I lied. I did skim through the first episode of xxxholic just so I could refresh myself on stuff like the shop. Have any of you guys seen that show lately? I forgot how freakish the body proportions were. I felt squeamish just watching Watanuki move
…Who exactly was this?
In any normal situation, Cody probably would've drooled all over her. But finding her here in this almost eerie patch of the town, he couldn't help but wonder if there was something more to her than just someone Leon happened to know. Her general demeanor was an uncomfy mix of welcoming and deadly. He was almost too afraid to talk back, like he were an animal praying its foe would lose sight of him if he stayed frozen.
"...A—"
Cody tried to let out a sound, but the overwhelming fumes of mist and tobacco forced him into pained gags.
The mysterious woman tittered almost mockingly. "Perhaps you'd like me to put my pipe away?"
"Yes, please," he wheezed.
She shrugged casually. "Very well then."
With a light tap of her finger, the antique pipe she held disappeared without a trace. That did absolutely nothing to the smoke and stench that was already present in the building, but it was something at least.
"Are you Yuuko?" The squeamish boy nearly choked those words out.
"Yes," she smiled like an idle viper. "Yuuko Ichihara at your service." She peered behind him where the Pokemon duo and Izzy were engaged in a very colorful conversation. "You're the Keybearer Leon spoke about, correct? I just had a quick chat with your two friends back there before you came in."
"Yeah, uh…" He continued eyeing her curiously. "Who exactly are you?"
"My master of course!" Mokona chirped from his fancy seat, earning an encouraging pat from Yuuko.
"I've been helping out this town in the background for a very long time," she responded and held out her hand. "You know, Leon and the others were around this tall when I first met them."
Wait, how old was she?
"He once asked me how old I was and I very nearly drowned him."
There was something very scary about how she could just say that so casually with a smile.
But also, the fact that it happened to Leon of all people was very funny.
"Ah, you're laughing," she mused. "See? I don't bite."
"Oh, yeah, uh," Cody was sent into a skittish blush. "Sorry. I was just a little intimidated is all."
"Why?" She laughed. "Did you think you walked into a specific kind of shop finding such an exotic beauty inside?"
Wh-what?
No?
"I kid, I kid." Her laughter remained in a dignified tone, but he could tell she'd gotten a real kick out of teasing him.
"Y-you," Cody was reduced to a stuttering mess. "You keep avoiding the question."
Yuuko sighed and leaned her head to the side with a disappointed face. He was no fun.
"Like I said, I help this world in the background," she spoke while waving her arm around in an animatedly flowing manner. "There's a magical barrier over the world that acts as a universal translator similar to my little pet here."
"Like me!" Mokona mewed.
"And if it weren't for me, the number of Heartless here would be unmanageable. There's another hidden barrier built to ward off their energy. To the best of my abilities of course."
"And the best of your abilities couldn't prevent that walking armor from swinging around?" For as powerful as she claimed and appeared to be, Cody wasn't particularly impressed.
"If it weren't for me, you probably would have had to deal with two of them," she retorted icily.
POOF!
"Are you trying to pick a fight with my master or something?" Right before his eyes, Izzy popped in from a wave of pitch black smoke and wisps, arms crossed and in a sour defensive position. While Cody yelped at her dramatic arrival, his two friends in the back could be heard going nuts over her exit.
Yuuko was facepalming. "Isadora, what did I tell you about teleportation magic?"
"Aaah, don't you worry," she responded playfully. "There wasn't even a Heartless this time. Watch, I can even do long distance now!"
After mashing her hands together, her body acted as a conductor to balls of green and black that circled around her hands. She heaved her arms backwards and prepared a massive push before shoving them forward once more and creating a large flaming black spiral that consumed almost the entire corner of the room. Izzy's eyes burned with gusto, and Yuuko could do nothing but let out a sigh of regret.
At this point, Al and Loudred had quickly joined Cody in viewing this flame in trepidation. The closest thing the dark flames resembled were the Heartless themselves. And based on Izzy and Yuuko's banter, there was no telling what would be conjured out.
Imagine Cody's surprise when a familiar stout teen came crashing out instead.
"Owen?!"
"Cody! Dude! Where've you been?"
He'd apparently been munching on a sandwich before getting rudely dragged into this house. The ingredients all mixed messily onto the tatami mats, and their grime and juices spread even more as he got up to excitedly greet his fellow former camper. Yuuko's head was now placed firmly on her hand.
"Friend of yours?" Loudred asked, eyeing the new face in amusement. Al meanwhile, being his usual self, glared with suspicion.
"Kind of. We're from the same world. But…" He turned back towards Owen. "You were MIA back then. How did you get here?"
"You can thank little 'ol me." Izzy vaulted up from behind her maybe-boyfriend and landed in a triumphant sitting position on the edge of his shoulder.
"Yeah," Owen nodded in fervent adoration. "I was stuck in this really creepy castle for days. There were a bunch of weird people walking around and saying a bunch of ominous stuff. I had to hide in the library for what felt like forever. I mean, it was next to the greenhouse, so at least I had stuff to eat the whole time."
"Wait, wait, wait," Cody shook his hands around in disbelief. "Hold on. Izzy, you teleported him here from another world?"
"Yup, yup!" She lounged on Owen in an almost feral animalistic position.
…Could it really be that easy?
This was the first real glimmer of hope he'd seen since his journey first began. If Izzy could drag Owen across countless worlds to where they stood now…
She could do the same for them, couldn't she?
"Hey," he continued with a renewed sense of determination in his eyes. "Listen, I'm going to be real. Not everyone from the island got here safely, right? If you can teleport them over…"
"You wanna be all Mr. Steal-Your-Girl with Gwen, right?" Izzy grinned suggestively.
He gawked. "What, no. I want to bring Trent back too."
"Ooh, a threesome?"
"NO!"
"Whaaaaatever," she cheerfully rolled her eyes before wriggling her fingers around in anticipation. "Some missing campers, coming right up!"
Pearls of darkness once again took form around her delicate hands. The locks of unknown energy waxed around in the air, trying to build up as much momentum as it could. Cody watched the building threads with such bated breath, it caught on to his three companions who also stood around in awe.
Owen, who still acted as the young sorceress-in-training's pedestal and cushion, began to sweat up a storm being right in the center of her conjuring. A memory was flooded in. "Hey, Izzy," he gulped. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Whaaaaat? Pssh, it's fine." She brushed his worries aside. "It worked the first time, it'll work again. I'm gonna bring everyone back, baby!"
"Absolutely not."
Yuuko's hand clasped firmly around both of Izzy's, which forced the black threads to tear and waft away weakly into the misty room. Izzy stared, stunned. Yuuko carried around a soft yet icy face, not quite exasperated, but very clearly stern in her disapproval.
"Wh-wh-wh-whyyyyy?!" Izzy griped like a petty child.
"I would best advise not to request such a task from my apprentice again," the older woman explained carefully to Cody. "Teleportation magic requires channels to be opened in a realm that every world shares. As a Keybearer, you should probably have recognized what that might mean."
The crew gulped in realization. That gut feeling they had earlier concerning the familiar dark nature of Izzy's little parlor trick seemed to have been correct.
"Just getting Isadora's friend here," her eyes motioned towards Owen. "Caused quite a calamity. Heartless after Heartless were storming the town. And he didn't even come with them in her first dozen attempts. You four are honestly very lucky you got here after Leon and the others finally calmed the storm."
"Oh man, don't even remind me," Owen moped around dramatically. "One moment, I was flipping through some comics while downing a fistful of carrots. The next, whoo boy, I was nearly drowning in the canal just outside the hideout, and this giant black monster was about to eat me."
"But it didn't!" Izzy yelled, apparently taken aback that even Owen turned against her over this. "I punched it before it ripped your guts out. It wasn't that bad!"
Yuuko tightened her grip which elicited a tinged squeal of pain from the chaotic girl.
"Well, if you're looking for any kind of praise…" With a snap of her fingers from her one free hand, the elusive sketchbook magically manifested. "I suppose the sudden information gathering was worthwhile. Thank you for the delivery by the way, Keybearer." Her slight blank expression changed to an almost seductive smirk. "Unfortunately, I don't do tips."
Cody cocked his head. To be honest, he almost forgot about the thing despite being the reason why he was here in this bizarre cottage to begin with. "There a story behind that?"
"I was lounging around by a pile of books when Izzy pulled me here, so they all came with me," Owen laughed it off like a humorous memory.
"Luck will have it," Yuuko continued. "The books that happened to come with him were all intriguing finds. Some, like this one, have mysterious mystical qualities. Others seemed to be old research notes that tie into our little Heartless predicament here. Unfortunately…"
Yuuko, who had been twiddling around with the musty book, carefully maneuvered her fingers to display the pages wide open. While it wasn't surprising the pages themselves were all crinkled and creased based on the general condition of the volume, the real alarming sight were the abnormal splotches randomly slapped and splayed around page-by-page. It would've been easy to assume they were mere ink blots carelessly splattered about, but for our crew, they could sense their true nature instantly.
"...Because of how world jumping works, they all ended up stained by the darkness. Not to mention waterlogged from their unfortunate train stop."
Yuuko clasped the corrupted pages shut and forced the entire sketchbook itself to warp away from vision. What took its place however was a new book, one that more closely resembled an unkempt diary with its messy and protruding pages that seemed to extend beyond the number the book originally came with. Yuuko held out her hand and offered the boys their next delivery item.
"Leon, Cid, and I have been going back-and-forth trying to salvage whatever we can from these things. I just finished my ounce of work on this one. Would you mind taking it back to Leon? He's especially curious about it."
"I guess we're a lost-and-found now," Loudred lightly joked around, earning a typical eye roll from his psychic companion.
Just as Cody reached over to take hold of the book, an unfortunate incident brew before them. While Yuuko was busy filling in the gaps for her guests, her grip on the maniacal teen had naturally waned over time. There was nothing to stop her now, and with the added annoyance towards how harshly her powers were denied just a few minutes beforehand, she wasn't going to hold back.
Izzy's hands broke free in a powerful charge that forced her entire body to propel forward and for Owen to tumble to the floor. Just as quickly as they left, the pure black essence built up once again and threaded themselves into a larger and larger curl of dark energy. This time, it wasn't just a quick throw to the ground like when she summoned Owen to the house.
This one was practically a hecking energy beam.
A pillar of darkness blasted right through the building with overwhelming force. The door crashed straight open which allowed the shadowy splurge to continue out into the wild in a cascading river of unlit grime. It was already an alarming sight, but a trained eye could see that this little portal didn't just spit out droves of black muck. These garbled splotches were Heartless; an entire river of them had just been let loose into the Traverse Town team's watery lair.
Cody and the others gaped in horror. They remembered how Aerith and Yuffie lovingly described this space. It was a place of safety and calm, somewhere where even the Heartless couldn't find them. And with how Yuuko alluded that her presence helped to keep these monsters at bay…
…Those things just broke past the tightest barrier in the town through a careless loophole and stumbled into somewhere they were never supposed to enter.
"W-we gotta go!" Cody squeaked, tucked away the bloated journal, and made a mad dash out of there.
In an instant, the number of occupants in the building were suddenly halved. When the Keybearer left, his comrades went with him; Yuuko's own little pet included. Now, the shop's mistress was left alongside two teenagers flailing around on the ground; one who snorted out prideful screams of mania and one who continued to spread the mess of sandwich condiments that came with him much earlier into a gross mush across the floor.
Yuuko stood silently with both the indifference of a disconnected bystander and the chagrin of a disappointed mother.
Izzy had been her apprentice for less than a week and Yuuko was already intent on sealing off at least half of her abilities for good.
oOo
It was just as they'd feared. Right by the initial entranceway of the hideout, a huge crowd of Heartless had gathered after Izzy's little stunt, threatening to break free out into the open. It was already bad enough that they'd invaded this place of peace. They knew they had to take them out as soon as possible.
If they didn't, Leon and the others would freaking kill them.
They split into all corners of the room and hacked, slashed, bashed, and blasted. With all the experience that they'd gathered thus far, it was a breeze; a surprising difference compared to how much they struggled to take on even the smallest groups back when their journey began. Even so, numbers were numbers, and they could only keep going for so long before their movements started to grow careless. To think, if Izzy had summoned this mess at any other part of town, it would've been much much worse.
Cody, stationed near the rear end of the room closest to the tunnel they arrived from moments before, was just about ready to finish off his set. His movements became menial and sloppy, and his sense of awareness was replaced with nothing more than a desire to just quickly wrap this incident up. By the time he'd seemingly finished off his last Heartless, he'd already mentally tuned out of his physical stance.
And he was left completely unaware of the one stray Heartless Soldier that was about to slash its mangy claws into his back.
The others cried out in alarm. He was out of his battle-ready state and responded with a confused pause before he realized the world of hurt that he was about to be in. Those tiny seconds were enough to turn the tables. Cody forced himself into a defensive position and slung his Keyblade in front like a shield, hoping to mitigate as much damage as he could.
The attacking soldier was no more.
Its shadowy entrails fazed out in the hazy air, a rugged earth green saber having slashed right through it.
Cody couldn't believe his eyes.
"Whoo," Trent cooly swept a slight glimmer of sweat off his brow. "Got it just in time." He flashed a friendly, and almost relieved looking smile. "'Sup, Codester?"
Holy crap.
"Trent?!" Cody's mouth flew wide open, his eyes soaring around his friend while he made sure he was actually there.
…Was he? Was he going crazy again? Was this a matching Trent to the phantom Gwen?
Cody grabbed hold of Trent's cheeks and pulled them out as wide as he could.
"Wh—" Trent quickly slapped him off. "Dude, what the heck?"
"Oh shit, it actually is you," Cody continued to gape in disbelief. "You're not dead!"
"Why would I be?"
"Back on the island, when I found you at the cliff…" Perhaps this wasn't the best time to bring that grim moment up. "You know what? Never mind." In his continued excitement, he turned towards his other friends and frantically gestured for them to join him. "Guys, it's him!"
"Who?" Mokona asked as he and the others skipped over.
"Trent!" Cody waved his hands, enthusiastically presenting his friend. "This was one of the guys I was searching for."
"Uhh," the taller boy cautiously raised his eyebrow as he looked over the colorful cast of otherworldly creatures that approached him. But true to form, despite his utter confusion at the current situation, he floated right back to his typical laid back smile and gave out a small wave. "What's up?"
"Oh, yeah, Trent, these are my buddies, Alakazam, Loudred, and Mokona."
The three greeted him in their typical animated manners; Al with a shaky and awkward stance that feigned dignity, Loudred with an over friendly cheer like an embarrassing dad meeting his kid's schoolmates for the first time, and Mokona with his signature hyperactive glee.
"...Huh…"
"Dude, you gotta come with us," Cody continued, still heavy with enthusiasm. "You and Gwen were just straight up missing, so we've been traveling world-to-world looking for you two."
"And the King," Loudred piped.
"Yeah, yeah, him too," Cody waved the reply off flippantly before directing his attention back to Trent. "So, how about it? You've already got a weapon too, so why not?"
"Weapons, huh," he commented. "You're fighting those little guys on the regular then?"
"Yup," Cody nodded before flaunting his Keyblade around in boastful twirls and flutters. "Saving the worlds with this Keyblade here. We aren't just traveling around; we are kicking ass!"
"...Uh huh…"
"So, come on. Join us! You and the guys will get along great."
"Hey, I never okayed any of this," Al furrowed his brow. He was about to voice a long trail of complaints, but was quickly cut off by Loudred's much friendlier tenor.
"We'd love to have you! Hopefully the ship won't be too cramped."
"Ehh, Cid's basically building a new one for us," Cody added. "Maybe we can ask him to give us more space."
"Leon's gonna keep calling you names if we're stuck here even longer for repairs," Mokona giggled like he already anticipated it.
…Oh wait, shit, Leon.
"Oh crap," Cody bit his tongue before reaching for the tattered journal. He was so taken in by the shock of reuniting with his first friend that he'd almost forgotten about the new task he was entrusted with. As much as he wanted to catch up with Trent, he had a job to do.
"Hey, if you want to come with, we've got a ship near the edge of town, right by the plaza. Er, uh, at least I think we still have one. Long story."
Cody sprung off into a quick sprint with the rest of his three companions following suit. His last lines echoed off through the old and musty walls.
"We'll meet you there!"
…
…
…
Trent waved them off with the usual soft and friendly smile he was known for. That entire conversation, he kept up his image and acted as relaxed as he normally would, acted as calm and collected as he normally would…
…He was irritated.
His kind smile slowly fell into a spiteful frown. There was no need to keep up appearances. That entire exchange was equal parts exhausting and maddening. He was used to going with the flow and hiding his true demeanor, but there was something especially exasperating about this instance. It was partially the sudden whiplash of being thrown into a new world with freakish new faces. It was also the flow of words and info with little to no real explanation behind them.
But what probably irritated him the most was Cody himself.
He remembered the little heart-to-heart they shared the day before everything happened. They talked about their general friendless backgrounds, their inability to really connect to the world and people around them, their disillusioned sense of selves. And yet, he spoke so comfortably with those strange new friends of his, feverishly flaunting around his new hero role like it was absolutely nothing. Even worse, he tried to invite him into that nonsense as if he didn't remember a single thing from their little talk. Normally, he'd just roll his eyes, bury his grievances, and move on, but…
"What a load of crap."
A burst of dark energy erupted beside him, much like the otherworldly portals Izzy carelessly tossed around earlier. Only this time, it wasn't an unwanted crowd of Heartless or a friendly face popping out. It was the sinister witch who'd taken control of the castle that Trent was stranded in just moments before.
Trent let out a low aggressive sigh before cautiously side eyeing Maleficent. "For the last time, I'm not joining your little Bad Guy Club."
"Such a thorough response. And after all the trouble I went into fetching you after your sudden disappearance." Maleficent spoke with her usual stone cold veneer, completely unwavered by Trent's blunt rejection. She had the look of someone who was certain everything would go her way even in the worst possible scenario.
Deep in his heart, Trent realized he was probably doomed to fall under her the very moment he landed himself in that cold and desolate world. Even if he kept refusing, she knew he had no choice but to fall under grasp.
He would have to if he wanted to save Gwen.
Maleficent remained silent as she continued studying him with her hollow and frozen gaze.
oOo
"Please stop crying," Aerith rubbed her temples with a mix of concern and desperation.
"Please. I will get on my knees and beg for you to stop," Yuffie added with a much less compassionate tone.
"Leon, say something," the kinder girl urged.
"Aeri, he's gonna make it worse. You know that."
Leon twitched.
Off in the town plaza, the trio had arrived at their usual cafe for a quick lunch. Their time of peace was over before it even started. Right in the center of the establishment, far from the other patrons who just barely tolerated his outburst, a teenager clad in summer party gear and a cowboy hat made an absolute mess of his table while he wailed like a waterfall during a rainstorm.
"This guy normally loiters at the cafe down the street, doesn't he?" Yuffie asked while rubbing the sides of her head in prep for an oncoming migraine.
"Guess the owner finally got sick of him," Leon groaned quietly before gently placing his head in his palm.
"Bridge," Geoff choked out an almost indecipherable plea while he continued to sniffle up a storm. "Where are you?"
"There you guys are!"
Cody and his team clamored over to the spacious cafe setting, all full of smiles and eagerness, before realizing just how much a certain moping teen's routine meltdown had brung down the mood. Leon and the others could only greet the group with frowns and uncertain shrugs.
"Oh, thank God, you guys are here," Yuffie said as she grabbed ahold of Mokona. She desperately waved around the little creature in a haphazard attempt to cure Geoff's sorrow fest with sheer cuteness. Of course, nothing came of her attempt. In fact, he may have even started to sob harder.
Cody peered over at him with a tinge of embarrassment. Geoff's issues had absolutely nothing to do with him, but the very fact that he knew the guy well enough to figure out why he was like this was enough to make him bemoan what little association he had with him.
"He's from your world, right?" Aerith looked over towards Cody. At this point, the hands she had used to massage her head had moved over her ears. "Do you know anything that can calm him down?"
Cody cringed. "Yeah, uh, he's probably upset that his girlfriend's missing."
"I can't do this alone, babe," Geoff once again sobbed out garbled sounds that vaguely resembled words. "Bridgette, please come back."
"Poor guy," Loudred said while he loudly slapped Geoff's back. It may have been a prompt for motivation, but everyone knew he was just making things worse. "I guess they were really close, huh?"
"You're telling me," Cody replied. "They haven't even been dating for a whole month and I can barely remember a moment where the two weren't making out. I don't even know if they actually talk to each other with how much they smack their lips."
Leon had heard enough. He stormed off in disgust towards the opposite end of the building while his two companions continued their futile attempts to stop the living fire hydrant.
"Hey, wait up!" Cody shouted off as he and his crew followed.
Leon sighed, leaned against the balcony railings, and gazed up at the endless night sky. Geoff's little episode could still be heard whirring around in the background, but for now, this was good enough for a quick moment of peace.
"Still stuck at six…"
"What's that?"
Leon looked over his shoulder and struggled to hold back a sigh. Cody and his merry pack of morons had come to bug him some more. Just like that, his few seconds of peace were over.
"The clock tower," Leon mumbled. He pointed plainly towards the highest building in town. "Never budged an inch since we've been living here. Always six on the dot."
"Huh," Al mused. "Come to think of it, it was six back then too."
"Yeah," Loudred chuckled. "Back when we got knocked straight off of there."
"That was super fun!" Mokona cooed while Al shuddered silently beside him.
"You four didn't come here for small talk," Leon cut the three off. The sooner he figured out why they were there, the sooner they'd leave. "What do you want?"
As friendly as ever, Cody couldn't help but grind his teeth at the awkward affair. He reached for his pockets and presented the small yet bulky journal to the daunting man.
"Yuuko said you guys were recovering a bunch of books? Apparently, it's your turn to handle this one."
Leon snatched the book without even a word.
A simple "thank you" would've been nice.
"Is that it?" Leon eyed the young Keybearer who he hoped would've just left right away.
The meek teen sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Well, Yuuko said that the books you guys found have info relevant to, well, everything that's going on. So…"
"Spill the beans if you know what's good for you!" Mokona squealed.
A brief pause blew by before Leon settled on a resigned shrug. "Well, there's no reason not to tell you, so I don't see why not.
"Do you happen to remember that Ansem guy Yuffie brought up back at the hotel?"
Cody bit his tongue. "I think?"
"He was that researcher guy who led your world, right?" Loudred chirped. "Aerith let us in the know too."
"Right," Leon nodded. "Well believe it or not, guess who happened to be the owner of that mini library that popped out of nowhere."
"Oh wow," Cody said in admiration. "Now that is lucky."
"Aerith said Ansem might have knowledge on how to fix all this, right?" Al asked. "Did you guys get anything good?"
"Have you heard of the Princesses of Heart?"
The four looked at one another with blank expressions.
"According to Ansem's research, every world has a so-called 'Princess'. Someone who represents the very embodiment of their world's light. In a way, you can think of them as living Keyblades. They're both the natural enemies to the Heartless but also their prey."
Cody scrunched up his face in wariness. There was something about this little info dump that bothered him. Like he could feel there was an answer to a question none of them ever thought to ask.
"So…the Heartless are coming after them just like they are with my Keyblade. There's something more behind that, yeah?"
Leon was almost taken aback before answering with a nod. He was surprised that the lackluster wielder was perceptive enough to piece that all together. "According to the reports, among these princesses, there's these 'Seven Hearts of Pure Light'. From what I understand, they're a select group whose hearts shine brighter than the rest. And well…" His face that was already in a fairly sullen state sunk into an even deeper frown. "We have reason to believe they're major targets for something larger."
…
Alakazam was the first to react. His eyes bulged and his body jolted in a delayed sense of shock. That nagging feeling Cody had spread to the rest of the gang. There was something weird about what transpired back at Green Hill Zone. The way she so easily plowed through the Heartless even when the rest of them struggled; the way that her capture was prioritized for seemingly no rhyme or reason; the way she just up and vanished after such a forceful exit.
Could Amy have been…?
The air grew cold and still as the four eyed each other knowingly with haunted expressions. Leon watched over them in confusion. This simple info sharing moment suddenly made an unexpectedly serious turn.
"Someone's kidnapping them, right?" Al practically barked at Leon, startling him. "What are they planning to do with them?"
"Uh," he seriously didn't expect the four to take this so seriously. "That, I don't know." Leon held up the journal that Cody had delivered just moments before. "We're trying to figure that out as we speak. My guess though; just like how the Keyblade can lock and unlock darkness, those seven must be able to give access to something."
"That's all?" Al groaned impatiently. "You don't even know who's doing it?"
"Hey, Al, come on." Loudred eyed Leon apologetically while he attempted to calm his friend down.
"Sorry," Cody spoke wearily. "There's a huge chance we might've met one of these Seven Hearts."
"And?"
"She went missing."
Leon sneered and pinched his nose in frustration. This time, it wasn't in irritation over the crew's incompetence or antics. With what they just revealed to him, he understood why they were quickly thrown on edge.
"So someone's already started then."
"We're," Cody gulped. "We're planning on bringing her back."
"You're gonna have to do more than that," Leon shook his head. "Who knows how many of them they have already. You might just have to preemptively look out for them the moment you head back out… Speaking of…"
The group's attention moved beyond and below the tiles of the cafe. A familiar pair of catgirl children, their supposed spherical guardian, and their actual guardian all waved expectantly near the gates of the plaza. It was hard to imagine, but it appeared the four had rebuilt their entire ship in record time.
"Well, I guess we can't keep them waiting," Loudred was the first to speak and led the rest to follow him out of the building.
The three nonhumans of the group gave their quick goodbyes to Leon before skipping over Geoff's table to do the same with the ladies. Unfortunately, Aerith and Yuffie were still much too preoccupied with the party teen's increasingly blaring predicament to give them a proper send-off. They could only give strained nods and smiles as their hands had long been glued over their ears for defense.
The Pokemon took the hint and made a swift departure. Mokona however, seemingly insulted by the low effort farewells, prompted to launch himself out of the room by using Geoff's head as a platform. As he propelled himself out and away, the poor guy's head was forced hard onto the table, knocking him out in a daze. Yuffie wasted no time to begin cheering uproariously while Aerith was split in between joining her or reacting to Geoff's injury in aghast.
Cody, the one straggler left behind, watched the scene with the strange mix of fascination, dismay, and amusement. He tried to keep a sense of outward dignity, feigning sincere sympathy over Geoff's dilemma, but once one snort left his mouth, a larger outburst followed. As quickly as his little chucklefest began however, it just as soon fizzled out. He had to remember where he was, or rather, who he stood next to.
Leon stared down at the young teen. His gaze wasn't full of contempful judgment like it normally would be. But it was Leon. Just being around him and having his full attention was enough to fill Cody with anxiety.
"I…I gotta go." he tiptoed away. "See you, I guess."
…
Leon looked back at the clock tower. The moment they'd discovered the Keybearer, they all knew things were going to accelerate. Whether or not they were as prepared as they thought they were was another question. These new developments seemingly popped out of nowhere, and, as much as he hated to admit it, all he could really do was sit back and watch.
It was all up to that guy from here on out.
"Six o'clock as always…"
oOo
Al's eyes shined like the excited yelp of a playful pup. He ran around and examined every nook and cranny of the new and improved ship and cooed over it all like he'd just received a new toy.
"How did you guys make it so fast?" He asked with an elevated pitch.
"Well, there's four of us," Cid replied. "I'd be disappointed if we didn't patch it up quickly."
"Unpaid child labor, nyu," Puchiko added with a flat and monotone voice, completely impossible to tell if she had genuine resentment or not.
"This is impressive even with four pairs of hands," Loudred lauded as he admired the handiwork just as fervently as the other Pokemon was. "I really thought we were gonna be stuck here for days."
"Well, what can I say, nyo?" As she swung around a wrench with little care, Degiko laxly leaned against the ship with a smarmy self congratulatory look that looked completely out of place with her cute and petite looks. "A real star has to be the best at everything, even mechanic work, nyo."
"You accidentally hammered your fingers at least a dozen times, gema."
"Oh who asked you, nyo?!"
"Hey, kid," Cid shouted out in a panic. "If you shoot out those eye lasers of yours, we're back to square one!"
"I can shoot out lasers too!" Mokona giggled thoughtlessly while he hopped furiously against one of the wings.
Much too traumatized by their recent near death experience, Al created a small telekinetic field around the rabbit mascot and furiously tossed him like a football into the ship before he even had a chance to cause actual damage.
The tone was both celebratory and rowdy. Cody's crew continued thanking and marveling at the skills of Cid and his workers while the latter group just kept eating it up. In a moment that should've been joyous to mark their return to their journey, Cody was left standing around awkwardly, routinely shifting his eyes throughout the area and being left puzzled each and every time.
"Whatcha doing, kid?" Loudred suddenly popped in beside him, causing the meek geek to jump.
"Oh, uh, nothing. I guess…" He bit his lip. "I guess Trent's not coming with us, huh?"
"Oh, that guy? He just got here, right? He's probably out exploring the town right now."
"Yeah, but," Cody crossed his arms uncomfortably. "I don't know. I would've figured he'd want to find his girlfriend."
"Trouble in paradise perhaps?" Loudred suggested jokingly.
"I, uh…you're not serious, right?"
"If you find her first, maybe she'll even let you take his place."
A voice screaming "Absolutely not" kept ringing in Cody's head.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Loudred brushed his perhaps ill fitted jokes aside and pulled Cody along towards the ship. "Can't dawdle around! What are all the worlds and princesses gonna do without the Keybearer saving them?"
The loud and raucous scene ended, and the ship began to make its way out of the town's sight. The excitement that Cody's arrival brought subsided, and all of their Traverse Town friends and acquaintances returned to faking lives of normalcy. All was quiet, all was calm, and not far from the ship's zone of exit, a certain someone looked on towards the trail of the ship with resentment.
Whelp, that was the most disjointed chapter yet. All because I was desperate to wrap the revisit up within two chapters.
Also, according to my outline doc, I'm apparently a quarter of the way into the fic. I doubt it'll happen, but it'd be nice to wrap this up within the year.