Chapter six: Trust
"What do you mean missing?" Kairi said then realized how dumb of a question that was and followed up by asking, "How long?"
"Since this morning, we were supposed to meet at the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee's base but he never showed up. Then I look all over and he is nowhere," Yuffie said.
Kairi noticed it was starting to get dark they must have spent longer at the castle then she thought. "Alright we'll help look," she said and then turned to Lea, "right?"
"Yeah," Lea agreed half distracted. He was thinking about this new situation. The timing could not be more suspicious. Something didn't feel right but something else told him even though Kairi asked saying no wasn't actually an option to consider. "So, where was the last place you saw him?" he inquired.
"At his place, I'll show you where," Yuffie offered.
"As good as any place to start," Lea said. At that she led the way through the web of houses in town until they arrived at a small wooden house on a corner of a block.
Yuffie tried the doorknob and it was locked. Then she tried knocking but there was no answer. Lea examined the door it was a normal size door with a tiny lock. "I could break it down," he said.
Kairi summoned her keyblade. She then pointed it at the door and shot a small beam of white light at it and the lock clicked open. "Or, we can just do that," she said.
"Well if you want to take the easy way," Lea said slightly embarrassed. It was easy to forget Keyblades can do that.
They entered Leon's house together. Bot Lea and Kairi could tell there were signs of a struggle instantly. There was furniture knocked over and some shattered glass behind the door. Yuffie turned on a generator in the back room which turned on the lights allowing them to see clearly. With the lights on Kairi noticed a burnt hole in the wall. "Could that be from Leon's Gunblade?" she asked Yuffie.
"Yeah, it is," she confirmed sounding worried.
Lea swept the other rooms while Kairi comforted Yuffie about the situation. There was nothing suspicious in the other rooms, which was suspicious in itself. He went back on his knowledge of putting pieces together, which he used to do when the organization had him investigate new areas. He found a back door which was locked also. There were no broken windows and both of the doors were locked from the inside. That struck him as odd. He went back to the first room.
"Are there any more entrances besides the front and back door?" he asked Yuffie.
She shook her head, "Not that I know of. Why?"
"Well if there was an intruder I'm not sure how they got in if both doors are locked."
"One door might have been unlocked and the intruder locked it on the way out," Yuffie suggested.
"It's possible," Lea agreed.
They looked around a bit more thoroughly. But besides a table and desk turned over, broken glass, and the bullet hole there was nothing. Nothing that could link them to an intruder. All they knew is something happened. Eventually, they ran out of ideas and left the scene. It was late now and none of them had any ideas what to do next.
"Let's go back to the ship and resume tomorrow," Lea proposed to Kairi.
Before Kairi could answer Yuffie interrupted and said "Actually, I would feel better if you stayed at my house," she said.
Kairi nodded, "We can do that."
"Alright I'll show you the way," she said.
The inside of Yuffie's house was larger than Leons and was colorful with decorated quilts and rugs scattered around. She also had a lot of comfortable furniture. After a few hours, Lea was starting to get a bit bothered by her constant presence. He wanted to talk to Kairi privately but that was proving difficult. Finally, he turned to Kairi and said "Hey, let's check out the back yard."
"Sure," Kairi agreed and stood up from the armchair she was in. Yuffie did the same.
Lea stopped her, "Actually we have some secret keyblade wielder stuff to do," he lied.
Kairi looked at him not exactly sure what he was doing but decided to play along. "I'm sure it will just be a few minutes," she said apologetically.
Kairi followed him outside and after that he motioned her to follow him which she did. She wondered what this was about. When they were half a block away from the house he stopped and leaned against a stone wall. He noticed dark clouds in the sky and the wind was blowing. Lea decided he better be quick before it started to rain. He took a deep breath and asked, "Are you sure we can trust Yuffie?"
She gave him a bewildered look. "Well yes, she is a good friend of Sora's. Why?"
"The timing is odd. Literally the minute we are about to go she comes. And it's strange she didn't check Leon's house earlier."
"Is that all?" she asked. She had to admit that those two things were a bit odd but they could easily be explained.
Lea nodded.
"Maybe you should start trusting people a bit more, people like me," she said.
"What do you mean," he said genuinely complex to what she was talking about.
Kairi heard a thunder go off in the distance and the wind picked up even more. "Right before we landed here. You looked at me like you saw a ghost. I know it couldn't have been nothing." She stated.
"That's been bugging you?" he asked only to receive a glare. "Alright, remember when we started training and I told you that you reminded me of something?" he asked.
"Yeah, you said you didn't know what but it felt important."
He nodded and continued, "Well it was like that but this time I saw someone else for a few seconds."
"Who?"
"No one I know. She had short black hair and looked a bit like you though," he said thinking. He then felt a raindrop hit his hand. And thought they had better get back soon.
"But why lie about it in the first place?" she inquired.
"We were just busy at the time and has other things to worry about. Plus, it didn't seem to matter much," he said.
"You need to tell me these things. Maybe I can help and we need to be honest with each other," she said. It bothered her sometimes that she always had to second guess Lea. She didn't want to but he always seemed to be guarded with the truth.
Lea admitted to himself it was a habit he developed. He always liked to be one step ahead of everyone else and sometimes the truth made things worse. "I'll try Princess," he said.
Kairi noted that wasn't really a yes but decided to let it go for now and the rain was slowly getting worse. "And about Yuffie, we'll be careful," she said. She didn't really distrust Yuffie but at the same time she did trusted Lea's instincts. And something felt off to her too that she could not quite put a figure on.
After Lea and Kairi returned to Yuffie's and went to sleep the four researchers met in the Computer room. Even was sitting in a chair by the computer monitor and the other three were standing. They were going to decide how to proceed with their plan.
"That was a close one," Dilan said hotly
"Indeed, but not unexpected, luckily it kept them from trying to go back to their gummie ship," Aeleus replied.
"Luck had nothing to do with," Even responded standing up. "It's nearly complying with its programming to keep them from finding out the truth," he said and rubbed his eyes.
Ienzo noticed that Even looked more tired than normal. He hadn't been getting much sleep lately and last night he spent all his time working on the simulation. They already had a data copy of Radiant Garden in the computer memory but the amount of updating required was tremendous. "Still, they require a lot of maintenance and already seem to have suspicions on data Yuffie. Perhaps it would be in our best interests to come clean and let them out of the program. They would most likely just leave, albeit a bit angry," he suggested.
"A bit angry," Dilan said mockingly. "You, in particular, should know how ruthless Axel is," he continued and notice Ienzo ever so slightly flinched at the memory.
"I thought we agreed we are different from the nobody counterparts," Aeleus pointed out.
Even waved his hand. "True, but both of them are still an unknown. We should address the problem of their suspicions though. I'll program an adversary to distract them tonight."
"We did agree not to hurt them," Aeleus reminded him.
"I'll put in safeguards so the program can't do any real damage," Even assured dryly, stifling a yawn.
"I can manage that," Ienzo offered. He wasn't as good with data programs as Even but this was in his skill level and he wasn't as low on sleep.
"Sounds good, let us know of any trouble," Dilan answered agreeing for him and Even was too tired to argue. The scientist then disbanded while Ienzo stayed to work on the project.
(Author's Notes: As we are approaching the climax of the story I'm curious about your theories or thoughts about it so far. Also, I'm looking forward to posting the next few chapters, some scenes I already have rough drafts for.)