A/N: Fourth chapter, folks. Thanks for the reviews. Again, I only own Kina and the concepts and complications that are connected to her, not Kingdom Hearts.

Take your time…the door is still shut…

Chapter 4: Destiny Islands – The Night of Fate

Kina yawned, watching the two boys race themselves to death for the large, yellow star embedded on the rocky wall at the cove. Actually, only Sora was running himself to death; Riku was practically having fun letting the younger boy eat his dust. It was really beginning to become a big wonder on why the brown-haired boy always dared to challenge the silver-haired one.

It wasn't even a big surprise when Riku came back looking victorious while Sora followed after him, his face wearing a defeated frown.

Kina giggled, watching the younger boy come up to Kairi and ask what was up for today. She, on the other hand, followed Riku out of the cove and to the little bit of land where the latter always hung out. She sat on the edge, swinging her legs to and fro, and grinned back at Riku. "I came to greet you for doing a great work."

Riku chuckled as he sat on the bent tree. "Of course," he answered complacently. "Sora won't beat me that easily. And neither will you," he added with a smirk. Kina blinked at him. He was becoming overconfident with himself again. She stuck out her tongue. "Right, almighty Riku."

They paused, then laughed. And Kina realized she had never laughed wholeheartedly without being cut off by that strange chest ache. Never. As thankful as she was for finally being able to experience these things, it was really becoming a great wonder why all the pains stopped…

Riku followed suit, curiously watching her. She smiled at him and waved, walking to the edge of the island. "I'm taking a dip." With that, she jumped into the water below, the coolness relieving her from the heat. Surfacing, she turned to the horizon and smiled. She felt human now…

The day went by smoothly. Sora had gone one-on-three with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie and had surprisingly won, given his disadvantage. Then he had challenged her, but unfortunately, despite one out of four fights where he won, Sora still needed some more training to beat Kina, so it was still not a shock that Riku had beaten him as easily as pie that same day. Kina then decided to go three-on-one with the trio, and had beaten them quite as easily, but was on a two out of five rate when it came to Riku.

And that was why she was now staring at the waterfall, wondering how she could beat Riku. If she sat idly longer, she knew she would get behind. She had not trained for weeks, after all, so it must be why Sora and Riku were getting stronger for her.

The blond girl put on her shoes, stood up, and went inside the Secret Place. There, she pulled out her wooden sword and started to act as though she were fighting someone. She jumped, flipped and spun in the air, landed on the ground, struck at the wall or some hanging vines that were unlucky enough to be spotted by her eyes, pretended to have been struck down, only to come up again with a somersault or a kick for a counter-attack, and then avoided some imaginary attack intended for her. She quickened her pace, up to the point when she had buckled upon landing and stayed kneeling on the ground, sweating profusely and panting as though tomorrow would never come. She smiled at the ground. She noticed that she had gone slower, that she had just reached again her speed limit just then. There was no denying it.

She was getting rusty.

Kina stood up and started her moves again. She was thankful she decided to train; if she had put it off much longer, she might have taken longer than half an hour before she could perfect her speed and coordination once more.

In the Secret Place, there was a wooden wall she always loved to look at, always wondering what could be behind it. It had always been a mysterious trait of Destiny Islands, that wall. Nobody knew of who could have built it; nobody had claimed of building it. Nobody could open it up, either, and so everybody was left to wondering what was behind it.

By this wall Kina sat, staring at the only hole in the place where the sunlight filtered in. She was wet, like she had taken a bath, panting so much she seemed to have run a mile. The body aches were nothing to her, though, as she stared at the sky, recalling the reason on why the Secret Place ended up as her training ground.

"Kina, come on!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Kina ran after an overeager Riku towards the waterfall, where Sora and a new girl were waiting. She slowed to a stop, wondering if it would be okay for her to join them.

"Riku!" Sora whined. "This is our Secret Place! Only Kairi can come in with us!"

Kina took a step back.

"Sora," was Riku's warning reply, his face darkening into a frown.

"N-no…" Kina cut in, smiling at the three despite Sora's scowl and Riku's raised eyebrow. "It's fine with me, really…" she continued, retreating. "I hope you'll have fun…"

Feeling shaky and numb at the same time, she turned around and ran from the place.

She had made herself comfortable in the tree house when somebody clambered up after her: Sora. Kina smiled apologetically at him and looked down at the paper she was drawing, afraid of what he might say. Maybe she was invading another one of their places?

"Hey, Kina…" Sora's voice came out as rather apologetic, too. "I…"

Kina timidly looked up at him, unable to look him directly in the eyes. She had always been shy of other people; they did nothing to her but they did not like or notice her, either. She saw him take a deep breath and heard him mumble, "I'm…sorry…"

Kina continued drawing. "It's…okay…" she answered. "Riku must have forced you into it… Don't worry… I'll talk to him about it tomorrow…"

"No!" Sora replied hastily, raising up his hands. "No, no! He's got nothing to do with this, really…!"

Kina's smile turned into an amused one. "Really… It's okay with me, Sora…" she stopped and viewed her work. "I wouldn't get angry with Riku or anything…"

"But really! Come on!" Kina jumped when Sora had grasped her arm and started pulling her out of the tree house. "Let's go to the Secret Place!"

Kina pulled her arm free from the boy's grasp. "Sora… I'm telling you, it's okay…! I know Riku forced you into it…"

"You're wrong!" Sora replied. "It's got nothing to do with Riku. I just… You only smiled when I pushed you away…" He bowed.

Kina shook her head. "I'm used to it…"

There was silence for a while as Kina put the finishing touches on her drawing.

"Then you'll have to get unused to it!" was Sora's sudden outburst as, grinning, he suddenly pulled Kina out of the tree house and to the Secret Place.

When she was sure of her returned energy, Kina stood up shakily, about to leave the place, when the hair at the back of her neck stood up. She spun around to find no one…but a shining keyhole at the wooden wall.

As sudden as it had appeared, it had vanished, before she could even move.

Kina blinked, her mouth gaping, as she approached the wall cautiously, laying a hand upon where the keyhole had been. Was it only her imagination? She was not sure. It looked so real…

The girl dropped her hand and turned, her eyes still on the wall. The keyhole did not appear again. It would be of no use to ponder over it, would it? Deciding to ignore what just happened, she left the Secret Place, encountering Sora on her way out and on his way in.

Kina jerked awake that night, feeling worse than ever. She tried to get up but as soon as she did, her world spun and she collapsed back onto her bed.

Then it came back.

Kina clawed her bed. She was numb. She was sweating; she was panting, gasping. She felt like dying. She wanted the torture to end. She shut her eyes closed.

A heart-shaped figure, half of which was black, the other pink.

Kina's eyes shot open, and then she was standing at the shore, watching Sora fail to get to Riku who had just disappeared into darkness. The younger boy looked frantically left and right and spotted her, his eyes widening.

Kina looked down and froze, for darkness was reaching out to her from the sands.

Sora ran to her, and she tried to call out, but her voice did not come out. His lips moved, but she could not hear him. He reached out a hand, but he only passed through her. Kina turned, but she only got a glimpse of Sora turning, too, before she was swallowed up by the darkness.

She was blinded by light.

Then it became nothing.

Then she was floating in darkness.

Her eyes opened, blinking several times to clear her vision. She could not stand up. She could only see a heart-shaped figure, half-black, half-pink, floating just above her chest. She swallowed, never feeling this much fear before.

What would happen to her now?

Kina shut her eyes closed again, refusing to let tears flow. She remembered Riku, Sora, Kairi… Wakka, Selphie, Tidus… The moments she had with them… The moments she wasted…

And then something moved. Kina's eyes widened and she trembled. Something unseen was moving amongst the darkness before her, obviously coming for her, yet she could not do anything.

The darkness was moving…it was coming for her…it was coming for her heart…

"N-no…" she managed to choke out, her will to survive giving her enough energy to talk. "P-please…"

The darkness stopped. It retreated to its depths.

"More time…" resounded in Kina's head.

Then she was forced to fall asleep…

Hmm…Done. Not much dialogue and Kairi here… Sorry about that…

Next up: Traverse Town