Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course got up and thanked them both for the tea, while proceeding to pick up Riku's arms and help carry the antagonistic teaser out of the Death room, Shinigami and Stein watched as they left, before Stein spoke up "looks like he himself doesn't realize he's an Agent of Chaos, as much as Crystal is a budding agent of Cosmos." the Shinigami nodded, having a thoughtful look with his hands holding his mask as if holding his chin "i'm surprised you could see that... i could, but that is because i am a God of Death." Stein shrugged, twisting the bolt in his head with amusement "hmhmhmhmhm... seems like i have some new research materials to think on, especially since it seems that boy can utilize that Demon Sword without any difference or change in his wavelength towards becomng a Kishin."

meanwhile, Axel just snorted in amusement at how fidgety and blushy Xion was getting to be "hmmm~... are you asking what its like because you have a crush on someone?" he asked, looking a bit curious and amused all the same, he wasn't going to tease too much since they were in the Infirmary, and knowing Crystal and the others, they should be ready to go find a hotel or something in the city for the night.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"What? Me? No!" Xion was already fidgeting and blushing before, but Axel's question really got her flailing. This went on for about a minute before she added slightly more calmly, "I mean, it's probably too soon to tell!"

Roxas naturally chuckled a bit at the exchange between Axel and Xion. "Well, I guess there is one major difference to how things were before. I don't have to wonder anymore about where she is or what she's doing or when the next time I'll see her might be. Back when she used to visit sometimes in Twilight Town it was rarely for more than a day and then she'd be gone by the following morning without a word to anyone about where she was going. I never knew when or if I'd even see her again."

"That's right, back when I appeared in Radiant Garden, Crystal told me it had been about four months since the last time she'd seen you," Xion nodded, having calmed down a bit while listening to Roxas.

"That was a little bit different," Roxas explained. "That was after Shiro was split into himself and Roveth by Xehanort's twisted experiments. They had to find a place to try to stabilize Shiro after his heart was fractured so they couldn't come back right away."

"But you didn't go with them," Xion pointed out.

"Well no, I didn't. I guess I probably could have, but I thought that Sora still needed me to help with his training and I wasn't about to ditch Axel," Roxas became visibly flustered. "Besides that, I didn't know how I felt about Crystal at the time and I had no idea she felt this way about me either."

"It sounds to me like you must have been really worried just the same," Xion observed.

"That's a bit too obvious. I mean, you've seen what she gets herself into the same as I have," Roxas gestured to the fact that they were presently in an infirmary inside some weird academy on some bizarre world after narrowly surviving that battle against Kefka. "Of course I was worried. She didn't like for me to see when she got hurt so she'd avoid Twilight Town whenever anything really bad happened. I get now why she did things that way instead of being upfront about the dangerous situations she was getting into. She didn't want me to get too attached to her because she knows what she's doing is dangerous and that she and Shiro are magnets for trouble. But she didn't stay away all the time."

"More like she probably couldn't bare it because she really wanted to see you even when she knew it wasn't the best idea," Xion suggested. "She's a lot like Shiro and Roveth. She doesn't do things by halves. When she decided she wanted to meet you and subsequently decided that she cares about what happens to you, you became very important to her. She wants for you to be safe and happy. I think as long as those conditions are met she's probably willing to do whatever it takes to keep it that way."

"Well, that's really more of a friendship thing with her in general," Roxas pointed out with a thoughtful smile. "She's protective of anyone she cares about, but she definitely doesn't go around being touchy-feely or kissing just anyone." And here comes the blushing. "Yeah, that's probably something she didn't just decide overnight. She probably wanted to and knew she wanted to for a good long while before she acted on it because she didn't want to force anything on me. Not that she's so hesitant anymore," he added with a slight chuckle while rubbing the back of his head and looking quite thoroughly embarrassed.

And then Crystal and Shiro would have arrived while lugging Riku between them still in a daze from being chopped by Shiro. Suffice it to say, it was odd to see that Roveth was still unconscious while both Roxas and Xion were very red in the face and looking embarrassed with Axel being the one looking amused by the whole arrangement. Crystal was certainly glad to see Roxas was awake again. She knew he was in good hands, but that wasn't going to stop her from worrying about him anyway.

"Okay then, I'm going to do us all a favor by not asking why you're both blushing and suddenly very quiet right now because we need to get moving so we can book a hotel room for the night," Crystal declared simply enough while taking in the scene before her.

*~Time Skip: Four Days Later~*

"So, we've gotten in some rather unusual training on this world and Shiro is becoming a bit more stable with his new capabilities so maybe we should think about where our next destination will be," Crystal suggested some four days later. She still wasn't getting used to the grinning sun and bleeding moon that this bizarre world had to offer. She brought out the Dimensional Distortion Grid, which still wasn't showing any major signs of Heartless anywhere, to see what other kinds of worlds were nearby. There was one in particular that immediately caught her eye. "Oh, a Hot Springs Planet!" She neglected to read the full name of the world in question because she got stopped at the idea of hot springs, but the world itself was called Tenrei.

"Well, like I said, I'm probably going to head back to Twilight Town to check up on Sora," Riku responded while emphasizing that last part so none of them would get any ideas after what happened previously when he mentioned wanting to head back there.

"I'm surprised you waited around with us this long," Roxas shrugged mildly. "Be sure to say 'hello' to Namine for us," he added with a hint of a smirk. He wasn't even there the first time that got mentioned, but somehow he was in on it too.

"And to Kairi too," added Xion. Well, they couldn't all be teasing Riku at the same time. That would just be mean.

"And while he does that we can go check out this Hot Springs Planet," Crystal agreed while sounding pretty happy about that. The last time she'd been to a proper hot spring was back on Funbari Onsen. And while that was relaxing, to say the least, she wasn't too sure whether Roxas and Xion were ready to spend time bathing with ghosts.

*~Hot Springs Planet: Tenrei~*

So, of course, they went their separate ways with Riku returning to Twilight Town to check up on things there while the rest of them went to check out this Hot Springs Planet that Crystal had found on the Dimensional Distortion Grid. Upon arrival they were taken aside by customs officers to attend to certain immigration matters, namely getting changed into world appropriate swimwear for the duration of their stay.

Once they were released and reunited outside the customs office/changing room facility, Crystal scowled down at her silver bikini with palpable disdain.

"Right, why haven't I gone shopping for a different swimsuit yet?" she muttered to herself in irritation. "I know I've said this every time this seems to happen, so why haven't I gone and done it?"

Xion felt a bit awkward with this planet being such a tourist destination and the streets being crowded with a very odd mix of assorted alien tourists, not unlike the spaceport on Treasure Planet, but slightly less daunting because there was room for the visitors to be more spread out. The obvious difference was that absolutely everyone and everything was dressed in some manner of swimwear. Even so, Xion didn't find her navy blue bikini anywhere close to being as objectionable as Crystal seemed to feel about her silver one.

"This world certainly has a very unique visitor dress code," Xion observed. She recalled how Shiro seemed to be very self-conscious about his scars so she wondered how he was going to cover them up on a world like this.

"Not to mention some pretty unique visitors," Roxas commented seeing a few distinctly cat-like individuals, namely Ctarl-Ctarl, and more than a few distinctly lizard-like aliens too. This was going to be another strange one alright. "Crystal, I really don't see anything wrong with the suit you have on," Roxas looked to her with a smile. "Why do you make such a big deal out of it?"

"Because it's embarrassing and not at all practical," Crystal answered while blushing highly visibly.

"Well, I don't think you're going to find anything more to your liking at any of these souvenir stalls," Xion pointed out helpfully. "Most of the swimsuits they're selling are made with even less material than what you have on now."

Crystal's face went even redder. "You know what, okay, I'm good. If that's how they want to play it, then I guess I really don't need a new swimsuit."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Axel of course spoke up next, given how much of a fuss Shiro was giving behind him still in the customs office about the code of dress, mainly due to the scars on his body, he'd at least shake his head while adjusting his silver and red flame swim shorts and all "at least it's not as.. well, closed quarters as it is back on Treasure Planet, but still... it is a weird custom to be in bikini's and shorts..." he said, shrugging a bit, while another shout and yell could be heard, making his cringe "Jeez, i know you make a fuss over that bikini Crystal, but you'd think he's being told to go naked with how vocal he's being about being topless." he said, while hearing a laugh next to him, he'd look over to the perpetrator of it.

Roveth would be the one laughing a bit, though it seemed more in dark humor or a forced laugh of sorts hearing the commotion, he himself was wearing blue swirl shorts and flipflops which contrasted on his pale skin, but yet somehow still made it work and all "Shiro doesn't really like to show his body unlike most males." he said, waving Axel off a bit "especially his chest, as there's some.. stories, behind some of the reasons why, Crystal probably has seen them before by accident, and given how he acted back on Wolfwood's world, Xion might've seen it too, either way, while most would call what he has a mark of character, most of them he doesn't consider that at all." Axel of course would give off a plain "he's being an idiot over things, plain and simple!" which to Roveth he responded with a dry laugh even further, while looking off to the side, more behind him just as the door opened.

Shiro had come out last, finally getting the idiots to let him at least keep a red flowery button up t-shirt that'd fit the scenario to hide his chest and back for now as he grumbled a bit about stupid and insane customs, clearly not in the best of moods now because of it, and seeing Roveth laughing just made him give the dark half a dirty look of 'i know you just mentioned about why you little b*****d.' of course Roveth just whistled calmly while under scrutiny of that dirty look, before he noticed something, or he should say someone walking by, passing through the crowd without being seen in particular, or being ignored, who knows.. "wait, isn't that Kaze? how in the world did he get to keep that cloak of his!?!" he said, going slightly bug-eyed at that, sure enough, it was Kaze, and from the looks of it, even though he probably was in swim wear himself, he had on his holster underneath the cloak, and of course, that golden case which could be seen poking out slightly, but the cloak was there.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Crystal was vaguely aware of what Roveth was referring to about Shiro's scars, although she'd always made it a point not to mention them and also to avert her gaze anytime she had seen him without a shirt on because the sight of those scars did make her a little uneasy for some reason. She herself didn't actually hate the silver bikini, per say, she just would have preferred something that covered up more and at least felt more like functional swimwear. Hence why she kept complaining about it, but also why she didn't outright refuse to be seen wearing it. After all, she didn't look bad or anything. Far from it, in fact, as the reactions to her wearing it were almost always positive, although Crystal knew damn well that she was attracting the wrong kind of attention. Of course, if there were any unsavory elements on this world she didn't have to worry too much because anyone trying to harass her, or Xion for that matter, would have to get past not only Roxas, but also Axel and Roveth. Crystal might have counted Shiro in amongst their noble defenders, but odds were they'd be having to save him from his own clumsiness.

"Huh, you're right," Crystal was surprised to see Kaze again too. "So, I guess this means he also has the ability to travel to other worlds by his own means." And, given the ruckus Shiro had made over his wardrobe change, it was even more surprising to see Kaze still wearing his cloak. "I guess he had an easier time negotiating with the customs office than you did, Shiro. I wonder what he did to get them off his back."

"Well, he does have that intense and moody look to him," Roxas suggested as a possibility. "Shiro's embarrassment and complaining doesn't exactly make him the most menacing person to deal with. If he went into his cold killer mode, he might have won those negotiations, but I'm not so sure that would work while he's flailing so much." Roxas was, of course, perfectly comfortable in his mainly white checkerboard printed swim trunks so the only thing he was likely to become self conscious about was seeing the girls in their swimsuits and for the moment he was already over that. Yes, Crystal was cute, but Roxas didn't have to see her in that silver bikini to think that so it wasn't exactly that much of a distraction.

"This place is a bit more extravagant than I was really expecting," Crystal admitted looking around at their surroundings some more. She was more hoping for more traditional hot springs in their natural setting, but all of the pools nearby were built up either into bathhouses or extensive water parks filled with over-the-top water slides. It looked like fun, sure enough, but it was a far cry from the cozy setting Crystal remembered from Funbari Onsen. Of course, so far they had only seen a small portion of the planet so there could still be some more subtle locales to explore elsewhere.

"It seems pretty exciting," Xion agreed.

"And it looks like some of these places could be a lot of fun," Roxas was eyeing some of the more dramatic looking water slides.

"Yeah... fun," Crystal didn't sound convinced and honestly some of those bigger slides kind of freaked her out a little.

"You sound kinda nervous," Roxas observed. He wasn't teasing or being judgmental about it. He merely mentioned it as a point of fact.

"Eh... I've got this thing about gravity and I'm not a great swimmer to begin with so yeah, nervous is probably the right word for it," Crystal scratched behind her ear looking embarrassed.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Roxas assured her with a smile. If just looking at the slides caused Crystal to react this way, then getting her to actually try riding them was going to be an amusing experience.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro had just looked away from Kaze for a moment shaking his head, he'll chase after Kaze later. meanwhile he'd just look to where Roxas was pointing out the water slides, and upon seeing some of the crazier ones, a small 'glint' shone in his eye, one Crystal would know is all too familiar when his 'death wish' as she loves to call it, comes into play, uhm... uh... quick, someone distract Shiro~!

Roveth hadn't noticed the gleam, as he looked around a bit lightly, not at the women persay since he was not much of a pervert despite what people probably think of Shiro's dark side, what Roveth was looking for was possible paths to some more.. secluded hotsprings for them to take over and all, away from the water parks and all.

Axel of course would look around as well, but more on the prowl for one that he'd probably be able to relax in, since him and water technically don't get along, so he'd still keep looking.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Crystal saw the glint in Shiro's eye and gave a defeated sigh. The fact that Roveth and Axel were both looking for ways out of this wasn't helping matters either as far as she was concerned. It figured that Shiro would get excited over an amusement park setting like this. "Okay, fine, it's outside my comfort zone, but sure, what the heck?"

"We can all go," Xion sounded entirely unfazed by the fast moving, almost roller coaster like designs of some of the slides. "It's more fun if we're all together, right?"

"Yeah, it'll be great!" Roxas was in full agreement. It was a rare sight for Crystal to be reluctant to do something and she probably had her reasons for being so wary, but at least in her typical fashion she refused to back down even if it did scare her somewhat. When Roxas placed his arm around her, Crystal immediately started blushing again, clearly not in the right frame of mind to keep that under control at the moment. "You don't have to worry," Roxas assured her again. "These things should be totally safe, right?"

"Right..." Crystal answered slowly. She still appeared rather uneasy though.

"And you're with me so nothing too bad can happen, right?" Roxas really is just laying it on thick today, isn't he? Xion had to wonder when exactly Roxas started getting so good at this and how much of a hand Axel must have had in teaching him for that matter.

"In the absence of there being any Heartless or any other blatant forces of evil occupying this planet, I suppose that's true," Crystal admitted after she paused to think it over.

"And besides, we all know you've done things that are way more dangerous than this," Roxas added with another smile.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Xion declared as they split off from Axel and Roveth for the moment to get in line for one of said water slides.


Meanwhile, near the space dock, Jim Hawking had been abandoned to negotiate the costs of their latest star-ship docking expenses as well as their tab from the last time they had visited Tenrei so that Gene could get a head start on acquiring some more caster shells. Given their entire crew was still as broke as ever these negotiations were probably going to take a while.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro just chuckled a bit, while rubbing the back of his head lightly "what can i say? i like water slides." of course, this led to his front lurching forward a bit as he felt something stir, and sure enough, soon as he could, Apocalypse popped out of Shiro's back, unfortunately ruining the shirt "yo, Boyo~! count me in too, sounds like some crazy fun if they're as good as they look!" of course, Shiro sputtered a bit, before looking back at Apocalypse "Duuude, did you -have- to ruin my shirt?!?!" of course, while Shiro was freaking out, Apocalypse was sweatdropping "uh.. i miss something here? of course i'm going to pop out of your back." he said, while Shiro continued freaking out "couldn't you have done it without ruining the shirt!?!?!" of course, this leads to an argument between the two, but still exposing quite a few scars on Shiro's torso area rather easily for everyone to see.

Roveth of course just groaned, shaking his head at Shiro's antics before looking towards Crystal, frowning a bit lightly "well i -was- going to try and go ahead to find us a secluded hotsprings that would be away from the crowds, well.. i guess this is better, it'll keep Shiro on his adrenaline junkie spree, once he stops arguing with.. well... Apocalypse." he said, motioning for the two current arguing idiots.

Axel meanwhile just shrugged a bit, looking off elsewhere "uh.. you guys go on ahead, i'm going to go find a decent hot springs for myself... i doubt any of these are hot enough to suit me anyway." he said, clearly hiding his discomfort about the hotsprings being actual water, and headed off on his own to find something -DECENT- for him at least, to go into for a hot springs, also avoiding any that were probably not a good idea to go in.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Roxas, Crystal, and Xion all sweatdropped at the sudden emergence of Apocalypse from Shiro's back. Roxas really wasn't surprised to be seeing Apocalypse seeing as he had seen him before, but the scars were every bit as surprising as Roveth had described. The combination of the two was attracting strange looks from nearby onlookers and passersby to the point that Crystal hurried over to a souvenir stall and hastily bought a new shirt for Shiro before tossing it at him so he could cover himself up better.

"I agree we should try to find someplace a little more natural and secluded as far as hot springs are concerned," Crystal mentioned to Roveth. "But having a run of these amusement parks first isn't such a terrible idea. It'll give us a nice peaceful way to unwind once the excitement is over and done with."

"Alright Axel, I guess we'll see you later then. Hope you find something hot enough to suit your tastes," Roxas waved him off as their group continued toward the big water slides. As much as he might have liked to hangout with Axel he was more interested in seeing the full extent of how much Crystal would be flailing about the water slides and he was also fairly certain his heat tolerance wasn't anywhere close to what Axel might find comfortable.

By the time they reached the top of the first big water slide even Xion was starting to get a slight case of the jitters what with it being a great deal higher than she was expecting, although her nerves weren't anywhere close to as bad as Crystal's were, although Crystal herself was masking her discomfort with the situation fairly well by that point.

"Right, let's just get this over with," Crystal was getting herself psyched up as best she could for the inevitable sensation of this is way too fast and it is totally going to flip over she fully expected would happen as soon as she got on the slide by preparing to throw herself at it head on just like any other challenge. This wasn't to say that there wasn't still a bit of screaming once the ride got underway, with Crystal of course ending up on Roxas's lap as they shared an inner-tube going down. And it really wasn't anywhere near as scary as Crystal was expecting so partway down the screaming devolved into laughter pretty readily. Honestly, the worst part of the whole experience was hitting the pool at the bottom because that was the part that ended up flipping them over as they had to hurry out of the way to make room for the next rider or pair of riders to come down behind them.

Once they both re-surfaced Roxas asked, "So, how was it?"

"It was pretty okay, actually," Crystal answered with an amused look and clearly more relaxed disposition than before. "Maybe we should try one of the big group slides next."

"Yeah, that'll be fun with all of us," Roxas agreed. And of course they'd both be down there waiting once the others arrived, kind of just wading by the edge of the pool while laughing in general.


Xion wasn't dense. She could take the hint that she was somehow going to be riding with Shiro unless he decided he wanted to go solo. Still, it was nice to see Roxas taking the lead with Crystal for a change. He had become a lot more observant since their time with the Organization and it showed most prominently in those interactions. The most impressive part, of course, was that he didn't need to seek outside help or advice on how to approach the situation. He figured it all out on his own.

"Looks like one of us is next," Xion mentioned to Shiro and Roveth so they could get ready to make their way down.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth also noticed what Roxas had done, chuckling a bit, while pulling out his own right, a single seat inner-tube, and after settling it down and getting ready, he looked to the two, grinning "see you two down at the bottom!" he'd say, before shoving right off, the distant 'Wheeeeeee~!' could be heard as Roveth went down, of course inside the parts of the tube that was 100% covered he actually did a few 360's by accident due to his speed but never fully tipped over, and once towards the exit, he'd come shooting out and crashing into the water sliding along it on a spin before coming somehow right near Crystal and Roxas, wet as can be, dizzy as hell, but clearly in a good mood. "Whoo! that was awesome!" he said while grinning, not an insane grin or anything but a decent sized one showing he had a -bit- of Shiro's adrenaline junkie habits, too.

Shiro just chuckled at his dark half's enthusiasm in leaving him up here with Xion, thankfully he -did- have one of the two seaters like Roxas and Crystal, he'd move to set it down and get it ready before climbing on board and then looking to Xion with a smile, thankfully he had his shirt on after the argument ended with a glare strong enough from Shiro to make Apocalypse go away for now and allow him to wear the new shirt and all."okay, it's set up if you want to hop in." he said with a smile, he planned to protect Xion if it did turn and drop them both like Crystal had figured it would on her, but he would go on if Xion would rather try it alone and all. thankfully as well for Xion he didn't seem to be as embarrassed, but it might be because of the strange glint in his eye that shows when he is in adrenaline junkie mode and proceeding to override his embarrassment completely.


Axel, unfortunately, had stood up after about 5 minutes in the spring he was in, still clad in his shorts sighing as he rubbed his hair a bit "just not hot enough... jeez." he muttered, before taking his towel to dry off and head onwards to find another hotsprings that looked promising and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Yeah, coming here was a great idea," Roxas agreed with Roveth. "Sure, there was a bit of a rocky start with Shiro and Apocalypse, but as long as he can keep him contained we should have a real blast here."

"It's also pretty awesome because since this whole place is fed by hot springs we don't have to worry about getting a chill while we wait," Crystal added with a slight chuckle.


"Sure," Xion decided to just go with it because even if she wasn't as nervous as Crystal had been at the start, the altitude of the slide was still pretty high up and Xion decided she would probably feel better riding with Shiro rather than going at it by herself. So, she got on the inner-tube with Shiro as they prepared to launch down the slide after Roveth.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth nodded with a chuckle as he watched the slide and all "too true, but i guess it's kinda expected about Shiro really, he is self conscious about his scars, well, all except for one, which if i know him, he's probably only told Xion about." he said, while looking towards the two with a smirk "group slides huh? should be fun too, as long as everyone hangs on and doesn't do anything crazy, i'll reiterate it to Shiro as i know how adrenaline Junkie he is." he said with amusement before going back to watch the slide.

Shiro would nod, gently moving the tube onto the water, and then he'd work to at least hold onto Xion while using one of his arms to drive/keep the tube from flipping over while they rushed down the tube, not doing anything drastic like Roveth did with his 360 zoom in the tube, but it was still a rush as Shiro was grinning wildly, thankfully without apocalypse reappearing the two would crash down into the bottom and skid along spinning before they came near where Roveth and Crystal were, with Shiro of course reaching out to Hi-Five Roveth "oh man that was awesome! i needed a stressless adrenaline rush!" he said giggling like a little kid, yup, it is hard to remember that Shiro could act so young, especially with his inherent 'death wish' as Crystal calls it.

Axel of course seemed to be getting warmer, but isn't anywhere close to finding the right one as he continued to look "come on, if this is such a tourist attraction there has to be a hot springs that is made for those with skewed heat tollerances!" he whined out before continuing to look, hands in his shorts pocket while idly wondering how Xion and Roxas were doing with Shiro and Roveth, though he was partly thankful they left Shiroi Senko back at Twilight Town as the chocobo would probably hate getting wet.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Sounds good," Roxas nodded to Roveth. He and Xion were both pretty surprised by the sudden change in Shiro's disposition having only seldom seen traces of this innocent and childlike attitude he had while seeming to be genuinely cheerful for a change. At least it wasn't as extreme as his transformations into Chibi Shiro. The low stress environment of the Hot Springs Planet seemed to be doing him some good.

"Well, I think if we're all up for it we might as well keep going," Crystal was inclined to agree. She'd probably still get nervous again down the line, but when that inevitably happened she had Roxas to lean on. Really, with enough blatant encouragement, anyone in the group probably could have tricked her into going along with this, but so far Roxas was the one who had risen to the occasion so he was getting all the credit.

"Okay, to the next slide!" Xion cheered them all on.

In this fashion they would explore the amusement park area of Tenrei for the next several hours tackling various water slides to soak up the excitement. Eventually, however, the thrill of it would begin to wear off as each of them kind of just wanted to find somewhere quiet to relax for a while. At that point they would learn from an overly helpful tour guide that the more secluded and natural hot springs were up on the distant, but not-too-distant snow covered mountains. There was a complimentary shuttle train service to take visitors up to the mountain resort, although they also warned that the springs on the summit of Mt. Nantai were open to women only.

"Well then I guess we'll skip that one then," Crystal decided automatically. She certainly had no interest in splitting off from the boys while they were all having such a good time together.

"It wouldn't be as fun with just us two," Xion seconded that notion.

Roxas would have found it similarly awkward to be alone with Shiro and Roveth for that matter, especially with Axel being on his own personal quest to find the hottest hot spring on Tenrei. Naturally, as they were boarding the shuttle train to take them up to the mountain resort area the door suddenly closed without any warning in Shiro's face leaving him stranded at the foot of the mountains to either wait it out for the next train to arrive or trek it on foot to reach the resort.

"What just happened?" Roxas was baffled when the door to the train suddenly slammed shut like that. He was sure there should have been more time for boarding.

"Probably hitsuzen," Crystal explained vaguely. "It's either that or just Shiro having another bout of bad luck. And it's too late to turn back now."

"And just when we were all having such a wonderful time too," Xion sounded a bit disappointed by that.

"Well, he'll have to catch up with us eventually," Roxas tried to sound reassuring.

"And he wouldn't want us to have any less fun on account of his own personal misfortune, so we've got to stay positive," Crystal added while nodding sagely in agreement.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro would of course comically run right into the closed door of the shuttle train, and just blinked in confusion a moment while rubbing his nose, only to see the Shuttle train take off, making him deadpan at it with a 'really?' look before having to tilt his neck forward, as blackness bubbled up, and formed into a chibi-version of apocalypse, who seemed to be staring at the train as well ,before looking down at Shiro "dude, your luck is atrocious isn't it." Shiro would look up to Apocalypse with the same deadpan look before sighing "well, just goes to show i should probably never gamble huh?" he said, while turning and putting his hands in his shorts pockets, guessing he'd have to walk, of course, sure enough he'd see Kaze off in the distance about to do the same, so at least he'd pick a good route, following after the gunman so he could check and see how he was doing, and how the hell he managed to keep his cloak, as -that- did bother him and all.

Roveth shrugged a bit, while sighing "it really is par for the course for Shiro to have something so simple as that happen to his ire and bad luck, he always told himself he'd never go into any casinos or gamble or anything like that because he knows he'd lose more money than he'd win, and unless we know someone who can change that, or at least prove to him that his gambling luck is not as bad as his life luck, he'll stay away from anything blatantly luck related." he hummed a bit, before looking off to the side towards the train window "but yeah, he wouldn't want us to be down for his bad luck, so let's just make use of what we can until he can join us, knowing him he's probably stubborn so he'll come by foot."

Axel had already probably arrived up at the resort, if his trek brought him to an earlier train, and would be scouring the hotsprings for one hot enough to suit him still, looking a bit stressed because he had -yet- to find what he was looking for. damn him and his heat tollerances, he knew if Isa was here he'd probably be laughing it up over the fact that Axel wanted to avoid the normal springs due to being more wet than hot, given he wanted more hot than wet.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

The shuttle train sped up into the mountains and soon enough those riding it would arrive at the much more rustic resort area of Tenrei. Naturally, there were still plenty of people milling about at the resort, but there were far fewer than down at the amusement parks that were near the space dock as the planet's premiere tourist destination. Even though there was snow on the ground, the abundance of hot springs kept the temperature fairly comfortable too.

"So, I think if we want to find a place that's a little more private and secluded, we should start by heading out away from the station to someplace a bit more remote from the central resort area," Crystal suggested while taking a quick look around to see if anything looked promising.

"That makes sense," Roxas nodded. "Not a lot of people are going to want to venture too far from the station, especially not if they want to get back to the base of the mountains more immediately than we do. If we press on far enough we might even find someplace quiet all to ourselves."

"That would be nice after how hectic it was at those amusement parks," Xion agreed.

"So yeah, it'll take a little more effort, but the pay off will probably be totally worth it," Crystal decided.


Shiro's bad luck wasn't up yet as while he accompanied Kaze up the mountain they would eventually come across a peculiar young man with white hair adorned with an arrangement of odd horn-like black spikes and wearing a strange mask covering most of the lower part of his face. He was dressed much like anyone else on Tenrei, having been provided with a pair of complimentary white shorts in place of his regular attire. Kaze would still no doubt recognize him, if not by appearance, then by the rather unusual sword strapped to the back of his waist. And Shiro himself would most likely have his own reaction to said sword what with it being a sword and all. No doubt, Shiro was about to witness a spectacular show of aggression from the man he was following up into the mountains at the sight of this strange young man who just happened to be descending from those very same mountains at the same time. The young man, for his part, didn't seem to have noticed them or if he had he was making a very good show that he hadn't as he continued walking coolly and quietly with a calm even stride down toward the base of the mountains.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth hummed in agreement, given he was already letting his eyes scan about the various areas as they walked along, paying no mind to the other customers and all as he rubbed his chin a bit before narrowing his eyes a bit, and giving off a hum as he pointed ahead "there, i think i see one about that looks like it's completely unoccupied." he said, heading in that direction while humming along with a grin "nice view of the mountain both going up and going down too from the looks of it, so a good relaxing spot for Shiro once he makes his way up here." he said, before continuing to walk along, of course, there were bright flashes in the sky as well as sparkles and such going off, making everyone ooh and ahhh over the display, wondering if it was a fireworks show going off.

Axel of course would look up from his spot on the mountain, closer to where he had heard some nice hotsprings were, seeing the fireworks he'd tilt his head in confusion, before shrugging a bit as he continued his trek onwards, while the fireworks were pretty cool, he was more interested in that hot hotsprings. so onward he went!

Shiro had blinked as the appearance of the young man had shown himself, and then a sudden malice starting to form, and when Shiro turned, he'd look to Kaze, who had narrowed his eyes at the person heading down the mountain. "Shiroi... Kumo." he said, with a good bit of malice in his voice and sure enough, out of nowhere Kaze would pull out his unnamed red shotgun,and pointed it directly at the white haired man "Oi oi oi! what the hell Kaze?" Shiro would say, trying to get the man to back down hostilities, since he doubted the other white-haired individual was even who Kaze was apparently tracking down "calm down! i'm sure we can talk about this right?" Kaze would look only briefly to Shiro, clearly conveying his his intent as the keyblade wielder backed off just as Kaze began firing a rain of bullets from the shotgun right at Makenshi's face, probably the starting cause of the 'fireworks' that people were seeing. Shiro was about to try and tug Kaze away from his attacking when Shiro got a glimpse of the sword the white-haired man was carrying, with that, his body literally pulsed, just as the Ma-Gan had when he laid his eyes on it, he too reacted to the sword, only this one he was reacting so very strongly given his mind was solely focusing on the image of that blade, his body starting to pulse, louder, like a heartbeat, even if he did slump to his knees and allowed Kaze to continue his assault, his eyes would start bleeding a bit while his mouth seemed to mutter various things incoherently as he was trying to sort through information, not to mention a slow steady rise in his magical aura.