Okay, guys, I'm aware that this chappie is pretty short in comparison to the others, but there wasn't much I could put here that wasn't in day seven. Other stuff would give away some major spoilers, like who the GM is.

Summary: An accident sends Neku back into the Reaper's Game, but this time it's more than accomplishing missions or even survival. Neku knows these new creatures aren't noise, and a certain keyblade-wielding teen may hold the answers for him. (Kingdom Hearts Crossover)

Playing For Keeps

By FlikFreak

Chapter Fourteen: Six Down

Minamimoto grumbled angrily to himself. This cloaked man had promised him power over the heartless in exchange for having the little beasts show him where the keyhole was. It had been going smoothly earlier; they ran about the UG, sniffing out where this keyhole whatever-it-was should have been, but the moment Sora appeared they had instantly refocused their efforts on him. Though it was convenient, as they were also attacking proxy-boy, they were slowing him down.

"The heartless fear the keyblade above all else," the cloaked man explained. "That's why they go after it: to get rid of it."

"Can't I get them to focus on the keyhole?" Minamimoto grumbled. "Those yoctograms are about as cooperative as a mule."

The cloaked man crossed his arms. "Need I remind you who gave you this power to begin with?" he said coolly. "I can take it away just as easily, and turn it against you."

Scowling, Minamimoto walked away, deciding not to press the issue further. The sixth mission of the week didn't focus on eliminating heartless, anyway. Whoever the GM was, he must have known that the math fanatic was onto him. Once out of eyeshot of the hooded man, he snapped his fingers and summoned a few heartless. "Find the keyhole," he said simply. "And find it now."

Behind him, the cloaked figure grinned.

By the time they were finished with their mission, Neku was exhausted. The numbing sensation on his hand caused by the timer vanishing was more of a relief than changing into more casual clothing would be. "Finally!" he moaned. "I can get out of this thing."

"You're not going to change in the middle of the street, are you?" Sora asked. "Won't people…um…

Neku rolled his eyes. "Sora, we're invisible. No one can see us. But no, I'm not changing here. There's a Sunshine Burger nearby, so we'll run in and get a bite to eat there."

Sora seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and Neku led him into the burger shop. After asking Sora to pick a seat, he headed into the bathroom and swapped out of the Dragon Couture attire he had been required to wear, shoving the purchased clothes deep into the bag with no intention of ever putting them on again. Once done, he tugged his headphones into place on his neck again headed back into the Sunshine, ordered the usual, and headed for the table where Sora sat.

"The game is a week long, right?" Sora asked, his eyes fixed to the table strangely.

Neku noticed that the keyblade was not in his hand, and cocked an eyebrow. Where does he put that thing, anyway? "Yeah," he replied. "And today's day six. Tomorrow we'll get out last mission, and then it'll all be over."

Sora leaned back in his chair. "Time sure flies, doesn't it…it's like just yesterday I was waking up in the scramble and staring at that weird text message I got."

"I thought it was spam when I got my first one," Neku admitted, sitting back as the waitress delivered them their meal. "And I tried deleting it. When it didn't work, I got the timer on my hand, and I thought I was going crazy."

"I can't picture you freaking out," Sora said, smirking. "You're way too calm about all this.

Neku laughed. "Well, I was new to it all, so I did. My memory was my first entry fee, so I didn't even know where I was. I met up with Shiki and she just started yelling some nonsense about a pact and noise. I had no clue what she was talking about, and I tried to lose her in the crowd at the scramble. We really didn't get along at first…"

Sora crossed his arms. "I wouldn't think so. I'd probably run if someone talked crazy to me too…if I wasn't in the position I am now."

"What do you mean?" Neku asked.

"Well," Sora began, pausing and glancing around warily. "I normally don't tell people this, but since you already know where I'm from, I guess it wouldn't hurt…just as long as you don't tell anyone."

"My lips are sealed," Neku replied. "Go ahead."

Sora took a deep breath. "Well, when I first left my islands, I wound up on a place called Traverse Town. I met up with some people there that helped me look for my friends, and their king who had gone missing. We had to go to all kinds of different worlds to look for them."

Neku quirked an eyebrow. "Like what?"

The keyblade master's eyes lit up at the question, and Neku could guess what was going to happen next. "Well, the first one I went to made no sense…"

Sora spoke for a while after the question, and surprisingly Neku found himself interested in what places he had visited. He couldn't quite imagine a place where one would be able to walk on the ceiling, but the desert town with a treasure-filled cave sounded interesting. Being swallowed by a whale sounded like no picnic. Sora had a hard time explaining how he had been able to visit a world entirely underwater, much to Neku's amusement, and flying seemed like a very fun experience. Sora also made a side note of a world where the holidays originated, a world plagued by undead pirates and cursed treasure (Sora winced at the memory, but never told Neku why), and a large savannah where he had run around as a lion. When Neku asked Sora how the latter went, he just laughed and said that when you have twice the number of legs you can run twice as fast, but he began to miss his thumbs.

"Have there been any worlds like Shibuya?" Neku asked.

Upon hearing the question, Sora sat back. "Well, there was one place I went to that had tournaments held every so often that I'd enter. You could practically walk right into the underworld, but unless you had the Olympus Stone, you'd have your strength sapped out of you. There was a guy who helped me get out of there the first time…he didn't admit it, but I'm pretty sure he was a hero when he was alive." He paused in thought. "Aside from that, I went to one place that was kind of like an abandoned city, but it was crawling with heartless and I didn't stay there for long. It was constantly night time there, and there weren't any people living in the buildings. I still get chills up my spine when I think about it, because past there was the Organization's stronghold."

Neku's eyes widened. "You went up against the entire organization?"

"Not all at once," Sora said hastily. "I only went up against…" He counted on his fingers. "Six of them. Three of them were already dead when I got there, and Riku told me later that he had to face two of them at one point. Axel turned traitor and helped me get to them, but he sacrificed himself in the process."

For some reason, Sora choked on the words, biting his lip and staring firmly at the table. After a moment, he shook his head and rubbed his eye, looking a bit startled. Neku blinked. "You okay, Sora?"

"Yeah," Sora replied. "It's just…Roxas. He knew Axel. They were best friends."

Neku nodded quietly in reply. So this is what happens when Roxas shows emotion through Sora, huh? Sora seems kind of upset in his own right, though…

"Roxas was part of Organization XIII, too," Sora continued. "They were using him, too, because he had the keyblade, so he stayed for a while. But then he quit. Didn't get the answers he wanted. Riku told me that he left because he wanted to meet me, and eventually he did."

"How come?" Neku asked. "He's basically the same person as you, isn't he?"

Sora scoffed for a moment, and for a moment Neku thought he had offended him. He began to apologize when Sora shook his head. "Sorry…he doesn't like being compared to me."

Neku winced. "Oh…sorry, Roxas."

"I'm not sure why he wanted to meet me," Sora continued, dropping the issue. "But the keyblade chooses people with strong hearts. Nobodies don't have hearts, so Roxas wasn't sure why he was able to use it. I guess he got it from me because he's my Nobody." There was a pause while Sora crossed his arms, and he gritted his teeth a few moments after. "Knock it off. It's not my fault."

"Quit arguing," Neku said plainly. "People are going to think you're crazy."

"Sorry," Sora said, looking entirely apologetic. Neku wondered how he could pull off such a look with hair like that.

Neku shrugged. "Anyway," he said, "Why did you come to Shibuya, anyway? I know you were here to get rid of the heartless, but that's not really why you're here, is it?"

Sora shook his head. "Not entirely. Every world has a heart, just like a person does. When the heartless attack that heart, that world is lost, but if you seal the keyhole to that world, the heartless can't reach it. The keyblade can lock and unlock anything, and those keyholes aren't an exception. I mainly came here to find the keyhole and seal it without getting caught in trouble…no matter how hard I try though, I always get caught up in some life or death struggle before I can get to it."

"That sounds thoroughly annoying," Neku commented.

"The heartless are scared of the keyblade more than anything," Sora explained, "So they'll keep going after it no matter what. It's their greatest enemy."

Neku stared at Sora's hand, which was currently grasping his cola cup. Moments before, the keyblade was in that same hand, cutting down the heartless and noise that attacked them, and he had been fighting for a good two years. It had to be tiring for him. "Do you ever think the heartless will be gone for good?"

Sora sighed. "I'm not sure. As long as there's darkness in people's hearts, the heartless will keep coming. The most I can do is seal the worlds and keep them safe. If I don't, then I don't know anyone else that will. Everyone's counting on me." He took another sip of his soda, then went for his burger.

Talk about pressure, Neku observed. He talked about those worlds he visited like they were amazing, and I know they were…but to deal with a constant threat like that, I wonder how he sleeps at night.

"Tomorrow's the last day, right?" Sora continued, changing the subject. "If the keyhole is in the UG, we'll need to find it fast. Is there any place that's really peaceful around here, or really important?"

"Shibuya is full of chaos," Neku said. "The only calm place you'll find is past the sewers, down at the Shibuya River. That's where I fought the conductor in my last game, and after that Joshua brought me and the others back to life. Hachiko is a popular hangout spot, but I don't know if it would be there. There's no other place that I can think of."

Sora sighed. "We'll just have to look, I guess. But if it's in the UG, we're only going to get one more chance to find it."

One day left...I can't believe this fic is ending so soon!