So here we go, the sixth chapter of The Light Guardians.
There are separated scenes, this way you can read what Riku and Kairi are doing while Sora's in the Witches' Realm with Kim and Jacqueline.
Thanks everyone for the follows/favs/reviews, as always, I'll write the answer to some of the reviews at the end of the chapter.
Chapter VI
Keyblade Wielders and Witches
1345hrs, June 13th, 2024
Radiant Garden
Riku was walking around Radiant Garden after he finished talking with the people of the building company, and after he took a look at the area where the trainees of the Military are prepared to battle the Heartless. He talked with one of the instructors, who explained the silver-haired Keyblade wielder about the three divisions of the Military, the Stationary Guard, the Military Police and the Survey Corps.
He decided to return to the Restoration Committee's house to see what Sora and Kairi were doing and on his way there, he saw someone he knew. There was a young man leaning on a wall with his arms crossed, he had blond spiky hair and blue eyes. After seeing the man, Riku walked to where he was and greeted him.
"Cloud," he said, and the young man opened his eyes and looked at the person who called him.
"Riku, it's good to see you," said the man called Cloud with a calm voice. "I see you stayed here."
"What do you mean?" asked the Keybearer.
"Tifa and I talked with Leon, and he told us that Sora, Kairi and you returned to Radiant Garden," Cloud answered. "We asked him where you three were, and Cid and Yuffie told us that Sora and Kairi left four hours ago. They mentioned something about witches."
"I see," Riku said, remembering that he asked Kairi to ask Sora about that. "Hey, Cloud, have you talked with Ansem the Wise recently?"
"No, why?" asked the blond a bit curious.
"I'd like to talk with him about the Heartless," the Keybearer said, "and I wanted to take a look at his computer too since Sora told me that he wanted to ask Tron for a favor, but I heard visits aren't allowed at the moment."
"It's true," Cloud said. "The Military Police takes care of the inner part of the city, where the castle is, and they have had problems with a guild of thieves and other troublesome people lately. You'll have to wait if you want to enter the castle."
"Just what I thought," the Keyblade wielder said crossing his arms.
"Riku, there is something I wanted to ask you," Cloud said, and the Keybearer looked at him. "Is Sora all right?"
"I think so, why do you ask?" asked Riku, who was puzzled by the man's question.
"You know that Xehanort usually had a lot of backup plans if something didn't turn out like he wanted," Cloud explained, "and according to you, he tried to make Sora one of his vessels. I just wanted to know if you noticed any change in his attitude or something like that."
"Don't worry about that," Riku assured. "I also thought of that possibility, so after we returned to our home, I kept an eye on him for a while and I can assure you that he's fine."
"Good, just wanted to make sure," Cloud said, although he was still going to be alert. "By the way, Cid was looking for you. He said something about a Gummi Ship that arrived an hour ago."
"Oh, thanks, I'll go to see what he wants," Riku said before saying goodbye to the blond man. He wondered why Cid wanted to see him, and who arrived in Radiant Garden with that Gummi Ship.
The Keyblade wielder headed to the Restoration Committee's house, and as he walked, the boy could see a few soldiers using their gears to swing through the buildings. They were from the Survey Corps, so probably they were heading to the same place Riku was going.
After a few minutes walking, the silver-haired boy arrived at the committee's house. Before entering the building, he noticed that the people who were in charge of the construction company already started building the guild, so they just had to wait until it finished.
Riku opened the door, and the group of the Survey Corps who he saw before was there. Tifa was also inside, talking with Yuffie. Cid was working on his computer, as always, and the Keybearer was about to walk towards him when someone covered his eyes before he could start walking.
"Who am I?" asked the person, who wanted Riku to guess his identity.
"Wait…Ventus?" asked Riku surprised since the voice sounded like Ventus', and he didn't expect to see him so soon.
"Aww, if you guess in the first try it's not funny," Ventus said. "And I told you to call me Ven, Riku."
"Wow, I'm glad to see you," Riku said smiling after turning around, and then he and Ven fist-bumped. "You're looking good, Ven. I'm surprised to see you here."
"And he's not the only one," said another person, and Riku turned his head to see that Terra also was in Radiant Garden, and Aqua was by his side, smiling at the silver-haired boy.
"Terra, Aqua," said Riku, who was really surprised to see the trio of Land of Departure. "I suppose you're the ones who arrived in a Gummi Ship an hour ago."
"That's right," Aqua said smiling as she gave Riku a quick hug. "I'm really happy to see you Riku, it's has been a long time."
"Yeah, almost two years," Riku said after Aqua let go of him. "You two look…old."
"Hey," Aqua protested since she didn't like to be called old.
"Just kidding," Riku said, which caught Ventus' attention
"I though jokes were more of Sora's department," he said.
"That doesn't mean I can't do it," Riku said, and the blond laughed.
"Anyway, you look older too," Terra said as he took a look at Riku. "It makes me wonder about the other two, too bad they aren't here at this moment."
"Oh, right, did the Restoration Committee tell you where they went?" asked Riku. "I was taking care of some business and they left without me."
"According to Cid," Terra said, "they went to a place called Death City."
"Really?" said Riku. He remembered that Yen Sid sent Sora to Death City when he returned to the Mysterious Tower, after the events of the Mark of Mastery Exam. The boy wondered why Sora wanted to return to that place, but the only thing he could do was to wait for his return.
"Say, how did you three managed to come to Radiant Garden?" Aqua asked. "I thought you didn't have a Gummi Ship."
"We have a friend in Shibuya who is…well, he's able to create portals that led to other worlds," Riku answered, not knowing what Joshua was exactly. "How come you came to Radiant Garden? Did something happen or you're just here visiting?"
"Aqua heard some people talking about Heartless in our world," Ven replied. "So we decided to come here to see if the Restoration Committee knew something about that."
"We also had planned to pick you up if the rumor about the Heartless was true," Terra added, "although that's not necessary since you're here already."
"Leon told us that there are still Heartless out there," Terra said with a more serious voice. "And not only Pureblood Heartless, there are still Emblem Heartless around. They said that Maleficent is probably the one behind this."
"I know, but we still don't have many details about that," Riku said, and then he changed the topic. "I suppose you were surprised when you saw how changed the city is."
"I was going to mention it," Aqua said. "Radiant Garden is huge, and the world has increased its size too. I guess this is what Master Yen Sid said about the changes of the worlds after Kingdom Hearts was opened."
"Yeah, we came to that conclusion too," Riku said. "Our world didn't change; at least we haven't noticed anything. What about Land of Departure?"
"It's still the same," Ven said. "This is the only world we've seen changed."
"That's good," Riku said relieved.
"Hey, Riku," Terra said, and the boy looked at him, "has Sora mentioned something about what he said in the Mysterious Tower? About creating a guild…"
"I think so," Riku replied with a small smile. "Those people outside are building the guild, and Sora filled out some papers that are necessary to create it."
"These papers?" asked Ventus, who was now sitting in the place where Sora did the paperwork. The other three Keyblade wielders approached the blond to see what he was reading.
"He's taking it seriously, huh?" Terra said, as he grabbed the pen that was near the pile of papers, and then he grabbed one of the papers.
"Terra, what are you doing?" asked Ven puzzled.
"What do you think? Writing my name where the names of the members are asked," Terra answered while writing his name, and when he finished he handed the pen to Ven, who took it without doubting for a second. The blond also wrote his name on the paper before giving the pen to Aqua.
"You two have decided quite fast, don't you think?" Aqua asked smiling and raising an eyebrow at Terra and Ven. The young woman started writing her name too, and when she finished, Riku wrote his name too, and while he was doing it, the bluenette noticed something in the paper.
"What is it, Aqua?" asked Riku after he finished.
"Sora didn't write the name of the person who's going to be the Guild Master," she replied. "I thought he wanted to be it."
"I guess he wanted to ask us about that before, you know how he is," Terra said smiling. "If you ask me, I'd like him to be the Guild Master, so he has my vote."
"I agree," Ven said, "besides, it was his idea after all."
"I think that makes three of us," Aqua said, implying that she also wanted Sora to be the master of the guild. "What do you say, Riku?"
"I have no intention of being a Guild Master, and I see that you two don't want to be it either, so my vote goes for Sora too," Riku answered.
"Well, it's not that we don't want to be, it's just that we think that Sora fits that position better," Terra said.
"Kairi already wrote her name, so that makes six members," Ventus said as he read the paper he had. "I suppose we're going to be ten, right? I mean, I don't think we can take Mickey away from his caste just for this."
"Yes, we still have to go to Twilight Town to see if Roxas, Xion and Naminé want to be part of the guild," Riku said.
"What about Lea? Do you know where he is?" asked Aqua. "I remember he left with Isa, but they didn't say where they were going."
"I'd like to know that too," the silver-haired boy replied. "Maybe Roxas or Xion knows something about his whereabouts."
"Well, who's up for a Sea-salt ice cream while we wait for Sora and Kairi to return?" asked Ven.
-TLG-
1345hrs, June 15th, 2024
Witches' Realm
After crossing the portal Kim created, Sora arrived in the Witches' Realm. He looked at his surroundings and saw that the Witches' Realm was comprised mostly of stone, and several buildings were seen to be in disrepair.
"So this is the Witches' Realm, huh?" thought Sora as he looked at the buildings. Then Kim and Jacqueline appeared behind the Keyblade wielder after they crossed the portal too.
When Sora turned around, he saw that the two girls put on clothes to cover their Spartoi uniforms. Jacqueline had a simple black robe, while Kim was wearing her own witch garb, which was a robe and hat that looked like a tanuki costume. She even wore a scarf which had a fluffy tail on it, much like a tanuki's tail.
The Keyblade wielder couldn't help but smile when he saw Kim in that outfit. The pinkette noticed his smile and felt embarrassed.
"Stop looking at me like that!" Kim said while throwing her hat at Sora, who grabbed it after it hit his face softly.
"Sorry, it's just that I forgot you were the Tanuki Witch," Sora said, still with a smile on his face, and then he approached Kim and put her hat on her head again. The girl was looking at Sora as he put her hat back on her head, and she remembered something she wanted to tell him.
"Sora, I would like to thank you for not telling the others about me being a witch," Kim said.
"I want to thank you too," Jacqueline added. "Although Shibusen found it out a few days after you left. At least everything ended up well."
"So that's what Kilik meant," thought Sora, and then he looked at the girls. "You don't need to thank me. As I told you that day, the only witch I don't like is Maleficent. Besides, you're my friend, Kim, and I wasn't going to break the promise I made that day."
"I know, but still, thank you," said Kim, and then she gave Sora a peck on the cheek. This surprised both Sora and Jacqueline, who didn't expect Kim to do that since it wasn't something that fit her personality.
"That was just to show my gratitude, so don't get used to it," Kim said after she turned around, so Sora couldn't see her red face.
"If Ox had seen this, he would have killed me," thought Sora, who was feeling a bit flustered by Kim's act. "A hug would have been enough, you know? Just like the one you gave me that day."
"I…I can barely raise my arms with my witch garb," Kim said bashfully.
"How did you throw your hat at me then?" thought Sora, who didn't buy the girl's excuse.
"Besides, I couldn't ask Jackie to do it for me since she was too shy to hug you that day, so I don't think she would've done it," the pinkette said, which shocked Jacqueline.
"A-ah, K-Kim, don't say that to him!" Jacqueline exclaimed blushing, and Sora couldn't help but smile at her reaction, which embarrassed the black-haired girl more. The Keyblade wielder thought it would be better to change the topic, so he decided to ask the girls about her outfits.
"Hey, can I ask you why are you wearing those clothes?" Sora asked.
"It's better if we don't draw the attention to ourselves," Kim answered, "and our Spartoi uniforms will stand out here, so we covered it with these clothes."
"Your clothes will draw the witches' attention too," Jacqueline said, looking at Sora's outfit, "so you should wear something else like us."
"I have something, but I'm not sure if you're going to like it," Sora said, and the two girls looked at him confusedly.
Then Sora put on a black coat, which transformed the rest of his clothes into the black gloves, pants and bots that went with that coat. Kim and Jacqueline were stunned, since the spiky boy looked exactly like a member of Xehanort's organization.
"Okay, now I get what you said…" Kim's partner said. She didn't like very much seeing Sora with those clothes because it reminded her of the boy who fought against Sora in front of Shibusen two years ago.
"Sora, where did you get that?" asked the pinkette, who also recognized the coat.
"It was from one of the members of Xehanort's organization," Sora answered. "Every Keyblade wielder who fought against Xehanort has one. You can consider it a proof of our victory."
"I'm not sure if I like to see you wearing that," Kim said. "Besides, some people might consider you dangerous if they see you wearing that outfit."
"I know, and I'd like that to change since, long time ago, this coat was used just by Keyblade wielders," Sora explained before putting the hood of the black coat, and now the girls couldn't see his face, which made them feel a bit uneasy.
"I have to admit that it suits you," Kim said, "but I still don't like it. Anyway, let's go to see if they let you talk with Mabaa-sama."
Sora, Kim and Jacqueline started to walk and crossed the entrance of the city that was in front of them. As he walked with the girls, Sora looked at the people who were around, and there wasn't a person who wasn't a witch. Now it was the Keyblade wielder the one who was feeling uneasy with all those witches around, and being the only boy in the Witches' Realm didn't help.
Fortunately, they were unnoticed by most of the witches, but there were some of them that looked at the cloaked boy with curious eyes. After a few minutes walking, someone called Kim and Jacqueline and the group turned around a saw a young woman with long straight silvery hair. Sora could tell that she was a frog-themed witch since she was wearing an orange hat with a frog-like face.
"Hey, Eruka, it's been a while, how are you doing?" said Kim when she saw the other witch. It seemed that Kim was friends with that witch, who was called Eruka, and that reassured Sora.
"I can't complain," Eruka replied, and the he looked at the cloaked Keybearer. "Who's this? Have you brought a human to the Witches' Realm?"
"Yes, he's a friend of us," Jacqueline replied.
"He wants to talk with Mabaa-sama," Kim added, and this shocked Eruka.
"Wait a moment," she said dumbfounded, "he isn't the son of Shinigami, right!? Remember that some witches wanted to experiment with him!"
"Relax, I'm not a Shinigami," said Sora as removed his hood, so Eruka could see his face. "The name is Sora, it's a pleasure."
"That's a relief," Eruka sighed, and then she smiled at the Keyblade wielder and winked at him. "I'm Eruka Frog, nice to meet you, little Meister."
"I'm not a Meister either," said Sora, although he could be a really good Meister due to the nature of his soul, which could match up with the soul of any person who was Demon Weapon. This confused the witch, who looked at Sora with a puzzled expression.
"Sora's affiliated with Shibusen," Kim said, "and he is enemies with a witch, so he wanted to talk with Mabaa-sama to see if he can come to an agreement with her."
"Oh, right, the pact with Shibusen," Eruka said.
"Do you know if we can talk with her?" Jacqueline asked, looking at the Frog Witch.
"I don't think you'll have problems with that," Eruka said as she pointed behind the group.
Sora, Kim and Jacqueline turned around and saw a group female guards and a tall woman, who seemed to be a feline-theme witch, since her eyes looked like cat's eyes and she had whiskers marks on her face.
"You," the witch said looking at Sora. "Our leader, the Grand Witch Mabaa, requests your presence. Come with us without resistance."
"Well, it was easier than I expected," Sora thought. "All right, lead the way."
"And you must come as well," the witch said, this time looking at Kim and Jacqueline.
"I knew I was going to get in trouble because of you," Kim said to Sora quietly, so the witch and the guards couldn't hear her.
"Why did you help me then?" asked Sora with a smile and Kim let out a small groan while Jacqueline smiled as she followed the two. The feline-themed witch didn't say anything to Jacqueline, but she wasn't going to leave her friends alone.
"Don't worry, they haven't tied you up, so I don't think you got into trouble," said Eruka, who was following the group even though the witch leading the guards didn't say anything to her.
"Why are you coming with us? That witch hasn't said anything to you," said Kim as she and the others followed the guards.
"I'm kind of curious to see what Mabaa-sama wants from him," Eruka answered while looking at Sora.
The group followed the witch and the guards until they arrived at a big room. The ceiling of the room appeared to be based upon spider webs, with various animals inside the room, some of them in cages. There were a lot of witches on both sides of the room, looking at the group, and Eruka and Jacqueline were among them.
Sora and Kim were told to wait in the middle of it while three guards kept an eye on them and the feline-themed witch walked up to where there was another witch, who seemed to be the leader. The Keybearer didn't like the place very much because it looked a lot like a court and he didn't have fond memories of the last time he was at one, but at least this time he wasn't handcuffed.
"Wait a moment," said Kim wearing a worried expression. "We're not on trial, are we?"
"You aren't, but I wouldn't do anything stupid if I were you," the feline-themed witch said, and then she looked at Sora. "I don't know who you brought this time to our realm, Kimiearl, but for some reason Mabaa-sama wanted to see him."
"Kimiearl?" asked an amused Sora when he heard Kim's full name.
"Shut up," said the pinkette annoyed.
"You," said the witch pointing at Sora, and the boy looked at her. "According to our leader, you're not a normal human, but it's obvious that you're not a Shinigami or a magic creature. I demand you to identify yourself!"
"My name is Sora," said the spiky boy, "Keyblade Master Sora."
All the witches in the room were in utter shock when Sora revealed himself as a wielder of the Keyblade. Kim and Jacqueline weren't as stunned as the witches, but they were surprised to hear that Sora was officially a Keyblade Master now.
The Keyblade wielder noticed that the small witch, who was near the feline one, was looking at him. He just could see her gray hair and right eye since her clothes didn't let see more. She was wearing a black robe and a similarly dark cloak and a white hat. Sora could tell that she was really powerful since he had the same sensation he had when he met Shinigami-sama.
Kim and Sora could overhear the whispering of some witches, and it seemed that they had heard about the boy, which surprised them. There was a possibility that Maleficent talked about Sora in the Witches' Realm, and this worried the Keybearer since he thought that maybe Maleficent wasn't the only witch who was his enemy at this moment.
"Kimiearl, I don't know if you're aware of how dangerous Keyblade wielders are," said the feline witch sternly. "And as if it weren't enough, you've brought the most dangerous of them to our realm."
"Wow, I don't know if I should feel flattered or offended," muttered Sora.
"I know Keyblade wielders are really powerful, but he's my friend," Kim said with a very caring voice, which surprised Sora a bit. "You don't have to worry about him, he's harmless."
"Harmless…" thought Sora, who didn't know how to feel when Kim called him that. Then he noticed that some witches, including the feline-themed one, were blushing slightly and looking flustered at Kim and him.
"Kimiearl, don't tell me you're in physical relationship with this Keyblade wielder," the feline witch said outraged. "Didn't you have enough with the Shinigami?"
When the witch said that, the group of Shibusen was speechless while the witches who were on both sides of the room started to whisper about Kim and Sora. All of them were feeling embarrassed when they heard what Kim supposedly did.
"I can't believe it, at…at such young age…"
"And now with a Keyblade wielder too…"
"She's a natural born charmer…"
"No, you're all wrong!" said Kim really embarrassed while Sora looked at her with wide eyes.
"What have you done with Kid?" Sora asked dumbfounded, but he was also thinking that, surely, it was just a misunderstanding.
"Nothing, I didn't do anything!" exclaimed Kim more embarrassed than before. "That idiot just said a misleading thing!"
"I see…well, we're good friends, but I don't think we're close enough to share that kind of relationship," Sora joked, and Kim hit his stomach with her elbow.
"All right, stop playing and let's get to the point," said the feline witch, and Sora and Kim looked at her. "Which is the reason for your presence in the Witches' Realm, Keyblade wielder? I hope you're not here to cause trouble."
"I'm not," Sora said. "You see, despite not being a Meister, I'm affiliated with Shibusen, therefore the alliance between you, the Witches, and Shibusen affects me too."
"Where are you going with this?" asked the feline witch.
"Surely you know about the existence of other worlds, right?" Sora said, this time with a serious expression. "There's a witch who has tried to conquer different worlds a few years ago, and the other Keyblade wielders and I will end up fighting against her sooner or later. I don't want to cause trouble to you or Shibusen, so I hope we can come to an agreement."
"I suppose you're talking about the Dragon Witch, Maleficent, right?" said the feline witch.
"That's right," Sora replied, not very surprised since Maleficent was a witch, so it was obvious that she was known in the Witches' Realm.
"For your information, she was excommunicated a few days ago," the feline witch said.
"What? Why?" asked an astonished Sora, but he was kind of relieved since that could mean that the rest of the witches weren't going to act hostile towards him.
"She told us about what she has done, and I must say that we didn't like one bit what we heard," the feline witch answered. "Despite what you may have heard, not all the witches have a destructive nature."
"I know that," Sora said smiling at Kim, who returned the smile.
"Anyway, a few days ago, she came to the Witches' Realm and tried to convince us to help her with her plans," the feline witch continued. "And, of course, we strongly refused which she didn't like one bit."
"I suppose she did something bad when you refused to help her," Sora said, knowing how Maleficent could be when someone disobeyed her.
"Yes, she did," the feline witch replied, now looking more afflicted, and the other witches had the same expression on their faces. "She sent the dark creatures, which you may know as Heartless, to attack us. We managed to destroy them, but…they revive every time we do it, and I have to admit that…we're starting to get desperate."
"You wouldn't happen to know where she operates, would you?" asked Sora. It would be great if the witches knew where Maleficent is since there was a possibility that she wasn't in Radiant Garden anymore.
"Sorry, but we can't help you with that," the feline witch replied.
"Everything is cleared up then," Kim said, and then she looked at Sora. "Maleficent has been excommunicated, so you can take care of her without worrying about the pact between Shibusen and the Witches."
"Yeah, I'll take care of the Heartless here, and then we can return to Death City," said Sora, which surprised the witches who were in the room.
"Are you really going to take care of the Heartless?" the feline witch asked. "I don't recall having asked you for help."
"There's no need to do it," Sora affirmed. "You're having trouble with the Heartless, and I'm someone who's really good when it comes to destroy those monsters."
"I should have guessed you were going to say something like that…" Kim said rolling her eyes. "You haven't changed a little after these two years."
"What'd you expect?" asked Sora smiling. Then he noticed that Mabaa was still staring at him with the eye that wasn't covered with hair. No word left her mouth, but Sora could tell that she, as well as the other witches, was grateful for Sora's selfless help.
"Your selflessness is admirable and suspicious at the same time," the feline witch said. "Kimiearl, you and your Demon Weapon keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything funny."
"She is really mistrustful…" Sora thought.
"Sure," Kim replied, "he won't do anything without me and Jackie knowing about it."
"Great, now I have two babysitters," Sora said sarcastically.
"Deal with it," Kim said as she made gestures to Jacqueline to tell her to approach them. "Besides, you said you were going to finish quickly, right?"
"Yeah, it won't take long," Sora answered. "Let's get to work."
-TLG-
1500hrs, June 15th, 2024
Shibusen, Death City
Kairi was in the library of Shibusen with Maka, Black*Star, Kid and their respective partners. The other members of Spartoi had to help Sid with some lessons. Specifically they had to help him with the newcomers who weren't as powerful as other students.
The members of Spartoi befriended Kairi really fast since she was very charismatic. She was one of Sora's closest friends, and that was another reason they wanted to be friends of the redhead. Kairi also wanted to befriend the Shibusen's students since it looked like Sora strengthened ties with them during his stay in Death City.
Maka and the others told Kairi about what Sora did in Death City and what he told them about him, and Kairi was surprised of how much the spiky boy told them. Now it was Kairi the one who was talking about Keyblade wielders since the students were interested about that topic.
"A guild of Keyblade wielders?" asked Maka curiously.
"That's right," Kairi replied while taking a look at some books.
"What's that?" Patty asked, looking at her Meister. "It's something like Shibusen?"
"A guild is an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards," Kid answered. "You could say that Shibusen is a guild of Meisters and Demon Weapons, although not many guilds are also an academy like Shibusen."
"Well, not all the academies are a facility for training warriors who fight against monsters," Soul added.
"Are there more besides this one?" asked Kairi.
"Shibusen is the only one who trains Meisters and Demon Weapons," Kid replied, "but there's an academy in another world that is quite prestigious and a lot of people there have an exceptional skill. They train teams of fighters to slay the various monsters that plague their world."
"Another world?" asked Black*Star, who was reading a manga that he found in the library. "You've talked with your father about other worlds and you didn't tell us?"
"He told us, but when he did it you were fighting against other students outside Shibusen," Tsubaki said, and Black*Star grunted.
"Do you know the name of the world?" asked Kairi, who found interesting what the young Shinigami said.
"Remnant, I think, and the name of the academy is Beacon," Kid replied. "By the way, Kairi, how many of you are at this moment?"
"Keyblade wielders?" asked Kairi, and Kid nodded while the others listened carefully. "We're ten Keyblade wielders at this moment, and four of us are Keyblade Masters.
"Ten? Really?" said a surprised Liz. "I suppose Sora is one of the Keyblade Masters."
"He had already the level of a Keyblade Master when you met him, but he wasn't one officially," Kairi said smiling. "But Yen Sid gave him the title after the battle against Xehanort."
"That would explain why he was so strong, although surely all of you are really strong too," Soul said.
"You can say that," Kairi said after laughing slightly. "All of us are strong enough to be a Keyblade Master, but only four of us were officially named as one."
"And how did Sora get the idea of creating a guild?" asked Maka. "He didn't tell us anything about that."
"Well, he went to protect another world after he finished his mission here," Kairi answered, "and he arrived in a world where there are many Mages Guilds. According to him, he got the idea after a Guild Master asked him to join his guild."
"Mages Guilds…" Kid mused. "The world where you went is called Earth Land by any chance?"
"Have you heard about it?" asked Kairi surprised.
"Kid's father explained us about the guilds of that world," Tsubaki said. "It looks like some of them have really powerful members, but luckily, they aren't our enemies."
"If I remember correctly, there was one guild that was especially powerful and kind of destructive too," said Liz, who shivered a little when she imagined how the members of that guild were.
"I think I know what guild you are referring to," Kairi said. "We'll have to work hard, so we can be known around the worlds like those guilds."
"Surely you guys are going to take our job of protecting this world," Soul said.
"I don't think so," Kairi said reassuringly. "Surely, we will protect other worlds more than this one, so you don't have to worry about that."
"Well, at least the Heartless won't be a problem," Liz said, "although we haven't seen any lately."
"I assure you that they are out there," Kairi affirmed. "They are easy to deal with though, at least the Pureblood Heartless, since those are kind of weak compared to the Emblem Heartless. Luckily, Sora has been fighting Emblem Heartless for a long time, so he could teach us their weaknesses."
"Hey, Kairi," said Black*Star after closing the manga he was reading, "I want to ask you something. Did you see the battle between Sora and Xehanort? I think you said that Sora was the one who took care of him."
"Yes, but I can't tell you how the fight was," Kairi said while shaking her head a bit.
"Huh? Why not?" asked a confused Black*Star.
"All of us fought against Xehanort face to face, but at the end, we were fighting against the last members of the Organization XIII while Sora fought against Xehanort to finish him off," Kairi answered. "When we could reach him, we saw Sora looking at Xehanort's body, which was vanishing slowly."
"Is he fine?" asked Kid. "I mean, did he suffer any repercussions after the battle?"
"No, don't worry," Kairi replied. "We made sure he was fine after the battle, and he went through a medical check-up when we returned to our home…"
"Is something wrong?" asked Tsubaki, who noticed the tone Kairi used when she mentioned the medical check-up.
"The doctor said that there was something strange about his blood," Kairi said as she grabbed a book, "but he said that it wasn't something bad, and he has been alright all this time, so we didn't give it much importance."
"I see…" Kid said broodingly, and the others had the same expression Kid had, which puzzled Kairi, who wondered what they were thinking about, but she decided not to ask, at least not yet.
"Anyway, I don't like to think much about that, he's good now, and that's good enough for me," Kairi declared and she opened the book she took before and read the title. "Excalibur…"
"Ugh," said Kid and Black*Star while putting a strange face which amused the redhead.
"What's with those faces?" asked Kairi after laughing.
"You don't want to know, believe me," Liz said, and Kairi raised an eyebrow before looking at the book again.
"You know, Sora had a book similar to this one in his room," she said. "I don't know why, but he threw it away for some reason."
"I could imagine why," Maka said smiling awkwardly.
-TLG-
1545hrs, June 15th, 2024
Witches' Realm
After having spent two hours investigating, Sora, Kim and Jacqueline were in the place where some witches affirmed to have seen a Heartless. They were sitting on a bench, while looking carefully at their surroundings, so the Heartless didn't catch them by surprise.
"Hey, Sora, the witches already know that you're here, so you can take that coat off if you want," Jacqueline said. She and Kim took off the outfits, and now their Spartoi uniform was visible again, but Sora was still wearing his black coat.
"I think I'll keep wearing it for a while," Sora said. "It's kind of comfortable, and besides, I want you to get used to seeing me wearing this."
"If Shinigami-sama sees you wearing that when we return," Kim said, "he'll give you a chop on your head before you know it."
"You would like to see that, wouldn't you?" asked Sora, and Kim looked at him with an innocent smile. "Hey, do you know if there's a Keyhole in this place?"
"I don't know," Kim replied, "but, in case you didn't know, we're still on Earth."
"Are we?" asked a surprised Sora.
"Yup, this space has been distorted by Mabaa-sama's magic to prevent any kind of intrusion from the outside," the pinkette explained. "Anyway, I don't think there's a Keyhole here since if there were, Maleficent would have discovered it, right?"
"That's right," Sora said, and then he felt something behind him. There was something approaching the three teens, so Sora summoned the Kingdom Key, which alerted the girls.
Sora turned around quickly as he swung his sword, and he destroyed a Heartless that had jumped towards him. Now more Heartless started to appear, all of them were the Pureblood type. Neoshadows, Shadows and Darkballs were now in the area, and the teens prepared to fight them.
"Jackie, transform," Kim said, and the black-haired girl turned into a black lantern, which Kim grabbed and aimed it at the Heartless.
Then another Heartless appeared, but this time it was an Emblem one, and it was bigger. Sora recognized the Heartless since it was the one he fought during his second visit in Port Royal
"A Grim Reaper Heartless, how appropriate," Sora said, as he looked at all the Heartless that appeared.
"All right, let's finish this quickly," Kim said as she pulled a chain that Jackie's Weapon form had, and then a large wave of fire came out from the lantern and burned a great number of Heartless. Kim aimed at the sky with her weapon, and then shot several fireballs, which took down the rest of the Pureblood Heartless, clearing the area.
"Not bad," Sora said impressed when he saw that Kim and Jacqueline defeated all the Pureblood Heartless on their own. "You two have gotten really strong too."
"What'd you expect?" Kim and Jacqueline said, quoting the spiky boy. Sora was about to take down the big Heartless, but then more Pureblood Heartless appeared, which disconcerted the teens.
"This is weird," Sora said. "There isn't a Keyhole here, why there are so many Heartless?"
"Don't ask me," Kim said, and then she saw that the Grim Reaper was charging at Sora, but before she could warn him, the Keyblade wielder turned around to look at the big Heartless, which was close to him.
"Lethal Frame," he said, and the Heartless stopped moving suddenly. Then Sora dealt multiple blows on the Grim Reaper while it was immobile, and after finishing his attacks, Sora did a gesture with his free hand and the Pureblood Heartless were struck by multiple lightning bolts. Just after that, the spell Sora used to stop the Grim Reaper ran out, and the monster was destroyed after a lot of cuts appeared on its body.
"Amazing, he destroyed them in a second," Jacqueline said really impressed.
"Are the other Keyblade wielders that strong?" Kim wondered, while looking with astonishment at Sora.
When the Grim Reaper Heartless vanished, Sora saw something falling to the ground. The Keyblade wielder crouched and saw a crystal sphere, which he took and started to look closely at it. It had the size of a golf ball, and inside it there was a mysterious energy which gave the sphere a greenish color.
"Sora, what are you looking at?" Jacqueline asked after turning back to her human form. Sora didn't respond when the girl talked to him, he just stared at the sphere he had in his hand.
"Hey, Spiky, snap out of it!" said Kim while shaking Sora after grabbing one of his shoulders, and Sora came back to his senses in an instant.
"Ah, sorry," the boy said. He didn't know why, but when he stared at the sphere, he felt something strange and found difficult to stop looking at it.
"What's that?" asked Kim when she saw the sphere Sora had.
"No idea," said the Keyblade wielder as he examined the object.
"Well, we're done here, so let's return to Shibusen," Jacqueline said. "Maybe Professor Stein can figure out what is that thing."
"Right, let's go back to the academy," Sora said.
-TLG-
And that's that for this chapter, I hope you liked it! Leave a review if you want!
The scene of the "physical relationship" was a reference to the Soul Eater manga, I thought it would be funny to write it. In the scene with Kairi there was a reference to two worlds that will appear in the story, I hope you got them since they weren't very difficult, unless you don't know the series.
As you could read, the Heartless aren't a challenge anymore to the Keyblade wielders, so I'll do something to power them up.
Now there are only four Keyblade wielders to go, so I'll try to make Sora visit Twilight Town as soon as possible.
To Sunny Lighter: Hope you liked this chapter, Sunny. If you're interested, more characters of AoT will appear on the next one!
To JGM16: All right, now I can't get that image out of my head XD
To AnimeMasterDub: I'll see what I can do, I already thought about Phineas and Ferb making a cameo in the story, but not about the others. The story is long, so there's time.
To kingdom hearts guy: I don't think so, Maka already has Soul as her weapon partner, so giving her a Keyblade is unnecessary. The only thing she has in common with some Keyblade wielders is the Heart Perception ability.
To KH-Hardcorefan4483: As you could read, she tried to convince them, but they refused, so it looks like she's on her own by now. I'm glad you're interested in Soul Eater, you should check it out if you have time.
To TigerOfGuy7139: Hey, I'm glad you enjoyed the duel! About what you said about Future Levy, sorry, but I don't think I could put something like that in the story, it would be a mess with the Time Travel issue and it would be confusing D: Regarding to the girls, I think "feelings" sounds a bit too deep, I'd say that Kairi is the one who has feelings for Sora while the others have just a thing for him, but not all of them the same way, for example, Lucy is the first person who met Sora when he arrived in Fiore, so they are close friends, but nothing more, and the relationship between Sora and Wendy is more like "big brother and little sister". About the Heartless, Yen Sid said that the only true way to destroy all the Heartless is to have all people have light filled in their hearts and no darkness, leaving nothing to create a Heartless or something for them to thrive for, so that's why there are still Heartless around. The length of this story is undefined, I haven't planned an end, so I hope it will be really long, and I'll bring back old worlds too of course. The next week will be the last before my winter break, so surely I'll have time to watch some series and see if I can put them in this story.
To Ultima Z: Yeah, I can't wait to write it either! I'm sure it will be funny when Armstrong and Sora get to know each other.
To Daxen123: I'm glad you liked the fight! Maybe Sora will find out how the portals to the Witches' Realm are opened in a future chapter, it would be funny to see how he will react.
To Great fan-M: (1) Yeah, the two are incredibly strong, too bad it's a duel, so they can't go all out. (2) Regarding the Black Blood, it won't appear until later chapters, and it won't be in Death City. Lots of things will happen in the story before I start writing the arc where the Black Blood appears. I won't spoil anything, but I what can I say is that I won't get rid of Sora's Black Blood. (3) I already planned a tournament so the Fairy Tail cast and the Soul Eater cast get to know each other, along with other people/guilds, and the Light Guardians Guild too of course, but as I said, the Pokémon characters won't appear in this story since I didn't finish that crossover.