This is for my friend Diamond

Disclaimer: Cloud belongs to Square Enix and Kokoro belongs to Diamond

There was always something happening in Hallow Bastion. Whether is was Heartless attacking, or just a normal day at school, there was always something there. This time, however, things were different.

"Man, what a nice day! Hey Cady, wanna go see the Cherry blossom festival?" Kokoro asked her friend as they headed home.

Cady nodded vigorously. Kokoro laughed and the two friends were off running, their school skirts swaying side to side as they ran. Once they got to the festival, two women put necklaces of cherry blossoms around their necks and gave a warm welcome. Kokoro and Cady giggled and went to enjoy the fun. Kokoro dragged Cady onto as many rides as she could before Cady forced Kokoro to play the same amount of games. The two got too full on candies and cakes until they collapsed on a bench.

"Oh man that was fun!" Kokoro yelled happily.

Cady nodded while a candy stick was shoved in her mouth. Kokoro laughed at her and took a bite out of a candy apple. Cady then looked up at the sky and pointed out the dark clouds beginning to circle above. The two girls stood and took off as rain came pouring down in buckets. They ran to the nearest building, which happened to be an abandoned church. The girls walked inside and looked up to see the rain pouring down from a large hole in the roof into a small pool on the floor where the floorboards were missing and the grounds was visible. Flowers bloomed all over where the roof was missing. Pews were scattered all over the place, broken and misshapen from age. The girls didn't know why, but they felt at ease here. They squeezed the water from their hair as best they could and squeezed their clothes. They hid under the roofed part of the church and waited for the storm to cease. Thunder pounded in their ears and lightning danced in the sky before them.

"This storm is so weird… it was sunny a few minutes ago," Kokoro pondered over the pouring rain.

Cady nodded in agreement, her eyes glued to the sky as the rain continued to fall. Then something caught her eye that forced her to grab Kokoro's arm and make her look up. Kokoro looked to where she was pointing and her eyes widened. There in the sky were two people, both clashing at each other with long swords. One was a man who had spiked up golden blonde hair, his sword bulky and tied with a long ribbon. The other was a man with long silver hair and an extremely long double bladed sword. They went at each other non-stop as the rain pounded on them. Kokoro and Cady stared up in amazement that they were able to be up the air for so long without coming down.

"Who are these people?" Kokoro screamed.

Cady could only watch in shock. Then, the man with the silver hair slammed his sword into the blonde and sent him flying towards the church and directly towards Kokoro. Cady wasn't one to speak normally, but this time was different. Her mouth opened wide and she screamed as loud as she could, "KOKORO LOOK OUT!"

Kokoro looked at her, then looked up and saw the Blonde flying towards her.

"H-Holy shit!" She screamed.

Before the blonde could smash into her, Cady made a mad dash and rammed herself into Kokoro, sending them flying across the room and crashing onto the floor seconds before the blonde slammed into the ground where Kokoro had been standing. Cady and Kokoro sat up and rubbed their aching arms and legs and looked over where the man had crashed. Kokoro got up and dashed over to him, not caring how bad her body hurt.

"Hey! Hey! Are you all right? Say something!" She yelled at the nearly unconscious man, shaking him over and over.

The man looked up at her with half open eyes.

"A…Aerith…?" He asked unconsciously.

Kokoro looked at him weird.

"Wha…? Who's that? I'm Kokoro!" She answered gruffly.

The man sat up and rubbed his back and looked up. His eyes widened and he turned to Kokoro. She didn't have time to respond to his gaze as he grabbed her close to him and jumped to the side as the silver haired man came down and stabbed the ground where they had been sitting. The man and Kokoro slid to the ground and the man let her go and they sat up.

"Sephiroth! Leave these girls out of it!" He screamed at the silver haired man.

'Sephiroth…?' Kokoro thought.

Sephiroth only snickered as he held up Cady in his arm, her eyes glazed over with fear and tears streaming down her face.

"They made the mistake of being here, you want her Cloud? Come take her from me." He answered.

"Cady!" Kokoro screamed out, scared for her friend's life.

Cady couldn't speak, but only look at Kokoro, her eyes wide with fright. Her mouth kept moving slowly but nothing could come out. Kokoro stood up ready to bash Sephiroth to a pulp, but Cloud got in her way.

"Don't underestimate him. Get out of here, I'll save your friend." He said, not even looking at her.

Sephiroth laughed.

"You think you can protect this girl? You couldn't save Aerith, what makes you think you could save her?" He snickered, holding Cady out to Cloud tauntingly.

Cloud balled his fists.

'Aerith… he called me that a little while ago…' Kokoro thought.

"Give me back my friend you jerk!" She then screamed at Sephiroth.

Cloud looked at her as though she had just made her death wish. Did she just say that to Sephiroth? It was obvious to him she didn't know who she up against. Sephiroth only grinned at her.

"You clueless girl." He said.

With that, he smacked his hand in the middle of Cady's neck, hitting a pressure point. Cady's eyes rolled up and she collapsed in his arms unconscious.

"You see Cloud? Once again I've stolen from you, and your little girlfriend there. If you want your little friend back, you'll have to come to me." He then said, disappearing from sight.

"CADY!" Kokoro screamed.

She ran to where Sephiroth was, but was too late as he and Cady vanished. She then slumped to the ground and began pounding on it, cursing out loud. Cloud walked up to her and grabbed her now bleeding fist and stopped her from pounding anymore.

"It's alright, I'll get your friend back." He promised.

Kokoro looked away to hide the tears, trying to sound as tough as she could.

"WE'll get my friend back, this is my problem too. No one gets away with hurting my friends." She said standing up.

Cloud only stared at her, then sighed and shook his head.

"Fine, let's go then. What's your name." He asked.

"It's Kokoro, and don't you forget it!" She said, turning back to him, giving him a wink and a thumbs up.

Cloud looked at her weird with an eyebrow raised.

'What a strange girl…' He thought to himself.

Kokoro looked back at him.

"What? Come on, let's get going! I don't want to leave my friend alone with that creep any longer than I have to." She said, obviously eager for this adventure.

Cloud sighed.

"Do you even have any clue what we're going against?" He asked.

"Not really, but then again, I don't care." She answered.

Another sigh. This was going to be a long trek.

"We'll have to wait until tomorrow, we should rest and prepare." He then told her.

Kokoro was the one to sigh this time. She wanted to get going as soon as she could so she could save her friend. She wanted to argue, maybe even start something, but she was too exhausted to even backtalk him.

"Fine, but we leave early!" She demanded.

Cloud let out a small laugh, this girl was amusing.

"Fine" He replied.

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Kelly: um… that's it for part one… Part two to come soon!