By: Koorino Megumi
Chapter 14: A New Journey
Riku walked beside Leon to the First District, neither saying a word on the journey. Riku could see questions in Leon's eyes, but, as long as he didn't ask them, Riku would say nothing. He was trying to trust Sora's friends and his parallel, but that didn't mean he wanted to explain himself any further than he already had. He hated to think of what he had been and what he had done. He was ashamed of it.
"Cid, there you are!" Leon declared to a man standing on a corner in the First District. He had short blond hair and was dressed in a plain white T-shirt and blue pants. His muscular arms and the goggles perched on his head were evidence that he was a mechanic or engineer of some sort. He turned to Leon in surprise, and, seeing Riku, he raised an eyebrow. "Helping another new refugee?" Cid asked, looking Riku up and down.
"Helping another Keyblade Master," Leon replied. He tried very unsuccessfully to hide his amusement at Cid's reaction. Cid's eyes grew wider than seemed humanly possible. Even Riku couldn't help but grin at the sight. He called the Golden Keyblade to his hand, holding it just long enough for Cid to get a look at it before sending it away. Cid was in complete shock. He worked his mouth a few times, but no sound came out.
"My name is Riku."
This, if possible, shocked Cid even more. "Riku?" he choked out, "You're..."
"Sora's friend," Riku supplied, even though it almost felt wrong to say after all he had done, "The one manipulated by the darkness."
Cid just nodded, his mouth hanging open. He didn't seem aware of it at first, then he jerked back to reality and snapped it shut. "What do you need from me? I'd be happy to help if I can."
"We need a way to travel to other worlds," Riku stated.
Cid raised an eyebrow to Leon. "We?"
"He means himself and his companion," Leon explained. At Cid's look, he added, "Kiru."
Cid nodded again, this time looking a little downcast. He thought that Leon meant Sora, Riku realized, Of course he would be excited about seeing Sora! He tried to force the bitterness from his mind. Cid was, after all, a friend of Sora's. Cid didn't know Kiru, so naturally he would be more excited about seeing Sora than about seeing Kiru.
"All I have to offer is the Gummi Ship that we used to come here," Cid stated apologetically, "And we would need that one back from you to go home."
So we'd have to make sure we brought it back--and in one piece. I'm not sure we can guarantee that... "Can you think of anything else we could do?"
Cid scratched his head, frowning. "Without a Gummi Ship, there's no way to cross the space between worlds. But you're here...was your island destroyed again?"
"No, I..." Riku trailed off. He blinked. He knew how they could leave Traverse Town. It was so obvious that he didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before. "I used the mirror to get here. We can cross the mirror to travel to other worlds!"
"The mirror?" Cid repeated, obviously confused.
"It's a long story, Cid," Leon replied evasively.
"I'd better go back and tell Kiru what I have planned," Riku declared. He turned to go.
"Well, nice to meet you, Riku," Cid broke in, "Good luck on your journey."
Riku turned back around, realizing that he was being rude and actually regretting it a bit. He inclined his head to Cid. "Thank you for your help."
"Hey, anything you need, I'll be here."
"Thanks, Cid," Leon stated. He turned and started back toward the Third District, and Riku followed. It was another silent journey, but this time it was because Riku was too lost in thought to be part of a conversation. The mirror... For some reason I feel like there's something dangerous about traveling across that. The Heartless were planning something, weren't they? But what? I can't remember...
When they entered the Small House, they found Aerith sleeping peacefully in a sleeping bag on the floor. Cloud, surprisingly, was kneeling beside the bed, holding ice against the welt on the sleeping Kiru's head. It was an odd sight to see such a hard man taking care of someone. Riku might have cracked a smile, except Cloud brought his eyes up to meet Riku's and Leon's when they entered, and the glint in his glowing blue eyes somehow ruined all the humor.
"Are you ready to leave now?" Cloud questioned in a low voice, careful not to wake the two sleepers.
"Yes. As soon as I've talked to Kiru."
"Yuffie hasn't returned with your supplies yet. Will you need to talk long?"
"Maybe."
"Then you can wake him." Cloud removed the ice from Kiru's head and set it in a container hidden from view behind the bed. He stood and walked back toward the wall, leaning against it with his arms crossed, looking lost in his own thoughts but in reality obviously paying close attention.
Riku stepped up next to Kiru. Despite the talking and the removal of the ice, he didn't seem to have moved at all. "Kiru?" Riku put a hand on his shoulder and shook him slightly. Kiru didn't stir. "Kiru!" Riku shook him harder and continued to shake him. He's still this tired... If he wasn't so intent on getting that Keyblade to Kairi, I'd suggest we stay for a while. Maybe I'd better suggest it anyway.
Kiru finally let out a groan, and Riku quit shaking him. Kiru opened his eyes, blinking. "Riku?" He sat up immediately. "What did you find out?"
He seems awake enough, but someone who can sleep that soundly has to be incredibly exhausted. "Cid has a Gummi Ship, but they need that one to go home. There is another way to leave this world, though."
"How?"
Riku frowned down at Kiru, something occurring to him that none of them had thought of until now. "Hey, you haven't eaten in more than a day, have you?"
Kiru shook his head as if to signal that it wasn't important. "I'll eat before we leave. But how can we leave this world without a Gummi Ship?"
"You'll eat now. I'll explain after you're done."
Kiru sighed but grinned at Riku as well. "All right, I concede. What's around to eat?"
Riku grinned back. "Stay put. I'll get something." He stepped over to a counter in the corner, grabbing a plate, and then opened the small refrigerator next to it, throwing together some meat and cheese on the plate and grabbing a nearly-empty container of juice. He brought it all back to Kiru and set it on his lap. Kiru dove right into the food, proving that he was starving by his zeal for eating even such meager portions. No one said a word while Kiru ate, Kiru seeming to have accepted that he would have to wait until afterwards before he could get any explanations from Riku. Finally the plate was clean and the container of juice was empty. Riku brought them back over to the counter and came back, standing next to the bed. Kiru gazed up at him expectantly, grinning slightly as if to say "I kept my end of the bargain. Your turn."
But both of their grins faded as the topic again turned serious.
"We can travel to other worlds by crossing the mirror."
Kiru's eyes widened, and he frowned, now seemingly lost in thought. "The mirror..."
"We know where it is," Riku continued, "so it wouldn't be hard to cross."
"Yes, but..." Kiru trailed off, his thoughts still turned inward. "Our destination can't be controlled, and we could just wind up back here. And the universe... False twins aren't supposed to exist at all. For false twins to be crossing the mirror TOGETHER? I wonder if my dream-" Kiru cut himself off abruptly and turned to Riku, apparently startled that he had voiced that thought aloud. "I wonder what the effect would be," he finished lamely, trying to cover up his alarm.
Riku frowned as well, not so much because he shared Kiru's concerns, but because he remembered what Kiru had said in a voice not his own right after waking up. "Riku...take care of Iraki. Take care of Iraki if anything happens to me..." What did he see in his dream? But Riku asked nothing since Kiru obviously didn't want to explain. Instead, Riku turned his mind to the concerns that Kiru had voiced. "You can't control your destination?"
"No. No one knows what determines where the mirror takes you."
"But after I left the door to the darkness, I..." Riku struggled to remember what had happened. The first thing he had done was cross the mirror. He had been trying to find Sora, and he...he had appeared in Crossroads City--the exact world where Sora was. "Could it be a coincidence that I ended up exactly where I wanted to be?"
Kiru's attention snapped from his own thoughts back to Riku. "When you crossed the mirror, you wound up on the world that you wanted to be on?"
"Not exactly. I was looking for Sora, and I appeared on the same world that he was on. And then when I came here...was I trying to meet you?" Riku struggled to remember. He had been in a hurry to leave Crossroads City... I met Aros there. He was everything that Sora wasn't, and I could see it. I was curious about Kiru. If he truly was the same, would he be as susceptible to the darkness as I had been? "Yes. I crossed the mirror the second time wanting to find you, and I ended up here."
"So both times, by thinking about a person you wanted to find instead of a world you wanted to go to, you wound up exactly where you wanted to be."
"And if we think of Kairi, then maybe finding her won't be hard at all."
"It's a good plan," Kiru agreed, "The best we could have considering the circumstances. I don't like to use the mirror, but..." He hesitated, biting his lip a bit as he considered his options. Finally, he sighed in resignation. "I suppose we have no choice. So let's go." Kiru put on a false smile, pulling back the sheets and sliding out of bed. He was obviously trying to look energetic, but Riku noticed how he swayed just slightly when he first got to his feet.
"The mirror won't be hard to get to. Maybe we should rest up some more first," Riku suggested casually.
Kiru gave him a patronizing look. "We need to leave immediately. Kairi was supposed to have the Keyblade already. But the Heartless attacked, and I didn't get it to her. I can only hope that it's not too late now."
Riku had tried not to ask before--he had thought that Kiru would tell him eventually, when he was ready to--but now that they were about to embark on this mission, he needed to know what they were doing it for. "Kiru, why are we bringing the White Keyblade to Kairi?"
"Why?" Kiru seemed thrown off by the question. "Well, because-"
"Supplies have arrived!" Yuffie declared, bursting through the open door with a backpack in each hand. She noticed Kiru standing and smiled. "Oh, good! The door was open, so I figured you had to be up. I-" She stopped and let out a little gasp. Aerith had raised herself up to one elbow in her sleeping bag and was giving Yuffie a frown that didn't quite cover up her amusement. "Sorry, Aerith!"
"It's all right. I would have needed to wake up to wish our Keyblade Masters well anyway." Aerith pulled herself out of the sleeping bag and stood, smoothing her dress and adjusting her hair. Then she stopped and peered at Kiru. She frowned, her eyes now sad. "And there's something that I have to tell you two as well."
Both turned to her, the exact same look of expectation and dread on their identical faces. This had to be something about Kiru's health, and from Aerith's face, it didn't look like good news.
"Kiru, how do you feel right now? Be completely honest, please."
Kiru grimaced. Riku watched him with interest, wondering what he would say--if he would admit the fatigue that everyone else could easily see.
"My head feels fine," Kiru began, trying to sound optimistic, then hesitated and added, "But I'm very tired. And not even just tired. I feel like...like every muscle in my body is exhausted individually. And, ever since the duel, my heart hasn't stopped aching."
A murmur went through the room. Everyone knew that Kiru was tired because of the energy his heart had lost, but this sounded like a serious handicap. He had slept so much already... How could he still be so completely drained? And if his heart still hurt, did that mean it wasn't getting any better?
"Thank you for being honest," Aerith stated, although she looked even more worried than before, "I suspected that your fatigue was intense, but I didn't know what you felt. I don't know what to tell you about the ache in your heart, except that it probably won't go away until your heart has healed, and I have to admit that I don't know how or when that will happen. But now that you've admitted your fatigue, you don't mind me warning both you and Riku of the effects that I anticipate, do you?"
Kiru shook his head. Riku was glad for this. If Kiru had protested, he would have tried to talk to Aerith on his own before leaving. If they were going to work together, he needed to know what the situation was. The more he could get Kiru to open up to him, the better.
"You're going to need a lot of sleep, but you're going to have to be very careful about when and where you sleep. It was an entire day before you woke up on you own before, and I don't know what woke you up this second time, but I imagine that it wasn't easy to do?" Aerith paused, looking around, and at Riku's and Leon's nodding, knew her assumption was correct. She continued, "I don't know how long you would sleep if left on your own, or how much noise you will be able to sleep through. But you are going to need the sleep to keep your fatigue from getting any worse. So make sure you do sleep. But also make sure that Riku or someone else is there to wake you. Because I don't even know if an attack would wake you before it was too late."
Riku glanced at Kiru. He was standing stiffly, a look of anger and worry only half-repressed despite Kiru's obvious efforts to remain emotionless. This was a serious problem, and they both knew it. Kiru should not be traveling. He should not even be out of bed. But Riku could sense that he HAD to go on this journey. Now. It was something that no amount of injury could keep him from doing. But what is it that he knows that makes him so desperate to do this?
"Thank you for the warning," Kiru stated, keeping his voice neutral, "And for the supplies. We'd better leave now. Thank you again." There was warmth in his voice now, but his worry still wasn't quite masked.
"Good-bye again, Kiru," Yuffie declared, "Take care of yourself! And you, too, Riku."
"We will. Good-bye, everyone," Kiru replied, smiling a little sadly. He took the backpack that Yuffie offered him, and Riku stepped forward and took the other. They both walked to the doorway and turned around. "Good-bye," Riku stated. Then he added, "Thank you."
Everyone in the room said their good-byes to the two in the doorway, except Cloud who, as he caught their eyes, merely nodded. Leon kept his arms crossed over his chest but grinned at them. Yuffie waved vigorously, and Aerith was waving slightly, too. Kiru gave a small wave back. Riku nodded. Then they both turned and walked away. With those first steps, their journey began.