********* (I Love You) Aki XXX: Souten- A FFXI Love StoryFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The next installment of ************ (I Love You)[/I].

To answer a couple people’s questions that I got about my story while I was running round Bismarck...

Dimitri is in fact an elvaan, and Hitomi is a hume.

Yes, the Momiji in the story IS the Momiji NPC that is at the fountain in Lower Jeuno. It was my attempt to nestle the world of Vana’diel in the game a bit better.

And yes, the GameMasters that I reference to in my story are in fact names of REAL GameMasters, used with permission of those various GameMasters themselves.

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)

No dedications this time around...

And I don’t own anything related to FFXI.

Read and review!
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Aki XXX: Souten
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I woke up the next morning leaning against the outside rough and wooden back wall of some shop, and immediately felt a pressure from something being on my lap. I looked down to see what it was...

And I saw Hitomi’s head laying there, her long black hair sprawled out across my legs. Her hands were lightly grasping one of my legs as her chest fluttered up and then back down in time with every breath that she took. I watched her sleep for a couple minutes longer, and then I lightly prodded her with my index finger.

Her eyes opened up immediately, and I could see that they were still blurred with tiredness. Hitomi turned her head slightly upwards to look at my face, and then I could see her smile sleepily at me.

"Ohaiyo Gozaimasu, Dimitri-chan..." She said as she -did I detect a hint of regret on her face?- got up from my lap and started to stand up.

"Good morning Hitomi," I replied to her as she finally stood up and stretched out her back, letting out a tiny squeak as she did so. "Isacio should be back in Selbina today, so we SHOULD be able to talk to him and try to find out where the Eruntalon Code is hidden away at."

Hitomi nodded her assent once, and then plopped herself down next to me, also leaning against the shop’s back wall. She rubbed her eyes with her hands a couple of times, and yawned before letting out another tiny squeak.

"You squeak a lot, you know that?" I said to her with a wink in my voice.

Hitomi blushed a slight shade of red, and turned her head away from me slightly. "Sorry," she said.

I waved it off with a laugh. "I’m only teasing you my dear, don’t take it so seriously!", I replied to her in jest as I poked her in her side (making her squeak again). "Anyway," I added with a tone of seriousness in my voice, "I think its cute."

Hitomi blushed redder at that comment, and I couldn’t resist chuckling.

"Should we cange out yukata for own clotes?" Hitomi finally said after a couple more minutes.

I looked down at myself, and realized that I was still dressed in the same yukata that I had gotten the night before. "Yeah...that would be a good idea, wouldn’t it?" I replied to her.

I then stood up, and taking Hitomi’s hand, helped her back to her feet also. We both then trudged through the city of Selbina towards where the change stations were the night before. Along the way, we could see that there were a lot of moogle’s busily scurrying here and there, fluttering their wings rather quickly. Watching them intently for a moment, I could see a moogle grab a part of the Summerfest decorations, and then disappear into a black warp hole via moogle magic, and then reappear a moment or two later empty handed, only to go grab another decoration and repeat the process.

"Look Hitomi, the moogles are moogle warping the Summerfest decorations to another part of Vana’diel, so that they festival can be brought to all the different parts of Vana’diel for three or four days at a time. We must have gotten here on the last night of Selbina’s Summerfest Festival." I said as I directed her eyes to the moogles floating about.

We finally got to the docks, and the salty morning sea breeze floated into our noses as the last strains of the rising sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Squinting for a moment, I could see the striped change tents on the other side of the docks with a moogle standing guard out front. Picking our way across the various deck obstacles, Hitomi and I finally came to the tent and as we did so, the moogle reached into his sack without looking at us and pulled out a clipboard that had something scrawled on it in moogle writing.

"Okay, lets see kupo..." he half mumbled to himself for a moment, before looking up at us. When he did so, his eyes went wide and he immediately flew over and hugged me as well as he could around my waist with his tiny moogle arms.

"Master kupo!" he said excitedly.

"Tebeal?!" I said with disbelief in my voice for a moment, before I remembered that Satmanda had said something about Tebeal working at Summerfest during the summer.

"Yes kupo, its me! I’m working Summerfest this year, as part of my union contract with the Mog House Management Union! I’m surprised to see you here master, but is there anything I can help you with?" He said as he squeezed my body for a moment longer, before finally letting go.

"Well, yes...first of all, may we change out of these dirty yukatas, and back into our normal clothes?" I asked, losing my patience a tiny bit with Tebeal.

“Okay kupo!” Tebeal said, before spinning around three times in tight quick circles. "Go on inside, and you will find your clothes laid out for you. I’ll be waiting out here for you kupo!"

I nodded, and then tugged on Hitomi’s purple yukata sleeve for a moment, and then pointed at the girl’s tent. Hitomi nodded her understanding, and we both then entered the two tents at the same time.

Once inside, I took off the yukata, obi belt, socks, and shoes, leaving them in a crumpled heap next to a bench in the corner that had my normal clothes laid out (freshly cleaned and pressed, much to my surprise) on top of it. I got quickly dressed back up, and then headed back out to see that Hitomi had somehow managed to change and get out before me. She was making small talk with Tebeal about the festival, but as soon as she saw me, she stopped and then turned towards me.

"Ready?!" she shouted out at me as she seemingly pulled her old felt and pointed hat out of nowhere and then popped it securely on top of her head at a slightly askew angle.

I nodded my agreement, and I said my good-byes to Tebeal before we went back into the Selbina proper. The moogles were nearly done by this point, and we could see that the town of Selbina was rapidly becoming the quiet port that it used to be before Summerfest had come to it. As Hitomi and I rounded the corner of the clothcrafting guild we saw an quite youthful man, who had a chiseled out chin, and brown hair that was cropped short against his head so was striding with purpose towards the docks. Atop of his head, sitting proudly was a sky-blue cloth cap that looked like it had gone through as much wear and tear as Hitomi’s hat as.

"Excuse me sir..." I said with respect as he approached us. The man paused for a moment, and looked at us with two sharp blue eyes.

"What is it boy?" he said with confidence in his voice, "And how may I help you? I don’t have long, I have to go fill in for the sea captain upon the soon docking ferry in a few minutes."

I nodded my head quickly in understanding. "Sir, I was wondering if you would know where Isacio lives. I wish to meet the famed 'hero of Selbina', but I was told that he wasn’t in town yester-"

The sea captain cut me off there, and then spoke. "Boy, Isacio is in Mhuara, and is gonna be there for a while. The Archduke of Jeuno himself asked Isacio if he would train some of his troops into shape." With that, the man politely stepped away from us and continued down to the docks.

"Wait, sir!"

That shout came surprisingly from Hitomi.

The old man turned around and looked at the black mage, and his gaze immediately softened. "What is it my lady?" he said peacefully as he adjusted his azure hat on top of his head.

"How do we get to Mhuara from here?" Hitomi asked, with a tone of complete seriousness in her voice.

I was slightly taken aback by that question.

How could ANYONE not know about the ferry connecting Selbina to Mhuara?

I could plainly see that the pilot was surprised also, and it was a couple heartbeats before he replied. "The ferry miss...haven’t you ever heard of the famed Selbina-Mhaura sea route?"

Hitomi shook her head a couple of times.

"Hmm...okay then...would you two like a free ride to Mhuara?" the man said after appearing to ponder the thought for a moment.

Hitomi’s eyes lit up, and she clasped her hands together once she had translated that sentence in her head. "Kyaaaaaa!" she squealed out, "Yes please!"

The man nodded with assertion. "Okay then, you and your friend please accompany me down to the docks."

As Hitomi and I quickly closed the gap between us and the old man, we could hear the ferry coming into port, its steam stack belching out a light colored smoke into the clear sky. Then, as a threesome, we approached the dock and waited for a moment for the ship to completely dock and the ramp to go down before we started to cross.

Once we were inside, the sea captain turned to go through a door marked "Crew Only", but paused with his hand on the door handle.

"Oh, by the way..." the old man said quickly, "The name’s Maat. If you need anything during the journey, just give a crew member my name and they will instantly take care of you."

And with that, he disappeared into the ship, leaving Hitomi and I to find our seats for the ride ahead.

-fin Aki XXX: Souten

Hehe, thank you. I got the idea to make him the ferry captain for at least one trip to Mhaura from the latest Vana'diel Tribune, which says, among other things, that Maat used to be a seafaring captain.

A lot of minor stuff I have a tendency to pull from the Tribune and its back issues, such as the singer that I had sing my song from Chapter XXIX (from the original Vana'diel Tribune: Extra III) to the MHMU, pulled from various event names in the Vana'diel Tribune II.

Other stuff, I pull from people I know in Vana'diel, various NPCs, or on various forums (mostly Alla, but a couple not).

I won't divulge the people that I know on Bismarck that I have included in my stories, but if you know them you should be able to recognize them. To protect people, I never divulge them by name in my story, with the one exception being Hiptaru and his casino.

As I stated in the "AUTHOR'S NOTE" for this Aki, Momiji is the NPC at the fountain in Lower Jeuno. Ellard is actual Goldsmithing Represenative's name in Bastok, and Elayne's name comes from the actual Goddess' worshipper in the small Goddess temple in MetalWorks. Red Ghost from Part I is a NPC in Port Jeuno, that has people constantly /follow on. Gilgamesh is an NPC from various FFXI cinemas in game. And in Chapter XXVIII, the guy who runs the goldfish scooping event is an uncanny representation of the NPC who ran the goldfishing activity outside of San D' Oria last year, and the fortune teller from the same chapter is pretty much the same one that gives the Tarut Quest in Lower Jeuno (minus the taru accent). And of course, the Archduke and his little brother (who showed up briefly in Part I) are actual NPCs in Vana'diel.

The GMs that I mention in my story are in fact actual GMs, who have given me permission to use them in my story.

The song that Hitomi sings in Interlude II is in fact (as some people guessed correctly) the first two verses of the Memoria de la S^tona.

The "Eruntalon Code" in fact comes from Allakhazam. If you look on the Tradeskill forum from a while ago, you will see that a person who many would argue is one of the best crafters across all the servers claimed to have broken the "HQ code" in his goodbye thread to FFXI. A flurry of posts developed after that trying to replicate Eruntalon's work, and the HQ code secret was termed the "Eruntalon Code", after its famed creator, Eruntalon. Also, in his goodbye post, Eruntalon said he told one other person the code, and that is where I got the idea of "passing it down" that Gilgamesh mentions at the climax of Part III.

Back towards the beginning of Part III, the paper that mentions the moogle summerfest (and helps to explain why Tebeal wasn't at Dimitri's Mog House in Jeuno) comes from a newspaper called the Windurst Irregular, which is in fact another fanfiction series written by a character named Fhugly on the Asura server (and who is also an Allakhazam poster).

The war events that I have depicted so far actually real battles that took place according to the game, so I am working off of an authentic timeline.

The crafting recipies that I used in Kasho II are actual crafting recipies for those items in game.

There are a few more things, but I won't get into them at this time.

Part of why it takes so long for me to write a chapter now, is that I am trying to fit the story of ************ (I Love You)[/i] into the world of FFXI, and make it fit seamlessly, while intergrating real NPCs and people from the game into my story, and bringing them to "life", so to speak.

Okay, perhaps a bit more information that I should have said, but anyways...

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy more of the story as I write/research/post it!

Edited, Tue Jul 26 11:42:23 2005 by Nightsintdreams

That sneaky old Maat ;)