Entry tags:

author: ciceqi, crossover: kh/yami no matsuei, pairing: riku/touda, twelve characters

"Professional Opinion," Yami no Matsuei/Kingdom Hearts, Touda/Riku
Title: Professional Opinion
Author/Artist: Sleeps With Coyotes
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei and Kingdom Hearts II
Pairing/characters: Touda/Riku (implied Touda/Tsuzuki and Riku/???)
Rating: Basically worksafe.
Prompt: Riku and Touda with the title, "Professional Opinion."
Notes: Takes place post-CoM but before Sora wakes in KH2.
Summary: If you want to learn something, ask an expert.



Later, it would occur to Riku that he really should have been more specific. It was just that the guy with the weird eyes sounded so sure of himself, didn't seem at all surprised that Riku was looking for a mouse.

"Well, I don't know about mice," the man who'd introduced himself as Rikugo said with a smile, "but you're sure to find tigers and birds and snakes if you follow this path. Possibly a turtle, if he isn't chasing the maids again, the old...well. Are you sure you wouldn't care for some tea?"

"No, thanks...I'm sort of in a hurry."

"Suit yourself," the man replied with a shrug, looking Riku over carefully...six eyes' worth of "careful," to be exact. "But are you certain you know what you're looking for?"

"I'm looking for my friends," Riku said stiffly, standing his ground. He hadn't been to Disney Castle before, hadn't expected to get separated from the king in the dark pathways, but he hadn't made it through the thirteen-floor mindfuck of Castle Oblivion to give up now. Birds, turtles, tigers--that had to mean he was on the right track, didn't it? And this place was definitely castle material...just not what he'd pictured from Mickey's descriptions.

Rikugo's smile widened, but he looked pleased, not like he was about to spout something creepy or insane. And how sick was that, that he'd started to expect the creepy or insane every time someone cracked a smile? Clearly he'd been hanging around the wrong people...but he knew that already.

"Well, if it's friends you're looking for, you've come to the right place. I hope you're here long enough to meet Tsuzuki; you two would get along famously."

"Uh...right. Thanks."

There were a lot of weird, weird people in this place...but all the same, he guessed some of them were sort of all right.

Following the immaculately-swept path Rikugo had pointed out for him, Riku managed to resist the temptation to make any detours, though some of the sights along the way slowed his feet despite his urgency. Sand gardens, fountains, shaded arbors, each more fantastic than the last--the palace was magnificent, but nearly everyone he saw was human...or human enough. They didn't look anything like the king, or even Sora's friends. Maybe he was in the wrong place after all.

Stepping out into a wide, open space lined with marble benches and drooping willows, Riku felt all the tension drain out of him at once. In the shadows of an open-air structure that looked like it'd been transported straight from the Land of Dragons, King Mickey stood talking with a man who quite easily dwarfed him, a stranger in form-fitting black whose eyes were covered by a dark visor, his hands by vicious claws. Despite the man's fierce, unsmiling appearance, the king's concern didn't appear to be for himself; when Riku coughed politely to alert the mouse of his presence, Mickey whipped around and immediately broke into a bright grin, not the least bit shy of having the stranger at his back.

"There you are! I was beginning to think my radar needed some fine-turning," the mouse teased as Riku approached.

"This isn't Disney Castle, is it?" Riku hazarded a guess, unsurprised when Mickey shook his head.

"Nope, I'm afraid not. This is Tenku Palace in the Gensoukai...though it's pretty close, I guess, if you were steering with your head instead of your heart."

"Were you?" the man Mickey had been talking to asked abruptly, and Riku glanced his way, slightly unnerved at speaking to the flat black of the man's visor, seeing nothing but the dim reflection of his own face.

"Steering with my head?" Riku asked, receiving a curt nod in response. "I didn't think so...maybe my heart just isn't hooked up right."

Mickey huffed his opinion of that, fond and chiding, and tilted his head to eye Riku shrewdly. "What's your heart saying it needs right now?"

Sora, he wanted to say, or, Kairi, but when he opened his mouth, what he blurted out was, "Training." And then he stood there staring, a little poleaxed, all the more surprised because it was true. He'd agreed to help DiZ, but he no longer had any idea what he was capable of; he'd resigned himself to working in the shadows, but more than anything, he just felt raw, like anybody could take one look at him and read his heart in his face. And now he couldn't even navigate the dark paths right, and--

"He can stay," the stranger said, and Mickey turned with a surprised arch to his brows.

"Touda?"

"I'll train him. He can stay."

Riku narrowed his eyes, biting back the first three comments he might have made. The guy was big enough to be one hell of a fighter, looked like he might be cool enough not to crack when Riku started using the darkness in his presence, but just who did the guy think he was, and why did he think Riku was going to trust him in the first place?

"Train me for what?" Riku asked before the king could more than draw breath to speak.

In answer Touda tapped the wicked tip of one heavy claw against the side of his visor, the ticking sound awfully loud in the sudden stillness. "Your eyes give you away. I can help with that."

The funny thing was, he'd been worrying about that lately. Maleficent hadn't needed to put in much effort when it came to manipulating him; it wasn't like there was much guesswork involved, not when everything he felt was right there if you knew where to look. And now there was the Organization to worry about, and that kid Roxas DiZ had started hinting about, and it didn't really matter if he was in over his head so long as he was the only one who knew it. He was good and he was determined. What he needed now was to learn how to be sneaky, unreadable.

Maybe he could learn how to use his new senses properly while he was at it; for some reason, this Touda guy smelled like a snake, and that wasn't a comment on his trustworthiness.

"In return for what?" he asked when Mickey didn't immediately jump to protest...which must mean the king trusted this guy, but nobody did anything for free.

"You're a Keybearer, aren't you? We need Meifu opened again."

"Meifu?" It didn't sound familiar, and Riku wasn't sure this was the time to mention that the only time he'd ever opened a world, it'd been an accident, hadn't ended well. He wasn't sure Way to Dawn was even meant for that sort of thing, considering that it was his old sword transformed, that it still manifested in his hand in a cloud of darkness, not a burst of light.

"The world of the dead," Touda explained, so matter-of-fact Riku found himself listening instead of calling the whole thing off. "It was sealed when the world of the living fell to the Heartless, and we haven't been able to make contact with anyone inside."

"Oh," Mickey said, the sympathy in his voice suggesting that at least one of them knew what that meant. "Was your master...?"

"We don't know. We hope he was wise enough to stay in Meifu, but knowing Tsuzuki, he may have been trying to help."

King Mickey winced. Looking back and forth between them, Riku figured he could puzzle out enough without needing to ask. Whoever this guy's "master" was, he was probably dead already...just not one of the bad guys. And either his birth world had vanished with him on it--in which case, Sora might be able to get it back, if Riku could just get Sora back--or else he was stuck in this Meifu place, the sister-world of the one that had fallen, like the way Hades' realm would have kept right on processing souls even if Greece and Olympus both had been swallowed up by the dark.

"All right," he said after a moment, "I'll try. But it might take me a while to find the Keyhole, and it may not even work; Sora's the one you want to be talking to, really."

The way Mickey smiled, you'd think the mouse was proud of him. "I'm sure you'll do fine if you trust your heart. It got you this far, right?"

Sure. Stuck at the wrong palace with people who looked human and smelled anything but.

"Right. So...why did that Rikugo guy say I'd be meeting tigers and snakes, anyway?"

Though Mickey chuckled warmly, the look he turned on Touda was expectant.

When Touda transformed right before his eyes into roughly a square mile of winged snake, Riku figured that answered most of his questions right there.

***

The other shikis had been wary but polite at first, and by the end of the first day, Riku had been quietly wondering what he'd gotten himself into, why the king hadn't warned him that he was signing himself on as an apprentice to a reprieved traitor and former mass murderer.

By the end of the second day, what he really wondered was whether the possession of mind-boggling power somehow muscled out all common sense. The whispering, the worried looks, the veiled snubs...if this was any example of a normal day, they had to see that if Touda was going to snap again, he'd have done it already. They did see that...right?

"They're all insane," Riku confided to Byakko one afternoon, sitting on one of the marble benches at Kansei and watching Soryuu attempt--badly--to mediate between Touda and Suzaku. "No offense."

"None taken," Byakko said cheerfully, still in his human form, his long, striped tail doing that smug little fillip at the end, just like a normal cat's. "They don't get Touda, and I think they're happier that way. Well...he is a little odd, I guess, I'll give them that."

Riku snorted. "Just because he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve...."

"Jealous?" Byakko asked, grinning knowingly.

"You have no idea."

"Tsuzuki's eyes are like that too," Byakko admitted, and Riku had to smile. Not one of Tsuzuki's shikis ever referred to their master in the past tense, even if they could no longer sense him through their bond. As far as they were concerned, they still belonged to him and he to them, and that was the end of it. "Wasn't Touda supposed to be helping you with that?"

"He is, but I've been looking for the Keyhole. I may not even be able to find it, and I've told him that, but...I don't want anyone to think I didn't even try."

"We wouldn't think that." Byakko sounded amused, which earned the tiger a look until Riku remembered why he was here in the first place. Right. The eyes.

"Hmph. I'm still not sure what he thinks he can teach me. I'm not a shiki."

"No, but he's a snake. You know. Snakes don't hunt with these," Byakko explained, pointing at his own eyes. "They hunt with this." Now he'd stuck out his tongue, and Riku was torn between pointing out that he wasn't that kind of Keybearer and reminding the tiger that Rikus didn't hunt by taste either. "By scent," Byakko said with a huge grin. "You don't have many snakes where you come from, do you?"

"Just the anacondas," Riku said with a shrug. "I'm not sure they actually hunt...they just wait for something edible to wander by, squish it flat, and swallow it whole. They've been hunted out on the main island, but they can swim, so you still see them now and then."

"Hmm," Byakko purred to himself. "Doesn't scare easily; likes snakes. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."

Riku smirked, but the truth was, he liked Byakko too. The tiger reminded him of Sora at his most exuberant and loyal best, and that kept him from getting too homesick when time started to weigh on him. He should be pestering Touda to train him, not wandering around looking for a pebble--or a key--in the sand. It was just that he wanted to do this right, to give something back this time, wanted to earn the help he'd been given.

Across the marble court, Touda was still standing patient and unmoved, but Suzaku had her hand on her sword-hilt, snarling furiously at Soryuu to get out of her way, she only wanted one round with the snake, just one, even Tsuzuki wouldn't begrudge her that.

"What are they fighting about, anyway?"

"Oh...they've got different ideas on how best to serve our master, that's all. Tsuzuki doesn't like it when they come to blows, though, so it's mostly just talk. I think Touda lets her yell because it makes her feel better, to tell you the truth; it's not like he's got anything to prove to anyone."

Riku nodded to that, but on closer inspection of Touda's expressionless face, the angle of his spine and the fold of his arms, the impression he was left with was that of someone who genuinely didn't understand what the fuss was all about and was waiting patiently to be informed or dismissed. And that sort of worried him.

Expressionless, unexcitable, Touda was ten times more difficult to read than anyone Riku had ever met, but if he could read Touda that well without seeing the shiki's eyes, then how much good was hiding his own going to do him?

Right. He was doomed.


***

"What are you doing?" Touda asked, and Riku would have started out of his skin, oh, a month ago. Before he'd begun scenting people coming, and not in the kind of way that you could actually complain about in public.

Touda smelled like darkness and heat, and snake, and a little like clean human skin warm from the sun.

Turning away from the rather grimy dungeon wall he'd been peering at--and yes, those were manacles hanging there, and he really didn't know how he felt about that, considering that the palace itself was a shiki and alive--Riku spotted Touda standing in the doorway and offered a helpless shrug.

"Still looking. I know it's around here somewhere; I can practically smell it."

"Maybe soon you'll be able to. Come here. It's time you started your training."

He wanted to protest--he was close; he knew it--but he left off examining those rusty chains, the stones reeking of exhaustion and despair and...he really hoped that wasn't Touda he smelled in amongst all the other ingrained scents gathered here. Not someone he'd actually gotten to know and like.

Hearing that the shiki had been imprisoned once upon a time was one thing. Seeing the lightless little room where he'd been kept was another.

"Fine," he said, trying to ignore the maddening itch in the back of his head that told him he was giving up too soon, that the link to connect the Gensoukai and Meifu was close, practically in his grasp. "What's the plan?"

His feet didn't slow even when he saw what Touda had in his hands, though he did take the strip of black cloth from the shiki himself. Not because he didn't trust the snake, but because those claws weren't just for show. "You want me to wear a blindfold?"

"Without removing it."

"Uh...stairs?"

"They won't be a problem."

"You're kidding, right?"

Touda didn't look like he was kidding. He also didn't look like he'd laugh when Riku fell flat on his face, though he didn't exactly look like he'd cry, either.

"You have a nose," Touda said with a shrug. "Use it."

"I could have figured that out myself," Riku grumbled, but he was already lifting the folded cloth to his face, settling it snugly over his eyes and knotting it tight, resisting the urge to cheat. He wouldn't get anywhere if he went easy on himself.

He'd heard that when you lost your sight, your other senses got sharper. That might be true, but it certainly wasn't an instantaneous thing. What he mostly felt was confused, strangely off-balance, though that was probably just in his head.

"Do you remember the way back?"

Riku thought about that. "Maybe?"

"Try."

What the hell. He'd made a fool of himself for Sora before; what was one more time?

Blindfolded or not, his reflexes were still good. When he found the stairs with his toes, he managed to catch himself before he tripped too badly, hands flying out wildly for balance. He almost thought he felt a hand hovering just beneath his elbow, close enough to catch him but not close enough to touch, but that was probably his imagination, wishful thinking.

Just making it back to the upper levels felt like a major accomplishment, that feeling not dimmed by Touda's laconic hints, now and then, of what to expect. A doorway, more stairs, a juncture in the halls.

"Stop," Touda murmured, and Riku stilled himself instantly, already drinking in deep breaths of air, trying to determine where they were. "What do you smell?"

"Sunlight," he said. "Trees, stone. How close are we to Kansei?"

"Very. You're three steps from the alligator trap."

Frowning, he sniffed again, and there it was, faint but unmistakable: dark water, underground and murky, with a different shade of scales than he was used to. Growing used to, at any rate.

"Damn. This is going to take some practice."

"Yes." It was hard to tell, but Touda sounded pleased. Probably grateful to have gotten a halfway intelligent pupil, one who understood that miracles weren't going to happen in a day. "Do you want to continue?"

"Of course; why quit now?"

All the same, he circled the trap from all sides, sniffing out the limits of it and trying to figure out how close he had to be before he could smell it. Who knew? Being able to pick up on that sort of trap might come in handy sometime, and he already knew he'd be passing this way again.

They were halfway back to Touda's rooms when Riku turned his face toward the shiki, hoping his earnest look would still be apparent without his eyes to give him away.

"Warn me the first time Suzaku tries to kill you when I'm around?"

"I'll throw you clear. Once."

Riku grinned. "Once is all I'll need."

"Hn."

It was quiet--Touda was always quiet--but Riku knew a laugh when he heard one.


***

"What do you smell?"

One corner of Riku's mouth turned up without thinking, the question grown more than familiar as the days passed. "Dust, wood polish...musty paper? We're in the library, right?"

"Correct. I left something on the upper floor, in the corner by the windows. Middle shelf, last bookcase."

"Pop quiz?" Riku asked, not really expecting an answer. "No problem. I'll be right back."

He knew he probably sounded cocky, but it was more for his own benefit than Touda's. Squaring his shoulders, he took a deep breath for more than the sake of gathering his courage and swiveled his head slowly from side to side, trying to get his bearings. The place smelled open and airy, but libraries were meant to be haunted, and that meant places to read, not just the shelves themselves. He'd walked blindly into a regular obstacle course, but that was something he was going to have to get used to. It wasn't like he was going to be able to call a time out to memorize the territory each time he went someplace new. Every step he took from now on was going to be just like this, at least until Sora was back and it was safe to go home.

There was no sense in hurrying, so he paced forward slowly, cautiously scenting the air. He even tried tasting it, parting his lips and letting his indrawn breath roll over his tongue, but that neither helped nor hurt. Physically he hadn't changed at all; whatever had sharpened his senses didn't seem to be biological, which stumped him a little when it came to reasoning out how to fine-tune them. What he sensed best was darkness and light, and he wouldn't have thought either of them had a scent before.

The smell of stone increased, the air turning sharp with a scent somewhere between chalk and granite. More marble, he thought, and knowing the Divine Commanders' penchant for ornate staircases, he turned towards that scent unerringly, slowing only as he picked up the scent of wood, cloth, sunlight. Stretching a hand out curiously, he found the edge of a heavy, carved chair, the upholstery still warm from the light falling in through the windows.

Navigating around the reading area, he picked up the scent of marble again and threaded his way through another set of chairs--chairs he would swear had no business being in the middle of the aisle--continuing doggedly on until he found the staircase. That part was easy, but he hesitated at the top, getting his bearings again. Touda had told him to head for the windows, which meant to his right. It was just that the air was warmer up here, not by a lot but enough to condense the musty scent of old books and antique furnishings, not unpleasant but far too similar unless he tried scenting for the open spaces between.

His slower pace turned his footsteps silent, his approach unintentionally stealthy as the smell of sunlight and warmed marble began to increase, along with the scent of...tiger?

Byakko? he almost called, only he could hear the faint, unmistakable sound of the tiger's breath, heavy with sleep, and he rather doubted Touda had left Byakko on a shelf. Not his target then, but--

The thought that hit him put a wicked smirk on his face, but what was wrong with upping the ante? If he could find whatever it was Touda had sent him for without waking the tiger, then he'd know he was getting somewhere. Anyway, it wasn't like Byakko would mind. He just needed to be quiet. Very, very quiet.

He took in one long, slow breath and then another. Window seat, he decided, smelling warm fur, drowsy kitten-scent and sun-baked skin, the peculiar acrid tang of lit glass. Tables, a few chairs. Some ridiculously expensive carpet that out to be in a wall case in some museum somewhere spread casually underfoot. Books, scrolls; a heavy dark wood with a slick, dense grain that Riku knew nothing about, though he knew enough to recognize it as quality. And something more familiar, sweet: the mouthwatering perfume of a perfectly ripe peach, which most certainly didn't belong in any library.

Quiet, he reminded himself, quiet and slow, and he glided with sure steps across the upper landing, found the shelf in the corner with the tiger snoozing close enough he could reach out and capture the twitching white tail. Plucking instead the peach from the shelf, he weighed it in his hand, unsurprised that it was as grand as everything else in the Gensoukai. Sometimes he wondered whether the residents ever got tired of living up to perfection, but he sort of doubted it; they were pretty grand themselves. It might have intimidated him if he hadn't had more important things to worry about.

It wasn't until he made it back to Touda's side that he let out a breath he hadn't been aware of holding, quietly lit up with relief and accomplishment. "Was this what you were looking for?" he asked, holding out the peach and wondering too late whether that had been a ruse, the strong scent of the fruit overpowering that of his real target.

The soft rustle of Touda's nod relaxed him again. "Yes. You didn't wake Byakko?"

Riku grimaced sheepishly. So that had been the real test. "You knew I'd try not to?"

"You didn't, then. Good." The blunt metal where Touda's claws covered the backs of his knuckles bumped gently against the underside of Riku's outstretched hand, making him pull it back slowly. "That's for you. Byakko's a light sleeper," he added, and the quiet approval in his voice made Riku want to preen, tugged the corners of his mouth into a slow smile.

He wondered vaguely whether his own happiness had a scent and whether Touda could taste it in the air.


***

"What do you smell?"

"Grass, a stream, Byakko...wait. Is that a picnic basket?"

"Touda! You brought him!" And he was summarily pounced.

"Oi! You're heavy! Get off!"

"Ha! You sound like Hisoka!"

Touda didn't laugh, didn't cover with a cough or even snort in their direction. "You should probably learn how to dodge if you're going to fight like that."

Riku still heard the amusement, and that warmed him even more than the perfect summer sun.


***

Night and day were becoming the same. He no longer took the blindfold off at all except to sleep, and reaching for the band of cloth was the first thing he did as he woke. At least it was always quiet when he rose, his room the untouched guest room in Touda's quarters, everything peaceful and serene.

He was finger-combing his hair as he stumbled half-awake into the bathing room, vaguely grateful that he'd probably never need to shave. Brushing his teeth blind could be challenge enough this early in the morning, and while he was pretty sure Touda would let him know if he had toothpaste on his chin, he didn't want to think about how rumpled he must look otherwise. Not very impressive...but then, who did he have to impress?

Realistically, that was.

He was just wiping his face when he heard a different sort of splash, one that came through the open door off the washroom. Someone was in the bathing pool, and considering that the only visitors Touda ever had were Byakko and old Genbu, that really only left one possibility. Clearly Touda had gotten up even before he had and was in there night now, and gods, Riku had never wished so badly for sight as at that particular moment.

Maybe it was how badly he wanted it. Maybe it was just another weird skill kicking suddenly into high gear, everything coming together inside his head with a snap he could almost hear. Scent wasn't just scent anymore; it was color and form, and though his eyes were still useless, in his mind he held a perfect picture of everything around him, the walls and counters and that open doorway, Touda noticing him and rising with barely a pause from the bath. Actual details were still fuzzy, but the shape of Touda was very clear as the shiki approached without bothering to reach for clothes, a towel, anything. Riku almost backpedaled out the door, the scent of his own hunger embarrassingly strong, but the brush of Touda's fingers, bare of claws, against the line of his jaw stopped him in his tracks.

Touda didn't have to ask. Riku automatically breathed in a short, wary breath, sifted through scents and stilled, nervousness fading to disbelief. "You...?"

Touda's hand settled at the back of Riku's neck, but it was Riku who leaned up, found Touda's mouth with surprising ease, and learned what it meant to add taste to scent.


***

"Are you sure you shouldn't be fighting him with swords?" Byakko called from the sidelines, well out of the line of fire.

Touda said nothing, but Riku, dodging another attack and countering the swipe of claws with his Keyblade, shook his head swiftly. "It's fine," he called back, feinting in again and retreating just as swiftly. "Most of the Heartless don't use weapons, and Suzaku said she'd spar with me to make sure this guy was doing a good enough job."

"Aww...she likes you! But you could have asked me; I can use a sword too, you know...."

"You don't even like training when it's for your own good," Touda scoffed, claws slicing just over Riku's head.

"Well, sure, but this is Riku!" Byakko replied cheerfully, his voice echoing across the otherwise empty practice court. A few of the courtiers had drifted by earlier, pretending not to be the least bit curious about the duel, but they'd scattered quickly enough when Byakko came along to play spectator. Riku was just as glad; he wasn't sure he was up to matching Touda's stoicism today in the face of those poisonous whispers, and it never had been a good idea for him to lose his temper.

"I feel special," he managed, leaning away from a roundhouse kick that would have had him seeing stars at the very least, darting in before Touda could recover himself...he hoped.

"Ow!" Byakko winced as Touda grunted softly. "Hey, it looks like you're pretty evenly matched. Not bad for a human."

"It's the Keyblade...or maybe the darkness. I never used to be this strong."

"You're growing into yourself," was all Touda said, catching Way to Dawn in his claws, both of them at a stalemate.

"Maybe," Riku allowed, letting the Keyblade go and feeling it fade out into the between-place where it waited for him. "So, what do you think? Will I survive out there?" It wasn't their first sparring match, but Riku thought it was probably their best so far. That didn't mean he didn't have room for improvement, but he trusted Touda to tell him if he wasn't ready yet. Funnily enough for a snake, the man was never anything less than honest.

"I belong to Tsuzuki," Touda had reminded him that first night, and Riku had smiled, moved closer anyway.

"That's all right. I sort of belong to someone too."

"You'll do," Touda said, high praise coming from him. "You should spend a few days with the others before you--"

It wasn't anything earth-shattering, just the shifting of the breeze, but Riku jerked half around and tilted his head up, scenting the air, catching a whiff of cherry blossoms where there shouldn't be any. Not in the midst of the Gensoukai's perfect, never-ending summer.

"I feel like a dog," he groaned mostly to himself, face heating, but...that was it, the smell he never could catch before.

There wasn't time to explain, or maybe there would have been, but he'd lost the scent too many times to risk losing it again. Taking off at a dead run, he did his best to follow his nose, sliding around corners and playing dodge with bemused servants, vaguely aware of Touda and Byakko following along behind him. If he could have spared any concentration for anything but that elusive scent, he would have been impressed by just how well Touda's lessons had taken.

Clattering down that dark set of stairs for the second time, he resisted the urge to clap one hand over his nose as the dungeons opened up below him, the smell twice as strong now and infinitely more disturbing. Gods, how long had they held Touda down here? His scent permeated the walls, pain and rage and hopelessness...but there was something else, too. That other scent, faint and fleeting as the hint of cherry blossoms it was twined together with.

Skidding to a stop in the center of Touda's cell, Riku looked around wildly, lashes catching on cloth as his lids fluttered beneath the blindfold. He wanted to take it off, was reaching to do just that, only to have his wrist caught in one big hand, metal claws cool against his skin.

"Don't," Touda said shortly, some indefinable tension threaded through his voice. "It'll just confuse you."

"Wrong speech," Byakko chided in a theatrical hiss, and Riku felt some of the tension drain out of him on a helpless laugh.

"I know. Listen to my heart, right?"

His heart was sure this was the right place. It was also sure that there was something that still needed to be done.

Tugging his arm out of Touda's grip, he took a few steps forward, hesitated for a moment, and stepped forward again. They ought to be right around here, the coppery, old-iron tang of the broken shackles sharp in the airless little cell. Byakko made an uncertain sound at his back when Riku gathered the chains up in one hand, but Touda was still, silent, barely breathing.

Riku tugged once, but the things were stuck fast, strong enough to hold even a Divine Commander.

He narrowed his eyes, took a firmer grip.

"Old Man Tenku," he addressed the palace itself, stubborn and commanding and sure. "You let these go."

The foundations themselves seemed to sigh at that, but when Riku braced himself and gave a mighty jerk, the chains ripped right out of the wall, taking with them a crumbling chunk of stone as the bolt that had held them fast came too. Riku didn't need to hear Byakko's startled exclamation to know that what he'd been looking for had finally manifested itself; he could feel the Keyhole like the sun on his face, could see it etched in silver in his mind's eye, nestled in the broken stone where Touda's chains had been.

"Is that a Keyhole?" Byakko asked, his usual cheer traded for awe.

"Finally," Riku said with a nod, sighing out hugely with relief as he let the shackles drop to the floor.

"Heh...you worry too much. But why is it here?" Byakko asked innocently, the rustle of cloth betraying a shrug. "I'd have thought it'd be at one of the Gate points, or with the tengu or something."

Riku hunched one shoulder, holding out his other hand and calling Way to Dawn to him. "I don't know anything about Meifu," he said as the Keyblade appeared in a burst of cool shadows. "To tell you the truth, I don't think I could've found where your worlds connected anyway."

"Er...didn't you just say that was a Keyhole?"

"Mm-hmm. But I didn't find it because it leads to Meifu. I found it because it leads to your Tsuzuki. I don't know what happened or when," he added, taking careful aim at the Keyhole by listening to the way his Keyblade thrummed inside him, straining after connection, completion. "But whatever ties he made here, they don't feel like the kind that can be broken, not by anything."

"That's our Touda," Byakko murmured, a purr in his tone.

"That's Tsuzuki," Touda countered, quiet and reserved and not fooling anyone.

Riku took a moment to grin over that as he centered himself, took a deep breath. "Ready?"

He hoped they meant it when they agreed. For all he knew, he was about to open the door on a dead world filled with the Heartless, and maybe Tsuzuki's heart would turn out to have been strong enough to have turned him into a Nobody for good measure. He didn't think so, though. It didn't feel like that kind of Keyhole, like there was anything dangerous on the other side. Just that sense of waiting, incompletion, and when Riku released the power of the Keyblade, the thrumming inside him was matched by a low, vibrant hum that shivered beneath his feet, in the air around him, the Gensoukai itself exhaling a long breath of relief as the sister-world that had enveloped it like the living shell around a pearl rushed back to embrace it again.

"This world is connected," he heard himself say, and for once the words of countless nightmares filled him with a sense of warmth, pride.

Byakko's exuberant hug didn't hurt either...or Touda's clawed hand on his shoulder, silent and steady, proof of a job well done.


end