Out of the classroom and into the hallway Kiko goes, heading towards the opulent dining room. It kind of bugs Kiko how mundane everything has become over the past month. She used to find wonder in the grand hallways, the intricate wallpaper, and the rhythmic movements of the incredibly stylistic robots, but now, it's starting to feel like she may as well be back at her old high school. The colors all just seem to run together, the only details popping out being the ones that identify major landmarks in the navigation of the castle. It's actually starting to irritate her because the average walk between classes requires a lot more time than even the most contrived path from the furthest ends of the Hometown High School. It doesn't help that Kiko always sort of imagined that this would be an adventure a day type of place, but it has the same sort of routine that permeated the rest of life. Grab a tray, grab some food, sit down by the usual trio, and talk with Sora and Kairi out of eventual boredom because Riku brushes off most conversation attempts. Today is no different.
"So, um... how are you, Kiko?" Sora asks, looking at Kiko with a tilt to his head and a smile on his face.
"I'm okay," Kiko responds. She has to figure out a natural way to ask Sora and Riku to come to Uina's quarters for dinner. Maybe it would have been helpful to be given a reason why she should bring them in, but it's too late for that now.
"So, Kiko," Sora starts, derailing her train of thought, "Have you heard about this weekend?"
"No," Kiko responds. What could he be talking about? Another boring concert of people that wouldn't even be worthy to be the roadies for Queens of the Stone Age?
"We're going to another world," Sora starts, "Another Heartless uprising has been detected. We're going to have another team building exercise out there."
"After that last one?" Kiko starts, "It was a total disaster. How could they even think of sending us back out?"
"We're taking more precautions this time," Riku explains, "It was irresponsible of us to leave you alone like last time. We'll bring your pistols and knives this time so it won't happen again."
"But what about the White Stars?" Kiko asks.
"King Mickey won't budge on his position," Riku responds, "At least I convinced him to just dump them off in some country town about half the world away from us for the trip."
"That's... reassuring," Kiko responds. It's already pretty apparent that they can travel wherever they damn well want, so it seems like a stalling action at best.
"Kairi and I were wondering if you'd like to join us," Sora says. Another interesting question. Kiko finds this quite awkward, not really wanting to be Sora's partner again. It just doesn't seem to be helping to be chummy with him or Kairi, so it would not even indirectly benefit her progress. Really, what she needs is alone time with Riku. Real alone time, not this bad context type that has been the order of the day. Kiko turns to Riku, finding that he's already about to say something.
"Now, now," Riku starts, "This is basically just a glorified vacation. It's a nice place, the weather is great, the locals are friendly, and they accept our currency. I drew the short straw, so I have to do the actual work while we're there."
"But..." Kiko starts, "I want to go with you. I feel like I hardly know you."
"Kiko," Riku starts, "You need a vacation more than I need a partner. You're always so stressed and melancholy all the time. What you seriously need is some time away from the school."
"But you should have a partner," Kiko responds. Grasping at straws here, but one percent is better than none.
"If I need backup, I'll call for it," Riku responds, looking at Sora with a smirk, "Besides, I think Sora needs one a lot more than I do."
"Hey..." Sora responds, sounding like he's mocking the vague insult rather than actually being offended by it.
"So, please," Riku starts, ignoring Sora, "Go with Sora and Kairi. Get some ice cream, meet some new people, buy some clothes, have some fun. I'll be fine."
"But..." Kiko starts, not sure how to continue. Riku is smiling at her with an expression of expectancy, darting his eyes from her over to Sora and back again in some crude signaling attempt. Sora is just smiling widely, giving off this sort of warmth. Kairi isn't really doing much of anything, but she never does anything. Kiko doesn't know what she should do. She needs to get Riku by himself for some bonding time, but he insists that she go with Sora. A real lose-lose situation if there ever was one. "I'll go with you, Sora," Kiko says, giving her best smile to him. Neutral is better than negative and he definitely wouldn't go along with her if she pissed him off.
"Thank you," Sora says, "Don't worry, I won't allow you to get bored for even a second."
"Oh," Kiko starts, turning to Riku, "Professor Uina wanted to have a meeting at dinner. He asked me to get you and Sora for it."
"During dinner?" Riku asks, sounding a bit incredulous.
"Yeah," Kiko continues, "He said he'd bring food."
"Um, excuse me..." Kairi starts, sounding kind of shy, "May I come?" That's certainly an interesting question. Uina only mentioned getting Sora and Riku. He didn't specify if it only had to be them, but he's usually so secretive about everything. Still, he has to know by now that Sora, Riku, and Kairi are inseparable and whatever one finds out probably seeps to the other two. May as well include her directly.
"Yeah, sure," Kiko responds. If Uina has a problem with it, he can stuff it.
"What does he want to talk about?" Riku asks.
"I don't know," Kiko responds in a sincere tone for a change, "He just asked me to get you two. He didn't say why."
"I guess there's no reason to be suspicious," Riku concedes, "He's spent the past sixteen years working by King Mickey's side. He's singlehandedly responsible for every single technological design we use and is probably the most important person at this school. Of course we'll talk with him."
"Thank you," Kiko responds. No reason she should thank them, but it's a nice gesture.
"So..." Sora starts in a topic changing tone, "Hear about that upset at the recent Radiant Raiders game?"
--
And so, there was another dull reiteration of the daily routine. It really sort of miffs Kiko that all her three friends talk about are things that she can't contribute to. It's not even like it offers much insight to Riku, since he's always so passive about everything. Just sort of listens and occasionally makes some minor small talk. This lunch was no different and neither was the small break period after it. Stealth Training is just the usual hour and fifteen minutes of frustration, but no matter. Time for Professor Uina's big meeting. Kiko proves to be the first person to arrive, standing solitary outside of room 802.
"Hey, there, Kiko!" Sora calls out from down the ramp. Kiko turns to find him and Kairi walking up, the latter carrying a book bag with both her hands. The former is wearing his iconic outfit for some reason, but the real surprise is the latter. She's wearing this similar style of billowy mesh outfit, a light purple and fuchsia motif of patches broken up by black lines and an excessive number of zippers. She has this kind of odd look to her, one that sort of implies an indecision between a suit of armor and an evening dress.
"Hey, Sora, Kairi," Kiko calls back, "What's with the outfits?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Sora responds as the two of them walk up, "I just wanted to look my best. It's not every day a professor calls a personal meeting, much less one with so much tenure."
"I guess," Kiko continues, turning to face Kairi, "When did you get that?"
"Oh, this?" Kairi responds, pushing her shoulders out a bit as she looks down, "I got it a few days ago. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather made it for me. It's just like the one they made for Sora."
"Yeah," Kiko responds. She restrains herself from making a remark about the obviousness of Kairi's statement. There's no reason to be mean. It's not like people here know how many spoilers Kiko was armed with.
"Hey, guys," Riku calls out from behind Kiko. She turns around to find him also in his iconic outfit, smiling and waving as he walks towards them. The mood of this picture would be awesome if it weren't undermined by Chou walking beside him. This really miffs Kiko to no end. She can understand Kairi being brought along for this meeting, but Chou? What the hell is he thinking?
"Rik-" Kiko tries to start.
"If I know Professor Uina," Riku starts, sensing Kiko's line of thought and pouncing to action, "This is just to test another theory. He asks us to come in all the time. I'm really disappointed that you didn't ask Chou to come."
"But he only said you and Sora," Kiko responds, "I swear."
"Whatever," Riku responds, "We'll see."
"I thought you said it wasn't every day you met him?" Kiko asks of Sora as she turns to face him. Why would he lie about something like this?
"He doesn't usually meet us face to face," Sora explains, "Just has us answer a pre-recorded set of questions or stand in one of his scanners for a minute. Nothing like this."
"Hey, Kiko," Chou says in a soft tone as she walks up. It almost takes Kiko by surprise.
"Yeah?" Kiko responds in her best attempt of a polite tone as she turns to face the alien. Riku puts up with her for some reason, so it would only hurt to be rude.
"It's been a while," Chou continues, "How are you doing?"
"Good, I guess," Kiko answers. Be flat, be vague, and nothing should come of it.
"I know you tell me you don't blame me for anything," Chou starts in that tedious apologetic tone of her's, "But I feel like you don't really want to be around me."
"Er..." Kiko starts, her peripheral vision catching Riku's glance, "I don't feel like that. I'm sorry if I seem like that."
"I'm happy you're okay with me," Chou says, giving a closed eye wide smile as she fishes something out of her pocket, "I have a present for you."
"A present?" Kiko asks, a bit confused. Chou hands over a necklace made of various oddly shaped, flat colored stones on a fuzzy string.
"I made this just for you," Chou says, continuing her eager smile, "It's to symbolize our friendship. I hope you like it."
"Thank you," Kiko responds, not really meaning it, "I didn't know they sold make-your-own-jewelry kits here."
"I'm glad you like it!" Chou says cheerfully, oblivious to the undertone. Kiko is not sure what she should do with this thing. It's gaudy and poorly made, looking more like the first attempt of an overeager eight year old girl to make a necklace. The string seems like it will just snap with even just a slight tug. The other issue is what it might do to her. Since the Feylinus are really damn mysterious in everything they do, for all Kiko knows, this necklace might mutate her into one of them or something. It doesn't seem to be doing anything right now, though, so the best course of action is probably to just hang onto it in a pocket and ask Uina to scan it for her at some other time. She's distracted from this line of thought when the door to room 802 opens, revealing Uina in a half-undressed yellow hazard suit over his usual sweater vest.
"Hello, everybody," Uina says, "I see we have some guests along with us. I was only really expecting three people, but the more, the merrier, I guess."
"I'm ready for more tests, Professor!" Chou says in a tone of forced enthusiasm. Now here's somebody whose cheerfulness is misplaced.
"Oh, there aren't any more tests," Uina responds, "But let's not all stand out here. Come on in, make yourselves at home."
Everybody files into the cramped office, avoiding stacks of boxes that take up a good chunk of the room. This place looks quite different than usual, with most of the inspirational posters lying on a stack in a corner and everything but the computer moved off of the desk. There are three chairs facing said desk, each downright spartan in their purpose. The boxes that fill the room have many varieties of shipping labels on them, all of them with a smaller standardized label bearing a robot code slapped on somewhere. Of the only two boxes that are open, Kiko is able to see some brass stuff in one and a chunk of unrefined blue crystal in another. He must be working overtime on some project, since Kiko always assumed somebody like him has his own lab somewhere in the castle. Uina takes the seat at the desk, with the girls getting the other three chairs as the guys concede.
"Please forgive the mess," Uina starts, "I would have cleaned up some if I knew Chou and Kairi were coming."
"Sorry," Riku whispers into Kiko's ear from behind, causing shivers to go through her. Maybe he does really care about her feelings?
"Before I start," Uina says, unstrapping some more buckles from his suit, "Does anybody have any questions... yes, Riku?"
"What are all these boxes for?" Riku asks, simply and directly.
"I'm glad you asked," Uina responds, tossing aside the top of the suit, "My other project is taking up my lab at the moment. I have to use my office for this other stuff right now. We'll talk about both in a minute."
"Anyway," Uina begins, moving his computer monitor to a better angle for everybody to see, "I still haven't figured out what happened back on Discord IV. As I mentioned, the Heartless power balance shifted quite a bit after that day. My scanners were no longer picking up the same distribution of leader Heartless, which convinced me that it was destroyed completely and totally. Obviously, this never happens, so I was a bit suspicious. About two weekends ago, I decided to try using my old scan data to try searching for their resonant frequencies rather than just their darkness quotients. As it turned out, that leader wasn't quite destroyed after all. I eventually managed to track it down to a dying planet on the edges of a red giant system and I couldn't believe what I saw."
"You mean there are Heartless we can't detect destroying worlds now?" Riku asks. Uina ignores the question as he taps some keys, pulling up a video on the monitor. It genuinely surprises Kiko to see not the usual inky black creatures, but something made out of pure light. There is one large creature and four smaller ones, the latter in the shape of the usual Shadows. The big creature looks kind of like Darkside, but without the gaping hole in the chest. There are glittering tendrils that look like those plasma balls you can buy from an executive toy catalog, just randomly waving around as they dissipate at random points within a meter. The expression on the face of this creature is not one of an apathetic despair, but a serene calm. It's a really subtle difference, but it somehow comes across. The whole room has a sort of radiant glow to it, grass growing around the big Heartless and butterflies of all colors flying around and landing on the big guy.
"What the hell?" Kiko asks. A bit of an understatement compared to what she's feeling.
"My thoughts exactly," Uina continues, "This is a live feed from my lab. No, I didn't have any soil in there and the whole place is hermetically sealed. There isn't even any oxygen in there any more. By all rights, those plants and insects just simply shouldn't exist, but here they are. Let me show you the pictures of the world."
Uina taps some more of the keys, changing to some type of photo album program. The first picture is an orbital shot of a full planet with a harsh red sun in the background, glowing red cracks on a blackened surface giving a sense of imminent destruction. Uina changes to a closer picture, which shows one solitary green spot on the ruined landscape. Another picture change zooms in to reveal that this is some type of forest oasis in the middle of the torched and shattered plains. The picture's source changes to that of a handheld camera, right at the border of the destroyed parts. The greenery appears to be some type of purifying force, greenish white tendrils in the ground filling into the desecrated land. The next couple pictures show the forest get thicker and thicker as it travels inwards, more and more wildlife becoming visible. It doesn't even feel like real wildlife, with everything just too perfect and idyllic. This is the type of place Greenpeace only wishes they could create.
Eventually, it gets to a center clearing, with a small island surrounded by some radiant water. The large Heartless is sitting down on the island, the Shadow style ones just swimming around. The bizarre part is that the sky, formerly a harsh yellow outside of the forest, is a perfect blue in here. The whole place just radiates this kind of calm to it, something that somehow comes across even through the thousands of pixels on the monitor. Kiko could lose herself in this place.
"I don't understand..." Sora trails off, something in the tone of his voice suggesting that something sacred has been destroyed.
"As you may have figured out," Uina continues, turning the monitor off, "I captured these Heartless. I still have about six dozen probes wandering around that oasis as they catalog its gradual decay. It breaks my heart to stop what appeared to be a fascinating project, but the planet is going to break up in about a month regardless of our involvement, anyway. You can't tell from these pictures, but while the planet shifts between -40 and 140 degrees celsiuis between the day and night sides, that area maintained a balmy 30 degrees at all times. Obviously, all of this is maintained by heavy magic of a sort of naturalistic type. There isn't any amount of soft science to explain this."
"How did you capture those?" Riku asks. Now there's a valid question that should expose him.
"It's bizarre," Uina explains, "I just walked in and all the nearby Shadow types just kind of watched me while maintaining a respectable distance. They didn't attack or anything. I walked right across the water and got way up close to the leader. It didn't even react to my scans or pictures. The next part really got me, though. As you know, my Heartless Trappers aren't anywhere effective enough to capture a leader. They just have too much willpower and are way too large to fit into the beam. But when I took one out and dropped it on the ground, the leader just broke itself down into some kind of liquid light and willingly went right in. Four of the Shadows did as well before the others just vanished into nothingness. It was like they figured out what I wanted and decided to obey."
"You commanded them?" Sora asks, sounding really suspicious.
"Oh, no, I didn't," Uina responds, "I'm still researching these fascinating specimens, of course, but that's not why we're here. As you know, we scheduled a Heartless hunt on Amaterasu III, or as I call it, 'the shopping planet'. In truth, while there are Heartless attacking on a regular basis, the planet is self-regulating with its own batch of heroes and the whole place is at a standstill. You've probably heard about it, although they call them 'oni' there, which really loosely translates to ogre or something. Don't ask me why, it's just the local vernacular and I guess none of the Interpedia editors ever made the connection. Anyway, the Heartless aren't why we're going there. Do any of you recognize this man?" Uina taps a few keys, bringing up a bus shot of a young red haired boy in a white and red outfit.
"That's... um... what's his name?" Sora asks.
"Yami Ryuko," Kiko chimes in.
"Okay, good," Uina continues, pulling out some printed papers from his desk, "I was worried I didn't get the right guy. I had a bunch of dead ends in my search over the past month, but I finally got this far. Anyway, he looks and sounds just like Kiko's description. His primary modus operandi consists of light based boomerangs and purifying things in pillars of light. He speaks in rambling speeches and talks a lot about justice."
"That's him," Kiko responds, "That's definitely him."
"Good," Uina says, handing out a file to Kiko, Sora, and Riku, "Forget about your old mission. I'll take care of the large Heartless of this world if I can even find it. Your new mission is to find out what you can about Mr. Ryuko. Walk around, talk to people, go to the public archives, whatever. If he is on the planet, track him down and convince him to come with you. Whatever means necessary. We can't afford to lose him when we have a revelation like this on our hands."
"How should we convince him to join us?" Riku asks.
"Simple," Uina responds, "He has an affection for women. A rather chaste one, but a magnetism, nonetheless. I'm splitting you up into two teams." Uina eyes Kiko a little, holding two fingers up as though to signal that he's thinking hard about this. "Sora and Kiko, you're team one. Everyone else, you're team two. I included suggestions for the women on how to approach him in the files. It was written for Kiko, though, so personalize it to fit. Any questions?"
"Yeah, um..." Kiko starts, trying and failing to think of a justification for her to go with Riku, "What are you building in here?"
"New machines utilizing the extract of these new Heartless," Uina responds, "Anyway, I'll see some of you later. Have a safe trip."