Experiences and Blackmail...

"So did you manage to get it?" Natalia asked.

"Was there any doubt?" Her "friend" handed Natalia back her cell phone. "It wasn't that hard. It only took a couple of minutes to transfer the information when he wasn't looking." The girl chuckled as she viewed the contents that had been acquired.

"This should teach her friends to keep their mouths shut," Natalia said smugly. She quickly pulled out her wallet and slapped a bundle of bills across her informant's palm.

Despite being paid, Natalia's "friend" still looked a bit uneasy. "Are you sure this isn't against the rules, though?"

"Screw the rules, I have money!" snapped the arrogant rich girl. The trump card was finally in her hands. "I'm not going to let some hussy destroy my dream of finally going out with Sora!" One of her posse poked her arm and indicated her opponent amongst the crowd of people. Curiously, Kairi was accompanied by two odd-looking companions, a duck and a dog-looking creature.

Undaunted, with a sly smirk on her lips and the trap waiting to be sprung, Natalia started to make her way toward the unsuspecting redhead...

* * *

After realizing that they had nothing left to train for on the island ("These heels feel so natural now!"), the gang decided to head back to the mainland's mall and split up before meeting back up for lunch. Tidus, Wakka and Riku headed for the sporting goods store while Kairi and Selphie went to pick out some makeup and accessories to go with the outfits that they had bought yesterday. That left Sora to show Donald and Goofy around the mall itself.

As they made their way to the jewelry counter, Selphie glanced around. "Well, this doesn't seem too weird. A guy shopping around for makeup and jewelry."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "If anyone asks, I'm getting it for my girlfriend."

"I didn't know you were gay," Selphie teased.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Funny."

"Anyway, it seems like you're getting a bit too comfortable in Sora's body, Kairi," Selphie said as she browsed the jewelry counter.

Kairi shrugged, holding up a pair of earrings to the light. "Not really. I'm still trying to get used to the whole "urinal" concept."

Selphie whipped around immediately in shock. "You mean you actually took off Sora's pants?!"

"Hey! I can't hold my bladder for 48 hours!" she said in her defense. "I had to go sometime!"

"And here you were worrying about the whole naked thing," Roxas commented. "You've pretty much mapped out the entire male body."

"I kinda liked it better when I was unaware," Kairi said. "Now that I've seen it, there's really nothing left to the imagination."

"It was that small, huh?" Selphie giggled.

Kairi playfully punched Selphie on the arm. "Shut up!" she laughed. Then Kairi became serious. "Do you think Sora can actually pull it off?"

Selphie noticed the worried tone in her best friend's voice. "It's going to be okay." She patted Kairi on the shoulder and gave her a comforting smile. "You'll see."

"Actually, what I'm worried about is what'll happen if we switch back before or during the pageant. We've been trying to get Sora ready to play me, but what if I end up being the one participating?" Kairi sighed. "And then there's the whole Natalia thing and the fact that this is my very first pageant."

Selphie nodded thoughtfully. "I see. If Sora messes this up for you..."

"And I was so excited too," Kairi moaned. "Well, not the swimsuit part, but being up on stage performing for an audience." There was a faint smile on her face. "It gives me an endorphin rush doing things like that, you know?"

Selphie looked at her for a moment. "You've definitely changed, Kairi." The Princess of Heart looked back at her, surprised. "I remember when you used to be really shy about having to do things in front of people."

"That's before I met Sora and Riku," Kairi reminded her. "Afterwards, it wasn't so bad."

"Because of Riku's encouragement?"

Kairi shook her head. "I think it was more of Sora's clumsiness. Even when he would do something embarrassing, he'd just get back up and try again."

"I guess that stubbornness of his was good for something after all," Selphie said. "It gave you confidence." Kairi blushed at the comment.

"Thanks Selphie." She threw her arm around Selphie and gave her friend a one-armed hug. "I really needed to hear that."

* * *

"So how does it feel being a girl?" Donald asked.

"Like a few of my major body parts have shifted around," Sora replied. He adjusted his top. "It's kinda uncomfortable how my chest keeps rubbing against my shirt."

Goofy rubbed his nose nonchalantly. "It's like when Mulan was pretending to be Ping, right?" The other two looked around at him. "The only difference is that instead of pretending to be a girl, you ARE a girl!"

Donald rolled his eyes and muttered something about "Captain Obvious."

"I never knew you had such a spacious mall here!" Goofy exclaimed. "It almost reminds me of Traverse Town only with everything inside!"

"Actually, the mall's fairly new. When they started serving Sea-Salt Ice Cream here, Scrooge McDuck donated a small portion of his personal savings to the town for a new attraction to be built. They had a town meeting a few months back to decide what to do with it." Sora chuckled. "It was either this or a water park. But since we live by the beach..." Sora's hips squirmed slightly. "I don't know how Kairi can stand wearing something that rides up your butt all the time."

"Why, hello, Kairi!" Sora stiffened as Natalia's voice rang out.

"Friend of yours, Sora?" Goofy asked.

Sora gave him a hard look. "I'm Kairi, remember?" He turned his gaze toward the incoming girl. Surprisingly, her group wasn't following after their leader.

"What's she up to?" Naminé wondered.

Sora shrugged slightly. "Hi, Natalia," he replied apprehensively. "What happened to your friends?" Expectedly, the blonde completely ignored the question.

"Ooh!" She looked at Donald and Goofy with a sly giggle. "And who are these two?"

"Ahem." Donald cleared his throat. "My name is..."

"Excited about the pageant tomorrow?" Natalia asked, cutting off Donald's introduction. The court wizard looked ticked at being interrupted.

Sora's eyes narrowed. "Let's cut the crap, okay? What do you want?"

Natalia let out a small sigh. "If you insist. I was just talking with my friends for a few minutes and you wouldn't believe what happened to come up." She whipped out her cell phone and held the screen in front of their faces.

Sora, Donald and Goofy peered at the small screen curiously. Their jaws dropped as they realized that on it was a picture of Sora a few hours earlier, displaying a feminine chest. "How in the world did you get that?!" Sora demanded.

"Oh, I have my ways," Natalia replied with an evil grin. She quickly put the cell phone back in her pocket.

"Wait a minute..." It finally dawned on Sora. "You stole Tidus' phone?" He shook his head in disbelief. "And I thought you couldn't get any lower..."

"How could you?" Donald quacked.

"Who said anything about stealing?" Natalia giggled shamelessly. "It's your friend's fault for not keeping his mouth shut. I mean, he was out there staring at that picture where anyone who happened to look over his shoulder could see."

"What? You're going to blackmail me or something?" Sora shouted, momentarily forgetting whose body he was in.

"How would it affect you? It's a picture of Sora." Natalia tapped a long pink fingernail against her chin. "However, I know you wouldn't want anything bad about your boyfriend to get out. I mean, what would people say if they saw the once respected Keyblade master with a need for a training bra?" She giggled again as Sora's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Throw the pageant or else this picture's being sent to everyone."

Sora was speechless as Natalia gave a sadistic toss of her hair. "You don't know how tempted I am in summoning the Keyblade right now and smacking her one," he said internally to Naminé.

"Well, it's been nice meeting your animal friends," Natalia said. "See you at the pageant tomorrow...or not." And with that, Natalia runs off back to her posse, leaving the trio dumbstruck.

"Uh...what just happened?" Donald asked.

"Man, what a b@#&%!" Sora exclaimed, gritting his teeth. Goofy only shook his head mournfully while Donald was muttering some obscenities under his breath. "Blackmail? She's resorting to blackmail? I can't believe she's that obsessed about me."

"After fighting Heartless and Nobodies for so long, I forgot how mean regular people could be," Goofy said.

Donald looked at Sora with concern. "So now what are you going to do?"

Instead of answering, Sora asked Naminé, "What do you think we should do?"

"We better talk this over with Kairi," Naminé said without hesitation. "But if I know her, there's no way we're going to back down!"