Battle of the Mages
Coconut Dummy
Tai sat on the railing of the balcony, swinging her legs back and forth the keep the blood from rushing to her toes. Such an uncomfortable feeling it was. It made her toes feel swollen and hot and it stung. Back and forth, she swung her legs, staring up at the stars. She didn't dare make a wish this time. She advised herself against it without knowing why. Besides, she didn't have a wish today anyway.
Inside Sora lie asleep on the floor. Why he didn't take the bed, she wasn't really sure. He was quite exhausted after the day had run out of nonexistent daylight. He was obscenely tired after listening to the many explanations Yuffie the Wind Mage and Leon the Warrior had to give to him. He had so many questions: about the Keyblade, about the many different worlds, about finding his friends...They couldn't give him much about his friends, but what they could give him he deemed helpful as it was.
Tai pushed the palms of her hands against the railing, holding herself steady as she looked back to see Sora on the floor; her hair was so long it trailed against the floor of the balcony. Sora was so sad when he heard that Yuffie and Leon hadn't seen his friends at all. Kairi, Riku, Kylie...He missed them so much it hurt. But Tai didn't share the same longing he did, so she returned her gaze to the sky, kicking her legs back and forth like she had been.
"Riku...He was scary," she hummed.
"That's what you said when we first met?"
"Did I?" Tai tilted her head back, just to see a familiar silver haired boy that brightened a silhouette against a big black blank. She didn't know why he was familiar; it was just the same as when she found Sora. The name and the face matched her memory. This Riku; his name and face matched the one in her memory. This was Riku, one of the friends Sora wanted to find. He was here.
"Yeah, don't you remember?" he checked, leaning in close to Tai's upside down face. She repositioned herself forward, so she didn't see him anymore. Not that she had to. She felt her face heat up. The closer he came, the warmer her face was. By now it was pinched with bright red that smeared right across her cheeks.
"I-I don't," she answered with a hint of a stutter. She threw her legs back over the railing, beating them both down on the balcony as she stood. Inside, Sora stirred in his sleep, but he did not wake. She shoved her hands in her pockets, feeling as if she needed to find something, to offer something as tribute to the silver-haired boy that made her blush.
"You don't?"
"Uh uh..." she shook her head. A silent whine escaped through her nose, high pitched and clear, but still so silent. Her icy, clear-blue eyes widened high above her red blushed cheeks, her head turning downwards the more and more her eyes widened, her hair hiding more and more of her blush. Riku frowned, furrowing his eyebrows deeply the more she hung her head.
Perhaps there was a reason he appeared in front of her.
"Tai?"
No answer.
"Tai is something wrong?" he asked, reaching out to touch her shoulder. He was forced to pull his hand away again when suddenly she gasped, presenting to him, with her arms outstretched in front of her, a keychain dummy made of shells. "What's this?" he asked.
"It's for you," she answered, flushing red.
"Why?" he wondered, not looking specifically at the keychain dummy made of shells. Instead, he stared more specifically at the sewing needle sticking out of her finger that she didn't seem to notice...at all.
"I don't like coconut milk."
"Tai, this isn't coconut milk."
"That doesn't make it not for you."
She must remember something.
Riku smiled, wrapping only his index finger around the ring of the chain, taking the dummy made of shells safely away before he fully focused on her finger. He took her hand in his ever so gently, pulling it close so he could easily see the thin silver needle sticking uncomfortably deep in her third finger. Even as it wasn't in his own finger, he imagined the pain as he pulled it out of hers, but not even she winced.
"Doesn't that hurt?"
"It felt funny."
Why did she bypass the thought process that came with every living being?
"Tai -"
"Riku -"
"Tai!"
So far as her dreams would only allow, he disappeared instantly before anything important was said to either of them. In a swirl of black and purple, he was gone before a blink of light shone through the doorway. He was gone before she even decided for herself that he was actually really there. When he went away, Sora took his place, already taking Tai's hand and leading her away from the hotel building.
She didn't realize it before they left, but when they stopped for Sora to catch his breath, spots of Darkness surrounded them in an instant. From the spots: beings that belonged in the Darkness formed violent, physical manifestations. Heartless, but they weren't like the previous Heartless they encountered before. These were different; stood on only two feet, and wore armour that clanked and clunked whenever they moved. These ones spun when they attacked, kicking with the full force of their spin. Sora was able to block them and attack, beating them down with his Keyblade that produced silver and gold confetti light whenever he hit anything. Tai held her staff, using the force of one side to hit and the other to block.
A giggle and a song floated from far away to their ears. Tai stopped first, ignoring the attacks from Heartless that missed her completely. Drawn to the sound - she was, - of the singing voice that was meant to lead her away. After her, the Heartless stopped as well, not following, but leading away from the Second District that kept them. Sora stood up to his full height once the Heartless had left, and to his unneeded surprise: no Tai!
"Tai!" he called, searching left and right. "Tai!" he called again, searching forward and behind. "Tai, where are you!" he yelled into the air, but no answer from the absent Water Mage. Even the Heartless eluded him as to where they were headed.
Did you really believe that she could dance? You never saw her before, how could you know? How could you deny it? Do you believe it now?
Sora licked his lips, vexed now that he was surrounded by giant blocks of ice that refused to let him out. His search denied him time. Before he knew it, he was standing right in the middle of the Third District where Tai was dancing away with music that only existed now in her head. She moved her arms, she twirled about, she reached to the star-studded sky, and fell again to her feet. Two others who had fallen from the sky - a duck and a goof - stood staring; one from below Sora's height and the other from above. Sora knew he knew less and less the more he spent time with the mysterious, light-brown haired girl that danced with no music.
Do you believe me now?
Slow and calm, she reached above her head and bent with one leg outstretched behind her, and touched the ground with just her fingertips. Little blood smeared on the smooth, blue-grey cement of the deserted Third District, and she looked up, a flash of orange-yellow boring deep into their souls. Sora, the duck, and the goof gasped. A flash of dark electric light exploded just before their eyes, a ghostly black and purple Darkness bending and forming in a symmetrical pattern that towered high above the three.
"Not even looking at the scenery."
The first, the one with the Keyblade, pressed his lips together, resolute in what he was about to do. The ghostly black and purple Darkness took on a physical form of a giant armour with no body. Sora rushed forward, Keyblade humming with the power to destroy the Darkness.
"There is the place you're going."
The other two, the duck and the goof, followed suit right after the "Key" with only their courage to back them up. Even if they couldn't do much, their power lied with the assistance they could give the "Key".
"With merely a single life..."
The giant amour stared down at the puny three through its metal, slit visor. The gauntlet moved of its own accord, falling right on top of Sora and his comrades. Squashed, they refused to be, so Sora rolled out of the way, the goof held his shield high in the air, and the duck cast Stop and left the gauntlet hanging right there in the air as Sora, with his Keyblade, jumped high into the air and jammed the Keyblade straight down into the back of the hand. With black smoke, it disappeared. The other gauntlet swung palm out at Sora, who smashed at it with a series of non-critical attacks. A Lightning bolt from the goof caught the gauntlet dead on and it dropped, splashing into the same black smoke as its twin gauntlet. For now only the legs and the torso remained. Sora felt no need to waste time on the legs when he could go straight for the torso. Behind him, the duck had cast ice and the goof had again cast thunder; giant crystal icicles jutting from its chest and a bright yellow sky-gash slamming hard into the head. Sora, with no magic spells of his own, jumped as high as he was able, slicing with his Keyblade from the side.
The whole armour disappeared before his blade touched the thing; replaced with an orange-yellow-eyed kid and her long black staff. Her hair fell forward, delayed by time. When their feet touched the ground, she tapped at his Keyblade above, below, from the side, backwards, and passed her staff from one hand to the next while spinning it behind her. Sora would only block, as she attacked just his Keyblade. Once she slammed the end of her staff into the ground, shoving the other end into his shoulder, just as she had done with Leon.
"...you struggle to reach that place."
Sora's Keyblade didn't touch a black staff anymore. A black staff didn't even hit him. He froze when he felt the cold metal of a short bladed weapon so dangerously close to his ear. She flung her arms back to her bubble, elbows bent and her fingers spinning two mythril blue daggers between the gaps. When they stopped spinning, un-gloved hands held the blades upside down by the hilt where the blades were closest to her wrists. Not even bothering to use her blades, she threw a hard-fisted punch right at his face. Not wanting to hit and cause any damage to her, he blocked her punch at the blade with his own Keyblade, stopping the punch's movement; he twisted the Keyblade and jammed the hilt into her chest to put some distance between them.
"Tai, what are you -!"
A heavy yellow bolt smashed right on top of Tai, creating flashes of black and yellow and blue. Tai's unusually boyishly childish scream pierced the air. The daggers in her hands disintegrated in the black light before the bolt disappeared in the air. Few breaths were taken before she dropped to her knees, anything that was loose - her long hair and her shirt - falling slightly up as she went down. As always, Sora was right at her side, his arms around her to keep her from hitting the ground and causing possible concussion.
So, she did feel pain.
"What did you do that for!" Sora shouted at the goof who so obviously wielded the lightning bolts like a master. The goof who rubbed the back of his head so apologetically stared at his shuffling feet beneath him without much of an answer that would satisfy an angry teenage boy.
I understand now why you never wore a swimsuit when all the rest of us did.
"I'm sorry; I thought she was the enemy."
"I'm sorry...I should have stopped. Then you would have seen."
I understand now why you avoided dressing down when you could.
"She doesn't fight people who call it quits."
"Is she alright?"
Why you always wore gloves...
"She's not breathing."
You didn't want to scare us with the bandages...
"I can fix that!" quacked the duck.
...or the scars.
Sora only let the duck approach the unconscious kid. With three fingers and one thumb, the duck who had power over a few different magics touched her chest, sending just enough of an electric shock through his fingers to her heart, to give it the kick start it needed to work again.
"Tai, tell me you're alive, okay!" he shouted in her ear. One icy blue eye after the other opened up slowly, but not widely enough to be awake. Sticking her tongue out, she yawned, long and loud and dropped her head against Sora's shoulder.
"Only if you tell me you'll shut up," she quipped. Sora grinned, hugging her too awfully tightly for it to be an "I'm-happy-you're-alive" hug.
"Tai, I promise...For as long as I live, I'll protect you with my life, I promise you."
"Okay, can you let go now?"
"You're ruining the moment."
"I don't care."
But even the emotionless Mage did care. Sora knew he saw it, the glimmer of smile. The tug at the corner of her lips gave it away. Even if she couldn't, she wanted to smile, but she wasn't yet willing to give away that smile just yet. It was much too early for her.
I don't know what happened, but I promise I will make you smile again.