Day 5

Chapter 8: A New Challenger Approaches

After getting my gear on, I headed into the ring with Vivi – neither of us exchanged a word. I started to sweat, not just because of partaking in the finals. It was because of Vivi; I didn't know what to expect from him. However, I looked out into the crowd to see my fan club giving me moral support through their cheers. I smiled at them as I stopped at the center of the arena.

The producer came on stage and handed us our swords.

"Keep it clean, fellas," the producer said (am I crazy, or did the producer sound exactly like Goofy?)

I turned my attention to Vivi. He was still staring at me, cold and emotionless.

I tried to make the mood lively by saying, "Good luck, dude."

No response from Vivi. Whatever. I'm going to win. That's the mindset I needed to have. I got into my battle position.

"And now," Biggs said, "the match you've all been waiting for: Roxas vs Vivi! Who'd have thought that two newbies would make it to the finals! I have a feeling that this is going to be the most memorable match in Struggle history! Let's count down!"

I tightened my grip on the handle of the sword. This is it. You can do it.

"3….2….1….STRUGGLE!"

Vivi and I ran at each other and swung past one another. When I turned around, I swung my blade in to deflect one of Vivi's attacks. I tried to thrust at him; he shifted his body left and pointed his blade up to block it. After he pushed my attack away, he thrust right for my foot; I lifted it up to avoid the blade. I brought my blade down, but, while holding each edge of the blade, Vivi brought his blade up to block. Instead of holding the position, I pulled my blade away.

Vivi tried to hit my chest, but I brought my blade in at an angle to block it (my left hand was holding the tip). I used all of the strength in my left arm to push Vivi to the side. Vivi stumbled forward, but caught himself by rolling onto the ground. As he got back up, I ran right for him. When I tried to attack, he defied the laws of physics and did a back flip right over my head.

I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't want to believe it. I turned around, but Vivi smacked me really hard with his blade, knocking me back a few feet. I landed on the ground. My back felt the full force of that one. I sat up, still feeling the soreness. Looking up, I saw Vivi running at me with his blade held high. He brought it down towards my legs, but I spread my legs out, letting the attack miss. I leaned forward with my blade and forced Vivi back.

I rolled away from Vivi and got to my feet. I noticed that Vivi wasn't collecting my orbs. He seemed more interest in me. I had a feeling that a lot more was at stake than just the trophy. I ran at Vivi and swung at him again. This time he did a side flip to dodge. When I turned to face him, he spun his body into the air and swung his sword at me like he was a saw.

I leaned back to avoid it. How did he do that? That wasn't physically possible. After Vivi landed, I swung at him again, but he leaped back, landing right at the edge of the ring. Now was my chance! I thrust at his chest, but Vivi did another side flip. Now I was at the edge. Should've seen that coming. Vivi leaped into the air and brought his blade down. All I could do was put mine up to block. Somehow he held that position while in the air. He pushed back, did a back flip, and landed on the ground, swinging right at my feet. I leaped to avoid the attack.

I rolled to my left and ran back to the middle of the ring. I turned around to see Vivi was in hot pursuit. I wasn't giving up. Vivi slid across the floor like it was made of grease or something and stabbed at my stomach. I swung my blade upward to knock his blade back. I quickly countered by hitting Vivi over the head with my blade, stunning him for a moment. Next, I tripped the back of his feet, and he landed on his back. I got onto my knees and brought my blade down. Unfortunately, Vivi put his blade up to block.

Both of us were in an intense lock. I didn't care about the orbs at this point; beating Vivi the old fashioned way was all I cared about. Vivi pushed me back and knocked me onto my back. Vivi tried to attack, but I rolled out of the way and got onto one knee. We both swung our blades at each other. When we brought them back the other way, we entered another blade lock. This time I applied extra pressure by pressing my free hand against the blade part.

I couldn't budge Vivi, and he couldn't budge me. We were at a stalemate. What do I do? Vivi's moves were superhuman. Although I was faring much better than Seifer, who knew what other tricks Vivi had up his sleeve. There was only one option. I had to call Vivi out. I started to think about the consequences that could occur if I did that, but then I heard K.K.'s voice in my head.

"Don't wait. Act."

"Why don't you cut the act?" I said. "I know you're not Vivi."

Vivi's eyes widened upon hearing that. I think he knew I was on to him.

I was still struggling. "Vivi….doesn't fight…this good."

We both released our grip from each other. I rolled back and got to my feet. Vivi started doing side flips all around me. He was moving way too fast.

"Wow! What a crazy maneuver!" Biggs said. "Vivi is really on a roll today! What will Roxas do now?"

I followed Vivi's movements, trying to look for some kind of opening. The whole time he flipped around the arena, he giggled, mocking me. My patience was growing thin.

"Stop fooling around and fight already!" I shouted.

Fed up, I tried to attack Vivi, but he flipped right to avoid. He prepared to bring his sword down on me. I had no time to dodge. Suddenly, I felt myself performing the same move I used on the thief. I slid behind Vivi and slashed him in the back, knocking him over. I could hear the audience murmuring.

"I-I…can't even follow this," Biggs said. "What sort of vitamins do these boys take?"

I have no idea how I did that. The move almost felt second nature to me, like how I'm able to use the keyblade efficiently without any training (boy, would the keyblade come in handy right now). Vivi stood up and turned to face me. He didn't look too happy. I was panting. I've never been in such an intense battle. It was starting to take its toll on me. I had to hang in there for as long as I could.

"You're pretty good," I said. "But I've had enough of your little games! Tell me who you really are!"

Vivi said nothing. I was starting to get annoyed.

"Alright, have it your way!" I said. "I'm ending this right now!"

I ran right for Vivi; I held my blade over my shoulders. Vivi remained perfectly still. He had to be up to something. I didn't care; I'll take my chances. I was about to bring the blade down when some "thing" stopped me dead in my tracks. There was a tingling sensation crawling through my body. When it stopped, I saw that the audience wasn't moving. I looked around; everyone was frozen again.

No, no, no, this can't be happening. Why was this happening? Did Namine do this? I looked around. She was nowhere in sight. I looked back at Vivi. He was the only one still moving. Put two and two together.

"Wh-what did you do?"

Vivi said nothing for a moment. Then, I heard the most terrifying cackle ever uttered by a person. It was a high pitched laugh that sounded like it came from the worse part of my nightmares. Vivi was glowing brightly. Soon, a ball of white light completely engulfed him. I gripped the handle of my sword again. The ball of light soon stretched in size; it became an oval. The light dimmed, and out of it came one of the guy's in white. I should've known.

"Again?"

I heard something behind me. I looked over to see two more of them. Wonderful. I was surrounded. I noticed a glow coming from below, and I felt a tingle in my hand. Looking down, I saw the struggle sword get replaced with the keyblade. This was getting annoying. It was like an endless loop of déjà vu. I had no way of getting out. Fighting for my life was not how I wanted to spend the last few days of summer vacation.

I looked at the keyblade. "Again…"

I looked to my right to see one of the creatures swiping at me. I ducked underneath his attack. The one in front of me swung his claw, but I knocked him aside with the keyblade. Turning to my left, I swung horizontally at the other one, who put his arms across his face to block the attack. Fortunately, the attack was powerful enough to knock him back. The other two tried to attack me together, but I swung my blade across to force them back.

I tried to hit them, but they kept dodging my attacks. My anger was like a time bomb; any moment it was going to go off. Both of the creatures tried to swipe at me, but I leaped back. I was preparing my next move when I felt someone push me forward. I had forgotten about the third one. As I stumbled forward, the other two ran by me, slashing each shoulder. I shouted from the intense pain. It felt like two giant kitchen knives flew right by me. I had to hug myself in order to get my hands on each shoulder, hoping to lessen the pain.

I looked over to see the three moving back and forth, as if they were ready to make their next move. The pain was bothering me; I didn't know if I had any juice left. No, don't think negatively. That'll make it worse. Instead, I kept thinking of Hayner telling me to "focus" over and over again. That was the confidence boost I needed.

I got to my feet and pointed my keyblade at them. "I'm not done yet!"

I threw my keyblade at all three of them, and they scattered off into different directions of the arena. I had to isolate them from each other. I ran towards the one on the left. After summoning the keyblade back to my hand, I swung right at his head. He tilted his head to dodge, and I went past him. When I turned around, I brought the blade in from below to block his right claw. I slightly leaned back and pointed my blade towards the sky to block his left claw. I pushed him back, and I brought the keyblade over my head with both hands, making it look like I was about to bring it down.

The creature prepared to block, but I released my left hand and swung my blade across his chest. I swung it back the other way, slashing across his chest again. I finished the job by thrusting the keyblade right into his chest, causing it to vanish. The second came right at me. Like a baseball player punting a ball, I rammed the keyblade into its stomach. I grabbed the creature and threw it over my shoulder. When it landed, I ran over and stomped on its stomach, so that it wouldn't run away. I stabbed it right in the chest, defeating it.

I turned around to face the last one. He too charged right for me. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a couple of orbs off of my vest. When it was close enough, I threw them right into its mouth. The creature stumbled back, chocking as a result. I slashed right down the middle, finishing it off.

I leaned over. I had to catch my breath. Two battles and no breaks. It was too much. I wanted to go lie down for a little while, but I had a feeling it wasn't over yet. Looking up, I didn't see any more of the guys in white. But I did see that everyone was still frozen. Now what? I thought defeating them would've done the trick. Guess I was being too optimistic.

"Hello! Namine! Are you out there? Please help!"

No response. Alone again. Well, until I heard clapping. I spun around to see another cloaked man standing there, giving me a round of applause. What did these guys want with me?"

"Roxas," he said. There was a laid back tone in his voice. "Alright."

He slowly approached me. I kept the keyblade close.

"Fight, fight, fight. I always knew you'd go the distance."

The man stopped for a moment, as if he was waiting for me to respond.

"You really don't remember? It's me."

He removed his hood. Wow. Did this guy have a crazy hair style – spiky red hair that made a hedgehog's quills look soft and cuddly.

"You know, Axel," he said.

Did I know this guy? Am I missing something here? I think I'd remember someone like him, but I was drawing nothing.

"Axel?"

"C'mon," Axel said. "We'd play pranks on each other. You constantly make fire puns to annoy the ever loving crap outta me. I say 'Got it memorized?' all the time. Anything? No?"

I said nothing. This guy was talking nonsense. He put his hands in his pockets, looked at the sky and exhaled.

"Talk about blank with a capital 'B.'" He looked back at me and shook his head. "Man oh man, even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one."

Axel placed his hands at each side and summoned two giant, round, red weapons with strange marks. Hey, I only fought with swords. And now a giant key. I'm not a weapons expert.

"Wait a sec," I said. "Tell me what's going on."

Axel looked around the area. "This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q and A. You're coming with me, conscience or not. Then you'll hear the story."

Axel got his two weapons ready. I didn't know if could go another round. I had a feeling Axel was going to be a bigger threat than the guys in white. I slowly backed up, preparing to make a run for it. Unfortunately, when I got to the edge, I felt my back hit a wall. What was that? A barrier? How was I going to get out of this one? I then noticed a strange presence float throughout the area.

Axel seemed to know what it was. "Uh-oh."

I had reached my breaking point. I felt like the person in the back of a crowd; everyone knew could see what was going on but me. And to top it off, no one would tell me afterwards about what happened. It was frustrating to not understand. As that cloaked guy from my dreams said, "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." Maybe I was thinking too literally, but I didn't care at this point. I was fed up with everything.

I slammed my keyblade onto the ground, shouting, "What's going ON!"

The keyblade immediately returned to my hand.

"Number 13," Axel said. "Roxas. The keyblade's chosen one!"

I glanced at my keyblade. I guess Sora wasn't the only one chosen to wield it. Still, Axel's comment didn't answer any questions. I know I keep referring to this, but I once again used K.K.'s advice. If no one was going to willingly give me an answer, I'd have to force it out of them.

"Okay, fine." I got into my battle position. "You asked for!"

My new found confidence somehow reenergized my body. It wasn't tired or sore anymore. I was ready to duke it out.

Axel grinned. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about. Let's get this party STARTED!"

Axel threw his weapons, and they rolled along the ground. As they rolled, they left a trail of fire behind, and that trail was way bigger than me. I didn't have time to react. Both rolled right by me, leaving me stuck between walls of fire.

"Nowhere to run!" Axel said.

Axel came at me and started throwing punches and kicks. I did my best to block, but his attacks were swift and fierce. He kneed me in the stomach, causing me to lean over. He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up. He delivered an uppercut to my jaw, which was powerful enough to send me flying across the arena. I landed on my back. I quickly sat up and noticed the walls were gone. Axel also had his weapons back.

"Am I ringing any bells yet?" Axel asked.

I got to my feet. "No. But I'm going to make bells ring in your HEAD!"

"Go ahead and try it, tough guy!"

I ran at Axel and brought my blade straight down. Axel twirled around, countering with both weapons. The first attack blocked mine, and the second one knock the keyblade back. Upon turning around, Axel placed his fingers in the holes located near the end of his weapon, and he swung it in low towards my legs. I hopped back to avoid it. I swung the blade right across him, but he punched with his right weapon to block. I tried swinging it the other way, but he did the same thing with his left. I spun around, and when I faced him again, he threw a double punch at me. I brought my blade straight (the tip was facing up) and blocked with the handle.

I released my grip and tried to stab his chest. He brought both weapons inward and caught the blade. He then pushed it straight down and elbowed me in the face. As I turned around from the hit, I felt something scorch my back. I screamed from the burning pain. I angrily spun around to see Axel smirking at me.

"Hey, are you done sucking yet?" Axel asked. "It's getting boring."

I ran for Axel again. He snapped his finger and a giant flame covered him. I leaped back a good distance. When he brought the flame down, he threw one of his weapons at me (which was covered in fire, by the way). I did a cartwheel to dodge it. When I looked back at Axel, I saw him slam his other weapon into the ground. Immediately, my feet started to get warm. Common sense kicked me in the pants, and I leaped back, avoiding the rising torrent of fire.

Axel got his other weapon back, and he slammed both of them into the ground. I found myself running away from and dodging fire that came out of the ground. Eventually, I got over to Axel and started pounding away with the keyblade. Again, he blocked all of my attacks. At one point I tried to bring my blade down, but he stepped back, turned his weapons sideways and brought them inward. I ducked underneath them. Axel brought both of his arms down and prepared to open them right in front of my chest. I leaped back to dodge it.

Axel came at me and swung his weapon upward. After turning completely around, he threw his opposite weapon right at my left leg, landing a direct hit; I shouted as I felt the pointy edge pierce my skin. I kneeled over and tended to the wound. The weapon also bounced off of my leg, returning to Axel's hand. Axel kicked my chest with the heel of his foot, knocking me onto the ground.

I tried sitting up. The pain was getting in the way of my concentration again. Axel crossed his arms, smirking.

"Giving up already? C'mon, Roxas. I thought you were stronger than that."

Axel tried to hit me with his weapon, but I rolled out of the way, and kept rolling until I was far from him. I sat up and threw the keyblade at him. I quickly got to my feet and ran right at him.

"What the—!"

I saw Axel bring up one of his weapons to block, but the keyblade hit his wrist, knocking it out of his hand. I tried to grab him with my hands, but Axel put his other weapon up. I grabbed onto it, and I struggled not to lose my grip. We both spun around as Axel attempted to loosen my grip. At one point he briefly lowered his weapon and swung his arm at me. I ducked.

"Let go!"

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

"Dream on!"

Using all of my strength, I rammed Axel right into the invisible wall. He pushed back and pulled right, trying to spin me around. I ran onto the invisible wall, running all the way around until Axel pulled me off. We both were locked in our positions again. I pushed his weapon down and rammed my head right into his. He reeled back from the force of my attack. I followed up with a round house kick, which knocked him right onto the floor. I summoned the keyblade again and brought it down while he was defenseless. He vanished in a cloud of smoke. Dang! So close!

I scanned the area for him, staying alert every step of the way. Where was he? There was no way I beat him that easily.

"Behind you!" Axel shouted.

I turned to see Axel standing right in front of me. I delivered an upward swing, but he leaped back, and flew into the air. Flames started to form around Axel's weapons, and he threw both of them at me. I stuck the keyblade out horizontally to block them. They continued to spin against the keyblade. Eventually, they exploded, knocking me back. I landed on the ground. I didn't know how much more abuse I could take. No matter what I did, Axel was one step ahead of me.

I scrambled to my feet and held my position.

"Geeze, kid," Axel said. "Sora beat me twice, so this should be easy for you. I think all this time in Twilight Town has made you soft."

I was about to say something when I realized Axel mentioned Sora. He knew Sora! That means the dreams were real. Axel noticed I was surprised, and he playfully put his hand up to his mouth.

"Oops," Axel said. "Did I let my mouth run again? I'm not exactly spoiler sensitive."

"Tell me," I said, "what do you know about him?"

"Oh, I know little tidbits," Axel said. "But I'm not the type to give out information for free. Beat me, and maybe I'll share a few secrets."

I sighed. Given how well I've fared against him, there was a small chance for success. But I wasn't going to give up.

"Too bad I'm ending this right now!" Axel said.

I braced myself as Axel started glowing bright orange. Hoo boy; this might be a doozy. Suddenly, a bunch of odd computer symbols appeared between us. The symbols transformed into some man. He wore red bandages on his face, hiding his identity. Who was he? Better yet, whose side was he on? I noticed Axel's attack dying down. He frowned at the strange man.

"So it was you," Axel said.

Axel threw both of his weapons right at the man. The man looked at Axel, and some shield protected him from the attacks. The man turned his attention to me.

"Roxas, this man speaks nonsense!" he said.

"Roxas, don't let him deceive you!"

I was so confused right now. What were they trying to tell me? They kept shouting my name over and over again. This was overwhelming. I didn't know what was going on, and now I feel like they were forcing me to make some kind of choice. The stress was getting to me. Big time! I closed my eyes, hoping it was a dream, and that I would wake up. Their voices became louder and louder. Soon, the voices sounded distorted, as if they too were from the darkest parts of my nightmares.

I covered my ears, trying to channel them out. It wasn't working. They were inside my head, gnawing away at my brain! Make it stop, please! I want to go home! I want my friends! It hurts!

"Hayner….Pence….Olette…"

I shouted with my eyes closed. "HAYNER! PENCE! OLETTE!"

I heard the cheers of the audience. Opening my eyes, I saw that everyone was moving again. I looked to see Vivi was on the floor, lying on his stomach. I looked at my hand to notice the keyblade was replaced with the Struggle sword. I sighed, extremely relieved. But it wasn't safe to assume everything was okay. Nothing got resolved.

"What? What just happened?" Biggs asked.

The producer walked on stage and examined Vivi.

The producer raised his arm. "Vivi hardly has any orbs on!"

The audience roared with cheers and applause. I won the match, but was too shaken up from everything that happened to care. I noticed Vivi slowly get to his feet. He looked around in confusion.

"…Huh? How did I get here?" Vivi asked himself.

Vivi left the arena, and I saw my friends run on stage; they were overjoyed.

"Roxas!" Olette shouted.

My friends came over to congratulate me. Hayner even patted me on the back.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Roxas— our new top struggler!" Biggs announced.

Seeing all of my friends now felt overwhelming. I was so tired. I started to collapse, but Hayner and Pence were quick to catch me.

"Roxas, are you okay?" Hayner asked. "What happened out there?"

I turned to Hayner with a faint smile. "Nothing. I'm fine. Just…relieved."