AN/ I took a holiday break for the first time in 5 years of FtPverse, which is why I went absent for two+ weeks! Also, AGDQ was last week, and, well, it ate up a lot of my time. You should check it out, in my opinion! AGDQ is an event where they speedrun games for charity, and, well, watching games get broken with glitches in the name of speed is really interesting, and all the money goes to the good cause. It's super cool.

Oh yeah, in FtPverse news: I made a timeline detailing events specifically concerning the HB gang / FF crew before the Truth Hurts! I can't link to it here or on my profile, unfortunately, but there's a link to the full thing on the timeline page on the ftpverse blogspot (rarmastersftpverse on blogspot). You should check it out!


Chapter 54: In which it's Sora's 1st day of training

"Hey, you gonna stick around?" Sora asked, as he and Kairi made their way up the stairs to Yen Sid's study. Last time they were here, there'd been three sets of stairs, but this one looked completely different from any of those. Sora desperately hoped this was a shortcut. "Because, I mean, if Yen Sid fixes my star shard, then it's not like you have to."

Kairi turned to him with a dropped jaw and a faked offended expression. Sora laughed a little. "What, you don't want me sticking around for your first day of training!?" she demanded. She was mostly—mostly—just teasing.

"I don't care!" Sora insisted, punching her lightly in the shoulder. "You can stick around if you want to—I just don't want you getting bored!"

"If it gets boring, then I'll just leave, duh!" Kairi said. She punched him back, much harder, but that was to be expected. "Otherwise, I'm sticking around, and no one can stop me!"

Sora turned to grin at her. "Not even Yen Sid?"

"Especially not Yen Sid…" Kairi replied. Her excitement trailed off at the end of the sentence, though, replaced with something that sounded like confusion. "Alright, Sora, why the heck do you keep staring at the ceiling?" she demanded.

Sora jumped, surprised, and quickly stopped, dropping his gaze back to the stairs in front of him. He grimaced. He hadn't even realized he'd been doing it until Kairi'd mentioned. Weird.

"Must've been Kano," he told Kairi.

"And why was he looking at the ceiling!?"

Sora shrugged, sent her a sheepish smile. "Dunno," he said. Then he figured he could always ask Kano. He looked over a little to his right, away from Kairi, though he carefully didn't look over the very-small banister. He doubted falling here would actually lead to harm, since this place was magic and all, but he still didn't want to think about the drop. Hey, Kano, why were you looking at the ceiling? he asked.

'No reason,' was the tense reply.

Sora scowled. He knew better than that.

Rather than ask Kano again—because he wasn't going to get an answer if he did—Sora just took a few moments to dig through Kano's thoughts. Forget it being an invasion of privacy, this was important. It didn't take him long to find the explanation, and when he did have it, his jaw dropped. He stopped walking.

"Are- are you serious?" he asked, aloud, a little too surprised to speak silently. He pointed at the ceiling, at the spot Kano had kept staring at. "Right there?"

Kano growled. 'No, Sora, I was just staring there because I liked the color of the ceiling—of COURSE right there! Obviously.'

Sora deemed not to say anything about Kano's bitterness, or his sarcasm. He was too busy laughing in disbelief, anyway.

"What?" Kairi asked, starting to sound frustrated. She always did when Sora and Kano left her out of a conversation, so, frequently. Sora wondered why she wasn't used to it by now, and Kano wondered the same, though with much more annoyance than Sora did. "What's right there!?" Kairi demanded, squinting between Sora and where he was pointing.

"Ven," Sora answered. "Ven's right there!" He laughed again. This was ridiculous! And, uh, maybe a little creepy if he thought about it too much—but otherwise, it was kind of cool? "I'm pointing right at him. I mean, obviously, he's a couple floors up, but—"

Kairi gaped at him. "Are you kidding me!?"

"No!"

"How?"

Sora kept laughing. Kano bubbled with irritation.

"Kano can feel him," Sora explained, lowering his hand. He kept his eyes fixed on the spot, though. "And, I mean, I can too, now that I'm trying. Guess it has something to do with him being in my heart for seven years? Oh, but, then again…" He frowned a little, as he considered this. He still didn't really understand it. "There's something else going on between Ven and Kano, I think?"

'Me being able to feel where he is has absolutely NOTHING to do with that!' Kano protested, fruitlessly, because Sora didn't pay him any attention.

"Something about, uh, Vanitas," Sora said, as he started walking again. A dread beat inside him as he continued, which he now knew not only belonged to Kano, but was also directly related to them getting closer to Ven. Yeah, there was definitely something going on between them.

'I'm NOT Vanitas!' Kano said, so suddenly and so fiercely that Sora jolted nearly out of his skin. If Kano's adamancy was not enough to startle him, then the rage suddenly beating in his chest was. He pressed a hand to his chest and carefully took deep breaths.

"Sora?" Kairi asked.

"It's fine," he told her, hurriedly. He pulled his hand away from his chest to keep her from worrying any more. Who- who said you WERE!? he asked Kano.

'VEN did!'

That didn't help!

When- when did Ven say anything about

'We met in your heart a while back,' Kano explained. He was bristling. 'And he kept calling me Vanitas and I'm NOT.'

Sora turned that over in his mind a few times. If he dug enough, he thought he could see some of Kano's memories of that meeting—but they were harder to see than most of Kano's memories, and there seemed to be some fuzzy and angry feeling attached to them. Kano's distaste for the meeting, probably? Sora wasn't sure, and, there were other things to worry about.

Why… why would Ven think you were? he asked.

'Hell if I know!' Kano said. Sora could just see him pout, and picturing that didn't help Kano's mood at all. 'Something about us looking the same? Whatever! I'm not—'

I got it.

Sora knew Kano well enough to know that there was more to the explanation than that, he just wasn't eager to give it.

"Are you two done having your conversation?" Kairi asked, keeping Sora from trying to press Kano into telling him anything more. "What's going on with this Vanitas guy, and why does the mention of him make your face look like that?" To tease, though it was clear she was still angry, she pointed at Sora's face.

He tried not to scowl in reply, since it'd only prove her point. "Kano," he said, which, technically, was a good explanation for both things. Still, he relayed the rest of what was going on to her. "But, uh, Ven said Vanitas and Kano look the same and Ven may apparently think they're the same person. That's what I'm getting from Kano, anyway."

It was getting harder to make his feet move forward, he realized. Kano really didn't want to have to be around Ven right now, or, ever, from the feel of it. Sora caught himself glaring at the ceiling, too, which now was more like glaring at the wall in front of him, since they were coming level with the floor Ven was on. They really were getting close.

"So?" Kairi said. "I mean, I don't know anything about whoever Vanitas is or a lot about Shadows but, Kano looks like you, doesn't he?"

Sora nodded. "Basically."

"Well, if Kano also looks like Vanitas, then I guess that means Vanitas looks like you?" Kairi continued. She didn't sound too confident in herself, but Sora followed well enough. "That only proves they're connected to you, not each other, right? And, besides! I think Riku'd fight you on the whole 'same person because they're identical' thing."

She laughed at that, eyes gleaming. Sora laughed back. Riku'd definitely fight someone over that—and, had, probably, at one point. Kano didn't laugh along with them, but Sora didn't think he got it. And, they were getting really close to Ven.

"Also, oh my gosh? What about Roxas?" Kairi said, laughing even harder. "Ven can't say Kano and Vanitas are the same just because they look alike! He's met Roxas. He knows—"

"It was more than just that they looked the same," Sora interrupted. Though, he agreed. "I don't know all of Ven's reasoning, but…" He did know one thing, one thing that was really hard to forget. I think I know where the other half of my heart is, Ven had said. That sobered Sora's laughter easily. "He, uh, he seemed pretty sure he could feel Vanitas, like, inside me?" he said. "I dunno, and, hey, we're here."

There were still ten steps between them and the door, but that was close enough for Sora. Kano's distaste for this conversation was making it hard for him to want to continue it. Maybe they'd try later, when they were well away from—no. He wasn't going to let himself think like that. Kano could hate Ven and dislike being around him all he wanted. Sora refused to let it rub off on him. Ven was a nice guy.

Kano glared through the wall to where Ven was standing for a moment. 'Look, if you need me, yell really loudly or something,' he said. 'Maybe I'll answer. Maybe. But, as long as you're around Ven, don't count on it.' That said, he cut off connection with Sora. Probably for the best.

I'll let you know when we've left, Sora told him, even if he couldn't hear now. He eyed the large door in front of him. "Do we knock?" he asked Kairi.

"Who cares!" she replied. She pushed it open with probably more force than necessary.

Yen Sid was, per usual, sitting at his desk. It looked like he and Aqua (who was standing in front of his desk) had been discussing something, but they stopped the moment Kairi opened the door. Ven stood over to the side of the room, on the right. He offered Sora a half-wave and an uneasy smile. Sora returned them. Kano, predictably, stayed silent.

Just as Kairi'd pushed the door open with more enthusiasm than necessary, she greeted everyone with more enthusiasm than necessary, as well. "Hi!" she said, waving at everyone. Why did she look so smug? Did she count her being here as some kind of victory? It sounded just Kairi enough to be right.

"Uh, hi," Sora echoed, less enthusiastically. "Sorry if I'm late. We didn't really set a time, and time passes differently between worlds anyway, so I just came over as soon as I was done with breakfast." He wasn't sure if Yen Sid's eyes were narrowed because he disapproved, or because he just… always looked like that. At least Aqua didn't look too upset. Sora scratched his neck. "And, uh, before we do anything else, I think my star shard broke?" He pulled it out of his pocket, and moved to offer it to Yen Sid. "I was hoping you could look at it…"

"Can those things break?" Ven asked, inching closer to Yen Sid's desk himself. He started to squeeze himself in between Sora and Aqua, but Aqua pushed him back for getting in her line of sight, so he settled on the other side of her, instead. Sora tried not to be relieved. It was Kano who should feel that way, not him, and he couldn't feel anything Kano was feeling now, so he shouldn't be relieved.

"Well, Sora's won't take him anywhere anymore," Kairi said, pulling Sora out of his roundabout thoughts. "That sounds pretty broken to me."

"How odd," Yen Sid said, slowly. He took the star shard from Sora, his eyebrows more deeply narrowed than ever. "Ventus is right. They should not break."

"Is he just using it wrong?" Aqua asked, leaning closer to watch Yen Sid as he began fiddling with the star shard. She looked like she was trying to drink in every detail about how Yen Sid examined it, so that she might repeat the actions at a later point.

Sora tried not to glare at her for her question, seeing as she was supposed to be his teacher and all. "I was using it how I always use it," he said. "It just wouldn't activate no matter what I did!"

Kairi joined the rest of them as they crowded around Yen Sid's desk, all watching avidly as he studied Sora's star shard. Yen Sid turned the star shard over in his hands a few times, then held it up to his eyes, squinting hard at it. After a bit of mumbling, he placed it on his desk, and let out a long sigh. He looked at Sora very seriously.

"It is not broken," he announced.

Sora refrained from asking how Yen Sid could tell that just by looking at it, because, maybe Yen Sid could tell just by looking. It wasn't like Sora perfectly understood how magic worked. Honestly, he hardly understood magic at all. "What do you mean it's not broken?" he asked, though. He frowned.

"It is not broken," Yen Sid repeated. He handed the star shard back to Sora.

"If you'd like to try it out to be sure, I wouldn't mind," Aqua said. "Your training can wait another minute or so."

Sora blinked at her in surprise, then nodded. "Oh! Yeah, thanks. Just one sec." Trying it out would be a good idea. Maybe it had just malfunctioned yesterday. He backed away from everyone and waved at Kairi, who waved back. Sora looked down at the star shard, then thought of the play island, and—

It worked. The familiar tug pulled him out of Yen Sid's study, dragged him through the sky, then dropped him onto the shores of the play island. Sora stared around himself, almost not believing it. That was good, though! And weird. Why hadn't his star shard worked yesterday?

He shook the thought out of his head, because there was no point dwelling when he wasn't going to find an answer. To be safe, and determine that this wasn't a problem like he just couldn't star-shard to Hollow Bastion, he pictured the outside of Aerith's house and activated his star shard—

Again, it worked. He landed just outside her garden without effort.

"SWEET!" he shouted, doing a little dance. Then he remembered where he was. Hopefully no one inside Aerith's had heard him. He hastily activated his star shard again and headed back to Yen Sid's, aiming for a spot to the side of the room that hopefully no one else was occupying. He landed rather unceremoniously, and thankfully, not on anyone's head.

"It works fine!" he announced, as he straightened himself out and pocketed the star shard. He walked back towards Yen Sid's desk. "Weird… I wonder what happened yesterday…"

Kairi was the first to respond, with a shrug and a bitter smile. "Do you think it was the spell?" she asked. "Maybe it went 'oh! Sora's gonna do something with his parents! Better make it so he can't!'" She laughed, a sound just as bitter as her smile. Sora laughed with her, in a similarly bitter tone. This whole situation sucked, but it was kind of funny when she put it that way.

"What spell?" Aqua asked, frowning between Sora and Kairi.

"We think there's a spell on our island," Kairi answered automatically. Sora let her. She was better at explaining it, anyway. "I mean, we aren't completely sure there's one, but, like… It's almost impossible to convince anyone that other worlds are a thing, and people start forgetting you exist if you're away long enough? It's weird. And annoying."

"I know there are World barriers and all, but, that's not normal, is it?" Ven asked.

"No, it is not normal," Yen Sid agreed, with a long sigh.

"Hey, didn't you say you'd look at it?" Kairi asked, leaning a little towards Yen Sid. She fixed him with the stare she used to break her father down into letting her have her way. Sora tried not groan.

Aqua cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Well, is now really the time…?" she asked. "I mean, Sora and I do have to start training eventually."

"Yeah, but, me 'n him—" Kairi jerked a thumb at Yen Sid. Sora cringed. "—could always go check it out while you and Sora stay here and train."

"I suppose we could do that," Yen Sid agreed, very slowly.

Sora raised his eyebrows, surprised. He was actually saying yes? Sora may not have known Yen Sid for long, but this seemed unlike him. Even Kairi was startled, though wide eyes quickly became a smug smile. Sora hastily grabbed for Ven and pulled him aside a few paces.

"Hey, Sora, what's—"

"Can you please go with Kairi and make sure she's not too rude to Yen Sid?" Sora said, as quietly as he could while still being heard. Aqua sent a worried glance over her shoulder at them regardless. Sora bit his tongue. He wouldn't ask if he didn't have to, but he really didn't trust Kairi alone with Yen Sid. Ven fixed him with a look that was either confusion or discomfort. "Please," Sora begged.

Ven sighed a little, but nodded.

"Yeah, alright," he agreed. He tugged at his ear. "I'll do my best."

Sora smiled gratefully. "Thanks."

Kairi sent him a look like she knew what he was up to, but she didn't say anything. She and Ven and Yen Sid all left shortly after that—Yen Sid used his magic to teleport them, leaving Aqua and Sora behind. Sora considered, for a moment, pulling Kano out of wherever he was, but decided against it. Ven might have been gone for now, but he'd be back eventually, and Sora didn't think Kano was that fond of Aqua either.

"So… we gonna get started?" Sora asked, looking over to Aqua. She hadn't said anything yet. She just stood there, looking kind of at him, but more to his left, playing absentmindedly with her fingers. "Aqua?"

She turned to him abruptly, as if startled out of her thoughts. "Um! I… I'm sorry," she said.

Sora blinked.

"Is… is something wrong?"

Aqua hesitated a moment, then firmly shook her head. She put on a smile. Sora tried not to look too skeptical, but, he knew a forced smile when he saw one. "No, I'm fine," Aqua assured him.

Sora studied her for a second more. Then his smile drooped. He had a feeling he knew what this was about.

"You don't want to train me, do you?" he asked.

Aqua looked shocked he'd suggest such a thing. That was reassuring. "What?" she said, then realization seemed to it her. She closed her eyes for a second, and sighed. "Oh, no Sora, that's not it at all. I don't mind training you! I just…" Her face scrunched up and her voice got a little quieter. "I don't think I'll be very good at it."

Oh! That was another matter entirely.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, it's not like I've ever had any other training," Sora said. "So, I won't be able tell. I don't have anyone to compare you to!" He put on his most winning grin, and Aqua laughed slightly. Sora continued, a little more seriously: "And… I'm really excited about this, by the way. I… I think it'd be really cool to be a Keyblade Master someday."

"Well... in that case…" Aqua smiled at him, and kept smiling. It was good to see. "I'd be honored to train you," she said, giving him a partial bow. Her smile and the tone of her voice made Sora pretty sure she was just teasing, but, he bowed back, playing along. Aqua stifled a giggle.

Sora straightened, bouncing in his excitement. "Ok!" he said. "Where do we start?"

xxx

"We'll start with a spar, so I can figure out how much you know," she'd told Sora. He'd seemed perhaps a little too enthusiastic about the idea, but in reality, it'd just reminded her of Ven, so she didn't mind so much.

Aqua lead the way out of the tower, seeing as they couldn't spar inside it. Well, Master Yen Sid probably had a place somewhere suitable for sparring and training, but since he wasn't here, she couldn't ask, and she didn't dare try looking herself. She had no idea how the magic of his tower worked. Outside was fine, anyway. There was enough room, and she quite enjoyed the perpetual view of the stars. Maybe not as much as Ven did, but…

She positioned herself at roughly the center of the area they had, summoning her Keyblade. "Alright," she told Sora, as he summoned his own Keyblade and dropped into his stance. A solid stance, from the looks of it. That was good. She nodded at him. "Go ahead."

Sora stared a second, as if surprised, but then nodded. He rushed at her, swinging. Aqua sidestepped, brought her Keyblade up to block as he twisted to follow her as she moved. He jumped back.

Aqua nodded to herself. There was a good strength in his blow, but he was definitely putting too much focus in his arms, and not enough in the rest of his body.

"Don't stop!" she called, as he hesitated before attacking again. He nodded back, gritting his teeth with determination. He ran at her.

His choice of attack this time was a combo—downward strike, horizontal, diagonal, horizontal again, this time with a spin. Well executed, Aqua noted, but his footwork was pretty shoddy. She supposed she shouldn't expect anything more, since he'd had no formal training.

She stayed on the defensive for a while, letting him strike her. He was doing really good for someone who'd taught himself, but there was room for improvement in a lot of areas. He was able to get his Keyblade to the right places at the right time with no problem, but he didn't give much thought to his feet. If this had been real training, and not an assessment, Aqua would've pushed him down a good four times now, just to prove how bad his footwork was.

His magic was good, though. Not as powerful as it could've been, but he seemed to have a good control of it. That was all she could hope for. More than anything, she anticipated being bad at teaching magic. It was hard to teach something that you didn't even have to think about before doing. Not having to lecture him in magic control was a blessing.

"Good!" Aqua said, shifting her weight, preparing to launch at Sora. "Let's see how you block!"

She switched to the offensive, running at him with a quick string of blows. He blocked them all fine—she just had to back off before he tripped over his own feet. Proving a point wasn't her focus, right now.

She went at him again, this time striking once, backing off, striking again from a different angle, from a different side, quite a few times. He blocked these ones as well—but, it was his footwork that was the problem, and he didn't have to do much moving to block an attack like this. He even went as far to sneak in attack at the end, which would have hit, but Aqua threw up her barrier, sending the both of them skidding away from each other.

Aqua blinked a few times, grimacing to herself. She probably should've let him hit. She'd only thrown up the barrier because her reflexes had kicked in. She thought about apologizing, except Sora didn't even seem to realize there was a problem. Aqua cartwheeled backwards instead, and then sent a quick round of magic at him.

He blocked the Blizzard. Rolled out of the way of the Fira. Out of habit, Aqua followed up with a Thundaga, which should've hit while he was mid-roll. He managed to toss up a Reflect before it did, though.

"Good," Aqua said, a little stunned. Had he gotten lucky, or were his reflexes good enough to pull that off regularly? Either way, she wouldn't complain. "Good!" she repeated. "I think… I think I've seen all I need to."

Sora raised his eyebrows, like he was surprised, but he relaxed anyway. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah." Aqua nodded. "Your magic is good, and overall you're doing okay, but you put too much weight in your arms, and your footwork…" She paused a second, making a face, then continued in a tone that would certainly convey she was largely just teasing: "Well, it's atrocious."

Sora grimaced. "Is it?"

Aqua nodded again, then raised her Keyblade. "Here. Come at me again."

Sora shrugged, but ran at her, as told. He started with the same attack he did last time, which Aqua easily sidestepped again. This time instead of blocking, she attacked. He stumbled in his attempt to get away from her. She reached out with her free hand and pushed him in the chest, sending him toppling to the ground—just like Master Eraqus would've done to her.

"If you'd had a wider stance when you first attacked me, you wouldn't have been so unsteady," Aqua explained, as she looked down at him. "And you hardly seem to know what to do with your feet when you're dodging at close-quarters. It might work on Heartless, but…"

"Not on someone who actually knows what they're doing," Sora finished. "Got it." He pushed himself to his feet.

"Good," Aqua said, even though it didn't feel like the right thing to say. "Um, I guess we'll start working on forms now."

Sora nodded with something close to enthusiasm, and Aqua tried not to laugh. Forms were important, of course, but she doubted Sora would be so thrilled with them in about an hour. They set to work.