A/N: Well, school has started and I am getting back into the creative habits paying no attention in class leaves me with. So I drew pictures to go with the fic and actually wrote this chapter and the side story I put in at the end. The side story in question deals with one of our newest characters who, unfortunately, hasn't been introduced properly and was only briefly mentioned last chapter. Now we have her permission to go a little crazier with her character and "Kleptomania" was born.
TearWorkshop: I want an Inventory too. Too bad I can only use it in this story; it'd be handy for school. I wouldn't have to carry my crazy heavy books all over the place.
Amarissia: Spiritual turkey, huh? Wow. Uh, I'm still terrified of ducks, but I'm sure Kiisa will find a way to bring them in for Cloudy. Sora is over? Tell him hello for me, alright? And I'm glad you guys found the Cloud/Seph moment enjoyable. We're working on getting more but it needs to have some time before we can get them to come around and make out for the fangirls.
Lia Silverfrond: I'm ever so happy you continue to find our story enjoyable. - Hope this chapter lives up to expectations!
Kitara Strife: Wow, I woke up a few days ago and checked my e-mail to find all the reviews you left. You have no idea how happy I was. You seriously made my day with those. - As for the Suna headband and Trigun reference, I'm keeping them. Sorry, Suna's my favorite Naruto village and Kiisa recently got me interested in Trigun. As for the fact that Kiisa split Sunagakure into two words… I'm ashamed that I didn't catch that.
Sulhadanhe: Of course characters outside of FF and KH will show up! We made plans from day 1 to dedicate a few chapters to our favorite Tales of Symphonia authors and fics. And we'll likely sneak in characters from other places as well. After all, Kingdom Hearts is simply one big crossover! -
Warning/Cause for Celebration: Axelerate! is finally starting
Disclaimer: I don't own it, I have no money.
"Amaya? Demyx? Zexion? Hello? Anyone?" Kiisa called out into the air, wondering just where the heck she was. She had gotten separated from Demukusu and Zexy and tried to follow the signs to get out but they didn't exactly help. In fact, now she was even more lost.
Then a change in the music caught Kiisa's attention. For the past hour or so she had been trying to ignore the tune that resembled something that would play in a maze and keep her anxiety in check. It hadn't worked. So when the speakers began pumping out ominous sounding battle music she began to panic. Well, more than she had been for the past few hours.
"Help! Somebody! Anybody! Help! I'm too young to die and not have a Phoenix Down equipped!" Running in circles, a low growl issued from the bushes to her left and a crash announced the presence of a large, lumbering, fat heartless. "I'm level zero! Go away!"
The heartless stopped for a moment, looking at Kiisa as though sizing her up. Apparently, it found her to be an easy enough target and lumbered forward again. At that point, Kiisa did the only thing that she could think of, ran in the opposite direction screaming at the top of her lungs. "OH FOR THE LOVE OF ZEMYX AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
"You know, that isn't going to help." A disembodied voice commented as she ran for her hit points. "Why don't you try summoning your weapon? It wouldn't come after you if you didn't have one." Tripping, Kiisa face planted into the forest floor.
"What do you mean I have a weapon?" She demanded, looking around for the source of the voice. Five seconds later, she found the Cheshire cat grinning from atop a tree branch.
"Exactly what I said, you have a weapon. Just summon it."
"But, but I don't know how!" Kiisa floundered, looking for a stick or something to fend the rogue hologram off. "What am I supposed to do?"
"If I told you that'd ruin the fun." The cat grinned and stared to fade out. "Have a good time."
"I hate you!" Kiisa scowled, tossing the stick she had found towards the disappearing grin. Then, as the rumbling and crashing started up again, Kiisa looked up to find that the heartless had caught up. "Oh crap. What do I do? Uh… uhhh, I summon… THE BINDER OF DOOM!" she yelled, not surprised when nothing happened. To be honest, the binder of doom was a joke from 7th grade when she had used her binder to whack people upside the head. It was old, it was bad, and it was the first thing that had come to her mind. Then, as suddenly as the music started, it paused and silence reigned as a number of floating letters appeared in front of her.
WEAPON GAINED
LEVEL UP TO LEVEL FIVE!!
After a few seconds where her brain imploded and resurrected itself the words vanished and a blue light shone in front of her. Now, like any good fangirl, she reached out to touch the shiny thing and was rewarded with an item, and irony at its finest rewarded her with her old binder, ink doodles and everything. "Holy and meteor…" Kiisa muttered, astonished at the fact that it actually worked. "Well, here goes nothing…" she sighed and proceeded to run at the heartless even though her instincts screamed that she was suicidal.
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"Kiisa!" Amaya yelled as she made her way through the forest and into a clearing where her friend was mauling a heartless. Startled, she stepped back a pace and observed as Kiisa brutally assaulted the Large Body with the power of the Binder of Doom, and then proceeded to laugh as the poor heartless was destroyed with a final hit.
"Nice, Kiisa," Amaya grinned as the girl turned to look at Amaya.
"Aya, is that you? Why do you look like you just stepped out of a shoujo manga?" Kiisa asked, looking at Amaya like she had, well, stepped out of a shoujo manga.
"Likely the same reason you were using your binder in a display that was fit for Saïx in berserk mode." Amaya shrugged as she finally turned her attention to taping up the hole in the fourth wall. Kiisa blinked and looked down at the binder then back at where the heartless had been.
"I'm blaming my Scottish blood." Then, suddenly a thought struck her. "Hey, Aya, lookie what I can do!" At those words another set of floating letters popped up in front of Amaya.
KIISA WISHES TO JOIN YOUR PARTY Y/N?
Sighing, Amaya pressed the 'Y' and the words rearranged themselves.
BINDER BERSERKER KIISA HAS JOINED YOUR PARTY.
QUEST: RESCUE KIISA FINISHED
-PRIZE: ANGEL BANGLE
Kiisa grinned as a set of letters appeared in front of her as well.
GENERAL HITOKIRI AMAYA-HIME HAS ACCEPTED YOU INTO THE PARTY.
"Well, that seemed rather pointless." Amaya groused, looking at her partner. At least she had gained an item for her trouble. "I guess this way we'll share experience points next time?"
"I dunno," Kiisa shrugged. "I just thought it was cool. So what's with the magical girl thing, anyway? What can you do?"
"Uh, I actually don't know…" Amaya blushed. "I accidentally killed my furry little mascot thingy but it didn't give me experience points. I don't really know how I did it, either."
"Oh, well, whatever. Hey, Demuku and Zexy invited me to go to the World That Never Was but Is Now, do you want to come?"
"Are the ducks still there?" Amaya asked suspiciously.
"Probably," Kiisa shrugged. "But you can attack them now if they attack you. So can we go? Please?"
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As the girls walked into the Castle that Never Was they were happily surprised to find it deserted. Then again, the park was closed to everyone except employees at this time of night. But still, to have no random battles popping up was a nice change from their walk over.
"We're lost, Kiisa." Amaya glared at her partner. "Again."
"Hey, I'm trying! And I don't see you finding the elevator!" Kiisa exclaimed.
"Ugh, okay, if I remember correctly, this walkway leads to the Proof of Existence so…"
"Take them! I give them to you! Use them wisely! Do not falter! Try to be the humans you once were, and grow! Grow again!" A woman's voice called out through the silence and the two fangirls stopped dead in their tracks.
"Uh, Kiisa, I think I know why there aren't any nobodies hanging around." Amaya whispered. "I think Axelerate! started."
Kiisa grinned and looked at her companion, "Well, let's go watch then. We just need to stay clear of the cameras that will be broadcasting this around the park tomorrow morning." Amaya slowly nodded and the girls crept up to the doorway where they watched Tsuki give the Organization heart pieces. The scene was incredible and the girls looked on in awe as the Dream-Catcher collapsed the two into the depths of the castle.
As soon as they were certain that the scene had ended, the girls backed away silently and walked back to the ground floor, searching for the elevator without Kiisa's input. Close to a half an hour later they located it, but only due to the fact that Xigbar had walked out humming a tune that sounded suspiciously like the Beach Boys' "Kokomo".
"Hey! Xiggy!" Kiisa yelled, as Amaya was busy singing Kokomo along with Xigbar's humming. The pirate/surfer/nobody stopped and turned, raising an eyebrow at the girls.
"You're the two from this morning, right? Demyx is panicking upstairs because he thinks he lost you." Then he suddenly turned around and opened the elevator door for them. "Run along and calm the kid down, I've got to go find Larxene." Without another word, he resumed humming and walked away.
"Well, that was convenient." Amaya shrugged, as Kiisa ran inside the elevator.
xxxxxKleptomaniaxxxxx
Erava was bored. All of the other girls, including the Vampire Shift, had left the Teahouse for their homes outside the park or their apartments within the residential areas, said residential areas being Twilight Town, Traverse Town, and Destiny Island. Then again, a good portion of them might have just left to go level up before returning to their designated sleeping areas. Sometimes Erava envied the people that didn't need to reach the outermost edges of the park before reaching their beds. Twilight was where she rented an apartment and it was on the edge of the park furthest from Wonderland. Really, the only good thing about it was that it was cheap and most of her co-workers/friends lived there too. In any case she was bored, and not quite sleepy enough to return to Twilight Town. So she was alone, alone with itchy fingers.
This proceeded to explain the reason why she was creeping into the kitchen at 3 in the morning and going through the cabinets. It wasn't as though she was going to keep anything she found, she was just borrowing it. Just like how she had borrowed the Gummi ship last Tuesday so she could stalk Vincent. And then didn't return it because she forgot where she had lifted it from. Not like it really mattered though since no one seemed to care enough to report it missing.
Opening a new cabinet, she grinned. "Bingo," she muttered. Earlier, Kiisa had mentioned that there was some ninja stuff in the cupboard near the stove with the giant sword. Like all the other curious waitresses, Erava had found the giant sword that belonged to one of their cooks named Nicole, better known as Kelle611 by the FFN junkies. But she hadn't found the treasure trove of shurikens and kunai before and when Kiisa mentioned it she had been reminded of why she took this job. She wanted to be a ninja. Well, she wanted to stalk Vinny too and the job had given her the perfect excuse to do so, but she wanted to be a ninja even more. So she had been disappointed to find out that even with the Teahouse job she might not be able to become a ninja. To level up for the first time she needed to have a park recognized weapon and the ability to use it in the first place. So she had to be careful about what she picked up, the park had some strange weapon parameters set. Erava knew for a fact that one girl used a mop like someone might use a wooden staff and, of course, there was Demyx and his sitar.
Quickly, she snatched the shuriken and kunai and scampered out of the building and into the nearby forest that led to the Wonderland docks. A brisk pace had her nearly to the docks before a set of floating words caused her to stop in her tracks. Curious, she poked a finger through an "L" and found that it went straight through.
"Okay…?" She blinked, finally deciding to read the text.
WEAPON GAINED
LEVEL UP TO LEVEL 5!!
ABILITY GAINED - STEAL
Shortly after she finished reading the words vanished, leaving her slightly confused and more than a little ecstatic. She was a ninja now! Then she remembered the wise words of Review: "Watch out for Jabberwocks once you level up enough to fight. They're nasty. I almost got killed by one on my way to the docks when I first leveled up." Gulping, Erava cast a quick glance over her shoulder and, seeing nothing, scrambled onto her gummi ship and headed to her Twilight Town apartment. She really didn't want to get attacked right now.
Well, that's over and done with. And for anyone interested in seeing the pictures I drew, I should have them up on Livejournal in a few days. I just need to get the blasted scanner working. You know the drill: click the little review button please! (Oh, for those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the homepage link on my profile leads you to Kiisa's and my shared livejournal.)