Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 61
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Hovering over Radiant Garden*
"Yes, we've just arrived at Radiant Garden. We'll meet you by Merlin's house", confirmed Aqua, speaking to Sora on her GP. She makes several "uh huh's", confirmations and then bid the apprentice a "see you later" and hangs up before she turned back to Gladiolus, steering the ship.
To the surprise of the master, Gladiolus managed to get the basics of how to use a Gummi Ship quicker than she expected, although he wasn't driving it per se more like making sure they returned to Radiant Garden. The ship is currently on autopilot with him manually inputting commands and monitoring the systems. She slumps in her seat while looking at her notes and schedule she had written up this morning, already steeling herself for the trials ahead of her.
"So, remind me again, how does that forest place work?", he asked, making basic conversations while inputting the commands for landing. She traces a line with her finger before saying: "As basic as I can make it, we'll be spending an entire year within the forest but the moment we come out it'll be a day since we've ventured".
"But we'll age, right? I mean if we get stronger there we'll get older too?", he says. "That's right, but if you're worried about say we exit and suddenly we all turn sixty, then now. Once we come out it'll be as if we never aged but we did in the forest, therefore we return to the realm of light older", Aqua further elaborated. "And you're gonna be ok? I mean, didn't you spend twelve years in the dark realm? You sure this won't make turn a decade older?".
"Time in the realm of darkness is very inconsistent. For people outside it's been a decade but for me, it just felt like I was stuck in a point in time for my stay", Aqua says, "I was tested by Yen Sid after we woke Ven up, and he assured me the time I spent in that place will not affect my age outside of it".
Gladiolus grunts in response, understanding. He leaned back in his seat as the ship started the landing process. "An entire year of training with you guys…still can't wrap my head around that", he confesses, "And I'm guessing those Gummi Phones won't work the same there either?". Aqua nodded at him. "I'm not sure, Kairi didn't have her phone during her training. Though Axel did have Merlin bring a few things from the outside world", she explains.
This made Gladiolus cross his arms in thought, as satisfied as the answers were, it was still difficult to get his mind around it. Aqua herself was trying to adjust to it, wondering how they're going to survive a whole year of being together with twelve people and not lose their minds. For most of her life she had only lived with her master and brothers, but now her apprentices, fellow masters, friends, and boyfriend, it'll certainly be a new experience.
"…so…does that mean you and I can't…ya know?", he asked cheekily.
Aqua blushes and looks away, knowing his request. It still felt like just a minute ago she woke up by his side, nude and still sore from their activities from the night. The wondrous feeling of waking up in his embrace, skin on skin and feeling something changed in a good way for their relationship. Biting her cheek inside she muttered: "N-No, we can't".
Mustering her self-control and hoping her cheeks went back to their normal colors, she turned to him and said: "As much as we enjoyed it, we can't do that while we're staying with the others". Gladiolus gives her raised brow but before he could counter-argue Aqua said: "Do you want us to be caught by our younger friends or god forbid by Prompto or Axel in the act?".
Gladiolus opened his mouth but then pauses, frowned and the gives a defeated nod. "Yeah, gotta hand you that one…", he sighed.
As the ship begins its descent to the world, both adults slumped in their seats and thought the same thing:
"This is gonna be a long year…".
*Merlin's House*
Once they arrived at the bay and gathered the required items for the lessons, the couple arrived at Merlin's house as most of their party had gathered up in the small house. The master greets everyone with a smile and takes note of the team looking rejuvenated and eager to get started while Ignis had a look of concern on his face as he sits by the table with tea.
"Gladdy!". Aqua jumped and turned to see Iris hugging her equally surprised brother before he sweeps her up into a tight hug. The blue head looked at the sister of her boyfriend before she glances at a smirking Riku which confirmed the questions bubbling in her mind. At least Gladiolus would get to see his sister before he'd be gone for an entire year. While her boyfriend was busying with his sister, she approached Merlin who was speaking to his former apprentices.
Merlin is an elderly man with pale skin and thin arms and legs. His nose is a bit large and his black eyes are rather small and close-set. Wearing spectacles with circular lenses, he looks to be balding and has short, white hair on the sides and back of his head. He also has bushy eyebrows, a "walrus" mustache, and a long, floor-length beard, all of which are white.
Merlin is dressed in a sky-blue cloak that stops just above his ankles and has large, hanging sleeves. The strangest part of his attire is his pointed slippers and a tall, floppy, conical hat, both of which are the same sky blue color as his cloak. Merlin's wand is a very long, featureless, brown rod with a small bump on one end.
The old man looks to Aqua a friendly smile and bowed. "Right on time, master Aqua", he greeted kindly as Kairi smiles at her master and Axel just salutes. "I trust you left Koko in somebody's care, yes?", asked the master. Kairi nodded with a pout. "I am willing to leave my feather baby behind for the sake of training", she laments, "Though with the year thing she'd grow into my mighty stead against our enemies".
Aqua ruffled Kairi's hair warmly, before noticing that they were ahead short. And it was ahead she was very familiar and protective of. "Where's Ven?", she asked. Kairi shrugged in response while Axel casually says: "I dunno, probably slept in". She did not like that mischievous smile on the man's face…it looked very slap worthy.
The door to Merlin's house burst open, making everyone turn around and greet a very sweaty and heavily breathing Ventus. The master was surprised to see just how the boy look, his clothes were incredibly messy and wrinkly while his armor was barely strapped to his body, and strangest of all he was wearing a blue colored scarf around his neck that looked like the only thing neatly worn. "S-S-Sorry I'm late!", panted the boy.
"Gwarsh Ven, ya look like you just ran halfway through the city", comments Goofy, pointing at the youngest keyblade wielder. "What's with the scarf?", Sora asks. Ventus turned red for a moment before he clears his throat and looks anywhere but at Aqua and Sora. "I…uh…w-wanted to try something new?".
"Your fashion sense leaves a LOT to be desired", Kairi teases.
Aqua giggled in agreement and after everyone was here and accounted for with Iris bidding her boys good luck, Merlin opened the corridor that would lead them to the Secret Forest. "Now remember everyone, you will have to open the portal on your end to leave the forest, but do not leave it until the year is up", he explained, "You never know what could happen".
"Don't worry Merlin, we won't be setting a foot out into the realm of light until we've completed our training", Mickey assured. With a nod, the wizard bids them good luck before he disappears as the corridor closes behind the guardians.
*Secret Forest*
*Month One, Day One*
When the fourteen guardians gathered up into this strange place, all bar Kairi and Axel were taken aback by the beauty of the forest. In a bizarre way like Twilight Town, the forest seemed to be in the middle of a beautiful sunset that bathed the trees in a gentle glow along with the gentle breeze gliding through the branches.
Immediately entering the forest, they felt something had changed around them like they were moving far slower than usual and the air of magic was stronger here than it was even in Merlin's home. Kairi looked over the edge of the cliff that gave her and the party a wonderous view of the sunset and forest where their training would commence. Even with the incredibly difficult and strenuous training ahead of her, Kairi was extremely excited about it.
She held it back during their resting days, but it was close to exploding with girlish excitement. A whole year with her friends, best friends and of course Sora. A whole year of having her boyfriend with her in a place without the dangers from the darkness. Plus, the training to get strong enough to be able to stand by her friends on equal levels and make she'd show Xehanort what happens when he puts her friends through hell.
Once everyone had a chance to take in their surroundings, the party followed Aqua to their new accommodations for the next year, using a map Merlin gave her. The group ventures through the serene and quiet forest, making casual conversations here and there while Prompto was taking a few photos of the forest.
Kairi was trailing behind with Sora and Riku talking about what sort of training they were in for while informing Kairi what they performed back at the tower for their exams. All the while Kairi was looking at Ventus chatting to Gladiolus and Goofy, staring at his scarf. She folded her arms in thought, the scarf was completely clashing with the colors of his gear and just looked unsuitable for him.
"Don't like Ven's fashion sense?", Riku teases, patting her shoulder as he and Sora joins her side. She giggled with a shrug and says: "Kinda, it just seems weird he chooses a scarf of all things". This said, Sora then rubbed his chin and says: "Wait a second…isn't that Rikku's bandanna?". Riku looked at his best friend before Kairi reminds him of the blond girl they met back in the city. Now that Sora mentioned it, the two looked at the "scarf", it certainly did look like the blond girl's band.
"Hey yeah, it is…", Riku confirms, "What's he doing with it?". They heard Axel snicker behind them, likely he must have heard their conversation. Kairi turned to him sporting a smug look on his face. "What's so funny?", she asked her old training buddy. The red-haired man folds his arms and says: "Well a few things happened back home while you guys were busy". The four stopped walking to listen to Axel, unaware Ventus was suddenly acutely aware of the party members trailing behind.
"See, after the party, me and Prompto spotted Ven in a pretty interesting predicament. He was snuggling up with that Rikku girl and based on those marks on his neck~", he teases. Riku blinks in surprise while Kairi gasps, clasping her mouth shut. Sora just looks at the man confused. "What do you mean?", he asked. "Ya know, sharing a bed? Starting something new?", Axel tried, then smirked. "Took a page or two out of your book with Kairi?".
Now Sora blushed.
"Wait…does Aqua know about him and Rikku?", the silver master asked. Axel opened his mouth, but then a keyblade soared right past him and straight into a tree, just narrowly missing his cheek. Mid-sentence he was silenced by surprise as the other three teens turned behind them. A very angry but hotly blushing Ventus was glaring at Axel, keyblade materializing back in his hand. By the look he had and the reaction, Riku safely assumed his sister was NOT aware of his girlfriend.
Kairi quickly jogged up to him and gave him a friendly hug, congratulating him on his first girlfriend. Ventus quickly shushed her before Aqua could overhear their conversation, quickly scampering ahead of them with Kairi pestering him for more questions while Riku whistled at the speed and strength a flustered Ventus possessed, and Axel cheeking his cheek for anything. "I think that answers that", Riku muses, re-joining the others. Sora chased after them leaving Axel behind.
"…kids got a good throwing arm…", he muses, following them.
After an hour's trek through the forest, the party comes to a relatively homey cottage that reminded most of the party of Merlin's house. Just not run down or oddly put together. Though it was worryingly small…it was TOO small for fourteen people.
"Hope everyone's ok with sharing beds and sleeping on the floors", Axel comments with a groan.
"Dibs on the bed!", Kairi declared with a finger in the air.
Aqua approached the cottage round wooden door and opens it, entering the cottage. She calls for the party to come in and once everybody entered the learned the cottage was the true definition of "appearances can be deceiving".
Inside the cottage is a foyer of a mansion, reminding Sora and his two oldest companions of a certain gloomy castle they visited a year ago. A marble stone stairway that splits into two other small flights of stairs leading to the east and west wings of the place, a violet royal carpet strewn on the stone floor that reached from the door to the first step. There are statues of gargoyles atop of pillars that looked on to the party, one looking very familiar to Kairi.
There is a warmth from the foyer, embracing the group in warmth with utter silence accompanying it. It was bright like the castle in Land of Departure with one round stained glass adorned above a large narrow doorway leading to another room they guessed. The fourteen guardians stood in the foyer, taking in the sights, amazed by the display of magic Merlin could perform. "Well…least we can safely say we won't have to worry about sharing a bed…", Riku remarks as he takes in the castle.
"Right. Everybody find yourselves a room for yourselves, then meet me outside and we'll get started", Aqua says walking ahead to her room. "Huh? Already?", Noctis asked. "Yes, the sooner we gauge everyone's abilities, we can then construct a schedule on what we need to work on", explained Aqua.
"Keep in mind, Noctis, we've gotta make sure Ven and Axel are up to speed with their keyblades as well", Mickey reminds as Donald and Goofy walked to their room. Axel grumbled something while Ventus frowns in tow, earning a light giggle from the Oracle. Everyone splits off to find their respective rooms and get their gear settled in, seeing as this will be their living spaces for the next year. Funny enough as Kairi and Sora waltzed through the corridors, they spot a door with his crown and her Oathkeeper charm proudly engraved on the door in the west wing.
"…I think this is our room", Kairi says with a giggle.
They entered together and came to see a rather pleasant five-star hotel suite. A large king-sized bed taking up most of the room with two wardrobes in front of it by a few feet, a door leading to the bathroom likely with a large window giving them a beautiful view of the forest and sunset. The carpet was soft jade-colored with two small lamp tables on each side of the bed with space-themed lamps adorned the mahogany wood.
Kairi and Sora grinned together, a perfect place to rest up after a day's training session. They got their suitcases from the pocket dimension and put their gear into the wardrobes. Once sorted and after making sure they were ready for the training, the two leave their room and meet with the others.
*The "Arena" *
Once everyone was settled in, Axel led the party to where he and Kairi used to spar every few days. A simple clearing with trees surrounding them all with obvious marks of magic marked the field, even the air was tingling with magic. Aqua gathered everyone up with Mickey by her side, both masters addressing the team of guardians. "Okay, so we have one year to prepare for the keyblade war, and as we are now we're not ready", she starts, her voice strong and strict like a master.
"Now we have grown much stronger since we left Eos, and while a lot of us have grown exceptionally, we're still outmatched by Xehanort and his vessels".
"Not to mention he has the heartless, nobodies, and the unversed at his command too", Mickey reminds, "Which means we'll be outnumbered". Prompto raises his hand, halting whatever else Mickey was going to say. "Uhh, do you guys think Ardyn could summon daemons too?", he asked, genuinely curious. The two masters glanced at each other with a frown before Lunafreya speaks up. "We cannot rule out he has lost that ability since the blight was extracted, but he might have learned how to summon heartless".
"Either way, between the thirteen darkness and their onslaught of minions, we're sorely outnumbered", parrots Ignis. The masters nodded, which Aqua speaks up once more. "All the more reason we need to make everyone can handle the numbers and the vessels", she explained. "So first before we get into the real training, we'll need to gauge some of your strengths".
With this, she asked for Axel and Lunafreya to step into the ring. Much to the shock of Noctis and surprise of Axel, the Oracle gets off her stump and entered the ring. Before the king could argue this, Ignis holds him back and shakes his head. One glance at his advisor told the king to be silent and watch, forcing him back to sitting down on his stump and watch Axel and Lunafreya stare down each other.
"Hey, I know I'm not on par with half the gang here, but…this feels kinda unfair", argued the pyro, looking at the masters. "I'll try and be gentle, Axel", assured the Oracle as she calls for her trident. This made Axel raise a brow at the jab before he smirked and called his keyblade and readied himself.
"The first to fall out of the win is the loser. This is merely to see how you both fare in a fight with the vessels", Mickey instructs. "Begin!".
Axel makes the first move as he dashed towards the Oracle, swinging his keyblade overhead in a sweeping arc. Lunafreya jumps back to evade the keyblade, and when her feet touched the ground she thrusts her trident at Axel. The man parried her strikes with ease and jumps back from her as Lunafreya's trident glowed in the light. She fires several rays of divine light at him, Axel nimbly side steps and dashes around her attack, grunting and impressively evading them.
He shifts his keyblade into his chakrams mid-step. With a smirk he spreads his him like a T-pose, flames surged around his arms until they covered his wheel-shaped weapons into a blazing heat. He throws them at the lights chasing him, splitting them and reducing them to nothing as his weapons spun in the air.
Next, the pyro calls them back, respawning in his hands and then looks to Lunafreya. His shoulders burn with a flaming aura, he combines both chakrams into one, turning it the size of a round dining table, engulfed in flames. He throws the large disc at the woman with a cry, but Lunafreya raises her hand and surrounds herself with a golden barrier. The attack certainly did enough to make the barrier quiver and nearly broke through, but the Oracle's magic held the advantage.
When the disc evaporated and Axel's weapons returned to him, he grunts before he races towards her as the barrier goes down. He strikes at her with his chakrams, combing up-close attacks with ranged based attacks, covering a lot of the field and forced Lunafreya to stand her ground at these attacks, parrying his attacks or blocking them.
Lunafreya uses the bottom of her trident to knock aside one chakram and with a twirl, she slammed the fork of the trident down on a flying chakram. The woman of Eos raised it again and fires off several beams of divine light into the air before they plummeted down to Axel. The fire-wielding warrior carried his chakrams and covered one entirely in flames until it looked as if Axel was carrying a literal disc of flames. He throws his weapon to the beams, but when it was in close range he detonates it. A large sphere of flames consumed the beams, halting the Oracle's attack.
With his left hand carrying his other chakram, he charged it up with flames again, only for Lunafreya to utter: "Waterga!".
A large torrent of water appeared behind her while unharming her, rushing towards Axel. The pyro could only turn his weapons back into his keyblade and try to hold his ground against the waters as it covered too much space for him to dodge it. It mattered not in the end, as Axel was quickly swept off his feet and thrown out of the ring, bathed in magical waters.
Once he was on his back out of the ring the waters slowly turn into trickles before ultimately disappearing. His weapons disappeared as he spits out a fountain of water, drenched. He sits up to see Lunafreya offering him a hand, to begrudgingly, he takes. He tried very hard not to look at that smirk on her face, it reminded him too much of Kairi whenever she won their bouts. His track record was looking quite poor lately…
Aqua nods to both guardians while seizing up Axel. "Looks like you've gotten better from what Ven told me…but you've still a lot to work on", she says, "You have a lot of power, but your defense is atrocious". Axel rubbed his neck; the woman had a good point. Truth be told most of the time he doesn't fight a lot of the things Sora's put up with, and even then his last rough fight was fighting with Sora.
And that ended with him dying.
"Plus, your element is easy to defuse", she sighed, "Which none of Xehanort's vessels can deal with, seeing as they lost Demyx and Even, so at the very least you still have it. You need to work on your defense and diverse your attacks". He nodded as Lunafreya pats him on the back and Mickey speaks his mind about the Oracle. "Your magic is really strong your grace, but against someone with brute strength and durability, you wouldn't hold out long", he says.
The Oracle nods in agreement, hoping with Gladiolus she'll have a better instructor on working on her physical prowess. And the idea of not being squished by a boorish behemoth would be a nice bonus too.
"Right, Ven, Kairi? You're up next. Riku? Get ready", Mickey says.
The younger keyblade wielders of the party hops into the ring while Lunafreya and Axel leave it, Riku stepping in as their opponent. With a cocky smirk, Riku draws his keyblade as the apprentices draw theirs.
"Begin!", Aqua declared.
The first to contact the keys is Ventus, dashing towards Riku with a downward strike. The master deflects his quicker opponent's attacks with one hand, both clashing and dancing around the ring with Riku's quick footwork vs Ventus' airborne striking prowess.
Riku throws Ventus upwards with a quick upward swing of his keyblade, throwing the boy into the air. He quickly spins around to deal with Kairi, rushing in with a flurry of strikes that forces him to take several steps back from her whirlwind of attacks. By the end of her flurries, they were locked into a short deadlock before Kairi leaps backward from him and rushes at him again. This time to his amusement Kairi skids around him, like how Sora used to fight the dusk nobodies.
She rounds behind him and takes a swing at his sides. Riku turned around and erects a barrier to deflect the princess' attack, her keyblade bouncing off his shield like a rubber ball bouncing off a wall. The recoil throws Kairi's keyblade out of her hands, giving Riku the chance to strike at her. Quickly Kairi dodge rolled away from his thrust, narrowly evading his blade as she creates some distance between them.
Ventus dives to Riku as Kairi re-calls her keyblade to her hand. With Ventus taking on Riku from the skies, Kairi struck at him from the ground. The defend himself Riku turns to Ventus with his free hand and fired a barrage of dark fire at him. Ventus quickly flips and dodges the attacks and even used one as a stepping-stone and leaped into the air from it. Kairi's attack was blocked by Riku's keyblade with a quick parry, but she twirled her keyblade and spun around herself, using both momentum gained to swing at Riku while creating a trail of light from the tip of her keyblade.
Riku jumps over her and flies to Ventus, meeting him in the air. Together they clashed in the air with keyblades clanging against each loudly to be heard across the forest. Ventus creates a little bit of distance from Riku and activates one of his Command Style, Fever Pitch.
Meeting with Riku again with twice the speed and covering more space, Ventus seemingly to control over the battle between them. However, Riku is keeping up with the younger keyblade wielder and every attack seemed to be easily deflected by the master. The master knocks aside Ventus' keyblade and out of the ring, then grabbed his collar with his free hand. With a yell Riku throws Ventus over himself and to add further momentum, he backflips and kicks the boy at the same time.
Ventus crashed outside the ring with a heavy thud, grunting with pain as his body stops glowing with his keyblade disappearing. He punched the ground in frustration but reluctantly accepts his losses.
Riku turned to see Kairi suddenly charging towards him with her body glowing in the light. He guards against her attacks, but she managed to brush past his guard and get behind him in the air. She turns around and soars towards him again with the same attack, but every time he parried or defends against it, Kairi kept repeating this tactic as each strike sent Riku higher and higher into the air. They were above the trees by this point with Kairi finishing her rapid attacking.
Both in the air yet neither falling, Kairi dashes towards Riku, casting a third-tier aero spell among them. A powerful gale of wind engulfs them both and sends them even higher while damaging Riku. The master grunts as he felt that one, flipping in the air as Kairi soared towards him. This time Riku raised his free hand and cried out: "Thundaga!".
A burst of lightning struck down on his hand, covering both keyblade wielders in lightning. Kairi yelps in pain as she took a direct hit from the powerful spell, her aero spell obliterated, and her momentum cut off. As she begins to fall, Kairi aims her keyblade at Riku and fires six balls of fire at him. Riku cuts down three while doing so Kairi grabbed the keyblade with both hands and fired a ray of ice at him while he dealt with the flames.
After he cuts down the final three, he gasps and just managed to shift his body to avoid the ray piercing his shoulder. As he spun around he fired a blast of dark fire at the descending princess, forcing Kairi to recklessly fire back a third-tier fire spell at his own. The collision sent a powerful blast that forced Kairi back down to earth while it throws Riku even higher into the sky. Kairi tried to regain control over her fall but she ended up slamming on her shoulders with a loud thud and even left a large dent in the earth beneath her.
She slumps on her back after the crash landing and groaned in pain, getting to her side and using her elbow to support herself. Kairi looked up to see Riku falling back to the earth and landing on his feet, panting slightly and she proudly sees his clothes had taken a few hits. Least she did more harm to him then Ventus had before she been pushed to the edge. But she wasn't done yet.
Kairi slowly pushes herself back to her feet and, almost collapsing on herself before she cast cure on herself and rejuvenated herself. In doing that she depleted her mana sure, but if Sora and Gladiolus had taught her anything sometimes you don't need magic when you've got something to cut down your enemies. Riku gives her a look of approval and even pride like he is proud of her. She nods in gratitude before she runs at him and resumes their match.
The two islanders clashed and danced across the ring, Riku's superior speed and strength against Kairi's versatile and practiced movement is at best an even bout. She ducked underneath a sweeping from his keyblade, stabs at him. He sides steps it and spins around her, bonking on the back of her head with the end of his keyblade guard. Kairi yelps out in pain as she staggers forward, but she spins around to slash at him. Riku jumps back from it.
He spun his keyblade in hand before he charged and thrust his keyblade at Kairi. Kairi raised her keyblade to guard but the impact of his attack throws her off her feet and out of the ring. Desperation kicking in, Kairi turned to the ground and uses the small amount of mana within her to blast the ground just inches below her and propel herself into the air. She backflips in the air and focuses on Riku, almost like she was locking onto him via a scope.
Next thing they all knew she soared towards him, bathed in a pink aura and seconds, she was back in the ring, keyblade gripped in both hands. With a yell, Kairi swings her weapon with all her strength, certain with her combined momentum, strength, and adrenaline, even Riku couldn't block this without being thrown off his feet.
Except she didn't see if that would have been the end of this attack, because Riku front flipped over her attack at the very last minute, completely avoiding her attack as her arms were up with her feet tipped up.
During his flip, Riku's boots land on Kairi's back, and then next thing she knew Kairi was kicked out of the ring. She skids in the dirt with a grunt defeated like Ventus before her. Dismissing her keyblade, Kairi rolls on her back, panting. She looks up to see Riku offering her a hand, his face sweaty with exertion and she could see the glowing pride in his eyes again, this time more intense and she sees joy in them.
With a smile, she takes his hand and gets to her feet. Kairi looks to Ventus who rubbed his shoulders but held a humble smile on his cute features, at least he took this loss as gracefully as her. The three teens stood in the ring with Mickey and Aqua assess the two younger warriors.
"You've both show a lot of improvement since you started, and both of you should be proud of your pace", Mickey speaks, smiling at both. Aqua nods in agreement, Kairi had certainly come a long way compared to how she was when she started on Eos and even Ventus while not as much as her he come a long way. "Ven, your speed is your best asset and likely you'll outpace all of us…but your strikes are too weak and worse, predictable", lectured Aqua, "Also, your magic?".
Ventus sheepishly rubbed his neck, realizing the reason he didn't display it is because he had grown lax with it despite being second to her during their training. Aqua frowns with disapproval and said: "I'm expecting you to get back into it with Donald soon, and hopefully you'll practice it more".
Next, she turns to Kairi, who kept a neutral and respectful face to her master yet Aqua sees apprehension in them. She figured the girl feared she may be farther behind the others, but Aqua shook her head. "While I wasn't expecting you to win against Riku, I was not expecting you to be this far into your power", she praises, "Your magic has greatly improved, along with some quick thinking and your swordplay shows you've grown".
Kairi beamed at the praise while ducking her head, feeling suddenly sheepish at the praise. "That said, your penchant for recklessness is still an issue. Plus, you need to learn about conserving mana…and perhaps more work on your swordplay, just for stronger and more…aggressive enemies", the master says. Kairi nods and together the two keyblade wielders bow and returned to their spots.
"Noct?", Aqua calls.
The king entered the ring as Mickey and Riku leave it, Aqua facing the king. The king gives the woman a surprised look as she unfolds her arms and smiles. "I've seen you fight, but I'm curious to see how I'll fare against you", she explains, "I have to train as well, you know". Noctis chuckled in response, she had a point. "Okay then, I'll try and go easy on you", he teases cockily. This makes Aqua smirk as she calls her keyblade.
"I have a better suggestion", she says, "At least make me put some effort into this".
Noctis grunts at that taunt, calling his keyblade and he warp strikes at Aqua. The master retorts to his strike with a barrier surrounding her. The king's attack was deflected by her and causes him to recoil from the force. Aqua dispelled the barrier and jumped at him with a twirl and kicked him into the air. Aqua jumps into the air after Noctis, dashing toward him by creating a gust of wind beneath her feet which immediately closes the distance.
Refusing to be outdone by this, Noctis calls changes his keyblade and pulls out his crossbow and begins to fire at Aqua like he was using a machine gun. The arrows of royal light charged to Aqua, but she spins her keyblade in front of her with her hand opened, rotating it like a propeller. Slowly she created a ring of fire as her body is engulfed in a red glow that gave her a fiery aura. The propeller destroys the arrows and once she was close to Noctis, the woman curled up to a ball before opening herself up and emitting a blast.
Two rings of fire circled her, blasting Noctis and would have burned him had he not warped away from her. Aqua turns to see the king with the Blade of the Mystic in his hands, firing three ghostly blades at her. Aqua flips over one and swings her keyblade to create an arc of fire to consume the attacks. She aimed her keyblade at Noctis and fires a giant ball of roaring flames at him, making Noctis warp strike back to the ground to evade the attack.
Once he was back to the earth, he looks up to see Aqua suddenly vanish in the air and then re-appear behind him. Noctis called for the Shield of the Just and blocked whatever attack she had in store for him. Her keyblade attack vibrated the shield and even nudged Noctis back a bit, however, the king quickly dismisses his shield and summoned his Axe of the Conqueror. Swing it over his shoulder he brought down the weapon to Aqua, the master quickly cartwheeling away from the attack.
With Aqua no longer burning with power, Noctis brings out his full power by going Armiger, all his crystal formed weapons appearing around him. With a cry, Noctis aims his weapons to command them all to strike at the master. All those weapons at his disposal and even if she destroyed them they would reappear by the king's side, Aqua was striking all around her to defend herself. When she was parrying two of the royal weapons, Noctis appeared right above her, Sword of the Father in both hands overhead.
He brings down the blade on Aqua as a trail of blue Lucis light follows the blade. Aqua to the surprise of the king, bathes her keyblade in an aura that extends the weapon into a blade as large and long as one of those buster swords Zack uses. She clashes with Noctis' weapons, hitting the king and throwing him across the arena as the master spun the weapon over her head, deflecting or destroying the crystalized weapons surrounding her.
Noctis flips to land on his feet, skidding back until he reached the edge of the ring, nearly falling out. He faces Aqua as her weapon glowed with magic and power, the master before him not even sweating from these attacks. She returns her weapon to a regular keyblade as his body is surging the power of kings as he summons his keyblade, and the next thing the spectators knew, both sped towards each other.
As Noctis strikes at the master with his keyblade grunting and yelling, her dodging, parrying and gracefully evading his attacks while attacking him at the same time create a den blades striking each other. He felt her nick his cheek along with several quick cuts on his body while he proudly manages to hit her a few times. The two warriors break out of their den of attacks, but Noctis throws at her a flask of all three elements.
But Aqua sees this faster than he predicted and uses a magnet spell, aiming her keyblade to the left to cast it. The moment the spell appears, the flask is immediately sucked into it before it evaporates into nothing and the flask flies out of the ring and harmlessly rolled onto the dirt. Noctis curses at her quick thinking, landing back on his feet in time to see Aqua gliding on the ground, firing off pearls of light at him.
Noctis calls for the Katana of the Warrior, quickly cutting the pearls in perfect halves before warp-striking at Aqua with a quick draw. The master clashed with him as she glided across the field, dancing in the air like an ice skater while continuously fighting against the constantly warping Noctis. The king is relentless in his attacks as he keeps on the offensive against Aqua, but the master was doing everything to ensure his hits were superficial and the only things he'd hit were the air and her keyblade.
But unlike the king, Aqua's mobility required no magic, merely stamina and quick thinking.
The final warp had Noctis stumble dizzily and he staggered to keep himself on his feet. He felt drained, exhausted and weary from the hits he did take from her. Aqua merely appeared by his side and using only a little bit of magic, pushes him outside the ring.
The blue-haired master smiles confidently at Noctis as he rests on his back, panting and looking close to passing out. She approached him and crouches down to his level as he stares up at the skies. He heaves a heavy groan before Aqua spoke. "Would you like me to tell you why I was the victor?", she teases as she pats his stomach. "…sure…", grunts his majesty.
She helps him to his feet and speaks. "Noct, your abilities are far greater then I have ever seen, and your strength with the keyblade only bolsters you", she praises, "Once you begin your training with magic and with myself and Riku you could be one of the strongest. However, you need to control your warping habits, stop these wild and desperate attacks and most importantly, you need to take your enemy seriously".
He hated to admit it, but the woman was right. Every foe bar Ardyn and Genesis he's fought there is always that knowing confidence within him he was going to win it, be it alone or with the others. After all the strength he's accumulated from Eos to here, maybe it was arrogance, but he feels like he stands as an equal to the others by now. But this fight with Aqua, her detailing where he was going wrong and if she could take him down, then he dreads fighting the organization.
She pats his back kindly with a proud look on her face, assuring him he was far from hopeless. He nods back in gratitude as he returned to the group. Aqua takes a breath and says: "Sora".
The boy strolls into the ring, keyblade in hand as she returned to her original spot. Staring at the boy, the one not chosen by the keyblade off hand, the one person she wouldn't pass the keyblade onto for fear of history repeating, yet here before her stood one of the greatest heroes of their age. Someone she is mentoring now, someone who triumphed over so many obstacles and saved so many. Someone she sincerely believes is ready for what he was denied. She just needed to make sure.
Sora and Aqua raised their keyblades, and then rushed at each other. No magic, no special power, not even a form change, the moment they were a foot apart, they swung their keyblades at each other. The very moment they collided and entered a deadlock, an incredible burst of power shook the world around them. The force blew the trees so much their leaves and branches bent back from the force; the ground cracked in a star pattern beneath their deadlock.
The force even made some of their party struggle to hold up against their collision, some like Prompto and Goofy were thrown off their feet because of it. Aqua and Sora stared at each other as they tried to overpower the other, but while Sora was pushing to fight on, Aqua was studying him, looking deep into his heart. She could see the potential within him, but the darkness that lingered within, it reminded her too much of Terra's on their exam.
She believes it…she knows he's capable…and she believes when the time comes, they will be ready.
Their deadlock breaks as they break through, bypassing each other with the sound of steel singing in the air. The ground breaks apart like an earthquake occurred, but neither moved since their swing. Sora turns to Aqua as she dismisses her keyblade. "That's enough, I have an idea on you", she says, turning to him. He tilts his head, surprised he wasn't going to fight her like the others. Even Mickey gave her a "What are you doing?" look.
She just replies with a smile to the mouse king and gestures everyone to listen.
"The keyblade wielders show a lot of potential, and with a year, I'm sure by then they'll be more than an equal match to Xehanort and his vessels", she declared, "But with the others, they'll surmount the trials".
There was an air among the team, the doubts they felt coming here evaporate and their faith in themselves reinvigorate. Even the ones who lost their match against the masters and Oracle could feel themselves grow with confidence, after everything they had fought and endured, this was a prelude to what they can do. "I know we are up against an adversary who could be called the strongest keyblade master, and even then with his allies, they could be more powerful than we know…but that won't hold us down, will it?", she asks rhetorically.
"Nope, nothing's gonna stop us!", Sora declared, pumping his fist in the air, "If someone like me can do all this despite not being picked off the bat, then anything's possible!".
There is a collection of chuckles from his jab while some closest to him frowned mentally at it, more so Aqua, making her only affirm her promise. "If we can save a world from becoming another realm of darkness despite the state we found ourselves in, then defeating the XIII shan't be any more of an issue", Ignis states confidently.
"All of us together? I think Xeha-Jerk better recruit more vessels!", Prompto boasted in a bragging way. "Please don't jinx us!", Axel chastised, "He's still got his heartless and nobody!".
"Pfft? Me and Sora beat Xemnas, and he kicked Ansem's butt back when he just started!", Riku reminds with confidence. "Besides, this time it won't be just a few of us, we're all crashing against them, and this time we're not alone".
There were agreements and nods of confidence, agreeing with the master. "So, what are we waiting for? May as well get started on training", Gladiolus says, feeling pumped and eager to get his feet wet. Sora nods but then Aqua steps up. "Certainly, we should, but I'm taking Sora for a month", she announces. Some of the party looked shocked at this and some even gave her a confused look, while Kairi pouts. Only Gladiolus looked at her eyes and sees the reason behind it, nodding.
"You mean you're gonna train him yourself?", Goofy asks. "Yes, and away from the group", Aqua clarifies. Kairi folds her arms but before she could speak against it, Lunafreya steps up. "As will myself and Kairi", she declares, "I'm afraid our training requires solitude for a while". Kairi again opens her mouth to argue this arrangement, but ultimately she went silent in defeat. Being separated from the group again for training sake, as much as she hated it, it made sense if Lunafreya was mentoring her.
"Then we'll be around here to teach Noct's group, while Mickey can mentor Axel and Ventus for a while", Riku declared, "Once the month passes, we'll regroup and start training together".
Once the arrangements were made, supplies were given to the respective members, the party of fourteen split off once more to begin their training.
A/N: …hey guess what there's gonna be a part two to this…
Anyone sick of that? Maybe but hey more story for the gang! Now we're in the training, we've an idea on how strong the gang is and where they need to improve on, kinda made Aqua the leader (because Sora's too young to lead a group), and a hint of what's to come.
First I wanna give a big thank you to KakeruPB for Kairi's abilities in Remind, they literally made a list of EVERYTHING Kairi does in the DLC and it's really gonna help with the future chapters.
QUESTIONS!
Q1: Thoughts on chapter?
Q2: The fights? Enjoyable?
Q3: What do you wanna see from this little arc?
Q4: Excited for the Keyblade War (Though VashTheStampede0409's comment on it being a skirmish feels more appropriate)
Q5: What did you think of Aqua in this? Her being more of a leader and even more confident?
Q6: Who wants to see Sora show off Attraction rides and summons?
Q7: Thinking of giving Aqua a summon of her own, suggestions?
Q8: Kairi vs Riku? Think it was balanced or too one sided?
As always, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!
