Hello! This is the very last chapter of this story so I won't keep you in suspense with a long and boring a/n. Now go on and read!
Chapter 13 The Keyhole
The rest of the day passed fairly quietly. Inu-yasha seemed uptight about spending so much time resting, although his companions had quite an opposite opinion. Donald seemed just as uptight as Inu-yasha did and it showed. Sora watched drowsily as Donald and Inu-yasha argued about whose turn it was to get the firewood for the waning fire. Goofy had the good sense to drag Donald outside to get the wood with him. Donald grumbled as he walked outside and was still grumbling when he walked back in. As Sango tossed a few logs into the fire, Sora sat up suddenly alert. Kagome looked at him in surprise and asked,
"Sora? What's wrong?" Sora stood up and said as he walked towards the door,
"It's the Heartless."
Inu-yasha followed right behind him with one hand on his sword sheath.
"Finally! Some action!" The half-demon exclaimed. Sango, Miroku, and Kagome emerged with their weapons ready. As they walked toward the trees, Inu-yasha glanced at Sora and asked in a low voice,
"Are you sure you're up to a fight so soon?"
"Of course! A little wound isn't gonna stop me!" Sora replied as he summoned the Keyblade.
"Heh." Inu-yasha grinned and pulled out his sword, the Tetsusaiga.
'Though I'd better lay off the real physical attacks.' Sora thought to himself.
Suddenly, a red nocturne shot out of the trees and went straight for Sora. He jumped back and slashed the Heartless out of the air. With the defeat of that Heartless, a wave of soldier Heartless surrounded them. Quickly Sora cast Aerora and began to fire Blizzara spells. It seemed that for every Heartless destroyed, two more rose to take its place.
"We're never gonna see the end of this!" Donald exclaimed as he shot a fireball from his staff. However, his aim was a little off and the flames narrowly missed Inu-yasha's head.
Outraged, the half-demon turned around and yelled, "You almost hit me!"
Donald smirked."Oops, sorry."
"Funny, you don't seem that sorry." Inu-yasha muttered under his breath as he slashed a soldier.
Slowly, the ruckus of battle died down. Sora leaned on a nearby tree for support as exhaustion took root. He was about to put the Keyblade away when it began to glow and quiver slightly in Sora's grip. Goofy exclaimed,
''The Keyhole must be near!"
Without a word of explanation, Sora dashed off in the direction that the Keyblade was pulling him in, followed closely by Donald and Goofy.
"What's wrong?" Kagome called after them.
"For a injured kid, he runs pretty fast." Inu-yasha commented, sheathing his sword.
"Inu-yasha what are you waiting for? Come on!"
Kagome and the others had already set off after Sora.
"Wha...? Hey! Wait for me!" Inu-yasha called indignantly and went after them.
Sora came to a stop in front of an enormous tree. 'Hold on, this tree looks familiar...' He thought examining the tree. 'Oh! It's the tree from my dream!'
Kagome walked up to Sora, interrupting his thoughts and asked,
"Sora? What is it? Why did you run off?"
"It's the Keyhole." Sora replied lifting the Keyblade and pointing it at the tree. It began to glow and a keyhole appeared on its trunk. Sora lifted the Keyblade and a beam shot out of it's tip, into the symbol. There was a sound like a lock being clicked, then both the glow and the Keyhole disappeared.
"So, the Keyhole was inside the tree of ages...why am I not surprised?" Kagome murmered as she examined the trunk.
"So, does this mean your business here is finished?" Miroku asked.
"Yeah, we should probably get going." Sora replied with a smile.
"Why don't you stay the night and leave tomorrow?" Kagome asked.
"No!" Donald said firmly with his eye on Inu-yasha. "We really need to get going."
Goofy spoke up and said,"I recon' we should take her up on her offer, Donald."
Sora chimed in saying,"Yeah,what's the rush? After all, it is almost nighttime. So let's get a good night's rest then leave in the morning."
Donald, recognizing defeat, began to head back to the village muttering something about leaving at the crack of dawn.
Epilogue
After a night of rest, everyone was saying their goodbyes. Donald had made it clear that he wanted to leave right away, so he made his goodbyes short and left saying that he was going to prep the ship. Sora was talking to Sango when Miroku sighed wistfully.
"What is it Miroku?" Sora asked turning to look at the monk.
"Well..." He replied, "I was just thinking that you're really lucky Sora."
"Really? Why's that?"
"When I think about all of the women from other worlds that you must have met..." His face had a dreamy sort of look. However, Sango's glare quickly snapped him out of it leaving a puzzled Sora to wander back to the gummi ship. Turning back to face everyone he said,
"Well, it's been fun, but we have to leave now."
"You call being kidnapped fun?" Inu-yasha asked sarcastically.
"Well, no. But meeting all of you was." Sora said with a sincere smile.
"Do you think we'll meet again?" Kagome asked.
"Of course we will. And that's a promise." Sora replied cheerfully.
He gave them one final wave before turning around and walking into the gummi ship along with Goofy. As everyone on the ground watched, the ship's engines fired up and the gummi ship launched itself into the sky. Picking up speed, it blasted upward until it was out of sight.
Onboard the ship, Sora looked out the window and reflected upon the past couple of days. "Do you guys think we really will see them again?"
"Sure we will Sora. I don't doubt it!" Goofy replied with his usual optimism.
"Who cares whether or not we see that dung-faced mutt ever again?!" Donald exclaimed from behind the controls as they entered the familiar void of space.
"ACHOO!"
"What's wrong, Inu-yasha?" Kagome asked, "You're not catching a cold, are you?"
The half-demon ignored her and muttered,
"I feel like smashing something duck shaped."
end.
That's it. Finito. Finished.
Once again, I want to thank all of you who took the time to read this. Much love to you all! This story got more reviews than I ever thought it would (I was guesstimating around 15).
It was my very first ff and even when I go back and read it (and recognize mistakes) I still love it since it's the first story I've actually put my mind to and finished. Tell me what you thought of it -
I hope you all enjoyed the show and hopefully I will see you all soon Princess of Oblivion