Tidus stared at the picture in front of him. A man with black shaggy hair, dressed in only a pair of shorts, was looking back at him. It was signed with the man's name on it, one that Tidus knew too much. After all, it was the name of the famous goal-earning shot that he tried to do. Tidus flipped the picture face down.
Honestly, he didn't know why he wanted to look at it. He knew it had something to do with Sora and Riku, though. Those two had been building a raft along with Kairi. Then that dream, no, that nightmare had occurred, and Sora and Riku just vanished. The fact he forgot about Sora also bugged him, but when the boys and Kairi came back, they suddenly departed once more. Heck, those guys had time to spar each other but they didn't want to face off with the local Struggle champ? That was Tidus, by the way.
Which was why he was looking at the downed frame. Tidus's old man just left one day, just left the islands, without so much as writing a letter. It was his fault that mom was sad, and yet, even though Tidus was the Struggle Champion and star Blitzball player (aside from Wakka the captain of Destiny Island Aurochs) he still had the urge to show how much he grew up. Sora and Riku obviously knew what was beyound the islands, but even Kairi was strangely silent.
He looked outside. There was a star shower tonight. Perhaps he should just make a wish.
'I probably should wish to know what's going on that they're not telling me...'
But one of those stars seem to get larger and larger...and it shouldn't land in the water.
"What the!" A torrent of water trenched the side of the house. Tidus quickly ran to the beach to see the rock that land.
Only it wasn't a rock. As soon as Tidus saw the human body, he quickly dragged it to shore. It was a girl, probably younger than him, and she had long blue hair. Tidus pushed down on her chest and breathed air into her, forcing her to cough out some water. She weekly opened her eyes.
"T-tidus?" Sleep overtook her. Tidus simply glared down at her.
"You sure she's from another world?" Wakka asked.
"I saw her drop from the sky with my own eyes." Tidus argued. "She even knew my name, and I know she isn't one of my fangirls."
"You sure she's an alien?" Selphie asked. "I mean, they would be small and blue and wearing other people's skins."
Wakka wordlessly gazed at the small blue-haired girl in the bed. "...Were you arguing for or against her?"
The girl chose that moment to groan. As she sat up, she opened her green eyes, taking in the sight.
"Ah, a Kingdom Hearts dream." She mumbled, unaware the others could hear her. "Am I going to go with Sora, or am I him this time?"
"A what dream?" Wakka pondered. Why would this girl think she was a boy?
"Er, what's Kingdom Hearts?" Selphie wondered.
"Ah, right, you guys are just NPCs." The girl droned on. "Yeah, after this island blows up, Sora gets launched into another world, and he teams up with Donald and Goofy to track his friends down and stop the Heartless."
"Another world?" Tidus decided now was the good time to get involved. "What are the Heartless?"
"Cuddly evil things made of darkness that eats hearts." Selphie clutched her chest as the girl continued. "I mean, they're bad enough as it is, but apparently the Kingdom Hearts universe also wants to add Nobodies, Dream Eaters, and Unversed. Now that I think about it, I guess Maleficient's gremlins also count."
Selphie was concerned. "But how did Sora stop all of them?"
"He's got a Keyblade, which is the only weapon that can stop the Heartless. He can also use it to seal each world's Keyholes and reconnect the worlds. And if things are going the Birth By Sleep route, he's gonna be able to do more things with it."
Tidus sighed as another thought came to him. "If Sora went to another world because the...island blew up, does that mean your world..."
The girl sighed. "Yeah, my world was overrun by the Heartless. Sora didn't come. Neither did Riku or Mickey. Heck, I even tried to summon my own Keyblade, but I couldn't, and everything faded to darkness."
She gave a sheepish smile, "Well, I guess that's how dreams work. I think I should rest a bit more. That injury from the Shadow still hurts."
And then she laid back down. Selphie and Wakka were concerned for the girl. Tidus was too, but he was also reviewing what he just learned. He leaned over the girl...
And the girl shot back up, bumping heads with him.
"Ow! Dreams aren't supppose to hurt..." Her eyes widened. "That night, it was real! You're real! The whole game is real!" She then looked around and realized who she was speaking to. "Er, you're going to forget what I just said, right?"
Kairi sat on the palm tree. It was unusually silent today. The reason she was out was...
"We're back!" Kairi turned around. Sora, the ever cheerful brunette, and Riku, who gave out a confident smirk under his silver bangs, embraced her in a hug.
"So how did the Mark of Mastery go?"
"We both made it!" Sora showed off his keychain, while Riku held up one of a similar design. They both hosted a silver diamond-shaped chain and a moon. What made the keychain different from the Star Seeker was the inclusion of a golden star bearing Yen Sid's mark inside the moon. "You should have seen the places we've been to."
"Yes Sora, we want to know where you've been." The trio gulped as they turned to see Tidus there, and he was not too pleased. Wakka, Selphie, and a blue-haired girl were standing behind him, the latter not shaking like the others. "Let's start with when the Heartless attacked."
