"Today, you will execute a double mission in two different worlds," Saix said.
Roman had an incredulous look on his face. "Er… pardon?" he asked.
"Once you complete one mission, you will proceed immediately to the next. For today, you will go to Amanto Edo then Sweeper's Field," Saix said handing Roman the mission specs.
The first mission Roman looked at was the Amanto Edo mission. Investigate the Shinsengumi. What the fuck is that, Roman thought, some freelancer group? Also to his chagrin was the fact that it was, once again, recon. However, the breakthrough number caught his attention: only one for basic completion. How does that work?
The second mission was the Sweeper's Field mission. Team up with Axel and collect hearts. Be on the lookout for Tailbunkers and Avalanches. Those are the bird-ish Heartless, Roman thought. This may suck.
"Question, before I go," Roman said, folding and pocketing the papers. "Axel's going to be in Sweeper's Field before I get there?"
"If you handle your business in Amanto Edo correctly (or rather, incorrectly), yes."
The first thing Roman stepped on after going through the portal was not the ground, but a pair of red glasses. He didn't, however, break them as he was stepping lightly due to the area in which he ended up, which was an empty alley. He was always careful around these areas, as he had been jumped on more than one occasion in them. Picking the glasses up, he took off his own glasses to try the other pair on. Roman found himself momentarily blinded by the sheer power of the prescription on the red pair, so he stuck with his regular pair. "Ah! Oh- Jesus," he said when he first put the red pair on.
"Those happen to be mine," a voice said from seemingly nowhere.
Roman stumbled and tripped on his own feet from the surprise. Had the dark corridor not closed earlier, he would have fell right back in. Getting himself to sitting position, he looked around for the source of the voice, but saw nothing. "Okay, whose glasses are these?" he asked aloud, addressing the voice.
"Mine," the voice said from behind him.
Roman looked back to find a light purple haired woman looking to his right. She had her arms folded and was staring intently at a poster of some strange advertisement that Roman, for the life of him, couldn't comprehend. "I would appreciate it if you would give them back right about now," she said to it.
"Uh… Ma'am? A-are you trying to talk to me?" Roman inquired, standing up.
"What does it look like?" she said to the poster.
It quickly became apparent to him that she thought the poster was him, and the glasses had something to do with it. Grabbing her shoulder, he turned the woman to face him. "Eh? Vice-Commander Hijikata?" she asked, confused. "What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?"
Roman only stared at her for a moment. Had either Roxas or Xion been there, he would have stated that, "I'm giving her the Doctor stare. That means that my mind has been damaged." Without warning, he shoved the red glasses into her face, pushing the bridge up with one finger and tilting her a little before she resumed her previous posture. "Who are you?" she asked.
More staring. This time, he slowly backed away and out of the alley. After he left, the woman looked to her left (Roman's right at the time) and saw the poster. "Oh. So that's what I was looking at."
The Shinsengumi headquarters. Toshiro Hijikata, vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, sat cross-legged before Isao Kondo, the commander, who was sitting in a similar position. "There you have it," Hijikata said.
"Oh, so this is the girl that you saw earlier?" Kondo asked, holding up a picture of a violet-eyed girl whose mouth was an open smile. "By the way, Hijikata," he added.
He leaned forward slightly to get a better listen.
"Who the hell is this girl?"
Hijikata's head slumped down, like neckbones broke (which they didn't). "I just spent ten minutes explaining that that's the strange Amanto that's been sighted in Edo, Kondo-san," he said in an annoyed tone that was struggling not to get too angry.
"Oh yes, that's right. Some kind of fire Amanto, is she?"
Hijikata resumed his original posture. "We have reason to believe that because she was sighted in several areas where we suspected high amounts of criminal activity."
Kondo had a look of surprise. "But wait…" he said. "Where was she seen?"
Hijikata was practically knocked over by disbelief that his superior just said that. Snapping back upright, he shouted, "Haven't you been listening to me?"
The sight to an onlooker, namely an Assassin Nobody, would have made Hijikata look like the superior of the two, and not Kondo. The Nobody's arm, holding a camcorder, disappeared into the ground, and it slithered back outside, careful not to find itself under the footsteps of passing Shinsengumi officers. Outside, it met with Roman who was crouched around the corner of the outer wall of the headquarters so that he would not alert any guards. The Assassin presented Roman with the camcorder, which it bothered to turn off. "Good boy," he said to it, like it were some sort of pet. "Go fetch!" he said as he tossed a heart-shaped candy with the Assassin in pursuit. I swear, these things can't discern hearts and candy to save themselves, he thought.
Turning on the camcorder, he reviewed the footage the Assassin recorded. It showed several Shinsengumi officers throughout the building, including what he surmised to be the Hijikata character that the woman from earlier claimed him to be. Well, I can kind of guess why, he thought. We have the same general hairstyle.
Replaying the footage over and over again to note things on a notepad as he had lunch in a nearby restaurant, he noted some important figures. Sougo: lighthearted yet deadpan dude who wants Hijikata dead via bazooka thing. Also a sadist and lazy. Yamazaki: badminton guy who is also an efficient spy. Kondo: commander? Albeit a goofy commander. Hijikata: badass vice-commander. Also a chain smoker. The name "Roy Mustang" comes to mind.
A device in Roman's pocket beeped after he closed the notepad. Basic completion. The dark corridor is open. Well, that simply won't do, he thought. "'Scuse me, waitress? I'm done with my dishes here!" he called out as he pocketed the device.
"Yes sir, I'll be right there!" a young woman called out.
Yawning and standing up from his seat, he left a few larger munny orbs on the table. However, it would seem that a hand caught one of the orbs. Looking in the direction of its arm, he was shocked to find that he was staring right into the eyes of Isao Kondo. "And just who the hell are you? Calling out Otae-san like that like you own her," he said.
Roman only let out a confused squeak of sorts. On the inside however, he was relieved that Kondo seemed completely oblivious to what he was doing earlier. "You should show respect to those around you, especially if they're in a tight situation like her. Calling out to them is not showing proper respect," he continued.
"YOU'RE the one showing improper respect, you damned stalker!" A woman in a pink yukata shouted as she kicked Kondo into the wall, firmly embedding his face into the wall.
In accordance with the voice, it was the waitress that Roman called for. "Oh… shit," he said, looking at Kondo in his ridiculous position of his rear practically for all to see.
Not able to resist the temptation, he kicked Kondo before running off whilst writing, "Stalker of this Otae girl. Will often turn up where she is (maybe)." He didn't really notice his device beeping again to indicate 100% completion.
"You're early," Axel said as the dark corridor closed behind him in Sweeper's Field.
"No, you're just late," Roman said as he kicked a Soldier Heartless into the night sky.
"You really sure that was a good idea, treating that one like a ball?" Axel asked, torching a Striped Aria. "Someone could track that."
"Yeah, but only if they have uber-skills," Roman replied, embedding another Soldier into the ground with his foot before kicking its head off, releasing its heart, "Which I doubt many people have around here. Not that I'm trying to downgrade anyone, I'm just saying."
"So you and Luxord were here a few days ago?" Axel asked, looking across the empty streets lit only by the waxing half moon.
"Yeah… apparently, Vexen was running low on some chemical that even he didn't know about, so he got me and Luxord to go," Roman said, going down the road in the direction he believed to lead to the laboratory.
"Jeez, obscure much?" Axel said.
"Well, if he didn't know much about it himself, then he couldn't help it."
Along the road were several Heartless. This didn't pose much of a problem, since the assignment was to collect hearts. Roman pointed out the alley where his and Luxord's extraction point was. He also pointed out the small store they had cut through to save time. Coincidentally, it was open tonight, too, though the lights were off. "Strange," Roman said, "You'd think it'd be closed at this hour, right? Hey, what time is it over at the Castle?"
Axel only shrugged as he put down a stuffed cat he was looking at. "I'm not the guy who wears a watch."
The stuffed cat began to shake its head violently and meowed like a mad…cat. "Oh shit, Seizure Cat!" Roman exclaimed, trying to go out the back door.
The door was blocked off by the trademark pulsating vines that indicated unrelated areas, so Roman merely ran into the door trying to go through. Axel remained calm, tossed the stuffed cat into the air and decapitated it with a swift slash of a chakram. "Ouch… nice, the door's blocked," Roman said, standing up and rubbing his nose.
"So we're not heading to this lab you and Luxord went to," Axel said, flaming the now headless stuffed cat with a snap of his fingers.
"Not today, no. Hey… check out the streets," Roman said, pointing out the window at the front of the small store.
The streetlamps now had an eerie purple glow to them. Only ten of them had this, but the illumination was enough to catch the attention of the two Nobodies present. Running out of the store, Axel and Roman nearly came into contact with a flame that had fazed through the glass of one of the street lamps and floated towards a manhole cover. "Never said anything about a giant Heartless in the mission report," Roman said, cracking his knuckles and preparing for a fight.
"Then it's safe to say Demyx was looking through," Axel said.
The other nine purple flames danced in a circle around the manhole cover before coming together into one larger flame. It touched down on the cover and erupted into a large pillar which soon turned orange-red, the proper color of fire. From the fire pillar, what looked like a Guard Armor stepped out, but its colors were various reds, oranges and yellows as opposed to purples. "Jeez, the Heartless send something like this? While I'm around?" Axel said, not really impressed.
His smile faded a bit when another one stepped out, colored like a proper Guard Armor. However, the pillar was purple when it came out. "Ooh, this is bad," Roman commented.
The two Armors traded one arm and leg each, resulting in mismatched limbs and colors, but this added to the effect of orange and purple fire from the corresponding armor parts. "Let me say this: if we had hearts, that would have been so much cooler," Roman said before Axel could say anything.
With that, the battle was on. The Armors spun their arms to form a blazing trail of mixed orange and purple and their feet stomped to create massive fire circles that stayed only for a moment, but threatened to seriously burn either Nobody as they aimed for the heads. After another exchange of limbs, the Armors now had their hands shoot at the Nobodies like deadly missiles that embedded themselves within the street. Their feet tap-danced to Roman's slight amusement, but this was broken by the fact that they were entirely engulfed by fire. One thing in particular caught Roman's attention throughout the battle: Axel didn't seem to hold up especially well against this particular fire. This was a bit of a shock given that the man was affiliated with fire, and friendly fire in regards to said spell was no issue with him. However, he seemed to not tolerate these particular flames.
The battle raged on for minutes until Roman finally finished off his Armor and its associated limbs. Only the hot-rod colored one was left and that one was being handled by Axel. It stomped over to its fallen comrade, not seeming to mind the chakram lodged in the left side of its head or Axel actively attacking it. Stopping at the fallen Armor, flames snaked in the air from its fingertips and started to make its way to the helmet. Seeing this, Roman leapt forward and kicked the fire trail apart and with a rising uppercut, launched the Armor's helmet into the night sky where it embedded itself in the ground with a loud crack. The remaining pieces joined the others in a large heap which, rather appropriately, burned up with little trace except several scorch marks. From the large bonfire rose two gleaming hearts, joining their comrades in Kingdom Hearts.
"Oh… dear," Roman said, surveying the damage caused.
Not only were there several holes in the ground from the Armor hands and one Armor's helmet, but there were several heavily burnt areas supplemented by molten streetlamps. The manhole was also melted into the street, making access in and out through that one virtually impossible. "Uh… run," Roman quickly said and did just that with Axel in tow, holding his side which looked torn.
Day 8. 80% completion. Once again, Odd Jobs Gin found themselves outside the door to the laboratory. "Hey, did anyone hear about what happened over at that one restaurant near the Shinsengumi HQ?" Kagura asked with her mouth full of a rice ball.
"Oh, did that commander person get beat down by Otae?" Rinoa asked.
"Yeah, he did. His face got stuck in the wall, so they had to cut a section of the wall so that they could get him out faster!"
"Sheesh, and he is the commander of the Shinsengumi…" Gintoki said, leaning against the wall. Instead of an issue of JUMP, he was reading a volume of Bleach that had recently come out.
"It does make you wonder why he's the commander, and not Toshiro Hijikata," Rinoa said. "He seems much more capable, even if he does actually smother much of his food in mayonnaise."
"That's true, you know," Kagura said, taking another bite of a rice ball. "He seriously does like assloads of mayo on his food."
Gintoki closed his book and put it back in his coat. Looking at the door curiously, he looked at it up and down, as if he were searching for something. "Gin-san, what are you doing?" Rinoa asked.
"I think it's in our best interests now that we find out what that androgynous creep is working on," Gintoki said, tapping the door with his bokken. "We've never been in there, so wouldn't it be a good idea to be as familiar as possible with the place we're guarding?"
"Yeah, you're right! Now that I think about it, he's probably a cook and he doesn't want me eating what he's cooking!" Kagura piped up.
"Why would he be a cook…?" Rinoa said. "He doesn't know anything personal about us, so why—"
"Hey, behind closed doors, all ideas are welcome," Gintoki said.
He continued searching the door, running the tip of his bokken across the door. He must have been able to get in, he thought. Unless he locked the door. I don't want to kick it in just yet.
Sadaharu took the opportunity to prop himself up to standing by placing his paws on Gintoki's shoulders. Much to Kagura's surprise, he didn't bite Gintoki as he normally would when he gets himself up like that. Instead, he was sniffing something. However, Gintoki "sheathed" his bokken and gave a huff of disappointment. Sadaharu got off of his shoulders as well. "Ka-wu…" he said.
"Thanks for trying to help," Gintoki said to Sadaharu, petting him between the ears.
"Axel? What happened?" Roxas asked.
"Like that knight says, it's just a flesh wound," Axel commented with a smile. "Besides, since we're not human, it won't be a problem tomorrow."
"But those things that jumped us…" Roman said with his arms folded in thought. "I seemed to take the flames better than he was, surprisingly. Maybe they used special fire."
"They?" Xion asked.
"Two Guard Armor looking things. There was no warning of a giant Heartless on the mission report, so we were caught off guard," Roman said. "Ooh, and before I forget…"
Roman took three sticks of light blue ice cream out of a bag. One for each of them save for himself. He preferred vanilla as opposed to the others who always had sea salt. To Roman, salty and sweet aren't exactly the best drinking partners if one could catch his drift. Unlike the other three, who sat on the edge of the tower, Roman sat farther back, against the wall, behind Roxas and Xion.
"There's that kid with the funky hair again," Roxas said, looking down. "Other than you, Axel, I don't think I've seen hair like that."
"My hair's red, not orange like him!" Axel said.
"Wait, who y'all talkin' about?" Roman asked, standing up and looking over Roxas' head.
At the lower level of the area, there was a boy in a school uniform with orange hair reminiscent of fire. He recognized this boy as Tsuna Sawada. A personal recon mission had Roman find out that he's effectively a wimp with not much going for him. However, it seems that this had slowly began to change, but how exactly, he didn't know, nor did he care for. For the time being, he wasn't bothering anyone, and he preferred to keep it like that by not getting further involved. Roman sat back down and resumed eating his ice cream.
Like all the days he decided to go up to the tower with the others, the sunset was particularly beautiful. It was always a shame to leave it after they all decided to RTC, but Roman knew that it would always be there. Its radiance faintly reminded Roman of something, but he couldn't place his finger on it. Maybe it was his poor memory attacking him again with memories of his first day up at the tower. Or… not?
[Enemy Data: Blazer Armors]
These twin armors use special flames that demand physical resistance! They can also change moves by exchanging body parts, so destroy them quickly to reduce their effectiveness.
[Author's Notes]
- It was an absolute BLAST to write up the Blazer Armor sequence. If anyone wants to provide a sketch of the enemy, you're more than welcome to, but credit me in some way.
- I write up a lot of battle sequences so that the reader has to fill in any blanks with their imagination. I sort of base them on event battles in Kingdom Hearts II, explaining why some of them may seem short. You have to fill in the blanks as if though Kingdom Hearts – Artifice were an actual game!
- The Doctor stare… imagine David Tennant, if you would.