The Path to the Body
Chapter 2: Hollow Bastion
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters involved except Kira
Kira was walking through a valley in the mountains surrounding the castle of Hollow Bastion. So far she hadn't encountered any heartless.
"I hope Leon's hint was a good one." Kira said to herself as she continued along the upward path.
After a few more minutes she reached the top of the hill and was standing in what looked like the courtyard of the castle, a few feet away she noticed three small figures hovering near a chest. Kira approached quietly and listened to their conversation. As the got closed she noticed that there was a blond figure, a brunette, and a gray-haired one and they all looked female.
"I'm telling you, she said it was full of treasure!" The blond said.
"What if there isn't? What do we do then?" The gray replied.
"Then we go look for more, isn't that what we always do?" The blond answered back.
"Excuse me." Kira said making the three of the jump.
They turned to face her and noticed the small wings on their backs.
"Are you fairies?" She asked.
"No, we're treasure hunters!" The blond fairy told her.
"Treasure hunters?" Kira asked, sound skeptical.
"We hunt treasure, it's our job to find the hidden and the lost." The blond explained.
"Anyway, what are you doing here? This place is dangerous." Kira told them.
"We can handle ourselves thanks." The gray haired woman told her.
"Just who are you anyway? Does Leon know you're here?" Kira asked.
The three of them looked to each other before twirling in the air and crouching into a huddle. They began to discuss amongst themselves quietly while Kira tried to listen in, but to no avail. Eventually they turned back to her with grins on their faces.
"We're the Gullwings. I'm Yuna." The brunette stated.
"I'm Rikku." The blond added.
"Paine." The Gray-haired girl added, not sounding too interested.
"Kira." She answered them.
"Well, Kira, do you know if Leon has any treasure?" Rikku asked.
"Oh, I bet he has loads of it. He told me they've searched this castle inside out already." Kira lied to them.
They gasped and Rikku and Yuna began to chatter excitedly. After a minute they turned back to Kira.
"That settles it! We're going to hunt Leon's treasure, you can have this one anyway." Rikku said indicating the large chest behind them.
"Thanks…"
The three of them nodded before twirling in the air and disappearing in a flash. Kira approached the chest and tapped it with her Road to the Heart. It opened and at the bottom was a keychain. It had a red band with a jagged looking T as the token. She tied it to her white band and turned to head into the castle. As she crossed over the threshold a large number of heartless appeared. There were two types, one; a gray, knight looking heartless with a sword arm, the other, a small brown robotic like heartless that floated in the air.
Armored Knight; These heartless attack in groups, and assault their prey with slashing and stabbing attacks while their sheer numbers block out resistance
Surveillance Robot; Heartless that patrol areas and release beacons to warn the other heartless that there is prey or an intruder, they can fire a simple laser to help defeat enemies.
Kira summoned the Road to the Heart and the Path to the Body, charging into the group of Armored Knights, she swung in a wide arc attacking the heartless on her right, but they parried with their swords. She twirled, spinning in a complete circle as she dove through the air, the Armored Knights blocked her attacks and the Surveillance Robots fired a few beams at her that stung her body as they hit. She turned to face the group again, not knowing what to do. She leapt into the air when an idea struck her. She grabbed one of the Surveillance Robots and landed in the middle of the group, she slammed her fist on its head and it fired its beam in a large version. She twirled, dealing damage and even destroying a few of the Armored Knights. She threw the empty and stunned Surveillance Robot away.
She then charged into an Armored Knight, knocking it off balance she followed up with a double over-head swing that destroyed it. She turned to her right, swinging her keyblades along as she did, catching an Armored Knight in the side and destroying it. She swung left, and got another knight. She jumped, twirling her keyblades over her head and smashing through another knight. She looked around to see the heartless fleeing.
"That's right! Run away!" She shouted at them.
She kept her keyblades ready and continued to make her way through the castle. She spent hours wandering around inside, and eventually found what she was looking for. It was a simple wooden door. She used her keyblade to open it and passed through the threshold. As the door closed behind her she looked up to see a large keyhole outlined in blue. She held up her keyblades and they fired a beam that hit the keyhole, she heard a click and the keyhole disappeared. In its place a red orb fell to the ground. She walked over and picked it up. It lifted from her hand and began to glow, Kira jumped back with a bit of a squeak in surprise. It floated toward her, around her chest and then into her heart. She felt a massive surge of energy flow through her body, but it was gone as quickly has it had come, and she left the heart of the world, traveling back to the Hollow Bastion restoration HQ. When she arrived everyone questioned her on what happened and she explained to them about how she locked the keyhole and received the strange red orb.
"I'd suggest going to master Yen Sid, he's far more versed in keyblade lore than any of us here." Merlin told her.
"I agree." Kira replied.
"But before you go, take these." Merlin reached inside his robe and produced a small speck.
"What is it?" Kira asked as he dropped it into her hand, it seemed to crumble to pieces.
Merlin grabbed his wand and flicked it at the speck, it quickly expanded to form a pile of six books.
"What are all these?" She asked.
"Books, to teach you the basics of magic in this new world. Your spells shouldn't function as they did in the past." He explained.
"They worked fine on my ship…" She said.
"That was before you got the new one. Your old ship still contained the properties of the old Gummiverse." Cid explained.
Kira looked crestfallen as she collected the books up and bade farewell to her friends. She boarded her Gummi ship and traveled back to Twilight Town, ignoring the two new worlds that her system identified, she'd visit these when she'd discovered what that orb had done. She appeared in Yen Sid's tower and questioned him about the orb.
"What you obtained is a drive form. It's a device invented by previous keyblade masters to allow the younger wielders a chance to show their potential." Yen Sid explained, "Each wielder changes accordingly and receives the orbs at certain points in their training."
"What do you mean, changes accordingly?" Kira asked.
"Well, for example. The form you received is known as Valor Form, it's powers enhance your combat skills with the keyblade far beyond what you could normally achieve. However, this will cost you your ability to perform magic entirely while you are in this form." Yen Sid explained, "Also, when I say each wielder changes accordingly, it means that your form would look different from mine."
Kira nodded as he explained. "How many forms are there?" She asked.
"That depends on the person." Yen Sid told her.
Kira sighed.
"Keep your chin up Kira. The forms are only an assistance to you, if you pass your Mark of Mastery exam, you may no longer need them." Yen Sid told her, "one more thing I forgot to mention; you can only spend so much time in each form, that can increase as you use the form and defeat enemies, however keep in mind that using your drive forms drains your level of power considerably, and it will be some time before you can use them again."
"I understand, thank you master." She said, bowing to him.
"Now go. There are other worlds to save, and no time to do it." He said.
Kira turned and left the tower, boarding her Gummi-ship she set her course to another world, identified as "The Land of Dragons". As the ship steered its course she sat down to read her spell books.