Heart of Akasha

A/N: Thank you guys for your reviews, merendinoemiliano and Zantetsuken.

Zantetsuken:

I've re-watched the Creation of the Soldier-scene and, to my surprise, we both had been wrong. There was no Heartless attacking the guy. I just thought so because he had been running and after falling, turned around, but there was no attacker in sight. Yet he still turned into an Emblem-Heartless, regardless. Instead, with the suddenly looking back, it looked like he had been feeling a great amount of fear instead. Forget Sköll (who is only "not necessarily" Hans's Heartless), this example would make turning into a Heartless because of negative emotions the first actually shown method of turning into an Emblem-Heartless.

I recon the presence of Emblem-Heartless on a world (or at last in a dark corridor close to the target) is already enough to turn any additional Heartless into Emblem-Heartless, regardless of any direct attacks and regardless that the Emblem-Heartless had originally been created by a machine. Whether that's because it was an Emblem-Heartless that drew out the hearts towards them or because Emblem-Heartless like to copy other things on that world and could thus decide to copy the Emblem, too, is something no outside observer could tell.

So, the real question is not, why those people turned into Emblem-Heartless, but why other people didn't.

Both Sora and Xehanort turned into Pureblood-Heartless. What did they have in common? They both had two hearts inside of them when they chose to willingly turn themselves into a Heartless with a Keyblade. That's three things that are far away from normal and thus could be a possible explanation for why they both became Pureblood-Heartless instead of Emblem.

Chapter 16: Things Are not What They Appear

When Ji-Han walked into Labyrinth Town, he did so with the straps of a [Traditional Japanese Pouch Bag (white, flowers, medium)] in his left hand. Naturally he was all alone, as being seen with one of the other two would work against trying to trick everyone into thinking he wasn't that guy from before. Though to his surprise, there had been no sign of Saku and her two subordinates. Did they not guard the gate all the time? Curious.

He moved along the main road, food stands on the side. He actually went to one such stand and got himself some cotton candy, to sell the illusion of being a visitor coming to the festival. He also tried to discreetly observe the behavior of the "other" woman, to prevent acting out in any manner that was definitively "male".

But no matter what, he was not prepared for the girl with long silver hair in the white Japanese wedding dress to jump on top of the roof of a nearby building and then onto a chain of festival flags.

"Lookit me, Koooon!" She shouted, slurring her words drunkenly. "Feshtiivals are sho much fuuuun!"

At the same time she proceeded to take the food out of the basked in her arms and threw it around. While spinning on top of the decoration. And where did that monkey come from?

The girl called Chiya then just jumped down and ran towards and past him, a literal herd of different animals on her heels.

Ji-Han just stared at her retreating back dumbfounded for a few moments.

So. This just happened. Should he follow her? It didn't look like she needed his help. Unless maybe if she's getting attacked by Heartless, but that could be happen to anyone, so it wasn't really better for him to follow her instead of going directly to the center. Not to mention that in the time it took for him to make the decision, she was already long gone.

"There he is!"

What?!

Ji-Han spun around. There he actually saw Saku and her two officers, but his gaze was right away drawn away from them to the woman next to them. She had black hair that was styled in two long strands to the side of her face and wore the white wedding dress that was common this day. But more importantly was, what she was holding in her hand. Not the white paper umbrella in her left, but the crystal ball in her right.

A psychic. A real psychic. No matter how he looked, she instantly realized his true gender and called the guards on him. All the training; and it had been all for nothing!

Ji-Han turned tail and started to run away, the "Halt" of the officers on his heels, together with the officers themselves. Now, while getting thrown into prison had been one of their plans; that was just for getting into the city in the first place! Now that he was inside and on his own, he might as well look for Heartless to fight while he was on the run. It should be a lot more productive than sitting in jail.

He duck into a side alley, trying to shake them off in the many paths of the apply-named Labyrinth Town. Which was easier said than done considering they had a psychic on their side. So if he managed to get away too easily, they would go back to her and just ask her, where he had vanished to. In other words, he had to lead them around long enough that the slower psychic would fall behind so much that when he finally escaped and the officer returned for a reading, he would be able to leave this district in that time.

So, after some minutes of running around, he finally decided that they had gone far enough.

"[High Jump]!"

Ji-Han ran over to a Japanese house and used the skill to jump onto the roof, similarly to the girl with the animals from earlier. The shouts of surprise from his pursuers just spurned him on as he hopped over the top of the roof and vanishing from view.

Of course that shouldn't be enough to lose the women. Which was why he went down the other side, only to jump up the next building. Even if he wasn't jumping from one roof to the next on the accounts that he didn't have a skill called "Far Jump", it was still faster for him going the direct route. Or rather, those following him were getting slowed down by having to go around buildings.

Not enough to lose them, however. If he continued in a straight line. The only problem was only that if he changed directions, they could catch up during that time. Which was why instead of continuing straight ahead or running to the side, he did not jump down onto the ground the second time, but hid on the balcony of the Japanese-style building instead. Without the psychic they would hopefully pass by him and only realize it once it was too late. And to help with that…

"[Card Summoning]!"

…he had the twin-tailed Chisa draw her chalk circle on the balcony. That way they would not even notice him through the gaps, no matter how hard they looked. Funny how he had thought he wouldn't be needing her…

Nevertheless, his gamble paid off and the patrol officers went past him without stopping, completely oblivious to his presence. Good. That meant that they really weren't psychics themselves. If they were, it would have been close to impossible to escape them…

Ji-Han's thoughts trailed off when his gaze fell upon one of the paper lanterns hanging under the roof close to him. Or rather, the freaking Heartless-emblem on it.

Before he knew what was happening, the lantern rotated around and the red paper parted in three places to reveal two yellow dots as eyes and a mouth where a long red tongue whipped out, striking Ji-Han at his side and throwing him off the balcony and onto the street below.

{-9}

Once again Ji-Han was glad that High Jump reduced his fall damage as he quickly picked himself up and summoned the Binary Spirit, holding it ready as he faced the Heartless. But now all around him appeared black portals, revealing three more of the lanterns levitating in the air, as well as a red folded umbrella, standing on a sandaled-foot with one eye and a mouth that had also revealed an extremely long red tongue.

"[Observe]!"

{Awake Lantern Lv19
Status: Unaffected
HP: 260/260
MP: 142/142
Type: Emblem-Heartless.
Elemental Alignment: Demon, Shadow
Elemental Resistances: Fire (0), Leaf (0.2),
Soul (0.5), Mystic (0.75), Time (-1)
A Heartless that not only takes the shape of a paper lantern,
but can also mimic the object in question completely.
It can stay still for long stretches of time to take
its prey by surprise when they least expect it.
STR: 15 VIT: 24 DEX: 17
INT: 30 WIS: 25 LUK: 23}

{Awake Umbrella Lv25
Status: Unaffected
HP: 350/350
MP: 450/450
Type: Emblem-Heartless.
Elemental Alignment: Wind, Demon, Shadow
Elemental Resistances: Wind (0), Leaf (0.8),
Soul (0.5), Mystic (0.75), Time (-1)
A Heartless that takes the appearance of a paper umbrella.
When it reveals its true form it takes pleasure in blowing
people up into the sky and watching them fall to despair.
STR: 17 VIT: 36 DEX: 21
INT: 32 WIS: 32 LUK: 20}

'Alright', thought Ji-Han as the Awake Lantern from the roof joined its brethren. 'None of them have Data-Resistance.'

He took three quick steps towards the first Lantern and used [High Jump] to cut it – only for him to continue to climb to twice the height of the enemy before descending again. Luckily that was still enough time to overcome his stupor at the fact that his High Jump was now way more than enough to reach airborne Heartless and cut the target on the way down the second time. Just like he used to do when he couldn't jump that high.

{+617 EXP}

The Awake Lantern evaporated at that strike and in its place appeared a roll of paper and another red lantern.

Ji-Han instantly hit at the latter, only for the sound scissors cutting paper to reveal that it had been a real paper lantern and not a Heartless. But by then it was already too late and the item had been split into two parts. With a somehow perfect cut that left the two halves in an otherwise perfect shape instead of crushed like you would expect paper to do. Did his Keyblade to that?

{-31} {-31MP}

{-30} {-30 MP}

{-9}

A pain in the back and a bunch of messages told him, he should have not let his attention wander in the middle of a battle as he was flung forward and face-planted on the ground. And before he even had the chance to react, he was picked up against his will and then flung high into the sky by a small whirlwind of white streams of air.

{-15}

The damage wasn't even the biggest problem and thanks to High Jump's fall damage-reduction, neither was flying into the air. But all that spinning was making him dizzy.

{You have been afflicted with [Vertigo 90].}

Yeah, he noticed… Uff! And there was the ground. Ji-Han tried to pick himself up, but his head was spinning. But if he didn't do anything, he would just be send back into the air over and over again in a vicious loop. Unless the Awake Umbrella decided not to use the whirlwind attack, but betting on an enemy not using a specific ability… yeah, not the brightest idea.

So, despite the nausea, he closed his eyes and tried his best to scramble away in a random direction. That didn't block all the attacks but as long as he didn't get hit by another whirlwind, he could whether anything else. In fact…

"[High Jump]!"

…when he had been thrown up, he had seen the attack in question for a moment, before the spinning got too bad. And unlike a real tornado, this one did not reach up to the heavens. So, with his newfound jumping height, he might actually be able to jump over it!

Not that he could actually see it right now, since his eyes were closed. But nonetheless, when he landed again, he did not get blown up immediately and his nausea had gotten better. So he opened his eyes again, ignored the balls of blue fire the lanterns were shooting at him and looked around for the umbrella.

There it was!

He ran towards it, ready to Dodge Roll out of the way at a moment's notice. A strategy that served him well when white winds started to surround the Heartless and soon the whirlwind was flung towards him. But because he had expected it, he was easily able to dodge the attack going in a straight line and managed to reach the enemy without any more trouble. There he hit it one, twice, only for the umbrella to open suddenly, flinging his weapon back harmlessly and him with it.

He might have fallen onto the ground, if it ironically weren't for the impacts on his back {-30} {-30 MP} {-31} {-31MP}, stabilizing him, allowing him to change direction and stab forward, into the now closed canopy. The Heartless evaporated {+750 EXP} and Ji-Han turned around to deal with the three left Red Lanterns. With one of them already closing in on him.

It shot out its tongue towards him, but Ji-Han swatted it away with a [Guard] and then he was already close enough to it to defeat it without trouble with a two-hit combo {+650 EXP}, dropping another roll of paper and a red paper lantern.

The other two shot blue fireballs at him and Ji-Han quickly [Dodge Roll]ed out of the way, before making his way over to them. In haste, but also wary of more attacks. Especially those MP-stealing ones. He had ignored them before, because the dizziness was way more annoying and dangerous. But now that he had dealt with that, he would rather not use any MP unnecessarily, since he actually had a lot more HP than MP thanks to Athletic Body and using Card Summoning earlier.

So, he made sure to take down the last two Heartless without getting hit once, earning him two more paper rolls; or rather {Kouzogami (25cm x 200cm)}, paper made from Japanese Mulberry, as an [Observe] told him. On that note, the good paper lantern was an {Akachouchin (75cm x 25cm)}, while the one he had cut in half was a {Defective Akachouchin (75cm x 25cm)}. He still put it into his inventory though, since it was just paper and thus should be easily fixed with some glue or tape. Not perfect of course, but someone in Traverse Town might appreciate it regardless.

"There!"

Ji-Han spun around and cursed.

"You couldn't have shown up thirty seconds earlier?!" He called out to Saku and her two subordinates, as he turned around again and took off in a hurry, the officers on his heels. If they had shown up earlier, they would have seen him fighting against the Heartless, making all this running-away unnecessary. But missing his battle but still returning early enough that they didn't miss him? What bad luck. Hopefully the next one would be better.


'This is getting ridiculous', thought Ji-Han as he struck down another Awake Umbrella {+750 EXP}.

This was the fourth time he had met a group of Heartless, as well as the fourth time he had met Heartless without any of his pursuers nearby. Seriously, maybe he should just let one of them live until the officers actually caught up?

Just as he was thinking this, the three Awake Lanterns and one Soldier that were left vanished into black portals, leaving him all on his lonesome.

Okay. What just happened? Since when do the Heartless run away? The only times that happened was with the light from the Digivice. But there was currently no strong light coming from behind him. And when he turned to check, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Or at last, nothing he could see. Was there something invisible?

"[Observe]!" No. Nothing except the street and buildings. Unless it was invisible and able to screw with his Observe like Eltina from Cantehill. But so far he hadn't been attacked either…

Ji-Han trailed off, when someone ran into his field of view from around the corner. Someone who was starting to get out of breath from all the running they had already done this day.

Saku's eyes met his and she narrowed them.

"Don't you dare run away again!" She raged, but naturally Ji-Han did not listen to her, turned and instantly picked up speed.

Of course, once again he had been found without any Heartless in sight.

Wait. Did they ran away from her?! Then how was he supposed to make her and her two flunkies watch him killing Heartless? Damn, back to Plan A it was: Just trying to run away. If he could even do that, considering the Heartless liked to attack when he finally escaped for the moment, stalling him enough that he got found again.

Wait. Are they perhaps doing that on purpose?! No way! Heartless aren't supposed to be that smart! But it would explain so many things… still, just how was he supposed to escape her then? He looked around and noticed a small forest that was visible from behind some of the buildings.

A forest, in the town? No! He finally remembered! That was the small hill that he had seen when he first looked upon the Labyrinth Town, the hill with the stairs and the red shrine gate! Maybe he could use the buildings and trees to jump up there, forcing Saku to go the long way around and then, when she finally managed to go up all the stairs, go back down the way he came from.

Even better, with how out of breath she already was, having to climb stairs might make her finally give up! Let's try it!

But when he finally reached the foot of the hill, he realized that using it to escape his pursuers would not be that easy. It was a lot larger than it had looked like from far away. Meaning, not only was it higher, it was also more stretched out. Meaning, he could not just jump on top of a nearby building with High Jump and then onto a nearby tree and already be at the top.

He would have to jump from tree to tree –he still didn't have Far Jump, he reminded himself – over a slope that might be difficult to venture to, but not impossible if the person was determined enough. Maybe he should go up the stairs and then roll down instead?

But as he ran around the edges of the base, looking for the stairway, he stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed a black shadow peeking out from the lines of trees. He quickly took a closer look, thinking it might be an actual Shadow-Heartless. But it wasn't. Ji-Han could tell, because no Heartless had question marks flying above their head, but whatever else it was, he had no idea.

It was as tall, if not even taller than him and stood on the tip of two bunny-like hind legs, fitting to its head which had the ears and nose of a rabbit, as well. The forelegs, however, were hidden under something like a coat with a ragged seem, black on the outside and red on the inside. Speaking of colors, besides the inside of the coat, the only things that didn't have a black color were a white fur... collar? Napkin? As well as a pair of diagonal eyes looking more like rubies than actual organs.

And those eyes were staring intensively at him.

PING!

{An ominous vibe had been detected.}

A cold shower ran over his back as all the noise and colors seemed to vanish, except for these captivating red eyes.

[Follow.]

Ji-Han was completely taken aback by the sudden voice resounding through him, as well as the creature suddenly turning around, vanishing into the trees.

Ji-Han had completely forgotten about his pursuers and did not even notice Saku's shout of exasperation, as he followed the rabbit into the tree line. The great slope made it extremely difficult, but by using the trees as supports, he managed to slowly make his way up, the black rabbit moving in and out of his field of view at random times like a ghost. Ji-Han slipped once or twice, but he continued onwards.

And then he got the idea using [Dodge Roll] to move forward. Dodge Roll only cared about distance, so as long as he was not actually trying to roll up a wall, it would even work on these slopes. He only had to make sure he ended up behind a tree to avoid sliding down again.

Finally the slope stopped and he broke through the trees to find himself on the clearing on top of the hill. Everywhere was grass and looking through the red gate he had quite the view on the hills surrounding Labyrinth Town. Unfortunately the city itself was not visible as the stairway pointed into the wrong direction for that. But he could see the red tower peeking out from behind the trees on the other side.

There was also missing any trace of the black rabbit. Instead, in the center of the clearing was a young girl in bride clothes laying on the side.

[-Rank 10 Urara-
LV29 Chiya]

Ji-Han recognized the girl as the one who had been jumping on top of buildings earlier but the name {Chiya} rang some more bells.

"[Inventory]!"

Ji-Han took out the plushie he had gained from using the Plushie Coupon in this world and indeed, aside from the clothing and hairstyle, the [Gamer's Chiya Cotton Plushie (25 cm)] looked just like her. That made her an incredibly important person to this world. Considering the rabbit's otherworldly method of speaking, was it perhaps the world reaching out to him to help the girl?

He put the plushie away and walked closer to her, studying her. Man, was she sleeping peacefully like this. Downright tranquil. Now, just what would she need help with? Were there Heartless around?

Ji-Han quickly checked the surroundings but not a single one came forward. Instead it started to rain lightly. Another sun shower.

"I guess I'll just be making sure you don't get sick for sleeping in the rain for now", he mused quickly as he bend over and nudged her shoulder.

"Wake up", he said gently. "You are going to get a cold sleeping like this."

"STEP – pant, pant – AWAY – pant, pant – FROM CHIYA! Gasp!"

Ji-Han quickly took his hand away and straightened himself, before he turned around to look at Saku.

"I was just trying to wake her!" He defended himself. "Sleeping around like this in this weather can't be healthy!"

"As if I'd belief the intentions of a male, who had been sneaking into the Labyrinth Town during the Wedding Kimono Festival", she countered to which Ji-Han had to admit, she kinda had a point. "I don't even want to think about what kind of dastardly things you would do to a defensive girl like her!"

"Alright, alright", Ji-Han tried to placate her and stepped away. "Then I'll just let you take care of her. I don't think the rabbit will care who does… unless there's something only I can do… One second! [Observe]!"

"…[Drunk asleep]? Who gave her alcohol? But at last it is just something she can literally sleep off. Alright, she's all yours!"

"And where do you think you are going?"

As Ji-Han went to leave, he was stopped by Saku, who stood in his way, her sword drawn, while her three subordinates walked past her to go and tend to Chiya.

Ji-Han raised an eyebrow.

"Do you still want to continue?" He asked her. "Nothing against you, but you should have noticed by now that you get tired a lot faster than I do. And I don't need to follow roads. I might not be able to hide from you, but at the same time, catching me is impossible on your own. Don't you not rather just do something more important?"

"This is important!" She declared. "No matter how futile it appears, I would not be able to call myself the captain of Labyrinth Town's Block 10 Patrol Unit, if I let a criminal get away without not even trying to stop him!"

"So cooool!" Her black and brown-haired subordinates were swooning in unison. Only the white-haired one was still focused on the task, as she continued towards Chiya to get the girl finally out of the rain…

Ji-Han summoned his Binary Spirit and sprinted towards the subordinates. Not expecting the sudden movement, Oshima and Shiozawa were caught off guard and couldn't do anything except stumble helplessly backwards as Ji-Han closed in on them – and promptly passed them and instead swung his Keyblade at the last subordinate.

A flash of white – and Ji-Han was flung backwards, sliding over the wet grass until he stopped near the dumbfounded Saku. There he picked himself up as fast as possible to take a combat stance, his weapon pointing towards the third subordinate, who was also now turning to face him, her nine white long and fluffy canine tails circling gracefully through the air around her.

"What- what's going on?" Saku voiced her confusion to which Ji-Han was only eager to reply:

"I have the ability to see people's names flying above their head", he explained before he opened his inventory and put the Headdress Flower back in. Everybody already knew he was a guy and he preferred fighting in his true form. "Or if they are way more powerful than me, it shows just question marks. The only things that don't even have that are either puppets; or heartless monsters!"

PING!

{Quest Alert

Wedding Crasher: The Jealous Bride

Sleeping of her intoxication wouldn't normally a problem for Chiya. But this time there is a Heartless aiming for the unconscious Urara.

Protect Chiya from the [Sun Shower Bride] until the end of the day.

Bonus Objective:
1: Defeat the [Sun Shower Bride] with the Keyblade.
2: Make sure no one gets killed by the [Sun Shower Bride].

Completion Award: +10 000 EXP.
Increased reputation with the gods and Urara of Labyrinth Town.
Increased reputation with Chiya and her friends.

Bonus Award:
1: +6 000 EXP.
The enemy will not return in a year.
2: +8 000 EXP.
Increased reputation with the people of Labyrinth Town.

Completion Failure: +2 000 EXP.
Decreased reputation with the people of Labyrinth Town.}

"It's after Chiya!" Ji-Han quickly relayed as he accepted the quest, before using the voice chat to notify his companions: "Boss-Enemy spotted. I am at the top of the hill. The police is with me."

Now that Saku and her subordinates had found out about the Heartless, they could finally allow Naofumi and Shua in. Now he just had to stall the enemy until the reinforcements arrived.

Speaking of the Heartless, it apparently decided to forego any resemblance of humanity, as layers of illusions peeled off it revealing… a Kumiho?! The nine tails had been already a good sign for that but now the head had changed to that of a cartoonish fox with silver fur and yellow dots as eyes, wearing a red plum flower over the right ear. It hands were paws, yet it had no problem holding the red paper parasol in its right. Whether or not it had human feet, Ji-Han could not tell as those were covered by the red kimono with a motif of silver foxes.

"[Observe]!"

{Sun Shower Bride Lv52
Status: Unaffected
HP: 2600/2600
MP: 5200/5200
Type: Emblem-Heartless.
Elemental Alignment: Lightning, Shadow, Demon
Elemental Resistances: Stone (0.5), Soul (0.75),
Rot (0.5), Poison (0.5), Time (-2)
A Heartless that only shows up to special occasions.
With lightning and illusions it is prepared to ruin any wedding.
STR: 39 VIT: 44 DEX: 33
INT: 52 WIS: 48 LUK: 32}

Alright. So it didn't seem to have any resistances he needed to worry about. And its stats were actually comparable to his? This fight might not have been that much of a problem, even on his own. If he actually had been alone. And not surrounded by people he had to protect.

Especially considering that in the time it took for Ji-Han to read through its status, the Sun Shower Bride had turned around, ignoring him and refocused on the unconscious Chiya, who was piggy-back on the back of Shiozawa. The patrol officer flinched at the sudden interest and Ji-Han quickly shot forward to redirect the attention back to him.

Which apparently worked even without sight since as soon as he was in reach, he'd had to jump back from one of the tails striking out. At last his goal had been accomplished and the Heartless was focusing back on him.

"Get Chiya out of here, quick!" Saku meanwhile told her two subordinates while she took position next to Ji-Han, her sword pointing at the Sun Shower Bride. However…

"That's not going to work", refuted the Gamer. "Heartless can only be hurt by something supernatural. A normal weapon doesn't work!"

"I am the captain of the Labyrinth Town's 10th District Patrol Unit!" Saku declared intensively. "I am not going to let an outsider deal with someone attacking the inhabitants!"

Ji-Han was distracted from trying to convince her otherwise, by her suddenly turning into a Sun Shower Bride herself. He jumped away and she turned his way, pointing the closed umbrella towards him. But it was her, as he could tell thanks to the words floating above her head. He looked around and saw three more Sun Shower Brides, one of them carrying another on its back.

"It's an illusion!" He proclaimed. "The Heartless didn't even move around, it just made everyone look like it! Just attack the one I am attacking and you'll be fine."

He rushed forward but did so on his own. Saku was still too hesitant right now to do anything. Which suited him just fine. Less of a possibility for her to accidentally kill herself.

Unfortunately the real Heartless did not just wait for him. Instead it actually turned around and ran towards the two officers, who panicked silently and scattered, Shiozawa still carrying Chiya on her back. Wait. Silently? Damn it, did it block any sound between them to stop them from recognizing each other through voice? In that case…

"…[Party Invite]!" He send a Party Invite towards Saku, but in a split-second decision decided to leave out the other two, not wanting to distract them while they were running away. Instead he used some [Dodge Roll]s, to close in on the Sun Shower Bride faster. Only for him to come face-to-face with a white twister at the end of his third roll.

"[Guard]!" He instinctively activated, sending the whirlwind back to the Heartless who had stopped going after the officers and faced him. And now she used her umbrella to swat away the wind attack.

…An umbrella? Come to think of it, the Sun Shower Bride had a Lightning-Element and not a Wind one, didn't it?

"[Observe]!"

{Awake Umbrella Lv28
Status: Unaffected
HP: 392/392
MP: 464/504
Type: Emblem-Heartless.
Elemental Alignment: Wind, Demon, Shadow
Elemental Resistances: Wind (0), Leaf (0.8),
Soul (0.5), Mystic (0.75), Time (-1)
A Heartless that takes the appearance of a paper umbrella.
When it reveals its true form it takes pleasure in blowing
people up into the sky and watching them fall to despair.
STR: 19 VIT: 40 DEX: 23
INT: 35 WIS: 35 LUK: 21}

An Awake Umbrella, he had been right! Dang it, these thing's ability to toss him into the air was even more annoying than anything the boss monster had shown so far. He would have to deal with it first!

The Kumiho stretched out her tails in a ring around her and blue flames appeared at their tips. Then, one after another, they left their position, shooting towards Ji-Han.

But the Gamer was already moving to meet them. He ducked under the first one, cut through the second one, send the third one back with a [Guard] and then got hit in the back with the forth. {-32}

"[Dodge Roll]!" He activated as he fell forward to recover and thus only got hit by another one {-31} instead of all of the rest, as he landed on his feet and was able to use another [Dodge Roll], this time to the right. There he spun around, cutting two more of the fireballs. Which left… four? He did a quick count. Why was the one he had blocked still going after him? Weren't these fireballs homing like the ones from the Heart-Hunting Nuckelavee? At last they were still going after him even after they missed him and even curving around to get him from behind. {-32}

"Uwak! [Doge Roll]!

He rolled after being hit by one again, this time coming to a stop before another hit him, allowing him to cut it instead. If there was one good thing about the fireballs, it was the fact that they vanished when they hit him and only took a small amount of his HP when they did so. Not his MP like the fireballs of the Awake Lantern. So if worst came to worst, he could actually just weather the attacks. Like for example, if the Sun Shower Bride used the opportunity to go after Chiya while he was otherwise occupied.

Ji-Han send a quick gaze towards the Heartless, but fortunately it was still focused on him. Still, he couldn't just bet on that the whole time. He had already wasted too much time with this attack. He had to end this, before the Heartless got the idea to leave him for the defenseless prey. And with only two flames left…

Ji-Han [Doge Roll]ed away from the flames and towards the Sun Shower Bride, which swung its umbrella at his approach, creating another whirlwind. But this one was just as ineffective as the one before, being thrown back by Ji-Han's [Guard]. And in the time that the Heartless swung the umbrella to block it, Ji-Han reached it and raised his Keyblade into the air.

"[Power Strike!]"

Ji-Han send the weapon down, not at the Sun Shower Bride, but at the Awake Umbrella that the former had so nicely put in front of it. Which, being a relatively low-leveled Heartless without a Fight-Resistance, was instantly destroyed. {+630 EXP}

But Ji-Han didn't stop there. Being already close to the enemy, he pressed on while activating [Drug Magic: Muscle Explosion]. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated and by the time he had said the name of the ability, he had already finished his first hit. So he didn't had the STR-Bonus there. And even though at the return-swing it was full in effect, Ji-Han failed to see a noticeable difference with his Observe. It took between 150 and 200 HP both times, a more detailed number not possible to calculate in the heat of the battle. Especially since the Heartless was counter-attacking, summoning the ghost fires from the tip of her tails, sending them towards Ji-Han point-blank.

Ji-Han jumped backwards and used [Guard] at the same time, which allowed him to block the one at the front while two hit both of his shoulders {-32} {-33}. The rest looked at first like they would miss him, but then changed direction mid-course and went past his defense, hitting him all over the body {-32} {-31} {-32} {-32} {-33} {-32} and sending him flying back at the same time that the Sun Shower Bride was hit by the one he had reflected.

Ji-Han landed on his back and got back up in haste, only to bear witness to Saku, still looking like a Sun Shower Bride, attacking the real one from behind with her own "umbrella". Apparently, she had figured out which one was the enemy. Good for her but since she couldn't actually hurt it…

…Or at last, so he thought until the HP of the Heartless dropped by 50. Was her sword blessed or something?

PING!

{[Slashing Weapon Mastery]'s Level has risen by 1.}

Nice, but distracting.

Ji-Han waved the notification away and ran back to the Heartless while Saku was occupying its attention. Meanwhile his buff muscles vanished and he reapplied [Drug Magic: Muscle Explosion], while the Sun Shower Bride once again raised her tails – but not fanned out like with the fireballs. Instead, they all went straight up, creating the image of one large tail instead.

And then came the lightning.

Out of the partly cloudy yet still bright skies seven bolts of lightning struck down the area around the Heartless, not all at once, but fast enough that the first had yet to vanish while the second came from above. In other words, too fast to react for either Saku or Ji-Han.

Ji-Han flinched but Saku, who didn't have the Gamer's Body or even just Physical Endurance, screamed out in pain as whoever knows how many volt and amp hit her, disrupting the illusion making her look like a Heartless and literally flinging her away like a ragdoll.

"Saku-", he began to call out in panic, but stopped and used [Observe] instead since that was a way better way to check up on her. And luckily, while it took a good chunk of her HP, with 800 of 1160 left, she was not in danger to drop dead any second now.

At last, not from that alone. But the Heartless was not willing to ignore such a tempting target, helplessly on the ground as she was. And she was pretty much helpless. Even though she was gritting her teeth and pushing herself up, she would not make it before the Kumiho would reach her. And Ji-Han doubted she had good chances to survive the attention.

Worse, moving towards Saku, meant moving away from him. And with the small distance between them all, he doubted he would manage to catch up to the Heartless in time.

So, he had only the tiniest amount of time to find something, anything, to redirect all the attention onto himself. So, in a move that definitively spoke more of instinct than conscious thought, he did the only thing to possible reach the enemy, throwing something. And since he had no time to pick out something from the Inventory, he threw the one thing already in his hand: The Keyblade.

Which went actually better than he expected. You'd think such a cumbersome weapon would make a pretty bad projectile. But as he threw it, it circled throw the air like a throwing axe, which the Keyblades admittedly kinda remotely resembled – if you ignored the fact that the teeth were on the wrong side.

Nonetheless, the Keyblade cut through the air directly towards the Sun Shower Bride and right through it, dealing something between 50 and 100 damage. But more importantly, it redirected its attention away from Saku and back to him. Just like he wanted, even if he did have to throw away his weapon for that… wait.

Ji-Han stretched out his hand and in a burst of digital numbers, the Binary Spirit reappeared in it. Ji-Han smiled.

"Worship me heathen!" He called out. "I have a ranged attack with unlimited ammo!"

Then he threw his Keyblade again while laughing madly – only for the weapon to come up short, going through the ground in front instead of the target. Stopping laughing at the same time the muscle enhancements wore off, he threw the Keyblade again, this time too much to the left.

Ji-Han cursed. Now if he could just hit the enemy consistently…

He threw again, this time actually being on target – only for the Heartless to move all its tails to the front, blocking the attack. It still got some damage, but only a bit more than twenty.

Still, as long as it was just blocking, it wasn't attacking. As since he generally only needed to hold out until Naofumi and Shua showed up… yeah, he had no trouble stalling by doing scratch damage.

Unfortunately, the Heartless was of a different opinion. As he threw the Keyblade once more, the Kumiho literally duplicated, making the weapon pass harmlessly in between the two. That not enough, each of them duplicated again and again, until he was surrounded in a circle of nine Sun Shower Brides, only that each of them had one tail instead of the usual nine.

Worse, since they were all non-people, he could not instantly tell which one was which. Especially since during the whole movement, his Observe-Window had closed, meaning the Heartless had escaped his field of vision and he had to reapply it.

"[Observe]!"

He could barely make out the fact that each of the four in front of him were just {Sun Shower Bride Doppelganger}s, before they vanished and he got hit in the back and thrown forwards.

{-50} {-51} {-51} {-52} {-51}

Even before he landed, he turned around to witness a five-tailed Kumiho behind the place he had been before, the tails striking forward. Then the tails retreated and out of its back grew four more tails, bringing the number back up to nine.

'Note to self,' mused Ji-Han as he hit the ground, 'don't just stand there like an idiot if it's got you surrounded.'

"Are you alright?" Saku asked him as she hurried over to him.

Ji-Han shook his head.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He responded. "I've got a body that only shows damage when it's enough to kill me. You don't and you just got hit by the same lightning!"

"Oh, this? This is nothing!" She declared. "I won't let such simple wounds stop me from completing my duty!"

"Tch." He had no time to try and convince her as the Sun Shower Bride shot out nine fireballs again.

"[Wind Magic: Breeze of Regeneration]!" So instead he held out his left hand to the side and used the two seconds until the fireballs reached them, to try and restore at last a bit of her HP. Thanks to his [Athletic Body]-Perk this was around 25 HP per second with one hand… which meant, he got healed, too, as the hand holding his Binary Spirit was technically pointing towards "himself".

Nevertheless, he deactivated the healing skill when the flames reached them and instead began cutting them down with Saku's help. And together, able to watch each other's backs, they easily made short work of them without getting hit once. All the while Ji-Han taught her about the voice chat, in case the Sun Shower Bride made everyone look like it again.

Unfortunately, instead of using something that Ji-Han was prepared to deal with, it did the one that was the most difficult, forcing Ji-Han and Saku to stand back-to-back as they were surrounded by a circle of nine one-tailed Kumihos.

"Don't let any of them out of sight", Ji-Han told her. "And try to see if one of them is different from the others... like how the rain falls through them or something like that…"

{+487 EXP}

What?! How?! Oh, were Shua and Naofumi fighting against Heartless, too? Did that mean, it would take longer for them to arrive? Dang it!

That not enough, he realized that the notification had taken his attention and in the process redirected his field of view, so he quickly activated [Guard] to stop the Sun Shower Bride's attack. Only that none of the ones in front of him did any attacking. Instead they all vanished in an instant. Which meant…

{-51}

Ji-Han was sent sprawling away from Saku right as he was turning around. The woman herself did fare as bad as he did, no, even worse, as she got hit by two tails of the three-tailed Kumiho that was now standing between them instead of the single one that got him.

{+511 EXP}

Ji-Han ignored the message and any following as he sprinted towards the Sun Shower Bride. By the time he had reached it, it had already regrown all its tails. Which meant, it could use all of its skills again. Like the blocking.

"[Guard Break]!" Ji-Han activated as he struck at the Heartless, even though it did not actually brought its tails forward to block his attack. Instead, it raised them straight into the air and then Ji-Han was the one [Guard]ing, his Binary Spirit held above his head to block the lightning strikes. Which the Kumiho then used to strike at him with its tails, throwing him back once again. But outside of special moves, they lacked the power to damage his HP. Which meant, he did not lose any time recovering and throwing his Keyblade at the foe.

Not wanting to get hit a second time, the Sun Shower Bride split into the circle of nine again. But this time, Ji-Han would not just stand around and wait for it to attack. Instead, he would go and Observe all of them at the same time!

"[Astral Projection]!"

Ji-Han's spirit left his body, raising into the air, until it was high enough to look at all the copies at the same time.

Only that one of them was looking back.

Ji-Han completely froze. During the use of Astral Projection, his spirit had been invisible to both Shua and Naofumi, yet the Sun Shower Bride, who had not moved at all during these doppelganger attacks, at last where he could see it, was suddenly looking up. And then all the other ones vanished and it fanned out the nine reappearing tails to created nine spheres of fire. Which it then send out, not towards his body on the ground, but towards his spiritual self in the air.

Ji-Han instantly dropped Astral Projection and closed his eyes to reduce the disorientation of suddenly being somewhere else, even as he was already moving towards where he remembered the Heartless being. Then he opened his eyes and brought his Keyblade down onto them with all he had.

"[Power Strike]!"

The impact was more than satisfying, but when he went for the return-swing, the Kumiho literally jumped away, moving further than it had done at any time in the battle before. Then it created another nine fireballs, only to have six of them circle around in front of it, while the three other went towards him.

That was new… "[Observe]!"

Ji-Han did not even stop to think as soon as he saw that it had only 64 HP left and threw the Binary Spirit at it. Unfortunately, it jumped away again. Which brought it closer to Saku, who was trying to cut it with her katana. Wait.

"Don't kill it!" Ji-Han quickly shouted both out loud and through the voice chat, making the officer flinch and allowing the Heartless to strike at her and send her flying back. Ji-Han winced.

"Sorry", he apologized. "But only my Keyblade can defeat Heartless permanently. It's low on health right now and if you do the finishing blow, it will just come back later!"

"Didn't you say the same thing about hurting them?" Saku asked disgruntled as she picked herself up while Ji-Han threw his Keyblade but the Sun Shower Bride jumped out of the way once again.

"That's different", he responded. "I've seen other things able to hurt Heartless, I just didn't think your sword would be able to. But permanently killing a Heartless can only be done by the Keyblade, not even if I used a different weapon. Now, if I could only hit this thing…"

"Then I shall act as bait!" Saku declared and ran forward before Ji-Han could stop her.

He cursed. Why did she had to be so headstrong?! True, with how on guard the Heartless suddenly was, a distraction would not be bad, but why did she have to risk herself when she had so few HP?!

However, instead of focusing on Saku and letting itself open for an attack from him, the Kumiho split into nine again and surrounded them in a circle much larger than the previous ones.

Its last mistake.

"[Obsidian Magic: Obsidian Skin]!" He activated, followed by [Observe], six of the copies in his field of vision. He then spun around and used [Guard] to block the three tails striking at him, knowing them away and leaving the main body of the Heartless a vulnerable target.

"[Guard Break]!" He shouted as he stabbed forward, his Binary Spirit glowing as it sank into the body of the Heartless. Checkmate.

If completely froze in its tracks, the tails staying at the angle they currently were. The rain suddenly stopped and then one by one the tails dispersed into black dust. Then out of the back of the Heartless, opposite the place Ji-Han had stabbed, escaped a crystal into the shape of a Heart, before vanishing into the ether, followed by the whole body of the Sun Shower Bride. In its stead appeared a pile of stuff at the same place, ready for picking up.

{+84 500 EXP}

PING!

{Your level went up by 1.}

PING!

{You have completed the quest
[Wedding Crasher: The Jealous Bride].
Completion Award: +10 000 EXP
Increased reputation with the gods and Urara of Labyrinth Town.
Increased reputation with Chiya and her friends.

Bonus Award for
[Defeat the [Sun Shower Bride] with the Keyblade.]:
+6 000 EXP.
The enemy will not return in a year.

Bonus Award for
[Make sure no one gets killed by the [Sun Shower Bride].]:
+8 000 EXP.
Increased reputation with people of Urara of Labyrinth Town.}

Alright! If he needed any more confirmation that the Sun Shower Bride was finished, this was it. Which was just as well since at the end things have gotten quite quick. In fact, he did not even learned how to actually find the real Kumiho in a circle of illusion, before he finished it off.

"Hey Ji-Han", interrupted Naofumi his musings through their voice chat. "Did you deal with the boss monsters?"

"Yeah I did", he responded as he deactivated the Obsidian Magic. "How's it on your side?"

But whatever the Hero of the Shield answered went unheard, as Saku distracted him by shaking his shoulders, demanding to know what that in front of her was. As it turned out, she had leveled up, too and he was now busy explaining her how that feature worked.

And then he used the opportunity to change his Keyblade to the [Hippocratic Battlefield] and restore as much of her HP with [Wind Magic: Breeze of Regeneration] as he could. The battle might been over, but he did not want to leave her with only 703 HP out of 1160 in case something else decided to jump her afterwards. In fact, he managed to restore all of her HP and still had some MP over, but instead of using it on him at once, he wanted to see whether or not Shua would need something when he showed up with Naofumi.

Instead he decided to look at the drop items the Sun Shower Bride had left. Which were 300 000 Munny, whooping 2 Recovery Potions and an Ether Potion, as well as a skill book and… a kimono looking like the one the Kumiho had been wearing.

{[Kitsune Wedding Dress - Rank: Gold]
Type: Torso Armor
Base-Value: 2 250 000 Munny
The wedding dress of a Kitsune.
As a magical garment it changes its size to fit the wearer.
Protects from any kind of weather effects.
Decreases the cost of any Demon-elemental ability by 10%.
If the wearer happens to have their wedding day:
Decreases the cost of any Demon-elemental ability by further 80%.
Increases all stats of the wearer by their base-amount.
Base Defense: 1}

Okay. So apparently his Gamer decided to go with the Bride-theme and give him a wedding dress which was pretty useful on its own, but especially useful during the wedding day of the person wearing it. Which made the additional effects pretty close to useless since then the person would have to fight on their wedding day.

…Maybe he could lend it to someone he saw in another world on their wedding day? If he visited enough weddings, it would be just a matter of probability until someone attacked the bride…

Moving on, the skill book.

PING!

{You have obtained the skill book
[Kitsunebi].}

{Would you like to learn this skill?}
{YES} {NO}

Ji-Han pressed {YES} and the book dispersed into many notes of light.

{[Kitsunebi (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 25 MP
Create spheres of ghostly fire to illuminate the surroundings.
Can summon up to 5 stationary spheres in a distance of 2m.
Base-Damage: 20}

Ji-Han stared dumbfounded at the explanation. Stationary spheres? The Sun Shower Bride had been able to send them flying, hadn't it? Then again, the way it specified the stationary-part, it probably meant, he would unlock the flying ones later. And even the stationary ones had Base-Damage, so he might get enemies to run into them… not to mention that it was his first real magic skill! He couldn't wait to try it out!

"Kitsunebi!" He shouted.

But nothing happened.

Then he realized that since he got the skill from the Kumiho, which was in this world called a Kitsune, the skill would most likely be pronounced "Kitsune-bi" instead of the "Kitsu-nebi" he had tried out.

"[Kitsunebi]!"

This time it worked and five flames of a ghostly blue color appeared in front of him in a circle.

"You have a lot of unusual abilities", mused Saku as she observed him. "I am starting to wonder if you are actually a human at all..." Her face was suddenly filled with panic as if she was downright scared she had offended him.

"Not, not that it's anything of my business if you weren't", she quickly amended. Ji-Han just waved her off.

"I definitively used to be a human, but after getting The Gamer, my body changed in a lot of ways that makes it a bit ambiguous whether or not I still count as one", he explained. "And then there's the whole fact even if I am a human, I am from a different world, so there might still be some other differences compared to the humans here."

"A different world?" Repeated Saku and Ji-Han nodded.

"My job is to travel from world to world and deal with the Heartless, since I am the only one who can do so permanently."

"That means you are finished now, right?" Inquired Saku. "You don't need to stay in Labyrinth Town during the Wedding Kimono Festival anymore. Or am I wrong?"

"Actually killing the Heartless is more of a secondary objective so that the locals won't have to deal with them over and over again. The real mission is to find the keyhole and close it, so that the Heartless can't get use it to get to the Heart of the World, which would result in complete destruction of the world in question."

"And that is why you hope to ask the Urara for the location of the keyhole", Saku reasoned. "Very well, you have a point. I won't arrest you for entering Labyrinth Town illegally. But I will always accompany you to make sure you do not do anything indecent, understood?"

"I don't mind", Ji-Han replied. "Running around all the time had been getting annoying. Maybe now we can actually make it to the tower."

"The tower of the first district?" Wondered Saku. "Do you think only the legendary first-rank Urara is able to divine where the keyhole is?"

"Actually, I can guess where it is", admitted Ji-Han. "The keyhole moves to the place that the world considers most important at the moment. In the Digital World that was the top of the mountain on File Island, in the Kingdom of Belzerg that was above the front entrance of the guild building in the town Axel, in Cantehill that was the place where they summoned heroes and in my home world that was in the bedroom of yours truly."

"I find that hard to believe", interjected Saku deadpan at the last part and Ji-Han chuckled.

"Keyblade, remember?" He pointed out. "As the only thing able to permanently kill Heartless and lock keyholes, it's pretty important. Of course I only found out about it after the Seeker of Truth had already forcefully opened the keyhole and gave the Heartless the way in…

Which means that while I can guess that the keyhole is in the center of Labyrinth Town, won't be closing it, until the world itself reveals it. But since I'll have to move there regardless afterwards, I might as well go now and just defeat as many Heartless as possible on the way there…"

Suddenly, the Hippocratic Battlefield appeared in his hand with a flash of digital numbers. Ji-Han wasn't even too surprised and more exasperated wondering, what it was going to do this time.

Which, as it turned out, was dragging his arm so that it was pointing towards the first district and specifically, the red tower. There the trails of fog that had been circling around it calmly, were now moving faster and more focused. They moved to the front of the building, as in the part he could see, and even moved upwards and downwards until they've build the outlines of a gigantic keyhole.

"Is that-", began Saku and Ji-Han nodded.

"Yeah", he confirmed. "That's the keyhole. Looks like I won't have to one big mission in every district, after all. [Heart Key: Close]!"

Ji-Han send the beam of light towards the keyhole, filling it completely with light. The locking sound could be heard and the light vanished, making the wisps of fog disperse into their previous state, circling around the red tower.

{You have completed the quest
[The World's Heart: 123-21-2311-bul-qgsgp].
Completion Award: +35 000 EXP to you and every party member not from that world.
The world is not devoured by darkness.
Increased reputation with all allies you meet on the world and their comrades.
Increased reputation with everyone connected to Traverse Town.}

PING!

{Gratitude from a world has created the keychain [Binary Spirit].}

{[Bride of Gods]
Element: Ancient
Damage: +3
Range: Long
+10% EXP-gains to divining-based abilities.}

"I guess that mean, you've closed the keyhole?" Naofumi asked… in person?

Ji-Han turned around and saw his two party members, having finally arrived. Saku noticed them, too and drew her sword, so Ji-Han quickly tried to placate her.

"Wait, wait!" He told her. "Those guys are with me! I called them to help with the Sun Shower Bride but they got held up by other Heartless."

"…I remember", Saku finally said as she put the sword away. "If they are your comrades, I will treat them the same as you for now. That said, you did just now close the keyhole, didn't you? There is no reason to stay in Labyrinth Town anymore, is there?"

Ji-Han thought about it.

"I still don't know what item drops I can get from I can get from an Awake Umbrella…" Saku narrowed her eyes. "…but I can come back for that later. We've done everything important for now."

"Alright", decided Saku. "Then let me escort you back to the town's gate."

"Actually, that won't be necessary", interjected Ji-Han. "As I told you, we are from a different world. Which means we can leave this one at any place we want to. Gather around everyone!"

His companions did so silently, one because he could not speak and the other because he saw no reason to say something to delay their departure. Shua grabbed his left sleeve while Naofumi just grabbed his right shoulder.

"Goodbye, Saku-Ssi!" Ji-Han told the officer. "[Beam me up!]"


A/N:

And that's wrapping up this world. I didn't actually plan on having Ji-Han have to do a quest in every district – even if it would be a really game-like thing to do. After all, I have no idea what the other districts are like, so making up stuff for every district would be difficult on my own and would hardly bring any more substance to the story. I could have done it off-screen but since he already defeated one boss monster, I judged that enough for the world to accept his help.

Gashadokuro Amanojaku