Chapter 114: Some Explanations

When they got back to Aerith's, Aerith and Leon, as well as Riku, were missing.

"They took him upstairs," Yuffie explained, when she noticed their worried looks. "So he could rest in, yanno, a real bed." She looked at Tifa then, eyebrows raised, something of a grimace on her lips. "Sooo. How'd it go?"

Tifa rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. Then she seemed to reconsider. "Actually, better than expected. Kairi's got some questions about Sora's Shadow, though—"

Yuffie started groaning before Tifa could quite finish her sentence.

"Ugh, I don't get any of that junk!" she said, heading for the stairs. "Look, I'll just go get Aerith and Leon so they can help you out. Can't believe this…" She grumbled, as she started moving.

Tifa leaned to look into the kitchen. "Cid?" she asked.

"Aerith asked me t'make soup, so I'm makin' soup! I'll help yeh out when I'm done."

"Well, never mind then," Tifa sighed. She gestured at the couches. "Go ahead and sit down and I'll start explaining things as best as I can."

Joseph, who was sitting in front of the bookshelf, flipping through books along with Toby again, peeked his head up over the back of the couch. "Wait, is this about Sora!?" he asked, excitedly. Before even getting confirmation, he tossed the book over his shoulder and leapt over the back of the couch, plopping himself down into it. "I'M ALL EARS!"

Namine sighed like this happened frequently. Kairi raised her eyebrows.

Joseph grimaced. "OH, I uh, I probably shouldn't have just done that huh? Whoooops…." He laughed nervously, scratching at his head.

"Y'think?" came Toby's quiet but disapproving voice from behind the couch.

Joseph turned around completely to glare at him over the back of the couch. "Hey how would you know! You don't know as much as me!"

"It's like basic manners Joseph."

"WELL!"

Tifa turned to Kairi and Namine, looking much like she'd like to punt Joseph out the window. Kairi stifled a laugh. Namine sighed again.

"Joseph, come on," she said.

"Right, sorry!" he hastily turned back around and sat very still and nicely on the couch.

"He's a friend of Sora's, too," Namine added, to Tifa. As she said this she moved to the couch, sitting down to Joseph's right. Figuring she might as well, Kairi sat down on the other side of Namine.

It was then that Aerith and Leon came down the stairs, Aerith first. Tifa went over to meet them, speaking rapidly in a hushed tone—though not hushed enough.

"Alright, so, I think Sora's Shadow did something to Kairi's head. I've worked through most of it, but she has some questions, so…"

Aerith nodded absently, while Leon looked like he suddenly understood a lot of things. Kairi tried not to scowl.

"Yuffie's staying upstairs to watch Riku," Aerith informed everyone. "I'd be more comfortable if someone was with him when he woke up so he doesn't panic or anything."

That said, Aerith and Leon and Tifa all took seats on the other couch, Aerith in the middle. (They moved Kairi and Namine's bags to the coffee table, to get them out of the way.)

"Alright so, what's this shadow business?" Kairi asked.

"It's… a little complicated," Leon prefaced, frowning a little to himself.

Aerith, as if sensing his discomfort, picked up from there. "A Shadow—not to be confused with the Heartless, they're different—is a creature that's… sort of born from someone's darkness," Aerith explained.

Kairi exchanged startled glances with Namine. That didn't sound good.

And to make it worse:

"Their sole goal is to drag their 'host'" Tifa used air quotes around the word, "back into darkness. Cloud had one named Sephiroth."

"And… Sora has one?" Joseph asked, nearly leaning entirely off the couch in his urgency.

Namine looked uneasy, but unsurprised. Had she already known?

Tifa nodded. "Yup."

"He's… different than most," Leon said. "Or, different than Sephiroth, anyway. We don't know why."

"But we don't know everything about Shadows, either, just some stuff from experience," Tifa argued, with a shrug, like it didn't matter that much to her.

Kairi folded her arms over her chest, scowling.

"Right, and uh…. how is this supposed to make me feel better about Sora's darkness?" she asked. There was bitterness in her tone, but… no jittery feeling in her chest. So that was a step up. "I don't see how having some creature of darkness following you around can be a good thing."

"Well, it's not," Aerith admitted. "But it does, technically, mean he's better off than he could be."

Leon nodded. "Right. He wouldn't have a Shadow if there wasn't some sort of struggle going on between him and the darkness."

"If he was already consumed by darkness, he wouldn't need a Shadow to convince him into embracing it," Tifa said, meeting Kairi's eye. She was trying to sound encouraging, which compared to all the roughness she'd given off earlier, was a little weird. Kairi appreciated the sentiment, though. "So, there's obviously still light in him. A lot of light. He may be struggling, but he's definitely not lost."

"Okay…" Kairi said, slowly.

She supposed that made her feel a little better (maybe?) but it was hard to tell when most of this just sounded like mumbo jumbo to her.

"Come on, Kairi," Namine said with a sigh, turning with sad eyes to consider her friend. "What's it going to take to convince you?"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Joseph vaulted forward, bracing himself on the couch seat below him as he leaned forward and to the side to get a better look at Kairi around Namine. "You, like? You don't believe Sora's okay?"

Kairi groaned a little, not exactly wanting to explain it again.

But around the lump in her throat and the irritation in her chest, she spoke:

"Well, I haven't exactly seen him in over three months," Kairi explained, a slight edge in her words. "And everything that happened then along with today doesn't exactly give me high confidence when it comes to him and the darkness."

Joseph turned away from her and looked to everyone else. "Wait, what happened today?"

Namine made a frantic gesture at Kairi to signal her not to say anything, but Kairi didn't have to.

Tifa did.

"Sora's the reason Riku got hurt, apparently," Tifa said, still with that slight air of whatever about her—like it didn't totally matter to her one way or another. "Or, at least, according to Namine, anyway. They got in a fight, right?" She turned to Namine for confirmation.

However, Namine's head was down, and she studied her hands very intently. Kairi could almost hear her internal screams. The only reason she did not laugh is because it would be mean to laugh at her friend's pain.

Joseph's jaw dropped probably to the floor.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaat!?" He shifted his position so he was looking more directly at Namine. "Namine, is that true?" he demanded, a strong note of disbelief and horror in his voice.

"I- I mean…"

"We'll have to ask Riku for extra clarification when he wakes up," Leon said, firmly. Almost like he didn't entirely want to believe it, either. Aerith nodded in agreement.

Joseph held a finger up in the air, looking rather dejected. "Ok I'm starting to see why you're skeptical Kairi, because that seems like an extremely un-Sora thing for Sora to do."

"I mean, it's not like he hasn't in the past," Kairi sighed, still remembering Hollow Bastion (for the first time) very vividly.

"Still!"

"He was fine this morning, though," Aerith said, shaking her head. "He was definitely…" She seemed to struggle for words. "His Shadow made him say some incredibly rude things, but he definitely—"

"I definitely don't think he would have done that for no reason, with no prompting," Leon finished for her, though on something of a different vein. He looked off to the side, an uneasy expression on his face. "There must be a piece we're missing."

Tifa crossed her arms and leaned back. "Like I said, his Shadow probably had everything to do with it. If he can make Sora say things, I'm sure he can make him do things, too."

"You don't… happen to know anything else, do you, Namine?" Aerith asked cautiously, turning to her.

Namine shook her head. "We'll have to wait until Riku wakes up."

There was an uncomfortable silence held between all of them for a moment, as they reflected on that, and the fate of their friend resting and recovering upstairs.

Then Joseph shot out of his seat.

"Anyway!" he said loudly, pointing dramatically at Kairi. "LISTEN, KAIRI! I…!" He considered his actions a moment, then dropped the dramatic act. "I might as well add my own two cents," he said, folding his arms over his chest. "Sora's—I mean, he was fine when I saw him last! It was a month ago, and he seemed to be doing fine? There was that one incident in Neverland—no wait, not Neverland, it was whatever world we went to after Neverland, where. Well." Joseph grimaced. "OK SO some bad things happened but it was an accident! He was like extremely sorry afterwards and that's the only time I've seen him have trouble with the darkness."

Kairi opened her mouth to interject something—anything, really—but Joseph kept plowing ahead.

"And we talked, me 'n him, 'cuz we were friends kinda? No, more than kinda. And he mentioned you! He mentioned he really regretted what he'd done—not that he ever told me what it was specifically that he'd done he wouldn't say that but he did seem really really really sorry about it, so…"

Joseph trailed off there (finally) and Kairi sighed.

"Alright," she said, turning away from him and everyone else, resting her elbow on the arm of the couch and her chin in her hand. "I believe you."

Joseph punched the air.

"OH, SCORE!"

Kairi could feel Namine's eyes on her neck, and she could feel Tifa's eyes, too.

"Do you?" Tifa pressed, sounding unsure.

"Well, I mean!" Kairi sighed, slumping into the couch, scowling. "Honestly I'm just tired of arguing with all of you guys," she grumbled.

"Oh…!" Joseph blinked a few times in surprise, letting his upraised fist fall. "Less score…"

Kairi blew hair out of her face, crossing her arms with as much force as possible. She wasn't exactly happy about this, but: "I mean, I guess I shouldn't, like, dismiss what you have to say, either?" she continued. "I'm sure you guys wouldn't lie to me about him, and… while I've still got some doubts," a lot of doubts, her brain whispered, "I can't really clear those up until I see Sora myself."

She turned to Namine, already hearing the words on Namine's half-open mouth.

"And, I know. I should have faith in him. But I'm also worried, alright? I'm gonna be worried!" That was natural, regardless of how much faith she had. How could you not be worried about your best friend, when he was in a situation like this? "I don't exactly have the luxury of actually seeing him in the past like five months, either, like you guys do, so I think I have an excuse to doubt a little bit more."

Namine closed her mouth.

"Okay…. fair."

"Well, Kairi, if you'd like to see him…" Tifa began, and then as if realizing that didn't quite lead her where she wanted it to, said instead. "We should probably look for him, one way or another. Hopefully he's still around Hollow Bastion."

Kairi's stomach flip-flopped.

"O- Oh," she said.

There were no jitters in her chest or anything, but there was still an uneasiness of one sort or another. It had been a very long time since she'd seen Sora, and she definitely had not expected to run into him today. She supposed it wouldn't be a bad thing, but…

"We should probably all go look for him, actually," Leon said, getting to his feet.

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on Riku," Aerith said, getting to her feet as well and moving for the stairs. "I'll send Yuffie down to go with you guys."

"I'm cookin', so don't even ask!" came Cid's voice, from the kitchen.

"Can I stay here, too?" Toby asked. Kairi couldn't see him, but she could see Joseph's reaction well enough.

"WHAT!" In typical 12-year-old fashion, Joseph clutched his chest in a huge play of mock-offense. Or maybe, he really was offended, but over-dramatizing it? One of the two. "My partner in crime, leave me behind, how could you!?"

"This book's really good…"

Joseph glared for a moment, then let out his breath, slumping over. "Ok fine!" he groaned.

"Do… you really think Sora's still here?" Namine asked, standing up. "It's been a while, and if he hasn't come back."

Leon shrugged.

"No way of saying, but we should look just in case," Leon answered.

"I mean, if he's anything like Cloud—and, he seems to be a lot like Cloud," Tifa added. "Then he probably panicked and vanished off-world because he wanted to get away as fast as possible." She shrugged. "Not that that means we still shouldn't look, of course."

"I hope he's not hurt," Namine said.

Kairi swallowed hard.

Me too, she thought.

Yuffie came downstairs around then, clomping and complaining that she just wanted to take a nap, but noooo. Leon split them off into teams (Kairi with Tifa, Namine with Leon, and Joseph with Yuffie), and thus the search for Sora began.