Chapter 2- You See the Sun Rise
Xerayn- Just a warning, Vanitas goes through some angsty stuff in the middle of this chapter
Night had faded away, bringing forth brilliant light. Sora was glad when people started to filter onto the street. It meant Sora could have help. He had never been alone for so long before- well, maybe once he had. When all his friends, his fellow Guardians of Light, di- fell during the War. But that was in the past, and they were all enjoying peace. Right now, he needed someone to tell him where he was and where the nearest bed was.
After asking a few people on the street, who all gave him a wide berth and ignored him. Sora eventually found a park and sat down on a shaded bench. He had been walking for the entire night, and sleep was coming to repay its debt. Sora fought against it, like he did all the time, and checked his inventory. Two potions, one ether, a selection of armour and a small amount of his stronger accessories. A less than ideal collection but Sora had managed with less.
Sora stifled a yawn as a woman walked past with a dog on a leash. The dog padded over to Sora, and he petted it with a big grin.
"Who's a good boy? You are!" The woman chuckled at Sora's antics. "Excuse me miss, but do you know where this place is by any chance? I'm a bit lost."
"Why, you're in Yokohama, Japan. Does that help?"
"Yeah, thanks so much!"
"Well, I better get going. Sachi has taken a liking to you."
The woman left with the dog, and Sora continued looking in her direction long after she had disappeared from view. Sora smiled to himself sleepily. Distantly he realised he should have asked where he could rest, but his eyes began to close on its own accord.
Sora dreamt of his distant friends.
Vanitas wandered through the city, spreading chaos. He had released a few unversed to gain strength, but not enough to scare the entire population. He could not reveal himself to whatever authorities there might be in this world immediately. He spent the night familiarising himself of the world, the darkness present in this world, and how to tune out the sickening light. Once he got bored of that, he spent the rest of the night figuring out how much strength he had lost yet again.
He had found a secluded and empty building early in the night to test his skills out. He spawned some weak unversed to practice upon and found less than desirable results. Vanitas' strength had been greatly reduced, and he could only cast the most basic element spells.
C'mon, c'mon! Come out already! Vanitas growled to himself. He panted slightly as he felt his anger slip away. He twisted around before it had finished forming.
A flood?! Seriously?
Vanitas summoned his keyblade, Void Gear, to strike down the newly born unversed.
"Useless! Why am I so useless!" Vanitas' voice cracked into the sky.
Bile came into his throat, and a lump made it hard for him to breathe. Vanitas' body ached with echoes of the unversed's pain, his pain. He should be used to this pain by now, by Kingdom Heart's wrath! Every time he tried to make something of himself, to finally succeed in his plans and purpose, it all went to ruin. It was always down to his meddlesome brother, Ventus, and the despicable person who Vanitas shared his face with. Was it so hard for light to give him one chance, just one, where he could have succeeded? One time which the darkness was good, and light was the one making the mistakes? Where he could enjoy his existence?
He felt a dark liquid pool in his eyes, making it hard to see. He touched it with one gloved finger underneath his helmet, all the while coughing and trying to breathe again. It was a new sensation, this dark liquid being spilt onto his pale cheeks when Vanitas blinked it away, but more always formed in his eyes.
It was another sign of weakness.
Vanitas felt his throat closing up, rough and dry. He forced the bile which had steadily rose to the back of his mouth, down, down, for Kingdom Hearts go down, forcing his throat to open and let him breathe. The lump disappeared in his throat, most likely the bile had dissolved it. He choked on himself as he did, but he was used to that feeling at least.
Vanitas saw dawn breaking, and the comfort of the night left. Vanitas heard a door being unlocked close by, and quickly escaped the previously empty building via a window. He landed hard, and had to roll to get rid of excess momentum.
Have I learned nothing? Even idiot Ventus is probably less weak than I am.
Vanitas straightened and started to walk. He found one of the blasted cherry blossom trees again and decided to steal whatever shadows there was left. The bark was cool underneath Vanitas' helmet, and Vanitas closed his eyes, seeking the refuge of the dark. It was the only thing that had not let him down yet. He focused on the weak beating of his shattered heart. It still hurt to be separated from Ventus, like it always would. His life was just made up of pain and suffering. Endless, endless pain.
"Hey, are you alright?" Vanitas' eyes snapped open when a boy of similar age to Vanitas, at least in looks, stopped at his tree. He looked rather plain, with green curly hair and a few 'cute' freckles. His body looked toned under a nerdy shirt.
"What's it to you?" Vanitas huffed, arms folded.
"W-well, it's just you seemed to be sad, and I haven't seen you around the neighbourhood before."
"Smart and perspective, eh? Don't worry your big head about me. I'm going to clear off your precious home as soon as I can. How about you? You're a bit early to be up."
"I'm off to do some training. You see, I attend UA and I'm training to become a hero!" The boy seemed to perk up at the mention of heroes.
"Hmph. I doubt you can 'become a hero'. You're way too scrawny. I've seen freaks with more potential than you."
"I may not look like it, b-but I passed the entrance exam and everything! I've even been in the USJ attack."
"If you say so. Hey, kid, could you show me to UA sometime? I wanna broaden my sights." And find out more about these 'heroes' while I'm at it. If I cripple the main hope of this world, then it will be easy to plunge the populace into despair and become stronger. Vanitas added to himself.
"Sure! We can go today, if you want. I mean, you could always go by yourself, but I'm always glad for company." The green haired boy beamed, making Vanitas grimace behind his helmet.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be sitting here, come and fetch me, alright?"
"Ok. See you soon, um…"
"Vanitas."
The boy frowned at that. "No last name?"
"What's your name?"
"Oh, I-I'm so sorry, how careless of me. I'm Izuku Midoryia!"
"Don't you have someplace to be?" Vanitas was starting to be bothered with this kid.
"You're right. See you later Vanitas!"
"Yeah." Vanitas grumbled before closing his eyes once more. He could meditate for the meantime until the kid returned.
Xerayn's Notes 2:
I was meaning for this to be a little longer, but this took a lot of effort to actually sit down and create and this was all I got. There's now some mha stuff in this now, which is good, and the angsty Vanitas parts are always fun to write. I can't help but put characters through trauma :)
The new trailers for kh4, Dark Road and Missing Link got me HYPED. It kinda wrecked my other series (it's part fanfiction, mostly original story post kh3) but I'm so glad my baby Strelitzia is back! I might add her into this at a later date, but I still need to think about it.
Feedback is always appreciated. I made some Sora art over on my Tumblr and Instagram (xerayn and xerayns_artbook respectfully) if you want to check it out. I promise I'll make cover art for this at some point.
