Chapter 6: Enter Riku Tatsumi

Time of Day: ?
Weather: Foggy
Place: The Velvet Room

"Oh my," Margaret is sitting at her normal spot, but Igor's nowhere to be seen. "I'm terribly sorry, but the master is currently out." I can see that, Captainess Obvious. Is a captainess even a thing? "But since you are here, hello there and welcome to the Velvet Room." Margaret laughs a little. "I've always wanted to do that. Now, moving on, I congratulate you on obtaining the the Moon and Strength Arcanas."

She opens her book, two blue cards appear, and each falls on its own page. One page shows a picture with Hayner, and the other with Selphie.

"I can only wonder what these two arcana will bring to your future." Margaret closes the book and looks at me. "That's it, please come again when the master is back." A small smile appears on her face. "Or just maybe, you just prefer it more when he's away…"

The Velvet Room fades into the fog outside.

May 2, 2015
Time of Day: Noon
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Destiny High- Hallways

"Hey, is this yours?" I ask.

"Hm? What you want?" The tall guy with long silver hair turned around. He had a black muscle shirt with a red vertical thorn vine in in the center. He wore a grey jacket over it, which meant he was in the Junior class.

"I saw it fall out of your pocket when you took your hand out." I showed him a bunny charm. "Well, is it or not?" It was small, pink, and seemed to be made of felt. He snatched it and left without a word. I wonder why that guy was so quiet and rude about it. I have something like that too, except it's a tiny snowman with a blue hat and matching scarf.

Time of Day: Night
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Dojima Residence

The night sky was thick with condensation seeping over the town. I watch through the window from inside the Dojima Residence. Usagi and I are eating our dinner without Zack. Again. This guy seriously needs to get some days off. At least he'll be here for Golden Week. "This is good beef."

Usagi smiles. "I know! It's from one of my favorite places to eat!" The phone rings. "Ooh, maybe it's Dad!" She gets up and runs to the phone. "Hello? Yup, we're okay! Mhm… Huh? Oh… I understand." I look over and Usagi's head is down. "You want me to hand it to Sora? Okay."

She walks over to me and gives me the phone. "Hello?" I ask. Usagi walks to her room.

"Hey Sora, it's Zack." Phones chirp in the background along with men wailing out various commands. "Remember how I mentioned about have days off on the 4th and 5th?"

"You can't get any days off, can you?" Must be because of the murders.

"Yeah, I can't." The disappointment in his voice doesn't go unnoticed by me. "One of the rookie detectives got sick, and I have to pick up his slack. It doesn't look like the case he was working on could wait for him to get back, so I'm stuck filling in."

"That sucks." I remember whenever I had to do group work alone when my classmates were sick. It's never fun and you're doing the job of multiple people, so I can sort of see how much work Zack has to do. But probably on a much bigger scale since this is an actual job, not schoolwork.

"Since I don't want her to be alone, can you watch over her and bring her with you and your friends if you go out with them?"

"Yeah, sure. They'll like her."

"Can you be responsible?"

"Yeah? Are you doubting me, Zack?"

"Not doubting you, just trying to be as much of a father that I can be."

"Makes sense. Anyway, I'm going to finish my dinner. See you later."

"Okay," Zack says. "Bye." I hang up the phone. I head into Usagi's room to talk to her. She's at a table drawing a picture.

"Hey, what are you drawing?'" I ask.

"A chocobo." She tells me.

"Really? Those are one of my favorite animals. I've always wanted to race chocobos for a living."

Usagi turns around. "Really? I just think they're cute."

"Yeah, so do I." I stay quiet for a second. "Um, Usagi, about your dad not being able to be with us tomorrow."

"It's ok." She faces me with a sad face. "He's doing his job, and protecting people."

Wow. She's surprisingly mature for someone her age. I grab a small chair sit down next to her. "Maybe tomorrow we can play while your dad isn't here."

A tiny, but visible smile appears on her face. "Really?"

"Yeah," I continue. "It'll be fun. Maybe I can invite some of my friends. They'd like you."

"But I'm only little… Are you sure that they'd be fine with it?"

"Why wouldn't they be fine with it?" I ask

May 3, 2015
Time of Day: Noon
Weather: Sunny
Place: Dojima Residence

"Gooood mornin' Sora!" Yuffie greets me when I open the front door.

"Hey, Yuffie. How's it going?"

"Everything's fine. Are you free today? Me and Namine were just going to hang out, and if you want to balance the gender difference I guess we could invite Roxas too."

"I'll come." Yuffie smiles. "But only if I can bring Usagi."

"Your cousin? I don't think I've met her yet." Yuffie looks behind me to find Usagi. I turn around and she has the whole timid look a lot of little six year-olds have. "So you're Usagi, huh? You want to come with me and your cousin?"

"Well, um, I mean, uhhh…" She looks at me while she stutters.

I smile at her. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

"A-are you sure?"

Yuffie's smile grows. "Yeah, of course he is! And, you'll have a great time!" Usagi's lips twitch into a smile. "Sooo, can we go now?"

Time of Day: Noon
Weather: Sunny
Place: Moogle Co.- Food Court

"Ta da!" Roxas brings us styrofoam plates with beef steak and egg on it. "One big steak!"

"Wow!" Usagi's eyes shine with excitement. Roxas continues to give each of us our own steak.

"God, you're so slow, Roxas! Just give me this already!" Yuffie grabs the plates of food Yosuke had in his hands and starts to dig in.

"You may have to chew it a lot," Namine says. "The quality of the steak they use isn't the best."

"Aw c'mon, at least say that when I'm gone!" Roxas complains.

Usagi cuts and eats part of her steak. "I think it's delicious!"

"Ha! At least she likes it!" Roxas smiles. He slouches on a chair next to me.

"Are you off of work yet?" I ask.

"No, I'm just on break. I continue my shift in like 30 minutes." He rips off the red apron he had on. "But seriously, what are you guys doing here at the food court, wasting your Golden Week?"

"There's literally no where else to go!" Yuffie complains.

"Then what about Usagi? Out of all of the places, you bring her here?" Roxas asks.

"I know, I kind of feel bad for her," Namine says.

"There are worse places on Earth!" Roxas complains

"You're just trying to push all of Roxas' buttons, aren't you, Namine?" I ask. We all laugh with the exception of Roxas crossing his arms with a scrunched face.

"Oh yeah, we were supposed to have a picnic with a basket and everything!" Usagi says.

"Who would have made the basket?" Namine asks. "You?"

Usagi points at me. "You would have made the basket?" Yuffie asks, her eyes direct my way.

"Yeah, it would have been fun to do something like that," I tell her.

"It'd probably be better than Yuffie's cooking!" Roxas jokes. "If there's anything more deadly than her kicking, it's her cooking!"

What an asshole. Is he that stupid that he wouldn't be able to figure out what happens next in the script? I can already feel Yuffie's impending fury suffocate me. "What makes you think I don't know how to cook?!" Yuffie punches Roxas and he flies out of his chair.

"You can cook?" I ask.

"Sure I can!" Yuffie says in defense.

Roxas gets up from the floor and gets into his chair. "Then I challenge you to a cooking challenge!" Yuffie leans back with wide eyes. "We will need an impartial person to judge, so that's you job Usagi!"

"Hm?" Usagi looks up from her smoothie.

"I'm pretty good! I might even whip up something even better than your own moth-" Roxas you idiot! Now you just lost more brain cells! "Dude! What the hell was that for!"

I yank him off the ground and distance him a couple feet away where Usagi can't hear him. "Don't mention her mom you idiot!"

"Why not?" he asks.

"Oh my God, you're insufferable! Her mom is dead!"

"Oh. Shit dude, sorry about that."

We walked back to the table. All of the girls had confused looks on their faces. "Why'd you punch him, big bro?" Usagi asks.

"My stupidity detector went off and it ended up in Roxas' face," I excuse.

"What was Roxas going to say?" Namine asks. "Was he going to say her mother?" Oh Namine, you should consider yourself lucky you're not a guy right now.

"Oh, I don't have a mom," Usagi says nonchalantly. "She died in an accident."

Namine's face turns from curiosity to remorse. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Usagi smiles. "Why are you sorry?" she asks. "I do fine on my own. I don't have a mom, but I still have a dad, and I also have big bro now!" Aww, thanks Usagi. Now I feel less bad about not punching Namine for that. "Plus, you took me to Moogle Co. today, and it's really fun!"

Yuffie leans in and smiles at Usagi. "Then in that case, whenever you want someone to play with, or just have a fun time with, call any of us, ok?"

"Yeah!" Namine and Roxas synchronize.

Usagi smiles. "Okay, thanks!" This is probably the happiest I've ever seen her in a while.

May 5, 2015
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Clear Skies
Place: Dojima Residence

"Hey, I'm back." Zack walks in through the front door, and plops onto the couch.

"Hi," Usagi and I say back. We were preparing our dinner by heating up the pizza we had earlier for lunch.

"Hey, about the past two days, I'm sorry I couldn't get out of work to be with you guys," Zack apologizes.

"It's okay." Usagi walks to her dad. "I had lots of fun with Big Bro and his friends!"

"Did you really? Thanks again Sora."

"It was no problem. My friends find her adorable." Usagi glances at her dad's legs. I look and I see two Moogle Co. bags. "What's in those bags, Zack?"

"Oh, these?" He picks up the bags. "Well today is May 5th, so I got you guys a little something."

He takes one bag and gives it to Usagi. She opens it and smiles. "A pink shirt, I love pink! And I like the picture on it too!" She shows me the shirt, and it's a cartoon cat on its back playing with a ball of yarn.

I sit down next to Zack. "I also got you something, Sora" He hands me a bag. "I know you're not a kid, but I thought I might as well get something for my favorite nephew."

I open the bag, and it's a shirt like Usagi's, except it's black and has bold, white words on it.

I'M ALLERGIC TO STUPID PEOPLE

"So, how do you like it?" Zack asks.

"I love it!" Yuffie would certainly approve of it. Soon after we all ate. I could tell Usagi enjoyed that the three of us were all here, since she told Zack things she's been wanting so fast, Zack actually had to slow her down so he wouldn't get a headache trying to process all of the things she was saying.

May 6, 2015
Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Moogle Co. Food Court

"Roxas insisted on us studying together, and now he's passed out drooling on his notes," Yuffie complains. We're studying for some major tests coming up.

"I know right? He better wake up before I start to write on his face." I take out my Sharpie.

I look over at Namine. Judging by her intent, aimless stare, she must be deep in thought. "Now that I think about it, there hasn't been a murder all of Golden Week. It's odd…"

I draw a handlebar mustache on Roxas. "I was just thinking about that a while ago. It's something we need to discuss."

Yuffie draws a dick on Roxas' chin. "Let's think about it, the first victim was Miss Yamano, after that it was Roxas' waifu Larxene, then Namine was the third."

"I'm sure they weren't picked randomly," I write STUPID on Roxas' forehead. "There must be a motive."

"A motive?" Namine questions. "I don't see any connections…" She takes out some blue eyeshadow and puts it on Roxas.

Yuffie snaps her fingers. "Wait, I got it!"

"What?" Namine and I ask.

"Larxene found Ms. Yamano's body. But before her death, Ms. Yamano stayed at Amagi Inn right?" Yuffie draws a unibrow on Roxas.

"Yeah?" An idea forms in my head. "Are you saying that the victims were all women that had something to do with Ms. Yamano?" I draw a black eye on Roxas's right eye.

"How would we be able to even prove that?" Namine takes out red lipstick. "I wonder why I haven't thrown this old thing away yet. It went bad a couple days ago." She dabs the lipstick on Roxas's lips and tosses it in the nearest trash bin.

"We'll never be able to prove it unless we piece together the clues we do have." Yuffie draws a cat head on his neck.

"I actually just remembered something," Namine beams. "I remember the doorbell ringing, and someone calling for me, but not who." Namine applies blush to Roxas' cheeks.

"Okay, that's one clue." Yuffie scribbles FOREVER ALONE on Roxas' left cheek.

"We really should just check the Midnight Reflection for anymore clues." I draw a monocle on Roxas' left eye.

"Yeah. Anyway, I think we should just call it a day for studying," Yuffie says.

"Okay, we just need to wake up Roxas." I write PERVY GRANDPA on his left cheek. "Namine, start recording this on your phone and Yuffie, make train sounds, put your phone flashlight on, and shine the light toward Roxas' face." Yuffie and Namine share a mischievous grin. I grab my textbook and Yuffie starts mimicking an old steam train.

"Wooooh, wooooh!" Yuffie impersonates a whistle, and I slam my book next to Roxas.

He wakes up screaming, and then panics, falling on the ground. It's not long before we erupt with laughter. "Are you getting this Namine?" I whisper to her.

I give Roxas a hand. "Dude, I just had the weirdest dream about trains!" he tells us. "Wait, why is Namine's camera on?" He starts on panic again and we laugh even more.

I take my phone out for a selfie. "Roxas, just look at the camera and smile." I put my arm around him and take a picture of us. I show him the picture and he immediately covers his face. He runs to the bathroom, nearly tripping over himself. I really should feel bad about this, but in a bizarre, twisted kind of way, I really don't. "Honestly, Roxas is a heavy sleeper! Just think if he were drunk?"

As we leave, we can't help but be filled with infectious mirth as we laugh the whole walk home. Except Roxas, of course. It wasn't long before I start to post the picture and video online.

May 12, 2015
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Dojima Residence

"So, how'd you think you did on those tests?" Zack asks me. Over the past 3 days, we took major tests in our class. I don't know how well I did, but I know I did better than Roxas and Yuffie.

"Decent," I deadpan. For once, he was actually home and the three of us were having dinner.

"It doesn't really matter to me if you fail or pass those, but just remember those grade impact your future." Zack tells me.

"I know, I've been told this millions of times." I tell him. "Honestly, you sounded just like my mom for a minute."

"I don't suppose that's a bad thing then."

We continue to eat and watch TV. I notice the silver-haired guy from a couple days ago. He's fighting multiple people coming at him with lead pipes. He's cursing them out and actually punches the camera guy. "Hey I've seen that guy around school before."

"Him?" Zack asks me. "That's Riku Tatsumi."

"You know him?"

"He's sort of a rebel without a cause that gets into fights a lot. He's been to the station multiple times."

"Really?" I ask. "What does his parents do?"

"He only has a mom, his dad died awhile back." That may be one reason he acts so rude, but a lost cause is always more complex than we give them credit for. "His mom runs a shop, and makes decent income. She's quiet and she doesn't seem like the person to mistreat her child and it doesn't seem like they have financial problems either."

"Then I wonder why he acts so mean like that…"

May 15, 2015
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Rainy
Place: Dojima Residence

I close my blinds and an eerie yellow glow emits from my mirror. I look towards it and my eyes freeze, as if I'm caught in a whiplash. The face is slightly cloaked, but this is the same footage from TV. "Riku?" I'll have to tell everyone when I see them tomorrow.

May 16, 2015
Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Moogle Co. Food Court

"Looks like my theory of all the victims being women went down the drain," Yuffie sighs.

"That, and I don't see any connection between Ms. Yamano and him," I tell her.

"Riku, huh? He wasn't like this when we were little," Namine tells us.

"You actually knew that creep?" Roxas asks.

"Yeah, his family runs a textile shop," Namine tells us. "The inn has been selling things from them since forever, but I haven't spoken to Riku in years."

"Let's check out the textile shop," I propose. "Maybe we can find more clues there. Riku's most likely the next person going into the Mirror World."

Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Tatsumi Textiles

We walk into the shop and see a black-haired woman in a kimono talking to a boy with short-cut raven hair, a black double-breasted cardigan, and a black casquette hat. The woman in the kimono must be Riku's mom, but she looks so young!

"Well, I'll just be leaving now," the boy says to the woman. He quickly glares at me while he exits the building. Namine and Yuffie go ask the woman some questions, and I remember a scarf that I saw the first time we were in the Mirror World.

"Excuse me!" I hear from the back. "Package for Ms. Rinoa Tatsumi!"

"Yes, I'm coming!" She looks at the girls. "Sorry, but I have to step out for a while."

"It's okay." Namine smiles. "We were just leaving, anyway."

"Okay then, but thanks for stopping by!" Ms. Tatsumi tells us.

We walk out the door, and I see the same short boy talking to Riku. "Shit, it's Riku, hide!" Roxas tells us.

We run behind a couple trees and bushes. We continue to watch them from our hiding spot until Riku leaves and goes inside the shop.

Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Cloudy
Place: Igirisu No Hato Shrine

"I heard nothing from that conversation, what about you guys?" I ask. We went to the nearby shrine, which happened to be right in front of the Textile Shop.

"I don't think anyone did Sora," Yuffie tells me.

"Maybe we should just keep watch of the shop," Namine rationalizes. "If the killer is after Riku, he'll either approach him directly, or go to his house."

"Yeah, good idea," I say.

"In that case, Namine should probably give me her number," Roxas says.

Yuffie's lesbian bodyguard instincts turned on. "Wait, why would you need her number Roxas?"

"She's the only Phone number I don't have, and what happens if I need to contact everyone?" Roxas says in defense.

"Yeah right," Yuffie crosses her arms. "Just contact me, and then I'll tell Namine. Also, will you stop sending me dirty jokes late at night? It's starting to get annoying you friggin' perv."

"Anyway, I think tomorrow we should have a steak out," I tell them. "Two of us tail Riku, two of us watch over the shop from here."

May 17, 2015
Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Sunny
Place: Igirisu No Hato Shrine

"Thank God we weren't the ones that had to tail Riku, huh?" I ask Namine. "Thank God I won the rock, paper, scissors game against Roxas!"

"Yeah!" She returns the smile. "Do you really think the killer's going to come here at this time?"

"I dunno. Aren't you scared?"

"A little. My desire to see this through outweighs it. I'm sure there's something I can do to help."

"Don't stress yourself."

"Yeah, but I guess I'm just a little bit nervous."

"Just ease up. There's always that chance the killer won't show up at all."

"That's not why I'm nervous. It's because I've never been alone with a boy my age before. Yuffie can do it naturally because of her personality. I feel like she has more fun with you and Roxas around."

"I'm sure you're wrong about Yuffie, she cares for you much more than you think. Don't you remember when we saved you, she worked the hardest. And about you and me being alone."

Namine starts to blush. "I'm sorry if I made it awkward."

"It hasn't been awkward for me at all. Just remember that I'm your friend. I won't judge you because you don't have experience with these things."

Namine smiles. "Thanks Sora. I wonder how Yuffie and Roxas are doing on their part of the investigation?" She gets her phone out and calls Yuffie. "No answer. And I don't know Roxas' number, so I can't call him either."

"I actually just realized, I don't have your number either. And Roxas did actually bring up a good point yesterday about having everyone's number."

"Oh yeah, you're right I guess," I hand her my phone. "Wait, you're just going to give me your phone to put my number in? You're not going to try and erase something first?"

"I have nothing to hide. I literally only use my phone for games, and watching anime of Crispytwirl, and calling people."

"Oh, then in that case, here's your phone back."

"Thanks. I promise I won't give it to Roxas."

"Good!" I hear screaming on the road. Namine and I look on both sides, then we see Yuffie and Roxas are running away from Riku.

"Sorry dude, but we brought trouble!" Roxas screams at us.

"Hey Namine, I think we should run." We join the two in running from Riku.

"I said wait up! You're so dead! So freaking dead!" Riku screams at us.

"Dammit, he's going to get us at this rate!" Roxas screams. "Yuffie, now's the time be all 'I'll handle him! You guys keep on going' and shit like that!"

"Huh, why me?"

"Because you could probably kick his balls into oblivion!" Roxas screams.

"Well you have a point there," Yuffie agrees.

"Yuffie, don't listen to him!" Namine tells her.

"I said to stop running from me you- What the Hell?!" Riku was cut off by an electric scooter, being driven by a classmate of mine: Olette.

"I have your order Yuffie!" Oh yeah, her family owns the Secret Place. She said they delivered anywhere. I'm just surprised she'd delivering it to us now! "Two beef bowls, for 1600 Munny!"

Yuffie reaches for her purse. "I'm sorry, do you have change, Olette? I only have 2000 and 1000 Munny bills on me!"

"Are you seriously paying for this now?!" Roxas asks.

Namine grabs her wallet. "Here's 100 munny Yuffie!"

I grab my wallet. "Here's 500 Munny!" I hand it to Yuffie. "Just pay me back!"

Yuffie hands all of the Munny to Olette. "When you're done, just leave the bowls."

"Where would we even leave them?!" Roxas yells.

Time of Day: Afternoon
Weather: Sunny
Place: Destiny Island Streets

"Okay, so we finally managed to lose him…" God, I'm tired. We stopped running at the end of a small tunnel.

"Is the food good Yuffie?" Namine asks.

"Good? It's delicious!" She tells us. "Here have some. Except Roxas, he didn't help pay."

"What? That's just unfair!" Roxas complains.

"By the way, why was Riku chasing you?" Namine asks.

"Oh, he thought that we were accusing him of being gay," Yuffie answers.

"Why would he think that?" I ask.

"Because Roxas started to stutter and was like 'It's totally not strange that you were hanging out with a dude.' And then he was like 'ARE YOU SAYING I LIKE DUDES?" Yuffie mimics a tough and scary guy. "Then when we started to run he started to plead with us saying, 'It's not like that! I swear it isn't! I like chicks!' Then he started to get even more angry when we were start to run even faster."

"Seriously?" Namine asks. "Is he insecure about if he's gay or straight?"

"Possibly," I say. "Or it could just be that he doesn't want us spreading rumors about him being gay." I stretch my arms. "Anyway, I think we should just call it a day. We should get home and relax."

"Wait guys, I actually just remembered something!" Roxas says.

"What?" I ask him.

"It's supposed to rain tonight," he tells us. "We need to watch the Reflection!"

"Maybe we'll find out more stuff," Namine says. "Like what you told me what you saw when I was kidnapped, you saw the princess me being all weird!"

"Then it's settled, we'll all watch the Reflection tonight," I tell them.

"Hey, where should I leave the bowls?" Yuffie asks.

Time of Day: Night
Weather: Rainy
Place: Dojima Residence

5...

4...

3...

2...

1…

An eerie yellow light emits from my mirror. It shows a door and a bunch of steam or fog on the floor. "Good evening, people of Destiny Islands." The voice is male, but the voice is talking in a very flamboyant way. He sounds like a stereotype gay guy. "Today I'll introduce a superb site for those searching for a sublime love that surpasses the separation of the sexes." Riku appears shirtless and the only thing covering him is a white towel around his waist. He starts to pose in over sexualized ways. "I will be your host, the one and only, Riku Tatsumi!" The picture in the mirror fades away.

What the hell did I just watch?

Before I get into anything else, Sora said "The voice is male, but the voice is talking in a very flamboyant way. He sounds like a stereotype gay guy." I know that not all gay people talk that way! That's why I wrote stereotype. Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter. Please review, favorite, or follow the story!