"So, what do you sell here?" Sora asked Cid.
"We don't have any money yet," the girl interrupted. "Oh, but you can sell stuff. What do you have on you?"
Sora obligingly emptied his pockets.
"No potion? You didn't beat Riku at all?"
"Um…" Sora said blankly.
She glanced over it. "I mean, you could sell the hi-potions. Your aychpea is too low for those to be of any use.…Oh, you can sell the Pretty Stone."
"What? No!" Sora snatched it off the floor and repocketed it.
The girl stared at him. "Huh? But it's just vender trash."
"It is not trash!" Sora began gathering up the other items.
"That's what I thought, but it turns out you can't do anything with it." When Sora just glared at her, she sighed. "Well, it's not really worth anything, and we'll have some money once we go into Second District." She snatched the hi-potions before Sora could pick those up.
"You planning on getting a job there?" Cid asked curiously.
The girl looked at him like he'd grown an extra head. "You don't get jobs in this game," she said scathingly. "You fight heartless."
Sora thought he looked like he was about to say something in response, but the girl had already grabbed his arm and was pulling him out the door. "Thanks bye," Sora managed to get out before the door shut.
Outside Cid's shop, Sora saw another door with a sign saying Items over it. "Wait, let's look here," he said, pulling free.
"Can't we just skip all this?" the girl asked. "This is taking forever! I already saw it the first time."
Sora ignored her and headed inside.
There were…ducks. Three baby ducks wearing shirts of different colors. One, in red, was sitting on the counter, and the other two were on the ground.
"Hi!" the one on the counter said. "Looking for items?"
"Hey, make change for this," the girl said, handing over the hi-potions. Sora followed her over to the counter, taking the golden munny.
"So, um, what do you sell?" Sora asked the tiny anthropomorphic duckling.
"They just sell potions and upgraded weapons for your lame party me – hey!" The girl half jumped over the counter, balanced on her stomach. "That's new!" She held out one hand. "Let me see!"
The other two ducklings – Sora thought of them as Blue-shirt and Green-shirt – hopped onto the counter to help. Together, they handed her a sword. The handle was golden and the blade itself looked crystalline, a stark white edged with faint purple that reminded Sora ominously of the light in the chest of his shadow's monster. Destruction…
"Awesome!" Kimi yelled, swinging the blade. "Sora, pay for it!"
Sora's eyes darted between the ducklings and the blade. "Are you-"
"Come on, you know everyone only gets one weapon, so this is obviously mine. Not like you can give that stupid duck a shield, even though he dies all the time."
He thought again of Kairi putting her hand on Riku's arm. And she was the only one left now. "How much?" he asked.
"100 munny."
Sora blanched. That was almost all the munny they had, and enough to buy plenty of potions. He sighed, but handed the munny over. "And one potion, please," he added.
"Okay, let's go!" the girl chirped, turning to leave.
"Thanks, bye," he said to the tiny ducks, following her out.
"Come again," they called in unison.
"Come on, this is boring," said the girl, grabbing him again and not letting go. She pulled him around the shop and up the steps behind it. Sora noticed a large man standing by the edge overlooking the alley behind the shop where he'd woken up in. Sora wanted to stop – maybe he'd seen them appear. Maybe he'd seen Kairi and Riku… - but the girl just pulled harder. Sora went along, thinking he'd come back once whatever she wanted was done. Finally, she dragged him up to a closed gate make up of two huge wooden doors. She let go of him and stepped forward, pushing the doors with either hand. They were clearly heavy and it took a second or two for them to begin moving, but then they swung open.
There was someone running toward them, a man wearing odd, almost old-fashioned clothing. He tripped and fell, turning as he did if there was something behind him, even though there was nothing there. Sora watched as bright light burst from his chest and glowing red heart floated up, glittering but with darkening edges as it spun slowly in the air for a second. Then darkness exploded around the edges of the body and devoured it as the heart slid away, sucked into another swirl of darkness forming in midair. The swirl had a too-white center edged with purple that gave way to true darkness, and Sora couldn't tell how large it was or where the darkness gave way to the night itself. The heart wobbled a bit in the air from side to side before being pulled into the bright center, and for a second the white expanded around the heart and it looked like the light was overwhelming the darkness. Then it collapsed on itself into a ball of pure blackness, and a – thing popped out, looking like a grotesque ragdoll wearing a battered, discarded knight's helmet, the metal's jiggling sounding like a rattlesnake's warning. It jumped into the air, its movements boneless and wrong, curled into a ball, turning back into darkness. Then they were all gone – the man, the heart, the darkness, all in the space of an instant.
Then the monsters came.
When the monsters stopped and the frantic life or death fight stopped with them, Sora realized Kimi was laughing.
Maybe she heard him not laughing, just as clearly as he heard her, because she turned to him at the same moment, grinning.
It should have been like Riku's grin, looking down at Sora doubled over and breathless after losing another race. Like Wakka's after he managed to peg someone with his ball hard enough to send them face-first into the sand, or Tidus after winning a wooden-sword fight, or Selphie as she twirled her jump-rope while his face and arms stung.
What it was was almost Kairi's grin when she'd managed somehow to skip a stone once despite the ocean waves, or climbed a tree to the top to watch the seagulls, or ran off the pier to crash into the water.
Sora fumbled for words to say what was wrong about this, and Kimi said, "Alright! Let's go to the Gizmo Shop, that's my favorite place!" She took off, racing across the district without hesitation or a glance back as monsters blossomed from the ground, as if she were utterly certain he would follow.
For a heartbeat he imagined staying where he was. Then, horrified, he bolted after her.
Just kidding, Kairi's voice whispered with a nervous giggle. Just kidding.
He caught up with her on the other end of the square as she slashed and cut at the shadows. He struck one and watched it fly away and crumple to the ground against the wall, and he didn't even hesitate, leaping after it and driving the metal key through its body while it lay stunned and helpless, watching it explode under the blow. He felt something behind him and spun just into time to hit another creeping up on him. Then they were all gone, but Sora barely had time to realize this before Kimi was halfway through the doors of the building next to them.
Inside was a nightmare. The place was brightly lit, the brightest Sora had seen since they arrived, covered garnish colors like a toy store and made up of rounded edges that radiated harmlessness like toys for small children. There was one shadow thing that slid up from the colorful, cheery floor. Sora smashed apart, and then they were everywhere. They swarmed around Sora, clawing and biting him with a touch like ice and despair, slamming him into the hard walls and gears under their weight. And when he'd finally beaten – killed he was killing them – new ones rose up from the floor. And then more. And somehow it was all the worse that the place looked so safe and harmless, almost obscene that this was happening there.
Sora didn't realize when it was over. He just stood there, looking around for the next ones, turning and turning and feeling a sick certainty they were about to come at him from behind, could almost feel the frozen claws digging into his back, and he realized he was shaking, from fear or injury or exhaustion or just the cold misery the things oozed into the air.
"The game would have been so much better if the whole thing was like that!" Kimi enthused. "Awesome awesome awesome!" Sora barely heard her.
It took him a second to realized she'd walked over and grabbed his arm again. "We might as well go now. We've cleared this area." She didn't look like she'd even been scratched.
Numbly, Sora followed her out.
"Hm." She bit her lip thoughtfully. "How do you get to the boss fight…?"
Sora took out a potion and drank it. The liquid burned down his throat and then spread outward all at once, like a tuft of grass catching fire in a single burst. His injuries flashed cold and burning hot at the same time. Then it, and his injuries, were gone.
"Right!" the girl said finally. "You've got to fight Leon!"
"I don't want to fight anyone," Sora said reflexively.
"Okay. Follow me." She started back toward the first district. Sora followed, bracing himself for more shadow monsters, but no more appeared. By the time they reached the doors, Sora was feeling slightly less nervous.
Kimi shoved the doors open and they stepped through.
Shadows appeared before them, sliding over the stones toward them as the monsters pulled themselves up, twitching and shuddering and leaping for them. Sora choked back a scream.
"Oh yeah…" Kimi said thoughtfully beside him. "Forgot about that…"
It wasn't so bad. Sora was tense when the last one vanished, but no more sprouted from the ground once it was over.
Any relief he felt vanished when he went down the steps and saw the square was empty. He thought of the man he'd seen fall and vanish, disappearing into the darkness. Had that happened to everyone…? And there were more shadow things before him.
He couldn't take any more. The shop was still lit, and Sora dived for the door, hoping it wouldn't be filled with another swarm of the black things. If you ever run into trouble, you come to me, Cid had said. Maybe he'd still be there, and know what to do.
"Wha-" Cid said as he tumbled in, followed by Kimi.
Sora looked about tensely, but after a few seconds, when nothing happened, he let out a relieved sigh.
"Hey, there's no save point here," Kimi said. "You can't heal – Well, I guess you have to anyway. Let's go back now!"
"But-"
"What's going on?" Cid asked. "Something happen?"
"There are – there are these monsters – they – like on the island –" Sora stammered.
"What? Stay here-"
"Vincent said you're a geezer," Kimi said scathingly. "And he was asleep for thirty years." She grabbed Sora and dragged him back through out doors.
"Who's Vincent?" Sora managed, not understanding anything that was happening.
"Hot."
Sora looked about for more monsters, but for the moment, there were none. He was looking over the empty square when he heard someone say, "They'll come at you out of nowhere."
Sora spun, heart hammering. A brown-haired man with a hairstyle resembling Riku's and a scar across his face had walked down the steps behind the shop. He was wearing black – black pants and an short-cropped unzipped black jacket with short sleeves over a white shirt. He had a thick silver chain as well, with a large pendant Sora couldn't quite make out.
"Who are you?" Sora asked. He looked dangerous. Sora clutched the metal key tightly, ready for an attack.
"And they'll keep on coming at you," the man said instead of answering, pointing with one black-gloved hand. His other arm looked like it had three red belts wrapped around it, "as long as you continue to wield the keyblade." He put his hand against his forehead and said more quietly, as if to himself, "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Sora demanded.
"Nevermind," the man said. He started toward Sora, reaching for him. "Now, let's see that keyblade."
"What? There's no way you're getting this!" The key was the only thing that had stopped the monsters from tearing him apart.
"Alright," the man said curtly, slinging a huge grey sword Sora hadn't realized he had over his shoulder, "then have it your way."
He swung the sword forward, and then something like a fireball shot at Sora, knocking him almost off his feet with the force. Sora managed to move out of the way of the next one just in time, and ran at the stranger, hitting him as hard as he could in the midsection. While he doubled over, Sora struck again. His next hit was intercepted at the last second, and then the sword hit him across the chest, knocking him into the rock wall.
He lay there slumped against the stones. He gasped, feeling like his was unable to breathe. The man walked toward him with an unhurried pace, like a stalking tiger, readying to swing the sword again. Sora wanted to run.
There's no turning back. I'm not afraid.
Instead he shoved himself upright and swung with all his strength before the other's sword could complete the arc. The scar-faced stranger looked shocked as he staggered back.
Sora started after him, going in for another blow, when the man's face changed from surprised to serious. Sora didn't even see the blow, but he felt it, his feet coming off the ground from the force. For a second he was airborne and saw the deadly focus in the stranger's eyes, then his head cracked agonizingly against the cobblestones and things went black.
He thought he heard a woman's voice somewhere far away. "Hey, you found it," she was saying, and he wanted to ask what it was. "Nice going, Leon."
Then the man's voice, fading out. "Looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse."
Leon's outfit is like one of those Lovecraftean monsters where you go insane if you try to make sense of it. He's got two red belts crossed over his hips, then a third black one crossed under those, on top of the belt actually used as belt. I think his shoes have zippers, too.
