Chapter V: Pulled Heartstrings

Kairi examined what she had just made. It wasn't dark and gloomy. She thought back to the time that Axel had asked her to go with him, and she had ran into the portal. It had a sickening feeling, like she was becoming weaker. But something had kept her strong. She remembered becoming a bit stronger until the darkness didn't affect her anymore. It was such a wonderful feeling. But this was different.

The portal looked pale and transparent. She took a glance out her window. It was nighttime, who would see her? She looked back to the swirling transparency in front of her.

"Here goes nothing." She said quietly to herself, taking a leap forward into the portal, thinking of Twilight Town. In the portal, there was a faint glow, with X's all around, instead of the Nobody signs she had seen in the other portal.

In front of her, the world was shifting, it began to morph into a clock tower. Kairi blinked and rubbed her eyes a bit. When she opened her eyes again, she was in Twilight Town. The sky was a beautiful Dark Blue with stars shining brilliantly. The breeze swept Kairi's hair from her face, it felt like home here. It was good to know she had picked such a welcoming place.

From behind, she heard a dog barking happily as an old man walked down the street with him. The man looked just as happy as his dog. Kairi smiled a bit and decided she would drop by tomorrow after training instead.

She turned around and looked for somewhere that nobody would see her open a portal. She walked down a path for a while, looking at the ground. The colors were even welcoming. Kairi thought back to the time she had spent here. Although it was only for a short while, she remembered how sweet everybody was. Even- Kairi had bumped into something hard. She stumbled back to get a better look at what she had just ran into.

A tall boy turned around to look at her. "Hmm?" he mumbled curiously. His light blue eyes trailed all over the girl. "Wait...you're-" his eyes widened a bit and his face became a bright red. "-Kairi!"

"Seifer!?" she asked, dumbfounded that she would have ever seen him again. He had met her when she was walking with Hayner Pence and Olette to get stuff for her journey. She remembered he looked extremely flustered. His face was all scrunched up and he had been interrogating her awkwardly. Olette's and Hayner's remarks weren't helping either...

"What are you doing here? I thought that you-I mean-uhh... You shouldn't be out at night! That's bad territory! I would know!" he said sternly with the same scrunched up face.

"Oh, you know...shopping?" Kairi laughed a bit nervously. "But wait-" she put her hands on her hips. "-if I'm not supposed to be out at night, why are you?"

Seifer looked taken aback. But he quickly recovered. "Because I'm tough!" He said snidely.

"And I'm not?"

"Well, you're a girl."

"...and?"

"And people might want to abduct you!"

"And?"

"And...well, what about those weird monster things? They might come back."

"They're gone...I think." Kairi then looked away, thinking.

"HA! I mean. See? It's far too dangerous. You should probably go back." Said Seifer, puffing out his chest.

"Fine."

"And...you should come back tomorrow! For shopping..."

"Maybe I will."

Kairi then turned around and walked the other way.

"Do you need an escort?"

"No, I'm good."

"...Be careful!"

She then turned a corner and smiled to herself. He wasn't mean or tough at all...

Kairi pressed her hand to the side of a building and watched as the white portal appeared before her. She took a deep breath and thought of her room in Yen Sid's tower. She jumped through without a second glance and watched as the room morphed in front of her. She was back. And her door swung open just as the portal closed, revealing a silver haired boy. It was Riku.

"You're okay! Thank goodness!" he sighed as he hugged Kairi.

"I'm okay?" She asked.

"Well, you weren't responding, so I thought maybe Braig had come back for you."

"It's okay. I can protect myself now."

Hikaru woke up to see the room illuminated by the Sun's warm glow. "What a nice dream..." He said quietly to himself as his head began to ache a bit from the light. But it was a bit milder now, so he must have been getting better.

"What dream?" Asked Hayner, leaning over Hikaru.

"Whoa!" the brunette leaped up and collided heads with his roommate. Hayner toppled over and made a loud bang on the floor and Hikaru gripped his head tightly in pain.

"What was that for!?" Asked the blond.

"Sorry!" Said Hikaru, lifting his hand from his head.

"Yeah, yeah...Whatever. Anyways, the dream?"

"Oh! Well, umm..." He tried to catch the memory as it kept slipping from his thoughts. He would remember what it was for about a second but then forget. It was frustrating. He sat there for a while and thought. Hayner let him have some thinking time, knowing the feeling of a dream you can't seem to hold on to.

After about 7 minutes, Hikaru finally got it. "I remember! It was a beach. And it was really warm and relaxing. I felt right at home." He said.

"That sounds pretty lame. But that reminds me, we have to get the rest of the munny to go to the beach, remember?"

"Right!"

Hikaru leaped out of bed and got ready as fast as possible. Hayner watched his friend zip through the room and get ready for the day within 5 minutes.

The blond was then yanked down the steps in a hurry.

"See ya,Mrs. H! We're going to the usual place!"

The door was then slammed shut. "...Bye?"

"Hikaru, don't you think you're in too much of a hurry to get 50 munny?" Panted Hayner once they reached the usual place.

"You two are late!" Pouted a brunette girl.

"Sorry, I got a late start." Hikaru said, scratching the back of his head.

"Whatever. We've got news that Seifer's gang has been acting up today." She continued.

Pence began to chuckle and covered his mouth.

"What is it?" Asked Hikaru.

"Well, I'm not really sure-" Olette began to say, but was cut off by Pence.

"Seifer has a crush! I thought everybody knew." Said Pence with a grin on his face.

"We can't say that for sure!" Said Olette.

"Well, I think it's true." Pence said.

"Who does he have a crush on?" Asked Hikaru.

Olette opened her mouth, but no words came out. She instantly closed it and thought. "Well, that's what we don't know."

"Aww." Hikaru moaned. "That's lame!"

"Not for long." Olette grinned evilly as she reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of binoculars.

"What are we going to do once we find out who he likes?" Asked Hayner, clearly not intent on this idea.

"Umm..." Olette and Pence looked at each other, then shrugged.

"Exactly. We have to go to the beach tomorrow! And we need that money today. So we're going to get it." Hayner said with authority.

Pence and Olette didn't seem too thrilled about this, but they did as they were told.

"Okay, you and Hikaru can pair up. I'll stick with Pence." Said Olette. The four then split up and looked for jobs to do.

"We should clear out some beehives. That'll pass the time, plus, it pays pretty well." Said Hayner.

"Sounds good to me." Hikaru said with an air. They then looked for somebody who needed help.

The two knocked on the door of the first house they saw. An old lady emerged.

"Yes?" She asked sweetly.

"Do you need any help removing beehives?" Asked Hayner.

"Oh, no dearies. My grandson already helped me this morning. Thank you for offering." She said.

"Oh, well, okay. See ya." Said Hayner, and he stepped down.

The two went door to door asking if people needed help, but no one seemed to need it. Even if they had beehives, they didn't want to pay anybody for help.

Finally, after an hour and a half, someone had said yes.

"Thank you very much!" Hikaru thanked the man and went straight

to work.

"We need a plan, because I don't have any fancy spray." Said Hayner, thinking. After about a minute he looked back up. "You distract the bees while I destroy the nest."

"Good idea! Wait-WHAT?" Hikaru gasped.

"Here," Hayner handed Hikaru a rock. "throw this at the nest. They'll chase you down so be ready to run."

The blond took cover behind the house, leaving Hikaru alone with a rock in his hand. He took a deep breath and began to aim. "The beach better be worth it." He said as he threw the rock and hit the nest, leaving a gaping hole. His body instantly tensed as he stood and watched in horror as wasps began to emerge from the broken nest.

Hikaru turned and began running at top speed, shouting the most obscene things.

"I'M SORRY! It was the rock, not me! Sting the rock, sting the rock! Bad! Bad bees! I mean wasps! I'm sorry!"

Hayner ran across the house while he had a chance. He picked up a stick and began destroying the whole nest, making quick work. Within about a minute, he had demolished the whole nest. Hayner looked to Hikaru, who was still running around like a maniac.

He hadn't planned this far ahead. All Hikaru could do was run and wait for help.

The same old lady that Hikaru had seen earlier watched as he ran from a swarm of bees.

"Over here! Get inside, dear!" She called as she set down her watering can hastily and opened the door.

Hikaru did as he was told without a second thought. He rushed inside and watched as the lady shut the door quickly. He keeled over, grabbing his knees and panting. "Thank you...so much."

"It's no problem. My grandson had the same problem." She said. "By the way, my name is Flora."

"Oh, I'm Hikaru. Nice to meet you." He said as polite as he could.

The faint buzzing began to disappear.

"I hear that you can use pesticides now. They work more efficiently." said Flora.

"You can tell that to Hayner." Hikaru laughed a bit. "But I should be going. He's probably worried sick. Thanks again."

"No problem, dear. Please do be more cautious."

Hikaru checked the window the see that the wasps were gone. He then walked out the door with a final goodbye.

He looked up and down the street. There were no wasps, but he saw a girl with an ice-cream in her hand. Her hair was a dark reddish color and she wore a pink dress. Hikaru's blue eyes stared at her for who knows how long. She looked up from her ice-cream and met Hikaru's gaze. His head immediately began to throb. He watched as she dropped her ice-cream and began running.

"Hey, wait!" He called out to her, clutching his head. He began running after the girl, and he wasn't sure why. His body just did it on its own. What dragged him forward wasn't his curiosity, it was the aching in his heart. But the girl ignored him and kept running, glancing back every once and a while.

The throbbing in Hikaru's head didn't stop, neither did the hurting in his heart. All he could think of to do was to follow this girl no matter what.

He watched as she rounded a corner, and proceeded to turn down the same route. But when he looked, she was gone...

There was nobody there.