Kingdom Hearts: Slave of Love Revised

Ch.14 The Shadow

Sora had lived a difficult life. Despite this he always tried to make the best of it to lighten up the mood around his friends but doing so was exhausting. This had changed during his stay in Radiant Garden. No longer needing to keep a smile on his face, it was somehow refreshing to allow himself to show his true emotions. At least until now.

Kairi. In. A. Swimsuit.

His teenage brain went wild as a blush spread across his cheeks and, after a valiantly fought battle that seemed almost impossible to win, he managed to divert his gaze though not without the occasional glance. The battle wasn't a complete victory after all.

"I hope the water's not too cold," Kairi smiled as she dipped her feet on the edge of the lake, immediately jumping back with a laugh, "Wow! How did you get in? The water's freezing."

"Um... You know, I just got it over with as fast as I could." Forced to look at her in common courtesy, he again took in her appearance. The swimsuit wasn't flashy by any means, it was a simple light purple one-piece with a cover-up skirt; but it was enough to show off the curves hidden by her usual clothes.

"It's so cold!"

Sora smiled nervously as Kairi entered the water and moved over to him. "So? Is your wound feeling better?"

"Yeah," he answered, welcoming the distraction as he padded his chest, "I barely feel it now. This water's awesome." Child-like wonder glimmered in his eyes before he took a bit of water on his hands and drank.

"What are you doing?!"

He swallowed before answering, "Well. I thought it'd be good if I drank it."

She sighed, "It doesn't work like that..."

After a few hours of being in the water on the insistence of Kairi who wanted him to be fully healed, the two went to dry off.

With his pants wet, Sora had to wear a white shirt and blue shorts that Kairi had given him, saying that they probably belonged to one of her family's staff who would check in on the cabin every once in a while.

"We need to get you some new clothes," Kairi pointed out as she sat on the couch next to Sora's, who was taking up the whole thing by lying on it with his hands behind his head.

"You don't need to. Really," he turned down the offer a bit shyly, not wanting to trouble her.

"Don't worry. I can afford it. Besides, it's the least I could do for your help," she smiled, "Thanks to you my grades have improved. I bet I'll be at the top in no time!"

Sora chuckled, "You're really into school, aren't you?"

"In a way, I guess. It's mostly because of my dad pressuring me to do good."

"Then what do you like to do?"

She put on a thoughtful look, "Hmm... Well, I guess using magic?"

"Do that then," he answered simply, as if nothing else mattered. "If you're not enjoying what you're doing then what's the point?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that."

He nodded absently, feeling the exhaustion of the day catching up with him. "I'm not saying that you should ignore your dad. I just think that you should make time for what you enjoy is all. Specially now that you don't have to bother with cleaning."

"You're right," she agreed and looked his way only to find him dozing off. Smiling softly at the peaceful expression on his face, she left for her room so that he could get some sleep.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. During this time Sora got a lot more comfortable with his situation and duties. Sure, it was a bit much at first but he was settling easily to his new life. Kairi too was doing a lot better, for the first time in a long time she had managed to use a new magic spell, one of the weaker ones mind you, but it was a start.

It was the middle of the school day when Sora walked through the school's gardens. Lately, he had been going to a little secluded area behind the girl's dormitory for training. Good place to since it was surrounded by tall trees that kept him out of view.

His ego had taken a pounding when he lost to Riku so he decided to get stronger, the fact that he really enjoyed using the Keyblade was an added bonus. Something about it was strange, like the fact it would sometimes move on its own while on his hands as a way to show him new moves. He wondered if all the blades did this but didn't bother with the question much, it wasn't doing any harm so he guessed it was normal.

When he finally made it to his usual spot he was startled when seeing someone else there. A teen with spiky blond hair and tanned skin was swinging a red staff around before turning towards him with an easygoing smile.

"Nice spot you got here. The name's Tidus," he introduced himself.

"I'm...Sora," he answered a bit awkwardly.

Tidus crossed his arms with a proud smile on his face, "I followed you in here one day since I thought you were a student sneaking around. Imagine my surprise when I see you training in here with a Keyblade! That's why I decided that I would train here as well!"

'Who invited you?' Sora wanted to ask but shrugged instead, "Sure, I got not problem with that."

"That's not the whole reason I followed you in here though," Tidus smirked as he tossed his staff to the side and extended his right hand. "I've actually been looking for a sparring partner!" With that said, he summoned a Keyblade, one with a short white guard and a long red blade that appeared more like a staff, even the blade's tip was rounded, with its teeth being the only sharp part of the blade.

Sora looked at the blade in wonder before breaking into a smile. Having a training partner would be great! He had actually been thinking about it before but didn't know who to ask since he didn't know anyone that could use a Keyblade.

"You're on!" He grinned and summoned his Keyblade.

"All right! Let's make this fun!" Tidus declared in excitement.

Roxas and the 'Get Sora Back Super Task Force' as Demyx had decided to call it, sat around a smirking Seifer on his 'base.'

"You want to get into Radiant Garden, look around its many districts, find Sora, and escape..." Seifer repeated their plan, finding it to be really amusing but not for the reasons they would think. In truth, he was really interested in this plan of their, excited even. "Why the hell not? I won't only get you in there but I'll help as well!"

"What's the catch?" Aqua asked, knowing better than to expect Seifer to tag along without a condition.

"No catch," he replied casually, "Sora really helped us out before he got caught. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't return the favor. Besides, this looks fun as hell."

Aqua still couldn't trust him but was interrupted by Terra before she could speak.

"Alright then. We'd like to go as soon as possible. When do you think you can get us there?"

The room went silent waiting from an answer from the contemplating Seifer who finally smirked and leaned back on his seat.

"This very night."

Sora smiled as he ducked under a stab of Tidus' Keyblade, and swung upwards with the blunt end of his blade. Before the blade could make contact though, Tidus rolled to the side and, using the momentum for help, was on his feet only seconds later and retaliated with a jab of his blade. Sora yelped as he parried the incoming blade but Tidus wasn't done, he let loose a flurry of attacks but Sora managed to block all of them a bit clumsily.

The attack ended when the two blades became intertwined in a deadlock. Both teens put everything they had against the lock but neither gave out. Finally, the two grinned and pulled their Keyblades away.

"That was pretty good," Tidus admitted with a released breath. He wiped away the sweat on his brow as Sora plopped down on the ground with a loud groan. "You're pretty good at this. How long have you had your Keyblade?"

"Just a few days ago," Sora answered with a shrug before remembering something. "Oh! That's right! I wanted to ask you something about the Keyblade."

"What is it?"

Sora proceeded to explain how the Keyblade seemed to have a mind of its own at times and lead his movements. He grew a bit nervous when seeing the puzzled expression on Tidus' face.

"That's never happened to me before," Tidus admitted. "Maybe you're just mistaking the power coming from the Keyblade for something else," he guessed with an uncertain scowl, "I don't know. Maybe its power is too much for you at times and it makes your arms move?"

"It's not like that at all," he sighed in defeat, it looked like what happened wasn't normal. Just his luck to get the one weird Keyblade. "The first time I used it for example. Back then I used moves I didn't even know I had and my body would move on its own. At one point it felt like I was watching someone else fight but the feeling of my arms and legs moving told me otherwise."

"Well, no use worrying about it!" Tidus decided with a grin, "Each Keyblade comes with its own ability. Maybe that's yours!"

"I...guess."

"That's it, no need to worry about it. Now we should probably go, classes are going to end soon."

Sora nodded and stood up, "I'll see you later Tidus."

"Yep. It was good meeting you. From this point on you're my sparring partner!"

"Yeah," he answered with a smile as he made his way to Kairi's room.

She had given him a spare key to her room and insisted on him leaving his new clothes there since they could get stolen otherwise. Overall, she was nice to be around. Gone was the time when they put up with the other merely for convenience, now they were friends who helped each other out. She even let him use her shower! Something that was off-limits until recently.

Sora stretched his arms over his head with a yawn, "Gotta take a quick shower before waiting for Kairi, or I'll smell like crap when she sees me."

Kairi smiled proudly as she walked the halls of the school. Today had gone great. She had gotten her test back and was pleasantly surprised to find out she'd made an A. Her grades overall were improving just as her magic was.

But not everything was smooth sailing. The storm in the form of a teenage girl with a mean look and long black hair, Tifa, was coming her way with a smug grin.

"Hi Kairi, what are you up to today?"

"Nothing," she sighed in response, making the older teen smirk.

"Nothing huh? That's just like you. Are you going off to study just to fail miserably again?"

Kairi didn't even try to correct her. She found that the girl was easy to deal with so long as she ignored her attempts at getting on her nerves. Though today Tifa seemed more irked than usual.

As they made it outside, Tifa turned to Kairi and grasped her arm tighlty, "Listen-"

She was cut off as a gust of wind exploded around Kairi and knocked her away. "Don't touch me Tifa," Kairi warned with a glare.

"You bitch," Tifa growled as she got on her feet and reached for her wand, only to stop when seeing that Kairi's slave was standing next to her. While she was confident in her ability to beat Kairi, she knew dealing with the two of them would cause a ruckus and she'd get in trouble with a teacher. "You'll pay for this Kairi."

Sora watched Tifa go before turning to Kairi with a grin, "When did you learn that wind thing?!"

"Just recently," she replied a bit shyly, unused to the praise emitting from his words.

"Wow! That was so cool! I bet you'll be the best around here in no time."

An embarrassed blush graced her cheeks, "Let's get going already before a teacher comes and hears what happened."

"Yeah."

"Welcome to Radiant Garden." Seifer smirked as he emerged from within the sewage system that connected the two very different towns together.

Roxas, Aqua, Terra, Demyx, and Hayner came out next. They all had to suppress gasps when seeing the very good condition of the structures around them. A field of grass without even one piece of trash could be seen from where they were, as well as clean buildings. The very large and imposing wall separating the two towns seemed a lot more friendly from this side in a way, though they couldn't even think why that was.

"We shouldn't stay here long..." Demyx muttered, more than afraid at staying in one place for too long.

Hayner smiled as he slapped the older teen on the back, "Where's your sense of adventure?! You should be more like me. For example, if we don't get into at least one fight while we're here, I'm gonna be pretty bummed."

"We're not looking for fights," Aqua broke in angrily and almost immediately regretted doing so when the two looked at her ready to argue.

"Enough." Terra scolded with a frown before looking at Seifer, "Let's get going. We'll draw unwanted attention if we stay around here."

"Then follow me."

Roxas bit his lip as they all followed after Seifer. The level of fear was overwhelming. Even with his friends, he was trembling like crazy. Even so, Sora had been alone in this place for some time and he'd be damned if he let this fear stop him from getting his friend back.

Leon sighed loudly just as he sat down on a bench just outside of the gate he was currently stationed in. Unlike the guards, he could come and go as he pleased but there was nothing to see in this place. While the other gates had towns, the Eastern Gate only had a small village behind heavy forestry.

That village was the very same where he'd be stationed in a few days. Apparently there were a lot of people disappearing from there. This would usually warrant only a few officers but because this problem somehow spread to parts of Eastern Radiant Garden, more officers were stationed there for security and an investigation was in order.

Glancing back when hearing footsteps, Leon spoke before being asked, "This mission sucks."

"Straight to the point as always," Cloud said in amusement as he sat next to his friend. "I don't see why you would think that though. You're usually all over cases like these."

"I'd be lying if I said that this didn't interest me but that's not the problem. The problem is that we've only been sent to investigate because the higher-ups want things to quiet down as soon as possible. Not that sending all of us here will do that."

"People disappearing...huh? Do you think they're being abducted by someone?"

Leon shook his head, "If that was the case then I'm sure that someone would not have wanted to get too close to the gate. This must be something else."

The two went silent after that. Both wondering what was causing all of these disappearances.

The moon loomed over the school's gardens, revealing Sora sitting against a tree. His expression one of disturbance, the teen shuddered as the aftereffects of his dream lingered in his mind. This marked the third bad dream he'd had. Not only at night but whenever he tried to make up for his lack of sleep.

More disturbing was the fact that it was always the same exact dream.

He would be standing in some sort of stained-glass floor. At first he would look around for some sort of sign as to where he was but came empty handed every time. Then he would glance behind him to see his shadow.

The floor would tremble, a deafening pulsing sound would echo in the dark abyss surrounding the strained glass, and then, his shadow would emerge from the floor. He clearly remembered the amount of fear he felt when he watched it rise to a standing position and look at him with glaring yellow eyes.

The shadow would grin maniacally and laugh loudly as the abyss around them shook violently. As the shaking increased, the glass began to crack and the shadow would step towards him.

That was how the dream usually ended, except for one thing.

On the night of the first dream the shadow had simply looked into his eyes before the dream ended. On the next dream it took a step forward. On the third dream it took two.

Tonight had been six steps. The shadow had been at arms length with the same stupid smirk on his face. These dreams usually ended with him feeling scared but those times didn't compare to the fear he was feeling now. It was a primal fear. One that made him feel as if there was someone breathing down his neck every second.

Sora shuddered and glanced behind his back while bringing a hand to the back of his neck.

There was no one there.

He wanted to whine for this to end. He wanted to talk to someone about it but he had a feeling that they would probably think he was crazy. No, they would certainly think he was crazy.

That's right. There was no one to talk to so the best thing to do was to forget about the whole thing. The problem would resolve itself in no time. Maybe he was just under some sort of stress and it was taking form as some screwed up dream.

Sora got up and stretched, feeling a bit more calm now.

"All right, if I get this stupid dream again I'll think about talking to someone for sure," he told himself before leaving for his usual training spot. Since sleeping was the last thing he wanted to do, he decided to get some training done to pass the time.

"Hopefully I won't wake up anyone."

Ch.14 End