Destiny Islands- 10 years later
Kira's Journal
Kira (Age 14): That's me! I'd say I'm a reasonably bright and happy girl, but I'm still trying to find the young adult inside myself. I would prefer a calm and peaceful life rather than one of excitement and adventure. I'd do anything for my friends Tsuki and Roka, I'll stick by them till the end!
Tsuki (Age 15): She's been my best friend since we were little kids. She's brave, mature and is always looking for fun and a change of pace. She can come across a little bossy, but that's only because she's a leader rather than a follower.
Roka (Age 14): He has been a very good friend of mine since we were little kids. He's shy, sensitive and very sweet. We always have a lot of fun together.
Denzel (Age 10, Final Fantasy VII): A boy who lives on the Main Island. I can't remember exactly how he became my friend; he just kinda showed up with his friend Marlene one day and joined in when me, Tsuki and Roka were playing on the island.
Marlene (Age 6, Final Fantasy VII): A little girl who lives on the Main Island. Despite her young age, she fits in quite well amongst our small group of friends. She admires Denzel like an older brother.
Penelo (Age 17, Final Fantasy XII): A girl who lives on the Main Island. She baby-sits Denzel and Marlene and often ends up joining in our fun. She's kind of like the big sister of our group.
Lately, Kira had been finding it hard to escape the strange dreams she'd been having lately. Whenever she was sleeping, she would find herself having thoughts that she couldn't explain. She could hardly even comprehend them. She often found herself thinking about a familiar place. A place that looked very similar to her home. Every evening, three friends sat on a Paopu tree, looking out at the horizon. They watched the sun set just like Kira, Tsuki and Roka watched it rise. Kira could never see the three friend's faces; she only knew that there were two boys and a girl. Whenever Kira tried to imagine what they looked like, the image would blur or disappear completely. It was as if something didn't want her to find out who they were. It was strange how similar the place was to her home. But she reminded herself that there could never be another Destiny Islands.
Kira also thought about darkness. A terrible darkness that pulled her in, taking her to a strange place where the floors had stained-glass pictures of people wearing black coats imprinted on them. On this particular afternoon when Kira was dreaming about darkness, she had to face strange black creatures that tried to attack her in her mind. But as scared as she was, she defeated them easily with a sword that her vision presented her with. When the creatures were finally gone, the darkness returned and Kira was swallowed by it once again.
When Kira opened her eyes, she could see the cloudless blue afternoon sky. She could feel the warm sand that she was lying on and she knew she was back on the island. Kira sleepily sat up and yawned loudly, but her tired back protested and she decided to lie back down again. When she put her head back on the sand, she looked up and saw an upside-down Roka staring back at her. Startled, Kira cried out and pushed herself up again. She turned and tilted her head upwards to see Roka who was bending down to look at her. He laughed in amusement.
"Oh, give me a break, Roka," Kira laughed.
"Kira, you tired old goof-off! It's so typical of you to be sleeping on the job," Roka said half-heartedly with his arms crossed over his chest.
He looked at Kira, tapping his arm with a finger as he waited for an explanation.
"No! I was in this weird place and there were monsters and... hey!" Kira was interrupted by Roka as he pushed her over. He laughed again.
"You still have dreams about monsters in your closet?" he said with a smirk.
"It wasn't a dream! If anything it was a nightmare. But it was real! ….Wasn't it? I don't even know anymore," Kira said, thinking it over as she got up.
Roka gave a satisfied hmph as he grinned at her. Kira decided to change the subject so that she didn't have to talk about the scary place anymore. The darkness was so strange and unreal that she didn't want to spend another minute thinking about it.
"So, are we going to start working on the raft today?" Kira asked.
Roka nodded and pointed to the three other kids who hung out with them on the Play Island (now just referred to as "The Island.") They were further down the beach, apparently laughing at something one of them had said.
"Marlene, Denzel and Penelo said that they were going to help us out with finding supplies that we'll need," Roka explained.
"Where did Tsu go?" Kira asked, looking around for her.
Roka pointed to a space behind Kira. She turned around and saw Tsuki standing there, looking much like an older sister scolding her younger siblings. She was wearing her usual black and brown coloured shirt that was slightly too long for her and black three-quarter length leggings.
"Come on, Kira, we can't get this raft finished if you keep messing around!" Tsuki said. Her words sounded serious, but her expression was soft and showed that she wasn't trying to scold Kira.
"And we can't finish it if we don't start it, so let's get to it!" Roka added.
Tsuki called for their other friends to join them. Marlene, Denzel and Penelo came running, carrying the provisions they had gathered.
"What have you got?" Tsuki asked them, eagerly.
"Rope! And a lot of it!" Marlene replied with a cute smile.
She dropped her pile of rope into Kira's arms and Denzel and Penelo did the same.
"Yeah, I think this will be enough," Kira groaned, straining to hold the big pile of rope in her arms.
"You should probably put that down, Kira. You look like a rope monster!" Penelo exclaimed.
"Marlene, save me! The monster's gonna get me!" Denzel joked as he ran and hid behind the young girl.
"You don't scare me, monster! Go away!" she held out her arms as she pretended to be Denzel's noble protector.
Everyone laughed as Kira walked unsteadily to the unfinished raft and dropped the rope next to it.
"You know, we're going to miss you guys when you leave," Penelo gave Tsuki a sad smile.
"Hey, we won't be gone forever," Tsuki reminded her.
"Of course! We'll have an adventure or two, and we'll be home before you know it!" Kira giggled.
"Is there anything else you want us to help you with?" Denzel asked.
"No, we can take it from here. Thanks, guys," Roka smiled.
"I'm sure Kira's especially grateful that you did her share of work!" Tsuki remarked with a cheeky wink.
Roka waved a playful finger in front of Kira's face.
"Don't think you're getting out of it that easy! You're on food collection duty," he said.
Kira scowled, but decided not to stay mad.
"I guess I deserve it for falling asleep," she grinned in submission.
So Marlene, Denzel and Penelo went off to do their own thing while Kira began looking around the island for food that they could take on their trip. She found coconuts, a seagull egg, three fish and some fresh water from the spring. Next, she had to find mushrooms and she knew that were some growing in the Secret Place. The Secret Place was a small shack that was disguised by leaves and branches to look like part of the trees and other plant life. Inside the shack were the wall drawings that Kira and her friends had made over the years by scratching pictures into the wood using stones or sharp sticks. But out of all of them, there was one drawing in particular that Kira treasured the most. That was the picture that her and Roka that the two of them had drawn together, not long after they had become friends. They had scratched it next to the big brown door in the centre of the shack that had no handle; and therefore no way of opening it. The door had been there for as long as she remembered and so she had no desire to see where it led. There had been times when she was younger when she thought that there might be a magical land behind it, but she had given up wondering as she felt positive that she would never find out.
Kira bent down to look at the drawing and smiled. Scratched into the wood was a childish sketch of herself that Roka had drawn and a slightly more decent-looking one of Roka that had been created by Kira. Before taking some mushrooms, she picked up a sharp stick and carved a hand next to the drawing of her face into the wood of the shack. She sketched a Paopu fruit in the hand so that the drawing of her looked like it was giving it to the drawing of Roka. She stood up and admired it.
It took a couple of seconds of silence, but eventually Kira realised that she wasn't alone. She turned quickly to see a black figure standing in a shadowing corner of the shack. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Kira saw that the figure was a man in a black coat.
"Who are you?" she demanded, standing up quickly.
"I would think that the more appropriate question is "who are you?" the man replied in a deep voice.
"Kira. Now what do you want?" Kira asked angrily.
"Oh, I know who you are. But do you know who you are? Can you look deep inside yourself and recognise what you see?" the man said.
"What's that supposed to mean? Of course I know who I am!" Kira said.
"So ignorant. One would think that someone who holds such power would be more capable of understanding it."
"Well, whatever kind of power you think I have, I don't! I'm just an ordinary girl, okay? Go away, you creep!" Kira threw her arm out as if to shoo the man away.
"A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."
The mysterious man vanished into a portal of darkness.
Still feeling a frightened and confused, Kira stood there frozen for a few seconds.
"I really hope I'm just seeing things. That guy was really scary…" she found herself murmuring out loud.
The sound of her own voice calmed her down a little. I'm probably just a little nervous about tomorrow. That's all.
And deciding to think no more about it, she left the Secret Place with the mushrooms in hand.
...
That evening, Kira and Roka sat on the beach together and watched the sky as it cooled into a dark orange colour. Kira was filled with anticipation.
"What do you think is out there?" she asked Roka.
Roka seemed to be in a daze and took a moment to answer.
"Out where?" he finally asked.
"Beyond the horizon. What could be out there?" Kira wondered.
"Wait, but what if we ended up sailing all the way around our world and ended up right back where we started?" Roka suddenly realised.
Kira shook her head and stood up.
"No way, Roka! I mean, you came from another world, didn't you?" Kira reminded him.
Roka looked down at the sand and sighed.
"That's right… my family isn't my real family. They found me washed up on the beach as a baby. My stepmother calls me a gift from the waves," Roka smiled thoughtfully.
"So that means that if you washed up on this beach, then there has to be something out there! You had to have come from somewhere right?" Kira grinned.
Roka nodded and the two friends stayed silent while they looked out at the glittering sea. There was a small gust of cold air and Roka hugged his bare arms. Being quite sensitive to the cold, his outfit was a lot warmer compared to Kira's and Tsuki's. Although he was only wearing a red and white t-shirt, the material was reasonably thick. His pants, a blue colour just a few shades darker than Kira's shorts, were long and did a good job of keeping the boy's legs warm. Kira, on the other hand, barely noticed the cold and breathed in the salty air, closing her eyes.
"Are you sure you don't remember where you came from?" Kira asked without opening her eyes.
"Kira, I told you before. I was really young, so there's no way I can remember," Roka laughed.
"But…it might be a nice place to visit on our journey," Roka said.
Kira opened her eyes and giggled.
"Yeah, I'd love to see it! All the other worlds too…every single one of them," Kira gingerly brushed her fringe away as the wind blew it in front her of face.
"You're getting a little ahead of yourself, Kira. We don't even know if there are any other worlds out there. And, just say that there are…it'd be a little hard to travel to all of them in just a little hand-made raft?" Roka reminded her.
"We'll make it, I'm sure we will," Kira sighed happily and sat down on the sand again.
The two of them exchanged warm smiles before gazing out at the auburn sky, catching a glimpse of the sun's final rays of light.
...
The next morning as they watched the sun rise from their swing on the little island, the three friends were especially excited about what the day would bring them. Their raft was finally ready to set sail.
"You know, the horizon doesn't seem so far away any more," Roka said.
Kira looked at him, puzzled.
"But, it's not like it's moved or anything," she said it like she was stating the most obvious fact in the world.
Tsuki looked at the two of them and smiled. "I think he means that it looks nearer because we're getting closer and closer to finding out what's on the other side of it," she explained.
Kira nodded that she understood and shielded her eyes from the white light that was coming from the sky. Roka was right; the horizon did look closer than it had before. Kira felt a rush of excitement as she wondered about what her and her friends would see on their adventure to other worlds. She wondered about the places she would go and the people she would meet. And because she had put herself in charge of writing everything down in her journal, they would always be able to look back and relive each moment again and again.
"Oh no!" Kira threw her hands up to cover her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Roka asked, startled by her sudden outburst.
"I forgot to bring my journal," Kira groaned.
"Don't worry, Kira. We'll wait here while you go get it."
...
After rowing back to the Main Island to retrieve her journal from her bedroom, she found Marlene standing on the beach.
"Looks like a storm," the little girl said, pointing to the sea.
Kira squinted across the water and saw dark clouds hovering over The Island. It took Kira a moment to realise the seriousness of the situation.
"Oh no, the raft!" Kira gasped.
Kira ran to her boat and got ready to row back to her friends.
"You can't go back! That storm's getting stronger," Marlene warned.
Kira shoved her paddles into the sand and pushed off.
"I've gotta make such Tsuki and Roka are okay," she called back to Marlene as she rowed, pushing her arms back and forth and fast as she could.
"Kira! Kira, come back!" Marlene shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth.
...
When Kira finally reached The Island she saw a huge orb of black darkness in the sky, radiating a force that pulled trees and planks of wood from the ground and sucked it into its orbit where they disappeared. Then out of the sand came the same black creatures that had attacked Kira in her dreams. Having no weapon to fight them off, Kira ran from them, terrified. Tsuki and Roka weren't on their swing (not the she actually expected them to be) so Kira went to look for them at the Secret Place. Instead of the hidden opening, there was a big white door in its place. Finding it to be sealed tight, she decided to look for her friends somewhere else. She crossed the bridge to the smaller island and saw Tsuki standing by the Paopu tree, staring up at the dark ball.
"Tsuki! Where's Roka? We need to get out of here!" Kira cried.
Tsuki back at Kira over her shoulder, her expression very serious.
"Something is happening. I'm not sure what, exactly; but I think a door is opening. I can feel it calling me closer," she said in a low voice.
"What are you talking about? We've gotta go find Roka…"
"He's coming with us!" Tsuki raised her voice to cut her off. "This is our chance to see the things we've dreamed of. New worlds and new adventures. Yeah, it's a scary place but…but we'll never know what's out there if we don't try now! Staying here doesn't look like much of an option either, so are you coming or not?"
Tsuki held out her hand towards Kira. Darkness rose up around them and Kira stepped forward, reaching out to her. She stretched as far as she could but the darkness engulfed them and held them in place. Kira had no choice but to give up and try to get herself out of the pitch-black darkness.
When she broke free, Tsuki was gone. Kira went back to the door at the entrance of the Secret Place and pulled it open. She found Roka standing in front of the door with no handle.
"Roka!" Kira breathed his name in between pants of exhaustion and panic.
"Kira, stay back!" Roka shouted, holding a hand out to stop her.
The door burst open and darkness flew out of it. When it passed through the panicking Roka, he disappeared and when it touched Kira it knocked her back and she flew out of the shack.
It threw her across the bridge and she crashed into the Paopu tree. She cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, her knees scraping the ground under her own weight. After regaining her balance she got up and looked over the side of the island. Only to see that there was nothing there. The other islands were gone and the little island that she was standing on was slowly breaking apart. Kira turned around and gasped as she saw a giant shadowy monster that was twice as big as the smaller monsters rising up out of the sand.
Then there was a flash of darkness. It wasn't the same darkness that the monsters were made of. This felt much more powerful.
When Kira opened her eyes, she realised that she was holding some kind of strange weapon. It was mostly black apart from its silver handle and it looked somewhat like a giant key. The monster attacked, but she was able to block and counter it with a powerful hit. Kira smashed the key into the monsters' giant hand and then jumped to hit it across the head. It pounded its fist into the ground creating a dark pit and more of the little monsters came crawling out of it, their movements quick and erratic. Kira finished them off quickly and then went back to fighting the giant monster.
A few more smacks on its hands and a final blow to its head were enough to destroy it. It crashed to its knees and disappeared in a fog of darkness.
There wasn't much left of the island and it was crumbling fast. Kira felt herself being pulled upwards into the dark ball in the sky. She grabbed hold of a plank of wood that was sticking out of the sand and clung to it for dear life. She was panting loudly and tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she realised how helpless she was. The darkness lifted her legs off the ground. She dug her nails into the wood, determined to hold on for as long as she possibly could, but it only took a few more seconds before she was eventually forced to let go. Kira shrieked as she was pulled into the sky.