Archetype of the Heart

by The Late Artisan

Sora is a sophomore in high school who recently transferred to Radiant Garden High School from Traverse High School due to academic probation. Everything seemed like it was gonna be a drag. That was until Sora had a strange dream where he gained a power called Archetype, which gifted him a mysterious weapon. Things are really weird for him now, so just read the story and enjoy.

"Hello, welcome to my tower."

Those were the first words I heard when my eyes opened up and I came to consciousness. Or what I thought was consciousness. I was in a chair, surrounded by yellowish beige walls and bookshelves. Before me was a desk that had a few skulls with melting candles on them, behind that desk sat an elderly man with the beadiest eyes and longest beard I have ever seen. He was dressed like a wizard as well.

"Your name is Nomura Sora, is it not?" The man asked. I was still a bit delirious, my head aching and my concentration lacking. "Do not worry about your head, boy, but worry about your heart. It is in great danger."

"Danger…?" I asked, finally able to form words. "Where… am I…?" I demanded wearily

"This Mysterious Tower has no name, but it belongs to me." The old man explained. "You are in a cognition of your heart's creation, a world between people's worlds, in fact, it is your world." The man explained in the most cryptic way possible, confusing me and making my head hurt even more. "But as for the danger… There are dark forces that wish to devour your heart and everyone else's in your reality."

I was still completely lost on what this strange man was talking about. "W-who are you…?" I asked, my hand resting on my pounding head.

"Oh, forgive me child, I have yet to introduce myself." The old man said with a small grin. "I am master Yen Sid, and I have a gift for you that is both a blessing and a burden."

"A… Gift…?" I questioned.

"Yes. A tool that is both a key and a weapon. It can unlock the darkness within hearts, or it can lock away hearts and seal them away from darkness." Yen Sid explained. At this point I was starting to gain some more of my consciousness, or what ever this was. Things seemed less hazy now, but they still were weird. "This gift will appear when it is needed. I bestow upon you the Keyblade, Kingdom Key, for you are of the Sky Archetype. Your soul wishes to fly freely with no ties to a single world, watching over all those you care about regardless of their location, both physical and metaphorical. I bless you."

Things started to get weird again for me as he continued speaking on and on about my so called "Archetype" or whatever. "W-what…?" was all I asked.

"Your mind and heart are scattered right now and are trying to make sense of your cognitive world… The next time you come here you will most likely be fully aware of yourself and fully comprehensible. Until then, I bid you farewell unto your so called reality. I believe you were riding a train…"

Before I could question anything further, I blacked out…

-Unlock Your Heart-

My eyes fluttered open finally and I stifled a yawn to little effect, my ocean blue eyes probably red from exhaustion. I never did sleep well on trains.

What was my current situation again? I need to remind myself to get the memory of that weird dream out of my head.

So, my name is Nomura Sora, I'm staying the school year with my Aunt Tifa Lockheart who owned a bar called Seventh Heaven in a place called Twilight Town. I was to attend Radiant Garden High School. My last place I was living was a coastline town called Destiny. Why did I leave when I had friends and family there? Well, it wasn't exactly my choice…

I'll tell you more about it as the story goes on.

Eventually the train stopped in a station that doubled as a clocktower. "Huh." I mumbled as I looked up at the tower, getting a familiar feeling… Was it that dream…?

"Hey, sport! I haven't seen you since you were up to my knees!" I heard a woman's voice cut through the silence of the rather vacant train station. Looking over, I saw a very attractive woman in one of the skimpiest outfits I've ever seen. This would be my widely perceived bimbo of an aunt… She wasn't even blood related to me and she decided to take me in after not seeing me for over ten years. "What? Are you not gonna say anything, Champ?" She asked as she bent forward condescendingly, showing off a bit of cleavage.

She's your aunt, Sora… Even if your blood uncle and she got a divorce, she's still kinda your aunt…

"Oh, uh, hey Aunt Tifa. It's been awhile, huh?" I ask while sheepishly scratching the back of my head. "So, uhh… what do we do now? Go home?" I was hoping the answer would be yes.

"Actually, we were gonna go get you registered at Radiant Garden, since I forgot to do it this week." She gave me this cutesy look, putting her finger under her lip and letting her eyes droop as if to say "oops". Gah… It's gonna be one of those households, huh? Where I gotta do everything for myself…

"Great. I'm pumped." I replied, trying to be a little more enthusiastic. At least I can get a feel for the school on the first day, right?

-Unlock Your Heart-

Traces of ideas and memories racing above my head… What will the future hold?

I dunno, but I get a lot of weird thoughts like these, weird semi-poetic phrases that just pass in and out of my head like ships docking and sailing…

Anyways, I finally made it to Radiant Garden High School, where I'll be slaving away academically for the next year or so. The place was actually pretty damn big, being about the size of two shopping malls combined. Later it was explained to me that this place was actually an elementary, junior high and high school all in one. It had this sorta rustic aesthetic mixed in with some castle-y architecture here and there. It was actually quite pleasant.

My Aunt and I sat in the headmaster, Eraqus' office. We had just gone through registration and now we spoke to him about the rules, the code of conduct, all that jazz.

"I hope you know, young Nomura, that I do not want any trouble from you…" Eraqus said staring straight at my eyes. His face was scarred and his hair was up in some sort of tail like a samurai. Weird, but cool… "You're already on an academic probation as it is, so consider yourself lucky that we accepted you here."

That part about academic probation I will explain in due time. All I could reply with was a nod and "Yes sir."

The guy was intimidating, but I got some sense from him that he was willing to do what he thought was right, regardless of others' beliefs. I can respect that. Then again, this is all just guessing and conjecture.

Since, I'm a scatterbrain, I can't really remember the rest of the conversation Aunt Tifa and Headmaster Eraqus had. I could've sworn she had made a few awkward passes at the old guy, though. She's really desperate to fill in that blank Uncle Leon left, huh?

Anyways, nothing exciting happened until I was on my way out the gateway to the school. My heart stopped for a moment when I saw her, but then I forced it to start beating again because this cliche is stupid.

She was this cute girl that would fade into the crowd if not for her deep red hair that was like a beacon in the swarm of dull brown and black. Her body was of modest proportions and her face was absolutely adorable. She wore an unbuttoned dark blue blazer and a sky blue checkered skirt, a tie of the same sky blue checkered pattern running down her chest to her waist, her socks ran up to her knees and she wore white and lavender high tops. I think my mouth was agape, because she looked right at me and cocked her head.

"Hey there. I don't recognize you." She stated with a smile. "Are you that rumored transfer student? The one from the coast?" She asked rather excitedly, talking to me like she'd known me all her life and we were already good friends.

"Uhhh, yeah… I'm Nomura Sora." I managed to stutter as I scratched the back of my head nervously. Jeez, I'm a freakin' moron! "You are-"

"Hikaru Kairi!" She cut me off quickly, thrusting her hand out at me and cocking her head. She was smiling so brightly that it caused her to squint, maybe even close her eyes. Hot damn, this girl was cute.

"N-nice to meet you, I guess." I guess? Why the Hell did I add 'I guess' at the end!?

"Since you're new, you probably don't have any friends. I don't mind if you sit with me and my friends!" She beamed. "You'll like them!"

"I will?" Is everything that comes from my mouth cursed to be as stupid as possible?

"Yeah! Let me text them about you!"

Why is she so outgoing and trusting of me? Jeez… If she gets any more adorable I'm gonna get diabetes from all the sugar and sweetness. "Uhh… yeah. Cool."

She responded by putting her hand in my spiky brown hair, the top of it to be exact, and scratching around like I'm a dog. "Don't worry! I'm sure you'll be plenty comfortable and talkative tomorrow!" She assured, retreating her hand and hiking her backpack up higher. "I'll see you later, Sora-kun!"

All I could think of at that moment was "We're Gonna Be Friends" by the White Stripes…

-Unlock Your Heart-

So that night I dreamt while I was in bed of silly thoughts running through my head and I should stop before I just start dumbly reciting lyrics and wasting your time.

Seriously, It's like that Kairi girl would have forced me to be her friend. I hope she doesn't get bullied or anything for her outgoing and bubbly nature… Back at Destiny, jerks like Tidas or meangirls like Larxene would eat her alive. Maybe Radiant Garden wouldn't be so bad?

I guess the day wasn't as horrible as I'd initially feared. This let me fall asleep with a smile on my face…

-Unlock Your Heart-

Now here I was once again in that Mysterious Tower, only this time I was fully receptive and my head didn't hurt at all.

Sitting in his throne before me was that old wizard guy from before, who looked at me with a light grin and those big beady eyes with near microscopic pupils. "I must congratulate you, Sora, for you have already discovered two Archetypes by forging bonds. Whether you meant to or not."

"Okay, old man, Yen Sid I believe you said your name was. I don't know what you want from me and I don't even think any of this is real." I told him with crossed arms. I WAS dreaming after all. I remembered going to sleep and everything.

"I am glad you remembered my name. You are half correct to say that this plain is a falsehood, as it only exists within your heart, between dream and reality. Not quite real, but certainly not nonexistent." He spoke, his hands crossing before his face and his elbows resting on the desk. "As for my desires? I want you to save the True World by saving those that you meet who are plagued by Darkness."

"Could you get any more cryptic or metaphorical?" I ask, my arms crossed in front of my chest.

"I meant every word in the most literal sense, child." Yen Sid grumbled at me. "Now, I regret to be here just for exposition in your story, but I must explain the links you have created, or Archetypes as they are called."

My eyes widened at the mention of literary device. This was getting a bit meta. "Was that a joke about storytelling?"

"Why yes, I'm a part of you, you know. I cannot exist without your mind, which cognates me into existence. Therefor, I share your sense of humor."

I just nod understandingly.

"The Archetypes you have discovered are that of the Sea and Monster. The Sea from that girl you met, and the Monster from your Aunt. Strengthen these bonds and you will grow in strength."

"You know, Yen, this is all sounding a bit too intricate to be just something I dreamt up, but way too strange to be something real." I tell him.

Yen Sid chuckled behind his hands. "You will believe soon enough. Your trials are about to begin tomorrow."

"What do you mean…?"

"It's time you awoke from your slumber and rejoined the Real World, Sora." Yen Sid told me, neglecting my question and grinning deviously at me.

I wanted to object and question him further, but my few started to blur and everything felt extraordinarily heavy. My eyelids shut and I felt a falling sensation.

-Unlock Your Heart-

So, I was walking to Radiant Garden HIgh School in my new uniform I was distributed. A midnight blue blazer with sky blue checkered pants and a tie of the same color. I wore my stupid yellow shoes that I've worn since sixth grade along with the uniform. I could never quite grow into these stupid things so I always looked like I had big feet. Back in Destiny, people would call my Bilbo-mura or Bigfoot, or some other stupid nickname. Jeez… Coast kids can be real uncreative assholes.

As I walked, I was looking down at my phone. Specifically, I was checking Gummigram for information about this Kairi chick. As I scrolled down and tapped here and there, I forgot to look up. Incidentally, this lead to me bumping into a guy who would change my life forever.

The silver haired boy lurched forward at the street corner, barely holding onto the post before a car went whizzing by right before his face. Jesus Christ I nearly killed the poor guy! He whipped around and grabbed my shirt by the collar, lifting me up before I could even realize what's happening and slamming my back against a wall.

"What the Hell, man! You nearly fuckin' killed me!" He cursed right in my face, causing me to flinch. He teal eyes burned into my cobalt ones and I could tell; I wasn't getting out of this easily.

"H-hey! I'm sorry! I really am! Jeez, lemme go!" I probably sound like a little coward here, but I really do deserve this, don't I? I nearly killed a boy because I was stalking a girl online…

"Sorry ain't gonna cut it, man!" WIth that, I took a hard slug across the face. I'll let him have it, he's probably hysterical and needs a finger to point at.

Am I understanding, or am I a coward? I don't know, but I know that I'm at least insecure.

He dropped me, then dropped down next to me, sitting less than five feet away to my right. He let out a long exasperated sigh. "You know what… I needed that." He said, looking right at me.

"Uh, what?" I sat there dumbly.

"I needed to nearly die like that, because now I'm… Oh, whatever." He just tilted his head back and looked at the greying morning sky.

I don't really know why, but I felt inclined to stay next to this boy. He looked my age, maybe a year older. He also wore a RGHS uniform, but he kept his blazer unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his bright yellow shirt being shown. There was something about this guy that just felt… off. Not a scary off, like he was insane or anything, but like he had this aura around him. An aura of frustration and anxiety,

I decided to try and be friendly, putting on a dumb grin. "What's your name?" I ask.

"What's yours?" He counters. Stand off-ish I see.

"Nomura Sora."

"Yasue Riku."

We both sat there in radio silence for what felt like hours, but what was probably just half a minute.

"You new to Garden?" The guy named Riku asks me, looking at me over his broad shoulder as he stands himself up.

"You could tell already?" I smirked back at him.

"You're nice, so you gotta be new." Riku says before sighing. "If you want friends, you best not ever talk to me again."

"Whoa, what?!" I blurt out, kicking myself up to my feet, "What the Hell me, we were having a mome-"

"Nobody likes me and nobody will like you if you're caught talking to me." Riku cut me off stubbornly. "I'm the Beast of Radiant Garden."

"The wha-"

SHEEEEEN!

-Unlock Your Heart-

A bright light exploded from the floor beneath us and everything went dark soon after.

I groaned as I pushed myself up from the ground beneath me, which was cold, hard stone. Icy cold, to be exact. My eyes took a moment to adjust, but I soon found that I was in the courtyard of a rather magnificent and ominous looking castle. Snow fell gently around me as I looked around at the tall stone walls that surrounded me and the castle. As my head kept turning, I noticed Riku was here too and getting up from the snowy stone floor.

"What in the Hell is this…?" He asked nobody in particular as he held his hand to his head and wobbled lightly side to side. Shaking his head, he growled, "Is this some stupid prank or something!?"

"Riku, calm down!" I tried yelling at him. Bad idea…

He whipped around with fury in those turquoise eyes of his. "You asshole! You knocked me out and dragged me here!"

"Riku, do I look like I'm strong enough to knock you out? You're twice my size!"

A sound argument, as he seemed to calm down and take a moment to think. "We need to get moving. Who knows how far we are from school, our homes, or even Twilight Town." It seems when he calms down he tends to take initiative and think things through. That's good, I guess.

"Let's check our phones!" I suggest valiantly, following simple logic any high schooler would think up.

The damn things won't even turn on…

"I just charged this piece of shit before I left for school!" Riku shouted, kicking the snow and growling. "Yours is dead too?"

I nodded. "Yeah, dead as a rock. Or something more clever that I couldn't think up right away as an analog-"

"Sora, shut up…"

"Sorry! I start sputtering crap when I'm scared!"

As if on queue, a heart stopping roar resounds from within the castle itself. It was so loud and resonant that I felt a vibration rush through the ground below me. "Holy…"

"...Shit." Riku finished with an equally terrified stare in his blue-green eyes, his silver hair standing on edge.

I look behind us and see a gate that leads outside the castle. "Riku, behind us!" I shout at him, hopefully knocking him out of his shock.

He shook his head and growled. "I hate running, but that thing in there…" He quit his tough guy rambling and started to walk behind me over to the gate, which was probably a good five hundred feet away.

We both kinda walked in silence for a few moments, before I suddenly felt a sharp sense of dread coming from all around me. It was like being surrounded by sharks, mixed with crippling anxiety and depression, twisting into fear and hate. I could only describe it as pure negative energy… Darkness.

Out from the ground crawled monsters that were only humanoid in the loosest term. They were pitch black and had sharp claws, as well as eyes that glowed a piercing yellow that carved through your layers of physicality and dug straight at your heart and soul.

"Oh shit Sora…" Riku cursed as we both backed up, getting closer to each other as the beasts closed in as well. "Shit, shit, shit!" They were a mere five feet away from us now. Riku and I were back to back with these things right at our heels.

Then, they pounced.

Sharp claws dug into me and Riku all over and the weight of the creatures dragged us to the floor. We were getting pummeled and scratched and beat to Hell. It was the most painful experience I'd had in my life up to that point.

I was going to die… Riku was going to die too. I wasn't even gonna get to start my first day or have lunch with Kairi. I was never going to see my parents again, or my sister, or aunt, or uncle, or anybody. This was going to be the end of the line…

…

No…

I felt a sudden burning strength exploding from within my chest!

No!

I forced myself to my feet, the beasts still attempting to drag me down to the floor so they could kill me. I felt the strength flow through me like a blast of wind and fire!

"No!" I voiced my rejection of death, thrusting my hand out in front of me. I was enveloped in what I can only describe as Light as the monsters holding onto me were incinerated and reduced to nothing but black mist. I felt a weird pointless joy coursing through me, a strength and love for all that was living around me, the desire to protect them even if I did not know them.

"Arghhhh!" I screamed, holding my hand above my head. The next part all just sorta came to me like I knew how to do it my whole life. "Kingdom Key!" I shouted to the blackened heavens, my hand shooting a beam of light out that solidified into a weapon. This weapon had a golden handguard that wrapped all the way around like a metal ring, a silvery rod that was roughly three feet long and a ridge of teeth that looked like a crown. It was finished with a chain that dangled a pendant that looked like some sort of trinity. This was my keyblade… What Yen Sid spoke about.

My gaze turned from my newfound power to the monsters that were attacking Riku. Filled with Light and the will to defend the boy, I destroyed the beasts with one hard horizontal swipe of my keyblade. Riku groaned in pain as he forced himself to his hands and knees. "S-sora…?"

More of those things rushed at us and I stood my ground. Dropping down, I held my weapon at waist level, staring doom in the face and grinning with triumphant confidence.

"Sora, don't get cocky, we gotta get outta here!" Riku yelled at me, before coughing profusely. Deciding he was right, I wordlessly took his arm over my shoulder and the two of us ran like hell for the gateway. The swarm of beasts behind us was like a long tether off those creatures all climbing over each other and defying the laws of physics.

Just before they could get to us though, we crossed through the gateway and a familiar flash of white light took over our senses.

-Unlock Your Heart-

CHAPTER COMPLETE

I'm so happy to finally get this out! It's been bubbling around in my head for a month and I haven't written anything for over half a year. I'm hoping that this will run for awhile, gaining lots of followers and a beautiful amount of reviews. But that's just a dream. It will mainly be a slice of life with heavy supernatural elements.

Okay, if you get all the references and influences, please say so in the review. This is heavily inspired by a certain japanese RPG series that has grown quite near and dear to my heart.