Here's the real first chapter! Hope you like it!
Entry 1: A New Ally and a New Problem.
"See ya on the other side…..Oh, and make sure to look for someone named 'Sora,' though I'm pretty sure he'll find you anyway!"
Sora woke with a start and sat up. What was it with him and weird dreams? This time he was in some kind of weird body armor, and telling some girl with black hair to look for him after giving her a black crystal. He had no idea who that girl was, or who her "sis," Aqua was. Sighing, the youth shook his head, misplacing several of the spikes in his brown hair even further than his pillow already had.
"Oh well," he said to himself, "It'll probably come up sooner or later anyway…No sense in thinking too hard about it now. Maybe Riku or Kairi will know….?" However, try as he might, he couldn't get back to sleep. He decided he would just train. That always made him tired, after all. However, he couldn't do it at home. The last time he had, he'd broken a lamp and had an awkward time explaining things to his mother without telling her about the Keyblade. He did not need a close call like that again.
Luckily, there was an islet nearby where he and his friends usually used as their hang-out spot. Ever since they had returned from their last adventure, Sora and his two closest friends, Riku and Kairi, had been using it as their base of operations. At this hour, no one was likely to be there, so Sora could train as he wished and not disturb anyone. Fixing his hair and getting dressed, he hastily scribbled a note to his mother in case she entered his room while he was out and left for the islet.
As soon as he set foot on the beach of the islet, however, he found himself fending off a savage blow with his Keyblade.
"Ugh," an older boy's voice grunted in disdain, "Have you ever considered wearing some color other than black? For a second there, I thought you were a Heartless!"
Sora looked up from his defensive stance to see Riku's icy blue eyes glaring back at him. He was a year older, and much stronger physically than Sora was.
Moving some of his long, silvery hair out of his face, Riku raised an eyebrow. "What? Is there something on my face?"
"No," Sora started to say, but then he noticed a small cut on Riku's right cheek.
"Hey, what happened to your cheek?"
"Oh, this?" replied the older boy. "Combat practice. We're not the only ones here, y'know."
"What do you mean, 'not the only ones?'….No way. Is Kairi here, too?"
"Yeah, actually, she is. And I tell ya, she's got a decent swing!"
Sora didn't laugh, though he was clearly supposed to. Riku could tell a decent joke, but Sora was more preoccupied with why he was not the one Kairi asked for training.
Soon, Riku had lead Sora to the other side of the islet, where Kairi was facing away from them, practicing her Keyblade swing. Sora couldn't help but smile, partly because she was working so hard, and also partly because she seemingly had no idea that most of her swing put her in danger of exposing her panties since her skirt was so short.
Riku shook his head. "What I don't get is, why doesn't she just wear a longer skirt?" he asked, still trying to coax a chuckle out of his best friend. "And then she gets mad at me when I point out that her panties are showing! Jeez…."
"Maybe because you shouldn't have been looking down there in the first place!" By the time Riku looked back to where Kairi was, she had stopped swinging and was looking straight at him…..And she didn't look happy. "And why'd you drag me out here at this hour when we could've all trained together during the daytime?" she asked, following up with a yawn.
Though he was now apprehensive of his girlfriend's wrath, Sora felt relieved. So, she hadn't been the one to ask for the training session, after all!
Noticing him as she finished rubbing her eyes with her free hand, she called out, "Hey Sora! Did Riku drag you out of bed, too?"
"Haha, no," Sora laughed in reply. "He did try to kill me when I got here, though."
Kairi gasped, apparently taking Sora literally. "Riku! How could you?" she demanded, tears forming in her eyes.
"Wait, no! That's not what happ—"
"Juuust kidding!" she cut him off, winking and sticking her tongue out. "Oh c'mon, I knew Sora was joking!" she reassured her older friend as she brushed some of her medium-length scarlet hair out of her face.
"Hey guys," Sora said, "Seeing as you're both here anyway, can I tell you something?"
"Sure, Sora, what's up?" replied Kairi.
"Hold on," Riku interrupted. "Let's go sit near the Paupu Fruit tree first. That's where we usually go to talk, and I wanna sit down, anyway."
Returning to the near side of the islet, the three teens walked to the tree. Situated on the top of a short stone pillar, the Paupu tree resembled a white palm tree with relatively smooth bark. One of their favorite things about that tree was the fact that, by some quirk, it had grown sideways, like a bench. Their other favorite thing about it, however, was the legend behind its fruit, said to bind one's destiny to whomever one shares it with. As Sora and Kairi took their usual positions on the tree's trunk, Riku remained on the ground at the base.
"Hey Riku, how come you never come up here?" Sora asked.
"'Cause I like to lean on the trunk when I sit here," the older boy replied nonchalantly. "Now, what'd you wanna tell us?"
In reply, Sora explained his dream to them.
Riku stood up. "So, what kind of armor was it?" he asked.
"I dunno, some kinda bodysuit," Sora replied.
"Did it look anything like….This?" Kairi asked, flipping in her sketchbook to a drawing of a sinister figure clad in the same bodysuit and a helmet that covered the entire head.
"Y-yeah, that's it!" he exclaimed.
"How'd you—"
"Because I had the same dream," she interrupted,
"Only I was the girl!"
"Whoa, creepy," Riku muttered. "You've been going out for about a week since we came back, and now you're even having the same dreams….?"
"Now hold on!" Kairi shouted indignantly.
Riku held up a hand. "Just teasing, but you have to admit, it's weird. So, whose lame idea was it to drag me into that dream, too? I wasn't either of them, though."
Both of the younger teens blinked.
"Neither of us, I think," Sora said.
"Hm," Riku grunted as he tossed a stone into the water."And when are we going to Yen Sid's tower, anyway?" he asked no one in particular.
Yen Sid, an immensely powerful sorcerer and an advisory figure to Sora and his allies, King Mickey, Donald Duck and Goofy, had recently issued a summons to his tower, which was literally located worlds away. Sora had been there several times before, but now, they lacked any sort of means to get there, or so they thought.
"Hey Riku, can't you try opening a Corr-"
"Corridors aren't things to be trifled with, Sora," the muscular boy chided. "I think I can open one that will take us there, but there's the question of keeping clear of any contaminating Darkness."
"Wait, really?" Sora asked, prompting an exasperated sigh from his friend.
"Okay, try to remember this time. When you go through a Corridor of Darkness, you can travel instantly from place to place. However, the Darkness will try and enter your heart and corrupt it. People with only light in their hearts, like Kairi, are completely immune, so she's fine. I can control both darkness and light to an extent, so I can manage. The problem is, how do we protect you from contamination?" "
Ah," Sora replied, taken aback. "Well…..I don't—" He was cut off by the sudden manifestation of his Keyblade, the Kingdom Key, in his hands. He and his friends stared at it out of shock. It was Sora's signature weapon, a blade in the form of a silver skeleton key with a gold handle. The question is, why did it appear, when Sora clearly hadn't summoned it? Then, something else happened that surprised them even more: it transformed! Keyblades are usually able to change form according to which charm, referred to as a Keychain, the wielder has equipped onto the blade. However, Sora had not equipped any Keychain besides the Kingdom Key's standard silver Mickey Mouse-like charm. Within a few seconds, Sora held in his hand a dark grey reverse-grip Keyblade, whose teeth resembled both the teeth of a geer and a wing.
"Since when did you get a new Keychain?" asked Riku.
"This…This doesn't feel like a Keychain. More like another Keyblade." All of a sudden, the blade had re-oriented itself to point at Riku, with a ball of energy forming at its tip.
"Riku, move!" Kairi shouted, prompting him to dive to the side. No sooner had he gotten out of the way than a beam of energy burst forth from the Keyblade, turning into a portal. It looked quite similar to a portal that would've granted entry into a Corridor of Darkness, except this portal was formed of light. Riku inspected the portal as if it were rigged to explode."Sora," he began, "Just how did you do that?"
"Trust me, I have no idea," the brown-haired boy replied.
"Guys, c'mon," Kairi said, placing herself between them. "There's no reason to fight. We may not know now, but we'll probably find out later, right?" Picking up a rock that was near the spot where Riku was sitting, she said, "Let me do a test of my own." Once her friend had gotten a safe distance away from the new portal, she threw the rock into it. The distant sound of that same rock hitting the ground could be heard. "I can't see where this portal leads, but it seems safe enough," she noted. Without warning, she ran into the portal, much to the shock and concern of her friends. "It's fine, guys! C'mon!" Upon hearing this, both boys dove simultaneously at the portal.
Once they were on the other side, Sora knew immediately where they were. "Guys, look! We're here!"
"Uh, of course we're 'here,' Sora….But where is here?"
"This is the tower, isn't it?" asked Kairi amazedly.
"Yep! Or, at least, we're on the grounds of the tower," Sora explained, jerking a thumb toward the massive structure behind him.
"Whoa," Kairi breathed in awe. "Check out the architechture!"
Riku didn't say a word. He didn't want to tell his friends and ruin the mood, but he felt uneasy- almost as if a malevolent presence was close by. Ever since he had given himself to the Darkness on their first adventure, he could sense the movements of beings aligned with it, be they Heartless or those with evil intent. Even though his own alignment lay between light and dark, he still had that ability. Once they had gotten to the door, he finally spoke up. "You two go inside first. I…There's something I wanna check out before I join you."
"Like what?" Sora protested, "It's not like there's much to see out there!"
It was true. The "grounds" of the tower consisted of a small landmass suspended in the middle of the void that the King, Donald and Goofy commonly referred to as "Interspace", or the space between worlds. The most interesting thing to look at was the skyline, which almost never changed unless Yen Sid was in a bad mood, and the small trees that dotted to field.
Not being able to think of a proper excuse and feeling the evil presence more strongly, he suddenly summoned his Keyblade, the Way to Dawn, prompting his friends to summon theirs in alarm. "I'm warning you guys," he growled, "Get inside. Now."
Kairi, who had a similar, yet less finely-tuned ability to detect evil, felt the presence as well. "Sora, maybe we should just go," she said, tugging the sleeve of her boyfriend's black jacket. "Riku, come in soon, okay? We'll wait here in the lobby for you to rejoin us."
At this, Riku simply nodded and watched them as they went inside.
"Ugh, what is wrong with him?" Sora shouted, making Kairi jump in surprise.
"Sora…He just wants to be left alone for a little bit. He'll probably explain himself later, okay?"
"No, it's not okay! And where does he get off, pulling his Keyblade on us for no good reason?" Sora's ranting was interrupted by the sudden sound of a door locking. Had Riku locked himself out of the tower?
Sora leveled his Keyblade at the door. He was used to using its magic to open any lock by now. However, this was much more difficult than usual. Perhaps it was a magical security measure Yen Sid put up, but his Keyblade's magic was blocked by a barrier. Maybe Yen Sid rigged it so that a Keyblade can't open the door if it's locked? But how would he even have known how to protect against Keyblades? Assuming it was because he was some sort of great sorcerer, Sora pushed the question from his mind and dashed for a window to see what was going on outside. Kairi did they saw was shocking- a Corridor of Darkness had opened some distance from the tower, and the girl they had seen from their collective dream stepped out of it, looking very disoriented.
"Ngh," she groaned, squintling slightly at the twilight.
"What's her problem?" Riku wondered. "It's not like the sunlight here is even that bright."
Once her eyes had adjusted, the girl noticed Riku and immediately summoned her Keyblade. "Who are you?" she demanded. Riku raised an eyebrow.
"Who, me?" he asked drily.
"Yeah, you! The guy with the girly silver hair and the weird yellow top! Who are you?"
"My shirt's not 'weird,'" muttered Riku under his breath, "And yellow is my favorite color. Another thing, what's her problem? There's nothing wrong with my hair!"
Raising her own eyebrow, the mysterious girl stalked forward slightly. "Huh, didn't think I'd affect you so much with those comments," she said. "Now I'll ask again, who are—"
"Riku," he interrupted, "Name's Riku."
Breaking her stance, the girl smiled. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it? I just needed you to tell me your name, Riku."
"Um, yeah. Quit putting emphasis on my name like that; it makes me feel weird."
"Ohhhkay," came the reply. "So, don'tcha wanna know what my name is, handsome?"
"You were supposed to give it before asking mine, but fine, I'll bite. What's your name?"
"Mei," she replied jovially.
Riku maintained his stone-faced glare. She seemed nice enough, but the closer she got, the more alarm bells and red flags activated in his head. She had to be the evil presence he was sensing.
Pointing his Keyblade at her, he entered his own fighting stance. "Alright, Mei, what do you want?"
"Whoa," she protested, holding her free hand in front of herself in a placating manner, "I'm not here to fight you. And I thought you said it was creepy to put emphasis on people's names like that?"
"I asked you a question, Mei."
"Look, I'm just looking for a guy named 'Sora,' alright? I have no quarrel with you."
"The hell you don't!" replied Riku gruffly. "Sora's my best friend. What do you want with him?"
"Jeez," groaned Mei, re-entering her combat stance, "Why so defensive? I'm only looking for him because some guy in weird black armor said I should, alright? He said Sora might be able to help me find my sis, that's all!"
Inside the tower, Kairi raised an eyebrow at Sora.
"Wh-why are you looking at me like that, Kairi? I've only seen this girl in my dream last night, like you and Riku!"
"Huh? Uh, that's not what I was thinking at all. I was just wondering how on earth you'd be able to help find this 'Aqua' person."
"Oh," Sora said, clearly embarrassed, "Right, got it." Just then, they heard the click of the door unlocking.
"I don't trust you," Riku told Mei. "You've got a real bad aura. If you want Sora—"
"I'm right here!" Sora shouted as he burst outside.
"Sora, no!" Riku shouted as he felt Mei's aura spike.
"Agh," she groaned. Suddenly, the black crystal reappeared in front of her and shattered, its essence surrounding Mei. When Sora and his friends could see her again, she was wearing the same suit of armor that the mystery boy was wearing in their dream, except she looked half-conscious and was lacking her Keyblade.
"Help….me….," she gasped, as a dark mist swallowed her head and encased it in the helmet.
Mei, or whoever was controlling her, clenched and unclenched her hands a few times, almost testing to see if they worked properly. Then, suddenly, she summoned her Keyblade- except this time it wasn't the same. This one was a forward-grip Keyblade that had a shaft that looked like the blade of a "normal" sword, though there were metal pieces adorning it as if fastened on. The hand-guard was circular and looked like a black gear with red lining, as did the teeth. The most unsettling feature was the eyes- the thing had two blue eyes with pupils like those of snakes, one where the guard met the shaft, and the other at the tip if the shaft.
"Void….Gear," Sora murmered.
"Void…What?" Kairi asked in shock. "You mean you've seen this Keyblade before?"
Before Sora could answer, both Kairi and Riku were sent flying into the tower by concussive blasts of dark energy.
"Enough talk," the helmeted figure said in a voice that was eerily akin to Sora's own, "It's showtime!" With a flick of his wrist, he had sealed the door to the tower, effectively separating Sora from his friends. After seeing his friends attacked like that, the young hero was not happy.
Summoning his Keyblade, he dropped into his characteristic low fighting stance, holding they Keyblade as he always did, as if it were a Zweihander or a Greatsword.
"You wanna fight? Let's fight."
Whoo boy! Looks like it's getting heated up from the get-go! Tune in next chapter to see what happens next! (And leave some reviews, I always like to see reviews.)
