Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to its rightful owners.
CHAPTER TWO: THE LAST DAY
SASUKE
"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
- Dr. Seuss
"LOOKS LIKE YOU guys are at it again," I commented as the two boys continued to glare at each other.
Today, everyone had decided to move to the back section of the island. It was blocked off by the giant, dividing wall in the middle of the island. However, when we had stepped into the area, we found Sora and Riku arguing over something. They always did this when they didn't know how to settle things between them. This led to multiple little competitions to see who the stronger one of the two was. Last time, the winner was Sora. Before that, it was Riku, beating both Sora and I when we all got in an argument about swords.
The brunet boy began stretching his legs to get ready for their impending race. "All right, I'll be the judge," Kairi said. Riku turned his face toward her and nodded; his silent way of telling her that he was fine with that. "The usual rules apply! Take any route you want . . . First one to tag that star beyond the palm trees and make it back here wins."
"If I win, I'm captain. And if you win . . ." Sora started, excitement visible on his face. I smirked while crossing my arms over my chest. So, they were fighting over who got to be captain of the raft. Riku clearly didn't want to lose that position. This was going to be a tough race.
Riku picked up where Sora trailed off. "I get to share the paopu with whomever I choose," he said. He didn't look any of us in the eye. Sora, who looked very confused, tilted is head and stared at the older teenager. "Deal? The winner gets to share the paopu with whoever they want. No if, and's, or but's."
Sora glanced over at me. I smiled, flashing him a thumbs up. That was an easy deal. "What?" he stuttered, turning back to Riku. "Wait a minute-"
Kairi raised her arm up high in the air. "Okay, on my count!" she shouted. Sora looked like he was thinking things over. Riku was good at making people forget what they were doing. He liked to talk in code, one that took you ages to figure out the true meaning of his words. I watched as the boys took their running stances and looked at the redhead. "One . . . two . . . three . . . Go!"
Before I knew it, they were running across the incomplete bridge. They jumped across the gap, both of them almost falling from the insecure piece of wood. Sora bolted for the ladder leading to the zipline. Smart choice, I thought a Riku went around to take the long way to the star. Sora grabbed ahold of the zipline, but as soon as it began to move forward, he let go, falling off of the tower. Kairi and I both sighed at his clumsiness.
Riku was almost to the star when the boy started running again. Sora hopped on the tree tops that, surprisingly, got him to the goal a tiny bit before Riku. They tagged the star, jumping through the trees again in attempt to get back to the bridge. At this point, I didn't know who would win. Riku took the lead as they jumped over the last gap in the bridge, but, Sora jumped farther, landing in front of Kairi.
The brunet threw his fist into the air. "Now the score is two to three!" he boasted. I laughed when he started to do his victory dance . . . which consisted of the weirdest dance moves. He grabbed my hand, spinning me around, and almost crashing me into the rock wall when Riku grunted.
"Man, lighten up. It's just being captain, after all," Riku sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. Sora let me go and narrowed his sky blue eyes at him. Yeah . . . he obviously killed his little moment. "Anyway, let's get back to work already."
With that, Riku left through the door leading to the front of the island to do who knows what. Kairi smiled at Sora and me, rocking on her heels. I was beginning to wonder if this was a habit of hers.
"Today, we are collecting provisions for our trip. Let's see . . . Sora, you're looking for one seagull egg, one mushroom, and three fish. Sasuke, you're getting two mushrooms, two coconuts, and . . ." she trailed off, handing me an empty glass bottle. "Bring everything back here once you guys are done. If you need help, just ask."
We nodded our heads, sprinting off into different directions. Which one should I get first? The coconuts would probably be easier to find. I mean, this is a tropical island. That's when I realized that there were a bunch of trees right in front of the raft. The exact ones that the boys were running on. I took out my wooden sword, hitting one of the large brown trees repeatedly. Eventually a coconut fell . . . right on top of my head.
"Sasuke, be careful!" Kairi called out to me as I hit another tree. I glanced up to see what she was talking about, only for a ripe fruit to fall on my head. A long groan escaped from my lips. She walked over to me, picking the fruit up off of the ground. "Thank you for the items."
I stumbled onto my feet. "You're . . . welcome, Kairi." I replied. She giggled and walked back over to the raft. Well, so much for help.
I targeted the drinking water next. This would be easy. We always got our water from that fountain out in the front. I walked to the unfinished bridge, through the door, and back to the front of the island. Right by the shack, there was a large waterfall. Wakka was standing in front of it while he practiced with his blitzball.
I waved as I stepped over to the bottle, saying, "Hey, Wakka." Pulling the bottle out, it was place under the waterfall and quickly filled to the top. Wakka smiled at me and tossed the ball into the air. He was pretty good at doing blitzball tricks, but no one could beat Tidus. The blonde was definitely the most flexible guy on the island.
"Hey, Sasuke. You wanna play, ya?" he asked, kicking the blue ball into the air. I screwed the lid on the bottle and shook my head. Honestly, I did, I just didn't have time for it right now. I planned on getting all of this stuff before Sora got his. "I promise I won't go easy on ya this time," he tried.
"Sorry, Wakka. Maybe later. I have to take care of some business first," I replied. He gave me a thumbs up before kicking the ball so high in the air, it was no longer visible. My body moved out of the way. I didn't want to be hit on the head again. "Bye, Wakka!"
I ran back to the back of the island. That's where the mushrooms usually grow, so they had to be back there. My eyes scanned along the bridge looking for the small fungus. It was harder to find than the cloth. I walked over to the zipline tower and sat criss-cross beside it. Where do mushrooms even grow? Kairi should have given Sora the mushrooms and given me the seagull eggs. I'm good at climbing . . . just not so well when it comes to looking for things.
I groaned, collapsing back onto the sand to stare at the sky. Suddenly, a flash of red was visible from the corner of my eye. Was that a mushroom? My body shot up into a sitting position. Right by my leg, there was a rather big mushroom in plain sight.
A sigh blew from my mouth as I picked it up. Where were other suspicious places that a mushroom would hide? It was most likely someplace dark. Then again, this mushroom was in broad daylight. I tilted my head up to the hole inside of the rock wall. Maybe one's in there.
I jumped to grab onto the ledge before pulling myself up. Sitting right in the middle of the small cave was another mushroom. I snatched it off the ground, and jumped out, heading straight to Kairi.
When the raft was close, I held up the items, yelling, "I got them all, Kairi!" She took the supplies before looking around. There were no traces of Sora around here. She took them and put them on the raft along with the other stuff we had collected. "So, I got back before Lazy did, yeah? That's a new one . . ."
"Yeah, if you're here now, then Sora should have dropped the stuff off ten minutes ago," she said, tapping her index finger on her chin. I glared at her, only for her to laugh at me. She simply patted my shoulder, and added, "I bet he passed out somewhere. Can you go look for him, please?"
"Sure thing." I nodded, walking to the front of the island once again.
I walked over to the smaller island to see if he was hanging around the paopu tree. No luck. Tidus was there flinging his sword around. After saying a brief hello to him, I tried around the docks. I tried the beach, the shacks, and even searched around the back of the island again. So far, I've found: Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, and a seashell shaped like a raindrop.
"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this."
His voice rang through my ears as I passed by the waterfall. His distinctive voice was coming from the secret place that Sora, Kairi, Riku, and I had played in for years. It sounded like he was talking to someone. It was weird considering the fact that only the four of us knew about the cave. My feet slowly brought me into the dark place, and hid myself so that I could eavesdrop. Was he talking to his parents? Impossible because there's no other boats on the dock . . .
"W-where did you come from?" Sora asked, a hint of fear in his tone. It was well masked by his curiosity, however. I peeked my head from around the rock to see him talking to someone wearing a hood. They weren't familiar. In fact, they looked a bit . . . strange.
"You do not know what lies beyond the door," the man answered.
Sora froze. "So, you're from another world!"
"There is so very much to learn. You understand so little."
"Oh, yeah? You'll see! I'm gonna go out and learn what's out there. Right Sasuke?" Sora defended, looking to where I was hidden behind the giant rock. Turns out that I'm horrible at being sneaky. I stepped out of my hiding spot, moving closer to Sora. Now that there was a better view, the cloak that the man was wearing . . . it looked a bit familiar. His face was hidden in the shadows that the hood were causing. There was no way to see his face.
The man motioned toward the old door that was against the cave wall. "Hmph . . . a meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing," the man said. We stared at the door for a moment, expecting something to happen. This time, when we looked back at the man, he was gone.
"That was weird." I sighed, watching as Sora scratched the back of his head. He was standing closely to the cave wall, almost as of he was trying to cover something up. I leaned to the side and he shifted to block my view. "What are you hiding?"
"N-n-nothing!" he replied, putting his large hands on my shoulders and spinning me around. He pushed me out of the cave. I didn't question it, though. Everyone has secrets. I just preferred to find his out later rather than now. He'd do the same for me. "Let's go back to Kairi now, okay?"
I nodded before racing him to the back of the island. He must have been a bit shaken up by what happened inside of the secret place. This was apparent in the fact that he kept tripping a few times. I got to her first with him following me only a few seconds behind. Kairi was standing on the raft with something in her hands. She seemed pretty concentrated on it.
"Whatcha got there, Kairi?" I asked, bending over to catch my breath while Sora plopped down onto the sand.
"This? I'm make a bracelet of thalassa shells. In the old days, sailors always wore thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage. I'm making you one, too, Sasuke," she explained, taking the brunet's items. She put it with the rest and smiled brightly at the both of us. "Thanks, you two! I found something today, too. Here, you guys can have it." She gave us a glowing green bottle of liquid. It was another potion, I'm guessing. "Tired? Want to call it a day?"
I collapsed onto the sand right by Sora. "Yeah, I'm exhausted!" I yawned, stretching my arms high above my head. She playfully rolled her eyes along with Sora. "Okay, maybe with a little less exaggeration."
She laughed, covering her mouth. "All right, tomorrow's the big day. We should rest up."
WE SAT ON the dock as we watched the sunset. It wasn't as colourful as yesterday's, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Sora sat on the right and Kairi on the left. I was laying on the dock in between the on my stomach, swinging my legs in the air behind me. Riku wasn't with us this time. He said he would catch up with us later. We still had yet to see him.
"You know, Riku has changed," Kairi stated randomly. Both of us looked over at her. The way that she had said it made it seem like she had been thinking this for a long while.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She smiled and looked down at me before turning back to the sunset. "Well . . . hmm . . ."
"You okay?" Sora asked, nudging her slightly with his elbow.
She laughed, still gathering up the words to say. "Sora, Sasuke, let's take the raft and go. Just the three of us!" she replied enthusiastically. Sora and I both raised an eyebrow at her confused. We exchanged nervous glances. Riku has been there for me for so many years. There wasn't a time where he didn't have my back or was the person that I looked up to. I couldn't just leave him here. "Just kidding," she clarified.
"What's gotten into you?" Sora chuckled, shaking his head. I laughed, too, and Kairi playfully poked my forehead. "You're the one that's changed, Kairi."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe," she agreed. I stopped laughing and rolled onto my back to look up at the sky. Above, birds were flying high, flocking over to the mainland for the night. "You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where we go or what I see, I know I can alway come back here. Right?"
"Yeah, of course." I smiled, tilting my head towards her. They giggled a little bit because my bangs moved, fully exposing my forehead. My bangs have been covering my face since I moved to the islands. It must have been a strange sight. When Sora realized that I was slow and wouldn't catch on, he moved my bangs back for me. I flashed him an appreciative smile.
"That's good," Kairi whispered, shaking her head at me. She looked back at the sunset with a serious glint in her eyes. "Sora, Sasuke, don't ever change," she said as she stood up. We both, once again, looked up at her in confusion. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."
Another chapter edited! Please, leave a review! It really helps me out.