Sell you a Bridge chapter 327 (Patreon)

July 2nd 2016 Traverse Town, 11:00 AM EDT

The  next morning was pretty relaxed. Epic quest or not, we'd learned by now  that going all out with no break would grind us down. From what we'd  been told this Sora guy traveled with friends and was pretty damn  strong. If he got attacked by the Organization I was pretty sure I'd  notice it, and we could be there instantly. With that established there  was no real reason to rush at the moment, so we enjoyed a nice rest and a  breakfast at the Traverse Town Hotel before heading back to Cid's place  at eleven.

When we arrived, we noticed the door was  propped open, and we could hear voices inside. I knocked, pushing it  open as I stuck my head in. "Hey Cid? It's me. You want me to come back  later? I can go if you're busy but I wanted to check in a bit about a  person we're here looking for."

Cid, who was arguing with a  moody looking guy with long brown hair, perked up a bit when he saw me.  "Oh, kid, you're back." He turned a gimlet stare on the moody guy. "My  friend Leon here was just catching me up on the latest gossip around  town. I'm not busy. He'd be happy to wait while we talk. Won't you  Leon?" His grin around his toothpick was taunting and malicious. I was  guessing Leon WOULD, in fact, mind that. But I also didn't really care  what Leon minded.

I stepped in, holding the door for my  girls, Rana, and our two keyblade wielding companions. Once they were  all in we let the door close behind us. To my surprise, Leon's head  jerked up in shock as his eyes focused on Namine and Roxas both. He had  that same flash of familiarity that I'd seen from Cid, but it passed  quickly. His surprise turned into a frown. "Yeah. Sure." He grunted.

Grinning  triumphantly, Cid waved us over to the counter. "So, you mentioned  something about looking for someone? I won't claim to know everybody  around these parts, but I'm a bit of a fixture. I'm sure I can help you  track down whoever it is." He reached down behind the counter and pulled  out a box. "But first, I had something here I thought your girl might  like to take a look at. I stumbled on it yesterday after closing, and I  haven't really found anyone interested up to this point."

I  rolled my eyes at the blatant extortion, but if he was right I didn't  mind picking it up. I HAD mentioned buying something else. If he thought  it was something Zee would be interested in I might as well check it  out. Opening the box, I blinked in shock at the POWER radiating off the  object inside. This was a ridiculously strong magical item. The small  silver pendant was in the shape of a downward facing arrow, with four  half moon shapes curving off the sides and a pair of diamond shapes  spikes splitting off about halfway down.

The front of it  had an etching of a single half moon and a few stars, and there was a  ring at the top to hang it from a pendant. "This." He said with pride.  "Is Cosmic Arts. You mentioned your girl was a magic nut, and she  reminded me so much of my Cindy I figured I'd offer you the chance to  pick it up. Usually my premium stock is only for loyal customers, but I  like you kids." He winked. "Plus I'm going to overcharge you, so don't  feel too grateful about it. I can tell you're loaded and these are too  pricey for most."

Zee practically teleported to the  counter to pick the object up, almost shuddering at the power. "I don't  know exactly what it does." I said pensively. "But if I had to  guess...it massively boosts your magic capacity, and gives a heavy bonus  to spells and summons?" I recognized the aura fluctuations in the magic  from some of the keyblades I'd seen. It seemed to use the same sort of  magic as Master Yen Sid and the keyblades did natively.

The  shock on his face was gratifying. "Yeah. Pretty much. I mean, you  missed the fact that it also gives an immense boost to learning speed  for new spells, but otherwise that's spot on." He raised an eyebrow,  looking me up critically. "You've got a good eye kid. You ever need word  give me a call. I can always use a talented appraiser." I passed him my  card, and he swiped it. I took the chance to check my balance, which  hadn't really moved much, and almost dropped my phone as I saw a hundred  thousand dollars had dropped off my total.

"Holy shit." I  squeaked. I was loaded enough that it didn't matter, but holy shit.  "You weren't kidding about the price. How the hell did you even know I  could afford that?" I was a little offended he'd actually sold me  something that pricey without mentioning it.

The offense  faded as I saw his wide eyes. "I-" He stuttered. "Bahamut kid, I wasn't  gonna charge you at all. I was going to let it decline and then offer  you an IOU for the thing." He fumbled with the card. "Here, I'll refund  it. Hells, I didn't expect you to have that much, and my system ain't  set up for overdraft."

I thought it over and just waved  him off with a sigh. "Forget it." I had wrangled ten billion dollars  from my power back on earth, and even if I spent like crazy I hadn't put  much of a dent in it. "But I expect an answer to our questions." I said  sharply. Zee cleared her throat. "Oh, and Zee gets to study all of your  wares without having to buy them." She gave me a happy peck on the  cheek as thanks and I chuckled.

Cid looked gobsmacked.  "I...sure kid. Sure. Hells I don't even feel right taking it. But if you  insist. I guess free access to all my stuff is a decent compensation."  He shook off his surprise. "Anyway. Why don't you tell me who it is  you're looking for. Least I can do is give you a bit of a lead."

Huh,  that had been well worth it. "Ok, We're here looking for a friend of  ours. A guy named Sora?" I dredged up the details I could remember.  Namine had sketched him for me but...Namine wasn't great at sketching.  "He has spiky brown hair and blue yes and-" I trailed off as I saw Cid  looking at me oddly. Or rather, looking past me, eyes now focused back  on Roxas.

He slammed his hand down as his expression  cleared. "Damn, I knew you looked familiar! It's the hair, it just threw  me off." Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Cid adjusted his stance as if  preparing for a fight. "Why do you look so much like the kid?" His gaze  hardened as his hand slipped beneath the counter, grabbing for a weapon  based on his aura. Though he didn't pull it out.

I put up  both hands. "We have no idea." I said firmly. Honestly I didn't know  they were identical, but it didn't really matter. They had some kind of  connection so it wasn't too big of a shock. We just needed to find him.  "We're not trying to hurt him or anything. We're looking for him to help  us with something. If you could just pass him a message for us that  would be plenty. He can decide if he wants to meet or not."

To  my surprise, Leon stepped forward. "I don't like it." He sneered. "The  timing is too convenient. With all the weird things going on in town.  Those people getting sick and attacking. I think they might be  involved." I...had no fucking clue what he was talking about.

"Look."  I said with annoyance. "I don't fucking know you, and I don't know  anything about people getting sick. You can't just randomly blame people  for shit because they show up at a bad time. If you want some help with  your problem in exchange for putting us in touch with Sora, we might be  able to work something out. But don't just slander people for no  fucking reason."

Not that I was surprised. Trouble seemed  to fucking follow us. It was probably some bat cultist or something,  maybe one of the Organization. That just meant we needed to find Sora  and get out of here. It wasn't a good idea to leave this for too long if  they were already here. Sure, Sora could probably take care of himself,  but I didn't want to get stuck in a fucking quarantine or something.

Leon  seemed taken aback by getting snapped it, but his frown turned a bit  pensive. Cid sighed. "Alright." Said the shop keeper. "We don't have any  evidence they're problematic. Our best move would be to take them to  see the big man. He can make the call better anyway."

That  sounded...ominous. But his aura didn't seem particularly grim or  hostile. Just determined. Whoever this big man was, Cid didn't think he  would hurt us. And it wasn't self delusion either. My power would see  that. He genuinely believed this person was safe for us to talk to.  Since he did, and seemed like a nice enough guy, I was down for taking  the meeting. If this person could help us find Sora faster that was a  win. Funny how just a little bit of news can completely uproot your  projected timeline. I wish I'd still been able to take it easy like  earlier.

Once we agreed, Cid  closed up the shop and we headed out into the Traverse Town gloom. This  place, much like Twilight Town, never seemed to see sunrise, except here  it was more like permanent evening. As we came out, Leon followed  behind us, trailing back as he watched suspiciously for any signs of  betrayal. I wanted to roll my eyes, but he didn't really know us so I  guessed it was fair.

Once  we left Cid led us around the shop and off in a direction I'd never  been before, specifically down a long alley made of brick. We followed  it down until we came to a stop in front of...a door? I looked over at  Zee. "You have any idea what that says? Because it's gibberish to me."  The massive wooden fram was covered in complex rune script, and the door  itself hat no knob or seam, it just had a giant ass picture of a flame  on it.

Rolling  her eyes, Zee called up Star Seeker, and with a flick of her keyblade  conjured a blast of fire that slammed into the door. The whole thing lit  up bright red and then the door slid up smoothly. Despite knowing what  we were here for better than all of us though, Cid and Leon were  gobsmacked as they stared at Zee's keyblade.

Smacking  myself in the forehead, I groaned. These people knew Sora, so it was no  shock they knew about his keyblade. I hadn't even considered showing  them ours to prove ourselves. We could have saved this whole ordeal if  I'd just conjured Tartarus. I debated turning back, but whoever this  boss was might be able to help us find Sora faster anyway, plus I was  curious about the details of this whole rabid sickness thing.

Chuckling  awkwardly, I conjured Tartarus anyway, just to show we were all  wielders. Rana and Roxas both conjured their Oblivions, while Zee and  Drea each called up Oathkeeper.  Seeing them all using variations of the  same keyblades was interesting, but I doubted it would be more jarring  than seeing the keyblades in the first place. I set mine over my  shoulder, smiling sheepishly at Cid and Leon. "Ah, right. Did I forget  to mention that we had these? My bad."