Recap: After being saved from Demyx thanks to Sora, Yumi's feelings for him become more complicated while seeing more of Ventus in him, making her wonder if the initial feelings she first had of him were wrong. Meanwhile, Ansem prepares to follow up on the threat he had Demyx deliver of destroying Gessen academy by creating a massive new heartless that is now slowly approaching the school.
Chapter 8: The ice queen & the chosen two
(Backflash)
(Music: Ventus' theme)
A few months had passed since Ventus had been left in Kurokage and Yumi's care, the boy had recovered somewhat, but had yet to regain full strength from whatever allied him in the first place. Right now, the young boy was following the former rogue shinobi and his grandfather through a set of corridors.
"Master Kurokage. Can I ask where you're taking me?" Ventus asked.
"You see, Ventus. Although you're here to recover from whatever happened to you, Eraqus also requested that I make sure you are ready for his training when you return to him." Kurokage explained as the group stopped at the door to the training hall.
"Training?"
"Yes. Eraqus told me that you possess a lot of potential within you. Which I can see for myself, that's why it's important to make sure that you still have the strength for it. We need to see if you still have your power."
"What if what I had is gone? I don't even remember what makes me special." Ventus reminded Kurokage of his lack of memories.
"Ven, don't worry We'll find out what makes you special together. I promise." Yumi spoke up as she gave Ventus a hopeful smile that he returned before Kurokage leaned down and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Yumi. But Ventus must do this without you." Kurokage said as Yumi looked shocked.
"What? But, grandfather. I'm old enough to start my training as a shinobi. Why can't I help Ventus with his?" Yumi questioned.
"Because, my granddaughter. Ventus' training will be much different than yours. It's not something a child should be involved in, it'll be too dangerous for you…"
"But, grandfather…"
"I'm sorry, Yumi. There's no arguing about it. Now go back and focus on your own exercises, you can see Ventus later." Kurokage said as a disappointed face grew on Yumi's face before she turned to Ventus for support.
"Go on, Yumi. We'll catch up later. I promise." Ventus said as Yumi had a face of understanding.
"Ok then…" Yumi said as she became even more disappointed before walking away down the hall, leaving Ventus and Kurokage on their own before the little girl was gone from sight.
"Kurokage. Why can't Yumi help me with my training?" Ventus questioned.
"Because, young Ventus. Eraqus left me with specific instructions that whatever your power is, must stay between me, you and him. Because you are not a shinobi like me, or what Yumi is training to become." Kurokage explained.
"Then…What am I then?" Ventus asked as Kurokage took a quick look around the room, making sure they were truly alone.
"Something called, a keyblade wielder…"
(Present day. Gessen academy: Girl's bath)
After thinking back on the memory of Ventus, Yumi looked up at the ceiling wishing she was able to join him on that day to help him since afterwards, she started seeing less and less of the boy afterwards until the last few days he stayed with her and Kurokage.
"Ven…" Yumi said to herself quietly, unaware of someone nearby.
"Yumi?" Yozkaura spoke up next to the girl as Yumi turned her head to see friend clad only in a bath towel. "Are you okay? You spaced out there for a moment."
"I'm sorry, I had something on my mind lately." Yumi said as she began undressing.
"Does it have something to do with Sora?"
"Well, yes and no." Yumi confessed as she removed the last of her clothing and placed it all in a basket in front of her.
"Don't tell me you're mad about him running out during training. By how fast he ran, it had to be something important." Yozakura said as she grabbed a spare towel and handed it to Yumi.
"If it was so important, why didn't say where he was going?" Yumi questioned as she wrapped the towel around her body while the twins, Senko and Gekko were walking behind her nearby, clad in towels too.
"Hey, are you two talking about the new guy?" Gekko questioned.
"Actually, yes. Any idea why he ran off?" Yozakura asked.
"That might've been because of us. We told him there might've been a few of those white clad creatures that attacked the academy yesterday were still hiding out in the school." Senko answered.
"We kinda thought since it's his mission to get rid of them, we thought tell him first." Gekko added.
"Well I guess that explains where he went." Yozakura said as Yumi huffed.
"Hmm, I'll give the boy that one for being focused on his main mission." Yumi said as she began walking towards the main bath with the other girls following her. "But he still should've finished his training first."
"We would've done the same when we were kids, Yumi."
"But we're not children anymore, and he certainly isn't a child. So please stop trying to make excuses for his mistakes." Yumi said as the four girls stopped in front of the curtain door to the baths and opened it up.
"So you really did started having boy troubles since I last saw you…" A voice familiar to Yumi said as she looked and saw an older woman with pale skin and long wavy black hair, sitting in the water of the bath along with the three other Gessen girls. "Hello, Yumi. It's been awhile."
"Oh, Fubuki! This is a surprise, when did you get here?"
"She was already here when we got in." Minori answered as Yumi and Yozakura took off their towels and sat down in the water.
"She might've broken in." Murakumo added.
"C'mon, Murky. I think Fubuki's changed enough to not do something like that." Shiki said.
"Actually, she's right. I broke in." Fubuki confessed as all of the Gessen girls all had large sweat drops on their heads.
"Was she always this blunt when we worked for her?" Gekko asked.
"No, but at least she's more honest now." Senko said as she and her sister removed their towels and joined the other girls in the bath.
"So, Fubuki. It's nice to see you, but why are you here? I thought you were still traveling." Yumi said.
"I was. But then I heard Gessen was under threat and that you were being targeted. I thought I'd stop by and see if you were alright. Thankfully, you are." Fubuki explained.
"It's actually the same reason me and my sister came back too. We wanted to make sure everything's fine." Gekko admitted since she and Senko were actually recently traveling as well, just like Fubuki.
"So other than Gessen being under attack, what's this I'm hearing about a boy?"
"Well…It's nothing to be concerned about, Fubuki. He's just someone who has experience dealing with the people behind the attacks and the monsters they control." Yumi explained.
"And Yumi doesn't like Sora because he's got a big key for a sword." Minori said.
"Well it's because people like him had a questionable history."
"She's also mad at him for acciendly tearing her clothes." Yozakura added as Yumi's face became red, and it wasn't from the hot water from the bath.
"And they she argues with him alot." Shiki added as Yumi became angry.
"Because he is an immature, reckless, bumbling fool!" Yumi angrily exclaimed as she stood up from the water. "He has no discipline and a lack of common sense! I'm surprised he isn't dead yet!"
"He's real totes good at being an amature chef though." Yozakura commented.
"*Sigh* I guess so…"
"Sora's also really a nice guy." Minori said with a large innocent smile that Yumi couldn't help but return.
"Well, you're right about that. I can't deine his kindness." Yumi said as Fubuki smiled with amusement.
"...You like this boy, don't you?" Fubuki asked as Yumi's whole face became red again.
"W-WH-WH-WHAT?! Why would you even suggest that?!"
"Because you keep talking about this boy in a lot of detail, whether it'd be good or bad and seems to be constantly on your mind. In fact, you seem to enjoy talking about him."
"It's plainly obvious, Yumi. You and Sora have actually inspired the main couple of my new comic." Murakumo said.
"It has nothing to do with romance at all! He reminds me of someone I knew when I was a child." Yumi said, which caught Fubuki's interest.
"When you were a child? I don't remember anyone else when I was staying with you or Kurokage." Fubuki stated.
"This was a little while after you left us."
"According to Yumi, it was the student of a man who heard of Kurokage and how he took in lost children like ourselves. He needed a place to recover from some truma apparently." Yozakura explained while Fubuki put a theory to mind.
"Yumi, could it be possible that this boy reminds so much of your old friend that it's bringing up some unresolved issues from before?" Fubuki asked as the last memory of Ventus quickly went through Yumi's head.
"I'll be back to you again, promise…" Ventus' voice spoke in Yumi's mind.
"I…I think it does…I might need to talk to Sora about this, I apologize for the way I might've been treating him." Yumi decided as everyone nodded in agreement when all of a sudden, several dusk nobodies materizaled at the edge of the baths.
(Music: No time to think~1.5 ver~)
"Huh? What?!"
"Ahh! There really were some left!" Shiki exclaimed as she and Minori backed up further into the water.
"And here we are without our weapons." Yozakura said as the hot water around Fubuki seemed to be cooling and slowly freezing.
"Not all of us need weapons." Fubuki said as red tattoos that resembled kabuki makeup formed on her face. However, before the dusks could attack, something else caught the nobody's attention outside of the hot spring room and then began flying back out towards the locker room.
(Music ends)
"Huh?" Yumi questioned as she and the other girls became confused by the dusk's sudden retreat.
"There you are!" Sora's voice shouted from the other room before the sound of fighting could quickly be heard with the sound of Sora shooting out ice or fire spells or the sound of the keyblade being swung.
"Cool, sounds like Soraing was already on the job." Shiki said.
"Wait, do you think he realizes that he's fighting in the girl's locker…" Yozakura said before Sora came bursting into the hot springs with a dusk wrapped around him like a snake and pulled him into the water where he was submerged for a few seconds before coming up with the nobody still wrapped him and the arm holding his keyblade.
"Ah! Get off me!" Sora shouted as he quickly dismissed the keyblade and called it to his left hand that was free and aimed it at the dusk wrapped around with a quick mist of ice, freezing the nobody and allowing Sora to break free with a simple tug of his arm and shattered it into pieces.
"Whew! That looks like the last of them, I think I've earned myself a bre-" Sora said, stopping to see and realize where he was, in the middle of the girls' bath and all of the girls were currently undressed.
"Oh no…Uh…Hey, girls…"
"Uh…Hey…" Yozakura greeted with an embarrassed red face.
"Hiya, Sora! Are you here to join us?" Minori asked with innocence, despite the current situation.
"Uh, no. I think I should get going now!" Sora said while trying to cover his vision to respect the girl's decency.
"Uh…You may want to wait a quick second…" Gekko said while covering herself as best she could.
"Yumi seems like she wants a word with you." Senko said as she pointed at Yumi next to Sora, who had an extremely angry expression on her red face with a mix of anger and embarrassment.
"Now, you do something violent. I am willing to admit, I should've been more aware of my surroundings." Sora apologized, but Yumi was too angry to hear it.
"You…You…YOU!" Yumi shouted with fury as she clenched her fist and struck Sora hard in the face to cause him to blackout.
(Meanwhile…)
A few miles away from the academy where Sora was currently facing the wrath of the angry Yumi, a few sentry guards for Gessen academy were sitting around in a small camp used for guard duty. Right now, things were uneventful for the guards and they considered just leaving.
"*Sigh* Still nothing but snow, again…" One guard complained as she made a snowball and lazily threw a few feet away.
"I don't know why we're out so far from the academy. If the enemy wanted to attack, we should be near the school, right?" The second guard questioned while making a snowman and placing the head on top.
"You got a point, let's get out of here."
"Not so fast, we can't leave until shift change. We have to stay…" A third guard said, who took out a carrot and placed it on the snowman's face as its nose. "...Well, at least until someone takes it over for us."
"C'mon, there's nothing out here. We might as well leave now." The first guard insisted, only to have tempted fate.
*Boom!*
"Huh? What was that?" The second guard questioned as all three looked around for the source.
"An avalanche?" The first guard questioned.
*Boom!*
"That doesn't sound like any avalanche I've heard here on the mountain." The third guard said as the sound got closer to them, meaning the source was approaching towards them.
"Ah! Look out!" The first guard warned as all three of them looked up to a large leg stepping down and slammed down into the show, causing it to fly everywhere from the impact as many more legs did the same moving forward. As the source of the giant legs moved away and further up the mountain, the camp where the guards once stood was completely smashed to pieces with no sign of the woman, until their heads popped out of the snow a quick moment later.
"Whoa, that thing was huge!" One of the sentries said.
"Told you we should've stayed…"
(Gessen academy: Ninja room)
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…" Sora groaned in pain as he held ice where Yumi punched him on the left side of his face and his cheek ended up swollen while sitting at the kitchen counter. "Aw, man did I mess up by pulling that Katsuragi. The girls are gonna wanna kick me out now…"
"Sora?" Yozakura spoke behind him as he turned around to see her and all of the Gessen girls, minus Yumi.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a sec! Before you all start wailing on me, that was a complete and total accident earlier!"
"Don't worry about it, we know that it was an accident."
"But did you see anything?" Gekko questioned with a suspicious look on her face.
"No, luckily the steam blocked most of my view." Sora explained, although getting by Yumi might've altered his memory.
"But if you did, like what you saw?" Shiki asked with a flirtatious voice.
"Moving on, where's Yumi at?"
"Yumi is a little upset at the moment. She decided to blow off some steam." Fubuki said as she approached Sora, while wearing bandages all over her body except her face and covered by a gray yukata. "A pleasure to meet you. I am Fubuki."
"Sora, sorry about the way we met earlier." Sora apologized yet again.
"Honestly, I'm not really the type to care about something so petty. I honestly don't see the reason to be angry in those situations." Fubuki said as Sora felt a little revived considering he felt like the strange new woman was someone powerful and shouldn't be angered. "So, who are you exactly? Some sort of shinobi."
"Uh, something else exactly. Hard to explain. But who are you? Are you a student here, or were you one?"
"Neither. For a short time, Kurokage raised me alongside Yumi when I was young, like a sister."
"Did you by chance meet the student of someone who stayed with you two for a while?" Sora asked.
"No, that was after I left Yumi and Kurokage. I never met whomever you speak of." Fubuki admitted, much to Sora's disappointment as he was hoping to gain more insight. "Now a question of my own. What is this about monsters attacking the academy, and why only you have been sent."
"They're called the heartless and they come out of the darkness in people's hearts. The ones you saw earlier are called nobodies, they're different. And I've been sent because I'm kinda the only one who can get rid of them." Sora explained.
"So none of these creatures drop red orbs when defeated?"
"Red orbs?"
"No one told him about them yet?" Fubuki questioned as she looked at the Gessen girls.
"We might've thought Sora was already told about the Yoma from Hanzo academy." Yozakura answered while the keyblade's chosen was confused.
"Whoa, slow down a minute. What's this about red orbs? And what are Yoma?" Sora asked as all the girls looked around at each.
"Should we tell him? He clearly doesn't know." Murakumo said.
"Won't we get in trouble? Sora's still not a shinobi." Minori pointed out.
"Kinda a little late. He knows something's up." Shiki saidas all the girls looked at Sora, who was definitely looking at them, waiting for explanation.
"Hmm…Fubuki, maybe you should tell him." Yozakura suggested as the older woman nodded in agreement as she turned to Sora.
"As long as shinobi have existed, there have also been bloodshed between them. That bloodshed leaks between dimensions and brings forth the creatures known as Yoma. A type of parasitic demon." Fubuki explained.
"They kinda sound like the heartless a little." Sora said.
"No, not all Yoma are mindless creatures. Some are actually sentient and have had half breed children with the humans, my mother being one of them."
"What? Are you saying that you're half of the Yoma you're talking about?"
"I am, and that is why I am here. I've heard about Yoma being hunted down for the red orbs in their bodies and that the ones responsible wear black coats, I needed to know who was behind the attacks. And since you appeared at the same time as the attacks, I was hoping you could answer." Fubuki explained.
"Yeah, I know who you're looking for. They're called organization XIII, and they're dangerous. The other day, I actually heard a couple of them talking about red orbs. Maybe the Yoma ones?" Sora suggested as Fubuki seemed convinced it was true. "But, they were also talking about the scroll, Yumi, Asuka and the others have. What do they all have to do with each other?"
"Maybe you should, like, talk to Yumi about that. She could know." Shiki suggested which helped Yozakura remember something about the squad leader.
"Oh no…I just remembered something…" Yozakura said as everyone looked at her.
"Uh oh. Is something the matter?" Minori asked.
"Yeah. Yumi was so upset about what happened in the baths that she wanted to give a message to Sora, a real angry one…"
"If she doesn't want to talk right now, that's fine with me. I just we should keep the exact words of what Yumi might've said PG, for the kids' sake." Sora said.
"It's not some angry venting. She's so mad, Yumi challenged you, Sora…To a fight…" Yozakura explained as everyone in the room looked surprised, but not so much as Sora was as the scene froze and he turned towards the screen.
"Ok…Considering how I've been pushing Yumi's buttons the whole time I was here, just by existing really. It's no surprise that she finally wants to pulizerize me now after that dumb stunt in the baths. Maybe Yumi has to know it was an accident, so maybe she'll go easy on me…" Sora said with hope before the scene switched a chibi Yumi was craving an ice statue with a chainsaw, which had the image of a heroic looking Sora.
"Hey, that looks pretty good!" Chibi Sora said as he walked over, liking how the statue looked before Chibi Yumi jumped up and chopped off the ice sculpture's head with the chainsaw and caught it before handing it to the now terrified Chibi Sora without a word. "Uh…"
"Consider it a gift." Chibi Yumi said in a subtle but threatening tone as she walked away with psycho music playing before the scene switched back to real time.
"She wants to destroy me…" Sora said with worry.
(Gessen academy: Fighting arena)
While Sora was just receiving the message of Yumi's challenge, the leader of the Gessen girl's squad was sitting on her knees and her eyes closed atop of a large stage, center of a large arena stadium with seats surrounding the whole middle where the girl was waiting for her opponent before hearing the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Yumi?" A familiar voice got the girl's attention as she opened her eyes to see Yozakura, along with the other Gessen girls behind her. "I was hoping to talk to you, before you fought Sora."
"I'm sorry, Yozakura. But you're not going to change my mind, I need to punish this boy for his act of perversion." Yumi said with determination.
"Aw, c'mon, Yumi. It's not like he did it on purpose. It was an accident!" Minori said.
"Yeah, and we're probably not even the first girls he's seen naked. He's properly already seen Asuka and her friends without their clothes." Shiki said as Yumi's expression seemed to grow angrier at the thought. "Eh, I think I'll drop that subject…"
"Yumi, perhaps this is not the best way to express how you feel about Sora. Maybe you should just hear him out." Murakumo suggested.
"What I am feeling now is what I need to express. If I don't get it all out, it'll get worse. Besides, this is a good way to see how far he's come in his training here." Yumi said.
"You want an excuse to hit him again…" Gekko said, which was confirmed as Yumi's expression remained unchanged with a subtle nod.
"There's no convincing Yumi to change her mind, I guess." Senko sighed.
"Let's go, everyone. If Yumi won't change her mind, then we should move along to the stands and stay out of her way." Fubuki said as the rest of the girls decided the older woman was right before walking away towards the stands.
"Thank you, Fubuki. For understanding." Yumi said.
"You're welcome, but I also think listening to him was a better idea." Fubuki said as she also went towards the stands, leaving Yumi on her lonesome on the center stage again.
"I just need to get some things off my chest first…" Yumi quietly said to herself before hearing the doors to the arena open and her expression grew angry again when she saw Sora enter, looking around the room with a sense of familiarity.
"Whoa, reminds me of the coliseum…" Sora said since the giant arena resembled that of the olympus coliseum, or the underdrome in the underworld.
"Enjoying the sights?" Yumi asked, which got the keyblade wielder's attention towards her.
"Uh, sorry. Reminds me of another place I've been to. So, uh…Still mad?" Sora asked as Yumi silently glared at him. "Yeah, she's mad…Listen, Yumi. I really am sorry about the bath, it was an accident. We should just talk this out."
"Sorry, Sora. We already tried suggesting that to her, Yumi really wants to fight." Yozakura said from the stands.
"Thanks for trying, but I'm gonna handle what happens between us from now on." Sora said as he walked onto the center stage and stopped in front of Yumi.
"So, you must've realized this fight is inevitable." Yumi said as she got off her knees and stood up and took out her transformation scroll.
"I was still hoping to talk, but I guess that's not happening."
(Music: Grandfather's wish~From Senran kagura:EV)
"No, it will not. Shinobi, transformation!" Yumi exclaimed as she raised her scroll above her head and it unraveled as her clothes disappeared before being replaced by her white kimono and both Yumi's fans appeared in her hands and Sora summoned the star seeker keyblade to his grip in response.
"C'mon, we don't need to do this…" Sora said, hoping to resolve the current conflict without fighting, but Yumi still remained ready for a fight.
"Hah!" Yumi shouted as she swiped both her fans together in a dual arching swing that Sora backed away from with a small jump.
"Guess we're doing this!" Sora said as Yumi jumped forward with a leaping attack with her fans that Sora guarded with his keyblade before Yumi followed by swinging her fans in a downward motion that Sora easily avoided by moving to the side before raising his keyblade to counter a thrust from Yumi's closed fan.
"Not bad so far, but…" Yumi said before opening up her fan to create a gust of wind to blow Sora back a few feet before tossing both her fans at Sora, who dodged out of the way of fan before flipping over the second fan and landed safely before being struck in the back of the head by the returning first fan and being tripped by the second fan.
"You still need to improve upon your technique." Yumi said as Sora recovered and got off the ground.
"Don't speak so soon, fire!" Sora shouted as he shot a fireball out from his keyblade at Yumi, hoping the attack would greatly affect her considering her affinity for ice, but the icy shinobi saw though the attack easily and spun her fan like a windmill in front of her to create a gust of wind to blow the fireball away and left only embers behind.
"Did you really think such a predictable move would be able to-" Yumi said as Sora dashed forward though the embers from his fire spell with a high speed thrust that Yumi deflected with one of her fans at the last second, only for Sora to quickly counter by swinging the keyblade at her again that Yumi guarded against by swinging at fan at Sora's weapon, leading to a quick exchange of blows between weapons.
"Nice fake out, good strategy."
"Something I learned to do here!" Sora said as Yumi swiped a fan at him that he was able to easily avoid by ducking under the attack by ducking and following up with a horinzal swing of the keyblade against Yumi that knocked her back a few feet before the shinobi retaliated by shooting out a series of icles at Sora who countered with a few fireballs of his own to stop Yumi's ice which was followed by her rushing at Sora with her fans again.
"Whoa! Yumi really isn't letting up on Sora, isn't she?" Shiki said as she and the Gessen girls watched the fight unfold and the two combatants were exchanging quick blows with their respective weapons again.
"This is quite the spectacle!" Murakumo said with awe, while also drawing the battle on a notepad.
"Who do you think is gonna win?" Minori asked.
"Who knows, Sora hasn't used his transformation ability and Yumi has yet to use her ninja arts." Yozakura noted.
"It actually makes you wonder if Yumi will use her full power on her." Fubuki suggested, which actually made Yozakura worry more for Sora, believing Yumi would show no mercy to him given the chance. As the girls talked about the battle, Sora continued to exchange blows with Yumi, the shinobi jumped away to start spinning her fans together like a windmill.
"Secret ninja art:Black ice!" Yumi exclaimed as she created a large icicle lance and launched it at Sora, who held his keyblade ready to swing.
"Yah!" Sora exclaimed as he brought his keyblade down on the icicle lance and sliced it in two and sent the two halfs flying behind him.
"Tch!" Yumi grunted in surprise seeing Sora able to counter her ninja art so cleanly, but couldn't help but be impressed.
"C'mon, that can't be your only trick!"
"Don't worry, I have plenty more!" Yumi claimed as she began to coat her fans in ice and rushed at Sora to swing her fans at him, leaving trails of ice with each attack and forced Sora on the defensive as he blocked her attacks, but was able to to get an idea while defending.
"Fire!" Sora shouted as the tip of his keyblade ignited in flames and caused Yumi to jump back believing that a fireball would come her way, but was surprised to see Sora had mimicked her ice fans by having his keyblade covered in his fire spell.
"Looks like he still has new tricks to unveil too." Yumi said as she swung her ice coated fans again, only for Sora to swing back with his fire-covered keyblade back at her and easily smashed the ice away and caused it to fall off her fans. "
"Hah!" Sora shouted as he swung his keyblade again at Yumi, who turned away to avoid the fiery attack, only to end up with one of her sleeves singed by the fire. "What do you think? I'm learning more and more from you."
"You still have much to learn…" Yumi said as she held her fans at her side and the air around became colder.
"Secret ninja art: Ice pillar fan!" Yumi exclaimed as she began twirling around in a dance-like motion, creating a whirlwind of ice that enveloped her and began moving towards Sora, who was ready for the attack.
"Bring it!" Sora exclaimed as he charged forward and brought his keyblade down at Yumi's whirlwind with an overhead attack, only for the strike to be deflected by the wind and Sora ended up being struck by the ice that was carried by the whirlwind and was knocked down while Yumi stopped her attack."Gah!"
"I've yet to see you take this seriously like I am. So stop playing around!" Yumi demanded as Sora looked above her to see a cage hanging from the ceiling above the stage and quickly got an idea.
"Okay, you asked for it!" Sora said as he tossed his keyblade upwards at the chain holding the cage up and it fell down on top of Yumi and trapped her.
"What?!" Yumi exclaimed as Sora got up and ran forward at the cage and jumped on top to plant his feet before quickly launching off to activate flowmotion and flew upwards with a blue aura around him as Sora rose high into the air above Yumi before diving downward.
"Whoa! What's he doing?" Yozakura questioned as the girls watched in awe at Sora dive down at the caged Yumi at high speed with his keyblade pointing downwards.
"Oh no you don't!" Yumi said as she held her hands on the bars of the cage to freeze it in ice and then swung her fans to shatter it to pieces before backflipping to avoid the impact zone of Sora's dive attack, which created a large crack in the floor. "You'll have to do more than try to trap me in place."
"Then I better stop messing around." Sora said as light gathered around him and shattered like glass as he transformed into limit form.
"Oh, does this transformation the boy went through mean he's getting serious?" Fubuki asked as Yozakura nodded in confirmation.
"Sora's done holding back. Which is probably gonna force Yumi to stop pulling her punches as well." Yozakura said as the fight below continued when Sora launched himself at Yumi with a quick dashing swing that she ducked under before jumping back from her opponent who raised his keyblade up.
"Thunder!" Sora exclaimed as sparks of electricity were called down from above and struck Yumi and stunned her while her kimono was scorched by the magic spell and angering her.
"Secret ninja art: Black ice!" Yumi exclaimed as she spun her fans again to not only summon another ice lance, but a second one as well to launch at the same time towards Sora who countered with a high speed thrust with the keyblade and crashed straight the ice lances and towards Yumi, who quickly blocked the attack with her fan before using them to create a gust a wind to blow Sora back.
"Here, catch!" Sora exclaimed as he tossed his keyblade at Yumi using strike raid, who knocked aside the thrown weapon before dashing forward at her opponent.
"Is that all?" Yumi questioned as she rushed at Sora, who was waiting for her to get close.
"You wish…" Sora said as he held his keyblade up above his head before suddenly jumping above Yumi when she got close enough and caught the icy shinobi by surprise before Sora slammed his keyblade down and used the full power of explosion to create the giant orbs of light that blasted Yumi back and sent her flying back to other side of the fighting stage and greatly damaging her outfit by tearing off most of the upper half of her kimono with her tube bra exposed.
"Sorry about that, but you're not leaving me with much choice." Sora apologized as Yumi recovered from being knocked down and stood up. "We don't have to keep fighting, you know."
"Hmm, you act like you're winning. But you couldn't be more wrong." Yumi stated, which confused Sora for a moment. "Have you forgotten? The reason you sent here in the first place."
"Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. You really do that? Why do we need to go there, you don't need to release your true power. I still just want to talk!" Sora said, which fell on deaf ears.
"You had to have known this was coming. Ice queen…" Yumi said as the air around the whole arena became cold at a slow pace, like it was building towards something.
"I got a bad feeling about this…" Sora said as an icy whirlwind began forming around Yumi and encased her from sight as a powerful wind blew throughout the arena, causing Sora and the Gessen spectators to cover their eyes with the expectation of Fubuki.
"Now this boy will be forced to face Yumi's full power…" Fubuki said as the whirlwind died down to reveal Yumi's transformation, which repaired her clothes and caused her hair to become longer in length and turn into an icy blue color with her eyes red in hue.
"Whoa, she's definitely in a different league than Ikaruga is…" Sora stated while the transformed Yumi formed ice in her hands that took the shape of a sword.
"Now sink into the dreams of sleeping souls…" Yumi said as she vanished in a silent blur, leaving only a patch of ice where she was standing.
"Huh?" Sora questioned before being sent flying into the air by Yumi's ice sword when she suddenly reappeared and followed up by leaping upwards after Sora and smacked him downward with her ice sword into the ground with a hard crash, leaving the keyblade wielder embedded in the arena floor where he watched Yumi dive down towards him.
"Oh man…" Sora uttered before rolling out of the way of Yumi's dive attack, letting her sword impale the ground where her opponent once was, but was not done yet as ice formed along the floor from the sword and froze Sora's feet in the process, trapping him in place. "Ah, c'mon!"
"Here's something for you." Yumi said as she waved her sword around in a circle to create a dozen floating icicles before waving her weapon like a wand to sent the ice projectiles flying like bullets at Sora, who held up his keyblade in defense, blocking some of the ice but some managed to get by Sora's guard and pelted him.
"Gah, dah, agh!" Sora grunted in pain as he was pelted by the ice, unable to move away from the swarm of projectiles before finally having enough and aimed his keyblade at his feet.
"Fire!" Sora exclaimed as the keyblade blasted a fireball at the floor, melting the ice trapping his feet and freeing him in time as Yumi fired more ice projectiles in time which Sora jumped high over.
"Going somewhere?" Yumi questioned as she created more icicles upwards towards Sora, who began twisting his body in midair as a sphere of energy surrounded him with magnet burst and the icicles Yumi shot at him began to orbit Sora before he released the energy with a powerful burst that sent the icicles back towards Yumi, who simply moved an inch to the side to avoid her own attack while Sora landed back on the ground. "You'll have to do better than that…"
(She's got a point, Yumi's completely turned this around on me in a short time. I gotta stop pulling my punches!) Sora thought to himself as he pointed his keyblade forward and energy began building at the tip of his weapon with ragnarok.
"Take this!" Sora exclaimed as he unleashed his attack and many bolts of energy flew from his keyblade towards Yumi, who simply stood still while watching the streams quickly approach her and collided into her in a series of firework explosions.
"Sorry about that, Yumi." Sora said to the smoke created by the explosions, expecting a response from the transformed shinobi.
"Don't be…" Yumi responded as a set of eight large legs emerged from the smoke and cleared away to reveal not only an undamaged Yumi, but a large white spider made of ice standing by her side, which had no doubt protected her from Sora's ragnarok. "In fact, I know how far your strength goes."
"Oh boy. That's one big spider."
"White widow." Yumi said as the large ice spider stomped its two front legs and created a giant wave of ice towards Sora, who began jumping backwards to avoid the ice which formed into spikes when they got close to him, only to be slashed by the keyblade before more ice approached from both his left and right side and force Sora to jump upwards towards safety and landed on top of a spike to see the entire arena was frozen over.
"Yikes, Yumi really isn't holding back on Sora anymore, is she?" Shiki asked as the Gessen girls watched their leader's ice draw closer to the stands.
"Hey, Yozie. Maybe we should try stopping this fight before it gets really out of control." Shiki suggested.
"You're right. We should calm Yumi down before she goes too far." Yozakura agreed as she prepared to stand up, only for Fubuki to put a hand on her shoulder.
"No, don't get in the way. Can't you see they both want to finish this fight?" Fubuki said as Yozkaura looked back towards the arena to see the fierce looks in both Sora and Yumi's eyes, both brimming with the urge to fight.
"As angry as you are right now, Yumi, I'm kinda enjoying fighting you. It feels like something we could have fun doing again." Sora said, which seemed to irk Yumi.
"Of course it's a game to you. Just like everything else…Including your promise…" Yumi said, which Sora overheard.
"Huh? What promise?" Sora questioned, which caused Yumi to realize her slip of the tongue before her expression changed from irked to angered and then pointed her sword at Sora to direct her guardian spider.
"*SCREECH!*" The white widow roared as it stomped all of its legs at once, signaling it was about to attack again, forcing Sora to brace himself as he held up his keyblade and it started glowing with a gold aura.
(I have to attack now if I want to get past that spider!) Sora thought to himself when the spider stomped its front legs and another wave of ice spikes.
(Now!) Sora exclaimed in his head as he rushed forward at the ice and began swinging his keyblade wildly with ars arcanum and slashed the ice spikes that kept spawning in front of him in an effort to slow him down, but Sora continued to close the distance between him and Yumi's side.
"Whoa! Sora's tearing through the ice like crazy!" Minori exclaimed as Sora attacks continued to shatter the ice around him.
"It's gonna be close!" Yozakura exclaimed as Sora tore enough ice to get close enough to Yumi and her white widow.
"This is over!" Sora exclaimed as he leaped upwards with the momentum he built up from running into the air towards the white widow in an attempt to slam the keyblade down on it. But Yumi had other plans.
"So you think." Yumi stated as her giant spider shot an icy string of web to the ceiling and it rose upwards and stretched its many legs out.
"Huh?!"
"Begone!" Yumi exclaimed as the white widow began spinning fast enough to create a large tornado of ice that encased the summon and Yumi together while Sora was still falling towards it, who decided to try his luck anyway.
"Hah!" Sora grunted as he brought his keyblade down on the ice tornado, only to be easily blown back with hard force and caused him to lose the keyblade from his grip.
"Ahhhh!" Sora shouted as he flew backwards and crashed through some ice along the floor until he landed outside of the main fighting stage and lost his limit form transformation and a certain object. The blank powerless key chain Yen Sid had gifted him before Sora left for his training journey, which had fallen a couple feet away from him.
(Music ends)
"Ah! Sora!" Minori shouted as most of the Gessen girls spectators stood up in worry, with the exception of Fubuki, who sat still.
"Oh no…" Yozakura said as she watched Yumi and her guardian spider walk to the edge of the arena to look down on Sora.
"You are clearly at your limit. I advise you to give up." Yumi said as Sora struggled to get off the ground.
"No way…I'm still in this!" Sora said as he continued trying to get up before summoning back his keyblade for support and used it to stand back up.
"I don't get you…Now matter how many times you go down, or how much negativity I send your way you still try to believe there's a light at the end of your tunnel. You can't defeat me!" Yumi exclaimed.
"Then if I can't, how else am I gonna convince you that we can be friends?" Sora questioned as Yumi's face filled with surprise. "The further you pull away makes me think you're hiding some pain that I remind you of, and I'm sorry about that. So I'm gonna keep trying to help you ease that pain."
"I…Don't help! It's nothing for you to be concerned about! As if you're strong enough to get close to me anyway!" Yumi stated as an icy wind built up around her.
"I may not be as strong as you. But I don't fight with a weapon or with a shinobi's training, I fight with my heart, and I'm trying to reach yours!" Sora exclaimed before noticing a bright shine at his feet and looked down to see the keychain he had dropped earlier was glowing as he picked it up.
"Master Yen Sid's gift, I completely forgot about this…" Sora said as the Gessen girls noticed the object in his hand.
"What is that thing Sora has?" Yozakura asked as the keychain in the boy's hand changed colors from a blank white to a sparkling blue and yellow icon of a 'Shooting star' and a chain formed from the token, ready for use.
"I guess now is the right time, Yen Sid." Sora said as he held his keyblade up and the keychain in his other hand was drawn towards the weapon and replaced the keychain of the star seeker, which started to change shape in a flash of light and become a larger keyblade with a large star in a circle acting as the teeth and a similar star in the center of the handle guard with the color scheme of the keyblade being bright blue and yellow.
"He created a new weapon!" Yumi said in surprise as she prepared her ice sword, knowing Sora would be ready to fight again as her white widow responded to her instinct by bare its large teeth at the keyblade's chosen.
(Music: Blood guidance~From god eater 2~)
"Time for a change." Sora said as a familiar light gathered around him before shattering like glass as he transformed again, but not into limit form, but another transformation called wisdom form, which had changed his clothes into a blue color with a blue flame pattern on his pants and a magical mist surrounded his feet.
"He's got another transformation?!" Yozakura shouted in surprise and awe while her squad members had the same reactions.
"AHH! PLOT TWIST!" Murakumo exclaimed with excitement as she crushed the pen she was using to write in her hand.
"This doesn't change anything!" Yumi shouted as she directed her guardian spider to attack.
"*SCREECH*!" The white widow roared again as it lunged forward at Sora to bring its giant legs down on him. Only to miss when Sora dashed forward at an incredibly long range in a quick blur.
"What?!" Yumi exclaimed as she saw Sora at another side of the arena, far away from where he was a minute ago, where she dashed forward and swung her sword at her opponent with a wide slash, only to miss when Sora dashed again backwards while Yumi decided to take a different approach by forming a dozen ice shards in the air and quickly shot them at Sora.
"Back at 'cha!" Sora exclaimed as he blasted several magical shots from his new shooting star keyblade to counter Yumi's ice shards in midair.
"*Screech!*" The white widow roared as it charge at Sora and tried to bite him with its large fangs, only to miss several times when Sora moved around its teeth effortlessly by sliding on his own feet like if he were on skates before the white widow attempted to bite him again, only to be stopped when Sora stuck his keyblade into its mouth.
"Fire!" Sora shouted as flame bursted from the keyblade and engulfed the white widow's mouth and caused it to go reeling back with its teeth damaged by the explosion.
"Twirl!" Yumi commanded as her guardian spider responded by shooting another web towards the ceiling and lifted itself up before spinning to create its icy tornado again which created a suction effect that was drawing Sora in, which he took advantage of by using wisdom form's high speed dash and rode along the outside funnel of the tornado.
"What is he doing?!" Yumi exclaimed as Sora launched off of the tornado and high upwards into the air with a trail of blue magic following behind him before Sora repositioned himself in midair and began diving downward for another diving attack like the one he attempted on Yumi before.
"Eat this!" Sora exclaimed as he rocketed downwards into the center of the white widow's tornado and resulted in the funnel exploding outwards with dust and small shards of ice flying everywhere, and once the dust cleared away, it revealed Sora among the icy remains of Yumi's white widow.
"Unbelievable…But…I will not yield!" Yumi shouted as she swung her ice sword and released an icy slash wave at Sora, who proceeded to jump over the attack before Yumi send out many more slash waves that the keyblade's chosen gilded around easily with graceful dodging and weaving as he began getting closer to his opponent.
"Time I thawed you out!" Sora exclaimed as he rushed forward at Yumi, who held her ice sword up in defense while Sora pointed the keyblade forward in a high speed charge and struck the blade of Yumi's sword and shattered the weapon, along with a strong force behind it that sent Yumi reeling back and rolling across the floor, and the ice that encased the entire arena cracked and then shattered in response as Yumi's ice queen transformation ended and her hair returned to normal, leaving the spectors in total surprise.
(Music ends)
"I can't believe it, Sora was actually able to beat Yumi!" Yozakura said in total disbelief, while down in the arena, Sora's own transformation ended as he walked closer to the prone Yumi, who was recovering from being knocked down.
"Are we done fighting now?" Sora questioned while Yumi kept her eyes focused on the ground.
"Yes…I yield…" Yumi said as Sora put away his keyblade before dismissing upon Yumi's surrender, allowing the boy to take a breath of relief while the rest of the Gessen girls dropped down into the arena to check on both Sora and Yumi.
"I just can't believe it, you actually won against Yumi!" Yozakura said, still in disbelief as she, Fubuki and the twins walked over to Sora while the rest of the Gessen girls walked over to Yumi to help her off the floor as the squad leader outfit changed back to her school uniform.
"I can't believe it either. The power she uses from that super secret scroll, it's something else." Sora said.
"Where did that even come from anyway, the new weapon and transformation?" Sekko asked about Sora's wisdom form and new shooting star keyblade.
"The new keyblade was a gift from my own master to help out with my training, it must've given me back another one of my old transformations."
"You have more transformations? We only have the one shinobi transformation, and you're saying that you got the one yourself?" Gekko questioned.
"I used to have five before losing my power." Sora admitted, although there was a sixth that he didn't like to talk about.
"I guess the first one you were using powers up your attacks and allows you to use techniques like our ninja arts, the one you just used gives you greater speed." Fubuki guessed.
"It also powers up my magic, but it's not too strong right now…Hey, Yumi! Wanna spar again and help me get even stronger?" Sora asked as he turned around to look at the Gessen leader, but saw she was already gone. "Huh? Where is she?"
"She left…" Shiki explained.
"And she didn't look all that happy…" Minori added.
"Yumi said she wanted to be alone right now, although she probably shouldn't be." Murakumo said.
"Oh no…" Yozakura said.
"Great, Yumi goes off on her own when she's got a target on her back. I help you girls look for her. It's the least I can do right now since I'm the reason she's in a bad mood." Sora said as everyone went for the doors to the arena to look for the missing squad leader.
Item Obtained: Shooting star
(Backflash)
"Ven? Ven!" Young Yumi called as she searched around the Gessen ninja room as she and the older boy were playing hide and seek with each other, which she suggested since not only was it fun, but it also helped sharpen her skills as a shinobi.
"I'm gonna find you! You don't pick the very best places to hide!" Yumi shouted as she looked behind a few pillars, and some curtains before looking down the hall to see some movement.
"Ven?" Yumi questioned as she ran down the hall and turned a corner to see Ventus from behind, looking at something.
"Ha! I gotcha you-Huh?" Yumi questioned as she noticed that Ventus wasn't alone, master Kurokage was with the boy, but also master Eraqus, Ventus' own master.
"What's going on?" Yumi asked as she was noticed by Ventus and the elder masters.
"Oh, Yumi. I…wasn't expecting you to be here." Kurokage said with a small bit of hesitation, like if he was trying to keep the current meeting a secret. "Listen, you should go back to your room for a bit."
"No, your granddaughter has the right to be here, she should know what this is about." Eraqus said.
"Master Eraqus, what's going on? It's a little early for one of your visits to check on Ven, isn't it?" Yumi questioned.
"Well, young one. This visit is important, but perhaps Ventus should tell you the reason why." Eraqus said as he turned to the blond boy, who had his face looking at the floor in sadness.
"Ven?" Yumi said as the older boy remained quiet for a moment.
(Music: Ventus' theme)
"...It's time, Yumi…I have to leave…" Ventus confessed, causing the girl's eyes to widen with a surprised expression.
"W-What? Ven…Are you serious? Please tell me you're playing some sort of joke or something on me, and grandfather and master Eraqus are in on it." Yumi said, hoping Ventus was playing a prank on her, but the expression on the boy's face told the truth.
"I'm sorry, Yumi. But this is real, master Eraqus thinks I've recovered enough to go train with him and his other students. It's where I'm meant to be…"
"It's for the best, Yumi." Kurokage added as he bent down and put a conforming hand on Yumi's shoulder.
"Ventus, we should leave. Aqua and Terra are waiting for us." Eraqus said as he turned around while Ventus sadly nodded before following after him while Yumi watched and tears began building up in her eyes and she quickly broke away from Kurokage to run over to Ventus and grabbed him by his hand.
"Ven! You can't leave now! It's too soon for you to go! Let me come with you!" Yumi begged as she tugged on Ventus' arm with tears streaming down her face.
"I'm sorry, little one. But where Ventus is going, you cannot follow." Eraqus said, feeling sorry for the young girl when she looked at him.
"But I…What will happen? Will Ven ever come back?" Yumi asked as she turned to her grandfather, looking for an answer.
"I don't know, Yumi. He'll be put through rigorous training like a shinobi would, and could take a lifetime. Ventus may not have the time to return." Kurokage explained.
"Then I'll try and make the time." Ventus said, much to everyone's surprise.
"Ventus, don't make promises you can't keep." Eraqus scolded.
"I'm sorry, master Eraqus. But I don't plan on leaving without making one. Otherwise, what kind of friend would I be?" Ventus said while Yumi managed to get her tears under control and focused on the older boy.
"Ven, are you sure? Do you really mean it?" Yumi questioned as Ventus leaned down on one knee to put a hand on top of Yumi's head and gave the girl a bright smile.
"I'll be back to you again, promise…" Ventus vowed as he stood up and went back to Eraqus' side.
"I trust you have your affairs in order then?" Eraqus asked as Ventus nodded in conformation. "Then let us depart."
"Safe journey, to both of you." Kurokage said as Ventus and Eraqus walked together towards the open door at the other end of the room and began to close on its own once they walked past it, allowing Ventus to look back at Yumi one last time before the doors shut.
"Be sure to come back…Big brother…" Yumi said with a tearful smile.
(Present day: Gessen academy rooftop)
Yumi waited for days, then days turned into weeks, and weeks into months until over a decade passed and the shinobi in training lost faith that Ventus would return, believing he had forgotten about the girl like she had after waiting for so long until Sora had arrived and reminded Yumi of Ventus, stirring up old feelings that included happiness, sadness, but mostly anger as the leader of the Gessen squad stared out towards the icy sumits surrounding the academy with an intense glare.
"Ven…Is this supposed to be a joke, sending this boy? Or is it simply a codienice that he's just like you…" Yumi said as she clenched her fists tight. "It should be you here…"
"Yumi?" A familiar voice caught the girl's attention as she turned to see Sora approaching her.
"Just what do you want now? To brag that you won?"
"No, you just took off on your own and made everyone worry. We were looking all over for you."
"Well, now you found me. Now leave me be, I wish to be alone." Yumi hissed.
"Yeah. That's not happening since you got a target on your back, and I need to talk to you about what happened during our fight." Sora said, which Yumi ignored by turning her head away. "You said something about a promise back there."
"It's nothing of your concern! Leave it alone!" Yumi angrily shouted, but it wasn't enough to stop Sora from leaving the subject alone.
"I don't think I can just drop this at all, I think you need help, and I can guess why. It's got something to do with Eraqus' student."
"I said, leave it alone!" Yumi shouted again as she took out her fan to swing at Sora, who summoned his keyblade to block the attack without even flinching.
"You were close to them, weren't you?" Sora asked as Yumi's expression slowly changed from anger to surprise before she stepped away from the boy.
(Music: Ever after)
"I…How did…How can you tell something like that?"
"I don't know, but ever since you started talking about the student, I noticed a sad look in your eyes everytime the subject comes up. I can tell that you miss them…" Sora explained as Yumi's eyes shifted away. "How close were you two?"
"...Before Yozkaura and the others, Ventus was my best friend, no…My big brother…" Yumi explained as Ventus' name started to sound familiar to Sora at its mention. "Me and my grandfather nursed him back to health, and afterwards I grew close to Ventus. We'd spent every day together. Getting to know each other, even though he had nothing to share about himself since he had no memories prior to his incident. It was a wonderful year, even if it didn't last long."
"...So, what happened? What did he do to make you angry?"
"He left, but even though I knew it would happen, it still hurt. But I had something to look forward to, Ventus promised he'd return one day to see me…." Yumi explained with sadness in her face as Sora figured out what happened.
"He didn't come back…" Sora realized as Yumi's expression grew angry again.
"And that's why…I've been so angry since you came here! You remind me too much of him! That's why when your mission here is over, I want you to stay away from Gessen! Because I just can't trust you as a friend like I did him!" Yumi exclaimed with angry tears streaming down her face as Sora stood silent, with a heavy, unexplainable weight on his heart, which almost felt like guilt.
"...You can still trust Ventus. There's a reason he never came back." Sora said as Yumi's anger was replaced by confusion. "Master Yen Sid told me that Ventus disappeared eleven years ago, along with two other keyblade wielders."
"W-What? He's been missing this whole time?!"
"Yeah, that's why I've been training in the first place. I suppose go out and find him and the missing keyblade wielder so we can defeat organization XIII. Then, I'm pretty sure Ventus will come see you again afterwards." Sora explained as Yumi held her hands over chest as more tears streamed down her face.
"This whole time, I-I blamed him for not coming b-because I thought he forgot about me…But I had no idea that he-he…" Yumi shuttered before she fell to her knees and began sobbing in the palms of her hands.
"I'm so sorry! I just missed him so much!" Yumi sobbed as Sora walked over to put his hand on top of Yumi's head, something the shinobi remembered as something Ventus would've done.
"It's alright. I have a feeling Ventus would be saying sorry to you too." Sora said as Yumi looked at him and sniffled before embracing him in a hug, completely surprising the boy. "Whoa, this is new."
"T-Thank you for telling me this…Now I know there's a chance I can still see him again…" Yumi thanked as Sora silently nodded before he and Yumi were alerted by the sound of a picture being taken from Shiki's cellphone
(Music ends)
"Omg, Yumi! What's next? You gonna give him some kisses or a feel of your funbags?" Shiki asked as the rest of the Gessen squad, minus Fubuki and the twins, looked on in surprise at the scene before them.
"Wait, so was the whole, not liking him all just pretend?" Minori asked.
"A secret relationship,how scandalous!" Murakumo commented.
"What!? No! There's nothing scandalous going on here!" Yumi exclaimed as she stopped her hug and pushed Sora away.
"So much for being friends…" Yozakura said with a sweatdrop.
"No, I think I got somewhere with her. Finally had a conversation without Yumi wanting to stab me with her fans." Sora said.
"Oh, speaking of. I should apologize to you, for the way I've been treating you since your arrival. What happened with Ventus clearly clouded my judgment." Yumi said as she stood up and then bowed in an apologetic manner. "Forgive me…Sora…"
"Oh! Thank you…" Sora said with surprise at Yumi's apology, and the fact she had properly addressed him by his name for once, which surprised the other Gessen girls as well.
"Oh, wow! Yumi's being really nice to him now." Shiki said as she turned her head towards Minori.
"Maybe Murakumo was right about a secret relationship." Minori guessed.
"We are not in a-" Yumi scolded before being interrupted by the sight of Fubuki and the twins. "Oh, Fubuki! I apologize for running off earlier without talking to you."
"That's quite alright. From what I can understand, you needed some space. But you need to hear something important." Fubuki said with a sense of urgency in her voice that the squad leader was able to sense.
"What's the problem?"
"Some scouts came back from further down the mountain to deliver a warning to us." Sekko said.
"There's a huge monster that isn't a yoma coming this way towards Gessen academy! It's big enough to destroy the school!" Gekko explained as everyone gasped in horror before the girls turned their heads towards Sora, who immediately knew the reported monster was a heartless.
"Organization XIII again. They sent that heartless to follow up on their threat!" Sora said when he realized Demyx wasn't bluffing about the warning he delivered.
"What do we do?" Yumi asked.
"We go down the mountain and take that thing head on before it gets here." Sora explained.
(Snow mountain)
With no time to spare, Sora and the Gessen squad departed from the academy to travel down the mountain in order to confront the giant heartless that was on its way to destroy the school. Now the keyblade wielder along with the shinobi girls were standing on top of a cliff overlooking a large clear snowfield that was the only path for the giant heartless to take.
"Are you sure that this is the right place?" Sora asked Yumi, who was standing right behind him.
"It's the only place that makes sense for such a large foe to travel through. It's also a straight path to the academy." Yumi explained.
"Speaking of, why did Fubuki, Senko and Gekko stay behind there?" Minori asked as the view changed to front doors of Gessen academy with a transformed Senko and Gekko, with Fubuki transformed as well with her long black hair no longer bound the bandages she was wearing earlier, along with a black kimono similar to Yumi's as her transformation outfit and a feathered fan as her own weapon in her hand.
"Those three are our last line of defense if we can't defeat the enemy in time and they reach the academy. Or…" Yozakura's voice explained as Fubuki detected several threatening presences as she looked up to see many air soldiers in the skies and bizarre archers heartless on the cliffs aiming their bows at the yoma hybrid and the twins.
"If any unwelcome guests show up." Yozakura continued as Fubuki waved her fan and countless purple ice pillars erupted out of the ground and traveled towards the heartless before the focus changed back to the main group.
"I think I can guess what will happen." Murakumo commented.
"Their totes gonna kick some ass." Shiki continued.
"How strong is Fubuki?" Sora asked.
"Strong enough to defend the whole academy by herself if given the circumstance." Yumi answered.
"Sounds like Gessen's version of Daidoji." Sora said before looking down the cliffside and noticed a silhouette in the distance that seemed to be getting closer. "I think it's here!"
"Everyone, get ready!" Yumi announced as she and the rest of the Gessen girls took out their transformation scrolls.
(Music: Struggle away)
"Shinobi, transformation!" The Gessen squad announced together as their scrolls unraveled and replaced their school uniforms with their respective shinobi outfits.
"Here it comes!" Yozakura warned as the approaching silhouette got closer and its details were revealed as a massive heartless, known as the fortress crab. A heartless in the shape of a crab covered in sharp spines and a construct shaped like a fortress on its back for a shell and had many cannons for weapons.
"Whoa, that's one big crab!" Minori exclaimed as the giant heartless adjusted one of its cannons to the left, aimed towards the cliff where the group was.
"And I think it saw us! Get moving!" Warned Sora as the fortress crab's fired a large projectile out of its cannon towards the cliff, barely missing the group and causing the whole cliffside to rumble from the resulting explosion.
"That was close! It's just barely missed!" Yozakura said.
"The next one won't. We need to get down there!" Yumi said as she drew her fans as particles of snow gathered around her before waving her fans to create a slide made of ice that led from the top of the cliff to the field in front of the moving heartless.
"Go! Now!" Yumi ordered as the whole group jumped onto the slide and easily slid downwards as the fortress crab fired another shot from its cannons towards the cliff and destroyed it behind everyone as they all landed in the snow in time when the ice slide shattered behind them.
"Okay, now what?" Sora asked just as several air soldiers and blue rhapsody heartless formed in the air above the group.
"Let us focus on the small fry. You and Yumi try to stop that big crab punk!" Yozakura said as she and the other Gessen girls, minus Yumi, got ready with their various weapons set for battle.
"Okay, stay safe, and win this battle for Gessen!" Yumi said as she formed a trail of ice in front of her and hopped on to slide forward as Sora began running next to her.
"You okay with just the two of us working together?" Sora asked as Yumi looked at him with a smile and nodded.
"I would be honored if you'd fight by my side."
"Then you won't be disappointed!" Sora said as he summoned his key shooting star keyblade as they got closer to the fortress crab that adjusted its cannons downwards towards its attackers and fired with two projectiles which were avoided easily by Sora and Yumi.
"Go for the legs to slow it down!" Yumi shouted as she and Sora went off towards the front legs of the fortress crab, with Yumi going towards the right while went for the left and jumped up with his keyblade raised.
"Time to cook some crab!" Sora exclaimed as he dove at the heartless' leg and swung his weapon down, only for his keyblade to bounce off the limb. "Huh, What?"
"Freeze!" Yumi shouted as she shot a dozen icicle projectiles at the leg she was attacking, only for the icicles to shatter upon impact with the leg. "Damn it, that armor is too strong!"
"Now what?" Sora questioned as the fortress crab attempted to bring its giant leg down upon him and tried the same with Yumi, only for both to move out of the way in time.
"We should change our strategy, like attacking the cannons and disarming this monster." Yumi suggested.
"Sounds good to me!" Sora agreed as he quickly activated flowmotion to propel himself upwards towards one of the cannons that adorned the fortress crab's forehead which was adjusting itself to aim towards the approaching keyblade wielder.
"No you don't!" Yumi exclaimed as created a series of icicles and shot them at the giant heartless' head for its attention, which worked as it turned its cannons towards the icy shinobi and fired at her, forcing Yumi to create a shield of ice to protect herself as explosions bombarded her cover while Sora reached his to one of of the cannons.
"Hope this works, thunder!" Sora shouted as sparks of electricity struck the heartless' cannon, which seemed to affect the entire creature as it stumbled in response, followed by air soldiers appearing above Sora in an attempt to stop him.
"Should've known I'd be noticed!" Sora said as one air soldier dove at him and missed when Sora dodged to the side before jumping over another heartless that swiped its claws at him. "I don't have the time for this!" He said before focusing powering through the shooting star keyblade and with a burst of light, Sora's wisdom form activated and allowed him to shoot the air soldiers down with magical blasts from the keyblade and leaving a chance for him to attack the fortress crab's cannons again.
"Okay, back to-" Said Sora before his attention was caught by the sound of cannonfire and looked down to see Yumi struggling to defend herself from the fortress crab as her ice shield was falling apart from the cannonfire, causing Sora to quickly act as he dashed off of the heartless and down below.
"I can't…Hold it off anymore!" Yumi said as her ice shield shattered from another explosion and her kimono ended up singed and tattered as a result. Once her guard was down, the fortress crab started moving forward with its giant legs approaching Yumi and threatened her stomp on her, which would've happened if not for Sora, who had dove down to the ground and used wisdom form's fast speed to dash in and grab Yumi in a princess carry before the fortress crab leg could stomp on her.
"You okay?" Sora asked as he stopped after gaining some distance away from the heartless and set Yumi down.
"I'm fine, what about the cannons?"
"There's heartless waiting on top of that thing ready to attack, that only leaves the option to attack from down here."
"Wait, perhaps that is the best option right now. Crabs are known for having strong armor on top, but not on the bottom, so we have to assume that this one has the same weakness." Yumi said as Yozakura and the other Gessen girls ran over to her and Sora after defeating the heartless they were fighting.
"Yumi, Sora! What's happening right now?" Yozakura asked.
"We got a plan, but we need the rest of you to try to stop the cannons and the heartless on top of that thing's shell while me and Yumi attack from below." Sora explained the strategy.
"Okay, we'll do our best up there!"
"We totes got this!" Shiki said as he summoned a swarm of bats out from her witch hat and planted her feet on top for support as they flew away while Yozakura smashed her gauntlet fists together and dashed forward.
"Let's have a big party after we're done here!" Minori exclaimed as she ran after her friends.
"For Gessen academy! Kotaro, Kagero!" Murakumo shouted as her white wolf, Kotaro appeared out of the snow, alongside another wolf that had black fur.
"*HOWL!*" The two wolves howled as they and Murakumo charged forward and joined the other shinobi in the assault as they climbed up the fortress crab and destroyed any air soldier heartless as quickly as they appeared on their way to the cannons.
"Now it's our turn." Sora said as he started gliding on his feet while Yumi mimicked him with a trail of ice as the fortress crab attempted to use its front legs in an attempt to stomp on the duo.
"Hah!" Yozakura exclaimed as she flew at the fortress crab's shell and punched it hard enough to cause the giant monster to stumble and miss Sora and Yumi with its legs, allowing them to pass the limbs and get underneath the heartless.
"Hit it now!" Sora shouted as he shot upwards with flowmotions and tackled the underbelly of the fortress crab, causing it to stumble again from the impact, proving the theory of the weak underside allowing Yumi to take the advantage.
"Now freeze!" Yumi exclaimed as she waved fans to create an icy mist which formed into a giant wave of ice that encased the entire lower half of the fortress crab, trapping it in place. "Sora, attack it again!"
"You got it!" Sora answered as he aimed his keyblade upwards and unleashed a bolt of thunder magic, powered up by wisdom form and electrocuted the entirety of the fortress crab's body and stunning it as it went limp in its ice prison. "Yozakura! You and the other girls hit the top!"
"Got it, Sora!" Yozkaura responded from the top of the fortress crab's shell before jumping up and charging up a golden energy orb in the palm of her gauntlets as the pistons in them released.
"Secret ninja art: 10,000 palm fists of paradise hell!" Yozakura exclaimed as the pistons pushed in and Yozakura releashed the energy orb from her palms and into the fortress crab's side, causing a large explosion on impact.
"Secret ninja art: Shiki soku ZX!" Shiki exclaimed as her swarm of bats that she was riding mowed down any air soldier heartless that got in their way.
"Minori's snack party!" Minori exclaimed as he backpack popped out giant pieces of dancing candy that was sent outwards when Minori jumped and smashed into any heartless in their path.
Kotaro, Kagero, tear through them!" Murakumo commanded her wolves as they both vanished in and began slashing at any heartless in quick blurs and destroyed the last of the enemies that stood between them and the fortress crab's cannons.
"Yumi, we got rid of all the enemies. We're going to attack the cannons!" Yozakura shouted below the giant heartless.
"Great job, and stay safe up there!" Yumi shouted back as Yozakura and the other Gessen girls began hopping further up the fortress crab's shell to attack its weapons.
"Let's finish things up down here before something happens." Sora suggested, which came too late as a powerful rumbling came from beneath his and Yumi's feet and the ice keeping the fortress crab in place began to crack and shatter. "It's getting loose!"
"Don't worry, I still think Yozakura and the others can still stop it from above!" Yumi said as the rest of the Gessen squad were all each at their own cannon to take out.
"Let's disable this thing and go home!" Yozakura exclaimed with confidence for victory, which quickly faded when the shell cannons suddenly retracted back into the fortress crab's shell. "What?! It folded its own cannons back in?"
"Why did it do that?" Minori asked as several lights began building up from inside the shell where the cannons retracted.
"Ah! It's doing something!" Murakumo warned, which made Sora worry for the girls still approaching the shell of the heartless.
"Girls! Get away from there now!" Sora warned, which came too late as several powerful lasers fired from within the shell, with most of them striking the snowy hillsides surrounding and leaving behind large trenches while one of the lasers struck all of the Gessen squad in midair,dealing heavy damage as they fell from midair with burn marks and tattered clothes.
"No!" Yumi exclaimed as she tried to run over to her fallen friends, but Sora held her back.
"We can't do anything for them right now. Besides, this heartless is stronger than we thought it was, it gets to the school, we might not be able to stop it in time." Sora said as Yumi calmed down.
"Not even with Fubuki's help, the academy will be destroyed. We must stop it now before it gets in range." Yumi said as the fortress crab broke free of the last of the ice and was able to start moving forward again towards Gessen academy again.
"Now what can we do?"
"I'll go alone.…" Yumi suggested as Sora looked at her with shock.
"What?!"
"It's me the enemy wants in the end. If I get its attention, no doubt that monster will start following me instead. That will give you enough time to form a plan to destroy it."
"Wait a minute, Yumi. I don't think that's a good idea for you-" Sora pleaded, which fell on deaf ears as Yumi started moving forward on a trail of ice. "Oh come on!"
"Ice queen…" Yumi said as her hair changed into its icy blue color and her eyes turned red with the transformation before she waved her fans to create a gigantic ice wall that was taller than the fortress crab, completely blocking its advance as Yumi then stood in front of the monster.
"I know your masters sent you here for me and my scroll. So here I am! Fight me instead of destroying our home!" Yumi challenged the fortress crab as her ice sword formed in her hand and the giant heartless responded by unfolding its cannons from its shell and aimed them towards the icy shinobi.
"HAH!" Yumi let out a battle cry as the fortress crab began firing at her with its cannons as she began swinging her ice sword with powerful swings to stop the attacks before they reached her with wide icy sword waves. Some damage was done though as Yumi's outfit took the brunt of it as the right half of her kimono top tore off to reveal her bra while the skirt tore from damage.
"Yumi's in trouble, and I don't know what to do. I don't think I'm strong enough to attack the underside on my own, my magic is the safest bet…But I don't think it's strong enough yet to do real damage, even while transformed. What can I do?" Sora said to himself as he looked at his keyblade for an answer, which seemed to respond as the shooting star began sparkling.
"Huh?" Sora questioned as the keyblade began to suddenly split into two and change shape into the forms of dual arrow guns in his hands, completely surprising the boy.
"Whoa! This is new!" Sora said in amazement for his keyblade's own transformation into a new weapon before aiming one forward and pulled the trigger and the arrow gun responded by shooting not one, but several bullets made from pure magic energy that sought out a target and flew at the rear side of the fortress crab and struck it in small bright sparkling explosions. Causing the giant heartless to stumble.
"Wow, looks like watching pirates use guns in Jack Sparrow's world paid off." Sora said before a chibi version of Jack Sparrow poofed into existence on his shoulder.
"It's 'Captain' Jack Sparrow to you!" The chibi pirate corrected before poofing out of existence as quickly as he appeared before Sora started sliding forward on the snow and shooting with his arrowguns at the fortress crab's backside, angering it as it began turning around to face Sora, but forgetting about Yumi.
"My chance to strike back!" Yumi exclaimed as she swung her ice sword with extra force to create another icy slash wave, and struck the side of the heartless' head, dealing heavy damage as it stumbled.
"The head isn't wearing armor like the rest of it is. Sora, I found a weak point!"
"I'll be right there!" Sora responded as he continued moving forward until he was directly underneath the fortress crab yet again and aimed his arrowguns up at its exposed underbelly.
"Let's see how my magic works with these things. Thunder!" Sora called out as he began firing again, and the arrowguns magic bullets became lighting infused and struck the underbelly with relenting force as Sora began a continuous rate of fire with his thunder bullets at the fortress crab's soft spot, causing it reel back slowly at first before the unending onslaught started to effect the giant heartless before it began to succumb to the effects of Sora's electric attacks and began stumbling and falling down, threatening to smash the keyblade's chosen if he didn't already ran forward and jumped away in time as the massive body fell down into the snow and Sora landed next to Yumi.
"You got it down on your own this time. How?" Yumi asked as Sora showed her one of his new arrowguns.
"I got an upgrade to my firepower." Sora answered as Yumi was amazed at the keyblade's transformation.
(He was able to change it into a new weapon? It's amazing how fast his power is evolving.)
"Yumi! Sora!" A familiar voice called out as the two called over to see the voice belonged to Yozakura along with the rest of the Gessen girls, who were all okay except for their tattered clothes.
"You're all okay!" Sora said with relief.
"Of course, we wouldn't leave you two on your own."
"A few lasers ain't gonna keep us girls down!" Shiki said, cheerfully while she was shaking snow out of her witch hat.
"I-I-I rathered, we'd..Um…not do that again though…" Murakumo stuttered since she had lost her mask and her tough persona went with it.
C'mon, kick the big crab's butt!" Minori exclaimed as everyone nodded.
"Alright, let's do it!" Sora agreed before aiming his arrowguns at the fortress crab's head and began autofiring a barrage of magic bullets at it.
"It's time to deliver justice!" Yumi exclaimed as she stuck her ice sword in the ground and a large wave of ice erupted to strike the fortress crab and trap most of its body in the ice while Yozakura leaped forward.
"Eat this, ya no good punk!" Yozkaura shouted as she delivered a vicious right hook in the heartless' face before going into a continuous barrage of punches.
"Yeah! Go, go, go!" Minori cheered as she, Murakumo and Shiki watched since all of them had no strength left like Yozakura did.
"P-P-Please do your best!" Murakumo cheered as well while Shiki recorded the whole event on her phone.
"Of course they'll do their best, they got that big crab on the ropes!" Shiki said with confidence of her friend's victory until she looked up and saw that the fortress crab's cannons were retracting back into its shell again, preparing for another multi laser attack. "Oh crap…Uh, Yumi! That thing is about to unleash hell again!"
"What?" Yumi questioned as she looked upwards to see the last cannon retracted. "Sora! Yozakura! Get down!"
"Huh?" Sora questioned before looking up to see the drawn in cannons glowing and charging up with energy before he threw himself down into the snow for cover, along with everyone else doing the same as several giant laser fired out of the fortress crab's shell at the ice wall Yumi placed earlier and shattered upon being hit by the lasers, making Gessen academy clear in view.
"Oh no, it's almost close enough to the academy to fire at it!" Yozakura said as the fortress crab began moving into range for its cannons as they unfolded from its shell.
"We need to find some way to destroy the cannons now, and quickly!" Yumi exclaimed.
"No way we can take all of them down that fast!" Shiki said as Sora gritted his teeth in frustration.
"If I had all my power, I could definitely do it. Unless…" Sora said as he looked at his arrowguns, which were sparkling again like before his keyblade split into them.
"Sora, got an idea?" Yozakura asked as the keyblade wielder nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah, I just hope it works!" Sora said as he focused his power before bringing the two arrowguns together, and they began combining and changing shape again into a new weapon once more, which took the shape of a large cannon, much to the amazement of the Gessen girls.
"Holy crap, Sora's packing heat!" Shiki said as the cannon in the boy's hands began charging up.
"Better duck and cover!" Sora warned as the cannon fired a large projectile up into the air and began dropping down towards the fortress crab that was still moving into position, unaware of the falling projectile as it collided with the top of its fortress shell and exploded in a massive detonation that engulfed the upper half of the heartless in a cloud of flame and smoke that quickly cleared to reveal the giant fortress that made up the fortress crab's shell began to crumble and crack before it crumbled off the top of the giant crab, and even the cannons that were apart of the fortress fell down as well, disarming the threat.
"I-It worked, Sora! You did it!" Yozakura exclaimed while Sora's cannon glowed before changing shape back into the shooting star keyblade.
"Not done yet. We still need to take that thing out!" Sora said as a trail of ice suddenly formed next to him that led high above the weakened fortress crab's body.
"Shall we? Together?" Yumi asked as she held out her hand, offering help to the keyblade wielder as he nodded before planting his feet on the ice and used some momentum to move forward while Yumi jumped on and did the same thing and follow behind Sora before reaching the end of the ice rail and both launched off.
"This one is for Gessen academy, for Ventus!" Yumi exclaimed as she pointed her sword downward for a plunging attack at the fortress crab's back as Sora dove downwards as well.
"For all our friends!" Sora shouted as he dove down with his keyblade pointed down as well as the combined effort of his and Yumi's dive attacks slammed into the fortress crab with powerful force, destroying the giant heartless in a burst of snow from the attack as a large crystalline heart rose from the center of the wave.
(Music ends)
"YEAH! They did it!" Minori cheered as she jumped for joy.
"I can't believe it! I was really scared we were done for." Murakumo admitted as she noticed her missing mask was conveniently at her feet and picked it up to place on her face.
"Gotta admit, I was kinda worried here too." Shiki said.
"I never had any doubt!" Yozakura said with a smile for the team's victory. Which then turned into a smile of fear when the wave of snow from Sora's and Yumi's impact started making its way towards the team. "Never mind, I now have a lot of doubt we won't survive this."
"Yelp, nice knowing you girls." Shiki said before a purple ice wall suddenly erupted out of the ground to protect the squad from the mini avalanche and the snow passed by them harmlessly.
"Guess we were needed here after all." Fubuki's voice spoke as the Gessen squad looked behind them to see her and the twins had arrived. "Good job, all of you."
"It was nothing, really. The most we did was crowd control." Yozakura stated.
"So did we. Those monsters weren't even able to get close to the doors because of us. So your jobs had to have been just as important." Gekko assured as the rest of the girls smiled at her.
"Well, it was mostly Sora and Yumi we have to thank for pulling this off. They managed to stop the big one from blowing away the school." Shiki stated.
"Where are they?" Senko asked as Yozakura turned around to point at the impact zone left behind by the final attack against the fortress crab with Sora and Yumi sitting in the center peacefully still with their wisdom form and ice queen transformations worn off.
"Now that was a workout…" Sora stated.
"Workout? My home was about to be destroyed, yet you write it off as some common chore." Yumi said.
"Considering I've fought heartless that big on a regular basis, it kinda is a chore for me. So I try some of them as more of a workout sometimes." Sora joked, which Yumi couldn't help but smile at.
"Hehe, Ha haha hahaha!" Yumi laughed surprisingly loud, confusing Sora at first since he'd never heard Yumi laugh, especially at one of his lighter jokes. Although her laugh was pretty infectious to him.
"Hahahahaha!" Sora began to laugh as well alongside Yumi for a few solid moments until the both of them stopped to catch their breath. "Heh, I didn't know you could laugh that much…"
"Yes,I let myself feel some joy every now and then. And you've brought some I've been trying to resist because of how I first saw you. Now it's all out there…" Yumi said with a smile before she came to a decision. "Also, I think it's time for you to return to Hanzo academy."
"Yeah, I guess it has been a while since….Wait a minute. You want me to leave again? I think we were making progress with each other."
"Oh no, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this because I still want to get rid of you, in fact you're welcome here any time. I just think with Fubuki here, I'll ask her to stay until the threat is truly over, and you're needed back with Asuka and the others. You have a duty to fulfill." Yumi stated as Sora sat silent for a moment to think about what she said, and realized that she was right. He was going to be needed elsewhere.
"Okay, you win. I'll go, but promise you won't be mad if it takes me a while to get back here and check up on you." Sora said before Yumi suddenly surprised the boy by hugging him tightly.
"As long as you come back…" Yumi said as Sora nodded in confirmation, while the rest of the Gessen squad watched the scene with surprised looks on their faces, expect for Fubuki.
"Told you she likes him…" Fubuki said as everyone could clearly see the blush on Yumi's face as she continued to hug Sora.
"Oh yeah…You called it…" Yozakura said.
(Meanwhile…)
(Music: Ventus' theme)
Far away from where Sora was currently was Castle Oblivion, a warped fortress somewhere in the realm between the light and dark realms. With its most well secured secret being the chamber of waking and its lone resident being none other than the missing keyblade wielder, Ventus. Who was sound asleep in a throne in the middle of the empty room with an emotionless sleeping face.
"You can still trust Ventus…" Sora's voice echoed in Ventus' dreams.
"Now I know there's a chance I can still see him again…" Yumi's voice echoed as well, causing Ventus' normally expressionless face to slowly smile.
Journal update
Fubuki: A young woman who is the hybrid daughter of a shinobi and a powerful Yoma. After her father died being forced to seal her mother away, Fubuki was taken in by Kurokage to be raised alongside a young Yumi like sisters. However, Fubuki grew up to hate shinobis for what happened to her parents and recently formed an army of Yoma to destroy the shinobi world, but Yumi, Asuka and the other shinobi students stopped her before she could and now travels on her own journey of self discovery with Senko and Gekko. She has taken a break after hearing about Organization XIII's attacks on Gessen academy.
Heartless
Fortress crab: A massive heartless in the shape of a crab with a fortress for a shell and armed with multiple cannons that can charge up powerful lasers and airborne heartless for back up that threatened to destroy Gessen academy. Despite its powerful armor and weaponry, Sora and Yumi's teamwork ultimately toppled the beast. (Found in Kingdom hearts Union X)
Note: In my option, Sora should've gotten the shooting star keyblade in three in a much more special situation, like maybe a gift from Yen sid, or his heart made it reshape and became his new signature weapon like Riku with his braveheart keyblade.
