A/N stuff: Whoomp there it is! Had been exceptionally sickly the past few months and needed to recognize that even I, the great Sei, have limits. BUT if you wanna get more frequent status updates you should head over to my facebook page and give it a "like." Art of characters within this story - along with ones not featured - can be seen there, some exclusively! So here's the link, which I will continue to post in future chapters... the url is shinseikakumeiART, put it where you'd put any normal fb url (after a forward slash of course). The page is simply "ShinseiKakumei" ... hoping I can put a proper link in my profile.

Chapter V: Shadow Aspect

The sun also rises,
On those who fail to call
My life, it comprises,
Of losses and wins and fails and falls

I've been observing the new member, Number IX. The way she looks reminded me of someone from years ago – someone I only ever saw in passing, walking the roads of Radiant Garden. Never even knew her name. I'd seen her heading towards the castle sometimes, which baffles me to this day. What business would a child have at the castle? Surely she wasn't a credible enough person to be allowed entrance, but that is something I am sure I'll never know. The more I think about it, it both continues to add up yet fall apart at the same time. Purple hair, red eyes and fair skin. If she lost her heart recently her age would be accurate, she couldn't have been much older than 10 or 11. The only thing is the difference in personality. The few times I saw more of that girl than just a glance on the street, she carried herself with contrived dignity for her age, but still was sharp in the mind – as well as a young girl could be I suppose. She looked like she tried to act more mature than she was, but she was by no means stupid. She of course carried the same follies any child her age would, but like I said... such a polarizing difference is bizarre. Xirena is an idiot, plain and simple, she is surely less mature than the one I knew. Rexvir has taken to her, but it seems he treats her more like an underling than a friend and Xigbar enjoys picking on her if she happens to cross his path. He played that "got your nose" trick on her and she chased him for an hour on the verge of tears trying to get her nose back. How could someone be so dim? And as for Axel, he seems to like her too. It doesn't matter – as long as he keeps his focus. He always got bored of new toys rather quickly, so I'm not concerned about him taking some time to play with her... Part of me thinks her behavior is an act to get the members to endear to her, but her behavior doesn't offer wide appeal. I don't find her enjoyable to be around in the slightest, and I relish in the quiet of her absence. Despite all this, it's impossible to ignore the similarities...

Wildly colored animals and fantastic flora decorated the aptly named Lotus Forest in the world of Wonderland. A variety of exotic creatures could be seen within the forest, all with unique calls that resonated almost like a rhythm. This world was easily the most beautiful that Xirena had seen so far in her short life; the vibrant visuals had enraptured her in a whirlwind of girlish giddiness. The songs of the birds made her want to sway and dash around, but even she knew better... She made no attempt to mask her simple happiness as she walked along with her mission partner for the day: Zexion. He had only heard of what she was like from others and never spent a mission with her yet, so he was sure she would discard her distractions when he asked her – because that's what he would do, although he wouldn't be distracted from his objective in the first place, so it's not much more than a baseless theory.

However, he wasn't above a little bit of pushing. He stopped walking and turned to face his plucky follower.

"Do you remember why we're here today, Xirena?" He asks in a calm voice.

"Mhmm, I sure do!" She proclaimed, sounding childishly prideful.

"Tell me what the mission is, Xirena." He pressed on.

"Uhm well..." She began, suddenly growing timid, "We gotta go... and... kill a big Heartless..." She added. Her previously proud voice had fallen into uncertainty and shame. Zexion thought for a moment before responding.

"An accurate enough answer." He conceded, and went on to respond with a brief lecture that was both stern and kind, "Keep your mind on the mission Xirena. We have a job to do, you can look at the pretty flowers once we destroy that Heartless."

It was an honest promise and not a sarcastic quip, which really made Xirena happy. Having permission to explore the forest excited her, she wanted to run around and do it right now but Zexion had a commanding way about him that made it impossible to disobey. He wasn't like Rex – who has some control issues – but rather like someone wise and worldly; who knows best and allows that to shine through in his personality and used it to his advantage with their business. His intentions are not always pure, though... But on a standard ole mission with the ever dopey Xirena? He had no schemes for this girl. Her easily influenced self worked well with his goal oriented work – she wasn't difficult, at least, not in the same way as others. He could keep her motivated, which he found rather refreshing compared to the other guys, who all seem to be stubborn or moody... or both.

"One more thing before we continue." He says. Xirena stares at him, "Have you read the books I assigned to you last week?"

That's right. Just like Vexen, Zexion was tasked with some teaching. However, what he gave to the members was culture and the arts – mostly through literature. He loved reading himself and hoped to pass it on to others so he had someone to discuss books with... But over and over again he was disappointed. Unlike combative magic, literature wasn't a required class. You could liken it to an elective... an encouraged elective. But we all know that Xirena loves to learn, but sometimes she runs into some trouble...

"Um, they were really long and didn't have any pictures and it was hard and I got headaches so I stopped..." She answered honestly, hanging her head.

Zexion frowned, internally frustrated yet at the same time he wasn't surprised. As he was about to lecture her on this shortcoming, Xirena raised her head back up quickly, and a look of longing was in her eyes.

"Maybe you could read them to me?!" She asked excitedly.

His intended words halted in his throat – Zexion didn't expect that one. With all his knowledge and eye for reading others, he couldn't anticipate that sort of request.

"I..." He started, but in reality he had jumped the gun. He wasn't sure how to respond immediately to her.

With thinking about it, he came to the conclusion that it wasn't a terrible idea.

"We can try that." He answered.

"Oh goodie!" Xirena celebrated.

The joy was ephemeral though... The peace was shattered when a large creature dropped in from the canopy above, crashing down and nearly landing on Zexion and Xirena. When the shock wore off and the dust cleared, an abnormally large Soldier-type Heartless stood in front of the pair while twitching and gyrating monstrously. Unlike the common Soldiers, it's body was a deep red color which contrasted with the bright crimson logo it sported on its chest. Xirena trembled – she'd never taken on an enemy of this scale before.

"Draw your weapon!" She heard Zexion shout.

Xirena was stuck in a pit of fear as the monster loomed over her and Zexion, her only movement coming in the form of an unintentional fall backwards – right onto her ass – with her unblinking gaze locked on the Heartless the whole time. While she was frozen on the ground, Zexion had leaped backwards to put more space between himself and the Heartless. He wasn't about to waste his time trying to save Xirena when he could surely just take care of business himself. The Book of Retribution appeared in his hands, already opened and ready to do battle. He began by casting a high level blizzard spell at the Heartless – the ice crystals exploding against it's dark body were more than enough to take it's attention over to Zexion – taking the heat off the hapless girl.

Xirena breathed heavily as the shadow of the monster disappeared from over her, having decided to attack Zexion instead. Her head was spinning and her ears buzzed, but it was when the Heartless was completely uninterested in her that she had a burst of insight. The songs of the birds and croaking of frogs she so enjoyed pierced the veil of fear plugging her ears – it sounded like a beautifully composed piece of music to her, and the rhythm echoed through her soul. With the sounds of the forest compelling her to move, Xirena summoned every ounce of agility in her body and leaped onto her feet. She twirled her right hand and thrust it straight up into the air above her head, fingers spread as if reaching desperately for something unseen. Almost instantly, a flurry of purple sparkles appeared above her; and just as quickly as the mysterious light phenomenon appeared, it dissipated into thin air. But now an object was in her hand that she held up so high... A long, pole-arm weapon with a curved one-sided blade at the tip. Having a magical girl moment to herself, she remained posed with her feet spread apart and her head tilted upwards towards her weapon – smiling like a dope.

The breeze carried the song of the forest into Xirena's ears which spurred her to keep moving. She brought the glaive down and started to sashay towards Zexion and the Heartless. Her mind automatically blocked out any noises except for the song. Feeling a climatic moment approaching, she jumped into a revoltade while swinging the blade of her long reaching weapon directly at the heartless. She managed to strike it twice with her mid-air spin, and landed in a crouched position, realizing her success she quickly hopped to her feet.

"I did it! I hit him!" She cheered for herself.

But the Heartless didn't take kindly to that. It turned it's attention back to the Dancer of Dreams and went in for a swiping claw attack. Having broken her own focus, Xirena yelped and clumsily stumbled backwards to get out of it's range of attack. As she retreated, she heard the footsteps of her giant pursuer come to a halt and the smell of ash filled the air. She whirled around to see that Zexion had finished the monster off with a high level fire spell while it had it's guard down.

"Still green I see." He said on the other side of the disappearing flames and darkness, "But not a bad effort."

"Thanks!" Xirena replied, so proud of herself for having a useful moment in such a frightening combat experience. Her weapon disappeared in the same flurry of sparkles it had appeared with.

"Still though... it seems like you went from zero to sixty there. How did you gain the confidence to fight?" Zexion asked.

"I listened to the animal noises and stuff in the forest because all together it sounded like a song, so I danced. Dancing made me feel braver!"

"Hm... Interesting response."

Zexion opened his ears to the noises around him. They were subtle, but he did not find what Xirena did when listening to them. They were pleasant enough to the ear, but Zexion found it hard to believe something so simple and seemingly nonsensical could inspire even an ounce of bravery.

Saying Xirena marches to the beat of a different drummer would be a massive understatement. The most accurate alternative would be to say there's no beat at all yet she marches just as much as if there was one anyway. As he considered all this, Xirena stood in front of him looking expectant, swaying idly from side to side. When Zexion noticed, he immediately realized what she was waiting for: Orders.

"You're free to go back whenever you want, I'm going to stay here for a bit." He told her, "Or stay, it's of no consequence to me what you do."

"Oh ok." Xirena nodded, and paused her swaying, "I think I wanna hang out here some more!"

"Very well." Zexion responded with a satisfied tone, "Just do one thing for me: if you happen upon any forget-me-nots, pick some and bring them to me."

"Eh?" Xirena was confused, but what else is new?

Zexion summoned up another book similar to his battle lexicon, but this one wasn't used for combat. It was more plain looking, in fact it was very plain – just a thick, brown leather book with a golden latch that acted as a seal to keep it shut. He gracefully opened up to a random page in the middle, where a beautiful yellow flower sat flat and preserved on the aged paper. Xirena leaned in close to get a better look at it.

"One of my hobbies is flower pressing, and somehow those forget-me-nots keep eluding me... Perhaps you'll have better luck than I."

He snapped the book shut in Xirena's face and she herself snapped up, standing straight and stiff from the fright she just got.

"Y-You got it!" Having the tip of her nose almost crushed between the pages of the book caused her to stammer a bit.

With a nod of dismissal, Xirena turned on her heel and skipped away. At this point she wouldn't have to worry about getting lost since she could just summon up a corridor wherever she pleased if she wanted to get out. But for the time being, she had remained in an area where Zexion was still in view... There was plenty there to look at before moving on. The Lotus Forest is a magical place to be, since it's apart of Wonderland and all... There's always a new type of flower blossoming somewhere almost every day. You'd have your "ordinary" types of flowers like daisies, sunflowers and roses around for a few weeks – but then they disappear in favor of new wondrous growths. Then roses can be seen sprouting among them. It's a whole big cycle. You could compare this to how different plants grow during different seasons, but at a highly accelerated rate. The whole point is, the forest is never a dull place to be.

Xirena slowed her skippy pace as she arrived at a wall of roses. There were the classic reds, whites, yellows... but then, a blue one with a pattern of white stars on it's petals, tye-dye colored roses, roses that had petals of alternating color... It was incredible! Xirena's eyes sparkled as she gaped at them. It grew up against a wall of larger, sturdier plants behind it, extending up the length of them – and possibly down the other side. Who knows? This is Wonderland after all. The patch of blue with white star patterned roses caught Xirena's eyes first though, so she squatted down in front of them with her hands on her knees, then resting her chin on her hands.

"So pretty..." She murmured to herself, feeling a warmth in her chest as she gazed at all the exotic flora.

"Those ones are called Starlight Roses."

Xirena let out a little gasp, not realizing Zexion had wandered in her direction while she was awestruck by the roses. She didn't get up, but she turned her head as much as she could to communicate with him.

"They say when these roses are under a starry sky they start to sparkle, but once the stars are no longer visible they look as they do now." He continued, "I unfortunately can't confirm or deny these claims for you though."

"Oh ok..." Xirena's head fell back to it's previous position, "Why don't we take one home and find out?"

"Xirena..." Zexion began, "There aren't any stars back home."

Oink oink oink...

Xirena's ears perked up before she had a chance to be disappointed by Zexion's facts. Zexion heard rustling in the bushes.

Oink.. Oink oink...

Not too far away the source of the oinks emerged from a small bush. A tiny pig, about the size of a piglet really, stepped carefully as it dragged it's nose across the ground while it sniffed wildly. It caught both Xirena and Zexion's attention because – like most everything in that forest – is was a little strange looking. It was blue. Blue with a flower design on it's back, along with a patch of darker fur around one of it's eyes.

"Oh! She's so cute!" Xirena giddily yelled. She hopped up back to her feet and began to approach the blue pig.

The pig quickly looked up and assumed a stiff, startled stance. For some reason though, when it saw Xirena approaching it started to relax a bit – but still looking wary of this newcomer.

Xirena stopped a foot or so in front of the pig, an the pig started to oink at her. Xirena nodded along as the pig oinked, as if she were in a conversation with it and wanted to convey a sense of understanding. But, it was a pig... The oinking ceased and Xirena hummed to herself, giving one final nod to the pig. Next thing you know, the pig is swaddled in Xirena's arms.

"Very nice to meet you!" Xirena said to the pig as she hugged it, "I'm gonna take you home and you can live with me! Ok?"

The pig oinked. Xirena took it as a "yes" because what else was there to do at this point? Xirena was now dead set on going home right away – totally forgetting about looking for the forget-me-nots, which was probably for the best because she didn't know what forget-me-nots even looked like.

Xirena was really excited about this. It would be nice to have company during the night when she's by herself, someone to talk to and someone (somepig?) to snuggle with. Xirena was also real hyped to introduce Axel to her new piggy companion. She could only hope that they would get along.