Lea notices it when the late afternoon sun catches his eye, reflecting off a tiny plaque of tarnished silver abandoned amongst the overlong blades of grass sprouting up at the edge of the path. He leans down to investigate.

"What's this?"

"You mean you really don't know?" One of the kids—the taller ash blond going by Tres or something—arches a thin brow with the same self-assured finesse he employs in notching the arrows on his bow and with all the haughty skepticism of an overly strict third grade history teacher catching an errant student with unfinished homework. Lea would almost say it's impressive, if he wasn't constantly on the receiving end of the look.

And Lea generally puts in the effort not to let it get to him when people are being obnoxious know-it-alls but, well, this kid is pushing it—so he's maybe slightly less successful than is probably normal. "Hey, I'm not from around here. Get it memorized already."

"It's a knowing tag."

Lea blinks. "A knowing what?"

"A knowing tag," The girl named Seven repeats, frowning at him like he's got a screw loose or something. "They're to help us remember the fallen."

"Oh." That Lea can understand at least.

It's hard sometimes to remember this place is in the throes of war when the majority of the people doing the fighting are really just a bunch of kids. And why does that seem to be the same wherever he goes?

Though these kids do seem awfully on the innocent side to be involved in that kind of work. Lea files that tidbit away for later as the lecture is continued, this time by one of the few kids not named after a number, which was a whole other brain ache all by itself.

"They're important because otherwise there's no way of knowing they're gone," Rem explains, as if it was a common fact of life.

"What, like their friends and family wouldn't notice if they didn't come back?" Lea wonders why exactly he's getting the looks again.

"Don't you know," Queen butts in, shoving sleek glasses back into place, despite them not having moved an inch, with a stoic skepticism written all over her face. "When someone dies they are erased from the memories of the living."

What. Lea's eye's blow wide in horror. "But why? Who would want to just forget people like that?"

"It is the Crystal's blessing. The memories of the dead are but burdens to the living. We would only waste valuable time in mourning and in pain," Queen continues, like she's reciting a passage from a text book.

"That's bull crap!" Lea can't even imagine. After all the pain and suffering he's seen, of losing his friends, losing the ability to feel, being forgotten and then forgetting in return—all out of his control—how can anyone think this is okay?

"When you lose someone like that it doesn't just take away all the pain. It takes the good right along with the bad!" He can't help thinking of Xion, left for dead after Xemnas got what he wanted out of her, unmourned and unavenged. His friend. Forgotten. He hadn't realized why looking at Kairi hurt so much or why he'd brought three sea-salt ice creams up to the clock tower—hadn't realized what his heart was so desperately trying to tell him all along until it was nearly too late. "You won't just forget the names of your friends but all the time spent together, watching sunsets, eating ice cream, telling jokes and goofing off—all of it will be gone… until you're just empty inside." Like losing a piece of your heart, Lea adds silently before taking in a deep breath, trying to reign himself in. These are just kids after all. "A name on a tag can't possibly replace that."

There's a long moment of uncomfortable silence from the kids.

"Hey!" At least until Nine—or maybe it's Eight, Lea is still getting the numbered names memorized—shoves himself forward from the back of the group. "You can't tell us how to feel, yo!"

Lea snaps his fingers, cutting off the irate teen. "See, see? That's exactly my point."

"Huh?"

Nine nearly goes cross-eyed as Lea points directly in the kid's face. "Nobody should get to tell you how to feel, even if it's to not feel at all."

The statement brings about another round of that awkward silence until Queen chooses to break it. "You seem very certain in all of this." Lea kinda gets the impression she doesn't get told she's wrong about something that often. He makes a mental note to introduce her to Isa someday. The two of them can commiserate over the general suffering of being right all the time.

Crossing his arms behind his head, playing for casual, he tries to shrug off some of the lingering scrutiny. "Let's just say I've got experience and leave it at that."

"Hmm, I wonder… could it have been a l'Cie. That would explain…." Queen frowns, looking at him like he's even more of a puzzle now than when he first popped up out of nowhere wielding magic they didn't understand.

"A what?" Lea's pretty sure he'd never even heard of a… whatever she just said.

"Whatever the case, we'll have to save the chatter for later," King interrupts, the kid's deep voice making him sound not much like a kid at all.

"He's right," Ace jumps in, pulling out a deck of magic playing cards that reminds Lea very strongly of Luxord. "We've arrived. Get ready."

Ah, so they have. The city gates are just up ahead. Time to earn his keep.

Queen and a few of the others watch in interest as he summons his keyblade. Lea's willing to bet the only reason they're letting him tag along on this mission to look for his friend instead of shooing him off to scour this war-torn world on his lonesome is because they think they can pick up on how his magic works, maybe even steal it for themselves. Seeing as how different their magic is from his own he's pretty confident that's not gonna work out for them, but sees no reason not to let them try.

As they sneak into the enemy stronghold he can't exactly forget about this world's supposed blessing. It makes his skin itch, just the idea that this Crystal, or whatever it is, could be affecting him too—riffling through his head without his knowledge. He can't stand it, the thought of giving up his precious memories. It's enough to make him want to turn tail and run. He's done forgetting people.

But Lea has always been the one relied upon to take care of the icky jobs. He may not be in the Organization anymore, but good people are actually counting on him now. Letting them down isn't exactly an option.

He figures at the very least Sora hasn't died here, because Lea can still remember him just fine. But that doesn't mean he can dismiss the possibility that the kid's been here and until they find the little, self-sacrificing goofball Lea's gonna keep looking. And he might as well keep an eye on these misguided half-pints while he's at it. Troublesome world or not, nobody's about to be forgotten on his watch.

It's something he hopes these kids get memorized.

NOTES: The idea behind this little interaction was something I just couldn't get out of my head the whole time I was playing Type-0. It just seemed like Akademia would be a horrible place for someone like Lea who values being remembered so highly, especially after all the stuff he went through with Roxas and Xion. So I finally decided to get it out of my system and introduce him to Class Zero. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the mini story/rant. Thanks for reading!