My Apologies for not writing for a while. I know I said about a chapter a month, but I kind of got stuck on a couple of ideas, and then felt like some things that I wanted to write got changed after seeing some new trailers for KH3 (btw, you guys should check it out! I'm super pumped). I also graduated from College after five years (whooo!), so June pretty much consisted of my own graduation, plus other friends grad parties. I'm also in the works for my art table at the con I'm going to in just over two weeks time. I've been balancing working on this and my stuff for my table, so please bare with me :)
Chapter 10
"Again," shouted Riku in a commanding voice to Kairi. Insisting on beginning her training the instant that Sora and party left, Riku, accompanied by Merlyn who had appeared from Master Yensid's, decided to work on Kairi summoning her Keyblade at will. Surprisingly, despite how things had gone down back on Destiny Islands, she was able to summon a lot easier, even when confronted with conflict, created by Riku to test her ability to summon under pressure. Since that had gone over well, they decided to move onto basic magic spells, such as fire. So far though, her progression hadn't been what Kairi had first envisioned.
"Just focus on an object, my dear," said Merlyn, sat at the table, one of the few objects that hadn't been enchanted. "Imagine your spell, and it coming into contact with your target."
All the furniture in the room danced around her, Kairi took her stance again. Her keyblade pointed at a stool that seemed to dance before her. She took a deep breath, imagining a flame bursting forth from the tip of the blade. "Fire," cried Kairi, but all that shot out was a tiny flame that went out before reaching her target. She snorted in frustration, and turned on her heel, marching out of the enchanted furniture. "That's it! If I go at this anymore, I'M gonna burst into flames from pure frustration before I hit even ONE piece of furniture!" Riku stepped out of Kairi's way as she made her way to the table, Merlyn removing his spell from the furniture.
"Now, now. Don't fret. It was only your first time trying out magic," said Merlyn reassuringly as the two now sat down at the table. "Nobody gets it right away on on their first attempts." He gestured to the teapot that floated towards them, resting on the surface of the table, "Perhaps some tea will help to relax you." Kairi nodded in agreement, sitting back in the chair, somewhat pouting as she folded her arms. Riku took hold of the cups that floated towards them, and set them down before the three of them on the table.
As the tea poured, Kairi sat deep in thought. What was she doing wrong that was making her struggle so much? I mean, was Merlyn right? Was it really that hard to do even the most basic of magic? The teapot poured itself out into each persons cup, the sugar container hopped around the table to each person. It misunderstood Riku's request for no sugar, and kept trying to pour teaspoon after teaspoon into it. Kairi couldn't help but crack a smile, releasing some of her tension. Merlyn couldn't help but chuckle as well, and shooed the sugar container away.
"So Meryln, I have a question for you," said Kairi, as she switched out her cup for Riku's.
Merlyn finished his sip of his tea, "Sure, ask away my dear. What would you like to know?"
"Well," she said as she looked down at her reflection in the cup, "it's about Sora. When he was learning magic." She looked up at Merlyn, "How hard was it for him to learn magic? How long did it take for him to learn the basics?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, it didn't take him too long to learn the basics. But," he pointed his finger in the air, "it did take time for him to build up his magic for it to be powerful enough for more powerful spells." He gave a smile, "I'm sure you'll get the basics in no time, and be able to perform ample of magic yourself."
The three of them finished up their cups of tea, and Kairi decided to go back to her training, feeling refreshed. Just as Merlyn was about to enchant the furniture again, Riku held up his hand to stop him, and walked out in front of Kairi, and turned to face her. "We're going to be doing things a bit differently this time. Instead of facing furniture," his Keyblade appearing in his hand, "you'll be training against me, just like we did earlier."
"But Riku, I'm not trying to summon my Keyblade, I'm trying to use MAGIC!" said Kairi in frustration. "It's hard enough against a floating chair, how am I supposed to be able to work any form of magic on you?"
Riku stood in a stance, "I suppose we'll just have to find out," he grinned. "Don't worry, I'll be going easy on you. And besides, I'll be sure to block your attack so I don't get hurt, so don't worry so much," he noted, making Kairi a little more self conscious of her body language. She released some of the tension that was displayed in her shoulders, and looked a little more relaxed again.
Kairi took a deep breath before her Keyblade appeared in her hand once more. She began to picture a blast of fire shooting forth from the tip of the blade. "Alright," she took her stance, "I'm ready when you are." Riku stood still for a time, and then came at her around and from the side.
"Now!" he shouted, lunging forward. Kairi quickly repositioned herself, and aimed her Keyblade directly at Riku's upper body. "Fire!" she cried once more, and an overwhelming feeling of power swelled her. Suddenly, a ball of flame cam bursting forth from the tip of her blade. Riku quickly brought his own Keyblade up to block the attack, the fire ball making contact before dispersing. Silence fell between them for a moment, and then a huge smile spread across Kairi's face.
"I DID IT!" she shouted, jumping up and making a fist pump in excitement.
Merlyn applauded, "Good going! I knew you had it in you, my dear." Riku too gave Kairi a smile of approval. "Not bad there," he got himself into his stance once more, "think you could do it again?"
Kairi nodded, getting into her position once more, "I'll really turn up the heat this time." She took another deep breath, feeling the same power as before. "Fire!"
It had been an hour since they departed. Sora, Donald and Goofy made their rounds as planned, but had yet to see any disturbances in the old worlds that they had visited before.
"Gawrsh, maybe we should turn back to Radiant Garden, see if there are any new places that we haven't been to yet that need our attention," Goofy suggested, scratching his head with a stumped look on his face. He stood in front of the main window at the front of the ship.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see that so far, everything checks out, and that there hasn't been any Heartless or Nobody activity in the other worlds," said Sora, also scratching his head with a stumped look, "but, I have to wonder why?"
All three were standing and looking out the window of the ship. "Well, there must be something going on somewhere!" said Donald, crossing his arms frustrated.
"Well, there's no point continuing our search if we don't even know where we're going," Sora said as he turned to walk to his seat. "We should go back to Radiant Garden and-" Just then, a message popped up on the screen, alerting that it was urgent. Before any of them could respond, it opened up on its own, a video recording attached that began to play.
It was Cid in the video message. The first bit of the clip was of Cid and Merlyn, arguing about which method would be right. The way of magic, or the way of technology. The three of them couldn't help but giggle, and stopped immediately once the video truly began.
"Sora, Donald, and Goofy," Cid addressed each of them, "We just got an urgent message from Master Yensid. Once you've gone around to check out the other worlds, don't come back to Radiant Garden." Sora exclaimed, "What?!" out loud, Donald and Goofy shushing him. The message continued, "Instead, you'll be heading over to Master Yensid's place. Along with this video are directions that will automatically reroute you once you're ready to go. I believe you've been there before, so you better not get lost," Cid said jokingly at the end. "Cid, over and out," and the video stopped playing. Immediately after, a circular green icon appeared on the screen.
"It looks like you have to click that," said Goofy, literally pointing it out with his finger.
Sora went to the control panel to click on the icon, but was shooed away by Donald. "No offense Sora, but after what happened the last time you went to go use a computer, we'll handle it." With a little struggle, he eventually clicked on the icon, and the instant it was clicked, the screen cleared, and coordination's appeared on the panel. Set from manual to auto pilot, the ship began to direct itself to their destination.
"I wonder what'll be waiting for us at Master Yensid's?" Goofy asked aloud.
"My hope is that we'll get some answers for where we need to go," said Sora, clenching his hand into a fist, looking out into space through the window. "If there are any worlds out there that need our help, we'll find them."
The sea salt ice-cream slowly dripped down the side as Lea worked away at it. It seemed like it had become warmer somehow in the past hour. After back out of hiding from Roxas and Namine, he had considered changing out of his jacket, but it still felt weird being out of the Organization XIII uniform.
Before it got all over him, Lea finished off the remains of his ice-cream, and noticed something printed on the side of the stick. "Hm, it seems that I've won," said Lea aloud to himself, a bit of melancholy in his voice. The last time he'd seen a winning stick was on the day that Roxas was on the day that Roxas was to leave Organization XIII, his farewell gift to Axel. Standing up, Lea tucked the stick away into the pocket of his coat, beginning his decent down the clock tower.
On his way back to the mansion, Lea decided on stopping off at the shops, coming to the conclusion that he should, in fact, change his outfit. If he could find a disguise, maybe those bratty kinds would stop spotting him, and Lea would be able to conceal himself from Roxas and Namine as well. I mean, his dark ensemble was pretty hard to miss amongst the vibrant Twilight Town.
Thankfully, he had completed some odd paying jobs, so Lea had been able to earn some Munny. Inevitably, he decided to go with an updated version of what he used to wear when he was younger. One of the biggest upgrades was the hood on his vest, enabling him to hide his signature hair when necessary.
Arriving back at the mansion, Lea went straight to the room he was occupying for temporary sleeping quarters, and slipped his new ensemble on.
"Well, this couldn't be any weirder," Lea said aloud to his reflection in the full length mirror before him. Just as before, he had on a pair of beige pants that went halfway down his calf. He had been able to find a similar type of Burberry scarf, but had decided to go for more or a red, rather than the previous yellow colour. His vest was a lot darker, too. It was more of a blood orange, to match his new trainers.
The last item he added to his ensemble was a sweat band for his wrist, similar to what Roxas had. Instead of a black and white checker design, Lea wet for one in black and red. He slipped it on over his hand, placing it on his right wrist. Roxas wore his on the left. It put a small smile on his face as he looked down upon it. Even if he had to distance himself, at least he'd have this as a reminder, to keep himself from feeling entirely alone.
Before heading out once more, a thought struck Lea, making him go back and rummage through his old Organization jacket. He pulled out the winning stick he had placed in there earlier. He gave a small sigh of relief, and placed it in his pants pocket as he began to leave once again. "Maybe once this is all over, we can go out for some sea salt ice-cream," memories of Roxas and Xion sitting atop the clock tower came forth, "just like the old days."