Inverted Sky: Kingdom Hearts I
Chapter 25: India Wilderness part I
Sora grinned widely as she held up the Pegasus Cup trophy over her head with both hands. Goofy and Donald being beside her with smiles of their own, to which the latter held the Phil Cup trophy in one of his hands. Each of the three having just gone through the two tournaments one after another and won both within only the span of an hour.
"Alright! We're the champs of two tournaments now!" the teen cheered out as she grinned even wider, to which the pair next to her nodded and let out their own cheer in agreement.
As the crowd around them finally started to calm down in chanting their names, the three made their way over to Phil off to the side. "See? I told you we were ready for it." the brown-haired girl said with a wink and thumbs up while holding the trophy with her other hand.
"I guess you were, sorry I ever underestimated ya." the satyr said with a small, yet rather proud smirk on his features.
Though, he soon gave a glance over to Donald and Goofy and placed either hand to his fur-covered hips. "Although yous two better pick up your training if you hope to keep goin' in these tournaments. She was practically carrying both of you out there during those last three matches." he continued with a very coach-like tone, making the former let out a huff and the latter to just sigh.
"Don't worry you guys...you'll both get better. I mean look at how much you've improved already." Sora said to them with a small smirk before she and Goofy handed the trophies to Phil, whom headed inside the waiting area.
"Speaking of training, I was a bit surprised you three suddenly showed up to train. It's only been three days since you were last here." the satyr muttered as the trio followed him.
Phil then going up to a series of pedestals that he gently placed the trophies onto. Yet none of the three recognized these before, which made them wonder if her possibly knew they would be coming back and made them ahead of time. Despite this however, Sora simply gave the satyr a small smile while she responded with a shrug. "Well...a lot has happened since then and I felt that I needed to build up my physical strength and stamina as much as I possibly could."
"So you told me, but I'm still curious as to what that power is you mentioned. I mean...what could drain you so much?" Phil asked with a slightly raised brow in question.
Sora just smiled a bit wider for a moment before glancing to the side and waving her hand dismissively. "I don't really want too many people to know about it...at least not yet." she muttered silently as she kept her gaze away from the satyr.
Whom raised his brow a bit higher, yet nodded in response all the same. "Well, whatever the case...I'll keep trainin' ya. You're definitely gonna make some amazing heroes." he stated, to which he gave the brown-haired girl a smirk and thumbs up.
The teen smiled back to him before turning to Hercules as he came walking over to each of them with a smile on his features. "You guys really put on an awesome show out there. Will you be staying for one more tournament? I'll be in that one too, so we could possibly fight against one another." he claimed while giving a curious gaze toward the three.
Sora let out a rather disappointed sigh, to which she then shook her head; "Unfortunately not...I need to get a move on to find Kairi and King...as well as to save as many worlds as I possibly can." she responded, causing Donald and Goofy to look to her with rather impressed gazes.
"But..." the teen started as she turned toward these two with a small smile.
"...since you two are still in the middle of training, you both could stay here for an extra day or so. I'll be alright on my own, so you won't have to worry about me and just focus on getting stronger." the blue-eyed girl continued as she winked at the pair.
"Gawrsh, I guess we could use a bit more practice and I really don't wanna be a burden for Sora." the dog said, him shrugging his shoulders while shifting his gaze toward Donald.
Whom had huffed silently, to which he seemed to mutter to himself how he wasn't going to be weak for long. Though, when he finally spoke a bit louder, it was in a more firm tone; "Fine...but you have to come right back if you find either of them...run into any trouble...or if you learn something important."
"Understood." Sora said as she giggled briefly to her friend's words.
The teen then gave a quick wave to everyone while heading toward the exit. "I'll be back tomorrow so train hard~!" she all but sang out with a wide smile.
As she exited the Coliseum, Sora quickly noticed Leon and Yuffie standing off to the side. "Hey you two~!" she called out quickly, her waving to them while walking closer.
"I'm pretty surprised you two were actually the previous champions of the Pegasus Cup." the brown-haired girl continued, tilting her head to the side midway through.
Yuffie simply took on a grin, while Leon simply remained his usual stoic self. "Well...we had participated two years ago just as a simple way to test our strength. But after a while, it became a tradition to defend our titles and continue improving." the man responded as he crossed his arms.
"Though...now that you've beaten us, it looks like it's time to quit." Yuffie muttered with a sigh and shrug of her shoulders.
"No." Leon suddenly began as he shook his head; "It's time for us to move further on with our own training and enter tougher tournaments to get even stronger." he continued in a firm tone while looking over to the raven-haired girl beside him.
"We never go backward...always forward." the man finished as he gave a glance over to Sora, it being clear that his words were also intended for her as well.
This making Yuffie and Sora glance to one another and chuckle lightly, to which they turned back to Leon. "Looks like he can say some pretty cool and inspirational stuff when he wants to, huh?" the former muttered with a small grin.
The brown-haired teen gained a similar expression on her features as she nodded in agreement. "Looks that way." she said silently, the two sharing another chuckle afterward.
All of this just made Leon huff lightly and turn to the side from his light embarrassment. Though, Sora eventually just patted him on the shoulder and smirked lightly; "Don't worry...I'll always move forward." she said with her signature grin.
Both Leon and Yuffie unconsciously smiled to this and nodded, to which they quickly waved as Sora then headed off on her way once more. The teen returning to the gummi ship and flew it into the space between the worlds. Yet while she piloted the vehicle, she eventually looked down to her hands on the steering controls. The girl's gaze appearing to be thoughtful and almost nervous as she didn't even blink for a few moments.
'I wonder if that training was really enough.' she thought silently to herself before finally looking through the window of the ship again.
'I mean...his training has already done wonders for me, so I guess this could sort of be a 'test run' to find out just how much it helped. As well as to see just what I can do by myself.' the teen mused as she glanced at the near emptiness around her.
'Though my magic has drastically increased, there is still the question of whether it'll be enough to handle what else is out there. My Curaga spell was able to return me almost completely back to normal after using my dark powers to such a huge extent. So...as long as I'm careful with my stamina, I should be able to wield those powers in nearly perfect unison.' Sora continued while slowly closing and opening her eyes.
"I just wonder if any of that 'hand-to-hand' combat stuff will really matter since I'm mainly a magic user." she muttered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"But I guess Phil did bring up a good point, that it's because magic-users don't practice such things, that it tends to be their downfall. So if I can perfect both sides...I should, in theory, be nearly unstoppable." the teen said silently as she took on a small, yet very excited grin.
However, after a few moments of flying, she noticed a world to her right. It looking very similar to the one she had met Tarzan and Jane, yet there were a few differences, even from such a distance. This lead for Sora to fly closer and closer to it, yet she soon looked to the side as something flew by her at great speed.
It being unrecognizable as it was shrouded in a thick dark energy as it plummeted down to the world below. The teen narrowed her eyes to this before immediately pursuing whatever it was as fast as the gummi ship could fly. Though after going through the cloudy atmosphere, Sora completely lost track of it and huffed in annoyance. This lead for her to then stop the ship over one of the clouds and simply teleport herself down to the surface.
Upon doing so, she glanced around with a raised brow as she was in the middle of a jungle. There not being any signs of people anywhere in sight, nor even any wild animals. However, she did notice differences in the plant-life compared to the previous worlds. Of which let her know that this was a very different forest than the ones she had visited previously.
"Hmm...for a jungle, it actually seems kind empty." she muttered silently while continuing to glance in each direction.
"Even Tarzan's world had animals almost everywhere you looked." she continued to herself, yet immediately turned to the side as she heard a sudden hissing voice from a nearby tree branch.
"Well...well...well, what do we have here?" was its obviously male tone.
Once Sora turned toward the source of this voice, she quickly raised a brow when seeing a large Indian python. "A man cub?" the snake continued while tilting its head to the side slightly.
The teen gazed to the serpent for a few moments before she then just shrugged her shoulders. "I guess?" was all she answered.
"Hmm...so what brings you out here, man cub?" he asked with a small smirk on his features, him drawing out each 's' in a true snake-like fashion.
"Something that fell from the sky." Sora responded while looking around for any sign of smoke or debris in the air to signify a large impact.
"Oh~? Would you happen to mean the thing that scared away the elephants?" the snake questioned as he stretched himself out to come closer to the girl.
Whom turned toward him once more and raised a brow; "And where might it have landed?" she inquired with slightly narrowed eyes.
"Who can say...but I do believe that we might be able to come to some sort of...agreement." the serpent said while his eyes started to ripple with different colors.
As Sora gazed into these strange eyes, her own started to do the same. However, this was quickly broken from a loud and rather desperate sounding, male voice echoing through the forest. "Bagheera~!"
Sora blinked to this for a moment before she quickly turned in the direction of the voice. "Hold that thought." she said, to which she turned back toward the snake as if she didn't even notice the hypnotism he was about to put her under.
"I'll be right back!" Sora called out as she immediately began running toward the sound of the distraught voice.
'I don't know what a 'Bagheera' is, but he sounded pretty distressed...who ever 'he' might be.' she thought while rushing on her way.
'It's probably not good of me to just come running every time I hear someone in trouble, especially when I was in the middle of a conversation.' the girl continued with a glance over her shoulder to the snake she left behind.
"Oops...I didn't even catch his name." Sora uttered out as a slightly embarrassed expression covered her features.
'But I guess I wouldn't be me if I didn't help people when they called.' the girl continued in her mind as a small smile curled her lips briefly.
Though she heard this same 'phrase' being called out two more times, Sora instantly stopped upon seeing a group of apes high up in the trees. Them swinging a young boy from one branch to the next, him having tan skin, black hair and only appeared to have on red wrappings for underwear.
'Is that boy being kidnapped by a bunch of monkeys?' she questioned to herself as the bizarre scene made her mentally pause.
Yet Sora then just shrugged briefly and chuckled; "Eh...I've seen weirder." was all she muttered before following after these apes.
However, it wasn't long until she had arrived in what appeared to be a long since abandoned city. It being made up of mostly off-white colored buildings, all of which had vines growing across and even through them. There were carvings upon the surfaces of these structures, some depicting animals, while others seemed to be the ancient language the people must have used. Of which caused Sora to blink a few times in response and tilt her head to the side upon seeing.
"Hmm...it looks like Tamil. I think I recall seeing these types of markings in Merlin's lessons about ancient civilizations." she whispered silently to herself, yet quickly shook her head from this.
"Aw man...I can't admit that his lessons actually came in handy. If I do...I'll never get to complain about his lessons ever again." the teen all but whined softly.
Though, as she made her way toward the gathering of apes, a large orangutan sitting in a throne caught her attention. Sora slowly raised a brow in question, though it only arched higher when he and the other apes broke out into a song. However, after just a few moments of listening to it, she ended up dancing, regardless of trying to resist. Despite also staying hidden the whole time, she didn't seem to care if she was discovered as the song itself was very catchy.
"You~...I wanna be like you~. I wanna talk like you~. Walk like you, too~." she sang out silently with a small grin as she continued to move in beat.
But, this would only last a few more moments before the music the apes were making came to a sudden stop. To which Sora immediately noticed a large grey bear and black panther in the middle of the fray. Both of whom were rushing around the city trying to get the young boy from the apes, with varying levels of success.
Once Sora came out of hiding, she quickly rushed forward and pulled the boy by the hand. Her doing this just after the ape holding him dodged a swipe from the panther. As soon as she did this, all of the apes stopped and looked at this new person. Whom let the boy go and smirked lightly while summoning her Keyblade; "Alright boys...that was a fun musical number, but the party's over." the teen stated as she tapped the ground to her side with the tip of her weapon.
This creating a half circle of fire to separate her from each of the apes, yet she made sure that she didn't make the fire too big. Of which allowed it to extinguish within a moments, though it was still long enough for Sora to vanish with the boy in tow. Yet the orangutan had managed to get a large stick and set it ablaze before it the flames died. "We have fire~!" he called out to each of the apes, all of whom hooted out loudly in approval.
A few dozen meters away from all this, Sora released the boy once more as he just seemed to be in a state of shock the whole time. Him merely staring at the girl the whole time she was rescuing him, despite everything happening quite fast. Though as he gazed to her, the teen merely blinked a few times since his stare of confusion and interest made it obvious he had never seen another human before.
"Looks like you had quite an interesting time, huh?" Sora questioned to him as the boy just blinked back at her.
"W-Who are you? Are you from the man village?" he finally asked with a tilt of his head in question.
"Hmm? Well, I'm Sora. And no...I'm not from 'the man village'." the teen responded, her shrugging briefly at the end.
"So what what about you? What's your name?" she inquired back to him with a raised brow.
"Mowgli!" a male voice yelled out as the panther and bear quickly rushed over to the teen girl and the younger boy.
"Baloo! Bagheera!" the youthful male called to the pair, him looking at each one while saying their name.
This allowing Sora to tell which name fit the right animal, to which she made a mental note of remembering the pronunciation for their names. "Oh...so you know these two, huh?" Sora muttered silently while looking over to Mowgli.
"There is another man-cub in the jungle?" the panther said silently as he sniffed the air around the teen.
"A female no less." he continued as the brown-haired girl just shrugged lightly, her wondering what sort of situation was going on before she arrived.
"Well, I just came here looking for something..." she started while glancing to the side; "...though I kinda lost track of it."
"Yeah...that happens to me from time to time too." the bear said with a small smirk and brief chuckle.
Yet as Sora looked back to each of them, she noticed the panther Bagheera appeared to be in deep thought about something. All the while, Mowgli just seemed to stare at the teen in confusion, and Baloo the bear merely smirked to her.
"This is perfect actually." the black cat spoke up quickly as he took a few steps closer toward Sora.
"Please...convince Mowgli to return to the man-village with you. If you do, then I can promise to help you find whatever it was that you were looking for." he continued as he gave a brief gesture to the young boy with his head.
The brown-haired girl looked to him with a raised brow and a tilt of her head; "Why doesn't he want to go?" she asked with a bit of a confused gaze.
Though she had yet to piece together everything that was going on, she did appear to understand the current pieces to some degree. But it was Bagheera's next words that made the picture rather clear of what was happening. "Because, he loves the jungle. He was raised here for his entire life after all. But Shere Khan the tiger has returned and due to his hatred toward man, he'll surely kill Mowgli on sight."
The teen looked down for a moment as she thought this over; "Hmm...you definitely have a point there." she began silently while tapping her chin.
"Although, I could simply get rid of Shere Khan myself. Which would mean that Mowgli wouldn't have to leave." she continued as each of them blinked at her.
"Though, I think I have an idea of how to get him to the 'man village' regardless." Sora whispered to Bagheera with a quick wink and grin at the end.
"A-Are you mad?! You can't possibly defeat Shere Khan! Not without a gun or fir-!" the panther started, yet stopped himself as he glanced over his shoulder while recalling what the teen had done moments ago.
"Actually...it just might work." he finished silently while tilting his head down in thought.
"So wait...I can stay in the jungle?" Mowgli questioned with blinking eyes in excitement.
"You just might kid...you just might." Sora said to him, her gaining a small, yet confident smirk on her features.
'I just hope that I can figure out what that thing was that landed here before me. Though I am worried of what it could be...I wanna at least help them out as best I can. It's what Kairi would want me to do after all.' she thought silently to herself while glancing to the side with a soft smile.