The Nightshift
Volume One of the Nubilus Nox Chronicles
Chapter One
Something is wrong. Something is coming. It's not what I thought it was at first. Something darker is here, and for some reason, I feel that it is very close to me, almost as if it were in my heart.
What is it? Is it the pain I've kept inside? Is it the torture that's given me scars? No. I don't know what it is... but it's here, now. Maybe, just maybe, if I let my eyes free for just once...
"Why do you do this? Is it because your life is nothing more than a complicated maze, with no place to run, always hitting the same corners?" he said to me, in a very distant voice. For once, I felt truly cold inside. It was raining, and I was very cold, but that was only skin-deep. I was alone.
"I can help you."
I looked up. "No one can help me. Not even you." I gripped the massive weapon. "I'm a murderer. Do you know how that feels?"
"They made you kill. You didn't have to do that." The other sighed and then he grinned. "Have you ever been deprived of something that was supposed to be yours?" I hesitated.
"What kind of 'something'?"
"Anything."
I swallowed. "Yes," I replied, thinking back to when the days weren't so foggy.
"Would you give yourself up for this anything?"
I didn't answer. "I didn't last time, but I would this time."I looked down. This blindness, it's killing me. I need to see. But my eyes aren't for seeing anymore.
My hand twitched insanely. The man I couldn't see but only hear took my wrist. "Let go of me," I said as calmly as possible. He clenched it. "Are you afraid of me?" My gun, where is it? I need it! "No."
"Liar."
"Thief."
"Traitor."
"Coward."
He let go. "I bet you're looking for this." Looking for what? I can't "look", not like this. "What is it?" He took my hand again.
"Take it off. That thing that's in your eyes."
I had a lump in my throat. "I wish I could..."
And suddenly, I saw it. It burned my eyes, but at the same time it relieved them. The rain pounding on the street, the clouds in the dark sky, the bright lights, the boy in the jet black trench coat. He handed me the oversized gun. "A girl like you shouldn't need it." He let go of the ribbon and it flew off in the distance.
"And why don't you take it off?" He glanced upwards. The silver hair was dripping with water as it shone in the light of both the moon and the city lights. He was so familiar, yet so unknown. He turned to look at me. It was as if he didn't need eyes to see, because he knew where everything was, even it was a moving object.
"What's your name?"
I sighed. "Why should you care? I'm a stranger to you as you are to me." He smiled. "Maybe."
"Are you..." Was it him? What if it wasn't? He listened intently, but I never finished my sentence.
"Probably," the silver-haired boy said. I giggled for a bit.
"I don't take it off because I don't want to see the world as it is."
I pondered for a moment. "Maybe I could help you."
He made a small smile. "I doubt it."
I did help him, as he helped me. But it only happened in a dream.
***
Something spawned from the ground. A shadow? Nope. It wasn't a shadow. It was a Heartless. Two. Four. Eight. Twelve. Twenty-eight. Ninety- six. I was outnumbered. But nothing could escape a Hunter. I ran. They followed. It was a wild game of chicken, where everything was at stake. The rain was thudding against my black bomber jacket and my black pants were drenched and soaking.
I stopped and I loaded my NightShot Hunter Gun. I aimed at the center of the vast hoard. I pulled the trigger. The shot melted the Heartless, as well as the ground below. I ran even farther, and even harder.
Until there was nowhere to run. But someone was following me. I couldn't tell though, I was blinded in the darkness. I shot towards the swarming darkness and the pounding rain. "You missed." That voice. "You..." I took of my blindfold.
I gasped. "So you're back..."
He caught the blindfold. "I was always here. It's just that no one could see me." He was so mysterious, it was as though he had been crushed in his childhood, being lost of all that was once good and free.
"Mika." He looked into the palm of his hand, holding the black string. "Truly rare." No one knew the other meaning of my name. No one. "You're not alone. But for now, you need to be," he said to me as he smiled. How ironic.
"Every hour, every minute, every second counts. Go. Run. Run hard and run fast. If you feel you have nowhere to go, follow the clouds, follow the stars, follow the moon until you reach the horizon." He looked up and stretched out his arms as God would have done. The clouds parted and there they were.
"Is this the end?" I asked him, although I already knew the answer. He grinned as he glanced at me.
"Not just yet. Now go. I'll meet you there."
I gripped the gun. "Good luck," He turned to look at me. "Don't worry, you'll see the sky soon." And I ran, like he told me to.
Patter, patter. Swish. Thud, thud, thud. Screech, crash. Gasp, gasp.
I need time. There isn't enough time. But I was near the horizon. The rain had stopped long ago, and the sun was coming up. I removed the hood as I crouched down and placed my hands on my knees. My necklaces clinked against each other as the wind picked up and died down suddenly.
A cross was hanging from my neck. It was a present from... from who? I got it after someone told me a story when I was younger, but who told it to me?
The story went like this:
Long ago, before there were any major cities, computers, or anything like that, there was a great and terrible force. Many were afraid of it, some gave into it, but still, others fought it. This evil force, called the Darkness, overcame the good. But a few survived. Children survived. No one thought that they could rebuild a whole civilization, but they did. They were called The Children of the Light.
One of my ancestors was a Child of the Light and that my time would come, just as it did to her, unexpectedly. It used to be a bedtime story that I had grown fond of. But not anymore. It was my turn to do whatever needed to be done.
The other necklace hovering in midair was a papou fruit. Did the same person give me this one, too?
According to legend, if you share this fruit with the person you truly care for, that you would be binded to this person for all eternity, no matter what.
That was a lie. And it still is.
I finally reached the horizon. A town lay just ahead. Twilight Town. I ran a bit farther until I actually reached it and remembered why I was here. I live here. I took a deep breathe, and I walked into the town.
Whispers and stares were headed in my direction, but I didn't care. Sure, I was and still am an outlaw, but no one knew my name. Yet, I worked as a bounty hunter for the government. I kept pacing myself, wanting to run away from everything.
I didn't expect him to be there. And he wasn't there.
It was late. Again. I was inside my room, which was mostly earthy tones. I hadn't played my guitar in a long time. It looked like a heavy metal guitar. I plugged it into the amplifier and put on a pair of headphones. The song playing in it was "Aerodynamic" by a techno group called... Daft Punk, I think. I liked it
It started with church bells. They rang three of four times. Then the rhythm came in. The electric guitar came in, too. I played it.
While I played, I felt someone come into the room. The window wasn't open, since it was raining, but I felt someone was inside.
I stopped playing. I looked around frantically. No one was there, but a note was laying there. Don't stop playing, it read.
The next song was "Digital Love." I liked that one too. It had 45 seconds of the electric guitar. I was going to play it for this competition to see who could play the best. I took my silver pick and I strummed the black instrument.
"'Why don't you play the game?...'" And someone was behind me. "How did you get in?" It was the silver-haired boy.
"I wanted to hear the concert. So I picked your lock and I came in."
I wanted to strangle him. "That gives you no permission to break into someone's house!"
"Take it as a compliment. Besides, I need your help." I was stunned. "You do?" He shrugged. "You were the only one that I actually knew and also fought."
I stared. "You don't know me." He smiled. "Actually, I know more than you would think. Probably more than you know about yourself.
"Anyway, I need your help in fighting. I can't fight the Heartless by myself." I pondered for a bit. "You're capable of doing that on your own." He grinned and raised his hand. A cross was hanging from the thin, sliver chain. "This yours?" It was mine. But it made no sense to keep it if I didn't even know why I got it.
"No." He turned the cross around. "Then why is your name on it?"
I snatched it from him. "Look, I don't know what you want with me, but I can't help you, okay?"
"Even if it meant to lose that scar?" He glanced at the scar running down my wrist. "I can help you get revenge on those people, but just help me first and then I'll help you." I looked down at my scar.
"You can never forget a living nightmare."
He looked down. "Maybe. Maybe not. How did you get it, anyway?" I didn't answer. I still remember those crazy, yellow eyes. I had a knot in my throat.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"Don't be sorry for something you didn't do," I said vainly.
"I did do it though. That's the problem." He took off his blindfold.
He had yellow eyes, but they weren't crazy like the other one's were. Then I realized, it was him. He threw me dagger and I caught it. "That's what you were stabbed with, right?" I fingered the silver knife.
"I have the authority to kill you right now if want to," I said, clenching the dagger. "But I'm not going to. I've already killed too many people." He glanced at me and then turned around to the window.
"I'd rather have you kill me any day with pain than them with the agony of defeat."
Heartless. He opened the window for me. I jumped out of the window, and he followed. My gun was hanging from my back. I put on my blindfold and my hood and put my hand inside my pocket. My keys were there.
I ran to my motorcycle and turned it on. The game was on.
I went at full speed on my bike. The Heartless followed insanely. The boy, who was also blindfolded, just ran like there was no tomorrow. I took out two small handguns and I threw one at the boy. He caught it and started shooting at what seemed like nothing.
I looked down onto the pavement and I saw something. Oil was dripping from the motorcycle. And, almost as if I put it there on purpose, there were some matches in my pocket. Yes, matches. I got one out and started scratching on the side of the box like crazy until the fire finally appeared.
"Hey you!" That sounded rather rude, but I still didn't know his name.
"I have a name, you know," he replied harshly.
"Well, you haven't given it to me yet." I looked back and more Heartless had spawned. "Just get out of the way."
"As you wish." And with that he jumped. I threw the match at the oil, knowing that I might get blown up trying to kill the Heartless. I jumped off the seat, gun slung onto my back.
I landed onto the pavement and started running like hell before the fire caught me. Someone suddenly grabbed my waist and forced me to get down. "What do they teach you at school?" He asked me with a rather annoyed tone.
"A shit-load of things, that's what." I placed my hands over my head and my bike had exploded.
"That's great. You wasted like crap-load of money on a nice-looking bike, only for it to be exploded. Why don't you just get grenades or something?"
"I left them in my room. Jesus, a normal person does not carry grenades in their pockets!"
"Oh yeah, like you're so normal! I mean look at the size of that gun! That's not a gun, hell no. That's a weapon of mass destruction!"
"Excuse you. Who knows what you carry in your pockets..."
"Me? I carry spare change, not cherry bombs!"
"Okay, there's no point in arguing about who-carries-what in their pockets. Besides, the government will pay it for me. They gave it to moi."
"See, if you had said that before, we would not be talking about bombs or pockets."
"Oh, just shut up. You started it."
"Make me."
I showed him the finger. "Now piss off before I change my mind."
He stuck out his tongue at me. "What are you going to do if I make you change your mind?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "I'll have to think about that. It'll be painful, that's for sure."
He laughed. "Like you could do anything to hurt me."
I took out a gun and put it to his head. "Oh, believe me. Plenty of people have said that, and not one of them lived to see another day."
He took my wrist and put it down. "Why do you have to be so violent?"
"'Kill or be killed.' That's what they always taught me."
He shrugged. "All right, then, that'll work. I guess." He left when I got to the window of my room. It was weird how he accepted the fact that I was too violent. Maybe he was violent too. I wouldn't know.
I opened the window to get inside my room. It looked somewhat different, but I couldn't quite figure out what was different. I just felt it. I decided to ignore it while I raided my drawer for my pajamas.
I grabbed my punk-meets-plaid pajama bottom and a shirt of an electric guitar and I changed into it. I was so dead tired, I decided not to have dinner and just head on to sleep.
I closed my eyes and for a few moments there was darkness. I opened them again. What is this place? It was so bizarre. It was a chapel, but it looked gothic. Not the gothic as in medieval gothic, but gothic like dark gothic. There were gargoyle statues and different girls in chambers on the walls. And at the very center was a very young girl of about 14, with red hair, a white shirt, and a lavender skirt. She was lying inside a glass chamber in the center. It looked like a transparent casket.
"I can give you power," a voice in the distance said to me.
"I don't want it." I replied.
The other voice appeared to have come from a cloaked man. "I can help you get your parents back if you do me this one favor."
Shadows started to form around me. I looked around frantically. "Don't fight it," a boy said behind him. It was him! The boy with silver hair looked nothing like he did now. He was dark, vague, mysterious, evil.
"He can help you. Take my hand." He held it out for me.
"No. Look at yourself! Look at what you're becoming!"
He smirked. "Is that how you want it? So be it."
Heartless spawned from the shadows around me. I was sinking in the vortex, desperately fighting to get myself out of it. I had a gun in my pocket. I felt for it, took it out and aimed at him.
I woke up. The boy was there, leaning on top of me. His face was a mere few inches away from mine. I always had a gun under my pillow and it was aimed right in the middle of his eyes. "You...!" He was wearing sunglasses instead of his blindfold.
"Do you do this every morning or was this a special occasion?"
I gritted my teeth while I got up. He moved out of the way, thankfully. "Get out!" I said pointing with my gun to the window. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the window.
"It's not like I came here to watch you undress. Besides, I've seen better." That little pervert!!!!!!!
"OUT!"
He grinned while he crossed his arms. "I don't feel like it, babe."
Okay, so I couldn't move him from there. "Then turn around, let me get my uniform, and change in my bathroom."
Thank God he had a little dignity to turn around. I pretty much ran to my closet, got my khaki skirt and white shirt, and went into the bathroom. "And please, don't try to pick this lock or I'll shoot your head off."
"Don't worry, I don't plan to. I'm busy looking at some stuff anyway."
I gaped. "What are you looking at and who gave you permission to look at it?"
He shrugged. "I'm just looking at some drawings." Oh thank God.
I closed the door and changed quicker than normal. I combed my hair and brushed my teeth faster than normal too. I unlocked the door and got my backpack that was next to the bed.
"Well that was fast."
I unzipped my messenger bag and put in the gun that was under the pillow. "If I plan on keeping my room intact, then I'd better do it quick from now on." I got out some more guns and some ammo from my drawer and stuffed them in there too along with my pants and a T-shirt.
"Did you really draw all these?" he asked me while he flipped through the notebook.
"In my spare time, yeah."
He turned around while I swung it onto my shoulders. "Oh how cute. You look like a Sailor Moon chic." I threw an eraser at him.
"There were lesbians and transsexuals on that show!"
He looked at me. "Really? I just thought they were hot to be cartoons. So take it as a compliment." I rolled my eyes at him while I ran down the stairs. Strangely enough, he followed.
"Damn, this is a huge place!" He looked all around the brownish living room. I walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet.
"You want anything?" He looked at a picture I had. He didn't respond. "Hello?"
He kept looking at the picture. "No thanks." I took out a granola bar for my breakfast. I walked up to him. "Who is that guy?" He pointed at the boy with silver hair.
"That's Riku. He was a friend of mine until, well, he just disappeared."
The picture was taken about a year ago. He had a yellow and black sleeveless shirt, which showed all the muscles he had in just his arms. My mind lingered back to him. Where was he? I wish I knew.
I was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. We both were wearing a black jacket, since we had won the Gunning Championship. We were both holding the trophy in the picture and the guns were in the other hand. He kept staring.
He murmured something. It sounded like "That was me...?" I looked at him then I looked at the picture. They looked exactly the same. No way. That couldn't be the Riku I knew. But, then again, they acted the same.
He finally put down the picture. "Aren't you going to be late?" He asked me. I looked at my watch. "Not really, but I gotta get going." I walked over to a small cabinet and looked for the right set of keys. I took out the ones that had a colt on it.
He followed me to the garage as I looked for the car I had proposed to drive that day. I finally was able to see what this Riku-look-alike was wearing. A black jacket with black pants and a white shirt. He couldn't talk.
"Why do you have so many cars?" he asked while he looked inside my red Mazda Spyder. "Because I'm worth over $4 billion. And it sucks." He turned to look at me. "It what?!"
"Well, I mean, it doesn't suck, but I mean you don't have many liberties without getting into the limelight. That's why someone else is running the corporation my parents left me." I unlocked my silver Porsche Carrera and slipped into the front seat.
"You drive this to school?"
"I usually go on my bike, but since it blew up I can't really drive it, now can I?" He looked at me and then the wheel of the car. "Let me take you."
I stared. "I don't trust you with my car." I could tell he knew how to drive one while doing several 360's in one street. "Oh, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "I'll be careful this time." he said trying to coax me.
I sighed as I moved over to the passenger seat. He closed the door and opened the garage from a control that was inside the car. "Wait, what do you mean 'this time'?" He grinned.
"Oh, no you don't!" He pushed the pedal to start the car and we were from zero to sixty within three seconds. "You're an insane person. Is this what you do when you're bored?" He shrugged. "I race most of the time and I don't get caught, so yeah."
"Just drive like a normal person this time." He turned to look at me and then he cocked an eyebrow. "You are the most boring person I've met by far. And I'm gonna knock the shit out of this car just so you know what the rush is like."
Well, there was no stopping him. He drove at top speed, did several 360's, skidded to halts before he turned at corners, and finally slowed down when I got to my school.
"So, did you like it?" I was gasping. "Yeah. You gotta teach me that some time." He grinned a wide grin. "But now you get to fill it up." His insane smile dropped. "But this isn't my car, you know." I raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"So I shouldn't have to pay." I unlocked the car and gathered my things that were currently scattered all over the place. Before I got out, I told him that "I would like to see the tank full. Be here for me by one."
"So I get to keep it?"
"No, but you are in charge of it for the day. And for God's sake please don't get yourself arrested." He put his thumb between his index and ring finger and put his hand into a fist. He put it to his forehead and directed the fist towards me. "Aye, captain."
I got out of the car and closed the door. He sped off into the distance. Oh crap, I just lent him my car. Shit! What was I thinking!?! Well, I can't get it back now.
I walked up the steps and headed towards my first class, Literature. I couldn't stand that class. The professor made the good stories boring and that really ticked me off.
I walked a couple of more flights of stairs only to find that half of the class was already there. We couldn't start before the rest of the class came, so I took out a notebook and began to draw. At first, I had no clue what I was drawing, but the I realized I was drawing my nightmare.
It was Riku in my dream. Now I knew why he disappeared. I can't blame him, I did the same thing. I was so stupid to do that. I drew him with his hand outstretched for me. I did the other cloaked figure and the chapel background with the girl in the center and the ones in the chambers.
My mind drifted off to that dream. How could he have changed so much in so little time? I didn't understand. Did I change that much too? Was I like him, able to control all darkness at will?
Suddenly I heard a slap of a ruler on my drawing, jerking me back to reality. I looked up. It was the professor. He took the notebook from me. "And what is this..." He inspected the drawing like a crime investigator searching for missing clues. "I would like to see you after class." He took the notebook.
The bell rang and I stayed seated. My friend, Mai Sinangelus gave me the pitied look. I walked up to the professor. "Why are you drawing in my class, miss Takegami?"
"I didn't know class had started. I didn't hear the bell."
"And of course you couldn't have with all these thoughts going about in your brain! You see, I do not tolerate students who take a liking in the satanic. You are now at the bottom of the list, and it is not the best place to be."
"But it isn't satanic!"
"And what is this!? A boy with a black heart across his chest. Girls in chambers on the edges of the building..."
"It's a chapel!"
"Oh, well that changes things, doesn't it?"
"It was a nightmare! And that boy isn't an ordinary boy! He's Heartless! Don't you see the insignia!?"
"Now you are speaking of nothing! Heartlessness does not exist, do you hear me?"
"Yes it does!"
"End of discussion. Take this thing. May you wallow in its 'Heartlessness.'"
I took the notebook and stormed out of the classroom. Thank God it was time for Weapons Training. Today was Gunning Class.
I ran to the girls locker room and discovered that Mai had waited for me. "How'd it go?"
I took of my shirt and put on my white blouse. "Not so well. I'm labeled as satanic now. I mean, does this look satanic to you?" I showed her the drawing.
"Well, it does look gothic, but not satanic." I took off my skirt and bike shorts and slipped into the black pants. "Well, it was a nightmare I had." She gave me a weird look.
"Why would you draw out a nightmare?" she asked while she opened her locker and got out her holster and guns. "Because my friend was in it. He's this guy right there." I pointed to Riku.
"Yipes. Darkside dude?" I put on my holster and put in my silver guns. "At least you know what I'm talking about. No one believes me that there are Heartless."
She shrugged. "I believe you because, well, you know what happened." I opened the door for her. "The usual destruction of a world. Now let's get to it before we're late!"
We ran to the training course and discovered we weren't as late as we thought. The training course was SWAT style. Sometimes, we had to use rifles to shoot at some targets that were over a hundred feet away to play poker or blackjack.
And today was one of those times. "Ladies and gents, the name of the game is blackjack," he explained as he shuffled the cards in his hands and split the deck to the dealers. We used two decks instead of one. "Today's game will be a friendly competition of Battle of the Sexes." Our professor's name was Michael Taylor, also known as "SWAT master."
The way we played blackjack battle of the sexes style was like this: A girl and a boy would go to the field and take a side. There would be a wooden tablet separating the two. At the top of the two hills there would be two dealers: one for the guys and one for the girls. The hills were facing the opposite direction, so the guys and the girls were never facing the same way.
The dealers, of course, were not your average dealers. They would place the card on the wooden surface and with a microphone and headset, you tell them whether you wanted them to hit you or you were good with your hand.
Now, if you were to cheat, then you don't get to practice, you wouldn't go to the next practice, and the pot would be reduced by $100. The twist of this game is that every person had to bet at least five dollars. Since there were 25 guys and 25 girls, the minimum in each pot would be about $125. You could always put in more if you wanted to.
The last game we had played, the guys each bet $50, giving their bets a whopping total of $1250. The girls, of course, each bet $10 dollars, which led to us having $250. And we kicked their asses big time. Our pot is standing at $1875, counting the other wins. The boys were at $1500.
The object of the game, of course, was to get 21 or closest to 21. Whichever team had the most wins per game won. Also, if a team does more than two blackjacks in a row, our professor would raise that team $10 times the number of how many games this chain lasted.
Oh, and there's another twist. If the person on a team won the last round, that person would have to complete the obstacle course set up by Professor Michael. If you didn't hit every target within two minutes, your team doesn't win the round.
There was a boy at the other side of the lawn. The professor walked over to him, greeted him, and signaled him to where the rest of us were. He walked over rather casually as Professor Michael followed.
"Ladies and gents, we have a new student in the class." He was already wearing the same uniform as the guys were. Wait a minute, if the guy in my nightmare was Riku, and this guy looks like him, that means...!
"Riku!?" He turned to look at me. Mai turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. "You are lucky girl to know that guy," she whispered to me.
"Well then, now that Mika has said the name, it's up to you to introduce him into our class," Professor Michael said with a slight annoyance. I could tell the guys were intimidated by Riku.
"So, you know how to use guns?" The conversation between all the boys was rather loud. All the girls were disturbed by the breaking of the silence and simply glared at the opposing team.
"Mika! Riku! Front and center!" It was my turn already? What was the score?
"Good luck," Mai mouthed to me. I nodded and headed up to the table. The binoculars were there, so I assumed we weren't using rifles.
I put on the headset at the same time Riku did. I took up my binoculars and waited to get my hand. The dealer took out an Ace and a King, totaling me up to twenty-one. I spoke into the microphone. "I'm good."
"Dealer One," the professor said through his own headset, "what's the score?" Dealer One was the girl's dealer, by the way.
A ringing came through the PA system. "Twenty-one!" The professor nodded. "Dealer Two, what's the score?" Another ringing. "Twenty-one!"
Everyone awed. "All right then, first to finish the round wins the game. If you finish at the same time, we're going into Exhibition Round."
I took out the guns from my holster, put on a headset to protect my ears, and placed the goggles on my eyes. "Good luck," Riku sneered at me.
"Like I need it."
The targets popped up out of nowhere. "On your marks... get set... go!"
I ran towards the shooting range and shot the first three stationary targets. I ran further and shot down all of the moving targets from one point. I flipped my guns and placed them in the holster.
Professor Michael was surprised. "Did you two plan this out?"
We looked at each other. "No," I replied for both of us. The professor scratched his head. "Well, you both finished at the same exact time. Very synchronized. You two would make an excellent team." He shrugged. "But, onto Exhibition Round!"
Everyone cheered madly. It hadn't been done in about three years. Exhibition was when you showed your slickest moves while shooting down targets. The person who put on a better show wins.
Riku turned to look at me. "Ladies first."
"So then why don't you go first?" He stuck out his tongue.
Something white flashed by me. I looked around like crazy to figure out what it was. I tapped Riku's shoulder. He was staring off into space. I looked up. It was a white and blue creature, with a partial cross instead of a face.
"What is that?" I asked him.
"A Heartless," he replied. "We gotta get to it before it gets someone or something."
"It doesn't look like one, though."
"It is. It's a new breed of Heartless. Stronger. Faster. More evil than the ones we're used to."
I looked around. A giant black hole was forming in the center of the shooting range. Everyone ran in all directions, trying to escape all the chaos. Shadow Heartless started growing from it. Riku turned to look at me. "It's time."
Chapter One
Something is wrong. Something is coming. It's not what I thought it was at first. Something darker is here, and for some reason, I feel that it is very close to me, almost as if it were in my heart.
What is it? Is it the pain I've kept inside? Is it the torture that's given me scars? No. I don't know what it is... but it's here, now. Maybe, just maybe, if I let my eyes free for just once...
"Why do you do this? Is it because your life is nothing more than a complicated maze, with no place to run, always hitting the same corners?" he said to me, in a very distant voice. For once, I felt truly cold inside. It was raining, and I was very cold, but that was only skin-deep. I was alone.
"I can help you."
I looked up. "No one can help me. Not even you." I gripped the massive weapon. "I'm a murderer. Do you know how that feels?"
"They made you kill. You didn't have to do that." The other sighed and then he grinned. "Have you ever been deprived of something that was supposed to be yours?" I hesitated.
"What kind of 'something'?"
"Anything."
I swallowed. "Yes," I replied, thinking back to when the days weren't so foggy.
"Would you give yourself up for this anything?"
I didn't answer. "I didn't last time, but I would this time."I looked down. This blindness, it's killing me. I need to see. But my eyes aren't for seeing anymore.
My hand twitched insanely. The man I couldn't see but only hear took my wrist. "Let go of me," I said as calmly as possible. He clenched it. "Are you afraid of me?" My gun, where is it? I need it! "No."
"Liar."
"Thief."
"Traitor."
"Coward."
He let go. "I bet you're looking for this." Looking for what? I can't "look", not like this. "What is it?" He took my hand again.
"Take it off. That thing that's in your eyes."
I had a lump in my throat. "I wish I could..."
And suddenly, I saw it. It burned my eyes, but at the same time it relieved them. The rain pounding on the street, the clouds in the dark sky, the bright lights, the boy in the jet black trench coat. He handed me the oversized gun. "A girl like you shouldn't need it." He let go of the ribbon and it flew off in the distance.
"And why don't you take it off?" He glanced upwards. The silver hair was dripping with water as it shone in the light of both the moon and the city lights. He was so familiar, yet so unknown. He turned to look at me. It was as if he didn't need eyes to see, because he knew where everything was, even it was a moving object.
"What's your name?"
I sighed. "Why should you care? I'm a stranger to you as you are to me." He smiled. "Maybe."
"Are you..." Was it him? What if it wasn't? He listened intently, but I never finished my sentence.
"Probably," the silver-haired boy said. I giggled for a bit.
"I don't take it off because I don't want to see the world as it is."
I pondered for a moment. "Maybe I could help you."
He made a small smile. "I doubt it."
I did help him, as he helped me. But it only happened in a dream.
***
Something spawned from the ground. A shadow? Nope. It wasn't a shadow. It was a Heartless. Two. Four. Eight. Twelve. Twenty-eight. Ninety- six. I was outnumbered. But nothing could escape a Hunter. I ran. They followed. It was a wild game of chicken, where everything was at stake. The rain was thudding against my black bomber jacket and my black pants were drenched and soaking.
I stopped and I loaded my NightShot Hunter Gun. I aimed at the center of the vast hoard. I pulled the trigger. The shot melted the Heartless, as well as the ground below. I ran even farther, and even harder.
Until there was nowhere to run. But someone was following me. I couldn't tell though, I was blinded in the darkness. I shot towards the swarming darkness and the pounding rain. "You missed." That voice. "You..." I took of my blindfold.
I gasped. "So you're back..."
He caught the blindfold. "I was always here. It's just that no one could see me." He was so mysterious, it was as though he had been crushed in his childhood, being lost of all that was once good and free.
"Mika." He looked into the palm of his hand, holding the black string. "Truly rare." No one knew the other meaning of my name. No one. "You're not alone. But for now, you need to be," he said to me as he smiled. How ironic.
"Every hour, every minute, every second counts. Go. Run. Run hard and run fast. If you feel you have nowhere to go, follow the clouds, follow the stars, follow the moon until you reach the horizon." He looked up and stretched out his arms as God would have done. The clouds parted and there they were.
"Is this the end?" I asked him, although I already knew the answer. He grinned as he glanced at me.
"Not just yet. Now go. I'll meet you there."
I gripped the gun. "Good luck," He turned to look at me. "Don't worry, you'll see the sky soon." And I ran, like he told me to.
Patter, patter. Swish. Thud, thud, thud. Screech, crash. Gasp, gasp.
I need time. There isn't enough time. But I was near the horizon. The rain had stopped long ago, and the sun was coming up. I removed the hood as I crouched down and placed my hands on my knees. My necklaces clinked against each other as the wind picked up and died down suddenly.
A cross was hanging from my neck. It was a present from... from who? I got it after someone told me a story when I was younger, but who told it to me?
The story went like this:
Long ago, before there were any major cities, computers, or anything like that, there was a great and terrible force. Many were afraid of it, some gave into it, but still, others fought it. This evil force, called the Darkness, overcame the good. But a few survived. Children survived. No one thought that they could rebuild a whole civilization, but they did. They were called The Children of the Light.
One of my ancestors was a Child of the Light and that my time would come, just as it did to her, unexpectedly. It used to be a bedtime story that I had grown fond of. But not anymore. It was my turn to do whatever needed to be done.
The other necklace hovering in midair was a papou fruit. Did the same person give me this one, too?
According to legend, if you share this fruit with the person you truly care for, that you would be binded to this person for all eternity, no matter what.
That was a lie. And it still is.
I finally reached the horizon. A town lay just ahead. Twilight Town. I ran a bit farther until I actually reached it and remembered why I was here. I live here. I took a deep breathe, and I walked into the town.
Whispers and stares were headed in my direction, but I didn't care. Sure, I was and still am an outlaw, but no one knew my name. Yet, I worked as a bounty hunter for the government. I kept pacing myself, wanting to run away from everything.
I didn't expect him to be there. And he wasn't there.
It was late. Again. I was inside my room, which was mostly earthy tones. I hadn't played my guitar in a long time. It looked like a heavy metal guitar. I plugged it into the amplifier and put on a pair of headphones. The song playing in it was "Aerodynamic" by a techno group called... Daft Punk, I think. I liked it
It started with church bells. They rang three of four times. Then the rhythm came in. The electric guitar came in, too. I played it.
While I played, I felt someone come into the room. The window wasn't open, since it was raining, but I felt someone was inside.
I stopped playing. I looked around frantically. No one was there, but a note was laying there. Don't stop playing, it read.
The next song was "Digital Love." I liked that one too. It had 45 seconds of the electric guitar. I was going to play it for this competition to see who could play the best. I took my silver pick and I strummed the black instrument.
"'Why don't you play the game?...'" And someone was behind me. "How did you get in?" It was the silver-haired boy.
"I wanted to hear the concert. So I picked your lock and I came in."
I wanted to strangle him. "That gives you no permission to break into someone's house!"
"Take it as a compliment. Besides, I need your help." I was stunned. "You do?" He shrugged. "You were the only one that I actually knew and also fought."
I stared. "You don't know me." He smiled. "Actually, I know more than you would think. Probably more than you know about yourself.
"Anyway, I need your help in fighting. I can't fight the Heartless by myself." I pondered for a bit. "You're capable of doing that on your own." He grinned and raised his hand. A cross was hanging from the thin, sliver chain. "This yours?" It was mine. But it made no sense to keep it if I didn't even know why I got it.
"No." He turned the cross around. "Then why is your name on it?"
I snatched it from him. "Look, I don't know what you want with me, but I can't help you, okay?"
"Even if it meant to lose that scar?" He glanced at the scar running down my wrist. "I can help you get revenge on those people, but just help me first and then I'll help you." I looked down at my scar.
"You can never forget a living nightmare."
He looked down. "Maybe. Maybe not. How did you get it, anyway?" I didn't answer. I still remember those crazy, yellow eyes. I had a knot in my throat.
"Sorry," he murmured.
"Don't be sorry for something you didn't do," I said vainly.
"I did do it though. That's the problem." He took off his blindfold.
He had yellow eyes, but they weren't crazy like the other one's were. Then I realized, it was him. He threw me dagger and I caught it. "That's what you were stabbed with, right?" I fingered the silver knife.
"I have the authority to kill you right now if want to," I said, clenching the dagger. "But I'm not going to. I've already killed too many people." He glanced at me and then turned around to the window.
"I'd rather have you kill me any day with pain than them with the agony of defeat."
Heartless. He opened the window for me. I jumped out of the window, and he followed. My gun was hanging from my back. I put on my blindfold and my hood and put my hand inside my pocket. My keys were there.
I ran to my motorcycle and turned it on. The game was on.
I went at full speed on my bike. The Heartless followed insanely. The boy, who was also blindfolded, just ran like there was no tomorrow. I took out two small handguns and I threw one at the boy. He caught it and started shooting at what seemed like nothing.
I looked down onto the pavement and I saw something. Oil was dripping from the motorcycle. And, almost as if I put it there on purpose, there were some matches in my pocket. Yes, matches. I got one out and started scratching on the side of the box like crazy until the fire finally appeared.
"Hey you!" That sounded rather rude, but I still didn't know his name.
"I have a name, you know," he replied harshly.
"Well, you haven't given it to me yet." I looked back and more Heartless had spawned. "Just get out of the way."
"As you wish." And with that he jumped. I threw the match at the oil, knowing that I might get blown up trying to kill the Heartless. I jumped off the seat, gun slung onto my back.
I landed onto the pavement and started running like hell before the fire caught me. Someone suddenly grabbed my waist and forced me to get down. "What do they teach you at school?" He asked me with a rather annoyed tone.
"A shit-load of things, that's what." I placed my hands over my head and my bike had exploded.
"That's great. You wasted like crap-load of money on a nice-looking bike, only for it to be exploded. Why don't you just get grenades or something?"
"I left them in my room. Jesus, a normal person does not carry grenades in their pockets!"
"Oh yeah, like you're so normal! I mean look at the size of that gun! That's not a gun, hell no. That's a weapon of mass destruction!"
"Excuse you. Who knows what you carry in your pockets..."
"Me? I carry spare change, not cherry bombs!"
"Okay, there's no point in arguing about who-carries-what in their pockets. Besides, the government will pay it for me. They gave it to moi."
"See, if you had said that before, we would not be talking about bombs or pockets."
"Oh, just shut up. You started it."
"Make me."
I showed him the finger. "Now piss off before I change my mind."
He stuck out his tongue at me. "What are you going to do if I make you change your mind?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "I'll have to think about that. It'll be painful, that's for sure."
He laughed. "Like you could do anything to hurt me."
I took out a gun and put it to his head. "Oh, believe me. Plenty of people have said that, and not one of them lived to see another day."
He took my wrist and put it down. "Why do you have to be so violent?"
"'Kill or be killed.' That's what they always taught me."
He shrugged. "All right, then, that'll work. I guess." He left when I got to the window of my room. It was weird how he accepted the fact that I was too violent. Maybe he was violent too. I wouldn't know.
I opened the window to get inside my room. It looked somewhat different, but I couldn't quite figure out what was different. I just felt it. I decided to ignore it while I raided my drawer for my pajamas.
I grabbed my punk-meets-plaid pajama bottom and a shirt of an electric guitar and I changed into it. I was so dead tired, I decided not to have dinner and just head on to sleep.
I closed my eyes and for a few moments there was darkness. I opened them again. What is this place? It was so bizarre. It was a chapel, but it looked gothic. Not the gothic as in medieval gothic, but gothic like dark gothic. There were gargoyle statues and different girls in chambers on the walls. And at the very center was a very young girl of about 14, with red hair, a white shirt, and a lavender skirt. She was lying inside a glass chamber in the center. It looked like a transparent casket.
"I can give you power," a voice in the distance said to me.
"I don't want it." I replied.
The other voice appeared to have come from a cloaked man. "I can help you get your parents back if you do me this one favor."
Shadows started to form around me. I looked around frantically. "Don't fight it," a boy said behind him. It was him! The boy with silver hair looked nothing like he did now. He was dark, vague, mysterious, evil.
"He can help you. Take my hand." He held it out for me.
"No. Look at yourself! Look at what you're becoming!"
He smirked. "Is that how you want it? So be it."
Heartless spawned from the shadows around me. I was sinking in the vortex, desperately fighting to get myself out of it. I had a gun in my pocket. I felt for it, took it out and aimed at him.
I woke up. The boy was there, leaning on top of me. His face was a mere few inches away from mine. I always had a gun under my pillow and it was aimed right in the middle of his eyes. "You...!" He was wearing sunglasses instead of his blindfold.
"Do you do this every morning or was this a special occasion?"
I gritted my teeth while I got up. He moved out of the way, thankfully. "Get out!" I said pointing with my gun to the window. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the window.
"It's not like I came here to watch you undress. Besides, I've seen better." That little pervert!!!!!!!
"OUT!"
He grinned while he crossed his arms. "I don't feel like it, babe."
Okay, so I couldn't move him from there. "Then turn around, let me get my uniform, and change in my bathroom."
Thank God he had a little dignity to turn around. I pretty much ran to my closet, got my khaki skirt and white shirt, and went into the bathroom. "And please, don't try to pick this lock or I'll shoot your head off."
"Don't worry, I don't plan to. I'm busy looking at some stuff anyway."
I gaped. "What are you looking at and who gave you permission to look at it?"
He shrugged. "I'm just looking at some drawings." Oh thank God.
I closed the door and changed quicker than normal. I combed my hair and brushed my teeth faster than normal too. I unlocked the door and got my backpack that was next to the bed.
"Well that was fast."
I unzipped my messenger bag and put in the gun that was under the pillow. "If I plan on keeping my room intact, then I'd better do it quick from now on." I got out some more guns and some ammo from my drawer and stuffed them in there too along with my pants and a T-shirt.
"Did you really draw all these?" he asked me while he flipped through the notebook.
"In my spare time, yeah."
He turned around while I swung it onto my shoulders. "Oh how cute. You look like a Sailor Moon chic." I threw an eraser at him.
"There were lesbians and transsexuals on that show!"
He looked at me. "Really? I just thought they were hot to be cartoons. So take it as a compliment." I rolled my eyes at him while I ran down the stairs. Strangely enough, he followed.
"Damn, this is a huge place!" He looked all around the brownish living room. I walked into the kitchen and opened a cabinet.
"You want anything?" He looked at a picture I had. He didn't respond. "Hello?"
He kept looking at the picture. "No thanks." I took out a granola bar for my breakfast. I walked up to him. "Who is that guy?" He pointed at the boy with silver hair.
"That's Riku. He was a friend of mine until, well, he just disappeared."
The picture was taken about a year ago. He had a yellow and black sleeveless shirt, which showed all the muscles he had in just his arms. My mind lingered back to him. Where was he? I wish I knew.
I was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. We both were wearing a black jacket, since we had won the Gunning Championship. We were both holding the trophy in the picture and the guns were in the other hand. He kept staring.
He murmured something. It sounded like "That was me...?" I looked at him then I looked at the picture. They looked exactly the same. No way. That couldn't be the Riku I knew. But, then again, they acted the same.
He finally put down the picture. "Aren't you going to be late?" He asked me. I looked at my watch. "Not really, but I gotta get going." I walked over to a small cabinet and looked for the right set of keys. I took out the ones that had a colt on it.
He followed me to the garage as I looked for the car I had proposed to drive that day. I finally was able to see what this Riku-look-alike was wearing. A black jacket with black pants and a white shirt. He couldn't talk.
"Why do you have so many cars?" he asked while he looked inside my red Mazda Spyder. "Because I'm worth over $4 billion. And it sucks." He turned to look at me. "It what?!"
"Well, I mean, it doesn't suck, but I mean you don't have many liberties without getting into the limelight. That's why someone else is running the corporation my parents left me." I unlocked my silver Porsche Carrera and slipped into the front seat.
"You drive this to school?"
"I usually go on my bike, but since it blew up I can't really drive it, now can I?" He looked at me and then the wheel of the car. "Let me take you."
I stared. "I don't trust you with my car." I could tell he knew how to drive one while doing several 360's in one street. "Oh, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "I'll be careful this time." he said trying to coax me.
I sighed as I moved over to the passenger seat. He closed the door and opened the garage from a control that was inside the car. "Wait, what do you mean 'this time'?" He grinned.
"Oh, no you don't!" He pushed the pedal to start the car and we were from zero to sixty within three seconds. "You're an insane person. Is this what you do when you're bored?" He shrugged. "I race most of the time and I don't get caught, so yeah."
"Just drive like a normal person this time." He turned to look at me and then he cocked an eyebrow. "You are the most boring person I've met by far. And I'm gonna knock the shit out of this car just so you know what the rush is like."
Well, there was no stopping him. He drove at top speed, did several 360's, skidded to halts before he turned at corners, and finally slowed down when I got to my school.
"So, did you like it?" I was gasping. "Yeah. You gotta teach me that some time." He grinned a wide grin. "But now you get to fill it up." His insane smile dropped. "But this isn't my car, you know." I raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"So I shouldn't have to pay." I unlocked the car and gathered my things that were currently scattered all over the place. Before I got out, I told him that "I would like to see the tank full. Be here for me by one."
"So I get to keep it?"
"No, but you are in charge of it for the day. And for God's sake please don't get yourself arrested." He put his thumb between his index and ring finger and put his hand into a fist. He put it to his forehead and directed the fist towards me. "Aye, captain."
I got out of the car and closed the door. He sped off into the distance. Oh crap, I just lent him my car. Shit! What was I thinking!?! Well, I can't get it back now.
I walked up the steps and headed towards my first class, Literature. I couldn't stand that class. The professor made the good stories boring and that really ticked me off.
I walked a couple of more flights of stairs only to find that half of the class was already there. We couldn't start before the rest of the class came, so I took out a notebook and began to draw. At first, I had no clue what I was drawing, but the I realized I was drawing my nightmare.
It was Riku in my dream. Now I knew why he disappeared. I can't blame him, I did the same thing. I was so stupid to do that. I drew him with his hand outstretched for me. I did the other cloaked figure and the chapel background with the girl in the center and the ones in the chambers.
My mind drifted off to that dream. How could he have changed so much in so little time? I didn't understand. Did I change that much too? Was I like him, able to control all darkness at will?
Suddenly I heard a slap of a ruler on my drawing, jerking me back to reality. I looked up. It was the professor. He took the notebook from me. "And what is this..." He inspected the drawing like a crime investigator searching for missing clues. "I would like to see you after class." He took the notebook.
The bell rang and I stayed seated. My friend, Mai Sinangelus gave me the pitied look. I walked up to the professor. "Why are you drawing in my class, miss Takegami?"
"I didn't know class had started. I didn't hear the bell."
"And of course you couldn't have with all these thoughts going about in your brain! You see, I do not tolerate students who take a liking in the satanic. You are now at the bottom of the list, and it is not the best place to be."
"But it isn't satanic!"
"And what is this!? A boy with a black heart across his chest. Girls in chambers on the edges of the building..."
"It's a chapel!"
"Oh, well that changes things, doesn't it?"
"It was a nightmare! And that boy isn't an ordinary boy! He's Heartless! Don't you see the insignia!?"
"Now you are speaking of nothing! Heartlessness does not exist, do you hear me?"
"Yes it does!"
"End of discussion. Take this thing. May you wallow in its 'Heartlessness.'"
I took the notebook and stormed out of the classroom. Thank God it was time for Weapons Training. Today was Gunning Class.
I ran to the girls locker room and discovered that Mai had waited for me. "How'd it go?"
I took of my shirt and put on my white blouse. "Not so well. I'm labeled as satanic now. I mean, does this look satanic to you?" I showed her the drawing.
"Well, it does look gothic, but not satanic." I took off my skirt and bike shorts and slipped into the black pants. "Well, it was a nightmare I had." She gave me a weird look.
"Why would you draw out a nightmare?" she asked while she opened her locker and got out her holster and guns. "Because my friend was in it. He's this guy right there." I pointed to Riku.
"Yipes. Darkside dude?" I put on my holster and put in my silver guns. "At least you know what I'm talking about. No one believes me that there are Heartless."
She shrugged. "I believe you because, well, you know what happened." I opened the door for her. "The usual destruction of a world. Now let's get to it before we're late!"
We ran to the training course and discovered we weren't as late as we thought. The training course was SWAT style. Sometimes, we had to use rifles to shoot at some targets that were over a hundred feet away to play poker or blackjack.
And today was one of those times. "Ladies and gents, the name of the game is blackjack," he explained as he shuffled the cards in his hands and split the deck to the dealers. We used two decks instead of one. "Today's game will be a friendly competition of Battle of the Sexes." Our professor's name was Michael Taylor, also known as "SWAT master."
The way we played blackjack battle of the sexes style was like this: A girl and a boy would go to the field and take a side. There would be a wooden tablet separating the two. At the top of the two hills there would be two dealers: one for the guys and one for the girls. The hills were facing the opposite direction, so the guys and the girls were never facing the same way.
The dealers, of course, were not your average dealers. They would place the card on the wooden surface and with a microphone and headset, you tell them whether you wanted them to hit you or you were good with your hand.
Now, if you were to cheat, then you don't get to practice, you wouldn't go to the next practice, and the pot would be reduced by $100. The twist of this game is that every person had to bet at least five dollars. Since there were 25 guys and 25 girls, the minimum in each pot would be about $125. You could always put in more if you wanted to.
The last game we had played, the guys each bet $50, giving their bets a whopping total of $1250. The girls, of course, each bet $10 dollars, which led to us having $250. And we kicked their asses big time. Our pot is standing at $1875, counting the other wins. The boys were at $1500.
The object of the game, of course, was to get 21 or closest to 21. Whichever team had the most wins per game won. Also, if a team does more than two blackjacks in a row, our professor would raise that team $10 times the number of how many games this chain lasted.
Oh, and there's another twist. If the person on a team won the last round, that person would have to complete the obstacle course set up by Professor Michael. If you didn't hit every target within two minutes, your team doesn't win the round.
There was a boy at the other side of the lawn. The professor walked over to him, greeted him, and signaled him to where the rest of us were. He walked over rather casually as Professor Michael followed.
"Ladies and gents, we have a new student in the class." He was already wearing the same uniform as the guys were. Wait a minute, if the guy in my nightmare was Riku, and this guy looks like him, that means...!
"Riku!?" He turned to look at me. Mai turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. "You are lucky girl to know that guy," she whispered to me.
"Well then, now that Mika has said the name, it's up to you to introduce him into our class," Professor Michael said with a slight annoyance. I could tell the guys were intimidated by Riku.
"So, you know how to use guns?" The conversation between all the boys was rather loud. All the girls were disturbed by the breaking of the silence and simply glared at the opposing team.
"Mika! Riku! Front and center!" It was my turn already? What was the score?
"Good luck," Mai mouthed to me. I nodded and headed up to the table. The binoculars were there, so I assumed we weren't using rifles.
I put on the headset at the same time Riku did. I took up my binoculars and waited to get my hand. The dealer took out an Ace and a King, totaling me up to twenty-one. I spoke into the microphone. "I'm good."
"Dealer One," the professor said through his own headset, "what's the score?" Dealer One was the girl's dealer, by the way.
A ringing came through the PA system. "Twenty-one!" The professor nodded. "Dealer Two, what's the score?" Another ringing. "Twenty-one!"
Everyone awed. "All right then, first to finish the round wins the game. If you finish at the same time, we're going into Exhibition Round."
I took out the guns from my holster, put on a headset to protect my ears, and placed the goggles on my eyes. "Good luck," Riku sneered at me.
"Like I need it."
The targets popped up out of nowhere. "On your marks... get set... go!"
I ran towards the shooting range and shot the first three stationary targets. I ran further and shot down all of the moving targets from one point. I flipped my guns and placed them in the holster.
Professor Michael was surprised. "Did you two plan this out?"
We looked at each other. "No," I replied for both of us. The professor scratched his head. "Well, you both finished at the same exact time. Very synchronized. You two would make an excellent team." He shrugged. "But, onto Exhibition Round!"
Everyone cheered madly. It hadn't been done in about three years. Exhibition was when you showed your slickest moves while shooting down targets. The person who put on a better show wins.
Riku turned to look at me. "Ladies first."
"So then why don't you go first?" He stuck out his tongue.
Something white flashed by me. I looked around like crazy to figure out what it was. I tapped Riku's shoulder. He was staring off into space. I looked up. It was a white and blue creature, with a partial cross instead of a face.
"What is that?" I asked him.
"A Heartless," he replied. "We gotta get to it before it gets someone or something."
"It doesn't look like one, though."
"It is. It's a new breed of Heartless. Stronger. Faster. More evil than the ones we're used to."
I looked around. A giant black hole was forming in the center of the shooting range. Everyone ran in all directions, trying to escape all the chaos. Shadow Heartless started growing from it. Riku turned to look at me. "It's time."