The Guest review does bring up a fair point of me not having described Niji in any capacity beyond his clothing which boiled down to a grey hoodie…

So…

He has dark black-blue hair (almost pure black) that is similar to… Ephemera in style except that it doesn't curl at all and falls down with a slight wild ruffle rather than curl upward. Niji is fair-skinned with blue eyes that are like faint light filtering to the bottom of the sea. He wears a grey hoodie with a black wing shedding feathers depicted on the back and down the right sleeve. He wears a plain and black tank-top/undershirt under the hoodie. He also has on black jeans that have a silver lined, blue criss-cross pattern down one pant leg and finally wears black boots. Later, he may gain some accessories for that ensemble, but that is his base look.

Also, Unlike alot of stories that revolve around Sora, I personally don't like the idea that Mickey would just leave Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, without any thing but "find the key". He has most definitely encountered heartless and - in my AU - has left them some of his notes on the keyblade's abilities and heartless as he is probably master-class in keyblade technique. He probably is second only to Yen Sid at this point as an keyblade wielder as Yen Sid is retired (and Mickey is a master and is - from what I checked - implied to be so).

-YARN

P.S. Edited (slightly)

I blinked at what seemed to be a short humanoid duck and man-sized humanoid dog lay on top of Sora in a pile. Both of them were wearing clothing, the duck had on a zipper covered blue jacket of sorts while the dog was dressed in a pair of yellow pants, a greenish shirt, with a black vest thrown on top.

I instantly recalled the dream with the stained glass floor, these were…!

They both seemed to shake the dizziness off before they saw Sora's keyblade - which was held out in front of him - and their eyes widened.

"The Key!" They chorused.

Just then, the ground rumbled and sections of the plaza rose up, cutting off the path to the second district and around the fountain. I whirled and got in my stance as heartless began to appear on top of the columns of rock and began clattering towards us. I kicked one in the face and spun, Starlight flashing in the light of the fountain as I knocked another one into the aforementioned structure. Then the two who had fallen out of the sky began to fight and it was clear that they were both seasoned combatants. The dog was incredibly skilled at guarding, covering our backs when Sora and I were brawling with the shadows while knocking other heartless down with shield bashes. The duck, on the other hand, was waving his wand/club and calling out incantations of 'freeze', 'fire', or 'thunder', unleashing bursts of elements that decimated the heartless around us.

Admittedly, it wasn't like we were the best fighting group to grace the worlds, but considering that we had only just met, we definitely weren't too shabby.

Soon under our combined assault, the plaza was soon clear as the last few shadows and armored heartless evaporated.

A rattling sound caught our attention and we turned to see what seemed like a giant pair of armored gauntlets, metal boots, and a cylindrical metal tube with a black stylized heart emblazoned on it fell to the ground with a loud clang. The metal gauntlets bounced high into the air and positioned themselves high on the giant cylinder whereas the legs slid into position beneath it. Slowly all the pieces began to hover while what looked like a knight's helmet floated down from the sky and landed at the top. Suddenly the entire thing vibrated as the legs began to stomp and the arms spun around it while making grabbing motions.

"That… looks like the boss…" I mumbled dumbly.

Its head swiveled to face us and its two hands shot out toward us with high speeds. I scrambled out of the way and threw Starlight at it, knocking its head back. Sora and the duck followed up, Sora hacking at its body while the duck shot out a blast of fire at it. It - assuming the mask had eyes - looked over at us and its feet suddenly stomped towards me completely free of the body while it began to throw its fists at Sora and the duck. I yelped and ran away, the feet pounding behind me with each colossal step. Suddenly the dog ran by me and shield bashed the legs, which stumbled and clattered lifelessly to the ground.

Me and the dog both beat at the legs - denting them with each blow - until they both shook and shot back up before they clattered over to the main body. I growled and rushed at the heartless and with a yell; threw my entire weight behind a single strike at on of the legs, which cracked and finally exploded into wispy shard of darkness. I stumbled as I was now off balance and about to move back when the main body spun like a top and smashed into me, sending me sprawling to the side.

"Niji!" Sora yelled.

I groaned and tired to push myself to my hands and knees when the foot kicked me into the fountain with a splash. Through the sound of water and bells in my ears, I vaguely heard Sora shouting angrily and the sound of lighting crackling. I tried to sit up only to collapse back as I choked and coughed the water from my mouth and cringed in pain at my injured side; the pain deep and throbbing in my stomach. I felt like the damn thing had broken a bone inside me, and it ached if I tried to move. I just managed to sit up when a green glow lit the air around me and I gaped in astonishment as the pain immediately faded away.

"What the heck…?" I murmured.

I shook my head - I could ponder over what just happened later -and scrambled back into the fray, side-stepping a flying fist and rolling away from a foot stomping down on me. I wasn't going to let myself get caught in an attack like that so easily. Sora - teeth grit in anger - swung hard with the keyblade and shattered one of its fists before landing and rolling away as the foot came down on him. He barely got to his feet before a flying, gauntleted fist tagged his shoulder and sent him crashing to the ground. I snarled and made to attack when the dog threw his circular shield which smashed into the head of the heartless, distracting it. I didn't waste time and moved to the other hand, launching at it and slicing and attacking with all I had. The duck launched a fireball at the hand which exploded as the fire hit it. I didn't waste any time in moving away as the last limb stomped towards me to try and flatten me.

"It only has a single leg left! If we get those, we can focus on the main body!" I yelled.

Apparently, the heartless took offense to me yelling about that and its main body flew into the air and came hurtling down at me. I yelped - in a manly fashion I assure anyone asking - and threw myself to the side as it landed with a loud crash. Sora took advantage of it being stunned by its own impact and began beating on its main body, his keyblade beginning to dent it in. The lone leg rattled and Sora rolled away as it scraped across the ground where he was, almost sideswiping him.

As the main body made to rise, all of us traded looks and an understanding passed.

The duck raised his staff which crackled and glowed, the dog threw his shield, Sora threw his keyblade and I flung Starlight with all my strength. Both Sora and my keyblade flashed as streams of light spilled out of the tips and followed the rotation of our spinning keyblades, making them glimmer like stars. The attacks converged on the as lightning crashed down from the heavens and all hit the main body. The heartless' leg shattered like glass hit by a hammer and multiple cracks - spilling out white wisps of light - began to form along the main body. When the shine from the attacks faded, the main body shook erratically and the head of the armor tilted before falling off and landing on the ground with a heavy clang. Light erupted from the heartless' top and a huge heart floated out into the sky before fading away; the body and head both were surrounded by swirling white energy and petals of light before they faded out of existence as well. We stood there for a moment, blinking at the now empty plaza where we had just been fighting as though unsure the battle was well and truly over.

The only sound left was the trickling of water from the fountain and our heavy panting.

"We… we did it…" I murmured, "We beat that thing…"

Sora was grinning openly and the duck and dog both relaxed.

"Hell yeah!" I roared, throwing my hands up in celebration.

So as it turned out, beating that heartless had suddenly cowed the remaining heartless into fleeing and now the four of us - plus Leon and Yuffie - were talking in the third district plaza.

"So you were looking for us?" Sora queried, gesturing to himself and I.

Leon cut in after the duck and dog nodded, "They too have been seeking the wielder of the keyblade."

"Hey, why don't you both come with us? We can get to different worlds using our vessel." The dog offered.

Sora looked down, "I wonder if we could find Riku or Kairi…"

"Of course!" The duck replied immediately.

I frowned in suspicion as the dog whispered to the the duck and the duck replied, jabbing a thumb in our direction. I took a step in their direction, intent on figuring out exactly what they were mumbling about.

However, Leon spoke before I could question the two, "Niji. Sora. Go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."

Sora was looking down still unsure, "Yeah I guess…"

I was about to say something to encourage him, but the duck stepped up.

"But you can't come with us looking like that, understand?" The duck said in an almost scolding tone, "No frowning. No sad face, okay?"

"Yeah," The dog added, leaning very close to the duck's face, "Ya got to look funny, like us!"

The duck shoved the dog away and continued, "This boat runs on happy faces."

"Happy?" Sora mumbled.

I stared at him, I knew him well enough to understand what he was going to do. I smirked as everyone else waited and the dog and duck looked closely at his shadowed face. Finally, he looked up with the stupidest and biggest toothy smile I ever saw him give anyone ever. We all stared at him for a moment and he began to look uncertain, but I began to titter slightly before cracking up.

We all lost the battle with control and began laughing openly.

I struggled to breath, clutching my sides, "Oh god, Sora!" I gasped, "Your face!"

"That's one funny face!"

Sora smiled and nodded, "Okay, why not? I'll come with you guys."

I nudged him with my elbow, "Don't forget me. If you're going, you're probably gonna need someone to be responsible."

Sora shot me a scowl but was interrupted by the duck holding out a hand, "Donald Duck."

The dog moved forward, "Name's Goofy."

Sora and I both shared a look and grinned as we moved forward.

"I'm Sora." He introduced.

"And I'm Niji." I added.

We placed our hands atop Donald's and Goofy hands before he said, "All for one, one for all!"

Before we left Traverse Town, I settled our tab with Cid and went to the item shop and bought some ethers and more potions. When we got underway, we boarded what seemed to be an orange and yellow vessel called the gummi ship.

"Neat ship you guys got." I said, "So this can get us to the other worlds?"

"Yep." Goofy said, "If we want to find the king, we need to search everywhere we can!"

"Thing king?" I asked.

Donald turned on his chair to face Sora and I, "Right, our king - King Mickey - left the castle in search of a way to stop the worlds from going out as stars were slowly vanishing. He told us to find the key and then go and find him while sealing the worlds from the darkness."

Sora frowned, "But how do we do that?"

At this point a cricket jumped out of Goofy's pocket and landed on Goofy's knee, "I think I can help with that, The name's Jiminy Cricket, Royal Chronicler. I was told to hold onto a few notes on the keyblade and heartless before I left with Donald and Goofy to record the journey we are on."

"Um… How exactly do you even lift a pen?" I said, already bemused by the sight of a talking cricket and deciding to just brush past it.

I was going to guess that things would only get more and more absurd from here on in and getting hung up on the details was only going to give me a headache.

Jiminy pulled out a small book and equally small pen and gave me a 'well?' look.

"Right," I said, rubbing the back of my head and giving a sheepish smile, "I'm sorry. Please continue."

"From what I read while waiting around, the keyblade has the ability to lock the hearts of the worlds and keep the heartless from devouring the world and plunging it into darkness." Jiminy informed, "All we need to do if find the keyhole for each world and use the keyblade on it. That should prevent the heartless from getting at the world's heart and devouring it."

Sora nodded at that, "So we need to find the keyhole for each world's heart and then use our keyblade to seal it?"

Jiminy nodded, "That's the long and short of it."

I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in, "Do they mention where the keyholes are?"

Jiminy looked through a sheaf of tiny papers that had been folded into a pouch of his journal.

After a moment, he shook his head with a sigh, "No… We'll have to find them as we go."

I frowned but sighed, "Ah well, hopefully they won't be too hard to find..."

Sora shrugged, "We won't know till we try."

I tilted my head toward him in acknowledgement before blinking as I remembered something, "Oh! By the way, I wanted to ask if either of you know healing spells or something."

Donald swiveled his head towards me, "Yeah."

"Did you heal me when I was kicked into the fountain?" I asked

He nodded.

"Thank you." I said, smiling, "Really Donald, thanks."

He turned away but mumbled something like, "You're welcome."

And there you have it! Another chapter done! It's a bit short, but I wanted to emphasize the fight with the Guard Armor more than anything else in this chapter. Anyway, enough of that!

Next stop, Wonderland!

Let's drop down the rabbit hole!

-YARN