Chapter 86: Scheming Guardians
"Sora, Donald, Goofy! Am I happy to see you." The Keyblade Master chuckled as he felt a familiar red dragon hugging his arm. "Things have been great for me since Mulan saved China." The small dragon crawled down Sora's body and jumped onto the table so the others could see.
"We helped too!" Donald reminded him.
"Details. Details." Mushu pushed the information away, making Donald growl at him before sitting down. It was early hours in the morning; the group had gathered themselves in the meeting room to discuss the route that they should take to find the keyhole. Sora, Kairi, Brian, Donald and Goofy waited with the company of Mushu while Shang, Mulan and Jun were getting the information they needed.
Kairi looked at Mushu strangely, "You look a little small to be Mulan's guardian?" she pointed.
"Well that's because I've changed my size for travel." Mushu grinned, making Sora, Donald and Goofy groan. "If I was my real size, your cat there will die of fright." He pointed to Brian.
Brian was sitting on one of the chairs with his claw feet on the table, looking at the dragon crest that they had gotten off the Emperor. He stopped looking at the crest as he looked at the red dragon with anger, "I'm a damn tiger!" He growled at him.
"Down kitty." Mushu commanded him with a firm tone.
Brian huffed at the demand, "Like you can talk, you're more of a gecko then a dragon." He shot back.
"Gecko!" Mushu repeated in disbelief, "Who you calling a gecko? A gecko wouldn't be the guardian of the hero of China. A gecko wouldn't be this incredibly handsome." Mushu smirked at himself in the mirror on the wall for a second before listing other things, "And a gecko wouldn't have hooked up Mulan and pretty boy." Mushu chuckled. Sora, Donald and Goofy looked at Mushu with surprise when Mushu mentioned Mulan and Shang being together.
"Then you're a gecko because none of that is true." Brian concluded with a smirk before going back to looking at the dragon crest.
"It is true!" Mushu argued back.
"When did Mulan and Shang get together?" Sora asked.
Mushu halted his rant before turning around to face Sora and Kairi, "They got together just after you left to save you." Mushu pointed at Kairi before smirking at the two, "I've seen that look before." He smiled.
"What look?" Sora and Kairi asked in unison, confused by Mushu's statement.
"You like each other, don't cha?" He smirked.
Sora and Kairi blushed deeply before turning away from each other, each hiding the blush on their face, "W-we're just friends." Kairi responded quickly.
"Y-yeah." Sora stuttered nervously. Donald and Goofy began to chuckle at the two teens while Brian looked at the two with worry and slight anger as he placed the dragon crest in his brown bag and quickly ticked the item off his blue check book.
The door opened at a fast rate as Jun came into the room, breathing heavily, "Guys! You never guessed what happened!" Jun said with excitement.
"You feel asleep on the job again and the guards caught you?" Mushu guessed.
"No, weird strange lizard thing that hides in Fa Mulan's stuff." Jun said casually, "General Li Shang just proposed to Fa Mulan and she said YES!" She finished happily.
Mushu looked at Mulan's pupil in disbelief, "Come again?"
"Oh boy! Oh boy! Another wedding." Donald said exciting.
"I always thought that they were good for each other, ah-yuck!" Goofy smiled.
"Looks like Mushu just proved that he's not a gecko." Sora chuckled as he looked over at Brian, who didn't seem to bothered about Mulan and Shang's engagement.
"Just act natural when the two come back in though." Jun told them. "I was just around the corner when I saw them so act surprised when they decide to announce it." She quickly sat down by the table with Donald, Goofy and Brian as the door opened to reveal Mulan and Shang, carrying a pile of scrolls.
Mulan placed the scrolls on the table, quickly placing Mushu in her pocket before looking at Jun, "Did you find any scrolls?" she asked her.
"No." Jun answered honestly.
Shang placed the scrolls down and looked at her with disapproval, "Why not?"
Jun tapped her fingers on the table as she thought; the tiger like mage next to her watched how she tapped her fingers with curiosity, he had seen that from somewhere. "Ummm, I couldn't find them." She smiled innocently, Shang groaned angrily at this.
"Shang! It doesn't matter." Mulan told him, making him drop it for now. "Let's just make the route."
BOWBOWBOW
According to one of the legends in the scrolls, a lone traveller had come across a light that had come from a keyhole shaped hole within a carven near the kingdom of Qui Gong. The group had discussed that they should head through the countryside where they would avoid any unwanted attention while travelling in the areas that the Order had already captured. Because of this, Shang had ordered that they should stay in formation while travelling, placing him and Mulan at front, Donald, Sora, Brian and Jun in the middle as they guarded the wagon of supplies and with Kairi and Goofy at the back of the patrol.
After making a turn past the checkpoint, the group began their journey to the half way point which they should reach by nightfall. While Mulan and Shang was talking ahead, the four in the middle had to deal with Brian's constant moaning, "Why is my back hurting so much?" Brian groaned in pain.
"Maybe you should walk on all fours." Jun suggested to him, "You are a tiger after all."
"I AM NOT GETTING ON THE FLOOR LIKE AN ANIMAL." Brian told the three of them.
"But you are an animal." Donald reminded him.
"BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Sora began to walk backwards to face Brian and Jun, "Why don't you just rest up in the wagon for a while? You could quickly get used to your change in structure by then." Sora said to him. "Jun could keep you company while me and Donald protect the wagon."
Brian though about it while he continued walking, "At least we get to know each other a little more." Brian looked at the bright side, "And I can be lazy for the entire trip and figure out how to change myself back." Brian turned towards Jun, "What do you—where is she?" Jun was no longer at her side.
"She went into the wagon." Sora answered before looking past the red tiger, Brian just shrugged and went into the wagon.
Donald sighed with relief as he though Brian was going to unleash his tiger claws on him, "What a relief." He looked back at Sora to see him still walking backwards, "Sora?"
The Keyblade Master watched the back of the patrol, watching Goofy and Kairi converse in conversation. He watched how she placed part of her hair behind her ear as it hid her face, how her smile brightened up the light in his heart, how her eyes spark as her happiness is shown, how the sun reflect in her auburn red hair to show true beauty. He smiled goofily at her, stricken by her appearance, until she faced his direction. He quickly jumped out of his daydream and shot back around to face the front of the patrol, nearly tripping in the progress, his cheeks burning up from nearly getting caught as well as hearing Donald's snickering.
Meanwhile in the wagon, Brian yawned loudly as he stretched his entire body across the wagon while Jun looked as if she was about to fall asleep. After stretching his tiger body, Brian turned to face Jun, "Sooo..." He dragged to gain her attention.
Jun yawned tired before looking at Brian, "Heya, talking tiger." She yawned.
"Do you mind if I asked you something?" he said to her with a serious tone. Jun smiled happily at him, letting him carry on. "How come you called me Haru?" He asked her.
"Because it's your name." Jun simply answered.
Brian looked at her with confusion, "But my name is Brian."
"But that is what you think your name is." Jun explained, "Your heart says different though as it blooms like the spring and as bright as the sun. Spring or even Sun is the translation for Haru."
"Haru means Sun?" He looked at her in question before remembering a quote his father had once said, You are the Sun, your purpose is golden. "If it means spring as well, wouldn't that relate me to nature?" he asked with worry, maybe he was related to the Colonel.
"More like a new beginning I think." Jun shrugged.
A new beginning? Right, like that makes any—wait a minute. "How do you know all of this?" He questioned her.
"I know the truth." She responded.
Brian looked at her with wide eyes; could she possibly tell him who he is? "The truth?" he repeated. The wagon suddenly came to a halt, sending the tiger to nearly fall out of it. "Oh God damn it!" Brian crawled over to the window to look at Donald in with an angry expression, "What's the hold up?" he growled at him.
"Well..." Donald slightly cowered but not because of him.
Shang seemed to appear out of nowhere as he opened up the wagon and glared at the two, "What are you doing?" he questioned them, "You're supposed to be patrolling and on the lookout for enemies."
"Well you try get turned into a tiger and have to deal with the problems of walking." Brian shot back at the General. "I just came back here until my back stop hurting and Jun was just giving me company." He explained.
"UNBRITH!" Sora called out from outside, making Brian and Jun jump out of the wagon, despite Brian's back problems, and the three quickly joined to others.
They ran to the front of the patrol where two Fat Unbirths, a group of Blinks, two Assult Riders and a group of Shadow Heartless stood in their way. Sora quickly looked at the situation, "We've dealt with the Unbirths before. You guys help Mulan and Shang with the Heartless..." Sora instructed to Donald and Goofy, "...while we'll take on the Unbirth." Before any objections could be made that Jun was in Sora's group, the two groups broke up as one of the Assault Rider's charged towards Goofy, who managed to block the attack with his shield and quickly roll out of the way of its attack.
As Sora's group summoned their weapons, Brian looked over to Jun's weapon to see if he would find it familiar, all he saw was a traditional fighting sword similar to what Shang and Mulan have. Both of the Fat Unbirths began to charge towards Sora and Kairi, leaving the tiger Endless and the hero's pupil to deal with the dozen of blinks. "Stay behind me! Don't let them strike your skin." Brian warned her as he quickly dismissed his Staff of Myths to activate his fire element, lighting his tiger claws on fire as he ran towards the blinks and began to strike them at a fast rate. As he destroyed one though, three more appeared and began to attack Jun at some points but the Blinks mainly attacked him.
Sora and Kairi quickly moved out of the way to avoid the Fat Unbirth from grabbing them as well as blocking the punch from another one. The Keyblade Master quickly knelled to the ground, calling Kairi over just as she managed to push the attack away from the Fat Unbirth and avoid one of their body wave's attack. She quickly ran over and placed one of her feet in his hands, allowing Sora to flip her over both of the Fat Unbirths, "Shock!" Kairi flew above them as she casted 'Thundera' on one of the Fat Unbirths, paralyzing it. This gave Sora the chance to quick dash behind the paralyzed Fat Unbirth and began to strike it from behind, making the Unbirth airborne. He quickly jumped into the air and aimed his strike, sending the Fat Unbirth into one of the Assault Rider's, destroying them both.
Mulan quickly summoned Mushu, allowing her give off a fire effect after striking enemies with her sword. She quickly ran over to Shang, who was dealing with some Heartless, and quickly burned them as she slashed them before calling out for her guardian, "Mushu!" she called out.
"I'm on fire!" He cheered as he jumped in the air and shot a number of comets in the air, destroying the other Assault Rider that was attacking Donald and Goofy and some shadows, which was replaced by some Night walker Heartless.
Sora quickly looked over to Brian and Jun to see that they weer beginning to struggle as there was too many Blink surrounding Brian, jumping on him and halting his attacks all together while Jun seemed to have trouble striking them as they didn't even pay attention to her as she tried to hit them. "Jun! Help Kairi out!" Sora quickly called her as the two switched places, "Donald! Goofy!" He called over as the Blink Unbirth noticed his appearance and began to strike the Keyblade Master.
Kairi looked over to see Jun join her as the two girls jumped to the side as the Fat Unbirth attempted another body wave. As they were moving away from the attack, Jun managed to trip on herself and landed on the floor hard, twisting her ankle. As she yelled in pain, the Fat Unbirth turned to her and approached her with the intentions of grabbing her, looking deadly at the scared expression on her face.
"ULTIMA!" The Fat Unbirth shot its glaze up over to be blasted with Donald's Trinity Ultima spell, with the help of Sora and Goofy. The three landed on the ground and lifted their weapons up in the air, creating a light that began to pull the shadows, blinks that were on Brian and the Nightwalkers into the pull of the light as the light grew brighter and brighter, making the group shield their eyes. When the light faded away, all of the enemies had disappeared as Sora, Donald and Goofy disposed of their weapons.
Kairi quickly went over to Jun and began to heal her ankle, "Are you alright, Jun?" she said as she began to cast cure.
"I think so." She said gratefully, "What about you?"
"I'm fine. Thank you." Kairi smiled as she helped Jun up, watching the pupil test her ankle.
"Man, that took a lot out." Sora panted as he bent down slightly, holding on to his knees as all of his, Donald and Goofy's maga was drained from the trinity attack. He looked over to Donald and Goofy, only to find that they had fallen asleep from the drain of power. He chuckled slightly before turning towards Brian, who was getting up, "Do we have any Ethers?" Sora asked as he heard Shang announced that they will be quickly taking a break to freshen up and treat wounds.
Brian disposed of his fire ability before looking back at him, "Sure! I think I saw some in the wagon." He replied as he walked into the wagon.
BOWBOWBOW
As he reached the wagon, Brian halted his actions as he could hear someone's voice coming from inside, "It took me 500 years to get that pedestal back and I'm not about to give it up. Mulan had to cover pretty boy's back for the entire fight while all he does is complain about Mulan's student." The tiger slowly opened the cover to see Mushu pacing inside the wagon, not knowing that Brian was listening. "The girl doesn't even realise how miserable she is. That's the real tragic. I got to stop her from making the biggest mistake of my life."
"Your life, Gecko?" Brian smirked, making the dragon jump out of his skin, "Seems to me that you're just thinking about yourself."
Mushu's head popped up from behind Brian's bag as he looked at Brian, "This is not about me." Mushu ranted, "This is Mulan making the biggest mistake of her life."
Brian hummed in amusement, "So you say." He said as he grabbed his brown bag and pulled out some Ethers for Sora, Donald and Goofy. "So you're basically going to try and break them up?"
Mushu smirked evilly at this, "I am the girl's guardian and I can help you too." He said to Brian.
Brian's expression turned to a questionable state, "How so?" He asked.
"Well, every since Mulan had taken Jun in as her student, pretty boy hasn't been pleased with her slacking off. If we get Jun to slack off with you, Shang will blow a fuse and you get to know what you want to know. Everybody wins!" Mushu explained.
"Expect for Jun and Mulan." He pointed out, "I don't want any part of your part, gecko." He said as he began to walk away.
"W-w-wait! I can help with Sora and Kairi." Brian held him say, grabbing his attention.
Brian walked back over to the wagon and looked at the dragon once more, "I'm listening."
"You seemed to be worried about Sora and Kairi getting together, as guardians, we have the right to do whatever it takes to protect them, right?" Mushu asked him.
Brian thought about it for a bit before shaking his head and glaring at the dragon, "Forget it." He said, feeling Mushu jump on his shoulders and he left the wagon and walked over to Sora, Donald and Goofy, giving them the ethers before turning away. "Will you get lost?"
"I need your help to pull this off." Mushu told him with honestly, "What do you want? I can get it."
Brian halted his actions and looked at the dragon with disbelief, "I wouldn't have expected you to crawl into offers." He smirked. "You must really need my help."
"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." Mushu pushed away, "Just choice something before I changed my mind." Mushu warned him.
Brian sat himself down by the wagon and watched Sora, Donald and Goofy speak to each other. If an Endless gets the ability to hear at a certain distance, maybe I can too. The tiger closed his eyes, feeling slight pain coming from his red Endless claw, as he focused on the trio ahead.
"Sora, you seem to have your mind someplace else. Are you alright?" Donald asked with concern. Hmm looked like it works. Brian opened his eyes to continue to listen to the conversation.
"Sora! Did you take your remedy?" Goofy said with worry.
"Don't worry guys! I'm fine." Sora smiled at the two, grateful for their concern, "I was just thinking..."
Donald and Goofy looked at Sora with question before a sly smirk appeared on their faces, "You were thinking about Kairi." Donald whispered quietly, knowing that Kairi was just a few metres away, while Goofy chuckled quietly.
Sora nodded his head, not afraid to hide his feelings anymore, earning a serious look from the two of them. "I'm gonna tell her guys. I'm gonna take her somewhere and I'm gonna tell her that I love her." He said while looking at her.
Brian shook his head as he began to gain a headache from using the ability. As soon as the pain was gone, he looked at Mushu with a serious expression. "I have an offer that a gecko like you will be interested in." Brian smirked darkly.
BOWBOWBOW
Deep within the stations of Kairi's heart, Naminé drew in her stretch book as a number of drawings surrounded the mural floor of Kairi. A number of the pictures have been of past events, the day Sora, Kairi and Riku had met Brian, Hikari and Max, Sora's attack, Riku's cold expression when he had gotten the haircut, Brian's bizarre expression that Kairi had managed to see when he crashed the gummi ship, the events in African Depths, the fight and many more but what concerned the nobody was the pictures that seem to fit with the story that the pictures are telling as one of the pictures shown an army of Nobodies taking over Radiant Garden, the Order destroying Little Devon and the most recent one being the Colonel taking Kairi's life.
Naminé looked at the drawing that she had started with a sign of hope in her eyes, "Please make it." She prayed, "I fear the worst is yet to come." She closed her mind as she felt a presence enter the heart before looking back at the picture of Roxas looking at a path of mazes within the station of awakening of Kairi's heart.
A/N: Hey! College is finished. Expo was...interesting and now I have to try and get to 104 chapters before August to get back on track. Wish me luck.
Van Pat: We do! Let's just see what will happen. ^^
Transitions End: lol You might be pleased in the later chapters then.
Joahikim: Thank you! I looked at the ruff I called beginning chapters the other day. Man I need to rewrite them.
Shadow Sylph: IT'S MY PARTNER IN CRIME ^^ Shhhhhh I'm not teasing readers. Don't be mad.
Future Keyblader: The emperor is wise...very wise. He knows all.
Kisdota- The Freak Gamer: Thanks ^^ I'm sure you will think of something.
Artism: Intresting. Still not gonna give it away. The meaning of Haru might give you a clue.
Celticskyedancer: This story is like my personal game. If you know what's going on then you're playing the game right. If you managed to guess what will happen at this point in time then you need to stop being peeping tom's lol
I would like to thank everyone that have placed this story on alert, favourite and has reviewed. Your comments place a smile on my face and I update my story to keep you guys please...even thought I want to finish it anyways. Even I am wondering where this story will go.
Shadow: That's called not planning your story.
Mad: I do have a plan. I plan the main parts that must happen in the story. See ya next time ^^
Kingdommad