Chapter 36

Hinata ate the rest of her ice cream before moving on to the next present. She looked over the gifts on the table in front of her and reached out her hand to grab a rectangular gift wrapped in blue with curled white ribbon. Pulling it towards her, she was surprised by how heavy it was and put it on her lap. She tugged at the tip of the ribbon pondering aloud, "I wonder what Santa meant when he mentioned my presents were piling up while I was gone… where did I go?" Looking up she recounted the presents, eight of them all together. Her eyebrows knitted together in deep thought as she mused, "If these are supposed to be my Christmas presents does that mean each present represents a year?" Feeling her heart quicken at the thought of somehow being gone for years she said, "But that doesn't make any sense; how is that possible?"

Her hands began shaking as she tried to comprehend her thoughts. She wanted to deny the premise but somehow she knew that it was true; even if she didn't quite know how yet. Clenching her fists in attempt to calm them, Hinata took a deep breath. If she was going to figure it out she had to remain stable. Once again focusing her attention on the present in her lap she undid the ribbon and began ripping away the blue paper.

"Maybe opening the rest of the presents will help." She told herself as the paper revealed a book on sword techniques. Hinata looked confused at the book for a moment and asked, "Did I really want a book about swordplay more than anything else?"

She examined the brown textbook that had fancy lettering of the words 'The Art of Swordplay' written on the front. It seemed like something she would obviously be interested in but to want it more than anything for Christmas seemed like a far stretch. Opening the book she began to finger through the pages, looking over the content inside hoping it would trigger a memory of some sort. There were lists and drawn demonstrations of various attacks and techniques for every style of blade in existence. Hinata stopped the page on the chapter of dao swords. Running her finger along the name of the chapter she thought back to the sparring room she had imagined during her performance in Agrabah. Then in her mind there had been someone watching her; someone she dearly wanted to impress.

Under her breath, Hinata whispered, "Master… our sparring teacher." Suddenly a flash of amber eyes went across her mind making Hinata wince as if in pain; they were the same color as the man she saw in Hen Wen's vision. Her voice shaking, Hinata asked, "Why am I thinking of the vision now?"

Trying to qualm her racing heart, Hinata flipped through a few more pages of the book trying to remember her Master. She, Lea, and Isa all had the same teacher, she recalled that; but every time she tried to remember what he looked like the same amber eyes would rush into her mind. Closing the book, she set it on the bed behind her; she couldn't focus.

Hinata placed her hand on her forehead as it was beginning to throb. Tightly closing her eyes she tried to make the pain go away when her mind went to the sparring room she had imagined back in Agrabah; only this time she saw other people in the room. She saw herself standing in the room wearing a black t-shirt and long white pants holding dao swords behind her back. Lea stood across from her wearing the same outfit spinning red chakrams in the palms of his hands while Isa stood against the wall in the same apparel observing his friends.

"Begin," A deep voice ordered them and instantly Lea and Hinata engaged in a sparring match. The man that spoke could not be seen but Hinata began recognizing his voice. As she watched herself fight against Lea, the voice began scolding them, "Hinata, watch your foot placement! Lea, stop focusing so much on defense and be more offensive!"

Lea jumped back to be out of Hinata's range before retorting, "I'd love to, if only Hina would give me an opening!"

"Make one!" The voice ordered before Hinata caught up to Lea and knocked him down.

Hinata smirked as she spun her blades victoriously in her hands and laughed, "Better luck next time."

"Yeah, well I'll beat you one of these days." Lea assured her, sprawling on the ground. "Hinata's really gotten good hasn't she Master?"

"Her technique still needs a lot of work." He replied without much thought when a vibrating sound buzzed through the air, "I have work to attend to at the lab. Continue your sets. And Hinata," He waited for Hinata to look up before continuing, "You still have yet to understand the true art of swordplay. Your technique is sloppy. I expect a full detailed report on dao sword techniques by tomorrow."

Without waiting for a reply from her, he left, leaving the three of them alone in the room. Hinata tightened her grip on her blades but remained silent as Lea spoke up, "Man, nothing impresses that guy."

Walking over to one of the weapon racks, Hinata haughtily placed the dao swords on it and whispered. "Yeah…"

"We need to continue our sets." Isa reminded Hinata, pushing himself off the wall.

Hinata scoffed as she headed to the exit of the sparring room, "I'm not in the mood. You guys go on without me. I'll be in the library."

With that she left the sparring room and the memory shattered in Hinata's mind, bringing her back to reality. She opened her eyes to find herself back on the gummi ship but her mind throbbing even more painfully than before. Rubbing her eyes she groaned, "I sure hope this won't happen with every present I open."

"Hinata," Chip's voice caused Hinata to take her hands away from her eyes, "Hinata can you hear me?"

Confused, Hinata got out of her chair and followed Chip's voice to the cockpit when she saw his face on the call screen. She smiled when she saw him and called out to him, "I'm right here Chip, what's up?"

"Oh there you are!" Chip jumped up and down as he saw Hinata appear on his screen. "We've been trying to call you for the past few minutes. Everything okay over there?"

Hinata rubbed the back of her neck, "Oh yeah, sorry. I was… busy. What did you need?"

"Sora, Donald, and Goofy are down in Halloween Town right now but they should be back soon." Chip told her, "Sora said something about going after someone named Riku once they're back."

Hinata's eyes lit up, "He did?"

Chip noticed Hinata's sudden elation but didn't address it, "Do you know where we can find him?"

"He should be at a world called Hollow Bastion." Hinata informed him, "I don't know where that is though."

Tapping his foot on the ground and rubbing a tiny hand under his chin, Chip thought about their options when he got an idea. Pumping his hand into the air he exclaimed, "I bet Leon or Cid would know!"

"Who are they?" Hinata asked.

Dale scurried onto the screen next to Chip and butted in, "Leon and Cid are some friends we met in Traverse Town."

"Yep," Chip agreed, "They know all sorts of stuff about navigation gummies and where worlds are. Once we are done here we'll head to Traverse Town to talk to them."

Hinata looked slightly confused, "You can't just call them?" When both Chip and Dale shook their heads she frowned. She didn't want to have to fly to a whole other world just to find out where Hollow Bastion was. She wished she paid more attention to the navigation of the ship to know where things were. Sighing in resignation she gave in, "Alright then, off to Traverse Town then. Any idea when Sora will be back?"

"On Jiminy's last update he said they were going after someone called Oogie Boogie." Dale told her, "So they shouldn't be too long. Once they find the bad guy it doesn't take long until they're back."

Hinata smiled, "You seem to have a lot of confidence in them." She paused when she noticed them say a name she didn't recognize. Cocking her head to the side she asked, "Who's Jiminy?"

"You haven't met Jiminy Cricket?" Chip exclaimed.

Shaking her head Hinata admitted, "No, I barely know Donald or Goofy… He's a cricket? I guess his size would explain why I've never met him." Crossing her arms she asked, "Does he fight too?"

Chip and Dale both giggled from Hinata's question. Dale laughed out, "Could you imagine? Jiminy fighting?"

Slapping his tiny paw on his knee, Chip joined in with Dale's teasing and blurted, "Imagine him with a Keyblade!"

Hinata rolled her eyes as the two chipmunks made a mockery of her question in their fit of laughter. "Yeah, yeah," She dismissed them, "I get it; he obviously doesn't fight. What does he do then?"

Wiping tears from his eyes from laughing so much, Chip regained his composure. "Ahem," He cleared his throat before explaining, "He records everything that happens while Sora is adventuring in a journal! Then at certain points while they are on the world he'll call the ship and update us on what they're doing and when they should be back."

"That sounds useful." Hinata chuckled, thinking back to the green journal Kairi had back to the island with the golden cricket design. Suddenly feeling the urge to go back to her presents she addressed them, "Well, was there anything else you guys needed to talk about?"

"Nope," Both Chip and Dale shook their heads then Chip spoke up, "We'll let you know when Sora and the others come back!"

"Sounds good," Hinata replied with a nod, "I'll talk to you then."

Dale waved as Chip scurried forward and cut the call. Hinata stood up straight and stretched her back. The wound on her chest strained from her movement and kept reminding her that is was there. Placing her hand over her injury with a cringe Hinata wished it would just hurry up and heal already. It was causing her way too many problems. With a sigh, she turned around and headed out of the cockpit back to her other gifts. Once she entered she looked over the six gifts that still awaited her to discover what was inside of them. Hinata looked at the coffin shaped present laying on the chair. It was a complete contrast to the other glimmering beautiful presents. Everything about it made the hairs on the back of Hinata's neck stand on edge. It didn't make any sense why she would receive a present like that from Santa. The more she looked at it the more curious she became before she gave in and grabbed the gift. It was as long as her arm and as she picked it up she could hear something rattling inside as if its contents were many pieces.

She lifted it to her ear and lightly shook it to see if she could guess what was inside. "It sounds like a bunch of blocks of something." She mumbled to herself before sitting down and laying the coffin gift on her lap.

Reluctantly, she pulled at the black stringy mass of what she supposed of wrapping paper even though it felt more like spider web to reveal a white box with a note on top. She pulled the note off the box and read it aloud, "Thought you could use a friend. Merry Christmas… Jack." Flipping the piece of paper over to see if there was anything on the back she asked, "Who's Jack?" Grabbing the sides of the lid to the white coffined box she shrugged, "I guess I'll find out once I open it."

Her eyes widened as she saw the contents and knitted her eyebrows in complete confusion. Stammering she whispered, "It's… bones?"

Sure enough, although Hinata wished her eyes deceived her, inside the coffin was a skeleton of some sort of animal. The remains of the animal lay inside the box completely intact as Hinata looked around the ship as if expecting Santa to jump out saying he was playing some sort of sick joke on her. Looking back at the bones Hinata felt slightly disgusted and perturbed; when she noticed the tail of the animal twitch. With a gasp she dropped the lid of the coffin she had been holding in her hands. She stared intently at the animal's bony tail waiting for it to move again when nothing happened.

"I must have imagined it." Hinata laughed at herself uncomfortably lifting the coffin off her lap and placing it on the table in front of her and said. "I don't know what that was and frankly I don't want to."

She gave one last confused glance at the coffin before moving on to the next present; a small green square wrapped gift that fit in Hinata's palm. Thankful she was moving on from the flop of a present that coffin was she ripped away the wrapping paper and opened the lid of the white box it revealed to find a bracelet. She placed the box onto the table and carefully lifted the bracelet. It was a simple silver chain with a single cream colored pearl. As Hinata lifted it she felt her heart slightly sink. She placed the jewelry around her wrist and asked, "Wasn't this part of a set?"

Spinning the pearl around the chain with her other hand Hinata remembered Kairi's necklace looked almost exactly the same; a silver chain with a single off white pearl at the center. She wore it all the time saying that it was the one thing she still had from her home until she found out about the Wayfinder from Hana and Shin. Hinata sat back in her chair staring at the bracelet wondering if there was any connection between her bracelet and Kairi's necklace when she shook her head, "There's no way. It's such a simple design that it's probably just a coincidence." Putting her arm in the air to look again at her new accessory she wondered, "Although, I do wonder why I would have wanted a bracelet so badly. I don't usually like this type of stuff."

Shrugging, she got up from her chair and grabbed the wrinkled wrapping paper she had strewn around the room from the other opened presents so she could throw it away to clean the area. She crumbled the pieces together and went to the bathroom to toss it in the trash. Wiping her hands as she left the bathroom she glanced at the still opened coffin on the table when she yelped in surprise and stumbled back a couple steps. The skull of the creature was peering at her from the edge of the coffin and its tail was wagging.

"Gah! You're alive?!" She exclaimed, inching along the wall to get as far away as she could from the alive skeleton creature. When the animal noticed Hinata backing away it rattled its bones and brought its front two legs out of the box; causing Hinata to desperately shake her hands in front of her stammering, "No, no, don't come to me. Why don't you just stay in your box?"

The skeleton ignored Hinata's words as it got itself completely out of the box and stood on four bony legs with his bottom jaw open as if it her panting. Wagging its tail furiously it jumped off the table on to the floor and began scampering towards Hinata.

Seeing it coming closer, Hinata shrieked and hastily made her way to one of the beds and jumped on top. "Eek! What are you doing? I told you to stay!"

Immediately the creature stopped in its tracks and cocked its head to the side at Hinata. It stopped wagging its tail momentarily as it sat down at the foot of the bed. Hinata noticed the skeleton had listened and forced herself to calm down. Slowly she lowered into a sitting position on the bed and examined the creature in front of her. Getting past the fact that it was a living skeleton, she took note of all of its features.

"Are you… a dog?" She reluctantly asked, noticing its tail immediately wagging in response. She sighed relieved and then laughed, "You're a dog? Why are you a skeleton? Was I really gone for so long that you aren't even living anymore?"

The skeleton dog stood from his place and went back towards the coffin box Hinata had found him in. Jumping onto the table he reached inside the box and pulled out another letter with gold lining. With it in his mouth he scurried back over to Hinata as she watched him dumbfounded. Slowly, as to not freak Hinata out again he placed the letter onto her lap and backed up into his seated position.

Eyeing the dog, Hinata picked up the letter and noticed a fancy calligraphy 'S' on the front of the envelope. She kept an eye on the dog as she slowly ripped open the envelope and pulled out a golden letter. Looking it over she read it aloud, "Sorry about that. There was a… mishap with Halloween Town. This should help." Hinata paused and looked into the envelope and found a blue cloth. She looked at it confused but finished reading the letter before addressing it, "You do need a friend, but maybe not in this form. Throw this on the dog and he will become more suitable for your needs. Best wishes, Santa Clause."

Hinata put the letter onto the bed beside her and took out the blue cloth from the envelope. She ran it between her fingers feeling its silky texture. There didn't seem to be anything particularly magical about it. Looking up at the dog in front of her she still felt disturbed at the sight; even though he was sitting there patiently wagging its tail something about it being completely made of bones was unsettling. Lifting the blue cloth she shrugged and did as the letter told her, throwing it on top of the dog. The cloth draped over the dog but didn't seem to change anything about him. He still remained seated as if nothing had happened except that now Hinata couldn't see his features.

Hinata stared at the dog in front of her waiting for something magical to happen and when nothing did she began to laugh, "Well now instead of a skeleton you're a ghost..."

The longer she looked at the dog the more she began to laugh. He looked ridiculous under the blue cloth and he had yet to move in an attempt to remove it. For some reason Hinata found it hilarious as she fell onto her side on the bed and felt tears beginning to well up due to her laughing so hard. And what was worse was that the harder she laughed the more spasms of pain her injury would course through her. Soon she could no longer take the pain and forced herself to stop her laughing fit. Grabbing at her chest she groaned from the ache and tightly closed her eyes. She laid there for a moment, trying to let the discomfort pass when she felt a wet nose on her cheek and the sad whimpering of a puppy. Shooting her eyes open she saw the dog right in front of her, except he was no longer a skeleton. He was a translucent blue with a pointy snout and round nose. His pointy ears were down as he looked worried at Hinata. With a gasp, Hinata immediately sat up and looked at the dog in front of her. He no longer had legs as he floated through the air with the look of an actual ghost. Taking a deep breath, Hinata put up her hand towards the dog and was surprised when he immediately nuzzled his head into her hand.

She felt her uneasiness melt away as she rubbed his head and noted, "I'm surprised I don't go through you." The dog happily barked as he flew onto her lap to lay down. Reluctantly, Hinata ran her hand along his back. He didn't feel furry like a normal dog but somehow smooth. Hinata sat there petting her unexpected companion and after a few minutes of trying to accept what just happened she asked, "Well I guess you're staying… What should I call you?" She thought about for a moment when she remembered the note on the top of the box before she opened it. "Jack…" She whispered when she noticed her new pet wag his tail. "Alright then," She decided, "I'll call you Jack."

Jack nuzzled happily into Hinata's lap as she continued to pet him. Hinata tried to figure out what had just happened. She remembered wanting a dog at some point but she had to admit she never expected the dog to be like Jack. They sat in comfortable silence as Hinata took the time to relax and felt more at ease that she wasn't going to be completely alone anymore. After several minutes of petting Jack, Hinata felt herself lay down on her side, causing Jack to lie beside her. Without realizing when it happened she drifted off to sleep.

"Hinata," Chip's voice broke through Hinata's comfortable sleep, "Hinata, Sora's back!"

Yawning, Hinata sat up and was momentarily surprised to see Jack next to her when everything that happened before she fell asleep streamed back into her. Smiling, she lightly scratched behind Jack's ears before standing up to head to the cockpit. She yawned again as she entered the room and saw Sora and Chip on the screen.

"There you are!" Sora exclaimed as he saw Hinata on his screen, "Chip told me that we have to head to Traverse Town."

Hinata crossed her arms, "Yeah, he said some friends of yours, Leon and Cid I think, could help find Hollow Bastion."

"Well alright." Sora replied slightly disappointed. "I was kind hoping we could go straight to Hollow Bastion."

"Me too…" Hinata admitted, "But I don't know how to get there."

Sora was about to respond when he noticed a blue thing coming up behind Hinata. Widening his eyes he yelled, "Hinata look out! Something's coming out of the wall behind you!"

Hinata spun around and saw Jack's head poking through the closed door. She shook her head when she saw him and laughed, "I guess you can go through things." Motioning her head towards the screen she told Jack, "Come over here and meet Sora."

With a bark, Jack came all the way through the door and went up beside Hinata. Sora got close to the screen and eyed Jack. "Where did you get him? He's just like Zero!

"I got him from Santa." Hinata told him nonchalantly before asking, "Who is Zero?"

"WHA?!" Sora shouted, "Santa? You saw Santa?"

"You mean you didn't go to Christmas Town?" Hinata asked surprised. "You were in Halloween Town the whole time?"

"There's a Christmas Town?" Sora exclaimed, then turned, "Donald, Goofy, we have to get back down there!"

"What?" Donald angrily quacked, "You're the one that wanted to leave so soon so we could find your friends!"

"Oh yeah, right," Sora chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck and then sighed, "We'll have to come back here once we get Riku and Kairi back. Then we can all see Santa!" When Hinata nodded he remembered her question, "Oh right, Zero. He was Jack Skellington's ghost dog pet."

"Jack?" Hinata repeated looking over at her dog realizing that he must have been the one who gave her the gift in the first place. She wondered if it was really appropriate to name her pet after someone she had never met and someone who scared her out of her wits with the gift; but eventually shrugged. The name fit her dog. Looking back at Sora she went back to their mission. "Alright, we need to get moving to Traverse Town. I'm pretty sure Chip set up my ship's navigation for Traverse Town while you were down in Halloween Town."

"That's right!" Chip chimed, "We're all ready to go!"

"Great!" Sora grinned, still thinking of Christmas Town. "Then let's get going! Call if you need anything Hinata."

"Will do," She assured him before cutting the call. She looked over at Jack and laughed, "You are going to take some getting used to."

She patted his head before turning to head back to the other room to open some more presents. Four more remained for her to open and she was anxious to see what was inside them. Sitting in one of the chairs by the table, Jack floated to the top of the table as Hinata grabbed a shimmering purple box with silver ribbon. She placed the gift on her lap and pulled away the ribbon and tore away the paper. Opening the box under the paper she widened her eyes as she saw a Wayfinder sitting inside.

Reaching her hand inside, she pulled out the Wayfinder that looked nearly identical to the one Kairi had received back on the island. Five Thalassa shells were tied together with twine; except whoever tied them together did a poor job of it, as if it were made by a child.

"This seems so familiar." Hinata told Jack, not sure why she was talking to him since he wouldn't care or respond; but continued anyways, "I remember that I thought that Kairi's Wayfinder was familiar too. I wonder why that is… This looks almost identical to the one Kairi had." Looking down at her bracelet she added, "And my bracelet it just like her necklace too." Leaning back in her chair she sighed, "It has to be a coincidence, right?" Jack just wagged his tail in response as Hinata continued to put things together. She sat back up straight as she got an idea, "There are eight presents all together… If I am only supposed to get one present a year from Santa for Christmas then each present should represent a year, right? Well then that would mean eight years… that I was gone." Her heart began to race with fear, "Was I really gone eight years? How could that have happened and where did I go that Santa would have to store up my gifts; he travels the entire universe so there is no way I was just on another world." She groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "This makes no sense! Why would I have been gone for eight years?"

Jack noticed Hinata's stress and quietly whimpered as he scooted closer to her. It was obvious that Hinata was having a hard time.

Hinata took her hand down from the face and looked at Jack with a smile, "Don't worry, I'm fine; just… confused." She looked down at the Wayfinder in her lap and examined it. It really was just like the one Kairi had and turning it over she found a message similar to the one on Kairi's only written in big uneven letters, "I love you Hina! We will be sisters forever! Love, Kairi." Hinata gasped as the words left her mouth and then exclaimed, "Kairi? Kairi is Aiko? What?!" Her heart and entire body felt as if it were about to explode as she tried to wrap her mind around what she just discovered. Tears welled up in her eyes as she came to realization that she had been with her sister the entire time she had been on Destiny Islands and she hadn't a clue. Taking a deep breath she tried to figure everything out, "Okay, calm down… Let's see, if I really was missing for eight years, Aiko, or Kairi I guess, wouldn't be six years old anymore. She would be fourteen; just like Kairi is." Her voice cracked, "Is Kairi my sister?"

She stared absently at the table, feeling her hands shaking as they tightly grasped the Wayfinder. It didn't make any sense. She didn't understand how Kairi could have arrived on Destiny Islands before her and grown up while Hinata was somehow stuck in some sort of limbo that kept her trapped for eight entire years. Everyone she knew was long gone or at least much older than anything she remembered. Feeling her eyes sting with tears she choked out, "Lea, Isa… do they even remember me? And Kairi, she didn't even know she had a sister until she got her Wayfinder, how is she going to react when she finds out it was me all along?" Tightly closing her eyes, a tear streamed down her cheek and Jack was immediately by her side nuzzling into her arm. Sniffling, Hinata assured him, "I'm fine. It's just a lot to take in." Using a free hand she pushed at her eyes and shoved away the tear. She forced a smile and scratched Jack behind the ear, trying to convince him and herself that everything was fine; when in reality it couldn't be farther from the truth.

*** Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading! If you have any questions about how Kairi could be Hinata's sister feel free to ask or let me know how you feel about it. By the way, Jack looks just like Zero from 'Nightmare Before Christmas' except with pointy ears and a smaller snout. I'll be drawing a pic of him soon and yes, he will be travelling with Hinata from now on. Next chapter we will be going back to Riku. Please let me know what you think! Have a wonderful week! ***