Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Ta-da! It didn't take me long at all to get this chapter written up. I'm back to updating at my usual speed of a week between updates. So, 3 chapters left after this one and then I'll attempt to take a mini break to start a few new fics before I post them up here.

Herutsu no Oukoku

Chapter 10: Monstro

The gummi ship traveled through the world channel at its usual fast speed, easily avoiding the obstacles from the heartless and broken doorways with Donald at the wheel. Inside the gummi ship things were peaceful for once, although no one was enjoying being crammed together in the smaller than usual space.

Axel, for one, was completely miserable to the point that he was feeling ill. He never did well in cramped spaces anyway, but usually it was okay in the gummi ship since he could look out into the starry space.

"It'll be good to get off of here when we reach the next world." Kairi remarked, stiffly rotating her arm to loosen it up. She had chosen to sleep on the floor the night before and she was starting to regret it.

Sora nodded in agreement. "Yeah. We should have a few mock-battles when we get the chance too, that way we won't hurt ourselves when we're fighting the heartless. What do you think, Axel?"

Axel remained quiet in fear of throwing up. The longer he was stuck in the gummi ship, the worse he began to feel. He felt a cool hand touch his own and looked to his left to see Naminé looking at him with concerned blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Axel forced a smile that turned out more like a grimace and nodded.

"He's claustrophobic, Naminé." Kairi said suddenly, remembering how Axel was acting in Wonderland. "The gummi ship is a lot smaller since we lost some of the pieces in the crash."

"Will he be okay?" Demyx asked. Ever since Axel carried him out of the desert, he was determined to find some way to repay him.

"He just needs some air." Naminé said. "When we get to the next world he'll be back to his normal self in no time. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to find some spare gummi parts there so Donald and Goofy can work on making this space bigger. That would help a lot."

Everyone, with the exception of Axel, made a sound of agreement. They would all appreciate a little more room. It was only a matter of time before the cramped space started to bother them worse and make everyone more cranky. That would cause more fights.

Suddenly, alarms began to go off and the gummi ship shuddered violently. Everyone in the cabin began to panic and Naminé, usually the voice of reason, quietly made her way to the front to see what was happening. She soon saw the cause of the disturbance.

It was a whale. A very large whale that was swimming right for their small ship with its mouth wide open.

She ran back into the cabin and yelled, "Everyone hold on!"

Everyone grabbed onto something, but before they could yell any questions the space was bathed in darkness and they were thrown onto the floor as the gummi ship crashed to a halt. Thankfully the crash wasn't as bad as the last and most of the gummi ship was still intact.

They crawled out of the gummi ship and looked around in shock and awe. They had landed in the mouth of the giant whale.

Sora ran through the labyrinth of whale insides with Donald and Goofy close behind him chasing after a puppet boy. Axel and Demyx had long since disappeared, having gotten lost in one of the many tunnels.

It all started back when they had first crashed in the whales mouth. There they met Gippeto, a kind old puppet-maker and his wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who wanted to be a real boy someday. They were trapped in the whale as well, and, luckily enough, had enough pieces to build a small gummi ship and escape to Traverse Town. With them was a talking cricket named Jiminy, who volunteered his services when he heard of their voyages to many worlds. Soon after, Pinocchio had run off into the labyrinth and Sora volunteered himself, Donald, Goofy, Axel, and Demyx to go after him. The girls stayed behind to help Gippeto, although Kairi wasn't very happy about it. In fact, Sora thought for sure that she would demand to come along too, but then Naminé gently took her arm and promised to teach her some spells.

He ducked through a tunnel leading to one of the many "rooms" and stopped in his tracks when he saw who was with Pinocchio. Donald and Goofy nearly plowed into him, but managed to stop just in time and gave him questioning looks.

"Riku." He whispered in shock. His mind shut down momentarily at the sight of his best friend. He couldn't believe that Riku was in the whale, of all places. He hadn't even thought, not for one second, that he would meet Riku in a place like that. On another world, yes, but not in the inside of a giant, monstrous whale. He fought to form a proper sentence, but even then he chose the wrong thing to say.

"What are you doing here?"

Riku didn't look offended. If anything, he looked purely disinterested. "I'd have thought that was obvious, Sora." He drawled in an almost teasing manner. "I'm playing a game with Pinocchio, of course. Care to join us?"

"Now's not the time for games!" Sora said. "Pinocchio's father is really worried about him! And we've got to figure out a way out of this place."

"Not the time for games?" Riku asked. "I never thought I'd hear you say such a thing. Surely you have time to play a game with your best friend."

"I-I-!" Sora stammered, gripping the keyblade more tightly. He couldn't believe that Riku was saying such things.

Donald and Goofy looked at the brunet in concern, wondering if they should say or do anything to help him. They didn't know if Sora would even welcome their help and they didn't want to cause him any more stress than what he was already under.

Sora suddenly found himself gripping air and looked around for it only to find that Riku was holding it up and studying it with a strange glint in his eyes. "Hey! Give that back!" Sora yelled.

Riku took his eyes off the keyblade and raised his eyebrows. "You want this thing?"

"It's not a thing." Sora said, feeling the need to defend his weapon. After all, it had helped him out a lot. "It's a keyblade."

"A keyblade, huh?" Riku said. Then he shrugged and tossed it back to Sora. "Here you go."

Sora took a few steps forward to catch it and then he held it close, hoping it wouldn't disappear on him again. At that point, he was having mixed feelings about Riku. On one hand, his best friend was right there in front of him and he wouldn't have to go around looking for him anymore. But on the other hand, he was acting really weird and not at all… Riku-ish. It was like he was a whole different person.

'But it's Riku!' Sora argued with himself. 'He looks and sounds the same. Maybe he's just mad that I didn't find him soon enough. He's never been very patient.'

But what if he's been possessed or something? A voice argued.

'Possessed? But that's only in the movies. And only people like Tidus believe in stuff like that. And anyway, I would know if Riku was possessed or something.'

Would you? Are you sure?

'Of course I'm sure! This is Riku! I just know it is!'

If you say so. The voice didn't sound very sure and Sora waited for it to say more, but it didn't.

"Riku," He took a step forward and looked hopefully at the older boy. "Come with us. I've got a group of friends and we're--"

"A group of friends?" Riku interrupted coldly. "Is that what you've been doing this whole time? Making friends?" He hissed.

Sora took a step back, fearful of Riku's new attitude. That wasn't how he imagined being reunited with Riku would go. He figured they'd meet back up and he'd end up crying and then Riku would tease him and then they would go on their merry way and help save other worlds until they could find a way to get home.

"B-but I couldn't have gotten this far without them." Sora tried to defend his actions. "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here to see you now."

Riku turned his head. "I don't want to hear your pitiful excuses." He muttered darkly, before turning around and walking through yet another tunnel.

"Riku!" Sora cried, fear rising in his chest. He couldn't lose Riku! Not when he had just found him! He didn't take note of Donald and Goofy's yells of protest as he ran after Riku, determined to not let him get away. 'I'm going to punch him in the face.' Sora thought angrily. 'And then we're going to sit down and talk.'

Demyx was not enjoying his venture into the innards of the giant whale. He was liking even less the fact that he was following Axel, who seemed to have no sense of direction what-so-ever. He scowled at the redhead's back. 'I could have followed Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but nooo, I had to follow Axel instead.' Testily, he kicked the pulsing wall and made a face when his foot pulled away with a sticky residue stringing between it and the wall. 'Eww…'

"Keep up, kid." Axel called over his shoulder. "The last thing I need is for you to get lost."

Demyx childishly stuck his tongue out at Axel, but said nothing. He wasn't one to pick fights and he didn't really know what Axel was capable of doing. He may have seen the redhead fight the heartless, but that didn't give him a good grasp of his skills.

Suddenly, Axel stopped, his whole body going rigid. Demyx stopped as well and frowned. He opened his mouth to ask Axel what he was doing, but before he could Axel started to run. Alarmed, Demyx quickly followed.

'I am not getting left behind in here!' He thought to himself. 'This place is creepy and it smells like fish! Normally, I wouldn't mind the fish smell too much, but who knows what I could run into in here! There could be- be- skeletons! Yeah, there could be skeletons in here.' A shiver ran down his spine and he quickened his pace to keep up with Axel, who was moving faster by the second. 'What's with Axel? It's almost like he's chasing after something, but I don't see--'

Going around a corner, Demyx was able to catch sight of a flash of blond.

'The hell was that!? Okay, now things are getting weird. Why are we chasing after the strange yellow thing?'

Axel knew exactly what it was that they were following. It was the one person he had been aching to see ever since his world fell to the heartless. 'Roxas,' He thought desperately. 'Why is he running from me? Does he know that it's me?' A hollow feeling filled Axel's chest, making it difficult for him to breath. 'Roxas… please tell me you remember me.'

"ROXAS!" Axel yelled out of fear and desperation.

For a moment, the figure in front of him seemed to hesitate, but then it ran even faster. Before Axel knew it, the figure had run out of sight and he crashed into one of the pulsing, odd-colored walls. Demyx, worried about Axel running into the wall but thankful that he could stop running, almost didn't jump away in time as a tentacle whipped through a opening in the wall that led to the stomach. With a curse, he stamped down on the tentacle and then dodge rolled out into the stomach, expertly twirling a strand of blue, humming energy around his finger. Before he could do anything with it, a lighting bolt crashed down onto the odd-looking heartless and it slowly withered and faded away.

"Demyx!"

The blond boy looked up just in time to see Sora leap down from a ledge to land in front of him. Donald and Goofy shortly followed. With a sigh of disappointment, he let the energy flow away. He planted a bright smile on his face and greeted the three of them.

"I feel like I was just hit by a semi." Axel muttered as he ducked through the opening in the tunnel to join them. "Just so you guys know, running into those creepy walls is apparently a big no-no."

Sora looked at him in confusion. "Why'd you run into the wall?"

Axel avoided Sora's gaze and ruffled the hair on the back of his neck, a nervous habit that he had never grown out of. "I thought I saw someone. No big deal." He raised an eyebrow at the number of cuts and scrapes all over Sora. "What happened to you?"

"Heartless with tentacles." Sora said with a shrug.

"That's not all, Sora." Donald reprimanded. "We ran into Riku too, remember?"

"Yeah…" Whatever cheerfulness Sora still had deflated with that comment. "Riku was here…"

"You saw Riku?" Axel asked sharply, his face betraying none of his emotions. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Sora practically snapped.

An awkward silence filled the chamber following Sora's yell. Demyx shuffled his feet and searched through his mind for a good neutral subject and upon coming across nothing figured it would just be best if he stayed quiet

"Aww, come on guys." Goofy spoke up. "Lets head on back to the mouth. The others'll be waiting for us there and Pinocchio has already gone back that way."

Axel's expression darkened at the mention of the puppet that got them all into the mess. He shoved his hands into his pocket and turned around to go back into the tunnels. "As if the damned puppet will ever be a real boy. Stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Sora scowled. "Why don't you trade places with him and see what it's like then! As if you would do any better!" He said loudly, making the redhead stop in his tracks and turn around to glare at him.

"Why don't you just shut up and not make idiotic assumptions about me you--"

"OKAY!" Demyx jumped in between them before the fight could escalate. When it looked like they were both about to complain, he hardened his gaze into a glare. "Both of you shut up unless you have something positive to say! Fighting won't get us anywhere and it's only making everyone more miserable. I, for one, am not looking forward to going back through the stupid tunnels and you guys and your stupid bickering won't make it any better. I am tired and hungry and sick of the smell of whale insides. Now is someone going to lead us out of here or am I going to do it myself?" He shot an extra glare at the both of them, daring them to say anything.

Thankfully, the two were finished arguing and were now pointedly ignoring one another, and Demyx, for that matter.

"Good." Demyx said before he looked pleadingly at Donald and Goofy. "Please tell me you guys know the way out."

"Ahyuk. Right this way, Demyx." Goofy said, leading the way back into the system of tunnels and chambers.

Demyx made Axel go next and then he followed the redhead after making sure Donald would be right behind him so that there would be two people between Sora and Axel. He would rather have a stifling silence than arguing that would echo all around.

"What happened to you?" Kairi asked in alarm, looking at all the cuts on Sora's face. "I knew I should have gone." She marched over and took Sora by the arm, making him yelp. Then she dragged him over to a bench and proceeded to practice her healing skills on him.

Naminé giggled and called Donald and Goofy over to her to look over their cuts and scrapes. Once she was done with them she got up to talk to Demyx and heal a few of Axel's cuts.

"So, what happened in there?" She asked conversationally. "You guys are being really quiet. I expected Sora and Axel to be gabbing away at how many heartless they fought or something." She looked between the two, noticing how weird they were acting. "Did something bad happen?"

Demyx shrugged. "I'm not really sure what's going on. I was with Axel the whole time and then he started acting all weird and chased after something. The next thing I know he runs into the wall and I almost get beaten up by a heartless tentacle, someone's lightning bolt destroys the heartless, and then Axel and Sora start arguing after Sora says something about seeing someone called Riku." He crosses his arms over his chest. "Am I missing something important, or what?"

Neither Sora nor Axel made any moves to answer the question. It seemed like they would be going out of their way to avoid each other and Demyx for a while.

"Riku is Sora's very best friend." Goofy spoke up. "He lost him when his world was taken by the heartless. He's the reason Sora is traveling around to different worlds. But runnin' into him here is a little weird and Sora says that he was acting all weird and not himself."

"And Axel's looking for his best friend Roxas." Naminé said, looking over at the redhead. "You saw him, didn't you."

Axel stiffened. "I don't know what you're talking about. Why would he be here, of all places? And at the exact same time that Sora finds Riku. Impossible."

"No, just very coincidental. Or maybe not." Naminé amends with a frown. "There's no such thing as coincidences, did you know that? Everything happens for a reason, but how everything plays out depends on your own actions."

"Great, my next actions will lead to me getting on the gummy ship and getting out of here." Demyx said in what he hoped was a cheerful tone. "Who's with me?"

"But what about Gippeto and Pinocchio?" Kairi asked, looking worriedly at the old man and his puppet.

"Don't worry about us." Gippeto said. "We have our own gummy ship here. We'll just light a fire and Monstro will spit us right out."

"Sounds good to me. Can we leave now? Please?" Demyx asked pleadingly. "Something about this place gives me the creeps. Maybe it's the fact that we're inside a giant whale."

"Lets go." Kairi agreed. "The gummy ship is in tact enough that it'll still fly. It can last until our next trip to Traverse Town."

They all got onto the gummy ship with little trouble, although Sora and Axel got into a glaring match when they tried to get on at the same time. Wisely, Kairi butted between them and shoved Sora on first before she followed him, leaving Axel to get on after her.

It didn't take long for Gippeto to get a fire going enough to make Monstro sneeze, and soon they were rocketing out of the whale's mouth and back on track for the next world and whatever adventures it would hold for them.

End Chapter
For for everything I don't like about this chapter, I actually really like this chapter. Axel and Sora's argument snuck right up on me and while I intended for them to fight, I didn't even expect it to go like that. I love it when the characters end up surprising me. And Demyx's little internal monologue helped bundles. But my absolute favorite two lines in this whole chapter: 'I'm going to punch him in the face. And then we're going to sit down and talk.'

Writing lines like that is what makes it all worthwhile. (laughs) And noticing the things I don't like helps me work on things in future chapters.

PROFILES

Sora-

Hair color: brown

Hair style: spiky

Eye color: blue

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Kingdom Key)

One of the main heroes in the story, Sora is searching for his best friend, Riku. He's teamed up with Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Axel, Demyx, and Namine to go around to different worlds and to look for Riku and to find a way to go back to Destiny Island. He's run into Riku in the belly of Monstro, the giant whale, and has noticed that something isn't right about his friend. He and Axel are currently fighting, although no one (including themselves) really knows why.

Kairi-

Hair color: dark red

Hair style: long; usually in a braid

Eye color: violet

Age: 14

Weapon: Keyblade (Heart Flower)

The main heroine in the story, Kairi is looking for a way to go home to her family and friends. She's found a friend in Sora and Namine and gets along with Donald, Goofy, and Demyx, but doesn't seem to like Axel very much. She has a very grudging respect for Axel, but still doesn't really trust him. The fact that he and Sora are fighting isn't helping matters right now.

Axel-

Hair color: bright red

Hair style: spiky but long; sometimes pulls it back

Eye color: green

Age: 16

Weapon: chakrams and fire

Like Sora, he's searching for his best friend (Roxas) although unlike Sora, it's apparant that he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. While inside Monstro, Axel thought he saw Roxas and ran after him. The figure disappeared before he could get a good look, leaving him questioning if he really saw something. He and Sora are currently fighting, which is reminding him even more of his friend.

Naminé-
Hair color: blond
Hair style: shoulder-length, layered
Eye color: sky blue
Age: 14
Weapon: uses magic to fight and defend
She's easily the most mysterious in the group and is also the only one who everyone gets along with. She's been in Traverse Town for as long as anyone can remember and is Merlin's only apprentice. Her magical strength has yet to be seen. She's good at healing and is teaching Kairi a few healing spells. She's fast taking on the role of the peace-keeper in the group.

Demyx-
Hair color: blond
Hair style: mohawk
Eye color: ocean, blue-green
Age: 15
Weapon: a strange blue, humming energy
He wandered around in Traverse Town several days before running into Aerith when she was out getting groceries. After that, he stayed with her and the other "Town Protectors" until Sora and the others came back. Then he left with them to visit the different worlds and look for a way home. Whether or not he can fight remains to be seen. He gets really annoyed when people argue and hates silences. He also dislikes not knowing what's going on.

Riku-
Hair color: silver-white
Hair style: around his shoulders
Eye color: aquamarine
Age: 15
Weapon???
Sora's best friend. It's unclear how he got inside Monstro or why he's so angry at Sora. Even odder is his ability to handle the keyblade.

Roxas-
Hair color: blond
Hair style: spiky, (tends to stick up to one side)
Eye color: blue
Age: 14
Weapon???
Axel's best friend. Whether it really was him in the chambers of Monstro's belly is uncertain.

NEXT- Chapter 11: Halloween Town