Kingdom Hearts is now officially twenty years old, I can't believe it honestly, it first came out when I was four years old, it's been so long. Speaking of four…KINGDOM HEARTS FOUR HAS BEEN REVEALED! Sora is okay in Quadratum, and Strelitzia is alive! Things are going down, so let's hope it doesn't take a hundred years to finish the game like they did with three.
Chapter 7: The melodious nocturne
(Gessen academy: Entrance)
With the constant threat of the heartless looming over Gessen academy, multiple female ninjas were standing guard around the perimeter of the school, keeping watch for the creatures of darkness. Although none of them were expecting organization XIII and their ability to use the dark corridors since one suddenly appeared right at the front door of the academy and Demyx appeared out of the dark portal. After making sure he wasn't spotted, the organization member quickly opened the front door.
"Okay, fellows. Way's open for ya, go cause a little trouble…" Demyx whispered as white vortexes opened up on the ground near him and quick white blurs made their way inside the school. "Oh, this is gonna be so good!"
"Hold it right there!" A woman's voice called out as Demyx was suddenly surrounded by the Gessen guards.
"What do you think you're doing here?" One guard asked.
"What am I doing here? I think you mean, what was I doing here? Later, ladies!" Demyx said before he quickly vanished into a corridor of darkness, leaving the guards very confused.
"Um…What just happened?"
(Gessen academy: Interior)
After waking up and getting ready for the day, Yumi had approached Sora and asked him to follow her, which made him a little worried that she was about attack again for a test like she had the day before until they made their way into a long hallway and Yumi suddenly transformed into her shinobi uniform.
"So, Yumi. Are you gonna tell me where you're taking me? Or are you trying to set me up for another one of your tests?" Sora asked as he continued following Yumi.
"That depends. What are your instincts telling you?" Yumi asked as Sora then imaged chibi versions of him and Yumi still walking down the hallway when chibi suddenly pulled on a lever and a large boxing glove shot out of a wall and punched chibi Sora.
Uh…Did you want me to answer that?"
"Doesn't matter actually, we've arrived." Yumi stated as the two came across a large door with the symbol of Gessen academy etched into it.
"What's behind the door?" Sora asked.
"This is where you'll be training during your stay here. I figured after helping us with the mission from yesterday, you've earned enough credibility to use the same training equipment as the rest of us."
"Wait, I thought the field we cleared of heartless yesterday was you girls trained."
"That's where most of the students train. You'll be using the elite squad's training room." Yumi said as she pushed open the doors to reveal the large training room on the other side, full of equipment that made the entire room more of an obstacle course as Murakumo was balancing herself atop tall pillars that she jumped off of when they sunk into the floor while simultaneously deflecting arrows with her spear, Shiki was using her scythe to swing from rings in the ceiling before calling a swarm of bats from her witch hat to glide around the room while Minori was skipping around on the floor innocently while flames erupted from the spots she was at a second ago and continued to dodged them gracefully and Yozakura was deflecting swinging wooden clubs with the palms of her gauntlets.
"HA!" Yozakura shouted and struck one wooden club so hard that it splintered into pieces that flew everywhere.
"Whoa…" Sora said in amazement as a piece of the club Yozakura broke bounced off his forehead. "Your training is so intense, you guys don't even need Kiriya for it."
"Well, since we don't have our own Kiriya sensei here at Gessen academy, we need to train intensely every day. We are the elite squad after all." Yumi explained.
"Sounds like a lot of pressure, Kiriya did say training could get more intense himself."
"He's not wrong, if you think training is intense right now, wait until you see Hebijo academy's methods."
"Can't wait to see that…" Sora said as the rest of the Gessen girls walked up to him and Yumi.
"Say, Sora. How far did you get in your training? You know, before you were sent here from Hanzo academy." Yozakura questioned.
"Actually, I won a spar against Ikaruga before I was sent here."
"Wow, really? Ikaruga is no joke."
"She is, I thought you just started training, so are you yanking our chain, Soraing?" Shiki questioned.
"It was a rematch, the first fight was one-sided between me and her. I managed to fight even with her when I got some training in and got back my power to transform." Sora explained.
"How interesting, it takes a year for a shinobi to gain access to their own transformation. You managed to gain the power to transform in a short amount of time by the sound of it. Then again, Asuka has told me her first shinobi transformation was accidental when she first began her own training…" Yumi said before looking back at the keyblade wielder. "If you train with us, what else are you hoping to learn again?"
"Well, I have been a little sluggish since I lost my power. I was thinking maybe I should learn some ninja running and jumping stuff."
"Well then, our training hall is definitely the right place for that. So go ahead, take a go." Yozakura said as Sora took a look at the large obstacle course ahead of him which mostly didn't worry him. (Expect maybe for the flames erupting out of the floor)
"Something wrong, Sora?" Minori asked when she noticed the keyblade wielder was staring at the obstacle course
"You're not scared of our training course, are you?" Murakumo questioned.
"Of that? No way, I was just putting a game plan together in my head. It's nothing I can't handle." Sora said as an idea went off in Yumi's head.
"Then I guess you're ready to go then." Yumi said as she gave Sora a push from behind.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on!" Sora yelled as he fell onto the obstacle course and immediately ended up on top of one of its tall pillars and managed to regain his balance. "Wait, what do I do now?"
"You gotta keep focused on your balance, but your surroundings!" Yozakura shouted her advice, which Sora took to heart as the pillar he was standing on suddenly began sinking into the floor and he jumped away from the falling pillar and then onto the next one before jumping a few more times when the next pillars began sinking as well.
"Whoa, this one is really keeping me on my toes!" Sora said as he jumped off another sinking pillar before an arrow that shot out of the wall ended whizzing past his face by inches before another flew at him which was knocked away with his keyblade that he summoned quickly. "Yikes! Forgot you were shooting arrows in here!"
"Don't worry, they're fake, made of rubber!" Minori assured as Sora deflected more arrows with his keyblade while jumping off of any sinking pillar.
"Wait, are they really fake? I can't remember." Yozakura questioned while Yumi watched Sora defend himself against the arrows while jumping from pillar to pillar, unimpressed by his performance.
"I think he can do better than that. Murakumo, you can train there often, help him out a little." Yumi suggested as the masked shinobi nodded in agreement and made a quick jump forward onto the pillars and in front of Sora.
What are you, I can handle this on my-AHH!" Sora yelped when Murakumo took out her spear and then trusted it in his face that he was able to dodge. "Whoa! What are you doing?!"
"We thought we could use a little more danger in your training." Murakumo stated as she continued to thrust her spear at Sora, who jumped backwards towards another pillar as the masked shinobi then jumped after him and swung her spear in wide arcs while the keyblade wielder ducked or dodged the attacks from Murakumo's spear while also making sure he defended himself from any arrow shot at him. As soon as Sora saw an opening in both Murakumo's attacks and the arrows, he began to fight back as he swiped with his keyblade at her feet, only for Murakumo to jump to another pillar.
"Not bad, but not good enough! Come! Kotaro!" Murakumo shouted as Sora heard a howl and turned around in time to see a white wolf jump at him with the intent to bite the keyblade wielder, who jumped back towards another pillar to avoid the attack.
"Oh, c'mon! Is the attack dog a little illegal?" Sora questioned.
"Maybe a little, but that makes this training montage even more intense!"
"This is about your comic again?" Sora questioned with a sweatdrop.
"...Yes." Murakumo answered as she pointed at Sora as a signal for her wolf to attack him as it pounced at the keyblade wielder with its jaws open wide and clamped down, only to chomp down on Sora's keyblade as he held back Kotaro before feeling the pillar underneath his feet sink that forced him and the wolf apart as it then growled at him.
"Now, how do I get rid of an angry wolf?" Sora asked himself before an easy presented itself in the form of more arrows that were shot at him, only to be dodged and deflected before Sora managed to catch one and presented it to Kotaro. "Hey, boy! See the stick? See the stick?"
"Ruff?" Kotaro barked with curiosity.
"Get the stick boy!" Sora said as he tossed the arrow as far as he could.
"Woof! Woof!" Kotaro barked as he chased after the arrow, much to the Gessen girls' amazement.
"I…Gotta him points for creativity there…" Yozakura said.
"Should properly train Kotaro to have some better self control…" Murakumo said as she watched her wolf run off before turning around to see Sora in front of her.
"Sorry to do this." Sora apologized before suddenly grabbing Murakumo's mask off her face and making her flustered personality come out.
"Yahhh! Don't look at me!" Murakumo shouted as she covered her face before the pillar she was standing on sank and she fell down to the training hall floor. "Owwwww…."
"Sorry, Here's your mask back." Sora apologized by throwing down Murakumo's mask which she caught and placed back on her face before looking back up with a pouting expression behind the mask while Sora jumped off the pillars to land on the floor himself before a swinging wooden club flew past.
"Huh? Whoa!" Sora exclaimed as several more clubs flew at him and swung near him while the keyblade wielder avoided them with quick dodges. "Hey, can I take a break real quick? I think the spiked clubs are a little too much right now."
"Nice try, you're not getting out of it that easily. But I'll tell you what. Make it to the end of the course and I'll tell you something about master Eraqus." Yumi promised while a swinging club nearly collided with Sora before he used his keyblade to break the club to pieces with a swing of his weapon.
"Done deal." Sora said as he smashed another club before jumping onto the chain of another club and climbed up the chain towards the ceiling while Yumi down below nudged her head to the other gessen girls who then understood her message as they all then jumped down into the obstacle course while Sora had made his way up to the hanging rings and held on with one hand before Shiki flew up next to him on her swarm of bats.
"Heya, Soraing. Thought you could use a little helping hand, or some wings!" Shiki said as some of her bats flew out of the swarm and charged at Sora who skillfully dodged and swung to the next ring before using his keyblade to swat away any bats that got too close.
"I'd rather those bats be cute fluffy puppies. But no one gets everything they want." Sora said while Shiki threw her scythe at Sora, who used the hanging rings to flip over the flying weapon over to Shiki before grabbing her witch's hat and pulled down over her face to blind the girl and escaped her by going down to the floor where it opened up and a dozen wooden mannequins with limbs on pivots that allow the limbs to spin, but what caught Sora's attention the most was the photo's of shadow heartless attached to the heads of the mannequins. "Heh, what's that? The best actors you got to be heartless?"
"Great idea, huh?" Sora heard Yozakura's voice behind him before turning around and seeing the bowl cut haired shinobi to throw a punch with her gauntlet and forced the keyblade wielder to guard with his weapon and was sent flying back by the force into the arms of the mannequins and they began spinning and striking Sora from different angles.
"Ow! Oh! Ow! Ouch! Ow! Ow!" Sora groaned as he was being wacked all over his body by the wooden arms until one struck him in the face and sent him reeling to the floor. "Ouch…"
"You alright?" Yozakura asked as Sora slowly got up with support from his keyblade.
"Yea….Round two!" Sora said as he attacked with a horniztinal swing from his keyblade that Yozakura deflected with her gauntlets before countering with a hammer fist that Sora dodged out of the way before Yozakura struck a mannequin's arm and spun in response that the shinobi blocked before it could hit her, giving Sora an idea as he started to run in a circle and struck more mannequin arms and they began spinning at Yozakura in a sequence.
"H-Hey! What are you doing?!" Yozakura questioned as she began protecting herself from the spinning arms from every angle.
"Something to keep you busy for a bit." Sora answered as he spun one more set of mannequin arms at Yozakura who was caught in the endless onslaught of spinning mannequin arms that she could do nothing but defend herself from with blocks while Sora simply walked away with a smile on his face.
"Hiya!" A familiar voice greeted as Sora looked up to see Minori sitting nearby on a wall.
"Minori, you too? Maybe you get going before I go four for four."
"Nah, I think I'm good." Minori said with a smile before Sora felt a heat on his feet and looked down to see he had stepped on the pipes that were spewing flames at Minori earlier.
"Oh no…" Sora said before he was engulfed in flames while the Gessen girls watched him being blasted by fire while Minori skipped over with a happy smile on her face while Sora walked over himself with scorch marks all over him and with his shoulder on fire. "I bet you're laughing on the inside right now, Yumi. Because you just witnessed the newest addition to one of my top ten disasters."
"I will admit, it was quite amusing, but do try to pay better attention to your surroundings next time." Yumi said as she pulled out one of her fans and used to create a small gust of icy wind to blow out the fire on Sora's shoulders. "Maybe next time you won't have to extend that list of yours."
"There's always gonna be a next time."
"Well, the bright side is that you can learn from your mistakes. Anyway, great job on the course." Yozakura praised.
"Even though we weren't really fighting, you totally whooped our butts. It was kinda cool!" Shiki said.
"Haha! Even though I won!" Minori laughed.
"Yeah, sure you did." Sora said before remembering Yumi's deal with him. "Hey, Yumi. Didn't you say that you'll tell more about master Eraqus if I ran the course?"
"Yes, I say that, didn't I? Although you did fail in the end, I guess I'll throw you a bone." Yumi said before turning to the rest of the Gessen girls. "Yozakura, you and the others can go on and train without us. This story could take a little while."
"You got it. C'mon, girls." Yozakura said as she walked away and the rest of the Gessen girls followed suit and left Sora alone with Yumi.
"So master Eraqus. What did he go to your grandfather for? Was he on some important mission or something?" Sora asked.
"No. Master Eraqus came to my grandfather to ask for an important favor…" Yumi explained
(Backflash)
(Music: Ventus' theme)
After Ventus had suddenly fainted, Kurokage and Eraqus had immediately taken him to Gessen's medical ward and placed him on a bed where a doctor examined him and ensured that the blonde boy was okay physically, but had yet to reawaken. Now the younger Yumi was sitting beside the bed where Ventus was resting while Kurokage and Eraqus were talking at the other side of the room, just out of Yumi's earshot.
"Is this why you've this boy to me?" Kurokage asked.
"Yes, I heard you've taken on the cases of children who have no place to go, and taken them under your care." Eraqus answered.
"I've never taken on an unwell child though. Especially not one as peculiar as young Ventus."
"I'm only asking that he stays to recover. Ventus is not ready to train with Terra and Aqua, so until his heart and mind heals, I'm hoping you can keep him safe."
"Safe? Safe from what?" Kurokage asked as Eraqus touched the scars on his face.
"The one who did this to him…" Eraqus said while Yumi continued to watch Ventus in his deep sleep, feeling guilty that it might be her fault.
"I'm sorry I did this to you, I only wanted to talk. I didn't think it might hurt you…" Yumi said to the sleeping Ventus before he began to stir and open his eyes, which Yumi was quickly alerted to. "Ah! Grandfather! He's waking up!"
"Thank goodness…" Eraqus said as Kurokage walked over to join Yumi, who was glad to see Ventus awake.
"Yumi, our friend Ventus here will be staying with us for a while until he gets well. Do you think you can help with that?" Kurokage asked as Yumi nodded.
"Yes, of course, grandfather! I'll treat him like family!" Yumi exclaimed.
(Present day)
"Eraqus left someone here?" Sora asked as he and Yumi walked through the halls of the academy as she told him the reason why master Eraqus came to Gessen academy.
"Yes, apparently one of his students had been injured horribly, in both mind and body. He needed a place where he could heal in peace without worry and when he heard about my grandfather, he thought Kurokage was the best choice." Yumi explained.
How long did he stay?"
"A little over a year, it was slow at first but eventually Eraqus' student did recover and turned into something entirely different from completely despondent, to being full of bright energy. It was really surprising to say the least."
"Sounds like you and him were really good friends." Sora said when noticed that Yumi was smiling which hinted to him that the icey shinobi was very close to the keyblade wielder who stayed at Gessen academy.
"I guess there's no point in lying about that, but yes. I did grow close to him, but despite that, I can barely even remember the boy's name." Yumi said, which for some reason, Sora was feeling a bit melancholy from the comment before he and Yumi stopped to see a strange sight in front of them, was a white figure that was very lean in appearance with its mouth closed with a zipper and a symbol on its forehead.
"Ohoho! Oh, man. That one is really good, it almost looks like the real thing." Sora said as he approached the white figure to get a closer look at it. "I mean, what is this exactly? It's too real to be another mannequin,did you get one of the girls to dress up as a nobody? It's the only way you could've pulled this off."
"I have no clue what a 'Nobody' is. You never told us what those are." Yumi stated as Sora's grin faded when he realized that he had indeed never told Yumi and the other shinobi what a nobody was before he looked back towards the white figure that was indeed a real dusk.
(Music: Tension rising~Reaper's revenge~)
"On no…" Sora said as the zipper on the dusk's mouth opened to unveil the sharp teeth that hidden underneath and then lunged at the keyblade wielder in a quick zipping motion in an attempt to headbutt him in the torso and sent him reeling back along the floor before the dusk prepared to lunge again before it was destroyed in a shower of white sparks by one Yumi's fans that she threw.
"I don't understand, they haven't been able to get inside before." Yumi said.
"That's because nobodies are different from the heartless. A lot smarter too!" Sora said before several more dusks appeared out of thin air and surrounded him and Yumi before the keyblade came to the boy's hand. "We gotta get past these guys and warn the other girls!"
"I agree!" Yumi said as she drew her second fan as some dusks approached and swiped their long limbs at the shinobi from all sides that she evade by sliding around them before cutting a couple nobodies with her fans and forcing them to back off before another crawled around Yumi in a circle at her feet before sweeping it's legs at her, which slightly missed and tore a small gash in Yumi's dress as she leaped back to gain distance. "You stay here and handle them, I'll warn the others."
"No way! I'm not leaving you alone with these guys crawling around everywhere!" Sora objected as a dusk threw a swipe at his head that was ducked under before he countered with an upwards slash from his keyblade that knocked the nobody away before running towards Yumi and grabbing her arm. "C'mon, let's go!"
"Hey, let go!" Yumi shouted at Sora while the two ran down the hallway with the nobodies swimming through the air to chase after them until Sora and Yumi came upon the door to the training hall that the keyblade wielder began pulling open. "Is everyone in here safe?"
"Look out!" Yozakura's voice warned as several gray spears flew out of the training hall just Sofra opened the door and narrowly missed him and Yumi by a few inches before the looked back to see that Yozakura was fending off several gray flying creatures that were known as the creeper nobody and the shinobi was swinging her fists at the nobodies, but to no avail. "Hold still you little-!"
"Yozakura!" Yumi shouted to get her friend's attention before throwing her fan at the creeper nobodies and forced them to back away from Yozakura before Sora and Yumi joined her side in the center of the training hall. "Looks like you've discovered our new enemy for yourself.
"Yozakura, where are the other girls?" Sora asked.
"They left for a break just before these things jumped me. So they're already gone." Yozakura answered as a creeper was flying at her in spear form, only for the shinobi to grab it in mid flight and crush it with her strength, destroying the nobody. "Talk about lousy timing!"
"Good news is, you got us now!" Sora said as he deflected a creeper in sword form with his keyblade before swiping it away before aiming his keyblade to freeze with a blizzard spell but more nobodies in the form of dusks appeared out of thin air to back up the creepers. "Okay, this is bad."
"We're in the training hall, use that to our advantage!" Yumi advised as she, Yozakura and Sora spilt up to three different directions with the nobodies following after them with some chasing after Yozakura towards the swinging wooden clubs that she forced into motion with some pushes while the dusks caught up with her and moved towards before one was smacked away into oblivion by a club.
"How's that!" Yozakura cheered as more dusks approached her and some were struck by the swinging wooden clubs while the rest slithered around the trap to get closer to Yozakura.
"Hey, stay back!" Yozakura warned as two dusk lunged at her, only to be punched away by her gauntlets as another turned into a long rope like construct and binded her arms together before another attacked her in the back with a swipe of its arm and created a tear in the back of her outfit. "Didn't I say…" She said as the piledrivers in the back of her gauntlets slid back. "BACK OFF?!" Yozakura shouted as she smashed her gauntlets into the ground as the piledrivers moved forward and created a shockwave that destroyed the nobodies binding her arms and the ones surrounding freeing herself, another dusk attempted to attack Yozakura, only for it to be grabbed by its head and tossed in Sora's direction who jumped into the air to slice in half the nobody in mid flight.
"Keep it up, Yozakura!" Sora shouted as he ran from more dusks as they followed him to the rising and falling pillars that he trained on with Murakumo earlier and followed suit as he stepped onto a pillar as it rose. "C'mon, I'm right here!" He taunted as the several nobodies surrounded him on various pillars and managed to prevent themselves from falling down due to their light weight which they used to their advantage by effortlessly moving over to Sora, attempting to attack him without falter and used thrusted their sharp limbs at him, only for the keyblade wielder to dodge effortlessly as he hopped from pillar to pillar destroying two nobodies with quick swings of his keyblade and leaped forward as a creeper flew at him and destroyed by a somersault slashed before noticing that none of the arrows that were firing at him during training were firing now.
"Hey, where are the arrows?"
"We haven't reloaded them yet!" Yozakura said as he uppercutted a dusk in the chin before smashing another with the side of her arm.
"Oh, how convenient!" Sora complained as two dusks flew at him before being destroyed by a spinning slash from the keyblade.
"If you chosen a poor trap for the enemy, it sounds like we need to train your decision making as well!" Yumi stated as she sliced a dusk across the throat with her fan and destroyed it before more nobodies moved in to attack her, only for the icy shinobi to quick move back into the array of mannequins that possessed spinning arms and begin spinning in order to conceal herself from view while disorienting the nobodies that attempted to chase after Yumi , only to become confused when they only saw blurs of her moving behind the mannequin arms before her fans flew forward and destroyed a pair of dusks before Yumi jumped out and retrieved her fans before a creeper turned into a spear before being frozen in midair by a wind from Yumi's fan, causing it to fall to the ground and shattered.
"Try a new strategy!"
"Okay, I got ya!" Sora said as he jumped over a pair of dusks that lunged at him, only to miss while the keyblade wielder escaped from the nobodies before they quickly followed the running Sora to the other end of the training hall, where the fire traps were that Sora was careful around when he noticed a pattern to the traps which seem to glow when their about to let loose their flames as he began weaving in different directions across the flame traps, being careful to avoid any fire as the dusk that tried following his exact path only ended up being scorched by the flames.
"Yeah! That's how it's done, Sora!" Yozakurapraised as Sora gave thumbs up for the compliment before several more dusk nobodies spawned into existence.
"Go ahead and find the other girls, I'll catch up in a minute!" Sora said as he held his keyblade in front of himself before a light shined from him and activated limit form with the light around him shattering like glass.
"Let's go, he'll give us cover to escape." Yumi said as she and Yozakura quickly ran out of the room with several nobodies quickly chasing after the girls before Sora jumped in their path.
"Going somewhere, guys?" Sora questioned before swinging his keyblade up to create a crystalline aura with ripple drive and the nobodies smashed against the aura of magic and became suspended in midair for a few moments before Sora jumped up to create spiral of energy with magnet burst to draw the airborne nobodies before blasting them in several directions away, allowing room for Sora to get away as he turned around and ran into the same direction Yumi and Yozakura had retreated in and made his way out into a hallway where he found the two shinobi that were on the run.
"Hey, you made it." Yozkaura said as Sora ran up between her and Yumi.
"Did you clear them out?" Yumi asked.
"No, But I managed to slow them down enough for us to run." Sora said as several dusks reappeared to chase the three down the hall. "Oh great. They're back already!"
"Let them follow. I believe we're near the others." Yumi stated when Sora heard the sound of fighting nearby nea a door the group were approached before the keyblade's chosen ran in front to tackle the door open into a large room that contained a rock garden with a sakura tree in the center of the room, surrounded by water, where the remaining Gessen girls were fighting dusk nobodies and their outfits were tattered from the battle.
"Huh? Hey, look! It's Sora and Yumi!" Minori pointed out as she ducked under a dusk's lunge attack without paying it any mind.
"Omg! About time!" Shiki said as she dodged a swipe from a couple creepers in sword form before countering with a swing from her scythe.
"Did you guys miss us so quickly?" Yozakura questioned as a dusk flew at her, only to be punched away.
"No, but we wish you'd shown up sooner." Murakumo said as she trusted her spear at dusk, which simply curled around her attack. "Although these new enemies are sparking more ideas for my comic!"
"Could everyone focus please? We have a battle to finish!" Yumi reminded everyone as she waved her fans and a series of icles flew out towards several creepers that were flying in the air and were struck down from beneath before falling down for Sora to finish them off.
"Hah!" Sora shouted as he slammed his keyblade down on top of a creeper to destroy it before turning to shoot a fire spell from his keyblade to destroy another and then dodged a lunging headbutt from a dusk which was countered by a powerful uppercut that sent the nobody upwards.
"Hey, Sora! I got some pals of yours that could use some directions!" Yozakura said as she held several nobodies in a strong grip with both her gauntlets.
"Don't worry, I know the right way to point them in!" Sora said with his keyblade ready as Yozakura tossed all the nobodies in her grip at him when the keyblade's chosen threw his keyblade down to summon a series of light orbs with explosion to destroy the nobodies that were flung at him.
"I think they got where they needed to go." Sora said as the dusk he sent upwards earlier started falling from the air which he swung his keyblade at behind him, absentmindedly. Afterwards, a whole swarm of Creeper nobodies in their flight form suddenly appeared from the balconies from the top of the garden room. "Uh oh, here comes some more!"
"Don't worry your spiky little head about it, Soraing. I got this one." Shiki assured as she tossed out her witch hat as it enlarged.
"Ku soku ZIX!" Shiki announced as a large swarm of bats flew out of her enlarged hat towards the incoming swarm of creepers and both groups smashed into each other in a collision of black and white which quickly ended when the nobodies overpowered Shiki's bats. "Oh boy, didn't see that one coming!"
"Anyone got another idea?" Yozakura asked.
"I'll take care of this!" Sora volunteered as he pointed his keyblade forward and energy began building up at the tip for ragnarok. But before he could fire, Sora turned to look at Yumi. "Hope you don't get mad at me again like before.
"You have many targets, and no chance for an avalanche in here." Yumi reminded him as Sora then unleashed his attack by firing several energy bolts from the keyblade upwards towards the swarm of creepers and detonated near the nobodies in firework-like explosions in a series of chain reactions. When one creeper was destroyed by a bolt from ragnarok, several more were blown away in the resulting explosion until the entire swarm vanished from sight and Sora's limit form wore off. "That did it!"
"But was it enough?" Yozakura asked as several more nobodies suddenly appeared, this time in new forms that were similar in appearance to the dusks, only they were more femminie and wearing pink beanie hats and bell bottom pants and were called dancer nobodies.
"They seem stronger than the other ones." Yumi observed as the whole group became surrounded by the dancers.
"You got that one right. These nobodies are tougher than the others we've fought." Sora said when he remembered his previous encounters with dancer nobodies, and how they would toss him all over the place like a ragdoll. As the dancer creeped in closer to the group, three of them started glowing with an aura and began moving in closer before someone appeared to step in their way and block the nobodies advance, but everyone, mainly Sora, was surprised to see the new figure.
"Wait, is that a scarecrow?"
"HAHH!" A girl's voice shouted as a new figure came in to strike several dancer nobodies all at once with a high speed punch that sent the creatures of the void crashing into a wall when Sora noticed the one responsible was a girl with long silver hair wearing a dark purple and black suit with a stoic expression on her face while an identical girl wearing a gold and black suit and a positive expression on her appeared from behind her.
"Senko, don't you think that was a little overkill? We're trying to protect the school, not wreck it even more." The second girl said.
"I would like to hear if you got a better idea on how to deal with our problem, Gekko. Otherwise just leave me to my own methods."
"Senko, Gekko! It's good to see you both here!" Yumi said with a glad expression to see the two identical girls who both noticed the gessen squad leader.
"Oh! Heya, Yumi! Didn't see ya there!" Gekko greeted while Senko noticed Sora.
"Is that boy? When did Gessen start letting boys in?" Senko questioned.
"Listen, I'd love to tell you girls who I am and why I'm here and to get to know you. But we need to figure out where these nobodies are coming from, can the two of you keep them off our backs?" Sora asked.
"Sure thing! We keep them busy." Gekko said as the scarecrow from earlier appeared at her side and Senko began cracking her knuckles.
"Bring it…" Senko simply said as she and her look alike rushed forward which the dancer nobodies responded to by lunging forward as well, beginning the scuffle as Senko punching and kicking the dancers away with powerful blows while Gekko used the living scarecrow to block their attacks.
"C'mon! Now's our chance to get ourselves together!" Yozakura said as Sora and the girls turned around to retreat while the dancer nobodies were currently being overwhelmed by the newcomers.
(Gessen academy: Ninja room)
"That was getting intense, good thing Senko and Gekko showed up before things got real bad." Yozakura said as she took off her gauntlets to massage her bare hands while everyone else was recovering from the sudden nobody attack.
"Speaking of, who are those two girls?" Sora questioned.
"They were Senko and Gekko. They are from Gessen's middle school branch and their also sisters." Yumi answered.
"You mean there's a middle school version of this place? Is there also an elementary school too?"
"Forget about that! What were those creepy things that attacked us? Those totally aren't the same monsters we've been fighting already." Shiki said.
"Shiki is right, those aren't the same creatures. I should know since I've been studying them nonstop for my comics." Murakumo agreed with her fellow shinobi.
"Well, you're right about that. The nobodies are different from the heartless, their created when someone loses their heart and turns into a heartless. The body is left behind and it becomes a nobody, like the ones you saw out there." Sora explained while Yumi looked annoyed.
"Why are you telling us this now? We could've used this information before." Yumi stated.
"I didn't see any nobodies in this world until now. I didn't think they were here." Sora said before he came to a realization. Someone had brought the nobodies to Gessen academy. "Also because someone just summoned the nobodies here."
"Really? Who could've done that?" Yozakura asked as Sora's expression grew serious.
"The only people who can control the nobodies. A member of organization XIII. They're here in the school." Sora said as the Gessen girl's were shocked by the allegation.
"We've been infiltrated…" Yumi said.
"How could this happen right under our own noses? I thought we were careful enough." Yozakura said.
"That's organization XIII for you. They're the sneakiest bunch, properly even better than ninjas I think. No offense to you guys."
"So, what do we do, Sora?" Minori asked.
"We find the organization member that let the nobodies in here. If we send him packing, the nobodies might follow too." Sora suggested.
"If not, we'll just deal with the stragglers that are left. Now we just need to focus on where there might be the most enemies, or maybe the fewest. Does anyone have a clue where to look?" Yumi asked as everyone else shrugged while Yozakura had an idea in her head.
"Do we have any reports of attacks near the rooftop?"
(Gessen academy: Rooftop)
While the many shinobi of Gessen academy were dealing with the nobody infestation down below, a certain sitar playing organization member was hiding out on the rooftop and listening to the sound of battle below while sitting on a bench with a smile on his face and drinking a cup of coffee.
"Ah, judging by the sound of pure and utter chaos, it sounds like my buddies are doing a good job of making a mess. Sooner or later, they'll get that super secret scroll, and I get a promotion back into one of the chosen. No more bench warming." Demyx said as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Ah! Gotta love this setting, it's totally relaxing with all this snow." Demyx said as he was about to take another sip of his coffee before it was suddenly sliced in half and the contents spilled out the bottom.
"Aw, what?!" He complained as he looked to see the source of what destroyed his coffee and saw the Gessen girls with Sora, who all looked at him with serious expressions while Yumi caught one of her fans that just returned to her. "Oh boy…"
(Music: The 13th discretion)
"So, you're the one behind this attack? I don't see at all how you could be such a threat." Yumi stated as Demyx quickly shifted his eyes towards the edge of the roof, considering jumping to escape as Sora quickly recognized him.
"Hey, wait a minute. You again?" Sora questioned.
"You know this guy, Sora?" Yozakura asked.
"Yeah, he was in the old organization as a nobody, I think his name was Denny's or something."
"Uh, it's Demyx, and you know it. You think you'd remember since I was such a memorable foe of yours." Demyx said with pride and bravado.
"Well, the only thing I really remember about you is that you like to run away." Sora said.
"Oh, snap! He got you there!" Shiki shouted as Demyx groaned in annoyance.
"So what are you doing in the new organization anyway? You'd think they keep you out after the epic fail you had when I kicked your butt."
"The big bosses thought I was good enough to get a spot back in. That's why I have been for this very mission!" Demyx stated as he smiled.
"Attacking our academy is your mission? What do you plan on getting out of that?" Yumi questioned.
"Oh, my bosses want that super secret scroll you girls are guarding."
"Really?" Yozakura asked before turning to Sora. "Looks like you were right, Sora."
"Told ya." Sora stated.
"Really? You want our school's most prized possession? And what makes you think that we'll just hand it over?" Yumi questioned.
(Music ends)
"Because if you don't, the heartless and the nobodies will just keep coming. Your school could be destroyed." Demyx stated as the Gessen girl took his threat seriously and glared at him angrily before the sitar player took out a note from his pocket. "At least that's what I've been told to say anyway. Do you think I got it right?"
"You're threatening our home. Why do we care how you handle sending us a threat?" Yozakura questioned as everyone got ready for a fight.
"Not my threat, I'm just the messenger. You wouldn't do anything to the messenger, would ya?"
No, but you should get going. Before we have to send you packing out of here." Sora said as he summoned his keyblade to his hand. "I rather you pick up and leave, I'd hate for you to waste your second chance at a normal life since you got your humanity back."
"You should heed his warning." Yumi agreed as she opened her fans.
"Sorry, ice queen. I can't go anywhere without you, or better yet that scroll." Demyx said before vanishing in a dark blur when Yumi threw one of her fans at him.
"Huh? Where did he go?" Yozakura questioned as everyone looked around for Demyx.
"Oh, I didn't go far…" Demyx's voice said as everyone turned around to see him on a stage in the center of the rooftop with his nobody symbol sitar in hand and a finger pointed towards the sky and spotlights focused on him.
"I'm just getting ready for the main event!"
"Oh, are you gonna play a song for us, mr. guitar guy?" Minori innocently asked.
"Minori, I very much doubt that…" Yozakura said.
"No, she couldn't be more right." Sora said as he got into his battle stance.
(Music: The 13th dilemma~2.5 ver~)
"Dance, water, dance!" Demyx shouted as he strummed a few notes on his instrument and water began forming in the air before transforming into numerous doppelganger copies of himself that were made of the water.
"Oh gosh, that's a lot of him!" Shiki exclaimed.
"I'll handle this!" Yumi said as she blew a gust of icy wind with her fans, expecting Demyx's water clones to be frozen by the breeze, only for the wind to cause them to change shape into musical notes. "What?! That didn't work?!"
"Can't stop the beat from moving! You're only gonna speed up the groove!" Demyx exclaimed as he play more notes on his sitar and more of his water clones transformed into notes before they began flying at Sora's group while spinning like buzz saws, forcing them to go on the defensive as they countered against the water clone attacks.
"Sora, you fought this guy before, what do we do?" Yozakura questioned as she used her gauntlets to guard against a swipe from a water form before punching it into splatters of water.
"Just keep smashing his copies! He runs out of them eventually!" Sora advised as he slashed through a pair of water forms before firing off a fire spell from his keyblade to evaporate another.
"You heard him! Take out as many as you can!" Yumi agreed as she used her fans to cut through a water form before tossing her fan at another clone before calling it back.
"Sounds like a good plan! Secret ninja art…" Yozkaura said as she pulled her arm back and a piston reared back as the shinobi punched a water clone in a forward motion.
"1000 palm fists of paradise!" She shouted as the water clone was destroyed in a burst of energy before being followed up by several more explosive bursts that destroyed more clones.
"Think that's gonna be good enough? I got plenty more where that came from!" Demyx boasted as he strummed his sitar again and more water clones formed.
"Get 'em, boys!" Demyx ordered his clones as they transformed into their music note forms as they began attacking again.
""Here they come!" Sora warned as a major amount of the water clones came after him, trying to attack from different angles that put the keyblade's chosen on the defensive as he swung his keyblade left and right a few time to destroy a set of water clones before one get behind him and struck him in the back and knocked him off balance before another water clone struck him in the side and knocked him down, allowing more clones to surround Sora in an attempt to attack him all at once, only for most of them to be destroyed by Shiki's scythe that was thrown by her to create room for Sora.
"Hands off the cute boy, would ya? Secret ninja art: Shiki soku ZX!" Shik announced as she summoned a swarm of her bats and then sat atop them as they tackled the group of water clones while also grabbing Sora's hand to pull him up off the ground to bring him up to climb onto her bat swarm.
"Thanks for the lift!" Sora said as he stood atop Shiki's swarm while also swinging his keyblade at any water clones they passed by.
"Need me to drop you off anywhere?"
"Get me closer to that guy, I'm gonna see if I can stop all his copies all at once by taking him out!" Sora explained as Shiki nodded in agreement before Shiki had her swarm of bats start moving faster and mow down more water clones in the process towards Demyx, which he quickly noticed.
"Not so fast!" Demyx stated as he stung his sitar to summon a whole wall of water clones ready to intercept Sora's and Shiki's path.
*HOWL!*
"Huh? Now what?"
"Kotaro! Kagero!" Murakumo called out as her wolf from earlier, along with a second one appeared at her side before Murakumo pointed at Demyx's defense wall of clones and her wolfs reacted by suddenly dashing forward at blinding speeds in a zigzag pattern and destroyed any water clones the wolves came across before coming across the wall of water clones.
"*Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!*" Both wolves howled before jumping up together and mauled the wall of clones down into nothing but water, clearing the way for Sora.
"Good boys! I'll give you both treats later!" Sora said to the wolves before leaping off Shiki's bat swarm into the air and activated flowmotion to dive downward at Demyx.
"Uh oh…" Demyx stated as he watched Sora fly down at him before being tackled off the stage platform he was standing on and fell down on his back while Sora landed on his feet.
"Hey! Not cool! You do not interrupt my performance!" Demyx exclaimed as he swung his sitar like a club at Sora, who blocked with his keyblade and held back his opponent. "You got super rude the last time I saw ya!"
"Girls, I'll keep him busy! The rest of you take out his copies!" Sora said as Demyx broke away to swipe his sitar at Sora's head, who ducked in response.
"We'll be with you in a moment." Yumi said as she threw her fans to destroy three water clones at once before dodging a swipe attack from another clone to her left in a dancing twirl and catching a returning fan to slice the attacking clone in two while everyone else handled the battle in their own way. Yozakura smashed the ground with her gauntlets to create a shockwave that destroyed clones that surrounded her, Murakumo was using her spear and clever in conjunction with her wolves to clear a path in front of her, Shiki was spinning her scythe like a helicopter around herself to create more room and Minori, she was using a water clone like a jump rope in its music note form.
"Looks like I need to make more backup!" Demyx said as he was ready to play his sitar again to summon more water clones, only to have Sora lunge at him with the keyblade.
"Oh, come on! Can't you give me a break?"
"How about, no?" Sora responded as Demyx groaned in annoyance.
"Okay, the hard way it is. Water!" Demyx exclaimed as he pointed sitar above Sora's head and water formed in the air as several floating bubbles that then dropped down like bombs, but Sora was able to dodge out of the way before Demyx followed up by swinging his sitar and summoned a series of water pillars that followed Sora.
"Oh boy!" Sora said as he turned and began running with the water pillars following behind him before the keyblade's chosen came upon a series of lamps that gave Sora an idea as he jumped towards the lamp posts and grabbed a hold to activate flowmotion and begun spinning like a saw to cut though the chasing water pillars once they caught up with him, enabling an opening for Sora as he launched himself at Demyx.
"Boom!" Demyx exclaimed as he raised several more water pillars under Sora at the exact moment he was a few feet away from his opponent, causing the keyblade chosen's to be blown back.
"Dah!" Sora groaned in pain as he skidded across the ground before coming to a halt.
"Oh man! You really did lose your power, I remember you putting up more of a fight." Demyx noted as Sora got up from the ground.
"Don't get too full of yourself, I'm still-GAH!" Sora groaned in pain again as Demyx attacked him with a blast of bubbles.
"Ah, pipe down!" Demyx said as he started slowly walking forward at Sora while summoning a series of water pillars that pushed the hero further and further down with each attack until one more burst of water sent Sora flying back into a nearby wall.
"How about an encore?" Demyx said as he strummed his sitar once more raise another series of water pillars that were traveling in Sora's direction, who was bracing for impact before the pillars of water were suddenly frozen solid before shattering into pieces, with Yumi being the one responsible.
"And here I thought your training was paying off." Yumi said as Sora recovered.
"We're not here about me. What about the rest of the water copies?" Sora asked.
"The others say they can handle the rest. So now the two of us can focus on him."
"Oh, so the ice queen wants a go? I can live with that. Especially if I can just take that special scroll off of ya." Demyx said.
"Good luck with that." Yumi responded as a light formed around Sora as he then transformed into his limit form.
"You'll need a lot of it!" Sora stated as he made the first move by jumping forward with a flip and brought down his keyblade with a heavy swing that Demyx dodged to the side before he smacked Sora away with a swing of his sitar before sending up a wave of water pillars in Yumi's direction.
"Secret ninja art: Black ice!" Yumi exclaimed as she created a lance made of ice and fired it into Demyx's water wave, causing it to freeze and shatter while the ice lance was still flying towards him.
"Whoa!" Demyx shouted as he ducked in time to avoid the ice lance as it passed over him.
"You missed!"
"She wasn't trying to hit you!" Sora said as Demyx turned around to see the keyblade wielder behind him about to use a fire spell at close range.
"Oh man…" Demyx said before Sora blasted Demyx, just as he was able to raise a wall of water at the last second, creating a mist of steam from the collision of water and fire before Demyx came stumbling out and used his sitar to block a swing from Sora's keyblade and deflected his attack before guarding against a thrust attack from Yumi's fan.
"Begone!" Yumi exclaimed as she raised her second fan to create a gust of wind strong enough to lift Demyx up into the air, allowing an opening for Sora to jump up into the air to follow after the organization member.
Take this!" Sora shouted as he barraged Demyx with a series of vicious air slashes called aerial finish that knocked Demyx into the ground with the last overhead strike.
"Aw, man..This is getting way out of hand." Demyx complained.
"It's gonna get worse!" Sora exclaimed as he dove down at Demyx with a diving slash that was avoided before Sora quickly swung his keyblade upwards to knock his opponent away into Yumi's range.
"Hah!" Yumi grunted as she shot a series of icicle projectiles at Demyx, who was struck by a few of the attacks before finally getting annoyed.
"Okay, even I got my limit, and I just hit it!" Demyx exclaimed as he grabbed his sitar and strummed a loud note that echoed throughout the rooftop as the water clones that were fighting the rest of the Gessen girls suddenly transformed back into water and went towards Demyx.
"Huh? What's going on?" Yozakura questioned when she looked towards the main battle.
"Like, is that guy giving up?" Shiki questioned as all a large amount of water surrounded him.
"Alright, ladies and single gent, pipe down and listen!" Demyx exclaimed as he strummed his sitar loudly as the water surrounding him exploded in a series of numerous water pillars that spread in every direction, blasting back anyone caught in the radius of the attack.
"GAH!" Sora groaned as he was blasted back by the water and sent crashing through a wall.
"Ahh!" Yumi and the Gessen girls groaned as well as they were all scattered in different directions by the water blast and their clothes ended up tattered and wet, leaving Demyx satisfied at his seemingly defeated opponents.
"Looks like the curtains have fallen on you, ice queen. Now, you gotta come with me." Demyx said as she slowly walked over to the prone Yumi, who had her fan ready to throw.
"Guess again!" Yumi shouted as she quickly tossed her fan at Demyx, who was taken by surprise and took a step back to avoid the flying fan, leaving an opening for Yumi as she rushed forward at Demyx.
"Ha!" Yumi grunted as she performed an open palmed strike into Demyx's face and caused him to stumble backwards and annoying him.
"Yow! You know, this is getting on my last nerves!" Demyx exclaimed as he pulled out his sitar for more water-based attacks.
"Let me help you out with that."
"Yeah, thanks, pal. I could use the-" Demyx said before turning around to see Sora right behind him with his keyblade glowing a gold aura.
"I haven't been paying a lot of attention to him today."
"You're through!" Sora shouted as he bombarded Demyx with a flurry of powerful swings of the keyblade with ars arcanum that pummeled Demyx before Sora took one more heavy swing that was powerful enough to sent Demyx back flying into a wall as Sora then took a long jump forward.
"Oh boy!" Demyx exclaimed as he held up his sitar in attempt to defend himself, but Sora's final attack had force behind itto cause his interment to shatter in half, leaving Demyx without a weapon, or his ability to control water.
(Music ends)
"Aw, man. This gotta take forever to fix!" Demyx complained as he held both halves of his sitar before looking up and sightly flinching at the sight of Sora pointing the keyblade at his face, with Yumi at his side, glaring angrily at him, along with the rest of the Gessen girls joining them.
"So…Uh…A draw?"
"Can it, music man. We got questions for you." Sora said as he pointed the keyblade closer to Demyx's face, causing him to gulp in worry.
"This is what we want to know. Why did your superiors order you to steal our school's scrolls?" Yumi questioned.
"Come on, I can't tell you guys that. My bosses would rip me a new one." Demyx said.
"Right now, it's us you should worry about." Yozakura commented as she smashed her gauntlets together to put a little fear in Demyx.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! No need to get violent, ladies! I can't tell you much, but I can say that those scrolls have something to do with those weird red orbs the monsters that come from this world leave behind." Demyx answered, which surprised everyone else for sure.
"Red orbs, from the Yoma?" Yumi questioned.
"I think I remember him talking about that with his pal yesterday." Sora said.
"Really? And what exactly are you cretins gathering red orbs for?"
"Sorry, ladies. I've told you everything I knew…" Demyx said as he slowly stretched his hand behind himself to reach and touch the wall behind him to create a corridor of darkness.
"...So you and I are gonna take our leave now!" Demyx exclaimed as he suddenly grabbed Yumi by her arm and dragged her towards the portal.
"*Gasp!*" Yumi gasped in surprise.
"YUMI!" The Gessen girls exclaimed all together.
"Oh no you don't!" Sora shouted as he rushed forward to grab Yumi's other arm and tried helping her pull away from Demyx.
"Hey, I ain't going empty handed!" Demyx said as a few dusk nobodies appeared out of the dark corridor to stretch out their arms and latched onto the arm of Yumi that Demyx had a hold of.
"Beat it already!" Sora exclaimed as he summoned the keyblade to one hand to shoot a beam of light at the nobodies in the dark corridor, destroying them before he took aim at Demyx and shot him in the chest with another beam of light, causing him to let go of Yumi's arm as the organization member was flung back into the dark corridor while Sora and Yumi were flung back from the force created by Demyx letting go. After Sora had managed to save Yumi, the rest of the Gessen girls ran over to see if their friends were alright.
"Oh, thank goodness. You're both alright!" Yozakura sighed with relief.
"We thought you were about to be taken for sure!" Minori said.
"I was taken by surprise, that's for sure. But thankfully, I had someone looking out for me." Yumi said, speaking of Sora, who she had turned to. "Um…Thank you. For keeping me out of the enemy's hands, and by extension, our academy's scroll."
"It was nothing. I'm alway saving people. What I really appreciate is that you're finally warming up to me, and that uh…" Sora said while droning off from what he was about to say when he looked at Yumi with a heavy blush on his face.
"Is something the matter?" Yumi asked when she noticed the look on Sora's face.
"Uh…Yumi? Don't blame him for this, but uh…." Yozakura said as she tried to find a way to explain the situation to her, but Shiki decided to speak up.
"You're totally topless, girl!" Shiki said as Yumi looked down to see that the top of her kimono had been torn off by Sora's and Demyx struggle for her, leaving her tube bra exposed and causing her face to become bright red before looking angrily at Sora.
"Now wait a minute and think about it, I am not 100% at fault here! Oh boy…" Sora said as Yumi reared her hand back.
*SLAP!*
(Meanwhile, in an unknown location…)
After sending out Demyx to infiltrate Gessen academy and capture Yumi, Ansem and Vexen were currently waiting in a mysterious dark room with Vexen studying one of the yoma red orbs contained in a beaker, while the seeker of darkness was sitting upon a throne made of stone before Ansem sensed a dark corridor being opened.
"He has returned…" Ansem spoke up to get Vexen's attention as the scientist turned around to see a corridor of darkness form in the center of the room.
"WHOA!" Demyx shouted as he fell out of the dark portal onto his back before standing back up to rub his head.
"Ouch! That hurt!"
"Demyx, you made it back. And without being destroyed by Sora a second time." Vexen said as he approached his partner in the organization. "Honestly, I'm surprised you made it back here."
"Was there any doubt at all? I'm the right guy for the job when I need to be!" Demyx boasted, despite the fact that he usually objects to taking any missions.
"Enough of your bravado. Did you capture the guardian of the scroll?" Ansem questioned.
"I sure did! She's right here!" Demyx said as he reached into the dark corridor and pulled out what he expected to be Yumi, only to end up showing the part of her kimono that he tore, causing Vexen to face palm.
"Congratulations, Demyx. You captured the girl's sleeves." Vexen stated as Demyx gulped in worry before turning towards Ansem, who had an angry expression on his face with a sinister dark aura around him.
"Okay, things didn't go according to plan, but…" Demyx said before a large black arm came out of the ground and grabbed Demyx by his neck and lifted him up. "ACK! It wasn't my fault! Sora was there!"
"And you were also told to be wary of the boy. In fact, you should have waited until he was away from the girl!" Ansem said as the dark arm's grip around Demyx's neck grew tighter.
"WAIT, XEHANORT! We might still need him if we don't find our thirteenth! Now put him down!" Vexen begged as Ansem stared at the scientist for a moment.
"As you wish…" Ansem said as the dark aura around him faded before the large arm let go of Demyx and let him drop to the ground as the limb vanished and Vexen walked over to make sure his ally was okay.
"Are you alright, Demyx?" Vexen asked as the sitar player held his throat.
"I think I heard my grandma for a moment." Demyx wheezed.
"Other than your failure of a simple task, did you at least deliver our warning to the children?" Ansem questioned.
"Uh, yeah…totally did…."
"Excellent, then we can proceed forward."
"Xehanort, isn't the destruction of that whole school a little extreme? They are children after all." Vexen questioned.
"We are on the verge of a keyblade war. Extreme tactics are to be expected, after all…" Ansem said as his dark aura formed around him again.
"...We already gave them a peaceful way out." Ansem finished with a wicked smile as his aura moved across the floor towards the other side of the large room and began forming into something large with multiple legs.
(Gessen academy: Ninja room)
"...Ow…" Sora groaned as he held his swollen red cheek from where Yumi had slapped him earlier. "I don't get it, it was only half my fault…"
"Yumi is a girl, Sora. Girls tend to dislike having their clothes ripped off by a boy." Yozakura said.
"C'mon, it was an accident, and I was saving her!"
"Tell that to Yumi." Shiki said as two familiar faces walked into the room, Senko and Gekko, who now dressed in uniforms similar to the Gessen academy uniforms, only with longer skirts.
"Our mission is complete, Gessen academy is clear of those monsters." Senko reported in her monotone voice.
"And all of the students have been accounted for, so they're all okay!" Gekko said with positivity before she and her sister set their eyes upon Sora. "Oh! Almost forgot about the new guy, who are you again?"
"I'm Sora. Kiriya sent me here to train and protect the school from the heartless, the nobodies now too. Nice to meet you girls." Sora answered.
"Same to you. Although I wish they were under more peaceful circumstances."
"I feel the same as my sister, but I do find it strange that a boy is here at Gessen, despite we never had one before." Senko commented.
"You're both not gonna have a problem with that like Yumi did, right?" Sora questioned.
"Maybe not too long ago we would've. But trust me, the two of us are more than welcome you here at Gessen." Gekko said before Yumi walked into the room and saw the group conversing before approaching them.
"I see the rest of us are getting acquainted with our guest." Yumi said as everyone turned to see her.
"Oh uh….Hey…" Sora greeted with worry on his face, believing Yumi was still mad. But surprisingly, she sat next to him.
"I apologize about earlier. I acted with a little haste for obvious reasons."
"So…Do you mean that you mean that you won't do that again?"
"Oh no. I would most likely hit you again." Yumi stated as Sora groaned in annoyance.
"Oh, don't take it so personal, Soraing. It's one of the things you look back at and laugh, like this picture I took." Shiki said as she took out her phone with the exact moment Yumi slapped Sora, with his face rippling from the hit and spit flying out his mouth, which did amuse everyone else.
"Well, I guess that does look funny from everyone else's point of view. In fact-*Pfft!*-I kinda-Hahaha!-Feel like-Hahahaha!" Sora began chuckling uncontrollably which proved to be infectious as the Gessen academy girls began quivering with lips as laughter quickly filled the room.
"Hahahahahaha!" All the Gessen girls laughed, including Yumi, which actually surprised herself before taking a look at Sora, seeing Ventus in his place.
"It's almost like you're here…" Yumi said to herself as she thought back to another memory of the blonde boy.
(Backflash)
(Music:Ventus' theme)
A week after Eraqus left Ventus in Kurokage's care and promising to check in every now and then, the young keyblade wielder had managed to recover physically from his fainting episode, although mentally he was still unwell and was now currently sitting on a bench in the ninja with his blank expression staring out into space while young Yumi walked up to the boy.
"Ventus, are you okay?" Yumi spoke which got the older boy's attention as he looked at her.
"Huh? Um…Yeah, I'm fine." Ventus answered as jumped up to sit on the bench next to him. "Sorry about before, I didn't mean to give you a scare…"
"No, it should be me apologizing. I caused you to become unwell and now I feel horrible."
"Don't be sorry…I'm gonna be fine." Ventus said as he placed a comforting hand on the top of Yumi's head.
"So…You're not mad?" Yumi asked.
"Why would I be? You couldn't have known what was gonna happen to me, so feel free to talk to me about anything now."
"Anything? Like maybe something about your past?" Yumi asked as Ventus shook his head, still unable to give an answer. Disappointing the young girl until she got another question. "Then, do you think we could be friends?"
"I think we are already." Ventus answered as Yumi smiled at the answer.
"Thank You, Ventus! I'm so glad that we could be friends! I have to repay you, I'll show you the academy since you're well enough, and ask grandfather to cook us a meal afterwards." Yumi suggested as she grabbed ahold of Ventus' hand and began pulling on it to pull him off the bench.
"Okay, okay. Slow down, would ya? Oh, one more thing, Yumi…" Ventus said as Yumi turned her head to him.
"If we're gonna be friends, call me Ven." Ventus said with a bright smile Yumi wouldn't be forgetting for a long time.
Journal update
Senko: A young shinobi who attends Gessen academy's middle school division with her twin sister, Gekko, but is the quieter of the two sisters that prefers to use her bare fists in combat. Not long ago, Gekko and her sister shared Kurokage's old and extreme radical view of justice, being temporary enemies of Asuka, Yumi and the other shinobi girls before being defeated and realizing they had made a mistake.
Gekko: A young shinobi who attends Gessen academy's middle school division with her twin sister, Senko. Gekko's favorite pastime is creating costumes for herself and her sister, and sometimes the other shinobi girls. Gekko along with her sister found an old journal during his days as a rogue shinobi and shared his radical views for a short time before realizing it was the wrong path to walk.
