Kingdom Hearts

D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.

A Save the World Story

Destiny 01 – D. etachment From Reality

「君という光が私を見つける・真夜中に」

'I've been having these weird thoughts lately, I'm not sure if they're for real – or not.' Sora thought to himself, questioning the train of thought he had been having for the past few days. He felt as if he was being constantly smothered in an inescapable darkness; one that lurked in every shadow and every unknown place. For some reason he hadn't been able to tell anyone about his feelings, 'They would just think I was crazy – it doesn't matter that much anyway…'

He turned on his bedroom light and then peered out the window. It was still fairly dark for being six thirty in the morning. He began to rummage around his room for something, he couldn't remember what, but he knew when he saw it that he would know what it was. Finally he gave up and looked out the window again. It was still dark. He looked up at the sky and decided that it was because of the heavy black rain clouds that had been covering the sky for the past few days. Without warning the sky flashed bright white making him jump. Fingers of lighting cracked down through the sky. A storm had been forecasted for the area during the last few nights, but it was still frightening to be so uncertain as to what it might bring. After turning out the lights again, Sora laid back down, with heavy eyelids, to sleep for another hour or so. When he awoke it was finally light outside and the rain clouds were gone, leaving the sky a crisp blue color dotted with white clouds and soaring birds.

Getting up again he picked up a gift that he had received anonymously a few days before. It was a small coin tied on a red thread, for good luck he assumed. He held it up in the light. It was the strangest coin he had ever seen, clear, tinted blue, inscribed with stars around the center of the hole. It glinted in the sunlight and spun slowly. As Sora looked at it he became more and more fascinated with it, it seemed almost magical; the total opposite of his thoughts of darkness and suffocation. Placing it around his neck he decided to go out for a walk. Since it was Saturday and his mother would be in any minute to make sure he went out to enjoy the day before the dark clouds came back that night.

The park he chose to walk through was fairly large and crowded with people sitting under the trees and enjoying picnics with their friends and families. Children were running through a field trailing kites or puppies behind them. All in all he had completely forgotten about his 'weird' thoughts until he spotted a black raven watching him from its perch on a tree branch. He suddenly felt cold and his breath caught in his throat until he couldn't breath. Someone came over to him, leaning over and asking him if he was alright. After a moment he felt better, looking back the raven was gone. "Thanks, I just…"

The boy, who was about his age, just looked down at him with his bright green-blue eyes and said, "I know. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine." He helped on his shoulder to steady him.

He managed to ignore the urge to ask if they knew each other, he felt they did, but that was just his mind playing tricks on him again. "I hope those rain clouds don't come back tonight. They make the sky so dark. It's as if an ink pen broke in the sky and it doesn't clear up until morning when the sun dries it all up."

The other boy nodded. "You're right. I suppose it could be looked at that way – the darkness I mean."

"Of course. You know…I've been having these weird thoughts lately…and I can't figure out what they mean." He stopped and realized what he had said, and then quickly made an apology, "I'm so sorry! I…I don't know why I said that, we don't even know each other!"

The other boy laughed, "It's fine, don't worry about it. I'm sure you just needed to get it out of your system. By the way, I'm Riku."

"Sora."

"Like the sky, it's a pretty name." He smiled. "Your necklace is also very interesting, I've only seen something like it once before."

"Really?" Sora asked in his surprise, he hadn't expected anyone that lived where he did to recognize it. "Where?"

"Oh, I travel quite a bit, so I see some interesting things. But that," He said pointing to the coin, "I only saw once…a long ways from here. You're very lucky to have it."

"It was given to me…I'm not sure by who or why, I just found the package with my name on it a few days ago."

"Well then, keep it with you. It will give you good luck, and keep you safe…from the shadows…" The last part of his sentence was muffled by a sudden distraction. He looked at Sora for a moment before shaking his head to clear the thought from his head.

Sora blinked, he hadn't heard the last part of what Riku had said, "What?"

Riku waved it off, "Nothing…I have to go now, and maybe I'll see you around."

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

He began walking away, which brought back the revelation of a minute before. Since he had begun talking with Sora, for those short moments, things had been sliding into place in his mind. Everything, after years of travel, was coming together with this boy as the center. He personally hadn't sent the coin, although he knew who had. The fact that the boy was troubled by the seemingly normal storm clouds and his mention of his 'weird thoughts' without realizing it, was beginning to make him think that this boy, that Sora, had something to do with the growing darkness across the universe. Perhaps he was the sign that he had been searching for. A shadow passed over him and the raven landed in a tree in front of him. Its shadow stretched farther than the sun should have allowed for that time of day and it let out a loud screech, causing Riku to quickly cover his ears.

The shadow began to crawl toward him, staggering from side to side as it went. He backed away, ready to run, but bumped into something behind him. Turning around he saw Sora, frozen in place, a look of fear and confusion on his face. Riku grabbed his arm and began pulling him away, looking back to see how close the shadow was to their heels. They came to a bridge and he paused long enough to pull a small slip of paper from his pocket, place it on the bridge and mutter a few words under his breath. Then he pulled on Sora's arm again just as the bridge convulsed and folded it self, so that it now formed a zigzag across the river. The shadow stopped at the foot of the bridge and lingered for a few moments before retreating back the way they had come.

Panting from the run, Sora looked over at Riku, whose face had become serious as he watched the shadow disappear into the forest. "Wha – what was that?" He asked, still trying to catch his breath, as well as process what he had just seen.

Riku didn't say anything for a moment, still watching the edge of the forest across the river. "An evil spirit, a demon, shadows, darkness…you can call it by dozens of names, it just depends where you are and where you're from."

"Well what do you call them?" He asked, looking across the bridge with Riku.

"Heartless." Riku replied icily then turned to go. "If you're alright then you should go, before it comes back."

"What about you?"

Riku kept walking, "I'm the one they're after, unless you have some connection to the darkness…" He paused and waited to see if Sora would respond. When he didn't Riku continued, "Then I wouldn't worry about it, just forget we ever met and everything will be fine. It will be better this way." He smiled weakly toward the ground, 'Yes, this is how it has to be.'

"Riku, what's going on? And what is this darkness that you keep talking about?"

He was silent for a moment, "It doesn't concern you, so just forget about it. If you get involved it will just…look it's not worth it, so don't bother." He began walking away again, but Sora's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Hey, if it's that dangerous I can't let you go alone." A lopsided grin spread over his face, "I may not have magic strips of paper, but I do have this." He held out the coin so that it shone in the sunlight. "You said it was good luck, right?"

Riku sighed and pulled something else out of his pocket that looked like a key. It was about the size of his palm, but had a chain coming off the handle, as if you could hook it to something. "This is what they want." He said holding it up so that Sora could see it better. The part of the key that would fit into the lock seemed to be made of the same blue material as the coin. It also had similar designs etched into it. The handle was sliver with inlaid designs of the blue material, making it simmer in the light as Riku held it out.

"Why would the Heartless want a key?" Sora asked, instinctually placing a hand over the coin around his neck.

Sitting on the ground under a nearby tree Riku held the key between his fingers in front of him, "So that they can reopen the door. But even if they managed to get the key away from me, they still couldn't open the door."

Sora flopped down next to him, "Why not?"

"Because it's not complete. You need a second part to make the key work. Luckily they don't seem to know where it is. Or what it is for that matter. It was hidden somewhere they were never supposed to be able to find it. But it looks like by running from them, I unintentionally lead them to it." He pressed his hands against his forehead.

"Well isn't there anyway to stop them? I mean there has to be some way to get rid of them, right?"

"Yes."

"What is it then?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Cause I'm gonna help you do it, no matter what." He held out his hand and clasped Riku's, "Whenever one of my friends needs help, I help them. It's just something I do."

"You have a good heart Sora…but I can't let you help me." He smiled and stood up ready to leave again. Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye and before he could move Sora had jumped up in front of him. At some point he had grabbed a stick and was using it to the best of his abilities to fend off the Heartless that had managed to sneak up on them. Looking around Riku could see others closing in around them. Making up his mind he said, "Sora, I need your coin."

Sora looked behind him at Riku for a moment then nodded, he didn't know what Riku was going to do with it, but if it helped get rid of the monsters slowly surrounding them he didn't care.

Riku slipped the string with the coin over Sora's head and clipped it to the chain on the handle of the key. It glowed for a moment then began to grow in his hand until it was the general size of a sword. At the sight of the keyblade the Heartless cringed but still attacked. Riku quickly took care of them, bashing them away, leaving nothing but wisps of smoke that curled around the edge of the blade for a moment before disappearing all together.

After he was satisfied that they were all gone he turned to Sora who had collapsed to his knees, his face white with red splotches. He was holding his arm against his chest and appeared to be struggling to keep his eyes open. "Sora…" He said, bending down and putting his hands on Sora's shoulders. "Sora, are you alright? Let me see your arm." Sora held it out so that Riku could see the red marks on his arm. Riku took out another of his slips of paper and pressed it against Sora's arm, "Everything is going to be alright…just hang on for a little longer. Okay?"

Sora felt himself nod. He wasn't really connecting what Riku was saying though, he knew that everything was going to fine, nothing was wrong to begin with. Staring at Riku he could see the concern in his eyes, and hear it in his voice. 'What is he talking about? What's wrong…I don't feel anything…so nothing is wrong, right? I just feel detached.'