Chapter 24: What is a Bond?

Time of Day: ?
Weather: Foggy
Place: Mirror World

Two Keyblades clash against each other with bursts of light and darkness flashing between each parry. Terra's Persona attacks Izanagi with the rage of a primal animal, my Persona only being able to defend, much less get in any counter attacks.

"Trying your best just won't cut it," Terra says. "Why waste your time when you could give up already? Stop trying to face reality, it's boring. And besides, there's no way to change it." He has a sadistic grin on his face, and his eyes are golden like that of a Heartless.

"I'm telling you, it's best to just ignore it. Why choose reality when you could have a world of your own making? I don't know about you, but it clearly sounds like the best idea to me." Terra's Persona knocks Izanagi into a large pile of debris, possibly the remains of a destroyed building. "I mean c'mon, we all prefer the easy life! All reality gets you is boredom and bickering, who would want to live in a world like that? It's only because people think that have to accept our crappy lives that they choose to deal with it."

Izanagi gets up from the debris, readying its Keyblade in a defensive stance. Instead of attacking head on, Terra's Persona raises its Keyblade and some sort of magic seal appears above my head, the same happening to Izanagi. Suddenly, my entire upper body feels as if it's been bound by a rope, and I'm forced onto my knees. Terra walks up to me with a gun in hand.

Shit.

"There's only one thing in life that's going to let you have success in life, the golden ticket called talent. If you don't have it then you're left to rot in despair." As Terra jabs my face with the muzzle of the gun, I break out into a cold sweat. "So wouldn't we be better off without the sham that is reality?"

"T-This isn't a game!" I tell him. "These are people's lives we're talking about!"

Terra sighs and pulls the gun away from my head. His Persona grabs Izanagi by the throat, and starts tossing him around like some ragdoll. "Y'know, no matter what you do, reality sucks. And I for one, am completely sick of it. The fog will consume the human world, and all people will turn into Heartless. In the end, isn't that what all people desire? Not having to deal with their problems?"

"Turning people into monsters could never be the answer! If you want to stay in this world fine, but leave everyone else out of it!"

Terra sucks his teeth and shakes his head. "So naive, you bunch of kids. I get that you're scared and trying to cover it up, but you kids should really listen to what I'm telling you. I'm the one with all the real world experience, here."

"Listen, I don't care about- What the hell?!" Terra forces my head too look towards the sky, and a gigantic orb of darkness is suspended in the sky. Dark clouds swirl around it, and debris from the ground are being sucked into it. Just looking at it is enough to send shivers down my spine. "What… What is that?!"

"It's coming…" Terra's voice is filled with a sense of malice and cryptic tone. "Soon all the humans will be nothing but Heartless!" Terra laughs. "Oh, but don't worry! There's no reason to be afraid. Yeah, the entire world is going to be filled to the brim with Heartless, but people will keep on living, right? They'll just be oblivious to what's around them. How is that any different than our current reality? This way, things are going to be a whole lot easier. No more repressed emotions, no more pretending we don't see things."

"This world you're envisioning is complete bullshit!" I yell.

"Think back to when your friends, or whatever, met their Heartless." Terra jabs my forehead with his gun. "Didn't it seem like they were enjoying life far much than all of you? You see, Heartless move on pure instinct. They only go crazy when you resist them!"

Terra's finger moves to the trigger, and a loud bang resonates in my ear. Everything is white for a split second, but then everything returns to normal. I look down, and faint traces of smoke rise from a dent in the ground between my legs, and the sour smell of the gunpowder enter my nose

"Wow, you should see the look on your face!" Terra taunts, swinging around his gun randomly. "You know, the only reason I became a cop was so I could carry around a gun. How do you think I felt when I found out I was going to have to work with a bunch of idiots?! Regardless of that, why are you scamps still fighting? Do you think you find some sense of justice in doing it? Ooh, I know! You just wanted to spice up your boring lives, didn't you?" Terra raises my chin up with his gun. "If that's the case, you're no better than criminals who get off on killing other people."

Behind him, Terra's Persona throws Izanagi onto the ground and starts stabbing him with its own Keyblade repeatedly. Every strike get more feral the longer Izanagi is on the ground. I try to have him move out of the way, or attempt to block the attacks, but I can't seem to move him. It's like the magic Terra's Persona casted earlier stops me from controlling my Persona too… It sucks that the magic still lets me feel Izanagi's pain, though.

Seriously though, I'm starting to cough up blood because of Stabby McStabface over there.

I fall onto my side from the pain, and Terra walks away from me. "Did you ever stop to think about what you were going to do once you actually found the answer to your little mystery?" He asks. "Nobody cares about the truth. Eraqus was the serial killer, case closed; that's the truth the rest of the world sees. But let's pretend for a second that you are able to catch me. What'd you think would happen? The answer is simple, really. For a quick moment, attention is going to be shifted, but nothing would change because people don't care who the real killer is. That's the truth you've been searching for…" Terra's Persona raises its blade above Izanagi's chest. "Like it or not!" It pierces Izanagi's chest one more time, and the pain from the stab makes my whole body stiffen.

Terra turns away from me, and sighs. "Y-You're wrong!" I say as I spit out blood. I attempt to get off of the ground, but my arms still feel as if they're bound. "That's not the truth!"

"Aww, poor thing. An adult tells you the truth and some good advice, but all you do is ignore it." Terra pushes his gun into my head, bringing it back to the ground.

"I'm done playing games! You don't have what it takes to shoot me, and you know it!"

"Oh really now?"

"I've heard enough! What you're saying is all bullshit! No matter what you say, you won't get away with this!" The seal above my head shatters, and I move my hand toward the gun. I push it to the ground, and stare at Terra directly in his eyes. "And THAT is the truth!" I push him away from me. As his face changes from a smug to a confused look, I get up off the ground. Behind me, Izanagi props himself up using his Keyblade. "What you're saying isn't logic! They're just the self-centered rants of a psychopath! Even if they don't know it, humans need each other to survive. If you sever all ties with society, of course everything will become difficult for you!" Izanagi readies his blade, and rushes in on Terra's Persona.

"You're kids! What the hell do you think you know about the world?" Terra asks.

"No! You're the child! You hate your miserable life, and all you do is loathe about it, blaming the world for your problems! You're not an adult taking control of his life, you're little kid throwing a tantrum!"

"SHUT UP!" Izanagi is able to land multiple attacks on Terra's Persona, but the amount of damage he's done barely fazes the relentless monster. It counterattacks by turning its Keyblade into a large whip, spinning it all around itself, but Izanagi guards against it with a dome of reflect magic.

"Let me put this bluntly;, there's nothing special about you at all! The only thing you are is the scum of the earth!"

"Me? Scum?" Terra laughs. "Looks like I'll have to give another lesson on the real world, kid. All you do is talk about these bonds, or whatever. Effort, love, hope, and not to mention friendship. All of these things you're talking about, it's like it came out of some morality textbook!"

"What's wrong with that?" I ask. "It's better than being a heartless monster like you!" Izanagi points its Keyblade at Terra's Persona, and ice magic launches through the tip. It hits its arm freezing it and preventing it from moving. Izanagi takes this opportunity to rush in and attack, but the enemy Persona counterattacks with its free hand, slicing Izanagi with its sharp fingers.

"It's shallow, that's what! Okay then, tell me: What's a bond?"

"To believe in the person at your side! In your closest friends!"

"You don't get it, do you? That's why you guys are all just inexperienced kids." Terra walks toward me. "The word 'believe' is a curse that crushes people. There's no way you can read someone's mind, is there? What you believe in is your own selfish ideal of how you want a certain person to be, nothing more."

"Shut up! Like hell that's true!"

"But lucky for you, I doubt your friends would turn on you. You've seen each other's ugly sides, how pathetic you can be, but you're like 'oh, that's okay,' pretending to care. That's so fucking creepy; As if you could actually like someone's ugly side! You idiotic brats!"

Izanagi's Keyblade glows and is imbued with light. The same happens with the Keyblade Terra's Persona has, but is instead cloaked in darkness. They both sprint toward each other, their two blade meeting between them. They both fight without inhibition, their Keyblades never landing on any of their bodies parts, but instead meeting each other in the middle as each Persona attacks and parries each other.

"You all are just trying hard not to hurt other because you don't want to get hurt yourself! Do you want to know what adults call that? Licking each other's wounds! That's what this 'bond' thing of yours is all about!"

"No, it's not! That will never be true!" I tighten my fist. "We've always accepted who we really are! Even if we got hurt, we've come all this way in search of the truth!"

"See? What you're saying is just more whitewashing! You guys… Really piss me off!"

Izanagi runs toward the enemy Persona, and thrusts his Keyblade into its chest. Unfortunately, Terra's Persona pushes itself off of the weapon, and raises its own Keyblade toward the sky. Red thunder crashes onto the ground, creating a large cloud of dust in the process. Izanagi raises his Keyblade, and creates a wind, dissipating the dust cloud.

"In order to get here, we had to face things we didn't want to see," I tell Terra. "Even after initially denying them, we took our hardships head on!"

"Oh please! You naive brats don't know anything! You have no idea what kinda shit I've been through!"

"You're not the only one that's suffered in life! If you think that way, of course everything is going to feel like shit!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?! I'll kill you… I'll kill you just like I did everyone else!"

"Like hell you will!" Izanagi runs toward Terra's Persona, who puts itself into a guard stance. Izanagi breaks his defense, sending the enemy's Keyblade spinning into the sky. He jumps up into the air, and Izanagi grabs the other Keyblade. He slices Terra's Persona in half using his own Keyblade, and decapitates him with the second weapon.

As the remnants of the Persona fades away into darkness, Terra yells out in pain, holding his head. He falls to his knees, and then eventually to the ground, whimpering in pain and anger. I suddenly become short of breath. Who knew talking to psychopaths could be so tiring? Then again, having to deal with all of those attacks from earlier probably added to my fatigue.

Terra's whimpering turns into a crazed laugh. "What the hell? This is no fun…" He rolls onto his back, showing an insane look look in his eyes. "Well, whatever. Our world is going to disappear soon, no matter what. I don't have anywhere to go back to anyway." Terra takes out his gun from his jacket. "Man, what a pain." He starts to bring it up to his head.

"Hey, stop it!" I try to run towards him, but before I get close, black and white tendrils knock the gun out of his hand.

"You are not taking the easy way out after all this crap we had to deal with!" I turn around, and Roxas is with his Persona. Behind him, everyone else is with him. Roxas' Persona summon more tendrils, and they wrap around Terra.

"Screw you…" Terra spits.

I smile. "You guys made it! You all aren't too hurt, right?"

"I got tossed around a bit," Riku says. "My insides feel like they've been put through a blender." Xion pats him on the back, which in turn makes Riku wince.

"I'm just glad no one broke any bones." Yuffie cracks her knuckles. "And plus, that thing we fought was nothing. I've met toddlers rougher than a thing like that."

"Sure you did…" I smile.

"Hey, hate to break the fluffy and slightly cliche reunion, but could you look up?" Kairi points towards the sky. We look up, and the giant orb of darkness still remains.

Behind us, Terra starts laughing. "It's like I said! There was no point in fighting me. That thing's gonna combine this world and ours regardless of what you do! It's impossible!"

I grit my teeth and look and the sky. Just like earlier, just the sight of all that darkness scares me to no end. But impossible? Hell, a year ago I would've thought things like this was impossible. I'd never believe in another world, much less one full of monsters. We've been in impossible situations beforehand when we saved each other. Every time, we pulled out shit together and made it through. We became stronger with each fight, and we were able to get to this point.

If there's one thing I learned this year, it's that nothing is impossible. Just really, really fucking hard.

"We have to get up there somehow," I tell everyone. They all give me blank stares, and Terra bursts into more laughter. Yuffie then kicks him in the head and knocks him out.

"Are you insane? It's gonna be impossible to stop that thing!" Roxas says.

I sigh. I already gave my whole inner monologue about the impossible, I'm not going to freaking repeat it out loud. "Just hear me out. Maybe if we get to the source, there could be something to stop it. I just can't think of a way to get there."

"I have an idea!" Donald says. His Persona appears, and circles around my Persona. Golden dust falls from its wings, and falls onto Izanagi. "This should help your Persona fly up to it. I only have enough (for?) you, so this is going to be a one man trip."

Roxas pats my shoulder. "Don't die."

"Gee thanks, I'm feeling so much love from that comment." I grin. "And yeah, I'm not planning on biting the dust anytime soon. And plus, how am I going to die if I know that I have people like you guys backing me up?" Izanagi puts me onto his shoulder and I hold onto a chink in his helmet. He jumps high into the air, and then we start to fly. As we go higher and higher, my friends become smaller and smaller.

Also as we go higher and higher, I've come to learn that I may have a slight fear of heights. What a convenient way to find that out.

We enter into the darkness, and the air becomes frigid to the point that my breath is showing. It's also really dark. I mean, what else would I think would be in here? A tropical islands or something?

I'm getting off topic at this point. What really catches my attention is all of the voices I hear surrounding me. They all sound different, but at the same time, all so similar. It's like this giant orb of darkness is just where everyone's repressed thoughts and emotions go.

I can't even make complete sense of any of the words being said. It's all just jumbled sounds, with a negative ring to them. Each voice sounds depressed and hurt, like they're crying out to be freed… Like how my friends' respective Heartless acted. Just listening to all of this makes my head spin.

But even in all of this darkness, Izanagi's Keyblade remains bright. In fact, it's our only source of light in here. I can't explain why, but I feel like it's making sure I don't go insane from all of this malice. Most of all, the light it emits has this warm feeling to it. It's constantly reminding me of my friends, and their voices are reaching me and saying not to give in.

As the two of us go deeper and deeper, I sense something within the center of the dark mass. It's not dark and ominous like the surrounding darkness, but it doesn't feel like a warm light either. I just feel the need to head towards it. Not like I have much choice anyways, as I have no sense of direction in here. I don't know if I'm going up or down, left or right, I'm just… Drifting through the darkness.

Once Izanagi and I reach the epicenter of what I've been sensing, the only thing there is a tall and slightly open white door. Izanagi and I float onto solid ground in front of it. It's a light grey, and doesn't look like anything I've seen in my world.

Unlocked

Darkness

Heartless

More voices start entering my head, but this time I can tell what the words are. The voice is all too familiar, as it sounds like mine. Could it be that Izanagi is talking to me?

Keyblade

Light

Lock

As the six words constantly repeat in my head, Izanagi raises his Keyblade towards the door, my arms and hand move along with his. It doesn't feel forced, though. It's almost as if I can feel the Keyblade in my hands, and I'm the one guiding Izanagi.

We point the Keyblade at the top of the door, where a keyhole is carved into its frame. Once it and the Keyblade line up, the outline of the Keyhole lights up. Stars circle around the tip of the Keyblade, and a beam of light shoots out of it. Once it hits the Keyhole, light comes from behind the doors as they begin to close.

The door closes with a loud thud, and everything turns to white.

December 6, 2015
Time of Day: Noon
Weather: Sunny
Place: Destiny Islands- Beach

I wake up to sand in my mouth, and my friends all on the ground. They look as groggy and confused as I feel. Over by my right, Terra is under the bodies of Donald and Roxas. At least this way he can't escape.

"Is everyone alive?" I garble. Everyone responds with either a tired "yeah" or a groan. "Good… Now what the heck happened?"

"The dark thingy exploded and you fell out of it," Roxas says. "We caught you, and then a bunch of light happened, and now we're back on the Islands…" He looks around for a quick second. "At least it looks like it."

"Yeah, we're back in your home," Donald says. "I don't sense any Heartless here… Actually, now that I think about it, when that orb of darkness went kablooey, I didn't sense any Heartless either."

Yuffie's eyes widen. "So that means…"

"We did it?" Namine asks. All of us start laughing. I feel like we'd all cheer, but our bodies probably hurt too much.

"I forgot how bright the sun was after all of that fog," Riku says.

"That's all you have to say?" Kairi asks. "We just caught the culprit, and you're complaining about the sun?" Riku shrugs.

I take my phone out of my pocket. Luckily, it's not too beat up, but there are a couple cracks from all of the fighting we did. I go to my contacts, and I call Zack.

His phone starts ringing. "Sora? Where the hell have you guys been?! It's been an entire day!" Seriously? I didn't think we were fighting for so long.

"We're at the beach… And we have Terra."

"You caught him?" Zack remains silent for a couple seconds. "Tell me where you are. I'll have someone dispatch a cop car."

December 25, 2015
Time of Day: Night
Weather: Clear Skies
Place: Dojima Residence

"When are we going to open the presents?" Usagi asks. "There's so many, and there are a ton here for me!"

After stopping her from bouncing around the living room so much, I pat her head. "Don't worry we'll get to that soon enough." Usagi was let out of the hospital last night. Everyone came to see her, and luckily she was back to her regular self. Today she's even more hyper since it's Christmas, and there's a boatload of presents under the tree in our living room. Most of them are get well gifts for Usagi, heck even my parents sent her some.

Zack and I even got something from them. I'm hoping it's not one of my mom's homemade sweaters, mainly because she sucks at making them and they make you sweat more than a dog in heat.

My friends and I decided that we'd just draw names from a hat and buy a present or two for the person that we drew. I ended up getting Roxas, so I bought him some skateboard maintenance equipment because he said his stuff was getting old. I also volunteered to get Donald a present since he was the odd man out. I ended up getting him a pointy wizard hat like the one on his wand.

I don't know who got my name, but whoever it was seemed to have forgotten to get me my present, because I'm not seeing anything labeled "To Sora" on it anywhere.

Zack pulls me away into our small hallway. "Listen, I think I owe you a big thank you. I don't know how you figured it out, but Terra confessed to the first two murders."

"It took him this long to admit to it?" I ask. "You'd think after being captured he would've come clean."

"He was sure one hell of a tough nut to crack!" Zack chuckles. "There are still some vague areas in his statement, but at this point I have no doubt he's going to be reprimanded accordingly."

"That's good to hear."

"Regardless… This was one weird case, even by my standards." Zack has mentioned he's worked on some odd cases beforehand. Trying to explain would just be confusing. "If that whole Mirror World is legit, then everything would actually come together. But don't think for a second that I'm buying into that story."

I smile and shrug. "I didn't expect you to anytime soon. Trust me, a year ago I would have the same thought process as you."

"You've done a lot to help me out, haven't you? To think I was supposed to be the one watching over you." Zack sighs. "Well, Spring is just around the corner now that it's December. I'll be glad to have you around up until then."

I grin. "And I'll be glad to have you guys around as well."

"Hey you two, let's open some presents!" Riku calls.

"Yeah, yeah we're coming," Zack and I say together. I plop onto the couch next to Kairi, and in front of Donald. He's already shaking his gift box near his ear, trying to determine what it is.

"Sorry bro, I made sure it's shake proof," I tell him.

"Aww, no fair…" he whines. "How am I supposed to enjoy guessing what it is if I can't narrow my ideas?"

Yuffie tuts. "It's wrapped up for a reason, Donald. It's how Christmas works."

"To be honest, I've never had a Christmas like this before," Xion says.

"Oh really?" Namine asks. "What do you normally?"

"Well, I'd usually visit my grandfather and just read some old stories with him, like Sherlock Holmes and Arsene Lupin." Xion sighs. "I called him saying that I wouldn't be there with him this year, and he said it was fine, but I can't help but feel guilty for leaving him alo- Oh excuse me." Xion takes out her phone. As she scrolls through it, her face becomes confused and flushed.

"What is it?" Kairi asks. "Something the matter?"

"It's my grandfather. Apparently he decided to go on a holiday to Hollow Bastion."

"That doesn't sound too bad," I say.

"That's not what's perplexing to me," she says. "I'm just wondering why the housemaid is with him, and why she looks so… Casual with him."

Everyone in the room remains silent. "So, are we going to open the presents or what?" Zack asks, breaking the awkward tension.

Everyone quickly responds happily, and grabs their respective presents. We let Usagi open all of hers first. She got different stuff animals, dolls, and other little girl things. Yuffie and the other girls even worked together and bought Usagi a nice dress with a bunny on it. She was ecstatic about all of her gifts, and thanked everyone over and over again.

Now it was time for the rest of us to open our presents. Zack and I opened the presents from my parents first, and to our dismay, they were sweaters. We both agreed that they got lost in the shipping process.

Next up were everyone else and their Secret Santa gifts. Yuffie got a homemade headband with floral patterns from Riku, and Xion bought high quality art tools for Namine. I gave Roxas the skateboard tool kit, and Donald his custom hat. Namine actually drew an extremely detailed sketch of Kairi, and even framed it. Kairi bought a gift card for Riku to his favorite craft store in the neighboring city just a train ride away.

She knew it wasn't the most creative, but her excuse was that she couldn't think of what to get him at the store, so instead she just put a shit ton of cash into the card and would let Riku go nuts. He certainly didn't turn it down, because when he saw the amount of munny on the card, he did a spit take.

And now, I'm left with no present in my hand. If everything went as planned, Yuffie should've got me my present. "Hey Yuffie, where's my gift?"

She does a fake gasp. "Oh? You figured out that I, the Great Ninja Yuffie bought a present for you?" Yuffie's been calling herself that since putting on the headband. "Well, do I have something in store for you!" From the bag she brought with her, she takes out a small stick with something attached to the end of it. She extends the stick, and points the end of it above my head. I look up and… Oh shit.

"H-Hey Yuf, is that mistletoe?" Kairi asks, blushing. Yuffie just giggles in response, and gives me a thumbs up.

Well, way to put the pressure on a guy, Yuffie! Why do people do stuff like this? I don't get it. Do you really think this is giving me a confidence booster? I'm totally on the spot now!

Damn, now Kairi is all red in the face. Come on, aren't you supposed to be the confident one or something?

"I'm waiiittinnnng," Yuffie sings.

Resisting the urge to hit her, I take a deep breath and sigh. Do I have any gum on me? Nope. Shit. Fuck, fuck, and fuck. My breath probably smells like ass. Armpits getting sweaty, hands getting moist, not good, not good!

"Sora!" she demands. "Could you get on with it?"

Sweaty palms, moist hands, bad breath, not good, not good!

She rolls her eyes and snatches my face and pulls me in, forcing my lips onto hers. Not so comfortable at first, but we settle into it.

Ahhh, this… this is nice.

She pulls back with a tint of blush, though she smiles slightly.

"A-Hyuk…"

And to make this moment even more awkward with a polarizing force of brutality, everybody around us stares with sly expressions. I rub the back of my head.

"Hey, Sora…" Kai ri says.

"Yes, Kairi?" I feel like I'm in a trance right now.

"Your breath… really stinks."

And there goes any dignity I could ever hope for, down the drain.

"But, it was still kinda good for me. Kinda."

"Cool."

"Yeah."

"Cool."

"Guys, this is painful," Riku intervenes. "Shouldn't you two go somewhere private?"

"Um, y-yeah, sure." I grab Kairi by the hand and drag her outside on the really, really small porch. As long as I can get away from those nosy fuckers. I sigh. "Remind me to like, kill Yuffie after Christmas."

She laughs. "Sure." She rubs her arm. "So... does this mean we're like, together, right?"

I smile. "I think it'd be weird not to at this point."

"Oh, so it's just because it'll be weird?"

"N-No, that's not what I meant, I-I, uh... Kairi, I'm new to this stuff. You gotta work with me here."

She rolls her eyes, but retains a smile. "Fine, fine. Just come here, won't you?"

I smirk. "Really? Even with my terribly smelly breath?"

"It's not that bad," she teases. "But for real, did you brush your teeth this morning?"

"Oh, shut up!" I pull her in and plant another one on her.

We pull back and she rests her forehead on mine.

"Sora?"

"Hm?"

"When did you start liking me back?"

"Definitely around the time when you start liking me?"

"Probably sometime around the summer," I admit. "I don't know, I just really like how you aren't like how I expected a celebrity to be. For the most part. You still have your moments, but…"

"Keep that snarky attitude up and I'm breaking up with you." She smirks.

"Your turn to reciprocate the answer."

She sighs. "Do I have to?" I give her a look. "Fiiine. This is going to be a struggle, isn't it with you?"

"Out with it!"

"Okay, okay. I guess, you were the first one to really treat me like a human being. You know what I mean? It's tough when all the people surrounding you constantly are jerks who either wanna to mooch off you or stab in the back. But you seemed to just, for the most part, see me for me. I really admire that about you." She cocks her head to the side and smiles. "So, why do you like me again? Because I'm pretty or something?"

"You're pretty?" I tease.

She slaps me against the shoulder playfully.

But of course, we're interrupted with an obnoxious ahem from Yuffie. She leans by the doorway with a snide look. Can't this woman get out of my personal life for once?

Yuffie rubs her hands together. "I see my master plan has finally reached its end goal!"

Kairi and I stare at each other with confused looks, then back to Yuffie. "What plan?" I ask.

"I mayyy have started planning it back in July when you first came to me about Kairi, but the plan was finalized around the time summer vacation started."

"You've been planning this," Kairi points at the two of us, "For 5 months? Wait... summer vacation is when I visited you about Sora!"

Kairi talked to Yuffie about me? "What exactly did you decide to do in this plan of yours?"

Yuffie flashes a sly grin. "Oh, I did several things that may or may not have included rigging the festival raffle to make Roxas win the trip to Radiant Garden and spiking our drinks at the bar we went to."

"You did that?!" we both yell.

"Yeah, an old friend of mine Tifa runs the place. I owe her big time for almost ruining the club's reputation by serving alcohol to minors, but in the end it was worth it. I thought you'd drunk make out, but you sleeping on Sora's lap without pants on surely makes up for it."

"Hey, we said we'd never bring that up ever again!" Kairi runs through the front door. "Guys! Yuffie broke the bloodpact!"

I hear assorted gasps coming from inside my house. "You mean the pact?!" Roxas yells.

"Okay, what in the world are you talking about a bloodpact for?" Zack asks, clearly confused.

Just to clear it up, we all promised that we'd never talk about the second night in Radiant Garden ever again. We just call it a bloodpact because hungover Namine got a papercut on the piece of paper we signed our names on.

"The punishment is death!" Kairi yells. My friends inside grab whatever they can, and start chasing after Yuffie. I join in too, carrying a random Struggle bat I found on the ground.

As we chase after the master ninja, I realize two things: One, when the fuck did Yuffie get so agile, and two, is this what it feels like to be normal? Like, I feel like everything is finally over and we can live normal lives. Terra, the culprit behind the murders, is behind bars, and according to Donald, the Heartless disappeared when I locked that giant door.

What was that door anyway? The Keyblade had a very odd reaction to it… Ugh, whatever. I'm sure that's just the thing that caused all of the Heartless to appear. If anything, closing it was the best idea.

But enough about that. Now that everything is normal, I have exactly three months before I have to leave and go back to Traverse Town. I better make this the best three months of my life!

*Starts screaming* Oh my god, I finally updated this story! Jesus, how long has it been? Two months since I uploaded the last chapter? My work ethic has gone down the fucking drain. I remember when I first started I got chapters out almost weekly.

Anyway, enough about that. So much gaming news has come out recently! Persona 5, Pokemon Sun and Moon, Final Fantasy 15, and so much more! (I honestly could care less about FF15 though…) My wallet can't handle all of these games. Speaking of which, I've completed all three routes of Fire Emblem Fates!

Now that I'm done with that I might be able to focus a bit more on the story. But then again, I have three other projects at school and school ends in two or three weeks, so I gotta get my shit together.

Anyway, I'm done ranting. Just know, next chapter is the final one. Yes, all things must come to an end, like this story. I plan to get it out before the end of June. I WANT to get it out before the end of June.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and see you later!