Chapter XXX: In the Radiant gardens part V

"Agggh!"

Maleficent watched as the one she was training fall upon the ground once more, he had failed to yet again to grasp the powers of darkness that were at his very fingertips.

"That is not good, if you truly wish to truly use the immense power of darkness then you must have a desire for it," she told him as she watched him as he tried to steadily get back on his feet once more.

"A desire for it?" He asked as he breathed hard trying to calm his staggering heart. It had truly felt the immensity of the power he was trying to control.

"Yes, something to fuel it… and then you will have nothing to prevent you from taking it!" She spoke as she finished with a hint of manic excitement.

The person closed his eyes, as he thought of what he truly wanted and it came to him more easily than he could have possibly imagined. Lifting up his clenched fist a smile upon his face, he then summoned that power again as it drifted in and out of his fingers as he opened them knowing his true intent.

"I desire only that and that alone…" he spoke as he finished with a dark smile as a small flame of dark blue crackled in his hand.

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"And that's how you cast fire," Merlin concluded as he'd given the last of the magical instructions to Nozomi. Cait sith stood at his feet as he patiently to see what her result would be.

She nodded as she listened and then proceeded to create a fire spell; concentrating on the floating cup and saucer ahead of her she pulled her right arm out holding the 'starseeker.' Focusing her mind and magical power she then called out, "fire!"

With that a fire spell immediately emerged from her keyblade as a small ball of fiery energy rushed ahead towards the target and struck it making the cup and saucer vanish in seconds.

Nozomi's face lit up as she mastered now the basic spells, "wow! That was great! I can see why Wairu gets a rush from this!"

Merlin pleased at her reaction nodded as she spoke but then became curious of this name she spoke, "Wairu lass?" He asked.

Turning around hearing Merlin repeat the name of her old friend nodded to him as she then said, "yeah my friend, he could cast magic too and things… he wanted to be a master magician someday."

At this Merlin's eyes lit up as he heard this explanation, "oh I see then, well maybe you could introduce me to this young friend of yours someday, I'd been meaning to find an apprentice at some point in the future."

Hearing this Nozomi was really thrilled to hear this and then replied, "Yeah I will!" But then her eyes became saddened yet again as she thought of her lost friend once more as she finished, "when I can find him again…"

Cait sith seeing Nozomi suddenly become disheartened then spoke, " Oy lass! Don't ya dare be feelin depressed right now! When ya just managed to get even a bit stronger! This ain't no time to be a moper!"

Hearing Cait sith's outburst Nozomi stared at him as she blinked and then smiled as best she could trying to get rid of the feelings of sadness, "yeah you're right! Besides, now we have an advantage at least so… that's a good progression."

Nodding Cait sith spoke again, "right ya are!"

Merlin then coughed into his hand as he then got the little black and white cat's attention as well as the young girl, "now that aside I believe it's time we all got back to the others now, what do you say? Have you finished here now?"

Hearing Merlin's query Nozomi already knew the answer as she nodded smiling as she said, "yeah, let's get back to his majesty and old snowball!"

Merlin smiled again happy at the answer as he replied, "Well then let's move along shall we?"

With that the three of them left the training magic room and went back to the centre of the restoration committee's base room.

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Entering the room in a poof of magic once more Nozomi, Cait sith and Merlin appeared. As the blue smoke faded away Nozomi then spoke with a voice of triumphant, "Hey! Everyone guess what I'm now a fully fledged magic user!"

Then Yuffie and the others hearing her walked over as they each began to speak to her, it was Yuffie who spoke first, "hey, well done! I bet this will really boost ya up in battle."

Smiling at her response Nozomi nodded, as then she was distracted as Aerith spoke, "that's good to hear, if you ever need any tuition on white magic then I'll be glad to help you out sometime."

Hearing this Nozomi smiled further as she spoke once more, "okay! I'd like that."

Then finally Leon spoke next, "it's good to hear… now we can back to what we need to do next."

Nozomi stopped as she asked, "next?"

"Yup that's right!" It was then that the king made his entrance as he walked over to them. Nozomi listened as the king explained, "now the walls of this world are still closed, and the Valkerie seedling still ain't finished properly into the machinery yet."

Nozomi was really surprised as she then said aloud, "it's still not finished your highness?!"

Mickey hearing this looked at her as he then shook his head sadly, "I'm afraid not, it's taking longer than we thought and so we're still gonna need a little more time to fix it up."

Hearing this Nozomi then assumed next what he was going to say, "so you need me to help fix it up right?"

Looking at her the mouse king was silent for a few moments as he then replied, "nuh uh, you don't know about the machinery and also it needs really powerful magic to make it work, which sadly at this moment you don't have."

Nozomi hearing this was baffled as she then made her reply though with a hint of annoyance in her tone, "but I've mastered the basics! Wouldn't that be enough to-"

However this time it was Leon who interrupted, " that wouldn't be enough… it's something that really is taking a lot of energy, even we and Merlin are having a tough time on our own with it."

It was then Nozomi felt disheartened and a little annoyed that she couldn't be of any help so she proceeded on to ask, "so how long is it going to take to finish the machine?"

Yuffie then was the one who answered the question, "another few hours at the most… so sorry looks like you'll have to sit around again."

Hearing this Nozomi was annoyed with the idea of just sitting around, she wasn't one for loitering! So then spoke once more, "can't I just do something with the free time I've got!?"
At this everyone was quiet as they didn't know what to say but then Aerith with her calm logic spoke once more, "well why don't you just have a tour around the town, I'm sure that'll get rid of the boredom for you."

Nozomi's ears pricked up at this idea, she then smiled at it as she spoke, "yeah that's a better idea! Anything then just sitting around!"

Aerith smiled at her and her satisfaction," good then, well if that's all settled we'd better get to it."

With that the group all started to leave the room. The king following them but then before Merlin left, Cait sith had jumped off her shoulder once more and ran up to the old magician.

"Hey Cait sith!" Nozomi called out.

"What? He asked as he looked back at her now standing beside Merlin.

"Why are you going?" She asked him.

Cait sith was quiet for a moment as he then responded to her, " these lads are gonna be needin some powerful magic, and I'm just the cat ta do it! "

Nozomi on the other hand was a bit baffled as she then asked, "didn't you do that the last time you were gone with them?"

"Nah! I was checkin ta see what moves these lades have got and personally, I think they need a real booster!" He exclaimed.

She lifted an eyebrow at this as she looked at him a little disbelieving, 'I bet he just wants to show off.' She thought to herself annoyed slightly but then thinking that she shrugged her shoulders. She then finally made a reply, " alright then, well good luck to you then." She waved to them as a mark to send them on their way.

But before leaving Merlin called her over, "lass I've got something for you before I leave."

Walking over to him Nozomi then pulled her right hand out to receive whatever it was that Merlin wanted to give to her, as she did Merlin then dropped the green gem she had got from Pence, Olette and the others.

She had given it to him during the training room session. He said he had noticed something strange about it and had left him to look at it as she had practised her magic.

But there was something different about it now, as she saw that it was glowing slightly with a slight throb, she stood mesmerised as she gazed at it.

"Wow," she echoed aloud.

Merlin then started to explain, "I found out that this gem of your is actually truly special it's-"

"Merlin! Come on we need to get going!" It was the king who had come back to fetch the old wizard who was delaying time.

"Oh, well my, looks like I'll have to leave you now," with that he then started to trot out the door as Cait sith followed close behind him.

"Hey wait Mr Merlin sir, what is this?!" She cried out aloud really curious as to what she now held in her hand.

Unfortunately though it was too late as he and Cait sith had vanished out of hearing range and eyesight.

"Oh… that's not fair," she complained with a slight pout.

But then looking at the now glowing green gem in her hand she felt something about it was warm and comforting that made her frown vanish and instead made her have a small smile.

However then she realised that old snowball hadn't gone with them, which meant now she and him could explore Hollow Bastion together! Thinking this with a happy thought of not being alone, she then looked around the room to find where Riku was.

Looking in the room she made it over to the bench where she and Riku had sat together and there she found him, he seemed to be in deep thought about something with his head down, his hands on his knees.

Nozomi making her way over grinned, she then waved a hand in front of his face as she said to him with a hint of cheer, "hey snowball! Guess what? You and I get to have a tour around Hollow Bastion together!"

Riku looked up at her then having broken him out of his thoughts as he looked at her in a strange way, Nozomi's smile vanished as she felt puzzled at what she saw. Him seemed to be drained in some ways, and also for some reason there seem to be an echo of sadness. However before she could ask him anything he had lifted himself up and had now walked past her as he headed to the door.

Staring after him Nozomi then asked herself, "what's eating him up?"

But then seeing him exit, she then ran over herself as she went to catch up to him.

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Walking around Nozomi was amazed again at this new world as she got a good view of everything and felt really thrilled seeing the huge machinery as they pulled things to and throw and various other things. Once again as well she was able to see more of the hard working nature of the people as she saw them put energy into everything.

Seeing them all work so hard like this though made her feel a little bit bad inside again as she spoke aloud, "I wish I could do something to help out…"

But then as she spoke, it made her realise that Riku hadn't said a word since they left the committee's base room. Looking at him again she saw him with his head down as he seemed to be thinking about something again.

She was getting fed up with him and his anti-social nature so walking over, she decided to try and get some kind of reaction out of him, "hey, come on I don't want to be the only one who's talking!"

Riku though only turned his head away from her as he continued to stare at the ground. Nozomi was getting further ticked off, "Oh come on for goodness sake! I hate this silent treatment, are you a slush for brains or what!"

Riku only huffed as he too was getting annoyed with her and her irritating nature as he continued to stare at the ground doing his best not to talk. Nozomi then tired of it then decided to play a little trick on him that Wairu had done to her, in the misty recesses of the past as kids.

Riku still deep in his thoughts was distracted as Nozomi stopped in front of him with her right hand in his face a finger pointing upwards. Riku was baffled as she did this and watched as she dropped her finger down seemingly to point to something as his eyes followed them downwards as his head dropping slightly. Then all at once she lifted her finger ultra fast before he could think and had flicked him in the nose quite hard.

He cried out, "Ow, what the heck are you-!"
Nozomi smiled smugly as she then said aloud, "hah! I made you talk! At last you're alive!"

Riku looking at her disbelieving scrunched his face really annoyed as Nozomi then talked again, "oh man! You're face is so funny!" She finished laughing as she pointed to him again as she then clapped her knees.

Ultra cross Riku then replied back to her, " you are so annoying! Why do you have to do such childish things!?"

Nozomi then looked at him questionably as she then replied, "well your one to talk! You've been acting real childish giving me the silent treatment! And after that conversation, I thought you and I were becoming good close friends!" She finished with a hard nod.

Riku hearing that grew cross again as he looked away and then said, "couldn't you see I was thinking about something?"

Nozomi was annoyed now herself thinking he was avoiding the point, "well I could tell that easily enough! But you can talk and think at the same time you know! Or can't you even multi task?"

Hearing this Riku was about to answer back when-

"Well this looks like an interesting couple doesn't it?"

Nozomi hearing that voice looked around herself baffled wondering who had talked for she couldn't see anyone, "who's that?"

Suddenly there was a twinkle like sound from behind her as there suddenly in a flash appeared… three little people?

Nozomi stared at these three a little unsure as the three of them were all girls, one of them had brown hair tied into a long ponytail in a red braid with a pair of wings near the end. She also had a single long earring with a few little beads, a white vest with a pink part underneath and a pink hood. Then to finish it off she wore dark blue short skirt with a long layered light blue skirt over it to one side and then finishing with long dark blue boots. Looking at her Nozomi saw she had odd coloured eyes, one blue and one green. 'That makes her unique' Nozomi thought to herself.

The next one was yellow in colour and had green eyes which she could see had twirling irises, 'that's really, wow!' Nozomi thought to herself once again. Looking at what she was wearing she saw that this one had a blue bandanna with her long blonde hair tied back into a long ponytail as well though with no braid. She also wore a long red scarf that had a yellow and orange tinge at the end and also seemed to form something like wings.

Looking at the rest of her she saw she too wore a yellow vest with blue straps, a pair of long white sleeves were upon her arms as well. Then finishing this girls package Nozomi saw that saw wore long white socks on her feet, and then she saw that she wore blue boots with white ends.

Then finally the last girl was drastically different to the other two as she had short light brown grey tinted hair and had red hard gazing eyes. Looking at the rest of her Nozomi saw that she wore entirely black leather for the most part in the form of long gloves, a short vest with an overall, shorts with a skull belt and another red long belt that dangled down to her side.

At last finishing she saw that she wore long black socks as well along with boots, she was definitely more of the devil of the group as she saw the black wings on her back.

Nozomi and Riku both stared at the two of them, Nozomi was baffled looking at them for she'd never seen little people like them before, (though Cait sith was similar in a slight way.)

The odd-eyed one spoke to them both, "hi there!"

Nozomi blinked as she then spoke, "uh hi," with a slight wave.

Riku having being quiet long enough walked over to where Nozomi was as he looked at them himself as he asked, "who're you guys exactly?"

With that the yellow one spoke as she then said in an ultra happy voice, "we are…"

With that the three of them got into a pose together as they then all cried out together, "the Gullwings!"

"Gullwings?" Nozomi asked.

"That's right," The black clothed one answered as she spoke in a serious tone.

"Yeah we go around seeking treasure from all over the place!" The odd-eyed one spoke again.

Nozomi hearing this then spoke, "really how'd you do that?"

The yellow one spoke again as she spoke happily, "that's an easy answer! We're fairies and we can go anywhere we want!"
Hearing this piece of information Nozomi's eyes widened as she had a sudden idea of how she could be of help, "you guys say you can go anywhere?!"

The odd-eyed one answered again, "yup that's right we go around collecting treasure from everywhere we go, nothing gets past our reach!"

Nozomi smiled then as she thought these guys would be a real big help, Riku on the other hand only stared at her and her reactions wondering what she was getting up to.

"That's fantastic! Do you guys think you could do us a favour?" She asked them.

At this the serious one spoke, "what kinda favour?"

Gesturing her hands out Nozomi explained, "well you see we're trying to get into contact with the outside world, we want to contact somebody, a couple of friends of this guy here," she then pointed to Riku as he looked at her gesturing to him.

The serious one spoke once more, "and what friends are these?"

"Um, well I don't know all of them, but there's one person in particular, he's called Sora," she spoke as she continued.

"Oh hey! We know those guys!" The yellow one exclaimed.

Nozomi's smile widened at this, "great! Do you think you could go and contact him for us?!"

Riku looked at her baffled at this idea, 'she can't be serious?' He thought to himself.

At this the odd-eyed one spoke as she shook her head, "well I'm afraid we don't do anything for free, you see we're treasure hunters, not messengers."

Blinking at this Nozomi spoke, "oh? Treasure? Um, hold on a minute."

With that she began to dig in all her pockets as she got out everything she had with her at that moment (though leaving the green gem in her pocket, since she didn't want to lose something dear from her friends.)

Finishing she got out what she had as she had her hands displayed to them, "is there anything here you'd like?" She asked them.

Riku looked at her weirdly as he thought it was absurd that she'd even have anything that they'd want.

"Hmmm, let's take a lookey," the yellow one spoke as she then floated over to her and then looked in her outstretched hands. What was there wasn't really too much, a couple of foil wrappers, some bits of plastic, a couple of marbles and-

Suddenly then the yellow one stopped as she spotted something glittering, picking it up she gazed at it, "wow, what's this!" She cried aloud.

For the thing she had picked up with small round shining little gem stone light blue in colour as it glittered brilliantly in the yellow one's hands.

"Oh let me see!"

"Let's have a look,"

With that the other two gathered around the yellow one as they saw the lovely glittering gem, Nozomi was silent as she watched them as did Riku.

There was silence for a few more moments until finally they turned back to her, "where'd you get this?" The odd-eyed one asked.

Nozomi blinked as she told them casually, "well I just found it, where I come from in bamboo town you can find quite a few of those lying around, in fact at home I have a few boxes full of them."

At this the yellow one exclaimed again, "Oh! Do you think we can hav'em!"

Sad Nozomi answered them, "afraid not… my world was devoured and stuff by the heartless, so I can't sorry."

"Oh foofy!" The odd eyed one complained.

"Not cool," the serious one spoke.

There was a disheartened atmosphere around everyone for a few moments but then Nozomi spoke up, "but I could find some more for you!"

"Really you can?" The odd eyed one spoke interested.

Nozomi nodded, "yeah I know where to find stones like that, so I can hunt around the town with snowball here, till we get as many as you need."

Riku looked at her annoyed at this, they were not work for hire they were-

"Hmmm, okay if you guys can get us five more of these baby's then we'll help you out!" The yellow one spoke a happy smile on her face.

Nozomi nodded then pleased at being able to do something, "Okay then it's a deal!"

With that she put the stuff from her pockets away as she then moved her right hand out to them to shake. Then them with their small arms, they floated over as they shook her hand together, the yellow and odd-eyed one smiling while the serious one looked unchanged.

Then after a few moments they detached as the odd eyed one spoke to her again, "okay then see you later!"

"Seeya!" Cried the yellow one.

"Ciao," the serious one spoke and with that the three vanished along with the stone Nozomi had traded with them.

Riku still annoyed slightly of having been left out of the conversation asked her, "well now what?"

Turning around Nozomi beamed with a smile, "we go treasure hunting!"