The Path to the Body
Chapter 3: The Land of the Dragons
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters involved except Kira.
Kira had left Twilight Town and was now heading to one of the new worlds. The first was labeled as "The Land of the Dragons". She disembarked on this world. She appeared in a medieval Chinese military camp. She looked around to see that the camp was currently empty. She also noticed that the camp was set up in grassland near a river, and a small wall ran the perimeter. A mountain was off in distance.
"Where is everyone?" Kira asked, bending down and scratching at the dirt.
"You there!" A male voice shouted at her.
She turned to see a man wearing Chinese armor with a red cape come out of a nearby tent. She stood up and turned to him. She leaned on her right leg.
"Yes?" She asked him.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"My name is Kira." She said, straightening and bowing to him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, "This is a military camp, men only."
"That's a bit sexist." Kira said.
"No it's not. You should know that by now, your place as a woman is back at home caring for the children." The Captain told her.
"I don't even own any children." She told him, putting her hands on her hips and leaning toward him.
He glared at her, "What kind of woman are you?" he asked, "You're not married to a man? Did he die in battle? Old age?"
"I've never been married." She said, her face beginning to turn red.
"Well you need to get out. This isn't your place; as I said before, go home."
"No way!" She shouted at him. "I'm here to defeat the Heartless."
"Are you talking back to your superior?" He asked, getting angry at her.
"You're not my superior!" Kira shouted at him.
"I am because I'm a man!" He reached back to slap her, but when he brought his hand down she caught it by the wrist and twisted, hard.
He gasped in pain as he crouched to keep the pain down. He looked up at Kira who was glaring daggers at him. His anger faded after a minute and an honest look of interest came over his face. Kira let him go and shoved him, staggering him back. She was breathing heavily, still angry from earlier. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it as she reached out her hands on both sides.
"Who taught you how to fight?" he asked, after she put her hands back to her sides.
"I'm self-taught. I received some finer points from a few different trainers."
"I see, they were all men?"
"Yes, one of them was as old as I am now when he trained me."
The captain nodded. "Kira was it?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"I'm Shang. Captain Shang, I run the military camp here."
"You didn't have to tell me twice. What's going on here?"
He sighed, "I don't see any harm in telling you. You'd be able to kill me and my men if you worked for the Huns."
"The Huns?" She asked.
"A group of warriors from the Northern Plateau. They've recently invaded China, and my men and I were dispatched to stop them."
"How many of your men are there?" Kira asked him.
"There are approximately forty of us here."
"That doesn't seem like a lot of men to stop an army."
"The General was sent ahead of us to stop the Huns."
"Ah, well, since you don't want me here. I have a question, have you seen any black creatures running around? Or maybe a strange area that is forbidden to go?"
Shang thought about it for a moment, "There's a group of black creatures down that path."
Kira nodded and turned to leave, she lifted a hand in farewell.
"Thanks." She called to Shang.
She arrived at a river crossing and stopped. She looked around, trying to spot any heartless.
"I don't see anything… maybe Shang lied to me?" She suggested.
She turned to go ask him again when a squad of heartless appeared, a large centaur like heartless wielding a jagged spear, along with a squad of six shadows appeared in front of her.
Assault Rider: These large, centaur like heartless use their spears to skewer their enemies, beware when they begin to get weak, as they begin to deal explosive damage to enemies.
Kira threw out her hands and summoned The Road to Scares and The Path to the Stars. The Path to the Stars was a black, crooked keyblade with a large, C shape at the top, just inside was a silver crescent moon with a silver star inside the moon. The handle looked like silver wings with two circles that contained silver stars. The keychain held an hourglass with a crescent moon in it.
The Assault Rider lunged at her, she caught the blade of the spear between the keyblades, but the six Shadows lunged at her, clawing at her body. She gasped in pain before shoving the keyblades up so the spear threw the Assault Rider off balance. She leapt back and held her blades out at angles to her body.
"Should I try Valor form? I don't think I'll be able to handle that Assault Rider if I don't… especially with the Shadows to provide support."
Kira activated the power and she felt the energy flow through her body, she threw her arms out as the power kicked in. She was covered in light and a shield formed before blowing out to send the Shadows flying as they tried to attack her again. When the light faded her outfit had changed. She was now wearing a red shirt and jacket, the jacket had a large black, outline of a sword on the back and she was wearing a pair of red shorts that came to her knees, a black line ran across the bottom, her tights had disappeared. Her sneakers had been replaced with combat boots that had white laces. She rushed forward, leaping into the air higher than she'd expected, she flew over the Assault Rider, landing behind him. She turned with a slash and sent the Rider flying. She rushed forward after him and unleashed a rapid assault of blows that quickly defeated it, in a last attack she slammed her keyblades into the ground sending up a large blast of light around her that destroyed the six shadows.
She turned from the battle-field and heard more space tearing. She looked up to see a group of new heartless. There were three, floating in the air and wearing a type of red robe with black sleeves and back, and a crimson front, a gold line separated the colors. A tag with the heartless symbol was attached to its hat, which was red on the bottom with a gold jagged line that separated from a black top. Another six shadows on the ground underneath them.
Nightwalkers: These heartless attack persistently by hacking at enemies with their clawed hands, quick dispatching is advised of their enemies.
Kira leapt into the air and X-slashed through a Nightwalker, cutting it to pieces and destroying it. She landed and twirled, hacking through a Shadow as it tried to lunge at her. She jumped again, front flipping through the air as she came down with a double overhead blow, the Nightwalker had moved though, and her blades sailed through thin air. She landed, slamming her keyblades onto the floor sending up the beams of light again, destroying the five Shadows. She looked up and glared at the Nightwalkers, leaping again she felt her power suddenly drain, she returned to her normal form and fell to the ground on her back. The Nightwalkers swarmed down on her and began to hack at her with his claws. She tried to activate her Valor form again, but it didn't work. She weakly lifted a keyblade up, shifting it to The Road to Wisdom. "Thunder!" thunder dropped from the sky and stunned the two Nightwalkers. She pushed herself back away from the Nightwalkers before lunging forward, the keyblades locked in an X in front of her neck. She slashed outward, carving through the two Nightwalkers. As they disappeared she let the keyblades fade away. Looking toward the path into the mountains she proceeded on her search for the inner keyhole. As she progressed up she found a small town of people who shrunk away in fear of her if they didn't disappear into their houses. She stopped on the other side of town, leaning on her left leg and putting a her right hand on her hip she looked around, in front of her was another path into the mountains, to her right was a small cave. She turned to her right and walked into the cave. She walked through the cave, a few candles along the walls providing a small amount of light, her footsteps echoed off the walls as she walked. She reached the end of the cave and found herself in a large circular chamber. She looked around when she spotted a door-frame in the back wall, easily hidden by the shadows cast by the candles. She took a step toward it when the room suddenly filled with Heartless. Three Assault Riders, six Nightwalkers, and twelve Shadows appeared in the room with her, she leapt back into the tunnel and summoned her Path to the Stars and her Road to Scares.
"You aren't going to stop me." She said to the Heartless as they gathered in front of her.
She rushed in as the Shadows around her disappeared into the floor. She jumped lightly into the air, swinging in a right arc at one of the Assault Riders. It caught her blades on the handle of its spear and she was deflected. As she was thrown back, she finished the arc and was caught again on the handle and blade of another Assault Rider. She finished her twirl and leapt back, two Nightwalkers missed their attacks at her. She landed, sliding slightly backward before rushing forward again. She jumped a few inches off the ground and pulled her limbs to her sides and pinned her keyblades together by their spokes and began to spin. She drilled into one of the Assault Riders, dealing considerable damage until it disappeared. She flew past it and landed next to the far wall, two Nightwalkers lunged at her, but she twirled on the spot, her keyblades held out and smacked them away. They flew into the remaining Nightwalkers. She ran toward them as the Shadows came up around her they lunged at her with their claws extended. She lifted her keyblades up "Thunder" Lightning rained down stunning the shadows. She slashed through two of them with downward attacks. Twirling on the spot she caught an Assault Rider's spear between her keyblades, shredding up the handle she twirled in a backflip, upper cutting the Assault Rider and forcing it back. She landed and slammed her keyblades into the ground behind her, catching two Shadows unaware.
She ran forward, lifting her right hand above her head, her left coming up to protect her body. The Assault Rider she deflected attempted to stab her, but she blocked it with her Path to the Stars. She leapt up and swung her right hand in an overhead slash, her left hand came around in a left hand follow up with a double overhead slash before she twirled in the air, hitting him twice more. The last blow forced him backward against the wall. She landed, throwing her keyblades out and grasping them by the chains "Fire" She twirled them as they caught on fire, a ring of fireballs dancing around her as four Shadows rushed at her with a Nightwalker. The Shadows disappeared but the Nightwalker was thrown back as its body caught fire and began to take continual damage. Two more Nightwalkers rushed her, slashing her with their claws. She gasped in pain and collapsed slightly. She regained her feet and looked up to fight the rest of the Heartless when one of the remaining Shadows was destroyed by a figure standing in the cave entrance.
"Who's there?" Kira shouted at them.
"My name is Ping. I'm here to help you." He called.
"No! Get out of here! These enemies are too strong for you to handle!"
"I can't leave, not until I know you're ok. Captain Shang asked me to bring you back."
Kira's eyes widened at those words, she immediately regained her composure. "Alright, but don't let me catch you off guard soldier!"
"Understood!"
The two of them charged into the Heartless mob. Kira slashed from both sides, bringing the blades over top each other as she destroyed two more Shadows. She leapt up and brought the blades out across one of the Nightwalkers, destroying it. Ping dodged beside her, slashing through the last Shadow as he twirled, coming around ready to block an incoming attack. The Two Assault Riders were charging him and he caught the tips of their spears on his sword. Kira appeared behind them, a quick succession of blows caught them both from behind and destroyed them. The pair turned to the last Nightwalker and readied their weapons. It foolishly charged them but Kira was ready, she stepped forward with her right keyblade above her head and left lowered by her legs. She swung once and destroyed it. She let her keyblades disappeared and turned to Ping.
"So, captain Shang sent you?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips and leaning back.
"Yes." Ping nodded.
"He sent you at just the right time. If you'd shown up a few minutes later I may not have made it." She told him.
Ping nodded again.
"Well, thanks." She said as she entered the door-frame.
She looked up to see the floating, glowing keyhole. Aiming her keyblades at it she released a beam that echoed a locking sound through the room. A single keychain floated down to her, it was a chain of solid, square links with a gold coin that had a diverse etching on it as the token. She turned and left the keyhole room. As she exited she saw Ping was waiting for her. She led the young soldier out of the cave, and back to the military camp. She walked out of the camp into a secluded bamboo spot not too far away. She disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing on her gummi ship. She turned the ship toward another nearby world and set the thrusters on, turned on Auto-pilot and began to read more of her spell books.