Before you read: It is recommended you are caught up with My Hero Academia Season 6 and all console Kingdom Hearts games up to KH3 to avoid spoilers for those series. No Manga material for MHA or Mobile content for KH will be in this story.
Chapter 1: Extending A Hand
Perched atop a pristine, white castle, two people, one young man and young woman, stood together, looking up through telescopes at a beautiful night sky filled with stars. They both watched on in horror as one of those stars disappeared before their eyes.
"You saw that too, right Kairi?" the young man asked.
"Yes." She responded, her voice riddled with fear, "That's the third star that's gone out. Any idea what kind of Heartless is doing this, Riku?"
"There's no way this is a Heartless," Riku responded, his voice calm and collected as his eyes stayed locked on the image of the star disappearing, "None of these stars have been flickering out like when heartless normally consume a world. They've been crumbling, collapsing to pieces that get smaller and smaller, before completely vanishing into nothing."
Riku grimaced, his blue-green eyes growing as pale as his skin. "Whatever's doing this isn't sending worlds to the Realm of Darkness, it's destroying them forever."
Kairi gasped in shock. "Destroying them, forever?! It has to be Luxu then, right?!"
"It could be. We still don't know what's in the Black Box, but my heart is telling me that's not the case. Whatever this thing is isn't something we've dealt with before."
Kairi froze, paralyzed by the gravity of Riku's words and what they entailed. She wanted him to be wrong so badly, she didn't want this to be the truth, but she knew Riku wouldn't say something like that without being absolutely certain it was correct. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew she had to accept that this was reality.
"It is? ... Well, then we can't just stay here, we have to stop that thing before it destroys more worlds!" Kairi insisted, the fear in her eyes replaced by fire as she pumped her hands.
"Forget it," Riku firmly stated, "We can't go against Master Yen Sid's orders, especially now that we know how serious this is."
"But Riku, even if we can't stop this thing yet, we can't just let more people get destroyed! If this is as bad as you and Master Yen Sid say, then the World Order doesn't matter anymore! Let's get on the Gummi Ship and-"
"We can't do that Kairi!" Riku's firm, hearty shout stopped Kairi in her tracks, gripping a fist as his voice rose. "Master Yen Sid knew what he was doing, telling us to stay here. He knew that meant we would have to watch worlds crumble around us, but I believe he thinks this is what's for the best."
Kairi noticed something about Riku. His body, and the fist he had clenched. This entire time, they were both trembling.
"The Organization's World is well hidden and difficult to access without the portal in Twilight Town's Mansion. We should be safe to train and study this thing from here until we have a good shot at defeating it. Until then, we can't leave. It's not worth the risk of us being found."
Riku looked up at the night sky, his gaze sweeping across the still countless number of stars before him as he stood in silence, his thoughts making him tense up and gulp. He remained that way until noticing Kairi standing next to him. "I trust you, Riku. If you think this is what's best, then I'll stay by your side." She raised her hand up, pointing it flat against Riku with a cheery smile. "Let's beat this thing together."
Seeing her optimism brought a smile out of Riku. He sent his hand forward, and the two shared a high-five.
"Why don't you go join Sora, Donald, and Goofy for training?" he suggested, "I'll keep an eye on this thing."
"Well, I would, but," she hesitated, frowning and looking down as she held a hand over her chest, gaining a concerned expression from him. Then her head popped up with a big smile.
"You'd get lonely up here without me~"
Riku couldn't help but chuckle. "I'll be fine. King Mickey should be returning with everyone soon anyway. It's taking a while since he's traveling through the Realm of Darkness to be safe, but I'll have plenty of company when they get back."
"Then I'll go train with Sora, Donald, and Goofy after everyone gets back and not a moment sooner," she said, giggling soon after.
Riku shook his head with a smile. "Sure, you win."
The two fell silent, not a single noise brightening their surroundings. Riku stepped to the side, approaching the edge of the large, round floor he stood on, overlooking a massive, endless city from a height that made the houses and buildings below look like specs. Kairi joined his side, looking at him in confusion.
"You're worried about Sora, aren't you?"
"... Yeah," he responded, his voice quieter than before, "I told Donald to give us a signal if he tries leaving, but I can feel his heart. I'm sure you can too."
Kairi nodded, staring into the city with her friend.
(Sora,) Riku thought, (I hope you realize how serious this is.)
"Freeze!" Sora shouted, blasting a spread of ice chunks from his keyblade at Donald and Goofy.
"I got this Goofy!" With a swing of his magic wand, a barrier of fire surrounded the two, sizzling and creating steam as it melted the ice that touched it. Sora launched more chunks of ice in quick succession, but Donald matched it with more flames, melting this barrage of ice blasts just like the first.
With a wave of his wand, the fire barrier gathered into a sphere, and Donald thrust it forward. He let out a shocked 'Wak!' seeing it crash into a typhoon of green air. It swirled inside, spitting out fire and growing bigger until the typhoon was nothing but flames unleashing an inferno all around it.
Donald waved his wand, creating streams of water that he sent at the flames, but they faded on contact against the massive force coming at him, not even seeming to scratch it.
"Don't worry Donald!" Goofy shouted, jumping in front of him and blocking the magic with his hulking shield. Donald sighed. "Thanks Goofy."
But Goofy didn't greet him back, too busy moving his head and scanning his environment. "Where's Sora?" he asked, not seeing him anywhere in the opening of the dark, rainy city they currently stood in.
He did, however, see patches of spiky ice around where he stood, which only confused him more. (Those must have been from Sora,) he thought to himself, (but how could he miss? I wasn't moving at all.)
Donald shrieked in surprise, only realizing just now that Sora wasn't standing where the wind typhoon was. Even worse, he finally realized what the wind typhoon was.
"Above us!" He and Goofy darted their heads up and saw Sora in the air directly overhead. "He used Aeroga!"
"Try this!" Sora shouted, thrusting his keyblade above him and casting a massive thunderbolt on the two. Neither Donald nor Goofy could react quickly enough, and yelped in pain as they were both struck by two bolts of lightning. Goofy dropped his massive, hulking shield and pulled out a smaller, disc shaped shield to block the third bolt, absorbing it successfully, however two strikes was enough for Donald to fall to his knees in exhaustion, quite literally seeing stars floating around him.
Sora threw a blue, hexagonal shaped item in the air, dissolving into light-blue particles that quickly swirled around him before fading. "Sorry if that was too much Donald," he said before a smirk sprouted on his face, "but I didn't think you were THAT weak. I mean, I'm already holding back, and you still can't keep up with me. Come on Donald, at least make me try." Donald let out a weak, angry squawk and flailed his arms before kicking up dust as he dropped to his back with a thud, his feet going straight up and falling down soon after.
"Don't forget about me!" Goofy shouted, throwing his shield at Sora. Sora rolled out of the way, dodging the throw and quickly facing Goofy again, just in time to see him charging at him. "Goofy?! What are you gonna do without a weapon?!" Sora asked, but Goofy simply continued running forward.
Part of Sora was confused, but that feeling was overtaken by a grin. (I don't know what he's thinking,) Sora thought to himself, (but he left himself wide open!)
Sora entered a state of focus, the world around him slowing to a crawl as he stared at Goofy. In Goofy's eyes, Sora paused for just a short moment, where he did nothing but stare at him, but he was familiar with this technique, and let out a shocked yelp realizing what was about to happen.
Sora flipped into the air, his body surrounding itself with light, and the tip of his keyblade shone a brilliant yellow, before blitzing forward in a flash of light. Goofy braced himself as Sora barreled into him with a swift, concentrated strike. Then Sora darted in again, delivering another strike, then again and again and again. He barraged Goofy with a stream of light-speed blows, each whacking Goofy's body to and fro, before Sora did another flip, expelling the light from him and his keyblade.
Goofy huffed and puffed, but his stance remained firm, his arms up to his chest as he stood against Sora. "*Haaa*. That all ya got, Sora?" With a swift, strong motion, he threw his arms to his side and continued running at him. "*Tch*. Come on Goofy, you should know what I'm capable of by now."
As Sora raised his keyblade into the air, he felt a metal object smack the back of his head. "Ow! What was that?" He lifted his gaze, seeing Goofy's disc shaped shield flying through the air and back into Goofy's hands. With his weapon returned to him, he began spinning wildly like an out of control top, lifting himself in the air as he closed the distance on Sora.
Sora lifted his keyblade in front of him, holding it in a defensive stance against Goofy, but then his face flickered with shock. (Wait, I can't block!) he mentally uttered, (I'm supposed to be fighting them at a distance! Letting him get too close would mean I lose the challenge!) He jumped back and tried desperately evading, Dodge Rolling and Quick Running out of the way, but Goofy was always just a bit too fast for him in his tornado state.
Goofy caught Sora, sucking him into his attack, and slicing him with constant blows from his spinning shield as he continued traveling through the air. The attack went on for what seemed like minutes, but with a final, powerful spin, Goofy launched Sora away and his maneuver came to a halt. Sora regained his balance with an aerial flip, him and Goofy landing on the ground in tandem.
"That was a good move Goofy," Sora said, "I thought running forward without a weapon wasn't a good idea, but it was just a distraction to keep my eyes on you and off the shield." Goofy gave him a nod. For a moment, Sora was silent, but he soon returned a grin to his friend. "I won't fall for that trick again!"
Sora took a moment to scan his environment, shifting his eyes in a way that always kept Goofy in his field of view. He spotted Goofy's hulking shield on the ground next to him, and the patches of ice spikes in the ground he left when attacking Donald earlier, but otherwise saw nothing of note in his surroundings.
(Whether Goofy's planning something or not, I'm better off going on the offensive!)
Sora jabbed his keyblade upward, pointing it to the sky. Goofy recognized this motion, he'd seen it too many times at this point. (He's gonna cast Thundaga!) This thought drove his arms above him, thrusting his shield upward to pre-emptively block the blow.
"A-ha!" Sora shouted. For just a split second, Goofy was confused. The spell hadn't hit him. How could that be? Thundaga is supposed to be instant, so how could-
It all made sense when Goofy heard the sound of air cracking in front of him. Adjusting his gaze, he was met with a trail of ice already on top of him, coming from a Sora who's keyblade was already pointed at him. Goofy couldn't even gasp in shock before the ice ensnared his feet, nailing him in place on the ground.
"Gotcha!" Sora shouted ecstatically, "Guess I win!" Goofy struggled to break free from the ice, yanking his feet, bashing it with his shield, but both actions proved fruitless with what little time he had.
Sora jumped in the air, ready to land on the ice and ride it forward to Goofy for a finishing blow, but his momentum slowed before he came to a complete halt in midair. "Huh?! What's going on? Is this magic?!"
(No, Goofy can't use magic,) continued to ring in his head as Sora looked for an answer, but Goofy seemed too preoccupied with freeing himself from the ice to be the culprit of this. It all made sense when Sora turned around and saw a bright, white sphere, with several small orbs of varying color inside it. (Magnega!)
What's more, underneath the sphere, he saw that its caster was Donald. "That's what ya get for making fun of me!" he said, sticking his tongue out as Sora was helplessly dragged into the sphere.
He was thrown about to and fro, swinging around wildly, unable to orient himself or clearly see the world around him. "So, spinny! Waaaaaaurgh!" he cried out, thinking of what he could do to escape. Donald cackled at the sight before directing his attention to Goofy's hulking shield. "I noticed you dragged Sora over here while you were doing your tornado move. Nice one, Goofy."
Donald waddled to the shield, staring at the Magnega before smacking it with his wand into the sphere, where it slammed into Sora's face with a metallic BANG!
The ice ensnaring Goofy disappeared with Sora's shout of pain, as did the Magnega shortly after. Sora and the shield hit the ground, the shield's loud, metal clank drowning out the thud of Sora's body. "Ouch," he groaned while rubbing his face.
Donald and Goofy went over to Sora. "Sorry Sora," Donald said, pausing as his beak was enveloped by a smirk, "I didn't know you were THAT weak." He let out a hearty laugh, hunched over while pointing at Sora as Goofy helped him to his feet.
"*Pff* Says the one that got knocked down first," Sora retaliated in a playful tone, "but I guess it makes sense I lost. Fighting multiple guys at the same time is one thing, but limiting myself to ranged attacks also made it more challenging than I was expecting. I had to make sure I didn't run out of magic, and set up attacks so you guys wouldn't see them coming." Sora sighed in exhaustion. "Jeez, I never realized how glad I am that Heartless don't think."
"A-yup!" Goofy exclaimed, "It's true ya didn't win, but ya did outsmart me and Donald a few times like I asked ya to!"
"He didn't outsmart me," Donald claimed, "I let him get the jump on me, that's all."
"Sure you did, Donald," Sora teased. Donald simply murmured to himself, not responding further.
"Anyway, I think we're all making some good progress," Goofy said, "but we'd better keep training just to be safe."
"Can we take a break first?" Sora asked, "I wanna talk for a bit."
"Sure! There's a lot about the match we can go over now!"
"Well... can we talk about our situation first?" Sora asked, a tinge of concern leaking from his voice. Goofy and Donald agreed, so the three sat together as Sora initiated a discussion.
"You guys remember how Master Yen Sid looked when he called us all to his tower, right?"
"Yep," Goofy said, "he seemed real scared about this thing that's makin' worlds crumble to nothing."
"Yeah. He usually knows about stuff too, but he was clueless about what could be causing this. All he said for sure is that it doesn't resemble the work of any Heartless, Nobody, or Unversed we know."
"Exactly," Donald added, "which is why we're here training and studying it from far away. The Organization might have caused us a lot of problems, but they left us a really nice hiding spot."
"That's the thing I'm wondering about," Sora said, scratching his head as his eyes narrowed on the ground in front of him, "We've dealt with some pretty dangerous guys in the past. Xehanort's heartless, Xemnas, and Xehanort himself were all crazy strong, but we still managed to defeat them without knowing much beforehand.
"But now, Master Yen Sid has such a bad feeling about this thing, he's making us go to this super secret world, telling us to "train and prepare like we never have before", and on top of all that," Sora thought back to the image of Master Yen Sid boarding a purple and yellow train with a large wizard's hat on its roof, "he went off to study this thing alone."
A brief silence befell the group, eventually broken by Donald. "Are you worried about him, Sora?"
"Worried? Of course not! I'm actually wondering why he's taking this so seriously. I think he's the one worrying over nothing."
Goofy jumped in. "I don't know Sora. Master Yen Sid wouldn't act so drastically if he didn't think it was serious, but I agree with ya. We've always handled everything that comes at us, and our Master ain't no slouch! I bet Yen Sid'll come back just in time to see Mickey and the others, and we'll all get to put our heads together and figure things out from there."
"Yeah," Donald continued, "we'll beat this thing together, like we always do!"
Sora couldn't help but smile. "You bet, Donald." He stood up, stretching his arms and legs. "You two head back to Riku and Kairi, see if they figured anything out. I'll catch up after I use the bathroom."
He then looked at them and winked. "I'll race ya," he said before dashing off into the city.
Donald squawked as he grabbed his wand and chased after Sora with Goofy. Sora quickly disappeared into the city, leaving no trace to follow.
"Wow! Sora must really need to go!" Donald said, "But he's not gonna beat me this time! WAAAAAAK!" He cried out before leaping up and gliding through the air toward the large white castle.
Goofy mimicked Donald, gliding with him, but not sharing his friend's competitive spirit. (I kinda get the feeling something's up with Sora. Why would he not tell us though?) This thought egged him on as he flew faster and faster, hoping he'd catch up to his friend sooner than later.
They caught up very quickly, and then flew past him. Sora, who was hiding in the shadow of a building, simply stared at them with narrowed eyes and a firm mouth as they headed further away, disappearing into the expanse of buildings themselves before long. Once they were out of view, he moved in the opposite direction, deeper into the labyrinthian, seemingly endless city.
Sora pulled out a couple of necklace charms, each with various symbols on them, but unlike their usual display of bright, vibrant colors, all of them were grayed out and colorless. He held them to his chest, and nothing happened. (Stitch... Ralph... not even Genie is showing up. They usually appear whenever I call on them, but now...)
The situation made Sora pause, but he soon shook it off. (I'm sure they're fine, I'm not going to worry.)
(But, it seems like everybody's worried, Master Yen Sid especially. Me, Donald, and Goofy have lost our powers and gotten them back more times than I can count, and we haven't even lost our powers since Quadratum. What's got him so nervous this time?)
Sora thought back to how insistent he was; they all stayed hidden, how unsure and nervous his expression was, and how he repeated "time is of the essence" as he surrounded them in a pillar of light, leaving them in the world of the old Organization without room for debate.
(Yen Sid...) Sora rounded a corner, leading to a dark, dank alley with a blue and green portal glowing amidst the darkness. (You're my friend too, I won't let you face this alone.)
His gaze glued to the portal before him as his thoughts wandered back to his friends. (Donald, Goofy, sorry I lied to you guys,) he quickly followed that up with a smile, (but I'll be back before you know it.)
As Sora approached the portal, his smile was eviscerated. He was forcefully stopped in his tracks, his body frozen by... something. (What? What is this?) His pupils shrank half their size, sweat began melting from his face, and although his teeth clenched together, air started puffing out his mouth quickly and forcefully.
(This feeling. It's nothing like the realm of darkness. My heart... It feels like it's falling apart.) With what little strength he could muster, his hand shot to his chest and locked itself in place as it squeezed as hard as it could. (But, this feeling, it's not coming from my heart. It's coming from...)
His eyes darted to the portal before him, the paralyzing, heart-crushing feeling intensifying merely looking at it. He stared at it, trying, pleading with his body to move, but incapable of commanding it.
Silhouettes began appearing from inside the portal. Dozens of Heartless of various shapes and sizes all moved into view, some rising from the floor, others trudging into view, all staring at Sora from the other side.
(H- Heartless?) That realization quelled the fear slightly. (No! It is just Heartless after all! We can take them no problem!)
Although Sora tried forcing confidence into himself, even going as far as to summon his keyblade, it could not push past this feeling, this sensation beyond darkness. Unable to wrap his fingers around it, his keyblade hit the floor with a metallic thud, clanking a few times before coming to a stop. (No! I still can't move! But, why?! They're just Heartless, why am I afraid of them?!)
Some of the Heartless's heads began twitching, their glowing, yellow eyes darting to the keyblade, while others stared blankly, only the antenna on their heads moving. Soon though, all of their gazes shifted back to Sora, as one by one, they all stepped through the portal.
(Move! I have to fight! I have to stop these things!)
Their forms disappeared in the dark alley, say for their eyes that slowly creeped forward.
(I- I need to call Riku and the others! I can win if they back me up!)
The Heartless crept out from the darkness, revealing their forms in full. Shadows, Neoshadows, Gigas Shadows, and there were much, much more of them than Sora had thought. His keyblade, laying on the ground until now, vanished.
(I need to run. We have to leave, I need to tell everyone we-)
Suddenly, what could only be described as the sound of tree branches cracking, blared out from the portal. Dozens of black and red tendrils shot out of it. The tendrils moved surgically and calculated, not overlapping with another even remotely as they impaled every single Heartless through the head, piercing their bodies with a quiet burst of air, as if a faraway air balloon had popped. The yellow in their eyes faded before they fell limp and vanished into smoke, leaving no trace they ever existed.
Despite the Heartless being gone, the paralyzing feeling hadn't so much as diminished a tiny amount. (What?) he trembled, even in his thoughts, (What are those things?)
The tendrils began receding, emitting a crackling, fleshy noise, akin to muscle being torn and strewn about, as they retracted back into the portal.
It was only now that Sora noticed. Why he didn't spot it before was beyond him, but now, he could see the silhouette of a humanoid figure, with long, wavy hair, and some sort of fabric extending from the neck to below its waist. Its pupils were absent, but a fluorescent rainbow color emitted from its eyes.
The tendrils, which were jetting out from its fingers and, somewhere behind it, all submerged into and behind it. When the crackling, fleshy creeping finally stopped, Sora nearly had a heart attack when the creature's gaze locked onto him. The very act of looking at him spiked Sora with adrenaline, throwing himself backwards and falling to the ground.
(That... can't be a Heartless. It can't be Luxu... But...)
The figure stepped out of the portal, heavily obscured by the darkness of the alley, but Sora could make out a few new features. It wore some kind of dark green, military bodysuit, clear muscular tones hidden underneath, as well as scars and ripped flesh across its arms, and a gold device on one hand where two of its fingers should be.
(Wh- who? W- Wh- What...?)
The figure stepped into the moonlight, its red pupils finally becoming visible as Sora could clearly see its face. It appeared to be a male human, sporting scratchy, saggy bags under its eyes, chapped, dry lips, its face was in stark contrast to its superhuman physique. Yet the thing that caught Sora's attention the most, was the fabric on the thing's back actually being a purple cape.
It was a purple cape he recognized.
"Finally found you." Sora's eyes shrunk hearing it speak, a hint of soreness under its deadpan, serious tone. "Sora, right? Let's talk."
All at once, the suffocating feeling caving Sora's chest vanished. He immediately began taking heavy, deep breaths, propping his body up with one hand while another continued clutching his chest, so winded and exhausted he couldn't so much as think.
"Here," the man said, extending a hand to him, "let me help you up, you seem out of it."
"What was that?" A panting, out of breath Riku asked. "Kairi, are you...?" He saw Kairi on her knees next to him, her body quaking, unable to even gasp for breath.
He remained in place a few more moments before shaking his head and lightly smacking his cheeks. "It's gone Kairi, we're safe now."
He placed a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch in response. "That's not true."
A set of heavy panting breaths became known to them, coming from a nearby slope blocked off by a wall. Soon, a terrified Donald and Goofy rounded the corner, the two propped against each other as they trudged upward into the small clearing. The four merely exchanged glances for a moment, and understood what they were all feeling.
Suddenly, Goofy's eyes expanded twice as big. "Where's Sora?"
Donald's eyes widened soon after. "You're right. I thought he beat us here."
Riku's face was devoured by a grimace, his nostrils flaring as he grit his teeth. He and Kairi helped each other to their feet.
"Knowing him..." Without uttering a word, the four looked off into the massive city below, their gazes all fixed on a location that seemed miles away. "He's right in the middle of this."
Sora sat on the ground, glancing the man up and down repeatedly, stopping finally on his outreached hand, a small, black hole in its palm.
"How do you know who I am?" Sora shakily asked, his arms wobbling as he spoke, "We've never met before."
The man cracked a small, barely noticeable grin. "I met Yen Sid earlier. He told me a bit about you and your friends. It wasn't much, but I can figure out the connections a person has pretty easily."
His grin grew just a tad bigger. "You could say it's a quirk of mine."
Even with the suffocating feeling gone, Sora was frozen in place. So many questions were ringing through his head. (Where's Master Yen Sid? What does this guy want with me? What does he know about me? About my friends) He physically gulped as this next question came to him. (Is this the thing... that's destroying worlds?)
"Oh yeah," the man casually uttered, "I forgot to introduce myself... Well, that's if I need to. Do you know who I am, Sora?"
He remained paralyzed in place for a spell before responding.
"Not your name."
The man's grin briefly flashed wide before shrinking back down. "Does that mean you're willing to chat?" he asked, motioning to his still outstretched hand.
Sora wasn't sure what it was. The suffocating feeling, the way the Heartless didn't acknowledge him, the unnatural, artificial aura he got from his body, his bizarre comments, or some combination of all of these things, but something was making him wary of this person.
Yet, despite all of that, Sora saw someone extending a helping hand, simply asking to talk. What's the worst that could happen?
"Sure. Nice to meet you."
Sora took his hand. A toothy grin spread across the man's face once he firmly felt his grip.
"Tomura Shigaraki. The pleasure's all mine."