I haven't gotten any reviews since the Olympus Coliseum... Really no comments at all? Come on!

Is the whole 'reviews are loved' thing pointless?

*sigh*

Whatever, I'm still gonna say it!

Reviews are loved! Constructive criticism only!

All credit to respective owners!

-Y.A.R.N.

P.S. Edited (slightly)

With the sealing of the keyhole completed (and some mild teasing of the now embarrassed and grumpy duck sorcerer), we decided it was time we left the world and look into how to get to the other worlds out there. After deflecting Jane's inquiry as to where our ship was however, Tarzan approached us, something clasped in his hand.

"Sora, Tarzan, Niji, Donald, Goofy. Friends." He said, and passed what he was holding to Sora.

I looked quizzically at what seemed to be a charm that seemed to made out a vine with a butterfly at the end, "A charm?"

Shrugging, we thanked Tarzan and Jane profusely - and they thanked us just as fervently - for their help and departed from the world.

The first thing I demanded when we were back on the gummi ship was ask Donald to give me a crash course in flying it. I didn't expect to be an expert anytime soon, but I did want to be able to at least fly to a destination, take off, and land (and maybe an evasive maneuver or two in case we ran into heartless or asteroids). Donald explained the process and how to steer the ship and allowed me to fly partway back to get the hang of it. Admittedly, I was nervous as I was flying the ship that carried us from world to world but Donald assured me that he would make sure we didn't crash.

After we had got to the ship and Sora and I were taught how to fly, we decided that we should look at the gummi blocks that we had received from the keyholes. We had examined the unique gummi pieces that we had received from Wonderland and The Deep Jungle, but still had no idea what they actually did. Goofy offered the idea to show them to Leon, who might have a better idea.

Seeing as none of us had a better idea or protests, we began driving the ship back to Traverse Town. Donald relieved me fo the controls after I steered a bit to close to an asteroid for comfort and I went down, got my clothes all fixed up and washed, and walked over to Sora who was looking at the charm.

"What do I do with this?" He wondered aloud, tossing it into the air a couple of times, "It's odd, I can feel... something from this thing, it reminds me of when I got the keyblade."

I frowned and thought about it before an idea came to me, realization dawning in my head like a beam of sunlight breaking through the clouds, "Summon your keyblade and hand me the charm!"

Sora blinked at me as Goofy and Donald craned their necks to give me a look. Sora shrugged and summoned his keyblade to his hand and tossed me the charm.

'Not a charm.' I amended in my head.

"So what now?" He said, holding his keyblade out.

'A KEYchain.' I confirmed to myself.

I bent to look at the handle and removed his current keychain before clipping the one we had received from Tarzan to it. The keyblade flashed and suddenly it overall appearance changed from the simple design to a more wild appearance. The new keyblade appeared to be made of wood and and purple leather-like wraps. Its handle was orange and surrounded by a circular, tan guard with two spikes near its top. The guard was almost entirely covered by the dark purple leather-like wrappings wrapped around it. The shaft was very thin, tan, and long, to the point that the keyblade was longer than before. Its teeth were made of five blunt, tan spikes separated by the same dark purple leather from the guard.

Sora blinked in surprised before he grinned in excitement, "Cool! A new keyblade!"

I leaned over the keyblade and frowned uncertainly, "It's made of wood... isn't that weaker than the metal?"

Sora tilted his head before smiling slyly, "Let's test it out then!"

I blinked and began to smirk, "Spar?"

"Spar." He replied confidently, "And I know just the world!"

We told Donald to take us to the Olympus Coliseum and - when we landed - asked Phil for the use of the arena.

We had simply wanted to test out the Jungle King's affect on Sora, but Hercules insisted on helping coach us as he did use a sword to fight and knew a fair bit about swordplay. I knew he was strong, but after revealing that he was a demigod, I understood exactly why he was able to go up against Cerberus and win. After setting up some barrels around him, Hercules also showed us one of his strongest attacks - named Stun Impact - when he let out a sharp shout and drove both of his fists into the ground and a dome of gold lightning erupted off him, smashing all of the barrels into splinters. My jaw dropped and I was sure that Sora was looking just as stunned at how strong the attack was. After a few hours of coaching and explaining how to grasp the concept, we both had been able to form a completed Stun impact - thought nowhere near his in size and making a sharp shoving motion outward rather than slamming the ground- and he told us to keep practicing it to make the technique stronger.

Finally, Phil told us to spar.

"Not bad kid!" Phil said, watching with Hercules as Sora and I battled, "You both have gotten a bit better since I last saw you."

I grunted as Sora pressed down with strength that was definitely stronger than I was expecting, trying to take solace in the compliment. I ducked away and rolled to the side to gain some room and avoid the swipe of Jungle King (as it turned out each keyblade he used he knew the name of). I quickly got in my stance and warily eyed Sora as he got back in his stance. He rushed me and I backpedaled and began to block and dodge, he pressed me up against the wall and I ducked away from the downward slash rather than try to catch it on my keyblade. I was pretty sure that this keyblade had enhanced Sora's strength and that was why he was hitting with way more force than I remembered him being able to in our last spar. Abaddon Plasma had already been enhancing my growth and I was sure the Kingdom Key had been doing the same for Sora. In lieu of that line of thought, it would stand to reason that Sora's and my growth would roughly be equal seeing as we both had been fighting and training hard while traveling the same worlds.

However, the addition of the Jungle King changed that.

With the keyblade also adding its power to Sora's, it tipped the scales in his favor. He was stronger, a bit faster, and had more stamina.

Not to mention the longer reach of Jungle King.

I wasn't going to go down just because he had a boost in strength though, I may not have had a new keyblade to use, but Abaddon Plasma was also a keyblade.

And as far I was concerned?

It was a damn good one and I just needed to keep pushing myself to get better.

I caught Sora's next strike and pressed braced myself against his strength as we locked weapons. We both struggled before leaping away from each other. We shared a look before dropping out of our stances and dismissing our keyblades. We knew all we needed to at the moment and that was more than enough for now. With that settled and thanking Hercules and Phil for their help, once again. Phil handed us a pouch that had a generous amount of munny for the tournament we had fought in. Seeing as we technically beat Cloud in the final match, we were the winners and thus given the prize.

Later in the gummi ship me and Sora had been lounging in the lower rooms while discussing the new keyblade.

"Well..." I sighed, "That keyblade is definitely not gonna snap or splinter from a strong blow."

Sora flexed his hand before clenching it into a fist, "I could feel the Jungle King enhancing my strength! This is great!"

I rolled my eyes and smirked, "I could feel it, new keyblades must be able to add more power if we use them. Neat as that is though, think I'll stick with Abaddon Plasma. It's my personal keyblade and frankly I want to get stronger the old fashioned way and rely on myself to be able to grow strong with my own keyblade."

Sora gave me an impressed look, I liked to think I sounded cool and mature most of the time, but moments like these really showed that off. I might have continued, but Donald's voice came down.

"Approaching Traverse Town!" He called.

We shared a look and made our way up the stairs to the cockpit.

Sora was given a chance to get us through the final homestretch to Traverse Town and land us there.

Which he did pretty well.

We strolled out into the plaza and I noticed that Yuffie was leaning on the wall next to that odd-looking mailbox to our right.

I made my way over to her and smiled in greeting, "Hey."

She gave us a wide smile, "Heya! How have you been? Any fun stuff lately?"

Sora gave a noncommittal shrug while I waved a hand, "We beat some heartless, locked some worlds' keyholes from said heartless, and fought in a tournament that ended up with us beating up a giant three-headed dog that guards that world's hell. Nothing too huge."

Yuffie gave a short laugh, "I see."

Goofy piped in, "We were wondering if ya could tell us where Leon is."

Yuffie thought for a moment before nodding to himself, "He likes to train in an underground cavern beneath the city, you might wanna look there."

"Where is it?" Donald inquired.

"In the waterway." She replied, "There is a passageway to the underground caverns there."

I nodded, "Thanks Yuffie, really."

She gave us a mock salute as we walked away.

I rubbed my chin as a nagging thought occurred to me, "Hey, Donald? Goofy? I had a question."

They turned to me and I pointed at the item shop.

"Do you think they sell better weapons?" I asked, "I mean, as long as Sora and I are getting keychains here and there that'll make us stronger, you might as well also get some better weapons too, right?"

Goofy chuckled as he patted me on the back, "That's kind of you, really. But we actually have better weapons than the ones we are using now, we just don't use them unless necessary."

I turned to them, "Then why not use them? Wouldn't make things easier for us on the whole?"

Sora actually stepped in, "They are doing the same thing that you are."

I turned to him, eyebrows raised in confusion, "What?"

"You said that even if you find another keychain, you'd want to get stronger by using Abaddon Plasma, right?" Sora reminded me.

Donald followed, "If we used our best weapons all, we might be too reliant on them. We need to be able to fight well with even our most basic weapons."

I frowned.

I got what they were saying, hell I made the same 'mature' proclamation to Sora at the end of our little practice bout on the gummi ship.

Was it unreasonable of me to want them to have better equipment when I wasn't going to rely on 'better' keyblades myself?

"Well... I still think that we might as well check, right?" I pushed - firm in my opinion - this wasn't a matter of me needing to learn to be just as confident in my basic keyblade, "In any case, the more weapons we have, your basic items can always act as a backup."

Donald and Goofy were already masters when it came to skills and powers, I wasn't under any delusions when it came to Sora and I. We were still novice wielders, we weren't slouches in sword fighting, but play-fights on an island and battling monsters that would devour worlds and steal the hearts of multitudes of innocent people were universes apart. I couldn't afford to give myself any handicaps while I was training in case something went wrong and all I had was my basic weapon. Donald and Goofy on the other hand weren't needing to hold back because they were unskilled - quite the opposite - they should've used better weapons because it would empower them beyond what they could do with what they already had (And they already could do quite a bit of damage).

"We couldn't afford to handicap our most experienced members." I said, "I know they can use their basic weapons, but upgrades can't hurt at all."

With my opinion made clear and a bit more cajoling/insisting/debating on my part, we visited Donald's nephews' shop in order to see what weapons they had in stock. I checked the weapons section and picked up separate staffs and shields, testing their weight and trying to get a feeling for the power that was held within the material. I finally picked out a yellow staff (hat was almost identical o Donald's normal staff except for the yellow color) that was labelled 'The Wisdom Staff' and a somewhat intricately designed shield called 'The Onyx Shield' and brought them to Sora, Donald, and Goofy; who was currently deciding on whether or not we should get potions, ethers, or buy some elixirs.

"I may be no expert." I said as I approached, "But I can tell just from holding these that items are already the best we can get here."

I handed Donald the staff and Goofy the shield before I approached the counter, "How much for the wisdom staff and onyx shield?"

They all quickly added the cost and chorused, "6800 munny!"

My jaw dropped slightly and quickly shook off my surprise before I yanked out my wallet. To be honest, I was a bit worried that I didn't have enough to pay for the both of them, even with all the fights we had had and all the munny I had gathered. I quickly began thumbing through the munny I had stored in my wallet. I frowned briefly as I noted that paying for the items would violently and quickly murder all the munny I had managed to gather from all the heartless we had beaten in Wonderland, The Deep Jungle, and even the prize munny we had been given from the tournament in the Olympus Coliseum.

With a half-defeated, half-resigned sigh, I pulled the correct amount and placed it on the counter, "Well there we go, I'm sure you can sort it at least."

I turned away from the three ducklings and saw Sora giving me a worried look, "Did you just use up all your munny?"

I looked at my now empty wallet and could almost SEE the animated cough of dust coming from it, "Yep... Mind loaning me some?"

With my slight financial crisis shoved to the wayside for now (mainly because Sora decided not to answer my request and immediately insisting we leave the shop to find Leon [stingy jerk]), our little band of fighters made our way to the alleyway to see that he waterway was blocked off by metal pipes. We all stared as I grasped a bar and tested how much it gave. Surprisingly, they seemed to be pretty fragile.

After I voiced that observation, I somehow found myself poised in a pseudo-sprint stance behind Sora and we all ran into the bars in a charge. With a loud snapping 'clang', we all broke through the bars and fell face-first into the water. With the bars cleared, we all got up - all the while I was questioning my sanity as to WHY I acted like Sora - and made our way deeper down the waterway. It took a minute's amount of sloshing through the ankle deep water before we found the waterway's floor dipped down and we were soon reduced to swimming. After a relatively short amount of swimming, I heard the distinct sound of a sword slicing through the air. We found Leon slashing through the air and Aerith watching him quietly.

They all seemed a bit confused as to why we were suddenly clambering out of the water and onto the small cropping of rocks, but seemed to shrug it off. We got out of the pool and Sora waved at Aerith before talking to Leon and telling him of our adventure so far.

"So you found the Keyhole?" Leon inquired.

"Yeah." I replied.

"The keyblade locked it automatically." Sora supplied.

"Good." Aerith replied.

"Every world in the stars has a keyhole. It's keyhole - in turn - leads to the heart of the world." Leon said quietly, "Even this world must have a keyhole."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"How are you sure?" I inquired curiously.

"It was in Ansem's report." Aerith said.

"If the heartless find the keyhole and enter it, then they do something to the world's heart." Leon informed us.

"What happens to the world?" Sora asked worried as to what might happen.

Leon sighed as Aerith gravely replied, "In the end, it disappears."

"WHAT?" We all chorused in dismay.

"That' why the keyblades you both wield are so important." Leon said.

"Please lock the keyholes." Aerith pleaded, "You're the only ones who can."

I could almost feel the weight of the huge responsibility land on my shoulders, and Sora looked just as uncertain as I felt.

"I don't know..." He said, running a hand through his hair in uncertainty.

"Seeing the the other worlds would serve you well." Leon offered.

"Yeah!" Donald said enthusiastically.

"You gotta find your friends, and King Mickey!" Goofy reminded.

"I guess you're right..." Sora allowed before perking up, "Okay!"

"By the way," I said, digging through my pockets, "Hey Donald, do you still have it?"

"What?" The duck responded.

"The gummi block!" I reminded him.

He blinked and brought out the gummi blocks we had acquired from sealing the keyholes and held them out.

"We could tell these gummi blocks were different than the regular ones, but we couldn't exactly tell how. Do you know what they can do?" Sora asked.

Leon looked at them but seemed stumped before shaking his head.

"Ask Cid. He should know." Aerith interjected.

We nodded and turned to leave when Leon stopped us and pressed a dark brown rock that glowed with amber light from within into Sora's hand. He claimed that he had been carrying it for luck and he wanted us to hold on to it.

We accepted and began to make our way back to Cid's shop.