Chapter Seven, yeah, I went to Deep Jungle before Olympus Coliseum so this one's coming first. If you have a problem, you'll just have to read chapter eight when it comes out and then read this one. Once again, I own none of this, except for the plot.

-close enough-

Our three heroes were once again traveling through innerspace. Donald had decided that Sora didn't need to work on Blizzard since he showed how well he could use it back in Wonderland. Sora tried to get them to show him how to drive the gummi ship, but Donald said no. Instead, Sora played with the puppies they'd found in Wonderland.

"I'm driving next time," said Sora.

"You don't even know how to pilot it," said Donald.

"It can't be that different from an airship."

"Guys, there's a world coming up," said Goofy pointing at the world they were closing in on. It was covered in Greenery, and there appeared to be a waterfall.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's land!" said Sora.

"Yeah, King Mickey might be down there," said Goofy.

Donald snorted. "In a backwater place like this? No way. We should skip it."

Sora gave him a glare. "Someone I know might be down there."

"We're on a mission! We need to find the king!" shouted Donald.

Sora shrugged. "Fine." Then he darted over to the control panel, pushed Goofy out of the way, and tilted the control stick so that the ship started speeding towards the world.

"Sora!"

The gummi ship crashed into the world. Sora got thrown out pretty early and was separated from the anthros. As soon as he regained his bearing, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around. Oddly enough, he wasn't in the jungle. He was in what appeared to be an old wooden building that was in a state of disrepair. He cupped his hands up to his mouth. "Hey! Donald! Goofy!" No answer. "I guess they landed far away from me." He took a step forward and froze as he heard something moving behind him. Sora turned but saw nothing. Whatever it was, it knew to be stealthy. He frowned and placed his hands near his daggers while slowly backing towards the exit. Then a jaguar burst out of a pile of boxes and jumped at him with a yowl. Sora pulled out his daggers and crossed them to deflect the jump from the jaguar. He tried to slash the cat when he broke the block, but it jumped back. The two circled one another for a brief moment, each looking for an opening. Then, simultaneously, they leapt at each other. Sora blocked a bite with his right dagger and a swipe with his left, but had to jump back to avoid another swipe. "This thing's got a weapon advantage on me." It jumped at him again, but something odd happened. A man ran between the two, and used a rough, handmade spear to throw it back. Sora took a quick glance at the newcomer. He was wearing only a loincloth and had long brown dreadlocks. The Jaguar growled at them, but ran out of the tree house. The threat gone, the man fell into a crouched position and turned towards Sora.

"Sabor, danger."

Sora looked towards the exit. "It's called Sabor?" The man nodded. Sora turned back towards him. "Well, thanks."

"Thanks." Sora blinked. Was this guy copying him?

"Can you tell me where I am?"

The man cocked his head. "Where?"

Sora rubbed his head. This guy didn't seem to know a lot of words. "I'm looking for my friends Riku and Kairi. Riku's about this tall and has silver hair. Kairi's a bit shorter, and she has red hair."

The other man seemed to think a second. "Friends!"

Sora brightened. "You know what I'm talking about?"

"Look for Riku, friends?"

Sora nodded. "Right."

"Kairi, friends?"

Sora froze. For some reason, he was suddenly seeing Kairi walking in the background. "Could you give me a second? I think I'm hallucinating."

"Hallu?"

"Uh..." Sora took another look. Kairi was gone. What was that? "Sorry, I thought I saw something. You were saying something about my friends?"

"Friends here." That got Sora's attention. That was probably the best news he'd heard since this whole mess started.

"Where? !"

"Ooh ooh ha ha ha. Friends here."

Sora gaped. "I don't know what you just said. Think you can just take me there?"

The man nodded and put his hand on his chest. "Tarzan."

"Must be his name." Sora put his hand on his chest. "Sora."

Tarzan nodded. "Tarzan go." He turned and ran out of the house in an odd fashion. It reminded Sora of a monkey or a gorilla.

"And I'll follow." He ran after Tarzan, noting that the building seemed to be some kind of tree house, just in time to see him jump onto a branch and start tree-surfing away. "That looks like fun." Sora jumped on and followed Tarzan's example. The only problem was that he had to jump over low hanging branches and bash a few rocks. Eventually, the two dropped off the branch and landed in a camp. "A camp? Is someone else here?" Tarzan walked over to a tent. Sora shrugged and followed him inside. Inside was a woman in a white shirt and a red-brown skirt. She had long brown hair too. At the moment, she was writing in a green book of some sort.

"Jane." The woman looked up from what she was writing.

"Tarzan! Oh, and who is this?"

Sora brightened. This woman spoke clear English. "Hi, I'm-" He was interrupted by Jane.

"Oh, you speak English! So, then, you're obviously not related to Tarzan here." She gestured towards Tarzan who was patiently watching them. "Are you here to study the gorillas?"

"Gorillas?"

"Highly doubtful." Sora turned towards the new voice and saw a man walk in with Donald and Goofy.

"Sora!" Goofy seemed happy to see him.

"Hey Goofy, Donald."

"What were you thinking? !" shouted Donald. Jane was staring at the two. Who could blame her? There weren't any anthros on this world. Tarzan just cocked his head at the odd animals.

Sora gave Donald a hard look and crossed his arms. "We're looking for my friends too. Just because he's not here doesn't mean they won't be here." The two started glaring at each other. Clayton rolled his eyes.

"A circus of clowns. Not much good for hunting gorillas."

Jane sighed. "Mr. Clayton, we're not hunting the gorillas. We're studying them. This is research." It sounded like she'd gone over this several times before. Clayton just snorted and left the tent. "Well, the more the merrier. Make yourselves at home."

Sora smiled. "Thanks. I think I'll stay here for a little while."

"Us too," said Donald. Sora gave him a confused look. Donald jerked his head towards the tent opening. Understanding, Sora followed the two out of the tent.

Goofy held up a gummi block. "Look at what we found."

"What is it?" Sora still hasn't seen that many gummi blocks so he didn't realize what it was.

"It's a gummi block, like from our gummi ship," explained Goofy.

Sora sent Donald a smirk. "Backwater huh?"

"Fine, the king could be here. We'll look around," said Donald.

"Okay, I'll let you guys tag along." Sora was still upset about how Donald tried to skip the world. "I'm gonna go see if Jane can help me understand what Tarzan is saying." He went back inside. "Hey, Jane, Tarzan keeps making these weird noises. Do you know what they might mean?"

"Well, Tarzan was raised in the jungle by gorillas." Sora blinked. That explained a couple of things. "Communicating with him isn't easy, but he's still learning."

"He was speaking gorilla? He said something and said it was where a couple of my friends are."

Jane blinked. "Your friends?"

"Yeah, but not Donald and Goofy. Riku and Kairi. I'm looking for them, and Tarzan said they were here, but he keeps using a word I don't understand."

"Well, there are some slides throughout the camp. We could show them to Tarzan. Perhaps they can help us out. We can have him tell us if any of them have to do with the word."

"Great, where are they?"

"That's the thing. The gorillas showed up while we were away and decided to hide them, among other things, around the camp, probably as a game of some sort."

Sora sweatdropped at this. Why would gorillas want to do that? He went outside to see if he could find anything and noticed that Donald and Goofy seemed a little drowsy. "Getting sleepy?" Lucky for him, he'd been trained to go for several days without sleep.

"Yep." Goofy stretched a bit. "I think we'll turn in soon."

"Well, I'm gonna look for some slides Jane mentioned and maybe get in a bit of training before I get some sleep. You seen any slides lying around?"

Donald raised an eyebrow. "Can't Jane tell you where they are?"

"She said that the gorillas snuck in and hid them all over the place." This got him a couple of surprised looks. "Yeah, so I gotta find them now." That said, Sora proceeded to look all over the camp and found some slides scattered among the boxes, on the canvases, and there was even one on top of the flagpole. When Sora decided that he'd found enough, he went back in the tent. "Okay, I found some slides. Let's show them to Tarzan."

"One second." Jane put a projector on a box, lit a candle in it, and checked to make sure the projection would be on the screen. "Okay, go ahead and put one in."

Sora slipped a slide in. It was of a majestic looking castle. Jane frowned.

"Odd, I don't remember seeing this one before...Sora?" Sora was staring at the picture with an odd look on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"That looks familiar, but I'm sure I've never seen it before."

"You're probably thinking of a picture of a castle you've seen before. Some look very similar to one another."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, that's probably it." "First I think I see Kairi, and now this. I hope I'm not developing mako poisoning. I don't think there'd be a worse time."

"Well, don't you want to look at any of the others?"

"Right." They looked at the others, which were much more normal, like a man riding a bicycle or a man giving flowers to a woman. Tarzan didn't seem to think any of them had to do with the mystery word Sora wanted to know. Sora sighed. "Are you sure none of these have anything to do with where Riku and Kairi are?" Tarzan nodded. "Then how am I supposed to find them?"

Sora heard the tent flap opening. "They can only be in one place then." It was Clayton. Sora raised an eyebrow. Why would he know? "We have been in this jungle for some time, but we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. If they are here, then I'd wager they will be with the gorillas. We've been trying to get Tarzan here to show us where they are, but he's being rather stubborn about it."

"Actually, we didn't leave our islands until a couple of days ago. If they are here, you probably haven't had enough time to see them." No reason to make them think his friends had been here for months.

"Islands?" Jane seemed interested in this.

"Yeah, Destiny Islands, we built a raft to leave, but we got separated." This was technically true. Sora just left out that they never actually used the raft.

"You see Clayton, they'd probably be somewhere near the beach," said Jane, putting her hands on her hips. "Besides, Tarzan doesn't need to tell us where the gorillas are. They're his family after all."

Tarzan was looking between Clayton, Jane, and Sora. Sora was watching Tarzan out of curiosity. Tarzan then looked Sora right in the eye. "Tarzan talk to Kerchak."

Jane looked at him out of confusion. "Kerchak? Who's Kerchak?"

"Gorilla. Leader."

"He must be the leader of the gorillas, perfect. I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Clayton smiled in a way that made Sora decide that he definitely shouldn't trust this guy, but he put on a smile himself.

"Actually, I've been trained pretty extensively in how to fight. I think I can take care of myself." He turned to Tarzan. "Thanks a lot Tarzan. You don't know how much this means to me." Tarzan smiled back.

Jane looked out the tent. "Well, it's too late to go out now. Why don't you stay here for the night? That includes you too if you'd like Tarzan. As soon as my father gets back-"

"Goodness gracious!" Sora sprinted out of the tent to see what the shout was, but just saw an old man staring at Donald and Goofy. "What on Earth are these? ! I've never seen any creature like these before!"

Donald twitched slightly. "Hey!"

"Are you capable of speech? !" The guy simply seemed interested in what they were. He wasn't scared at all. Jane came out.

"Hello father. Clayton brought these two here shortly after Tarzan showed Sora here our camp." Sora blanched. They didn't look alike at all! Maybe Jane took after her mother.

Her father didn't seem to notice Sora until just then. "Oh hello there. Professor Archimedes Q. Porter at your service." He held out his hand. Sora smiled. This guy seemed nice, if a little odd.

"I'm Sora." Sora grabbed Prof. Porter's hand to shake it, and the older man nearly jumped out of his shoes.

"My gosh! What's wrong with your eyes? !"

"Glowing eyes run in my family."

"But what's wrong with your pupils?"

"They're just like that. I don't know why."

"His pupils?" Jane took another look at Sora. "Oh my. They're spirals. That's odd."

"Are you gonna just ignore us?" asked Donald. He was starting to get irritable from lack of sleep.

"Oh right, so you can talk. What exactly are you?"

"Donald's a duck, and I'm a-"

"You big palooka! We're not supposed to tell people stuff like that!"

"Oh, right, sorry."

"Darn, I wanted to know what Goofy is," thought Sora.

"Daddy, Sora here is looking for a couple of friends of his. Would you mind if the three of them spent the night here so they can look in the morning?"

"Of course not! The more the merrier! Now, where are the spare cots?" Prof. Porter started looking through some of the boxes.

"I'll help." Sora started digging through another box. Within 10 minutes, three extra cots had been set up, and Donald and Goofy were asleep. Sora was amused by the fact that Jane was now sketching them. Tarzan came over to take a look at the picture.

"Tarzan, have you ever seen any animals quite like them?" Tarzan shook his head. "It's strange. I don't think someone with an anatomy like theirs should be able to exist."

"I'm gonna go to sleep now," said Sora. He didn't see any reason to stay up any later. The fighting in Wonderland probably would make up for skipping training today. Sora didn't bother to take off his clothes or boots. He just grabbed a blanket and went to sleep. Morning found Tarzan watching the three of them. Sora whimpered slightly, making Tarzan cock his head. Then Sora suddenly shot up panting. He put his head in his hands. "Why am I suddenly having that dream now?" He paused as he saw Tarzan. "Did you see that?" Tarzan nodded. "Could you not tell anyone about that?" Tarzan frowned slightly but nodded. "Thanks." Sora climbed out of the cot and stretched. "Well, I guess I'm ready to go anytime." His stomach rumbled. "As soon as I get something to eat..."

Thankfully, there was a lot of fruit around, so Sora grabbed some and started poking Donald. After a few minutes, Donald shot up. "What? !"

"It's morning." Sora held out an odd orange fruit. He thought it might be a papaya. "Fruit?" Donald grabbed the fruit and took a bite out of it. Behind him, Goofy yawned and stretched before blinking a few times and waving.

"Good morning!"

"Morning. Here's breakfast." Sora tossed Goofy another fruit, only it was purple. "We should be able to leave once you're done."

This was true. There wasn't really much for them to do. There was just one problem.

"And don't forget about me."

Sora frowned. He didn't really want Clayton to come with them. "Really, we'll be fine. Tarzan's here, and I have experience with fighting large animals." This was true due to the transforming Tsviets.

"Yes, but none of you know how to fire a gun." Sora was tempted to say that it was a requirement for anyone in DEEPGROUND but reminded himself that it was supposed to be a secret. He just turned to Tarzan.

"Well, lead the way." Tarzan nodded and started into the jungle. After a couple of moments, they came across scores of vine-covered trees that Tarzan immediately started climbing. Sora shrugged and followed suit. Donald and Goofy weren't far behind. Clayton wasn't so willing.

"I believe I will find another route to our destination," said the gunman. He then headed off into the jungle away from the group. Sora twitched.

"He said that he was coming with us for protection, and then he just leaves us? He's up to something, and I don't like it."

"Hoo Hoo." Sora got to the branch Tarzan was standing on and saw the ape man poking a chest with his spear.

"That new?" Tarzan nodded. "I'll show you how to open it." Sora pushed the top off. Three furry head poked out of the box. Tarzan looked at them curiously while Sora blanched quite a bit. Goofy and Donald finished climbing up just then and saw the puppies.

"Gawrsh. They're here too?"

Donald sighed. "I'll take them back to the camp." He grabbed the puppies and jumped back down to the ground. Tarzan started gesturing towards the vines.

"Grab."

"The vines?" Tarzan nodded, jumped, grabbed a vine, swung forward, grabbed another vine, and turned to look at them. Sora raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen something like that before..." Sora grabbed a vine, swung back and forth a couple of times, jumped and managed to grab another vine in front of him. "Your turn Goofy." Goofy took a deep breath, jumped...and completely missed the vine. He fell down below with one of his weird shouts. Sora sighed and looked over at Tarzan. "Is it safe to drop down from here?" Tarzan nodded, let go of the vine, and dropped down below. Sora followed suit and landed in water that some oddly calm hippos were swimming in. Sora quickly swam over to a miniature island that Tarzan and Goofy were on. Goofy was lying on his back with swirls for eyes. Tarzan was poking another chest. He made a satisfied noise when it sprung open. Three sets of eyes looked up at Tarzan. Sora sighed. He was starting to get used to this. "More puppies?"

Tarzan tilted his head. "Puppies?"

"Yeah. You've never seen a puppy before?" Tarzan nodded and went back to studying the Dalmatians. "We should take them back to camp. Plus we can meet back up with Donald." So, they trooped back to camp, and got quite a surprise.

"They just showed up after you left," said Jane with a shrug. There were nine puppies playing on the ground. Apparently, three more puppies showed up at the camp after the party left. Prof. Porter was looking them over to see if they were healthy. "What happened to Clayton?"

"He went off on his own," answered Sora. Jane frowned.

"That's odd, and after he insisted on going along as protection." Jane thought for a second. "If you run into him out there, don't separate from him again. It's dangerous out there."

"Yes ma'am." Sora looked over where Goofy was distracting Prof. Porter while Donald got all the puppies in the glowing green circle in the tent. Tarzan was watching with a confused look on his face, probably wondering what was happening to the puppies. "Guys, ready?"

Goofy nodded. "Yep!"

"Why'd you guys come back anyway?" asked Donald.

"Oh, we were trying to swing through the vines, but I didn't grab the vine," said Goofy as way of explanation.

"We have to vine swing?" asked Donald. He looked very nervous, probably because they were going to be high up while swinging.

"Goofy fell, and he's okay. I don't think it'll be too much of a problem if any of us messes up," said Sora in an attempt to give Donald some confidence. The duck sighed.

"Let's just go." They went back into the jungle, climbed the trees again, and started trying to vine swing. Key word being 'try'. Tarzan wasn't having any troubles. After all, he had probably been doing this for years. Sora had to get used to the swinging a bit and missed the vines a few times, but he managed to get the hang of it. Donald had trouble jumping and swinging since he didn't have a lot of physical power, but he was able to make do. Goofy was the real problem. He kept missing the vines, overshooting them, and didn't swing far enough. The other three ended up swinging ahead of him. Upon stopping on a set of tree branches, Tarzan suddenly held up his arm, stopping Sora and Donald from going forward. The two followed his gaze and saw some gorillas on a cliff nearby, but not close enough to swing to.

"Kerchak!" A particularly large gorilla with silver hair on his back turned towards the man. Tarzan went into a long series of noises which the other two could only assume was the language of the gorillas.

"Do you understand anything that he's saying?" asked Sora. He didn't know much about Donald, so he figured it was possible.

"No." Well, there goes that idea.

Tarzan stopped making the gorilla noises by then. Whatever he said, it didn't seem to work. Kerchak just looked off at something, got up, and started walking away with the other gorillas following him. "Kerchak! Hoo ah hoo hooo!" Neither of the other two knew what this meant, but Kerchak ignored it, and the gorillas were quickly out of sight. Donald sighed.

"Now what?"

Sora put his hands behind his head while staring off after the gorillas. "I think he was looking towards the tree house. Maybe if we hurry, we can meet them there." Tarzan seemed to brighten a bit and nodded. Just then, the tree shook as Goofy slammed into it. Tarzan and Sora grabbed him before he could fall to the forest below and pulled him up. The anthro chuckled, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Y'know, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!" Sora and Donald both gave him disbelieving looks. Tarzan grabbed a vine and started swinging in another direction. They had to do even more swinging, but Goofy did seem to be doing better. He didn't fall as many times anyway. The other three still had to wait for him when they reached the tree house.

"This is the tree house you mentioned?" asked Donald.

Sora nodded. "I ended up here when we crashed. I got attacked by a jaguar or a leopard or something like that. Tarzan called it Sabor. He came in and helped me out. Sabor still got away though. I wonder what happened to it..."

Goofy finally made it at that point. "Boy, hope I don't have to do that again!" That being said, they walked into the tree house. Their eyes widened. A gorilla was playing with a globe, and Clayton was aiming his rifle at it. Sora reacted immediately and threw a dagger at Clayton. It stabbed into the hunter's left hand, knocking the gun askew as it fired, scaring the gorilla back. Clayton let out a loud shout as he grabbed his injured hand. He glared at Sora.

"Why you little-"

"Kerchak!" The large gorilla was up on the broken floor above looking down at them. Tarzan tried talking to the silver back again. "Hoo aha ah ah hoo hoo. Ah ah ah!" Kerchak turned and walked away. "Hoo ah hoo hoo!" Tarzan turned to glare at Clayton who suddenly looked nervous.

"It's not what it looks like." Clayton eyes shifted to the left slightly. "Ah, there was a snake! Yes, I saved that poor gorilla's life!" His eyes widened as he felt cold steel threatening to cut into his neck. Sora frowned from his position behind Clayton.

"We're going back to the camp. Now."

Given the position he was in, Clayton couldn't really argue. It was a solemn march back to the camp, and the Porters were rather surprised by the sight.

"Sora! What are you doing? !" shouted Jane.

Prof. Porter was looking at Clayton's hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"This little hellion stabbed me!"

"Only because you tried to shoot that gorilla."

"You did what? !" shouted Jane. She looked angry. Prof. Porter just seemed shocked.

"That's not what happened! I was aiming for a snake that was next to the gorilla!" Clayton was sticking to his story.

"I didn't see a snake," muttered Donald.

"Maybe we should discuss this in the tent," suggested Prof. Porter. "Sora, could you put that away? I doubt it's going to help." Sora put away the dagger he'd been holding up to Clayton's neck, but he pulled out the other one, which had blood on it, and a gray cloth. Jane's eyes widened.

"You really stabbed him? !" Sora just nodded and started cleaning his dagger.

"Well, everyone tell us what you saw," said Prof. Porter while he got out some bandages and disinfectant for Clayton. Clayton stuck to his snake story. Sora said that he hadn't seen a snake and admitted to throwing the dagger at Clayton. Goofy and Donald collaborated with Sora, but were disturbed by Sora's actions. Tarzan just nodded when asked if he agreed with the three against Clayton.

"Well, it looks like the evidence is against you Mr. Clayton," said Prof. Porter. Jane was much more open about how upset she was.

"How could you do such a thing? !"

"You actually believe these ne'er-do-wells? You don't even know them!"

"You are not to go near the gorillas again!" Clayton looked like he was going to argue some more, but the looks everyone gave him shut him up before he could even try to argue. He huffed and stormed out of the tent. Jane sighed and turned to Sora. "I still can't believe you stabbed him."

Sora shrugged from where he was looking his dagger over. He decided he'd gotten all the blood off and put it up. "It could've been worse."

"True. I'm glad you weren't aiming for his neck, temple or other such fatal targets." This got everyone to look at Prof. Porter in surprise. He didn't seem like the type to say something like that.

"Well, yeah, I don't have a reason to kill him. Not yet anyway," said Sora. Before he could be asked what he meant exactly, a gunshot rang out. Tarzan jerked up.

"Clayton!" He ran out of the tent with the others following close behind. Tarzan stopped in confusion. All around the camp were odd blue monkeys with black faces, yellow eyes, and a heart crest on their chests. Sora knew what they were.

"Heartless!"

Jane looked at him in confusion. "What?" The blue monkeys attacked. Sora knocked one back with the Keyblade and took a look with Scan.

"Powerwild. Doesn't look like they have any special abilities, but they are stronger than the Soldiers we've been fighting." "Careful! They're dangerous!"

"They must be attacking us for a reason!" said Prof. Porter. He blanched when Tarzan impaled one with his spear, and the monkey dissolved into black smoke. "What in the-"

"They're not real monkeys!" shouted Donald while he called down lightning on a Powerwild. Goofy threw his shield at one, knocking it to the ground before bashing it in the head. Sora slashed across another, causing it to dissolve with a shriek. Tarzan grabbed another, and slashed his spear so that the Heartless's throat was slashed. Oddly, this didn't kill it, but it was killed when Tarzan slammed its head into the ground. The two researchers were in shock.

"What were those?" asked Jane. "And how did you make lightning strike just now?" Before anyone could try to explain, Tarzan ran off. Sora and Goofy ran after him. Donald waited a moment.

"You guys stay in the tent!" Then he went after the other three. Tarzan had run into a bamboo thicket. There was a gorilla there surrounded by Powerwilds. Tarzan immediately started knocking them away. Sora sensed an attack from behind, spun, and blocked. It was an orange monkey with a bow on its head.

"Bouncywild. It's not as strong as the others." It was a lot faster though. It was dashing all over the place and leaving behind banana peels. Sora cast a Fire to stop it and then split it in two. He then helped get rid of the other Heartless. Tarzan made some gorilla noises in a concerned tone. The gorilla made some noises in reply and left. Tarzan immediately ran off again.

"Hey! Wait up!" shouted Donald. They followed Tarzan again. This time, he'd run to an area full of cliffs. Once again, there was a gorilla surrounded by Powerwilds and a Bouncywild. They made quick work of the Heartless and Tarzan checked to make sure the gorilla was okay. Once he was sure it was okay, he ran off again. The three travelers ran off after him. "Why is he running all over the place?" Donald seemed to be getting tired of running all over the place.

"Ya know, I bet these gorillas are Tarzan's family," said Goofy.

"That makes sense. I'd do the same thing if I thought my family was in trouble," said Sora. They probably wouldn't need it, but he'd do it anyway. He didn't want anything to happen to them that he could prevent. "Let's help him save his family!"

Tarzan ran back through the camp and into the jungle. There was another gorilla in trouble there. They got rid of the Heartless. Tarzan checked on the gorilla again, and started climbing a tree. At the top, in a canopy, was yet another gorilla. They took care of the Heartless and continued on their way. This time, Tarzan took them to the tree house, where a gorilla was surrounded by Heartless inside the house. They got rid of all the Heartless, and Tarzan finally seemed to calm down after he made sure that the gorilla was all right.

"That's the last of them?" asked Sora. Tarzan nodded in affirmative.

Donald let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness."

"What're you looking at?" Goofy was talking to the gorilla, which was messing with a chest instead of leaving. It was apparently comfortable enough around them that it didn't think it needed to leave. Tarzan walked over and opened the chest. Three puppies poked their heads out of it. The gorilla and puppies looked at each other curiously and started sniffing each other.

"More of 'em? Well, let's get them back to camp." Thus, Donald and Goofy were introduced to tree surfing. They got a surprise at the camp.

"Hey, these Heartless are actually harmless!" said Sora. Around the camp were four heartless that looked like they were wearing white dresses and red turbans. "White Mushrooms?" Tarzan poked a nearby mushroom that was fanning itself. It promptly stomped in anger, twirled and disappeared. Tarzan looked confused. "I think they're similar to a monster from my home world. You do what they want you to do, and they give you useful items." Sora had never actually fought a magic pot, but he knew what to do at the very least.

"They don't talk," said Donald in a 'You're kidding, right?' tone of voice.

"I think they're playing charades!" said Goofy. That did seem to be what they were doing. Sora looked at a nearby one the puppies were sniffing curiously. It was shivering. He shot a Fire spell. It jumped and waved its arms happily while a bell type sound went off.

"What was that?" asked Donald.

"Beats me," muttered Sora. Now the mushroom was fanning itself. "Freeze." The mushroom jumped happily as the icicles hit it as the bell went off again. Then it drooped over while a yellow light appeared over it. "Okay, I don't know what this is."

"Thunder." A bolt hit the mushroom. It did a little dance as the bell rang again, reached into a pocket (Did Heartless even have pockets?), pulled out several balls of munny and a couple of items, then spun and disappeared. Sora picked up the item, a thunder shard.

"Why do they keep dropping stuff like this?" The Heartless kept leaving weird stuff behind when they were beaten, and Donald insisted on picking them up.

"Dunno, but we can use them to make useful stuff," explained Donald.

Sora nodded and stuck it in a pocket. Then he walked over to a shivering mushroom. "Fire." It shivered again. "Fire." Shivering again. It must be cold or something. "Fire." It did a little jig, pulled out the items, and disappeared. Sora blinked. This one left behind more items. Sora picked up the spherical jewel that seemed to have a fire dancing in it. "Whoa..."

"It's a blaze gem. It's another ingredient in item synthesis," explained Donald. Sora picked up the other odd item. It appeared to be a ruby with writing in it in an odd language Sora didn't recognize. He pocketed it and went over to the last mushroom, which was fanning itself.

"Freeze." It did the jig, and then dropped to the ground. "Uh, Donald?"

"Fine, Cure." The mushroom bolted up and started fanning itself.

"Freeze." It did a little dance, pulled out the items, and disappeared. The items were a shard, and a gem that was blue and cold to the touch. Tarzan looked at the gem interestingly, probably because he'd never seen ice before.

"Uh, shouldn't we see if the Porters are okay?" asked Goofy. That seemed to snap Tarzan out of it, and he ran in the tent. He was closely followed by the travelers.

"You're back!" Jane looked relieved. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, Tarzan just was worried about his family," explained Sora.

"I say, what exactly were those?" asked Prof. Porter. He seemed rather worried.

"They're Heartless, the darkness in people's hearts given form."

"Sora! World Order! Remember? !"

"They're already here!"

"Is something wrong?" asked Jane.

Donald sighed. "Oh forget it. I really don't think Sora cares."

Sora grinned slightly before explaining. "They go after people's hearts. If one of them kills you, then you become a Heartless. They go after the hearts of worlds. We need to stop them before they do this, although, we're not sure how to do this quite yet."

Prof. Porter seemed rather thoughtful. "That's rather incredible. Quite unbelievable. If I hadn't seen them..."

"Clayton's still out there!" blurted out Jane.

"Gawrsh, you're right."

Sora sighed. "We'll go look for him. You guys stay here. There's probably more Heartless wandering around."

After transporting the puppies to the gummi ship, and shocking the newly informed individuals, the three travelers walked out the tent with Tarzan. After a quick debate, they decided to check in the bamboo grove and cliffs since they were much smaller in area than the rest of the jungle. Immediately upon entering the bamboo grove, they found a clue.

"Clayton." Tarzan walked over to the pipe on a rock.

"It's Clayton's?" Tarzan nodded. Sora took a few steps forward to look before he and Tarzan tensed up.

"You guys okay?" asked Goofy. Sora suddenly spun around and pushed Goofy to the ground just as a large cat went flying through the air where the anthro had been with a yowl.

"Sabor!" Tarzan attacked the large cat with a swipe, but had to use the shaft of his spear to keep from being bitten. Donald got out of his state of shock and cast a Fire spell. Sabor yowled and leapt back to avoid a push from Tarzan. Sabor circled, now more cautious of the odd looking duck. Sora pulled out his daggers and ran forward in an attempt to slash the cat, but Sabor jumped into the surrounding bamboo. The four backed up so that they surrounded the rock.

"That was Sabor, huh?" asked Donald.

"Yeah, but it's just a regular animal. It should be pretty vulnerable to our attacks," said Sora. At that moment, Sabor jumped out of the bamboo at Goofy. Fortunately, Goofy brought up his shield quickly enough to keep Sabor from clawing him, but it did leave marks on the shield. Donald quickly cast another Fire spell. Sabor let out a yowl as it knocked him away from Goofy. Tarzan immediately tried to ram his spear through Sabor, but the large cat moved enough so that it only left a long cut on its side. Then it tried to jump on Tarzan, but the man blocked it with his spear again. "Hold it still!" Sora appeared behind the large cat and slammed his daggers into Sabor's neck. The large cat to jerk away, but it was too late, and just caused the knives to cut into its neck more. Then Sora jerked his hands back, slitting its neck open. Sabor yowled as blood spurted out of his neck for a couple of seconds, getting all over Sora and Tarzan. Then Sabor started thrashing as blood continued to run from its neck until it was just still. Sora looked at his daggers. "I just cleaned these."

"You're covered in blood!" shouted Donald. Both he and Goofy were wide-eyed. Sora and Tarzan weren't really bothered by it. Tarzan went over to Sabor for a second before nodding.

"Sabor. Dead."

"Well, I guess that's good." Sora wiped his daggers off on his pants legs and sighed. That would have to do for now. "Sorry guys, I'll have to wait 'till later to clean up." The two anthros just nodded. Tarzan suddenly looked in the direction of the camp and frowned.

"Camp. Wrong." Then he ran off. Sora turned towards the other two.

"You heard him. Better snap out of it. This is the jungle. Animals are killed here for survival every day. I bet Sabor will be gone by the time we get back." Then Sora also started for the camp. The two anthros looked at each other, gulped, and followed the other two towards the camp. They had to deal with more Heartless around the camp, but that wasn't a problem. What was a problem was the tent.

"Where'd they go?" asked Goofy. The Porters were gone. Tarzan was looking around rather agitated.

"Tarzan? Is something wrong?" asked Sora. Tarzan nodded.

"Something coming. Jane, danger. Jane near...near tree house." Sora wondered how Tarzan could know this, but decided not to question it.

"Well then, lead the way!" Tarzan nodded and ran out of the tent with the others following. They ran through the jungle, and started climbing more trees. Then they did some vine swinging. Eventually, Tarzan led them to a clearing that had a hollowed tree in the center. In the tree were Jane, Prof. Porter, and the gorilla from the tree house, but there were vines covering the opening, so it was immediately assumed that they were prisoners. There was also a giant pulsating black fruit hanging above the opening. Jane was the first to see them.

"Tarzan!"

"Look out!" shouted Prof. Porter. Scores of Powerwilds appeared out of nowhere. Of course, they started fighting them off, but every time one was destroyed, another would take its place.

"They just don't stop! Where are they coming from? !" Sora's eyes flew to the fruit. "That's it!" "Fire!" A fireball hit the fruit. It led out a roar of pain. Fruit doesn't roar. "It's the fruit! We need to get rid of the fruit!" This was easier said than done. They still had to deal with the Heartless that were continuing to stream in. This meant they had little time to attack the fruit. Sora used all his magic on the fruit between attacking the Powerwilds. Donald used as much magic as he could, but then ran out of magic and had to keep the Heartless back with his staff. Goofy ran over to his friend to help out while knocking away any Heartless that got too close. Tarzan seemed to be focusing on slashing his spear across Powerwilds' chests or impaling them with jabs. Then, without warning, he threw it at the fruit with a shout. It cut through the fruit's stem, and sent the black fruit to the ground, where it started to disintegrate. "Wow, good aim. Hm?" The Powerwilds were starting to disintegrate as well. "Are you telling me the Heartless were brought here by a fruit? !" The vines over the tree opening disintegrated and the three occupants quickly got out of it. Tarzan went over to them with a concerned look on his face.

"Okay?"

"Oh, yes, we're okay now," said Prof. Porter.

"Tarzan, Sora, you're both covered in blood," said a rather shocked Jane.

"Yeah, we got attacked by a big cat. What happened to you guys?"

"Well, Clayton came into the tent," said Jane. She seemed a little confused. "I...I don't really remember what happened after that."

"I'm afraid that it's the same for me," said Prof. Porter. The gorilla said something. Tarzan translated.

"Gorillas trapped. Terk ran." Terk was presumably the gorilla.

"So this is that jerk's fault!" said Donald while hitting his hand with his fist.

"It makes more sense than the evil fruit," muttered Sora.

"We have to save the gorillas!" said Jane. "Do you think you could...?" Sora gave a salute.

"Of course! Tarzan just needs to show us where to find them."

"Tarzan go." Tarzan started climbing down the tree. Jane gave the three travelers a worried look.

"Be careful." They nodded and went after Tarzan. They had to deal with even more Heartless, which was starting to be a problem, but they used some potions and ethers to recover before they were too overwhelmed. After a few minutes, they arrived at the cliffs. This time, there were gorillas in a circle with Powerwilds surrounding them. Clayton had his rifle raised and aimed at the gorillas. It was knocked away by a flying dagger.

"Didn't you learn last time? !" shouted Sora. Clayton gave them an odd look, like he wasn't quite seeing them. "Clayton?"

"Not Clayton! Ooh ooh ha ha ha! Not Clayton!" What did Tarzan mean by that? Sora just pulled out the Keyblade as Clayton pointed his rifle at them and the Heartless jumped towards them. Sora deflected a shot and loped off the head of the Powerwild about to land on him. Beside him, Tarzan caught a Powerwild with his spear, flipped it onto the ground, and broke its neck. Donald cast Thunder, catching several in midair. Goofy threw his shield like a discus, slicing through a Heartless's chest before it returned to him. Sora and Tarzan ran forward and slashed through two that were left. Goofy ran forward, bringing his shield back to hit a Heartless with it just as a shot rang out. Sora's eyes widened as blood started to quickly seep through Goofy's shirt as the anthro collapsed.

"Goofy!" Something odd happened to Sora. What looked like wisps of smoke surrounded him as he bowed his head. Then he lit up for a split second as his head jerked up. Now, he was different. His clothes had turned blue with a flame pattern on his jacket and the sides of his pants. His pupils had also turned blue, making his eyes looked like they had no pupils. The wisps surrounding him were almost invisible now, but looking at them closely would reveal that they were now blue. The most noticeable thing was that he was now floating a few inches off the ground with blue sparkles around his feet. "Cure!" A green glow surrounded Goofy. The anthro sat up and patted his chest a couple of times. Sora whirled the Keyblade around so that it was pointing behind him and shot a Powerwild that was coming up behind him through the chest with a blast of pure magic. Then Sora turned around and pointed the Keyblade at Clayton with a look that would send Heartless running in fear. "You're going to pay for that."

Donald was rather shocked by this. Sora had suddenly gone and used Cure, something he shouldn't know how to use yet. That wasn't all. Sora seemed to have somehow changed most of his physical power into pure mana, something which bordered on the realm of the impossible. Goofy was just in shock due to being shot. Tarzan looked between Sora, Goofy, and Clayton. He didn't know why Sora had suddenly changed in appearance or how he had healed Goofy, but the most pressing thing was Clayton at the moment since he was threatening the gorillas. Tarzan rushed forward to attack Clayton, but something invisible knocked him back. Clayton smirked as he climbed onto something that was invisible while Sora looked at it with a frown.

"There's a distortion where the Heartless is. It's not completely invisible." The dead calm of Sora's voice was a bit disturbing to the anthros, but Tarzan seemed undisturbed and got the basic idea. He dashed forward with a shout and swung forward with his spear. Something black stained it, so it seemed he hit the Heartless, but was knocked back again. This time he easily recovered and landed on his feet. Sora started firing more blasts of magic, but he wasn't aiming for the Heartless. He was aiming for Clayton. The blasts hit Clayton, knocking him off his impromptu steed. Sora frowned. "Those should've gone right through him. Something's wrong." Goofy and Donald recovered from their shock about that time, and joined in. As Tarzan went in for another swipe at the invisible Heartless, Goofy jumped in and took the brunt of the counterattack with his shield. Donald cast Thunder on Clayton while Sora glided behind the gunman and fired off a powered up Fire spell that was more like a Fira. Then he zoomed up right next to Clayton and fired a blast of energy at him point blank. Off to the side, the invisible Heartless suddenly became visible, revealing that it was a large chameleon like Heartless with the familiar crest on its chest.

Now that they could see its attacks and dodge them, Tarzan and Goofy started focusing more on offense. Goofy jumped and uppercutted it with his shield while Tarzan stabbed it in the chest. The chameleon swiped at him, but Tarzan jumped back and then jumped forward with a shout to stab it in the stomach. Sora was being just as hard on Clayton. He wasn't letting up on his blasting attacks, and he was gliding out of the way before Clayton could even aim at him. Donald was also continuing to cast spells, but whenever Clayton tried to hit the duck, Sora would appear and knock the bullets away and then cast Fire or Blizzard. "That's enough." Sora appeared in front of Clayton with the Keyblade pulled back. Sora's clothes suddenly turned back to normal as he swung the Keyblade forward and knocked Clayton back several feet. Clayton growled but then smirked and brought his gun up. Sora was no longer floating, so he probably wouldn't be able to dodge it. What Clayton didn't notice was that Sora had knocked him very close to the chameleon Heartless. The injured Heartless was getting confused and looking for something to heal its injuries. The closest vulnerable heart was Clayton's. It lumbered towards the man, only to be impaled where its heart would be by Tarzan's spear. It went slack and fell forward. Clayton, realizing something was wrong, turned just in time to see the Heartless fall on top of him and crush him. As the chameleon disintegrated, Clayton's body was nowhere to be seen.

"Clayton?" Tarzan seemed a little confused.

"He lost himself to the darkness. He's as good as dead now," explained Donald.

"Yeah, that injury Sora gave him earlier was gone. He didn't have any magic to heal himself, so something must've happened to change him," said Goofy.

"He probably wasn't very far from becoming a Heartless himself," finished Donald.

Sora walked over to the dagger he'd dropped earlier and put it back in its sheath. He turned to Goofy. "Are you okay Goofy?"

Goofy smiled and nodded. "Yep, right as rain. When'd you learn Cure?"

"Actually, that's a pretty good question. I'm not sure myself." Sora mused for a second. "I've seen Donald use it a couple of times. He never explained how to use it though. Maybe it was embedded into my mind one of the times when I used materia? It would make sense considering what they think I am. But what if it's something else? It could be that my Wisdom Drive just instinctively knew how to use the spell. It could even be caused by the Keyblade for all I know. I'll just have to ask about it next time I see an expert." "Hm?" The gorillas were looking at them, and Kerchak, Terk, and the Porters had arrived.

"What happened?" asked Jane. "Did you kill-"

"I think it's better if we don't know, my dear," said Prof. Porter.

"The gorillas are safe," said Sora. Kerchak looked around at the gorillas that had been gathered there. They seemed to smile. Kerchak nodded and grabbed Sora. "Huh?" Sora was thrown with a shout over the cliffs. Kerchak turned towards the now very nervous anthros. On the other side of the cliff, Sora got up from where he'd been thrown. "What was that?" Goofy suddenly landed next to him with one of his weird shouts. "Goofy?" Donald landed on the other side of him with a squawk. "Donald?" Tarzan landed behind them holding Jane and Prof. Porter. Prof. Porter's eyes lit up.

"Why, this is...a nesting ground!" Sora looked around and saw that there were indeed leaves arranged into nests all around. Tarzan nodded.

"Tarzan home."

"I see...Since we saved the gorillas, their leader decided it was safe for us to know the location of their nesting grounds," said Jane.

"And Riku and Kairi might just be here." Sora started walking around, looking for his two friends. Donald ran up to match pace with him.

"Hey, what was that you did back there?" asked the magician.

"That was my limit break," said Sora, as if it was nothing important.

"Huh?"

"You don't have them in your world?" Donald shook his head. Goofy saw that Sora was probably going to say something important and jogged up to them to hear. "They're special attacks that only especially strong individuals can perform. It usually takes certain stimuli to activate a limit break, such as being in mortal danger or strong emotions."

"Oh, you mean like when Clayton shot me," said Goofy, looking at the red stain surrounding the hole in his shirt. That had been very close.

"Yeah, some people think they're activated by a surge of adrenaline. Anyway, limit breaks are more or less unique to the individual. I have two types. The type you saw was only where I change attributes of one type to another. That one changes physical attributes to more magical attributes. I also have one that sacrifices magical ability in exchange for enhanced physical ability. The other type requires me to attack with another individual. Our auras synchronize, and we do a powerful attack that is powered by my magic. The attacks vary as much as the individuals I do these with. I can only do this with people I'm very close to, so I can't do it with you two, not yet at least."

"Can a lot of people do it where you're from?" asked Goofy.

Sora shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was around people who were capable of it, but they were all in the military. I don't really know how common it is for a person to be able to use a limit break...Huh? Whoa..." In front of them was a large tree covered in blue butterflies that almost seemed to glow. Tarzan came up to them.

"Ooh ooh ah ah ah."

"I don't see Riku and Kairi. I don't think they're here..." said Sora.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" asked Goofy. Jane heard him as she was coming up and cocked her head to the side.

"The waterfalls are echoing all the way up here."

"Ooh ooh ah ah ah. Friends there. See friends," said Tarzan. Sora looked at him in confusion.

"Oh, I get it," said Jane. "Ooh ooh ah ah ah is gorilla for heart. Friends in our hearts..."

Tarzan looked over at Jane. "Heart..."

Sora sighed. "That means Riku and Kairi aren't here then. He was saying that they're in my heart."

Tarzan nodded. "Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends."

Sora was silent for a moment as he thought. He hadn't been very friendly towards Donald or Goofy, especially Donald. Sora, scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, and turned towards the duck. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Donald sighed. "I'm sorry too."

Goofy smiled and clapped both on their shoulders. "All for one and one for all, right?"

Then the glow on the tree glowed a bit brighter. Everyone turned to see the butterflies flying away, revealing a pattern on the bark that looked like a keyhole. The Keyblade suddenly appeared in Sora's hand, and jerked his arm up so that it was pointing at the keyhole. A beam came out of the Keyblade and went into the keyhole, disappearing as a clicking sound was heard. There was silence as everyone tried to figure out what that was exactly. Then Terk went over to Donald with a couple of little hearts floating over her head. Jane chuckled.

"I think someone's got an admirer."

Donald's eyes widened and he let out a loud squawk. "No no no no!" he shouted while waving his hands. "Daisy would kill me!" Everyone just laughed. Tarzan picked up an odd something that had fallen in front of the tree. It looked odd. Maybe one of his new friends could tell him what it was.

What they were unaware of was that they were being watched by some rather dark figures.

"What drew the Heartless to that world?"

"The hunter lured them there," said the frightening woman. "It was his lust for power that was the bait." She shook her head with a condescending smile on her face. "But it seems the bait was too tasty for his own good."

One of the other figures laughed. "Yeah, he got chomped instead!"

"A weak-hearted fool like him stood no chance against the Heartless. But the boy is a problem. Not only did he find one of the keyholes, but he also seems to be much more dangerous and capable of fighting than we first thought."

"Buddy, you don't know the half of it! One of the guys at the Coliseum knows about him, and he told me all sorts of things!"

"Fear not." The woman made an image of the travelers appear on the table. "Even if he is stronger than expected, he is also more prone to the darkness, and it will take ages for him to find the rest of the keyholes. Besides, he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan."

"Yes, the princesses..."

"Yes, they are falling into our hands, one by one." She looked over to the side as Alice suddenly stumbled forward from an unknown place. "Speaking of which..."

Back in Deep Jungle, the travelers had decided to spend the night after all the things that had happened. Tarzan and Sora had finally cleaned the blood off themselves, Sora using some sort of cleaner to get it out of his clothes. Tarzan had also shown them the item he found.

"It's a gummi block," said Donald.

"It's not one we've seen before," said Goofy.

"But it's not the King's either," said Donald, a bit depressed.

"What's it used for then?" asked Sora.

"Dunno," muttered Donald.

"Maybe Leon'll know," suggested Goofy.

"Maybe," said Donald. "Guess we'll go back to Traverse Town then."

"Is your ship nearby?" asked Jane.

"Uh, yeah, don't worry," said Donald. Sora had only mentioned how there were different worlds, and he'd like to keep that information to a minimum.

"Happy trails then!" said Prof. Porter. He was already getting ready to leave to observe the gorillas.

"Sora, Tarzan, friends." Tarzan handed something to Sora. The Tsviet took a look at it. It was a key chain with a charm that looked like one of the blue butterflies from yesterday and a vine 'chain'.

"Where'd you get this from?" There wasn't anywhere around to get something like this, and Tarzan didn't strike Sora as someone who could make something like this in just one night. Then, some light shot around Sora's right arm. It formed a thin chain, wrapped around Sora's arm with no clear beginning or end. The key chain Tarzan had just given him was attached to one of the chains as a charm, only several sizes smaller. "What the?"

"Strange things seem to happen to you, eh?" said Prof. Porter. He seemed to have gotten used to the things that were going on. So had Jane and Tarzan, although the former was still eyeing the odd chain.

"Yeah," said Sora. "I'll try to figure it out later while we're on our way back."

"Yeah, we should really get going," said Goofy.

"Feel free to come see us again," said Jane. So, the two groups parted ways. As soon as they found a glowing circle, the travelers beamed up to their gummi ship.

"So, any ideas?" asked Sora while staring at the odd chain.

"The chain Tarzan gave you looks kind of like the chain coming off the Keyblade," said Goofy. Sora pulled out the Keyblade and checked. Goofy was right, they did look similar, but with different charms. Sora was suddenly struck with an idea. He removed the key chain from the end of the Keyblade and put it on the chain. The links on the charm disappeared, simply leaving the charm, which shrunk to a much smaller size, behind on the chain. Sora then removed the charm he'd just received from Tarzan. As the vine reappeared on it, he attached it to the Keyblade. In a flash of light, the Keyblade changed form. It was now longer and appeared to be made of wood with five teeth and a couple of spikes on the guards. "Jungle King."

"Huh?"

"That's the name of this Keyblade," explained Sora, wondering how he knew that.

"Then, what was it before?" asked Goofy.

"Kingdom Key," said Sora. Where were these names coming from?

"That's one more thing we need to ask about," said Donald.

"Who'd've thought the Keyblade could change its form?" said Goofy with a grin on his face.

"Well, back to Traverse Town then," said Sora. "I get to drive this time!"

"No way!" shouted Donald. "I gotta make sure you can cast Cure while you're normal!"

"Oh come on! I wanna drive!"

"No!"

Goofy sighed at the argument that was quickly becoming routine. Looked like it was gonna be a little while before they left after all.

-End chapter-

Well, that's chapter seven. Yes, I put in Prof. Porter. I didn't see any reason for Square Enix to leave him out of the game, so I put him in. I think he came off as being a silly man with a more serious side. And you read that right. Sora can already use two of his drive forms, but only two. He won't be getting anymore until the events of KHII. He also won't be using any limits in this story because he doesn't get close enough to any of the characters due to his current nature. He'll change though and be more trusting eventually.

I would like to say something about the upcoming omake. I did not base Seren off of those Claymore women. I just wanted her to have silver hair and eyes and a huge sword. I didn't realize how much she resembled a Claymore until after I read a volume of the manga. Then I realized how fun it would be if she was mistaken for one. The only thing is, I've only read one volume of the manga, so I won't go too far into it. You probably won't be hearing anything more on them in this story.

Omake: What about the Rest? Part IV

Seren frowned. One second she was gathering food for the cache, the next she was surrounded by darkness. She'd assumed it was Nero, but it looks like it wasn't. She was in the middle of a wasteland. Seren still had some food in her arms, along with a couple of bottles of water, but there was only one thing on her mind. "Who am I supposed to train with now? !" The irate Tsviet chose a direction and started storming in that direction. After a couple of days, and after most of her food and water had been consumed, she came upon a village. It didn't look very special. The only odd thing was nobody was outside, which was very odd in Seren's opinion. There should be someone out here for work at the very least. Just as she thought that, a man suddenly walked out around 20 feet in front of her. He was smirking at her.

"So, you're the Claymore the village sent for."

Seren looked at him like he was an idiot. "I'm not a claymore." She pulled out her sword and gave it a look. "I guess you could call Tsukihime a claymore though. She's the right size." Yeah, Seren thinks of Tsukihime as a girl. No one bothers to correct her. "Seriously, do I look anything like a sword? No, no I don't. This guy must need glasses or something." "Get some glasses!"

The man twitched several times. "Are you messing with me? !"

"If you think I'm a sword, there is obviously something wrong with you. Either you have bad eyesight or you're just really stupid!"

"Why you little..." The man suddenly bulged and grew a few sizes.

"Huh, you're transforming. Is it a special ability or are you a monster? Weird." "Never heard of a monster that could look like a human."

"I'll kill you!" It rushed forward, pulling back a clawed hand to rip her in two. It missed the suddenly excited look on Seren's face.

"A fight? ! Awesome!" And that was the last thing it ever saw as it suddenly fell into two pieces. Seren looked at the bloody mess, rather disappointed. "That wasn't a very good fight. You're even weaker than most of the grunts." She briefly noticed a shadow over her. She looked up and saw another monster with wings flying over her. "Oh, it's one of those power in numbers things, huh? Man, those are never any fun. Oh well, I could use a warm-up." Then she jumped up to the monster, shocking it, and cut off its head. As she landed, three more monsters came out of hiding to try and attack her, but were decapitated by Seren spinning around in a move reminiscent of Assault Twister. Seren looked at the mess with an angry frown on her face. "You call that a fight! That was pathetic! You didn't even provide a decent workout! I'd have a better time training against rocks! At least I have to work to cut through them!" Out of the corner of her eye she saw some people coming out of the houses. "Oh, now you come out! What were you doing inside those houses this whole time? !"

"We had no choice. The youma ate anyone who ventured out on the streets," said an old man.

Seren looked at the bodies. Youma, huh? "These things? You must be kidding me! I've faced scarier failures! Anyone could take these down easy! Why didn't you people kill them yourself? !"

"B-but nobody but a Claymore is strong enough to kill a youma!"

"Again with the sword? ! What is with you people and thinking swords are so important? ! I like swords, but even I know how to use other weapons!" It was true. Seren could use staves, machine guns, and tanto. She was currently working on nunchuks. "You people are even more pathetic than these things!" In Seren's mind, that meant there was only one thing to do. "I'm whipping you people into shape! Maybe then you'll be able to take care of yourselves!"

"But don't you just take your payment and leave?"

"Payment? What the * beep * are you talking about? ! I don't care about money! You can keep your fucking money! I'm not leaving 'till I say I'm leaving!"

Poor village. They were going to quickly wish the youma were still there. And the Claymore Organization was going to be pulling their hair out when they found out about the Claymore look-a-like.