Kokoro no Hanashi
(see disclaimer in the Prelude)
I've been having these weird thoughts lately…
Like is any of this for real or not?
Somewhere within himself, Kiri wondered when his aimless drifting had become a fall.
He had lain still, wrapped in deep and dreamless warmth, until suddenly the bottom had dropped out from under him and off his consciousness had gone. He wasn't entirely sure what this was, though, or why it was happening—or even if it was real. He felt hazy, as though if he were upright he would be standing astride the clearly marked line between dreams and wakefulness.
He felt—truly felt—the gentle wind tumbling through his hair, teasing his clothes, as he fell. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open his eyes and could barely even move his fingertips.
Was he dying? Was this what death was like? If that was the case—then Kiri thought it wasn't so bad. There were worse things in the world than to drift and drift in perfect peace and never land.
A jolt—or a pulse—seized his heart, and ripped at it, and he opened his eyes with a gasp.
He didn't know where he was. He had been half-aware of the things he'd seen before he'd went to sleep—snow, and darkness, and a staircase—but he had no idea where this was. As Kiri looked around wildly, he saw that there was a thick forest behind him, dominated by impressively large oaks and aspens, and pines with needles so dark they seemed almost blue. He was past its strangely defined border, on bald ground, which—he saw as he turned a bit to his left—dropped away in a bowl-like cliff only a few yards behind him, to more forest, crystalline lakes, and an immense and awesomely angry storm-torn sky.
His heart in his throat and adrenaline screaming through his blood, Kiri turned.
And almost crumpled straight to the ground at what he saw there.
A slender tongue of land extended over the wide pocket of water, earth, and forest in the cliff's craterlike bowl, looking almost like a crooked, beckoning finger—and at its lip stood Kumo.
Kiri let out a strangled cry and knew it would do him absolutely no good—Kumo had no heart, and as he stood there with those heartbreakingly lovely wings, in that flimsy sheath of yellow and spring green even he damn well had to have been poured into, he wouldn't understand his beloved's words.
But after a pause that felt like centuries, Kumo turned to face him, the listless sway of his body like the slow first step of a waltz. Kiri's heart shuddered and squeezed in pain within his chest as Kumo's blank blue eyes met his, as the two of them were connected by that dispassionate and uncomprehending stare.
Hot tears built behind his eyes, but none fell.
Before Kiri could move or speak or even think, the ground shuddered beneath him, and groaned, and tilted, so that he was suddenly struggling for purchase on a nearly vertical incline. Kumo, unable to struggle, simply fell. Their bodies hit in a bone-wrenching shock; Kiri screamed out an oath and wrapped his arms firmly around Kumo's frail shoulders and waist. Gathering his brother to him, and feeling his toes starting to slip against the unyielding dirt, Kiri gritted his teeth and hung on, stubbornly refusing to fall. The delicate, butterfly's-wing flutter of Kumo's breath at his shoulder was enough to decide it for him.
He couldn't—wouldn't—let his beloved down like this.
Just as suddenly, the earth groaned again and righted itself—but even more shockingly, Kiri felt Kumo's fingertips move against his back—then clench desperately in the fabric of his cape—and then those limp arms suddenly found a viselike grip around Kiri's body.
Unwilling even to breathe, Kiri took hold of Kumo's shoulders and brought them a few inches apart. Kumo was trembling, staring desperately into his brother's face… and his eyes were beautifully, miraculously green.
Kiri let out a wild cry and clutched Kumo desperately to him as his beloved began to sob. The tears were back—and spilling freely—but Kiri paid them no mind. He just held on as tightly as he could, until they had to pull apart for want of air. Kumo was smiling—even laughing—as he cried; Kiri whispered endearments in the ancient language of their people, the heart's language, and caressed his brother's face. And then, in a rush, they were clinging tightly to each other once more, and kissing desperately.
Reality and dreams hazed and faded. They were of no importance. This was Kumo here with him, the real Kumo—his angel's face, his silken-soft lips, the lovely hands that had twined into Kiri's long hair in naked need—and nothing else mattered.
Kiri's entire body thrilled to the beat of their hearts and gave himself over to his desire, to the fierce joy of simply holding Kumo safe and sound. His beloved's eyes were as hazy and intoxicating as liquid morphine, and his kisses were like heaven.
Kiri shuddered and moaned into Kumo's lips. He wanted sex; he wanted to lie with Kumo in a soft bed and sleep entwined with him through an entire day; he wanted—to somehow wrap all the love and security in the world up and put it in a box so he could place it in Kumo's hands. He wanted this moment to go on forever.
Kumo sighed and settled into Kiri's embrace with a smile, leaning his cheek against Kiri's broad but sloped shoulder. Kiri smiled back and stroked his brother's soft hair, rocking him gently where they stood.
But when he looked up, at the rest of the world around them—
Kiri cried out, and as Kumo jolted in his arms, confused and alarmed, he shoved his brother behind him, staring horrorstruck into the sky. Kumo saw it too, and clung close to Kiri's back, taking what solace he could from being shielded.
It was—impossible. But it was happening.
Kiri felt for a moment his consciousness split into two, come together, and then split again as he watched himself falling from the sky, unresisting and more than half asleep, unconcerned despite the speed of descent. He knew he should get out of the way, hurry with Kumo and escape this strange paradox, but he was rooted to the ground and couldn't move.
Impact—the two halves of Kiri's body fused into one, and the world burst into liquid, yielding and transparent. Kumo grabbed onto his hand and tried to pull, panicked, but their fingers slipped apart and as Kumo knelt down slamming his fists into the transparent wall that separated them and crying out Kiri's name, down he went, until everything went dark blue and then black.
Kiri struggled against oblivion all the way. He couldn't move—but he could fight this. He would be damned if he would just let this—this whatever-it-was—just happen to him without resisting it a little.
But suddenly, whatever kept him still eased enough for him to right himself, and his feet hit something solid.
Staring around, Kiri still couldn't see anything—but as he took one step, the blackness beneath him fractured and peeled away like flakes of a shed skin, flying away into the darkness with the form of pure white birds.
Kiri watched the doves depart in wonder, even as one shed feather drifted down and teased his cheek before blowing off into the void.
Shaking himself, Kiri squinted and then looked around, down at the bright light beneath him.
As his eyes adjusted, he found himself staring at… at…
…at the huge and circular stained-glass image of a strange but familiar woman in white…
---
"You're really good at this, Ai!"
Wiping sweat off her forehead, Ai let go of her bowstring and turned to Riku, grinning. "Heh… you really think so?"
The brunette burst out laughing and pointed down at the target, which displayed the ten or so arrows Ai had just shot clustered at the palm-sized red dot of its center. "You've got to be kidding me! Don't get all modest—you're really awesome. I think you're probably a better shot than everyone else here, maybe even some of the teachers too!"
Now Ai really did blush. "Now I know you're making fun of me. I'm good—but not that good."
Riku just stuck her tongue out at her friend. "If you say so. Still, you're the best shot out of anyone our age I've ever met."
Ai waved a hand, embarrassed. "Oh, please."
Riku just laughed; Ai let her. Even though it had only been two days since they'd first met, to Ai it already seemed like she'd known Riku for a long time. It was just a tiny bit unbelievable how fast they'd clicked—but then again, it was also unbelievable how much they had in common.
They were both fourteen years old and more interested in perfecting their martial skills than in makeup, guys, and dating, as most other girls their age were. They were both open and friendly people who had wasted no time in getting to know each other. And they were even both twins, which amused Riku to no end (her twin sister Risa, she'd told Ai, was currently at a Church of Angelus to the south, studying to be a cleric).
Ai had soon found herself invited to the school where Riku was training, and met the rest of her class (who were mostly guys, to both of their disappointment). Riku had explained that she, like all the others here, had been taking lessons since her twelfth birthday—apparently this place didn't accept students any younger than that. Once they graduated at age eighteen, they would join the ranks of the rest of the city's guard or become one of their captains—the knights.
In Ai's opinion, this school gave a pretty interesting education. Students were taught in the use of different kinds of swords, pole arms, knives, and any other close combat weapon they chose, and were also expected to learn archery, basic tactics, and how to work the really big stuff like ballista, cannons, and catapults. If more towns and villages had had places like this, maybe more people would've been able to stand up and do something when the Heartless had come, for instance… and it would also help the minor villages on fiefdoms to defend against ordinary stuff like bandits, which would keep the main castles from having to send their knights to play baby-sitter. It made too much sense not to be set up everywhere it could.
When things finally got back to normal, Ai would make certain her dad decided to make one back home—that was for sure.
"So when did you start learning to use a bow, anyway?"
Ai shrugged. "I was about ten or so."
Riku groaned and flopped onto her back. "I knew it. That's why you're so good—you have a huge head start on everybody else here! I'm jealous." And she giggled. "I can't shoot worth beans. I can hardly even bend the bow."
Ai snorted. "You wave a big hunk of metal around so much, though!"
Riku stuck her tongue out again. "Maybe so, but I can't pull and hold like you have to with a bow." And she kicked her feet in the air. "Besides, you can't use a sword anyway."
"I just never wanted to learn how," Ai retorted with a huff.
"Well, that's good, 'cause if you were nearly as good with one as you are with that bow, the rest of us would be out of a job," Riku teased, and rolled over. "Seriously, though… why did you decide on the bow? It seems like a lot of hassle to go through."
Ai shrugged, and smiled. "Well… part of it was, I just wanted to be good at something other than sitting around and being presentable, like any good noble girl should be. Besides, there was no way I was going to be a diplomat like Mom and Dad—Yu was always the one who could read people, not me. And then when I was eight, this man came through town…
"He was a traveler from another country, that much I knew. But I wasn't very interested until he decided to take place in a tournament that was going around. He was an archer—the first really good archer I'd ever seen. He hit the target dead center every single time he shot, and I remember that at the end of the competition, they had to cut the arrowheads out of the target with a knife.
"I just kept thinking, wow, I want to be like that someday. I want to be so good at something that I can amaze people. And I started watching when the castle archers trained. Then for my next birthday, my parents gave me my own bow and said I could start learning myself once I was old enough."
"That's really cool," Riku said, and sat up. "Nothing really inspired me too much to come here. I just wanted to be strong so that I could make bullies stop picking on my sister so she would stop being such an idiot about it."
"Well, that's not a bad reason to learn to fight either," Ai told her, and they both laughed. "I've never seen Daisuke here, though. It's kind of weird. I mean, he's not an artist or a mage or whatever Satoshi is—so why doesn't he come here and get his own training? I'm sure there's somebody he wants to take care of."
"Well…" Riku just shook her head at that. "Daisuke… can't become part of the guard, since he's going to be joining his family's business."
"You mean… he's going to be an innkeeper?" Ai tried to picture it, and failed. "Maybe the innkeeper's gofer. But an actual innkeeper? No way."
"Yes and no," was Riku's cryptic reply. "I'll tell you more about it later. I have to get back to drills or else my teacher's gonna get mad at me."
And, leaving Ai sitting puzzled on the sidelines, she got up and headed back towards the other students in her group.
---
So little time, and so much to do…
Where to begin…?
Kiri shivered a little as the words echoed through him. He didn't immediately recognize the speaker, but the voice felt so familiar to him that he almost didn't care. It was strange… he didn't even really hear the words with his ears—rather, they seemed to issue forth from somewhere deep within his own heart.
Slowly and carefully, he looked around. Except for the steady glow of the stained glass beneath his feet, the entire place was pitch black—he couldn't tell where he was, or where its walls… if it had walls… ended. Glancing up, he saw a second glow of light—a circle of stained glass, high above him, emblazoned with a beautiful blue flower-like pattern (what did they call those? Rosettes? He couldn't remember) and shining tantalizingly above, making Kiri feel dizzy.
Did I… did I fall through there? The thought made Kiri's stomach clench uneasily. The panel looked solid enough now. It was all too possible that it was a one-way portal, or whatever… he could be stuck down here for all he knew.
All journeys begin with a single step.
This time, Kiri jerked fearfully, determined to find the source of the voice. His breathing quickened, and he felt his palms go slick even as a chill crossed his back.
Do not be afraid.
The voice was filled with compassion now, as if it sensed Kiri's panic.
All it takes is one step. Move forward, Kiri Madoushi—do it of your own free will.
Kiri bit his lip, steadied himself, and slowly walked to the center of the stained-glass dais, looking up like an uncertain child waiting for either approval or a reprimand.
No words followed his actions, but a deep well of supportive warmth flooded his body, taking him by surprise. There was a kind of love here—but more than that, comfort and reassurance. It felt—almost like being held by a loved one, and it touched something deep inside Kiri that he thought had long since gone cold.
Spirals of colored light rose from the stained glass, forming three pedestals—and upon each rested a battered weapon. Kiri stared uncertainly for a moment, then headed to the middle one.
There was a shield on it—old, and covered in the dents and marks of impacts it had deflected. But its reversed side was padded in leather that was still tough, and the brace that would attach it to your arm looked sturdy. This was a dependable piece of armor, Kiri judged—and probably one you could actually use to hit the bad guy upside the head when he wasn't looking, too.
The shield of patience… honor, friendship, and trust lie within it.
Though it may be old, as long as its wearer has faith in it and his companions, it will never fail.
Kiri listened to the words, then set the shield back down and went to investigate the pedestal to his right, on which rested a long, metallic rod with a spherical, dark blue crystal at its head. There was the faintest crackle of magical energy inside that crystal; Kiri guessed that this had been owned by some powerful spellcaster once, no matter how plain it might seem now. When he picked it up, it was cold in his hands, and something inside him recognized this staff as a very old artifact.
This is the staff of ruin.
There was an irony in the voice that piqued Kiri's curiosity. "What… do you mean?"
Knowledge, and the need for it… the truth so cold and clear that it cuts…
This is the road down which very few have the heart to travel, for they fear to know what lies at its end.
Kiri set the rod back down and rubbed his arms to soothe the uneasy prickle there. What lay at the end of the road he chose to travel…?
He shook his head. It would be better not to wonder, he decided. On the other side of that question lay madness. So instead, he went to the last of the pedestals, upon which rested a sword.
Its metal had a strange golden sheen, and it was clearly ancient, with little hairline cracks along the edges. But when Kiri tested it against the pad of his thumb, a line of blood welled up there without him even feeling the cut. Kiri thought he felt the sword's hilt hum slightly in his hand as if in anticipation, then discarded the notion as the voice spoke again.
This is the sword of destruction.
Go figure. Swords were meant to kill—that was something Kiri and every other Mystarian swordsman knew, despite the fact that fighting was an art in their homeland. But he stayed silent, and listened.
This blade is the chariot of war; its steel is the kiss of death.
None living or dead can escape the power it holds.
Despite the words of the voice, the sword felt comfortable in Kiri's hands. It was of similar size and balance to his Maken—which was absent from his belt, as were his Mist bottles—and although it didn't ooze love and support as his own blade did, it had a certain… eagerness to please, as if it was the kid who always got picked last for tag, and now that it was in someone's hands was anxious to show what it could do.
You must choose one to take with you, one to leave behind, and one to discard completely.
Kiri swung the sword a little. It felt right in his hands, even if it wasn't as familiar to him as his Maken, and he couldn't help but be charmed by the puppyish feeling he got from it.
Back when he was a child in Mystaria, Kiri had taken great pride in his parents and their families. His mother's parents had died before he was born, but he had been able to meet his father's father once, and he would never forget that day.
Kon Kageshi was one of the best swordsmen in all of Mystaria, but while his mother had been a warrior like him, his father was an accomplished smith who enjoyed bringing swords into the world instead of into battle. The only time he had ever come to visit, he had brought his tools along with him, as well as several old, broken, or ownerless swords which had completely fascinated his grandson. Kiri had picked each up and could tell a little bit about them—some were happy, some tired, some still aching for a fight or to be held in the hands of their long-departed masters.
"This boy," his grandfather had told his parents, "is going to become a swordsman or a smith when he grows up. He knows swords—and he can feel them. He's got the love—and they respond to that. You mark my words, he'll be a great man one day."
Kiri had proven himself to be an utter disaster at the forge, but swordsmanship was his passion, and the only thing he loved more than it was Kumo. And no matter what warnings came with this sword, he knew in his heart that it was a weapon he could trust.
"I'll take this," he said aloud, as if it hadn't been decided from the second he'd picked it up. He turned to the other two pedestals, considered his options for a moment, and then headed to the shield. "And I don't need this."
Are you certain?
"I don't feel comfortable hiding behind anything," Kiri said with a sigh. "If I have to defend myself, I'll defend myself with my sword. And if I can't handle the job myself… then so be it. I don't matter, anyway. Saving Kumo is more important than I am. And besides…"
Besides?
"Well… if I can't count on me to defend myself, there's always my friends. I protect them with my sword, and so I know that if I need them to help me, I can count on them to take care of me when I can't."
There was a brief silence, and then the shield dissolved into silvery dust as the outlines of something tall and rectangular shimmered at the edge of the dais.
It was a door, Kiri noted as it solidified.
He took a deep breath, and as his heart began pound, he walked past the pedestals with the sword in hand, opened it, and stepped through.
---
"Hey."
Aura sat up with a grimace, casting a jaundiced eye over her intruding friend. "Give it," she demanded, pointing to the mugs of mulled cider in Fabula's hands.
Laughing, Fabula pulled up a chair, sat, and handed Aura one. "Here. I take it that you're still not feeling any better?"
Aura made a face, then drank. "The hell do you think?" she asked dryly, flicking her hair over her shoulders. "I'm not going to so much as poke my nose outside; cold weather just makes headaches worse. I'll stay in here where it's nice and warm and dark, thanks—that snow is so bright it hurts my eyes."
Fabula shrugged. "According to Lisa, you don't really seem to be sick," she related. "In my opinion, it seems more like you're having some kind of allergic reaction to the magic that's protecting this town. You'll probably get better when we leave… though, if you like, you can go back to Lukahn to stay with the Comodeen until Kiri wakes. No one would think any less of you for it."
Aura groaned, set her mug down, and rolled over. "Thanks, but unless I suddenly start breaking out in hives, I think I can deal with it. After all… anything for our fearless leader."
"So long as you know the option is open," Fabula told her, then smiled. "You certainly are warming up to Kiri these days."
"It's just too weird having him as a dependent," Aura said, making a face. "Sure, he's a pain in the ass most of the time, but seeing him after what that bitch did to him… well, hell, nobody deserves that. I've never seen a man look that fragile before, and I don't think I ever want to again. It's a little creepy, knowing that she hurt him so badly that he had to shut down just to stay sane. Part of me is just mad at him for not letting anybody else in on his suffering, but… really, I just want him to get better so that I can yell at him for causing us all so much trouble."
In other words, she was genuinely worried for Kiri's sake, Fabula translated, touched. "Taking on too much to handle alone seems to run in Kiri's family. His parents and Kumo can be just like that, too… although, Kumo is a little more like Lisa in that whenever something's wrong, he'll only smile and tell you not to worry. It's easy to tell that he's lying, even so, but…" She shook her head. "Anyway, as long as you can hold out for the next half week or so, you should be fine. I'm just relieved that Kiri is getting the help he needs. He's stubborn and a little too sensitive for his own sake, but he's a good child."
"Huh." A strange expression crossed Aura's face. "He would be that to you, wouldn't he? After all, even if none of us really think about it, the age difference between you and the rest of us means that you're a lot older, wiser, and more experienced than anyone else in our group." Sitting up, Aura propped her face in her hand and gave Fabula a sidelong, considering look. "Is that the way you look at the rest of us, too?"
"Not at all," Fabula replied, confused. "I watched Kiri grow up—he's like a brother or a son to me, the same as Kumo. I didn't meet any of the rest of you until we joined forces at Sephira. I've only known all of you as adults—except for Ai, of course. And… you're a lot more mature than Kiri is. He's a good boy, but he's lived his life so sheltered that he's hopelessly idealistic and naïve. You, on the other hand, have enough experience with the world that you and I can understand each other on the same level. …You're my friend, and I'm hardly an ageist, anyway. Thousands of years may stand in between our ages, but that won't get in the way of our relationship unless we let it."
"I see." Aura continued to watch her with a pensive expression for a few moments, then made a face and flopped into the bedclothes. "…Gah. My head hurts…"
Fabula smiled wryly. "I should leave you to your rest, then. I'll come back up with food later, alright?" And she excused herself from her friend's room, closing the door behind her and shaking her head as she thought to herself, Now what was that all about?
---
Kiri blinked and looked around, absolutely puzzled.
He'd walked through that strange door and gone from the strange, almost-familiar realm of darkness and stained glass to one of the mostly-ruined buildings of Mystaria at midday.
He recognized it immediately, of course—this was one of the places where he and Kumo had played as children, and it was popular with all the kids he'd known. In fact, it was a little bit odd not to see anyone around here—
But he'd spoken—or, well, thought—too soon. There were other people here. People he recognized…
Search your heart, and answer truthfully.
That voice again. Kiri made a face and looked around, then took a few steps forward.
It wasn't long until he noticed the other thing that was strange here. Buildings looked bigger, newer than he remembered. As he raised an arm to keep his hair out of his face in a gust of wind, it sunk in—it wasn't that the place was bigger, it was that here, in this… whatever this was… he was a child again. His hair was far shorter, and he was wearing the novice's version of his swordsman's reds—there was only one stripe on the sleeve instead of two, as there were on a graduate's.
Maybe it wasn't really any wonder, then, that the only souls around were his three childhood friends—Kuroi Hoshi, Haiiro Arashi, and Aoi Ame.
Ame was nearest to him—sitting on one of the ruined spirals of stairs—so he headed over to her first. Before he could say anything or ask if she knew what was going on, she leaned forward and spoke.
"What is it you want out of life?"
The serious question in Ame's childish tones was bizarre, but that voice had told Kiri to answer honestly. And, well… what reason was there not to?
"I want…" He hesitated, thought about it. "I want to become strong."
"Why?"
"Because… in my life, there are things I want to protect." Kumo's face flashed automatically into his mind's eye, a painful reminder. "Things that need protection. And I want to know that they're safe, and that it's the work of my own two hands."
"Becoming strong…" Ame repeated, cocking her head and smiling. "Is that really so satisfying?"
Puzzled and annoyed and a little bit doubtful, Kiri looked down, unable to hold her gaze. When he peered up again, she was gone.
Well, he'd known that this wasn't real from the start, but… it still made him feel a little bit cold. With a shiver, he half-walked, half-ran towards Arashi, who was standing in the middle of the plaza where cloud gave way to stone, staring up at the sky.
"What are you afraid of?" she asked, not even looking at him.
Well, that was an easy question to answer. "…Losing." The word even tasted bitter as Kiri spat it out, wrinkling his nose a little in disgust.
"Why?"
"Because it's failing. I hate failing. It means I'm not good enough, and I hate feeling helpless more than anything." He shuddered a little as he said it. He'd felt like that far too much lately.
"Losing…" Arashi repeated slowly, then turned to face him at last, her hazel eyes impassive and uncompromising. "Is that really so frightening?"
Kiri blinked. In the space of milliseconds his eyes were closed, she vanished.
The only one left was Hoshi, leaning against the side of a building and watching Kiri out of his clouded cerulean eyes.
Before Kiri had even gotten all the way over to him, Hoshi was already straightening up and beginning to speak. "What is most important to you?"
Kiri was speechless for a moment at the sheer stupidity of that question. When he'd regained himself, he answered. "Kumo, of course."
"…Really?" Hoshi asked, cocking his head slightly and giving Kiri his best piercing stare.
Feeling his hackles rise, Kiri glowered at the black-haired boy. "Yes. I love him!"
Hoshi smiled a little, and vanished into a soft burst of light. Kiri pulled back, his heart giving an unwelcome jolt in his chest.
A faint tingle ran from the nape of his neck to the small of his back, and he turned to see that another door was slowly beginning to materialize at the top of the shattered staircase where Ame had been.
You want to become strong. You fear losing. The one you love is most important to you.
…Is this correct?
"Yes," Kiri replied, frowning, a bit unnerved. He didn't like having his responses questioned like this.
Then, you may proceed.
The door solidified. As the prickling feeling in his back grew, Kiri bolted for it.
He could see the sky darkening in the corner of his eyes. Although he wouldn't have admitted it out loud, he was afraid to look back.
---
Ai wasn't sure what awakened her that night—a feeling, or some kind of sound, or just the inner sense that everyone seemed to possess at some point in their life.
It was night, and the moon had risen large and full over Fuyushin. Aside from the stars, everything was dark outside, and it wasn't snowing again. Still, Ai couldn't help but have a feeling like something somewhere was very, very wrong—
And then, there was a sharp, ugly sound she'd come to know very well over the past few months—the blunt, ringing clash of steel on steel.
Her heart racing, Ai struggled into clothes, overcoat, and scarf, and grabbed her longbow and quiver, clattering out of her room and down the stairs. She burst out into the open air, gasping, and looked around; soon she saw the two silhouettes of two figures locked in a vicious battle on one of the rooftops.
Both of the figures had wings.
"Wh-what's going on…?" Ai wondered aloud.
"So… it woke you up, huh?"
Ai whirled, shocked: That was Riku's voice. The knight-in-training was leaning against the inn's wall, a sad, resigned-looking expression on her face.
"What are you doing up at this hour?" Ai panted. "And… do you know anything about that? Why are people fighting in this place? Who are they? What in the world is happening here?!"
"…………" Riku looked up at the silent combatants, then back at Ai. "This… is the darker side of Fuyushin… the interfamilial war that's been going on for the past several hundred years."
"…………" Ai turned back towards the fighters. Both of them looked… familiar somehow.
"You've met both the Niwa and Hikari families. And you probably met Krad when you left your friend with Satoshi, right?" Ai nodded; Riku pointed up. "That's Krad up there. And the other one is Daisuke."
"What?" Ai stared. Was this why Krad hated Daisuke so much? But Daisuke had been so polite to Satoshi and Krad at Satoshi's house… Why were they fighting anyway?
"The Hikari clan is a family of artists with special powers. The Niwa clan is a family of thieves who have always stolen Hikari works. Even though the Hikaris can create art that lives, none of them can actually defend themselves. So, Satoshi can't do much other than continue to make things, while Krad fights to keep the Hikari artwork safe.
"But one night every week or so, the current Niwa thief fuses bodies with Dark, and they steal something. Every Niwa in history, back since the conflict started, did it. Daisuke's grandfather did it, and then his mother, and now that's him out there."
"But… why?" Ai asked, confounded. Daisuke, an art thief?
"That's something only the Niwa family really knows," Riku answered sadly. "But I think that in a way, the Niwas can't exist without stealing. Daisuke is different. He's an artist too, but… it's a tradition."
"Wait, wait…" Ai shook her head. "He… does this with Dark, right? But if his mom and his grandpa and other people… how old is Dark?"
"Nobody knows. Dark and Krad aren't human," Riku went on. "They're each half of a piece of art that the Hikaris made. I think Dark is the first thing the Niwas ever stole from them. And I don't know why he always helps the Niwa family if that's true. All I know is that this cycle of the art being made and stolen has been happening since long before I've been born. That it's… something that they say can't be changed, like the snow that engulfs this town. All I know is… that even though it isn't fair and it isn't right, even the people who want to change it can't."
"…………" Ai looked from Riku to Krad and Daisuke, then back. "Why are you out here, if you say nobody can change it, then…?"
Riku turned to her friend with a bitter expression. "Because… I'm really worried about Daisuke doing this," she burst out. "He hates stealing, but he has to, and the longer this goes on, the more Krad hates humans… and I just don't want anyone to get hurt!"
"…Riku…" So that was it. Riku and Daisuke…
"I don't understand why you would come out here, though," Riku said, staring at her. "Normal people can't sense the magic of the Hikari art at all."
Ai looked down at the snow. "…I don't know. I just had a really bad feeling, and then…" Her voice trailed off as she realized what Riku had said: Although she didn't have powers like Kiri or Fabula did, Ai was not a normal person, not in the least.
The only reason she'd come with everyone this far was to be bait, to attract the Heartless. So… that was kind of a dangerous thing for her to forget.
"Ai…?"
"…I don't know. I just woke up all of a sudden, and I guess I heard the noise, so I came out here," she settled on. It wasn't that far from the truth, anyway.
Even with Riku, it would be better not to say. After all, you couldn't take back words once you'd said them, and it was too easy to regret giving up the reason why horribly evil people were after you.
---
When Kiri opened his eyes, he was back in the darkness again, on a curved stairwell leading down to another wide, stained-glass circle. In the middle of it was a table, with a line of small things on it.
As he got closer (he was back to his normal age again here, at least…), Kiri realized what they were: Cards, a little bit longer than the ordinary decks you played games and such with. A stacked deck was sitting in the middle of the table, and six of them lay in a straight line. Their backs were dark blue, littered with gold stars, and there was a rune written in each of the corners that told Kiri what exactly they were: Tarot cards.
"Uh, I don't know how to read fortunes," Kiri said aloud, feeling a little silly as he looked up to address the voice, wherever it came from, and pointing to them.
A definition will be given to you for each. You must interpret them for yourself. Start with the card furthest to your left.
Kiri shrugged and turned the first one over. "The Chariot," he read. The picture portrayed a fair-haired young man driving a pair of sphinxes instead of horses, a sword in his free hand.
This card represents you, the questioner. It symbolizes conquest, aid in times of need, and victory in battle through strength of will.
Not particularly knowing what to think yet, Kiri reached for the next card. Victory through strength of will, huh? He liked the sound of that, and supposed it suited him. But when he turned the next one over, he was greeted by the unwelcome sight of a hooded figure with a scythe, standing amidst crowned skeletons. It was upside-down. "Death," he murmured, making a face.
You are crossed by Death reversed. Reversed, Death represents defeat, apathy, a loss of faith or a change for the worse, or inertia. It is the card which influences you directly at the moment.
Nausea seized Kiri's insides as blurred memories of what Kara had done surfaced in his mind. He tried to clear it with a shake, thinking rather of how he'd been for the past several days. Inertia. Only two cards into this thing, and already this fortune was making all too much sense.
Wanting to get it on with before he had to think too much about it all, Kiri flipped over the next card. This one was a lot more peaceful-looking than the others, with blue-white hands holding a golden chalice in the air. Water spilled over the rim of the goblet, and along its sides, Kiri saw runes representing peace, plenty, and good fortune.
You are crowned by the Ace of Cups. This card is a representation of the truth that lies in your heart. It also signifies blessings and happiness. It foretells your eventual destiny.
Kiri's pulse quickened as he looked at the card. A happy destiny… and a truth that lay in his heart? Painful hope wrenched his heart, and to stifle it, he turned over the fourth card. It showed an old man in blue robes walking down a winding road, a lantern in his hand.
Behind you is the Hermit. It represents a journey or a revelation, but also inevitability. This card is only a reflection of the past events that brought you to this place.
Kiri wasn't sure he understood that one completely. He turned over the fifth card, then let go of it quickly, taking an involuntary step back from the table.
"Ugh…"
The image it depicted was a particularly gruesome one—a corpse lay in a dark room in a pool of its own blood, ten swords through its back.
Beneath you is the Ten of Swords. This card represents suffering and trauma. It, too, is a reflection of the past… specifically, your recent past.
Well, Kiri definitely did not need that one clarified. Making a face, he turned over the last card, which displayed a shining figure with its hands upraised standing in a graveyard, and dead people rising from the ground.
Before you is Judgment. It signifies trial and decision, the end of doubts and the answer to questions. It is also a final battle. This is what lies ahead.
"What lies ahead…" Kiri repeated. He sighed and looked at the cards. "So… let me get this straight here. Uh…
"I guess what this is implying is that because of the choices I made or even the fact that I started out on this journey in the first place, what… happened to me was inevitable? It's pretty obvious what it says about me being in a state of inertia, but… it also seems to say that the end of all this is near, that I'll be able to save Kumo maybe, but that before that I have to be… judged or tested or something? Is that right?"
The voice did not answer right away, but instead, a second stairway came into being on the opposite side of the circle, eventually ending with the appearance of yet another door.
The future is something only you can create.
Thoroughly confused, Kiri headed for the door. This… weird place, wherever it was, just kept getting stranger by the moment.
…Creepier, too.
---
Sitting down at one of the inn's tables, Lisa looked around and sighed. Kaze was nowhere to be found, again. It looked like he was actually avoiding her now.
Well, this was just wonderful. She knew that he was actually polite and quite shy around women, but for heaven's sake, you'd think a man's surprise at his girlfriend's sexual inexperience would subside after the first day or so. This was certainly troublesome.
…And, okay, maybe a little bit annoying.
"Did something happen between you and Kaze-jisan?" Ai had wanted to know the day before. Lisa hadn't really known what to say, so she'd given the girl one of her non-answer nervous laughs, which had sent Ai out the door sulking. Fabula's knowing smile was a little bit harder to deal with. At least the Guide wasn't particularly inclined to make fun.
As for Aura, it was a good thing that the girl had been spending most of her time upstairs, away from all the bustle that would make her reaction to the protective magic here any worse. Heaven only knew what her reaction would be, knowing that Lisa had scared her precious brother so…
"And just what are you sulking about, Pacifist?"
Urk.
"I-I thought you were upstairs resting?" Lisa managed, badly startled.
"Yeah, well, I got hungry," Aura replied, sitting in the chair opposite Lisa.
There was a moment of long, awkward silence.
"Have you—"
"I was wondering—"
Both of them fell silent. Lisa blushed and looked down.
"Um, you go ahead," she said nervously. Now what?
"I was going to say, it seems like you've given Kaze-niisan a rather nasty shock," Aura drawled. "I don't think I've seen him this reclusive in a nice long while."
Here it comes. Lisa wanted to sink into the floor. If only Kigenjutsu allowed one to do such a thing, she would in a heartbeat.
"Well, his chivalry can be a pain in the ass, but bear with him. He's a moron, but he'll figure it out… eventually. You just have to know when to poke him to get him to do what you want him to."
"E-excuse me?" Lisa blinked up at Aura. She'd been certain that she was about to get chewed out… what was this, all of a sudden?
Aura gave her a slanted look over the table. "Well, there's no changing his mind if he's decided he has feelings for you, but he's far from the type who'll be shoving you into closets or anything despite any amount of sexual frustration he's under. So, since you seem to have set him off, I am willing to get you in the right direction this once. This might end up being good for him, after all."
Lisa didn't know quite what to say to that. Apparently, this was Aura's way of letting her know that some limited approval was being given for her and Kaze's relationship (such as it was)…?
"Ask questions," Aura snapped with a wave of her hand. "After breakfast, I am going back to bed, and anyone who bothers me is going to lose limbs."
"Um…" Lisa hesitated for a moment, and blushed. "Is Kaze… is your brother, um… does he have much… experience with women?"
Aura gave Lisa a very bland look, raising her eyebrows. "So, what, things were 'moving along' or something and then he got cold feet, and you're wondering if he's the embarrassed virgin type?" She shrugged one shoulder. "He's hit the sheets with a few people before… enough to know what he's doing, I suppose. I don't exactly discuss his sex life with him beyond 'dump the bimbo, moron' and 'stop being indecisive and jump her already'. But he's too polite to know what to do with virgins, which I don't doubt that you are."
Lisa's blush deepened. "H-how…"
"You are not the type to crawl into the pants of any guy who you have mild interest in, that's for sure," Aura said flatly. "As for Kaze-niisan, persist for long enough and he'll get over himself."
"O-oh…" Lisa squeaked, looking down at the table again.
"Aura, what are you doing downstairs?" came an exasperated voice from the door.
"Good morning to you too," Aura drawled as Fabula came over, looking vexed.
"You are not helping your condition any by doing this. Haven't I told you that if you want food, I'll order it for you and take it upstairs? Come on—" And with this, she grabbed Aura by the shoulder and started marching her towards the stairs.
Lisa, left alone at the table, looked down at her hands shyly.
Persist? Well… she hoped that letting Kaze know she wasn't worried, and doing it often, would keep him from freezing up.
Or at least, from trying to act like she didn't exist.
Lisa sighed and picked up the menu again. For now, she'd settle for deciding on breakfast. That, at least, was a safe activity with Aura out of the picture.
---
"Oh, no. No."
Kiri backed up against the door to find that it wasn't there anymore and stumbled against the back wall of the room. Frantic, he looked around. There was another door here, wasn't there? A normal door. A door he could escape through, before this place broke his mind completely.
There. There it was. Kiri dashed for it and tugged at the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge.
Locked?! No… damn it! I have to get out of here… I have to get out of here or…!
Or he wouldn't be able to block the sounds out for much longer. His barely strangled sobs, her vicious-edged breathing, the ugly and annoying creak of mattress springs. Kiri staggered backwards, his legs giving out, sending him collapsing to the ground with a blunt thump. Shivering, he put his hands over his ears, but the force of the memory was too strong. It overwhelmed his weak attempts at resistance and left him shuddering on the floor, nausea's claws tightly gripping him from his diaphragm to his gut, twisting hard. He didn't know whether to scream or cry or tear at his own body till he bled or give in to the lingering sickness and vomit in hopes of purging his body of the taint and degradation of defilement.
Blinded by tears, he swung his face up to the ceiling, hate roughening his throat. "Why are you doing this to me?!" he demanded.
You must accept it.
"No!"
You must accept that the blame is none of your own.
"Like hell it wasn't! It was entirely my own fault for being stupid, for being weak! No one can look at that and tell me I didn't as good as do it to myself, getting so careless!" Kiri pointed towards the bed, revulsion crawling up his spine, unable to look even though he knew damn well what he would see if he did. Every second of that moment had been seared permanently into his mind. He would never forget a single detail, because it was the worst moment of his life.
Forgive yourself for your helplessness.
"How can I?! I should've…! Even with all my promises, I…! I should have…" Kiri curled up, rocking back and forth, his face in his hands and his eyes stinging with hateful tears. "I should never have…"
Is powerlessness a sin?
"No… no, but…!" Kiri shook his head. "But!!"
Accept it, or you will never be able to move on.
Kiri laughed bitterly, sprawling on his side on the floor and curling tightly there. "What a joke."
Does it make you any less human? Will the one you love care for you any less?
"Then why don't I feel like I deserve to be loved or forgiven?" Kiri demanded thickly. "Why do I feel like the worst beast to ever crawl the earth? Why do I feel as though nothing good or pure should ever be allowed near me again, in case this sickness in me gets to them, too? Why…?!"
The gunshot rang, like he'd known it would. Then the footsteps, and his own bitter tears.
Aura's voice cut through the silence. "Shit, Kiri… that bitch really worked you over, didn't she…?"
Confusion filtered through his self-hatred. He didn't remember this—not clearly. Yes… he'd shut down by then.
Aura went on. "Damn it… if only we'd gotten here just a little sooner… I'm sorry, Kiri. I should've risked that shot back then… I know you would rather've died than lose your virginity like this… shit. Just how much of this is our fault, for not ruling out your stupid-ass plan like we usually do…? Damnit, Kiri…"
Wait. What? Aura was… blaming herself for this?
And something else was weird. Why was she calling him by his first name…?
Kiri sat up and stared across the room at his half-naked past self, slumped unresponsive in Aura's protective embrace. He could just see the bitter regret in her eyes over his own shoulders.
"……"
Do you not see? There is a reason why life does not end when violation occurs.
Kiri looked away. It felt… wrong, watching Aura like that. Even back then, he'd been totally unaware of everything but his own pain.
The one waiting for you cannot afford for you to not remember how to live with yourself.
"…I… ……I………" Kiri hung his head. "…I… yeah…"
He couldn't run away anymore.
Maybe the real cost of what had happened to him would still have to be faced eventually, but for right now, he could function while pushing it away to a place where he could deal with it later.
What was he thinking? Kumo was the only thing that was important right now.
Kiri stood, wiped his face dry, and headed for the door. The knob turned in his hands, the door warping and fading like a projected image and turning blue. He opened it and stepped through, and the image behind him vanished into the memories it had been resurrected from.
---
Kaze leaned against the stone and brick with his eyes half-closed against the brightness of the snow, watching his breath haze like Mist in the freezing air, the cold lancing through his Magun arm like dagger slashes. It was not exactly healthy for him to be outside now, with his heart in such precarious condition. But he had to separate himself from Lisa.
For someone like him, emotional attachment alone was dangerous enough. As one of the last warriors of Windaria left alive, he knew it was his destiny to fight the darkness, and fight it until he fell. It had been drilled into him by teacher after teacher in his younger years—attachment is weakness. It will only make your eventual demise that much sooner, and that much more painful.
Kaze knew he had to take that advice with a pinch of salt. After all, he'd always had Aura. And it wasn't as though Lisa couldn't defend herself if she had to. It was just…
She was still an innocent in so many ways. It wasn't fair to her to burden her with his twisted affections, let alone his physical desires. He could end up hurting her so easily, in so many ways… he'd been selfish, and he'd realized it once he'd found that she was still virginal.
She wouldn't understand. And so… he had to keep away from her, until he knew he could get his confused emotions towards her under better control.
…He couldn't remember ever wanting anything so badly, though.
Kaze closed his eyes and leaned back, the cold biting his chest as he took another deep breath. This was going to be difficult.
---
When Kiri stepped through the door, he found himself on another, wider stained-glass circle. This one was decorated in a beautiful spiral that curled around the design of two crossed keys. Strangely enough, though, there was nothing else here.
As he walked forward, he heard the voice again.
The brighter the light, the deeper the darkness.
Something about those words set off Kiri's senses, and he felt his pulse start to quicken as that feeling like he was being followed jarred his spine again.
As you draw closer to the destiny that awaits you, you also grant strength to that which opposes you.
Kiri stood still at the edge of the inner circle, exactly between the eyes of the two keys. Warily, he focused all his senses: There was a presence here. What it was exactly, he did not know.
Face your darkness.
There was a sound like the air warping, and Kiri whirled to see that his own shadow was cast across the entire circle, spilling over the edge past where the last door had been.
And it was already starting to writhe with darkness, with great yellow eyes hazing and blinking out from the depths.
Kiri's hand automatically went to his belt. As it closed on air, he remembered quite suddenly that he was completely unarmed.
He stared down at the Heartless breaking through towards him with a sinking feeling in his belly.
"Oh, shit."
---
Ever since that night when she'd seen the rooftop battle and Riku had explained everything, Ai hadn't known quite how she was supposed to act around Daisuke.
And it was worse when he looked at her like he was wondering if something was wrong. He was a nice guy, and Ai wasn't sure how to break it to him that the reason she was behaving strangely was because he'd turned out to be an art thief like in some crazy bedtime story, stealing treasures that his own friend Satoshi had made. Maybe she was wrong, but that seemed as though it'd be a pretty awkward topic of conversation.
So, despite Riku's attempts to get them talking, she and Daisuke weren't saying much as the three of them loitered around the front of the inn the Niwa family ran.
Besides, there was something else that was bothering Ai. She wasn't sure what it was, but a few days ago she'd started having a weird feeling, like something wasn't right or was out of place. It was a little bit like the feeling that had awakened her in time to see Daisuke and Krad duking it out that night, but not quite the same. She might not know what it was, but it was bugging her and it was distracting.
And so, the three of them were just sort of standing there in halfway-awkward silence when Aura opened the door to the inn and squinted out into the brightness of the snowy day.
"What are you doing out here? I thought you still had a headache," Ai asked, confused.
"I do, but I'm looking for my idiot brother," Aura said, putting an irritable hand to his forehead. "He's been avoiding everyone, particularly Pacifist and me, and that's damned inconvenient because there's something I need to yell at him about."
"I haven't seen him," Ai replied, shaking her head.
"Actually, I think he left a while ago and that he's down at a restaurant or something," Daisuke put in. "I know I've seen him around town. But… if you're just going to yell at him, then…"
"Kaze-niisan has the most inconvenient sixth sense as to when I need to get on his case about the stick up his ass," Aura said wryly. "Father Nallorn, that man is a pain. But I don't think there's much I can do about this, so I might as well go back inside. If Fabula sees me out here, she'll decide I'm the one who needs to get yelled at here."
"There any particular reason our dragon disguised as a damsel is venturing outside when she's supposed to be staying in?" asked a familiar, cheeky voice from behind her.
Ai watched Aura whirl around to nail Dark with her best paint-peeling glare, putting her hand significantly to the stock of one of her revolvers. "Fuck off, Romeo. I'm not in the mood."
Dark held up his hands placatingly, rolling his eyes at her. "So who's asking?" he retorted. "I'd have to be crazy or really hard up to go after somebody as crazy as you." As Aura glowered at him, he passed her, walking down the stairs to shove Daisuke in the head. "I just came to ask you if there's any particular reason you're hogging all the beauties today."
"I see your lolita complex hasn't diminished any," Riku announced, folding her arms and giving Dark a distinctly unamused look.
Dark headslumped exaggeratedly, throwing his hands in the air. "Women can be so cruel."
Ai opened her mouth to tell him what he could do with his purposeful overexaggeration of his own libido, then closed it as that feeling constricted in her chest and something in her heart tugged her hard, making her turn in the direction of the Hikari mansion.
At the same time, Dark and Daisuke also whipped around. There was bafflement on Daisuke's face, whereas Dark's playful mask had dropped cleanly away to show iron suspicion.
"That's… that's Krad's magic," Daisuke said aloud, obviously confused. "Why would Krad be using magic in the middle of the day like this…?"
"…!!" Ai and the others turned just in time to see Aura fall bluntly and heavily to her knees, clutching her head with gritted teeth and a savage expression.
"What's wrong?!" Ai cried, crossing the stairs to kneel next to her.
"…………" Aura shook her head bitterly, her suddenly labored breathing a sibilant hiss. "This—pressure… It… feels like it's—getting worse—"
It was more of a flash of intuition than anything else, but if you walked the path of logic it would have made just as much sense. Aura was allergic to the Hikari clan's magic. That magic was now focused overpoweringly on the Hikari mansion. It was being cast, so Daisuke said, by Krad—Krad, who, according to Riku, hated humans with venomous and undying ardor.
This information flashed in one moment through Ai's mind, and the pull in her chest grew more insistent than ever. Turning to the others with wide eyes, she burst out with it, not stopping to think or explain.
"Kiri's in danger!"
---
As the hugest Darkside he'd ever seen filled most of the stained-glass circle, pushing Kiri back almost to the edge, he felt the sword he'd chosen back at the beginning of this long path spring readily into his hand from out of nowhere, and as the giant Heartless swung a lumbering limb at him, he dodged, rolled, and lashed out with the blade, catching the thing with the tip.
He didn't stop to assess the damage he'd done, but was up and running along as soon as he regained his feet, dashing around the edge of the glass behind the Darkside, then launched himself into the air.
I wish I had my Maken, Kiri thought passionately, frantically. This wasn't a bad sword, but he felt so naked without his own. If only he had it and his Mist bottles, he could make short work of this thing—
Now there was a thought. Inspired, Kiri let out a steady stream of Mist, then slowly moved his borrowed sword to the ready. Once the crimson haze had reached the Heartless, he swung it in a vicious diagonal line—there was a sound like a thunderclap and then the vicious wave of power Kiri had released shot through the air, biting deeply into the Darkside's back. The giant thing let out a roar of pain and swung through the air wildly; Kiri rolled in midair and dove, barely dodging the blow.
Panic hammered through his body, fear setting all his nerves on edge. Hyperaware of the Darkside's movements, Kiri touched down and ran back along the glow of the stained glass, dodging as the big thing stomped down heavily with both front limbs, darkness seething in bright violet tendrils wherever it touched.
Kiri felt coldness at his ankles and looked down. Shock made him stagger as he watched hundreds of tiny Shadow Heartless bubbling out of the dark spaces in the ground, swarming towards him. With a yell, he swirled his sword around; every Heartless he hit squeaked and vanished into black smoke, but for every one he dispatched, there were two or three more that popped up in its place.
To get clear of them, he hopped up into the air, breathing Mist again before cutting through the red haze with wild, desperate sword strikes. The waves and echoes of his power carved holes in the squirming mass, deeply scoring the glass below.
Oh shit. Ohshitohshit oh shit shit shit. Kiri barely dodged another wild blow from the Darkside. If he faltered—if he allowed himself to be hit—he would likely be stunned and then the Shadow Heartless would be there and they would tear his heart from his body and it would all be over.
Hysteria shot through his blood at the very thought. He couldn't let that happen. Couldn't succumb to the darkness so easily. He had to fight, had to breathe, had to tear his way out of this illusion somehow. Kumo was waiting for him and everything was depending on him and oh God he didn't want to die. He had to live.
He wanted to live!
That single stunning thought filled Kiri's body with a strange warmth, and the threads of terror and self-hatred and despair that had encumbered him for so long snapped.
It didn't matter how many times he had failed in the past. It didn't matter that there were times that he lacked the crucial power to win on his own and had to rely on his friends and companions. It didn't matter that Kara had so brutally and so cruelly taken from him what should have been Kumo's by right. Worthless he might be, but that did not matter. As long as he kept living—kept fighting—he still might have the power to change things.
And he wanted to live.
Heat gathered at Kiri's fingertips, and as the fear and the doubt fell away, he suddenly had a feeling like he was on the verge of understanding something crucially important. He didn't wait to try to puzzle at it, however, but instead shot through the air with fierce conviction and landed on the Darkside's back. Although it shook itself viciously in an attempt to dislodge him, he made his way up its spine, leaping over the heart-shaped hole in its torso, to stand at the nape of its nearly nonexistent neck.
Kiri paused for a moment, took in air. Breathed the purest, most powerful Mist he could manage, raised his sword above his head.
And brought it down into the Darkside's skull in a violent explosion of power.
---
Ai ran with Riku, Daisuke, and Dark, charging through the snowy streets of Fuyushin towards the Hikari mansion. She still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but the certainty in her heart was growing stronger by the second. Kiri was in danger. He needed them.
Aura had stayed behind. She was in too much pain to move, and the magical pressure on her was so bad that blood had begun to run from under her nails and the corners of her eyes. She'd retreated back inside, but had insisted that Ai and the others go on ahead. If it was true that Kiri was endangered by whatever Krad was doing, they couldn't wait for Lisa to try to help her. They had to go now.
As they reached the mansion, Ai plowed straight ahead, but heard a yelp behind her and ground to a halt, turning around in confusion.
Dark was standing several feet behind the three kids, one hand over his face like he'd hit it against something and his other fisted, resting on thin air. As they watched, he pounded it against something that to him must've been pretty solid but to Ai and the others didn't eve exist.
"Damn. He's using barrier magic," Dark announced sourly, his voice muffled by his hand. "I can't get in there—this's the same as the town barrier, nonhumans can't cross it unless they're hundreds of times stronger than I am!"
Daisuke shook his head. "Dark—go get Mom and Grampa! They might be able to help with it, or at least figure out something you can do! Tell them what's going on! The rest of us—we have to go!"
"Are you sure, Daisuke…?" Riku asked, worry naked on her face. "Without Dark you can't fight that well, and…"
"You're gonna need me to help you get through that place," he said stubbornly. "It's like a maze in there sometimes, and only Dark and I really know where everything is. Come on—we have to go, or…"
"He's right," Ai panted. "We can't waste time!"
"Don't you get killed in there," Dark said with a pointed glare at Daisuke. "I'm not about to give up this form just because you got stupid and played the hero."
"I won't," Daisuke replied with a smile.
And so the three of them headed forward into the dark mansion, leaving Dark behind.
It was almost pitch black inside. While Riku drew her sword and Ai primed her bow, Daisuke grabbed the candle resting on the table near the door and lit it, holding it high to illuminate as much of their surroundings as possible.
"He's downstairs, right?" Daisuke asked, his voice ringing in the dark emptiness. "Come on!"
The three of them pushed through the blackness to the door, but when Daisuke pulled at it, it wouldn't open.
"Oh, no—don't tell me he sealed this, too—"
"Let me try," Riku offered, and tugged at the doorknob. "Nnnngh…!! Ggh, it's no good!"
Ai scowled at the door and joined her friends. When she pulled at it hard, the door slammed violently open, exposing the long staircase.
Daisuke and Riku were staring at her. "What?!" Ai demanded crossly. "We have to hurry, come on!"
Their running steps echoed like Kaze firing the Magun as they pelted down the stairs. Ai didn't like it—she knew that this was going to be alerting anything near them to their presence—but she didn't care. That insistent tug in her chest was now an unrelenting demand, screaming dangerdangerdanger and never stopping. Kiri needed her, and she couldn't stop for anything even if she wanted to.
It was only when the stairs evened out into flat ground that the attacks started to come.
First there was darkness and silence, and then blows were suddenly raining down all around them. Ai reacted instinctively and lashed out with her bow itself, beating back the attackers, while Riku yelled and swung at them with her sword, metallic clashes and the sounds of canvas ripping accompanying her every strike.
"The artwork…!" Daisuke exclaimed. "Krad's unsealed all the artwork!"
"Get outta my way!" Ai yelled, putting an arrow to her string as ghostly forms ranging from human to beastly crowded the path ahead.
When she loosed it, a powerful beam of blue-white light shot from her bow through the room. Whatever it touched melted away with unearthly wails of pain.
Daisuke and Riku were staring at her, huge-eyed and openmouthed.
As for Ai, she barely noticed—she herself was gaping.
She'd known that she had an unusual heart and that it was why she was being targeted by that Azrael Astaroth guy, but she'd never once imagined that because of it there was a power lying dormant in her. Or that Kiri's need would wake it up and tear it out of her like this.
After being protected and pushed out of the way for so long, now she had the power to fight.
Ai's mouth hardened into a grim line and she set another arrow to her string, feeling heat gather along its length and a pleasant tingle in her hands. "Alright, move it unless you want some of what everything else here just got!" she yelled, feeling heady victory bubble through her body.
The Hikari artwork cleared a path.
Ai ran down it, with Riku and Daisuke right on her heels, until she came around the bend where they'd left Kiri in the Cage of Dreams. The coffin in its cleared circle lay dead ahead, and Krad was standing over it, his hands glowing with inhuman power that was seeping steadily into it—and into the five pieces of jewelry Kiri was bound with as he slept there.
"Krad, you can't!" Daisuke yelled. "This is between you and my family! That person has nothing to do with any of this!"
Krad turned in a whirl of white wings and long blonde hair, a savage sneer on his face.
"Just try to stop me."
---
The Darkside's body crashed against the glass, Kiri touching lightly down right after it, the shock of collision reverberating through his legs. Strangely, the big Heartless' body didn't vanish into a twist of darkness in the air. Instead, it seemed to lose its solidity, melting into black ooze that spread along the glass circle. All the little Heartless the goo touched melded with it, merging and spilling into the congealed, sticky mess.
The darkness you will face is ancient, and bitter, and all-encompassing.
The voice had barely spoken when Kiri realized with a sick shock that the black ooze had wound its way around his ankles and was steadily flinging tendrils of itself up his legs. When he tried to slash at it with his sword, he saw with a deep, sickening terror that it was gone from his hand. He tried to pull away, but its grip on him was too strong, and he almost fell backwards. As he flung his arms out for balance, the darkness beneath him seethed and shot up, entrapping his arms and winding around his chest.
But do not be afraid…
Kiri let out a wild yell and struggled. Behind the panic, that feeling like he was right on the verge of something important was increasing. The heat in his body focused in his hands, in his fingertips—and in his heart. But whatever it was, it wasn't coming fast enough—the darkness had a thick black tendril around his throat now, was spreading in sticky waves across his face, over the bridge of his nose.
…for you possess the most powerful weapon of them all.
As Kiri's vision hazed and faded, he felt the voice begin to speak again.
But before it could, the world around him sparked and blackened and fizzled out as though it had never been there in the first place, and he was falling through the empty darkness once again.
---
Ai watched the light in the Cage of Dreams flicker and die, and aimed her arrow at Krad, her brown eyes hard and fierce.
Krad laughed. "How pitiful. No mere human could oppose me with such a paltry, mundane weapon."
Mundane, was it? Ai pulled the arrow back until the bowstring strained, then loosed. That bolt of light screamed through the air again, right past Krad's face, leaving a bloody streak along his cheekbone. Shock welled in his eyes as his mocking smile froze on his face.
"Next time I won't miss," Ai said threateningly, and placed another arrow on the string.
"You little bitch," Krad hissed, outrage twisting his coldly lovely features into ugliness, touching the blood on his face. He'd gone pale with anger and fear, and stepped back from the Cage of Dreams automatically.
"I wouldn't test her, if I were you," a voice said from the darkness. "She wields the kind of power that would be enough to incapacitate you, or even permanently damage you."
As Ai, Riku, and Daisuke started and whirled around, Satoshi walked from the darkness. His glasses were slipping down his nose and his clothes were splattered with paint, and he looked annoyed.
"In fact, since Daisuke is also here, I seriously doubt you could handle that power," he continued. "If she can injure you, never forget that given your weakened position, Daisuke and I could seal you up for good…"
Krad glared at his master, but said nothing.
Satoshi turned to regard the seething artwork throughout the room, then spoke very clearly. "As for the rest of you, I am busy working on a new creation. Cease this disturbance at once. I will handle this." At the sharp annoyance in his voice, the works surrounding the area fidgeted, then returned to their usual recumbent—and nonliving—states.
"Thank you so much, Satoshi," Daisuke breathed. "You almost gave me a heart attack, popping out of nowhere like that…"
Satoshi turned to his friend and rival and favored him with a slight smile.
However, before anyone could say anything, there was a hoarse gasp from the direction of the Cage of Dreams. Everyone immediately turned to it as Kiri lurched upright, the overcoat that had covered him spilling liquidly into folds of fur at his waist. The sleep in his face dissipated as the five components of the Cage glowed bright gold and melted off his body of their own accord, dropping against the coat in his lap. Kiri held out his hand, and his Maken snapped into it; his fingers curled around the deep gray hilt as though welcoming an old and half-forgotten friend.
"Kiri…" Ai let her bow fall, staring at him with wide eyes. "Kiri, you're back…!"
And he slowly turned to her, and recognition sparked in his face as the last of his long sleep fell from his eyes, and smiled.
"Yeah."
---
"So you're all leaving already…?"
"The sooner, the better," Aura declared, bitter and vehement. But then, having an allergic reaction to the local magic so powerful it actually made you bleed from every orifice probably had some effect on that.
"Well, Kiri's awake, and everyone here is safe, so we may as well, before there's any more trouble," Lisa said apologetically.
"Where are you all going?" Emiko asked, ruffling her son's hair. "It's a dangerous world out there, after all… if you don't have a plan, it would be easy for you all to run into trouble."
"We've decided to head to Port Bellebane for now, and make our plan of attack from there," Fabula told her. "Now that Kiri's finally recovered, there's no point in hesitating any longer. Only Azrael Astaroth and his demon friend are left out of those who control the Heartless, and it's high time we made our attack on them directly instead of waiting for them to come to us. There are lives depending on us, after all."
"I'm sorry for the trouble that Krad caused you," Satoshi put in. "Our feud is only with the Niwa family, and he should know better than to get anyone else involved with our quarrels."
"Well, in the end we stopped him from doing anything bad, so it's no big deal," Ai told him proudly.
"And—I wanted to thank you for agreeing to help me," Kiri put in a little awkwardly. "I don't remember coming here at all, but I'm aware of the state I was in. I must've been an inconvenience for you at the very least, but you didn't turn me away. Thank you."
"Not at all," Satoshi said, giving them his smile. "The Cage of Dreams was created specifically to help those in your position."
"But do you really have to go?" Riku asked miserably.
"I do, but…" Ai shook her head. "We'll see each other again. I know we will. So… 'til then, keep on working hard! Get a lot stronger! You've gotta protect Daisuke and everyone, right?"
And at that, Riku couldn't help but smile. "…Right," she said with a nod.
"So… will we be off…?" Kaze asked from the back of the group.
"Yes, let's, please," Aura grumbled. "I've had enough of this idiot migraine to last me for the rest of my life. I want out."
As Fabula quietly admonished her, the rest of their group said their goodbyes and turned down the road out of the snow-covered city.
"I suppose we all owe Rau one for his suggestion," Lisa remarked as they left. "We wouldn't have known what to do at all if it hadn't been for him."
A surprised look crossed Kiri's face as she said it. "Hey, that reminds me—we're going to Bellebane, right?" When Lisa nodded, confused, he pulled a slightly beat-up envelope out of his pack. "I can't believe I almost forgot that I had this… I'm supposed to deliver a letter for those two, to some friend of theirs in Bellebane. I can get that out of the way there, too…"
"If Rau and Mu had friends in that town, then we shouldn't have many problems with the locals there," Fabula remarked. "And that's good… because aside from the capital city of Ivalice, Bellebane has the largest standing army of any town or fief in Archaea."
(TBC)
