Chapter VI: His True Name
Kairi sat on the ground, panting. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead. He saw me! How could I have been so stupid? Pull it together, Kairi! She kept reciting the first sentence over and over to herself quietly.
"He saw me..." She said one more time. Her heart was still racing. But she knew he couldn't remember her, right? They'd just made eye contact for a second, that's all. She could just be some random girl he saw passing by.
...No, he chased her down. He had to be onto something. But how could he have done it so suddenly?
"I'm not even a week in...and I've already managed to screw up..." Kairi muttered. But what really bugged her was the fact she was taught to make portals. Without a price? It was becoming harder to lie to herself. She knew the bad guys didn't just give away presents.
They always had a motive.
"Did you get her name?" Asked Pence, leaning in closer for details.
Hikaru looked down and shook his head sadly. "No, no name."
"Do you know what she looked like?" Asked Olette.
"She had red hair, and she was wearing a pink dress...Oh!" Everybody jumped at his exclamation. "She had blue eyes too."
Olette relaxed a bit. She didn't want to be the one to blame for his remembrance of something.
"Oh, that's just, umm...Seifer's girlfriend! Remember the rumors? That's who it was." Hayner jumped in.
Hikaru stuttered. "Oh...right."
Olette saw that he was somehow already attached. She began thinking of ways to make him feel better.
"Well-uhh-I hear she's really mean anyways..." Said Olette.
"But why did she run away from me?" Asked Hikaru.
"Beats me." Said Hayner. "Anyways, tomorrow, we're going to the beach!"
"I almost forgot!" Pence said, his eyes bulging.
"Wait, we have enough munny?" Asked Hikaru, nearly hopping out of his seat.
"Yup! We should probably start packing. Let's see..." Said Olette, grabbing a piece of paper. "We need sunblock, bottled water, bathing suits, extra munny for food, towels, umbrellas, sunglasses, a radio, and some extra clothes."
"Sounds good to me." Said Hayner, stretching.
"We should hit the hay, so we can be well rested for tomorrow." Said Pence.
"This is gonna be great!" Hikaru said, grinning.
The group stood up and parted ways into the darkening sky. Hikaru and Hayner walked side-by-side. They were a bit later than usual today, but Hayner was sure that his mom wouldn't be too upset.
Hikaru suddenly ran into something hard.
"Whoa!" He shouted, falling over.
"Hmm?" A tall man turned around and looked at Hikaru, who was on the ground. "You all right?"
"Yeah...I'm fine. Sorry." Said Hikaru, rubbing his head and looking up at the boy.
Seifer and his gang was out tonight.
"Wait a second... Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked, looking closely at Hikaru.
Hayner instantly jumped in. "Nope, he's new here. And we're kind of in a hurry." He pulled Hikaru off the ground. "Well, gotta go!"
And just like that, Hayner had dragged Hikaru with him in a trail of dust to escape the disaster that was prone to happen any second.
"What was that about?" Asked Seifer. He began to ponder a bit. "That kid was definitely familiar."
He was quiet for a bit. "Oh yeah! He's the guy who caused all of that trouble. Wonder why he's here again..."
"What took you two so long? I've been worried sick about you!" Mrs. H scolded.
"We just ran into an old friend. Sorry about the delay." Said Hayner calmly.
"Who was this old friend exactly?" She interrogated.
"...Seifer..." Hayner mumbled.
"I thought you didn't like him." She said.
"I don't think he likes us very much, either."
Hikaru's eyes trailed back and forth as though he was watching a ping pong battle. He felt awkward watching them so he just snuck upstairs without being seen.
The brunette entered his room quietly and began packing what he could scrape up. Except, the problem was that he couldn't find things that were actually his. He began staring at the room. Only Hayners' things were there.
Hikaru heard a click from behind him and jumped.
"Hey, mom wants you downstairs for dinner-" Hayner said. He then looked at Hikaru. "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just packing issues." The brunette said with a smile. He stood up and walked with Hayner downstairs to get some dinner.
Hayner wasn't sure how to cover up for this. He knew what Hikaru had seen. He didn't have anything that belonged to him. Maybe he didn't have anything when he moved in? No, it's been years since he's "moved in". So that wouldn't work out. Maybe-
"Hayner, can I borrow some stuff for the beach trip?" asked Hikaru, bringing Hayner to his senses.
"Hmm? Yeah, sure." He said quickly, grabbing a plate.
"Thanks, I just can't seem to remember where I put my stuff-well, any of it in fact." He said, scratching his head and grabbing a plate for himself.
"We have plenty of stuff here, so it shouldn't be hard to get something together for tomorrow." Said Mrs. H.
Kairi began to pace, if she told somebody, then she could find out why she was given this power, but if she did that...
It was too much. It seemed like a choice of his safety and her happiness. The thought made her feel guilty. Watching over him really didn't make her happy, it just kept her at peace. But it was still sad, knowing that he didn't remember her.
But what if he did? He chased after her, didn't he?
"Kairi, are you okay?" asked somebody from behind the door.
Kairi leaped off of the ground and looked at the door, her heart still pounding hard. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Can I come in?" He asked.
"Umm..." Said Kairi, tucking the page safely in her pocket. "sure."
The door clicked and swung open softly. Riku walked in and shut the door behind him.
"You've been acting strange lately. It isn't like you to just stay in your room all the time." He said, getting to the point.
"Oh? I didn't notice. Sorry."
"Well, I thought it was because you've been tired. But then again, you're never tired." Riku looked around the room. "And there isn't a lot to do in here."
Kairi looked around for an excuse, but no words came out of her mouth.
"If anything is wrong, you can tell me." said Riku.
Kairi stood still and thought, it seemed like forever. "Thank you."
Riku sat for a while, then stood up and nodded. As he made it to the door, he turned around. "If it has to do with Braig, you need to tell me. The purpose of sending him away was to keep him safe. I know it hurts, I'm upset too. But we have each other."
And with that, he left the room.
If it has to do with Braig, you need to tell me.
Kairi stood up instantly, running to the wall and making a portal. If Braig had to do with this, what if he already had Sora?
She jumped through without a second thought.
It was the next day. The sun was very bright as it gleamed through the window.
"Hayner..." Said Hikaru, leaning over his friend, who wouldn't budge. "Hayner wake up!"
"Huh-wha?" He mumbled.
"We're gonna be late!" Said the brunette, pointing to his already packed bag. "C'mon!"
Hayner lazily got out of bed and got ready. The fact that Hikaru was bouncing around the house and screaming at him like a gym coach wasn't exactly helping, though...
When Hayner was done, the boys said goodbye to Mrs. H and ran to the usual spot.
"We're here!" Shouted Hikaru.
"Awesome! Do we have everything?" Asked Olette.
"Yup." Said Pence, gesturing to his bag.
"I've got mine." Said Hayner, lifting his bag a little.
"Yeah" Said Hikaru, looking at his bag.
"Alright, we just need to head to my place to get the munny, I kept it there for safe keeping." Said Olette, standing up.
The group followed her to her house in utter excitement. Pence was going on about how huge the food was that they had at the beach, which particularly interested Hikaru. And Hayner went on about how huge the waves were.
"Wait here, I'll go get the munny." She said, walking in her house.
As her door clicked shut, another noise sounded behind them. Hayner, Pence and Hikaru quickly turned around to see a black shape appear on the wall behind them.
"What's that?" gasped Pence.
"Way to fall right into our trap!" Said a man who stepped out of the portal. He began clapping.
He wore an eye patch over one eye, and his greyish hair was tied back into a long pony tail. He also wore a black cloak. But what was more unnerving was his gold eye.
"Have you enjoyed your stay in the luxury of Twilight Town?" He asked animatedly.
"What are you talking about?" asked Hikaru.
"Don't listen to him!" Hayner shouted. "And you need to stay out of our town!" He said, turning to the mysterious man.
"Aww, don't tell me he didn't tell you. You didn't think that you'd be staying here forever, did you?"
"You're nuts!" Hikaru blurted out.
"Am I? Why don't you ask your friends for the truth? Or maybe, they aren't even your friends? Maybe this is all made up."
"Shut up!" Hayner hissed.
"What truth?" Asked Hikaru.
"Hikaru, if you let us explain-" Pence started.
"You had your chance, boy! Now it's my turn. Let me make things clear. So you must be wondering who I am. Or perhaps, who that girl is you keep seeing. Easy, you were sent away by your friends who wiped away your memory. They didn't want you anymore, in fact, they didn't even have the courtesy for you to keep your real name. So your little friend Kairi took a page from my book and came here every day out of regret. Little did she know that I could track her every time she made a portal. But I had to make sure it was you that she kept going to see. And now, she's lead me right to you, bearer of the Keyblade." He pointed to Hikaru.
He stood still. "What's my true name?"
Braig grinned. "Time for this party to end, eh? Ready for this world? His true name is Sora!"
It's as though time stopped. Sora began to hear voices. So many people have said this name before, so many places he'd been. All of those hearts he had touched. And yet, he was standing here ready to go to a beach while the Organization was preparing to take away everything. While Xehanort was on the loose.
"Come with me, and I'll take you down the right path." said Braig, holding out his hand.