(AN: Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. As a quick heads up, once a player enters the game and creates their account, I start referring to them as their screen name as opposed to their name in real life. Sorry if this caused any confusion.)
DJ was free falling and he couldn't stop. A moment ago he had put on the Nerve Gear and logged into Kingdom Hearts: Online. He then customized his avatar to share his height and dark skin and gave him dreadlocks reaching down to his shoulders, along with a more muscular form than he had and ice blue eyes. Also he was wearing a light blue hoodie with a black shirt underneath and black pants. As soon as he finished the customization, he found himself lying vertically and falling into a never-ending darkness. The funny thing was, he couldn't feel a damn thing. There was no wind rushing past him and no sensation of a free fall. In fact, he wouldn't know he was falling apart from his shirt flapping in front of his eyes. Suddenly, his body went vertical and his feet contacted with solid ground slowly, as if he was stepping off a platform. He looked around at the ground and saw nothing but blackness. Then a burst of light appeared, almost blinding DJ as white doves flew past him. When his vision cleared he looked around at his feet and saw he was standing in the middle of a large stain glass circle. In the middle was the image of a blue moon in the shape of a heart surrounded by grey glass. Surrounding the perimeter of the platform were smaller circles with crowns in the middle of them. Suddenly text appeared before DJ.
Welcome to Kingdom Hearts: Online…. Before you are allowed to proceed, there are some questions you must answer. First what is your name?
A keyboard appeared before DJ's hands and he typed in his screen name Weiss and hit enter.
Weiss, what is most important to you?
"My friends and family." He answered.
What do you want out of life?
"To live the life I want to live."
In a war, would you side with your friends even if they were on the wrong side?
"No, I would remain neutral and refuse to fight my friends or for the wrong side."
What are you most afraid of?
"Being alone"
If you had to choose, would you fight in the light, or in the dark?
"I would fight in both, there cannot be light without dark and vice versa."
How would your friends describe your personality?
"Kind, and a little crazy."
Finally, if you saw a stranger being attacked in an alley, what would you do?
"Help him to the best of my ability, even if it meant fighting his attacker."
A second later the circles around the perimeter of the stain glass shot out columns of white light, each bearing the image of a different weapon. Weiss looked around and walked to the column that bared the image of a sword.
Is this the weapon you choose?
"Yes"
Instantly a short sword appeared in Weiss' hand. Its blade was as long as his arm and its blade was slightly curved, giving it an appearance of a machete. Its handle was wrapped with black leather, while the blade itself was a dark blue and the sharpened edge was a light blue. The other columns faded away.
This weapon will follow you on all of your travels. You can bring up its skill tree in your menu.
Weiss swiped open his menu and selected the Weapon skill tree tab. Suddenly an intricate web of skills appeared on the side of Wiess' sword. "Cool." He mused.
Now let us go over the combat system. For now, we will only go over weapon combat, as you will learn magic later in the game.
Presently, 5 knee-high beings of shadow with bulging yellow eyes appeared before Weiss. He instantly recognized them as Shadow heartless. Small green health bars appeared over each of their heads.
Use your sword to attack the enemies in front of you.
"Don't have to tell me twice." Weiss thought as he gripped his sword and rushed at the Heartless. He slashed the first one he reached with a one-handed vertical strike upwards. The Heartless flew back as Weiss slashed at a Heartless to his right, and then hit it again with a two-handed overhand strike. Its health bar dissipated as it dissolved into shadow. Weiss then felt claws raking his side as he cursed in pain. He reflexively struck out with his sword and was rewarded with the sound of the blade contacting with two Heartless, their bodies flying back and dissipating into darkness as their health bars blinked out. He then faced the final Shadow. Weiss ran towards it as it began slinking towards him. Weiss then jumped towards it, his sword extended as it plunged into the chest of the Heartless. As the Shadow dissipated, it seemed to give Weiss a look through its yellow eyes that said "Really bro?" Weiss then noticed an alert icon appearing in front of him. He tapped on it and was greeted with a message that read Tutorial Completed! Level 2 reached. Rewards: 1 Skill Point, 300 Munny, Light and Dark skill trees Unlocked!
Weiss swiped open the menu and selectedthe Skill Tree tab. There was a new tree tab labeled Faction next to the existing Weapon tab. Weiss thought for a moment and then decided to save his skill point. "I don't know that much about the faction system yet, and I'm comfortable enough with my sword that I don't need to use the point yet." He thought to himself.
Suddenly Weiss found himself surrounded by white light. When he was able to see again he found himself in a crowd of people all standing in a city marketplace. The light from a sunset painted a peaceful light over the market as more and more people were teleported into the area. An incoherent mumbling overtook the crowd as they talked amongst themselves, trying to figure out what was going on. Weiss noticed that a message had appeared before him. Twilight Town: Tram Common. Upon a second look, he could easily recognize the location. The many shops strewn around the area were currently closed. Weiss then noticed something out of the corner of his eye on top of the Synthesis Shop. He turned his head and noticed someone wearing a dark coat standing on the roof, trying to blend into the shadows and doing a pretty good job. Suddenly a red hexagon appeared in the sky reading System Announcement drawing Wiess' attention away from the person in the coat.
The sky became covered in red hexagons all bearing the same message. Then, a red liquid began seeping from the sky as it collected as it hit an invisible barrier.
"Okay then… the sky is bleeding. Square Enix really wanted that M rating…" Weiss thought to himself as the 'blood' collected to form a massive person in a red hooded coat.
"Welcome players to Kingdom Hearts Online! I am Kayaba Akihito, developer of this game. I guess you could all say you're in my world now." His voice boomed with a slight chuckle at the end. At least Weiss hoped it was a chuckle, Kayaba's voice was very distorted.
"I must apologize for my voice. The translation software hasn't been fully patched yet. But I digress, we have bigger things to move onto." Kayaba continued. "As some of you have noticed by now, the log out button is missing from your menu, this is not a glitch or an error. It is an integral part of the game, you will not be able to log out of Kingdom Hearts Online until the completion of the game."
Immediately Weiss and many people in the crowd opened their menus and found that Kayaba was telling the truth. Where the log out button was supposed to be, there was only a blank space. Immediately gasps of horror overtook the crowd.
"Why would you do something like this?" a voice called out from the crowd.
"I was just about to answer that!" Kayaba answered gleefully. " You see, Kingdom Hearts is about a struggle between the Light and the Dark and I've always wanted to know which is stronger. Now we will be able to find out! As all of you should have seen by now, you have Faction skill trees. This is because every one of you will have to choose what side you will join, either the Light or the Dark. Each side comes with its advantages and disadvantages. In two years, the war for control of the worlds will begin and we will find out which side is stronger. Each side will be lead by a designated champion. These champions already have been chosen, and wield Keyblades. If these champions find you worthy, you too can wield this legendary weapon. Now, those aligned with the Dark, you will mostly be in the realm of Darkness for the next two years, training and following orders from your champion. Those aligned with the light will be traveling through the worlds, fighting the Heartless and pushing the Darkness back to where it came from. This is important, because the way this war will be one is when the Champion of either side is defeated and the Home World, or Base if you prefer that term, of a faction has been taken over. The more worlds that the Light conquers, the more worlds the Darkness will have to reclaim, if the Light doesn't free many worlds from the darkness, then the Darkness will have an easier time defeating the Light."
While an excited whisper began amongst the crowd, there was a question left in the air, a question that no one wanted answered and yet needed to be answered. Finally a shaky voice rose amongst the crowd and yelled out. "What… happens if we die in the game? Will we… you know… die in real life?"
Kayaba chuckled for a moment then answered, "If you die in the game you will not die in real life. What do you think this is, Tron? The only way you will die in this game will be if someone tries to remove the Nerve Gear from your head. Which brings me to the somber news of today. Unfortunately 205 people died when their families and friends attempted to remove their Nerve Gear."
Another gasp overtook the crowd, almost a mix of horror and relief, as they at least knew that death in game wouldn't result in their death in real life.
"Now for one final thing. I have a gift for all of you. If you open your inventory you will find it. Now I'll leave you to play whatever roles destiny has chosen for you." He said, slowly disappearing into purple smoke.
Wiess opened his inventory and opened up an item called Kayaba's Gift. Suddenly a mirror appeared in his hand and he was bathed in a bright light. When it dissipated, Weiss saw his reflection in the mirror. It was his face, his true face. His natural dreads were only down to his chin; his eyes were their natural shade of grey-green. He looked down and saw his body was identical to the way it looked in real life; lean but not without muscle. Weiss looked around and saw this transformation had affected the other players as well. Some of them were shorter; some found their guts become more pronounced. Then there was the startling and quite humorous image of the male players who had selected their gender as female, including a larger player who was wearing a frilly pink skirt.
Weiss got over the initial shock and then remembered what his friend said in the real world. Meet me outside the train station in Twilight Town. He started running, shoving his way through the crowd until he reached the beginning of Market Street. Weiss then began running up the steep incline. That's when the Heartless showed up. They were all Shadows so Weiss had no problem cutting them down as he ran up the incline. He finally reached the top and slowed down to a walk, gasping as he caught his breath. He looked around and took in the scenery, to his right was a stunning view of the eternal sunset that bathed this World in twilight. As he drew his sword and rushed to fight them, he didn't notice that a barrier materialized, sealing off the exits from the plaza. He also didn't notice the Corridor of Darkness opening behind him as a figure in a dark coat stepped out.
Weiss rushed the Heartless, his sword drawn. He started hacking and slashing at them before multiple bolts of lightning fell down, decimating all the Heartless on the plaza. Weiss looked around, trying to see who had cast the spell, but before he could see anyone he felt a hand grab the back of his shirt and pull him, throwing him into an oval-shaped mass of darkness. Weiss rose up his hands to protect his face as he flew through the Corridor and landed on solid ground. His body ached as he stood up and dusted himself off. He then about had a heart attack when he realized where he was. To his right were multiple ornate columns, and to his left was a sheer drop down to the plaza of the train station. He was on the ledge of the clock tower; while it was large enough that he could comfortably turn around, and even fight if he needed too. One misstep and he would plummet to his death. He turned around and saw the man in the black coat was standing at the other end of the ledge, a green health bar over his head. In his hand he was loosely holding a large silver weapon, its black and silver teeth along with its design made Weiss' eyes widen as he recognized it as the Keyblade Two Become One. Weiss summoned his sword and gripped the handle as he flew at the man.
Weiss flew at the man and slashed at him with a diagonal cut which was quickly parried with such strength that Weiss almost lost grip on his sword. The man then delivered a cut to Weiss' stomach that sent him reeling in pain and halved his health. Weiss then gripped his sword with two hands and positioned it so it was in a more defensive position. The man casually slashed at Weiss, which Weiss was able to intercept and block. Their weapons were interlocked, sword and Keyblade in between two men trying to kill each other. However, Weiss was holding his sword with both hands and was barely holding back the strangers Keyblade, which he was using with one hand. "This guy either found some way to hack the game, or I'm dealing with a high level NPC. Either way I'm screwed." Weiss thought to himself, grasping for an idea of how to leave this fight with his dignity still intact when he noticed his opponents footing was slightly off. Weiss used all of his strength to push the Keyblade off to the side as he swept his leg out to catch his opponent off balance. It worked as the stranger let out an involuntary cry and lost his balance, falling down. Weiss took this chance to unleash a flurry of stabs and slashes, damaging the man as much as he could. It took the stranger to regain his thoughts before he leapt up and back, gripping his Keyblade in a reverse style. Weiss glanced at his opponent's health bar; it barely in the yellow zone. He didn't have much time to lament on this however because the stranger flew at him, slashing with his Keyblade. Weiss's brain and body were barely keeping up with blocking the flurry of attacks that were coming at him. His opponent's technique was highly unpredictable, he was switching the way he held his blade, changing his stance, whirling the blade around as he tried to land a blow on Weiss.
Then Weiss felt a sharp pain across his chest, he looked down and saw a large red gash. He then saw that his health bar was one point away from zero. He fell to his knees in disbelief and began panting, exhaustion taking over him he then looked up at his opponent who had his Keyblade right next to Weiss' head.
"Any last words?" The stranger gruffly asked.
"You should know, if you strike me down now I'll become more powerful than you could imagine, just so I can find you and defeat you." Weiss replied, bowing his head.
The stranger was silent for a second and then burst out laughing. He unequipped his Keyblade as he continued letting the laughter pour out. "Holy shit man, if you are going to chose dying words, at least make them original! Or at least more threatening than the old 'I will become more powerful than you imagine'." He said in between laughs as he sat down holding his head in his hands. The stranger threw his head back, clutching his sides and his hood fell back revealing his face. Weiss instantly recognized the short wiry hair, lightly tanned face, and gold and brown eyes in an instant.
"You fucking asshole…" Weiss cried in disbelief, causing Nox to howl in more laughter. Questions began flooding through his head, but he asked the most pressing one "Why the Hell did you decide to fight me?"
"I thought it would be funny, besides I needed some way to mark you." Nox replied, gasping for air.
"Mark me for what?!" Weiss asked incredulously.
"Oh, to be a Keyblade wielder." Nox smirked.