Hey all!
Today is the fifth anniversary of when I started releasing Looming Darkness! Hard to believe I've been working on this story for just over a fifth of my whole life. Seriously, I don't think I would've come this far without all of you lovely readers out there. Keep being awesome!
Disclaimer: Shadow Horizons only owns the rights to his original characters, locations, and plot. He owns nothing else.
Kairi's Day Off
Monday, November 15th 4794 P.C.
DIF High Noon
Deck Two
Kairi exited Nikki's doctor's office, rubbing her arm where it was sore from the injection Nikki had given her. Ozzy padded at her heels, completely oblivious to her pain from having met Rick, Nikki's comically oversized needle. Fortunately, the doctor hadn't stabbed her with that, but she'd still been poked by a needle.
"Dammit, Nikki," Kairi whined under her breath. "Why'd you have to go and do that? I didn't need any shots. My doctor already made sure I was fine so what the heck did you put in me?" Sighing in exasperation, Kairi returned to the Key Deck. Nanaki and Hayner were again playing on one of the gaming systems hooked up to the television set, except this time Olette and Roxas were with them. It looked like they were playing a party game where the characters all traversed a board, competing for stars, coins, and battled in mini-games.
Kairi watched them for about half a minute (right up until Nanaki threw her controller and summoned her Keyblade as she leapt at Hayner) before heading towards her room with Ozzy. She plopped onto her bed, and listlessly looked out of the viewport at the stars from their position in the void of the Sea of Worlds. She rather liked her new room. The double bed was almost as comfy as Sora's was, with a rich silk red velvet comforter and soft white linen sheets. Her clothes were in a tall armoire with two drawers on the bottom, and a picture frame on an end table underneath a reading lamp held a photo of her and Sora together in her mother's restaurant. A funky metal bookshelf with glass shelves all designed in a wave pattern stood on one wall next to an elm writing desk with a rolling computer chair in front of it. Her laptop was currently folded closed on top of the desk, with her webcam sitting on a raised shelf beside it (that was supposed to hold paper) angled to get a good view of her sitting at the chair as well as her bed. When she live-chatted with Selphie later she wanted to be able to show off her new, awesome bed. Not all of her things had been put away just yet, since she hadn't yet determined where to put everything, like her golden goblet from El Dorado. Should she place that on a shelf in the bookshelf or should she wait until she could put up some other sort of display unit? Thinking of, there were things she wanted to put up on the walls, but wasn't sure just where they should go. Kairi had started to doubt that this was really a military ship, with the grade of luxury they had given Key Deck. Even if they were V.I.P.s, this bed was better than her one back home, and she was the daughter of the most important political figure on their islands!
She sighed, gazing out the viewport. Sora was out there with Naminé going to a new world, and she was stuck here on the ship. She wanted to go out and explore too; that was one of the reasons why she was so excited about leaving Destiny Islands in the first place, to go and have adventures in the great big cosmos beyond their little home corner of it. Now her boyfriend had cut her out of having an adventure to have one with her sister instead!
Kairi drew her pillow into her chest and pouted jealously. It wasn't entirely Sora's fault; it was Nikki's for demanding that she undergo a checkup before leaving the ship. Still, she didn't like that he was off gallivanting around in parts unknown, doing heroic deeds and wiping out Heartless, while she was stuck here on the ship like some kind of housewife.
For a moment, Kairi got the image in her head of an older Sora in a suit striding through a front door, and her greeting him after a day's work like a housewife with a kiss and a hug, while wearing nothing but an apron ("Welcome home, Darling. Would you like dinner first, your bath first... or would you like me?" "Hmm, I'd like... you!" "Ha ha, Darling! You're so eager today. Mmm..."). A giddy feeling went through her as she daydreamed before she abusively popped the dream bubble. NO! She wasn't a housewife and she didn't want to become a housewife! She was warrior woman! She was strong, independant, able to make her own decisions and follow them through to their conclusion, and what she wanted to do right now was have an adventure!
And in what universe would she ever call Sora "Darling"?
"Noon."
A yellow-tinged miniature holographic man in plate armour appeared in front of her. "Yes, Miss Brightheart?"
"Am I still disallowed to leave the ship?" Kairi asked him.
"As you have undergone a physical with Doctor Case and attained a clean bill of health, you are no longer quarantined to the High Noon," the AI replied.
"Great," Kairi replied. "How many gummi ships do we have?"
"The High Noon carries a compliment of thirty-six short range attack gummis, eight shuttles, three assault ships, and two Kingdom-class long-range personal craft," Noon answered.
"Great," she repeated. "The hangar's on deck five, correct? I'm heading up there. C'mon, Ozzy."
"Miss Brightheart," Noon began as she jumped off of her bed. "Technically, the hangar is deck five, not including the bridge, which is completely separated from it. Additionally, may I inquire as to what your purpose is for this line of questioning?"
"Since I'm no longer quarantined from the ship, I'd like to go flying for a bit," Kairi answered, leaving her room with the wolf cub at her heels.
Noon appeared next to her again on the other side of the door. "That is inadvisable. As a primary member of Project Hope, your safety aboard this vessel is paramount. Additionally, I do not have reliable data of your piloting capabilities, nor do I know what to tell Master Arashi in the event that he were to unexpectedly return and find you missing."
"Sora taught me how to fly a little while we were travelling on the Kingdom," Kairi answered while swiftly walking away from the AI projection, which kept pace with her. "I also won't be long, really, and for all we know Sora and Naminé could be gone for up to a week or more."
"I still feel the need to lodge a complaint," Noon continued. "As Master Arashi's primary apprentice—"
"Then you can remind Master Arashi that he was the one who left his girlfriend behind to go on adventure with her twin sister instead!"
"Be that as it may," Noon continued without seemingly affected by her outburst, which had attracted the attention of the four playing the party game as it was uttered upon entering the den, "as his primary apprentice, you could be considered next in the chain of command following Captain Jones, though some might object to that distinction."
"I already object to that," Kairi rounded on him. "Nikki's Master Jenna's apprentice and Olette is Master Xanthos'; both of whom have been Keyblade Masters far longer than Sora has. Heck, even Nanaki's been a Keyblade Wielder longer than I have! She should be next in command."
"Yeah, I'll pass," Nanaki said, her eyes never leaving the television screen. "I'm not too big on the whole 'command' thing."
"I'll pass too," Olette said. "Sorry, Kairi, but I'm not ready for that level of responsibility."
"I'm not eith—actually, I don't even want to think about this right now. Bye guys, I'm heading out."
"Where is she going?" Hayner asked as Kairi left the deck via the lift. Noon turned around and addressed the four.
"Miss Brightheart has expressed a desire to leave the ship for a few hours. Excuse me. I am going to inform Captain Jones and Arch Battlemage Shimmer about this." His holographic projection vanished in a flash.
"Well," Roxas muttered, "she's screwed when she gets back." Olette giggled.
"Looks like 'Nanny Noon' really is a big nanny."
-LD-
Hangar Bay
Deck Five
Kairi let out an impressed whistle as she stepped out of the lift. "So this is the hangar bay, huh? C'mon, Ozzy, let's go find us a ship."
"Arf!"
The wolf cub padded along beside her, his tag jingling as he walked. There were several people about in the hangar bay, most of them attending to the High Noon's compliment of Cuttlefish-class of intercept fighter gummi ships. Kairi stayed out of their way, giving them and their blue and gold dart-shaped fighters with side-mounted lasers and top-mounted mass driver cannon a decent enough berth so she wouldn't be a distraction to their work. Loud noises were coming from the far end of the hangar as one of the techs and pilots were doing some weapon calibration and testing, firing their weapons at targets backed by a newly blackened and heavily reinforced wall.
With all that noise, Kairi figured she could get herself to one of those two Kingdom-class ships that she could see, power it up, and fly on out through the dual magnetic-magical force barrier that kept the hangar and flight deck pressurized and separate from the space of the Sea of Worlds before she was even noticed. She had almost made it, until one pilot came around the nose of one of the last of the Cuttlefish and spotted her directly. The pilot was wearing casual Gummi Force greens with the emblem of a Squadron Leader proudly on her epaulettes and on a rank pouch on the chest area of the left side of her lightweight tunic. Her hair was a wild mane of orange and yellow, looking like fire and styled like it too.
"Oh, hey there," the woman said, smiling at Kairi. "I haven't seen you around before. What brings you to the hangar, miss?"
Caught anyway, Kairi decided on at least providing a proper introduction before making her way to one of the two Kingdoms. "Hi! I'm Kairi. I hadn't been up here yet, so I was just looking around."
"I get it now, one of the Keyblade kids; no wonder I didn't recognize you," the pilot said. She offered her hand. "Squadron Leader Regina Mitchell, Commanding Officer of the 108th Alliance Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. Nice to meet you, Wielder."
"Please, just Kairi is fine, squadron leader," Kairi answered while shaking her hand. She gestured toward the Cuttlefish Mitchell had stepped out from. "Is this one yours?"
"You bet," Mitchell replied. "I was just doing a little personalization of it - paint job, you know - and..." she trailed off, seeing something going on past Kairi. "Excuse me. Hey! What are you doing, bringing that up here!? We eat pie in the mess, not in the hangar!"
Regina Mitchell strode past Kairi, heading towards whoever had brought a pie up, and Kairi looked at Ozzy and nudged her head. "C'mon, now's our chance." The wolf cub yipped in response, and Kairi stepped past the squadron leader's fighter with Ozzy following at her heels.
After being spotted so quickly by the squad captain, Kairi took extra care to keep her head on a swivel as she approached her target. Luckily for her, the people working nearby were too busy to notice her, and the attention drawn across the flight deck by Mitchell's chewing out of some poor sod gave her a nearly clear shot to the boarding ramp of the nearest Kingdom.
To Kairi's surprise, these Kingdom models weren't nearly as large as the one Sora used to have. In fact, they were a barely a quarter of the size. She spared one last look around, just to make sure no one else was watching her, and slipped on board.
The interior was drastically different from the old Kingdom. The boarding ramp on this model led her straight through a narrow airlock into a combination kitchenette, dining/living room with a pair of beds set into slots in the wall. A narrow door off to the side was labeled as 'storage' and a ladder at the other end of the room led up to what was clearly the cockpit.
"I thought that these were supposed to be the 'luxury' shuttles," Kairi groused in disappointment. The whole area was perhaps only about thirty square feet. "If these are the luxury ones, I don't want to see the regular ones." Ozzy didn't seem to have any complaints, though, jumping up onto the lower bunk and padding around in a circle; he was making the sheets into a comfortable den. Shaking her head, Kairi climbed up the ladder to the cockpit and settled herself into the pilot's seat. Apparently this gummi ship was meant to be handled by only one pilot, since there wasn't another seat in here with her, and thankfully, the controls were much less complex than the ones on the old Kingdom.
Kairi grinned. Sora wouldn't like that. Simpler controls meant less control for the pilot, so Sora wouldn't be able to personally manipulate how fancy he could fly one of these things, but it was perfect for her. Kairi brought up a screen showing her what was going on behind the ship, revealing that Mitchell was still chewing her subordinate out and no one was paying this ship even the slightest attention. Kairi carefully did all the preflight checks as quietly as she could, timing them just as someone started testing gun calibrations again to mask the sound, and then she did something thrilling that she'd never done before and made her crack an impish grin.
She gunned it.
The engines roared to life, accelerating the ship and blasting her through the barrier that separated the hangar from the Sea of Worlds.
-LD-
Bridge
Daniels made a yelping exclamation of, "What the heck was that!?" as something suddenly flew past her starboard window. Cogan frowned next to her.
"Looks like one of the Kingdom shuttles," he said, squinting and pushing his glasses up, "but that can't really be..." He paused as the phone on the Captain's terminal started to ring. ArchBattlemage Shimmer happened to have the bridge at the moment while Sora was away and Captain Jones was on break, and pressed her finger on the button to answer.
"Shimmer here. What is it?"
"This is Mitchell! We just had an unauthorized launch in the hangar! I can't believe this. I only turned my back for a second!" Daniels and Cogan shared looks at the disbelief and urgency in the fighter pilot's voice.
"Squadron Leader, what happened?" Tara Shimmer asked.
"It's Kairi, ma'am. She's in that Kingdom and took it out right from under our noses!"
Daniels' eyebrows flew up into her bangs and she gave her co-pilot a smirk. "Well, looks like at least one of them is more ballsy than we gave them credit for."
"Than you gave her credit for," Cogan shot back with an even more smug grin on his face. "Pay up, Rainbow-head, you lost."
"Hail that Kingdom!" Shimmer ordered at once. Noon's projection appeared in the air next to her.
"I informed you that this was her intent, ma'am," said the AI.
"Yes, but I never expected her to actually follow through!" she retorted. "Who would do something like that?!"
"Her, apparently. We are connected," Noon informed her.
"Good! Miss Brightheart, just what do you think you're doing?"
One of the displays in the center of the bridge lit up with an image from the stolen ship, giving everyone within sight of it a perfectly clear view of Ozzy's nose as he sniffed the camera lens. Tara Shimmer involuntarily flinched backwards at the sight of the wolf cub's teeth, just before he licked the camera and left the image blurred and sloppy.
"Since Sora up and left me behind," Kairi's voice and distorted image replied, apparently without looking at the camera in front of her, "I'm going on an adventure of my own for a little bit."
"But! But you didn't even follow protocol for taking out one of the ships!" Shimmer shouted. "You can't just go off and take a joyride in a ship! This is a military vessel and we have to follow protocol! There are forms you have to fill out first!"
"Good thing I'm not part of the military!" Kairi said with a laugh. "If Sora gets back before I do, tell him he's a jerk for me, will you?"
"I'm not going to tell him that! Miss Brightheart, even though you may not be part of the military, your Master is, and this will reflect very poorly on him, and you, if you cannot even follow standard procedure," Shimmer declared, hoping that saying such might make her more agreeable. "You're the daughter of the late leader of your people; this is not acceptable behaviour for someone like you to be engaged in. You turn that ship around right now and at least fill out the proper paperwork, and I'll overlook this and let you go."
"Don't wanna!" Kairi replied, and Tara could swear that she could see the outline of Kairi's tongue sticking out from her mouth before the transmission cut out.
"She's terminated the connection," Noon announced.
"I can see that!" Shimmer grumbled. "There will be consequences for this, missy!" she shouted at the blank screen. Daniels waved her hand from the helm at the front of the bridge.
"Do you want us to pursue?" Daniels asked.
"No. We need to remain in position until Master Arashi and the more well-behaved Miss Brightheart make contact to establish a return to the High Noon. We beamed them there, remember?"
"Would you like us to scramble and bring her back?" Mitchell asked through the intercom from the hangar. "We can have three Cuttlefish out in under two minutes."
"I am afraid to report this, Squadron Leader," Noon declared, "but Wielder Brightheart's vessel has engaged its warp gummi. Unless she re-establishes contact when she drops out of warp, we have lost her until she returns."
Daniels and Cogan glanced at each other again. Didn't they have tracking devices in all of their ships?
"But there should be a tracker in her ship," Shimmer answered, confirming their silent thoughts.
"It appears to have malfunctioned," Noon apologized. "I believe the error message it reported before it went offline was that the malfunction was caused by a large thermal spike." Shimmer groaned.
"So she found it and burned it, then? Dang it!" Shimmer glowered at the empty screen that she had somewhat been able to see Kairi on. "The minute, the second, she gets back, I'm going to give her a scathing lecture, and CB her for a month!"
"Sounds appropriate," Daniels said, leaning back in her chair. "Though, taking a multi-million munny gummi out for a joyride...do you really think that that's only worth a month confined to barracks?"
"Daniels..."
"Alright, ma'am; forget I said anything."
-LD-
Refuge
Cliffs of Sojourn
"Refuge, huh?" Kairi said, staring down at the large, bustling town nestled between the ocean and the sheer cliff faces on which she had landed her ship, which she will continue to say that she borrowed as permitted. Three waterfalls cascaded their way down the cliffs, resulting in three rivers that divided the city into several sections before merging together and reaching the ocean. "Looks like a nice place, huh Ozzy?" Ozzy glanced up at her and briefly licked his lips before returning his gaze to the town below them, his tail slowly wagging. Kairi nodded to herself and took in a breath as she scooped him into her arms. "Well, let's get going."
Their descent down the cliffs was a relatively easy one. A long staircase had been carved into the stone, reaching nearly the full length of the semi-circle perimeter the cliffs formed around the city. Several flat areas had also been carved at even intervals along the steps, where the empty braziers that Kairi suspected would be lit when night fell could be seen. Every so often, Kairi and Ozzy would pass people who used the leveled out sections as viewing platforms of the city below.
Kairi smiled and waved farewell to a fifth group of guards she had encountered. Like the other groups she had passed, they had been dressed in matching armor, colored blue and gold, with the sigil of sparrow in flight emblazoned upon their shoulders. Much like the other guards, this group had stopped to warn her to be on the lookout for Heartless.
"They're getting bolder," one of them had said. "Popping up in the city proper now."
For just a moment, after she was sure the guards were no longer looking at her, Kairi's smile faltered. If the Heartless really were getting more bold, then it was a good thing she was taking this brief sojourn...on the world of Sojourn.
"Maybe our day off isn't going to be all fun and games," she said, looking down at the wolf cub in her arms. Ozzy responded with a huff and dropped his head down to rest in the crook of her elbow, eliciting a small laugh from his owner. "I couldn't have said it better."
The stairs finally let out into a rather sizeable square. A marble fountain sat at the center, surrounded by plants and murals made from countless brightly colored tiles around it. Various stalls lined the square, each proudly displaying their varied wares. Given that it was around midday, the silence and emptiness of the square sent a small chill down Kairi's spine.
Ozzy perked up, ears folded back, his teeth exposed as he growled. Kairi bent down and allowed the little wolf to hop to the ground.
"Found us already?" she muttered. Light surrounded her hand as Destiny's Embrace appeared. A row of dark portals flared to life in front of her, spitting out a line of Armored Knights and a pair of Bookmasters. "Talk about a welcoming party. But I'm not exactly feeling welcome."
The Heartless zeroed in on the Keyblade-wielding teenager and charged. Armored Knights ran towards her with their sword arms raised, and the Bookmasters began flipping through the pages in their spellbooks, readying their own assault. Kairi had not been idle or negligent these past four months, though, in spite of her depression. She raised her Keyblade towards the charging Armored Knights and cast a spell. Two of them stopped as smoke started to rise from their bodies while their armour melted, acid seemingly eating at them endlessly. The others paused at the conditions of their fellows, giving Kairi enough time for another spell. Swarms of gnats descended upon the Bookmasters, inflicting a thousand tiny stinging bites upon them and distracting their casting. The balls of flame that they had intended to fire upon the rose-haired teenager instead struck the backs of the other Heartless, causing two to burst apart in darkness; the first to fall were from friendly fire.
Kairi leapt on the attack then, when her foes were unbalanced and confused. Destiny's Embrace cut through three of the densely packed line of Armored Knights in a single slash, and the two she'd first spelled had now become deformed monstrosities whose swords were now even less harmful than a butter knife. Kairi easily dodged their clumsy attacks before retaliating with strong ones of her own, finishing them off.
The two Bookmasters engulfed themselves in flames, ridding themselves of the pesky gnats, and glared at the girl warrior with wrath. They each prepared powerful spells against her, but Kairi held out her hand and spoke a single word. A glowing golden bubble surrounded her before she leapt into the air, her Keyblade poised to strike. The Bookmasters let loose, a torrent of lightning bolts arcing through the air towards her. They struck the golden bubble surrounding Kairi and were completely blocked, not a single volt even causing her hair to stand.
Kairi landed on one Bookmaster's tome hard, Destiny's Embrace skewering the Heartless through the head and torso. She drew her Keyblade out just as it started to fade and threw the weapon at the other, beheading it in a spinning whirl of metal.
"And I didn't even need my daggers," she said proudly, tossing her cloak out behind her in a flourish as the bubble shielding her vanished. She clicked her tongue and made a short whistle as she banished her Keyblade. "Come on, Ozzy. Someone may have noticed that and I'd rather we be away from here." Ozzy yipped and scampered back into her arms, since she'd forgotten his leash.
Kairi quickly rushed into a side-street and traversed it for some distance until she could hear the expected bustle of the townsfolk. It took her another minute to find an exit to the street and she stepped out into a more heavily traversed thoroughfare. The change in atmosphere was jarring.
Crowds of people moved too and fro, heading to wherever it was they were headed. Merchants had stalls lined along the road, but not too close to the larger shops. People talked and laughed loudly as they went about their business. Kairi found an out-of-the-way niche in the buildings and stalls and simply watched for a few minutes, enjoying the atmosphere.
Smiling, she merged again with the people, drinking in the sights and sounds and smells. This had been the right decision: to leave that ship and explore the worlds.
"So, what should we do, Ozzy?" Kairi asked, looking down at her pet. Ozzy made a low growl and opened his mouth wide, licking his lips. She laughed. "You know, you're a lot more like Sora than you think, always thinking with your stomach." Ozzy whined and looked away from her, causing Kairi to giggle further. "Now, where should we stopover for an early lunch?"
"Kairi! Over here!"
The redhead jumped, having not expected to hear anyone here calling her name. She snapped her head in the direction of the voice, and saw a brown-haired girl waving at her from a patio table of a cafe.
"Olette!?" Dodging traffic, Kairi came over to where the Chaser Apprentice was sitting. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you," Olette answered with a smile while pulling out a chair at the circular table for three for Kairi to sit down, "taking a day." Kairi put Ozzy down, told him to stay, and joined Olette at the table. "I've gotta say, though, I didn't think you'd go and steal a ship for it, though. Ballsy."
"How is it possible you even got here before I did?" Kairi's eyes narrowed as Olette simply grinned. "You were still playing that game with the others when I left."
Olette was quick to correct her. "Actually I was winning. And my Gummi ship is faster than yours. Either that, or you made a short jump to get away from the High Noon and spent a lot of time dilly dallying on picking an actual destination."
Kairi shrugged. "Eh. I had no idea where to go, and there's seven worlds clustered around here. Did that Battlemage send you out here to ambush me?"
"Nope!" Olette's smile was sincere as could be. "I did fill out the proper paperwork for leave, though, which she was incredibly thankful for."
"Didn't you just say that your Gummi is faster than the Kingdom I took?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah, but I still need to fill out a form if I'm leaving," Olette answered. She grinned. "You are going to be getting one heck of a talking to when you get back, though." Kairi groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Great. Definitely looking forward to going back now."
Olette giggled. "Yes, she is very cross with you, is probably going to try to put a number of restrictions on us, and generally attempt to get everyone else pissed off at you, too."
Kairi's mouth dropped open. "All over not doing paperwork? That's ridiculous!"
"You do know that because you didn't fill out the six lines on two forms you needed to you technically stole that gummi ship, right?"
"Alright, if you're trying to lecture me on this, why have you got that big Cheshire Cat grin on your face?"
"Because I'm not trying to lecture you," Olette chortled, "I just think it's hilarious that you stole a gummi ship just for a day out."
"Right," Kairi intoned with a roll of her eyes. The redhead took a moment to look around. There were around nine small circular tables around the outside of the cafe, each of them meant for two to four people at most to be sitting around. Most were empty right now, but one table had a couple enjoying some coffee, another had a man in a white Stetson hat reading a paper while also enjoying a cup of the brew, while another pair of tables close to theirs had seven people who looked to be together between them. Given how she could see glimpses of armour peeking out from underneath their clothes and their openly worn weapon scabbards and holsters, she figured that they were a mercenary company of some sort. Ignoring the boisterous laughter from some of them at a joke just told, Kairi pointed at Olette and continued. "So on this day out I forbid any more talk of me stealing gummi ships and the consequences thereof of having done so."
Olette giggled a little more under her breath and helplessly lifted a few fingers up from where they were resting against her arm. "Alright. You the princess."
"Ugh," Kairi groaned in disgust. "And that's another piece of crap I don't want to deal with. Did you know that people from Radiant Garden actually came to my house last month wanting me to officially become their reigning princess?"
"Whoa, really?" Olette asked, her joking tone slipping away. "That's more intense than I thought."
"Yeah..."
Unnoticed to either of them, one of the men of the mercenary company glanced in their direction when Kairi mentioned Radiant Garden. His face was just past the corners of their eyes, out of their sight range, but he furrowed his brow in thought before returning his face to his companions.
"Good morning ladies." Kairi stopped talking as their table was approached. "My name is Monica and I'll be your server today. Can I start you off with something to drink?"
"Could I actually get a menu first?" asked Kairi. "My friend here just kinda called me over and I'm not prepared. Oh! And he's allowed here, right?" Kairi added, pointing down at Ozzy.
"Yeah, I just kinda saw her as she was walking down the street singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do," Olette apologized with a smile. Worn down, Kairi laughed.
"Since we're outside, this adorable little guy is perfectly fine right here," Monica answered, "but he can't go inside with you unless he's a service dog."
"Sorry Ozzy," Kairi sighed affectionately as she reached down to scratch his ears. "No getting to mess around in the kitchens for you."
"I'll be right back with a menu for you," Monica said before quickly leaving. Once she was out of immediate earshot, Kairi turned back to Olette.
"Do wah diddy? You are not going to make my day easy, are you?"
Olette shrugged and grinned. "Come on, lighten up, Kairi. We're taking a day off. You've got to roll with the punches."
"Excuse me! Ladies! Senioritas!"
Both young women turned at the call and saw one of the mercs, a bowl-faced one with a shock of black hair and a short, somewhat pointed, nose, waving at them. Most of the others were either watching him, Kairi and Olette, or the only one who had his face down and was hurriedly whispering at the bowl-faced one to 'shut up'.
"Yes?" Kairi asked, somewhat aware that they were about to be hit on, potentially. "Can we help you?"
"You may, you may," the bowl-faced mercenary replied. He clapped his arm around the one who still had his head down. "My fine leader here seems to have taken an interest in you two, the poor single man that he is, and we were wondering if you might like to join us for lunch?" The only member of the mercenaries keeping his face hidden from them let out a groan and planted his face down on the table.
"Oh, so he wants civilized company, then?" Kairi replied with a practiced smile and raised eyebrow, to which the merc band laughed. "What do you think, Olette?"
"Why not?" she replied with a grin. "They look like they've got some stories to tell." With smiles, the two teens rose from their table before awkwardly looking around. Would there be room at the two tables the mercs were sharing if they squeezed in, or could they move their own table closer or…?
Monica returned with a menu for Kairi then, and after a short explanation she assisted them in moving their table closer so that the three made something of a triangle shape for all nine of them to seat themselves around. Only at that point did Kairi and Olette place their drink orders, each of them getting smoothies, and Kairi ended up sitting next to the young man whose face was still kissing the table. Olette sat on her right, right next to one of the three women in the merc company.
"Welcome to our table," the bowl-faced one who'd invited them over said jovially from the other side of the man Kairi was sitting next to. "I'm Marcus Gladstone, by the way, and wingman to our leader: this handsome bundle of energy and passion right here, mister Atticus Brightshield." Finally, the young man raised his head, turning it away from Kairi so that she could only see part of his face beside the long blond ponytail hanging down from the base of his neck.
"You know what, Marcus?" the young man, Atticus, began. "I really hate you right now."
"Aw, don't be such a stiff, Attie," one of the others laughed. "You've got a cute girl sitting next to you."
"I didn't want her sitting next to me," he despaired. Kairi frowned a little and he quickly turned to look at her. Whatever his current attitude, Marcus was correct in that he was quite handsome. He straightened out as he looked at her, suddenly putting out an air that was much more regal and dignified than what it had been in the last few seconds, putting Kairi off-balance at the change. It was almost as unsettling as his strange eyes. His left eye's iris was a violet-blue, while the right was a solid ring of orange surrounding the utter blackness of the pupil. "I apologize for this, miss," he said. "I did not mean to offend in any way." He placed his hand flat upon his chest and nodded his head at Kairi.
Unwillingly, Kairi found herself blushing. "N-no, it's alright. You're embarrassed; I understand."
"Charmer!"
"Well, as I was the one who called you over for this lout's pleasure and we've introduced ourselves," Marcus stated, "may we be getting your lovely names in exchange?"
"A fair trade," Olette bantered. "I'm Olette Fairchild and this blushing babe here is my good friend Kairi Brightheart."
"Yeah yeah, I guess today is ' Make Fun of Kairi Day' in Olette's life," Kairi sighed in good humour, attempting to shrug it off and roll with it. "Keep at it, Olette, and I'll sic Ozzy on you. Oh, and this bundle of joy is my adorable guardian Ozzy," Kairi introduced, picking up the wolf cub and placing him in her lap. Ozzy glanced around, his mouth open and tongue just barely sticking out as he panted. "Say 'hello', Ozzy."
He went, "grrr" at the mercenaries, telling them that if they wanted Kairi they'd have to go through him, before turning to Atticus and suddenly licking his nose. He barked happily and rose up, placing his little forepaws on the leader's darling cheekbones before either Atticus or Kairi could react.
Kairi was dumbstruck. With the exception of her mother and Naminé, Ozzy typically didn't care for other people. Even Atticus seemed a little surprised, but who wouldn't be if a wolf cub was pawing at your face and rearranging your cheeks?
"Does he do this often?" the merc leader asked, his words distorted slightly as Ozzy continued to push at him.
"No," Kairi replied, stunned. "He doesn't even like my boyfriend getting close to me."
"Boyfriend?" Marcus inquired. "Oh no, and here I was, hoping that there would be a beautiful girl and a chance meeting that would sweep our noble leader off his feet and carry him away into the sunset."
"Marcus, you are my oldest and dearest friend, so you will believe me when I say that if you continue this line of dialogue I am going to punch your face into next Tuesday."
Olette raised her hand. "I'm still single, actually."
"I wouldn't bother," the woman sitting next to Olette advised her. "No offence, but you two are a little on the young side for him and there's already a girl Atticus is sweet on, but he won't admit his feelings, the poor thing." She made a pouty face at their leader, shaking her head slightly.
"Young side?" One of the others said. "How young are they? They could just look young for all you know."
"They're both sixteen," Atticus replied, his tone one of exasperation.
Kairi blinked and pulled Ozzy back, placing him on the ground by her chair. "How'd you know that?"
"I'm good at guessing ages." Kairi honestly couldn't tell if he was telling the truth, or being sarcastic after being proven right.
"Really?" the young woman sitting next to Olette asked. "This is a talent I haven't seen before."
"Libby, I assure you that it's real," Atticus declared.
"Alright then. That man over there wearing the Stetson. How old do you guess him to be?"
"Thirty nine." His response didn't even miss a beat.
"Now to verify," Libby declared. "Excuse me, sir? I'm sorry to bother you like this but my friend here claimed he was good at guessing ages of people and we asked him if he could guess yours. Could you please tell us how old you are?"
"Thirty nine," the man replied. "How far off is he? Did he call me fifty? It's the silver hair I found two weeks ago, isn't it?"
"Actually, you wouldn't believe this, but he was right on! Thank you!" She turned to Atticus. "I concede. Well done."
"Damn straight," Atticus grunted, downing the remainder of his drink as Monica returned with drinks for Kairi and Olette. They placed their food orders and as Monica went back into the kitchens. Atticus turned to the two girls next to him. "Well, since I'm resigned to it, I may as well act the gracious host. What brings the two of you out today?"
"Oh, just a day off, really," answered Kairi.
"And she's having boyfriend frustration at the moment," Olette added.
"Olette!" Kairi hissed.
"Oh dear," another of the females, who would introduce herself as Emelia, sympathized. "What sort of trouble?"
Kairi sighed, figuring that it might be good for her to vent a little more. "Well, my boyfriend, Sora, we've known each other since we were kids, and we started dating about half a year ago, and I love him to bits," Kairi said as her strawberry smoothie arrived. "But, about four months ago, some things happened, and he had to go away for a while. We finally got together again yesterday, and we had a great time, but this morning he decided that he'd rather go adventuring with my twin sister instead of me!" Kairi flipped her hand in the air. "So I'm calling him a jerk because he's not being at all considerate to how I feel. I left home with them so we could go out and see and save new worlds, not for him to leave me behind on the High Noon like a housewife." Kairi sighed again and looked deeply into her strawberry smoothie. "Maybe I should have stayed at home."
There were some frowns around the table at her words. "Save worlds?" Marcus asked.
"Oh, sorry, we forgot to mention it," Olette said. "We're Keyblade Wielders. The High Noon is our command frigate in the Alliance Navy. The Sora that Kairi's talking about is Keyblade Master Sora Arashi."
"Oh-ho, big-shots are at our table," another one of the men of the company said with a chuckle. "I'm glad that we're on the same side, then."
"Any advice?" Kairi asked helplessly. She looked around the table, her lips now wrapped around her smoothie straw. Libby shrugged her shoulders.
"He's an idiot?" she replied, to which she received a few laughs. "Well, if you want an unbiased opinion, he's either trying to protect you by not bringing you along, being a clueless idiot, or he's a gung-ho teenager that's like an excited puppy off its leash."
"I'm going to go with the excited puppy one," Kairi said, pulling Ozzy off of Atticus for good and placing him on the ground by her chair. "He's a boy who just got a lot of new toys all at once, after all."
"So seeing as how you're both Keyblade Wielders, you must have some stories to tell," Marcus said.
"Oh come on, Marcus," Libby chided. "You see how young they are? I'm sure we've got a lot more stories that we could tell them. The Seven Point Star didn't earn its keep overnight after all."
Though he resisted, Libby goaded Marcus into telling the two girls about one of the many adventures the mercs had been on. One story lead to another, and before Kairi even realized it, she had eaten her fill and then some, and three hours had passed. The two teens looked at each other upon realizing that it was one in the afternoon with the tolling of a bell, and figured that the time had come for them to part ways with the Seven Point Star mercenary company.
After they had gone, the man Atticus had guessed the age of came up to the table and sat in the seat Kairi had vacated, apparently having been waiting this whole time to come over and speak with the young man. "Well, judging from the reason the young lady had for being out and about, it seems my son still has a lot to learn about women."
Atticus snorted. "That's rich, coming from the man who's spent more than a decade actively avoiding informing his wife and son that he's even alive."
"It's better this way," Derrick Arashi answered darkly, his tone of voice telling the young leader of the mercenaries to drop it. Not all of Atticus' friends, however, seemed to get the warning.
"Wait a minute," Emilia spoke up. "Are you telling me that that girl Kairi's boyfriend, the Keyblade Master we're supposed to be looking up to and all that, he's your son!?"
"Emilia…" Derrick growled, flashing her a look from underneath the Stetson. She quickly clammed up.
"Ah, Derrick, good to see you again," Libby said. "Sorry about earlier, I couldn't recognize you with the hat."
"So what brings you all the way out here?" Atticus inquired, pouring himself another beer from the pitcher on the table. "Looking for us?"
"Finding you lot was a happy, albeit easy, accident." Derrick leaned back in his chair and put his legs up on another. "I'm actually out here on business."
"Didn't realize the Templars were operating in this sector just yet. Aren't you lot a bit low on numbers?" Marcus asked.
"Different business," Derrick specified, his tone sharing all he needed to on the topic.
"Because that's so much better than Templar business," Atticus said into his mug.
"And what brings you out here?" Derrick countered. "Something must have happened to have pushed you and yours out of where you'd holed yourself up in Lynfael."
"Too many locals investigating the crash site. Drew a bit more attention to our hideaway than I liked, especially once Maleficent's Nobody lackeys started turning up as well."
"I see."
"'I see'? That's all we're getting out of you? 'I see'?" Marcus asked. "Jeez, just when you think you know a guy."
"Good luck getting anything useful out of him when he's on the job," Atticus said. "So, is there a reason you're stalking her? Or is that one of the things you can't talk about?"
"The latter, unfortunately." Derrick grinned at the look Atticus gave him. "Don't be like that. I do have some juicy gossip for you."
"Oh?"
"Oh yes. Chronos is making a move against the Apostles of the Star. Heard they got their elite assassination team, Cerberus, together. That's three of their Numbers out to take out Creed."
"Unfortunately for you, old friend, that's news, I'd already heard about that on the grapevine. I've got more ears out there than you give me credit for." Atticus sent Derrick a wry grin.
"Apparently not enough ears or else you wouldn't have been surprised to hear that the monarchist faction is already making moves to enthrone Kairi and make her their puppet," Derrick replied. At his words, Atticus lost his smile. "What do you plan to do about it?"
The young man's regal bearing seemed to waver as he said, "I don't know. I'm not sure if I can protect her from it or not."
-LD-
Blissfully unaware that the people she'd left behind were talking about her future, Kairi strolled through the streets of Refuge with Olette and Ozzy in the early afternoon. Olette was insistent on bringing Kairi along to a nearby cinema, where they were showing the latest film starring her favorite actress.
"Trust me, Kairi! Echidna Parass always delivers a truly flawless performance."
Olette was very insistent.
"She just looks like a really beautiful actress to me," Kairi said. "Are you sure she's really all that?"
"And more!" Olette's smile was wider than Kairi could believe. "With what's on your mind right now, Echidna Parass is just what you need!"
Kairi sighed. "Alright, you win Olette. Let's go see this movie. She had better be as good as you say she is."
Immediately after the film was over, Kairi walked out of the theatre, clutched her hand to her chest, and declared, "FEEEEEEEEEELS!"
Olette closely followed her, eyes misting up as well as she looked up at the large advertisement for 'Ariadne's Seduction, the Final Romantic Mystery of Echidna Parass'. "And now you know why I say that Echidna Parass is the best actress ever. If only our writer could pull off writing as well as the script writers do," she lamented, before looking directly at Shadow. The writer across the street in his terrible disguise (complete with fake moustache and sunglasses) frowned at her. Subtlety, thy name is Olette.
Kairi sniffed but turned to look at Olette while walking backwards. "I'm afraid that I must dispute you on that," she declared. "Kyoko Mogami is the best actress ever. Isn't that right, Ozzy?" Her wolf cub yipped in answer and Kairi nodded in satisfaction.
"Kyoko's not even real," Olette protested. "She's just an anime character."
"And manga," Kairi enforced. "I take it you haven't read her becoming Natsu or Setsuka Heel yet have you?"
"Uhm, no," Oleete weakly replied. "Is the manga really that good?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," Kairi answered. "If you thought that Mio was amazing, you are going to get excited chills when you see her develop Natsu from the ground up." Kairi paused and placed a finger to her chin. "Plus it's also something to think about. Tsuruga Ren doing the woman's version of the modelling catwalk…"
"Really!?" Olette exclaimed in an excited giggle. "Oh I've got to read this now."
"Maybe we should track down a local bookstore," Kairi suggested. She stretched her arms above her head and looked up at the sky. "Plenty of time before dark, from the looks of things."
"Why not?" Olette tossed her munny pouch up in the air. "I still have a ton of munny from fighting Heartless when I arrived." She tossed the pouch one final time, only to have it snatched mid-air by a brown blur.
The two girls could only blink at one another for a second before their heads turned in unison in the direction the blur had went. A man in his mid twenties grinned smugly at them from under his hood, waving his prize in his hand.
"HEY!"
Olette and Kairi started towards the thief, but they'd barely taken a few steps after him when a foot attached to a thick leg appeared from around the corner, tripping him up. The girls slowed down as they reached the fallen thief, watching as the one who tripped him up stepped in over him.
"I knew a guy once who could take every coin out of your pockets just by smiling at you," the tripper said. "You? You don't have nearly the style to work this part of town." He lifted the thief up by his hair and punched him once across the face before tossing the stolen munny purse to Olette. "Might want to find yourself a new line of work."
The thief scrambled away and the tripper turned towards the two young ladies and their pet wolf cub. He was short, red-haired, and had a nose that appeared to have been broken at least once before in his time. He nodded at the two of them. "No. No need to thank me; just doing my civic duty for a couple of nice-looking kids. Have a nice day." He waved at them, gave Ozzy a smile, and walked away with a very slight flourish of his coat.
"Well, that was nice of him," Kairi said, glancing at Olette and smiling. "Now c'mon. Let's go to that bookstore and get you some volumes of that manga."
"You're not letting that go until we hit up the bookstore, are you?"
"Not a chance!"
-LD-
The wanderer winced as another column of fire blasted a hole in the sea of Heartless. She had been watching the mage fight against the creatures for near two days, making progress at an agonizingly slow pace through the mountain pass. The warrior and the duelist next to the mage fought like mad to stem the tide of claws and eyes and teeth.
The wanderer felt relief that the Heartless were focused on the trio. The Light within them burned brightly enough to mask the scent of what she was hiding from the Heartless. With luck, she'd be able to sneak past the remainder of the horde and be back home in time for dinner, which would be whenever she got around to cooking it… so she'd always be back in time for dinner anyway.
A massive storm of ice and snow whipped into existence, freezing Heartless solid and slicing through others.
The wanderer sighed heavily. It was going to be a while before she would get that dinner.
-LD-
Shire: So I finally managed to get this guy's butt in gear to finish writing at least one of the chapter's he's been working on for the past half year (winks at Shadow).
Shadow: I'm not even going to try and come up with an excuse for this. It's true.
So I'll admit, this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I wanted to release it on the 5th anniversary of Looming Darkness and it had reached a decent stopping point. Now that I've got my writing groove back, I'm thinking I'll be able to have the next chapter out either by the end of this month, or by early to mid November. Especially if Shire Folk keeps on me about it.
Until next time!
- Shadow Horizons