Prologue
"I've been having these weird thoughts lately."
Embraced by chilling water, Kairi sinks further into the depths of which she does not remember being in. She tries opening her eyes, and as soon as she does, she sees a bright light shining in what used to be a dark blue abyss. Kairi is thrust onto a familiar beach, with the sun still shining brightly into her curious gaze. Still confused by what has happened to her, Kairi spots a friendly face standing in the water that sat in front of her. Her friend with whom she lives on the islands with, Riku, is staring blankly at her while a massive wave begins to accumulate behind him. Kairi is now thoroughly confused by this, but decides to play along and dashes into the water in order to try and save her friend from being engulfed by certain death. Riku daringly reaches his right hand out to Kairi, but to no avail, as the wave crashes over the both of them, and Kairi is thrust back away from Riku. Riku reaches his hand out again, but this time, Kairi ignores it and folds her arms while still drifting away from him. She notices that Riku is perturbed by this because his face twists in a look of disappointment as she drifts into another scene.
Kairi is now thrust up, above the water line. She takes one quick glance amongst the (admittedly barren) scenery and notices another friendly face; this time of her good ol' pal Sora. Sora laughs at Kairi and waves to her from a distance, to which Kairi gives a confused look and half-heartedly waves back. She walks back up the shore in order to possibly receive some answers about the mess she's been in for the past few minutes, but as soon as she reaches Sora, he looks up to a point in the sky and points his finger toward something. Seeing as Kairi forgot her glasses at home and didn't bother to put in her contact lenses, she had to squint to see what Sora was going on about. She noticed that a little black speck had begun falling from the position Sora pointed at, and felt a slight pulling on herself as she began to fall over, into the water that she could have sworn she wasn't standing in anymore. Sora reached down to her, but Kairi remained still, arms crossed, giving a blank look back at him. She took a breath in order to prepare her vocal chords for what she was about to say.
"What in the fuck is going on?" Kairi said in a mildly annoyed tone. She was sinking in water again, just like the beginning of this fiasco. She could barely see anything due to the dispersed light coming from above, but she could partially make out a few fish and other marine life as she continued her descent. She felt inclined to try and flip around, and so she did with minimal effort. This seemed to take a turn for the better, as she floated onto a dark platform of sorts. With her arms still crossed, Kairi took a small step forward, but as soon as she did, another light shone through, this time at her feet, and birds (possibly doves) began to fly in every direction, uncovering more and more of the platform that Kairi so blankly set foot on. She took note of the design of the platform underneath her feet; a girl clad in blue and white with seven very odd looking faces spread around her. She looked up once again, and drew another breath.
"No, seriously, what the fuck is this shit?" Kairi moaned.
"So much to do, so little time." A voice rang from out of seemingly nowhere, giving Kairi something of the heebie-jeebies. "Take your time, don't be afraid." Kairi looked around her, arms still crossed, in search for the source of the voice. "The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?"
"What do you think I am, a baby?" Kairi shouted a question to the voice, but the voice did not return the favor. "Whatever." She took a couple steps forward, arms still crossed, and looked up again toward nothing, still searching for the source of the voice. She felt a slight rumble underneath her feet and saw oddly shaped pillars rise from inside the platform. Each one had a separate object floating over it; a sword, a "staff" (as Kairi thought), and a shield.
"Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength I guess. Choose well, or whatever." The voice rang out again, this time, almost seemingly exacerbated by Kairi's recent comments. Kairi continued to stand there, arms still crossed, and looked around at each of the pillars. She stared for quite a while, perhaps 10-15 minutes, thinking over in her head what exactly she's gotten into. She thought about just standing there for the rest of her life, seeing as how there's nothing interesting left, and it seems like this voice wants her to try and fight something, given the array of weapons she was shown.
"Will you just pick already?" the voice shouted down at Kairi, hoping it would motivate her to stop being such a prude.
"I don't know, it seems like I might be in for more than I bargained for if I do." Kairi started explaining, her ams still folded.
"I really don't care what you think, just pick a perk already!" the voice was getting aggravated.
"Alright, fine." Kairi finally unfolded her arms, but there was a strange tingly feeling in them after doing so. Her arms had lost circulation due to the length of time she had them crossed, and now they were beginning to slightly sting as she walked over to the pillar with the sword floating overtop of it. She shook her arms a bit to try and get the blood flowing to them, but they still would not stop stinging. So, she stood there, facing the pillar with a blank stare for a moment or two. Then a dull moan came from the voice above.
Kairi continued staring at the sword above the pillar, but now she felt her arms begin to wake back up, so she used them to climb up on top of the pillar and look at the sword more closely. It was a simple design; boring curved hand guard, with a yellow tone and a strange insignia with what looked like a poorly drawn round mouse face, all under a fairly normal looking straight sword. Kairi looked over to the "staff" and noticed the same round head on it, as well as a shield. She looked back at the sword and picked it up. Once again, the voice began talking over Kairi's thoughts.
"The power of the Warrior. Invincible cour—" the voice was cut off by the sound of the sword hitting the floor. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
"You said choose well." Kairi said snottily, and walked over to the staff pillar. She pulled herself up onto it, picked up the oddly shaped staff, and threw it onto the sword that lie still on the floor. The voice sounded puzzled as it let out a soft "Hmmmm". Kairi proceeded to do the same thing with the shield, and finally stepped off of the pillar and into the middle of the platform. "I think I chose very well." Kairi said as she picked up all three of the weapons in one. Kairi could almost feel the voice's face stretch in amazement at the sheer misconduct that she had just pulled.
"Well, uh, I suppose that's fine. I'm guessing you don't want a weakness either then?" the voice asked Kairi, this time in a lighter tone.
"Well of course not. If I'm going to be strong, then why would I need a weakness?"
"I—I guess you're right."
"You're damn right I'm right. Though I'm sure I won't be all powerful, I am a human after all." Kairi shoved the staff, sword, and shield together, hoping to create some sort of super weapon.
"Do you really think that's going to work?" The voice sounded cynical at this point.
Then, a light shone briefly, and the staff and shield were gone, with only the sword remaining. However, there was something different about it. The hilt had turned from yellow to a striped orange and black pattern, and the insignia grew in size about 3 centimeters. The blade stayed about the same, but it had seemingly grown in size and it gave off a blue tint. Kairi held the sword dexterously and grew a large smile on her face. "I knew this was a dream." Another rumbling sound vibrated from below Kairi's feet, and the platform she once stood on shattered for no reason.
Kairi felt herself floating down again, this time onto a very much darker platform with another woman in the center. This woman was clad in a light blue dress, and there were some very random things spread around her, as opposed to seven odd looking men. Kairi floated very softly onto the platform, with her newly formed blade still in her hand. She swung the sword down to her side in a flashy motion because she thought it might look cool to the absolute abyss that lie around her whydidshedothatagain?
The voice was silent now, though Kairi could still feel its presence amongst her. She saw a flickering dark spot on the floor, not unlike a shadow. The spot seemed to move very sporadically, and it seemed to even be able to run without anything casting it. Then, it sprung up from the ground, and stared blankly at Kairi with its two bright yellow eyes. Kairi returned the favor, and stared just as blankly at it. Kairi tilted her head in confusion, question marks popping up over her head, but this action did not seem to have any effect on the creature, as it continued to stand in one spot and stare at her. Kairi raised her sword up about half a foot from where her arm would be straight out, and, keeping her arm as straight as possible, sliced downward onto the little shadow. Needless to say, it tore it in half instantly, with half of its body lying on the ground, and the other half still staring at Kairi. Again, Kairi tilted her head to one side in bewilderment at the halved shadow. She heard a scurry of small feet behind her, and jolted around to get a better look, noticing three more of the little buggers moving around in random patterns. Once one of them stood up, it looked directly at the shadow that had been cut by Kairi and then proceeded to look up at Kairi herself. With a slight nod, the shadow sank back into the ground and faded from sight. Kairi looked back up into the darkness that surrounded her with as blank a stare as anyone has ever given and said, "What?" The platform Kairi had only just begun to come to admire started shifting in a watery pattern around her. Of course, being the uncaring soul that she is, Kairi folded her arms once again while she was dragged under the dark goop.
Kairi opened her eyes and found herself lying on the floor, her arms still crossed from before, on top of a brand new platform once again. This time, the platform did not have any women on it, and suffice to say, Kairi was rather disappointed at this. Nonetheless, Kairi stood up using her sword as leverage and immediately noticed a half-transparent door standing lonely on one side of the platform. She pondered to herself why such a thing would show up now, since all of the platforms before just broke down and threw her somewhere else anyway. She soon forgot the thought, and began walking steadily towards the door.
"Here, have this chest." The voice cried out again, but now it seemed more laid back.
Kairi looked back behind her, and spotted a red and yellow box that had not been there previously. "I don't know if I want it." Kairi responded.
"But it has a potion in it."
"But that's too far of a walk."
"Are you kidding me?"
"Yes, I just don't need the potion." The voice stopped at this point, and Kairi could hear a faint crash from the apparent source of the voice. "Are you okay?" Kairi questioned caringly.
The voice sounded far away, and Kairi was sure she could hear it mumbling something about his job and about "stubborn kids these days". Though, Kairi payed it no mind and grabbed the transparent handle of the door, pushing it open heartily, and then briskly walking through it.
She was greeted by another bright light in her face as she remembered that her pupils were just inside of pitch black darkness so of course she would be "blinded by the light, wrapped up like a deuce, another runner in the night", but she still got slightly annoyed that this has happened more than once in this sequence now. In any case, she noticed that three more of her friends from the islands were stationed in certain places on the man-made dock that she was also familiar with. Though, calling them friends was more of just a ploy for her to think better about herself because she knew, deep down, that she couldn't give less of a shit for these people. ANYWAY, Kairi looked ahead first, toward the only other girl that lived on the islands with her, Selphie. Her scantily dressed body hiding underneath that bright yellow dress; Kairi could just lick her right now, though she kept her self-control. She walked up to Selphie, and while she was about 2 feet away, Selphie began to speak.
"What's the most impor—"
"No" Kairi said bluntly. Selphie was taken aback, but could not say another word. So, Kairi turned to the other two, Tidus and Wakka (who were from the same game, so why is Selphie here, couldn't it have been Yuna or something?), who admittedly were much less appealing to Kairi than one could imagine. Regardless of her attraction, Kairi walked up to Wakka first, who also began to speak as soon as Kairi got close.
"What do you want outta—"
"No" Kairi said again, and garnered much of the same reaction from Wakka as Selphie. Last, but not least, was Tidus, who had noticed what she had done to both Wakka and Selphie, so he just kept his mouth shut. "What, you're not going to ask me another stupid question?" Kairi asked sharply. To this, Tidus just shook his head with a disheartened face and began to sob while standing in the corner. Kairi looked up again and heard the faint voice come closer this time, hearing a slight bump, as if the voice's elbow just hit the top of a desk.
"Did you really have to be that mean?" The voice asked, though he already knew the answer.
"I think you already know that answer." Said Kairi in response.
"Just… just fight the damn boss."
"Boss?" Kairi was again taken to another platform, and much to her satisfaction, it was decorated with a woman dressed in yellow. She looked up one last time, and saw a faint glimmer of light coming from above.
"Thecloseryougettothelightthestrongeryourshadowbecomes blah blah blah…" The voice finally had enough "I'm quitting this job."
"Could you repeat that please? I couldn't hear it over your whiney voice." Kairi mocked the voice, but it seemed he couldn't hear her anymore. She looked where she believed her shadow would be, and noticed that it was much larger than she would've guessed. Then, it sprung up, much like the shadow from earlier, however, it was much slower and much less sporadic. Kairi stood, bewildered at the size of the being that had manifested itself. Then, she noticed that it had a heart shaped hole on its middle torso. Kairi's bewilderment turned to empathy, and she looked at the beast with her two big blue eyes which had begun glossing over with tears. "You're just misunderstood, aren't you?" Kairi said, her voice quivering from her beginning to cry. The beast was taken aback so far, that its head had almost shifted off of its shoulders when it gave the typical motion for when one is taken aback. Kairi moved toward the giant slowly, sword not drawn, and began motioning for it to come down to her level. So, it did. Its massive head leaned down next to Kairi's body and it turned to face her directly. The yellow eyes that donned the shadow from earlier were also on this giant, but had much more luminosity than them. The giant moaned softly, and looked almost sad at Kairi's crying face. Kairi stared back at it, but her face suddenly changed from one of sadness to one of apathy, and she unsheathed her sword. Before the giant even noticed, its head was cleaved off with one blow to its neck.
The giant continued to stare at Kairi's unmoving face with its own sad one. As it finally came to a rest on the platform, Kairi lifted her leg and pushed the head over the edge of the platform. Sadly, Kairi forgot about the giant's body, and it came crashing down over top of her. Of course, as you should have guessed, Kairi stood straight as a board, arms crossed, and sank into the platform with the body still sitting on top of her.
"Like, is any of this for real, or not?"