Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I'll keep that in mind," Aqua nodded at Kailah's enthusiastic insistence that she would do her best to help while she and Ven were staying at 7th Heaven, but she was totally fine right now with sipping tea and finding out what she could about this world so that she and Ven would be properly prepared for whatever might come at them.

"Anyway, they've already booked rooms for tonight so they'll probably be back here before too long," Leon mentioned for Kailah's benefit.

"Just wait until you see Ven," Yuffie added. "You're going to be really surprised."


The look on Axel's face after the Kuriboh explosion got everyone laughing. Not long after that they finally reached the ice cream shop after all their dawdling. It looked like Roveth intended to treat everyone this time so Crystal decided to just let him do that. It was around that time that Roxas actually noticed Shiro's absence. Given the prolonged and violent argument Shiro had had with Cloud on their previous visit to Radiant Garden, Roxas had a pretty good guess what that meant. And while the idea of Shiro going alone after Sephiroth was cause for concern, Roxas acknowledged the fact that Crystal and Roveth hadn't left to go after him. It looked like Sora hadn't caught on and that was probably the reason why Crystal and Roveth had been keeping quiet on the subject while encouraging this excursion to acquire ice cream for everyone. And, of course, there was also Ven to consider. They couldn't go getting him into trouble like that either.

"Maybe after this we should head to the gardens to visit the Chocobos," Roxas suggested in an attempt to be helpful with the situation.

"Oh yeah, Kairi, have you seen the Chocobos yet?" Sora got entirely too excited at the prospect.

"No, actually, I haven't," Kairi admitted. "I've been busy training with Merlin and studying with Tifa so I haven't gotten in that much exploring yet. I heard that Zidane has been checking out the castle lately though."

"That's so like him," Crystal had to admit.

"What are Chocobos?" Ventus was entirely clueless on the subject.

"Well now we have to visit them," Xion chimed in.

"Trust me, you're gonna love them," Sora added with a huge grin on his face. True, Sora had only ever actually seen Shiroi Senko, but he knew he loved Chocobos already.


"If you're here to help, then help Shiro, but if you interfere with me again I'll cut you down first!" Cloud practically snarled at Shiro for that blast to the face. Yeah, he really wasn't happy about that.

"What a foolish thing to ask," Sephiroth would have responded when Shiro arrogantly assumed that the One-Winged Angel couldn't keep up with his speed. He teleported out of range of Shiro's strike with Durandal and then followed by conjuring enormous orbs of darkness around the battlefield that would detonate on impact.

"So this is how you treat your allies, huh? You're more twisted than I thought," Shiro would recognize the strangely familiar voice as belonging to none other than Vanitas of all people right before he materialized his Void Gear Keyblade and slapped one of the darkness orbs in Shiro's general direction before striking another to bounce into the other surrounding orbs like he was playing a round of billiards as he launched the darkness orbs back at Sephiroth himself. "You should try having a little more faith in your friends, don't you think?"

Sephiroth was caught slightly off guard given he hadn't expected Vanitas's arrival at all, let alone his impressive high speed teleporting to get around as he mocked Shiro.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro just twitched an eyebrow, but was more focused on Sephiroth with his eyes so he couldn't actually look at Cloud yelling at him, he would just speak up "fine, i was only doing it to get your attention any way so Sephiroth didn't throw you in front of me during one of your blind charges is all." he'd say, of course, when the orbs of darkness were set on the field he would give off a mental curse, but thankfully this was at least another thing he expected of Sephiroth, and was about to use Izanagi to at least smack them away when he was hit with an exploding one right in his face and sending him skidding backwards and now full-blown twitching an eyebrow seeing Vanitas being the one who did that, but then seeing him suddenly start going after Sephiroth he'd blink, and blink again in utter confusion before the words registered in his mind and he deadpanned at the dark half of Ventus "i do have faith in my friends, even Cloud. it's just i know Sephiroth all too well, he'd have pretty much dodged a blind charge from Cloud to let Cloud run me through if he wants." he said, while disappearing with his own high-speed footwork, and would come at a different angle that wouldn't hit Vanitas or Cloud to launch his own sword slashes at Sephiroth, this looked actually more doable now, despite the fact he was still confused as all hell about Vanitas actually -helping-, given he knew how much the crazy guy probably hated him and all.

Roveth would nod a bit, going in to get everyone's ice cream, and would return with sea-salt ice cream bars for everyone while he listened to the conversation, chuckling a bit lightly "ah, the ever friendly lovable birds, the chocobos... yeah, Shiro has one as a partner though as of late i think Shiroi Senko has been at either the garden too or resting in the chocobo stables back at Twilight Town." he'd say clearly making sure to keep the conversation away from mentioning the lack of Shiro, though he did sense a new signature in that direction and he mentally cringed at that feeling, but he showed no outward signs on it and smiled "so let's go see those chocobos." he'd say, taking a bite out of his ice cream bar while also pulling out a towel for Axel to use in amusement given he at least got everyone to laugh.

Axel of course would thank Roveth for the towel and bar, and proceed to wipe his face off and at least look normal again before taking a lick of his bar, enjoying the flavors "mmh, nothing like a cold treat to wind down and relax with friends." he'd say with a smile, of course including everyone as he reached out and ruffled Ven's hair just cause he could, and cause he would also do it to Roxas next just to be a cheeky firebug at the moment, though he did toss the towel back to Roveth who put it away once more as Axel would at least lead the way towards the gardens and all with a smile on his face.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Sephiroth would respond with sword slashes of his own before teleporting away again to counter with a rain of meteors from the sky. Cloud attempted to rush at him again, but ended up having to defend against the falling projectiles. Vanitas, meanwhile, took careful aim at Sephiroth while forming three glowing crystals in a trigram formation to unleash his Dark Cannon Shotlock to send out a powerful beam of dark energy while swinging it around to disintegrate the approaching meteors.

"You're too slow," he taunted Sephiroth with a slight smirk.

Of course, while this was going on Sephiroth would raise his free hand to the sky with a vague sort of glow around it that Shiro would likely recognize as him preparing to use Sin Harvest to seriously ruin everyone's day by inflicting a massive amount of damage on them all at once. Fortunately, Vanitas's interference had left the One-Winged Angel wide open after his meteors were blasted from the sky.


The others, meanwhile, followed Axel's lead in heading to the gardens to visit with the Chocobos while eating their sea-salt ice cream. The rainbow hued flock of enormous birds proved to be as amicable as ever while allowing the group to pet them and occasionally nuzzling down to lick their faces or preen into their hair. Ventus proved very popular with the friendly and rather overly affectionate Chocobos, probably because of his rather profound innocence, but Xion and Kairi were also both very popular with the flock. Sora was a little too forward so the Chocobos were a bit wary of him, although some of the younger and bolder ones did take a liking to him. Roxas and Crystal were already well acquainted with the flock as result of previous outings into these same gardens so the two of them had no trouble winning them over once again. The flock was still wild, of course, but it looked like a certain someone (Prompto) was setting up a stables in the area in an effort to try to tame them so that more people could ride the Chocobos.

"This was a good idea," Crystal smiled at Roxas. True, she was still worried about Shiro facing off against Sephiroth and she definitely sensed a certain very familiar darkness in the vicinity as well, but it also felt like things were going to work out somehow.

"Yeah, well, I kind of figured since the others haven't typically been out here like we have they would probably enjoy it," Roxas returned the smile before glancing around to make sure everyone else was having a good time. As much as he would have liked to just pull Crystal into his arms to let her know it was going to be okay and that Shiro would be fine and he'd come back real soon he knew that sort of action would draw too much attention right now and the last person who should be tipped off about what Shiro was up to was right there with them. Thankfully Sora had been preoccupied with keeping Ventus entertained and was now thoroughly distracted with trying to appeal to the flock of Chocobos.

Sure enough, Sora brazenly attempted to ride on one only to fall gracelessly onto the ground when it threw him off in a huff and then proceeded to cast a quick Choco Meteor on him. "How come no one warned me they could do that?" Sora complained from the crater that formed around him after he survived the impact.

"Sora, you can't force yourself on them," Crystal sighed and shook her head at him. "You have to let the Chocobos come to you."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro did indeed spot that tell of Sephiroth's penultimate strike was inbound, and immediately shattered the Durandal copy in his hands, of course after that he swung his own arm out to the side as multiple golden portals started forming with weapons sliding out all too easily as he narrowed his eyes lightly "you think i'll let you!?!" he called out, before flinging his arm forward at Seph, and sure enough, tens if not hundreds of weapons came firing out as projectiles at Sephiroth's face in short order, but truth be told it was only to disrupt the Sin Harvest, especially when he particularly sent one 'Vajra' to go explode into a massive orb of lightning energy and explosion to cause a dust cloud to raise up, of course, with that Shiro would return the contents back to the gate and from his back the Ma-Ken revealed itself, swinging up to form a straight line pointing upwards as Shiro reached inside his jacket and pulled out a mist flask holding it up between two fingers, mist starting to breathe out of his mouth as he narrowed his eyes "embraced by the magical tune of the Mist.. now sleep! Etude of White Silver!" he called out, slashing the mist bottle once he flung it into the air using the Ma-Ken, and sure enough, out of the expanding white light came a sword dragon flying right for the dust cloud where Sephiroth is like a tomahawk missile aiming to impale and hopefully annihilate Sephiroth in this blow, he fully figured he'd either miss, or at least do enough damage to drive Seph away hopefully, but his true optimistic approach is the Sword dragon impales through Seph's heart and kills him.

Roveth of course didn't have any of the birds flock to him except maybe one or two of the black chocobos for some reason, but he was fine with that, he knows his inner darkness would make the birds wary outside of the one he knew most. granted he did chuckle a bit while feeding the two black ones some gysahl greens he had on hand usually for Shiroi Senko when Shiro typically ran out and forgot to refill his pockets. granted when he saw Sora pretty much get pwnt with Choco Meteor he'd chuckle a bit and shook his head lightly while bringing out Healing Generator and then summoned some of his high tier fairies and angel type monsters to give more star power to the generator to fully heal Sora with. "Silly Sora. you really should curb your enthusiasm like that, especially around the Chocobo's." he'd say calmly enough, while mentally he glanced in the direction of the sources of darkness hoping that the darkness sources aren't teaming up against Shiro and Cloud...

Axel of course was actually laughing more at Ven getting swamped by all the overgrown feather dusters, but he at least appeased some of the red ones that seemed to love to tug at his hair, leaving him to cringe only slightly but he didn't shoo them off so they continued on it. "think we should help ven out before he gets even more Chocobo hair?" he'd say, he'd have finished the sentence but if he did it might tip those not in the know off to the lack of Shiro and all. either way he did bring out a camera to take pictures of the moments of Ven and the chocobo's, a few of roxas and Crystal, so on.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Shiro would have no such luck as to actually strike down Sephiroth once and for all, but his summoning of the sword dragon did manage to catch Sephiroth very much by surprise. Even so, he would block with Masamune and emerge from the dust cloud relatively unharmed as Cloud came in for one last swing only to be deflected away again by another powerful swing from the Masamune before Sephiroth ignored him again. "It would seem you've picked up some new tricks since last we met," Sephiroth spoke to Shiro directly with an obvious note of amusement. "Perhaps the next time we meet you can entertain me a while longer." And then, just like that, Sephiroth would vanish through a path of darkness shrouded by a scattering of his own black feathers.

Cloud landed near Tifa looking thoroughly disgruntled at having been unable to finish Sephiroth off yet again. Vanitas, meanwhile, dismissed his Void Gear Keyblade and settled onto the ground a short distance away, steering clear in case that guy with the huge sword mistook him for another enemy. It would probably become clear to Shiro, at least, at that point that Vanitas had no real interest in fighting him. Even so, they had been enemies in the past so Vanitas wasn't entirely eager to approach Shiro either even though he only wished to talk regarding Ventus, whom he knew had been awakened because he had felt it within his own dark and twisted half a heart when it happened.


"Well, as great as this place is, we probably should get back so I can check in with Aqua," Ventus pointed out as he attempted to disentangle himself from the flock of overly affectionate Chocobos.

"That's true," Sora had to admit. "She only just got you back after all this time and we've just been hogging you all to our selves."

"I don't think she really minds that," Ventus grinned at him. "But, she is probably still worried about me."

"Alright, then let's head back," Crystal nodded as she also pried herself away from her own little gathering off friendly feathered giants. "After all, the Chocobos will still be here tomorrow."

"And maybe tomorrow I'll finally get to ride one!" Sora declared earning himself another immediate Choco Meteor from the same Chocobo he had offended earlier. "Ow..."

This, of course, allowed Kairi to demonstrate some of the magic she had been learning at Merlin's to cast a basic Cure spell on Sora. Suffice it to say, Kairi seemed immensely pleased with herself to see that it worked and Sora was very quickly back on his feet.

"Thanks Kairi," Sora smiled sheepishly.

"Anytime, Sora," Kairi took him by the arm and started leading him back into town ahead of the rest of the group.

"Right, I shouldn't keep Aqua waiting," Ven started after them with his arms propped behind his head and a contented smile on his face. He was much more cheerful than he had been when Sora and Roveth had first seen him after he had woken up.

"So, do you think Shiro is really going to be okay?" Xion was finally able to ask Roxas and Crystal once the others were out of earshot as they all started to head back toward 7th Heaven.

"The battle is already over," Crystal responded. She could easily sense that Sephiroth's darkness had already dissipated from Radiant Garden. "The only obstacle now is how Shiro chooses to handle Vanitas."

"Wait, you mean that creep is here too?" Roxas hadn't even noticed that annoying b*****d's presence. "I thought you said you defeated him when you met him at the Keyblade Graveyard."

"I did defeat him," Crystal answered with a slight shrug. "But I didn't think it would be right to kill him because I finally realized having that face means he must be connected to Sora somehow. And it turns out I was right. He's the dark half of Ven's heart made into a separate entity, not unlike Roveth being extracted from Shiro. Put simply, he's just another of Xehanort's victims. I'll bet he probably came here because of his connection to Ven."

"But isn't that a bad thing?" Xion wondered. "I mean, Vanitas tried more than once to eliminate Roxas. Don't you think he might try to do the same to Ven now that he's out in the open?"

"I doubt it," Crystal stated matter-of-factly. "The fact is, when I met him at the Keyblade Graveyard, he got caught up in the purification ritual I used to calm the restless spirits of the fallen Keyblade wielders residing there. He kind of lost the will to fight me after that and I think that maybe, somehow, when his darkness became purified, he must have regained some sense of his own humanity in the process. It also seemed to get rid of the Unversed so who knows, maybe there's still a little shred of hope for him. If anything, I think he just wants to be reunited with his light half, just like Roveth does anytime he's been separated from Shiro."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro growled out mentally himself, seeing that not only it was ineffective and dispersed, but Sephiroth got away again from him and Cloud. with that, Shiro just raised his sword arm into the air, and let go of the Ma-ken, with it still floating where he had held it, before the blade with a bit of control, flew down and reattached to his back before fading from sight, a mask forming over Shiro's mouth to at least prevent more mist from escaping his mouth until he can resume regulating it without said mask again as he saw how disgruntled cloud was, so for now he'd at least leave Cloud be since he was not about to talk to him while he was still disgruntled over the fact of Sephiroth getting away, so instead he turned to face Vanitas, letting his eyes at least stop showing their hollow dead self, as he narrowed them slightly, before speaking in a slightly mechanical voice due to the mask "i thank you for the aid there Vanitas, but i doubt coming to help me out of the good of your heart was the only reason you're here. are you here because from what i'm feeling and such signature wise, your light half, your true light half that is, Ventus, is awake?" he'd ask, curious on his response, thankfully Shiro himself showed no signs of attacking or wanting to just yet, despite being completely on guard and ready to bring out any of his weapons with a second of thought needed.

Roveth would hum in thought, given he had been keeping a tab or two on the battle with his own senses, and the fact that he doesn't feel Sephiroth's darkness means that he probably let himself out again as per the norm at least. "given i haven't sensed Shiro's presence rise up in response to fighting Vanitas, who knows what may happen... but i hope he has enough sense to not let Vanitas near Ven until we can find out if his darkness is purified now like mine." he said, frowning a bit lightly as he let Axel handle in leading Sora, Kairi, and Ven towards the bar while the four of them hung back "what i'm more surprised in is that we managed to keep Shiro's absence so well under wraps." he said, looking amused to Roxas and Crystal in particular "i honestly thought a time or two that Sora would've wondered where Shiro is."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Che, I only helped because I felt like it," Vanitas answered with a shrug. "So don't bother getting mushy on me. To be honest, I don't know why I bothered coming at all. Ventus, even if he is awake, he's not going to want to see me. That girl you're always with, the one who kept protecting his weird doppelganger, she did something to me the last time we fought that I still don't understand. All that negativity I had been carrying around along with the darkness inside me only ever brought me pain before, but ever since she let me go last time I've somehow been able to think with a clear head and it made me realize, well I guess I must have known at some point before I went off the deep end, I don't even remember exactly when I lost it completely, but the one who did this to me... it was Master Xehanort. And he was also the one who told me that forging the χ-blade was the only way I could be reunited with Ventus and the only way to end my pain. But Ventus didn't want that and in the end he tried to kill us both to prevent the χ-blade from being forged. I didn't even have a physical body anymore so I'm really not even sure how I can exist now. Believe me, your dark half is a lucky b*****d. You didn't flat out reject him like Ventus did to me. So, like I said, he's not going to want to see me. Not that I can really blame him after all that I've done. He has every right to hate me. But I still don't understand why that girl didn't finish me off when she had the chance. I've tried to kill all of you more than once, but she just let me go."


"Well, I think Sora probably just assumed that Shiro is back at the tavern resting after all the intensive training he's been putting himself through since we were in Nerima," Crystal mentioned to Roveth as a possible explanation for why Sora seemed to totally oblivious to Shiro's absence. "Besides, the excitement of meeting Ven and being reunited with Kairi again seems to have him pretty distracted at the moment."

"Which is lucky for us because I've seen what Sephiroth has done to you and Shiro before and Sora still hasn't regained all his strength yet so getting into a fight like that would probably get that idiot killed," Roxas pointed out with a tired sigh. "Still, what are we going to do about Vanitas?"

"I really don't think we're going to have to worry too much about him," Crystal responded sounding thoughtful. "If anything, I'd say he's probably the most confused right now out of all of us. You can sense it too Roveth so you know I'm probably right. He might still be a twisted bundle of darkness, but I don't sense any real malice from him anymore."

"Which means you're thinking he might just need help finding his way onto the right path," Xion realized.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again--until proven otherwise, everyone deserves a chance," Crystal nodded in confirmation. "Even a jerk like him has some good in him."


Sora, Kairi, and Ventus arrived back at 7th Heaven well ahead of the others, but they hardly seemed to notice.

"I'm back," Ven greeted Aqua with a smile to show that he was doing just fine.

"Did you have fun with your new friends?" Aqua was certainly glad and very much relieved to see that he was doing okay.

"We sure did," Ven was grinning widely. "We went out for ice cream and then they took me to see the Chocobos. You've definitely got to come with us next time."

"Yeah, the Chocobos really don't seem to like me very much, but they love Ven," Sora was grinning too.

"I'm sure if you keep trying they'll warm up to you eventually, Sora," Kairi gave him a pat on the back. "But like everyone else was saying, you need to try to hold back a little with your enthusiasm so you don't scare them."

"Chocobos are wild animals so they can be a bit timid," Leon mentioned from behind the bar. "And if you spook them, well I'm sure you already know this Sora since you've probably discovered it for yourself firsthand, they can cast magic."

"Yeah, how come no one told me about that?" Sora glowered behind him only to realize that the rest of the group still wasn't back yet. "Huh, where did everybody else disappear to?"  

[Kailah S Majessta]

"Cloud!"

Tifa immediately helped him up and hugged him before taking a look at the physical injuries he sustained, as she knew full well that disgruntled look meant. The question came out of her mouth anyway as her concern never left her face.

"Are you okay?"

It wasn't that she wasn't concerned about Shiro, but he seemed to be fine other than being upset with the strange boy who looked like Sora. That was something else she was curious about, although if Shiro was here, the rest of the kids couldn't be far behind- and there must have been more that they achieved besides what Kairi told her about Aqua. Her attention went back to focus on Cloud, however, as she awaited his answer.


Back at 7th Heaven, Kailah had finally finished her coffee, and started washing up behind the bar to get ready to help Leon if need be considering the rest of the kids had arrived.

In fact, Kailah almost couldn't stop staring at Ven, almost addressing him as Roxas until she saw two of them- Roxas was maybe a smidgen taller, but it was still remarkable how alike they looked. Her mouth was open for a bit until she looked at Yuffie for help- not that she relied on any REAL help, but she pointed (maybe a bit rudely) at them while looking at her. She shook her head and addressed everyone with a smile.

"It's great to see you guys again! You must be Ven, right?" she directed her smile at the (now that she studied him a bit more) younger looking Roxas, "Aqua said you guys might be staying a while with us. I'm Kailah. It's nice to meet you."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro raised an eyebrow as Vanitas continued speaking, some parts of it didn't make sense, like the fact that he fought Crystal again, until he mentally realized it might've been that time he was at Olympus Coliseum and then Spira later on with auron... "hmm. i see, i was wondering why your darkness felt different. there's no hint of insanity and madness in it, much less any pain." he said calmly enough, and being reminded of the fact he did try to kill them on multiple accounts did make Shiro want to lash out, however he kept himself completely neutral on things as he listened "Xehanort huh.. yeah.. that b*****d has ******** up a lot of people's lives..as for not wanting to see you, well from what i gather you've been a d**k to everyone, even your light half." he'd say, tilting his head a bit "but if you're willing to at least try and get along.. i have no problems in letting Crystal try to convince Ven that you're not here to attack him, Aqua, or the rest of us, given you -did- help out in keeping Sephiroth from pulling off his usual antics." he said, turning a bit lightly to look back towards Radiant Garden "don't get me wrong however, we're not friends yet and it will take a while to build that kind of trust up. even if your darkness was purified by Crystal... Roveth might need to have a look at you to make sure you won't start reverting back into that insane bundle of pain and rage that tried to kill us." he'd say, before turning to walk towards town again, only stopping by Cloud to check on how he's doing "... sorry i let Sephiroth get away, Cloud..." he said apologetically, clearly still angry at himself for not being able to at least get a clean enough hit on Sephiroth to finally put him out of commission.

Roveth just nodded a bit towards the explanation of sora's obliviousness and all before being reminded of Vanitas as he sighed, rubbing his head lightly "his darkness does seem to lack malice like my own now, yes, however if i know Shiro and i do know him.. he may think like you and might be willing to give Vanitas that chance, so we might have to run damage control should Ven try to attack Vanitas first. ugh, seems to me that this is about to get troublesome." he said with a huff, looking off towards the bar as it was coming into sight "i just hope Shiro lets you do the talking Crystal, because we know he can't articulate his way out of a paper bag."

Axel would walk into the bar next while humming a bit, hearing Sora's last question about where the others were at, he'd chuckle lightly while looking back outside "they'll be in shortly, looks like they wanted to have a little chat or two so they slowed their pace and let us go on ahead." he'd say, having a faint idea as to why as well, but he wasn't going to say anything about why they wanted to talk alone, given he had a decent idea that it probably revolved around Shiro slinking off on his own again, and with the lack of Cloud and Tifa from his immediate vision... yeah, definitely a good idea to keep quiet about that stuff "and life is full of surprises Sora, so don't always expect people to warn you about things even if we do know about it, because experiencing it is better than just hearing about it. got it memorized?" he'd say, giving off a cheeky Lea-style grin and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I'm fine," Cloud muttered. It would be obvious to Tifa that he wasn't fine, of course, given his refusal to even look at her. He was covered in cuts and gashes, with his clothes torn in places and holes impaled clean through in others. And there was blood everywhere. "He got away again..." was the only other thing Cloud was inclined to say at the moment.

"Like I said, I did what I did to Sephiroth because I felt like it," Vanitas crossed his arms across his chest and sounded dismissive, although he couldn't totally mask the sadness in his eyes which Shiro might notice were now a reddish brown instead of that damning golden color typically associated with Xehanort. "I don't even know why I came here. I'm just wasting your time. Ventus never cared about me and Aqua definitely won't want to know I'm still around. Sorry, I should go. Coming here was a mistake." He held out his hand to open a Corridor of Darkness although he really had no idea of where else he should go at this point. No doubt, Shiro would probably notice his hesitation.


"Now that's a point we can all agree on," Crystal had to agree with Roveth on his comment about Shiro's articulation skills. That little conversation he tried to have with Cloud during their previous visit had been a complete disaster. "I'll do the talking and we'll leave it to you to run damage control on Shiro to make sure he keeps his feet out of his mouth."

Once they reached 7th Heaven they witnessed Yuffie laughing hysterically as Kailah looked to her, of all people, for help while gesturing awkwardly at Ven and Roxas.

"It's not that funny!" Roxas finally snapped at Yuffie.

"But you two could totally pass for twins!" Yuffie kept right on laughing at his expense. If anything, Roxas's protest caused her to laugh even harder.

Ventus didn't seem to mind the confusion in the slightest as he nodded to Kailah with a smile. "Pleased to meet you."

"From what I hear he's a good kid so I'm sure we'll all get along just fine," Leon commented with regards to Ventus. He already had a slightly higher opinion of him simply because he wasn't the one dating Crystal. You could tell from the way he frowned even more intensely when Crystal stepped in to hold Roxas back from throttling Yuffie.

Yuffie saw the look on Leon's face and started laughing even harder. "Oh my gosh, Leon, you're so adorable when you're being over-protective of your precious little girl!" she collapsed onto the floor giggling hysterically.

"What the heck Yuffie?" Leon smacked his palm into his forehead. "You know damn well it isn't like that."

"Oh really?" Sora grinned at him. "It sure looks that way from where I'm standing."

"Your face is all red," added Kairi. And it was true. Now that the attention was on him, Leon was blushing in embarrassment.

"What ever happened to respecting your elders?" Leon protested in futility.  

[Kailah S Majessta]

After Cloud's first answer, Tifa had started to clean his wounds in silence, letting him talk if he needed to, only nodding when he mentioned about Sephiroth getting away again. She was glad she found him, but disappointed in herself for finding him too late- even if she knew it wouldn't have made a difference, there was still a small part of her that hoped that maybe it would have. If anything, helping clean and take care of the cuts and bleeding gashes was the least she could do to show she would be there.

"I'm glad Shiro came to help," she finally said quietly as she attempted to bandage a cut on his shoulder, "Sephiroth's hurt a lot of people, and the more help you can get, the better... turn to the side..." she gestured for him with her finger in a spinning motion, "Although... I wonder who that other kid is..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kailah laughed along with Yuffie at the teasing Roxas was getting (partially her fault), then at the teasing Leon was getting, "Come on you guys, I'm sure Leon's not THAT bad." She grinned, "he's just a little protective, and from what I've seen, just gets his feathers a bit ruffled when it comes to Crystal."

Her smile turned to Leon himself, "They respect you," a pat on the back, "You're just giving them ammunition."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"You really are," Yuffie agreed wholeheartedly with Kailah. Leon simply frowned at both of them.

"Protective about what?" Ventus was confused at first and seemed to be the only one not getting the joke. It wasn't until Kailah specifically made mention of Crystal by name that it suddenly dawned on him what they were laughing about. "So wait," he started again trying to see if he had it right. "You two are together?" he looked between Roxas and Crystal for clarification. How had he not noticed that earlier? Probably because he had been preoccupied with being nuzzled by too many Chocobos at once.

"Well, it isn't exactly a secret," Crystal admitted while trying to keep herself from getting embarrassed.

"We try not to make too big a deal out of it," Roxas added as he finally lost interest in going after Yuffie for her obnoxious comments. Odds were she wasn't going to be done making jokes about the 'twins' subject anytime soon so there wasn't any point in him staying angry about it when that was exactly what she wanted in the first place.

"I had no idea," Ven admitted with a chuckle. "Anyway, I hope me being here isn't too weird for you guys."

"No worries," Crystal waved him off with a thoughtful smile. "I think we've already gotten used to it."

"Right, we already shared some sea-salt ice cream and got to hangout with the Chocobos so that means we're friends now," Roxas added with a smile of his own.

"You know he gets this from you," Xion glanced toward Axel with a smile of her own.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro had actually turned back to listen to Vanitas, and seeing that he didn't even have amber eyes anymore made him think hard, before proceeding to walk over towards Vanitas and pull him away a bit from the Corridor of darkness "first off you're not wasting my time Vanitas." he'd say, before glancing down to his mask a moment and then let it open back up to let out a normal sigh "more than likely Roveth and Crystal already are planning on the option i do bring you to see Ven, so more than likely they'll keep things civil between everyone as long as you give it a try." he'd say, smiling a bit "i promise nothing bad will happen to you." he'd finally say as a way to try and persuade Vanitas from just up and leaving without even trying to reconcile with his light half.

Roveth nodded as they eventually entered the tavern, and then the amusement started when he saw Ven actually surprised at the fact Roxas and Crystal being an item and all. of course he nodded a bit towards things with a chuckle "well, personally i'd say this calls for another fireworks extravaganza, but i still need a bit of time to recover from the last one i did before i went with Aqua and Sora to wake Ven up." of course he'd ponder this a bit while rubbing his chin, Kuriboh popping out from behind his head cutely to look at everyone, apparently he had reformed not too long ago from the earlier Kuri-splosion Axel went through.

Axel would chuckle a bit, rubbing the back of his head with an easygoing grin and all "hey, it's not a bad habit to pick up on for making friends, sharing good times together and all." he'd say while hearing Roveth's explaining away a lack of a festival from him, before smirking impishly "maybe we should set Shiro up into singing again? lord knows he shouldn't waste his talent for singing even if he normally can't articulate his thoughts from out of a paper bag." he'd comment, with Roveth snorting in the background, it was too true, Shiro -did not- articulate things well.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"No idea," Cloud did as he was told while Tifa was bandaging up his wounds, wincing and groaning occasionally because as much as he tried to hide it Cloud was not, in fact, impervious to feeling pain. He did glance over to where Shiro was conversing with the strange boy who really did look an awful lot like Sora. The only thing that had really tipped him off that it wasn't the same kid was that his hair was a lot darker, almost black in color and he didn't have blue eyes. And, of course, there was the darkness this boy seemed to carry with him that reminded Cloud a lot of his own. No doubt, there was probably a long story behind it and as ever the only thing that really stood out was that the name Xehanort had come up several times while Shiro had been speaking with the boy. Eventually Cloud and Tifa would both hear Shiro address him as Vanitas and given the boy seemed to answer to it that was probably his name.

Vanitas lowered his hand and the Dark Corridor faded as quickly as it had appeared. "I know you people mean well, but it might be better if I don't ever see him again," Vanitas was clearly uneasy about meeting Ventus even though it was obvious he really did want to see him again. "Right now, I don't want to hurt him, but what if when I see him again and he rejects me... what if those feelings come back?" Far removed from the arrogant jerk who had routinely attacked Shiro and the others, Vanitas was sounding more and more like some scared little kid.


"Oh yeah," Roxas grinned at Axel's suggestion about convincing Shiro to sing. "But we'll need a karaoke machine since this place doesn't actually have one so maybe while you're at it you can grab Demyx from Twilight Town to join us too."

"And maybe invite Isa to come along if he's not too busy," Xion suggested.

Ventus perked up at the mention of Isa. "Oh yeah, he was that friend you were with when we first met," Ventus looked toward Axel. "I bet he'll be pretty surprised to see me still looking like this, huh?"

"Right," Sora nodded enthusiastically. "And you should tell Riku and Namine that they should come too."

Leon sighed heavily. The more the kids talked the more it sounded like it was going to be a very full house at 7th Heaven tonight. Aqua was keeping to herself for the most part, but she seemed happy to see Ven getting along so well with everyone else. Of course, she knew just from meeting them all on the Destiny Islands that Ven was going to love spending time with these kids.

"Sorry Leon, I know this means more work for you and Tifa," Crystal did try to apologize for any inconvenience they might cause in advance.

"Don't mention it," Yuffie clapped her on the back. "Besides, we could really use the excitement."  

[Kailah S Majessta]

"Vanitas. It sounds like they're going back to the tavern if he accepts the offer..." Tifa looked at her handiwork, "There. You just need rest, and I'll redress the wounds after you shower later," she looked back at Shiro and Vanitas again, frowning, "Wait for me before you head back. It took this long to find you, and you're in no shape to take Sephiroth on again."

With that being said, she dusted herself off and hesitantly walked towards the two boys.

"I- don't know who you are, but you -are- welcome. If Shiro is inviting you, I'm sure we can all help you with whatever you're dealing with," she smiled at Vanitas, "Like he said, you helped them after all."

Her eyes scanned the both of them to see if either needed as much assistance as Cloud in terms of cuts and gashes, but waiting to offer her help unless they asked, before looking between the two.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kailah perked up, "I'm actually kind of excited about meeting even more people! Besides, I'm totally here to lift some of the burden of a full house!" she was smiling bright, her eyes glistening with a fang showing in the smile, "It sounds like it's going to be a party! While we wait for everyone, why don't I provide some of the pre party music?" another grin as she reached under the bar and pulled out the violin case, glancing at Axel with another quick smile since he was the one to procure the instrument. She opened it up, and jumped over the bar to the main area, almost giddy with anticipation.