Y insisted on waiting a few more moments before they could go meet up with X. She didn't want their rest to seem too short and make him suspicious of them. If he was against them it was important he didn't know they were onto him. And if he wasn't, it would be bad for him to know they suspected him anyway.

On the next floor X was staring at the door onward, cards in his hand. Yui couldn't see his face, but it wasn't hard to tell he was lost in thoughts. He hadn't moved at the sound of their footsteps.

"Yes, that is a door," Y said, leaning over X's shoulder. He jumped, turning to look at her. A smirk appeared on his face, masking whatever he had been thinking moments before.

"Oh, there you two are," he said, putting his hands in his jacket pockets. "Was just about to go back and get you."

"We're good," Yuki said. "What about you?"

"Fine," X said quickly. Yuki had expected no less. "Are we ready for the last floor?"

"Yeah, ok, but before that we got a few plot points to cover."

Yuki groaned at the sound of the familiar voice. She glanced over to the side of the room, unsurprised to see the red-haired woman smirking at them. She had her arms crossed as she leaned back against the wall, bright turquoise eyes watching them.

"Now what?" Yuki asked. She turned to face Sykitune, hand resting on her hip.

"I'm surprised it took you two so long to start doubting him like that," Sykitune said, pouting slightly as she stepped away from the wall.

"What?" X asked quietly.

"What do you want?" Y demanded, her fists clenching at her side. Her eyes darted between X and Sykitune gaging his reaction.

"Just going to iron out a few things from your last floor," Sykitune said calmly, shrugging her shoulders. "Lots of riddles I'm sure you missed."

"We don't have time for riddles," Yuki said.

"Shame, Aryum says those riddles are the key," Sykiyune said.

"Key to what?" X asked, his eyes narrowing at the other Heartless. She smirked and shrugged again.

"Everything," she said. She uncrossed her arms and placed a hand on her hip, the other motion around her with no specific intent. "All that is going to happen."

"Well, we'd appreciate if they were a little less vague," X said.

"Wouldn't we all," Sykitune said, chuckling lightly. "None of us know much more than you. Listen, everyone knows you know what those riddles mean. And honestly, I want to know too. Can't you help me out? For my little brother." For a moment Yuki was confused. Sykitune had a brother, she had never really mentioned it. But Yuki remembered someone else had mentioned it. She made the connection only as X spoke again.

"I don't ever recall you saying a single word to Axel," he hissed.

"I know," Sykitune said, letting out a sigh as her hand dropped. Her eyes were downcast, a soft smile crossing her face. "It was so hard to look at him. It was my fault anyway. Letting him and Isa sneak in to visit that girl."

"What girl?" Y asked, before Yuki was given a chance to. Was it the one they had been going to visit in the castle. The one called X locked in a cage?

"No idea," Sykitune said. "She was a pain though. It's her fault my brother lost his heart. It's her fault it all happened." Bitterness seeped into her voice, teeth baring in a snarl.

"Well, regardless of whatever excuse you're going to try on me," X said calmly. "It doesn't change the fact I really have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't understand those riddles." His voice was firm, his eyes narrowed as he watched for her reaction. She only huffed rolling her eyes.

"She said you'd lie until your dying breath," she said. Her eyes went to Y and Yuki, making sure to catch their gaze. "Maybe you're right to start doubting him."

She left in a corridor of darkness, not a trace left behind. For a moment they stood in silence. Yuki stared at the wall, her mind reeling. Y was watching X, carefully waiting with her arms pulled close to her. X wasn't moving and didn't seem to be caring about anything around them.

"So that's why you made up the excuse of needing rest? So I'd be gone long enough for you to talk about me?" X asked quietly. Still his voice echoed in the room. Yuki glanced over at him, what were they supposed to say?

"How was I supposed to know you would go ahead?" Y asked, sighing heavily. She was apparently just as gifted as X was when it came to lying. "They're just trying to drive us apart."

"No, I get it," X said, shaking his head and turning his back on Y. "You still don't trust me. That's fine."

"X, we do trust you. They're trying to get in your head because you're dangerous to them," Yuki said calmly, stepping forward. X looked over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised. "Aryum once told me you were a trump card. I don't imagine it's good having a trump card against you."

"Yuki's right," Y said, stepping towards X just slightly. He didn't move away from her. Yuki hoped that was a good sign. "I promise, I really do forgive you. Sykitune was lying. I love you."

There was too much of a silence in the air. Y's words hung almost as if suspended in the air in front of her. It increased the pressure in the room nearly tenfold, weigh on Yuki. She could feel her chest tighten as she almost couldn't breathe.

"I love you too," X said softly after a moment. "Let's see this last world then."

He held out the final card to Yuki, letting her take it. She sighed, looking at the city imprinted on the card. She sighed, holding up the card in front of the door. It vanished from her hand as the door swung open.

Inside the room, the floor turned into a vast open city. Buildings rose up on either side of them, blocking out most of the sky. But it was empty, unlike usual. And as much as Yuki hated the crowds, it felt wrong for the streets to be empty. X and Y turned, looking around with wide eyes. Y's jaw had dropped.

"Whoa," Y said.

"What is this place?" X asked, slowly turning to face Yuki.

"Shibuya," Yuki answered. "Usually, there are a lot more people. Honestly a little claustrophobic if you ask me." 

"I've never seen a city so huge," Y said, spinning around again. Yuki nodded in agreement. There had never been another world that compared in size.

"It's impressive," X said.

"Yeah," Yuki agreed. Even with all the time she had spent within the city she still was sure she hadn't even seen the half of it. "There shouldn't be too many shadows here, and we'll probably just get thrown against another boss Heartless. I didn't have any really big fights here."

"So where to first?" X asked.

"The cafe," Yuki said easily. She wasn't sure why it seemed like the right place to go. At the least it was a place she knew well. There was always someone there to talk to. And before long one of the others usually turned up. 

Ebtering the cafe, she was unsurprised to see the shadow of a familiar black haired man wearing sunglasses. He was cleaning a glass, like he usually was when Yuki was in the building. Yuki smiled as she leaned on the counter watching his movements.

"Hey Mr. H, Joshua around?" she asked.

"He's up by 104. Had a few things he needed to take care of," Mr. H responded calmly, not even glancing up from what he was doing.

"Ok, thanks," Yuki said. She didn't move from where she was leaned on the counter. X and Y were shifting behind her, perhaps waiting for her to go find this Joshua character. But she didn't want to yet. There was more from this shadow. "So, how did you meet Joshua anyway? Seems weird for a kid to be hanging around with you."

"I met him during a pretty dark time, guess you could say," Mr. H said, setting down the glass and looking up. "He's got a lot on his shoulders, I try to help him out. Keeping him from giving up on himself."

"That's kind of you," Yuki said. She couldn't imagine what Joshua would have on his shoulders. He always walked as if the world didn't weigh anything, and if there was some ruler he didn't care about them at all.

"Yeah. Well, kid had to learn," Mr. H said calmly. "Give up on yourself and you give up on the world."

"I don't know who this guy is, but I like him," X said softly. Yuki nodded slowly, the words replaying in her head.

"I, never thought about it that way," Y said.

"How, how do you figure that?" Yuki asked. Her mind was still trying to make sense of something so strange. But t the same time, it made so much sense.

"Easy, the world ends with you," Mr. H said, not missing a beat.

"Huh?" Yuki asked. She was not expecting one riddle to be answered with another. She honestly should have been expecting it at this point.

"The world ends with you," Mr. H repeated. "Starts with you too. If you want to enjoy life, you have to keep pushing your horizons as far as they'll go. And if you give up on yourself, you won't be able to do that and your world becomes smaller and smaller."

Yuki stared in complete awe. Her mind was reeling trying to wrap around what he had just said. It wasn't wrong. It was like being trapped on a small island, and the only way to become more was to see more. Exactly what had happened to all of them. What if they had just given up? Would anything be the same here?

"Wow. That's, that's..," Yuki trailed off, words not able to capture what she thought. "Thank you."

"No problem kid," Mr. H said. "Why don't you go find Joshua now? Might be able to find Ayano along the way too." He smirked slightly before vanishing. Yuki blinked, backing away from the counter and turning to face the twins.

"Was not prepared for them to motivate us midway through," X said. Y held in a snicker, turning her head away from X.

"They've been trying to tear us down," she said, composing herself and turning to look back at Yuki.

"Maybe they don't want us too dead. Just enough we won't fight back too hard?" Yuki suggested. Though she honestly wasn't sure. Maybe it wasn't them at all, maybe it was Aryum playing her games as always.

"Maybe," X agreed. "So, where's 104?"

"Back towards the scramble crossing, come on," Yuki said, leading the way out of the cafe. 

She led the way through the empty city, trying not to shift too much. It was uncomfortable, the place usually so full of life completely empty of it. It was even stranger thinking of the game where people had desperately fought for their lives. Life always thrived here, it should stay here. Shadow or not.

At the 104 Yuki felt the tension ease slightly. Sitting on the front steps was Ayano, her choppy bangs falling into her eyes as she traced shapes on the sidewalk. She looked up, green eyes filling with light as she saw Yuki. She jumped to her feet, face splitting into a grin.

"Hey! Yuki! Long-time no see!" she said happily. Yuki chuckled, rubbing the back of her head.

"Yeah, it has been a while," she agreed. There was never enough time to visit worlds now that life had gone back to some semblance of normal.

"You need to stop by more often," Ayano said playfully putting her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I know," Yuki agreed. She really did miss this world, in all its strangeness.

"Knowing it in your head doesn't do a whole lot of good if you don't act on it," Ayano said. Yuki was once again caught off guard. This world seemed to be good for that. But Ayano brushed by her confusion easily. "So what brought you back? More of those Heartless things?"

"Uh, no," Yuki decided, though she supposed it was techinically a yes. But that wasn't important enough at the moment. They had other problems. "Just trying to put a few pieces together."

"Pieces? What kind of pieces?" Ayano asked, her hands dropping to her side and head tilting. Yuki chuckled.

"A lot of them," Yuki said, laughing nervously. "Riddles of a sort."

"Hm," Ayano said, tapping her chin. Her eyes focused on Yuki, thoughts chasing each other across her eyes. "Well, here's the thing about riddles. It's all just a matter of perspective." She said pointing off to the side.

"It is?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah," Ayano said. "Sometimes you spend too long looking at the big picture and you can't see an obvious answer to the small riddle you have. Or sometimes you get too caught up on a small detail, when really you need to see the bigger picture."

"Yeah, I guess I never thought of that," Yuki said.

"So what's one of these riddles?" Ayano asked, leaning forward with her hands on her hips again. "Maybe I can help?"

"What makes someone who they are?" Yuki asked. It had been chasing them through many worlds. The talk of memories and experience. How it all adds up to something. But no answer of it was all it took.

"Oh, that's a pretty odd question," Ayano said. She smiled softly, standing up straight again. "Good for you, Joshua likes that one, so I already have an answer."

"You do?" Yuki honestly wasn't surprised. Joshua always asked weird questions, and this one seemed right up his alley.

"Yup. And maybe it's not one you're going to like," Ayano said simply. Yuki quirked a brow, waiting for her to continue. "But it's other people."

"What?" Yuki asked. That never even occurred to her. Why would other people make you who you are? How would that work at all?

"On our own, we're no one," Ayano said simply. "It's when other people look at us and see something. That's when we start existing, and that's what makes us who we are."

"I don't like the idea of being defined by others," Yuki said quickly. That would make her something awful to most. And she would have then fallen into an inescapable darkness.

"Yeah. Most people don't," Ayano said with a chuckle. "But, you can control how people see you. As long as you start early. After some time though, it's too late to undo what has been done."

"Thanks Ayano," Yuki said, smiling briefly. "Joshua close by?"

"He's on the roof. Likes a birds-eye view," Ayano said, nodding back behind her. She smiled as she vanished. Yuki sighed, turning again to look at the twins. Y was staring ahead, eyebrows drawn together and mouth open as if she were about to ask a question.

"Now I'm just confused," Y said.

"Is, is this what an existential crisis sounds like?" X asked. His face was blank.

"Maybe," Yuki said with a shrug. "They usually have weird stuff to say, but never anything that deep. Come on, Joshua should be the last."

"Is he going to be as bad as the rest?" Y asked.

"Probably worse," Yuki admitted. Joshua was among the worst she had ever met, even competing with X and the Cheshire cat on a good day.

"Yay," X said sarcastically. Yuki smirked slightly, turning to the building.

The roof was windy. That was all Yuki could think as she walked across the flat roof. Standing at the edge of the building was Joshua, his hands in his pockets as he watched the city beneath him. The wind ruffled his blonde hair, though he didn't seem to mind and it didn't do much to his appearance.

"That looks a little dangerous," Yuki remarked, her voice louder than she liked to be heard over the wind. Joshua looked over his shoulder, smirk plainly visible. Yuki felt her gut drop.

"Hello Yuki. Have fun with Ayano?" he asked, looking forward again.

"It was interesting," Yuki said with a shrug.

"Well, that's a good thing I suppose," Joshua said. Turning away from the edge he took a few steps away, standing in front of Yuki. His lazy smirk was setting Yuki on edge. He only looked like that when he had something up his sleeve. "So, what brings you back to my city?"

"Not sure," yuki admitted. This seemed like a strange place to choose for them. "A bunch of riddles that I have a feeling you won't help with."

"Oh, and why's that?" Joshua asked.

"No offense, but you are one of least helpful people I've ever met in my life," Yuki said. She hadn't even been able to actually learn anything about this place untiol meeting Ayano. And whenever Joshua did say something it was usually a riddle. "You're impossible to understand."

"Well duh," Joshua said, waving his hand dismissively. "It's always been impossible to understand others." Yuki blinked a few times, once again trying to understand what had been said to her.

"What?" she asked.

"Everyone has their own little internal world; a secret garden only they can enter," Joshua said, explaining it like he was talking to a child. Yuki felt her blood boil slightly but she held in her annoyance. "Each world follows it's own logic, individuality. And the logic of one world means nothing in another. So, that makes it impossible for us to understand each other."

"But, we need other people," Yuki said slowly. Joshua's smirk grew.

"Oh, so Ayano told you that," Joshua said. He chuckled looking off to the side. "Yes, unfortunately, we do."

"So if we can't understand each other, how can we ever hope to get along?" Yuki asked.

"You don't need to understand someone to know them," Joshua said. Yuki didn't bother attempting to understand that. "Or even to be friends with them. You just have to know you're different and accept that. And then you bridge the gap."

"How?" Yuki asked. Joshua shrugged, arms going up to accentuate the movement.

"Who knows. Works differently for every person. Sometimes it's so easy you hardly realize you're doing it. And other times it's hard, so hard you want to give up," Joshua said calmly.

"But you can't give up," Yuki said.

"No, you can't," Joshua agreed. "Because only by allowing others in, do we find new ways to be ourselves."

Yuki smiled softly, considering his words. It still wasn't exactly something she was happy about. But, it was a little less terrible thinking of it that way. She felt a tightness in her chest, what she could only guess was a result of her guest. He was filled with bitterness. He didn't like this idea at all.

"Thanks, Joshua," Yuki said softly.

"Of course," Joshua said. "See I can be helpful."

"A rarity then," Yuki said with a smirk. "What are you doing up here anyway?" 

"It's a good place to see everything happening," Joshua said, pacing away to the edge of the building again. He leaned over the edge just slightly looking down.

"Mr. H mentioned you had a lot on your shoulders. What was that about?" Yuki asked.

"Easy. I have to keep my game running," Joshua said, smirking as he glanced at Yuki. White wings suddenly bursted from his back, spreading out beside him. Yuki took a few steps back, eyes wide. "Care to be a player?" 

Without waiting for a response he jumped off the building, taking to the sky with ease.

"Did he just?" X asked, his words halting.

"Game? Player?" Y asked.

"Suddenly, a lot about Joshua makes sense," Yuki said, rubbing her temples. At the very least his connection to the UG, at the most almost everything about him. No wonder the game was so twisted.

A cry of some kind of animal echoed in the air. Y darted to the edge of the building, taking in the city. Yuki and X followed her, sighing heavily when they saw the source. It was a Heartless that was bright red in color, with three tails lashing out around it. It looked like a fox, meaning it was Sykitune's. Kitsune.

A sharp pain on Yuki's palm made her flinch. She looked down, frowning as she saw count down timer.

"Oh you've got to be kidding," Yuki muttered.

"What?" Y asked.

"We have like a half hour to catch and kill that thing," Yuki said, displaying the timer. She was grateful for Ayano having actually explaining the game rules.

"Or?" X asked.

"I don't want to find out," Yuki said. X and Y nodded in agreement.

Luckily it didn't take long to catch up to Kitsune. It seemed just as trapped in the city as Yuki felt. The small and narrow streets hardly gave it any way to move. X led the charge, easily cornering the Kitsune in a back street. 

Using the constricted space it was an easy fight. Yuki hardly had think about how the twins worked with her. And sooner rather than later a crystalline heart was released with a dying cry. Yuki's heart clenched slightly as she shook her head. It was still not her favorite part of the job.

The exit opened up, and Y wasted no time exiting. Yuki understood why. They had reached the end of the castle.