Ice rose from the sand in large jagged shards towards Riku with only a swift wave of Kaida's fans. Riku dodge rolled to avoid them but the ice kept coming towards him. Riku continued to dodge the ice lead it close to Kaida, so when the ice stopped, he pushed him himself hard off the ground to give him some extra speed and strike Kaida's side. Kaida let out a gasp as the blade stuck her and she hit the sand.
She quickly picked herself up; even though she was still trying to catch her breath, and gave Riku a death stare. He kept his guard up and his eyes never left Kaida or her fans.
"You need more than that, Riku!"
Kaida shot straight toward Riku and the metal fans clashed with the keyblade. The force of the attack repelled Kaida backwards, but as soon as she was stable, large ice shards came hurling towards Riku. Again all Riku could do was guard himself from the sharp edged ice.
"I can take her out!" Riku shouted in his head. "But if I do, I have a chance of making her fade into Darkness. I can't do that. There's something strange about this Nobody and if she has no superior, then I'll need her to stick around to get some answers."
Kaida leaped forward in an attempt to strike him with an ice blade, but Riku got out of the way of the attack. He skillfully moved behind Kaida and swung the hilt of his keyblade into the small of Kaida's back. This caused her to hit the sand face first. Kaida stood up, pretending she hadn't just been attacked, and wiped the sand from her face. Her anger seemed to grow.
"Riku!"
Riku's guard shot up and Kaida pounced at him. Without thinking, Riku pulled his keyblade up sideways and used his free hand to support the other end of it as Kaida's fans clashed with his blade. Kaida pounded at the keyblade with what seemed like all of her force. Riku kept his grip tight and between the two fans hitting, he used his keyblade like the handle of a whip and string of lighting bolts came down. Kaida flipped backward to avoid the lighting and Riku panted. He wasn't used to using magic attacks very much.
"What did I tell you earlier?!"
The fans clashed again with the keyblade, ice began to form where the fans made contact. Kaida bounced backwards from Riku, but she quickly came back.
"Don't go easy on me!"
The fans hit once more. The ice grew on the blade, and Kaida ricocheted off the blade. Then she came back, her eyes locked on Riku.
"Especially because I'm a girl!"
"What?" Riku could hardly compute his thoughts as Kaida, instead of attacking with her fans, kicked Riku in the stomach, causing him to lose his breath and blackout.
"Why did that sound so familiar?"
XXXXXX
Two driftwood swords clashed as Riku blocked Ichigo's attack. That's how the whole fight had gone so far. Ichigo would attack and Riku would block. Sora even fell asleep on the beach In Ichigo's whole body, Riku could tell she was getting frustrated.
Finally, Ichigo backed away and shouted at her brother. "Riku, stop it!"
Riku lowered his sword and looked at Ichigo with a half confused expression. Had he tired her out already? No, he hadn't. He noticed his sister's grip on her sword was tight and her free hand was in a tight fist, all of her knuckles were turning white. Was she mad that she couldn't hit him?
"You aren't really fighting me!" Ichigo cried angrily. "You aren't even trying!"
Riku was taken back by his sister's remarks. "But Ichigo I-!"
"No buts!" Ichigo interrupted. "You said you would teach me how to fight! So," Ichigo got back in her fighting stance. "Don't go easy on me because I'm a girl!"
Riku also went back into his fighting stance and looked at his sister with new eyes. She always seemed to fragile with her small body and when she played with dolls with Selphie. Now, she seemed to be a different girl, a much stronger girl.
"Okay then, I won't hold back!" Riku said as he charged towards his sister.
XXXXXX
"Let go of me!"
Those words were the first Riku heard as he opened his eyes after blacking out for a few seconds. He saw a dark figure holding on tightly to Kaida's arm as she tried to break free.
"You don't have any more time left to spend here, Kaida!" The figure said in a deep bass voice, obviously a man's voice. Riku could see and hear the ice arena Kaida had set up begin to crack, and the black shapes of the heartless moving.
"I do have time! Just let me go now!" Kaida continued to try and pull away, but the figure wouldn't let go.
"Kaida, it's not worth it!" The man begged. "Whatever it is you're trying to do!"
The heartless grew more excited as the ice cracked even more around them. Riku picked himself up off the sand, and was beginning to examine the figure holding on to Kaida. He noticed he was looking at the back of the man's cloak. A red cloak. Also the man's head was wrapped in red bandages.
Without thinking Riku began to shout out. "Ansem! DiZ!"
The man ignored Riku. All of his attention was on Kaida and the soon to be destroyed ice walls.
"Kaida! We must leave now!" The figure shouted.
This time Kaida obeyed and the usual black mass began to consume both Kaida and the man holding on to her. Riku ran forward to try and follow them wherever they were going, but the portal was nothing more than a black wisp when he reached it. Suddenly, all around him, the ice shattered. Riku prepared himself for the flood of heartless, but as the ice broke the heartless began to disappear.
"Riku! Are you alright?"
Riku turned to where his name was being called and saw Sora and Kairi still together. It made Riku feel a little easier knowing that his friends were okay. The friends reunited and Riku now had the task of recounting what he had just seen. Even though he didn't quite believe it himself.