Chapter 9
Together Again
Early in the afternoon, Sora found Kairi on the dock. She was sitting at the edge, her feet dangling. She wore clothes similar to the day before, but in preparation for adventure and protecting her modesty she had on some black bicycle shorts underneath her mini-dress. She had taken her shoes off to let her toes touch the water. She stared out into the distance, watching the seagulls fly over the ocean and the wind rustle the branches and leaves of the trees on the islet. Sora sat down next to her. When she noticed him, they shared a soft smile.
"This brings back memories," he said. "When we sat on the pier at the island, watching the sunset and sharing our feelings of our planned journey."
"It feels like so long ago," Kairi added nostalgically.
"Thing were so different then. I was just a naïve, lazy idiot who hardly even imagined what lay out there."
"And I was a simple girl with no memory of where I came from and who was afraid to let things change."
"And Riku was just bored of island life and putting up with cardboard cutouts who tried to act like they were better than everyone else."
"The last two years have changed us so much. What will happen this time around?"
Sora shook his head. "Honestly, I don't know."
They sat there pondering until Riku came up to them and sat down with his back to both of them.
"You guys packed?" he asked them.
"All set," Sora answered. "Just a few things to figure out when they get here."
"We have all our textbooks. I was thinking we could hand our homework in using the message in a bottle tactic," Kairi suggested.
"But how do we actually follow the lectures and complete tests?" Riku asked.
"I'll ask the King when they get here," Sora said.
"I can't believe we're going back out there again," Riku muttered wistfully, a slight smile on his face.
"We'll be together this time," Kairi reminded him. "No chasing each other, no fighting, no secrets. Got it?" She giggled. "You two behave yourselves."
"Hey, that was on him!" Sora retorted, mildly offended.
"That wasn't how I saw it back then," Riku snarked. "And hey, I wasn't the only one who tried not to stick around. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mickey snuck away from you and the others at the first opportunity until you didn't have any further to go."
"You're right," Sora confirmed. "But things will be different. No separating. We'll be together to the end."
They heard a humming sound in the distance, which quickly became louder, and they realized that the source was coming closer. They looked up and saw a familiar craft coming from the sky.
Sora, Riku and Kairi stood up quickly, ecstatic at the sight. "They're here!" Sora exclaimed.
"We should probably let everyone know so they don't panic," Kairi pointed out, remembering that nobody else had actually seen the Gummi Ship before. They ran back into town to prepare for their friends to touch down.
Everyone in town had come down to the beach to watch the ship land. Once Sora, Riku and Kairi explained what was going on to the police and lifeguards, they had arranged an area to allow the ship to land, marked off by some fence stakes and police tape. The crowd watched in fascination as the spaceship eased its way to the sand. Sora, Riku and Kairi stood in the front of the crowd, closest to the ship, their eyes wide in anticipation. They each had a suitcase next to them. Kumo, Suta, Sion, Chikyu, Iwa, and Braska were right behind them. Sion wore the same clothes that he had on the day before as well as a chain attached to his left glove and a large X-shaped pendant attached to his belt-collar by a chain. Tidus, Wakka and Selphie were not too far away. Wakka was accompanied by his girlfriend, Lulu, a young woman with red eyes and black hair braided and tied in a knot who wore a dark-gray dress with a fur trim around the décolletage, a black corset, a dark-gray waist cape, three beaded necklaces, a pair of red earrings, black stockings and shoes, and a knee-length skirt made entirely out of belts, and who carried a stuffed Moogle doll. Selphie was accompanied by her boyfriend, Irvine, a sixteen-year-old boy with blue eyes and brown hair in a ponytail who wore a purple vest, a khaki-colored jacket, black jeans, black fingerless gloves, black shoes, and a black cowboy hat. Some people noticed the cannons built under the main hull and, despite not being sure what they were, moved about so that they did not stand in front of them.
A rectangular panel started to separate itself from the underside, and bent downward to create a ramp leading up into the ship. A brief moment after it touched down, Mickey, Donald and Goofy stepped out. Donald was wearing different clothes from his court wizard garb, now having a navy blue high-collar jacket with sky blue lining and cuffs with three pockets and a zipper going down between each of them to the bottom of the jacket, as well as a blue beret with a zipper that wrapped around it several times and a belt in place of the brim. Goofy wore a green turtleneck sweater, a black combat vest with gray lining and four gray pockets, yellow pants secured by a black belt, an orange hat with red goggles that were too small for his eyes, and large brown shoes with steel toes. Their faces lit up when they saw their human friends.
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy cried out, running over to give him a big hug.
"Donald! Goofy!" Sora returned the embrace.
Mickey approached Riku and cheerfully shook his hand.
"Good to see you, Mickey," Riku said.
Donald and Goofy shook hands with Riku and Kairi while Mickey did the same with Sora and Kairi. When they noticed their families behind them, they gave a friendly wave, but upon noticing everyone else's incredulous expressions, they looked around sheepishly.
"Are you ready?" Mickey asked.
"All packed, Your Majesty," Sora answered. "There's just a few small things to work out." He explained the dilemma with class lectures and taking tests.
"Huh. I could plug in a schedule for your classes, and have your teachers install a recording device in the classrooms to transmit video recordings to the ship for you to watch, or a holographic live feed so you can participate in class." He trailed off when he noticed Sora's parents giving him confused glances, and he realized that they wouldn't have any idea what the technology he was referring to was. "Uh, I'll have to get it out and demonstrate. And I can give them a special mailbox so they can hand out homework and tests and you can send it in."
"Like the one Chip and Dale used to tell us about the Coliseum tournaments?" Goofy asked.
"And the communication system they used to check our radars and give us updates on the last adventure?" Donald added, remembering the chipmunks' frequent calls during their travels over the last few months.
"The very same," Mickey answered.
"That's great," Sora said, satisfied with the answer. "Oh, your Majesty, would it be alright if Kairi comes with us?"
Mickey sized her up and down and realized that she also had a suitcase. After some thought, he said "Sure. The more, the merrier!"
"It'll be great to have you on board," Goofy assured her. Donald nodded in agreement. Riku's eyebrow shot up when he saw this.
"Give me a minute. I'll get the stuff and we can talk to your teachers," Mickey said before he ran back up the ramp into the Gummi Ship.
After talking to the teachers and giving them the webcams and mailbox, the latter of which would work like a sort of trans-dimensional fax machine, the group returned to the entrance of the ship to say good-bye to their friends and family.
"Hey, Selphie, can you cover for me with babysitting?" Kairi asked. She had begun watching the children of the island for their parents and guardians. She sometimes did it on her own, but Selphie sometimes helped her.
"Of course! I'll keep an eye on them and make sure they have fun," Selphie promised. Then her tone turned a bit somber, thinking of a certain babysitting charge. "And I'll keep her spirits up. Show her she's not alone."
Kairi nodded in thanks, understanding her meaning. She and Selphie hugged, then she gave Irvine a fist-bump.
Sora and Riku traded high-fives with Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, and Irvine. They simply received a handshake from Lulu.
Their good-byes were interrupted by a shriek of terror coming from the middle of the crowd. Everyone turned to see what was going on, and noticed a group of people running away from a certain point.
"Monsters! Everybody run!"
As most of the crowd dispersed in panic, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy could see what was eliciting such a reaction. There were several identical creatures, humanoid in body structure but slightly smaller than Mickey and Donald in size. They were entirely black, save for two circles on their spherical heads that emitted a yellow glow. At the ends of their skinny arms were hands with four fingers, and they had feet that converged into a point where the toes would have been. They had a pair of bent antennae on their heads, which twitched as they sensed the people around them. Despite the fact that they were completely unfamiliar to most of the residents of the island, the heroes knew exactly what they were.
"Heartless!" Sora called out. "Get everyone clear!" In response, Chikyu began barking orders to the other police officers, instructing them to bring the civilians to safety.
On hearing the shouts, the Shadow Heartless turned to see where they were coming from, and recognized the young man with the spiky hair. Visually, they were confused when they saw the other two men of similar appearance, but they identified the radiance within this specific human's essence, as well as a similar radiance within the silver-haired youth next to him, and an even brighter light devoid of darkness in the girl who stood with both of them. They also took note of the bipedal mouse, duck and dog. Identifying their targets, a group of the Heartless converged on them, while the rest stayed back and went after those trying to flee.
Sora approached the nearest group of Heartless and quickly found them encircling him. Staring down the one directly in front of him, he reached his arm out in front of him. A bright flash of light burst out, and he closed his fingers around a cylindrical handle. When the light faded, he held a key-shaped object in his hand. The main body had a length of thirty-eight inches. It had a silver cylindrical shaft. The teeth extended from the side of the shaft in a downward direction, and had a blocky trapezoidal form with a cutout in the shape of a crown that resembled Sora's pendant. Between the shaft and the handle guard was a blue rainguard. The bright gold handle guard wrapped all the way around the black handle. At the end of the handle guard, opposite from the shaft, was a loop, on which a keychain was clipped. At the end of the chain was a silver token made of three spheres arranged in a way that resembled Mickey's head.
Sora gripped the Kingdom Key with his other hand and held it out to his side in his combat stance. The Shadow in front of him leapt in for a swipe, but Sora swung his Keyblade at it, cutting right through it and causing it to explode into a black cloud. The other Heartless moved in, but Sora struck each one down, finishing the last one off with a sliding dash, using the Key to push the ground behind him away then swing back around when he reached his target, smashing it to pieces.
Mickey conjured his own weapon, the Kingdom Key from the Realm of Darkness, which resembled Sora's save for the fact that the shaft and keychain were gold, handle guard was silver, the rainguard was red, and the handle was brown. He jumped over top of the grown-ups and took out a Shadow as he landed. Riku summoned Way to the Dawn, which appeared in a dark cloud rather than a white light. It had the shape of a sword that resembled a black and red bat wing with a gray angel wing attached to the tip, the handle guard was made up of a white angel wing and a black demonic wing, and the token attached by the keychain resembled a Heartless emblem but without the spiked bars crossing it. He sliced through another Shadow. Donald and Goofy summoned their staff and shield and joined the fight.
Goofy smacked a Heartless with his shield then threw the shield sideways under his leg, sending it spinning through the air to hit and bounce off of multiple other Shadows. Donald whacked one on the head then cast Blizzard, sending a chunk of ice straight through the air, cutting through the creature as well as the one behind it before the spell dissipated. Tidus pulled out his stick, which he had strapped over his back, and hit a Shadow on the head, though all that did was bend an antenna. He and the monster looked at each other awkwardly, until a Blitzball and a basketball hit it from opposite sides, causing it to explode as the balls bounced off of each other. Tidus watched as the balls returned to Wakka and Irvine, who caught their respective projectile and gave each other and Tidus a thumbs-up. Sion kicked a Shadow across the beach, then performed a front-flip, bringing his heel down on an enemy's head as he landed. Whenever a Shadow jumped into the air at someone, he was quick to punch it to oblivion. Selphie also nailed one by looping her jump rope around a Heartless' neck and swinging it around before throwing it to Goofy, who smashed it to pieces with his shield. Kairi even got in on the action, ripping a fence stake out of the ground and, holding it like a saber, swiping and stabbing at Heartless.
The high school principal found himself surrounded by the monsters, but Sora threw his Keyblade, vanquishing three in one go. The principal watched as the weapon vanished in midair and then reappeared in Sora's hand as the boy charged in and defeated the other Shadows. A trio of Shadows ran towards them, but Sora took a few steps forward and shouted "Fire!" A ball of fire shot from the tip of his Keyblade and flew right into the monsters. As it soared, the convection from the heat caused some of the sand beneath it to melt and solidify into glass. On seeing this, the principal's jaw dropped, though Sora did not seem to notice, even though he had a feeling the spell would elicit a sort of reaction, as he ran off to finish off the last of the Heartless.
Sora, Riku and Mickey ran after the last Shadow, but it sank into the shadows and slipped into the water.
"How does it do that on sand?" Sora asked, annoyed. He then noticed the waves becoming bigger and rougher. The earth shook beneath his feet, causing him, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to look around, wondering what was going on. He looked at the sky, but, fortunately, saw no orb of dark Armageddon. "Well, there's some good news. But where—?"
He was interrupted when a massive wave threatened to overtake them. Mickey shouted "Wind!" and cast a massive Aero spell that caught the water in a typhoon and carried it far away from the shore. But when the funnel was far enough away, everyone gasped when they saw a massive shape rising out of the water.
The giant was all-black, like the other creatures, but it was twenty feet tall and built like a muscular adult man. Vine-like tendrils wrapped around its head, covering everything except for the eyes. It also had a pair of demonic wings on its back, each the size of one of its scapulae. Most peculiarly, there was a heart-shaped hole cut out of its abdomen, with a long flap of inky skin drooping from the top crease of the heart.
The Darkside marched its way to the shore until only its curly feet were submerged. It raised its hands, curled into fists, and prepared to bring them down upon the Gummi Ship.
Mickey's eyes went wide, but he reacted accordingly. He took a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. In an instant, the Teeny Ships flew out of the ship and started firing lasers at the Darkside, forcing it to block the attack with its arms and step away from the ship.
Kairi looked up at the monstrosity uncertainly. "Is this going to be tough?" she asked.
Sora, Riku and Mickey shook their heads. "Nah. This'll be a piece of cake," Sora told her confidently. He remembered how the first one he fought proved to be difficult, but the one he fought at the end of his first quest was easy, and he had seen Mickey cut down two of them in a single blow.
The Darkside punched into the ground, causing a pool of darkness to extend from the impact site. A dozen Shadows rose from the pool, but the warriors cut them down. Sora, on the other hand, was not concerned by the troops, and started swinging his Keyblade at the hand, seeking to disrupt tendons and capillaries.
After a brief period, the Darkside lifted its hand up, causing the pool to dissipate. However, before it could stand upright, it was impaled in the shoulder by a harpoon. Sora and Riku stared at it in confusion, then let their gaze follow the rope tied to the harpoon until they saw Datto and Keepa, two of Tidus and Wakka's teammates, pulling to hold the beast down. Another harpoon hit it in the other shoulder, this time held by the other teammates, Letty, Jassu and Botta. More people came down and tied ropes around the Darkside's legs and arms, then pulling hard enough so that it took everything in the beast's power to not fall.
Despite this, it was brought to its knees, though it was able to lean back, dragging the water polo players' feet through the sand. A purple glow emanated from the hole in its abdomen.
"Goofy! It's going to shoot homing blasts!" Sora called out. Goofy nodded in understanding and watched as the first energy blast was released. He followed its movements and jumped in at the last moment, blocking it with his shield before it could hit Datto and Keepa. Another one nearly hit Letty, but Goofy blocked that.
Donald joined the effort to bring the monster down, casting Gravity spells to add extra force to keep it from holding itself up. Meanwhile, Mickey ran straight at the Darkside, slashing at its legs and hands again. Kairi slashed through the last of the Shadow Heartless and joined him. Wakka and Irvine threw their balls right at the giant's head and chest. Whenever it rebounded into his direction, Tidus leapt and kicked the Blitzball right back at the Darkside.
Sora looked up at the head, then scanned the beach for vantage points, and turned to face Riku. "Can you give me a boost?" he asked, pointing his friend to where he wanted him to go. Riku nodded and made his way to that point, ducking beneath a harpoon rope on the way. He dismissed his Keyblade and crouched, facing away from the Darkside and cupping his hands in front of him. Sora ran around the water polo players and straight at Riku. When he stepped into Riku's hands, Riku lifted him up, and he vaulted himself up over the Darkside's head.
The monster looked up to see what was happening and realized too late what Sora was doing. At the apex of his leap, Sora turned his Keyblade so that the end of the shaft was pointing down at the Darkside's head. As he descended, he brought his weapon down hard for the strike.
As far as anyone else could see, Sora disappeared right into the Darkside's head, but fell out of the heart-shaped hole half a second later, stumbling down the giant's rear end and leg, covered in bits of shadowy goo, until he landed knee-deep in the water.
The Darkside froze, stunned from the grievous strike, smoke pouring from between its eyes. Cracks formed along its body, and it started to fade away into a cloud of inky blackness. The ropes fell to the ground as there was nothing to wrap up. Sora looked up in triumph at his work. At last, the entirety of the Darkside dissolved into nothing. At that point, he saw the harpoon that was embedded in the right shoulder fall and he frantically jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit.
The crowd that had formed around the scene of the battle began to cheer, celebrating the victory and applauding everyone's part in it. When Sora returned to shore he was quickly met with a tight and loving embrace from his parents. He met back up with Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, and they congratulated each other on their great work.
"Not a bad start," Kairi quipped, jabbing the fence stake into the sand.
"You all did great!" Sora commended to the crowd.
"You have a long road ahead of you," Mayor Braska interjected, getting their attention. "We wish you the best of luck."
"Keep an eye on each other," Kumo told them.
"You're a team now," Chikyu said. "If any of you finds yourself in trouble, you all work together to get out of it. No man gets left behind."
"Show 'em who's boss," Sion said.
"Never lose sight of what you believe in," Iwa advised. "If anything gets through your thick skulls, let that be it."
"Follow your heart. Do what you think is right, and let the light be your guide," Suta concluded.
Sora, Riku and Kairi gave their loved ones one last hug good-bye, and walked up the ramp with Mickey, Donald and Goofy into the Gummi Ship.
"Be good! And don't forget to do your homework!" Suta added.
The hatch closed, and the Gummi Ship rose into the air. Once it was high enough, the ignition flared and the ship launched out of the world's orbit.