Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter for this new story. Yeah, this story is being updated pretty fast. I just happen to have a lot of ideas for this story that I'm having a hard time keeping up with it. This doesn't happen often, so consider yourselves lucky that I'm still on this imagination rush right now. It'll die down soon, and you'll know when I start taking a little while to update. But until then, continue to bask in my sudden rush of imagination.
Anyway, let me go ahead and do a little recap of what happened in the past chapter just because I feel like it. Now that we know that someone is supposedly in trouble from the last chapter, just how is Sora supposed to be able to help the other person out? All he has is some stupid riddle the other person gave him that he could barely make heads or tails out of. He only has a book that he got from Aerith in which he can only assume the answer to the riddle hides in. This should definitely prove to be an interesting moment for him.
Well, that's enough of my short rant and recap of the story. Don't forget to leave a review after you're done reading before you move onto something else. As always, I read them and take into consideration whatever constructive criticism that you might have. Just make sure they aren't flames, or they'll be ignored and deleted. Until the next time I update this or any of my other stories everybody!
Chapter 3: One Long Night at Home
"Read along with me and discover the verity that leads you to the key and thus to my sovereignty," Sora repeated to himself so as to not forget it as he held a book in his hands and had his backpack that held some of his work stuff slung over his back. He did not bother to look through it while sitting in a bus that he took to and from work. "I guess this book Aerith gave me has the answer in it, but it looks pretty big and boring. How can I read through it and figure out the answer by seven tomorrow night? I guess I'll just run through it and skip all of the parts that don't seem interesting. Hopefully, the answer to this guy's stupid riddle doesn't end up in one of those boring parts."
The party had ended at seven, the same time everybody was to be off the clock, but they all stayed behind to clean up the aftermath of the party. Some just stayed behind simply to have one last conversation with Aerith and reminisce with her. He, however, had been busy reciting the riddle in his head during the entire time he was helping to clean up the area. And now he was lost in his thoughts during his ride home.
By the time the bus reached his stop, it was already a little bit past eight. It took him a couple of seconds to snap out of his thoughts and get off before the bus started back on its intended route. Deciding that he should keep his mind out of the clouds, he walked the last couple of blocks to where he was currently living.
A couple of uneventful minutes later, he was at the front steps to an apartment complex he had found with no help whatsoever from the orphan system. Riku had helped him pay the first month's rent in order to guarantee at least a month's worth of living space when he had first helped him get the banking job. Since then, the brown haired teen had been paying the rent himself with his paycheck and using a bit from what was left over to pay back his debt to the silver haired man. Thank god the job he had at the bank paid a decent amount of money to cover both of those necessary expenses and allow for him to at least buy food and other household necessities. That and the apartment he lived in was already furnished, so that ended up saving him more money.
I really have to find a way to thank Riku for landing me this apartment one of these days, he thought as he reached into his jean pockets and pulled out a key ring and isolated the key that opened the outer gate leading into the complex grounds. Next to the gate was a silver box with buttons corresponding to the room numbers inside, but he had no need for it since he was renting a space in there. Not that I'd ever admit it or anything like that, but I don't want to be sleeping in the park again with winter now coming around. Maybe I could buy him something nice when his birthday comes around.
With that thought and other idle ones passing through his head, the teen managed to open the gate and passed through it before making sure it automatically swung shut again. He then used another key on the chain and inserted it into the apartment complex door. Unlike the outer gate, this one did not have any kind of silver box connecting to the tenants' rooms. Yeah, the surrounding neighborhood was a relatively safe place to live in, but the owner of the building wanted to have a little bit of extra protection just in case.
Does Cid really need all this security around to keep us safe? he wondered as he finally got the door opened and finally entered the building itself. He was greeted by a well-lit lobby area with freshly painted white walls that had a couple of couches situated on one side with a side desk and coffee table for visitors or other tenants to relax. A few simple decorative pictures were also seen hanging here and there. He probably had a moment of senility when he bought this place and wanted to keep any and all thieves out. Oh well, I can't really complain since it seems to be doing the job pretty well.
And almost as if on cue, a man who looked to be in his late thirties with short yellow hair came out from a door marked "Landlord" situated next to the reception desk. He had on a pair of old and faded jeans that had flecks of white paint here and there and a simple blue shirt that showed off his semi-muscular arms. His facial features made him look like he was angry or ticked off about something, but it only seemed that way to those who did not know him. To the tenants, they knew that this was his normal face, no matter how intimidating it might have been, and have quickly grown accustomed to it.
"Hey Sora!" the man addressed the teen in a gruff tone just as he was about to go up a set of stairs that was passed the reception desk. He then said with a friendly chuckle, "Looks like you had a tiring day at work. Think you can spare me a couple of seconds before you go to sleep? I got a couple of things I wanna talk to you about."
"Sure, Mr. Highwind," Sora agreed with the man as he changed course and walked up to the man who was most likely the landlord while suppressing a sigh. He was currently chewing away at a toothpick like there was no tomorrow. Since he followed up with the city rules, he did not allow for anyone to smoke in the building. This rule also included him, and this proved to be somewhat problematic. He was known by all of the tenants to be a heavy smoker. So whenever he had to be inside the building for an extended amount of time and could not go outside for a smoke, he would simply just chew on a toothpick as an alternative. He was also known to have a notoriously fresh mouth and loud voice that accompanied it, but that was only heard whenever he was deeply frustrated over something. "What's on your mind?"
"First of all, how many times have I told you to just call me Cid?" the man responded with his arms crossed. "You know how I hate sounding like some old geezer. I ain't ready to be trucked off to some retirement home yet surrounded by slow and old people rotting away. And secondly, since when in the two months you've lived here have you been in trouble?" he added with a grin and a chuckle. "I just wanted to tell you that you accidentally shortchanged me when you paid last month's rent yesterday."
"I did?" the teen asked with raised eyebrows and a small downward twitch of his lips. "Gee, sorry about that. How much did I leave out?"
"You left out twelve dollars, but I rounded it down to just ten so you don't have to bother with those stupid one dollar bills," Cid answered with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "It really isn't that big of a deal, so there's no need to get all flustered about it. I'm sure you didn't try to cheat me out on purpose. You're one of the most responsible tenants I've ever had since I first started in the renting business ten years ago."
"Thanks, but I'm still sorry," the teen apologized again as he reached into his back pocket and took out a brown leather wallet. He then produced a ten dollar bill from it and handed it over to the man. "Here's the money I still owe you."
"Thanks, Sora. I knew that you'd be able to take care of this misunderstanding in a heartbeat," the landlord replied with a pleased and trusting smile. "I just wish that some of the other guys living here were as responsible as you are. Sorry for bugging you about it right when you got home. By the way, how's everything working up in your apartment? Is there anything that you need me to take care of or fix?"
"Well, one of the lights on the kitchen ceiling keeps flickering on and off from time to time. It kind of gets annoying when I'm using a knife and the flash suddenly happens. Other than that, everything's working as great as it should."
"That's good to hear. I'll come up to your place whenever I have the time to replace that phantom light. Just try and bear with it until then.
"Oh, and one more thing," the man added as his face reflected something he had just remembered. "I've been thinking about installing in a new security system to replace the outer gate's old system. It's been around for almost seven years now, and I think it's time to replace it with something new and fresh. I'm just trying to get the opinion of the other tenants to see how they feel about it."
"Well, I don't really care much about the new system so long as it still ends up keeping this place safe," Sora responded with a shrug of his shoulders. "Does this mean, though, that you're going to have workers stomping through my apartment so they can destroy the walls and change whatever needs to be changed? I think wiring or something like that needs to be changed to work with the new system."
"Lucky for you and everybody else, I managed to find a new system that's basically the same as the one we're still using. Now you're probably thinking why get it new if it's going to be the same exact thing."
"Might I take a guess at saying that you don't really like change?" the spiky haired teen responded, remembering how the man raised such a stink when one of the tenants went and changed the phone wiring in their apartment without saying anything. Needless to say, they all ended up not having any electricity in the entire building for a couple of days, and the person was evicted with an onslaught of curses following close behind him.
"If you're thinking about that incident with that idiot Reno who ended up having a rap sheet as big as his oversized head, then yes," Cid responded with a distasteful snort at the memory while increasing the vigorousness of his chewing on the toothpick in that it looked like it was ready to snap. "It also makes it easier to connect the system to the entire building, unless you prefer complete strangers taking control of your apartment for god knows how long just to connect things and then take your stuff without you knowing."
"No thanks; I don't like the idea of strange people trampling over my stuff and figuring out how I live. Does this mean then that you're going to be increasing everybody's rent to offset the installation and maintenance fee?"
"Yeah, but it shouldn't really be too much of a jump. If you're all lucky, it might really only go up by fifteen dollars at the most. You see, I have a friend who works in the security business, and he said that he'll be able to cut me a deal. If it falls through, then everybody in this building including me will be happy."
"Let's just hope that it does, because I can imagine some of the people living here raising a stink with even only a fifteen dollar raise in rent," Sora said with a sigh as he looked up to the ceiling. "They'd probably explode if it went any higher than that."
Before they could continue on with their conversation, a loud thud was suddenly heard on the floor above them. Since the teen's head was already pointed upward, all he did was raise an eyebrow at the sound. Cid, however, let a low growl escape his lips in apparent frustration before rolling his eyes.
"Why do I get the feeling that those two guys are having another loud and extended sex session?" he growled out with a shake of his head. "That's the third time this week. The last time they did that, they kept me and most of the surrounding tenants up all night. I guess a warning isn't enough to keep them quiet."
"Well, I guess I'm lucky that I live on the floor above and don't really hear them," the teen responded as he grinned at the mental image that suddenly popped into his head. He then said while shaking his head to get his mind out of the gutter, "I guess they got real bored this week and decided to have a lot more fun than usual."
"Well, I'm about to put a damper on their little bit of 'fun'," the man stated with a huff as he walked past him and towards the stairs, most likely heading to the room where the sound was emanating from. He then said over his shoulder without stopping, "Nice talking to you, Sora! Keep your ears open about the rent business."
And with that, he had escaped up the stairs to the second floor to assumedly stop what was going on before it got out of hand. The teen simply stood there for a few seconds and allowed an amused chuckle to leave his throat. He then decided to make his way up the same stairs to his apartment up on the third floor. And as he started his climb from the second to the third, he heard Cid's loud voice shouting at some people inside one of the apartments with colorful language that should never be heard by children.
Gee, Cid sounds really pissed off about this, he thought without paying too much attention at the noise or the people coming out of their rooms to see what was going on. Then again, his room's right underneath those guys, so it's probably louder for him than it would be for anybody else. But seriously, how can those they go at it three times in one week? I think I'd be tired to even go a second time, not that I know how it feels or anything like that.
Even when he had reached the third floor and moved away from the stairs, he could still hear pockets of colorful language. He simply ignored it and made his way past two doors before stopping in front of one with his key at the ready. He put it in the keyhole and unlocked it with a twist of his wrist. Taking the key out, he opened the door and entered his apartment that he had been living in for the past couple of months.
Finally, I'm back home, he thought with a sigh as he closed the door and made sure to lock it. He then set his keys on a nearby table and threw his backpack onto a couch a couple of feet away. He then moved to another part of the apartment that was soon known to be the bedroom and placed the book given to him by Aerith on the bedside dresser before starting to shed his body of his work clothes.
Now let me just go ahead and take a nice warm shower before I do anything else, he thought after he had fully stripped down and took his night clothes off of his unmade bed and some boxers in his drawer. He had to step over a few articles of loose clothing strewn across the floor and his recently kicked off shoes to get there. Yeah, he might have been a somewhat responsible teenager, but he was not so much so that he made his bed or kept his room spotlessly clean. He felt that it was just a bit beyond obsessive. Then I'll start reading that stupid book and see what I can find out. I still can't believe I'm actually going to solve some mysterious guy's riddle for absolutely no reason at all.
Now in his bathroom, he made a beeline for the shower after placing his clothes on the counter next to it. Unfortunately, he was a bit too deep in thought and accidentally stubbed his toe on the edge of the tub. Lightly cursing under his breath, he stepped over the tub and drew the curtains so as to not let any water out when he turned on the shower. He had to contend with the initial blast of ice water at first, but it quickly warmed up, and he began to wash himself of the day's city grime and sweat.
Then again, he did seem pretty desperate towards the end of our conversation, he continued to think as he lathered up his body and rinsed off the suds. And as far as I know, faking emotions over computer communications is close to impossible to do. After all, not everybody is like me in that they can tell what the other person is feeling right off the bat after reading their responses. But still, why would he contact me instead of just going to the police if he really were in trouble? Guess I'll ask him about it tomorrow since he said he's going to be on again at seven.
Choosing to now stop thinking about the contents of the short yet mysterious conversation, Sora grabbed a bottle of shampoo and squeezed it into his hair. Amazingly enough, it still held some of the gravity defying spikiness even when wet. And as he massaged it into his scalp and lathered it up to clean out whatever gunk was in it, it still held on to that strange spiky behavior. Of course, it had now considerably deflated after such vigorous massaging and then rinsing of the suds.
Now feeling adequately cleaned, he turned off the water flow and poked his hand out of the shower curtains and blindly searching for the towel. He did not want to open it because he feared the cold air that was waiting beyond it and wanted to dry off before being forced to face it. Once he managed to blindly find what he was looking for, he quickly dragged it back in and began to dry himself off.
It's too bad I can't really ask anybody to help me out with this riddle, he thought with a sigh after drying his body and now rubbing at his hair. Once he was done, it had regained its spiky personality, but it seemed even wilder because of the drying process. He then continued on as he exited the shower, He was real adamant in making sure that everything we said and did stayed between us. He's either a really paranoid person, or he's afraid that somebody might be watching his every move. I'm willing to bet my money on paranoid. That just means that it's going to be a long night for me.
After he had dressed himself up in his night clothes, he hung the towel up to dry on a rack that was built into the wall before leaving the bathroom. He immediately went to pick the book back up from where he left it on the bedside dresser. However, he accidentally tripped over one of his shoes in the process. Thankfully, his body fell on the bed, so he was able to avoid any kind of hard fall.
After taking better care to exit his bedroom without any more incidents, he then walked over to the small kitchen area and opened up a cabinet in search of something to eat. Once he found a small bag of chips, he went back to the living room and practically plopped down on the couch right next to his abandoned backpack. It jostled a bit from the movement and seemed ready to fall to the ground before steadying itself once more.
"Alright, time to start reading and find this 'key'," he said out loud with a heavy sigh after opening the bag and placing it next to him. He then opened the book to the first page and began to quickly skim through it. "Hopefully, this won't end up taking all night, although I wouldn't be surprised if it did." He then thought to himself as he spent a minute reading the next couple of pages, Oh boy. This author has a really boring imagination to be writing this. I'm really going to have a long night tonight.
And for the next few hours, Sora skimmed through the book while munching away at the bag of chips. He still felt that it was a waste of time, but something inside him told him to try and solve the riddle. He could not get out of his mind the hint of desperation when the other practically begged him to help him out at the end of their conversation. He figured that was the drive that was keeping him from just giving up. That and he was not the kind of guy who would give up on something so easily for no good reason.
By the time one came around, he was already three-fourths of the way through the book through skimming and had forgotten more than half of what little he managed to retain. Unfortunately, his eyes were starting to droop from a combination of weariness and boredom, and he accentuated it with a loud and long yawn. After wasting all this time reading a book that was not anywhere near interesting, he was still no closer to finding the answer to the riddle than he was when he had first returned home.
"I have absolutely no idea what the hell I'm looking for here!" he grumbled out in frustration as he crumpled up the now empty bag and threw it onto the nearby coffee table where it landed before bouncing off to the ground. With a sigh, he got up and picked it up in order to throw it in the trash bin. "He sounded like he was suggesting that everything I need to work with was that stupid riddle. Read along with me and discover the verity that leads you to the key and thus to my sovereignty. Maybe all the hard words would lead me to what I'm looking for. I mean, why put in just two hard words in a rhyme that's made up of simple words? I think I have a dictionary lying around somewhere here."
After spending a couple of minutes searching for the dictionary, he finally found it on a bookshelf situated next to the window that he had hardly looked at since he first started living here. With it, he decided to try and find the words "verity" and" sovereignty", the only two words that he had no idea in what their meaning was. He then saw that they basically meant truth and freedom respectively.
"I don't know what the hell he put down truth in the riddle," he said with a sigh as he tried to think back to his few hours of speed skimming. "Maybe it's because he's planning on telling me what's going on once I figure it out. However, maybe the word freedom is another hint I could use. I don't think I ever did hear about anything that had to do with freedom, though. There's probably a small mention of it somewhere towards the end of the book. And he did say he was trapped, so there must be something in there that has to revolve around the thought of freedom.
"Oh hell, I'll just finish it up tomorrow when I'm at work," he growled out in frustration as he put the dictionary back onto the bookshelf and went to retrieve the book he had left on the couch. "Nobody should ever try and skim through a long and stupid book in one night. I swear; if I read one more page out of that boring book, I'm going to go crazy. Right now, I'm just going to go to sleep and forget all about it."
Now picking up the book in which he was desperately trying to find the answer to the mysterious person's riddle, he shuffled it away into his backpack that was still on the couch so he would not forget about it tomorrow. He then made his way to his room and immediately made a beeline for the bed after turning off all the lights. With a groan of annoyance, he quickly got back up because he realized that he had to use the bathroom first. A couple of minutes later, he returned and plopped back down on his bed and pulled the covers over him, this time without any distractions. And in less than ten minutes, he was out like a light and lightly snoring away as if he did not have a care in the world.
Well, that's the end of this new chapter for you all. Sorry if it seemed rather uneventful. It was really more of a filler chapter meant to show how he was struggling with trying to figure out the answer. But then I figured that it would be too short of a chapter, so I decided to add a couple of other things that would tie into his current life. It was just my attempt to try and connect you all to how his life was like.
Anyway, sorry again for an uneventful chapter that some might view as a dense uninformative piece of reading. Even I kind of see it like that, to tell you all the truth. But with that said, I still hope you enjoyed it all the same to some degree.
And here's the ages of the character's presented in this chapter. Yeah, Cid isn't going to be a main character in the story, but I'm going to have him appear every now and then.
Sora Hikari: 18 (A high school graduate and the youngest banker at Destiny Island International Bank [DIIB] thanks to his best friend Riku)
Riku Usuakari: 22 (A college graduate who helped his best friend Sora land a job at the bank through lots of persuasion to his boss)
Xemnas Kuroi: 50 (The boss of the DIIB who runs the bank and does not like anything done outside of work rules)
Aerith Gainsborough: 25 (A fellow banker who's like a mother figure to both Sora and Riku and retiring to pursue another line of work)
Cid Highwind: 35 (The landlord of the apartment complex where Sora lives in who happens to have a colorful mouth)
Well, that's it for the relatively short character bios. And I noticed I forgot to put the last name of the characters in the last chapter. That's why they're being repeated here. And only the characters in which I have plans on showing up a few more times in the story will be on here.
Now that all that is out of the way, I'll let you all move on to something else. Just don't forget to leave a review telling me how I did. Until the next update on this or any of my other stories everybody!