'Having taken a dive into his heart, the young keyblade wielder has finally made his way into the tower. Master Yen Sid spent his days here training another legend. Now he and the others are lost to the darkness. The new wielders seem on edge with each other, but I don't doubt that their light can overcome the darkness threatening the worlds. Tomorrow is the day that I start training them the way that my master trained us. I just hope that everything goes well.'
-The Mysterious Tower; Sorcerer's Loft-
"…Aqua…" Kenji repeated softly as he looked at the cerulean-haired master in front of him. "Aqua…how…how did you find me? Why did you bring me here?" he asked. "What is all this? Why do I have the keyblade?! Why was that freak after me?! Why-!" Before he could go any further, Aqua ruffled Kenji's hair and smiled a bit.
"Whoa there, calm down first. I'll answer your questions, but first I need to introduce you to the others." Aqua looked over to Mynx, motioning for her to come over. The young girl scoffed a bit, arms crossed, before making her way over to the other two. "This is Mynx. She's been here for a few days now. As you saw earlier, she's very good with a keyblade. Though her temper still needs a bit of work."
"H-Hey!" Mynx shouted. "My temper is fine, Master Aqua! I can control my temper, no problem!"
"Then why did you attack an innocent boy the moment he walked through the door?" Aqua teased. She wasn't really mad, but it was a bit cute to see Mynx all flushed. Mynx wanted to retort, but had nothing to say. She huffed and crossed her arms.
"Tch…" was all that she could say. "Sorry. I overreacted…"
"Wow." Kenji said softly. "Judging from the entrance, I didn't really think you were the type to apologize for anything." He said. Kenji suddenly went stiff as Mynx summoned her keyblade, pointing the metallic end at the new wielder. The scariest thing was that she didn't even say anything. "R-right. I got it. Your apology is accepted." Kenji quickly responded, gulping down what little air remained in his mouth. Mynx gave a sadistic smirk before releasing her keyblade, which faded back into light.
"That's what I thought." Mynx hissed out to Kenji, who was breaking into a sweat. He could swear that he saw fangs and horns appear onto Mynx's figure. Aqua gave a soft sigh, followed by a giggle.
"I guess it'll take some time for you to get situated with one another." She said before looking over to the door. "It's safe to come in now, Luna. Don't be shy."
"Luna?" Kenji raised a brow. Who else was this woman trying to hide from him? And what could they possibly be shy about? He looked over to Mynx, which instantly answered his question.
After a few seconds, the adjacent door slowly opened. Mynx had her arms crossed as she waited, while Aqua gave a warm smile to welcome the newest addition to the room. Kenji raised a brow, then widened his eyes. Out of the room came a young girl about his age. She wore an even stranger attire than Mynx did. A type of mix between a royal-looking dress, and sturdy armor. Her hair was a deep shade of burgundy-rose, which flowed down just behind her shoulders, multiple strands standing up a bit on each side. A light pink hairband attached itself to the top of her head, a bow tied on the left side. Her soft skin was almost as bright as the sunset deep in the abyssal space surrounding the Mysterious Tower. Kenji found himself to be lost in her soft, dark malachite eyes.
Adorning her body was the dress/armor, different shades of pink, purple, and even grey mixed in. The dress hugged her body a bit, stopping a few inches below her thighs, and right where the soft material ended, metal grieves hugged her legs, opened on the inside of her legs, tied down with brown straps crossing around each leg. Her shoes were almost the exact same as Aqua's. Adorning her wrists were metal arm bands that covered about half of her forearm.
Finally came the metallic designs. On each part of her dress, there was a metallic cross, though instead of four rods intersecting, there was a large circle in the center of the cross, giving it an even more royal look. Luna, as the girl was named, smiled softly at everyone.
"Luna, meet the newest keyblade wielder. He just showed up not too long ago. Isn't that right-…" It was then that the awkward silence kicked in. Aqua wasn't able to continue any further as she didn't get the young man's name. Had he answered Mynx's question from earlier, they'd know. Feeling eyes upon him, Kenji shook himself out of his stupor with a blush and cleared his throat.
"Kenji. Just, Kenji." He said to everyone, yet his eyes never left Luna. The warm smile on her face betrayed the fighter that they would see her as. "You must be Luna. You're not gonna stab me with a keyblade-thing if I don't say it loud enough, are you?" Mynx growled at that, to which Kenji flinched softly. Luna chuckled softly, but shook her head, much to Kenji's relief. Aqua smiled at the trio before she walked behind the desk.
"Now that we've all been acquainted-" Aqua started before she sat in the chair behind the desk, turning to the three, who all stood in front of her desk, Kenji directly in front of her, Luna to his right, and Mynx to his left. "It's time that I answer your questions, Kenji. Gather your thoughts, then ask away." She said, locking her fingers together.
Kenji hesitated, then looked to his hand. He had a well of questions filling up inside of his head. It was almost impossible to simply pick which one to start with out of the maelstrom of words. Eventually, he looked back up at Aqua, and placed his hand by his side.
"This thing, this…keyblade. What is it?" Kenji asked, to which Aqua closed her eyes.
"Where to start…" Aqua was reaching through her own mind to find out how to ease Kenji into the thought of training with a keyblade, not wanting to scare him. "Think of it…as your own heart." She explained, to which she looked to Mynx and Luna. Both girls held out one of their hands, and summoned their keyblades. Kenji looked between the two. Whereas Mynx's Keyblade looked extremely metallic and sharp, Luna's keyblade looked a bit strange. Like a colorful heart, but also a deck of playing cards. And yet, there was also the impression of nature, a maze maybe? "When I first gained the power to control the keyblade, my master told me that it would always be by my side." Aqua raised her own hand, and summoned Stormfall, her keyblade.
"Whoa…" Kenji said in awe, looking between the three keyblades. Mynx and Luna dropped their arms, keyblade in hand, as Aqua dissipated hers.
"The keyblade is given to those with hearts strong enough to carry the light of themselves, and those around them." Aqua explained, placing her arms on the desk in front of her. Kenji nodded slowly. "Kenji, the world is in an ongoing war against the darkness. There has always been darkness. It's always threatened to swallow everything, from the worlds, to the light itself." Aqua looked to Kenji and slowly sat up a bit. "The light examined your heart, and deemed you worthy to hold the keyblade. That means that your light is strong enough to fight off the darkness. Just like ours." Mynx and Luna both dissipated their own keyblades, looking to Aqua, who reached beneath the desk.
Aqua pulled out a large book, turning it to Kenji. "Master Yen Sid kept every recorded detail about the light and war we fight in this book. It even dates back to the darkness long ago." Aqua tapped the book lightly, and watched as it slowly opened, flipping through hundreds, maybe even thousands of pages. Eventually the book stopped itself on a page that had the information of all currently known keyblades.
"Whoa…there are so many." Kenji said, moving up to get a better view of the keyblades on the pages. They came in all different shapes and sizes. Some were incredibly small, others were extremely long. And then there were those that were a standard size. The page flipped forward a bit, stopping at the keyblade that Luna had wielded. "It says it's named…Lady Luck. What a strange name." he said to the group. Luna nodded and held her hands behind her back.
"I happen to like it. Luck has seemed to be on my side since I found I could use the keyblade." Luna explained before the book started flipping through pages again. Kenji looked back to the book, watching as the pages passed by one another until it stopped at another keyblade. This time it was the one that Mynx wielded.
"Hmm…Bond of Flame. Well that definitely explains your-"
"I swear if you say 'Fiery Personality' or some stupid thing like that, I'll burn you to a crisp." Mynx hissed out to Kenji, who cleared his throat and nodded.
"Right. You're just a ray of sunshine aren't you?" he asked sarcastically before Aqua laughed softly at the trio.
"That reminds me." Aqua started. "Kenji, I haven't seen your keyblade yet. Would you mind showing it to me and Luna?" Luna was also interested in seeing the new keyblade. Mynx crossed her arms, having already seen it.
"It's nothing special." She stated. "Mine looks cooler anyway. Besides, it doesn't even look like he can fight." She told the two. Luna sighed softly.
"Still not much of a people person. I suppose Mynx will never change. Especially not after a day." Luna teased, getting Mynx to groan before she crossed her arms. Aqua decided to stay out of the tease, and looked at Kenji, waiting for him.
"Oh, right." Kenji said. He looked at his hand, then slowly extended it, before his keyblade appeared. Aqua's eyes widened and she gasped before suddenly jumping out of her seat, summoning Stormfall, and pointing her keyblade at Kenji. "Whoa whoa!" Kenji shouted, dropping his keyblade and putting his hands in the air. Aqua was breathing heavily, but slowly she returned to normal, lowering her blade. All three keyblade users were shocked, and didn't know what just happened.
"I'm sorry…I know that keyblade myself." Aqua said softly. Kenji knelt down and slowly picked up the blade, holding it in front of himself again. "It's called Void Gear. I'll never forget its name." Kenji looked at Luna and Mynx, both having no idea why Aqua reacted in such a way. The master sighed and sat back down. "That keyblade. It's a keyblade of darkness."
"What?!" All three of them shouted before Void Gear dissipated in a flash of light.
"Well…it was a keyblade of darkness. Its original user was named Vanitas. He was an entity created entirely of darkness. Ventus's darkness to be exact." Aqua explained. Kenji closed his eyes and crossed his arms. Flashbacks about his dive into the heart came back. Visions of the mysterious figure wielding the same keyblade.
"This Vanitas guy. What did he look like?" Kenji asked, sparking Aqua's curiosity.
"Well. He was strange. He wore strange armor made of darkness. The lower half was almost like a cape to be honest. And he wore a mask. It almost looked like a helmet."
"I saw that guy!" Kenji exclaimed, making Mynx and Luna raise their brows.
"You…saw him?" Aqua asked before shaking her head, trying her best to put the impossible off before she ended up worrying herself. "That's not possible. Vanitas doesn't exist anymore. Ventus destroyed him.
"But he matches the guy that you just described! The guy that I saw!" Kenji tried to explain. However, Aqua stood up.
"That's enough!" she shouted. All three of the young individuals suddenly jumped a bit. It was the first time that Aqua had raised her voice. Even Mynx and Luna were a bit shocked. Aqua calmed herself down. "Vanitas made a lot of things rough for the three of us. And even when things seemed bleak, Ventus destroyed his own heart to put Vanitas away." She looked directly into Kenji's eyes, the young man gulping softly. "I saw Ventus after he destroyed his heart. I took care of him when he wasn't even conscious anymore. I know what happened to Vanitas. Because I was there." She took a deep breath and tapped the book again.
Kenji watched as the book stopped on an illustration on Void Gear, telling him everything that it knew. He looked back up to Aqua, then to the floor.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that-"
"It's alright. I understand where you were coming from." Aqua said. "But there's no way that Vanitas is alive. It's impossible. His Darkness was destroyed." Kenji slowly nodded, then summoned Void Gear again.
"Then…who was that person?" He asked himself before Luna decided to clear her throat, trying to lighten the mood.
"Well I for one have had enough of the tension here." She said before she looked at Aqua. "Why don't you tell him the big story you told me, Master Aqua?" Luna finished. Kenji raised a brow at that.
"Master Aqua?"
"That's right, doofus." Mynx insulted. "Master Aqua. Now that you know, that's what you're gonna address her ass. Or I'm gonna knock the sense into you. Then knock it back outta you."
"I'll try to contain my joy…"
Luna couldn't help but laugh at the two, and soon, Aqua joined in. Mynx and Kenji looked at each other, before Kenji slowly started laughing too. Mynx scoffed and looked away, but soon she smiled, and later on, she started laughing along with them. They were happy.
'That was an entire year ago. They were so young and new. Heh. They didn't even know how to use their keyblades properly. I must say. They've improved really quickly. Faster than we ever did. I'd say they're as strong as we were back then…Terra…Venus…I miss you two…It's that time of year again. They'll be taking the Mark of Mastery Exam soon. Please you two, watch over them.'