From Island to Town (Roxas)

[OOC: Continuing from where A beach in the morning left off.]

"Take my hand and look straight ahead, it'll be fine."

Those were the words Roxas had spoken, directed towards Hikari as she took in the detail that there was a portal he had just summoned. Out of concern for her, he stated that he knew a place where she could start going from world to world. It was obvious she was not going to head to whatever home the black-coated boy had, but she felt it a necessary stop.

She took his hand, and mustered the courage to continue.

Heading out into the light, the location had revealed itself as a calm town, the starry night sky up above different from the daylight she was introduced to just a few seconds ago. There was no doubt about it - She was in another world, the setting calm yet unfamiliar. "This is..." It was just so breathtaking, being able to travel different places. "I never expected you to bring me to a place like this."

Roxas watched Hikari's reactions, remembering the first time he had gone through one of the corridors - it was when Xemnas had taken him in to his new home, and he was bewildered at the sudden change in scenery, but he got used to the concept soon enough. It was strange - although the two came from such different backgrounds, the young Nobody was seeing a lot of himself in her, in ways that he thought he'd see only in those closely linked to him through Sora. Their mannerisms, when placed in similar situations, were very alike, and it was as though he was looking into a mirror to the past through Axel's emerald eyes. The stars twinkled overhead, like this town was the next step in Twilight Town's evolution.

"Yeah, this is Traverse Town. It has some of the best shops around." The blond explained, then continuing to further his statement. "There's a guy here named Cid - he knows all about interstellar travel." Roxas tacked on, letting his hand fall back to his side and peering around to see that there weren't many civilians out tonight. Usually this place was hustling with people wanting to sight see, but tonight, it was filled with the essence of calamity. In an odd way, it was eerily peaceful. The shop's signs, however, were still alight, thus meaning they were all still open.. The boy mentally shrugged, beginning to walk up the stairs and towards the door directly in front of them.

Cid was one to always be at the counter in the Accessory Shop, and tonight was no different. "Cid'll be able to fix you up with whatever you need, and then I'll take you back to the castle to show you your room! It's not much, but.." He trailed off, opening the door and allowing Hikari to enter the building first. "It's something, I guess." He laughed lightheartedly, trying to, once again, make the situation as flighty as possible. He hated delving into serious matters, but sometimes, it was necessary...

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To think that there were shops in a world such as this...The name of the place was Traverse Town, as Roxas stated to her. Hikari was the second to realize something seemed...off with the atmosphere around them. That was especially the case with the open shops and her guess that people weren't out. Then again, she was a newcomer to this world, so she couldn't know everything. Thus, she decided not to speak about it. Then Roxas mentioned someone by the name of Cid, who specialized in interstellar travel.

The fact that someone was able to travel like that was another amazing piece of information, much like the method she and Roxas used to reach their current location. They were to request assistance with whatever Hikari needed to travel. Once that was done, the blond-haired boy was going to take the former student back to the castle so she could rest...

Wait... Did she hear that right?

"A... A castle?!" She did learn from him that it was a big place, but...a castle? All of a sudden, she was being thrust into a hodgepodge of worlds, and now she was being taken to a castle. "I'm sorry I'm so excited. It's just that I never thought I'd be brought somewhere like that." Hikari herself had never been in a castle her entire life, and just the thought of sleeping in such a place for at least one night was incredible, to say the least.

A... A castle?!

The blond had jumped at the sudden rise in volume of Hikari's voice, and then brought a hand to the back of his had to scratch at his scalp again - he needed to quit that. "Yeah! It's.. Nothing extravagant though, trust me. I wish there was more to offer there." He smiled sheepishly, closing the door behind the two of them. Cid had been kicking his feet up at the counter, reading a magazine with that piece of wheat (or something) in his mouth.

"Y'all here to buy somethin'?" He said with a southern drawl heavy on his speech. Roxas smiled and gave a few nods, proceeding to walk up to the counter.

"Yup! We're friends of Sora's, and were told that this is the place to go if we needed a gummi ship." Roxas was.. Surprised at how well he was handling himself. At the mention of his somebody counterpart, Cid's eyes lit up.
"Well hell, why did'n you just say so? What can I do fer 'ya, kiddos?"

Roxas explained the situation, about how Hikari was in need of the cheapest, most efficient ship available, and the old mechanic listened with his bristly eyebrows raised inquisitively. He would nod every so often throughout Roxas' explanation, and then crookedly smiled.

"I'll get y'all taken care of, now." He got to his feet and began to walk towards the back entrance that probably lead to some sort of garage. It was the place where Cid could do all of his mechanical work instead of manning the accessory shop.

"How much?" The blond asked, digging into his pocket but was quickly dismissed.
"S'on the house, boy."
"W-Wow, really?"
"Sure 'nuff. Now get outta here and let me get to work. I'll have it done by mornin'."
"Thanks a bunch, Cid!"

And then they were out of there.

"...Wow. That was.. Easy." He blinked, looking straightforward for a few seconds before laughing to his new friend.

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"Yeah! It's.. Nothing extravagant though, trust me. I wish there was more to offer there."

"Oh." That was also not a response that she was expecting. A castle was said to be a grand place, yet to hear those words coming out of Roxas' mouth was surprising in its own way. Regardless of that, though, they needed to get something done so she would be able to get out and see the worlds. Following the boy into the shop, she took notice of a man reading a magazine before the attention was on them.

"Y'all here to buy somethin'?"
"Yup! We're friends of Sora's, and were told that this is the place to go if we needed a gummi ship."
"Well hell, why did'n you just say so? What can I do fer 'ya, kiddos?"

Sora? That was odd...Roxas had never mentioned someone by that name when they met on the island. There was something he wasn't telling Hikari. Once Cid got on his feet and informed them that she was going to get her gummi ship, as Roxas called it, free of charge. After that, they went back outside. The former class representative could not help but let out a laugh of her own.

"I honestly never expected it to go so well," she replied. For but a second, she thought she was going to have to help with a form of payment, but she was proven wrong by luck that her new friend provided. "So, it'll be ready in the morning. What do we do now?" If her hunch was right, they were going to go to the castle as planned and she could get up and go back to receive the ship.

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♡TAGS: Hikari Horaki
♡NOTES: My first go with the new template. Thanks Tia! : D

Yeah, that did go a whole lot better than expected. Roxas was extraordinarily thankful for that; he definitely wasn't expecting it to go as smoothly as it did, but his trick of saying he was friends with his somebody did work just as he suspected it would. He smiled over to his new friend and companion, seeing the look on her face spanning somewhere in the categorization of relief. She looked extremely confused, which was expected. The poor girl was being transported left and right to new places without given as much as an explanation as to why. Roxas figured that it was high time he gave her that, it was the least he could do.

"You hungry?" He suddenly said as he halted his walking. There was an outdoor restaurant on the other side of the First District's plaza, one that he had eaten at a few times when he should have been doing his mission work. He had plenty of munny to spare thanks to his never-ending endeavors of destroying Heartless and Unversed, so it wasn't exactly putting a "dent" in his funds. He could buy her dinner, and answer any questions that she had to throw at him, and if they were truly as alike as he was perceiving, he would be playing the role of teacher for quite a while. How the tables turned.. He was used to being the clueless student and Axel being the confused teacher - funny.

"I can buy you some dinner.. And you can ask me any questions you might have. I'll try and answer them as best as I can." He told her, beginning to set off for the restaurant. Hopefully he would be able to give her some good answers, as he wasn't exactly clear on most of the stuff that was going on around him, but.. He could try. For her sake.

thanks tia and kaigra!

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"You hungry?"

Hikari blinked at the question, and suddenly, without as much as a warning, her stomach growled ever so quietly. It was still a bit embarrassing for that to happen, as it never happened often. Every once in a while, she would cook, but without something to eat...

"I can buy you some dinner.. And you can ask me any questions you might have. I'll try and answer them as best as I can."

"Thanks. That would be greatly appreciated." She never expected him to buy her dinner, either. But, it was better than having nothing to eat at all. And then she had some questions to ask when they actually got a table. Oh yes, Roxas was also guiding her there. Well, at least she found out where they were going. At the moment, she would wait until the table was theirs, and then she would ask him things.

Roxas

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♡TAGS: Hikari Horaki
♡NOTES: My first go with the new template. Thanks Tia! : D

Just what he had expected, his offer wasn't rejected in the slightest, and was instead brought in with open arms. In the end, who would refuse a free meal? Roxas had plenty of Munny to spare, due to taking out Heartless on the daily and their stolen goods would be dropped as soon as their bodies dissipated. As soon as they got up to the restaurant, the blond ordered food for himself, simply getting some sort of sandwich; it was the first thing on the menu, so he figured it must be their top seller. Popularity always meant something good, right?

"It's no problem." The young Nobody smiled, allowing her to order for herself. He finished the order in ordering a drink for himself, just going with some brand of sweet tea. The sugary drink was always nice against his tongue, and he wasted no time in opening it and taking a sip, being told that their food would be brought to the shortly and that they could pick a table, whichever they preferred.

He chose one that was closest to them, sitting down and setting the bottle of his beverage down as well, waiting for Hikari to do the same.

"Alright, I'm all ears for ya. Ask me anything you wanna know."

thanks tia and kaigra!

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They reached the restaurant, and Roxas ordered a sandwich and sweet tea. The former was on the top of the menu, so, like him, she went with that for food. "I'll have water alongside that," she stated. It was just something to keep herself hydrated. Acquiring the bottle of clear liquid, she opened it up and took a small drink so she wouldn't finish it too quickly. After that, Hikari sat down at the table, waiting for her food to come as she spoke her first question.

"You mentioned someone named Sora back there. Is it true that you're a friend of theirs?" It was a question she could never help but ask, since she had to make sure that he would be telling the truth. Questions about the currency needed to wait. Oh yes, she forgot to ask about clothes, since she was still in her pajamas.

How embarrassing...

Roxas

[attr="class","tiacon"]

[attr="class","tiabox"]

♡TAGS: Hikari Horaki
♡NOTES: My first go with the new template. Thanks Tia! : D

He should have been expecting that. He really should have, but for some reason, the question that was asked.. Caught him off guard in ways that he though unimaginable. Sora, although they had been getting to know each other much better over the past few days, was still a bit of a touchy subject for Roxas. He was given the plate where he was forced to be not more than a shadow of that brilliant boy, the darkness easily shunning him over when compared to that boy's light.

But he was told that being his own person was a feat that was quite possible for him to achieve, and Sora was planning to help him do just that.

"It's.. Kind of a long story. But I guess we have time, huh?" He said as he was looking over at the restaurant, noticing that the clerk had just gone back to alert the cooks that there was an order that was in need of completion. The Nobody took in a deep breath, letting it out in a gentle sigh. Well, here goes nothing.

"I'm not.. Entirely human." It always sounded so much more odd when it was stated aloud. "The things that swallowed your world, the Heartless, when they're made.. Sometimes something gets left behind." He paused, trying not to overload Hikari with all of the information, but that was probably inevitable. "A Heartless is made when a being with a strong heart gets its heart stolen from them. If that heart is strong enough, sometimes the remnants left behind will start to act with a will of its own. It's called a Nobody, and.. That's what I am."

He grasped at his tea with both hands, looking down at the cap instead of making eye contact with his new friend. "That happened to Sora, and I was made. He was somehow able to get his heart back though, still kinda fuzzy on the details."

Please don't be scared of me.

thanks tia and kaigra!

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Hikari knew she was going to get an answer, but she blinked as Roxas started speaking in response. Their food had not come yet, so she would have time to listen. What she got was also not expected, and when he sighed, she had a feeling it bothered him to explain. He was not truly human. Her mouth was slightly agape at the mention of something being left behind, and that something was called a Nobody.

It just so happened that Roxas was such a Nobody, born when Sora had lost his heart. It was relieving to hear that he was able to come back after such a thing happened to him. Hikari looked at the black-coated boy with pained eyes. By now, he was probably thinking she was not going to accept help from him, rejecting him out of fear after learning what he was.

"It hurts you just to remember that, doesn't it?" She looked down, but immediately looked back up at Roxas. "It's alright. You've actually been helping a lot. Just because you're not human doesn't mean you can't be like one." Ensured that he was given comfort, she asked another question. "Just to make sure, do you know any good clothes? I still haven't changed yet..."