Belle chuckled at Amaya's comment. "Don't worry I'll do the talking. Just nod or shake your head when you get nervous or something." Joshua asked her to keep Amaya safe. "I will try my best." she chuckled again. "No, I'll keep her safe, don't worry." after Joshua had disappeared in the Corridor of Darkness that would lead to wherever he wanted to go, Belle motioned Amaya to follow her. Thomas had already saw another way to sneak in, so she assumed he, Reno and Jake were going to take that road. Belle and Amaya were standing in front of the giant door of the bathhouse which opened before them. Belle opened the unlocked door and the two headed inside. "Hope we don't get cau-" Belle was interrupted mid-sentence by a tall woman wearing a pink uniform. And here she was thinking that they just would get the uniforms and blend in with the others. "I already thought I smelled human, and it wasn't her." she came close to Amaya and sniffed. "Hmmm... somehow you smell different, less stinky than the blue haired one." the woman said. Belle immediately gave her a nasty look. It seemed like they were never going to be able to blend in if they could smell human... although that made her wonder what the woman was. She looked humanoid, what was she? "So what do you humans want?" she asked. Belle had to act quickly, but the only idea that popped up in her mind was that they were looking for a job in the bathhouse. Apparently there already was another human, so it shouldn't be a problem. "We came here to apply for a job." Belle quickly said. "More humans!? Isn't one enough?" the woman touched her forehead and a smile appeared on her face. "Well, I can't help it. If you want a job you have to talk to Yubaba. She's on the top floor. I am Lin by the way." she looked at Amaya again. "And I think you should speak some more, you ain't gonna get a job if you don't say anything." she said.

Amaya smiled watching Joshua leave before following belle. It didn't take long till they were at the bathhouse. It was suppose to be a simple sneak atound and get a uniform and blend in right? Well they didn't think anyone could smell a difference in species, they fit in how did something so small give them away? Man this woman had some nose. "Yes..w-we are wishing for a job" she commented nervously hiding behind belle after the woman stated she smelled a bit less human then belle. "I get nervous and mix up my words around...others...my shyness is to blame.." She said gently

The entire time ever since they arrived and through everything else, Reno and Oner had been within their book. They hadn't come out at all for some reason or another, so the group itself was being followed by a large, floating book. It was a pretty strange sight. Especially when the book suddenly opened and its pages rippled like water in a lake as Reno floated up from them right there, before the book closed and he sat on the cover now, a yawn escaping from him. "Morning everyone~" he stated with a sleepy expression on his face as if he had been sleeping. Reno didn't seem concerned at all that whatever fitting in they were trying to do may or may not have been ruined by emerging from the large floating book that was his glider. Plus, if they could smell different species it was clear that Reno, while he definitely looked human if one disregarded the markings and pointed ears, was definitely not a human if one could detect things by smell. Reno just sat there though on his glider, eyes closed as he drank from a milkshake that just appeared in his hand.

Joshua watched the activities going on in the bath house. It was quickly apparent that this place didn't cater to a human cliental, as some of the things were far from human. He even saw some people literally taking random junk out from one of the customers as they took a bath. As he was focusing on this though, he sensed a powerful darkness coming from further up in the bathhouse. Knowing such a darkness like this could cause trouble he used a Corridor to appear in the rafters in what appeared to be an office space of sorts. Peering over the edge, he sought to catch a glimpse of whatever was causing this darkness, and see if he could stop it before it caused any trouble.

They all seemed to decide that Ascot would be fine, since this place was decently large, and if he'd been abducted then they really didn't have a place to start off at, at least in Thomas's mind, so he was willing to dismiss that. For now, Joshua disappeared into his CoD, and they could focus on the matter at hand. "Alright, good luck," he said to Belle and Amaya before they moved off, and Reno appeared. And of course, he'd been sleeping or something, and was now drinking something. At this point, he was neither surprised, nor cared, since it kept Reno from being annoying, which was a positive thing in Thomas' perspective. "Hello," he said back, still standing where he had been left. "We're infiltrating that bath house there to try and find the Sign. Apparently they don't let human men inside or something. Come along if you want." With that, he set off towards the staircase he had noticed before, alert for danger as he made his way towards and up the stairs, entering inside the door there after a moment. Time to see what he could find.

"Humans huh..." pondered Reno between sips of his milk shake. He finished the rest down with one large gulp before just letting the cup disappear with a flick of his wrist. "Well its a good thing I'm not human then" he stated, a grin on his face. It was unclear if everyone had forgotten, or if everyone even knew, that Reno was indeed not human. He wasn't even from the same realm as the rest, a mysterious existence so to speak. "So they should have no problem with me if its humans they don't like". Reno followed along Thomas now, his book having vanished as he was now floating upside down while sitting in a cross legged position. Unlike Thomas, he wasn't really standing alert, or even floating alert. He was simply enjoying the sights that there were to see. So many interesting people and creatures. To Reno, it was truly an awesome place. With his strange appearance he probably didn't look out of place in this place with how strange everything else looked. If anything, his appearance was probably more natural here than the appearances of the others were. He entered the door after Thomas did, actually floating, or more accurately flying, a bit higher in the room now if there was a higher ceiling to allow it. "You check down there, ill check up here" said Reno with a grin, looking as though he was able to freely fly and move through the air now with ease and without a glider.

Thomas and Reno encountered some minor air Heartless when heading down the stairs, but they were easy to defeat. They eventually reached the platform at the bottom of the stairs and entered the single door there. They would quickly notice that they were in a boiler room, which probably provided the boiling water for the bathhouse. Inside they encountered an old, cranky-looking man with six arms who is operating the boiler room from a specially designed chair for him. Little black and fluffy balls were walking over the floor holding coal to throw it in the furnace. If Thomas was a regular human it would've been a problem to get across without disturbing the Sootballs. Reno could easily fly over as he had been doing that this entire time. The old man didn't pay any attention to the boys who entered. --- Joshua had appeared in the office of the one who was in control of this bathhouse, Yubaba. She was a tiny woman with a huge head, which made her slightly bigger than Joshua. She was sitting behind her desk. On the other side of the desk was someone that Joshua and the others were already familiar with, Maleficent. "Pete told me that a group of keyblade warriors entered this world." Maleficent said. "You haven't seen them by any chance?" "Not yet, but I feel a disturbance in my bathhouse. The scent of human suddenly grew bigger... Sen is not the only human around anymore." "And what about the sign? You still haven't acquired it? I thought you would be in possession of it right now." "It has been a bit of a struggle to find it. We had some troublesome guests lately, and I really needed to focus me on that. Don't forget that I still run a business here! But I already send him to retrieve the sign. I got some intel from one of our guests as to where it is." "A guest?" Maleficent questioned. "Yes someone in a black coat. But that's not important. Come back in a few days and we can finalize our deal." Yubaba said with a big grin on her face. "Then I'll see you in a couple of days." Maleficent said and disappeared in a Corridor of Darkness. After Maleficent was gone, Yubaba sniffed a few times and a disgusted look appeared on her face. "I smell human." she mumbled to herself. She walked through the office and kept sniffing, her face looking more disgusted by the second. She looked up and almost found Joshua's hiding spot until a baby's cry was heard. As fast as lightning Yubaba went to the cojoined room in her office. Joshua could hear her comforting the one who was crying.

Thomas resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Reno pointed out that he wasn't human, which was fair enough, and true, but didn't make it any less annoying in his general attitude, or the way he said it. "Well, don't wait on my account," he commented in return before moving off. He wanted to get to the bottom of this before the urge to hit something returned. Fortunately, it seemed said urge was needed, in small amounts, as minor Heartless appeared on the stairs that they moved along. None were difficult, even without considering how stupidly powerful Reno was, so it was more like a minor workout than anything challenging. Those obstacles quickly overcome, they soon reached the bottom. Stepping inside, Thomas found himself in a boiler room, buffeted by the heat from the furnaces that generated the fire, which by all accounts looked to heat wate ror something. Thomas stepped a bit further in as he looked about, noting the small creatures, as well as the man with six arms. That was weird, but he'd gotten used to weird stuff by now, so not incredibly. "Alright," he confirmed with a nod, resisting the urge to grumble beneath his breath. It wasn't like there was much to see here. But while he was ignored, he moved in and looked for an exit, or some way further in, while avoiding those minion type things, and defending himself if need be. After all, he was only a regular human (unless the darkness inside him negated that in some way), so he was unwilling to take any chances going further on.

Reno was immediately fascinated with all of the tiny little black fuzzballs on the floor to the point where he was levitating upside, face inches from each of them as he watched them work. In fact, he was so into it that he didn't realize that he had cast 'Float' on Thomas so that he would easily be able to levitate himself over the fuzzballs on the floor. The circle on his forehead was shimmering softly in its usual black color, the serene darkness from the circle flowing through the lines going his face and the rest of him as he just continued to watch the creatures work in strange fascination. "Wow" he remarked as his upside down self looked up at Thomas. "These things are really cool!" he stated cheerfully, a big grin on his face. That was when he noticed the six armed man operating the boiler. For how much Reno floated or flew upside down, it was a wonder how the blood didn't rush to his head. Perhaps that was some sort of physiology of the Denizens? Or was that just an affect of his magic. Regardless he flipped right side up, but still sat in mid-air in a cross legged position before moving over to the six armed man, looking over his shoulders from various angles and upright and upside down positions. "Hey Kali-san?" He had already given the six armed man a name, although it didn't seem to make much sense, but it was probably a reference to something else that may have had six arms. "Whatcha doin?" he idly asked, interested in the man's work as he just watched in simplistic fascination. Reno was a very curious and easily fascinated person.

Amaya and Belle were led by Rin to the elevator in the second floor. While making their way towards it the girls could see how the bathhouse was designed. Since there weren't any guests right now because it was daytime, it was very quiet. Most of the employers were either sleeping or just had awoken and were wandering around a bit. "You know it was really a mess last night." Rin laughed. "Another human like you two, Sen, came here and her first guest was a Water Spirit. She really did her best and got a nice present from the guest." Belle didn't really reply to it but only smiled, it was a nice story but she didn't have anything useful to say, so she wouldn't say anything. They soon reached the elevator. "Here is the elevator. It should take you all the way to the top floor where Yubaba's office is." she sighed. "I hope she is in a good mood." Rin gave the girls a thumbs up and left again to do whatever she had to do. From what Rin just said it sounds like Yubaba isn't really the nicest person and probably only pretends to be very nice, for customers for example. "Shall we go Amaya?" the two rid the elevator to the top level and exited. They were standing in the empty hallway, which unlike the rest of the bathhouse had fancy walls, expensive pots and more. Which immediately gave Belle the conclusion that most of the money earned went to Yubaba. "Are you ready to enter Amaya?" ---- After Thomas and Reno entered the boiler room, Kamaji didn't seem to pay much attention to him. After only a minute Reno was already floating behind of him, looking over his shoulder to admire his lousy job, something only Reno would do. Thomas was trying to make his way across the ground where the Sootballs were walking. "Don't step on any of them boy." Kamaji said, totally ignoring Reno. The six-armed man took a big gulp from his jug of water. "Watcha boys doing in my boiler room anyway? For the record I'm not giving more people a job, and ya guys aren't even spirits so that is out of the question." the grumpy man said. ---- While Ascot was wandering around in the Spirit Realm, wherever he would be. He would notice that a strange figure was lurking behind him. He did not really move but just was standing there. A black and slightly transparent spirit wearing a white mask with a faint smile on it. If Ascot would continue to walk the figure would slowly make it's way towards him.

Except that Ascot was not in the Spirit World. In fact, he had not been with the group since mid-way through their journey. Rather, he had just...vanished during the trip through the Lanes Between, there one second, gone the next. It was as if he had been teleported away...but that was impossible, wasn't it? It took someone like Merlin to teleport people, and few people were of that caliber, right? That didn't change the facts; Ascot had been magically transported, magically transported into a dimly-lit dungeon where, as soon as he emerged, he was stabbed by a strange weapon, a crooked dagger that seemed magical in nature, and which, when it struck him, cut not his flesh, but his Metaphysical Heart, aka his Light. As the knife was pulled back, the boy tried to conjure up his Keyblade, only to find himself unable to. Nor can he use his magic, including his second Limit Break. "Sorry, boy," spoke a hooded figure which held the magical dagger in their hand, "but we can't have you conjuring up your 'Keyblade' just yet. Nor use Magic. This dagger, this is called the Blade of Severance, which temporarily severs the link between Mind and Heart, meaning that you cannot conciously use Magic. And this, this my boy, this is one of our cells, not just in a literal, but in an organizational sense." "You're another group," spoke Ascot, noticing the fact that the hoods worn by the figure were not the same as that worn by the Past Organization, the Six Senses, and certainly not the Riders. No, these hoods were red, with a golden trim. "Who are you? What is your goal? How does it conflict with the other enemies? What is your understanding of the Universe?" That last question was more useful than was thought. "I...I am A'mael," the voice was now evidently female, "and I am one of the cells that serve The Universal Cartel. Our goal is simply to destroy the barriers to profit and money - munny - that the Old and New Keybladers embody, and it conflicts with your other antagonists in that they uphold those same barriers, as far as we know. As for our understanding of the Universe..." "...Long ago, the World was united, whole and full of Light. But the Light cast a Shadow, and both Light and Shadow we lurked. In the day we were traders, exchanging vital goods across nations, in the night we were criminals, trading drugs, flesh, and other forbidden items. That was a day when we lived upon mountains of gold, in luxurious quarters, with armies of minions who obeyed our every whim." "Then the Keyblade War happened, and the destruction after it!" A'mael finally screamed. "Almost overnight, the worlds were divided, our profits lost, our networks sundered! It was only our securing the secret of immortality that saved us...only to find that whenever we tried to rebuild, your Keyblade Orders always found a way to stop us!" A'mael then looked at Ascot, who was staring at her skeptically. "But you want a moral argument, don't you?" she sneered. "Well, how about this? The divisions you foster between the worlds encourage stagnation. In the interests of preventing a new Keyblade War, you have stopped progress, technological and magical advancement, legal trade. You have also prevented worlds from learning from each other, helping each other. If your world had traded with others', would it not have progressed beyond tribal and medieval norms?" Then, suddenly, the dim lights grew much brighter, as more torches lit up the room where Ascot was. He can see now other people, not just other Cartel members in Red and Gold; a dozen of them besides A'mael, but also other prisoners, adult men and women, chained unconcious to the wall. All of them were from his homeworld. The implications suddenly came to Ascot. "You, you're here to enslave us, aren't you?" he asked A'mael. "Yes, yes, yes!" shouted the Cartel member manically. "Your homeworld provides an entire population of primitives easily captured and coerced into labor. As for you, well, you're young, and scrawny, but with regular stabs from the Dagger of Severance, you can be very easily kept and broken. Once you are sold to the highest bidder, or kept as our pet; whichever comes first, you are going to make your owner very happy indeed..." she said in a lustful tone. "We will destroy all of you!" shouted Ascot. "Joshua will hunt you all down!" "Not even your brother can be everywhere at once," spoke A'mael. "And even if he kills this cell, there will be others; and we are all decentralized. If he saves you, he'll have to take up the duty of happily hunting hundreds of us, scattered across dozens of worlds..."

"We are... we are..." Reno thought for a moment. What were they doing here? In truth, him and Oner had been both meditating, so they hadn't really been paying attention. If it was Transing then they would have been paying attention, since Transing was sleep without the unconsciousness of sleep. Meditating was a bit of a different story. "We are looking for a Sign thingy..." he stated, scratching his head for a moment, before a grin appeared on his face as he stated "so I guess we are exploring for now". He continued to watch the man work, fascinated by the machine and his six arms. He really wanted to help work on the machine, watching it for a few moments before he flew over to where the fire in the boiler was, watching the coal being burnt in it. "Hey, this is what heats the water right? I could help heat it without coal, that'd save you money". Reno, without showing any tact or restraint as he had a big, innocent grin upon his face, suddenly held up a single finger, a small blue flame appearing above it. With a flick of his finger, the blue flame went right into the boiler, before bursting out in an intense, blue blaze, turning the flames of the boiler a bright azure, making the flames of a much higher, and a bit warmer than regular fire, quality that did not need coal to persist as long as Reno supplied it with a minuscule stream of magical energy, something that he had virtually infinite reserves of. Normally blue fire was many times hotter than red, but Reno figured that boiling flames were not the best idea, so he did tone down the heat a good bit on that part to make it just a small bit hotter than the fire that was already going. "And when I leave, you can keep this new fire alive forever with less coal". Reno was pretty sure he had helped, as the innocent grin on his face showed that he only had helpful intentions.

Kamaji was a bit annoyed by the flying boy behind him. He told him they were looking for a sign. "I haven't seen a sign boy, so get lost." he said. Then out of the blue Reno conjured an everlasting blue flame and threw it in the furnace. Kamaji was quite annoyed that he had done this. "Why have you done this? Now that the process requires less coals the Sootballs will become lazy!" he sighed. "First that little human girl and now two freaks... and one of them is human again." Kamaji mumbled, looking at Thomas at the last sentence. Lin entered the boiler room through a secret passage with a plate filled with food. "Here's your dinner big guy. It will get dark soon, so people will begin requesting water shortly." she said and then looked at the two boys in the room. Her eyes then laid sight on the furnace that now had a blue flame inside of it. "Are these new employees of yours Kamaji?" the boys now would know the six armed man's name. "No of course not! These two are looking for a sign, and because I didn't know where it was they messed up the routine of the Sootballs." Kamaji said, also blaming Thomas despite him having done nothing. He grabbed the tray with food and started eating. Lin chuckled. "C'mon see the bright side of this. You might have to adjust the routine of the Sootballs, but the others will have to mine less coals now." she stared at the Reno and afterwards Thomas. "You two better keep an eye out for Yubaba. She's the boss around here and dunno what she might do when she catches you two." Lin said before disappearing again through the secret passage that would lead inside the bathhouse.