After coming back home, it was hard to get adjusted to my normal life act like what just happened wasn't a dream. According to my parents, I was playing the game for hours and dared not to come out of my room. I guess days in their world was hours in mine which was a good thing. I decided not tell them about it cause they would brush it off and say it was a dream and I was confusing it with reality. During the past week, I was terrified that that was true; that I never became friends with those wonderful people. I still had a promise to keep, I had to at least try and go back for Kairi's sake. Poor girl is all alone while the boys are out doing who knows what. One day when I decided it was time to go back, I did my routine and told my parents not to disturb me for a while so I can concentrate. I popped in Re: Chain of Memories into the PlayStation two and waited for the magic to happen. So far there was nothing and I was starting to get worried. But in a matter of minutes, my eyes were starting to get heavy and I found myself falling onto the soft linen sheets that I will not be feeling in a long, long time.
The heat of the wonderful sun soaked my back and brought a smile to my face. I dug my fingers into the beautiful white sand and took in the ocean breeze. I sat on my knees and looked around to see if anyone was there and so far, it was only me. I sat there for a bit and waited for somebody to come. My prayers were answered when I saw Kairi coming ashore from her small boat. She wore an expression where you can tell something was bothering her but she was very good at hiding it. When she returned from her dream world, she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. She probably thought I was part of a figment of her imagination. I gave her an excited wave and ran to her with open arms. She looked beautiful as always, with her hair grown a little longer than last time I saw her and mature.
"Kairi!" I shouted with glee. She gave me a fake smile, did I do something wrong?
"Jade? I thought you'd never come back!" she chuckled.
"What? I was only going back for a week." I laughed.
"A week? You've been gone or three months." She said like I was supposed to know. I gave myself a face palm forgetting about the time difference.
"Oh right, I'm so sorry Kairi. I didn't mean to do that." I said scratching the back of my head.
"I have some news that might make it up for what I did." I shrugged. She raised an eyebrow.
"I think I know where Sora is." I knew I got her attention when her eyes widened. I chuckled and told her about Chain of Memories, leaving out the part of Sora forgetting about her.
"So, Sora is somewhere in this castle along with Riku?" she asked with her pointer finger and thumb holding her chin. I gave her a slight nod and took her hands.
"Do you want to go and find them?"
"Sure! Though my parents," she looked back at the boats.
"Come on Kairi. Take a risk," I said encouragingly. She thought for a moment but took my advice. With that, I focused on the field Sora ended up in the beginning of the game. With the feeling of being stretched into a portal and we were out in the field, the middle of nowhere to be exact. We looked around to see if there was anything in sight but nothing except for grass and trees.
"Of all places Jade, a field!?" she shouted. I rolled my eyes and laughed.
"I'm sorry I'm not a perfectionist silly." I slapped her on the back playfully and headed down the path, not knowing if I was heading in the right direction.
"Where are you going?" she asked afraid to leave her spot.
"This path leads to the castle Sora and Riku might be." I waved my hand motioning her to follow.
"Come on, you want to see them don't you?" I asked with a smile. We trudged the path for miles until my feet stung, I was almost to the point where I had to use all my will power in order to stand straight. We walked the dirt path until nightfall, gathered some wood and made a little campfire. The two of us talked for hours like the first time I came to this world. I told her how my life was so different after what happened. She gladly listened until it was her turn to talk my ears off. I did the same thing in return by listening with a kind smile. When she finally had all she had to say, she plopped down on the soft grass and made a pillow with her hands. She fell asleep mumbling Sora's name and I couldn't help but chuckle. I on the other hand couldn't sleep to save my life. I was worried sick on how much of these events I'm going to change this time. I tried listening to the sound of crickets playing a lullaby to help but I was deep in thought. I gazed up at the stars to take my mind off of things but that didn't help either. At the corner of my eye, I saw a dark figure observing us from the path. I thought it was my imagination playing tricks on me but when I got a better view, I hovered over Kairi protectively.
"What do you want?" I asked as quietly as I could. Who knows what would go down if Kairi was woken from her beauty sleep? The hooded figure glided over to us with the wind blowing out our fire.
"So you're the ones he's talking about." The figure said. My eyes widened when I figured out who he meant.
"Who's talking about us?" I asked. "Sora?" I clenched the ends of my shirt to ease my tension but the only response I got was silence and the figure disappeared in the blink of an eye. I shook Kairi awake and she swat at me angrily.
"Go away Jade. Sora and I were about to go on a date." She mumbled.
"But Kairi, I have to tell you something important." I shook her again. I told everything about the mysterious figure and my hunch about him knowing where Sora is. She agreed to head over to the castle as soon as possible and groaned along the way. I knew we were at the right place when the grass stopped by some cliffs and there was nothing but open space. Ahead of us was the majestic castle oblivion. As we approached it, I had this feeling like I've been here before. I don't know if it's because of me playing this game or of something else.
"So, this is where Sora is huh?" Kairi asked not so sure of my actions. I nodded with a smile and pushed the doors that weren't surprisingly heavy. The castle was as blindingly white in person as it was in the game. I had to rub my eyes in order for them to adjust.
"Someone doesn't have a great sense of style with home improvement." Kairi said as she observed the hallway that seemed to go on for miles.
"Yeah, you can say that again." I agreed. This odd feeling came upon me as soon as the door behind us closed.
"I feel like I dropped something."
"Did you drop your car keys or something?" Kairi chuckled. There was a dark portal and the same hooded figure appeared before us.
I summoned my keyblade and stood in front Kairi protectively. Kairi reached for her bow and arrows and gasped with horror.
"I forgot my weapon back home!" She sobbed. I rolled my eyes and focused on the target who could most likely be our enemy.
"What you dropped was your memory. As soon as you stepped foot into this castle, you forgot every spell and ability you knew." The hooded figure's feminine voice said.
"You, you're the one who approached me at the field." I shouted pointing at his face.
"That's the guy you told me about, he's creepy looking." Kairi whispered in my ear.
"Girls, did you not hear what I said?"
"Yeah, yeah you said we forgot abilities." Kairi said mocking him.
"Do you not understand how dangerous that it?" the figure asked.
"She doesn't." I laughed. Kairi slapped me lightly on the arm. I shrugged with a half-smile.
"In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find." He said. "That is the way of things in Castle Oblivion."
"Castle Oblivion?" Kairi and I gasped in unison. The person nodded.
"Here you will find people you know, people you miss."
Kairi and I looked at each other with wide eyes and grinned.
"Sora and Riku?" Kairi asked.
"Do you want to find them? If so…" The figure glided towards us and I thought we were going to clash into each other but instead he went through me like a ghost. As soon as he did, memories of our previous adventure went through my head like a movie playing fast-forward.
"What was that?" I asked and twirled to Kairi. It looked like she went through the same experience too.
"I sampled your memories and from them, I made this…" The man tossed a small card with the top pointed like a crown. There was a picture of Traverse Town in the middle of the card. Kairi looked over my shoulder to observe the card.
"It's a promise for the reunion you seek. Hold the card before the door and beyond it, a new world."
"Use the cards to make your way through the castle young outsider." He said and with that, he vanished into the portal. I was about to step forward to the door at the end of the hallway when Kairi stopped me.
"Jade wait, what that guy said worries me," her eyebrows arched with worry.
"What did he mean about us losing memories? Will we eventually forget about Sora and Riku?" she sounded scared and I didn't blame her.
"No, we won't don't worry." I lied. I honestly didn't know what was going to happen because of me messing up everything else. We strode down the hallway in silence and I think we were too scared of what was to come. When we approached the door, I held the card like I was told and took a deep breath.
"Come on Kairi! Let's look for Sora and Riku!" I said with a smile.
"Yeah!" She said with a raised fist. When we stepped through the door we stopped dead in our tracks. We were right in Traverse Town like the picture on the card.
"This is, but we were in that castle not too long ago weren't we?" Kairi asked surprised. I noticed the door behind us disappeared letting us know that there was no turning back. We took a few steps when a few heartless appeared before us like the first time we came here.
"Again! Why are they always following us?" Kairi pouted.
"Maybe they want our autographs?" I chuckled as I summoned my keyblade.
"Very funny," Kairi said sarcastically while rolling her eyes. Even though she didn't have a weapon, she still readied herself in case heartless charged at her. Thankfully there wasn't that many where I needed a whole lot of help. When I thought we were finished, I turned to Kairi with a smile.
"Maybe we can get you a weapon here before we get back to the castle. If we get back to the castle," I shrugged.
Story is in progress and I am planning on making this a one chapter story since CoM is really short haha
