Chapter 11: To Our Surprise
Riku stepped out into the next world, which seemed slightly deserted. Well, he seemed to be at like an entrance area, as there was a building with large doors off to one side. He looked off to the other side, and found three large… scoreboards. Yeah, they were definitely scoreboards.
"Hey! Kid! What are you doing here?"
Riku turned around, slightly shocked. A small… goat… stood in front of him. (Said goat's name was Phil, but Riku didn't know that.) He frowned, not quite liking being called a kid. He opened his mouth to say something, but Phil stopped him.
"You here for the games?" he asked.
"Sure..." Riku said, unsure of what he was going to get himself into.
"Well I got two words for you," Phil said. "You. Can't. Join."
Riku's frown/confusion turned into a scowl. Even though he probably didn't want to join the games anyways, being flat out told no was slightly annoying, and made him kind of want to join. Phil, apparently having said enough, turned and walked away. Riku's eyes darted over to the large doors, behind which he assumed said games were held. He slowly smirked and opened up a dark corridor, and then quietly stepped through…
…Only to step out in the middle of a match. He quickly pulled out his blade and slashed through a heartless that jumped at him. He wasn't sure if he should stop fighting or not, considering this wasn't technically his fight. He stopped thinking about it though, because if he didn't fight, the heartless were going to kill him.
"No!" someone shouted.
Riku paused, he knew that voice. He turned (killing a heartless as he went) and raised his eyebrows. "Sora?" It was more of a statement than a question, but he was still slightly surprised.
"No, you can't be here!" Sora said, shaking his head.
Riku scowled, absentmindedly knocking aside a heartless that attacked him. Sora killed a few that were sneaking up on him in the mean time, and then returned to glaring at Riku. Neither of them said anything, and the heartless slowly seemed to dwindle off.
Sora was the first to break the silence. "Still haven't found Kairi?"
Riku clenched his fists. Why wouldn't Sora drop this? "No," he said tersely. Then he smiled, and taunted: "But I seem to be doing more than you. At least I'm not just sitting around playing games."
Sora started fuming. A grim smile played on Riku's lips. He wasn't trying to be amused at Sora's pain, but… there was something inside of him laughing, and he just couldn't ignore it.
"I- I just-" Sora stuttered. His anger turned to more of a confused anger. A slight look of horror showed in his eyes, and for a second, Riku got the feeling Sora had no idea what he was doing. To cover up his confusion, he quickly asked: "Why are you here?"
"I'm looking for Kairi. You?"
"The same."
"Uh-huh…" Riku said, but said no more.
"Hey! Kid! What do you think you're doing?" someone shouted. Both Riku and Sora turned to look and found Phil. "The crowd came to see a fight!" he shouted at them. "Not the two of you talking."
Riku turned to Sora. "What do you say?" he asked. "How about a fight, just like back on the islands? Just like old times?" His fingers twitched around the hilt of his blade, almost eager to fight.
Sora looked at Riku, something of a scowl on his face. He readied his weapon. "You're on!" he declared.
Riku smiled a smidge as Sora charged. He ducked and rolled out of the way of the oncoming blade. He swung his blade at Sora, and their blades crossed in a flurry of clashes as they each attempted to pull combo and were each blocked by their opponent.
"You're getting good!" Riku laughed, making a swing at Sora, which was easily dodged.
"I've been practicing" Sora said, managing to hit Riku once before his blade was blocked. Riku returned the attack with a combo, which landed nicely. Sora winced in pain and backed up, before jumping into the air and bringing his blade crashing down.
Riku quickly blocked it, and he and Sora spent a second glaring at each other. But Riku gasped when he noticed something. The crack on Sora's Keyblade that he had noted not even a day ago had grown. It was now actually noticeable now, a good few inches long. Riku managed to throw Sora off of him. Sora landed on his feet and quickly rushed in for another attack. Riku ducked and knocked Sora off balance. Sora's Keyblade fell from his hand and disappeared.
"I win" Riku declared, holding his blade at Sora's throat.
Sora angrily pushed the blade way and got to his feet. "Yeah, yeah" he muttered. "You win."
The smile on Riku's face slowly fell. Sora had never been such a sore loser before. He was never happy about losing, of course, but he had never taken it this badly. Well, before… that one day. Riku winced at the thought of that memory. The last time he and Sora had fought on the islands, when Riku had left the battle bleeding.
Sora stared at Riku, anger burning in him. He was about ready to strike back, when the same memory rang within him. He stopped, turning aside. The anger within him died down quickly into spirals of confusion. What was he even doing here?
I'm looking for Kairi, Sora told himself. And that thought smoothed over his confusion. He was doing this all for her. He was trying to find her, that's all. It was up to him. Riku didn't care.
His anger flared up again with his twisted thoughts. And he turned to glare at Riku.
"Sora, what's up?" Riku asked.
"Nothing," Sora replied tersely. "I just want to find Kairi."
"Then let's stop wasting our time and go!"
Sora shook his head. "Alone," he said. "I don't need you're help."
"But-"
Sora walked away. Riku watched him go in shock. He wasn't quite sure about what had just happened.
xxx
Namine rubbed her head. She blinked her eyes a few times, and then paused, doing a double take. Her sketchbook sat in her lap, open to a picture she couldn't quite remember drawing.
The picture was of Sora and Riku. Riku was on his knees, clutching a bleeding wound. A wooden sword lay off to the side. Sora stood above him, his own wooden sword in hand, with a look of shock on his face.
She remembered this moment. But that didn't explain why she had drawn it.