Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[[XIII] Roxas]

With some direction from Pence, Roxas and Crystal started gathering an assortment of books on the history of Twilight Town as well as folklore and, at Pence's insistence, several volumes containing various selections of urban legends. It was too much to read all at once, but at the very least they could get started on skimming through them while the library was still open for the day and check out as many as they could to continue with reading back at the mansion once it got to be closing time. Pence and Olette were happy to chime in with their own insights about the town so that was an added benefit to staying at the library while it was still open. Hayner just kept reading through his stack of shonen manga while purposefully ignoring the much more educational reading and conversation going on nearby, although he would have agreed with Sora that studying on purpose was pretty lame.

"You're really getting into this, aren't you?" Roxas observed as Pence was practically gushing about a particular urban legend he was fond of.

"Well, it's not every day he finds someone willing to listen," noted Olette.

Crystal seemed to be enjoying herself too. "The thing about urban legends is that there's always an element of truth to them. And I think I'm more likely to find what I'm looking for by listening to these stories than I am from ordinary historical records."

"There's plenty more where that came from," Pence was totally beaming now.

"Well, we're not going anywhere," Roxas admitted. "For once, we've actually got all day."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro nodded, listening to things while raising an eyebrow at that, Roveth was the original target? weirdly enough, he'd glance upwards a moment as if wondering about his dark half "i see... then it might be best to send him some communication and tell him what happened, he'll probably calm down some if he knows it wasn't your intention to kidnap me on purpose and it was meant to bring him here, no doubt he'd be intensely curious enough to hop in and find out." he said, humming in thought while nodding at the explanation about the Net Slum, before looking back to Helba, raising an eyebrow at the mention of someone taking an interest in him, before looking off to the side, only narrowing his eyes slightly before seeing the girl in a white dress and all "...i take it she is a young girl, dressed in white with silver hair, and has.. eyes similar to my original ones: Piercing blue eyes?" he queried Helba, looking back to the hacker with a raised eyebrow.

Roveth just glared at the screens, getting nowhere in particular before he started ruffling his hair in a bit of a growl, and opening the mails didn't help either, only mentioning welcome to paradise, so on. of course, while his rage was building, he suddenly stopped a moment, and stared hard at the emails, before frowning, as his eyes started to ebb back to normal "i don't think Shiro was ever the target for this... but why would i catch someone's attention?" he muttered, now confused and worried for Shiro, since he didn't know what was going on for him, and if he knew then he'd at least feel a bit better about this mess and all.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would continue staring at the older messages, frowning a bit when the new one came in, he'd raise an eyebrow, before opening it up, and once he started reading it, the rest of his rage died away, and left him groaning and face-palming spectacularly "ugh, god damnit all to hell Shiro! why can't your nature as an Agent of Chaos give you a damn break once in a while!?!?!" he shouted, before slumping forward and pressing his head against the screen with a sigh, before frowning a bit and rereading the last bit and raised an eyebrow "... wait, not only was he somehow tossed into a data region i had no idea how to access, he's actually caught the eye of a goddess?" of course, this just led to another groan and a sigh, before getting up from his seat "okay, this is getting ridiculous, even for -Shiro's- bad luck... there -has- to be a balance somewhere in this, even if he can't die, he shouldn't be fate's b***h without some compensation!"he would then groan a bit and just shake his head before replying he was on his way if they want to be ready to let him in, and began re-setting up the connection to a random training simulation, deciding to let things go their way for now, and walk into the beam of light so he could go fetch his wayward light half, but given it was still set up for the training simulator, once Shiro got back to Twilight Town he can head in there instead while he sorted the rest out with whoever Shiro met on the other side.

Shiro would hum with a nod, given he knew Roveth well enough that he'll come running if given the chance, so he would calmly at least walk towards Aura, allowing himself to at least stay out of the way of Helba and Roveth, once those two meet.. Helba seemed much like a person Roveth would get along with. in either case, he still was not the type of person to be rude to people who wanted to meet him, so once he was close enough to the silver haired girl he'd give off a soft, gentle smile, and let his eyes at least not seem so piercing despite the prismatic shimmering of them not helping "hello miss, my name is Shiro Musouka... i take it you were wanting to speak to me?" he asked in a gentle voice while at least not sounding his usual sarcastic self and all, though once he got back to the real world he'll probably be cursing his usual bad luck for these kinds of things.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Oh, here's a good one!" Pence had thought of yet another urban legend to share with Crystal and Roxas. "They say there's a book somewhere in this very library."

"Well duh, it's a library," Hayner gave a mild laugh.

"One they say is haunted," Pence continued unfazed. "Rumor has it that this certain book will sometimes appear in random places and move on its own."

"Okay, I'll admit, that does sound pretty bizarre," Roxas considered.

"Not to mention spooky," added Olette.

"Actually, this could be a lead," Crystal sounded totally serious. "It might not be haunted, but it could be under an enchantment."

"Really? You think so?" Pence seemed both surprised and exceptionally pleased.

"Well, you see, my brother would use books to conceal objects," Crystal went on. "Snacks, stuffed animals, weapons... that sort of thing. And all he had to do was perform this simple little ritual to make those books appear wherever he wanted them. Sometimes he even hid other books inside of them."

"So then you're thinking this rumor could be about one of those old books," Roxas realized easily enough.

"And if it is, that would prove that what Shiroi Kumo told us might actually be true," Crystal added.

"There's just one problem," noted Pence. "How do you track down a book with a mind of its own?"

"Well, for that, you just need to know the right summoning ritual," Crystal scratched behind her ear. "I was never much good at enchanting books into storage spaces myself, but I did learn the method for calling upon the ones that Jake left scattered around. So if it is one of his, then I should be able to call it right to us."

"Pence, maybe you should grab your camera," Olette suggested. "It sounds like this is about to get really exciting!"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would give off a frustrated sigh, but shook his head a bit, having not noticed what was going on between Aura, Shiro, and anything ominous as he raised an eyebrow to Helba "while i may be a curious individual, i am also quite cautious, and also usually abroad saving other worlds with my friends, so i can't really do much about my tardiness in coming, still, it is an interesting place, run down as it is... i take it you wish to set up a more permanent and stable connection from the network to here?" he asked, curious, since he wasn't in rage mode anymore at the moment, though the frustration was more at Shiro's innate issue of being a trouble magnet. speaking of...

Shiro would proceed to nod as he heard Aura's introduction, looking over the book however made him wary, given that it was much like a keyblade, this meant it was probably also finicky, maybe, but the heavy breathing and low growl out of nowhere did make Shiro give off a startled yelp, and spun around in a quick one-eighty degree spin, bringing hands out to trace immediately, though nothing came out, however he did accidentally put his left hand on the book when he spun around and opened hands up to trace weapons to defend Aura.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Meanwhile, at the Twilight Town public library, Roxas and Crystal along with Hayner, Pence, and Olette would have moved to a secluded section amidst the tall shelves where they wouldn't be seen by prying eyes, although apart from the librarian who kept leering menacingly at Hayner for his occasionally too loud comments the building was fairly empty. And then, once Pence had his camera ready, Crystal went to work on actually attempting to summon the mysterious book mentioned in the rumor. Truthfully, the method of summoning her brother's books could make one look quite foolish if nothing happened, but Crystal was quite confident that embarrassment aside, this was going to work. She clapped her hands together and then purposefully pulled her hands back apart slowly. The response was immediate as an energy field filled the space between her hands until they attained the proper distance and sure enough a rather large hardcover volume materialized between them. Once the book was fully materialized, however, gravity came into effect and Crystal had to reach wildly to grab it out of the air before it could slam into the floor. And, all the while, Pence was eagerly snapping pictures of the strange phenomenon.

"Looks like you were right," Roxas mentioned while eyeing the strange book curiously.

"This isn't one I recognize so it must be one he created after I was locked away inside the Realm of Darkness," Crystal observed. "Still, he must have known that eventually, somehow I might find it."

Sure enough, there was an envelope attached to the cover. Naturally, even though both the book and envelope could be estimated to be about a thousand years old, give or take, both were pristine. Truly, a testament to Jake's peculiar branch of magic. The envelope had Crystal's name on it, along with Jake's own personal royal seal, and that was how she jumped to the conclusion that Jake must have left this book for her to find. Crystal carefully removed the envelope so she could tear it open and see what was inside. Unsurprisingly, it was a letter.

Dear Little Sister,

I pray that when this finally reaches you that it will be in a more peaceful age than the one you have left behind. Perhaps it is too much to ask that the Realms of Light and Darkness coexist in harmony, but I still truly believe it ought to someday be possible. After all, that has always been the solemn wish of our guardian, the great Twilight Dragon.

No doubt, the world you've found yourself in is quite different from what you can remember. That's because the worlds are no longer connected as they once were. All the worlds are now separate, scattered across the darkness so that places that were once close at hand are now as distant as the stars in the night sky. It happened when the worlds were brought back from being plunged into darkness during the Keyblade War. Light was restored, but in a somewhat diminished capacity without Cosmos there to nurture it. However, even when she eventually returns it will probably be too late to return the worlds to how they once were. The best we can hope for is to be satisfied with the worlds as they are now.

Of course, that goes for you too. No matter what circumstances this letter finds you in, it is my humble wish that you manage to find your way to being happy in the present and aren't chasing after the past you can never return to. More than anything, I hope that when this letter finds you that you aren't alone. You've always been strong. Too strong, at times. But you can't do everything by yourself. I know you've never had a problem making friends, but I worry that you never truly let yourself get close to anyone. Betrayal is a difficult thing to overcome, but you have to remember that not everyone is like that.

Now then, in order to ensure the stability of your future I have enclosed all that I know of the events leading up to the Keyblade War as it is vitally important to understand how it all transpired so that those events won't ever be repeated. If times are peaceful, then this knowledge might not be of any use to you, but if circumstances threaten the upheaval of all the worlds yet again, then perhaps it will provide a vital clue as to how it might be prevented.

Regardless, the most important thing is for you to believe in yourself and to trust in others. The stability of the worlds is important, but so are the people. In fact, the two go hand in hand.

And before I forget, it might seem a little late for this, but welcome home. I know it can't have been easy for you to make it all this way by yourself, but I knew you could handle it.

Take care.

~Jake

"He always did like to get right down to business," Crystal admitted with a bit of a wistful sigh. "And I think the others are all going to want to take a look at this information he left behind if it's really that important."

"You could be right about that," Roxas agreed.

Crystal re-attached the envelope to the cover and held the book between her palms, closing them together until the book dissolved into the same energy field as the one that appeared while it was being summoned and once they were fully pressed together it was gone. "At least now that I know it's here, I can reveal it whenever I want."

"That's really convenient," noted Olette.

"Yeah, he really liked books, but he didn't always want to get up to look for them so I think that's probably why he originally developed this particular enchantment," Crystal pointed out. "Of course, it turned out to have other uses as well."

"I can't wait to get these photos developed!" Pence was excited to finally have some tangible proof of a paranormal phenomenon.

"Well, we should probably start packing up anyway," noted Roxas. "I know Axel and Xion at least will be wanting to meet up later on the clock tower and we definitely don't want to be lugging all those heavy books around so if we leave now we can drop off the ones we're going to be checking out back at the mansion and go from there."

"Sounds like a plan," Crystal nodded.

"In that case, we'll see you both later at the clock tower," Olette decided.

"Finally we can get out of this stuffy library!" Hayner gave an exaggerated sigh of relief.

"Sure, you say that, but you looked like you were getting pretty caught up in that manga you were reading," Olette teased him.

"Well, I need something to do to avoid learning too much whenever we come here," Hayner insisted.


After that they all split up. Roxas and Crystal headed back to the mansion to drop off the library books so they wouldn't have to carry them all over town. Meanwhile, Hayner and Olette accompanied Pence to the store so he could get the film in his camera developed so they could show off the photos of the enchanted book. Of course, even with such blatant and conspicuous proof of magic it was doubtful that anyone was going to believe them about what happened.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth nodded a bit and lightly tilted his head a bit "i have no problems for this world taking residence even on my network, i have much space given how much i gutted from a futuristic city." he said, chuckling a bit, as he pulled out a card, and summoned a Cyber Commander, looking over to him "head outside the system and proceed to set up a permanent connection on our end to these servers, if you can, use your capabilities to send updated packets and everything to.. upgrade them so to better preserve them, and use Chronopolis Tech if you have to." Cyber Commander nodded, before disappearing within a bubble of purple energy, heading back into the real world via Shadow Realm walking and all to do what Roveth asked as he smiled to Helba "there, should be able to set things up to a transfer to my network directly or upgrade the older servers via Cyber commander's skills." he said with his usual easy-going smile when doing or finding something interesting.


Shiro meanwhile would look to Aura, given that he had guessed she was calling off.. whoever it was, he stood down himself anyway, but he did tilt his head curiously at Azure Kite's acknowledgment and departure, yup, definitely a strange one, that. of course, he would more now focus on the bracelet when it was mentioned as he frowned, and at least tried taking it off, with no avail after a few hard tugs, well, if he was stuck with it, he supposed he'd have to figure it out too "i see... well, given my other half typically resorts to pranks when he's bored, being stealthy and appearing behind new people can be a bit of a hobby when one's bored." he said, while smiling a bit "in either case... what exactly does this bracelet do?" he asked, holding up his arm to show it now on his arm, given he was curious yet couldn't scan it due to for some reason his eyes not working like normal...  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"From what was written in that letter it sounds like your brother must have been really worried about you being on your own like this," Roxas mentioned while he and Crystal were setting down the books from the library on the desk in Crystal's room at the mansion.

"It's not like I can really blame him," Crystal admitted sounding a bit distant. "I was naive back then so I didn't see the warning signs when someone I thought was my friend sought to betray me just to bolster her own reputation with the Keyblade Unions. It was stupid, but I let it get to me. Without really meaning to I was pushing everyone away because I didn't know who to trust. And it's true that I wouldn't let myself get close to anyone. I thought they might get hurt for being associated with me and I didn't want that either. Even so, my real friends never gave up on me and I did eventually find my way back to them, although I was never quite the same after that. I had lost too much of my faith in people and also didn't have much faith in myself. He must have been worried that I still wasn't over it, but the truth is when I was out there fighting all those Heartless with no idea whether or not I was going to survive I realized that I never really stopped believing in people. I was just scared that I'd made a mistake. That someone else might have been hurt instead of me. And that gave me a reason to keep on fighting. I wanted to help people. Of course, even after arriving in this era, I was still afraid to let myself get close to anyone, but I wasn't so distrustful anymore."

"Something must have changed when you met me and Shiro," Roxas pointed out.

"Shiro and I weren't exactly close at first," Crystal reminded him. "I mean, we reached a mutual understanding and decided to stick together, but we didn't talk much about ourselves and mainly focused on fighting and keeping each other alive. Sure, we became friends, but not in what most would consider a typical fashion, although for Shiro I'm not sure he knows any other way of making friends."

"Considering how aloof and antagonistic he was acting the first time we all saw him on the Destiny Islands, it was amazing you managed to get a read on him," noted Roxas.

"Believe me, he doesn't make it easy and Roveth somehow manages to make it even harder," Crystal responded with some amusement. "I don't know how he pulls it off, but Roveth has to be one of the most deliberately enigmatic people I've ever met."

"I know what you mean. I'm really glad I've managed to stay off his bad side," Roxas shuddered to think what Roveth might do if he wasn't just being insufferable with his teasing and actually felt like being malicious about it.

"Anyway, that's enough reminiscing," Crystal decided. "We still need to meet the others at the clock tower."

"Right, and we'd better hurry if we want to get a good spot since it's going to be pretty crowded up there today," Roxas added.

So saying they would leave the mansion again to head for the clock tower, although not without first stopping off to purchase some sea salt ice cream to bring up with them.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth had raised an eyebrow, before glancing over as well "Dot Hackers huh..? interesting name. i take it they must've saved this world somehow?" he asked, given that it was a unique name, and he doubted that this group was one of notorious hackers that nearly destroyed the world or anything like that. as for the powers itself... yeah, you could bet Roveth clearly had -some- idea on how to precisely use something like Data Drain to keep things clean in the system, so he was partly glad it was Shiro getting it, otherwise he might abuse it.

Shiro meanwhile hummed a bit, listening to the explanation, before bringing his hand up to look at the bracelet, which glowed slightly in his eye as he tilted his head to the side "unkillable monsters? sounds like that regenerating darkside i keep running into.." he muttered, frowning lightly, but he nodded regardless "i think a demonstration would be nice... though it seems my capabilities of tracing or using Prana's out." he said, frowning as he reached underneath his left arm, and pulled from its holster his new silver Caster Gun, idly checking it to see if it would still work properly and all.