Kenji, sitting on his dad's bed as he held Kaji and played Super Mario Brothers on the Game Boy Dad had bought for him, paused the game and looked up as someone came in.
"Oh, hi Mr. Luggnagg," Kenji said, waving.
"Hello to you, little boy," Mr. Luggnagg said, as he walked over and sat down on Dad's bed. "How has my favorite little Zoalord been doing, eh?"
"I'm your favorite? Really?"
"Of course you are," Mr. Luggnagg said, patting Kenji's head. "I would be very happy if you came with us to the Pillars of Heaven."
"But…" Kenji looked down slightly. He liked it when people were happy, but he would miss Dad when they weren't together. "Well, can Dad come, too?"
"Your father has a great deal of work to do," Mr. Luggnagg said, putting a hand on Kenji's shoulder. "I don't think that he would really have the time to come with us to this place. Of course, you will be able to leave if you are feeling lonely without your father."
"Okay," Kenji nodded. "Can I have a little more time to think about it, Mr. Luggnagg?"
"Of course you can, my boy," Mr. Luggnagg said as he patted Kenji's head again. "Still, I hope that you do decide to come with us."
Then Mr. Luggnagg left. Kenji looked at where he had been standing for a few seconds, thinking about things. Dad would miss him if he left, and he would miss Dad, but Mr. Luggnagg seemed to really want him to come. He and Mr. Fried'rich were both really nice, and it might be kind of fun to go to the Pillars of Heaven and see how it was run. Maybe… well, Dad seemed to be kind of okay with him going. And Mr. Luggnagg seemed to really want him to go. Maybe he should try and talk to Mr. Purg'stall. Looking back down at his Game Boy, Kenji turned it off and set it down on the bed. He'd get back to that level later, but now he needed to go talk to Mr. Fried'rich—maybe he would be able to help him decide.
As Kenji left his room, looking for Mr. Fried'rich so he could talk to him, he remembered that Dad would be expecting to find him back in his room.
-Dad?-
-Yes, Kenji?-
-I'm going to go talk to Mr. Fried'rich now, okay?-
-That's fine, son. Just tell me when you get back if I'm not in our room to meet you.-
-Okay!-
Smiling, Kenji headed for the nearest elevator. Dad had said that Mr. Fried'rich was usually in the top of the building, so that was where he was going to start looking. It would be nice to talk to Mr. Fried'rich again—he was always nice. And Mr. Fried'rich had helped a lot when he had made the Alvix model Zoanoids. He hadn't even told Dad about them, though Dad was one of the leaders of Chronos, too.
Kenji fidgeted a little during the boring elevator ride, but when some people in long, white coats stepped onto the elevator with him, he turned to watch them.
"Hi!" he called, waving to the people who had just joined him in the elevator.
"Hey there, little guy," the brown-haired man scientist said, waving back to him.
"Good morning," the lady said over her shoulder.
"Where are you headed up to, Kenji?" the man asked.
"I'm going to go have a talk with Mr. Fried'rich."
"Oh?" he looked curious. "What are you going to talk about? Or is that a private matter?"
"Umm," Kenji chewed on his fingertip, trying to think of a way to explain what he wanted to talk to Mr. Fried'rich about.
"I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it. It's probably something strictly between you Zoalords, eh?"
"Well, not really. It's just- I don't really know what to say about it," Kenji said.
The man looked like he wanted to ask some more questions, but the lady put her hand on his shoulder before he could say anything else.
"I don't think we should be bothering our young friend anymore," she said.
"I'm not really bothered," Kenji said.
He really wasn't. The elevator rides were always so boring, and he was glad to have more people to talk to while he was in there.
"Where are you guys going?" Kenji asked.
Mr. Fried'rich's office was all the way at the top of the tower, and Dad's room was ten floors below that. Sure, sometimes it was fun to watch the flashing lights that told everyone which floor they were on, but Kenji always liked having someone to talk to.
"Funnily enough, we have to have a meeting with Lord Purg'stall ourselves," the man said, smiling.
Kenji smiled, too. "Oh. Can I come in with you, then?"
"I don't think you'll want to come in with us, Kenji," the nice man said. "We're going to be talking about grown-up things in there. You'd probably get bored before we've finished our third sentence. Why don't you wait out in the anteroom, and we'll call you in when we're done?" The doctor looked over at the other doctor, and when she nodded, he turned to look back at Kenji. "Well, I'll call you when we're done."
Kenji thought about it. It would be nice to see Mr. Fried'rich when no one else was there, since Mr. Fried'rich always seemed to act a little different when there were humans in the room with them. He didn't do it around Zoanoids, which Kenji always thought was kind of funny, but then the Zoanoids were all nice to him. Some of the humans would look at him funny when he talked. None of them did it when he was with Dad, but then all of them seemed to be a bit scared of Dad anyway, though Kenji didn't really know why.
"Okay," Kenji said, smiling.
If Mr. Fried'rich and those doctors were really going to be talking about boring grown-up things while they were in that room together, then Kenji really didn't want to be in there with them. Besides, maybe one of the Zoanoids would want to play with him. That would be fun! Bouncing in place a bit, Kenji looked up at the flashing elevator light and saw that they were at the top of Cloud Tower now. Waiting politely for the two doctors to get off, even though they were just humans, Kenji got off the elevator and scampered over to the rows of soft chairs that were waiting for him on the other side of the room. This was where Dad had said that people waiting to talk with Mr. Fried'rich would have to stay if he was busy.
Dad had also said that Mr. Fried'rich was busy a lot of the time, so that meant that the two doctors were probably going to have to wait to meet with him, too. Maybe they would play with him; that would be fun. But when Kenji saw the two of them walking into Mr. Fried'rich's office and the man turned to wave at him before the door closed and he couldn't see them anymore, Kenji didn't think he'd be seeing them again. Most of the doctors didn't seem to like him very much; the Zoanoids were a lot nicer. Bouncing in the chair and already starting to get bored, Kenji got the feeling that there was someone watching him. Looking around, Kenji saw a man in a suit sitting in the chair next to him.
"Hi!" he said, waving. "You're a…" Kenji nibbled his lower lip, trying to think. "Valvatos! You're a Valvatos, aren't you?"
"Got it in one, kiddo," the Valvatos said, smiling back at him. "So, what brings you all the way up here? And without your dad, even? I can't remember the last time I saw one of you without the other."
"Well, Dad's down doing boring stuff for Chronos, and Mr. Luggnagg and Mr. Fried'rich want me to come with them to some place called the Pillars of Heaven. Well, Mr. Luggnagg really wants me to come; I don't know what Mr. Fried'rich wants. But Dad can't come, so I wanted to talk to Mr. Fried'rich. To see if he really wanted me to come."
"I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to spend time with you; you're a nice kid," the Valvatos said, patting Kenji's head as he smiled. "Still, I'm sure that Lord Purg'stall will understand if you want to stay here with your Dad. He's a real nice guy, you know."
"Yeah," Kenji said, smiling. "I've met him. Dad introduced me."
"Glad to hear it, kid."