To reviewer of Chapter 3:
dark-ranmaru: Well, you'll find out in chapter 6. As you can obviously see, this next two chapters are part of one single episode. And thanks for the review. Sorry I took forever to update, hehe.
Chapter 4 – All Hollow's Eve, Part 1
A year ago at this time, I probably would have thought nothing of Sora's current disposition. In fact, I probably would've attributed this melancholy to his eccentricities. After all, the world is boring and not even All Hollow's Eve can bring strangeness to this world.
But, having been sent back to the past last year, I believe I have reasonable doubt to say that Sora isn't being all pissy and sighing once every minute simply because the world isn't any different on All Hollow's Eve. In fact, I believe that Sora's being this way because he still hasn't managed to find his helper four years ago—John Smith.
I actually don't doubt that Sora had gone through the yearbooks they stocked in the student center to look for John Smith. And of course, he wouldn't find such a person, since he's actually me and all.
Sure, it could just be a coincidence and my first theory is actually correct. But when it comes to Sora, coincidences usually don't happen. He might say it's a coincidence, but I know that his subconscious had willed it this way. Just ask the other four, they'll all agree with me.
Or was it them who came up with this theory and I agree with them? Ah whatever.
So, when All Hollow's Eve was less than one week away, it would've only made sense that Sora made us dress up again. Right?
Two weeks before All Hollow's Eve, everything was find and dandy. Everyone at the high school were all discussing their plans for All Hollow's Eve—what club was doing what, where's the best place for candy, who are you dressing up as, all those stuff. As for myself, I've "opted" to skip out on All Hollow's Eve bash this year.
Why you ask?
I have a nasty habit of eating too much candy after I go trick-or-treating. As thus, I get a terrible stomach ache and usually end up in the hospital by the next morning. How I managed that, I care not to go into the details.
And because of this, I was more-or-less forced by my parents to stay home and be the designated candy giver. Oh, how evil they are.
"Hey Roxas," said Axel as he twirled his pen while sitting at his desk, which was conveniently placed beside mine after the latest reseating arrangement.
You guessed it, Sora's behind me yet again.
"Yeah?" I asked with boredom.
"You heard about the party at the Seventh Heaven?"
"Yeah. I'm not going though."
"What? Why not? You went last year," he asked with surprise.
"He ate too much candy last year," answered Demyx. I shot him a look of hate, which missed him completely. "His parents had thought that once he was in high school, he wouldn't be that overindulgent. Boy, were they wrong." He grinned at me.
"Thanks, Demyx. Thanks a lot," I retorted sarcastically.
"No problem."
"Are you dressing up anyways?" Axel asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "What's the point?"
"Dude, you need to get into the spirit of the holiday! Got it memorized?"
"Whatever," I waved at him dismissively.
He scoffed at me and smirked. "Well, I guess we'll just go have fun at the Seventh Heaven without you."
I scowled at him. "Shut up." Then decided better. "I hate you."
Axel and Demyx simply grinned at me.
At that exact moment, as if a great beast had been disturbed, a great big sigh sounded behind us, making the three of us jump in surprise.
Slowly, I turned my head to see Sora laying his head on his crossed arms on the desk. Where the hell did he came from!?
"What's wrong with you?" I decided to ask as Axel and Demyx pretended they didn't notice Sora, but, seriously, I could see them looking at us out of the corner of their eyes.
With his head buried in his arms, Sora muttered a reply that strangely sounded like "stupid cheese omelet". Don't ask me why, it just does.
"What?" I asked with slight bewilderment.
His head snapped up immediately and he gave me his best Sora death glare. I don't think I need to hint as to what's coming up next.
His mouth opened and…
"None of your business!"
I'd like to think that the solution I found to cure Sora's current melancholy was all due to my work, but I supposed that there was an element of coincidence involved.
In any case, as I was riding my bike to school that afternoon after Sora's outburst in the classroom, which, I will comment, no one paid any attention to besides me since it was expected of him by everyone else. Now that I think about it, if there were any new students in the class, they would've immediately turned their attention to Sora and stared at him like he was some kind of freak.
Not that he isn't or anything. But certainly he isn't one to actually make himself sprout tentacles and engage in hentai sex now would he.
Where the hell did that thought come from?
I'm rambling.
So as I was saying, as I was riding my bike to school that afternoon, having opted to skip out on going to the clubroom since a melancholic Sora would only mean a boring day, I happened upon a gleaming poster tacked up on the street lampposts. On it was an advertisement for a costume contest to be held at the Twilight Town Convention Center on All Hollow's Eve.
The prize? Ten tickets to the best amusement park on this side of the world: The World That Never Was.
While I'm not a particular hardcore thrill seeker, I have no qualms to riding the monster rides at that place. Assuming I didn't eat an hour before or after that is.
In any case, I didn't know whether we would get the grand prize, but the runner up prizes were still decent enough for me to tear the poster down so I can just leave it on the computer keyboard for Sora to look at it the next day.
Little did I know that I didn't need to actually do that and someone else would resolve Sora's melancholy.
On to the following day!
As typical of Sora, when he's unusually bored or had just managed to secure a godly discovery—ha, ha, he didn't show up to class that following day. And having known Sora for an entire year, I had no reason to worry for Sora's wellbeing. If he hadn't shown up the next day then I'll start worrying. But for now, it's just life as it happens for me.
To be quite honest, as I was walking toward the clubroom that afternoon, I felt free and utterly at peace. The poster that I had gotten from a random lamppost was sitting solidly on top of the computer keyboard, Sora wasn't breathing down my neck the entire day like he has becoming prone to do nowadays, and there was no huge worries for me or the rest of the SOS Brigade.
Due to this, I took my time to leisurely walk to the clubroom, enjoying the ordinary and familiar scenery that was Radiant Garden High School. On that particular day, it was worthy to note that the Radiant Garden High football team was practicing on the field. I was never one for football; the thought of brutish teens painting their faces with black paint and banging into each other like bumper cars isn't exactly what I call sports. For me, I prefer the more interesting game of Blitzball, seeing how my brother's picked up the sport this past summer while he went abroad. Apparently Blitzball is a more popular sport internationally but has yet to taken roots in the Radiant Garden area.
With a shrug to myself, I continued my way to my home away from home and was immediately faced with a rather peculiar scene.
"What took you so long?" asked Sora exasperatedly upon seeing me entering the room that afternoon.
"Bumped into Hayner," I lied.
Sora's lips thinned and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. And for a moment there, I sincerely thought that he was going to blurt out "Liar". But I guess he didn't find anything wrong with my expression and so didn't actually accuse me of lying about bumping into Hayner on my way to the clubroom.
Instead, he thrust a rather familiar looking poster into my face, causing me to take a step back unless I planned on giving myself away as the person who left the poster here.
"Did you see this?" he asked me. I blinked a couple of times, pretending to be in deep thought for dramatic effect before I answered.
"No."
"Liar." This time he actually called me a liar… What the hell!?
"What?"
"This poster's been circulating throughout the city. Are you legally blind!?"
I scoffed. "Just because I might've passed by it, that doesn't mean I've actually looked at it enough to remember it," I retorted, crossing my arms in annoyance. To be quite honest, I was rather surprised that Sora didn't blow up on me after that.
"Then how the hell did it end up here!?" he exclaimed with a frown.
"Maybe we have a ghost haunting this room," I suggested offhandedly.
"That's impossible!" Sora all but shouted those words out. I jumped slightly and watched as Sora began his tirade. "There's nothing in this room that would suggest that a ghost lives here. There's no report of anyone committing suicide here; not to mention this isn't some place I'd jump off from—the roof is much better for that."
Oy, oy. This is on the third floor, you know. And how would you define these "signs" of a ghost anyways!?
As Sora continued on with his rant about haunts and ghostbusting, I breathed a sigh of resignation before sitting down in my chair, placing my chin on my hand in annoyance. Across from me, Riku smiled passively.
After another three minutes, Sora finally finished his rant and was huffing and puffing. It made me wonder if he had breathed at all during that spiel of his.
"Speaking of haunts," said Riku once Sora had recovered and was looking at the poster again. "I heard that there's an unsolved mystery in Twilight Town."
"Mystery?" asked Sora, raising an eyebrow. I was equally, if not even more so, skeptical of this.
The silver-haired psychic nodded. "The old unoccupied mansion has been locked up for years, but reports of a girl living in there have been popping up over the years. Every investigator of the mansion says that the mansion has been abandoned and there was no sign of anyone living within its halls."
Sora gave a scoff and waved dismissively. "Probably just the wind blowing the curtains about."
I gaped at the SOS Brigade leader. What the hell? Here's a boy who believes in the supernatural and would jump at any possibility of abnormal investigations is giving a rational, albeit highly unbelievable explanation, for this!? Sometimes I don't think I know Sora at all.
"That doesn't explain why the doors open randomly or the lights turning on during the night," said Riku. "Not to mention the fact that all these reports stated that these random events occurred only on All Hollow's Eve." Sora still didn't seem particularly interested by these words.
"I think it's worth investigating," said Naminé out of the blue. All eyes turned to her but she simply kept reading.
"You think so, Naminé?" asked Sora. The blond-haired alien interface lifted her head and, with a solemn look upon her face, nodded.
Sora then hummed in thought before nodding firmly. "Right, we'll solve this mystery once and for all!" he asserted as he pumped his fist in the air in a gesture of triumph.
Man, I hope your deductions this time aren't like the last time when we had a mystery on our hands…
As soon as Sora had made the decision, a knock on the door caught our attention. Denzel, who sat the closest to the door, opened it but no one was there. He leaned out and looked left and right before scratching his head.
"There's no one there," he said with a frown.
Sora gave a growl of annoyance. "If I find whoever's playing a prank-"
"Look!" exclaimed Kairi as she pointed at Denzel's feet. "What's that?"
"Huh?" Denzel blinked in confusion before turning around and found an unmarked envelop on the ground.
"Let me see that," said Sora as he snatched the letter out of Denzel's hands.
"The answer you seek lies in All Hollow's eve," he read aloud. His eyes and ears perked up and a wide grin appeared on his face.
"This is the break we're looking for!" he shouted cheerfully. "We obviously have to go there on All Hollow's Eve!"
I frowned at the thought of that, remembering my duties at home this year.
"I can't go," I said. "I have to hand out candy that night. Parents' orders."
"I'll just have to persuade them into letting you go then," he said simply. "After all, my Holmes investigation can't possibly function without my Watson assistance." With that, he snickered to himself.
I wonder if that was meant to be a really badly made pun…
Soon after, I got a call from my mom asking me to go to the marketplace to make some grocery purchases before I went home. And thus, I bid adieu to the clubroom early and hurried over to the marketplace.
Little did I know that something big was going to happen at my house.
"I'm home!" I shouted as I entered the house carrying four plastic bags of vegetables, milk, and various other things my mom told me to buy.
"Welcome home!" came my mom's voice. "You have a visitor by the way."
I blinked. "Visitor?" I stepped into the living room and gaped at the sight, dropping the bags of groceries in shock.
"How did you know where I live!?" I pointed an accusatory finger at the teen who sat on the couch eating a freshly baked oatmeal cookie.
"Denzel told me," he replied. "What's wrong with you, aren't you happy to see me?"
I bit down a groan of frustration before grumbling silently to myself and picking up the dropped bags. Thankfully, my mother entered the room to prevent this rather awkward meeting from getting any worse.
"Thanks for getting the groceries," Mom smiled. She then placed a tray with cups of milk onto the table for the guest and herself. "Just leave them on the kitchen counter and come join us."
I nodded silently and went to unload my baggage in the kitchen. Breathing a sigh of resignation, I pulled out another empty glass and opened up the new carton of milk for myself. I might as well have some cookies while I'm at it.
When I returned to the living room, I was rather surprised to see my mom getting along really well with the guest. They were laughing about who-knows-what when I walked in.
"You guys are doing an All Hollow's Eve project?" Mom asked me. I blinked slightly and looked over to the visitor, who nodded secretively, reminding me of the entire investigation thing that we were going to do.
"Oh, yeah…" I said with a dramatic sigh.
"I'll let you go only if you're not going to eat any candy," she said brightly with a latent threat for me.
"He's not going to eat any candy, Mrs. Uchiyama," our guest said with a smile. "I'll make sure of it."
"All right, then you can go," she replied.
"Thank you, Mrs. Uchiyama."
"Would you like to stay for dinner?" my mom asked, much to my horror.
"I'd love to."
I could only secretly groan in frustration at this. There goes my plan for a quiet evening at home watching my favorite show.
The next day after classes, I glared vehemently at Denzel. But, since Sora was in the room, I couldn't outright yell at him. I guess he knew it too, because the entire time Sora was there, he just grinned at me like Axel and Demyx do when they're deliberately annoying me.
Today, Sora had a white bandanna with the Chinese characters "Add fuel" on it. When I inquired about what it meant, he just shrugged me off and continued staring at the catalog of costumes that Kairi had been looking at near the beginning of the school year.
"Ah ha!" he exclaimed, coming to a decision about whatever it was he was thinking about. "I've got it!"
"What now?" I asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
"This!" he replied cheerily, pointing at a picture. I blinked a few times as I stared at the photo. It was a group picture of six people dressed up as strangely familiar characters.
"You want us dressed up as them!?" I exclaimed. Sora cackled and nodded vigorously. I could only gape at him.
The others, minus the reading Naminé, all leaned forward to look at the picture while I scanned at the prices.
A whopping 6000 Munny for the entire ensemble. That's practically 90 of the entire funds the council has allotted to the Literature Club!
Sora's decision to dress us up yet again makes me cringe and banished all of my angry thoughts against Denzel. I could only wonder who Sora was going to dress me up as.
And to satisfy your curiosity as to which characters Sora decided to make us cosplay as, it's this:
Sora – Mario
Naminé – Watts
Kairi – Princess Peach
Riku – Kooper
Denzel – Toad
Me – Luigi
That's right, he decided to dress us all up as characters from Paper Mario. Just… great.
"How the hell do you expect us to investigate dressed like this?" I asked as I pointed to the picture.
"Easy," he replied. "Just go in like that and come back out once we're done." The smile that was on his face had disappeared.
"You know what I mean," I retorted, slightly annoyed that Sora seemed to be missing the most practical aspect of investigating.
"Elaborate," he replied. A frown was on his face now. Oh, great.
"I doubt the place will be a cakewalk. What if we had to get out fast? Kairi would have trouble in that skirt!" I would've added "ridiculous" in front of "skirt", but somehow I doubt that would be conducive to my cause. Sora probably would've just scoffed at me and said that I wanted to see Kairi in a more appealing outfit.
More like, you would've wanted that, wouldn't you? After all, you were the one who recruited her to be the club mascot!
He huffed petulantly before flipping through the pages again.
"Why do you want us to get dressed up anyway?" I decided to ask.
"It's All Hollow's Eve!" he replied. "It's a requirement to dress up for the night."
Oh really now… As I recall, you weren't dressed up on that fateful night four years ago.
Soon, he found another set of costumes and set the picture in front of me. Although the prices were just as exorbitant as the last one, at least the costumes themselves allow for actual movement than before.
"Fine," I said upon seeing the picture. Better to appease Sora now than begin the potential downfall of humanity.
Sora grinned, snickered, and then delegated our roles:
Sora – Naruto
Naminé – Hinata
Kairi – Sakura
Riku – Yamato/Takeshi
Denzel – Sai
Me – Sasuke
God damn it. Why do I have to be the one with a freaking purple bow on my back!? Why couldn't I be Gaara or Shikamaru? Have I not been clear with my sexual preference or something?
Sigh. It's no use griping about it. Might as well go with the flow…
That following week was absolutely torture for me as we waited for the costumes to arrive. Every single day, I couldn't help but picture myself in that god awful costume that Sora had picked for me. I just hope it wouldn't be really chilly that day in Twilight Town. Pray for me!
During the weekend before All Hollow's Eve—All Hollow's Eve being on a Friday and all—the costume finally came and Sora made us all gather without warning in front of the Radiant Garden Convention Center.
Of course, I was the one who lived farthest away from the convention center, which meant that when Sora had notified me of our impromptu meeting, I would be the last one to get to the meeting place.
Which meant…
Treating everyone to whichever restaurant or café we ended up at.
While we sat in our seats savoring our drinks, Sora pulled out several suit bags from his luggage case. They were, of course, our costumes. I fought the urge to bawl like a little kid, but I seriously wanted to do that. I don't want to be Sasuke!
In any case, we went over to Naminé's apartment to—as Sora aptly put it—try out the costumes we got.
Psh, yeah right. I'll bet it's just another one of your schemes to put more photos on that awful website of ours.
Upon reaching there, Sora immediately went to the bathroom to get changed first. From what I remembered in the picture, Sora was going to be wearing an orange jumpsuit with a blue headband and wild blond spikes…
Why couldn't I be the one to wear that? I already have the hair!
Anyways, since I couldn't imagine Sora actually wearing such a thing, I just had to wait for him to get out of the bathroom.
And to my surprise, he looked quite good. The blond wig's a bit strange, but otherwise, he looks like he could pass off like a bona fide ninja from Konoha Village.
Next went Kairi with a smile. I wonder if it's in her nature to cosplay or did she just get used to it. Sora just grinned as he sat in one of the white chairs in Naminé's living room, eagerly waiting for the rest of us to get changed. Oh, how I dread the time when it's my turn.
Like Sora, Kairi didn't look half bad in her costume. Sure, it wasn't much different from what she usually wears—a white tank top underneath a pink vest, a pink miniskirt, and pink and black shoes—but I supposed the costume was much simpler than her usual outfit. A red headband and a pair of black gloves completed her ensemble. Surprisingly, she looked rather fierce in that outfit. I wouldn't mess with her if she wore that outfit every single day.
In quick succession, Naminé, Riku, and Denzel all got changed without complaints and thus we have five ninjas sitting around in Naminé's living room. I wonder what Yuffie would've thought if she were here. Would she have kicked our butts for mocking her heritage?
I don't want to know.
Finally, it was my turn. And I entered the bathroom with dread and a scowl on my face. Before I went in, I glared at Sora.
"If any one of you laughs at me for this ridiculous costume, I'm getting my own costume."
Sora simply grinned.
To make a long story short, I quickly got changed, seeing how the faster I got changed, the faster I would be able to get out of the ridiculous outfit. After I had put on everything else, only the cursed bow sat alone within the costume bag. I glared at it and willed it to disappear, since if it did, I wouldn't have to wear it and Sora probably would've called the costume company back and demand a refund. But of course, wishes never come true for me and with a sigh of annoyance, I put the bow on around my waist and looked myself in the mirror.
I hate my life.
When I stepped out, Sora's only words were: "Awesome! I've got my rival! Believe it yo!"
What…the crap.
Skipping ahead to that fateful night!
After class, we assembled in the clubroom and got changed before heading over to the Central Station at Radiant Garden and taking the train over to Twilight Town. On the way, I was slightly surprised and annoyed by the multitude of girls that wanted to take pictures with me.
Cursed fangirls. Argh!
I will say that getting harassed every five seconds by a squealing teenager worse than Marlene is very, very aggravating. There were plenty of times where I had wished that this sword that was sheathed on my hip was an actual sword and not just a prop. I'd stab it through people if it only meant peace of mind.
At long last, we arrived at Twilight Town and proceeded straight to the Old Forest. A skip and a hop later, we stood in front of the vine-covered gate of the Old Mansion. Nothing stirred within; and underneath the darkening sky, I could only wonder how my own wits were.
"It's quiet," whispered Denzel. "Too quiet."
What, are you roleplaying as your character now, Denzel? Seriously.
Sora flipped on a flashlight that he had brought with him and scrutinized the gate in front of us. Without another word, he pulled at the gate, which gave way with an echoing squeak. Crows cawed in the distance and the sound of birds flapping away only served to contribute to the entire eeriness of this place.
"I have a bad feeling about this," whispered Riku to me.
I scoffed at him. "Don't tell me you're scared, Riku," I eyed him with slight disbelief.
"You know what I mean," he retorted.
He was right though. I had an uneasy feeling about this place. And as we passed through the now open gate, the feeling only intensified.
Leading our small party, Sora looked left and right in front of him at the front lawn leading to the mansion. Broken pillars sat forlornly about and moss thrived upon the fallen stone. I wondered what had caused the pillars to crumble like that. This mansion couldn't possibly be that old, could it?
We soon stood in front of the two wooden front doors of the mansion. Compared to the broken pillars, the wooden doors seemed as new as ever. What the hell?
Sora visibly gulped and reached out to the brass doorknob. He took a deep breath and twisted the knob. Lo and behold, the door was unlocked! I have a bad feeling about this!
Sora hummed and stepped into the dark foyer, following closely by Naminé and Denzel. The rest of us looked and smiled encouraging at one another before Kairi and Riku too entered the old mansion, leaving me outside to ponder my "fate".
I exhaled with resignation and entered the mansion as well.
Within, you could smell the dust and the mold of the mansion; it was rather disgusting. I joined the others at the center of the room where a fallen chandelier sat on the ground.
Now, I supposed that if this mansion was anything like the haunted mansion, I surmise that we should've heard a creepy laughter or deep voice welcoming us. But nothing of the sort greeted us. Instead, the door that I had left open suddenly slammed shut behind us, drawing our attentions to it.
I went over to the door to open it back up, only to find that the knob wouldn't twist. I tried the other knob; and no luck either. Pulling on the door did nothing as well.
"What happened?" asked Sora with a hint of worry in his voice.
"The door won't open," I replied.
"What!? That's absurd!" he retorted with a scowl before trying the doors himself. Like me, he had no luck either.
"We're trapped."
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and Haruhi Suzumiya do not belong to me. This piece of work is purely fictional and free to readers. That doesn't give anyone the right to post this on a separate website without my permission though.
A/N: YAY! Finally done with another chapter of Intrigues. My sincere apologies for taking such a long time to update to you all, thanks for bearing with me. In any case, from the title of this chapter, there is a second part to this, which will be talking about what happens to them in the old mansion. I hope to get it out as soon as possible. (prays)
As for this chapter, I know I had originally said that it was unlikely that Sora would make them dress up again, but seeing how it was Halloween themed, I just had to make them dress up again, XP. It was fun to go through the various series that I had in mind and draw parallels for them, namely Rurouni Kenshin, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy XII, and the two that I had stated in the chapter. I ended up with Naruto: Shippuuden mainly because I couldn't find good parallels with the other series… well, maybe Final Fantasy XII. But I've already included Ashe in one of the chapters, so I couldn't do FFXII. Nor could I do FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX for the same exact reasons, haha.
Just a note, I changed the genre of this fic from drama to humor mainly because I felt there was more humor than drama with Roxas's commentary about his life, haha.
Anyways! That's enough rambling from me. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and look forward to the next chapter!
