Finally managed to get this chapter done. It took me a while, due to various different things going on and not feeling too well, but I got there eventually. I'm trying my best to update my stories as best as I can, but my muse and stuff will vary it. Thank you to those who have been favouriting, following, and reviewing this fanfiction. Your support is greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 6: Where will mice take you?

Namine sighed loudly as she stared up at the ceiling of the girls' shared bedroom, lying down on her back on her bed with her sketchbook clutched to her chest tightly. The bedroom was dark at the moment, with the only light coming from the hallway outside. It was night now, and both Namine and Kairi were getting ready for bed like usual. Well, Kairi was anyway, since she was still in the bathroom at this moment in time. Namine on the other hand had already done what she needed to do, and really she should have fallen asleep right about now. But she couldn't. Why?

Blame the events that had occurred today. You can tell that Namine's thoughts have been very repetitive about the incidents with their new neighbours and what each of them had told her. She was trying to find the solution to her problem through facts and evidence, like she usually would. But the outcome right now was not good. She couldn't find any logical explanation as to why Kairi was so obsessed with that door, and why people had been telling her to keep Kairi away from it.

Taking a deep breath in and closing her eyes tightly for a moment, Namine decided to try one more time. Overthinking wouldn't help, but maybe this last time she might find something useful to ease her mind so that she could sleep in peace.

She started by going back over what Demyx had told her earlier today.

"The mice said: Don't let Kairi go through the little door…"

(… This incident connects well with what happened with Kairi the other night. She woke me up saying that she'd seen a mouse in our room, and since Demyx claims that he owns a mice circus, then that must have been what Kairi had seen. But the fact that the mouse had led her through the little door… She couldn't have gone anywhere. Even though the door was open, the wall is bricked up behind it. That might explain, if Demyx can even talk to mice that is, how they knew about Kairi and the door)

That was the only solution she could conclude from Demyx's incident, but it still didn't explain why the door was supposedly dangerous.

The next incident she moved onto was when she'd visited Ienzo and Even later that day. Namine was not one to believe in fortune telling and tea leaf predictions, just like Even. The fact that he and Ienzo had lived here as long as Demyx had proved that what Demyx had told Namine beforehand might have been nonsense after all. But Ienzo's prediction was getting her very paranoid…

"… I am sorry to say, Namine, that you and your sister… You two might be in grave danger"

(Even Ienzo seemed to be concerned and gave me a similar warning to Demyx's. Even with his advice he told me to keep Kairi away from the door…)

"… do not let your sister go anywhere near that door…"

(Not even that makes any sense. But Ienzo did say that the tea leaves had formed into the shape of a creepy hand… What does that mean…?)

Namine couldn't seem to get anything out of that incident either. So there was only one more that could hopefully provide answers, which it had partly done so already; the story that Sora had told her today about the landlady's twin sister and that doll…

"… This house used to be where my Grandma and her twin sister once lived. However, for some strange reason, her twin sister went missing when the two of them were kids…"

(That explains why she wouldn't allow families to move in here at the start. But why did she make an exception for our family? Does she believe that the danger has passed now…?)

"… My Grandma never saw her again, but she won't tell me or Riku what happened that could have led up to her disappearance…"

(Did her twin sister disappear because of the door? Is that why it has been sealed up? Is there something deadly behind it?)

Namine's eyes slowly opened then as her gaze flitted over to Kairi's bed. She turned her head towards Kairi's doll slumped over against her pillow, staring towards the old fireplace at the other end of the room.

"I wonder…"

Quietly muttering that statement and carefully placing her sketchbook beside her on the bed, Namine slowly pushed herself up so that she was now in a sitting position before sliding off her bed and walking quickly over to Kairi's. She gently picked up the Kairi doll underneath its arms and held it in front of her face for a moment, staring at its face with a curious gaze.

"I bet you saw what happened to your previous owner, didn't you?"

Naturally, the doll said nothing in response. As Namine's gaze fell upon the doll's black button eyes, she remembered Kairi's description of "The Other Mother"…

"She looked exactly like Mom, but she had black buttons for eyes! You know, like the ones on my doll?"

Namine let out another loud sigh as she placed the doll back down on the bed where it was before, slowly walking back towards her own.

(I need to stop stressing so much. Perhaps it's just a coincidence! I mean, Kairi can't have the same dream two nights in a row, right?)

Moving her sketchbook over to her bedside table, Namine quietly climbed under the quilt and nestled down on her bed, wrapping said quilt around her in a protective manner and laying the left side of head on her pillow. A small yawn escaped her as she felt her eyes start to droop from tiredness.

(Oh well. I'm sure Kairi will forget all this nonsense in the morning. Hopefully she won't have that dream again…)

Not being able to wait for her sister to return from the bathroom, Namine slowly found herself drifting off into a small slumber.

A couple of minutes later, the quiet sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the bedroom. Kairi slowly poked her head around the bedroom door to see her sister fast asleep. A smug smile came to the auburn girl's face as she quietly tip toed into the room.

(Perfect! Nami's asleep! I can now proceed with my little plan!)

Quietly kneeling down on the floor, Kairi, who had her left hand closed into a fist at this current in time, opened out said hand and dropped a small chunk of cheese on the ground. What was she doing, I hear you ask? Well, Kairi was making sure that the mice from the other night returned to the bedroom. So, she had decided to lure them with a small chunk of cheese she had stolen from the kitchen. She had been in the bathroom longer than normal in order to wait for Namine to fall asleep, since she had a feeling her sister would not approve of her actions and preach to her about the Other World being make-believe, etc, etc. Kairi didn't want any hassle.

Making sure to keep the bedroom door open slightly ajar, and that the cheese had been placed within the room but could easily be spotted from the stairs, Kairi quietly leapt up and dashed to her bed, making sure not to disturb Namine from her small slumber. The auburn haired girl was practically bubbling with excitement as she pulled the bed covers over herself and placed her doll on the wooden chair beside her bed.

(I can't wait to go back to the Other World tonight!)

It seemed like Kairi was too excited to go to sleep; however, shockingly, the minute she closed her eyes, Kairi already found herself drifting off into slumber. She must have been really tired after all.

Kairi was quickly awoken however, after a couple of hours had passed by, as squeaking sounded by the door to the bedroom. Kairi gasped quietly as her head was turned towards the noise, a small smile of delight appearing on her face. Three small light brown furred mice had gathered around the cheese Kairi had left on the floor, quickly taking the pieces in their tiny paws and dashing back out into the hallway. One lone mouse silently stared at Kairi and blinked innocently whilst the other two dashed off, quickly taking hold of one last piece of cheese off the floor and charging after its friends only a few seconds later.

Kairi didn't hesitate in flinging aside her bed covers carelessly and leaping off onto the floor, pursing the mice as quietly and quickly as she could. Once again, the thought of waking up Namine had crossed her mind, but Kairi declined it. She knew that Namine would just tell her to go back to bed. Before she knew it, Kairi had already raced downstairs, skidded on her knees along the floor towards the little door, and then flung it open carelessly.

And there it was; the purple tunnel that had appeared to her the other night. Kairi's eyes reflected the dim glow it gave off as she stared at the tunnel in awe. But once again, her mind flitted back to Namine. And once again, she still decided to go ahead without her. So, without any more time wasting, Kairi quickly crawled through from one side of the tunnel to the other, slowly hearing the sounds of the Other Mother humming from the kitchen.

As she slowly got up and had a quick look around, she could see that nothing had really changed. Everything was still the same as she had left it the last time. But at least Kairi knew she wasn't nervous or frightened of this place anymore. So, there was no hesitation from the auburn as she strolled joyfully out of the living room and into the kitchen, only to find the Other Mother standing at the cooker like she was the night before.

The Other Mother was quick to turn towards the door as Kairi strolled through, giving a bright smile in response. It was as if she had been expecting her arrival, which in this case was true.

"Welcome back, darling"

Kairi gave an awkward smile and wave as she approached the Other Mother's side.

"… Hi"

The Other Mother had turned away back to the frying pan once Kairi was right by her side. From Kairi's view, it looked like the Other Mother was grating cheese into the frying pan.

"It was so thoughtful of you to send this nice cheddar, Kairi!"

This caused Kairi to frown a bit in confusion.

"Huh?"

And then she remembered that the mice hadn't eaten the cheese when they left the room. They actually ran out the room with it instead. Could that mean…?

"Oh…"

(She means the mice bait. I see…)

Once the cheese had been grated fully, the Other Mother quickly turned around to face Kairi again.

"Would you get your Father? I bet he's as hungry as a pumpkin by now!"

(My Father?)

Kairi frowned out of confusion once again. This was the second time already that the Other Mother had caused her so much confusion.

"… Don't you mean my Other Father?"

The Other Mother gave a quick nod of her head.

"Your better Father, dear. He's out in the garden"

She indicated with her hands towards the kitchen window. Kairi was still frowning however at the phrasing the Other Mother was using.

(Better Father? What is she trying to get at? And… Did she just say that he was out in the garden?)

This left Kairi very suspicious and on edge right now.

"But… My parents don't-"

"Sh-Sh-Sh-Shush!"

The Other Mother was quick to cut Kairi off as she picked up a small carrot from the bowl beside the cooker and popped one into the auburn's mouth. Kairi was certainly taken by surprise as this occurred, taking a couple of stumbled steps back.

As she quickly regained her balance, Kairi took a bite out of the carrot and removed the other half from her mouth. Gently turning her around, the Other Mother gave Kairi a gentle shove to get her moving.

"Go on!"

Her tone sounded happy and chirpy, suggesting that she was urging Kairi to go. Deciding to give in, Kairi slowly walked out of the kitchen, stuffing the other half of the carrot in her mouth.

(… Is it just me or is 'My Other Mother' starting to act kind of strange…?)

Kairi was never usually suspicious of anything. Yet, on this one occasion, she felt like something was definitely off. Then again, she'd had this feeling before when she came here the night before. Or was it really suspicion?

(Pfft! I'm probably letting Namine get to me. I need to forget about her. Still though, why would the Other Father be in the garden?)

By this time, Kairi had already walked out the door and into the garden. She'd paused on the porch however when her eyes locked with the garden up ahead. The moon was quickly rising up in the sky behind it, yet she noticed that compared to the one back in her own world, this one seemed to look prettier, even though it was quite dark out. Nothing appeared to be dead. She couldn't find the Other Father anywhere, though.

As she slowly made her way down towards the garden to get a better look, Kairi noted that the trees were slowly swirling around and growing upwards, blooming red leaves. She became completely entranced with curiosity for a moment as she mindlessly continued forward and pushed open the loud creaking gates, which seemed better looked after than the ones in her world.

A bright smile appeared on her face as three golden humming birds swooped down and flew around her gracefully. At least, she assumed they were humming birds… She wasn't entirely sure of what species they were supposed to be, but they were definitely birds.

She was quick to follow them as they began to fly around and pollenate the garden, causing strange looking flowers to glow and reveal themselves from the soil. Frankly, she was quite entranced by how peculiar they looked, but was quickly brought out of that trance when a blue and red frog with red button eyes suddenly popped up out of the flower nearest to her and croaked. Despite her shock, Kairi was quick to laugh it off gleefully, and continue on after the birds as they continued to pollenate the garden and bring it to life.

(This is incredible! I could never have gotten this garden to look like this if I tried it!)

Kairi was absolutely amazed by the sight of this garden, even more so when she dashed up the steps on the left side. But that caused her to stop when she reached the top and suddenly feel an overwhelming sense of guilt fall over, because when she turned her gaze back towards the steps, she briefly re-lived the moment when she and Namine had first arrived. But the auburn girl was quick to shake that little vision of Namine chasing her up the other set of steps out of her head.

(No! I'm here to get away from Namine! Why won't my mind- Huh?)

She became distracted then when her eyes widened in surprise towards a giant mantis with glowing yellow eyes walking along the dirt hills before her with wheels as its back legs, and covering the ground in light and dark blue flowers. The Other Father happened to be riding on the back of it. He gave Kairi a wave and pleased grin upon seeing her stood in the garden.

Kairi was quick to do the same in return before cupping her hands around her mouth to shout back to him happily.

"I love your garden!"

The Other Father chuckled at that in an amused manner before shaking his head, his smile still in place.

"You mean our garden, Kairi"

She frowned in confusion at this statement, and was about to question it… when she suddenly found herself keeling over with laughter onto her back on the ground, surrounded by yellow flowers all around and tickling her like crazy. As she continued to laugh and cry out protests for them to stop, the Other Father was quick to head across the bridge in her direction, all whilst grabbing one of the flowers on the way.

"Sounds like a daughter in distress"

He began to play the flower like a trumpet, all up until he finally reached the laughing Kairi rolling around and trying to swat away the flowers still tickling her. The Other Father, with one swipe, managed to lean down and cut all the flowers surrounding Kairi free from their stems, allowing her to finally breathe in relief and catch her breath, sitting up.

"Tickle no more, you dragon snappers"

He'd gathered all the flowers up and bunched them together in his fist, holding them out towards Kairi with a gentle smile on his face. As Kairi slowly stood up and gratefully took the flowers from him, she quickly remembered why she was here in the first place.

"Thank you. Well, she says it's time for dinner"

The Other Father seemed to acknowledge that with a small nod, but was too quick for Kairi to react when he gently grabbed her under her arms lifted her up, gently placed her on the back of the mantis.

"Hop on, kiddo. I want to show you something first"

Kairi could only stare on in amazement when she saw the mantis suddenly have a propeller grow out of its back and start to spin around, slowly and steadily lifting them up off the ground. The Other Father used the steering wheel on the mantis' neck to gently steer their way through the air.

As they continued to ascend higher and higher, Kairi eventually began to understand what it was that he wanted to show her. Glancing down at the garden from an upwards point of view, she could see why certain flowers had been planted in certain colours, ways, and places. The garden as a whole depicted her face. And not only her face either. Namine was included in it too. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was breath-taken. I mean, it made her miss Namine all the more, but the sight was too overwhelming for her to worry about that.

"… I can't believe you did this"

"Mother said you'd like it"

As the duo quickly crossed gazes and smiled happily in agreement, the Other Father gently shook his head almost dismissively.

"Boy, she knows you two like the back of her hand. It's a shame Namine isn't here to see it…"

Kairi frowned worriedly towards the Other Father when he appeared to be disheartened by this.

"Well, I'm sure she would have liked it too. She… really did want to come, but she wasn't feeling too well…"

Kairi knew that was a lie, but she didn't want to see him so upset.

(… Namine… why won't you believe me?)

It was shocking at how quickly dinner had passed them. Kairi couldn't believe how much food she actually managed to eat. Then again, she couldn't help it. The Other Mother's cooking was better than her own Father's. She'd rather eat this than that darned mashed potato again.

During the course of the meal, inquiries into Namine's absence were made once again, and Kairi had to repeat what she'd already told the Other Father. This did strike her as odd though. Why was the Other Mother so intent on wanting Namine here? I mean, she knew they were replicas of her actual parents, and would naturally care about both of them, but she didn't like how the inquiries were going. Was the Other Mother suspicious of something?

But she was snapped out of her trance when the Other Mother addressed her after a while of silence.

"Kairi. Mr Myde has invited you to come see the jumping mice and his water show after dinner"

Kairi frowned at this in confusion for a moment, until she remembered who the Other Mother meant.

(… Is it that guy who Namine tried to return the mail to? The one who lives in the apartment above us? He's here too?)

Kairi continued to stare at the Other Mother as if she was crazy.

"… Really? Because I honestly thought that it was all in his head"

She gave a casual shrug then as the Other Mother eventually got up from her chair.

"I guess I was wrong"

The Other Father, leaning on his elbows whilst being sat on Kairi's other side, merely grinned.

"Well, everything's right in this world, Kai"

As the Other Mother stood beside the Other Father, she gently placed a hand around his shoulders.

"Your Father and I will clean up, while you and your friend head upstairs"

The moment was momentary, because she was quick to move away from the Other Father as Kairi blinked in confusion at the pair, eyeing the Other Mother carefully as she went to repeat what she'd just said.

"My friend?"

She didn't know who she was referring to. Unless there was 'Other Namine' around, then who else would she be friends with?

That question was soon answered when the Other Mother slowly approached the backdoor and opened it up, all to reveal a very familiar looking someone in the doorway, smiling at her cheerily. The only difference was that this boy had bright blonde hair that stuck up some, and wore completely different clothes to that of someone else she'd met. He had black button eyes, like everyone else here. In fact, he looked somewhat like Sora. She noticed his mouth had stitching over it.

For a moment, Kairi blinked in both surprise and shock, but that was quick to fade when annoyance took over, causing her to groan loudly.

"Oh great. Another Sora with a clothes and hair change"

Slowly standing up and approaching the 'Other Sora', Kairi boredly gave a wave of her hand.

"Hello again. Have you come to try to run me down with your bike?"

All the 'Other Sora' did at that was give a small smile and wave, causing Kairi to frown some in confusion.

"Hello? Don't tell me you're ignoring me!"

The Other Mother slowly moved behind the 'Other Sora' and gently placed her hands on his shoulders, all whilst the 'Other Sora' gave a casual shrug.

"I thought you'd like him more if he spoke a little less. So I fixed him"

The last part caused Kairi to raise a suspicious eyebrow.

('Fixed' him?)

But that was quickly replaced with the realisation that this Sora couldn't talk.

"… So… he can't talk at all?"

"Nope"

Kairi considered this for a moment as she stared towards the still smiling 'Other Sora' with a hand on her hip, and another under her chin, eventually nodding slowly in agreement.

"Hmm… I like it"

Smiling at Kairi's agreement, the Other Mother gently ushered the 'Other Sora' forward to walk around Kairi and on ahead.

"Now run along, you two, and have fun"

Kairi hesitated for a moment as she looked back towards the retreating 'Other Sora's' back, but eventually made herself dash after him out of the door.

Now that it was silent again, Kairi allowed herself to retreat back to her thoughts whilst watching the 'Other Sora' just in front of her.

(… Did the Other Mother create him?)

She felt like she was turning into Namine, with that thought quickly making her realise that this was the first time she'd actually gone around adventuring with someone else other than Namine. But, naturally, she just shook her head and let the thought pass.

As the two of them slowly headed down the steps of the Pink Palace, despite having gotten distracted at the strange change in surroundings, even though they still looked kind of the same, Kairi attempted to make conversation with the boy, stopping him in his tracks before he went any further.

"You really don't act a lot like the Sora I know, despite seeming fairly friendly and all"

At this, he raised a confused eyebrow, causing Kairi to chuckle nervously.

"I-I don't mean it in a bad way! Because… well, I don't really like that Sora very much…"

It turned into a quiet grumble as she awkwardly stared at the ground, causing more confusion for the boy. But then, Kairi seemed to brighten up with an idea, causing her gaze to quickly snap up from the ground, startling the boy and causing him to stumble back a bit.

"Say, do you like being known as 'Other Sora'? Because I think you deserve an actual name, considering you look nothing like him and all!"

This had caused the boy's head to cock to the side some in confusion and thought, all as he watched Kairi walk down the rest of the steps and sit down on the bottom step. He was quick to follow and join her as he watched her intently, his eyes following her index finger as she rewrote Sora's name in the dirt, rearranging the letters each time in order to form a different name.

"I'm sure if I mess around with Sora's name a few times I can come up with something! Let's see… Rosa? … That's a girl's name"

Frowning at her stupidness, Kairi was quick to cross that out into the dirt, doing the same for each name as she said it out loud, with the boy merely watching on curiously and silently.

"Saro? Nope. Orsa? … Definitely not. No… No… Definite no!"

Eventually placing her face in her hands, Kairi sighed loudly as the boy looked towards the very last name she'd written down in the dirt, 'Roas'.

"I give up. There's no way-"

She paused for a moment as she heard movement beside her, causing her to peek through the gaps between her fingers to see the boy's finger adding a letter right in the middle of the name, an 'x' to be exact. Kairi frowned curiously down at the name.

"… R… Ro… xas?"

She turned her confused gaze towards the smiling blonde boy for a moment.

"… Is that what you want to be called? Roxas?"

The nod of confirmation she received was enough to cause her to smile and leap up onto her feet, making her hold out a hand towards him.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Roxas"

Eventually taking hold of her hand and allowing himself to be pulled up gently to his feet by Kairi, 'Roxas' smiled back happily. Kairi thought he actually had a very lovely smile; although, the stitching across his mouth ruined it a little. It made Kairi feel… kind of bad for him, really.

"… Hey… Did it hurt when she… you know…?"

Kairi ran her index finger across her lips to show what she meant, but soon saw that Roxas' attention was no longer on her, and was in fact on Demyx Myde's apartment up the stairs. Kairi followed his gaze to see something bright and blue flying in front of the moon and towards the apartment, her eyes widening in surprise.

Almost as if they'd read each other's minds, Roxas and Kairi were quick to dash towards the steps as it flew closer and closer to the apartment, with Kairi soon recognising that it was in fact a bright blue blimp.

(Whoa! What's going on?)

The minute the duo finally reached the apartment door of Mr Myde, they watched on in awe as the blue blimp passed through the circular window just above it, which opened out as a small hatch. As the hatch closed back up again, Roxas and Kairi both turned to each other with smiles of excitement, which was all Kairi needed to see from him before she knocked on the door.

The next thing she knew, she and Roxas were being tossed inside by the door itself when it flipped a few times.

"WHOA!"

Both she and Roxas found themselves gambolling before landing inside the apartment on their bottoms with a loud thud, slightly dazed and confused at what had just happened. As Kairi had tried to gather her senses, she became entranced when her attention was caught by the tiny circus tent at the other end of the room, along with the tiny cannons lining the sides to create a narrow walkway towards it. There was even a tiny Ferris wheel turning around the left side of the tent, and a stream of lights leading to it along the walls.

"Cool!"

Kairi couldn't believe what she was seeing as she slowly stumbled to her feet and headed towards the Ferris wheel to get a closer look, all whilst Roxas got distracted by the cannons surrounding them within the room. Upon closer inspection, the Ferris wheel had popcorn on it, which both amused Kairi and impressed her.

(Well, what do you know! Namine doesn't know what she's missing!)

She gladly grabbed a bag of popcorn from the Ferris wheel, only to flinch in surprise and swirl around at the sound of multiple banging. But that surprise soon turned to amusement when Kairi saw Roxas stood before her covered in cotton candy from head to toe. She had to cover her mouth with a hand in order to surprise the amused chuckles escaping from her, with Roxas merely smiling and shrugging his shoulders, not really caring about the situation, and being fairly amused himself.

"Look at you! Ahahaha! You got covered in it!"

But as the duo finally managed to calm down from the comical moment, Kairi became distracted by Demyx's voice sounding loud and clear from inside the small tent beside them.

"Lady and gentleman! For tickling your eyes and ears, and making your hearts thump…"

As Demyx continued on talking and announcing his act, Kairi indicated with a hand for Roxas to follow her, with the two getting down onto their knees and crawling in sync inside of the tent, staring around at the ring in awe and amazement.

"… I, the Melodious Nocturne, introduce my astounding, stupendous, and amazing, jumping mouse and water circus!"

With the two sitting down on the ground to watch as the blue blimp appeared at the top half of the tent, Roxas yanked off one of the cotton candy sticks stuck to him and gently nudged Kairi, passing her one. She smiled as a 'thank you' and gratefully took it, turning her awed gaze back towards the blimp overhead.

The blimp suddenly landed in the middle of the ring, causing it to light up and the mice, dressed in costume, to disperse and appear, with some standing on top of each other to spell out Kairi's name with their bodies, much to said girl's initial surprise.

As the mice leapt off each other, some began to play various instruments, such as small trumpets and drums, with sounds of a sitar being strummed in the background to go along with the tune. One lone mouse parachuted down and landed on a tiny circus ball, and thus the rows of mice behind it began to bounce up and down in time with the tune they were playing. As they jumped around, they moved to the outer sides of the ring, jumping around and changing the shape of their formation around the leader mouse on the circus ball after a few seconds, such as from a circle to a star, and so on.

As all of this had been going on, Kairi had been nibbling on her cotton candy, and just as she'd finished it, she turned towards a smiling Roxas with a grin she hadn't had on her face since they'd moved here.

"It's wonderful, isn't it N-"

She immediately paused when she realised what she'd gone to say, with Roxas picking up on it as well. He frowned worriedly towards her as Kairi had a sense of sadness suddenly overcome her happiness, dampening her mood considerably and leaving her feeling fairly depressed. No matter what she did in this world, there was always a reminder that Namine wasn't there with her.

As Roxas had reached out a hand in order to comfort her, the two were distracted again quite quickly when the middle of the circus ring slowly began to raise itself up in the form of a spiral, with a platform on top that kept the leader mouse on the circus ball. As the mice slowly jumped up and around the spiral ledges on the sides, the sound of the sitar began to get louder, which revealed water clones suddenly sprouting up and dancing fluidly around the ring.

As the music went on, the mouse on the ball slowly began to roll down, with the rest of the mice leaping off one at a time into the middle of the ring to avoid the ball. When the mouse had reached the bottom, the platform dropped back down, only to reveal the Other Demyx Myde in the middle, grinning brightly with his sitar in hand, still strumming it as the water clones danced around him. He was wearing a black top hat and suit, looking fairly smart compared to his counterpart. Like everyone else here, Kairi saw that he too had button eyes. Black ones.

Roxas and Kairi both clapped enthusiastically as the performance finally ended, with the Other Demyx grinning and taking a bow at the pleasing applause. Kairi in particular was really impressed, her recent worries forgotten in mere seconds.

"Yahoo! That was great!"

The Other Demyx's posture eventually straightened up, all as the water finally dropped to the floor and flooded the ring a little, but not enough to drown the mice.

"Thank you, thank you very much, lady and gentleman!"

Putting his arms out, the leader mouse on the circus ball began to start with the jumping again; however, they went up the sleeves and trouser legs of the Other Demyx so that they disappeared from the area. When they were all gone, Roxas and Kairi showed no hesitation in standing up and continuing their clapping from before. Kairi was even daring enough to step towards the Other Demyx. It seems she was adjusting to this world really well now.

"We love it, Mr Myde! It was so… so…"

She struggled to think of a word, but after a moment, her smile returned when it came to mind.

"Amazing!"

The Other Demyx grinned in triumph as he gave another short bow.

"Haha! Well, you're welcome back here anytime you like, both you and your good friend there!"

It wasn't long before Kairi found herself back in her room again, with the Other Mother and Father sat at her bedside. Roxas was there too, still trying to get the cotton candy off the back of his head. The Other Father soon helped with that, gently pulling it off so that he could eat some of it. Kairi continued to watch on in silence as she drifted off into slumber as the Other Mother shushed the two beside her, all for them to understand that they need to be quiet so that she could sleep. Kairi knew she would find herself waking back up in her room again, just like before, but for now, she relished in every moment she could spend in this world until then.