Thanks Princess Kaira of Mirana it's okay if you didn't have anything to say about the chapter before that.
In fact that's the longest I've ever written for this story.
Anyway, yeah well Riku's have some friendship issues…
On with the story...
Chapter Fourteen: Memory in the Keyhole
"What took you so long?!" Kazegami yelled from across the area.
All of the other teenagers were running down the hill, the scent of darkness was overwhelming. It felt as though they were being weighed down by the thick odor. Sora made it first to Kazegami and he panted for a moment to catch his breathing.
"They're here." The youngest sibling said pointing to Second District. "They started pouring out from that fountain with the butterfly."
The other three finally made it standing next to Sora, repeating the same modus operandi to catch their breaths. Amaterasu looked at her sibling for a moment and then back to some smoke that caught her eye.
Within a matter of moments a dark portal formed underneath their feet and Amaterasu sighed for a moment commanding the pool of black matter to wrap around the people around her. The black matter wrapped around the bodies slowly.
"What are you doing?!" Sora asked struggling to push the matter away.
"Relax…" she said softly. "Just trust me for right now."
Kazegami closed his eyes for a moment feeling the cold liquid like substance start to crawl up his arms. Kairi's arm had twitched slightly from the coldness the substance carried, and Riku somehow had grown accustom to it all.
From the earth that covered the grounds of Second District a dark matter formed mysteriously out of no where. The citizens paid no attention as the Heartless started to jump out from the shadows.
"This way!" Yuffie said directing the people away from the Heartless. Cloud and Leon brought out their weapons and started to slash their weapons at the nearby Heartless that came out.
"Look out!" Tachigami instructed, slashing away at two Heartless that popped out in back of Aerith. The flower maiden thanked her, and noticed that there were more Heartless than before.
"Amaterasu!" Aerith noticed the body that came out from the dark portal, but at that point she felt something crept up on her, and Aerith recited a Blizzard spell on the enemy. She ran down the path and dodged a couple of Heartless with a bit of difficulty.
Yuffie waited for the last person to run through the door, but at that point a Heartless caught her off guard and she had no choice but to defend herself with her giant shuriken. Moegami turned his head slightly as he heard Yomigami curse loudly. His brother's right arm was bleeding, and he slashed wildly at the Heartless blocking his path towards his big brother.
Amaterasu cursed mentally at the fact of what she was wearing, the good thing was that the girl had gym shorts underneath the skirt. She tossed the fabric aside and took off her shoes. Kairi and Sora were already ahead of her, slashing at a couple of Heartless that threatened one another.
Riku brought out his Keyblade and dashed off in a straight line helping Kairi fight off some of the Heartless with ease. Amaterasu brought out both of her Keyblades, and noticed at that point Gekigami came crashing down from a nearby rooftop.
"What the hell?!" Tachigami yelled out madly noticing her brother fall. She threw her Keyblade at one of the nearby Heartless. Amaterasu had made a made dash to her brother's aid nearly tripping over a fallen Heartless in the process.
"Up…" Gekigami managed to mutter out to his younger sister. She looked up noticing a tail of some sort whip past the ledge of the building.
Kazegami managed to get heal Gekigami's wounds, and climbed the ledge with Amaterasu. From up on the rooftop everyone looked like the size of beach balls. A deafening roar came from in back of them and the two of them turned around slowly. Amaterasu was knocked down by her brother in order to save the both of them from a hit.
The Heartless had a long tail with barbs on the end of it with a menacing face. It had a strange looking opening because blobs of black spit would drool down the sides of its mouth, it looked like a humanoid looking monkey.
"That's one ugly son of-" Kazegami was pulled to the side as the tail came crashing down smashing pieces of tile everywhere.
From below the Heartless were starting to fall back and Sora noticed the fountain Kazegami was talking about earlier. The keyhole he had sealed up some time ago had a dark aura crawling into it, that's where the Heartless decided to go.
Riku's eyes scanned the area for a moment and noticed Amaterasu and Kazegami weren't there. He saw Yuffie throwing her giant shuriken as Kairi yelled out magic spells. He blocked an on coming attack from behind, and kicked the enemy back. He noticed something on the rooftop, and he felt his eyes widen a bit.
r i k u
I broke my concentration for a second when I noticed she was up there, and that Heartless on the rooftop was really thrashing about. I dodged an oncoming attack from the side and hit the Heartless with enough force to make it fall down.
Kairi yelled out a Cure spell on Cloud and Leon who had gotten roughed up pretty badly, and Yuffie was protecting Aerith as she said her spells. Tachigami and the others were helping Sora fight off the Heartless that were trying to go into the keyhole.
'Bring the bigger guy down and the others will disappear…' I thought to myself running towards the building. I ran up the side of the building, but as I reached the halfway mark I noticed two people jump down.
My gaze traveled to theirs, and everything seemed to go in slow motion. She smiled at me slightly and descended back down to the ground with her brother. At that point the monkey like creature jumped down in my direction.
"Reflectga!" someone shouted out.
I remember a crystal like ball form around me as the Heartless was approaching me as I fell down.
As soon as I collided with the ground I looked up, still protected within the shield, the Heartless was trying to scratch the barrier down. The barrier broke down, it sounded like glass was being shattered into a million pieces. The Heartless was flung back as a Keyblade got a clear shot of it in the face, and it growled in agony.
Amaterasu and Sora faced off against the Heartless, jumping into the air performing a combo attack. Sora hovered in the air pointing his Keyblade at the Heartless and a white light formed around the wrist and legs of the Heartless chaining it to the ground.
Amaterasu withdrew her Keyblade as she was approaching the Heartless from the air, placing her hand to over her heart a ball of dark energy mixed with purple and red formed over her hand.
The Heartless opened its mouth in protest, and that's where the dark energy was placed, Amaterasu brought the Heartless down with her hand, and within moments its body twitched and soon it melted away.
She was the one who had placed the Reflect spell on me, that was her voice. I thanked her silently as I returned a small smile when she looked at me. Sora looked back at the Keyhole and we all walked over to it. Gekigami followed behind as Aerith was tending to a fresh wound he had received.
a m a t e r a s u
I looked back at Sora as he placed his Keyblade over the keyhole. I told him that there was a memory within the dark part of the world's heart and he asked me how he should get it. I told him to just draw the darkness out with his Keyblade.
He placed both hands on his weapon and within a matter of moments a ball of pure darkness hovered his Keyblade. He opened his eyes and looked back at the others not once letting his hands go of the Keyblade.
I walked over and placed a hand over the Keyblade catching the ball of darkness. It was the same as last time, a lot of memories were stored in here, memories of everything that happened in this world, even the recent memory of the festival.
I smiled slightly at the warm memories that entered my artificial heart. I closed my eyes and pulled out the necessary memory I was looking for, a small black sphere fell out and with that the dark ball shattered, retuning back to the keyhole.
"Is that what you were looking for?" Sora asked picking up the black orb.
Inside the orb dark blobs were moving about. It would be a while before the memory would even become clear. It had been in there for so long.
I told everyone that Cid would be able to get the vision from the orb, which would be a lot clearer rather than having it done by anyone else. With that our little trip to Traverse Town was done with. The gummi ride back to Radiant Gardens was really quiet.
I closed my eyes and winced slightly at a cut on my leg. Speaking of which I did remember to get the skirt and shoes I left back in Second District, the same can't be said for the guitar Riku left behind in the park. I'm sure it's still there, I have a good feeling it's still there, or at least I'm hoping it's still there for Riku's sake.
Riku and me aren't talking which started since I decided to show them that memory. I'm still kind of upset about it, but he probably does have a reason to not speak to me, but I'm not sure it's a very logical reason, but you know what, I'm going to respect it.
Still a part of me wants to know what's wrong with him, why is he upset at me. Is it because of Xehanort? And if it is, why?
I know Xehanort was an enemy of theirs, but the Xehanort from my memory was a completely different one from theirs, both physically and possibly emotionally. All this thinking was getting me nowhere, and I opened my eyes to gaze at the black sphere within it was just one of the memories Xehanort before he lost them.
'That's funny knowing I've walked the same streets as my friend. I wonder what he did before he had to fight. I guess he hung out with his friends, I really wish it could've stayed that way,' I looked to the side for a moment staring out at the view of stars.
Music from an mp3 player caught my attention, Riku ahd his eyes closed and was absorbed into the sound the little headphones played out. I sighed heavily, wishing to get up from my chair. I just felt my heart sink each time I was near him, and it was annoying me pretty bad.
"It's a slow song, come on it'll be fun." The young teenager said. He pulled me up to my feet as I was sitting on a bench.
"Xehanort, I really don't think we should…" I said looking at the area we were in. "I'm not a big crowd person."
"Then just pretend no one's here." He said somehow taking me deeper into the crowd. "Just trust me, all right?"
"I have a feeling this is going to be burned into me brain," I said exaggerating the last word.
"Stop complaining, Ammi," back then he was the only person who called me that sometimes. "It's your day off and you're going to spend it dancing."
"My feet are going to…" the only thing I could remember was something soft brush up against my lips, and it was a feeling I knew I would never forget.
"You like it? It's sea-salt ice-cream." Xehanort said sticking the Popsicle in my mouth.
I tried to talk, but that thing was in my mouth. He laughed at the face I was making feeling the cold touch my teeth. He waved a finger at me and I took the handle of the Popsicle, and smiled slightly.
"It's good…" I said still trying to let the cold sink in.
"You should have seen the look on your face!" he said his blue eyes seemed to be dancing full of life. "Besides you said you've never had sea-salt ice-cream so I thought I'd give you some."
"You didn't have to stick it in my mouth!" I said waving the Popsicle dangerously close to his face. "Next time offer it to me, okay?"
"All right then… Now come on let's go dance all right?"
"Do we get more ice-cream after this?"
"Do you always think with your stomach?" Xehanort said laughing at me.
"Hey!" I said pouting before putting the Popsicle back in my mouth.
That was the primary time I ate sea-salt ice-cream, I blame him for my addiction to that type of ice-cream. Well, I don't blame him, he's just the reason I love that ice-cream.
Current scene…
Amaterasu sighed heavily for a moment and Riku's turquoise eyes locked onto her dark eyes, and there was silence. She broke away from his gaze and continued to looks back at the stars that were outside the window. Riku put the mp3 players away and sighed softly catching one last glance at the girl.
From what he could tell she seemed to be lost in thought, and his thoughts went back to Xehanort. He sighed in annoyance and looked away from the girl again. He wanted to talk to her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Riku closed his eyes and lost himself in the darkness that surrounded his heart. A figure materialized within his conscience, it was the Heartless form of Xehanort, not the one Amaterasu had known.
"Do you know her?" he asked the Heartless.
'Boy, why would it matter to you?'
"Just answer, yes or no." he said starting to get annoyed with the figment of his imagination.
'I don't, is that all you want?'
"What do you mean you don't know her?!" he asked furiously. "She knows you! She was your friend!"
'You're referring to back then…' the Heartless said closing his eyes for a moment. 'I don't remember anything from that time. Maybe that other one does…'
"What other one?" the boy asked.
'Xemnas… I think that was his name.'
"He's been defeated…" Riku said feeling as though his only chance had slipped away. "But maybe you have some things I'm looking for."
'The only thing I can give you is my darkness, and you reject it.'
"Not this time…" the boy said confidently. "I'll use it, but to gain my own personal satisfaction."
'Is it for that girl?' the Heartless asked snickering at him. 'Do you even know if she loves you?'
"I know we're good friends."
'Or is she only friends with you because you remind her of him?
"What? Are you calling our friendship a lie?"
'Not exactly, just remember the darkness will do anything to keep you there…'
Riku opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the ship. His own mind was telling him to go back to the darkness, to make her happy, but in his heart he knew that wasn't the answer. He looked at the black sphere in her hands.
He was very curious to find out about the memory locked within the little ball. Riku wanted to ask her what she thought was in there, but she probably wasn't in the mood to talk to him.
"You want some ice-cream after this?" she asked him looking back at the silver haired teen slightly.
Riku looked at her for a moment, "Ice-cream won't solve our problem…"
"I know that." She said cutting him off in a rather annoyed tone. "It would've been better if I kept my mouth shut…" and with that Amaterasu looked away from the boy again.
"Why'd I open my big mouth?" The boy muttered to himself looking back at the ceiling of the gummi ship.
A/N: You know what to do 1 review.