6H:It's a beautiful day for fanfiction!
Anaretsu:I hate beauty. And your fanfiction would destroy beauty anyway.
6H:Oh, you're sooo mean!
Jack: Next chapter is the chapter 50 party! Have you guys forgotton?
6H:Of course not! Wait! The next chapter is the chapter 50 party! Holy damn!
Jack: You can be so dense, Six!
6H:Hurry up! We gotta cook the finger foods!
Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments
Fragment 49-Searching
"Aru, you shouldn't stay here. It's getting dangerous." Riku said. They stood in the green room in front of the magic mirror. Kairi slept peacfully still in the coffin, waiting to be awakened.
"I know...Ryu and Cedeile must be looking for me."
"They are. And they're worried. I'll send you back to Traverse Town. You have friends there, and it's safe for you." Riku placed a hand on the mirror, and the image in the glass changed from their reflections to the 1st District square. Aru looked back at her dark friend. "When you get back there, please don't tell anyone you've met with me."
"Alright. Thank you for everything you've done. Oh, wait!" she reached into her sleeve and pulled out the chain. "This is yours, right? I found it in Monstro." He looked at it in her upreaching hand. He took it for a moment.
"Please hold onto it for me." he said, placing it in her open hand and closing her fingers around it. "It's important. You'll understand soon."
"I promise I'll give it back to you someday." she said, before turning and walking into the mirror. She extended out her hands, and they slipped through it, like the surface was water. She looked back at him one more time before stepping all the way through. Riku reached out to her back as it disappeared, but then snatched back his hand. The image of Traverse Town fadded away and only showed a lonely boy.
He was not alone for long, for Mallificent came storming in.
"Here you are. I've been looking for you. You're heading off to Neverland with the girl."
"Why?" he asked.
"Her heart has been found..." Riku's heart quickened it's pace.
"Really? At last, she'll awaken."
"Yes. Captian Hook will take you on his ship. You better get moving." She left the room as abruptly as she came. In happiness, he lept over to Kairi.
"Did you hear that, Kairi? We're going to get your heart back. Then you'll wake up, and everything will be okay again. We'll go back home with Cedeile and we'll show Sora what it really means to be friends. And then, Kairi...then you'll love me best, right?" He told her, tearing up.
'What about Aru?'
"Who's there?" Riku turned looking around the room. He could've sworn he heard that voice...the voice that launched the Lightra attack in Monstro. That mature woman, speaking softly in his head. No, it was his imagination. That was all. Maybe there was never a voice. But that form that had been over the magician...
'There's alot I don't know about that girl. The only thing that matters at this moment now is gett Kairi's heart."
Aru walked out of the portal and into the 1st district. The usual evening atmosphere hung everywhere, making everything cheery. However, Aru felt sad after her meeting with Riku had ended. Would she see him again? Working with the heartless was risky buisness, and then there was what Nabuki had said.
"He himself wasn't aware the one thing he found comfort in was causing his death!"
'It's not true Riku. You're not dying, are you? It's strange, but already I feel close to you, even though we haven't met many times. But, you were always watching us. You wanted to keep us safe, and you saved me and showed me wonderful things, and helped me regain memory.'
"Don't say that!" Riku said, grabbing the girl by the shoulders. "Just because you don't have a past, doesn't mean you don't desevre a furture! And right now, you're my only reason to live and I-"
"But you did remember something. You have a memory now. " She walked into an alley and pressed her arm against the wall, resting on it. Sher recalled the one fragment of memory she had now. Laying on the grass, watching the stars, someone there with her, the cool breeze flying over them, and then...nothing. There was nothing more than that. She couldn't see that other person, only their black scarf flying in the wind. She fell away from the wall and came out of the alley, walking around till she came to the door to the 2nd district.
'Could the key to my memory be in the fragments? Riku said that they had gathered alot from Atlantica. Maybe all those shards were that memory, and now that we have them, I remember...but then why did I only remember after looking at the star map?' she thought, confused. 'That other person with me...he seems important. Like I should know him...' She sighed, sitting on a bench in the square. The moon shone through the break in the clouds to reveal heartless, hiding in the shadows She looked up, seeing their glowing yellow eyes as they came closer.
"Oh great. I can't fight all these heartless on my own! I'll have to escape and then find Leon and the others." One came forward, but she hit it dead on with fira shot. It feel back into it's comrads. They, however, ignored it and proceeded to surround her. 'What do they wnat with me? If they just wanted my heart, then there would only be a few. But this is nuts!' "WOODA!" she cried, summoning forth the giant vines from the ground. While the heartless were becoming tangled in the vines, Aru dashed for the stairs, running with all her might. But the heartless were right on her tail. Turning as she jumped up the remaining steps, she called forth another power. "EARTHA!" The ground shook as huge chunks of rock and earth fell ontop of the demons of darkness.
Using eartha sevral more times, the heartless were soon all crushed by Aru's magic. Wipeing her forhead, she sighed in relief and made her way to the 3rd District to the small house Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith lived in.
Ryu and Cedeile rode in silence as Mc Fuzz Town went by. Ryu was getting a little annoyed with the girls' silence, and felt it was time to speak up.
"Stop sulking." he let out coldly.
"Shut up Ryu. I just added two more people to the victims list."
"I really wish you'd stop acting like it was all your fault. You didn't kill Kirisu and Makota. Makota was stupid. She could've gone to any white mage to help her brother, and there are plenty of them in Atlantica. She didn't have to work for Ursula." he replied calmly.
"She was like five or something! How was she supposed to know?"
"You treat her like a saint because she made a sacrifice for her brother. The truth was, she was just too stupid to do the right thing and refuse the evil bastard's deal."
"Ryu, stop talking like that!" Cedeile yelled. "FOUR people died because of me! I'm supposed to be saving people, but instead I'm hurting them! Do you know how that feels! Tifa, Nabuki, Kirisu and Makota all died because of me! It was my fault!" Ryu stopped the ship and looked straight at her.
"I really don't want to slap you again, Cedeile, but I want to knock some sense into you. It was NOT your fault they died. Nabuki and Tifa wanted to sacrifice themselves so that you'd make it to the end. Kirisu and Makota...they just got in the way is all. It was really Makota that killed her brother, and you didn't kill either of them. You tried to stop Makota from getting hurt, I know, but she didn't listen to you, and it's not your fault. So shut up and let's move on with life, okay? There's still a long way to go. Compared to the possible amount of fragments out there, we barely have any. You saw how powerful Ursula got when she absorbed their power, right? We can't let that happen. Stop sulking and I'll start the ship again." Cedeile looked up at him in silence, stunned.
"You're just putting it down in your mind so you don't have to deal with sadness. You want to be callous to everything because you're afraid of sorrow. But that's wrong-you have to use all your emotions, not just anger and joy." Ryu turned away from her.
"You don't know me, Cedeile. And you don't know my life. This is how I have to be-to seperate emotions from duty is important so that others can be saved from the power of the fragments. Understand?" he started up te ship again.
"So, where do we look for Aru?"
"I have no idea. It's hard to say where she could be, because we have no way of tracking her."
"Should we just go back to Traverse Town and take a quick rest before searching for her?" Ryu shrugged and drove the ship towards the said world.
Cedeile and Ryu walked to the 3rd District and open the door to the house to see...
"Aru!" the two exclaimed at the same time, bewildered. The magician sat at the round table with Aerith, having a cup of tea. She smiled.
"Hi guys! Did you miss me?" Cedeile gave Aru a huge hug.
"Only alot!" she exclaimed.
"You were here the whole time!" Ryu asked. Cedeile released the small girl and she thought up a good reason for her disapperance.
"When you get back there, please don't tell anyone you've met with me." 'What am I gonna do?' "Yeah, I've been here. I made that portal at the last moment, because I knew I wouldn't make it. It's a form of Teleporta..."
"And you didn't take us with you?" Ryu asked, fists on his hips, annoyed.
"Well...I knew you guys would be okay, and I didn't have enough magic."
"Aru, what was that spell you cast on Ursula to make her die and stuff?" Cedeile asked, impressed.
"Oh, that was...a light spell..." Ryu pulled up a chair.
"A light spell?" Aerith asked. "Those are really power magics. I didn't think someone your age could support that kind of power."
"I didn't think so either. But when I got here, I...remembered something."
"You got some of your memory back?" Cedeile asked. "That's great, Aru! What do you remember?"
"Don't get so excited. It's not that much, and it's still hard to see it clearly. All I remember is looking at the stars with someone in the grass. The person had a black scarf that blew in the wind. That's all."
"That's it?" Cedeile asked, disapointed. Ryu smacked her in the back of the head. "Hey!" she groaned, rubbing the soar spot.
"It's good that you remembered something Aru. Maybe as time goes on you'll remember more and more." Ryu reassured her. Aru smiled at the fragment hunter from across the table.
"Thank you, Ryu. "
"And I'm with you all the way! It's the three of us, searching not only for the fragments, but for your memory!" Cedeile exclaimed. Aerith laughed.
"You're all such good friends in such a short amount of time." she remarked, pouring more tea for all of them. "Your bond will make your stronger."
"How long has it been already? Two months maybe?" Cedeile asked, loading up her cup with sugar.
"Yeah, something like that." Ryu said, stirring his abesent mindly. Aru looked at her reflection in the brown drink.
'I'm not alone. I've got my friends. And I know I'll have Riku too.' she thought, clasping his chain tighter in her hand. Coming back into focus, she notied Cedeile and Ryu haveing another pointless argument, and Aerith laughing good naturedly while she watched. Aru laughed too. 'I'm so lucky to have these guys.'
6H:Ahhh! My cheese crackers are burning in the oven! (runs into kitchen)
Jack: Why'd you cook them?
6H:You mean I didn't have to? Oh darn!
Anaretsu: Are you sure there's enough streamers and stuff around this place?
6H:Now that you mention it, we do need more on the ceiling. Hey! Does anyone remember what the orginal color of the ceiling was?
Anaretsu: See?
Jack: Ahh! The chips are stuck in the toaster!
6H: O-O You mean no toasted chips? HOW WILL WE LIVE!
Anaretsu: If you know what's good for your sanity, don't read the next chapter.
Jack and 6H: ANARETSU!
