A/N: SO. The real plot's gonna begin unraveling at the end of this chapter. –grin- You thought this was an average AU, didn't cha? …I'll shut up for now before I begin to blab my own plot secrets.

And yes, FF chapter titles will form a sentence once I'm finished with the story (if you ignore prologue and epilogue, that is).

O-bon – Japan's festival to honor the dead, you can say it's a sort of Japanese Halloween.

Eight thousand yen – About US $67.50 or GBP 36. (On a discount day, most Japanese cities' movie tickets cost one thousand yen each, which is about US $8.50 or GBP 4.50.)

Ramen – a type of Japanese noodle soup. You know Cup Noodles? Yeah. That stuff.

Reincarnation

By Kyoto-chan

c h a p t e r t w o

the inevitable

x

Both Axel and Roxas gaped in horror for a moment as the three people around them stared in confusion.

"Nerd-boy's your friend?" Axel looked at Kairi.

Roxas looked at her too, "This jerk is your cousin?"

Then when Kairi nodded, both turned in opposite directions with their arms crossed.

"I'm not going with him," the blonde and the redhead said at the same time.

Kairi sweatdropped, then pleaded, "Axel-nii-chan, Roxas-kun, just this one time? I mean, Olette-chan, Hayner-san, and Pence-san are all waiting for us there already, aren't they?"

Roxas sighed.

"They're my best friends…I can't let them down…"

"Fine then, I'm not going," Axel stated.

Kairi attempted to goad him, "Please? I'll pay for your ticket…"

Axel grumbled, "Fine, I'll go because you're my cousin and you convinced Oji-san and Oba-san to let me stay with you guys."

The auburn-haired girl grinned with delight then shouted, "Let's go then!"

Kairi marched off to the exit of the apartment building, and Sora and Naminé soon followed. Axel and Roxas stood there for a while, before turning to look at each other.

"Truce?" Roxas asked.

"For now," Axel responded.

"Very well then…"

And both of them walked as if they were going to be thrown off the plank on a pirate ship.

"You guys are finally here!" an ecstatic Pence exclaimed as he sat irritably by the large fountain in front of the cinema.

Olette and Hayner quickly looked away from their current glaring contest to see as their familiar friends came into view.

"At last!" Olette exclaimed. "Some female company! I was getting tired of having Pence-kun as my only civilized company – that masochist we all know as Hayner-kun was beginning to get on my nerves!"

Hayner scoffed, "Not like you weren't getting on mine!"

Cue yet another glaring contest. And like most glaring contests they had that weren't interrupted, their friends merely stared at them while the leers intensified between the two for about two minutes before they actually looked into each other's eyes before turning away from one another indignantly with a rather large blush on their faces.

Naminé finally spoke up to break the silence of their little group, asking curiously, "Hey, where's Riku-kun?"

"Right over here," a voice said. You could hear the smirk in their tone of voice.

The whole group turned around to see the owner of the voice. It was the all-too-familiar male with the silver-ish-lavender hair that went just past his shoulders. He was dressed in his normal gray t-shirt, yellow vest, and blue jeans. The oldest, most mature, and most short-tempered person of the group…

"Riku-kun!" Naminé exclaimed happily, along with Kairi and Sora.

Riku raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar Axel, and asked, "Who's that?"

Olette and Hayner were so caught up in arguing with each other and Pence was busy being annoyed at them that the trio had not even noticed the redhead.

Kairi smiled, "This is Axel-nii-chan, everyone. Axel-nii-chan, this is Sora-kun, Riku-kun, Naminé-chan, Olette-chan, Pence-san, and Hayner-san." She motioned at every one of them as she called out their names. Then she pointed at Roxas. "And I'm sure you've been acquainted with Roxas-kun over here."

Both Roxas and Axel grumbled in annoyance.

Everyone suddenly got the drift that the blonde male (the one with the spiky hair, not the one with the wavy hair, nor the Mohawk-mullet) and the redhead had gotten off on a bad foot. No pun intended. ('Cause you know, Axel tripped Roxas with a foot and…never mind. The crickets are chirping.)

Then Sora had his great-idea-of-the-week.

"Hey, let's go inside and watch the damn movie already!"

"All right!" Riku agreed, and the rest of the group trudged behind the two best friends as they capered off to the ticket booth.

"Eight tickets, please," Sora beamed at the person behind the counter.

"What movie?"

"Hmmm…"

And Sora pondered a moment before purchasing horror movie tickets. O-bon was approaching, after all.

Everyone scrambled to the seats in the back rows, the last being almost empty, and the second-to-last having only six open seats. Guess which row Axel and Roxas ended up being stuck in after everyone scrambled to the chairs?

Pence was the one who ended up sitting next to the stranger, whereas Hayner was on the other side of him, sitting next to Olette, who in turn was in between Hayner and Kairi. Kairi was seated next to Sora, who sat next to Riku, and the last person in the row was Naminé. Axel sat behind Riku, while Roxas sat behind Naminé – just because Pence insisted the group stick together. Besides, he said it would be easier to pass around the popcorn.

After the movie had ended two hours and a half later, everyone began to stare at Sora.

"Nii-san. That was a total waste of eight thousand yen," Roxas glared. "And that's just the tickets – which were on discount because it's the first of the month!"

Sora laughed nervously, "O-bon's coming soon, I thought it'd be nice to watch a scary movie!"

Naminé replied, "Not even I was scared, Sora-kun. That's saying a lot."

The others (except Axel) all nodded in agreement.

Then realized they needed the mandatory post-movie bathroom break.

By the time Roxas had entered in the bathroom, it was pretty quiet. Riku, Pence, and Hayner were outside waiting with the girls, and Sora was washing his hands at the sink. Two seconds later, he had already dried his hands with the paper towel and joined the others to wait for Axel and Roxas.

Roxas was heading towards a stall when Axel's stall door opened and the redhead had emerged from it. They were ten feet away from each other when Roxas had tripped.

The blonde went crashing into Axel, and both were on the floor now.

As unsanitary as it was, they were laying there, still – even after realizing that their mouths had crashed on top of each other.

Roxas didn't climb off of him, nor did Axel push him off; they were just doing what their bodies had willed them to do.

The blonde teenager soon indulged himself in the strangely familiar feeling that this kiss had given him, pinning down one of Axel's arms.

But the event only lasted a few moments before Roxas quickly scrambled to his feet.

"O-oh m–I-I'm so so-sorry…"

Both were flushed and lips just lightly kiss-bruised, but they tried their best to shake it off.

It was just an accident after all.

Right?

Axel made his way to the faucet and cleaned his hands off as Roxas quickly did his business.

Both had strange visions of thirteen people all dressed in a strange black uniform.

But neither of them had spoken a word on the bus ride home.

a x e l

"Axel-nii-san, you're awfully quiet…it's unlike you," Kairi noted before slurping up her ramen while still staring at me.

I responded, "It's nothing…just ignore it, Kairi."

"Did something happen at the movies?"

"N-no."

A sigh.

"I guess if you don't want to tell me, you don't want to tell me. I'll just forget the subject was even brought up."

She gave me a warm smile.

"Thanks."

I couldn't help but have my mind wander off to what happened then.

It seemed so familiar, the feeling of Roxas on top of my body; even his smell, his taste, had triggered a very blurry memory.

Maybe I was just thinking too much…

I went back to eating my own bowl of ramen.

Funny how all we always ate for dinner was ramen whenever Oji-san and Oba-san were out on business trips.

r o x a s

I tossed around in bed, unable to sleep.

My mind just wouldn't rest, it wouldn't leave me alone.

I couldn't help but be reminded of what happened in the men's restroom…what exactly had made me do what I did? It was like I was being possessed by some strange being, one that made me attack Axel like I did once I had the chance.

I turned around again, my blanket making some ruffling noises, and my bed softly squeaking underneath my shifting weight.

Nii-san groaned with a sleepy slur, "Roxas…go to sleep already…I can't sleep with you making all that noise…"

I let out a sharp sigh and apologized to Nii-san, and tried to make myself sleep for now.

I could only hear cut-off voices in my head, much like Axel's and my own.

…one would miss me an…

…I would…

x

The pattering of feet slamming against the wooden floors of the dark house made by a servant girl running to her mistress were echoing throughout the empty hallways.

Out of breath, the girl panted slightly upon entering the young mistress's room, hand holding the side of the doorway.

"Mistress…the former Keyblade Master…and all those he was connected to…I'm afraid…two of them…they've begun to remember."

A loud slamming of books accidentally being dropped to the ground out of horrified surprise was the next thing heard.

"Oh no…" came a sharp gasp.

A/N; OHOHOHO!

I feel evil. –devilish grin-

WHO IS THE SERVANT GIRL? WHO IS HER MISTRESS? WHY DID ROXAS ATTACK AXEL IN THE BATHROOM? ONLY TIME WILL TELL! FIND OUT NEXT TIME...

IN Reincarnation!

xD

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