---Sora53: It's here! How I've looked forward to writing this...Bond of Promises!
Joe: XD Who's Bond? And where's Promises?
Sora53: -sigh-
Fans: -sigh- will it ever end?
Sora53: Nope.
Corita: -eats a popsicle- This is actually really good!
Roxas: Told ya.
Sora53: I hope you all enjoy it. Wait a sec, where's Sora? He should be here for this happy day!
Sora: -is being chased by Sora fangirls- HELP MEEEEE!
Fans: ...Found him.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything KH2 related. I own my original characters, including good ol' Mr. Perkins!
Naminé sighed as she added the final touches to her latest drawing. After brushing off a few stray flakes of her pencil, she smiled and held it up to the light. She then gently lay her precious sketchbook on the table in front of her and stood up. Placing her pencil on top of her sketchbook, she stretched and gave another satisfied sigh.
Castle Oblivion had been rather uneventful ever since Sora and Riku had rid it of the Organization very recently. It had only been a few days at most, but the unnatural silence was unnerving. Naminé had kept herself occupied by drawing in her sketchbook and sparking the few conversations she could get out of Sora's sister, Corita.
Naminé began absentmindedly thumbing through her sketchbook, looking at her past drawings. She was growing increasingly uneasy about Corita. When she'd first met her, Corita had been, if anything, rather lively. Lately, however, she'd been silent, sitting on the floor near where Sora, Donald, and Goofy slept, doing nothing. It was almost as if she was a different person...
"Naminé!" called a voice. Naminé turned toward the doorway to her room and saw that it was Corita. Considering Corita was the only other person in the castle that wasn't sleeping, she wasn't too surprised that the voice was hers.
"Hello, Corita." Naminé said, slightly startled to see her so lively. Corita's eyes were wide and bright, but there was another emotion there as well...
"What is it?" Naminé asked. Corita walked into the room, blinking. Castle Oblivion's rooms were as bright as ever.
"Do you know someone named Ansem?" Corita asked.
"Ansem...I may've heard that name before...that's the man Riku was fighting against!"
Naminé said slowly, thinking deeply. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was digging through the stuff that we've gathered on our journeys..." Corita said, her voice shaking slightly. "And I found these things called 'Ansem Reports'. There are 13 of them. The first one is just a bunch of fluff, but look at this one." Corita handed Naminé a rather crumpled piece of paper. Naminé smoothed it out to the best of her ability, and read out loud:
"'Ansem Report 2. It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:
- Extract the darkness from a person's heart.
- Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.
- Both suppress and amplify the darkness within. The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle. Some time later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness... What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?"
Naminé finished reading out loud, and skimmed it over a few more times. "This isn't good." She concluded.
"You think?" Corita cried, her voice shaking more. "Ansem did these experiments on people, just like Vexen did to me! Then they...they...turned into Heartless..."
"'Cultivate darkness in a pure heart'..." Naminé read again. She blinked and looked up at Corita. "Your symptoms. The earlier fainting...the weakness...you weren't a failed experiment after all!"
Corita glared at her. "Thanks for the support, Naminé. Can you do me a favor? When I start crawling around on all fours and my eyes start glowing, YOU explain to Sora what happened!"
"Don't panic yet." Naminé said. "You're not going to turn into a Heartless."
"But...the Report says..."
"You didn't let me finish. You aren't going to turn into a Heartless...yet."
Corita gulped. "So I'm just supposed to wait until I do? Nothing can be done?"
Naminé thought deeply for a moment. An awkward silence filled the room.
"Maybe...I could lock your heart, like I offered to do to Riku."
"Whaaa? Lock my heart?" Corita cried, leaping back.
"Yes. If it could've worked for Riku, I'm sure it'll work for you as well."
"But…I'll forget everything, won't I?" Corita said sadly, hanging her head. "I'll forget you, the Organization…I'll forget my promise to Riku…I'll forget that I got to see him again..."
"I'm sorry, Corita." Naminé said as she handed the Ansem Report back to her. "I'm afraid I have to insist. I can't have a Heartless running around the castle."
Corita lifted her head and bitterly said, "That's not funny." Despite her tone, she grinned slightly.
"You'll always remember your promise to Riku." Naminé said. "You made it before you came here anyway. All you'll need is something to jog your memory afterwords."
"My promise..."
"Let's go." Naminé said, gesturing for Corita to follow her. They headed down the short set of stairs that led to the room where Sora, Donald and Goofy slept.
"Here's a free pod." She said serenly as Corita grabbed the rest of their belongings and dragged them across the room. "It's only been a few days since Sora went to sleep. You don't have to recover all of your memories, either, so you should wake up the same time as him."
"How...does Goofy stand carrying...this stuff all...the time?" Corita panted as she dragged the stuff across the room.
"You'd better get to sleep before your eyes start glowing." Naminé joked.
Corita dropped the bag on her foot in her horror.
"OW! Naminé...that's not funny...OOOWWWW!"
Naminé laughed. "Best to make the best out of a bad situation, right?" Corita sighed and lay the bag at the end of her pod. She climbed into the pod carefully.
"Don't you worry, Corita. I'll take good care of you." Naminé said as she prepared the pod.
"Will I ever see you again?" Corita asked.
"You'll forget me, but we'll still know each other in our hearts." She said as she made the final preparations.
"How corny." Corita said as she ran her fingers through her short hair.
"All set. I'm sorry it's come to this." Naminé said as she looked up at her.
"It's not your fault. Hopefully I'll never have to see another person in a black coat again. With the exception of Riku or the King, of course."
"Goodbye, Corita." Naminé said as the pod began to close.
"Man, all the bad stuff happens to me." Corita said bitterly. "Having my heart snatched to make a Keyblade of Darkness, kidnapped several times, and now my heart is slowly collapsing. Just my luck."
With a final snap, the pod closed shut.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Some time later...
"Hayner! Olette! Pence!" The 3 friends looked up from their sea-salt ice creams to see Roxas, one of their best friends, skateboard in. He came to a graceful stop and swiftly grabbed the ice cream Hayner tossed to him.
"Thanks." Roxas said, picking up his skateboard and sitting on his usual seat.
"Where's Tria?" Olette asked. Roxas pointed out the door. His sister, Tria, was slowly making her way towards the Usual Spot on her skateboard.
"I'm finally getting the hang of this thing!" Tria said cheerfully, right before she toppled over. Her skateboard flew into the air and landed a foot away from her. Her friends broke into laughter, and she picked it up, blushing. Hayner tossed her an ice cream as well, and she sat down next to her brother.
"It's not her fault." Roxas explained to their friends. "She only started a little while ago."
"That's because you wouldn't let me." Tria said, her cheeks still bright red.
"Hey, you're my sister." Roxas said, jokingly putting his arm around her. "You've gotta let your big brother watch out for you."
"It looks like you've been improving, though." Pence said in a comforting tone.
"Thanks, Pence." Tria said gratefully. "At least someone appreciates my skills...stop laughing at me, Roxas!"
The 5 friends were gathered in the Usual Spot, their favorite hangout hidden in a back alley. Hayner, the leader of the group, was an outgoing young man with light hair, sporting a green vest on top of a dark shirt, with baggy camo pants.
Pence was less outgoing, but had a heart of gold. He was wearing his favorite 'Dog Street' shirt, as well as a pair of blue pants. He had messy black hair and brown eyes.
Olette wore a simple orange tanktop with yellow pants. She was quieter than the others, but took care of the group. She had bright green eyes with dark, long brown hair.
Roxas and Tria were twins. Both had very light brown, almost blond hair as well as stunning blue eyes. Both wore light clothes; however, Roxas wore a light jacket above a dark shirt, while Tria wore a black jacket above a light shirt. Tria wore light tan pants that fell to her knees, while Roxas wore black and tan pants that hung around his shoes. Tria's hair was slightly longer than Roxas's, and it hung in loose tufts carefully brushed away from her face. Roxas's hair stuck up more than his sister's.
The friends finished their sea-salt ice creams, and headed out into town. The sun was caught in limbo between darkness and light, as it always was in their home of Twilight Town.
"It's almost the end of summer vacation." Olette said as the group walked slowly along the main street. "We haven't gone to the beach once."
"Tickets to the beach are really expensive, though." Tria said, walking next to her. "There's no way we'll be able to afford five tickets with what we have now."
"How much do we have?" Roxas asked, and the group came to a halt as they dug through their pockets.
"I've got 500 munny at home, and 20 here." Hayner said, showing them the brightly colored orbs.
"Hmm...300 total." Pence said, finding nothing in his pockets.
"I know we've got 600 total at home." Roxas said as he and Tria dug through their pockets.
"I have an empy gum wrapper." Tria said sadly, finding nothing in her pockets.
"Here, I'll trade you for this ice cream stick." Roxas offered.
"I have 450, so that means a total of 1870 munny, not including the gum wrapper or the ice cream stick." Olette said.
"We should take some jobs." Hayner suggested. "They're hiring...look at the job board." The group turned to where Hayner pointed, only to see that it was covered from top to bottom in requests for work.
"A few odd jobs and we'll have plenty to go to the beach." Hayner said. They walked over to the board and each of them took down an ad.
"Poster hanger...sounds easy enough." Tria said cheerfully.
"Letter carrier. I think I can handle that." Roxas muttered.
"Exterminator? Eh, if it'll earn munny..." Pence said, folding up his ad and placing it in his pocket.
"Meet back here when you've gotten some more munny." Hayner said, distracted as he read the ad he'd chosen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Struggle! The Struggle! The Struggle!" Tria muttered as she lugged a huge roll of tape and a few stray posters back to her employer. "The town is already excited enough about it...why do I need to hang posters everywhere?" She finally dropped the extras in front of her employer, Mr. Perkins.
"Good job, Tria." Mr. Perkins said. "This should be enough. You did a fine job."
"Mr. Perkins, what's the point in hanging these posters everywhere?" Tria asked as she rolled up the extra posters. "The whole town already knows about The Struggle."
"It's nice seeing the posters. Makes it seem more real that it's finally come." Mr. Perkins explained. "Are you competing this year?"
"Maybe. If Roxas lets me." She sighed. Mr. Perkins let out a short laugh. "He's a bit too protective, that one."
"You're telling me." She said, handing him the last of the posters. "Roxas is entered, that's for sure. Hayner is, too."
"That's good to hear." Mr. Perkins said, handing Tria a small pouch of munny. "Take it, you earned it."
"Thanks, Mr. Perkins. I'll see you later!" Tria said cheerfully as she waved goodbye to him. She'd only walked 15 feet before Roxas was heading towards her on his skateboard.
"Show off." She muttered.
"What was that?" Roxas asked.
"Nothing at all." She said sweetly. "How'd the letter deliveries go?"
"Not too bad. Made a decent amount. You?"
"Besides the tape in my hair, never better. I was hanging posters for The Struggle."
"I wondered where all the posters came from. You hung a few of them crooked over by the train station."
"...Thanks for noticing"
Sora53: I wouldn't know. Is this one of those dun dun dun moments?
Fans:-sigh- No.
Joe: You knew about that Ansem Report the whole time, didn't you?
Sora53: O-o YOU CAN'T PROVE A THING! -runs away screaming-
Corita: -pokes Sora-
Sora: -pokes Corita-
Roxas: STOP THE MADNESS!
Mr. Perkins: HI, EVERYONE!
Sora53: You're only in this one chapter! Go away!
Everyone: Bye, Mr. Perkins!
Mr. Perkins: -sob- You all hate me, don't you?
Fans: Well...