Kingdom Hearts: Daybreak Academy
Chapter 6: The Guiding Key
After the incident in the cafeteria, Dani allowed Galeo to get his fill of breakfast, which turned out to make the expression, "I could eat a whole elephant," seem a little more fact than fiction. Plate after plate had been licked clean resulting in multiple towers rising high around him like a fortress. At one point, Dani began to question if this boy was even human. Even after he'd gotten his fill, it was something that pricked at her mind like a pesky thorn.
Never mind that, she told herself. The Master gave you a task. You need to follow through, Dani.
Once Galeo had finished eating, Dani led him out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. The fluorescent lamps above their heads were off because of the bright natural light flooding in from the open windows. It made it easy for Galeo to see the occasional painting on the wall. One, in particular, caught his eyes. It depicted the five union masters, but upon closer inspection, they were not the ones he met the day before, at least not all of them. While the man with the unicorn mask was clearly Ira, albeit much younger, and the towering man in the bear masked could have been Aced, the woman with the fox mask was much taller than the petite Ava, and the mask of the leopard was worn by a woman while the mask of the snake was worn by a man.
"Galeo."
The newcomer had been so focused on the painting that he failed to realize that he was no longer directly behind Dani. She retraced her steps to join Galeo and see what he was looking at.
When Dani saw the painting, she was unsure of what had caught his interest, so she asked, "Is something the matter?"
Galeo shook his head. "Nothing's the matter. It's just, some of these people are different from the ones I met yesterday, right?"
"Hm?" Dani took another good look at the painting and said, "Oh yeah, I guess they are. I never really noticed that. I don't take much time to look around the towers that much."
"How come? This place is awesome! There's so much to see."
Dani smiled. It was not often that she saw another student, let alone someone from her union, express interest and excitement about the academy itself.
"I guess I just prefer to spend my time elsewhere."
"Where's that?"
"I'll show you once we get to the Sleeping Worlds."
"Sleeping Worlds?"
Dani winced as she rubbed the back of her head. "It's hard to explain now, but I can try. Okay so I don't think I have to tell you that the world is big, right? Master Gula told me that you traveled a long way to get here."
"Yup!"
"Well, there are places even farther away from where you came from. Places that only one man has seen with his own eyes."
"Woah! Who's that?"
"No one knows his name, so everyone just calls him the Master of Masters. He taught the first union masters at the academy. He even built Daybreak Town from the ground up."
"Wow! He must be super powerful, right?"
Dani shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I've never met the guy before. He died centuries ago so for all I know, this stuff is just legend. The reason I bring him up is because I was told by Master Gula that it was the Master of Masters who wrote the original Book of Fantasies, which lets us travel to fantastical versions of those far off places in our sleep. That's why they're called Sleeping Worlds. Does that make sense?"
"Kind of. So, are we actually going to these places?"
Dani shook her head. "No. These places exist in our dreams. I told you it was hard to explain. You'll see what I mean, but first I need to show you something else."
"Okay!"
The two wielders continued until they reached a door. It was actually the first one they had come across since they left the cafeteria. Dani opened the door and held it open for Galeo to walk in first. Once he entered, Dani told him, "I'm going to close this door behind you and you're going to have to open it, okay?"
Galeo looked a bit confused, which made Dani a bit uneasy, though she did not show it. Despite not understanding her request, Galeo agreed and stepped through the door.
"Give me a few seconds before you open it."
Galeo nodded and stood on the other side of the threshold as the door began to close. When it had completely shut, Dani was blocked on the other side, at least until Galeo would open the door. There was a sudden click, which Galeo thought sounded awfully like a door being locked. He reached for the handle and twisted it to only to find that his suspicions were correct. Left. Right. It didn't matter which way he turned the knob because the door would not open.
The foreign boy took a step back to look around the room for another way out. The room had no windows, but there was an air vent on the ceiling. To get to it, Galeo climbed an empty nearby shelf case. He pulled on the metal cover, but it would not budge. He quickly began to grow frustrated as he saw no other way out. His finger curled into the vent as he yanked hard, but the cover would not move.
During one of the times that Galeo pulled hard, his sweaty fingers had slipped, causing him to crash down to the floor. "Ow!" he said.
As he laid there for a moment, Galeo stared up at the ceiling in silence. He rose his hand straight up in front of him and summoned his Keyblade. As he looked at his weapon, Galeo asked himself, "Where do I go from here?" His eyes focused on the starry blade, following the pattern up the edge until they reached the crescent moon. That's when it dawned on him. His weapon is a Keyblade.
Galeo sprang up to his feet and aimed the tip of his Keyblade at the door. In his heart, he desired to leave the room and his weapon resonated with that desire. A beam of light fired from the tip and connected with the keyhole just below the doorknob. There was a clicking noise, which told Galeo that the door was unlocked. His hand went for the handle and it twisted, releasing the door from the frame.
On the other side stood Dani with her arms crossed over her chest and her back against the opposite window frame. A smirk sat on her face, displaying her satisfaction with him.
"Well that took longer than it should have."
"W-what?! How long did you think I'd be in there?"
Dani shrugged. "Maybe a few seconds. After all, we use giant keys as weapons. It's important for you to understand that so that you can know your way around this tower."
Galeo thought back to the previous day when Ava aimed her Keyblade at the door.
"Oh! So we use the Keyblades to open doors here?"
"Not just that. Do you remember the room you were just in?"
"Yeah? It was kind of small and it had shelves."
"Yeah, it's a supply closet. Now watch this." With a flash of golden light, Dani's Keyblade appears in her hand, the Three Wishes. She lifted the weapon up in front of her and aimed it at the door before them. A white beam shot out and hit the door, making it glow with the same color. With a kachunk, the beam faded away.
Dani turned to Galeo and said, "Go ahead and open it."
Galeo was not sure what exactly Dani had done. He just assumed that she locked the door again, but he did not hesitate to go open it. When he did, he found a completely different room on the side. It was a large multi-level room with stairs and balconies. Rows and rows of shelves stacked high with hundred – even thousands – of books filled the room, casting great shadows over the ivory tiled floor.
Galeo's eyes widened. "Woah! How did…?"
Dani entered the room and closed the door behind him. She continued walking past Galeo, and without turning, she said, "May your heart be your guiding key."
"Huh?"
"Never forget those words."
Galeo summoned his Keyblade again and held it out in front of himself to stare at the starry blade. The soft chiming sound made from its appearance rang in Dani's ears, causing her to turn. She looked at Galeo with a confused expression and a hint of caution.
"I haven't," he says softly. "I wouldn't've made it here if I did."
It took everything Dani had to keep herself from asking about Galeo's origins. Gula had told her the bare minimum and nothing more. He said that the less she knew, the better. Still, she could not help but wonder.
Realizing that he had been lost in his own thoughts and his own memories, Galeo looks past his weapon to Dani as she stands in front of him, staring at him. "Huh? Something the matter?"
When she realized herself that she was staring, Dani blinked her eyes and shook her head. "Uh...no. Come on, we still have a lot to go over. Oh!" She started whispering. "Remember to keep your voice down when you're in here."
Galeo whispered back, "Okay. So what is this place?" His gaze floated up along the shelves of books to the second and third floor balconies. Beyond them was the ceiling, which had a stain-glass mosaic of the five union sigils bound together in a circle – the symbol of the school.
"This is the grand library." Dani walked over to one of the tables and pulled out a chair. "Go ahead and have a seat. I'll be back."
The wanderer did as he was told and waited patiently for Dani to return with a pair of matching books, one of which she set down in front of him. Galeo looked at it with a lost expression as he lifted it up by the cover, allowing the pages to roll out until they all dangled from the spine.
Dani's eyes narrowed speculatively. She had a thought. "Galeo, you've never seen a book before, have you?"
Without any sense of shame, he shook his head and said, "No. Is that what this is?"
Had this been anyone else in Dani's shoes, they would have not believed their ears. More than likely, they would've judged Galeo, possibly even ridiculed him. But fortunately for him, it was Dani. At that moment she realized why Gula had picked her specifically to teach him about the Sleeping Worlds.
Dani took the book from Galeo's hands and placed it open in front of him. There was an illustration of a town square from a rooftop perspective and below it a caption. Dani pointed to the caption and asked, "Can you read this?"
"Read?"
Her eyes went up from the page to meet with Galeo's. "You don't know what that is, do you?"
He shook his head again, still not guilt or embarrassment to be found on his face.
Dani bit her lip.
"What's wrong?" he asked with a head tilt.
The brunette stayed quiet for a moment and explained, "That's going to be a problem."
"Why is that?"
"I know I said you're not ready yet, but if you can't read...you can't visit the Sleeping Worlds."
Author's Notes
Uh-oh! How is Galeo supposed to train under the masters if he can't visit the Sleeping Worlds? Is that it? Is that just the end of the story? Nah, but you'll have to read the next chapter to find out what happens next!
QOTC: What is one world (both Disney and non-Disney) that you hope to see in this story?
Responses to Reviews:
ShadowWolf223: I'm glad you enjoy the interaction between them. Astrid's Dream Eater, in particular, will be an interesting one.
Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Hey, no worries. I understand your lack of faith in me based on how long it took me to update this story. While I have a bad track record with quitting my fanfictions after about 6-12 chapters into writing, I think that once we get through this first arc, that'll be a good indicator of my dedication to this story.
WolfieRed23: This story will be a long-running project so it'll have undulating periods of slow and fast. It'll definitely progress at a smoother rate than DD, that's for sure lol.
Silver Kitsune Lunaria: That's a great analogy! I'll be sure to remember the plot bunnies and keep them in line.
