A Serendipitous Key of Hope
Disclaimer: My imaginary lawyers tell me I do not own products owned by Disney, Masahi Kishimoto, anything from Shonen Jump, or Square Enix.
- Omakey -
Yahiko lands within the Land of Departure. The sullen teenager walks forward, before his sadness wipes away when he witnesses his master coming towards him.
"Yahiko, you're alone? I thought Konan would…" He pauses cutting himself off, before reaching and lightly holding his shoulders. "Well, what matters is that you're home. You don't belong to the outside world yet; you need to stay here, where you can learn-"
"To be a prisoner?" Yahiko cuts him off in a surprising way. His lashing out continues with, "That's your excuse for keeping me here, isn't it?" He breaks free from his arms.
Eraqus, serious now, asks, "What did you hear?"
"The truth! That I'm supposed to be some weapon, a Kyeblade if you will!"
Eraqus places a hand on where his scar lays, rubbing it down as he reminisce the man, the friend, who gave it to him. "Xehanort… You could never let it go, could you?"
"Huh?" Eraqus looks down with shame, and exhales deeply. Looking upon Yahiko, he speaks, "I had the chance to stop him and couldn't do it, but I will not fail again!" He summons the Master Defender and points towards Yahiko, who backs away fearing his life. "Xehanort has made his purpose clear… and I am left with no other options. Forgive me Yahiko, but the χ-blade does not belong in existence. And for that to happen, you mustn't exist either!"
He fires chains of light to obliterate Yahiko, who becomes so stunned by what's happening he couldn't move. At that moment, Nagato arrives in time and blocks, saving his life. "Master! Have you lost your mind?!"
"Nagato, move! This is for the best!" Nagato removes his armor, but remains protecting his friend. "You will not heed your Master?"
"Master or not, I won't! Not this time!"
Eraqus feels his heart snap. It's evident as his tears as he speaks. "Why do all my attempts to reach you fail? If you cannot obey, then you will shall Yahiko's fate!" The two battle it out, though with Eraqus' experience and skill Nagato is no match at first. The Master fires spheres of light and blasts them both, causing Nagato to jump back and Yahiko to roll over.
As the Master charges up again, Yahiko grabs Nagato to make him stop. "Nagato, stop! He's right. Just forget about me."
"Quiet!" Nagato stands before Yahiko. The Rinnegan wielder breathes deeply before the exhale, and darkness illuminates off of him as aura. "You may be my Master, but no one tries to kill my friends!"
"Has the darkness taken you Nagato?!" Eraqus continues his veil of light, though as he does both Nagato and Yahiko notice something strange. An apparition they've never seen before amidst his aura, shaped like an angel.
Nagato aims his Keyblade backwards and opens a portal, before pushing Yahiko through as it closes.
…
On the other side, Yahiko comes to a new location. This one world he visits is almost familiar to him, like he was here without knowing it. The busy city streets force him to jump away, avoiding cars as people and weird animal people stare at him.
Ignoring the shouts to stay off the road, Yahiko prepares to activate his Keyblade armor. "Going somewhere?"
He looks up to see Vanitas on a balcony. He lowers his upper eyelids and walks off, saying, "Beat it. I'm through with you."
"Whoa, is that how it is? I just get finished playing with that blue cutie you're in love with and you're done?" Yahiko stops knowing he's talking about Konan, but holds in his anger. "I'm just getting started with you. You're strong enough finally to fulfill your purpose."
He flips off the balcony on top of the lamppost in front of Yahiko. "So what are you waiting for? Let's get this over with and forge the x-blade."
Yahiko sighs, even more sullen than ever. "Nice try, but I know the deal; we have to fight in order to make the Kyeblade. So the answer's clear. I'm not fighting."
Vanitas looks at him in a new way. "You used to be too broken to talk back. How exactly did you heal that heart of yours?"
Yahiko thinks back on that memory, but with Vanitas' link he realizes more to it. The birth of Vanitas that resulted from his failure, a faceless entity. "Fine. If that's how it's gonna be, then I'll just give you a reason to fight.
"Come and find me at the one and only place to spawn the χ-blade – the Keyblade Graveyard!" A portal of darkness opens up behind him. "There you'll see me choke the living shit out of your precious girlfriend and Nagato, and I'll see how long you can play the pacifist."
"What?! Wait!" Yahiko watches as he disappears into the corridor. Left with no option, he contemplates his decision staring at the Wayfinder in his hand. "Konan, Nagato, I swear to put an end to this!"
– End Omakey –
The XXXIV Keyhole: Dive to the End of the World
"AAAH SEIYAH!" Naruto screams as he slashes through the blue heart. His blade encased in ice destroys it, leaving the target floating backwards in pain.
The Heartless ghost known as Phantom writhes about as the cloth that it is. Its ghostly wail shatters into the heart of Naruto as he watches its blue heart fly out. The cloak itself disappears into nothing. A veritable Nobody of darkness and avarice, its death leaves behind five hearts.
The heart floats over Big Ben, the four clocks both returning to the actual time. As all of England watches the hearts enter the bodies of Ichigo, Peter Pan, Donald, Goofy and Elsa, the Keybearer flies over to his friends. They reanimate and turn to one another, Naruto in tears before he hugs them all. "GUYS!"
"Naruto! What happened?" asks Elsa with confusion.
"I feel like we were fighting something," says Peter.
Naruto then explains the situation; when they landed in Neverland, they found Tinkerbell. Tink wanted to take them somewhere, but they needed Peter to translate. The pretty fairy takes them to Big Ben, where they met it – the last Super Heartless Phantom. It used Death magic to steal the hearts of whoever it was cast upon, and was immune to most of their fire power; this was until Ichigo realized the heart it carried was an indicator, and took advantage.
But, the demon easily used its Death magic on everyone, until Naruto was left. It was only when Naruto used Stopra to delay Death on the clock tower that he could fight long enough to destroy it.
The five of them take in the knowledge they've forgotten upon losing their hearts. It's hard to take in, but it's not surprising considering everything that's happened to them. Donald then says, "Thanks for saving us."
"Yeah! It's nice we can count on eachother when things go arai!" says Goofy.
"That's awry." Ichigo's correction causes them to briefly laugh.
The five heroes wave their farewells to Pete and Tink before flying back to the Gummi Ship. Inside Goofy sees something on the monitor. "Hey look! We found something!"
"What's that?" Naruto checks the screen, and it shows that three lights have gathered together into a triangle pinpointing a specific location. "I see… Looks like we found it."
"The End of the World?" asks Ichigo.
Everyone then realizes the end goal is finally before them, and hit the controls. With Naruto at the handle they drive into that direction. "Let's get going!"
"We'll off shoot from the closest world, Hollow Bastion!" he tells everyone before they take off.
The vessel careens left as it reaches Hollow Bastion. Naruto sees a light in the distance, beaming towards a new direction. This leads far into the dark abyss of space, where darkness and dim light reign supreme. Seeing it, Naruto says, "That must be our final destination."
"Duh," Ichigo quips.
"Let's go!" With that being said, Donald fires up the engines and takes off at break neck speed.
As the Gummi Ship leaves, another ship follows after upon departure from Hollow Bastion. This one, like Hook, resembles a pirate ship. On the Jolly Roger flapping on the main mass is a skeleton smiling while wearing a straw hat.
The Gummi Ship moves as fast as it can through the darkness, before a horde of Heartless ships intervene. After taking the first few hits, all cannons fire blasting away the opposition. Even more enemy ships get in their way, forcing them to unload the big gun; Naruto activates Horobi no Burst Stream and destroys them and the main ship in their way.
"Phew. That was close. Good thing we-" He gets cut off when they get rocked; more ships fire at them from above, damaging even their weapons system.
"Status report!" Donald shouts.
Elsa checks. "Weapons, down! Radio, down! Radar..." She spots something up ahead. "I think I see it!"
"See what?" The ship soon brings to screen a collaboration of nebulas.
A missile shoots out and blasts the Gummi, sending them hurdling down towards the world. Danger signs repeat within the main chamber as explosions go off destroying circuitry. All goes black.
…
"Naruto, wake up!"
The blond Keyblade wielder opens his eyes, feeling his body slowly recovering from a new level of pain. He looks up to see Goofy and Elsa over him. The queen then says, "Thank goodness you're okay."
"Where are we?" She points ahead as Goofy helps him up.
As they help him sit up, he looks at their surroundings; his retina can only pick up a cataclysmic circle of purple. He rests on a stone pillar with Elsa and Goofy. Ichigo and Donald are looking around wading through shallow water, which also shares the violet shade. Floating stones can be seen up ahead before a shining portal.
"So, I guess we made it?" he asks as he pulls himself to his feet.
"Looks like we won't be leaving anytime soon," says Goofy before pointing backwards behind the pillar Naruto lays against. To his horror, the Gummi Ship is ruined, crashed into the knee high sea. "Kaiba won't like that."
"We'll fix it when we get back." Naruto stretches out as he looks over to spot Ichigo and Donald coming back. "Hey guys."
"Well, it looks like we're stuck here," says Ichigo.
"Where are we?"
"The End of the World," Goofy tells Naruto. "Must have crashed here."
Naruto then looks up, and sees dark clouds. "Then all that is..."
"Gawrsh! That must be all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless."
Naruto cups his chin. "Those worlds will be restored once we beat Ansem right?" Then something hits him, multitude of worries. This was something he left in the back of his mind when he thought about being separated from his friends, because to him that was more important. "But, if we do, and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what happens to this world? And to us?"
"Well, isn't it a Heartless world?" Goofy asks as Donald verbally ponders.
"Most likely, it'll disappear," says Ichigo. His morbid response gets everyone to look at him. "Don't worry about it. All we have to do is find a new path."
"That's right! Even if this world goes away, our hearts are going nowhere!" Goofy's exclamation reaffirms their faith.
"He's right, we'll find our friends again," Elsa adds. Naruto looks down at his hand, where he has pulled out the Oathkeeper keychain and Hinata's scarf. He throws on the scarf, making an internal promise.
They then look ahead before marching. Elsa looks up as they walk, and sees a sphere of darkness dropping down on them. "What the?!"
It hits them, trapping our heroes in another dimension. Here, Heartless form from the shadows, turning into black, muscle monsters with bat wings wielding large blue claymores. These Invisibles fly in and slash at the group, forcing Elsa to forge a wall of ice.
Her technique fails when the third one slices through, forcing Ichigo to fight back using both Zangetsus. Naruto jumps over the second one coming at him and cleaves through using the Oathkeeper Keyblade, but it remains together.
The other one comes in at Donald, slashing and sending him crashing to the ground. "Donald!" Goofy blocks the follow up with his shield and knocks it back.
"Fire!" Donald shoots Firaga blowing it back, allowing Goofy to ram and destroy it.
Elsa freezes Naruto's target in ice, allowing him to destroy it using Fire Raid twice. Ichigo manages to deflect balls of darkness shot at him, but as he goes in for the kill the Invisible knocks his attack back and stabs its sword into the ground. This turns the demon into purple smoke, causing purple flames to burn Ichigo.
His screams alert the others to his peril, before Elsa uses snow to blow away the flames. They return to the sword and it turns back into an Invisible, and it slashes her.
"Elsa!" Naruto kicks it to the side and uses Strike Raid to finish it off. The Keyblade wielder sighs and falls backwards on his behind, realizing the weight of how strong these Heartless are. "These Heartless are giving us a run for their money."
Elsa holds her bleeding side, letting Naruto and Donald use Curaga on her and Ichigo. "We're gonna have to fight smarter than before. Hollow Bastion is nothing compared to them."
With everyone rested, the dimension collapses. They soon return back to where they were taken, and proceed to march for the light.
Along the way, they see Heartless underneath them. Like phantoms in a mirror, they fail to interact with them in the water. Spheres of energy also fall from the skies into the shallow sea, like meteors. Unfortunately, as they reach the light, another sphere of darkness collapses upon them.
The five heroes appear within another dimension, where standing over them lo and behold, the Behemoth. This time however it's blue. Ichigo groans, "You again?"
"Must be a brother of that last one!" says Donald.
The Behemoth jumps at them, but they easily dodge. Knowing its weakness, Donald and Elsa use Blizzard magic to throw off its footing. Ichigo uses Juujishou Getsuga and knocks it upward. Naruto then equips Oblivion and uses Ragnarok on the horn, causing critical damage before unleashing a salvo of light. This destroys the horn, and causes it to burst into light.
With the Behemoth gone, the dimension disappears too. They then appear in a new location, a dark cave with a collection of gems growing out of the pseudo-earth they stand on.
Goofy looks around asking, "I wonder where that Ansem feller went?"
"Probably the most dangerous place," says Naruto. "Isn't that where all these guys are?"
Using Elsa's magic, they travel across the crevasses and soon come upon a twister leading to nowhere. Considering how they came here, it's not too far out to assume they need to jump in. They dive deep into the twister, coming out to a giant mountain area. Above them floats a giant top with spiked edges, where they come to a light.
Naruto shrugs before stepping into the blue light, which takes him to another mountain. There he sees pillar of dark pink light shining up from the ground. "What's this?" As soon as everyone comes up, Naruto steps through the dark light, and comes out into the Kingdom of the Sun. "What the?"
"What's this place?" asks Ichigo as he comes out.
"This is Kuzco's world! But, when did it..." Heartless pop up around them. "Crap!" They quickly make short work of the Heartless.
At the end, they spot a light brimming at the entrance of the jungle. Naruto runs towards it and comes out back into the spiked mountains. "What's going on?"
"Naruto, did you know that world?" asks Donald.
"Yeah. It's the first world I visited before I met you guys in Traverse Town," he tells them. "I didn't know it fell into darkness."
"Hey, we can save that world with all this," says Goofy to cheer him up.
It helps a little, and soon they're off to the next portal. There, they come to another pink pillar and pass through, coming out into Traverse Town. "What the?!"
"Traverse Town? This wasn't..." Elsa then realizes what's up. "I get it. These are memories. Memories of worlds we visited."
"That would explain why you saw that world," says Naruto referring to where he went.
Another group of Heartless pop up, and they slowly take them out. Moving on, they come to a pillar where another world would rest. Ichigo then says, "So then, these worlds all have the common thing in that they still exist."
"Good to know." This is Naruto's comment.
They pass into this world, which becomes Wonderland. After cleaning up the Heartless, they turn to the next world – Arendelle. This continues on, passing into Olympus Coliseum, Atlantica, Halloweentown, Agrabah and then Neverland while also repeating the process of hunting down Heartless. The final pillar has a strange glow, one completely different in that it looks like hellfire.
They pass into the pillar, and enter into a hallway plastered in a castle. Naruto looks around, and immediately asks, "Where is this?"
"Um, judging by the worlds we visited, it must be Hollow Bastion," says Goofy. "But I've never been here before."
"Neither have I," says Ichigo.
Ignoring this sense of confusion, they walk forward. This brings them to a hallway blocked by the Heartless Emblem, and a gaped open door. They pass through the door and come into a laboratory. This room contains a large, mysterious machine with a computer console and five capsules on it hooked up to a tank of unknown liquid. Naruto goes to the monitor, where the computer has a cryptic message on screen. He reads:
Ones born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts, ravage all worlds and bring desolation. Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart to encompass all. Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts –The great darkness sealed within the great heart. Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness. For the heart of light shall unseal the path. Seven Hearts, one Keyhole, one key to the door. The Door to Darkness tied by two keys. The door to darkness to seal the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness. One born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens.
"Whoa. This is insane," says Naruto. Everyone looks at the screen after hearing him speak the words. "It's strange… I've never once heard that name spoken before Jafar said it. I wonder if Yensei knew."
"Yensei?" Before Donald could respond properly, a bright light collects them. They return once again to the World Terminus on the last mountain they visited. But instead of seeing a pillar, they see a dark blue hole. Swirling clockwise, they could see it leads into nothing.
"Guess someone's calling to us." Naruto jumps in.
"Wait!" The others sigh and jump in after him.
The five heroes come out on the other side, floating in a mass of dark space. The sparkle Tink gave them returns while Ichigo stands on Reishi panels on his feet. Up ahead to their vision they see a large mountain resting before them. Trembling noises stretch out towards them as the mountain top moves. Ichigo sees this and asks, "What the fuck am I looking at?"
"I have no-hey, we can curse now!" Though this makes Naruto happy, the mountain moving doesn't. His eyes widen in horror as he recognizes the being before him; a titanic, black, horned demon of the night with wings stretching farther than any span he's ever seen. Everyone backs away in horror as it roars. "Oh no. It's that monster!"
"You know this thing?" asks Ichigo.
"Yensei told me stories as I trained, of a demon he fought against and sealed since ancient times. It was practically the devil, known only as Chernabog." Chernabog crosses his arms over the chest staring at his prey, those hellish yellow eyes glaring with utmost content. He leans back roaring.
"Naruto, first off, stop calling Master Yen Sid Yensei! It's disrespectful!" Donald says, scolding him once more. "Second, how did that thing get free if he sealed him?"
"Who's Yen Sid?" asks Ichigo.
"I don't know. Only a Keyblade can unlock a Keyblade's seal." Naruto focuses his attention back on the devil, who sends torrents of flames at him. The demon then breathes flames from his mouth to burn down our heroes, but once more Elsa blocks. Her ice melts quickly forcing them to fly away.
"Gonna need the big guns for this!" Ichigo gets into his stance and shouts, "Bankai," before turning into his strongest state. He jumps up and slashes down at the satanic monster, only to meet with a blast of red energy. He leans back avoiding it, and spots several monsters with white masks passing through portals.
These beings unleash inhuman roars, to which Ichigo shouts, "Hollows!"
"What?" asks Naruto.
"Those are Hollows, monsters that come from the darkness of souls," says Ichigo.
"So, basically, ghost Heartless… Alright." Naruto swings at them, slicing the monsters with his Keyblade with ease. He smacks one in the face and watches it crumble. "I guess the white masks are their weaknesses?!"
"Basically!"
As they press on the fight, Chernabog watches the Keyblade in action.
A boar Hollow snarls charging at Donald, who flies away squawking. Goofy comes down and stabs his shield into the mask, before floating away while Donald blasts it with Thundaga. The lightning courses through the cracks and blows it up, and Goofy retrieves his shield. One more remains, unleashing its unholy wail before firing a Cero.
Naruto blocks it using Reflect, but it breaks through and blows him away. He cries out in pain spiraling out of control, just til Elsa catches him. 'What the hell's going on? I should be able to block something like that; am I weaker?'
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto uses Strike Raid to slice through the approaching Hollow's head and purify it.
The satanic monster roars before breathing a fire laser at them. Not even Elsa's ice shield can stop it from piercing through and blazing everyone. The group falls backward while in float.
Chernabog reaches out to grab hold of Naruto, but a bright shining light blocks them. The third stone in his possession comes out from the center of the light, and takes on a human form. The new guy is revealed to be a kid around his age... Or a young looking old man. It's hard to tell with the snow white hair.
He wears a black suit like uniform of some grade of military. He has on gloves too, matching with his uniform. The boy turns around to face the others. It's there, Naruto can tell he's young like him, has eyes as silver as his white hair in a certain light, and a strange scar over his left eye colored red. "Oh, hello. What's this?"
"Uh... Are you another heart sealed in a gem?" asks Naruto pointing to him.
"Oh, he's like Goku and Kenshin!" says Goofy with a grin.
"Goku? Kenshin? What's going on?" Chernabog reaches out to attack them, but then the new guy turns to face the devil.
His left arm unravels from inside his coat, becoming completely black and slender with a claw for a hand. A green cross shines on the back of his claw. A white cowl also extends from that arm, over the top half of his body and around his right arm. Attached to the cowl is a silver masquerade mask. The transformation ascends his hair, giving him the appearance of a white Super Saiyan.
"Cross Grave!" shouts the new guy as he slashes the air, forming a shield to block Chernabog's fist. The effect also leaves a purifying curse on his arm, singeing the devil in addition.
Chernabog holds its hand in pain before turning into shadows. It roars upon disappearing. "Hey, where did Chernabog go?"
"Who cares? We don't have to deal with him anymore," says Ichigo with a sigh of relief.
Naruto then uses Curaga on himself and the others. "Glad that's over." The Keyblade wielder turns to the new guy. "Who are you?"
"My name's Allen. What's going on?"
Naruto then explains the situation to him, with Ichigo and the others adding in. Allen then says, "I see. Then you can set everything back right?" His body begins fading.
"Yeah. We'll set the worlds right." With that, everyone watches as Allen gives a friendly nod.
"Good. Thanks for your help." The boy disappears, turning back into the cross stone. Ichigo picks it up and tosses the stone to Naruto, who catches and pockets it with the rest.
"Let's get moving." The quintet looks down seeing the mountain has opened up, and quickly fly down inside. The mountain leads them further into its depths, where they see the creepy details of the mountain. Unholy growling can be heard within the caverns.
Naruto looks up at the shiny hole ahead, and passes through with ease. He comes out to an opening lit green by the glowing moss under his feet. Everyone else follows through, before screaming out when they see Behemoth jumping at them. Naruto and Donald quickly use Reflect to block, which shatters after repelling the demon.
"I'm getting real sick of these things!" shouts Donald before using Firaga on the horn. Ichigo with his Bankai clashes against the horn, but his attack leaves cracks on his sword. The demon fires lightning bolts to repel everyone.
"Ragnarok!" As Elsa holds it in place with her magic, Naruto wildly slashes and blasts the horn with his spell, destroying it indefinitely. The monster explodes into light.
With a sigh of relief, everyone looks ahead at the end of the cavern, where they see the Heartless emblem on the wall. A piece of it breaks away, revealing a white underside.
Out of nowhere, more Heartless appear. Invisibles, Angels, Darkballs and Shadows all gather together and surround the five heroes. They put their backs together and face the enemies surrounding them, keeping a calm attitude.
"I'm so glad I can say damn now," says Naruto right before he and the others jump into battle.
Kei: And now we have one more chapter to end the main story.
Julia: This feels rushed.
Yusei: Of course it was.