In which Namine discovers some truth
"No!"
Hiromi's deadly hands (or claws) are only inches away from my face when a silver streak blocks it. The twisted face looks up to only have her face connected with a deadly blow. It is all so fast that I couldn't see my savior.
Hiromi jumped back with her other twisted members with her red dots still looking upon me with dislike but unable to reach me due to the figure in front of me. It looks so familiar, the stance, the way the spike on the hair moves in the gentle breeze. My mind whirls and my brain ticks.
"Sora!"
He turns around and yelled, "Hurry! Run!" That statement seems s bit silly considering that I'm in a blind alley and that the only way out is blocked by those…monsters.
I started to back away, however, so as to give Sora more space to fight Hiromi and her mob. I have reached the dead end as I felt the coolness of the stone wall flat behind my back. Sora is still trying to fight off the monsters who in turn cower a bit from his sword. It looks like no ordinary legendary swords that I see in King Arthour's books nor the ones in 'The sword in the stone'. It looks modern somehow.
"What should I do what should I do?" I started muttering to myself. I reached out and curl my fingers around the star shaped pendant as I do when I am scared.
"Huh?" I feel a warm glow filtering out in between the spaces of my fingers and unwound them to see the pendant glowing with a blinding white light.
"What?!" The white light spreads out so wide that I got engulfed in it. The last thing I see is Sora who looks curiously at me as I disappear in the light.
…………..
Roxas stop dead in his tracks. He knows that feeling well. The hatred is oozing out strongly and attracting those creatures. He too can feel the familiar grey aura. "Namine!"
He sped off towards the source in great hurry knowing what will happen if she ever got consumed by those creatures. There is a quick movement at the corner of his sight and he jumps back to avoid the sudden blow made by somebody. Dust is strewn everywhere.
The dust clears off to reveal a hooded figure. "Hey, remember me?"
…………..
I opened my eyes slowly. Everything is white around me. I can't see anything else nor feel it. It is just…there. Just existed. And I'm caught into it. "Hello?"
"Namine." That voice sounds like a thousand voices whispering all around me. But it sounds loud too.
"Yes?"
"Namine,you must find your shadow." Shadow? I look down to my feet and gasp. My shadow is gone! No patch of black is underneath me.
"Who are you? Where is my shadow? And where am I?"
"The same old question." I detect tiredness in his or her voice or voices. "I'll just be straight forward. No interruptions, no questioning just take them all in okay? I can only do so much to keep you here a while longer just like I did previously."
"Aye, yes whoever you are…"
"Now listen." The tone is serious. "Your shadow has escaped you just now during the fight. You must find it and manage it before it manages you." Manages me? Gulp. "Use that pendant to find it. It will give a signal when you are close to her. Your pendant is made up of all seven of the princesses of hearts' hearts." What a tongue twister. "It is light, you see, pure light. The bodies have got consumed by the great ones and this is what they have created as the last hope. This pendant can be used only by you and cannot be handed over by anyone else. Hear me?"
"Aye."
"Do not let it be exploited by the creatures of the other side. The consequences are drastic. And last of all." It paused. "You must not be scared of the darkness if you want to control your shadow. This is important. Now go." The light began fading into dark.
"Wait! Tell me one more thing!" I cried out.
"Yes?" The light is still fading.
"What is this place?"
"Kingdom hearts." The voices too fade into reality. I opened my eyes once again to see Sora who is still trying to keep Hiromi and her mob at bay. He is now looking tired.
Everything came flooding back in and I look down again. No shadow. Well, well… I look at Sora again. I must help him but how? I do not have the weapon and also, I cannot hurt Hiromi and the mob. I look at the pendant glinting at me. And I know how to summon help.
I took off the pendant and held it out to the heavens. "Give me help." I prayed. "Give me something to overcome that creature who takes over Hiromi and her mob." And it did.
I could have sworn that light began to shoot out from the sky to the pendant. Bull's-eye! It floats in a bubble of light and morph into something long. Something shining. Something sharp. A key?
Sora turned around, astonished. "You summoned a keyblade?"
"Is that what it is?" I crouch down and jumped into the sea of darkness. It is a terrifying feeling, the darkness. It feels cold and pinches me in all sides with its cold fingers, the red eyes glaring at me. I remembered Avaron. She once took a dancing workshop and it looks more like Wushu as she sliced the air to demonstrate her moves. And that is an ideal move to be used with a sword.
I swing the keyblade around slicing one of the darkness creatures after another. They vanished to reveal the students of the school and they collapse in a heap on the ground. I can feel the excitement rush to my head at each swing. Finally, the only thing left is the girls who piled up in a heap on the ground. The keyblade vanishes. Sora smiled.
…………..
"Yes." Roxas' voice rang out cool and calm.
The hooded figure remove his hood to reveal flaming red hair and the familiar face that haunted Roxas ever since the incident. "Axel. Remember that. Got it memorized?"
"No, I'm not here to fight you…yet. I just pass by to see if your little friend is still there. After all, you need to tell her sooner or later. I'm helping to make the process speed up. What's wrong Roxas?" Roxas looks angry. "Still angry at what happened before?"
"Don't worry, if her heart is not perfect then we needn't hurt her. But if it is the exact thing we need…" Axel grins. "Then we must do whatever necessary."
"You already have stolen my heart.(Ewww it sounds so wrong.) Why must you steal more? Have you seen what happens when they are returned back? They changed!" Roxas clutches his chest. "It changes…"
"Yeah, yeah whatever." Axel waves his hand dismissively in the air. "Bye." He vanished into the dark portal. Roxas looks at the space where Axel has been seconds ago.
"It starts."
…………..
"What in the whole wide universe is that thing?"
Sora cocks his head at one side looking innocent. "What thing? Okay, okay!" I started punching him. "Let's go somewhere else first."
"Where?" I step back, no longer punching him.
"I'll take you there." He scoops me up like I'm about one gram heavy and jumped up. It is very high the jump that he jumped.
"Hey, hey!" I am one of those silly girls who are afraid of heights. I can't help it. "Let me down!" The sight of the whole town being tiny is making me sick. I buried my head in his chest no daring to let go. Sora gave a secret smirk and continued jumping off one building after another.
We arrived on top of the highest building in the town; the mayor's building. I groaned.
"Why here? You know Sora," I shot him a nasty look. "I, like any other normal person is afraid of heights."
"Don't worry, I won't let you fall." That sounds so cheesy. "I just need a secluded place for us to talk."
"Wow, how secluded is this!" I feel really nasty. It must be the high altitude. "Everyone down there is going to hear echoes of our conversation." I jabbed my finger at the vehicles below.
"No they won't. This place is designed to be quite." Sora replied quietly. His tone is serious now. I can't help but pay my full attention to him.
"So, what is this all about?" I asked him.
"I can't tell you everything now. So I tell you what happened just now."
"In this dimension, in every dimension, these creatures existed. We call them the heartless." Gee how straight forward. An exact description of Hiromi. "They exist in every bit of living things' shadow. Only those who have emotions like humans. But they too can move to any other shadow. They real reason why they are called like that is because they exist as a heart for their foundation. Hearts that they consumed. Thus, they exist in living things that experience emotions."
"How can they appear? If we destroy the source wouldn't it be easier?"
"It would if we can live without them. Tell me, have you ever seen a person without a shadow?"
I look down. "Me?"
"Yes, you." He winch as he sees my shadow less figure. "How about everyone else?"
My mind whirled and my brain ticks. "No."
"They live in our shadows, making us complete, making us balanced. But now, something in this whole world and every dimension has gone wrong. The thing that has been keeping the balance in tune is broken. Now, it is difficult to keep the heartless from appearing. People as you know are unpredictable and sometimes, their emotions go out of control. The heartless appears and chaos reign. We have been trying to keep them at bay from appearing." Tiredness took over his eyes.
"So, why can't you fix that 'thing'?"
"We must destroy the organization that destroys the balance first. That would have save us a lot of trouble when we attempt to fix it."
A whole organization did this? My palms become sweaty and I sense fear my heart. "There is a whole organization out there to kill you guys?" I croaked.
"No. They only kill is necessary." Sora seems reluctant to discuss on the subject further. I remembered something.
"When that pendant glows, I got transported to a place where everything is white. There is a voice, no, like a thousand voices that speaks everywhere. It tells me to find my shadow." Sora looks disturbed. "Also, they say that the pendant is made up of seven hearts, the princesses of hearts' hearts. And it warns me too not to give it to anybody." I shiver as I recall something else. "It said too that I must manage my shadow before it manages me."
Sora paced about. "That is logical. Where is that place?" He looks at me with curiosity.
"Kingdom Hearts."
He sighs. "Oh, that place."
"By the way, what is logical?"
"Oh? You manage your shadow. That is logical."
"Why!" I groaned. It sounds tough. It is almost next to impossible. Impossible is making Avaron do my bidding.
"I already told you. Here, let me give you a demonstration." I watched in horror at his shadow began consuming him like those of Hiromi and her mob. He straightens up but instead of red eyes he has yellow ones. He is now a silhouette of himself.
"See? This is my shadow form. Anti-Sora." I inched nearer to him.
"Is this like solid?" I touched his face.
"You sure you want to know?" He suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and pulls me into a tight hug. I gasp. He felt solid enough.
"Solid enough?" He asked with a trace of amusement in his voice. Okay, this is creepy. Sora is clearly smiling by the tone of his voice but I cannot see his mouth. He too felt a shade colder than the real Sora. At the thought of Sora hugging me, I feel heat crawling up my face.
"Okay, solid." He let go of me and turned back to normal. I hope he didn't notice that my cheeks are red. He too scratches his head as if trying to act casual. I've seen enough boys in school to know their tricks.
We hung out in some uneasy silence for a while, me and Sora.
"So…" I break the silence. "How am I supposed to find my shadow?"
"It will appear to you eventually."
"But overcoming it is not easy."
Sora looks sad. "You have to dual it."
That stirs up something in my mind. "Like doppelgangers? I have read somewhere that they are the exact opposite of us but look the same. Also, when we come face to face with them, we must fight them."
"Yes, like doppelgangers."
……….
My mind is full of the events that happened in the day as I lay in my bed, listening to the radio. Tonight's art piece is not easy to create as there are so many things that happened. I don't know how to start it. I look at the pendant.
Okay, now, I know how to start it.
……
Papa went up to Avaron's bedroom and peek at her seeing that everything is the same. He then trod up to Namine's bedroom. On her desk, there is a picture of a key-like sword and silhouettes of people around it with one red dot and one yellow dot as their eyes. He smiled and closes the door gently before making his way to his own room.
……
OKAY! Roxas so far is getting more votes than Sora. Thanks people, for voting. The vote will end when I finish writing the special chapter. And I want to thank Animelover09 and poohbearlover95 for reviewing the last chappie. And also thanks to those who favorite it and put it on story alert or just read it. As for now… Read and review!
~SeraphineKH
