Night 58: Forest

[scintillatingly]

[From here.]

Almost immediately, everything got darker. The trees were so thick that the scant moonlight was completely cut out to the point that it felt almost suffocating. Like they were cut off from the rest of the institute entirely. More than that, it was quiet here. Sora heard a rustling from the bushes and a flap of wings here and there,

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[kingdomless]

To be honest, the forest was rather daunting to Kairi. She wasn't used to so many trees like the ones they were surrounded by, and it didn't help that she had rarely been in the woods, so she had no real time to even get used to the sight of things around them.

Kairi's thought process was instantly silenced when she heard Sora yell the name of someone she never thought she'd see again, and she looked up with wide eyes, her face paling at the sight of the red headed man she and Sora had known what felt like years and years and years ago. He, along with Sora and one other, had been the ones to help her out of that horrible experimentation room that night. She could still remember their talk in the library -

A flash of red at the corner of her eye. Kairi turned her head left, jumping slightly, her hair standing on end as she looked ahead and saw yet another familiar head of read walking away from them.

Her heart stopped, and she actually found herself moving away from the two boys behind her for a moment before stopping, her heart too pained to even say his name out loud.

"What's going on?" she whimpered out, unable to even stop the pain from leaking into her voice. "What's ... what's going on?"

[antiheroed]

Of the three, he was the only one who didn't know what was going on. This reminded him of Xehanort's Heartless from the night before and the day that followed. He managed to ignore the ghostly apparition that beckoned to him all day, because it hadn't had any kind of hold over his heart. The unfamiliar guy with red hair and tattoos didn't mean anything to him. But to his friends, it obviously meant a lot. Kairi's whimper unsettled him.

That meant he had to come up with a solution. His friends probably wouldn't like it and would wonder why he spoke so knowledgeably, but they couldn't let this place's tricks hold them back.

"Let's just go for whichever path leads us the furthest in," he told Sora and Kairi. "And whatever that is-whoever that is-ignore it until it talks to you." His voice was cold, and he knew it. But he needed to direct this as quickly as possible. "It's just a trick," he added, and Riku put enough force into his words to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Only this time, this was a shared hallucination. A part of him wondered if that was his fault.

[scintillatingly]

Despite calling out, there was no response from Renji. Sora knew why that was the case, of course. It was because that wasn't really him. The boy realized that sometimes people did come back from the dead here, but he didn't think that was ever going to happen for Renji. Too much time had passed since that night, and surely he would have seen him back at the institute, not in this forest.

Still, hearing it out loud from Riku was something of a help to Sora. It's just a trick. He nodded, holding tight onto his friend's words.

It didn't end there, though. Even as Sora tried to focus on another path, there was someone else waiting for them there. Axel. It was no surprise that Kairi was reacting that way. Sora had gotten to know the Organization member a little better during his time here, but for Kairi the bond had been much closer.

"Like Riku said, just... just ignore it," he said to the girl, even though he was having a hard time doing that himself. Setting his expression to something more determined, Sora continued to pull Riku forward, doing his best to avoid the thicker parts of the brush. So long as they stayed on the paths, they would be fine.

[kingdomless]

Kairi fell quiet at Riku's words, and despite the fact her heart hurt, she nodded in agreement, once again taking her spot leading the two boys.

At least that way they couldn't see her expression. Her eyes were cast low, clearly pained, lips drawn into a slight frown. Both of the redheads she had encountered in the institute had left an impact on her, both in different ways - however, things had been different with Axel. They had been close. He had been the first person other than Sora to be there for her after finding out what had happened to her during her experimentation, and even though she knew he hadn't had a heart, he had meant it. He surely did.

But she couldn't think of him now. He was gone, just like Renji. Just like Rukia and everyone else she cared about that had vanished from the institute's walls. The more she lingered on memories of them, the sadder she became.

However, every now and then, she would catch a glimpse of red out of the corner of her eye, and she would turn her head the other direction, not looking. She didn't want to fall for another trick of the institute. She was stronger than that.

At least, that was what she told herself.

Sighing, Kairi silenced her internal monologue and brushed her fingers through her hair, looking around in the darkness. "You ... don't suppose they'll stumble upon us first, do you?"

[antiheroed]

This was bothersome. Not because he thought his friends were being a pain about this, but because Riku could easily see the change in their expressions as the little blotches of red hair popped up. After a while, it became less discernible, but if there was anyone that he knew well, it was his friends. Concern clutched his stomach at this. He wanted them to ignore it, but they weren't as desensitized as him. That was something he wish he had, but he figured he lost it around the same time that he went off to fight Roxas-the same time he was sure he was going to lose everything, including his life, just so he could get his fried back.

Sora and Kairi had been through a lot. He knew that. But somehow their ways of being affected made them better than him. It was just another constant reminder of how the Darkness led him astray. After all, even now, Kairi wasn't different because of that Darkness. She was the same, kind-hearted girl.

He thought about saying something to reassure them. Something like how they'll definitely save them. Something how they'll stop this place from continuing to exist. But it felt odd on his tongue, so he didn't manage it. Maybe back before that door opened and he was swept away, it would be different; those false consolations meant something then. But now, he couldn't even pretend. They would do everything they could, but it wouldn't change what had already happened.

It was a good thing that Kairi spoke, because it jerked Riku out of his thoughts. He realized, right before replying, that his brain was starting to lose the fatigue that overwhelmed it. It would be a while longer, but at least he could think and process things better.

"There are probably traps," he decided. "Or some kind of sensors. If these people in this world have science to do some of the things they've done, they can track someone moving closer." He didn't glance toward Kairi exactly with his words, but he imagined his friends would know what he meant. "Depending on who's waiting, that could mean trouble. Or maybe not."

[scintillatingly]

The phantoms seemed to be wandering through the woods with them, like they were trying to lead the way. Sora didn't know if that was really the case, but following after them could get them lost or put them in danger. That was too low, trying to use their lost friends as distractions when they were stuck in the middle of a dense forest. The boy clenched his teeth and did his best to keep his gaze on where they were going instead.

Not that he really knew where they were going. Eventually everything blended together in this place and he wasn't sure he'd have been able to find his way back out if he'd tried. It was a good thing that the institute took care of that for them. Every now and then, it actually came in handy.

"Did you need to rest?" he asked Riku quietly, knowing that he was going to have to prompt his friend for something like that. Riku would always try to bear through it even when it was a bad idea, so he had to watch out for him. "And... hmm. I know that they have a lot of advanced technology on this world, but if they're stuck out here in the wild they might not have access to that kind of stuff."

In other words, there was a slight chance that they could take Landel or Marc or whoever they might find by surprise. Sora wasn't going to count on it, especially since the three of them weren't exactly being quiet. Still, he liked that they were talking. If they'd been wandering through this place completely silent, that would have just been too eerie.

This coming from someone who'd wandered through Halloweentown. But that had been different.