The Storm of Delusion
I hope they'll be all right… The princess's gaze sailed over the waves of the small island, eventually meeting with the horizon. Thoughts of 'what if?' filled her head as she stood on the small island, staring out at the sea. What am I thinking? Of course they will, Kairi chided herself, a smile returning to her face. But they had better not take a year to get back this time, she thought, a small laugh escaping her lips. Her smile faded slightly as her eyes turned longingly to the sky. Although Kairi knew where she belonged, the princess of heart wished she could join her recently departed friends. They weren't the only ones who missed the action. With her head leaned back, she closed her eyes, listening to the waves and feeling the comforting light blasts of sea air.
The wind carried not only a refreshing breeze but also the voice of a friend. "Hey! Kairi!" Kairi's eyes shot open, and she turned quickly to see Selphie waving to her from the docks while Tidus and Wakka tied up the boats. Waving back, Kairi quickly ran to meet them, crossing over the bridge, exiting through the seaside shack, and running across the warm sand to meet them on the beach.
Selphie and the others also ran towards her, and the two parties met about halfway on the shore. "Whassup, Kairi?" Wakka said in a cheerful tone, holding his Blitzball under his left arm. All three of the islanders seemed to share his cheerful attitude, their faces displaying smiles as big as the moon.
Their carefree attitude was so contagious Kairi quickly caught it. "Hey, Selphie. Wakka. Tidus," she said, a smile identical to her friends across her face, her Sora-and-Riku worries melting away.
"What are you up to today?" Tidus asked. It wasn't often that Kairi or the others seemed to be doing nothing; ever since they returned a year ago they had never wanted to be bored.
Kairi's answer surprised the three teens. "Nothing really. Just walking around," the seventeen-year-old replied nonchalantly, repositioning a strand of hair that the wind had blown in her face.
"Where's Sora and Riku?" Wakka asked; all three islanders started looking around, scanning the small island for any sign of them. Tidus noted that he had only seen Kairi's boat when they had tied their own to the docks.
Although all six of the kids were friends, Sora, Riku, and Kairi had always been a trio just as Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were; it was unusual for them to be apart. "Didn't come with you today?" Selphie asked, a small lilt of curiosity and concern in her voice.
"No," Kairi said, a playful, cheerful grin covering her face as she continued, "they had to leave and go on another adventure to save the worlds again."
All four of the teens started laughing. Of all of the people on the islands, only select few were told the story of the three keyblade wielders' adventures; Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus were among that number. "Typical," Tidus said in mock annoyance before all four burst out in even harder laughter. "Well, do you want to hang out with us while they're gone?" Tidus asked after everyone had collected themselves.
This was an offer Kairi was quick to accept. "All right," she said, a shining smile on her face. "What do you want to do?"
The three friends looked at each other for a second, their happy grins now turning into sly smirks. Kairi wondered what this was about, but she didn't have to wait long to find out. Tidus was the one to present the idea. "How about… a game of chase?" he said excitedly; he spoke as if the idea had just popped into his head.
But it obviously hadn't. "You're it!" Selphie yelled as she, Wakka, and Tidus all bolted off in different directions, laughing collectively and leaving Kairi behind quickly.
She quickly realized this was intended but enjoyed the prank. "Hey, not fair!" Kairi yelled jokingly before taking off after them. She had barely started off before a bright and blinding light overtook her, causing her to shield her eyes and stop in her tracks.
It was over in the blink of an eye, but when she reopened hers, her already-open ears caught the sound of a close friend's voice. "Did we make it?" the voice said. Kairi turned quickly as a response to both confusion and satisfaction.
"Sure seems like it," Riku said, answering Sora's question while turning over his sleeves and looking over his outfit. Sora, too, was feeling himself as if making sure he was actually wearing something.
Those two goofs… Kairi thought, not even taking a second to scan them over as they themselves carefully did. "Sora, Riku!" she proclaimed happily, waving to them. It didn't seem like they saw her, for they glanced this way and that, surveying the entire landscape. This was unnecessary – Kairi was barely thirty paces from them.
Kairi ran up to them, no longer paying attention to the game. But the others were. "Hey, Kairi?" Tidus yelled from a ways away, "You're supposed to chase us!" he said, lightheartedly laughing with Wakka and Selphie.
Kairi didn't hear them, or she just choose to ignore them. "I'm so glad you're back," she said, arriving at where Sora and Riku stood near the seaside shack. "But why so soon?" she asked inquisitively, a happy smile on her face. He promised he be back very soon, but to go from being gone a year to being gone a day is a large difference in time.
"Kairi?" Selphie asked, still standing a distance away but drawing closer; the princess wasn't the only one who was questioning.
Kairi's questions soon mounted when she realized that Sora and Riku had not seemed to hear her, or at least did not acknowledge it. "Nothing's changed," Sora said, turning to look at their clubhouse.
"It never does," Riku responded, turning in the same direction.
"Of course it doesn't," Kairi agreed, stopping for a moment to stare with them at their complex treehouse. Kairi paused for a second not only to wonder why they had not answered her question and had asked such ridiculous ones but to scan them over as they had done moments ago. "But you look like you have," she remarked, referring to their change in appearance. Indeed, it looked as if they had gone through a de-growth spurt; both wore clothes similar to their outfits when they were younger, and their appearance did seem to also have gone back in time by a year or two. "What's with your clo-?"
"Is today the day?" Sora said, much to Kairi's surprise. It wasn't as if Sora was interrupting her, but it almost seemed he had never heard her to begin with.
Riku seemed not to hear her either. "Must be," he stated assuredly, turning towards Sora. The two stood a moment in silence, looking from each other up to the sky.
By now Kairi was more than confused, but it dawned on her that her friends must be playing a trick on her. "Sora…" she said as if calling him from far away; the keyblade wielder did not answer. Considering her conclusion again, she walked around Sora's side and waved her hand in front of his face. "Hellooo…are you dreaming again?" she asked jokingly before sobering once more, "What are you two talking about?"
"Kairi? What are you saying?" Selphie said, laughter in her tone but confusion showing in her face. Tidus, Wakka, and she had steadily come closer but made sure to keep a safe distance away from Kairi – enough to bolt quickly in case of trickery, which they assumed was the case.
Kairi didn't hear her friend's question. She didn't hear their next comments on how her 'acting' wasn't going to make them come any closer; she had all but forgotten about their game of tag. Kairi was absorbed in Sora's and Riku's conversation. "Well, now what do we do?" Sora asked his friend.
"We just wait for nightfall, I guess," Riku said, turning and walking towards the shore. Sora followed suit, and the two friends stood silent for a moment, staring out at the sea.
By now Kairi was annoyed with their game and clearly expressed her displeasure. She ran to Sora's side, cupped her hands and hollered loudly in his ear, "Hey – can you hear me?" She got no response for her efforts, but she kept trying. "What's so big about today?" she yelled, knowing that surely he would her if he could.
The only people that had heard Kairi were Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie. They had begun to wonder what this was, for it didn't seem like this was part of the game anymore. But they couldn't understand Kairi, and with good reason. "What do you mean?" Wakka asked, beginning to worry if Kairi was feeling all right. The others also wondered what in the world Kairi was talking about.
Kairi didn't understand what they were talking about. She looked back at them to see them staring at her quizzically as if she was crazy. They stood a few feet away, and she did not understand why – she would have if she remembered their game. But she didn't, and she didn't care. "Don't you guys see them?" she asked, a small trace of desperation in her tone for someone to listen and respond.
"Who?" Selphie asked, showing no hint of understanding. Kairi wondered if something was wrong with the girl, but as she looked at her friends' faces it was clear none of them comprehended the situation. Their expressions showed no understanding in the least as to what could be happening, almost as if they had been brainwashed or suffered from sudden memory-loss.
"Sora and Riku! They're right –" Kairi said desperately, reaching out to grab Sora's hand. But she missed it; in fact, she missed him entirely. Her hand went right through him like a mirage, the light bending around it. "What? Am I dreaming?" she asked herself, seeing that Sora remained but was unfazed as if nothing had happened – as if nothing was happening at all except for his conversation with Riku.
And that it was, or at least it had resumed. While Kairi had been trying to prove her point, they had begun speaking again, and Kairi had not caught what they had said. Taking her momentary shock to pause, she again tried to listen and caught Riku's words midsentence. "…maybe we can finally do what we were planning to do here that night in the first place."
This was all the silence she had to listen to their conversation before her now-worried friends also forgot about the game and came to her side. "Are you feeling okay?" Tidus asked, inching closer to the redhead islander warily but surely. If she wasn't faking, he assumed the hot sun was getting to her.
"What are you looking at?" Wakka asked, trying to follow Kairi's eyes to some point of interest. But there was nothing there but the wind and the waves, nothing new that would cause Kairi to act like this.
Kairi didn't acknowledge that she had heard them; she was still trying to hear what Riku and Sora were saying. Their conversation confused her, almost as if they were speaking in code. But she could not ignore the questions of the real islanders. "Do you see it?"
"What?" Selphie asked, also trying to follow Kairi's eyes. All three could not see anything but sand, sea, and trees…nothing out of the ordinary – other than Kairi's behavior, of course. Kairi answered them slowly as if in a trance, putting slight pauses in between her sentence. "Sora and Riku are right here, but I can't reach them." She tried again to physically grasp Sora's hair, but she again went right through his head. Now there's only three things I know could be going on: delusions, mirages, or magic. Hopefully…none of those.
"Sora and Riku?" Wakka asked, clearing his ears in surprise. He looked quizzically at Selphie and Tidus, and they returned the "what-in-the-world-is-going-on" look. Tidus twisted his head this way and that similar to an owl scanning for sound, expecting at any moment see some sort of mirage image of Sora and Riku.
"I don't see them," Selphie replied sadly. She didn't attempt to look for any illusion but assumed immediately that Kairi was sick. She came up behind the princess and put the back of her hand on Kairi's forehead, attempting to feel her temperature.
Kairi instinctively moved away after feeling Selphie's touch before realizing that Selphie seriously thought that Kairi was ill. "Wakka, do you see them?" the islander asked her neighbor, turning to see his expression.
Wakka was caught staring quizzically as Kairi, his glance expressing his answer before he had said it. "No. I don't see anything," he stated strongly, attempting to bring her down from the clouds above he assumed her mind was flying through.
All three friends had different opinions of their friend's condition. "But you see Sora and Riku?" Selphie asked slowly, her slow talking and confused tone attesting that she was trying to understand. But her mind, despite her dialogue, was almost if not fully convinced that Kairi was unwell.
"Yes," Kairi replied firmly to counteract Wakka's own assuredness…as well as to assure herself she wasn't insane. Yet this statement wasn't enough to convince her, and she gazed back at her friends that weren't there. "What is this?" she whispered to herself, self-examining herself before turning her ear back to their conversation.
The princess caught the first of Sora's words. "But, how far can a raft take us?" he asked Riku, continuing to stare out at the open sea. Kairi suddenly had insight to what in the world they were talking about; the three friends had built their first and only raft three years ago just before the islands were destroyed. This news complicated things to a new extreme, making her head hurt just trying to figure it out.
"Who knows?" Riku replied evenly. "If we have to, we'll think of something else." The two resumed their quiet staring; Kairi joined them, staring out at the ocean silently. After a moment of strained silence, Selphie left the group and dashed to the lapping waves, drawing a handkerchief from her pocket. Wetting and ringing out most of the water, she returned to the delusionary princess, hoping the makeshift cooling pack on Kairi's forehead could relieve her strange condition. Tidus had come by Kairi's side and grabbed her forearm, shaking her slightly and calling her name softly as if to wake her from a dream. Wakka stood a short distance away, believing he would be of no use in a medical situation. But when Kairi failed to respond, her friends became desperate for answers and a response from Kairi.
Kairi didn't see Tidus, Wakka, or Selphie – her mirage had changed. As she stared out at the sea, time seemed to jump dramatically. The ocean waves rose and fell faster, rising to greater heights than before. The sky turned from bright sunlight to a dark, clouded night sky within seconds, and wind blew the trees violently. Riku and Sora, still standing by Kairi's side, began walking towards the cove at a normal pace despite this change in the speed of time. Kairi drank in her surroundings deeply, sinking further into the alternate reality but not noticing her friends' absences.
It all makes sense now. Why the others are gone. Why only I can see Sora and Riku. Why they seem to be talking nonsense. They're talking about … that night.
A loud low gong sounded, fully calling Kairi from her reality into one of the past. She heard the sounds and smelled the storm as she had three years ago; she found herself standing on the beach reliving that fateful day. Her strange unexplainable sensation of unseen beings grabbing her arms or touching her head with cold, wet hands did not faze her. Although she did glance as her surroundings, she didn't turn frantically to see the scenery; Kairi knew everything was the same as it had been three years ago – other than the strange church bell sound that repeated regularly every three seconds. This bell was accompanied by a mix of strange vibrations at different pitches and frequencies that constantly rattled Kairi's ears. The noises did not startle her despite them being new; however, the princess did start in surprise when she glanced down at her hands – she could see right through them. So…I'm the real illusion here, she thought aloofly, realizing she was completely translucent.
A noise like a strong blast of air caused her to whirl to her left, and she recoiled in surprise to see streams of darkness surrounding her two best friends as they walked off towards the cove. "Sora! Riku!" Kairi shouted, reaching after them before taking off at full speed towards them.
Back in reality, Riku and Sora were nowhere in sight – the world seemed completely normal except for Kairi. All of Kairi's friends were more than concerned about her when they saw her glazed over glass-like eyes – it was apparent Kairi could not hear or see them. She stood unmoving and unresponsive despite Wakka and Tidus trying to rouse her from her daze and Selphie dabbing Kairi's forehead with the cold cloth. The teens, concerned for their friend's well-being, determined they needed to take Kairi back to the main island.
But when this determination was made, Kairi's silent statue state was broke. Her head turned this way and that, but her eyes focused on nothing. Her dead stare and expressionless state was broken when she looked down at herself, seemingly shocked by her own appearance, something the others did not understand. Wakka attempted to grab Kairi's wrist to lead her back to the boats, yet when they reached for her she whirled around, facing the cove and yelling Sora and Riku's names. Before they could stop her, Kairi had run off with Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus close on her heels.
Riku and Sora did not increase their speeds, yet as soon as Kairi had said their names and taken off after them her reality returned to her in a flash before alternating back to her dream realm. Yet she didn't stop running even though the distinguished what she saw as unreal. She ran as quickly as she could, but with every moment her reality came back to her more frequently, and she knew she was leaving this alternate reality. However, Kairi understood that what she saw truly was an alternate reality, and her friends really were being consumed by the darkness. Recognizing they were disappearing, Kairi put on one last burst of speed in order to grab them.
Even in reality the last gong was heard before progressing to a new fortissimo. Falling right through her translucent disappearing friends, Kairi staggered to keep her footing before collapsing to the ground, covering her ears from the strikingly loud noise. The other youths had reacted as well, though not falling over despite the ground vibrating with the sound's vibrato. Tidus had crouched over and put his hands to his ears, slowly inching his way closer to Kairi. Wakka had dropped his ball in reaction but stood strong as Selphie leaned up against him, stumbling against the noise. "What's happening?" she screamed, attempting to block the thunderous sound she characterized as some type of gong.
The bright sunny sky instantly seemed to darken as black clouds quickly appeared and covered the sky, giving the islands a grey, dark atmosphere. Quick streaks of blindingly white lightning hit the surrounding area and were followed by a strobe effect of dark black lightning. Accompanied with strong swirling winds, the sand and blew into the faces of the startled teens. Centered over their island, the tempest threatened to rip it to shreds. This gale, unlike any the islanders had ever seen, frightened them enough to close their eyes and just pray they'd wake up in their beds from this nightmare.
The fading ring was replaced by a loud ripping sound in Kairi's ears. Opening her eyes and seeing another vision, the princess leaped to her feet in shock as she viewed the islands she loved so much tearing like paper all around her as if life itself were an illusion. These gashes seemed to rip the sky, land, and sea into dividing partitions similar to broken glass. Ignoring the deafening sounds, she uncovered her ears and cleared her mind, attempting to find the source of the traumatic, uncanny situation. Following one of the emerging tears to its starting point, she saw that all of the jagged slashes had a similar origin just beyond the cove doors to which the illusionary Sora and Riku had been walking before they disappeared. She also noted an underlying swirling noise like a strong windstorm were coming from that direction.
The storm began to give out only a minute after it started, the clouds disappearing as quickly as they had first materialized. Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie slowly began uncovering their ears and opening their eyes to see Kairi dashing off to the cove towards the source of her illusion gashes, something no one else could see. Tidus yelled for Kairi, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. Turning over her shoulder, Kairi did not stop but instead slowed just enough for the other islanders to catch her words. "Guys, they need our help!" she cried, keeping an eye on them while trotting towards the cove.
"What?" Tidus responded loudly, still not getting her references to the illusionary keyblade wielders. Selphie, rattled by the storm, was assisted on rubbery legs by Wakka as the two tried to join Tidus's side.
Kairi wasted no more time, yelling over her shoulder again before dashing off once more. "Just come on!" she implored as she reached the cove door, threw it open and dashed through, leaving it ajar. All three islanders had no clue what had happened, but they believed Kairi had an idea of the recent event's cause. So, exchanging nervous, worried glances and shrugs of obliviousness, they dashed after her to the cove as fast as their shaking legs could carry them. Reaching the cove, they had difficulty stopping quickly to keep from running into Kairi, who was frozen in a dead stare, pale and shivering.
"Who needs our help?" Tidus asked short of breath before gazing at what Kairi starred at. All four teenagers also seemed instantly paralyzed by fear, their face paling and their body shaking in shock. The storm had ceased and the noise withdrawn, but the state of fear that had produced differed greatly from their current reactions of paralysis.
Kairi was the first to speak after a few moments of shocked silence. "Correction. We need help," she answered uneasily as she stared into an unfamiliar blackness darker than anything she had seen before.