Chapter 109: The tournament begins
"Alright everyone! Listen up." The voice of the trainer known as Phil echoed in the lobby as the three teens entered the lobby itself. They looked around the sandy colour room, styled like any other Greek building with a selection of Trophies on each side of the room, one side with normal looking Greek styled vase trophies while the other trophies looked more pointed and shaped of certain creatures that you would only here from ancient myths within Greek geology. The three didn't question it though, having a feeling that the coliseum properly have a range of different tournaments, instead they looked at the different amount of fighters once more. Though most of them looked like Greek warriors from Sparta to Athens, it wasn't hard to spot the fighters that they saw earlier as well as some other fighters that seems out of place.
The one with spiky black hair seemed to be doing some casual squats while he waited for the other competitors to calm down for their chatter so that Phil could continue talking, they watched him chuckled slightly to himself, a warm smile on his face, his facial expression showing signs of remembrance. His expression changed thought into a casual one as he began to talk to another fighter that held a tattered up red cloak.
They took in the appearance of the man, seeing his long black hair stream out wildly while a red head band was place to hold his fringe back. The ripped up red cape was held in place over his shoulders and lower face by several buckles while most of his clothing underneath remained black other than his brozen metallic boots. His pale face aided in bringing out the dangerous looking red eyes while adjusting the golden gauntlet on his left arm.
Max looked at the man in question. "Do you thing he's the Endless causing the huge energy change?" He whispered to the others.
Hikari took in the man's appearance before shrugging. "He doesn't look like someone from the Order."
"Well it could be one of the Order's lackeys." Max suggested.
"But then he wouldn't have a huge energy, he would just be a Neutral." Hikari explained. "Besides, he looks more like a vampire than an Order member."
"A vampire?" Max looked at the man again, seeing him walking away from the fighter with spiky black hair before looking back at Hikari. "You're just saying that because he has pale skin and red eyes."
Hikari rolled her eyes before looking at Brian. "What do you think?" She asked him, only to notice a familiar expression on his face when he would remember something. How much she would like for her friend to remember his past, now was not the time for blackouts or disappearing acts. They needed to focus on getting the item to get Sora better, as well as her brother. "Brian?" She clicked her fingers in front of him.
"Woah!" Brian quickly jumped out of his state before looking at Hikari with confusion. "What?"
"Look! I know you're stupid enough to name a female Chocobo 'Steve'." She received a glare from the red headed mage. "But can you stay in the real world for a bit?"
"As you wish." Brian smirked, bowing down to her in a mocking way.
"I will hurt you." She warned him, only to get a chuckle of her friend. "Anyway, what do you think of that guy over there?" She nodded in the direction of the red cloak man.
Brian raised an eyebrow at this. "Why? You sick of Riku already?" He laughed, only to get a sword to his neck. Lucky for them, the others fighters didn't notice, giving Brian time to remind Hikari that the last thing that they need to do is get banned from the games since Sora couldn't enter and it would take too long to get Donald and Goofy if they did get kicked out.
Hikari glared at her friend as she disposed of her weapon. "Does he look like an Endless or not?" She demanded of him with impatience.
"No." He quickly responded, lifting his right black gloved claw to them. "All Endless' claws are to the right arm, never the left." He reminded them before looking around at the fighters.
"What did you remember?" Hikari asked him, only to receive a confused expression of the Aversion Endless. "You looked at that guy as if he was your long lost friend." She pointed out.
Brian lowered his eyes away from his friend as he muttered. "He just reminded me of someone." He looked up at the black haired fighter again. If the fighter's eyes were blue and his hair was short, Brian would have easy mistaken the fighter for an older version of Nikolai. Static memories filled his mind as memories of his Endless friend came to him, memories of being in the Order with the Sorrow Endless was clear enough but anything outside the Order was simply a blur. He knew that Nikolai could escape and run if he wanted to but couldn't understand why he would want to stay with such insane villains. There had to be a reason behind it.
"Hey guys." Max caught their attention. "Isn't that the guy that got attacked?" He pointed over to the where Phil and Hercules were trying to quiet the crowd of fighters down.
Over by the pathways that lead to the arenas was Chris, holding a blank expression as he looked down at his crunching fists. His skin looked as white as a ghost in contrast to his dark brunet hair, his eyes bruised and his arms slashed, his attire was free was burn marks and cuts but the teen looked as he was dead himself.
Brian looked at the teen with pity, seeing that he was only full of hatred because of the loss that he has gained but as he looked at the teen, he felt his heart pump faster in some sort of panic or fear. His body seemed to find him familiar. "He doesn't look to good." He said, ignoring his heart's reaction for the moment.
Hikari looked at the teen with worry. "Well, me and you have been in his shoes. He just needs time to sort himself out." She told her friend.
"Yeah maybe…" Brian took his glaze away from the teen.
"HEY! All you guys be quiet!" Phil shouted, making the crowd of fighters turn to him. "That's more like it." He smiled with gratitude as he began to explain. "For those that don't know why they are here, this year's games is not just any games that we host, this here is the Tournament of Heroes." The fighters began to mutter as Phil continued. "Whether you're in a team or on your own, heroes will complete against one another to gain the ultimate prize for the ultimate hero." Phil coughed slightly, signalling Hercules, who was staying beside him, to remove a red cloth, revealing a golden plated sword, small sparks of lightning sparked off the blade itself. "This sword was once handcrafted for the great and mighty Zeus himself but now it will be in the hands of the winner of the tournament." Phil jumped slightly after explaining about the sword as one of the sparks managed to strike him slightly, making the satyr rub his leg in pain.
Brian smiled at the sight at the item. "This should be a piece of cake." He said confidently. "Even if it was just me here, that sword is as good as ours!"
"Excuse me, mister cocky!" Hikari flicked him at the side of the head, making him twitch in pain. "Don't start overestimating the enemy."
"They properly have no experience with magic, just basic sword fights. This will be easy." Brian merely shrugged. It didn't take long for something to happen to prove the young mage wrong as one of the fighters ended up freezing another fighter by mistake as well as seeing a fighter punch a huge hole into the wall in an attempt to him some hooded fighter, creating a huge crack within the stone wall. "One second though, Go Team Little Devon!" He quickly said to his friends.
"Oh but Brian, you seemed soooo confident that you can do this on your own." Hikari said in a mischief tone, seeing Brian's panicky expression grow larger.
"Hikari!" Brian pleaded. "Please!"
"We would only feel bad for holding you back." Hikari simply said.
"Yeah dude." Max joined in. "We might have a better chance if we have different teams anyway."
"But-but…" The mage looked at the sword wielder and the archer as if they were walking out of his life forever, pouting at them while making a heart shape with his hands. "You're my heart." He said sadly at them.
The two only laughed at this before looking back at him. "Man up, dude." Max told him.
Brian's pouting expression immediately faded away as he shrugged at his friends. "It was worth a shot." He simply said before walking into the crowd to sign up.
Hikari watched Brian's figure disappear into the crowd of fighters before looking at the possible fighters that her and Max could be fighting, seeing as they had already signed up and all Brian had to do was to separate himself from their group. As she looked back to where Chris was before, she could see him talking the Phil, seeing the discomfort on his face from what they were talking about.
"Hey, you're Team Little Devon, right?" A strong teen voice spoke.
Hikari and Max turned their attention to the source of the voice, only to see that it was the fighter that they had managed to see training in the courtyard before they had entered the coliseum. The two took in the teen's height quickly before nodding to his question. "Yeah, we are." Max answered. "I'm Max and this is Hikari." He greeted him as he held out his hand.
The blonde grinned happily as he took the hand in front strongly. "I'm Snow." He said happily. "Snow Villers."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Snow." Hikari returned the kind meeting, hopefully the other fighters are as greeting as Hercules and Snow.
The blonde teen smiled at this before looking around slightly, "Hey, what happened to your other teammate?" he asked them.
"He thinks he can beat everyone so we left him to it." Max told him.
"Well, make the best hero win!" Snow chuckled to this.
"Alright everyone!" Phil grabbed their attention as he walked back into the centre so he could grab the fighters' attention. "Now that everyone has signed in, the tournament layout has been set. Come and collect your numbers are we can begin." He said to them, "Now I've only got two words for ya: Fight like heroes!" He advised them before hopping off.
And with that miscounted advice spoken, the tournament began.
BOWBOWBOW
Meanwhile, Sora and Riku walked through the town quietly as the crowds from the coliseum could be heard from where they were. Echoes of sword slashes and excited screams ran through the town as if it was part of the blowing wind. As they made their way through the town, the silver head would look back at his friend every now and again to check how it was, only to see his normal happy façade.
Normally he wouldn't question this, he was actually quiet relived that Sora managed to brighten up after finding out that the two would be trying to solve their own mystery together, but he could still see what was terrifying him in his still blue eyes. No matter what the virus was doing to him, Sora still could be read like an open book. With that thought in check, he halted and turned around to face his friend. "What's wrong?" He knew that was a stupid question but it helped trying to get to the point of what he was after.
Sora looked at his silver haired friend in confusion. "Riku? What's going on?" He asked him.
"What's wrong?" He repeated.
"Nothing is-"
"Your eyes say different."
Sora looked at his friend with even more confusion before looking away from his friend, realisation and regret in his eyes. "I don't even know." He muttered, walking to one of the buildings, sliding down the wall until he was sitting on the sandy floor. "It's obvious what's wrong with me but still—I just feel like I'm going to lose against this thing before we get the cure."
"Sora." Riku took his place by his friend's side as he sat down next to him. "No matter what, you have us til the end; we won't let you fall that easily." He told him, knocking his shoulder playfully.
The Keyblade Master chuckled at this, keeping his glaze at his boots. "That's what I'm afraid of." He confessed. "I treasure you all with all my heart. I wouldn't want to lose any of you."
"You won't lose any of us." Riku said.
"But the virus does the opposite to what I feel about you guys." He reminded him.
"If that's the case, Brian will become your new best friend." Riku stood up and looked down at his friend. "We'll beat this thing, Sora. The next world will be the last, we will have all the items for the cure and you will have your infamous chocolate hair back in no time."
Sora smiled at this before jumping to his feet. "You're right." He stood in front of his friend. "It's not over. I'll fight to the end."
"That's the Sora I know." Riku patted him on the back. "Now, let's find this Meg so that we can start finding clues about this attack." He began to walk again.
"Yeah!" Sora grinned as he began to follow his friend. "Maybe we could ask about Ven here too!" he suggested.
"Ven?" Riku turned his head to him, waiting for his friend to catch up to him before walking through the empty town.
"Yeah. Apparently, other keybladers have been here. It could be Ven." He said with excitement. If they could find Ven then maybe he would be able to clean things up with him about why the Order are after Kairi, who were Terra and Aqua and how was he connected to him.
"Let's focus on finding Meg first then we can keep a lookout on Ven." Riku calmed his friend down, it still amazes him to this day how his friend can change the way he feels in a matter of seconds. "Speaking of which, who is she?"
"Herc's special sweetheart." Sora grinned.
Riku gave his friend a weird expression. "'Special Sweetheart'?" He mocked.
Sora ignored Riku's mocking as he answered the question. "You know? Like the one you've meant to be with. Like, Aladdin and Jasmine, Belle and Beast, Eric and Ariel….you and Hikari, Donald and Dais-"
Riku's face redden slightly before looking at his friend in shock. "How did you find out about that?" he asked him.
Sora could only laugh at the sight of Riku's fearful expression. "You just told me!" He laughed.
"NO I DIDN'T?" Riku raised his voice out of panic, making Sora laugh even harder. "Nothing is going on!" His brighten cheeks spoke otherwise.
"Riku, why hide it?" Sora asked him, finding his reactions both funny and stupid.
"I'm not hiding it." He countered.
"Then tell me, how was Neverland?" He smirked.
Riku only growled at this as continued walking through the town, knowing full well that his counter argument will only strike Sora's happy expression off his face once more. "It was—nice." He simply said. It's wonderful how much his silver hair can stand out when his red was completely red.
"Ohhh c'mon Riku!" Sora whined next to him. "You can't obviously tell me it was just nice. Something must have happened."
"Look, all we did was sat by the beach. We got called back to the gummi before anything could really happen." Riku told him.
"Oh…" Sora said quietly.
"HEY! OUTTA MY WAY!"
The two keybearers turned to see a woman with long, tied up brown was surrounded by Unbirth. The sight of the blue creatures didn't make the keybearers waste any time in summoning their keyblades to head towards the creatures. As soon as they got close to them though, the Unbirths spotted them as left the woman alone, fleeing from the scene as they ran through the town. The two boys halted their actions, disposing their keyblades as they watched the Unbirth flee. "That was weird." Sora said to the abnormal actions.
"Why would they flee?" Riku questioned, the two boys looked around the area before landed their sights on the woman.
"Well, aren't you sight for sore eyes." The woman with brown hair smiled at them as she walked towards them. Now that the Unbirth were out of the way, the boys could see that the woman wore a long, pink dress that ended just above her orange-sandaled feet. She wore two purple sashes, one under her bust and another, looser one around her hips, the latter tied at her right side. Each of the straps of the woman's dress, as well as the right side of the sash on her waist sports the same orange spiral-pendant.
Sora grinned at the familiar face. "Hey Meg!" He greeted.
"Good to see you, Sora. Nice hair by the way, though brown suited you more." She said, not noticing Sora's slight moment of discomfort. "So…where are your duck and dog friend? And you're supposed to be?" She pointed at the silver haired teen next to him.
"This is Riku." Sora greeted, allowing Riku to casually greet with his hand. "Donald and Goofy couldn't make it this time."
"We were wondering if you could help us." Riku cut to the chase, knowing Sora's happen to catch up with his friends for too long, forgetting that they were on a time limit.
Meg smirked at them in a flirtatious way as she said, "How can I help you boys?"
"Do you know what had happened to Chris?" Sora asked her. "Have any clues to who the criminal is?"
"That's right. That kid thinks that you burned the house to ashes like Hades burns his anger into Pain and Panic." She remembered before pointing to where the Unbirth had fled. "If you want to get any clues, I bet my chances on those Unbirths. They wouldn't disappear for no reason."
"Wait!" Riku halted her. "How do you know that they were Unbirths?" he questioned.
"Wonderboy told me that he and his friend met some keybearers when the Unbirth were last here back when he was between a boy and a man." Meg simply shrugged. "If you want some clues, I would visit Hades."
"Hades?" Sora's eyes widened. "I thought we defeated him?"
"He musta been brought back by Maleficent." Riku pointed out. "I don't know why but she likes bringing allies back to life." He also made a note that if they were to see Hades, they could ask why the Order got rid of her.
Sora chuckled slightly before looking at Meg once more. "You know what the bad guy looks like?" He asked simply, making Riku chuckle slightly from the way Sora makes questions so simple that they sound like they are coming from a five year old.
Meg shook her head as a response. "Not a clue." She walked in between the two teenagers. "Now, while you two play Olympus guards, I'll be heading for the tournament." She said as she began to walk towards the direction of the cheering crowd. "Oh! Thanks for the help fellows." She quickly added before she came out of the teens' sight.
"So…" Sora gathered the information they have collected. "We have two choices: Go to Hades now or follow those Unbirths." He smirked as he finished. "What's your decision, Detective Riku?"
Riku gave his friend an weird expression. "Really Sora?"
"Yeah." Sora simply shrugged. "Our first time have a sole mission to us two and we're being detectives so we might as well go along with it." He grinned as he placed his hand and claw in his white hair, grinning to his friend as if nothing was wrong with him.
This time, Riku decided not to question it, he knew that his friend had took his advice from earlier. He wanted to see the real Sora for a while before fate decided to be cruel to him and his friends once more. With that in mind, Riku chuckled at Sora's reasons, "We should follow the Unbirths, Detective Sora." He chuckled. "We can go to Hades if we reach a dead end."
Sora nodded to this. "Let's go. I don't want to miss out on watching the others." He said happily.
"Yeah." He simply agreed. "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can get back in the Coliseum to watch Hikari and the others." He looked at his friend, only to see forced expression, looking as if Sora was trying to hold something in. He could only look at his friend with worry. "Sora, what's wron-"
"So, does your Alliance with Hikari require protection or does the closet provide all of that?" Sora laughed before running in the direction of where the Unbirths headed.
"SORA!" His raging, embarrassed friend didn't waste any time chase after his friend.
A/N: Damn writer block ¬¬. Hopefully I can try to update again so…as soon as my exam is over. Hope you guys enjoyed Easter and the Royal Wedding, may the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge be forever happy. I'll try to update soon guys.
Kingdommad