"Today, we have an interesting project for the two of you," Saix said to Roman and Roxas.
Oh no, Roman thought. Investigation.
"Gather information on at least three different non-human type beings that reside in Youkai Academy," Saix said, handing the black haired boy the mission specs on a piece of paper bearing the Nobody symbol in watermark.
"Wha… what?"
"How do we do that? We barely got any kind of information when it was me, him and Xion," Roxas said.
"Ensure that no one sees you this time around if you want the information necessary," Saix said.
"Okay, if you're giving us as much freedom as you're giving us with this one, that ain't a problem," Roman said, rolling his arm, ready to go.
"And why's that?" the other two Nobodies asked.
"I've been practicing my… ahem, skills. Not that I want to be looked at oddly, I'm just trying to assert the fact that I'm a guy, and women to men are a pleasure to watch."
For a period of time, Saix and Roxas fell silent. "Wow."
It was not Roxas who said this, but Saix, continuing to look at Roman with his cold yellow eyes. Roxas merely bowed his head down in disgust, knowing that Roman was talking of his own perversion.
"What? WHAT? You're hating a dude for liking hot chicks? Man, we're a messed up bunch a' beings…" Roman said as he walked into the portal with Roxas following.
That boy is an unholy combination of Demyx, Xigbar and Axel, Saix thought to himself as he walked out of the Grey Area.
"My lord," Saix asked, seated on one of the elevated thrones in the Room of Gathering. "I wish to express questions about Vexen and Roman, though not in that order."
Xemnas merely gave a silent nod. "First. What do you see in the boy, Roman? He does not bear the X of identification, and he acts out more than a Nobody should."
"Have you observed the Heartless he slays by his hands and feet?" Xemnas asked back. "The hearts released from their demise bear an uncanny resemblance to those destined to Kingdom Hearts. Just as Sora has the eyes of Roxas."
Saix's eyes widened a bit. "He may not bear a third Keyblade for us… but he collects hearts all the same," Xemnas added. "As long as he stays within boundaries, I care little for his behavior. In fact, I may need to be entertained… as much as a shell can be."
"I see. My next question is in regards to Vexen and his search."
"Yes… that unusual stretch of time he gave himself," Xemnas said. "What if I told you that we could end up with two new members?"
"What?"
Xemnas gave a small smile. "You see, Vexen began something days after the fifteenth's arrival. I investigated it myself one day, though it seems that he himself did not see me coming. You are familiar with his replicas?"
"Yes… of course," Saix said, curious as to the rest of the information Xemnas found.
"He did not say much, but I suspect that he is making one for our purposes once again."
Saix stopped himself from asking something. He restarted aloud, "Why would he replicate someone so that the replica can join our ranks? If the replica meets the original, a crisis could arise and the replica may defect. Also, he has also made various replicas fairly quickly. I recall one of his earlier replicas that he created overnight."
"But this is different," Xemnas said, waving his hand.
The center platform bearing the mark of the Nobody rose up to a few feet from Saix's own pair of feet. With a beam of light, holograms of Roxas and Xion appeared. "From what I was able to gather from the time I was there and the time it has taken him so far, this may be more than a simple replica."
Saix looked at the holograms, recalling Roxas' first week within their ranks before the puppet's arrival. "We could not only have the survivor of that accursed city, but we can also have a loyal replica, designed to never stray from our side. Much like you," Xemnas said, dispelling Roxas and Xion and replacing them with two hooded figures.
"He's replicating me," Saix said, intending for his statement to sound like a question, but blood boiling made it sound somewhat deadpan with a underlayer of scorn.
"I do not know."
"So he's been double tasking since six days ago," Saix said.
Xemnas silently nodded as the hooded holograms disappeared and the platform sank again. "He is not Demyx," he stated.
A pause. "Granted," Saix said before disappearing in a column of darkness.
When Roman and Roxas came from the dark portal, those in the Grey Area were greeted by the sight of an ice knife sticking out of the black haired boy's forehead, a large red hand mark on his left cheek, a similar mark on Roxas's cheek and two small puncture wounds on his right hand. "I blame you for not warning me about that Mizore girl being in the bush," Roman said to Roxas.
"I blame you for speeding up so that when I called out to you, my hand got between Tsukune's neck and Moka's mouth," Roxas said back. "What was she doing, anyway?"
As he said that, Roman presented Roxas with a small notepad. "Second monster type," Roman said.
Opening it, Roxas found the recon that they had gone to Youkai Academy for. The first "monster" type they looked at was the yuki onna, which both didn't know what it exactly translated to—snow fairy or snow woman. They were watching Mizore Shirayuki for this, Mizore being one of the locals who helped the boys and Xion the last time they were there. According to Roman's notes, yuki onna in these parts are often found sucking on mint lollipops to counteract the heat. In addition, yuki onna have dominion over ice and tend to use ice for claws or in a later case that day, knives. They can also freeze bodies of water at will as well as make near-perfect and fragile ice copies of themselves or others. A quick doodle at the bottom of the page was of Vexen laughing.
The second type was the vampire, which the boys found two subjects. One was the familiar one they were helped by: Moka Akashiya. The other was a brown-orange haired "pigtail" girl whose name they didn't get clearly. All Roman wrote down was "Koko(a)." Vampires in this world, in heavy opposition to most vampire lore, are not vulnerable to sunlight, crosses or garlic. However, non-herbal water is their prime weakness. Roman supplemented this note with a doodle of Demyx poking the pigtail girl with his sitar. Vampires also don't have to drink blood to survive, but they like the taste of some people. Roman also noted down what Moka said about Roxas' blood: "It's strange… bland, almost."
The third type was not what Roxas expected at the time. The witch. Roman noted that the witch is not sure what it's supposed to be: monster or exceptional human. Therefore, he expressed confusion on why the girl they picked out was even there: Yukari Sendo, the girl that dropped the pan on them the last time they were there. In accordance with most lore, the witch is incredibly adept at magic, even at a young age. They also have a pranking tendency, making a variety of strange items for such purposes. Luckily, neither Nobody fell for any of her pranks while they were there.
The fourth type, "the one for the win!" The succubus, the type associated with the girl that Roman found especially attractive out of the ones they were watching. They can sport bat wings, tail and razor sharp nails in their true form, and has notable strength (Kurumu Kurono kicked open the door not knowing that Roman was right behind it and he was sent out the window). Also, Roman noted that succubi possess powers or 'Allure,' used to hypnotize males. Beside this particular note was something scribbled sideways saying "What, it doesn't get women? What kind of succubi are these?" Succubi are also masters of illusions. They can also learn basic witchcraft from what the boys saw.
It was after they had finished the mission completely when Roman tripped due to a male student's meddling into a bush, where Mizore was hidden. To Xion, the rest was history. "Let me guess," she started. "Recon gone wrong?"
"It was after the fact," Roman said, taking the knife out of his forehead. "Son of a bitch," he said afterwards.
As he tossed the knife, he looked to the left and saw Vexen, who had bandaged his head. "Heartless population popping up again?" he asked.
Vexen only replied with a huff and left the room. "I'll take that as a yes!" Roman said after him.
"I don't think it's a good idea to bother him more than he seems to be," Roxas said, nursing the still-aching mark on his face.
"Hey, I'm trying to keep it interesting, alright? Consider it me."
Day 7. 70%. Should I investigate this compound further, Vexen thought, or should I just leave it be and keep using it as I am? A scientist must know what he is working with, but could it be possible that what I don't know will not harm me?
Wondering this, Vexen drew another sample of Compound NM. Placing the drop of it under a microscope, he did his best to observe it. He did find an interesting thing: small specks in the microscopically clear fluid. He surmised that this was the thing responsible for the silver coloration to the naked eye. Zooming in a close as he safely could, he noticed that the specks did not seem to be blob-like. Rather, they were organic, but they looked like silver squids, almost. "Fascinating…"
Outside the lab door, Odd Jobs Gin was there. This was their first official day on the job of protection, but what they were protecting, they didn't really know. Kagura was the first to note this. "He never really did say what it was we're protecting, you know."
"Looking at him, it's probably something scientific that he's keeping from his colleagues," Rinoa said, petting Sadaharu.
"Are you kidding me? He's an old man from what I see," Gintoki said, leaning against the wall with an issue of JUMP in one hand. "I'd state my opinion, but I don't think the two of you would like it."
"Well, I think I know!" Kagura said happily. "I bet he's a pervert!"
"…No," Gintoki said, Rinoa now looking a little green. "Maybe he is actually a she. A witch at that."
Rinoa's face went a little greener. "Oh, dear God…" she said weakly.
"You know, that's actually better. Hey, what about a perverted witch?" Kagura said.
With this, Rinoa's face went near-totally green. Stumbling over to the edge of the walkway, she laid herself down to lessen her chances of falling with her head over the edge. "Oh God… both of you, change the subject… just this place alone was making me sick…"
"Maybe she—" Kagura started, but she never finished, as Rinoa started throwing up into the seemingly bottomless dark pit.
"Jeez, can't hold on to your lunch? Trust me, I've seen much worse. Like, fatality worse," Gintoki said, tilting his head up.
"I want to go home…" Rinoa said weakly, crawling back to Sadaharu's side.
The dog's ear only twitched when she rested her head on his back. Gintoki looked up at the long, twisting walkway leading to where they were. Only a guardwall going up to one's ribcage would prevent an unfortunate accident, and the platform they were on had a guardrail large enough for Rinoa to stick her head out of on the bottom. "Why can't we be up there, where the top is?" he asked himself as Kagura burped after downing a can of soda which she promptly tossed into the pit. "Hm. Probably because we're low on money."
Minutes later, Vexen walked through the automatic sliding door. Rinoa was peacefully sleeping on top of Sadaharu while Kagura was watching a movie on her PSP. Gintoki was further up on the walkway, etching something on the side of the guardwall with his bokken. "That will be all for today," Vexen announced, stirring Sadaharu awake prompting the Nobody to step away.
"For today? You mean we'll be doing this again?" Gintoki asked, looking away from the doodle of himself he was etching.
"Of course. You didn't think that it would be all in one day, did you? This will go on for the next three days, so I expect you three to be on your guard," Vexen said, opening a dark portal. "This portal will take you home without fail."
"A swirling dark portal again? We trusted you on the way here, but why should we trust you if you're not coming with us?" Kagura asked, having turned off her PSP. Sadaharu, now standing, added a bark.
"Yes, you should. I assure you, the only way to receive the rest of the pay is to trust me and do whatever I request of you. For right now, it's just simple security, so it really shouldn't be an issue whatsoever," Vexen said.
Before Kagura could retort again, Gintoki was through the portal. "G-Gin-chan! What do you think you're doing?" Kagura yelled as she followed in pursuit with Sadaharu and Rinoa in pursuit.
"Headaches… I should have stuck with the local affair," Vexen said as the portal closed.
He waved his hand for another to take him back to the city. Will this ruse of a member in the city hold with those imbeciles being themselves, he thought. Or will one of them run and get themselves caught? No… as a whole, they're too stupid. The girl, Rinoa, however, is too smart to run. What unfounded worries of mine. In the dark corridor, he nursed his head injuries from his evaluation of them. He wondered if they would ever heal properly so that he could take off the bandages and think properly.
[Author's Notes]
- Lookie! Nanomachines! But wait… what about the hair coloration? And the hair color? The mindfricking continues…
- I really wish I could provide an actual sketch of Demyx poking Kokoa… maybe I can pester a deviantART friend for that.
