*

            The final battle is close at hand.

            Those who are left behind will stay that way.

            Come with me, or all shall be lost.

*

            Everybody was crying.  Screams filled the air.  I was crying too, screaming just as loud.

            Later—no, before, a few hours before—I was in the small room with Kuroko and her friends.  Blushing, I stepped up in front of the screen.  The karaoke microphone wobbled in my hand until I grasped it as tightly as I could, almost crushing it.  The song came up, an American one by a group called Evanescence.  They had all sorts of music at this place.  I found I could sing the English pretty well, although the Japanese accent made my l's come out like r's and vice versa.

            Kuroko picked out the song for me.  The introduction was pretty, the notes beautiful and yet slightly chaotic.  In the background, the female vocalist sang two words:  "Paper flowers."  And then it was my turn to come in as the lead.  My voice wavered at first, but I became strangely impassioned and started belting the song out in a harmonious, emotional display.

"I linger in the doorway

Of alarm clock screaming monsters calling my name

Let me stay

Where the wind will whisper to me

Where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story…

            Later I wound up in Yokohama at a small bayside park.  It was night, the very dead of it, and the few couples that had lingered on the benches were now walking hand in hand through the grass and around the statue back toward the ritzy hotel towering brightly across the road.

            I walked with my hands clasped behind my back, wordlessly taking in the sights.  Kuroko and her friends had been headed for another club and then a final party at the hotel behind me, but I had declined, preferring thoughtful solitude to their inside jokes and roaring laughter.  I approached the metal rail that separated the concrete walk from the drop off into the ocean's foreboding waters, leaning against it, the cold rod pressing into my collarbone.  There was a large ship docked in the water to my right, its lights reflecting brilliantly off the obsidian surface of Tokyo Bay.

            I took a quick look around.  There was no one left, save a guitarist quickly retreating with his case.  His windbreaker dragged on the ground behind him, the pockets jingling.  It was his earnings for the night, the yen thrown at him in appreciation of his musical services.  I watched him leave not without regret; it would have been nice to hear a clear voice cut through the chilled night air.

            I climbed up on the rail, struggling for several moments before achieving balance.  I laughed when I finally could do it, even kicked the air in amusement.  My thong sandals went flying from my feet, bouncing along the sidewalk until skittering to a rest in the dew-damp grass.

            If the guitarist had departed, I decided, then there was no reason for the air to be free of music.  I smiled before opening my lips and preparing to continue the song I had begun at the karaoke bar.  Already it was stuck in my head, its eerie melody pulsing through my brain and body as naturally and as regularly as the blood that kept me alive.

"In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me…

            As my lips formed the words of the last line, I leaned backward to see the night sky with its pinpricks of stars glistening through the layers of pollution.  It was too far backward, unfortunately.  I went plunging into the Pacific Ocean without so much as a scream.

            Not that anyone was around to hear me, anyway.

            I was walking from the hotel to the deserted park.  It was a night in a big city and yet I didn't feel afraid.  Why should a Keyblade master fear anything?  I touched my unfolded hand to my chest, a little assurance that I could summon the weapon in case anything happened.  Not that it would—who on Earth would be stupid enough to attack me?

            Yet there was someone…someone up ahead, a shadowy figure I could barely make out through the mist.  The thing was there wasn't any mist—except for right in front of where the tall man stood.

            He seemed to turn towards me, the hood of his silver coat falling from his head to reveal white hair clipped severely at his chin.  His eyes followed a circular path as his head glided across his shoulders.  His two dark irises fixed determinedly on me, and his long, flat mouth curved into a smile.

           "Hey!" I called out, beginning to feel annoyed.  This man of at least twice my age making a face at a young girl like that!  My palm returned to my heart again.  I felt a faint beating that gave me the courage to continue.

            His smile only grew larger.

            "Hey!" I screeched, crossing the street without looking.  A yellow-white glare exploded at my right.  A car was braking right in front of me, its horn blaring.  I stared at the driver indignantly before marching my way across the rest of the road.

            The man I had been following had disappeared, and the mist that had enshrouded him was quickly dissipating.  I stopped where I was, my hands planting themselves on my bony hips.  Where was that idiot, that lecherous man who had deemed it appropriate to ogle someone like me?

            "Looking for someone?"

            I turned.  The black window of a limousine was rolling mechanically down to reveal the face of the man with the short white hair and the mischievous smile.  Then the light changed and the long white car sped away down the street, turning at the following corner and heading down a mist-filled lane.

            I backed up a little, unsure of myself.  I clutched at my heart desperately, using both hands to tug at the fabric of my shirt.  Why was the beating within my chest so soft and quiet?  What was happening to me?  Was this a dream, or a waking nightmare?

            "Don't worry.  It's almost time."

            The voice was right behind me now.  I felt someone's breath on my neck.  I shut my eyes, praying with all my might to awaken.  For someone to call out to me, grab my shoulders and shake me from this cursed sleep.  For someone like Sora to be there to tell me it was nothing.  Sora…

            "He is ready.  Are you?"

            I gulped.  I could hear footsteps, the sound of his black boots slipping in the wet grass.  My eyelids would not be squeezed any tighter.  I let them open slowly, let the world come back into my vision one line at a time.

            The man's face was near mine.  He was crouching on the ground, his cloak spreading about him in the dewy grass.  His pale face looked into mine, smiling with what I suddenly realized was a fatherly brand of concern.

            Scared at my own reaction to his expression, I continued to back up.  He was behind me all of a sudden, his arm resting on my shoulders.

            Who is he? I wondered futilely, trying to shut out the image of him from my mind.  Why did his eyes, the bridge of his nose…  Why did he remind me so of the reflection I saw every morning in the bathroom mirror?

            "Let go of me," I demanded, trying to force the fear out of my voice by replacing it with anger.  My body shook though, and, since he was holding me, I'm sure he felt it.  "I'm warning you," I tried, holding myself firm.  "You'll be sorry.  I have a weapon and I know how to use it."

            "I know you have a weapon.  I helped you to get it."

            All at once I knew why his voice sounded so familiar.  Tears burst from my eyes, although I wasn't sure why.  I was too shocked for any coherent thoughts to surface.  Let it all be a dream…this is too big for me to handle…

            "At last we meet, Kairi.  I doubt you remember me, for you left home when you were but a little girl."

            "My home is Destiny Islands!" I screamed suddenly, breaking away from him.  I didn't remember anything about that other place, did I?  Not those faint dreams, those fragments of memories that came back once in a while…  An old woman telling me stories, two men throwing me into the air playfully…  The servants washing my hair and sewing my dresses…

            "You denounce your own land, Princess?"

            My hands flew to the sides of my head.  "The only land I have is Destiny Islands.  Leave me alone!"

            "You forget your family?"

            "Who are you?  Get away from me!" I added right away, suddenly not wanting an answer to my question.

            He was kneeling on the ground again, the knees of his white suit pants acquiring further stains from the grass.  "Calm down.  I will explain everything, Kairi.  So will you be quiet and listen?"

            I took my hands from my ears and my arms descended limply to my sides.  I sniffled a little, making a few small steps to keep a good distance between myself and the man down before me.

            "You know of Hollow Bastion, do you not?"

            "I know it."

            "You were there.  You were the final Princess of Heart."

            "I know that.  That's where I woke up, after…"

            "And it didn't seem familiar to you, not at all?"

            "Well…"  I couldn't lie.  The place had seemed so special to me then, but I had had other matters to concern myself with—Sora's well-being above all.

            "You didn't remember it was yours—it was all yours?"

            "What do you mean?  You mean that is where I came from?"

            "Where you came from?"  He laughed again, his smile not seeming as eerie as before.  Yet I was still uncomfortable.  The man spoke again, the grin not ceasing to dominate his face.  "You are not merely a citizen of Hollow Bastion, but the daughter of its great ruler, Lord Ansem!"

            In my mind I was singing, trying to drown out what he was telling me.  This ugly pronouncement he would have me believe as truth.

"Don't say I'm out of touch
With this rampant chaos - your reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape

            "Ansem?  No way!"  Animosity swelled within me.  "You're making this up!  Ansem was evil!  He tried to kill Sora—he took Sora away!"

            Again the man laughed.  "Your mind is still too closed to understand everything, your experiences too shallow.  I realize that.  Please trust me, though, as your uncle."

            It was easier to believe this man to be my uncle than that evil ruler Ansem my father.  I gulped before nodding at his words.  The ramifications of this acceptance hit me slowly but surely.  I had family, living flesh and blood tied to me…!  My lifelong desire for that kind of link was finally fulfilled.  I collapsed, my bare knees pressing into the wet grass.  My uncle's arms fell upon me gently, holding me against him.

            "My name is Salem.  Ansem was my brother, and your father.  I know you don't want to believe it, but you must, and soon.  I have been working on his legacy, of which you are the greatest part."

            "Because I have the Keyblade?"

            "Yes, we have the Keyblade.  That—besides you—is our greatest asset."

            "And Sora…what about Sora?"

            "He is also important.  Come, Kairi," Salem said, and he helped me to stand.  We walked together to the water.  A hazy mist rose from its black surface, covering our feet.

            We went to the spot where I had fallen in.  I saw the weirdest thing:  myself.  I was toppling backward, a hazy outline of Kairi breaking through the water in a shower of blue-green sparks.

            "Look," Salem commanded when I abruptly turned my face from the bizarre sight.  His voice was gentle but forceful.

            I held his hand as I peered timidly over the edge.  The me I saw was wearing the long white dress from my dreams, the skirt of which spread out almost like wings.  She mouthed something before fading from sight.

            Had I been cleverer, and better skilled at reading lips, I would have seen her warning.  "Save me, Kairi," she whispered as she plunged into the black ocean.  "Before it's too late."

            The world faded.  The Kairi I saw became the Kairi I was.  And she sang.

"In my field of paper flowers
And candy clouds of lullaby
I lie inside myself for hours
And watch my purple sky fly over me…

            I emerged from the surface of Tokyo Bay, struggling with all my might.  Great waves were surging behind me, thundering in from the great Pacific.  The land beneath the bay shook too.  I dared to look down and saw cracks in the ocean floor, a fiercely bright light erupting from the lines where the earth was cracking.

            I let out a scream and made to swim for shore.  Only things on land weren't going much better.  The great skyscrapers were screeching, collapsing in on themselves in great crashes of debris.  I could hear all the people screaming even from the middle of the bay.  As the swelling of the ocean brought me closer to land, I saw that not only was Tokyo being shaken at its foundations, but from every splintered building poured all brands of Heartless.

            The city was under siege.

            As I floated there helplessly, I was witness more deaths than I could possibly fathom.  As each skyscraper, apartment building, overpass—they all cracked and crashed downward in magnificently horrifying displays—as each fell, people were being crushed beneath the concrete that had once made their structures seem strong.  Those who were not so mercifully killed had their hearts harvested by the roaming monsters known as Heartless.

            My own cries joined the choruses rising in the smoke-filled air.  Everything was crumbling, and the remains were exploding into flame.  On my knees I crawled, searching in vain for some sort of refuge—any bit of peace in the Hell that exploded around me.

            A large winged Heartless I had never seen before descended upon me.  I rolled to one side and summoned the Keyblade to my hand, breathing hard.  I tasted dirt, the same filth that stuck to my skin and the white fabric of the soaked dress I wore. 

            The two of us struggled for some time, claws digging into my skin and making me bleed.  Long lines of red ran down my once elegant white gown.  I managed to stand.  The thing dragged behind me, ripping in places.  My appearance was second, however, to my own survival.  I plunged in until I had destroyed the Heartless, a member of the army that was destroying my second home of Japan.

            And yet suddenly I remembered that I had had a first home of Hollow Bastion, that Ansem was supposed to be my father and Salem my uncle.  Sora fit into this somehow; he and I were great pieces of some puzzle Salem was eagerly fitting together.

            I fell to my knees, crying into my bloodstained hands.  I could not raise my head and observe the ruin that was taking place all around me.  Hearing it was bad enough.  Thinking that everyone I cared about in Japan could be dying or already dead…  Knowing no one would be left to take care of me…

            Yes, that was quite enough.

            I descended farther, my side slamming against the ground.  I curled up in a ball, my hair and clothes clumping with water, sand, and blood.  I did not care.  I only sobbed.  The Keyblade was at my side, but I found I was still alone.  Everything was falling apart around me.

"Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh, how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light…"