ATUHOR'S NOSE: ... 24 is totally "a few", right?
Quick note, I did a typo when editing the last chapter and accidentally cut off every paragraph containing the word "music". If you remember seeing that word, you've already read the fixed version — if not, go back and do a quick CTRL+F to see what you missed. (It's... an embarrassingly large amount.) Also, apropos of definitely absolutely nothing, here's a totally completely random reminder that the AO3 mirror is the canonical one and due to differing site rules and culture some things won't appear here. The music links, obviously, but other stuff too.
Once upon a time, a woman named Tiana had found herself in Traverse Town.
The woman had found herself dazed and confused, as are many people when they find themselves outside their own home world for the first time.
Unlike some others, she had managed to pull herself together, to a degree. Taking inspiration from the plight of those in her situation, and her own skills as an established restaurateur, she opened an establishment called Tiana's Tavern, specifically to provide a calming atmosphere, and to cater to any poor unfortunate souls who found themselves in the dire situation Tiana was once in.
It was that very same tavern that Rachel found herself in now.
She was looking over the menu and thinking sternly to herself, Order something other than a burger this time, though she suspected it was futile. Still, she would make a point of at least taking the decision seriously. Sora's eyes were scrolling through the seafood section of the menu, Aerith was looking through the salads, Leon seemed to have his heart set on some ribs, and Yuffie was... holding the menu upside-down.
Rachel frowned at Yuffie.
"What? I already know what I want."
"Okay, but why are you holding the menu upside-down?" Rachel asked, confused.
"Classified ninja secret!"
Rachel just shook her head, and returned her gaze to her own menu, namely the section on burgers. If she recalled The Princess and the Frog correctly — which she was unsure of, not having actually watched that film — Tiana was from New Orleans, which was in America. Which made her restaurant American style, or at least the closest it was possible to get to that, now that the real America was gone. Which made it very probable that this restaurant currently served the literal best burgers available in the entire multiverse.
"But I always get a burger..." Rachel whined quietly to herself.
"Then get something different this time, if that bothers you," Sora replied. "Like that 'gumbo' stuff. I haven't tried it, but if it's 'authentic New Orleans cuisine'," here he pointed out that phrase in the description of the item on his menu, "this is probably the best place left to get it in the entire multiverse."
Rachel looked back at the menu thoughtfully. I suppose the logic does apply to any American-style food served here, not just burgers.
"Don't agonize too much about whether you're getting the same thing again," Aerith said. "You've been under a lot of stress lately, so it's mostly just important that you eat something."
Rachel groaned. "Telling me not to agonize is just gonna make me agonize more..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone and tapped at its screen a few times before frowning. "Oh yeah, the network doesn't exist anymore..."
"Were you gonna... call someone?" Sora asked confusedly, vaguely aware that the music-playing device was also a phone.
Rachel glanced at her phone in confusion. "Who would I...? No, I was just gonna flip a coin. A virtual coin," she added at Sora's look of enhanced confusion, "but with the network gone, I don't have access to — wait." She facepalmed and reached into her pocket to pull out an actual, physical coin. "I forgot I got change the other day..." She tossed the coin into the air — "heads burger, tails gumbo," — caught it, and flipped it onto the back of her other hand. "... Y'know what, no." She put the coin back in her pocket.
"No?" Sora asked.
"The coin came up tails," Rachel said, "but... I'm too hungry to be experimental this time." It's not like I'm never going to come here again, after all... She shuddered. Gods. I'm stuck out here indefinitely. That's... a thing that's true.
A few minutes later, after everyone had ordered their meal, Rachel pulled out her phone again.
"So..." Sora asked, "I've been meaning to ask about that..."
Rachel glanced at Sora and back to her phone. "My phone? What about it?"
"Well, a lot of things," Sora said, "but for starters... you call it a phone, but it seems like you've done everything except call someone with it."
Rachel laughed. "Not even close to everything, but I see what you mean..." She looked at the device in her hand. "It's funny, now that I think about it. It's called a phone, but calling people is the last thing I was thinking of when I got it. In fact, I don't think I've made a call with this thing in my entire life." She tapped the device against her head thoughtfully. "Really, it's more like a very small computer."
Sora boggled. "A... computer? I don't know much about computers, but..." He gestured vaguely with his hands, indicating a volume approximately the size of the entire table. "That's... that, and that's..." He pointed to the phone.
Rachel shrugged. "I'm told computers used to be the size of entire rooms, yeah. I don't recall offhand how they got them this small, other than finding a replacement for vacuum tubes..." Which I still don't remember what they're for in the first place. "Yuffie said Tron could help with that, though."
"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Remember the fancy matter-scanning laser the computer used to upload you into Space Paranoids? I figured, if we used that to scan Rachel's phone, we could look at all the tiny little details and figure out how it works!"
Sora tilted his head in thought. "Hm... Yeah, I think that makes sense. Does that mean we're going to try to make more of them?"
Rachel shrugged. "I imagine you could do a lot of things with my phone's technology." Kingdom Hearts 1 has.. what, mid-oughts level technology? I was months old at the time, but I know some stuff about what it was like then... "I'd certainly be in favor of making more of them."
Sora thought about that some more. "Wouldn't that kinda go against the whole world order thing?"
Rachel thought of a glib reply to this, before realizing that she shouldn't actually "know" what the world order was. "Uh..."
"Hmm, that's a good question," Yuffie said. "Obviously we're not messing with Rachel's world by doing this, but you'd think it goes both ways, right? Traverse Town's kind of an exception to the rules, but even so..."
Rachel boggled theatrically. Don't overdo it... "Uhh, what?"
"Oh! Um, so, the world order..." Sora paused. "It's, uh, a thing where, uh... basically, like..."
"The worlds aren't supposed to affect each other," Leon said. "Which normally means we can't let people find out other worlds exist. Traverse Town is obviously an exception to that particular rule — for obvious reasons, anyone who's here already knows about other worlds — but we still have to limit the exchange of..." he waved his hand vaguely, "...stuff."
"Stuff," Rachel repeated, unimpressed.
"Stuff," Leon repeated. "Like... it probably wouldn't be a problem to just scan your phone and help you keep it maintained. But if we started mass-producing them and handing them out to every refugee, that could be bad. Not least because they might take them back home to their worlds and then your technology is affecting thousands of worlds. If there's something we failed to realize about your tech, that could have any kind of..." He waved his hand. "...unforeseen consequences."
Aerith decided to make her own case. "Those devices could be very useful, if issued in a limited capacity. I certainly can't imagine them being any more annoying than the fiddly radios we're stuck with." She spoke. "But yes, we need to be careful. The consequences of worlds meddling with each other can be farther-reaching than one might immediately realize. That's what it means to keep the world order — to make sure you're not going around and single-handedly changing the course of history."
"I see," Rachel said. I had some... opinions about the world order, but put like that, I have to admit it's not that terrible a precaution.
"Still," Sora said, "if someone's in trouble right in front of you, you can't just stand there and do nothing when you could help them." Right?
"Oh, sure," Leon said. "Saving one person isn't even on the same level as the kind of stuff we need to be worried about. Well, there's exceptions to that statement, but they're generally pretty obvious."
Sora nodded. "That's a good thing to know... in advance, before I have to do it." Don't overdo it!
"Mm-hmm," Leon hmm'd skeptically, his chin resting on his closed fist.
"S- so! About those phones!" Sora quickly said. "Or, you said it was like a small computer? Does that mean it can..."
"Yes, it can," Rachel said.
Sora stared at Rachel blankly for a moment. "I didn't even say what I was asking about."
"Doesn't matter. It's Turing-complete, if a thing can be done by a computer, it can be done by this one." Rachel paused. "... In principle, anyway. That doesn't mean I necessarily know how to make it do any given thing."
Sora boggled again. "I don't get it... Is that a special feature you had to pay extra for?"
Rachel shook her head, suppressing a laugh. "No, no... Almost every computer is Turing-complete. It's actually a really low bar to clear — it only says the computer can do the things, not that it'll be finished in a reasonable amount of time..."
Sora blinked a few times. "That... sure is some words you said..."
Oh, right... This is Sora. Computers aren't his thing. "Well. Never mind all that. How about we just demonstrate? You've seen — well, heard it playing music. What's the most different thing from playing music that you can imagine a computer doing?"
Sora just tilted his head and blinked some more.
... I don't know why I thought that'd work any better. "Let me just pick something myself." She held out the phone so Sora could see as she flipped through the pages of her home screen.
"Oh, that's neat!" Sora remarked, leaning towards the phone so he could better see. "The way you can just flip through... uh... whatever that is. That seems easier than the way the computer in Radiant Garden had it."
Rachel nodded, vaguely remembering the retro-looking interface and the fact that it appeared to operate entirely with a keyboard. "Yeah, I don't know how — uh, how that's set up, on account of having never been to the place you refer to, but I assume it didn't have a touch screen, so it can't have been this convenient."
Was that a hint? Sora thought. If she knows about Keyblades, she might also... then again, how would she know about Radiant Garden? He did the mental equivalent of shrugging and putting a pin in that thought for later. "Yeah, it was kind of a pain. I just wanted to get it to tell me where my friends were, but all it did was yell at me."
Rachel frowned. "I don't... think computers can do that normally, actually. Or maybe nobody's bothered to invent that function — normally, if I wanted to find my friends, I could just send them a message and ask directly." She looked down at her phone. "... Normally. Right now, with the world gone..."
"Whoa, are you looking for your friends, then?" Sora exclaimed.
"Yeah! Or, well, kind of..." She pulled up the photo gallery and flicked through that, looking for the picture of her friends again. "So, this is them," She explained as she pointed to each of her friends in turn. "Kira, Sarah, Jules... and that one's me, obviously, but we already know where I am..."
Sora nodded. "I'll keep an eye out for them." Is it just my imagination, or do they look kinda familiar...? "Do you know where they might have gotten to?"
Rachel's face fell. "Well... that's the 'kind of' part. The last time I saw them was... shortly before the world fell."
"...Oh."
There was a brief awkward pause, until Leon mercifully broke the silence. "We explained to her what usually happens when a world falls." He paused briefly. "... We didn't find them earlier, so they're probably not in Traverse Town."
"Wh— hang on!" Rachel exclaimed. "You never said anything about that!"
"I was trying to mention that earlier," Leon said, planting his elbows on the table and leaning forward, "but I kinda got interrupted. If your friends had ended up here, I expect they'd have been looking for you. Most of the people here have tried to find someone."
Rachel's face fell, her eyes dropping to the table. "But... if they're not here..." I won't believe they died back there, but... the only alternatives are... "If they washed up somewhere else... who knows what could be happening to them..."
Sora closed his eyes in thought. "Well... I know that your hearts will bring you back together."
Rachel frowned, inexplicably struck with the urge to ask if Sora actually knew what had happened to her world — which was a bit silly, seeing as not only was it common knowledge, he was one of the few people from this world who she knew to have been in a comparable scenario. "What do you mean by that, though?"
Leon frowned. "What do you mean, what does he mean? Your hearts will bring you together. It means what it means."
"But I don't know what it means!" Rachel protested. "Just saying it again doesn't —" She looked around at the table full of confused faces. "... None of you have any idea what I'm asking, do you?"
"Is this the Pri—" Yuffie cut herself short, suddenly remembering that this was a public place. "... your home world being weird, again?"
"What do you mean, 'weird'?" Sora asked with a low voice, turning his head and raising an eyebrow.
"Did you know her home world just, like, straight up does not have magic?" Yuffie said. "It's weird, right?"
"I did notice that the world has no ambient magic field," Sora said, tactfully ignoring the question of whether this constitutes 'weird'. "But no magic at all? Surely there'd still be aether in the people, right?" He turned toward Rachel expectantly.
"Um... As far as I know, aether is a debunked theory about..." Rachel trailed off. "Wait, is anyone else getting deja vu? I could swear I answered a question like this pretty recently, but I can't remember..."
"Hold up," Aerith said. "No ambient magic field? Merlin had suggested there might be an unusually high amount of aether in the environment, but none?"
"But hang on — if there's no — then..." Yuffie stammered, pointing her finger to and fro, before trailing off. "Merlin said that it didn't seem like your body was capable of holding aether on its own," she said, her voice lowering along with her head. "If there's no background magic field... how do people in your world have enough aether to live?"
Rachel frowned. "I... I've never heard of anyone dying of 'lack of aether' before. I honestly don't think it was a thing back home. Somehow."
"Merlin also said your world might even not have the same laws of physics," Aerith said. "The..." she waved her hand. "region, was a closed space, and it is possible for laws of physics to be significantly changed inside a closed space. But... why would that be the case?"
Rachel glanced over at Aerith, and then down at the table, partially retreating inside herself for just a moment. Why would that be the case? Why would the laws of physics be somehow different, somehow altered, inside one particular closed space, presumably one out of many, many others? "I... can't even begin to imagine why..." she muttered, so quietly that only Sora could hear her.
"I think..." Sora said, his voice steady as he seemingly shivered just a little bit, "this is probably a question for someone else. Like Master Yen Sid, maybe. Cause, like... I've been to the... place... and other than the lack of background magic, I don't really know anything that makes it different from any other world."
But it obviously was different, Rachel knew, even if seemingly nobody knew how. As far as she was concerned, this 'aether' hadn't existed until she had woken up in Merlin's guest room. But after that moment, she needed it to sustain her very existence. And judging by the way the others talked, this was the default state of things. In a world so fundamentally different from her own, how could she possibly know what to expect...?
It was at approximately this point that the server arrived with everyone's food, but Rachel found she didn't feel very hungry. Despite the warm atmosphere of the tavern, Rachel had suddenly started to feel very, very cold.
An uncertain amount of time later, after (at Aerith's insistence) having forced herself to eat a reasonable amount of her food, Rachel followed the group out of the restaurant and...
...Well, that was the question, wasn't it?
"So, now that we've gotten some food in us," Sora said, "it's time to handle important things."
"What... important things, exactly, do you have in mind?" Rachel asked.
"Well," Sora said, tilting his head thoughtfully, "we've gotta deal with that creep running around with the Dark Corridor, and we've also gotta get you prepared to meet up with Master Yen Sid and learn magic..."
"And get her aether and stuff looked at too, right?" Leon asked sternly, just in case Sora had let his mind, (and with it, his priorities) wander. Again.
"R- right! That too!" Sora said. "But, um, the point I was making was that we could kill two birds with one stone and look around the shops — we can get Rachel prepared and look for the creep at the same time."
Leon nodded. "Good thinking. If our creep isn't going after the survivors, the shops are a reasonable next guess... and we can stock up on potions and stuff while we're there."
"Um —"
"Hey, Rachel, question," Yuffie interjected, interrupting whatever Rachel was going to say. "Do you carry around a change of clothes in that backpack?"
Rachel froze for a second as her mind shifted gears. "Uh. Not habitually, no. I don't have one now, if that's what you're asking. But — "
"Then we'll have to pick up some more clothes for you, too!" Yuffie declared.
"I guess...?" Rachel said, increasingly bewildered. I hadn't even thought that far ahead... "But, um, I'm trying to ask why you think they'll be lurking around the shops..."
"Great question!" Yuffie declared. "Pretty sure I know the answer!"
"Oh no..." Leon muttered, sensing the imminent torrent of complete and utter nonsensical claptrap, which prompted him to immediately turn around and walk away.
Yuffie seized Rachel by the wrist again and began following after Leon without missing a beat. "You see, if you think about it..."
...
"I gotta admit, he's got us pegged. A restaurant is a type of shop, after all."
"If you cannot entirely cease your prattle, can you at least endeavor to keep the volume down to a nearly appropriate level?"
"Oh, what's the big deal, anyway? We've got the barrier up!"
The other figure took a deep, exasperated breath. "Might I remind you once more that the barrier does not destroy sound. That is impossible. It scatters sound. It makes us harder to hear. But we are still audible. And that is why you need to keep your voice down."
"All right, all right, I get it..." he muttered. ... "... Say, why are we in stalker mode today, anyway? Like, what's so darn interesting here?"
The other figure sighed. "If you cannot simply sit in silence... I believe you recognize the ones calling themselves the 'Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee'?"
"Uh-huh. 'Radiant Garden', now, but yeah, I've seen 'em before."
"And have you worked out why a committee with 'Radiant Garden' in their very name is spending their valuable time here, in Traverse Town?"
"Well, obviously they're here for the bajillions of survivors that have washed up suddenly. I thought that's why we were here, but now you have us following this one girl around — what's so interesting about her?"
"... What makes you think —?"
"We're obviously not following the committee around, or Roxas's other half, because neither of them is doing anything interesting today that they weren't yesterday. Except for hanging around with that girl. So, what's so interesting about her?"
"What, indeed...? Why would both Sora and the Restoration Committee dedicate their time and effort to guiding this one girl, out of all the survivors that have arrived here in the past few days? Look closely at the way they move around her, how uncomfortable she looks just being here. Observe the way Sora watches her — always wary, not at all like his usual demeanor. This is not the actions of mere 'friends' 'hanging out'. They are protecting her."
"... from what, though? Us?"
"Why, were you seen?"
"What? No way!"
"Then they most likely do not know we are here."
"So... what are they protecting her from? Like... any other danger around here is something all the survivors would be at risk for, right? So this is something specific to her. Which brings me back to the question you keep dodging — what's so dang special about this girl?"
The other figure patted him on the shoulder condescendingly. "That is precisely what we are here to find out."
"Wha —? You mean we're just here on a hunch? Aw maaaaan... What a pain..."
...
Rachel looked back toward the restaurant. "Anyone else hear something, or...?"
"Not a thing," Yuffie said. "Come on, shopping time!"
"... Right. Probably my ears playing tricks on me again." Though as Yuffie pulled her off towards the First District, Rachel couldn't help but doubt.
Stocking up on potions and ethers was simple enough, though Rachel doubted if she'd need the latter.
"It's not like I'm gonna use that much magic," she told Sora as he picked up a pack of ten. "Not with the... y'know, the thing."
"The what now?" Sora said.
"The — oh, you haven't — well, I'll explain later."
"Okay... well, it's not like they'll become magically bound to you or anything if you just have them."
Rachel blinked. "Is that a real thing that happens or just a hypothetical?"
"Huh? No, it's just hypothetical, that never actually —" Sora paused, suddenly remembering one very important item that does indeed become magically bound to whoever possesses it. "... Or, well, it doesn't happen with ethers, is the point. If you don't use 'em, you can just hold on to them until someone else needs one."
"... Okay, yeah, I guess so," Rachel said, not really understanding at all. "Say, does it mean anything in particular that 'ether' sounds just like 'aether', or is it just a coincidence?"
Sora thought about that. "Good question. I've never thought about that... Do you have any idea?" He asked nobody in particular, as he jerked his shoulder in a strangely particular way, as if he'd done this numerous times before.
Rachel took a closer look, acting out of confusion, her hand moving reflexively to her glasses to get a glimpse at what was what, only to behold Jiminy Cricket hopping up onto Sora's shoulder as if such a thing was hardly a big deal.
...And it wasn't. To them, anyway. Rachel, on the other hand, was caught so off-guard by Jiminy's sudden appearance that instead of listening to whatever he had to say, she cried out in shock, lost her balance, flailed her arms wildly, and fell down. "Wha— oww! Three times! One day! This literally never happened before, but now? Does the universe have it out for my — rear end, or something?" ("Rear end" was almost not the phrase she used, but it occurred to her at the last moment that she wasn't up for hearing Jiminy Cricket's thoughts on profanity.)
"Oops," Sora said, an awkward grin on his face. "Sorry, Rachel."
"Well, gee, that's the first time that's happened..." the cricket said.
"You okay?" Sora asked, helping Rachel to her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she grumbled, "just kinda cheesed off that this keeps happening... today."
"Never seen a talking cricket before, I take it?" Jiminy said.
"Indeed I have not..." Rachel said. "Crickets back home don't talk... or, uh, look like you do, like at all."
Jiminy nodded. "Y'know, I get that a lot. Cricket's the name, Jiminy Cricket," he said, extending a hand in greeting.
"Rachel," she responded, holding her hand in front of the cricket in confusion for a few moments before he grabbed her index finger and shook vigorously. I'm shaking hands with a cricket. ... This isn't even the weirdest thing that's happened to me today.
Sora turned towards his shoulder. "Hey, Jiminy, any idea about the words?"
"Hm? Oh, yes!" Jiminy said, standing up straight on Sora's shoulder. "I'm not actually entirely sure, but what most people think happened is that when people from long, long ago were first deciding on what to call things, everyone was in such a rush to figure out a system that worked for everyone, that they didn't think things all the way through."
Jiminy continued, sounding somewhat uncertain of what he himself was saying. "As far as anyone can make out, everyone wanted the terms used for various things to sound similar to already existing things, and to each other, which would in theory make things easily understood by any newcomers." Jiminy went on. "But apparently, the best person for the job, being someone who knew their way with words, was a certain 'qualified poet-master' who turned out to be a bit 'doo-lally' as they say. The story goes that they focused too much on making things 'aesthetically pleasing' as opposed to actually practical, hence why we're stuck with the system we have now."
"Similar to already existing things?" Rachel asked. "Is that why you call them 'hearts' despite them not having much to do with the circulatory system?" she said, tapping the left side of her chest to indicate the blood-pumping organ.
"Yes, precisely!" Jiminy said, as Sora looked up from his shoulder at Rachel, with a strange expression on his face, as if some pieces were finally getting put together in his head.
"That certainly explains why it's all such a mess," Rachel muttered, shaking her head, as the group walked up to the cashier to ring up their purchases.
"Ready to go?" Leon called out from where he was standing, outside the store, looking for any potential trouble.
"Yeah, yeah, got everything." Sora replied, handing Leon a bag of things he'd wanted them to get him. "Seen anything?"
"Nothing worth noting, no."
...
Rachel was wondering how exactly any of the video game logic behind "accessories" mapped to reality, given that she didn't know of any "accessory slots" she could put them in or "Ability Points" for them to increase. She was also wondering how the hell she could possibly phrase that so she could ask it without sounding like she was spewing complete gibberish.
Rachel was standing in a so-called "Accessories Shop" without a clue of what to make of anything that she lay eyes on. Her new acquaintances had insisted that she step into this place, as part of what they called "getting prepared" although Rachel didn't quite understand.
She looked at the armlets, amulets, bangles, rings, necklaces, rings, studs, bands, bracelets, and chains, like she was looking at paintings in an art gallery, trying to look sophisticated and cultured, despite having no idea what she was looking at.
Eventually, she gave up, let out a defeated breath, shrugged her shoulders, and turned towards Sora. "I don't understand why I need to be here."
Sora tilted his head slightly, confused. "Well, you need accessories, don't you?"
Rachel gesticulated inarticulately. "Maybe? Aerith was just really insistent, so... I don't actually know what's going on right now."
"I see..." Sora said. "Well, accessories enhance your fighting ability, obviously."
"Oh, obviously, right," Rachel said, annoyed. "How does that even work, anyway?"
"Uh, by magic, I'm pretty sure," Sora said.
Rachel made a strangled noise of exasperation. "That — doesn't — explain — anything!" she exclaimed, as she grit her teeth, shooting Sora a look. "First off, I didn't grow up with magic, so I don't know anything about it, and second, even if I had, 'by magic' isn't an explanation any more than if I said my phone works 'by electricity'!"
Sora grinned sheepishly. "I know, but... I don't actually know how it works myself. It... channels magical energy from your body, and uh... does something..."
Rachel, having recognized that she was getting herself worked up, was trying to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. But getting completely sidetracked from the source of the annoyance worked just as well. "It channels the magical energy from my body, huh...?" She picked up the nearest accessory, which looked like some kind of cufflink, and noted that lines of blue immediately began to slowly spread from the point it contacted her skin. "... I might have to go without these, then."
"What the heck is that?" Sora exclaimed, as he stared at Rachel's hand, his shoulders immediately tensing up, and turning rigid.
"We're not sure," Rachel said, "but it keeps happening whenever magic interacts with my body... Or, is it when my body interacts magically with the world...? Well, like I said, we're not sure. But..."
"But that doesn't make sense!" Sora protested. "The — " And he stopped. Why doesn't it make sense? It's not just that I've never seen it before, there's... something in particular... "Well... I guess it's not important. But yeah, it might be a bad idea for you to wear an accessory that makes you glow neon blue like Tron."
Rachel just barely failed to suppress a giggle. "Heh... I don't actually know why that's funny," she lied weakly.
Okay, I believe you, Sora thought, not believing her. "Well, that's not particularly important right now. If accessories are out of the question, you'll probably have to get geared up at the armor shop instead..." He took a quick look around and saw that the others were still getting their stuff. "What are combat accessories like in your world, if they're not magic?"
"Completely different," Rachel said immediately, not even having to consider it. "Like... the idea of an earring that 'boosts your defense' is completely unheard of, back home. If I were to look up what a 'combat accessory' was, I'd get things more like weapon attachments, and articles of clothing, like boots, gloves, eyewear, and things like... like this holster," she said, pointing out the holster still resting on her hip.
"Yeah, about that..." Sora said. "You sure it's a good idea to be carrying that around like that?"
Rachel looked at the gun resting securely in the holster. "Why wouldn't it be? Leon's got his gunblade. You've got your Keyblade. Yuffie's got her... comically oversized shuriken." Something Leon and Yuffie had said earlier suddenly came back to her. "And I bet a good number of the people who come through here have something, just... 'put away'."
Sora paused, thinking about that. "Yeah, I guess... still, most people don't carry guns. They're kind of... different, y'know?"
Rachel frowned. "Different how?"
"Well..." Sora paused for a moment to think about it. "The thing is, basically — most people prefer a weapon that's more... like, disciplined? Like... you remember how you reacted when I barged in on you."
Rachel winced. "Yeah, I remember that all right." What would Jules say if she knew I pulled a gun on Sora, of all people... "I'm not that on edge now... I mean, I'm still pretty on edge, if I'm honest... but still, less than before."
"Yeah, that's kinda my point, though," Sora said. "A weapon like that, you can do some real damage, without needing much training..."
"Given that I don't have much training," Rachel pointed out, "isn't that a good thing?"
"Sure, I suppose, but... it's not the kind of thing most people want on display, y'know?" Sora glanced over at Leon and Aerith, who seemed to be finishing up their shopping. "Well, I guess it's kind of a matter of opinion, isn't it?"
Rachel shrugged. "Maybe... Hello, Aerith."
"Hey," Aerith said. "Hold this for me." And with that, she shoved an armlet into Rachel's hands, causing blue lines to flow from her palms.
"Uh..." Rachel stared at Aerith, befuddled.
"It looks like accessories cause the blue lines, too," Aerith said. "I was wondering if that was the case... Then that implies..."
"Oh, we already figured that out," Sora said.
Aerith blinked. "You did? Oh."
"Yeah," Rachel said. "So no accessories for me. Not unless we go to a world where those lines are a normal look."
The three of them who were getting accessories rang up their purchase and they headed outside again.
"See anything, Yuffie?" Aerith asked.
"Not a single thing," Yuffie responded. "It's so weird..."
...
"You wanna explain why we're letting her get fully armed and equipped before we make our move?"
"Do you think a scared girl who just lost her home will be that much more dangerous with a few potions and accessories on hand?"
"Really? Do you not remember the last scared kid who washed up here down one world and up one Keyblade?"
"... A Keyblade?"
"What, you can't tell? That's the entire reason Sora's interested in her!"
"... How is it that you can tell?"
"Hey, if you can tell for yourself, I don't think you need me to explain it."
"Hmph."
"This is not quite the kind of stuff I think of when I hear the word 'armor'," Rachel said to nobody in particular, looking through the selection of belts, bangles, chokers, chains, trinkets, anklets, bandanas, fans, armlets, ribbons, and rosettes. I really should have seen this coming, though. Ribbons in particular — classifying them as a type of armor is totally Final Fantasy. "Half of this stuff was sold at the accessories shop, too... What even is the difference between 'armor' and 'accessories' to people out here?"
"Armor has defensive magic woven directly into the material, while accessories are enchanted to draw on the wearer's power, and are meant for those who wish to tap into their full potential," Leon said. "... If there's no magic to make the distinction, how did they define it in your world?"
"Back home, armor is defined as..." She paused for a moment to figure out how to define a concept she didn't usually think about in explicit words. "... basically, any solid matter you put between yourself and an attack so that it inflicts less harm on you. It might deflect it, blunt it, take the damage itself..." She waved her hand vaguely. "I bet Jules would have a more precise definition. But I know that 'armor' and 'accessories' aren't treated as... practically interchangeable, back home."
"Oh, armor like this?" Yuffie said, popping out of somewhere and holding out what looked like a mail shirt.
"Gah!" Rachel leapt back and flailed her arms wildly for a moment before grabbing onto a display rack and stabilizing herself. "Don't do that, Yuffie..." she said, though she breathed a sigh of relief that she had managed to avoid falling down this time. I've really had well beyond enough of that...
"Where did you even find something so... outdated?" Leon asked.
"It was in the back!" Yuffie declared cheerfully and non-specifically.
For reasons not entirely clear to Rachel, the armor shop also sold mundane clothing. Though on reflection, she realized it was at least not as strange for the armor shop to have this function as it would have been for the accessories or potions shops.
The organizational method of the shop wasn't entirely clear, but there was a distinct increase in clothing-like-ness as one approached the rear wall, so it kinda made sense that that's where Yuffie would have found that, even though Rachel couldn't see which display she would have taken it from.
"Um, right," Rachel said. "Yeah, that's the kind of thing that got used as armor back home. Though like Leon said, it's kinda outdated... nowadays it's things like Kevlar vests." She paused in thought. "Though if it's not expected to block bullets, that might still be fine."
"Neat!" Yuffie said. "What's Kevlar?"
"It's... a synthetic fiber that's strong enough that it can be used to make bullet-resistant armor," Rachel said. "I don't know exactly what it's made of..." She pulled out her phone instinctively. "I'd look that up online, normally..." She shook her head. "But never mind that. If armor's magic is self-contained..."
Rachel picked up a random choker and held it in her hand, noting a distinct absence of blue lines. "This could work."
"And here's a ribbon!" Sora said, placing a ribbon on Rachel's head.
It should be noted that the ribbon was still in its packaging, so she wasn't actually wearing it; rather, it just kinda sat there precariously.
Rachel froze instinctively for a moment, before finally realizing she could just grab the thing and hold it in her hand, which she did. "Um?"
"It's a ribbon!" Sora said. Before Rachel could say 'yes I figured that part out already', he quickly continued — "Basically, it'll help make you a little bit more fireproof. And iceproof. And thunderproof — uh, magic in general, really, but it also helps you hold firm against physical attacks, if you have to."
"It doesn't look like much..." Rachel said, looking over the light, seemingly-frail fabric. "I believe you, I do, but it doesn't feel like it would really protect me..."
"Oh, trust me, unless you turn out to have some other weird quirk that breaks it, it'll really make a difference out there."
"Shouldn't I go with something... sturdier? More substantial?"
"No, something like that will hinder you too much. You need to be able to move quickly," Leon advised, "Not only that, but you'll need to physically draw your weapons in a pinch, if need be."
"Sooo... not this," Yuffie said, briefly glancing at the mail she was still carrying before tossing it over her shoulder. ("Please don't do that..." the shopkeeper called from the counter.)
"... Not that," Leon said. "The ribbon is a good choice for a beginner."
"How many should I get?"
"Just one, for now," Sora replied. "If you overdo it — particularly when you're just starting out — they can sorta... short out. Which doesn't go well."
Rachel glanced at Sora, head tilted in thought. "You learned that the hard way, didn't you?"
"Pff, no way," Sora said, "how would that ever happen?" Before Rachel could point out that he was obviously lying, he quickly changed the subject. "So hey, now that you've got your one piece of starter armor, you should probably grab regular clothes."
Rachel blinked. "Uh — right," she said, completely thrown off balance. "That's also a thing I should be doing..."
"Well," Sora said, "I know your clothes are a little bit unusual —"
"Unusual?" Rachel interrupted, sounding incredulous. "It's jeans and a t-shirt, it's literally the single most normal outfit..." She stopped suddenly. "Back home. Right."
"Yeah..." Sora said. "Um, so, if that's a pretty normal thing for you to wear, we can certainly get more clothes like it — like I was saying, it's a little bit unusual, but not like, space-alien stuff. And if there's any other kind of clothes you want to get —" Sora gestured sweepingly at the entire store, "— this is the place for it."
"Right..." Rachel said, quickly locating the dressing rooms. "I suppose I'll... grab some clothes and get back to you..."
Shortly thereafter, Rachel had acquired several new articles of clothing she found acceptable, and the three of them left the store.
"See anything suspicious while we were in there?" Leon asked Aerith.
"Nothing..." Aerith said, looking vexed. "And nothing on the radio, either. Whoever Sora saw, they're not doing anything to draw attention..."
"That's still so weird!" Yuffie exclaimed.
"Presumably they're trying to stay hidden," Leon pointed out.
"Yeah, but in that case, how'd Sora see them in the first place?" Yuffie objected.
"I bet they just got careless when they thought I wasn't around to catch 'em," Sora said, a smug grin on his face. "So, anything else we need to do before we set out?"
There was a brief pause before Rachel realized Sora was talking to her. "Um... I am completely out of my depth, here. I got all the stuff you said I'd need to get..." Riley, do you have any input? ... Anything to say at all? ... Any confirmation that you still exist and weren't just an elaborate hallucination? ... Great. Very cool. Whatever you're doing right now better be really damn important. "I... wouldn't quite say I'm ready, but under the circumstances, I'm as close as I'm gonna get..."
"Fair enough," Sora said, smiling sympathetically. "You three have things handled here?"
Leon nodded. "We'll keep an eye out for anyone suspicious while you're gone."
"We're seeing them off, though, right?" Yuffie said, elbowing Leon.
"... Right," he said. "I meant we'll keep an eye out after that."
"Nice recovery," Aerith said, the barest hint of a smirk on her face.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Leon blatantly lied.
As the three of them continued bantering, the five of them headed off towards the landing pad, where Sora had parked his ship earlier, via the First District.
"So," Sora said to Rachel while the Committee was occupied. "Knife and gun, huh?"
"Mm-hmm," Rachel responded. "... Can't help but feel like we just went over this."
"Yeah, well, I got distracted last time," Sora remarked, offhand.
"Ah, of course," Rachel snarkily replied.
"Exactly. So, anyway..." He glanced at the Committee again. They're not actively listening, but they still might overhear... "Did you consider... any other weapons?"
"Um..." Rachel seemed completely lost at this question. "Like I said, I don't have much in the way of training with weapons. I don't think I could've used another one."
"Huh." Sora paused. "Not even something... directly from the heart?" He asked innocently, putting his hands behind his head.
"You too?" Rachel responded, sounding incredulous. "I don't even know what that means. What kind of a weapon has anything to do with my heart... it's a weapon. It's a thing that inflicts damage on my enemies. There's no heart connection to be had."
Sora stopped, staring, his hands dropping to his sides. She's... not getting it at all. How... If she knows anything about Keyblades, she has to know what I'm talking about... But... He tried once again to remember anything that had happened between placing the Kingdom Key in her hand and waking up in Mickey's Gummi Ship, but the memories still just wouldn't come. ... if she doesn't know... Oh, that's probably bad...
Rachel frowned. "You okay, Sora?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Well, never mind this, let's keep going," he said hastily and continued onward.
"Right..." Rachel figured it was probably not that important and followed after Sora.
Rachel and her familiar, yet unfamiliar posse moved swiftly through the rest of Traverse Town, rain puddles splashing around their feet, coming to the same place where Rachel herself had lost her mind for a short while, stepping into the open, rectangular space, raised cobblestone paths around them, and stairs leading up there along one side.
They were just about to leave for the First District, when suddenly —
"... cannot wait any longer..."
Rachel froze. "... Did any of y'all hear that?"
The others stopped.
"I didn't hear anything," Leon said, looking around.
Rachel frowned very loudly, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. It was definitely... outside, I guess I'll call it. Maybe in an up-ish direction...? She strained her ears, but couldn't hear it again.
She did, however, hear a distinctive whoosh noise.
She whirled around, her head almost moving fast enough to crick her neck, looking where she thought the noise was coming from, but only just managed to spot a few dissipating wisps of dark smoke.
Oh... hell...
Rachel found herself staggering a little, taking a few unintended steps backwards, as her head craned up at the rooftop where the smoke just was, not a moment ago.
I... I can't handle this. This is not a thing I can handle. Why do we even have — Xehanorts or Organization people or whoever stalking us anyway?!
Meanwhile, as Rachel's mind was reeling, the others in her posse felt themselves afflicted with a sudden cold chill, as if an invisible black wind had blown through their flesh. The group turned around, just in time to see a sight that had become all too familiar over many months.
"Look alive, Rachel, we've got Heartless," Leon said, retrieving his gunblade.
"Heartless...?" Rachel slowly turned back toward the group, as if she was afraid of what she'd see, and sure enough, Shadows were rising from the ground and Soldiers were poofing into existence all around everyone. There's... so many of them... I... She felt her hands clench into fists, almost involuntarily. I can't... I...
You have to focus, Rachel.
Confusion cut through Rachel's panic like a knife. Riley?! Where were you?
Busy. I'll explain later — I don't know if you noticed, but we're in the middle of a fight right now.
Gee, no kidding?! What do I do?
It would probably help if we were holding a weapon.
Spurred into action by Riley's words, Rachel drew her tanto, just in time to parry a swipe from a Soldier and counter with a stab to its gut. Or the Heartless equivalent thereof.
"You all right, Rach?" Sora asked, taking down a few Shadows with one swipe of the Kingdom Key.
"I — just lost focus for a second." She took a moment to slice a Soldier in two, then tried taking a step closer to the rest of the group, only to realize there was a good half-dozen Heartless between her and them.
"This is way more Heartless than we normally fight around here," Yuffie exclaimed. "What's going on!?"
A tanto... borrowed from Yuffie. That makes sense, but I had a different weapon in mind. Or my part of — oh, whatever.
Right, of course. Having cleared a little more space, Rachel sheathed the tanto and drew her pistol, quickly blasting a few Heartless that tried to close the gap. Unlike Sora, his movement overflowing with grace, Rachel moved cautiously, deliberately, and much more defensively. She wasn't about to risk getting hurt.
"... Guys, I think they might be trying to separate Rachel from us," Aerith said, a distinctly worried tone to her voice.
"What?!" Yuffie exclaimed. "How?"
"I don't know, but definitely don't let them do it!" Aerith said, knocking down a Soldier with her guard stick. "Hastera!"
Adrenaline and/or magic pounded in Rachel's ears, and the world seemed to slow down just a little bit. As Rachel fired off a few more shots, now aimed more precisely thanks to the strange effect, a detached part of her idly wondered whether this was the normal effect of the spell or if she was partially resisting it.
Good shooting, Rachel. I guess Jules was right to drag us to the shooting range so much... Still, the gun isn't what I had in mind either.
She shot one more Soldier and the aetheroconverter vibrated slightly to signal that it had run dry. She holstered the pistol and drew the tanto again. I don't have any more holsters, Riley. It's the pistol and the tanto, and that's it.
"Magnet!" Sora cried, and a vortex of energy appeared in the air, dragging Heartless into it en masse. "Now, Thunder!" he added, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the swirling crowd, arcing between them and destroying several.
"There's still more of them!" Yuffie shouted.
"Are we being deliberately swarmed?" Leon said.
... Wait, you don't know?! Riley cried out in Rachel's mind, not believing what Rachel was thinking to them. Hold out an empty hand, there's a Keyblade in here!
What!? In disbelief, Rachel held out her left hand, and suddenly, Rachel felt a heavy weight appear as if from nowhere, as a second Kingdom Key materialized in her grasp. "What the hell?!" Rachel cried out, her head snapping rigidly to the item manifested in her hand, her veins flaring blue around the grip, and beyond. "How long has that been there?!"
Holy crap, she really didn't know, Sora thought.
"A Keyblade?" Aerith exclaimed. "Where — wait, that's your mysterious aether source, isn't it!"
"Wh— that's what you're focusing on?!" Rachel exclaimed, incredulously. "We're—" But she forgot whatever she was about to say when a massive wall of Shadows rose up around her, trapping her in a vortex of darkness.
"... Oh, fuck."
Rachel looked at the swirling vortex of darkness surrounding her, and without many clear options, she decided there was only one thing that she could immediately think of. Rachel tried to lift the Keyblade, making the veins in her arm glow bright in the process, but, as one might expect for a massive hunk of some unidentified metal, it was simply too heavy to move.
Well, this is much less useful than I was expecting it to be.
Yes, Riley, I noticed! How do I unsummon this thing... After a moment she gave up and just let it sit on the ground. I don't think I'm gonna make a dent in that with this tanto, she thought, drawing it, but do I have a better option?
"Now might be a good time to surrender."
Rachel whirled around to face this voice. Demyx?! Uh-oh... "Surrender? What are you talking about?" Whatever it is, it can't be good...
"Y'know, surrender! Give yourself up, throw yourself on the tender mercies of Organization XIII."
"I know what the word means," Rachel said, unable to resist an eyeroll. "What do you have to do with any of this, and why do you even want me to surrender to you?"
"Well, I'm the one controlling all these Heartless," Demyx said matter-of-factly, gesturing all around. "As for why we want to capture you... I don't actually know that, it's classified. But I'd bet several munny that it has to do with that Keyblade."
Rachel looked at the surprisingly heavy weapon lying on the ground at her feet. "Uh-huh," she said, crouching down to put her hands on it as though she could definitely pick it up any moment but was just choosing not to right now. "I don't really know what these things are good for. You wanna elaborate?"
Demyx shrugged. "They're kinda generically useful. They do a lot of things — harvest hearts, open any lock, turn into gliders, enhance your magic... In short, I can't actually narrow it down that much."
"Enhance magic, huh..." Suddenly she stood up, hoisting the Keyblade with both hands and holding it at her side, one hand gripping the handguard from above like a carry-handle, the other grabbing hold of the shaft, almost like a minigun. "Like this?" If this doesn't work... She took hold of her magic and shoved it into the Keyblade, and as blue lines rapidly spread down her arms, a glowing black orb formed on the tip of the Keyblade.
"What the — ?!" Demyx had just enough time to summon his sitar before Rachel fired the orb, knocking Rachel off her feet and causing a massive blast and kicking up so much dust it was impossible to see.
Groaning, Rachel picked herself as the dust cleared, and she and Riley looked around. D... did it work, then?
Well, we're still in the vortex of Shadows, Riley thought, but Demyx is nowhere to be seen, so... inconclusive. The Keyblade vanished in a poof of little magic sparks. Finally figured out how to do that, though.
That was... all of my magic, I'm pretty sure.
"So, this is how you're gonna be today, is it," Demyx said, stepping out of the wall of swarming Heartless like they were nothing but smoke.
"... had to try," Rachel muttered.
"Oh, I understand that," Demyx said. "Just as I'm sure you understand I'm going to have to subdue you by force, now. Water."
Several figures, composed entirely of water, rose from the ground and marched on Rachel.
"You, girlie, have managed to royally tick me off. I'd forgotten what that feels like."
The figures seized Rachel by the arms —
and, with no warning, collapsed into puddles.
Rachel blinked. "Wh... what just happened?"
Demyx stared for a second, unblinking, then grimaced. "Of course. Welp," he said, summoning his sitar again, "I guess we're doing this the really hard way!" He yelled, strumming on his sitar, and sending a rather large wave of water towards Rachel, which smashed into her surprisingly hard, sweeping her right off her feet, and slamming her swiftly to the ground.
Rachel struggled to her feet, vision swimming.
Look out, Rachel!
She scrambled blindly to the side, narrowly avoiding Demyx's sitar as it smashed into the ground. He swung again and she just managed to bring up her arms to shield her face, which was at least better than taking the hit full-on. It didn't stop her from letting out a scream of pain, though.
"Hmm, what do we think," Demyx remarked to nobody Rachel could see through the vortex. "Two good hits, and she's down?"
Kneeling, winded, Rachel noted that her arms were bleeding. "What... right do you have, anyway? I... had nothing to do with you!"
Demyx tilted his head. "'Right'? I don't think that's particularly relevant. I have my goals, and you're in the way of them. And don't think I haven't noticed that you only brought this question up after I beat the stuffing out of you. Which one of us tried taking the other out with a cheap shot, again?"
It's not stopping him from talking, though, Riley noted. Keep him rambling!
"Well, uh..." Rachel cast about frantically for anything to say. "I only did that after you dragged me into this fight to begin with!"
"Hey, I never claimed I had the moral high ground," he said, shrugging. "I'm a villain, remember? It's you hero-types who have... standards and ethics and all that stuff."
"Yeah, no kidding you have no standards," Rachel muttered.
Uh, was that a good idea?
Demyx frowned for a moment. "That's right. No standards at all. No rule telling me it's bad for a man to kick a girl while she's down." Demyx hefted his sitar, ready to slam it down upon Rachel once again, prompting her to raise her bloody arms to her face, only for Demyx to deliver a cruel kick to Rachel's midsection, wringing out a harsh cry of pain. "Alright, say good ni—"
And then Sora came charging in from beyond the borders of the vortex, screaming his lungs out, stopping the falling sitar with his Keyblade, blocking the attack. He released another yell soon after, swinging the Keyblade towards Demyx, repelling his assault.
Demyx staggered back a step, reeling from the unexpected impact. "What?!"
"You..." Sora pointed the Kingdom Key at Demyx, fixing a glare. "I don't know why you're hurting my friend, but it ends here."
"Oh, that is enough!" Demyx cried. "I came here to do one job, and by everything the light touches I am gonna do that job! Dance, water, dance!"
Water clones erupted from the ground, some charging at Sora and Rachel and some just dancing around.
Sora dashed at the clones to take them out before they hurt Rachel, and she looked down at her battered body. I...I'm bleeding... I am bleeding... I am actually bleeding so much, right now...
Rachel. We need to focus and not go into shock. We have potions. Use one.
... Yes. Potion. Rachel moved her hand, slowly and methodically, toward her backpack —
We don't have time for this. Rachel suddenly felt something shift — like someone kicking down a door in her brain — and her hand moved on its own, swiftly withdrawing a potion and pouring it down her throat.
Her eyes widened as the potion's magic kicked in and the world came back into focus. Riley, did you just —
Yes. We will discuss it when we're not fighting for our life.
Right! Carefully, Rachel pushed herself up to a slightly more stable kneeling position, her wounds still not completely healed.
Sora and Demyx were going at each other like — well, like Kingdom Hearts characters. Sora was charging at Demyx with his Keyblade, letting off magical explosions, and generally flipping around, while Demyx was summoning water pillars left and right as well as the occasional water clone.
Rachel gazed at the spectacle surrounding her, seemingly reminiscent of a Kingdom Hearts gameplay video, presented in 360 degrees. Rachel could see how Sora's attacks seemingly formed into pure light, that shined and rippled through the liquified crystal that Demyx had cast into the air. Rachel couldn't help but feel like she was in the middle of a live show at a certain theme park. This is... surreal.
Sora's movements by themselves were like a protective dance, as he dispatched watery forms with both absolute ease, and determined fervor.
It... really seems like Sora has this one handled, Rachel thought.
Demyx took to sliding around the area, casting jets of water around for him to ride on, whipping around Rachel, as if he was saving her for later.
That doesn't mean we can relax and do nothing, though, Riley pointed out.
Sora's Keyblade slashed through even more of Demyx's attacks, sending droplets cascading everywhere. If any of them reached his face or his hair, it absolutely didn't faze him.
I know. But I don't see any opening... if I could get Haste again, maybe... Maybe I could focus...
That's not a problem. The way the magic flowed when Aerith cast it... it was like an open book.
Rachel boggled slightly. What the heck?! I can't do that! How did you figure that out?
Later. Right now, if we don't act, Demyx is gonna get us. It's do or die, Rachel!
... Okay, but we are gonna have a long talk when we actually have some time.
Still shaking, but a lot more stable from the potion's healing magic, Rachel rose to her feet. Keeping a watchful eye on Demyx, she took a few cautious steps backward, towards the edge of the vortex, trying to get a handle on things from a safer distance.
Okay, I can't just do nothing, can I? Rachel mused to herself, noting how she really was out of her depth, here. I wonder what Jules would do...
Just then, Demyx evaded another attack from Sora, flying away on a jet of water, and when he touched down, he noticed that Rachel had gotten back up.
Aw, crap!
"Finally decided to join us, huh?" Demyx quickly strummed his sitar, and tried to drop a torrent on Rachel's position, but she quickly dodged out of the way, and ran behind Sora, as he quickly took a defensive stance in front of her.
...What would Jules do...? Rachel thought to herself. Riley, what was that you were saying about Haste earlier?
Just say when.
...Got it.
"You're not getting to her, without going through me!" Sora declared.
Demyx smirked, and began to play on his sitar, conjuring jets of water that managed to pull Sora towards him, leading to him getting smacked with the sitar, and being sent flying.
Get ready... Wait for it...
Sora quickly pulled off some kind of mid-air recovery, righting himself and touching down on his feet, before quickly throwing his Keyblade at Demyx's head, promptly drawing his attention off of Rachel. Demyx quickly cast an array of water pillars to knock Sora around some more...
Haste, NOW!
Rachel's perception of the world began to slow down, and her veins began to glow. Demyx's hands slowed on the strings of his sitar. Rachel moved her hand towards her gun, quickly drew it, and charged up the magazine until it was clearly fully loaded.
Demyx was busy dealing with the Keyblade wielder when he heard a mechanical click-clack noise behind him. He turned around just after Rachel had already cocked her trusty 1911. He was just about to deal with this ridiculous girl and her pitiful excuse for a weapon, when Rachel, taking advantage of her hastened state, moved a few critical steps closer, took aim with the 1911, and opened fire.
Since a large amount of Demyx's center mass was obscured by the sitar, Rachel took advantage of her own hastened state to take aim directly at Demyx's head. She squeezed the trigger, and sent a bullet straight towards, and by extension, straight into Demyx's head, making him drop his sitar, and collapse backwards to the ground, his head still bleeding from the shot.
Sora stared at Demyx as his body slowly disintegrated into wisps of darkness. "Whoa... no way..." he muttered, sounding more impressed than anything.
As the wall of Shadows collapsed and the individual Heartless reasserted themselves (mostly by running away), Rachel stared at the vanishing Nobody, stunned — and then time abruptly shifted back into normal gear and she felt all her muscles seize up for just a moment, causing her to drop to her knees. "Ow. Ow ow ow..."
"Oh, geez..." Sora rushed over to Rachel, kneeling by her side. "You okay, Rach? Heal."
"Well... I'm not dead," she groaned. "So I've got that going for me." She glanced down at her bruised and battered body and noticed that she didn't seem to be bleeding anywhere anymore. "I think... I might be resistant to healing magic, or something..."
Rachel heard footsteps as the rest of the Committee ran over.
"Sora, Rachel, what the heck happened?" Yuffie called out.
Rachel briefly considered trying to struggle back to her feet, but soon realized that that was definitely not happening right now. "Some creepy black-cloak-wearing guy happened... called himself Demyx, but I think he might be dead now..."
"Yeah, about that," Sora said. "I'm not denying the results you got, but why didn't you use the Keyblade?"
"The... big-ass chunk of metal that appeared in my hand suddenly?" Rachel mumbled. "It's a big-ass chunk of metal. It weighs like a million tons. Not much I can do with that with my frail little arms."
"Too heavy?" Sora boggled for a moment, then summoned his Kingdom Key. "This doesn't feel heavy at all..."
On a sudden hunch, Rachel reached out and grasped Sora's Kingdom Key. Immediately it dropped to the ground.
They both stared at it for several seconds.
"That's... not how that works," Leon said. "... Not how that's supposed to work, I guess."
"So that's why you didn't use it," Sora said. "It was just... too heavy?"
"Pretty much," Rachel said. "I did get the idea of summoning the thing over the guy's head and letting gravity do the work, but I never did find an opening for that move, so..." She shrugged.
"This is all very scientifically interesting," Aerith said, "but we really need to get you to the ship. We don't know whether he had backup."
Rachel very briefly considered the prospect of fighting another Organization member and shuddered. "I barely made it through one fight," she muttered, her body still feeling very sore, to put it mildly. "Yes, we should leave immediately."
As Sora helped Rachel to her feet, Leon had a concerned look on his face. "It's strange... the Keyblade chose you, despite the fact that it doesn't even work properly for you."
"Is that how it works, then?" Rachel asked, feigning skepticism. "The big chunk of metal I can't barely lift chose to be my friend? Not that I'll turn down a friend under the circumstances, but... I'll get more use bench-pressing this thing than trying to wield it as a weapon."
"There's also the fact that it's probably your mysterious aether source," Aerith said.
"Oh yeah," Rachel said, "you mentioned that... what's that about?"
"Well, we explained about how you need aether to live, right?" Aerith asked.
"Uh-huh," Rachel nodded. "You also mentioned that it's not staying inside my body like it should, so you had to invent a whole new magic spell to make it stick, and you had time to do that because it kept refilling out of nowhere." She looked down toward her hand, at where the Kingdom Key would be if she was holding it. "And you think 'nowhere' is in fact my new massive metal friend...?"
"The Keyblade is packed with an incredible amount of aether," Leon said. "Sora once looked at it with Libra and... nearly blinded himself..." He trailed off suddenly. "I suppose that answers why you were chosen, though, if... the Keyblade... was trying to keep you alive for some reason."
"But..." Yuffie frowned. "Rachel's world had... billions of people in it. Why... pick just one?" She asked, looking towards Rachel with a telling look. Surprisingly, Yuffie had enough tact to avoid saying it outright, but Rachel understood what Yuffie was really asking — why pick her, out of everyone else?
An awkward silence descended upon the group. Rachel, in particular, fell dead silent as she thought about what Yuffie had just said harder than what could be considered even remotely healthy. The silence lingered for a moment, before Sora spoke up. "Um, in any case, that's the Keyblade, now we gotta get going."
Leon nodded. "Right. Let's get going." He took a look at Rachel, barely staying on her feet even with Sora's help, and frowned. "Hmm. Well, Sora and I will go ahead and make sure the ship is secure. Yuffie, Aerith, you can help Rachel, right?"
"Uhh—" Sora uhhed very briefly before Yuffie interrupted.
"Yeah, we got this!" Yuffie declared, picking Rachel up again, just as easily as she had last time, again, much to her surprise. "Go on ahead, we'll bring her there!"
"Don't move too fast, Yuffie," Aerith said, picking up Rachel's backpack and, with caution, her pistol from where she had dropped them after the battle. "Rachel's clearly not in great shape right now."
"Yeah, yeah," Yuffie said. "I know how to be careful, y'know."
Rachel heard her backpack being unzipped, as Aerith's hands moved the gun towards the open pack. "Hold up, Aerith," Rachel mumbled, unclipping the pistol's holster from her belt. "Put the gun in here first. Don't want it going off by accident..."
"Is that likely?" Aerith wondered aloud, moving the gun away from the pack.
"Don't know. Don't want to find out today. Holster the gun, please."
"Right, right," Aerith said, taking the holster and placing the gun securely inside it, sounding for all the world like she had never considered any other course of action.
"Take the magazine out, too! ... Probably should have led with that, actually."
"Why are you going so fast, Leon?!" Sora complained as they reached the Gummi Ship. "We're just gonna have to wait for the others to catch up anyway —"
"What did you do, Sora?" Leon interrupted.
"Wh..." Sora boggled. "Um... I think you're gonna have to narrow that down a bit," he said, not meeting Leon's eyes. I knew I heard him pause weirdly when he talked about the Keyblade choosing Rachel! How am I supposed to explain any of this?
"Hm. You didn't do anything drastic and risky, perhaps in a desperate attempt to save a life?" Leon asked.
"Uhh... I know that's totally the kind of thing I would do, but I haven't done anything like that recently," Sora said. Depending on how I define 'recently'...
"... Right." Leon paused for a moment. "Hey, do you have any guesses as to why the Keyblade chose Rachel, specifically? You seemed kinda nervous about that subject, but now there's no one else around..."
"Well. Gosh. I will have to think about that for a moment, on account of it being such an abrupt change of subject," Sora said, with all the subtlety of a deafeningly awkward silence, such as the one that quickly descended upon both of them.
"... The thing I was wondering is," Leon spoke up eventually, "Yuffie said Rachel's world had billions of people in it. Not to knock on Rachel or anything, but... out of billions of people, why save only her?"
Sora closed his eyes in an ostentatious show of looking thoughtful. "... When I got to Rachel's world... I didn't see anyone left alive except Rachel. I don't know how the Keyblade makes choices like that, but... by the time it came up, I don't think it had billions of people to choose from."
"Huh." Leon thought about that for a moment. "That actually makes a lot of sense."
"What, really?" Sora responded, unsure whether to be confused or relieved.
"Yeah," Leon replied. "It seems a lot more obvious of a decision, if Rachel was the only one left alive..." Leon suddenly had a thought come to him. "Sora... Are you absolutely sure that Rachel was the only one left alive?"
"Well, I didn't see anyone else..."
"...So, a world with billions of people in it, and you only saw Rachel?"
"I didn't explore the whole world," Sora said, defensively. "It's really big, y'know. But... the part I did explore... there could've been a good few thousand people there, and... yeah, I only saw Rachel." He looked down.
"But... that implies..." Leon suddenly felt a very, very cold chill. He suddenly stood as straight as a metal rod, and his eyes stopped focusing on the world around him.
"Yeah," Sora said. "Whoever did this... not just to Rachel's world, but to all those other worlds..." He clenched his fist. "They have a lot to answer for."
Leon nodded. "You take 'em to task, Sora. You and Rachel, if she can."
It was at this point that Yuffie and Aerith caught up, Yuffie still carrying Rachel. She waved to Sora, then held a finger to her lips in a "shh" gesture. Sora wondered why, for just a brief moment, before seeing Rachel, passed out in Yuffie's arms.
"She's out cold, huh...?" he said in a low voice, once Yuffie was close enough to hear.
"Mm-hmm," she responded. "She's really not used to fighting, isn't she..."
"She really isn't," Sora agreed. "Her world must have been pretty peaceful, huh..."
"It seems so, yeah," Yuffie said. "You want me to strap her in?" she said, gesturing toward the Gummi Ship.
"I'll strap her in, I think," Aerith interrupted before Sora could say anything.
Yuffie glared at Aerith for a second, then sighed, looking annoyed. "Yeah, fair." She handed Rachel over to Aerith and turned back to Sora. "Y'all need to get moving, though."
"Right." Sora nodded. He turned to enter the Gummi Ship, but Leon stopped him.
"... Keep an eye on her, Sora," he said. "Empowered and disoriented is... well, it worked out fine for you, but it's typically not a good combination."
Well. Leon definitely knows what's going on. "I gotcha. I'll make sure she makes it through this." Maybe I should've just come clean from the beginning, but...
Meanwhile, several worlds away...
"... in one blow, you say?"
"Yes. The weapon she used is not one that is typically capable of such devastating attacks, but it seems that her very essence is warping the fabric of reality." Saïx frowned. "I... suspect it is causing the world around her to act more like her home."
"Like her home... the Prime Cluster." Xemnas closed his eyes in thought. "The Prime Cluster has remained a closed space for millennia. Remaining closed is its entire purpose. Not even in my most desperate moments had I ever considered interfering with it. Yet someone has, and as a result, Demyx has been destroyed again... That said, our priorities remain the same. Keep watch over this girl. She is not a true danger to us... yet."
"Not a true danger, Superior...?"
"As of now, she most likely has little interest in us — having defeated Demyx, I believe she will consider the matter settled. At this point, she seeks the one who destroyed her world. Let us ensure that they find each other."
Where were you?!
Drifting, conscious yet unconscious, Riley reflected on Rachel's question.
"Who... and/or what the hell are you?" Riley gasped. This sort of physical violence shouldn't even be possible in headspace! Damn Kingdom Hearts nonsense, making everything a huge pain...
He grinned. "What, don't you recognize me?"
"Don't screw with me," they retorted, "I know damn well you're not Sora!"
He rolled his eyes. "Not that. Look beyond my borrowed external appearance for a second." He held his arms wide. "You sure you don't see anything familiar?"
"... Ah. Crap."
"There it is. That's the reaction I've been looking for."
They sighed. "That's not gonna go over well with her at all..."
Rachel attained the power of destruction. Remembered Ruin and learned Ruinra.
In this chapter's edition of "Things that go at the bottom of the page"...
Hey, we finally finished part 1... Which definitely makes this the perfect time to mention that we're gonna take a break of a month or several now, to plot out the remaining arcs and rebuild our buffer. There may be a non-linear interlude posted during that time. Or any other time, really, half the point of those interludes is that I can post them when I feel like it...
How long is the break gonna last? Um... Not sure. The current plan is to have the arc-by-arc outline of the entire story, the chapter-by-chapter outline of the next arc, and two or three actual chapters written, before we start posting again. This... may take a bit. I'll post daily updates... er, kinda frequent updates in my Discord server (check my profile for the invite), and... well, as soon as I think of a reasonable alternative for people not interested in joining that, I'll edit it into this space.