*The projector whirred to life even though no one was in the room**"Welcome readers to the Author's Intro Note of Chapter 18 of Shadows of the Night. Neither Hikari nor Riku are able to be here to present this chapter for reasons. Do not be alarmed, they are perfectly fine. Please enjoy the read."*Chapter 18

Yata had continued to watch the remaining three play the games. They were now nearing the 100s in the scoring as their characters still hoped along. But soon enough, Riku did not time the roads he was crossing correctly and his character splatted again the side of a car. Riku shrugged though as he stepped back from the game.

"I guess that's that for me then," Riku commented as he saw Sora still focused hard on the game.

Sora didn't reply back, he only kept his eyes on the screen, tapping his character along when necessary. Riku looked confused before his gaze drifted over to Saruhiko. His younger brother looked the same level of focus that Sora was. Neither of the boys spoke as they continued to play the simple yet challenging game.

Yata gave a small chuckle. "Looks like both of them are too focused to even remember they are in the real world anymore. Better take a seat again, we may be here for a while."

"What makes you say that?" Riku asked, looking over to Yata.

"Sora's highest score is nearly at 500. And if he is playing at his best, we will be waiting a while."

Riku was surprised at first from the fact. He knew Sora had said he wanted to beat his high score, but he had not expected Sora to be this good at it. With that in mind, Riku and Yata took a seat as they watched the other two continue to play.

Saruhiko and Sora kept on playing for quite some, having gone on long enough for Yata to get bored of watching them, so he convinced/challenged Riku to a game of air hockey that wasn't too far away.

Eventually, Saruhiko came to a large multi-lane road that he had to cross, and after pausing to analyze it for a moment. He clicked his tongue before attempting to cross, making it most of the way before he was in a lose-lose position. His little ducky was flattened by a fast moving car before the truck in the next lane cleared out of the way.

Both of the boys looked up the screen to see their scores as well as how many tickets they won. Sora had made it to 552 and Sarhiko was just behind on his game at 550. Sora turned on his seat and held out a hand towards Saruhiko. "Good game, even if we weren't playing on the same machine."

"It's a fairly simple game for one who can recognize and calculate patterns." Saru retorted with a shrug, but did still shake Sora's hand.

Sora blinked, trying to understand Saruhiko's reasoning for it. Instead he just smiled as he was just happy to have played the game. "Still it was fun. Now… where did Riku and Yata go?"

Sora started to scan the area around them, trying to see if he spotted either one of the other guys. A moment later he saw the other two at the air hockey table. He motioned for Saru to follow him as he jumped off the seat and headed over towards the others. Saru stood up, shoved his hands in his pockets, and trailed behind Sora as they approached the air hockey table.

It was not a regular air hockey table, but instead an air hockey table that could have up to four players. The shape of it was square rather than rectangular like most, but it made it more efficient for four players. Yata and Riku were already into a game though, knocking the puck back and forth across the field. Riku hit the puck back towards Yata with a bit more force than before, and Yata returned the hit, but with a stronger hit. The hit knocked the puck off the of the air hockey table and it flew right towards where Saruhiko and Sora stood.

With almost inhuman reaction timing, Saru caught the puck flat between his fingers right before it was about to impact Sora's face. Yata and Sora's faces stretched out as their mouths dropped open. Saruhiko smirked in amusement just before he flicked his wrist, sending the puck back into the field of play. It ricocheted off the walls and into Yata's goal.

"What the hell?" Yata asked, still sounding completely caught off guard by what he had just witnessed.

"How did you even do that?" Sora asked, more amazing that confused by it.

Riku glanced at Saru for a brief moment, hoping that his concerned and serious expression would be enough to give Saru an idea not to let this get out of hand. Saru only chuckled softly as he gave the faintest smile, though it was much more like his usual smirks.

"Would you believe the fact that I am apart of a secret ninja association?"

"Wow that sounds super cool!" Sora commented.

"Seriously?" Yata asked, raising an eyebrow. "A secret… ninja association is why you could catch that air hockey puck?"

"No, I just have good reflexes," Saru answered with a serious, deadpan expression.

Yata stared at him, narrowed his eyes slightly. With the now deadpan look across Saruhiko's face, it was hard to read him. But it seemed that he was telling the truth now. Yata huffed and he rolled his eyes. "Whatever then… Was pretty impressive though." The last part of it was muttered quietly under his breath.

"How about you repeat what you just said, but speak up so that people could actually hear you?" Saruhiko asked with a taunting smirk on his face.

Yata looked directly at Saruhiko, glaring at him with annoyed eyes. "I said it wasn't that impressive!"

"Oh is that so? The expression of shock and amazement that adorned your pretty little face said otherwise."

Yata sneered at Saruhiko, feeling more annoyed than he was before. "It wasn't that amazing. Just… Just surprising." Yata let out a huff of air, trying to brush off the look that Saruhiko was giving him.

"Hey hey," Riku interjected. "Let's just agree it was a quick catch. Now that we're all here, how about we all play a game together?"

"Yeah! That sounds fun. Always wanted to play this with four people," Sora said as he walked to one of the two remaining open sides of the game.

Saru didn't move to the remaining side, instead he just shoved his hands back into his pockets.

"Not interested."

"Is he going to do this with everything?" Yata asked, glaring over at Saruhiko.

"I'm afraid so. He is more picky than you would expect," Riku answered, knowing his brother would not care to say anything more.

"What was the point in him even coming here then?" Yata grumbled. "If he just is not going to play any of the games we want to, he shouldn't have even come."

"Why I chose to come is of no concern to you, and your choice of games is of a child's preference." Saru stated as he turned to walk away.

Yata stepped away from the air hockey and marched right up to Saruhiko. He stood in front of the lanky boy and stared right into his eyes. "If you think air hockey is childish, then what is it you like to play? And the coin and card game doesn't count for this."

"A brat like you wouldn't last long with my choice of entertainment." Saruhiko taunted while looking back over his shoulder before walking off.

"Oh yeah? Well why don't you just say it already? Maybe you'll be surprised," Yata said, now walking alongside Saurhiko. For some reason, he could not just give up. It was probably stubbornness, but he wanted to find out just what was Saruhiko's deal. And the other half of him was genuinely curious, though he tried not to actually show that side of him.

Saru didn't answer, instead he just continued walking until they reached his destination. They had arrived at a pair of older, connected arcade cabinets that each had a holstered gun controller and a foot pedal. The left 'half' was red while the right 'half' was blue, and because the two were conjoined, it allowed for two person multiplayer.

"You said I wouldn't last long? Shoot games are probably my best game here!" Yata exclaimed.

"Can you live up to that boast then, eh Mi~sa~ki~?." Saru challenged as he walked up to, and swiped his card at the blue station.

Yata scowled. "Don't say that f*cking name!" Before Saruhiko could reply, Yata went up to tap his wristwatch at the red station.

"You can't make me stop calling you Misaki, Mi~sa~ki~." Saru picked up his 'gun', moved to stand so that his right foot was partially on the pedal, and pressed start.

"Shut up you f*cking monkey," Yata huffed angrily. He picked up his 'gun' and readied himself for the start of the game.

Meanwhile back at the air hockey, Sora and Riku were tied at 6 to 6, and having the hardest time trying to shoot the final goal. This actually was their 3rd game, and was the tiebreaker between the two, with Sora winning the first one nad Riku the second.

The two stared down at the puck as it shot quickly back and forth. Neither of the boys wanted to lose their attention at all. The only thing that mattered in the moment was trying to win.

"Come on!" Sora shouted, laughing as he made another block with the paddle. He knocked it back towards the side, hoping it would bounce off and go into the goal from the side.

Riku used his quick reflexes to stop the puck and then sent it flying straight back. He let out a short laugh. "You gotta try better than that."

"Hmm…" Sora said, still trying to not let the puck goes in the goal. Suddenly a sly smile came across his face. "So Riku…"

"Yeah?" Riku asked, still in deep concentration on trying to win.

"I wanted to know, is that your natural hair color? Cause if it is, that's really pretty."

"What?" Riku asked, looked up to Sora with wide eyes.

BING

The buzzer for the goal went off and Riku looked down to see that Sora had taken the shot to get the puck into the goal. Sora had won the 3rd game, meaning he was now the overall winner. Sora smiled as he jumped up, cheering happily.

"Hey come on, that isn't fair," Riku replied.

"Yeah it is," Sora said, giving a big cheeky grin. "You just choose to get distracted. Not my fault."

Riku felt his cheeks grow slightly warm, but he breathed out, hoping to calm himself. Sora had commented on his hair again. And with that simple comment, it had thrown him off. He still couldn't fully understand why he got like that. He knew part of it was because he was reminded of Kairi… but the other part… he wasn't sure. There was still some feelings he didn't quite understand from being around Sora. Maybe Zack was right after all… maybe there was some feeling that he had towards Sora. But at the time being he still was not sure about it. This was his technically 3rd time meeting him. He couldn't judge his feelings off of that. Not yet at least.

"So should we go find Saru and Yata?" Riku asked, not wanting to get too deep in thought about the subject.

Sure! Where do you think they could be?" Sora asked as the two of them started to walk.

"I know Saru likes the shooter games, so we should check there first," Riku said.

"Hey Yata likes those games too. I guess they have more in common than we thought," Sora replied with a laugh.

Riku couldn't help but laugh in return. "I guess you're right."

There was a pause between the two of them, before Sora spoke up again. "Can I ask though?"

"Ask what?"

"Why is your hair like that? I mean, it's such a unique color… so um… I was wondering about it," Sora asked quietly. He and tilted his head away due to how nervous he felt when asking, but he still stayed close to Riku's side.

Riku nearly stopped walking. He didn't come to a complete stop, but he did slow down quite a bit. He ran his fingers over his palms as he started to look a bit uncomfortable. A slow and quiet sigh was let from Riku's mouth before he actually spoke to Sora.

"I… I get it from my…" Riku trailed off, wanting to hold off on it as long as he could. "From my mother…"

Sora looked back at Riku when he gave his answer. It was then that he saw the expression on Riku's face. It was a look that he knew all too well himself. Something about that subject clearly was making Riku a bit troubled. Sora didn't know the exact details, but he could see the uncomfortable look forming in Riku's eyes.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't know it was a sensitive subject!" Sora shouted, hoping he had not upset Riku too more.

Riku pursed his lips and faced Sora, he could see Sora was clearly worried that he had upset him. He wasn't all that upset, just the memoires in his head made him feel uncertain. So with a deep breath he looked at Sora in the eyes, giving him a half smile. "No, it's okay. I didn't expect to be asked about it. That's all. Haven't… really thought about it in a while."

Sora's worried face did not let up. He still didn't know if Riku was truly okay anymore after being asked the question.

"Sora," Riku said, placing a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Really, it's okay. It's nothing that bad. I just… don't think about her much anymore."

"Okay, if you say so. But I'm really sorry I asked," Sora replied.

Riku nodded in understanding. "Now, let's get back to finding Saru and Yata."

Sora breathed out, happy he hadn't hopefully ruined anything between him and Riku. "Yeah, let's go."

*"The authors apreciate feedback in the form of follows, favorites, and or reviews. Apologies are given for both the lenght of the arcade arc as well as for the absense of the creators of this fanfiction. Hopefully you readers have enjoyed the story up until this point, and thank you for sticking with us this far."*

*The screen flickered black before two lines briefly flashed on the screen*

*"No humans or cat-hybrids were harmed in the making of this Author's Note."*

*"There is also no longer a back log of chapters for this story, so apologies from the authors of future inconsistencies in updates for Shadows of the Night"*