While the group had settled onto the ship, traveling through the stars towards their next destination, Tenmei had vanished into that empty room. No one was quite sure what he had planned, but he told them he was certain that this would help them keep growing in strength while they hunted Xao and Shun down. In the meantime, though, no one else was allowed in yet.
In the meanwhile, Ren was staring at his Keyblade, muttering to himself about how cool dual wielding was and how he wished his keyblade did the same as Tenmei's. HIkari and Yumi stared at him for a moment before finally Hikari smirked, wrapping her arm around Yumi's shoulder and giving her a sly look. "So, noticed that you and Tenmei are getting a bit close."
That made the young, red-haired girl start blushing, brushing her sister's hand off of her a bit. "I-I don't know w-what you mean", she said, pouting a bit and closing her eyes in a 'Hmph' manner.
"Oh, come off it," Hikari stated, crossing her arms. "You're falling for the guy, I can tell. You can't hide anything from me, little sister."
Yumi shook her head, though her blush was still very obvious. "W-well... s-so what if I am?" she said, looking back at Hikari. "I'm just thankful to him. H-he saved us... he got us all here safely. I-if it wasn't for him, I'd be..." The words hung in the air a bit, and Yumi, unwilling to finish that sentence, shook her head. "Besides that, he's helping us all get stronger. I can't help but admire him for that. We're his first students ever, and he's doing whatever he can to help us."
Hikari shrugged at that, "You got a point... and even though some of us need his help more than others," she especially looked at Ren at that, who was literally trying to pull Twilight's Balance apart as she said that, "he's willing to be patient with us. Still," she smirked, looking back at her sister. "It'll be interesting to see what happens next, huh?"
Yumi blushed more, flustered again. "Y-you have it all wrong! E-even if I-I h-h-had f-feelings for him..." She gave a sigh, lowering her hands. "H-he's a prince... even without a world, he'll always be our prince... why would he be interested in someone like me, Hikari?" She looked over towards Ren as well, though mostly just to avoid eye contact with her sister. "I'm just a girl with a shield. I've got nothing on a noble or a princess..."
Hikari blinked, before sighing and realizing that she had to engage 'protective elder sister' mode. "Look, we five are all that we have left, Shun included. And once we find him we have to rely on one another. Tenmei might be a prince, but we're all he's got, so don't get so hung up on it. Just be there for him and he'll be grateful to you, ok?"
Yumi remained silent, but the soft smile told Hikari that she appreciated her words. Without another word, Yumi got up, walking over to the console to check on the voyage to the next world. As she did, though, the door suddenly slid open, and the subject of conversation walked in, wiping his brow. "Hey... training room's done."
"Good, I need a distraction," Hikari instantly said, walking past Tenmei and into the room without a second glance at Yumi, who looked flustered at Tenmei's sudden appearance, or Ren, who was red in the face trying to do whatever he was trying to do.
"... Did I miss...? Ren, what the heck are you trying to do?" Tenmei asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Keyblade... wield two... must do..." the boy answered, before gasping for air and falling backwards, his keyblade disappearing after he dropped it from the strain. Hikari sighed, shaking her head and muttering something about his immaturity before fully walking into the room.
"Right..." Tenmei said, looking at Ren warily. "Yumi, you wanna head in so we can get started on training?"
"U-uh, y-yeah!" she said, still recovering from both Hikari's teasing and Tenmei's sudden appearance. She walked past Tenmei, her cheeks still flushed while the prince stared at her, then back at Ren.
"... the hell did I miss?" Tenmei wondered softly to himself, before shaking his head and walking back into the room, leaving Ren to do... whatever he planned next.
"H-hey, wait for me!" Ren shouted after them, running into the room after them and resummoning his keyblade as he entered. The room was vastly improved since Ren entered it last, now completely tiled in white, and with a few training dummies that looked very resistant to anything they could have thrown at them. Additionally, there was a sitting area for resting or watching someone else train, though Ren guessed it was mostly for resting.
"Whoa... we can get a work out in here," Hikari muttered, looking around impressed.
"This looks like fun", Yumi said, her embarrassment gone as she looked excitedly around.
"Alright, everyone, here's the main rules of this room", Tenmei said. "The training dummies furthest away from the resting area are for melee combat, while the ones closest to it are for magic. Hikari, I'd recommend going for those with your magic. They're designed to not only tell you how much damage they're doing, but they also have a mode where they'll fight back a bit, sending back some of your own magic at you so you can practice defensive spells. They'll never do enough damage to seriously hurt you, but it'll definitely sting and tell you when you did something wrong."
"Sounds good," Hikari said, pulling out her staff and focusing on the dummies. "Let's see if I can get some good magic practice in, then."
"You have fun with that," Ren muttered, turning and grinning at the farther dummies. "Let's see if I can finally get a hang of what my keyblade can really do!" He charged forward, swinging his keyblade hard and landing a hit so hard on the dummy that Yumi was surprised that it didn't split in half.
"Well, it looks like Ren is having fun already." Tenmei then turned back to Yumi, and gave her a smirk. "So... you up for a rematch? Still need to figure out who actually won last time."
Yumi glanced over at him, surprised. "Really? You do realize if I punch you this time, it's gonna hurt a lot more, right?"
"I can take it", Tenmei said. "I may have been a prince, but keyblade training is grueling, lemme tell you." He summoned Twilight's Guardian. "Wanna wager something else?" he asked, smirking.
"And let you have dirt on me? I don't think so", Yumi countered. "Let's just spar for once."
The prince only laughed a bit, his feet slipping into a balanced stance as he held his keyblade with both hands, ready for her. At that, Yumi charged forward, trying to hit the prince in the gut with her armored hand, but the boy blocked with his keyblade. He forced her to the side with a swipe and attempted to swing back, but her shield, once again, got in the way. "Huh... kind of expected you to fall on your butt again."
"You caught me off guard during our first fight", Yumi told the prince, smiling as she tightened her armored fist. "You're not gonna do it again."
"I wouldn't expect anything less", Tenmei shot back, before breaking the lock they had, the two fighters circling each other carefully, assessing what they could do next.
Meanwhile, Hikari had turned to them, frowning as she watched the two interacting. Earlier, she had just been teasing Yumi in a sisterly fashion before, but now that she was watching them and really thinking about it, the two of them had insane chemistry and almost seemed to be natural in their interactions. Was it just her, or was there really something more to their friendship? Or was she just jealous, her own desires for what she wanted overriding what was the truth and causing her to see things that weren't there? Either way, she just sighed and turned back to the dummy, thinking to herself that if she saw more signs, she would determine what to do from there.
The training continued for a long while, about fifteen minutes, with Tenmei and Yumi's fight ending in a draw, and Tenmei letting out a frustrated groan. "Gaah, you're too good of a sparring partner!" the prince joked, laughing a bit. "I can't tell if I'd be more upset if I lost or won!"
Yumi let out a playful giggle. "Well, we'll just have to figure that out later. I think the ship's almost at our next stop, so we better get cleaned up so we can explore the world without stinking to high noon." She removed her gauntlet and shield, stepping out first. "And since we know that Tenmei usually takes the longest... I'm calling first dibs this time."
"Hey!" Tenmei shouted indignantly, before sighing and desummoning his keyblade, a relaxed smile on his face. "Yeah... she is right. Either of you two want one of the other two showers first?"
"MINE!" Hikari shouted, rushing out of the room immediately, causing both of the boys to sweat drop. After the two girls were done, and the two boys taking their showers (with of course Tenmei taking almost forever to finish his), they stepped out of the Gummi Ship to a sandy world filled with almost nothing but emptiness and stone buildings.
"This world seems fun," Ren muttered, looking around disappointed.
"This is Agrabah," Yumi stated, looking a bit annoyed at the silver haired teen. "And it's supposed to be a desert... at least, the part we landed in is a desert."
"Anyone feel darkness here? If Xao's here, there's no doubt more powerful Heartless here, too", Tenmei stated. "I don't remember where the keyhole is located, but we should start heading for that, right?"
"Yeah, Sora might need our help," Ren agreed, nodding his head. "Especially if Xao is trying to manipulate the timeline."
"I don't feel anything yet, but I'll let you know if it feels different", Yumi said, prepping her shield and gauntlet combo. "And keep your eyes peeled for Shun, too... we need to know if he's okay."
With the plan in motion, the four of them headed off towards the desert before them. For awhile, there was nothing but sand, and the occasional heartless swarm, which was easily dispatched by them, until they eventually arrived at a giant head looking creature, which confused them at first.
"What... is this?" Hikari asked, confused.
"This is the Cave of Wonders", Yumi said, sighing a bit. "Seriously, am I the only one that ever paid attention in History?"
"Yes," Ren and Hikari both said at the same time.
"Why?! I should not be the only one that knows these worlds!" Yumi yelled, waving her arms in the air as she forced Ren and Hikari to both shrink back.
"You have a serious passion for History", Tenmei noted. "You'll have to tell me more about that later on."
"Oh, r-really?" Yumi said, realizing she let her history-nerd out and began giggling nervously. She quickly shrunk in demeanor, finding her feet very interesting all of a sudden.
"I feel like a third wheel..." Hikari muttered so only Yumi heard her.
"So, the Cave of Wonders?" Ren asked, ignoring Yumi glaring daggers at Hikari. "Sora comes here, right? Wonder if he isn't here yet since it doesn't seem to be open."
At that, Yumi stopped acting meek and looked up at it. "Oh... right... that's not good."
"Why's that?" Tenmei asked.
"Because... that head gets controlled by Darkness. We might be dragged into a fight with it if we're here when Sora shows up", Yumi pointed out. "At least, that's what the story written by Jimminy says."
"...so Sora coming up to us right now is a bad thing?" Hikari asked, pointing to a speck flying towards them on a magical carpet.
"... ah, crapbaskets", Yumi uttered, tightening her grip on her shield. "Get ready, guys... this isn't going to be fun."
"Oh, hey guys!" Sora shouted at them, waving as he got off the magical floor decoration and approached them. "We're looking for a girl named Jasmine and a magic lamp, you guys know where we might find them?"
Ren looked over, suddenly realizing the cave entrance was moving around, "Well, that might be a good place to start..."
Tenmei let out a sigh, summoning his keyblade. "Show us what you got, Sora. We'll cover you."
"Of course!" Sora declared, summoning his keyblade to his side and charging into battle. Despite the worries that the quartet had, Sora did not seem to need that much assistance, as he was able to handle the 'boss' very quickly and easily. After giving an overconfident grin at the four, Sora ran inside, followed by Donald, Goofy and Aladdin.
"That... was not bad," Hikari muttered, looking after Sora. "Xao must've not done anything here, I guess."
"Well, you can see why I was worried, right?" Yumi said, sighing a bit in relief. "If he tampered with Jafar's spell, that could've been a really dangerous fight."
"Should we follow after him to make sure nothing else goes wrong?" Ren asked, looking into the Cave of Wonders' mouth after Sora.
"I don't think so", Tenmei commented, shaking his head. "Xao doesn't seem to be going after the keyholes that Sora's enemies are chasing after... and even if he was, messing with it while Sora is already in there might be counterproductive. Either that... or he's messing with us again."
"We still should check the town out, just in case," Hikari suggested, looking back into the desert. "Xao might try something there, or be there to gather heartless for his own gain."
"Good point", Tenmei said, nodding. "Alright, we'll take a look around the city, and if we don't find anything, we move on to the next world."
With another trek out into the desert, the group found their way back to the city at a surprisingly fast pace, but Tenmei couldn't help but look back in the sky. "... wasn't it, like, almost midnight out by the cave? How the hell did it go to noon in just fifteen minutes?"
"Maybe the cave is just that surrounded by darkness?" Hikari suggested, shrugging.
"I don't think it matters much," Ren stated, looking back for only a moment before turning towards the city. "Let's scout the area."
"Alright then. Let's all fan out and look around", Tenmei suggested. "When we're all done, we meet in front of the Sultan's Palace. Sound good?"
Everyone nodded, and headed off into the city. For about an hour, everyone searched the city, battling the number of heartless that attacked them in the meantime, but otherwise found nothing more then the standard heartless that Sora would have encountered before going to the Cave that they had met him at just an hour before. Eventually, the four of them gathered where they were to meet, each one only reporting the usual heartless encounters and nothing else.
"Well, that was a bust", Tenmei said, growling a bit. "I bet he's doing this on purpose... just to mess with us. Next world we go to will be infested with Heartless, I guarantee it."
"You really need to stop over guessing me, Tenmei," a familiar voice suddenly said. Xao suddenly appeared through a dark portal, staring at the warriors. "You're gonna give yourself a headache doing that."
"Xao!" Ren shouted, summoning his keyblade once again.
"Careful, Ren", Yumi said, standing beside him and Tenmei, who had summoned his keyblade instantly. "He might try his stupid mind games again."
"What do you want, monster?" Hikari asked, glaring at him.
"Again with the monster comment," Xao said, shaking his head. "Shun called me the same thing, you know."
"Can't say they're exactly wrong", Tenmei shouted at him. "Only a monster would destroy the world he was born on without any regret or remorse."
"Power comes with a steep price, Tenmei," Xao noted, looking at the former prince with a odd look. "Such as a heart or two... or a world's worth. Still, you must make sacrifices to get what you want. It's only the natural way of life, after all."
"Natural?" Ren asked, laughing a little. "I don't think it's natural to devour worlds to get what you want!"
"Maybe not for you," Xao noted, grinning. "But hey, we all have our own ways of doing things... sometimes, you have to learn the hard way."
"Alright, enough of this stepping around the question", Tenmei said, pointing his keyblade at Xao. "What kind of power could you desire so badly you'd destroy your home? Rip apart thousands of hearts from their bodies? Murder your own KING?!" At the mention of his father, Tenmei's voice got louder, and Ren could feel his rage rolling. More than that, though... he felt something else rising inside of Tenmei. Something sinister, unlike anything he felt from the former prince before.
Xao only looked at Tenmei with a curious expression, as if he was shocked that Tenmei had not figured out his desires yet. "If you haven't figured it out yet, then why bother telling you outright? You already know that either one of your hearts would cause me to accomplish my desires instantly, so if you're too dumb to piece it together, then what's the fun in my telling you?"
There was a loud growl, and suddenly, everyone felt it. A surge of dark powers flared up from Tenmei, and he rushed forward, faster than even Xao could react. He let out an inhuman roar as he slashed sideways, hitting Xao hard enough to elicit a loud grunt of pain, and the Dark Master had to back away to avoid getting hit again, jumping so he was standing atop the gate to the palace. Tenmei glared up at his enemy, his yellow eyes slowly reverting back to their red color as the dark surge ebbed away, burrowing back into his heart.
Xao stared down at the prince, clutching his injured side as all traces of that smug grin vanished. He glared down in pure anger, gritting his teeth. "Try that again", he said, his voice filled with malice. "I dare you."
Tenmei, however, gave his own smug grin. "What's the matter, Xao? I thought you loved darkness. Is it only okay if you use it? That doesn't seem very fair rules, now does it?" Tenmei knew that fighting Darkness with Darkness was not a good idea.
But for now, he managed to get a solid hit on the madman. He was going to milk this for what it was worth.
Xao continued to glare for a moment, before standing up, removing his hand from his wound, which was instantly healed, causing Ren, Hikari and Yumi to gasp at how quickly Xao recovered from what seemed like a powerful attack to them. "Consider this your only warning. If you attack me again like that, I will destroy you... which will only make my goals be accomplished much faster. You've been warned now, so be careful about your next step, or either you'll lose your life... or you'll lose one of them." Xao looked directly at Ren, Hikari and Yumi when saying that, before disappearing into a dark portal instantly. "Next time, I won't be so merciful."
After he vanished, Tenmei dismissed his keyblade, standing up straight as he stared up where he was. He stood with a new confidence, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. His fist clenched tightly, as he turned to the others.
"... I... hit him... I actually hit him", he said, and Ren could feel the excitement on his voice. "I have absolutely no idea how I did that... but I think, with enough training, I can do it again..."
"Then, shall we go to the next world and get on with our training?" Ren asked, looking at Tenmei. "Hopefully, next time, I can back you up as well."
Tenmei let out a laugh, nodding. "You got it." He turned to Yumi and Hikari. "I know I said I'd give you both a chance to train with me... but... mind if I work with Ren to figure out how I did... whatever the hell that was?"
Hikari looked concerned at them, unsure at what was going on. "A-are you two sure? From the sounds of it, you two are going to be training with pure darkness... are you sure that's wise?"
Tenmei nodded, standing confident. "I'm sure. Ren and I are the Princes of Twilight. Sure, we can be influenced by it... but we'll still be us. And we can't fall to it... at least, not in the normal sense, anyway. We'd have to have our hearts actually stolen in order to do that." He looked over at Ren. "If training with that Dark Surge will give us an edge on Xao, I'll gladly take it. And if it doesn't work next time... I'll try to see if we can do the same thing with Light." He brought his hands together. "Promise."
Yumi gave a sigh. "I... I don't like this", she said. "... but if it'll help you both... I won't ask you to stop. Not yet, anyway."
Ren shrugged, "Well, since we are Twilight beings we do need to use darkness anyway at some point. Better I learn now, right?"
Tenmei nodded. "Yeah. I know some Dark spells that I can teach you, too... but we'll both be figuring out how this surge works." He began walking to the ship, Ren in tow. "I have no idea how it happened, but I remember getting sick of Xao treating me like an insignificant bug..."
As Tenmei began explaining what he felt, Yumi looked over to Hikari. "W-we'll be there... to help them if something goes wrong... r-right?" she asked. "W-we'll help them..." Flashes of her last moments on Twilight Citadel came to mind, and Yumi had to do everything in her power not to break down right then and there.
Hikari could see her sister's pain, and despite wanting to say what was really on her mind at that point, she only smiled and nodded at Yumi in that moment. "Of course. We'll make sure they don't abuse the darkness, I promise."