Chapter 99: A lead

After an hour or two of searching the town, Sora and the others figured that there wasn't anything that could indicate that Elsa's anywhere nearby.

Rem, Ram, Meili, and Louis Arneb turned towards the Keyblade Master to see what he's thinking.

Sora did notice this though he was more focused on trying to use his connection with Elsa to see if he can locate where she could be at.

He closed his eyes and held his free right hand close to his chest as he was attempting to use his connection with the Bowel Hunter to try and locate her...though what worried him was that this time he didn't feel anything.

This made his concern show out, which caught the attention of the others.

"D-Did something bad happen to onee-chan?"

"..." Sora remained silent for a moment while looking at Meili, knowing that she's extremely worried for the Bowel Hunter, especially with the way he reacted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. I had hoped that Elsa was in town, but I was wrong. She's still far away."

"How far are we talking?" Ram questioned. Sora looked at her for a second before turning towards the sky.

"It's still far away, but the connections there..." Sora wasn't lying when saying this as he was able to just pick up something though very vague. It's something that was indeed concerning for both the Keyblade Master Sora and the Mabeast Tamer Meili Portroute. Ram closed her eyes as she began to say:

"We shouldn't concern ourselves. If there's a connection, then she's still alive."

"...You don't know what kind of suffering onee-chan could be suffering through..."

"She's tough. She'll pull through." Rem said, attempting to reassure Meili. This did work but only for a brief moment since she knows that it's only a matter of time before 'mother' breaks her. Sora looked around for a moment before noticing what seemed to be a food place.

"Let's go get some food."

Meili was a bit excited when hearing this since she's gotten tired of eating the same rations for the past few days. Louis Arneb was excited when hearing this, having been curious what kind of food does Gusteko have in comparison to Lugnica and Vollachia. Rem and Ram were a bit uncertain about this since they don't want people to recognize Sora since by now he should be known by all four kingdoms, especially after the events in the Vollachia Empire.

"Do we have a way for paying the food?"

Ram pulled out some paper while responding to Meili's question:

"Roswaal-sama handed me this in case we wanted to grab food."

Roswaal had the foresight to hand Gusteko currency to Ram, more in the case if they somehow split up and needed something without him. Ram was aware of this though having a chance to eat and rest, even if brief might help all of them be ready for a fight. Sora nodded before leading the group into the small restaurant near them, right behind them was a Ryuzu Meyer looking person with white hair rather than the usual pink hair following along with her party.

"Are we going to eat?"

"Also why are we here again?"

"..." The Ryuzu lookalike remained silent for a moment before turning towards the restaurant Sora and his group had gone towards. "Someone I know decided to head here. I must know why."

"We shouldn't be here..." The one with preacher attire spoke as she was worried that people will recognize her, especially those in the Gustekan Church.

"We won't be long." The Ryuzu lookalike said as she began to make her way towards the restaurant.

The other members of her party looked at her before at one another for a moment before following their leader into the restaurant.

With them entering the restaurant, Sora and his group were placed in a table, all a bit surprised by the kindness the maid's restaurant was giving them.

As they sat down, Sora allowed Rem to choose what he and Louis Arneb should eat since...well, he's still not good with this world's language.

He had been working hard the first month of being in this world to learn how to read and write the language of this world along with Natsuki Subaru however the two were more focused with getting Subaru used to his first keyblade.

In Louis Arneb's case, she's more uncertain on what she should even chose since there's so many possible foods she could order that she can't choose.

Rem smiled since she doesn't mind helping Louis Arneb and would gladly choose her love's food for him.

As they were relaxing, Sora sensed something in the restaurant, a familiar presence he hadn't felt in a long while. He turned and looked around though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

This made him feel that perhaps he's being paranoid though he could've sworn that he sensed someone familiar.

He returns focus on his group as they are all discussing the possible foods each person aside from him and Louis Arneb were going to order.

Rem and Ram agreed to share their food though Rem was hoping to feed Sora, wanting to do something for him.

Meili was honestly hoping that the most expensive one was the best one. Louis and Sora were given the special the restaurant had for the day.

As they were all having normal conversations, trying to keep themselves calm from the stress of not only being in a possibly hostile land but also on a time limit for saving the Bowel Hunter.

While speaking on regular things with the main topics coming back up on what other things had Sora as well as Louis Arneb had done with Priscilla and her camp.

The interesting thing Rem, Ram, and Meili thought in regards to Sora's time there was spending time with Heinkel without him being aggressive or antagonistic towards the keyblade master.

Sora just smiled off the questions on Heinkel since despite how rude he can act, he did have some knowledge to share to him.

("You are pretty strong, Keyblade Master. I've heard you fought and defeated my son.")

("Yes." Sora said as he was blocking away Heinkel's attacks. "He was strong.")

("...Of course he is." Heinkel said with a slightly annoyed tone.)

(The two clashed weapons with Sora holding back in order to match Heinkel's strength.)

("Don't hold back.")

("Huh?")

("Don't give me pity and actually take this seriously!" Heinkel shouted with anger as he pushed Sora back. "It's disrespectful to hold back, especially when the power gap between us is absurdly long!")

(Heinkel Astrea charged at the Keyblade Master Sora and began to swing his blade with everything he had. Sora blocked these attacks and at first he was pretty hesitant to go all out though remembering how angry Heinkel will get if he doesn't go all out, he easily was able to knock the Deputy Commander off of his feet and sending him flying while also having managed to disarm him in one swing.)

("Are you okay?")

("..." Heinkel remained silent for a second as he regains his strength in order to sit up. Once he sat up, he looked at Sora and took note on his concerned question. "That soft spot will get you killed.")

("?" Sora tilted his head, a bit confused by that comment. "What are you—?")

("You are the strongest, that's impressive. However, the problem is when you let that kind heart guide you in battle, it will cost you dearly. All your opponent needs are the opening and chance to take you down.")

Sora thought back to that comment Heinkel had told him, having understood what he was telling him. Letting one be careless can cost them the match, this was what he understood from Heinkel before the two had finished their last training session that day.

"He sounds pretty stubborn." Meili spoke with a slightly annoyed tone, not having a high opinion on Heinkel Astrea.

"He was...but he made a point about hesitation." As he said this, he thought back to many of his fights over his adventures with one of them being against Riku on his first journey to save the worlds from darkness.

He was hesitant at first to face his childhood best friend, especially since he worked hard to find him and Kairi after the three were separated though he knew that he had to get through to him somehow.

If it weren't for Donald or Goofy, it's more likely that he wouldn't have still been around.

He smiled for a moment when recalling such a crucial moment before turning towards Rem, noticing that she had a question for him.

"What was your favorite part of the day?"

Sora looked up for a second to think on this since most days were never the same since he would either be with Priscilla and Al to deal with Royal Candidate, train with Heinkel, work through some chores with Schult, or go into the capital and do things there along with Zarestia and Louis Arneb.

"I treasure every day there. I didn't have a bad day, at least I don't recall one."

Rem and Meili couldn't help but smile when hearing this, having expected a response like that from the Keyblade Master.

Ram smirked a bit, also expecting this though she was curious on why Priscilla needs Sora in her camp aside from having sway on the people to choose her as the King of Lugnica because he's in her camp.

This made her very suspicious though she was good at hiding it since this isn't the time to ask such questions.

They all noticed that the food they ordered arrived, prompting the attention to be drawn to the food itself.

As they were being served, the Ryuzu Meyer lookalike and her party sat down on a table from a distance, wanting to avoid Sora and his group for now.

"Is something wrong?" One of her party members questioned, noticing just how intense the Ryuzu Meyer lookalike had her sights at Sora's group.

The Ryuzu Meyer lookalike turns towards the party member that asked said question.

"Nothing's wrong. Just interested in those people."

"Should we be worried?"

"No. It's nothing of concern." She immediately responded while continuing the focus on Sora specifically.

She was surprised that Subaru, Garfiel, or the witch's daughter wasn't with him in a whole different kingdom.

Before she had the chance to analyze anymore, someone approached one of her party members.

"You look...familiar."

"!"

The one with the priestess attire froze for a second, having been afraid of this since she did abandoned her position.

The Ryuzu Meyer lookalike turned towards the man who had asked such a question and just stared at him.

This stare caught his attention for only a moment before he started to slowly back away.

"S-Sorry...I must've mistaken her for someone else..." The man spoke with intense fear before running out of the small restaurant.

This caused her party members to turn towards her, impressed by her ability to scare someone with a simple stare but also slightly scare them as well.

"Apologies, I didn't mean to scare you all."

"It's fine...but we do wish to know what change? Why come here when you said we were avoiding Gusteko?"

"Something drew me here. A specific person actually." As she responded with that, she turned back to see that Sora and his group were finishing up their food and preparing to pay.

This meant that she might lose him and his group...but it would also be suspicious if she were to just have her and her group leave right now.

While she was devising a plan, she noticed someone coming into the restaurant with an oddly familiar attire.

During this moment, Sora had told Ram that he can pay in her stead.

The pink haired maid allowed this and handed over the currency of this kingdom to the Keyblade Master.

As he goes to pay the servant, they were suddenly shot in the hand which caused the amount that Sora was going to pay to be destroyed.

"Wha—?!"

Sora was shocked at first since this was an unexpected surprise attack though it took him a second before he recognized the projectile that was fired at the servant.

He turned towards the direction the projectile to see an Organization member with a familiar weapon.

"Xigbar!"

"..."

The Organization member remained silent has he continued to cover his identity, the entire small restaurant reacted in violence and started to charge at him.

The Organization member underneath the hood smiled as he jumped outside while preparing himself for a fight.

As he goes outside, he smiles as all of those that were in the restaurant charge outside to try and kill him for disrupting the peace.

As a bunch of people were charging at the Organization member, prompting said member to quickly react by shooting down two people within a second before dodging attacks from behind.

He continued to avoid any attacks all the while he was shooting people down one by one though noting that some of the people were needing to be shot twice if he wanted to keep them down.

He kept doing this for a minute straight until noticing Sora's keyblade about to hit him.

The Organization member waited until the last second to disappear in order to avoid being hit.

"Wha—?! Xigbar!" As Sora shouted this, he looked around for the Organization member, knowing that if he doesn't act now then many more will be hurt or worse.

As he noticed a few citizens getting shot from different directions, he turned towards one of the closest civilians and quickly approached him before creating a barrier by casting reflect.

This barrier was able to protect the civilian from one of the projectiles fired at him while also giving the Keyblade Master an indication on where he is at this moment.

The exact second the barrier had gone away, he quickly jumped directly at the Organization member's direction with intense speed.

Right as Sora was a few inches away from his opponent, he swung his keyblade once again at him only for said opponent to disappear right when the attack was about to land.

Sora's eyes widened for a moment before he quickly threw his keyblade right towards the civilian he had just protected.

At first the civilian was shocked by this only to see that Sora's Kingdom Key had managed to knock away a projectile fired right towards him.

Before the keyblade could hit the ground, Sora re-summoned it right back onto his hand while he was gliding right back towards the ground.

Once landing on his feet, he quickly searched for his opponent before swiftly closing the gap between himself and said opponent once again.

Although the Organization member had once again disappeared, he had sensed Rem and Ram joining the fight.

He turned towards the entrance of the small restaurant he had just busted out and could easily spot the two oni twin maids preparing to attack.

The two had managed to spot the Organization member, prompting Rem to pull out her Morningstar and to send it flying right towards said Organization member's direction.

Ram looked around and the second she spotted the Organization member, she used El Fura to send a powerful blade of wind attack.

This attack had nearly landed onto the organization member, having barely moved out of the way though a piece of the hood getting cut.

"My, that was pretty close." A calm tone spoke as he removed the hood concealing his identity. As Sora suspected, it was indeed Xigbar who seemed to be having fun with this fight.

"Hey kiddo, what are you doing all the way here, away from the capital?"

"..." Sora remained silent has he had his guard up, ready for whatever Xigbar's planning. This silence was enough information for him to figure that the Keyblade Master and his allies are here under some important mission.

"No matter; with you here, then it'll make the old geezer's plan to go even smoothly than expected."

"Don't think it'll go that easily." Sora said with an unfazed expression.

"What? You think your 'apprentice' will be able to stop what he has planned? Ha! As if!"

"Don't underestimate Subaru-kun!" Rem shouted as she closed the distance between herself and Xigbar, preparing to land a kick onto her opponent.

He turned towards her and could see that her leg was about to connect to his face.

Instead of disappearing like usual, he was able to block the attack before preparing to fire a shot at the blue haired oni maid.

"Ul Fura!"

A powerful wind blades were created around Ram before being send straight to Xigbar in order to protect her twin sister.

The wind blades were able to knock the weapon away from Xigbar's hand as well as deflect away the projectile fired right at Rem's direction.

The other wind blades that were about to skewer the Organization member didn't manage to reach him as he disappeared once again.

Rem began to fall towards the ground though it was an issue since the moment she landed, she was on her feet with the snow helping to break her fall.

While she was freefalling, Sora and Ram looked around and manage to spot Xigbar, prompting the two to do a long range attack.

Although neither of their attacks hit him, they were starting to push the Organization member back.

While this was happening, Louis Arneb and Meili watched from a distance, observing the fight.

The two wished to assist with Louis preparing to job in should Xigbar try anything to harm Sora all the while Meili knew that without mabeasts around, she can't do anything to help.

This made her feel frustrated since for the most part, everyone can fight with a weapon all the while she's very limited on what she can do on her own.

Even with this feeling of helplessness, at the very least she can support from the sidelines and prepare to cover any wounds her friends might receive from their shared opponent.

Ram continued to attack from long range, resorting to low level magic in order to not burn out her current amount of mana, all the while Sora and Rem continued to attempt to close the gap with Xigbar.

This continued for a full minute until finally Sora was able to move fast enough to land a hit onto Xigbar's right arm, however he was hit by one of Xigbar's projectiles on his left arm.

This projectile upon landing onto the Keyblade Master's arm, exploded which sent him flying away from Xigbar.

"Sora-kun!"

"Sora-sama!"

Both twins yelled as they were concerned upon noticing some drops of blood falling from Sora's arm.

Xigbar could only smile with interest as a powerful and dangerous dark aura was starting to surround him.

"You know, all those previous times we've clashed are nothing compared to now."

"LEAVE SORA-KUN ALONE!" Rem shouted as she quickly jumped up with all her brute strength, attempting to close the distance while also summoning her oni powers.

Right as she closes this gap, she attempts to land a hit only for her opponent to dodge it and prepare to fire his weapon in her face.

"I got you."

"...!" Rem looked with intense anger when being faced Xigbar's arrowgun.

"Leave her alone!" Sora shouted as he quickly recovered and swiftly threw Kingdom Key right at Xigbar's direction.

The speed of his keyblade was just fast enough to protect Rem from being shot in the face from one of Xigbar's projectiles.

Rem attempted to attack only to be kicked in the stomach by Xigbar which caused her to be send towards the ground.

Ram used her remaining mana to catch her twin sister before she crashed onto the ground, not wanting to see her get hurt.

As she catches her sister, Sora takes the chance to glide towards the ground while also re-summoning Kingdom Key once again.

Once he was on the ground, he looked up as well as getting himself into his fighting stance.

Xigbar placed his right arrowgun on his shoulder while having the other one on his left hand pointed at the Keyblade Master all the while having a smile of enjoyment.

"You've definitely grown strong, kiddo. That's impressive for a brat like you."

As Xigbar was about to fire his arrowgun at Sora, he eventually noticed a certain margrave which prompted him to lower his weapon.

"Well now, I wasn't expecting you." Xigbar whispered to himself as he made his weapons disappear. "I had my fun, but I have to go back. Try not to get yourself killed, kiddo. The old geezer still needs you in his master plan."

As he finished speaking, he moved his hand towards his right side to create a corridor of darkness before preparing to leave.

Right has he was entering said corridor of darkness, he made one final turn towards the Margrave's direction, both locking eyes.

It had been a while since the two have seen each other, since the last time was during a big battle in the capital of Vollachia. Xigbar gave him a glare, a reminder of the last time they had spoken, before leaving through the corridor of darkness.

Once he had gone through, said corridor of darkness disappeared though at that moment, a bunch of shadow and soldier type heartless appeared.

This prompted everyone including the civilians that were still alive to turn their attention to these heartless. Sora, Rem, and Ram together were more than enough to easily handle the heartless.

While they were easily eliminating the heartless, Louis Arneb and Meili Portroute walked out of their hiding spot as they were confident that they were not in any danger now.

As they were approaching the battlefield, the two had noticed a familiar looking girl with a small group looking from a distance.

"Doesn't she look familiar ~tsu?"

"...yeah...she does look familiar..."

The two were tempting to approach the little girl with a familiar look to confirm who that could be, however the pair turned their attention to Roswaal as they just noticed him walking towards Sora and the oni maids' location.

The Margrave stopped on his tracks the moment he saw a heartless appear in front of him in its shadow form.

He wasn't threatened by said darkness, though he was curious in their appearance since it's rare to see on up close though the shadow heartless didn't like being next to him.

It tried to attack him only for Roswaal to easily block said attack, giving him a chance for closer inspection.

"You are a curioooooooous creature, aren't you?"

The shadow heartless continued to try and land a hit on the margrave though unsuccessfully as he was able to easily block any attack thrown towards him.

After further inspection, he found the creature's look intriguing before destroying it with a simple punch.

Once doing this with ease, he turned towards Sora and his two maids, noticing that they had finished off the remaining heartless with ease.

The three looked around for a moment to make sure that there aren't any more heartless before noticing and turning towards Roswaal's direction.

As they noticed the Margrave, they also noticed Louis Arneb and Meili Portroute running towards them since they saw that there was no danger anymore.

Sora looked at Roswaal as he can sense that something's off though what had his attention was the small group behind Roswaal.

He spotted them and had an odd feeling that he recognized one of them.

"Is something wrong, Sora-kun?"

"Hm?" Sora turned towards Rem for a moment before turning back towards the direction of the small group only to see that they were suddenly gone. This left the Keyblade Master puzzled for a moment before he shook this feeling off. "It's nothing to worry about."

Although Rem's gut was telling her that something was on her love's mind, his smile made it really hard to think that he wouldn't tell her if something was bothering him.

Sora turned back towards Roswaal to ask him,

"What brought you here? Is Yabuto okay?"

"The kniiiight is doing fine. I ooooooverheard some commosion from the locals. I was worried yooooou all might've been in danger."

"There was one of those Organization members, Xigbar, who was here but it seems he had left...Xehanort is planning something in Lugnica." Sora saying this did drew Roswaal's attention, seeing that the Organization might have the advantage over Subaru and the others while they are in Gusteko.

Though then again, Subaru was able to overcome the situation he created in the Sanctuary, making him not really worry at all.

"Theeeey should be fine. Asiiiiiide from the Master Swordsman Reiiiinhard being there, Suuuuubaru-kun can also handle the situation without us."

"As you say, Roswaal-sama." Ram bowed as she did agree that Barusu can handle things on his own.

Even if that's not the case, Beatrice, Garfiel, and Otto are with him as well as Emilia, so there's no real reason to be worried.

Sora looked at the Margrave and made a simple nod, agreeing that with Subaru and Reinhard there in the capital, things should be fine though he still worries what Xehanort's planning.

As this was all being discussed, Meili asked Sora if he could detect where Elsa was at.

"Is there still a way to find her."

"..." Sora remains silent for a moment before closing his eyes, making an attempt to try and connect with Elsa Grainhart's heart.

As he was doing this, he felt something, almost like a darkness had severed the connection which caused him worry for a moment.

("Find the hearts joined to yours.")

These words were not something he would expect to remember from Young Xehanort back in the toy world when he along with Donald Duck and Goofy where helping Woody in saving Buzz from Young Xehanort.

This reminder assisted him in refocusing his connection with the Bowel Hunter, thinking back from their first meeting in the slums all the way towards the last meeting being in the watchtower facing what seemed to be the Witch of Envy.

All of these memories was enough to give him a general idea of where she could be at.

"Okay, I think I know where she's at."

"A-Are you sure?!" Meili asked, both nervous and excited at the same time.

He turned towards the little girl before giving a confident nod, reassuring her that her assassin sister is just within their grasp.

"Okay then, let's go!"

Meili jumped up with excitement as she started to run towards the direction of the wagon.

Louis Arneb followed behind as she wanted to make sure nobody decided to harm her. Sora smiled at this sight before turning towards Roswaal.

"We will need to be careful moving forward. I sense darkness having a strong hold on Elsa."

"Then we shaaaaall tread carefully."

Roswaal spoke with his usual confident tone before patting the Keyblade Master's shoulder as he followed Meili and Louis in heading towards the wagon.

Ram followed her master all the while Rem stayed with Sora as she noticed that he was looking at his surroundings once again.

"What's wrong?"

"There was someone I spotted earlier, someone I thought I recognized but..." Sora paused himself as he can see that he might've been imagining it. "I might've imagined it. We should get going."

As Sora was preparing to join the others, Rem stood still as she had a stern tone when asking:

"What's wrong, Sora-kun?"

"..." He stopped himself as he heard Rem's question, a bit more serious and slightly aggressive than the last time she had asked. He knew right there that Rem was onto something which prompted him to respond to her with honesty, "I'm sorry, I guess what Xigbar had said as me worried."

"What did he say that made you worried?" Rem asked as she approached Sora with a more concerned expression. "Was it about the old Keyblade Master?"

"...I'm worried about what he could be planning. His plans are not exactly easy to overcome."

He says this as he thought about all of the trouble Xehanort as caused to all of his friends from both outside this world and in this world.

Rem had a moment to think before giving her love a hug, having a feeling that he might need something like this before saying:

"It's okay to be worried. This old man, Xehanort, had harmed you and your friends in the past. But you don't have to feel the burden of having to face him alone anymore. I'm here to fight by your side. My sister is also there to fight by your side. So is Emilia-sama, Frederica-san, Garfiel, Beatrice-sama, Otto, and especially Subaru. We are all here to fight alongside you, so you aren't alone. When this Xehanort comes and tries to harm you, we will be there to back you up."

As Rem finished speaking, she looked at Sora in the eyes with a smile before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

This definitely caused him to turn red before he felt her pulling his harm at the direction she was beginning to walk towards.

Sora looked at Rem and that smiled allowed him to calm himself down before walking alongside her towards the direction of where the wagon's located.

While the two were walking side by side, a familiar small girl with her group looked from a distance.

"Why are we being all secretive? Why not speak with the boy?"

"Also why are we still here? I kinda...feeling a bit nervous being here."

The familiar girl looked at the two from her party, understanding their questions to a degree though she turned her attention back to Sora.

"I'm still not needed...however, there's somewhere we should head to first."

"Where?"

"Lugnica. Something's brewing there and it has my curiosity."

"Wait, so we are just leaving this boy and his friends here? Without saying anything?"

"It's not time for me to speak with him yet. Besides, our paths are destined to meet. I'm just first checking on two other investments."

As she said this, she began to walk towards the direction of Lugnica, having a feeling that the world as well as a few...voices are guiding her to head there.

A smile can appear underneath her clothing as she's excited to see how things will be playing out with Subaru and the others with him.