Anne: sorry it took so long. I was having a serious case of writer's block and I was editing one of the earlier chapters and in the end I had to delete the whole story and repost all the chapters…SORRY!
No poseo Kingdom Hearts.
Chapter Six: A Day in the Life
The next morning, Sora was the first to awake. The fifteen-year-old was expecting to hear Goofy's loud snores or Donald's sleepy squabbles, which Sora believed to be snores. With a slight pang of guilt, he remembered that they were still somewhere out in the wilderness of Twilight Town, while he was safe and snug in the Clock Tower.
He crawled out of his makeshift bed and walked out onto the balcony. It was still dark out with a tinge of light on the horizon. Out there, Sora watched the sunrise. To his surprise, the sky still looked like the afternoon sky and not that of the morning.
"Isn't it the morning?" he asked no one in particular.
"It's always nighttime or dusk in Twilight Town. The sun sets and rises on the same horizon," said a certain blonde look-a-like. "Weird isn't it?"
Sora, who had nearly fallen off the balcony in surprise, agreed. "At my home the sun would rise in the east and set in the west. The sunsets there were always the best…" the brunette trailed off, his sky blue eyes distant.
Sekou looked at the youth and sighed deeply. "You miss your home, don't you?"
"Yeah. But I've stopped trying to find it ages ago. I already have enough things to find at the moment. More important things." 'Like finding Riku and king Mickey,' he thought to himself.
The blonde looked at Sora with understanding. "I never knew what my real home was like. I grew up here in Twilight Town since I was like three. I had foster parents; I never knew my real ones. Though once, they took me on the train to Traverse Town to try to look for them. No luck, though."
'Poor guy,' Sora found himself thinking. 'Never being able to know what your real home and parents were like.' Suddenly he remembered Donald and Goofy. "I'm going out to find Donald and Goofy," he said as he walked down the stairs. Sekou was still in a reminiscing daze and didn't notice until Sora halfway down the stairs that he was leaving. "Hey I'm coming with you!" called the blonde, joining the other teenager at the base of the stairs.
Outside, the boys saw an empty street. "Where are the heartless?" Sekou found himself asking.
"Waiting for us," replied Sora simply, walking down the steps that led up to the Clock Tower. As he walked down to the small cul-de-sac, a group of heartless appeared. It was of the more basic kind, consisting of Shadows, Soldiers, and a couple of Darkballs. Sora and Sekou quickly dispatched them and continued on.
Throughout the city, the boys encountered more odd groups such as that. With the sealing of the Keyhole, most of the heartless had fled and only some of the weaker ones stayed behind. Sora's goal was to eliminate enough heartless so that they would only appear at night. Then the major threat would be gone.
"What about after that?" Sekou asked as he and Sora worked their way down Main Street.
"Then Donald, Goofy and I leave to another world," he explained. "There are other worlds out there that are in need of help. We usually stay until the heartless are weak enough to be dealt with by that world's inhabitants alone."
"Oh."
(Castle Chapel, Hollow Bastion)"Aizu! How could've you let the siege been lost!" Maleficent shouted at the only other being in the room with her.
"The Keyblade Master met the Dual Wielder. It is that simple," answered the woman, Aizu. Most of her features were hidden under a deep purple hood and cloak. All that one could see is a long braid of ebony hair trailing out from the hood. "The Keyhole was sealed."
Maleficent growled in frustration. "The Organization interfered, too."
"It would've been more helpful if their agent had managed to kill the boys," said Aizu, her voice soft and calm.
Maleficent shook her head. "No. We need them alive along with the Keeper. Ansem would not want it any other way."
There was silence for several minutes until Aizu spoke. "You know the Dual Wielder was part of the Organization for some time?"
"He broke away a couple years ago," replied Maleficent. More silence until Maleficent started walking out the doors towards the Great Hall. "Aizu, I want you to keep an eye on the boys. You are in charge of capturing them."
"Are you going to turn your full attention on finding the Keeper?" asked the mysterious woman.
"Yes. You are dismissed."
Aizu bowed. "Yes, Mistress." She then vanished in a swirl of dark smoke.
(back in Twilight Town)
"Donald, Goofy!" Sora was calling out as he and Sekou continued their search for the missing duck and dog. "Heeeeello?" So far, they weren't having much luck.
The brunette had climbed up on a pile of barrels tied together with rope to keep them from rolling away and was scanning the area from up there. Meanwhile Sekou was trying to look in through a window that was set up higher than he was tall. So one could see him jumping up and down, his blonde hair bobbing slightly.
"Doooooonald, Goofieeeeeeeee!" Sora continued to call, unaware of the ropes tying the barrels together unraveling. "I wonder where they could be?"
"Somewhere?" suggested Sekou helpfully. By now he was clinging to the windowsill and dangling from it. The look-a-likes soon had a nasty shock.
SNAP
"Whoa!" yelled Sora ion a manner suggesting shock as the barrels began to roll under his feet. The teenager fell forward onto solid ground though he was forced to get up again as the barrels started rolling downhill towards him and Sekou, who had joined the brunette in the middle of the street.
Now remember, Sora wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and neither was Sekou (though he's a little smarter), so the first thing that came to his mind was…
"RUNAWAY!"
The escape from the barrels chased the two look-alikes down the never-ending street (as it seemed to be) until it opened up to Main Street. Sora and Sekou leaped out of the way and off to the side as the barrels rolled past them and smashed on a wall of a building across the street.
"That was close," said Sora matter-of-factly.
"No, duh," sighed Sekou at Sora's simple-mindedness. He looked up at the sky to find the sun setting on the horizon. "We should make our way back to the Clock tower now. The sun's setting."
Sora nodded in agreement and, with Sekou, walked up Main Street to where the Clock Tower was.
Donald tapped his foot impatiently on the ground while Goofy sat enjoying the sunset. Both of them were sitting on the steps leading up to the Clock Tower waiting for Sora to show up.
"He says he'll meet us here and then he doesn't show up…" the wizard was mumbling to himself.
"But I did show up. You just weren't there when I was," said none other than Sora himself, who had showed up just seconds ago with Sekou.
"Who's he?" asked Donald as soon as he noticed the blonde, a suspicious look in his eyes.
Goofy took the time to look between the two teens and pointed out, "Gawrsh, Sora, he looks a lot like you!" he exclaimed, causing a sigh from both the blonde and brunette look-alikes.
"Thank you for pointing that out, Goofy," remarked Sora with slight sarcasm. "Anyways, guys this is Sekou. Sekou, the short one is Donald and the taller one is Goofy." He pointed to each respective person as he said their names. "Great now we all know each other, I'm starved!"
The Keyblade Master hopped up the last few steps with Sekou, Donald, and Goofy in tow. Inside, more introductions were made between Donald and Goofy and Sakura, Haru, and Kocha. And once everyone was settled and had a rather pathetic dinner of chips and Twinkies, which Sekou had stashed away in his room, Sora left to go lie down saying he had "a tiring day." No one stopped him, but Donald and Goofy exchanged odd looks.
Awhile later, Haru, Sakura, and Kocha all went off to bed, too. The only ones awake now were Donald, Goofy, and Sekou who sat in stony silence.
"Why did you two look so worried when Sora went to bed earlier?" asked Sekou, who could no longer take the tense stillness in the room.
Donald said nothing and continued to glare at the blonde who glared right back. Goofy looked back and forth between the two, mentally debating whether or not to say anything.
Eventually, Sekou sighed and looked away. "Fine, you don't have to tell me," he said irritated. "I'm going to bed now."
The topic of Donald and Goofy's worries wasn't brought up at all during the next week and a half. By then, the combined efforts of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Sekou had the heartless cleared out completely. It was now safe for Haru, Sakura, and Kocha to leave the Clock Tower and return their own homes.
One day, the seven companions (since Sekou and Donald didn't count each other as 'friends') were going out for lunch. They went to a ramen stand at the request of Sakura. It was quite good in Soras opinion, if only he could figure out how one was supposed to eat with those damn chopsticks! (Dedicated to AuroraMoon101)
"Goofy, we need to get some supplies before we leave," Donald said quietly to his old friend after lunch. Sora was up ahead arguing with Haru over who was better looking.
"C'mon, guys," sighed Sekou. "We all know I'm the best looking of you all!"
Sakura sighed and smacked the blonde on the back of the head as Kocha caught a mysterious cough. Sora raised an eyebrow.
"I look way better than you," the brunette stated.
"Nuh-uh."
"Yeah-huh."
"You guys look almost exactly alike," interrupted Kocha, now his 'coughing fit' had ceased. "So neither is better looking than the other. In fact, I think you both tie for last place."
Before the look-alikes could object, some older, giddy high school girls approached.
"Are you like twins?" asked one of the girls as they all giggled madly.
"No…" they replied at the same time, causing the girls to giggle even harder.
"Are you sure?"
"If we were, I think I would've been living with him then," said Sora a little annoyed.
Donald, who was fed up with the annoying, giggly, ditzy, flirting schoolgirls, snuck up behind them and squalled as loud as he could. This caused the girls to scream and run away.
"Thanks, Donald," said Sora, chuckling lightly. "I was afraid they would just tie us up and throw us in a closet."
"Like what Yuffie did to you once?" said Goofy.
Sora winced. "Yeah...kinda like that."
The others started laughing even though they had no idea who Yuffie was. "I wish I could've seen that," sighed Sakura, still giggling.
After the schoolgirl incident, Sora, Donald, and Goofy broke away from the group to shop for supplies since they would be leaving soon. Sekou offered to show them the nearest items shop. Donald wasn't too thrilled, but he also knew that Sekou knew his way around town. Begrudgingly, he accepted.
Sekou knew Donald didn't trust him. It wasn't really a big secret. He was pretty sure Sora, Goofy, and the others were also aware of the tension between them. Whether it was because he has a similar appearance to Sora or that one argument they had when they first met, Sekou did notice Donald get even more distrustful when he saw the blonde wield the Oblivion and the Oathkeeper. Well, Sora was curious about that, too. But in truth, Sekou couldn't explain it either; he had one and Sora had one that was almost exactly the same. 'Answers will come later,' he thought.
In the meantime, the group of four had entered the items shop. Sora was debating with himself on whether or not to buy a lot cost-efficient potions, or less but more expensive hi-potions, which were stronger. What a dilemma…
Sekou was idly examining a bottle of Elixir, when he heard two people arguing as quietly as they could in the next aisle.
"C'mon, Donald. You know the stress is a building up on him. How much longer will it be until he snaps? He's only a kid and we need all the help we can get." It was Goofy's voice for sure. Sekou could recognize it anywhere.
"I don't care," said Donald's voice, it was more agitated than usual.
"It cant' do any harm. I haven't seen him this happy in months. He deserves to have a break and spend some time with people his own age. After what happened and all at Kingdom Hearts, I-"
"Shhh! Don't mention that place!" hissed Donald. Sekou could almost picture him looking back and forth to see if anyone was listening.
"We could ask him about it," suggested Goofy.
"Later," mumbled Donald.
Where they talking about Sora? Kingdom Hearts…hadn't his teacher mentioned it before?
"Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all worlds. According to the late King of Hollow Bastion (1), all of our hearts were born there."
Those were the words of his teacher.
"Yoo-hoo! Earth to Sekou. We're leaving now," said Sora, waving his hand in front of Sekou's spaced out face. "I think he died, guys."
"I'm not dead."
"Sure you're not."
"Der, Sora," said Goofy, "if he's talking, doesn't that mean he's alive?"
The Keyblade master pouted. "Is everyone against me today or something?"
"Yup," said Donald, Goofy, and Sekou all at the same time. Sora sighed.
Much later, Sora, Donald, goofy, and Sekou were back at the Clock Tower. The trio decided to just stay there rather than pay to rent a hotel room. Sekou had shut himself up in his room and had been in there for well over an hour. Goofy was taking a peaceful nap in a corner. So, technically, Sora and Donald were the only ones in the room.
"Er, Sora," started Donald, not exactly sure how to say it, "how would you feel if we added another person to our party?"
"Dare I ask who that person is?"
Donald sighed. "You know who, you big palooka. Isn't it obvious?"
"With you, no," chirped Sora grinning playfully.
"Well, Goofy and I just wanted your approval. That's all," the duck huffed. "But you know, could you ask him for us?"
"No problemo!"
(the next day)
"Hey Sekou! I have a question ask to you!" called Sora the next morning.
The blonde in question grunted in response. He didn't get much sleep last night due to horrible nightmares. They were of that day.
"Are you okay?" asked Sora noticing the dark rings under his friend's eyes.
Sekou nodded. "Yeah, just couldn't sleep last night. That's all." He yawned. "So what is it that you wanted to ask to me?"
"Oh, right! Would you like to join me, Donald, and Goofy to go save the worlds from Darkness and doom and all that stuff that comes along?" he asked, cerulean eyes sparkling with hope and excitement.
"You mean like leave here and everything I know and love behind to go with you guys?" he said slowly. Sora looked away, but nodded. It was the hard truth of life; sacrifice all that you know to help others.
"I have to think about it."
And he walked out of the Clock Tower alone and silent.
(1) "According to the late King of Hollow Bastion…" By the time this quote was said, Hollow Bastion had been overrun by heartless and everyone thought the ruler (Ansem) was dead.
Anne: like I said, I'm sorry it took so long to update. Besides the whole fiasco w/ my accidental deleting of the story, I had major writer's block. It was really painful and strenuous to write this chapter. But at least I'm done now. Yay!
Ashley: Anne would also like to thank all the reviewers (before and after the deleting) who reviewed. She keeps them all close to her heart. But sadly she can't do any personal responses like usual cuz they were all deleted along with the story.
Shiro: Special thanx to AuroraMoon101 who requested the Ramen idea and for pushing Anne to finish typing the chapter.
Anne: What Ash and Shiro said. Now don't worry the next chapter should be posted sooner since I already have it written but not typed. I'm shooting for this Friday. So pleez review because it makes me feel good, and when I feel good I write more.