author' s notes: So, yeah…I should really stop saying that I hope the updates won't take months, because it's like a jinx it or something xDD Gomennasai, minna-san, for expecting uber fast updates. I wish I could update as fast as I imagine I do in my mind. I guess I could blame it on working full-time during the summer, or getting all four of my wisdom teeth out, but that's such an easy way out xD
Anywhoo, I recently saw the first volume of the KH II Manga in a store. I wasn't able to buy it, but I'm assuming that some of you may have also seen it and have it. Do any of you know how many volumes are out and how far the volumes go? I'm really quite interested ^^
Getting down to business, the main thing I really want to get across with this chapter is the reason WHY Riku asked Roxas that mysterious question in the game. Even in the manga I believe it's still a little unknown. Only the novel really gives a bit of a glimpse behind the reason why. I hope you all enjoy it!
As well, I fixed the little mix-up that Toxo mentioned a long, long time ago xD Thanks again! I really need a beta reader or something, because every time I try to reread my chapters I don't catch things like that. It all works out in my head xDD So if anyone's interested, drop me a line!
And P.S. pinkxxscene – Yes, I can see where Seifer x Olette is coming from xD I'm beginning to like it myself, though of course not as much as Roxette!
Chapter X: Can You Feel Sora?
He really did do a decent job in creating the false world.
Well, according to his research, the world wasn't complete, probably to keep them out, since he had a hard enough time securing the line he did have, but what he saw was perfect, if anything could be as such. If he hadn't seen the real world with his own eyes or wasn't aware that he entered the world through a computer, he was sure he would've been fooled into thinking it was real. The buildings were placed exactly where they should be, right to the very millimeter, the eternal sun was the same brilliant colors that had always left him breathless, and the humidity was just right that he was craving a certain salty treat in order to alleviate the heat.
But amongst the slight amazement was a stronger feeling of frustration and anger— frustrated by the fact that his partner was fooled by such a world, and angry at the people who reduced him to a level in which he would be fooled.
As if on cue, numerous mysterious white beings, the same creatures Olette had seen in the forest during the festival a few days ago, and the same ones who had stolen Pence's camera just the day before, suddenly began to gather around the cloaked being that miraculously stood at the top of a pointy rooftop. The man seemed to perk up at their appearance, but the feeling soon disappeared as they dropped something into his hand and continued dancing in the air around him.
"Really, you guys…" Axel muttered displeasingly as his emerald gaze took in the images of Roxas in the photographs he was given. One of them was when he was at school for heaven's sake. Although he was happy that his best friend was able to live the way he wanted, he soon became angry once more. How long was his partner in this fake world, living this fake life? He had sent the Nobodies into the world a few days ago to locate and bring him Roxas, and had finally managed to enter himself, but all that effort was getting him nowhere. Was it possible that he knew he was there? "What am I supposed to do with these pictures you brought me?"
In a flash, the photos were turned into ash as he set them on fire, opening his hand to allow the wind to blow the ashes away. The last thing Axel needed was a bunch of fake photos freezing in time a bunch of fake memories. He wouldn't rest until he found the real Roxas, no matter how much obstacles he put in his way. "Well then…" he whispered as he lowered his hand and looked back out at the scenery before him.
"Where could he be? The real thing."
xoxoxoxox
"It seems like they are also becoming desperate."
Riku had just walked into the computer room, and that must've prompted DiZ to speak as soon as the door had automatically closed, though how the man knew it was him and not Naminé was beyond him. Pushing aside the pointless and unimportant question, Riku stepped forward until he was standing next to DiZ, looking at the screens to see what the man meant by his statement.
"But I will not allow them to snatch it away from us so easily," DiZ continued when Riku unsurprisingly failed to speak, though knowing what kind of person DiZ was, he would have went on even if Riku had said something, cutting him off even. DiZ had noticed something was off that day after the festival when he found some irregular data patterns. Someone must've fooled around in his network, and he had a good idea who it might've been. "That's the reason why we scattered pictures of Roxas throughout the town."
'It'? Riku repeated inwardly, almost appallingly, knowing that DiZ meant Roxas. How many times had the red bandaged man refer to Roxas as 'it' over the past few months? Although he was still fuming about what happened two days ago, Riku would never be so upset at Roxas as to call the blonde boy a thing, as if he wasn't a person. Roxas was connected Sora, as much as it pained him to admit. That was more than enough proof to him that Roxas was not an 'it', but a living, breathing, person. It was what agonized him so.
Unwilling to allow himself to get so emotional over his best friend again so soon after his spat with Naminé, Riku forced himself to let the word slide and focus on the other words said instead. So that was why we were throwing those photos all over the place yesterday. To fool them. But… "It's like the Nobodies can't make the distinction between that and the real thing…" Riku finished his thought aloud, glancing down at the extra photos that were spread out on one of the unused keyboards. He was surprised such an elementary trick would actually work.
DiZ snorted out a laugh at this. "Because to them, both appear to be the same 'Roxas'. Both are nothing but data to them. The fools could never tell the difference." The smug smile that had planted itself on his face quickly disappeared as both his and Riku's eyes fell upon the screen that showed footage of several Nobodies floating around a redheaded, black-cloaked being atop the pointed roof of a building. Curling a hand into a fist, DiZ pounded down on the keyboard in front of him, causing the photos to scatter to the floor.
"Damn Organization XIII," the older male hissed. "He thinks he can behave however he likes in this realm. This redheaded man." Eventually regaining his composure, DiZ sat up straighter and glanced at Riku from the corner of his eye. "Don't take your eyes off Roxas for a moment."
Riku visibly tensed at the order. Just because he didn't hate the kid didn't mean he'd jump at the chance to be his personal bodyguard, either. Telling himself that it was all for Sora, Riku managed to relax and accept the task. "…All right," he replied shortly.
Noticing Riku's change in stature, a smirked found its way onto DiZ's lips. It was always interesting to poke fun at this one, he decided. "Those clothes suit you," he added nonchalantly, moving into a completely off-topic and highly guarded area.
As expected, the comment got a bad reaction, and amber eyes quickly narrowed to throw a glare at the man sitting beside him. "Stop it." It wasn't a request, but an order, and the unnaturally deep voice that didn't belong to him helped reinforce that. "I'm not wearing this because I want to."
DiZ couldn't help but let out another laugh. "That's true," he agreed, and decided to leave the topic at that for now. As much as it was entertaining to have those kinds of conversations with Riku, he didn't want to go so far as to have to deal with an infuriated sixteen-year-old. For a kid, he would be a tough opponent if he had to fight him. "At any rate, the awakening won't be long now it seems...But we're running out of time. Naminé must make haste."
Outside the door to the computer room stood Naminé, who had come to eavesdrop on the pair when she saw Riku enter it. She was hoping she'd be able to speak with him today, since she wasn't able to yesterday, but DiZ was really starting to work him hard now that the time of Sora's awakening was steadily approaching. Although she couldn't hear much, considering how thick and reinforced the door was, she could tell that the time to take the next step in her plan was steadily approaching.
She'd have to meet with Roxas soon.
xoxoxoxox
If it wasn't for the sparkling array of stars that could clearly be seen in the dark blanket of the night sky, the eternal darkness of Traverse Town might have been a bit depressing. At a back alley of the world laid Sora, who was awakened by a single lick from a golden-furred dog. Groaning, Sora allowed his sapphire gaze to fall upon the panting dog before he pushed himself up on his feet. "Oh…Where am I?" he asked aloud as he looked around the unfamiliar town.
Static.
Panic now flooded into Sora as he raced into the Second District. "What happened to my home? My island?" The memories of his home possibly being destroyed came back to him, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as the same mysterious black beings he saw on the Islands began to appear all around him. Without even realizing it, the keyblade had materialized in his hands, ready to dish out pain. "Riku! Kai—"
A fuzzy image of the redhead girl flashed by.
"Who are you?" Sora exclaimed as he turned to face the shaggy brunette male that suddenly appeared behind him, his face hidden from his view.
"They will come at you out of nowhere, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade," the man said, lifting his hand a pointing a finger to the strangely shaped weapon Sora was still holding.
Coding.
From the warm glowing light in front of him, two beings shot up into the air, heading straight for Sora. Realizing this, Sora tried to make a run for it, but unfortunately he wasn't fast enough as the dog- and duck-like creatures landed right on top of him.
Fizzle, fizzle, crack.
"Hey, why don't you come with us?" the dog-like creature offered. "We can go to other worlds on our vessel."
The duck looked up at Sora expectantly as he thought over their words. It seemed like a good idea, but…he did just meet these people, even though he could feel that their intentions were good. He had to listen to what his mother told him every once in a while about running off with strangers, right?
"Sora, go with them," a deep male voice said, and Sora turned to face the brunette he had met earlier, who was now joined with a smaller dark-haired female. "Especially if you want to find your friends," he added, and that alone struck a cord within him. Sora would have done anything to find the ones precious to him.
Brief static.
"Donald Duck," the duck introduced himself, holding up a hand straight out in front of him.
"Name's Goofy," the dog-like creature said next, holding up his hand to place on top of his friend's own.
A faint smile made its way to Sora's lips. "I'm Sora," he replied before standing straight from his slightly crouched position to place his hand atop both of theirs.
"I'll go with you guys."
A fuzzy image of the redhead girl appears again.
"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade," the ever-growing familiar male voice of the brunette spoke as Sora looked down at the weapon lying on his lap.
Fizzle.
"That's right," a lighter brunette woman affirmed, dressed all in pink as she sat on a nearby bed. "The Keyblade."
"So…this is the key?" Sora asked slowly to make sure he understood them, holding the item out in front of him.
Static.
"But the boy is a problem." It was a new voice now. The owner of the voice was never shown as Sora lifted the Keyblade towards a large keyhole in front of him, but it was clear that it was sinister and did not have any good intentions towards anyone.
"He found one of the Keyholes."
xoxoxoxox
Sora's home world being destroyed.
"You understand nothing."
The Old Mansion.
'We have come for you, our liege.'
The black creatures, the 'Heartless', that were attacking Sora.
"They will come at you out of nowhere."
The white creatures that attacked yesterday.
"As long as you continue to wield the Keyblade."
Keyblade…?
The weapon both he and Sora wielded.
A sharp intake of breath cut into the previous silence that had enveloped Roxas' room as the blonde suddenly jerked up into a sitting position on his bed. Breathing heavily, sapphire eyes looked down to the shaking hand he held out in front of him before blinking and taking in the surroundings of his bedroom as if it was foreign to him.
"When did I get back…?" he whispered to himself, completely confused. The last thing he remembered was hearing that voice in his head when he was walking home yesterday, and now he was here, in his room the next morning. How did that happen?
Shaking his head, Roxas looked back down at his now steady hand as the remnants of his dream pushed aside those thoughts. "Key…blade…" he repeated, the words having a strange sense of familiarity in his mouth. Is that what that weapon he used yesterday was called? The one Sora used? A keyblade? And now that he thought about it some more, he and Sora had a lot in common, assuming that Sora was, in fact, a real person and not just a figment of his dreams. They were both attacked by a bunch of strange creatures. Were those white creatures called 'Heartless' too? Their friends were similar. They both really liked…
Roxas closed his eyes tightly and willed away the blush that was swiftly taking over his cheeks as he thought about Olette. As the embarrassing moment passed, though, a more sickening feeling overtook him. Did that mean Twilight Town would be destroyed, too, like Sora's world was? Did Sora ever manage to save his world? Was this Keyblade a big part of it? Roxas didn't exactly want to have to go through more dreams to come to an answer. Those dreams weren't exactly something he'd classify as a good time, and he didn't exactly have time to wait around for them if his world really was going to be obliterated. Was this the purpose to everything that was happening to him and his friends? Somehow, whenever he tried to figure out the reason behind everything that had been going on lately, he had been coming up with increasingly worse scenarios as the days passed. At the rate he was going, he was almost afraid of what he'd come up with next.
"Man, what I would do to meet you, Sora…" Roxas whispered, moving his gaze to the eternal warm sky outside his window.
Surely Sora would have the answer.
xoxoxoxox
"Come out! Come out~!"
Swishing noises accompanied Roxas' shouts as he swung a stick that he had found near his house through the air as he walked towards the usual hangout of his friends. He was hoping to see if he could summon that weapon again, but…
"It won't work, I guess…" Roxas said quietly to himself, cutting the air with the stick again, though still nothing happened. "Keyblade…huh?" What did it take to make that thing appear? Be in a life-and-death situation again? The foam bat used in the Struggle? Being in front of the Old Mansion? Roxas shook his head as he lowered his arm and looked down at the stick. He was definitely losing it. Was it sane to think that any of it was true? Sure, the 'Keyblade' was real and all yesterday, but nothing is fitting together.
"What was that all about?" he muttered, becoming frustrated with both himself and the dreams that only seemed to complicate things. Without another look at the stick, Roxas closed his eyes and threw it behind him, lifting his leg to continue walking forward. When he heard a dull 'thud' before the stick hit the ground, though, Roxas turned around and immediately froze on the spot when he realized he had hit someone decked entirely in black. "Ah!" Roxas squeaked, panicking. After having the whole town hate him and his friends just the day before, he did not want to upset anyone and be ostracized again. "I'm sorry…about that…" he struggled to get out.
If Roxas wasn't so preoccupied trying to earn the other's forgiveness, he probably would've noticed the similarities between how the person dressed and the cloaked beings in his dreams. Riku, said cloaked person who he had hit, was staring down at the blonde for a completely different reason. Ever since he started watching Roxas, Riku had been growing increasingly infuriated…and curious.
Questions that had always plagued the back of his mind began to resurface, hitting him especially hard when he saw Roxas begin to swing the sword around. It brought back his own memories of watching Sora practice with the wooden sword, all so he could try and defeat him when they sword fought against each other. The similarities between the two of them were uncanny. Was this how Roxas really was? Was Sora affecting the blonde boy in some way? If Naminé was unable to bring back Sora, would his best friend continue living through Roxas, in Roxas? Or would Sora be lost forever… Unable to handle the direction his mind was heading, never mind the fact that he was seen, Riku completely ignored the younger male and turned around without a word, walking away.
Noticing the person walking away without acknowledging him whatsoever, Roxas stopped trying to talk and stood there in a mix of awe and shock as he now stood alone on the street. What did this mean? Was that a way of saying he was off the hook, that his apology was accepted? Or was that a warning of many terrible things to come? Figuring he couldn't do anything about it either way, Roxas sighed and continued the short distance towards the Usual Spot.
xoxoxoxox
"Oh! You're late, Roxas!" Hayner yelled when the fellow blonde walked into their hideout, bringing the sea salt ice cream back to his mouth as soon as he had uttered the words.
Laughing nervously, Roxas lifted a hand to rub the back of his head. "Sorry, sorry!" he apologized, all of his troubles disappearing momentarily now that he was in the presence of his friends.
"Here, this one's yours, Roxas," Olette said as she held out an extra popsicle towards him. Blinking in confusion, sapphire eyes scanned across the room and took in the fact that all three of them had just started eating the icy treat. Surprisingly and strangely relieved that they didn't forget about him, Roxas blushed slightly as he freed the brunette of the ice cream.
"Thanks," he replied before sitting down in his seat beside her.
A calm and comfortable silence fell upon the quartet as they ate together, and it continued for a few moments more before Pence suddenly spoke up.
"This must be what they call the little joys," he said, taking a moment to stop eating and just sit there, soaking up the intangible, peaceful feeling.
"Hn?" Hayner let out from the side of his mouth, unwilling to move the ice cream away to speak normally as he looked at the ebony-haired male curiously from the corner of his eyes.
"Everyone eating ice cream together like this," the headband-wearing boy explained more clearly.
"Anytime Pence is eating is a happy time for him, though," he teased as he moved his gaze to look at Roxas and Olette for agreement.
Before the pair could either agree or disagree, Pence's hand twitched around the stick of his popsicle, and he turned to face the leader of their pack. "I'm trying to have a nice moment here!" he grumbled, partially angry because what Hayner said was half-true. Closing his eyes to take a deep breath and let the anger run through his system, Pence reopened his chocolate brown eyes, a sort of dreamy look in them. "If we could stay like this, with everyone together, forever, I think that would be nice…That's what I'm saying," he tried explaining again, making sure that it was clear that food had nothing to do with it.
"Not gonna happen," Hayner replied after a pause, his expression a complete blank as he finished his ice cream first.
"What?!" Pence choked out, coughing as he hit his chest to dislodge the popsicle he had bitten off from going down the wrong tube. Even Roxas and Olette, though not saying anything, internally agreed that they would have loved what Pence had suggested, and were equally shocked that Hayner would kill such dreams without an ounce of doubt. They thought that Hayner of all people would jump on the sappy bandwagon, not single-handedly derail it.
"'Cause even the situation will change," Hayner explained, a somber and slightly regretful look now dominating his facial features as he stared out at in front of him, not focusing on anything in particular. "When we grow up, we'll have to eventually give up meeting like this every day."
Unlike before, an uncomfortable silence encompassed them all now as they each took in Hayner's words. All Roxas could think of when Hayner said that everything would change was Twilight Town being destroyed like Sora's world was. They couldn't be together forever if they were all dead, right…? Luckily, before he could dwell too much on the depressing thought, Pence had broken the silence once again.
"When you put it that way, it sounds really lonely, doesn't it?" His tone was straining to be playful, wanting to lighten the mood, but his dejected appearance as he finished his popsicle ruined it. "I wouldn't have expected something so cold from Hayner…"
Snapping out of his rare serious mode, Hayner sat straight up and froze at Pence's words, an alarmed look on his face. "No, I was…" he stammered. He didn't mean to become the bad guy. Truthfully, he would've liked to be with them forever, too, but life just wasn't like that. Maybe his fall-out with Seifer had affected him more than he realized. "What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other. Right?" He tried again, a hopeful and apologetic look in his eyes as he looked at his friends.
Low doubtful sounds of agreement sounded from Roxas and Olette, already too depressed to be elated enough by the fact that they'd only be able to rely on their memories later on. After the talk they all had together on Sunset Hill, it made it clear that memories weren't exactly the most stable thing in the world.
But if we see each other once in a while, and think of each other, we can somehow meet if we do separate and make new memories…surely, Roxas tried to convince himself.
Pence seemed to be the only one who outwardly got past everything. He was laughing, though it wasn't clear if he was trying to break up Hayner's nice moment in retaliation for messing up his. "Get that off a fortune cookie?" he teased.
Groaning in frustration, Hayner grabbed a fistful of his blonde hair. "That's it, no more ice cream for you!" he yelled at Pence. If it wasn't for him and his comment, then Hayner wouldn't have made things worse and they'd still be on a sugar high. A light bulb suddenly went off in his head, and Hayner jumped up, throwing a fist into the air. "Okay! Today we're all going to the beach!"
"Eh?" Roxas let out, lowering the hand that was still holding his unfinished sea salt ice cream.
"So suddenly?" Olette said in the same amount of shock as Roxas, moving her own popsicle away from her mouth. Quickly recovering, she got on her feet and put a hand on her hip, shaking her popsicle in Hayner's direction as he walked out in front of them. "What about our homework?"
"That's for after, after!" Hayner replied, completely unconcerned about it. The blonde male waved his hand in the air, dismissing the brunette's worries, before he suddenly spun on his heel and pointed a finger at the only girl in their group. "Are you gonna make us end the summer without ever having been to the beach?" he accused. "You stopped us last week, and now you're stopping us again? How will we ever make memories to remember?" Hayner finished dramatically, his arm now draped across his forehead in mock despair.
Although she didn't have to point out that she stopped their trip to the beach last week for good reason, she couldn't really argue with him about it now. While it was true that she was a bit of a stickler about school, after the talk they just had about not being together forever, making memories was much more important than homework. Still, she didn't want to admit that to Hayner lest they all take her less seriously when she brought up homework again. "Well, I…!" she said in a weak response, trying hard to look angry though the slight blush on her cheeks showed that she didn't feel that way at all.
Unfortunately for her, it seemed Hayner was a little more perceptive than she thought. "You really wanna go, don't you?" their leader exclaimed, pointing at her again as he barely contained himself from jumping up and down on the spot. "I can see it on your face!"
Olette's blush of embarrassment deepened. "That's not true!"
Roxas couldn't help but laugh at Hayner and Olette, but he suddenly stopped as a realization came over him. "Ah," he let out, a completely bug-eyed look on his face.
"What's wrong, Roxas?" Hayner asked, dropping the thing with Olette to look at his best friend.
Roxas shook his head apologetically. "Sorry, I don't really have any munny to go to the beach."
Olette absentmindedly began eating her popsicle again as she thought about the issue of munny—it could really put a wrench in their plans if they didn't have enough. "Ah, now that you mention it, I'm pretty low on munny myself," she said, remembering that she didn't have a lot saved up herself after the gifts she bought everyone last week. "And going to the beach isn't exactly cheap."
Crossing his arms, Hayner nodded as he closed his eyes in contemplation. "That's true. Train fare to the ocean, and…pretzels when we're there…"
"Pretzels?" Roxas questioned, returning attention to his ice cream as well.
"Of course! What else is there?"
"Well, there's always watermelon."
Hayner shook his head as he looked at the fellow blonde who had made the comment. "Too pricey. They're like 2000 munny apiece."
Another freaked out look overtook Roxas. He remembered all the work he had to do for Luna when he bought Olette's gift, and than was just for 1000 munny—half the price. It'd take them a millennium to make twice that amount. "Pretzels it is," Roxas concurred.
"And then ramen with the thick noodles, and…curry rice with nothing on the side, and shish kabob, and some butter…" Pence went on, completely in his own world once food was mentioned, as if not hearing the munny troubles the rest of them were discussing.
"Just pretzels," Hayner reiterated, knowing the more food Pence listed, the more they'd all want food they couldn't afford. Shaking his head, he suddenly perked up and was back to pumping his fist in the air. "Just leave everything to me! We'll be fine!" he yelled as he ran out of the Usual Spot, leaving a bewildered Roxas and Olette in his awake, as well as a confused Pence, who had just returned from his own food world.
Looking silently at each other, Roxas and Olette quickly finished their ice cream while Pence waited, and the three of them hurried after Hayner, finding themselves standing in front of the referee and producer of the Struggle tournament at a storage lot.
"Even if you suddenly come up and say, 'Give me a job'…" the referee said reluctantly, unsure of what to do with an eager Hayner.
"I'm begging you, sir!" Hayner exclaimed, his face twisted in desperation and his hands intertwined together as if praying. "We really need the munny!"
Roxas, Olette and Pence stood a little ways behind Hayner, unsure of how to look or what to say. Frankly, they were too surprised to.
"When he said 'leave everything to me', I thought he had it single-handedly covered," Pence said with a very 'why am I not surprised' look plastered all over his face. He just expects us to do all the heavy lifting, doesn't he?
"This is Hayner we're talking about, so probably not," Olette replied, trying to look supportive though she was worried what kind of mess Hayner would get them into now.
"Yeah…" was all Roxas was able to let out, slightly embarrassed at his best friend's antics. One would think they would all be used to Hayner's actions by then, but they had long ago stopped wishing for their leader to be any other way. Truthfully, their lives wouldn't have been half as exciting otherwise.
"Hey, guys, we've got a job!" Hayner screamed, breaking the trio out of their conversation. They blinked, watching their leader turn to face them with a pile of papers practically the size of the Clock Tower in his hands. "We've just gotta put up all these posters!"
"Struggle Battle?" Roxas read, taking one of the posters to look at it.
"That's right…it's the day after tomorrow," Pence replied before his eyes wandered to the stack Hayner placed down on the ground. Isn't that too many?! Pence thought, wondering how late into the night it'd take them to finish putting those many posters up around Town.
"Don't lose to Seifer's gang, you guys!" Olette said good-heartedly, not meaning anything bad towards Seifer or his group specifically. She'd just much rather have her friends win, after all.
"As if we'd lose! Right, Roxas!" Hayner yelled heatedly, slapping his hand on Roxas' shoulder before wrapping his arm around the bewildered boy's neck. It was like it was an order, since losing would definitely not fare well with their hot-blooded leader, especially after everything they went through concerning Seifer. "The final match will be between the two of us. And whoever wins it, we'll split the prize between the four of us!"
"That's great!" Pence exclaimed, feeling pumped up.
"Such confidence!" Olette teased, winking at them as she wrapped her arms around herself.
Grinning brightly, Hayner looked at Roxas earnestly. "We can do it, right? Since it's you and me," he added softly yet determinedly.
Roxas couldn't help but grin back, finding himself blushing at Hayner's energy and determination. Unlike what he said about handling them going to the beach just moments before, Roxas was certain that Hayner would make sure they would win. "Yeah!"
"All right! It's a promise!" Hayner separated himself from Roxas and the two of them lifted an arm up, crossing them like an 'X', a sign of their friendship. The four of them smiled ecstatically, and while he was still on his high, Hayner swiftly grabbed a poster and a roller, dabbing the latter into a pan of paste. Before the rest of them knew it, Hayner was going up and down the small ladder at blinding speed, putting more and more posters up.
When he was seemingly done, he jumped off the ladder and faced his friends, spreading his arms wide. "How's this~!" Hayner roared, breathing heavily and looking very much like a mad man. Behind him, the posters he put up spelt the word 'WIN'.
Smiling awkwardly, Olette and Pence laughed uneasily, slowly nodding their heads as if not knowing what else to say. If such things like a sweat drop could physically form in real life, one would have been hanging near Roxas' head at that moment.
"I think we should put them up in more places…" Roxas suggested, gaining real laughs from Olette and Pence. Hayner gave him a look as if he didn't understand what he meant, and Pence placed a consoling hand on Hayner's shoulder as the four of them gathered around to explain and organize how they were going to do the job.
With the four of them busy talking, no one noticed a dark figure linger for a moment before disappearing from view.
xoxoxoxox
"The ocean?"
DiZ's voice pierced through the low humming of the machines that surrounded him where he sat. Although it seemed like he was talking to himself, seeing as there was no one else in the room, a small audio device window was open in the corner of one of the screens, showing that the man dressed in red was definitely talking to someone else.
"Don't be stupid," he continued, his voice ever so condescending. "They cannot leave town."
Riku had to try very hard to refrain from rolling his eyes as DiZ's voice came through the top end of the receiver that he held in his ear. Is this what he got for informing the man of what Roxas was up to? Maybe he had another agenda to his actions as well, but…
"I could widen the area, but the enemy would have more entry points," DiZ explained, cutting into Riku's thoughts. "Go and prepare."
There was a pause, and as Riku began to move the receiver away from his ear to hang up, assuming the conversation was over, DiZ suddenly spoke up again. "Don't develop feelings for that."
Riku froze immediately on the spot. How did he know? It was like DiZ was reading his mind. Going by the silence that answered him, DiZ figured he had hit the mark. It wasn't that he was a psychic or anything, but after the years of research he did on the heart, he had to come out of it with something, even if everything ultimately ended in failure. Riku was heading down the same path he had seen too many times before, and he couldn't leave him there. They had things to do, a purpose of why all of them were going through it all in the first place, and nothing could get in the way of that.
"Keep our objective in sight," DiZ finished, and he hung up before Riku could so much as utter a word.
Even as the dial tone continued endlessly in his ear, Riku didn't move the receiver from it's place near the body part. His mind, as always, was going a hundred miles a minute. After leaving to think for a bit after his first encounter with the blonde boy that morning, and then seeing the four them together again, he was as angry as he was when he saw them every day before, but…Riku could feel a small soft spot beginning to form. After all, if he and his friends couldn't be together like that, then surely they should have the chance to.
They could live through them.
The thought grew more when he found out that they wanted to go to the beach. Sora always loved the beach. The three of them always hung out on the sandy shores—they practically lived there. So he was so hopeful when he told DiZ about it. If they could just go to the ocean… But maybe DiZ was right. It was a little late to have Roxas' and his friends' best interest in mind. If that were the case, he would have never defeated Roxas, or at least have given him the chance to meet with his real friends, in the real Town.
He was doing this for his friends. He was doing this for all the worlds.
He couldn't…shouldn't…forget that. Even if he finally realized what Naminé was fighting so hard to keep.
xoxoxoxox
"Ta-da! Please bear witness to this!"
Standing in front of Twilight Station, the three boys stood around the lone girl of the group as she held up her homemade munny pouch.
"Look at the weight of this munny pouch! For our part-time job, we have been granted 5,000 munny!" Olette finished with a cheer.
"Yes!" Hayner screamed, pumping a fist in the air again as he jumped up high. Roxas and Pence clapped at the news, very pleased looks upon their faces. After the energy from Hayner's uplifting Struggle Battle speech died out, it took a lot of work for the four of them to do a proper job, though it was fun to talk to the townspeople they met about the event.
Faking tears, Hayner rubbed an eye as he slowly reached out for the pouch. "Just for a moment, let my touch it, get a taste of it…" As he blindly closed his hand around the area where the pouch was, Hayner found that he grasped at air. Opening his eyes, his mouth dropped as he saw Olette turning towards Roxas.
"Roxas, look after it. Don't let Hayner anywhere near it!" she told him as she placed her pouch in his hands and closed his fingers around it.
"Hey! Don't be like that!" Hayner shrieked as the fellow blonde male placed the munny in his back pocket. Sure, maybe he was a little bad with munny, but there was no way he could spend it all between where they stood now and the ticket counter just beyond the doors in front of them.
The distant sound of a train caught all of their attentions, causing them to look up at the sky.
"Ah! Looks like the train will be coming any minute now," Olette noted.
"All right! Let's hurry!" Pence said excitedly, and he and Olette ran ahead towards the stairs.
Roxas smiled and motioned to run after them, but stopped as he realized Hayner didn't look like he was going to budge at all. Looking over at his best friend, he blinked when he noticed a serious expression on Hayner's face. Unlike the one he had before at their hideout, this one seemed strange…like he wasn't himself…like he was possessed. "Hayner…?" Roxas asked uncertainly.
"We can't be together forever…so we'd better make the time we do have something to remember," Hayner said in an almost monotone voice.
"Huh?" Roxas' eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. He thought they had gotten past that topic a while ago. Why all of a sudden…
Blinking, Hayner looked at Roxas as if he had forgotten what he had just said, watching as the other took a stop closer to get a better look at him. Bringing an index finger to rub underneath his nose, he smiled and brought a light first to punch at his best friend's stomach. "Gotcha!" Hayner said jokingly before running to catch up with Olette and Pence.
Rubbing his stomach, Roxas watched Hayner leave, still a little lost. He shrugged it off, though, as a smile came to his face, and he ran after him. He wasn't able to take more than two steps, though, before he felt something hit against his leg hard, causing him to fall to the cobblestone ground with a loud 'thump'. Hearing the sound, Hayner, Olette and Pence quickly turned around and took a few steps toward him out of shock.
"Owww…" Roxas groaned as he sat up, touching his lip and placing a hand behind him to check his back. His eyes scanned the area to see what hit him, sapphire eyes falling up a stick nearby. "What the hell…A stick…?" There was something oddly familiar about that stick, though...
Sensing movement beside him, Roxas tore his gaze from the stick to look up at a black cloaked man hovering above him. A strangled sound escaped his lips as the man roughly pulled him to his feet and towards him, whispering something.
"What?" Roxas breathed out in response.
"Hey! Roxas, you okay?" Hayner yelled from his position, taking a couple more steps towards him.
Roxas looked behind him to glance at his friends before looking back at the man beside him only to find him gone, his arm now just hanging in midair where it was being held up in the man's grip before. "Huh?" he exclaimed in complete disbelief, looking around for any signs of the man.
Hayner, Olette and Pence look at each other worriedly, both at Roxas' lack of response and his weird actions, turning back to watch as Roxas gave up whatever he was searching for and came to join them.
"You okay?" Hayner repeated, though the distant nod he received did little to make him believe Roxas' answer. He didn't push, though, since time was cutting close, and he figured he could ask him about it later. Leading the way inside, Hayner ran up to the ticket booth. "Tickets for four students!" he told the teller as he held up four fingers, turning to look back at his friends. "Roxas, the money."
"Mm," Roxas responded, digging a hand into his back pocket. "What?" His back pocket was empty. Searching his other pockets frantically in case he placed it somewhere else and forgot, dread slowly settled in his stomach as he realized he didn't have it. "No! It's gone!"
"What?!" the others replied in devastation and shock.
"You're kidding, right?" Hayner questioned, hoping Roxas was making a joke, albeit a completely lame one.
"What happened?" Olette asked, more out of worry than anger.
Roxas paused for a moment before gasping, remembering the cloaked man that picked up him. "It was that guy…! He took it!" He quickly glanced out the glass doors that gave a view of the plaza outside before looking back at his friends and lifting up a hand as if to tell them to wait for a moment. "I'll go find him! I don't think he could have gotten very far yet!"
"'That guy'?" Hayner repeated, confused. "You were alone when you tripped, weren't you…?"
Roxas' eyes widened as he stood frozen where he was. But he…there wasn't…really? The train station bell snapped Roxas from his thoughts, and Pence turned away from his friends to look at the train platform that was past the stairs behind them.
"Ah…the train left," Pence stated sadly, his shoulders drooping.
"Today's no good, then," Hayner said, looking over his shoulder towards Pence and the train that was no longer there.
The look on Roxas' face was heartbreaking. He didn't know which hurt more—the fact that there was apparently 'no guy there', or the fact that he was the reason he and his friends couldn't enjoy their hard-earned munny with a trip to the beach. "…No way…" he whispered. There wasn't anyone there...?
Outside the station, Riku lightly chucked the munny pouch up, catching it before throwing it into the air again as he walked away.
xoxoxoxox
"Maybe…when Roxas tripped, someone came by and picked it up," Hayner offered into the silence that enveloped them.
The four of them now sat on the ledge of the Clock Tower, with Olette sitting between Roxas and Hayner with Pence on Hayner's other side. They all had another sea salt ice cream in their hands, though Roxas' was melting as he was too dejected to even touch it. His sapphire eyes watched the train moving in the distance…the one they probably would have been on if it wasn't for him.
"Sorry," Roxas apologized absentmindedly for about the thousandth time.
"We said it's okay," Olette said gently, hoping to finally get that through Roxas' thick head. "If you hadn't helped us fix the posters, we wouldn't have gotten the money anyway, Roxas…"
"Right, right," Pence agreed, happily licking at his popsicle. "Right now, we're just tasting another of the little joys, aren't we? It's all the same!"
"In a way, we've made an awesome memory," Hayner supplied, taking a big bite out of his ice cream. "We'll make lots of them like this. Memories!" The other three lowered their treats to look at their leader, whose face was as bright as the eternal setting sun in front of them. "Even if our wish for things to stay this way forever can't come true, it's like we can remember this whenever we want."
A peaceful moment passed before Pence stuffed his popsicle in his mouth, unsuccessfully warding off a laugh. "Meh, I still don't think this kind of talk suits you," he said around the ice cream.
Blushing, Hayner gripped the stick of his popsicle as he glared at the dark-haired boy. "Shut it!"
Smiling and blushing faintly, Roxas looked away from his friends and back at the warm scenery in front of them. Well, as long as my friends are happy… His smile slowly faded as he remembered the words the cloaked man whispered to him.
"Can you feel Sora?"
That man had to be there. What was weird was that no one else but him saw him. Not only that, but now it was confirmed—Sora was real. That man knew him. But the more answers he got, the more questions were raised in its wake.
Sora… It's like ever since I've been having these dreams of you, only weird things keep happening to me.
Roxas brought his ice cream to his mouth and began eating it.
Who are you…?
xoxoxoxox
Soft boots treaded upon the smooth surface of the floor as Riku walked down the halls of the basement of the Old Mansion. Up ahead, amber eyes took in the blonde female that leaned against the wall, watching as she stood straighter as he approached.
"Welcome back," Naminé said cheerfully, even as Riku didn't show any signs of slowing down to have a chat with her. She hadn't seen him in what seemed like forever, and even a tiny glimpse like this made her happy, and it was one step towards her being able to tell him about her plan.
"What are you doing here?" he asked shortly. It wasn't as if he got any pleasure from being so hostile towards her. It was just, adding to the awkwardness from two days ago, and him almost ruining all of their progress so a bunch of data could go to the beach...he was just a little unstable. He was struggling trying to find a middle ground between focusing solely on Sora and righting the horrible wrong placed upon those Twilight Town kids, if such a happy medium existed.
"I found out you went to see Roxas," she replied just as happily as she had before, completely undeterred by his attitude, as she knew Riku enough to know he was covering for something and hurting himself just as much as he was hurting her.
"…I see," was all Naminé got as Riku walked past her. He knew her enough to know when she said 'found out,' she really meant 'eavesdropped'. Riku wasn't sure what she was getting at, and he had had enough of Roxas for an entire week.
Smiling, Naminé closed her eyes before she turned to fully face his retreating back. "It's alright. I can feel Sora."
Riku didn't reply as he continued walking. The only clue that what she said really hit him was the slightest falter in his step, and it would have been hard to catch if one wasn't really looking. He guessed that was Naminé's way of telling him that Roxas could feel Sora, too, and Riku smiled internally at that.
He felt calmer at the words.
Everyone was affected by what was happening to Sora. While others couldn't remember him, Riku couldn't 'feel' Sora, their bond broken and incomplete. It made him wonder and worry if Sora still existed, if the brunette male was still the same best friend he knew and cared for. His body was there in that pod, but was his personality, his spirit? Everything that really made Sora, Sora? And then, with everything that happened that day, he began to wonder if Roxas could feel Sora, if he was alive somewhere within him. Would Sora have enjoyed it if they did make it to the beach?
If he lost Sora, would he still have Roxas as some sort of perverse back up…?
Now, if things went wrong, it looked like he would.
Thank you, Naminé.
Restoration at 28%.
Four more days until complete memory restoration.