Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course, inbetween his cooking battles with Ryu, would at least do his own training, partly through watching Crystal and Roxas train with Yoh and Amidamaru, as well as work on engraving on the bokuto's for everyone once he swiped them temporarily and getting out his rune etching gear and wood cutting knife, and begun making the needed magical additions, once those were done he'd have said blades back to them within about 10 minutes to let them continue their training, while he himself went off to finish his own blades, which would at least be strapped to his sides much like most normal samurai, though after that he'd work to get used to wielding and putting away his twin bokuto's and get those down to a science. when it came to dinner, and having the night off thanks to Anna, Shiro would at least wind down from training instead by going to the city to find something else to do, when he had actually came to a little antique store, which had various gear that looked like from the Shogunate era of Japan, even some swords, it made Shiro raise an eyebrow and wander inside, of course, looking around the artifacts shiro could see quite a history among them, especially with his eyes, though four objects in particular caught his interest in the furthest part of the shop from the interest, on a rack of weapons lain four blades, each one's history filtering in, causing Shiro to harden his eyes a bit, then soften them with a chuckle "interesting..." he muttered, while he glanced around the shop, and sure enough, he found something definitely out of the ordinary, three nearby spirits, two of which were tied in some way to the four swords he just looked at, two seemed to be looking at each other pissed off, while the third had been sweatdropping until he turned his head away from the oddly moss colored haired swordsman and the.. blonde haired man riling him up before noticing Shiro, who had been watching the three inquisitively, making him actually surprised someone could see them "oh? you can see us it seems, that you can." this caught the attention of the other two, though the blonde haired man looked him over, and snorted "oh...? looks like another sword freak like you mosshead." he said, getting the third spirit to grow an anger-vein and glare at the blondie "at least i don't have dartboards for eyebrows, shitty cook!" of course, the mention of cook actually had Shiro blinking and tilting his head a bit, only discreetly glancing about, seemed the shop owner wasn't paying attention or around "calm down you two! i think this guy might be a shaman, that he might." the blonde haired man glanced over to Kenshin, before scoffing a bit lightly "fine fine... but seriously, the kid looks like a wannabe samurai ,with those wooden swords." of course, the afforementioned moss-head just looked down to Shiro, seeming to be assessing him, even so far as to give a challenge of willpower, so to speak as if increasing a spiritual pressure of killing intent, with Shiro just raising an eyebrow "huh... nice intimidation tactics." he whispered, before letting his eyes half-lid themselves, and his own presence had started leaking out, it wasn't killing intent by any nature, jsut raw -presence- as the red haired one actually went wide-eyed "who... are you?" he asked, finally, with Shiro responding with a kind smile "Shiro Musouka."

Roveth had sighed a bit, glad for the healing from Aqua's Curaga, though he did summon out another Dian Kieto card and pulled out an elixer as wel to drink with a grunt as he listened to Aqua's words of concern, before smiling "thanks for the concern, miss, but like Riku said... what i did would be the -tip of the iceberg- compared to my light half and his friend." he said, while rolling his neck a bit lightly "but truth be told, outside of myself, through proxy of being the dark half of a man who -has- faced the generals before... they will not hesitate to kill you if you do not give it your all, and even then you might still have to pray it works, because they are just that tenacious." he said with a wisdom like tone to his voice, before turning to look at Riku with a stern glare "however blindly charging in to try and slow him down when you know good and well from just seeing me fight the guy that was a foolish idea, Riku! i honestly thought Sora would be the crazy one to do that kind of thing, not you!" he then put his hands on his hips and sighed, shaking his head "Riku... honestly, outside of myself, which was just barely enough.. that guy would've easily killed everyone here, -that- is how powerful the Heartless Generals are, you got -lucky- he didn't think to hit you hard enough to blow a hole through your chest completely." he said with a serious tone of his voice, shaking his head once more, before looking to Aqua "shall we go meet up with this gentleman then so we can have everyone gathered up and i can make us a path out of here?" he suggested, smiling a bit lightly despite the bloodstained clothes and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"You know, the last time they visited it was only the two of them, Crystal and Shiro I mean, so I guess I just kind of thought they were together," Tamao was saying to Xion as they continued to gossip in the onsen. "Although now I can see I was clearly mistaken."

"Well, you definitely aren't the first person who has felt that way," Xion pointed out as she thought of all the times that had been commented on before it was made very clear to the offending person that Crystal and Shiro didn't and had never had those sort of feelings for each other. Xion wondered just how much more difficult it would be to convince people of that fact if Crystal hadn't finally admitted to having feelings for Roxas so that now it was fairly obvious that the two of them were together.

"But if Crystal has someone else she's in love with, then I wonder if Shiro has someone else too," Tamao continued getting all twinkly eyed as she thought about how romantic that would be. "I mean, he must have someone special, right?"

"Why are you asking me?" Xion was suddenly embarrassed and she didn't even know why she suddenly felt embarrassed.

"Well, you've been traveling with him, right?" Tamao went on. "And he is a good looking guy. Plus, he seems thoughtful and his cooking is pretty extraordinary. So, what do you think of him?"

"That's a loaded question," Xion knew it was because she'd pulled the same thing on Crystal about Roxas. "But I guess I don't really know what to think of him. Shiro is a very contradictory person. He's thoughtful and kind, but he also lives dangerously and often seems conflicted. He's a good person, but he isn't exactly easy for anyone to get close to."

Crystal had said as much herself, hadn't she? Tamao seemed unconvinced being the hopeless romantic that she sometimes is. "Well, I guess maybe you just need to get to know him better before you can really make up your mind about him."


Crystal and Roxas would have been relaxing comfortably at the cemetery on Funbari Hill beneath the starry sky just enjoying the scenery and each other's company while mainly ignoring the resident ghosts who were all partying like they do every night. Given that their last attempt to spend some quality time together like this had ended with that strange woman who had appeared out of nowhere on Radiant Garden, Roxas was pleasantly surprised by how the evening was passing by so peacefully.

"So, do you think this time counts as an actual date?" Roxas wondered as he kind of half-glanced toward Crystal who was sitting next to him before he looked back up at the star-filled sky. The view from Funbari Hill was fairly impressive and Roxas really didn't have the sense to think that there was anything too strange about hanging out at the cemetery at night surrounded by ghosts. It wasn't like anyone would have taught him there was anything wrong with that in the first place.

"I think so," Crystal answered before resting her head lightly on Roxas's shoulder. It wasn't exactly private, per say, but the ghosts weren't exactly bothering them either.

"I'm glad because I thought so too," Roxas gave a gentle smile and placed his arm around Crystal lightly.

They would stay up on Funbari Hill for a little while longer before heading back to Funbari Onsen before it got to be particularly late at night.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth had looked over to Aqua as she mentioned the hostility, and chuckled a bit lightly while shaking his head "yeah, as much as i consider Riku an ally, we can't really stand each other for prolonged periods of time." he said, looking a bit amused but nodded to the mention of getting out of there, the faster they got done the faster they could go see Shiro and the others, once they got there however and Mickey's exclamation of who it was, made Roveth at least wisely take a step back so he could at least gather his own wits, given the things he knew from talking with Roxas and Xion, and listening in onto some of the conversations between them and Axel, he didn't want to look angry so he at least bottled his emotions in and thoroughly suppressed his darkness down to where one would only feel the barest bits of it, to keep himself calm "indeed, if there's no reason to stick around much longer we should get out of here, any ideas in mind for a destination? cause i don't know if i can actually open the way directly to Twilight Town." he said honestly, if there was somewhere closer that was connected to the Realm of Darkness, he could breach to there instead of trying to make a rift back to Twilight Town.

Shiro meanwhile had been talking with the three spirits once he introduced himself, actually getting to know them a bit while he had checked the condition of the four blades, the first three seemed to be made of extremely high grade, if he didn't know better, their grade reminded him of Sky Raven, and how it looked to be beyond compare to even masterpieces of weapons and all. "interesting blades here Zoro, they remind me of something else i utilize." he said, while the swordsman raised an eyebrow, of course, when he got to the other samurai's blade, he had unsheathed it only slightly, and took in its history, and the memories told him a lot "hmm... you took a vow of non killing... that is why this blade is a reverse edged one, is it not?" Kenshin had nodded a bit lightly "yes.. i took a vow of non killing after the war i was in, and became a ronin, that i did." Shiro hummed in thought, nodding a bit lightly, looking to the blonde haired man finally "and while you aren't a sword fighter i can tell from the looks of your hands... you're a chef, aren't you, Sanji?" the blonde haired man nodded as he smiled "i am ,one of the best in the world during my time though i stuck with moss-head here just to keep him out of trouble given he tends to lose his sense of direction badly." of course, Zoro had grown an anger-vein and turned to Sanji "at least i don't try to flirt with every woman i come across ya blasted perverted dartboard brow!" of course Shiro just sighed as the two bickered, it seemed he would be getting a headache just working with these two as he looked to them "alright that's enough you two, please keep it down." of course the two stopped arguing for the moment, but Sanji continued on "but yes, due to my cooking, i tend to fight with my feet more than my hands like some other hand to hand combat specialists because what good am i a cook if i damage my hands?" Shiro nodded a bit lightly "kinda why i use weapons, so as to have a reach to keep people away from damaging my hands, plus my magic skills kinda give me an edge in cooking." Sanji raised an eyebrow, before smirking a bit, looking to Zoro and Kenshin "don't know about the ronin or mosshead here, but if you are a shaman then i wouldn't mind being your guardian ghost, you seem to lead an interesting life." Shiro actually raised an eyebrow, having not expected to have a guardian ghost even if he did train somewhat under Yoh and anna as a Shaman and all, while Zoro twitched an eyebrow at the mosshead comment, but spoke up as well "oi, Shiro was it? tell me why you pick up a blade and fight, because you seem to be proficient a swordsman." Shiro looked to Zoro, and then to Kenshin who seemed interested, Shiro looked down to the sakabato in his hands, thinking hard on it "... i fight for those who cannot fight, and for those i care about above all other things, my friends." he said, while Zoro pondered on the answer, Kenshin spoke up next "how do you feel about killing?" Shiro had blinked a bit, and sighed "truth be told, i absolutely hate killing, but the kind of enemies i go against aren't human usually so it's better to kill them, and most human opponents i face typically i fight to make them redeem themselves, or if they are beyond saving.. then i will at least not let others suffer just because i refused to put down the irredeemable opponents i face, outside of that? i will -never- kill outside of those extenuating circumstances, and i will -never- enjoy killing." he said, as if mentally disgusted at the thought of even remotely liking killing, sure, he may threaten to kill people, but usually they're only threats, and gets the hint across. Kenshin had pondered things, before Zoro spoke up once more "it should never be easy to take a person's life. the fact that you have it is a last resort is good to hear, and your reason for fighting.. i find it admirable, given i did fight for the same, even if i hid it behind the fact that i wanted to be the best swordsman in the world. and given you seem to be an interesting person.. i think i'll join you as well." Kenshin nodded, smiling a bit "looks like it is unanimous, but you might want to wait to learn my sword style Shiro-san, because it is not easy at all, that it isn't." shiro nodded a bit, humming "well, even if i can't learn it right away, i do know someone who you could help, he's a friend of mine and does rely more on speed based attacks rather than bursts of speed like me." Kenshin nodded lightly "i see, well as long as you work with Sanji-san and Zoro-san in training your speed and footwork, it wouldn't be long until you could learn it that it wouldn't." he said, smiling "so i will join you as well, that i will. how about you buy our swords form the shop keeper while we wait?" shiro nodded, and proceeded to do so, with something in the shadows watching him with a curious amber eye.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

When the girls got done in the onsen, Tamao would have been called on by Anna to supply her with snacks and to keep her company while she was watching her preferred nighttime programming. Yoh would have gone to bed already while Manta would have returned to his home to catch up on his studies before going to bed himself. So, while Xion waited for Roxas, Crystal, and Shiro to get back from whatever was keeping them busy she would find Sora wandering the grounds aimlessly by himself looking a bit worried.

"Is something the matter, Sora?" Xion asked with some concern.

"You know, I'm not really sure," Sora considered as he continued pacing with that look of worry still evident on his face. "I thought I might have heard Riku calling out to me and I've kind of got this feeling like I'm supposed to head back to the island. Or does that sound too weird?"

"It's not really surprising for you to be worried about Riku," Xion pointed out with a smile. "As for feeling like you're supposed to be somewhere, I think you might get a better answer from Crystal than I can give you. But it sounds like it could be important."

Rather conveniently, Crystal and Roxas would have returned by that point from their little stargazing excursion to Funbari Hill. Naturally, Sora still seemed worried.

"What's the matter with Sora?" Roxas asked.

"I think he's worried about Riku and the others," Xion answered.

"Well, that's understandable," Roxas nodded. "They've been gone a while now and we have no way of getting in touch with them while they're in the Realm of Darkness."

"Anyway, I feel like I need to go back to the Destiny Islands," Sora would explain again for Roxas and Crystal to hear.

"Well, if that's how you feel, then we should probably trust your instincts and go," Crystal nodded thoughtfully.

"Just like that?" Sora seemed puzzled.

"It would be hypocritical for me not to trust your intuition when I've spent all this time trying to teach you to pay attention to it," Crystal pointed out. "If you feel like you're being called back to the Destiny Islands, then there's probably a reason for it. Riku and the others are probably waiting. And I'm sure Shiro must be concerned about Roveth too."

"But Shiro still isn't back yet," Xion pointed out.

"Well, he'll probably be back real soon," Crystal nodded to herself. "I mean, he can't be too far."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro actually had been on his way back when Sora had those feelings, being tagged along by his new companions ghost wise and his stalker, a Kitsune spirit with nine tails, however said fox hadn't done anything to be noticed so it was just stalking along for now with Kenshin, Zoro, and Sanji all in Gravestone tablets, having procured a few of those when he could for them and properly did the runic etchings to make them just as hard to break as his wooden swords while they walked, thankful he was going slow to have a proper focus of concentration when working, of course, Sanji -did- ask Shiro why he got four when it was just the three of them, Shiro responded "there was four in the shop, Sanji. but the fourth wasn't really tied to any artifacts in the shop so it's been following us." he said, causing the ears to perk up on said stalker, before Shiro turned his head to let one prismatic eye stare right at the ghost, which was an animal spirit, a kitsune in fact with nine white tails, since it was a white furred fox "huh.. i was wondering if you even sensed me, given you didn't seem to even notice my presence." Shiro stopped a moment and turned to address the kitsune fully "i didn't call you out until now because to me you seemed like you were testing me, and yes i did sense you in the very beginning, but i figured you'd come to me rather than me go to you, as foxes are curious creatures. though i didn't expect to meet a Kyuubi." said kitsune gave a few yip-like barks as a laugh, and walked over to in front of Shiro "well you now have officially met one! hmmm.. you also seem of the good sort, if a bit mischievous, prone to pranking and the likes?" Shiro smiled a bit, thinking on that "that's actually my dark half, Roveth, but yeah, i could say that." the kyuubi pondered it before shrinking to fit onto Shiro's shoulder, and hopped up to sit there, fanning tails out a bit with a smile "sold! name's Kentaro, hope we have a fun and prank-filled time together." Shiro chuckled a bit, while Apocalypse had popped out, causing said kitsune to actually look surprised "huh... looks like you being the 'Remnant of the Fayth' made you -much- more affiable to spirits, ne Gaki?" of course Shiro shrugged a bit and lightly reached up to flick Apocalypse in the forehead, causing him to flinch "chill Apocalypse, you startled Kentaro." the Kyuubi raised an eyebrow, before shrugging and chuckling a bit lightly as Shiro had eventually returned, hearing the tail end of the conversation "what's going on?" he asked, tilting his head a bit lightly in curiosity.

Roveth nodded as he listened in, proceeding to start working, feeling through the fabrics between the realm of darkness and the Realm of Light as he hummed a bit, finding the weakness in the fabrics as he pierced it with his mind's eye, seeing the calm shores of Destiny Islands he would start working on things by bringing out Tenebrex and Lockdown, both of them glowing with orbs of blackness on them as he started to work on slowly cutting through the dimensional fabrics between the Realm of Darkness and the realm of Light without much being said, as he needed the concentration and talking would only distract him and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Well, while you've been off making friends with ghosts, Sora apparently got the sense that he should return to the Destiny Islands so we were waiting for you to get back so we can head out," Crystal casually explained to Shiro.

"Which means now that you're back we can finally go see Riku and Roveth again," Sora added cheerfully. He then had to stop and stare as suddenly there seemed to be a split-tailed cat, Nekomata spirit, wearing a yukata and wooden sandals outside with the group that hadn't been present at the inn previously based on all the ghosts Sora had encountered throughout their stay. As he continued to watch the Nekomata spirit approached Crystal and handed her an object that looked like a pipe case. "Huh? What's going on now?"

"Something that might aid you in your journey," the spirit spoke.

"You know, given what happened the last time I was here, I wasn't sure I was going to get to see you again, Matamune," Crystal nodded thoughtfully to the Nekomata spirit. "I'm guessing this must be from him in that case," she continued. "Well, be sure to send Hao my thanks. And, of course, don't forget to take care of yourself too."

"Until we meet again," Matamune would bow and then vanish just as suddenly as he had appeared leaving Crystal to pocket the strange pipe case before turning her attention back to the others.

"Sorry about that," she quickly apologized. "We should get going."

Yoh, who had gone to bed some time ago, was suddenly outside to see them off because of course he would know that the visitors were going to be leaving and had woken up to see them off. "Well, if you're really leaving, be sure to visit us again soon."

"Of course," Crystal nodded. Then she brought out World's Rift to open a path for the group that would bring them to the Destiny Islands as promised.

*~Destiny Islands~*

Upon arriving the group would find Kairi already there with Namine waiting on the beach.

"So, I guess you must have sensed that Riku is coming back now too," Sora grinned as he greeted Kairi.

"I hope the journey hasn't been too hard on him," Kairi nodded with a smile.

Crystal would hang back with Roxas and Xion, leaving plenty of room for Sora, Kairi, and Namine to welcome Riku back while also allowing for Shiro to be the first to greet Roveth upon his return as well.

"It's been a while," Crystal stretched a bit while soaking up the sun and the warm salty sea breeze.

"Yeah, I guess it has," Roxas admitted with a smile. "You never did spend a whole lot of time here."

"Well, I guess depending on how things go from here, we might stay the night at least since we're going to need to find someplace to sleep anyway," Crystal suggested with some amusement.

"It's still surprising how the time of day can be so radically different depending on the world we're on," Xion pointed out. At Funbari Onsen it was already well after dark, but as soon as they arrived on the Destiny Islands it seemed to be about midday.

"What was that thing that spirit gave you anyway?" Roxas was certainly curious to know what that was all about.

"It's a pipe case, but instead of containing a pipe it contains a kind of spirit called a kudakitsune or pipefox," Crystal explained. "It's a powerful nature class spirit, but right now it's sleeping so I'll have to show it off later."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would continue cutting, making sure to use the keyblades physically as well as tyhe beams of darkness to rip through the dimensional fabrics, thankfully it was an easier time with the thinner walls towards destiny islands than say Twilight Town at the moment, so it would only take a few moments and some dimensional maneuvering so they wouldn't be falling out of the sky or walking through water before he reared his fist back igniting shadow energy into it, and slammed it into the circular cutout, causing the center to crack like glass, before revealing the dimensional hole leading straight to Destiny Islands, coincidentally in front of where Sora, Kairi and Namine were. "there, all finished. so... ladies first, then your majesty with the amnesiac gentleman, and then Riku, then myself as last due to if i go in any time before then then the rift -will- seal itself behind me, so i have to be last." he explained, smiling a bit and stepping aside to let Aqua, Ansem, Riku, and Mickey see the sandy beaches of Destiny Islands and who was waiting for them. of course, Roveth did see Shiro, Roxas and Xion a bit further back, but he would at least wait a bit until everyone else got out before he'd traverse through it.

Shiro of course also hung back, since if he knew Roveth and possibly his method of ripping through the dimensions between light and darkness, he'd be the last one to come out of the forming rift and all as he glanced back to Crystal at the mention of a pipe case "wait, Kudakitsune? huh... interesting." of course, Kentaro would appear back on Shiro's shoulder looking back at the mention of another vulpine in the group "really now? that's interesting." he said, waving his nine white tails in amusement and all, though he was tempted to prank sora by pretending to give him tails much like his own by passing into him for a little bit, even if it got the kid glomped by his apparent 'main squeeze' in Kairi, from what the kitsune noted. "but yeah.. it has been a while, reminds me of the first time you brought me to Destiny Islands, in fact.. might've been a bit of a stiff at the time, but i did like the feel of the place." he commented, thinking about how peaceful Destiny Islands was, in its own way and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

At the moment Crystal didn't feel like getting into the overarching narrative about how she had become a sort of favorite of a certain human hating and self fashioned evil god on the world of Funbari Onsen who was also the one responsible for this rather intriguing gift as she kept the pipe case pocketed for now. Instead she nodded to what Shiro had said, "Well, things did get a little out of hand during our first visit and that time it wasn't even your trouble magnetism that caused it." Then she turned and smiled at Roxas. "Things sure are different now."

"Because we're together now and you're not just going to leave like you did before," Roxas agreed. "But then, I think that's a good thing."

"Yeah, well, I do too," Crystal admitted. It wasn't long before the dimensional hole Roveth had opened to connect to the Destiny Islands from the Realm of Darkness revealed itself there on the beach and the first one to stumble on through was Aqua followed shortly thereafter by Mickey who was helping a strange man dressed in one of the black coats commonly worn by members of the Organization and then those two were followed not long after by Riku who was immediately pounced onto the sand as Sora hugged him entirely too enthusiastically while Kairi watched and laughed at them both. Namine was watching too, but she merely looked thoughtful as she waited for her turn to greet Riku once Sora was done with him. Mickey had barely made it a few paces with the mysterious man before being accosted by Donald and Goofy, who had brought Kairi and Namine to the Destiny Islands in the Gummi Ship seeing as Kairi at least wasn't so well versed in traveling to other worlds just yet. The mysterious man would appear to be in a daze as he stared off into the distance from the shore, still attempting to get his bearings most likely.

But Aqua, she was staring at Roxas and then before anyone could explain that she had the wrong person she had enveloped him in a hug causing Roxas to fidget uncomfortably. "Ven, thank goodness you're safe! But how are you here?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm not..." Roxas started awkwardly. He, of course, had no recognition at all for this blue-haired woman who had suddenly embraced him. "I know there's another boy who apparently looks just like me, but I'm not him."

Aqua stepped away in surprise and shock, but when she looked at him more closely she seemed to realize her mistake before looking to Mickey. "But if he's not Ven, then where is he?"

"That's what we need you for," Riku tried to explain. "As far as we know, he's still sleeping where you hid him."

"Castle Oblivion," Mickey nodded. "Master Xehanort has been trying to crack the secret of that castle ever since you disappeared, but so far he hasn't managed to find Ven or we'd be in even bigger trouble than we are now. But now the pieces are finally starting to line up and we should be ready to wake him, but for that he's going to need you and Sora to go get him."

"What does Sora have to do with Ven?" Aqua asked in surprise. She did manage to recognize him once he was standing still and had stopped his blatant smothering Riku with affection. He was older now, but he was definitely the same boy she had met all those many years ago on this same beach.

"Well, you remember how Master Yen Sid told us that Ven's heart had left him and he might not ever wake up? It's been right under our nose the whole time," Mickey explained. "Ven's heart has been hiding within Sora. And that's why he's the one who's going to have to wake him up."

"Sorry about before..." Aqua looked back to the boy who so resembled Ventus.

"Roxas," he would introduce himself. "And don't worry about it. This whole situation is complicated, but that's why we're doing everything we can to try to fix it."

It was so strange. He looked like Ven and even his voice was the same, but there was just something inherently different about him that Aqua couldn't seem to place. Aqua turned her attention back to Mickey and Riku. "I think for now we could all probably use a rest first and you two still owe me a bit of an explanation about what's been happening."

Mickey nodded. "Riku, why don't you let me tackle the questions while you get caught up with everybody."

"Sure, sounds good," Riku nodded. Mickey probably knew most of the answers better than he did anyway.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth would come out of the rift himself finally, picking up Tenebrex and Lockdown on the way out as it closed behind him with a distinct crack and small flash of light and darkness, leaving nothing bt empty space behind him, of cours,e he would at least move away from the ones getting greeted by the regular crew, and instead moved over to where Roxas, Crystal, Xion and Shiro were, Shiro moving forward and of course, they high fived each other with a chuckle coming from Shiro "looks like you managed to get them out huh?" he said with Roveth smirking lightly "but of course, hikari-o-mine~ did you expect anything less?" he said, while sighing a bit, and shaking his head a bit "not gonna lie though, it wasn't easy, with fighting through hordes and hordes of heartless, i was about ready to throttle Riku if he didn't stop trying to press my buttons. if it was just me and him, well.. there'd probably be only one of us coming back from that extended period of time." he said, with Shiro snorting lightly while looking at Roveth's clothes, noticing the damage, and the blood "... what the hell happened? you normally wouldn't let the heartless get you this hurt..." Roveth frowned, actually turning serious and not even showing a hint of deception "that, my dear aibou, is because we ran into a Heartless General near the end of the journey, the b*****d seemed to be wanting to take over the Realm of Darkness and eliminate any other individuals that wouldn't join him." Shiro immediately blinked, before letting his eyes go completely dead emotioned and fully hollow, before speaking out in a deadpan tone of voice "What." was what he said first, while Roveth sighed, running his hand through his hair "you heard me, Shiro.. we faced a heartless General and barely escaped with our lives, i think they're on the move again." he responded, while Shiro looked Roveth over once more, using his Structural Analysis a few moments before narrowing his eyes ".... you're not lying.. but with those marks on your clothes.." Roveth spoke up, with a shake of his head "it was my fault mostly because i underestimated the b*****d's power, he had a divine relic on top of his powers of darkness. if it wasn't for Riku's... assistance, i probably would have died and then it'd have been a massacre."" of course, Shiro narrowed his eyes even more before moving past Roveth, who looked a bit surprised at Shiro not engaging the conversation anymore, but apparently he had something else in mind as Shiro did clench his fist and seemed to be silently walking towards Riku in particular.

Axel would walk out from the small hut on the side of the beach, but when he saw everyone there, he grinned and walked over to greet everyone "yo! looks like you guys all made it!" he said, completely ignoring the fact that Shiro seemed to be dead set about something, and was more interested in talking with the ones not looking to do something else.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Riku did, of course, see Shiro coming at him with a clenched fist and immediately began backpedaling away from him as he had a pretty good guess why that would be. "Hey, Shiro, can't we talk about this?!"

Unfortunately for Riku, Sora wasn't going to be jumping to his defense anytime soon as he was now distracted by having a rather animated conversation with Kairi trying to get caught up on everything that had happened since his being sent away to Olympus Coliseum without her. Namine was watching, of course, but stopping Shiro from exacting retribution on Riku was very much beyond her capabilities. Besides, Shiro probably wouldn't hurt him that badly.

Mickey had taken Aqua and the mysterious man to a comfortable shady spot so that he could try to get them both caught up on what was happening. At the same time it did appear that returning to the Realm of Light was having an effect on Ansem the Wise as his memory seemed to be slowly restoring itself a little bit at a time as he sat there on the beach with them.

"Axel!" Roxas and Xion were both very happy to see him again since he'd avoided coming to Funbari Onsen with them.

"So I guess this means we all kind of had the same idea to come back here, huh?" Roxas pointed out with some amusement. "I wonder how that happened."

Crystal wasn't really paying attention though. She had heard what Roveth said about facing a Heartless General in the Realm of Darkness and gone noticeably pale. If they were truly on the move again, then it wouldn't be long before herself, Shiro, and Roveth would be pulled back into the fray. And this time there was no way she would be able to keep Roxas from becoming involved. Naturally, Crystal was concerned about Xion and Axel too. But there also wasn't any way she could just avoid becoming involved herself to just leave everything to Shiro and Roveth either. The whole reason that Crystal and Shiro had been so successful at trimming down the number of Heartless Generals in the first place was because of their combined power and the fact that they were unusually competent at keeping each other alive.

"Why does this have to happen now?" Crystal muttered to herself clearly becoming frustrated just by thinking about it.

"Are you okay?" Roxas became worried when Crystal seemed to become so upset suddenly. He had been preoccupied with greeting Axel though so he hadn't actually heard Roveth's conversation with Shiro about the Heartless General appearing in the Realm of Darkness or the fact that other Heartless Generals might be on the move again. If he had, he probably would have been upset too.

"Things are being set into motion a lot faster than we anticipated," Crystal shook her head. "I just hope that when the times comes to face what's out there that we're actually going to be ready for it because I don't want to think about the alternative." The next thing she knew she had thrown her arms around Roxas and was just hugging him. It was kind of like that time when she had followed him into the Realm of Darkness with her holding onto him because she was afraid if she let go he might somehow fade away. She did know better than that now, but even so there was still the very real possibility of Roxas being hurt or killed if he went up against too strong an enemy.

Unlike the earlier awkwardness he had shown when being randomly hugged by Aqua, Roxas didn't show any hesitation as he held Crystal close and shot a look at Roveth. "What the heck did you say to Shiro that's got her freaking out like this?"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth sighed, rubbing his forehead a bit, knowing full well what he said that has gotten Crystal freaking out as he looked to Roxas lightly "do you remember myself, Shiro, or Crystal ever mentioning the Heartless Generals, the leaders of darkness that are able to control the Heartless way better than fools with darkness in their hearts, or even Maleficent, on top of being perfectly capable of taking down the world's protectors/guardians without an issue?" he said, taking a breath before continuing to speak "while Crystal and Shiro did beat them back with just the two of themselves, and forced them into retreating... it seems they're on the move again, maybe not as fast as before when Shiro and Crystal had to fight tooth and nail to beat them back, but given i faced one in the Realm of darkness... i doubt there's any other explanation than that." he said, while Axel winced, apparently that -definitely- meant he had bad news to deliver then if Roveth -did- meet up with one...

Axel of course just looked to the side, clearly hearing Roveth that time, and that did confirm what he had heard from wolfwood, as he gave off a 'tch' in nervousness "so Wolfwood's information is accurate then... they are moving, however right now they're still staying on the very fringes of the realm of light working to consolidate their forces and recruit new Generals, and they did send one of their stronger people to the realm of darkness to make sure they can use it for their base of operations again... some guy who was supposedly chosen by a goddess?" Roveth nodded with a sigh "Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, and apparently chosen by the gods or goddesses of his world to hold a piece of a divine artifact that he called the 'Triforce of Power' if i remember right... let me tell you, even if Riku saved all our hides by distracting the general that little bit, what he did is -definitely- deserving of what Shiro's about to dish out."

speaking of Shiro, the fact that he was backpedaling made Shiro actually take one more step with a slight leaning forward, before -moving- and appearing right in front of Riku with his fist cocked back, and proceeding to aim said fist right for Riku's jaw and once he planted that fist into Riku's jaw and send him sprawling he would finally verbally blow up "i thank you for saving my dark half Riku but WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING IN TRYING TO DISTRACT A HEARTLESS GENERAL!?!?! they are the types of monsters YOU DO NOT WANT TO FACE! they make Kefka look like a bumbling idiot of a fool! even if you did save Roveth, if you died, then what would the others you leave behind do? what would SORA do when he found out you died due to fighting something you and the others, right now, cannot fight at all at your current strength!?! and what about NAMINE!?!?! how would she feel if you died on her huh!?!" of course, once he got the yelling out of his system he would at least let his dead hollow eyes do the talking "... for once Riku, while i am grateful you saved Roveth, and pretty much everyone by doing that.. you could've hurt a -lot- more people by pretty much foolishly throwing your life away." he said, finally having said his piece, before turning and walking off to the side to be by himself and think long and hard, especially starting to make plans within plans again, if they were on the move, then he was definitely going to have to go... persuade them... into stopping once more. it was clear to Kentaro though that Shiro didn't need any comforting so the kitsune spirit would head back into his gravestone tablet to let him think and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"RIKU!!!" Sora cried out in alarm when Shiro's punch to the jaw sent his friend sprawling onto the sand. Riku recovered easily enough because it was just a regular punch to the jaw without any magic or strength enhancement behind it even if it did still hurt like hell being struck like that by Shiro of all people.

"Stay back, Sora," Riku waved him off as he picked himself up off the sand. "Shiro's right. I didn't stand a chance against the Heartless General and even if my diversion worked, Ganondorf still smashed through my Dark Shield like it wasn't even there. I knew as soon as it happened that I was lucky to survive that hit."

"Riku..." Sora was still worried as he rushed over to inspect the damage, getting entirely too close to Riku's face in the process. Riku shoved him back lightly, holding him at arm's length just to keep Sora out of his personal space so he could have enough breathing room.

"Really, I'm fine Sora," Riku insisted as he watched Shiro walk off to be alone to think on things it would seem. "But there is something else about all this that still bothers me." And with that Riku's gaze would fall on Crystal. "You knew about all this. You knew how dangerous facing the Heartless Generals can be and all that time you never said a word about how you were risking your life with Shiro to keep them away. You even asked for us not to get involved and to just leave it to the two of you because you swore you both could handle it. What the heck were you thinking? Did you think we wouldn't discover the truth sooner or later? And you can't have expected that we were going to be okay with it once we found out."

"Shut up, Riku!" Roxas was the one who yelled at him at that point. "Do you really think she wasn't agonizing about what we would think once we found out what was really going on out there? She didn't want to make us worry."

"Yeah, but we might have been able to help them!" Riku practically exploded.

"And maybe we wouldn't have stood a chance," Sora reminded him. "You know, I think not telling us was probably even harder for them both than it would have been to just ask us for our help. I mean, I never really thought about it at the time, but from what you yourself mentioned I'll bet Crystal really wanted to spend more time with Roxas and she didn't because she didn't want to put anyone else in danger. Think about it, she knew she couldn't talk Shiro out of it because he's more reckless than anyone and he might have tried to face the Heartless Generals alone if she hadn't gone with him. Not to mention she probably didn't want to trouble us with what was happening because they didn't even really know us that well back then."

"I guess, maybe you're right," Riku sighed in frustration. "You know, it isn't fair when you're the one making sense."

Sora merely grinned at him. "That just proves that sometimes you need me to keep you in line too."

"But if the Heartless Generals are moving again, doesn't this mean that those three are going to be wanting to leave to try to stop them again?" Kairi was of course referring to Crystal, Shiro, and Roveth in this case.

Crystal had finally pulled herself away from Roxas, seeming a little bit calmer now that she had gotten that out of her system. "Shiro and Roveth will very definitely be wanting to put a stop to the Heartless Generals and I know for a fact that even as strong as they both are they don't stand a chance without me there to keep them alive. Even so, circumstances are different now and I can't just pretend anymore that we're outsiders without any connection to anyone who might miss us. It's going to be a lot harder now because there's even more at stake."

"But that's not really a bad thing, is it?" Xion clapped her on the shoulder. "Because maybe together we can figure out some way to make it easier."

"It is your call," Riku pointed out. "You're the leader, right?"

That certainly got Crystal looking embarrassed. "I dunno, sometimes the universe really wants to make Shiro the leader." Which was totally a jab about him being made the Red Ranger when they became Power Rangers on the world of Angel Grove.

"Yeah, I'm really not seeing it," Riku tried not to laugh. "Anyway, my point is you're the one who takes responsibility for the team whenever you visit a new world or anytime there's trouble. Which means you're the one who will have to decide what you're going to do next."

"Isn't it kinda weird that that little doohickey you have hasn't gone off at all if the Heartless Generals are moving?" Sora wondered.

"You mean the Dimensional Distortion Grid?" Crystal considered that for a moment. "I mean, it makes sense that we haven't been getting any alerts if the Heartless Generals are only moving within the Realm of Darkness at the moment. Heartless are supposed to be in the Realm of Darkness so that wouldn't register like it would when they're actively invading a world within the Realm of Light. Which also, unfortunately, makes the Heartless Generals much more difficult for us to track. As much as Shiro might like to charge in after them with his metaphorical guns blazing, there really isn't anything we can do if we don't actually know where they are. And besides, I still had an idea of a place we can go to get in a little more training so that will probably still be where we're headed next anyway."