71. Under Pressure
A/N: MAJOR trigger warning for self-harm and gore! Stay safe, readers!
...
The improv troupe was trying for another go. Now that the bad blood between Hans, Demyx, Snatcher, and Roman was settled, it seemed worth a second shot. Snatcher was, once again, in charge of making sure the karaoke room was clear. He couldn't remember whether or not Mozenrath had picked up the toppled chess board and supposed he would have to go hunting for stray pawns.
As he approached the door to the indicated room, his feet made mild splashes in a thin layer of water.
Not again.
Snatcher shoved open the door to see Demyx dancing around the fallen chess table, playing an upbeat song that had conjured more water forms than Snatcher had ever seen him summon before. The forms were all dancing to the beat, bouncing and splashing and getting the dancefloor absolutely wet.
"MR. DEMYX."
Snatcher's harsh greeting jolted Demyx out of his rocking-out session. The water forms all fell still, and those with an area designated as a face all turned to look sheepishly at Snatcher.
"Must we go through this EVERY time?" Snatcher sighed. "Truly, MUST we?"
"I, uh…heheh…" Demyx dismissed the sitar. "I bet you want me to clean this all up, don't you?"
Snatcher was on the verge of demanding exactly that. Thinking over the Corona mission and the truce in place, however, he merely waved his hand to shoo Demyx away. "Go run off."
"Wait, really?" Demyx's face lit up.
"We both know I'm the one who'll end up tidying this mess," Snatcher sighed. "No use tiptoeing around it."
"You know what?" Demyx said. "You're not a bad guy. Well, you know, we're ALL bad guys around here, but you're not – "
"Dispense with it and make yourself scarce before I change my mind," Snatcher grunted.
Demyx dissolved the water forms with a chord; they all hit the ground in a giant splash that doused Snatcher. Demyx took off running; Snatcher trudged out into the hallway to find a mop.
He found it in Demyx's hand; the musician offered it to him while holding another and kicking a wheeled bucket along with his foot.
"I'm quite obviously still in bed" was Snatcher's response. "You only offer to clean up your messes in my wildest dreams."
"You dream about me?" Demyx teased.
"No," Snatcher said coldly.
"Well, I did make the mess, so it's only fair," Demyx stated. "Besides, if you're gonna be nice enough to let me get off easy, maybe I should be nice back."
Snatcher grasped the mop, taking it as a peace offering.
Within moments, the pair was mopping up the floor inside the karaoke room, wringing out their implements over the bucket.
"Can't you simply dry out the floor with your powers?" Snatcher asked.
"I mean, I could try," Demyx said, really giving the matter some thought, "but there's a small chance I could end up just splashing MORE water around."
"A chance I'm willing to take."
Demyx lay the mop against the wall, bringing out the sitar. He plucked a few low notes on it that Snatcher could almost swear he recognized. A stream of water rose up from the floor and funneled itself into the bucket.
Snatcher realized where he'd heard those notes before when Demyx sang a few soft words under his breath. It was a song he'd been introduced to by Roman. While Roman had found the tune mediocre, Snatcher had been rather fond of that style of music. The song was perhaps a bit sentimental for the tastes of the current audience – a treatise about the duress life put on everyone in the worlds, and how the only way to solve it was through friendship and love. As little as the message applied to Snatcher, he still considered the song – a duet – a veritable artwork of composition.
"I'm familiar with that tune," he said, at which point Demyx seized up; he hadn't even been aware he'd been singing.
"You're gonna tell me not to sing on the job, aren't you?" Demyx moaned.
"Whyever would I do such a thing?" Snatcher told him. "After all, you and I are both musically inclined. And it is a pleasant tune."
"You like it?" Demyx asked, surprised. "I didn't think you'd be into that kind of thing. I thought you'd be into more…accordions and string quartets."
"Torchwick has taken it upon himself to open doors to me, musically speaking," Snatcher explained, "and I must say I'm all the better off for it. Though you do realize you were singing the lower part of the duet. I would've thought your voice better suited for the other."
"I like that guy's part better," Demyx explained. "I like that guy's stuff better in general. The other guy's just okay."
"JUST okay?" Snatcher repeated; he'd sought out more of the discography after hearing the selections Roman had turned up. "He is ultimately the more masterful musician!"
"Yeah, says you."
"I'd be FAR more inclined to sing his half."
"You?" Demyx said in disbelief. "You have, like, a bass. You couldn't handle it."
"Have you already forgotten that I have spent much time singing in a female guise, with an appropriately matching voice that I must boast is unaltered by magic?" Snatcher reminded him. "I've a range you aren't even aware of."
"All right, NOW you made me curious."
As the Huntsman proceeded down the hallway past the shut door to the karaoke room but a few moments later, he was alerted to the muffled sound of singing: two voices. It was speculation of the owners of exactly those two voices that made him halt in his tracks. He knew a truce had been struck, but it couldn't have gone that well.
He pried open the door to see Snatcher and Demyx singing their hearts out, perfectly replicating the chosen song from memory as Demyx plucked out the backup on the sitar. They stood back-to-back, belting the harmonious duet; Snatcher had employed his mop as a makeshift microphone.
It was only when they had finished that Demyx noticed the Huntsman and let out a high squeak. Snatcher, now noticing the Huntsman himself, cleared his throat somewhat sheepishly, wondering how best to regain his dignity.
"I don't suppose I've interrupted," the Huntsman said flatly, still not quite certain he'd seen what he thought he had seen. Then, supposing it only the right thing to say, he went on: "You both sang quite well."
"Thanks!" Demyx chirped.
"Had you wanted something?" Snatcher asked.
"Only to confirm I had heard what I thought I heard," the Huntsman admitted. "I have no further business here."
As the Huntsman turned to depart, Snatcher called after him, "You weren't on your way to make peace with the others, I suppose?"
"As a matter of fact…" The Huntsman faced Snatcher and Demyx once more. "I don't suppose I need to speak to you further on the matter."
"Of course not," Snatcher told him with a proud grin. "After all, I was aiming for this outcome."
"You were frustratingly correct," the Huntsman sighed.
"As I am ever," Snatcher told him. "Welcome to the fold once more. I must warn you, however, the others will be much more difficult to persuade."
"This is when you suggest to me the exact strategy I should use to approach them, is it not?" the Huntsman guessed.
"Separately, for sure," Snatcher said with a nod. "Beyond that I can give you nothing more than my blessing. Though I would, er, be most delicate around Torchwick. Not to speak ill of him, but he does have a good bit of fire in him, and when he's angered…"
"I shall keep it in mind," the Huntsman said as he departed.
"Do I wanna know what that was about?" Demyx asked.
"Never you mind," Snatcher told him. "The only takeaway you need from the matter is that I always know what I'm doing."
Demyx knew better than to poke that hornet's nest. He simply began to play more water into the bucket, without singing along this time.
...
"HEY, EVERYONE!" Sora yelled as he burst through the entry hall of the Radiant Garden castle. "WE'RE BACK!"
He'd caught Riku and Ren having a conversation near the fountain, Kairi chatting with Moana on the base of the stairs, and Cid and Merlin bickering about a new topic as they exited the door to the lifts. All six looked to Sora's group.
"Long time, no see," Riku said with a smile.
Sora trotted right up to him and flashed him an even bigger grin. "Did you miss me?"
"What do you think?"
They exchanged a quick kiss.
Ruby, Papyrus, Stork, Jasmine, Katara, Kazuichi, Rapunzel, and Eugene had already filtered into the atrium behind Sora. "This…is NOTHING like the Corona castle," Rapunzel said in awe.
"Pretty nice digs," Eugene said with a nod.
"Hey, everyone!" Kairi stood and waved to the group; Moana and Ren gave warm expressions as well.
"I see you failed to carry out your mission," Merlin observed, descending the stairway.
"Yeah," Cid added, pointing directly at Kazuichi. "The fuck's he still doin' here?"
"HEY!" Kazuichi spat.
"And who're YOU two?" Cid looked over Rapunzel and Eugene with suspicion.
"Well, we kiiiiinda need to talk about that," Sora began.
"Heeeere we go," Stork muttered.
Papyrus took a step out front, looking Cid directly in the eye. "NOW, YOU LISTEN HERE!" he insisted. "FIRST THINGS FIRST, KAZUICHI HAS A LOT OF FRIENDS TO SAVE AND NO WAY TO DO THAT ON HIS HOMEWORLD! SO WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, HE STAYS WITH US! SECOND THINGS SECOND, RAPUNZEL IS THE SUNDROP MOZENRATH WAS CHASING. I AM AWARE THAT SEEMS CONFUSING, BUT THEN AGAIN, GIVEN WHAT HAPPENS TO US ON A DAILY BASIS, I CAN'T REALLY BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD BE SURPRISED BY ANYTHING ANYMORE. IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE MOZENRATH NEVER GETS HIS HANDS ON HER, SHE IS TRAVELING WITH US. THIRD THINGS THIRD, EUGENE IS RAPUNZEL'S TRUE LOVE, AND THEY REFUSE TO BE SEPARATED. THEREFORE, BOTH OF THEM STAY WITH US AS WELL! NOW, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO SAY! THAT WE CAN'T TRUST THEM! THAT THEY CAN'T STAY HERE! WELL, IF THEY GO, THEN WE GO TOO! OR AT LEAST SOME OF US WILL GO. OR AT LEAST I WILL GO. BUT IF THEY GO, THEN I GO! AND THAT IS FINAL! BESIDES, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED! TURNING PEOPLE AWAY BECAUSE OF ONE BAD EXPERIENCE! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"
"We got no problem with 'em stayin'," Cid responded. "We just wanna know why the fuck Kazuichi is back and who the fuck these other two are."
"That's just what I thought you'd say!" Sora cried. "I can't believe you…you…don't have a problem with it?" Sora realized what he'd heard was not at all what he had expected to hear.
"Not anymore, my boy," Merlin stated. "Certain circumstances have forced us to re-evaluate our policy. The castle is now home to many refugees. The problem I fear your friends will face is sleeping arrangements. If I've counted correctly, we have two bedrooms remaining. Not enough to shelter all three."
"That shouldn't be a problem," Ruby said with a shrug. "Rapunzel and Eugene probably share a bed already."
That prompted a blush from both of the addressed. "Actually…um…" Rapunzel sputtered, "we…we don't quite…we're not there yet."
"Not even just…sleeping?" Ruby asked.
"We're taking it slow," Eugene explained.
"Which I know isn't how things worked with your girlfriends in the past…" Rapunzel muttered, thinking of one certain Stalyan.
"Blondie," Eugene said sincerely, "I can't say this enough times: they don't matter. Whatever makes you comfortable is good with me."
Rapunzel still felt sheepish about the whole situation. While she didn't doubt that Eugene spoke the truth, she still wasn't at the point where she could even imagine sharing a bed with him. She didn't know what it would take to change that, and she was afraid to voice that concern in its entirety. While her common sense told her Eugene would still understand – what about her had he not understood to date? – the part of her that spawned fears was less certain.
"Kazuichi volunteers to give up his bedroom in three…" Stork muttered. "Two…"
"I can hear you," Kazuichi whispered back, "and I would, but I really need that room."
"Why do you need a room?" Stork hissed. "You haven't even really lived here yet!"
"I just…need a room, okay?" Kazuichi hissed back.
"I can sleep anywhere else," Rapunzel volunteered. "On a couch or – "
"No, I'LL sleep anywhere else," Eugene said. "Believe me, growing up, I have had to make do with some pretty awful beds. Anything above the caliber of a rock works for me."
"You should take the bed!" Rapunzel urged.
"No, no," Eugene said, putting his hands up, "it's all yours."
"Technically," Merlin pointed out, "if both of you were willing to sleep in one of the lounges, that would free up the space in case it is needed later."
"Let's do that," Rapunzel settled.
"We got plenty with more than two couches," Cid asserted. "We'll find y'all some blankets and better pillows."
"Waaaaiiiit a minute," Sora said as he came to a realization. "What happened to bring all those refugees into the castle?"
"Oh, dear," Merlin sighed. "You don't know."
"Things kind of got…" Moana searched for the word.
"Abominable," Ren filled in.
"We really need to trade stories again," Riku said with a nod.
"To the library?" Sora suggested.
"To the library," Riku agreed.
...
Roman tensed up as Hans entered the communal kitchen where he was crunching down on a toasted bagel. He half wondered if the truce they'd come up with had been superficial; was Hans all sweet-talk only to pull out more insults when no one else was watching?
"Good afternoon," Hans began, looking Roman up and down. "Did you…" He observed the slight dishevelment of Roman's hair, the way his visible eye was grasping for focus, the mug of coffee steaming before him. "Did you just get up?"
"Yeah," Roman replied. "So?"
"It's…" Hans tried to calculate exactly what time it was and came up with only a vague idea. "Afternoon."
"SO?"
Hans shrugged. "So nothing. It's just that I'm getting lunch and you're still on breakfast. I know, I know; 'So?'"
Roman took another bite out of his bagel.
Hans fixed himself a sandwich. It took him until the time Roman was finished with the bagel; he considered himself somewhat of a sandwich artist. Have Anna finish one of his masterpieces, with delicately layered vegetables and condiments in perfect ratios to one another? Perish the thought.
Roman was still working on his coffee and continued to drink as Hans chowed down. "Look," he said, "I get that you're probably still sore at me."
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Roman said snarkily.
"If you still don't trust me, that's fine," Hans told him. "Personally, I'd like to put the past in the past and get to know you better. For real. But if that's not in the cards, I'll live."
Roman took a long and thoughtful sip of his coffee. "I'll give you another shot," he decided. "Fuck up again and I won't think twice about ruining your pretty face."
"Deal."
Hans ate, Roman drank, and both were silent. "So, by the way," Hans said offhandedly, "Mozenrath told me about what Mr. Snatcher said at your group conference. Apparently that was a big thing for him."
"Yeah," Roman said tentatively, not sure where Hans was going with this. If it ended in another jab at Snatcher, Hans could expect a Cudgel barrel to his chest.
"I'm happy for him," Hans went on. "Really. And it has to be a relief for you not to worry about him having those attacks in public anymore."
That had ended in a way that left Roman satisfied. "You have NO idea," he sighed. He was now feeling much more awake thanks to the caffeine. "Not to mention how happy Neo was when I texted her the news."
"Why does Neo care?" Hans asked.
"Because Neo is a connoisseur of all things ice cream and froyo," Roman explained. "I already caught her red-handed keeping a secret stash. Now that we know Archie isn't going to try to prove a point with it, she can have it out in the open."
"So can you, now," Hans pointed out.
Roman shook his head. "If you think I can put anything dairy in my mouth, you SEVERELY underestimate how much Archie's tongue sees the inside of it. I have to stay off all of it."
"How much of an ice cream person were you?" Hans asked.
"Almost as bad as Neo," Roman answered with a wistful sigh. "Don't forget froyo. Oh, and pumpkin spice. Did you know there is literally no way to make pumpkin spice anything without dairy? That was my favorite flavor."
Hans made a "yeesh" sort of face. "And you're okay with this."
"Sacrifices have to be made, Sideburns."
Hans nodded. "You must love him."
"Will you people stop dropping the L-word?" Roman groaned. "It's not that big of a deal. We're not tied up like that. We are partners in crime. That is as far as it goes."
"So giving up your favorite food is just a thing partners in crime do for each other," Hans said with a sly smirk.
"As a matter of fact, it is," Roman confirmed. "You'd do the same thing for Righty, right?"
"I hadn't thought about it," Hans admitted. "Obviously, he's never put me in that position. But you know what? I think I would. He's worth it."
Roman tilted the last drops of coffee into his mouth as Hans polished off his sandwich. "Well," Roman said as he straightened up, "time for the morning workout."
"It is still very much not morning," Hans pointed out.
"Whatever," Roman sighed.
As Roman made for the door, he found Hans by his side. "You don't mind if I join you, do you?" he asked.
"You know what?" Roman replied. "You've been on good behavior. Why the hell not? Just keep the wisecracks to a minimum. I'm not saying NO wisecracks. I'm just saying a minimum."
"I think I can manage that," Hans told him.
"Also, we'll need to pick you up a weapon," Roman informed him. "I aim for targets."
"I'm sure there's a spare sword lying around I can make do with," Hans replied.
"Are you really sure you should keep betting on the sword thing?" Roman said cheekily. "Because that hasn't seemed to work out for you. Ever."
"Your weapon didn't do any better against the key kid."
"Fair. That's one of your permitted wisecracks. Use the rest intelligently."
Roman found himself in surprisingly good spirits as he and Hans made their way to the downstairs training grounds.
...
Cid Highwind had banished Goofy from the Gummi garage. It was the best move in order to preserve his inventory and his sanity. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy had taken off for a brief excursion to check in at Disney Castle anyhow; they needed to ensure the claymores had been deactivated while delivering the message to Queen Minnie and the rest of the court that they were to be absent for some time.
It wasn't as though Cid couldn't use a hand. He had a suspicion that with all the comings and goings of the castle contingent (he didn't know how else to refer to them in his mind despite the fact that the castle was currently full of people who didn't embark on such heroics), more Gummi ships would be needed to ferry them about, and those ships would need to be kept in tip-top shape. However, if anyone was going to assist Cid in building and maintaining more vehicles, it wouldn't be Goofy. He didn't really know who he would trust with the task. No one currently residing in the castle stood out to him all that much as being able to handle his workload.
A workload that was disrupted momentarily when the door to the garage opened. Cid disembarked from the ship he was tuning up to recognize one Kazuichi Soda entering his grounds. While he was no longer opposed to Kazuichi staying in the Radiant Garden castle or adventuring with Sora, he still bristled at the thought of blindly trusting him.
"What're you doin' in here?" Cid asked curtly.
"Relax, old man," Kazuichi replied.
"Don't you go callin' me 'old man'!" Cid barked.
"Whoa, sorry!" Kazuichi put up both hands. "I come in peace, okay? I just wanna work on some things, and I heard you had the best space for it."
"What kind of things?" Cid asked, a brow raised.
"If I'm gonna be getting into all these fights and going on adventures," Kazuichi explained, "I need a weapon. Though actually, I was thinking something more like armor. I have this concept in my head of becoming a human rocket ship…anyway, I just need some scrap metal, a few tools, and a worktable. Nothing huge. I'll stay in my corner and I won't fucking bother you. I know you hate me anyway, but could you at least spot me enough space to get my work done?"
There was something almost admirable about Kazuichi's spirit. That coupled with his liberal use of profanity gave Cid a strong sense of familiarity. Oh no, he thought, the last thing I need is to see myself in a perfect stranger I can't trust. "I got some scrap you can use," he sniffed. "It ain't exactly metal, but it's all ya get. And only because I can do fuck all with it anymore. You can take it to the table in the back and do whatever with it. Stay there like you said, and I won't give you a hard time."
"Good," Kazuichi replied sternly. He considered thanking Cid, but the tension between the two of them was far too thick for gratitude to penetrate.
As Kazuichi began to limp toward his assigned area, Cid called after him, "And for the record, I don't hate ya. I just don't TRUST ya."
"Yeah, well, feeling's mutual."
Cid didn't much like how that made him smile. Kazuichi may have been meek in certain situations and easily frightened in the heat of danger, but he had a very stern core.
Kazuichi located the scrap pile of Gummi material easily and set to work with it immediately. Cid returned to his adjustments of the ship in the garage, and neither made contact with the other. Cid did, however, glance Kazuichi's way every now and again to see his progress. In a short time, Kazuichi had welded together a few interesting contraptions. Cid could see one of them taking shape as a suit of armor. He watched Kazuichi retrieve a non-functioning blaster from the pile of Gummi, take it apart, learn by observation what parts connected to make it activate. He was taken aback when in a few minutes, Kazuichi had the blaster firing again; Cid had given it up for dead.
The door opened again and Ruby Rose darted into the garage. "Hi, Cid!" she greeted, waving excitedly.
"Hi," Cid replied tersely.
She sped right past him, pulling up to Kazuichi's worktable. "Soooooo," she asked, "how's my buddy doing with his projects?"
"It's actually coming along pretty good," Kazuichi told her. He gestured to several of the plates, all of which were constructed from sliced-thin Gummi that maintained a consistent pink color scheme to match his hair. "This stuff is tough. I like that. I actually needed to burn through it to get it this thin. Which is good, because I wanted something that would stand up to most weapons. I still have to figure out how the jetpack's gonna work, and I have to fuse the blasters to the shoulders. I was going for a 'human rocket ship' kind of idea, but it's turning more into a 'human Gummi ship' thing."
"You need any help putting it together?" Ruby asked. "I did forge Crescent Rose completely from scratch, you know."
"Yeah, I could use a hand!" Kazuichi agreed with a nod.
"All right!" Ruby looked over the spread-out plates on the table. Then her eyes gravitated to the table's edge, where an object that didn't quite fit in stood out to her eye. A piecing together of long rods, it was copper-colored rather than pink, with a long, flat pad at one end and leather straps at the other. "What part of the armor is THAT supposed to be?" Ruby asked.
"That?" Kazuichi grew nervous. "Th-that's not anything! It's a back scratcher. Yeah, that's what it is! It doesn't go with the armor."
Ruby found his denial suspicious, but didn't press the subject. Cid considered breaking in and asking – after all, he had been listening in from the moment the two had begun to speak – but he'd seen the object in question, and there was no way it could be a weapon. That was really all he cared about.
"So what happens next?" Ruby asked.
"Well, fixing the blaster shoulder pads," Kazuichi suggested.
"On it!"
Cid now had the chatter of both of them as background noise to his work, and he actually welcomed the sound. They got along well, and their cheer when together was somewhat infectious.
If nothing else, Cid had to admit Kazuichi really was deserving of the Ultimate Mechanic title. He had to respect that.
...
Sora, Papyrus, Stork, Jasmine, Katara, and Rapunzel gathered in the atrium of the castle to see Ruby approaching from the entry hall, Crescent Rose strapped to hr back in its case.
"Attention!" Ruby announced. "I now present…the new and improved Kazuichi Soda, ready for battle!"
There was the light sound of clanking as Kazuichi entered the room on command. He was completely encased in pink Gummi worked into a slick protective shell, including a helmet that shielded his face with a visor made of the sort of tough glass used to make Gummi ship dash windows.
"Well?" Kazuichi asked. "Am I a genius or what?"
"You look AWESOME!" Sora cried.
"That's FANTASTIC!" Rapunzel added.
If it had gotten the Rapunzel seal of approval, Kazuichi thought, he'd done a good job.
"What EXACTLY is that suit made of?" Stork asked.
"Well, I was going to pick up the scrap metal Cid wasn't using," Kazuichi explained, "but he doesn't actually use metal, so I had to use Gummi."
"A material known for warping through interspace," Stork clarified. "I'm sure that won't have any negative ramifications or unexpected side effects."
"It doesn't just teleport at random!" Kazuichi argued. Then: "…Does it?"
Sora shook his head; "Nope."
"Okay, then we're good!" Kazuichi gave the crowd a thumbs-up. "So. Wanna see what this baby can do?"
"It's not just protective?" Katara asked.
"I wanted to actually be able to fight alongside you guys!" Kazuichi insisted. "Not just take a beating! Though, SPEAKING of which…Ruby, will you please ready the demonstration?"
Ruby had Crescent Rose expanded to full bloom quicker than a wink. "Ready!"
"Ruby Rose," Kazuichi commanded as he spread his arms out wide, "please try and cut me in half!"
"WHAT?" Rapunzel shrieked. "NO!"
"Don't worry," Jasmine told her. "He knows what he's doing."
"Famous last words," Stork muttered.
Ruby swung Crescent Rose in a grand arc from behind Kazuichi; when its blade hit his armored waist, it stopped with a CLUNK, only causing Kazuichi to stumble slightly. "See?" he boasted. "I'm invincible!"
"And to think the first time we tried this test," Ruby remarked, "I was only eighty percent sure the armor would even stop it!"
"…You what?" Kazuichi said weakly.
"Just show them the other stuff," Ruby said quickly, packing up Crescent Rose.
"All right!" Kazuichi said in a rebound of cheer. "So my goal was to become a human Gummi ship, because Gummi ships are cool! Well, actually, it was supposed to be a rocket ship, but everything's Gummi around here, so I went with it. Anyway, check this out!"
A pair of aerodynamic wings expanded from an installment on Kazuichi's back. A thruster fired up from beneath the pack, and Kazuichi was soon levitating several feet off the ground. "Gravity don't mean too much to me!" he said proudly.
Once his feet had touched back down on the ground, he stated that "You haven't even seen the REAL fireworks!" At his command, a rounded blaster rose up over each shoulder; the blasters ignited, glowing threateningly.
"DO NOT FIRE THOSE INSIDE THE CASTLE," Stork said firmly and hurriedly.
"I'm not gonna!" Kazuichi groaned. "But these babies are fully operational! I can zap enemies from a mile off! Or several feet, anyway. But I know how you all feel about killing people, so they're low-heat. It's basically just an energy beam that pushes people around. Should still come in handy!"
Rapunzel started clapping, and that got the other five in the audience to join in.
"There's just, uh, one problem," Kazuichi said sheepishly. "I'm gonna have to wear this thing everywhere we go in case there's a fight. It's not uncomfortable or anything, but I didn't really design it to be casual wear."
"I can help with that," a new voice broke in.
Merlin descended the stairway, having exited the library. "I've got a little trick that just might suit you," he explained. "Keybearers of old often had to retrieve their armor at a moment's notice, either for battle or for travel through interspace. While your armor is a disappointing shadow of true Keybearer armor – "
"Heeeeeyyyyyy," Kazuichi moaned.
"The trick will still be applicable," Merlin stated. "It's a minor enchantment, really." He stepped up close to Kazuichi, drawing his wand. "Now, let us see…"
He tapped Kazuichi's shoulder twice. Then the armor vanished in a shower of sparks.
"Now, now, don't panic," Merlin said as he observed the expression on Kazuichi's face. "If I may draw your attention to your right arm…"
Kazuichi's upper arm bore a single pink plate of Gummi armor.
"Simply give that plate a tap," Merlin commanded.
Confused, Kazuichi reached across with his left hand and gently tapped the plate twice with his index finger.
In a rush of light, he was once again armored.
"And the same spot again to dispel it," Merlin explained.
A couple more curious taps and the armor was gone once more, reduced to the single plate.
"Ohhhhhh, that's awesome!" Kazuichi cried. "Thanks, man! I thought you didn't like me either, though."
"Strong words," Merlin replied. "I suppose you've earned your trust with this crowd at this point. Now, Sora I might see making a lapse in judgment, but not all of the others."
"Hey!" Sora barked.
"Only because you look for the best in people," Merlin clarified. "Believe me, it isn't a bad thing. Anyhow, Kazuichi, if they trust you, I have all the more reason to. Besides…" His voice got low. "I've heard Cid Highwind isn't too fond of your presence, and that's all the more reason to make sure you stay around."
"Hey, Merlin," Sora broke in, "you said that trick was used on Keybearer armor. Is that something Riku, Kairi, Lea, and I could learn? Could we get armor? Real Keybearer armor?"
"I suppose that is up to Master Yen Sid," Merlin mused. "He is, after all, in charge of your training."
"We haven't had time to check in with him in a while," Sora lamented.
"I suppose you could do what Kazuichi has done and forge your own armor," Merlin rambled, "and believe me, I would be happy to enchant it for you, but the results would pale in comparison to what a true master would equip you with. I would advise you not to forget completely about your training with him."
"Of course not!" Sora emphasized. "We just need a breather."
"I wouldn't mind seeing him again myself," Merlin mused, "but with the city in the state it is, I can hardly entertain leaving. Perhaps I should invite him to stop by. He does spend altogether too much time in that stuffy tower of his."
"It'd be good to see him again," Sora agreed.
"I suppose your next order of business is pursuing Mozenrath once more," Merlin guessed.
"We finally stopped him from getting what he wanted this time," Sora emphasized. "I think we're getting the upper hand! Wherever he goes next, we'll be ready!"
...
Scarlet hoped fervently that the bad blood between Hans, Demyx, Snatcher, and Roman well and truly had been settled. When the four of them arrived in the karaoke room for the improv troupe's next session, they seemed to be in good spirits, exchanging greetings with each other. That put Scarlet at ease.
Herb and Irmaplotz arrived soon after. Then, before Scarlet could call the meeting to order, one more person arrived and made her way to the folding chairs set up before the stage.
"Improvisational theater, is it?" Gothel asked.
"You're interested?" Scarlet replied.
"I consider myself a theatrical sort," Gothel replied. "And I spent eighteen years improvising a charade of being a loving mother. So I'd say I'm interested."
"One question," Scarlet said. "Who are you?"
"My name is Gothel, dear," Gothel replied with a toss of her black locks. "Back from the dead with a vengeance. They brought me from Corona."
"She came with us," Hans explained.
"And she's pretty cool," Roman said with a nod.
"I'm sure glad you joined up," Demyx chirped.
Snatcher hesitated to say anything. He thought back to the way she'd taken his arm. Then he shrugged it off. It had only been momentarily. "Miss Gothel is quite the actress. She put on quite a convincing show for our target. We very nearly had the girl in our clutches."
"Well, then, welcome aboard!" Scarlet greeted. "Always good to have another drama queen in the ranks."
"Well, thank you," Gothel replied coyly.
Once Gothel was seated, Scarlet got onstage to announce the first game. "So you'll all notice the pens and paper under your chairs," she explained. "We're going to play Pockets. We'll have two actors up onstage, and they'll have to make a coherent scene while occasionally reading off slips of paper they draw from their pockets. Their job is to play it all off as part of the scene and not break character. Everyone's job right now is to make slips of paper that say various phrases you think would be entertaining to see our actors say. So go crazy!"
Pens scratched on paper, which was then torn up into slips.
"Now, let's see," Scarlet mused. "Gothel, why don't you take the first round in order to welcome you onto the team?"
Gothel rose from her seat. "I'd be honored," she said with a smile.
"And for our second player, how about…" Scarlet's gaze wandered. "Archibald Snatcher. Why not?"
"Why not indeed?" Snatcher said as he rose.
Slips of paper were passed forward, and Gothel and Snatcher filled their pockets with them. Scarlet stepped down from the stage in order to let them make their way on.
"Good afternoon, Miss Gothel," Snatcher said with a bow, beginning the scene.
"And a good afternoon to you as well, Mr. Snatcher," Gothel responded with a curtsy.
"Fine day, isn't it?" Snatcher said as he unfurled the first scrap of paper from his pocket. "After all…" He read directly off it: "What can't you do with a potato?"
That earned him some snickers from the crowd. "Well, what can't you?" he went on, staying in character. "Potatoes have quite the range of uses, after all."
Gothel nodded. "Mashing, baking, soups…you haven't lived until you've had a good bowl of creamy potato soup."
"And I suppose that recipe is in your repertoire?"
"Of course it is," Gothel replied. "After all…" She drew her first slip. "I'm a roof." She blinked, not exactly sure what she'd read.
"I wrote 'fool'!" Demyx whispered to Hans in exasperation.
His handwriting, however, had not conveyed the sentiment. "An absolute and utter roof," Gothel continued. "You might as well find me atop a castle tower."
"What a peculiar euphemism," Snatcher remarked. "I suppose roofs make excellent soup."
"Of course," Gothel agreed. "Only the very best chefs can earn the title of 'roof.'"
"About that." Snatcher drew the next slip. "That's not nearly as fine as lemon-lime in the summertime, if you feel me, brother."
He nearly lost his composure at that one; the crowd was already giggling hearing such slang coming from his usually eloquent mouth.
"Well!" Gothel acted offended. "The nerve! You know what I have to say to you, Mr. Snatcher? If you're going to treat me like that, then…" She drew the next slip, reading it over and not feeling as though she could stoop to using such blue language as was contained in it. "Frickeldy-frack you. I'm drunk and I redecorated."
"That did NOT say 'frickeldy-frack'!" Roman yelled in exasperation.
"Miss Gothel!" Snatcher acted even more offended than she had. "What have you DONE to the place? You've turned it right upside-down, you have! And painting the walls? You couldn't even select complementary colors, could you? This is what I get for doubting your abilities as a soup-making roof?"
"I told you I was drunk!" Gothel insisted. "That should excuse any coordination mistakes I made!"
"Well," Snatcher said as he tersely whipped the next slip out of his pocket and read it over. "You can stick that in your apple cider and call me Whitney."
Now who had written that one? It didn't make a lick of sense. By now, the audience was in stitches.
"If you insist, Whitney," Gothel replied. "But I have just one thing to say, and I hope you pay attention."
"This had better be good," Snatcher grunted.
She withdrew the next paper. Demyx had written this one, and his handwriting had made it largely unintelligible. She could pick out an "and" in the middle of it and not much else. Still, she pretended she had clearly read something off the slip.
Meeting Snatcher's eyes directly, she stated, "I want you. And I always get what I want."
Snatcher blinked, taken aback. "Well, then," he said coolly, "the challenge is on." After all, it was only acting.
Everyone in the audience was left wondering who had written her that particular line of dialogue.
"Aaaand SCENE!" Scarlet declared. "Okay, I don't know how we're gonna top that one. But Demyx and Irmaplotz, you get your chance to try!"
...
Stork had barely been asleep a couple hours before he awoke screaming from a nightmare.
It was, of course, business as usual for him. Tonight's mental theater had been particularly graphic, with extra blood, more spiders than usual, and not only a bog that Stork had sunk into waist-deep to be unable to run from danger but a serpentlike creature that had been able to cut through that bog's water just fine and wrap its tail around Stork's legs. The serpent's fangs had been the last thing Stork had seen before he had mercifully awoken.
He hoped his screams hadn't disturbed his neighbors. Sitting up in bed, he first clutched his drawn-up knees, then the pillow that he brought around to be able to squeeze. His heart was racing and threatening nausea. Getting back to sleep was out of the question for a while.
Sitting around on his bed in the dark room was going to do him no good in the department of calming down. What Stork needed, he knew, was to get up and move. It took incredible force of will all the same to unfreeze his feet and get them situated on the floor.
It wasn't the first night he'd roamed the hallways of the Radiant Garden castle due to nightmares, insomnia, or a combination of both. He had simply learned to be quiet and sneak about so he wasn't seen or heard. He crept past the rows of doors leading to the bedchambers in that wing, mentally spinning a roulette wheel of locations in the castle where he could loiter for a while. The closed doors all guarded the passageways to the domains of those who were asleep, which, at that time of night, Stork figured was everyone else in the castle.
But that night, as he turned the corner of the hallway, something happened that hadn't happened since the night he was kept awake in the Agrabanian palace: he found another person awake. He literally ran into her, in fact.
As he gave a soft yell and leapt back, Rapunzel skittered backward several steps, whispering, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
That had given Stork's heart an unneeded jolt. Rapunzel could read the expression of terror clearly on his face, and it sent her into a higher gear of apology: "I really didn't mean to scare you. I just couldn't sleep. I don't know if it's because of a time difference here or just because I'm nervous about being in this new world or because I'm EXCITED about being in this new world or both, but I really didn't think anyone else was awake, and I am sooooooo sorry I scared you – "
"It's fine," Stork choked out.
"You don't look fine," Rapunzel told him.
He put up his hands in what he knew could have been interpreted as a Wallopian invitation for combat, but he meant as a calming gesture; "No, no. This is how I am a lot of nights."
"Really?" Rapunzel replied, now quite concerned. "You mean…scared?"
"Well, 'scared' accurately describes how I am most of the time, really," Stork clarified. "Nighttime just brings out the stronger terrors."
Now Rapunzel was very concerned for him, and he could tell. "I wouldn't worry too much about it," he emphasized. "It's normal. There's really nothing you can do that would really change that. You just do your thing and I'll deal with mine."
"Well…I'm still sorry," Rapunzel said softly.
After a pause, Stork gave her an even softer "Thank you."
"So…are you going to be able to get back to sleep?" Rapunzel asked.
"Probably not for another three to five hours," Stork admitted. "Even then, I probably won't hit rapid eye movement until everyone else is starting to wake up, and then, well, everyone else is awake, so I might as well be awake too. Less nightmares that way."
"Then when do you get your sleep?" Rapunzel asked.
"I manage."
"Well…" Rapunzel gave a light shrug. "You can't sleep. I can't sleep. Wanna hang out for a bit?"
Even though she was a recent addition to the team, Stork felt at ease around Rapunzel. Her chipper demeanor and her bravery had torn down his speculations about her secretly being evil. Perhaps, he thought, that would come back to bite him, but he figured it was all right to risk it. "Eh, why not?"
She let him pick the direction and fell into step beside him. "Thank you for what you said to me back in Vardaros, by the way," she said earnestly. "About how you have to move on despite being scared. I think I'm finally starting to get the picture about what that means for you."
"Like I said, it's normal," Stork reassured her. "I've been toying with the idea of seeing a doctor here in Radiant Garden about it. Seeing if they can take some of the edge off. But, thanks to my fear of doctors, I keep putting it off. It'll happen eventually."
"I know you'll make your way," Rapunzel said softly, giving Stork a smile. "You're already incredibly brave."
"You're brave too," Stork replied. "Coming here and dealing with all of this. I wish I could say this Mozenrath stuff gets less complicated the more you learn about it, but if wishes were spiders, this castle would be covered in webbing."
"Creative metaphor," Rapunzel complimented.
"And that's not even getting into the problem of the evil fairy who lives on the other side of town and regularly assembles our worst enemies to try and destroy us," Stork went on.
"There's a fairy?" Rapunzel repeated. "This whole thing is like a story out of a book."
"The point is," Stork told her, "you've been taking everything extremely well."
"It's not that I'm not scared," Rapunzel clarified. "I mean, here I am awake at this time of night. But that's kind of been the story of my life. I start out somewhere safe and small, but it's not satisfying. I always feel like I need to learn more about the world – or the worlds, I guess – but that always comes with worrying about what's out there and going to hurt me. I guess living eighteen years with someone who pretends to be your mother and tells you lies about how the outside world will destroy you so that you don't leave a tower will do that to you."
"Eighteen years," Stork repeated in awe.
"Yup," Rapunzel confirmed. "I had a really, REALLY sheltered childhood."
"Well…I'm glad you got out of it," Stork told her.
"Can I ask a personal question?" Rapunzel inquired. "Did…you ever have anything like that? The need to learn about the world outside your home, but fears that kept you back?"
"It was only ten years for me," Stork admitted. "I started out your regular level of neurotic when my home on Terra Merbia was still standing. Then the Cyclonians destroyed it, and the Condor fell. I didn't know how many survivors there would be. I escaped into the wastelands, and that's where I found the Condor, like it was just…waiting for me." He realized she needed a point of reference. "The Condor is an airship. Like a caravan that flies. Anyway, I spent ten years living on that ship. Ten years of only venturing far enough to get food from other parts of the wasteland. Ten years of designing traps to make sure none of the Cyclonians ever came back to finish the job. Ten years of wishing I had the key to start that ship so I could take her flying for real, even though every day, I thought up more things that could go wrong if I did."
"So what happened?" Rapunzel asked.
"I was found," Stork told her. "By a new family. What about you?"
"Eugene," Rapunzel answered. "He kind of ended up in my tower by accident, and there was a big misunderstanding, and the next thing you know, I struck a deal with him to give him back a stolen crown I didn't know was mine if he took me to see the floating lanterns that went up in the sky every year on my birthday. I'm really lucky he came along when he did. And…you're lucky you found a family back on your world."
"I'll be luckier if I can find them again," Stork sighed. "That evil fairy I told you about? Blew up the Condor when they were all taking off out of it. I have confirmation that most of them are alive. Or at least they were when I last checked. There's a distinct possibility they aren't alive anymore. You'd like them, actually. They're a bunch of headstrong, adventurous do-gooders. Real heroes, actually."
"I hope I can meet them someday," Rapunzel said earnestly.
Their walk had taken them downstairs several levels. "Well, if you want to go anywhere, we're on the right level," Stork announced. "This is where things stop being residential and start getting more purpose-driven."
"What is there to see?" Rapunzel asked.
"Well…" Stork had explored the castle so many times at night, he could rattle off locations at a moment's notice. "There's the ballroom, the music room, the art room, the – "
"Music room?" Rapunzel repeated. Then: "ART room?"
"Looks like we have two winners," Stork said with a smile.
"I don't even know which one I want to see first!" Rapunzel said happily.
"Music room's closer," Stork informed her.
They entered a spacious chamber whose walls were lined with musical instruments of all sorts; a shelf acted as a miniature library for books of score and a raised stage took up one end of the room. Rapunzel gasped and headed straight for an acoustic guitar. "I haven't played one of these in forever!" She reached out to touch it, then looked cautiously back at Stork. "You think it's okay?"
"I don't think anyone will mind so long as you don't break anything," Stork told her.
Rapunzel settled herself in a chair, hoisting the guitar up into her lap. Her fingers instinctively found old positions, dancing over the strings to play a little song. "You know," she remarked, "I actually taught myself to play."
"Eighteen years being cooped up alone?" Stork recalled. "I'm not surprised. So, uh…wanna show me what you can do?"
"It's not very fancy," Rapunzel said sheepishly.
"I wanna hear it anyway," Stork told her.
So she played for him: a simple song she had composed during her time in the tower, one of many of the sort. Its tone was cheery and somewhat mellow. The sound threatened the remnants of the nightmare lurking at the corners of Stork's mind, daring it to come back out.
When she finished, Stork gave her a nod. "That was good."
"Thank you," Rapunzel replied. "So…you play anything?"
"Not as good as you do," Stork admitted. "I'm less of a music person and more of a slam poetry type."
"Slam poetry!" Rapunzel's face lit up. "I've heard about that, but I've never actually HEARD a poem performed out loud. I always wanted to try. Can I hear one of yours?"
The suggestion sent Stork's heart beating again. It may have been for an audience of one, but stage fright was still stage fright. He focused in on her encouraging smile, on her eager eyes, on the memory of the song she had played. It was only fair that he perform in exchange for what she had performed. "Well…" he forced around a dry mouth, "give me a beat."
Rapunzel plucked a single string of the guitar rhythmically. "You mean like this?"
Stork nodded. He shut his eyes in order to concentrate. The words came to him as they always did: "Between the dimensions, lost in a void. Terrified. Horrified. Stupefied. Annoyed. Villains on the left and danger on the right. On and on they come at me, with no end in sight!"
He spun a tapestry of his worries and insecurities, all in rhyme, punctuated by the cadence of his voice rising and falling to convey times of more and less stress. He ended it on a surprisingly light note: "But then I wake up, and the nightmares recede! I'm surrounded by friends, and…" His voice cracked; he missed the rhythm of the guitar by a beat. "And that's all I need."
Rapunzel sensed the end of the poem and ceased playing. "Wow," she said in a hushed tone. "That was beautiful. How long ago did you write that?"
"Just now," Stork informed her.
"You IMPROVISED that?"
"Words come easy to me," he said casually.
"I'm glad you shared that with me," Rapunzel said earnestly.
Stork now felt as though he'd opened a door that let her view a part of him he wasn't sure he wanted to share this early on. "So…" He nervously twitched. "Still feeling awake?"
"Pretty much," Rapunzel confirmed.
"We could find something else to do."
Rapunzel set the guitar aside. "I don't know about you," she said, "but I feel like painting. Do you feel like painting?"
"I could give it a shot," Stork answered.
The art room was filled with supplies for any sort of project one could want. Rapunzel was most interested in the great easels that held blank canvases and the tubes filled with vibrant paints of every color. She staked one canvas out as her territory, and Stork did the same with an adjacent canvas; they took up brushes, sharing the paints between them.
After some time, Rapunzel stepped back from her creation and remarked, "There. Done."
Stork curiously stepped over to look at what she'd put on the canvas. It was the Radiant Garden castle's exterior, as best as Rapunzel could dig up the image of from memory. The crooked towers and solid base seemed almost to shine beneath the summer sky she had placed overhead.
"That's pretty good," Stork complimented. "Especially for only seeing it from the outside once."
"If I see something pretty," Rapunzel explained, "I try to remember it so I can paint it later."
"I take it you paint a lot."
"It's one of my favorite things," Rapunzel confessed. "So how's yours coming along?"
"I'm not sure you could really call it 'finished' at any point," Stork informed her, "so you might as well see it now."
He stepped aside to let her view a canvas swathed in black and accented with a twisting tangle of gray, dark green, and brown vinelike tendrils. "It's supposed to represent the turmoil of my soul," he explained, suddenly feeling rather self-conscious about letting her see something so personal.
She was concerned once more; how could she not be? But at the same time, she was impressed. "It has a very striking dark aesthetic!" she observed.
"You mean that in a good way?"
"I mean that in a GREAT way."
After she admired Stork's visual metaphor for a while, she announced, "I am still not tired. If you are, you should head to bed. I think I'm going to be up for a while."
Stork debated saying the truth, which was that he still hadn't quite settled from the nightmares, but he figured he had worried Rapunzel enough. "I'm not tired either," he settled. "What else do you usually do when insomnia hits?"
"Well, I'm not insomniac that often," Rapunzel admitted. "But when I have a lot of time on my hands…another thing I do is bake."
"Well, there is a kitchen."
The kitchen was enormous, with rows of refrigerators, a walk-in pantry, and shining countertops galore. "This is even bigger than the castle kitchen in Corona!" Rapunzel gasped.
So began the quest of fetching bowls and ingredients to make the treats Rapunzel had in mind. "Do you do much baking?" she asked as she arranged flour, sugar, and measuring cups on a counter.
"Not really," Stork admitted. "Not in the dessert sense, anyway. I'm more of a boiled vegetable person. I'm the only person on the squadron who knows how to appreciate a good Merb cabbage."
"So tell me more about that," Rapunzel urged. "I'm just so curious about everything. About your world. Your family, the vegetables that are grown there, everything!"
So, as Rapunzel mixed ingredients together, Stork answered all of the questions she had about Atmos, covering every topic from crystals to the time pulse. There were some concepts she had a hard time wrapping her head around, not being used to the sort of technology found there, but Stork guided her through the mental imagery as best he could. Then, as Rapunzel's newest creation baked inside an oven, Stork turned it around, asking her all he could think about Corona, and she told him about the black rocks, her friends from the Snuggly Duckling tavern, the quirks of the royal guards.
As Rapunzel removed her confection from the oven, filling the kitchen with a warm smell, Stork commented, "You really are some kind of Chosen One."
"Sometimes, I really wish I wasn't," Rapunzel sighed.
"You're doing a better job at it than I ever could," Stork told her.
"I know I look brave," she insisted, "but a lot of times, it's just an act."
"I'm pretty sure I heard once that's what bravery is," Stork mused. "You know, that whole thing about doing things that are scary instead of not being scared. You've done a lot of scary stuff."
"Don't sell yourself short," Rapunzel told him as she set the baking pan atop a pair of trivets. "It sounds like you've done way more heroics than I have. Before this turns into a huge circular argument over who's the braver hero, why don't we just agree we're both doing the best we can, and that's pretty great?"
Stork nodded. "I can get behind that."
Rapunzel found a spatula to begin prying up the small desserts she'd made, transferring them to a plate. "So," she said, changing topics, "want a cookie?"
Stork realized he hadn't even been paying attention to what Rapunzel had made. "What kind of cookie?"
"It's just a basic chocolate chip," Rapunzel answered.
"I'll pass," Stork told her. "Chocolate gives me hives."
"I'm sorry!" Rapunzel was awash with regret. "I should've asked!"
"It's fine," Stork responded. "I wasn't really hungry anyway."
"Next time, I'll make something you can eat," Rapunzel promised. "As for now…" She lifted one cookie to her mouth, taking an energetic bite. After swallowing her mouthful, she looked to the plate of cookies thoughtfully. "It does seem kind of a shame to waste all these cookies. I know I can't eat that many. I probably should have thought this through before making them, shouldn't I?"
"It's the middle of the night," Stork reminded her. "Nobody can be blamed for making irrational decisions around this time. Also, you can just box them up and put them in one of the cabinets for later. Someone'll want them."
"Or…" Rapunzel's eyes lit up. "We could go on a late-night run to our friends' rooms to see if any of them are awake and offer them a cookie!"
"Or that works," Stork resolved. "I can show you where most of them picked out to sleep."
Rapunzel picked up the plate, sliding a few cookies further from the edge so they wouldn't lose any. "Let's go!"
Stork helped her formulate a plan that led from the uppermost rooms to the lower and ended at the lounge where Rapunzel had left Eugene asleep. They began their trek, chatting away all the while. Stork had to admit he'd finally calmed down. Simply being around Rapunzel and talking with her had done wonders for his state of mind. He was awed that one person could be such a positive influence; he had enjoyed every minute of telling her about his world, just as he'd been hooked on hearing about hers.
As for Rapunzel, she still had concerns about Stork's well-being. She desperately hoped he could find more stability in his life. He claimed his neuroses were normal, but she couldn't imagine having to deal with as much constant internal turmoil as he did on a daily basis. Whatever she could do to help him, she resolved, she would do. In the meantime, she had greatly enjoyed his company. He really was a sweet person, and though his creations were dark, he definitely had an artistic soul.
They stopped first at Sora's room, knocking lightly. That was enough to wake him; he opened the door, bleary-eyed, and zeroed in on the plate of cookies. As he did so, his face lit up.
"Just take one," Rapunzel whispered.
Sora swiped a cookie and stuffed it in his mouth eagerly. He gave Stork and Rapunzel a wave as he shut his door.
Ruby was next on the list, opening her door and gasping at the sight of fresh chocolate chip cookies. Though directed to take only one, she tried some sleight of hand to hide one beneath another as she plucked both.
"Hey!" Rapunzel said softly. "We need to have enough to go around!"
Ruby slid the extra cookie back.
Papyrus accepted a cookie gladly. Katara slept through the knock, and so Rapunzel and Stork moved on. Jasmine awoke, but after regarding the plate for a few seconds, she politely said, "No thank you."
"Is something wrong?" Rapunzel asked. "Are you allergic to chocolate too?"
"It isn't that," Jasmine answered. She was reluctant to state her reason; she didn't want to come across as rude or demanding.
"Then what is it?" Rapunzel asked.
Neither did Jasmine want to be a liar. "I would need to know if they're halal," she confessed.
"Oh!" Rapunzel realized. "I've heard of that! I thought that was just about meat!"
"It also covers a lot of things that cause intoxication," Jasmine explained.
"So things like alcohol," Rapunzel clarified. "…Like the alcohol that would have been in the vanilla extract, which I used! Uggghh, I am zero for two!"
"Technically three for five," Stork clarified.
"I'll fix it next time," Rapunzel vowed. "No alcohol and no chocolate."
"It's really fine," Jasmine told her. "This just means there will be more for everyone else."
"Thank you for understanding," Rapunzel said sheepishly. "And…sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Jasmine said with a smile. "It's really all right."
That left Rapunzel and Stork to depart, heading for Kazuichi's room on the lowest level of the residential wing. "By the way," Stork brought up, "you do know Kazuichi has a thing for you, right?"
"I noticed," Rapunzel admitted. "I thought it was kind of cute."
"I thought it was more…creepy."
"Kazuichi is harmless!" Rapunzel insisted. "And I think he understands that I love someone else."
"Thaaaaat didn't stop him when it came to Sonia," Stork sighed.
"If it becomes a problem, I'll talk to him," Rapunzel said as she approached his door. "But right now, I really don't think it's a big deal. I do hope he can find someone who will like him back, though."
She knocked gently on the door to see if there would be a response. She heard it, muffled, from the other side of the door: a plaintive vocalization that resembled a whimper.
"Did you hear that?" Rapunzel whispered.
"Hear what?" Stork asked.
Then it sounded louder.
"Okay, I heard it that time," Stork stated.
"You think he's okay?" Rapunzel asked.
"I'm sure he's just talking in his sleep," Stork told her.
That was when the whimper returned, along with a string of words that were clearly "No…God, no…I can't…"
"Something's wrong," Rapunzel said worriedly, and Stork had to agree that he was getting a very uncomfortable feeling from the whole situation. Rapunzel knocked harder on the door, calling out, "Kazuichi?"
That was the first time he truly heard the knock. "Go away," he moaned from the other side, sounding as though he were speaking through tears.
"Kazuichi, we're worried," Rapunzel insisted.
"I said go away!" He was definitely crying. "Why are you even here?"
"We came with cookies – " Rapunzel attempted.
"Well, I don't want any!" Kazuichi insisted.
"Rapunzel," Stork said slowly, "remember how Kazuichi wouldn't give up his room for you? He said he needed a room for something. This is wrong. Very wrong. The fact that he won't even open the door for YOU is incredibly out of character."
"Kazuichi," Rapunzel said sternly, "we're coming in there."
"NO!" Kazuichi shrieked. "I'm fine! Don't come in here!"
Rapunzel was already trying the doorknob to find the room locked. "Stork," she said, "there has to be another way in. Does anyone around here have an emergency key or – "
"Well, we could break it down," Stork mused.
"It'll have to do." Rapunzel took three paces back, then set the plate of cookies on the floor. "We'll have to hit it at the same time."
Stork took his place next to Rapunzel.
"One," she counted, "two…THREE!"
She and Stork barged at the door, slamming into the wood at the same time. The door didn't exactly break down, but the lock did snap, forcing the door to swing inward into Kazuichi's room.
"DON'T TURN ON THE LIGHT!" Kazuichi screamed.
That was exactly the incentive Stork needed to flip on the light switch.
The scene before Stork and Rapunzel made Stork wonder if he was still having a nightmare. Rapunzel's stomach turned with revulsion.
Kazuichi sat on the floor, dressed only in a white tank and a pair of briefs. Even his brace had been tossed aside, and under normal circumstances, a person would have been able to see where Junko's leg fused with his body, the slight difference in skin tones marking the place where the imported leg connected. That would have been so if it were attached, anyway. But the seam had been split; an enormous, deep gash plunged through the seam where Junko's leg met the rest of Kazuichi's body, halfway up the thigh. Blood fountained from it, almost taking a pink hue in the low light. Kazuichi's right hand clutched a hacksaw; he'd clearly been the one responsible for his injury. Water streamed freely from his eyes, drawn out by all the pain. He'd gotten all the way down to the thigh bone in his attempt, but had to stop once he hit that resistance, the pain becoming too much to bear.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Stork yelled in utter panic.
"I have to get rid of her," Kazuichi sobbed. "She's just holding me back. I can't have her attached to me anymore. I want her gone. But I can't…I can't do it…it hurts too much…"
"Where did you even GET that?" Rapunzel cried.
"I found it downstairs," Kazuichi answered through his tears, knowing she was referring to the saw. "There's all this medical stuff in the labs, and I figured this was for amputations, so I just…borrowed it…I didn't want anybody to know until I was done. I was going to show you all tomorrow when I was finished, but I can't make it…"
"He's gonna bleed out," Stork said weakly.
"Go get help," Rapunzel said firmly. "I'll stay with him. Just get ANYONE."
Stork quickly nodded before taking off down the hallway. He knew exactly which two people he needed to wake up and bring to the scene.
Rapunzel scurried into the room, kneeling down by Kazuichi's left hand. The only way she could deal with being that close to the incision he'd made was if she didn't look directly at it. There was nowhere she could look where there wasn't blood, but what had leaked onto the carpet, she could pretend was just pinkish-red paint. "Put the saw down," she said softly, realizing that in his current state, Kazuichi definitely didn't need to hear any more raised voices.
His right hand trembled as he set the saw on the carpet.
Rapunzel took his left hand into both of her own, clasping it tightly.
"God, it hurts," Kazuichi sobbed. "I knew it would hurt, but not this much…"
"It's okay," Rapunzel whispered into his ear. "We're going to get you help. You'll be okay."
"I just…couldn't…"
Rapunzel didn't know the whole story behind Kazuichi's leg, but from what she'd picked up, it was a remnant of a very dark part of his life. "I know," she said.
"Don't let them fix me," Kazuichi whimpered. "I want them to take her away."
"We'll do what we can," Rapunzel promised, still not entirely sure who "she" was.
"I even made a replacement," Kazuichi went on; talking was the only way to distract himself from the utter agony that radiated from his thigh. "It's over there…"
Rapunzel looked up to see the rods Ruby had spotted in the Gummi garage earlier that very day propped up against Kazuichi's closet door. She immediately recognized it for what it was: a prosthesis, a mechanical contraption made to fill in for exactly the amount of leg that Kazuichi had attempted to sever.
"I fucked up," Kazuichi said in the softest of tones.
"I know you had a reason for doing this," Rapunzel said understandingly. "Right now, we just have to make sure you'll live through it. And you WILL."
"Thank you…"
Stork returned with Ienzo and Aerith in tow. "Oh, KINGDOM HEARTS!" Ienzo swore when he saw the scene before him. Stork had described it perfectly, but all the same, he had a hard time actually believing Kazuichi had tried to cut off his own leg. "Aerith, I need you with me. Stork, Rapunzel, I need YOU to listen to me. I'm going to tell you what I need you to bring me from my lab, and you need to bring those things exactly."
"I can't leave him alone," Rapunzel insisted.
"Stork won't be able to carry it all himself," Ienzo said sternly. "Aerith and I will take care of Kazuichi."
Rapunzel finally relented, giving a nod.
"Wait," Kazuichi said. "Before you go…you have to tell them why I shouldn't be fixed. Why it has to come off."
"You STILL want to go through with it?" Stork said in horror.
"What is he talking about?" Ienzo asked.
"That leg," Stork explained. "It wasn't his. He sewed it onto his body as a tribute to the person who used to have it. And that person was NOT good news. That's why he tried to do this! He wanted all of her gone!"
"You wanted her to just be a memory," Aerith said sympathetically. She could only imagine what the leg's previous owner had done to Kazuichi. She was well aware that abuse victims could endure prolonged attachment to their abusers, going so far as to keep innapropriate mementos – though this was the first case she'd heard of grafting an abuser's body part onto the victim's body.
"Please," Kazuichi moaned. "Get rid of her."
Ienzo could now see, as his eyes traveled over the wound – he had seen much more in-depth dissections during his time as Ansem's apprentice; this was nothing – that the limb Kazuichi had tried to sever didn't match the rest of his body, that it was asymmetrical with his left leg. The foot was at least two sizes smaller. "So this is an amputation," he resolved. "Not a wound treatment. This just got much more complicated. Rapunzel, Stork, I'm going to have to alter your list."
"Just tell us what we need to bring," Rapunzel said sternly.
"Aerith," Ienzo commanded, "put a patch on that wound. Something that can hold until we have proper equipment."
Aerith cast a shieldlike spell over Kazuichi's leg; the blood was stopped from flowing, hitting a clear wall.
Ienzo quickly gave Stork and Rapunzel their instructions. By now, the people in the adjacent rooms had been awakened, and were becoming increasingly curious about the events transpiring. Stork and Rapunzel had to push past the crowd in order to take off running for the laboratory.
"You'll be all right," Ienzo said softly as he entered the room. Then, over his shoulder, to the gawkers: "There is nothing to see here." He pushed the door shut all but a crack to dissuade them. Then he knelt before Kazuichi. "If you really can't have that leg remain – "
"I can't." Kazuichi shook his head fervently. "It's HERS. If you knew her…you'd want it gone too. Burn it. I have a replacement. It's over there."
Ienzo gave the prosthesis a nod.
"Ienzo," Aerith insisted, "it had to have belonged to someone who hurt him badly."
"Then we'll take it off," Ienzo promised. "Aerith, start casting Curaga over him and don't stop. We need his body to be in as much of a healing state as we can manage."
Aerith gave a nod before beginning the spell. It lessened the pain just a bit, though it did nothing to close the wound; Kazuichi became less tense.
"Lie back," Ienzo commanded.
Kazuichi wasn't one to argue, though shifting positions did aggravate the incision.
Stork and Rapunzel returned in almost no time; Stork hustled a wheelchair along, bandages and other supplies piled in its seat, while Rapunzel bore a bottle of liquid and a hypodermic needle safely contained in plastic. "Tell me I got the right thing," Rapunzel said nervously as she entered the room.
Ienzo took the bottle from her, reading the label. "This is exactly what I need," he confirmed. Once Stork had the rest of the supplies wheeled into the room, Ienzo gave his next order: "Leave us. Aerith and I will need privacy to finish this operation."
"But I can't leave him!" Rapunzel protested.
"I am really not comfortable with letting him leave my sight," Stork added.
"Aerith and I will need to focus," Ienzo said sternly. "We will NOT let him die. But we cannot be disturbed."
Stork sighed. "Let's go."
"But – " Rapunzel protested.
Stork took her arm, pulling her from the room. "We need to go."
Once they left, Ienzo shut the door, casting a magical wall to act as a lock and prevent bystanders from intruding upon the operation. He filled the hypodermic needle from the bottle.
"I hate needles!" Kazuichi shrieked.
"Considering what you've already endured tonight," Ienzo reminded him, "this will feel like nothing."
He injected the sedative into Kazuichi's upper arm. "Count backward from one hundred in your mind," he ordered. "You will be asleep shortly."
Kazuichi's eyes slowly shut.
"Aerith…" Ienzo's voice shook. "I've…never done an amputation before. I know the practicalities of how to perform the surgery, but I have never PERFORMED one."
"I know you can do it," Aerith said encouragingly. "If anyone can do something they've only ever read about, it's you. I trust you."
"I promised not to lose him," Ienzo moaned. "What if I break that promise?"
"You won't," Aerith said softly. "He will live."
Giving a sigh, Ienzo retrieved a sterilized saw from the wheelchair.
By then, people from other floors had heard the ruckus; Sora, Papyrus, and Ruby found themselves among the crowd. "What's going on?" Sora asked in a panic as he spotted Rapunzel and Stork.
"Kazuichi tried to cut off his leg," Rapunzel answered.
"WHAT?" Sora, Ruby, and Papyrus shrieked in unison.
One explanation later, the five found themselves with nothing to do but wait for the outcome of the operation. They made a home base out of Sora's room, where Sora decided to try and divert everyone's attention from the tragic turn of events by setting up a board game. It was the sort where words were spelled out with tiles across a grid.
"Let's see…" Sora lay down two tiles to make the word "AT."
"Seriously?" Stork commented.
"MY TURN, IS IT?" Papyrus thought long and hard over the board before placing an R: "RAT."
As Ruby jotted down their scores, Stork shook his head, then transformed their play into "IRRATIONAL."
"I never was really good at this game," Sora admitted.
"Why am I not surprised?" Stork sighed.
Rapunzel simply observed from the bed, her stomach churning. It was a four-player game, and she had opted to sit out while the others competed. She knew the point was to get minds off Kazuichi, but she simply couldn't, and she knew thoughts of his well-being would plague her ability to play; she would probably end up spelling out nothing but words like "WOUND" and "SEVER."
"Rapunzel?" Ruby broke in. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Rapunzel said with a big, fake smile. "I'm fine."
Ruby didn't believe it. But no one pressed simply because no one in the room was fine.
The game continued on until a knock was heard at the door. "Sora?" Aerith's voice called out. "Are you in there?"
Sora dashed to the door, flinging it open. "How is he?" he asked immediately.
Aerith's expression was peaceful. "He's fine," she announced. "Ienzo removed the leg from him successfully and wheeled him down to the lab to sleep in the medical bay. We're going to keep an eye on him there, but nothing bad will happen."
The very air became less thick.
"Thank you," Rapunzel said gratefully. "If we'd lost him…"
"Don't even make me think about that," Ruby said mournfully.
"You don't need to worry anymore," Aerith assured them, "except perhaps about getting some sleep. It's almost dawn. Oh, and I'm sorry to announce this, but the plate of cookies that was left downstairs was trampled."
"The last thing I'm worried about right now is cookies," Rapunzel said with a smile.
Aerith took her leave, and Ruby circled the current scores on her notepad. "We should wrap up the game," she decided. "Besides, Stork is winning by, like, a lot."
"WE DO NEED OUR REST," Papyrus agreed.
Stork wasn't sure if he'd be able to sleep properly for a week after this scare, but he kept quiet about that.
The quintet dispersed, and all were in a similar state: though the trauma still kept them awake, they were completely exhausted.