Ch. 7
Kairi burst out of the corridor gasping for air and nursing her right arm with a shock of pain painted on her face. Her red hair dripped with sweat and clung to her scuffed face. The hooded dress she wore was even more tattered than before the fight. The young keyblader's sprint crawled to a jutted gait ending as she fell on her right knee to kneel. The portal closed with a warped suction of air and she turned to look at Riku. Oozing scratches covered his bear arms and a nasty gash bled profusely above his left eye. Claw tears in his dark clothes exposed wounded and bruised skin on across his stomach. He gave Kairi a rueful look before he spoke.
"Well that could have gone better," he assessed. His friend blanched with surprise and began to laugh hysterically. Riku soon joined her and sat down holding his midsection. Eventually the laughter faded out and they were left to wipe the tears streaming down their faces. Kairi regarded her friend for a quiet moment before looking at their surroundings.
Dusk was beginning to over the sky and the soft orange glow of the sun hung low in the atmosphere. They were in the back end of an alley that lay between two apartment buildings. The brick wall to their right was saturated with the embers of the daylight. Two large dumpsters sat nearby with a few bags of trash dangling haphazardly on the sides. There were no immediate signs to place where they were. The thought that they had gone off planet did not excite her. She heard the telltale clinking of bottles coming from Riku followed with the suctioned pop of a cork being taken out. Her friend held out a beaker flask towards her, the tapered glass housing an electric teal liquid that glowed. With a nod of appreciation, Kairi downed the luminescent drink in a few swigs. Magic coursed through and around her body. A rush of renewed strength coursed through her skin and she felt the fabric of her dress mend. It was a strange sensation but one that she had grown accustomed to in her journey to become a keyblade master.
Refreshed and looking good as new, Kairi stood up and brushed off the dirt that accumulated on her. Riku was still on the ground with his elixir half drunk. She stepped out to the alley's entrance to look out into the street. It was quiet with a few people straggling along with bags or children in hand. A round young man walked with a bored looking girl as he animatedly talked her ear off.
"- heard that the pros arrived just as the fight was wrapping up. Oh man I wonder how the fight looked on camera! What I would give to have shot it!" the boy squealed, his pudgy face lifted into an open smile. His friend looked at him with a side eye through her tangled mass of curly hair that cascaded over her face. The young man continued speaking in rapid fire pace, jumping from scene to scene and placing various names that Kairi did not recognize. She noticed the boy's shirt as they walked by. In bold black letters the name All Might hovered above the heroic visage of a blond man with a wide grin. Her memory flashed back to the three children she had seen earlier, running in costume and declaring themselves as the number one hero. With a nod she walked back to Riku and explained that they were still on planet. He gave her a nonplussed stare and she continued on.
"That's good news, Riku. We don't have to go that far to finish up whatever it is we're here for."
"Wait," he said, his blank stare turning incredulous, "You forgot why Master Yensid sent us here?"
Kairi scoffed and crossed her arms. An annoyed expression began to tick at the edge of her left eyebrow when she responded.
"I know why I'm here but excuse me for forgetting the other reason why we were sent here. Its hard to remember stuff when you crash your ship and start fighting an endless horde of heartless."
"We're here to confirm if the door was reopened. Looks like we've done just that too. That was… an incredible amount of heartless. What kept them coming?"
They exchanged a contemplative look. Kairi drew on her experiences with the heartless and Sora's stories about them to know that it really was unusual. They must have fought off at least two hundred of the creatures before they ended their assault. She knew that they should really be thanking their lucky stars that it was not hundreds of stronger beasts. A shrill beeping broke the silence and Kairi watched Riku stand up frantically and search his person. He eventually pulled out his gummi phone and gawked at the screen.
"It's Yensid!" He tapped on the surface and Master Yensid appeared before them. His grey beard and haggard demeanor gave him a severe and elongated appearance. He was dressed in his usual blue wizard robes but was missing his pointed hat. He greeted them with the warmth of a winter chill, his voice like gravel underfoot.
"Good evening, you two. I understand that you have successfully landed on one of the sleeping worlds and confirmed that the door has reopened. What have you encountered thus far?"
He listened to Riku explain how he was able to summon the corridors again, that Kairi had "landed" on an unfamiliar world and how they had been ambushed by flock of heartless. The young redhead chimed in and refuted his downplay.
"Try like twenty flocks of heartless. They just wouldn't stop coming! Master Yensid, we've got a real problem on our hands." The old wizard's face grew grim, the lines in his face depressing further into the recess of his skin.
"Agreed," he replied, "It appears that we have a new enemy who is focused solely on Kingdom Hearts. Opening the door should have been impossible but we have been conducting research on our end to see what we could find."
The camera turned around and revealed three animals – a mouse with black fur and wide eyes wearing a leather jerking held together by a number of zippers with red pants, a duck with a wizard's hat that had a crooked tip, and a tall dopey dog with plate mail armor assembled on his torso – waving that them. King Mickey and his two most trusted companions, Donald and Goofy, smiled and shouted out their greetings.
"Hiya you two!" the king rang out. Riku and Kairi huddled close together to get a better view of their friends, grins splitting upon both of their faces.
"Your highness. Goofy. Donald. How are you three? How long have you been hanging around Master Yensid?" Riku asked.
"Oh well just a couple of days now I reckon," Goofy answered, his head bobbing back and forth as he spoke.
"Um, your highness?" Kairi started, hesitation wrestling with a burning desire for an answer within herself, "Do you… do you know if-"
"If Sora is out? We don't know. The King looked as soon as the door was opened but couldn't find anything," Donald quacked, his raspy voice clucking with each syllable. Kairi bit her lip and nodded. It was not a, "yes," or a, "no," and she could not decide if that made the ache in her heart worse or not.
"Cheer up, Kairi," yodeled the lanky canine, "If I know Sora, he was probably pounding on the door trying to get out when it opened. I'm sure we'll find him in no time."
The king and Donald exchanged a look of awe. Comprehension bloomed across Riku's eyes and he spoke in unison with the other two.
"That's how the door opened!"
Master Yensid cleared his throat from the background. They grew silent as Mickey turned the camera back to face him.
"That is my suspicion as well. Sora's will was likely strong enough to assist the person trying to open the door. My fear is that he encountered this individual."
A somber silence fell and Kairi turned her head away from the screen. Riku placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and reassured her that Sora likely escaped an ill fate.
"We don't know who opened the door. They might have been friendly. Was it any of ours?" he asked, hope carelessly knocking through his words. Master Yensid shook his head and replied.
"No, all of our allies capable of opening the door were accounted for. Travel to the End of the World is nearly impossible without assistance or use of dark power. We do have some insight into who this person is."
A small cricket in coattails and top hat carrying a cane hopped onto Yensid's shoulder and pulled out a small book from behind him. Jiminy greeted them quickly and opened his journal. His voice was serious and he concentrated on his written words as he spoke.
"The person we're looking for is a man named Gaol," he explained, "While we are unsure of what he wants with Kingdom Hearts, we do know that he is looking for golden hearted folks to reach his goal. He's one scary looking fellow if I'm being frank."
"Golden hearted people?" Riku asked. He exchanged a confused look with Kairi when Donald began to explain.
"Yes, it was in some of Ansem's old reports. He -,"
King Mickey interrupted the duck who ruffled his feathers slightly.
"According to Ansem, there are three types of hearts in existence. There's regular hearts which make up some of all of the smaller heartless; there are Big hearts which live in stronger folks but don't have the purest and make up all of the larger heartless; and Golden hearts which are rare and the purest out there."
Donald tried to speak again but was cut off by the ever-insightful Goofy.
"So that means that you've got a heart of gold, Kairi, on account of you being a princess of heart and all. This here Gaol is after people like you so be careful out there."
Donald began to hop and squawk in rage. His two friends to turned to look at him with surprise glistening in their eyes.
"Let. Me. FINISH!"
Mickey and Goofy apologize sheepishly with good-natured smiles on their faces. When he finally got his breath under control Donald began to speak again.
"The princess of heart do have golden hearts so I'm worried that Gaol will go after them. But there are worlds with people that have golden hearts who he could go after too. We need to find as many of them before he does. This could get really bad."
Kairi held her right elbow in her left hand, bringing her hand up to her chin. She contemplatively tapped her finger to her lips when she asked how they could identify someone with a gold heart. Mickey chuckled and began to speak.
"Well I actually know a sure fire way to prove someone has a pure heart of gold. I'll bring it with me tomorrow. For now, you two rest. We'll gather up the team and send them to the princesses' worlds so that they can guard them. We'll need you two find and protect whoever you can find."
They said their goodbyes and hung up the call. Kairi looked to Riku in the dying light of his phone with a million questions buzzing in her head. He shot her a quizzical look.
"So won't finding these hearts of gold interfere with the world order?" she asked.
Riku cocked his head and thought about it. With a shrug he could only suggest that they improvise when the time came to find this person.
"Who knows," he said with forlorn look to the darkening sky, "Maybe destiny will guide us."
