Chapter 55: The Nasty Scythe Wound

Namine glanced up in shock as a dark corridor opened in front of her. She quickly reached out form a dark corridor of her own, so she could run if she had to. However, she didn't need to, it was only Joseph.

"Sorry!" he exclaimed. "I suppose I should have used the door instead, but I wasn't really thinking about it. It just made sense in my head to-"

"Joseph," Namine laughed. "You're rambling. It's fine!" She lowered her hand, the start of her dark corridor fizzling out of existence. Joseph laughed, too, closing his dark corridor.

"I got you ice cream!" he said, handing her an ice cream. She smiled and took it.

"They didn't want you fighting, did they?" she asked.

He sighed. "Nope. But I figured we could sorta hang out…" He shrugged, taking a bite of his ice cream. "I don't see why they don't want me fighting, though, I make a great distraction." He then turned to her and grinned, pulling his wooden sword from his belt and swinging it around a bit. "And maybe I'll be able to actually fight one day! I just… need to practice…" he trailed off, and put his sword away.

Namine chuckled. "I bet you'd be an excellent fighter if you put your mind to it," she told him. "Maybe you'd be better than Riku."

Joseph burst out laughing at that. "I doubt it. Riku's amazing! I don't think anyone could be better than him."

Namine laughed, too. Joseph had a point. Riku was an amazing fighter. She took a bite of her ice cream, and they just sat there for a bit, each happily enjoying their ice cream.

"Hey Joseph," Namine said after a moment. "I've been meaning to ask Riku about this, but I suppose I can ask you…"

"Mmm?" Joseph's mouth was to full of ice cream to properly answer.

"What exactly is the Repair Program?" Namine asked.

Joseph raised his eyebrows, and motioned for her to wait until he swallowed. She laughed slightly, but waited patiently.

"The Repair Program," Joseph began, eyeing his almost gone ice cream. "Is pretty self-explanatory. It's a program that Repairs a broken Replica." He paused a second to eat the rest of his ice cream, and then continued: "So if you get hurt or injured in any way, you can use the Repair Program to just fix the injury, so it's like the injury never happened."

"And… Riku doesn't use it?" Namine asked slowly.

Joseph nodded.

"Why?"

"I have no clue!" Joseph replied. "You should ask him that. Maybe he'll tell you."

Namine laughed. She quickly swallowed her laughter though and asked her next question: "But if he had used it, it would have prevented the scratches from scarring?"

Joseph shrugged. "Probably," he said. "Because, theoretically, you could extract the data that was infected and replace it with new data. However, there is still a chance of scarring when you use the Repair Program. It depends on how bad the wound is, and how the old data responds to the new data…" He shrugged again, indicating that he didn't know much more on the subject.

Someone knocked, and the door opened a crack.

"Yeah?" Namine called.

"Oh, you are in here," Riku said, opening the door the rest of the way and walking in. "I wasn't sure…" He eyed Joseph suspiciously, but said nothing for a moment. He turned to Namine. "This might not have been the safest place for you to go…" he muttered.

"Relax, Riku!" Joseph laughed. "I was here!"

Riku responded by giving him a look that clearly stated this didn't make him feel any better. He decided to humor Joseph, though, and asked: "And just what would you have done if someone showed up to kidnap her?"

"I would have whacked them repetitively with my sword. And while they were distracted, she could get away," Joseph replied simply, grinning. "I make a great distraction!"

"And if there was more than one?" Riku continued.

Joseph laughed. "Pirates!" he said simply.

Namine raised eyebrows, curious as to just what they were talking about.

"They still got you, though," Riku pointed out.

Joseph rolled his eyes. "There were ten of them! I doubt Saix is going to send ten people to come kidnap her." He grinned again. "Besides, I kept all ten of those pirates occupied while you and Sora got away."

Riku frowned, but didn't reply.

Namine, who had used this time to finish her ice cream, glanced down at the ice cream stick, and found that it said WINNER in big bold letters.

"Hey Joseph," she said. "I got a WINNER stick. Do you want it?"

Joseph shook his head and smiled. "You keep it," he told her. "I'll be alright." He glanced between Namine and Riku, and then grinned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get my journal back from 29. You two have fun now!" And with that, he ran off.

They watched him go, unsure of just what to make of that.

"This raid went quicker than usual," Namine noted after a moment.

Riku nodded. "Axel showed up," he explained. "Helped us get rid of 37. Again. I wish he had shown up sooner though, I might have avoided this nasty scythe wound…" He glanced down at his arm, and grimaced. "But… he's still got a reputation to keep and all…"

Namine stopped listening after that. Her attention was firmly fixed on his arm. The 'nasty scythe wound' he was referring to was a large gash running down about half the length of his arm, starting near his shoulder and ending just past his elbow. He clutched the wound tightly, as if trying to prevent it from bleeding, though it wasn't working at all.

How did I NOT notice that? her thoughts screamed. He's been standing here for a good five minutes!

"Riku!" she gasped in shock and disbelief. "Why didn't you mention that sooner!"

He shrugged. "I wasn't really thinking about it…" he muttered. "I'm more surprised you didn't notice."

"Me too," Namine sighed. "Shouldn't you-"

"They haven't roped you into it too, have they!" Riku asked exasperatedly before she could even finish.

Namine stopped, taken aback, but then laughed. "Roped me into what?

"Trying to convince me to use the Repair Program…" Riku finished, sounding rather embarrassed now. He sighed.

"No, I wasn't going to," Namine assured him. "Do you want me to bandage that?"

Riku shook his head. "Nah," he said. "I'll be al-" he paused rather suddenly and was silent for a moment. "Actually…" he whispered. "Yeah, if you- if you wouldn't mind."

Namine laughed. "Of course I don't mind," she said, rising to her feet and going over to examine the wound. She carefully pulled his hand away from the wound, grimacing slightly at all of the blood.

"You really need to be more careful," she sighed, forcing him to sit down.

He shrugged. "He was aiming for my head, I think I made it out okay," he said, grinning.

Namine rolled her eyes. "Where are the bandages?" she asked.

"Here, I'll go get them," he replied, starting to get up.

"Sit down!" Namine told him firmly. Riku laughed and slowly sat back down.

"Okay then," he said, laughing again. "Do you want to know where they are?"

"I'd rather not leave you alone…" she replied slowly.

He nodded. "Just stick your head out the door and ask the nearest Vexen Replica, I suppose. They're bound to help you if you ask."

Namine sighed and headed over to the door. She opened it, and was surprised to find Vexen standing there, taking notes. He glanced up at her, but said nothing and quickly went back to scribbling frantically in his notebook.

"Riku…" Namine said slowly, turning around. "Vexen's out here taking notes."

Riku groaned. "Tell him to go away!" he called.

Namine raised her eyebrows, but turned back to Vexen to ask him politely to do so. Vexen was glaring at her. Or rather, glaring past her and at Riku.

"I do not take orders from him," Vexen said simply, before Namine could say anything.

"Are you trying to say that I should still be taking orders from you!" Riku shouted. "What are you doing anyways?"

"Research," Vexen replied.

Namine opened her mouth to say something, but Vexen continued talking.

Or, he tried to continue talking, Riku interrupted him.

"Researching what exactly?" he asked.

Vexen slowly scowled. "You know it is very impolite to interrupt," he muttered.

"And just what are you going to do about me being impolite?" Riku replied, raising his eyebrows.

Namine rubbed her head as the two continued arguing. She had not been expecting this, nor did she really have time for it. Riku had a wound that needed to be bandaged. And if Riku was arguing with Vexen-

She sighed.

"Could you two… stop arguing?" she asked after a moment. To her surprise, they actually listened. Riku stopped immediately mid-shout and quieted instantly. Vexen continued talking for a second, but slowly quieted, too. Namine turned to Riku. "Just tell me where the bandages are," she sighed. "I'll go get them."

"Oh, they're right next door, in my room," he said, as if it was obvious. "They should be on my desk."

"Really?" she exclaimed in shock. "The way you said- it sounded like-" she sighed. "If I had known they were that close I would have just gotten them sooner…" she muttered, and then shook her head. "Never mind. I'm going to go get them now. Riku, don't move that arm too much. Excuse me," she said to Vexen, as she slipped passed him and out of the room.

"That's fine," Vexen said. He was scowling. "I'll just be… leaving. Goodbye."

"Good riddance!" Riku called.

Namine groaned and rolled her eyes. She grabbed the bandages from Riku's room, then quickly returned to her own. Riku was scowling, probably still mad about Vexen.

Namine sighed and sat down on the bed next to him, beginning to bandage his arm.

"So what exactly is your—" she began, but pause. That question would have continued with the word "problem" and she didn't want to ask him that. That would be rude. She frowned, trying to figure out how to word that sentence instead.

"Hmm?" he asked after a moment, realizing she wasn't going to continue.

"What's with you and Vexen?" she asked finally. "You two don't seem to get along."

Riku sighed. "He's still trying to boss me around, which I'm not going to listen to. This isn't forever ago, when I had to listen to him. So he should just…!"

He didn't finish, but a very sour expression crossed his face.

Namine swallowed, but didn't say anything or press him to continue. She knew Riku's past was a touchy subject. So, instead, she focused on bandaging the wound. Riku said nothing more either, and cooperated rather nicely as she finished with the bandage.

It's funny… she couldn't help but think. He used to complain about this.

I wonder what's changed…

She decided she wouldn't wonder now, though. There was something else she needed to ask Riku.

"So… why don't you use the Repair Program?" she asked.

Riku scoffed.

"Because it's not going to work," he said.

Namine raised her eyebrows. That wasn't the answer she'd been expecting.

"Um, do you know that for sure?"

"Well…. no," Riku admitted. He frowned hard.

"Shouldn't you test it first, before refusing to use it?" Namine spluttered, surprised and utterly dumbfounded by this (lack of) logic.

Riku grumbled something incoherent, then pulled his arm away from her. "What's it matter?" he asked, gesturing at the now-bandaged wound. "This works fine, doesn't it?"

"I… I guess so," Namine said, even though she didn't really think that.

They sat in a kind of tense silence for a moment, which was pretty… awful.

Trying to lighten the mood, Namine forced a laugh.

"So… umm… What was Joseph saying about those pirates?" she asked, turning to Riku.