[Journal Entry]

If I can find the entry, I entered something about the most bizarre dream I've had so far in my remembrance, and I know for sure it was a dream due to the sheer surreality of it. In fact, its surreality is primarily why I can't remember much of the damn thing, I bet. Not too gory, but not exactly tame. What the hell's up with that?

The reason why I'm writing this so early as opposed to the end of the day where the good stuff is primarily links to that dream being followed by the usual one, with the echoing voices and gunshots. It's been like, what, a couple days since I had those dreams? I haven't seen much of Zexion OR the new girl since then. Also, a couple of days is pretty long for a guy with sixteen or so years missing from his memory—what?

Out of sheer boredom, Roman wore his robes after the day's mission. Collecting hearts in Twilight Town was never a hard task, and today's run was shorter than ever, so he figured he'd have time to burn blending in with the rest of the Organization. Even Saix noticed the speed of the completion of the mission, given that Roman was by himself. "It hasn't even been over two hours and a quarter yet," Saix commented at the time.

"It's been only two days, so there's no need to think that a trend's being set," Roman replied.

From the Grey Area, Roman looked around the castle for the library. He figured that he would see what Zexion dragged in from a random world the last time he was here. Even for the Cloaked Schemer, Zexion was never one to stray from a good book, going so far as to purchase some simply to add to the library. There was still room left on the shelves, but it was quickly diminishing.

Roman, however, felt a slight uneasiness in searching for the library. His dream from days before, though hazy now, still lingered in his mind in a red mist. He remembered that it was in the library, and he was the only one in there for a time. He figured that he was going there to help him remember the dream more, even if it was unsettling. [Besides,] he thought, [If I'm a Nobody, it shouldn't leave much of an impact, then.]

At last, he found the library, along with Zexion at one of the reading tables. A short passing-by greeting sufficed for both, and Roman was on to a random section. He found himself in fiction L-P by author last name. The books on the higher shelves were accessed by tiles rising up from the ground, carrying whomever up to the desired shelves. In order to stop a tile from rising up to the very top (even if it rose and fell slowly), or even get it started, a member would have to stomp a foot on it. Roman had no need for this function at this time, as he found the desired book on one of the lower shelves. Patterson, James. [Bingo.]

Taking a book from said author from the shelves, he made his way to one of the 8 reading tables present on the other end of the library, separate from the bookshelves. Each table was enough to support two members surrounded by stacks of books. Roman picked a table separate from Zexion and sat himself on a chair facing away from him. When reading in the library, he had a habit of putting his free arm behind the chair when it wasn't doing anything. He picked a James Patterson book due to the short nature of the chapters of the book series he was reading this day: he could be halfway done with a book of this series in a matter of a day. This was helped by his usually fast reading habits and the size of the font, along with the action entailed within the books. [We still need to grab the volumes of the manga as they come out,] Roman thought. [Though I always think of her as a brunette for some reason. And with Katara's voice.]

After getting to the halfway point of his book, Roman took a break to stretch and yawn, noticing that it was not even noon yet. Only 11:22 AM. [Time's probably recovering from a sugar rush today,] he thought as he looked at his watch. [Hm. Maybe I can go ahead and try to look for the new girl, Eve. I can probably catch her with her hood off.]

Marking his place in his book with a random scrap of paper he had in his pocket, he stood up from the table and stretched some more, cracking a few neckbones in the process. When he turned towards the door, something caught his eye. Something golden. He initially ignored it until he got to the door, when he stopped himself as it opened. [I wasn't imagining things and dreaming on the spot again, was I? It's only happened once, but better check again to make absolutely sure.]

When he turned in to scan the room again, he saw Zexion reading the same book from when Roman initially entered. Looking left from Zexion, he saw what the golden object was. Hair. There was a girl sitting at one of the tables by herself, and she was facing away from Roman, so the only thing he saw was a downwards mass of golden, long hair. Silently, he crept over to Zexion, who looked up and noticed Roman. "Can I help you with something, Roman?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Roman said softly. "Who's that, and how'd she get into the castle?" He pointed to the girl, who was still facing away from the two.

"Ah. I see that you don't recognize her without the robes on," Zexion replied.

"Huh?"

Roman looked questioningly at the girl, who hadn't turned around or even raised her head yet. "Wait… that's the new girl?" he asked.

"Yes, that is Eve. She requested that she spend the remainder of her orientation without her robes, though at Axel's prompting," Zexion said.

"Did she ever say anything herself about them?"

Zexion shook his head. "She has not expressed any self-made choices as of yet. She has only done things that people have prompted or told her to do, my commands included. For example: Eve, would you pick another table to sit at?"

She got up and turned around. Roman finally saw the girl's face. It was dull as a new Nobody could be, yet there was something to her magenta eyes that Roman found himself drawn to. Eve looked around the room, as if though deciding which one to pick. Whenever Roman moved to a new table, he just went to a random table, not caring which one. However, Eve was no such wild card. "Which one?" she asked, turning to Zexion.

Her voice was soft enough that, in most other places, neither Nobody would have heard that clearly. "Any table," Zexion said.

"Which one?" she repeated.

"Why not just try this one over here?" Roman suggested, pulling up the chair closest to him.

Without a word, Eve picked up her book and walked over to the chair, with Roman moving out of the way. He was somewhat allured by the motion of her hair. "You see? She has not made any free choice decisions," Zexion said.

"Hate to say this in front of her, but maybe she was a meek person as a human," Roman suggested. "So how she survived that city is a pure wonder."

Eve looked at her book, which she had not re-opened just yet. "What defines a human?" she asked.

"That is of no concern as of yet to you," Zexion said. "Here is another book," he added, pushing her current book away with a new one, which she proceeded to open and read.

"Well, she certainly has a love for the written word already," Roman commented.

"This was already established when I first brought her here. When she had finished the first book I presented to her, she asked for another. When that one was done, she asked for another. Over the course of the past two days, she has read through the most recent written encyclopedia series, a dictionary, a book of idioms (of all things!), and three works of fiction, one being an omnibus," Zexion said.

Roman staggered a little after hearing that. "Ho-ly shit," he said.

Eve opened her mouth to say something, but Zexion quickly covered it with his hand, not looking away from his own book which he re-opened. "Yeah, you're not gonna want to repeat everything you hear ME say. I don't trust how some things would sound coming from you already," Roman said.

"The boy has a rather 'colorful' vocabulary," Zexion remarked. "Yet he still has restraint, when he chooses to use it."

"He uses profanity," Eve said.

"Was that a question or a statement? Anyways, I truly apologize in advance, but unfortunately, it's something you'll have to get used to along with other weird things in the castle and other places," Roman said as he put his hand to his face, slipping his fingers underneath his glasses. "In due time, you'll get familiar with that 'other places' bit."

"Yes. Tomorrow, we begin introductions to the other members of the Organization," Zexion said.

"Organization?" Eve asked softly.

"Yeah. Excluding you, there are fifteen of us," Roman said, now putting his hands behind his head.

"I know…" Eve stopped to count with her fingers. "Four. Four out of fifteen. Axel, Saix, Vexen, and Zexion. Axel asked if I had his name memorized."

"He'll do that," Zexion said. "Wait, only those four?"

Eve nodded slowly. "Ooh, that ain't good. Can you guess the number of the leader?" Roman said.

"Number one," Eve said.

"That is Xemnas, a name you definitely need to know. Otherwise, you're Dusk food."

Eve looked at him. Her magenta gaze was icy, but certainly not to Saix's degree. "Food for those who dwell primarily in the time between the light and darkness?" she asked.

One just so happened to flutter by and Roman took the opportunity to grab it out of the air and snap it taut. "Uh, no. It's one of these things, actually. It's also with a capital D," he said.

When he let it go, it slithered and wobbled away up into the air, hitting a wall and collapsing to the floor in a rope-like heap. "I don't think I've ever seen one do THAT," Roman said, pointing to the Dusk. "That was probably my fault."

Eve continued to stare. It was only a little unsettling to Roman, primarily because she was a girl, and an attractive one at that.

She didn't know what to make her face at the boy's comment. She didn't even know what her face looked like. She did see, however, that the boy moved back only a tiny bit, but didn't take his eyes off of her. "So what did you mean by 'Dusk food?'" she asked him.

"It would be best if you didn't find out at all," Zexion said, looking away from his book to look at Eve.

She continued to read her book as the boy scanned her up and down from where he stood. She wore the same clothing, as she had come to know it as now, from when she first started remembering things. She couldn't call it "birth" because she felt like there was something she missed before she woke up for the first time. All Eve could think of it as was the time she first started to remember things.

"Hey, do you know if she got that outfit here, or was she wearing that when she was found?" the boy asked Zexion, pointing to Eve.

Zexion took a breath to start replying, but Eve cut him off. "I was found with this clothing."

Both the boy and Zexion stared at her for a bit. "I take it that you yourself just found this out?" the former asked the latter.

"Yes…"

Eve continued reading in silence as the boy left without another word. She heard the whoosh of the door opening, but there was a slight delay between that and the whoosh of the door closing, as if the boy stopped to look back. "In all honesty…" Zexion said to her.

"Those robes would look a little ridiculous on her," Roman said to himself, going walking about the streets of Twilight Town.

Along the way, he taped a note to one of the large storage tanks(?) in Nothing's Call back at the castle that one would pass by on their way out. It simply read, "BORED. Will be back later."

Roman tried over and over again to visualize the girl, Eve, in the Organization's robes with the hood off, but whatever he tried; she always looked a little odd to him with them on. [So even though I don't like wearing this thing,] he thought, [I make it look good. That's weird, yet kickass at the same time.] "Awesome," he said aloud.

Underneath, the station trolley rolled by. He wondered how anyone would keep that thing running if no one ever seems to ride the thing. To him, everywhere was easily accessible by foot. The trolley would only really be needed if it went around the entire town. [But no, it's in this limited little area. That's real gay.]

He stopped dead in his tracks. Without warning, he gripped his head in despair and yelled out, "GAH! Why the hell'd I say that! ?"

Calming down, he said to himself, "Ah, shit… it's bad enough that I have to use words like that to get my burns through to Roxas and Xion… I can't imagine how badly I may damage Eve's brain…"

Another pause. His left eye twitched. "WHY THE HELL WOULD I PUT THE PRETTY GIRL IN DANGER! ?"

That day on the clock tower was rather uneventful. However, none of them would have had it any other way. They spent their time laughing, pushing, telling jokes and eating their ice cream. However, no one noticed that Roman still had the ice cream bag present. It had an extra sea salt ice cream in it.

"Here, try this," Roman said, presenting a still-wrapped ice cream to Eve.

"Oh, you had an extra?" Roxas asked.

"Hey, I figured that she should know what someone being nice looks like. Besides, it shouldn't keep the poor girl up at night, right?"

Roxas only sighed and went through the door to his room. Eve unwrapped the ice cream from the end where the stick was and took it out of the wrapper, keeping it in her hand. She held up the light blue confection and looked at it curiously. "What is this?"

"It's ice cream. What, you've never seen a picture of it?" Roman said with a smile.

She shook her head and then took a small bite from the top. After taking the bite, she looked at it again. "It's so cold… and sweet. And… salty?"

"I've never really understood how sweet and salty are supposed to get together, actually," Roman stated, scratching the back of his head. "I personally prefer the two to stay apart."

When he looked at Eve again, she was taking larger bites out of the ice cream, but that wasn't saying much. She was also eating faster, as well. "It melts so quickly in my mouth."

"It… wait, it does that?" Roman asked, apparently never having tried sea-salt ice cream himself. "Well, never tried that particular flavor, so I wouldn't know."

"There are more?" she asked.

"Yeah, but I only tried one for tonight. When you start on your missions, let me know, and I'll get some arrangements underway."

Eve had finished half of the ice cream when she noticed something on the stick. She quickly finished the ice cream off and looked at the stick quizzically. "Hey, what's up? Is there a spot on the stick? That can be easily explained," Roman said.

"No… there is a crown, and a word," Eve said. "Winner."

Roman looked surprised. "Winner? Huh. I dunno what you win, though. I think Roxas is keeping his own Winner stick and as clueless about it as you are."

"He also won?"

"Apparently so. Ask him tomorrow," he said as he walked through the door to his room, leaving Eve in the hallway with her ice cream stick.

[Obviously, this means something good, but what?] Eve asked herself.

She gazed at the stick, looking at the crown at the top, where it seemed to mark the ice cream's halfway point. [Do the other flavors have this?]

She walked further down the hallway to her own room, which was sparely accommodated save for a closet by the glassless window and a bed against the wall. Walking over to its nighstand, she placed the winner stick on it when she noticed that there was also something else on it. Someone put a clock there. It was a basic one, like the clock she had seen a picture of in one of the books she had read recently. All it had on it was the symbol of the Organization and the clock numbers in Roman numerals. One shared a spot with thirteen, two shared a spot with fourteen, three shared a spot with fifteen, and four shared a spot with sixteen. There was a note stuck to its side. It read, "Got it custom-made. It's set to ring at 8 AM. The reason why it's here is because—let's face it: no one can really tell the time by the sky in this world. Hope you like it! Number XV, Roman."

Eve picked up the clock, which silently ticked away so that she had to put it to her ear to hear it. She gazed at it with her eyes then set it down next to the Winner stick. [He said something about being nice… but what is his name?] she thought as she pulled the covers over herself.

[He gave me the ice cream, so what do I do in response? How can I decide…]

[Author's Notes]

- Big moot points to the person who can guess the book series that I picked out back at the library.

- The next chapter is the big, true game-starting sequence, like the end of Roxas' part in KHII, so keep your underwear on.