(Tsumina: Hey! This story takes place about six months after Kingdom Hearts ended. If you people don't want spoilers, don't read! But anyway, Kairi's been sent back to Destiny Islands, but Sora has fully accepted the quest of looking for King Mickey. I don't own Kingdom Hearts.)
Toukukara
(From a Distance)
The cold sea air stung at her Kairi's face again, armed with little grains of sand that dotted her hair and tapped at her eyes. Tonight was as pitch as all the others, as frigid as the others, as lonely as the others. But she didn't pay attention to the way goose bumps prickled up her arms. She continued to stare out at the open sea, where the water was choppy and noisy.
Tears were glistening in her eyes.
"S………Sora………" she whispered subconsciously for the thirtieth time that night. Her voice crackled and she whimpered a little. Her hand didn't move to wipe her tears away. And so her once pure face was stained with the streaks of the salty wetness that began in her eyes and forced themselves out. Salty like the sea.
No one else had made it to the Destiny Islands and even though the treehouses and boats and docks were still there, Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus were in unkown worlds somewhere. She missed them, but not as much as HIM………
"Kairi,"
Sora's voice called behind her. She turned around. "Yes?"Sora's hazy form stood beside her. She didn't know it, but it was all an illusion. She was addressing air. She'd been talking to this illusion for three months now.
"Let's go inside, alright?"
he grinned that silly grin she loved so much. The one that made her realize he wasn't ALL perfect. He wasn't some angel sent from above. He was human and had faults like her."I………I'm waiting for someone," she whispered, turning around.
"Who?"
"I don't know………" she replied, her voice still trembling from the night wind, "Sora, please stay with me."
The illusion stepped beside her, leaving no marks in the sand. She didn't notice.
"Sora………I don't know what it is………I don't know what I'm waiting for. I mean, you're here. I should be so happy. But………it's almost like you're not here."
He traced the image of a star in the moist sand, then added a little leaf at the top.
"A Paopu Fruit is a really cool fruit,"
he explained, "It can bind two people's destinies. All they have to do is eat it. Riku told me.""You've told me before. You tell me a lot." she came closer to him. She tried to touch his hand, but she couldn't reach it. And it wasn't even there.
"I don't know why I'm out here," she said again, "But it feels like I'm empty. But Sora, I know you're the one I care about most. I should feel complete, right?" She ran her fingers through her now oily hair. She hadn't given much thought to taking care of herself. All she did was eat one coconut a day to keep herself alive.
"I can't see a point in living anymore, Sora. Quietness………no laughter………it's like living in darkness. And you never seem to be here. I only seem to see you at night. And when I turn around after a while, you're-"
She turned around, and he was gone. She sank to her knees. "You always leave me."
She looked up. "But the last time I touched you………it was in that weird place. And we separated. And I came here."
Kairi burrowed her fingers in the sand and bent low, her chest almost touching the ground.
You were never
Here.
All this time,
I've been
Talking to your
Memory
And nothing else.
I haven't been able to
Touch you.
I couldn't
Hug you.
You never
Laughed like you
Used to.
All this time,
I've been
Talking to your
Memory………
She sobbed hard. The waves lapped at her hands. The tide was slowly coming in. She sat up, still crying, and she brought one palm to her face and touched her forehead with her fingers. They were crusty with the wet sand. It smudged on her face. Grainy, scratchy, uncomfortable. But she didn't care. She barely cared about anything anymore.
And the terrible wind blew again. Her hair whipped at her cheeks. It stung. Yes it did. But so did her heart. She stared into the sky, her eyes shimmering with the light of the moon that barely glowed behind a cloud.
And for a long time, she stared up at it, until she noticed the waves were touching her skirt. The pink cloth was halfway soaked. Absentmindedly, she reached down and caressed the rough material. The sand from her fingers made it sandy too.
I can't live without
You
I can't find a
Reason to
Keep going.
Give me
One Reason
To allow myself
To undergo this
Torture.
Otherwise, kill me.
You've already
Stabbed me inside.
Might as well
Finish me off.
Another stinging pain. It was on her hand. She looked down at it, her eyes puffy. Attached to her skin was a jellyfish. It hurt. It hurt so much, but she didn't pull away. She didn't blink. She simply lifted her hand near her face.
Pain, now.
I can't feel it
Anymore.
And I think it's
Because the pain I
Feel for you
Overpowers it
So nothing
Seems to
Hurt as much.
Heal my
Aching heart
So I can be
Normal again.
Placing her hand by her side, the jellyfish slid off, leaving her fingers raw and red. The ocean waves………the horrid, salty, ocean waves bit into the wound, but no. There was no point in wincing at it.
Her skirt was completely soaked now. It was underwater. The tide had brought the water up to her waist, and still she sat in the cold. The wind. The dark. The loneliness.
"I told you I knew you'd come back for me," she said out loud to the sky. "And I'm going to wait for you. I don't care how long. I'm not going to put an end to myself yet. No………you said you'd come back, and I believe you with all my heart. I'm trying to be patient, but time is slipping away like dry sand through my fingers.
"And I feel so alone. There's no one to talk to but myself and your memory. I don't miss anyone else. Just you. I………" her voice cracked again, "I love you so much………I'd give anything for you to be here."
Again, she looked up to the sky and for two hours, she sat and stared at the clouds passing by, each one resembling Sora in some way.
The waves had reached her chest. Broken shells swept past her legs, scratching, slashing.
If I knew
You were here
I'd find a reason
To be
Happy
Like I used to be
When you were
Here at my
Side.
When I knew I could
Come to you with any
Trouble or Sadness
And I knew you'd
Listen
Because you
Cared
But I find it so
Hard
To believe you still
Do.
Because you haven't
Come back to me.
But I should………
I should………
Be patient.
"Damn it," she hissed under her breath. The first unclean words to escape her mouth. "Damn my impatience. I told him I knew he'd come………and he'll come back for me."
The quietness of Destiny Islands allowed her to think as much as she needed, but now those thoughts weren't carefree. They weren't little fantasies about leaving the islands anymore. Her mind had matured so that she could no longer think of just happy things. The old Kairi was gone. The new one was a raggedy teenager whose unruly hair touched her shoulders and looked like an animal to her.
The thoughts that ran through her mind were memories.
Sora leaned up against a coconut tree, his eyes half closed with content. He held a cleaned conch shell in his hands. Hours of rubbing had given it a beautiful polished look, and now the delicate designs naturally imprinted on it stood out. Kairi turned the corner holding a few mushrooms in her hands for the trip.
"Sora," she giggled, "I've never seen you care so much about something before."
He looked thoughtfully at the shell, "Whu, this? I dunno. I guess it's just because it's the first whole shell I've ever seen, is all. Hey, you want it?"
"You're not gonna keep it?" she asked in slight surprise.
"Nah, I'm not into too many pretty things," he shrugged, carefully handing her the shell.
"It's so beautiful!" she said, her eyes sparkling. It seemed more special now that it was a gift from him to her. She pressed it to her chest in adoration, and she smiled. "Thanks, Sora!"
"You know," he said in a mysterious voice, "I had to battle sharks for it."
She played along, "Really?"
"Yeah! They were guarding it at the bottom of the ocean, and I saw it. I wanted to get it for you because I knew you liked pretty things. So I dived down really deep and grabbed it. But the sharks came after me!"
Kairi giggled again as Sora made swimming movements and frantic gestures as he reenacted the scene.
"Well thanks a lot, Sora," she said, still smiling wide. Of course she didn't believe a word. But she wanted to make him happy, so she acted like she fell for it. And a look of satisfaction crossed his face.
"Kairi, I'm so glad you came to this island," he said finally, "Life wouldn't be this fun without you."
She gave him a little hug in response and began to skip away, but noticed he wasn't following.
"Soooorrraaa………" she called.
"Yeah?"
"You coming?"
"Nah, there's something about the ocean today that's kinda weird. You probably think I'm kinda weird too, huh? I mean, it's the ocean and all-"
"No, it's not weird," she replied instantly, "I sometimes feel the same way."
After a moment's silence, he nodded, "Well, you can go ahead. I'll catch up."
"No, I can wait. I can always wait."
"Well," he sighed with his idiotic smile, "You won't have to wait forever. I promise."
The water was up to Kairi's neck, and for the first time tonight, she was fully conscious. She stood up, and the water was up to her thighs now. The wind hadn't changed, though. It still blew mercilessly. As she stood up, she looked to the little light she had made for her treehouse.
Her stomach growled. She hadn't eaten a thing today. But she wanted to go inside already. It was too bitter and she knew she could become seriously ill by staying out. Perhaps she was already ill. A tremor rattled her spine as she shivered from the frigidness. She edged her way further into the shore.
And as she did that, something bumped up against her leg. The water had carried a paopu fruit onto the shore. She picked it up. It was very clean. She ate about half of it. Slowly. Memories of Sora still ran through her mind. They were all fond memories and as each was completed, she felt a little better.
Half the paopu was gone after a while, but the other half remained ripe and plump in her hands.
Sora picked a paopu fruit off the tree. "Hey look, a paopu fruit!" he exclaimed. "I wonder how it tastes?"
He looked over at Kairi, who laughed nervously, "You're not thinking………?"
He returned the unsure laugh. "Oh no! I was just wondering how it tasted. I wasn't gonna………heh heh………ask you to share with me or anything. Hey, how about we eat two separate paopus? That'll work.."
She looked at him for a while, observing. "You don't actually believe it, do you? The legend of the paopu?"
"Me? Haa………no, no."
"Prove it."
"Fine, I will." He divided the paopu fruit and handed one half to her. "Here. Eat it."
And for the first time in months, Kairi laughed. She gently laid the other half of her paopu fruit in the water, and she watched it as it floated into the open sea.
"We shared a Paopu Fruit," she said. A light of hope was filling her. "No matter what happens, we shared a Paopu Fruit………and so……I KNOW he'll come back for sure. And I'll wait for him."
A full smile spread on her face.
Yes, she KNEW he'd come back.
Many miles away, a young boy and his two companions were walking along the shores of a dark island. It was infested with heartless. They trudged slowly along. A cut on the boy's back was oozing black sludge. That's what happens when you're weaker than a Heartless. He winced and faltered.
"Sora!" Donald exclaimed. "I didn't know you were hurt! We should rest."
"Thart's a good idea," Goofy agreed. He removed his shield from his shoulder and leaned it against a tree, sighing with relief. Sora knelt down close to the water and tried to feel the wound on his back. "Argh!" it smarted again. As he began to take off his jacket, a chill overtook the area, and yellow eyes glared at them.
More Heartless.
Donald still had his staff in hand, and Goofy quickly scooped up his shield again. Sora, however, found it incredibly difficult to lift the Keyblade. And then it came. The waves pushed a little yellow something against his arm. He knew what it was.
"A Paopu Fruit?" he looked at it intently then bit into it.
"Sora!"
He heard her voice. "Kairi! What's going on?"
"Sora, get up and fight," she urged.
"But I can't! I don't have any magic left to give myself energy. And there's a big cut on my back. It hurts bad, Kairi. Really really bad."
"Don't give up, Sora! Because I'm waiting. You said you'd come back. So get up. Come on!" she smiled an encouraging smile.
Sora struggled to his feet, a renewed energy pumping through his veins. "Thanks Kairi. You might not hear me now, but soon I'll be able to tell you myself." He raised his Keyblade.
"Alright Donald. Goofy. Let's get rid of these guys and find King Mickey!"
..::When you walk away
You don't hear me say
Please
Oh Baby, don't go.
Simple and Clean
Is the way that you're
Making me feel
Tonight
It's hard to let it go.
You're giving me
Too many things
Lately,
You're all I need
You smiled at me
And said
"Don't get me wrong
I love you.
But does that mean
I have to meet
Your father?
When we are older
Then you'll understand
What I meant
When I said
"No, I don't think
Life is quite that simple."
When you walk away
You don't hear me say
Please
Oh Baby, don't go.
Simple and Clean
Is the way that you're
Making me feel tonight.
It's hard to let it go.
The daily things
That keep us all
Busy
Are confusing me
That's when you
Came to me and said
"Wish I could prove
I love you, but
Does that mean
I have to walk on water?
When we are older
Then you'll understand
It's enough when I say so
And maybe
Some things are that simple::..