Chapter 12 Destiny Islands
Taking the transporter down from their Gummi Ship, Sora, Donald, and Goofy land on the soft sand beach overlooking clear blue water. From the edge of the shore they are able to see across the water to a large island with a town nestled between two hills. Between the two shores is a harbor of fishing boats bobbing in the gentle waves.
"Destiny Islands sure is pretty," Goofy says and Sora and Donald nod in agreement. Choosing a world on the edge of the universe Sora had expected to find desolation and darkness, not white sand beaches and a lazy humidity in the air.
But they aren't here to admire the view. "C'mon," Sora says turning away from the ocean to survey the island they are on. "Let's see if Ven's heart is here."
"Or King Mickey," Donald adds as they start walking down the beach past a wooden shack and under a plank bridge. They round a bend in the beach and see it ends at a weathered door. "Oh Sora," Donald says suddenly remembering. "I wanted to ask you, that spell you used on Tay in the tournament was pretty powerful. Where'd you learn it?"
"Uh," Sora says thinking back. He had been fighting Tay and then the spell had just come to mind suddenly. As crazy as it is, he could have sworn he heard a voice whisper it to him. "Not sure…" he says, reaching the door. "Just picked it up along the way I guess."
He pushes open the door and Donald and Goofy follow him through to a second cove. A shriek of fear breaks the serenity of the world and the trio jumps, summoning their weapons.
"It came from over there," Sora says pointing towards the large rock wall that blocked the view of farther down the bench. Donald and Goofy are right behind him as he runs across the wooden bridge over the water. At each step the bridge groans in protest, but thankfully it doesn't collapse and he makes it to the other side.
Running to the right of the towering rock face to get around it, he jumps down onto the bench below and sees three teenagers, a girl and two boys, huddled together at the center of a swarm of Neoshadow heartless. The taller boy with messy dirty blond hair has some sort of blue bat in his hand, but the other two are weaponless.
"Take that!" The boy with the bat yells, striking out at a heartless that had been reaching for the girl. The blue bat knocks the heartless back, but it doesn't seem hurt as it rises back to its feet.
"We've got to help them," Sora says and runs forward with his keyblade raise to attack. Sensing his appearance, the heartless turn their attention to him and forget the three teens to swarm him, Donald, and Goofy instead.
"How many do you think there are?" Goofy asks peering over his shield.
"At least twenty," Donald replies. He raises his staff as high as he can. "Thundaga!"
The eight closest heartless are slammed with the bolt of electricity and spasm as the magic runs through them. Donald ends the spell and Sora and Goofy leap into action, bashing the weakened heartless with their keyblade and shield respectively. Injured by Donald's spell, each heartless only takes a single swing to end and within a few seconds eight pink hearts are rising into the sky.
Turning to the next Neoshadow, Sora swipes his keyblade in an arc that catches it in the chest. It stumbles back and he strikes again to destroy it. Using the momentum he had gathered, he slams his combo move blow into the nearest heartless and the one blow ends it instantly.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees Donald blow several heartless away with a powerful blizzard spell, and Goofy knock several down with a throw of his shield. Sora turns his attention back to his own situation as a Neoshadow lunges at him with its claws out. "Fira," he says and the fireball from the tip of his keyblade explodes against the Neoshadows chest sending it tumbling back into one of others. Before they can get back up, Sora takes them both out and two more pink hearts are released.
Only one Neoshadow remains and it sinks into the ground to avoid Goofy's shield. The black puddle marking its position slides across the sand to a safe distance before it rises back up. Heaving his keyblade over his head, Sora sends it spinning at the heartless which can't sink back into the ground in time. The solid hit to the head ends it in one blow and Sora keyblade arcs through the air to return to his hand.
Letting it disappear, Sora turns to the three teens watching the battle with shocked expressions. "You guys alright," he asks as he, Donald, and Goofy approach them.
"Yeah," the one still holding the blue bat says. "Thanks for stepping in."
"You really saved us," the girl says. "I'm Olette by the way and this is Hayner and Pence."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Sora and this is Donald and Goofy."
Pence, the second stockier boy with black hair, steps forward with a frown as he examines them. "Haven't seen you guys around the Main Island before. Are you new to town?"
"Uh, yeah," Sora says. "Just visiting for a day or so."
"Oh you must be here for the Struggle tournament," Olette says.
"Struggle tournament?" Sora repeats looking to Donald and Goofy who shrug.
"Don't tell me you don't know?" Hayner says shaking his head. "With moves like that you could smoke the competition." He freezes for half a second, his eyes getting wider. "That's it!" He shouts snapping his fingers at a sudden idea. "You can enter tournament and knock Seifer off his high horse."
"Uh...I'm sorry, but we're kind of busy at the moment," Sora says. He looks the three of them carefully. Does one of them have Ven's heart? He doesn't think so, but he isn't really sure how he is supposed to tell.
"What are you busy doing?" Hayner asks, crossing his arms in annoyance. Whatever this Struggle thing is, he seems to be taking it pretty seriously.
"We're looking for our friends," Goofy replies. "One is named King Mickey and the other one's Ven. Have you seen them?"
Hayner, Pence, and Olette exchange looks and all three shake their heads. "Sorry, we've never met them," Olette says.
"But if they're on the islands they'd be at the tournament tomorrow," Pence says. "Everyone comes to watch."
"Everyone, huh?" Sora says. He looks at Donald and Goofy. "What do you guys think?"
Donald glances at Goofy and says, "It'll be easier than turning the world upside down looking."
"So you're coming?" Olette asks with a smile.
"Yeah, I guess we are," Sora says.
Hayner takes a step closer. "If you're going to be there already, you might as well compete," he says.
"Why do you want Sora to compete so bad?" Goofy asks Hayner, but Pence replies,
"Because Hayner's still banned from last year's fight."
"That asshole cheated," Hayner exclaims, turning his back on them. "And the ref wasn't going to do anything about it so I took matters into my own hands."
Olette shakes her head and sends Sora a look that says it would be best to let it drop. "The point is he's banned for the next five years and there is no one good enough to challenge Seifer for the title," she says. "He'll sweep the competition."
"Unless you complete," Hayner says turning back around and Sora is sure there is blush fading from his cheeks. "Seifer strutting around town like a rooster already thinking the tournament is a slam dunk, but fighting like how you just did would give him a run for his money. What do you say?"
"I don't know…" Sora says scratching the back of his head.
"You already said you were going to the tournament to look for your friends," Hayner points out. "It'd be easy to compete too."
"But I don't know what Struggle is," Sora says, but Hayner only grins.
"I'll coach you," he says. "You'll pick it up in no time."
Sora looks from him to Donald and Goofy. "You guys okay with this?" They both nod and Sora turns back to Hayner. "Alright, I'm in."
"Awesome," Pence says grinning and Olette smiles brightly too.
"Good, let's get started," Hayner says. He tosses Sora the blue bat he had been holding and Sora catches it with both hands. "That's a Struggle bat. You have to fight with it and not that flashy sword of yours."
Leaving Sora to examine the bat and test its balance, Hayner goes to a small cave in the rock wall and returns with another bat and two large orbs, one red and one blue. He hands the blue one to Sora who looks at it curiously. It glows with magic and inside it looks like it is filled with smaller orbs.
"The rules of Struggle are simple," Hayner says and Sora looks up to see him place his red orb in his pocket. "Starting with 100 Struggle Orbs, you have sixty seconds to battle and when time runs out the guy with the most orbs wins. Now put it in your pocket." Sora does as he is told and Hayner moves closer. "Hit me," he says.
Sora gives him a questioning look. "What?"
"Hit me," Hayner repeats holding his arms away from him to give Sora an easy target. "It's the quickest way to explain how it works."
Sora glances at the others watching them and sees Pence and Olette both nod encouragingly. Foam bat in hand, Sora swings at Hayner, giving him a solid hit to the chest, but only hard enough to knock him back half a step. To Sora's surprise, four small red orbs jump out of the pocket Hayner had put the larger orb in and fall to the ground, increasing in size rapidly until they are a foot in diameter.
"The harder the hit, the more orbs your opponent loses," Hayner says. He moves closer to the orbs that had shot out of his pocket and as soon as he gets within two feet of one it leaps back into the air, shrinking and returning to his pocket. "Since the game is simple enough, it's all about strategy," Hayner says, collecting the rest of his orbs. "Knowing when to attack and when to run around collecting orbs is the hard part. Your best strategy tomorrow will be to get ahead quick and then keep your distance until the minute's up."
"Makes sense," Sora says, nodding.
"Alright, if you think you're ready for it, let's see how you do in a practice match."
"Bring it on," Sora says, grinning as he falls into a battle stance.
Hayner crouches with his bat pointed at him. "Pence, you keeping time?"
"Got it Hayner," Pence says pressing a button on his watch to make it into a timer. Holding his finger over the start button he calls out, "Ready? Set. Struggle!"
…
"It's this way," Olette says taking the lead as they enter the small town on the Main Island. After over an hour of practicing with Hayner on the Play Island, Sora, Donald, and Goofy hopped in their new friends' small row boats and crossed the water quickly to get to the center of town before the sun set and the sign up for the tournament would be over.
"Seifer's not going to know what hit him," Pence says with a smile.
Sora smiles sheepishly back. After just the first practice match against Hayner, Pence and Olette had decided he was the best swordsman they had ever seen and had no doubts that Sora would take home the trophy in the tournament the next day. Hayner hasn't been as vocal in praise or quite as blown away by Sora's abilities as the other two, but at Pence's comment Sora sees him grin. Sora is confident as well, but it is only his first time Struggling and he just hopes he won't disappoint his friends.
Destiny Islands seems to be a fairly laid back world. Olette leads them past quaint houses weathered by the sea air and small shops open right up to the sand of the beach. With the day drawing to a close, the beach is emptying and Sora hurries to keep up with the others to make sure he doesn't get lost in the crowd.
It doesn't take long to reach the town center where a low stage has been set up as the area to fight and a middle aged man is standing by the steps up to the stage. They head right over to him and he smiles goodnaturedly. "Cutting it a bit close aren't you?"
Sora glances at the sky to see the sun was only a minute or two away from setting. He looks back at the man who picks up a clipboard from where it had been resting on the stage.
"So who's signing up?" The man asks. "I know it's not you Hayner or did you forget there's still a few years on that suspension of yours."
Hayner frowns and crosses his arms, looking away from the man. "That's bull and you know it," he says and Olette throws him a scolding look.
"Actually, sir," she says, nudging Sora forward. "Our friend Sora just came to town today, but he wants to give the tournament a shot."
"A first timer then?" The man says, giving him a smile. "Well that's great. I'm sure you'll have fun. Here, just put your name on this list and you'll be in the bracket tomorrow."
He hands Sora the clipboard and a pen. Taking them, Sora writes his name on the line under at least fifteen other participants. Next to his name, he is asked to write how many Struggle tournaments he's been to and putting a big fat zero he can't help but notice all the other participants have been in at least three. Seifer, the boy Hayner is still holding a grudge against, has an impressive 11 next to his name.
The man takes the clipboard back and say, "Tournament starts eight o'clock sharp tomorrow. Good luck."
"Thank you," Sora says and after a glance at the darkening sky, the man gives them a nod before walking away from the town center.
"We should head back to the ship before it gets any darker," Goofy says looking back in the direction of the Play Island.
"You guys can stay the night at my house," Hayner offers. "We have a couple spare rooms."
Sora opens his mouth to accept, but before he can a shout from across the square makes everyone turn.
"Hey, chicken wuss."
The boy talking is coming towards them at a cocky stride. He is sneering in their direction and Sora can see a diagonal scar between his eyes. On his head is a black hat covering most of his hair except a few pale blond strands poking out. His vest like shirt is blue and cuts off at his belly button exposing a few inches of skin above his baggy pants. Over that he wears a long white jacket that reaches down to his combat boots.
"What do you want, Seifer?" Hayner asks, his hands balling into fists.
Seifer's smirk widens. "Just scoping out the competition." He reaches their group and looks Sora up and down. "This the guy you've got to fight your battles?"
Glaring, Hayner says, "Sora's going to be taking that trophy from you tomorrow."
"The newbie is going to beat me?" Seifer says and laughs. "Yeah, like this pipsqueak's going to last ten seconds tomorrow."
"Hey!" Sora says indignantly.
"You don't stand a chance," Donald says in his defense. "Sora's a keyblade wielder."
"Keyblade?" Seifer repeats. From the tone in his voice Sora knows he's heard of the weapon before, but before he can ask Seifer about it, Olette gasps and points to the stage where a group of heartless have appeared.
Sora's keyblade appears in a flash and Goofy and Donald ready their weapons as well. "Guys, get out of here," Sora says to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Pence and Olette take off right away for the nearest exit out of the square. Hayner, however, doesn't go with them. Glancing to his right, Sora sees Seifer has pulled out a gunblade and is glaring at the heartless.
"I thought I sent you lamers packing," Seifer says coldly.
"Looks like you didn't do a very good job of it," Hayner says coming up beside him with a struggle bat in hand.
"That isn't going to do anything," Seifer says pointing at the flimsy foam sword. "Get out of here before you get yourself hurt."
"I can take care of myself." Before Sora or Seifer can stop him, Hayner jumps up on stage and runs at the first Creeper Plant heartless.
Seifer is right behind him and Sora, Donald, and Goofy jump into the battle as well. Leon's training takes over and in a split second Sora has assessed the heartless. There are four Creeper Plants in each corner of the stage and five Soldier heartless running around. Also, watching from the far side, as if waiting to attack once the other heartless have done what they can, are three heartless Sora can't identify.
"What kind of heartless are those?" Sora asks, pointing. "I've never seen them before." One of the Creeper Plants fires a seed in his direction and he deflects it back, making it writhe in pain, struck by its own attack.
Goofy throws his shield at the same Creeper Plant and it disappears. "Black Fungus heartless. They're rare."
"And dangerous," Donald adds. "Don't let them spray you with their poison."
"Or what?" Sora asks.
Before he can get an answer, the Soldier heartless charge the trio and Sora runs forward to meet them. The first one to reach him slashes with its claws, but Sora dodges and launches into an attack of his own that ends in a combo move. One pink heart rising into the sky, Sora spins on his heel to keep his momentum going and slams his keyblade into the side of another heartless. He is vaguely aware of Donald calling out spells and seeing the Soldier heartless in the corner of his eye burst into flames from a fireball. It disappears, releasing its heart, at the same time the one Sora is fighting is killed as well.
He turns to attack another only to see a seed flying at him like a bullet. He can't block it in time and it grazes his arm leaving a shallow but long cut. Hissing in pain, Sora goes to attack the Creeper Plant that had fired it, but Goofy beats him to it; putting a little magic on his shield and sending it to hit the heartless repeatedly until it disappeared.
By Sora's count, that left two more Creeper Plants and two more Soldiers, but turning he sees a Creeper Plant and a Soldier already taken care of by Seifer. With a final swing of his gunblade, Seifer takes out the last Soldier and glances at Sora. His eyes widen, looking past Sora, and he shouts, "Hayner!"
Sora whirls around to see Hayner trying to get up having been tripped up by a root from the remaining Creeper Plant. Only half upright, he is unable to defend himself from the seed flying right for him. It hits him hard in the temple and he falls back with a grunt of pain.
"Fire," Sora shouts. At the same time Seifer raises his gunblade and fires a bullet. The two attacks hit the Creeper Plant simultaneously and it disappears.
Sora runs to Hayner, fear rising seeing him motionless on the ground. Seifer is at his heels and reaching Hayner he crouches down and rolls him onto his back. His eyes are closed and there is a cut on his forehead, trickling blood.
"Dammit, Hayner," Seifer says, shaking the unconscious boy slightly in hopes of waking him.
Sora leans down and holds his hand over the cut on Hayner's head. "Curaga," he says and the green healing light falls on Hayner.
"Sora!"
Sora turns to see Donald and Goofy taking up battle positions in front of the Black Fungus heartless that have decided to enter the battle now that the other heartless have been defeated. Glancing back down at Hayner, Sora is relieved to see his eyes fluttering open. "Get him out of here," he says to Seifer. Seifer nods curtly and pulls a semiconscious Hayner to his feet. He starts dragging him in the direction Pence and Olette had gone and Sora turns away to join Donald and Goofy against the final heartless.
There is only three of them to deal with, but remembering Donald's warning from before, Sora is reluctant to attack. Still, he moves forward carefully and seeing the closest Black Fungus just staring at him, he swings his keyblade at it. His keyblade connects solidly and the heartless makes a squeaking sound as it stumbles back. Sora follows up with another swing and again knocks the Black Fungus back. Feeling foolish for being so cautious, Sora lunges out with a combo attack, but unlike before the heartless is as solid as rock when his keyblade hits. Deflected, he stumbles closer to the heartless.
"What the-" he says. His eyes widen to see a purple cloud appear around the heartless' feet and blows out at him. He leaps back and avoids most of it, but coughs, tasting a bit of it on his tongue. It's bitter and burns a little. Still coughing, he points his keyblade and says, "Thundara." Hit by the electricity, the heartless spasms slightly and then disappears, leaving a single pink heart to rise into the sky.
Donald and Goofy have taken out the other two heartless as well and seeing the attack is over, Sora lets his keyblade disappear. The taste of the poison is gone as quickly as it had come. Seeing as he doesn't feel any different, Sora assumes it had been a small enough amount to be harmless.
"Your arm is bleeding," Donald says to Sora, raising his staff. "Cure."
Sora looks down at the cut on his arm, waiting for it to heal, but despite the green light from the spell that falls on it, it doesn't change. Confused, Sora looks at Donald who is frowning at him.
"Sora, did you get hit with the Black Fungus' poison?"
"A little," Sora admits, starting to worry. "Why? What is it going to do?"
"Poison prevents cure spells from working," Goofy says.
"That's it?" Sora says relieved. He glances at the cut. "It's not that big of a deal. It's just a little cut."
Donald crosses his arms. "This time it isn't a big deal," he says. "But you have to be more careful, Sora."
"Right, sorry," Sora says, rubbing the back of his head. "Wait, how long does it last?"
"Depends how much you got hit with," Donald says. "If you're right and its was only a little it should wear off in a couple of hours."
Sora looks at the cut on his arm again. It's already starting to clot. Looking at it, he remembers he wasn't the only one injured in the fight. Seifer had taken Hayner out of the square and down a side street that the trio head down as well, looking for their friends.
They hear their voices before they are able to see them.
"I didn't ask for your help!"
"Well you kind of needed it, lying there with the half of brain you've got knocked out of you."
Hurrying forward, they turn a corner to find Hayner and Seifer shouting at each other with Olette and Pence looking on confused. "What's going on?" Sora asks.
"Chicken wuss here is all pissed at me that he go himself smacked in the head by that heartless," Seifer says and Hayner glares at him.
"Well, I didn't need you dragging me out of the fight-" Hayner starts to yell back, but Seifer cuts him off.
"You shouldn't have been in that fight it the first place. You and that toy sword of yours were an accident waiting to happen. Next time leave the fighting to those of us who can actually kill heartless instead of just poking them with a foam stick."
Hayner makes to lunge at Seifer, but Sora grabs him and holds him back. Scowling, Seifer turns his back and walks away, calling over his shoulder, "See ya tomorrow, lamers."
"I fucking hate him," Hayner says, pushing away from Sora. He however stumbles, catching himself on the alley wall with one hand and holding his head with his other.
"I don't think I fully healed you the first time," Sora says, worriedly. He touches Hayner's head. "Curaga."
When the spell finishes, Hayner straightens up. "Better?" Olette asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. Wordlessly Hayner nods.
"It's getting late," Pence says shifting from one foot to the other. The streetlamps have all turned on with night settling in and with a big day tomorrow, it would be best for them to turn in now.
"Can we still take you up on your offer of a place to crash tonight?" Sora asks Hayner.
"Yeah. My house is this way," he replies, heading off down a side street. Sora, Donald, and Goofy follow him giving Pence and Olette a wave as they call goodnight after them.
Hayner's house is on the other side of town and for a long time no one talks. Glancing at Hayner, Sora can see him still frowning in anger and says, "Don't let him get to you too much."
Hayner doesn't reply for a moment, then, "Sora, can I ask you a favor?"
Surprised, Sora nods. "Sure."
"Beat the living shit out of him tomorrow for me, would you?"
Oh Hayner, you are in such denial. :)
TopazDragon98: Terra is still looking out for Ven even trapped inside Xehanort's heart. Poor guy :(
CatLoverx33: Bad news gets even worse next chapter.
I know its a little strange that Hayner and the others are on Destiny Islands, but there are reasons behind putting them there that will be revealed...idk at some point.
Didn't think I'd reach my goal of getting this chapter out this weekend, but its almost 11 now and after typing for the last two hours I got it done. Yay me!