A/N: After a slight delay, here's chapter four! I don't like this chapter that much, so I'll try to get chapter five up by this weekend. No promises, though. I hope you enjoy it, anyways~
(This chapter also broke 4000 words, so it's my longest chapter so far.)

* Reference to the manga Kuroshitsuji


Chapter Four – Friday

Ring...ring...ring...ring...

Disruptions to Riku's gaming were never well-received, and he was indeed reluctant to even answer the phone. But he didn't want to annoy anyone by not picking up the stupid thing (especially if they needed to know the homework or something), so he answered and hit the speaker button.

"Hello?"

"Riku!" It was Sora. Riku couldn't honestly say he was surprised. "Do you know what today is?"

"Friday?" Riku tried, only half-listening to his friend as he continued playing his game.

"Yes! And do you know what tomorrow is?"

"Saturday...?"

"And?"

"And..." Riku tried to remember if there was any holiday coming up the next day, but he couldn't come up with anything. Was it a birthday? No, he was pretty sure he would remember his friends' birthdays. "I'm drawing a blank," he admitted. "What's going on tomorrow?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten already!" exclaimed Sora. "Tomorrow is the rumble!"

Ah, yes. The "rumble," as Axel had called it. (Who called it that anymore? They weren't even in gangs!) Of course Riku hadn't forgotten it—it was far too important an event for that—but it had slipped his mind momentarily after such a long day at school. Besides, he hadn't expected Sora to bring it up. The fight was to settle Riku's score with Roxas. Barring the fact that Sora and Roxas were cousins and Riku and Sora were best friends, Sora had nothing to do with it.

Okay, maybe Sora's connection to me and Roxas means he has something to do with it. Whatever. It's still not his fight. Riku shrugged to himself. "Yes, the rumble is indeed tomorrow," he agreed. "What about it?"

"We need to recruit our team and go over our battle plans!" was the prompt reply.

"Team?" groaned Riku.

"Of course! You don't honestly think that sneak Roxas is gonna fight you by himself, do you? That policeman said you can have as many team members as you want."

"True, but..." Riku reluctantly paused his game and pulled his attention away from it. He needed to be in full focus in order to deal with tunnel vision Sora. "It's my fight. And Roxas's. I don't even understand why we need teams. That aside, we're all the team we need. The two of us, we can take on anyone."

"That might have been true back on Destiny Islands," Sora conceded, "but Twilight Town is different. Besides, that was always against other kids our age."

"Roxas is your age, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but he has friends like Axel!" Sora said. "Did you see him? He could beat us up!"

Riku doubted that, but he said, "Sure, whatever," anyways. He'd known his friend long enough to recognize when he had gone past the point of being able to convince Sora otherwise once he'd made an opinion. "And just who were you planning on recruiting?"

"Kairi."

"Your girlfriend," Riku stated.

"Yes."

"To fight in a rumble. Your girlfriend," Riku reiterated, just to make sure he had heard correctly.

"That's what I said. Is there a point you're trying to make, Riku?"

"Eh, no," he decided. "Anyone else?"

"Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka," Sora replied.

Riku raised an eyebrow as Sora listed off the names. "Got the whole Destiny Islands crowd, I see."

"Yeah! We've got to stick together!" Sora declared.

"Including you and me, that's six people. We don't want to draw a crowd," warned Riku.

"Oh, I thought of that," replied Sora dismissively. "I figured not everyone will be available, so it'll be good to have back-ups."

Huh, Sora's logic actually made sense for once. Riku was impressed. He wouldn't tell Sora that he was proud of him, though. There was no reason to inflate his ego. "Okay," he said. "So, we go ask 'em if they can make it tomorrow?"

"Yeah, then discuss battle plans."

"Battle plans?" Riku recalled Sora mentioning that near the beginning of the call.

"Of course! We can't go into battle unprepared!"

"Er, sure," agreed Riku uncertainly. He didn't think they needed a strategy, but he figured it didn't matter. "We're going now, then?"

"I'm waiting for you outside your house right now!" Sora informed him cheerfully.

Riku blinked. "Creeper." He ended the call, slipped his PSP into his pocket, grabbed his jacket, and exited the house.

Sora was waiting for him on the driveway outside Riku's house, as he'd said. Once he spotted his friend, he waved and called to him, "Let's go, let's go!"

"I'm coming. Calm down." Riku rolled his eyes but followed Sora as his friend fairly bounced down the road, babbling excitedly about some amazing battle plan he'd constructed. Having pulled out his PSP and continued playing, Riku didn't hear most of it, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with a phoenix.

After effectively tuning Sora out for a while, the two arrived at Kairi's house. Sora knocked on the door to the rhythm of 'Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits' then turned to Riku and said, "So, what do you think of my battle plan?"

Riku wasn't about to let Sora know that he hadn't been listening to him at all the past several minutes. "I think we should wait until we have everyone gathered and then go over the battle plan together," he answered, carefully evading the actual question.

Sora didn't seem to be satisfied with the answer, but thankfully Riku was saved by the door being opened by Kairi.

"Okay, what's going on, you two?" she asked suspiciously.

"What's with that tone?" Sora's tone projected his hurt quite clearly.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Please. You two are always up to no good. Besides, you," she pointed at Sora, "haven't been answering my calls for the past two days."

"Sorry!" squeaked Sora. "I've been...busy."

"He's been solving a case for me," Riku put in, not even bothering to look up from his PSP as he spoke.

"Has he?" Kairi asked skeptically. "And has his investigation led him here?"

"In a sense," answered Riku vaguely.

"There's gonna be a rumble, Kairi!" exclaimed Sora. "You've got to be on our team!"

"Rumble?" echoed Kairi.

"Yeah! A fight!"

"Aren't you a bit old—and hopefully mature—to be getting into fistfights?" Kairi sighed.

"Not just a fistfight! We can use Struggle-approved weapons, too!" Sora pointed out.

Riku shook his head, pausing his game and looking up and Kairi. "This is a serious matter. Serious matters warrant fights."

"What is going on?" Kairi asked curiously.

Sora checked his watch. "We're gonna miss the train to Market Street. C'mon, we'll explain on the way."

"Wait—to the fight?" asked Kairi.

"Of course not, silly!" scoffed Sora. "The rumble is tomorrow. We need to recruit our team today."

"Of course," said Kairi dryly. "Silly me. I'll go with you to Market Street, then, but no promises for tomorrow."

Riku tucked his PSP back into his pocket and walked beside Sora and Kairi. He had no doubt that Sora would be enthusiastically telling most of the story, and he wanted to make sure that there were no misunderstandings. But Sora managed to fill Kairi in on the happenings of the past few days without making any blunders, and Riku just offered a few tidbits that he left out.

"Let me get this straight." said Kairi once they had finished recounting the events. "You two want to beat up Sora's cousin, Roxas, because he dropped his skateboard off the clock tower and made Riku die in his video game?"

"And Roxas wants to beat Riku up for taking his skateboard," Sora added helpfully.

Kairi shook her head. "The immaturity of boys never ceases to astound me."

"So, does that mean you're in or out?"

Kairi didn't answer right away, and the three walked in silence for a few minutes. Finally, she said, "In. I don't think I could stand the humiliation if my boyfriend lost because I didn't join the fight."

Riku twitched at the insinuation that they would face an embarrassing defeat without Kairi, but chose to not make comment on the matter—at least, not immediately. Instead, he waited to hear Sora's response.

"Wow, thanks a lot, Kairi!"

If only he'd said it sarcastically, thought Riku. But, no. He sounded wholly earnest, the idiot. He'd have to let Kairi know that her implications were not lost on both of them.

"Yeah, thanks," he grumbled—sarcastically.

The train ride to Market Street didn't take long, but Riku found it more annoying than usual because Sora kept trying to watch him play Crisis Core. It threw off his concentration, and he ended up putting it on sleep mode. Sora really needed to learn the meaning of personal space. They soon arrived at their destination, though, and Riku was able to play his game again as he walked behind his two friends.

Tidus's house was the closest, so they went there first. Sora knocked on the door, and they waited. Then he rang the doorbell and knocked again. And waited.

Riku glanced up from his PSP. "Guess he's not—"

"TIIIIIIIDUS!" yelled Sora.

"—home," finished Riku with a sigh. "Sora, please don't yell like that. I really don't think he's—"

A soccer ball came flying from the side of the house. Trapping it with his foot, Riku added, "I stand corrected."

"Hey, guys!" called Tidus breathlessly as he ran up to them. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."

"It's fine," Riku said, kicking the ball back to Tidus. "I thought you played baseball," he continued as an afterthought.

"I do. But soccer is fun, too," Tidus replied.

"I see. I used to play soccer."

"ANYWAYS," Sora interrupted loudly, clearly not interested in hearing the two discuss sports. "Tidus, are you busy tomorrow?"

Tidus shook his head. "Nope. Something going on?"

"Yep! There's gonna be a fight, and it'd be great if you could be on our team."

"What kind of fight?"

How many kinds are there? Riku wondered. To Riku, fights were I punch you, you punch me. Simple.

Apparently Sora couldn't differentiate the different types of fights, either, because he said, "Just a, you know, fight. In the guise of a mock-Struggle battle. With teams and stuff."

"Sounds fun," said Tidus. "Count me in."

"Great! Now we just need to ask Selphie and Wakka!"

Tidus shook his head. "Not Wakka. He has water polo practice tomorrow."

Sora frowned. "Darn. We'll just have to do with the four of us plus Selphie, if she can make it."

"That's more than enough to beat Roxas's team," Riku murmured, speaking mostly to himself.

"You never know."

There would be no point in arguing with Sora. There almost never was. He'd rather expend his energy on games than waste breath trying to argue with Sora. "Whatever."

Selphie was harder to convince than Tidus, not that Riku was surprised. Not to be sexist, he thought, but I have to be sexist. Of course a girl wouldn't want to fight. Except for Kairi. But Kairi grew up with Sora and me, and we fought a lot, so that doesn't count.

"Why would I want to fight?" she asked. "It's not my quarrel."

"Oh, come on, Selphie," said Sora whiningly. "Why not?"

"Boys and your one-track minds," she huffed. "Can you do anything but fight?"

"We've sparred together on Destiny Islands," Riku pointed out, though he didn't really care either way. He was still mostly focused on his game.

"That was different. Besides, Struggle-approved weapons only? That means I can't use my jump rope!"

Kairi sighed and stepped forward. "Selphie, if these idiots lose, Destiny Islands will be put to shame. No one would root for any of us in competitions!"

"As if I care about that. We've never even had anyone become Struggle Champion before."

"Riku would have," said Sora accusingly, "if he hadn't stayed up all night playing video games and overslept!"

"Well, I'm sorry that I wanted to know how Soul Calibur ended," Riku snapped. "Why don't you not fail next time and become champion yourself?"

"I didn't expect Seifer to be so good!" Sora yelped. "And he won by default because you didn't make it to the match!"

"Boys," said Kairi sharply.

Riku took his frustration out by killing things in his game. "That's besides the point. If Selphie doesn't want to fight, she doesn't have to."

"Thank you," said Selphie.

Turning to leave, he added, "It's not my problem if girls are too lame to fight."

"What was that?" asked Selphie, and Kairi echoed the sentiment.

Riku looked over his shoulder and was surprised to see a look of absolute fury in Selphie's and Kairi's eyes. What had he said, anyways? He was paying more attention to his game than the conversation around them.

"What. Was. That?" Selphie repeated.

"Um."

"I'm in," said Selphie, glaring at Riku. "I'll show you who the real losers are."

"Awesome!" chirped Sora. "That was a smart move," he added to Riku in a whisper.

Riku hadn't meant to provoke Selphie into joining, but oh, well. "Yeah, I guess?"

"Okay! Now that we have everyone, let's go over our battle plan!" cheered Sora. "Selphie, mind if we use your house?"

Selphie shrugged nonchalantly. "My parents won't mind." She pulled the door open, and Sora barreled in, followed by Riku, Tidus, and Kairi.

They were led to the kitchen, where they took their seats around the table. Sora insisted that he should sit at the head of the table.

"After all, I'm your leader," he said. "I'll go over my battle plan with you."

"I thought I was the leader?" Riku muttered. No one listened to him, but it was just as well. He'd rather play his game than listen to Sora detail his probably ridiculously-overcomplicated battle plans. If he could have it his way, he'd just say, We go in, we beat them up. Game, set, match. It was all Sora's fault. He always messed up Riku's beautifully simple, efficient plans.

"Okay, guys," said Sora once they had all settled, "I came up with a strategy last night, and I think it's really good."

"Let's hear it, then," suggested Riku, rolling his eyes. "O Wise One."

"Riku, please put your PSP away. It's disrupting our meeting."

"I'm listening," he replied.

Sora let out an impatient huff. "Fine. A-ny-ways, since we don't know our opponents' strategy, I figure the best idea is to simply distract them from the front and hit them hard from the back."

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Riku asked disinterestedly.

"We show them our phoenix pose!"*

Riku blinked, actually pausing in his game to give Sora his attention. "Pardon?"

"It's like this..." Sora stood up, then lifted both of his arms in the air. He lifted his knee so it was level to his stomach, toe pointed down, and shouted, "WE ARE THE PHOENIX!"

After of few seconds of staring stupidly, Riku spluttered, "That's ridiculous!"

"I know, and they'll be so surprised by it that they won't notice anyone sneaking to hit them from behind!"

"That's never going to work, and even if it did," he added as Sora opened his mouth to protest, "there is no way I am going to make myself look stupid in front of everyone like that."

Sora frowned. "You're no fun. You guys think my idea is good, right?" He turned to appeal to his other friends.

"Actually, I have to agree with Riku on this," Kairi replied. "It's pretty stupid. Sorry, Sora."

"I thought it looked cool," said Tidus uncertainly.

Selphie shrugged. "I don't care."

Sora stared contemplatively at the table, pursing his lips in thought, then brightened up again and said, "Then Tidus and I can do the phoenix pose, and you guys can attack while they're distracted!"

"I don't want you to embarrass my team like that." Riku scowled at Sora.

"But I really, really, really want to do it! Pleeeaaase, Rikuuuu?"

Alarms were going off in Riku's mind. He's going to give you the kicked puppy look. Do not fall for it. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. Do not make eye contact. Actually, do not look at all. Look at the PSP. Do not look at Sor—

Too late.

Stupid freaking kicked puppy look.

"Fine! Do what you want." Riku rolled his eyes.

"Yay! Thank you!"

"Ugh, whatever."

"And that's all I wanted to say," Sora announced, looking very pleased with himself. "Is there anything else someone would like to say?"

"Actually, I do. Just one thing," Riku answered. "Roxas is mine. Don't interfere."

Sora nodded. "Fair enough."

"Weapons?" Kairi asked.

"Got mine," Riku answered immediately.

"Me too," echoed Sora and Tidus.

Selphie frowned. "I don't have one."

"I have a spare standard bat you can use," Sora offered.

"I want my jump rope." Selphie crossed her arms stubbornly.

"Let's go the the Struggle Weaponry store," suggested Kairi.

Sora readily agreed to this. "I want a new bat, too!"

Selphie shrugged noncommittally. "Okay."

"Well, I'm not going," said Riku. "But you guys have fun."

"'Kay," Sora said. "See you at the Sandlot tomorrow."

"Yep."


"I'm telling you, we just need to go there and beat them up, no strategies needed!" Roxas nodded, sure of himself.

They were at his house, lounging around in the living room. After recruiting their team (consisting of four people total), Roxas had assumed they were done, but Axel had insisted upon discussing battle strategies. Quite frankly, Roxas found the notion ridiculous. Strategy? For a fight like this? It was unnecessary. Their team was experienced and skilled enough.

There was Axel, of course, and even if he was a bad policeman (Axel denied this), he was a good fighter. He had an unusual weapon preference, though—frisbees. Still, whatever worked worked, and Roxas wasn't going to complain.

Then there was Xigbar, Axel's friend from the police force, and the only person Roxas knew who could effectively use guns in Struggle matches. Not real guns, of course, but (personally modified) Nerf guns. Nerf guns were in fact struggle-approved, even modded ones, but not a lot of people knew this, and the ones who did didn't use them because Nerf guns weren't the best at knocking off orbs attached to vests and helmets with velcro.

Xion was Roxas's friend from school. She used a standard issue Struggle bat, which Roxas felt was the most efficient anyways. Though she wasn't usually one to fight, she agreed without hesitation when Roxas requested her help, for which Roxas was grateful. It was good to know your friends would back you up.

And then there was Roxas himself. Like Xion, he wielded a standard Struggle bat—no custom orders or modifications. He was fairly confident in his Struggle skills and had no doubt that their team was going to win. A strategy was not needed. Which was precisely why he was arguing now.

"There are too many uncertain factors," he continued. "How many people will be on Riku's team, what weapons will they use, how skilled are they, et cetera."

Axel stalled in answering by taking a bite out of his sea salt ice cream (Roxas had bought one for each of them at a discounted price). "Then what do you think we should do?" he asked at length.

"Wing it. Improvise. There's no way they're better than us anyways."

"I don't know, Roxas," ventured Xion. "We should at least have some vague idea of what we're going to be doing, otherwise it'll be one huge mess."

"Aren't all fights like that?" muttered Roxas to himself. He puffed out an irritated sigh. It was a simple, straightforward fight. Why would they need a strategy? Girls just had to be so organized, didn't they? Yes, that's right. Strategies were for girls.

...Wait. Axel was the one who had first talked about coming up with a strategy. Did that make him a girl? No, that would be really bad. And awkward. Because they were best friends and Axel used to be his babysitter and they played Call of Duty and other first person shooters together and Axel used to buy him sea salt ice cram all the time and Axel just couldn't be a girl, otherwise that would be really awkward.

"You okay, Roxas?" asked Axel, sounding a bit concerned. "You look kind of freaked out."

"I'm fine," replied Roxas, forcing himself to smile. "Strategy, right? Fine. I'm fighting Riku. Stay out of my way and keep the others off me."

"No, you guys should cover me," Xigbar said as he fiddled with his Nerf gun, probably making even more adjustments to his already heavily-modded gun. "Can't snipe if someone's beating my face in."

"Why would you snipe in a Struggle anyways?" Roxas felt the need to ask. "I don't even get how Nerf guns work as Struggle weapons in the first place."

"Watch the master tomorrow," said Xigbar. "Then you'll see. Unless you wanna see now?" He smirked.

"Taking your word for it," Roxas decided, because he did not want to become the target dummy of a demonstration. "So, I'm on Riku. Xigbar is in the back, I guess, and Axel and Xion can do whatever."

"That sounds terribly boring, Roxas," said Axel. "I think we should have formations, like Formation Awesome."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "And what would this 'Formation Awesome' look like?"

"I'm in the center, 'cause I'm awesome—"

"Rejected," interrupted Roxas.

"Killjoy."

"Idiot."

"I resent that."

"Anyways, we came up with a 'battle plan,' if you want to call it that," said Roxas. "Now watch as it fails miserably because of aforementioned uncertain factors."

Axel coughed. "'Cause it's a lame plan."

Roxas shot a glare in his direction. "Out of my house." Then a thought occurred to him, and he retracted his previous statement. "Wait. Referee?"

"Oh, right. On it." Axel whipped out his cell phone, punched in some numbers, and put the device to his ear.

"Hey, Demyx? It's Axel." There was a pause as Demyx answered. "You busy tomorrow? Noon." Another pause. "I need you to ref." Pause. "Uh-huh. Sandlot." Pause. "Yep." Pause. "WHY DOES EVERYONE CALL ME A BAD COP?" Pause again. "Yeah, whatever. Bye." He flipped the phone shut and flashed a grin at Roxas. "There. No problem."

"Riiight. I think I need to relieve stress now. CoD at your place?"

"Sure."

"I hope that means we're invited." Xigbar grinned.

"No way," Roxas said immediately.

"Now, now, don't be rude, Rox," Axel chided him. "Xion and Xigbar can come, too."

"Xion can come, but not Xigbar!"

"It's my house, I hope you know."

Roxas groaned, defeated.

And so, instead of relieving stress, Roxas became infinitely more stressed and annoyed and pissed off because Xigbar could beat them all at Call of Duty with one hand tied behind his back and his eyes closed.