We interrupt your normal programming to bring you this news flash...

Five teenagers in my county died this week, another is in the hospital. Why are people such IDIOTS? ;_;

One of the deaths and the hospitalization is from a school shooting. The other four deaths were from some idiot, most likely drunk, teens playing chicken with a TRAIN. The bloody idiots! *Sniffsnifflesniff* Why do people DO these things?

Also, I just got grounded big time, so this sorta might be the last update in a while. ;_; Sorry, minna-dono.

IMPORTANT QUESTION AT THE VERY BOTTOM!

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Reviewers: soraoatkeeper (You would have to ask a hard one, wouldn't you? I'll answer at the bottom...) Maji the Blue Mage (*Laughs* I know what you mean, Maji-dono, on everything. And if you want sentence structure, there's this site that I found, Nihongo o Narau, that teaches basic Japanese- "learn-japanese.info/lesson01.html", a www in front of course. You could try that place out. And Kenshin-chan, Lily says she knows how you feel... ^_^;;)

Warnings: Well, I'm starting off with a cryptic songfic Neko-Dream based on Deep Dive, which'll be odd.-_-;; Also, more Riku and Anima romantic fluff, as in pink cotton-candy clouds and singing cherubs sort of fluff. And then clueless Riku-chan challenges Anima-chan to a race... *Face* Idiot.

Disclaimer: I don't own ANY of them anymore. v_v They own themselves. Or maybe someone else owns them. But it's sure not ME. *Cries* I want my control back~! :(

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Experimental

Kurayami: Part Eleven

Good Can Will



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~ If you are near to the dark

I will tell you 'bout the sun ~

Neko stands at the edge of a glassy sea, a brilliant moon veiled by a shimmering curtain of clouds. Rocks covered with an edge of glowing mist surround her, silhouetted against the midnight blue sky.

She turns to face the moonlight, lifting her face so it streams under her grey hood and through her pale, wild bangs to hit her face in a cool stream. She walks to the edge of the dark water.

As Neko tilts her head down, a glassy shine of light catches her sight.

~ You are here, no escape

From my visions of the world ~

She walks to where the bottle rests in the fine, smooth, blue-tinted sand, her waveringly distorted reflection floating on the outside of the crystalline glass. As she kneels before it, hood and bangs shading her eyes, the reflection pushes its own hood back, showing wild silver-white hair with the barest hints of other colors floating down to the shoulders of a young man with large, tilted, pale blue eyes full of pain. He reaches out his hand, mouth open in a soundless cry for help, face twisting in pain. Then his face calms, hardens, closing out all emotions as his eyes shade to glowing goldenrod, and he draws a black strip of cloth across those blank orbs of Heartless light, tying it underneath his wild white hair.

~ You will cry all alone

But it does not mean a thing to me ~

Neko flinches back, turning her head away from the hard face reflected to her, with its cold, cold smile, and when she turns her head back, her brother has disappeared, and instead she sees the curl of water-stained parchment inside the bottle.

~ Knowing the song I will sing

till the darkness comes to sleep ~

Lifting the bottle in a delicate grip, she reaches through the uncorked neck and fishes out the damp parchment, unrolling it over her pale fingers, carefully parting it with her long, sharp, silver-tinted nails. She lifts it so the moonlight falls across the smudged blue ink, only a few words here and there decipherable.

*...ling Paradise......a fragmented tale......world without you...... The eyes w... close...... ENDLESS...... I ..... exist......*

~ Come to me, I will tell

'bout the secret of the sun ~

Such sadness seems to resonate from the damp, yellowed scrap that unexplained wetness appears in Neko's lavender eyes, and a salty tear falls onto the letter. The ink where it falls blurs even more, seeming to swirl and darken as it flows down with the tear. As the tear traces along the bottom edge of the parchment, it blackens, and when it drips off a corner, it seems more a swirl of inky void than a mere ink-stained tear.

~ It's in you, not in me

But it does not mean a thing to you ~

"Nani?..."

The dark drop hits the ground, spreads into a pool of darkness, almost a foot around. It swirls hypnotically, a flash here and there of glowing yellow, and a slim, delicate, fanged snout flows, slithers out of the edge, followed by slanted eyes- black ribbons of darkness flowing from dark, reptilian cheeks- Swept-back, fringed ears- dark, ragged mane- black feathered wings that, where they meet the slender, grey snakelike body are imprinted with a dark heart, spiked out at the base, and finally a long, whip tail ending in a black feather.

~ the sun is in your eyes

the sun is in your ears ~

The three-foot long flying snake Heartless pulls itself away from the ground, wings flapping slowly as its hovers in front of Neko, tail writhing in sinuous curves. Its slit yellow eyes meet Neko's wide, half shocked, half fearful eyes through the shade of her hood, past the veiling falls of hair.

~ but you can't see the sun

ever in the darkness ~

Neko raises a shaky hand to cast Scan, and the yellow eyes of the TsubasaRyu widen- it lunges- Neko falls back, raising her hands, Keyblades NOT coming to protect her- her hood falls back- A streak of pain across her arm, just where Oni slashed her so many years ago- She falls back, thin arms catch her, all she sees are a pair of eyes, thin, slanted, with dark royal purple slit pupils surrounded by a green-tinted rich blue, and fine strands of platinum blond...

~ It does not much matter to me ~

***

Neko wakes up, huddled in the slightly oversized nightshirt Polgara found for her, her eyes wide and unseeing. She lashes out at the person holding her arm in a firm grim, slowly calming down as she realizes that it was a Dream, nothing more. But the pain... It was so real...

As the silvery glow fades from her vision, the mark of one of her Dreams, her breathing slows, hand rising to the old scars on her arm. Dark Magician Girl slowly comes forward again.

"N-Neko?" she stutters in her many-level voice, "are you alright?"

Neko's eyes focus blankly on Dark Magician Girl, the wild look fading out, and recognition crossing them. "Oh, it's you. I'm sorry; Did I wake you?"

The Duel Monster shakes her head. "I- I had already woken up, and, and I was trying to remember why I might be here, and then you started to cry in your sleep, and I was worried something was wrong..."

"No, nothing is wrong..." Neko smiles cheerfully. "Don't worry. You should go back to sleep, Polgara-sama said you needed lots of rest."

"All right... If you tell me what's going on in the morning..."

Dark Magician Girl half-stumbles across the room to her bed, falling into it and into sleep almost instantly.

:: It would be nice to be able to fall asleep so easily, and quickly...::

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~~~~~ Destiny Island

"They're back." Kairi turns her wide violet eyes on Anzu, fear evident even to someone who isn't an Empath, as it is almost knocking Anzu off her feet.

Anzu quickly throws up a mental wall, moving so she can put an arm around her foster mother. "Kairi-kaasan, is there any way to stop them?"

"I- I don't know..."

Anzu turns darkening cobalt eyes on the Guides that stand side by side near them. "You two! What do you have to do with this?! Do you know how to stop the Heartless?"

Nami and Marjani glance at each other. "Well, we may, but we can not tell you," they say in unison, the subtle whispers of their voices melding perfectly.

"Demo sa..."

Nami speaks alone this time. "We can HELP rid the worlds of Heartless. You just have to trust that we know what we're doing. And this island should be safe enough for about a year- those were only the edges of the Barriers falling, barely enough for any hint of Darkness to slip through. But... Enough for US to slip through."

Anzu stares wide-eyed at the pair, as does Kairi.

"This is what you meant by do I have anything to wrap up..."

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"You don't get to talk much, do you?"

Anima blinks, pausing in her outpouring of ideas. "Well, no, not really... I'm one of the few of my kind who has very little to do, so everyone else is busy, and... Am I talking TOO much? I'll stop if it annoys you, Riku-kun..."

Riku grins. "Nah, it's nice to hear a real voice, especially one as nice as yours." He squints at the horizon, missing the silly smile on Anima's face. "Is that a sunrise?"

Anima looks towards it, the smile vanishing in a look of surprise. "Why, I think it is. Have I really been talking all night?"

Riku shrugs, eyes avidly absorbing every detail of the rosy-orange glow. "A sunrise... I haven't seen dawn break in so long..."

Anima blinks at him. "That's right. You just spent the last nine years trapped all alone in Kingdom Hearts."

"Mm... The first couple years, Mickey was with me, but after that, he just sort of... Wasn't there." Riku continues to stare at the glowing clouds. "I wonder were he went..."

Anima hovers on the edge of telling him that she KNOWS where King Mickey is, but doesn't, instead linking her arm through his and watching the sunrise with him.

"Hmm... It's so beautiful... I haven't seen a sunrise for a while, either." She smiles as the sun slowly climbs into the sky, and they see the crossroads just ahead of them.

"Huh, how appropriate. We start a new journey at daybreak." Riku laughs hoarsely, and turns to Anima. "Hey, I'll race you!"

"What?" Anima blinks as he takes off. "HEY! Cheat!" She sprints after him, straining to catch up. Riku laughs again, slowing as he reaches the center of the crossroads.

"Heh, is that the best you can do?" he calls back to her, breathing a little hard. Anima glares unconvincingly at him, slowing down to a jog.

"No, you just caught me by surprise," she calls back, "and therefore you are a cheater."

He laughs. "Aw, how can you be angry at someone like me?"

"Growl..." She sticks her tongue out at him. "Riku-kun no baka."

(Yes, Anima actually SAID 'growl'. She's odd like that.)

Finally, she stops next to him, face waxing serious. "Well... What path do you chose, Riku-sama? Make your choice wisely, for it will steer your Destiny, more than anything else you have ever done, or will ever do. For now is the true test of soul, heart, and mind, and you must not fail in what Destiny you chose."

Riku blinks at her sudden formality. But then his eyes widen as he recognizes where he heard a voice like hers before... "Ah, Anima-san, do you know where each path would take me?"

A nod. "The path before us, well-traveled, easy, on the side you think best. It will lead straight to your Destiny, which will not be glorious, but neither will it be horrendous. To the left, a well-beaten path, not as common as the one before us. The going will be smooth, if long, and perhaps painful. The Destiny at the end will either take you to what you most desire, or destroy you utterly. The path we just took is the one where your Destiny is undecided, molded by the people around you, the one most people never leave. And the path to our right is the one least taken. It is the most difficult of the three, with many pitfalls and rocky stretches, and almost certain to have pain on the way through. Almost no one can truly follow through on this path, but those who do have the most glorious Destiny at the end, one of things they did not realize they needed, and there truest desires of all. The paths lay before you, Riku-sama. Which shall you take?"

They stand in silence for almost an entire minute.

"You know what, Anima-san? I'm going to take this path." He starts to walk down it, and Anima joins him.

"So this is truly the path you choose, Riku-sama? You may still return to the crossroads, if you wish."

Riku smiles and begins to hum, hands once again linked behind his head.

~ Far beyond the ocean blue

There's something calling out to you

A light upon a distant shore

A friend that lasts forever more

There's something waiting far beyond

Maybe just beyond the sun

Two hearts can beat, and dearly true

Beloved looking after you ~

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Nani: What? (Can be used as an exclamation of surprise)

-sama: High level of respect. You could call your king, your boss, a customer, or your boyfriend this- depends on what sort of pedestal you want to put them on, and how low you want to put yourself.

Demo: but...

-kun: Something you would call a close male friend. You can use it for girls, but it's not as common or correct.

Baka: Idiot

-san: Polite, about on the level of saying 'Mr' or 'Mrs' or 'Ms' or whateva.

(o)kaasan: Mother.

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Hehehe, cliffie! ^_^

Muses: Boo! Hiss!

Oh, gimme a break, it's not like you can't guess which road Riku took. -_-;; I mean, there's really only one he COULD take without me getting flamed. Isn't it obvious which one? By the by, those lyrics DO belong to me, so NYAH!

Quatre: But Alana-dono doesn't own the music they're set to, Dearly Beloved.

Hn. -_-

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Q&A:

SOK-dono asked a very good question. What are ENE guides?

First off, they're the people with slightly pointed ears, pale skin, and eyes that have no white. You know, Zeff, Niji, Oka, ect. You SHOULD know that by now...

And as for WHAT they actually ARE, I can't tell you. But ENE means endless non-existent, if that's any help. It isn't, by the way. It's just my way of explaining what I can't put into words. But pay attention to things like... Say, Miru's clothes, when he appears, or Niji's personality compared to a certain person's fan-ified personality.

I just told Mom about this question, and she said they're a "Very bad charades idea, and put that in quotes." Teehee!^_^

***Final Important!Notes:

I have a major question. Will I lose anyone if I don't hate Ansem? And who would kill me if I had guys snogging guys or girls snogging girls by the time this story is over? If it's more than half of my consistent reviewers, (One person is more than half at this point... ^_^;;) I'll try to get my perverted brain to stop thinking about AnsemXShiru, OkaXNiji, NamiXMarjani, and other such odd pairings...