The four of them began making their way back to the clearing where they had landed the ship, re-boarding her quickly. Settling back into her seat, with Kuromaru curling up at "her" feet the same way it'd done when they'd all made the trip to this world in the first place, Sarah gripped the triggers lightly while Donald started the take-off procedure. As their ship rose up and back into the upper-atmosphere, away from the small planet where they had finished clearing out Heartless, at least for the moment, Sarah breathed deeply to prepare herself for what was coming.
The force of acceleration briefly pressed her back into her seat, and Sarah leaned forward to compensate, narrowing "her" eyes as she concentrated on picking out the waves of Heartless ships that would inevitably be massing to attack them.
Once their ship was fully clear of the last shreds of atmosphere, Sarah laid on the triggers again, as Donald sent them on a smooth, swift course back to whatever planet Traverse Town was a part of; or else, maybe the planet itself was actually called Traverse Town. She didn't know, but that kind of thing was more of an idle curiosity than anything she was actually concerned about.
Any Heartless ships in range found themselves blown into innumerable, brightly-sparkling shards by their ship's guns. Their ship then passed over those shards, pulling most of them towards the main body, where they were quickly swallowed up. Sarah continued holding down the triggers, wiping out large swathes of Heartless ships as Donald guided them on their return trip to Traverse Town. Soon enough, the small, metropolitan planet that they had departed from to carry out this latest attack on the Heartless came back into view. Letting up on the triggers as the last of the Heartless ships had disappeared into the interplanetary void, Sarah settled back into her seat as Kuromaru crawled up into "her" lap.
Their ship glided neatly back into the hangar under Donald's steady hands, and Sarah allowed herself to relax the rest of the way as the hangar doors closed and sealed themselves closed once more. Scruffling Kuromaru's antennae as the little Shadow nuzzled the center of "her" chest, Sarah leaned back in her chair and relaxed further as their ship was pulled smoothly back into its docking berth by the machinery of the hangar.
They came to a full stop at last, and Kuromaru swung itself up onto "her" back as she rose from her seat and made her way out of the ship following Goofy and Donald. She heard the sound of her supply-pack being unzipped as she swung the thing back up onto "her" back again, and Sarah reached back to zip the thing up the rest of the way once more.
The four of them made their way out, exiting the ship itself and then the hangar around them with little fanfare, and Sarah yawned deeply as she gripped the straps of her supply-pack and continued on her way out to the First District once more. The four of them all filed through the District, no one really taking much note of their progress, for the interrelated reasons that there weren't many people around to take note, and under the present circumstances, there wasn't much about their group that demanded anyone's attention.
All of that was perfectly fine with her, since she wasn't much for small talk when she was busy with more important matters, and at this particular time she was too tired to be interested in anything much beyond getting top the hotel and sleeping for the rest of the swiftly-falling night. Yawning once more as the four of them passed beyond the large doors and back into the Second District, Sarah followed Donald and Goofy back into the hotel, where they three of them separated to head to their respective rooms.
Tossing off her shirt as she closed the door to the blue room she'd been staying in, Sarah dropped it neatly into the hamper and made for the shower room so that she could wash up before she climbed into bed for the night. Stopping off at the sink, Sarah washed up and brushed "her" teeth, then made her way back to the blue-sheeted bed so she could get some sleep. And, after removing the last of Sora's outerwear so that she wouldn't get tangled up in it while she slept, Sarah tossed the rest of Sora's clothes into the hamper and made her way over to the bed at last. Pulling the covers back so that she could more easily climb in, she did just that. Shutting off the light that stood just behind the nightstand, Sarah sighed as she fully relaxed at last.
A familiar pair of yellow eyes appeared in the darkness just in front of her, and Sarah smiled softly as Kuromaru hopped up on top of the covers and curled up next to "her" chest. Patting Kuromaru's head a last time, Sarah closed "her" eyes and drifted off to sleep at last.
~KH~
The next morning, Sarah yawned and stretched as she levered herself up and out of bed, Kuromaru scampering off ahead to the shower room. Sarah chuckled softly, as she began to hear the sound of running water from within that very room; it seemed that Kuromaru was learning a bit more than just sign-language. Making her own way into the shower room, she found the little Shadow just hopping out of the shower unit itself.
"Thanks, boy," she said, stepping out of Sora's underwear and tossing the garment itself to the floor, stepping into the shower.
The water was just starting to become hot enough for her taste, so Sarah adjusted the cold tap so it'd stay that way. After she'd finished washing up, and rinsed the last of the soap-residue from Sora's body, Sarah climbed back out of the shower unit and made her way over to the towel rack. Drying Sora's body with the same vigorous scrubbing motion that she had always used on her own, Sarah made her way back into the main area of the room she'd been staying in since she'd first arrived in Traverse Town on that lonely night not so very long ago.
Kuromaru caught up with her about halfway to the duffel that held her not-strictly-necessary supplies, and she reached down to scruffle the little Shadow's antennae as she walked. Just as she was starting to zip open the duffel, however, someone on the other side opened her door, forcing Sarah to grab the top sheet from the bed and wrap it around Sora's still-nude body. Normally, she wouldn't have been shy about giving whatever rude cretin had decided to so unceremoniously invade her personal space an eyeful; fucking with peoples' heads being a personal pleasure of hers, but this wasn't her body. And she wasn't about to go abusing Sora's for her own amusement.
Didn't mean she wasn't going to fully psych this jerk out, of course.
"Sora, why are you wearing a blanket?" Donald asked, sounding like such a thing hadn't quite been the first thing on his mind, but had come out of his beak all the same.
"Well, it might be because I don't actually have any clothes on at the moment," she said, the sarcasm in her tone thick enough that it could've been poured over waffles; Donald looked to be about to say something else, but as Sarah wasn't in the mood to be drawn into a conversation when she was naked, she decided to nip such a thing in the bud. "Donald, is the hotel on fire?"
"Ah, no?"
"Is the planet about to explode?"
"No."
"Are we about to overrun by an incomprehensibly huge army of Heartless?"
"No," Donald said, beginning to seem confused by all her questions.
She settled the blanket more firmly across "her" shoulders so that she could shift herself to be more comfortable without pulling the thing off, and gave Donald a thin, semi-amused smile. "Well then, whatever you were about to ask me can wait until I actually have some clothes on, yes?"
"Uh, right," Donald said hurriedly, almost dashing out of the room in his hurry to leave.
Smirking at the spot where the drake had been standing, Sarah tossed the blanket back on top of the bed and crouched in front of the duffel again. When she managed to actually finish unzipping the thing, she found that the clothes she had dumped in the hamper over the last couple of days had been returned to their place inside the bag; though the ones that had been washed and returned had been folded, as opposed to the ones that she herself had rolled for ease of transport.
Dressing quickly in a pair of dark-blue shorts and a gray tee-shirt, Sarah pulled out the still-rolled form of the dark-blue hoodie that she had packed on a whim and transferred it into her supply-pack.
It never hurt to be prepared, after all.
Lifting the pack up onto "her" back, Sarah stood back up, patting Kuromaru's head as the little Shadow pressed itself against "her" legs, and headed for the door.
"All right, so what was it you wanted to ask me?" she directed at Donald as she, the drake in question, and Goofy all began to make their way out of the hotel to start their day.
"How about we all talk after breakfast?" Goofy suggested, clapping the two of them on the shoulder he could most easily reach – in Sarah's case, "her" left – as the three of them continued on their way to the doors, and then out into the Second District at large.
"Sounds all right to me," she said, hearing the sound of her supply-pack being unzipped, and zipping it back up once Kuromaru had climbed back inside.
They all reached the doors to the First District after that, with Goofy pushing them open so that the four of them could make their way through again. Their path through the district itself was same as usual, with the minor exception of her and Goofy both taking the little shortcut that she had devised during the time she'd spent at the corresponding in-game location; though she'd be a bit surprised to learn that no one else had chosen to make use of it. As the four of them continued on their way to Scrooge's restaurant, Sarah yawned deeply as she felt Kuromaru nuzzle the center of "her" back. Following Goofy into the building, she held the door open for Donald, and they all headed in to have breakfast.
Once the three of them had finished their respective meals, Sarah settled back in her seat and looked up expectantly at the pair of anthros who had invited this conversation.
"Okay, so what was it you guys wanted to talk to me about?" she asked, setting her fork down atop a plate that had once been full of wonderfully fluffy pancakes.
"Well, Goofy and I were thinking about the tournament that the goat-man we met at the Coliseum was talking about," Donald said, setting his glass down neatly by the right-hand side of his own plate.
"Oh? What's the fascination?" she asked, leaning "her" chin on "her" right fist as she settled back farther into her seat.
"Well, don't you want to participate too, Sora?" Goofy asked, sounding more than a bit nonplussed at the idea that anyone wouldn't want to do such a thing.
"Not particularly," she said, bumping "her" left leg up against Kuromaru's talons as the little Shadow reached out for her again. "But, if you guys really want to go back there to see if you can enter, I'll go with you to the Coliseum itself, at least."
"Well, I guess that's all right," Donald said, though he didn't seem particularly happy.
Not that that was her problem, but she took note of the feeling, all the same.
The four of them made their way out of the restaurant not long after that, Sarah swinging her supply-pack back onto "her" back as she continued on her way through the First District's streets and then toward the hangar that served this particular world. When their small procession came to a sudden, rather abrupt halt, Sarah cocked "her" head slightly/
"What's the holdup? I thought you two wanted to get there as soon as you could," she said, stepping forward so that she could get a better look at Donald and Goofy both.
"I just remembered," Donald said, the look on his face suggesting that he wasn't particularly happy with himself for having done so. "We should go to the Item Shop and pick up some supplies. Just in case."
Sensible. "No arguments on my end," she said, as the four of them turned and made their way to the Item Shop so that they could stock up for the trips ahead.
When the four of them, or three to anyone who wasn't aware of their particular circumstances, made their way into the shop, Sarah swallowed a chuckle as she saw just who was running that particular shop. It had probably seemed a bit less weird in-game, if only because when one loaded up a game that'd been produced by the collaboration of Disney and Square Enix – or Squaresoft, as they'd been called back during KH1's initial release – one was already set to accept a certain amount of weirdness right out of the gate. Here and now, however, seeing three anthropomorphic ducklings running a shop together was more than a bit out of the ordinary even here. Still, there was nothing lost by being polite.
"Good morning," she said, as she and the others all made their way inside.
"Good morning!" the duckling wearing a red shirt and cap – though like all the other ducks she'd met, he was also pantsless – called cheerfully back. "Have you come to shop? Or did you just want to talk?"
"We're just here for some shopping this morning," she said, idly wondering what the three ducklings in general – or the red-clad one in particular – would have to talk about, now that they weren't constrained by pre-programmed responses and limited A.I.
"Oh," the red-clad duckling behind the counter said; she'd have to ask his name later, if only so she actually had something to call him. "Well, all right then. What did you want to buy?"
"Could I have a price list first? If it's not too much trouble?" she asked; before the pair of them could start any kind of business transaction, Sarah wanted to figure out how best to allocate her remaining funds.
Munny was hardly and inexhaustible resource here, after all.
"Sure," the duckling said, looking a bit surprised but pulling out a pen and paper to jot something down, all the same.
"Thank you," she said, taking the list as he handed it over.
It was precisely written, with guidelines running from the items on the left, to the prices on the right, and it seemed to cover the entire shop's stock. Nice, she mused, though there were only three particular items that she was interested in at the moment.
The first of them was the Potion, at twenty-five Munny; the Ether at one-hundred; and perhaps the Hi Potion, at sixty. She wondered for a moment if the ducklings working the counter would know the specifics of what she wanted, and then decided that there was ultimately no real harm in asking.
"Do you know if there's any real difference, aside from the name, between a Potion and a Hi Potion?"
"The Moogles told me that the Hi Potion works better than the Potion for healing," the red-clad duckling said, sounding like he was indeed repeating second-hand information.
She knew what that had meant in-game, but here and now…
"Did any of them mention specifically how they were supposed to be better, or would it be better if I ask them myself, when I get the time?"
The duckling seemed to need to think particularly hard about that, so Sarah figured that it was probably likely that he hadn't been informed about the specific differences between a Potion and a Hi Potion. She'd have to remember to track down one of the Moogles and talk to them if she wanted clarification on the subject.
"Sora, let's not worry about things like that," Donald said, speaking for the first time since their group had entered the shop, bringing Sarah's attention back to the matter at hand.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, glancing down at the price list in "her" right hand, even as she reached for the bag of Munny she'd tucked safely into her supply-pack.
It reminded her a bit of her wallet, back home.
"Wait, your name is Sora?" the red-clad duckling asked, and even the other two – who up to that point had just been idly chatting without sparing much attention for what was going on around them – seemed to become interested in the conversation.
"Yeah," she said. "Is that important?"
"Unca Scrooge told us to hold something for you!" another of the three ducklings – this one blue-clad, in contrast to his probable brothers' red and green – exclaimed excitedly, hurrying over to a rather elegant looking, dark-wood chest that she hadn't taken note of at first, since it'd hadn't been in her immediate line of sight. Taking note of the slight lapse on her part, nothing too damaging on protected ground like this, but still a lapse all the same, Sarah resolved to pay more attention in the future.
"Here, sign this," the blue-clad duckling said, holding out a slip of parchment and yet another pen.
Dashing off as close to her signature as she could actually use under the circumstances, Sarah handed both items back and waited while the last member of the duckling trio went over to fetch something else from behind the counter where they'd stashed the writing supplies. There was a few moments' wait, before the blue-clad duckling came back with a key to unlock the chest that he and his green-clad counterpart had brought out together.
"Here," the blue-clad duckling said, opening the chest to reveal that it was rather full of very familiar coins. "Unca Scrooge says that these are all the profits you've earned so far."
"Must be pretty popular with the locals," she muttered, pleased but also rather surprised to see that the idea she'd brought up so casually had borne such fruit.
"Yeah!" the green-clad duckling exclaimed, clapping his feathered hands together happily. "Those root-beer floats you told Unca Scrooge about are really good! A lot of people thought it was a silly idea, putting ice cream in soda, but not after they had one," he continued with a wide, cheerful smile; which was a hell of a thing to see on someone with a beak when they weren't a cartoon.
"Congratulations, Sora!" Goofy exclaimed, coming over to clap "her" left shoulder with the cheerful enthusiasm that seemed to define his interactions with everyone he met.
At least, if he wasn't given a good reason to dislike them.
"Thanks," she said, turning a smile his way before returning her attention to the chest and all of the extra funds that she hadn't known she would have access to at the beginning of this particular shopping trip.
"Unca Scrooge also wanted us to tell you that, since you're his partner now and all, you get things here at half-price," the red-clad duckling said, returning the focus of their conversation to its original point.
It was a bit of a surprise, though; she'd known that business discounts were a thing, but hadn't really expected to be getting one, herself.
"Really? I'll have to remember to thank him, then," she said, folding the original – now outdated – list of prices that she'd been given not a few minutes ago.
The red-clad duckling handed over a corrected version, and Sarah took it while offering her thanks for the time taken on her behalf. Having half-off on everything in the store was nice, too. It was also one of the seldom-spoken-of advantages of having a business relationship with someone.
"Donald, you have any recommendations for supplies?" she asked, deferring to the voice of experience; it wasn't like she could go carrying around an infinitely-replenished supply with the finite funds – not to mention space – she was limited to now.
Best she had a basis for allocating both.
"Well, you might want to get four Potions to start with," the drake said, a tone to his voice that she didn't take much note of, considering the circumstances. "And, at least a couple Ethers."
"Thanks," she said, taking a moment to calculate the cost of said items, then counting out the coin she'd need to pay for them. "Do these need any special handling?"
"No," the red-clad duckling said, tapping two of the bottles of Potion against each other; the bottles made the sort of "ping-clack" sound that Sarah had learned to associate with ceramic and the like. "The Moogles make these bottles especially tough, so they can stand up to whatever the people who really need to carry them around might be up against."
"That's good to hear," she said, swinging her supply-pack down off of "her" back so she could put these newly-purchased supplies in with the others.
Kuromaru, who looked like it was curled up for as close as a Heartless like itself could get to taking a nap, popped its round little head out from the pack as she started to gather up the bottles to pack away. Kuromaru, seeming as eager to help as the little Shadow ever was, plucked the bottle out of "her" right hand, and then bent over to that it could tuck the thing neatly away in a space she'd been eyeing up for the same.
"Thanks, boy," she said, reaching out to scruffle Kuromaru's antennae.
"Is that a Heartless?" the blue-clad duckling who'd just come up to her asked, looking on with curiosity and some apprehension as she continued to hand over her newly-purchased items.
"Kuromaru here's pretty unique, but yeah; he's still a Heartless," she said, gathering up the pair of Ethers she'd bought and handing them over.
After the Shadow had tucked the last of them away, Sarah tipped her supply-pack forward slightly, and zipped the thing back up once the Shadow had ducked back inside.
"Look," she said, not wanting to have any misunderstandings, or end up inadvertently endangering someone because she'd left something particularly important unexplained. "I don't want any of you three trying to do something like this with another Heartless. I don't even know how I managed things with Kuromaru here, but most Heartless are vicious, and as far as I can tell, pretty mindless," she swept the three of them with her gaze, making sure to lock eyes with each duckling in turn. "So, I don't want any of you endangering yourselves because of something you think you know, all right?"
The three of them answered in the affirmative, so with a last look their way to impress the seriousness of her words upon them, Sarah settled her supply-pack comfortably on "her" back once more, and headed to the front of the shop to meet up with Donald and Goofy once more. Once the three of them had made their way back outside, Donald turned to look up at the boy everyone still thought she was.
"Sora?" the drake called, not really pausing long enough to give her the chance to answer. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she said, pausing for a moment and then deciding to indulge her curiosity. "Who are those three to you?"
"They're my nephews," Donald said, sounding pleased. "Huey was the one in red, since that's his favorite color," the drake chuckled softly, sounding reflective. "In fact, all three of them always refuse to wear anything that isn't their favorite color. Dewey was the one wearing blue, and Louie was the one in green."
"Hewy, Dewey, and Louis," she repeated, rather amused by the rhyming scheme, but not wanting to be rude by laughing at it outright. "Seems like someone liked their theme-names. Their parents must have been interesting people."
"They were," Donald said softly.
Before the three of them who were actually capable of speech could start in on yet another topic, they reached the hangar once more. When the four of them made their way inside, the first thing she took note of was that Kairi and the mystery kid were both back again. Neither of them were dancing, but Kairi was smiling just as widely and brightly as she ever had, and Mystery Kid's body-language was just as open and cheerful as hers. The pair of them came up on either side of her once Donald and Goofy had gone ahead to prepare their ship for launch. When she slowed her pace to accommodate them, without being too obvious about it, Kairi leaned forward to give her a peck on "her" right cheek, and the mystery kid clapped "her" left shoulder in passing as Sarah made her way over to the landing pad.
As the giant mechanical hand reached down to pick her up – something she still found funny as hell if she gave herself time to think about it – Sarah pulled out a thermos full of milk, scruffled Kuromaru's antennae when the little Shadow popped its head up to see her, and settled neatly into her seat at the weapons-station once she was plunked down inside the ship itself.
"So, are we all ready to get underway?" she asked, looking to Donald in the pilot's chair, even as she settled "her" hands on the weapons' controls.
"We're ready, Sora," the drake said, sounding rather pleased.
His next words were for the launch crew, so Sarah didn't take much note of them, and soon they were coasting down the launch-tunnel and back out into space. Laying on the trigger once she could be sure that she wasn't going to be hitting anything that people would actually miss, Sarah watched the sky for any Heartless ships as Donald guided them on their way. There seemed to be a few more ships in the area than before, but what that really meant in practice was that she got to collect a few more Gummis on their way from Traverse Town to the Coliseum.