A/N: What's up guys? I bring you a new update today and, since I forgot to say it even though you already know, this is an AU. Anyway, thanks a lot to those of you that put this story in their favorites, are following it, and left a review; it means a lot to know that you like it. But yeah, here's today's chapter and I hope you like it.

Though the Test of Fate

Chapter 2

Keyblade

Sora had always regarded himself as a normal person. Other than a certain incident that happened around six months ago, his life had been pretty bland and boring but it didn't mean that he hated it. Who would be against living peacefully without much to worry about anyway? Going to college, finding a job, finding the right person, settling down, and starting a family; the basis of a good normal life that many planned on getting one day.

'Crap!'

He let out a yelp and was violently ripped away from his thoughts as an explosion went off right before him. Coming to a complete halt just in time to avoid the blast, he snapped his head towards the grinning girl standing on top of a slide.

After meeting her only for a day he knew for a fact that his normal life was over.

"Hey! Don't be so serious!"

Kairi smiled smugly, "It's your fault for being distracted Sora. You might want to stop since I could seriously hurt you."

"Then stop shooting those things at me! You could kill me!"

She smirked and pointed her Keyblade at him. A small yellow orb of light slowly formed at the tip of her blade, making Sora swallow nervously. "In order for someone to summon a Keyblade they must be in actual danger. What? Did you think that I would just say a few magic words and 'BAM' you're a Keyblade Wielder?"

"Yes, to be honest, I did."

"You're absolutely wrong!" Kairi shot the orb of light at the teen who barely managed to jump away in a panicked manner.

'Damn...' Sora panted before his eyes widened when seeing the girl charge up another orb of light. He didn't have to think twice and was on the run in a manner of seconds.

His breathing grew jagged as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead that was getting on his eyes. If he didn't think of something quick she would end up killing him. He half-hoped that the weird technique she used would wear out so that someone could help him. To be honest, it still freaked him out. Not only was everything black and white but the sun, or anything for that matter, was not moving. Thankfully the many people that had been on the park prior to her weird technique, had disappeared completely since he was sure he would've freaked out if he saw those people frozen in time.

"To think this is my first day of the training she said she was going to give me..." Sora lamented, "I don't even have a Keyblade yet, how much crazier are things going to get?"

"Stop getting distracted!"

Like before, an orb of light exploded on the ground only steps away. His eyes widened to the size of saucers as the explosion knocked him back several feet.

Kairi watched him fall on the ground with a cry before she sighed and slung Oathkeeper over her shoulders, "Come on Sora it hasn't even been three hours."

"Why are we doing this anyway?" Sora asked for what probably was the hundredth time. He shakily rose to his feet and dusted off his uniform that consisted of black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a dark green jacket, "I was getting ready for school when you just dragged me out of the apartment. I didn't even eat breakfast! Did you know that's the most important meal of the day?!"

She rolled her eyes, "Stop whining already."

"I'm not whining," he shot back angrily.

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"Are to!"

Annoyed, tired, and sleepy, Sora decided he had had enough and turned his back on her, "Enough! I'm tired of this stupid training!"

"Quitting already?" She crossed her arms while giving him an angry look, "What happened to what you were saying yesterday? You were actually kind of cool with your whole, 'I'll protect a total stranger' facade."

"I still haven't quit, I'm just...tired."

Kairi frowned at that before her eyes flashed in recognition, "It's time."

Without warning she ran straight for him at a fast speed that completely threw him off guard.

Sora could only watch as her Keyblade was enveloped in a bright light as she grew closer, "What are you-?!"

His voice died in his throat as Kairi drove the Keyblade into his chest. He could've sworn that he heard a pin drop before a massive amount of panic struck him all at once but before he could scream like a madman he noticed something. The Keyblade's handle stuck out of his chest, the blade was clearly piercing his skin but...there was no pain.

"Once a person is drained of their energy, their innermost power can emerge..." Kairi explained when seeing Sora's questioning look. She gazed at the bright hilt of Oathkeeper before grinning weakly. "I noticed that you were different the first time we met. Back then I was surprised that you actually found me because I was using a technique to keep my identity completely hidden, no one could see or hear me, well, except for people that have the power to summon a Keyblade."

"I realized that you had power somewhere inside you," Kairi continued. She let the words linger briefly before she met his eyes and smiled, "Now I have unlocked it."

Sora looked at her with a bit of nervousness, "What's happening? I feel something weird in my chest."

"You're powers are surfacing," she explained and stepped away from him, Oathkeeper fading away.

He watched in fascination as his right arm shone brightly before raising to chest-level involuntarily. It should have freaked him out but somehow it didn't. Instead he remained quiet as the light settled on his hand which opened up by itself.

"This is..."

"Your Keyblade."

An explosion of light erupted from Sora's palm abruptly, making him cry out in shock and shield his eyes with his free hand but it disappeared as soon as it started. His eyes narrowed in confusion before widening in surprise when he felt a weight on his hand, not only that but he was actually gripping something.

A foreign power ran through his body as he finally got a good look at what was on his hand. A gold handle, a silver blade in the shape of a key... There was no question... It was a...

"Keyblade," Sora muttered to himself in fascination.

Kairi smiled, "Now we are ready for the actual training."

He grinned in response. The amount of energy and power running through him was amazing, was this how Kairi felt? If so, then he had been missing out! This was amazing! He felt like he could do anything!

"Then let's get started," he responded confidently.

"Then let's get started," Kairi repeated his earlier words in a mock voice making the teen at her side glare at her. "Did you really think that you wouldn't be tired after summoning a Keyblade for the first time?"

"Shut up," Sora muttered with his arms crossed as he leaned against his seat on the train, "How was I supposed to know that anyway?"

Not a minute after summoning his Keyblade, Sora had collapsed from exhaustion, his blade disappearing with a flash of light the second he touched the ground. Kairi had explained that Keyblades reflected the state of their wielder and that they would disappear without warning if their wielder had no more strength. That's why she told him that they wouldn't be able to start his training until at least a day had passed since his body had been worked to exhaustion, not just from him dodging her attacks but from calling out a power that had been dormant within him for years.

"So," he spoke up, gaining her attention, "What are we going to do for the rest of the day? It's only three o'clock right now and, more importantly, we are out of food."

Kairi nodded in understanding, "I could get some money but I don't want to risk anyone finding us."

"Do you have your money in a bank or something?"

"No, it's on my dormitory."

"Then they would have definitely found us! Why did you say risk like there was a possibility that you wouldn't be caught?!"

"Shut up, I was just thinking out loud. Besides, you don't even know where I live! My dormitory could be somewhere hidden."

"Yeah right," Sora rolled his eyes, "Let me guess, it's a very obvious dormitory next to your school." Seeing her tense up, he couldn't help but laugh, "I knew it!"

"Oh shut up," Kairi glared before punching his arm, making him cry out in pain.

"What the hell are you doing?! I'm still hurt from today!"

"I know!" She shot back as she continued to punch his arm, earning yelps of pain.

We have arrived at our next stop.

Kairi stopped, hearing the announcement. "Let's go Sora, this is our stop."

He nodded while nursing his arm and the two got out of the train. There weren't many people out at the time which he guessed was because most that took the train were students who were currently in class like he should have been.

This station wasn't too far from his apartment but they couldn't go there just yet since there was nothing to eat. "I think I could call my parents and ask them to send me money right now," he mused, "But then again, they'll probably ask a bunch of questions."

Kairi looked at him in wonder before he suddenly raised a fist with a very determined expression on his face.

"I will call my parents."

"Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

Sora looked to the side with a blank expression, "You have no idea how my family is. If we're lucky, my dad will answer the phone."

"Hmm?" Kairi let out in confusion.

"OH MY GOODNESS SORA! HOW ARE YOU?!"

Sora pulled the phone away from his ear, "I'm good mom."

"WHY ARE YOU CALLING THOUGH?! SHOULDN'T YOU BE AT SCHOOL?!"

"Yeah, about that..."

Kairi watched the scene with an amused smile. Sora hadn't been kidding when he said that his mom was a bit on the energetic side and loud when happy. She continued to watch in amusement, the way Sora held the phone with a panicked expression was pretty funny.

A nearby flier on a wall suddenly caught her eye, its bright colors glaring against the sun's rays, "Hmm... Super Deluxe Meal Special..." She brought a hand to her chin as she read the flier's contents before she gasped in panic, "It ends at four?!"

She was at Sora's side at an instant, shaking his shoulders to get his attention, "Hurry up Sora we have to move!"

"HUH? DID I JUST HEAR A GIRL TALKING?! WHAT?! WHAT'S THIS?! DOES MY LITTLE SORA HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?"

Sora glared at a sheepish looking Kairi before answering his mom, "It's not like that she's just a classmate. We're kind of in a hurry though and I was calling to see if you could send me next month's money today, it's only a few days away anyway."

"SURE, NO PROBLEM AT ALL!"

Kairi stepped away to give him some privacy, feeling that she had intruded enough. However, before she got too far she noticed a look of dread wash over Sora followed up by a crimson blush. Intrigued, she moved a bit closer jsut in time to hear him whisper, 'L-Love you too, bye.'

Sora put his phone away with a sigh, dealing with his parents required a lot of his patience. "Alright let's go find some place to-" He froze, a cold sweat running down his face when seeing Kairi suppressing her laugher with a hand. A blush burned brightly on his cheeks, "Dammit! What did you hear?!"

"N-Nothing..." Kairi replied before laughing loudly.

"Let's go get the money already!"

Sora fought the urge to ask about the empty plate on Kairi's side of the table, somehow he knew that asking how she was able to eat the 'Super Deluxe Meal' wasn't polite. Instead he crossed his arms and let his eyes wander on the restaurant. It was a pretty simple family restaurant with light brown walls and comfy seats, there weren't many people seated on the various tables but it was to be expected since they were still in school hours.

"Okay, let's talk about your training," Kairi broke him out of his inner musings before continuing, "We'll start tomorrow morning, I'm sure you'll be able to summon the Keyblade by then."

"Wait a minute," Sora held up a hand, "What about school? I don't mind helping you but I can't keep skipping school."

"Tomorrow's Saturday," she responded without missing a beat, "Your training will begin with-"

"One more thing," he interrupted, earning an annoyed look. "You never explained that thing you did in the park. All you did was drag me out of the apartment, take me to the nearest park, and use some weird technique that made everyone disappear and turned everything black and white."

Kairi took a sip of her lemonade before answering his question, "That's a technique we Keyblade Wielders use in order to train in open spaces. Our school does have places to train but they're always being used by somebody. In order to get us to train, they taught us how to use that magic spell."

"You can use magic?"

"I guess," she shrugged, "I don't know what it exactly is since it takes up our own energy but calling it 'magic' seems a lot easier. Anyway, the spell I used is called Stop, it can freeze time in a small area so long as I keep a constant flow of my energy on it."

Sora couldn't help but look at her in a new light. Even though she was, in her own words, very weakened right now she could still do something he was sure most people couldn't do, it was amazing.

"Now, onto your training," she grinned and crossed her arms in an almost smug posture, "Since you're really weak right now..."

'Yup, smug alright.'

"I'm going to have to make you strong quickly," Kairi explained as her face grew serious, "I really don't see my powers returning to normal soon and the Keyblade Wielders looking for me already know I'm on this part of town so if I were to guess I'd say that we have at least one week to train peacefully. After that it'd be too dangerous to go out at all."

"That's no time at all," Sora responded worriedly.

Kairi smiled, "Don't worry, one week is more than enough time. Usual training could take years to make you as strong as the members of my club but we're not going to be doing that sort of training." She held up her hand and raised four fingers, "In only four days you'll be strong enough to hold up your own against them."

That was not possible. She had to be joking. There was no way he could get that strong in so little time. Sora didn't think little of himself but was perfectly aware of his limitations, he couldn't even jog for more than five minutes before stopping to regain his breath. Even when he fought Terra and landed a punch he knew better than to think it was because he was strong or skilled, the grim truth was that he had gotten a lucky punch that wouldn't work again.

"Calm down," Kairi waved him off as she took a drink of her lemonade. She finished her drink and gave him a confident grin that reflected in her eyes, "Trust me, you're going to be ready in just four days. The time after that will make you stronger too."

Sora remained a bit skeptical but found her optimism to be infectious. "Fine then," he grinned, feeling strangely positive for some reason, "I'll try my best."

Isa was a person of simple tastes. He didn't care for most things like money or pride, no, what he cared for was power.

After all, power was everything. It was why he had trained himself to become powerful enough to experience all sorts of battles with other equally powerful foes. His fascination with it was so strong that just at the age of fourteen he had been accepted into the most famous yes secretive club of his school. Fast-forward four years and he was ranked highly among his comrades.

But it wasn't enough. Compared to them he was still a weakling.

"Where are you hiding number four?" He smirked to himself as he leaned against a small shop's wall.

To say he was fascinated with the new member would be an understatement. He appreciated power and it was something the girl had in abundance. In only a few months she had shot past the ranks until she was ranked highly enough to only be challenged by a handful of Keyblade Wielders. As of now only number one, two, three, and five, the one to weaken her severely, could put up a fight with her.

His smirked broadened as he thought back to the fight between numbers four and five. "Just a couple of numbers between and yet, the gap couldn't be any larger," he mused as he replayed the fight in his mind. He had seen things he had thought unimaginable, the fact that they had so much power was unthinkable.

"But I'll be that powerful soon as well," he chuckled to himself as his eyes flashed dangerously.

The reward for finding the girl and bringing her back to the superiors, a Keyblade made with the best technology. Said to hold enough power to put a lowly member among the top ranks. It was no surprise why everyone was looking for her, well except for the highest ranking members.

He shrugged to himself before pushing himself off the wall and walking away from the shop, keen on finding the girl and get his reward.

Sora's brow furrowed in deep concentration as his serious blue eyes looked between two detergents. One claimed the bold statement that it was the best yet cheapest detergent, while the other claimed that its quality and price were unmatched. Both were the same price and even the same size...

'This is always a difficult choice,' he smirked as a bead of sweat trailed down his face.

"Just get this one," Kairi took one of the detergents and put it in the basket. "Seriously, just pick one and go. What are you some kind of housewife?"

Sora scoffed, "I don't expect a rich girl like you to understand the need for us normal people to look for the best deals."

"Whatever, let's just get going already. I'm pretty sure you have all you need now."

He nodded absently as he scanned over the items in the cart, "Yup. Looks like we're done."

With that he paid for the groceries and left the store with Kairi following behind him. Once outside he looked up at the sky to see that the sun was still high in the sky.

"Wow, this day has gone on forever," he thought out loud as he and Kairi walked on a sidewalk.

"Of course it feels that way," Kairi said, "After all, we must have been on that Stop spell for at least three hours, well, to us at least."

He gaped at her at that, "Wait, you're saying we were actually frozen in time?!"

She smiled proudly at that, "Of course. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Yeah but I thought we just disappeared for three hours and then reappeared on the same spot once we were done."

"Of course not. Wouldn't it be dangerous if we just appeared somewhere, I mean, what if there was someone standing exactly where we appeared?"

"Maybe we'd just push him away?"

"No, I think the guy standing there would explode or something."

"Why would he explode? It doesn't make any sense. I think he would be pushed off by the energy we'd use to appear again."

"That's wrong. There's no way a spell would be that specific."

"What do you mean by that? Your Stop spell looks pretty specific to me."

"Of course it isn't. All spells have a set effect, that's all it is."

"But if you look at it like-"

"Enough!" Kairi finally exclaimed, "I feel like we were going way off-course."

Sora nodded, "You're right. I got carried away there."

"Me too," she admitted with an amused smile. As they reached an intersection she suddenly thought of something, "Hey Sora, I have some more things to explain to you."

"What things?"

Her eyes narrowed, "About the Keyblade. For example, did you know that there are some Keyblades actually created by scientists?"

"Really?!"

She nodded, "The first one was made around two years ago, at least that's what I heard. But despite that not everyone knows about them since they're sold to very rich people who are ordered to keep quiet."

Sora crossed his arms, a frown on his face, "If they have the power to keep rich people quiet then it's probably a very powerful company that makes them, right?"

"That's right," Kairi responded with a grin, glad to see that he was actually paying attention to what she was saying. Sometimes he just zoned out and nodded like an idiot. "In any case, these Keyblades have several different abilities and unlike normal Keyblades they don't need to be unlocked through training."

"Wait. Keyblades have abilities?"

"Yeah. Like my Keyblade, Oathkeeper for example. It can create a blinding flash of light and shoot orbs of light that explode upon contact."

Sora appeared irritated at her words, "Yes, I remember now."

Kairi giggled to herself before continuing, "So like I was saying, these Fake Keyblades are much stronger than your brand new Keyblade, that's why I'm going to need to train you in order to spot and counter these fakes."

"How am I supposed to counter them anyway?"

"Don't worry, it's pretty simple actually. All of the fakes have a spot with concentrated power which, if destroyed, shatters the Fake Keyblade instantly."

"Wow, to think they had such an obvious weakness."

Kairi nodded in agreement, "Even so they can be a bit tricky since this certain spot varies from blade to blade."

Sora absorbed this new information and felt a bit overwhelmed. Maybe agreeing to help her hadn't been the smartest choice but even so, just by glancing at her face, he knew that he couldn't walk way now. He didn't regret helping her but he realized that he had been under the impression that it wouldn't be too hard which was really naive on his part.

Both settled in a comfortable silence as they made their way to Sora's apartment. A cool breeze washed over them as more and more people occupied the streets, many of them students that had just gotten out of school.

"So what are we having for dinner?" Kairi suddenly asked in a carefree manner.

Sora eyed the bags he was carrying before answering, "I don't know yet."

She smiled and rubbed her chin in apparent thought, "If I may make a suggestion, we should eat some of that meat you bought."

"No way," he answered almost immediately with a stern expression.

"Eh? Why?"

"Because it's supposed to last. I already blew money I shouldn't have on the restaurant so we'll have to be more conservative on what we eat."

Kairi glared and pointed an accusing finger at his face, "Why are so stingy? Are you some kind of old man trapped in a younger body?"

He crossed his arms and looked away with a stern expression, not budging.

"Fine but don't expect me to go easy on you tomorrow," she warned and smirked when seeing his sudden look of worry, "You probably already figured it out but the actual training will be nothing like what we did earlier."

"R-really?"

"Yes, really," she placed her hands on her hips with an air of superiority, "I'm going to run you into the ground and not stop even if you beg me to."

"As if," he scoffed despite the dread he felt at her words. She was not kidding. There was no doubt in his mind that she meant every word but even so, he wanted to get the last word in the argument, "I can last a whole day if I wanted to, if anything the one that's going to end up a sweaty mess is you!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

The two glared at each other before they noticed that they were in a very public place and had been anything but silent during their argument. Both flushed when hearing some of the thing the people around them were saying.

"It's good to be young."

"W-What are they saying in broad daylight?!"

"Wow! I've never seen a masochist before!"

"Those two..."

Sora and Kairi looked at each other blankly before wordlessly running home.

"Damn you Sora! This is all your fault!"

"You're the one who started it!"