Koniichiwa minna-san. It is I, Soraoathkeeper, back from the dead. At long last I can finally say...SCHOOL'S OVER!!!!! Yay!!! I got out of school on the 14th (well, graduated from middle school) and have been working on this ever since. I have finally gotten my thoughts in order and have written an outline for this story. I know exactly what Riku and Kairi are going to be doing, and I have a pretty good idea for what Sora is too. This is going to be a pretty long story (the longest I've ever written). Now that I know exactly what's going to be happening and now that I have much more time to write it, my chapters should be getting out sooner, assuming that I don't get sidetracked and work on another story. I will be updating Sacrifice soon too, although I'm at a standstill right now.
The format for Riku's chapter will be a dream in the beginning (to sorta set the mood I guess) and the actual action afterwards. That's why the beginning paragraphs are italicized. The author's notes, updates, disclaimer and the reviewer's responses are all in bold, while the actual real time story are in plain text. Yep, I'm back with a whole new format. After reading all of Rem-chan's (one of my idols and one of the best authors I've seen) Kingdom Hearts stories, I have come back with a hopefully better style of writing. This fic is not a songfic, but sometimes there will be a certain song that attains with the mood. If there is one that I find, instead of putting the lyrics in the story, I'll put a recommended song to listen too. Chances are that if I do have a song in mind, it can be found on Yahoo! Launch as a video, since that's where I listen to all my music. The songs are free to listen to if you're a member, so check it out.
What else...oh yeah. Ukir is my original character, sort of. There's actually a "joke" about him, and it's really important with the plot. Hehehehe...
Okay, I'll leave you alone now. Remember I'm still very new at writing battles, and this is a very new format for me, so don't blame me. Well...enjoy!
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PROMISES
A PROMISED JOURNEY: SHARDS OF THE MIRROR
Riku made his way to the small adjacent island with the paupo tree, running as fast as he could. It was finally here, the time where he and his friends would get off this dreaded island and be free to explore the worlds. Excitement welled up inside him, burning and pouring into his heart like molten lava. He paid no heed to the scurrying black things that plagued the island, hopping here and there, like shadows waiting in the dark. He ignored the huge black core that hung right above Destiny Islands, sucking everything on the island into oblivion. And he took no notice of the storm that had sprung up, all in his haste to get to the island. In fact, the reason he came over to Destiny Islands was out of concern for the raft, but as soon as he stepped foot on the dock to tie up his boat he felt it. A force, older and far more powerful than anything that he had ever seen or felt before. And in that instant he knew that this was what was going to get them off the island.
He didn't have to wait long for the others. Sora arrived next, fearful and panting, asking him what was going on.
"Riku!"
He made no noise, choosing instead to look at the sea and imagining what lay beyond the mass of water.
{Soon...}
"Riku? Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"
"The door has opened...", he whispered.
Sora took a step back, confused. "What?"
Riku turned around, his excitement overflowing. "The door has opened Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!"
Sora's eyes widened, frightened. "What are you talking about? We've got to find Kairi-"
Riku cut him off. "Kairi's coming with us!" He looked at the sea again. He had always loved the sea, with its ever-shifting mood, and would miss it when they were gone, but that seemed trivial compared to what he would see in the other worlds. "Once we step through...we might not be able to come back." He faced Sora again, noting that he looked scared. "We may never be able to see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us!"
He spun around to look at the horizon and brought his hands to his mouth, shouting.
"I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
Blackness engulfed him. Riku could hear Sora shouting his name, but it seemed so far away...
He held out his hand, inviting Sora to join him, to share his journey, to come with him, to other worlds. The darkness licked at his pants, climbing higher and higher, like the flames of down under. Sora bit his lip, and at the last minute decided to come with him. Reaching out, he tried to grab his hand, but it was too late. Sora faded and Riku spun into the darkness, his excitement replaced by worry and fear...where was he going? Where was Sora? The darkness hung over him as he continued his journey down...suffocating him and slowly choking out his life...
Riku struggled to the top of the cliff, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Who knew there was so much landscape in Behind the Door? Gasping, he finally made it to the outcropping that Ukir was perched upon. Ukir immediately looked away, turning his head to look down into a small duffel bag with the strange crest of the Heartless, and producing a bottle of water. He offered it to Riku, but Riku swatted it away, forcing himself to take deep breaths and ignore his burning thirst. Ukir shrugged, and put it away. Even though Ukir had looked away when he came, Riku knew exactly what he was doing. Watching. Of course, you never knew where he was looking, as a blindfold covered his eyes. The only indication was where his head was positioned. Even then, you could never really be sure. But Riku knew he had been watching him, like he had the days before. Riku always knew. It was that prickly feeling on the back of his neck that gave it away as Ukir had looked down upon him. It was something that had helped him survive in Behind the Door. A trait that had carried over in his heart. It was a tiny bit of character that had lasted to serve him now. It was from the Before.
Riku estimated that it had been about week since they had met in the city. They had immediately left and started to journey into the Beyond. But on that first night they had settled down to camp, a dream, no, a nightmare had occurred, stronger than any he had had before. It was so strong that it had made him scream and wake up, breathing hard. Ukir had been awake, taking the first watch, and hurried quickly over to his side, asking what was wrong. Riku had shaken it off at first, saying that it was a bad dream, but Ukir had forced him to tell what it was about. Reluctantly, he told him. Ukir had become silent at first, spacing out for a minute and becoming glassy eyed. But just when Riku was about to ask what was wrong, Ukir had told him to remember all of the dreams that he might have, and to tell them to him. They were a key, he had said, to getting out of here. So Riku remembered. At first, he was awkward with it, often forgetting many parts. Furthermore, he didn't like the idea of telling all of his dreams to Ukir. It was like Ukir was counseling him and Riku was telling him private things, which Riku hated to even think about. He didn't want to be thought of weak and needing to confide in someone. But as time went on, he grew more open to telling Ukir his dreams, and started to remember more and more of them. After all, the only thing that Ukir did when he told him the dreams was grunt and move on. And, he reflected, it wasn't so bad. It did sort of help him a little bit. It was like a routine. In a life that could change at any moment, it helped to have at least one thing to be counted on.
Since then, Riku had not found out anything else about his companion, except that he never slept, always took first watch, and that he seemed to be gauging him. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he was determined to prove that he was worth taking along.
He was jolted from his thoughts when Ukir shook him. "What is it?" asked Riku, annoyed at being interrupted. Ukir turned to look at him.
"I sense Heartless."
Riku stared at him for a full minute before the message actually reached his brain. "What!? Heartless?! Now?!?"
Ukir searched through the bag at his side, and produced a blade. It was shaped like a wing of some sort of darkness creature...a bat, Riku remembered suddenly. The inside of the wing was red, and the bone that supported was a deep, dark blue. The handle was long and thin, located where the bone of the wing would normally join up with the body. A glass blue eye was positioned just before the bone gave way to the hilt. It stared at Riku mockingly. It's so....familiar...Riku thought. In a dream-like trance he reached out to touch it...
...only to touch air. Ukir had moved away at the last second, paying no attention to Riku's failing attempts to grab the hilt. "The Heartless are coming this way. From the feeling I'm getting, there's about seven of them." Ukir announced.
"Oh great, just what we need. Another party of seven, up for order." Riku snorted, forgetting all about the dragon blade for trying to summon his two Keyblades.
"Well, we might as well serve them." Ukir replied, shifting into a battle stance.
"One extra-large order of extreme Heartless slashing, coming right up." Riku smirked, finally succeeding in summoning his Keyblades. Ukir stood still, tense and hardly breathing, waiting for the correct time to attack. Riku lounged around a bit, but inside, he was just as tense and ready as Ukir.
"Get ready..." Ukir whispered so faintly that Riku had to strain to hear him.
The Heartless came up over the ledge blow them. There were seven of them, just as Ukir had predicted. Three were Shadow Heartless, the scouts, shifting around nervously and using their shadow powers to sink into the ground and scurry about. They were the first ones to appear. Two Soldiers were next, looking left to right for any sudden attacks. Behind them were two Invisibles, guarding something, their swords at ready. Riku shifted to get a better look at the thing that the Invisibles were guarding...
A rock tumbled down from where Riku was standing, landing right at an Invisible's feet.
The Heartless stiffened and looked up.
"Nice going Sherlock" Ukir whispered in Riku's ear.
Noticing them and recognizing that they were intruders, the Heartless ran toward them, charging.
Immediately, Riku and Ukir went into action. Jumping down from their cliff, they drew their weapons and prepared to give it their all.
"Riku, take out the Shadows and the Soldiers!" Ukir yelled.
"No problem." Riku grinned devilishly. He then landed and immediately made his way to the charging Soldiers, while the Shadows stayed underground, running away.
"....I'll take care of the Invisibles." Ukir smiled evilly. The Invisibles were bunched up into a group, with the thing in the middle. Their swords were drawn menacingly. Jumping over Riku and his 'prey', he parried the first move while dodging the second. He thrust his blade into the first Invisible. It was knocked back, but quickly recovered and thrust its blade into the ground. Ukir, noticing this, gulped and quickly went back to fighting the second Invisible by using his blade to knock away another attack. He had seen this type of Heartless before, a long, long time ago, and knew what it could do to unsuspecting warriors. In the distance, he could hear Riku howl in agony. Sure enough, a ring of black fire surrounded his head, closing in and out, faster and faster. Ukir parried the third Invisible's attack while forcing his blade into the second Invisible. It parried, and Ukir's blade was knocked from his hand and skidded across the ground. The third Invisible slashed downwards, aiming for his head, but Ukir rolled out of the way just in time, avoiding it. The black fire came closer and closer, but just before it closed completely Ukir slid out of the way, grabbing his dragon blade and avoiding the attack in one fluid motion. The fire disintegrated into blackness as the Invisible came out and grabbed its blade. It charged at Ukir, catching him off guard. Ukir struggled to get out of the way, but the Invisible was too quick. A four- inch gash appeared on the side of his coat. Luckily, at the last minute, he twisted out of the attack, but the Invisible had done damage. Ukir could feel the blood dripping down, but ignored it and instead concentrated on defeating his enemies. Gritting his teeth, he began to draw power in order to use his magic.
Meanwhile, Riku was occupied with the Shadows and the Soldiers. He had already killed off one of the Soldiers and two Shadows by catching them by surprise when he jumped down, but that still left one Soldier and two more Shadows. The Soldier spun around and charged, as graceful as a ballerina.
...ballerina...Riku's eyes glazed over. ...dancing...gracefully...?
Sudden pain made him snap out of his trance. A Shadow had materialized out of the round and slashed with sharp claws at his leg when he was remembering. Riku howled and whirled around, striking with his Keyblades as hard as he could. The Shadow burst into dark flames as he jumped over another attack from the Soldier. Catching the Heartless by surprise, he spun around in a 360-degree angle, diminishing the remaining Soldier and Shadow. Smiling smugly, he looked to see how Ukir was doing.
Ukir had gathered enough power to use his magic. He quickly brought his cupped hands together and aimed it at the ground. He concentrated on emotion, for he knew that emotion fed magic and power. Fear and anger were powerful ones, and he needed power. Deciding to go with fear, he closed his eyes and concentrated on finding a fearful memory.
...spun into the darkness, his excitement replaced by worry and fear...where was he going?...The darkness hung over him as he continued his journey down...suffocating him and slowly choking out his life...
Opening his eyes, he concentrated on that feeling and shouted.
"FEAR'S TREMOR!!!!!!!!!"
It was deathly silent. Riku looked around, trying to see what the spell activated. Ukir stared at the remaining Invisibles, never taking his eyes off of them.
The Invisibles, waiting a second and seeing nothing happened, let their guard down and approached Ukir.
All of a sudden, the Invisibles stopped, shaking. It started from the center of their chest and spread from there, like ripples from a stone. The shaking got worse and worse until all of the Invisibles burst open, their inhuman screams echoing throughout the mountains. Riku winced at the sound, and dismissed his Keyblades. He turned to ask Ukir how he did that piece of magic. "Hey...what?"
Ukir was staring at something a little to the left of him, right where the Invisibles had disappeared. Riku turned to look at whatever it was...
It was the thing that the Invisibles were guarding. But not an inanimate object as Riku first thought, but something living...
A Heartless.
Riku had never seen anything like this Heartless. Granted, he hadn't recovered all of his memories, but this thing didn't look even slightly familiar. It glowed a pale blue, giving it the appearance of a divine being, had it not been for the crest of the Heartless that rested on its chest. The upper body looked fairly human like, a girl, Riku noted, but where the hips would normally be there was...nothing. Like a ghost, there was just a trace of shape an inch above the ground, but it was thin and unreal, like mist. The long silver hair reached to the middle of its back. There was no mouth, no nose, no ears on its pale blue skin. The only facial feature was the eyes. Glowing white, they were blank and almond-shaped. But the thing that drew Riku's attention was the thing that appeared to be stuck on its forehead. Long and thin, it was like a sliver, of what, Riku didn't know. It shimmered slightly, and Riku could feel it calling to him...
"I have never seen any Heartless like this", Ukir whispered, with a tinge of fear in his voice. "I have never seen anything that looks even remotely like that. In fact, I would say it that it wasn't a Heartless at all, if it wasn't for the crest."
"Well, whatever it is, I don't think that it has seen us yet." Riku whispered back. Indeed, the Heartless looked very scared, as it was looking from left to right, jumping at every shadow. It must not be very observant, Riku thought. Even though the Heartless was a mere ten feet away, it hadn't noticed them.
"We might be able to catch it by surprise and gain the upper hand. When I give the signal, start sneaking in a circle towards its left side. I'll go the opposite way, so that when we meet up..."
"-it'll be caught between us!" Riku realized.
"Right. Now, wait for the signal..." Ukir shifted into position. The Heartless, seeing something out of the corner of its eye, turned to look at Ukir.
Riku sighed. There goes the plan. And Ukir thought he was impatient.
The Heartless started to walk slowly and cautiously towards them, glowing a brighter blue until it began to blind them.
Ukir, seeing that a surprise attack was useless, drew his blade which he had sheathed after the Invisibles had disappeared and charged at the Heartless. Riku followed suit. The Heartless was taken aback for a minute, but stood still. Riku and Ukir slashed it both at the same time, and both bounced back, falling on the ground. Ukir flipped back and landed on the ground, crouching, while Riku, too stunned to react, slid headfirst into the dirt. "What happened?!" he yelled, spitting out dirt.
"There's some sort of barrier around it that's stopping us from attacking!" Ukir yelled back.
Riku got up and sprang toward the Heartless again. A shield shimmered around the Heartless, and Riku crashed right into it. He lid down the shield until he reached the bottom, in which he repeated the action. "It's no use Riku! Don't waste your energy!" Ukir shouted. Riku stopped, panting.
Ukir looked at the Heartless, studying it. {Well, if physical attacks won't work against it, maybe magic attacks will...}. Tiredly, he began drawing power for another attack, deciding to go with a simple attack instead of a complex one. He had exhausted most of his magic energy using the last attack anyway. He held his blade level at the beast, both hands gripping the hilt so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"FIRE!!!"
A burst of flame the size of a ball erupted from the end of his blade, aiming at the Heartless. It hit the chest of the creature...and bounced back, this time heading for Ukir. His eyes widened, and he quickly ducked, the flame singing his hair as it passed over him. The flame hit the mountain and burst apart.
"Now what?!" Riku asked anxiously. "That Heartless wasn't even touched by any of our attacks!" And indeed, the Heartless was just standing there, unfazed by all that went around it. Although it was attacking, Riku wasn't taking any chances of letting it come after him.
Still, he felt like he was missing something, some vital key to defeating this creature. Although the barrier was strong enough to bounce back all of their attacks, he couldn't see what was causing it. In fact, he couldn't even see what was holding them back at all. The only clue to where the shield extended was the shimmering it did when something hit it.
Shimmering.........
Riku's eyes widened. That was it! The key to defeating it! "Ukir! On the count of three, attack the marking on the forehead with everything you got!"
Ukir readied his blade immediately, trusting in Riku. After all, what else was there to do? "Ready!"
"One..." Riku shifted into position, "Two..." Ukir aimed at the shimmering marking...
"THREE!!!"
Riku and Ukir sprang toward the marking, weapons at ready. They slashed at the exact same spot, feeling the shield give way. The Heartless screamed, sending shivers up Riku's spine. It stumbled back and stared at Riku with its inhuman blank eyes before it split in two, both halves disappearing into nothing. A shattered crystal heart wafted up into the darkness. And where the Heartless had disappeared, something shone brightly, calling to Riku.
Riku stooped down and picked it up, dismissing his Keyblades. He recognized it as the marking on the Heartless' head. It gleamed when he touched it, pulsing like a heartbeat. It looked like a shard of something, as it was about the size of his thumb. He polished it on his raincoat, making it shine all the brighter. It reflected his face, making Riku notice how exhausted and tired he felt and looked.
Ukir stopped at his side, looking out, towards where the Heartless had come from. "Well, that was an...unexpected encounter. I had not expected for that to happen." He looked down at Riku and noticed the object in his hand. "What's that that you have there?"
"I'm not sure." Riku told him.
Ukir held out his hand, and Riku reluctantly dropped the shard into it. The shard stopped pulsing for a minute, only to come back, more weakly than before. Ukir frowned and bent his head over it to examine it. Riku smirked at his companion, secretly reveling in his inapt ability to make the shard shine bright.
"It looks like a shard of some type of mirror." Ukir said finally, handing the shard back to Riku. The shard immediately began to glow bright, but Riku didn't notice, concentrating instead on remembering what a mirror was. Shiny, he knew, and reflective. Where was it used...? Oh yeah, for small mirrors and walls.
Riku heard a soft thump, and spun around. Ukir was sprawled out on the floor, apparently asleep by the way he was positioned and the way he was breathing. Riku had never seen him sleep, but then again he had worn himself out by using that much magic. Riku decided to let him sleep. In fact, he thought, sleep sounds good right now. Very good...His eyes slowly closed as he curled up into a ball, still clutching the shard tightly. In no time at all, he was asleep, snoring softly, as the shard of the mirror shone brightly, a beacon in the dark.
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Well? How did you like it? Now that you've read it, I can tell you what Riku's going to be doing. His mission is to find all of the shards, because it holds an important key to getting out of Behind the Door. And again, sorry if the battle scene sucked. Oh yeah, Riku and Ukir are a little out of character in this chapter(even though Ukir is mine...sort of), especially with the whole 'serving the Heartless' and stuff, but I just couldn't resist.
Next is a Kairi chapter. She will also be seeing a lot of action, although not as much as Riku, if everything goes the way I think it will go. In fact, the only person who won't see much action is Sora. Right now, Sora is the person who I'm having trouble with, but I'm sure things will clear up soon.
{DISCLAIMER}
I don't own anything. Nothing. But I do own...um...my brain? I mean the rocks where my brain used to be. And even then Sora steals them every once in a while.
{REVIEWS}
/Muslina/
Domo arigato gozaimasu for reading and reviewing!! I think I told you this before, but your story Steel Eyes is magnificent! You should update too! (yes, I'm a hypocrite. Hehehe.)
For your wonderful review, you get a shard of the mirror! It glows in the dark and has its own...mysterious powers. Hint hint.
/JillyBean3/
Hehehe. :beams: Thank you very much! I'm so happy to know that you like my story, and hopefully, you'll like this one too, with it's IMPROVED format!
You get a five-inch model of the new type of Heartless for your review! You can even make a barrier around you and the Heartless if you press the marking on its forehead!
Okay, listen up all you people who reviewed last time and got a free coupon. You can take any of the following prizes. One coupon equals one prize. Okay sooo...here they are:
Dragon Blade
Black Rosethorn Keyblade
Dark Ultima Keyblade
Kairi's Staff
Ultima Keyblade
Take your pick! The Black Rosethorn Keyblade and the Dark Ultima Keyblade are the Keyblades that Riku has. If you forgot what they look like(I did, and I made them up!) look back at chapter four, where we first meet real Riku.
Once again, thank you to all reviewers and readers!
{UPDATES} a.k.a. {MY LIFE}
Okay, first off, I'm very, very, very sorry for the long wait.
My life: I've been collecting Naruto, Bleach, Yuyu Hakusho and Fruits Basket manga. My personal favorites are Naruto and Fruits Basket. I even made a new chibi, Chibi Kyo Sohma, after Fruits Basket. He's my favorite character. Schools out, and I'll be starting high school next year. For once in my life, I'm excited about starting school. I'll be taking Japanese next year (hopefully). I can't wait! Finally, my dream is coming true. The T.V. shows that I've become attached to are Danny Phantom and Teen Titians. I am a full supporter of Beast Boy/Raven, and hope to write a few stories about them. And Danny Phantom is just cool. Period. Shrek 2 was sooo funny. I saw it twice with my family. And I can't wait until Spiderman 2 comes out this Wednesday. We moved a few weeks ago too. Since my uncle is single, and our old house is really small, we're switching houses with him, since we're a family of five and he lives in a big house. I was firmly against it at first, but now that we're here, it's not that bad. I've also started to collect favorite quotes of mine, from different fics and other sites. At the end of the story I'll give you a quote of the week. Sometimes it has to do with the story, sometimes it doesn't. Quotes are fun. I like figuring out the hidden meanings within them, and comparing them with other people. The thing that really intrigues me it that the meaning can be different for everybody, and means different things to different people. Most of these quotes aren't mine, although I have made a few of my own. And that's my life. Hope yours is a great one too. Signing off!
Soraoathkeeper
{QUOTE OF THE WEEK}
"And the light shineth in darkness..." St. John, 1:5
From Rem-chan's story To Light A Candle