The Second Mission

Shibusen

The life in Death City started to be "normal" again. A week ago, the Heartless appeared and it wasn't safe to walk in the streets in the night or alone, but after the Keyblade's Chosen One arrival, this started to change. The streets were safer now that Sora patrolled every night, although there were days that the Heartless didn't even appear, when the residents of the city saw him walking around, they felt more secure. However, Sora was still nervous, because he knew that Xehanort was controlling his moves.

"How weird…the last time there were at least five missions for me," Sora said. He thought that it was time to go to another Heartless' Mission, but now there was none and he didn't know what to do now.

"Sora," said someone addressing the Keybearer. Sora turned to know who called him and saw Death the Kid with his two female partners behind him.

"Oh, hi Kid, Liz and Patty," greeted him and the Thompson Sisters returned the greeting. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, we were going to prepare to leave, my father has given us a mission a little far away from here," Kid told him. "What about you?"

"I was going to do the same thing," Sora replied. "But surprisingly, now there aren't any missions for me. I was thinking to bring Black*Star, but I think he'll have to wait."

Kid chuckled. "He can be pretty impatient sometimes."

"Hey, Kid," Liz began, "if Sora hasn't anything to do, why don't we take him with us?"

This surprised both Sora and Kid, but the last considered Liz's idea. "Well, Father didn't say anything about not letting Sora come with us."

"And besides, it would be good to have someone watching our backs, right?" Liz added.

"Yay, let's go the four together like Sora's first night here!" Patty said.

"Do you know that if I go with you, the Heartless will probably attack us, right?" Sora asked. He liked the idea of go in a mission with them, but he wanted to make sure that they knew the risks about it.

"After seeing yesterday of what you're capable of, I don't think that would be a problem," Kid commented.

"Alright, I have warned you," Sora said jokingly. "Now, let's leave before Black*Star finds me."

"That's one more soul to the list," Soul said satisfied with the success of his recent mission with his meister.

"If we keep up like this, you'll be a Death Scythe in no time," Maka said smiling at him. The two keep talking until they reached the Mission Board where they found Tsubaki and a depressed Black*Star.

"Hello Tsubaki, Black-"Maka said as she looked the blue-haired ninja with his head leaned in the wall.

"What's wrong with him?" Soul asked.

"Well, he was looking for Sora to go on a Heartless Mission with him," Tsubaki explained, "but it looks that there aren't any missions for Sora now."

Soul and Maka looked at the part of the Mission Board where the missions for the Keybearer were and it was empty.

"Tough luck," Soul said. "It looks like you'll have to wait."

"Wait for what?" asked someone. The other three main students of Class Crescent Moon approached the group near the Mission Board and they were followed by their respective partners.

"Black*Star is crestfallen because there aren't Heartless' Mission," Soul told him.

"So Sora can't take him to one of his missions, right?" Ox successfully concluded and Soul nodded.

"Talking about Sora, do you know where he is?" Kilik asked. "I wanted to ask him for a sparring match since yesterday that Heartless interrupted us."

The group shook their head, no one knew where he was, but then Kim remembered something. "Well, I heard in the cafeteria that Shinigami-sama sent Kid, Liz and Patty to a mission and that they asked Sora to go with them."

When she said that, Black*Star smashed his head with the wall, which made the others sweat-drop.

"Damn Kid, I know that he was behind all of this," Black*Star said. "He removed all the Heartless' Missions, so he could take Sora with him."

"Did you hit hard in the head?" Maka said. "Kid would never do something like that."

"I know, it was just a joke," Black*Star said with a really serious face that made the other students think that if he was really joking. "It just I really want to go with Sora in a mission."

"You sure are impatient, right Tsubaki?" Maka said looking at her friend.

"To be honest, I really want to accompany Sora in a mission too," Tsubaki admitted surprising the Scythe Meister. "I mean, you two looked like you had fun in that mission, so I wanted to give it a try."

"I wouldn't mind going either," Kim said although she looked more interested in Sora than in the mission.

"See, I'm not the only one," Black*Star said crossing his arms. "Besides, I'd like to go as soon as possible, since Sora will have to leave eventually."

The moment the ninja said that, it could be seen how the others started to get a little sad. It was true, Sora will have to leave as soon as he finished his duty here, but they didn't think about that before.

"Come on guys, cheer up," Jacqueline said. "Being sad won't help; besides he wouldn't like to see us like this, right?"

"You're right," Harvar told her, "that guy sure worries about the people in Death City, even if he doesn't even know them, maybe he's too selfless for his own good, but it's cool."

"You could say it's his nature," Soul said. "If you're someone who travels around the worlds, I wouldn't like you to be a jerk with everyone."

Tsubaki giggled. "It looks like we're all fond of Sora since he started living here," she said and the others couldn't help to laugh a little too.

"What can I say; he sure knows how to endear himself," Kilik said. "This is going to get a little boring when he leaves, but he can always come again after he finishes is duty as a Keyblade wielder."

"Then we'll have to support him and let him know that we're counting on him," Maka said and the others agreed.

Later that day, the mission group was arriving to their destination, it was already night and it was drizzling.

"I don't like this," Liz said, "where are we going Kid?"

"There's a mansion around here, and it is said that the people who goes into it disappear mysteriously," Kid answered as he continued walking. "We must find out what is causing that."

"Why does your father always give you the scariest missions?" Liz muttered.

"It's okay big sis," Patty said trying to calm her, "if something happens Sora will protect us."

The Keyblade wielder couldn't help but smile at what she said. It was nice to be treated like some kind of bodyguard, it was always better than be treated like if he was a danger to other worlds.

"You have me on a pedestal, you know?" Sora said.

"What do you expect?" Kid said, "You may be the first Keybearer to set foot in Shibusen, and besides, after seeing of what you're capable of, it's normal that some people admire you. Maybe even Black*Star sees you as someone who he wants to surpass."

"I think you got your own fan club in the academy," Liz said, now more relaxed after starting a conversation. Sora was surprised at what the older sister said, not every day he hears that he has a fan club, not that it bothered him of course. Kid then turned his head slightly to look at Sora.

"Sora, are the other Keyblade wielders as strong as you are?" he asked.

"Of course," Sora replied, "my friend Riku, the one who got the idea of traveling to other worlds, has a Keyblade too and he is stronger than me."

The three people walking next to the spiky boy looked at him with wide eyes for a moment, and then Liz decided to spoke.

"You're kidding, right?" she said and Sora shook his head.

"He's has passed the Mark of Mastery Exam after all," Sora said.

"What is that?" asked a curious Patty, "It's like the Super Written Exam that we did, Kid?"

"I doubt that our exam is the same as theirs," Kid answered. "As far as I know, the Mark of Mastery Exam is a test where Keyblade wielders prove that they have reached the level of a master, but I don't know more specific details."

"A Keyblade Master would be like a Three-star Meister for you," Sora explained.

Kid chuckled "I don't think that is a good comparison," he said. "You could probably defeat any Three-star Meister while being blindfolded."

They continued talking for twenty minutes until they reached a metal door, Kid opened it and the group entered in some kind of garden. There was a little fog, but it could be distinguished a huge mansion at the end of the path and it looked really gloomy.

"Oh my god, I'm not going in there!" Liz exclaimed.

"Yes, you are," Kid said, "unless you want to stay here alone."

Liz looked at her surroundings and realized that it wasn't a good idea to stay outside alone, so she had to give in and go inside with others despite being really scared. The mission team went to the front door and the shinigami opened it. A cold breeze hit their faces when the door was opened which gave chills to the older girl. The group entered the mansion, Kid was the first to go inside and Sora stayed in the back so Liz could be more relaxed knowing that she had her back covered.

"There could be traps in here, look sharp," Kid said.

Sora walked to a big door at his left, he tried to open it but it was locked up tight. Kid went to a smaller door located at the right of the entrance but it was locked too. The only way left was going upstairs. There was another way behind the stairs, but it was closed by a fence. They started climbing the stairs and suddenly the whole room shone for a moment and after that a thunder sounded.

"Dammit, dammit," Liz whined while grabbing her sister's shoulders. Sora felt sorry for Liz, it was clear that she didn't like scary places so it must be difficult to her.

At the upper level there was a big door, but it looked that it could be only opened by the other side, there were also two ways and they took the one to their left.

After opening what it could be the only open door in the hall, they walked through a corridor and reached a bedroom.

"Okay, I'm going to investigate a little, if you see something tell me," Kid said as he started to move things and open books.

Liz sat at the bed and let out a sigh. "All this scares can't be good for anyone. My hair will turn white if I keep getting into these missions."

"Do you usually go to missions like this?" Sora asked.

Liz nodded. "It seems that Kid's father likes to send us to this kind of missions, although there are some places that it wasn't scary at all."

"Yeah, remember when we went to check up on that train in the desert?" Patty said. "It was awesome; the only bad thing was the heat."

"And…well…your home was nice too," Liz added reluctantly, not wanting Sora to get sad about mentioning Destiny Islands.

Sora smiled. "It's a good place to go on vacation. Why did you have to go there? Did something bad happen?"

The Keybearer looked more serious when he asked about his home, but Kid turned and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, nothing happened. We went to investigate the islands because we heard that a girl disappeared suddenly."

Sora thought for a moment, he remembered that Kid said that they were in the islands not long ago, so maybe that could be when Kairi left to Yen Sid's tower for her training.

"The mayor was the one who reported the disappearance; he said that the girl was her adopted daughter," Kid continued.

That confirmed Sora suspicions, and it surprised him that Kairi's father called Shibusen to report her disappearance.

"We also found out that there were other people missing, two boys actually," Liz added. "What were their names again?"

"The girl's name was Kairi, and the boys were Riku and So-" Kid replied and he stopped when he was going to say the name of one of the boys and this made Sora smile widely.

"Wow, so we were looking for you?" Patty said.

Sora chuckled. "It looks like it, and I'm surprised that they actually called Shibusen to look for us. You talked with the residents of the main island, right?"

"Yes, all were really kind and answered all the questions. One girl started to flirt with Kid you know?" Liz said amusingly much to the shinigami annoyance.

"A girl that looked childish, upbeat, hyperactive and always looking to have some fun?" Sora asked like if he knew her. It was obvious that he was describing Selphie.

"That was surprisingly accurate, do you know her?" Liz asked and Sora nodded.

"Okay, enough chattering, let's keep going," Kid said.

"Did you find something?" Sora asked and Kid showed him a paper with some numbers in it.

"Looks like some kind of password. I'll keep it in case we need it," he said.

They exited the room and went to the hall again, but this time they the other way and they find that the floor was broken and that there was a door in the other side.

"It's the only place we haven't investigate, what are we going to do?" Liz said.

"I'll go; maybe I can find a way to open the other doors," Sora said volunteering to pass the door alone.

"Are you sure?" Kid asked and the Keybearer nodded. "Okay, but be careful, we'll wait you in the door at the lower level."

Sora jumped to the other side of the broken floor, reached the door and went inside while the other three went downstairs. Behind the door there was a dining room below, it had a large table and a hearth at the end of the room. Sora went down and looked for the door that he had to open to let the others enter.

"All clear," Sora said as he opened the door and found his friends on the other side. "There is a dining room over here, and another door at the left of the hearth."

The team crossed the door and the corridor led them to another corridor.

"Don't you think is strange that we haven't been attacked by someone or something yet?" Liz commented. "Not that I'm complaining."

The moment she said that, they started to hear music and it sounded like if someone was playing a piano. Liz grabbed her arms and started to mutter that she regretted saying what he said.

"Okay, I've got to admit that this is getting really sinister," Sora said looking a little nervous.

"Don't tell me that you're also scared," Kid said looking at the Keybearer.

"I'm not, but if we go upstairs and found a piano and no one playing it, then I'll be it," Sora answered. Kid chuckled and then started to climb the stairs and the other three followed him, he opened the door and like Sora said, there was a piano in the room, but no one playing the instrument.

"Oh my god, you were right, let's leave before we disappear too," Liz said scared as he hugged her arms.

Kid approached the piano and took a score that was on it.

"Moonlight Sonata…" he mused. "Maybe if this song is played something will happen."

"Aww, I wish Soul was here so he could play the piano for us," Patty said. "Sora, can you play the piano?"

Sora shook his head. "Not very good, but maybe I can try," he said looking at the gate next to the piano. "This gate must open when you play the song, so if I can at least play a few notes, you could push the gate down."

"Okay, let's give it a try," Kid said walking to the gate and Sora started to play the song the best he could. He managed to get the first part right and the gate opened a little, enough for Kid to see a switch at the other side of the gate.

"There's a switch there, Liz can you shoot it?" he asked.

"Okay, Patty transform!" she answered, grabbed her transformed sister and shot, successfully hitting the target and the gate fully opened.

"Alright, we did it!" Patty cheered.

"Good work," Kid said looking at Sora.

"Hey Kid, look what was inside" Patty said and she showed her meister an emblem that she took.

"I expected another thing, but I guess we're going to need this later," Kid said as he took the emblem.

The moment Sora was going to open the door, the sound of chains dragging on the floor could be heard and then they heard something that looked like it was climbing the stairs that led to the room they were now. It seems that they aren't alone in the mansion after all.