The fourth chapter, I didn't expect that it would turn this long. Anyway enjoy it, the chapter four.
Chapter 4: The Ice Titan Cup
As Sora, Riku, and Aqua went back to their spectator seats, suddenly Roxas appeared in his transparent form beside Sora. The spiky blond haired nobody then took the empty seat where Kairi was, while Aqua and Riku took the seats on the left from Sora.
"Hey Sora, are you sure about this?" Roxas asked to his somebody counterpart.
Sora however didn't look worried at all and simply nodded at his question "I'm really sure. Well I know you're kinda worried too with Namine, I feel the same thing for Kairi too, but she wants us to believe that she isn't the girl that needs to be protected anymore. And I don't know about Namine, but I know she has the same thought as Kairi too. We only can trust her for this Roxas."
"I just hope nothing bad will happen, but you know at the same time I'm glad for you too Sora." Roxas replied back, which made the spiky brunette Keyblader confused at the last part.
"Huh? For what?" Sora asked, raising one of his eyebrows in confusion.
"For two things. First, because you finally made as Keyblade Master, despite what Xehanort had done with your Mark of Mastery exam, and second… " Roxas answered with a sly grin for the last part while Sora waited for his next answer.
"Because finally I don't have to see you with your baggy pants and oversized shoes anymore. Honestly I'm not a fashion type person, but everyone will think that you have a very weird taste of fashion with your baggy pants and your 'oh my, what a pair of big' shoes." Roxas answered teasingly before chuckled. Felling insulted about his clothes and shoes, a vein popped on the spiky brunette's head.
"Hey, at least they have Drive Forms for me to use." Sora yelled, protesting his nobody's opinion.
"I know, I know, just joking, okay? Anyway it's not like that I could see you in an armor everyday." replied Roxas while waving both of his hands in defense. As the Keybearer and his nobody counterpart were talking and joking, Aqua asked Riku about his past life, mainly in order to know where Riku got the Dark Mode power.
"So Riku, can you tell me about your past journeys?" Aqua asked with a concerned look on her face. At first Riku was unsure to tell her as he didn't want to remember that event anymore, but he decided to tell her anyway.
"Sure, it was started when I, Sora and Kairi were on Destiny Island. After learned that Kairi was from another world, I was desperately wanted to leave the island to see another worlds, until that day…"
"That day?"
"I met Xehanort's Heartless under disguise as Ansem Seeker of Darkness. He told me to open my heart to the darkness if I wanted to leave the island. I… opened my heart and let the darkness destroyed our islands." Riku replied with a regretful tone. From what Aqua saw, she knew that Riku felt like it was his responsibility for making his homeland destroyed to satisfy his desire. "Riku, it's okay if you don't want to-" "No, I have to tell everything to you, so I won't dwell anymore to the past." Riku interrupted before Aqua could finish her words. Thinking that would be the best, Aqua let Riku continued his story.
"Then I met Sora with Donald and Goofy in Traverse Town. At first I was jealous because I thought he would choose them over Kairi and me. Then Maleficent came and persuaded me to join her if I wanted to awake Kairi who had lost her heart." hearing his answer, Aqua eyes widened, she couldn't believe that Maleficent still wanted to take over the worlds with darkness. Does she never give up her plan?
"Maleficent then gave me the power to use darkness and control heartless. After that, I fought Sora at Hollow Bastion, he beat me but I couldn't accept that. Then he (Xehanort's Heartless) came again to me. He told me to open my heart deeper to the darkness, but I was tricked, he took over my body and after that in the end I decided to let myself stayed at the other side of Kingdom Hearts door. I… was ashamed with myself, I betrayed Sora, destroyed our world only to satisfy my selfishness, and yet I still had the darkness Ansem gave to me." Riku then clenched his fist, remembered that fateful day where he let the darkness consumed him, his island, even betrayed Sora for believing that he didn't care for Kairi and him anymore.
"Then what happened?" Aqua asked again.
"I fought Ansem back at Castle Oblivion. At that time I've accepted the darkness and the light as part of me or as I call it 'Road to the Dawn', that's why I can use my dark power without being consumed anymore, because I had understood that the darkness isn't always evil." He answered as he opened back his fist, he actually wanted to tell her more after the event at Castle Oblivion like how he fought Roxas and transformed into Ansem in order to capture him, how he wanted Sora to not finding him after all he had done, but Riku knew that the match was almost started, so he held up the rest for now.
"And now, this is the final match that we've been waiting for. The match with the ferocious gigantic Ice Titan! Who will fight against this monster? Ladies and gentlemen, from the heroes side is KAIRIIII!" The announcer said loudly while pointing the arena. However, Sora was surprised and confused after hearing his words 'The final match? Isn't there one more? My last match?'
'Relax Kairi, you can do this.' Namine said through Kairi's mind. "Don't worry Namine, I've prepared myself for this, now it's time to prove myself to Sora that I can take care myself in battle." replied Kairi.
'Sorry, I couldn't help, but at least I can be your third eye for this match, I'll help you as best as I can Kairi.' Namine said in her apologetic tone, she really wished she knew how to fight too just like Roxas, so she can help Kairi in case she had to take over Kairi's place. "Thanks a lot Namine, that would be very helpful for me in this match." The redhead replied gratefully to the blond nobody. As soon as she thanked Namine, suddenly an icy gigantic skeletal humanoid monster began to enter the arena and gave battle cry before the battle started.
(Shrouding Dark Cloud - Kingdom Hearts)
Kairi made the first move by attacking the Ice Titan with Firaga spell to its head, but the Titan took the ball of fire as it was nothing. The Titan then began to use its blizzard attack and sent many icicles toward Kairi. The icicles almost hit her, but thanks to her high agility, she managed to dodge all of them. Angered by its missed attacks, the Titan then froze the whole arena to limit her movement. Its tactic was success, now Kairi had a difficult time even to move her legs. Tried to focus with her defense, she casted Aeroga, however she didn't realize that she only made the situation even worse than before.
"Crap! I forgot to tell her!" Sora yelled in frustration as Roxas, Riku and Aqua only looked at him confusedly.
"Using the Aeroga magic only makes the Ice Titan stronger than before, I ever tried that before." Sora explained with a worried look on his face. Surely Kairi never thought anything like that as she thought the Blizzaga spell was the only one that could make Ice Titan stronger in the first place.
As the Titan roared again, it unleashed the blizzard maelstrom attack that consisted of even larger icicles that came from every direction, freezing shockwaves from its legs and even the giant ice blocks that it summoned from above. 'Kairi look above you!' Namine warned her, but too bad Kairi didn't have enough time to evade, she was crushed by the one of the ice blocks then attacked by the giant icicles. Those attacks made her armor ripped down and gave her the bleeding wounds from her left shoulder, right hip, and even on her head and her left cheek. Sora, Roxas, Riku and Aqua only could watch in horror as they saw how Kairi ended up by the Titan's attacks.
"I… I'm not gonna end up like this, Heal!" suddenly a green aura with flowers surrounded her and her wounds were healed. At the same time her Aeroga magic was over too, then she began to stand again.
Again, the Titan tried to attack her by shooting its icicles, but this time Kairi blocked the icicles with her Destiny's Embrace instead avoided them, the deflected icicles then backfired toward Ice Titan's head, making it dizzy after tasted his own attacks and began to fell on its knee. Kairi saw this as an opportunity to attack and began to charge toward the Titan and hit the head repeatedly as fast as she could then fired many numerous beams from the tip of her Keyblade using the Ragnarok tech. The attack was success, however the Titan wasn't defeated yet and began to raise again. Angered by Kairi's attacks, the Titan began to shake the ground and send the icicles from all directions furiously toward Kairi, she knew deflecting the icicles was the only way to make the Titan stun again, but she couldn't do that while evading the ground shockwaves that the Titan made.
'I have to think for another strategy, hmm… how about this?' She then tried to use one of the fire magic that Riku taught to her, the Mega Flare magic. In an instant, a small fire was formed at her Keyblade tip, as she swung her Keyblade, suddenly a huge massive explosion blast was created, destroying all icicles and the ice blocks the Titan created. The explosion also made the Titan stunned for once again and fell on its knee. This time, Kairi used the Fire Raid and threw her Keyblade toward the Titan's head, the Keyblade then engulfed in fire that grew larger as it made closer to the Titan's head and hit it in an explosion. The Titan then screamed in pain and began to shrink, as it regained its consciousness, it realized that it wasn't taller than a foot tall. Scarred by Kairi who now was bigger than itself, it began to run away back to the gate as fast as it could in a comical way, similar like how Sora fought it before. (End of Shrouding Dark Cloud)
Believing that she had won, Kairi jumped happily and gave a piece sign as her victory pose. "And the winner is the goddess warrior KAIRIIII!" the announcer said which made the spectators cheered for her. 'Congratulations Kairi, you win.' Namine said, "Thanks, but I wouldn't make it if it wasn't you Namine." replied Kairi. As she walked back to the lobby, the others already waited to greet and congratulate her.
"You were great back there Kairi." Riku said who was amazed by Kairi's fighting skills.
"Yeah, where did you learn to fight like that?" asked Aqua who wanted to know about her fighting skills.
"You almost made me got a heart attack Kairi, but.. I'm glad you're okay, and… I'm sorry." Sora said with relieved but regretful tone.
"For what?" asked Kairi.
"I never told you that Ice Titan will become stronger with Aero type magic, I should have told you before the match, I'm really sorry Kairi." replied Sora.
"It's okay Sora, you don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong to me, besides there's always a first time for everything, right?" Kairi said with her cheerful tone, trying to lighten him up. Sora was relieved to hear that, but at the same time he still wondered why her match was being stated as the last one 'Why did the announcer say that Ice Titan Cup was the last battle? Isn't there one more?'
"Well, that concludes our matches today, see you next time fol- huh?" before the announcer could finish his words, suddenly Phil interrupted him and gave him a paper that said 'There's still one more match remains called Unknown Match, don't close the arena yet.' "Well, it seems the Gods and the Goddess in the Olympus still have one more surprise for us, ladies and gentlemen. The final and yet mysterious Unknown Match! Who will fight in this mysterious battle?! Who will he/she fight against?! I don't even know the answer. So, stay tuned till the next and the last match." said the announcer.
"Unknown Match? Isn't that the match that you've chosen Sora?" Riku asked the spiky Keybearer.
Aqua then putted her hand on her chin "Strange, why only Sora's match that wasn't counted before?" Aqua then turned her head toward the three "it's like that your match is kinda unofficial Sora."
"I don't like this." Kairi shook her head in worry before looked Sora back "Are you sure about this?"
Sora however only gave them a reassuring smile "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Besides I like something that has the surprises like this"
"Finally, it's my turn at last." Sora said to himself as he looked at the arena. However unlike the others who had enthusiasm before their match, Sora felt an uneasy feeling instead. Somehow he felt something that he needed to accomplish alone without his nobody's power.
"… Roxas, I want you to stay here and watch the match just like the others, okay?" Sora asked to his nobody who then reappeared beside him. Hearing his request, Roxas raised one of his eyebrows in confusion, why did Sora want to go by himself?
"Why? You're my other half and-" "It's not like that Roxas, this time I'll fight with my real strength without borrowing the others. I can feel that my opponent will be my personal matters from my past, so please Roxas, just for this time. Can you do that for me?" Sora interrupted before Roxas could finish his words. Roxas was about to protest, but seeing Sora eyes filled with determination, Roxas could only reluctantly nod as his response, although he was still unsure about his decision.
"Okay, just be careful out there, okay? Don't make Kairi worry even more than when you didn't come home for one year." Roxas warned him back.
"I will Roxas, but in any case if I… uhh forget what I said, okay? Well I better go, the arena is waiting." Sora said while walking to the arena. On the other hand Roxas wondered about what Sora meant to say? Did he want to say that there's a chance that he won't make it alive?
As Sora walked to the arena, suddenly the sky began to turn darker.
I decided to make Kairi's battle longer and more difficult to give more expression what if she had to fight alone. Don't forget to review and comment as always.
