For future references, there will be no more disclaimers. After all, why would anyone want to see a long list of things I don't own when they could rather see me thank all the people who provided me the opportunity to use what they do own. Therefore, thank you to the creators of: Trigun, Sailor Moon, and Shamanic Princess, as well as the usual Kingdom Hearts and Sky High.

Now I'll get over myself and my sponsors and let you read.

It was hard for Nori to sleep that night, and he wasn't exactly sure why. After turning over in his bed repeatedly, he opened his eyes again for the fourth time. The clock still read only three in the morning. He glanced over to the bed across the room and saw Roxas cuddled up in a ball sucking his thumb. A slight smile came to Nori's face. Sora was the dominant personality of the two, so he'd never gotten to see Roxas sleep before. It was kind of amusing. Still, Roxas was sleeping and he wasn't. Why could he not manage to stay asleep? For a while, he stared blankly at the ceiling before drowsily turning onto his side and trying one more time.

That awkward feeling of being watched flooded back into his mind. After trying to fight it off for a few moments he opened his eyes, doomed to be awake for at least half an hour before he'd fall asleep again. When he opened his eyes this time, however, staring back into them were the glowing blue eyes of Lionel. Nori was too scared to move…too scared to even pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He just looked nervously back into Lionel's eyes.

A really long moment later, Lionel figured he'd caused enough fear and stood up, invoking a different kind of terror as he stated, "I know what you're doing, and I can do much worse than kill you," soft enough to not wake Roxas. He grabbed Nori's chin in his claw and then silently brushed away, disappearing into the night.

Nori didn't fall asleep at all after that.

When daylight came around, Roxas climbed out of bed, feeling much better and a bit giddy. He did happen to notice frightened Nori, though, clutching a flannel blanket to his chin and looking at the ceiling like he'd just seen the Grim Reaper.

Cocking his head to the side a bit, he asked, "Are you all right Nori?"

Nori didn't even seem like he could hear Roxas, much less come up with a response, so Roxas went to get Warren and Nehemiah. When they came back in, Warren broke out laughing. That made Roxas laugh, but when Nehemiah smacked Warren upside the head, he quickly shut up, covering his mouth to hide the smile.

"There's obviously something bothering him," Nehemiah said to no one in particular.

Roxas knelt next to the bed questioning, "Nori, what's wrong?" No reply. "Did I scare you last night?...I'm sorry."

After a long pause, Nori answered, "I'm not doing it anymore."

"What?" Roxas was confused. "You're not doing what?"

"I am not going to rescue Tia."

Noticeably concerned, Roxas looked up at Nehemiah who questioned, "What's come over you Nori?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Nori mumbled, turning over in bed.

"But just yesterday—"

"It's not a good idea!" Nori shouted, pulling the covers all the way over his head.

Nehemiah turned back to Roxas. "Did something happen last night?"

Roxas shrugged.

"Don't worry 'bout it, then," Nehemiah said to Nori, "we'll just work on it without you."

"No don't!" Nori exclaimed, suddenly sitting up in bed. "Or CrawFish'll condemn you to eternal pain! He told me last night."

Roxas gulped; even Nehemiah looked worried, but Warren just smiled mysteriously and wondered, "And that didn't cross any of your minds before just now?"

Warren was met with three blank stares. "You didn't once think that if Lionel was willing to kill you to get her away, he would do worse to keep her away?"

Nori blinked a couple times. "No."

Warren buried his face in his hand, embarrassed by his friends' naivety, eventually concluding, "Well I agreed to join this operation knowing I'd most likely die. I'm not quitting just because you've got cold feet. Come on Roxas; let's brainstorm."

Roxas's eyes filled with worry, but he still bit his lip and followed Warren out of the room.

Nori called after them, "No don't." When they didn't listen, he turned to Nehemiah, "You'll stop them, won't you?"

Nehemiah patted Nori's shoulder. "You let them worry about their own welfare. They can take care of themselves. For now, you just focus on beating out this despair that's come over you and getting back to your normal self."

"Okay," Nori agreed reluctantly, slipping back into bed.

I looked out the window to the grey cloud cover that usually meant a drizzly rain was on its way and mumbled to myself, "Well it's kind of gloomy out today." Then, I turned around and there was Kairi walking into the room. Her hair was a mess, her eyelids were heavy, and she drug her feet as she walked. "You don't seem to be a morning person," I commented cheerfully.

She moaned in agreement. "But Naminé likes the morning, so she makes me get up. It's like a built in alarm clock."

"Then why don't you just let her wake up and you stay asleep behind her? I think she'd enjoy being the center of attention for a while."

"I would if I could," Kairi replied miserably.

"She's one of those people that can't sleep standing up," Naminé explained, popping out for a second.

"Yeah, what she said," Kairi agreed. She added after a little while, "We were up too late last night. Next time remind me no slumber parties the day before rescue missions."

I laughed and yawned. I was a little tired too.

Kairi rubbed her face to help her wake up and mentioned, "Nori probably wants me to get you to the boys' house A.S.A.P. Let's go."

The doorbell rang unexpectedly at the boys' house. Roxas looked up curiously to see who it was, but Warren drew his attention back. Warren was taking this kidnapping assignment seriously—either that or he was enjoying it. Nehemiah went to answer it, knowing it wasn't us girls because Kairi never rings the bell. She just walks in. When he opened the door, there was a strange, tall, blonde, anime boy with a red coat who appeared to be in his twenties.

Not recognizing the man, Nehemiah asked, "Who are you?"

The man replied, "Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser the Third."

That didn't help any, so Nehemiah probed, "What do you want?"

"It's not what I want," the anime man said, brushing past Nehemiah and into the house, "the queen sent me to help you with Nori."

"I don't know that I believe that."

The anime man passed by the living room where Roxas and Warren were sitting and simply asked, "Where is he?" He casually plucked a frosted donut from Roxas's hand and took a bite out of it.

"Hey that's mine!" Roxas called.

Warren reminded, "Focus Roxas. What about the thirteenth level?"

"Definitely not the jail," Roxas repeated.

"Why not?"

"People have broken out of it before."

Nehemiah was not convinced that this man was there to do good, so he started asking questions about Nori, "What's Nori's first name?"

"That's easy, Takeshi," the man answered.

"Who's his best friend?"

"Me."

"That's not true!" Roxas shouted, standing up and turning to Sora for the first time that day. Warren tried to make Roxas return to their conversation, but Sora wouldn't give in this time. It was Sora's turn to ask questions. "Where was he created?"

The man sighed, "His story starts in middle school in Tokyo. However, he was created just outside the city at the same time as his narrator Nehemiah."

Sora was a little impressed when Nehemiah nodded but not much. "Who was the first girl he kissed?"

"He never kissed a girl—"

Sora interrupted before he could finish, "Wrong. He kissed Chiyo. Who are his parents?"

"His father is a famous detective who raised him alone because his mother ran off with a sexy Australian accent…and Nori never kissed a girl. Chiyo kissed him, but if that's what you were asking, she wasn't the first to do that. Sailor Jupiter kissed him first."

Sora was very surprised but also starting to feel a little defensive. "What's his author's name?" Sora questioned, feeling smart because he knew the man wouldn't know that answer.

"Nori doesn't even know that."

"Ah-ha! Yes he does. Tiara. So I am the better friend." Victoriously, Sora sat back down on the floor, allowing Roxas to continue with Warren.

The man stood there thoughtfully and then muttered to himself, "Hmm. That's the name of the first girl he ever had a crush on. Interesting."

"He had a crush?" All three boys asked in shock.

The man just shrugged. "How would I know? I'm not his friend."

They got his point. Nehemiah started leading him to Nori's room, and Sora stood back up to follow. Warren wouldn't let him, though, pulling him back to the floor. Sora got an idea and ran after the man.

"You said you were sent here by Tia," Sora began.

"Yeah."

"Where is she?"

The man was quiet for a second. "I dunno. She sent me a fairy message. Why?"

"Nothing." Sora went back to Warren and finished, "CrawFish sent him as a spy," before turning back into Roxas.

Nehemiah brought the man to Nori's room announcing, "Nori, someone's here to see you."

Nori didn't respond at all. Nehemiah stayed in the back of the room, allowing the man to approach the bed. He began waving a gloved hand in front of Nori's face. Still, Nori showed no evidence that anything was registering. The man sat down in a chair near the bed to think of what to do.

After a while, he offered, "D'ya want a donut?"

Nori accepted the offer mindlessly, hardly even recognizing the voice. "Thanks."

"Nori, what's wrong? You weren't even this depressed when Chiyo died."

"Thanks for bringing it up Vash." Then it all connected. "Wait Vash?" He asked. "I thought I wasn't supposed to see you again. What are you doing here?"

A slight smile crossed his face, but before he could say anything, Nehemiah exclaimed, "You got him to speak! He hasn't been that happy all day."

Nori, noticing Nehemiah in the corner, asked Vash, "Did they ask you to come here?"

"No, they didn't even know who I was," Vash replied.

"Yeah they do…This is Vash. I've told you guys about Vash."

"Oh, is he the one who exiled you from Japan?" Nehemiah wondered.

"He didn't exile me—Vash was just trying to protect me, weren't you Vash?...Vash?"

"Are you going to eat that donut?" Vash asked randomly.

"No, you can have it back. Weren't we great friends?"

Vash grabbed it and scarped it down. "Yes, wonderful friends," he answered with his mouth full. Once the donut was clear from his mouth, he continued, "Until the last time he tried to take down CrawFish. He had to leave town so CrawFish's agents wouldn't be able to find him."

Nori's face went back into the despair he woke up with that morning which prompted Nehemiah to inquire, "What happened?"

Vash looked like he might answer, but Nori shook his head no. Instead he responded, "I think the two of us better handle this alone."

Nehemiah wasn't too bothered by leaving them alone now that he saw how Vash had affected Nori, so he shrugged and left. A second later, Vash asked again, "What's wrong with you Nori. You're not a sad person."

"Why are you here?" Nori demanded in return.

"Tia sent me to check up on you, she said you weren't doing well. It seems she was correct."

"Well, you go back an' tell her I don't give a damn."

"Nori?" Vash was very concerned. Nori wasn't acting like himself, like he never cursed, and he always cared what Tia Dalma thought. "What is the matter?"

Lionel closed the small screen he had held between Tia and himself with a hearty laugh. "It would seem your little plan is doing no good…How'd you contact this Vash?"

Tia smiled mysteriously. "I have me ways," she answered, but it was obvious that she was worried about Nori.

Lionel grabbed her hair and ordered, "Tell me!" but Tia gave no response. Then, he smiled in realization as he pulled a cell phone out of her bosom. "I guess you won't be making anymore phone calls."

"I forgot I has tha'. No, I no use tha'."

"I don't want to lose them again," Nori replied sadly to Vash. Vash didn't understand, so Nori continued, "It's not just me that's involved when I do these things. If it were just me, I wouldn't care."

"It's last time that's bothering you, isn't it?"

"Last night Lionel just showed up in my room and told me he would do something worse than kill me. So I was thinking, what could possibly be worse than dying?...And it came back to me."

"No one should have to watch their friends die," Vash agreed.

"Six of them! I don't even have six to lose this time. If it goes wrong, they all die."

Vash wasn't sure what to say to that. He was never much of the comforting sort, but he managed to mention, "You should tell your friends that that's what is bothering you."

"Why? So they can all be mad at me for keeping secrets from them. Sure, Sora is my best friend from this life, but none of them—none—know that I planned an attack on Captain CrawFish to help me cope with Chiyo dying, and they certainly don't know that six of the eleven people died doing it."

"You didn't make the plan Nori, remember that."

"Yeah, but I used it too soon. It wasn't perfected yet."

"It was as good as it was going to get. You can't blame yourself because it failed."

"What if we had waited? What if someone figured out how to perfect it and we just didn't know? What if—"

Vash interrupted, "What if Chiyo never died and made you vengeful, Nori? You can't change the past."

"But I can stop the future. What if it happens again?"

"Nori…" Vash began. "Anyone who starts scheming against CrawFish realizes they're putting themselves at risk. Your friends are out there planning without you. They're willing to take the chance…whether you're doing it with them or not. You're not out there forcing them, but what kind of friend would you be if you're not out there supporting them?"

Nori thought for a while. "What if I mess my part up?"

Vash grabbed Nori's shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry about it. Go do something that makes you happy. We'll take care of all the planning, and I'll make sure we give you something simple to do and hard to mess up."

Nori nodded slightly.

Somewhat suggesting what Nori do to cheer up, Vash added, "I think Tiara misses you."

Nori kept nodding, but then he was a little confused, "Wait! My author? I just saw her last night."

"No, I was talking about the other one."

A smile came over Nori's face just thinking about the old friend, but it faded as he remembered, "I'm not allowed to go back to Japan."

"I think we can make an exception…if you're careful. You can take your author there, show her around—if you're not, like, mad at her or anything."

"Why would I be mad at my author?"

"She is the one that killed Chiyo, isn't she? For some reason, I just never thought you would ever get along with her."

Nori frowned in confusion. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to kill me for killing Chiyo. Maybe it was because I saved his life…but he kissed me before I saved him. Maybe he just wasn't as much into revenge as he used to be. He didn't get to think about it for much longer, though, because I softly knocked on his bedroom door.

I pushed it open, because it wasn't fully closed, asking, "Can I come in Nori? Warren said you were still in here."

"Yeah," Nori agreed. Vash shifted in his chair so he could see Nori and me.

"Why aren't we with your friends, helping them?" I wondered, approaching the bed.

Nori smiled fakely, "We don't have to worry about that." I recognized that smile. It was the one I gave him to show when he was hiding something, so I just waited patiently for him to say more. "We're going to Japan, and I'll show you my hometown."

I just looked at Nori. That didn't seem like a good idea, but I wasn't sure how to say that to him. It was obvious that something was wrong. I just couldn't figure out what.

Noticing that was how I felt, Vash spoke up, "Please go with him Tiara. It's for his good, and I had to spend all morning convincing him it's what he should do. Don't make me start over."

I looked back to Nori and questioned, "Who is he?"

"That's my friend Vash," Nori answered, a hint of his normal ecstasy showing through for a second. "He's from my hometown, and I haven't seen him in like a year, and he said I should go back and see my other friends. Come on Tiara, you can meet Tiara."

"Is this what you really want to do today?"

"Yes."

"All righty then. I'm always up for a tour of Fiction-land. If you would have brought me here specifically for that purpose, I would have come."

Nori and I rode his dirt bike to Japan. The cloud cover was starting to break up, making it quite a nice day, and we just enjoyed the ride. He had to leave his bike at the gate of Japan, though. I wasn't sure why because he was talking in Japanese to the gate keeper, but I was all right with walking the rest of the way. It gave us more of a chance to talk. On the other side of the gate, Nori turned down an alleyway and stopped to get things out of his backpack. He pulled out a couple poncho-looking things and two of those Chinese hats. Handing one set to me, he began putting the other set on.

I looked at them for a second, inquiring, "What are these for Nori?"

His face became shocked as he put a finger up to shush me. "Don't say that name out loud here."

"Takeshi then?" I whispered, and he nodded in agreement. "What are these for?"

"So they don't recognize me," Nori replied quietly. Then, he explained, "CrawFish's got men who roam the streets searching for me here. That's why I don't live here anymore."

"So that's why it took your friend all morning to get you to come here," I noted as I put on the things he'd given me.

"Sure…kind of," Nori concurred, but didn't bother to explain. He just grabbed my hand and began leading me through the streets of Japan like he'd never left. For a while we didn't talk, except for when I would look up in amazement at some cool building or something and Nori would briefly explain what it was. Then, the man walking in front of us just randomly disappeared with a small popping noise.

I jumped back in surprise and questioned, "What was that?"

"He just got called to a story. He'll be just fine," Nori explained quietly, "act like you see that everyday."

"That's really strange," I muttered back through my teeth.

"What's even stranger is when he comes back to Japan, he'll be right there and won't remember what he was doing…but hey, that's the sacrifice of being a fictional character."

After a moment, I wondered, "Where are your friends?"

"I don't think I understand your question," he replied. "I'm sure you remember we left half of them at my house so that we could visit the other half here."

"No," I countered and then explained, "the friends I gave you, like Masami. Isn't he supposed to be your best friend?"

Nori laughed. "You say his name all wrong. It's Masami, not…whatever you said."

"Well, I don't have to say his name, just know how to spell it. That I can do. Plus, my question wasn't how to say his name."

Acting like he really didn't want to say it, Nori answered, "He's kind of a jerk."

"Not so Takeshi, I made him nice. You guys were friends," I responded, slightly offended.

"You can't say my name right either."

"Shut up! You're avoiding the question."

"Yes, you made a great person, but he was given an infinite amount of time away from you to turn himself into anything he wanted to be. Just because you make him do nice things doesn't mean he's gonna be that way in our real life. There's a lot of people like that."

"And all the characters in your story are mean like that?" I asked curiously.

"No, some of them just still live here in Japan. A couple are okay, we just never…clicked like Vash or Sora and I."

"What about Chiyo? Don't you like Chiyo?"

"I did," Nori stated, his face growing gloomy again.

"But you don't anymore?"

"Do I really have much of a choice?" He demanded harshly. I didn't understand what he was getting at until he continued a moment later, "Don't tell me you can't remember killing her."

I stopped walking for a second, realizing what I'd just brought up. "What? You mean she really died?" I felt horrible for that. Chiyo wasn't supposed to be dead; he was just supposed to think she was.

"Yeah." Nori continued to explain it to me, assuming that I didn't think killing a character would really kill them, "You know like how doctors say that ten minutes after a person dies it's impossible to bring them back? So if an author kills a character and doesn't bring them back in ten minutes, they really die. I mean, what are they going to do in Fiction-land?"

"But I didn't kill her! I just had Masami tell you she was dead." That time Nori stopped walking. He looked confused, like he was trying to remember something. I added softly, "You didn't just blindly believe him, did you?"

Nori shook his head sadly, "No, I didn't believe it at all when he said it. And when we got back from the story, Chiyo was sitting right there in my room. The first thing I asked was why she hadn't been in the story that day because I was looking forward to seeing her again after three weeks of being kidnapped. She just shrugged, saying she figured you didn't need her. I asked her if she was doing anything important, and she said no. The only real option left was that she might die, so I fell to her feet begging, 'They said you died Chiyo. Please…please, don't die.'"

Nori had to stop for a second to keep from breaking down, "She knelt next to me, seeming to be very confused, and asked, 'Who? Why? I don't think—' and then she just dis…solved. And all of her things dissolved, and everything she ever gave me…That's how people die here. I don't doubt it anymore."

I thought for a while, shivering from the cold that had returned. Nori started walking again and I mentioned sadly, "She wasn't supposed to die Takeshi. She was kidnapped, just like you. She's going to come back, as soon as we figure out who did it."

"But you didn't put that in the story," Nori stated. "You didn't write, '"I'm sorry Nori, she died while you were gone," Masami lied. In reality she had just been kidnapped, even though no one knew it.' So Fiction-land didn't know it, and it killed her. And even if she comes back, she'll be a completely different Chiyo."

"I did it to add suspense to the story…so the readers would think—" Then I realized there was no reason to defend myself. On the verge of crying, I gathered Nori into my arms and hugged him. "I'm sorry…I didn't know you guys were real."

Nori let me hug him for a second, but then he shrugged out of my arms saying, "It's all right. I'm not mad at you."

He started walking again, glumly though, having returned almost to the same state he had been in earlier that morning. I felt terrible for sending him back into that right when he was starting to act happy again. Neither of us said anything else until we reached the top of another hill.

Gesturing down over a subdivision of Japanese looking houses, Nori stated, "That's my home." He took my hand again, and we walked down the hill hand-in-hand. I think he was trying to comfort me, but I wouldn't feel better until he felt better. All of the houses looked exactly the same to me, but somehow he knew exactly which one we were going to.

One of the ones we passed by he pointed to and said, "That's my old house," but he didn't say more than that. He saw a couple of black robots patrolling the street, so he quickly turned right to make a detour. Still he managed to find one corner house that looked just like all the corner houses and chose to knock on the door.

The door was flung open by an anime girl with giant, strawberry blonde pig-tales and this tiny, red, superhero outfit. I tried not to laugh at her by looking at Nori, but that didn't help. Nori had this excited, childish look on his face, almost like he'd just seen the largest ice cream cone in the world and his daddy said he could have it. The girl seemed like she came close to recognizing Nori. She didn't seem confident about it, though, until she took his hat off and looked into his huge eyes.

In shock, she exclaimed, "Nori! What are you doing here? Get inside before you get caught."

Nori entered the house. I went to follow, but the girl was so worried about Nori that she forgot to notice me there. She gave Nori a huge hug, squeezing him a little too tight. "It's been like a thousand years Nori! To what do I owe this visit?"

"The girl you just left outside," Nori squeaked out a reply through the hug.

"Oh," the girl realized and let go of Nori. She came back to the door and let me in just before I was going to knock again. She held out a hand to shake mine. "Hi, I'm Tiara. What's your name?"

"I'm Tiara too," I answered, shaking her hand in return. "Nori told me I'd get to meet you."

He whispered into Tiara's ear, "She's my author."

Tiara's mouth dropped open. "You actually found her?"

"I did! I found her." Yea, he was ecstatic again.

"And you haven't killed her yet?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, why don't you absolutely despise her?"

"Why does everyone ask me that? I'm excited! I'm the only character in all of Fiction-land to have ever met their author. Wouldn't you be excited?"

Tiara looked back and forth between excited Nori and excited me. She couldn't help but laugh as she asked, "So what you been up to these days?