Chapter 58 - Destiny Islands Pt.1
Destiny Islands Sub World, Play Island - Kingdom Hearts World - Roughly a minute or two after the end of the previous chapter - 3 Days until the "storm"
(Arturia's P.O.V)
I just stay where I have woken up for roughly a minute or two now, just mesmerized by the sight of the Play Island that would be ground zero of Sora's adventure through kingdom hearts. Hearing the waves crash against the sand and the seagulls caw as they fly around the Island.
It's strange though as despite it being daytime, I don't see Tiddus, Wakka, or Sephie in their Kingdom Hearts versions here. Although looking towards the docks that would hold the boats for anyone who was heading to the Island, the spaces that would have boats in them are completely empty.
Meaning I'm probably the only one there, which should give me time to take a look at a certain spot in order to get an idea of where I am timeline-wise. As I slowly make my way over there, it's then I hear a voice echo in my head, one that belongs to one of the two beings that make up a set of my powers…
"Aaaah, this world is a thing of beauty…it seems mortals that belong to this world have been surprisingly respectful of the natural landscape despite the crude constructions that I have seen.."
I stop myself as I slowly process what I just heard as the voice's attitude and demeanor regarding mortals can only be for one entity within me. "Goku Black is that you?!" I ask in complete shock at hearing the Corrupted Deity's voice in my head.
"You…..You can hear me, you can finally hear me….at long last I have been waiting years to be able to speak with you directly ever since I woke up within the depths of your very being!" Goku Black says from within me, making me realize that if he's been there since the start then..has he…?
"Have you ever been watching when I was busy….err….being carnal with my family…?" I hesitantly ask, the silence that follows is long, and slightly scared by what the response may be before I finally hear a sigh from Goku Black before he finally responds with…
"Thankfully, neither I nor my battle-hungry companion was able to watch you during any of your moments of carnality, as to why neither of us truly knows…" His words remind me that Goku Black is not the only template entity within my heart…or is it soul…right now, as such I look inwards trying to get Madara's attention and I end up succeeding as he soon speaks up and says…
"I see that we have arrived at a world that appears to be dreadfully boring Arturia, although considering what your memories indicate regarding what may happen in time, I am all too eager to see how you will fare against such foes.."
Seeing that Madara is also able to talk to me now, I decide to make my way to the Play Island's Secret spot to see if Sora has yet to make a certain etching on the rock. Crawling to slip down into the small opening, I soon manage to get to a spot where I can stand up and begin to walk forward.
Eventually reaching the end of the tunnel, I gaze at the large brown door that is the first thing my eyes focus on inside the cave, knowing the truth of what it is but lacking the tool to secure it. After that, my eyes dark towards a rock not far from the door and see that the etching I am looking for has yet to be altered as it would be in Kingdom Hearts 1.
Meaning that right now, I must be before Kingdom Hearts 1 begins, with that knowledge in mind I decided to leave the cave the same way I came in. As I exit the tunnel back out into the Play Island proper, I decide to explore the Play Island a bit more in order to see if there are any changes that may be noteworthy, even minor.
I decide to enter the shack first, hoping to see if there is a diary or something kept inside there that I could take a very quick peek at to get an idea of how long until the main story begins. As I enter the shack though, while it is empty as I expected it to be in terms of how it looked in Kingdom Hearts 1, a surprising sight catches my attention.
A Green glowing circle suddenly appears before my eyes, its appearance instantly recognizable as something that should only be a game mechanic, a save point. Hesitantly, I approach the green save point and enter it, it shines and I feel a surge of revitalizing energies fill me.
It's then I feel the urge to close my eyes for a brief moment, and in my mind's eye see what looks to be a single empty slot. I reach out to the singular slot on instinct and suddenly feel as if time itself has stopped momentarily before the empty slot flashes and now displays the following…
[Destiny Islands: Shack Save Point - Arturia Morgana Pendragon: Lvl ? - Time before Save expiration: 1 Week - Time of Save: 6 Minutes since arrival - 6 More uses of Save feature remaining]
The shock of what I just experienced is enough to snap me out of the trance I was just in, realizing that while Save slots seem to be HEAVILY nerfed compared to the game, they will be a massive boon during my time here in kingdom hearts.
"Inconcievable…a magical circle that can bend the laws of time itself…as a natural feature of the world…to think the power of the gods would be so simple here in this world…" I hear Goku Black say in my head before I find myself responding by saying…
"Except unlike in the games, we got at most 6 more uses before we can't use it anymore.." Grimacing as it means that while we have a VERY valuable safety net now, I know that there are several moments in the game where such limited saves will not be enough.
However, the problem is that I have no idea if the save points only exist in this world or if they existed in the previous worlds. Ultimately I decided to put the question on hold until I can get back to Merlin and the others—-
"Fuck, I was so mesmerized by everything I've been seeing that I forgot to see if my family is alright!" I say, cursing myself for getting so caught up in my deep-rooted nostalgia, I quickly open up a portal back into my Pocket Dimension….
Pocket Dimension of Arturia Morgana Pendragon - Kingdom Hearts World
(Arturia's P.O.V)
As I enter my pocket dimension, I feel both Mashu and Grey suddenly hug me out of nowhere as I exit the portal, the two seem to have been worried about me. I look down, feeling guilty for not having come to see everyone as the first thing on my mind as I hug my two dear sisters tightly.
"Sister, you're back!" Grey says, grateful to see that I have returned which only makes me hug the two all the more tightly. Eventually, I gently have them get off of me so I can get up, soon being greeted by Merlin…
"Welcome back dear sister, how was the wav—" Merlin says before being cut off by my punch to the face that sends her flying. As she lands on the beach, she rubs her face as she seems that I am rather peeved at not being given a heads-up.
"Start talking Merlin, what the hell is going on?!" I say, greatly annoyed at the Half-succubus who gives me a wry smile before getting up, dusting the sand off her robes before she soon responds by saying…
"The Pocket Dimension was momentarily assaulted by the great darkness that is currently assailing the worlds, and before you ask yes this is just before what you know as Kingdom Hearts 1…" Merlin Pauses her explanation to see if I'm listening, once she sees that she has my full attention and isn't about to get another punch she continues to explain by saying…
"During the assault, the remaining code in your E.S.L app activated a string of abnormal commands on your build that resulted in the heartless having gained access to worlds we have appeared in prior to now…." This utterly horrifies me as I know at the very least the RWBY world will have major trouble with the heartless, but Merlin is quick to chime in and say…
"However, I did peer into the possible futures regarding those worlds and they should correct themselves over time, although it would be a good idea to at least revisit one of those worlds to deal with the emerging threats those worlds will have to deal with as a result of the Heartless Incurison.." This does lessen my concern a fair bit but still, I should consider returning to one of those worlds immediately, pulling up the E.S.L app on my company phone only to see that it's currently in a new function I've never seen before…
"Ah yes, your E.S.L app was quick to detect the abnormal code as it spewed out the commands and as a result, locked itself as it is working on purging the malicious code from its system, however, this means that we will not be able to return to those worlds via the E.S.L until we are finished here in this world.." Merlin says, making me feel fairly frustrated but thinking about what I saw before I fell unconscious earlier, it made sense since it made so many warnings come up so fast that it probably freaked out and locked itself as a fail-safe…
At least I can Kai Kai back to those worlds if needed, but without being able to directly move my pocket dimension back to the other worlds, it will very quickly become rather frustrating to make the constant trips.
"And what of the stuff with Goku Black and Madara…?" I find myself asking, feeling the two within me pay attention to Merlin's words very carefully here as Merlin chuckles with amusement before she soon says…
"It was a surprise to me too, learning that those two existed within you ever since you began your journey but let me say that their current state is essential to what the future holds for you in particular sister…" Merlin's words sound particularly ominous but she elaborates no further on that as she quickly changes the topic by saying…
"Now then, please call upon the staff you received in the station of Awakening.." Feeling surprised by the request, I initially go to say that I don't have that staff but pause when I feel a stirring within my heart as suddenly the long form of the Dream staff manifests in my right hand, much to my own immense surprise as Sora never kept any of the dream weapons after the dream sequence…
"Excellent, it seems that my clairvoyance was right about the staff still being around after that moment…" Merlin says while giggling softly, amused at my reaction as I twirl the long Mickey-head staff in my hand.
"But how…?" I ask, to which Merlin takes my Company phone from my other hand and shows my build, pointing to a VERY specific spot as I realize what the purchase was for. The unauthorized purchase was for [Added Potential: Keyblade], which makes me realize that this staff is basically the stand-in for a Keyblade until I get one.
"It seems Kirei Kotomine had a very particular plan in mind for you from the very beginning sister, although whether or not he intended to live to see it happen is another story entirely…" Merlin says, frowning cutely as she thinks about what Kirei's plans could have been before ultimately shrugging her shoulders and dragging me over to the manor…
"Come now sister, everyone is waiting for you to come back, you did give everyone quite a shock when you vanished all of a sudden in a flash of white light~" Merlin says as her words explain why I appeared on Destiny Island rather than wake up on the beach of my own pocket dimension.
Although it seems not even Merlin knows how I had teleported out of the Pocket Dimension, just that I had done so. Either way, we head into the manor proper where everyone seems to be waiting for me to arrive, likely having been told by Merlin when I'd arrive.
"Ah good, it seems that you're no worse for wear sister and if Merlin's clairvoyance is anything to go by, this world is perhaps the best place to accelerate the progress of my research!" Fu says as she already has a laptop up with the details of just the first Kingdom Hearts alone…
"So how long was I gone for…?" I ask Grey, turning to her to see her reaction as she thinks for a moment before her eyes glance at a nearby clock on the wall. Eventually, she ends up responding to my query by saying…
"Four Hours approximately, we knew you were at least alright considering what Merlin told us not long after you disappeared…" I nod and we quickly move to the dining room long table in order to begin our discussions regarding how to handle this particular world.
It is also where Merlin drops a particular bombshell regarding how we'll be forced to interact with the world in question…
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WE CAN ONLY ENTER INTO THIS WORLD WITH THREE PEOPLE AT A TIME?!" Mordred yells at Merlin, one of many who are deeply upset by the sudden and unexpected piece of information from Merlin.
"Three reasons Mordred, the first being that the situation outside of our home is quite dangerous, if we let out guard down the heartless could potentially infiltrate the pocket dimension and with Arturia now being the only one of us who can destroy them for good.." Merlin says, not elaborating further on the first reason as we all grimace at the losing battle of attrition that would occur if the heartless managed to get past the divine runic protections.
"The second reason is that keeping things to an expedition party of three allows us to prevent any of our actions from upsetting the world order too much…" Merlin says, making me frown in annoyance that the world order is brought up as a reason to keep it a party of three as I soon retort by saying…
"Merlin, by this point traverse town has a ton of people who know of other worlds and with Cid's gummi tech I think there are a fair few worlds who already know of the outside worlds…" Merlin looked over to me before chuckling and shaking her head before saying…
"Oh I don't mean that sort of world order as the duck would say, no I more refer to how our various powers can drastically shift the balance of power and upset the status quo of many unaware worlds, even without Keyblades at our disposal…especially divine beings like yourself and Ereshkigal in specifically.." Merlin's words catch Ereshkigal's attention before I realize with a downright mischievous grin that I should probably visit Olympus Coliseum with Ereshkigal later…
"I get maybe Ritsuka or Arturia, but why am I brought into this…?" Ereshkigal asks with curiosity before Fu quickly wanders over and whispers something in her ear, her eyes widening as she stares at Fu, the demonic woman simply smiles and nods before returning to her seat and laptop.
Speaking of Fu, she seems to be using her access to the internet at a breakneck pace as now that it's confirmed we're in Kingdom Hearts, she's quickly diving through as much as she can learn about this world's plot.
While I do hope Fu will be able to comprehend what's going on, even back home people were still trying to understand the extent of the plot and its details. Regardless Merlin quickly clears her throat and draws everyone's attention again to her as she explains the third reason, soon saying…
"As for the third reason, even with the trace and information protection protecting us directly, we have to account for the fact that this Master Xehanort is not only a master tactician as well as one who has access to a strange form of time travel, meaning going into worlds as too large of a group would attract the attention of the split parts of Xehanort too early…." Merlin's words lay out just how dangerous Master Xehanort is despite his original frail appearance.
However, the tail end of Merlin's reasoning is caught by multiple people at the table, with Roman Torchwick of all people being the first to point it out as he says… "Hold up flower girl, when you say Attract attention too early am I right in saying that we'll eventually be able to go all in later on..?"
Merlin nods and as we all look fairly eager, she is quick to respond by saying… "While that is true, it won't happen until we've arrived at a very specific world, one that lies past Hollow Bastion.."
Both I and Fu freeze as we both look at each other, with the two of us knowing that the world in question is quite literally the end of the first game. With Merlin's explanation of why we're unable to have the entire family go out as a cohesive finished, we ultimately decided it would be best to not risk changing the script just yet and as such agree to stick to three man-squads going forward in the Kingdom Hearts world.
That just leaves the issue of trying to decide who should join me back on Destiny Islands for the time being, with many wanting to come along. However, after an hour-long discussion, we come to the following choice of RED spy and Sona Sitri accompanying me back to Destiny Islands for now with RED spy intending to keep a close eye on the door that leads to the heart of that world.
As for why Sona of all people is joining me, her water magic as well as the fact this will be the first world without the majority of her peerage to support her means that it would be a good chance while things are still relatively tame to get her used to acting in a smaller group capacity.
Once that's established, Medea quickly pulls both me and Sona aside, to give us suitable bikini swimwear to at least enjoy our time in Destiny Islands while we can. While at first both of us are annoyed that Medea dragged us aside for something like that, Medea does point out that our usual attire would look strange to the Islanders as Sona is wearing the Kuoh Academy Uniform as a casual outfit while I'm wearing the same blue top and shorts outfit choice for the last few years…
So as much as neither of us like the idea, Medea does convince us that we'd only need to do so until the night of fate occurs, and after that, we can swap into our usual outfits then. Before long I find myself wearing a blue bikini with a gold-colored trim to it while Sona's own is colored white with dark blue trim.
Eventually, we open up a portal back to Destiny Islands, with the RED spy using the Cloak and Dagger Invisiwatch to keep himself hidden once we're on the other side. As we exit through the portal, Merlin does remind me that I should remember that so far every world we've been to has had changes due to our mere presence that led to drastically altered situations…
It is Merlin's subtle way of reminding me that even my meta-knowledge of this nostalgic world can not ever be taken for granted, so I merely nod my head to affirm that I have understood her warning and walk into the portal alongside Sona and RED spy.
Destiny Islands, Play Islands - Kingdom Hearts World
(Arturia's P.O.V)
As the three of us exit out of the portal, I find that we're not where I had expected us to teleport to, rather we're inside the shack that houses the save point. Not only that, It seems that Sona can see the Save Point as well, but RED spy is unable to, leading me to suspect that only my companions or family will be able to actually spot the Save Point itself.
Eventually, RED spy decides to head towards the secret spot to begin his watch on the door, just in case a certain robed figure appears at any point prior to the inevitable conversation with Sora.
This leaves me and Sona to head out of the shack together, wearing the Bikinis as we head out on the warm sunny day of Destiny Island. However, It seems that the world decided to throw one final surprise my way as when we are about to move away from the shack, I spot three teenage girls coming over to the shack, spotting us and looking surprised.
One of them is most definitely an older Kairi as she looks identical to her Kingdom Hearts 2 look more than anything. However it's the identity of the other two that completely surprises me as to the left of Kairi is a young woman with a calm, collected gaze with long silver hair, sporting a bust that is identical to the canon size of Akeno before she had gotten her Tempest Jewel Upgrade…
It takes me a moment but it finally registers in my head that the silver-haired young woman is a very busty female Riku. This immediately makes me realize that the busty brunette to the right of Kairi, the one that has a similar bust size to Rias before her own upgrade and is currently giving a bubbly, bright, and slightly ditzy smile towards us is none other than Sora…
And as they approach us, with a look of curiosity in their eyes, I know one thing for certain at the very least.
I am going to have problems resisting the urge to just ring them all right then and there….
Author's Notes
Well, it seems that things are going to get very interesting from here on out so let's get down to the plot discussions shall we?
Goku Black and Madara Uchiha
With the Dive to the Heart Completed the two have been given a direct way of communicating with Arturia and in a way creates a sort of Jinchuriki relationship between Arturia and the two, although not exactly as she already has the powers, but what they offer instead is perspective and a greater comprehension of the powers that Arturia wields.
While normal templates are basically all the skills and abilities up to a point, the unique bastardized versions of templates that Kirei has given Arturia during her rebirth as Arturia Morgana Pendragon are part of a plan, one that seems to extend past even his death.
The Nerfed Save Point System
This will be a system entirely unique to the Kingdom Hearts world that will prove incredibly useful despite how vastly limited it is compared to the game's original version. Especially since it's not simply a game anymore, however, this is also not something Arturia can use indefinitely and has a hard limit on both how many times she can save as well as how long each save slot lasts.
The Three-man Party System
This was both a way to combat the character bloat and allow me to dedicate extra time to characters I have yet to make full use of, giving those like say Ravel Phenex to shine. As indicated by Merlin though, there will eventually come a point where the Three-man Party System can stop, which will come at some far-off point in the Kingdom Hearts storyline.
The Brief Scene of both Female Sora, Kairi, and Female Riku
Yea, by this point you've all probably understood what Arturia's preferences are in this situation, although this is actually Universal Calibrations fault specifically. Even so, this is gonna be very interesting for Arturia seeing that her favorite cast of characters not only are female now and look incredibly sexy in her eyes.
Let's hope Arturia can resist putting a ring on any of them too soon, especially since she doesn't want to rock the boat so early.
So, Next time on A Golden Goddess: A Warm Welcome from the Islander Trio, Arturia and Sona enjoy some one on one time together, and A meeting in the Shadows of Hollow Bastion..
See you all on the 19th everyone, take care!