Ordinarily, the first room of each floor is free of Heartless. As we'd already discovered from the previous floor though, that wasn't the case here. Several of the Atlantica native Heartless showed up within moments of our swimming further into the room, as usual aiming for Neku instead of me.

I'd had some experience in swimming and fighting from the original trip to Atlantica, so it comes as no surprise I didn't have all that much trouble. I was just a little rusty.

Neku on the other hand was at best, awkward. Quite aside from his inability to swim properly still, he suffered from the same problem I once had – momentum. More than once I had to come to his aid because he'd gone too far and left himself open.

He also tended to forget there was another dimension of movement underwater, even if it was somewhat limited by the room's ceiling. This was much less of an issue, but I definitely spotted times where he could have done better taking advantage of it.

Finally I solved most of the problem, albeit reluctantly – this was underwater, after all – with a Thunder spell set to chain through each Heartless in turn. It was an interesting result, and best of all each of the new chains aimed themselves. Neku and I just had to watch as it darted around us to pick off the Heartless, even the last few that tried to reinforce the falling ranks.

"Why am I doing this?" Neku complained. "I can't swim and I can't even fight properly like this."

"No one's perfect. At least now we've emptied the room we've got a safe place to practice."

"Do we really have to? Honestly, I want to go back out again and just wait it out."

"And what if the Heartless – or the various Organization members here – find you?"

"That's hateful, Liam! You know I can't argue with that."

"You're going to be a terrible companion if you're going to complain the whole time," I told him, ignoring his outburst. "Bad things happen, that's the way life is. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself so we can get on with this." Then after a moment I added, "And tell me how I'm meant to get the room cards I left in the pockets. I forgot I don't have any here."

"Figure it out for yourself," he told me petulantly. "Besides, there's more than enough cards in here from all that. Just use them."

Neku would probably have something to say about it if he knew I'd said this, but I suspect that he and Charlie – and probably all his relatives – are alike in one way. In having the power they've got, they're a lot like spoiled children, able to get whatever they want. I don't think any of them have ever grown up. Charlie certainly never gave that impression, and Neku's childish temper at this point suggested a similar idea.

Sorry Neku, but it's true.

Anyway, despite his bad mood he did watch while I picked up the cards, probably so he could work on his own swimming. I caught him watching at one point, and he tried to pretend he hadn't been watching.

See what I mean about childish? It's just the sort of thing they'd do.

Thanks to his earlier work there was still only one route through the floor, though after we got slightly disoriented in the second room he arranged for the doors to look different if they were the one we'd entered by.

He still fought with the Mickey's Keyblade though, and unlike Olympus Coliseum he didn't seem to want to use magic at all. I'll admit I tend to use magic, and by extension the darkness, as a support measure rather than the main force of my assaults usually, but either he was taking that to extremes or he didn't have it.

After one particularly troublesome room I created another Moment's Reprieve room so we'd have a safe haven for a few time – despite what had happened in the previous one. This one was free of any unexpected extras though, bearing striking resemblance to Ariel's cavern, just spread out over a larger area.

"Are you alright?" I asked him. "Besides your mood, I mean."

He glared at me for a moment, then looked himself over. "Looks like I'm more or less in one piece. I ache in places I didn't even think I had, but I'm not hurt."

"Why don't you use magic? You did back in the Coliseum."

Neku's expression changed from irritated to embarrassed. "I kinda cheated," he admitted. "I know I agreed not to change things, but you know you're powerful on your own – even Terra admitted that, remember. I didn't feel like going up against you in a purely physical struggle, and I knew you'd resort to magic and the like."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me, old friend," I laughed. "Given what was going on, I don't blame you. It's the sort of thing my Heartless would do."

"And you?"

"Not me. I don't break promises – at least not without reason. He might, but I wouldn't. Now there's a thought," I added as I realized something – partly unrelated – then found an issue with it and said, "Oops. Didn't think of that."

"Did you bang your head somewhere back there?" Neku asked me suspiciously. "There's a word for people who talk to themselves."

"Yeah, sensible people. I talk to myself all the time. Even Roxas sometimes while I'm out, if he's awake. I don't really care if people notice, it's nothing to do with them."

"Gonna share your idea, or go off on a tangent again?"

"I'm getting there. My Heartless has never shown up here in Atlantica, and like the cards he probably never thought he would either, so never took anything from me for it, right?"

"I caught a lot of guesses in there, but I suppose it's not unreasonable."

"Right. So what if I did something when I fought him – I'm on about the last one I'll have with him here – that say... I dunno, worked off my link to Demyx or something, modifying normal magic to flood a room and cause me to take on this form. Wouldn't he kind of have trouble with that?"

"I see two problems with that. He's only technically a Heartless, but he does share some of their traits, even if he is starting to look more human. Heartless don't need to breath underwater, so that won't bother him."

"But he won't have a different form," I pointed out. "That'll give me the chance to do all kinds of things to him, because with this form I can swim up and down – something you keep forgetting you can do, by the way."

"Cut me some slack, I'm still getting used to this. Bad enough I got forced into being human, let alone part-fish as well."

"Just a suggestion. What's the other problem?"

"I think it might be the one you said you didn't think of. You used the Samurais and the Heartless through them back there, and you've made enough hints to suggest using them against him."

"That's what I was thinking too. The Heartless you've just told me will be fine, but what about the Samurais?"

"We will be unaffected by the water," one told us, appearing nearby. "It would impede us were we directly involved, but it will not prevent us from commanding the Heartless under your control."

"So you don't need to breath either?"

"We do," it corrected. "But we are capable of holding our breath. We will simply take turns, replacing each other when we need to breathe."

"There's your solution," Neku told me. "The Heartless on your side will have to be rotated with the Samurais, since the cards are locked to each one so no one can steal them from us, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"One more trick in the bag for me to surprise him with. You ought to go on back to... well, wherever you've been staying," I told the Samurai. "Before you run out of breath. Just where have you been staying?" I asked, but it disappeared first.

"Odd," Neku noted. "Roxas isn't keeping things from you, is he?"

"Everyone has their secrets," I shrugged. "You know that. If Roxas doesn't want to trouble me with things like that, what right do I have to go prying? You know what he's like – I doubt he'd ever act against me."

"You've got a point. It just seems strange."

"Lots of things seem strange to you. You've turned down any number of offers I've made to take you on in one game or another."

"Well maybe you should give me the chance to learn to play them first. Besides, how do you know I don't nudge the computer players along a little, to give you more of a challenge?"

"Because you're not good with computers, remember?"

"Sometimes you're so smart I want to hit you," he muttered.

"Mickey had the same sentiment. Which reminds me..." I left it hanging, raising the Keyblade – still the Keyblade of People's Hearts, since my own one refused to respond.

"I'm working on it," he said almost automatically. He bore my look for a moment then sighed, "Alright, so I'm not, but all this has been distracting me. Once we get out of this oversized pond I'll be able to do something about it at the same time. Now lets get a move on. I'm not getting any less human here."