"She's really gone...isn't she?" Kairi asked as she looked to her two friends. The two teens remained silent as if they were being chided by a parent but it was the opposite.
"Yeah..." Riku replied sullenly.
Kairi looked to Riku for an answer, in shame Riku looked away from the girl, they knew that the girl could tell that something drastic had happened. Mitsu had been with them for years and for her to suddenly disappear did not make sense to her.
"What happened to her?" Kairi asked almost hesitantly.
"Look don't worry Kairi we're gonna find her. We found you right?" Sora smiled.
In truth, Sora wasn't sure if they would be able to find Mitsu but knew that he had to go to Castle Oblivion to find her or at least that is what he was told he needed to do. Regardless of the uncertainty, he didn't let that stop him from promising the girl that they would try their hardest to find her.
They didn't come this far to give up hope.
Riku silently thanked Sora for how quickly he was able to change the tone of the conversation. The entire conversation felt strange to him, he used to be able to talk to his friends with no issue but now just looking at his friends was difficult.
"I—I suppose so," Kairi replied unsure.
"Don't sound like that Kairi you don't believe us," Sora grinned.
"It's not that…I just…" Kairi trailed off. "It's just weird for her not to be here,"
"We're going to find her, don't worry," Riku spoke up as he glanced at Kairi.
"You better find her or I will personally kick your butts," Kairi her voice firm as she glared at the two teens.
"Aww come on Kairi don't be like that," Sora sighed.
"Whatever!" Kairi huffed.
Riku listened to his two friends as the guilt in his heart became stronger. He knew that he needed to apologize to Kairi, to tell her what had happened, explain to her why he did what he did but he couldn't. The words always fell short barely even reaching the tip of his tongue.
"I'm sorry Mitsu…we are going to find you, I promise," Riku made a silent promise to his friends, to Mitsu and himself that he would find the girl no matter what.
" I see…a white door…and a keyblade graveyard…and you say a key blade appeared?" Cid questioned quietly as he scratched his stubble.
"Do you think you can go there again?" Leon questioned.
"The door that led us there was locked by Sora, and the portal there shattered beyond repair," Yasuto replied.
Silence engulfed the room as the group of men shifted awkwardly. There was something that was on the tip of their tongues but each of the men refused to utter it until Cid cleared his throat and spoke first.
"There's no use being awkward about it. She was a princess, a legendary princess, big deal," Cid replied.
"Cid," Shige started.
"No. Listen kid. She's gone, she needs rescuing and you guys are the ones to save her," Cid said.
"It's not that easy Cid," Yasuto added.
"Why not?"
"We've never journeyed anywhere near the End of the World or what's there…" Yasuto began.
"All I hear are excuses," Cid scoffed.
"And you believe that you can actually get there?" Leon questioned.
"Nope, don't even know where to start," Shige replied.
"Well, it looks like the only thing you can do is go look for it right?" Cid asked.
"Well yeah," Shige replied.
"Get off your asses and go find it," Cid replied bluntly.
"Sheez old man—" Shige started.
"Old man huh," Cid said as he crossed his arms and glared furiously at Shige.
"S-Sorry," Shige commented obviously intimidated. Yasuto turned his attention to the silent dark-haired man in the room. Since they had returned from what was known as Hollow Bastion Yue had been silent opposite of what he was known for.
"Yue you've been silent since Mitsu disappeared. I know you have secrets so you might as well talk," Yasuto said to the man.
Yue glanced at the purple-haired man stoically and sighed as he noticed the others had turned their attention to him.
"What do you want to know," Yue asked.
"When did you find out that Mitsu was a princess?" Yasuto asked.
"Since she arrived here at Traverse Town," Yue replied.
"And you didn't tell us?" Shige asked.
"No," Yue replied simply as he looked at the man.
"You should have, we would have been able to do more..." Yasuto trailed off.
"No...she would have been taken regardless of what we would have done," Yue commented bitterly, the two men looked at Yue confused at his statement.
"Because of Riku," Yue replied simply
"The boy that they were trying to find, eh?" Cid commented. "Of course, use their friends against them," Yue nodded.
There was something else that Yasuto wanted to ask, something that bothered him since he was reunited with Yue. In the beginning, they played along with the appearance that they had never met before but in fact, they were once colleagues, he was once a King's Men who had suddenly disappeared.
"You already knew she was a princess of heart, did you know she was the reincarnation of the dual keyblade wielder?" Yasuto asked.
"No. That was new to me," Yue replied.
"Why did you leave Cerun?" Shige suddenly interjected. Yasuto turned to the citrine haired man surprised that he asked the question so bluntly.
"I...I didn't necessarily leave the King's Men...I left from Cerun on a mission given to me by his majesty, I was to become the knight for the Princess," Yue answered.
"The Knight of the Princess?" Yasuto asked.
"A forgotten princess, her heart emitted no light nor darkness and yet she held more power than one princess of heart," Yue began. "If she was discovered, if she was taken advantage of...King Mamoru understood this and asked me to watch over her but she was suddenly taken to Destiny Islands,"
"So King Mamoru knew about this...and you didn't tell us. Is that correct?" Shige asked.
"I was sworn to secrecy and she was safe where she was," Yue replied. "Although, something lured the darkness to the island and she along with Sora ended up here at Traverse Town,"
A brief silence fell over the group as the information Yue had told them and the realization of how important Mitsu sank into their minds. Yue had known about Mitsu long before the King's Men did and didn't tell them until it was too late. But there was something else that seemed to bother Yasuto, back in Midgar Vincent mentioned they could not feel the light that the princesses radiated.
"Then I assume you know why we weren't able to feel the light from her heart?" Yasuto questioned. Yasuto looked at the man and sighed.
"Her heart was preventing that," Yue replied.
"Why?"
"Her heart has been touched by the light and dark there for canceling the dark and light around her,"
"So, a neutral heart?" Leon commented, Yue nodded.
"A heart that strong to cancel the light and dark…" Shige commented.
"This sounds like a good story…but if you really are going to go to the End of the World I suggest you all rest. You all look like you've been dragged in by a cat," Cid commented.
"I'll take them to the Inn in the next district," Leon said as he headed to the backroom of Cid's shop.
"How do you know about Ansem the Wise when he's been missing for 12 years? You weren't in the King's Men then," Yasuto questioned.
"I...I was close with Ansem the Wise when I was younger and I read all of his research journals when I was at Cerun," Yue replied.
Yasuto stared at the auburn-haired man suspiciously, although he answered some of their questions he still had more, he needed more answers to piece everything together, to have everything make sense to him.
"You really do like Mitsu…" Sora trailed off as he looked at Riku, Riku turned to his friend who had plopped onto the floor. Leon and Yuffie had walked with them to Traverse Inn to turn in for the night, he and Sora shared a room while Yuffie and Aerith stayed with Kairi.
"I...care about her the same way I care about you and Kairi," Riku replied casually.
"Enough to kidnap her right? Suuuuure" Sora said sheepishly.
"Sora…" Riku warned. Sora grinned as he looked up at the older teen. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, he basically did kidnap Mitsu. With a sigh he got into his bed and laid on his back, he glanced at the teen on the floor and pursed his lips together.
"Can you not look at me like that…you look like a creeper," Riku commented.
"Did…you guys kiss?" Sora suddenly asked as he took off his shoes.
"What?" Riku gave the teen a mixture of a shocked and confused look, again Sora grinned.
"Did you guys kiss?" Sora asked repeated and got into his own bed.
"Why?" Riku replied.
"I was just curious...is all," Sora replied as he flopped onto his back.
"How old are you again Sora?" Riku asked
"Hey! I can be curious," Sora replied appalled, Riku chuckled.
"I'm 15 thank you very much. Some friend you are. I thought we were supposed to share secrets and stuff," Sora pouted. Riku laughed as he placed his hands behind his head and laid back. Silence fell over the two teens, they knew that tomorrow would be the day they would find a place called the End of the World and rescue Mitsu.
"We...did kiss," Riku began softly. Riku heard shuffling and turned to see Sora on his side all of his attention on him.
"R-Really? H-How was it?" Sora asked his curiosity visibly abundant. Riku studied the boy for a second before his mind remembered that moment when he kissed her. Sora looked expectantly at his friend ready for an answer, he noticed that his friend's eyes seemed to glaze over in thought.
"Well?" Sora questioned as a silly grin appeared on his lips.
"Huh?" Riku asked. "Oh...um"
"Fine. Don't tell me..." Sora pouted as he laid on the bed below Riku's. You can't have her. She's my friend. I talked to her first," Sora started as he laid back on to his pillow.
"Why are you pouting over it?" Riku asked as he looked down at his friend.
Sora stuck out his tongue at the older teen. Riku laughed in response as he laid back on his pillow. Silence fell over the two teens again as the thought of their blue-haired friend ran through their minds. They knew they had to take care of the one that called himself Ansem and hopefully Mitsu would be there as well.
"When we find Mitsu…everything will be back to normal, can't wait," Sora sighed.
"Yeah…back to normal," Riku commented quietly hoping that his friend was right.
"Also...I'll just ask her about the kiss," Sora added.
"Sora! No!"