*
The key to fighting doesn't lie in skill or strength.
It is, instead, in the motivations behind your attack.
But what happens, I wonder, when you have lost your will to fight?
*
"Go away, just go away!" I tried ordering the stupid Keyblade. Its weight was slowing me down considerably. I swung it over one shoulder as my geta-clad feet thundered out of the woods and into the city. Somehow I didn't trip and end up with a face full of cement, but such a concern sat at the bottom of my list of worries.
The Keyblade refused to be dismissed, no matter how hard I wished. The thing was probably out so I could protect myself with it, but that was ridiculous. I was no good with weapons; I never had been. I just was never interested.
I was particularly disinterested in learning how to wield a weapon at that moment. I was now on the dark and narrow walled roads, ascending and descending the hilly landscape. I was heading in no particular direction, save away from Sora.
Away from Sora. I hated to run from him—and in such terror—but I knew that the lust for the Keyblade was driving him toward something…something bad…
If he had the Keyblade in his hands once more, what would he do?
I couldn't risk finding out.
I don't know how long I ran, or for how far. The world was a blur: house, tree, streetlight, and shadow mixed together before my eyes. Each time I heard a noise, my legs only pumped faster. I almost tripped and stopped long enough to kick off the clunky geta sandals. For those few seconds, the fear within me swelled. I couldn't risk looking back, so I only could wonder: was Sora right behind?
I switched the Keyblade to my other shoulder, trying to be careful and yet quick. I didn't want to slice my back open or anything, but I desired even less to fall prey to a possible pursuer.
Running had loosened my kimono a little so the clothing didn't impede my journey too much. I would have removed it entirely to preserve its beautiful fabric, but I could only offer a prayer for its safety. There was simply not enough time.
Running…it got me thinking. Back on Destiny Islands, I had only jogged behind Sora and Riku. They had such a competition going, I didn't want to crush their pride by zooming right past them in their races. I didn't mind a casual pace so much, and I had time to myself to race across the beach almost as the predator birds did over the vast ocean. I could really lose myself while I was running, especially when I was running fast.
After I lost them both, I had run more and more. Not wanting to be immersed in sadness, I concentrated on flying across the ground. I could leave the loneliness behind, racing so far ahead of it.
But, somehow, it had always managed to catch up with me.
Presently, I slowed down to make a turn. My legs chose this moment of brief respite to announce their torment. They roared with the pain of exhaustion before turning to jelly beneath me. I stumbled into a wall, my hot cheek hitting the rough stone. I breathed the cold air and it stung my exhausted lungs. Again and again I inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled. My heart beat angrily within my ribcage. My arm slipped downward and the base of the Keyblade came to rest on the ground.
I was terrified, of course. My heart drummed on and as my lungs burned. I knew I had to keep going or something bad would catch up with me.
I had never much care for the end of a run. It gave me time to think, gave whatever was after me a chance to close up the distance between us.
There was a streetlight only steps away, but in front of me the road seemed especially black. My thoughts drew themselves into neat order. My exhausted lungs prepared to issue a cry.
I clenched my free hand over my mouth to prevent the scream that was fighting so desperately to be released. I backed up against the wall, lifting the Keyblade in front of me. It bounced up and down, as my hand was shaking terribly, so I wrapped my other fingers around the handle. Wielding the thing two-handed, I tried to prepare myself for what was sure to take form from the ground at any moment, ready to take advantage of me in my weakened state.
Shadows…their antennae were poking through the surface of the road already. There were several pairs of the stringy black sensors. More than I had expected.
And probably…more than I could handle.
My breathing was heavy and deliberate as I tried to regain my confidence. What was there to this whole fighting thing, anyway? All I had to do was swing the weapon around—it was so bulky and heavy, it had to do something to ward off those annoying little Shadows.
Their heads had finished emerging now. Their glowing eyes were all fixed on me as their bodies completed the transformation from puddle to creature. They all titled their heads inquiringly as one.
I charged, swinging the Keyblade in a low, wide arc with as much strength as I could muster.
I was too slow. They jumped back, squeaking, dancing on their little feet.
Not fair. I ran and swung, still low but a lot faster. The blade grazed some of my enemies, but momentum from my attack carried me in a dizzying circle. I must have been a sight, turning around at the whim of the insubordinate Keyblade.
The Keychain, the little paopu fruit ornament I had given Sora, bounced against my hands. In his own way, Sora had fulfilled his promise: he had brought my charm back to me. Now I would fulfill the promise I made concerning him, the promise to be on his side. In my mind, that now translated to keeping the Keyblade safe until Sora could be made better.
"Yaaahhh!" I stopped abruptly in my turn and flew the other way, trying to catch my little squeaking opponents off guard. It worked. I nailed two of them.
"Yatta!" was my inward cry of pleasure. I did it!
A throng of five or so Heartless was gathering at my right. Were they readying for a combination attack? I wouldn't let them try anything like that! I took one second to adjust my kimono, to loosen it so my steps could be wide and fast. I then struck right down the center of the bunch, destroying half the elements of the pyramid.
The confidence within me steadily grew, shooting up with each victory on my part. Perhaps it was growing dangerously high, but the adrenaline pulsing through me dissolved the common sense I usually possessed.
I would soon pay for that.
All of a sudden the fingerlike blades at the end of the Oathkeeper became lodged under the chin of one monster. I tried to tug it out, but the thing glared at me with its malevolent yellow eyes, reached up with both hands and grabbed on tight. I knew I had waltzed myself elegantly right into a trap, but there was no easy escape now. There was certainly no way I would drop the Keyblade now and let them have it!
My mind searched itself over as other Heartless materialized from the pavement. As soon as they had solid form, they marched their halting walk toward me, antennae waving, feet squeaking. They seemed bigger when they were not a blade's distance away from me. They seemed larger and more real.
"Let go!" I shouted, issuing a pull with as much force as I could manage behind it. No good. Two other Heartless joined their dying friend and held on to my only weapon, their eyes just as mocking as their friend's—perhaps more so.
It struck me how terribly inhumane their battle strategy was. The Shadow in the middle was sacrificing itself, drawing my weapon further and further into its own body, for the sake of the group, none of which, by the way, showed a drop of remorse. In fact, they never once glanced at the Heartless that had first trapped me.
They were truly without hearts… What a perfect fighting force they were! They were a fleet of weapons with no regard for their own welfare or that of their partners. Each cared for the success of the group only. They were performing a mission somehow programmed into them, and that was it.
Their mission now was, of course, to defeat me and secure the Keyblade. I was well aware of Sora's problems on his first adventure. The Heartless had kept up their pursuit of him as long as he had held the weapon that now had found itself into my hands.
"Wherever I go, you're right behind me!" Sora had shouted at the Heartless at the church with more anger than I had ever heard him invoke previously. Now it was my turn to take the constant ambushes Darkness had to offer its opponents.
I was pulled from these thoughts by a sheer and sudden pain.
The source of this pain was a large gash across my right thigh, one that pulsed out dark red blood. My attackers had managed to rip away the layers of kimono guarding my leg, expose the skin, and dig their claws down through the flesh in a matter of seconds. An efficient army they certainly were.
Crying out, I rocketed backward, pulling the Oathkeeper up above my head and letting it swing in the air as I tried desperately to regain my balance. I did not want to fall into the pile of Heartless gathering ever so eagerly about me. They would take me to the depths of Darkness, the resting place for their blackened souls. They would devour me…make me one of them…take me away from everyone I cared for…
My thoughts were blurring, probably due to the loss of blood.
I had two choices wavering in front of my eyes. I could either let the Heartless take me right then and there, or I could instead fight to delay that fate, perhaps long enough for some miracle to occur. Certainly a miracle was all that could save me now.
My fresh wound continued to scream with pain. I told it to shut up.
I made several large, powerful swings and backed away from the cloud of enemies. The Heartless were then forced to regroup. That gave me enough time to raggedly cut a long piece from the underclothes worn under the kimono. I tied it as tight as I could right above my wound, trying to ignore the hot blood soaking my clothes and running down both legs.
From here, and basically one-legged (as my right was quickly going limp), I bent down low and began to take down the Heartless one by one. I did all of this very fast; I knew it was only a matter of minutes before I could no longer walk, and only a matter of seconds after that for the Shadows to seize the opportunity to commandeer the Keyblade from my weakening grasp.
In the back of my head I knew the effort was in vain. The more Heartless I destroyed, the more that either rose from the ground or appeared from behind the walls to take their place. But I couldn't stop fighting. I couldn't give up. I had to keep slashing, even if my swings grew slower and less accurate, even if I was so soon overwhelmed and within two or three minutes twenty Heartless were squeaking and dancing around me, mocking me with their glowing yellow eyes.
I had obviously known very little about tourniquets, evidenced by my right leg, which might as well have been dead at that point; it was turning purple, and now dragged along the ground behind me.
I finally collapsed to my left knee, my breathing hard and painful as I sucked in the cold night air. I felt a little ill; the scent of my blood was strong. I was sure the Heartless smelled it too. It probably filled their evil little minds with glee. I brought the Keyblade closer, trying to shield it against my chest.
One Heartless lunged toward me. My head retracted instinctively, but my mind and body were, in truth, much too tired to formulate and execute a counterattack. I could not doubt my fate now.
The Shadow suddenly shot to the right. It hit the ground, crying out with its last breath. My eyes narrowed to inspect its chest. I saw several fine points of metal sticking out of it.
"Shuriken …" I recognized.
Several more of the silver ninja stars came down in a storm, each finding its home in the middle of a Heartless chest. The Heartless fell back, most dying within moments. I realized that most of my opponents had been destroyed. And by whom, I was most sure. It was only a matter of locating her…
My eyes found Yuffie atop one of the stone walls next to a streetlight. She had hiked up her red kimono and tied it into big knots at either knee to reveal thin, muscular legs. The long sleeves of the young woman's dress were also rolled and knotted. She grinned down at me, stopping only to procure a few more of her deadly pinwheel blades and fling them with a fast and precise throw into two additional Heartless.
I used the Oathkeeper as a crutch to help me stand, and, once I had done so, I had to shut my eyes. Two blinding circles of light were quickly approaching. After the light came the screeching of brakes. My eyes adjusted and I saw a low, thin black car stopped right in front of me. Out of it climbed Squall, Cloud, Rinoa, and Aerith, all still clad in their festival clothes. These four, as well as Yuffie, proceeded to form a circle around me.
Aerith took my body against her and embraced me. She then procured a bottle from within a sleeve of her kimono and had me drink its contents, all the while apologizing for not having her magic in this world.
"Why did you insist on getting out and running ahead?" Squall was scolding Yuffie, who had, up until he spoke, looked quite pleased with herself. She glared at her teacher and now, once again, comrade.
"No," I breathed, and everyone's attention turned to me. "She saved my life..."
Yuffie tilted her head in concern. "Hey, Kai-chan, ya gonna be okay?"
I managed a nod.
We all looked up: it had started to rain, cold and steady all at once. When had the sky grown cloudy? I hadn't had a chance to notice.
"We should get her inside somewhere," Rinoa said, shifting her weight and crossing her arms. Her dark and worried eyes journeyed from the brown-haired solider at her side to me.
"There's probably still some Heartless around," Squall said. He reached inside his coat pocket to retrieve his car keys. He delivered them into his girlfriend's open palm. "You girls take her to…"
"To our place," Cloud broke in, his serious eyes meeting his wife's for a second. He turned his back to us. "Squall, Yuffie, let's go."
They left, marching determinedly down the street. The rest of us piled into the car. Rinoa took the wheel, and Aerith sat beside her after she helped me limp into the back. I fastened my seatbelt while trying to sort out my confused thoughts. As we started to drive, something like a sack of lead slumped over my lap.
I soon discovered it was an unconscious Riku.
***
I promise there will be a lesson on kimono as well as pictures of your favorite characters wearing them next chapter…!