Chapter V:
Sanguine
The battle on the beach raged.
Grit and gore, blood and sand, teeth and fire and water and shadows. Life and death. Pain and fury. All mixing, grasping, clenching, fighting, biting, and tearing. The air was on fire. Every grain of sand a shard of glass. Each breath burned, like a thousand red-hot needles stabbing into his chest. It felt like he'd been at this for hours. He must have killed thousands already, but there seemed to be no end to them.
Sora swung his keyblade, batting off a couple heartless and skipping backwards, nearly tripping. Sora grimaced. He had been hit a few times, including a particularly nasty slash to the side of his neck, but a quick healing spell had taken care it. That wasn't the problem. He needed a second to breathe. Just a moment to recoup and scope out the battlefield as a whole. He needed to know if he had even made a dent. He couldn't do that from down here.
"FIRE," He yelled.
A burst of flame spiraled around his body, evaporating heartless. Sora gathered his legs under him, taking advantage of the brief cover. He leapt through the flames, back flipping onto a nearby rock formation.
The situation wasn't good. Despite his best efforts several heartless had managed to slip past into the jungle. The beach was all but taken. Their defenses had lasted longer than he expected, but it wasn't enough. The first Darkside to hit the beach had blown apart a barricade like it was made of paper, taking a couple meters of planted stakes with it. The heartless where rushing through the gap, widening it with every passing second. He had to get back down there, at least slow them down.
A searing pain cut through his calf. Sora's leg buckled, his knee driving into the rock. He roared and lashed out, keyblade crushing a heartless skull. The body fell, tumbling off the rock, taking several other heartless with it. There were more coming, swarming towards him like pissed-off ant hill. Sora snarled, wrenching a claw from his leg, nearly blacking out as more of his blood splattered the rock.
"Heal."
Nothing happened. He glanced down. His calf was still bleeding, sliced through the primary muscle.
"Heal!" He repeated.
Dammit!
He was out of juice. No more magic. He struggled to his feet just as the first heartless gained the clifftop. Sora thrust forward, spearing it back over the edge. The chittering of a hundred claws filled the air as more swarmed over the edge. Amidst the falling rain Sora dodged and weaved as best he could. Swinging his keyblade round and round. Panting, emphasizing each blow with a hissing yell. His leg sang with pain. Thunder crashed in the sky. Lightning crackled into the rock, sending shards of granite and charred bodies into the air, illuminating wide eyes and flared nostrils. His world was reduced to the next strike. The next parry.
The heartless just kept coming. Droves and storms of black bodies. Piss-yellow eyes mad with the scent of blood. They threw themselves at him, eager to kill and die. For each that fell, another took its place. One slipped past his guard, stabbing into his back. Sora wrenched it off, hurling the heartless into the abyss.
The damage was done. A darkball lunged while he was distracted. Its teeth sank into flesh, digging, tearing, and ripping before it was sliced in two by a vengeful keyblade. Sora swung his keyblade like a madman, in a final, desperate attempt to hold them off. He spun, beginning a wide strike to clear his back...and stopped.
Piss-yellow eyes stared back into his, inches away. The neoshadow's antennae twitched, its eyes blank and soulless. Sora looked down.
Four, long, sickly claws pierced his chest.
No.
His breath hitched. Pain blossomed in his chest, spreading through the rest of his body. Blood seeped into the rain, his life bleeding out onto the uncaring stone. Sora felt his heart…falter, and everything seemed to fade away.
Sora yelled, feeling it, but not hearing. Pushing the heartless back, swinging his faithful keyblade once again. The world moved as if underwater. Sound was distance, blurred, and indistinct. His movements slow and numb. He barely felt the pain as they opened wound after wound. He almost didn't notice the weight on his shoulders dragging him towards the edge. As he fell, the world disappeared entirely. The sting of the salty air, the heartless clinging to his body, and the ground rushing towards him, none of it mattered. As he fell, Sora could only see the faces of Riku and Kairi.
How had it come to this?
"We need to keep moving," Sora said.
"No," His opponent growled, "We need to stay. We need to regroup."
Sora rolled his eyes. This was the third time he'd approached their group about moving off the island. They weren't exactly fond of the idea.
"Look," Sora said, gesturing complacently, "We've been here for a month now. I know no one wants to pack up again. I don't either. But the heartless are on their way. We've had a chance to recoup and let the wounded recover, but we can't push our luck. As long as we keep moving we have a chance of staying alive until help gets here."
The man snorted in response. His name was Toroi. Sora had never even heard of him until a week ago, but apparently he had owned the local bank. He was tall, outstripping even Riku by several inches. He had broad shoulders, meaty hands, and an unfortunate wispy comb-over that drew more attention to his hair loss than hid it. His personality matched his appearance, lacking any hard edges and barely contained in his now-muddy and tattered suit. While the rest of survivors didn't love the idea of leaving, Toroi was downright furious about it. Unfortunately, sometimes the loudest voice is the one everyone listens to.
"The heartless, as you call them, aren't coming," Toroi said, his voice dripping with contempt.
Sora opened his mouth to interject, but Toroi cut him off.
"You're right, it has been a month, and not a goddamn thing has happened. They got what they wanted and now they're settling down. Just like we should be doing!" He said, yelling the final few words, "Enough of this 'darkness within our hearts' and 'heart of our world' nonsense, we're sleeping in tents for shit's sake! You call what we've been eating food?"
Toroi's face glowed beet red, sweat dripping off his quivering face. He raised a hand, pointing at Sora.
"We need to rebuild our homes. Get back to the way life was. And we need to stop listening to whiny, know-it-all little brats."
The crowd grumbled in agreement. Several of them throwing nasty looks toward Sora. They were getting tired of all the constant arguing, complacent after a month of peace.
Sora took a deep breath, an icy knot forming in his stomach. He needed to stay calm to convince them otherwise, but he was getting frustrated.
"The heartless didn't come to take our homes or our land. They don't want money, they want us," He said, "I've seen it before."
"Oh have you?"
"Yes."
"Well then," Toroi said, stepping towards Sora, "How do we know that you're not the one responsible for all of this?"
The crowd went silent. They had listened to Toroi up until now, because they agreed with him. He was loud and blunt sure, but no one else had wanted to pack their bags either. However, this was dangerous. Regardless of how they may have felt about him, this boy was deadly and someone whom it would not pay to antagonize. Another man stepped out of the crowd.
"Toroi, maybe you should let this one go," he said, reaching for Toroi's shoulder.
Toroi slapped the man's hand away.
"Let it go? Let it go when the person responsible for our suffering is right here in front of us? How do we know," He shouted, glaring at Sora, "That you didn't lead them here? What if you want us to leave to cover up your own mistake you coward!"
"I didn't see you fighting the heartless back there Toroi!"
Sora turned around. Kairi marched towards them, anger in ever footfall. Her cheeks were red and she looked ready to tear Toroi a new one.
"Sora's right. We can't keep hiding here, hoping that everything will be alright," She said, gesturing towards the crowd, "The heartless will find us again and when they do, who do you think is going to protect you? This moron?"
"Shut up bitch!" Toroi yelled, raising a fist.
There was a sound like rasping metal and a brilliant light flashed through the camp. Toroi found himself staring down the wrong end of a keyblade.
Any semblance of Sora's usual optimism was gone. His mouth was a grim line and his eyes blazed. Suddenly, Toroi was very afraid.
"Leave. Stay. Do whatever the hell you want, but you ever try to hurt my friends again and you won't like what happens next."
Sora glanced around the camp. He snorted and shook his head.
"I'm done." He said, disgusted. He turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees. He head Kairi shouting after him, but he kept walking. He couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened to them, no one would believe him. He had seen what the heartless could do and they just couldn't accept anything else could happen to them. They thought they were invincible. He was a teenager! Wasn't he supposed to be the one with the mortality comlex?
After several minutes, he reached the beach.
Damn defenses, he thought, They won't last a minute.
He ran a hand through his hair and walked down to the ocean, dropping onto the sand. He sighed.
How the hell am I going to get them home?
"Hey," Kairi said.
Author's Note:
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I know it's been quite a while since I've uploaded anything, but I have been busy working on my own personal projects and finals. On the plus side, the next chapter is already written and I will most likely post it within a week. The story is winding down. We might only have one more chapter after this one, so let me know what you think! Constructive criticism welcome. Oh the suspense!
Also, fun fact, sanguine basically means "the color of blood" if you were confused by the chapter title and Toroi is actually Japanese for "slow to catch on" which I thought fit quite nicely for said character.
XIII