Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
Chapter 2: Waste Land
Sora, Riku and Kairi all stood across from one another in a triangle formation, keeping the same ten meter distance from each other. The trio themselves were in a desert-like plain, with all manner of jagged rock formations surrounding them. Despite the realistic winds blowing through the area, and even the heat from the 'sun' hanging directly overhead, this was in fact an extra-dimensional plane. Of which Master Yen Sid created specifically for this test.
"King Mickey and I shall be observing your progress, and will call a halt to proceedings once we feel that this exam has reached the appropriate stopping point." Yen Sid's voice echoed out from seemingly all directions.
After the three offered a slow nod in response, they summoned their unique Keyblades to their hands. Upon doing so, Sora, Riku, and Kairi immediately moved into their usual battle poses, as if on instinct. Though, as they looked to one another, each of the teens felt a wave of nostalgia. It had been a long time since they fought in a free for all, as they normally held one-on-one duels in the current day. But after a few seconds, they gradually shifted slightly into somewhat varied versions of these poses.
While Sora typically had a slight crouch when facing a foe, she was entirely upright now. Atop of this, her grip on the Kingdom Key-D was reversed, with the 'blade' running diagonal with her arm.
Riku's stance was a little more open than normal, as both feet were spread slightly wider to the sides. Even his weapon was held lower and further away from his face, giving him greater visual range.
Kairi normally copied Sora's pose, and seemed to be doing so again. Yet where she and her friend differed, was that Kairi had her free hand held out slightly, and her Keyblade was in a normal grip to her side.
With another quick glance to each other, the three couldn't help but smile softly. Not only had they fully realized their own styles, but these poses were also the culmination of all their training and experiences so far. It would truly be a proper rematch, unlike any other they had before. Yet as a silence stretched between them, their eyes slowly narrowed in the knowledge that they would begin any moment. With baited breath, the three could almost feel the time stretching between them before the signal was finally give.
"Begin!" Yen Sid called out, his voice once again being all encompassing in this space.
In an instant, all three teens vanished and reappeared in the perfect center between them. A powerful percussion wave blasted outward from their now linked Keyblades, causing the winds to cease for several seconds. But as the trio pressed their weapons together in a three-way deadlock, sparks began to burst between and around them. Not only from the force of their impact, but also from their individual powers beginning to take shape in faint auras surrounding the three.
Riku's and Sora's were mostly black, creating wisps of darkness that radiated off of them. All the while, Kairi's looked to be pure white flames that licked across her form in a blaze of power. Between the three, the auburn-haired girl seemed to be exuding the most amount of power as she simply glanced to her friends with a small smile. An expression that both Sora and Riku returned before all of their features hardened.
Following this, Riku and Kairi shifted their weight in order to join together in pressing against Sora. Whom chuckled briefly as she felt herself being pushed back slightly; "Coming after me first, huh?" she uttered out in a somewhat strained voice.
But as Sora flexed her arm fully, the pair instantly felt the give in Sora's defense halt. The brown-haired girl then made an upward slash into the air, forcing the other two's Keyblades in the same direction. While they kept a hold of their weapons, the momentum of the blades caused the pair to step backward in order to maintain their balance. Which they nearly lost once more, as the ground beneath them now had a thin layer of slick ice.
The sensation of slipping led Riku to slam a foot down to break the ice, keeping his footing and readying his Keyblade in front of him. Yet he was swiftly impacted by a ball of gravity magic from Kairi's own weapon, pulling him forcefully to the side. Said girl having melted the ice around her feet to avoid her own fall, to which he then turned to Sora. Whom was already making a slashing attack toward her, making Kairi block it with her own blade. The two Keyblades collided with a heavy impact, all as the two girls simply gave another small smile.
It the same instant however, a large pulse of lightning magic blasted out from the point of connection between the two. Both having attempted to use the same spell, at the same time. The resulting explosion of electricity crackled and spiraled outward, causing the pair to nearly be knocked backward. But they held strong with their expressions swiftly becoming ones of excitement, regardless of the sparks of lightning flowing around their faces and hair. The two then shifted their eyes away from one another, just in time to see Riku coming down from above with his Keyblade engulfed in darkness.
As Kairi released her attack, she allowed the force of Sora's swing to spin her away from the boy's incoming strike. Which the brown-haired girl was now facing by herself, leading her to simply lift her Keyblade up to block. Once the attack connected, the ground shook and cracked beneath the weight. Something that intensified, when the dark energy Riku stored, had immediately rushed forward and outward. The two being entirely engulfed in darkness, which poured forth like a torrent of black water.
In the middle of this, Sora looked up at Riku as his own power wasn't allowing him to land on the ground. The two sharing a gaze of challenge, which showed that neither would back down from this. But as the brown-haired girl began to push back using her own dark power, she felt her legs suddenly swept out from under her. With rapid blinking of shock, she only caught a glimpse of Kairi zooming past her before slamming onto her back. This allowing Riku's power to almost instantly overwhelmed Sora, blasting her off to the side and tumbling across the ground.
Using her own momentum, the girl flipped back onto her feet and let out a soft huff. Despite the impact of the attack, Sora wasn't very hurt at all and even had another soft smile on her features. While looking back to her friends currently engaged in an impressive sword fight, she could tell that Riku was the superior combatant in this regard. Though, Kairi used clever tricks with magic to even out the playing field. Whether it was creating small magical mines to unbalance her opponent, or even enhancing her limbs and Keyblade to deliver more powerful attacks.
"They're both really good." Sora whispered to herself, placing a hand to the ground in front of her briefly before standing up.
"I guess I better follow suit." she whispered beneath her breath while rushing forward.
The moment she reached the two, she swiftly thrust her Keyblade at Kairi. Whom dodged out of the way from the attack, whilst also deflecting Riku's slash via a reflect spell. Seeing that she was now the main target from the pair, the auburn-haired teen flipped away from her friends. Upon leaping into the air, she then flicked a small red orb that formed in her palm. It striking the ground so fast that it was almost unnoticeable, yet Riku and Sora still rolled out of the way of the resulting explosion of flames. These seared the sandy ground for only a brief few seconds, yet it was enough to turn the effected area to glass.
As Kairi landed on a nearby stone monolith jutting up from the earth, she quickly ducked under Sora's swinging strike as she flew by from the right. From the left however, Riku stabbed his own Keyblade into the rock the girl stood upon. Rapid cracking was both seen and heard across its surface before shattering into gravel almost instantaneously. Kairi herself could only blink a few times in surprise, as her footing was lost before she could muster any momentum to jump.
Falling back toward the ground, the girl looked down in time to see both her friends thrusting their weapons toward her. But while she managed to bring up another shield around herself, the force of their combined might shattered the spell and sent her flying backward. Much like Sora though, she too was not very hurt by the actual impacts. Which made her gain a soft smile as she gazed at her friends, whom had taken to engaging one another in a flurry of attacks.
Rather than rushing in however, Kairi stayed back as a large magic circle appeared beneath her feet. "Lets see how you handle this." she hummed to herself, an even wider smile curling her lips as the excitement of the moment filled her.
At the same time, Riku and Sora slashed, thrust, and swung their Keyblades at one another. Despite the swiftness and strength behind their attacks being enough to create shockwaves, there was an odd amount of care being taken with each one. Almost as if, they were only using their full power behind a strike, once they were sure the other could dodge or block it. None of them desired to actually hurt one another, and in a fight with such powerful abilities, they needed to be careful to not do so accidentally.
Though, it still didn't stop them from landing blows on one another. This was a battle they needed to take seriously after all, or at least seriously enough to make it worth while. Even as a test, they were all determined to 'win'. Which was a mixture of their desires to pass, but also because of their past fights. Each of them had many wins and losses against one another, and having a victory here would certainly add to that list.
Sora blocked another arching slash toward her, to which she looked to Riku with another challenging gaze. The two were so used to fighting one another, that even now, they were almost going through the motions. That is, until they saw Kairi's spell out of the corner of their eyes, which they could see was becoming brighter and brighter. As they moved to stop the girl, a massively tall wall of ice shot up between them and the auburn-haired teen.
Yet this did little to hinder the pair as they almost instantly smashed through it with powerful strikes. Which shattered the ice into varying sized chunks that rained down, slamming into the ground as Riku and Sora weaved through the hail. Despite their speed however, the distraction was still enough for Kairi to finish her primary spell. The white magic circle beneath her flaring even more brightly as several other circles appeared directly above her.
These generating electricity between them in a similar fashion to what Zexion had done against her in Castle Oblivion. Once Sora and Riku rushed forward to attack her though, their weapons passed right through the image of their friend. Of which disappeared soon after as they saw Kairi standing just behind one of the rock formations a few meters away. Her giving the two a small grin and wink before the three magic circles burst with lightning magic.
"Ienzo taught me a lot." the auburn-haired girl claimed as she watched the explosion caused by her magic, all while readying her Keyblade once more.
The girl's eyes focused on the large cloud of dirt that was kicked up from the attack, simply waiting for one or both of the other teens to rush out. Instead, she heard Sora's voice speak up from where she had been standing when the lightning had struck. "Apparently so."
Immediately following her comment, Riku came bolting through the plume of dirt and directly at Kairi. Whom blocked his incoming slash toward her waist, but the force was too much to hold back. Her being sent far off to the side, where she came to a sliding stop, directly over the spot Sora touched her hand previously. Upon which, she soon felt a tap against her back and made her freeze. With a slow glance to Sora from over her shoulder, she couldn't help but smirk lightly. "Clever trick." she whispered silently, to which the brown-haired girl merely winked with her own smile.
Soon after, Sora lifted her Keyblade up and blocked another attack from Riku, who had given chase to Kairi. Said girl swiftly swinging her own weapon into the silver-haired boy, now joining forces with Sora to take him on. As he landed to the side, the teen glanced to the two girls charging at him. His eyes narrowed in focus, despite the faint smile of nostalgia reaching his features. This being a scene that was all too familiar from the past, since the two would often team up to beat Riku. This time though, as the two girls made their weapon attacks, the teen boy was very quickly losing ground. Their strikes in tandem made it difficult for him to counter without leaving himself open.
With a grimace and swift glance to the side, Riku flipped away from the pair. Him creating a small explosion of dark energy from his feet, forcing Sora and Kairi to cover their faces in response. The silver-haired teen then landed sideways on a tall rock, before then jumping even higher into the air. "Try this!" he called out as the light in the sky almost instantly faded.
A huge aura of darkness surrounded Riku as he extended both arms out to either side. Just as the girls looked up toward him, all this dark energy flooded down toward them. Upon which, their Keyblades began to glow a bright white as they thrust them forward. After letting out cries of battle, a swirling beam of light shot from both their weapons. Though Kairi's looked to be far stronger and potent than Sora's, the energies seemed to combine and grow as they pierced through the inky blackness that threatened to consume them.
A clash of darkness and light caused the very air to tremble, the ground to quake, and the teens to shut their eyes. Which made them all miss the moment when Riku's hand clenched tighter around his Keyblade out of reflex. This actually causing the powers to merge into one, yet it exploded soon after in a brilliant blast of light and shadow. This knocking all three to the ground, as well as toppled many of the nearby rock formations. As a massive cloud of dirt and ruble settled over the field, nothing was visible in the area.
Yet with a sudden shockwave and echoing of metal against metal, the plume was swiftly dispersed. This revealing the three locking blades once more, a smile on their features as each appeared as though they were really enjoying this fight. But Yen Sid's voice echoed out once more from all directions; "That's enough." he ordered calmly, sounding oddly neutral.
"King Mickey and I have watched carefully, and all three of you have done extremely well." he continued, his tone giving the impression that he was leading up to something possibly bad.
The trio blinked many times to one another, yet their eyes slowly drifted down to their weapons still in hand.
"Kairi...it seems that you are able to multiply the powers of yourself and others for a short time. An extremely powerful and potent ability that is likely enhanced by your status as a Princess of Heart." the old sorcerer explained, seeming quite impressed.
The girl's Keyblade now having a small sunflower directly above the hilt, adding to theme of the blade sharing the same colors of a sunset.
"Riku..." Mickey started softly, finally speaking up.
"...it appears your ability is the capability of using and combining Light and Darkness into one. I don't think anyone has ever truly been able to do it before, so this is already a remarkable power." he finished with a surprised tone.
The boy's Keyblade had the same shape as before, but the normally black wing that made up the actual blade was now an odd silver color. Depending on the angle it was viewed though, it would appear darker or lighter.
"Sora..." Yen Sid began silently, yet nothing needed to be said, as there was nothing changed about her Keyblade.
"...I'm afraid you have failed your Mark of Mastery Exam."
And there you have it, the Mark of Mastery has been concluded...or has it? We'll see what all this means in the future chapters, but needless to say, it'll be quite the journey from here.
So, what did you think of the powers Riku and Kairi have? They're basically things they technically have in the original, I'm simply enhancing them for the sake of this story.
Anyway, let me know what all of you thought of this chapter. Until next time.