Chapter Two: Land of Departure
Xehanort smiled then, undeniably eerily, but by then I didn't really care. "Good!" he exclaimed, and reached forward. I reeled back slightly, unsure of what he wanted, but all he did was to take hold of my upper arm tightly – proving entirely that TV trope about the female immobilization spot – and drag me towards the still-open portal of darkness.
"Hang on, hang on, hang on!" I shouted. I dug my heels against the ground, stopping him in his tracks, and pried at his grip on my arm. "Don't I get to know where you're taking me, and why?"
He peered at me. "Very well," he replied. "We are going to the Land of Departure, so that you can take the exam for the Mark of Mastery, achieve it, and aid me in my work."
The Mark of Mastery? That had been one of the arc words released for the next Kingdom Hearts game, but... "Doesn't that have to do with keyblades?" I asked.
"Well, of course," he answered, then paused. "That is right... you will need one. Can you not summon it on your own?"
I blinked, then considered. I had never tried before, of course, but maybe... I concentrated hard (although on what I wasn't sure), filling my mind with images of the keyblade, that famed weapon of the chosen ones of the Kingdom Hearts universe. I exerted my will, screwed up my face, held out my hand, and imagined that flash of light and familiar clink of the appearing blade, and then opened my eyes to see... nothing.
Xehanort looked direly amused. "I see." He held out his own gloved, claw-like hand. With that flash of light and clink that had escaped me, a black keyblade appeared. He offered it to me hilt-first.
Cautiously at first, and then with growing confidence and mild amazement, I picked it from his grasp and took a few swings. I looked up and grinned. "All right, now we're good to go."
Not to be repetitive, but the darkness portal was unsettling. Very cool, though, beside the disorienting nature of the terrain. But I completely forgot about it when I set eyes on my very first Kingdom Hearts world in real life. Well, what seemed like real life, anyway. . . with the weird nausea that the portal gave me and the weight of the keyblade in my hand, I was getting more and more convinced.
As I ran my eyes along the hills and cliffs of the Land of Departure, my breath catching at the sight of the star-studded night sky, I couldn't help but feel a strange detachment from the world and life that I had left behind mere minutes ago. It felt as though... I didn't know. As if this was real, and that wasn't. I clutched Xehanort's keyblade in my hand and stared at this world, and summer vacation and my agonizing over Chris couldn't have been farther away.
"Welcome to the Land of Departure," an unfamiliar voice said behind me. I jerked around, eyes popping wide, but the man, tall with greying hair and a scarred face, only smiled at me in a friendly manner. "Master Xehanort," he added, nodding to my companion, "it is good to see you again. My home is yours."
"Thank you, Eraqus," Xehanort rasped. "This is my apprentice, Agni, from the world of Earth," he continued, gesturing at me. I attempted to hide my surprise at being referred to as such, and shoved an amiable smile onto my face.
"The pleasure is mine," he said graciously. "I'm sure my pupil Aqua will be happy to show you to a room – I asked her to come here and greet you. Ah—here she is."
I followed his turn to the side to see a pretty young woman with blue eyes and hair – yes, blue hair, Aqua, water, blue, Square Enix is so genius – approach. Her eyes moved from Master Eraqus to Xehanort, and then rested, slightly quizzically, on me.
"Aqua," Eraqus continued, "this is Master Xehanort and his apprentice Agni. If you would help her out, give her a room..."
Aqua nodded, beckoned to me, and waited for me to join her before walking out of the room. Behind us, the two men began to converse in low voices.
"I'll get you a room," Aqua interrupted my scrutiny, "and some clothes, I think. You'll need armor, too... are you a new apprentice of Master Xehanort's?"
I jumped and looked at her. "Oh—right—thanks, Aqua," I said sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm fresh from my home world. Haven't been his apprentice for an hour."
She looked at me curiously. "Home world? Then you really are from another world."
"Uh... was I not supposed to say that?" I fidgeted. C'mon, Agni, you can do better than that. Remember, Kingdom Hearts, preserve the world order...
"No, that's fine, we knew about the different worlds," she smiled. "None of us have ever been to another one, though, so Ven is probably going to bombard you with questions the moment you meet."
"Ven?" I pounced on the name, wanting to figure out just where I had landed myself.
"My friend Ventus. He, my other friend Terra, and I all train under Master Eraqus to master the Keyblade."
"Right." Aqua, Ventus, Terra... Yeah, Square Enix was real creative. And then I realized something, and a chill crept up my spine. Aqua, Ventus, Terra, and Agni. Latin for water, wind, and earth... and then the Hindu god of fire. Oh my god, was this a conspiracy or something?
What was this? How did Kingdom Hearts suddenly become real? And why did my name match those of the spikey-haired heroine and the no-doubt-spikey-haired heroes? Was this some creepy planned thing? Was I part of a game? Was I... god forbid... a self-insert or something into a work of fanfiction? Trembling with paranoia and theories of machinations and schemes and awful fanfiction writers, I hardly noticed Aqua's piercing gaze on me until I nearly tripped over the bottom stair of a building. Her hand shot out and stopped me from falling, and I nearly tripped again. Panting slightly, I looked at her gratefully and finally caught on to her creased brow and narrow eyes.
"Um... what is it? Did I do something?" I asked, although my subconscious mumbled something like beside be a total klutz. She said nothing, but continued to look at me, then turned abruptly and began to climb the stairs.
My head really hurt.
"Well, fine," I muttered. "No need to treat me like my name is Mary Sue." At least that comforted my fear of being a character in a fanfiction story. Unless, you know, Aqua was going to be the character used to say "See? She's not a Mary Sue! Someone doesn't like her!"
I really needed to get over this.
"We're here."
I blinked; I had spaced out again. Or maybe that was a scene cut. I mentally smacked myself and took a glance around. We had arrived in a dark hall reminiscent of a museum or some other fancy building, with dark blue tiles on the floor and torches burning dimly in their wall sconces. In front of us, a door was ajar to reveal a pretty plain room, white-sheeted bed and hardwood floor, that I guessed would be mine.
"I'll bring you some clothes in the morning," Aqua continued, "and I'm right across the hall, so you can just knock if you need anything."
I figured that this was my cue to say something plot-important, but I really couldn't think of anything. Guess being in a video game doesn't give you video-game conversation skills. "Um, thanks," I managed.
She nodded. "Good night."
"Night."
And she went into her room, and I into mine, and for the moment everything was simple.
A/N: How's that, then? Chapter Two! Very short! The Land of Departure! The emergence of the self-insertion, and the meta-humor, and all that fun stuff! Yeah, pretty uneventful, I know. . . but hey, rest assured, the next chapter is soon to come. Relatively. Not enough people care about this for me to have any sort of update schedule – the first post was in February, for crying out loud.
. . .Hey, if you care and want an update, there's a new, pretty, bright blue button right smack in the middle of the page below that you should press.
A couple quick notes – Agni is the name of, indeed, the Hindu god (and not even goddess) of fire. So sue me, I couldn't think of any better references to fire beside, y'know, Ignis, Mulciber, &c, &c, cheesy stuff. Cheesier stuff.
For short-term future reference, since I was editing this, found it confusing, and decided to confuse you, my darling theoretical reader, in a different way – "Ecks" is what I refer to myself as. Augh, that grammar. Anyway, "X is for," "X," "Ecks". . . geddit? Good.
Lastly, a Mary Sue, in case you don't know, is a character in a fanfiction such as Agni, who is an author insert designed to be perfect in every way, usually total wishful thinking and totally unlike the author in every possible better way. I tried to make Agni as little of a Mary Sue as possible – I gave her some of my less flattering traits, I made her non-omnipotent, I'm not going to pair her with a Kingdom Hearts character. . .
. . .Sorry, Ecks, she's still a Mary Sue. Hey, I tried.
This author's note is as long as the chapter. Thanks for reading; please review; see you next time!