The 14th: Chapter 7
Jan. 24th, 2010 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gold_pannerWritten by: Kanemaki Tomoco
Original Plan: Nomura Tetsuya and Nojima Kazushige
Illustration: Amano Shiro
Copyrighted by Disney, Square Enix and Touchstone Pictures
Translations: gold_panner
Criticism, suggestions, questions and comments of all kind are always welcome!
Chapter 7: Friends
Axel was waiting there in the lobby.
“Today, as punishment, I have to go on your mission with you,” laughed Axel, spreading his arms exaggeratedly.
“Punishment? Why is going on a mission with me punishment?”
“Well, cause it’s like babysitting, I guess,” Axel said, heaving a fake sigh.
“You’re terrible!”
“Honestly. You’d think they could let me rest for one day at least, coming home tired like this…?” Roxas smiled at Axel’s comical tone. “We’ll go just as soon as you hurry up and get ready.”
“Okay. Just wait a second. I’ll go buy some things.”
Roxas went and spoke to the Moogle.
“Ummm…”
“Glad to see you here, kupo… today you look happy or something, kupo.”
Hearing the Moogle say such a thing made Roxas feel strange.
Nobodies don’t have hearts, but I look happy…?
“Let’s hurry, Roxas.”
“I said okay.” Roxas turned to Axel, behind him. “Don’t you have to buy anything?”
“I’m a can-do man, so I got ready ages ago.”
“How exactly are you ‘can-do’, kupo?” mumbled the Moogle.
“Yeah, how exactly are you ‘can-do’?” Roxas repeated.
“In ways darling children like you don’t understand,” said Axel, scratching his head. Roxas and the Moogle looked at each other and laughed.
“…let’s hurry up and go.”
“Roger,” Roxas answered, laughing.
xxx
Today’s mission was heart collection in Agrabah.
When he had killed a few Heartless, Axel stopped.
“Did something happen?” Axel lifted a finger to his lips. Roxas looked doubtful. “Hm?”
“That guy…”
Where Axel was pointing, a large creature that didn’t seem like a Heartless—Pete—was hanging around, large body quivering.
“That guy… what’s he doing in front of that wall?” whispered Roxas.
“Aha!” Pete hollered, almost at the same time.
“What?”
Pete pressed the wall and it moved slowly, opening up a path.
“Now, I can finally get there!” Pete disappeared over by the wall.
After waiting a moment, Axel and Roxas drew closer to the wall, and peered through to the other side.
It seemed to open up into the desert.
“Okay, let’s follow him, and try not to get caught.” Axel stepped through onto the other side of the wall.
“Huh? But today’s mission is heart collection, right? We can’t just change it however we—”
“If we find any shady characters, it’s also an important mission to check them out,” Axel half-lectured, hands on hips.
“It’s not like violating orders?”
“You gotta play these things by ear… got it memorised? If we collect hearts after we chase this guy, then we won’t be violating orders, will we?”
“…yeah, you’re right.”
Somehow, I think he gets it, but he doesn’t seem to…
“Let’s go.”
Roxas chased after Axel in a flurry.
xxx
They went through the hole in the wall. Planted in the middle of the desert that opened up on the other side was a carved statue of a tiger, its mouth opened wide. Even from a distance, it was easy to see that its mouth was big enough to let people pass through. Pete entered it, looking about nervously.
Axel and Roxas followed after him, keeping an even distance.
“There just had to be a cave like this…”
The place the two had gone down into was a stone cavern that seemed to have been made by someone for some purpose, not naturally formed.
Pete could not be seen.
“I’m surprised how big this cave is… looks like we lost him,” Axel shrugged.
“What’ll we do?”
“Can’t be helped… this is as far as we’ll chase him. Let’s switch back to doing heart collection.”
I guess we don’t have to investigate any further, thought Roxas. “So we don’t have to look for him?” Roxas asked Axel, with a strange look on his face.
“Yeah… We didn’t find out what his goal was in the end, but I reckon finding this cave is enough for today. Plus, searching this huge cave would be a pain in the ass.”
“So… it’s not an important mission to check out shady characters?” asked Roxas, surprised at how Axel would leave the following here, calling it a ‘pain’.
“That would be violating orders,” said Axel, teasingly.
“I get it. First of all, let’s go back to the city,” said Roxas, laughing.
The two of them returned to the city together.
xxx
They defeated Heartless inside the city. Collecting hearts in itself wasn’t a very difficult thing.
“Will we RTC soon?”
“Yeah.”
Just as he was about to head for the place where the dark corridor was opened, Axel held him back. Ahead of the two stood men and women who seemed to be residents of this world.
A woman with long, beautiful black hair, wearing gorgeous clothes that looked like something that would belong to royalty was clasping her hands worriedly to her chest, and looking at a man.
“Are you okay, Al? Shouldn’t you rest a little?”
“I’m fine. Even if we can’t do much, we gotta try and rebuild the city while the sandstorm is settled,” Aladdin—Al—replied, but the woman looked down, an even more worried look on her face.
“That’s true, but… if you go on like this, you’ll collapse.”
“I said I’m fine, Jasmine. We don’t know when the next storm will come. We have to rebuild the city before the next sand storm comes.”
Restoration of the city has definitely come along since the last time I was here. Storms probably haven’t come for a while, either, I guess.
“If only Genie was here, at a time like this…”
The woman—Jasmine—murmured, head still down.
“Even if Genie was here, we can’t rely on magic. It’s our city, and we have to restore it with our own strength.”
“Yeah… you’re right.” Jasmine finally raised her head, and a small smile could be seen on her face.
“Well, I gotta run.”
“Wait, I’ll help too.”
Aladdin and Jasmine walked in the direction of the shops.
“I wonder if that guy we saw before has any connection to those two.”
“Hm… guess we’ll find out someday,” answered Axel, sounding harassed. “Let’s hurry up and RTC.” He started walking. Roxas chased after him in a flurry.
xxx
On the clock tower, the two of them ate ice cream side by side.
“You’ve gotten more cheerful,” said Axel, peering into Roxas’ face.
Really? Maybe, thought Roxas. Something’s changed about Axel, too, since Castle Oblivion.
I don’t really know what’s changed, so I can’t really tell him properly.
“You, too. You’re brighter, too, Axel.”
“Really? If that’s true… maybe it’s his influence.”
“Huh?”
“Nah, it’d be from laughing and eating ice cream like this, the two of us. Because of you,” said Axel, smoothing it over.
Who does he mean by ‘his’, I wonder.
Oh yeah, Xion’s still not here.
“So Xion’s not coming today, I guess…” Roxas muttered.
I feel kind of uneasy because we haven’t been able to meet. It’s a tiny bit like the feeling I got when I was told that Axel might have been annihilated.
I don’t like it when people go.
Axel ate his ice cream in silence.
xxx
He woke up to an average morning.
Xion wasn’t in the lobby today, either.
“Hey, Roxas,” called Axel, and Roxas turned.
“Axel… have you seen Xion?”
Axel looked around, scratching his head. “Hm? Xion? Haven’t seen them, come to think of it.”
“It’s been over ten days now,” muttered Roxas, looking down. He hadn’t seen her since he’d woken up.
“Straight after Xion joined the Organisation, I left for Castle Oblivion, so I don’t really know much,” said Axel, crossing his arms.
Even though they promised to eat ice cream, the three of us…
“I’ll ask Saïx for you later. Xion’s your friend, right?”
“Yeah… thanks, Axel.” Roxas nodded, and Axel patted his shoulder encouragingly.
“So, go get your mission over and done with quick.”
Watching Roxas walk away, Axel sat on the sofa beside him.
I haven’t met with Xion since I RTC’d.
Before I went to Castle Oblivion, I’d only seen their figure in the lobby a few times. Haven’t even spoke to them before.
In the first place, I’m not even really sure whether it’s a girl or a boy, and I’ve never seen their face.
Roxas said that Xion’s a friend.
When did he make friends with that always-hooded guy?
After checking that Roxas and all the other members of the Organisation that were in the lobby had disappeared into dark corridors, Axel stood and called out to Saïx.
“What’s my mission for today?”
“Have you finished your report on the Hero?”
Axel shrugged at Saïx’s demanding tone. One necessary job was to submit reports on some investigation missions.
“Nah, not yet…”
“Why did you think you were made to go out with Roxas yesterday, straight after coming home?” Saïx asked, wearily, heaving a sigh.
“…So I could write a report comparing Roxas and the Hero, right?”
“Thanks to you, there aren’t many people around to work. Hurry and hand in your report, and then go on your mission,” ordered Saïx, eyes dropping to the information in his hand.
“Yessir… oh yeah, I wanted to ask about Xion…”
Saïx looked up. His expression was strangely tight. “You shouldn’t be in contact with Xion, though.”
“It looks like Roxas is worried about where Xion is, that’s all.”
Saïx blinked, as if thinking for a second, then he said, “Because they are making contact.”
Looks like Saïx has a lot of thoughts about Xion.
“So, where did Xion go?”
“Still on a mission to put down a large Heartless, and isn’t back,” said Saïx, disagreeably.
“You’re just going to leave it as is?”
Sometimes, for whatever reason, our missions get dragged out, and we can’t return to the castle for several days. But, it’s a whole ‘nother ball game when they just ‘aren’t back’. There’s the possibility that they have been annihilated.
“I’m not ‘leaving it as is’. I have sent dusks out to investigate, however, they haven’t found anything yet. That’s all,” said Saïx, staring at Axel.
Axel knew, from having known Saïx a long time, that when Saïx’s expression was like this, he was thinking about something important. Axel waited for Saïx to finish thinking, and speak.
“…I see. So you’re going to make contact with that thing soon, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
I know this has something to do with the Hero and Roxas. But, Xion is connected to that too?
If so, then I’d understand why Roxas would let them in. But, I don’t remember Xion ever putting the hood down, or even speaking a single word. Perhaps they let their hood down while I was in Castle Oblivion?
“You, who has been in contact with both Roxas and the Hero, will find it fun to make contact with that thing.”
“You’re not answering me, though.”
“When you’ve made contact, you’ll understand. You absolutely must hand in the report today. Tomorrow, I’ll make you and Roxas search for Xion.”
When he says that, there’s nothing to do but give him the report.
It feels like he’s dangling bait in front of my eyes, but whatever.
“Yessir. I shall write the report,” Axel shrugged, and headed for his own room.
xxx
Not sleeping much in the end, Axel wrote the report, and, deciding time was probably up, he headed for the lobby.
To be honest, report writing is really hard. It’s a huge pain in the ass to think about what to report, what not to report, which parts to lie about…
No one was in the lobby.
Axel sat down on a sofa, and gave a big yawn. Even Nobodies need sleep. Just like that, he folded his arms and closed his eyes.
I just want to take a tiny nap…
“This is not a place to sleep,” came a sudden voice in the silence, and Axel’s eyes snapped open in surprise.
“What… oh, you, Saïx.”
“What do you mean, what.” Saïx glared down at Axel, unpleasantly. “Have you handed in your report?”
“Of course I have,” replied Axel, stretching.
“If so, then head off on your mission with Roxas, as planned.”
“Yessir.”
Saïx left Axel cracking his neck as he stretched, going to stand in his usual spot.
After a short while, Demyx and Luxord appeared in the lobby, with Roxas finally appearing after them.
Axel got up off the sofa, stretching for the millionth time, and called out to Roxas. “You’re late, Roxas.”
“Sorry… I didn’t really sleep well,” said Roxas, rubbing his eyes.
“I asked Saïx about Xion,” said Axel, and Roxas looked up. “Looks like she went out on a mission, and still isn’t back.”
Roxas looked down, worriedly. "So... does that mean she failed her mission...?" Pushing Roxas’ shoulder, Axel started walking towards Saïx.
“We’ll find out when we’re there.”
“What are you talking about?” Roxas pressed, and Axel smiled.
“Today’s mission is to go look for Xion, you and me.”
“Really?!” Roxas stared happily at Axel.
“Why would I lie? We’ll leave once you’re ready.”
“Let’s hurry and go!” Roxas ran towards Saïx.
“Hey hey, you gotta get ready properly. We don’t know what’s out there.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Roxas, and turned to speak to Saïx. “Where’s our mission today?”
“Twilight Town. Hurry and go look for Xion.”
“Got it.” You could think of Roxas as a little bit forceful at times like this, for some reason. “Let’s go, Axel.”
“Yessir,” Axel responded. Roxas looked at him, irritated, and then opened the darkness beside him. He stepped inside.
xxx
Twilight Town was wrapped in the same sunset.
“I wonder where Xion is…?” Roxas looked about, worriedly.
The corridor had opened up above the stairs in the alleyway.
“Xion’s mission should have been to put down a large Heartless. That means there’s a high possibility that Xion is wherever that guy might be.”
Roxas seemed to be thinking hard about Axel’s guess. “Well, it’s good it wasn’t a different world. I know pretty much all the places here. Let’s gather information in the town.”
“If it was a large Heartless, then it would have to be a wide place, right? Aren’t the wide places in order here?”
“That’s right. The widest place from here is… the empty lot?”
“Yeah… let’s go.”
The two climbed down the stairs in front of them, into the vacant lot.
“There’s no sign of a Heartless…” muttered Axel. Beyond him, beside the vacant lot benches, two of the town’s children were talking about something. Of the usual three, it was only the hot-tempered boy and the girl.
“Olette, where’s Pence?”
“He went to check up on something by himself again today. He went into the tunnels.”
So, the girl must be called Olette. Pence is the boy who isn’t here… probably that chubby kid.
The boy whose name was yet unknown tilted his head. “That reminds me. Lately, he’s been acting funny, whispering about something…”
Axel and Roxas listened to the conversation between Olette and the boy without hiding their presence.
“You think this has something to do with Xion?”
“Hm… Maybe, maybe not.”
“Oh yeah. Yesterday, when I went into the usual spot, he quickly hid something.”
The boy crossed his arms. “Huuuh… Pence is weird. What’s he up to?”
Even though those three are almost always together, it looks like they each have their own concerns, and even go around on their own sometimes.
They said something interesting, too.
“Where do you think the ‘usual spot’ is?” muttered Roxas.
Axel shrugged. “Guess we just have to look. Roxas, got any clues?”
“Well, our ‘usual spot’ would be on the clock tower, but…”
“That’s not what they mean, though,” Axel grinned.
I want to hurry up and find Xion, and eat sea salt ice cream at the usual spot.
“Those three must have a special place for just the three of them.”
“Was there place like that?” Axel thought hard.
I thought I knew everything about the inside of this town, but nothing comes to mind. “It’s a special place for just three people, so I think it’d be a place people don’t come, somewhere not that big.”
“Our special place is like that too, hey… well, first of all let’s walk and look for it.” Axel set off in the direction of the tram square.
“Like, inside the tunnels?”
“Was there actually a place like that in the tunnels?” Axel said, immediately denying Roxas’ guess.
We’ve run through every nook and cranny inside those tunnels on previous missions, and there wasn’t anywhere that looked like someone could hide in.
A certain place crossed his mind.
“…Under the tracks?”
“Where’s that…?”
It seemed as if Axel didn’t know of the place under the train tracks.
“See, there’s this place like a storeroom with a fence door on it, on the corner where we came out today.”
‘Under the tracks’ was a storeroom-like place beneath the rails on which the train ran.
That place went largely unnoticed, and being small, it looked perfect for three people to gather in.
“Oh yeah, now that you’ve mentioned it, there is that place. Will we go have a look?”
xxx
A dusty smell clung to the air in the place under the rails. Floating dust particles sparkled in the light shining through the cracks in the train tracks above their heads.
“So this is the usual spot, right…”
“If there’s nothing here, we should just go look somewhere else,” Roxas answered, walking around the room. There was a couch, and a dartboard. And, there was a definite sign of people. There were signs that people were always coming and going.
“Hup!” Axel threw a dart at the board.
“Search seriously, okay.”
“This much is okay, I reckon.” Axel threw one more dart, which stuck nicely in the dead centre.
Now that I think of it, when I looked at that dart board just now, not a single one was stuck in it. “Where were those darts in the first place?”
“Over in that drum.” Axel pointed at an oil drum in the corner by the entrance.
“Here’s… huh?”
“Hm?”
Roxas peered behind the drum. A scrap of paper had fallen down there. “There’s a scrap of paper…” He picked it up. What appeared to be a map of the town had been drawn on it.
“Looks like a map,” said Axel, peering into Roxas’ hand.
“There’s lots of other stuff written on it.”
“Strange stone steps… friends on the other side of the wall… an echoing cry in the tunnels… another self... wriggling baggage…?” Axel read out, baffled.
Roxas read out the last of them. “Lastly, a ghost train, and a haunted mansion… seven written in all.”
“What the hell is this?” Axel brought the map closer to his face.
“…This map was hidden by that guy… that Pence guy, wasn’t it.”
“So, you reckon Pence will know what this is if we pop the question to him, as they say?” Axel asked in response, shrugging.
“So, looking for Pence is next on the list, as they say?” Roxas shrugged too, theatrically.
“Don’t copy Xigbar,” Axel laughed.
“You were the one doing it just before, weren’t you, Axel?” said Roxas, also laughing.
The two laughed for some time, then looked at each other.
“They said just before that Pence went into the tunnels, didn’t they… let’s go, Axel.”
And so they left the space under the train tracks… the usual spot for those kids.
xxx
Pence was in a room deep in the tunnels.
“Hey, Pence,” Axel said all of a sudden, startling Roxas a little.
Isn’t it Organisation regulation that we mustn’t make contact with humans?
Pence looked up at Axel, slightly uneasy. “…Who are you?”
“There’s a little something I wanna ask.”
“Huuuh? If I’d know, I guess it’s okay.”
Pence looks suspicious of us, but it seems like he’ll give us an answer.
“We’d like you to tell us if anything’s changed in this town. There are heaps of weird things here, right…? Like, the strange stone steps, for example…”
Roxas watched Axel and Pence’s exchange. For him to think of a question like that, when he’s only seen the map…
“It looks like you guys are investigating the wonders of this town, too.”
“Uh… yeah, I guess.” Axel nodded a little exaggeratedly.
“Hmmm… Really, I wasn’t going to tell anyone until I’d investigated them all, but… okay, I’ll teach you what I’ve learned about the wonders of this town,” said Pence, lowering his voice a little, as if he were talking about something of grave importance. “I tried my best to investigate them, but the truth is, the wonders of this town are…”
Roxas held his breath.
“…mostly good rumours.”
“Huh?” What are you thinking, Roxas was about to say, but he stopped himself, barely.
“The strange stone stairs that you brought up just before were also just a silly joke.”
“So you’re saying this town is incredibly peaceful.” Axel sighed in defeat, probably thinking the same thing as Roxas.
“But, there was the very best wonder.”
“Very best…?” Roxas repeated.
“Yeah. I’m talking about a tree in the forest on the outskirts of town. There is one tree in the whole forest… if that tree is shaken, it stirs violently…” regaled Pence, in an eerie tone, and Roxas and Axel exchanged a look.
“What do you reckon? I still haven’t investigated that place, though. There’s also a rumour that even though there shouldn’t be anyone there, there’s some kind of presence.” Pence’s expression suddenly snapped into a grin.
Roxas tilted his head. “I don’t really get it.”
“Yeah, that’s why it’s a wonder. Since I don’t know the cause, I think I’ll go and check it out properly later.”
“I see,” Axel nodded.
“Well, I’m going back to investigating the town. Don’t spread what I’ve told you around, okay?” said Pence, and he left the room.
“In the end, we didn’t find out a thing,” said Roxas, with a mingled sigh. We didn’t find out a single thing about Xion.
“Nah, that’s not true. He said there’s some presence in the forest outside of town, right? Maybe that was Xion’s target to put down.”
Axel’s right. Pence had already solved most of the mysteries. And the wonder that was still unclear… is the one with a high chance of being connected to Xion.
“Okay, let’s go have a look at that place.”
Roxas and Axel headed for the forest outside of town.
xxx
