Chapter 10: The Wandering Whirlwind

Three. Three Planetary Aurians have been defeated. Leaving Gabriel behind to tend to his wounds and pride, Mew was feeling pretty good about himself. Even if there were a lot of questions that remained unanswered and the number was growing by the hour, he had gotten a few good fights out of this.

"So glad I've gotten a chance to stretch my muscles," Mew thought as he rolled his stiff shoulders around, "Two years and no fighting makes Mew a dull boy..."

But as he reached the end of this beautiful garden he was reminded of an issue that no amount of training could have prepared him for.

'Oh, right..." Mew slowed to a crawl in front of a fine-looking wood pagoda blocking the way forward in lieu of a portal. Standing before the open shutters was Kairi, biting the tips of her fingernails until Mew walked into her line of sight.

She slowly pulled her hand down and looked utterly distraught. With her eyes wide she dropped her hands to her waist and turned aside. She pretended like she wasn't looking, but Mew wasn't fooled.

He put on a smile and waved his hand up, hollering out "Yo! I'm all done here!" in a middling attempt to avoid what's bugging her. But as he climbed up the few pagoda steps and stood right next to her he could tell it wasn't going to be that easy.

Her first response was obvious. She looked at him from out the corner of her eyes and asked "I-Is he ok...?" in a hesitant tone of voice.

Mew wagged his hand out and with a casual smile remarked, "Oh he's fine. I only roughed him up a little."

Kairi tightly wrapped her arms up below her chest and grit her teeth. Mew could tell her anger was building, and it was meshing badly with her confusion. Her pupils shrank and she mumbled in a meek manner, "M-Maybe you should've roughed him up a lot..."

And then, even quieter than before, she said, "Maybe...he'd be better off dead."

Mew paused for a moment and ungracefully remarked, "You don't actually believe that..."

"And just what am I supposed to believe?!" She roared with indignant rage. She then turned upon Mew with her face red and her cheeks looking mildly dampened.

"I trusted him! I welcomed him into our house!" Kairi went on like that for a little bit before boiling her biggest issue down to one sentence, "And he...he was working for Gravitus the whole time!"

Mew stared at Kairi's face as her passion twisted his heart. She was fighting back small tears of rage and her fists were curled up ready to hit something.

But she had to catch her breath, and in that moment Mew saw his opportunity to say, "But that's not what he's doing."

She raised her head but slightly and murmured, "How would you know...?" The distrust in her voice hurt, but was understandable.

Mew didn't have an answer for that. The best he could come up with was to say "Its a grown-up thing" and hope for the best.

Kairi hung her head and under her breath murmured, "I'm not a child anymore..."

And just like that she swung her head back up, bore her glare into Mew's own eyes, then planted a finger firmly on his chest. Her aggression manifested as a plea for answers when she yelled at him, "Who am I supposed to trust?! My mother?! The Planetary Aurians?! ...You?!"

Her finger curled into her fist as she punched Mew once on the chest. Mew stiffened up, didn't flinch, and let her vent her frustrations out as she asked of him, "Why should I trust YOU?! Tell me! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't think you are working for Gravitus!"

After a few more seconds of punching Mew's chest, Kairi's knuckles were red and she dragged them down back to her hip. Mew then closed his eyes and admitted, "Guess I have no choice..."

He turned around and Kairi looked up. She swung her arms out and exclaimed, "Well?!"

Mew crossed his arms against his chest and suddenly got super serious sounding, "You've forced me to use my ultimate technique..."

A feeling of dread overcame Kairi as Mew started to turn around. She retreated slightly right as Mew unveiled his ultimate technique...

"BLEEEEEAGHLEBLEEE!" A strange moan came out of Mew's mouth as he stuck his tongue out and touched the tip of it on the bottom of his nose. He had one eye looking down, the other up. His thumbs pulled at the sides of his mouth, while his pinkies poked into his eardrums, the remainder of the fingers wiggling about like a head of alien hair.

Kairi was shocked, then pinched her lips together and let out a snort. Finally, her anger was fully disarmed and replaced by her keeling over with laughter.

"Hahahaha! Hahahah! Y-You look so stupid...!" She pulled her head back and laid her hands on her stomach. Mew thus undid his silly look and stood upright with a smile.

"Hehehe! Mission complete!"

Kairi suddenly broke out of her laughter, swung her fists down, and yelled at him, "W-What do you think you're doing?!"

Her small pupils and lush pink cheeks showed she was embarrassed. And in turn she had difficulty getting her words out, "T-T-This isn't the time to be...joking!"

Mew laid a hand up by his face and remarked, "Look if I was working for Gravitus I could've taken you to him anytime."

He smiled a bit more and said softly, "You can trust me, ok?"

She stood there and thought about for a bit. Mew could tell it was hard for her. It'd be hard for anyone to believe that they're not alone in the world. But after giving Kairi some space for a couple minutes she looked at him and the first thing she did was pout.

Her expression was a lot more soft, kinda like a puppy's. But upon crossing her arms under her chest she let out a hefty sigh and remarked, "I guess you are too stupid to trick me."

Mew had a hearty chuckle at that and replied sarcastically, "Geez thanks."

She then tried really hard to look off to the side as she mumbled, "S-So what are we waiting for...? Lets keep going!"

Mew firmly nodded his head and let out an excited "Yeah!" at the thought of seeing the next Planetary Aurian. He started to walk past Kairi and into the pagoda, but he could've sworn he heard a "Thank you" on the way.

He turned back for a moment and cheekily went "What was that?" only for Kairi to shove him with both her hands and stammer at him angrily, "G-Get a move on already idiot!"

"Okay okay!" Mew threw his hands up in sweet surrender and then laid them back by his hips. As he did so he felt a slight tearing sensation on his chest. He looked down and noticed the wound had reopened slightly. He quickly cauterized it with a fingertip and glanced back to make sure Kairi wasn't looking.

"Whew, good thing the dried blood meshes well with this shirt..." He then stood upright and walked up the stairs ahead of her. The climb was relatively short with no twists or turns to slow them down. Even Kairi didn't make a peep, though obviously there was a lot on her mind.

For once, Mew was happy not to pry. He was just glad to know that she could still smile and laugh. To him, it was a sign that there was a chance to make her feel better regarding...whatever it is that's bothering her the most.

They arrived at the fifth floor in record time. Mew was a little surprised by what he found here. Its like he had walked into a huge nightclub...or an overcompensating man-cave. There was a bunch of conveniences strewn about, from arcade machines, a two-story tall refrigerator, a couple couches, some workout equipment, a soda dispenser, a one-hundred inch plasma screen TV...

"This Planetary Aurian's sounding like my kinda guy!" Mew clapped his hands and bobbed his head, getting into a party groove.

"Oh god..." Kairi groaned loudly, "Two of you?!"

Mew turned around and naturally poked a bit of fun at her, "Boy you don't know the half of it."

"What?" She said with her brows tilted.

"Never mind. You're welcome to bow out if too much of me's a bad thing."

"Nah forget it," Kairi raised her head haughtily then said with a sneer, "If I'm lucky the two of you will bash out your remaining brain cells."

Mew closed his eyes and snickered to himself, "Good to see the princess' back in high spirits..."

Then he turned to the portal on the other side of the room and started to walk towards it. Given the pattern thus far it was obvious where they'd be going next. Also, considering how things were in Mercury, Mew didn't feel worried about oxygen going forward.

He walked into the portal and assumed Kairi would follow a second after. One familiar warp later, and the two wound up on the fourth planet from the sun – Mars. Red rocky lands, orange-pink skies, and nothing but hilltops and dust as far as the eye can see.

"Its a little more exciting than Mercury, but that's like comparing chocolate cake to red velvet cake..." Mew remarked...and then felt a little drool coming out of his mouth as he mumbled, "Damn it now I really want cake..."

He turned back around to see how Kairi was reacting to this new planet. She looked bored, unsurprisingly, and her opinions of this place mirrored Mew's similarly, "Well, at least its more colorful than Mercury..."

Mew turned back around and wondered to himself, "Why is NASA so desperate to come here again?"

There was one thing that stuck out though. And no, its not aliens. It was an arcade machine setup a hundred yards out with an electrical generator wired up to it.

Without a peep Mew started walking towards it, causing Kairi to blurt out "Hey!" and chase after him. The two walked across the calm Mars lands and arrived next to the arcade machine. Kairi went into a slump and grumbled, "You can't be serious."

Mew put a hand on his chin and pondered aloud, "Who knows, maybe this is the next Planetary Aurian?"

Kairi swung her head towards him still slumped over like a hunchback and said, "The machine? Really?"

Mew tilted his head and propositioned with a bit of hesitation, "There could be a digital AI inside of the machine, you never know."

"What so...we need to jump into cyberspace?" Kairi suddenly raised and shook her head and grumbled, "W-Why am I even going along with this nonsense?!"

Mew chuckled at her and then looked back at the arcade machine. A bit of sparks went off from behind along with someone going "Gack!" in response. The machine then whirred to life, and the person working on it stumbled out from behind on one foot.

It was a guy somewhere between Mew and Kairi's height but looked a little older than them both. He had natural dark brown skin that made his orange hair stick out all the more. He had his hair slicked back to his shoulders with some of it sticking up on end atop his head.

His outfit started with a sleeveless vest with a wave orange-red-yellow pattern and golden rims with a rope-like texture to them. Then it went on to a red sash holding some baggy white pants up, clearly Arabian inspired. Like, Disney's Aladdin Arabia, to be precise. The guy preferred not to wear shoes which meant having to look at his dry cracked feet, but judging from his six-pack abs and firm pectoral muscles he clearly didn't mind having the one glaring flaw in his appearance.

Upon finishing his one-legged balancing act the guy swung his head towards his company and looked at them with his brown eyes as wide as a goldfish's. He mentally checked out for a moment as he put his feet down and hid his electrically singed hands behind his back. While he rubbed the burnt skin on his pants he remarked in a laid-back tone of voice, "Ah geez, you guys came sooner than I expected."

Mew walked up to this newcomer and immediately held his right hand out, greeting him with a simple, "My name's Mew."

The guy stared at him back then shook his hand and said with a smile, "Aurian Mars. Though my buddies call me Seth."

Mew pulled his hand back and pointed at the arcade machine from across his chest, "So Seth, what's with that?"

Seth crossed his arms under his chest, looked at the machine and remarked, "I bought it from a pawn store. Allegedly it plays a super old Earth fighting game called 'Street Fighter III'."

"Oh no kidding?" Mew rubbed his chin and pivoted towards the machine. He then smiled at Seth, gestured a finger towards the machine and asked, "Wanna go a round or two?"

Seth's face lit up as he softly ushered out a "Hell yeah" and joined Mew in heading towards the machine. Kairi just stood by, staring blankly at the odd scene playing out before her eyes and only uttering a single "What the fuck..." at the whole thing.

Seth had the machine rigged to run without quarters so the two quickly got into the thick of things. Mew picked his character first and Seth chose his. Sounds of 'Aegis Reflector!', 'Hadoken!' and arcade sticks moving in quarter circle motions filled the air for roughly the next ten minutes. Finally though, the two turned away from the machine. Mew stretched an arm high above his head while Seth hung his head low and looked a little distraught.

"Aw man, you're good at this." Seth's voice was relaxed and full of praise, while Mew chose to look at him with one eye up and got a little boisterous, "What can I say? I got a looot of spare time to practice!"

Seth then held his hand up again, this time the two shaking on a good match. Seth then said, "We ought to do this again sometime."

"Yeah that'd be great. Come to my place, I ain't got much junk food but I got plenty of games!" Mew responded jollily.

Seth's smiled widened as the two parted hands. With a whisper of "Yeah, sounds like fun" he reached into his vest and pulled out a small stamp.

"Here, take this stamp. It'll let you move on."

"Just like that?" Mew said with a bit of surprise.

"Well you did give me a thorough thrashing in Street Fighter so its only fair..."

"Oh no no no by all means! I'll gladly take it...new best friend!" Mew laid the back of his palm out and Seth went to apply the stamp...

"Crsssh! Smmmshh! Bssssh!" Three very loud bludgeoning sounds came from the immediate direction of the arcade machine...Which now looked like a three-pronged crown of scrap with electricity spurting out of the tips. Kairi stood triumphantly over it with staff in both hands and her face red-hot.

Seth widened his eyes and was a little too cool-headed as he bemoaned, "Awww man, it took me an entire month to get that running mobile!"

"Kairi what the hell?!" Mew said with his hands swung down by his hips.

"YOU be quiet!" Kairi brandished a finger towards Mew and then leaped over the broken shambles of Seth's dreams to get right up in his face with the blunt end of her staff.

"And you...Just who the hell do you think you are?!" She yelled to a guy already throwing his arms up like he was under arrest.

"Ummm..." Seth didn't even get a word in edgewise before Kairi went at it again.

"You're supposed to be a Planetary Aurian! You're supposed to fight us! Not hand out free passes like candy on Halloween!"

"Princess..." Mew sighed, only for Kairi to take a swing at him to make him retreat. Then she was back to holding Seth at staff-point.

Given a chance to breathe the Planetary Aurian closed his eyes and sighed "Why do I always attract the rowdy ones?" before trying diplomacy with his bitter aggressor, "Do we have to do this? Seriously?"

"Uh-huh! Unless...you're a chicken!" Kairi took her staff to poke the top of Seth's hair and remarked, "Your hairdo even looks like a chicken's cowl! Bawk bawk, chicken!"

"Oh good grief I take it back. She's behaving even worse than she was before..." Mew lamented in his head.

Mew decided to settle the differences at hand by telling Seth nonchalantly, "Just give her the fight she's craving Seth."

Seth turned his head towards Mew and blurted in shock, "I'm not going to be her punching bag!"

"Awww don't think of it like that, think of it as..." Mew raised his eyes up for a moment before closing them and smiling, "Relieving some tension!"

"I am the last person who should be doing that for someone," But after Seth let out a long, worn down sigh he cautiously took a couple steps back and reached down for his hips, "But fine, fine...If its a fight you want."

Seth whips out a pair of orange nunchucks connected by a bronze chain and starts whipping them around his arms and legs faster than a blender set on puree. Masterfully avoiding any bruising of his own skin, Seth grips both ends of his nunchucks presses the chain against his back of his neck. He kicks his toes at the ground and says in a somewhat more serious tone, "Then its a fight you'll get."

Kairi cocked a grin and said, "Bring it o-"

Mars ziplined straight for her and socked her in the nose with the blunt side of his nunchucks clasped in one hand. Kairi was knocked on her back and went tumbling a few feet away. Mew let out a brief whistle and then slowly backed away to find a better spectator spot.

Once Kairi got up there was a bit of blood dripping out of her nose. But it was not as red as the rest of her face was as she growled at Seth. Seth widened his eyes and swiftly apologized, "My bad, I thought you were ready."

Kairi sweeps the dust off her shirt and then points her staff at Seth while growling, "I am going to beat your ass blue, chicken shit."

Vs. The Desert Whirlwind: Aurian Mars!

Mew sat down comfortably on the dusty ground and looked at his shirt once again. He created a sewing needle out of thin air and prepared the necessary means to stitch his shirt back together into something more presentable.

Oh, but he did make sure to give Kairi's little duel with Seth the attention it deserved. He was, in his own terms, "Curious to see how she holds up this time".

Kairi gripped her staff in both hands and ran right at her opponent, the same opening move she made the last two fights she had. Seth leaned down and to the left to dodge the downward swing. He then whipped his nunchucks at the back of her right knee.

Kairi lost her balance forward slightly but stood right up and swung down at Seth's head. He zipped behind her and got upright in the blink of an eye. He hopped a bit off the ground and pummeled Kairi in the back with a few rapid kicks, the last one used to flip out of harm's way.

Kairi stumbled forward and pawed at the ground before pulling herself upright and turning around. Immediately Seth was in her path and used his nunchucks to throw a punch at her face. She barely turned her head out of the way and her eyes looked like a deer in headlights.

Seth quickly loosened one end of his nunchucks then battered the side of Kairi's face with a few hits, backing off when she growled and swung her staff up at his chest.

Kairi fumed in frustration "Hold still damn it!" and rushed at him once more.

Seth whipped his body around faster than she could blink to avoid her staff thrusts and said in exasperation, "Why would I want to get hit?!"

Halfway through his stitching project Mew looked over at the battle and said, "Protect your balls, she likes to aim low!"

"Shut up! Don't help him!" Kairi spat Mew's way, giving Seth an opportunity to sweep his left foot down to trip her flat on her face.

He backed up and swung his nunchucks at increasingly slower speeds around his arms and shoulders. While Kairi was busy working up the energy to plant her palms on the ground Seth looked down at her and remarked aloud, "Oh hey, I'm not doing too bad."

Kairi's head swung right up to glare at Seth which, when combined with a growl caused the man to whimper slightly, "H-Hey go easy on me..."

Kairi tried to sweep his legs with her staff only for him to leap over it twice then back off to put an end to that. Kairi then got up running and tried to thrust her staff at him repeatedly. He easily evaded the attacks and whipped his nunchucks across her body. This just seemed to piss her off more and more, as her growls were getting loud enough to sound like a roar.

Once Mew finished stitching his shirt back to normal he clapped his hands clean and paid closer attention to Kairi's fight. He said nonchalantly, "You winning over there?"

Right as Kairi took another hit to the face and toppled over onto her butt, as a matter of fact. Mew blinked a few times and watched as Kairi scrambled back to her feet and leaped up for an overhead strike.

Seth whipped right behind her, avoiding the bone-crushing blow, then performed a short hop into a spinning kick to her back to knock her down. Kairi punched the ground hard enough to crack it then shot back upright. When she turned around she screamed angrily, "Cut it out!"

"I knew she was angry but this is ridiculous..." Mew bemoaned in his head. After watching Seth successfully evade her easily swung attacks for a few more seconds Mew raised his hands and created a small notepad for him to write in using a graphite pencil.

What he was writing was an utter mystery, but Kairi was the obvious subject matter as his eyes darted from her to the notepad.

After a few more whacks from Seth's nunchucks Kairi's left cheek was starting to look a little bruised, and she fell onto one knee. Not meaning to be condescending in the slightest Seth remarked, "Man now I'm starting to feel bad. Do you wanna just take the 'L'?"

Kairi stabbed her staff right into the ground and gnashed her teeth at Seth. She pulled herself up and snarled, "Don't...look down on me!"

She smashed the ground one more time with her staff and reached for her bracelet. She slammed that Beast Tamer Drive of hers down and exclaimed, "You're DEAD, traitor!"

She unfurled her staff into its whip form and immediately summoned a lion to her aid. Mew sighed and wrote down in the notepad much faster than before.

Seth was utterly baffled as he remarked, "Traitor? What?"

The lion lunged for him and he zipped back a couple feet on the spot, then repeated it a couple times to avoid its follow-up swings. Seth bit his teeth down and seemed more pressed to talk to Mew than avoid the man-eating feline.

"Hey buddy, whatcha writing?"

"Huh?" Mew poked his head up, fluttered his free fingers out and said, "Oh don't fret over it. Focus on your fight!"

"Pay attention damn it!" Kairi yelled in tune with the lion's ferocious roar. The lion leaped into the air and tried to crush Seth under its weight.

Seth leaped back out of the way then ran forth to shoulder tackle the lion in the schnoz. The king of beasts was knocked onto its back, and looked like one of those throwaway rugs.

Seth tried to speed past the grounded lion when the it suddenly lashed its frontal right claw out. Seth hopped to the left and wound up getting tagged by the coil of Kairi's whip. Kairi growled very loudly as she dragged Seth in, who let out an "Eep!" right as her punch smashed into his nose and dragged his whole body towards the ground.

Before his back hit down hard Seth planted his elbows against the ground and rammed his feet into Kairi's chin. She was knocked off her feet and accidentally let go of her opponent. Seth still fell on his back but after a bit of breakdancing jumped back on his feet and breathed a sigh of relief.

A feeling that'd be fleeting, as the lion ambushed him from behind. Seth spun around and quickly whipped his nunchucks around his arms, alternating which hand held them. The weapon created an impenetrable barrier of whirlwind blows that suspended the lion in place until it was too weak to fight.

Seth breathed another sigh as the lion fell down and disappeared. He muttered to himself, "They ain't like the giant scorpions back home, but I still hate lions..."

Another feral growl alerted him to danger from behind in the form of a giant tiger. He bit his teeth and said, "And tigers...tigers blow too."

The tiger raised its claw to swing at Seth but he dodged out of the way and ran circles around the beast. He whipped his nunchucks into it while ducking and leaping over its claw swipes and gnarling bites.

All the while Kairi was watching and stretching her whip out angrily. With how much she was grinding her teeth down it was a miracle she had any left. Mew continued writing stuff down but also made some mental notes in his head.

"Seth's not that strong but that speed...He might even be faster than me!" Mew pouts that he was robbed of a potentially fun fight then turns that into an expression of curiosity by lifting his eyes up.

"I wonder if that's his Drive?"

Since Seth's not up to much else but whittling away at the stationary tiger Mew looked at him and hollered, "Yo Seth! Does your Drive happen to have something to do with speed?!"

"No!" He yelled back, sounding a little exhausted.

Mew then looked over at Kairi and saw her glaring at him. Her eyes were pinched down and wrinkly looking. Mew nervously chuckled and thought, "That has gotta be the single angriest look I've ever seen."

That line of thinking got him, well, thinking. He thus changed his question towards Seth to, "Might it have something to do with the princess' sour mood?"

Seth bent under the tiger's mouth then rising kicked it in the jaw, all the while biting his lip and remarking, "Ah shit yeah, sorry about that!"

After the tiger takes a hard fall on its back Seth eases up and glances over at Kairi, looking increasingly frightened by her almost demonic face. He then says in an embarrassed tone, "My Drive kinda amplifies the strongest emotion of those near me. I don't have very good control over it..."

The tiger flips back onto its four paws and nearly scratches Seth's chest. The man pulls his nunchucks over his shoulders and remarks, "Alright, time to kick it up a notch..."

Faster than an eye can blink Seth whipped his nunchucks down at the ground in a curve. This causes the dust to rise up in a small whirlwind, where the tiger is carried into a helpless state off the ground. Seth then stretches his nunchucks in a straight line before his chest. The ends peel click off, revealing a shotgun barrel underneath each one.

Mew's eyes widened and he whistled "Awwwwesome!" much to Kairi's chagrin. Seth leaped above the tiger and pointed his nunchucks down. The shotgun energy blasts pounded the cat and helped keep him suspended. He held back the recoil surprisingly well. After about ten of those blasts the whirlwind subsided and the tiger looked like swiss cheese on the ground.

Seth landed with a satisfied expression and murmured under his breath, "Thank you Catherine..."

Then a giant shadow loomed over his body. Mew sighed and thought "Oh boy here we go again..." as Kairi went right for her last resort – the bear. Mew shrugged his shoulders out and said, "Its not going to..."

Seth became paralyzed for a moment and the bear pinned him to the ground under one of its beefy claws. Mew squeezes his eyes shut, takes a deep breath in, and sighs out nasally, "Iiiii stand corrected."

Seth looked uncomfortable lying under what was likely a couple tons worth of pure anger. But he kept his cool under duress as he said, "Alright alright...I give up. You win."

But Kairi stretched her whip out and growled in a rather deep tone of voice, "Turn him into veal Ursa Maimer.'

The bear roared and raised its other claws up. Seth widens his eyes and goes, "Whoa hang on! I don't wanna be turned into strip steak!"

While Kairi was so busy taking up a profession as a meat butcher, Mew snuck up behind her. He pressed a finger up to his lips while summoning an ice cube between two other fingers. He then slipped the ice cube down the back of Kairi's shirt.

Her arms swung down and she jolted upright. Mew can hear her biting her teeth down and shivering and chuckles at it. Its not so funny when she turns around and glares at him though. Mew just crosses his arms up and turns his head aside to whistle innocuously.

After a bit of that Mew grins and tells her, "You've had your fun princess. He's surrendered already."

Kairi crumpled her upper lip up then turned her glare back towards Seth. The bear's claw was frozen halfway towards killing him, or at the very least giving his pretty face an ugly makeover. Seth squeezed one hand out underneath the claw and waved it out to say "Don't mind me, just take your time!" sarcastically.

Kairi squeezed her fists and stiffened her upper lip. She then growled "Fiiine!" and the bear was called off a moment later. While she did that, Mew tucked the filled up notepad in his back pocket.

"I'll see you again soon."

Seth breathed a good ol' breath of life and stood right back up. He tucked his nunchucks into the back of his pants and whispers aloud, "Why me? Why me?"

A sentiment Mew could totally empathize with. Still, despite how south things were going, Seth approaches the two with a positive attitude. Not that Kairi offered the same to him.

"Haha! I won! Take that!" She declared in a chipper tone while thrusting a fist at his face.

Seth paused up close to her knuckles and then shuffled his body away from them to get in front of Mew. He reaches into his vest to pull out the stamp and then quickly stamps the back of Mew's hand. As he puts the stamp away he remarks, "This could've gone by so much faster..."

"And with less attempted murder?" Mew chuckled.

"That might've been nice..." Seth sighed in turn.

Mew looked down at the stamp and saw that it was orange. It seemed to depict a pair of scimitars crossing, but the blades of them looked oddly like dollar bills signs. Mew blinked a couple times and Seth responded with his hand waved out, "Don't ask, the stamps weren't my idea..."

Mew looked at him and had a different question on his mind, "Actually I wanted to ask a personal question...If you don't mind."

"Shoot." Seth said without hesitation.

Mew crossed his arms up and inquired, "Why are you working for Gravitus? You don't strike me as much of a fighter."

Seth bemoaned in a somewhat offended tone, "Hey man that's rough...I-I mean you're not wrong perse but..."

"But what?" Mew prodded curiously like a kitten.

"Its just that if there's no reason to fight why bother?" Seth's simple answer wasn't something Mew could agree with, but he saw where he was coming from.

"As for Gravitus..." Seth had to take in a deep breath before giving his answer, "Well...he pays well."

"Ah, so its all about the money." Mew said, almost like he was giving him grief over it.

"Hey, a guy's gotta make a livin'." Seth responded.

Mew nodded his head and muttered, "So true, so true..."

Seth then held his hand out and asked, "So hey, I know that went sour but I'd still totally like to hang out again sometime."

Mew firmly shook his hand, looked him in the eyes, and gave him a bit of motivation in the form of, "And good luck repairing your machine."

Seth glanced back at the machine in disarray and grumbled meekly, "I-Its alright. I'm...kind of used to it."

After the two let go Mew gestures at the portal to get Kairi moving. She's still glaring at Seth over her shoulder as they make their way back. But before their out of earshot Seth suddenly yells, "Hey! When you make it to the next Planetary Aurian-!"

Mew turns around. Seth paused and then awkwardly mumbled, "Never mind...Good luck!"

Mew blinked a few times and then followed Kairi through the portal. Right as he emerged from the other side he saw her grinning from cheek-to-cheek with her hands behind her head. She had this high and mighty attitude that reflected in her voice, "That was easy! I've beaten two Planetary Aurians all on my own!"

Mew had a blank look on his face and not a single witty retort to draw on. Patting down the notepad further into his pocket he remembered the discussion he had with Gabriel.

"If Lady Kairi is brought to Gravitus it'll be the end of everything!"

Mew looked Kairi in the eyes and softly told her, "Hey princess, we need to talk."

Kairi opened her eyes and had this smarmy grin as she boasted, "Finally gonna admit your victories so far were flukes?"

"...Hoo boy am I really up for this?" Mew felt the greatest sensation of dread ever as he closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts. He tried to come up with the least offensive way to say what he was about to say.

"You're lucky we even made it to the fourth floor let alone gained access to the sixth." It was a soft enough start, and Kairi even thought he was just joking as she snickered at him.

"What're you talking about?"

Mew wiggled a hand around by his hip and remarked, "Hate to tell you this princess...But you're..."

He bit down his teeth and hissed with one open eye, "Nooooot a very good fighter."

Her mood 180'd from happy to annoyed as she bitterly asked, "What do you mean 'I'm not a good fighter'?"

Before Mew could clarify Kairi swung her fists down and yelled at him, "I'm plenty strong! So where do you get OFF-"

Mew actually managed to shut her up by feeding into her huge ego momentarily, "Oh yeah you're definitely strong"

Then whispering painfully from the corner of his mouth, "My balls can attest to that..."

But then he quickly sought to take her down a peg by bringing to her attention, "But being a good fighter isn't all about being strong."

"Power IS everything. Without power you-"

"O-K Vergil quiet down and hear me out," Mew put on his serious tone and got straight to the point, "Seth's the weakest Planetary Aurian we've faced so far."

"And like, no offensive meant to him, but he's so weak you didn't actually need your Beast Tamer Drive to beat him."

Stating that point with so much certainty got Kairi quiet for a little bit, giving Mew the freedom to tell her, "You know why you were losing? Because he had your number. Everything you do is predictable."

Mew knew Kairi's face turning red was the signal to back down but he wasn't going to relent this time around. He told her bluntly, "All the strength in the world means diddly squat if you don't have the skill to make use of it."

Kairi spat at Mew with actual spit, much to his surprise, then barked out at him, "Bah! What do you know?!"

Mew blinked as the spit slid slowly down his face, retorting in a none too offended tone, "Hey you said it yourself. I got fighting on the brain."

Kairi stared at him and stuttered, "I-I didn't say..."

Mew grinned, "Ah, but you were thinking it. I could tell... cause I have psychic powers!"

Kairi's face turned pale and so Mew quickly course-corrected this subject by saying, "Ok I'm kidding but see what I mean? If a Grade-A dumbass like me can guess your thoughts, imagine what someone smarter than me would do in the heat of battle?"

Kairi turned her head down and Mew kept going at it, "I believe you got what it takes to go far princess, but you just gotta apply yourself a bit. Let me teach you a bit of what I know and I promise you'll be a much better fighter for it."

She paused for a moment, seeming to think about his offer. But then she swung her head up high and while walking right past him remarked, "Or I'll just go to the next floor. What do you think about THAT?"

"I think..." Mew sighed and snapped a couple fingers right up by his face. Immediately the ground below the stairs to the next floor shot up to form a wall to block the way. Kairi reeled back in the face of this insurmountable obstacle and Mew faced her with a grin.

"That's a big fat 'No'."

Kairi pouted at him then whipped out her staff to take a huge whack at the wall. Her staff stiffens up and vibrates, carrying that sensation all the way to her arms and forcing her to drop it in fright.

Mew sighed and shook his head, "No doing princess. Right now I'm the only one who can take down this wall."

He stared at her sternly and told her the deal, "And I ain't gonna budge unless you take up my offer. Its either that or I go the rest of the way on my own. Your choice."

Kairi points at Mew and goes "Listen here you little perverted shitbag! I...I..." before succumbing to a severe loss for words. She bites her teeth down, sways her head around, and performs a few other acts of resistance before it seems like all her rage just sort of...disappears.

Stoic in expression, she stared at Mew and wondered aloud, "Why do you care so much?"

Mew popped a grin and chuckled, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

In her first instance of selfless interest, Kairi pouted and muttered, "...Try me."

Mew laid his hands behind the back of his head and said, "Cause I like helping people in need."

"...That's it?" Kairi said with her brows raised in suspicion.

"That's it." Mew echoed.

"No its not. You have to have a reason."

"Why do I need a reason to help someone?" Mew then chuckles and remarks, "I feel like we've had this conversation already."

Kairi lowered her head and then upon squeezing her eyes shut growled, "Gah fine! I'll do your dumb training!"

"Sweet!" Mew cheered and clapped his hands together. He then turned for the stairs down and remarked, "Now where would we find a dojo in Sancturia..."

"...There's one in the basement back home."

Mew's eyes widened as he twisted his body back and went, "H-Huh?"

Kairi raised her head and grumbled, "I'm not going to repeat myself, you heard me!"

"N-No its just that..." Upon further reflection, Mew didn't even know why that took him by surprise. He quickly perked back up and remarked, "Ah whatever works! Lets get on back to your house then, your training begins on the spot!"

"Joy..." Kairi unceremoniously crossed her arms and followed Mew on a one-way walk out of the Pyramid. Mew felt pretty confident that this detour would be worth it, even if Kairi didn't believe so right now...

Next Time: Word of the...Not-So Wise