C15
LOCATION: Dining room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Thursday, December 6th 2X60
TIME: 1210 hours
...what?
Sora stares at Naminé, who stares back at him. Realizing that she's absolutely serious, he resists the urge to fire back a snarky response.
"Uh, yeah, sure."
He has no idea where this is going and can only hope that's an appropriate response.
Naminé slowly nods her head, as if mulling over his words. What is she thinking? C'mon, Naminé, just spit it out!
"Isn't it kinda funny?" she says. "How we were bickering all the time a few weeks ago, and now we're friends?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." He chuckles at the memories of arguing with Naminé over...what were they arguing about? It all seems so unimportant in hindsight. "You were a little annoying."
"Excuse you, that's my line," Naminé returns with a steely look. "You kept making jabs at me and Land of Departure for no reason."
"What are you talking about? I'm the definition of diplomacy," Sora boasts with an upturned nose. "I mean, I guess we hear a lot of stuff about Land of Departure and it was weird seeing actual LODers."
"Please don't use that term," Naminé says. "It sounds weird."
"It's just for convenience," Sora argues.
"It sounds like an insult."
"It just means you're from LOD. A LODer!"
"I don't like it."
"Okay, fine," Sora yields. Despite his clear lack of bad intentions, he can respect her boundaries. "Meeting people from Land of Departure, like you, was a new experience. Also, it didn't help that you kinda line up with the exact stereotype."
"Says you, a walking textbook example of someone from HB," Naminé returns.
"Hey! What's that mean?"
"Well, what does being a stereotypical person from Land of Departure mean?"
Sora shrugs. "You know! Like...you." Naminé arches a brow, obviously unimpressed with his explanation. What's the least offensive thing for him to say? "You know, you're such a rule stickler."
"Since when was following the rules a bad thing?"
"It's not! I said, it's just a stereotype," Sora says. "Honestly, meeting you and everyone else from Land of Departure kinda helped dispel the stereotypes for me. I mean, you're obviously more than that."
"...of course," Naminé mumbles under her breath, taking a bite of her food.
"It seems like Land of Departure puts a bigger emphasis on hierarchies than Hollow Bastion does," Sora continues. "So I kinda get why you guys all just follow the rules."
"We have to follow someone's lead," Naminé points out. "We have so many people living in our world. When something like a Heartless invasion happens, everyone needs to know what their role is."
"Do you guys get a lot of Heartless invasions?" Sora asks.
"Mmm. Probably a few every week?"
"That sounds like a lot," Sora notes. "But how many actually get past your defense systems? Like how often do you guys have to send a team of agents to take care of things?"
Naminé blinks and stares at him. "We almost always dispatch field agents. The border walls barely keep anything out."
Sora stares at her confusedly. "No, I mean, what about your defense system? You know, the machines that help with surveillance and eliminating the occasional Heartless."
"Oh, right, HB has its defense system," Naminé says knowingly. "But I heard the machine glitches and malfunctions often enough that it's really unreliable. Our government never invested in it so we could focus on our military."
Sora narrows his eyes. "What? The defense system isn't unreliable. We count on it to keep out a lot of minor threats and random Heartless. It also helps with surveillance so we know the best way to fight off the Heartless that do get through. Sure, there was a lot of calibrating and whatnot in the beginning, but that was decades ago. Now there's a fully staffed team that maintains the defense system, and it definitely helps everyone feel a lot safer."
"Really?" Naminé sounds unconvinced but also curious. "Well, I don't know how that would work in Land of Departure."
"It'd only help! Your problem is too many Heartless, right?" Sora thinks about it. "To fight all the Heartless invasions, you've decided to focus on recruiting more agents. Oh, I guess that's how your world ended up training kids and sending them on missions." He glances at Naminé, operator and high schooler extraordinaire. "Anyways, if you have a defense system, that'll reduce the burden on the government and the military in terms of recruitment. Maybe you guys can finally stop forcing kids on missions."
"Everyone has to contribute to the war effort," Naminé argues.
"But I'm saying not everyone has to," Sora returns. "Yes, this war against Heartless has ruined everyone's lives. But if we can, we should at least let kids enjoy their childhood. At least don't send them on missions and actively put them in dangerous situations. You," he points at Naminé, "should be living up your youth right now."
Naminé looks a little taken aback by his statement. This is something Sora absolutely stands by. Sure, he doesn't understand enough about Land of Departure's politics and whatnot to comment on their military strategy against Heartless. He understands people's lives are at stake. But he cannot understand why they think it's necessary to include children in this war effort.
Naminé's a damn good operator, but for all intents and purposes, she really shouldn't be.
"I don't even know what 'living up your youth' means," Naminé finally says, picking at her food.
"Have you ever had any typical high school experiences?"
"What?"
"You know, like attending pep rallies even though your school's sports teams suck. Making out with a cute guy in some corner of your school. Feeling really lonely when you're single during promposal season."
"What? You mean the stuff you read about in books?" Naminé snorts. "None of that stuff actually happens at DiZA. We don't have sports teams, so no pep rallies. Our school has a pretty strict correlate of the no fraternization policy in the military. And we don't hold proms."
Sora stares at Naminé with disbelief. "Oh my god. That's tragic, Naminé. You're not in high school—it's literally military bootcamp."
"I mean, I guess you're not wrong."
What the hell? Sora can barely process the fact that Naminé had such a deprived high school experience. She never got to go through so many of these quintessential experiences—and probably throughout her entire childhood. He can't even think of a good word to describe his feelings. He's just...sad.
(And kinda mad.)
"Well, what was high school like for you?" Naminé asks.
Sora pauses to think about it. High school simultaneously feels like yesterday and so far away. Since graduating three years ago, he's definitely grown a lot, but in some ways he feels just as immature as he did when he first enlisted in HBRC.
Sora smirks. "I had a great time in high school. I mean, I didn't do any of that crazy stuff you see on TV," he amends. "No wild house parties or school dances that changed my life, heh. Honestly, I just remember all the dumb shit my friends and I did. And I mean legit dumb," he emphasizes, chuckling at a memory. "Once, the entire soccer team—I played soccer all four years—we were starving after practice and had a full-blown debate about where's the best pizza place. We ended up going to five different places to try their pizzas, and I couldn't look at pizza without wanting to vomit for a week after that…"
Delving into his high school tales is incredibly nostalgic. To be honest, he misses high school. It was the last time he felt like he had no true responsibilities. Of course, he understands that's just a part of growing up. He signed up to become a HBRC recruit, and he has no regrets. But that doesn't stop him from missing the old days.
"Like I said, dumb shit." Sora laughs. "The funny thing is, between me, Riku, and Kairi—they're my closest friends from high school—Riku and Kairi are a lot more the straight-shooter type than I am. But somehow, I had the least number of detentions throughout high school! They complain about it to me to this day."
"Riku and Kairi are your current teammates in HBRC, right?" Naminé asks. "You've known them for a really long time then."
"Yeah. I've known Kairi since elementary school, Riku even longer." He grins. "We all joined HBRC for our own reasons, and we got assigned to the same team since we work well together. Obviously. Honestly, I think I'd have a pretty rough time in HBRC without them."
"Why'd you come to this mission by yourself then?" Naminé asks.
Sora is ready to frankly answer her question—"actually we got in a fight"—but forces himself to pause. Wow. It's almost a little too easy to be honest with her.
"Kairi's on medical leave cause of an injury, and I didn't want to bum around for a month. Plus, we don't get that many away missions so I saw the opportunity and took it."
Naminé slowly nods. "It must be nice, being able to go away on a mission like this and know you have someone to go home to."
"Yeah," he answers, thinking about reuniting with his friends. There are some unaddressed concerns in the back of his head, but Sora knows they'll all be unbelievably happy to see each other again. "I'm sure you also can't wait to see your friends again."
Naminé musters a small grin in response.
The rest of lunch passes uneventfully. Thinking about it, he never figured out why Naminé was in a bad mood. She seems fine now, and he doesn't want to bring it up again so...all's well that ends well?
As they grab their emptied trays to drop them off, he spies Naminé's LOD friends seated at a table.
"Hey." He nudges Naminé's arm.
"What?" she grumbles, preoccupied with arranging her utensils on her tray. Why's she trying to line them up perfectly when they're all gonna get washed anyways?
"Thanks for sitting with me instead of your other friends today."
The words mindlessly leave his mouth. After all, he's okay with being alone but much prefers being with others. It's just an offhand comment, and he's heading out of the dining room when he realizes Naminé isn't walking next to him. He pauses, whirling around.
Why's she still standing by the bin for their dirty plates?
He shoots her a confused look and realizes she's facing him but isn't actually looking. Backtracking, he walks up to her and snaps his fingers in front of her eyes.
"Yo, Naminé!"
"Huh?" She breaks out of her trance and looks up at him.
He shoots her a confused look. "You okay? You zoned out for a second."
Hastily blinking, she looks around and clears her throat. "Oh, yeah—sorry, I was just thinking…"
"...about?"
"...stuff."
Okay. Well, he can take a hint. "C'mon. Are you headed back to your room?"
They head back to the hotel chatting about their plans for the rest of the day. Ascending the building in the elevator, they wait patiently for the quiet ding as they arrive on Naminé's floor. As she's getting off, she abruptly turns around. Oh no.
"If you lost your keycard again, make sure you check all your pockets this time," Sora says exasperatedly. Last time, they'd retraced their steps throughout the entire day only for Naminé to find her keycard in a different pocket than usual.
Naminé rolls her eyes. "No, I didn't lose them. I just wanted to say...thanks for being my friend, Sora."
...oh-kay…?
He really hopes his confusion isn't super obvious. Naminé doesn't look like she's gonna follow up that statement with anything, so he takes it at face value.
"Yeah. You too."
She absolutely beams at his statement and then turns back around and walks off. The elevator door closes behind her, leaving Sora to quietly mull in his thoughts.
His conclusion when he reaches his room?
Naminé is a strange girl.
LOCATION: Simulation room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Tuesday, December 11th 2X60
TIME: 1615 hours
Naminé is absolutely killing it.
First, she came up with a genius idea to prank Hiro this morning. All she did was swap out his coffee with decaf (because a kid really shouldn't be drinking coffee), and he's been complaining all day that something feels 'off.' It was hard to not laugh every time he raised his hand and stared at it, as if surprised it isn't trembling due to caffeine jitters.
Next, she can now reliably summon her Keyblade within 10 seconds! Okay, compared to Sora and the typical field agent, that's an abysmal record. But from 60 seconds down to 10, she's incredibly proud of her accomplishment.
Lastly, she's literally killing it in this simulation—killing Heartless, that is. She can still only fight one Heartless at a time but she's only gotten four fatal injuries, and she's taken out five Heartless so far! They're 30 minutes into this simulation and she's pumped with adrenaline. The daily workouts, the training, the meditation—everything's coming together and paying off.
"Hey!" Sora calls out to her after dealing with his pack of Heartless. "Let's try using Synergy!"
Naminé quickly considers it. She's just gotten used to Keyblades and fighting Heartless—throwing Synergy into the mix sounds like a lot. But she also realizes that's the entire point of these simulations, and this is their third run so they really should get to practicing Synergy.
"Okay. What're you thinking about?" she asks, keeping an eye out for the next wave of Heartless.
"An apple?" he proposes with a grin.
Naminé rolls her eyes. "Red whatchamacallit?"
"Red Delicious, Naminé! God, I'm gonna have to track one down for you one of these days…"
Naminé chuckles. Of course she knows it's called Red Delicious (she'd gone home and researched it on the internet after Sora had first mentioned it). She just finds it funny that Sora gets so worked up about food—apples specifically in this case.
Okay, thinking of a Red Delicious…
They've gotten a lot better at initiating Synergy. Naminé can easily clear her mind using meditation techniques. The only thing on her mind is, in this case, an apple. For awhile, she just focuses on the image. Then, it's like a metaphorical switch goes off, and she can feel Synergy activating. Apparently, Synergy feels a little different for Sora based on what he's told her. But in her case, everything unimportant around her falls quiet, and she is able to remain laser-focused. When she opens her eyes, their Keyblades are glowing.
"Hell yeah!" Sora cheers enthusiastically. "And just in time for the next wave! I'll save a high-five for later...only if you don't get any more fatal injuries!"
"I only have four!"
He laughs aloud. "C'mon, Naminé, that's four too many!"
Though she won't admit it, she knows he's right, so she's doubly determined to do her best against this wave.
She stays right behind Sora as he faces off against a pack of eight. One Heartless is eventually let through his defense, ostensibly meant for her. Raising her Keyblade, she prepares to face off against it. She realizes that with Synergy, she feels even more ready to fight. The surroundings remain eerily quiet, which helps her focus on this one Heartless. She quickly deduces the best way to dispatch it. At the same time, she's vaguely aware of what's happening in Sora's fight against the other Heartless. The other nonessential things in her surroundings fade out of her attention. It's like her one skill of being observant has been magnified, except now she can filter out what's important versus what's not.
She raises her weapon, prepared to strike down this Heartless when the Keyblade stops glowing. Suddenly, she becomes acutely aware of every granular detail of her surroundings again. Her attention falters, and she isn't sure where to focus. The Heartless lands an attack, and another, and one more before she finally snaps back to reality and blocks its next blow.
Damn. Three fatal injuries in a row? That just feels bad.
She realizes Synergy has stopped, but she has to focus on this enemy in front of her. Recalling her basics, she does her best to fight against this Heartless before it gains even more advantage. After regaining her foothold and pushing back, she finally throws it off balance and lands a direct hit.
Phew. That's one down.
Turning towards Sora, she watches him take out the last two Heartless of the wave. He sighs and turns over to face her. She quickly jogs over.
"It dropped?" she asks.
"Yeah. The Synergy. Not sure why," Sora grumbles with a frown.
"I think it was me," Naminé admits, trying to problem solve the issue. "I didn't realize I stopped thinking of the apple for a bit."
"Oh yeah, me too," Sora says. "I mean, we can't really be thinking about an apple the whole time we're fighting. Hmm."
Naminé narrows her eyes. "Remember that first time we did Synergy?"
"When we thought about oranges?"
"No, the very first time. During that real Heartless invasion, when we were headed to the elevators and Hiro was in danger."
"Oh yeah. What about it?"
"What activated Synergy back then?"
"Hmm." Sora crosses his arms. "I remember we talked about this with Hiro. It was an idea, right? That we wanted to defeat the Heartless and protect Hiro."
"Right. What if instead of an apple, we focused on an idea related to fighting Heartless?"
"Like, kill Heartless?"
They look down on their Keyblades and focus on that thought. Synergy reactivates for a few seconds before quickly disappearing again.
"Were you thinking it?" Naminé asks with a raised brow.
"I was!" Sora blinks. "Err, for a bit. I mean, it's kinda morbid to think about killing the whole time."
"That's what you're doing. You're killing Heartless."
"Yeah, but I don't wanna be thinking it the whole time." Sora shrugs. "Can't we think of something slightly more positive?"
"While we're fighting Heartless? Well, what're you thinking about?"
"I don't know. Uh, my next move, what my teammates are doing, maybe what I'm gonna eat later…"
"Seriously? You're thinking about food while you're fighting Heartless?"
"Hey, food's a priority!" Sora exclaims.
Really, at this point, why is Naminé still surprised?
"I mean," Sora continues, "I think about what food I'm gonna eat, and who I'll get to eat with, because I've fought hard to protect them from Heartless. I guess while I'm fighting Heartless, I'm basically thinking about everything I'm protecting."
Another thing about Sora that she's noticed is that he's good at pulling eloquence straight out of his ass in the most unlikely situations. Naminé doesn't know whether she should be impressed or thoroughly confused by the inner workings of his mind.
"What we're protecting. Should we try that?" she proposes.
She takes a second to think about what she's protecting while fighting Heartless. The first thing that comes to mind?
People. Like her dad. Her DiZA classmates. Xion, Roxas, and Axel. Sora.
The transition into Synergy is so seamless that she barely realizes it. Thinking about her reason of fighting helps her remain grounded. Her cause is nothing as grand as saving the world or maintaining peace. She's just a girl, out here trying to master this new skill to make a difference in the lives of the few people she cares about.
As if on cue, the next wave of Heartless appears at the borders of the room. Naminé turns to face them with renewed confidence in Sora and herself.
A/N: I pumped this chapter out for you guys! These two knuckleheads are just going in circles around each other at this point. They've really gotta start walking towards the finish line together...okay I pulled that metaphor out of nowhere, please excuse me.
Please leave a review if you're enjoying the story so far! Always love to hear from readers any any thoughts and reactions. And I hope you stay tuned for the rest of the ride! Life's a little busy now, so the next chapter will be out in 2 weeks. We have our next plot-centric event coming up, and hopefully we'll get to see our two main leads with some action once more! Time for me to practice those rusty writing muscles after all.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, and I'll see you next time!
