Chapter 5: Kairi

It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me!

Sora heard the voice, her voice, in the midst of a sparring match with Eraqus.

"Huh?" he asked, lowering his guard. His heart began to race as he attempted to process what he had just heard. Eraqus, taking full advantage of his distracted state, was able to corner him. Cornered and distracted, Sora was barely able to block the various attacks of Eraqus's keyblade. Finally, after the sound of metal clashing faded, Eraqus pointed his keyblade at the powerless Sora with a hint of a smile.

The master kept his weapon aimed at his student for some time before bringing it down to his side. "You mustn't lower your guard, Sora," he gently chided. He then proceeded to calmly walk back to the center of the mosaic fighting ground.

Sora, feeling defeated, followed after. He allowed himself to momentarily forget the voice to redeem himself. "One more match!" he declared as he readied his battle stance. "I'll beat you this time for sure!"

Eraqus raised an eyebrow. "You haven't given up yet, Sora?" he asked.

While exhausted, Sora needed time to delay forgetting the next world card. He had been with Eraqus for many weeks now, and he had already forgotten so many things. He just couldn't handle it any longer. And so, it was the little things he did to indirectly avoid forgetting. Even so, it was these little things that Eraqus was quick to notice.

"What? No! Come on, one more match, Master Eraqus!" Sora insisted.

"So be it," said Eraqus. "One more match and then you must forget the Wonderland world card. Is that understood?"

Sora didn't like it, but he nodded.

Eraqus readied his battle stance and commenced the countdown. "1, 2, 3, begin!" he exclaimed, jumping back as Sora swung the Kingdom Key where he stood.

Eraqus continued to avoid Sora's attacks by moving swiftly. Sora swung left, and Eraqus moved right; Sora swung right, and Eraqus moved left. The pattern continued until Sora abruptly went left, right, right instead of left, right, left. This caused Eraqus to get hit by the keyblade and stumble back slightly. While momentarily unbalanced, Sora took the opportunity to perform an air combo.

Eraqus cut off Sora's air combo with a powerful thrust of his keyblade that sent Sora staggering backwards. But Sora was persistent and came right back leaping with another air combo. That time, he was able to complete it only for Eraqus to counter with a longer string of attacks.

Sora was able to block most of the hits, but the ones that he couldn't visibly shook him.

Yet still, he persisted. It was, after all, the last match of the day.

He rushed close to Eraqus and slashed his keyblade twice in the shape of an X. This caused Eraqus's grip on the Master Keeper to loosen.

Before Eraqus could recover from such an attack, Sora skillfully maneuvered the Kingdom Key in such a way in which it was able to slide underneath Eraqus's. With a strong push, Sora was able to toss the Master Keeper aside. The keyblade flew to the ground where it clattered from side to side before settling to a stop.

Sora, panting heavily, pointed his keyblade at Eraqus with a victorious grin before lowering it.

Eraqus appeared impressed, but did not directly comment on his loss. "Very good, Sora," he said simply. He proceeded to walk over to his fallen keyblade. Once it was at his feet, he summoned it to his open hand. He continued to speak, but Sora no longer paid attention upon hearing her voice again. This time, it was more of a faint echo, like the voice of a phantom briefly passing by in the wind.

Sora, let's take the raft and go! Just the two of us!

Eraqus's voice became more distant as Sora frantically searched his memories for the speaker of such a nostalgic voice. All he yearned for was a name, a face, anything. Wasn't she special to him? She was - he could just feel it. But who was she? What did she look like? What was her name? Why couldn't he remember her?

"Sora, are you alright?" Eraqus asked, disrupting his thoughts.

It took more than a moment for Sora to respond. "Yeah," he finally said absent mindedly. "I think so." But the twisted feeling in his stomach remained.

Eraqus appeared dubious. "If something is troubling you, you should not keep it to yourself," he explained. "Perhaps I can be of help to you. That is the role I was made to fulfill, after all." He dismissed his keyblade and crossed his arms.

Sora considered telling him, but couldn't come to terms with admitting that he had forgotten someone so important to him. Perhaps, he figured, it was all just a side effect of having his heart restored. Maybe he hadn't really forgotten her (whoever she was) at all. How could he forget someone so important to him? "It's nothing," he said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. He turned sheepish. "What were you saying, again?"

Eraqus sighed lightly. He was very well aware of the fact that Sora was lying to him - that much was obvious - but he also was aware of the fact that he could not force Sora to tell him what was wrong. He would have to wait for Sora to decide for himself to tell him. He repeated what he hadn't heard him say previously.

"You must forget the Wonderland card now, Sora. You cannot put off forgetting the revisits to the worlds any longer. I know it pains you to have to forget, but you must forget it all. You know that."

Sora nodded slightly, but he was frowning. "I know," he said, unwilling to even look Eraqus in the eyes anymore. "It's just...so much." He looked down at his shoes.

"You can do it. I know you can. Your heart is strong," Eraqus assured, in an attempt to comfort the boy. Then he, from the pocket of his white coat, pulled out the world card. "It is time," he said softly.


"You seem to be struggling." The man in red said as he approached the petite blonde.

"A Nobody is interfering, I think," explained Naminé, holding her hands up to the heart she didn't have.

The man, DiZ, was appalled. "A Nobody?" he repeated.

Naminé lowered her gaze. "I keep trying to piece his memories back together, but what if some of the pieces got lost? There would be no way for me to finish. If that happened, and they found their way into someone else, he'd never get them back."

DiZ remained unfazed. "Oh, I think he can do without a memory or two."

Naminé looked at him. "But what if he needs those memories in order to wake up? What if they're the key?"

"Naminé, you are a witch with power over Sora's memories and those connected to him. Are you seeing something I cannot?" DiZ's voice grew concerned.

Naminé looked down once more. "If his memories become her memories, she will never survive it."

There was a pause.

"She?"


Sora held the chain link that was once his memory of the Wonderland card in the palm of his hand. The chain link itself was identical to every other one that he had been saving. It was as indistinguishable as they all were, and impossible to chain together despite Sora's various attempts to do so.

He sat at the edge of his bed, hunched over, silently staring at the chain link. He thought of Eraqus and Naminé. Soon, they would be nothing but a chain link too. Then he, in frustration, tossed the link to the counter with all the rest. There were now enough to form a pile.

He then stretched out on his bed and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. Soon, he saw darkness when his eyelids closed.

But before he could fall asleep, her voice spoke to him again.

Sora, you lazy bum. I knew I'd find you snoozing down here.

When she spoke, he felt a warm flicker of light inside. But as soon as her voice faded away, he frlt only the void of darkness.

He sat up and desperately searched the dark room for the speaker, but she was not there.

He realized then that he could not remember her on his own. He had been a fool for concealing it from his master.

Jumping out of bed, he decided to inform Eraqus immediately. His heart just couldn't take it any longer. He needed her, his warm flicker of light. He went out into the hall with a hand over his chest.

"Master Eraqus?" he called out at once, but he received no response.

He walked further down the hall before calling out to him again. "Master?" he asked again.

That time, within a two second delay, he got a response. It was a familiar sounding voice, but one he could not match to a face or a name. It was nothing like hers.

"Well hello, Sora. Long time no see. How've ya been?"

Sora, letting the pain in his heart get the best of him, let out only a soft groan in response.

The voice chuckled. "Sorry I asked!"

"Who's there?" Sora forced out, angrily.

After growing accustomed to the darkness of the hallway, Sora was able to see that there leaned a hooded character against the wall, arms crossed and all.

"Oh come on. I thought you already had the name memorized," the man said tauntingly. He spoke with exaggerated hand gestures.

As soon as he heard that remark, Sora could, vaguely, remember meeting him in Castle Oblivion.

"Axel!" he exclaimed, taking a step back in surprise.

"Bingo!" Axel said obnoxiously as he took down his hood. It was revealed that he had been, all along, smirking underneath.

Sora glared at him.

"Oh, don't give me that look," Axel said as he rolled his eyes. He placed a hand on his hip. "You had to know that this was coming. You're forgetting everything from Castle Oblivion, remember? That means you hafta forget everyone you met there too. In other words, you gotta forget me." He pointed at himself.

"That means I have to face the other ones too," Sora said quietly, speaking more to himself than to Axel.

The fiery redhead responded anyway. "Very good, Sora!" he said as if he was speaking to a child learning how to count. He continued. "Let me fill you in on a little secret: you and me? We're actually best friends." He grinned as Sora gave him the reaction he was waiting for.

"You aren't my best friend," Sora snapped, just as Axel predicted he would. "You aren't even my friend!"

"Oh come on," Axel pressed on. "You have to believe it, Sora. But then again," he took a pause to add on to the suspense, "what did I expect? You already forgot Riku once and you can't even remember her. That isn't how you're supposed to treat your friends, Sora."

Sora froze. "I never forgot Riku and I do remember her," he said quietly, hands turning to fists at his sides.

"Is that so, keyblade master?" asked Axel sarcastically.

"I remember both of them. They're both my best friends. Riku and..." Sora said, and in a flash he held his keyblade, "and Kairi!"

Axel looked genuinely surprised. But he simply said, "Took you long enough."

Sora glared intensely at the cloaked man. He and all the other Nobodies were the one memory he could do without. He closed his eyes and tried to forget him, but discovered that he just couldn't. His eyes rapidly reopened.

"Huh?" Sora asked himself when he couldn't forget Axel no matter how much he tried.

"Something the matter, Sora?" asked Axel with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"Why can't I forget you?" Sora demanded, holding the handle of his keyblade tighter.

The man chuckled. It was as if he knew of all the ways to provoke Sora. "I already told you," he explained. "It's because we're best friends. Got it memorized?" He gestured to the side of his head.

"No!" Sora cried. "This must be another one of your tricks. I won't fall for it!"

Axel visibly rolled his eyes. "Oh, please! Don't you get it? This entire dream is trick! Nothing here, not me, not your master, not this castle, nothing here is real! The only thing that's real is the fact that you forgot her, and now you'll never be able to wake up."

"I didn't forget...her," Sora said bitterly.

"Did you forget her name again, Sora?" Axel asked playfully. "Ah come on. You just had it."

Sora's grip on the keyblade loosened. He looked up helplessly at Axel. "You know who she is. Please, Axel...tell me. Will you tell me why she's so important to me?"

Axel didn't even consider it. "No."

That only fueled Sora's anger once more. "That's enough!" he exclaimed, running past Axel. He ran forward in hopes of finding Eraqus.

"If it's your master you're looking for, too bad. You won't be able to find him here!" Axel called out, stopping Sora dead in his tracks.

Sora slowly turned around to face him. "What are you talking about? Where else would he be?" he asked, feeling a touch of betrayal. He spoke softly.

"Beats me," Axel responded with a shrug. "I just saw the guy, dressed in full armour fly out of this world not too long ago."

"You're lying," Sora said with a trembling voice. "Master Eraqus told me that he was bound to this world. You couldn't have seen him leave."

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain I'm the one who has been lying to you?" he asked vaguely.

Sora considered it. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off when Axel continued.

With the wave of his hand, Axel opened a dark corridor in front of Sora. "If you enter, maybe you'll find her," he offered mysteriously. "If not, I suppose you can continue to search for your master. Just ask yourself, who's more important to you? That girl or the master who's been keeping secrets from you?"

With a final smirk, Axel disappeared into darkness.

Only Sora and the dark corridor remained.

The boy stared into the swirling, seemingly never ending darkness. He remembered such dark corridors from Castle Oblivion. If he didn't enter it soon, he realized, it would vanish. But how could he find it in himself to trust Axel over Eraqus? For all he knew, Axel could have been lying to him the entire time. Then again, what if it had been Eraqus, all along, not telling Sora the whole truth?

The more he looked into the darkness of the corridor, the more he recalled a time when he too was lost in darkness. It was when he went to rescue her. A time when he lost his heart.

But she was the one to save him. She had been the one to save his heart from the darkness.

He needed her.

The voice spoke to him one last time. It was like the light of a candle burning out.

Don't ever forget: wherever you go, I'm always with you.

He ran right back into the darkness even if it meant losing himself to find her.


A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait. The slowest writer award goes to me I guess! I'll try to upload sooner next time. But what happened!? Drama! Did Eraqus really lie to Sora or nah? But why!? Where was Eraqus going anyways? Or was that all just something Axel made up? What does Axel really want anyway? You'll have to keep reading if you ever want to find out. Or you can take a guess in the reviews. Heh. Questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, suggestions, etc. are always welcome! A BIG thank you to everyone who has left a review thus far! Thank you, you lovely people. Have a great day! I hope to update sooooon! xoxoxxo