V. Of Keys and Flames
Two young boys, each holding their own weapon.
A horde of Noise, hopping in place, stood before them.
Both boys showed no signs of fear.
They know exactly what to do.
Neku surveyed his surroundings, marking the locations and the movements of the Noise in his head. He then closed his eyes, focused on himself and visualized a tower of flames scorching the ground, right at the places he mentally marked. As soon as he opened his eyes, the frogs in front of him were incinerated by towering flames, reducing them to piles of ashes which soon disappeared.
The spiky-haired boy obviously did not just stand around. He lunged forward with his key, star-shaped sparks flying from the tip with each strike he lands. Neku was puzzled to see that every Noise was erased with each strike of the key. Before long, both boys easily dealt with the frogs.
More Noise symbols flashed before them, sprouting ravens with weird-shaped beaks and talons. They hover slowly over the two, far out of reach, even if they jumped. Neku tried to conjure tongues of flame from the ground in the same fashion as before, but they could not reach the ravens.
*beep beep!*
"Perfect timing," complained Neku. He couldn't just ignore the danger of a sudden strike from the ravens, but Neku decided to read the message for the heck of it.
"I'm pretty sure I told you your psych has been enhanced. Why don't you try shooting the ravens down?"
Shooting them? Neku was pretty sure that his pyrokinesis pin did not allow him to do that. It was limited to summoning flames from the ground. He looked at the pin – just to make sure he remembered right – to his own surprise: the image was no longer a simple flame, but it was changed into a flaming arm. In the background, a large, white question mark can be seen.
"Hey! Are you just gonna stand there and look at that pin?!" the spiky-haired boy shouted. "How are we supposed to deal with these birds?"
"Don't worry," Neku said quietly, "I know just the thing."
Neku raised his right arm, his palm facing the ravens. He finally knew that his right arm was in flames, but he did not care. Besides, he felt no extreme heat from the flames; instead, he felt a gentle, warm sensation.
Again, Neku closed his eyes and visualized fireballs, emerging from his palm and pursuing the ravens. He opened his eyes to see that the ravens were about to dive down at them. The spiky-haired boy prepared himself. As the ravens came near, Neku had a confident look on his face.
Bang.
In a split second, fireballs were shot out of Neku's palm, travelling in an unbelievable speed towards the ravens. A few were no strong enough to withstand the sheer heat of the fireballs, and were erased in the blink of an eye. The rest flinched and slowly fell, much to the spiky-haired boy's amusement. Quickly, he threw his key towards the ravens, hitting them one by one in a magnificent arc. The key returned to its wielder in a brief flash of light.
"You're pretty good," the spiky-haired boy called out to Neku.
"Heh, you're not half bad yourself," Neku replied.
Their work was far from over, though, as two more Noise symbols appeared before each of them and a bear-like creature spawned from the symbol. Slowly stomping towards the two, they roar and swipe wildly at them.
As one bear came near and tried to assault the spiky-haired boy with its claws, he let his reflexes take over and swung his key forward, holding it firmly as if to block the attack. His efforts were futile, though, for the bear easily knocked the key away. The boy was flung away, and seemed like he lost consciousness.
The key slid smoothly towards Neku's feet, but he didn't have time to realize all that. He was faced by two bear Noise, unable to escape.
Crap.
Both bears lifted their claws, ready to mutilate Neku with a single strike.
I'm not gonna make it through this.
"Use the keyblade!"
The spiky-haired boy shouted at Neku, but before Neku had time to turn around or even listen what he said, he saw the bear's claw coming at him. He knew that there was another claw going for him just behind him. He could only cover his body with his arms, close his eyes, and hope his death would be a painless one.