An Advantageous Key of Hope
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Shonen Jump, or any media affiliated with them.
Kei: Welcome back. Today we bring you a fine message; we will be continuing Naruto's adventure through the Disney World-
Claire: Shut up and do it!
Kei: Okay! But first we have to explain some things that may bring perspective; Naruto's birth was the same year Vanitas was extracted from Yahiko's heart. Yahiko's restoration was that same day, just at night.
Julia: What are you inferring?
Kei: ignoring her Five years after Yahiko linked his heart with another the plot of BBS happens, a set two years before the Uchiha Clan Downfall. Nagato's actions have merit at this point when he did the inheritance ceremony on him. Naruto gains the Keyblade at age 12 and goes away for training for 2 and a half years, meaning by the time he's 15 the story is ten years after-
Yusei: Okay, we get it! Introduce the new readers!
Kei: Fine! Welcome to the Key of Hope series! This is Kingdom Hearts using Shonen Jump and Disney characters. That includes all Jump superstars, as you could see in the last story. This is a sequel to Key of Hope, taking place during Kingdom Hearts II and Chain of Memories. Maybe 358/2 Days. We hope you enjoy the story.
The First Path: Prologue I of III - Origin
Deep into the realm of darkness, a beach lays spread out. A lunar sun shines a blue light upon the crystal black surface of the sea, illuminating the stone formations like skeletons of dragons plaguing the beach. A lone man sits on a black and blue rock, dressed in the black coats known so well by many.
A portal of darkness opens not far away from him, and a shorter person steps out. He also wears the dark cloak. "You have arrived," speaks the older male in a deep, masculine voice. "So, I've been to see him, and he really is a lot like you."
"Who are you?" asks the young boy, not demanding but more hopefully.
"I am all that is left, or maybe I'm all there ever was."
"I meant your name." This is said more sternly.
"You already know my name. What about you?" He turns his head to the younger one. "My name may be of no importance, but what do you know your true name?"
…
As the battle between Light and Darkness reached a close, the worlds would soon come to appreciate the help Naruto, Donald, Goofy and the others provided to stave off the invasion of darkness. But, as this happens, someone else would be involved in another event that would connect back to these dark events. Naruto, after all, wasn't the only hero in another world. Here is the adventure of one of them.
"Take this!" Mickey shouts before flipping in the air. He easily slices a Heartless with his Keyblade, the Star Seeker, before moving to the next. He summons a sphere of light and fires it at a Large Body.
"That was hard..." He says with a tired sigh. The little mouse Keyblade wielder looks to the side to see other people fighting off against the Heartless with various results. "Looks like everyone here is doing well, but I need to get there… Maybe if I go to another world."
Mickey looks around to see a strange sight, a kid no older than Naruto running away from the Heartless. He jumps over, feeling compelled to help especially since he's the only one running away and literally doing nothing. All the others have some form of ability they're using, but he seems to be the only one. "Watch out!"
The boy ducks under to dodge the blade and it slashes to destroy a Heartless. The boy hits the ground face forward, rubbing his face from the cuts. He has green eyes with black curly hair that has similar emerald highlights. He wears a school uniform Mickey does not recognize, but he has a certain light in his eyes that feels great. The mouse asks, "Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah! Th-thanks!" says the boy as he picks himself up. "What Quirk do you have?"
"Uh, Quirk? Well, I don't know if I can be seen as quirky..."
"No, I mean… Wait..." The boy then looks over Mickey examining him. "You don't look really familiar. With these other monsters showing up it's not hard to think you're not the same. In fact..." And from there he just dissolves into murmuring.
"You okay?"
"Huh?" is his response, totally unaware of his problem. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Well, your world's about to sink into darkness," Mickey tells him, to which his eyes shoot up in shock. "But don't worry. I can fix everything; I just need to wait."
"Wait? Wait for what?" The boy looks up at the sky, seeing the former blue veil has turned black and red. The world itself becomes as dark as the night sky, with yellow cracks spreading throughout. The planet implodes, being absorbed into the dark hole of the other realm.
Mickey opens his eyes seeing his location. Within the Realm of Darkness, he stands on rocky terrain surrounded by thorns and the night sky. "Hey, it worked. Now, I gotta find it. It must be the same world."
"Same world?" This shocks the mouse, who turns around to see the boy from earlier standing just behind. "What happened?!"
"How… How did you…" This he can't believe; once a world falls to darkness its inhabitants either end up in another world or fall into darkness. If anything, he shouldn't be right there with him.
"You said you can solve this right? Can you save everyone? If I'm here too I would like to help!"
Mickey looks up at him and shrugs. "Well, I did drag you into this… Let's go!" The two then take off into the darkness, Mickey summoning his Keyblade to take out a Heartless coming down at him from above.
The boy looks at the strange sword. A light appears in his irises upon seeing it, as if there's something about it to him. "What is that, a stick?"
"No, it's the Keyblade," says Mickey.
"Oh, it's a sword," he says realizing what he meant through that. "Why is it shaped like that? Doesn't look like it can cut anything."
"You'd be surprised." The landscape turns dark, taking away any of their vision. They look up to see someone coming down to them. Her battered, weathered and torn apart clothes throw him off, but the hair is unmistakable. Mickey gasps saying, "Konan," and jumps up to catch her. He grabs the star object that left her hands and slows her descent.
The blue-haired beauty opens her eyes, and she sees her friend from long ago Mickey. Groaning, she says, "Mickey? What… How did you-"
"Mickey, look!" The green haired kid points just down the now stone road they've appeared on, at a hoard of Shadows gathering together to ransack them.
"More denizens of darkness..." says the woman before summoning her Keyblade.
"We call them Heartless," says Mickey as he does the same action.
As Konan reclaims her Keyblade, Mickey walks over. He says, "Gosh, I never thought I'd find you in the realm of darkness."
The tired Keyblade Master, with a withered voice, asks, "Have you seen Nagato or Yahiko?" With a shake of his head, that confirms her fears. "I'm sorry. This world's darkness is getting to me…"
The boy walks forward. He takes her hand, saying, "It's alright. You'll be okay."
She looks down at the shorter teen, who feels surprised yet rejuvenated hearing him. "Who… Who are you?"
The boy realizes his position and backs away, faintly turning red while looking away. "Oh, I'm-" He stutters a bit. "Izuku Midoriya!" he eventually makes out. "Nice to meet you, Konan." Still stuttering, and a little bit of whisper.
Konan stares a bit at him, before turning over to Mickey who asks, "How come you're in this place? We've actually been looking for ya for a long time."
"A long time? How long was I gone?"
"About ten years." She widens her eyes in shock, her faded make up finally flaking.
"I see… After we last spoke, I took Yahiko somewhere safe and went after Nagato. But he was possessed." Her fingers clench in anger. "He was about to fall to darkness, so I stayed here to give him a chance." Her own drama is put to the side in her mind as she asks, "What about you? How did you two end up here?"
"It's the Heartless… They've been attacking worlds and taking their hearts. Any worlds without a heart vanish into darkness." This shocks Izuku and Konan, the former of whom were unaware of the situation. "I found a way to stop this, but I had to come here. So I stuck around a world that was falling to darkness in order to pass through."
"What for?" asks the exasperated teen.
"We just need to lock the Door to Darkness from both sides, using a Keyblade from the Realm of Light and a Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness. That way, we can protect the world. That's why I'm here," says Mickey as he explains his objective. He then sighs. "But, getting into the realm of darkness is harder than I thought; the paths you can cross have become unstable. That's why I stayed in a consumed world."
"But, the worlds are still in danger…" A thought crosses her mind. "Did Nagato make it back?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen either of you three since then."
As they're conversing, Izuku's busy murmuring. "Then with that logic, other worlds exist. So technically Mickey and Konan are aliens, and that's why he didn't know about Quirks. But what's this about Keyblades and the Realm of Darkness? Are there..."
"Uh, are you okay?" asks Konan, noticing his creepy murmuring.
"Oh, uh, sorry. I do that..." Izuku turns red covering his entire head with both arms.
Seeing his cute shyness she becomes more confident. "Well, I can't stay hanging around here forever. Let's go find this Keyblade, and get out of here. Wherever Nagato is, he's fighting his darkness, but Yahiko won't wake up unless I'm there."
"Yahiko?" Izuku murmurs.
"We'll worry about getting out later. First comes the Door to Darkness; if we can't stop this no one will be safe." With that, Mickey heads down the road.
"Ten years, and he hasn't changed at all." Konan follows, and Izuku rushes after. As they run, she looks back at him briefly. 'Why is he here though? And why...'
As they venture the darkness, a vector of light shines just upon ahead on the beach. The group rushes forward faster, until becoming completely eclipsed by what may be the sun. They step out into focus, where the skies turn blue to reveal a familiar landscape. Both Mickey and Izuku know nothing of this place, but to Konan, "This place… I know this world! It's where I met those two girls and that boy."
"You know this place?" asks the timid teen.
"I visited once," she tells him, solemnly looking across the desolated landscape and blackened waterfall separated by two statues. "I met a girl and her friend being attacked by Heartless and saved them. I then met a boy, someone I considered passing a Keyblade onto. But, I saw something inside of him. Something that frightened me, a darkness concealed by two lights, not of his own. I couldn't, not if his friend had already received Nagato's."
An idea comes to Mickey. "Konan, what was that boy's name?"
She cups her chin thinking. The mechanisms in her mind crank up and down. "It's been a while… His name was Naruto." Mickey scratches his own chin before moving towards the waterfall. "What?"
"We're getting close! That same boy's been helping me out!" he shouts, before noticing a single collection of darkness nearby. "If this world is where he first got the Keyblade, then its counterpart should somewhere be here! The Kingdom Chain of Darkness is on the dark side of their world."
Mickey finds a hole where the collection is and steps inside. With Konan and Izuku, they look deeper into its depths at a door. Upon opening it, a shining gold light peers out like a hungry spider. The blue-haired beauty steps in first, followed by Izuku and then Mickey. The black mouse speaks, "There it is! The Kingdom Chain of Darkness..."
"So this is where it's been this whole time?" asks the green-haired teenager. Though he's still questioning how a sword shaped like that can help save the world let alone cut monsters, he's convinced with what he's seen so far. As Mickey goes to the key, Izuku asks, "What's next?"
"We have the Keyblade from the dark realm, so now we need to reach the Door to Darkness. Unfortunately, the door between the two realms won't let a heart with light pass through. That's why only darkness keeps spilling out. We can lock the door by using the two keys, but someone else needs to do it from the other side too."
"Then, let me be the one-"
"Sorry, but that job's been taken." Mickey reaches for it, but then the ground begins to shake. He takes the sword, just as a blinding light consumes them.
…
We now move onto a year later. After Naruto, Donald, Goofy, Sasuke, and Mickey had closed the Door to Darkness, events happened to them that will be recorded over time. As Omakeys. But first, we come to a person who has a strong connection to them and their future.
One Year Later…
…
A group of friends hangs out together in their secret hideout not too far from a train station. The outside seems to be stuck in perpetual twilight even for an afternoon such as then. These four stand in a circle staring at a photo of one of them: the first is a spiky light brown haired guy with a black shirt holding a skull, underneath a gray vest with camouflage pants and shoes. The second is another guy, slightly pudgy, with tall black hair made so by a black headband, wears a short-sleeved white shirt underneath a burgundy jersey with blue pants, gray soles, and a bandanna. The girl of the quartet has short brown hair with twin strands that rest on her shoulders, which are covered in an orange flower patterned t-shirt, khaki capri pants and creamy black and yellow shoes.
"What's this?" asks the first guy.
"Well Hayner, this is a photo of me." These are the words of the fourth member of the square friends. Like Hayner, he has spiky hair, though he is blond with overtones of silver tinting it and he has much more bangs than any normal teen should have. He wears a short-sleeved high collared white and black jacket that contains overtones of boxes in the opposite colors to make a checker pattern that reaches down like a haori. The inside of the haori is reversed and it's held together by a black string. He wears underneath it an orange shirt with a blue flame design that rises up. He has beige pant legs attached to black pants by the hem of his leg triceps, and shoes that contain shades of gray and black with red laces. He also has a wristband with the same checker pattern on the left arm.
"You went there?" asks the one with tall hair.
"That's right Pence." The photo has him and an older man in a restaurant, with the former eating. "Since I was his first customer when he took over the shop, we took a picture together."
"It's a really nice photo. Oh!" says the girl, her bright green eyes suddenly perking up. The others look to her realizing what's good. "You can say it now!"
"About time," says Pence.
"So, what did the guy who stole it look like?" asks Hayner.
He hesitates because what really happened is rather strange to him. So he has to lie. "Hard to say; the pictures were just lying there."
"Then how do we prove we weren't the ones who took 'em?" is his defiant response. "The whole problem was that everyone thought we took the pictures because that demon Oga told everyone."
Pence picks up another of the photos, which has a woman hugging the blushing, handsome blond. "Hey, it's a girl," he says with that jeering tone guys make.
"You look really happen," says the girl with a short laugh.
"Quiet Olette." And everyone laughs at him.
Pence then notices something. Looking at the first two pictures and then the next, the puzzle in his head becomes perfect. He says to everyone, "So is it just me, or does everyone else see the connection?"
"Connection?" Everyone turns to him in a sudden spin.
Pence picks up all the pictures and examines them. "If you look closely, you'll realize that all these pictures are about Xutaron."
"They are?" asks the blond now named Xutaron. They then look at the next few photos: Xutaron with his friends at the gates of an abandoned mansion, Xutaron getting his butt kicked by resident badass Oga, and Xutaron receiving sea salt ice cream from an elderly woman.
"Oh!" Olette suddenly lets out. "So that's why everyone assumed it was us."
"You mean that baby trotting blockhead didn't go blaming us after all?" This is what Hayner adds, a certain scorn in his tone.
"You think the thief would want to steal the real Xutaron?" asks Pence.
"Like anyone would want this bonehead," adds Olette, turning to him with a taunting grin that flashes like the drowning twilight.
"Oh, thanks!" They all share a brief laugh, just as the clock tower rings in the background outside.
That's the signal for the end of the day. Hayner, Pence, and Olette split from Xutaron, the latter of whom walks home down the street. His heart beats faster as he thinks back to what happened; the thief was a floating white thing that zipped through the air like a levitating serpent and stole the photos from them originally. He chased them to the abandoned mansion where it attacked him. He tried to fight back using the Struggle bats everyone who partakes in the Struggle competitions use but couldn't land a hit until it transformed. It became a key-like sword and guided him in the battle to destroy it. That's how he really received the photos.
What is happening to him?
…
Deep in a lab elsewhere, a couple of men watch over Xutaron. One has bandages wrapped over his face while the other is wearing the black coat. The man in the coat asks, "They were real, weren't they Kira?"
"Yes. Those Organization miscreants have found us. It's only a matter of time until they send someone stronger. Youko must hurry."
Kei: And so, we thank you for reading.
Yusei: Next time, we continue part two of this prologue. And yes, we won't bore you with too much like in the actual game.
Kei: It'll be nice to take a break from Yugioh for a while to do this.