C10

LOCATION: Nihille Hotel, The World That Never Was
DATE: Wednesday, November 28th 2X60
TIME: 0715 hours

Day One of the mission Naminé did not sign up for.

When she thinks about it, she kinda only has herself to blame. She was the one who came up with this convoluted plan to go on an away mission to avoid her responsibilities. If she'd just stayed put in DiZA, she would've been done with probation by next week and back to business. Instead, because she ran off to this faraway world to avoid people, she's now stuck here for another month.

Okay, it's too early in the morning to be pessimistic.

At least she'll be back by the new year?

While Naminé finishes combing her hair, Xion bursts out of their shared bathroom with a grin. "Ready for breakfast?"

Naminé smiles in response. With most of their classmates leaving The World That Never Was, room assignments were shuffled around so now Naminé is rooming with Xion. Naminé prides herself in being a relatively nonintrusive roommate, but Xion really takes it to the next level. She's low-maintenance about everything from bathroom usage to quiet hours at night. Also, she somehow woke up earlier than Naminé the early riser and got out of bed this morning without disturbing her. Naminé knows she's a light sleeper, so her conclusion?

Xion is basically a ninja. A ninja field agent.

Another perk of rooming with Xion is an automatic breakfast buddy. The previous week has been a mix of embracing loner status at a table by herself versus gobbling food 'on the go' to avoid judgment. But Naminé realized that if she paces herself in the mornings, she can 'naturally' head out to breakfast with Xion. Maybe this is a good chance to get to know Xion better. She's probably the closest thing Naminé has to a friend right now, something she sorely needs while stuck thousands of miles from home.

Upon arriving at the dining room at noticing Axel and Roxas, Naminé realizes making friends with Xion will be hard.

Ah yes, she knows she doesn't stand a chance against the impenetrable bonds of a field team. Nonetheless, they readily accept her presence at their table, which Naminé appreciates. WINNER boisterously chats about everything and anything, most of which Naminé understands but can't find a way to meaningfully contribute. It's like they vibe at a frequency Naminé can't quite tune into. Fourth-wheeling isn't very fun, but at least she has somewhere to sit. It's really about the small victories these days.

Glancing over, she realizes that unlike herself, Sora is stuck at a table by himself. He doesn't seem too bothered by the fact—Naminé supposes he is quite shameless like that. But then she remembers that he also seems to be the only one from HB who's staying behind. That's gotta be quite lonely.

Why didn't they leave some sort of superior or even a buddy to keep him company? They literally just left the guy alone on this unknown world to fend for himself. LOD's known for its harsh missions, but this sounds intense in its own way. Sora's, what, three years older than her? And considering the way he acts, that age difference is negligible.

She would've never survived out here by herself. How will he?

WINNER wraps up their convo and starts inhaling food, which Naminé takes to mean they're almost at the top of the hour. She has to meet with Hiro and Sora at 8 AM, so she finishes her yogurt and splinters off from the field team trio. In the back of her mind, she realizes Sora's going towards the same direction as her and they can head over together. Thinking to grace him with her company, she looks around the dining room but realizes he's nowhere to be found. Well, his loss.

Heading to the designated meeting room, she finds herself first to arrive. Getting settled into her seat, she idly drafts a text to her dad as she waits for the others.

Five minutes after the hour, Sora turns up. He strolls in casually, completely unaware or indifferent to the fact that he's late. Naminé's instinct is to tell him off but realizes Hiro isn't even here. Plus, she feels a little bad thinking about the whole 'he's here by himself' thing that she keeps quiet and acknowledges him with a curt nod.

"Hiro's not here?" Sora mumbles, taking the seat across the table from her.

"Not yet. Hopefully soon."

"Well, I'm ready to figure out if he's just spouting bullshit or if he's actually onto something?"

"What do you mean, spouting bullshit? Hiro wouldn't do that."

"It sounds pretty crazy to me," Sora says, glancing from his twiddling thumbs to her. "Sure, I'm not gonna challenge a scientist on his theory. But what are the chances that something like that would happen to us?" He gestures at the two of them. "I don't see much of a basis here."

"I...agree," Naminé concedes. "Maybe Hiro's theory is off? Hopefully he'll be a little more clear in his explanation today. I really hope we're not staying an extra month for nothing."

"You're here till the end of the year?" Sora asks.

"Yeah, they said we should be back home by the holidays. What about you?"

"Same. I'm holding them to that cause I don't wanna be stuck in some random world to celebrate New Year."

"Right. At least let me spend it at home with family."

Both of them sigh, lamenting their unexpected fates together. Neither of them are entirely willing participants, but they're both hoping to make the best of this opportunity. Maybe that'll minimize some of the friction.

"Morning," Hiro mumbles as he enters. Naminé is about to greet him when she notices the bed hair and dark circles under his eyes. He looks just a little sleep-deprived, and—

"Is that coffee?" she asks, glancing at the styrofoam cup in his hand.

"Yeah. Don't know how anyone's awake at this hour without it," he grumbles, dropping into his seat with a sigh.

"But you're a kid," Naminé protests. "You shouldn't be drinking coffee at your age."

Hiro raises a brow. "How old do you think I am?"

"Uh, 12?"

"I'm 14!" he exclaims proudly, momentarily perking up to defend himself. He then slouches back into his seat. "But you're right, I'm too young to have a caffeine addiction."

"You're too young to be here," Naminé points out. "You should be, I don't know, playing a sport or video games or whatever."

"And you're also too young to be here," Sora says to Naminé. "You're a teenager—basically a kid—that they stuck on a random world for a whole month? LODers are so intense."

"I am not a kid," Naminé protests hotly. "I'm 18, and in LOD, I'm technically an adult."

"You're eight-teen," Sora stresses. "You are thus a teen."

"I'm four-teen, not a kid and also a teen!" Hiro chimes in.

Naminé glares at Sora. His pointed reminder of their minuscule age gap is noted, thank you very much. Is he looking down on her skills? Doubting her experience? Well, she'll make sure to prove him wrong.

"What," she starts off sternly as she turns towards Hiro. His alarmed expression tells her to tone it down. "What are we doing today?" she asks in a more level tone.

"We're gonna talk a little more about my project and see if we can get you two to demonstrate Synergy again," Hiro says, quickly jumping to shoptalk. "Now, I know it's been a whopping two days since my presentation. Do you guys remember anything about Synergy?"

Is Hiro getting a little sassy with them? Naminé files the thought away and tries to remember what Hiro talked about two days ago. Admittedly, 90% of the theoretical stuff had flown over her head. The demo stands out since Xion had participated in it and the results had felt so promising at the time.

"You had two people with their Keyblades stand next to each other, then their Keyblades started to glow," Sora recalls.

Naminé glances at him, shocked that he's apparently an attentive listener. This isn't class by any means, but she's gonna have to up her game.

"Right. Well, you remember more than I thought," Hiro says. "Basically, Synergy is a reaction between two people—specifically two Keyblade wielders. You could even go so far as to say it might be a reaction between two Keyblades. The reason I'm calling it Synergy is because one, it sounds cooler than Reaction. And two, because it really does produce a synergistic effect. Do you guys know what the word synergy means?"

"Two forces combined together producing an effect greater than a summation of their individual effects," Naminé rapidly states, not because this is a pop quiz question she feels the need to get right.

"So, something greater than the sum of its parts?" Sora concludes.

"Precisely. I'm surprised, you guys," Hiro says.

Okay, Hiro's definitely sassing them.

"Now, think back to that encounter with the Heartless on our way to the elevator," Hiro continues. "You were both wielding your Keyblades and within the vicinity of each other. Those are the only two known prerequisites for Synergy to manifest. There was that bright light for a split moment, also something we often see when Synergy occurs. Lastly, and what's most exciting about this research, is your anecdotal accounts of increased weapon power fighting Heartless after Synergy occurred."

"What?"

"You guys were talking about Naminé 'getting lucky' taking down that Heartless as a newbie. Or Sora 'finding it easier' to take down four Heartless at once. The science is still a little fuzzy, but to me, it sounds like Synergy basically powered up both of you to fight Heartless more effectively."

Naminé thinks back to her encounter with the Heartless. Was the white light related to Synergy? Everything had happened so quickly. She was sure she'd imagined the light at one point. But Hiro's explanation does make sense as to how she, an amateur Keyblade wielder, was able to take down her first Heartless.

"Let's test it," Sora decides, jumping to his feet as his Keyblade materializes. Naminé recoils at the sudden appearance of his weapon, which he uses to point at her. "Where's yours?"

"Huh?"

"Summon your Keyblade."

"Oh, yeah."

She draws a deep breath, looking down at her hands. With Sora and Hiro watching, her self-consciousness soars to unprecedented levels and makes it harder to focus.

"You really are a noob."

She hears Sora's mumble and is about to argue back when she feels his hands pat on her shoulders. The sudden proximity sends chills up her spine.

"Relax. Close your eyes. Picture your Keyblade."

You're telling me to relax but you're the one making me nervous!

Putting her self-consciousness aside, she focuses on Sora's instructions. Her shoulders droop, and her breathing deepens. The image of her Keyblade comes to mind: the hilt, the blade, the design she likes so much.

She feels a weight in her hand, and opening her eyes, she sees her Keyblade. Smiling, she realizes that wasn't too hard.

"When you get so happy summoning your Keyblade, you're obviously a noob."

She uses her elbow to jab Sora in the ribs. "You could just say 'good job' like a normal person."

"Yeah, yeah, good for you. Honestly, it's a relief you're bad with Keyblades."

"Seriously? You don't have to keep telling me I'm a bad Keyblade wielder."

"I'm just saying! You're a good operator, it's unfair if you're also good with Keyblades."

"I—shut up!"

That's another indirect compliment, right? Usually, she doesn't pay much attention to praise for her OATS skills. But maybe because of her recent screw up and insecurity about her abilities, this compliment goes straight to her head.

He thinks I'm a good operator.

"It's not working!"

Upon hearing Sora's exclamation, Naminé looks down. He's holding his Keyblade up against hers, but unlike Hiro's demo, neither of their weapons glow.

She turns towards Hiro. "What's going on?"

"Synergy's a skill, both to manifest it and to maintain it. For manifesting, it can help for the two people to be on the same page. Basically, to be thinking the same thing. For example, try concentrating on the same object."

Sora points at a clock hanging on the wall. "Let's stare at that."

Naminé looks at the clock. It's an ordinary analogue clock, likely battery powered, with an incessant ticking sound she's just noticing. The monochromatic minimalist design gives it a chic look, which is a little surprising for an office setting. She would've expected a focus on function as opposed to appearance…

"It's still not working," Sora complains, holding up his Keyblade. "I think we disproved your theory, Hiro."

"Well, let me ask you guys. In that moment when we were fighting the Heartless, what were you two thinking or feeling?"

In that moment? Naminé remembers that rare moment when her mind had focused on one thing only. Usually, her brain is multitasking with catching details in her surroundings and processing several lines of thoughts. She likes to think this makes her a good OATS operator, even though as a result, it's hard for her to do simple tasks like summon her Keyblade.

But that moment, everything stilled and her only thought was:

"I have to help you."

"Save Hiro."

Naminé looks towards Sora, who stares back. So in that moment, they were thinking the same thing?

"See? Okay, let's try one more time. The two of you have to focus on almost the exact same thought or sentiment. Let's have you look at your Keyblades and think of...an orange."

An orange. That's easy enough. A round, plump orange that fits perfectly in her hand. Her dad used to slice up oranges and serve them as a snack for her—

For a split second, their Keyblades glow and Naminé gets the familiar sensation of everything around her falling quiet. But the light quickly fades and she tunes back into the room. Thinking about it, she realizes that things fell out of sync when her mind trailed off away from the orange to the memory of her dad.

"Oh what, that's so cool!" Sora gushes. "Is that Synergy?"

"I think it is!" Hiro chimes in. "Our research has only just scratched the surface of how two people can use Synergy, but to see its real-life applications is very promising. Plus, thinking about the potential is insane. I think I can get some really good data from both of you."

Are Hiro's eyes literally glowing thinking about them as test subjects? That's a little freaky.

"This is so cool!" Sora exclaims. "I can't wait till we get to use it again!"

"I don't know if we'll get that chance," Naminé point outs.

"What do you mean?"

Doesn't he see the obvious problems? "First off, unless we figure out the activation requirement, it's unreliable for us to count on this when we're in a pinch. Second, I'm not a Keyblade wielder so I wouldn't be on the frontlines anyways. And third, we're from different worlds so after this joint shebang deal, we'll probably never see each other again."

"Geez, someone's a real Negative Nancy," Sora whistles. "This might be the coolest thing that's happened to me all year! I mean, I've been using Keyblades for more than half my life, and Synergy is like...everything feels lighter, and I can suddenly do more. You know? Hit harder, move faster, act smarter. This might actually change everything in the war against Heartless, and Nobodies."

Listening to Sora's enthusiastic gushing, Naminé finds it hard not to catch the contagious optimism. A potential solution to fighting Nobodies does raise Naminé's hopes. At least this mission will actually be worthwhile, even if she might not benefit as much as an OATS operator.

"So, I have both of you for a month to collect all the data I can about Synergy. Oh, this is gonna be so cool!" Hiro gushes. Apparently talking about his research has him completely perked up from his morning fatigue. "The first thing I need you guys to do is to figure out how to reliably activate Synergy. Because Naminé is right—there isn't much value to this if we can't figure out how to turn it on and off like a switch."

"And how're we supposed to do that?" Sora asks.

Hiro grins, and Naminé's a little worried what's about to happen.

"In general, we've observed Synergy happens more often between people who are similar. For example, we've seen Synergy between family members, close friends, etcetera. The fact that you two are virtual strangers who demonstrated Synergy goes to show how much potential you have. If you actually got closer, so to speak, how strong can your Synergy get? Of course, I've also thought that maybe it's just that one of you has all the potential, so we'll do some individual tests as well. But usually, we see that the greater depth of Synergy you can manifest with someone, the narrower breadth or range of people you can produce Synergy with. If you think of Synergy potential as a finite resource, it makes sense that—"

"So what're we gonna do?" Sora interrupts. Naminé appreciates the timely save, because she's starting to realize that when Hiro gets very excited about his research, he can talk about it forever.

Hiro grins. "Simple! We're gonna have the two of you get to know each other better."


A/N: LMAO yes I am taking the process of relationship development and breaking it down into a systematic approach our characters have to follow. When I say Sora and Naminé are gonna get along, I mean they're gonna learn to get along. As you can imagine, hijinks await! I hope you look forward to shenanigans as two full-grown adults (debatable I suppose) are forced to, gasp, become friends.

A little more background about brainstorming for this story: I've always been in love with the idea of measuring the depth of a relationship and thinking of tangible ramifications. For instance, in action-based stories, I see the idea of bonds between people manifest as greater fighting power (Soul Eater is my original muse for Synergy, but Pacific Rim is also in that vein). In real life, we can't concretely measure how close we are with people, so it's fascinating thinking about how this would be quantified, and especially how it can have drastic in-universe effects. Anyways, this idea has been in my head for awhile, and I thought it was a cool way to explore relationships, which will be showcased in up and coming chapters!

I would love to hear any thoughts you have about this chapter as we get into the more original lore-heavy part of the story. Would also love to talk more about Synergy, or the characters, or the setting of these two war-ridden worlds. Anything, really! I would really appreciate a review to know you're enjoying this story, and I'll see you next chapter!