Chapter 92
Through the Holiday Hinterlands
Jack, Donald and Goofy rejoined the party at Spiral Hill, having spent the last twenty minutes spreading the word to the rest of the town to let them know not to scare Aqua. Jack seemed to have something green tucked into his sleeve, but Sora paid it no mind.
Jack waved in greeting. "Okay. It should be all clear," he said. "Everyone's going to take it easy on you from now on."
Aqua nodded. "Thanks."
"Now, let's get a move on," Jack continued. He turned around and led the party through the graveyard. When they passed a small grave marked ZERO, a ghost dog with a body resembling a white tissue and a small pumpkin on its nose rose up from the dirt and flew after them, yapping playfully. Jack petted Zero despite the canine's incorporeal form. Sora did the same, remembering the dog from past visits, and Kairi and Aqua joined in.
The group continued on their way, with Aqua now taking in the sights of the spooky town with fascination. The gothic aesthetic was quite charming in its own way, and the yellow glow of the enlarged, or at least extra-close, moon was entrancing. She remembered going trick-or-treating when she was a little girl, and she recalled how everyone adored the spooky decorations and monstrous or cartoonish costumes. She remembered one year dressing as a witch, almost like she was now, and another year as a mermaid. Some of her friends went as a rock star, an astronaut, a werewolf, and a skeleton. During her first years as a pupil of Master Eraqus, she and Terra would play pranks on each other in the week surrounding Halloween and even try to scare Eraqus, with limited success but still amusing results.
She smiled, remembering why she loved Halloween as a kid.
Sora and Mickey glanced back at Aqua and smiled softly, glad to see that she was enjoying herself.
The peaceful stroll was interrupted, however, by a telltale rumble of shadowy vortexes. Everyone faced forward and saw twenty Heartless materialize. Eight of them resembled ghosts with grey bodies with wispy tails, purple shirts marked with the Heartless insignia, white gloves, and yellow eyes, with one eye hanging out of its socket by a chain. Four others resembled stick-thin mummies with exposed hands and feet that had elongated fingers and toes, one yellow eye uncovered by bandages, a small curled tail sticking out of the top of the heads, and rib bones wrapping around the abdomens. Six others had the shape of purple humanoids with stylized gargoyle heads and blue bat-like wings. Among the Search Ghosts, Wight Knights and Gargoyles were two Shadow Heartless.
The seven world visitors summoned their weapons. Aqua raised an eyebrow. "These Heartless look kinda funny," she said.
"The ones you'd seen are known as Pureblood Heartless," Mickey explained. "The ones with the emblem tend to take on a wide range of shapes, often fitting the theme of the world they're in."
"We'll show you the ones Jiminy's made record of in his journal later," Riku promised. At the same time, the Search Ghosts, whose intact eyes had been shining like flashlights in search of prey, waved their arms in alarm as the lights turned red before shutting off entirely, signaling that all eight of them had noticed the party.
While Sally and Zero fled to a hiding spot, the rest of the party jumped into battle. Sora, Riku and Aqua challenged the Search Ghosts. Mickey carved through the Shadows before he, Donald and Jack went after the Gargoyles. Kairi and Goofy turned their attention to the Wight Knights.
The Search Ghosts struck first, with one of them extending its arms to slap Sora and Riku. Aqua jumped in and vanquished the offender with a powerful combo attack. She turned to attack two more simultaneously, but they disappeared in a yellow haze. While she looked around in an effort to locate the Search Ghosts, Sora and Riku attacked two more of the Heartless. As Riku destroyed his opponent, one of the Search Ghost materialized behind him and swiped its arms out at him, its face glowing with a soft fluorescent green light. When it scratched Riku and sent him stumbling forward, it floated a bit higher, invigorated by the energy it absorbed. However, this did not buy it much more time, as Aqua turned on it and froze it with a Blizzaga spell, then obliterated it and the Search Ghost behind it with a Firaga spell.
Mickey attacked one of the Gargoyles in midair, dealing enough abuse to destroy it, but another Gargoyle swiped its claws, knocking him out of the air. Donald got payback against it with a Blizzaga spell. Jack glared as three Gargoyles floated in front of him. He waved his hands and summoned three fireballs that floated in a triangle in front of him. He ran straight for the Heartless, and the fireballs moved with him. One of the Gargoyles flexed its deltoids and stabbed the upper tips of its wings at him, but he shifted his body so that the blades passed his thin limbs. He waved his arms again, so that the three fireballs spun around rapidly in a circle, then lunged forward right through the Gargoyles, burning them with his fire magic. Donald cast Blizzard at the sixth Gargoyle, but it transformed itself into a wispy blue flame that floated around him. Donald watched it float uneasily. When it was over a foot behind him, it turned back to its physical form and swiped at him with its claws. It then began to gargle a ball of blue flame in its mouth, but Mickey clobbered it before it could charge it up. Jack spun around and destroyed it by conjuring a chunk of ice and pitching it through the Heartless' chest.
One of the Wight Knights spun its arms around its body, but Kairi brought her Keyblade down on one of its wrists to disrupt this action, and then delivered a series of quick slashes. She refused to give it room to recover, and after several stabs and slashes, it dissolved. Another Wight Knight jumped over to Goofy and swiped its clawed hands upward at him, but the canine knight blocked the attack and the following scratch with his shield, then entered his tornado spin, knocking down his opponent as well as another one. He delivered a series of further blows that knocked the Wight Knights into a wall and each other before they finally collapsed.
A Search Ghost appeared behind Kairi and prepared to attack. Aqua saw this and prepared a spell, but stopped as she realized that she might hit Kairi. Looking around for another option, she noticed that they were in the shadow of a ten-foot-tall gravestone.
"Get out of the way!" she yelled. Kairi turned around on hearing her voice and saw the Heartless about to attack. She cartwheeled out of the way, narrowly avoiding the strike. At the same time, Aqua launched herself at the face of the gravestone, her body wrapped in barrier shells. She hit it with full force, breaking it free from the earth and sending it tilting forward. The Search Ghost barely had time to notice something was happening before the gravestone crashed down on top of it. A spectral heart floated up through the stone and faded away in midair.
Sora parried the last Wight Knight's spinning attack, allowing Mickey to vanquish it with a Pearl spell and a spinning attack. Jack called down a series of singular lightning bolts onto a Search Ghost in quick succession, destroying it with the last strike of the spell. The last Search Ghost tried to attack Donald, but Sora parried the strike and pushed Donald out of the way while Riku annihilated the Heartless with a barrage of Dire Fire balls.
The party glanced around and waited for a moment, in case any more Heartless were to materialize. When none appeared, everyone except for the unarmed Jack dismissed their weapons. Jack strolled back until he found Sally and Zero hiding behind a scarecrow that held a sign saying "WELCOME TO HALLOWEEN TOWN".
"It's all clear now," Jack told them. Sally and Zero extracted themselves from their hiding place and walked with Jack to rejoin the party. "Well, shall we proceed?"
With that, the gang continued on their way. After a few minutes, they passed the last of the graves as the scenery transformed into woods. They passed through the trees, barely able to see anything beyond their immediate surroundings, although Jack led them along with a confident stroll. Sora, Donald and Goofy followed with a similar amount of awareness of their route.
Soon, they entered a clearing in the hinterland. Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Aqua looked around at the circle of trees curiously. Each one was as wide as three of them, and they were adorned with unique designs. Each painted image was different, but easily identifiable. One resembled a painted egg. Another depicted a turkey. There was also one shaped like a four-leaf clover, one in the shape of a heart, and one that showed a rectangular fireworks launcher. Straight ahead of them, they saw a tree painted with a fully-decorated Christmas tree. Looking closer at each tree, they saw a golden doorknob on each of the paintings, allowing them to realize that the paintings were actually doors, each in the shape of their respective image.
Kairi turned around and gasped, causing the rest of the group to turn as well. Rather than the somewhat-open path through which they had traversed, directly behind them was another tree with a door shaped like and painted to resemble a Jack O'Lantern.
Jack nodded, understanding her surprise. "Yep. That's our way back to Halloween Town," he said. "I was perplexed when I first saw it too." He turned back around and pointed at the tree with the Christmas tree door. "As you can probably guess, Christmas Town is through there."
Sally gave them a wave. "Well, I should get back to town. My father will want my help with his work," she said.
Jack nodded. "No problem. Thank you for accompanying us," he replied.
"See you," Sora added.
With that, Sally turned around and opened the pumpkin door, revealing a hollowed-out void in the tree, and climbed through, vanishing into the darkness. Zero yapped his own good-byes and followed after her. The door closed behind them.
Aqua stared at the door in wonder. "So, what's it like there?" she asked.
Sora chuckled. "Snow covering the hills, brightly-lit and colorful houses, the smell of peppermint and chocolate filling the air, and carolers singing all around," he described his experience with a dramatic flair. Kairi and Goofy giggled at his delivery. "Sure, there's still the occasional Heartless running around, but the atmosphere is as happy as you'd expect." He looked around at the forms everyone else had taken in the spooky world. "You'll even get new costumes when you pass through."
"And you can even meet Santa Claus," Goofy added.
Riku and Mickey blinked in surprise. Kairi let out a girlish giggle. Aqua's eyes widened up at the name. "Santa's in there?" she asked excitedly.
Jack nodded. "The one and only Sandy Claws," he affirmed.
Riku and Kairi looked at each other in confusion, then turned to Sora for an explanation. Sora simply smiled lightly and shrugged.
"I'm sure he'll be happy to have some visitors," Donald said. "Even you," he added with a knowing smirk, the comment directed toward Jack.
Riku crossed his arms. "What do you mean? What did Jack do in Christmas Town?" he asked.
Jack rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you see—"
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Aqua interrupted. Not waiting for the others to lead her on, she ran past them and pulled the tree-shaped door open, then jumped right into the hole without any hesitation.
The rest of the party simply stared in bewilderment. They had been completely caught off guard by Aqua's sudden action.
"I… guess she's excited?" Goofy said.
"We should probably go after her," Mickey suggested.
"Yeah. Good idea," Sora agreed, speaking in the same uncertain and surprised tone as Goofy and Mickey.
Sora approached the tree, and snowflakes floated out of the hole in the tree and spun around him. He jumped in and dropped through the hole. Donald and Goofy followed, while Riku, Kairi and Mickey looked on in wonder.
Once Donald and Goofy had gone through, Jack turned to the three stragglers. "Well, in you go," he said. Mickey walked up and climbed through the hole, followed by Kairi and then Riku. Jack squatted down to step through and pulled the door closed behind him before he dropped down.
The party members found themselves swirling through a vortex filled with whirling snow flurries, each person save for Jack feeling a tingling sensation all over their body as their skin and clothes shifted.