*Pulling myself from underneath the earth, before dusting dirt off my clothes.* Hello again everyone! Yes I know it's been a very, verrryyy, long time since last I updated, so I hope this brand new chapter will try and make that up a little. Speaking of which, let's get right to it.
Disclaimer: I do not own any KH related characters, plots, etc, all original characters have been added to the story with permission from original creators.
Chapter Six - Long Time No See
The slightly groggy feeling, the same that they felt when they woke up in the ancient chamber, soon became notably for use with Castex and his strange power. Holding his forehead while steadying himself, Sora let out a moan of pain, which was quickly added in unison from his friends, as both Riku and Kairi blinked their eyes open and held their heads.
"I do not, want to do that again anytime soon." Sora said as he shook his head, trying his best to relieve himself of the pain.
"Uhh ditto." Added Kairi as she stood up off her knees, brushing her hands along her school skirt which she still was wearing.
In fact, in all the confusion and battling, none of the three friends had any time to change into their normal clothes. Except for that of Riku of course, who was wearing his ordinary white sleeveless jacket and blue pants, both Sora and Kairi were still wearing their school clothes.
However, although they were slightly torn and covered in dust and sand, they were still just about wearable for the two.
"So this, Brol guy is somewhere here. Right?" Riku soon asked, being the first of them all to actually survey where they had landed.
The place was a large balcony of sorts, one of the many levels that ran up the mountain of a town. While there were many higher levels to reach, the current view from where the three had landed was something quite breathtaking. The sun seemed frozen in place as it bathed not only the town, but the green fields all around in a golden twilight, which brought a serene calm to everything.
"Oh wow, I didn't know everything could look so beautiful!" Kairi exclaimed as she ran forward to the small wall, placing her hands on it to better hold herself, as she peered over the towering edge on everything below.
"But didn't you say you woke up here that time? You know, after that pyromaniac scared you off?" Riku soon questioned his red haired friend, who quickly spun around to face her friends slightly embarrassed.
"Um, well, yeah actually. But, I was suddenly taken shortly after meeting those friends of yours Sora. So I um, never really got a chance to look around." Explained Kairi, lowering her head while Sora walked up beside her.
"Well, I guess you'll get your chance now to look around. I mean, we do have to find this Brol, right? So it should be ok to have a little sightseeing." The brown haired Keyblader said, causing Kairi to smile. Riku crossed his arms and shook his head, before turning and walking towards the path that ran from the area and back into town.
"Let's get going then. He's probably going to be pretty hard to find you know." Said Riku with a stern look on his face, which was partly still covered with his silver hair.
Running in order to catch up, both Sora and Kairi soon over took Riku and continued running, all the while laughing as they rushed down into the streets of Twilight Town.
"So that's five loaves of bread, three portions of freshly cut cheese and ham, and one bottle of rum. Is that all for today Dygado?" Asked the shopkeeper with a smile, placing each of the items carefully into a sack, making it therefore easier for the man to carry them.
"Heh heh, yeah for now. Thanks again. I'll be back tomorrow." Said the man the shopkeeper had called Dygado, as he smiled and took the sack carefully in his hands and placed the small sachet of Munny onto the counter.
Placing the sack over his shoulder, the man walked out of one of the many grocery shops that were littered throughout the town, and smiled as the warm sunlight bathed over him.
"Ok, so four sheets of clean white cloth, five strips of leather, and seven rolls of thread and a needle." The Apprentice Tailor said as she smiled and named every item, before neatly folding and placing them into a small bag to hang around the customers neck.
"That's it exactly." Said the man as he smiled back, helped by the young woman to hang the strap around him.
"It does seem like more then usual Brix. Are you planning on a trip?" Inquired the woman, to which the man only chuckled a little.
"Not really. But you never know. Anything could happen. Thanks Martha." He said, placing a small sachet onto the counter before winking at the young woman, causing her to blush a little as he turned and left the shop.
"…..Hmm?" The young woman said, as her eyes caught something that was lying on the floor of the shop. Moving towards it and picking it up into her hands, the woman didn't even wait before she took off running straight into the street.
"Uhhhhh, haven't we been down this street already?" Sora said in a whine, his arms and head hanging down and low, from possibly being so exhausted in their search.
"You're thinking of the street earlier. This is a completely different one." Riku quickly put right, causing Sora to sigh as loud as he could, which in turn made Kairi giggle.
"I think everything looks beautiful. I don't mind how long it takes to find this guy." The red haired woman said with a smile on her face, as she suddenly closed her eyes. Her other senses began to feel the warmth of the sunlight and the cool breeze blowing against her as she walked carefully forward. So happy, so overjoyed with everything, so...
"Oh!"
"Oh!"
Both Kairi and another voice called out, after both parties had accidentally bumped into each other, just ever so slightly.
"Oh I'm so sorry. I-I should have been looking where I was going!" Said Kairi, quickly opening her eyes and bowing her head down in apology to the stranger she had walked into.
"Oh no please, its entirely my fault." The soft voice replied to the red haired woman.
Raising her head up to the figure, Kairi's embarrassment almost went into overload as she realised that she was staring into the bright clear brown eyes of a tall well built man.
His short dusty coloured hair looked like a miniature and quite frankly actually better kept version of Sora's, while his chest and arms clearly showed the man worked out extensively. Feeling her cheeks get slightly red, Kairi quickly cupped them with her hands, before backing away even more so embarrassed with the situation.
"Is everything ok Kairi?" Sora was the first to ask, as he ran up to his friends side and turned his gaze to the man in front of them.
"Everything is ok. I um, heh guess neither of us were watching where we were going." Replied the man causing Kairi to blush more in secret within her hands.
Suddenly raising his hand after adjusting the straps of the bags he held, the man smiled as he offered it to the three.
"Names Dygado." Said Dygado with one of the warmest smiles you could ever see plastered right across his face.
Taking his hand first in a hand shake, Riku nodded as he simply answered with just his name.
"Riku."
Quickly ending the hand shake as soon as it began, Riku returned to having his arms crossed over his chest, while Kairi moved her hand like a shot and shook Dygado's hand even more quickly.
"K-Kairi!" The Princess stuttered out, causing Dygado to laugh a little and nod, understanding how embarrassed she must be feeling.
"And I'm Sora. It's nice to meet you Dygado." The Keyblader was the last to say, shaking Dygado's hand before placing his hands onto his hips.
"Well um, I should get going now. It's good to see you, Riku, Sora…Kairi." Dygado said, purposely smiling as he said Kairi last, before turning away and continuing on his path down the steep sloop of a street.
"Hmm, do you think maybe we should have asked him about this Brol person?" Riku asked his friends, his eyes still watching Dygado walk away, not daring to take his eyes off him.
"N-NO! Let's just leave him alone. He seems really busy you guys." Kairi quickly said, her embarrassment already fading and allowing the woman to remove her hands from her cheeks.
"Well whatever he had in those bags smelled delicious. Maybe we should go and take a break you two." As the Keyblader said this, the sound of someone getting closer and closer could be heard coming from the same direction Dygado had came from.
"BRIX!" The woman shouted as she burst out from the side street and almost ran straight into the three friends.
Quickly stopping in the middle of her run, the woman placed her hands onto her knees as she started to breathe heavily to try and catch her breath. Taking a deep swallow in her throat, the woman raised her head and quickly looked to each side of the three Keywielders, before her eyes seemed to grow bigger and she smiled.
"BRIIIXXXX!" She shouted yet again, causing Sora, Riku and Kairi to cover their ears from the yelling.
Taking off into a run, the woman ran down the steep sloop easily catching up with the man the three friends had just been talking too. Raising their eyebrows at why the woman would be calling Dygado, Brix, the three continued to watch as she smiled and handed the man a small wrapped parcel that must have belonged to him. Taking it and smiling at the woman as they talked a little, the woman blushed suddenly and began to run away with a huge smile on her face. As the woman disappeared back from the way she ran out of, all three sets of eyes turned onto whoever the man was.
Even his eyes stared back at the three staring at him, knowing for certain that they had heard the woman call his name as, Brix.
"Didn't he say his name was…" Kairi began to say.
"Dygado. I heard it too. You don't think…" Riku quickly added.
"I don't know. But there's only one way to find out." Said Sora as the wielder instantly cut to the end.
Finally, all three began to walk towards the man while Sora raised his arm into the air to catch his attention.
"Hey um, I uh know this must be a stupid question but um…Are you Brol?" Sora asked the man, who smiled and began to laugh a little as he placed the small parcel the woman gave him into the sack that hung over his shoulder.
Smiling all the time while he laughed, the man seemed to actually cry a little from so much laughter. As he began to wipe the tears away, the man continued to look towards the three friends. That is, until he bolted.
All three of the friends eyes widened in surprise, as they watched the man simply turn and take off running down the street. This was the only answer they all needed, as all of them quickly took off running to try and catch up with the strange man. Continuing to run down the steep street, the man who called himself Dygado quickly turned and continued to run down a small alleyway, though both Sora and Riku were the first to enter afterwards, while Kairi was still able to just keep up with the run.
The alleyway was full of tight small corners, made even more difficult with the lack of light due to the tall brick buildings all around. The rapid splashes of water could be heard echoing through the entire alley, while both Sora and Riku knew they were quickly gaining distance to who they believed to be Brol.
Running onto a long straight pathway, Brol turned his head behind him and smiled as he still ran away from his pursuers. Quickly reaching the same long alleyway Brol had arrived in, both friends began to push their speed to the limits while Sora raised his hand up to his mouth.
"HEY! SLOW DOWN WILL YOU! WE JUST WANT TO TALK BROL!" Yelled the Keyblader, causing Brol to turn his head back again as he laughed a little more.
Even while he still ran, the mysterious Brol slid his bare hand along the rough brick surface of the wall closest to him, just as a small glimmer of something sparked along his fingers and just as quickly disappeared.
Reaching the end of the long alleyway, Brol took a moment to actually stop and face Sora and Riku, and Kairi who just entered the beginning of the long path. Taking a small bow to them all, Brol laughed again before turning and running out of sight of the three. As soon as he left, a small rumble could be felt to the side of the three friends, just as one of the bricks shot out from the wall and almost went straight through Riku's head.
Immediately stopping, Riku quickly grabbed onto the back of Sora's collar, pulling him backwards just as three more bricks seemed to gain a life of their own and launched themselves out of the wall to where Sora should have been.
"What the heck's happening?" Sora shouted as he turned from the crumbled pieces of brick, before looking towards Riku and then Kairi.
Suddenly the danger of everything hit Sora. Breaking into another run, Sora began to speed up as he moved back down the alleyway, this time right towards the rushing Kairi. Looking slightly confused as she was watching Sora run towards her, Kairi's eyes slowly turned to the sound of rumbling. Her eyes widened so much as she could see at least four of the bricks within the wall, shake and move from side to the side.
The sudden grab though was what caused the princess to scream out in shock, as she turned her head back to see Sora had clutched hold of her hand and began to pull her into a run with his speed.
Continuing to erupt from the walls, single shots of bricks launched themselves behind the two Keybearers, just about missing them in the fist attack, but always showering them with brick dust and pieces once they would explode against the opposite wall. Reaching Riku, all three never looked back and simply continued to run as fast as they could down the alley. Rushing around the corner and into the light of another open street, all three of them nearly collapsed onto their hands and knees from exhaustion.
Coughing away the dust from their lungs, Sora stood up and began to beat the many layers of dust from his school clothes, sighing when he realised they were completely ruined at this point, as were Kairi's.
"Ka…Ka, Is everyone…Ka, ok?" Sora asked in between coughing up more of the disgusting dust, his bright blue eyes turned to Kairi who answered by nodding her head and quickly running her fingers through her hair to brush the dirt from it.
"What about you Riku?" the brown haired warrior asked next, while Riku slowly began to stand back up onto his feet.
"I'm fine. But we lost him it seems."
"Dangit, well what do we do now? He's gotten a big gap ahead of us."
"This whole situation wasn't a total loss though. We did learn something."
"Oh! And just what is that?"
"We now know the names he goes by here."
"You mean, Dygado and Brix?"
"Exactly. I think we'll have a much better outcome by asking people again, lets go and see what we can find!" Said Riku as he brought an end to the conversation with himself and Sora, causing the spiky haired man to smile and nod before he turned and helped Kairi onto her feet. Once they had all swiped what dust they could remove off of them, the party of three soon took the pathway which led back up through the hill like streets while the sound of the many trams continued to rattle and ring everywhere.
Laughter echoed off the large cliff walls that surrounded the huge crater of the quarry outside of Twilight Town. The gigantic sections that appeared carved out of the earth by hand, were formed when the town was first constructed. Once the town was finished, the quarry, as well as its underground system of mines, were left unneeded unless any sort of rebuild was ever to come. This was the perfect home for Brol, or as he had also went by, Dygado and Brix.
The young man's laughter still filled the area, as he seemed to have enjoyed the little fun he had with the three people he previously met. Carrying the two sacks filled with supplies and food on his shoulders, Brol seemed to decide it was time for him to take some sort of a break as he placed the two gently onto the gravel covered ground and took a seat on one of the oversized rocks that were littered everywhere.
Opening the large sack that contained his food, the dusty haired young man began to rummage through the items he had bought, his smile spreading even more across his face as he brought out a piece of freshly cut meat and bread.
Licking his lips, Brol opened his mouth, ready to take a big well earned bite out of his food for a good day's workout…that was until he noticed that small glimmer in the darkness of the largest cliff before him. His eyes immediately fell to the glimmer, an annoyed but still slightly amused scowl crossed his face as he watched the single Neo Shadow slowly rise out from the darkness.
His bright brown eyes seemed locked onto the huge yellow saucers that belonged to the Heartless, both neither moving from their spots as they stared down one another. Slowly placing his small lunch onto his knee, Brol never once stood up or lost his sight with the Heartless. The warrior merely began to raise his now free gloved hand slowly, causing the Heartless that was so far away to merely tilt its head in wonder.
Moving into a low pounce, the Heartless made its first and last mistake for moving so soon. Taking on a winning smile, Brol clutched his hand closed, causing a large spike to erupt from underneath the creature, immediately reducing it to an evaporating darkness. Once again lifting his lunch up and about to take a bite, Brol's eyes darted to the same location where the Neo Shadow had just been previously. Rising from the ground, another Neo Shadow took shape while around it the smaller Shadows blinked out from the darkness to join it.
"Geez, can't a guy have his lunch in peace!" Brol huffed out while he placed his lunch back into the bag and tied it shut.
Standing to his feet, the youngish looking warrior kicked the dust and tiny stones that rattled around his boots, his smile still was present on his face as he raised both of his hands and took on a more serious looking fighting stance to the Heartless.
Striking his right fist in front of him by punching the air, a huge boulder cracked and exploded out from the cliff that the Heartless were currently under, before falling and slamming directly onto the small group of dark creatures.
He wasn't certain, but Brol could almost swear he noticed something else before the boulder crushed the Heartless, but his ever changing thoughts quickly pushed that idea aside.
Waiting for a few moments in the same stance, Brol's eyes glanced from side to side, his body changing direction as he was definitely not going to let any Heartless sneak up on him.
A cold gust of wind began to enter the quarry, catching the large quantities of dust and creating small clouds of the stuff everywhere. Finally lowering his fists and slightly unclenching them, Brol released a held in sigh as his hand brushed through his short hair before turning back to his large rock like seat and his lunch, only to find an occupant already in his place.
The hunched over Neo Shadow was perched on the oversized rock facing Brol, his huge eyes staring directly at the man, while Brol could only stare right back. Unlike for the Heartless he had just defeated, Brol's face wasn't that of smugness or confidence, instead it was that of a wide eyed fear, as his brown eyes looked back to the huge unnatural blood red eyes of the Neo Shadow.
Taking a momentarily step back from the lone Heartless, Brol's hands at his sides soon formed into trembling fists, before the warrior dashed towards the Heartless and promptly slammed his right fist into its dark leather like body.
The creature immediately exploded into dark mist, leaving Brol's face still like that of someone deathly afraid. Grabbing the two leather sacks at his feet, the dirt brown haired man spun around and began to run towards the large mine entrance that was to his side.
Soon after starting though, his gaze once again was found finding that of three Neo Shadows and an assortment of lesser Shadows blocking his way to the safety of the mine. Each one of them sporting bright red eyes instead of their normal yellow, rising the fear already within Brol.
Not slowing down, Brol began to pick up speed towards the group, his grip on the two sacks getting tighter as he jumped slightly up off the ground and promptly slammed his heels into the earth. Two large walls of rock soon exploded out from the sides of the Heartless, before they slammed into one another crushing anything between them.
As the walls of rock slowly fell apart, Brol began to run towards the now unguarded mine, his breathing sounding quite heavy and panicking as it echoed against the walls the deeper he ran into the man made cave. The echoing continued to fade from the entrance, while behind him the still watching red eyes of the numerous new Heartless, stood in the shade of the mine before slowly moving and following after the warrior silently.