Kingdom Hearts
Ch. 44
Traverse Town
It's Okay to Cry
The air was still and quiet. The young keyblade wielder Sora was tilting and turning in bed. He slowly opened his groggy eyes setting sights upon a familiar ceiling. Sora sighed, "I hate this ceiling."
"Hey yah sleepy head," said a familiar voice. Yuffie the young ninja spoke placing her head above Sora's smiling at him.
"Yuffie what are you doing here?" he asked. Yuffie moved away standing by Sora's bedside just like when they first met. Sora lifted his body up. He noticed he was only wearing pants. His wounded shoulder was covered in bandages and minor scratches pervaded around his body.
"Lucky you guys got here so fast. You were in bad shape when your ship landed. Goofy and Donald carried you in all by themselves. They burst right into Cid's shop begging for him to help you. It was a slow day for Cid so your sudden arrival gave him something significant to do. Aerith was able to use her healing magic to help you."
Sora looked around the room to see they were the only ones there. "Donald, Goofy, Jiminy where are they?" he asked.
"They're out with Cid trying to fix the gummi ship", replied Yuffie.
"Oh, how did we get here so fast. The last thing I remember was we were at-." Sora immediately stopped talking. He clenched the blanket under him looking down with a face of defeat.
Yuffie stepped back holding her hands. "You know your friends told us what happened. Wonderland. Deep Jungle. Destiny Islands. I'm sorry, it must be hard for you."
"It's okay," he said in a soft dead voice.
"No, it's not okay!" she said grabbing Sora's hand. "I know what it's like to lose everything. To see people, you care about just disappear. And you can do nothing about it. Me, Aerith, and Leon know that better than anyone. We watched our home be taken from us. We all were just kids. We couldn't do anything to stop it."
Sora did not give any motion. He remined stagnant. Yuffie quickly grabbed Sora's cheek turning his head to hers. "It's okay to be strong. It's okay to be brave. But it's also okay to cry."
Tears began to trickle out of Yuffie's eyes. They trailed down her face in a steady motion like a stream in a forest. Sora's throat began to feel funny. His eyes began to burn. And tears fell down his face. Sora began to cry with Yuffie.
Yuffie wrapped her arms around his head like a big sister would. Crying with him. Sora rubbed his face into Yuffie's chest crying even harder. They cried and cried till Sora pulled away from Yuffie. He curled up into a ball sniffling, "I miss my family. I miss my friends. Riku, Kairi. I don't know what to do? I miss them so much." Yuffie wiped her tears with one hand and then wiped Sora's off with her other.
"I don't know what you're supposed to do. But you're here now. And you have to just keep moving forward," said Yuffie coming to peace with herself. "Listen I think you should talk about this to Leon. Aerith went to get him. He's usually trains in the catacombs."
"Where is that?" he asked.
Yuffie complied and explained, "Go out that door and follow the alley way till you find the waterway entrance. Follow the water leading to a giant pond under the city. Wait for me there, I need pick up something for Merlin."
"Wait Merlin, I think I've heard that name before?" he said getting off the bed.
"Yeah, I bet Donald probably mentioned him to you already. Merlin is both Donald's and Aerith's master." Sora remembered Donald talking about Merlin back on the gummi ship. Yuffie moved aside showing Sora's clothes folded neatly on the table.
"Be back in a flash," said Yuffie raising her arm with what seems to be a metal ball in her hand. She threw it down on the ground hard. "Smoke bomb!" she sounded.
A flash of white smoke burst around her. Catching Sora off guard he coughed up a storm covering his eyes. When he opened them again and the smoke pervaded Yuffie had disappeared. "Yuffie?" he said looking around.
"Oh, ninja tricks right," he said to himself. A slight shock jolted through his body "Wait, she's a real ninja!" he shouted. He fell back over on the bed finding himself starring at the same ceiling.
Sora did not speak again. He got back up and put his clothes on. He buckled up his belt before leaving the red room. He stepped out into the alley way. He walked up to the railing before jumping clean over it. He fell some 10 feet landing flawlessly. He rose before looking down the alley way. "Where is the water way entrance?" he thought.
He noticed a steam of water flowing down a manmade canal leading to an empty entrance. "There we go," he said. Undenounced to him a soldier heartless appeared in the shadows staring at him from behind. Before attacking him, it was taken out by someone with a sharp-looking sword. This catches Sora' attention. He turns around only to be incredibly surprised to see an old friend stand before him.
"There you are. What's going on?" said Riku turning to Sora with a sharp purple like blade in his arm. It was shaped like a bats wing and had a blue eye at the center of the blade.
"Riku!" He walks up to Riku and stretches his friends mouth out, making sure he's real.
"Hey, hey, cut it out," said Riku forcing Sora to let him go.
"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" he said giddy.
Riku replied back, "I hope not. Took forever to find you."
Riku smiles back and they start walking through the alley. "Wait a second, where's Kairi?" asked Sora.
"Isn't she with you?" he answered back. Sora looks down, sadly. "Well, don't worry. I'm sure she made it off the island, too," Riku said looking to the sky. "We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us right now."
A Shadow Heartless emerges from the ground, its antennae wiggling wildly.
Riku is faced away from Sora. "We'll all be together again soon. Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this—." He hears a noise behind him, and turns to see Sora, who has just destroyed the Shadow Heartless. Sora stands and tosses the Keyblade over his shoulder
"Leave it to who?" said Sora proudly.
Riku walked closer, "Sora, what did you—."
"I've been looking for you and Kairi. With the help of my new friends."
Riku looks apprehensive, "Who's new friends?"
"There are some people I met here that helped me travel to other worlds in their rocket. We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you," said Sora blatantly.
"Really? Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed," said Riku.
"Say what do you have there?" said Riku pointing to Sora's key.
"What oh this, that's the keyblade. It chose me to be its master," Sora explained.
"So, this is called a Keyblade?" Riku holds up Sora's Keyblade.
"Huh?" said Sora looking at his own hand in confusion.
"Hey, give it back." He rushes forward to grab it, but Riku moves back and Sora stumbles and falls over. Riku holds the Keyblade above his head, getting a good look at it. "Catch!"
He tosses it to Sora, who stands up quickly. "Okay, so you're coming with us, right? We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"
"Hey Sora, I thought you'd be at Merlin's place by now." Sora looked up to see Yuffie standing atop the hotels roof holding something. She jumps down effortlessly on the pavement. "You weren't confused by the directions I gave you? They were pretty straight forward."
"What no I was talking to my friend Rik—." Sora turned back towards Riku only to see he has vanished.
"Ri-who," asked Yuffie.
"Huh, never mind. It's nothing. He pulled his hood over his head once again. Sinking back into his depressive state. "Anyway, what did you have to get anyway?" he asked begrudgingly.
"Oh, I ran back up to Cid's shop to pick up this book." She handed him an old beat up book with the picture with a boy holding hands with a yellow Teddy bear. The title read, "Winnie the Pooh."
"Merlin asked Cid to repair it for him. But some of the pages are still missing. The books a pretty boring read, I don't know why Merlin refuses to just get rid of it. Maybe it's a wizard thing." Sora handed the book back to Yuffie.
She put it in her special ninja bag that she conceals on her skirt. "It pays to have a water proof outfit where we are going." She ran off to the end of the alley way with Sora behind her. She points to the waterway entrance before hoping down into the canal. "Come on," she said.
The water was only ankle deep. Sora followed her jumping down before entering the water way. It got a bit darker as they went down. Sora could hear water rushing all the way from the entrance. Yuffie went ahead running to the end of the tunnel. She called out to Sora when she made it to the end. When Sora caught up to her. He noticed the water was rushing downward.
"Whelp, you want to head down first." Yuffie stood at the edge of the rushing water. Sora walked over to her looking down to see the canal turns to a water slide. That runs down into a dark pit with no end in sight. "Yeah this is the fun way. It leads straight to Merlin's house. Just ride the slopes and you'll be there in 5 minutes flat. We discovered this passage way when we were kids. We'd always prefer this route compared to the normal way. But when everyone got older. They all stopped using it. Now I'm the only one goes down this way. C'mon you're not afraid of getting wet are you."
"Wet, I lived around water all my life. My clothes are fitted to be walked in and swam in," said Sora gaining a bit of excitement. He pulled down his hood smiling a bit.
"I think I like your world. I wish I was born there," she said before laying down on the rushing water. She put her hands on the corners on the pavement. She pushed her body down the slop with her feet in front of her. "Yahoo!" she screamed sliding down into darkness. Sora followed her sliding down the waterslide.
The pavement was very smooth making Sora go down faster. Everything went black before Sora could see in front of him again. He saw light appear at the end of the tunnel. The slope entered into a large cavern with other water slopes stretched across the room. The slope he was on had many twist and turns. Sora smiled the whole way till the slope entered another pitch-black tunnel.
In another large cavern was a pipe that poured out water into an underground pound. Yuffie slid out through the pipe dropping face first in the water. She emerged from the water laughing. She heard someone else coming looking up before moving out the way as Sora came tumbling after her falling into the water. He got up with Yuffie laughing together. "Boy, it's been so long I had so much fun with somebody," said Yuffie still giggling.
"Really, what about Leon and Aerith?" said Sora laughing as well.
Yuffie controlled herself, "Yeah, I guess they're too old for this stuff. Ever since Cloud left our little group. Things have never been the same."
"Cloud?" asked Sora.
"Yes, originally there were 5 of us. Me, Squall Leonhart who you now know as Leon, Aerith Gainsborough, and 2 others Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart. We spent our whole lives together. We only were a bunch of normal kids who happened to live close to each other. We did everything together. Then on one summer's day. We all decided to go out and play in the flower fields outside the city. We said goodbye to our parents and headed off. But before we got there. It began. The destruction of our home. Out over nowhere swarms of heartless began to appear everywhere. We didn't know what to do. We were all just so scared. We managed to escape but the heartless pushed us into a corner. The heartless were prepared to end us but then out of nowhere a savior appeared from above. You know him as Cid Highwind. One of our leader's top heroes and the kings personal pilot. He destroyed the heartless. Before grabbing all of us trying to protect us. He mowed down every threat that came at him. He brought us to his ship where we took off leaving our doomed world behind. Including our parents and friends. We didn't know where to go. Me, Tifa, and Aerith wouldn't stop crying. While Cloud and Squall remained in dead silence. Eventually this world appeared to us out of the blue. We settled here only to discover this world was empty. No life existed her but the city didn't seem to be abandoned as it looked as refurbished as ever. We eventually met up with Merlin who used his wizard powers to escape "Hollow Bastion." So, we settled in this world making the most of it. There was only 7 of us and we had a whole town to ourselves. The 5 of us would explore and play together every day. Cid and Merlin were like family to us. Cid would cook while Merlin would give use schooling in his house. When we were old enough. They began to train us in the art of fighting and magic. Cid taught how to use our weapons and how to fight. Merlin taught us magic and how to master it. Everything was fine till 3 years ago, when something happened to Cloud. He fell to darkness. And he went crazy and attacked Squall and Tifa. Scaring them both. Aerith was the only one able to calm him down. But when he came back to his senses, he was so ashamed of himself that he ran away. Tifa couldn't let him go so she followed after him. We haven't seen them since. Squall became secluded to everyone except Aerith whom he married just after Cloud left. Our group has been broken ever since."
"Wait, did this Cloud guy have spiky yellow hair and carries a large sword?" said Sora.
"Well yeah. But how do you know?" said Yuffie puzzled.
"Me and the others fought him at the Olympus Coliseum," Sora explained.
Yuffie grabbed Sora's shoulders, "Really you saw him. What was he doing? Is he okay?"
Sora elaborated on Clouds personal journey, "He didn't say much. But he mentioned that he's trying to find his light."
Yuffie stepped back, "I see so he's still trying to find himself. It's okay as long as our hearts are connected we'll meet again I'm sure we will. Sora, Donald and Goofy are waiting for us at Merlin's house. Let's go."
Sora nodded. They swam up to the tiny island where Merlin's house was. Climbing out of the water before walking into the old Wizard's house. The house looks beaten and worn down despite its festive purple hue. The front entrance way is covered in wooden boards and cloth. They found a broken hole in the side of the brick wall with a green curtain draped over it, and use it to get into the house. They enter an empty space with a raised platform in the center. The dirty shack was completely empty. "Huh, guess he isn't back yet," said Yuffie.
Sora hears a voice behind him and whirls around. "There's something about this musty place..." Kairi walks slowly through the room, holding her hands behind her back. "It reminds me of the secret place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls. Remember?" She looks toward him and smiles.
"Kairi?"
