Update Sept 2016: As a part of Kairi Batch 2 Edits, from here until ch119 every single chapter has not just been edited, but completely rewritten from the ground up, with events that originally happened getting shifted, and some new scenes added, and, a lot more. So there won't be an author's note at the start of every chapter saying that, lol. Enjoy them, though! Here's where Kairi Batch 2 edits get juicy, and I'm super proud of how things turned out.
Chapter 111: A Feeling
Traveling through a dark corridor was definitely not the most pleasant experience in Kairi's life, but she knew that from previous experience. She hated the sinking feeling that pulled at her stomach, and the way the darkness seemed to cling to her skin even after she'd passed through. If she wasn't supporting Namine's weight, she'd start scratching at her arms.
The dark corridor let out into… a house. Specifically: the front room of a large house. There was an enclosed kitchen on the left, a staircase on the right, a dining room past both those things.
"Oh, nice!" Joseph exclaimed, as he stepped out of the dark corridor after Kairi and Namine. "I did know where I was going!"
"Is this the right place…?" Toby asked, nervously. The dark corridor shut.
"Did you not just hear me?" Joseph said. "This is definitely the right place! Sure, I've never—"
"It's the right place," Namine mumbled, interrupting him.
Kairi led Namine over to the couches on the left, figuring that if this was the right place, she might as well have Namine sit down.
"But Riku's- Riku's not here…!" Namine struggled to say, trying to push Kairi off of her. She was too weak to actually do so, though. "He's—"
There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs. In unison, they all turned nervously to see who it was. Kairi hoped they were actually in the right house and also weren't going to get in trouble for sitting in the living room without being invited in.
The owner of the footsteps turned out to be a woman in a pink dress and brown boots, with her hair tied up in a braid. She seemed surprised, but smiled pleasantly almost immediately after.
"Oh, I thought I heard voices!" she said. "Namine! Good to see you. Are these your friends?"
"Y- yes," Namine ground out, only putting in the effort to look sideways at her, probably not in any state to twist all the way around. Kairi stood up, though she still kept a hand on Namine's shoulder to keep her sitting.
"I'm Joseph!" Joseph said, before Kairi could say anything. "And, this is Toby."
"Kairi," Kairi answered.
"Kairi!" the woman smiled a little wider, looking genuinely excited. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm Aerith."
"Uh, nice to meet you too," Kairi said. She wondered if Namine had brought her up before? Must have been Namine, or Riku, maybe. (The only other answer was Sora, but Kairi's mind did not even consider him.) "But, listen, Namine's—"
"I'M FINE!" Namine snapped. Her fingers were still knotted in a fist around the front of her dress, her voice tight. "It's- It's Riku who's—Kairi PLEASE let me up!"
"No way!"
"Riku's…?" Aerith began, but then her face fell slack with realization. "Oh." She staggered a little where she stood. "Oh no."
Kairi frowned. Joseph moved closer to Aerith, looking up at her curiously.
"What? Do you know something about Riku?" he asked.
"I… have a feeling," Aerith answered, putting more weight into the word feeling than one normally might. She pushed past Joseph and moved with urgency for the front door. "I guess we better…"
"I- I told you—!
Kairi sent an annoyed glanced at Namine, but curiosity got the better of her, so she followed Aerith to the door to see what Aerith was up to.
Aerith threw the door open, and let out a huge sigh of relief. "Well, that makes things easier," she said.
Kairi peered over her shoulder to see. A group of people was gathered outside the house, all of them turned to Aerith. There was no Riku in sight. Joseph pressed up against Kairi's side as he craned around Aerith to get a look himself.
"There was a big blast of darkness over there, 'bout a half mile off," one of them said, a woman with long brown hair falling down her back. There was a scowl on her lips. "We're here to regroup."
"Weren't you supposed to be napping, Aerith?" a girl Kairi would peg as not much more than a few years older than herself asked, something disapproving in her tone.
"Is something wrong?" asked a man in a leather jacket, a scar across his nose. His eyes were narrowed with worry, fixed on Aerith's face.
"Well, hang on," Aerith stepped outside to reveal everyone who was crowded behind her. "These are friends of Namine's. Kairi, Joseph, Toby," she paused, looking at the boys. "Did I get that right?"
Joseph nodded. "Yeah! You pointed at us to the right times."
Aerith's friends introduced themselves quickly, obviously sensing the urgency. Tifa was the woman with the long hair, Yuffie the girl just older than Kairi. Leon was the man with the scar, and Cid was the man who sat behind what looked like a canon and hadn't said anything yet.
In the time introductions happened, Namine pressed up against Kairi's other side. Kairi wasn't sure if this was to see through doorframe, or if she was short on strength to stand. She wrapped an arm around Namine to support her either way.
"Anyway, they arrived here with Namine," Aerith said, speaking rapidly. "And—"
"Riku's in trouble," Namine ground out, before Aerith could finish. "He- He's—"
"I got a feeling," Aerith continued when Namine could not, again putting a lot of weight on the word feeling as if it meant something. Her friends definitely seemed to think it did, based on their reactions. "We'll have to find him. Soon."
"Who wants t'bet he's in the middle of that?" Cid asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder in the direction Tifa had mentioned earlier.
"There's a good chance," Aerith agreed, grimly. Did she just know Riku well, or was that another part of her feeling?
"Sora was with him…" Yuffie offered, looking like she didn't want to say the words.
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," Leon said firmly, but there was a note of worry in his voice as well. Tifa seemed to sigh.
Something jittery started up in Kairi's stomach, bile in her throat. Namine sent a glance at her, and she tried to ignore it. Her mouth moved even though she did not ask it to.
"S- Sora?"
She was not sure if she was angry, surprised, or—no, there was no way she'd be glad to see him, excited to see him. She definitely had not expected to run into him so soon, that was for sure. She had not expected to run into him at all.
"I'm sure he'll be very happy t'see yeh!" Cid told her, smiling.
Kairi felt like she was going to be sick.
"No time for that," Aerith said. "We have to find Riku."
"P- please!" Namine gasped.
"Alright, alright," Leon said. He cleared his throat and drew himself straighter. "Me and Tifa will go check out where that blast came from. He and Sora were heading that way earlier, so it seems most likely. Just in case, though: Yuffie, you search that way, Cid, you search that way." Both of them nodded. "I don't know if either of you can get Riku back here alone, but we'll cover more ground that way. Aerith, stay here so we can bring him back to you, whichever one of us finds him."
Aerith nodded. "Got it."
"I'm- I'm going—" Namine began.
"No, you're staying here," Aerith told her, taking her from Kairi and leading her back inside.
"But- But I—"
Kairi didn't pay attention to the rest. She'd just met Aerith, but felt confident she could deal with whatever was going on with Namine.
"You planning on staying here?" Joseph asked in a dramatic whisper, leaning closer to her.
"Nuh-uh," Kairi told him. "I'm worried about Riku too. I'm gonna go tag along with Leon and Tifa, I think."
Joseph nodded. "Right. Me and Toby are gonna search in one of the ways no one else is."
"Won't you get lost?" Kairi asked, turning to him in surprise. She thought he'd never been here before.
Joseph shrugged lazily, though. "Eh. I can always dark corridor back here if we do. Or if we find Riku. Whichever."
Before Kairi could ask further, he waved for Toby to follow him and the two trotted off. Probably for the best, because if Kairi waited any longer she'd lose Tifa and Leon. She hurried in the direction she last saw them, hoping they weren't too far.
They weren't, at least. She caught up to them quickly.
"Kairi," Leon began, slowing his run to a walk, looking at her like he'd wanted her to stay behind.
"I'm worried about Riku, too," Kairi argued. "I wanna help!"
"It would've been better if you'd gone with Yuffie, or Cid—"
"It's fine, Leon, she's already here," Tifa said. "Might as well let her tag along."
Kairi smiled triumphantly to herself. She was starting to think she liked Tifa.
"How much do you think we have to hurry?" Tifa asked, turning to Leon now. Or rather, called after him. He'd started running again, and while Tifa was jogging to keep up with him, she didn't seem quite as concerned as he did. Kairi kept Tifa's pace, because it was easier.
"You know we can't take any chances with Aerith's feelings, Tifa," Leon replied, again with that extra emphasis on the word feeling. "And considering that blast of darkness…"
"Fair," Tifa agreed. She picked up her pace to a run, and Kairi had no choice but to follow suit.
"You keep mentioning those… feelings, Aerith gets," Kairi asked, her voice only a little bit strained from talking and running at the same time. She and Sora had always used to—well, it didn't matter.
"Aerith gets feelings, usually when someone's hurt or in trouble," Leon answered, quickly. "Sometimes about other things, too."
"And, they're like, always right?" Kairi continued, a note of skepticism in her voice. She didn't really get the concept of regular people having random prophetic powers. It was weird when Namine did it, too.
Leon turned long enough to send a confused glance at her—like, a REALLY confused glance, as if he was surprised she was even asking.
"Oh, give her a break," Tifa said. "Not everyone grew up with Aerith like you did, Leon."
Leon grumbled something that Kairi couldn't hear.
"They are right, though," Tifa said, to Kairi now. "It takes some getting used to, and I'm not even sure if there's an explanation for it, but there's no arguing with it, either."
"Nor is there taking any chances," Leon added, gruffly. "Not when someone's hurt."
"Namine seems to get feelings, too," Tifa said, conversationally.
"Well, yeah, but that's…. different," Kairi argued. "I mean, hers are just about Riku."
"Yeah?"
"I dunno, I never understood it." Kairi chewed her lip a moment. "She's always been drawing pictures of things that were gonna happen, or things that Riku was doing even though he was, like, on the other side of the Island. Or on another world."
Namine drawing pictures and knowing that they were of whatever Riku was doing at that time was easy enough to wrap her head around, though it didn't make it any less weird. But as for what happened today…? That was doubly weird, and Kairi didn't understand how either worked, anyway.
"I'm not sure about today," Kairi finished. "That's never happened before.
"She was acting like it was bad, too, so maybe we should stop talking and get moving," Leon snapped over his shoulder.
Tifa and Kairi exchanged looks, Kairi a little sheepish, Tifa with her eyebrows raised and grimacing.
Kairi kept her mouth shut, though, and so did Tifa.
"It was…. Somewhere around here, right?" Leon asked, slowing down.
Tifa nodded. She looked uncomfortable. "Yeah. Not sure where exactly, but I can feel the darkness in the air."
Kairi started rubbing at her arms. They were itchy.
She took in the area around her—the further they had gone out from Aerith's house, the more and more crumbled the buildings had looked, but here they were nothing but rubble. Darkness scorched the rubble, and the ground in places.
"It's… stronger that way, actually," Tifa said at length, a moment later. She nodded her head down the street on their left.
Leon was already moving. "Then let's go."
Tifa went after him, walking quicker so that she could take the lead, probably. Kairi lagged behind. The closer she moved, the more she itched, and it was getting really annoying.
"Looks like there's been a fight," Tifa remarked, eyeing the buildings.
"Yeah," Leon agreed, bending down to examine something on the ground. After a moment he looked up, determined, and took off at a run, heading further down the street. Tifa followed quickly after them.
Kairi picked up her pace a little bit, but she wanted to see what Leon had looked at first. She stooped down to get a better look.
Her stomach bottomed out.
Blood. It was blood. An entire scattered trail of it, leading in the direction Tifa and Leon had taken off.
Kairi wasn't scared of the slight of blood or anything, but thinking about it being Riku's made her a little dizzy. She hadn't really thought hard about what Namine had said past Riku's in trouble, but now she thought about the way Namine had kept clutching at her chest, screaming like she was dying. If she—in some crazy way!—was feeling what Riku was feeling, then…
Kairi got up and ran, too.
Please, Riku, she begged. Please you can't be—
"Here!" Leon shouted, his voice cracking.
Kairi ran quicker, then staggered to a stop at the sight.
In the crossroads of the streets lay Riku, Leon kneeling next to him. There was a large pool of blood around them, a smaller empty one three paces away. Blood and darkness both splattered the ground, and there was something acrid, sticky, wrong hanging in the air and on her tongue. It felt ten degrees colder, and Kairi had to pull her hands away from her arms because it wasn't helping and if she kept scratching she'd give herself a rash or worse.
"It's the darkness," Tifa told her, looking sympathetic. "I feel it too."
"He's alive," Leon said, finally. His eyes were wide but his voice calm. "Out cold, but alive. Can't tell what's wrong with him."
"I'm gonna search the area for Sora," Tifa declared. "He can't have gone far."
Leon looked up, expression sharp. "What! Tifa, we have to get Riku back to—"
"Leon we can't just go back without Sora."
"There's no time! Riku might not be dead yet, but I don't like the look of this."
"What if Sora's hurt?" Tifa countered.
"Good riddance, in my opinion," Kairi said, saving Leon the trouble. There was nothing jittery in her chest, just an emptiness. "I bet he's the one who did this to Riku."
She remembered this feeling, this taste. She'd been there the last time Sora attacked Riku, darkness flying from his fingertips, filled with a strength that was not his own. She remembered the way her chest had clutched with fear, and the clutch in it now as she stared at Riku in a pool of his own blood, darkness trailing up from his body, was much the same.
Leon and Tifa exchanged startled—confused—looks. Kairi did not see it.
"There's no reason to believe…" Tifa began.
"You said Sora was with Riku, didn't you?" Kairi asked, her tone as empty as her chest. "And there's all this darkness… Makes sense."
(Images burned in her mind. The anger on Sora's face as he ran at Riku. The twinge of darkness in his eyes. Sora, surrounded by, drowning in, embracing darkness.—"You don't have to be afraid anymore," the voice had told her, gentle, sweet.)
"What was Sora even doing here?" she demanded, something burning in her lungs. The taste of darkness was still thick on her tongue, heavy in the air. It didn't make any sense, and that feeling like a million bumble bees in her stomach started up again.
If Sora was lost to darkness, why would he have been here? Why would Tifa and Leon be acting like he wasn't evil? Unless it was a trick he'd made them believe, so he could get Riku out here—he'd always seemed to hate Riku, even from the start (that wasn't true, but—) That would make sense. Darkness was good at tricking. It's what it did.
"He got hurt, so he came to see Aerith," Leon answered, rapidly.
"His darkness was definitely in a right state," Tifa admitted, shaking her head and looking displeased, angry, even. Those were feelings Kairi could understand. "But…" She softened, just slightly. "I'm not sure he'd…"
"LOOK, can it wait?" Leon snapped, glaring at the both of them. "We need to get Riku back to Aerith now!"
Feeling came flooding back to Kairi's chest. Bitterness and anger remained—Sora did this, she was sure of it!—but along with them worry, fear. Riku was hurt, bad. She had no right to be holding them up when he could—
"Right, sorry," Tifa said. She marched over to Riku, bent down and slung him over her shoulder.
"Tifa I could have—" Leon protested
Tifa grunted as she straightened, though she honestly didn't look too burdened by Riku's weight. "This is faster. Let's go!"
They took off running.