Part II: More Magic, More Fantasies

Chapter 37: The City That Never Sleeps

"New York?!" you asked excitedly.

"With the other brigade?" added Spencer-Lynn.

"And we don't have to use magic?" finished Sora.

"Well, at least we know they've been listening," Lightning said nonchalantly. "Has anyone here ever been to this New York place?"

Brecken raised her hand. "I have. I lived there with my parents when I first started middle school; before my mother apparently took on world domination as a career, she was a real estate agent, so we moved a lot."

"'That New York place' is one of the biggest cities in the Pangean countries," Maceida said to Lightning. "It's a pretty big deal. It remains the only city in the States I've ever been to; my parents took us on a trip once."

"It's a huge Mecca of fashion, apparently," added Serah.

"And this is where our next crystal is?" asked Arrigan.

"It's somewhere in the northern United States area," replied Lima. "Based on our readings it appears to be there, but since there isn't any magic used there, our readings could be a bit off."

"Hopefully not so off that they're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean..." Brecken said softly.

"Breck, is your father anywhere near there now?" asked Maceida.

"Um, no. He moved back home a couple years ago."

Home. Portland, Oregon- on the complete other side of the country.

"Well, there goes the idea I had." Maceida shrugged. "New York is huge. If we all have to scour the place, even with the other brigade, it'll take ages."

"I'm sure Rasa has come up with an idea," Lima then said. "There must be a reason he wants both our brigades there at the same time."

"Right. So," Alys turned to you all, "get yourselves packed and ready. The airship will be leaving at 11:00 tomorrow morning. You're dismissed."

Thanks to Sora's banging on your door, you were now completely awake and it was after midnight. That meant it was probably a good idea to get all your stuff together now so you could sleep longer before heading out. It didn't seem like you'd be coming back anytime soon. Deling City was fun while it lasted.

~~~~~

"I wish I knew how we were going to start searching for this crystal..." Spencer-Lynn said softly, in the airship's kitchen, grating a block of some type of cheese. "You know, passive, active. Whether there's gonna be action or if it'll be laid-back."

"That'd be nice to know, but I'm almost certain the hardship will be endurance if anything," you replied. "You heard the adults; although we can't use magic, New York is huge, and we don't even know that it's exactly there. This may take a while."

"And, I guess that since we can't use magic there, the chances of encountering any monsters are slim. That's good." Spencer-Lynn smiled.

You turned toward her. "Spencer-Lynn, is something wrong? You've been quiet lately, and that's not something I've come to expect from you."

"Well, there's nothing actively wrong, I just..." She paused, presumably thinking of what to say next. "Remember how badly I didn't want to go through with all this?"

"Yeah. You didn't want to tangle with anything that happened last year because of what happened to you. But you reconsidered because of Mumford's well-being, if I recall."

"Aye. I'm just... kinda ready for this to all be over. I want to go back to training on my own time. Baking. The first thing I'm gonna do after we fix all this is take a very long nap," she chuckled, eating a forkful of whatever it was she had cooked. The adults were letting everyone cook their own meals now, which was good. You and Yuffie had been taking turns cooking for yourselves as well as the other, and would also cook something up for Mumford if he was having a down day. Although the hospital visit had done him some good, he was still healing. Tonight, you had cooked, and had made an extra plate for Maceida. She had been suffering headaches ever since she'd gotten knocked out, and you decided to be nice.