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“Ninety-nine?” Kagami growls incredulously as he widens the distance between him and the people waving farewell behind them as fast as his legs would let him, “Ninety-nine?”
“You know, I really like this town, all things considered,” Ogiwara chirps, still enthusiastically waving back at the newly-found acquaintances Kagami isn’t as fond of. “We should come back once in a while.”
“You say that about every fucking world we land on,” Kagami retorts vehemently. “And no, we’re never coming back.”
“Noooo,” his companion singsongs, stretching his already too broad grin far beyond acceptable measures. Not as if that’s a new sight; in fact, it’s daily routine for Ogiwara not to have a single care in the world – he almost never had, hardly ever would again – and that’s one of the things that annoy Kagami the most on a deep, spiritual level, because they have yet to find the Queen, things are gonna be harder and harder from now on and the only degree Ogiwara has a major in is smiling. And he’s pretty damn sure that when they will face the armies of darkness – because they will, given the gloomy outlook of this mess of a journey they plunged themselves into thanks to their Queen’s will – that one skill of his is not gonna turn out to be useful at all.
“Why not? I want to come back here and buy more of these… um, what are they called again, chu chu pops? Kagami, they’re delicious, why didn’t you try one—”
“See those faces?” Kagami harshly interrupts him, blindly pointing an aggressive thumb over his shoulder and hoping that this day is the day his assertiveness will finally breach Ogiwara’s wall of carefree joviality. He’s realistic enough not to hold his breath though. “Those are the faces of guys who expect us to find ninety-nine stupid dogs, property of people we are not even acquainted with, which got scattered throughout the whole freaking universe.”
He scoffs some more, finding the action highly therapeutic as the stinging edginess tensing his shoulders flows out with every snort he lets out. “People are crazy buck-passers in this town. We are not coming back.”
But, “What do you mean?” Ogiwara asks, clueless, when he finally looks ahead again. “Aren’t we gonna save those puppies?”
Kagami just grits his teeth and smiles menacingly at the remind of Ogiwara’s other brilliant skill, which is managing to grate on his nerves with painstaking regularity. As he strides off regretting the entirety of his life choices, he ponders over dogs’ unnecessary existence in almost every world he knows of and what the odds are for them disappearing from the universe forever with the advance of darkness.
“Rules of the Gummi Ship,” he starts listing aloud, in a considerate attempt to restore the mental peace he’ll be required to have on the ship, “no grumpy or sad faces on board. Only smiles.” As he slows down in front of a fork and tries to recall the right direction, he wonders about the new boy’s oddly unexpressive face. “You do know how to smile, right?”
“Am I even coming with you?” Kuroko asks with his flat tone that annoys the hell out of Kagami already, just as much as Ogiwara’s goofiness does.
Kagami stops dead in his tracks and Kuroko promptly bumps into his back with an ‘oof’ of surprise, the cold steel of his weapon lightly hitting Kagami’s calf by accident before Kuroko stumbles a step away.
Whirling on his heels in a minor fit of panic – due to Kuroko’s words as well as Kuroko bumping into him because ‘What the hell,’ he screeches inwardly, why would someone walk so silently and so close to another’s back, was the kid brought up as a fucking duckling – Kagami gathers the resolve to not let the only thing that has gone right up until then slip from his hands just because of one stupid kid and their complete lack of insight on the universe’s matters.
He looks down, taking a cautious step away from Kuroko’s disturbingly wide eyes and says, “Yes of course.”
“But why.”
“Because,” Kagami massages his forehead, trying to rub the imminent migraine away by way of his fingertips, “you are the Keyblade Wielder. We already told you. And our Queen ordered us to fetch you.”
“Fetch me,” Kuroko deadpans.
“Fetch you,” Kagami scowls.
“I am quite thrilled about our little duo becoming a trio, guys,” Ogiwara beams, and Kagami has to wonder which planet Ogiwara’s ability to read the mood went to live on.
Kuroko’s hand lowers, weakly holding the half-empty wrapping of the chu chu pop, the tiniest trickle of green liquid rolling down his lower lip and chin – and right then, he really looks like the fourteen years old he is: tiny, innocent and pretty much defenseless despite the shining Keyblade almost as big as him that fit awkwardly in his other hand; clueless about the tasks that suddenly came down weighing on his shoulders.
That is, until he wipes the smear off and opens his mouth to say, “But I can’t.”
Kagami almost lunges forward to strangle him.
“Of course you can!” Ogiwara laughs as he throws an arm around Kuroko’s shoulders. “We’re inviting you onto our ship! New adventures await us! Why would you not want to come?”
“Because I have to find my friends.” Kuroko’s gaze falls dejectedly on the cobblestones. The tip of the Keyblade scratches the ground, looking like a heavy burden that the boy’s arms can’t bear holding up any longer. For a frightening moment, Kagami’s anger mellows out and lets the weirdest urge to pat Kuroko’s head almost take the lead. Thankfully, he stops his hand in time. “Aomine and Momoi.”
“But you’re gonna find them, if you come with us,” Kagami lies, clenching his fist to keep it still, and convinces himself there’s nothing to feel guilty about as he keeps a steady look on the other’s now vaguely hopeful face.
Kuroko doesn’t seem convinced enough though. “I didn’t really look for them everywhere in this town.”
While trying to think of a smart reply, he feels obliged to take abduction into consideration – he wonders if the Queen would be that displeased to know they actually dragged the Keyblade Wielder’s unconscious body on their journey to her clearly against his will, instead of persuading him into following them. ‘Bring him with you’, in the end, is a very vague request that allows for free interpretations.
He grunts unmercifully. “They’re not here, Kuroko, I thought that much was clear.”
At his words, Kuroko’s previously lax hold on the Keyblade’s golden handle tightens visibly. Not knowing whether it was because of frustration or dictated by the sudden urge to smash it against Kagami’s head, Kagami tries to play nicer, just in case.
“Listen, if your world got swallowed by the darkness, they must have ended up somewhere; very possibly, somewhere near this one world.”
Ogiwara agrees with a kind, sincere nod. “He’s right. Also, do you know that our hearts are always connected to our friends’? If we’re gonna visit a world and they’re in it, you will surely find each other. Let me ask you one thing, Kuroko.” A finger flies up as Ogiwara smiles, and gently pokes Kuroko in the chest. “What is it that you want the most now?”
“A vanilla milkshake,” Kuroko says.
“Be serious!” Kagami shrieks, his tone bordering on desperate.
Kuroko’s mouth tightens into a firm line for a long moment before opening again, and this time the voice that comes out of it then sounds too feeble to Kagami’s ears. “I... want to find Aomine, and Momoi. I have to know whether they’re safe. I… I want them back, so that we can go exploring worlds together like we always dreamed of.” His words slip toward an apprehensive hardness as he adds a bit louder, “I need them back.”
“And that’s why you’ll find them for sure,” Ogiwara winks, apparently satisfied with the answer, and he goes ruffle Kuroko’s hair like they’re best buddies already. “And you won’t even look for them alone. You have us.”
So in the end it’s Ogiwara’s kindness that enters the cracks in Kuroko’s wall of determination and feeds them with solid blocks of hope, and Kagami doesn’t need to do anything but cross his arms and wait for those words to sink into Kuroko’s spirit.
The Queen’s letter ordering their departure had been ruthlessly clear about the people bound to undertake that mission of vital importance. And while no one had wondered the reasons why her choice had included Kagami, her request for Ogiwara’s presence justified with a hastily handwritten ‘Someone needed to counteract Taiga’s universally renown hotheadedness and lack of foresight, both still unwavering after countless years of mostly respectable service’ had sounded plain idiotic at the time. Sure enough, no one had been surprised to see Kagami spending his last hours on his world begging Himuro in every language he knew to take Ogiwara’s place, either.
Left to wonder whether the Queen had predicted that that ‘degree in smiling’ would have actually turned into a trump card, Kagami huffily stares at his two soon-to-be companions and grudgingly admits to himself that it might not be a complete tragedy to have Ogiwara around, after all.
‘Yeah, but you better toughen up soon, kid,’ he still snorts, but keeps it to himself. He might be right, but good moods are fragile, precious things in these situations and it’s not always better to crush them with harsh truths when someone put effort into building them; that much even he can understand. ‘We have worlds to save. It wouldn’t be an easy task for anyone, but… it’s gonna be really hard for someone like you’.
But then Kuroko looks up again and there’s surely some kind of magic at work when all of Kagami’s doubts about how the Keyblade could choose someone like this freaky brat get wiped away by something he can’t name but it’s there, glinting anew in Kuroko’s blue eyes like tiny ever-burning stars—and he wonders whether it’s something related to being a Keyblade wielder, this odd, odorless strength that radiates from him, hidden and deep as the roots of oaks; if being one means having this… light inside you that raises you up again after every fall—but one thing is clear to him then: there is more to Kuroko than meets the eye, enough to make him think that maybe there’s not much that needs to be toughened up inside the boy.
“Okay,” Kuroko says calmly. “I’ll come with you.”
“Oh thank god,” Kagami sighs in relief.
Fist punching the air in triumph, Ogiwara yells loudly in glee. “Maaan this journey is gonna be awesome, Kuroko, you have no idea what kind of worlds wait for you out there. And I feel like we’re good buddies already! We are like, chu chu buddies, huh? Kagami isn’t though, since he refused it. He is a lone buddy.”
Instead of smacking him in the head like Kagami would have promptly done if he weren’t still gazing curiously at the intriguing kid, Kuroko actually smiles a bit at that.
This is going to be the worst journey ever.