembered her invitation to Vivi that he would join them for ice cream. "Oh, and I invited Vivi for some sea-salt ice cream tomorrow. It's his first time trying it out."
"Well… all right, if that's what you want then we'll invite Vivi to join us, R-R-R-Rox-x-x-xas," Hayner responded, to which the last part resembled a mixed up shortage, complete with a rapid head-shaking. Fusa shook her head as if she saw it and became puzzled by what happened- this wasn't like Hayner at all. Or perhaps the amount of work the odd jobs has made her delirious. Hayner cocked his head to the side and asked her as if nothing happened to him at all, "Is everything okay?"
"Everything's all right, yeah," Fusa answered with an unsure smile, not exactly figuring out what just happened.
On top of the Central Station clock tower, the four friends were sitting at the edge of the tower, eating some sea-salt ice cream. Fusa had the munny pouch in her backpack behind where she was sitting, to which she was sitting next to Olette. She was still confused about what happened with Hayner down in the Plaza. Was it something he ate or the amount of time being spent in this town was getting to her mentally? Either way, she hoped that Pence and Olette wouldn't be the same as well. Two questions rested easy in her head: Did the man in black have to do with what happened with Hayner? And who was this "Roxas" person?
"When we go to the beach, I know that I wanna try out surfing," Hayner stated to his friends as they, except for Fusa, looked at him to listen. "That sounds like a lot of fun. I heard that residents nearby are pros at it. Maybe Fusa can join in as well in learning on how to surf; we could even compete on who's better!"
"The pretzels sound delicious, but I also wonder if they sell sea-salt ice cream there as well," Pence pondered to himself as he ate his ice cream.
"Well, who knows? When we go, we'll check if they have sea-salt ice cream as well," Olette answered to Pence as he looked at her with a questioned look.
Only Fusa remained silent during the friends' conversations with each other. All except for one thought in her head: What is going on here?
Inside of the computer room under the mansion, DiZ was speaking with the man in the black cloak as he was at the multiple computer screens. He was reading one of the data outputs from whence Fusa is in and was intrigued by what he read. A peculiar reading, indeed.
"According to one of the codes for the Market Street figures, there are particles of a strange reading from the little Newborn when she did the Mail Delivery," DiZ stated as he printed out the readings for the man in black to read. "One moment it focused its heart on the birds, they became contaminated temporarily and became connected to it until it was done. Its heart could not be encoded, so it is spreading the power to those it focus on."
"So it has some sort of power?" the man in the black cloak inquired to DiZ.
"Certainly," the man in red answered with a laugh. "And consider the odd jobs as enrichment for the little one. After all, it deserves to have the munny pouch and she can have enough to buy some sea-salt ice cream."
"What about the glitch that just happened? Did you think she caught on and would find out?"
"I'll fix it so it wouldn't happen again. Just remember this: Newborn Nobodies are too naïve to even catch onto a little leak in the coding. But also keep in mind not to be sight whenever she is somewhere, otherwise the little Newborn would become suspicious. Newborns might be naïve, but they're not entirely dim either."
"Got it."
As he was running a clean-up on the data to remove the remaining contamination and to fix the leak, DiZ noticed one of the grey creatures squiggling into a grayish-black portal out of the town. He grew irritated when he realized that a Nobody had been in there the whole time, yet he didn't know if it was watching the young Newborn or not. One thing was for sure: the Organization would be onto them.
"Go into the town Roxas is in and scare off any of those Dusks away if they go too close to him and bring back that munny pouch he's planning to use for the beach," DiZ ordered the man in the black cloak when he turned to him. "Leave me to handle with the Organization if they go in."
On the very top of the Central Station clock tower in the real Twilight Town, above the actual clock, there stood another man in black. Unlike the one working with DiZ, he was lean and slim with narrow fitting sleeves. He was surrounded by multiple grey creatures like the ones in the virtual replica, as well as strange grey creatures with violet lines and spikes on their wing-like arms. His hood was up, keeping his identity a secret from anyone's sight.
The grey creature from inside of the stimulation entered from the portal and twitched up in a spineless squiggle up to the strange man. There, it started to whisper information into his ear when he leaned slightly to the right, where the creature was. He seemed to understand what the creature was "saying" and nodded as if he knew.
"Got it," the man excused the creature away before crossing his arms. He looked to the sunset of the world, his face barely shown with a sly grin. "So tell me where this 'Newborn Nobody' is at…"
