Coming Together

Chapter 3

The Battle of a Lifetime

"What is going on here?!" a stern voice rang out across the crowd. Approaching the teens was a tall man with brown hair and a lionhead necklace.

"Uh….nothing Mr. Leonhart! Just meeting this sla….freshman here!" said Seifer, trying to cover his own error in judgment.

"Looks to me like you two got off on a bad start, and you know how we settle things here at Twilight. Firebrand and Watergleam, take the both of them to the struggle chamber, and suit them up." Mr. Leonhart said with a sly look on his face. 'First day here and Seifer's already causing trouble? Sure hope this new kid has some fight in him.'

In the blue gear room, just outside the struggle chamber

"Axel, what are we doing here?" asked Roxas with an uncertain tone in his voice.

Axel sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Well kid, it's like this. Every year since he's been here, Seifer's been picking fights. Usually he would get off with a warning, but Leonhart caught him. You do not want to piss off Mr. Leonhart, ever. He's our struggle coach, and let's just say he's a bit intense."

"So wait, because Seifer was about to fight me in the quad, now we have to fight in an arena?" Roxas asked the older boy.

"Yeah, oh, and the whole school will probably be watching, just a heads up." Axel said with a sly grin on his face.

"Wait what?!" exclaimed Roxas with wide eyes.

"Look….Roxas right? Let's just set you up in some gear, we'll get you a weapon, and maybe you'll last long enough against Seifer for Leonhart to call off the fight." Axel explained, grabbing a set of protective gear for Roxas and handing it to him.

As Roxas put his vest, boots, and gloves on, he got that weird feeling in his gut again. 'What is going on? Why do I keep getting this weird feeling in my stomach? Whoah, what's that?' "Hey Axel, what exactly do we fight with?"

The redheaded teen sighed again, this kid was full of questions. "Hang on, let me open the weapon locker." Axel walked over to a control panel, typed in a few things, and a panel opened on the wall, revealing several handles of weapons, but no actual ones themselves. "Put your helmet on kid, you'll understand then."

Roxas donned his helmet and a visor came down in front of his eyes. "Whoah." In front of him was a vast array of weapons. Some that stood out to the boy were a large axe and a scythe. As the strange feeling came back to Roxas, he grabbed two weapons that he just felt drawn to, one was a black blade with spikes coming from the end and a blue gem set on the top of the guard, and the other a white blade with a mix of blue in it. Both weapons flashed in Roxas' hands before his HUD fully activated, showing a life meter and a map.

"Well kid, looks like it's showtime, don't get the crap kicked out of you!" Axel said loudly as he ran back to the stairwell, not wanting to miss this.

Roxas' HUD had a message that said to step onto the blue platform, so he did so, and it began to raise into the arena.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our first struggle this year! Now, just a reminder to our viewers, these battles are chosen typically by students, but struggle Coach Leonhart has his special cases. Now, coming out of our red room is last year's team captain, Seifer Agaua! Seifer is known to play dirty, so let's hope our new boy can think on his feet! Speaking of our new boy, here he comes now! Roxas Strife! Roxas is a freshman, just arrived from Destiny Islands! Now, let's get this struggle underway!" announced the apparent host.

Roxas looked across the platform at his opponent, who held his blade out pointed at Roxas. He then looked around the arena, and it was packed with students; some cheering for Roxas, while others booed him. Obviously the latter were affiliated with Seifer.

Seifer glared at Roxas. "Kneel, loser!" He then charged at Roxas and swung, hoping to get a sucker's hit early on, but Roxas dodged back with reflexes he didn't know he had, going into a handspring.

'Where'd that come from?' Roxas thought as he dodged backwards into a handspring. Suddenly Roxas' mind blanked out as though he was in a trance, with his pupils growing small. Roxas rolled right around Seifer, swiping at him with the black blade grazing his shoulder, then going into another handspring backwards before glaring daggers at Seifer.

Seifer swore loudly as Roxas hit him. 'No one gets the first hit on me! No one!' Seifer went into a rage, rushing at Roxas swinging his sword like a mad man.

Roxas easily dodged Seifer's attack with a sidestep, then took a swipe at Seifer's legs sending him flying off of the arena and into the water below.

"What is this?! Struggle captain of Twilight has just taken a dip in the drink! The new boy didn't even break a sweat! From the looks of it, Seifer underestimated Roxas, and he paid the price! Well, looks like we have a new champ here! This has been Riku Nara, and I'm signing off!" said the silver haired announcer, apparently called Riku.

Roxas' pupils returned to a normal size and he shook his head like he just woke up from a daydream. "What happened? Wait, I won? How?!"

"Roxaaaaaaaasssssssssssss! You kicked the crap out of that guy! Where's that talent been all well…forever! You could have saved my ass back in middle school!" exclaimed Sora loudly as he ran onto the arena floor, nearly tackling Roxas.

'What am I supposed to tell him?' thought Roxas as he stood in silence. "Uhm…..just lucky I guess? Must have been adrenaline or something." 'Yeah Roxas, good cover. Though it's Sora, so that excuse may work for now, not that I could give a real answer anyway.'

"STRIFE! Do you know what you just did?!" Mr. Leonhart walked out onto the arena floor, a fierce look in his eye.

'Oh great, I'm here less than a day and I'm already gonna have detention or something for fighting!' Roxas thought as he took in a gulp of air.

"Kid, you just beat my team captain in near record time! Why didn't the scouts find you? I would have tried to get you here before had I known someone could take down Seifer so easily! How would you like join Twilight's Struggle team?" Mr. Leonhart asked the spiky haired blonde. "We've got some fierce competition coming up this year, and I need the best for my team. Hell, I'll sweeten the deal. Since you're new here, I can't make you captain, but I can make you co-captain."

"What?! Mr. Leonhart, this loser got a lucky hit! I want a rematch!" Seifer yelled as he got to the top of the stairs, soaking wet and looking furious.

"Sorry Seifer, it's my decision. Well kid, what do you say?" Mr. Leonhart again posed his question to Roxas.

Taking a look at Sora, who grinned like a kid in a candy store, then at Seifer who was glaring daggers at both Roxas and Mr. Leonhart, Roxas looked back and replied, "Sure. When do we start?"

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for taking forever to update again, but hope you all enjoy this one! Roxas' talent will be explained in later chapters, but for now it shall remain a mystery to everyone, including Roxas!

Roxas: Seriously, how did I do that?

CC: Roxas no one said you could talk on here! Stahp!

Roxas: Look dude, you're the author. Why would I ask someone else how I beat Seifer?

CC: That is an excellent question! Stay tuned to find out! Also, Roxas' "swords" were basically supposed to be Oathkeeper and Oblivion. The struggle arena projects holographic images that are either seen through the glass around the arena so that the audience can see, or are seen on the visors of the competitors. I was gonna do Blitzball, but I HATED playing Blitzball back in FFX. So I took a different take on the Struggle Tournament from KH2, and came up with this! Please review! Thanks! :D