Winds Blown Differently

"I see" he said and stopped in front of a clothing store. "There's the place, I passed it on my way to the house after I crashed somewhere around here" Zero said

"Right. Let's find you something suitable to wear." Rexial said, not particularly caring to continue the previous conversation. "I'm no fashion expert, but I figure we'll decide on something that doesn't make you look malicious." He opened the door and took a step inside, looking around.

"I just need a few seconds I guess" he replied as the clerk walked up behind him slowly. "Excuse me s-" the girl faltered seeing he was covered in dried blood and his clothes were torn up. "C-can I help you?" She finished her eyes darting back to his face. "I need some new clothes as you can see" Zero said.

<...Didn't Zero shower before? I recall himself redressing and saying something to the effect of "Not I look like a presentable serial killer". There shouldn't still be blood on his face.>

Rexial sighed, his attitude changing to an exasperated facade. "Why does eveybody give him that look...? C'mon, you wouldn't look much better after falling into that cheese-grater of a waste disposal. His clothes are absolutely ruined, and when he tries to get new threads to replace them, he gets flak? C'mon... A girl like you oughta understand my friend's plight." He turned on the charm for his last statement.

<His face doesn't, but probably his old shirt and his pants do.>

The girl looked at Rexial and nodded, smiling. "I'm sorry, I just was surprised by it" she said. Zero rolled his eyes but tapped the clerk on her shoulder for attention. "Mind helping me before you get lost in his eyes?" He said. The sarcasm in his voice made her square her shoulders for a moment. "Yes my apologies, follow me" she said starting to walk away, once her back was turned he looked at Rexial. "Thanks" he said then walked after her.

Moments later he came back in black cargo pants, dark blue shirt with a white skull on it, and a upgraded version of his jacket, this jacket had black designs along the lining and a hood. "Is this all you need sir?" The clerk asked, stopping with him in front of Rexial. "No, this'll do for me" he said. He looked at Rexial. "Mind paying, seeing as I'm broke and tired from my near death experience with that disposal system?"

"No prob." Rexial took out a wallet. "...How much does this all come to, anyway?"

The clerk smiled sweetly and said 'that'll 300,000 munny'. Yes, Zero managed to find the most expensive clothing store in the city. But it equaled out to 300,000 because the clerk felt bad for Zero and didn't try to show him any accessories.

"Th-three hundred-thousand Munny!?" Rexial definitely wasn't expecting that. I thought it'd be about 5000 at most... Seriously, 600 times that!? "Well... I can pay, but if my friend gets so much as a single rip in those new threads, I'll have to throw him into the waste disposal myself." He confirmed, eyelid twitching slightly.

He pulled the wallet open and pulled out a yellow object that was larger than its carrier. "Don't get me started on how confusing Munny is... How did it exactly 300,000 Munny coalesce into one big crystal of it? And how does my wallet hold that big of an item?"

Handing over the basketball-sized cluster of currency, Rexial scratched the back of his head. "...I don't care, I still think the clerk is cute." He sighed, trying to say it somewhat discretely.

Gavin sighed and scratched the back of his head as everyone else filed out. His gaze directed towards the floor, he asks Robin and Pell, "Well, we got a place to stay, what now?" Gavin seems somewhat bitter, perhaps still believing the end of the fight to be a cop out.

"Well, I don't know about the two of you, but I'm hoping for a sandwich and a nap. I'm going to go get both in that order, if you two wanna join me."

"I'm not hungry, but I'll come with you to the kitchen at least," Pell adds.

"I'm not hungry, just..." Gavin stopped and sighed. He turned and started to leave. "...I'mma go smoke for a bit." He headed towards the front porch.

"Damn... I wonder what's eating at him?" Pell muses, more to herself than Robin, though the two head to the kitchen after Gavin leaves.

Zero smirked and shrugged nonchalantly as the clerk rushed off to go cash his crystal. "I think she likes you too, Rexial" he said. The gladiator stretched slowly and his tattooed arm and hand showed themselves to the world. "I bet it would've been higher if she didn't feel bad for me, I could've been looking at rings and amulets and earrings right now ,just stacking the price" he remarked as she came back. "What about you? Do you need anything either?" She asked quickly stepping up next to Zero. The latter just smirking wider than before.

"Well, I'm just wondering... They wouldn't work such a cute girl so hard that she couldn't take tomorrow off, right?" He shot her a winning smile. "I haven't been here more than a few hours, but I think I'll be sticking around... especially with people like you in the city."

Rexial was almost laughing inside at how Zero seemed to be interpreting this. What, did he think this was some kind of awkward crush he had?

The girl looked at Zero, who now had a blank expression, then to Rexial. "We'll I don't know, I think your friend would be troubled by you dating a girl that he already asked out." She said. The former shrugged and said "I only asked if you could show me around the city sometime" he said. The clerk smiled sheepishly at Rexial. "Maybe you and come too, I guess you could bring a friend?"

<...I can't stop thinking of Rexial's reaction looking like Phoenix Wright's would.>

"Ehhh, I wouldn't ruin a friend's date like that." The swordsman sighed. "Ah, maybe next time..." He was slightly curious. It seemed like somehting Zero would do, innocently asking for somebody to show him around the unfamiliar city, but it was possible that he HAD meant to go out with the clerk. But to think any further would be kind of obsessive.

I can't win all the time, I guess.

"...Say, could I have my shirt back now?"

Zero tossed Rexial the white button up and shrugged. "That really depends on Zero, I mean we planned on going out to dinner after I get off work too..." She said. Zero chuckled. "Well I think we should get going Rexial, I mean we still have to finish up that disposal"

"Yeah, we should go, but could you stop saying 'disposal'? We're just taking out garbage. Sure, you nearly died doing it..." Rexial caught his shirt, putting it back on, then turned his attention back to the clerk.

"Relax, miss, I don't hold it against you. I guess Zero just has more rugged charm than I do... I'm happy he's found such a wonderful, understanding girlfriend, having just moved here. It's enough to make a guy tear up..." He choked up a little, presumably holding back tears of joy. It was pretty comical. And then, he snapped back to his usual, happy self. "Well! I'll take care of the rest of the garbage. Zero, were you going to hang around here?"

Zero chuckled at the display and just kissed the girl on the cheek. "I'll just head off with you" he said. The girl hugged him and slipped away once another customer entered. Zero turned to Rexial and shook his head. "You have to go into theater for York acting skills my friend"

As the two of them stepped outside, Rexial shrugged. "You two got close fast." Maybe he has a lot of pent-up emotions. Being a gladiator, I don't think you get much opportunity to interect with the opposite sex.

"And I'm not really a skilled actor, I've just learned how to put up a good facade. I can't very well tell everybody I meet in my travels that I'm from another world, and that Aleri is somebody who doesn't remember is past, and I think that he's me somehow. I generally pretend that he's my brother or cousin or something. And if I had to memorize scripts and follow them and stuff, I'd explode. I'm much more inclined to fight Heartless and stuff."

Rexial frowned. "Well... I guess you don't feel the same way about fighting, though. Being FORCED to fight... that's terrible. While I do love a good fight, I tend to pick my battles carefully. I don't want to piss off the wrong guy, or get violent in front of somebody I need to talk to... It's a little bit like hitting on girls, too. Come on too strong, or make a move at the wrong time, and I'm done for."

"Being forced into battle...it taught me how badly a man or woman wants to be freed...I killed so many people and showed so little mercy in that arena, I knew when I was ready and when I was out matched....and we got close because I told her a bit of my story, minus the number of people I watched bleed to death under my blades of course and I rolled with her sympathy" Zero said as he followed his companion. "I learned how a person can work, the women I occasionally fought....I tried to spare as many as I could but....sometimes I had no choices in the ending" he said, he wasn't proud of anything he did in that place, killing men was fine, almost all of them in the ring, were killers. Fighting women, that was why he felt so much shame in fighting in any form.

Rexial was a little surprised. "You told her part of your story? Crazy... I wouldn't think a city salesclerk girl would believe that. And I disagree with killing, too... I mean, Heartless oughta get cut to pieces, and I really love fighting people because they come up with interesting ways to fight... but using lethal force on people is reserved for total monsters, in my opinion. I don't expect mercy from my enemies, but I don't have to sink to their level and become a killer."

"Ah, whatever. So, shall we head back to the house now? ...Oh, right! I wanted to see how far behind she is!" He smacked himself in the head. "I totally forgot! Ugh... hey, man, my vision's a little blurry after hitting myself just now - stupid move on my part, I know - so could you point out the tallest structure in the area to me?"

Zero chuckled and looked around slowly, then nodded up at Memories Skyscraper. "It's about a couple of blocks in the north east direction." He said pointing over to it. "It's gotta be the highest structure in this place."

<Meanwhile>

Skife could see that Ven wasn't in the kitchen, so he went into the fridge, grabbed himself something to eat, shut the fridge, and walked into the loungeroom, sitting on the couch.

Rexial blinked. "Hm? My vision's clear now... but, uhh, is something strange about that skyscraper to you? Maybe I'm still just seeing things... Well, by the time I'll have gotten to the roof, I'm sure I'll be able to see perfectly." He took off running in the direction Zero had pointed.

"And watch yourself, man!" He yelled.

<Didn't we resolve that this isn't the World That Never Was?>

<if we did I obviously forgot, I tend to let facts drop from time to time, it's a miracle that I'm a sophomore now>

"You too!" He called after him. Zero turned and saw the clerk walking up behind him. "Ready my warrior?" She asked. He smiled "yes Nita I'm ready" he answered taking his date down the street.

As Rexial drew closer to the towering building, he wondered whether he should just scale the outside and be done with it, or try to find a more normal method.

"...Nah, I don't want a commotion. Who knows? These people could be pretty jaded when it comes to this stuff, or they could freak out when they see people running on vertical surfaces. I'll look for the elevator, thanks."