Chapter 6: Traverse Town

Riku slowly blinked his eyes open. Where he found himself was so odd, at first he thought he was dreaming. But then he realized it was too real to be a dream. Not recognizing where he was, and still half asleep, he instinctively shifted into Dark Mode. But as his body became fully functioning he quickly shifted out of Dark Mode and tried to get a sense of where he was.

He pushed himself to his feet and looked around. He seemed to be in a town. Investigating further, he found that he was indeed in a town, one he didn't recognize. He was in another world.

"How did I get here?" he asked quietly. Then it all came back to him. How Sora had disappeared, sucked up by the darkness. How the islands were pulled apart. How Kairi had been lost. And then how he had lost Namine.

"Oh no…" he groaned, rubbing his head.

He looked around. Plenty of people stood around, looking as lost and out of place as he did. Unsure of where exactly he should go, he made his way towards the nearest shop.

"Hey there, how can I-" the shopkeeper said when he entered, and then paused. "Aw, it's only a kid." The shopkeeper returned to what he was doing before.

Riku glared at him for a second, not too happy about being called a kid. The shopkeeper was a middle aged man with blonde hair, and had a twig sticking out of his mouth.

"My name's Riku," he said, approaching the counter. The shopkeeper turned around.

"Nice to meet you then," the shopkeeper said, taking a long look at Riku. He frowned. "You lost or something?"

"No," Riku replied rather quickly.

"Well if you're not lost, and you're not a customer, then GET OUT!"

Riku frowned, but didn't move. The shopkeeper continued to stare at him.

"Where are we?" Riku asked after a moment.

"I thought you said you weren't lost!" the shopkeeper yelled, starting to sound angry.

"I'm not."

The shopkeeper looked at Riku as if he were crazy. He then fingered the twig in his mouth for a second, and said slowly: "We're in Traverse Town."

Something sparked in the back of Riku's mind, he was sure he had heard that somewhere before. Silence passed for a second, as the shopkeeper continued to stare at Riku, trying to decide whether or not this kid was insane.

"Are you sure you're not lost?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Yes, gramps, I'm positive" Riku replied, smiling to himself.

"Don't call me gramps!" the shopkeeper shouted. "The name's Cid." He paused for a second, continuing to stare at Riku. "So if you're not lost, then why the long face?"

"My home was destroyed when the Heartless attacked," Riku explained. Cid grimaced at the mention of Heartless, as if he understood. "I lost my friends too. Any idea if they would be around here?"

Cid shrugged. "Maybe. No way to tell for sure. Take a look around town though, if you like."

"Alright." Riku started out the door.

"Hey! You gonna buy anything?" Cid called.

"Nope." Riku replied, leaving.

xxx

After thoroughly searching the town, and finding absolutely nothing, Riku returned to Cid's shop.

"Are you sure there's no way of knowing whether or not anyone's shown up around here?" Riku asked.

"Yes," Cid replied.

Riku groaned. "Are you POSITIVE?" he asked, voice rising a bit with anger.

"Listen, kid," Cid said, starting to sound annoyed. "This is Traverse Town. People come and go here all the time without being noticed."

Riku pounded his fist on the counter in anger, causing Cid to jump.

"Hey!" Cid shouted. "Simmer down!" Desperate to calm Riku down, and get him off his back, he added: "Why don't you try and find Leon? He might know something."

"Where could I find him?" Riku asked, rubbing his hand, which hurt more than he thought it would after hitting the counter.

"He's around town somewhere," Cid replied. "He shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Thanks" Riku muttered, heading out again.

"You SURE you don't want to buy anything?" Cid called, but Riku was gone.

He closed the door behind him, and then started asking the citizens of Traverse Town if they knew of a man named Leon, and if so, where he could possibly find him. After most people telling him that they knew Leon, but not where he was, and a few others telling him to get lost, an extremely nice Moogle said:

"Leon's in the Third District, kupo."

That said, the Moogle walked off. Riku watched it go, and then quickly made his way to the Third District.

Riku hadn't taken more than three steps into the Third District when he caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. Pushing it to the side under the label of paranoia, he kept walking. He caught the movement again when he was pretty much in the middle of the Third District. Not bothering to look before he attacked, he turned and struck.

His blade was blocked by another blade. Gasping in shock, and jumping back, Riku took a good look at who was standing before him. This person wore all black, had brown hair, dark blue eyes, and a scar across the bridge of his nose. He also held a very large sword.

Riku attacked again, and they fought for a while. His opponent proved to be a very good swordsman, who liked to use fire-based attacks. Neither of them managed to land more than one hit on the other, both would quickly block the other's blade. The fight didn't last long though. While they were busy clashing blades and glaring at each other, quite a few Heartless had popped up. Each of them, realizing what had happened, turned and started eliminating Heartless as quickly as possible.

Turning, they caught each other's eye. Instantaneously, they both realized they were pretty much on the same side. A small pang of guilt went through Riku for attacking in the first place. "C'mon" the man shouted, swinging his blade through a couple of Heartless. "They won't stop coming, we need to head back to the Second District!"

Riku nodded approval, and started in that direction, killing Heartless as he went. They made it through the door into the Second District quickly, and started forcing the door shut behind them. The Heartless were quick, and tried to get through, but they managed to force the door shut in time. They both paused after this, not daring to say anything until they were positive that the Heartless wouldn't break through the door.

"Are you Leon?" Riku asked after a moment. The man turned and nodded.

Leon shook his head sadly. "I thought the Heartless weren't going to be much of a problem. The Third District has always had Heartless lurking about, but I've never seen that many before." Leon turned, looking skeptically at Riku. "Who are you?"

"Riku" he replied.

"C'mon, I'll take you to our Headquarters"

xxx

Leon's Headquarters turned out to be one of the Hotel Rooms. There, Riku met a black haired girl named Yuffie and explained just about everything concerning the destruction of the Islands and the loss of his friends. He asked Leon if Sora, Kairi, or Namine were in town, but Leon didn't respond. It was Yuffie who answered his question.

"Well, Traverse Town is where most people come when their homes are destroyed. I'm sure your friends are on their way."

"That's helpful" Riku snapped sarcastically. Yuffie gave him a dejected look in response.

"Listen, we're all upset when we lose our homes. There's no reason to snap about it." Leon said in a relatively calm voice, but there was a hint of anger behind it.

"Hmph," Riku muttered. "You guys don't understand. I'm not at all worried about my home. I'm worried about my friends. I promised Namine I'd find her after we got separated. And I have no idea where Kairi or Sora ended up."

"Can't help you," Leon said, leaning against the wall.

"No need to be so rude, Leon," Yuffie said. "Maybe they ended up somewhere else." She turned to Riku. "You know there are other worlds, right?"

"Yeah." Riku raised his eyebrows. "You think my friends are in another World…?"

Leon nodded. "Most likely."

Riku, for the first time all day, relaxed. There was still hope.

And, there were still Heartless.

One appeared right in the center of the room. Yuffie yelped in surprise, as it had appeared literally right next to her. Leon swore and brandished his gunblade.

"Yuffie, go get Aerith!" he shouted.

"Got it!"

Yuffie ran out of the room, and Leon looked to Riku.

"Can you help?"

Riku gave a sharp nod, summoning his own blade to him.

"Yeah."

"Then let's go."

They ran outside.