...The closer you get into the light, greater the shadow belonging to yours become...
Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived... in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away.
Kairi arrives in a world, the surface of the sea where she stands reflects upon her image. Blood... Covered in blood... I was... blood... Lumina... Umbra... If you arrive in a world that's neither lumina nor umbra, but somewhere on the other side, your task will be far from easy... She heard a voice coming from behind. A man wearing a dark cloak, again... A member of that Organization XIII, maybe their boss, Kairi thought, after hearing that voice.
— You're the one who keeps messing up with my fate! If it weren't for what you've done, Sora and the others would be alright. Even if you're just an illusion of mine, I won't let you ever vanish again!
— An illusion? Heh heh. I'm far from an fictional object, Kairi, or should I say... Me?
— Huh?
— Then it's time to tell you something. This -Xehanort-, the element of the same name, resides into everything, inside of you as well, Kairi. However, you can't see with the eye whom 'he' truly is, because a Xehanort you see is a physical representation of a metaphysical element, as a triangle who doesn't even exist on nature without the catalyst knew as math. Me, I'm no Xehanort, but I am who truly he was, his true nature. Names don't matter to who 'I' am, but call me 'Id', if you prefer. More than the flow of blood running throught the veins, a bond, invisible as me, connects your heart and mind. I may be not real, but I am a product of your -Heart-, and -Mind-; I am the 'it' that resides within part as a whole of you and anyone, Kairi.
So I am inside my mind? Is this a dream? Kairi thought, after hearing the words coming from 'herself', that creature who looked alike Xehanort. Everyone looked alike his, in the eyes, even in the soul... How frightening, to think that mere existence of his was inside everyone, or maybe this is part of my dream, and only. My own fears, if they do exist, or are meant to, like Xehanort. He, whatever it is, was meant to be gone... why? Does death existed only for grandma, or wherever she is? Kairi's world, this same place she stood with that 'Xehanort', didn't changed anything, only the ripples coming from below that water, the surface where both subsides above.
— Show me once more that Keyblade of yours. I knew, it ain't you. It's just an object, meant to kill. Even this object being held by you has a purpouse, unlike you, Kairi. Heh heh heh... As your 'Id', I'm linked to your secrets, your dirtiest secrets. So confident you are, Kairi; I see on your defensive stance you are ready to attack, yet, into your heart, all I see is a crybaby, who's crying for help. This social image of yours you carry on like this Keyblade is a projection of who you truly are, Kairi. A fake, like anyone else does.
— A fake? You've gotta to be kidding me.
— ...When people hear the name Kairi, what they do think? I'll tell you what they think and thought about you. Sora, Riku, Mickey, Aqua, your Grandma... Below the naked skin of yours, the body of a woman, you're just being lazy. Easily lured into a trap, you put the efforts in vain while you push your problems onto the tip of your Keyblade. You wished your skills as a Keyblade wielder could resolve all problems for you. But it can't, can it? Unlike your Keyblade, I was born with you, Kairi, and the talent of yours, who since them you neglected like the beautiful hair of yours, the same that grew along you and yet, you had to cut it. You've just neglected of the talent and maturity you were born with, in order to learn something new, something you inherited by bequeathing of a weapon not belong to yours.
This is only a dream... Kairi then headed towards that Xehanort, a bald Xehanort like he used to be when alive. Now he seemed more alive than before, and he didn't even had the need to use of his own keyblade; as soon as Kairi jumped over his, Xehanort just raised a finger, and with the same, he tried to punch Kairi, who blocked that attack with her Keyblade, metallic like that finger. This may be only a dream, but somehow, I feel it isn't. I may got hurt if that thing reaches deep down my skin. I must be careful, or else, I won't wake up from this mess of a dream, she thought, as quick as she was to avoid that finger, and those scalpels jutting out of his flesh. Kairi... the girl with same name heard a voice. It wasn't Xehanort, but Sora's. Sora!... he is alive? What is happening!? What-On thin air, Kairi changed into someone else... in fron of Xehanort, he appeared to his sight. It was Sora, and his Keyblade, the one he had gotten at the beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts, althought that boy was as old as he was since he disappeared from her sight.
— Sora? You pretend you can defeat me by assimilating with other than yours? Who are you, Kairi? Are you 'Sora'? Or... are you 'Kairi'? Had you been wandering such nautical miles in search of Sora, or was it Riku who choose his own way to find the one called Sora? Have you ever tried to find yourself once in time? Perhaps... a 'Kairi' is a 'Kairi', therefore, 'Kairi' is 'Kairi', but who is this 'Kairi'? Was you who choose your name, your destiny? Is the Keyblade that choose you, or was you who were meant to choose it? Was Aqua supposed to save you, or was you who ran into her path? Can or are you able to take any of the alternatives 'I choose' to ask on your own? And what you do feel for Sora, either love or lust... When you'll learn they got more than four words, but two adjacent meanings?
Xehanort, after finishing such massive statement, raised his arms, and that Keyblade of his, and so he exploded into tiny bits, or so Kairi thought. Instead, he imploded, turning into a black hole, sucking everything that is meant to be materia into his void. The clouds, the ocean, the blue of the sky... anything, including Kairi, This is a dream, she thought, as soon as everything became slower than her. Slow like a snail crawling into someone's arm, who would kill a brother for that.
— Stop!... I... I...
— You can't take it, you mean? This would be any concern of mine. Your mere existence is mine as well. I don't care if you decide to hurt yourself more than you already had been. I live beyond your mind, I am everything, I am the truth. Couldn't you bear of the truth told by yourself for 'yourself'? Still hasn't decided who are you, I see. For you to be this pathetic, it ain't a excuse. I wouldn't even be able to qualify that as trying to live. I'm going to show you...
— Show what!?...
...
After having what seemed to had been a bad, and how utterly bad, dream, Sora finally awoke. Well, in the floor. Cold, unlike the bed he stood, covered by a white blanket, on a white room. He deduced quickly it was an hospital room, mainly by the color he saw, and the 'beeps' of the machines lying in there. Sora couldn't even lift his own body since that dream, as he kept pointing his eyes to the light above his, and anything else in the room. He was about to close his eyes again, to put an stop to his ears of listening, to his nose to stop keeping smelling his, and the lavender smell of such room. This happened, until a shadow overcome his vision. A shadow that seemed so familiar to his, and a voice belonging to that person as well, and same touch, belonging to an arm that was willing to raise Sora from where he stood before. Sora grated the figure, who told his about his condition, and that it has been a year since he stood on such comatose state.
A year? Sora looked at the mirror, who showed his young as usual. He thought that maybe, after a year, he would grow older, but the mirror told his otherwise. Instead, it only showed the scars left by the car the figure told to Sora about. He said that Sora came here, to this hospital, because a driver had accidentaly hitten Sora, who was admitted to the ICU, promptly to be taken care by the doctors, who received of such high payment to do the required surgery for both. When that figure, now seem as a teenage boy with a spiky orange hair, wearing of an outfit that blended the colors yellow and orange together, so familiar to Sora that he recalled for an instant that he saw once that same guy on another place, said 'both', Sora asked who was the other one. Well, the boy said it was someone by the name of Riku, who went on full recover, however, the same couldn't be said about his eyes.
Sora gasped a kind of 'what?', both in voice and on his face expressions as well. Riku was also there, he thought, and now he's gone, to somewhere else, since nobody knows where such Riku is, on a place with the name of Japan, as told by the boy. Japan? Sora wondered. What kind of place is Japan, since he never heard about it in any place, and how many places he had been before. Speaking about before, Sora told the name of his to that familiar figure.
— My name is Sora. It is spelled 'So-ur-ra'.
— Well, you may be kind of forgetful by now, but my name is Neku. It means 'sky' here on Japan, and it's a neutral name, given to both male and female genders.
Neku... now Sora remembered who Neku was. He was that boy wandering at the outskirts of Traverse Town, the same place decored and gathered by a halloweenish atmosphere. Last time Sora meet with Neku was on that place, where he taught him about how to create Spirits, this back on a time when he needed them mostly. Sora still had the Keyblade of his, yet all he wanted to know is about Riku's whereabouts. '...on full recover, however, the same couldn't be said about his eyes'; Sora wondered what happened to Riku, and his eyes. Was he... blind? Sora recall that Riku saved the life of his on such night, unlike this morning he's seeing throught the window, the clouds, the roofs, they are there, yet the night doesn't, but the sun is, as the sound of machines known as 'cars', or so Neku told to his. Also, Neku had a timer on his hand, the timer settled down by a 'game', where Sora wasn't a player. Neku asked to Sora if he could help his on such game, but he was on a run on such past time that he didn't even explained about the game, and it's significance. All Neku said was that maybe him and Sora would meet each other, once again, at...
Shibuya, Japan. Exactly 8:00 A.M. As Sora and Neku left the hospital by the entrance door to the outside world, the city of Shibuya, also known as Shibuya/Morioh, because of the predominance of roofs belonging to japanese companies, mainly trade companies, banks, supermarkets, factories, that are part of the industrial district, also known as Shibuya, where mostly the entire city's funds come from, in despite of residential lots, spread around between a roof and another, predominantly found at the center of the city, once known as Morioh and only. There was an earthquake years ago, Neku said, that destroyed many houses that once were part of Morioh. With the city about to go bankrupt, due to the damage and the insurances high as the cost of many lives and their homes as well. Then, came the companies from other cities, who invested with their capital with local infrastructure, security and tourism as well. In short, Shibuya/Morioh is an example of a city within another city, like many belonging to Japan. This could be seem with the traffic lights, used to tell vehicle drivers whether to stop or progress throught a crossway. Not all vehicles obey of this same rule, as ambulances can cross red signals when on a hurry, since they carry on inside them people who need to be taken in to the nearest hospital. Their siren could be heard from a distance
Sora heard no siren when heading to same hospital, this due to him being on same state where he stood for a year, and because the vehicle who headed his to same place was an ordinary car. He thought to be ordinary, before he was told by Neku, who heard from the doctors, that it was the same vehicle who had hitten Sora, thought now Sora remembers that he, somehow, passed throught the car. That would be impossible, since he would hit the front mirror, a kind of unbreakable mirror, and fall into the floor at the back of same car, given the bones who had been broke by the exams, carried on by Neku, who insisted to have such. For some reason, Neku wanted to know if Sora was well, even thought they only met each other once, and now. And how do Sora could explain the way he passed throught the car, like a man discovering a secret passage hid beneath the waterfall?
So many questions left unanswered, like before. Whatever happened to his world? Who was that Yozora on the dream of his? Why the Keyblade of his hurted? Why Sora bleeded to a Keyblade's cut, and why do such cuts in dreams persisted on his arm? And... Was Neku still a player of same 'game'?