Chapter 68: The Games
"Let me get this straight," Cid said, driving his spear through a few Heartless. "Yeh didn't get any sleep last night?"
Riku shook his head, and then laughed. "I don't need nearly as much as sleep as you think I do," he explained, slicing through an advancing Soldier. It was one of the perks of being a Replica. Another one was being able to see just fine, despite the darkness of night. "So I'm perfectly fine."
Cid yawned. "O'course…" he muttered.
Riku quickly rolled around to the back of a nearby Large Body and started attacking the crap out of it before it could turn around. Just before he could deliver the final blow, though, Yuffie's shuriken came flying out of nowhere and killed it.
"YOU'RE WELCOME," she called loudly.
Riku stared at her a moment, and then shrugged. Whatever. Then he noticed something else, and quickly lunged forward to eliminate an Air Soldier that had been sneaking up on Aerith.
"Oh, thanks," she said turning to him, though she didn't sound entirely focused. Riku thought maybe telling her it was really alright if she wanted to sit this out, like Leon had suggested, but then he'd have to admit that he'd been eavesdropping.
"No problem," he told her instead, and headed back over to Cid.
"Hey Cid," Riku said, once he was there. He lowered his voice a little bit. "Does Aerith always get like this when Cloud leaves?"
"Eh?" Cid turned to him, staring blankly for a moment. Then he seemed to finish processing Riku's question. "Oh! I dunno. Sometimes?" he answered. He turned back to the Heartless, stabbing three in a row clean through with his spear. "Guess if they got in a fight again…" he muttered to himself.
"Again!?" Riku asked, a little surprised.
Cid shrugged. "Cloud hates sittin' still, Aerith thinks he's bein' silly and just runnin' from his problems—which, he is. We all think he's bein' silly, but… He and Aerith tend to butt heads about it more."
"Oh," Riku answered.
"She'll be okay," Cid assured him. "Besides, it's 3AM. D'yeh think any of us are on top form right now?"
"Good point," Riku admitted.
He resolved to fight a little harder, since he was on top form right now. If he could clear all this out for them, it'd be the least he could do.
xxx
By the time they had gotten rid of all of the Heartless, the sun was thinking of peeking up over the horizon, much to Yuffie's dismay. The moment they got back to Aerith's house, she promptly headed upstairs, declaring that she was going to go back to sleep. No one stopped her.
Namine had moved downstairs, and was currently sketching.
"Hey, whatcha working on?" Riku asked, glancing over Namine's shoulder. Very quickly, she snapped her sketchbook shut.
"Come on, Riku, you know how old that gets," she told him, scowling. "I'll show you when I'm finished."
Riku shrugged, smiling a little bit. "Sorry," he said, only meaning it a little bit.
"Anyone want breakfast?" Aerith asked.
"Not hungry," Cid replied. "Might take Yuffie's cue and go back to sleep myself," he grumbled, eyeing the staircase.
"Maybe we should get some sleep too, Aerith," Leon said. "It's too early for breakfast, and neither of us really…" he trailed off.
"What about you two?" Aerith asked, ignoring Leon and looking to Namine and Riku.
"I'll just have one of those muffins from yesterday…" Leon muttered.
Aerith turned to Namine and Riku. "What about you two?" she asked.
Namine got to her feet, and nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "We should… actually… probably get going," she said. "I think we've been gone long enough…"
Riku raised his eyebrows at that.
"We just got here," he said.
Namine looked nervous, though. She moved to open her sketchbook, but decided against it halfway through. She just thumbed through the pages instead. "Well, yeah, but…" She lowered her head. "There's been another raid," she replied, her voice quiet. "And I think we only just barely survived…"
"Oh," Riku said.
"If you need to go, you need to go," Leon told them, with a gentle smile. "Thanks for your help."
"It was nice having you here," Aerith added. She smiled, too, though her was more tired. "Come back if you ever need anything. Or if you just want to visit. You're always welcome."
Riku nodded, a warmth in his chest that he didn't really understand.
"Yeah, if we have some spare time to kill…" he told them, not that he was really sure they'd get any spare time.
"Thanks for having us," Namine said.
They said goodbyes, and Riku and Namine left through a dark corridor.
xxx
Sora appeared in Olympus Coliseum and almost immediately winced.
Bright…
This world is VERY bright…
He shook his head and pocketed his star shard.
"Hey! Kid!" someone called. Sora turned, and found Phil walking over to him, looking as Phil always did: slightly annoyed.
"You can fight, right?" Phil continued, almost accusingly.
Sora nodded.
"Perfect!" Phil exclaimed. "I had some guy show up last minute, wanting to sign up for the games. And I couldn't just tell him no, because he's got quite the group of fans, and he's hardly ever around!"
"What does this have to do with me?" Sora asked, confused.
"The sides would have been unbalanced!" Phil said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "But luckily, you showed up and balanced things out!"
"Uh- great-" Sora stammered, completely confused.
"Games are in five minutes, kid! Don't be late!" And with that, Phil turned on his heel and walked off.
Sora grimaced, then sighed.
Might as well just head over there now…
xxx
Wonder who that 'other guy' Phil mentioned is, Sora thought, as he worked through Heartless. He'd entered the games before (once before, not that he'd really like to think about that…) so he knew the drill. Fight Heartless. Work your way up to the finals. He didn't have any idea what the finals would be, though, he hadn't made it that far.
Riku'd interrupted, and they'd fought, and that had messed up the games for sure.
Maybe I'll fight that other guy, in the finals? That'd be fun!
Phil said he had a lot of fans… Man, that doesn't tell me ANYTHING about who he is!
Sora sighed, and kept at the Heartless.
I mean, it shouldn't be too long before I'm at the finals, he admitted to himself, as the match ended. And I'll find out then.
That didn't mean he liked waiting.