Title: Kokoro no Sakkaku: The Illusions of the Heart
Chapter: Of Islands and Initiations
Pairings: SoKai, Riku?, Zemyx
Note: We finally get to see some Demyx in this Chapter, and a little Sora + Riku friendship in this chapter! The pairings are prone to change, depending on what people want.
A Week after the Final Battle
It had been a week since the final battle and 4 days since Sora had returned to the Destiny Islands. He and Riku had both been overjoyed at their return to their childhood home. Sora was glad for the return, for now he was free to be the person that he was meant to be before the Keyblade Master, and before the saviour of the Universe: himself. He could now indulge in the simple delights denied to him during his great adventure into the unknown. Sleeping in until midday, a home cooked meal, his mother's love...
Sitting on his favourite palm on the play island Sora couldn't help but think that life couldn't get much better than this. Still, despite this he couldn't help but think back to that fateful day 2 years ago when he, Riku and Kairi made a raft in hopes of sailing to another world. Sora laughed, thinking about how awry that particular adventure went.
"Hey Sora!" Riku called from the bridge.
Sora turned around and saw Riku standing there holding his old wooden sword. Sora couldn't help but flash back to that day on Hollow Bastion, now Radiant Garden, when Riku took the keyblade away from him and gave him a very similar wooden sword.
"Hey Riku, what's up?" Sora asked crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands.
Riku grinned and held up the wooden sword. "You have to ask?" He asked, revealing another wooden sword held behind his back.
Sora grinned and jumped down from the Paopu tree running up to Riku and grabbing the sword. Of course, just as Sora managed to grab the sword he stumbled over a stray twig and was sent flying, sending a certain blue notebook flying from where it lay forgotten in Sora's pack landing at the doorstep of the shack.
"What the?" Riku asked, ignoring Sora's somewhat embarrassing klutz attack. "Is that what I think it is Sora?" He asked running over to the notebook.
Sora sat up from where he was sprawled on the ground and rubbed his head. "What's what, Riku?" He asked, his eyes closed.
Riku turned around holding up the diary, the word DEMYX still scrawled in marker. "Its the diary that we found in the Proof of Existence on the World that Never Was." Riku said flicking idly to the first page, reading the list of names. He laughed when he saw number IV: 'Zexy'
Sora's eyes widened and he hastened to Riku's side grabbing the diary away from Riku's hands, thumbing through the pages without reading anything. He idly noted that dotted amongst the diary entries were random pieces of Sheet Music. "We never got to reading this did we." Sora remarked.
Riku snorted. "We were a little preoccupied with trying to defeat a psychopath Sora," He looked down on the book and rubbed the cover, "Its a wonder it wasn't damaged in the battle to tell you the truth."
Sora puffed his chest outwards proudly. "These clothes are magic. They're self repairing!" He said sagely.
Riku looked at his slightly dense friend and shook his head. "Alright then Sora. Whatever." Dismissing Sora's claim with a shake of his head.
Sora's eyes sparkled. "Hey, wanna read it? It couldn't hurt." Sora turned his baby blues on Riku and pouted, giving him the look no living person was capable of refusing.
Riku looked at Sora's puppy dog eyes and felt a portion of his heart melt a little. "Wasn't that the plan?" He asked Sora, watching as a large grin spread across his best friend's face. This gave Riku an idea. "Wait a minute Sora..." He trailed.
Sora looked up at him, pout coming back full force. "What is it now Riku? I wanna read Demyx's diary!" He whined, ignoring the strangeness of his sentence. In any normal situation his moral code would have kicked in and he would have done his best to resist the temptation to read the diary. But, Demyx was a nobody, and he was also a very dead nobody. Thus he wasn't really a person, in his eyes, and thus his moral code did not apply.
Riku gave him a smirk that almost scared Sora. It was that evil. "I think we should have a little contest."
Sora gaped. "WHAT? What for?"
Riku's smirk only widened. "I think we should have a little race to see what we should do. I mean, I was planning on visiting Kairi later on." Sora grimaced as he remembered that Kairi was currently sick in bed, after having a water fight with Tidus and Selphie. "But reading this diary could take all day."
Sora glanced down at the diary, noting how thick the book was and realised that Riku was probably right. "Yeah I suppose so. So what's the contest?"
Riku simply raised his wooden sword and grinned. "Need you ask?" He said.
Sora grinned and ran back to the mini island he had been on just before. Riku didn't even respond before lunging at Sora, the grin on his face speaking to the world of his joy. His joy about the fact that now, after everything they've been through, they could simply spar without the possibility that one of them may never leave the battle. There was simply Sora, the sword, the Play Island and the Thrill of the moment coursing hot through his veins.
2 Years ago a very similar situation had happened in this very spot. However, there were some significant differences marking their growth since then. For one their appearances had changed significantly. Riku had turned from a bumbling pre-teen, all legs and with the light of countless fun-filled summers in his eyes, into a handsome young man haunted with the a look of one who had suffered greatly spread all over his face. A look that disappeared the moment he and his best friend had begun to spar.
The only thing that mattered then was parrying every swing of Sora's sword, and calculating where the teen would land once airborne. In the thrill of the battle, for Riku, the worries of a thousand worlds vanished with the swing of his sword. And yet, even as this happened he was forced to acknowledge that Sora had finally succeeded in bettering him. With every spar with Sora he had, he was forced to acknowledge Sora's superiority time and time again. Surprising everyone, including himself, he was okay with this fact. This only made Riku even more eager to surpass his best friend once more. Sensing the end of this particular battle Riku grinned and thrust his wooden Sword in Sora's direction.
The grin that graced his face stayed constant, even when Sora finally disarmed him. After a few seconds in their ending pose, Riku on the ground with Sora standing above him, Riku's grin faded slightly and he looked over at the journal innocently lying where they had left it on the bend of the paopu tree.
"Looks like you won Sora." Riku drawled almost as if he were the one still armed. "So lets read that journal!" He said in much the same manner. He was cocky till the very end.
Sora began to have second thoughts, "Can we read it over at Kairi's place?" Sora asked, in an effort to compromise. "I want read it with her too." He said rubbing the back of his neck.
Riku looked over at his friend and examined his face briefly. By the sheepish look on Sora's face, it was just another excuse to see their regal friend. "Sure Sora," he said picking up the diary. "Lets go!"
20 Minutes later they were walking towards the Mayor's house having abandoned their boats at the beach. Riku loosely held the diary in his hands, wondering what a nobody would write in a diary. Sora on the other hand looked distracted. "Do you hear that?" Sora asked.
Riku turned to his friend and tilted his head, listening for something. He heard the faint sounds of a piano coming from inside the mayor's house. "You mean the piano?" At Sora's nod he continued "Yeah, wanna investigate?" He asked.
Sora nodded enthusiastically, already running towards the house dragging Riku along behind him. "Of Course! Lets go!" He exclaimed.
Only one thought crossed Riku's mind as Sora dragged him along, not even bothering to knock on the door: 'Typical Sora.' Sora dragged them along, following his ears to where he heard the music coming from. They ended up standing quietly in front of a large white door on the ground floor. Someone behind that door was evidently playing the piano.
"Lets go then." Sora said, already half expecting who it would be.
Sure enough, as they opened the door they were greeted by a pale looking Kairi, quietly playing the piano. Sora, thanks to his limited musical training in Atlantica, could hear a few fumbles in her playing, but needless to say she was playing beautifully. It made Sora look at her in a different light to the pre-loved light of friendship. He noticed how Kairi's eyes were focussed completely on the task at hand, and how her fingers lightly touched the piano's keys almost tenderly. Never had Sora felt more affectionate for the girl than at that moment.
As if in a trance, Sora walked up to Kairi and placed a hand on her shoulder. Still standing at the door, Riku stood by and simply watched his friend feeling the cold stab of jealousy as he realised that he just might be a third wheel. Not one person said a word until the song had finished a few minutes later.
"Wow." Sora breathed softly, his eyes focussed on Kairi. "I didn't know you played." He continued looking into Kairi's eyes. He noticed that they were filling up with silent tears.
"I didn't. Not for years." Kairi began, sadness creeping into her voice. "But I decided to pick it up again when we found that diary." She whispered, gently running her hands along the pristine black and white keys. "Do you remember that Sora?" She asked, looking at Sora in the eyes.
Riku chose that moment to cut in. "That's actually why we came here. We wanted to read it with you." He said holding up the diary in his hands, the name DEMYX emblazoned on its sea blue cover. Riku's voice lacked its usual cocky tone, humbled as he was by the magnificence of Kairi's piano playing and the song that fell from her fingers.
Kairi smiled at Riku and picked up the sheet of paper in front of her. "That was Zexion's song." She stated, showing her friends the music. Sora took the music from her and looked at the paper, noting the tearstains and the end note: "Boku no ai no tame ni, Zekushion."
They stayed silent for a few short seconds, Kairi seemingly deep in thought. If Sora cared to look, which he didn't, he would have noticed that Kairi absently switched her sights from the music to Sora. Riku however, did notice and had a sneaking suspicion as to the link between the two.
"So." Kairi said, breaking herself out of her reverie, "You said we were going to read Demyx's diary." Sora nodded. "I think that's a great idea."
They didn't even bother moving to another room after that. They simply sat in a circle on the floor in front of the piano the diary laid out in the centre.
"Shall I read?" Riku offered.
Sora pouted, "Ooh," he moaned "I wanted to read it." Sora crossed his arms but made no motion to take the diary. Riku took this as an invitation to start reading.
"So I take it you're fine with me reading then." Riku drawled shifting the diary into his lap.
Kairi giggled at her friends antics. "Just hurry up already!" She said between giggles.
Riku grinned and pushed up a pair of non-existent glasses up his nose. "Well okay then." He peered at the diary and noted that there was no dates. He shrugged and began to read nonetheless.
Hi, my name is Demyx, and I am number IX in Organisation XIII. My element is water, and it couldn't have been a better one, I love the way it runs through my fingers and the melodic simplicity of waves crashing. Anyway, my weapon is a Sitar and it says a lot about me. I'm a musician by nature. I play as many instruments as I can, and in particular I love String instruments. Anyway, I bought this diary to celebrate my initiation into Organisation XIII.
I don't really remember what my life was like before today, only that according to my new Superior Xemnas the only difference was back then I didn't have a heart. He told me this when he first approached me, which was when I was apparently first born. I don't know where I was born, only that I was battered bruised and naked. Standing in front of me was a guy whose first words to me were, "My name's Xemnas and you don't have a heart." (Okay so he didn't say that but that's pretty much the gist of it.) I didn't get what he meant when he said that I didn't have a heart, the smart side of my brain said that had to be impossible because I was still alive. I told him that and he said "See for yourself." And so, I put my hand to my chest and tried to feel for my heartbeat. The thing was, it didn't exist. No matter how hard I tried to find it, my heartbeat stayed stubbornly out of reach.
Try diary to understand my shock when I realised that the superior was right. The heartbeat was the backbone of each great song and every famous composition. Without it, a piece of music is simply chaotic, and hollow. The beat is what keeps everything together. For me to not have a heart is pretty much saying that my life is hollow. Without my beat, how could my music be born? At that moment, when Xemnas told me that I had no heart, he was really saying that my life was hollow. The biggest blow however, was that no matter how much my brain protested that I should be sad, I should be angry and that this new knowledge should be the biggest blow of my life the only thing I felt was empty. I am simply stuck with the knowledge that I should be feeling sad, but aren't.
But, after that Xemnas told me that he was the head of a group of these nobodies, as they call us apparently, who's goal was to give us back our hearts. His words gave me a new sense of hope that someday my music will have a heart, and will not be the hollow thing I knew that it would be. Allowing me to join this Organisation gave me a new purpose. Instantly I found myself giving this man my unwavering support, and I knew that I would let nothing stop me and my new Organisation brothers attaining that goal.
After I came to this decision I noticed that Xemnas had extended his hand for me. I also noticed that he was getting annoyed that this was taking so long. So I took it. He helped me to my feet and he gave me a bundle of clothes and a small cheese sandwich sitting innocently on top. After letting me get dressed he told me that I should follow him to where I was now going to live.
Anyway, there's more to my initiation than that, but I'll leave that for later. Its now 6.30 and now dinner time. My superior Saïx cooks dinner and one thing I've learned during my whole day in the Organisation is that you don't get on his bad side.
"And that's where it ends." Riku said simply.
Kairi was the first to speak. "Wow, I kinda feel bad for him now. I mean, how would you feel if your first memory was of someone telling you that you don't have a heart?" She asked spiritedly.
Sora tilted his head trying to see the situation from Demyx's point of view. It was considerably hard as he couldn't even fathom not being able to emote. And that's when he understood where Kairi was coming from. Despite the fact that Demyx should not have existed, he had to concede that it must have been hell for him to be told that his life was hollow during his first moments of non-existence.
"I..." Sora began "I understand what you mean."
This caught Riku's attention. Unlike Sora, no matter how hard he tried he could not find any sympathy for the nobody. Only a bitter taste in his mouth and a stray thought, wondering what Demyx's somebody must have been like.
"I don't." He said softly.
Sora and Kairi looked over at their friend and fell into an awkward silence.
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AN: Kudos to anyone who can catch the symbolism in Demyx's diary.