Author's Note-Sorry for taking so long guys. School has had me swamped. Anyways, I'm sure everyone doesn't want to have to sit through the author's note, so I'll just say that I don't own Kingdom Hearts and that I have already accumulated a vast number of graves from all the lawyers coming here… -grin- So, enjoy the fic.
Once the group had emerged from the cave, Bugenhagen and the others began to head up to the observatory. Bugenhagen looked over at Red XIII. "Nanaki, I need you to run to the items shop and get several potions and antidotes. Our friend seems to be in pretty bad shape, so hurry," he said. "We'll meet you in the observatory."
Red XIII nodded. "Yes, Grandfather," he replied, taking off in the direction of the items shop.
"Actually, our friend seems to be doin somethin pretty weird back here…" Barret said, looking down at the limp young man in his arms.
Yukiro was still unconscious, still a deathly pale color. He was trembling, as if he were freezing, yet really, he was burning up. Vincent frowned slightly. He couldn't remember the last time the prince of light had been in such bad shape…
...But the strange thing was that Yukiro was glowing blue…
"Hm…" Bugenhagen said, frowning.
"Could it be from the poison…?" Barret asked.
"It's someone's heart…" Riku said, recognizing the light. It would have to be a heart-the light and darkness of people's hearts was all that he could see, after all… Though he couldn't see the details of anyone, or how sick Yukiro looked, he could see a limp figure of bright light, surrounded by a darker light, but not so dark that it was malicious… Almost as if…it was a medium intensity of light, like it was balanced between being as bright as Yukiro…and as dark as Silence…
"Say what?" Barret asked, glancing over at the blind boy.
"You're a bit off… It's not someone's heart, but this is being created from one. Someone's heart is projecting a shield around his, keeping him alive," Vincent explained. "His heart, his soul will not leave his body since it is trapped within by the light…"
"But who would be doing that?" Riku asked.
"No idea. Hopefully someone on our side…"
"So all your memories are gone?" Leon repeated.
"Most, yeah," Sora replied. He and the others were now in the small house in the Third District. He, Taro, and Tam had gotten showers and a meal. Taro was sitting on the small bed in one of the corners, his jacket off, showing his black and white attire. Tam was perched on one of the boxes in another corner. And Sora was sitting at the table in the center of the room. The others, the people that they had met in the house and outside in the First District, were now listening to their story.
"Oh, I can't believe this! How could anyone possibly forget me?.!" Yuffie exclaimed over-dramatically.
"Yes, how could they…?" Cloud said dryly, raising an eyebrow.
"Hush up…"
Sora watched them, then frowned, hanging his head in shame. "…Sorry…" he said quietly.
Aerith smiled gently and took a seat next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay," she reassured comfortingly. "You'll get your memories back little by little, I'm sure of it."
"Yeah! I mean, Cloud once had a little identity crisis of his own, but he got over it. We got to see the real weird him. Isn't that right, Cloud?" Yuffie said cheerfully, glancing over at the blonde.
Cloud glared back at her. "…Not. Funny."
"And as for you two…" Leon said, turning his attention to Taro and Tam. "We're still a bit unclear as to who you both are…"
"Tam Nightfall," Tam replied, sitting on one of the crates.
"And I'm Kimoto Taro," Taro added, nodding.
"Wait a second. Kimoto?.!" Yuffie demanded.
Taro blinked. "Yeah…" he replied a bit slowly, sounding confused.
"Hey, you guys! He's the kid we're supposed to been keepin' an eye out for!"
Leon raised an eyebrow at the Chinese girl, then looked back over at Taro a bit skeptically. "…Are you sure…?"
"Well, he does look a lot like the boy's description. Which we thought was Sora's…" Aerith agreed.
"What? Wait a second, what boy?" Taro demanded.
"Kiyoshi Insei. With Kairi, Tifa Lockhart, and Hyotoko Takani," Yuffie replied.
Taro's golden eyes widened as he jumped up. "Kiyoshi and Hyotoko?.! Are you certain?.!"
"Kairi and Tifa…?" Sora repeated with a frown. Those names…so familiar… Were they people from his past? If only he could remember…
"Yeah. You guys actually just missed them. They stayed the night here, then left in Cid's gummi ship to go visit Kiyoshi's uncle," Yuffie replied.
"His uncle…?" Taro frowned slightly. "That would either be my dad, which I doubt, or…Uncle Ken!"
"Ken…?" Tam asked, blinking.
"Yeah…back when we were all kids, we weren't from Twilight Town, it was in a city called Tokyo on the Meiji World. My mom had an older brother that was a pretty good swordsman; his name was Himura Kenshin, or for short, Uncle Ken," Taro explained.
"Ah."
Taro nodded. "Yeah. If we hurry, we can still meet them there."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sora said enthusiastically.
As he spoke, the door suddenly flew open. "We've got a problem!" Cid announced. Blood was soaking through the fairly deep gash in his shoulder, but he seemed to be trying not to take notice of this. He looked over at Sora and co. "Sora!" He raised an eyebrow at Sora's gothic attire. "…What's with the getup…?"
"We'll explain later. What seems to be the trouble?" Leon asked.
There's a Heartless tearing up the Second District!"
"You've got to be kidding me…!" Tam groaned.
"Nice timing…" Taro said a bit darkly. "Unfortunately, we can't just leave with it being on the rampage. Let's just beat this thing and get going already."
His friends nodded and ran outside while Aerith stayed behind to heal Cid.
"Which way to the Second District?" Tam demanded.
"Just follow us-it's through the alleyway," Yuffie replied as they pushed open the large pair of doors that connected the Third District to the Second District alleyway. They ran through the neon-lit darkness, Taro, Tam, and Sora being the first to arrive in the square.
"Sora!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Guys!"
The teens turned, glancing back to see that Yuffie, Cloud, and Leon had been stopped at the entrance of the alleyway by an invisible barrier.
"Well shit," Taro cursed. "Looks like the Heartless wants us to fight this one alone."
"But…where is it…?" Sora wondered aloud in a quiet voice. They surveyed the wreckage of the Second District… It was bad, but it could've been worse. The fountain had been scratched up, and some of the signs broken, dangling almost precariously above the street. A few of the windows had been shattered. One of the benches had been destroyed, shattered timber, and a few holes could be seen in the roofs of houses and buildings. It was quite obvious that the Second District had seen better days…
There was an eerie silence that was broken only by the soft footsteps of the teens' sneakers. Suddenly…
"Up there!" Tam exclaimed, pointing up at the roof of the Gizmo Shop. They looked up to see what looked like a huge, shadowy gargoyle perched ominously on the edge of the roof. Large, slitted, amber eyes suddenly pierced through the darkness, like two glowing neon lights. It slowly rose onto its hind legs, raising its clawed hands high. At full height, it had to be around ten to thirteen feet tall.
Opening its wings, the very wingspan seemed at least eight feet from tip to tip. They were lined with what looked like neon lights of pink, blue, and yellow. A rope-like tail, nearly like a lion's tail, in fact, swished back and forth. It seemed to be made of a dark orchid purple strip of neon, swirling with darkness within. With the same type of lights, there was a Heartless symbol adorning the chest. The claws and fangs glowed red, as if covered in wet blood.
It suddenly leaped off the edge, the wings catching the air so that it swooped down upon them.
"Duck!" Tam shouted. Tam and Taro got down, but Sora…
He was frozen. For some odd reason, he couldn't seem to move…
"Sora! Get down!" Taro yelled.
Sora looked over at the others, then frowned and dropped down to one knee, his keyblade forming in his hands. At the last minute, he raised his keyblade, pointing it up and ducking down his head. The sharp tip of the keyblade caught the stone-like skin of the gargoyle and ripped a large gash into the arm of the creature, but at the same time, one of the claws came down and ripped a large gash into Sora's shoulder, making the boy tumble back.
As it lifted off again, Taro and Tam jumped over and ran over to Sora. "Sora, you okay?" Taro asked.
"I'll live…" Sora said, wincing as he gripped his shoulder while climbing to his feet.
"You idiot! Be glad that thing didn't kill you…" Tam said.
"Well, at least I got a hit on the thing. How are we supposed to fight the Heartless while we're down here and that thing's up in the air?" Sora asked.
"Good question. It's like trying to take down a jet. None of our weapons are long-distance, to my knowledge, anyway, and I'm not exactly very experienced with aerial attacks," Taro said.
"Hm… Sora, what about your fire?" Tam asked. "Think you can hit it with that?"
Sora shook his head. "I'm not sure… I don't know how long of range I can get my fire to go," he replied.
"All I can really use is some sort of boomerang toss with my keyblade, and I don't think that's going to do much on this thing. And I'm not really a magic-user. How about you, Tam?" Taro asked, glancing over at their red-haired companion.
"Hm…well, let's see…" Tam said, watching the massive gargoyle as she wracked her brain for ideas.
"Um…right. How 'bout we come up with a plan while we're out of range of that thing?" Sora suggested, sweatdropping as he pointed up at the gargoyle with his left arm, which was currently his good arm. "I don't want to get clawed-up again, if that's alright with you guys…"
"Yeah, that'd probably be a good idea," Taro agreed as he watched the creature prepare itself for another attack. "I don't want to get mauled, either…"
"But where?" Tam asked.
Sora looked around, then said, "There!" He rushed over to the staircase nearest to the hotel, hiding behind it and motioning his friends over. "Guys, c'mon!"
The two older teens exchanged glances, then nodded and followed.
Author's Note-As I said, school has had me swamped and I've been suffering from a lack of inspiration recently, but I think I seem to be getting it back gradually.
Kingdom Alchemist, I wouldn't quite call Hyotoko a creepy darkness lover-he's just too logical…and gullible... -smiles and sweatdrops- And poor Tam, lol…at least she's not a stupid anime girl… Don't worry about Ed, I have no intention of him dying…um…yet… -grin-
Namine3419, that ish a lot of woots, lol.. –smile- And um…yeah, well, see…I didn't really like Kairi that much in the video game…she kinda annoyed me, to be honest…but I hate it when people make her stupidly…well, stupid and out of character just because they don't like her. So I figured that I would use the rumors that she might fight in the second game and the fact that she probably got cooler with age, since this is a year later, to make her character a lot more awesome. I'm…not sure if Al will be saving the day. It may be a group effort…or not. –smiles and sweatdrops- Not sure, I have yet to get to write that part in the rough draft.
Kingdom Hearts Lover, don't worry, it's not all the characters that can't feel pain. Just certain ones, and the reason for that shall be revealed eventually.
Demonsurfer, I know the feeling. I've got highschool, karate, drama club, and possibly poetry club and international club that I'm juggling at the moment. Not that that'll probably last for very long…the two sure things aside from highschool ish gonna be karate and hopefully drama club. As for my computer time, I just stay up all night, or at least try to.. (though this is not something I would recommend…I think my memory tends to be really short-term because of my lack of sleep…) As for the worlds thing, the first idea sounds good, but then, I have yet to play FF9. –smiles and sweatdrops- But either idea seems pretty good, and if you use the second one, then perhaps you could think of something that keeps them from…um…not killing each other, lol? –smiles and sweatdrops- On the topic of worlds and such, to be honest, I've been mulling over what to do with Rurouni Kenshin when I get to it. I'm not sure how I big I want to make the world…just Tokyo, all of Japan, or all of the Meiji world. I'm thinking probably the whole Meiji world, due to the fact that it involves both the East and the West. With this decided, I can get to deciding an actual name…probably the planet 'Meiji'… And yes, Al does kick ass, lol. At least right now he does. –grin-
Anyways, I really need to get working on the rough draft more… I think one of the problems is these battle scenes are so hard and sometimes even tedious to write sometimes, so once I get past all this, I should hopefully be picking up the pace. But anyways, thankies for all the reviews so far! I shall try to update soon (sooner than I have been recently… -sweatdrop- ). Please review! Ja ne!