Persona X TWEWY X Kingdom Hearts
Summary: Trapped in an unfair game? Fighting against society? Changing the hearts of evil adults? Save the world? Discovering oneself? Nothing out of the ordinary for these teenagers.
Chapter 5
We are thou, thou art us.
*Dungeon*
With the group down to just three, Ren stressed the two remaining members of his side to exercise more caution and made their approach even more slowly than prior. With Morgana guiding them and even showing him a few neat tricks against the bigger and more dangerous enemies, they made their way through the dungeons with minimal difficulties.
Much as he wanted to just get in the torture room, find the students, do whatever Ryuji wanted to do here and get out as quickly as possible, the recently declared leader of this rag tag group of troublemakers had to reel back his impatience and use whatever common sense he had left in his mind. Without Neku and Sora's power to give them an edge against Kamoshida's guards, all it takes is one knight to spot them and let all hell run loose with the alarms.
So far they hadn't encountered a platoon or group of knights, probably thanks to the narrow corridors would have made it too difficult to patrol efficiently and worse if they were ambushed from a distance. Where that should have assured the leader with ease and lessen the worries of being caught in a fight, it would only be a matter of time before the guards chasing Rhyme put two and two together, deducing she might be in league with the others. If Kamoshida still knows them from being a coach, then likely he'll figure out who Rhyme is connected to.
"Looks like we're here," Morgana called out, low.
Ren looks up to see an ornate door beneath banner. The banner read out: "Kamoshida's Training Hall of Love", and it sent a disgusting shiver down Ren's spine. Ryuji's aggressive sentiments were shared between the three, each of them already conjuring up what sort of vile twisted parody of love the teacher had in mind. "Lets head in…but stay quiet…" Ren commands, "We don't need Kamoshida to come down here…".
Entering through the door, the first thing they hear are screams and cries of agonized victims. Sprinting down the stairs and coming to another cell block, much like the ones they were in before, they could hear several sounds accompanied by wailing souls. One cell bars showed below the gang was not an actual jail cell but what looked to be a replica of a volleyball match, except the students were being spanked by the spears wielded by the knights, hands bound in the web of the net.
"W-What the hell is this!?" growls Ryuji.
"How many times do I have to tell you to keep your voice down, idiot!?" Morgana growls/whispers, "You'll get the knights attention, and then we're gonna be swarmed!".
"How the hell can I be quiet after seeing this!? Look at what that bastard is doing to these students!" Ryuji argued, gesturing the poor slaves. He tries to open the door, but before he could lay his hands on it, Ren grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. The masked Trickster harshly reminds him that the door would likely be locked, and if he touched it it'd rattle loud enough for the knights to hear them. Then as Ryuji tried to argue, a voice weakly pleads with him to just stop.
All eyes look to see a slave in shorts, bandaged and looking like he had just endured his session of "training", eyes so weary and drained as if all hope had left him. He laments that it was useless to try and escape, begging the three to just leave them alone. Ryuji's shocked "huh" gains attention from another victim, who says if they just keep being obedient they wouldn't be executed like the thieves. When Ryuji asked if they'd rather live like this for the rest of their lives, they were silent and looked three times more defeated than before.
It is because of this question, Morgana finally understands the blonde's intentions. It turns out, unsurprisingly, Ryuji was planning a mass break out, rescuing the students from that pervy teacher's clutches. Ryuji growls in affirmation, and his reward was being called stupid by Morgana, who points out to the two that the students weren't technically real. They were only humans in Kamoshida's cognition, not humans who entered this reality like the others.
Confused, the blondie repeats the word Morgana used and Ren sighed. "He means they're not the same students from the real world. Meaning even if we do open the cell, we can't save them since they're not the real ones".
"I guess you could say they're just extremely similar looking dolls…" Morgana says folding his arms.
"Gahh…why's it gotta be so complicated!?" Ryuji groaned. He becomes silent for a moment when he looks back at the students, and then his face shifts into one that Morgana never thought he'd see, contemplative. He lets out a cruel chuckle. "So the school's a castle and all the students are his slaves…damn it…its so on frigging point it makes me laugh".
He punched the wall near him, yelling this castle really was Kamoshida's head in physical form. Ren looks back at the slaves for a moment, then a sudden thought occurred.
"Morgana, if this is how Kamoshida sees his students in his Palace, does this mean what happens here happens in a similar sense? Like if a student is being tortured here, should that mean Kamoshida is tormenting them in the real world?", he asked.
"Yeah. As horrible as it is here, he must being doing something of equal cruelty to them in the real world too," the cat answers.
Ryuji frowns and then turns back onto the students, before saying he knew some of them. These cognitions bear the faces of the volleyball team Kamoshida coached. Morgana confirmed he had to be right, adding that they had to have been abused every day, because there was no way for anyone to be so beat up normally. Ren then states that if Kamoshida sees them as slaves in this reality, then likely he sees them as nothing less than slaves in the real world.
Ryuji confesses that he himself heard rumours of Kamoshida abusing his students physically but again, rumours without much evidence are simply that, rumours. Ryuji growls and yanks his phone out, saying he'll take pictures of their faces. That way he'll remember the ones suffering under that pervy teacher's thumb and use it as leverage to bring him down. A fine plan, except when he and Ren tried using their phone's camera app, nothing happened. Only the bizarre navigator app was usable.
"Come on! We're gonna get caught if we linger any longer!" Morgana says, waving his paws at them.
But when Ryuji argued back, their little spat catches the attention of the torturers, who yelled out. Suddenly appearing from down the end of the corridor of the block, they see more knights spawning from the reddish ink.
"You idiot! I said BE QUIET!" Morgana shouts.
"ME!? You're shouting too, you little shit!" yelled back Ryuji.
"Both of you shut up and run!" orders Ren, shoving Ryuji ahead of them and takes a shot at the knights, "Time to go!".
His bullet finds a home in the eyes of the knight before he runs with the others…
*Second Floor*
"Kamoshida? Palace? Is this what this place is called?" Kairi asks, folding her arms as Rhyme explained to the best of her abilities.
"Sort of…Kamoshida is the one who rules this place, which is a Palace…and those knights are…I guess, you could say monster who just look like knights because of his cognition…" fumbles the blonde, still very vague on the full details on this place.
"And how did you end up here?" Kairi asked.
"Well…see my brother and his friends were just hanging around by the school gates. I wanted to give a friend something but then this weird, I don't know, sensation washed over me and then…I found myself here, but on the first floor," Rhyme says.
"Hmm…but you got separated from them?".
"I guess so…when everything stopped being so wibbly wobbly, I was in the foyer. Kamoshida and his knights found me, I ran for this room and…well you showed up," she finished.
"Just in time too. But are you hurt?" Kairi asked gently and warmly. Rhyme shakes her head with ease, assuring apart from some adrenaline still running through her, she was as fine as she could be. Kairi then suggested they'd be better off finding a way out of this place to continue their talk, worrying more guards will start patrolling around their area, and wonder where their friends are. Rhyme hummed in agreement, stuffing the three books in her bag, thinking maybe Ren could make use of these when they do escape.
Surely those knights weren't the last of Kamoshida's legion of minions, but with Kairi taking them down with little to no trouble, perhaps escaping this castle wouldn't be so hard as she thinks. That was until Kairi's body was enveloped in golden flames. Rhyme yelped in surprise and even jumps back from catching fire, only to see Kairi was no longer dressed like a samurai warrior, but more closer to what the gang described Sora's look.
Kairi now dons a violet tank-top with stripes of pink from collar to waist, a black loose belt with a silver buckle. Over her tank-top is a dark crimson jacket that hugged her petite form, sleeves rolled up to her elbows while her bracelets were still around her wrists, while her hands were covered in a dark red pair of fingerless gloves, her pearl necklace hanging freely atop of her neck. She wears a long skirt with a pair of combat shorts beneath, the skirt was silvery white, reaching her knees while she wears dark stockings. Black combat boots with straps around the cuffs.
Her mask remains the same, minus the horns and teeth.
Kairi looks at herself with surprise, before pouting. "Huh? Weird…I feel weaker…" she laments, dropping her arms. That did nothing to improve the younger girl's confidence in their current predicament. She sighed in acceptance, however, deciding that even with Kairi's sudden decrease in power, between the two of them they might be able to escape the castle. Kairi flexed her fingers to see if she could call her swords again, but nothing came to her.
That was until she lowered her left hand and held her right hand out, a stream of light shines within her hand and then materializing into a nodachi sword. It was as tall as a young adult, curved elegantly with the handle being wrapped in beautiful violet ribbon, the ring guard it shaped like her Wayfinder charm, a short string of ribbon from the pommel. The steel is beautifully made of crimson steel, reflecting Kairi's face within the sea of crimson. She held it with both hands and after a few experimental swings, she dismissed the sword.
"Not exactly my usual choice…but beggars can't be choosers…" she laments with a wry smile.
The two exit the room after checking the corridors for anymore knights, then quietly Kairi follows Rhyme down the way she came from. In spite of the panic running she was went through earlier, the blonde haired punk managed to recall her steps with ease, memorizing the halls and other pieces of decals. Such as portraits and furniture. They would occasionally spot a knight patrolling or stalking the halls, forcing them both to press against the walls or sneak into a room just to wait it out.
Much as Kairi would like to take out the trash with her new powers, the princess of heart was reluctant in performing the task. With her powers weaken all of a sudden and a new form she has yet to properly comprehend, she'd rather exercise caution above action at the moment. Much as she hated it, for Rhyme's sake and their own beneficial alliance, no sense in putting them in an unescapable jam.
Soon they manage to reach what seemed to be a kitchen of sorts, plenty of shelves stacked to the brim with barrels no doubt containing drinks the two teens shouldn't sample, several long tables that could stretch from one wall to the other of a small room, a few counters with some tools to prep a meal and a roaring oven with flames arisen. Rhyme hummed as she takes in the sight of the kitchen, and when she spots a door, she points to it and states that was the one she came from.
She grabbed for the door, only to have Kairi yank her back by the shoulder and hold her behind herself. Her blue eyes narrowed, sensing a presence beyond the door and flexed her fingers to call her blade. Rhyme held her breath in anticipation, holding onto her bag and even contemplating taking out maybe a thick book to throw at her enemies.
As Kairi expected, the door bursts open like a battering ram had final breached the castle gate. But she hadn't expected was three knights flying through the destroyed doors and go over their heads, straight into the shelves of barrels. Behind the destroyed door is Neku with one hand outstretched, glowing in Psych but he was panting and Kairi sees a single bead of sweat running down his forehead. His eyes narrows when he no longer had his hand raised and focused on Kairi.
"Neku!" chirped Rhyme, going around Kairi.
Almost like fate, Rhyme is grabbed by her big brother, who just seemingly appeared from nowhere while crying her name. He fussed over her, checking if she was hurt or worse, while the little sister assured him she was only spooked and somewhat running on adrenaline from all the craziness that's happened to her. Beat slumps in relief, before he starts demanding she tell them how she managed get here without them knowing.
The girl explained that she just saw them with Ren and Ryuji and when she tried to approach them, she must have been caught in whatever method they used to get to Kamoshida's Palace. The only worrying thing was she was in an entirely different place than they were, which was why she had to run when Kamoshida found her.
"And when I was cornered in the library, Kairi found me," she says, gesturing the samurai.
Both boys looked at her, while she kindly waves at them with a shy smile. Then she looks at Neku, noticing he was dressed in a similar fashion as herself, and could feel his power was akin to hers too. The orange skull masked boy notices her too, though he sensed there was a greater depth of power to her own compared to his.
"Yo…you a Persona user too?" Beat asked, gesturing the red haired heroine.
"Err…yeah? I mean, mine just appeared a few minutes…seconds…hours ago? I'm sorry, this place is really messing with my sense of time," Kairi says, shaking her head, "But yeah, I guess I am".
"And how'd you end up here? You're not from Shujin Academy," Neku asked, never seeing any girl with dark red hair like Kairi's. Kairi frowns and clasped her arm, self-consciously. She remembers the Order and bites her inner cheek in thought before Beat spoke up.
"Who cares bout that! She saved Rhyme, that's all good in my comic!" Beat says.
"…book…Beat. Its pronounced "good in my book," Rhyme sighed with a weary giggle.
Neku rolled his eyes and sighed, he had a point. "Well, whatever. Lets get back to the others and get out of here," he says, then turns to Kairi, "Look, I dunno what your story is but you won't wanna stick around here. Better off coming with us".
"Oh, thank you. But…I can't come with you," Kairi said while shaking her head, "I wasn't the only one who came here though. My friends and I got separated when we were cornered by those knights. I was on my way to save them once my Persona…thingy, awakened before I bumped into Rhyme".
"Seriously? How do people keep finding their way here?" Neku groaned.
"Well, you saved Rhyme, so we'll help you," Beat offered.
"You mean *I'll* help her…remember, you can't use a Persona," Neku reminds with a frown. Beat nearly tripped and snapped his head back to her, growling that the sentiment remains the same. He also argued that Neku would've offered anyways if he weren't a Persona user too. The skull wearing teen begrudgingly huffed in acceptance, Shiki's niceness was rubbing off a bit too much for his liking. Rhyme also reminds them they had others who could help make this little detour much easier for them.
"Don't forget, we still have three other Persona users too. Ren and Morgana and…oh right! Neku, Kairi had a second form…state, thing as well," Rhyme says, before snapping her fingers in remembering. Neku looked at her and then to Kairi, who then explained that before she rescued Rhyme, she had a very different set of clothes and weapons before she levelled down to a much weaker but far more stylish form.
"Huh…that's the second one so far…only one between the three of us to that was Sora," he hummed.
"Sora?" Kairi whispered before her eyes shot open. "Wait, did you say Sora!? Spiky brown hair, blue eyes, super cute smile!?". The trio jumped slightly the desperation in her voice and that glowing hopeful look in her eyes that shined so beautifully. Rhyme confirmed that those descriptions matched the Sora they knew (and secretly crushed on), and he was with Riku too. Kairi almost fell as she clasped her necklace, a light laugh escaping her.
"He's here…" she whispers softly. Then with a renewed look in her eyes, Kairi sprints past the trio and races down to likely wherever Sora and Riku were. The others called out to her and almost chased after her, but as soon as they reached a flight of stairs that would lead them down to the foyer and just as Kairi was about to exit from their sights, knights appeared from splashes of crimson before the three students. Covering the entire flight of stairs, totalling twelve knights in total. Kairi looks back at the group with a gasp, and then releases her grip on the door and charges at them.
Beat and Rhyme were immediately pushed behind Neku, the Persona user calling upon his power to protect. "Go! We'll take care of them, go hide until we're done!" ordered the former anti-social teenager.
Gritting his teeth as a sense of uselessness washes over him, Beat grabbed Rhyme's hand and runs back the way they came from, leaving Neku and Kairi to deal with the knights.
*Dungeons*
With a yell, Sora cleaves a knight in half as he flipped over a swinging sword aiming for his neck. He performs a front flip and spins his keyblade in hand, slashing wildly at the knights, armour and weapons alike. He slices and slashes his way through the horde while Riku, even as weakened as he was, uses a fallen knight's sword to aid his best friend in this unfair game.
Chasing after Beat and Neku had gone awry when a party of knights intercepted the two guardians of light, trapping them on a drawbridge from both ends. Surrounded by the blind loyalists of the tyrannical king, they accepted that fighting their way out was the only option they had on their end. Riku slides under a stabbing blade and plunges the stolen sword into the offending knight just as Sora jumps over him and decapitates another knight's head.
He throws the sword like a dart, piercing the torso of three knights in a row, and then as the sword frees itself from the stomachs of these monstrous knights, Sora speeds up and manages to not only reach the blade in time to grab it, but even had enough time to sever a knight's torso from its waistline. Sora looks at Riku side-stepping from being stabbed at every direction imaginable, before leaping backward and joining Sora back-to-back.
They stared down the knights with determined eyes and gritted teeth, shoulder shook at the physical exertions that shouldn't be occurring so soon. Riku glowers in concern at this pathetic state they were in, they weren't this exhausted when they sparred as kids, and this challenge is a far cry from what they were used to.
"Damnit…I never knew we were so heavily dependent on the keyblades…" he thinks to himself, already the sword felt so heavy in his hands. He loathed to admit it, but the only reason they were lasting so long was because of Sora taking on most of the fighting for them. The boy is never away from Riku for no longer than a minute, and whenever he was surrounded, Sora was the first thing he sees cleaving their enemies down to size. But where this was already an ordeal for Riku, one look at Sora told him this was far much harder on him.
He was panting and his arms shook with the weight of the blade in his hand, sweat running down his forehead like he has been doing nothing but fighting since he woke up. The master wondered if the change from wielding a keyblade to using a Persona was so much greater than he feared that even someone like Sora was struggling to keep up. In a fight with beings far less of a threat than even a horde of neo-shadows.
If there were only a way for them to escape this fight, maybe they could hide out until the legions of Kamoshida's men disperses enough to warrant stealthily escaping, but for each knight they brought down, two more takes its place. His only hope now was if Ren and Morgana could arrive as soon as they could, maybe they'll have a better shot at this than they're having now.
Sora blocks a single blade from cleaving his skull in two, alerting Riku and making him spin and plunge his stolen sword into the attacker's stomach, sparing Sora from fighting more even for a brief respite. He retracks his sword in time to be shield bashed and thrown off his feet. Riku rolls onto his side, then is pinned down by the knights. Sora calls his name out in desperation, turning his back on the knights, suddenly standing aside.
Before stands another knight, but this one…warrants his worries.
The knight stands taller than them all, almost like a giant posing as a man, wearing thick heavy black platemail armour, brandishing a sword and shield that could rival the size of a full-grown man. Through the slit of the helmet-mask, piercing glowing red eyes with red mist surrounding it, and to top it all off, on its chest was a very familiar symbol.
The Heartless emblem.
Sora grunts as he raised his sword up against this knight while Riku struggles against his captors. The black knight swings at Sora, his black steel clashing with Sora's divine weapon. Even weakened as his state was, Sora impressively held down the sword with both arms and was only lifted off his feet ever so slightly, pressing down the steel. He pushes the knight back and takes a swing at him, only to have his attack blocked by the thick wall of a shield, making his sword bounce off it and the recoil shocks his hand.
The black knight thrusts its sword into Sora, just barely missing his chest when the boy rolled onto his back and then to his feet, leaping toward the knight with a swing. Once more the knight is able to match both his strength and determination to win by crossing swords with him, parrying Sora's attacks and letting the boy soar overhead, landing on his feet. Sora grabbed his sword with both hands and rushes toward the knight, striking at its sword and shield while it defends itself.
Riku thrashes and struggles to break free, eyes never leaving the spectacle in fear. Sora was not going to last much longer against the knight, whatever was wrong with him and Riku, it was too much for them to fight like they normally could, and who knows how much longer it'll take for Ren to return with back up.
Sora yells as he brings down his sword onto the knight again, but this time the knight's parry completely throws Sora's blade out of his hands and into the wall. Defenceless, Sora could only cross his arms before him, using the glovelettes to take the brunt of the attack. The blade cuts into his arms and the force sends Sora flying into a wall, smashing into it and shaking the ground he cried out in pain. He falls onto the ground, resting on his elbows and spits out blood from his mouth. Riku cries out his name as the knight approaches him.
"No…NO!" shouts the silver haired master, "Get away from him!".
He fights on, struggling like a wild animal as he cried his best friend's name over and over again, like he was trying to spur him to fight on. The knight grabbed Sora by the collar of his jacket and heaves him up, holding him up high so the fellow knights could witness the end of the rat who dares to enter the king's castle without his blessings. "Come on! I can't! I can't lose him here!", Riku thinks roughly as he fights on with all the anger in his form.
He was so close, so close to bringing an end to this year long separation, this isolation of their hearts from each other would finally come to an end. The promise he made to their life long friend to bring back the boy who had done so much not just for him and her, but to hundreds of other hearts. They relied on him to bring back their cherished friend, everyone who knows the one who defied destiny knows he is the boy that will return him back to where he belongs.
And now…he was about to lose him forever.
"No…NOT HERE! I won't lose him here! Darkness, light, whatever! Please, someone, give me power to protect him!".
"Ahhh…there it is…".
Riku freezes on the spot, like his body had been struck with paralysis. His eyes see himself in a world devoid of anything and everything, only himself and the voice.
"Once you served a threat to all that mattered to you and your friends, and for a time, you wielded the dark to redeem yourself. Are you still shackled to those selfish reasons still? Buried them deep within your heart, unable to free yourself from your past sins?".
Riku snapped back with equal measures of desperation and determination within his steeled will, that he had redeemed himself. He once found himself unworthy to stand by his best friend, to even consider himself an ally was an insult to Sora at one point. But he was always held up high by his faith in him, his kindness rubbing off on him like his light touching his heart. And that boy had given up everything to save him and the others.
Now…it was his turn once more to return the favour.
"AH HA! That is it! That is the power you seek? Very well! Swear to me, like you swore to him! I am thou, thou are I! Let us pledge our sword to our liege and protect the true king and all he holds dear!".
Before Riku floats a single silver mask, and all it takes for him to grab it, was to remember that promise.
With a bellowing roar from his heart, a geyser of power blasted the knights off Riku, obliterating them. Slowly standing tall on his feet, Riku faces down the knights with piercing yellow eyes and a wild gleaming smile, he reaches to his face and grabbed the mask that confined his power, and with a burst of blood and a roar, Riku rips off his mask. Dark fire explodes from Riku, incinerating the knights that held him down along with the rest, minus the dark knight. The black flames consumed all the weaklings that dared to call themselves knights, false protectors of a tyrant who didn't deserve to even touch the throne.
The flames evaporate into the winds, and now standing before the black knight is another knight, but one who truly deserves the title "The Black Knight". Dressed in black and silver armour worthy of legends, Riku wearing a chainmail set of armour with a dense metal chest plate that shields his form, black bat wings on each shoulder pad with silver chainmail covers his arms up to black greaves, his leggings were black as the knight with violet outlines on the knees and feet, boots with spiky toe tips.
A long black cape with Sora's crown in black attached to his back, his helmet has horns that stretch out like a demon's antlers, the mask looks akin to the face of a demonic knight, looking like half the face covering part of the helm with two slots and a metal bridge between them, dark violet while there is a plume of violet attached to the top. In Riku's hand is a long scimitar, violet steel while curved, not elegantly like a katana but through years of slaying the king's enemies.
Riku outstretches his sword arm as his dark aura glows violet, the knight drops Sora and turns onto the boy. Without missing a beat, Riku charges forth like a hurricane of destruction in the making, so blindingly fast not even the super powered knight could even register movement. With one single stroke of this magnificent sword, the knight drops both sword and shield and evaporates into nothingness.
Riku huffs tiredly, both from his physical exertions and this awakening, then shakes his head and turns to a slowly rising Sora. The boy groans in pain, almost falling back to his knees had Riku not caught him, holding him up.
"You ok?" he asked, gesturing the bloody lip.
"Not really, feels like I was run over…" Sora groaned, rubbing his mouth.
When he shakes his head, he looks at Riku and then blinked at his new look. "Whoa…look at you! You got a Persona too!" excitedly exclaims Sora. Riku then looks at his arms and then his entire body, mouth opening and closing with bafflement. He then frowns, wondering if he would lose this form as well, like Sora lost his. And sure enough, when he clenched his fists, his body is engulfed in dark fire for a moment, and the flames birth his newest attire.
Now dressed in a violet dress shirt with a jacket made from metal and violet cloth, his shoulders armoured along with his glovelettes made from ebony steel with the demonic helmet he donned for a moment. Around his waist are two black belts both tied with the buckle of the demon head he portrayed, a pair long slacks with one metal brace around his left leg, a chain attached to his waist to his left pocket made from silver metal. His shoes were sleek and fancy, clapping when he walked, given him an air of nobility.
His mask loses the horns his helmet had, instead the helmet now stretches from his forehead heads to his jaw, much like Sora's mask, his hair was still tussled and wild.
"Damn…looks like that power is still out of reach for both of us," sighed the master as he almost stumbles in place.
"This sucks…how are we supposed to handle the "game" if we can't handle a wimps like those knights?" Sora asked with a groan, "I mean I got my butt kicked and I'm exhausted…".
Riku hates to say it but the spiky haired teen had a valid point in their current state. Those knights shouldn't be a problem for these two, considering the scale of their previous enemies and the power difference between the knights and the heartless. Sure he knows without their keyblades they'd have some trouble, but this level of difficulty is insulting to them. Only adding more doubts and worries to their current predicament, the power they once possessed is nothing more impressive then their first time in a new world.
"Not much we can do now. Lets try and catch up to Neku before they end up in the same spot of trouble we were in," Riku says.
Sora nodded and when they were about to cross the bridge, they heard something. Stopping on the spot, they see a door that they thought was a "safe room" Morgana must have forgotten to point out, except they both felt that same "distortion" from all the other rooms. The door was slightly shifting and they could hear hushed voices on the other side, prompting them both two draw their weapons in case there was more knights on the other side.
Riku stood on the left while the boy grabbed the door, nodding to Riku. With a readied nod from Riku, Sora yanked the door opened and out spilled…not what he had expected.
Instead of knights, there were four teenagers who all fell from the door and piled on top of each other, yelling in surprise followed by groans and whimpers of pain.
"What the…?" Riku starts while Sora looked dumbfounded.
Almost immediately one of the teens shoots up with a wooden broomstick, swinging it madly while yelling at the supposed attackers, threatening to beat them. "BACK! GO AWAY! I HAVE A BROOM AND I WILL SMACK YOUR FACES! BRISTLES HURT!", yells the girl while swinging the cleaning tool turned weapon around like a lunatic.
The girl was a near identical lookalike to Kairi, except she has black hair that is slightly parted, some of her bangs tucked behind her ear and is slightly shorter than Sora. She wears a sleeveless double buttoned, collared shirt and a black belt, a short white pleated skirt and black boots that reach her mid-shin with beige color to the upper fifth.
Riku simply grabbed the broom beneath its bristles and simply says: "Xion…calm down".
Xion opens her blue eyes to see Riku, blinks and then grinned happily at the sight of the silver haired master. "Riku! You're here!" she chirps with a massive grin and hugs him tightly, bouncing on her heels. When she pulls back from him, she tilts her head in confusion, likely responding to his new clothes and mask, even poked it out of curiosity. "What's with the mask? And what happened to your clothes? And…did you get taller?" she asked.
Riku opens his mouth the reply to her list of questions, but then she gasped and looks back to the pile of teens, and then unceremoniously heaves the other teen girl up to her feet. "Nami-Nami! Lookie!" cheers the raven haired girl. "Nami-Nami", otherwise known to the group, Naminé, shakes her dizzy head and turns to Riku. When her eyes fall onto the boy, she blinked, then takes in his new look and then blushes profusely…namely because she nearly has her nose against his chest thanks to Xion's lack of respect for personal space.
Much like the excited bubbly Xion, Naminé is a near identical lookalike to Kairi, except Naminé has blond hair, which is slightly longer than Kairi's, that she drapes across her right shoulder, rosy cheeks, and pale, pink lips. She wears a white dress that ends at her mid-thighs in an embroidered lace pattern and light blue sandals decorated with yellow flowers. The girl holds her breath and shakes nervously in front of the newly devilishly handsome looking Riku while the two boys got to their feet.
"We found Riku!" declares Xion, still holding Naminé in front of Riku, obvious to her awkward discomfort.
"Xi…could you move Naminé JUST a smidge away from Riku before she faints?" pleads a soft-spoken young teen while the other lookalike folds his arms with a smirk. Xion blinked for a moment before she releases Naminé's shoulders, allowing the girl to finally step away from Riku. Riku turns to the boy with a relived smile, happy to see more familiar faces in this bizarre world they were stuck in.
The first of the two lookalike boys is Roxas, Sora's Nobody. He wears much more casual clothes, at least compared to the other keyblade wielders, a black, high-collared jacket with a zipper resembling the Nobody symbol. Over that, he wears another jacket, this one unzipped and white, with several black block designs and a grey hem on the end of each sleeve. This jacket's collar was red and pleated and folded back. Roxas also wears two-colored pants; the legs of his pants were beige with several of what looked like buttons on the hem that appeared to attach the legs to the rest of the cloth, which are dark-colored.
His shoes were colored in shades of grey and black and had red straps in place of laces. Finally, Roxas wore a wrist band with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern on his left wrist, as well as a plain black ring on his left index finger and a plain white ring on his left middle finger. He has bright blue eyes and golden blond hair. His hair is spiky, as the front concentrates the spikes on the right side of his head as if windswept, while the back is smoother and flakier.
Next is Ventus, a fellow guardian of light and wielder of the keyblade. His outfit is strikingly similar to Roxas' with a few exceptions. He wears a jacket that resembles a fusion of Roxas's jacket (white on the right side) and Sora's jacket from one of his older clothes, also reminiscent of the Yin and Yang symbol. The collar of the jacket is red and pleated, again, similar to the collar on Roxas's own jacket. Underneath this, he wears what appears to be a grey vest with a single button and several white, angular patterns on it. He wears a third layer under this, in the form of a plain, high-necked, black shirt. He also has a chunk of dull green and grey armor on his midsection that appears to be under his vest, and another piece of armor on his left shoulder.
His pants are also similar to the pants Roxas wears, though Ventus' balloon outward slightly before closing up about halfway down his legs, similar to caprice pants. These pants are colored in shades of grey, black, and white. He also wears an ornate, dull green and grey piece of armor on his upper-left arm, along with a black and white checkered wristband that is, once again, strikingly similar to Roxas's, but with white edges as opposed to Roxas's black-edged wristband. Like his fellow apprentice turned master, he wears two criss-crossing straps on his chest, on which he wears a silver Keyblade Master emblem. His boots are rather odd as they resemble an armored version of normal street shoes in shades of dull green and grey.
"Good to see you guys again…but where did you come from? How'd ya end up here?" Riku asked.
"Oh man…that's a story for later when we're not being attacked by whoever's in charge of those bucket heads…" Roxas says, scratching his head, "We've been hiding in that room forever ever since we came here…".
"R-Right!" Namine chirped, clearing her throat, turning to Riku. "Riku, we're not the only ones here. Kairi came, well, she was the reason we ended up here".
"Kairi's here too!?" Sora exclaims, finally announcing himself to the gang. The four teens turned to Sora, eyes wide and mouths dropped when they take in that he's right here. Roxas stammers, Ventus is speechless and Naminé whispered his name.
Xion…tackles him.
"SORA!" squeals the raven, tackling him to the ground. She cuddles into him, cheering. "Sora SORA SORA! He's here! He's here!" she repeats with all the glee a child couldn't rival, high on happiness. Sora sits up, but is then tackled by Ventus and Roxas, hugging him tightly while giving him a noogie and pats on the back, each of them cheering. Naminé smiles warmly at the sight, breathing a sigh of relief that the boy they had been looking for so long is finally here. She kneels before him and gives him a beautiful smile.
"I think they missed you," Riku says with a warm smirk as Sora is being smothered in affection by his friends. He laughed warmly as they allowed him to stand up at last, Xion ruffling his hair. "Where have you been? We looked all over for you, then we-
"Look I'm really sorry to interrupt and cut this short, but you guys said Kairi's here too, right?" sheepishly says Sora, looking at Roxas. The former nobody's mouth remains open from the interruption, but he closes it and nodded.
"We got separated after those knights attacked us, Kairi told us to hide in this room while she lured them away," Naminé explains, "We tried to stop her, but by the time we could even register that she basically locked us in the room, she was gone".
"And worst of all, we can't summon our keyblades here. We're practically defenceless," Roxas says.
"Yeah…we figured out that the hard way," Riku grunts, then turned to Sora, "If Kairi's here, then Kamoshida likely must have sent guards after her…".
"Right, lets go then!" Sora says with renewed determination.
*Second Floor*
"Damn it!" shouts Beat as he back tracks from running down the hall and turns around. He grabbed Rhyme's hand and leads her further down another corridor as a horde of knights began to chase after them. Rhyme almost trips in their sprinting escape, calling out to Beat that they needed to find another away around these knights. This cat and mouse game was turning against them, and sooner or later the corridors would be filled to the brim with knights.
Luckily, she sees another door for them to use, maybe to delay the knights even for a moment for her to come up with a plan. Beat follows her idea and rushes them both into the room, slamming the door behind them. Quickly Rhyme goes through her bag and pulls out the spray paint can she bought for Neku, and approached the floor before the door. "Beat, throw a few books here, quickly and then grab a torch!", she commands.
Beat grabbed as many books as his arms could carry and dumps them in a pile for Rhyme before he rushes to grab a torch hanging above them. She shakes the spray can and then sprays the books with as much paint as she could before Beat returns with the torch, the spray hitting the door as well. She thanked him for the torch and backs away from the door, he follows suit after she stresses he'd stand back from her plan.
Holding the torch before her, she spray the paint and creates a handmade flame thrower from this combination, scorching the book pile into a roaring pyre of flames. Thanks to spray paint reaching the door, it catches aflame, creating a literal door of hellfire. Rhyme looks up to the bookshelf and sees a ventilation shaft before them, she commands Beat to pry it open for them.
Like before, Beat follows her command without question and manages to climb the bookshelf and pry open the grate for them to escape. He calls out for her, gesturing their freedom was only a few crawling steps away. She nodded in gratitude, scaling the bookshelf and when she was sure of the distance, she chucked the spray can towards the pile of flames before she and Beat scramble into the ventilation shaft to escape.
A loud explosion goes off in the room as they scrambled out of the room just before the shockwave reached them and throws them outside and onto the ground. They rolled onto their sides, groaning in pain while Rhyme throws her cemented block of a bag off her face. Maybe stuffing it all with books was a bad idea after all. She laid on her back while Beat gets to his feet, grunting in pain before he cracked his neck, complaining about the aches affecting his body. Rhyme slowly sits up, rubbing her head as she takes in the new location she threw them in.
It seemed to be a garden of sorts, at least judging from the fountain beneath another stroke of Kamoshida's ego in the form of a statue of himself. There several small stone walls surrounding them, almost like they were supposed to be a maze before the architect got sick of the project mid-way and just left it as it is. All in all, they were further away from their exit point, but they were at least safe for now.
"Damn…how many of those dumb ass knights does that asshole Kamoshida got!?" Beat growls in frustration, "Like he ain't gotta worry about numbers, he can just keep sendin' them at us!".
"Looks like it…but you know?" Rhyme says with a soft smile, "Looks like we can handle them too".
Her brother looked at her, confused. She elaborates that despite the odds, one thing that kept them alive was, for as underwhelming as they are, their teamwork was impressive. His raw strength and stubborn headedness combined with her quick wit and intelligence, make them a deadly duo. Even as foggy as her memories of the Game was, she knew the reasons most of the fights, if not all, had gone so well was because of their teamwork.
Sure Beat is a bit of a dunce sometimes and granted he maybe a bit slow to pick on things, but his strength and determination to win a fight, backed with her strategy and quick thinking, they were quite the team. Maybe that's why when she was just stuck with him, she feels more confident in herself than she would have been with Neku or Kairi in spite of the vast gap of power between them and herself and Beat.
"Heh…you got that right!" Beat says boastfully, "You're the brain, I'm the brawn! Ain't nobody gonna get in our way!".
Rhyme's smile widens more confidently, just in time to see more splashes of crimson sprout from the ground ahead of then. She jumps to her feet as Beat stepped up in front of her with a growl, the knights forming before them in a party of ten, forcing the two to step back into a low stone railing, looming over the edge of the castle wall. Rhyme glanced back, grimacing how high they were in the castle, and without anything to use to climb down or even land safely on, escape is not an option.
"What do we do?" Beat asked, "Got an idea?".
She turns back to the horde with steel in her eyes, trying to figure out what could be the best way for them to deal with this. "Just give me a minute to think…" she pleads softly. Beat instantly stepped up in front of her, fists up. "I'll give ya all the time ya need, Rhyme…you'll get us out of this with that brain of yours!".
"Brains don't mean much without the brawn to carry out the plan," she wisely replied.
"Wisdom beyond your years…".
"Raw determination to fight…".
Both teens froze when they heard voices in their heads, grabbing their skulls as sudden pain rushes through their skulls, making them yell in pain and thrash around.
"You who have been forced onto a path not out of your own choice, who had to stand aside and let others fight for your future…now a chance to finally prove yourself that you can do this…your wisdom can save lives, can protect others…and finally, you can stand on your own two feet".
"Let the anger that empowered you become a start of your renewed will. The rage that made you a force of nature, a rage that stems from your desire to protect what holds a great weight within your heart".
"VOW TO US! Vow that those strengths shall never wither away! Never bow to those who dictate your futures, your ways of life! WE ARE THOU! THOU ART US!".
The two siblings grab their masks without the hesitation that clouded their judgement, their bond that kept them one step ahead empowering them, they rip off the masks and free themselves.
A/N:
New chapter at last and…wow.
This was pretty scattered I will admit, and likely plenty of issues here and there but this was all done in ONE day. I've been up the walls with personal projects so for the sake of getting one chapter out, this is the result. So I'm sorry this was so scattered, next time I'll have more time and I'll be taking time with the next one.
We've gotten the rest of the KH cast at last, next time we'll introduce their Personas, how they got there and what the future holds for the newly formed guild.
Questions:
Q1: Thoughts on this chapter?
Q2: How was the interaction between everyone?
Q3: Have you figured out how Riku and Kairi's Personas are?
Q4: Xion being more childish and hyper?
Q5: Who do you ship?
Q6: Which Palace are you eager to see done?
As always everyone, thanks for reading! Stay awesome but more importantly stay safe!