*Hikari, half asleep, plods into the room wearing pjs while holding a pink, white, and grey calico cat squishmallo*
I amlost forgot about this
*yawns*
Riku's on vacation, so it's just me again... well, me and my Karina squish.
Enjoy the newest chapter while I go sleep, Nyah~
(on mobile, so pretend that this is a page break)
Chapter 14
Later in the evening Zack entered the house and looked around. He saw that Zexion was in his usual spot, though there was a stack of old newspapers on the stand next to him and he was currently reading through one of them. He didn't see Saru or Riku anywhere though, but figured they were either in their rooms or in the basement.
"Where are the other two?" Zack asked as he closed the front door.
"Basement," Zexion replied as he didn't bother to look up from the paper.
"Ah I figured. Thanks," Zack said before walking down the hallway towards the door that lead downstairs.
He opened the door and started to walk down the stairs. On his way down he could hear some brief shouts coming from below. As he got to the bottom of the stairs he saw that the training field section of the basement was active. Inside of the training room was Riku and Saru, locked deep in a fight.
Large amounts of fire swirled around Riku's hands as he stood several feet away from Saru, who had a blue light surrounding him. Riku lunged forward as he form the fire together and launched it directly at Saru.
Saruhiko instinctively gathered fire and lightning around his hands and flung multiple electrically charged fireballs to counter his brother's attack. The elements collided and held for one second before exploding and pushing the two of them back slightly from the force.
Immediately after regaining his footing from being shoved back, an orangish yellow clock briefly shimmered around Saru before he began flinging more fire towards Riku. The older boy barely dodged in time as he tumbled to the side. Once the fire attacks stopped he stood back up and with the flick of his wrists, ice appeared around him as he casted shards outward towards Saru.
Crossing his arms in defense, a shimmering green forcefield appeared between Saruhiko and the shards of ice, which reflected the projection back towards Riku. Not missing a beat, Saru then immediately threw lightning charged knives amongst the ice.
As Riku saw the ice shards coming at him, he quickly casted a spell of reflect. But what he did not expect was the knives to break through the magic reflecting barrier. He quickly tried to move out of the way, while trying to keep his barrier up, but one of the knives hit into his left shoulder while another hit his left leg. The other remaining knives that Riku had managed to dodge, hit the wall of the training room and clattered to the ground. But as soon as the two knives had struck him, he felt a jolt of electrify run through his body.
Riku let out a cry of pain as he crumpled to the ground. He gritted his teeth as he waited for the electricity to stop. Once it did he glared harshly at his brother. "What the hell!? I thought we agreed no weapons this time!"
"Did you forget that I still can't cast thunder without a medium? Not my fault that you can't dodge for shit."
"Well I one; didn't expect you to throw your knives, and two; you didn't have to cast thunder this time, and finally three; you used haste! You were already moving faster so again I didn't have enough time to dodge properly."
"The point of this was to practice my spells. Can't get better if I don't even practice using thunder."
"Yeah but next time tell me you are going to practice thunder. That way I know to expect you to use your knives. You realize how close that was right? Thankfully only two of of the seven actually hit me," Riku grumbled as he readied to pull the knife that was lodged in his leg out.
"That's your fault. Only one of them was actually aimed at you, the rest were aimed to fly right by you and create a ring of lightning as a trap," Saruhiko scoffed as he walked towards Riku and where the knives had fallen to the ground.
Riku gritted his teeth again as he yanked the knife out from his leg, blood starting to stain the spot where the knife had been. He tossed the knife aside and quickly placed his hand over the wound and a green light glowed formed from his fingertips. He breathed a sigh of relief when he could feel that the wound had healed. Riku then grabbed the other knife that was in his shoulder. He breathed deeply before yanking it out, giving a quick yell of pain. Repeating the same as before, he tossed the knife and quickly went to heal the wound. Once everything was healed he breathed heavily and closed his eyes.
Riku glanced at Saru again. "Just next time… please just tell me if you are doing an attack like that."
"No promises," Saruhiko replied, having now picked up, and holstered five of his knives, the two that were bloody held in his left hand as he offered his right to help Riku up.
Riku was tempted to retort at him, but saw that Saru was at least showing a bit of helpfulness. He sighed quickly before grabbing Saru's hand. He was pulled up to his feet and staggered slightly, the phantom pain of the wounds still there for the moment.
Zack then opened the doors to the training room. He smiled gleefully at the two. "Wow! You guys made it through a training session without actually trying to destroy one another. You guys are really growing up!"
A bloody knife went whizzing by on either side of Zack's head, clipping a few strands and getting blood in his hair. Zack flinched slightly before directing his attention to Saru. "Hey! Now cut that out!"
Riku bit his tongue as he tried not to laugh, though Zack seemed to notice. He then directed his glare towards Riku. "That's not helping!"
Saruhiko just ignored his brothers' antics and went to go pick up the knives.
Zack let out a sigh, seeing as it was pointless to try to get Saru to listen. Once he had relaxed he looked to Riku again. "Anyways, I was looking for you Riku."
"What for?"
"Well…" Zack started as he smiled. "There was someone I talked to earlier today. "I ran into this guy today and apparently his younger brother is looking for you."
"Someone looking for me?" Riku asked. "Who could be looking for me?"
"Hmm, I think his name was… Sora?"
Riku's eyes widened. "Sora?"
"Ah so you do know him," Zack. "Well this guy wants to talk to you or something. Apparently you didn't even tell him your name."
"That was… That was the night Saru tried to start a fight with his friend, Yata!" Riku replied back. "Why does he want to find me? How did his older brother even find you?"
"That's a secret," Zack replied with a chuckle. "But I think you should go and find this Sora kid. Make friends with him and stuff."
"But Zack," Riku started to say. "Sora is friend's with the guy Saru and I nearly drained completely."
"Well you don't have to mention that. But I think it would be nice if you could make a new friend. So what do you say? Will you go and talk to Sora?" Zack asked as he continued to smile.
Riku tensed up slightly as he remembered the encounter from Sora. He remembered the happy, almost goofy, grin the boy had given him. And then of course the comment Sora had made about his hair. He shook his head as he tried to push it away. "Why do you seem to care so much about it?"
"Cause. I want you to make more friends, and this is a great opportunity," Zack replied.
"Sounds like an interesting opportunity." Saru quipped from off on the side while cleaning his knives.
"Oh no, you aren't going to go," Zack said, speaking in a rather strict tone. "From what I gathered, you'll just end up causing more trouble if that Yata guy is there."
Saruhiko raised an eyebrow. "How do you intend to stop me?"
Zack pondered for a moment. Stroking his chin slightly before he smiled. "I'll have Zexion cast a sleep or stop spell on you! Or maybe even silence. That would be the way to do it."
Riku shook his head. "You know that probably won't stop him. He'll find a way to get past those spells."
"Not all that hard to counter some of those spells."
"Yeah, but you know how skilled Zexion is," Zack said before shaking his head. "Anyways, you're not going, Riku is."
"Hey! Who said that I was going?" Riku asked.
"I did," Zack chuckled.
"Tsk," Saru clicked his tongue before he walked out of the training room.
Riku on the other hand let out a sigh before looking over to Zack again. He leaned against the wall as he spoke again. "Why are you seemingly so intent on this?"
"Cause. I think it would be fun. Why? Do you got something against this Sora?"
Riku quickly shook his head. "No no it's nothing like that. I just… I'm just unsure."
"Well I say for go it. Get to know Sora and make a new friend. It would be a nice experience."
"But I know nothing about this guy!" Riku exclaimed as he swung his arms out. "I don't know of this guy is okay with supernaturals or not. Or even if he is one!"
"Well like I said. It can be an experience. Though… not exactly sure though, but I think his older brother is a werewolf. And I assume Sora is just human."
Riku tilted his head slightly, also raising his eyebrow a little. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, it was his older brother who came and found me… when looking for Saru. Plus there is the eyes... golden eyes with very little other color… meaning most likely that he was bitten. So then I assume that means Sora is just human. Cause otherwise he would have tried to track down Saru."
Riku listened carefully as Zack talked. Once he finished Riku nodded slowly, starting to get more sense about everything. "Ah...okay. I'm still not really sure about it though…"
Zack walked a little closer and placed a hand on Riku's shoulder. "You never know unless you try. Come on, at least see what he has to say. Besides… I think this guy might just like you a little."
Riku stiffened up a little, completely surprised by what Zack just said. "What!?"
Zack laughed. "It's just a hunch I have. Another very good reason to at least go and say hi."
Riku closed his eyes as he thought over it. He still didn't know what to think of Sora. The lingering thoughts of their last encounter still fresh in his head. The way Sora had looked at him and just told him what he was thinking… how he had been so nice. Riku wasn't sure what he would say to him after all that. Though it seemed that Zack wasn't going to let the opportunity pass.
Riku finally sighed. "All right. I'll go. I just gotta clean up and change these clothes." He gestured to the blood staines before turning to head out of the training room.
Zack smile, hoping that things would go well for Riku. He then also headed out of the training room and noticed Saru standing near one of the terrariums next to the stairs with a green parakeet perched on his left shoulder. In his opposite hand was a pair of tongs which he was using to hold something into the glass tank.
Riku walked passed him without a word and headed up the stairs. Zack on the other hand stopped and looked over at Saru. "So, do you wanna practice some more sword play tonight? Or are you going to attend to your pets instead?"
"I just need to put out some fish for the garter snakes and fill Kotosaka's food bowl." Saruhiko turned to face Zack as the bird hopped off and flew around the elder's head before landing on a bird perch not to far away.
"Okay then, so what about after that then?" Zack asked as he walked over to the bird perch and slowly reached his hand out to pet the bird gently.
"Attempt to teach my baby false water cobra that he's not an arboreal snake." Saru answered, holding up his arm, which the small snake had wrapped around, hanging sorta upside down while eating what appeared to be a dead baby mouse.
"Ah I see," Zack said as he continued to pet Kotosaka. "I'll just pretend to know what that means."
"Could you refill his food while I get the new girl off of me?" Saru asked while slowly coaxing the snake to unwrap his wrist.
"Sure thing," Zack said as he went to the nearby cabinet and opened it up to see the bags of food. "Wait a minute though, when did you get another snake? Last I recalled you only had the two garter snakes."
"The other week." Saru had finally gotten the little snake off of him and back into her terrarium. He then walked over to a smaller enclosure and opened the cabinets underneath.
"That really isn't all that specific. Just how many snakes and birds do you think you can bring home?"
"Many snakes! Many snakes!" Kotosaka squawked.
Zack rolled his eyes as he placed the food into the bird's tray. "I wasn't asking you."
"When they stop deciding to follow me home." When he found what he was looking for, Saru stood up, and poured a handful of live little fish into the water bowl of the shared tank. "Also, I think that there's a tortoise outside the back door that followed me home when Riku and I were out hunting a month ago."
"Oh I was wondering what that strange looking rock was," Zack replied. "Seriously though what is it with you and animals following you home?"
Saru just shrugged in response.
"Well as long as you don't end up bring home anything crazy…. Hmm like I don't know a bear cub, it's fine," Zack said as he laughed a little.
"Remember when that one chocobo tried to adopt me?" Saruhiko asked with a curious, inquisitive tone.
Zack laughed aloud again. "Oh boy do I remember that. I didn't think the chocobo was going to let any of us near you. It had such an intense protective glare towards everyone. It was pretty scary."
"Chocobo! Kweh kweh!" Kotosawk spoke up again as he moved around on the branch he was sitting on. "Chocobos are great!"
"Hmm…" Zack hummed as he looked to the bird and then Saru. "Why do I get the feeling he is trying to tell me something for you?"
"Because you're too dense to get the subtle hint," Saru deadpanned.
"What? No way!" Zack replied as he shook his head. He then paused for a moment before he added on. "And no you can't bring home a chocobo… or I hope you don't have one hiding somewhere already."
"No, I don't have a chocobo." Saru responded dejectedly.
"Just don't try to bring one home, I'm find with birds and reptiles, but nothing super large," Zack replied.
"Yeah, yeah. Nothing large or dangerous, I got it." Saru paused before changing the topic. "So you mentioned something about another swordplay lesson?"
"Yup, once you finish up down here, you wanna meet up outside for another lesson?"
"Sure. I'll be out in a couple of minutes."
"All right, I'll grab the swords and meet you out there," Zack replied before he headed up the stairs.
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*There's a black cat, that has for white 'socks' and a white dimond on their forhead, curled around Karina, while on top of a giant, grey tabby squishmallo. There's a note on the floor next to them.*
"Hope you enjoyed chapter 14.
Please follow/favorite/review, we like getting feedback from you readers.
Until next week, nya~
From sleepy kitty Hikari"