Chapter 9: Man or Monster

Kairi opened the doors of the cathedral with Brian holding Sora up behind her, trying to keep Sora in the real world as his mind had nearly slipped while they were hiding. When the Heartless bit Sora, it drained all of his energy out so he couldn't summon the Keyblade to fight or even stand on his own for that matter. Brian leaned Sora against a pillar, which was near the entrance, before helping Kairi close the cathedral doors to avoid suspicion from the Unbirth outside. The reason they went into the cathedral was because Brian's vanishaga didn't last long and it would have taken too long get back to the gummi without getting caught by Frollo's guards, Unbirths or Heartless. Sora continued to groan from the pain of his arm, which was still bleeding badly and started to swell. Kairi knelled next to Sora and took the bandaged off his arm due to it turning completely red.

Brian broke the silence after Kairi had finished taking the bandage off Sora's arm. "What was up with those Heartless?" he asked, "They were acting creepier than usual."

"Heartless can normally change abilities and appearance when they go to other worlds." Sora explained weakly, stilling groaning about the pain coming from his arm.

Brian knelled next to Sora and Kairi and put his fist under his chin; thinking. Those Heartless fell similar. He thought to himself, what is they were actually….Brian was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Quasimodo about to walk up the stairs that headed to the bell tower, creating an idea for the mage. He knew that if they stayed at the entrance too long then the guards will find them so if he managed to aid help from the hunchback then they will be able to hide out longer until Sora was feeling his normal self and the Hunchback might be able to help him on his task. He smiled at the plan as he quickly left Sora and Kairi's side and went after the hunchback. "Hey wait!" he shouted, making the hunchback stop before continuing up the stairs.

Brian walked up to him and took in his appearance. Quasimodo's left eye looked like a giant wart, his nose was like a pig's and had a huge hunch on his back making him limp and not stand up straight. He could see why the crowd turned against, no matter how cruel it was, before remembering why he had called him in the first place. "Hunchback of Norte Dame. I ask for your help." Brian asked with a desperate tone in his voice. "One of my friends that helped you has gotten seriously hurt against the Heartless. We need Sanctuary in the bell tower otherwise the guards will take us away as we are not from this world." Brian shook inside a bit when he said that Sora was his friend before continuing, "Please Quasimodo. Give us Sanctuary."

Quasimodo looked around Brian and looked at Kairi and Sora. Kairi was trying to comfort Sora from the pain while Sora was starting to fall unconscious. Kairi shook Sora until he woke back up with made her start to cry. Sora pulled her into a hug and she started to cry into his chest. Quasimodo felt guilty that because he chose to go to the Festival of Fools, Sora got injured. Quasimodo started to think about what Frollo would do if he found out that he was keeping 'gypsies' what Frollo called them in the bell tower when he was looking for them. Quasimodo shook the thought away as he knew in his heart that he had to help Sora, Kairi and Brian. Quasimodo smiled and then faced Brian. "You have Sanctuary." He simply said as he walked past Brian to help Sora.

Brian stood there in surprise of Quasimodo's answer, he thought he had to persuade him before he answered 'yes'. "Wow! That was easily that I thought." He said in his head and joined the group.

BOWBOWBOW

"HELLO! HELLO!" Riku shouted, "THE FESTIVAL IS OVER NOW. FREE ME ALREADY!" Riku had been left in the stock he had accidentally gotten into and he was left all alone in front of the cathedral. "I'm hungry." He said quietly to himself.

BOWBOWBOW

Sora, Kairi, and Brian was resting in the bell tower while Quasimodo went down stairs, claiming that he had heard someone singing at the bottom of the chruch, even though no one else did. While Brian was sitting near some gargoyle statues, Sora was sleeping on the small bed that Quasimodo had lay him on while Kairi was finishing placing another set of new bandages on his bleeding arm, as well as checking if he was alright. "Do you think that he will be alright?" Kairi asked her friend as she grabbed Sora's left hand and rubbed it with her thumb in a form of comfort.

"He'll be fine." He said before looking over at the two, The two of them seem really close. Let's just hope that Daniel's plan works. Whatever his plan is. He thought. His thoughts were broken as he heard rapid footsteps coming from outside the windows, slowly pushing himself up with the aid of the gargoyles for support to check it out. He gasped with surprise as he saw the hunchback running towards the bell tower with the dancer that he had flirted with eailer trailing behind him with her goat. "The hunchback can get a date with her but I can't?" he gasped in shock as he turned away from the stone window to see that the gargoyle statues that he had been sitting by earlier had disappeared. He walked over to where they were before, confused how statues could just come alive and walk away, until he looked to see one of the statues hopping down the stairs. "Hey Kairi. Did you just see…?"

"Sora…" Kairi spoke as he began to awaken, flickering his eyes as he woke, ignoring Brian completely. The Keyblade Master yawned as his blurred vision came into play, looking around at his surroundings to find that they weren't at the festival anymore. Before he could ask where he was, his eyes shot open as the pain from his bitten arm had returned. "Sora, you need to rest." She told him, handling over a hi-potion to him to relief the pain. As Sora slowly drank the potion, his mind flashback to another memory at Destiny Islands.

Flashback

Sora was walking around the island, watching the sea as his mind was full of questions and worries as he was thinking on whether heshould let Kairi go with him and Riku on their next journey, if they were to be called up again as theirduty of being a Keyblade Wielder. He was worried about Kairi getting hurt or worse, especially after the training session they had just have and had to cut it short due to Kairi nearly hurting herself when casting fire. He sighed as he sat down on the beach and started at the ocean, not sure what he was going to do.

"Hey Sora!" Sora turned behind him to see Kairi walking towards him before sitting by his side as the two enjoyed the view together. After a minute of sitting in silents, watching the waves move in and out, the girl next to him looked at him with concern. "What's wrong Sora?" she asked him.

"I was thinking….about the next time we're needed." He said while saying nothing in the middle of the sentence.

"Well. It will be the three of us and none of us will get lost this time." Kairisaid happily. The Keyblade Master didn't reply as he continued to stare out into the ocean, making the girl beside him gasped at what he was thinking. "Sora. You aren't leaving me here again." Kairi said angrily, jumping away from him as she glared down at him. "You think I'm gonna let you go to other worlds while I'm stuck here being worried sick about the two of you."

He sighed with annoyance, hoping he could avoid this, as he kumped up from sitting at the sand and looked at her, "I want you to come but you still unable to fight with the Keyblade and you nearly burned yourself to death when we were training." Sora argued back.

"Then you will help me along the way. Please Sora! I don't want to lose you like I did when you turned into a Heartless." Kairi cried, normally she prevent saying these things to Sora, but being the situation of him leaving her again, then she didn't care about what she was saying.

There was a small silence between the two before Sora stepped closer to her, "I'm don't want that to happen to you either." Sorasaid sadly, "Kairi, I think we will have to talk-" Sora tried to walk away, not sure what to say to her yet.

"Don't go!" She cried as she grabbed his hand and held it tightly. Sora turned around and looked at her as she tried to make him understand why she needed to go, why she needed to share the adventure with her two best friends.

Sora'sbrain was ranting him to say 'no' because of the dangers that might be appearing but knew all to well that leaving her will do just as much damage to his heart as it would if he let Kairi come. Listening to his heart, Sora looked at Kairi who was still waiting for an answer. "I promise…." Sora started.

Kairi looked down as she had heard the beginning of that sentence before. 'I come back to you. I promise.' She waited for the rest of the sentence she didn't want to hear.

"….I'll keep you safe while we're visiting other worlds."

Kairi looked up in surprise of his answer and carried on listening. "And when we have to go, I convince Riku to let you come." She leaped in joy as she jumped towards him, knocking Sora back onto the sandy beach with her on top of him. She giggled happily at Sora's decision, not realising what position the two were in, as she turned to face Sora to see him look at her with a passionate look on his face. Her laughter slowly halted as she looked into his eyes once more as he looked into her eyes, making the two smile goofily at each other while looking in each others eyes. Before the two knew it, their heads slowly become closer, their eyes began to lower, their breathe began to blow against each other's skin, their noses began to touch, Kairi's phone began to sing.

WHEN YOU WALK AWAY, YOU DON'T HEAR ME SAY…

Kairi quickly got off the Keyblade Master, her face blushing from what the two nealry did as she asnweredher phone. While she talked to whoever had ruined their moment, Sora sat up on the sand and started to blush from what nearly happened again. "Sora?" Kairi grabbed his attention, bringing him out of his thoughts, "I have to go. My mum wants me for something again." Sora nodded as she pulled him up.

As she was about to let go, he quickly pulled her into a hug, "I promise." He simply said to her, feeling her hug him back. She broke out of his hug and looked at Sora before kissinghim on the cheek and smiled warmly at him as she departed to head home, leaving Sora to smile goofily at her with his hand on his cheek.

End of Flashback

"Hey Sora." Brain said, finally grabbing his attention, Kairi was searching through Briann's bag for more Hi-potions. "I thought you were this saviour of all worlds but you can't even handle one simple bite from a worthless Heartless." He insulted, earning a glare from the injured KeybladeMaster. "I mean this is the first world and we've already have to save your hide-"

"Brian. Shut up." Kairishouted at him, irritated by this before hanging Sora another Hi-Potion, giving him the strenght the stand up without support.

Just then, Quasimodo came up the stairs with the stone gargoyles following him, Brian started to rub his eyes in disbelieve, seeing the three stone gargoyles that he was relaxing by eariler more alive and freely. One had a big gut, mouth and horns with little wings. Other one had a muscular build with large wings and little horns. He was known as the brains of the three. The last one looked older than the other two, if that's possible. It had median size horns and wings and had lots of pigeons following it. Brian watched as the gargoyles were talking to Quasimodo without noticing the others."Well done Quasi." the chubby gargoyle congratulated, "You already got the ladies coming after you."

"Yeah. We always said you were the cute one." The old gargoyle smiled.

"I thought I was the cute one." The chubby one interrupted while eating cheese that came from nowhere with his mouth open.

"No! You're the fat, stupid one who never shuts up." The old one shouted back.

The chubby statue opened chewed the cheese in his mouth while looking back at the old statue questionably "What'reyou trying to say." He asked stupidly, makin Brian, Sora and Kairi laugh at the little comedy show.

The smart gargoyle turned to look at the three and then back his friend, "Aren't you going you introduce us to your friends, Quasi?" he asked

"No time. Must hide." He said quickly as he ran behind one of the curtains and hid in the shadows. Before anyone could question the hunchback's actions, a call came down from below, making the three gargoyles halt their actions and turned themselves into lifeless statues once more.

The three off-worlders watched the stairway as their heard footsteps approach to where they were resting, only to see a white goat with golden loop piecings come up the stairs and growl at the staff weilder. "I know you! You was with the dancer." Brian said as the three of them watched the dancer herself appear in the bell tower with them. "I see you come back to take me offer right?" Brian smirked, only for the goat the strike him in his precious place, sending him to the ground. Sora smiled at this as he knew he deserved it for the way he treated girls, better the goat than him.

The dancer looked at the two familar teens, "You two are the ones that help me defend that boy from anymore torture." she said before noticing Sora's arm, "What happened?"

"Nothing to worry aboout." He assured her as he stepped forward with a smile, "I'm Sora." He introduced, "This is Kairi and the one that's groaning on the floor is Brian." He said while pointing at the person for their name.

"So much pain!" Brian curled into a small ball on the wooden floor.

The dancer smiled at the introduction, "I'm Esmeralda and this is Djali." she replied as her goat said 'baa' as a hello. "Did you see the boy that ran in here?" She asked them, looking around for any sight of him.

"I'm here." A voice came from behind the curtain as the hunchback came out of the shadows and greeted himself, "I'm Quasimodo."

Esmeralda smiled that he had shown himself to her, "Well it's nice to meet you Quasimodo." Esmeralda replied as she shook Quasimodo's hand.

BOWBOWBOW

Quasimodo started to show Esmeralda, Sora, Kairiand Brian around the bell tower, naming all of the different bells before leading them up the tower, saying that they is something beautiful to see at the top of the tower. While Kairi was amazed of how many bells there were and wondered why Quasimodo wasn't deaf, Sora checked his arm, finding that it didn't hurt as bad as before but he was unable to summon the Keyblade and even if he could with his other hand, he wouldn't be able to fight as he fights with both hands on the weapon. Brian was trailing behind, trying to keep his distance from the goat as he had trouble climbing the stairs.

"Look." Quasimodo spoke as they reached the top of the tower, opening a wooden door that lead them onto the rooftops of Norte Dame, showing them a view that could shame Twilight town as the sun began to set at the edge of the town, radiants of red reflecting in the setting sky. Everyone awed at the view, allowing them to see the entire town from the rooftop as the hunchback looked at the view by sitting on the side of the roof, one of his legs hanging off the side.

Brian looked down at the streets to see that there were guards at every door, "Looks like we're not going anywhere." He pointed out, showing Sora and Kairi the guards.

"Don't worry." The hunchback assured them, "So long as you stay here, you have sanctuary. The guards still follow the law of the chruch."

"We can't stay." Esmeralda looked away from the sunset as the hunchback began to talk to her again.

"There's Riku." Brian smirked at the site of the trapped silver head as he began to gather spit within his mouth. As he was about to spit off the side, Sora quickly jumped behind him to see what he was doing, making the red mage chock on his spit and nearly fall off the side if Sora didn't pull him back. Brian sighed in relief before turning to glare at Sora, "What the-"

"Brian!" Kairi glared at him, "We're in a chruch."

Brian nodded to her reminded before the three walked over to Quasimodo and Emseralda were speaking, the sun completely setting to let the stars appear in the sky. "Frollo can get on my last nerve. Why can't he give us gypsies a change?" Esmeralda complained.

"Frollo is my master you know." The hunchback informed them before walking over to the centre of the rooftop, sitting on the roof itself as everyone went silent.

Esmeralda walked over to the hunchback and sat beside him with Djali. "How can a man so cruel bring up such a kind person?" she questioned while sitting on the roof.

"Oh no. He took me in when no one else would." Quasimodo assured before facing away from his friends, "I'm a monster you know." He said sadly

"You're not a monster!"Kairi told him, "If you were a monster, then you wouldn't have gave us three sanctuary." The hunchback smiled at Kairi's words before having his attention taken by Esmeralda as she started to check his hand.

"Kairi's right." Sora added, "The only real monsters out there are the Heartless, Unbirths, Endless and anyone who decides to use them."

Brian smirked as he turned to face Sora. "Does that mean you and Riku are monsters?" Brian laughed. His chuckles died quickly though as he recieved a evil death glare from both Sora and Kairi. Oops, must have pulled there stings.

Esmeralda started to hum as she read the hunchback's hand, "Well I don't see any…" she said looking at his hand.

"Any what?" Quasimodo looked down at his hand in confusion.

"Monster lines." She simply answered as she looked up at the hunchback before letting go off his hand.

"See Quasi. You're a man, not a monster." Sora smiled at him.

"Well if you minus the huge hunch, stood up straight and every else then-" Brian muttered until Sora elbowed him in the ribs, making him shut up.

Kairi quickly pulled the boys aside as she asked them, "How are we going to balance the world if Riku is stuck in a stock below and that we're stuck in a cathedral?" She asked them, only to recieve an worried expression.

"I know a way out." Quasimodo spoke up, making everyone look at him with questioning looks.

"How?" Brian questioned thw hunchback, "All the doors are guarded."

"We climb down." Quasimodo simply answered, making the dancer and her goat look down at the distance between here and the ground.

The Princess of Heart looked at her childhood friend with concern. With his arm injured, he would never made it to the bottom. "Sora. You have to stay here." Kairi instructed him.

The Keyblade Master turned to her in disbelief, "What? No way! I'm coming." he argued.

"Sora you can't go! You can't even walk straight let alone summon your Keyblade." She shot back.

Quasimodo was getting ready to take Esmeralda with Djali in her arms down the cathedral, "Are you guys coming?" Brian turned to the two with annoyance.

"I use my heart to battle." Sora told her.

"But you need your Keyblade to use your heart." She pointed out.

"Can I say something?" Brian interrupted.

"STAY OUT OF IT!" They both shouted at him.

Brian flinched at the two angry expression from his interruption, "I was only going to say that we need more information about Norte Dame itself and where the Keyhole might be and we can't do that if one of use don't stay behind." Brian pointed out.

"My point exactly." Kair turned to Brain, "Thank you Brian."

"No problem!" He grinned cheesy at her, making Sora clenched his hands into fists out of jealousy but hiding his facial expression.

He looked at Kairi and saw that she started to do her puppy dog look. "Please Sora. Stay here with Quasi. For me?" She pleaded him. At first, he looked away to prevent falling for the 'look' but couldn't help but look back at her to see it, making the Keyblade Master sigh in defeat. Kairi cheered at this as she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you." She said before she jumped on Quasimodo's back. Brian chuckled at the cheesy looking Keyblader as the others began to climb down, following them after seeing Sora's expression.

He blushed slightly from the kiss and Brian's teasing but shook it away as he looked up at the stars in the sky. So many worlds... I wonder how many we will go to to find the King and the ones that caused this. He shook that thought away as he smiled, Kairi and Riku are with me this time, we can finally have that adventure to go to other worlds with each other. He smiled at the thought as he began to head back down the sprial of stairs, wondering if he could talk to the gargoyles about this world, when he was halted by a blonde hair man in golden armour, "Who are you?"

Kingdommad