Kokoro no Hanashi
See disclaimer in the prelude
Lisa woke late that morning, and hurried into the main halls of the church when she realized that both her companions had already left. A small table had been set in the center of the room, in the wide gap between the two rows of pews. Among the people seated there, she saw Royce, who she'd wanted to avoid after that strange incident the other day, more priests and priestesses, a few people who looked like villagers from nearby hamlets, and a pair of blue-haired girls who had to be the infamous twins who'd attracted that Koryu Gaddys' attention. Near the far end of the table, Kiri and Fabula sat quietly, picking at their food. That was unusual... normally, the two would be prodding at each other good-naturedly. Even though Lisa hadn't known them for very long, she did know that Kiri had a hard time keeping his foot out of his mouth, and that while Fabula would get nothing more than mildly annoyed, she would retort for the sake of argument. To see them both depressed like that...
Making her way carefully down the aisle, Lisa stopped at an open seat across from one of the blue-haired girls and a brown-haired village boy. "May I?" she inquired softly.
The boy looked up and nodded, so she did. There was already a plate of food before her, so Lisa set into it, knowing full well that beggars couldn't be choosers.
After she'd gotten through most of her meal, however, Lisa couldn't help but take notice of the girl before her's glum expression. "Excuse me..." She didn't like to pry, but she also didn't like having to watch people be miserable. "What seems to be the problem?"
The girl looked up at her, but the expression didn't change. She seemed to be about fifteen or sixteen, and was wearing plain peasant clothes--a cotton yellow dress and woolen overskirts. Her blue hair was bound by a patterned headscarf, and her features were beautiful in a simple, delicate way. Her eyes, wide and honest, were the same azure shade as her hair, and hazed with grief. Her rose-lipped mouth was arranged in a tiny frown of dissatisfaction, and in a face so inclined to mirth, it was starting to get Lisa depressed.
"It's all because of Lucia and me that this is happening," the girl, apparently Luna, said softly, staring at the hands neatly folded in her lap.
"Don't think like that," the green-eyed, brown-haired boy insisted. "That's not gonna help anything."
"But because the Heartless want us, everyone... and High Priestess Phacia..." Luna shook her head. "So many people are dead, and even more... even more are still suffering here! It would've been so much better if neither of us had ever come to this place..."
Lisa reached across the table to put a hand on Luna's shoulder. "Your friend is right," she said gently. "Please, don't blame yourself for things that are the fault of that Koryu Gaddys man."
"But all of my friends...!" Luna bowed her head, refusing to be consoled. Beneath Lisa's hands, her shoulders were shaking. "Alex, how can you even stand to come near me? All of our friends... Nash, and Mia, and Kyle and Jessica and Hiro and everyone... they all died because of me!"
"So don't you think you should live because of them?" Lisa asked, smiling. Luna looked up, blinking away tears. "You must be very special to all of them if they sacrificed themselves so you could keep on living. So you mustn't give in, do you understand? If you die, all they've done for you will just go to waste. Never give up. You must always keep fighting for their sake."
"She's right," Luna's friend said. "What do you think everybody'd say if they saw you moping like this? They'd be so mad... they gave you this chance to survive, so..."
Lisa smiled and got up. The less depressed people around, the better. She liked helping those like Luna--Joseph had always had her take care of the travelers who came to their fiefdom with losses or grievances. Somehow, she could always reach them where the words of many other people couldn't.
Heading for the end of the table where Kiri and Fabula sat, Lisa caught a brief glimpse of Ghaleon, the priest who'd greeted them the other day, and the blonde priestess Xenobia sitting side by side in the shadows. Ghaleon was staring at the floor, looking gloomy as ever, and his fiancée was leaning on his shoulder, her eyes closed, wearing a weary expression.
Sighing, Lisa continued on her way. She couldn't help everyone. Besides, she had a feeling that whatever was troubling those two was much more personal than Luna's woes. Defeatedly, she sat down again across from her traveling companions.
"Is something wrong?" she asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
Kiri scowled at his breakfast. "Nothing," he said in a tight, angry voice. "Not one Tao-blest thing."
Lisa flinched.
Sighing, the redhead grimaced. "I'm sorry. But I'm not the one you should be asking." He gave Fabula a significant sidelong look, but she either didn't notice it or chose not to respond to it.
But, of course, Fabula wouldn't say a word. If she was troubled, Lisa couldn't get anything out of her. After being asked several times by the black-haired healer if she was alright, she said simply that she was still tired, and was sorry if her silence was perturbing.
Kiri's irritable glare, however, somewhat disproved her words.
---
After the meal ended and Fabula began to retreat to the small party's room, Kiri chased after her.
Catching up to her, he gripped her upper arm to keep her from running and forced her to look him in the eye. "What are you playing at, dammit? What are you so afraid of? If you're in trouble, you should tell us... tell me! Maybe there's something we can do to help!"
Wearing the same perfect, carefree smile she had the previous night, Fabula shook her head. "I'm afraid you don't know enough about the situation. There's nothing you can do. I have it under control, so stop being so damn intrusive. Now, Madoushi, kindly take your hands off me. This is no way to treat a woman."
Kiri's face flamed, but just as he opened his mouth to tell her exactly how he thought stubborn, lying women should be treated, one of the girls passed them in the hall.
Prying Kiri's hand off her arm, Fabula fell into step with her. "Royce, right? I've been meaning to talk to you since last night..." The two of them walked off, chatting like old friends, while Kiri was left fuming in the middle of the hall.
"Errrrgh!" Kiri badly wished he had something he could throw. Or break. Fabula was driving him absolutely insane. How could she stand to act so normal, after her obvious fear last night? And why the hell was she lying when Kiri was just concerned for her well-being?
"That pendant..."
Kiri blinked. Ghaleon, the archpriest, had silently joined him, and was staring in some surprise at the little key charm that had fallen into the open while the red-haired swordsman had chased Fabula down. "What, this? A kid named Sora gave it to me..."
"Do you know what this is?"
Apparently, the key had some significance to Ghaleon, but not to Kiri. He shook his head.
"I believe I'll have to explain the legend first... Stories of ancient times tell us that long ago, when this world was threatened by an outside force, a hero rose from the shadows with a magical weapon called a Keyblade. Although it drew evil to it by its open nature, it was a mighty tool that the hero used to seal away the powers that oppressed the people. According to legend, the term 'Keyblade' itself was literal--the weapon was a large sword in the form of a key. It had the power to lock and unlock worlds, memories, and even hearts.
"Some noble families of that time, as well as the hero's family, began to use the Keyblade insignia as a protective charm to ward off evil. Keyblade pendants like yours are generally said to help guide the wearer on the path they seek... the child you mentioned must have quite an interesting ancestry."
Spiky-headed Sora, the descendant of a hero to which the world was indebted? Maybe. What with the little fourteen-year-old's childish innocence and immaturity, though, it was a little hard to picture.
Ghaleon sighed. "In times like these, one can only wish that another hero would rise, with a new Keyblade of his own..."
Kiri shook thoughts of Sora out of his head and sighed.
"Yeah, I know. I'm not really... all that familiar with this world, but from the things I've heard... Isu, the supposed destruction of Lisa's home fief, and now this place... is the entire surface world like this?"
"The world... I'm not certain, no one can be. We only hear rumors as they're passed through Proxia and the large islands in the Weyardan archipelago. Supposedly, Windaria and the surrounding lands were demolished; certainly our own country is falling apart.
"For a while, it seemed as though we would have a chance... King Ansem was a scholarly man who had studied the Heartless since their first appearance. He kept records of the creatures, determined their weaknesses, experimented on them. However, not long ago, Heartless began to appear in great force throughout the land, and shortly after that, all contact with the capital city and its bastion was lost. No news of the king, or his son, has been heard since.
"Our capital, Ivalice, has always been supported by its three fiefdoms... those would be Conkram, to the northeast, overseen by Duke Nebular, Duchess Minea, and their children; Sephira, a little to the northwest, ruled by General Gaius and Countess Ivy; and Hayakawa, to the south, in the charge of Joseph and Mary, the diplomats of the realm. In addition, there's also Bellebane, the northwestern port--the La Flaga family there has given much financial support to the country in its hardest times. These cities, as well as the small towns and villages between them, have served as a network of alliances which the people can draw on in times of trouble. But with the sudden influx of Heartless... all ties have been severed. Lisa has come with the first news of the Hayakawa fiefdom thus far... and it isn't good to hear. Likewise, you've given us the first word from Isu... and it's good to know that there were survivors, however few.
"Yes, the state of the country is much the same, although I can't speak for every town or city. We are all isolated, clinging to each other in terror, devoid of the hope that one day things will be better. Our highest goal is 'survival'. If this goes on any longer, there will most likely be another Dark Age in which all technology is lost, along with all knowledge of other nations. We've already lost contact with Lycanthia, and that lies within our boundaries."
Kiri was silent for a few moments. "When I first came here, all I could think about was the fact that my brother's heart would be here somewhere, and that I had to find it and get back home to Mystaria as soon as possible. I didn't care about this world... I'd been taught to stay away from it, because it was initially the prejudice and hatred of the other human races that had driven us into the sky. And yet... I look around, and the Heartless are everywhere. Everyone is suffering, whether they deserve it or not. People are out of food and water and supplies and shelter, and everybody I meet seems to be despairing. Nobody dreams anymore.
"It makes me feel really guilty. I mean, in Mystaria... every building has a seal on it that gets renewed every year, so that Heartless can't get in, even if the major protections on the cities do fail. We've got supplies and weapons, and we've kept our unique culture intact throughout the years. I've gone all my life with nary a thought to how people on the ground live.
"I've lived for nineteen years without even realizing how lucky we are.
"I used to just think I could get Kumo's heart and go home happy, but... I can't. Not knowing things are so bad down here. I won't be able to live with myself if I don't do something about it, even though I've got no idea what I can do. The only thing I know for certain is... that the Heartless have to be stopped. If things are just left as they are... all the human races are gonna die out."
Ghaleon looked curiously at Kiri for a few moments, his straight white brows taking on a slight upwards arch.
"What?"
The pale-faced man simply smiled and shook his head. "I was only thinking that you're well-suited to wear the sign of the Keyblade... that's all."
---
The rest of the day was uneventful, even if it was tiring. Fabula spent her time finding excuses to avoid Kiri; in turn, Kiri tried his hardest to demolish each excuse as it was established. Lisa wove back and forth between the survivors of lost villages, doing her best to lift the despair and depression wherever she could. The three of them only truly met up once, just before sunset, to decide where to go next.
"We have to find that Koryu Gaddys guy," Kiri said doggedly, the coals of anger burning in his crimson eyes. "He's the one who took Kumo's heart, after all."
"But where could we possibly find him if we went out looking?" Fabula asked, arching one eyebrow. "If we're leaving tomorrow, then it's going to be difficult to locate him. This is a big country, and he could be holed up almost anywhere."
"We're not leaving," Kiri replied simply.
"So you do have a brain in your head," Fabula commented, sounding mildly impressed. "Well done."
"I'm afraid I don't see the reasoning..." Lisa said softly, shaking her head.
"Well, think about it for a minute," Kiri coaxed. "Koryu Gaddys is after people's hearts. Specific people's hearts. And he's already targeted Luna and Lucia here."
"Oh... so we're just going to wait for him to come to us?"
"Exactly... good girl," was Fabula's response. "If you're trying to find a needle in a haystack, don't waste time digging. Just bring a magnet."
And that seemed to have concluded their meeting; Fabula wandered off, Kiri went back to chasing her, and Lisa was left to roam aimlessly between victims once again.
As it turned out, they didn't have long to wait.
Night had only persisted for two hours before a shouted alarm passed through the church's halls: "It's the Heartless! The Heartless have come!"
"If they batter the defenses too much, they'll fail," Ghaleon was telling a group of people when Kiri, Fabula, and Lisa arrived. "We have to try to fight them off before then. It's not just Shadow Heartless this time, there are Darkballs and Invisibles too, so be careful. I haven't seen Gaddys yet, but he's sure to be here too. Luna and Lucia, you stay in the back, under guard--you'll be using support magic only. And Lucia, you have to put as much extra strength into the barriers as humanly possible. Those who can, stay back to defend them... I'll lead Xenobia, Royce, and some of the others in a full-scale attack. I'm done playing nice. Remember your loved ones who fell at their hands! Fight for their sake!"
"What should we do?" Kiri asked breathlessly.
Ghaleon looked to them, surprised. "If you want to help us fight, please, anything you can do would be good. Play to your own strengths... you know where you should be better than I."
"Right." Turning to his companions, Kiri nodded. "Any bright ideas before the wave hits?"
Lisa stepped forward, looking slightly uncertain. "I can cast light magic; maybe--"
Kiri cut her off, shaking his head. "No. You're too valuable... you need to stay with the girls, in the back. You're going to need to heal the injured, anyway." Crestfallen, Lisa headed back to where Luna and Lucia were already stationing themselves, guarded by a number of priests and villagers--Luna's friend Alex among them. "Er... Fabula... you're going to be at the front, right?"
"Don't ask stupid questions if you already know the answers to them," Fabula scolded. Abandoning her attempt to look stern, she grinned, looking wild and feral. "Yeah, of course. I'm not gonna let you have all the fun out here." Kiri nodded and began to turn away, but she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Wait... I almost forgot, this should be of help to you."
Turning, Kiri was surprised to see that Fabula had closed her eyes with a look of intense concentration on her smooth features. Her chakrams, which she had taken out, began to orbit her wrists, untouched, as she held her palms out towards the red-clad swordsman. "Hands of time, thy servant beseecheth thee--grant thy boon upon this mortal form..." Almost instantly, the slowly spinning chakrams began to speed up. "Hastaga!"
Kiri felt the smooth, cool feel of unfamiliar magic wash over his body, and held up his hands. "Whoa... I almost forgot, you can cast spells too... what'll...?"
"Your natural reflexes have been enhanced," Fabula explained. "That's a Haste-type spell... you'll be able to move more quickly in battle, and any spells you yourself might cast will take less time to load up." Correctly interpreting Kiri's concerned look, she smiled mischievously. "Don't worry about me... I'm not gonna get in trouble for this. Before I became a Guide, I was a time mage... and those skills have never quite lost their usefulness." Still smiling slightly, she waltzed off to join Xenobia and Royce in the frontlines, her long silver hair rippling behind her.
Unable to keep from smiling himself, Kiri edged over to Ghaleon, shifting his grip on the hilt of his Maken experimentally. This would be an interesting, perhaps even enjoyable battle.
"Don't let your guard down," Ghaleon murmured beside him.
And as the heavy doors opened to the outside, all hell broke loose.
The land immediately outside the chapel was simply teeming with small dark bodies; luminous yellow eyes blinked out of the malevolent mass like tiny glowing flowers in a field of black grass.
"Oh, boy," Kiri said resignedly, whipping out his sword and grinning wryly.
The fighters threw themselves forward, and pandemonium ensued.
Kiri slashed wildly through the thicket of Heartless, his bloodred Maken cleaving temporary swaths of color through the horde. Defeated, the tiny creatures squealed and pooled into dark puddles on the ground, vanishing. Barely aware of what he was doing, he simply let his mind go blank, allowing his body and training to think for him. He whirled, twisted, thrust, sliced, and parried automatically, a red blur in the sea of purplish-black around him.
Ghaleon and Xenobia led an equally furious assault upon the creatures that had cost them so much; the archpriest with his own brand of powerful magic and a Western-style, double-edged sword, the priestess with a bright-bladed katana. She'd abandoned her heavy robes and pinned up her long hair; at the moment, she simply wore a black cloth skirt and white breastband, revealing that her body was covered in tattoos with magical properties. There was a grim light in her eyes as she tore violently into the monsters that had taken her sister away.
Other defenders were also having luck in driving the Heartless back; Fabula for one was a source of encouragement for the others--she waded into battle, sending her chakrams spinning into the masses, her long hair a bright curtain reflecting the limited starlight from above them.
Having run through a beastlike, sword-wielding Heartless, Kiri had stopped for a moment to breathe when he heard the shouts of some of the others strewn across the battlefield. Turning, he caught sight of a huge, swelling black form rising out of the masses of small Heartless. It was of the same sort as the monstrosity he and Fabula had encountered in the Tower of the Heavens--its yellow-eyed face surrounded by a mass of tangled tentacles, its body immense and brutish. With the lighting of the sky to aid him, Kiri took note that there was a large, heart-shaped hole in its torso.
"A Darkside... here!" Ghaleon gasped out, looking paler than ever. "We haven't got a chance...!"
"HEY!" Xenobia yelled, pointing at something slightly behind the black behemoth. "It's that Koryu Gaddys again!"
Kiri looked; surely enough, there was a flash of red, spiky hair from somewhere in the seemingly endless field of Heartless.
"You bastard, get your ass back here!" the blonde yelled, oblivious to the danger as she began to slice a path after him.
"XENOBIA!" Ghaleon yelled after her, but she didn't take any notice of him. The huge Heartless--they'd called it a Darkside--swung a boulder-sized fist at her; the blow connected, and she went down with a yell. Ghaleon, suddenly as oblivious as she had been, ran to her, knocking aside small Heartless as he went.
Fighting his way back to the rest of the defenders, Kiri yelled, "Somebody, COVER ME!" at the top of his lungs. A few priests encircled him, and not taking the time to think, the redhead breathed soft and low, sending a crimson haze into the air around him.
With the ease of a well-practiced master, Kiri carefully pulled one of the glass bottles from his belt, focusing all his mind on his intentions. It was barely more than a reflexive motion to guide his Maken into the air above him; the true focus of his intention was the incantation he whispered as he held the Mist bottle before him, between his first two fingers: "Enveloped in a beautiful and eternal song... now sleep!" Flicking the glass container into the air, he took hold of his sword hilt, letting his voice rise to a roar. "PURE RED REQUIEM!"
One sword strike was enough to cleave the bottle; there was a brilliant flash, and the crimson, serpentine dragon known as the Ittouju erupted from its shattered shell. With a hiss, it blasted a beam of pure energy straight at the Darkside Heartless, clipping its side and tearing an immense hole in the ranks of Heartless, vaporizing them on contact. With an angry hiss at its failure, the dragon flew straight at the giant Heartless, hitting it face-on and destroying it completely.
Suddenly dizzy, Kiri staggered slightly, his breathing hard and uneven. Relief made his joints strangely weak; he'd managed to save Xenobia and get rid of the huge ugly thing that'd been causing so much uproar. His vision hazing, Kiri slipped backwards; a pair of supportive arms caught him, and a familiar voice began to order the nearby priests around as he absently listened. "Get back to weeding out the small fries, staring is rude. Madoushi, you moron... let's get back to Lisa, now... that took too much out of you for you to stay here. We'll be alright, so don't try to stand up on your own."
Kiri couldn't've protested if he wanted to; Fabula was already marching him back through the ranks. Briefly describing the situation to Lisa, she gently deposited him against the chapel doors. The healer had just knelt beside him when the swordsman gratefully blacked out.
---
"--you understand how I'd have felt if I'd lost you! Don't do things like that! I can understand your desire to avenge Phacia, but all the same... I can't let you risk yourself like that!"
It was Ghaleon's voice. Groggily, Kiri blinked sleepiness out of his eyes. He was inside the chapel, on a bed--and a few pallets away from him, Xenobia was being read the riot act by her fiancé.
"Urgh," he managed, trying to sit up.
Beside him, Fabula, who'd apparently been sitting there for a while, forced him back down. "No, you moron, stay there! Summoning when you were already tired out from fighting completely drained your energy reserves, so you need to REST!"
"What about Koryu Gaddys?" Kiri wanted to know, lying back down obediently.
"He got away," Fabula replied grimly. "But he headed in the direction of the Sephira fiefdom, so when we get out of here, we'll know where to start looking."
Kiri was silent for a moment. Then: "How many casualties?" he asked in a dry, husky whisper.
Fabula was also silent. "There were only a few," she informed him seriously. "More were injured, but they'll be alright now. It was very, very lucky--though extremely foolhardy--that you took that Darkside out before it could do any real damage. No more questions, though. Anything else can wait until we leave. You, sir, need bed rest. Go back to sleep."
And although Kiri still had one more inquiry, he did as he was told. It was one that he thought he wouldn't get an answer to, anyway.
---
It was about another half day before the three travelers were in the state to leave the Church of Angelus in search of Koryu Gaddys.
"Take care," Ghaleon told them fervently at the doors. "Always keep the light in your hearts burning strong. And, Kiri--remember that Keyblade."
Smiling, the red-haired swordsman clutched the tiny talisman at his collarbones and nodded.
"I hope you find your brother's heart really soon," Xenobia said from her fiancé's side.
"So do we," Fabula replied. "Stay alive, now."
As the three of them headed away, Lisa heard Royce call, "Hey, Lisa-san! Come back here sometime, okay? I wanna be able to tell another fortune for you!"
Turning towards the direction of the Sephira fief, the black-haired woman smiled.
(TBC)