Ch.20

Yutaka carefully patrolled around the castle, keeping himself out of sight of anyone nearby. Without leaving the castle he already knew things had gone down not in his favor.

Sora and the others had left to go after Kuri… or Ansem… whatever happened with that. Then after that other people started showing up and the princesses roamed around parts of the castle until they could be brought home. Either way Yutaka had to be very careful of where he stepped, not wanting to get caught.

"Dang… this wasn't what was supposed to happen… not what we planned anyways," Yutaka muttered to himself.

Yutaka stopped walking and eventually leaned up against a wall. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor. "Kuri… man what were you thinking?" Yutaka sighed heavily before looking up towards the ceiling. "Where are you now? I know you have to be out there somewhere…"

"So you're really going to go off on your own?" Mickey asked Tsuki. "Wouldn't it be better if we came along with ya?"

"Yes I agree," the blue haired woman who was known as Aqua added. "Traveling alone in such a place as this darkened realm is quite dangerous. Are you sure you do not want us to come along to help?"

Tsuki shook her head. "The means by which I will be traveling can only accommodate one."

"I see," Aqua replied. "But are you sure you will be able to handle it? What is it that you are trying to do? You never had the chance to tell us before."

"Regardless if I'm capable enough to deal with what is supposed to happen, I have someplace to be, a role to fill."

"A role to fill? Mickey asked. "But Tsuki, whose roll are you filling?"

"I am not the one who should be standing here." Tsuki spoke with a sad, almost regretful undertone. "There was someone else…"

Riku was running as fast as his 15-year-old body could take him. He was still fast, his body still quick and agile, but still not as good as he would have been at his current age. The cloaked figure, known as Yutaka, was still ahead of him either way, still carrying Kairi in his arms.

"Stop already!" Riku shouted once more, trying to do anything he could to stop the person.

Much to his surprise, Yutaka actually stopped. "Yeah? What do you want?"

"Give Kairi back already first off," Riku stated.

"Nah, we need her of course for later, so no can do there," Yutaka replied. "But hey, take a look where we are. Familiar?"

Riku took a glance around and realized where they were. Right away he recognized the familiar wall structures and ceiling. They were back in Hollow Bastion.

"What was the name of this place again? Surely you must know, you spent plenty of time here dwelling darkness right?" Yutaka asked mockingly.

"Shut up already. You're trying to scare me, but it isn't going to work."

Yutaka shrugged. "It was worth a shot, and since you are so persistent, I'll give you something fun to do."

Yutaka placed Kairi behind him and with a flick of his hand a barrier went up. It surrounded Riku and Yutaka, making it impossible to get go Kairi now. Finally the hooded figure reached up and pulled off his hood, revealing wavy light brown hair that went past his chin and a dark shade of green eyes.

With a flick of his wrist, he summoned a beige staff with gold strands wrapped around it. "Let's see if you really are a keyblade master as they said."

Riku summoned his keyblade and then the two of them readily themselves into offensive positions. Yutaka smirked as he looked ready to strike at any moment.

"...ronimo!" came a voice from above them. Almost immediately after, Kuri fell from the ceiling in a headfirst dive, crash landing on Riku.

Riku groaned as the surprise weight shoved him down to the ground, knocking Tsuki off her perch on his head. Glancing up slightly, he could see the shocked, and slightly annoyed look coming from Yutaka. "What the heck Kuri!? Honestly… how did you… why would you…" Yutaka sighed heavily before burying his head into his hand.

"You're not Yutaka…." Kuri looked at Riku, lifting his head up and turning to Yutaka.

"How the flying fudgecakes did you two not start fighting yet?" he asked, standing up and dusting himself off, letting his partner see that his cloak and hair were messed up as if Kuri had gotten into a scuffle.

"I was luring him around the dark corridor first before bringing him back here," Yutaka replied, regaining his composer quickly. "I take it you had your fun messing around with Sora then?"

Kuri just chuckled before speaking two words. "Idiot fight."

Yutaka rolled his eyes. "Of course. At least you are here now and we can get back on track."

"Hey!" Riku's voice interjected. He was back to standing and was glaring at both of the boys. "You think maybe you two could have your chit chat some other time?"

"Fine then angsty boy, I'll just head out and let the two of you duke it out. I've already had my fun, now it's Yutaka's turn." Kuri turned and started walking towards Yutaka.

"Aw come on Kuri, you don't want to tag team him?" Yutaka asked, almost sounding a disappointed.

"But that wouldn't be any fun… It wasn't hard to deal with five on me, so you can take him and the kit. I'm gonna go take a nap." Kuri had at this point walked up to his friend, and was almost at the barrier.

Yutaka lowered his gaze to the ground briefly before nodded. "Fine, just don't snooze too long that you miss all the good stuff."

Riku listened carefully to what the seekers where saying, trying to remember as much as he could. Though it did worry him what Kuri said, but he knew trying to question these two was completely pointless.

"Oh please Yutaka, I wouldn't dare miss the grand performance," Kuri answered as he proceeded to nonchalantly walk face first into the barrier, stumbling back slightly. Without making a sound, he created a small opening in Yutaka's barrier and stepped through. Kuri strolled away, disappearing further into the castle as the hole closed itself almost immediately.

Yutaka gave another sigh before he looked back over to Riku. "What? You just going to stare now? Or are you too worried now that you heard what Kuri did to your friends."

"I doubt he did anything really damaging, Sora's stronger than that," Riku answered.

"Sure, if that's what you want to believe," Yutaka replied, shrugging slightly. "But now you have to face me. So let's begin already!"

Yutatak finally took the first charge at Riku swinging his staff to the side when he got closer to Riku. It was easily enough to block, but before Riku could return an attack of his own, Yutaka already swung away for another.

What Riku learned right away that was that Yutaka was fast. Despite having the fight confined to a hallway, not giving much space to move around, Yutaka managed to be rather flexible and agile.

"Come on, are you only good at dodging and attacking?" Yutaka scoffed. "I wanted this to be fun, not to practice on a dummy."

Their weapons clashed again before Yutata jumped back a bit and shook his head. "Honestly, we need to make this more of a challenge."

Yutaka raised his staff up and the tip glow with magic. Beneath Riku's feet, air formed and burst upwards, causing Riku to be launched up in the air slightly. With the sudden confusion and unexpectedness, Yutaka took another lunge at Riku.

He struck into Riku and knocked him back down. Riku let out a groan after hitting the ground, but he managed to push himself up to his feet. He narrowed his eyes and focused back on Yutaka's movements. Sure Yutaka was quick, but if Riku concentrated he could be faster.

When the next attack came, Riku blocked like before but jump back first to prepare his own attack. This time he was the one to succeed in completing an attack and Yutaka tumbled to the ground.

"All right," Yutaka chuckled as he stood up, not even looking phased. "Now that's what I am talking more, much more entertaining."

The two clashed went at it again and again after that, sometimes where Yutaka managed to get hits in, but other times it was Riku. Slowly over the course of the battle, Riku's strength started to pick up more. The longer he fought Yutaka, the more he could pick up on his fighting style, and that meant finding his weaknesses.

It wasn't long before Riku struck Yutaka and he collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. Riku stood over him and pointed his keyblade at him. "Take down the barrier, we're done here."

"We're not done… till Kuri gets back…" Yutaka huffed.

"I am not waiting around," Riku replied. "I don't want to have to to hurt you, so if you will, remove the barrier already."

"Riku," Tsuki thought-called out, finally making herself known since arrival at Hollow Bastion. She was standing by the barrier, right next to where Kuri had opened a hole. "He can't take down the barrier."

Riku opened his mouth to speak aloud, but saw that Yutaka was still looking at him. Even though the boy knew of Tsuki, Riku thought it was better not give him half of a conversation. "But he created it, why wouldn't he be able to take it down?"

"The other one, Kuri. He opened a hole in the barrier briefly. That can only be done either if he made the barrier or took control of it."

"So we have to wait for the other to get back anyways?" Riku asked as his eyes shifted back to Yutaka.

"The only other way out would be a dark corridor." Tsuki answered, before getting up, and darting past Yutaka to stand on all fours at Riku's feet.

Riku nodded, he already knew that a dark corridor was out of the option for now. All he could do was try to question Yutaka further, and hope to get some answers from him. "If you want Kuri to come back, where is he?"

"How should I know? He has a habit of just going off, doing his own thing. Honestly, I have no idea where he would even want to nap in a place like this."

"And I thought you two were working together," Riku scoffed.

"We are! Kuri is just… he's just weird sometimes okay? We were better at the start, all those years ago… but whatever. Can you at least let me get up now?" Yutaka asked as he glared up at Riku.

"I am not taking any chances with you," Riku replied seriously.

"Then have the fox use her magic to make sure I don't do anything," Yutaka said as he glared at Tsuki. "Yeah, I bet you have some magic like that right? You're just waiting for your moment to show it off, aren't you?"

Tsuki glared back before jumping up and sitting on top of Yutaka.

Yutaka finally started to move around a bit, no longer caring that Riku still had the keyblade pointed at him. He swatted his hand up over his head while trying to sit up a bit. "Hey! Get off!"

With a flick of her tail, Tsuki cast a basic form of gravity, pinning Yutata to the ground briefly.

Riku stepped back as he watched Yutaka groan in annoyance. Any attempts Yutaka made to get up were useless now. "Why…" Yutaka gritted through his teeth. "Kuri, where… the heck are you?"

Without warning, Tsuki lept off of Yutaka and moved towards Riku as a dark corridor formed behind him.

"He won't be responding from where he is," came Kuri's voice, although a touch deeper/darker, before his hooded form came out of the corridor. Wielding a familiar, incomplete Keyblade of Hearts, he lunged with it at Riku the same time Tsuki cast barrier around him.

Riku's whirled around and his eyes widened. While everything felt like it moved slowly, he watched the keyblade inch closer to him, his eyes fixated on it. He knew that keyblade and he knew what it meant, but he wasn't able to give himself any time to question it.

"Riku!" Tsuki called out over the telepathic link, just as the barrier around Riku shattered to pieces.

She just watched, frozen in place by her own emotions, as a small sphere of light floated up before fading away.

"We made a mistake, underestimating the larger threat, and focusing on the then current, manageable opponent," Tsuki commented. "But now is not the time to dwell on the past. I have to forge forward without him to preserve what's left."

Mickey and Aqua looked at Tsuki with sympathetic eyes. Neither of them had expected such a story to come from the young girl, but they felt deeply what she was feeling inside. Aqua placed a hand over her heart as she let out a long sigh. "Oh Tsuki, I am sorry to hear that. To go through that at such a young ago… If I may, what was the boy's name?"

"Riku…" Tsuki spoke with a bit of hesitation.

Aqua gasped, covering her mouth. "Riku? I… I know the time in the Realm of Darkness is different than the realm of light… but it's possible that I may know the Riku you speak of. Can you describe him for me?"

"I can do a bit better than describe him," Tsuki spoke before her appearance wavered. Right before their eyes she shifted into Riku's form, with slight differences. The hair was highlighted with light blue, and the eyes were silver.

"It's not a perfect reflection of what he looked like, as his hair was completely gray, and his eyes were aquamarine." Tsuki spoke, although she now sounded more like Riku, but with a feminine undertone.

Aqua's expression sank again. "It is him… Before I became trapped in this realm I did meet him, but as a young child. It really has been 10 years then…"

"Don't worry Aqua," Mickey chimed in. "We're going to get out of here together. We will find a way to get through all of this."

A flash of light appeared before them, and when it faded, there was a crown shaped card floating in front of Tsuki-Riku.

"It's time for us to part ways, Your Majesty, Aqua." Tsuki spoke turning to face them in a pseudo goodbye.

Mickey and Aqua exchanged glances. Both of them still unsure of letting Tsuki go off on her own. But she had spoken her words on the matter and they knew that they could know persuade her any other way.

"Well," Mickey started. "If you think you are going to be all right. Then I hope we can meet up with you again soon."

Aqua nodded in agreement. "Be safe with your journey Tsuki. I wish you luck with what you must do."

Tsuki-Riku nodded in thanks. "Until we meet again." She then took the floating card with her right hand, and vanished in a flash of light.

We came up with this idea for Riku 5 and a half years ago... now finally we have gotten to it.

:) Heh hope you liked it