Chapter 13: Ring the Bell
A/N: Here we are with the next installment to this awesome story. I wanted to add another chapter before I have to study for my finals. I'm sure you all know what's going to be happening next due to the title. (This was one of my least favorite parts in the game, and I'm sure you all know why). Since this will be a fighting chapter, be sure to expect a lot of fighting.
Here's a poll for people who are Hikari fans: Do you think Hikari leans more towards the mage category or the fighter category? Which would you rather see her as?
Please send me your feedback so I can improve her character better.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdome Hearts, but I do own Hikari and Taiyouko.
Enjoy!
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Hikari was still upset that Riku disappeared like that. She was so happy that she had finally found him, but Donald shooed him away with his big mouth.
Her head felt a lot better after that little memory attack she had.
Leon kept hovering over her like a mother hen and kept fussing with her.
She thought it was nice that he was so worried about her. She remembered when she was little and they had first arrived at Traverse Town, he wouldn't let her out of his sight.
"This place is way too big and dangerous for someone as small and frail as you" he would say.
She smiled over the memory.
Leon was not only her older brother, but also her father figure too. She figured that since she couldn't remember her dad, she thought that she didn't have one. The only family members that she remembered were Leon and her mom.
Leon checked her over for what seemed to be the hundredth time. He tilted her head back a little and checked her eyes to see if they were normal.
"Are you sure you're ok? No head trauma or anything?"
"The only trauma she'll get is you hovering over her like that" Mikomi said.
Hikari smiled and shook her head.
"No, I'm fine. But thanks for worrying"
Leon gave her a potion and told her to drink it before she did anything else.
She grimaced at the awful taste that the medicine provided.
"Why must medicine taste so horrible?"
"I don't know. I'm not the one who made it" Leon said.
The sound of a bell ringing caught everyone's attention.
"Was that a bell?" Sora asked.
"Hmmm. The bell at the gizmo shop is ringing" Cid said.
"That's odd" Mikomi added.
"That bell never rings"
"Never?" Hikari asked.
Mikomi shook her head.
"There's a legend about it, you know" Yuffie said.
"But it's all boarded up, so no one can get there" Aerith said.
"What's the legend's about?" Sora asked.
"Go check it out" Cid said.
"Ring it three times and see if anything happens"
The thought of a mystery pulled Hikari out of her funk. She needed something to take her mind off of Riku at the moment.
"Come on, Sora. Let's go see what it's about"
Sora rubbed his head sheepishly.
"I don't know, Hikari"
Hikari playfully punched him.
"Come on. Don't be a chicken. You're a keyblade master, this should be child's play"
Sora just sighed but just followed her out of the small house.
"Be careful, Hikari!" Leon called out as they left.
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Going to the second district was a bit harder than they all thought it would be.
As soon as they stepped foot into the district, they were bombarded by heartless.
It wasn't so bad since they were just minor heartless, but they just kept producing like rabbits and kept popping everywhere.
Hikari got annoyed after slashing her tenth heartless.
"This is getting on my nerves"
She summoned Simba and had him get rid of the rest.
"Where are these heartless coming from?" Sora asked.
"Something must be nearby if they're acting up like this" Donald said.
"Maybe it has to do with the bell at the gizmo shop?" Goofy suggested.
"There's only one way to find out" Hikari said.
She pointed her keyblade to the gizmo shop.
"To the gizmo shop!"
They headed to the shop without any more heartless trouble, but they found out that they had to have power in order to get through the shop.
Hikari banged her head against the door when she remembered that the circuit was back in the third district, which meant that they had to go back.
Muttering a few curses, they went back to the third district and hotwired the circuit so the gizmo shop would work.
"Alright, now let's go to the gizmo shop and check out that bell" Hikari said.
They went back to the second district and had to once again fight more heartless.
They just plowed through them and ran away from the ones that were left standing.
They ran into the gizmo shop, hoping that they would get away from the heartless, but once they went inside, they were trapped.
There were a bunch of heartless waiting for them.
"Seriously, don't these things have anything better to do than try to eat us?" Sora asked.
Hikari didn't say anything as she slashed at the heartless in front of her.
"I have just about had it with these little pests!"
She cast lighting at them and zapped them into dust.
"You want a piece of me?!"
She jumped over one of them and stabbed the heartless in the back.
"That's right, don't mess with me!"
She teamed up with Donald and used their magic to get rid of the heartless.
Sora and Goofy didn't really do much since Hikari was in the zone.
If there was one thing that Sora learned while being Hikari's friend, it's to never disturb her when she's in the zone. She had a tendency to get really violent if she was disturbed.
She let out a battle cry as she hacked at the last heartless.
"I am the destroyer of all evil!"
She waved her keyblade around and nearly hit her friends.
Sora ducked and slowly approached her.
"Easy, Hikari" he said.
"You wanted to see the bell, remember? Let's not get carried away"
Hikari calmed down and fixed her hair. (It got messed up while she was fighting)
"You're right" she said.
"Sorry about flipping out, I just got caught up in the moment"
Sora smiled nervously and pushed her out to the back of the shop.
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After going out to the back, they found a ladder that lead to the top of the shop.
"This must be where the bell is" Sora said.
They all climbed up and were up on the roof. Hikari saw a section of the roof boarded up by wood.
"That must be where the bell is at" Goofy said.
Sora tried to see if the boards were loose enough to pull off, but they were nailed shut.
"Looks like we're going to have to break it down"
They all got into the same position that they used to break the bars down to the cavern in the alleyway.
They all ran up and slammed into the wooden boards and were successful to breaking them down.
Hikari saw a rope dangling in the air.
Looking up, she saw the very bell that they were looking for.
"This must be it"
She grabbed the rope and turned to Sora.
"Can you give me a hand, Sora? I don't think I can pull this by myself"
He nodded and grabbed onto the rope.
They pulled at the same time and listened to the bell ring.
This seemed to trigger the fountain at the front of the district, since the scenery that was painted on the wall moved.
"I wonder what that was about?" Donald asked.
"We have two more rings. Maybe we'll find out then" Sora said.
They both rang the bell again and watched as the scenery to the fountain changed again.
"One more ring" Hikari said.
"I wonder what will happen?"
"There's only one way to find out" Sora said.
They both ringed it and watched the fountain change its scenery one last time. The water that was shooting out of the fountain stopped and the scenery revealed a keyhole.
"Hey! That must be the keyhole to this world!" Hikari said.
"This is the one that Ni-san was talking about"
"Then let's go seal it before the heartless get to it" Sora said.
Instead of going down the ladder like a normal person, they just jumped off from the roof and landed out in front of the gizmo shop.
Hikari landed gracefully to her feet while Sora almost fell over when he landed.
"I think you put too much 'oomph' when you took you're running start, Sora" Hikari said.
Sora rubbed his head while he grinned nervously.
"Sorry, just wanted to show off"
Hikari rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, let's go seal the keyhole"
They ran up to the fountain with their keyblades drawn.
"One sealed world, coming right up"
They both pointed their keyblades at the keyhole. Just as they were about to seal Traverse Town, a giant armored heartless blocked their path.
They both jumped out of the way before it could crush them.
"Didn't we destroy this thing?" Sora asked.
"Apparently not since its standing right in front of us" Donald said.
They all launched into the attack and clobbered the heartless.
Since they knew how it attacked from their last fight, they were able to dodge and block it attacks.
It didn't take them long to destroy the heartless. Its body fell apart and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Sora said.
He and Hikari went to seal the keyhole again, but they heard a distinctive rattling behind them.
Turning around, they saw the Guard Armors body parts starting to rattle and shake.
The heartless suddenly put itself back together again.
"That can't be good" Hikari said.
The heartless shook for a moment, before suddenly going still. It suddenly brought its hands down to the ground and flipped its body up. The feet suddenly turned into a set of hands while mask came down on its head.
"Ok, that is so not good!" Hikari cried.
"This thing won't die, will it?" Sora said.
The heartless threw its hands (now feet) at them.
Hikari flipped out of the way and held her keyblade in front of her.
"Why don't we talk after we kill this thing?" she said.
Sora held his keyblade out as well.
"This shouldn't be a problem. We already beat it once; this should be a piece of cake"
Oh how he wished it was.
It seemed that the heartless was holding back its true power when they first fought it. Now that it was in its true state, it had a nasty set of attacks.
The one that was most dangerous to them was when it would turn itself into a cannon and blast spheres of energy at them.
Everyone had to be quick on their feet to avoid that attack, if they got caught up in it, it would mean serious consequences for them.
They simply hacked away at it bit by bit. It seemed to get weaker if one of its limbs was destroyed.
Hikari focused her attacks on the feet (hands). Those things could really pack a punch and she didn't want to get hit by one of them.
When the heartless turned around and aimed its canon at her, she quickly summoned Simba and had him blast the attack back at the heartless.
"I have to remember to thank Ni-san for giving me that summoning stone" She said to herself.
The fight kept dragging on for half an hour, and within that time, they were only able to destroy both the heartless' legs and arm.
Hikari felt drained as she performed a thunder spell.
She didn't have any potions on her and her body ached from running and dodging the heartless.
"We need to end this battle quick. I don't think I can hold on any longer"
She heard the voice giggling in her head.
"If all else fails, just aim for the head" it said.
That's when it clicked into her head.
The last time that they defeated this heartless, they attacked its head.
"I wonder if it still has that same weakness?" She thought.
She took her chances and climbed up the fountain so she could above the heartless.
"Here goes nothing" she said.
She waited until the heartless was chasing after Sora to launch her attack.
When it was close by, she jumped off the fountain and landed on its back.
She ran up its body and aimed her keyblade at its head.
"Let's see how well you fight without a head!"
She swung her keyblade like a golf club and smacked the heartless' head off its body.
The armor fell to the ground lifelessly and set its captive heart free. Thanks to its defeat, they were able to learn the power of wind.
Hikari fell of the body and landed on her rear end.
"Oww"
She stood up and rubbed her sore body.
"Why do I always get hurt after we defeat a boss?" she whined.
"Get used to it, you're a keyblade master" Donald said.
Hikari glared at him and stuck her tongue out.
"I don't need lip from you"
Sora pulled her away before another fight could start up.
"Come on, let's seal the keyhole"
Hikari grumbled and went over to the keyhole.
They sealed up Traverse Town's keyhole and were given another navigation Gummi.
"Let's see if Cid will put this on our ship as well" Sora said.
They headed back for the first district to see if their ship was ready.
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Cid was waiting for them behind the synthesis.
"That took you quicker than I expected" he said.
Sora handed him the gummi.
"Well what do you know. Another gummi. I take it you want it put on your ship?"
"Yes please" Hikari said.
Cid examined the gummi.
"It looks like this one is part of a set. I can't add it to your ship without it's mate"
'"Looks like we'll have to find the other one" Goofy said.
"Yay! We have more exploring to do!" Hikari cheered.
"You guys be careful, ok?" Cid said
They nodded and headed for their ship.
"See you later Cid" Hikari said.
As they entered the ship, Hikari thought about what worlds they were going to see next.
She wondered if they would find Kairi on one of them and she wondered if they would see Riku again.
"I found you once. I can find you again" she thought.
"I've come too far to quit now. I'm not going to give up until I have you in my arms again"
This is what she thought as Donald pulled out of Traverse Town and headed for a new world.
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A/N: There you go. One more chapter for this awesome story. I'll update when my finals are over and I'm not worried about studying.
Remember to review and tell me what you think.
And don't forget to answer to the poll. That will help me improve this story.
Ja ne