Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or Kingdom Hearts. Excel Saga and the City of F are property of manga-ka Koshi Rikto, who is crazier than I am.
Kingdom of the Elemental Hearts
Chapter 11: Destiny Islands Pt. 2
"You actually saw him?"
Kouji's voice echoed slightly in the small cottage, which wasn't surprising given the volume he'd been shouting at. Kairi gave him an awkward smile and nodded a bit hesitantly. "Well…yes." She sighed quietly. "It was just a dream, of course, but I'm sure that's what he said."
"You're sure?" Kouji insisted again, leaning forward a bit more.
"Back off already!" Sora jumped up and grabbed Kouji by the shoulder. It was a daring move, as the glare in the other's navy blue eyes told him that said grabbing arm would have soon become a bloody stump had they not been traveling together for the past three months. "She already told you about it, so leave her alone!"
Kouji scowled at him, but pulled back. Kairi gave him an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry." She said softly. "That's all I really know. I've seen him a couple of times since then, too…always in dreams. I wish I could tell you more. You must be so worried about him."
Kouji's angry expression softened. The girl's words were kind, and clearly empathetic. She was just as concerned about her dear friend Riku as he was about his precious brother. So, despite all the questions welling up inside him, Kouji let it slide.
Izumi, on the other hand, proceeded simply out of curiosity, turning to her red-haired friend with a baffled expression. "But…Kairi, how could something like that happen? I mean…you've never met Kouichi, have you?"
"Nope." Kairi shook her head. "I've never met anyone like him until now."
Donald let out a light, quack-like groan. "I don't get it."
"Gawrsh," Goofy rubbed his head. "Do ya think Kairi and Kouichi are uh…contracted or somethin'?"
"Connected!" Snapped Donald, but before anyone could respond to either of their comments, a sudden shock wave shook the building, and, indeed, most of the island all at once.
Sora and Kouji leapt to their feet as Kairi and Izumi immediately steadied each other. Donald tried to jump up, but wound up on the floor instead and dragged Goofy down with him.
"What's happening?" Kairi exclaimed.
"Some kind of attack?" Izumi gasped.
Kouji grabbed onto the wall to keep from falling, then straightened as the rumbling came to a stop. He glanced at Sora seriously. "Heartless?"
"It's gotta be!" Sora yanked out the Keyblade and darted for the door. "Come on, let's go!"
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
"Uh, Taichi?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are we following them again?"
The elder of the two goggle-heads turned his eyes to the two women in front of them, Hyatt looking uncertain and frail while her blonde 'senior' waved her arms and legs in an exaggerated march to the song she was singing out-of-tune at the top of her lungs. "They seem to know their way around the city."
"Weren't they trying to blow up the city just an hour or so ago?" Agumon asked in a relatively innocent manner.
Taichi shrugged. "All the more reason to follow them."
Takuya groaned and kept a closer grip on the Fire Ball. The 'meeting' with the girls' leader had consisted of Il palazzo's babbling on about his 'ideal society' for several hours, Excel getting dropped into a wet-sounding pit from nowhere, and Hyatt falling over with blood dribbling from her lip at least twice. In the end, the 'agents' had been given their inexplicable orders to further the ideals of this 'ACROSS' and they'd all left without Il palazzo once regarding the three strangers' presence.
Apparently, Excel had also forgotten that the three 'boys' even existed, though Hyatt turned around every now and then to glance at them somewhat curiously as she carefully carried a small black box.
The whole situation made Takuya edgy, which was a relatively difficult thing to do. "Are you sure we shouldn't be reporting them to the police or something?"
"We don't know how things work here." Piped Agumon from the trench coat. "Maybe this kinda thing happens all the time."
Takuya frowned again. "But what if they're with the Heartless?"
"They seem nice enough." Taichi added with a slight grin, patting Takuya on the shoulder. "You gotta loosen up a bit, buddy. We'll figure out what's up sooner or later."
The younger of the two goggle-heads groaned, his head starting to hurt from responsibility overload. It was times like this that he really, really missed having Kouji around.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
Kouji and Sora were the first ones out the door, followed closely by Izumi and Goofy, while Kairi paused just within the doorway and Donald tripped over his own feet. Sand scattered under Sora's shoes as he slid to a stop. "What the…?"
"Watch it!" Kouji barely had time to shove the other boy out of the way before a ball of blue-white flame crashed into the beach beneath them, barely missing Goofy and Izumi by a few inches. The sand melted almost instantly and turned into a thin glass plate.
Sora pulled himself out of the sand as Kouji lifted back into a ready crouch, the deactivated hilt of the Licht Sager ready in his hand. The Keyblade Master shook himself off lightly. "What…was that?"
"Look!" Goofy shouted, pointing into the air.
They looked.
There was a figure standing on the edge of the tall bluffs, on one of the platforms that raised high above the beach. He had long, dark hair with a vibrant lavender streak running through it that reminded Sora of a badly-dyed skunk, tied back into a waist-length ponytail, though a few loose locks fell out to dangle around his face, falling into his amethyst-tinted gray eyes. He couldn't have been older than eighteen, judging by the lithe body and the distinctly boyish face. He was dressed almost entirely in black, with a black duster jacket over a dark gray shirt, black jeans and black tennis shoes. His left hand wore a fingerless black glove, the other, a dark gray wristband. A dark-colored chain dangled from his belt loops and lose gray socks sagged over his shoes. In his right hand he held a long, sliver machete with a black-wrapped grip, in the other, a short black club.
"Hey." Smirked the stranger, crossing his weapons in front of him. "Now you guys look like fun."
Donald, back on his feet now, scrambled out past Kairi and waved his wand at the stranger angrily. "Hey, who the heck are you?"
"Don't see why it's any of your business," sniffed the stranger. "But the name's Xantha."
Izumi stepped forward this time, an intense expression on her normally passive face and her hands firmly on her hips. "What do you want?"
Xantha scowled. "I don't think I have to answer to you, little girl."
"Little?"
The stranger's eyes scanned over her body, resting just below her shoulders, where a certain aspect of female physiology was standing out very obviously under her stomach-showing lilac shirt. "Maybe not that little."
Izumi's face flushed, more with anger than anything else, and her body went rigid. Kouji intervened then, stepping between his friend and the attacker. "Get out."
"Well, aren't you polite?" Xantha rolled his eyes sarcastically. He jumped down from the platform and landed on the beach without much effort at all. "I'm so flattered at the warm reception."
Kouji activated the Licht Sager, which burst to life in his confident hands. Just behind him, Izumi raised her hands, in a pair of flat, defensive chops. Donald and Goofy brought out their weapons as well, aiming both staff and shield in Xantha's direction.
Sora also took a defensive stance instantly, summoning the Keyblade from its hiding spot. "This is our island. Get lost!"
Kairi, her hands raised slightly in what could almost be called aggressive if she hadn't been so cute, took a step forward. "What do you want with us, anyway?"
"Hey, it's nothing personal." Xantha smirked. "Or maybe it is."
With that, he raised his machete and dashed forward, aiming for Sora. The brown-haired boy lifted his Keyblade to deflect the attack, knocking the knife away and launching into a blow of his own, which was blocked and held easily by the club.
Sora's eyes widened as the machete came down at him again, his only way over defending still caught up battling the club…
Kouji jumped in then, the Licht Sager bursting to life in his hand to strike the knife with a decent amount of power. Holding it somewhat upside-down in the gap between Sora and the metal blade, a thin beam of light provided an easy defense.
"Two weapons against one?" Kouji muttered, pulling the Sager back a few inches and his opponent's arm with it. "What kind of fighting style is that supposed to be?"
Xantha smirked. "The kind that lets me take on the two of you losers at once!"
He spun around, breaking loose from his stalemate with Sora to strike at Kouji's head with the club. Kouji jumped back to avoid it, freeing his knife from the Sager's hold to block the Keyblade when it came at him again. Xantha was remarkably fast, faster than either of the boys could quite keep up with, and before they could quite comprehend what was going on, the two heroes were swiftly matched.
Izumi went rigid. "Kouji!"
"Oh, Sora!" Kairi gasped, cupping her hands over her mouth.
Donald let out a quack and waved his staff. "Kairi, stay back!"
"You girls should probably stay outta the way, right?" Goofy hyuk'ed, raising his shield in defense. "Don'tcha worry, we'll take good care of ya."
Izumi drew herself up with an angry huff and pushed her way past the two 'bodyguards', storming across the beach with a determined glare in her bright eyes. Kairi extended a hesitant hand after her. "Wait…Izumi…"
"Hey, hold on!" Exclaimed Donald, stomping his foot. "Wait!"
Apparently not hearing a word, Izumi strode directly into the center of the fight. Kouji glanced up, then got a good look at her face and jumped backwards on instinct (though it hadn't happened to him nearly as much as the other older boys in their group, he had been on the receiving end of Izumi's angry blows more than once). This gave the blonde girl ample opportunity to seize the club that had been flying towards her friend in one hand and hold it firmly in place.
Xantha, his pattern broken, snapped away from Sora and glared at her. "Hey!"
"Hey yourself." Izumi snapped, yanking the club once and pulling their opponent a bit off balance. "What do you think you're doing here, creep? Get lost! You're not welcome here!"
Xantha yanked his weapon free, a snarl wreathing his face. "I don't have to take orders from you!" He shouted and snatched his knife away from Sora's Keyblade, turning the point directly on the girl's chest.
"Watch it!" Sora shouted, reaching out as Kouji lunged to grab the attacking hand as it and the knife sliced through the air towards his friend…
And then, quite suddenly, Izumi disappeared.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
"Um…What are you two doing, exactly?"
Takuya raised a suspicious eyebrow as he watched the blonde Excel set an unnoticeably plain black box on an apparently random building's front steps. Hyatt was coughing quietly not too far away, but her Senior was performing some sort of eager victory dance using only her shoulders, the rest of her body focused on setting up the device.
Suddenly, she straightened, long golden braid swinging behind her as she posed, hands on her hips. "Katcha! We've done it, Ha-chan! We have successfully completed the orders that were given to us by Lord Il palazzo so that our efforts may further the ideals of our Secret Organization ACROSS! Isn't this wonderful?"
"Of course, Senior." Coughed the other woman weakly, wiping a bit of blood away with her handkerchief. "It is a great victory."
Agumon cocked his head to one side in mild confusion. "Victory…?"
"Of course it is!" Excel shrieked, talking to the voices that had apparently come from her own mind. "Come on, Ha-chan, let us go and report this glorious event to Lord Il palazzo!"
With that, she seized the other woman by the arm and dragged her off the way they had come.
Taichi, Takuya and Agumon stood in the same spot they had been since the beginning of Excel's initial tirade, looking commonly dumbstruck and baffled. Finally, Taichi spoke. "Okay, Takky, you're right. Those girls are nuts."
Agumon nodded in agreement, then looked around, slightly perplexed. His tiny ears, perched at the rear of his head, twitched restlessly. "Hey, guys. Do you hear… ticking?"
"What?" Takuya blinked. "Ticking?"
"Yeah, listen." Prompted the Digimon as he cupped a claw-hand over his ear.
The human boys were quiet for a while and listened. It was true, and that became apparent as the time went slowly on, there was a light ticking, clicking noise not too far from them. In fact, it seemed to be coming from…
"The box?" Taichi said out loud, and three sets of eyes turned to the black shape sitting on the stone steps.
Agumon shifted a bit. "You don't honestly think it could be…"
"Only one way to find out." Takuya took a deep breath and stepped forward, kneeling down on the steps beside the mysterious delivery. He reached out and felt for a seam, which he found around the top, and slowly unhinged it to reveal…
"Hold it right there!"
Taichi jumped. Agumon jumped. Takuya jumped, nearly dropping the box. They all spun around to find the second strangest group of people they had ever seen standing right behind them.
The one who had spoken was a relatively older man with strangely shaped blonde hair and a rather distinctive pointy mustache, wearing a stark off-white suit with a pair of circular glasses perched on his nose. Beside him stood what seemed to be a sixth-grade girl, with vibrant, spiky purple hair, her bangs dyed violent pink, who had a long yellow cord sticking out of her head that was at least as long as her body. Behind both of them stood a line of four fresh-from-college-aged people in business attire: an annoyed-looking woman with long red hair, standing beside a brown-haired guy attempting to impress her with his heroic banter; a disorganized man who looked ready to strangle him, and a short, fat fellow who looked as though he couldn't move his mouth.
"Step away from that device, young people." Announced the blonde pompously. "Allow us to take care of it."
"O…kay…" Takuya backed away slowly, twitching just a bit as he did.
Taichi was rigid in a rather defensive motion as the strange group moved closer. "Who the heck are you guys?"
There was a strange glint in the blonde's eyes, which, along with the disgusted looks of the younger group behind him, made Takuya severely regret that Taichi had said anything. And if that hadn't done it, the man suddenly spinning around to face them with a determined, heroic pose certainly did.
"We are the Defenders of this city, the certified Department of City Security!" He announced, boldly and grandly. "We are devoted to protecting this city from all threats, and we will stand firm against villainy!"
The three boys backed up a bit more, with Taichi muttering out of the corner of his mouth, "Sorry I asked…"
"We are here to dispose of the threat which we believe to have been placed by a sinister Society bent on the complete annihilation of this city!" Announced the blonde in the same grandiose tone. "Now, stand back! Ropponmatsu, you know what to do!"
"All righty!" Giggled the little girl and she skipped toward the bomb-box coyly.
The boys took another step back, glancing at the blonde 'leader' of this strange group in apprehension. "You sure she can handle this?" Takuya asked slowly.
"Don't worry." The blonde tweaked the edge of his mustache with a conniving spark in his eye. "She is a trained professional, specially built to handle just this kind of situation."
"Built…?" Agumon wondered out loud.
"I don't want to know," groaned Takuya, putting a hand on his forehead.
"Oopsies." Said Ropponmatsu.
A resounding explosion rang through the depths of the city, accompanied by a bright light and a mushroom-shaped cloud of fire and smoke.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
Kouji stared at the empty spot where Izumi had been only moments before. Even his alert eyes couldn't quite understand what had happened, as the girl had been there one second before suddenly vanishing in a swirl of sand.
"'Zumi?" He called hesitantly, searching around.
"How the…" Sora's mouth was a bit slack-jawed, so asking if he'd seen what had happened wouldn't work either.
Xantha, who had toppled forward under the force of his own lunge, pulled himself rather ungracefully from the sand and turned back with a snarl. "What the hell?"
Kairi was the only one who didn't seem surprised. In fact, she was laughing, covering her mouth with one hand as she did. When the two boys, that is, Sora and Kouji, turned back to stare at her rather disbelievingly, she just pointed straight up. "Look."
They looked. And they stared.
Izumi was perched at the very top of an impossibly tall, thin palm tree that wouldn't have held her weight normally, balanced coyly on the balls of her feet. Her body leaned forward at the ankles, angled slightly but otherwise perfectly straight, her arms crossed over her chest and a light smirk over her lips. The purple gem swirled within her silver anklet had started to glow with a violet halo that hovered over both ankles.
Kouji stared at the sight for just a moment, then smirked lightly. "'Zumi, you little sneak"
"What the hell?" Xantha raged angrily, shaking his club at the girl. "That's cheating!"
"Says you." Izumi's smirk widened. She lowered her hands away from her hips and rested them calmly by her sides, the edges of her fingers raised just a bit. Without a thought, she took a deep breath and stepped off the tree.
The violet auras around her ankles sparked to life suddenly, spreading out around her feet with swirls of wind, lightly tinted with sand and glittery purple specks. Izumi walked calmly across the open air without even looking at her feet, blue-green eyes focus intensely on her opponent.
"Not so tough now, are you?" She smirked. "See, not everybody on this island's as defenseless as you think. And there's no way I'm just going to stand back and let you wreck a beautiful, peaceful place like this!"
She swooped suddenly like a hawk, bearing a small jump rope with heavy wooden grips on the ends. Before Xantha could react, he'd been clotheslined by the taunt toy and knocked flat on his back.
Izumi popped up into the air again several feet behind him, twirling a bit as she came to a stop. "How'd you like that?"
"You miserable little…" Xantha groaned and hoisted himself out of the sand, balancing on one knee as he tossed the machete into the hand alongside his club. The now-free right hand curled over itself, fingers pointing in, forming a gleaming ball of magically charged blue fire, like the one he had thrown when they first saw him. "Try this!"
"I don't think so."
The attacking figure stopped.
Stopped because Kouji had suddenly appeared behind him and now had the Licht Sager pushed against his throat so that any careless movement would probably be accompanied by the sounds and smells of laser burns and singeing flesh.
Kouji's navy blue eyes narrowed at their opponent threateningly. "Don't move."
Xantha looked down at the blade of light held to his throat, but then simply smirked. "What do you think you're going to do, huh? Scare me off?"
"Why?" Sora retorted, raising the Keyblade. "You scared?"
"Of course not." Xantha's smirked widened. "You have to have a Heart to be scared. And, luckily for me, I don't."
He slammed his head backwards before any of them could react, slamming the hardest part of his skull right into Kouji's gut. The light-wielding warrior doubled over, gripping his stomach painfully.
Xantha smirked, jumping away and hurling the ball of flame back at the winded fighter. Sora jumped in front of his friend and knocked the fire away with his Keyblade, sending it soaring into the waterfall, where it was instantly smothered.
"Got'cha covered, buddy." He nodded back to Kouji, who gave him a rather half-hearted groan as a response.
"Sure, real impressive." Xantha rolled his eyes and tossed the machete back into his right hand. "But you haven't seen nothin' yet!"
He leaned back, taking a stance with both knife and club crossed over in front of him, a wide grin on his face showing every white tooth in his mouth. Sora and a recovering Kouji readied themselves, with Goofy and Donald running in for backup while Izumi pulled the rope taunt once more. And then…
Xantha suddenly stopped and turned his head up to the sky. "Oh, come on! Can't you see that I'm busy?"
The tense group relaxed, nearly all of them with baffled expressions. Their opponent continued, yelling up at the blue sky. "I'm in the middle of something here! Sure, just let me drop everything and work on your problems, you old hag!"
"Gawrsh, what's he doin'?" Goofy asked slowly.
"I think he's cracked." Sora sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Fine! Fine, I'm coming!" Snapped Xantha angrily, stuffing his weapons into two halters hanging from either side of his belt, resting on separate hips. He turned back to the group with an annoyed, yet confident, smirk. "Looks like you're off the hook, losers, but you haven't seen the last of me. Smell ya later."
He swept one hand out flat behind him, summoning up a swirling sort of passageway, molding and writhing with what seemed to be liquid darkness.
Kouji realized what was happening and lunged. "Hold it!"
Xantha just grinned a bit more and stepped directly backwards, passing through the portal, which vanished just as Kouji reached it. The swirling mass of darkness vanished, leaving nothing but sweet sea air, as though it had never been.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
A blue and green hexagon-shaped Gummi ship scooted through the inter-world space, dodging the various Heartless ships and pieces of colorful interstellar junk as it did. Safe within the cockpit, its crew of three was more than a little baffled, surprised and confused.
"That," Takuya sighed, plopping into his red plastic seat, "was easily the weirdest place I have ever been to. Bar none."
"No joke." Taichi sagged back into the high-backed 'captain's chair', blowing up his bangs.
Agumon crawled up into his specially made little seat, leaning up to push the glowing yellow button for auto pilot before he slid into the plastic molded just for a smallish lizard Digimon of his size. "Anybody remember what happened?"
"We got blown up, didn't we?" Taichi groaned, rubbing his neck. "With those City Department idiots."
Agumon turned to his partner and blinked a bit, confused. "But how did we get back here, then?"
"I don't want to think about it." Takuya breathed, leaning back and closing his eyes. He vaguely remembered something involving a swirling mass of stars and dark night sky, with female arms protruding from it, speaking to him in a soft feminine voice before rushing off to assist a rather noisy man with a definite Spanish accent…
"I definitely don't want to think about it." He sighed, and went to search the fridge in the back of the ship for something to eat.
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
Sora jumped down from the platform, sliding down the edge of the ladder before landing on his feet with well practiced, familiar skill. He sighed, rubbing his head with his hand somewhat painfully.
"Any luck?" Kairi asked, standing from where she had been dangling her feet into the waterfalls' crystal-clear spring.
"Nothing. He's totally gone." Sora sighed, pausing beside her.
She smiled at him kindly and all of a sudden he didn't care about whether or not Xantha was still around, or even what he was doing there in the first place. He was home, if only for a little bit, on his island, with Kairi and…and…
Not Riku.
The normally perky hero sighed again and rubbed his neck, glancing away from the girl who occupied precisely 57 percent of his thoughts on a regular basis and trying to push the small burst of depression away from him.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked, squirming around to meet his eye again.
Sora blushed. "It's, uh…nothing."
Kairi smiled gently, understanding. "You're worried about Riku, aren't you?"
Sora sighed and slumped a bit. He couldn't hide it. She just knew him too well, there was nothing he could do about that, but admitting that he was dwelling on the one thing that would make him leave again would be just too much…
Kairi watched him struggle a moment, then reached out and touched his shoulder. "Go find him."
Sora gaped at her. "Kairi…"
"Hey, Riku's my friend too, you know." Kairi grinned and slipped her hands behind her back, the way she always had. "And you don't have to worry about us. We've got everybody back in town on alert in case the Heartless show up, and if Xantha shows up again, Izumi and I will take care of him."
Sora stared at her a moment longer, then smirked again. "You sure you can handle it?"
"No problem!" Kairi socked him on the shoulder. "I've been practicing. There's no way I'm staying the helpless little girl you remember."
The Keyblade Master laughed and decided that, in truth, it felt really, really good. With a smile on his face, he considered everything she'd said for a moment, then remembered something. Something important.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the first thing his hand touched - a smiling star-shaped pendant made of tiny white shells, sewn together with thick yellow thread.
"Here." He held it out to the girl with a smile. "This is yours."
Kairi smiled and took said hand in her own, folding his gloved fingers around the charm again. "Keep it. Until you find Riku. I'll take it back when you're both home for good."
Sora smiled a bit more. "Promise?"
"Promise."
( - ) ( - ) ( - )
Izumi was making a point to spend as much time with him as possible, Kouji noticed, but he could only assume this was natural. They were, after all, friends - part of a close-knit little group that hadn't been separated for more than a week in over three years. Now that the two of them had found each other again, it was only to be expected that they should catch up alone.
Which is why they were standing together on a cliff overlooking the beautifully clear sea, which was turning yellow and orange along with the sky as its water swallowed up the huge red disk of the sun. They leaned together on the wooden railing that kept people from falling off into the ocean, and for a while, the two of them just enjoyed being together again.
"It really is beautiful here, isn't it?" Izumi sighed.
"I guess." Kouji brushed a stray bit of hair out of his eyes and looked down at their reflections in the rippling water. A light smirk crawled over his face and he chuckled.
"What?" Izumi demanded, which made him laugh a bit more. "What is it?"
"It's nothing." The swordsman stopped his tittering, but kept the smile on his lips. "I was just thinking…Kouichi would love seeing this. He always did get all mushy about sunsets."
Izumi smiled as well, but it was more kindly than anything else. She recognized the sad look in her friend's eyes. "You're worried about him, aren't you?"
"I guess." Kouji didn't bother hiding it. Izumi was always very good at reading people's ideas and feelings, second only to Tomoki, who caught on more quickly than any of them. "I suppose I'm just…doing the paranoid brother thing, you know? I keep getting these stupid thoughts about whether he's okay or if he's been hurt."
"I know what you mean." Izumi nodded gently. "It's natural to be scared when we're all scattered like this. Part of me is always thinking about Tomoki, hoping he'll be able to take care of himself. But there's no way to know, is there?"
Kouji was quiet for a long while. The girl turned to him a bit more, cocking her head to one side. "Not quite it?"
"Not quite." Kouji sighed. He hadn't really wanted to tell anyone, but if anyone had to know, it would be Izumi. "I…I keep wondering if everything we're doing is really the right thing. Every time we land on a different world, every time those stupid Navi-Gummis open up a different route, I keep thinking that maybe…maybe we're just getting further and further from each other…instead of closer."
For a long while, there was nothing to say, then Izumi let a small smile slide over her face. "Don't worry." She said softly, turning back to the ocean again. "Everything's going to be just fine, you'll see."
Kouji gave her a curious look, but, seeing as she was on a roll, didn't say anything.
"No matter where we all wind up, I don't think we have to worry about finding each other again." Izumi smiled at the sunset, a thoughtful gaze in her soft eyes. "We're all friends, best friends, and that's a bond no distance can break. It's like Kairi keeps saying, whenever she thinks about Sora and Riku: 'No matter how far apart we are, our Hearts keep us connected.'"
"So…" She turned the pleasant smile on her old friend and tossed a lock of blond hair back over her shoulder. "It doesn't matter if we're lost or all by ourselves or if we loose sight of each other. We're never really alone as long as we can remember our friends and our family. All the people…who are important to us."
Kouji was quiet for a long while, leaning forward against the edge of the railing. "Yeah…I guess so." He finally whispered, reaching into his jacket pocket. "We're always connected, one way or ano-"
He cut off, since his searching fingers had not found what they were looking for. In fact, they didn't find anything at all, except the bottom of the pocket. His eyes widened sharply and his body reacted, shoving both his hands into his pockets and searching with increasing panic.
Izumi noticed this quickly and straightened. "What's wrong, Kouji?"
"It's gone!" The swordsman pulled his pockets inside-out, revealing all too well the cold proof. "My photograph! The one Kouichi gave me! It's gone…"
Izumi frowned lightly and made a sympathetic noise. The locket-frame was something Kouichi had asked her to help him pick out, the picture inside one of the few their grandmother had saved from their parents' divorce. It had been the first gift one twin had ever given the other after they'd met in the Digital World. It was more than a keepsake, it was a treasure, and Kouji never let it leave his sight, so right away it was preposterous to propose that he dropped it.
"Someone must've taken it." Kouji gritted his teeth, angry at himself and furious with the imaginary pickpocket in his mind. He closed his fists angrily. "There's no way…"
Izumi put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll ask around. Maybe somebody's seen it." She said kindly, and took off at a light jog for the ladder. She paused, one foot about to step down. "We'll find it, Kouji. Don't worry."
Kouji nodded absently, not looking at her, and she disappeared down the ladder. He sighed, leaning forward against the railing, and gazed out at the sunset thoughtfully. He took a deep breath of salty sea air, filling his lungs with it as though hoping to burn out the pain. As he breathed out, small voice escaped his lips, almost but not quite a whisper, floating out to the ocean waves.
"Kouichi…"
TBC…
The Department of City Security is made up of Excel and Hyatt's neighbors: the lovesick Toru Watanabe, idiotic Norikuni Iwata, Kansai-accented Sumiyoshi Omaru, responsible Misaki Matsuya, and the two constantly-being-blown-up bomb squad android chicks Ropponmatsu 1 and Ropponmatsu 2. (The model appearing here is the second version) Lead by 'Dr.' Kabapu, their job is to 'protect' the City of F from the threat their leader is sure is imminent and do lots of useless paperwork. The 'swirling mass of stars' is none other than the Great Will of the Macrocosm, along with the (dead) extremely unfortunate immigrant worker Pedro. For full story on all of them, watch the series! It's a lot funnier than me.
I don't know how many people are familiar with the term 'clotheslined', since I've only heard it at youth events. To put it simply, it's when someone is caught by something realtively thin under the chin, knocking them flat on their backs, like if you ran headfirst into a clothesline. Get it?
The next world is going to be interesting, and it might take a while, just because it's kind of complicated. Your hint is very simple: Spiky hair. Really spiky. The kind that adds a foot to the character's height, which is good, because said character is very small. See you then.
