Chapter 9:2: Hollow
"Long lost words whisper slowly to me. Still can't find what keeps me here. When all this time I've been so hollow inside..." (Haunted, Evanescence)
Kairi turned the small silver star pendant over in her hand, looking at it and wondering silently how it worked. She had figured it to be a key chain, but how it worked she still didn't know. She'd never come to ask Sora about this part of the keyblade's functions.
"What is that thing anyway?" Astrid asked her as she leaned forward and looked at what she was holding. "Gin seemed pretty intent on you getting it."
Kairi felt a sad smile stretch her lips at the thought of the young dog; sad because she doubted she would ever see him again.
"It's a key chain. The Falling Star key chain. It's for the keyblade."
Astrid looked at the thing in her hand once more, a wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows.
"A key chain? To that thing? Seriously, I think it's fancy and big enough without extra decorations… What does it do?"
Kairi giggled at the silliness of the decoration-comment and held the key chain up, dangling it in front of the viking's face.
"It strengthens the keyblade, re-shapes it and enhances certain aspects of it. I'm not sure how it works, Sora never got around to tell me about that, but I know it does."
Astrid still didn't look convinced but she let the matter fall anyway, deciding it wasn't worth getting a headache over it.
"Where is Hauru? How long could it take to get something to drink?"
They were sitting on a park bench of white painted wood in the outer area of a large city park with spread out greenery on each side of the winding path of asphalt that stretched throughout the area. They had entered this new world in the same manner as the last one: through Hauru's doorway. Only this time, it had melded with an already existing door in this world, so that when they all emerged through the door, it didn't really surprise anyone on the other side. They had taken their time walking around in the city where they'd landed, but had found no clue as to where a possible nest of heartless could be. In fact, this world seemed to not yet have been attacked by the shadows, which was both surprising and a little disappointing to Kairi. It wasn't like she wanted to fight the things – she'd rather not fight at all actually – but she had expected to be needed in every place they'd go to and seeing how fast the heartless had spread the last time they were loose in the worlds, she had sort of expected them to be all over the place.
She gazed out into the green area in front of them, seeing children at play in the sunlight, their parents watching them with careful eyes from a short distance or joining them in their games. This place was strangely peaceful. It was as if there was no danger there at all, and still she had this nagging feeling in her chest that she'd better get ready and be on her watch. Darkness was touching this world in a strangely invisible way, like leaking gas that slowly poisoned the surroundings without the inhabitants knowing it – until it was too late.
"Astrid, can you feel that?" she asked as she tried to focus her eyes on a distant tree branch where she thought she'd seen a squirrel.
"Feel what? The heat? The boredom?" the blonde asked with a tired expression in her face as she stared at basically nothing at all.
Kairi narrowed her eyes, not really noticing her friend's uninterested tone of voice. "No, not like that. I mean that strange pressure in the air… as if something of immense power is coming this way…"
Astrid gave her a look that told her she was acting rather stupid according to the viking. "That pressure is called approaching thunder, Kairi."
Kairi just shook her head in response and was going to explain what she meant, when she spotted Hauru walking up to them with three cans of cooled soda in his hands and waved for him to see where they were.
"Do you sense that strangeness in the air?" he asked as soon as he got to them, handing over the desired drinks to the girls. Astrid stared wide-eyed at him.
"Seriously, what's with the two of you? Have you never felt thunder before?"
Both Kairi and Hauru glared back at her.
"It's not thunder, Astrid," Kairi said and took a sip of the soda, grimacing as the sugary taste touched her lips. This would surely make her thirstier than before and it tasted of fake berries – way too sweet to actually contain the fruit it proclaimed it was supposed to taste like.
"It's darkness," Hauru finished for her, setting his eyes on something further up the path. "And a pretty large mass of it too. But it's like it's only halfway inside this world…"
Astrid gulped down her drink, looked longingly on Kairi's can and repeated the procedure with that one when Kairi willingly gave it to her, having had enough of the sweetened and carbonated water.
"Halfway? What do you mean? Like, one foot on each side of the door or something?" she asked, a bit confused and handed the two empty cans to Hauru, who disposed of them in a trashcan next to him.
"More like it's here in spirit and mind, but not in flesh. I can't really say how that could ever be, but that's what it feels like," the magician explained in a low voice. "And the sensation is growing stronger by the minute."
"I don't feel anything," Astrid said with a shrug. "Are you sure the heat isn't getting to you?"
Kairi shook her head and was about to answer, when she heard a shrill shriek of an otherworldly quality that made her bones freeze, despite the summer heat of the sun. She instantly turned towards the sound and started running, followed by Hauru, who'd heard it as well, and a rather confused Astrid.
"Could you please tell me what's happening!" she demanded as she got up next to Kairi, running as fast as she could to keep up with the red-haired girl. Kairi was surprisingly fast once she had her mind set on running.
"A sound. Heartless. Probably," came the chopped up answer as Kairi focused on breathing and running, rather than speaking.
Astrid figured she'd find out sooner or later and kept running in silence. No one in the park seemed to have heard the same thing as Kairi and Hauru though, as all looked rather surprised as the three of them ran past at the top of their speed.
When they came to a wide clearing, with nothing but soft, light green grass covering the ground for a number of yards, both Kairi and Hauru made an instant halt, Astrid almost running into Kairi as they did. She was about to ask them why they'd stopped so suddenly, when the both of them bent their heads backwards, as if looking up at something really, really big.
"Astrid," Kairi said, her voice a bit shivering. "Are you certain that you don't see that thing?"
Astrid looked in the same direction as her friends, but saw nothing but a blue sky and a soft puffy cloud drifting slowly to the right.
"What exactly is it that I'm not seeing?" she then asked, starting to get a bit scared by the serious expressions in her friends' faces. "Is it a heartless?"
"Not quite…" Hauru said slowly, his eyes narrowing in concentration as he searched his mind for a fitting collection of spells to use.
Kairi could only agree with Hauru. What was standing on the field wasn't quite a heartless, but in one way it still was. It was huge; way larger than Akkakabouto and bigger than any heartless Kairi could remember seeing from before. It had two thick legs, ending in needle point stumps instead of feet. Two muscular arms that were longer and bigger than the legs supported the forward slumping body, a massive creation, though relatively short. Between the wide shoulders was a large head, covered by a gleaming white mask looking very much like the imitation of a human skull, with two glowing yellow orbs showing behind the vicious looking eye slits of the mask. The entire creature was about as tall as a ten story building, and as wide as a barn was long, the body a shifting shade of shadowy black, making the mask covering its face all the more brilliant. As it moved forward a step, a large hole in its chest was visible.
"That's one BIG heartless…" Kairi mumbled as her keyblade flashed into existence in her outstretched hand. The weapon had somehow changed, which all three of them noticed as Kairi raised it in a battle ready position. The hilt was wrapped with a wide leather strap and in the junction between hilt and blade, was a five-spiked star of silver. On each side of the star two silvery white metal handles stretched out in a smooth curl that followed the length of the hilt and ended in a fine point at the exact position of the bottom of the hilt, but not joining with it. The blade was of the same silvery white metal as the handles, shining brightly in the sunlight and revealing an almost invisible pattern of paw prints leading up to the key head. This was in the shape of an innumerable mass of sharp needles of silver stretching out from the blade in a neat bow on one of its sides, with an eight-spiked star at its center. And last, but not least, the Falling Star key chain hung from the bottom of the hilt.
"Fancy," Astrid whistled as she admired the weapon. "Are you sure you can fight with it?"
Kairi squeezed the hilt with both of her hands, feeling a strange but most welcome flow of power seeping into her from the weapon.
"I'm more than sure about it," she said and gave her friend a small smile.
Suddenly she spotted a movement just below the giant beast of a heartless. Someone was already fighting it. A young man in a black outfit with wide arms and legs was speeding back and forth in front of the creature while it tried to hit him with its colossal fists. He was fast though, way faster than the heartless and he seemed experienced as well. With a swift and graceful movement he drew the sword he'd kept in a full body length scabbard across his back and Kairi was surprised at how big the sword actually was once it was freed. Black metal gleamed in the sun as the weapon was cutting through the air, connecting with its target and sweeping back into position for another attack.
"Hauru, can you see that guy over there, with orange red hair?" Kairi asked slowly.
"He's fighting it," Hauru confirmed.
"And he can hurt it," Kairi added. "But he can't kill it."
"So, what are you waiting for? Go help the invisible man fight the invisible monster!" Astrid said with a grunt. "I'll try to keep sane people from walking into the area… somehow…"
"Err, am I right in hearing that you guys can see that thing?"
All three turned on their heels, and both Kairi and Hauru had to blink in surprise at the guy facing them. If they hadn't known better, this was the same guy they had just seen fighting the monster on the open field, the orange hair more than enough working as a mark of recognition, even though this version was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a wide red stripe across the chest.
"Uhm, yes?" Kairi managed to press from her lips, a bit uncertain as to what she should say. "And you are…?"
The guy broke up in a relieved smile that reached his ears and put his hands on his jean clad hips.
"I'm Kon! Boy, am I glad to hear that! Now I'm not gonna' be the only loon around here. I'm supposed to help Ichigo chase off those stupid enough to walk by the fighting field, but I'm only one guy… And if you can see the thing, maybe you know how to fight it too? 'Cause seriously, Ichigo could use a little help with this one."
Kairi looked at Hauru, making a quick decision as she spotted another rough attack being barely dodged in the background. She gave the orange-haired guy a quick nod.
"Me and Hauru will fight it with him. Astrid here can help you keep everybody else safe." And with that, she turned around and started running towards the heartless and the newcomer's look-alike, her keyblade raised in an attack-ready position.
The guy who'd presented himself as Kon gave Astrid a quick look up and down, then sighed in a disappointed manner.
"Of course I got stuck with the flat-chest one…"
Astrid formed a tight fist around the hilt of the broad sword hanging in its hilt at her waist and gave him an angry stare.
"One more word like that and you'll be flat in another area," she growled and the guy gulped, backing off a number of steps with almost impossible speed.
Kairi let the strike raid loose as soon as she was within a striking distance and kept running towards the guy that Kon had called Ichigo. The closer she got, the more she was confused by the identical looks of the two orange haired guys.
As the keyblade hit its mark, Kairi was close enough to feel what she had missed out on before she was close enough to distinguish the powerful aura of the heartless beast from another force. Ichigo was letting out an aura of immense power, but as great as it was, it was without any real restraints. He simply seemed to use it without really knowing that he did. Kairi caught the returning keyblade and sent it off once more as the creature turned to attack her. She felt something more about Ichigo that seemed a bit…off… he didn't seem entirely solid as she looked at him. She got the same feeling from the heartless. It was as if none of the two actually was there…
Ichigo turned towards Kairi in a surprised manner as his dark eyes followed the Falling Star key back to its wielder. Then he made a grimace as he saw the girl and the tall magician that had come to help him.
"What do you think you're doing? Get the hell out of here if you wanna' stay alive!" he burst out and jumped away from the gargantuan fist that came down right where he had been standing a moment before.
Kairi snorted and shot him an annoyed glare as she fueled her weapon with the light power inside her heart.
"We're here to help you and you'll need our help if you're ever going to get out of this fight alive!" she retorted as the Falling Star started to shine with a bright silver light. "Hauru!" she called out and the magician nodded in response, picking up a pinch of a lilac colored powder from one of the pouches he wore hanging from his belt, muttering something that only he could hear, before letting the powder fall from his hand as he ran, creating a strange pattern on the grass around the heartless. He ran as if carried by the wind and before the monster knew what was happening, Hauru was back at its front, having created a wide circle around it. He then turned to Kairi with urgency written in his entire face.
"Now! Before it moves!"
Kairi took three wide steps and jumped high in the air, getting a boost from the power her keyblade was filled with and with a summersault in the air, she landed with the key down, driving it hard into the ground right inside the magic circle and released the light stored within it. The Light Blast shook the ground, enhanced by the magic of Hauru's spell, it also lit up the sky with a blinding white light so intense it gave off the heat equivalent to a roaring fire.
Ichigo just stood back for a moment and gaped at the display of power, but he didn't let go of his sword, still keeping it ready. For some reason he didn't believe that this thing would be beaten so easily.
As the light faded, the monstrosity inside the circle was still standing there, only its body was cracking up, the black revealing a deeper darkness underneath the cracking shell: a darkness filled with yellow specks that told of an innumerous mass of smaller heartless that had taken residence inside the big one. The white mask then split in half, one part falling to the ground with a loud bang, turning into wafts of smoke as soon as it had landed. Two long antennas rolled out from behind the creature's neck as it turned its yellow eyes towards the two who had caused this damage, the half mask covering the right side of its face creating an odd image of a grinning ghost.
"Ha-Hauru…" Kairi stuttered and took a step away from the monster. "That thing's got more heartless inside of it!"
Hauru nodded solemnly as his eyes missed nothing.
"They are the real heartless. They're using this other creature as a shell, parasiting on it… or perhaps…"
"Perhaps what?" Kairi asked with growing uncomfort as the monster started to move, slowly breaking the binding spell Hauru had put on it.
"It might be that the two parties have come together as a symbiotic creation…"
"Meaning?"
Hauru grimaced with displeasure and took a step back himself as he saw the beginning of a crack in the spell.
"They're allies. They work together to achieve what they want. The heartless craves the hearts and light of people, the other creature…"
"It's a hollow."
Kairi and Hauru both turned to look at Ichigo who came up to them, carrying his large sword leisurely over one shoulder. "The thing that those shadows have teamed up with, as you put it, is a hollow. The remains of a lost soul, an evil spirit, that seeks to take the souls of the living."
Hauru nodded in sudden understanding.
"Seems like they're two of a kind," he hummed and shot the soon free monster a worried look. "Talk about bad luck."
Ichigo stared grimly at Kairi and Hauru, his eyes telling of uncertainty as it came to his options of trusting or discarding the two of them.
"Who are you? And how come you can see me and this thing?"
Kairi blinked.
"You mean we shouldn't be able to?"
Ichigo was about to say something in response, when a thunder was heard and Hauru's spell fell under the pressure of the monstrosity inside the barrier.
"I guess he wants to play," Ichigo said, his face set as he swung his sword into position. "No more talking now. You know how to beat the shadow things inside of it?"
Kairi and Hauru nodded in response, the former raising her keyblade while the latter reached for another of his belt pouches.
"Good, then you focus on those and I'll bring down the hollow."
With that the three of them jumped into action as the monster spotted them and began to smash its big fist into the ground in a try to obliterate them. Ichigo went up front, jumped high and swung his sword home in a long slice along the full length of one of the arms as he descended from the high point of his jump. Kairi and Hauru went the other direction, aiming for the large crack in the creature's left thigh, where the most heartless were visible. As Kairi loaded her weapon with power, Hauru cast a spell to contain the shadows, rendering them unable to move as the strike raid hit its mark. But as the keyblade returned, the heartless that had vanished were quickly replaced by others and the crack in the thigh grew bigger. Another hit made the shell that was the leg fall to the ground, vanishing completely, as the mass of heartless started to pour out from the open wound like a flood of living black blood.
Kairi quickly ran away from where she had been standing, as the heartless instantly went for her brightly shining heart and Hauru followed her example, sending off compact balls of air to keep the shadows at a distance.
"There's no end to them!" Kairi called out in desperation as she tried hard to think of what to do.
"And this bastard just won't give up either," Ichigo huffed as he jumped aside to avoid another powerful blow of the giant's fist. "I think the shadows keep the hollow alive somehow, or else it would have been gone once the mask was cracked."
Kairi swung the keyblade in a wide slash around her, using the Light Scythe to take out even more of the enemies in the backwash of her attack.
"Why are the bad guys always so big and powerful?" she asked him with annoyance clear in her voice as she renewed the grip on her weapon.
"Because bad guys love uneven fights. We just have to beat them at their own game," he replied with a crooked smile on his lips, looking for all the world like he actually enjoyed the thought of it all. "They wanna' win," he continued as he swung his large sword into position again, "but so do I, and I'm way stronger than them."
Once again, Kairi felt that immense surge of power flow out of Ichigo as he gripped his sword… no… it was more than a sword, she realized. It was his soul. Sharpened into a weapon, making it easier to use in a fight, but still, what this strange guy was doing was basically risking all he had, to save people he didn't even know, from this evil spirit of this world. How he was doing it, she didn't know, but she was guessing, neither did he. He simply did what he could and what he thought was right, using whatever weapon he could to do so.
Suddenly Kairi came to realize that Ichigo's sword and her keyblade were very much alike, even though while his was a manifestation of his soul, her weapon was one of her heart. She looked at the Falling Star and noticed its unique shape, the spikes forming the key head shimmering like wet glass in the sunlight, reacting to her power-flow with a glow from within their cores. Ichigo's sword had seemed to grow as he'd released more of his soul's power, and as Kairi let more of her light go into the keyblade, the silvery spikes grew longer and sharper and she felt a new pattern for an attack taking shape in her mind as the keyblade responded to her acting.
With a firm grip on the leather clad hilt she stopped running away from the horde of heartless chasing her and turned on her heel, facing them with her shining keyblade at the ready.
"Here goes…" she mumbled as she let go of her restraints and the full power of her light rushed into the weapon, making the spikes at its top light up like flare rods, the light creating a soft glow that spread as she moved her arms back in a swing behind her back.
"Rain of stars!" she called out as she moved the keyblade back forward and the brightly shining spikes set off from the blade, raining over the mass of shadows in numerous flashes of light, each needle turning a number of heartless into black mist the instant it hit. As Kairi swung the blade back in the other direction, the spikes were re-collected, re-charged and ready to be sent off again in her second swing.
The body of the merged hollow-heartless began to tremble as the inner structure was wrecked by Kairi's success and Ichigo saw his chance to finish the thing off, swinging his sword across the lowered face of the monster and thus slicing the remains of the mask in two. The mask fell to the ground, leaving the heartless' face bare for an attack and Hauru grabbed a hold on Kairi's waist.
"Sorry about this, but you have to do it," he said to her as she turned to him with a surprised look on her face. With a high leap, Hauru called for the air to solidify underneath his feet, weaving the spell faster than he'd ever done it before, willing it into success as he started to climb the invisible steps that lifted the two of them to the location of the creature's head.
Kairi noticed the flow of dark energy around the body of the heartless and spotted the weakest point, just like Hauru had, once the mask had fallen. Without saying anything about it, Kairi raised the Falling Star and aimed it towards the heartless crest in the middle of the creature's forehead.
A bright beam of silver light shot forth from the blade, connected with the heartless and exploded into a burst of light. Hauru took the both of them down slowly as the shimmering remains of the attack fell to the grass below and the massive beast that had been there only a moment ago was turning into dust. Nothing was left of it as Kairi and Hauru touched the ground again.
"I didn't know you could do that," Kairi said once Hauru let go of her waist.
"Do what? Walk on air? It's really not that hard," Hauru replied with a grin, glad and relieved that his magic had worked this time.
Ichigo walked up to them while sheathing his sword, the expression in his face going from grim to surprised as he seemingly relaxed for the first time since they'd met.
"You two did pretty well there. I've never seen anything quite like it though. And how come you know how to get rid of the shadows? I've been fighting them for weeks without doing much more than momentarily harming them somewhat. "
Kairi felt dizzy as she turned to answer him and took a deep breath, letting the keyblade go back inside her.
"Let's just say we're not from around here," she said with a weak smile, before closing her eyes, the exhaustion taking out its price on her as she fell to the ground and embraced the rest offered by unconsciousness.