Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any Disney characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney respectively.

Herutsu no Oukoku

Chapter 4: The White Witch

"…ra? Sora, are you alright?"

Sora slowly blinked open his eyes, his vision hazy. It soon adjusted and Sora could see Kairi looking worriedly down at him. "Kairi?" He asked. As he sat up, Kairi sat back in her chair so they wouldn't bump heads. "What happened?"

"Well, Yuffie missed a Heartless and it snuck up behind you…" Kairi trailed off, figuring Sora could fill in the rest for himself. That and Yuffie walked into the room with a scowl on her face muttering something along the lines of, "Stupid Heartless."

Sora rubbed the back of his head and winced a little when pain rushed across the back of his skull like wildfire. "Ow." He muttered.

"Oh!" Kairi softly exclaimed before reaching into her pocket. Sora watched in half interest as she took out a small vile and uncorked it. "Here." The redhead held the small bottle out to Sora. "Aerith made it for you. She said it'll work wonders on any injury you have. She gave me some too."

Sora took the small bottle and looked at it curiously before he looked up at Kairi. "So… what do I do with it?"

"You drink it." Yuffie said from her spot across the room where she scribbled furiously on a pad of paper. "Damn it, Squall! One of these days I'm going to wring your neck!" She muttered to herself as she continued scribbling.

Sora ignored the raven-haired girl's ranting and downed the contents of the bottle in one gulp. Kairi giggled at the sour look on his face when he registered the taste of the liquid. Sora coughed and glared at the bottle. "What was that?!"

"Aerith's potion from hell." Yuffie responded, finally done with her scribbling. She left the pad of paper on the table, along with the pencil she was writing with. "None of us know what she uses and really, none of us want to know. It works and that's what matters." She crossed her arms over her chest and turned so she was fully facing Kairi and Sora. "Leon wants to you take something to the wizard, Merlin, who lives out in Third District."

"A wizard?" Sora asked, looking a little excited. "So he does magic and stuff?"

Yuffie nodded. "Well duh, what else would he do?"

"Cool!" Sora jumped up out of bed, too excited by the prospect of meeting a real-life wizard to care about the fact that just a few minutes ago he was unconscious. "When do we go?"

"As soon as Aerith says you're fine to go, I guess." Yuffie said with a shrug. "Why?"

Sora didn't answer, as he was too busy running out of the room to find Aerith.

"Energetic, isn't he." Yuffie commented to Kairi with a heavy sigh. "Come on, lets go get him before he gets himself into trouble."

Kairi got up from her chair and followed Yuffie from the room. In the main part of the shop the amusing scene of Sora trying to convince Aerith that he was well enough to go on an errand for Leon greeted them. The two stood back for a minute or two to watch and then Kairi went to Sora's rescue.

"Aerith, Sora took the potion you wanted me to give him." She said, jumping in during the middle of one of Sora's sentences. "And with the way he's running around, he seems to be just fine."

Sora eagerly nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I'm totally fine now! Can we go, please? Pretty please?" His bottom lip trembled and his blue eyes turned an even bluer shade as they grew larger and watery.

Aerith's resolve crumbled at the sight of Sora's puppy-eyes and she gave in with a sigh. "All right, you two can go. But-" She held up a finger to silence Sora before he could let out a loud cheer. "You have to be very careful! And I want you both to take some supplies with you so that when you run into Heartless and you get hurt you'll be able to heal yourself." She pointed to a pack set that she had set on the table earlier when Leon left his message. "Leon is outside, so go find him for directions."

Sora bounded out the door, making everyone still in the shop wonder where he got all the energy. Aerith covered her mouth with a hand and giggled while Kairi retrieved the pack and ran after Sora after she strapped it to her waist. Outside she found a harassed looking Leon trying to talk to Sora without having to repeat himself. He looked most relieved when he saw Kairi hurrying over to them.

"I need you to take this book to Merlin. He's a wizard who lives out in Third District." Leon explained to them. "Just go through that door," He points to a large wooden door with a giant '3' hanging over it. "and keep to the leftuntil you see a red metal door with flames engraved into it. There should be a lock nearby, so use your keyblades to unlock it. And be careful, Third District is full of Heartless." He warned as he handed the large book to Kairi, not really trusting Sora with it.

Kairi nodded. "Alright. We'll be careful, right Sora?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Completely careful." He turned to look at the door. "So… are we ready to go?"

"It's now or never." Kairi replied. "Why put it off?" She took a step toward the door, her violet eyes worried. "And maybe… maybe the sooner we go through there, the less scared we'll be. If we just sit around and worry about what might happen as we go through Third, we'll never make it."

Sora smiled at Kairi. "Yeah, you're right." He stepped forward and took Kairi's hand. "Lets go together."

Together the two pushed open the door to Third District and stepped through. Once the two were on the other side the door closed on it's own. Sora and Kairi continued walking, hand in hand, keeping an eye out for Heartless. Kairi nervously clutched her keyblade as they walked and her eyes darted around at the slightest sign of movement. Sora kept walking forward, not as concerned as Kairi was about the Heartless.

Movement from above caught Kairi's eye and she looked up to see a bunch of Shadow's crawling around on the buildings. She gulped and moved closer to Sora.

Sora glanced over at the redhead and his eyes widened. "Kairi, you're glowing."

Kairi looked up at him, confused. "What?"

"Your keyblade, it's glowing." Sora enlightened. "And it looks like it's keeping the Heartless away."

Kairi looked down at her keyblade, which was glowing just like Sora said and then up to the Heartless keeping a safe distance away from both of them. The two hurried safely through 3rd District until they came to a pair of large metal doors that had strange red markings all over them.

"So, uh…" Sora scratched the back of his head as he looked at the doors, confusion written all over his face. "How do we get these open again? There's no handles or doorknobs or anything."

Kairi sighed and stepped closer to the door to get a better look at the markings. She adjusted her glasses as she looked over them and then she took a step back when she saw a keyhole. "Sora, try using your keyblade on that." She pointed to the keyhole.

Sora nodded. "Okay." He quickly summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the keyhole. A beam of light shot out at it and they heard a click before the doors ground open. Sora cheered and then ran through the door only to fall into a deep water puddle a few feet into the tunnel. Kairi laughed softly and then followed him into the tunnel, being careful not to fall into the water puddle.

After Kairi helped Sora out of the puddle, the two continued down the wet tunnel, unaware of what laid ahead.

Farther up the tunnel in a house in the middle of an underground pond a young girl in all white was busy turning off the alarms for the door. She got fed up with the noise when it wouldn't stop and she quickly cast a spell that destroyed the alarm. She breathed a sigh of relief and then brushed off her crisp white dress.

"I'd better go find out who set the alarms off." She said to herself. "One of those Heartless may have gotten through and that means the rest won't be far behind." She picked up a black cloak that was laying across her messy desk and slipped it on as she hurried out the back door. Outside she walked quickly around the house to the front until she got to a row of large flat rocks resting in the water. She held out a hand and narrowed her blue eyes. "Stopga!" She yelled, waiting for the magic to take place before jumping quickly across the rocks. She landed on the other side and pulled up the hood of the cloak before she ducked into the shadows near the mouth of a tunnel leading to the cave. She stayed and listened for a moment to see if she could here the scuttling of the Heartless or splashes from them going through water. What she heard, however, was not what she was expecting.

"Kairi, are you sure we're going the right way?" A boy's voice echoed down the tunnel.

"Sora, there weren't any turns or separate tunnels." A girl patiently told him. "And we've followed Leon's directions exactly, so yes, I'm sure we're going the right way."

The girl wearing the cloak remained in the shadows more out of curiosity than anything else. She watched as Kairi and Sora walk past where she's hiding and then as Sora tried to jump onto the first rock, only for it to move so he fell into the water. She stifled laughter as she stepped out of her hiding place.

"The rocks move." She softly said, not wanting to startle them too badly. She laughed when Sora tumbled back into the water after trying to crawl up onto the bank.

"Are you Merlin?" Kairi asked her.

"Oh, goodness no!" The girl exclaimed softly. She pushed her hood back so Kairi and Sora could see her better. "My name is Naminé. I'm Merlin's apprentice."

"Merlin's… apprentice?" Kairi asked with a confused expression on her face. "But Leon didn't say anything about Merlin having an apprentice."

Naminé hesitated a moment. "Not many know of me here. After all," She laughed. "I'm just an apprentice. I'm not ready to go out into the world and help people. And I probably won't be for a while. Now," She smiled at the two. "I'm going to help you get across to Merlin's house. Just be sure not to trip, Sora."

She walked past the two, her light blue sandals clicking gently against the stone. "Stopga!" She shouted for the second time that day.

"How do you know my name?" Sora asked as he approached Naminé.

"I heard you and Kairi talking back there in the tunnel." Naminé explained. "Hurry across before the spell wears off. It doesn't last long." She stepped aside and let Sora go first before she and Kairi jumped across themselves.

On the other side Naminé led the two around the back to the true entrance to the house. "Master Merlin should be returning soon." She told the two. "He won't mind if you wait inside with me." She eyed Sora's wet clothes with a bemused expression. "Sora, would you mind if I dried your clothes? I cleaned up just yesterday and you're dripping all over the floor."

Sora sheepishly tugged at the sleeve of his wet jacket. "Er… yeah. Go ahead."

Naminé pushed back her sleeves and took a few steps away from Sora. "Kairi, you might want to move over. I'm not sure how powerful this will be." She waited until Kairi hurried out of the way and then drew energy to her hands for the spell. "Wind!" She pushed one hand forward, the palm pointed toward Sora.

Nothing happened.

Naminé sighed in frustration. "I guess I'm not ready for that one yet." She said disappointedly.

A noise like a firework going off blasted through the house, making all three teens jump in fright. They all turned to look around for the source of the noise and found it when a man in a blue robe and a long white beard came through the doorway with a bag he keeps with him at all times.

"Ah Naminé, just the witch I wanted to see!" Merlin exclaimed. "I have something for you, if I could just remember where-" A book floated out of the bag, followed by shrunken furniture which grew back to normal proportions as they settled about the room. "There it is." He grabbed the book and handed it to Naminé, who took it with some difficulty. "I believe that will prove very useful to your studies. Now go along."

Naminé thanked him and then hurried over to a set of stairs that led to a protected training area. That left Sora and Kairi alone with the aged wizard.

"Ah, the Keyblade Master and the Princess of Heart." Merlin said, adjusting his glasses to get a better look at the newcomers. "I never expected you to be quite so young, but I'll take what we can get."

"Sir, Leon asked us to give this book to you." Kairi spoke up, taking the leather bound book from her bag.

"Ah, most excellent!" Merlin accepted the book and ran a finger down the spine of it. "My! The binding is almost as good as new! Cid has gotten quite proficient at book restoration." He chuckled as if he had just told a funny joke. "Now, you are Sora and Kairi, correct?"

The two nodded.

"A friend asked me to teach you both the art of magic." Merlin told them. "He, as well as I, believe that it will be quite useful to you on your journeys. You've both done well with your keyblades with what little knowledge and skills you have, but without knowing what you're doing you won't be able to utilize the full power of your keyblades. Conscious control of the functions of the keyblade are instrumental to what you need to do. And mind that you never forget your dream."

Kairi and Sora exchange confused glances, not knowing what he meant with the last statement.

"Now come, you have things to learn. I invite you to sit." He gestured to a table that was complete with a tablecloth, plates, glasses, and a steaming tea kettle.

Over tea and a light snack, Merlin explained to Kairi and Sora the delicate nature of magic and then taught them some basic spells and made sure they could use them properly. By the end of their visit Sora was practically bouncing in joy and ready to go try out his spells somewhere else. Kairi was more reserved about using the magic since most of it had a destructive nature. That didn't go unnoticed by Merlin.

"Kairi, ask Aerith to teach you some healing spells." Merlin told her. "She's much more proficient at them than I am, though I hate to admit it. She is, after all, the healer here in Traverse Town."

Kairi smiled. "Thank you."

"Merlin, do you know where my friend Riku is?" Sora asked out of the blue. "None of the others have seen him here in Traverse Town and Leon suggested that I ask you and see if you know."

Merlin frowned thoughtfully. "No, I'm afraid I don't know. Now, you two can come by anytime and I'll try my best to help you out. And if you happen to come across the pages of this book, I'd appreciate it if you'd bring them to me. Together the pages of this book form an entire world and it'd be a waste to let it disappear." He smiled at the two. "Now shoo! I've another student to teach."

"Wait!" Naminé shouted as she ran down the stairs, nearly tripping and falling from going too fast. She stopped in front of Sora and Kairi, panting as she held out her hands. In her hands were four gems, each one the size of a ping pong ball. One was blue, another pink, another red, and the last one was green. "These are for you." She told them when she caught her breath. "There will be two other members of your group who will get the other two. You'll know when they join you."

Sora picked up the blue one and Kairi chose the pink before she picked up the other two and slipped them into her pack.

"What are they for?" Sora asked, bringing it up close to his eye as if seeing it up close would help him figure out what it was.

Naminé held her index finger up to her lips and winked. "That's a secret."

Sora made a face. He hated secrets, especially ones he couldn't know about. Kairi giggled at the expression on his face and then tucked her gem safely away into her pocket.

"Now, now, Naminé." Merlin said. "There's much work to be done!"

Naminé waved goodbye to Sora and Kairi and then followed Merlin up the stairs to the training room.

End Chapter
Shiro: Longest chapter to date! I wonder if I can keep writing this length. It's a nice length, yes? Ah, we'll see. And just so you know, I'm going to having fun with making up spells in this story. Of course, there will be the ones from the game that I use. (along with some from Final Fantasy, like watega)

Lets see... they'll be getting out of Traverse Town soon and off to a new world. But not before I introduce three more characters! And the gems? Oh, they do play a significant role. Just not until later. Much later.

I'm also going to put this one on a schedule. It'll be taking a backseat to 'It Must Be Destiny' and will be updated every other week.

NEXT- Chapter 5: Flurry of Dancing Flames (Thursday, August 9)