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Location: Elven forest
Time: 6:00 p.m.

This was it. For the past few weeks we’ve been spending our money and doing what we can to live out the rest of our lives as fast as possible. The reason is that we might not make it back home. Who knows what could come out of that gate…or what’s guarding it. I gripped my key blade in my left hand. Unlock the blade’s true power eh…well then, if it can open all doors and locks…why can’t it unlock itself. I stared at it for a while, and gave up, thinking that what I had to unlock was inside me.

“Ha, how corny would that be.” I said aloud.

“What?” Roxas replied confused. I had forgotten he was there.

“Oh, uh…it’s nothing. Look, there they are.” I said, pointing towards the edge of the forest. The Nobodies, the Nagakuras, and Calista had gathered together and waved at us. For almost a month we’ve been hanging out with each other and our Nobodies. This may be the last time we see each other. As we approached them, I was aware of some rustling in the bushes nearby. As we walked up to the group, I kept walking past and approached the bushes. I reached down and grabbed Rinowa’s collar and pulled her to her feet. “How’d you-” she went to ask, but I pointed to my ears and she knew. We walked back to the group.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet Rinowa.” I said, putting my hand on her back and giving her a slight push back into the group.

“Uh…hi.” she said, looking towards the ground and waving slightly.

“OOOH, SHE’S SO CUTE!” Miome and Mayuno screamed at the same time. They made us all jump. The walked over to Rinowa and began hugging her and pinching her cheeks and all that good stuff. Rinowa played along.

“Um, ‘scuse me,” she said, pushing the Nagakura’s out of her way to address the group, “I’m going to be leading you through the forest to Mike’s house. You have to be quiet though, because we have to go through vampire and werewolf territory, and if the elves see us they’ll open fire.”

I looked down to Rinowa. “Why will they open fire at us again?” “Oh, um…I accidentally lit a few trees on fire with some herbs…and they blamed some humans for it. They might try to kill you since you’re all human.”

We all sighed and got onto the journey.

The werewolf territory was first. We avoided most of the trees but tried to stay in the underbrush. The trees reeked of urine, but that’s what you get when you mix humans and wolves together. I noticed one of the trees smelled strongly, so I motioned to everyone to be as quiet as possible. I heard a crack in the underbrush. I had my keyblade pointed forward at lightly speeds, but it was just a snake. We continued forward and got out of werewolf territory by 8:00 P.M.

As we entered vampire territory, I noticed the moon was full. “Great,” I muttered, “that means we’ll have to stay low and be extremely quiet.” As we walked I saw a couple of vampires talking. One of them was the vampire I met when I first met the werepire. I over heard him say, “And the filthy halfling thought he stood a chance with me, ha ha ha.” and I wanted to jump out now and snap his neck. I kept it to myself and kept moving on. We left vampire territory and entered a part of the forest called “No Man’s Land” by 9:30 P.M.

No Man’s Land is a desolate part of the forest. It was originally part of Gaia when the city first started, and the remains in No Man’s Land is just ruins. People say that an amusement park that is in there still operates late at night. They also say, that if you go by the carousel, you’ll hear the screams of the children, since it is said that the carousel lit on fire, and everyone on it burned.
We followed Rinowa through No Man’s Land. We kept close to the Elven Forest, because no one knows what lives in No Man’s Land, as no one that enters it comes back out. If something came at us, Rinowa would get help. When we entered the Elven Forest again, I felt that we had missed something.

As we approached the house, there was nothing left but the foundation. Not a board, not a shard of glass. All that was left was concrete.

“What the Hell happened.” I said, clenching my fist as I walked up to the foundation.

“I-I don’t know,” Rinowa said in a panic, “it was here when I c-came to get you!”

I put my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “It’s not your fault,” I said coolly, “I’ll find the Door, no matter what.” Rinowa’s eyes sparkled with tears. I smiled and turned to examine the foundation.

“…It’s not here.”

My sword was out and my left hand was ready to snap at anything that moved. I knew I heard the voice, but I didn’t know where.

“…It’s in No Man’s Land. By the Ferris Wheel.”

It sounded like my old man. I heard a quick rustling in the trees, but I knew he was long gone already.

“Hey Mike,” Risa said, “what the Hell was that about.”

I turned to Rinowa, “That’s her call to go home,” I turned back to Risa, “and our call to close the gate.

“B-but I wanna go too!” Rinowa complained

“Rinowa, this is going to be extremely dangerous. I want you to leave and tell the elves that their problems with the shadows will be over soon. Can you do that for me?” I asked, smiling at the end.

“Uh…um, yeah…sure thing.” Rinowa said, blushing a little bit. She ran off into the forest, and we began to backtrack to No Man’s Land.

We walked north. I could see the tip of the Ferris Wheel over some of the rubble. I drew out my Demon Slayer. “Roxas…” I said, turning to him and nodding. Without glancing at me, the Oblivion and Oathkeeper were in his hands. I turned around and walked backwards. I grabbed both Desert Eagles and threw them back saying, “Mayuno, Miome…” They caught the guns and nodded. “Ok, here’s the plan. Nobodies, you guys focus on the Heartless that appear. The rest, try to close the doors to the Door. Roxas, you’re with me.” “Right.” they replied, and we made our way into the depths of No Man’s Land.

When we reached the Ferris Wheel, sure enough, it was there. It was a gigantic, silver gate, as tall as an apartment complex, but still about 5 feet shorter than the Ferris Wheel. On top of it, the sides that the doors held onto went up and formed the symbol of Kingdom Hearts. Inside the open doors was a silvery vortex that had a small black opening inside and appeared to be sucking in the silver with black streaks coming everywhere. None of it, however, went past the borders of the gate. I stopped ten feet in front of it and nodded to the rest. They nodded back. This was it.

I went to take one step forward, when I noticed our shadows began to move. We all got ready to fight the Heartless that had appeared, when there was a huge smash to the ground, knocking us down. I jumped back up and turned to the gate. Two long, deformed tentacles came out of the vortex and grabbed the side of the doors. A huge sphere came out of the vortex with two bright yellow eyes and a huge, gaping mouth filled with razor shape daggers that were the creatures teeth. A small tube went back through the vortex. When it was out as far as it would go, it flexed it’s arms and pushed the doors open farther. With that, it let out a loud roar. “Roxas!” I shouted, turning to him, “This guy’s ours!” He nodded and we bolted off towards it.

When we came up to the Heartless, it bent forward and snapped at us. It barely missed me by a few inches, and I swung my keyblade down onto it’s head. There was a bright, white slash mark that disappeared, and the Heartless recoiled in pain. “NOW!” Roxas and I jumped into the air, Roxas going to the Heartless’s chin and I to the top of it’s head. We began slashing like crazy at it. It appeared to be weakened for a moment. I looked down to see Miome and Mayuno trying to push the doors shut. Calista pulled out her Fire and Ice whips and sent them into the doors with a loud “CRACK” as they connected to their mark. The doors slid a few feet closed.

The beast became alert and began to sway slightly. It took another snap at us and barely missed me. It leg go of the doors and hovered, the arms up high in the air. “Mike, watch out!” Roxas cried, but it was too late. The Heartless swung it’s left arm, sending me flying through the air, and then swung it’s right arm, sending me back in the opposite direction. I landed smack on the ground, and the Heartless rose it’s arms and brought them straight down…on top of Roxas’s twin keyblades. He ripped his keyblades down to his side, making two more white slash marks that disappeared. The beast recoiled it’s arms again. It swung them wildly and knocked the Ferris Wheel in the side, turning it towards itself. Then I had an idea.

“Roxas!” I shouted. He looked at me, then knew what I was thinking. He jumped onto one of the carts of the Ferris Wheel and began jumping up till he reached one of the ones that was just under being completely vertical. At the same time he jumped into the air, I jumped at one of the carts at the lower side. Roxas slammed onto one of the horizontal carts as I landed on the cart near the bottom. The old Ferris Wheel spun so fast the carts sung upside-down at the top. Right as I came off the bottom I jumped, flying straight out of the spinning Ferris Wheel. I pulled my keyblade back towards my right side, and swung it outward, cracking the Heartless straight across it’s forehead. It moaned and looked upward. I felt something inside me awake, and it felt as if it was controlling me slightly, telling me what I should do. I swung the keyblade around so I could use the momentum and brought it up to my head, then came down and cracked the Heartless in the center of it’s face with my keyblade. It grew limp and fell to the ground.

“Now!” I shouted. The Nagakura’s and Calista did the same thing they did before, closing the gate a few more feet. It was almost crushing the Heartless when it’s arms gained life again and grabbed the sides of the doors. I knew what it was going to do and jumped onto it’s head and ran up the arms, landing on the left door. I broke into a dead run, running at least twenty feet across the door before jumping up and plummeting towards the ground. When I landed I wrapped my left arm around Mayuno and mustered up the rest of the power in me to move at lightning fast speeds. I was staying low to the ground with Mayuno hanging onto me tightly, not sure of what was happening. I jumped in the air, higher than any elf, vampire, or human could do alone. I grabbed Calista with my right arm, and made a mad dash for Miome. That’s when I heard the Heartless roar and a loud smash as it’s arms grabbed onto the doors. I felt something inside me awake again, and I set down Mayuno and Calista.

I jumped backwards and landed behind the gate, right where it split into it’s center. I clapped my hands and smashed them onto the ground. As the Heartless ripped open the doors, two fists made of earth came up from the side and smashed into the doors. I lifted my hands, the earth gripping to my palms like taffy dangling back into the ground. The earth went up my arms to my shoulders, and I noticed that the fist looked like my arms. I went to make a fist, but couldn’t. That’s when I realized I had become in sync with the earth. I drove my arms out forward, and the fists smashed into the doors. As they swung, the Heartless was smashed in between them before the doors opened again slightly. The Heartless regained it’s strength and grabbed onto the top of the doors. It pulled the doors right off of the Door, and rested it’s arms on the ground, roaring at it’s accomplishment. The Nagakuras, Calista, and I ran to the front of the door and confronted the Heartless.

“How do we beat this thing.” Roxas said to me.

“I don’t know Roxas, but our keyblades are the only weapons we have that can do real high damage…well, that and alchemy.” I replied. The Nagakuras pulled out their desert eagles and opened fire on the Heartless. It seemed to recoil a bit. “I’ve got it!” I shouted and ran over to the Nagakuras.

“What are we gonna do?” Miome said.

“Open fire when I say. Mayuno, use your ice alchemy to freeze the bullets.” I said as I grabbed the barrel of Miome’s gun.

“Right.” she replied.

I used alchemy to make the magazine of the gun glow red with flames. “Fire!” Right before they started shooting, we all flashed a bright yellow. As they fired, blue and red bullets zoomed through the air. The red ones looked like meteors as they smashed through the Heartless, while the blue ones looked like small ice cubes that left a trail of frozen air. The Heartless winced as each bullet entered it, and when the magazines were empty it roared.

“That, that feeling,” Miome said, “it felt like I got more powerful!”

“Yeah I know!” Mayuno replied.

“I think it’s called a Limit Break. Let’s call it “Celestial Shooting” because use shot the guns and it looked like meteors and comets flying through the air.” I suggested.

“Great,” Roxas said, “but the thing’s not dead yet.”

We turned around to see the Heartless begin to get up again. “Ok then. Roxas, we’re up.”

As we ran up to it, we decided that we’d slash at it with all our might. We would call it “Keyblade Craze” since our keyblade would attack at high speeds. As we charged up to the Heartless, it swung it’s arms at us. Roxas and I jumped onto each opposing arms, and began to run down the arms towards the Heartless’s head. We jumped off and landed ontop of it, which it then bounced us forward and looked at us. It went to bite us, but we swung our blades at each other and knocked the other out of it’s biting range. It’s head stopped going forward right in front of us. We were on different sides, but began to swung like mad men, slashing and bashing in mid air. I felt him inside me, as he was part of me, and heard him think “NOW!”. I brought my keyblade behind me and swung it straight downward. As I fell I looked forward and saw Roxas doing the same as me. When we landed we jumped up towards the Heartless’s chin. Roxas gave it a good smash with both keyblade, and the head moved higher up in pain. Roxas crossed his keyblades and I planted my foot in the center of them. He threw me upward at the same time I jumped, sending me right into the Heartless’s chin. I swung my keyblade forward so I just missed it’s chin, but went upside down and cracked it hard right on target.

It roared and fell into me, sending me downward toward the ground fast. I turned on my right side and smashed into the ground with my automail shoulder, then sprung back up. I saw everyone waving and yelling at me…and then saw the big shadow on the ground. I tried to run away, but the Heartless smashed down on top of me. Darkness flowed out of it and it’s body dispersed into the air, the same as all the little Heartless did. I got up and was surrounded by everyone.

“How can we close a doorway that has no doors.” Calista remarked.

I looked at my keyblade. If it can lock all doors, and destroy the Heartless…then if I could lock the door so only Heartless couldn’t pass through, our problem would be solved!

“Stand back,” I said, stepping towards the gate, “I have an idea.” I looked at the broken doors. One was lying flat on the ground, the other braced up against the Ferris Wheel. I broke into a run at the door on the ground. When I got close, I jumped and landed on the corner of the door. I jumped off the corner and landed on the door braced against the Ferris Wheel. I ran up the door and jumped backwards, falling towards the center of the doorway. Right as the Door was in front of me perfectly, I swung the keyblade and aimed it towards the center. A keyhole glowed, and a dark beam shot out of my keyblade into the keyhole, and a small bright barrier of light covered the inside of the door. The dark vortex inside turned white, and now the black streaks became white, looking like a gateway to Heaven.

I landed on the ground and began walking home. “Come on guys, we’re done here.” I said smiling. We were all happy at our accomplishment. We had found the Door to Kingdom Hearts, defeated a giant Heartless, and locked the door so no Heartless could come through. This was good.

When I returned home I crashed on my couch, exhausted. Then I remembered the Nagakura’s still had my desert eagles. “Eh, how much damage could they do.” I thought. Then I really thought about it for a moment, and set off towards their house.