She was falling.

All around her was darkness. All she could see were shadows and all she could hear was silence. She could already feel that she no longer possessed her physical form, and soon, she would shed her sense of self, becoming a truly nonexistent being. It's not like she's supposed to exist in the first place, after all.

And she was fine with it. She herself had facilitated her own demise by the hands of her best friend, the first and the only act that she had done out of her own free will. In her life, she had been nothing but a puppet to the group – the Organization – that she served. After acting like a puppet for her whole short life, doing something out of her own free will was quite liberating.

She was well-aware of the fact that she was nothing but a puppet. She was never a Nobody, but a mere Replica dressed in the black hooded coat of the Organization for the sake of achieving its goal: completing the Kingdom Hearts. All she was, all she had been, was nothing but a bunch of memories being pieced together and stuffed into a synthetic body. Her sole purpose was to create a perfect puppet capable of wielding a weapon that could liberate hearts from the darkness, the Keyblade, so that the Kingdom Hearts could be completed.

As she fell, she began to wonder where she would end up once her sense of self was completely discarded. Would she end up in Kingdom Hearts itself? No, that would be ridiculous. A forgotten thing would go to someplace forgotten things went when they were wiped out of Memory. Even the Nobodies would return to nothingness from whence they came upon their demise, but for someone who wasn't even a true Nobody in the first place, she knew that she didn't even belong to nothingness.

She was meant to be forgotten. No trace of her existence would remain in the world. No one would ever remember her, not even Roxas.

As she remembered a certain blonde Nobody, she couldn't help but feel a smile curling up on her already-nonexistent lips. Despite being the one who took her life, she was grateful of him for everything. As she descended down to the endless void, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen to him after this. Would he eventually return to his original self to make him whole again? Would he go for a revenge-fueled assault on the Organization for everything that they had done to him? She honestly had no idea.

But still, she was comforted by one truth: with her demise, the Organization's plan, and by extension, Xemnas' plan, would be disrupted. She had no idea whether it would give a big impact on their plan or not, but at least she had done something instead of being a puppet of the Organization. She knew that her action would eventually become meaningless, but by doing so, she had triggered a change. The rest would be left in either Roxas' or Sora's hands.

She didn't know how long it would take before she lost her sense of self. In fact, she had no idea how long it had been since she died in Roxas' hands. Already losing her body, she was no longer aware of the flow of time, and soon, she would stop thinking as her consciousness faded, but she had no idea when it would happen. All she could do now was to wait for it. She was a little afraid of losing what was left of her, but she had come to terms with it.

The forgotten puppet, the Organization member Number XIV, the spare key, let her mind wander as she recalled the memories precious to her. The memories of her, sitting together on top of the Clock Tower of Twilight Town with her friends, Roxas and Axel, were still fresh in her mind. But soon, those memories would be lost into oblivion. That was the fate of the forgotten puppet, the defective Replica such as her.

Even so, she still clung to those memories as she continued falling. Those memories gave her warmth that gave her courage to face her fate head on, even if the fate that she was about to face was that of nonexistence.

But then, as she continued falling, she felt another sensation. It shouldn't be possible, considering that many things about her had been shed away. Her physical body had long been discarded, and her mind would follow suit. It shouldn't be possible for her to see something in such a state.

In the darkness, there was a person looking at her general direction. Xion was unable to see the person clearly, but she knew she was seeing someone. She tried to say something, but was unable to do so due to the aforementioned lack of a body.

The person that she saw came closer to her, and Xion could see that this person was a young girl. This young girl then brought up her hand, holding it out before pointing her index at her general direction before saying something that Xion had no way to hear. And at that moment, the darkness was abruptly replaced by blinding light before her consciousness slipped away.

Her last thoughts before losing her consciousness was that of a certain blonde Nobody, wielding a giant skeleton key in his hand.

Tides

High School DxD and Kingdom Hearts Crossover

Chapter 01: A Girl with a Giant Key in Hand

"Uuh…" She clutched her head and groaned the moment she regained her consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and immediately closed them again so that she wouldn't be blinded by sunlight. After sitting up, she groaned some more and brought her hand to the bridge of her nose to alleviate her headache. "Wh-what's happening to me?"

The moment she spoke, she stopped nursing her pained head as she realized that she just talked. Then she realized that she had a body.

"What?" She looked down on herself. She was still garbed in her black Organization hooded coat and her hands were still covered in black gloves. She blinked in confusion as she clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to determine whether she was dreaming or not. She seemed to have regained her other senses, and they almost overwhelmed the poor Replica as she tried to get used to these sensations that she had lost after being killed by Roxas.

She brought her gloved hand to her chest and felt faint heartbeats.

"I… I'm alive?" She muttered to herself. "How is this possible?" She should have been assimilated back into Sora after being killed by Roxas at this moment, but here she was, alive and confused.

As she tried to make sense of what was happening to her, she looked at her surroundings. The first thing she learned upon being inducted into the Organization was to carefully study her surroundings. While she didn't want to be associated with the Organization any longer, it was one thing that she should do whenever she ended up in a new, unfamiliar world.

After calming herself down, she decided to observe her surroundings. That was the only thing she could do at the moment. Figuring out how she ended up alive could wait at later time.

She walked past some kind of vehicle before she stopped. She took a few steps back and looked at her own reflection on the windshield of the vehicle.

"This is… Kairi's face," she said as she looked into her reflection. Being made of Sora's memories of his childhood friend, she had the face of that girl who was someone very precious to him. But unlike Kairi, whose hair was red, her hair was black. After looking at her own reflection for quite some time, she sighed. "Hah… even this face doesn't belong to me…" She said glumly before she pulled up her hood to conceal the upper part of her face. Then, she walked away so that she could continue studying the area.

Doing reconnaissance was harder than she thought, considering that most of her missions back then when she was still a member of the Organization involved killing the Heartless in order to gather hearts to complete the Kingdom Hearts. She was almost arrested by a patrolling policeman due to her suspicious getup. Luckily she managed to elude him by quickly fleeing and hiding.

"Hah… t-that was close…" She panted as she pulled down her hood. Perhaps covering her head was a bad idea, after all.

After walking around for a while, she felt hungry. She found out that she had some munny left in her pocket. She was currently at the park where she could see several food stands. She went to an ice cream stand in order to purchase some frozen treats.

Luckily, the stand sold sea salt ice cream and accepted munny as payment. She had no idea why the shop owner accepted munny as payment, considering that this world seemed to use a different currency altogether, but she had no time to contemplate about it as she bought two sea salt ice creams. After purchasing the frozen treats, she went to a nearby bench and started eating one of the ice creams. As expected, it tasted sour yet sweet, just like how she remembered it.

As she ate the ice cream alone, she remembered her time with her friends back at the Clock Tower. Together with both Roxas and Axel, the three of them sat at the top of the Clock Tower, eating sea salt ice cream together. Just thinking about it made her heart ache.

Speaking of hearts, she was unsure whether a Replica like her had a heart or not. She didn't have any means to see whether she possessed a heart or not, and it's not like she could just take a look inside of her to see it. Also, she was an artificial being, a construct made of memories and made sentient by being stuffed into an artificial body of a Replica. From what she knew, a Nobody lacked a heart, so it's not hard to conclude that as an artificial being, a mere puppet, she also did not have a heart.

But, if that's the case, how could she feel sorrow? How could she feel sadness? A being without a heart shouldn't be able to feel such things. Being made of Sora's memories, she was able to recognize those feelings, but she wasn't sure if she was able to feel such things due to the existence of a heart inside her.

Perhaps there was no way of knowing that. And now that she was brought back to life, she did not have any idea what to do next but to walk aimlessly in this new, unfamiliar world.

After finishing both her ice creams, she got up and continued observing her surroundings. This time, she did not cover her head with her hood because she didn't want to run into trouble with the patrolling policemen in the area. At the very least, she knew that no one would find an ordinary young girl walking alone at the park suspicious, despite the fact that she was wearing a suspicious-looking black hooded coat.

While walking around, she had yet to stumble upon any threat like Heartless or Nobodies. She was unsure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Even so, she had to be prepared. She was still confused due to her revival, but she shouldn't let it cloud her mind. The things that she had learned back then came back to her. She cautiously observed her surroundings as she clenched and unclenched her right hand. With just one simple command, the Kingdom Key would appear in her hand to be used as a weapon to protect herself.

She walked aimlessly, having no direction in her mind, as she continued to observe everything around her. So far, nothing seemed suspicious for the young Replica, but then, she felt a slight jolt when she stepped into an area. She jerked her head and looked at one direction.

It was hard to explain it, but she felt like she had stepped into something that no one dared to step into. It felt like an invisible barrier that caused people to unconsciously step away from the area without them even realizing it. There was a forest nearby, and she could feel that the source of this invisible barrier came from the forest. Steeling herself, she walked into the forest to see what was ahead of her.

She grimaced as she walked forward. She smelled something unpleasant as she walked closer to the source of the barrier. Whatever this source might be, it had to be something inhuman and threatening like a Heartless. Now that there was no one around her, she summoned Kingdom Key into her hand. She felt the familiar weight of the Keyblade in her hand. She had no idea how she managed to summon the Keyblade, considering that she should have lost the ability to summon it the moment she was killed by Roxas due to her being absorbed into him, but she had no time to wonder about it.

As she walked, she could hear the sounds of battle in the forest. She quickened her pace and occasionally was bumping into a tree. Gritting her teeth, she ignored the pain of having her shoulder hitting trees and continued onward.

When she finally arrived, she was greeted by the scene of a vaguely-humanoid creature being bisected in two by a white-haired young man armed with a blade made of light. The creature screamed in pain before the young man brought a pistol to its head.

Bang!

She flinched. The bisected creature fell lifelessly onto the ground and the young man planted a boot on its head, crushing it under his sole. Then, the young man laughed as he continued grinding his foot on the crushed head, as if enjoying this very moment. Such a sight sickened her and she took a few steps back, unintentionally stepping on a twig.

Crack!

The sound of her stepping on a twig stopped the young man and he looked behind to see her. There was a blood splatter on his pale skin, and a face-splitting grin on his face. He removed his foot from the crushed head and turned around.

"Oh, look what we have here," the young man said in jovial tone. "A witness, huh? Well, that can't do." He brought up his pistol, priming it at her. "Sorry 'bout this, kiddo, but can't have you telling everyone about this." From his tone, she could tell that he wasn't even sorry in the slightest.

Seeing that she was put at a gunpoint, she immediately assumed a familiar stance, holding her Keyblade with both hands. She glared at the man, whose whole being radiated bloodlust. And the way he looked at her repulsed her even more.

Then, the young man raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you aren't a human, are you?" He said. "Hehe… well, this is my lucky day, isn't it?" He looked at the Keyblade she wielded and chuckled. "What kind of weapon is that? Some kind of giant key or something?" He then cocked his pistol. "Oh well, change of plans. I guess I have to kill you for real now. I dunno what you are, kiddo, but I guess I'm gonna have fun with your dead body after this," he said. The way he said that disgusted her.

And with that, the young man charged towards her, and she raised her Keyblade to prepare herself for his attacks. The young man was so fast, she could barely follow his movements. But, thanks to her experience dispatching Heartless, she was able to see his attacks, deflecting his slashes with Kingdom Key.

Seeing that she was able to deflect his attacks, the young man brought up his pistol and shot at her face. She barely avoided the shot, with a bullet grazing her cheek. Gritting her teeth, she mustered her strength and unleashed a series of slashes of her Keyblade onto the young man.

'Ars Arcanum!'

The young man's eyes widened as he felt the intensity of her attacks, frantically blocked her attacks with his sword of light. And with one final strike, she managed to disarm him, with his grip on his sword weakening, and the sword was sent flying.

"Oh shit!" The young man cursed as he lost his melee weapon.

"I'm not finished yet!" She yelled as she followed up her series of attacks with a diagonal slash. The young man jumped away, and her slash managed to cut a tree cleanly. The young man jumped towards his sword and picked it up.

As for her, she panted heavily after cutting the tree with her Keyblade. She reassumed her stance and looked at the white-haired man warily.

"How did you cut the tree with that thing?" He asked, looking at the Keyblade in her hands. How could something so blunt could cut a tree cleanly like that? After seeing that she could do with that strange weapon of hers, the young man couldn't help but cackle, finding himself interested in such a weapon. "I'm gonna study that thing after I kill you!"

"I want to see you try," she said, brandishing her Keyblade as she rushed towards the young man. She tried to unleash Ars Arcanum again, but this time, the young man managed to read her movements and intercepted her before she could unleash the attack. "Wha?!"

The young man managed to catch her hands before she could attack him with Ars Arcanum, and due to him having greater height and strength of his upper body, she was quickly overwhelmed and was slammed against a tree.

"Gkh!"

"A word of advice: don't use the same technique twice on the same opponent," the young man said, grinning madly before he drove his knee onto her stomach. Then he quickly disarmed her, letting the Keyblade drop to the ground. "Well, that doesn't matter anymore, since you're gonna die anyway!"

The young man grabbed her by her neck and lifted her up. She tried to struggle, but due to him choking the life out of her, she was having a problem breathing. She flailed and struggled in her attempt to break free, but due to the young man's height, her attempt to break free was useless. She could feel her body weakening.

"Ngh… nggah…" She tried to say something but her words stuck in her throat. Her body was dangling, her feet not reaching the ground. All that came out of her mouth were wordless noises and gurgles.

"Welp, that was interesting, but I guess that's it," the young man said as he lifted his sword, aiming it at her chest, right on her heart. "It's time to kill ya, I guess." He grinned again, as if imagining what he would do to her dead body afterwards.

"Gkh…" Despite being in such a predicament, she still had enough strength in her to glare at the young man. When he was about to shove his sword of light into her chest, she summoned Kingdom Key back into her hand and swung it right on his face. And at that moment, the sword was pierced through her ribcage, and the blade protruded out of her back.

"Argh!" The young man screamed when his face was whacked by the giant key she summoned, and he immediately let her go, dropping her to the ground. His sword was still stuck between her ribs, and after she struggled to get back on her feet, she pulled the blade out of her and tossed it aside.

She brought her hand to her chest where she was stabbed. It hurt, even more so than the last time when Roxas killed her. Even so, she did not allow herself to collapse as she continued to stand on her feet. As for the young man, he brought his hands on his face, having a chunk of his face cut off thanks to her attack earlier. He howled in pain as blood trickled down from his wound.

"Y-you… you bitch! Y-you'll pay for this!" The young man roared.

She brought up her Keyblade as she glared at him defiantly. The stab on her chest had severely weakened her, but she could not afford to fall down, not in front of this man.

"Tch… y-you'll pay for this. I swear… I'm gonna make you beg for mercy…" The young man growled before he stepped back. "Urgh… t-this hurts…" And with that, he withdrew, running away from the area.

After the young man was gone, she finally allowed herself to fall on her knees. It was difficult for her to breathe and her chest hurt and was bleeding. Losing too much blood, she had trouble trying to stay awake. With difficulty, she moved herself to a tree and rested against it as she placed her hand on her wounded chest. Her right hand was still clutching on Kingdom Key, and the cold surface of its hilt somehow brought her comfort.

Seeing that she had lost too much blood due to the fight earlier, she could tell that she might die soon. She almost laughed at the absurdity of her situation. She was brought back to life only to die again shortly afterwards.

"Ah… I-I guess this is it, huh?" She muttered to herself. She had experienced death before, so she should be fine with it.

But, she was afraid. Now that she was brought back to life, she was afraid of dying. She trembled at the prospect of dying alone in the middle of a forest, with no one by her side. Last time when she died, she had Roxas by her side, but now, she had no one. She was truly alone this time.

"R-Roxas… Axel…" She mumbled, tears gathering in her eyes before they rolled down her cheeks. Her blue eyes were unfocused as she looked up. "I-I'm scared…"

Her grip on her Keyblade loosened before it dissipated into motes of light. She had no strength left to even mend the wound, letting her blood flow out unbidden, causing her to lose her blood much faster.

As she waited for the inevitable, she could hear footsteps. Perhaps it was the young man from before who wanted to claim her dead body as his plaything? Such a thought disgusted her, but she had no way to stop him if he were to do that to her.

"Poor thing…" She heard a voice. It wasn't the voice of the young man from before. Then, she could feel a pair of warm, delicate hands stroking her cheeks. "Whatever happened to you, you didn't deserve this…" Somehow, that voice sounded motherly and brought warmth into her.

Then, she could feel two gentle arms wrapping around her, as if comforting her.

"Are you scared of dying?" The voice asked.

She had no way to vocalize her answer, so she could only nod.

"I see…" The voice said. "I guess you want to live more." The hand from before gently stroked her hair. "Do you want to live?"

She nodded weakly.

"Ah… well then, you will live." She couldn't see clearly, so she had no idea who was speaking to her just now. "In exchange, you will belong to me. Got any problem with that?"

As long as she could live, she couldn't bring herself to care. Weakly, she shook her head.

"Good. Now, please stay still." She could feel something cold and hard being placed on her chest. "Oh, by the way… you got a name?"

She opened her mouth, trying to answer the question.

"X-Xi… X-Xion…"

"Very well, Xion. The moment you get up, you'll be as good as new. Now, please rest your head and go to sleep. I'll wake you up later."

Feeling some kind of warmth enveloping her whole being, Xion finally allowed herself to fall asleep, comforted by the fact that she would stay alive. The last thing she saw before she fully lost her consciousness was the face of a beautiful girl with long, red hair.

"Grkh… t-that bitch, she's gonna pay for this…" Freed Sellzen, a former exorcist who was excommunicated by the Church due to his violent tendency, slumped against a wall in an alley. Earlier, he fought a girl with a unique weapon shaped like a giant key. He almost got her, but that little minx managed to land a cheap shot right on his face, specifically on his jaw, tearing off a chunk of his flesh.

The left side of his face was badly damaged, with his cheek torn off, revealing his teeth inside. For something as blunt as that key, it sure was a dangerous and effective weapon in her hands. If he were in a better mood and better condition, he might have thought about taking that weapon for himself in order to study it. But, after what that little girl had done to him, he'd rather have her killed and have that giant key of hers used to pin her on a wall like pinning an insect. Well, of course he would violate her first, making sure to break her mind and body, reducing her into a babbling wreck. Such a thought made him momentarily forget about the pain from the wound he got.

"I swear… I'm gonna make her regret doing this to me…" Freed growled as he removed his hand from his wounded face and placed it on the wall, leaving a smear of blood on it.

"So, you desire revenge."

He stopped when he heard a voice from behind him. He turned around and bristled when he saw a man clad in a similar hooded coat that the girl he fought earlier wore. The hood was pulled up, covering the entirety of his face. The hooded man spoke with a deep, commanding voice. But Freed wasn't one to bow down to an authority figure as he sneered at him while brandishing his sword of light. Due to the wound on his cheek, his sneer looked hideous and grotesque.

"And why do you care?" Freed growled, pointing his sword of light at the hooded man. "Get lost!" Due to his pain and exhaustion, he didn't feel like fighting this man. He just wasn't in the right mood to do so, after all.

In a blink of an eye, the man disappeared and then reappeared behind Freed. The former exorcist was caught off guard by this, and before he could do anything, a pair of red ethereal blades were placed at both sides of his neck. They were positioned like scissors and the hooded man could easily cut off his head with just a slight jerk of his hands.

"Perhaps you are far more interested to discuss about your desire for revenge in a civilized manner instead of pointing our weapons at each other?" The man suggested coolly, still not moving his ethereal blades away from Freed's neck.

Freed gulped. He could tell that these blades were real deal. Make a wrong move, then he would have to say goodbye to his head. Being a sadistic murderer, he rarely decapitated his victims because he wanted to make them suffer before dying, but he knew that losing his head would mean instant death.

Seeing no other way to get himself out of this situation, Freed dropped his sword and raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, you win. I'd rather not lose my head anytime soon, y'know?"

"Good…" The hooded man removed the blades from his neck. "Now, let us talk."

Xion dreamed of the Clock Tower of Twilight Town, where she hung out with her friends, Roxas and Axel while having sea salt ice creams together. The three of them talked about various things, trivial things as they enjoyed their frozen treats while watching the sunset.

She felt happy as she dreamed of the Clock Tower. It reminded her of the simpler time when she did not know about her own true nature.

But then, like every dream, this dream had to end. Both Roxas and Axel got up and started walking away. The scenery around her changed into an empty corridor, and both her friends left her alone. She tried to chase after them, but they were unreachable. The more she tried to chase after them, the farther they went. When both of them vanished, the empty corridor crumbled, and Xion ended up falling into an endless void.

It's time for her to wake up.

"She's awake," she heard not too far from her as she regained her consciousness. Slowly, she opened her eyes and saw a white-haired girl staring right into her eyes. Both of them blinked when they looked into each other's eyes for a moment.

"Ah, is that so?" The voice from before spoke when Xion heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. Xion sat up and found herself on a sofa. She was still in her Organization coat. Then, she remembered her injury from earlier. Instinctively, she brought her hand to her chest only to find out that there was no pain at all. Her wound was completely healed. "About your injury, please don't worry about it." Xion looked at the speaker and saw a red-haired girl with an ample bosom, and Xion blinked again.

"Umm… what happened to me?" Xion asked.

"Well, it was a long story, but to make a long story short, I found you dying in the middle of a forest. In order to save you from death, I used one of my Evil Pieces," the red-haired girl explained. Seeing Xion's confused expression, she sighed and said, "Still, I don't expect you to understand right away, but I want you to know that you are no longer what you were."

She held out her hand at Xion.

"No matter what you were before, you are now reincarnated as a Devil," the girl said before a pair of leathery wings emerged from her back. "My name is Rias Gremory, and from now on, you are mine, Xion."

Xion continued to stare at the winged girl before her, blinking in confusion.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Note: Hello, this is me, Prince Arjuna. So, this is my new story, titled Tides, which is a crossover of High School DxD and Kingdom Hearts, or specifically Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Out of all characters of Kingdom Hearts, I adore Xion the most, and I hope that she can at least get a happy ending in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3. So, I hope you enjoy this first chapter of this fanfic, and please give me your comments, guys! Without reviews, I may not be able to motivate myself to write more chapters.

Also, special thanks to Sorata Shioya for beta-reading this chapter. You rock, buddy. It's good to work with you. Stay tuned for the next chapter, Chapter 02: A Replica who Becomes a Devil. Until then, farewell.

Prince Arjuna (2016)