There was that cloaked man again. He and Sora stared at each other for some seconds. Hard-to-pass seconds.
Sora examined that figure completely, making sure that man wasn't carrying any weapons. But he wasn't brave enough to engage a battle with that.
Meanwhile, there was Maran, staring at that Mickey-like figure who somehow appeared in his room.
"Wh-what do y-you want?" he said, trembling.
The cloaked shorty pointed at the weapon it was carrying. It was a Keyblade, with the same colors as Sora's, but inverted.
"Y-you want the keys? I don't have them... uh..."
It then approached the bed, threatning Maran.
"I left it at the clocktower! I didn't bring it home!!" Maran was saying, half screaming, half crying.
The figure pointed at the clocktower thought the window.
"You... you want me to go there get it? You crazy? It's dark and rainy out there!"
Again, it approached even more the bed, making Maran even more nervous.
"All right, all right. I'll go! Just... let me dress up."
Maran has thought of calling Rina to help him out but decided not to do it. The cloaked short figure was next to him, any different turn would mean something bad.
When they finally reached the clocktower, Maran squeezed his clothes in order to dry them. The cloaked guy got only his cloak wet.
While climbing the stairs, Maran was thinking, maybe that guy was the one who gave Rina those keys. Maybe he wanted them back.
"What the hell, if he wants them back, may he have them..." he thought. "I won't be in the way."
Then, there was Maran, in front of the door where he and Rina had locked the keys. He didn't bring the key, it was with Rina, and he only remembered of that at that time.
"I'll open it." the guy said. It was the first words Maran heard him say.
A dark ray came out of the guy's key and reached the door's keyhole. A sound was heard and the door was opened.
The cloaked guy came in firstly and touched the keys. Maran was getting some crazy ideas, was wanting to attack that cloaked guy from the back and run away with the keys.
Why would the guy want the keys? Because they were important, somehow, and Maran wouldn't let him just come over and steal his treasure. It was Rina who gave them to him.
The cloaked guy fell in the floor after a kick right in his back. While he was uncouncious, Maran entered the room, trembling, and got the keys, then ran like the wind.
While running lots of things were passing throught his head. Rina... the keys... that guy... why did he want his keys? He already had his key, which he used to open the door.
Maran was now fearing that guy would chase him for his entire life, until getting the keys back. But Maran felt that he had to protect those keys, no matter what. He decided to go to Rina's house.
It was still raining. The rain seemed to be like sharp cissors falling from the dark sky. Maran reached Rina's house after running a lot and turning wrong sides sometimes.
"RINA! RIIINAA!" he yelled. Rina lived with her brother, Tom, but he was away of town.
After calling her some more times, she appeared at the window of her room, in the second floor.
"Maran? Is that you?" he asked.
"Yes! Please let me come in!" Maran asked her.
Maran came inside and Rina handed him a tower which he could use to dry himself.
"Now tell me, what's wrong?"
"That cloaked guy who gave you the keys, I think it's the same one who's came to my house and told me to give him his keys back! I was at the clocktower with him a few minutes ago!"
"Oh, my... but how did you escape?"
"I kicked him in the back and he fell on the floor. I got the keys and escaped. I've been running till I reached your house."
"Well, you think he's gonna find you? He must be a maniac or something, we gotta tell the police."
Maran was examining Rina's house while she was speaking. He's never been there, before. Her brother, Tom, didn't like the idea of Rina being visited by a boy so they had to meet in secret.
While examining Maran noticed a shadow on the window. It had big ears and a ponty nose. It was the cloaked guy.
Maran looked at the shadow again.
"I'll fight it." he said.
"What? How? You're gonna kick his back again?"
"No. These keys... they look like a sort of... weapon... they have blades..."
"But can you handle two of them at the same time?"
"It's harder but will get us rid of him." he said, walking to the door. He was trembling even more.
"This is it..." he was saying to himself. "Now I'm gonna see if these are worth any effort to keep them." then he opened the door.
The cloaked guy seemed to know he was approaching the door because he was wating patiently at the front door. He pointed to the keys.
"You want these?" Maran asked.
He nodded, saying yes.
"So get them..." Maran said, charging both keys towards the cloaked guy. He avoided the attack and approached the street.
"Come here! I'll... defend these keys!"
Then he handed his key and seemed ready to battle.
"You are going to defy a natural selection..." the cloaked guy said, surprising Maran. "Give me the keys."
"No!"
"Why do you protect them?"
"...I don't know, I just feel like I must protect these keys."
"You 'feel like you must'. That just shows us how futile you are."
"What?"
"You are following orders given by no one. You are no one."
"...I may be no one... but still, I... I'll protect these keys, so if you want them, come here get them!"
"Yes, I will. And I will have to punish you after that."
Maran felt that he really shouldn't be arguing with that guy. He felt that he should just give him the keys back and go home. But no, he still 'felt like he had to' protect the keys.
So they engaged battle.
Hollow Bastion was a creepy place. Once it was a nice beautiful castle, with green fields around and birds singing. It became a helf-mechanized castle then, when the ruler of its world got obsessed by his discoveries. Now it was completely mechanized. Sora has already been there, that's where he saved Kairi once, and turned into a heartless for the first time. But Kairi's love healed him and made him a human again.
Ansem returned, but not alone. That's what Riku told Sora. Ansem did return accompanied but this company wasn't what saved him. In fact, he saved his company.
"Hirosh. Where's Hirosh?" Ansem, dressed in a red cloak with a blindfold, said.
"I don't know." a eerie-faced man in a black cloak replied. "He said he was going to get the Keyblade back."
"Which one?"
"The one."
Meanwhile...
Sora examined that figure completely, making sure that man wasn't carrying any weapons. But he wasn't brave enough to engage a battle with that.
Anyway, he was wrong. The cloaked man took off his hood and handed a thin long sword.
"My name is Hirosh. And you are going to die."
"Wh... what do you want? You want my Keyblade?"
"Yes, but I presume you will not give it up easily so I am saving time. Prepare to die, Keyblade master."
Hirosh began approaching Sora with his sword in hand. Sora decided to fight him rather than run away. He handed his Keyblade and reunited all the strenght that made him move thirteen months ago, when he fought hungreds of Heartlesses.
A spark. A sphere of light. And a hypnotic gaze. Those were the abilities Hirosh seemed to bear, but Sora resisted them all, although his arm began to bleed after the sphere of light hit it.
Sora began aiming his sword, not his arm. It would be one less weapon he'd have to keep avoiding. The attempts were fail but he managed to make Hirosh pretty tired.
"Why..." Hirosh said while fighting Sora.
...
"Why fighting for something that does not belong to you?"
...
"This key has its door. And you will not be able to open it!" Hirosh yelled. He created a huge fire wall all around them. Sora was surrounded, the walls were becoming closer and closer to him.
Hirosh jumped out of the flaming circle and Sora went into panic state.
"Give up, why worrying about something that does not concern you?"
"... ... ...I am the Keyblade master" Sora said, with low eyes. "And I'm dying defending my Key!"
...
...
The fire was almost three inches away from Sora.
...
...
Two inches...
...
...
One inch... Sora closed his eyes.
...
...
...
"Fly, Sora! Just believe, and you can do it!" ...a voice...
...
When Sora opened his eyes, he was floating in midair. He spotted Hirosh on the floor, watching, puzzled, his fly.
"...Peter Pan." Sora remembered. "Thank you... wherever you are!" he said. "Now I got some business to take care of!" Sora holded his Keyblade and charged upon Hirosh, who was in defensive position.
A spark. A sphere of light. And a hypnotic gaze. Those were the abilities he had left, now, once his sword had been broken as a result of Sora's charge attack.
Soon, thanks to the hability Sora had with flying, he managed to take over Hirosh's abilities and make him go down to his knees.
"Now, tell me..." Sora began. "Who the hell are you, anyway? Why do you want my Keyblade?"
Hirosh tried to get up but couldn't do it. He stared at the ground.
"I already told you. This key has its door. And you will not be able to open it!"
"And how can you know that?"
"Whaa-?"
Sora was oddly brave that time.
"Ansem feared by light. This light was what I used to close Kingdom Hearts."
"You are forgetting..."
"Forgetting what?"
"There are always two sides. Like a coin. Truth and lie. Light and darkness. They oppose but one would be nothing without the other."
...
"The same applies to your key."
"So, you're saying there's another Key which opposes to mine?"
"Yes. And we hold it. We just need yours."
"And what will you do, then?"
"I will not tell you."
Sora approached him.
"Yes, you will."
"Do not come over thinking you possesed me." then he gets up. "You are nothing. The keyblade chose you but your role is to return it to its people. Us."
"You're lying! If it chose me, it must stay with me!"
"Bwhahahaha! You are so naive, little one. I really wanted to treat you like garbage but I can't." he began walking away. "Go find your friends. If you can."
Sora tried to follow him but he, somehow, disappeared among the woods.
"Now what am I going to do?"
"Hey, ya! What the heck your doing therr?" someone yelled behind Sora. It was Cid.
"Cid! I... we... were looking for you where were you?"
"Lost among those goddamn woods. Couldn't find a thing. Not even my airship's wreckage."
"I was with Leon. He's been looking for you."
"Leon? You found Leon? Good, where?"
"I..." Sora looked back. "I'm not sure... I've been numb..."
"So let's go trough this jungle." Cid said, walking away.
"Uh... yes... jungle... I remember that." Sora said, following Cid.
Meanwhile...
"You failed?"
"...No. I got all info I needed."
"Except for the Key."
"I got enough info to catch the boy. If we catch the boy, we catch the Key along, right?"
"Have you told this to the boss, yet?"
"No. And I will not. I will let him see only the results."
"What if you fail?"
"I won't."
Meanwhile...
"Wake up! Gawrsh, wake up!!" Goofy was saying, nervously.
"Squaaaaaaack!!" Donald got scared. "What the waacka-baacka do you want?"
"Ohwie, I can't find the King."
Mickey was missing.
"Leon! Leon! Leeeeeeeeooooooon!" Donald yelled, nervously, too.
"Wh-what? Duck?" Leon said after waking up. They all were, oddly, asleep before Donald being the first to wake up.
"What happened?" Leon asked.
"The King is gone! And we were all asleep, why was that???"
Leon got up.
"I... don't know... I don't remember anything..." he began to think and really didn't remember how they ended up there, asleep.
"Sora's missing too." Goofy said.
"Um, yeah, I noticed. Maybe he and Mickey went somewhere."
"Huh." Donald said. "And why wouldn't they tell us?"
"I don't know. Come on, let's look for them."
As Leon, Goofy and Donald walked away, Mickey was hiding in a tree near them. It seemed that there was something with him.
"Playing around non-existent fields. Those are to get lost." something said it next to Mickey. It was the Cheshire Cat. "What are you waiting for, Mr. Big Shot?"
"I am waiting for them to leave. I'll need you after this."
"Why would your excellency need a stupid cat like me?"
"You'll see." Mickey sounded odd.
They jumped off and looked around.
"There. Now, I need you to look for Sora. You remember him, don't you?"
"Looking for a lost person..." the cat said, walking around, with only his eyes visible. "...Difficult task for untrained eyes. But mine aren't. See." his eyes began to glow.
"Uh, yes. So, please, I need you to look for him while... I do something else."
"Too many secrets you bear. A reason I see not..."
"I'm just asking you to look for him, alright?" Mickey said, walking away.
"Tears shall fall. Bodies too. Train-lili-lain woo-len, train-lili-lain woo-len... train-lili-lain..." the cat began to walk away till he got completely invisible.
"Now I have to find the... door... and find the in-between one... the binding Key..." Mickey was saying, then looked around. "But where can I find a vehicle?"
Sora examined that figure completely, making sure that man wasn't carrying any weapons. But he wasn't brave enough to engage a battle with that.
Meanwhile, there was Maran, staring at that Mickey-like figure who somehow appeared in his room.
"Wh-what do y-you want?" he said, trembling.
The cloaked shorty pointed at the weapon it was carrying. It was a Keyblade, with the same colors as Sora's, but inverted.
"Y-you want the keys? I don't have them... uh..."
It then approached the bed, threatning Maran.
"I left it at the clocktower! I didn't bring it home!!" Maran was saying, half screaming, half crying.
The figure pointed at the clocktower thought the window.
"You... you want me to go there get it? You crazy? It's dark and rainy out there!"
Again, it approached even more the bed, making Maran even more nervous.
"All right, all right. I'll go! Just... let me dress up."
Maran has thought of calling Rina to help him out but decided not to do it. The cloaked short figure was next to him, any different turn would mean something bad.
When they finally reached the clocktower, Maran squeezed his clothes in order to dry them. The cloaked guy got only his cloak wet.
While climbing the stairs, Maran was thinking, maybe that guy was the one who gave Rina those keys. Maybe he wanted them back.
"What the hell, if he wants them back, may he have them..." he thought. "I won't be in the way."
Then, there was Maran, in front of the door where he and Rina had locked the keys. He didn't bring the key, it was with Rina, and he only remembered of that at that time.
"I'll open it." the guy said. It was the first words Maran heard him say.
A dark ray came out of the guy's key and reached the door's keyhole. A sound was heard and the door was opened.
The cloaked guy came in firstly and touched the keys. Maran was getting some crazy ideas, was wanting to attack that cloaked guy from the back and run away with the keys.
Why would the guy want the keys? Because they were important, somehow, and Maran wouldn't let him just come over and steal his treasure. It was Rina who gave them to him.
The cloaked guy fell in the floor after a kick right in his back. While he was uncouncious, Maran entered the room, trembling, and got the keys, then ran like the wind.
While running lots of things were passing throught his head. Rina... the keys... that guy... why did he want his keys? He already had his key, which he used to open the door.
Maran was now fearing that guy would chase him for his entire life, until getting the keys back. But Maran felt that he had to protect those keys, no matter what. He decided to go to Rina's house.
It was still raining. The rain seemed to be like sharp cissors falling from the dark sky. Maran reached Rina's house after running a lot and turning wrong sides sometimes.
"RINA! RIIINAA!" he yelled. Rina lived with her brother, Tom, but he was away of town.
After calling her some more times, she appeared at the window of her room, in the second floor.
"Maran? Is that you?" he asked.
"Yes! Please let me come in!" Maran asked her.
Maran came inside and Rina handed him a tower which he could use to dry himself.
"Now tell me, what's wrong?"
"That cloaked guy who gave you the keys, I think it's the same one who's came to my house and told me to give him his keys back! I was at the clocktower with him a few minutes ago!"
"Oh, my... but how did you escape?"
"I kicked him in the back and he fell on the floor. I got the keys and escaped. I've been running till I reached your house."
"Well, you think he's gonna find you? He must be a maniac or something, we gotta tell the police."
Maran was examining Rina's house while she was speaking. He's never been there, before. Her brother, Tom, didn't like the idea of Rina being visited by a boy so they had to meet in secret.
While examining Maran noticed a shadow on the window. It had big ears and a ponty nose. It was the cloaked guy.
Maran looked at the shadow again.
"I'll fight it." he said.
"What? How? You're gonna kick his back again?"
"No. These keys... they look like a sort of... weapon... they have blades..."
"But can you handle two of them at the same time?"
"It's harder but will get us rid of him." he said, walking to the door. He was trembling even more.
"This is it..." he was saying to himself. "Now I'm gonna see if these are worth any effort to keep them." then he opened the door.
The cloaked guy seemed to know he was approaching the door because he was wating patiently at the front door. He pointed to the keys.
"You want these?" Maran asked.
He nodded, saying yes.
"So get them..." Maran said, charging both keys towards the cloaked guy. He avoided the attack and approached the street.
"Come here! I'll... defend these keys!"
Then he handed his key and seemed ready to battle.
"You are going to defy a natural selection..." the cloaked guy said, surprising Maran. "Give me the keys."
"No!"
"Why do you protect them?"
"...I don't know, I just feel like I must protect these keys."
"You 'feel like you must'. That just shows us how futile you are."
"What?"
"You are following orders given by no one. You are no one."
"...I may be no one... but still, I... I'll protect these keys, so if you want them, come here get them!"
"Yes, I will. And I will have to punish you after that."
Maran felt that he really shouldn't be arguing with that guy. He felt that he should just give him the keys back and go home. But no, he still 'felt like he had to' protect the keys.
So they engaged battle.
Hollow Bastion was a creepy place. Once it was a nice beautiful castle, with green fields around and birds singing. It became a helf-mechanized castle then, when the ruler of its world got obsessed by his discoveries. Now it was completely mechanized. Sora has already been there, that's where he saved Kairi once, and turned into a heartless for the first time. But Kairi's love healed him and made him a human again.
Ansem returned, but not alone. That's what Riku told Sora. Ansem did return accompanied but this company wasn't what saved him. In fact, he saved his company.
"Hirosh. Where's Hirosh?" Ansem, dressed in a red cloak with a blindfold, said.
"I don't know." a eerie-faced man in a black cloak replied. "He said he was going to get the Keyblade back."
"Which one?"
"The one."
Meanwhile...
Sora examined that figure completely, making sure that man wasn't carrying any weapons. But he wasn't brave enough to engage a battle with that.
Anyway, he was wrong. The cloaked man took off his hood and handed a thin long sword.
"My name is Hirosh. And you are going to die."
"Wh... what do you want? You want my Keyblade?"
"Yes, but I presume you will not give it up easily so I am saving time. Prepare to die, Keyblade master."
Hirosh began approaching Sora with his sword in hand. Sora decided to fight him rather than run away. He handed his Keyblade and reunited all the strenght that made him move thirteen months ago, when he fought hungreds of Heartlesses.
A spark. A sphere of light. And a hypnotic gaze. Those were the abilities Hirosh seemed to bear, but Sora resisted them all, although his arm began to bleed after the sphere of light hit it.
Sora began aiming his sword, not his arm. It would be one less weapon he'd have to keep avoiding. The attempts were fail but he managed to make Hirosh pretty tired.
"Why..." Hirosh said while fighting Sora.
...
"Why fighting for something that does not belong to you?"
...
"This key has its door. And you will not be able to open it!" Hirosh yelled. He created a huge fire wall all around them. Sora was surrounded, the walls were becoming closer and closer to him.
Hirosh jumped out of the flaming circle and Sora went into panic state.
"Give up, why worrying about something that does not concern you?"
"... ... ...I am the Keyblade master" Sora said, with low eyes. "And I'm dying defending my Key!"
...
...
The fire was almost three inches away from Sora.
...
...
Two inches...
...
...
One inch... Sora closed his eyes.
...
...
...
"Fly, Sora! Just believe, and you can do it!" ...a voice...
...
When Sora opened his eyes, he was floating in midair. He spotted Hirosh on the floor, watching, puzzled, his fly.
"...Peter Pan." Sora remembered. "Thank you... wherever you are!" he said. "Now I got some business to take care of!" Sora holded his Keyblade and charged upon Hirosh, who was in defensive position.
A spark. A sphere of light. And a hypnotic gaze. Those were the abilities he had left, now, once his sword had been broken as a result of Sora's charge attack.
Soon, thanks to the hability Sora had with flying, he managed to take over Hirosh's abilities and make him go down to his knees.
"Now, tell me..." Sora began. "Who the hell are you, anyway? Why do you want my Keyblade?"
Hirosh tried to get up but couldn't do it. He stared at the ground.
"I already told you. This key has its door. And you will not be able to open it!"
"And how can you know that?"
"Whaa-?"
Sora was oddly brave that time.
"Ansem feared by light. This light was what I used to close Kingdom Hearts."
"You are forgetting..."
"Forgetting what?"
"There are always two sides. Like a coin. Truth and lie. Light and darkness. They oppose but one would be nothing without the other."
...
"The same applies to your key."
"So, you're saying there's another Key which opposes to mine?"
"Yes. And we hold it. We just need yours."
"And what will you do, then?"
"I will not tell you."
Sora approached him.
"Yes, you will."
"Do not come over thinking you possesed me." then he gets up. "You are nothing. The keyblade chose you but your role is to return it to its people. Us."
"You're lying! If it chose me, it must stay with me!"
"Bwhahahaha! You are so naive, little one. I really wanted to treat you like garbage but I can't." he began walking away. "Go find your friends. If you can."
Sora tried to follow him but he, somehow, disappeared among the woods.
"Now what am I going to do?"
"Hey, ya! What the heck your doing therr?" someone yelled behind Sora. It was Cid.
"Cid! I... we... were looking for you where were you?"
"Lost among those goddamn woods. Couldn't find a thing. Not even my airship's wreckage."
"I was with Leon. He's been looking for you."
"Leon? You found Leon? Good, where?"
"I..." Sora looked back. "I'm not sure... I've been numb..."
"So let's go trough this jungle." Cid said, walking away.
"Uh... yes... jungle... I remember that." Sora said, following Cid.
Meanwhile...
"You failed?"
"...No. I got all info I needed."
"Except for the Key."
"I got enough info to catch the boy. If we catch the boy, we catch the Key along, right?"
"Have you told this to the boss, yet?"
"No. And I will not. I will let him see only the results."
"What if you fail?"
"I won't."
Meanwhile...
"Wake up! Gawrsh, wake up!!" Goofy was saying, nervously.
"Squaaaaaaack!!" Donald got scared. "What the waacka-baacka do you want?"
"Ohwie, I can't find the King."
Mickey was missing.
"Leon! Leon! Leeeeeeeeooooooon!" Donald yelled, nervously, too.
"Wh-what? Duck?" Leon said after waking up. They all were, oddly, asleep before Donald being the first to wake up.
"What happened?" Leon asked.
"The King is gone! And we were all asleep, why was that???"
Leon got up.
"I... don't know... I don't remember anything..." he began to think and really didn't remember how they ended up there, asleep.
"Sora's missing too." Goofy said.
"Um, yeah, I noticed. Maybe he and Mickey went somewhere."
"Huh." Donald said. "And why wouldn't they tell us?"
"I don't know. Come on, let's look for them."
As Leon, Goofy and Donald walked away, Mickey was hiding in a tree near them. It seemed that there was something with him.
"Playing around non-existent fields. Those are to get lost." something said it next to Mickey. It was the Cheshire Cat. "What are you waiting for, Mr. Big Shot?"
"I am waiting for them to leave. I'll need you after this."
"Why would your excellency need a stupid cat like me?"
"You'll see." Mickey sounded odd.
They jumped off and looked around.
"There. Now, I need you to look for Sora. You remember him, don't you?"
"Looking for a lost person..." the cat said, walking around, with only his eyes visible. "...Difficult task for untrained eyes. But mine aren't. See." his eyes began to glow.
"Uh, yes. So, please, I need you to look for him while... I do something else."
"Too many secrets you bear. A reason I see not..."
"I'm just asking you to look for him, alright?" Mickey said, walking away.
"Tears shall fall. Bodies too. Train-lili-lain woo-len, train-lili-lain woo-len... train-lili-lain..." the cat began to walk away till he got completely invisible.
"Now I have to find the... door... and find the in-between one... the binding Key..." Mickey was saying, then looked around. "But where can I find a vehicle?"