Chapter 9: Michiko
Two old wizards walked across the vast field of tall grass. One was an old man in a red, hooded cloak, with only his moustache visible through the darkness of the cloak's hood. He carried a long staff, using it to shove the grass aside as he walked. The other was a relatively normal-looking old woman, walking with a cane and pushing the grass aside with her free hand.
"Yen Sid is the last of our kind, isn't he?", the old man asked, looking off into the distance as he continued to walk.
"Yes," the old woman replied, shoving more grass out of the way, "Ever since Zande died, it's just been the three of us."
"Hmm... so Zande is dead, then," the old man said, "That's rather odd. If I remember correctly, it was only eleven years ago that someone found the Keyblade he had crafted..."
"Maybe the Keyblade can outlive its creator after all?"
"One can only hope. There's no doubt that Gil-Neithev will come to get rid of the rest of us before too long."
The two stopped, looking up at a strange piece of land floating a good hundred feet up in the air, above what appeared to be a bottomless pit. There were train tracks leading up to it, along with a tunnel that seemed like it should be emerging from a hill, but wasn't.
"An illusion," the old man mumbled, "And quite a powerful one at that. It looks like Yen Sid must be home."
"This shouldn't take more than a minute to get rid of," the old woman said, beginning to mumble magic words to herself shortly afterward. A blue glow surrounded her hands, seeping into them slowly. For a second, her skin turned blue, and her normal hands shifted to larger, claw-tipped ones.
There was a flash of various blues and purples, and then her hands returned to normal once again. Slowly, the illusion around this piece of land began to fade away. What was once a floating island became a flat area at the top of a hill; the bottomless pit below it was now likely to be deep underground, as the formerly-invisible hill had appeared over it. The train tunnel now lead into some more hills, as it should have to begin with.
After about a minute's time, the entire landscape had faded back to normal and the illusion was broken.
"Old Yen's getting rusty," the old woman said, brushing off her hands a few times and chuckling before grabbing her cane again and beginning the long walk up the hill.
Mickey and I had traveled for hours in space, but still there was no sign of any passage to Twilight Town's world, where Yen Sid's tower was located.
"What's going on?", I said, scanning the ship's maps for a second, "I know Sora was able to reach Twilight Town by Gummi Ship, so... how the heck did he do it?"
Mickey shuffled through some papers he had been carrying, some of which were maps of Gummi Ship routes. There were others that covered the three "Worlds"--that of Light, which we were currently in; the World of Darkness, which was the location of Organization XIII's primary base as well as Kingdom Hearts itself; and the Twilight or In-Between World--our destination.
"Found anything in there yet?", I asked, looking over the King's shoulder to see what he was reading. The paper he had stopped on at the moment was an old one, looking as if it was written not long after the techniques used to make Gummi Ships were first discovered--or possibly even before.
"Well, if I read this right," he said, not looking up from the paper, "It says we have to get going on a certain path, and then just keep going straight until we're there."
"Something doesn't sound quite right about that," I said, "Do you think it'll work?"
"We'll have to try," Mickey said, putting away all the papers except for the one he was reading, "If we want to get to the Twilight World safely, it might be the only way to go."
"So, Lexaeus," Zexion said, "How goes the girl's training?"
"Michiko," the girl said as she came around the corner of the hallway, "My name is Michiko."
"Hmm... Michiko, then. What changed your mind about not telling us your name?"
"I finally decided that I can trust you guys," she said, wiping some sweat-soaked strands of hair away from her eyes, "That, and I got tired of everyone calling me 'the girl' all the time."
"I suspected that was part of the reason," Zexion said, leaning up against the wall next to where Lexaeus was already standing.
Several minutes passed, with Michiko resting from her training and Lexaeus monitoring her condition, before the large man finally said something else.
"Zexion," you said, "You wanted to know how the training was going, correct?"
"Yes, about that," the shorter man answered, "She seems tired now, but I'd be more surprised if someone wasn't tired after training with someone as strong as you."
"She's doing well," Lexaeus said, "Her basic Keyblade techniques are already well beyond the level of any other Keyblade wielder we've encountered."
"That sounds like good news. So, she won't need as much training as we thought?"
"Unfortunately, she may actually end up needing more training than we originally predicted."
"What!? Why?"
"Though her basic techniques are nearly flawless already... she hasn't yet mastered anything more advanced."
"Hmm... that's strange. Has she shown any signs of the ability to use powers other than the Keyblade yet? After all, she is a Nobody now."
"None that I've seen," Lexaeus said, "Though her strength is incredible for her size. I suspect that her Nobody powers may have some part in that."
"So her power is not that of directing some force outward, but of supercharging those within her own body," Zexion said, putting his hand to his chin and pacing back and forth.
"Amazing, isn't it? With enough training, she may even be able to surpass my strength--thanks to that Keyblade of hers."
Michiko just smiled as she sat down on the white floor, leaning her head back against the wall. She had once tried to kill these people--but that was in the past, and things had changed. She had changed. She was no longer the foolish little girl who had obtained a Keyblade in her dreams and, overwhelmed by her newfound power, sought out the strongest opponents she could find.
"She's grown up since then," Lexaeus said, seemingly reading the girl's mind.