*Disclaimer* - I do not own the copyright to Kingdom Hearts, Toaru Majutsu no Index, or any other series/characters that will appear in this story.

*A/N* - Hey… long time no see. Been a while… probably been too long. Sorry about that. I'll take the blame for this long delay. While life once again had some unexpected things pop up, most of my time in February and March was taken up by some things. *cough* *cough* Persona *cough* Final Fantasy *cough*. Nevertheless, I'm back and got some crazy ideas for the story's progression. Also, I do blame a bit of writer's block kicking in. However, it was nothing too serious, just the occasional feeling of putting off updating the chapter. Alas, enough about my whining.

This chapter will start to move things in an orderly fashion as we are still days ahead of Daihasei and there are a lot of things that take place around this time. Whether it's from the Magical Index side of things or the Scientific Railgun events, things do get quite busy. However, with Sora's inclusion in this story, things might be touched upon or might be different. So, if things don't pan out the way you're expecting then good. That means I'll have subverted expectations for better or worse. Either way, our Keyblade wielder is in for a tough yet eventful time. And with that, I'd like to thank you once again for checking this story out whether you're a KH fan, Toaru fan, or a fan of any other series I reference in this story as that's going to be a developing trend. I hope what I've done so far is at the very least fun. Feedback and reviews have also been a nice thing to read. Now then, thanks again and enjoy the next part of this story.

No one uttered a single word.

The air surrounding the area had been consumed with a heavy sense of tension so thick that a knife wouldn't come close to cutting it at all. Moreover, it didn't help that the three individuals currently standing in the area all wielded abilities that could turn this upside down. The Keyblade wielder, the wielder of Imagine Breaker, and the formidable magician affiliated with Necessarius. Each of the boys was eyeing one another closely. Waiting to see who would make the first move.

"Tch. I'm done wasting my time."

Styil, being the one who said this, suddenly stepped back while keeping his eyes shifting from Sora to Touma, but mainly he was focused on the spiky-haired brunette.

"I'm aware of your annoyances, Kamijou. I plan on wearing you down from a distance. However, …" the red-haired magician then nodded his head over at Sora. "It's him that I'm more concerned about."

The Keyblade wielder's only answer was to glare at him while not saying anything. This entire ordeal had been a negative one right off the bat, and it was thanks to the red-headed magician's behavior toward the two.

"Stiyl- "

It was at this point that Stiyl suddenly pulled a flaming sword from his large coat and swung it forward causing a burst of shockwaves to scatter across the area.

Seeing this random attack, Sora immediately dashed to Touma and grabbed him by the shoulder before jumping right up in the air. This caused Kamijou to go wide-eyed and let out a brief yell before stopping and seeing the magician's attack cover the ground. It appeared that the attack was a wide one with the center being the hotspot to cause problems.

It was also at this point of realization that Touma could see him and Sora falling back to the ground from the jump. Questions flooded Kamijou's head for how it was possible to be this high in the sky, but then he remembered Sora's strange abilities and easily dismissed half of the questions. However, what he didn't account for was the speed at which he and Sora were heading to the ground leaving him flailing and breaking the Keyblade wielder's hold on him.

"Aaaah!"

*PLOP*

The sound of Touma hitting the ground face first was pretty rough even though they weren't that high in the air. Sora felt bad about not holding onto him tight enough and would apologize later, but right now his attention was focused on the red-haired magician who was starting to irritate him.

"Touma!? You good?"

The only response given by the misfortunate boy was a muffled, "Mm-hm."

Nodding at that response, Sora was now glaring at Stiyl.

"What's the big idea?! You were seriously going to attack us?" he questioned with annoyance in his voice.

A simple huff was Stiyl's response before pulling a cigarette from his jacket and lighting it with the use of the flame sword by his side.

"What the hell Stiyl!?" Kamijou shouted at the magician as stood back up. "You hid rune cards around the area before we even got here? How?! Why?!"

"You know the obvious answer, idiot. It's not an effective trap if things aren't already in order" the red-haired man then glanced down at the sword. "The target is restricted with the first wave allowing me to strike. Making sure to end the target while they are constrained."

Shooting his eyes around the area, Touma realized that Stiyl must have taken the extra precaution and gone about placing the runes in sweet spots. Not to mention, when it came to magicians and their casting of spells position had a whole lot of significance.

A simple charge might elicit a barrier of some kind. Probably a firewall that would prevent him from knocking the magician right on his ass. It was also smart to consider that with caution in mind, the magician's magic was amplified due to the rune cards set up all over the place.

"That's real cheap, Styil! Getting home-field advantage and being prepared for a fight" Touma yelled out.

"And what will you do now?"

Just as Touma was about to reply, Sora took a step and raised his Keyblade.

"THIS!"

With the Keyblade raised in the air, the tip of the weapon glowed a bright blue color before water appeared out of thin air. The torrent of water was then flung right at the magician.

"WATER!"

It was right then that a wall of fire shot up from the ground and clashed with the water causing a massive cloud of steam to appear and forcing Stiyl to wave the sword forward and send out another barrage of shockwaves.

Seeing this sudden attack, Touma dashed forward while also seeing Sora spin his Keyblade before seemingly casting another magical spell due to his weapon now glowing a lighter blue color.

"Stiyl!" roared Kamijou as he continued to dart toward the magician.

However, just as Touma had taken another few steps forward, a brief scoff could be heard coming from Stiyl.

"I've seen enough. You really thought that would work?"

It was at this point that Touma could feel something off about the situation and turned his eyes toward the fire while also hearing what could be described as a roaring sound growing.

*WHOOSH!*

Suddenly, a pillar of fire shot up from the ground to block Imagine Breaker's path causing Touma to halt his body and throw himself back on the ground. His eyes then scanned the pillar to see that a humanoid figure was embellishing itself in the flames while taking on a familiar form. One that he recognized quite clearly now.

This fiery figure was better known as Innocentius.

Bewildered by this new foe on the battlefield, Sora didn't waste any time and started sprinting from the side all while casting a flurry of Water spells at the scorching foe.

*PSSSH*

*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR*

Steam had now clouded the area leaving Touma the chance to scramble back to his feet and frantically think about what to do next. While his right hand could negate Innocentius that effect wouldn't last long due to the runes placed around the area. The regenerative power supported by the flames could cause the monster to return within seconds. Leaving this to be an unfair fight.

"Take this!"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Touma then spotted Sora blitzing right in front of him with what appeared to be a blue light coursing throughout his body. He then slammed his Keyblade right into the side of Innocentius causing the fiery monster to be pushed back causing its' attention to be directed at the spiky-haired brunette.

"What are you…?" muttered Sora as he gripped the Keyblade's handle and stared right at the creature made of flames.

*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR*

Innocentius then swung its left hand right at Sora expecting to either crush the boy with flames or send him flying.

However, what the monster and its master didn't account for was the spiky-haired teen able to block the attack with both his hands holding onto his strange weapon.

*DING!*

The sound of the Keyblade stopping the fire and leaving its wielder untouched could be heard and caused both Touma and Stiyl to stop for a moment.

"Ha! You're not getting rid of me that easily! Hyah!

Sora then put his weight into pushing the Keyblade off the creature's hand and started swinging his weapon right across Innocentius's hand. This caused the monster to let out a mighty roar before slamming its entire body down causing a massive wave of fire to head toward the boy.

Touma, who was not the main target now, had to throw his right hand in front of him and negate the flames heading his way. It was also right then that he shut his eyes to prevent being blinded by the bright flames. Hence, once the flames barely touched his right hand a glass-breaking sound could be heard.

*GLASS BREAK*

Opening his eyes, Kamijou could see that the flames bypassed where his arm was extended leaving the area behind him devoid of any damage, but everywhere else had been heavily torched. He then turned his attention back to Sora who was now actively battling against Innocentius.

*SWISH!*

*SWOOSH!*

*ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR*

Dodging to the side, Sora narrowly missed being slashed by the flaming monster before casting a point-blank Water spell right at the creature causing another burst of steam to appear. It was right then that the Keyblade wielder seemed to immediately start spinning his Keyblade while also jumping back before propelling himself with Prism Wheel right at Innocentius' face.

"BACK OFF!"

Upon meeting the monster's face, blasts of energy appeared around the Keyblade which also threw Innocentius back leaving enough room for the spiky-haired teen to then start swinging the weapon up and down along its jaw. Before long, Sora then landed a horizontal slash across Innocentius' face and sent it flying back all while the Keyblade wielder did not look weakened or tired at all.

Styil's reaction to seeing his summoned monster be whacked around so easily left him gritting his teeth. It was enough dealing with Kamijou and his damned right hand, but now dealing with Sora and his unpredictable abilities was causing him quite the dilemma. This plan had not gone the way he thought it would.

It was at this point, seeing Innocentius be pushed back by Sora, that Touma seemed to realize something crucial to this entire fight. Something that could rip apart his view of Stiyl and how he fought in battle.

"Is that really the same Innocentius I fought before?" Touma said aloud for Stiyl to hear all while grinning cockily. "There's no way. Can't you power it up? Or… summon another one?"

The subtle reaction on the magician's face was enough for Kamijou to warrant his idea some more merit.

"You can't summon more than one… You've just been standing there like an idiot and not making any advances!"

A quick scoff could be heard from Stiyl while he flung his hand forward seemingly commanding Innocentius to charge at Imagine Breaker.

However, what the magician seemed to forget was that there was another here with them, and he made it quite clear not to forget his presence.

"FREEZE!"

Suddenly, several spells of Ice magic were shot right at the fiery monster causing it to be held in place due to the ice having exploded and covered both the ground and creature's body.

Given the opportunity, Touma sprinted right for Stiyl while side-stepping past all the flames that had covered the ground. Feeling the heat hit his body and seeing nothing but flames in his sight, Kamijou made sure to keep himself mobile and not get trapped by any of the flames. He even made sure to keep his right hand at the ready in case the magician laid more traps around the area.

Stiyl, witnessing Kamijou run across the torched land, activated his flame sword while also chanting an unfamiliar language to the two boys. With a heavy slash, more shockwaves were sent across the ground causing Sora to jump into the air and aim his Keyblade right at him with the weapon glowing blue at the tip. Stiyl then saw the black-haired boy coming right for him causing the sword to now be held defensively in front of his face.

Alas, that didn't matter at all as Kamijou was practically in front of the magician with his fist primed and ready to slam him right in the face. In one fluid movement, Imagine Breaker had slammed right into the flaming sword causing it to become negated, and left Stiyl completely defenseless and wincing at the impending impact from the boy's fist.

However, that impact never came.

Touma's right fist had stopped mere inches away from the red-haired man's face causing him to raise his eyebrows at the misfortunate boy.

"…What? Holding back today? Why'd you stop?"

Sending a glare at him, Touma's eyes then seemed to relax and took on a softer look and stared right at him.

"What's the point? Why… are we even fighting?"

And with that, Touma raised his extended-out fist and simply flicked Stiyl's forward leaving him stumped on what just happened. Sora, who had been watching this exchange, simply let his Keyblade go causing it to flash away before walking over to the two. But he still kept an eye on Innocentius who had now broken out of the ice and was quietly watching him get closer to the magician.

"Mind explaining what's going on?" Sora asked, seeing the two winding down. "One minute you're fighting us, the next you're not."

The entire situation had jumped from brief talking to brief fighting. None of it made sense.

Letting out an annoyed sound, Stiyl simply rubbed his forehead before waving his hands forward in a diagonal way. At the same time, Innocentius had stopped moving and started slowly fading away with the flames around its body dying off leaving only a scorched mark on the ground.

Left a bit confused by Stiyl's action, Sora was about to comment on what this all meant but was abruptly stopped when the sound of someone running toward them could be heard.

"Touma!" came the annoyed sound of Index.

Running up to the black spiky-haired boy, the young nun had what looked to be a pout on her face as well as a stern expression ready to be voiced.

"What's going on!? You and Sora left me for one minute and then you two are fighting a magician!"

"That's a lie! You're the one that left us!" Touma fired back while pointing at Index with his index finger.

"I went ahead to investigate the magic circle at the base of these windmills- "

"Turbines" Touma quickly added.

"Whatever! And now you two are fighting!"

Listening to the girl's description of events, the spiky-haired brunette decided to give his own two cents on the matter.

"You've got us all wrong, Index!" Sora said before pointing over at Stiyl. "He's the one who started the fight."

Scoffing at the Keyblade wielder's claim, Stiyl simply pulled out another cigarette from inside his jacket and ignited it with the palm of his free hand before speaking up.

"For the record, I only started it because- "

"And you! You're also part of the blame! You're a skilled magician for Necessarius. You can't be going around and picking fights with people so easily. Especially amateurs! And especially Touma!" Index proclaimed loudly.

"HEY!" shouted Touma. "Why are you singling me out? Sora is here as well."

Standing up straight, Index then pointed over at Sora who comedically pointed at himself.

"That's because Sora has familiarity with magic. More so than you at this point thanks to the Keyblade. The magic I was able to sense from his weapon gave me the idea that he's had far more dealings with magicians and other supernatural beings" she explained to the misfortunate boy.

"*sigh* That's just great…" mumbled Touma.

Seeing his friend look a bit bummed out, Sora immediately stepped in to try and help.

"Don't worry about it, Touma! If anything, you're more familiar with the kind of magic we just dealt with. I don't have a clue about any of what just happened."

Realizing that he had a point, Kamijou simply nodded and had a small smile appear on his lips. However, that quickly switched to a more serious expression on his face as he glanced over at Stiyl. This entire situation had been one mess after another. He wanted to know what was going on.

"Stiyl, what's going on? Who are you after? What's going to happen to the city?"

Shooting the black-haired boy an annoyed look, the red-headed man hastily replied.

"Why do you care? Feeling remorseful for messing up my trap?"

"No, you walking ashtray. I care because I live here. This is my city."

Sora couldn't help but stifle a chuckle that escaped his mouth as he saw Stiyl flick away the cigarette he had finished smoking. His opinion of the red-haired magician was not on the bright end of things.

"…Hmph."

Stiyl's only response was to click his tongue before glancing around the area. Once he did that, he started to speak.

"You just had to ruin my day. *sigh* The enemy I've been sent after is a magic cabal that employs Hindu mythology as their principle. The cabal is known as the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens. They're not that big of a group, coming to be about 40 to 50 people. However, that just means the individual members' passions won't interfere with the rest of the group. Which makes negotiating practically impossible, and it paints them as dangerous."

Taking all this information at face value, Sora was doing his best to keep up with everything that Stiyl was saying.

"The group's distinctive abilities rely on physically attuning their bodies with intense training. Pushing past the normal limit with specialized exercises, fasting for long periods, and other such things. Among other things, that's the reasoning for finding conflict with Academy City" Stiyl finished explaining to the group.

Puzzled by the magician's last bit of explanation, Touma was the first to speak up.

"Why have trouble with Academy City?"

"Did the city do something to this group?" Sora added, trying to also make sense of the situation.

Stiyl then turned his body to look at the two and even glanced over at Index.

"Academy City glorifies itself with Esper technology and the ability to test and refine a student's power. That technology encapsulates scientific training that calculates and breaks down the necessary exercise, rest, food intake, and other factors to exceed one's limit. The magic cabal sees that as an easy way of gaining strength. Viewing the city as a coward to attaining true strength."

Processing this information, Sora immediately thought of his time in Olympus Coliseum and how he had been there recently to find and regain his strength after almost becoming a vessel for the real Organization XIII. The weight that was placed on his shoulders to regain his strength in time for the Keyblade War was something he recalled quite clearly even now. But the lesson he learned while traversing the world and dealing with Hades' evil scheme allowed him to learn that strength was found differently by everyone. It was different for Herc.

And… it was different for him.

'Something to fight for… with all my heart' Sora thought to himself while recalling those same very words he said to Hercules.

"So…" Touma started saying while scratching the back of his head. "This magic cabal doesn't like Academy City's way of having people exceed their limit with ease and have snuck into the city. And now they're drawing magic circles on turbines and are somewhere in the city? This only sounds like it could get worse."

Stiyl then gave a curt nod before continuing, "I have no idea how far they've gotten, but one idea I do have is that they'll be using Agni's Festival Fire. It's the same method used on the attack at a large sports gym in New Delhi two years ago."

Hearing this, Touma, Index, and Sora all shared worried expressions. It didn't help that Stiyl still kept a casual tone in his voice and his whole attitude was unlike theirs.

"Agni, for those who are unaware and utter morons, is correlated with fire and lightning and is used by the cabal as a symbol. Fundamentally, this allows the spell to alter the outcome of electromagnetic waves. Causing a large-scale problem across one area… maybe more. If they activate Agni's Festival Fire, you can kiss Academy City goodbye as it'll have turned into a burnt crisp."

The faces of Sora and Kamijou were that of horror while Index seemed to be taking this truckload of information at face value and wore a thinking expression. The mere thought of someone trying to do this much damage and destruction to the city left the Keyblade wielder more determined to step in and stop this from happening.

Kamijou then took a step forward while gripping his right hand tightly.

"The pillars of the wind turbines… Agni's Festival Fire…is that-"

"What the cabal has placed on the turbines is only a single part of what builds to the Agni's Festival Fire spell. The connection formed by these countless circles links together to form the true identity of Agni's Festival Fire" Stiyl explained while immediately becoming irritated at the looks Sora and Kamijou were giving him.

On one hand, Sora had his arms folded across his chest and was doing his best to try and understand what was happening. On the other hand, Kamijou looked perplexed with a frown on his face. Hence, this just further annoyed the magician causing him to raise his voice.

"To put it simply for you morons, the spell's effect is to largely amplify the outreach of the electromagnetic waves. If the spell is completed and activated, then the area in its range will turn into a crisp inside an oven. It's also unknown how large the spell's area of effect is."

Stiyl then pointed right at Kamijou's face with a look of disdain before continuing.

"And that right hand of yours destroyed the trap I laid out to capture the cabal. Making the plan a complete waste and alerting them that something has happened."

Frustrated by everything that was happening, Touma then angrily shot back.

"Then we use my right hand to destroy the items that create Agni's Festival Fire!"

"Did you not just hear me? It's unknown how far along the spell has gotten. The only reason nothing has happened yet is because there are still preparations needed to turn Academy City into ash. The magic cabal is also unpredictable. If they wanted to, they could roast an entire district or two. The cabal is only holding back out of greed to see the whole city destroyed. If the symbols for the spell are being destroyed, then there's a chance the cabal will activate the spell. To them, an incomplete result is still better than no result."

Listening to Stiyl's description of this magic cabal caused Sora to ball up his fists while also gritting his teeth. So much seemed to be happening now. First, the Heartless showed up, then the figure known as Darkness and the threat they posed by summoning the Mimic, and now this magic cabal looking to destroy the city. It all angered him.

"Then what do we do? We can't just let them destroy the city!" Sora shouted, showing his concern. "If this spell is growing and getting stronger, then we have to stop it no matter what!"

Agreeing with Sora's words, Touma nodded while giving his thoughts a voice.

"This magic cabal has to be going after other turbines or energy sources. We can meet them head-on."

"No" was Stiyl's only response before he seemingly took a few steps forward and glanced at the city from his viewpoint. "The trap I laid was the most effective way of stopping them. But no thanks to your hand Kamijou, that plan went nowhere. However, that doesn't mean we're without clues. Not foolproof clues but they are still clues."

"Well, what are they?" questioned the Keyblade wielder as he looked eager to get to work.

A sly smirk appeared on the magician's face.

"I'll be using Kamijou as one of the cards in my deck. And now, with your presence…" Stiyl stated while once again pointing at Sora. "You'll be the wild card."

The reaction to hearing Stiyl's plan for how he and Touma would be used against the magic cabal left the spiky-haired brunette to utter a single word to best describe his thoughts, "…What?"

"Hold on! What are you planning? Your plan of keeping us in the dark is getting quite old" remarked Kamijou as he had a very vivid look of annoyance displayed on his face.

"I have to agree with Touma on this" Index said while looking at the red-haired boy. "How are we supposed to know when and where we should be to stop this magic cabal? And how are we supposed to- "

"You'll know when. Don't forget the plan, Kamijou" Stiyl simply said before turning to walk away.

But to make matters worse, the red-haired magician literally threw a prepaid cellphone at Kamijou landing right smack in the middle of his face. Rubbing the damage done to his face, Touma looked at the phone with a perplexed expression.

"Wait! Quit being cryptic and tell us- "Sora started saying to the magician.

However, before the trio knew it, Stiyl had walked right over to the helicopter that had dropped him off and taken his seat while the vehicle had started up. The propeller had started picking up dust and wind causing quite the noise and disobeying over a hundred regulations for its operation and parking. Before long, the magician and helicopter were now skyward and leaving the area while also leaving the trio to watch in silence.

"That bastard! What's his damn problem!? Why can't he be clear and specific about what the plan is? Where is Kanzaki when you need her?" Touma shouted.

It was at this point that Kamijou gave the prepaid phone another look over before pocketing it.

"He didn't even really tell us his plan. Just that he had a clue…" Index muttered while frowning.

With everything that had happened, the Keyblade wielder decided to take a minute and review everything that had happened from first encountering the magic circles around the turbines to coming across Stiyl to then learning about this Hindu magic cabal upset with Academy City. All of it seemed to be quite the departure from his problems with the Heartless and Darkness. However, this also seemed to present a new kind of problem. One that only he would be able to see any correlation between.

'This magic cabal… if they plan to destroy Academy City based on their notions of strength, then… they wouldn't be the only ones looking to cause trouble. The Heartless are still around and I have no idea what Darkness is planning. But… if either Darkness or the Heartless encounter the magic cabal… that can only spell bad news. For me and the others. I can't let that happen!'

Consequently, seeing that it was getting to be nighttime, Sora figured that it would be best to get home before anything else happened.

"We can think about what that guy said later. It's getting late and I don't want to jinx us and have something bad- "

"HELP! HELP!"

"…happen to us… I just had to open my mouth."

Looking for whoever was calling for help, Touma immediately took off leaving Sora and Index in the dust.

"Hey! Wait. Touma!"

"Touma! Grr! He always does this!"

The sight of Touma rushing ahead to help whoever was in need followed by Sora and Index was all that could be seen while the night sky above Academy City continued to get darker. Leaving only a somber sight to behold.

Meanwhile, inside a luxurious open apartment

The figure of Kakine Teitoku could be seen standing in the middle of a room with minimal decorations and next to a window giving him a nice view of the city. The second-ranked Level 5 was currently examining his left hand which was held out in front of him. The events of this evening were still fresh in his mind, and everything discussed with the mysterious figure enshrouded in a dark cloud still rang throughout his head.

"(That power I gave you was merely a push through the door. You've always had great power within yourself. You just never realize the potential you hold. You should be proud of yourself, second-ranked)."

Shaking his head and clutching his hand tightly, the blonde-haired man could see dark mist appearing as well as a dark material expanding along his fingers until the shape and size took the form of a spear. This spear was made of material that had not existed right until the moment he created it. Moreover, as he gave the weapon a closer look, he could see that it had a sleek design while also including a purple glow. Another significant fact about the spear was that at the tip of the weapon, a faint trace of darkness could be found. One of the many benefits gifted to him from his mysterious confidant.

At first, the powers bestowed upon him seemed like nothing more than a creep messing with him. Now, however, it was quite evident that there was more to this power. It made him feel alive. Feel energized, confident, and relaxed. The power of darkness also gave him an insight into how to construct matter with an edge. Such was the case with the spear that he was holding onto now. Even now, this spear seemed to hold the power that he created himself yet there was also unfamiliarity within it.

Alas, there would come a time later when he could fully test out his new abilities. Away from prying eyes that is.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

Letting go of the spear and having it dissolve into a purple light, Kakine then let out an annoyed sigh before addressing whoever was knocking on the door.

"Enter."

With the door to the room opening, a familiar girl wearing a pink dress and blonde curly hair stepped in.

"There you are. You've been out for most of the evening."

"And?"

The blonde-haired girl simply sighed before striding over to one of the couches and took a seat before pulling out her phone and tapping away at it.

"You missed a call with our esteemed contractor. Said School was offered a job and to tell you- "

"Tell him we're not interested" Kakine immediately countered.

The immediate reaction from the blonde-haired boy caused the girl to peer towards him and try to get a read of him. Sadly, the expression on his face even from a side glance could not be understood quite clearly. It appeared that there was something else on the second-ranked Level 5's mind.

"…That's the third job this week that you've declined. The others are starting to worry."

"How about they mind their own business? Worry about themselves. I'm fine. They should be relishing this time they have off. Go shopping. Pick up a hobby. Go to class for that matter. I don't care. Get off my damn back!"

Letting a moment of silence play out between them, the blonde girl then continued the conversation.

"Very well. I'll tell them not to worry. Want me to come up with an excuse for you? Or do you want a simple message to lay out your point?"

"…Gokusai."

"Simple message it is" the girl now identified to be Gokusai replied.

A stern glare was sent to the girl as Kakine simply stared her down for a quick moment before going back to stare at his hand. Over the past few days, it had become apparent that something was going on with the leader of School. This had been picked up on not only by his teammates but also by the contractor who informed them of dark side jobs available for the taking. Usually, the Level 5 was so adamant about taking a job if it was worth both his time and the merit received from completing said job.

However, with the blonde boy canceling jobs multiple times now it was starting to become concerning and suspicious. Moreover, based on how familiar Gokusai was with the Kakine, then she knew that his drive to gain power and overthrow the first-ranked Level 5, Accelerator, was a top priority. And yet, here he was canceling jobs and disappearing for hours on end only to show up for a moment before leaving again. None of it made sense to the girl or her teammates.

"I do have to ask something- "the blonde girl started to say.

"Don't bother" Kakine replied impudently.

Ignoring his rude comment, she continued.

"What you do in your personal life is your business alone. However, I know you…"

"You don't know- "

"I know that power is what you seek. I've been with you long enough to understand your motives and desires. Thinking of him as a rival and how you want nothing more than to beat him. Beating Accelerator and taking his fame, glory, prestige, and opportunities are all you aspire to have. But… lately, it seems that something else has happened. Something that's caught your attention" Gokusai explained while having her full attention directed at the Level 5 standing in front of her.

For a whole minute, the two blondes simply stared at one another with neither of their eyes breaking from contact. On Gokusai's side, she could feel the annoyance and anger spewing from the Level 5's eyes as it looked like he would lash out against her. Alas, from Kakine's eyes, he saw the girl as nothing more than a pain right now. So many other important things were scrambling around in his head and the last thing he wanted to do was give the time of day to her and her assumptions.

"…Tch."

The Level 5 simply scoffed before turning his body around to gaze back out at the city from the large window.

This left Gokusai somewhat perturbed about how his behavior was all over the place. More so than usual that is. She simply could not get a read on what he was thinking now.

"…Kakine- "

"Isn't it past time you left? Don't you have an old geezer to rob and date?"

Left feeling many things from what he had just said, Gokusai simply did not utter a single word and stood up from the couch and made her way out of the room. As she opened the door, the Level 5 half expected her to slam it shut, but he was mildly surprised when she closed it normally. This left him alone yet again.

Allowing a relieved sigh to escape his lips, Kakine then extended his hand and formed what appeared to be a sword drenched in dark material. His ability, Dark Matter, allowed him to create a blade made of metal and matter that did not exist until a second ago when he crafted the weapon and material. Even now, the sword held power only he would have a great deal of understanding, and that alone left him to peer obsessively at the weapon along with many more ideas flooding his mind. Ideas that would get him what he wanted.

The top spot in Academy City.

After having walked out of the room and made her way into another large room that offered a different angle of the night city with its large windows, Gokusai simply held a frown. What the Level 5 had said did not cause her to weep or cry, but it did cause her to think little of him. While she was aware of his ruthless and cold-hearted comments, the look in his eyes showed that she had struck a nerve. Something was not adding up. The once-determined Level 5 to seek power and one-up the current first-ranked Level 5 was nowhere to be seen. Now, standing in his place was someone who was hiding something. Something that she had no clue about but could feel that something was off.

Were the situation any different, she was almost tempted to use her own Esper ability, Measure Heart, on her leader. However, given that he has been acting rather strangely these past few days that might prove to be a terrible idea. Her ability allowed her to regulate the distance between people's hearts, essentially making it so people view her differently whether in a good light or bad light. An ability like this would make getting information out of someone relatively easy by making them see her as a trustworthy confidant. Alas, messing with a Level 5 was practically asking for a swift kick to the hospital… or worse.

Hence, with Kakine's strange behavior being something that she can't put her finger on, she'll just stay on the side and watch him carefully. There had to be a reason for his secretive act.

"Oh? Goukasi. You're still here."

Pulling her attention back to reality, she turned to see a boy sitting on a long couch looking relaxed. He had somewhat spiky hair and was wearing a puffy vest over his shirt. In addition, there seemed to be a pair of metallic goggles resting in his hands as he appeared causally. This boy was known as Yobou Banka, a member of School.

"Yobou. I'm surprised you aren't home."

"There's not exactly a place I'd call home. Besides, I had some ideas for adjustments that could be made to my goggles for our next mission. But… judging by your plain-faced expression I'm guessing the answer is no to the mission?" he asked, seemingly already knowing the answer.

A heavy nod was given, "You're right about that. He's… busy with something now. Not sure when he'll be ready to accept a mission. For now, we're on standby."

Shaking his head, Yobou leaned back in his seat and looked down at his goggles. The answer given to her was something that he guessed correctly.

"…I see… well, those are the boss's orders."

Donning a surprised look on her face, Gokusai tilted her head while striding over and taking a seat on another couch in the room.

"Oh? That's not the reaction I was expecting."

"What were you expecting? Me to freak out and rush to where Kakine is and demand that he takes a mission?" Yobou replied. "No thanks to that."

"Nothing to that extreme. But I was expecting you to say something under your breath about our leader's decisions as of late. As I said, he claimed that he was busy with something. What that something is, I can't tell you because I don't know at all" Gokuasi explained while crossing her legs and tapping away at her phone.

The dark-haired man then started tampering with his goggles while letting out a quiet "Hmm" sound escape from his lips. There was a great deal of things that had been happening lately.

"Well, let's hope whatever he's doing will benefit us in our next mission. Whenever that is…"

"You and me both," Gokusai said before glancing around the room. "Where is Rakko? I'm surprised she's not here."

Glancing up at her, Yobou then shifted his eyes back to tinkering with his goggles.

"No idea. But she asked me to text her if we did have a mission."

Nodding at his response, the girl in the dress then looked out the large windows at the night sky above the city. It would seem that nothing was going to happen tonight.

"Right… well then, I'll be taking my leave as well."

A curt nod was the response she got as she got up and proceeded to leave the room and go about her evening. While School was given the standby order there was another overlying fact going on, and that was Kakine Teitoku was up to something. What that something was, she had no idea at all. But it must have been very important for him to focus all his time away from missions. Only time would tell what the second-ranked Level 5 was doing.

Back with Sora and the others

Running across the pavement and through the grass, Sora and Index were doing their best to catch up with Touma, who was sprinting at a crazy speed. There was no doubt that Sora could catch up to him and even surpass him, but there was also the chance Index would get left behind, and that's something he didn't want to happen.

"Index! You good?" he called out to the nun.

"Y-Yeah! I *gasp* I'm good. Touma is… "Index tiredly said but kept doing her best at jogging to catch up with Kamijou.

"You don't need to finish that. I get it."

Nodding her head weakly, Index looked at Touma running ahead of them and could see him slowing down.

"Sora! Touma is slowing down!"

"I see him. Whoever was calling for help must be close!"

With that said, the two picked up the pace and were now seconds away from meeting the black-haired teen but could see that he rushed forward and lunged toward someone. Planted on the ground and raising his hands in a defensive measure, a middle-aged man was being attacked by an all too familiar creature with a dark body and bright yellow eyes.

A Shadow Heartless.

"Don't even think about it!" yelled Kamijou as he threw his fist forward and slammed it right into the Shadow's head causing it to hit the pavement.

He then didn't let up and stomped his foot on the creature's body making sure that it didn't get back up.

"Touma!" Sora shouted, seeing the boy hold down the Heartless.

Not wasting any time, Sora quickly dashed forward and summoned his Keyblade while getting ready to stab the Shadow right in the head. However, right before he could close enough a dark portal appeared right under the Heartless causing it to sink into the ground right under Touma's foot.

"What?!"

"Touma, get back!"

Doing as told, he jumped back while watching as the dark creature continued to sink into the ground before it and the portal disappeared before their very eyes. Leaving the trio and middle-aged man to keep their eyes right where the creature just was.

"W-W-What the hell was that?!"

"Sir! Please calm down" Touma tried reasoning with the man.

"Don't tell me to calm down! What was that!? I-I've got to get out of here!"

"Sir, wait and- "

But as Kamijou tried talking to the man he got up and bolted away from them leaving the three to just watch him get further away until he was out of their sight.

"That creature… Sora was that- "

"Yeah. That was a Heartless. A Shadow to be specific."

Feeling many thoughts about what Sora just said, the wielder of Imagine Breaker had to ask something that was eating away at his insides. The fact that monsters like these existed and were in Academy City…

"Have the Heartless just been wandering around the city?" Touma asked, giving the spot where the Heartless was another look over. "They just show up randomly?"

Giving him a nod with a frown, Sora clarified this a bit more.

"Pretty much. But there are times when it's safe to say that they'll show up."

"When is that?" Index inquired as she took another glance at the ground where the Heartless was just at.

"It's when- "

Suddenly, before Sora could finish what he was saying, the sound of glass breaking and feet stomping around caused the trio to look behind them at the source of said sound. Rushing over to where the sound was coming from, the Keyblade wielder had a shocked face which gradually transitioned to a battle-hardened look. Kamijou and Index simply reveled at the strange sight before them.

Standing inside a building and having broken a few glass windows stood several Heartless all dressed in strange attire. Differing from the one they had just seen, this Heartless resembled a goblin with black skin, yellow eyes, a jagged mouth, and tattered black wings. It also had on a black horned hood with red spiral patterns above its eyes along with black shorts held up by a belt. Small red and black shoes could be seen. The Heartless also had gloves with a red string wrapped around its hand and sharp red claws with two red thorny ropes crossed over its chest.

There had to be at least a dozen of these strange creatures standing around the broken window.

"…They show up?" the Keyblade muttered while not exactly familiar with this kind of Heartless.

Based on a first glance at the monster, this Heartless looked to be a Pureblood, but it was Heartless that the Guardian of Light had yet to face off against.

"Huh…?" Index muttered quietly.

As Sora said this, he wasted no time at all and summoned his Keyblade while getting into a battle stance. Seeing his reaction, Touma immediately raised his fists while Index took a step back while also not letting fear get the best of her. If anything, she wanted to learn all she could about these mysterious creatures. Hearing about them was one thing, but to encounter them was a whole new feeling.

"Heartless! Wait… aren't these different?" Touma uttered while observing the creatures in front of him.

"Yeah! These guys are also Purebloods. But... I've never dealt with this type before. We need to be careful about dealing with them."

"Huh?! What do you mean? Aren't you the Heartless expert?" Kamijou questioned while trying to piece all this information together.

"That's- Look out!"

Diverting his attention forward, Touma then narrowly rolled across the ground as he managed to dodge an attack from one of the Heartless leaping right at him. Index had backed off with enough distance between her and the Heartless. She then shifted her eyes between Sora, the Heartless, and then Touma.

Before anyone could react, Kamijou dived right at the Heartless and slammed his right hand directly into the creature causing it to crash onto the ground and disappear right in front of his eyes. He then quickly turned his attention over to Index.

"Index! Are you okay?"

"I'm good, but Touma! Behind you!"

Swerving his head around, the black spiky-haired boy could see several of the goblin Heartless rushing at him with enough time for him to move out of the way. Alas, right before he could move a slashing sound could be heard.

*SWOOSH!*

The sight of Sora in front of him with the Keyblade was the answer to the slashing sound as the Heartless were all taken out in one clean swipe.

"Get ready! There's more!" Sora called out to the two.

Pushing himself up, Touma now stood up and let his battle instincts kick in fully along with Index standing defensively between the two boys. The entire area had now been surrounded by shoes hitting the pavement along a few of the Heartless flying in the air. Before long, more and more windows in the buildings around them had been broken with the Heartless focused on the trio or rather… the Keyblade wielder.

"Don't hold back against them!"

Nodding in support of what Sora said, Touma readied himself as this would be his first real encounter against the Heartless. Index was also eyeing the monsters carefully and doing her best to stay out of harm's way.

A fight was about to break out and there would be no stopping it.

*Toaru Majutsu no Index – Imagine Breaker OST*

*BAM!*

The first one to make any sort of attack was Sora, who shot forward with a burst of blue light coursing all around his body and slamming his Keyblade right into one of the Heartless. The force of the attack threw the one monster back while also allowing Sora to start slashing right at the creatures nearby. The speed at which he was fighting was something else.

However, that didn't distract Kamijou all that much as he narrowly dodged one of the Heartless swiping its claws for his body. Stepping back, he managed to slam his fist to the side of the dark figure's body causing it to slam across the ground but not kill it completely. With his battle instincts on a heightened level, Touma then darted to the next closest Heartless before kicking it square in the face and pushing it back.

Sora on his part had dashed to the side of a Heartless and twirled his Keyblade so that the monster was flung into the air before he cast a Fire spell right at the foe killing it with ease. He then pointed his weapon at several other Heartless which were flying now. But that wouldn't be the case for long.

"Hit the ground! THUNDER!"

Instantly, bolts of yellow lighting sparked all around the area where Sora had cast his spell causing a few of the Heartless to either fall to the ground, shocked by the attack, or to have disappeared from being defeated.

In a sweeping strike, the Keyblade wielder shot himself forward and started batting away at the Heartless managing to make short work of them. From one strike to another, Sora took down their numbers with such ease that Touma and Index were letting realization dawn on them.

Sora was very experienced with the Heartless. This was plainly evident from how he was fighting.

*WHOOSH!*

After blasting another Heartless with light from his Keyblade, Sora then disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing above the one creature and kicking it right in the face. The kick had come off as a spiraling attack which ultimately killed the Heartless. He then rolled across the ground before thrusting his arms forward and stabbing another Heartless before going on a slashing onslaught against them.

Touma had also been putting in the work against these monsters with his fist slamming right into another Heartless before forcefully kicking another right in the shoulder and knocking it back. While his attacks were hard and brutal, these monsters were not going down so easily making them quite the foe. Sora was making this look too easy.

"Touma! On your left!" Index called out to the boy.

Listening to her advice, the spiky-haired teen lowered his arm and performed an uppercut right across the creature's face causing it to go flying through the air.

"Touma! Right side! Right side!"

Hearing and feeling something off, he rolled his body across the ground and to the left which was the right call as two Heartless pounced right where he was standing. Pushing himself back up, he then began swinging both his fists across the two Heartless and leaving no room for them to attack. However, this left him wide open from the side.

"Touma! Behind- "

"Gah!"

The misfortunate teen had been slashed right across his right arm causing a long claw mark to cascade down his arm. The attack also left him slightly reeled from pain but not enough to fight back.

*WHACK!*

With a solid kick to the face, Touma managed to knock the Heartless back against the ground. This gave Kamijou a moment of respite but not enough to ease up on the tension of being attacked. However, before the creature could get back up and attack the boy…

*WHOOSH!*

The Keyblade had been hurled right at the Heartless' head causing the creature's body to disappear along with the weapon to be stuck into the ground. But that didn't last long as the blade disappeared in a flash of light. Turning his head to the side, Touma saw the weapon flash into Sora's hands right before he hurled the weapon again at another Heartless managing to hit it.

"Don't let them surround you!" Sora yelled out to the two.

"Got it!"

Kamijou then got back to his feet and targeted another Heartless flying right over him and heading straight for Index. This left the young girl on edge and looking to run away.

"Oh no you don't!"

Jumping right at the flying Heartless, Touma grabbed the dark creature's foot and immediately slammed it right to the ground before angrily stomping at its head and causing it to disappear.

"Index! Are you alright!?"

"Y-Yes! I'm go- Huh!?" she cried out while pointing behind him.

Suddenly, a sewer manhole cover was shot up through the sky along with water bursting through the air like someone had added pressure to a hose. With water coating the street and ground, Touma had misfortunately managed to get hit leaving him drenched. Luckily, Index had been standing behind the boy and was fine.

"Of course…" Kamijou mumbled under his breath.

Turning his attention back to the sewer hole, what appeared to be several smaller Heartless with a strange design to them. These Heartless had black bodies with blue, zigzagging, icicle-like spikes dangling from their underbellies, small skinny wings with hands at the ends, and small blue veins on their heads. Moreover, it appeared that their bodies were covered in water. There was something odd about these creatures.

*Hyah!"

Having finished off another Heartless, Sora turned his attention back to Touma and Index while also realizing the sound of the water spraying all over the place was caused by the blue floating Heartless.

"Water cores! Touma! Be careful! They cover themselves in water to teleport and attack. You have to get that water shield off them!"

As Sora yelled this, he was engaged in battle by whacking one of the flying Heartless away before setting his sights on several Water cores that were targeting him.

Processing this new bit of information, Kamijou then began to closely observe one of these so-called Water cores and see how it reacted. Before long, a torrent of water came hurling right at him which ended up causing him to be thrown back while being even more drenched in water.

Index, who had been right behind him managed to narrowly miss being thrown back along with Touma and stood there staring nervously at the strange floating creature.

"*cough* *cough* What the hell? That hurt…"

Getting his eyesight back to focus, Touma, with staggered eyesight, could see one of the blue foes aiming its sights on Index. This was painted clear as he watched the monster's yellow eyes look directly at the young nun.

"Index! Get back!"

With a great deal of worry striking her, Index hastily stepped back but could see a torrent of water coming straight for her. About ready to do her best and drop to the ground to avoid being hit, the sound of water splashing and not hitting her caused the girl to look forward and see Sora appear. His body had once again been covered in a blue light along with both of his hands defensively holding onto the Keyblade.

"Quit messing with them! It's me you want!"

Several Water cores all fired a stream of water his way causing the boy to throw himself to roll to the side before firing several Fire spells at the Heartless. The foes that were hit by the fire had their shields shattered leaving them open. This provided Sora the chance to throw them off their game.

The Keyblade then glowed a green color before a vortex of wind appeared and threw the Water cores against one another. The vortex also pulled in a few of the other flying Heartless causing them to be thrown around in the air. Within a few seconds, the vortex came to a halt throwing them through the air where some appeared to be balancing themselves out, and others dropped right to the ground only to then disappear.

"There's still a lot of them…" Sora muttered while analyzing the Heartless around him.

It was at this point that a surge of energy could be felt in Sora's heart. The kind of energy that's hard to explain but easy to share with those around. This energy was also something that he was very familiar with as it was an ability he could use in his most recent adventure. One that was sure to be out-of-this-world fun.

"Wait. I've got it! Touma! Index! Get ready!"

"H-Huh? What do you mean, get ready?" Touma hastily asked while getting back to his feet while slightly wincing at the attack he took a moment ago.

"For this!"

Pointing his Keyblade in the air, a bright square appeared several feet away before the strangest thing Index or Touma had ever seen came from the portal.

"That's a- "

The thing that appeared from the portal was a strange-looking cart with light outlining its entire frame. Blue and yellow lights lit the cart up along with the distinctive crown insignia in the middle of it which was also lit up. Various colors could be seen, but the strangest thing to witness was the three blaster-looking weapons resting inside the cart.

Touma had one thought that immediately popped into his head at the sight of this strange thing.

'Is that… an amusement park ride?!'

The correct term for what Sora had done was to use his ability to summon an Attraction Flow which was something he gained the power for in his last adventure. This ride was better known to the Keyblade wielder as Blaster Blaze.

*Kingdom Hearts III OST Working Together*

Before he had time to say anything out loud, Sora bolted right up to the ride and flipped himself in the front seat while holding onto the blaster and smirking brightly at the two.

"Come on! Hop in!"

Not about to waste another second, Index excitedly jumped onto the blaster cart and flipped herself over while letting out a small "Oof" sound. However, she immediately popped herself up and examined the blaster weapon closely feeling a sense of magic around the cart. This was a magic that she had no recollection of in the vast library within her mind. The ability to summon an amusement park ride like this was… unbelievable!

Holding onto the handle of the blaster she was seated at; Index's weapon automatically fired a blast of light right at a Heartless almost as if it was all a game. This caused the young girl to excitedly start firing away at the monsters.

"Ahahaha! Touma! You've got to try this!"

"Yeah! Join the party!" Sora said while firing away in his seat and even twisting and turning to finish off his enemies.

Watching as the two began mowing down the Heartless in this strange yet magical amusement park ride, Touma could feel the inner thumping of excitement pulsating in his heart. It was quite unclear whether this was because of his own desire to join in on the fun. Or… if this was something the real Kamijou Touma wanted to experience as well.

A feeling such as this hadn't really ever happened to him, but it didn't matter. Because Kamijou Touma as a person no matter what version of truth he was living undeniably wanted to join in the fun.

"No way I'm missing this!"

Suddenly, a thought came to Sora as he watched Touma in slow motion rush right at the Blaster cart. The boy held a strange ability in his right hand which could negate certain properties of the Keyblade. Based on their little test back in his dorm room, it could cancel the magical weapon yet not make it disappear completely. That fact alone made the spiky-haired brunette's blue eyes perk up instantly and remind him of Touma's hand.

In slow motion, Sora waved his hand at Touma.

"Touma! Wait!"

But it was too late.

*Glass Break*

Once Kamijou's right hand touched the side of the blaster cart, the entire park ride blinked with a bright flash of light before Sora and Index fell right to the ground.

*Oof*

"Aah!"

"Bwah!"

Touma, who had only rested his hand on the side of the ride, fell right through the air and face-planted into the ground. The Attraction Flow had been canceled.

Pushing himself up, Sora immediately cast a Thunder spell to drive back the Heartless that had taken this peculiar moment to strike. The magic spell did its job while also giving the misfortunate teen and young nun a chance to recuperate.

"Touma! What was that!?"

Glancing down at his hand, Kamijou should've realized sooner that Imagine Breaker would come into play once he contacted the magical amusement park ride.

"I… That was my fault. Sorry."

"*sigh* It's ok. I was really getting into it" commented Index as she took in her surroundings and could still see Heartless around them. "These creatures don't show any signs of stopping."

Slashing through another Heartless, Sora then began to perform a Strike Raid by throwing his Keyblade forward at the incoming Heartless. Throwing his entire body forward while flipping in the air, he managed to hit another Water core straight in the center of the body killing it instantly. He then dashed toward a small group of Heartless and spun himself around before hurling the Keyblade forward. The brunette then watched it orbit around him and whack several Heartless as he just performed Circle Raid.

Having cleared a bit more space for them, Sora sprinted over to Touma and Index who had been carefully watching their backs.

"Well, that plan didn't go as… well, planned."

"Sorry about that" Touma earnestly responded.

"Heh. No worries. Besides…"

The Keyblade wielder then flashed the two a suspiciously growing smirk on his face.

"Who said I couldn't do that spell again?"

Touma and Index's eyes shot up when they heard his response eliciting an excited reaction from Index.

"You can do that spell again?! How did you even do that spell?"

Twirling his Keyblade around while also monitoring how close the Heartless were moving toward them, Sora gave a quick nod to Index.

"I can't really explain. It's just something I can do. But never mind that! Get ready!"

Left with even more questions, the two watched as Sora lifted his Keyblade in the air with sparkles of light showering all around him with the tip of the weapon glowing with a bright white light before…

In a puff of smoke, what appeared to be a glowing… teacup… appeared spinning and heading right for Sora who casually jumped in the air and landed right in the middle of it where a wheel appeared to be stationed. The spiky-haired teen then began to spin himself around before easily taking a seat in the teacup and started steering the object right into the Heartless. The Attraction Flow the Keyblade wielder had summoned was better known as the Mad Tea Cups.

"YEAH!"

The sight of Sora taking down Heartless after Heartless inside the teacup caused Index to stare excitedly while Touma was having too many questions pop into his head. None of this made absolute sense.

"Touma! Let's help!" Index eagerly said.

"Wait. Timeout. I don't think- "

*WHOOSH!*

Before he could say anything else, both he and Index were side-swiped right into their very own teacups with Index letting out happy giggles while swerving side to side. Kamijou had been thrown sideways but also made sure to keep his right hand suspended in the air without touching the magical object and negating it. He didn't want a repeat of last time.

Alas, this just made his ride even more intense as the misfortunate teen was positioned in an awkward spot with his face perched right on the teacup seat with one leg down on the floor and the other bent. Let it be known that he also had his right hand still held up while feeling the brunt of the speed and dizzying feeling of going around and around.

"Bleh! Aah! Gah! Why!? Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kamijou cried out.

"Ahahahahahahha!" Index happily cheered.

"Let's go!" Sora excitedly chanted.

The trio continued to spin around and hit every Heartless that met the spinning teacups. Everything around them seemed to be going so slow compared to the speed that the cups were hitting. Touma could almost feel his brain rattled around. His eyesight could only barely trace what was happening aside from hitting Heartless head-on. There was nothing the misfortunate high school boy could do but scream.

"Aaaaahhhhh!"

"Yahoooo!"

With the Heartless force being drastically defeated by the overpowered teacups, Sora made sure to get one last bump against the dark foes before turning to see Index laughing merrily and Touma to be… well, hanging on for dear life.

Adding onto his fear for his life, Touma could feel the teacup lifting off the ground and continue to spin and hit the Heartless leaving him to try and peek his head up and see what was happening. Upon closer inspection, he could see Index and Sora's teacups change color every time they hit a Heartless. Now, Sora's teacup was blue, and Index's was green leaving him to try and see what his teacup color was. Managing to get a glance, he spotted a blue color to his cup, but that ended rather abruptly as his cup slammed right into Index's causing him to slam his face to the floor.

This ride was almost too much for Kamijou who was losing his head.

And yet, Sora figured now was the time to end things off with a bang.

"Index! Touma! You guys ready to end this!?" Sora asked while steering his teacup like a pro thanks to his experience in using the amusement park ride many times.

"I! Can't! Feel! My! Face!" Kamijou screamed while making sure to not let his right hand touch the teacup.

"Haha! Touma! This is fun!" Index shouted, sporting a bright smile while steering her own teacup.

"No! It's! Not!"

"Hold on! Things are gonna get crazy!" Sora yelled to the two.

"No! Please! Noooooooooooooo- "

With no time to react, the trio's teacups were immediately pulled together so that any of the Heartless that were near the teacups were dragged into the center of them. Blitzing into one another, the teacups began to emit sparks of light by hitting one another while also slamming into the Heartless throwing them around with ease.

"Faster!" Sora chanted.

"Yeah!" Index added.

"…uh…" Touma groaned.

After the longest several seconds of his life, Touma was about to lift himself and see what was happening. However, he was sadly met with the cold hard ground hitting his face as the entire teacup disappeared in a flash of sparkling light. Sora had managed to simply flip himself upside down and land on his feet perfectly while Index calmly landed on her feet. The two looked at Touma who was staggered and trying to stand up.

"I-I can't see… my head… still spinning… why…"

"Eheheh… well, at least we managed to clear the area" Sora casually said while scanning the area.

Doing the same, Index could see that there appeared to be no more Heartless around leaving them alone and victorious. This in turn caused the young magical girl to jump with joy and have stars in her eyes.

"Sora! What was that!? First, the weird cart with the even weirder guns. And then the spinning teacups. What kind of magic was all of that?"

Barely able to nod his head, Touma also wanted to know what just happened and why he could feel his brain rattling around in his head.

"That… well, it's kind of hard to explain. But with the Keyblade I'm able to do all sorts of crazy and unbelievable things. The blaster cart and teacups are just a few of what I call Attraction Flows. Magic based on amusement park rides that I can use in battle. It's sort of a random thing that I can do. I'm not sure how it all works. It just happens."

"Just a few?! And it just happens!?" Touma yelled while walking over to the Keyblade wielder tipsily. "That doesn't make any sense!"

Scratching his cheek, Sora couldn't give a solid response.

"Yeah… I get that a lot."

Sighing aloud, Touma could feel his senses getting back to normal and analyzed the area making sure to see if any Heartless were around.

"Well, at least we managed to beat them before they could cause any more trouble."

'Please don't let that be another jinx' Sora thought to himself.

Still having the strange magical rides in her mind, Index wanted to know as much as she could about this never-before-seen magical ability. Nothing in her vast library of magical knowledge could pinpoint what magic was done to perform such a feat. She needed answers.

"Sora. You said those attractions were granted to you by the Keyblade, yes?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"…I've never encountered that kind of magic before. I… It's hard to settle on what just happened."

Understanding where she was coming from, a bit of reflection was occurring within the otherworldly boy's mind. While there were a hundred reasons for keeping the World Order intact, Sora could see that trying to understand another world's magic might leave someone dumbfounded. Such was the case with Index.

He had to make it right and calm her mind.

"Index. The magic that I use is all thanks to the Keyblade. And after having it for a few years now, there's still so much of it that I don't understand. But… I know that by following my heart I'll one day understand a great deal more. And when that time comes… I'll try and make it easier to understand. Is that alright?"

Letting what he said resonate closely in her mind, Index could only nod and smile. Perhaps one day she'd get to learn what kind of amazing magic allowed Sora to do the abnormal things he just did. But not today.

"Alright. I'll be waiting for that day. Until then… what other kinds of rides can you summon?"

She let curiosity get the best of her.

"For all we know, he could just summon a boat or a train. At this rate, I wouldn't doubt it" Touma sarcastically said.

Hearing this, Sora couldn't help but give off a cheeky grin while hiding his face from the spiky-haired teen. Perhaps it would be better to surprise Touma with his other Attraction Flows…

Turning his attention up to the sky above, the Keyblade wielder could see nightfall cascading across the city. Buildings had lights illuminating various windows and streetlamps were shining brightly. Vehicles in the distance could be seen along with sirens blaring in the distance.

"Huh. It's getting late" Sora muttered while looking at the night sky linger above them.

As the Guardian of Light said this, he pulled his Gummiphone out and could see that it was getting to be quite late. So many things happened today from learning that Academy City was sending rockets to space, a magic cabal was looking to cause trouble, and the Heartless starting to show off forms that he's never dealt with. Things were starting to get interesting.

Hence, this resulted in Sora deciding to pay a certain someone a visit.

"Hey, Touma, Index. You guys head back home. I'll catch you later."

Surprised by the sudden comment, Touma and Index glanced at one another before looking at Sora to see if something was up.

"Um… why? If you don't mind us asking, Sora" Index questioned. "You could just walk with us back home."

"With the Heartless showing up like this, I need to tell a friend of mine what's been happening. They've been helping me get accustomed to Academy City in the sense of monitoring Heartless activity. They have a bit of leeway over certain areas of the city" he explained while making sure to leave out any real detail about his moogle friend.

"Oh. I didn't know you had help like that" Kamijou responded, intrigued by the fact that Sora was getting help and not doing everything all by himself.

"Yeah. We met by chance. They're amazing. But I'm going to go visit them. I'll catch you guys later."

Deciding that nothing else could really be done now, Touma gestured to Index that they should head home.

"All right. Let us know if you encounter any more magical circles around turbines or anything."

"The same goes for the Heartless. We can't exactly let them wander around. You saw firsthand how dangerous they can get."

Glancing down at his right hand, Touma could certainly say that now. His first encounter with this strange creature forced him to have over a dozen questions pop into his head about the Heartless. But… tonight would not be the night he gets any answers. Besides, there was still that magic cabal running around Academy City. For now, a sense of security was in place for the wielder of Imagine Breaker.

Sora could handle the Heartless while he and Index could deal with the magic cabal.

"Sounds good. See you."

"Bye Sora!"

"See you guys later."

And with that, Kamijou and Index began to walk away and into the night leaving Sora to take in his surroundings. A lot had happened and unfortunately, he had a feeling that the night was not over yet.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

*Click*

"Hello?"

"Hey, Moogla! Are you busy?"

"Sora! I'm not busy at all, kupo. I've been working on some projects and monitoring some activity across the city, but other than that I'm free, kupo" the moogle explained.

"Good. I've got some things to tell you and it isn't pretty…"

Saying this, the Keyblade wielder started walking away from the spot while still on the call with his magical friend. Leaving the once bustling and battle-rampaged area nothing but a spot with burn marks and water spots on the ground.

This was sure to spark a wild conversation.

Elsewhere within Academy City

In the middle of District 7, specifically inside the Windowless Building, Aleister Crowley remained floating inside the liquid tube with his eyes narrowly scanning the multiple screens that were displayed all around him. Each screen held a different vantage point of this evening's events recorded and played out for him to observe.

From the encounter of Kamijou Touma and Sora engaged in battle against Stiyl. Aleister watched as the duo were pushed back by the fiery creation known as Innocentius. The entire conflict seemed to be thwarted and showed the trio coming to a standstill by Kamijou's own hand. The footage then showed the Index Librorum Prohibitorum running up to them and pulling them into discussion. Having already paid close attention to this encounter, Aleister then had the recording fast-forwarded to the part of the trio caught in an engagement with the strange dark creatures.

Reports given to him about the Heartless indicated that these forms caught in the recordings were never seen. Indicating that there were more variations to these dark creatures which further intrigued the man.

Out of everything that occurred this evening, this part of the night had become the most interesting. Watching Kamijou continue to act as a bodyguard to the young girl while also witnessing Sora fight advantageously against these mysterious foes. The boy's resilience and combat skills were nothing to scoff about. He knew how to fight that much was true.

Consequently, the boy's actions and magical aptitude estimations were diminished entirely when Aleister watched as he summoned an Amusement Park ride out of a glowing square. The Board Chairman had no visible reaction to witnessing the boy pull off this feat. However, on the inside, Aleister was marveled. Magic such as this was a mystery enveloped within another mystery. The mixture of magic and science to create a park ride to act against the dark foes was something unexpected.

Furthermore, as witnessed in the recording, once Kamijou used Imagine Breaker to negate the boy's creation, he figured that such magical power wouldn't be used again. Alas, how the brunette continued to surprise him. Within moments later, Sora was able to summon teacups that he could ride and use against the Heartless. Watching Kamijou and Index join in the fun brought amusement to the Board Chairman while also leaving him with a great deal of hypotheses on what kind of magic was at play.

Alas, his time viewing the recordings was cut short when a stern knocking could be heard coming from outside the room. Without raising a finger, the monitors all disappeared leaving him alone.

"You may enter."

Opening the door, a middle-aged man in business attire appeared while holding a constrained look on his face.

"Sir, your guest has arrived for their appointment."

Knowing full well what the man was entailing, Aleister simply closed his eyes before addressing the man.

"Very well. Please escort him here. And make sure to give us some privacy."

"Understood sir. He'll be with you momentarily."

Having said that, the middle-aged man closed the door and sought out whoever had an appointment with the Board Chairman of Academy City. The entire ordeal was something not dismissed by the white-haired man. It wasn't a regular occurrence to have a face-to-face meeting with someone. Especially with someone looking to talk business regarding Academy City.

Hence, Aleister simply watched the door and waited for his *guest* to arrive.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"You may enter."

Pushing the large doors open, a young man appeared right before the chairman's eyes. This man's features could be described as platinum blonde slicked-back hair. A double-breasted white business suit with a blue collar and a jacket folded over like a trench coat. Underneath his suit, a dark gray dress shirt with a tie could be seen along with hakama-styled pants. The pant legs have a fitted interior and a baggy exterior that skirts over with buttons down the front pleat. Several belts were draped around his wrists and waist akin to himo straps and overall suspenders, and several belts hung loosely over his long skirt. He had black fingerless gloves and black leather boots. Overall, the man appeared to be fashionable yet held an aura of respect.

This person was certainly… a mystery.

"Rufus Shinra. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

"Board Chairman Aleister Crowley. The feeling is mutual. Thank you for accepting this meeting I've requested" said the man in a confident and unwavering tone of voice.

"Nonsense. I was happy to accept your request to chat. Normally, most would deem it impossible to seek a meeting with me and simply relay a message to the board" Aleister said before letting a moment pass over. "However, you showed no sign of stopping and personally sent requests to meet. I'm honored you thought that way. And I do believe this is our first time truly meeting."

The man, now known as Rufus Shinra, simply let a smirk appear on his face.

"I'd heard talk about your… situation. But seeing it for myself now, I'm merely more curious than anything else."

Had the Board Chairman been outside of his tube and interacting like any normal person, then a grin would have been planted right along his face at that comment.

"As you should be. Most would be unable to utter a sentence at seeing a man, let alone the Board Chairman, residing within a liquid tube. Not exactly any normal circumstances."

"Naturally. Now then, Chairman- "

"Please. Call me Aleister. Given the nature and subject of our meeting, I figure we might as well become more open with one another. It'll make things seem less… infringing."

Letting his eyes closely observe the Board Chairman, Rufus seemed to have found his answer before jumping back into the conversation.

"Indeed. Then as pleasantries go you may refer to me as Rufus."

"Very well, Rufus, the reasoning behind your request to talk has something to do with your company's involvement in Academy City's infrastructure, yes?"

A showing smirk appeared on the platinum blonde's face before taking control of the discussion.

"Correct. The Shinra Electric Power Company has been of minimal yet significant importance to Academy City in recent times."

"A generation's time if I might say. It was your father who first proposed a trade in military technology. He was an ambitious figure that one. My condolences on his passing."

For a split second, Rufus seemed to allow his face to display a composed and pleasant expression. Alas, this was a blink-and-miss moment anyone could have missed… anyone but the Board Chairman.

"Thank you for your consideration. And yes, my father truly was an ambitious man. From the early days of Shinra being nothing more than a small weapon manufacturing company to breaking into a more enhanced technological company from the rest of the world… It's only thanks to the give-or-take chance you gave my father and this company."

"At that time, Academy City had already established itself as one of, if not, the strongest technological force in the world. Your father's attempt to strike a deal with industrial weapon trading was certainly something to take note of. While everyone instilled empty promises of powerful weaponry and technological secrets to bargain a relationship with the city, your father's simple yet greedy attempt to promise energy-based solutions and weaponry that were two decades behind is what won me over. And it's been a worthwhile investment" Aleister explained while reminiscing about his past encounter with the previous Shinra Company President.

"I'm pleased to hear that from you. Makes me think this meeting will benefit us both" Rufus tactfully replied.

"To a certain degree you are correct" Aleister suddenly remarked before continuing. "Your proclamation in your messages indicated that you want Shinra to take an approach to bolster the city's military might against these dark creatures that have been sighted recently… it's a high ask if you want my honest opinion."

The look a gambling man would don while placing his chips on a daring bet is the best way one could describe Rufus right now. Confidence was still evident in the man's face.

"I'll gladly take all the criticism you have. Shinra has been residing in the background of the public eye for quite some time now. I wouldn't be surprised if most residents aren't aware of our presence."

"Oh? You say that as if you'd like that to change" Aleister proclaimed while letting his voice take a jab at the man. "Would you prefer to have students wearing merchandise sponsoring Shinra? Espers promoting Shinra and their outdated technology?"

Shaking his head and letting a low chuckle escape his lips, Rufus kept a composed expression while ready for a response to the Board Chairman's far-fetched imagination.

"Not necessarily. Granted, having a bit more appreciation for Shinra's weaponry and technological support to Academy City is something noteworthy. However, that's not what I'm referring to…"

Rufus then extended his hand out to Aleister in a friendly gesture.

"These creatures being reported across the city have become a concern of mine and everyone involved in the company. There are members within the company who have many ideas on how to deal with these monsters. Were Shinra given the chance to act, I can assure you there would be no need to put Anti-Skill officers' lives on the line. Esper technology is obviously leagues ahead of the causal individual. Which is why I'd like to ask for your permission to let Shinra begin operations- "

"I do apologize, but my immediate answer is no" Aleister instantly fired back. "What you are proposing to allow Shinra to operate across Academy City is something that the board as well as myself have no inkling toward permitting. Your company has lent support to the city in ways which we all appreciate. You and the Kirijo group have provided the city with superficial amounts of innovative technology. However, allowing you to have any amount of control is something that won't be happening anytime soon."

Rather than becoming mad or distraught at what Aleister said, Rufus simply held a straight face before responding.

"And yet, the city continues to be rampaged by these monsters. Lives were threatened and even hospitalized. Property damage is at an all-time high. And no real answer has been given by the higher-ups of the city. Students' lives are in the crossfire with this developing situation. It'd be wise to seek help before things get too bad."

"You forget. You and your company are already helping Academy City. Your involvement with general weapon technology and background work already has your character be a part of the solution to stop these… creatures" Aleister claimed.

"…Be that as it may, Shinra has a lot more to offer. I'm not asking for an answer now. Hell, I'm not asking for an answer tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month. I'd rather have my offer be something you let sit in the back of your mind" Rufus offered while keeping a steadfast body language present.

"That is quite the task to take hold of. Thinking that I'll consider your offer for the future. How humorous…" the Board Chairman said while simultaneously paying not much time to the offer. "I do believe that we have concluded our meeting."

"That we have. I came here with the overall goal to say my peace, and that plan was a success. Thank you for your time, Board Chairman."

"Nonsense. I found our meeting to be… interesting to say the least. It's not every day that someone has the confidence to confront me in a face-to-face environment. You've certainly gone further than most."

"Indeed."

About ready to take his leave, there was one last thing that Rufus couldn't help but ponder upon. This topic boiling in his head was one that he wanted a direct answer to.

"Aleister. I do have one last question."

"Please. Let's hear what you have to say."

Gathering his thoughts, the current President of the Shinra Electric Power Company then said his piece.

"…These creatures… I've seen the damage done across the city. Heard many things. From a close account to distant observations… Does Academy City have a good handle on things?"

With this stark question out in the open, Aleister let a solemn moment of silence pass between them before answering in a direct tone.

"Academy City's focus is based on the development of student studies in Esper research. You already know this. There's no need to repeat the obvious. However, what I will say is that the city and its board are keeping a close eye on everything that's going on. We do not need a third party's support in the matter."

A sly smirk appeared on the platinum blonde-haired man's face.

"…Truly? Well then, that answers my question. Although, there is something that contradicts what you just said."

Reaching into his pocket, Rufus pulled out his phone and immediately displayed a picture of a certain spiky brown-haired boy holding what appeared to be a giant key as a weapon fighting off against the dark creatures.

"Care to give an answer about him?"

Narrowing his gaze at the picture being shown to him, Aleister's face showed no change or reaction at all, and simply stared at the picture and then at Rufus.

"What's there to say about him? He's a student attending one of the many schools in Academy City."

"Hm. A student… that has the power of a Level 4 while running around the city and fighting off these dark creatures. That should be all there is to him. But that's not the case" Rufus then put away his phone before continuing. "My colleagues have been keeping me up to date on all the involvements this boy has gotten involved in. It doesn't help that the public eye has been homing in on him ever since that first incident. The newsfeed and communication specialists have done an excellent job of making sure any information about him stays inside the city… for now, that is. But how long will that last? How long will you let this boy play hero? And why is it that he appears to be the only one who knows what's going on?"

"Those are all crucial and significant questions, Rufus, alas, I'm not at liberty to provide answers to any of those questions. Besides, I've already answered your question regarding the control Academy City has on these creatures" Aleister stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Keeping a straight face, Rufus victoriously nodded his head. He had gotten his point across.

"That you have. Very well then, Chairman Aleister, thank you for your time this evening. You've given me a lot to think about. Where Shinra stands in its supporting stance to Academy City as well as the creature situation going on. I hope that the next time we meet our conversation can be as constructive and beneficial as this one was."

"Likewise. I very much enjoyed our chat. Until next time… President Shinra."

And with that, Rufus simply bowed his head to the man in the tube and made his way out of the dimly lit room leaving a sense of foreboding in his words.

Now left alone in the dark room, Aleister let out what could be described as an irritated sigh. Alas, there was still no reaction on his face. The situation was now developing in a way he hadn't exactly foreseen. While he had undoubtedly led the conversation with the most power, he also gained insight and a first impression as to who Rufus Shinra was as a person.

'…So, that was your goal all along… propose for Shinra to start making itself aware in Academy City. For what real purpose, I have yet to know...but that will change in due time. However, you also wanted to know more about Sora… You're smarter than you look, Rufus Shinra. Now the real question I ponder… how much of a problem are you and your company going to be?'

As Aleister thought this, a screen appeared right in front of him which showed a security drone's aerial footage of Stiyl Magus, Touma Kamijou, and Sora all standing next to one another. Another recording showed Index joining the group while they conversed some more. Consequently, another screen appeared but this time it showed the base of a turbine and strange-looking symbols scattered around it.

As expected, magical events were now taking place.

'I already have another problem evolving in my city.'

It would appear that the Board Chairman's peace of time would be interrupted these coming days and nights.

Meanwhile, back with Sora

Crossing the somewhat vacant street, Sora was now making sure that no one was following him before stepping into Moogla's workshop and making his way to the basement.

"Hello? Anybody here?" the Keyblade wielder called out.

"I'm over here, kupo."

Floating above what appeared to be a green electronic device, Moogla shifted her moogle body to get a better look at Sora.

"Good to see you again, kupo! Wanna help me with this motherboard, kupo? I need a light source to help me fix the problem going on with it, kupo."

"Sure!"

Summoning his Keyblade, Sora then held it above the moogle and let a white light come off the blade and act as a light source.

"Thank you, kupo!" Moogla replied while getting to work. "Now, want to give me a better idea of what's going on, kupo? You explained everything a bit too fast, kupo."

"Yeah, I can do that. So…"

A few minutes later

"And that's everything that's happened so far tonight," Sora said while having explained the entire day's events.

Not giving an instant response, Moogla kept her small hands tinkering with the motherboard before finishing up her work. She then looked over at the Keyblade wielder with a sympathetic expression.

"That's… a lot of new developments to happen in one day, kupo."

"No kidding. From learning about the Venus project to fighting Stiyl and learning more about the magic side in this world, to then encountering the Heartless with Touma and Index. There's already a lot of stuff going on in the city…"

"Hm…"

"Huh? Is something wrong?"

Placing the motherboard down on the table, Moogla then began floating over to her computer and began searching for something. The sounds of tapping from her small hands along the keyboard could be heard echoing in the room along with the machines working in the background.

"Hearing about this magic cabal looking to destroy Academy City, I wanted to check some of the cleaner bots across the city to see if they've encountered anything strange, kupo" Moogla explained while pulling up a monitor showing several different feeds from the cleaning robots. "Let's see, nothing is happening in Districts 2, 5, 8, 13, and 16… it seems like things are tame, kupo."

"For now, that is…"

Folding his arms across his chest, Sora took on a thinking pose while sorting his thoughts out. If what Stiyl had to say about the magic cabal messing with turbines, then that should obviously be the place to check.

"Are any of the cleaner bots near any of the turbines in the city?"

Back to typing away at her computer, Moogla took a moment to check the state of her robots. She then gave a small shake of her moogle head.

"No, none of the cleaner bots are near any of the turbines, kupo. It'll take a minute for the closest bot to reach a turbine, and that's without encountering any kind of problems, kupo" Moogla said before turning to look at Sora. "You might have not noticed this, but a lot of Anti-Skill officers are now patrolling around the districts due to the Heartless, kupo."

"Really? That's good… well, kind of…" Sora replied while letting out a sigh. "I'm glad the city is starting to take precautions against the Heartless. But I'm worried that they might get in over their heads and fall into a trap laid out by the Heartless."

Understanding where he was coming from, Moogla wasn't sure how to respond. That is until she had a thought dawn on her.

"Sora, what are you going to do if you encounter this magic cabal? Are you going to fight them?"

The Guardian of Light simply looked down at his hands and let her question settle into his mind. While he still wasn't sure about everything going on with the magic cabal, he knew that by letting them get away with their plans they'd attack Academy City even without the full force of Agni's Festival Fire. Moreover, based on what Stiyl had said, the cabal would still attack the city even without a powerful spell. Their hatred for Academy City was irrational and unpredictable.

"I… I'm not sure. I want to say yes, but I also know that by rushing in and fighting them they might pull the trigger and attack the city without any remorse. I think the more reasonable approach is to work with Touma and Stiyl. There's a lot I don't understand."

As Sora said this, the realization that another prevalent issue was still unsolved.

"And then we can't forget about Darkness or the Heartless. Even though things have been quiet that doesn't mean the bad guys are not plotting something" he affirmed.

"That's also true… guess the only thing we can do is wait and see, kupo?"

Pulling out his Gummiphone and seeing that it was getting late, Sora figured that he should get home.

"Yeah… we're now in the waiting game now."

Meanwhile… across the city inside a facility

The sounds of explosions rocked the facility located in District 10. The building itself was covered in what could best be described as debris and burn marks covering the ground and walls. Along the area were scattered remnants of security robots trashed and destroyed as well as the bodies of security officers. The situation was currently developing at a fast pace.

"Eh? I thought we checked that side of the building."

The person who said this was a familiar young girl with long blonde hair and a dark-colored beret resting atop her head. Her name was better known as Frenda Seivelun, a member of Item.

The dark side group known as Item was currently in the middle of working on a mission.

"We super did. But Takitsubo said there wasn't anyone completely dangerous over there" came the reply of Kinuhata. "She said it wasn't worth our time."

"Still… we should at least check it out" reasoned Frenda as she pointed at the door holding the undiscovered side of the building, they were in. "Basically, I don't want to be surprised or attacked by anyone."

"Then why don't you super check it out and- "

Before Kinuhata could finish speaking, a familiar girl with tea-colored hair stepped past them and summoned an orb of light that instantly fired right at the wall. The impact of her attack caused the wall to melt thanks to her Meltdowner and allowed for a better visual of the room.

"Or… you can super do that."

Mugino had not said anything and simply walked forward with her heels clacking across the facility's floor. Kinuhata and Frenda shot each other anxious looks while behind them they heard what could be best described as slow steps. They immediately knew who it was.

"Takitsubo. Has Mugino been- "

"Yes. She has. This entire time."

The tracksuit-wearing girl shifted her eyes to see her boss dangerously walk forward and through the melted wall she just created. The Level 5's demeanor and attitude had been a quiet one this evening. She only needed to speak when she needed something confirmed. It was quite unusual for the brunette.

"It's almost as if she's taking out her anger" Takitsubo added.

"…I guess that's one way of describing it. Even though the mission doesn't require her to go in guns blazing. So far, the job has been pretty easy. Dealing with low-security grunts and standard security robots. I'm really starting to wonder why this place was the mission's target."

What Frenda was referring to was the job offer Item had received a few hours ago. The mission entailed destroying a research facility that seemed to be holding important information within its servers. What that information was? They had no clue. It wasn't their business to know. Item's job was to make sure no remnants of any information lasted. They were essentially the clean-up crew for this mission.

"Does it super matter? We were told to just destroy the place and wipe the servers. I'm betting the scientists here were into some shady stuff. Maybe they were experimenting on animals? Mixing a panda with a lion? Experimenting on sharks and putting lasers on them? That actually sounds pretty cool!" Kinuhata said, growing excited by her dumb ideas. "Or just another group experimenting on people."

"You've been watching too many stupid movies" Frenda immediately replied.

"Yep! That's the super point. Some of the bad movies I finished binge-watching turned out to be better and worse than I expected."

As the two casually bantered, the dark-haired girl watched as Mugino was now in the other room which was the part of the building she had scanned with her AIM Stalker ability. There appeared to be no espers on that side of the building. However, there was a scientist hiding. Mugino was bound to-

"Aaaaaahhhh!"

"Mugino found him."

"So, there was someone in there! See! I told you! Someone could've sneak attacked us."

"I super doubt that. Takitsubo would've told us ahead of time if they were a threat" Kinuhata fired back.

"True" came the blunt reply from Takitsubo.

Inside the room, Mugino was glaring at one of the scientists working in this facility. The man was covered in dirt and debris with his clothes tattered and shaking all over his body. A flood of emotions was present on his face; however, fear was chief among them.

"P-Please! Please don't!" the man said while holding his hands in front of his face. "I don't want to die!"

In normal circumstances, Mugino wouldn't have bothered to let him speak anymore and would have killed him without even blinking. Similar situations in the past proved that to be a fact.

However, this time there appeared to be something different going on with the Level 5. She held her hand outward and pointed it at the man which was something she usually did before activating her Meltdowner ability. Alas, no orb of light had appeared around her…yet.

The beautiful girl's face held a concentrated glare that was aimed right at the man with her lips in a frown. But she had yet to use her ability and end the man's life. Something was happening to the fourth-ranked and it was happening internally.

In the vestiges of her mind, Mugino knew immediately what she was planning on doing to the scientist. That much was evident based on the other areas of the facility that held scattered debris and bodies. But for some unknown reason, she couldn't just eliminate the man in front of her. It was almost as if… something was persuading her to stop.

A guilty conscience? Absolutely not…

Charitable pity? Not quite…

No, Mugino Shizuri knew exactly what the reason for her sudden halt was to kill the scientist before her. The growing feeling within her chest prevented her from acting. A feeling she never had to deal with.

And it all stemmed from a certain spiky brown-haired boy and the giant key that he carried… Sora.

The words he said to her about having a choice… a choice only she gets to dictate. Creating a new path for herself… one involving both light and darkness…

"Please! Wait! I-I can forget any of this ever happened!" pleaded the scientist. "Please! Let me- "

Unfortunately, the sounds of the scientist had faded away. As did his entire body. The Level 5's Meltdowner beam had been instantly summoned and fired at the man with such speed that before he could even react there was nothing left. His entire body had been vaporized with no pain to be registered.

Lowering her head and scanning the room, Mugino then spotted another set of computer servers all booted up and transferring data through the web. Activating her ability again, she decimated the servers leaving a melted-down hunk of metal in place.

"Oh? You found another server. Nice job. That makes this side done and dusted" Frenda cheerfully said walking over to her.

The girls then looked to where the scientist appeared to be and could only see remnants of scorch marks created by Mugino's Meltdowner beam.

"You kept him super alive longer than usual," Kinuhata said while pointing over to where the scientist once was. "Did he have anything good to say at the last minute?"

"…"

Not saying anything, Mugino walked back to the door and continued to search the facility for any more computer servers that they might have missed.

"Sheesh. What's her super deal?"

Glancing down at the ground where the scientist was hit with Mugino's attack, Takitsubo had a perplexed yet disdained look on her face. Mugino's behavior had been relatively different lately, and unfortunately, she was starting to think that Kinuhata's stupid idea might have some more merit.

"…Kinuhata."

"Yeah, Takitsubo? You super need something?"

"…You might be right."

"Huh? What are you super talking about? Right about what? About my movie preference? There's no way you'd say that. Maybe you're talking about… wait… are you… are you being serious?"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Takitsubo simply nodded her head in defeat.

"Eh? Basically, what are you two talking about? What's going on?" Frenda eagerly asked. "Let me in on the gossip."

"You were already in it. But you forgot. That means you're now on lookout duty."

"Look out? For whom? Mugino?"

A stern nod was sent to the blonde who confusedly tilted her head. None of this made sense. Deciding she would learn more later, Frenda went over to the melted door and stood outside it making sure to watch for Mugino.

"I think Mugino's behavior is thanks to Sora."

"Whoa. Whoa. I'm calling super timeout here" the short-haired girl said before collectively sighing. "Are you for sure being honest with me, Takitsubo? Do you think it's because of him? I mean, that's a dumb thing to say. I already had a strong feeling it was, but for you to start coming around to it…"

Prompting a sigh, Takitsubo adjusted her tracksuit before dealing with Kinuhata.

"I can't give a solid answer, but it's my best guess. Mugino is easily angered and wouldn't hesitate to destroy anything that gets in her way. But…" the dark-haired girl glanced back at the scientist's last living spot. "She hesitated a lot longer than normal with that guy. She didn't do that with the guards earlier. I think she had something on her mind."

"And that super something was Sora."

"Mm-hm."

Scratching her ear, Kinuhata wasn't sure what to do now with this new bit of information. Sure, she was already on board the Sora idea way back after they had their second encounter. The problem now was what to do about it. It was clearly affecting her leader's concentration.

"What should we super do now?"

"…I don't know. We could always send Frenda out as bait and see if the kaiju monster known as Mugino takes a bite" Takitsubo joked.

Kinuhata couldn't help but chuckle at her joke while immediately coming up with her own.

"While that does sound super funny, I'm worried that the Megalodon known as Meltdowner will split Frenda in half. Mugino's never been one to show her true feelings."

"…That doesn't mean she hasn't before."

Realizing that what Takitsubo said was true, Kinuhata couldn't help but agree with her.

"True. But we are dealing with a super powerful Level 5 Esper that could kick our asses. Not to mention, she slapped a tiger! Did you forget about that? That girl would dominate that new slapping sport!"

A deadpan expression made its way onto Takitsubo's face.

"You had to remind me of that."

"It's the super truth. She told us what happened and how it happened back in the Colosseum last ye-"

"The details weren't exactly explained. How do you explain killing a tiger with the palm of your hand?" the tracksuit girl asked, staring blankly at the short-haired girl.

"You're right about that… and yet, it would seem Sora's the only one to survive encountering her in the field of battle twice. A feat nobody has super yet to accomplish" Kinuhata directly argued.

"The first time doesn't exactly count."

"It super does. She fired a point-blank Meltdowner beam at him and he's still alive. Walking around and fighting those strange dark creatures."

"They have a name."

"Yeah, yeah. I know they have a super name" Kinuhata replied. "The Heartless… it's kind of catchy when you say it a few times. It's almost like one of those names given in a cheesy action story but having seen them up close and even fought them they are no joke."

Takitsubo then turned back to the melted entranceway to see if she could see Frenda but to no avail, the blonde-haired girl was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, she was still standing guard. For their sake at least.

"Still, what should we do about Mugino? It could be that time of- "

"If you super ask me, I think playing the waiting game is the only reasonable way of going about things. If we pry too much into Mugino's love life, then we get our behinds lasered off and hung above her fireplace" Kinuhata sarcastically responded.

"…Mugino doesn't have a fireplace. We don't have a fireplace at the apartment" argued the tracksuit girl.

Clicking her tongue, Kinuhata shrugged her shoulders and gave a dumb response back.

"She's bound to have one back at her actual home. You know, she's super rich and whatnot. Don't most rich people have fireplaces?"

"You're thinking about rich people in the movies or shows."

"I doubt it. Rich people are super- "

Suddenly, before Kinuhata could finish what she was saying, Frenda rushed into the room and had an anxious expression written all over her face.

"Ah! You two might want to come with me."

"Oh, crap… did she super hear us? Are our butts getting cut off?"

"What the- No! At least, not yet. Mugino didn't come anywhere near the room. Instead, she found something else you two might want to see" Frenda clarified.

Shooting one another a glance, the two decided to listen to Frenda's words and beckoned her to lead them to where Mugino was. This started a small trek throughout the facility which led them to an area that they had checked earlier.

"Huh? Weren't we super here earlier?"

"We were. But something came up" came the reply from Item's leader.

Getting a look at her, even with dirt covering her purple dress, Mugino kept up the appearance of a mature and beautiful girl. Granted, her personality was not the best right now.

"Mugino? What did you find?" Takitsubo asked, prepared to activate her AIM Stalker ability if needed.

Brushing some hair off her shoulder, the tea-colored hair beauty nodded her head at what appeared to be a large hold in the wall. The hole was clearly made by Mugino's Meltdowner beam as it appeared just like the other room's burnt-down entrance.

"What super happened here? You encounter some kind of machine-playing defense?" questioned Kinuhata. "There doesn't seem to be any bodies around here."

Glaring at the girl, Mugino moved to the hole before responding.

"No. I just needed to take out some pent-up anger. I fired a beam at the wall expecting it to lead to one of the other rooms we checked already, but as you can see…" She then gestured to inside the room where the hole was leading. "I just found a secret room."

"Ooh! A super-secret room. That makes things a bit more interesting. Let's check it out!" Kinuhata said before jumping through the hole.

"*sigh* Does this mean that we have to start checking all the rooms in the facility again?!" Frenda complained while being dramatic and hunching herself over like a deflated balloon. "Should we have Mugino just go laser crazy?"

"I don't think so" commented Takitsubo as she got closer to the hole. "Look inside, Frenda."

Eager to see what she was talking about, Frenda stepped through the hole not having any set expectations for what she might see. This proved to be a good thing because once she was now in the secret room, she could see several large monitors along with a side door and a few computer servers all functional and booted up. It looked like the room was abandoned in a rush based on the monitors still being functional.

"Wow… this could have messed the mission up. How did we not find this room sooner? Isn't that a door?" Frenda said, pointing out the side door. "Where does that lead?"

Deciding to figure that out now, Mugino went and pressed the door open only to be surprised how the door opened right into another room. However, on the other side, the door appeared to be part of the wall. The good old-fashioned secret door.

"Dang. The old tricks are still some of the super best" Kinuhata casually replied.

"And where there's a secret door…" Mugino started.

"Then there's a secret worth keeping" finished Takitsubo.

Striding over to the central monitor, Mugino spotted a keyboard which she got right to work typing away to see if she could get access to the equipment. While Item had not been given any clearance to know what this data held, that didn't mean they couldn't let their curiosity get the best of them.

"Alright then, let's see what these bozos were working on."

Beginning to search through the computer's database, Mugino went through the most recent files that had been opened and could see that a lot of data had been erased. Remnants of files were still present, but there was nothing in those files. Tons of documents were also recorded but had nothing in them.

"Damn. Someone did manage to erase the data."

"Have you tried looking through the computer's- "

"I've tried. I'm not an idiot when it comes to working with computers" Mugino argued.

"Right, right. My bad. I forgot that you're secretly a hardcore gamer" Frenda clarified. "Hmm. Then why don't we try hooking up to the actual computer servers?"

Taking her suggestion into account, Kinuhata started pulling some wires from two of the servers and passing them along to Takitsubo who connected them to the main console. This caused a plethora of various codes and software to pop up on the console screen. A small glance into what this facility was researching.

"Oh, wow. There's a lot of… super gibberish here. I'm not seeing anything that stands out. Just a lot of boring and useless information on- "

"Are you an idiot?" Mugino bluntly said while pointing at the screen. "Are you not seeing this?!"

Unsure of what she was talking about, Kinuhata took a step and got close to the monitor to see what was up. Upon closer inspection, she couldn't help but realize that she had a stupid moment.

"Oh. Whoops."

"Moron."

Peering their eyes at the screen, Frenda and Takitsubo now realized what Mugino meant and could see that the interest in this entire mission just jumped up from a low level to a very high level.

On the monitor screen was a line of data that made things seem to go from boring to interesting.

"Is that… "

"Yeah. Files about the Heartless" the Level 5 replied while immediately clicking on the files. "It looks like most of the data was erased as well. Only small bits of information are remaining."

Looking over the information present on the monitor, Takitsubo got quite curious about a file name that appeared between several other files.

"What's that one?"

"This one?" Mugino asked, opening the file that Takitsubo had her eye on.

Once she clicked on it, several pages of corrupted information were being displayed on the monitor for everyone to see and read. Based on a glance this information was part of a codex to an even larger report of recorded information regarding the most recent observations done on the Heartless.

"It's a lot of recycled information."

"So, it's a bust then?" Frenda asked.

"Not quite."

Acting fast, Mugino pulled a USB thumb drive that she cautiously prepared and began to download as many files as she could quickly.

"You came prepared. Did you know something about this facility beforehand?" Takitsubo asked her leader.

"No. But ever since the Railgun's clone incident, I've made sure to be ready in case I come across some interesting information. Besides, it makes things a bit more exciting!"

"Fair enough."

As soon as her thumb drive had downloaded as many files as she thought necessary, she immediately pulled it out of the computer and instantly activated her Meltdowner ability. Without even lifting a finger, she fired a beam at the computer destroying it.

"Hey! Watch where you shoot that beam! You could have given us a super heads up!"

"You're fine. Look, Takitsubo knew what was coming up and moved back" Mugino said while gesturing over to the black-haired girl.

"That's only because of my ability."

"Then explain how Frenda also super leaped back in time."

Sticking her tongue out in a teasing way, Frenda couldn't help but smirk at Kinuhata's mishap.

"Basically, I just saw Takitsubo take a step back and figured something was going to happen."

"Boo. That's super cheap."

*Sshshshshsh*

Another beam of light hit the computer servers causing a static noise. The Level 5 was intending to make sure that nothing remained operational. Next, Mugino aimed at the monitor and computer and made sure it would be impossible to find any trace of a computer.

"There. Now we've cleared the entire building of computers and servers. Frenda, did you set the explosives?"

"Yep! That's the first thing I did after we cleared the place out."

"Good. Our job here is done."

"So, what're you super going to do with that information?" Kinuhata asked Mugino.

Examining the thumb drive resting in the palm of her hands, the chestnut-haired girl held a sly grin on her face. The information they had come across allowed her to realize several significant things to consider.

"We can call this job a success. So, we're getting paid good."

"Yes!" Frenda cheered.

"And we now have a bigger idea of how things are changing around the city. With the Heartless still roaming around the city and Anti-Skill unable to stop them completely. Not to mention, Sora hasn't been on the news lately… "

'And that son of a bitch still hasn't contacted me since I called him that night…' Mugino thought to herself.

"It's safe to say Academy City is making some headway into learning about the Heartless."

A look of realization appeared on one of the girl's faces.

"The only way they'd be able to make quite the progress would be if they captured a Heartless…" Takitsubo answered, keeping a plain tone in her voice. "Someone managed to capture one."

"Wonder how they did that. Maybe boxed a bunch together?" Frenda reasoned.

"I doubt it. You super saw them. They could sink into the ground and cause a puddle to appear. Perhaps an esper ability did the trick?"

"It's possible. However, it's none of our concern" Mugino strikingly said. "We did the job and got some information to play around with. I'd say we've earned ourselves a reward."

"Good! I'm starving."

"You're always super starving, Frenda."

"Am not!"

"…You can eat at any time."

"Not you too, Takitsubo!"

"It's going to go to your legs."

"Take that back!"

"You're going to become super bottom-heavy, Frenda. And not in the good kind of way."

As Item made their way out of the facility to meet up with their pickup from the support division, Mugino couldn't help but reflect on everything that's happened tonight. From her slight mishap with that scientist to discovering that research was being found regarding the Heartless. It would seem as if things were only getting more interesting.

Alas, she couldn't help but let a stray thought rest on her mind. The flashing visualization of a certain spiky-haired boy.

*KA-BOOM*

The facility they were just in had been blown up from the inside thanks to Frenda's explosives. The group had gotten far enough away and were staring at the explosion before jumping into their getaway vehicle.

All in all, Item had another successful night.

The next day… September 11, 20XX

Rushing down the street and making sure to not hit any of the students in his way, Sora was making his way to school but had slept in. After his chat with Moogla, he took his time returning to his dorm in case there were any more appearances from the Heartless or any strange activity from the magic cabal.

Thankfully, nothing happened, but that also caused him to wear himself down and fall victim to the consequences of staying up late.

"Ah! Sorry! Excuse me! Coming through!"

Many of the students along the busy streets could see the familiar spiky-haired boy rushing past them in his school attire. For some, it was quite strange and surprising to see someone recently famous just run past them like it was nothing. Granted, the Level 5s were also considered celebrities wherever they went.

"Whoa!" Sora yelped at seeing the light to cross the street turn red indicating that he had to wait.

Not about to let this stop him, he swerved his head to the side and saw that he was close enough to a wall that would give him enough push for his idea.

"*gasp* Is that him?" one girl said while pointing at Sora easily recognizing him from the news.

"Shh! He'll hear you," said another boy.

Clearly hearing them, Sora turned and gave them a friendly wave before activating his Flowmotion and causing his entire body to be covered in blue light. In the next moment, Sora dashed right at the wall and jumped at it before jumping high into the air and dashing across the street. Many of the students watching this were in awe of the boy's strange powers.

"He did that thing again!"

"What is his esper ability? I thought he used a giant key?"

"What level is he?"

"How cool!"

Once he was past the street, Sora propelled himself in the air so that he'd touch the wall of the building next to him and started wall running like it was nothing. The best way to get to class on time would be to cut the traffic and that's exactly what he was doing.

"This'll buy me some time."

And so, from one building onto the other, Sora continued to use his Flowmotion to his advantage. Making the trek to school a lot shorter than it normally would be for anyone walking.

'I wonder if Touma and Index found anything else about the magic cabal. Could they have hit more turbines in the middle of the night? We still don't know how many there are in the city' he thought to himself while leaping to another building.

Once he passed another block, he figured it would be fine to run the rest of the way. Leaping down to the ground, Sora made his spectacular movements look easy all without breaking a sweat. Nothing could stop…

*BAM*

"Ahh!"

"Gah!"

The Keyblade wielder had accidentally walked right into someone by not paying attention. Shaking his head, he quickly got himself up to help whoever he hit.

"Sorry! I wasn't paying attention."

"Don't be! I should've been looking up" came the soft reply of a boy.

Getting a better look at who he hit, the boy's appearance consisted of short blonde hair and light blue eyes. He wore a uniform that consisted of a white shirt, black pants, black gloves, a necktie, and a red cape along with a pouch. In addition, he also had a pair of glasses resting on his face. To the side of him, a few books were scattered on the ground.

"Ah. Here, let me help get those."

"Thank you."

Picking the books up and handing them back to the blonde boy, Sora offered him a friendly smile.

"Hey… you're that guy. The one from the news."

Scratching his cheek, Sora could only give an honest answer, "Yeah. You got it right. That's me."

"Oh, wow! I can't believe it. The others aren't going to believe this."

"Others?"

Right before Sora could ask who, two girls and a guy's voice could be heard calling the boy.

"Ace!"

"Ace! Are you alright?"

"Hey! Are you picking on him?"

Looking at who was calling to him, Sora quickly took in the details of the three students concerned about their friend. It was easy to see they were his friends based on the uniforms they had on which were similar.

The first person he took notice of a was mature-looking boy with long blonde slicked back hair ending in a mullet and red eyes. A white short-sleeved shirt with a black print on the side and black trim on the ends of his sleeves could be seen. He also wore a black tie, a red cape just like the other boy, black trousers, gloves, and white shoes.

The next person Sora observed was a girl with long black hair with bangs clipped back with a green barrette. Her eyes were of a violet color, and she also wore glasses. Her uniform had a black gold-lined vest with red lapels, a white collared short-sleeved shirt with gray stripes at the ends of the sleeves, a black bowtie, a black skirt with loose belts, white socks with gray stripes, and black gloves.

And the last girl had silver hair with violet eyes. Her uniform consisted of a black pleated skirt with loose belts hanging over it, gray shorts, a black vest with red lapels, a black bowtie, and black evening gloves. Out of the three uniformed students, she was the only one to not wear a red mantle, making her stand out a bit compared to everyone else.

"Wait. It's alright. I wasn't watching where I was going" said the boy with glasses.

"No. It's also my fault. I should've watched my surroundings."

Seeing that there was no animosity with the spiky brown-haired boy, the silver-haired and blonde-haired students let their faces ease up.

Rubbing his hand through his hair, the mature-looking boy spoke up first.

"Ace. Please tell me you weren't reading and walking again."

"Err…"

"*sigh* Figures."

Suddenly, the silver-haired girl took a step toward the Keyblade wielder which threw him off guard.

"Um… hi?"

"Say, aren't you that guy that's been on the news lately?"

Not being one to lie and having no reason to, Sora simply nodded his head.

"Yep. That's me. My name is Sora."

"It is you! I thought you looked familiar" claimed the black-haired girl.

The mature-looking boy took a closer look at him by stepping toward him while moving his gaze up and down the Keyblade wielder. Based on his facial expression, the older boy had a questionable look.

"Hmph. You look a bit different from the footage captured of you."

"Really?" asked Sora as he started examining himself in a comedic manner. "I don't think so. I mean, I haven't exactly seen every video of myself."

"Hm. Could you please answer a few of my questions?" the black-haired girl asked with an eager smile. "There's a great deal I want to ask you."

"I…uh…?"

"Take it easy on him guys," said the boy with glasses. "I'm sure he gets questioned like this a lot."

Understanding where he was coming from, the other students nodded their heads and began to introduce themselves.

"Right. Well, I think introductions should get underway. My name is Ace" answered the boy with glasses.

"Name's King. Thanks for stopping those creatures the other night. I had a few friends in the district" replied the mature-looking boy.

"I'm Seven. Like King said, we had a few friends out and about. Thanks for making things safer" added the silver-haired girl.

"My name is Queen. On behalf of my friends here and elsewhere we from Class Zero thank you for keeping the city safe, and for stepping up where Anti-Skill is lacking" stated the girl with long black hair.

Happy to have met several new faces, Sora had to tilt his head at what Queen said.

"You're welcome? But why do sound like you're upset with Anti-Skill?"

Clearing her throat while adjusting her glasses, it seemed that Queen had a lot to say on the matter. This was further supported by Ace, King, and Seven letting out a sigh and shaking their heads.

"Because that's exactly what I'm feeling. How can we as students feel safe with these strange dark creatures running around the city? I'm not sure if you've noticed but while Anti-Skill has increased the number of patrol vehicles across the districts, it doesn't feel as if they have a hold on the situation. Either Anti-Skill is underestimating the threat these monsters pose, or they're not taking them seriously."

"I think you might be overreacting here, Queen" Ace commented. "We aren't exactly in the know with everything that Anti-Skill does. Maybe things will get better soon?"

"Besides, we're not even really in the know. You know?" Seven said while placing a hand on her hip and directing her attention at Queen. "I'm sure Judgment has also stepped up their safety measures. You can't criticize Anti-Skill when you're not associated with the organization."

"… I think you're all forgetting a bigger part of the whole thing" mumbled King as folded his arms across his chest.

"And what's that?" Queen questioned the blonde.

With a simple raise of the hand, King pointed right at Sora who was a bit surprised and simply offered an awkward smile. Everyone's attention was now directed toward him.

"If you want to know how Anti-Skill is actually doing… why not ask the person who's been in the thick of things?"

Taking his point into consideration, Queen right away asked Sora that very question.

"Sora! In your honest opinion, how has Anti-Skill's reaction to the strange creatures been?"

Feeling the limelight put on him, the Keyblade wielder couldn't help but stutter with his sudden response.

"W-Well, I think that with the information Anti-Skill has on their hands, they're doing a great job with securing the area and making sure citizens get to safety. Plus, it's a developing situation. They might not know everything there is about these… creatures."

"Mm. And what do you know about the weaponry used by Anti-Skill against these creatures? Speaking of weaponry, what exactly is your esper ability? Based on the videos captured of you fighting the dark monsters, you always seem to be using a large key to fight" Queen explained while taking a leader-like tone.

"I-I…"

"Ease up on him, Queen. Didn't Ace just tell us to do that?" Seven said, holding onto the girl's shoulder.

"Ehem. Sorry about that."

Letting out a breath of relief, Sora shook his head.

"Don't worry. It's all good. I can tell that your questions come from a good place. And it's ok to be somewhat concerned about what's going on."

Seven couldn't help but smirk at the boy's deduction hitting close to its mark.

"You have no idea, Sora. Queen's got a bit of a class leader thing going about her. When things are rough for any of us or our friends, we turn to our always notorious and responsible Queen. Always the practical and logical one."

"You're one to talk, Seven. Everyone sees you as the big sister of the class and beyond. You're quite nurturing and that selfsame generosity always puts you in quite the dilemma. Always the reliable and caring one."

Ace and King simply looked at one another. This had been a common bit of banter shared among them. An array of similar bouts of banter could be connected between all the other members of Class Zero.

"Haha. You guys seem close. And to answer your question, Queen, I can't really give a clear idea of Anti-Skill's weaponry used in dealing with the creatures. But I know for a fact that good people are working to make sure Academy City is safe and protected. As for my esper ability, it's called Light Manipulation. I'm able to control all sorts of things with it. Also, the giant key I have helps me control my power" Sora said, doing his best to give a reasonable answer.

A look of interest crossed the girl's face.

"Interesting. And based on the video footage captured of you, what else can you do?"

"Well- "

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

"Oh! Sorry. I might need to take this" Sora said while pulling his Gummiphone out and seeing that it was a text message from Touma.

On the Gummiphone's screen, a simple message was sent to him.

(Where are you? Are you coming to class today?)

Watching as Sora's facial reaction changed upon seeing his phone, Ace was the first to speak up.

"Something the matter? Do you need to leave?"

"I… Yeah, I should probably get going."

"Hm. I see, well, it was a pleasure to meet you and strike up a conversation with you, Sora."

"Same here. Hey, let's trade numbers. That way we can all get together and chat again" the Keyblade wielder proposed to the group.

"I like that idea" commented Seven.

"Sure. I can already tell you'll get along with a few of our other friends" King said while chuckling.

"Jack?" Ace asked King.

"Jack" King confirmed to Ace.

"It'll also let me ask you some important questions later."

"Great!"

And so, the five students all exchanged numbers rather quickly before the Keyblade wielder turned to them one last time before departing.

"Ha! It was nice meeting you guys. I hope we can catch up again soon."

"Likewise. Take care."

"See ya."

"Take it easy."

"Until next time."

Giving a quick wave, the Keyblade wielder was now set to arrive at school and see how things had developed with Touma on his end of things. While the day had only just begun, there was a lot that could happen in a short time.

Later at school

"Everyone!" chimed the lively and energetic short teacher Komoe. "I'm sure all of you are aware of the difference between extrasensory perception and psychokinesis but for reassurance, I'll be going over that topic again since we have a midterm coming around the corner."

The pink-haired teacher said this while writing on the chalkboard and teaching the class the basic differences between ESP and PK. However, Touma's attention was anywhere but the board. He was still reeling from the brief chat he had with Sora while class started. Neither of the two had anything vital to report and simply were left to their thoughts about the magical problem at their feet.

'Stiyl said that Agni's Festival Fire could be used at any time and that it didn't matter if the spell was one hundred percent complete. The magic cabal would still use it to destroy the city.'

Off to the side, Sora was sitting at his desk and doing his best to try and understand everything that Komoe Sensei was explaining on the board. His desk was stacked with paper while he took mangled notes and had a disheveled and strained face. School and computers were absolutely not his best subjects. Fighting Heartless, exploring new worlds, befriending people, and flying a Gummiship were things he excelled at.

"Now, regarding thoughtography. As mentioned last week, the power allows you to learn of far or future scenes, it's seemingly categorized under the ESP class just like precognition. I don't believe precognition is a topic we need to cover in depth. Alas, the power that affects the film…"

Sora couldn't help but feel sweat trail down the side of his face. All this information was registering to him and in a desperate attempt to learn it, he pushed himself past his limits. Knowledge came at a cost.

"…So be careful! When a power sits on both sides of the line between PK and ESP, PK takes precedence in classification! Remember! PK!" Komoe instructed the class.

'Right now, District 7 could become a sea of flames. The inside of an oven at any moment. Everyone could die… burned to death. My right hand… I have the power to stop that. By destroying the spiritual items placed on the wind turbines, why am I sitting around waiting for something to happen? I should be out there!' Touma continued to ramble in his head.

With everything that had happened last night, Touma recalled that Stiyl had thrown a prepaid phone at him which meant that he was on standby until the shitty magician gave him a call. This also made the fact that Stiyl would rather go out and buy a new phone than give him his number.

"Sora-chan. I see you back there with a strained look on your face. Are you understanding all of this?" Komoe suddenly asked, focused on the Keyblade wielder's state of mind.

"Y-Yeah! I-I'm good. Just making sure my notes are good!" Sora hesitantly replied.

"That's good to hear! Let me know if you need any help at all. And that goes out to you all. Now then, moving along, analog cameras that use film exposure have been on the decline in recent times due to the arrival of digital cameras. No matter the size, digital cameras can be found almost anywhere. This has created the issue of whether espers who display the future on digital cameras should be…"

As expected, Sora continued to do his best and keep up with the advanced lesson, feeling his interest peak with the mention of cameras. Everything else wasn't sticking that well to his brain, but this topic did. Since his most recent adventure, taking pictures with the Gummiphone has become a bit of a hobby for him. There was a bunch of people he still needed to get pictures with.

'Gah! I can't focus! This magic cabal is here in Academy City. Right now! But… wait… what was their name? God's Gate? No. It was… The Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens, right? Something like that. Stiyl said he would find them, but how exactly? What if he's lazy? What if he's an even bigger idiot than I thought? What if…?'

"Um… Kamijou-chan? Kamijou-chan!"

"Touma?"

"Huh!? Wha?!"

Pulled out of his thoughts, Touma could see Sora and Komoe Sensei staring at him with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Kamijou-chan! It goes without saying that you've not been paying attention! I've been trying to give a final review before the midterm, but… *sniff* wah! Class is over! There's still material I need to review!"

*BANG*

At the same time that Komoe complained, the door to the classroom flew open with a young girl in a nun outfit standing there with an excited look on her face.

"Komoe! Komoe! Please teach me about something called 'electromagnetic waves!"

Perplexed by the sudden and random request, Komoe wasn't sure where to start.

"Nun-chan?! What are you doing here? Why did you come all the way to school to learn about electromagnetic waves? Why do you want to learn about that? W-While I'm overjoyed that you want to learn something, I'm getting the feeling that I won't be able to extend class time!"

"Index? What are you doing here? This is odd…?" Sora said, silently jumping with joy that the nun took the attention away from the lecture. His brain was thanking her profusely.

"Sora! You're also needed for this topic!"

"What?"

Before Touma or Sora could realize what was going on, Index ran up to them and pulled them out into the hall. She also grabbed Komoe's shirt and pulled her along so the four of them were in the hall. The students inside the class were beyond puzzled by what was going on.

"Kamijou-Chan! What's the meaning of this?! You're responsible for her! And while I am going to lecture you about this more, I am also very proud of you for getting her interested in such a topic! Also! Why did you bring along Sora? And why does it feel like I'm part of your team to go on a strange journey!?"

"None of those things matters! I just need help understanding this 'electromagnetic wave' thing! Something was causing the TV to go zap zap zap and make things explode in the microwave oven! It also was mentioned on the TV!"

"Um… I don't think that's supposed to happen with a TV" Sora mumbled.

"Wait…" Touma started to say. "You had me going for a second there, Index. I thought you were being strangely quiet for something related to magic, but I guess hearing about magic that ups the output of electromagnetic waves didn't register to you. Once again, another scientific topic rattling your magic-focused brain."

Staring at Touma with saucer-like eyes, Sora wasn't sure if it was a good thing to talk about magic so openly. This assumption was based on his last conversation regarding the magic and science sides being vastly different and keeping magic a quiet topic.

"W-What? It feels like I've missed a week of lectures and don't know where to even begin understanding what's going on! And why do I get the feeling of contextual danger in your words!?" the short teacher exclaimed to the trio.

"Sensei! Please teach me! How do these waves make my sandwiches blow up!?"

Left confused by Index's words, Sora decided to sit back on this conversation and watch it proceed.

Meanwhile, Touma just watched as Komoe began explaining electromagnetic waves and how microwave ovens. Komoe was a true and honest caring person to explain this simple scientific topic to the nun.

Well, for a quick and basic introduction, electromagnetic waves are invisible waves. They have a set amplitude, so they can cause a stable vibration in very small objects. A microwave oven is a device that applies heat to food by vibrating the moisture in it at a high speed. This is why if you put a sandwich in the microwave for 30 seconds it'll be warmer than before."

"What?! Vibrating the water makes it hotter?! HOW!?"

Fascinated by the scientific knowledge being bestowed upon her, Index looked enthralled and amazed by it all. Quickly, she rushed to the nearest drinking fountain and twisted the faucet while swinging her hand through the water.

Unfortunately, she donned a pout on her face and stared right back at the teacher.

"It's not getting warm. It's cold."

Sending a perplexed glance at Sora, who had his hands resting behind his head, and then Touma, who looked deep in thought, Komoe wasn't sure how to react to the nun's action.

"Err… nun-chan? That's not exactly what I meant."

"I think you're missing part of the explanation, Index" Sora commented.

"Hmm. Komoe, I didn't think you'd mislead me about water getting hot. For being a teacher, you're quite stupid. I rushed all the way to Touma and Sora's school for help in understanding these waves and you didn't help me at all…" Index said while blankly staring at the small teacher.

"Eh!? K-Kamijou-chan! What's the meaning of this? Everything I described was correct. Do something about this improper explanation!"

"Huh? But that made sense! Even to me! Why are you asking the student for help?" Sora questioned, feeling confused about the events unfolding in front of him.

With the short teacher pleading to Kamijou for help in explaining this situation to Index, Touma felt inclined to stand aside and watch the conversation play out rather than sticking his nose in this matter.

However, one thought of his did manage to leak from his mind and mouth.

"Think of it like this, the zapping from the microwave is a type of lightning. But instead of shocking you, it burns you. It would be a big problem if everyone got burned… so, we're gonna stop them."

"Huh?" came Komoe's immediate reply.

"Oh! I see! I guess you would be burned if you got hit with lightning. With that cleared up, I can find plenty of similar descriptions in my 103, 000 grimoires! You surprise me sometimes, Touma!"

The Keyblade wielder couldn't help but stifle a chuckle at the nun's bluntness.

Overwhelmed with the strange conversation and topic happening before her, Komoe could only shake her head with a concerned expression plastered over her face.

"I…huh?! I get the feeling that you're moving the conversation along with fixing the problem, Kamijou-chan!"

"Don't worry. I'm also just as lost" Sora muttered. "But I think I understand what's happening."

Not really answering his teacher's question or comment, Touma continued to voice what thoughts were prevalent in his mind right now.

"Stiyl still hasn't called us. We're wasting time. I can't believe that I can't do anything. Even with the ability to destroy magic with my right hand. Ha…"

Seeing Touma's disdained face and the way his voice portrayed a frustrated tone, Index couldn't help but speak her mind on the entire matter.

"…Touma?"

"Yes?"

"Now that I think about it… is this Stiyl magician really the type of person to keep his word? Would he even call you if something came up with the cabal?"

Hearing this simple statement be replayed in his mind, Touma couldn't help but imagine a bell going off in his head. Index's statement rang so much truth that the black spiky-haired boy clenched his right fist rather tightly.

'…You've got to be kidding me!'

Consequently, while Sora had only had one real encounter with Stiyl, he could for sure also believe that he was the kind of guy to do things on his own. Or that he would not alert them to anything going on regarding the magic cabal. He didn't seem like a team player.

"Touma…"

"That ashtray bastard! How could I be so stupid!? Did he seriously have me waiting around for his call in order to keep me from doing anything!?"

Komoe couldn't help but just watch her student come to a groundbreaking revelation while still standing in the middle of the hall. It also appeared that Sora had the same reaction but was more reserved about it.

"Hmm. He did say your right hand and presence do get in the way."

Annoyance was the first emotion to bubble in Kamijou's mind.

"He went out on his own and we don't even know how many enemies we're dealing with! This is no time to be worrying about trivial matters! Index, help me out here. We need to find out where that red-headed bastard is!"

A look of bewilderment was now placed on Index's face before she had a more irritated look.

"Touma, I don't think you have any right to complain about someone being reckless."

"Sounds like we're on another goose chase" Sora casually commented, seeing where things might be going.

In an attempt to calm things down, Komoe waved her hands rapidly in front of her body to get the two boys' and nun's attention. The situation was developing too fast for her.

"Err… um… Kamijou-chan? Sora-chan? Nun-chan? I must remind you that such serious problems should be taken up with adults. Everything you've been talking about sounds very dangerous, and I don't even understand half of it. Maybe if you slow down and help me understand- HEY! How can you start leaving school right in front of your teacher!? Wait!"

Breaking into a sprint, Touma and Index beelined their way out of the school with Sora following behind them.

"Sorry, Komoe! Something's come up! See you!"

"WAIT!"

The pink-haired teacher could only watch as the three individuals got further away from her and basically left the school right in front of her.

Outside the school

Rushing out the main doors and into the front of the school and down to the street, Touma hastily turned to Index for help on what they should do next.

"Argh, we don't even know where to go!? Index, can you use your magical knowledge and pinpoint where the cabal or Stiyl could be?"

"Hmm… The fastest way to find either of them would be to investigate the magic circles making up Agni's Festival Fire. If we find either one of them, then the other is bound to be close" Index reasoned.

"Yeah, but those circles are being placed on turbines across the city. How are we supposed to figure out which one Stiyl or the cabal will be at?"

"I could make a quick call. Get eyes on areas across the city" Sora offered. "We could learn what's happening across the different turbines."

"That could work. However, even with all those circles being made, the number of magic users is limited" Index suddenly. proposed

"Wait. Really?" the spiky-haired brunette muttered.

"Mm. There's sure to be a center controlling all the other circles that function as terminals. Anyone who wants to control Agni's Festival Fire will head to the center" the nun continued to say.

"Ah. So, it's something like a host server?"

"A host?" Index asked with a great deal of confusion on her face.

The information being presented offered Touma and better understanding of what was happening. However, if all the circles set up around the city were controlled by a single point, then every single terminal needed to be connected to that center point. Finding the center's location could be done by investigating the terminal.

"Hold on. This isn't like the internet. How does the center send commands to the terminals?"

"…Hm. Let me investigate the spiritual item in question."

Watching as Index started directly at the base of one of the wind turbine's pillars, Sora easily guessed that she was using the knowledge bestowed on her.

On the base of the turbine, a magic circle was supposedly drawn there using the fading effect of an ultraviolet light. Something that Touma and Sora couldn't see the difference in, but that was something she noticed.

"Stiyl said that we're dealing with a Hindu cabal, and it appears this is related to Shiva at the root."

"Shiva?" Sora questioned.

"Huh?" Touma muttered.

Seeing the two boys confused, Index explained, "Shiva is said to be the god of dance that creates everything that flows through the universe. It is said his great power disturbing the great universe is what causes the stars to move."

Crossing his arms, Sora couldn't help but let that information rest in his head. It was certainly interesting. Especially the part about mentioning "the universe" along with Shiva's power disturbing the universe is what moves the stars.

Information such as this caused the Keyblade wielder to suddenly start considering the deeper root of his situation. He knew that he was in a whole new world that he'd never been to before. However, the likelihood that he might be in a whole other universe was something he was starting to sort in his head. He still wasn't completely aware of everything that entailed the Power of Waking, but what he did know was that misusing it caused him to vanish from his world… and quite likely his universe…

However, this was a topic he'd need to sit down and contemplate for quite a while. Now was not the time to be dealing with such trivial and complex issues. He had more concerning things to worry about.

"So does Agni's Festival Fire use some kind of light or power related to the universe as a communications signal?" Touma questioned while trying to make sense of this information. "Or is it related to the moon and sun? Maybe it uses solar winds or gravity? *sigh* Why do I feel like the scale of this situation just inflated?"

"No, Shiva is a god that rules over everything that flows, whether it's small or large. He is related even to everything nearby such as smoke and water."

"That… really makes things more complicated," Sora said, feeling the weight of this entire problem growing exponentially.

"The things that flow nearby…?"

Processing this, Touma had a sudden thought come to him. Something wasn't adding up. The magic cabal was drawing their magic circles on wind turbines… wind turbines.

"Does it use the flow of wind!?" Kamijou eagerly asked.

"Yes! The movements of all the turbines lined up along here are somewhat different. And Shiva has a strong connection to Rudra, a god of roaring wind. The center and the terminals all likely use the flow of the wind to communicate" Index quickly explained.

"Then that's it! Index, can you determine the location of the center from the movements of the turbines?"

"Yep! Leave it to me!"

"Let's- "Sora started to say but was abruptly interrupted by the sound of something familiar.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

"Huh? Who's calling now?" the Keyblade wielder asked while reaching for his Gummiphone.

Touma and Index simply watched from the side as they saw him answer his phone.

"Hello?"

"Sora! Heartless have been sighted in District 7, kupo!" Moogla immediately said. "A group of Heartless was just reported by Anti-Skill, kupo."

The expression on the Guardian of Light's face had shifted to a more determined one. This was seen by the two standing next to him.

"Keep me posted. I'll be right there."

With a quick tap, the Gummiphone was pocketed while Sora had a combat-ready expression on his face.

"Heartless have just been reported in District 7."

"Are you serious!? Now!?" Touma exclaimed. "We're so close to finding this cabal."

"How many were reported?" Index asked, trying to get a better picture of the situation.

"I'm not sure. I was just told that the Heartless were seen and reported to Anti-Skill."

"…That's just great."

Seeing the situation get flipped on its head, Sora knew what he had to do. It was quite obvious. The Heartless were his problem. There was no way he'd just let them wander around the city and cause trouble.

"…Touma. Index. You guys go on ahead. I'll stop the Heartless while you guys stop the magic cabal."

"Huh? Are- "

"I'm sure. Besides, you guys are more familiar with magical problems of this nature. My expertise is with the Heartless. We can't have both the cabal and Heartless causing mayhem in the city."

"No… no we cannot."

The line was drawn. Now, it was up to them to keep things from getting any worse.

"Keep me updated on what happens with the cabal. Once I deal with the Heartless, I'll catch up with you guys" Sora reasoned. "And see if you can find Stiyl. Wherever he is."

"That seems like our best bet" Touma hesitantly said before nodding his head. "All right. Take care and see you soon."

"Yeah! See you soon."

"We'll let you know what happens!" Index chimed in.

Not needing to say anything else, Sora took off to the left while Touma and Index took off to the right. One heading off to fight back against the Heartless, and the other following the trial to find the center point for Agni's Festival Fire.

The situation was a developing one.

But…

It was one that the Keyblade wielder was undoubtedly unprepared for.

Elsewhere…

Standing in front of a large monitor while being surrounded by other scientists working around him, Rufus Shinra was watching live alerts be notified to the screen before him. Things were escalating by the minute.

However, before anything else could happen, a man in a professional uniform stood behind the current president and garnered his attention.

"Sir. I take it you've seen the reports coming in?"

Turning around to greet the voice, Rufus nodded his head with a pleased expression.

"Tseng. I have. I also take it that your task is complete?"

"Indeed. We managed to retrieve the artifact you asked us to fetch."

"Good. Make sure it gets down to R&D. We need to have work get started on our project."

The man now known as Tseng had the appearance of a 30-year-old man with a slim build, tan skin, straight long black hair, dark brown eyes, and a bindi accessory on his forehead. The man's professional attire would leave some to think of him as a businessman. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

"No need to worry, sir. It's already been delivered" Tseng said while pulling his phone out and sending a text to someone.

As this was happening, Rufus glanced back at the monitor and continued to observe it closely. More reports were coming in from his sources currently in District 7 and were addressing the issue that the strange dark creatures were appearing.

Putting his phone away, Tseng then turned his attention over to Rufus who seemed to be transfixed on the screen and watching it with a tempered expression.

"…How well did negotiations go with the Board Chairman?"

A soft sigh escaped the president's mouth before he walked back to his desk which had a clear view of the city.

"As well as we expected. Shinra does not have clearance to act upon Academy City. The Board Chairman did offer his thanks to the company for its work and cooperation over the years. Even gave me a bit of insight into my father's actions."

"A successful task then?" Tseng asked, carefully observing the blonde-haired man's reaction.

Leaning back in his seat, Rufus had a smug smirk on his face.

"Precisely. I was expecting a harsher response from Aleister, but things turned out to be much more in our favor. With the proposal's rejection, this has given us the chance to move about and proceed with our goals."

Sporting a straight face, the black-haired man couldn't help but ponder something crucial in this entire matter.

"Sir, if I may, permission to speak freely…"

"Permission granted."

"…Wouldn't having the Board Chairman's eye be placed on Shinra's actions be… contrary to what we are trying to achieve?" Tseng freely asked knowing he had permission granted to him to speak. "Whether he knew what Shinra's plans were before… he's bound to know soon."

Resting his hand against his cheek while leaning in his seat, Rufus donned a serious look.

"It's not a question of when Aleister knew of Shinra's plans. I can say undoubtedly, he's known since the start. Even before my father's passing, he probably already had an idea of what was going on in the depths of the company. It would be ridiculous to think that anyone could keep a secret from that man much less in his own city."

"In that case, do you suppose he will act against the company?" Tseng asked.

"If Aleister had any real concern with Shinra, then he'd have taken out the company from the inside and then the outside all at the same time. He would have knocked the company and my father down years ago. He could do so much more without even lifting a finger. No… I believe I've gotten a slight read on that man…"

Intrigued by this statement, Tseng listened closely while making sure to cancel out the noise surrounding them from the other scientists working.

"Aleister wants Shinra to conduct its… projects. He views the company as nothing more than a bug on the wall. Not necessarily viewing the company as a problem unless it directly affects his plans" Rufus explained. "After all, the only concerns that have been made obvious to him are my interest in Shinra's expansion, the situation regarding these strange creatures, and… the boy with the key."

"…Do you expect a direct retaliatory attack from him if the company does intrude on his plans?"

"That… I'm not sure. He could easily get a dark side organization to strike against Shinra, or even call upon his favorite Level 5. Or he could even act on his own. He has his ways. No one truly understands Aleister Crowley except himself. Moreover, I'm willing to bet that he's interested in seeing our goals achieved."

At that moment, a joyous cheer started echoing in the room as several scientists began to act excitedly. The sudden change in tone caught the attention of both Tseng and Rufus as one of the scientists rushed up to them.

"Sir! You need to come see this. We managed to make a stable connection!"

Sitting up in his seat, Rufus hastily followed the scientist with Tseng following right behind him. The two were then led into another part of the room which showcased a dozen monitors all showing statistics, graphs, and programs centered around one display in the center.

"We managed to stabilize the synthesis of materials already shown to react to our experiments. Thanks to the artifact delivered, we were able to add a new element to the project which prompted- "

"In simpler terms if you will" Rufus stated.

"It works, sir! The connection works! The weapon successfully gave a positive reaction!"

Hearing nothing but good news, the current Shinra president nodded his head with a pleased smile.

"I expected nothing less. Take five everyone. You've earned it. I expect grand progress soon."

"Yes sir!"

Given the moment to celebrate, most of the scientists made their way out of the room while others kept on working. Seeing this reaction, Tseng then took a glance at the main monitor.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"I have my assumptions, but… sir, what exactly am I looking at? I've heard mention of what it is, but don't have a clear answer as to what it is. Mind clarifying."

An impressionable smirk appeared on Rufus's face while he pointed up to the monitor.

"This… is Shinra's ticket to gaining a better tomorrow. As you're aware, the weapon project Shinra is currently working on behind the scenes is centered around this…"

As he said this, Rufus pointed to the monitor which showcased a strange and unusual schematic with basic blueprints scattered all over the project. The main schematic showcased what appeared to be a large humanoid model with bolstered shoulders and feet that were wide and heavily armored. Along its arms were metal designs followed by long claws in place of its fingers. And above all, the head of the humanoid project sparked a sense of intimidation.

The title given to this project was labeled: Ruby Weapon.

"As soon as R&D continues to receive positive tests with the experimentation around the magical artifact, progress will begin on the other sub-projects" Rufus then took another glance at the weapon project before confidently smiling. "This will be quite the task in creating a Magitek Weapon."

Rufus Shinra, the current President of the Shinra Electric Company, knew very well the existence of magic in this world. How couldn't he? With an upbringing of wealth and power, it was only a matter of time before his interests expanded beyond Academy City and into the world. An insight that he used to propel his company where others in the city dare not proceed or even consider. A combination of science and magic… such a recipe.

"I see… has progress already started then?" Tseng questioned, getting a better idea of everything being discussed.

"Not quite. Here soon, I'll be attending a meeting with representatives of MAR to see how Shinra can improve and extend its working hand relationship with the city in a more emergency-focused way."

Keeping a straight face, Tseng had grown curious about what was just mentioned.

"Academy City's active rescue organization… they're presence in the city has been quite high, due to what's been happening as of late."

"They're also quite adept at the construction and development of mechanical mobile suits. Striking an even stronger deal with them could be of great help to our project."

"Quite the task you have on your plate, sir" Tseng admitted to his boss.

"Yes, well, I've made sure to also strike a deal with a certain someone who holds a great deal of knowledge over the research sitting around MAR's entire organization. She has recently reached out to me out of curiosity… It seems a little bird told her about my meeting with the Board Chairman."

A look of intrigue leveled on Tseng's face.

"Who, if I may ask?"

"…A certain member of the Kihara family. One who was in control as both the captain and head researcher of MAR before being locked away. Granted, she's anything but locked up."

Realization crossed the man's face.

"Therestina Kihara."

A nod was given by Rufus before he continued.

"I'll be seeing her soon to discuss how the Kiharas and Shinra can come to a sort of… agreement if you will. While they hold much power in the city, there are still fields of research they have not mastered."

"That's a very- "

Suddenly, before Tseng could finish what he was going to say, another barrage of reports hit the screen in front of Rufus eliciting him to pay attention. More reports were coming in from Shinra's sources and detailing the appearance of more strange creatures. This caused Rufus to start making his way out of the room.

"Tseng. Prepare the Turks for a reconnaissance mission. I want eyes and ears on that boy. You know who I'm talking about."

Knowing exactly who he was talking about, Tseng only gave an understanding nod.

"I'll alert the team now."

"Good. Let's see how much more potential he has to show…"

Meanwhile… within the confines of an underground laboratory

Standing in front of a large glass window, Gensei Kihara stood with his hands behind his back and was smiling devilishly at the sight before him. On the other side of the glass window was a team of military personnel and scientists all experimenting on several captured Heartless. Taken from the last experiment he conducted, the hunched-over old man couldn't have been happier.

Well, that wasn't true.

"Quite the visceral way of performing an experiment," said a voice standing behind the old man.

"Mm. Yes. One would think so. However, you don't have any say, my friend, for you basically trump any sort of understanding of mine. Which, I daresay, makes you even more interesting. Wouldn't you agree, Darkness?" Gensei said to the mysterious figure.

Standing behind the older man, the dark figure better known as Darkness did not reply and simply stepped to the side of the Kihara and watched as the Heartless was being experimented on.

"Well, you wouldn't be the first in my recollection of memories to experiment on the Heartless. Besides, it's not like I'm impressionable on the matter. It is, after all, your concern."

"Oh? You make it as if you want nothing of the sort to do with me."

"Nonsense… I'm very eager to see what you do with the insight I've given you. You have already gotten to work on your experiments" As Darkness said this, the mysterious being started walking away from the Kihara. "Besides, you're not the only individual I've helped."

"Oh? Color me surprised. I would have never thought that you'd have favorites" Gensei replied, keeping a greedy expression wrapped around his wrinkled face. "You must be a charitable individual."

A low chuckle could be heard coming from the mystified being.

"I wouldn't phrase it like that, but… I do believe that sharing one's discovery and talent is something to admire in oneself. Plus, the individuals I've encountered are sure to put their newfound knowledge and skills to show. And there's certainly more people I have yet to meet" Darkness clarified in a rather suspicious tone.

Before Gensei could respond, shouts inside the room broke his train of thought as he watched the scientists fight back against the strained creature. Even though it was locked down and unable to attack, the dark creature was still in control over everyone in that room. The same goes for the other creatures locked down and monitored.

"…I don't believe you've had a proper introduction to them, haven't you?"

"No. I don't believe I have. Care to give me a proper introduction?" the Kihara said while holding a creepy smile on his face. The look of elation was purely evident.

"Hm. They are called Heartless. They come in many forms… many sizes… differing from one another. You're bound to see more variations in the days to come."

A look of genuine intrigue crossed the old man's face. Things were just becoming more interesting by the minute.

"Well, well. These past 24 hours have just become some of the best I've had in a long time. Haha! And I have to thank you for it. Not just for sprouting this newfound information on me, but for much, much more…"

As Gensei Kihara said this, from another's perspective it looked as if the old man had a strange aura around him. Almost as if… something was off about him.

"No need to thank me. I'm merely just spreading a bit of information to those I see potential. What they do with that potential is up to them. I only ask to see a good showing" Darkness said aloud. "Leave all doubt."

"Haha! Oh, I intend to. Your help will greatly support me in my goal!"

Sporting a maddening look on his face followed by the sheer excitement in his voice, Gensei nodded to himself almost as if he was pleased with something.

"Perfecting the chance of reaching limitless possibility… reaching Level 6! And you've helped me, my mysterious friend!"

"Glad I could be of help. Unfortunately, I can't stay and watch you get to work. I'm needed elsewhere" Darkness calmly replied.

A sense of mystery could be heard in the figure's statement.

"Is that so? Well then, I shall not keep you any longer. Until next time!"

"Likewise."

Suddenly, a dark portal appeared right behind the strange formless figure, but not before Darkness glanced back at the old man. Perhaps… things could become even more interesting…

"One last piece of advice."

"Oh ho?! You're really spoiling me!"

"…There is one person you should be wary about. Someone that could put you and your goals to rest."

Unaware of what the dark figure was talking about, Gensei merely listened. This bit of information was very important. Undoubtedly, the most important information to settle on.

"The boy with the key… you've seen him on the news lately. His name is Sora… Be prepared…"

And with that, Darkness stepped through the portal and disappeared leaving the Kihara member to ponder about what he had just heard.

"…Sora…"

More eyes than ever were now on the Keyblade wielder.

*A/N* - Whelp. Sora's screwed lol.

*Hey there, thanks for reaching the bottom of the chapter. Quite a few things are starting to happen and evolve. Both on the Science and Magic side of things in the world. Sora's in for quite the laundry list of problems to deal with. In short, thanks for checking this story out and for giving it the time of day. I know that the update frequency on this story is… jumpy… to say the least. The time from this chapter to the last is entirely my fault (the same goes for my other stories) and I'm sorry about that. I'm a slow cook. Either way, thanks again for checking this story out and let's get to the niftier details of what the heck happened.

*The inclusion of other series characters and whatnot also comes from the idea of Kingdom Hearts using characters in a new light. I wanted to start doing that and showcase a few Final Fantasy characters in the story. Obviously, there are a ton of characters already involved in the story, so some might not be around as much, and vice versa. Furthermore, I'd like to include other easter eggs and the involvement of other series/characters but also make it seem natural to the story. Fanfiction shall give me the sense of making no sense lol. (My story doesn't make sense in the first place.)

*Final Fantasy – Yes, I did include quite a bit of Final Fantasy stuff in this chapter and story. The decision to do so comes from a close inspection of what's going to transpire with Sora in later chapters. With Toaru having so much happening all at the same time within the Index, Railgun, Accelerator, and other stories, I wanted to start laying down the foundation for parts that will include Sora as well as the other characters. Shinra was one of those elements that just screamed perfect for this story. Granted, for those familiar with FF7 you'll know Shinra utilizes technology a great deal. Obviously, with Remake & Rebirth out, things get crazy. And given Academy City's focus I figured that things could only get crazier. Furthermore, I also intend to have Shinra implement and further introduce Magitek into the story to help build and lead to challenges for Sora to face. I hinted at a couple of challenges along with an obvious easter egg to come in time. Also, I thought it'd be fun to include Final Fantasy Type 0 characters in the story. They do have an alternate ending that features them as regular students. It just fits.

*Persona – For those who did or didn't catch the easter egg, there was a reference to the Kirijo group. I'll be looking more into including that group and affiliated characters in the story. As mentioned before, Kingdom Hearts versions of characters and stories don't exactly have to match. Leaving me with some fun to be had.

*Now, about where this lies in the Toaru timeline of things. This chapter takes place at the tail end of Road of Misfortune Chapter 1 and covers the events of September 10th and 11th. A good chunk of the chapter follows the light novel with Sora's inclusion. I didn't want to do a one-for-one progression of the chapter, but I feel like I still did. Granted, there's a lot to cover in Toaru and I hope to mix things up a bit. Something to be aware of is that Sora won't be tagging along with Touma or Index the entire time. He will at times but expect him to be busy with other things as well.

*Item's inclusion in this chapter was another point that I wanted to include out of fun. There's not a lot of information on their daily activities like there is for Touma or Misaka. Hence, I'll be giving them more spotlight in the story while also making things quite interesting between Sora and Mugino. As mentioned before, her character arc won't be the exact same as the actual Toaru story. Things will change. Which is something I've aimed toward with the entire story. Sora's actions and presence cause both consequences and reactions. Positive and negative. This will undoubtedly make for many trials to overcome in the future.

*I'll stop the notes here as I could spend another ten pages discussing all that's happened in this chapter and what will happen later. I'd just like to say thanks for checking this story out and for the support it has gotten. Both good and bad reviews I take into consideration and enjoy reading them. Also, I'm not going to stop writing/updating the story. Even if things are slow like they have been, I'm still working on it. Granted, I wish I could write faster but… that's life. Either way, thanks again for checking this strange and fanfiction out.

*TLDR* - Sorry for the long wait. Easter eggs galore, other series and characters to be involved in a new telling, and Sora's in for a rough time. Thanks again for reading and until next time!

*Special Author's Note*

I've also come up with another Omake this time around that'll be quite the chase lol. Feedback on the last chapter seemed to be like this, so I figured why not continue it? This time, it'll also include a Final Fantasy character causing quite the ruckus with Sora being involved along with others. Hope you'll enjoy it and take care!

Omake – Alpha's Guardian of Light Caught in a Stitch I

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Of course, it is, kupo! We just have to make sure the process doesn't get interrupted, kupo."

"Okay… that part makes sense. However, the part I'm more worried about… is who you're summoning!?"

The situation currently at hand could be described as strange as Sora and Moogla were currently sitting in the moogle's workshop and discussing a topic that sprouted from a single question.

"Moogla, I've never questioned your ideas in the time that I've met you, but…" Sora couldn't help but fold his arms across his chest and sigh. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"How so, kupo!? You've managed to do this before and even used their aid to fight, kupo" Moogla argued.

"It's different!"

"How, kupo?"

The issue that was being talked about revolved around allowing Moogla the chance to use Sora's Heartbinder to summon someone that she had encountered in her travels before. This entire subject stemmed from Sora recalling his Heartbinder and how he was able to call upon friends from other worlds to help him. In addition, the inclusion of Leon was the lynchpin for pushing the moogle's interest up a notch. The Heartbinder was truly a unique item.

"I've never really seen anyone else use a Heartbinder before let alone mine. And on top of that, being able to summon Leon which I've never been able to do… this Heartbinder is something special…" Sora clarified while examining the powerful object. "Which is why I'm not sure about this idea."

"Sora, you worry too much, kupo. We're only going to be doing a little test on your Heartbinder, kupo" Moogla said before floating to the center of the room. "Besides, don't you want to learn more about this new version of your magical device, kupo?"

Seeing that the moogle showed no signs of giving up on her idea, the Keyblade wielder simply let out a frustrated sigh. This entire ordeal was something he'd never had to deal with. Guess there was a first for everything.

"All right. Fine. Let's just see if this works."

"Great!"

And so, Moogla gently held onto the Heartbinder with both of her small hands and waited to see if anything would happen. Both she and Sora watched with close eyes.

"…Huh…"

"One way the Heartbinder works for me is if I think about someone and the bond our hearts have. Even if it's a new bond, that still matters a great deal. Try using that to your advantage. You said you wanted to summon a friend of yours" Sora explained.

Taking what he said and projecting it on her own life, Moogla began gathering her thoughts on the first connection that came to her mind. A certain small individual was the first one she thought of.

"Okay… I think I've got it, kupo."

"Great! Let's see who shows up" Sora enthusiastically said.

Floating in the middle of the workshop floor, Moogla then began to hold onto the Heartbinder and held it tightly with both of her small hands. The suspense of waiting for something to happen went on for a good whole minute. Alas, nothing happened leaving Sora and Moogla to simply stare at one another.

"Uh… is something wrong?"

"I-I don't know… nothing seems to be happening, kupo."

Curious about what was happening, Sora walked over to Moogla so that he was right next to her.

"Hmm. You said you have someone in mind… do they happen to be… big? Or small?" the Keyblade wielder questioned, trying to wrap his head around this strange occurrence. "Would it be hard or easy to find them?"

"No, no. The individual I'm thinking about isn't that big but also not that small, kupo" Moogla replied while examining the Heartbinder. "They're a bit small but hard to miss given their unique appearance. I met them some time ago and we managed to hit things off. They are also not a regular person and more on the side of being an animal."

"I see… then maybe the connection is taking longer than usual? When I used the Heartbinder the last time, Leon appeared but it wasn't really him. It was more of a memory-given form but very realistic. But… this could be all thanks to being in this world. I never really gave it much thought before on summoning my friends to help me in battle. It's still a confusing topic, but I know that by relying on the bond you share with them you'll be able to call upon them" the brunette explained to the listening moogle.

With a quick pat on the back of his head, Sora continued, "I still have a lot to learn. I hope this didn't sound as confusing as I think I made it. Eh…"

Shaking her head adamantly, Moogla gave her own two cents on the matter, "I don't think you made it confusing at all, kupo! It's more of an understanding if anything… everyone is different and has bonds that we cherish differently, kupo."

Another glance was given to the Heartbinder in her small hands.

"I think I know what to do now, kupo."

Raising the Heartbinder close to her chest, Moogla closed her eyes and began thinking about the special someone she would've liked to see again. Her counter with them was surely one for the books.

After a good moment, nothing seemed to happen…

However, what both Sora and Moogla didn't realize is that behind the Keyblade wielder a crystalized light appeared out of nowhere but quickly faded away before anyone could blink. On the workshop floor now stood a certain individual who happened to be the friend Moogla was hoping to see.

Alas, neither the Keyblade wielder nor moogle paid any attention and didn't realize this.

Moogla's friend's appearance could be summed up to be that of a short yellow bird with a large orange beak a proportionally larger head and blue eyes. The yellow bird also had two feet which were typical for a bird and a body with yellow feathers and skin. Moreover, a unique aspect about this bird was the black, white, and blue jacket wrapped around his body along with the pair of goggles resting on his head. And above all, the bird had a bright and excited expression written on its face.

"Huh… nothing is happening, kupo" commented Moogla, feeling a bit down.

"Maybe… the Heartbinder is a Keyblade wielder thing?" Sora suggested. "Again, I've never really had anyone try to use it aside from me."

"… maybe, kupo."

Seeing how down Moogla was feeling, Sora walked up to her and patted her on her head.

"Hey, we'll figure this out. Mind if I see the Heartbinder?"

"Mm. Here you go, kupo."

"Thanks."

Grasping the object, Sora let his thoughts wander about until a certain someone popped into his mind on first thought. This someone had helped him in his adventures along with being part of another Heartbinder originally. Now, the question of whether he would appear was residing inside the boy's thoughts.

"All right. Let's try this out! Stitch!"

Within the blink of an eye, a bright flash of light and stars appeared right in front of Sora and Moogla causing them to shield their eyes. Once the light dimmed down, they easily spotted a peculiar sight before them. A small creature with blue fur with darker patches on the back of his head and on his back as well. A domed nose rests in the center of his face, between large black, tear-shaped eyes. Sharp teeth resided in the creature's mouth along with a long pink tongue. Claws on his hands and stubby legs that have shorter claws and a small tail on his rear. The one significant feature of the creature was that its entire body was glowing in a bright purple color.

"Sora!"

The creature better known as Stitch immediately started crawling up the Keyblade wielder's leg and then his arm until he was now sitting on the boy's shoulder. Sora instantly started patting his head.

"Hey! Long time no see! You're looking good!"

"Fren. Sora!" Stitch said aloud before licking him across his face.

"Gah! Ahaha! Yeah, thanks for that."

Watching the two friends interact, Moogla caught the attention of Stitch who simply pointed at her.

"Achi-baba?" Stitch said while pointing his finger over at the floating moogle.

"Huh? What does that mean?" Sora asked.

"Achi-baba?"

"Hmm. Sora, this might be a guess but is your friend calling me a toy, kupo?" Moogla questioned.

"Naga! Achi-baba?" Stitch replied.

"Uh… I don't think so. I think he means something else."

Left with the two staring at him, Stitch could only tilt his head and take on a thinking pose before having an idea come to him. This was evident based on how his face lightened up.

"Eh. Sora. Fren" Stitch said while pointing at the boy. He then pointed over at Moogla. "Fren?"

"Ooh! He's asking if you're a friend" Sora clarified.

"That makes sense, kupo. Well, yes, I am a friend, kupo."

Confused by that term, Stitch repeated what Moogla had said.

"Kupo?"

"Yes, kupo."

"Kupo?"

"Kupo."

"…Kupo?"

"Err… Stitch, that's what she says" Sora explained to the blue creature.

"Ah! Fren!"

"Yep, my name is Moogla, kupo."

"Moogla… fren… kupo?"

A chuckle escaped the Keyblade wielder's lips.

"We'll have to work on it. Haha."

Before either of the two could say anything, Stitch then turned himself around while still being on Sora's shoulder and pointed down at the ground behind him.

"Fren?"

"Huh? Friend? It's only the two of… us… Moogla."

"There shouldn't be… wait…. Huh?!"

Standing there with a happy smile on its face was the yellow bird just casually listening and watching the conversation play out without having made a peep of noise this entire time.

"When did… how did… who…?" Sora was fumbling to say something.

"That's him, kupo! That's who I was trying to call out to… "Moogla then floated down to meet the yellow bird. "It's really you Alpha!"

The yellow bird now known as Alpha raised his head happily before letting out an energetic sound.

"Kweh!"

"I didn't even see him! Where did he come from?!"

Hearing the boy's question, Alpha raised his arm and pointed with his feathers at the Heartbinder which was still in Sora's hand. This elicited him to look down at the object and smirk.

I guess it can work with others. It's not just a Keyblade wielder ability.

"We still aren't sure about that, kupo. It could be very well that the Heartbinder works for anyone but can't exactly use the same properties compared to you, kupo."

Processing what she said, Sora began to consider a few things while glancing between Stitch and Alpha who seemed to take an interest in one another.

The blue alien then crawled down Sora's body until he was at eye level with Alpha who curiously looked back at him.

"Fren?"

"Kweh?"

They seemed to understand one another before Stitch let out a hearty laugh and showed excitement on his face.

"Fren! Alpha!"

"Kweh! Kweh!"

"Huh. Those two seem to have hit it off fast" Sora idly commented. "I guess we can call this test a success then?"

Twirling around in the air, Moogla nodded her head.

"Yep! It's a full proof of success, kupo!"

Excited about the possibilities that could come from the Heartbinder while also realizing that the energy needed to summon Stitch wasn't as bad as calling upon Leon, Sora pondered something while observing Alpha and Stitch interreacting.

"Say, Moogla, what is Alpha? I've never seen anything like him before."

"Really? You haven't, kupo?"

A shake of his head was the reply he gave.

"Huh. I would have thought given you travel across worlds that you would have seen a creature like Alpha."

Giving this topic another thought, Sora was immediately hit with a wave of memories flooding his mind. A certain memory of visiting the secret place on Destiny Island came to mind. He recalled seeing it the last time he visited that place which feels like a lifetime ago. He also wasn't sure who drew the bird in the first place. Another vivid memory he also recalled was receiving a keychain back in Olympus Coliseum after he beat Cloud in the Hades Cup. The keychain featured a small yellow bird as the charm.

"Actually, I take that back. I think I've seen glimpses of birds like Alpha, but I've never encountered one like him before in person" he clarified while sorting his memories out.

"That's really strange, kupo. However, Alpha is a bit of a special case. He's not like other chocobos, kupo."

"Chocobos…" Sora muttered.

"His situation is a bit… complicated to say the least, kupo."

Realizing that there was a bit of baggage to the topic, Sora decided to ease things up.

"Hey, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you managed to summon him here and it looks like Stitch and him are getting along well."

As he said this, the two glanced down at Stitch teaching Alpha a hand trick while accommodating for the small bird's feathers.

"Besides, it's not like he's causing any trouble. I'd like to get to know Alpha a bit as well."

"I'm sure Alpha would love… that… Sora…"

Confused by her sudden change in tone, he replied.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Alpha and Stitch, kupo?"

"Huh? They're right behind- "

Turning around, Sora saw that neither of the two were behind him.

"…Oh no."

Hearing a door slam shut, Sora bolted upstairs while Moogla floated over to her computer to activate a cleaning robot to operate outside of the workshop.

Rushing upstairs, Sora could barely see the back side of Stitch riding on top of Alpha while the two scurried away leaving them in the dust.

"Moogla! They left!"

"I'll only slow you down, kupo! Go after them, kupo!"

Not about to waste any more time, Sora dashed out of the workshop while slamming the door and trying to catch up to the tag team leaving the premises. He could see in the distance how fast Alpha was while Stitch seemed to be steering him in the right way.

This led Sora to sprint and try to keep up with them all while making for a comedic scene. The boy looked like he was chasing after his pet dog all while onlookers watched him with amusement.

"Wait! Alpha! Stitch! You're going to get lost!"

The chase for the chocobo and alien had just begun.

Meanwhile, inside Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant

"Oooh! I'll take the chocolate cheesecake please!"

"I'll also have the same as her!"

"Okay. And for you miss?"

Grasping onto the menu for dear life, Mikoto Misaka was doing her best to pick what kind of dessert she wanted. While there were many viable and delicious options, she decided to play it safe.

"Hmm… Er… No… Yes… I… Uh…"

"Misaka? Having trouble there?" came the reply of Saten as she watched the Level 5 struggle with such a decision.

"Give her a minute, Saten. You didn't spend any time thinking" said Uiharu as she aided her friend.

"That's because what you ordered sounded really good!"

"Err…. Um…" Misaka was still fighting to make an order.

Seeing the young girl stuck at a crossroads, the waitress decided to speed things along.

"May I make a recommendation?"

"Uh… S-Sure…" Misaka weakly said, blushing at her inability to order.

"I'd recommend the Gekota Ice Cream Sundae. It's fairly new to the menu and- "

"I'LL TAKE A DOZEN!"

"I think what she means is that she'll have one" Saten clarified.

"Great! I'll have those orders ready in a minute" said the waitress before walking away.

"Thank you!"

A starved and animalistic look appeared on the Railgun's face as she was now even more eager to try out her dessert. How had she never heard about this dessert before?

"Earth to Misaka. Hello?"

"H-Huh?! What?"

"There she is. We lost you for a second" Saten cheekily replied.

A blush had begun to spread on Misaka's face at her Gekota fever antics.

"I-I'm sorry. You know how I get."

"That does make me wonder. I'm surprised you weren't aware of the Gekota special dish?" Uiharu asked.

"That's what I'm saying! Oh, man! I can't wait to see what it looks like!"

Seeing the happiness written all over Misaka's face, Saten had a smug look on her face.

"If Shirai knew about your reaction, I'm sure she'd be foaming at the mouth."

"Too bad she was called in on some Judgment business."

"Speaking of, why aren't you with her?"

A dumbfounded look appeared on Uiharu's face as she adjusted her flower band.

"I told you already. It was only for active members who were on the field. I'm not combat fit!"

A sly smug appeared on the long black-haired girl's face.

"I bet you can fight anyone, Uiharu" Saten replied. "Here! I'll pick someone and we'll discuss if you can beat them in a fight. Sound fair?"

"Are you really going to do this? Misaka, please calm her down and- "

"Oh! What about her, Saten?" Misaka said, pointing at an older girl. "If a situation came up and neither Saten nor I were here, would you be able to calm her down? Maybe even fight her?"

"Not you too!"

Examining the girl Misaka was referring to, Saten shook her head.

"Eh? I don't think Uiharu has that much of a reach" she bluntly said.

"You don't know that!"

"Mm. Fine. How about… HUH?!" Saten drastically said.

"What? What's- eh?!"

Startled by why they were reacting, Uiharu turned to the window next to them and saw a strange-looking creature licking the window next to them. The creature had blue skin and was licking a poster that had a cake being advertised. This left the girls utterly confused.

"What is that?!"

"I… I don't know!?"

"Misaka! Go check it out!"

"Why me!?"

"You're the strongest one here! You go check it out!" Saten shouted while pointing to the creature.

"I'm not going to- "

Before she could finish speaking, another strange creature appeared to be speaking near the blue one. Peering out the window, the girls now spotted a yellow bird with a blue and black jacket calling out to the strange-looking creature.

"Kweh!"

"Gaba ika tasoopa," said the blue creature.

"Kweh? Kweh!"

The three girls kept watching the two strange creatures talking to each other seemingly understanding what the other one was saying.

"T-They're speaking!? What are they saying?" Saten asked, watching the two closely.

"I don't know!" Misaka exclaimed. "I've never seen animals like them before."

"Are they someone's pets?" Uiharu asked.

Getting a good look at the two animals, the girls didn't realize how fast the blue one was because before they knew it, he crawled right up to their window and stared at them.

"Eeek!"

"Misaka! Do something!"

The blue creature's only response to seeing the girls stare at him was to wave his left hand up and start waving at them.

"Hi!" the blue animal said casually.

"…"

"…"

"…"

None of the girls knew how to react.

"Kweh!"

The three girls' attention was now on the yellow bird.

"Kweh! Kweh. Kweh!" the yellow bird said while bowing its head.

Only one thought occurred in the girls' minds as they watched the yellow bird speak to them.

'Cute!'

'Cute!'

'Cute!'

The entire situation was a wild one. From the strange blue creature that was licking the window to the more refined and polite yellow one. Things were becoming strange.

However, before anything else strange could happen, a familiar boy with spiky brown hair appeared while looking tired from running.

"There you two are! I-I thought I lost you on that corner!"

"Sora!?"

Hearing his name called, the boy looked up and could see Misaka, Saten, and Uiharu all standing there and looking at him through the window.

"Huh? Misaka? Uiharu? Saten? Uh… this is strange? Haha."

"What are you doing here? Are these your pets?" Misaka asked through the glass getting the attention of other restaurant attendants.

"Er… kind of. They're friends of mine."

"You're friends with these guys?" Saten said, referring to the blue and yellow animals. "That's… strange."

"I didn't know you had pets?" Uiharu muttered.

"I don't. They're… just visiting! Yeah! Visiting the city."

"Pets can visit the city?" Misaka questioned.

"I… I mean, well, no. It's… "Sora was fumbling his explanation for Alpha and Stitch's strange appearance.

"Kweh?" Alpha asked.

"Huaa awazi," Stitch said.

Glancing at the two, Sora mentally face-palmed himself as he remembered something from earlier. Another encounter with a creature that he befriended and used the Heartbinder to bring to Academy City as well.

"They're like the Dream eaters!" Sora clarified while patting himself on the back for thinking about them. With so much happening, it was easy to forget some things.

"I can use my ability to summon them. That's why Stitch is glowing."

"Stitch?"

"That's his name."

Having eyes on him, Stitch simply waved at the girls again.

"Hi!"

"Hello!" Saten enthusiastically replied.

"Hi there!" Uiharu greeted.

"H-Hey" Misaka responded.

"And this guy is Alpha. He's also a friend that I'm working on summoning and whatnot."

"Kweh!" Alpha greeted happily.

Watching as the yellow bird moved about happily, the girls had another thought be shared unconsciously.

'You have a strange power, Sora.'

Alas, before any of the girls could say something, Stitch started waving both his hands at Sora before jumping away from the window and pointing to the city.

"Goobaja! Goobaja!"

"Huh? Stitch? What are you- "

"Kweh! Kweh!"

Before he knew it, Sora watched as Stitch jumped onto Alpha and the two hightailed it out of the area leaving Sora and the girls to watch in bewilderment.

"Oh, c'mon! You have to be kidding me!"

"That did not just happen. Haha!" Saten muttered.

"*sigh* Great. Looks like I have to go. I'll see you guys later!" Sora quickly replied before running off.

"Bye!"

"See you!"

"That was… weird," Misaka said, sitting back down.

"Eh. Was it really? If anything, that seemed totally normal" Saten fired back.

"Honestly, I have to agree with Saten. Strange things have been happening in Academy City for a while. It was nice to see something somewhat normal happen for once" Uiharu explained.

"Yeah… you raise a great point."

It was right then that Misaka could see the waitress coming back with their desserts and could feel herself drooling over getting a quick glimpse of the Gekota-themed dish. It was an ice cream bowl with vanilla ice cream and a green decorated Gekota cookie on top.

The Level 5 was now on Cloud Nine.

The other two were excited to try their dishes out.

The blue alien and yellow bird continued their adventurous spree of exploring Academy City.

And the Keyblade wielder was left chasing after them.

What a way to start a new reckless adventure.

*Special A/N* - Thanks again for checking this story and Omake out. Until next time. Take care!