Chapter 10: Halloween Town
Hey everyone! It's me, sakuraphoenix, and I'm back with a brand new chapter folks! I know, it's been a while, but I've been busy as heck. Anyway, disclaimer time!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I also do not own Luz. She belongs to my good friend Keybladeauraofpie. Rita, Reina, and Yukie also don't belong to me. They belong to D.J. Scales.
Enjoy!
It was a miracle that we managed to make it alright through that world! My muscles were so sore; I had to lie down on the bed in the room I was given in the ship! Just then, I heard a knock on my door.
"I'm in here. Come in." I said
The door then opened to reveal Luz.
"Oh. Hey Luz." I said
"You okay?" asked Luz
"I wish. I'm so sore, it's miracle that I was able to move to my room!" I exclaimed
"I know. I mean, I swam on the islands, but that was ridiculous. Anyway, what did you want?" I asked
"Two things actually. When I saw your swim up to Ursula in Atlantica, you tried casting Firaga, which I'm assuming is an upgrade of Fira, but it blew up in your face. Why?" asked Luz
"I… I was born with a handicap." I said
"Handicap?" asked Luz
"I can cast spells like Fire and Blizzard, but if I go to the next level, the spell will blow up in my face. That's why I had to make my own spells, to counter that handicap." I said
"Wow." Said Luz
"Yeah. Believe me, it took a lot of work, but at least my spells don't blow up in my face." I said before I laughed
"I bet. Anyway… Ankoku… she's looking for you. When did you meet her?" asked Luz
"Same as you, ten years ago. She was only five then." I said
"Like me." Said Luz
"Yeah. She's also… my successor." I said
"Successor?" asked Luz
"When a person who is a Keyblade Master, or at least at Keyblade Master level, they can choose someone to inherit their powers of the Keyblade. First, you summon your Keyblade, and you show the person, preferably a child, your Keyblade, and then you say 'In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, it's wielder you shall one day be. One day, you will find me friend. No ocean will contain you then. No more obstacles above or below, so long as you cherish the ones you love.' Then, the person touches the handle of the Keyblade, and if nothing happens, then the ceremony was a success. I said something a little different all those years ago, but I kept the idea the same." I said
"Wow. Anyway, it's about those Sarah and Kyo characters. When we fought against them the first time, they acted as if they knew you." Said Luz
"Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. They're… my mom and dad." I said
"Then that means that…" started Luz
"Yeah. Ankoku's my sister. She doesn't even know she has one truth be told." I said
"How come?" asked Luz
"When I first met her, Sarah and Kyo acted as if they never met me before, all because I chose the path I wanted to embark on instead of the path of darkness, like they did." I said
"Wow. I don't even want to know why." Said Luz
"Yeah. My grandfather was the one who raised me. He was the mom and dad I always wanted, but I never had." I said
I then pulled out my incomplete wayfinder.
"When I was trapped in the realm of darkness, all I had was this to keep hoping that… that one day… I'd see my grandfather again. But when I escaped, the shell shattered. I'm worried that he's… he's…" I started before I felt tears forming in my eyes
"That he's dead?" asked Luz
I sadly nodded my head, and was surprised when Luz wrapped her arms around me.
"Hey, it's okay. Your grandfather may have raised you, but I don't think he'd like to see you this upset, so cheer up a little. You're a Keyblade Master after all." Said Luz
"Yeah. Yeah, you're right Luz. Thanks for that." I said while smiling
"You're welcome." Said Luz
"Luz, Hikaru, we're ready to land on another world. You two coming?" Donald asked over the intercom
"Yeah, we'll be right there!" exclaimed Luz
"Let's hope we don't turn into bears or something in this world." I said
"That would suck." Said Luz
When we exited the Gummi ship, the world we were in not only was creepy looking, but we were in new outfits too! Rita looked like she was a dark knight of some sorts, but it suited her well. Yukie was in a cat costume, and it really showed off her curves, even though she looked embarrassed to be in it. Reina on the other hand looked like she was a sorceress, yet the costume wasn't as creepy as the other costumes we were in. Sora looked like he was a vampire, with a pumpkin mask on his head. Lumen looked like a Black Mage, except the hat was a little on the small side. Luz was really pulling off the witch costume, which really suited her. As for Donald, looking like a mummy didn't really make him very happy. Now Goofy looked like Frankenstein's monster, just not as serious. As for me, I was in a fairy outfit, but it had a gothic twist to it. At least my hair was long again. I missed having it like that.
"This sure is a spooky place. I'll bet the people here are scary-lookin' too." Said Goofy
"Don't worry. We look spooky, too. If they scare us, we'll scare them right back!" exclaimed Donald
"You think so?" asked Goofy
We then headed into the town's square, and saw a bunch of Heartless! We pulled out our weapons, but… they weren't attacking. That's really weird.
"And now, allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares – Jack Skellington!" exclaimed a very weird looking man
The Heartless then moved aside to reveal a man that looked like… a skeleton, wearing what appeared to be a pinstripe suit.
"Bravo, Jack! Bravo! Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!" exclaimed the man
"Thank you, thank you! But their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror. I'm going to consult the doctor." Jack said as he began to walk away
"Then I'll go attend to the decorations." Said the man
We could learn something about the Heartless and their stranger-than-usual behavior if we try and find this 'doctor'. We secretly followed Jack to the point where we were in some strange lab.
"I don't understand. Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion." Said Jack
"Nonsense. My devices are always perfect!" exclaimed the doctor
"Oh, I've got it! Why, of course! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we can add a heart to that device?" asked Jack
"Certainly. A heart's not all that complicated. Let's get to work." Said the doctor
"To make a heart, first take a container with a lock…" started Jack
"We need the key to this thing first!" exclaimed the doctor
Sounds like find the key duty. Oh wait, we have a universal key. Not gonna use it though, except Sora had the opposite idea. He just told us that he was gonna unlock it! That idiot!
"You're really gonna unlock it for them?" asked Donald
"Why not? If they succeed, we won't have to fight the Heartless, right? Besides, I wanna see the Heartless dance too. Don't you?" asked Sora
"Not really." Said Donald
I had a bad feeling about this.
"My! That was amazing! Uh, and you are…" started Jack
"Sora." Said Sora
"Well done, Sora! I'd like you to be a part of this year's Halloween." Said Jack
"Yeah, uh, quick question. What's this Heartless doing here?" asked Luz
"Oh, the Heartless came to town just recently. What's frustrating is that I can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius! Okay, Doctor, let's continue. The ingredients for a heart: Pulse. Emotion. Terror. Fear. Hope and Despair. Mix them all together, and we have a heart!" exclaimed Jack
The machine then started up, but the Heartless still wasn't doing anything.
"It failed! Maybe we're missing some ingredients. Let's try adding memory." Said the doctor
The guy then opened up his head, revealing his brain! Ew!
"Sally! Sally! Good-for-nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her! Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down." Said the doctor
"No problem. Sora, would you like to come along?" asked Jack
"Sure!" exclaimed Sora
"So, what are we? Chopped liver?" I asked
"Someone's gotta keep him out of trouble." Said Lumen
We were about to follow him when I noticed a page from Merlin's book. We're coming back later, so we can get it then. We just stepped out of the lab when the guy from earlier appeared, and he looked like he was in a frenzy.
"Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis! The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!" exclaimed the man
"Hmm… maybe our experiment triggered something. Everything will be fine, Mayor. You have nothing to worry about." Said Jack
"Nothing to worry about my ass." Said Rita
"Rita!" exclaimed Reina
"What?" asked Rita
The Heartless in the square were behaving like their usual selves now. We had to fight them in order to pass them. We then found ourselves in a graveyard.
"Let's check out this place too, once the Heartless here are out of our way." I said
"Good call." Said Reina
Just as we finished them off, a ghost that looked like a dog with a red glowing nose appeared! Jack seemed to recognize the dog.
"Zero! Have you seen Sally anywhere?" asked Jack
His ears stuck up in the air, and he flew behind a grave marker, scaring a girl with red hair. I assume that she's Sally.
"Is something wrong, Jack?" asked Sally
"No, everything's going great. We're going to have the best Halloween ever. All we need now is your memory." Said Jack
"Memory? You mean this?" Sally asked as she held some Forget-Me-Not flowers
Jack then took the flowers from her.
"Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time." Said Sally
"Nothing could beat what I've got planned! Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance; they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me. You're going to love it!" exclaimed Jack
Somehow, I'm also getting a bad feeling about this. We headed back to the doctor's lab, but I was getting the feeling that we were either being eavesdropped on, or someone was watching us on the way back to the lab.
"Yes. This is it. Now, just one more ingredient. We need 'surprise' to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is." Said the doctor
I guess that page is still going to have to wait. We trailed back to the graveyard and found the mayor there. We explained what was going on, and he gave us some kind of box with a crank. Donald tried turning, and it played music before the top opened up, and scared him. It's a jack-in-the-box! We quickly made it back to the lab with it for the doctor.
"Yes. This is it." Said the doctor
He then put the last ingredient with the others.
"There you go. This time it's sure to work." Said the doctor
He was about to put it with the Heartless when some kids came along and stole it! If this was mom and dad were like when they were kids, I'm going give them a punishment they'll never forget.
"The nerve of those little hooligans, stealing my work!" the doctor exclaimed as Luz and I helped him up
We then hurried to catch up to them, but when we got to town square, we lost them.
"We lost them!" exclaimed Sora
Jack then waved over Zero.
"Zero, after them, quick!" exclaimed Jack
We followed the dog to some kind of abandoned house.
"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind this!" exclaimed Jack
"Having some trouble?" A female voice behind us asked
We all turned around, and we saw Ankoku! What was she doing here?! More importantly, she looked like a kitsune in human form in that costume. Even her hair clip became a piece of bone!
"You!" exclaimed Rita
"Calm down, I only came to talk. See? I'm by myself." Said Ankoku
"Why are you here?" asked Reina
"I… I thought over what your friend said. Although it's true that I thought that you were trying to bring ruin, as I watched you… I began to think otherwise." Said Ankoku
"Ankoku…" I started
"I'm still looking for her, the girl I met when I was a kid, but I don't think I can find her like this. Will you guys… let me help you out for now?" asked Ankoku
"Of course." I said
"Hikaru!" everyone exclaimed in unison
"If she wanted to attack us, she would've done so by now." I said
"Good point." Said Lumen
We then entered the place and saw the kids from earlier.
"Hey kids, remember us? We're going to show you how thieves get punished." I said while cracking my knuckles in a menacing manner
"We're gonna give you boys and girl a punishment you'll never forget." Rita said while following my lead
We basically went berserk on them before we finished giving them a sound, never-to-be-forgotten punishment.
"We were just following orders! Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart. It's all Barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart." Said the girl
"Yeah, that's right." Said the boy in the devil costume
"B-But you guys said…" started Barrel
"You should be ashamed!" exclaimed the girl
"You know WHO should be ashamed around here?!" I exclaimed
All three of them cowered in fear.
"You three! Instead of pinning the blame on others, you should be thinking about your own actions! Blaming others won't get you far, and if you ever forget that, then guess who will give all three of you a sound spanking the next time we catch you doing mischief?" I said with a murderous look on my face
The kids screamed before they ran away, inadvertently helping us revealing where Oogie was. We found the room he was in, and I was getting a bad feeling.
"Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart!" exclaimed Jack
"You want it? Well, then come on over and get it!" said Oogie Boogie
He then swallowed it whole! Gross!
"Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!" exclaimed Oogie Boogie
Only a couple showed up.
"This is it? Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" exclaimed Oogie Boogie
The roulette that was in the center of the room started up and we were pushed onto it, and Oogie was on the other level. What we were going to do to get up to him now? I felt a small pain in my head, and I saw that I flipped a switch on the roulette that was the closest to Oogie, and surprised him. That's it!
"Guys, follow my lead." I said
I stomped my foot on the switch nearest Oogie, and attacked him like a mad woman when I had caught him off guard.
"Yukie, with me!" exclaimed Rita
"Okay!" exclaimed Yukie
They then hit the next switch, catching Oogie off guard since he expected me this time.
"Fire in the hole!" Rita exclaimed as she fired a fire spell
"Let's shake it up a little." Yukie said as she cast Aero
Those combined attacks caused Oogie to split apart at the seams, literally. Turns out he was just a sack of bugs!
"So, that heart was a failure after all." Said Jack
Ankoku and I jumped up to where the heart was, and I found a piece of paper.
"Guys! It's another page of his report!" I exclaimed as I looked at it.
"Another one?" asked Donald
I nodded my head before I folded up the paper and put it away. We then left his house, but we were then cut off by a sudden earthquake.
"Huh?" wondered Jack
We looked back at the house, and Oogie had a major growth spurt! Big time.
"Whoa! How did he get so big?" asked Sora
"I sense that he's brimming with the power of darkness." I said
"Those dark blobs must be the cause of it." Said Reina
"That's how he's drawing power!" exclaimed Luz
"So, we just have to destroy those things, right?" asked Lumen
"Right." Said Ankoku
We then split up to destroy the blobs, and when we finally did, we found the Keyhole! It was where Oogie's house was! It was going to take all of our Keyblades to seal it, but I was surprised when I saw Ankoku summon out hers. Her Keyblade looked similar to my Emerald's Embrace Keyblade, but was different in a sense. I guess I know why that Keyblade appeared after the Inheritance Ceremony. We all summoned our Keyblades, and pointed it to the Keyhole, and sealed this world. I then felt like I was about to be pulled to the stars. I guess this means that they learned the gravity spell. We headed back to the lab, where Sally was waiting for Jack.
"Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" asked Jack
"Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time, we'll do it together." Said Sally
"I guess we have no choice. We'll have to cancel the Heartless Halloween Festival for now. Visit us anytime you guys. Next year's Halloween will be the scariest ever!" exclaimed Jack
"Emotion, memory… we put in all the necessary ingredients. What else do you need to make a heart? What is a heart, anyway? I can't figure it out." Said the doctor
"I think I have my own theory." I said
"You do?" asked Ankoku
"A heart… although we can't see it, we know it's there. It's what helps us guide our decisions, like a conscience. A heart's more complex than emotion or memory, it's what makes people who they are, no matter what they look like, what troubles they had in the past, or what they believe what is right or wrong. To me, that is what a heart is." I said
"A heart…" Ankoku trailed off
Before we left, I took the page from Merlin's book secretly just before we were about to board the ship, we heard Ankoku cry out:
"Wait!"
We then saw her run up to us.
"Ankoku." I said
"Just who are you?" asked Ankoku
"What do you mean?" I asked
"When you spoke back there, I could hear such wisdom in your voice, like you're older than you look, and seen more things that anyone could ever see. Just who are you?" asked Ankoku
"I'm a Keyblade Master… of the light. That's all I am. No one special." I said
Ankoku's P.O.V.
I watched as the others disappeared through thin air as I stared up in the sky. Where are they going now? What have I been fighting for until now?
"A Keyblade Master of light? Then you really don't know, do you? You don't know… that you're this world's salvation. Your heart is the lock… to open the door." I said
Hikari's P.O.V.
We were back in the ship when someone knocked my door again.
"Yeah?" I asked
The door opened to reveal Luz.
"Hey Luz." I said
"Hey." Said Luz
"So, what can I do for you?" I asked
"I saw your Wayfinder, and I was wondering… if you could help me out." Said Luz
"With?" I asked
She then held out some shells, Thalassa shells to be exact.
"Are these…" I started
"Thalassa shells. I wanted to make a Wayfinder before we left the islands, but I'm really bad at it. Could you help me out?" asked Luz
"Sure." I said
I got the materials we needed, and in no time at all, it was finished. Suddenly, my broken Wayfinder began to glow, and when the glow faded away, a new shell was added to it, making it a six-pointed Wayfinder. Even the purple shell was fixed.
"I'm not your grandfather, and I'm not trying to replace him in your heart Hikari, but… I'm here, so don't hesitate to ask for help when you need it." Said Luz
"Thanks Luz. I appreciate it." I said while smiling
Done and done! Finally! This really took me a while to finish, but yeah, I finally did it. Please review, and until next time, I'm sakuraphoenix, saying I heart you, signing off for now. Kan dao ni!