Here's chap number 2. Not much to say. Did it more or less right after chapter 1 so…not many thoughts on it. Hope you are enjoying it.

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Chapter 2

Small

Seifer angrily kicked at one of the small hedges in the sandlot. He felt wretched. Who was that girl? She just appears out of no where and makes him feel like a total idiot? What kind of crap was that? Still, he didn't need to be so mean to her. Maybe she was just striking back at him for that. Either way, he didn't think very much of this Kairi girl.

"Hey!"

Seifer looked up from the hedge he was kicking into nothing to see Kairi waving at him from the steps that led down into the sandlot.

"Crap…"

The girl hopped down the last step and walked over to him. "I'm sorry for laughing at you like that."

"You should be." Geez, it came out like vomit. He really needed to stop doing that.

"If it makes you feel any better," Kairi said with a smile. "I'm a princess of heart."

"Very funny," he said, his words dripping sarcasm. "Now why don't you scram. Get out of here. I've got a town to run."

"So you really are the King then?"

Seifer winced as the girl giggled. "Of course not. It was just a stupid nickname." He sighed. "Look, my name is Seifer. I'm the head of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee. I'm pretty busy today, so unless you're here to cause trouble, why don't you just leave me alone."

"Disciplinary Committee?" Kairi blinked and tucked her hands behind her back. "Is that anything like…the police?" Seifer nodded, feeling the blood rise in his face. "So do you just catch bad guys or do you help out people in need?"

"Er…both, I guess. I dunno. Maybe."

"So if I needed help, could you help me?"

"No." Why not? Because she was annoying, that's why. While Seifer didn't like being mean to strangers, he had to admit that this girl was particularly annoying.

"Please?" Seifer rolled his eyes. "Ok…because I'm very lost. I came through this portal, searching for my friend Sora, but I can't find him anywhe-"

"Sora?" Seifer interrupted, unsure if he had heard her correctly.

"You know him?" Kairi's face lit up.

"Yeah, I fought him."

Her face drooped. "You fought? Why?"

"He was causing trouble."

Again, the girl's face brightened, although this time the look was more distant. Almost as though she was seeing something that he couldn't see. "Sounds like Sora to me."

"Well he isn't here anymore. He left a few months ago," and then, after a moments thought, "good riddance."

"Oh come on, Sora's not that bad."

"Whatever."

There was a long silence. Seifer began to feel uncomfortable. The girl talked a lot, and now all of a sudden, she was silent. What was she thinking about? He was about to tell her to leave because he had things to do when she spoke again.

"Was he…" Seifer could hear sadness in her voice. "Was he doing…ok?"

She sounded so worried about him. What was with this girl?

"Look, I don't know the guy, but he seemed fine, I guess." He looked away, scratching his head. "He was strong at least. I mean, he beat me."

"Really?" Kairi's earnest voice reached Seifer and made him look back to her. Her face was shining again.

"Geez…you don't need to be so pleased about it."

"Oh!" She looked away this time, her own face flushing. "I'm sorry. I…I didn't mean it that way." Seifer grinned.

"It's alright, I'm sure I come across as being really strong, after all. I guess it might be surprising to hear about anyone beating me." Kairi giggled again. Seifer smiled. "So if I've helped you out, why don't you just scurry along now and go back to your own home. I don't have all day to be playing with you, ok?"

Without warning, Kairi's face darkened. "I can't go home." The way she said it seemed so dark and foreboding, Seifer knew he shouldn't mess with it.

"Oh come on. Just walk back the way you came. It isn't that hard."

Kairi's head rose and her eyes met Seifer's, glaring venomously at him.

"You don't get it. First of all, I didn't just walk here." She took a threatening step forward. "And secondly, I don't want to just go home. I came here because I'm tired of waiting around for Sora and Riku. I want to do something."

Seifer was surprised. People never spoke this strongly about stuff around here. What was her deal? And what did she mean, she didn't walk here? She made it sound like she came from really far away or something.

"Geez, whatever floats your boat. No need to burst a vein." He shook his head condescendingly. "Where did you come from, anyway?"

"Another world."

Her response was so quick, Seifer actually snorted a bit.

"Oh really? Yeah, that doesn't sound completely ridiculous."

"I'm serious!"

And somehow…he knew she was telling the truth. So that meant that Sora had come from that same world. All of a sudden, Seifer felt very, very small. He had always felt that he was the strongest in all of Twilight Town. Everyone knew it. But all of a sudden, the idea of new worlds, of all new planets where people like Sora existed…people stronger than him, way stronger. Talk about a little fish…

It was depressing.

"Alright…so you're from another world and you want to find Sora," he said tiredly. "Good for you, but I can't help you with that. So you can leave me alone now, alright? Get out of here."

Kairi frowned. She knew she had upset him somehow, and she felt bad, but she didn't really feel like putting up with people right now. She was trapped on some foreign world, unable to get back home, unable to move forward. She had expected a bit more pity.

"You know what?" she said, her voice rising slightly in volume and in pitch. "If you're gonna be like that, then fine. I'll go see if Hayner and his crew can help me then. Thanks for nothing, King."

Now this was familiar territory. She was angry at him. He could deal with this.

"Later, Princess. Don't leave any of that emotional baggage of yours behind." He watched the girl stalk out of the sandlot with a smile on his face. "Feh, girls." He glanced upwards, spying the large clock tower in the distance. It was only seven thirty, he still had another hour and a half until Rai or Fuu showed up. That left him a lot of time to think about things he didn't feel like thinking about.

"Crap…"

An hour later, Seifer was thoroughly depressed. He had picked up a struggle bat when the store opened just so he could practice. For half an hour straight, he had been thrusting and striking at invisible enemies. Every practiced parry felt perfect, every thrust guaranteed to kill the enemy, and yet…

"Damn it!"

In a fit of anger, he threw the bat. It flew across the sandlot, crashing against the far wall with a comical squeaking noise. Not a very fulfilling noise at all. "Not good enough! Not good enough!" What could he do with such pathetic skills? Who could he defeat with such meager ability? It was all worthless without a proper opponent.

"You hold your sword like Riku does."

Angrily, Seifer swung around to glare at Kairi. "What do you want!?" he shouted.

The girl smiled a sad smile. I was just watching was all. You're really good. And that last stance was how Riku always held his sword."

Seifer spat on the ground between them. "You think I care about that?" Irritably, he turned and strode over to the bat he had thrown. He picked it up and wiped some of the dust off. "I don't even know who Riku is."

"He's a friend of mine. He and Sora used to practice together a lot." Kairi smiled again, her eyes were sad though. "Sora could never beat him though."

"Oh! That's just great!" Seifer exploded. "Another mystical alien man from another planet who is stronger than me! That's terrific! Well I'm tired of hearing about all this crap, you got that, princess? I want you to take your stories and head on to your next damn planet before I take this bat to your head, you understand?"

"You're bleeding through your bandage."

The observation took the fight out of Seifer. In an instant, he felt tired and defeated. She was right, too. All the practice had opened up the scabs on his knuckles and the blood was beginning to soak through the bandages. He hadn't even noticed.

"Do you push everyone away?"

Seifer looked at Kairi with tired eyes.

"Yes." He thought for a moment. "But not as much as I'm doing with you."

"Why?"

Why was she so nosy? This girl was really beginning to piss him off. Well if she was going to be so straightforward with him, he could do her the same.

"You wanna know why?" Kairi nodded. "Because you make me hate myself. For some reason, you are just a reminder of all the crap I go through, and that no matter how strong I get…if I stay here, I'm always going to be a big fish in a little pond. And if there's one thing I hate more than myself, it is fate. And this is one thing that fate has set out that I can't change." He took a deep breath.

"So yeah, that's why I want you to go away."

Kairi was silent for a while, studying Seifer's pained face. He looked really torn up. She really got to him. It wasn't really her fault, but she just represented all these things that he hated. Finally, she spoke again.

"So…why can't you just leave?"

"What?"

Kairi crossed her arms slowly and began thinking hard. "When Sora, Riku and I wanted to leave the islands, we built a raft and were going to set sail, then things just started happening." She smiled to herself, recalling an old memory. "Have you ever tried to leave?"

Seifer couldn't believe what he was hearing. This girl had built a raft to travel between worlds? She was obviously spouting off nonsense. And besides, he couldn't just leave Twilight Town. He had a reputation here; he had friends and a responsibility to keep people in order.

"No, I haven't tried to leave. I can't just leave like that."

"Why not?"

Did she ever stop?

"What's it to you? Maybe I've got friends here…people that couldn't get along without a guy like me around."

Kairi put her hands on her hips and grinned slyly. "You could always come back to visit them."

"Look, it isn't that easy to just up and leave! People need me here! If I wasn't around, things would start falling apart." His arms were spread wide now and he could feel his teeth grinding against each other. If this stupid girl didn't quit her damn questioning soon, he was going to do something drastic.

"Morning."

The simple voice broke the silence in the lot. Seifer looked up, embarrassed for some reason to be talking to this new girl. Fuu was crossing the lot, her face as blank as ever.

"Hows it going, Seifer. We're a bit early, ya know?"

Rai's heavy voice echoed over the lot. His two companions approached from different entrances, both eyeing up Kairi and wondering what was going on. Rai would be the first to ask. He wasn't a very tactful person.

"Exhibits A and B, Princess," Seifer whispered proudly. He pushed roughly past Kairi and smiled widely. "Just because you're early doesn't mean I haven't been waiting for the two of you." He could feel his comfortable persona settling back in. The false confidence began to grow and his voice became casual and more self-assured.

"Apology."

"Yeah, sorry, ya know?"

Seifer shook his head, closing his eyes and smiling confidently. "What would you guys do without me?" When he looked up again, the world stopped.

Behind Rai, something black and sinister was rising from the earth. It seemed to be made of shadows and it had large, dangerous looking teeth. Claws extended outwards, stretching out and gleaming darkly. The monster's antennae twitched violently and two pale yellow eyes glowed fiercely.

Seifer watched the thing leap into the air, its dark maw opening into a terrible grin. Was it real? Was he really seeing this? Rai didn't seem to be aware of it, and Fuu wasn't looking in that direction. Was it a hallucination? There's no way it was real, right?

He heard a noise from behind him, and suddenly he knew that it was really there. Kairi's voice began to rise in a scream of warning. Seifer couldn't make out what she was saying, but it didn't matter because he was already in motion. His legs were pumping through the infinitely slowed moment. Every shadowy detail of the beastly creature could be seen; every twitch of the claws, the hungry, yellow eyes staring down at Rai.

He wasn't going to make it in time. It was obvious. Rai was half way across the sandlot. There was no way to reach him. But Seifer's body was one step ahead. He felt his arm whip forward and release the struggle bat. The sky-blue toy left his fingers and hurtled across the square, it looked ridiculous. The creature was bearing down on Rai now, mouth opened wider than before, a dark tongue peeking past black lips. The bat connected with a squeak and the shadow creature stopped. Suddenly time was alive again.

"Rai! Move it!" Seifer screamed. The creature paused, looking puzzled as Rai turned around in confusion. The brawny teen saw the beast and was immediately off and running.

"Heartless!" Kairi's voice split the air.

"Danger!" came Fuu's alarmed response.

The shadow looked down briefly at the struggle bat and then looked up again, just in time to catch Seifer's dropkick to the face. The creature flew backwards, stumbling before falling and crashing into a hedge.

"Fuu, get Rai outta here! Princess, you too!" Seifer shouted, picking up the struggle bat. It looked absurd, but it was better than having no weapon at all.

The creature was standing now, looking more dazed than hurt.

Seifer dropped into his well practiced stance and brandished the bat. "Ain't nobody or nothing that causes trouble in my town!"