"Well, we better get to the Destiny Islands if we're going to pester Sora for the way into the Realm of Darkness," Aegle muttered, slowly sitting down in her seat.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go," I said, swiftly plopping down in the captain's seat. The chair made a loud hissing noise as air rapidly escaped from it. I used the map to look for the Destiny Islands. After a few space battles, some intense situations, and one of the engines blowing out, we made it. After beaming down, we found ourselves on the unpopulated island at dawn.
"Perfect timing. They'll just be getting up! Let's go!" Aegle eagerly shouted.
"Wait. First, we need a way over there," I said, pointing to the island with homes on it. "There's no way to cross that sea. We can't swim that far."
"You're such a drag sometimes, you know that?" Aegle said, irritated.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, walking off to chop down palm trees. I cut down about half a dozen, then went off to find some string to bind them together. I couldn't find any anywhere. Eventually I meandered into the 'secret place,' despite the fact that I barely made it through the crawlspace leading to it. I found a long string in there.
Perfect! I thought. I looked around, squinting at all the rock scribbles. They weren't half bad. I looked at the doorway to the world's heart. They Keyhole was exposed.
"Huh. Thought Keyholes only appeared when a Keyblade is near," I said aloud. I then squeezed back through the crawlspace with my prize. When I got back out, Aegle was sitting on top of a big pile of leaves, looking at the sunrise from the pier.
"What's up?" I asked her as I approached.
"Well, I found a good sail. Problem is, I need something to bind it together," Aegle said, getting off the leaves.
"Don't tell me: you want to sew these leaves together and use them as the sail?" I asked.
"Yeah. I know it isn't the best idea, but it's not like you have one!" she snapped.
"Yeah, yeah. Here you go," I said, tossing the string at her. "Make sure there's some leftover. We need it to bind the logs together."
"Sure," Aegle said. She then set to work sewing together a sail while I looked for suitable sticks for the mast. I couldn't find any, so I instead cut down some of the pier and used those sticks instead. When I got back, Aegle was about half done with the sail. I cut a little bit of string off the end and used it to bind the mast together. I then bored a small hole in one of the logs, subsequently placing the mast into it. Aegle had finished the sail; we bound the logs together and set up the sail.
"Well, then, let's go!" I shouted, pushing the raft into the sea. We jumped onto it as soon as possible and fortunately, we had a tailwind. It only took about half an hour to cross the calm sea, and we arrived around midday; ironically, it had taken quite a while to build that makeshift raft. We chatted on our way over there... since nobody was around, we had to break the eerie silence of sailing. We silently landed on the far beach, then stepped off our raft.
"That took longer than I expected," I muttered. We then set to searching the empty town. I used my best ninja skills, wary of unseen dangers. Despite that, I felt like kicking down the first door I came to. I did so, hearing the noisy bang echo through the empty town.
"What the hell are you doing?" Aegle yelled at me.
"Ah, nothing. I couldn't help myself. Kicking down doors is so cool..." I muttered to myself. "It's not like it matters. The town's empty, just like every other city we've been to."
"I wonder why that is?" Aegle asked.
"Well, that Ike said something about it, I think," I said. "He said something about a Keyblade War... maybe that has something to do with all the ghost towns."
"Maybe. Well, let's keep searching," Aegle said. We kept sneaking around the town, though I made it a point of honor to kick down every door we came across. Each house was just as empty as the last... I didn't know what to make of it. We did find a house with the lights on eventually. I kicked down that door too, but there was a man in a yellow vest sitting at a desk. He had his feet up on it, and was wearing blue jeans along with sneakers. He had silver hair and azure eyes...
"And you are?" he asked, not moving from his seat.
"Jake Hartmut," I replied.
"And I'm Aegle," Aegle said indignantly.
"Well, sorry. I'm not open for business. The toilet's in the back, if that's what you're looking for," he said, sitting up. Now that I had a better look at him...
"You're Riku, are you not?" I asked.
"Yeah, what of it?" he asked back.
"What sort of shady business are you running?" I asked.
"Nothing… just a Nobody hunting business. Sure, there's no Heartless around anymore, but Nobodies pester people all the same," he told me. "So I charge a small fee to exterminate them. I had hoped my business would be doing better by now, but for some reason nobody needs… well, Nobodies exterminated."
"Uh… are you aware that this town's empty?" Aegle asked, beginning to walk around the somewhat dusty shop.
"Empty? So that's what he was talking about…" Riku muttered.
"Who?" I asked.
"Oh, nobody. So the town's deserted, you say?" he answered, trying to change the subject. I would not stand for this.
"Who told you something about it?" I asked again.
"… Roy. Roy Hartmut," he said after much hesitation.
"My brother? He's been here?" I asked, very eager to know…
"Yeah, I suppose so. It was only a few hours ago, but knowing Roy, he's long gone," Riku said. "It had been three years since I last saw him, anyway."
"So we just missed him," I sighed.
"Yep. Sorry," Riku muttered. "Well, from your dawdling, I suppose you don't need to use the toilet. So what do you want?"
"Well, we're looking for the Sword of Light. I was led to believe it's in the Realm of Darkness," I said.
"The Realm of Darkness? That's no playplace," Riku told us. "It's full of the strongest Heartless… and there's no way into it, unless you can brave the World that Never Was."
"The World that Never Was? Man…" Aegle muttered.
"To make things worse, Maleficent has set up her base there now," Riku said. "She's… not exactly friendly."
"Yeah, yeah. I need that sword to defeat Charon and Ike, and after that, I can focus solely on finding Roy," I said to myself.
"Hold on! You can't go to the World that Never Was! I haven't fought you," Riku said, "but I can pretty much tell… you're not strong enough. So forget about this 'Sword of Light.' It's an impossible dream for someone like you."
"Someone… like me?" I asked.
"Forget about it," he said. "You're not strong enough. Now leave!"
"Or what?" I asked, resting my hands on my sword hilt.
"Jake! Leave it," Aegle said, bringing me to my senses. "We'll decide if we're strong enough for the World that Never Was, not you. So drop it."
Aegle went out of Riku's shop. I followed her, pressing my communicator to beam up. I thought I heard someone say something, though…
"Everything's going smoothly…"