Traversing Bounty Hunter
My landing wasn't a pleasant one. I hit the hard ground and stayed down for a whole five minutes. I lazily opened my eyes and stared at the black sky above me. There was a lot of noise all around me that sounded of people, vehicles, et cetera.
I stood up on my knees and looked ahead. A large building with the letters 'Accessory Shop' loomed ahead of me passed a small staircase. I stood up completely, nearly knocking myself over again. What a rude welcoming to a world, Organization.
Not even a few steps, and something brushed passed my legs. I looked down to see nothing. I scratched back of my head. I felt a brushing again at the back of my legs, so I whipped around to see nothing once again. I continued to scratch the back of my head in confusion.
I heard a small sigh, so I whipped around and kicked outward, and I soon heard the grunting of something followed by the plop on the hard ground.
I looked down at my odd stalker. A small, white creature resembling a plush toy, with a large, spherical head, small ears sprouting out of the sides of its head, a thin brown antennae sticking out of its head connecting to a red spherical object that stayed afloat in the air. Its eyes were just sideways slits. It's nose was huge and pinkish.
"What are you?" I called out in surprise.
"Moogle," came a squeaky voice from the creature. A Moogle? "What is your name, kupo?"
"My name is of no importance," came the squeaky voice again. "This is Traverse Town, the world where those who lost their worlds come to."
"I haven't lost my world," I mumbled. Come to think of it, I didn't have a world in the first place. "The Organization…they are keeping me here?"
"You need some serious rest," Moogle replied. "I recommend stopping for a drink in the fifth district."
Instead of listening to the Moogle, I rushed passed him and up the stairs, where I found my way to the front doors of the Accessory Shop. I opened it, and there was nobody in here. I figured there's be even more people here than what there was.
I heard the sounds of people talking loudly, but there was none in sight. When I closed the door behind me, I heard a voice say, "You seem lost."
There was a lady behind the desk on the side of the store, who sported long blond hair and bright green eyes.
"I suppose I am," I replied. "I don't know exactly where I am…or what I'm supposed to do here." I looked at the woman. "Explain everything to me now. Please."
"Well, this is Traverse Town," the woman said, and then repeated what Moogle had told me. "So since you're new in town, I recommend getting a drink at the Royal Treasure bar in the Fifth District." Was she seriously locating me to a bar? Did my appearance not give away a young age? "Don't worry, sweetie, I won't tell anyone you're over there."
"How to get to the Fifth District?" I asked. There was no way for me to know my way around. How exactly was it possible for me to stay here for an indefinite amount of time?
And the woman did tell me where I had to go. She was extremely descriptive. She mentioned every fork in the road spot on. I was maybe able to deal with staying here for a while. This town felt like it was changing me by the minute. I wasn't even complaining about being stuck here.
As I headed to the Fifth District, I looked above and saw the twinkling stars in the sky. When I got to the bar the lady had mentioned—a glittering golden sign with the name Royal Treasure sparkling in diamond—I had walked in.
A sweet smell filled the air and the sounds of people, grunting, and drinking took place all around me. I looked around, seeing all of the older men and women who mingled and chatted amongst each other as they held drinks in their hands.
A long bar with a kitchen behind it stood at the end of the bar. I walked towards it, narrowly dodging a small fight between two men, and I sat down at the table where a bartender stood on the other side, cleaning a glass with a dirty rag.
"New around town, ain't ya?" the man asked, and I just nodded. I hated people as it is, but having to converse with them was even worse. "Well, you get used to it after a while."
A person sat down right to the side of me silently, as I had barely noticed a movement at all. But the man on the side of me for some reason made me feel a tad overwhelmed.
He had short black hair that was slicked back with grease; his muscles seemed to rip through his white wife-beater which was underneath a black leather jacket, and blue jeaned pants with rips at the knees. He wore dark sunglasses to cover his eyes. He had a small stubby beard on his chin.
Hanging from his lips was a cigarette. I had never seen anyone use one before, but I was certain that this is what people would consider 'smoking'.
He looked to me, and he smirked wickedly. "Well, a newbie here, ain't ya?" I nodded. "Name's Malik Kamikaze. Call me Malik. As long as I've been here in Traverse Town, I ain't seen hide nor hair of you. You're getup speaks volumes, believe me."
"Vanitas," I replied distastefully.
Malik scratched his head. I really wanted to punch this guy in the throat. I hate people, I hate when people speak, and I hate this guy especially now. How had I only been here an hour and already there was someone who I would classify even more frustrating than Xehanort?
I then felt a shoving at my shoulder. The two that were fighting earlier had made their fight travel close to me. Delightful. So I jumped out of my chair, the X-Blade appearing in my hand as the cold blade slit a tiny portion of a man's throat, blood dribbling out.
"Whoa!" the other man who was spared shouted out, tripping over his friend and quickly exiting the bar. Everyone else around was staring at me and the near-dead man who, with one wrong move of my blade, could die at any given moment.
I made my X-Blade disappear. I believe that took care of that. Malik looked at me and smirked. "Ah, that was strange, kiddo! I don't think I've ever seen a Keyblade before."
Normally people didn't know of these weapons. Xehanort had told me that people didn't know of other worlds, nor did they know of the Keyblades and Keyholes and everything else that had to do with other worlds. Yet Malik knew about the weapon I had just made vanish.
Everyone else was staring. It was a bit unsettling. I kicked aside the guy whose throat I slit and darted out of the bar as quick as I could. Before I could even exit the Fifth District, a hand gripped my shoulder and held me in place. I looked behind me and saw Malik.
"What do you want?" I yelled, yanking my arm from him. "And how do you know—" In my hand appeared the X-Blade. "—about this!?"
"I'm a traveler, you can say," Malik answered truthfully. Normally I can tell a lie from the truth, but this guywas some kind of traveler. Did he travel the worlds? If he did, could he wield a Keyblade? "Word of the Keys get around. Where I come from, the Keyblade was the greatest legend that was ever told."
"Is that so?"
"Yep, it sure was," Malik replied. "I wish I could wield a Key like that, but everyone knows they have to choose their masters." What a load of bull. I scowled at him. "So why am I here now? To find the Ruins of Traverse Town and find my escape."
"You're…escape?" I asked with a confused frown.
"Exactly. Ya see, there's this group, Organization XIII—" I nearly jumped at that name. "For a month they've kept me here. They put a barrier around the world so it is impossible for anyone to leave. But I know a way to save ourselves from here. I'm guessing, if you have a Key, that means they're trying to keep ya here as well."
"You couldn't be more correct," I answered. So this guy, Malik, is being kept here? And he's been here for a month? So they are trying to keep me locked here with some lunatic with knowledge of the Keyblades, and possibly every secret about the outside world. What could this guy know? "What world do you come from?"
"Ah, doesn't really matter none," Malik replied. This guy wasn't being that direct with me. He couldn't tell me which world he came from or who told him about the Keyblades. That was just pissing me off. "All that matters is that I'm here. Anyway, would ya come lookin for them ruins with me?"
"What kind of ruins are we talking about?"
"The underground of Traverse Town," Malik said, and I could picture him rolling his eyes underneath those sunglasses. You see, years ago, for the first time, the Heartless invaded. They worked their way underground, creating a whole section of tunnels and mazes that some can get lost in."
"And why do you need to find it?"
"Because, deep within, is a mystical Keyhole that can lead anywhere, regardless of restrictions or spells put upon this world. This means we both have a way outta here."
This guy had just become my ticket outta here. There was actually a chance I can escape this world. But come on! This man had been here for over a month and hasn't made one move to escape. Why the sudden change of heart? But I had to escape this world, so I had no other choice.
"Now, where are we supposed to go?" I asked, and Malik's face seemed to light up with mischief. He rushed passed me and kept running until he approached a sewer cap, where inside most likely led to the underground. "I'm guessing that thing?"
"Yes!" Malik shouted, lifting up the cap and throwing it to the side. It was covering a man-sized hole that led deeper down into the underground. "Right here is where our journey to the outside of Traverse Town begins!"
He jumped into the hole, even though it was too dark to see beyond it, and I decided to jump in as well, following the strange man. I landed on a ground that was a tad wet, my shoes soaking in three centimeters of water.
It was dark down here, but my X-Blade lit the place up, light from above me shining off of my blade. I could finally see around me. The area was very open, maybe about a few yards wide and an indefinite distance out in front of me. I looked at the walls. Writing was all over the walls, written in a white ink.
Some pictures showed what Traverse Town, I was guessing, looked like from the outside. Some showed pictures of six ladies in princess gowns. Xehanort had called them the Princesses of Heart. Other pictures looked like Hearts, the Heartless, and other creatures.
What was all this? Another picture looked like the weapon I held now—the X-Blade! As I walked forward I ran my hand along the wall, looking at all of the detailed drawings.
I came across a picture that looked almost exactly like…the Keyblade Graveyard. Keyblades of light and dark, each on a certain side, with one road down the middle. That was where I saw two figures that seemed to be walking down that road. It looked nearly identical to Xehanort and I.
How did they know what we even looked like!? This was over ten years ago, for Xehanort's sake!
I looked towards Malik, but he had traveled farther into the cave. "Whoa…" he muttered, as if he had never seen ancient writing before. What a weirdo. He stared down all of the larger drawings. I would say that these pictures were cool and all, but it was too weird and accurate to be true.
"They say that an ancient beast was locked away in here," Malik's voice said from somewhere up ahead of me. I looked to him, and he was covered in shadows. I could barely see him, when suddenly a trail of torches lit up all around the walls and lead the way down this long underground hallway. "These torches light up when people are here. We must be the first ones in like, forever, to even set foot down here."
I heard a low grown echo off of the walls. What was that? That sounded too alive to be a Heartless. It was nothing like that Unnamed Heartless at all. This growl was weirdly alive. Could something be alive down here?
And then a beast ran past me at lightning speed and crashed into the back wall behind me. As I whipped around to see the creature, Malik got into a battle stance. The creature before me, obviously male, sure didn't look like a Heartless. Actually, it looked more like an animal.
"Thank the gods, I found him!" Malik shouted from behind me, my mouth hanging open in awed surprise. "The great beast, Julius!"
Julius sported dark blue fur, plaque-stained fangs, and bright red hair. He wears a light blue shirt, which is ripped at the sleeves, dark blue pants worn up to his chest, and dirty white gloves. Several parts of his body and clothing are stitched together, and one of his legs has been replaced with a peg leg, like how pirates would wear. He has metal bolts sticking out of his neck.
He looked like a huge, zombie-like animal. His arms were really long and bulky, and he snarled at me, growling and sending saliva flying into the air.
"God of the Traverse Ruins!" Malik yelled. "My dear Vanitas, this is Julius!"
The beast leapt passed me and went directly after Malik. Malik began laughing, and as I turned around to see him, in Malik's hand was a large silver Keyblade shaped weapon. Instead of a blade at the end, it was shaped like a gun.
"My own Key, Gunpowder!" Malik shouted. "Come on Julius, you wanna tussle? Then let's tussle!" As Julius bounded for Malik, a loud gunshot noise echoed off of the walls, and a speeding silver bullet escaped his Gunpowder and went through Julius's shoulder, and blood escaped the small wound.
Yet it didn't seem to stop Julius. He slashed at Malik, his fist colliding with Malik's face which caused the man to fly into a wall on the side of him.
Blood ran down Malik's lip, but Malik still laughed. I would've liked to watch Julius smash Malik's face in, but I guess I had to do the right thing and defeat Julius myself. So I jumped forward with my X-Blade, slashing it through the air. And then Julius grabbed hold of it.
Blood dripped down Julius's hands as he clutched the blade. A dark light emanated off of my X-Blade, and Julius jerked away, his hands smoking from the hot darkness. It burned him?
I slashed again, the cold blade meeting Julius's arm and staining his fir and shirt with blood. Dark mist swirled out of his wound as he yelled out in rage.
The more I blasted him with darkness, the more his body burned in darkness at the intense heat of the blackness. While I fought the creature, swinging at Julius and using Dark Firaga about a dozen times, I yelled, "So why were you wanting to fight this beast?"
Malik answered back against the wall, "I'm a paid bounty hunter from my world. My most recent objective is to fight of Julius, the God of Traverse Ruins!"
Of course, he had to be a bounty hunter. "Dark Firaga!" The ball of black flames collided with Julius, slamming him to the ground where he lay unconscious.
"Come on," Malik said, pressing himself off of the wall and continuing his journey down the ruins as if Julius didn't exist. "He looks like he'll stay down. We need to find that special Keyhole."
And our journey continued. As we walked down the seemingly endless hallway, following the torches and the white drawings along the walls, the sound of the outside world and the sound of Julius's heavy breathing seemed to be completely shut off.
We couldn't hear anything. The wide hallway emptied into an even wider room, where all along the circular room, there were the white drawings of nearly everything people needed to know about the outside: Pictures of other worlds, the Princesses of Heart, the many Keyblades, the actual X-Blade, the legendary Kingdom Hearts, the Heartless, other creatures, Xehanort himself, and of course, Julius.
In the center of the room, surrounded by a circle of torches, was a pedestal with a crystal object on the top of it, shaped like a Keyhole.
"We found it," Malik gawked, staring at the Keyhole like it was a newborn baby. Tsk, I would frown upon a newborn. Humans are ruining the worlds as it is. Enough about that. Malik continued. "The great, almighty Keyhole! The True Heart of Traverse Town!"
This must've been in the exact center of the world. The true heart. I looked above me. On the ceiling, directly above the crystal Keyhole, was a drawing that looked like a fountain.
As I inched closer to the Keyhole, my head suddenly felt heavy, and images ran through my mind. No, not images. Actual visions, like when I crossed through Sora's heart's barrier and saw the visions.
I was like a ghost in the treehouse in Sora's heart's interpretation of Destiny Islands. Xion stood over Roxas, who was laying on the floor with a light pulsing over his heart.
"Naminé, hurry!" Xion called out to the girl who wasn't there. She lay her head close to Roxas's heart…or whatever was there that a Nobody had. "Please hurry!" Her voice broke as she sat up, a few tears dripping from her eyes, down her cheeks and off of her chin, dripping onto Roxas's forehead.
The scene shifted. Ventus stirred in his sleep in that chamber on his throne, where Isa stood over him with a hand on his shoulder.
Appearing out of a corridor of darkness was Braig, and we walked casually over to Ventus and ran a hand through the blonde's hair. "Well," he said loudly. "If only Xehanort were here now."
"Braig, quit worrying," Isa commanded, taking his hand away from Ven's shoulder. "Xehanort will undoubtedly be here soon."
The scene shifted again. Nami stood in a jail cell where Dulor stood outside of the bars. The place the two were in didn't look familiar. What I thought looked like a cell actually looked more like a pod. A strange container for her to stay in? Where was she? The room the pod was in was white all around.
Dulor smiled, saying, "Everything will be over soon," and vanished. Appearing outside of the pod was Repliku, who stood with his arms crossed, biting his lip in anticipation.
"Riku…" Nami mumbled, her voice failing her as she was on the ground, on her knees.
"Nami…" Repliku replied, nearly shedding a tear, and he vanished as well, leaving Nami alone.
At last, the visions ended and I opened my eyes to the crystal Keyhole that was directly in front of me, not even a few inches away.
I stuck my my hand out to touch it, and as if there was some kind of reaction, the room started to shake, startling Malik and causing him to shout out, "Whoa, what's goin' on!?"
I retracted my hand quickly, and the shaking ceased. "You can escape here by using the X-Blade," the voice in my head—Ventus—said. "Do it, and then you can find Nami and save me."
The X-Blade once again appeared in my hand. I brought it closer to the Keyhole, and the room started shaking more violently than before. And then the X-Blade entered the Keyhole. Soon enough, the crystal lit up in a golden color and shattered into a million particles of light.
"You done it!" Malik yelled from somewhere behind me.
As the light that escaped the now open Keyhole grew ever stronger, Julius of all things bounded into the room, completely healed, and headed straight for Malik once again. This time, Julius had the upper hand, and grabbed Malik by the throat, lifting the man into the air as he flailed his arms around trying to escape.
I felt the warmth of Ven within my dark heart, as well as the strange dark pit in my stomach. The two grew stronger than ever, resonating with one another. I was completely immersed in light. The screaming Malik behind me, his neck being squeezed by Julius, yelled out, "Vanitas, save me again!"
I looked to Malik, the tears in his eyes and the lack of air showing on his cold face. His sunglasses fell off of his face and clattered to the ground, revealing the man's soft, pale pink eyes. Blood dribbled out of his mouth.
"Vanitas!"
His face had turned a mix of angered red and breathless blue, until he couldn't scream any longer. I could either escape into the light before me, or I could stay behind and help Malik out before he died.
I stuck with the former. The light completely overtook me, until all I could see was white, the ground beneath me that was shaking completely halting as I felt as if I was floating.
The sounds of Malik's struggle, as well as the glowing sounds coming from the strong light, had died down and vanished completely. Surely Julius took care of Malik.
Where was I now? I opened my eyes and saw the blackness of space. Stars scattered across the sky. From what Xehanort had told me, each star was a new world. The world Traverse Town I had just escaped was looming in front of me like a large planet.
That was the world I had come out of. I was free. I wasn't near the Organization anymore. I could now set my course. I had to find Xehanort before the Organization found me, used Ven in any way, or harm Nami.
I was now on my way. Where I was even going, I wasn't so sure. But the light in Ven's heart could guide me. I felt Ven's heart throbbing inside of me, as if trying to point at where I should go.
One of the perks of my darkened heart was that I wasn't affected by the darkness of the Lanes Between. I could travel without being eaten by the darkness.
Xehanort, here I come!
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How did you like my OC, Malik? Was he an alright character? He's one of, well, my at least three OCs that I have in mind. Okay, here's a challenge for you that I'm sure will make you review. Give me in your review an OC that is created by you! Either one you created already, or you can create one as soon as you review! Any will be fine!
What do I want from this OC? One, he has to fit the Kingdom Hearts world, but I don't want any talking animals or any Disney-like characters. State his/her personality, his/her looks, and of course, his/her name! His homeworld has to be a world original to the Kingdom Hearts series.
I do NOT want a Disney world's inhabitant. Example worlds they COULD be from: Traverse Town, Twilight Town, Radiant Garden, Keyblade Graveyard, Castle Oblivion, World that Never Was, etc...or create an original world and state what this world looks like or something like that.
I'm asking a lot, I know, but along with my OCs I want at least one or two from my fan(s?). Thanks a lot! Also state whether he's a good guy, or a bad guy. ALSO! I do NOT want any of these characters to be of the True Organization XIII. That's where my choices are.
Thanks a lot for this! I hope to hear some of your ideas! And if nobody gives me any OCs, well, I'll have to find a way to make my story work, or I'll have to create more OCs. Anyway, please please PLEASE give me an OC! Not many people review, probably just one or a few guest reviewers, but that's it.
Anyway, stay TUNED!
