Alright! I'm back from my hiatus! To tell you guys the truth, it was nice taking (I think) two weeks off. Of course, we did work on this chapter… Mainly procrastinating, but we did work on it! That and Palette was doing her own thing with SoraxKairi7, so yeah.

Chapter 10: Who is the Real Me?

Time of Day: ?
Weather: Foggy
Place: The Velvet Room

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," Igor greets me.

"The destiny the lies before next is-" Margaret opens her book, and 4 Arcana Cards burst out. "Oh my! Listen my guest," Margaret says. "Be warned, a trail like no other awaits."

"You will undergo a horrible ordeal," Igor warns. "It's to the point that your current powers might not be able to stop what lies in your path."

"But we were planning on saving Kairi!" I tell them. "How come we won't be able to stop whatever you're talking about?"

The cards return to Margaret's book as she closes it. "The answer to that question lies in your endeavor to save your friend."

The Velvet Room fades into the fog outside.

June 23, 2015
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Rainy
Place: Dojima Residence

"Look what the cat dragged in!" Mirror Kairi spins on the silver pole next to her. "That's right, it's me. The one and only Kairi Kujikawa!" Spotlights focus on Kairi as she dances on the pole. "I'm about to take on the most extreme role I've ever been in!" She laughs seductively. "I. Am going. To. Strip for you!"

W-What? Did she just say strip? "Oh, I'm so embarrassed! But, if I'm gonna do it, I'm going to go all the way! I'll take all off for you, the people who want to see who the real Kairi is!" Kairi blows a kiss, and the yellow glow of the mirror fades away.

What was that word I made up when I saw Namine's version of this? It was something to do about being horrified and aroused? Oh yeah, ha-roused. Yup, I'm totally ha-roused right now.

My phone starts to ring. I take it out of my pocket and see that it's Roxas. "Hel-"

"Sora, she said strip right!" Roxas yells.

"Geez Roxas, your screaming made me deaf in my right ear," I tell him. "And yes, Kairi did say strip."

"I knew I wasn't dreaming! These Reflections are getting crazier and crazier!"

"Calm down Roxas," I tell him. "Don't be too excited about this."

"Hm? Oh yeah, um, sorry about that," Roxas apologizes.

"Anyway, It's like her other self is completely unhinged and spinning completely out of control."

"Do you think Kairi is in the other world now? You know, because of the theory you told us?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it. I still can't help but think this is my fault."

"It's not your fault Sora. Things got emotional for her, like you told us."

"What sucks is we even knew who was going to get taken this time around."

"I know, right?" Roxas exhales. "Are we going to meet up with Donald tomorrow?"

"Yup," I tell him. "We're going to save her no matter what." I hang up my phone. Regardless of what Igor and Margaret said, there's no way in hell I'm not going to try and save Kairi.

June 24, 2015
Time of Day: ?
Weather: Foggy
Place: Mirror World

We enter through our mirror, and we find Donald sulking in a corner.

"Donald, what's wrong?" I ask.

"You guys left and had fun without me…" Donald says wistfully.

"Donald, are you lonely?" Yuffie asks.

"Yes I am! I'm really down in the dumps right now…"

"Yeah, yeah, cut the crap!" Roxas says.

"Did you just call my feelings crap?!" Donald raises his wand, and lighting strikes Roxas. Roxas falls over, smoke coming from his hair. "Here I am having an existential crisis, and he calls my feelings crap!" Donald goes back to being recluse. "I don't know where I came from, I live in oblivion, and I got so lonely I wanted to cry, but nothing came out!" He whimpers. "Whenever I start to think about it I get even more lonely!"

"Donald, we'd never forget about you," I tell him. "Sometimes we even talk about you."

Donald looks up at me. "You do?"

"Yeah! Just remember we're concerned about your well being too," Namine tells him.

Donald smiles at us. "Thanks you guys…"

"No problem," I tell him. "Anyway, my friend was brought here and we need to find her." I take out the origami crane that Kairi made back at the beach. "Here, use this to find out where Kairi is."

"Okay, sure!"

"But first can you heal Roxas?"

Time of Day: ?
Weather: Foggy
Place: Mirror World- Heartless Love Strip Tease

"So you're saying Kairi is at a strip club?" I ask Donald.

"Yeah, if that's what kind of place this is," he says. "I sense her in there."

"This is one of those clubs that you'd find in some dark alley of some run down old tourist town," Yuffie says.

"Who cares about that," Riku says behind us. "I can't see shit with all of this fog. Hey Donald, do you have a pair of those glasses?"

"Oh yeah, you didn't get your own pair of glasses yet Riku," Namine says.

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot!" Donald reaches into one of his pocket and pulls out a pair of glasses. "Here, have these."

"Donald, why did you give me these?" Riku asks after putting on the mustache glasses. "Give me a different pair or something!"

"They're the only pair I have on hand!" Donald says. "You'll have to wait until I make a new pair."

Namine tries to stifle her laugh. "You look completely fine Riku! Totally not ridiculous at all!"

The interior of the club was posh and almost everything colored in different shades of red. There are mirrors everywhere, and posters of women in stripper clothes. Their faces are all covered by Heartless symbols, except for those that had a picture of Kairi in a bikini.

After walking through a couple halls, some dead ends, and the occasional surprise Heartless attack, we reached a large room with bars, and one stage with a golden pole on it.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" We hear a distorted version of Kairi's voice. "Welcome! Let me guide you through the sparkling world of wonder!" Once the voice finished talking, curtains in the back lifted, revealing different versions of Kairi. There's a pop star, a nurse, a cheerleader, and a bunch of other ones.

"That's a whole lot o' Kairis," Yuffie says.

"Yeah, and I know everyone of them!" Roxas becomes excited. Roxas begins to name every single one of them, to our distaste.

"Okay! This show is called Kairi's Smokin' Hot Body!" A pillar of darkness appears and disperses with Heartless Kairi appearing. "Are. You. All. Ready!"

"Hells yeah I am!" Roxas cheers. "Woo! Go Kairi!"

"Will you just shut up?!" Yuffie kicks Roxas.

"Fine, sorry," he says as he stumbles back to his feet.

"Today I'm here to bear everything to you all!" Heartless Kairi says. "What? Do you think I'm telling a fibby wibby? Why don't you find out for yourself!" Tango music starts to play and Shadow Kairi starts to dance, spin, and grind against the pole. The clones clap along with the music

"Ugh, I hope mine wasn't like this," Riku says. "God this is brutal."

"Of course this is brutal!" Donald says. "These are the feelings Kairi has bottled up inside of her!" I think back to the conversation I had with Kairi back at the beach. I remember her saying how people never saw the real her.

The music suddenly stops. "Humph. Talk about a dead crowd. Well then, maybe it's time that I brought out our special guest." The spotlight moves from Heartless Kairi, onto…

"Kairi!" I yell.

"Please… I'm begging you, just stop…" Kairi pleads with her shadow.

We run toward her, but then Heartless appeared. Some looked like orange 4 petaled flowers, basic shadows, and the large rotund one. But a couple that looked like knights in purple armor were new. They had large shields with black and blue dog heads that had sharp teeth.

"Listen closely guests," Heartless Kairi says. "Please keep your hands off of the dancers at all times." Heartless Kairi continues to dance.

The shields of the Heartless began to shoot fireballs at us. We evaded them by getting behind some couches. "PERSONA!" We all break our arcanas unison.

"Let's make this quick! Go Izanagi!" I raise my hand and Izanagi summons lightning, which destroy most of the Heartless. The only ones left are the shielded ones.

"I got this! Go Sakuya!" Namine's Persona raises it hands, and launches salvos of blue flames at the Heartless. The enemies appear unscathed after the explosions. "What the?"

"Guys, they resist magic attacks!" Donald warns us.

"Then looks like it's my turn to fight!" I look toward my left and Riku is smiling with a new pair of glasses on. They're black wrap around sunglasses. Riku's Arcana appears in blue light. "PERSONA!" Riku punches his card, and his persona comes out. "Go Dark Guardian!" Guardian slashes through the enemies like butter and punches any into black mist if they get close enough.

"Riku, you're a freaking bulldozer!" I tell him.

He smiles back. "Go get to Kairi. I can handle these guys on my own!"

We run toward the stage and Kairi is talking with her Heartless. "So who exactly is the real you?" The copies start to chant. "I'm the real Kairi"

"I don't know!" Kairi screams. "I don't know who the real Kairi is!"

"I am the real Kairi," her Heartless says. "You see, I am you, and you are me. I'm sick and tired of having to put on a fake smile and play the air head flirt."

"Just stop!" Kairi yells. "You're not me!"

The Heartless begins to laugh. "Here it coooomes!" Dark Mist envelops the Heartless. When it disperses, what appears is the Heartless' true form. It's body was that of a woman with Kairi's red hair, but its skin was made up of different colors, constantly swirling and changing . Instead of a face, it had 7 hexagon shaped mirrors together and a golden spike in the middle. With its shape, it looked looked like a satellite. The Heartless was upside down, hanging by one of its legs wrapped around the pole.

Club music starts to play and the spotlights change colors to the beat. "I am a Heartless, the true inner self... For our guests in the front, I'll give you guys an extra-special, extra-intense service!"

"What is this…" Kairi says.

"Kairi!" I yell.

"So… ra…" She faints and lies on the floor.

"Everyone attack the Heartless while I get Kairi to a safer place." Everyone nods in agreement. I run toward Kairi.

"Oh? You're going to rush the stage? What an ill mannered guest!"

I pick her up and lie her down by Donald. "Keep an eye on her Donald!"

I run back toward everyone. "Nothing is working Sora!" Riku says.

"What do you mean?"

"She's dodging all of our attacks!"

"You're all sooo transparent!" Blue target circles appear on our Personas.

"No way, is she scanning us?!" I ask. "She must be seeing our attacks coming!"

"Analysis complete!" The Heartless stands up. "I've got something long, hard, and explosive for our VIP guests!" She picks up the pole and aims it at us. "Time for a counterattack! FIRE!"

5 rainbow shots are fired from the barrel of the pole, and hit our Personas. I feel immense pain my body as my Persona physical appearance starts to flicker.

"Dammit... What the hell was that?" I ask desperately.

"Aww, you finished already?" The Heartless asks. "I could go on for a couple more rounds! FIRE!"

More beams hit our Personas, making them completely disappear. "We're screwed…" Roxas says.

"Does this mean… We're going to die?" Namine asks.

I think about what Igor and Margaret told me. "Donald! Take Kairi, and get out of here!"

"What?! But I can't just leave you guys here!" Donald says to me. "I don't want to end up all alone again!"

4 more poles drop from the ceiling and Heartless Kairi and points them at us. "Time to up the ante! Say your prayers!"

"Stop it!" I look toward Kairi, who's now standing up. "Just please let them go!"

"You annoying little bitch!" her Heartless says. "Do you want to- What the hell?!" I look toward Donald and he's radiating a powerful yellow light. "Why is your energy reading so huge?!"

Donald yells and starts running toward Heartless Kairi. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!" The yellow light turns into yellow fire as he picks up speed. "My body is just moving on it's own!"

"STAY BACK!" Heartless Kairi fires the poles, creating a large beam.

"Donald!" I yell. The beam reaches him, but he's just splitting it into two!

Donald inches closer and closer, until he jumps onto the Heartless' weapon. "TAKE THIS!"

"THE SYSTEM IS OVERLOADING!" Everything is consumed in a blinding white light.

Once the light fades away, most of the strip club is destroyed, and the ground full of debris from the explosion. I look to the epicenter of the explosion, and I see Heartless Kairi back into her human form lying on the ground, and Donald. He was completely deflated, and his feathers were burnt.

I make a small laugh. So that's what Margaret and Igor meant. I might not have been able to stop this threat, but they didn't mention anything about Donald saving us. "Donald, you just saved everyone."

"I did?" He says dizzily. "Yaaaaaayyyy…."

"Thanks Donald," Kairi says. "You helped save me."

"Listen," Donald says wearily. "I know how it feels to not know who you are. It's hard, but you don't have to worry about it alone." He smiles. "We both have Sora and the others to help us find who we really are."

Kairi looks toward us. "I'm sorry I put all of you guys through this."

"Just take it easy for now," I tell her. "But first, you'll need to reconcile with her." I point at her Heartless.

"Right," Kairi walks toward her dark copy. She kneels next to it and hugs it. "I'm sorry that I didn't understand that the casual me and celebrity are just parts of my personality. I guess there really is no real me per se, but just one personality with different sides to it."

The Heartless nods her head as she's engulfed in a blue light. The light disappears, showing a woman with rose-colored skin in an elegant red and pink dress. Instead of a face, she has a camera lens, as if it's one giant eye. She also holds a golden ring with both of her hands and has a gold tiara on. The Persona disappears, and Kairi falls over.

"Kairi!" I run towards her and pick her up.

"I'm okay Sora," she tells me.

"We're all pretty spent," Riku says. "It only makes sense."

Roxas exhales. "How 'bout we get going before something bad happens."

"There is no real me…"

"What the?" Roxas says. We looks toward Donald. Behind him is something I wouldn't have expected. It was a larger version of him, but with a deeper voice and yellow eyes.

"No true self exists…"

Donald turns around. "What the heck?!"

"Seriously? We just fought Kairi's and now another Heartless?!" Roxas complains.

"Something feels off about this one though…" I say. "This isn't like any of the Heartless we've been fighting…"

"Such foolishness!" The Heartless cries out. "The real truth will always be shrouded in fog!" Fog envelops the entire area. The Heartless swipes its arm and shows its true form. It's a gargantuan version of Donald's upper body. Its face has 2 giants holes in it, which reveal the emptiness of the Heartless' body and 2 pulsing yellow eyes. Its beak is full of cracks and has rows of sharp teeth. Its lower body is hidden from us, as it's in a large swirling pool of darkness.

"You might as well try to find meaning, but what's the point?" the Heartless asks. "Blissful ignorance is the only way to live." The Heartless raises his hand, summoning a large purple sphere. It begins to pull us in, like a black hole.

We all desperately hold on to something. I'm holding Kairi next to pillar, and everyone else is holding on to other things for their dear lives.

I hear Donald's scream. He's been grabbed by his dark copy!

"Your search for the truth will lead you nowhere," the Heartless says. "The only truth you need is the undeniable truth that you will perish here!"

"Looks like Donald had more than an existential crisis…" I'd call my Persona, but I don't know what would happen if Izanagi got sucked into that thing.

"Sora," Kairi says. "I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"Have your Izanagi hold Aurora for me."

"Aurora?"

"She's my Persona."

My Arcana appears. "Come on out Izzy!" I shatter the card, and Izanagi thrusts the Keyblade into the ground so he can hold onto something.

Kairi's Arcana appears in front of her. "PERSONA!" Aurora appears and Izanagi holds her. The ring she's holding is put over Kairi's eyes. "Scan him Aurora!" Aurora's lenses twist and a blue target circle starts moving around the Heartless. "There's something else in there! Something else besides the Heartless and Donald!"

"What is it?"

"I can't tell with all of this fog!"

"This is where you'll fade to nothing…" The Heartless tightens his grip on Donald. "You were nothing to begin with." The Heartless moves him closer to the black hole.

"Nothing?!" Donald yells.

"You have no memories of your past. You are empty. Your entire existence was that of a mere-"

"I'm not listening!" Donald covers his ears. Or at least where his ears should be. "I'll find the answers myself! You can't stop me!"

"There are no answers to find."

"I'll keep looking anyway!" The Heartless stops moving Donald. "What do you know, you big palooka?! I may be empty, but I'm no useless ol' duck! I don't want to be lost, and I don't want to leave my friends!"

"You choose this?" the Heartless asks. "Even though your quest for answers will only cause you pain? Your choice is incomprehensible."

"I found it Sora!" Kairi tells me. The target circle stops near one of the Heartless' eyes.

"I'm starting to lose my grip!" I hear Yuffie scream.

"Go Izanagi!" He takes the Keyblade out of the ground, and uses the pull of the black hole to propel him to the target. Once in the air, he aims the Keyblade at the target, and a salvo of energy fly toward the spot. The projectiles hit the target, and the Heartless throws Donald away as it screams in pain. The black hole fades away, and the Heartless crumbles away.

The Heartless in now its original form appears and Donald walks up to it. "It's sad not knowing who you are," Donald says. "But this whole time, I was afraid that if I did look, I might not find any answers at all. But even if I didn't find what I wanted, I know that my friends will have my back!"

"Aww, thanks Donald," I tell him. "But did you seriously forget what we promised you? We promised that we'd help you find out who you are! And we won't stop until we find that answer for you!"

"You're far from alone duck," Riku says.

"Yeah!" Namine says. "You're part of our team!"

"You guys…" Donald starts to tear up. "Thank you!"

Behind Donald, the Heartless becomes engulfed in a blue light. The light flies up, and explodes into tons of cartoony stars. The Heartless turned into a giant blue swirling orb of energy. It had two large wings and had a brown wizard's hat. It sort of looked like Donald's magic wand. Donald got a Persona?

The Persona disappears, and turns into its Arcana form. "Wow, I get my own Persona?" Donald asks.

Kairi smiles. "I sense great power coming from it."

Yuffie stretches. "Okay, now I'm really tired. Are we going back or what?"

"Yeah, we are, but first group hug!" I go over to Donald and hug him. Everyone follows suit.

"Guys be careful!" Donald tells us. "You don't want to flatten me even more!"

Time of Day: Twilight
Weather: Sunny
Place: Destiny Islands- Streets

"Thanks Sora, but I think I'll walk back home from here," Kairi tells me.

"You sure?" I ask. "You feel completely fine?"

"I could feel better but, I can manage." Kairi hugs me.

"Um, Kairi, not that I mind it, but why are you hugging me?"

"I'm thanking you for saving me. I'm also apologizing for yelling at you back at the park."

"Oh. Well in that case, apology accepted. But I think you just made me number 1 on everyone of your fans' hit lists."

"Then deal with it."

"Wow, that's cold."

Kairi laughs and lets go of me. "I know it was. Anyway, I'm going to help you find the killer! For all we know, you guys could die if you don't have me help you!"

"Oh really? We've been doing pretty well so far."

"If you've been doing pretty well, then how come you guys nearly died because of my Heartless?"

I try to think of a witty comeback, but nothing comes up. "Touché. Dammit, this is the beach all over again isn't it."

"Pretty much!" We both laugh.

"Of course you can help. Your support abilities will come in handy."

"Having someone to back you up always comes in handy! Anyway, I'll head off, okay."

"Okay, see ya later."

As I start to walk back home, Kairi calls my name. "Wait a minute."

"Yeah?"
"Come to think of it, a hug isn't really a 'Thank You for Saving my Life' present does it?"

"It's fine for me."

"No, it's not!"

"Okay, then what is?"

"You Sora Narukami, get to go on a date with me!"

"So a date with a celebrity? You really are trying to get me killed by your fans."

"If I was trying to get you killed, I would have just paid someone to do it."

"Wait, what?"

"Just joking!"

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure you have the money for it."

Kairi laughs. "For real, I'm just joking"

"Then in that case, sure I'd love to go on a date with you."

"Perfect! Then how about the end of this month?"

I smile. "Sure. I guess it's a date.

Another chapter has been completed! Now both Kairi and Donald have Personas! Palette will be writing Sora and Kairi's date scene, so it will be AMAZING.