Well, what's done is done. I can't say it feels wonderful, but it's done. And, at least, there is a little bit of relief settling inside me as well, finally. But now I was starting to get anxious on Sora's behalf. Not that it won't go well with Kairi, because she's obviously going to give him an emphatically positive response, but more that he just won't get a chance to say what he wants before she has to leave. He was certainly taking his time getting back here. He probably forgot to put that stupid mask on and is getting mobbed by tourists. Maybe I should go track him down and swap places with him if necessary. Not looking forward to having to get my photo taken if that's the case, but if it can get him up here…

I saw Kairi was starting to pace back and forth past the benches. I'm not sure if she's started to get worried about him or if she's just anxious about what she's going to say. Probably both.

"Kairi, maybe I should go look for him. You can stay here and get your thoughts in order."

She pulled at her hair nervously. "R-right..."

I made my way down the hill, still a bit slippery now that it had all those flower petals strewn down across it. I jammed my own stupid mask back over my face and tried to guess which direction he might have chosen. While there were places to get food peppered all over, most of the major stalls were to the left, so it was as good a direction to try as any. Knowing Sora, he probably went straight for the cotton candy.

I wandered about the endless crowds, waiting to see any sign of a particular lovesick puppy wandering lost among them. The longer I searched, the more my slight irritation gave way to my growing concern. With Sora, I could almost always feel his presence before actually seeing him. It was a useful skill I'd picked up after wearing that blindfold for so long.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel out for him, but even that came up with nothing. The glowing spark of his distinctly light and breezy aura was just...gone. Nearby, a vaguely similar aura touched my senses. It was close to Sora, but more subdued, more sharp around the edges. If Sora was a lively warm spring wind, this was more like a nip blowing through late autumn. Definitely Roxas. Not who I was looking for, but he might know something.

I followed it until I reached its source. Sure enough, I saw Hayner, Pence and Olette hanging around a conspicuously out of place tiger. I approached, tipping my hand over to him to get his attention. I didn't want to exactly call out to him in the middle of this crowd, which would essentially defeat the point of the dumb costumes.

He gave me a head nod and whispered something to his friends, I assume letting them know I'm not just some random horse-loving weirdo.

"Yo, you look super dumb in that thing." Hayner shoved the rest of his pretzel into his mouth with a massive gulp, munching at it loudly, spewing chunks out on his shirt. "Amd I fwought he lwooked ridwiculous."

I decided not to start something, but it was incredibly tempting to comment on his appearance at the moment.

Olette scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Ugh, Hayner, close your mouth while you chew at least."

Pence, I noticed, was currently caught up stuffing as many takoyaki as he could possibly fit in his mouth at once. With each new one he squished in, he desperately tried muttering "fishy wishy" and going for another. Again, I decided it was best to ignore that one.

Hayner clapped his friend on the back, still chewing his own pretzel. "Woo! Sweven!"

"It's...ah..." Roxas started to explain, but I suppose thought better of it and stopped. "So, how's everything going?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Seems our little doggy friend has run off somewhere. Haven't seen him, have you?"

"No..." Roxas shook his head slowly, concentrating. I know that he and Sora had some sort of connection with each other that was probably similar to the sense I used earlier, but in a more limited way that would direct them to one another. But it seemed he was also turning up nothing. "That's really weird, usually I can target him pretty easily if I focus on it..."

"Yeah, same issue I had. It's...strange."

Roxas crossed his arms with a hum. "Maybe it's all the people? Interfering or something?"

I don't think he actually thought that, but I suppose it's better to assume something along those lines than contemplate Sora actually disappearing in a poof of smoke.

Olette, probably the only of her trio actually listening in, gave me a concerned head nod. "Um...everything okay?"

"Should be. But, if you happen to see a certain lover-boy in a dog mask around, tell him his date is currently waiting for him and he'd better hurry up."

She had a semi puzzled expression on her face but Roxas just waved me off. "Yeah, got it. You keep searching that way, we'll take this side."

"But Roxas, who is-"

Roxas leaned over to whisper some of my withheld information in her ear and her eyes widened. She grabbed Hayner and Pence by the arm and practically dragged them down the road. "We're on it! Let's rescue that lost puppy!"

I dodged around some of the half-chewed takoyaki that Pence hadn't quite managed to fit into his mouth and kept on my search. I got all the way to the end of this side of the food stalls and still saw absolutely no sign of him.

The more I failed to spot him, the heavier my anxiety felt in my stomach. Sora, where are you? I asked an assortment of random people if they had seen anyone in a dog mask but the response was all irritatingly negative. Besides, just running from person to person will only waste time, there has to be a more effective way to get a message out. Maybe if I get up somewhere high I could do a more thorough check, but unfortunately there just weren't that many tall structures around here.

I closed my eyes and tried another sweep of the area, and while I managed to locate Xion, Namine and Ven fairly easily, they weren't who I was interested in right now. I picked up on Selphie's scent as well, noting that she was not too far away from me now, standing close to Tidus and Wakka. I assume she is busy at the moment doing Committee duties, but maybe that could actually provide the perfect solution to my problem.

I approached the three of them. While Selphie was aggressively handing out maps and fliers, Tidus and Wakka were stuck together miserably behind her, ripping at the committee stickers she had no doubt forced onto them. She charged towards me on sight, ready to hand me some sort of pamphlet.

"Hey there! You look like you need some guidance and the Greeting Committee is always ready to help! If you need a map or-"

I lifted my mask up a bit to show her my face and she immediately halted her rehearsed speech, her face twisted into a smile.

"Ooooh, it's you. Alooone."

By her tone, I could assume two things. One, that she is going to be a pain today and attempt to aggressively flirt with me again and possibly two, that she actually has some idea that something is meant to be happening between Sora and Kairi tonight which is why they weren't with me. I'm hoping its the latter.

She fluttered her eyelashes. "I hope you appreciate the fact that I took care of Ophelia. Let Irvine keep a close eye on her so she won't be any trouble at all tonight. Do I get special brownie points for that? I certainly think so!"

"Who's in the mask this time?" Tidus leaned over, scrutinizing me carefully. "Oh, its Riku? I assume Sir Dense-a-lot is busy doing his...thing?"

Alright, Selphie definitely knows something is up, then. And helpfully filled these two in on it. "Well, unfortunately said knight went and ran off for food and never came back. I'm trying to go fetch him."

"Heh, fetch, that's a good one." Wakka snickered, and was met with our silence. "Ya know, cuz he's in a dog mask?"

Yeah, we know. It just wasn't funny. But besides that, how did he know Sora was in a dog mask? Unless they ran into him?

"Did you see him today? When?"

"Yeah, earlier over by the taiyaki place." Tidus shook his head. "Pft. He probably got lost or distracted by someth-"

"How long ago was that?" I demanded sharply.

"I dunno dude, before we got roped into handing out these stupid things." He flashed the maps at me and pointed over towards a taiyaki vendor sandwiched between a cotton candy booth and a chocolate banana stall. Definitely looked like a place he would go to.

Just to be safe, I yanked one of the maps out of Selphie's hand and nabbed one of the pens she had sitting in a nearby cup, scrawling a hasty message on a blank spot of the pamphlet before handing everything back to her.

"Selphie, do you think you could do me a favor and get them to read this over the loudspeakers? Just to be on the safe side?"

She scanned my message, giggled a bit, and offered me a quick salute. "Sure thing. I assume Kairi is the bunny?"

"Yeah, thanks in advance."

I trotted off towards the stall, double checking with the vendor if he had indeed sold something to someone earlier wearing a shiba mask. With that confirmed, I started searching the ground for clues. There were far too many feet rustling through this area to reliably scan for prints, but if he got food here, that meant he would have likely taken it the shortest route towards the hill. If anything happened to him, it would have been along that path. Unless he really did just up and run off, in which case it would be much harder to find him. I checked my options, and started off towards the base of the hill, scanning everything in my path carefully, dodging as swiftly as possible through the people in my way.

I hate when he disappears on me, when I can't find him. It's not very often when that happens, so when it does it makes me incredibly uneasy. I often have a recurring nightmare like this, where I'm stumbling through an endless grove of bamboo and I can hear his cries slowly fading away as I search desperately to pull him back to me. Eventually the only sound is the clacking of the wood as the forest draws more dark and dim and empty. Every time I always wake up in a cold sweat, and any more sleep after that is out of the question. It used to happen quite frequently, which is part of the reason I'm glad Sora still pushes to stay overnight at my house all the time. When I can at least see he is alright, I can generally settle back to sleep without much trouble. I hate that interim when I lie awake, panicked, knowing he's probably fine, but not being able to confirm it yet. This is just the same, isn't it?

I had nearly made it back to the top of the hill, but nothing was amiss. Had he really not made it this far? Maybe he went in a different direction altogether. Could someone really have just absconded off with him without anyone noticing? He isn't just some lost kid, he can handle himself, so why...I turned back the way I came and made a more thorough sweep. There had to be something unusual on the way up here.

Bang

The sound of another firework and I swore loudly, breaking into a run. What if there was...another path.

I spotted it as soon as I thought to look for it. Curving down through the forest was a very thin, mostly overgrown trail that lead more directly to the docks. I examined a few of the branches hanging over the entrance, noting a few bent twigs that indicated a somewhat recent disturbance. Bingo.

I charged down the path as fast as I was able, considering it was a fairly steep drop. It spit me out near the boat docks where they were loading up the offerings to be set on fire. The full boats were out in the center of the harbor, docked to a small floating pier, waiting for the others to eventually catch up. This had to be…

The speakers around the area squeaked to life, and one of the girls from the broadcasting club gently started speaking. "Attention all festival-goers, we have an important message to relay." She cleared her throat, and I thought I could hear the crinkling of a paper as if it was straightened out to be made more legible. "A mister...um...'Mustang...Horseman'? Has misplaced his shiba friend and hopes to be reunited back at the house where they are set to greet a 'Bunny Rose'...I repeat, if anyone sees a shiba, please direct him to go back to the house to find a Mr. Horseman and a Ms. Rose. Anyone with information on his whereabouts its greatly appreciated...Selphie, what the heck kind of messa-" The microphone clicked off with a buzz.

Sure, it might not make a lot of sense to anyone else, but if Sora heard that he would definitely understand. If he was paying attention, anyway. I scanned the crowd nearby one of the boats as they stood waiting to place their objects inside, and saw one figure that stood out from the others. Relief swept over me.

There he was. Safe, at least.

Though I have no idea why he's just getting out of the line to put offerings on the boat, I'm pretty sure he told me he wasn't going to bother with that. Of all the things to waste his time on…

I stormed over to the dock, more upset than worried now. He was standing there, staring out at the water like he was in some daze. I don't think he even knew I was coming until I was right in front of him, yanking on his arm.

"What the hell are you doing here!? You should be up-" There was something very off with him. It was hard to tell what, especially with that ridiculous dog smiling back at me. "Sora, what's wrong?"

I let go of his arm and he stumbled backwards, his head shaking. "I...it's not..."

Is he nervous? What's with that reaction? Ugh, that stupid mask. I can't read him like normal when he has that on.

"Sora, take that stupid thing off for a second and talk to me." I pointed to the dog and reached for it to throw off myself but he ducked out of the way. Not about to spend a lot of time arguing this with him, I ripped mine off to show him I didn't care about being recognized right now. "What's gotten into you? Show me your face."

"I...I can't..." His voice was a little shaky, like he was trying to fight back tears.

Was he really so worked up over this that it was making him cry? I put a hand on his shoulder and he winced a bit, probably thinking I was trying to force his mask off again. But I know how he gets when he doesn't want people to see him upset.

"Sora, I don't know what you're struggling with, but up on the top of that hill, right there, is a girl who means a lot to both of us who really needs to talk to you about something."

He shivered a little. "But...not now..."

"Sora, it needs to be now. You have three fireworks left of time. Three. And we don't even know how long those will take to go off! Didn't you have a special plan all prepared? You need time to do that and that's just not a dispensable commodity right now." He stood there, frozen. Seriously? Go! Run after her! Why is he just rooted to the spot like some stubborn old stump? "Sora, it'll be worth it, I promise."

"S-so...you do remember what I told you? About what I was going to..."

I gripped both his shoulders and shook him aggressively. "Of course I remember! And it's not was! You are going to have this conversation today. Right now. No excuses."

I let go of his shoulders and almost expected him to give me a hearty cheer, or a rah-rah or whatever else he always feels like doing to get himself pumped up, but…nothing.

"...I really need to talk to you first..."

I felt like smacking myself in the face. Why is he being so difficult? Do I have to drag him up there myself?

"Just trust me about tonight, okay? Even if you don't want to say anything to her, she definitely wants to speak to you. So, just let her have that chance, alright? The two of us can talk later. I'll meet you down here by the dock."

"O-okay..." He still seemed hesitant. And deeply unhappy. The more I stared at him the more strange he seemed, like someone had sucked the spirit right out of him.

"Do I have to drag you up there? I'm serious, by the way." I crossed my arms at him, trying to glare but finding it incredibly difficult when he already seemed so forlorn.

"N-no, I...I'll go." He started shuffling his way past me and paused. "Riku, I'm s-sorry for..."

"Save it, just go."

He lingered for another moment, choking his words back, before resignedly making his way over to the hill path.

It was most likely just his nerves getting the best of him. But I know the moment he sees her he is going to perk up, especially if she manages to get her confession out first. Which, considering how he is, is probably more likely.

Would three fireworks left of time be enough? Maybe I can go pester Selphie to come up with some reason to delay the last one at least a little bit. I turned, and almost immediately bumped into a group of girls, huddled together right behind me. The minute they saw my face, all of them squealed and started yanking at my arms. Right, I took my mask off…

Oh, hell.