Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro shrugged, chuckling "however with me, they typically follow a saying i wholeheartedly agree with. 'they may not take you where you -want- to go, but they will take you where you -need- to go.' in this case... yeah, i'm totally not liking the looks of that." he said, eyeing the portal and the good amount of Behemoth heartless in the area.

Roveth just scoffed, while crossing his arms "probably nothing we can't handle, right Axel?" of course, he would look towards Axel who was currently pale faced and staring hard at that stable portal "... this has Barig written all over it, not -ANOTHER- rampaging herd of those bastards!" he said, clearly -not- liking the fact he had to deal with more behemoths, AGAIN, -IN A HERD-. yeah, someone is definitely trolling him right now.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

*~Wasteland Paradise~*

Given that Isa didn't have the ability to wield a Keyblade he would be sticking with Xion, who still wasn't comfortable with using her Keyblade although it was probably fine, along with Shiroi Senko and the Moogle.

Roxas would be sticking close to Crystal given what she had said caused him to worry she might collapse again if she was really planning on going all out as that probably meant rapidly expending a great deal of magic all at once. And, in fact, as soon as they were on the other side of the portal Crystal had called Time Warp into hand as well, locking both it and World's Rift in front of her.

"Grand Summon! Alexander!" Crystal separated the two Keyblades performing a wide crescent motion in front of her as a massive summoning array spread across the ground in front of her. The form that began to rise up from the array had the appearance of a huge angel-winged fortress. Crystal then thrust both hands into the air, pointing both Keyblades up at the sky with seemingly reckless abandon. "Holy Judgement!" The angelic wings of the huge fortress began to flap over the desert wasteland casting off blinding columns of light magic to vaporize roughly a dozen of the nearby Behemoth Heartless before Alexander eventually departed back down into the summoning array.

"I guess you could say I'm sort of a pro when it comes to exterminating Heartless," Crystal smirked mildly. "I might run into problems against other types of enemies, but these guys never stand a chance."

"But is it really okay for you to be overdoing it like that?" Roxas wondered while bringing out Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

"It'll be fine," Crystal assured him pointedly. "I know my limits and besides, Roxas, you're here so if I do get in over my head I know I'll be okay."

And yes, that statement definitely made Roxas blush a little. Crystal dashed off to one of the remaining nearby Behemoth Heartless and started bashing it severely on the horn. Roxas followed her lead and soon discovered the reasoning behind this method of attack as the horn seemed to be a highly vulnerable weak spot on these gigantic Heartless and in fact the Behemoth would become stunned momentarily after sustaining enough blows to the horn.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course would have sent off large fire-chakrams in the form of large disks to work on roasting a couple of Behemoths himself, while growling a bit in annoyance "i think i'd rather just run away and -let- Wolfwood's world get overrun, this is not something i want to deal with!" of course, soon though he'd hear footsteps coming, and sure enough, here came another five behemoths chasing two blonde haired individuals, unfortunately, one of them was -all too familiar- to Axel "R-r-r-RUN AWAY!!!!" Demyx shouted, clearly fleeing for his life and looking paler than Axel did when confronted with these odds. of course, cue Axel's sweatdrop at the antics of his best friend, but he did wonder who the hell was the blonde haired guy that had on the red coat.

Shiro of course was- not- holding back as he seemed to be using max reinforcement and accidentally pushing his fire element through his muscles to enhance his strength further before calling out "NINE LIVES BLADE WORKS!!!!!" and proceeded to decimate quite a few Behemoths on his own, landing on the ground and summoning Sky raven into his free hand, and swung it hard, unleashing a massive green wave of energy to crash through a few more behemoths and kill them off. of course the fact that there was so many he was getting a bit annoyed, that when Demyx brought -more- he brought up his free hand after he dropped Herakles's stone sword "Masterpiece of the Gods, Scion of Holy Light, i command thee, appear now to aid this humble mortal in sending these foul beings to their judgment! COME, SCION OF VIRGO, ULTIMA!" of course, the Scion's bracelet held in the air as the symbol of virgo shined within the desert sun, and out of a large array came the high Seraph, Ultima, unleashing both Renew spells for the group to heal on just in case, as well as Holy spells on the Behemoths in the area "Ultima! we need to take out that herd chasing those two innocents! Judge them unworthy!" he called out, with Ultima launching into the sky, and as per Shiro's orders, unleashed Eschathon on the group, sending both Vash and Demyx flying into the middle of the group while the behemoths got vaporized by the beam of holy light raining destruction on them.

Roveth of course was fighting using his Ultimate Dragon (BEUD), standing atop it to hold back some of the enemies back for the moment, in slight awe from Shiro actually summoning, he rarely did that...  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Is that... Demyx?" Isa looked on as his old colleague from the Organization, who had deserted quite some time ago after becoming human again, suddenly appeared being chased by yet more of the overgrown Heartless. "What is he even doing in a place like this?"

Roxas finally managed to vaporize one of the Behemoths with Holy magic once he had stunned it and then moved on to target another one. Crystal, meanwhile, had scrolled through her element grid and got a particularly devilish grin on her face as she selected a certain element in particular. "Freefall!" The result was that the targeted Behemoth shot up into the air with tremendous speed and then plummeted back down in slow motion under the enormous pressure of high powered gravity magic, colliding with a second Behemoth in the process so that both were destroyed. Roxas was clearly at a disadvantage on this particular battlefield as he didn't have a whole lot of high level magic to work with compared to the others, but at least he could inflict a respectable amount of damage with Holy.

"Why is Demyx out here in a place like this?" Roxas also wondered while pounding away on the horn of yet another Behemoth putting his melee combat skills to some good use. "Hey, Axel, did you remember to pay this month's rent before you came out looking for me and Xion and the others?"

"And who is that guy with Demyx anyway?" Xion wondered. "He doesn't seem familiar at all." Oh the irony of that statement considering how very infamous Vash was on this world.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel had blinked, actually thinking about it as he stood still while using his chakrams as a shield on one particular behemoth, before facepalming "ugh! i KNEW i forgot something!" he said, clearly mentioning the face that he -didn't- remember to pay off this month's rent while Demyx of course crawled over to Axel, holding onto him crying "you abandoned me to that wierd crazy landlord, you cruel cruel man, andn ow this, i thought Xigbar made you learn your lesson on tackling Behemoths!" Axel of course sighed, shaking his head "trust me, not my idea of a good time Demyx, how the hell did you get here anyway?" he said, while pushing the Behemoth back with a large burst of blue fire to another wandering Holy blast from Ultima at the moment "w-w-well... Wolfwood offered to bring me off-world to help look for you guys when i told him about the landlord issue, after he paid off your rent bill and kinda left me here with this guy when he went information gathering..." he said, pointing to Vash, while Demyx shrugged "called him a nickname of sorts... Needle Noggin i think?"

Shiro of course just continued fighting, all the same when his ears perked up in hearing a distant sound "Burn.... Summoned Creature! PHOENIX!" of course, this led to a good few Behemoth's blowing up with a large firebird forming from the ashes, cawing, and disappearing into the sky after breaking it, once the dust settled (and sky re-asserted itself) a man could be seen walking through the desert, crimson hair flowing within its ponytail, eye hidden behind a half-set of shades, long flowing brown cloak with rusted golden thing holding it on, and a -very large- golden looking gun with enough power that one look at it from Shiro made him actually convulse, and immediately puke up blood, as he had Structural Grasping on... and you know what happens when Shiro tries to analyze anything beyond his understanding.. it horribly -backfires- on him.

Roveth of course noticed, and had the Ultimate Dragon unleashed it's Neutron Blast to fire holy lightning blasts to keep the Behemoth's back "Shiro! get ahold of yourself and hang in there!" he called out, though he did feel a pinprick of darkness nearby, as if a corridor of darkness was opening up, but he couldn't feel exactly where.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Needle Noggin, huh?" Isa glanced to the man in red who had arrived in Demyx's company. The nickname seemed a good fit given the man's pointed blonde hair.

"So then this guy is a friend of Wolfwood's?" Xion added. At least she assumed they must have been friends for Wolfwood to leave Demyx alone with him.

"Starlight Cross!" Crystal slashed both Time Warp and World's Rift to activate her dual wielding style limit break, cutting an x-shaped shock-wave of light energy at one of the Behemoths to annihilate it. She then pointed both blades off to either side using them to double cast Holy on two more Behemoths at the same time. Crystal then scrolled rapidly through her element grid once more and opted to activate one of her more explosive options this time around. "Ultra Nova!" The blast would start in an implosive fashion before detonating outward to envelope several more of the Behemoths all at once.

Roxas blasted the Behemoth he had been working on with another casting of Holy before dashing over to another one, although he did wonder somewhat about that third summoned creature that had been called upon by someone not familiar to their group. Who were they? An ally? An enemy? Roxas had no idea and that was cause for concern. Not to mention it seemed like Shiro was having an adverse reaction to seeing him... or more accurately, to that gun on his arm. Roxas's other primary concern was, of course, that Crystal was using a lot of magic, way more than he had seen her use on a regular basis, although it did occur to him that in this entire time she hadn't been casting her usual range of healing and supportive spells, focusing solely on offensive magic so maybe she really did know what she was doing to regulate her MP consumption. Still, if this dragged on for too much longer she was going to tire herself out if she kept at it like this. At least there didn't appear to be too many Behemoths left standing from the initial herd so that seemed like a good sign that things would be over relatively soon.

Roxas then activated his own Limit Break, Event Horizon, to dart through one of the Behemoths at high speed while having both Oathkeeper and Oblivion enveloped in light and slashing away with greatly enhanced strength for the duration of the technique. Doing so he was able to strike down at least one more Behemoth and that was one more the others didn't have to worry about.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Demyx had nodded, while said 'needle noggin' had eventually gotten up and dusted himself off "now i'll have you know i'm quite handsome, whatever wolfwood says about me is completely false." of course Axel just grumbled a bit, shaking his head "he never said much about you anyway, just seemed to curse your nickname as if he blames you for everything bad." of course, the blonde just rubbed the back of his head "its not that i try to make him angry, it's just things kinda go downhill around me, it's not my fault, honest!" Axel just stared at the guy, before looking to Shiro, then back at the guy then called out "hey Crystal, i think we found Shiro's long lost Brother, this guy's as much a trouble magnet as he is!"

Shiro of course just groaned, starting to stand back up after spitting out as much blood from his throat as he could, and quickly turning off his eyes so he didn't use Structural analysis, as the crimson haired individual walked past, merely ignoring Shiro it seemed, all except for one sentence "stay out of my way." of course, Shiro blinked, sweatdropping at the guy, even though he seemed to be going towards the blonde haired individual, of course, shortly after hearing that a MASSIVE pillar of darkness launched out of the nearby town, or at least near the entrance, and sure enough, ifo ne looked closely, one could see a priest carrying what looked like a very large cross on his back walking out into the desert, however when he looked up after lighting a cigarette in his mouth, it was clear his eyes were inverted, and they were -blood red- with bloodlust as he growled out "Oi... you punk Heartless think you can run through -MY- territory!?!" he growled out, as some of his allied heartless, especially quite a few wyverns appearing "you got Two options, Leave or forefit your life.. so which will it be, PUNKS!?!" oh yes... wolfwood was -PISSED- if the sudden forming of his Keyblade and the tight grip on his Cross was any indication.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I'm not so sure," Crystal replied as she came to stand beside Roxas now that it was Wolfwood's jurisdiction to eliminate the remaining rogue Behemoths that ought not to be here on this world in general. "Shiro at least takes responsibility and owns up to his trouble-attracting ways. This guy sounds like a real wimp."

"Well now, isn't this delightful?" Braig appeared from a Corridor of Darkness with his usual self-satisfied smile and feigned applauding everyone on their efforts against the Behemoths he had oh so kindly planted for Demyx. "Who would have thought that by coming out here to have some fun with Demyx I'd find Sai'x the deserter, aided along by our old pal Axel?"

"It's Isa now," Isa shot an glare in Braig's direction to show he wasn't at all amused to be seeing him again. "I want nothing more to do with Xehanort's plans so you might as well forget about trying to recruit me again."

"Man, you're no fun," Braig shrugged. "But you know what's really interesting here is that you've got Xehanort's little failed experiment," he gestured broadly toward Shiro and Roveth. "Two boys, one of light and one of shadow, originally one and the same. And somehow they've managed not to kill each other." His one golden eye widened and he seemed downright giddy as he gazed upon Roxas. "And what's this? Is that Roxas? You know, there had been rumors, but I didn't think the kiddo could really be back in the flesh. To think that our little Roxas is somehow back among us. Brings back some delightful memories, doesn't it?" Braig's grin got even wider as he continued to leer at him. "And where did you find that dangerous little cutie you've got there?" he looked directly at Crystal. "Considering she's hanging around with you lot, that makes her awfully interesting, wouldn't you agree?"

"Don't you touch her!" Roxas stepped protectively in front of Crystal although he knew there was a good chance Braig could grab her and be gone without him even having time to react.

"Now isn't that adorable," Braig just kept right on grinning. "Hey Axel, or is it Lea now? Too bad for you, but it looks like your little boy toy found himself a new squeeze." He looked back at Roxas. "Don't get so worked up kiddo, I'm not here to fight or take hostages. Not today at least. But you might want to keep an eye out for Zexy. I'm sure he'll find this all fascinating! Well then, see ya!" And then he vanished through another Corridor of Darkness to dodge any retributive retaliation that would be headed his way after all of that.

"Well he seems to be as lively as ever," Isa spoke without amusement. "It would seem that as anticipated your group's activities haven't gone unnoticed by the Organization. And now he's threatening us with Zexion."

"He's making this personal," Roxas added without masking his frustration.

"That's how the Organization operates," Isa shook his head. "You never had it in you, but it's what they do. They toy with people's feelings to foster fear and distrust. Pushing friends apart is an excellent practice for making them vulnerable. At least, that's their philosophy. From where I'm standing now it all seems needlessly cruel."

Crystal had dismissed Time Warp and World's Rift so she could place a calming hand on Roxas's shoulder. "Even if this Zexion guy does come after me, I'm not exactly helpless, and we're not just going to let him do what he wants. Somehow, everything will work out."

Oathkeeper and Oblivion just sort of dropped from his hands as Roxas turned and pulled Crystal in close so he could hug her. He was trembling and afraid, and he might very well have shed a few tears. "I know you trust and believe in me, but I don't know if I can keep you safe from guys like Braig, let alone Zexion," he buried his face into Crystal's shoulder, just holding onto her glad she was still there at least.

"Roxas, listen to me," Crystal hugged him tight. "Do I sound scared? Do I sound like I've given up? If there's someone out there whose foolish enough to actually try to kidnap me, I'm going to make that person's life miserable. I will keep on fighting and I will find my way back to you. That's a promise. But you've got to keep it together and not give up."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro snorted while looking over to Crystal hearing that "Oi... i may own up to to being a trouble-magnet but that doesn't mean i have to like it!" he said, of course, once Braig came in and pretty much ruffled everyone's feathers, Shiro had switched over immediately to cold killer mode, glaring as Braig left before he could sic Hrunting on him even if he was using max reinforcement to speed himself up "... okay... that guy is so getting Caladbolg in the face next time i see him." he said coldly, while Roveth would nod in agreement. Axel of course was gritting his teeth and his hands were -definitely starting to come flickering to life with flames, almost as if he was about to go Assassin mode and go turn Braig into a pile of ashes "that troll is DEAD, you hear me, DEAD!" err... yeah, looks like he pissed everyone off. even Demyx looked pissed the moment he saw Braig, he -knew- he was being targeted with that behemoth rampage "i'm going to drown him. i am going to put him under the nearest faucet, i am going to turn it on, and i am going to force his head into the running water, and i'm going to DROWN HIM."

of course, once Wolfwood was done pretty much violently getting rid of the final behemoths in the area, and stated over to the group, dismissing his keyblade and instead pulling out a gun and cocking it back, the blonde haired man heard it and gulped, turning right to face the gun of Wolfwood in his face, just before he was shot right in the head... with an apparent rubber bullet, sending him back to the ground whining "that hurt!!!!" of course he'd be rolling and holding his face while Wolfwood spat out the cigarette butt, and ground it up glaring at the man "Five minutes. i left you with Demyx for FIVE GODDAMN MINUTES to get some info on where i can find Demyx's friends, AND YOU GO AND LET THIS HAPPEN!?!?! Damnit Vash you Needle Noggin, i don't know whose worse of being a goddamn trouble magnet right now, you or Shiro!" of course, Shiro would call out an 'Oi!' as if being offended by that comment.

of course, just as Vash was going to get up and argue with Wolfwood, the crimson haired man had managed to 'sneak' into the group, and point a decidedly painful looking rifle of a red color in Vash's face "you Vash the Stampede?" Vash of course gulped a bit before shaking his head "nope not at all you see why would i be the Humanoid Typhoon?" he said while ducking to the side to avoid getting a large hole blown in his head "Where is Shiroi Kumo?" Vash would think a bit to see if he remembered such a name... "nope, never heard of him." cue another shot, before he gave off a snort "SCAREH!" and now being chased around by the individual being shot at, with Wolfwood just pinching the bridge of his nose "dear lord, please give me patience to deal with this..." he muttered under his breath, now -clearly- stressed out.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"It sounds like there's been some sort of a misunderstanding," Isa pointed out with regards to the man chasing after this Vash the Stampede. Humanoid Typhoon, huh? He must have had a hell of a reputation to have earned himself a title like that. Then again, he hadn't heard of this Shiroi Kumo the other man was after either. "It seems pretty serious though."

Xion became very concerned by seeing everyone so upset and angry after the sudden appearance and disappearance of Braig. She hadn't become a victim of his verbal abuse, but that was probably because he didn't recognize her much as Isa didn't immediately know her by her true face. She was especially worried about Roxas as he seemed to be taking Braig's threat the hardest, although he didn't become scary angry over it like Shiro, Axel, and Demyx. Roveth seemed to be having a somewhat more neutral reaction, but given he was in agreement with Shiro who was out for blood he wasn't any less scary at the moment.

Roxas did gradually calm down enough to loosen his hold on Crystal to look her in the face again. "It's just that... we just finally found out how we really feel about each other. I don't want to lose that."

Crystal met and held his gaze, an admirable feat given that usually she was pretty damn skittish about making and keeping eye contact. "I don't want to lose you either. And it's going to be okay. I know it is because we both have someone we want to protect. And nothing makes us stronger than having something truly worth fighting for." She took Roxas's hands in her own and smiled. "We'll figure this out together."

"Thank you," Roxas nodded. Crystal's words did make him feel a bit better, although it was also more the fact that she was being so open about how strongly she felt too. Battling in the dry desert air and intense sun had dried them of the water fight from the previous world, although it had left them and their clothes caked with dirt the sight of which managed to get them both into laughing again. At least until Roxas took notice of the odd chase that was taking place nearby. "Huh, I wonder what that's all about."

"Not a clue," Crystal shrugged mildly. "The guy doing the chasing seems pretty intense though."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

thankfully Axel was the first to calm down since Barig had left everyone ready to kill him the moment he shows up next and turned to where Isa was looking, particularly at Vash's antics with the crimson haired man chasing him, and the odd angles Vash was using to dodge being shot "... wow, Nice rendition of a pretzel there." he commented as well, unable to help it, all the while Shiro seemed to be calming down, Roveth was neutral about it but he did agree with Shiro, that guy probably needed to go down eventually. either way he'd quip over to Wolfwood "so that's the Needle Noggin you keep comparing over Shiro? i'd have to say, if Shiro's Luck is E-Ranked, this guys gotta be F-Rank." of course, Wolfwood just groaned, and turned towards the fight and proceeding to throw his cross over there, watching it slam between the crimson hared man and Vash, blocking the shots with no damage to it surprisingly, probably due to the dampening cloth around said cross. of course, Vash looked up and had teary-eyes of gratitude "thank you!!!! i thought for sure i was-- OW OW HEY STOP THAT OW OW OW!" of course, the reasons for the Ow's, were more rubber bullets being shot at him from wolfwood when he went over to lean on the cross "sorry about my idiot friend here, but the only person he's been around is me and a couple of little ladies i know, and chasing his brother Knives, i don't know who you're looking for but the guy's not here." the crimson hared man narrowed his eye and pointed the gun right in wolfwood's face, who didn't seem to flinch or show he was lying, which led to the man's anger cooling down, and the golden gun apparatus attached to his arm transforming back into what looked like a golden metal casing around said arm, and holstered his rifle "...." he seemed to just give off a passive gaze, before looking around at all the people, before moving to find a rock to sit down on at the moment.

Shiro of course stared at the individual sitting down, sweatdropping ".... yeesh, tough crowd that one is..."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Not much of a talker, huh?" Roxas watched as the red-haired man sat himself down on a rock while looking dramatically way too cool for the rest of them.

"I guess not," Crystal also watched with visible curiosity. "He seems to be packing a lot of heat though."

"He said he was looking for someone called Shiroi Kumo," Isa explained rather offhandedly. "I don't suppose that's someone any of you have even heard of?"

"Not a name I'm familiar with," Crystal shook her head. "From the way this guy was acting though, it doesn't seem like they'd be friends."

"Yeah, he kinda seemed like he was out for blood," Roxas agreed. "And that golden case on his arm seemed to cause a pretty violent reaction in Shiro too, for that matter."

"That means it's beyond his ability to comprehend with structural analysis and caused a rebound," Crystal explained. "There's always an inherent risk to using that type of magic. Still, that means it must be something pretty powerful to trigger that sort of reaction."

"He was certainly a considerable help in defeating those Behemoths," noted Isa. "I'd say he saved us all quite a bit of trouble."

"You didn't even help us fight!" Roxas scowled at him.

"Well, I don't possess the power to wield the Keyblade, nor am I in possession of powerful magic like some of you," Isa reminded him. "I was, however, keeping an eye on your precious Xion so perhaps you'd like to thank me for that at least."

"I'm just glad everyone seems to be more or less okay," Xion finally spoke up, Vash and his rubber bullet wounds notwithstanding.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro just stared a moment at the man, while Roveth shrugged, and put away his keyblade and de-summoned his dragon for now and looked over to Axel who had been watching the antics of Vash trying to calm wolfwood down, only to get continually shot with rubber bullets by Wolfwood as well as beaten down a bit, the crimson haired individual looked over to Shiro again, and as soon as their eyes met once more, Kaze looked away, as if thinking to himself on something, Shiro however had to flinch in pain as his reality marble literally shifted as if something had happened within Shiro's soul more than anything, the Distortion... growing? feeding itself? something was going on.


Axel just waved Roxas off, having not noticed Shiro's reactions to the man "come on Roxas cool your jets. its not like Isa's a Power Ranger or like he said, has a Keyblade." he said, chuckling a bit, while Demyx had at least -finally- clamed down from his muttering and ranting about killing Barig to round on Axel and glare at him "not nice dumping your friend with the rent bill Axel!" of course this led to Axel backing up a bit "come on Demyx, it was an honest mistake!" of course, Demyx would continue tearing into a now smaller and smaller Axel as he had been torn into by Demyx.


Wolfwood, after getting his shots in on Vash, would finally calm down before looking to the group assembled with a lopsided grin "i see Roxas has been getting cozy with Crystal huh? good on you two~" he teased a bit, while looking around a bit "looks like you guys have been through some stuff if you met Sai'x again, and i see you have a new partner in that moogle." he mentioned, pointing out the Organization Moogle and all while .  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Okay, my bad," Roxas did back off on Isa given it was true he really didn't have a way of fighting those Behemoths, but it was still annoying that he talked like he was somehow integral to their success, but then that was fairly typical wasn't it? He was pulled from those thoughts by Wolfwood's comment as he realized his hands were still clasped with Crystal's. Naturally, they did let go now that they had noticed, blushing a bit, although it was fairly subdued. It did make Roxas think though, how not so long ago he would have been hesitant to even stand beside Crystal, let alone touch her, because she had always been so guarded before. In fact, that day in Radiant Garden when they worked together to restore Xion was the first time Crystal had ever sought him out deliberately on her own. Roxas didn't think to question it at the time, given restoring Xion was more important, but it really was the first time Crystal had let her guard down in front of him and from that moment on they had quickly transitioned from being mere acquaintances who only knew each other in passing to being very close friends except that the actual transition didn't actually happen. It was like that connection had been there all along. Once that veil had been lifted it had been impossible not to notice how much they really had in common and how much more fun they were having by being together. Of course, it had still taken some time for Roxas to piece together the real depth of his own feelings as all that newfound closeness had made him start noticing other things as well. Like the way Crystal looked when she was soaked by the fountain plaza in Radiant Garden illuminated by the moon and stars. Or how happy she was to see the sunset from the clock tower in Twilight Town for the very first time with everyone. Crystal was fairly cute in general, not that she would ever have cared to admit it hiding behind that intense aura of intimidation and guarding herself from getting close to anyone, but in those few select instances Roxas had seen her as being truly beautiful. And in those rare moments he had seen past the surface, capturing a glimpse of the more vulnerable side that Crystal had kept hidden from everyone. More than that, she didn't chase him away, but let him in. The sense of calm after they fought in the fountain plaza, it was something that had really made an impression on him.

"These past few weeks have been pretty wild" Crystal agreed, at least in part, with what Wolfwood had mentioned. "We've learned a lot about each other and how we relate to one another. And I guess certain feelings have begun to manifest in unexpected ways," she added while scratching behind her ear with a bit of renewed blushing. Whatever else she had thought and felt about Roxas before now, the lame schoolgirl crush as she had called it, her whole effort to remain at a distance had been tossed clean out the window when she had agreed to let him travel with herself, Shiro, and Roveth. True, Roveth had taken the initiative and spelled it all out for them, but Crystal's ability to mask her feelings had been slipping tremendously well before that point and she had known very well that she couldn't keep it to herself forever. This had become especially true because her emotional attachment to Roxas had caused Crystal's initial attraction to him to become something much more genuine, something that felt really real instead of the stupid superficial nonsense she thought it was at the start. Crystal been both deeply confused and happy to reach that realization for herself, but it didn't compare at all to the way she felt after Roxas admitted it wasn't totally one-sided and that he actually had feelings for her as well.

"We've been to some new worlds where we've done and seen so much it's hard to believe and we've grown closer because of it," Xion added.

"Indeed, it's been quite an adventure," Isa nodded. "But perhaps we should do something about getting out of this desert sun. Perhaps our mystery man will feel obliged to bond with Shiro someplace indoors." He had seen the flinch of pain from Shiro and suspected there was something going on with him and naturally assumed it must be related to the unknown variable in the equation.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Vash of course would get up and lean on wolfwood while having an arm around his neck "yes, let's go get out of the sun, into a bar, and get some Donuts!" of course Roveth deadpanned at Vash just as Wolfwood brought up the gun to Vash's head and shot him with yet another rubber bullet to get him off him "Knock it off, Needle Noggin." he said with minor annoyance in his voice before sighing as he nodded "anyway i do have a few rooms already set up in the town ahead for us thankfully, and yes, this'll include enough rooms for -everyone-. the only thing i didn't foresee was Sai'x's joining or of course the resident lump on a rock." he said, with the man only looking up, before looking aside again as if saying 'whatever.' cue Wolfwood sweatdropping at that.

Shiro just sighed, shaking his head and looking towards the man "you're welcome to come with us, it'll at least be better than being out in this desert." the man looked over to Shiro, who smiled, before getting up and moving to follow it seemed, better than nothing, even if he was a silent one. Roveth of course just shook his head, giving off a neutral gaze over things, the fact that he wasn't poking fun at Crystal and Roxas was probably obvious to Crystal, given his blowup at her and all on the last world.

Axel and Demyx both seemed willing to get out of the heat, Demyx especially as he was panting now, clearly being out of his element, Axel was okay with it, given he liked fire. probably why Shiro was okay as well, unneeded shifts in Reality marbles aside, either way, it would seem everyone was probably in agreement and would head to the nearby town's inn and all.