Innocence n. freedom from guilt; a lack of cunning or guile
People always spoke of a child's innocence. It was like their biggest accomplishment was something given automatically to them instead of something they their selves did. A child was quick to recover from a trauma or an illness, and sometimes they had all the answers in the simplest ways. Innocence is pure, and real, and untainted. It means shapes in clouds, and not being able to understand pain.
Riku wanted his back.
His heart, his very being, had become tainted with wisps of power, bits of darkness. He was watching himself spiral downward into an inescapable oblivion and, for all the power he possessed, he was powerless to stop it. All of it was for one person, one heart, who had held on to her innocence despite the chaos crashing down around her. Kairi was Kairi, pure and untainted, and very much real.
For the first time in his life, Riku felt that he was out of control. He didn't have a solid hold on every thing, and it began to slip from underneath him because, for all life has, it doesn't have finger grips. Beneath him it was all crumbling and he tried to clutch at the one thing he had left, which was Kairi, but not Kairi. All that made her who she was had been yanked from her body, leaving behind a fragile shell that sent Riku into a calamity.
Sometimes he sat beside her, gripping her hand with all the life that he had left in him. She didn't respond to his touch, and he wondered if she was simply ill. Her body temperature must have been plummeting each day, for she was clammy and never flushed, as he'd come to expect on her face. Her skin, instead of sun kissed, was growing dull with a lack of color. She was, in all senses, lost to the world.
When Riku used to think of other worlds, he thought of big, sprawling places with strange people. Without an ocean in sight, because he was quite sick of the containing water, and full of trees. Hollow Bastion was two out of three, because he hadn't yet seen a tree, but the castle almost made up for it.
One day, when Maleficent warned him that Sora was near, Riku began to wish with fervor. He wanted to go home, he wanted to apologize to Sora, he wanted to see Kairi smile at him, he wanted to feel the wind coming off the waves, he wanted to kick a blitzball with the other guys, he wanted Selphie to bug him about the old legends, and he wanted to pretend to like the food his mother made. He didn't want to fight, to try, to lose anymore.
But that wasn't an option. Maleficent told him that the keyblade was his. With it, he could open the secret door and change the world. With it, he could get Kairi's heart back. Sora didn't have what it took to save Kairi. Only Riku could do it with his power, the power inside of him that had always been there, untouched.
He stepped out onto the lift, with Souleater in hand. That beast was here, along with Sora, and he wasn't going to let them go anywhere.
Riku didn't have room for innocence anymore. All he had was power, the power to condemn himself, and he was going to use it.
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Thanks to the KH game script, KHvids, and my dictionary.
And, of course, thanks to you.
Riku makes me happy.
Just like reviews.
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